[pauwoo]

Vs. Colorado Kings (6-3, .667, 1st AL West)
Colorado is in a good way, ranked tops in our league offensively with a pitching staff that is, as ever, decidedly middle of the road – still, it’s been a great start for these Kings who, despite not looking so good on paper, have come out gangbusters to start the ’86 campaign. Former Leopard, Demetri Rodriguez, has played well so far, hitting .375/1/7, and RF Evan Prag, who signed a 1-year, $10.9mm deal with Colorado during the offseason, has settled in quite nicely to his cleanup role, hitting .382 with a TANK and 6 RBI. The staff, as mentioned earlier, has yet to settle in… we’ll kick things off in this set against their Ace, SP Elias Belanger, who, despite his good looking profile as mocked up by my scout, will bring a 0-1 record with a 5.91 ERA to the game with him.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
LHP N. Vera (1-0, 0.00) vs RHP E. Belanger (0-1, 5.91)
RHP W. Macomber (0-2, 3.97) vs LHP J. Lynch (0-0, 4.50)
RHP D. Hornbrook (0-1, 10.80) vs LHP L. Álvarez (0-0, 6.30)

#10: Loss, 2-6… still struggling at home, showing serious discomfort in what should be our most comfortable confines… here we were undone by a 4-run top of the 5th as our starter, Nuno Vera, came unglued, allowing 4 of the 5 total runs that were charged to his account during that fateful frame, while our offense, asked to mount a furious comeback, couldn’t be bothered to do so as Colorado’s bullpen held us in relative check over the final 3 innings of this contest, making all those in attendance wonder why they came out to the ballpark tonight at all. We need to get the whole ‘winning at home’ thing sorted, and quickly lest my ticket sales swoon as hard as an 8th grader with a too-hot-for-tv math tutor.

#11: Win, 6-4 (10)… it’d take extras, and we’d have to dig down deep, before getting this one sorted on a 2-run, walk off homer courtesy of Leo Bullock that, to me, felt like the unofficial start to our ’86 campaign. Leo finished 4-for-6 with that 2-run TANK, and 4 total RBI with Skyler and Elijah, as ever, making up the difference as both light-hitting, defensive dynamos have been showcasing their hitting of late. Macomber would settle for the no decision after a serviceable, 6.1-innings of ho-hum, 5-hit, 3 earned ball, with our Closer, Noah DiMaio picking up his first win in a Pioneers kit after closing this one out during the top of the 10th to set up Bullocks late game heroics.

Note: We lost our 1B Angel Marino during that last one – Team Trainer, and Japan Heart Surgeon #1, Hidetoshi Hasegawa, diagnosed your boy with torn ankle ligaments and estimates that he’ll be out of service for about 4 weeks… In his stead we’ll call up LF Bruce Sarmiento who, it should be noted, can’t play a lick of first base.

#12: Win, 3-1... We’ve won our 3rd set in a row, our first at home, against a club of would be Kings who, over the course of these last few days at least, were found wonting, and wholly incapable of beating the likes of us. Blanco Whitt played the hero role here, hitting the game-winner during the bottom of the 5th, a perfectly stroked run-scoring single, with Shane Fukumoto and Leo Bullock contributing our other two runs while our staff, led by the incomparable Dominic Hornbrook, who picked up his first win of the season after turning in 5.1-innings of work, ran roughshod over Colorado’s much-vaunted offense. Save #3 for DiMaio who still has not allowed a single run this season… your boy has been immaculate.

Record: 7-5, .583, 2nd AL West
Up Next: A day off followed by a visit from the Vancouver Mounties, who have performed at a 6-6 clip so far… doing baseball so-so, and risking getting squished like grape.

Oh, and… HEY! Before I forget – 1B Otto Isaac, 37-years-old and still going strong in Los Angeles, won player of the week in the National League after hitting 10-for-26 with 2 TANKS, 6 RBI, and 7 runs of his own. Father time seems to have overlooked old boy… I like it. One more thing… don’t look now – but – Montreal, who retooled during the offseason with several key free agent acquisitions (SP’s Trevor Dotson & Marco Ortega, and LF Palmer Parker), have come out swingin’ in ’86, posting a 9-3 record to kick this thing off and looking every bit the world beater they have designs on being.