Vs. New Orleans Gators (12-12, .500, 5th NL East)
Whenever these Bayou based brigands pay a visit to a club of mine, be it in Los Angeles or here in Portland, visions of a young
Mickey Rourke commissioned by a not quite as young
Robert De Niro penetrates my psyche while an even younger still
Lisa Bonet dances on the periphery in a suggestive yet repulsive way, tossing around moist chicken bones that only recently had the flesh removed as she recites some Cajun curse that will inform my life for years to come. And, then I shake myself out of it, remember that none of that is real, that it’s only a movie, and a so-so one at that, and that this club standing across from mine are just a loose collection of stiffs like the rest of them. Here we’ll go against a club adept at occupying the middle – they come to us playing .500 ball, with the NL’s 6th ranked offense and 5th ranked staff, having most recently cribbed a set off the Phoenix Coyotes in Louisiana. They’re fine – as capable of getting things right as they are of getting them wrong – and here, in our house, the boys will be charged with making sure that everything they roll comes up snake eyes, that we walk away victorious lest we be cursed, in front of the hometown faithful, to the life of an also ran for all eternity.
Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
LHP N. Vera (1-2, 6.16) vs RHP R. Valentine (4-1, 2.90)
RHP W. Macomber (2-2, 2.37) vs RHP N. Estopinan (1-3, 4.18)
RHP D. Hornbrook (1-2, 5.40) vs RHP S. LaRoza (1-0, 0.00)
#25: Win, 4-0…
Nuno Vera mesmerized the Gators, rendering their voodoo useless over 6-innings of 4-hit, 5 K work,
Elijah Arvinda, in addition to calling a great game for our staff, finished 2-for-3 with a 2-run HR and 3 total RBI,
Blanco Whitt wrecked the basepaths, scoring once and swiping two bags on the day, and the club managed to win a barnburner here despite leaving 6 runners stranded and the lack of resistance from our opponent. Hey – winning equals more butts in seats, and, while how you do it matters, a low-key boringly efficient shutout victory plays well with the fans as long as you mix in a little swagger here & there.
#26: Win, 3-0… We’d hold the Gators scoreless again as
Macomber picked up his 3rd win of the 2086 campaign after turning in a nice, 6.1-inning, 5-hit, 7 K clean sheet with
Payton Inzen earning a 1.2-inning hold in relief followed by DiMaio recording his 8th save so far…
Blanco Whitt and
Skyler Dickey did the dirt offensively, Whitt with a 2-run double and
Dickey with a run-scoring single, and the defense was sturdy, turning 3 double plays behind the staff to keep New Orleans honest.
Elsewhere: George Sanches, currently getting in his development reps down on the farm with our own Corvallis Beavers, had himself a game in a tilt against the Long Beach Titans, tossing a complete game 4-hitter with 1 earned run and 9 K’s as our Double-A club defeated the San Diego affiliate by a score of 2-1.
Sanches, who graduated from Blue Mountain State and was selected 130th overall by Montreal in 2082, is a long shot to make the majors… so, we’re going to wait and see for a while longer, I guess.
#27: Loss, 4-6… New Orleans would not leave Oregon empty handed, saddling us with a loss here as they put all 6 of their runs on us prior to the start of the 6th frame, leaving us to work from behind the 8-ball the rest of the way.
Simon Harris and
Skyler Dickey were responsible for driving in each of our three runs,
Leo hit a double, a triple, and scored twice, and
Blanco swiped his 7th bag of the season… we’d just not have enough of what was required to get the job done offensively after
Hornbrook allowed 5 runners to plate in just 3.2-innings of work.
Record: 16-11, .592, 1st AL West
Up Next: Our club will board a cross country (and then some) flight bound for Miami Florida where we’ll face off against the Herons over the weekend. A cursory glance at available non-stop flights from PDX to MIA reveals this to be a 6 hr 45 min journey… the boys will be tired for the game on Friday night, that much is clear.