[pauwoo]

"Cram as much pleasure as you can into life, and rail against the pain that you have to suffer as a result" - Shane MacGowan

Godspeed, good sir, godspeed...

@ Colorado Kings (38-22, .633, 1st AL West)
At the start of the 2086 campaign, there wasn’t a single person amongst the punditry that would’ve gone out on a limb to say that they believed these Colorado Kings would run things in the AL West this season. On paper, they had the look of a sub-.500 club, destined to suffer the same fate as most recent Colorado based clubs… an outlier in nearly every offensive category tethered to a pitching staff whose proclivity for serving up the tastiest meatballs to opposing hitters would, once again, hold them back. However, that’s just not been the case – their offense, as expected, is ranked first in our league, but, this time, the staff is a solid 6th on the table, doing the dirt, and keeping the Kings in a position to win games night in and night out. They’re where we were supposed to be… on top, looking down our nose at our “competition” in the AL West, at the start of what would undoubtedly become a long reign of terror for the Portland Pioneers… instead, we’re just shuffling along aimlessly, making our living somewhere in the middle of the pack, not handsome enough to get an invite to the Sadie Hawkins dance and suffering the indignity of being eliminated from the short list when the young ladies were deciding who to ask.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP M. Holman (1-5, 3.39 ERA) vs RHP R. Borovský (5-3, 3.79 ERA)
RHP N. Barilla (0-2, 4.64 ERA) vs LHP J. Lynch (3-0, 2.42 ERA)
RHP W. Macomber (4-4, 3.09 ERA) vs RHP E. Belanger (5-6, 4.56 ERA)

#61: Loss, 0-3… Like rats from a sinking ship, the look on the face of nearly every man in our clubhouse indicates how badly they want to run away from this mess and hide. After losing 7-straight, our unhappiness is pervasive, the general malaise that has settled in the clubhouse is inescapable, and our complete lack of espirit de corps is palpable. Colorado’s Radoslav Borovsky kept our boys in check for 5-innings, allowing a measly 5 hits during his time on the mound, and his bullpen followed suit allowing just four hits the rest of the way – our offense was stuck in neutral, not a single EBH between us, with 5 runners stranded overall. Micah Holman’s snakebit season continues – he’ll take his 6th loss of the season here despite allowing just 2 runs over his 5-innings of work.

#62: Win, 4-2… we’d rely, mostly, on a 3-run top of the 1st to get ourselves back in the winning column for the first time in our last 8 attempts… capped off by Simon Harris’ 2-run DINGER during that frame in what was a 2-for-5 day for him. Leo and Blanco rounded things out offensively for us, each bringing one around on a single, and our staff, led here by Norman Barilla’s 6-innings of 3-hit filthiness, somehow managed to keep Colorado’s buzzsaw offense off the board for much of the game. Heck, even CL Noah DiMaio managed to earn a save, his 17th, despite allowing a runner to score late during a ill-fated rally attempt from Colorado. Big, much-needed win for the club, bringing us back to .500, and on the road at altitude too!

Draft Day: It’s the day of our annual draft, an event I usually spend a lot of time on, but don’t like to write about… we spent our top pick, 14th overall, on a RFer out of Wyoming - Tyler Kirby (20yo, 26/74)… kid’s got moxie, a real good arm, good enough range for RF, and doesn’t commit a lot of errors AND projects to hit for average with more than a little bit of pop whilst not striking out a ton. I also snagged a nice little starter out of Vanderbilt in Terry Singleton (20yo, 26/57)… he’s a sidearm throwing, groundballer with 6 pitches. I could see him being somebody, someday. Tyler’s profile is attached…

#63: Loss, 3-4… the boys turned in a valiant effort, attempting a 4-run rally during the top of the 8th where we’d come up just a couple of runs short after 2B Adric Taylor hit a 2-run HR to make it three scored for our Pioneers during the frame. All said, however, Colorado Starter, Larimel Alvarez, was just too much for us, holding us at arm’s length for 7-innings where he’d allow just two hits and one earned run… our guy, William Macomber, fell to 4-5 on the year after allowing 2 runners to plate over 5-innings of work, a solid effort no doubt, just not enough for our offense to find a way to get it done. Disappointing to lose the set – but, let’s be honest – we’re just happy we didn’t get swept again.

Elsewhere: My Reno Berserkers, down in the Bush League, are now 14-18 on the year and have gone 7-3 over their last ten contests… our pitching has improved, we’re now ranked 6th in that category, but the offense, ranked 10th in our league, just hasn’t come around. Meh.

Record: 31-32, .492, 5th AL West
Up Next: We’ll head home to PDX where the 2nd place Vancouver Mounties will be waiting, no doubt licking their chops in anticipation of our arrival.