Vs. Vancouver Mounties (33-30, .524, 2nd AL West)
With a top notch, 2nd-ranked offense and a solid pitching staff that’s mostly buoyed by the Mounties’ tip top defense (1st in Defensive Eff & ZR), Vancouver finds themselves occupying 2nd place on the AL West table even though they are already 7 games off the pace currently being set by our last opponent, the Colorado Kings. They score, a lot, are adept at getting on base, and are a great baserunning team when they get on… and, really, given their +62 RDiff, second only to Colorado in American League, should probably be making their living just 1 or 2 games behind the Kings in the standings. Which is to say that, as ever, there is no rest for the wicked here – Vancouver is as good as it gets in our division, as fierce a foe as you can imagine, and one that, given our ho-hum form, may have little difficulty dispatching us in our park, leaving some families wondering why they chose to spend their entertainment dollar on a day at the ballpark.
Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP B. Sánchez (9-1, 3.00 ERA) vs RHP S. Kenny (7-2, 2.79 ERA)
RHP D. Hornbrook (2-4, 4.34 ERA) vs RHP T. Abraham (2-0, 3.38 ERA)
RHP M. Holman (1-6, 3.41 ERA) vs LHP T. Mack (2-2, 3.18 ERA)
#64: Loss, 4-5… this slow, gradual, & painful decline should not be chronicled in a series-by-series format and, for anyone who doesn’t love the horror genre I implore you to stop reading now, assuming that you haven’t already… because things have come completely off the rails in Portland, we’re deep in the woods, in some nondescript part of the country, making poor decisions, hanging out with blondes, and walking, briskly, towards a slasher film scene the likes of which the world has never known. In this version of ‘death by 1000 cuts’ it’d be
Baron Henry that got that last one in, a run-scoring single during the top of the 7th off
Bernal Sanchez, representing the 5th run he had allowed, to put Vancouver up for good… and the sad part was that over half of the hometown crowd didn’t even stick around to see if we’d mount a comeback.
It’s a sad state of affairs…
#65: Win, 7-2… our revenge was as swift as it was severe with 3 runs scored in the 3rd and 5th frames with one more added during the 6th for craps and cackles.
Frodo led the way, driving in four runs on 2-for-4 hitting including a 3-run TANK,
Leo,
Blanco, and
Skyler each brought in a run,
and we swiped two bags as a club offensively while the staff brought their A-game with
Hornbrook earning his 3rd win of the 2086 campaign after putting in 5.2 solid innings of work. A good win against a great club in what is, in my mind, the best park in all of professional baseball… not a bad day at the office, you ask me.
Elsewhere: RF Leandro Corona, currently punching the clock down in the Bush League with my Reno Berserkers, put in a hard-scrabble 3-for-4 day at the plate with a double, TWO TANKS, and 5 total RBI thrown in for good measure to lead his club to a resounding, 8-5 win over the Vallejo Locos. With the win, Reno improved to 15-19 on the year, and picked up their first win after getting swept in Roswell by the Invaders.
#66: Win, 6-4… it’d take most of what we had plus a 3-run bottom of the 8th to get it done against Vancouver, as we found a way to win our first series in, oh I don’t know, forever on the back of
Leo’s run-scoring walk that put us up 5-4 at the time and for good once it was all said and done.
Skyler Dickey finished 2-for-5 with a 2-run DING DONG and 3 total RBI with
Simone Harris and
Elijah Arvinda being responsible for our other runs, while
Jeremiah Fletchall picked up his 3rd win in relief before turning it over to
DiMaio for his 18th save.
We needed this one… seriously.
All hail
Palmer Parker, one of the best to ever do it… killing me with that facial hair tho…
Record: 33-33, .500, 4th AL West
Up Next: We have Monday off, as always, and will welcome the Buffalo Nickels to town for a three-game set starting on Tuesday.