@ Dallas Chaparrals (45-39, .536)
Outpacing our club by one scant game, these Chaps, while good, aren’t the world beaters their self-aggrandizing fanbase would have you believe… things may always be bigger in Texas (debatable) but they definitely aren’t always better. The Chaparrals have a very good offense, ranked 5th overall in our league, but their pitching and defense leave much to be desired… ranked 11th overall as a staff, 11th in runs allowed, and 12th in FIP, Bullpen ERA, and Defensive efficiency. They’re also outperforming the Pyt by 7 games, are the less-than-proud owners of a -36 RDiff, and, if you ask me, are the luckiest club in organized baseball. Here, it’s our hope that their luck will run out and that our recent run of winning form (we finished June with a 14-12 record you guys) will hold.
Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP J. Fletchall (3-1, 1.22) vs RHP C. Gould (1-5, 5.52)
RHP M. Holman (2-7, 3.28) vs RHP E. Blaxley (5-7, 4.68)
RHP N. Barilla (4-2, 2.18) vs LHP J. Hruska (10-5, 2.61)
#85: Win, 3-0… SP Jeremiah Fletchall gave us 7-inning of 1-hit, shutout baseball en route to his 4th victory in a row and fanned 5 to set the table nicely for our bullpen who, between
Nuno Vera,
Dom Hornbrook, and
Noah DiMaio, allowed just one hit the rest of the way to flummox the much-maligned (by us) Dallas lineup. And, our offense, led by dingers from
Frodo and
Shane Fukumoto, did what was necessary to keep our winning streak alive in this first of three contested in central Texas. Two burgled bags, one each for
Shane and
Leo Bullock, and a tasty little double play would round out our highlights here as the boys went off into the warm Dallas night on a well-earned win.
#86: Loss, 0-3… Dallas would exact some small measure of revenge here, hanging each of their three runs on our Starter,
Micah Holman, who, as you may know, is mired in a poor, poor season so far at 2-8 despite pitching well in his first season as a Major Leaguer. Of course, those four free passes he doled out today didn’t help his cause much. Nothing doing for the offense either as the boys did nothing with our 8 hits on the day and left 12 runners stranded over the course of the game. This was not the effort we were looking for…
Elsewhere: 3B Leander Dillard, our 3rd round pick (67th overall) of this years Amateur Draft, is filling out his Centennial Cavaliers kit out quite nicely as he finished 3-for-5 with 2 TANKS and 5 total RBI to lead our club to a resounding, 12-1 victory, over the Kitchener Beavers. In 18 games with our Short Season A outfit,
Leander has put down a 333/407/528 slash with 3 homers and 12 RBI so far.
#87: Win, 2-0… SP Norman Barilla improved to 5-2 on the year after turning in a tip-top, 7.1-inning, 3-hit shutout and
Noah DiMaio picked up his 27th save on the year as our offense,
anemic as it was, got back on the good foot here, putting two runs across during the top of the 6th to all but put this one to bed… and with that, as we rest our road weary heads, the club secured a series win to kick off the month, ruined the Chaps’ post-game fireworks show, and skipped town with victory in hand on our way back home.
Elsewhere: Pictured above is
SP Troy Schlottman.
Troy went to the University of North Carolina. He went undrafted and decided to pursue his baseball dreams further in the Bush League with the Ontario Dumplings. And, he had himself something of a game against the Beaverton Sashimis recently, tossing 6.1-innings of 2-hit, shutout baseball complete with 10 K’s.
Kind of fun… but, the real reason I’m highlighting this kid is because his FG is everything.
Record: 46-41, 3rd AL West
Up Next: We’ll head back to PDX where the Seattle Metros will be anxiously awaiting our arrival for another 3-game set.