Vs. Seattle Metros (45-42, .517)
With our second winning month of the season stuck firmly in the rearview and a series win already under our belts so far in July, we’ll welcome one of our Cascadia rivals to town for an epic showdown the likes of which our fans haven’t seen since, umm, the last time they came to town… Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen over these next three, and, while we do have the ‘homefield advantage’ to the degree that is even a thing in baseball, the fact is that these Seattle Metros are built a lot like us – they’re good, not great, have been mired in an up & down campaign with the only key difference being that they have lived off a 17-10 month of May so far, having bookended that month with a 10-15 record in April and a .500 month of June. Here’s a set that we should win, one that we must win if we are going to position ourselves for a shot at the postseason, and, if for nothing else other than bragging rights, it’s a 3-game stretch where, in my mind, only a sweep will suffice.
Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP W. Macomber (6-6, 3.12) vs LHP A. Gunter (10-3, 2.62)
RHP B. Sánchez (11-2, 2.95) vs RHP M. Fauske (8-4, 3.67)
RHP J. Fletchall (4-1, 1.02) vs RHP J. Grace (1-5, 3.92)
#88: Win, 4-1… we’d put this one to bed early, scoring three of our 4 before the start of the 5th, each on a run-scoring single, and would rely on a rock-solid, 8-inning, 4-hit, 1-earned performance courtesy of our starter,
William Macomber.
Noah DiMaio picks up his 28th save,
Leo Bullock swiped his 15th bag, and our defense backed
Macomber admirably with two tip-top double plays stranding runners in scoring position on each of them. Three
SAC FLIES for the club today as well – we’ll do whatever it takes, ya know what I mean?
#89: Loss, 3-4 (11)… while our effort was valiant, it just wasn’t enough – a 3-run bottom of the 7th, capped off by a 2-run, two-bagger courtesy of
Simon Harris, would knot thing up, but, after trading zeroes for a few innings, Seattle snuck one across on a 11th inning,
Patrick Adams, homer and, try as we might, our guys didn’t have enough in the tank to answer back during the bottom of that frame. Our closer,
Noah DiMaio, is saddled with his 7th loss of the 2086 campaign, our club could manage just one extra base hit, that
Simon Harris double I spoke on earlier, and, all said, we left 10 runners stranded, dropping a game at home to one of our fiercest rivals… gross.
#90: Win, 8-1… DH Bruce Sarmiento’s 7th inning
GRAND SLAM blew this one wide open, as we managed to secure the series win while simultaneously exacting some small measure of revenge for the misfortune dealt to us by the Metros one short day ago…
Micky Austin finished 4-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, we scored 4 unearned runs off back-to-back Seattle errors during the bottom of the 5th, and got stout performances from starter
Jeremiah Fletchall, who would pick up his 5th win here, and relievers
Payton Inzen and
Peter Yamaguchi. A nice series win, secured on a Sunday, at home in Pendleton Park.
Elsewhere:
BJ Escobar, a Bush League mainstay over the last three seasons after spending 11 years with the Miami Herons organization, including 6 years on the big club serving as their backup backstop, who is currently plying his trade with the Pensacola Mummies, had himself something of a day against the Decatur Donnybrooks… Your boy finished 2-for-6 at the plate with TWO TANKS and 6 RBI to lead his club to a ramshackle, 17-8 win over the defensively challenged Donnybrooks…
Escobar is trending to amass 4.2 in WAR this season, and, if his pace is maintained he’ll start 76 of Pensacola’s 96 games this season.
Record: 48-42, .533, 3rd AL West
Up Next: We’ll head to Colorado after the All-Star break to do battle against the AL West division-leading Colorado Kings.