Decatur Donnybrooks (20-13, .606, 2nd TBL) @ Pampa Peaches (15-18, .455, 7th TBL)
Pampa is home to the Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center and a ho-hum baseball club – sure, they have a bowling alley and an aquatic center too, but that’s not unique enough to be considered a reason to visit. Basically, if we didn’t have to be here, we wouldn’t have made the trip. They do have a spot called the Coney Island Café – good dogs, stellar meatloaf, and the occasional sausage & kraut special, so, something to look forward to, I suppose. From a baseball perspective, the Peaches are thieves – 1st in stolen bases – and their Bullpen has got something snappy – 2nd in Bullpen ERA – but, it’s all downhill from there… in fact other than having the best reliever in the league and the 3rd best closer on their roster, they don’t have a single-player ranked better than 5th at his position. Their fan interest is middling, season ticket sales are down by 10%, and their player payroll, at 9th in the league, shows that management is either not committed to winning or is not flush with enough cash to spend their way into the playoffs – so the pink & lime green faithful will have to attach their hopes and dreams to hustle, a dogged desire to rise above their station, and guile to get them to the promised land. The problem in 2087 is that the promised land is still so far away – not even a blip on the horizon – that a trip there won’t be happening this season. So, I guess, for the faithful, it’s all about cheap dogs, cheaper beers, and bench seating…
34 of 54: Dan Crawford (3-1, 1.84) @ Ian Hundertmark (2-2, 4.65)
Win, 2-0. Crawford nearly goes the distance – 8 pitched, 3 hits, 0 earned, and 9 Ks… STUD… and, Mario Rivera earns his 8th save of the season. McGill finished 1 for 4 with 2 batted in, we got a pretty cool yo-yo DP between Kuiper & McGill that included an outfield assist when your boy Kuiper caught a shallow fly ball and hucked that pill back to McGill to catch Tanedo trying to get home. Laser. Not much else to say about this one – not a lot really happens in your average 2-run game – but, on the bright side, for those Pampa residents in attendance, we got them out of here in less than 3 hours and before they made the mistake of having a 3rd chili dog. You’re welcome citizenry of Pampa, you’re welcome.
35 of 54: Steve Merryman (2-2, 5.23) @ Justin Laur (2-2, 4.88)
Loss, 6-5. Walked off in Pampa is like getting dissed in the Malibu… Benno van der Windt blasted a solo HR that sent us to the showers in a PH situation, a nice feather in his cap for sure. Merryman was less than serviceable, again, as he went 5 innings, gave up 9 hits, and 4 earned before turning it over to the pen and Josh Guerrero takes the loss, his first of the year, after giving up the homer in the bottom of the 9th. McGill brought in another two runs for us tonight and lost his **** in the dugout after we got walked off when he took out his mounting frustration on our water cooler – this lack of self-control is unacceptable. I was thirsty… I had to walk into the clubhouse to get some water. If his whiny butt pulls a stunt like that again, I’ll fight him. I mean it. Water is less satisfying when getting a cup of it is not convenient. Also, what is it going to take to get the owner to fill one of our water coolers with sangria? Is that so difficult?
36 of 54: Andy Thatcher (1-1, 2.48) @ Nick Grayum (4-2, 2.88)
Win, 4-3. We’ll be heading back to Decatur with another series win in the books – two in a row now – taking Sunday off before we look to put a hurting on the Fredericksburg Footlongs. Thatcher gives us 6 shutout innings and struck out 7 hapless Peaches of Pampa, and Kymani Jones went 3 for 4 with a triplet and an RBI – he also scored twice (or maybe three times if the rumors from last night hold water). Ben Kuiper went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs, and Mendoza got a couple of hits – Thatcher hit a double (always nice to see a pitcher put up a good AB), and Rivera picks up his 9th save. A good, clean win here to take the series against Pampa – we finished 5-1 against them on the season. So long Pampa, see you in 2088.
After winning this set, we have sole possession of the 2nd slot on the table – the problem is we got Fredericksburg in an important series at home next and Waxahachie has opened a 2-game lead on us. They are hot right now… But, don’t sleep on Denton… they are on an 8-2 run and looking to keep moving up the table with a 3-game set against Quanah on the docket they should be able to keep this run of great play going and get themselves back into the top 3. We got a tough road ahead with sets against Fredericksburg, Denton, Waxahachie, and San Marcos still on the horizon – we will need to navigate these rough seas with the aplomb of a seasoned captain if we are to finish in the top 3.