[pauwoo]

Phoenix Suns (21-14, .600) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (19-15, .559, 1 ½ games back)
There are positives and negatives to be found in every away city - the positive thing about playing a 3-game set in OKC is that you don’t have to concern yourself with the types of potential off the field shenanigans that you need to be cognizant of, say, in Toronto. In that respect - it’s nice to be in OKC. Having said that, there are scenarios where trouble comes around, and try as you might to avoid it, finds you whether you like it or not. In OKC that trouble is SP Josh Allen, who, while not at what many believe will be the height of his powers, has been on a tear, and has had good success against us in the past. We get him in the third game of the series, so, we need to stay sharp in the first two games if we are to have a realistic chance at getting a series win. And even that may be a stretch as the Thunder are an incredibly balanced and competent team, that, when the dust settles, should find themselves leading the NL West. Given the average age of their roster and the average potential of their players - we may be on the precipice of a nice 3-year window for these guys to bring home a World Series banner (or two, or none - who knows, baseball is funky like that).

36 of 162: Cleveland Cornejo (3-1, 5.86 ERA) @ Carson Vu (1-2, 6.46 ERA)
An inauspicious start as we strike out in order to start the game – all swinging… 1B Iraj Mansouri killed us today going 3-4 with a homer and 2 RBI’s and was responsible for bringing the go-ahead run on a well placed single against RP Paul Williams. Cleveland picked up his second loss of the season, Donny went 2-4, and Pepper went 1-3 with HR in the 8th. Fun times. With the 3-2 win, Oklahoma is now only a ½ game behind us in the NL West.

Elsewhere: SP Josiah Weber was masterful in New York as he picked up his 6th win of the season and helped his Jaguars improve to 18-18 on the season. Weber gave up 2-runs on 7 hits in 8 innings of work. The 35-year old still has a bit in the tank. He’s now 6-1, 2.23 ERA, 11.4 K/9, and 169 ERA+.

37 of 162: Isaiah Zuno (2-3, 4.33 ERA) @ Jimmy Garcia (4-0, 3.13 ERA)
Donny & Pepper get the day off – seems like our Skipper is throwing in the towel here, no? Turns out it was the right call as we managed to get a hard-earned 5-4 win despite committing 2 errors during the game. Backup Catcher Norton Manning put together one of his best offensive performances of the season as he went 2-4 with a run and an RBI. Always nice when we get something, anything really, from him. Zuno pitched a nice complete game for us and only gave up 3 runs through 9. Nice to get a win, but earning the W in the rubber match with Allen on the mound will be a tall order.

38 of 162: Graham Doyle (0-0, 0.00 ERA) @ Tim Kelly (4-3, 3.83 ERA)
We placed CL Ricky Surber on the 60-day disabled list after the diagnosis of his injury sustained in Toronto came back as a torn ulnar collateral ligament – he’ll have a long road to recovery – and called 25-year-old SP Graham Doyle up from Tucson. This will be the Major League debut for 94th overall draft pick out of Tennessee in 2070. He lines up against SP Tim Kelly as OKC elected to give SP Josh Allen an additional day to rest – good for us, hopefully. Pepper is still riding the pine for this one, but we do have full representation from the Jeter Bros. After an unearned run got across in the bottom of the second, Doyle walked two runs in – not a great debut so far… When we pulled him in the 3rd he’d given up 4 runs with 4 walks, 3 K’s, and a wild pitch – command issues. In the end we lost 7-3, and, fortunately, managed to keep our NL West lead at ½ a game even though we lost the series in OKC.