[pauwoo]

Phoenix Suns (28-19, .596) @ St. Louis Rams (15-29, .341)
Rams Right Fielder, Jonah Dove, won the Boyce Rigg Award in 2072, but, after a good start to the 2073 season he went down with shoulder tendinitis for 8 weeks and followed that up with 2 more weeks on the DL with a herniated disc in his neck – 2074 looks to be a bounce back year for his power as he is on track to hit 37 homers, but his all-around game has suffered since the injuries. Not unlike Jonah, his St. Louis team won back-to-back titles in 2067 & 2068, made the playoffs in 2069 & 2070, but have since finished no higher than 5th. Key losses to free agency and a series of poor draft choices have earned them their place near the bottom of the league. So far this season they are last in the NL East at 15-29 and sit at #11 in runs score and #10 in Bullpen ERA – they are a long way from their glory days. Even their top prospect, CF Wasp Hauck, has struggled in AAA. We meet them for a 4-game set, and we expect our club to stay focused and take care of business while we are in town.

48 of 162: Graham Doyle (1-1, 1.80 ERA) @ Nick Colbaugh (0-7, 5.59)
Jonah Dove crushed us today – 3 for 5, 3 runs, 6 RBI, and a homer. He just did whatever he wanted to do. Colbaugh was his usual self – yanked after giving up 4 runs in 4.1 innings – he did manage 5 K’s though – we fanned 13 times in the game, St. Louis only did it 4 times. Donny went 2 for 3 and Derek was 2 for 4 with 2 RBI in the loss. Pepper went 0 for 3, struck out twice and committed a fielding error – he was trash today. Complete lack of focus from that guy. St. Louis merked us, 14-4.

Bonus Game (NCAA Great 8): Pepperdine @ Blue Mountain State
Hudson Dorsch (20/55) @ Stretch Worthington (20/20)
Blue Mountain State made the Great 8 after beating the Oklahoma Sooners in a close one, 3 to 1. They got a great performance from their SS Julius Etcheverry (20/28) – 4 for 5 and a run from the leadoff spot. They are a well-rounded team that finished the NCAA regular season at 31-19. In Pepperdine, 28-22 in the regular season, they meet a dangerous squad led by RF Emil Berg (20/23) – he went 2 for 5 against Ohio State in the last round. Emil was much better against BMS – he went 3 for 4 with 3 runs and an RBI from the leadoff spot and LF Shawn Sullivan (20/66) was 3 for 5 with 3 runs, 7 RBI and 3 HRs – craziness. Pepperdine wins 12-2. They’ll face the Virginia Cavaliers while the Pennsylvania Quakers (after defeating Tournament favorite Vanderbilt) will meet the Kentucky Wildcats in the Final Four.

49 of 162: Cleveland Cornejo (4-2, 5.26 ERA) @ Dimitri Pimentel (4-5, 2.20 ERA)
JR Marsh went 2 for 5 with 2 HR (doubling his HR total on the season in one game) and 4 RBI while Cleveland gave us 7.1 innings with 5 K’s ad 5 earned. The Jeter Bros were a combined 2 for 9 with 6 K’s (mostly Donny’s fault) and Pepper went hitless again. We fell apart in the bottom of the 8th and let 3 get across and had to secure the win in extras when JR Marsh hit his second ding dong of the day. Phoenix wins 6-5.

50 of 162: Keiki Kaneko (0-1, 4.02 ERA) @ Mick Kornbluh (3-4, 2.35 ERA)
The inconsistency continues – we’re really blowing it in this series losing 2 of the first 3 to one of the worst teams in the league - maximum suckage. St. Louis got a lit bit of something from their whole team in this win while we got a whole lotta nothing from 1 through 9. 13 K’s for the team… THIRTEEN!

Bonus Game #2 (Final Four): Kentucky @ Pennsylvania
Rasheed Paez (20/45) @ Nicholas Hughes (20/25)
Pennsylvania punched their ticket to the NCAA Championship Game with a 3-1 win over Kentucky and held on to a shutout until the top of the 9th when Kentucky looked poised to go on a run. That effort was thwarted with some fine defensive work from the Quakers – DH Nesto Gamboa (20/20) was tossed from the game in the 4th inning after arguing a strike call. His inner Bryce Harper was in full effect. They’ll face a surging Pepperdine in the final – my money is on the Waves – the 4-time NCAA Champion looks to be the 1st College team to win 5 titles – currently they are tied for 1st at 4 with Vanderbilt and Santa Clara. Pennsylvania has one championship in their history… waaaaaay back in 2016.

51 of 162: Del Miller (6-0, 4.62 ERA) @ Kent Miller (0-4, 8.39 ERA) – no relation.
And… the wheels have come off. Losing 3 of 4 to the St. Louis Rams is our low point of the season thus far – but, don’t worry we still have 112 games (err - 111, math is hard) to reach depths you could never imagine. C Jasper Herrera was 4 for 4 with a double and an RBI for the Rams and Kent improved his ERA by nearly 2 points after 8 innings of work where he only allowed two earned runs. Donny sat on the bench, Derek went hitless and Pepper… well, he did hit a sacrifice bunt – you don’t see that every day. St. Louis wins 4-2 and the San Diego Chargers take over the top spot in the NL West. We also struck out 47 times over the 4 game set. If you're counting thats ~12 K's / Game. We're awesome at baseball.

We’re heading back home with our tails between our legs to welcome the 29-21 Brooklyn Citizens to town. If a lowly squad like St. Louis can handle us like that, I can’t wait to see what a good team does to us. Contemplating using the teams' twitter account to tell our home fans not to bother showing up. Good thing I forgot my password.