[Ruwisc]

Week 22: August 21-27, 2023



Time to head out on the road. I hadn't made notice of just how gigantic our home/road splits are this year - we are 49-14 at home and 33-27 on the road! That's pretty huge, and it makes grabbing home field in the playoffs seem even more important now. Well, as we start the week here on Monday, we're 5 1/2 games up on Louisville for best record in the NL, and just 2 1/2 behind Las Vegas for the race to have home field throughout.

August 21-22: Bees (82-41) @ Milwaukee Brewers (59-65)
This is our first time seeing the Brew Crew all year - they will come to the Hive during our season-ending homestand in September. The Brewers are the only NL team that has ever won the World Series here - the Rangers, Blue Jays, Scorpions and Yankees all have titles from the AL side - and things have really slipped off since they lifted the Commissioner's Trophy in 2021. They were also our opponents in the 2019 NLCS, when we captured our only pennant. This Brewers season was characterized by a terrible start: they were 22-36 at the end of May, and have been 8 games over .500 since. Their strength is in their rotation, and we'll be seeing the top of that rotation this week.

Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (12-8, 3.54) vs. Adrian Morejon (13-3, 3.11)
SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, 2B Phyo, LF Gamel, SS Mota, P Flaherty
MIL: 2B Kingery, SS Swanson, LF Conforto, 3B Olivo, CF Buxton, RF Alexander, C Herbert, 1B Slaughter, P Morejon

The 24-year-old Morejon is the Brewers' ace - the 24-year-old Cuban actually started this year in the minor leagues but has arisen to become a force for this team. The Brewers have won his last eight starts, and he had won the previous seven before getting a no-decision last Tuesday in Atlanta. He hasn't lost since May... Tough-luck loss for Flaherty last time out, our only loss of the week falling at his feet on Wednesday against Louisville. He pitched well but we fell 2-1... both pitchers got through the opening innings unscathed, but Flaherty needed a high number of pitches to breach the first. An 11-pitch at bat by Michael Conforto ended in a single, but Julian Olivo then grounded into a saving double play... the scoring ice was broken in the 3rd. Scott Kingery hit his 10th home run of the year to make it 1-0... Flaherty had pitched more efficiently after the 1st, and was able to get through six innings still under 100 pitches, and having given up just the one run... we had men in scoring position in the 3rd and 4th, but finally broke through in the 5th. It was actually Flaherty who started the rally (he's a career .216 hitter, which is excellent for a pitcher). He singled, moved up on Mesa's ground ball and scored from 2nd on Cottam's single without a throw... both pitchers were replaced at the start of the 7th inning, Diego Castillo replacing Morejon, and Charlie Tilson leading off as a pinch-hitter... we stranded a man on third in that inning, but JB Wendelken was able to work around a Mota error after the stretch... Milwaukee would get their rally together in the 8th, though. With Holder pitching, Dansby Swanson led off with a hit, and with one out Guerrero made an error that allowed Olivo to reach. Byron Buxton followed with an RBI single to give the Brewers the lead, and Tom Alexander put it away with a two-run double after that. We put a man on third in the 9th, but never had the tying run at the plate and didn't score anyway.


W: Aaron Loup (4-1) L: Jonathan Holder (3-2) S: Ezequiel Nin (24)
PotG: Adrian Morejon

Well damn. Offense just didn't have it today, not too surprising with Morejon's stuff, and the fact that we were on the road and facing a lefty, our weaker side.

Game 2 - Will Shirah (8-7, 4.80) vs. David Lopez (4-10, 5.59)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, C Cottam, LF Gamel, 2B Maezes, P Shirah, CF Tilson
MIL: 2B Kingery, SS Swanson, LF Conforto, 3B Olivo, RF Alexander, CF Buxton, C Herbert, 1B Slaughter, P Lopez

In contrast, it's been a difficult season for Lopez. The 26-year old starter hasn't finished the 5th inning in any of his last 3 starts, all losses. He was acquired by Milwaukee at last season's deadline from Reno, straight-up, for a AA infielder that retired at season's end. Whoops... Will snapped his losing skid on Thursday against the Marshals, tossing six strong... We blew a golden opportunity in the first. With two out, Guerrero walked, Ishi singled, and Cottam also walked, but Ben Gamel was fooled by a 1-2 pitch and sat down looking... Shirah got through the lineup the first time without allowing a hit, and though Kingery doubled in the third he was stranded there at second... in contrast to everything I saw with Lopez pregame, he pitched quite well. In the 4th he worked around a walk and a hit by getting Gamel to hit into a double play... Milwaukee broke through first in the 4th. Tom Alexander hit a towering fly ball that got over the right field wall for his 8th HR, and Jake Herbert matched him with his own 8th home run later. 2-0 Brewers... in the fifth, we loaded the bases up again. Mota and Robles singled ahead of Guerrero's walk, and Kole Cottam cashed in two with a double, tying the game... that'd be Lopez' final inning. 5 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs for him... Shirah got 1 out in the 6th before a walk and single forced him out as well, and Zeke Young surrendered by allowing Buxton an RBI double and Jake Slaughter an RBI single. We were still in this game, until we weren't. The 7th featured individual RBI from Olivo, Alexander, Buxton and Slaughter, and that was that. 3 runs charged to Young, and 1 to Wendelken... we stranded two men on base in both the 8th and 9th and didn't score again.


W: Aaron Loup (5-1) L: Will Shirah (8-8)
PotG: Tom Alexander

Sounds like a good time for an off day, as we travel back out west to see a couple of subpar opponents.

August 24-25: Bees (82-43) @ Reno Silver Sox (49-77)
It's a lost season for the Silver Sox, who have the worst record in the National League and have to just be hoping for a high draft pick at this point. But they're such an interesting team, with a shocking amount of star power for a team this bad. I've raved about 2B Brad Martin and RF Koshi Higuchi in the past, but their production has been equalled this year by breakout star 3B John Valente (and in fact, Valente may have passed Higuchi). Not just those three, though - they had an already MLB-ready elite-level closer fall into their laps via scouting discovery about a month ago. Israeli RHP Herzel Harris signed on during the All-Star Break and immediately started blowing it by people at about 102. A shame for Harris that nobody discovered he was an elite athlete until age 25. The rest of the pitching staff, though, is a pile o' wet garbage, ranking last in the NL in every listed stat except for HR (29th) and Ks (25th).

Game 1 - Joey Lucchesi (13-4, 4.04) vs. Keyton Gibson (1-1, 1.64)
SLC: SS Mota, 1B Ishihara, 3B Guerrero, RF Shirah, CF Mesa, LF Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, P Lucchesi
REN: LF Scott, CF Ramirez, 2B Martin, RF Higuchi, 3B Valente, 1B Wielansky, C Castillo, SS Robertson, P Gibson

Gibson is the only pitcher currently in the Reno rotation with a sub-6.00 ERA, but don't worry: he had a 6.80 in AAA before being needed to fill in at the big league level. This will be his third major league start - he beat the Suns in his debut, and had a hard-luck loss at Louisville last Saturday, so it's actually a nice beginning to his big league career, despite pretty poor minor league numbers and a less-than-glowing scouting report... Lucchesi got back on track with Friday's win over San Antonio, going 6 strong and picking up his 13th W... Gibson really had our number early, so maybe he's just feelin' it right now. Mota started us with a hit but Ishihara hit into a double play, and we only had one other hit through 3 innings... meanwhile, we faced a deficit after Reno's first two batters, getting killed by a weaker part of the lineup. Scott tripled and Raphael Ramirez hit a two-run shot, 2-0 Silver Sox... the tough meat of the lineup nearly burned us in the third, but we were bailed out by Higuchi weirdly trying to go first-to-third on a sharp single to left. Gamel has a few outfield assists this year and added another... in the 4th we finally got through. The inning started with four consecutive singles, from Ishihara through Mesa, and the next two batters each hit sacrifice flies to tie and then give us the lead 3-2... we extended the lead in the 6th. Guerrero and Mesa each walked, and both would come around to score on a Cottam single later... Valente's 29th home run got Reno within 5-3 in the 6th, but their wheels fell off pitching-wise in the 7th. Ishihara double, Guerrero IBB, Shirah RBI single, Mesa single, wild pitch, Gamel walk, pitching change, Cottam walk, Phyo walk made it 9-3, and a groundout made it 10-3. All five runs were charged to Mark Melancon, who sees his season ERA climb north of 11.00! Whoa. We had used that opportunity to pinch-hit for Joey and let him rest having squeezed into the definition of a quality start - 6 innings, 3 runs, and Shane Watson took us from there. There was only one hit for either side the rest of the game, with two outs in the 9th, and Watson picks up his first MLB save by tossing the final three.


W: Joey Lucchesi (14-4) L: Keyton Gibson (1-2) S: Shane Watson (1)
PotG: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Coming to Reno was exactly what we needed to get back on track, it looks like. Let's see what awaits us Friday:

Jose Quintana came down with the flu today - looks like we are going to push him back from Saturday's start in El Paso to probably start Sunday instead. The Wednesday off day affords us a tiny bit of flexibility there.

Game 2 - Ray Gaither (3-2, 4.67) vs. Julian Bosnic (2-3, 6.26)
SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, 2B Phyo, LF Shirah, SS Mota, P Gaither
REN: LF Scott, CF Ramirez, 2B Martin, RF Higuchi, 3B Valente, 1B Wielansky, SS Robertson, C Hawkins, P Bosnic

Bosnic is a nice-looking young pitcher, but he's not ready for the bigs and has been forced into this role because the team's so bad. 23 years old, he was a 10th round pick from the University of South Carolina in 2021 & made the Opening Day roster this year in the bullpen. Transitioned to a starting role recently and has actually won his last two starts, including over the mighty Colts last week... Gaither pitched the first game of Sunday's doubleheader and put us in a rough spot by only going 4 innings, but the bullpen bailed him out and we came back and won that game... it was us getting a fast start today. Mesa and Guerrero each singled in the first, and Robles then crushed a get-me-over fastball into the left-field upper deck, 3-0 Bees... Mesa came up again in the 2nd and smashed an RBI double scoring Mota... in the bottom of the 2nd, Daniel Robertson one-upped Robles by crushing an even longer home run, way out to left-center, a two-run shot that halved our lead to 4-2... we had an unearned run come across the next inning, Guerrero scoring when John Valente dropped a soft liner hit at him by Mota... Bosnic walked Mesa to begin the 4th, and that was the end of his day. We teed off on Willie Ferrel, the new pitcher. Cottam single, Guerrero HBP, Robles 2-run double, Phyo walk to load the bases, and then a combination of a wild pitch and a Shirah single brought all three of those runners around. 10-2... Gaither threw a scoreless 4th, but needed 35 pitches to do so and had the bases loaded for a lot of that... we made a pair of errors in the 5th that handed Reno a free run. Phyo made the error allowing Ramirez to reach, and Shirah the error that allowed him to score, so it was 10-3 now just like yesterday... Gaither was done after that 5th, not his best day due to low efficiency but not an awful outing. 5 innings, 3 runs (2 earned) on 5 hits, 2 BB and 4 K. Better than Julian Bosnic's day, at least... the 7th inning was a near disaster, or maybe just a disaster. Paul Goodwin stayed in after an easy 6th, but didn't retire a man and handed Watson a bases-loaded jam. Valente doubled home all three of those runners and then scored on Robertson's double, and pinch-hitter Kiyooki Muraoka hit a long bomb that made it suddenly 10-9. Yikes... we got two much needed insurance runs in the 9th on RBIs by Mesa and Guerrero... and the soft part of the lineup came up for Miller in the 9th. He allowed an infield hit but kept them off the board.


W: Ray Gaither (4-2) L: Julian Bosnic (2-4) S: Jared Miller (25)
PotG: Victor Victor Mesa

A concerning 7th inning but a win, and a sweep. Reno is the third NL team that we can say we've swept the season series with; we already had with the Flyers and Mets. Now on to El Paso, for our final meetings of the year with West Texas.

August 26-27: Bees (84-43) @ West Texas Blackbirds (59-69)
The Blackbirds had a real hot stretch that basically began right after they left Salt Lake City the week before the All-Star Break. They won 18 of 24 and 21 of 29 after that series, and were looking like they might make a run at the .500 mark until a 6 game losing streak that started last Saturday in Charlotte. They only just snapped the skid yesterday, on the final game of their road trip in San Antonio, with a 9th-inning comeback. No secret what drives their success - it's the unexpectedly good offense. Their pitching staff would be the worst in the league if not for Reno, but they top the NL in home run hitting and are 4th overall in runs scored.

Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (12-8, 3.47) vs. Rodney Hutchison (8-9, 4.74)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, LF Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, P Flaherty
WTX: RF Prendiz, SS Alexander, CF Trout, LF Rizer, 3B Rahier, 1B Verdon, 2B Merrill, C Barraza, P Hutchison

We've faced Hutchison this year, but not as a Blackbird - he started an April game at the Hive as a member of the New York Mets and took a loss. He was part of a perplexing deadline deal, in which WTX sent their cost-controlled starting left fielder, Chad Keenan, to Queens. In 5 starts for the Blackbirds, he's 1-2 with a 6.33 ERA, but his underlying numbers look better than that... Flaherty has been horribly unlucky for the whole month of August - he has fired a quality start or better in every outing and hasn't come away with a win. Run support has been the problem - a total of 8 runs scored for us in those four games... it was a buzzing start for the Bees. Mota singled leading off, and Robles then smacked his tenth triple of the year into the right-center gap to score him. After a Guerrero walk and two quick outs, Gamel delivered with an RBI single, and Cottam doubled into the gap, scoring two more for a quick 4-0 Bees lead... West Texas would stage their own two-out rally in the first. Trout doubled and was driven in by Johnny Rizer... Cottam put two more runs on the board in the third, smacking his 21st home run to bring home Ishihara and make it 6-1. That would be Hutchison's final pitch - just 2.2 innings, with 6 runs on 7 hits for Rodney today... another two-run home run in the fourth for us, this one coming from Ishihara's bat... Jack fell apart in the fourth, and would not finish that inning. With two on and one out, Jose Barraza delivered an RBI single, which was followed by an RBI single from relief pitcher Jeff Riedel, a run-scoring groundout, and then a triple from Blaze Alexander that made it 8-5. Paul Goodwin came in to pitch and struck out Mike Trout, thankfully... in the 5th we made it three straight innings with a home run when Ben Gamel took Riedel's first pitch up and out for his 6th bomb... an unearned run for the Blackbirds in the 6th - Robles dropped what would have been an inning-ending fly ball, letting Ryan Merrill score... that was all the danger we would face, though. Holder and Young rebounded from rougher outings to pitch the final three innings, and we added three runs in the 7th/8th on RBIs by Maezes, Cottam and Phyo.


W: Paul Goodwin (2-0) L: Rodney Hutchison (8-10)
PotG: Ben Gamel (but it should have been Kole Cottam's 3 extra-base hits and 5 RBI)

Game 2 - Jose Quintana (16-5, 2.41) vs. Brian Eichhorn (3-2, 5.87)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, LF Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, P Quintana
WTX: RF Prendiz, 2B Batch, CF Trout, LF Rizer, SS Alexander, 1B Verdon, 3B Moniot, C Cerny, P Eichhorn

Eichhorn has spent his whole career with the Pirates organization, but was forced out due to roster crunch this year around the deadline. With the Pirates' stellar rotation he was an odd man out, but here he's a suddenly critical piece. Despite that, his ERA in five starts with West Texas is above 8. Last time out he didn't make it through the second inning and allowed seven runs... Quintana appears to be back to 100% after his illness earlier in the week and he's better than ever. His ERA was already league-leading when we acquired him but it's gone down half a run since, and he's picked up seven wins in eight Bees starts... Quintana did need to induce a double play in each of the first two innings to keep them scoreless, the 2nd-inning one being especially crucial since there were men on first and third... Ishihara had led off the 2nd inning with another home run, his 32nd. He'll need to pick up the pace a tad to match his 43 from last year, but that's two now in two games... Eichhorn appeared to pitch around Guerrero in the 4th, walking him on four straight, but Vlad came around to score on Mesa's RBI single making it 2-0... with one out in the 5th, Ishihara doubled and Mesa delivered another RBI single, making it 3-0... this time, Gamel followed with a homer, also his second of the series, to push the lead to 5. That's all for Eichhorn, 5.1 innings for him with 5 runs allowed... reliever Michael Byrne was very shaky, allowing two hits to Cottam and Phyo and then walking both Mota and Robles to force another run home... Quintana allowed two hits in the 7th but another ground ball double play ended the inning... we let that be all for Q, he had thrown about 100 pitches... Mike Trout had an RBI single in the 8th off of Shane Watson to break the shutout... but that was all the worry we had.


W: Jose Quintana (17-5) L: Brian Eichhorn (3-3)
PotG: Jose Quintana

Nice rebound weekend+ for us after the tough series in Milwaukee. At the very least, we do a good job taking care of business against the dregs of the league. Houston was swept over the weekend, so our magic number is all the way down to 11. We could theoretically clinch the division as soon as next Sunday, September 3rd (it'll probably take longer, we would need both Houston and New Mexico to basically lose out).

Bees' Player of the Week:
C Kole Cottam - 9-25 (.360), 5 XBH, 1 HR, 12 RBI

On the Leaderboard:
Victor Victor Mesa: 6th in average (.344), T-2nd in triples (11)
Morio Ishihara: 8th in HR (32), 5th in RBI (110), 8th in slugging (.570), 5th in OPS (.975), 7th in runs scored (102), 8th in doubles (32), 5th in total bases (289)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 6th in RBI (108), T-5th in hits (174), 7th in total bases (276)
Victor Robles: 3rd in doubles (35), 6th in triples (10)
Charlie Tilson: T-2nd in triples (11)
Jose Quintana: 1st in ERA (2.32), 1st in wins (17), 1st in WAR (7.1), 1st in innings (194), 1st in CG (4), T-1st in SHO (2), 2nd in K (201), 8th in K/BB (4.3), 3rd in WHIP (1.10), 1st in FIP (2.96), 1st in QS (23)
Joey Lucchesi: T-2nd in wins (14)
Jack Flaherty: 4th in WAR (4.2), 4th in innings (164.2), 7th in K/BB (4.5), 6th in BB/9 (1.8), 9th in WHIP (1.22), 8th in FIP (3.96), 2nd in QS (19)

Minor League Bees:
AAA Hawaii split their week, sweeping Lincoln (Thunder) but being swept by Fresno (Solons). With 3 weeks left in the AAA season, the division is pretty out of reach but they do sit in a playoff spot.
AA Cedar City was 2-4, losing 3-game sets to both Pueblo (Cascades) and Farmington (Suns).
A Burlington was 1-5, losing a series to Erie (Blue Jays) and getting swept at South Bend (Cubs). It's been a terrible August for Burlington - they were really, really overpowered until all their good players were properly promoted.
The AZL Bees were also 1-5, getting swept by Las Vegas and losing two of three to Memphis.
And the PRSL Bees played an unorthodox six-game series against Norfolk and split it 3-3.

Standings:



League News:
August 23: Omaha P Destin Dotson, who started against us just a couple weeks ago, is done for the year with a torn back muscle. Ultimately, more than a third of his MLB innings on the year came against us in that game (4.1 of 12).
August 23: One of the games of the year comes on a meaningless August night in Minneapolis. The Twins and Royals, both basically out of it, were playing a doubleheader. The first game was exciting, a 2-1 Twins win that was in doubt the whole afternoon, but it was the nightcap that got everyone's attention. KC raced out to a 5-0 lead thanks in part to a 3-run shot from CF Clint Frazier, but Minnesota responded with 5 in the third to tie, and 4 in the fourth to take a 9-5 lead. Kansas City chipped away at the game throughout, eventually tying it 9-9 in the 7th, and they went to extras at that score. After a quiet 10th and 11th innings, the Royals exploded for 7 runs in the top of the 12th, with all the fans headed for the exits. As part of that, Matt Chapman had a bases-clearing double and Didi Gregorius a 3-run home run. But Minnesota's first 5 men reached in the bottom half, including on a wild-pitch strikeout, and it was suddenly 16-12 with the tying run on deck. The Royals would only get 1 out in the inning, and it was death by a thousand cuts from there - walk, walk, single, single, game-tying walk, walk-off single. 17-16!
August 25: Giants 1B Adam Lind announced that this will be his last season. Lind has been around in this save, having played 3 1/2 years for the Solons but splitting the remaining 2 1/2 between the Mets, Indians, Yankees, Nationals and Giants.
August 26: Rangers LF Tommy Pham is done for the year, and doubtful for the beginning of next season with a torn labrum. He was pretty awful this season, barely above replacement level, but was really good in 2022 and under contract for one more year in Arlington.

Players of the Week:
Ottawa CF Franchy Cordero - 10-21, 3 HR, 13 RBI
New Mexico LF Jonny DeLuca - 17-32, 2 HR, 6 RBI

Power Rankings:
Finishing the week strong allowed us to just stay on top - still in 1st!
1. Salt Lake Bees (86-43)
2. Las Vegas Scorpions (89-41)
3. Ottawa Lynx (83-47)
4. Buffalo Beacons (81-48)
5. Oklahoma Oilers (77-53)
56. Portland Beavers (58-72)
57. Texas Rangers (53-77)
58. Reno Silver Sox (50-80)
59. Colorado Rockies (47-83)
60. Boston Red Sox (47-83)

Next Week: we finish out this road trip in Memphis, then return home to play the Thunder and Dodgers.