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Ruwisc · 01-08-2020, 03:34 PM

April 10-11: Bees (6-7) vs. Miami Marlins (7-7)
The Marlins are .500, but they're trending up having won 5 of 7. An interesting team so far, they're 4th in the National League in scoring despite being 23rd in average and 28th in OBP. One of the main reasons? Long balls. Our pitching staff has currently given up the most homers in the NL, so gotta watch out for that.

Game 1 - Joey Lucchesi (1-0, 3.18) vs. Grayson Rodriguez (0-2, 12.75)
MIA: 2B McLain, RF Williams, 3B Mendoza, 1B Jenista, CF Hicks, C Jeffers, LF Goss, SS Ford, P Rodriguez
SLC: CF Mesa, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, SS Phyo, P Lucchesi

12.75 ERA isn't great for Rodriguez - that's 17 runs allowed in 12 innings over 3 starts, for those keeping score at home... Lucchesi pitched well enough to win last Tuesday in Buffalo, but that was the game in which we allowed four runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose... both pitchers were able to work around two-out singles in the first inning by the respective third basemen... in a strange turn of events, both pitchers picked up an RBI infield hit in the second inning. Rodriguez got his with men on first and third with two outs, scoring Aaron Hicks, and Matt McLain followed by driving in Daniel Goss to put Miami up 2-0... Lucchesi came up with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom half, and hit a rocket to first that he managed to beat out, scoring Cottam... Mesa followed with a two-run knock to give Salt Lake the lead... after Robles' single re-loaded the bases, Guerrero hit a ground ball to short too slow to turn two, and Lucchesi scored a further run... Phyo would pick up an RBI single in the following inning, driving in Shirah who had doubled... we would continue our "death by a thousand cuts" approach in the fourth inning, consecutive singles by Ishihara, Shirah and Cottam producing another run to make it 6-2... Rodriguez would finally be knocked out by a Maezes single leading off the fifth, his 12th hit allowed in 4.0 innings, 11 of them singles... later in the inning, two outs and two walks left Guerrero at the plate in a key bases-loaded spot, and the big man came up big with a bases-clearing double off the wall in center. Ishihara would single him in two pitches later, and that put us into double digits, 10-2... Lucchesi would last 5.2 innings, allowing just the two runs on 7 hits, not super important to ride him here with a big lead... Miami began the 7th with three straight hits against recent callup William Gonzalez, but on the third, Victor Victor Mesa fielded the base hit in shallow center and fired a strike to the plate to nail Emmanuel Garcia, who had pinch-hit. That seemed to take the momentum out of Miami's sails... they would get only one more hit the rest of the way... Martin Perez pitched the 9th, so it seems like he's free of any effects from his minor injury.

PotG: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

A nice solid win, Lucchesi has been a steadying force for us thus far.

Game 2 - Jack Flaherty (0-1, 5.14) vs. Shane Carle (0-0, 3.09)
MIA: 2B McLain, CF McCall, 3B Mendoza, 1B Jenista, C Jeffers, LF Goss, RF Garcia, SS Ford, P Carle
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, P Flaherty

Only the second time through the rotation for Carle - I mentioned in the preview that the team is without Jeff Hoffman for the whole year, but they've also had two starters pick up injuries since the season started. They're without Jason Guse and Justin Jacome for now, and while Guse will be back soon, Jacome won't, so I think Carle gets a real shot at being a guy here... he got a no-decision in his previous start, a home win over Charlotte last Wednesday... Flaherty must rebound from his nightmare start Thursday against Houston, in which he didn't get an out in the 2nd inning... Flaherty works around a one-out single in the first inning... we squandered a first-inning opportunity ourselves, getting Mota and Robles on with hits, but the next three hitters all made outs... Flaherty labored through the second inning, allowing some long at bats, and was eventually burned, allowing a 2-run home run to Jon Ford... both pitchers were locked in for a while after that - from the home run on there wasn't another baserunner for either team until the bottom of the fifth, when Mesa led off with a single. He stole second and scored on Kole Cottam's base hit to cut the lead in half... the 3-4-5 hitters squandered another opportunity in the same situation in the sixth, with two men on and none out, no runs come in... Flaherty would ultimately retire 14 straight batters, a streak going from the 2nd inning to the 7th, before Ryan Jeffers grounded a single through the hole at short. Goss followed with another hit and that was all for Jack... Sam Bennerman came in in relief and couldn't keep Miami off the board, allowing one run to score to make it 3-1 Marlins... Carle continued to work efficiently, and made it into the ninth without allowing another run. With two outs in the ninth, the Bees finally started working on their rally. Shirah recorded a double, the first hit for the Bees since the sixth. That was finally it for Carle, who threw a very impressive 8.2 innings needing just 98 pitches to do so... Mesa rapped a single off of reliever Dan Altavilla to bring the winning run to the plate, but Altavilla got Maezes to chase one. Ballgame.

PotG: Shane Carle

Carle just had our number tonight, I think. We had multiple runners on without scoring a handful of different times tonight, but he just buckled down effectively. I can't be too mad about us not sweeping this series.

April 13-14: Bees (7-8) @ Philadelphia Phillies (10-6)
The Phils are off to a pretty good start, in 2nd place in the East behind the Burros. That's despite being banged up - Addison Russell has a broken thumb and will miss this series, as will Jameson Taillon (whose injury has not been publicly announced).

Game 1 - Jonathan Holder (1-0, 3.86) vs. Christian Ciuffetelli (1-0, 3.86)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Phegley, P Holder
PHI: CF Tawa, 2B Reid, 3B Diaz, RF Polanco, 1B Stassi, C Jolly, SS Cozart, LF Byrd, P Ciuffetelli

By total coincidence, Holder and Ciuffetelli have the exact same record and ERA. Not the same inning and run totals, either (although they work out to the same fraction, they have each allowed one run for every seven outs they've gotten)... the Bees went out with an eye on raising that ERA quickly, putting a run across in the first inning. Robles put a ball into the right-center gap with one out, and with his speed it was an easy triple. Guerrero failed to bring him in with a popup, but Ishihara doubled into the other gap to score Robles. Shirah followed with a single that I thought would score Ishi, but we held him up at third for some reason with two outs... Mesa grounded to short and we left the inning with just one run... Holder would work around a two-out single in the first, and both teams went in order in the second... the top of the order produced another run for us in the 3rd, though a different combination, Mota being driven in by Guerrero's double... Holder walked the opposing pitcher on five pitches with one out in the third, and when you do that the other team wants to make sure to burn you for it. Ciuffetelli would come around to score when the next two Phillies, Tim Tawa and Chris Reid, each hit safely... Jonathan would get out of that jam without allowing the tying run, Tawa, to get home from third, so still 2-1... Holder needed a lot of pitches to break through the fourth inning, walking two Phils, but no score... the top of the order came up again to start the fifth for us, and that's been a good combination tonight. This time Robles walked, moved up on Guerrero's slow grounder, and scored on a single by Ishihara. Shirah walked on four pitches but Mesa came up short again... Holder was taken out after 5 innings, and I'm not quite sure why. Brian Gadsby came in for the 6th, and got through it unscathed despite a double and HBP, lowering his season ERA to 7.11... Ciuffetelli would exit after 6 innings allowing those three runs... Gadsby went back out for the 7th and got Philadelphia in order, this is a really promising outing for him after some early struggles... the Bees would put two runners on in the 8th but fail to score... Ah, no worries, Riley Ferrell's here to muck it all up in the bottom of the 8th. A one-out walk to Gregory Polanco is quickly followed by a Brock Stassi RBI triple, and Robert Jolly puts enough on a ball to centerfield to produce a game-tying sacrifice fly... the top of the ninth started promisingly, with Mota pushing a ground ball straight through the box for a base hit, and after a pitching change, new hurler Noah Song plunks Robles. Guerrero is up next, and he smashes a ball to the opposite field for a 3-run blast! Riley, you've been bailed out! 6-3 is still a save situation, though, and on comes Jared Miller to preserve it... Jared gave me a mini-heart attack by giving up a two-out double to Tim Tawa. I know this team's propensity to give up extended two-out rallies, but he got Reid to ground out to Maezes at 2nd to end the game!

PotG: Jonathan Holder

Game 2 - Michael Pineda (1-1, 3.55) vs. Luis Cruz (0-1, 8.38)
SLC: CF Mesa, 2B Phyo, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, SS Mota, LF Granite, P Pineda
PHI: CF Tawa, RF Polanco, 3B Diaz, LF Fagg, 1B Stassi, 2B Hernandez, C Jolly, SS Cozart, P Cruz

The Philly pitcher today, Luis Cruz, hasn't pitched in affiliated ball IRL since 2015, but here he's become an MLB mainstay due to the, well, doubled need for starting pitchers in a 60-team league. He's off to a really rough start - hasn't pitched into the sixth inning yet, and the one time he gave up fewer than 3 runs was in his first start, when he was pulled in the 2nd inning due to a minor injury... our guys must see something, since Mesa and Guerrero both went after him on the first pitch, Mesa for a single and Guerrero going deep for the second straight at bat after yesterday's heroics! 2-0 Bees... the bottom half of the first inning was really eventful. Phyo had to leave the game after Tawa ran into him on the basepaths (I thought we'd gotten rid of that?), replaced by Maezes. We'll have to see what the ramifications of that are going to be... after that, a Pineda wild pitch and an error by Ishihara put runners at the corners, but Mike was able to get out of it... the bottom of the Bees order got their shot in the second. Mota singled with one out, and when a wild pitch put him in scoring position, Granite scored him with a hit! Pineda bunted Zack up to second, and an error by another Zack (Cozart) put runners at the corners for Maezes, now in the game in Phyo's place. Well, he made good, pulling a double down the first-base line to score Granite and Mesa! That made it 5-0... in the 3rd, Phegley hit a towering fly ball the other way that just got out for his first home run of the year. Following a walk to Mota, Cruz was taken out of the game having thrown just 2.2 innings, continuing his poor start to the season... in the bottom of that third inning, the Phils loaded the bases on a walk, a single and another walk before Cesar Hernandez hit a ball into the hole at short for a run-scoring infield hit to make it 6-1... Maezes would strike again in the 4th inning, tripling home Mesa after he'd grounded an infield hit. Guerrero followed with a sac fly to score Travis... the Bees were finally held scoreless for the first time in the fifth... Pineda would be finished after 5 innings, I think in part because of the 8-1 lead we had at the moment... pinch-hitting for Pineda in the top of the 6th, Will Shirah finally cracked his first homer of the season! He sat today with a left-hander on the hill but made the most of his appearance against the righty long reliever Tanner Burns... Maezes later singled in that sixth, making him a home run short of the cycle despite not having started the game... in the 7th, white flags up, we let Martin Perez hit for himself and he came through with a two-run double! Mota had already driven in a run in the inning so that made it 12-1... Perez would give those two back in the bottom half, walking in a run and then allowing an infield single to Hernandez with the bases still loaded... Kole Cottam put the exclamation point on the end with a pinch two-run HR in the ninth... Maezes had two chances to complete his cycle but didn't get the homer.

PotG: Luis Mota

A really nice sweep over a team that'd been playing pretty well. That's how this Bees team is supposed to look! Now just to make sure that Phyo is all right...

Bees (9-8) @ Louisville Colts (10-8)
The Colts are just back from a six-game road trip which saw them go 4-2 against the Braves, Phillies and Blackbirds. Louisville has scored the 7th-most runs in the NL and has the 6th-best team ERA, so the pieces are there. I think this is the team that'll eventually win the NL South, but they're three games behind the hot-starting Lions at the moment. They're gonna be raring to go, because we eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs last season, winning game 4 at Louisville Slugger Field to finish the job.

Game 1 - Will Shirah (1-0, 4.09) vs. Luke Bartnicki (2-1, 2.76)
SLC: CF Mesa, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, C Cottam, 1B Ishihara, 2B Maezes, P Shirah, LF Granite, SS Mota
LOU: RF Amaral, SS Rosario, 1B Aguilar, 2B Dozier, LF Yelich, 3B Northcut, C Kelly, CF Solarte, P Bartnicki

A bit of a weird lineup for the Bees on its face, but this is what we're going to roll out against lefties on DH days or when Shirah pitches. Bartnicki, amazingly, is a real-life teammate of Shirah's at Georgia Tech right now! What a weird coincidence... we lucked out slightly with the schedule, with Giancarlo Stanton set to return from injury on Monday against Washington and make his Colts debut... still no news on Min-Kyu Phyo, and I'm resisting the urge to check the editor to see if he's seriously hurt - he's still on the 26-man roster for now, but he won't play in this game... Shirah had a howler of an outing here, and I can give you the whole summary of it right now. The first five batters all reached, punctuated by a Brian Dozier 3-run home run to make it 4-0... Will finally retired Nick Northcut for the first out before Carson Kelly singled, Angel Solarte's groundout scored Yelich, and the pitcher Bartnicki doubled to make it 6-0. That was all for Will, and now we're left with our pitcher's spot being #7 before he even gets to take an at bat... William Gonzalez came in to pitch and settled things down nicely, working into the third without allowing a run... the Bees actually showed a little life in the second, getting a run across via a Maezes RBI single before stranding two runners... Robles had an RBI hit in the 3rd, but we ironically stranded the bases loaded when Gonzalez came up to hit for himself - it'd have been a lot scarier for Louisville if that were Shirah... Alexander Hermeling had to come in to rescue Gonzalez in the third after William loaded the bases, but got out of it... the Bees had men on first and third with one out in the 4th but couldn't score - we left 8 men on base in the first five innings. Bartnicki left after 4.1 innings, not pitching too well but also not giving up the runs... not much else going on through 6. The Salt Lake defense has turned a couple of nice double plays... more threats of offense in the 7th and 8th, but couldn't get it done either time... we petered out in the ninth.

PotG: Brian Dozier

A difficult game - it always is when your pitcher doesn't survive the first inning. We left 13 men on base, which is the real frustrating thing. I don't know if this is something I can track in OOTP, but it does seem like we leave more than our share of men on base.

On Sunday morning, we got the news that Phyo is day-to-day with back stiffness for a two-week period. We could continue to use him, but I think the DL will probably do him good (he's 33 years old). The guy that I'd LOVE to call up from AAA Hawaii to replace him with is 23-year-old 2B/RP Makenzie Stills - I really want to have two two-way players on the roster, but Stills also appears to have suffered a minor injury so he'll have to stay put. Instead, I've called up 1B Jerry Callejas, a Cuban who was excellent for us in 2020 but has really declined since that point. We didn't need to replace Phyo with a middle infielder because Te'Kwaan Whyte is more than capable in those two spots, and he hasn't played an inning in the field yet this season (11 pinch-hit appearances). I wouldn't want Callejas to play much, but he can be a pinch-hitting threat as well.

Game 2 - Joey Lucchesi (2-0, 3.18) vs. Jeremy Kuhn (1-1, 3.74)
SLC: CF Mesa, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, LF Shirah, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, 2B Maezes, SS Mota, P Lucchesi
LOU: RF Amaral, SS Rosario, 1B Aguilar, 2B Dozier, LF Yelich, C Kelly, CF Solarte, 3B Tolbert, P Kuhn

Kuhn was Louisville's opening day starter, and has pitched fairly well despite his lack of decisions... another lefty, so we see the lefty lineup again... Jesus Aguilar greeted Joey with a first-inning solo home run to put the Colts up... Kuhn was perfect his first time through the lineup - 9 up, 9 down for us... in the same period, Lucchesi had only allowed that one hit, so a bit of a pitcher's duel so far... we finally got our first baserunner in the 4th, Robles walking and Shirah reaching on an error by Amed Rosario, but no hits and no runs... Louisville threatened in their half of the fourth, with two on and no out, but Lucchesi induced a double play from Christian Yelich and got out of it... two on and no out again for the Colts in the fifth, and this time they'd scratch one across, Daniel Amaral plating Solarte on a groundout... the Bees would finally get a hit off Kuhn in the 6th, Mesa doubling with 1 out, but we would strand two in that inning... Ishihara singled leading off the 7th and that was surprisingly it for Kuhn - he had a high pitch count but was rolling. He leaves with just two hits allowed over 6 innings... Lucchesi would exit after 6.1 innings, giving way to Nolan Blackwood after walking pinch-hitter Albert Almora. Two runs on six hits for Joey, a solid outing but he's still in line for the L... Guerrero blasted a solo HR, his 8th, off of Nestor Molina in the 8th... Riley Ferrell came on to pitch the 8th for us, and I almost couldn't watch, but he got them 1-2-3... reigning NL Reliever of the Year Hidekazu Hirose on for the save with a 2-1 lead... Shirah strikes out, but Ishi walks on four pitches. Phegley pops one up to second, and Callejas comes in to pinch-hit for Maezes with the game on the line, and takes the first pitch to right field for a base hit! Now Cottam is on to pinch-hit for Mota - we're going to be in a bad spot defensively if we need to play the bottom of the ninth, we don't have any middle infielders left at all! I mean literally, Whyte already pinch-hit for Blackwood last inning... Cottam slices a 3-1 pitch down the right-field line, but it lands just foul, and strikes out on the 3-2! Heartbreaking!

PotG: Jeremy Kuhn

A tough loss to cap off an up-and-down week.

Bees' Player of the Week: A few good choices - Luis Mota had nine hits to push his average above the Mendoza line, William Gonzalez pitched well in relief, and Guerrero moved into first in a ton of offensive categories thanks to Mike Trout's bad week - but I'll go with SP Joey Lucchesi, who made two starts, totalling 4 runs over 12 innings, and who probably would've picked up two wins if not for the great start by Louisville's Kuhn on Sunday.

On the Leaderboard:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 6th in AVG (.383), T-1st in HR (8), 1st in RBI (27), 1st in slugging (.765), 1st in OPS (1.175), 1st in WAR (1.4), T-3rd in hits (31), 1st in total bases (62),
Victor Victor Mesa: T-2nd in stolen bases (6)
Jack Flaherty: 2nd in K/BB ratio (7.7), T-8th in BB/9 (1.3)
Jonathan Holder: 8th in K/9 (11.0)

Standings:

The line for a playoff spot is 11-9 at the moment, which is gonna improve eventually, and we're a game and a half behind that, so gotta move. New Mexico swept their whole week, all on the road in Milwaukee, St. Louis and Omaha, so we've got some catching up to do.

League News:
April 13: San Antonio SP Tim Perez is done for the year after a torn flexor tendon in his throwing elbow. That's a huge blow for the Marshals, losing their ace. We coincidentally won't actually play the Marshals until mid-June (will have seen most of our division rivals twice by then) so we'll be seeing a somewhat diminished San Antonio team going forward.
April 15: In a win for two-way players everywhere, San Diego SP/C/1B Mason Denaburg, playing first base, raps out 5 hits and has 5 RBI as the Padres crush the Diamondbacks 21-5
April 16: In a minor trade, Washington trades SS Zach Engelhart to Jacksonville for reliever Luke Shilling and outfield prospect Xavier Bussey. Engelhart had been made expendable by the Nats' signing of Brandon Crawford last week
April 16: I mentioned during the week that Phillies SP Jameson Taillon had been sidelined with an injury that we didn't know the severity of... well, he's done for the year with a torn UCL.

Players of the Week:
Portland 1B Joey Votto - 12-25, 3 HR, 8 RBI
Cincinnati LF Kyle Schwarber - 11-24, 3 HR, 6 RBI

Next Week: the last leg of this road trip is in Pittsburgh, then we come home to face Washington and Columbus. The schedule never lets up!

01-08-2020, 03:34 PM	#17
Ruwisc All Star Reserve Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Southwestern Illinois Posts: 610	Week 3: April 10-16, 2023 April 10-11: Bees (6-7) vs. Miami Marlins (7-7) The Marlins are .500, but they're trending up having won 5 of 7. An interesting team so far, they're 4th in the National League in scoring despite being 23rd in average and 28th in OBP. One of the main reasons? Long balls. Our pitching staff has currently given up the most homers in the NL, so gotta watch out for that. Game 1 - Joey Lucchesi (1-0, 3.18) vs. Grayson Rodriguez (0-2, 12.75) MIA: 2B McLain, RF Williams, 3B Mendoza, 1B Jenista, CF Hicks, C Jeffers, LF Goss, SS Ford, P Rodriguez SLC: CF Mesa, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, SS Phyo, P Lucchesi 12.75 ERA isn't great for Rodriguez - that's 17 runs allowed in 12 innings over 3 starts, for those keeping score at home... Lucchesi pitched well enough to win last Tuesday in Buffalo, but that was the game in which we allowed four runs in the bottom of the ninth to lose... both pitchers were able to work around two-out singles in the first inning by the respective third basemen... in a strange turn of events, both pitchers picked up an RBI infield hit in the second inning. Rodriguez got his with men on first and third with two outs, scoring Aaron Hicks, and Matt McLain followed by driving in Daniel Goss to put Miami up 2-0... Lucchesi came up with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom half, and hit a rocket to first that he managed to beat out, scoring Cottam... Mesa followed with a two-run knock to give Salt Lake the lead... after Robles' single re-loaded the bases, Guerrero hit a ground ball to short too slow to turn two, and Lucchesi scored a further run... Phyo would pick up an RBI single in the following inning, driving in Shirah who had doubled... we would continue our "death by a thousand cuts" approach in the fourth inning, consecutive singles by Ishihara, Shirah and Cottam producing another run to make it 6-2... Rodriguez would finally be knocked out by a Maezes single leading off the fifth, his 12th hit allowed in 4.0 innings, 11 of them singles... later in the inning, two outs and two walks left Guerrero at the plate in a key bases-loaded spot, and the big man came up big with a bases-clearing double off the wall in center. Ishihara would single him in two pitches later, and that put us into double digits, 10-2... Lucchesi would last 5.2 innings, allowing just the two runs on 7 hits, not super important to ride him here with a big lead... Miami began the 7th with three straight hits against recent callup William Gonzalez, but on the third, Victor Victor Mesa fielded the base hit in shallow center and fired a strike to the plate to nail Emmanuel Garcia, who had pinch-hit. That seemed to take the momentum out of Miami's sails... they would get only one more hit the rest of the way... Martin Perez pitched the 9th, so it seems like he's free of any effects from his minor injury. PotG: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. A nice solid win, Lucchesi has been a steadying force for us thus far. Game 2 - Jack Flaherty (0-1, 5.14) vs. Shane Carle (0-0, 3.09) MIA: 2B McLain, CF McCall, 3B Mendoza, 1B Jenista, C Jeffers, LF Goss, RF Garcia, SS Ford, P Carle SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, P Flaherty Only the second time through the rotation for Carle - I mentioned in the preview that the team is without Jeff Hoffman for the whole year, but they've also had two starters pick up injuries since the season started. They're without Jason Guse and Justin Jacome for now, and while Guse will be back soon, Jacome won't, so I think Carle gets a real shot at being a guy here... he got a no-decision in his previous start, a home win over Charlotte last Wednesday... Flaherty must rebound from his nightmare start Thursday against Houston, in which he didn't get an out in the 2nd inning... Flaherty works around a one-out single in the first inning... we squandered a first-inning opportunity ourselves, getting Mota and Robles on with hits, but the next three hitters all made outs... Flaherty labored through the second inning, allowing some long at bats, and was eventually burned, allowing a 2-run home run to Jon Ford... both pitchers were locked in for a while after that - from the home run on there wasn't another baserunner for either team until the bottom of the fifth, when Mesa led off with a single. He stole second and scored on Kole Cottam's base hit to cut the lead in half... the 3-4-5 hitters squandered another opportunity in the same situation in the sixth, with two men on and none out, no runs come in... Flaherty would ultimately retire 14 straight batters, a streak going from the 2nd inning to the 7th, before Ryan Jeffers grounded a single through the hole at short. Goss followed with another hit and that was all for Jack... Sam Bennerman came in in relief and couldn't keep Miami off the board, allowing one run to score to make it 3-1 Marlins... Carle continued to work efficiently, and made it into the ninth without allowing another run. With two outs in the ninth, the Bees finally started working on their rally. Shirah recorded a double, the first hit for the Bees since the sixth. That was finally it for Carle, who threw a very impressive 8.2 innings needing just 98 pitches to do so... Mesa rapped a single off of reliever Dan Altavilla to bring the winning run to the plate, but Altavilla got Maezes to chase one. Ballgame. PotG: Shane Carle Carle just had our number tonight, I think. We had multiple runners on without scoring a handful of different times tonight, but he just buckled down effectively. I can't be too mad about us not sweeping this series. April 13-14: Bees (7-8) @ Philadelphia Phillies (10-6) The Phils are off to a pretty good start, in 2nd place in the East behind the Burros. That's despite being banged up - Addison Russell has a broken thumb and will miss this series, as will Jameson Taillon (whose injury has not been publicly announced). Game 1 - Jonathan Holder (1-0, 3.86) vs. Christian Ciuffetelli (1-0, 3.86) SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Phegley, P Holder PHI: CF Tawa, 2B Reid, 3B Diaz, RF Polanco, 1B Stassi, C Jolly, SS Cozart, LF Byrd, P Ciuffetelli By total coincidence, Holder and Ciuffetelli have the exact same record and ERA. Not the same inning and run totals, either (although they work out to the same fraction, they have each allowed one run for every seven outs they've gotten)... the Bees went out with an eye on raising that ERA quickly, putting a run across in the first inning. Robles put a ball into the right-center gap with one out, and with his speed it was an easy triple. Guerrero failed to bring him in with a popup, but Ishihara doubled into the other gap to score Robles. Shirah followed with a single that I thought would score Ishi, but we held him up at third for some reason with two outs... Mesa grounded to short and we left the inning with just one run... Holder would work around a two-out single in the first, and both teams went in order in the second... the top of the order produced another run for us in the 3rd, though a different combination, Mota being driven in by Guerrero's double... Holder walked the opposing pitcher on five pitches with one out in the third, and when you do that the other team wants to make sure to burn you for it. Ciuffetelli would come around to score when the next two Phillies, Tim Tawa and Chris Reid, each hit safely... Jonathan would get out of that jam without allowing the tying run, Tawa, to get home from third, so still 2-1... Holder needed a lot of pitches to break through the fourth inning, walking two Phils, but no score... the top of the order came up again to start the fifth for us, and that's been a good combination tonight. This time Robles walked, moved up on Guerrero's slow grounder, and scored on a single by Ishihara. Shirah walked on four pitches but Mesa came up short again... Holder was taken out after 5 innings, and I'm not quite sure why. Brian Gadsby came in for the 6th, and got through it unscathed despite a double and HBP, lowering his season ERA to 7.11... Ciuffetelli would exit after 6 innings allowing those three runs... Gadsby went back out for the 7th and got Philadelphia in order, this is a really promising outing for him after some early struggles... the Bees would put two runners on in the 8th but fail to score... Ah, no worries, Riley Ferrell's here to muck it all up in the bottom of the 8th. A one-out walk to Gregory Polanco is quickly followed by a Brock Stassi RBI triple, and Robert Jolly puts enough on a ball to centerfield to produce a game-tying sacrifice fly... the top of the ninth started promisingly, with Mota pushing a ground ball straight through the box for a base hit, and after a pitching change, new hurler Noah Song plunks Robles. Guerrero is up next, and he smashes a ball to the opposite field for a 3-run blast! Riley, you've been bailed out! 6-3 is still a save situation, though, and on comes Jared Miller to preserve it... Jared gave me a mini-heart attack by giving up a two-out double to Tim Tawa. I know this team's propensity to give up extended two-out rallies, but he got Reid to ground out to Maezes at 2nd to end the game! PotG: Jonathan Holder Game 2 - Michael Pineda (1-1, 3.55) vs. Luis Cruz (0-1, 8.38) SLC: CF Mesa, 2B Phyo, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, SS Mota, LF Granite, P Pineda PHI: CF Tawa, RF Polanco, 3B Diaz, LF Fagg, 1B Stassi, 2B Hernandez, C Jolly, SS Cozart, P Cruz The Philly pitcher today, Luis Cruz, hasn't pitched in affiliated ball IRL since 2015, but here he's become an MLB mainstay due to the, well, doubled need for starting pitchers in a 60-team league. He's off to a really rough start - hasn't pitched into the sixth inning yet, and the one time he gave up fewer than 3 runs was in his first start, when he was pulled in the 2nd inning due to a minor injury... our guys must see something, since Mesa and Guerrero both went after him on the first pitch, Mesa for a single and Guerrero going deep for the second straight at bat after yesterday's heroics! 2-0 Bees... the bottom half of the first inning was really eventful. Phyo had to leave the game after Tawa ran into him on the basepaths (I thought we'd gotten rid of that?), replaced by Maezes. We'll have to see what the ramifications of that are going to be... after that, a Pineda wild pitch and an error by Ishihara put runners at the corners, but Mike was able to get out of it... the bottom of the Bees order got their shot in the second. Mota singled with one out, and when a wild pitch put him in scoring position, Granite scored him with a hit! Pineda bunted Zack up to second, and an error by another Zack (Cozart) put runners at the corners for Maezes, now in the game in Phyo's place. Well, he made good, pulling a double down the first-base line to score Granite and Mesa! That made it 5-0... in the 3rd, Phegley hit a towering fly ball the other way that just got out for his first home run of the year. Following a walk to Mota, Cruz was taken out of the game having thrown just 2.2 innings, continuing his poor start to the season... in the bottom of that third inning, the Phils loaded the bases on a walk, a single and another walk before Cesar Hernandez hit a ball into the hole at short for a run-scoring infield hit to make it 6-1... Maezes would strike again in the 4th inning, tripling home Mesa after he'd grounded an infield hit. Guerrero followed with a sac fly to score Travis... the Bees were finally held scoreless for the first time in the fifth... Pineda would be finished after 5 innings, I think in part because of the 8-1 lead we had at the moment... pinch-hitting for Pineda in the top of the 6th, Will Shirah finally cracked his first homer of the season! He sat today with a left-hander on the hill but made the most of his appearance against the righty long reliever Tanner Burns... Maezes later singled in that sixth, making him a home run short of the cycle despite not having started the game... in the 7th, white flags up, we let Martin Perez hit for himself and he came through with a two-run double! Mota had already driven in a run in the inning so that made it 12-1... Perez would give those two back in the bottom half, walking in a run and then allowing an infield single to Hernandez with the bases still loaded... Kole Cottam put the exclamation point on the end with a pinch two-run HR in the ninth... Maezes had two chances to complete his cycle but didn't get the homer. PotG: Luis Mota A really nice sweep over a team that'd been playing pretty well. That's how this Bees team is supposed to look! Now just to make sure that Phyo is all right... Bees (9-8) @ Louisville Colts (10-8) The Colts are just back from a six-game road trip which saw them go 4-2 against the Braves, Phillies and Blackbirds. Louisville has scored the 7th-most runs in the NL and has the 6th-best team ERA, so the pieces are there. I think this is the team that'll eventually win the NL South, but they're three games behind the hot-starting Lions at the moment. They're gonna be raring to go, because we eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs last season, winning game 4 at Louisville Slugger Field to finish the job. Game 1 - Will Shirah (1-0, 4.09) vs. Luke Bartnicki (2-1, 2.76) SLC: CF Mesa, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, C Cottam, 1B Ishihara, 2B Maezes, P Shirah, LF Granite, SS Mota LOU: RF Amaral, SS Rosario, 1B Aguilar, 2B Dozier, LF Yelich, 3B Northcut, C Kelly, CF Solarte, P Bartnicki A bit of a weird lineup for the Bees on its face, but this is what we're going to roll out against lefties on DH days or when Shirah pitches. Bartnicki, amazingly, is a real-life teammate of Shirah's at Georgia Tech right now! What a weird coincidence... we lucked out slightly with the schedule, with Giancarlo Stanton set to return from injury on Monday against Washington and make his Colts debut... still no news on Min-Kyu Phyo, and I'm resisting the urge to check the editor to see if he's seriously hurt - he's still on the 26-man roster for now, but he won't play in this game... Shirah had a howler of an outing here, and I can give you the whole summary of it right now. The first five batters all reached, punctuated by a Brian Dozier 3-run home run to make it 4-0... Will finally retired Nick Northcut for the first out before Carson Kelly singled, Angel Solarte's groundout scored Yelich, and the pitcher Bartnicki doubled to make it 6-0. That was all for Will, and now we're left with our pitcher's spot being #7 before he even gets to take an at bat... William Gonzalez came in to pitch and settled things down nicely, working into the third without allowing a run... the Bees actually showed a little life in the second, getting a run across via a Maezes RBI single before stranding two runners... Robles had an RBI hit in the 3rd, but we ironically stranded the bases loaded when Gonzalez came up to hit for himself - it'd have been a lot scarier for Louisville if that were Shirah... Alexander Hermeling had to come in to rescue Gonzalez in the third after William loaded the bases, but got out of it... the Bees had men on first and third with one out in the 4th but couldn't score - we left 8 men on base in the first five innings. Bartnicki left after 4.1 innings, not pitching too well but also not giving up the runs... not much else going on through 6. The Salt Lake defense has turned a couple of nice double plays... more threats of offense in the 7th and 8th, but couldn't get it done either time... we petered out in the ninth. PotG: Brian Dozier A difficult game - it always is when your pitcher doesn't survive the first inning. We left 13 men on base, which is the real frustrating thing. I don't know if this is something I can track in OOTP, but it does seem like we leave more than our share of men on base. On Sunday morning, we got the news that Phyo is day-to-day with back stiffness for a two-week period. We could continue to use him, but I think the DL will probably do him good (he's 33 years old). The guy that I'd LOVE to call up from AAA Hawaii to replace him with is 23-year-old 2B/RP Makenzie Stills - I really want to have two two-way players on the roster, but Stills also appears to have suffered a minor injury so he'll have to stay put. Instead, I've called up 1B Jerry Callejas, a Cuban who was excellent for us in 2020 but has really declined since that point. We didn't need to replace Phyo with a middle infielder because Te'Kwaan Whyte is more than capable in those two spots, and he hasn't played an inning in the field yet this season (11 pinch-hit appearances). I wouldn't want Callejas to play much, but he can be a pinch-hitting threat as well. Game 2 - Joey Lucchesi (2-0, 3.18) vs. Jeremy Kuhn (1-1, 3.74) SLC: CF Mesa, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, LF Shirah, 1B Ishihara, C Phegley, 2B Maezes, SS Mota, P Lucchesi LOU: RF Amaral, SS Rosario, 1B Aguilar, 2B Dozier, LF Yelich, C Kelly, CF Solarte, 3B Tolbert, P Kuhn Kuhn was Louisville's opening day starter, and has pitched fairly well despite his lack of decisions... another lefty, so we see the lefty lineup again... Jesus Aguilar greeted Joey with a first-inning solo home run to put the Colts up... Kuhn was perfect his first time through the lineup - 9 up, 9 down for us... in the same period, Lucchesi had only allowed that one hit, so a bit of a pitcher's duel so far... we finally got our first baserunner in the 4th, Robles walking and Shirah reaching on an error by Amed Rosario, but no hits and no runs... Louisville threatened in their half of the fourth, with two on and no out, but Lucchesi induced a double play from Christian Yelich and got out of it... two on and no out again for the Colts in the fifth, and this time they'd scratch one across, Daniel Amaral plating Solarte on a groundout... the Bees would finally get a hit off Kuhn in the 6th, Mesa doubling with 1 out, but we would strand two in that inning... Ishihara singled leading off the 7th and that was surprisingly it for Kuhn - he had a high pitch count but was rolling. He leaves with just two hits allowed over 6 innings... Lucchesi would exit after 6.1 innings, giving way to Nolan Blackwood after walking pinch-hitter Albert Almora. Two runs on six hits for Joey, a solid outing but he's still in line for the L... Guerrero blasted a solo HR, his 8th, off of Nestor Molina in the 8th... Riley Ferrell came on to pitch the 8th for us, and I almost couldn't watch, but he got them 1-2-3... reigning NL Reliever of the Year Hidekazu Hirose on for the save with a 2-1 lead... Shirah strikes out, but Ishi walks on four pitches. Phegley pops one up to second, and Callejas comes in to pinch-hit for Maezes with the game on the line, and takes the first pitch to right field for a base hit! Now Cottam is on to pinch-hit for Mota - we're going to be in a bad spot defensively if we need to play the bottom of the ninth, we don't have any middle infielders left at all! I mean literally, Whyte already pinch-hit for Blackwood last inning... Cottam slices a 3-1 pitch down the right-field line, but it lands just foul, and strikes out on the 3-2! Heartbreaking! PotG: Jeremy Kuhn A tough loss to cap off an up-and-down week. Bees' Player of the Week: A few good choices - Luis Mota had nine hits to push his average above the Mendoza line, William Gonzalez pitched well in relief, and Guerrero moved into first in a ton of offensive categories thanks to Mike Trout's bad week - but I'll go with SP Joey Lucchesi, who made two starts, totalling 4 runs over 12 innings, and who probably would've picked up two wins if not for the great start by Louisville's Kuhn on Sunday. On the Leaderboard: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 6th in AVG (.383), T-1st in HR (8), 1st in RBI (27), 1st in slugging (.765), 1st in OPS (1.175), 1st in WAR (1.4), T-3rd in hits (31), 1st in total bases (62), Victor Victor Mesa: T-2nd in stolen bases (6) Jack Flaherty: 2nd in K/BB ratio (7.7), T-8th in BB/9 (1.3) Jonathan Holder: 8th in K/9 (11.0) Standings: The line for a playoff spot is 11-9 at the moment, which is gonna improve eventually, and we're a game and a half behind that, so gotta move. New Mexico swept their whole week, all on the road in Milwaukee, St. Louis and Omaha, so we've got some catching up to do. League News: April 13: San Antonio SP Tim Perez is done for the year after a torn flexor tendon in his throwing elbow. That's a huge blow for the Marshals, losing their ace. We coincidentally won't actually play the Marshals until mid-June (will have seen most of our division rivals twice by then) so we'll be seeing a somewhat diminished San Antonio team going forward. April 15: In a win for two-way players everywhere, San Diego SP/C/1B Mason Denaburg, playing first base, raps out 5 hits and has 5 RBI as the Padres crush the Diamondbacks 21-5 April 16: In a minor trade, Washington trades SS Zach Engelhart to Jacksonville for reliever Luke Shilling and outfield prospect Xavier Bussey. Engelhart had been made expendable by the Nats' signing of Brandon Crawford last week April 16: I mentioned during the week that Phillies SP Jameson Taillon had been sidelined with an injury that we didn't know the severity of... well, he's done for the year with a torn UCL. Players of the Week: Portland 1B Joey Votto - 12-25, 3 HR, 8 RBI Cincinnati LF Kyle Schwarber - 11-24, 3 HR, 6 RBI Next Week: the last leg of this road trip is in Pittsburgh, then we come home to face Washington and Columbus. The schedule never lets up!