Golden State Warriors (34-42, .447, 5th AL West) @ Los Angeles Lakers (45-31, .592, 1st NL West)
The last time we met
OAKLAND it was on their turf – where we swept them in front of their wives, mistresses, and children. Since then they’ve gone 11-8, including a series win over Phoenix. They haven’t changed much since then – their bullpen is still good, and their starters are still meh… Their OBP has improved from 11th to 7th – they’re starting to work the count a little bit – and their defense is a tick stingier – but, materially, they are the same middling club we saw on our trip to the Bay Area. Donny Jeter fractured his finger nearly a month ago, making room for SS Jimmy Potter to join the club from San Jose… he’s been pretty good, batting .288 with 5 HR and 19 RBI so far. His performance makes me wonder if the small bump in ticket sales you get from having Donny suiting up is worth it – Potter, while far from a finished product – looks ready for his MLB reps. It’ll be interesting to see if Donny hangs on for another season after this one – he’s got a lot of mileage and is starting to earn a reputation of being injury prone – I could see him on a Bush League club next year for one last soiree under the lights.
77 of 162: Brody John (4-7, 4.65) @ Case Tunnell (6-2, 3.47)
Case gets mugged for a triple and four doubles in 5 innings of work with each of Golden State’s 6 early runs being charged to his name - each of the Warriors 7 runs in this one would be scored by a different player in a real “team” win. Sammie Fregoso came up with several clutch defensive plays - this one could have been much worse - and finished 3 for 5 with an RBI. Mullins went 4 for 7 and Benavides gets 2 RBI... Guzman gave us two solid innings to give us a shot at it, but Durkin, after three consecutive batters put balls on the warning track, gets burned by a solo home run courtesy of Josh Wigsten in the top of the 13th that does us in - Warriors win, 7-6.
Elsewhere (City of Compton): Newton Weiser pitches yet another gem against the Nashville Picks – He comes away with the win after giving Compton a complete game with 9 hits and only 1 earned run. With the win, he improves to 8-3 on the season with a 1.98 ERA.
78 of 162: Jeronimo Tucker (6-9, 4.44) @ Merl Crawford (7-5, 4.01)
Both Merl and Jeronimo were stellar in this one – both went 8, both let a single earned run score – but, Golden State committed a costly error that let the winning run score. Zarate went 3 for 4 with an RBI – providing our only real offensive highlight of the contest. Each team hit a double, there were no homers and the game featured a scant 5 K’s between us – we lost the strikeout battle, 3-2, but win the game by a score of 2-1 with the rubber match set for tomorrow. Kind of a cheap win here, but I’m good with it.
79 of 162: Jaiden Thomas (3-1, 4.07) @ Josiah Kawka (7-4, 3.11)
Josiah was in good form – he gave us 8 innings and only allowed 1 run. Guzman, however, took a superman punch to the face – he picks up his 4th L of the season after allowing 3 runs to score in the top of the 10th – that 21st save will have to wait. Jaiden goes 8.1 with zero earned, we get a couple of cheap ones again off of a couple of GSW fielding miscues. This is our second extra-innings game of the set and is our second loss of the set, Warriors win 5-2 and take the series in our park, exacting a small measure of revenge for how we treated them in Oakland earlier this month.
Our issue seems to be that we often play to the level of our competition – world beaters against the class of our league and doormats for its struggling clubs… We should have earned a sweep here – with or without Otto. We’re headed North to Vancouver BC next for a 3-game set, we’re tired, most of our guys are grumpy – and our flight was pushed back because we went into extras. I plan on getting a run in before we have to be at the park tomorrow, but, depending on how late it is when we arrive, my jog across the
Lions Gate Bridge may have to get pushed back a day…