Brooklyn Citizens (38-54, .413, 6th NL East) @ Los Angeles Lakers (57-35, .620, 1st NL West)
Brooklyn is in a bad way – 11th in runs & AVG and 12th in OBP & bWAR – if they’re not hitting balls out of the park (where they are 1st in the NL with 89 long balls), they’re not hitting at all. The offense is led by 2B Randall Berger (.282/11/35) & 1B Ruben Zarate (.267/11/55), though neither are having what you would call a banner year, and DH Payton Gardner is pacing towards his career-best in home runs but isn’t giving them much else at the plate. The staff isn’t much better – 11th in runs against and 12th in Bullpen ERA – with Isaiah Zuno wrestling the Ace designation away from the struggling Josh Allen but not doing much with it at 3-13, 3.30 ERA. The rest of their staff – including former Laker, Merl Crawford, all have a 4.50 or higher ERA and with no key injuries among them, it’s safe to say that their collection of arms is both not very good and underperforming. They arrive in town with a 5-10 record so far in July despite Zarate’s recent hot streak and after two straight playoff appearances in 2074 & 2075, the nosedive has commenced with the Citizens Faithful being treated to a game of “how low can you go” here lately.
93 of 162: Sam Gehring (2-6, 5.84) @ Michael Brisk (10-5, 3.42)
Loss, 4-2. Gehring performed admirably – 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 2 K’s – and gets the win for the Citizens. They are paced by LF Roan Munoz who plates three times, while the La La’s don’t much of note… Otto 0 for 3 with 2 K’s, Hanan goes 0 for 4, Pepper ends a rally attempt by grounding into a double play, and C Dom Cooke lets one get by him at the plate. All four of Brooklyn’s runs get charged to Brisky’s account – he labored through 5.2… just didn’t have it today.
94 of 162: Isaiah Zuno (3-13, 3.30) @ Newton Weiser (4-0, 2.11)
Loss, 15-2. Pummeled. Destroyed. Bodies adorned in Purple & Gold splayed about – left on the field of battle to rot without the dignity of a proper burial. Newton suffers his worst outing so far – a 3.2 inning, 6 runs, dismantling at the hands of a suddenly hot Brooklyn squad… C Steve Ratliff hits one out, 3B Miguel Pacheco finished with 3 RBI, and Randall Berger hits a run-scoring double for the Citizens… Otto goes 0 for 5 and our bullpen gives up 10 runs to go along with the 5 that got charged to young Weiser.
95 of 162: Josh Allen (8-9, 5.21) @ Nat Millard (8-2, 2.70)
Win, 5-4. We avoid a sweep at home against one of the poorest clubs in the league – and while a series loss against these bums is bad enough, getting swept would have been nearly unbearable. With this win we are 8-7 so far in July – struggling with the midseason doldrums a bit lately, I suppose. Nat gives us a good 6 inning effort and K’s 8, Otto wakes up a bit with a 3-run HR, and Hanan finished 1 for 2 with a homer of his own. Save #15 for Rudolph, Lonzo Gonzo scores twice, and Pepper laid down a rare Sac Bunt. We won a game we should win 99 times out of 100, so not too exciting, especially after dropping the 1st two.
Elsewhere: Your boy, Adrian Bae, went 5.1 innings for Hagerstown and gave up a 2-run HR to CF Stef Radford… he left the game with the lead, but his bullpen fails him yet again as they’d give up 6 more to the Nolanville ‘Nauts and end up losing the game by a score of 8-4.
The La La’s have a day off before embarking on a 10-game road trip with stops in Vancouver BC, San Francisco, and then New York… We’ll need to file a complaint with the commissioner’s office for that cross-country BS. It’ll be nice to get out on the road, though, put some distance between us and the distractions afforded to us by the City of Angeles – which is not to say that Vancouver, SF, and NY don’t have plenty of distractions – they do – but, a trip outside of our comfort zone is long overdue. Plus, a run over the Lionsgate Bridge is always a good time - and, with the way we've played of late, I could use some good times.