[Ruwisc]

Week 12: June 12-18, 2023



Something strange I noticed while checking out the standings page: we have not played a single extra-inning game this entire season as we're nearing the halfway point. Every other team's played at least one, almost everyone's played at least four, and the Orioles have played eleven games decided in extras. Pretty weird! Anyway, by saying that I'm sure I've jinxed us and we'll play 3 or 4 of them this week, but let's get right into the games:

June 12-13: Bees (39-27) @ Texas Rangers (33-35)
The Rangers are red-hot here in the month of June, with an 8-2 record this month. For them, this is the final series in a stretch of 8 interleague series in a row, and as part of that they swept their most recent road trip against the Mets, Giants and Silver Sox. They also just won their two most recent games, against the division-leading Beacons, so gotta watch out for this team on a hot streak. RF Aaron Judge is out injured at the moment, suffering an abdominal strain about two weeks ago, but right now Ranger fans are in a tizzy over the play of SS Tim Fox, who has now played 5 major league games and has already recorded 10 hits. He was Texas' first-round pick in 2021 (21st overall) out of LBSU.

Game 1 - Jack Flaherty (7-4, 3.74) vs. Kolby Kubichek (1-1, 4.15)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, DH Gamel, CF Garry
TEX: RF Franklin, 2B Merrifield, C Torres, SS Fox, LF Pham, DH Seager, 3B Forsythe, 1B Belt, CF Robinson

Kubichek, the Rangers' 9th round pick in 2021, was rushed to the majors last year following his development at the University of Texas. Results have been mixed so far, but he's got the potential to be a decent starting pitcher. His best pitch is his curveball, which he seem to try to throw more for whiffs than for ground balls. Last time out, he did just enough to help the Rangers beat Reno on Wednesday allowing 4 runs on 10 hits over 5 innings as the offense carried the team the rest of the way... Flaherty made a nice rebound on Tuesday as he got the win against the Blackbirds, allowing only two unearned runs in a 3-2 win... we drew two walks against Kubichek in the first but only put the ball in play once, popping up, and striking out twice... a second-inning double play didn't phase us, since Gamel followed with a walk and Willie Joe smoked a double just inside the first base bag to get Ben all the way around and put us up 1-0... consecutive hits by Maezes and Gamel in the 4th weren't enough to produce anything more... through three innings, Flaherty had allowed just a hit-by-pitch, but Raymond Torres got the Rangers' first hit with 1 out in the 4th. Tommy Pham also singled in the inning but we kept Texas off the board... in the 6th inning, Travis Maezes continued his hot streak with another home run, his seventh of the year but 4th in the last 7 days... Flaherty continued to roll, getting into the 7th inning still having allowed just 2 hits, but his pitch count crept over 100 so he exited after 6.2... Jonathan Holder faced four batters and retired them all... our lead was extended in the 8th on Ben Gamel's first home run as a Bee. He had just 7 with Nashville last season... Jared Miller is on for a 9th-inning save, but his first pitch was smashed by Christian Franklin off the wall in right field for a double. His second pitch was flied to center for an out by Whit Merrifield... Torres hit a ball that was booted by Guerrero, and Tim Fox walked on four pitches. Suddenly, the winning run was coming to the plate, and AI Mike went to the pen, probably the same time that I would've, to get Nolan Blackwood. Nolan allowed a sacrifice fly, hit by Tommy Pham, to score 1 run, but that seemed like a net positive... and then Kyle Seager hit a lazy fly ball to right. Ballgame!


W: Jack Flaherty (8-4) L: Kolby Kubichek (1-2) S: Nolan Blackwood (2)
PotG: Jack Flaherty

Spectacular from Jack, but also pretty good from the bullpen.

On Tuesday morning, we finally got some bad news, and it's another piece of bad injury luck. RP Riley Ferrell, who left Sunday's game with a mysterious injury in the 9th inning, has a torn UCL and is done for the season. Tough one because he was handling the 8th innings for us pretty well. He finishes 2023 with a 3.12 ERA, a 2-0 record and four saves in his 25 appearances for this year's Bees. We have him under contract for 2024 with a team option for 2025, so we'll see him back. Hopefully he'll be able to get some games in spring but the timetable for his recovery is theoretically right around Opening Day of next year. RHP Ben Parks has been recalled from AAA Hawaii to take his place on the roster - we drafted Ben in 2018, the first year of this save, and he debuted last season, making 40 appearances out of the bullpen.

We also finally heard back from our final remaining unsigned draft pick, RHP Kevin Cramer, who we drafted in the 5th round, and he signed his deal as well. So that was easy - every one of our draft picks is now part of the system, and we're ready for when the rookie ball season starts one week from today.

Game 2 - Joey Lucchesi (7-4, 3.77) vs. Odrisamer Despaigne (4-5, 5.55)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, CF Garry, DH Whyte
TEX: RF Franklin, 2B Merrifield, SS Fox, LF Pham, C Torres, 3B Forsythe, DH Grenier, CF Robinson, 1B Belt

Despaigne is in his second season with Texas, after time spent with Reno, Syracuse and Montréal over the previous few seasons. Last time out he was a really hard-luck loser, picking up the L against his former team, the Monarques, when his Texas teammates couldn't provide him any run support in a 3-0 loss. He has a terrible time with left-handed hitters, so we've stacked our lineup with six of them (well, four plus two switch-hitters) - only Robles, Guerrero and Cottam hit strictly right-handed... Joey has won three straight starts, but we've also given him great run support each time. They're wins by scores of 10-0, 10-3 and 11-2... the Rangers threatened first in the bottom of the first frame. Fox and Pham singled on consecutive pitches, but Torres struck out ending the tension... Ishihara had our first hit in the second inning, but otherwise Despaigne was cruising, setting down the other six batters to start... in the third, though, we also got singles on consecutive pitches from Te'Kwaan Whyte (making his first start of the season), and Luis Mota, followed by a two-run triple from Robles and then an RBI groundout by Guerrero! 3-0 for the good guys... through the first three innings, Texas had gotten multiple runners on base each time but failed to score, leaving 6 on in total... Shirah led off the fourth with a home run, his ninth, to make it 4-0... Guerrero smashed a two-run shot in the fifth, his first home run in nearly a month, to make it 6-0... in the sixth, it all went south. Raymond Torres singled, and so did Logan Forsythe. Cadyn Grenier's RBI double was the end of Joey's day. Martin Perez in, though, and it would get worse. Kristian Robinson singled in a run, Brandon Belt made the first out, but then the next four batters all also hit RBI singles and another run scored on a wild pitch. Bam, 7-6 Texas just like that... Jonathan Holder had to come in to put out that mess... Our guys showed some resilience in the next half-inning, though... Te'Kwaan Whyte led off with a triple, Mota and Robles both drew walks to load the bases for Guerrero... and what looked like a grand slam off the bat ended as a game-tying sacrifice fly. Still good I guess, but the inning fizzled out when Robles was caught stealing... The eighth inning was pretty dull for both sides... Whyte led off the ninth against Texas' closer Edwin Diaz, but beat him for a home run, his first in a Bees uniform and just the second of his MLB career! Mota singled right after him and some insurance was coming, in the form of Morio Ishihara's 15th home run of the season to make it 10-7 Bees... It was Paul Goodwin, not Miller, who wound up with the save tonight with a pretty uneventful bottom of the ninth!


W: Sam Bennerman (1-2) L: Edwin Diaz (0-3) S: Paul Goodwin (1)
PotG: Te'Kwaan Whyte

Pretty cool for Whyte, who was really just in there because Despaigne so hates facing lefties, but he came through in the clutch tonight against Billy Burwell and Edwin Diaz both. Gutsy team win overall, the sixth inning could easily have been a backbreaker but it didn't break these guys.

June 14-15: Bees (41-27) @ San Antonio Marshals (33-37)
With only 8 games against each divisional opponent, there can sometimes be long stretches where you don't play one of your rivals. We're breaking one of those stretches right now, meeting the Marshals for the first time all year! (We'll go even longer without seeing Omaha - we have not played them since April 2 and won't until August 7.) Maybe lucky for us, because San Antonio's a pretty talented team that has just been absolutely ravaged by injury. Superstar two-way player Triston Casas is done for the year, as are starters Lupe Chavez and Tim Perez, probably their two best pitchers overall. There are only a couple of hitters on this team worth being scared of, 2B Tyler Malone and RF Jimmy Herron, and Herron's banged up right now. Looks like he'll play in this series anyway, but slightly limited by an elbow injury.

Game 1 - Griffin Canning (4-2, 6.94) vs. Andrew Eppenbach (5-7, 5.27)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, C Cottam, 2B Maezes, CF Garry, LF Granite, P Canning
SAN: SS Hamilton, 2B Malone, RF Herron, 1B Woodall, 3B Wofford, CF Cruz, C Plawecki, LF McIlwain, P Eppenbach

I can't see a single interesting thing to say about Eppenbach. His ratings are average in nearly every way. He doesn't throw very hard, I guess, but that's not so weird. His Pitcher Type is listed as Normal and his personality blurb is "Personable, if a bit dull." It's his 4th season with the Marshals & he's been a pretty average pitcher that entire time... Canning got the win on Friday as we pummeled the Rockies 13-2... with two out in the first, Guerrero got on with a double. It'd be real, real nice if he was back to his normal self now. The very next pitch was an RBI single by Ishihara getting us up 1-0... two singles by Brody Wofford and Fadriel Cruz put runners at the corners for Kevin Plawecki in the 2nd, and he came up with a sacrifice fly to tie things at 1... Garry picked up his second outfield assist already in the 3rd, nailing Jimmy Herron trying to go first-to-third on a hit... he also scored the go-ahead run in the fifth, singling, then going to second on a Granite walk, third on a Canning sacrifice, and scoring on a wild pitch... the Marshals, though, would come up with two runs in the 6th on Plawecki's 4th home run of the year to go in front 3-2... that'd be Canning's last inning, but his offense got him a going away present. After a walk and single by Maezes and Garry to start the 7th, Eppenbach was removed from the game - 6.0 innings for him. So average. Then Mesa, pinch-hitting for Granite, reached on an error, and Gamel hit an RBI single while pinch-hitting for Canning to tie the game at 3, and the bases were still loaded with no out. Luis Mota hit the next pitch for another single to put us up, and we'd add another run when Guerrero was walked with the bases loaded. All that would put Canning in line for the win... two walks in the eighth became two more Bees runs eventually. Maezes and Garry started it again - they were singled over by pinch-hitter Te'Kwaan Whyte, and scored on a Mota hit and Robles sac fly, respectively... Plawecki would drive in another run in the 8th on a double, making it 7-4 with all four RBI being his...in the 9th, the rout was on. Phegley had an RBI off the bench to score his positionmate Cottam, and Mota's triple to follow scored both Garry and Phegley. That'd be all.


W: Griffin Canning (5-2) L: Andrew Eppenbach (5-8)
PotG: Kevin Plawecki

We had some good performances in this one - Mota drove in 4 runs, and Garry scored 4 runs. Guerrero also got on base three times - I'm ready to see him go on another tear.

Game 2 - Will Shirah (5-3, 4.37) vs. Kyle Marman (1-1, 3.81)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, P Shirah, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, CF Garry, LF Granite
SAN: SS Hamilton, 2B Malone, RF Herron, 1B Woodall, 3B Wofford, C McCann, LF Nelson, CF Cruz, P Marman

Interestingly, "C McCann" for San Antonio refers to neither Brian nor James, but Kyle McCann, a real A's catching prospect who was drafted in the 4th round in 2019 from Georgia Tech, making him an actual former teammate of Will Shirah's. He made his MLB debut on April 20 and has basically been the starter since, getting the start today even with the lefty Shirah on the mound... Marman has been a plug-in starter for the Marshals with all their injuries, and had been pitching as a long man out of the bullpen primarily before the start of June. Not a total newcomer to the position though, this'll be his 30th career start in four years with this San Antonio team... Shirah deserved a win on Saturday against Cleveland, but our offense left it too late & only won 2-0 on that late HR by Ishihara... it was a tough outing for Will this time, though. Malone singled ahead of Kevin Woodall's two-run homer in the first, and Drevian Nelson came around to score thanks to a bit of small-ball in the second. When 4 straight Marshals came up with hits in the 3rd, making the score 5-0, Shirah was done after just 2.1 innings and 9 hits allowed! Martin Perez in for the cleanup... we had three hits in those first three innings, but nothing to show for it... David Hamilton made it 6-0 in the fifth with an RBI double... we finally got one in the 6th on a pinch homer by Gamel, but gave it back in the bottom half when Cruz hit a bases-loaded single off of Goodwin to score two more... we had four hits in the 7th inning, though, to score two runs on RBI singles from Robles and Guerrero and make it 8-3... follow that with three more runs in the 8th, scoring on Kole Cottam's 10th home run, and we suddenly have a game! 8-6 now... Blackwood pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and now the closer Joey Gerber is on for the Marshals, facing 2-3-4 in our order... Robles starts the inning off with a stand-up double! Guerrero strikes out... Ishihara grounds to third... pinch-hitter Whyte shoots a ball into the gap, scoring a run and putting the tying run in scoring position for Maezes... but Travis can't close the deal. Too little too late for us tonight.


W: Kyle Marman (2-1) L: Will Shirah (5-4) S: Joey Gerber (17)
PotG: Kevin Woodall

We don't have much business winning games where we allow 17 hits, but it would've been a pretty spectacular comeback and we almost got there.

Friday is an off day for us, and SP Michael Pineda is also apparently recovered from his oblique injury. He has literally suffered four different injuries already this season, though this is the one that's kept him out longest (nearly a month), so I am losing my patience a bit but he's still better than a couple of the starters we're throwing out there, so... SP Griffin Canning is going back to Hawaii.

June 17-18: Bees (42-28) @ Hartford Oaks (25-47)
Hartford is pretty bad right now and the previous series was a low point. They just faced the Memphis Lions at home on Thursday and Friday, welcoming a team into Hartford that had lost 13 consecutive games at the time, but the Oaks allowed Memphis to break their streak and beat them twice. Hartford is now 2-12 in the month of June, a far cry from early May when they came into Salt Lake City on a hot streak and split with us. The Oaks' offense, as a whole, is absolutely dreadful - they do hit a high number of home runs, but it hasn't been enough to get them out of last place in runs scored league-wide. Collectively, their hitters have been worth 0.2 WAR - compare to our 12.9, 3rd-best in the NL - but their pitching staff is alright, so who knows, we might get a fight this weekend.

Game 1 - Michael Pineda (3-2, 3.13) vs. Argenis Liriano (6-4, 4.41)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, CF Garry, P Pineda
HFD: CF Albert, RF Heyward, LF Chigbogu, 1B Byler, 3B Aiello, C Arroyo, SS Lookout, 2B Thomas, P Liriano

We last saw Pineda on May 17, when we were swept by the Blackbirds in El Paso. We had a pretty sterling 17-8 record in his absence so hopefully he feels ready to contribute... it's surprising that Liriano has a winning record, since I don't really see anything to him that screams "really effective major league pitcher". But it's working for him right now - maybe my scout just hates him. He's gone 6 innings in seven of his last eight outings, with no more than 4 runs in any of them and five wins to boot. He's got one of the two Hartford wins this month... the Oaks had a hit and a walk in the 1st, but Pineda kept them fully off the board... meanwhile, Liriano set down the first 6 Bees hitters... we finally got a hit in the third via Cottam, but couldn't score... finally, in the fourth, we broke the ice. Maezes' single scored both Guerrero and Ishihara to make it 2-0 Bees... the next half-inning, though, saw Hartford get one back when John Aiello scored on a wild pitch... we left men on second and third in the fifth, and the Oaks would capitalize and take the lead shortly after. An RBI single by Justin Chigbogu scored Reese Albert to tie the game, and later Aiello would double home Chigbogu and Jason Heyward to put the Oaks up 4-2... That fifth inning would be Pineda's last, though the offense would bail him out of the L column for sure. Cottam scored on an RBI single by pinch-hitter Ben Gamel, who later scored on a hit by Victor Robles to tie the game at 4... Hartford retook the lead on Albert's RBI single in the 6th, scoring Ako Thomas... Liriano finished with 6 innings and 4 runs allowed, another outing to add to his "yeah, actually kinda decent" pile... in the 8th against Yeuris Jimenez, Garry led off with a single and went to third on Mota's hit, ahead of a monster home run by Victor Robles to put us back into the lead! His 7th home run this year... Jared Miller on for the save, facing their 2-3-4 hitters, all lefties so the platoon advantage at least is hugely in our favor. Heyward hits a ball hard to right, but in a place where Robles can get to it, Chigbogu is caught looking, and Austin Byler hits an easy grounder to short!


W: Sam Bennerman (2-2) L: Yeuris Jimenez (0-2) S: Jared Miller (14)
PotG: Victor Robles

Game 2 - Jack Flaherty (8-4, 3.46) vs. Zach Zientarski (2-4, 2.25)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, LF Shirah, CF Mesa, 2B Maezes, C Cottam, P Flaherty
HFD: CF Albert, 2B Thomas, LF Chigbogu, 1B Byler, 3B Aiello, SS Story, RF Adorno, C Arroyo, P Zientarski

Zientarski is on his third team of 2023. He didn't make the Brewers out of Spring Training, but was claimed by the Diamondbacks on waivers and made a few starts for them. We just missed facing him when the D'Backs came through Salt Lake the first week of the season - he pitched the next day when they were in Montréal. He was on waivers by mid-April, though, and landed in Hartford and wound up in their bullpen, only to move to the rotation about three weeks ago... he's been really good for the Oaks but he has the look of a guy who might have a really hard time keeping the ball in the ballpark... Flaherty now has eight wins all in his last ten starts and hasn't had a no-decision since mid-April in Pittsburgh... we went down in order in the first, and Flaherty worked around a leadoff single in the bottom half... we really got after it in the second, though. Ishihara and Shirah singled, and Mesa scored the game's first run on a sac fly. Maezes followed with another single, and Cottam hit a ball deep into the Hartford night for a 3-run shot! Not to be outdone, Jack Flaherty worked a long at bat right after Kole's blast and shot a ball to right field that got out as well! That's his first major-league home run and it's 5-0! In the 3rd, Guerrero led off with a home run of his own, and one batter later Zientarski was out. The Oaks would get two back in the third. Two hits and a walk loaded the bases; Austin Byler singled in Reese Albert, and Trevor Story's sac fly scored Chigbogu... Both teams had runners in scoring position in the fourth but no scoring... Ishihara hit the Bees' fourth home run of the day leading off the fifth, but Tony Adorno hit one for them in the 6th to make it 7-3... Flaherty had exited after five, and the Bees' bullpen ran into real trouble in the 7th under Brad Hand's control. Ako Thomas singled, Chigbogu walked and Aiello doubled them both home. Story followed with another double to make it 7-6, and Arroyo singled off of Holder later in the inning to tie the game at 7-all. Yowza... We had both Robles and Ishihara reach base in the ninth in a tie game, but couldn't bring them in. In the bottom half, we got Miller in to try to take us to our first extra-inning game of the season, but it wasn't to be. Trevor Story sent the home fans home happy with a walk-off solo home run.


W: Marcos Garcia (1-1) L: Jared Miller (1-4)
PotG: Kole Cottam

A bummer. When Flaherty exited the game we were up 7-2 - the bullpen had been really quite good over the past few weeks so it ain't the end of the world but we oughta be winning these sorts of games. We finish the week 4-2 and head to Albuquerque to finish the road trip starting Monday.

Bees' Player of the Week:
Some good candidates & it's hard not to pick Flaherty (11.2 IP, 2 runs and hit a HR) but the player of the week is OF Willie Joe Garry Jr.! He was 8-18 with 3 walks, 6 runs scored and he had three outfield assists on the week as well.

On the Leaderboard: Guerrero's extended slump is really starting to show - he's fallen off almost every leaderboard.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 4th in RBI (67)
Morio Ishihara: T-8th in RBI (61)
Victor Victor Mesa: T-2nd in triples (7)
Jack Flaherty: T-3rd in wins (8), 4th in pitcher WAR (2.4), 4th in innings pitched (96.0), 6th in K/BB (4.6), 7th in BB/9 (1.8), 7th in WHIP (1.15), T-1st in QS (12)
Joey Lucchesi: 9th in FIP (3.86)

Minor League Bees:
AAA Hawaii had a rare down week, being swept by Colorado Springs (Rockies) and going 2-4 overall. The Islanders are tied for the PCL Pacific lead with Hollywood.
AA Monterrey was 5-1 this week, making a strong rebound from their terrible losing streak. They won two of 3 against Dos Laredos (Marshals) and swept Saltillo (Beavers). The Sultanes are in a third-place tie right now, 7 games behind top rated Monclova (Oilers)
A Burlington was 3-3 on the week, which qualifies as a down week for the Lil' Bees. They won two of three at Evansville (Colts), though, and still have a six-game lead in the MWL West. The MWL All-Star Game is this week as well, and we've got six players who are representing the West in that game.
The Rookie Bees are beginning play this week! The season begins Tuesday with four games against the Rookie Mariners at our complex in Fountain Hills and then a series with the Rookie Rangers out in Surprise.

All-Star Update:
No real changes this time either, with all our guys holding firm in their positions in the voting. Looking like Guerrero will be the NL's representative at 3B. There was one change in the AL though - Oklahoma's Alex Bregman surpassed the Yankees' Rafael Devers as the leading vote-getter at 3B in the Junior Circuit.

Standings:



League News:
June 12: Well, that was quick. Yankees SS Mikey Perez had his hit streak snapped at 25 games on Monday, right after the point where I start covering them. Perez was held hitless, an 0-5 day, despite New York winning 7-0 in Syracuse.
June 13: Phillies SP Matt Logozzo throws a two-hit shutout in an 11-0 win at Charlotte. Logozzo is already the fourth pitcher this year to record multiple shutouts, with the Yankees' Noah Syndergaard, Washington's Jose Quintana and San Bernardino's Rob Kucera being the others.
June 13: A high profile series between the Beacons and Scorpions, which many expect could be a World Series preview between the best team in the league and the defending NL champs, ends in a split, but the second game is a resounding result for Buffalo. They put up nine runs in the 1st inning en route to a 15-2 win led by LF Travis Swaggerty, who reached base six times
June 16: Memphis was absolutely wrecked by a 13-game losing streak that just ended, but that stretch might well have ended the playoff hopes of a team that was predicted by OOTP to win their division. (I didn't agree with that prediction, but this isn't the time for me to gloat, lol.) They're selling off, shipping CL James Pazos to Anaheim and the Angels. He might be a scapegoat for the Lions - Pazos blew three save opportunities during the streak - but he was also probably their best player. I considered making this trade myself but couldn't quite agree with the Memphis GM. The return, though, is really light: I don't see either prospect as a future big league regular.
June 16: Not the only trade on the docket this Friday, and this one is pretty interesting. A rare trade that both teams might benefit from immediately. Seattle acquires OF Nick Williams from the Royals in exchange for SP Tyler Glasnow and a 2B prospect. Both guys are rentals. I really like this trade for the Royals - they probably needed a rotation upgrade to make a real playoff threat, and they could afford to deal from their stronger outfield. They save a bit of money as well. At time of writing, Seattle is in a playoff spot, and KC is below .500 but only 4 1/2 games behind Indianapolis in what has turned out to be the league's weakest division.
June 18: A trade that might affect us pretty soon. The Suns have traded 1B Luke Mangieri to the Rangers for SP Johnny Cueto and a small bit of cash. No word on whether Cueto will pitch for the Suns against us this week. Mangieri was the team's starting first baseman last season but had fallen behind Tyler White on the depth chart.
June 18: Hartford continues to shed some salary, sending SP Tyler Skaggs to Oakland for a minor pitching prospect.

Players of the Week:
Violets 3B Chris Antrim - 16-28, 2 HR, 6 RBI. Third time in four weeks that Austin boasts the AL Player of the Week, but they're still under .500. (Seven straight wins, though!) Antrim is a bigger star than LF Adam Wesche, the winner last week.
Silver Sox 2B Brad Martin - 14-32, 3 HR, 15 RBI. Martin, RF Koshi Higuchi and 3B John Valente have made a really nice trio this year, but it's a shame Reno doesn't have any other, uh, good players. Anyway, Martin had five multi-hit games this week.

Power Rankings:
We're up from 13th last week to 8th this week.
1. Louisville Colts (48-26)
2. Las Vegas Scorpions (49-25)
3. Sacramento Solons (47-27)
4. Ottawa Lynx (45-29)
5. San Diego Padres (45-27)
56. Cleveland Indians (29-45)
57. Arizona Diamondbacks (26-48)
58. Colorado Rockies (25-47)
59. Norfolk Navigators (28-46)
60. Hartford Oaks (26-48)

Next Week: after a big series in New Mexico against the Suns, we head home to play the Suns and Crescents, the latter of which will be our final interleague series of the year.