[Ruwisc]

Week 18: July 22-30, 2023



Bonus-sized update! The ASG was Wednesday, and we're picking things up on Saturday. Didn't want to do a post for just one series, so I'll go through 9 days and 8 games this time.

July 22-23: Bees (66-31) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (39-59)
Arizona was forecast for a bunch of improvement this season by the preseason predictions, but that has not come to pass. At this current pace, they'd even finish below last year's 65-95 team. They're fully rested, having not had a player make the All-Star team, but are without SS Elvis Andrus due to a ruptured finger tendon. We beat the D'Backs twice at home back in March, our 3rd and 4th games of the year - they started out 0-7 and never particularly recovered.

Game 1 - Jose Quintana (11-4, 2.86) vs. Nick Lodolo (5-7, 4.92)
SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, 2B Phyo, LF Shirah, SS Mota, P Quintana
ARI: SS Papantonis, 3B Duffy, LF Pederson, 1B Johnson, RF Grossman, C Schwarz, 2B Shaw, CF Brinkman, P Lodolo

Thanks to the ASG, Lodolo hasn't pitched in 11 days. Quintana, OTOH, is only on one extra day of rest... Lodolo, theoretically the Arizona ace, has lost two games running, last allowing 5 runs in a loss to Milwaukee... Arizona made the first threat, Andrew Papantonis and Matt Duffy getting aboard in the first, but Quintana retired the next three in succession... the Bees had two second-inning hits but wouldn't score either... same in the 4th, in fact the same two hitters (Robles/Phyo)... the Diamondbacks would score first. JJ Schwarz delivered a sac fly, and Clark Brinkman later drove in a run with a single... Cottam halved the Arizona lead with a sixth-inning solo HR. Lodolo would not finish that inning, going 5.2 with 6 hits and 1 run allowed, but still in line for the win... Quintana didn't come out for the 7th, so he's in line for his first Bees loss... Kaleo Johnson and Schwarz each had an RBI in the 7th to make it 4-1 Arizona... Guerrero's RBI single made it 4-2 in the 8th, but Guerrero was actually the last baserunner for the entire game.


W: Nick Lodolo (6-7) L: Jose Quintana (11-5) S: Cody Allen (18)
PotG: Nick Lodolo

Bleh. We didn't have the offensive magic today and wasted some chances.

Game 2 - Jack Flaherty (11-5) vs. Josiah Gray (4-6, 4.62)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, LF Gamel, P Flaherty
ARI: SS Papantonis, 3B Duffy, LF Pederson, 1B Johnson, RF Grossman, C Schwarz, 2B Shaw, CF Brinkman, P Gray

Josiah Gray is a nice young pitcher, finally establishing himself as a rotation mainstay in his fifth big league season. The Diamondbacks have lost his last four starts, but he hasn't personally lost any of them - the Arizona bullpen has not been kind to him... Flaherty left last Saturday's game against Buffalo with a 6-3 lead, but the bullpen blew it before we won in extras. All three of his runs were unearned... this afternoon would be a bit different. The first four Arizona batters hit safely in the first, and then Grossman hit a sac fly that made it 3-0... through 3 innings we had three hits, two walks and three stolen bases, but no runs on the board... Gray had to leave the game in the fifth inning, with no runs up on the board, but he would be charged with one when Ishi hit a bomb way out to right field to make it 3-2... Grossman had another RBI in the bottom of the 5th, scoring Joc Pederson on a fielder's choice... Flaherty gave way to Paul Goodwin in the 6th, which was scoreless, but Blackwood couldn't get any outs in the 7th. Wendelken, thankfully, was able to defuse the situation while only allowing 1 of 3 inherited runners to score... our momentum was really sapped in the 8th when Ishihara was out trying to stretch his leadoff double into a triple. The next two Bees had hits, Cottam driving in Mesa, so that would've produced another run... Andrew Papantonis capped off the scoring the next half inning with an RBI double.


W: Jeff Fischer (2-0) L: Jack Flaherty (11-6) S: Cody Allen (19)

Woof. Terrible series - this is a pretty bad pitching team that we did very little against.

July 24-25: Bees (66-33) @ Columbus Explorers (58-42)
Columbus is one of the league's biggest surprise teams - I definitely didn't see them even as NL North contenders, but they have basically led their division this entire season. All this without probably their two best hitters, C Nick Fortes and 1B Alec Bohm, who have combined to play 9 games this season and will both only be back around late August. To add injury to injury, they just put their other catcher Luke Hancock on the IL with shoulder tendinitis. LF Kameron Misner and CF Corbin Carroll are the offensive stars, but it's been a team performance overall. In preseason I mentioned the weak Columbus bullpen but they've been good too. We played the Explorers in a double-header at home in late April and split it.

Game 1 - Joey Lucchesi (10-4, 3.66) vs. Ryan Rolison (8-3, 4.07)
SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, 2B Phyo, LF Shirah, SS Mota, P Lucchesi
CLB: CF Carroll, 3B Hale, RF Greene, LF Misner, 2B Lazaro, 1B Dacey, SS Aldrete, C Ramos, P Rolison

We crushed Rolison at home in April, handing him his first loss of the season in the second game of that doubleheader. He didn't make it out of the 4th inning that evening, giving up 7 runs on 9 hits... Joey finished the first half on a streak of 6 straight decisions won, and 9 straight starts in which we've won, all the while dropping his ERA by more than a run. Hope all that continues today... it was a quick-strike offense for us in the first. Mesa hit his 5th home run of the season leading off the game! Cottam walked but was stranded on third... Lucchesi hit the first pitch of the 3rd inning for a base hit, helping himself, and Mesa walked. Guerrero then loaded the bases with a single, and Rolison plunked Robles to bring in a run and make it 2-0. His very next pitch was smashed deep to right field and gone, a grand slam for Ishihara! End of the day for Rolison - we just have his number. That might come in handy come playoff time... At this point, Lucchesi has not yet allowed a baserunner, and he would actually be perfect through 5 innings. But it came to an end in that frame, and so did the shutout. Robinson Ramos was hit by a pitch, and relief pitcher Andy Pagnozzi snapped the no-no while hitting for himself. Carroll followed with a single to score 1, and Damone Hale's double scored another to make it 6-2... we were retired in order in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th, but in the 8th, the game was put out of reach. Ishihara drove Robles around with a double for his 5th RBI, and after Phyo singled Shirah had the capper with his 17th home run, a 3-run shot that made it 10-2! Jared Miller got the 9th, needing a bit of work, and allowed 1 run but we weren't in danger.


W: Joey Lucchesi (11-4) L: Ryan Rolison (8-4)
PotG: Morio Ishihara

Back on track. Every win we can pull out against a playoff-caliber team makes me feel even better about October.

Game 2 - Michael Pineda (4-2, 3.58) vs. Mitchell Stone (2-2, 3.23)
SLC: CF Mesa, C Cottam, 3B Guerrero, RF Robles, 1B Ishihara, 2B Phyo, LF Gamel, SS Mota, P Pineda
CLB: CF Carroll, 3B Hale, RF Greene, LF Misner, 2B Lazaro, 1B Dacey, SS Aldrete, C Ramos, P Stone

Stone is primarily a reliever, making his 4th start of the year. As a starter, he's 1-1 with a 3.78 ERA, still pretty good, but he was kinda knocked around by the Marlins last time out... Columbus' 2nd-round pick in 2020, he was pretty poor in the bullpen last year in his first big league foray, but has shown himself here in 2023... with Pineda, we are literally just praying that he doesn't get injured again. In his last start on July 8, he threw two pitches before exiting, his fifth different injury of the season. If he hadn't been doing so well when healthy I would have cut bait two months ago... after we stranded two runners in the first, it was Columbus' turn to strike quickly. Corbin Carroll tripled to lead off, scored on Hale's groundout and then Riley Greene doubled the lead with a solo shot... Stone started the 2nd with 9 straight balls, walking Phyo and Gamel, and eventually we got one around on Mesa's RBI single... Pineda actually doubled with two out in the 4th, but we couldn't capitalize... lo and behold, after walking the first two batters of the 6th, he beckoned for the trainers to come get him. He's now D2D with a sore elbow, his sixth different injured body part in 2023. Some say he was born with glass bones and paper skin... looks like he'll be able to make his next start, but who knows. If we have the chance to offload him in the next few days I might take it... on was Nolan Blackwood, who got Lazaro to ground into a double play, but then allowed Matt Dacey to take him deep, making it 4-1 Columbus... the 7th was infuriating. We had two hits, but both were erased on the basepaths. Cottam was picked off, and Robles caught stealing... we brought the tying run to the plate in the 8th in the form of Maezes but he was caught looking... the Explorers got an insurance run in the 8th off Wendelken, helped by Cottam zipping a throw into center field on a steal, and we went down in order in the ninth.


W: Mitchell Stone (3-2) L: Michael Pineda (4-3)
PotG: Mitchell Stone

We wasted a ton of opportunities today. Left 11 runners on and had two more caught out on the basepaths. A split isn't bad in the park of a probable playoff team but I'd rather win the second one than the first. Time to head north of the border!

Well, almost. I did, in fact, make a trade on Wednesday to rid us of this meddlesome priest, and accomplish several of our owner goals in one fell swoop. We traded SP Michael Pineda and C Josh Phegley to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for OF Charlie Tilson. Charlie was only a Red for about two months, also having been traded from Reno in early June. The move saves us about $3 million over the remainder of the season, and satisfies our owner because he wanted an upgrade in the outfield and another Gold Glover (Tilson has two, 2020-21 with the Phillies). Every player in this deal will be a free agent at the end of the season, so nothing to regret long-term. This'll give me some financial flexibility for the rest of the week until the deadline, which I may dip into to add another reliever.

As part of the roster collateral, SP Ray Gaither and C Aaron Ackerman were both recalled to fill the spots left, and SS Kyle Kasser is back to Hawaii, not really needed since Phyo's return from the IL. Part of my reasoning for doing the deal was the ability to get both Gaither and Ackerman back in the bigs.

OK, now it's time to head north of the border.

July 26-27: Bees (67-34) @ Vancouver Cascades (53-49)
Vancouver's won five straight games to find themselves above .500 and now up to third place in the NL West, and just 2 1/2 games out of the final Wild Card place as we start play on Wednesday. We split a home series against the Cascades in May, winning the first game but losing the second when Ryan Kirchner was smacked around. Well, Kirchner's on the Nationals now, so at least we don't have to worry about that.

Game 1 - Ray Gaither (2-1, 4.01) vs. Chris Seymour (2-3, 5.55)
SLC: SS Mota, 1B Ishihara, 3B Guerrero, RF Shirah, C Cottam, LF Gamel, 2B Maezes, CF Tilson, P Gaither
VAN: 2B Palacios, RF Thomas, LF Winker, 3B Nho, CF Canning, SS Lugo, C Avila, 1B Becker, P Seymour

Seymour pitched all of last year in A-ball, but finds himself in the bigs now. An 11th-round pick in 2021 from FGCU, he isn't really much of a pitcher but good on him for making into a major league rotation. Contrary to the norm, he's pitched much better as a starter than as a reliever so far - it's usually the opposite... We have a bit of an oddball lineup today, nothing like AI Mike's put together before. Seymour is a lefty, but we've now got even more lefthanded hitters in the lineup than usual... Ishihara responded well to being elevated into the #2 spot. He hit a monster solo HR to right-center in the 1st... Gaither, just recalled today, had a difficult reintroduction to the bigs. Nine Cascades came to the plate in the first, during which they scored 4 runs. It was punctuated by a 2-run single from Alex Avila, playing just his third game with Vancouver after being acquired from the Violets on Sunday... in the 3rd, Ishihara walked, Guerrero hit an RBI triple, and Shirah followed with a homer that suddenly tied the game at 4. After a Gamel walk, Maezes smashed a double into the corner to give us the lead... Shirah, making his first start in right field all season, made an error in the third that nearly cost us our lead... when Hyun-Jun Nho homered to tie the game at 5 in the 4th, it was the end of Gaither's day. 3.2 innings, 5 runs on 10 hits. Not a great outing after I made a big show of creating a spot in the rotation for ya there bud... we regained the lead, however, in the next half-inning. Gamel drove in Cottam with a hit, and was himself driven in by Tilson's first hit in a Bees uni making it 7-5... Shane Watson had an excellent day in relief, retiring 7 of the 8 batters he faced... Holder was also quite good. He allowed two hits in the 7th, but got out via a double play, then pitched perfectly into the 9th. With Miller on to finish things off, Nho came up with no one on and two out and hit a bloop single to left field. Apparently desperate to spark something for his team, the big Korean dashed on for second base to stretch it out and was easily thrown out by Gamel! Ballgame!


W: Shane Watson (1-0) L: Jim Johnson (2-2) S: Jared Miller (22)
PotG: Hyun-Jun Nho (if you say so)

Game 2 - Will Shirah (7-5, 4.65) vs. Jackson Kowar (5-4, 3.79)
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, LF Gamel, 2B Phyo, P Shirah, C Ackerman
VAN: 2B Palacios, RF Thomas, LF Winker, 3B Nho, SS Lugo, CF Canning, C Avila, 1B Becker, P Kowar

Kowar is the Cascades' ace kinda by default. He's a fine pitcher, and he'd be in our rotation if we had him, but here he's the best they've got. We faced him in Utah back in May in the game we won, tagging him with the loss (though he wasn't too bad, 4 runs in 6 innings in a 4-2 game)... Will last pitched on July 10th, two and a half weeks ago, against Memphis. We won that game in extra innings, so no decision... it was a quiet start to this game. We had two runners in the second but didn't score due to a double play... we did get on the scoreboard in the 3rd. Guerrero's sac fly scored Mota to make it 1-0... through 3 innings, Shirah had faced just 10 batters and allowed only an infield hit... Gamel doubled our lead in the 4th with his 4th home run... in the 5th, we doubled our lead again. Ackerman and Mota singled, and after an out Guerrero delivered an RBI hit, and Ishihara had a sac fly to make it 4-0... the Cascades got scoring in the 6th on an RBI single for pinch-hitter Mitch Lowe... Shirah left in the 6th inning, and was bailed out by Zeke Young, who got out of a bases-loaded jam... in the 7th, we tacked on more. Ishihara and Gamel had RBI singles, and Phyo hit a sac fly making it 7-1... cut to the bottom of the 8th, where things all went to seven hells. Against William Gonzalez, two men singled ahead of Gage Canning's towering blast to cut our lead in half. 7-4. Against Sam Bennerman, two outs were recorded bookending a hit and a HBP, but then Alek Thomas had an RBI, the next two men walked which produced another run, and Matthew Lugo gave Vancouver the lead with a single. That was... painful. As painfully, we were retired in order in the 9th.


W: Rich Huff (3-1) L: Sam Bennerman (6-3) S: Aaron Bummer (2)
PotG: Gage Canning

Absolutely awful. These pitchers aren't really guys I can throw to the wolves either, we need Bennerman especially to be good for us in October.

On Friday, we made one more deal - this ought to finish us up on the trade market. In need of one more left-handed reliever, I've got another rental. RP Felipe Vazquez has been acquired from the Twins, and we only surrendered minor-league 1B Phil Angus, who to be honest I didn't even recognize the name of. William Gonzalez is heading back down to AAA.

July 29-30: Bees (68-35) vs. New Mexico Suns (52-52)
This is our final matchup with the Suns on the season, and they were a thorn in our side for a while. They ruined Opening Day for us with a ninth-inning rally in our ballpark, and swept us in Albuquerque in early May. They continued to lead the division until the end of May, when we took over (and no one seems interested in taking it back from us). We did win the other two games in their ballpark in June as part of our 12-game win streak, so the season series is at 3-3. The Suns are on a nice long road trip at the moment through the Southwest, taking them through Phoenix, San Antonio, now Salt Lake and finally Houston, and have won three straight on that trip coming in.

Game 1 - Jose Quintana (11-5, 2.74) vs. Matt Ardente (2-1, 2.70)
NMS: LF DeLuca, 2B Fitzgerald, 1B White, SS Flores, C Raleigh, CF Deveaux, 3B Franco, RF Pompey, P Ardente
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, LF Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, P Quintana

Ardente was a waiver pickup for the Suns about a month ago from the 66ers and has made 5 starts. He made 30 starts for San Bernardino last season, going 7-15... Quintana took a loss in the Diamondbacks series despite not giving up an earned run - he threw 6 innings with 2 unearned tallies... a pair of first-inning doubles scored a run for the Bees, bee-ing hit by Robles and Ishihara... from the 3rd inning through the 6th the total number of batters faced by both pitchers was one over the minimum. Phyo had a solo home run in the 4th to make our lead 2-0 but that was our only baserunner... the Suns had two hits in that time frame but Quintana erased them both via double plays... Ardente finished after 6.2 innings, a really nice game for him but he's in line for a loss... Gamel came up with the bases loaded in the 8th and hit a smash single through the hole, scoring Robles but hit too hard to score Ishi... the next batter was Cottam, who battled all the way through a 12-pitch at-bat that became a sacrifice fly and a 4-0 score... still going into the 9th, Quintana gave up a leadoff triple to Tristan Pompey that became New Mexico's first run on a Jonny DeLuca groundout, but he finished off his own start!


W: Jose Quintana (12-5) L: Matt Ardente (2-2)
PotG: Jose Quintana

Our first complete game of the entire season, and just the 64th across all of MLB this year. Quintana had 3 with the Nationals before the trade, and matches NYY Noah Syndergaard for the MLB lead in CG with 4. His 12th win also puts him in a tie for the MLB lead.

Game 2 - Jack Flaherty (11-6, 3.67) vs. Andrew Quezada (4-5, 5.03)
NMS: 3B Watts, 2B Fitzgerald, SS Turang, C Raleigh, RF Reddick, LF DeLuca, 1B White, CF Deveaux, P Quezada
SLC: SS Mota, RF Robles, 3B Guerrero, 1B Ishihara, CF Mesa, LF Gamel, C Cottam, 2B Phyo, P Flaherty

We are seeing Quezada for the third time this year, and have already beaten him twice, on March 26 and June 19. He has a surprisingly low number of decisions for someone who's made a full complement of starts, but that seems to be because of low stamina. He's only completed the 6th inning in two of his last ten starts... Flaherty took the loss last Sunday at Arizona, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings in a game we lost 6-3... both teams had two hits in the first, but it was us who scored. Robles and Guerrero singled and a run was then produced on Ishihara's groundout... Scott Fitzgerald singled with one out in the third, and when Cal Raleigh then doubled with two out, Raleigh bought enough time on the basepaths for Fitzgerald to tie the game before the third out was made on the bases... Josh Reddick doubled in the 4th, and DeLuca followed with a single, but Mesa came up firing and nailed the runner at the plate! That keeps the game tied... and it wouldn't be tied for long. After two hits and an intentional walk to Phyo, Mota came up with two out and delivered a two-run single to put us ahead! That was followed by a 5th inning in which we collectively hit for the cycle. Guerrero led off with a solo HR, Mesa tripled, Gamel doubled and Cottam singled, now a 6-1 game... Mike Watts had an RBI single in the 7th, Flaherty's final inning... Bennerman had a hit batter, a walk and a wild pitch in the 8th but got out of the inning with a timely double play... Miller allowed a single in the ninth but he got no further than first!


W: Jack Flaherty (12-6) L: Andrew Quezada (4-6)
PotG: Jack Flaherty

We've now delivered Quezada fully half of his losses on the season. We also finish the season series with the Suns at 5-3, and Jack Flaherty joins Quintana and four other pitchers as major league leaders with his 12th win. Overall, we split this set of 8 games out of the break at 4-4.

Bees' Player of the Week:
LF Ben Gamel - 11-21, 5 XBH, 5 RBI, 5 R, 5 BB

On the Leaderboard:
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.: 2nd in RBI (93), 5th in hits (142), 7th in total bases (226)
Morio Ishihara: 3rd in RBI (91), 7th in slugging (.555), 5th in OPS (.958), 9th in runs scored (79), 6th in total bases (228)
Charlie Tilson: 6th in average (.334), 1st in triples (11)
Victor Victor Mesa: 2nd in triples (10)
Zack Granite: T-8th in triples (8)
Jose Quintana: T-1st in wins (12), 1st in innings pitched (160), 1st in WAR (5.8), 1st in CG (4), T-1st in shutouts (2), 2nd in K (166), 8th in K/BB (4.5), 4th in WHIP (1.12), 1st in FIP (2.95), 1st in QS (18)
Jack Flaherty: T-1st in wins (12), 3rd in innings pitched (137), 4th in WAR (3.5), 9th in K/BB (4.4), 5th in BB/9 (1.8), 7th in WHIP (1.18), 3rd in QS (15)
Joey Lucchesi: T-4th in wins (11)
Jared Miller: 7th in Sv% (22-24, 91.7%)

Minor League Bees:
AAA Hawaii was 6-7 over the past two weeks, and fell 4 games behind Hollywood (Dodgers) in their division race. A lot of Hawaii's strongest players from earlier in the season are making big-league impacts now, so I don't know if they'll wind up as a playoff team.
AA Cedar City was 5-9, but still sit in second place in the Desert League - they're 12 games behind Grand Junction (Oilers)
A Burlington was 7-6 over that time frame, and are 3 games back of Southern Illinois (Lions) in the MWL West
The AZL Bees were 3-7 and sit in 5th in their 6-team division at 14-22
And the PRSL Bees were 4-9 and sit in 5th in the 10-team PRSL at 16-22

Standings:



League News:
July 23: An interesting trade. The Astros have traded IF Chase Strumpf to San Bernardino, getting RP Scott Alexander and two prospects, including SP Tyler Ras. Ras looks like a future mid-rotation starter, and Strumpf isn't really starting-caliber, so not sure of the 66ers' rationale here. I think our division just got tougher.
July 23: Colorado continues to dismantle, and St. Louis continues to add, with RP Zach McAllister going to the Cards.
July 23: New Orleans' LF Matt Theisen is just the second player this season to hit 3 home runs in a game, and the first since Bryce Harper all the way back on March 27. Theisen is actually having a pretty terrible year for the Crescents, OBPing below .300, but drove 7 runs home in this game as they beat Newark 14-3.
July 26: A flurry of minor trades. Detroit sends CF Billy Hamilton to Tampa Bay for young OF Noah Vaughn, taking a slight downgrade in exchange for some financial relief. Detroit is one of the AL's big surprise teams, holding a Wild Card spot when the AI had predicted them to come last in the AL North. Montréal acquires SP Chris Tillman from Charlotte for a young catching prospect. Cincinnati acquires CL Phil Maton from Austin for two prospects, one of whom (2B Jose Melendrez) could turn out pretty good.
July 27: West Texas trades LF Chad Keenan to the Mets for RP Rodney Hutchison. Kind of a headscratcher for the Blackbirds, who gave up a former first-round pick of theirs for really very little. I guess they're anticipating that he'll want a lot in arbitration? With Trout making about 60% of their payroll they do have to scrimp a lot. Memphis trades CF Anthony Alford to Cleveland for a trio of prospects, all of whom could be major leaguers. Alford was a player I had eyed for a while but just didn't have the budget. Cleveland is less concerned about that, I guess.
July 28: A couple of our division rivals are waving the white flag. San Antonio trades journeyman SP Andrew Barbosa to Jacksonville, where he'll appear for his sixth MLB team. Omaha has shipped out CF AJ Pollock to Baltimore for RF Duke Ellis and a prospect as well.
July 29: This may be the end of a legendary career. Boston's Justin Verlander has a torn flexor tendon in his elbow, suffered on the first pitch of his July 27th start in Newark. Verlander is 40 now, and this injury would put him out probably through the entire 2024 season, so I might be a little surprised if he doesn't retire. He doesn't have a contract for 2024 either.
July 29: Syracuse trades LHP Marc Rzepczynski to Atlanta. I believe he holds the new record for most MLB teams played for, having appeared for the Astros, Thunder, Lions, Yankees, 66ers, Dodgers, Reds and Blizzard since this save began, in addition to the 7 teams he had appeared in before I started this game. The Braves will be the 16th MLB team that he has pitched in a game for.
July 30:


Players of the Week:
Detroit 2B Keith Miller - 15-28, 1 HR, 3 RBI. Miller, apparently fictional, is one heck of a player. Last year's Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner among AL 2B, he's taken even a step up this season and is one of the reasons Detroit is a surprise playoff contender.
Charlotte 1B Matt Olson - 11-22, 5 HR, 10 RBI, 10 R. Olson has led the NL in RBI 3 years running, and in homers in two of those years, but that's over now. He's taken a big step back in his age-29 season, surprisingly - but not this week. He had 3 HR/4 RBI in two games vs. Reno and 2 HR/6 RBI in two games vs. Montréal.

Power Rankings:
We went down to 2nd in this week's rankings.
1. Las Vegas Scorpions (73-33)
2. Salt Lake Bees (70-35)
3. Buffalo Beacons (61-43)
4. San Francisco Giants (58-47)
5. Ottawa Lynx (65-41)
56. Reno Silver Sox (41-65)
57. Omaha Thunder (46-59)
58. Chicago Cubs (45-61)
59. Hartford Oaks (40-64)
60. Colorado Rockies (36-69)

Next Week: the homestand continues against the Reds and Pirates, and we then go out on the road, starting north of the border again in Montréal.