[pauwoo]

(7/16 – 7/18): Phoenix Suns (49-44, .527) @ Brooklyn Citizens (50-40, .556)
At 6-5 so far in July, Brooklyn is a good club that has experienced some uneven play as the days get longer. Their top 3 starters are nearly as good as any, and their bullpen is even better – they are 6th in starters ERA and 3rd in bullpen ERA. They’re good defensively too (.638 d-Eff – 3rd) and they are 6th in fielding errors (by contrast we are tied for 11th – with San Francisco). The problem with this club is their hitting or lack thereof. So far this year, Brooklyn has hit .231 against us with only 10 runs scored. Of course, this is not to say that we’ve been any better against them – we’ve hit a dismal .234 against them with only 7 runs scored. So, really, this series is a coin toss. A roll of the dice. If we don’t sweep, we riot.

94 of 162: Graham Doyle (2-3, 5.94) @ Bruno Scott (3-10, 5.97)
You must appreciate that Bruno plays for Brooklyn – just another gift in a long list of them that the OOTP engine supplies. Graham goes 6 – gives up 5 hits and ZERO runs. RP Johnny Dial gives up the game-winning walk-off walk. That hurts. 1B Archie Imanov was 1 for 1 with an RBI (he got the game-winning walk) and 5 walks on the day. That’s called plate discipline folks! Do you know what didn’t help our cause? That we struck out 18 times. Brooklyn wins 2-1. Note: Bruno Scott left in the 4th with an undisclosed injury.

95 of 162: Michael Brisk (8-8, 3.59) @ Logan Gorsline (4-4, 5.32)
Hamza McDonnell goes 4 for 5 with a double and 2 RBIs and Michael Brisk was sharp over 9 innings – he gave up 11 hits and 2 runs with 9 K’s. Derek Jeter hit a 3-run shot in the top of the first and Luke LaBonte went 1 for 2 with 3 runs and 3 walks – taking a page out of Archie’s book! Do you know what really helped our cause? The fact that we only struck out 4 times – that’s called discipline at the plate, folks! Note: Bruno Scott will miss the rest of the season with a torn ulnar collateral ligament – yikes! That bums me out.

96 of 162: Oswaldo Flores (5-8, 4.53) @ Ryan Burg (10-5, 2.50)
Another loss, another mind-blowingly bad way to get walked off – Ernie Sparacino (I mean, is OOTP the best or what – last name of a Brooklyn mobster!), with two out in the bottom of the 9th reaches on an error by Hamza, driving in the winning run. Good grief. Never mind that we put 5 runs up on them in the 3rd and they killed us late with all 6 of their runs coming from the 7th on… bummer biscuits. Tough loss. Luca played well – 2 for 2 with a 3-run homer. Everybody else was garbage – 4 errors on the day, caught stealing 5 times.

Well… that was just hurtful. Why you got to be so mean, Baseball? Two walk-off losses and both in bizarre ways. At this point, we are just looking for ways to drop games. After this series, we are a sturdy 3 games out of first and in a tailspin. We can’t defend, we can’t run the bases, we make the most juvenile of mental errors… but, let’s be honest, we look great in the burnt orange & eggplant. So, let’s ride this one out, shall we? It’s summertime in the MLB – what else is there to do?

(7/20 – 7/22) St. Louis Rams (42-51, .452, 5th NL East) @ Phoenix Suns (50-46, .521, 2nd NL West)
Jonah Dove has been fantastic so far this year (.304/.364/.525, 14 HR, 57 RBI’s), and is navigating his best season in 3 years – nice to see him come this far after a series of injuries limited the former Boyce Rigg Award-winning Right-Fielder. But, with the state the Rams are in, it’s hard not to feel like his is a wasted effort. With the 5th rated offense in the NL, one would expect this club to be in playoff contention, but when you also have the 10th rated pitching staff in the NL it’s not hard to understand why they aren’t. This is a franchise that needs to make some moves before the trading deadline passes on the 31st or at least pick up some FA’s in the offseason as their Minor League system is in shambles. Impatience has led them to call up their two best prospects leaving nothing but a collection of stiffs in Sugar Land.

97 of 162: Lenard Henos (0-3, 5.70) @ Ash Newman (8-4, 3.03)
We took a bad one on the chin in front of the home crowd in this one – thanks for coming, how about an 11-5 loss? Mike Duncan – one of the recently called up prospects mentioned above – was the difference maker in this one… he went 2 for 5 with the run-scoring single that opened up the flood gates to what would become a 6 run top of the 3rd for the visiting club. Donny played today and went 1 for 4 with 2 of our teams 7 K’s. Note: Your boy Rad Taylor got another start in Tucson today – he finally started to turn the corner for us a little bit with a 6.2 inning, 6-hit, and 2 earned runs performance. We’d like some more of that, sir.

98 of 162: Octavio Cervera (0-1, 9.64) @ Del Miller (9-4, 4.21)
We got shut out. At home. AND lost by a score of 7-0. There nothing else to see here, folks. Walk away… slowly… now turn around and… RUN!

99 of 162: Dimitri Pimentel (11-6, 2.13) @ Graham Doyle (2-3, 5.10)
Graham left early with an injury to his finger (he’ll be out for 6 days – could be better, could be worse) – but the bullpen came through and only allowed 2 runs to score for the rest of the 11-inning contest. CF Mitchell Cusac got us some get back with a 2-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11th bringing the 31,758 fans who didn’t throw their tickets away to their feet. Derek got an RBI, Donny went 0 for 1, and, as a team, we had fewer errors that STL – we’ll take that!

We finished the week at 2-4! Break out the Champaign – let’s celebrate! We are 6-11 so far in July – this has been quite the slog. We welcome the 49ers to town next week (they’re just meh, we’re interested) and then spend the weekend in OKC (they’re just meh, but they swept us last time). This will be a critical week for us as we attempt to close the book on July on a high note... I’m hoping for a couple of series wins and a good start to our series in Vancouver on the 31st – we need to come out of this nosedive before we find ourselves out of the playoff picture.