[pauwoo]

(7/23 – 7/25) San Francisco 49ers (50-50, .495, 6th NL West) @ Phoenix Suns (51-48, .515, 2nd NL West)
Other then the fact that San Francisco has been a tad better than us in July (9-9 vs 6-11), we are, basically the same team. Outside of our being 2nd in runs and 1st in HR’s, we are about the same in the hitting department, and while their starters are collectively better than ours, our bullpen is much better than theirs. They continue to be led by SP Landon Sampson who is 11-5 with a 1.79 ERA thus far and their Closer Justin Covert is regarded as one of the best in the game (even though he has struggled this year with a 4.14 ERA). Offensively, they don’t really have anyone that stands out – their entire order is an average barely above replacement crew who field about as well as our guys do – though we do have one more error than them. This will be a closely contested series, no doubt.

But first… A trade! We traded Bootleg Pepper (Luke LaBonte) and LF prospect Jeff Melanson (our first pick in the 3rd round) for an above average prospect (RHP Jack Sanchez-Flores) and a so-so prospect (but excellent fielder) SS Jess Alford.

100 of 162: Ryan Wiggins (3-12, 5.29) @ Michael Brisk (9-8, 3.49)
The 49ers got to Brisk a little early, earning a couple of hits and a run in the frame – it took him 27 pitches to get out of the inning, while we got a couple on but ended the inning on back-to-back K’s (courtesy of Donny and Hamza). Things went quiet until the bottom of the 4th when Hamza hit a 2-run homer to get us the lead. 1B Jacob Wells gave us his best Hamza impression when he did the same in the bottom of the 5th – it would be all we needed as we managed to hang on for the win despite allowing them to get a couple of those runs back (including one in the top of the 9th). Brisk settled down after the rough start and finished with 8 innings, 2 runs and 8 K’s. We won despite committing 5 errors while San Francisco only had two – if you’re counting, we now lead them by 4 errors for the last place in the NL. Suns win, 4-3.

101 of 162: Martin Rigby (7-7, 3.61) @ Oswaldo Flores (5-8, 4.46)
Rigby contributed 7-innings of shutout baseball and 9 K’s to San Fran’s winning effort and preserved the 49ers chances at getting a series win on the road. Oswaldo wasn’t bad – just not good enough (which has been a consistent theme of his this season). As a team, we committed 2 errors (SF had 1 – make it a 5 error lead for last in the NL) and we struck out 11 times. We called up SS Jess Alford (he’s a better fielder than Hamza) to give him a taste of the big time and he didn’t like it much as he contributed 3 to our strikeout total. 49ers win, 4-1.

102 of 162: Erik Melluzo (5-5, 3.54) @ Ash Newman (8-5, 3.38)
We went with Donny at SS today, making him our 3rd different SS to start a game in this series – he went 1 for 4 with 2 K’s but fielded well. Mitchell Cusac put out a nice two-run homer while Ash pitched well over 8 innings – 7’k and two earned. As a team, we had only 1 error (SF had 4, our lead is now a more manageable 2 for last in the NL). Suns win, 4-2, and earn our 2nd series win of the month.

Well… that’s as good of a start to the week as we could have hoped for given our recent play, and while San Fran is a team we are supposed to beat – sometimes it just feels good to get the job done.

(7/27 – 7/29) Phoenix Suns (53-49, .520) @ Oklahoma City Thunder (51-51, .500)
Oklahoma city, fresh off a 4-game split with the Los Angeles Lakers, is now 10-11 for the month with 5 of those wins coming at the very beginning of July – they are 2-8 in their last 10 games with Pittsburgh being the only real heavy hitter they faced during that stretch. Even still they have a top flight offense (rated #1 in runs scored, AVG, and OBP) – unfortunately, they are really bad defensively with the second worst Defensive Efficiency in the NL. They’re solid, but given their current form, we feel good about our chances here.

103 of 162: Del Miller (9-5, 4.61) @ AJ Hinson (2-9, 5.37)
We came really close to pulling the trigger on a trade with the Lakers that involved Derek – it fell apart at the last minute – but due to some solid work by the media, the word got out. Neither Jeter Bro was happy about it, so we gave them both the night off (they each would be called upon to PH for us late in the game). This was a close one – and it got away as the Thunder put together just enough plays to take the win by a score of 6-5. We had some good opportunities and squandered every one of them – the heart of our order hit well, but they couldn’t get home with any regularity – some good news… only 1 error on the game.

104 of 162: Graham Doyle (2-3, 4.80) @ Damon Smith (5-1, 5.06)
C Norton Manning hit a 3-run homer in the top of the 8th that sealed the deal for us in this one – a nice 8-4 win over the home team. Jacob Wells hit a 3-run bomb of his own in the top of the 4th as well – our power was on full display. Derek was back in the lineup as our DH and went 1 for 5 with 2 runs scored and, as a team, we had our second straight game with only 1 error.

Trade alert: SP Oswaldo Flores was traded to the Seattle Sounders today for 26-year old LF Preston Wallace. This is a good move for our future – but it probably won’t pay any dividends this season. Basically, we’re tired of watching Oswaldo blow it. We brought Sam Lund up from Tucson to take the #5 spot in our rotation.

105 of 162: Michael Brisk (10-8, 3.43) @ Tim Kelly (10-9, 3.89)
We end the week by getting annihilated 9-1 in the rubber match – 2B Brentley Ioannidis went 3 for 4 with a HR, 2 R, and 3 RBI’s – a one-man wrecking crew. We left Brisk in one batter too long – he gave us 7.1 innings and gave up 8 earned runs with 5 of those coming in the 7th. Didn’t help that our lackadaisical play in the field reared its ugly head again – 4 errors and 1 unearned run.

Well… that just about saps all the good vibes we got from winning the series against San Fran. It’s been a rough month, and while a 3-3 week is better than we have been lately, it’s just not going to get it done with 57 of these games left to go. We are either going to slowly fade from contention or get our crap together and start playing some real baseball again. Oh, before I forget, your boy Rad Taylor was moved to the #5 spot in the Tucson rotation after giving up 9 runs in 1.1 innings against Sacramento. This is not the Spicoli I was looking for.