[pauwoo]

St. Louis Rams (10-6, .625, 2nd NL East) @ Miami United (10-7, .588, 3rd NL East)
St. Louis is solid, well, better than solid, really… and, when you compare them to us, they start to take on the shape of a world-beater. They have a lot of what we want – run-scoring acumen, solid arms in the rotation, and a history of success. For our part, the runs have been there – ours aren’t generated with machine-like precision, they are the product of good old fashioned, luckily timed hitting… it’s the arms and the history where we are lacking right now. That last bit will take time, it must, and the former could be sped along, or we could be prudent and wait for our developmental system to supplement it in a few seasons. Prudence, in my experience, isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be though. I want to speed this thing along – to get closer to the level at which St. Louis is capable of operating, but I don’t have the pieces or the cash, to make that happen – so, instead of getting my own private Jonah Dove (1x Boyce, 9x All-Star), Mike Duncan (32 homers last year), or even my own Dimitri Pimentel (10x Mustache All-Star, 3x Actual all-Star), I’ll busy myself by doing the next best thing… I’ll sit idly by, watching my team get handled by the type of team I’d like us to one day become.

18 of 162: Cosmo Puente (2-0, 2.84) @ Radoslav Borovsky (1-1, 6.89)
Win, 4-2. We’ve finally run out of red ink after being dusted twice in a row in Tinseltown and managed to put this one in the black – a solid win where we were led by our starter who gave us 7 IP, 1 ER, and 8 K’s, Kyle Weaver who supplied a 3 for 4 day with a double and 2 RBIs, and OH HONG, back from the dead, who contributed a 2 for 4 day with a DING DONG and 2 runs. Hong hit his 1st homer of the year in this one, a 2-out solo shot, and, fun fact, committed his 3rd fielding flub of the season… all at home. It’s the humidity, man. It’s got to be.

Elsewhere: Who else hit homers today? Ruben Zarate (BRK) put two out on Pittsburgh, Nolan Steffan (GSW) put two out on Vancouver, Palmer Parker (PHI) hit his 4th of the season, Rajkumar (LAK) hit his 4th long ball of the season, Kirk Johnson (LAK) hit his 1st of the year, and Aitor Cubas hit his 4th interplanetary blast of the year in a win over the Dallas Cowboys – it should be noted that, during that game, Jo Jo Jackson did not hit a single ball out of the park despite leading the American League at 6… he did strike out three times though…

19 of 162: Zeljko Ivancic (1-2, 8.53) @ Mirko Samsonenko (2-1, 2.63)
Loss, 5-2. Mirko gave up 4 runs and handed out 5 free passes over 8 innings of work. This, of course, was less than ideal. Early & Oh each put two hits on the board, no other batter could muster more than one, we hit into two double plays, left 5 on, and despite turning 4 double plays of our own we couldn’t overcome our pitching in this one.

Elsewhere: Jo Jo Jackson, of the Dallas Cowboys, went 2 for 3 with 2 homers, 3 RBIs, a walk, and a strikeout… Dallas, now 8-10 on the year, overpowered the Seattle Sounders, who, despite an attempt to retool their roster during the offseason, have come out of the gate sputtering. Jackson currently leads the league in HRs at 8 with Tom Franzone coming in a 2nd with 7. After breaking the all-time, single-season, strikeout record that had stood at 253 since 1999, Jo Jo has retooled his swing and, so far, it looks like he may avoid leading the league in that category again this season… Also, some low-key news out of Havana – the Sugar Kings are welcoming Compton to town over the weekend and managed to win the first of the three-game set by a score of 3-2. Aris Anaconda, back on the island, went 1 for 2 with a homer, 2 RBI, a run, and 2 walks.

20 of 162: Joseph Hinder (2-1, 3.48) @ Cathal Magill (1-2, 3.65)
Win, 5-1. We’d get a fortunate turn in the rotation from Cathal here – he’s starting to dial this thing in and gave us 8 solid innings of work where he only allows 1 run on 10 total hits… he also fanned 10 batters to earn his first double-digit strikeout game since July of 2078. Rex showed up in a 2 for 4 performance with 2 doubles, an RBI, and 2 runs, and OH HONG went 2 for 4 with a run of his own. Three doubles, a 2-out RBI, a SAC FLY, a stolen base, and a series win against a superior ballclub.

Elsewhere: PEPPER GRANT, a King out of Los Angeles, hit his first home run of the season in the 7th inning of a 7-2 loss against the San Francisco Seals. Since rejoining LA, Pepper is hitting .325 with 1 HR and 4 RBIs… so, nowhere near his prime contributions, but it’s great to see him in a purple & gold kit nonetheless. For our part, we’ll take a much-deserved day off in Miami before contesting our next 6-straight at home with 3-game sets on the docket against Philadelphia (P-Squared in the house!) and Brooklyn. And, lastly, SP Rad Taylor picked up his first loss of 2079 against the Havana Sugar Kings in Cuba… Taylor went 7 innings and only gave up 3 runs, but, that was all the Sugar Kings would need as our own SP Ricky Reyman struck out 15 batters in 8-innings of work and only allowed one runner to plate.

Editors note: So, we are, currently, tied for first in the NL East with the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is, well, unexpected. My club isn't built yet, we, on paper, are nowhere near this good - and, look, I know it's early and I know that we will likely falter soon... But, wow, this was unexpected and if it continues I will be known as the luckiest GM on the face of the planet from here to eternity.