Miami United (22-31, .415, 6th NL East) @ Atlanta Falcons (27-28, .491, 3rd AL East)
In the top-heavy AL East, where the Carolina Panthers are busying themselves by running roughshod over all comers, the Atlanta Falcons, the artist formerly known as the Green Bay Packers, are making a comfortable middle class living so far in 2080. They top out at 3rd in AVG and 4th in Steals but are 5th or worse everywhere else with their starting pitching being the anchor that is keeping them from setting sail towards the top of the pops. Youngster
Vance Johnson (.314/.361/.503, 8 HRs, 25 RBIs) leads the way offensively, while
RP Al Bundy (of Polk Community College fame (or is it infamy?)) is leading the team in wins as a set-up man. This is our club's first trip to the land of
Pimento Cheese, fried chicken, and hummingbird cake… so, except for the shoddy job our travel department did in booking our accommodations for this trip, we should be free from distractions by virtue of not knowing where to find them yet. Well, that’s probably wishful thinking, because… internet.
54 of 162: Randy Kline (1-1, 8.47) @ Tommy Matthieu (5-3, 3.17)
Loss, 5-4.
Jeremy Glickstein’s (ATL) solo homer in the bottom of the 6th was the difference maker as the Falcons bullpen shackled our offense over the game’s final 3 innings. C
F Bill Gordon went 3 for 4 with a double and two runs,
OH HONG also hit .750 on the day with a two-bagger and two RBIs, and
Kline gave us 5 innings of work while allowing all 5 of Atlanta’s runners to plate. Three doubles for the club (
Marshburn put one on the board to go along with the other two), a SAC FLY for
Manookian, a SAC BUNT for
Anaconda, and two expertly turned double plays weren’t enough to get it done for the ‘
Mingos here. We battled, which I like, but just didn’t have enough in the tank to take this one over the finish line.
Elsewhere: 1B Yoshimasa Sugawara, the former bush-leaguer done good, went 3 for 3 with a double, a dinger, 2 RBIs, and 2 runs for the Kings in their 8-4 win over the Portland Timbers. The Kings are still sitting at 3rd place on the NL West table and are 3-7 for their last 10 contests. I wouldn’t exactly say that their club is turning the corner, but they can see it off in the distance, for sure.
Palmer Parker (SEA) took the BoTM award in the AL for the month of May… the 2-time Boyce recipient hit .362 with 10 jacks and 29 RBIs over the last 31 days. In the National League,
Jason Spears, of
Palmer’s old club (76ers), took home that same honor on a .386 average with 9 jacks and 23 RBIs – Palmer who? Am I right?
55 of 162: Rad Taylor (4-4, 2.74) @ Jason Bangs (3-5, 6.18)
Loss, 2-1. Man, oh, man…
Rad deserves so much better from us. He gave us another stellar outing (8.1 IP, 2 ER, and 9 Ks) and we, as is our wont, offered him nothing in support. Atlanta Catcher,
Chris Levesque, was the offensive hero in this one – he finished 2 for 4 with a walk-off solo HR in the bottom of the 9th off of
Rad (our fault though – we should have taken him out given his 128 PC).
Manookian swiped two bags and
Gordon hit a two-bagger – that’s the good stuff – plus we committed two fielding flubs, hit into 3 double plays, and left 6 guys stranded – that’s the bad stuff. It’s the standard roller coaster style of play we’ve become accustomed to… one series we’re sweeping the defending champs, the next we’re having our asses handed to us by a ho-hum ballclub with a dumb team mascot.
Elsewhere: The Continental League started its 2nd season of play today… our own Barbados based Tridents won a dog fight in extras against the Terrapins on the road in Chula Vista by a score of 9-7. Nice. We’ll take it. Meanwhile, in the Bush League,
SP Cody Silas, of the Shreveport Sashimi Samurai, took a no-hitter 7.2 innings before allowing Bowling Green’s
CF Rowan Calvin to hit a double. He was lifted before the start of the eighth and his ball club lost the game in extras by a score of 2-1.
56 of 162: Kordell Littles (6-4, 2.90) @ Gregory Morgan (3-4, 3.24)
Win, 2-0. We avoided the sweep despite
Kordell’s less-than-stellar 6.1 innings of work and were bolstered in this one by
Norton Manning’s solo HR in the top of the 8th.
Murray Wagner sniped the win in relief,
Dial picked up his 7th save of the year,
OH HONG recorded two hits and an RBI, and
Saucerman stole his 22nd bag of the season. Let’s be honest, this game was short on excitement, but, when it’s about getting wins at any cost, who really cares about aesthetics?
Elsewhere: Legend Otto Isaac is back in the Majors after a rehab stint in Compton and went 3 for 5 with a 3-run jack and 2 runs of his own for the Kings during their 15-5 win over Portland. Now that he’s back, they should be able to take that corner like they're on rails and finally start making some power moves in the NL West…
SP T-Rex Stiles, of our Havana Sugar Kings, earned his
FIRST win of the year after a hard-earned 7.2 inning effort against the Salem Silverbacks – Havana won the game by a score of 7-5 and improved to 23-26 on the year.
Notes: That was a tougher series than it should have been… I think. Who knows really? When I look at my roster, I feel like we should be better than we are, but the results tell the only story that matters and according to the numbers… we suck. And, speaking of suckage, there could be a whole lot more of that on the horizon as we are heading to Carolina to face off against the AL East leading Panthers for 3 games before a quick jaunt to Philly to lock horns with the 76ers for 4 games. No rest for the
Pink Tops here… if we navigate these next seven anything like our last 7 there’s a good chance that I’ll arrive back at the houseboat to find it engulfed in flames with local United Fans doing the forbidden dance on the dock.