Pittsburgh Steelers (22-25, .468, 4th NL East) @ Los Angles Lakers (31-17, .646, 1st NL West)
Tony Vorhis, of Dutch ancestry (Voorhis is the Dutch variant of Vorhees according to Ancestry.com, so I’m going with it - sounds legit), is a stud. An important distinction - he’s not a superstar and does not reside in the same orbit as the Otto’s and Palmer’s of Strangeverse. He’s a hard hat & lunch pail guy - comes in, goes to work, eats a sammich, puts in some more reps, heads home, kisses the wife and kids, and then gets up and does it again. Lather, rinse, and repeat - Mr. Clockwork, Mr. Dependable. That he plies his trade for a floundering franchise whose cupboards are bare is, well, unfortunate – but it doesn’t matter to a dude like Tony – see, Tony is about the work, he’s about that grind, and he’s not about to throw a pity party out here and get all diva with trade demands and mean-spirited soliloquy’s to the press. His club is ho-hum – defensively stout, sure (2nd RA), but stuck in the middle everywhere else. But, in that averageness, Pittsburgh is consistent – they are a clockwork club and if we can keep their pace (we should be able to…) and maybe gain a step or two on them in each of these three games, we could be in line for our second straight sweep of this homestand. Note: I tried to trade Otto (only 1-year left on his current contract and already seeing Bryce Harper-ish dollar signs on the horizon) to Pittsburgh for two pitchers and Tony Voorhis… but, alas, they wouldn’t budge. They just wouldn’t give me enough and in the end, they will probably be better for having said no – does Pittsburgh really think that they have a shot at signing Mr. Hollywood? I guess they didn’t, and I know that they don’t.
But
first… in my infinitely wishy-washy brand of General Management, I’ve made another trade – because I wanted to… Zarate (1B) & Merl (RP), and some minor league riff-raff to Brooklyn for Imanov (1B), Caldwell (RP), and Garcia (RP). Does this move me closer to the bar that Philly has set so far this year? Nope. Why do it then? I guess because I’m tired of typing Zarate for posts – it requires that I move my hands too close together on the qwerty keys – and, well, it makes me fighty.
49 of 162: Gregory Morgan (3-3, 3.18) @ Lee Myers (4-2, 3.41)
Loss, 9-6. Otto went off – 2 for 4, with 2 runs, 4 RBI, 3-run homer – but new guy Lee Myers gets shelled for 6 and the other new guy Joshua Moeller gets rocked for 4 (in 1.2 innings of ‘work’). Pitching continues to be a problem area despite all my wheeling and dealing… Newman stays hot in going 3 for 4 with 2 batted in, and we hit 2 doubles, two homers, and get an outfield assist from Newman despite ending up on the wrong side of the final tally in this game. Pittsburgh successfully snaps their four-game skid and we successfully deny ourselves the chance at completing two straight series sweeps at home. Oh well, that was a long shot anyway. Voorhis finished 1 for 2 with two batted in and a couple of free passes – I’m told that the sammich he ate during the 7th inning stretch was bologna on rye with stone ground mustard and a slice of tomato. A man after my own heart – every sammich is better on rye. Am I right? I’m right.
Elsewhere…. The Ballad of Adrian Bae – we saw two 1-hitters and a complete game 4-hit shutout in the Bush League today – and none of those performances belonged to Adrian Bae… Chandler Keaton of the Shreveport Sashimi Samurai gave his club 7 innings of 1-hit ball that includes 8 K’s in their win over the Naperville Nibblers while Landen Clark of the Beaumont Bullies did the same (though he could only manage to record 3 K’s) in his clubs 6-0 victory over the Quincy Quackers – and, my favorite of the bunch, belonged to Flamengo Zamora who gave the Nolanville ‘Nauts 7 innings of 4 hit, 1 run ball in their 2-1 win over the Columbia Blowfish. Adrian’s day went a little differently as he gave Hagerstown 4-inning, 4-hit, 2-run performance that included 5 K’s. The Hummers lost the game by a score of 6-2 against the Gainesville Gamecocks – who put up three runs in the top of the 9th against Hagerstown’s 8th pitcher of the day, Luke Borosky.
