Pittsburgh Steelers (23-25, .479, 3rd NL East) @ Los Angeles Lakers (31-18, .633, 1st NL West)
So, how do Otto, Dejuan, and Pepper celebrate last nights loss? Funny you should ask because, if TMZ 3000 is to be believed, it seems that they revel in their mediocrity by staying out all night at various clubs – including the club where a 30-man melee broke out at when someone “accidentally” took a sip off another man’s watermelon martini. You read that right… Watermelon. Martini. Kids these days, man… they don’t build them as they did in the 2040s do they?
Buncha softies you ask me.
50 of 162: Robby Garrett (2-7, 3.27) @ Phillip King (5-3, 2.78)
Loss, 3-0. Well, let's hope that Otto (0 for 4) and Pepper (0 for 3) learned a valuable lesson here… it’s probably not a good idea to go out clubbing on the night before a game. We only managed to get 4 hits –
FOUR MEASLEY HITS – one walk and struck out 5 times. We just came out flat. 5 total bases, an error (Cooke), Newman got caught trying to swipe a bag, and King can only hang for 6 after giving up 3 runs on 10 hits. Just not a game that you want to think much about – we sucked, played down to the level of our competition, and allowed them to wipe the floor with us. I’ve been flirting with the idea of trading Otto – preferably for someone who is locked up for 3 or more year as I do not want to pay him the money he will command next season – but, I don’t want to be impatient and even flightier than I am now. I mean, I need this job – unless, of course, the league expands by four clubs like the owners threatened to do at the end of last season.
Elsewhere… Jacksonville Jaguars stalwart, LF Isidro Lutz, banged out his 300th MLB home run – he’s hitting .269 with 300 HR, 904 runs scored, and 905 RBI’s for his career. Case Tunnell, in his first start for the Los Angeles Galaxy, went 6 so-so innings, gave up 4, struck out 7, and earned his first W for his new club. I miss him. That trade may have been stupid – the jury is still out. RF Patrick Adams, of the Seattle Sounders, went 4 for 5 with two doubles, a ding dong, 2 RBI, and 3 runs in their 7-6 win over everybody’s least favorite club, the Green Bay Packers. The Phoenix suns were shutout by Brooklyn – that makes the La La’s getting shutout a little easier for me to swallow – misery loves company.
Trade alert… Archie Imanov’s stay in LA was a short one as I put him on the block and was surprised to see that Seattle was willing to part with Austin Rollins to get him – Austin is older, has a fatty contract, and is a little bit better in the field, so Seattle is going for youth and a long-term upgrade at the position here… I guess. We also threw Lee Sobania in as he just hasn’t found a way to fit in with us and they threw in CF Lonzo Gonzalez who has some potential but will likely be used as trade filler down the road as I have plenty of outfield depth in my development system. So, um, yeah… Buh-bye Archie, we barely knew ye.
51 of 162: Tim Kelly (4-2, 3.71) @ Nat Millard (3-1, 2.90)
Win, 6-1… Nat stems the bleeding for us here – 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K’s, and the much-needed DOUBLE-U. Otto was awake, 2 for 4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R – have Rollins around will do him some good I think, and, speaking of, Rollins went 1 for 3 with an RBI and a run – an auspicious enough start for me. Ethan, Larry Williams, and Mario Marshburn all get a couple of hits, Ethan’s were both doubles, Williams added a stolen bag to the register, and we worked Tim Kelly over 4.2 innings – put 5 on the young man, ate his soul, sent him off into baseball purgatory where he will languish in obscurity while running this one back in his head for all of eternity – or not… he may just shrug it off and come back stronger for his next time out. This is baseball after all.
Elsewhere… Jerry Landowski (Chicago Fire – AL) & and our own Captain of Frustration Otto Isaac (Los Angeles – NL) won Batter of the Month for their respective leagues – both put on a fantastic smile for the cameras as the awards were presented… Josiah Weber – the man, the myth, the living legend – won Pitcher of the Month in the NL (the AL gave it to a closer… so, not feeling it, not gonna highlight it) – your boy was vintage… 8-0 in 10 starts, 69 K’s and a 1.39 ERA in May. We, despite losing two of three to the Pittsburgh Steelers, are still ranked at #2 in the power ranking with Josiah and the 6ers holding down the top spot… Jack Sanchez-Flores pitched a CG shutout with 14 K’s in Tucson’s 7-0 win over the Brentwood Beakers in International league action – not sure why he got sent down by Phoenix – in his last MLB outing he went 8 innings against us in a winning effort, so… maybe they’re rehabbing a lingering injury that we don’t know about or maybe they felt like a spot on the big club was too much too soon for the young man as he still has a ton of untapped potential. 1B Warren Kwan, of the Beaumont Bullies, had himself a nice little day in their 4-1 win over Quincy in Bush League action – the well-mustached infielder went 3 for 4 with a double, a HR, 3 RBI and 2 runs for the game. At 29 years old and 3 years removed from his last MLB appearance it seems that Mr. Kwan is just riding it out now and soaking up as many days in the sun as he can before he has to hang them up and join the rest of us living that 9-6 life – rumor is that the former Boston College Eagle standout has an open invitation to join their staff as a hitting coach.
4 more games before we head back out on the road - I kind of miss the road, feel like I've been home too long given that it's still Baseball Season. We'll welcome St. Louis to town for a 4-game series where we'll, undoubtedly, get to know each other much better than we'd like to at this early juncture. Who knows... maybe, if we're lucky, we'll see a donnybrook break out during one of the games - it'd give me a chance to get on the broadcast as I'd definitely rush the field in a drunken stupor and throw a chair into the melee.