Los Angeles Lakers (4-2, .667, 1st NL West) @ Brooklyn Citizens (5-1, .833, 1st NL East)
At 5-1 already in 2077, the Citizens have swept the Minnesota North Stars and won a series against the Impact – Minnesota I can understand, but beating the Impact in Montreal, even at such an early stage of the season comes as a bit of a surprise. So far, Brooklyn has been making their living off of pitching, with every starter, with the notable exception of Merl Crawford (who we face first), coming out of the gates hot. They have a combined 2.28 Starters ERA even when you factor in the 17.18 ERA Merl is contributing – and, sure, I get it, he gave up 7 runs in 3 innings in his only outing so far… regardless, they’ve been on fire from the mound so far. It can’t last and it won’t, but for the Brooklyn fans, who haven’t had a Championship banner raised since 2031, this is something to, at least for now, feel good about.
7 of 162: Michael Brisk (1-0, 2.16) @ Merl Crawford (0-1, 17.18)
Win, 7-0. Six innings of shutout baseball from Brisky (6 K’s too), a break out day for Otto where he goes 3 for 5 with two doubles, a homer, and 4 RBI’s, and some vintage Ethan – a double and 3 RBIs – were all we needed to snap Brooklyn’s 4-game winning streak in spectacular fashion. Hamza scored twice and stole his 4th bag, Pepper struck out three times (ouch), and reliever Patrick Wilson went 2.2 innings in relief and struck out 7 batters. It’s early, obviously, but I do want to call out that he has a 24.3 K/9 rating right now. We had a 58-minute rain delay in the 7th – but the La La’s handled it better than we did when the same thing happened in last seasons World Series.
Elsewhere: 1B Austin Matthews hit 2 HRs, drove in 3 runs, and scored 3 times in the St. Louis Rams 4-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps. Matthews is hitting .320 with 3 homers and 9 RBI so far for his new club and looks to be pretty happy about their 5-1 start.
8 of 162: Dejuan Burns (1-0, 1.00) @ Nick Demmer (1-0, 0.00)
Win, 11-7. Burns is charged with 2 of the 6 runs that scored in the 5 innings he pitched today, and Ferdinand Loving was stellar again in relief – he gave us 4 innings with 2 hits, 1 run, and 4 K’s. Brooklyn reliever, Taylor Todd, gave up 6 runs in the 8th as we poured it on late to extend our winning streak to 4-games. Hamza went 4 for 5 with 3 runs and an RBI, Dylan Tucker hit a 3-run homer in a PH plate appearance, Dom drove in 3, and Arnold Webster hit his 2nd homer and drove in 4 runs. We might be a lot better than I thought…
Elsewhere: Green Bay’s SS Jackson Walsh hit 2077’s first GRAND SLAM against the Houston Dynamo in a 7-2 winning effort for the red-hot Packers. The 2075 AL Boyce Rigg recipient took a step back in 2076 but looks to be on the verge of recapturing the form that he displayed in the award-winning season. He’s off to a .452/3/14 start and already has 4 doubles to his name. Walsh led the league in doubles in 2074 and 2075. Also, Derek Jeter signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Reds. He’ll begin the 2077 season with their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo.
9 of 162: Newton Weiser (0-1, 6.43) @ Kikuzo Ueno (1-0, 2.25)
Win, 8-0. Newton pitched a CG shutout to complete our first
sweep of the season and brings his ERA to a solid 2.81 in the process – that he only allowed 6 hits and K’d 8 is a bonus. Arnold put another one out of the park, Marshburn hit his first of the season and drove two runs in, Pepper scored twice, Gay scored twice, and Otto – ever the rebel- went 0 for 4… Mullens stole a bag, Voorhis got caught trying to do the same – but two doubles, two bombs, 8 total runs, and the best game of Newton’s career are the real story here. We’re 7-2 – craziness.
Elsewhere: There were three CG shutouts in Strangeverse today – Dallas Cowboy, SP Dylan Tuyay struck out 10 in his CG shutout victory over the Carolina Panthers and San Diego SP Julius Trowbridge earned a CG shutout win over the Philadelphia 76ers where he K’d five hapless hitters.