[pauwoo]

Miami United (6-6, .500, 3rd NL East) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5, .583, 1st NL East)
Their offense is humming already, though they could get on base a bit more (currently 9th in OBP), with RF Remildo Puente already hot (.385/5/15) and Tom Franzone starting to get up to temp (.311/3/8). Pitching hasn’t come all the way around yet – they are in the lower half in starters ERA and bullpen ERA, Ace Robby Garret has been uneven (1-1, 5.15), and SP Beau Skrivan has only managed to average 5 IP per start with a 7.16 ERA so far… he has racked up 27 K’s in those starts though and leads the league in K/9 at 14.9 - but, the K or HRA routine hasn’t served his team well. Really, the Steelers just need a few hurlers to come around, to get on the same page as Franzone and Puente, and to start playing a more cohesive brand of baseball. With the way the rest of us in the NL East have hobbled out of the gate they have a low-key opportunity to run up a nice little lead on the Division.

13 of 162: Radoslav Borovsky (1-1, 2.92) @ PJ Edmonds (2-0, 2.02)
Win, 5-2. Another better-than-solid effort from Radoslav – only 2 earned over 7.2 innings of work – and Early Felger went 1 for 3 with 2 RBIs, a run, and a walk. 4th save for Harvey Allen and another good game from Anaconda who went 1 for 4 with 2 RBIs and a run of his own.

14 of 162: Mirko Samsonenko (0-2, 7.20) @ Kurt Miller (0-1, 6.30)
Loss, 8-7. 2 more RBIs for Anaconda and two each from Weaver & Magee weren’t enough to overcome another poor start from Mirko. 4.1 innings, 6 hits, 5 earned, 3 walks, 2 K’s, and a HRA. Not sure what I’m going to do about him – put him in the pen, send him to Havana… decisions, decisions.

Elsewhere: SP Bradley Hughes (HOU) pitched a 1-hitter with 10 K’s for the Houston Texans as they crushed the defending champion San Diego Chargers by a score of 8-0. Injuries have taken their toll on the 3-time Pacheco winner, but Bradley confirmed that he still has a little something in the tank with that performance. Sad news out of Atlanta… RP Rudolf the Ruiner will miss the rest of the season with a torn UCL – it should take him ~14 months to heal up. So far, Rudolf had made 5 relief appearances, recorded a save, and posted a 2.25 ERA.

15 of 162: Murray Wagner (1-0, 3.86) @ Vin Uhlman (1-1, 4.15)
Loss, 11-1. Oof. Despite donning the pink tops, we got destroyed. Uhlman went the distance and only gave up one run, Jayce Van Vorst went 3 for 5 with 2 doubles, a homer, an RBI, and 3 runs, and Tom Franzone put his 4th dinger out of the park. Wagner gave up 6 in 4.2, RP Randy Kline gave up 5 in 3.1, and our only run came as a result of CF Ned Saucerman’s SAC FLY.

Notes: Honestly, I expected more out of the club on this trip to Pittsburgh. At the very least, I thought we’d be good for a series win. Instead, we went 1-2, dropped into 5th on the NL East table, and continue to be up and down at the start of the season. Elsewhere… Carolina became the first club to reach 10 wins, at 11-4 they have the best record in the league. Palmer Parker (SEA) is hitting .423 so far in Seattle but has yet to hit with power consistently and has only 2 jacks so far. For our part, we’ll make a quick jaunt home to meet the Panthers for a 3-game set – it’s always nice to lose against the best baseball team in the league at home, so we’re looking forward to that – before heading out on an early 10-game road trip with stops in Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.