Los Angeles Lakers (2-1, .666, t-1st NL West) @ San Francisco 49ers (2-1, .666, t-1st NL West)
San Francisco is not Hamza’s team. He’s not their captain or their lynchpin - he’s a better-than-solid contributor and occasional spark plug with a mustache that rivals the one Brisk wears. We need him on our club - we are mustache collectors. The 49ers, then, belong to SP Landon Sampson. When he goes, the club follows - he sets the tone, charts the course, and leads the way. He was the most critical component of a club that made an improbable run through the 2074 playoffs that ended with a Championship Banner. They’ve filled some gaps in the off-season, and look primed to be in the mix again this year... They are, essentially, the self-appointed leaders of the NL West, and while San Diego, and hopefully our club, may disagree we will have to earn it against them throughout the year. That we get our first crack at it this early in the season feels like more of a blessing than a curse... we’ll find out which it is over the next 3-days as we work through the backend of our rotation before seeing our Ace Kawka for his second outing.
Some notes before I play out the next series...
Josiah Weber – Josiah’s still got it. He won the 2074 Pacheco and then signed a 2-year, $68M contract with Philadelphia. In his debut for the 76ers, he went 8.2 innings, gave up 0 runs, and struck out 12 batters for his first win of the 2075 season. At 38 years old, he’s far from finished.
Donny Jeter – Donny signed with the Golden State Warrior for 1-year at 6.6M where he got the start at SS in each of the teams first three games. He’s currently batting .091 and has 1 fielding error.
Josh Allen – Allen, frustrated with OKC’s move to Minnesota, elected to sign with the Brooklyn Citizens in the offseason. They got him on a 3-year contract valued at 87.5M. He made his debut as the opening day starter for his new club and went 7.2 innings with 9 K’s and 1 earned run.
4 of 162: Julen Morales @ Samuel Herbert
Otto opened up the scoring in the top of the first with a 3-run 442ft blast to dead center, bringing Ethan Mullens (who opened the game with a triple) and Ruben Zarate (who got a free pass from Herbert) home. Otto followed that up with a throwing error in the bottom of the frame that allowed a freebie across… by the time we got to the first, the 49ers had gotten 2 of the 3 back. An Ethan Mullens solo shot in the top of the 3rd extended our lead – he now just needs a double & a single to complete the cycle – should be easy, right? Right. Hamza gets himself a triple on the bottom of the 3rd and reaches home a few batters later… We lead 5-3. We get a little cushion on the 7th to run it up to 6-3 and that’s where we leave it… the new look Lakers are 3-1.
5 of 162: Phillip King @ Ryan Wiggins
Ethan starts it off with his second triple in as many games – the boy is hot, people. San Francisco gets a run in each of the first three frames for an early 3-0 lead – we’re not doing much so far, only three hits… Fregoso changes that with an RBI single that brings Pepper home – your boy led us off with a well-hit double to right… a double steal gets us a second after the catcher makes an errant throw to second trying to catch us in the act… we follow that up with ANOTHER double steal for a run after ANOTHER errant throw from Munguia. Wow, that’s unusual. Bovie follows that mess up with a 2-RBI double – and then our SS Jenkins gets us another. 7-run 3rd inning for the Lake Show! We’re blowing the doors off this thing – 7-3 lead into the bottom of the 5th. San Francisco goes down with a fight and manages to put three more on the board before our Closer Saul Guzman shuts the door in the bottom of the 9th for his second save of the series. Lakers win 8-6, are basically invincible. Bad news: Phillip King is not invincible – we lost him for the season with a torn UCL. Bummer biscuits, y’all. We’ve moved Merl to the rotation – slotting him in at the #5 spot (scary) and called Ellison Miller up from Compton.
6 of 162: Josiah Kawka (1-0, 3.00) @ Foster Bantel (0-0, 0.00)
Ethan Mullens did not start us off with a triple – he popped out to left… Ruben Zarate, however, hit a 386ft solo shot in his first at-bat to get us an early 1-0 lead… Nehemiah Jenkins brought home 2 with a double in the top of the 2nd – no outs – and it feels like we are off to the races here… We’d get another in the top of the 5th, but SF starts to come alive in the bottom of the frame when they plate one and follow that up by plating two in the bottom of the 6th… 4-3 Lake Show as we enter the stretch. In the bottom of the 7th, Pepper commits his first error of the season at 3rd – allowing the bases to load up, but Kawka gets out of the jam off a weak pop up to left… Former Sun, Frosty Dillard strikes out our side in the top of the 9th, giving Guzman a chance at his third save of the series – and he did not disappoint. Saul finished it off with two K’s, a walk, and a weak grounder, Lakers win 4-3 and sweep the defending champs in their ballpark.
A 5-1 start to the season, power ranked at #5 in the first poll, and ranked no lower than 6th in any of the NL categorical rankings – I think it’s safe to say that we have come out of the gate hot. I think we’re good, I’m under no illusion that we are this good.
Otto had a heck of a series (4 for 13, 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI) and Kawka brought us home in that last game even if he was a bit shaky at times. I’m beyond happy with Pepper – he’s hitting .300 with a HR and 4 RBI and only ONE error. We’re a little dinged up and losing King for the season really sucks – but, it’s hard to find much to complain about – we are amongst the lowest in the league in errors at 6, but are one of only three teams that have not completed a single double play… conversely, we’re the only team that has stolen home twice.
