Minnesota Timberwolves @ Los Angeles Lakers
Shawna Betts and her new look Minnesota Timberwolves are heading to town for a two-game set. Outside of losing SP Josh Allen to free agency, I’m not seeing much in the way of player movement from Ms. Betts and her brain trust of witchcraft mathematicians. Perhaps that will come in time, or maybe it won’t... maybe her work in the field of cognitive sciences is just a sham, superior salesmanship of wolf tickets, or perhaps the Red Queen can’t remember ish... it’s difficult to get up for this two-game set with the lingering resentment amongst the casual fanbase surrounding the teams unceremonious move from OKC to Minneapolis - the general line of thought is that Shawna and her legion of nerds came in like thieves in the night, baseball charlatans who had no patience for the long con and went with the ‘ol smash n’ grab instead. I will enjoy spending time in Minneapolis though - that town has some funk to it, a bitterly cold funk, but funk, nonetheless. Without Josh, the Minnesota pitching staff is in even more disarray than it was at its most injury-depleted in 2074 - but the offense, led by 26yo Catcher Rex Engelstad, is stout even if they haven’t yet clicked in 2075. The former Kansas Jayhawk is hitting .400, but without any help, he only has 2 RBI on the season... at 2-4 this season (they dropped 3 on their trip to Vancouver BC), MIN is overdue... let’s hope they don’t start cooking against us.
But first… Oof: Josiah Weber gave up 7 earned runs in only 4 innings of work during his second start for Philadelphia. Also, SP Patrick Keith of the Phoenix Suns is slated to miss 5-6 weeks with an oblique strain. Maximum suckage in my old stomping grounds.
7 of 162: Tim Kelly (0-1, 3.12) @ the Michael Brisk (1-0, 2.00)
Brisk gives up a run in the first – he hasn’t looked like the guy we saw during his last time out – still time for him to dial it in. after a leadoff walk in the bottom of the frame for Newman, Ethan moves him to 3rd on a well-hit double… and after Newman scores on a wild pitch, an Otto sacrifice gets Ethan home – this is followed up by a 2-run homer for Kumar and we are off to the races – 4-1 lead after one. In the 2nd – Pepper earns his 2nd error of the season on a booted one-hopper, the only price to be paid is his pride though as nothing gets across for the T’Wolves. We’d get another in the bottom of the 5th before Minnesota finally found some go and plated 3 in the top of the 7th – 5-4 Lakers lead now… 3 more cross for Minnesota in the 8th putting them up 7-5, their offense is starting to play up to its ability – that’s not great for us. Bottom of the 9th – Mullens hits a solo shot, one run game, Otto up to bat next… and he strikes out swinging – hard – like he wanted to hit the ball to Alaska. T’Wolves get a W on their first ever trip to LA – 7-6. Man, oh man, Brisk lets 7 get across in 7 innings, Mullens goes 3 for 5, Kumar goes 2 for 3 with a homerun, a double, and a walk.
8 of 162: Elijah Rizzuto (0-1, 23.63) @ Case Tunnell (0-0, 9.64)
We find ourselves in a 2-run hole early but get creative in the bottom of the 2nd with our third double steal of the season and take home on an errant throw by Minnesota’s best player. Weird – I’ll take it. PEPPER’S bat wakes up a bit – he adds an RBI single to the mix and we tie it up in the bottom of the 2nd – we’d get another for the lead, but Minnesota answers in the next frame with another couple of runs to take the lead again, 4-3. Solo shot from your boy Pepper ties it up in the bottom of the 4th – The Timberwolves explode for 5 in the top of the eight and we answer with 2 in the bottom of the 8th and 9th respectively but lose it when Otto is gunned down by Colt DeWees trying to stretch one out to a triple. I like aggression – just not reckless aggression. Minnesota wins 8-7 and we get mini-swept during our first homestand of the season.
Well – maybe there is something to Shawna’s theories… whatever she dreamt up worked pretty well in LA. It sure was fun to see Pepper go gonzo in that last one tho – 3 for 4, 1 HR, 2 Runs, 2 RBI – your boy did his level best to will us to victory. We ended the series by sending 6 pitchers to the mound – it’s a good thing we have a day off before our three-game series against Vancouver – they’re good, we can’t go out there throwing meatballs against them. After this last set, our offense is rated first in the NL, our defense is slipping, and our Starters are suddenly trash.