Los Angeles Lakers (10-5, .667, 1st NL West) @ Dallas Cowboys (7-8, .467, 4th AL West)
A quick trip from San Diego to Dallas before traveling home to take on the Galaxy. The Cowboys have had a slow start to the season at 4-8 before winning 3 straight versus the LA Galaxy. At the end of this series, Dallas will have played a Los Angeles based club in 7 straight games. Outside of their bullpen (rated 2nd in the AL), nothing has really clicked for the Cowboys – they find themselves in the bottom half of the AL in every offensive category. Team Captain, and best overall player, RF Timmy Simpson was off to a slow start - .167/.444/.667 with 1 HR before he went down with a fractured thumb in the 2nd game of the season – out of action for 5-6 weeks. In his absence, the offense has sputtered. Ace Matthew Krebs is also cold – he’s started the season 0-2 with a 6.43 ERA and walked 5 batters during his last start – we’ll see him in Game 1. It’s early and this is a club that has made the playoffs 4 times in the last 5 seasons – we haven’t heard from them yet, but there is still time.
16 of 162: Merl Crawford (1-1, 3.24) @ Matthew Krebs (0-2, 6.43)
A 3-run top of the 1st followed by another in the top of the 5th would be all we needed in our 6-3 win in game one. Krebs pitched well giving the home team 6 innings of 5-hit ball, and our guy, Crawford, only gave up 3 runs in the same amount of innings to earn his second W of the season – he’s filled in nicely for Phillip King. Dom Cooke hit a 2-run homer in the top of the 1St, Mullen went 3 for 5 with 3 runs, and Otto/Zarate both got a couple of hits in the win. Pepper went 0 for 5, but only struck out once – and was error-free at 3rd. Dallas committed 4 errors and used 8 pitchers. That’s too many for an April game.
17 of 162: Michael Brisk (2-1, 4.01) @ LaVaughan Stewart (1-0, 4.64)
Brisk gave us 8.1 innings with only two earned and earned the W – a 3-2 win in Dallas. Stewart pitched great – good enough to deserve the win – 7 innings of 1-hit baseball. Jenkins got us the lead in the top of the 9th – a nice little run-scoring single. Otto stayed hot, 2 for 3 with a home run – his 8th of the year – dude is unstoppable. Pepper got a hit and was error-free for the second game in a row.
18 of 162: Case Tunnell (0-0, 6.91) @ Steve Allen (0-2, 3.86)
Case has his best and lengthiest start of the season – 8 innings, no earned runs, and Ethan Mullens goes 2 for 3 with a 2-run HR in the 3rd. Otto goes hitless for the first time in I don’t even know how long. Los Angeles wins, 4-1 and we earn our first sweep of the season. We’re 8-2 in our last 10. With the win, we moved to the #2 spot in the weekly rankings.
Elsewhere: Seattle lost SP Logan Lightner for the rest of the year – torn flexor tendon. At 41-years old, that might be it for him. During his career, he has made 8 all-star appearances and won the Pacheco in 2062. He spent 14 of his 18 seasons in the Lakers Purple & Gold and is our all-time leader in wins (236) and K’s (3833) – the man is a Laker Legend and we wish him a speedy recovery.
AAA Notes: Newton Weiser got his third start this week and went 7 IP with 4 hits and 2 earned runs in a losing effort to the Supersonics. He’s 1-1 with a 2.38 ERA and 160 ERA+ so far this season.
Headed home after earning our first sweep of the season. We’re still leading the NL in runs scored and our pitching is starting to come around – that’s scary. We play the LA Galaxy in their ballpark next – they are 8-10 for the season, 6-4 in their last 10 with 3 of those 4 losses coming against Dallas. There is a better than good chance that the good times keep on rolling for a few more games in Laker Land.