[ayaghmour2]

June 26th, 2021: We opened up the series with Arizona against Jhoan Duran (5-4, 2.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP) who skipped up one in the rotation. His opponent, Walker Buehler (2-1, 4.37 ERA, 1.56 WHIP). We'd get our first look at future superstar Brice Turang who will play second and leadoff. Unrealted, but I recently traded for him in an online league, albeit the 18-year-old version of him. We had to play almost two games, but we finally beat Arizona 3-2 in 17 innings.

Buehler was great, despite allowing 7 hits and 2 walks, he didn't allow a run and struck out 7. Drew Steckenrider allowed 2 0.1 innings, which forced this marathon to start. Max Povse left the game with an injury, and we were so depleted that Zach Davies, who started three days ago, had to pitch in relief. He got the win, 3 scorless innings with a strikeout and hit. I'd place Povse on the DL to callup a spot starter eventually.

We had 14 hits, and 11 of them were singles. Lewis Brinson went 1-for-8, but his hit was a walkoff homer off Matt Grace. Victor Caratini and Andrelton Simmons both had 4 hits. Simmons had a double, the rest were singles. The last extra base hit was a Brian Anderson double.

I don't really have a SP to callup since Nick Neidert is injured, but I'd transfer him to the 60-Day DL eventually if needed, although I had an open 40-man spot.

June 27th, 2021: Turns out Povse is just DTD for a few days, so I wouldn't DL him. Instead I'd option Steck for today only to callup 21-year-old Jairo Solis to make today's start. He's pitched just 1 game at AAA, but his start would have been today.

It was a pair of debuts as Riley Wade Smith and Jairo Solis dueled it out between two extremely tired teams. We both hoped for a quick, low scoring affair. Instead, we fell 7-4.

Solis, who will be optioned back down to AAA tonight, allowed 5 runs in 5 innings while striking out two. Corbin Clouse allowed the final two runs in 1.1 innings of work, but I couldn't be too mad since everyone had to pitch yesterday.

After failing to record a hit yesterday, Adam Hasley went 2-for-3 with an RBI, a walk, a steal, and a double. Victor Caratini was 1-for-3 with 2 walks, a double, and a run scored. Andrelton Simmons was 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored and a run driven in. Lastly, Nicky Delmonico was 1-for-4 with a double and a walk.

I brought Steck back up, and he should be fully rested tomorrow.

June 28th, 2021: We're up all the way to third in the Power Rankings, and the Mets are down to 5th.

Still tied in first, we looked to salvage the split with Jordan Montgomery (3-2, 4.42 ERA, 1.36 WHIP) taking on Taijuan Walker (6-5, 3.61 ERA, 1.23 WHIP). Still tired, we fell 5-2, as we had a trip to New York to look foward to.

Montgomery allowed 5 runs (4 earned) in 5.1 innings off 5 hits and 3 strikeouts. All four relievers who pitched today struck out at least 1 hitter.

Ryan Mountcastle scored 1 of the twko runs after doubling in the 1st. Nicky Delmonico went 2-for-4 and scored the other run. Dustin Fowler drove in him, and went 2-for-4 with a steal and the error that cost a run.

The Mets didn't play, so we were a half game down. We'd see Chris Sale (6-4, 4.84 ERA), Luis Marrero (4-3, 2.82 ERA), and Noah Syndergaard (4-7, 3.55 ERA) in a tough division battle with the Mets.

June 29th, 2021: We'd have reinforcements for the Mets, as Cole Brannen would be back with the club. I'd option Haseley back down to AAA to make room for the speedster. He still leads the entire MLB with 27 steals, despite missing a bit more then a week.

It would be a battle of tough southpaws, as Luis Marrero (6-3, 2.89 ERA, 1.05 WHIP) skipped Sale with the day off and Danny Duffy (6-3, 2.89 ERA, 1.05 WHIP). Brannen would get the first at bat of the game and play RF at Citi Field. Whoever won today would have sole possesion of first. And first would be occupied by us, as we won 4-1 in 10 innings after Nick Feight hit a three-run shot off Steve Nogosek.

No complaints about Duffy, who went 6.2 innings with just 5 hits, a run, a walk, and 4 strikeouts. Tyler Jay struck out 2 in 1.1 innings and Shiotani got the win with 2 strikeouts in 2 innings.

To make up for lost time, Brannen went 3-for-5 with 2 steals and a run scored. Ryan Mountcastle doubled him home in the 1st, and went 2-for-5. Lewis Brinson went 2-for-4 with a triple, a steal, and a run scored. Dustin Fowler was 2-for-5 with a pair of singles.

Austin Hays went 5-for-5 despite his Orioles falling to the Twins 9-5.

June 30th, 2021: Jameson Taillon (4-3, 2.90 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) look to give us a little ground in the standings against Noah Syndnergaard (4-7, 3.55 ERA, 1.05 WHIP) as we had to face the best the Mets have to start the series. Instead, we were shutout 5-0.

Taillon allowed 4 runs off 8 hits in 4.1 innings with 2 strikeouts and 2 walks. James Farris allowed a single run in the final 2 innings of the game. We also had just 5 hits, and all of them were singles. Cole Brannen swiped base #30 and Ryan Mountcastle got a steal as well.

30-year-old rookie catcher Joe Hudson went 5-for-5 as the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 15-4. The former 6th rounder took the long way to the majors, but is hitting an impressive .312/.341/.519 in 20 games so far.

July 1st, 2021: I had a lot of little things to do before the much anticipated finale between the two powerhouses in the NL East.

To kick off the day I made a minor trade, sending 3B Joe Dunand to the Mariners for SP Griffin Roberts.

Roberts, 25, is a former 16th Rounder from the Cubs back in 2018. He's bounced around a bit, being traded to the Mets and then released in 2020. He had a little time off before sticking with Seattle, and then he intrigued enough for me in need of minor league pitching depth at the upper levels. His calling card is his slider, rated as a fully developed 89. He's rated as a 1.5/2, so there is potential for him later on.

I made a ton of personel extensions to a majority of my coaches in my system. I didn't, however, extend my current hitting coach, who I'd let his contract expire.

Caratini fell out of the top three in All-Star voting and Shiotani fell out of the top 5, although Brinson maintained second behind Mets LF Michael Conforto.

Next, the anticipated showdown between Zach Davies (3-5, 3.79 ERA, 1.32 WHIP) and Chris Sale (6-3, 4.64 ERA, 1.23 WHIP) in the must needed win and fight for first place. We limited the damage, and took a 3-1 series finale, winning our second straight series over the Mets.

Davies went 5 innings, allowing 6 hits and 2 walks, but just 1 run. He also struck out 4. The pen was strong, with Kenyan Middleton, Corbin Clouse, and Drew Steckenrider earning holds before Bulldozer Shiotani got his 27th save.

We survived a pair of errors from Brian Anderson and Andrelton Simmons, as neither cost us runs. Victor Caratini would be the game MVP, going 2-for-4 wiht a RBI double and a solo home run. Ryan Mountcastle went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a hit by pitch. Zach Davies had himself a game, going 2-for-2 with a run scored.

We have a small half game lead over the Mets with a 49-33 record. We'd have a tough test against the 47-34 Cardinals who had the 2nd Wild Card. Luckily, we were at home for the four game series. Coming up tomorrow, the International Free Agency Pool was released tomorrow. I'm not expecting to make a big splash, mainly since I don't have too much money left.

Speaking on money, we've actually had good attendance numbers this year, as we've sold out about 2/5th of the season, and we're actually ranked 15th in attendance, which is impressive considering the poor fan loyalty and relatively small stadium. Our attendencer per game is at 32,935, a significant portion of the 37,000 capacity. It's also over 12,000 per game increase over last year.

Here's a few screenshots of our statistics so far this season:

Let's keep winning!