[pauwoo]

Phoenix Suns (39-33, .542) @ Philadelphia 76ers (29-43, .403)
At 29-43, there is not a lot of brotherly love reverberating throughout Philly’s clubhouse. Their offense is poor, their pitching is mostly poor, and everything else is decidedly meh. 7 of their 48 home runs have been launched out of the park by RF Jules Winfield, whose path to the big club is the stuff of legend – Jules spent his early career struggling in Sugar Land in the St. Louis system before leaving for the Bush League where he spent a year playing in Quincy and Decatur, respectively. He credits his time in Quincy for reigniting his passion for baseball and has been a major league mainstay since 2072. Feel good stories aside, Philadelphia also has one of the top young talents on their roster in 23-year-old CF Norris Flaherty who is an incredible fielder and baserunner who can hit for average with a little bit of pop. With an owner who is focused on profit and a minor league system that is middling at best – fans in Philly shouldn’t expect this team to retool in free agency any time soon. Welcome to the bottom – we’ll be here for a while.

73 of 162: Oswaldo Flores (3-6, 4.48) @ Paul Yeager (4-6, 3.84)
Long flight, longer game – a 7-2 win for the home team. Outside of C Norton Manning’s 4 for 5 performance (with a moonshot homerun added for flair), our club was sleepwalking from the first pitch until we hit the showers. Yeager allowed only 2 runs in his 7.2 innings of work – he didn’t have full command of his slider at times but was able to mix in the changeup when it mattered. We struck out 12 times and committed four errors with Norton responsible for two of them (hey, at least he hit it well). Just wasn’t our night – hopefully, with rest, we will be a baseball team again tomorrow.

74 of 162: Ash Newman (6-3, 3.10) @ David Ouwerkerk (6-5, 4.50)
RF Jules Winfield made his presence felt today with 2 home runs and 4 RBI, but it was Derek Jeter that made the biggest impression going 2 for 5 with a HR, 2 runs, and 4 RBI. Ash was dealing for 8.1 innings and gave up 4 runs (and both of Winfield’s homers). The club only put 8 K’s on the board with no fielding errors – it’s amazing what a solid night of sleep can do for a ballclub, ain’t it? Even Donny came into PH for our SS and finished the game 2 for 2 with 2 runs. Solid work – we need to put something more consistent together now. Suns win, 8-4.

75 of 162: Graham Doyle (1-2, 6.10) @ Logan Lightner (3-7, 2.44)
When SP Patrick Keith, acquired in a trade for Cleveland Cornejo, was placed on the DL with a strained hamstring we called up Graham Doyle to plug the hole – he’s not ready for the responsibility, but he’s who we have so another start for the young man it is… Lightner was lights out, Doyle got shelled, we started both Jeter Bros (and they wasted the opportunity), we struck out 10 times, and, ultimately, lost the game. Philly smash… 7-3. We’ll have to settle for a split if we can muster up the energy to have a say at all.

76 of 162: Del Miller (8-3, 4.58) @ Jack Monroe (5-7, 4.62)
Winning is hard and lately, we’ve made it a lot harder than it has to be. Del was solid through 6, which we like… but we couldn’t close it out in the bottom of the 9th and then got walked off in the bottom of the 13th when 2B Elijah Philips put one out to seal the deal. And all that is all well and good… here’s what’s not good: We made 48 plate appearances tonight and struck out in 22 of them. That’s not a typo, that’s a club record.

3 ½ games back now… San Francisco only a game behind us for second… tough road trip for the big club. Might need to shop Donny around again, maybe get a so-so pitcher and a so-so prospect for him. He deserves to start somewhere and that’s not going to happen here.