2074 Season (9/21 – 9/23)
Los Angeles Lakers (71-82, .464, 6th NL West) @ Phoenix Suns (77-76, .503, 3rd NL West)
After losing 4 of our last 6, a three-game set at home against the lowly Lakers of Los Angeles should cure what ails us. Extra emphasis on ‘should’... on paper, where we take the season so far, on the whole, we are, without a doubt, the better ball club. However, given our play of late, especially that of our starting rotation, we are the ultimate paper tiger. What we are most adept at is playing to the level of our competition - we lack that killer instinct and esprit de corps that is so often associated with the top tier of our league. No, we don’t exist in that orbit yet - sure, we’ve poked our head into those clouds, and, at times, even stayed long enough to look around a little bit, but we are a long way from taking up residence there. So - either we run roughshod over these Lakers or we treat our home fans to another series fueled by uninspired defense and impatience at the plate... they’ve grown tired of our “how low can you go” limbo style of play and deserve better.
154 of 162: Coming into the game, Cam Murphy is 0-2 with an 8.04 ERA… he went 4 innings today and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits but left with the game tied at 3. We took the lead, 4-3, shortly thereafter but LA managed to get a legit run in the 5th and then another on an errant throw to home from Preston Wallace that went way over Norton’s head – then they added one more for good measure… all for naught though as Norton Manning came through in the bottom of the 9th with a bases-clearing 3-RBI triple to walk the Lakers off. Preston, Jake, and Homer all finished with 2 hits, we committed 3 boneheaded errors and used 6 pitchers before all was said and done. We’ll need a good start from Brisk tomorrow. In other news: San Diego punched their playoff ticket today & Philadelphia was mathematically eliminated. Suns win, 7-6.
155 of 162: Brisk barely makes it through 3 innings and the Los Angeles Lakers crushed us 7-1. CG 1-run effort from LA SP John Aivazian – a one-man wrecking crew. Preston and Jake each get 2 hits, only one error, but we struck out 9 times. Los Angeles owned 7-1. Elsewhere: Bradley Hughes (SEA) threw a no-hitter against Portland he struck out 17 and walked 2 – Seattle won 9-0. The New York Jets won a wild-card spot.
156 of 162: Lee Sobania’s 2-run homer does us in – LA wins the series 2 to 1 and the game 7-6. Phoenix is now a .500 ball club. Derek finished 3 for 5 with 2 RBI’s. We run through 5 pitchers… ugh, our pitching is an absolute mess right now.
In a series we should have won, that, really, we needed to win – we did the opposite. It’s hard to say much about this one – our squad is super disappointing right now and our pitching has been incredibly poor of late. At this point, I'll be surprised if I'm not fired at the end of the season. In other news: Green Bay secured a wild-card spot.