Los Angeles Lakers (54-38, .587, 1st NL West) @ Brooklyn Citizens (46-46, .500, 4th NL East)
Ahh… Brooklyn. That hipster paradise populated by bearded miscreants, vegan cafes, and bicycle repair shops. The Citizens have been a poorly inflated buoy for the last 4-5 years… one year they finish 89-73 and make the playoffs, the next they’re a .500 club who misses out – this year's version is struggling against the tide… With a 92-year-old owner who is understating, generous, and satisfied – why bother putting forth a maximum effort, right? Calvin Mann Jr is about one thing – profit. And he’ll meddle in your affairs to ensure the goal of raking in that almighty dollar is satisfied – often at the expense of winning. He runs things from the, “give them enough hope to sell some tickets”, perspective. Offensively, Brooklyn hits bombs (2nd NL) and that’s about it – they are middling everywhere else and they are terrible on the base paths. Pitching? Not much better. 7th in runs against, 9th in starters ERA, and 11th in bullpen ERA (that’s 2nd to last, folks…). They took Josh Allen off of Shawna and the T’Wolves hands in the offseason – he’s 4-10 with a 4.02 ERA… not what they had in mind. And, they have former Phoenix disappointment, Isaiah Zuno, who, unlike Allen, has been good enough – 10-8, 3.80 ERA – for a lot less money. They only Brightside with this club is that they probably have the best infield in the majors (except of their SS who is trash) in 1B Archie Imanov (2075 All-Star), 2B Randall Berger (2075 All-Star) , and 3B Jarel White – but, as their 46-46 record indicates, it’s not enough. And, with a minor league system that ranks 13th in the league, it’ll be more than a NY minute before it is…
93 of 162: Merl Crawford (8-5, 3.87) @ Nick Lyle (6-4, 3.65)
We start it off with a bang – 3-run homer (#10) for Dom Cooke. Merl would give one back in the bottom of the frame, and then 2 more in the next frame, and 3 more in the frame after that – in the end Brooklyn dismantled us 11-6. Merl gave up 6 in 3 innings, Dom went 2 for 5 with 4 RBI, and Brooklyn SS, the supposed weak link of their infield, overcame his fielding deficiencies with a 3-run homer off of Merl in the 3rd.
Note: Angry Eloy went 3 for 4 with a HR and 3 RBI in a 6-5 Portland win over the NY Jets.
94 of 162: Josiah Kawka (7-6, 3.35) @ Ryan Burg (4-5, 4.44)
Another Kawka start, another loss… goes 8, but gives up the only 4 that Brooklyn needed… offensively, Nick Aguilar gives us our only highlight – a 3-run homer in the 6th. We are 5-5 for our last 10 and fading fast and with 3 more days until Otto can start a couple of rehab games in AAA, the light at the end of the tunnel is looking mighty dim… Oh, and Imanov hit his 17th homer of the year off of Kawka – a 3-run homer in the 5th – Kawka let two leave the yard today and now has no wins and 4 losses in his last 8 starts.
City of Compton: Your boy
Rad Taylor has been moved to the #5 slot in the rotation – at this rate, he’ll be in the pen soon enough.
95 of 162: Michael Brisk (7-7, 4.37) @ Josh Allen (4-10, 4.02)
Brooklyn, in typical fashion for this series, gets to Brisk early, putting 3 on the board before the 3rd inning… and that was all they would need. Brooklyn wins, sweeps us under the rug like a broken dream – 4-2. Highlights for the Lake-Show? Nope. There were none. Nada. Zero. ZILCH.
Wow… how you gonna do us like that,
Brooklyn? What a difficult stretch this has been – 4-6 in our last 10, the offense has slipped to the bottom half of the NL rankings, and our starters are in a free fall. But, it’s nothing that a day off and a 3-game set against the 46-49 Whitecaps at home shouldn’t fix.