Los Angeles Lakers (59-43, .578, 1st NL West) @ Houston Dynamo (48-53, .475, 4th AL West)
With an 11-9 record in July and a 48-53 record overall – Houston is who you’d think they are… a ho-hum club mired in a ho-hum 2075 campaign. Offensively, the steal bags (1st AL) and not much else – they’re no better than 5th anywhere else, and defensively, they boast a solid staff (5th AL) that won’t strike you out much and a rock-solid infield defense with a superb zone rating (2nd AL) anchored by SS Rich Bell. Bell is slogging his way through a pretty stellar campaign - .330/.370/.518 with a 136 wRC+ and 2.5 WAR so far. They have good fan loyalty & interest and have money to spend, but their economizer owner, Vic Davies, can’t be bothered to upgrade the club – he’s happy living on the goodwill of his hometown fans. However, given that this is looking like it will be the clubs 3rd straight season missing the playoffs, something will have to give prior to 2076 if he is going to continue counting on ticket sales – there are plenty of things to spend your money on in Houston, and a subpar ball club will certainly drop down that list if the continue to string losing seasons together.
103 of 162: Julen Morales (12-4, 3.28) @ Gary Benoit (4-10, 5.74)
Clay Daniels gave us a shot at it with a 3-run jack, but we just couldn’t get it done in game one as the Houston Dynamo get the W by a score of 6-5. Julen gets absolutely worked for 3 innings in this one – walks two, lets 5 plate – but, he did get 7 K’s. Pepper goes 2 for 4 with an RBI, and Otto finished 1 for 3 – just not enough of that to go around for the La La’s.
104 of 162: Matt Olson (2-3, 1.95) @ Scottie Rene (1-2, 3.78)
Rene was too much for us here – he gave up 4 over 7, but our guy gave them 6 in 5 – that usually doesn’t work and it certainly didn’t here – La La’s lose game two by a score of 6-4. We nearly mounted a nice comeback in the 7th, but Newman hit into a double play with two on to put an end to that dream. Otto finished 1-4 with 2 RBI and Pepper scores a run and bats 2 for 4 on the day. We committed two costly errors in this one – so that’s cool.
Props & Judo Chops: Derek Jeter, the ol’ Phoenix Battle-Axe, went 3 for 5 with 2 HR, 3 runs, and 3 RBI in Phoenix’s 11-9 win over the Portland Timbers – the old man has still got a bit left in the tank it seems.
105 of 162: Michael Brisk (8-8, 4.27) @ Tommy Mathieu (10-2, 3.14)
Mathieu is solid for 6 with 9 K’s and only 1 earned, Brisk labors through 7 with 4 earned, and 9 K’s – but, Houston Reliever Arlo Alverson blows it in the 8th when he allows 3 to get across and we get another in the 9th against former Phoenix Sun flunky Cleveland Cornejo to tie it up – Nash Aguilar would bring home the game-winner on a sac fly in the top of the 10th for our lone victory of the series by a score of 6-5. Otto goes 0 for 4 with 3 K’s, Pepper 1 for 5 with 2 of his own, and Mullens gets 3 RBI on a 2 for 6 day. We’ll take them any way we can get them.
We took the long road to win
#60 and now head up to Seattle to visit the #4 Power Ranked team in the majors – we are slotted in at #5 on the ranking – so, maybe a World Series preview – one can dream.