San Diego Chargers (42-67, .385, 5th NL West) @ Los Angeles Lakers (67-44, .604, 1st NL West)
At 42-67 and 24 games off the pace, San Diego is a club that can get on base (5th in the NL) but doesn’t do much when they get there (9th in runs). And their pitching and defense has been a liability – 10th in runs against, a -100 rDiff, and ranked 11th in Starters ERA… it’s safe to say that the arms on the Chargers payroll aren’t exactly earning their pay. It’s been a tough season for the Chargers faithful – and 2076 wasn’t much better as they broke their 3-year playoff streak and look to create a playoff miss streak in 2077. Brightside? Their AAA Affiliate, the Huntington Beach Bombers, are currently 64-44 in the International League… so they have that going for them.
112 of 162: Artyom Fadeyev (4-14, 6.11) @ Michael Brisk (8-9, 3.81)
Loss, 4-3. Sheesh – you give a guy a little bit of money and suddenly the passion is gone – Brisky runs his loss total up into double digits for the 3rd time in his career and is trending towards a career-high 14 losses… yikes. I’m tempted to ask Megan to break into his locker and steal the keys to his Lambo. Not much worth highlighting here (again) – the offense is still sputtering, the team’s baserunning lacked our usual verve, and outside of hitting a few doubles we really didn’t do much at the plate.
Elsewhere: Huge blow to the AL East-leading New York Jets – SP Philip King is lost for the season due to a torn labrum… currently, the Jets have a 3 game lead on the Carolina Panthers… Oh and Phoenix won their game against the San Francisco Seals and are now only 1 ½ games back.
113 of 162: Rod Garcia (4-8, 5.90) @ Newton Weiser (12-5, 2.75)
Loss, 6-1. Wow. San Diego charged three to Newton’s account in the top of the 1st and never looked back – and we did nothing to answer back – our offense is a complete disaster right now – there is just no other way to put it. Otto, Voorhis, and Hamza each went 0 for 4 with Ethan & Rajkumar being the only batters to record a hit.
Elsewhere: SP Case Tunnell delivered a Complete Game, 3-hit, shutout over the Dallas Cowboys in the LA Galaxy’s 5-0 win – remember when he was a Laker? Can it be that it was all so simple then? Oh, and before I forget, FRODO Gonzalez of the Seattle Sounders went 2 for 4 with 2 homers, 4 ribbies, and 2 runs in their 11-5 win over the Golden State Warriors and in so doing remain a full 5 ½ games up on the Galaxy despite Case’s best efforts. PLUS… Some good news out of THE CITY OF COMPTON – Zach Lavoie – a guy whose contract we purchased from the Nolanville ‘Nauts recently – went 4 for 4 with a double, 2 jacks, and 2 walks in the Raiders 11-10 win over the Mexico City Diablos. Not to be outdone, Bakari Konate went 3 for 5 with a double, a ding dong, 3 ribbies and 3 runs for the contest as well… he’s got an outside chance at being somebody one day.
114 of 162: Burt McElheny (8-10, 4.46) @ Aiden Jensen (7-11, 5.22)
Win, 7-5. OK – so, we didn’t get swept… that’s cool. But where has this offense been? It seems like the sticks only come out in fits and starts… Otto hit a double and drove two in, O-Mack hit a 2-run homer, Barbaccia picks up his 30th save, and we got 3 double plays. We’ll take it – happily. But the reality here is that we should’ve swept these guys and the fact that we didn’t is, well, concerning.
Quick note: Welp – we are now only 1 ½ games up on Phoenix. Just pissing it away at this point… to make matters worse, while we have gone 5-5 over our last 10 the Suns are on something of a hot streak and have put a nice little 7-3 run together over that same stretch. This thing is going to go down to the wire – fun for the fans I guess, but, if I’m honest, I’d prefer a comfortable lead and a less frenzied finish to the season – and, look, we still have ~50 games to go here so there is a lot of runway left – but, the combination of our ****ty form and Phoenix’s rise is giving me nightmares.
