[pauwoo]

Houston Dynamo (34-38, .472, 4th NL West) @ Miami United (39-36, .520, 2nd NL East)
Houston’s best finish in the last 7 years came in 2075 when they posted a 80-82 record and missed the playoffs by 1 game… Los Angeles went instead and promptly lost in the 1st round to the eventual champion Jacksonville Jaguars. Houston hasn’t even as much as sniffed the playoffs since and don’t look like they will get their sense of smell back anytime soon. They just can’t seem to piece things together – and, while they do have one of the sturdiest injured lists in the majors, everybody knows that, even at full strength, this year’s version of the Dynamo is anything but. We couldn’t ask for a better opponent to close out this ultra-long homestand. So far, in 10 straight home games, against some stiff competition, we managed to go a respectable 6-4, but with Houston in town, we have a real opportunity to make this run special, something that we can look back on from the finish line and say, “that was the turning point, that’s when we knew we could be a playoff club”.

76 of 162: Wes Doles (1-0, 5.40) @ Thomas Deane (5-3, 3.86)
Loss, 4-0. Meh. Houston, that terrible team I was telling you about in the hackneyed paragraph above didn’t look so terrible in this one – they’d preserve a team shutout after yanking Wes Doles in the 7th, put three on our starter, two of which came on a jimmy Potter HR, and did just enough to get a good, clean road win against us here… for our part, we hit into two double-plays, got caught with our hand in the honey pot, and committed two, costly fielding flubs. This just wasn’t our best effort – the club had an opportunity to attack a weak club at full tilt and instead decided to play down to their level or worse. Mostly worse.

Elsewhere: Merl Crawford went eight strong innings for the Brooklyn Citizens in their 3-0 win over the San Francisco Seals. Merl walks one and fanned 10 for the game – great showing from the former Laker. C Brandon Schmidt, of your Havana Sugar Kings, went 2 for 4 with a GRAND SLAM, 6 RBIs, and 3 runs in their 10-4 win on the road in Cincinnati. Aitor Cubas (SEA) hit his 21st homer in Seattle during a 6-3 win over the Toronto Reds BC and the Dallas Cowboys’ Jo Jo Jackson hit his 17th long ball during his clubs 6-3 win over the Chicago Fire – both men took advantage of Tom Franzone’s day off and managed to make up a little bit of ground.

Trade: Yan traded Graham Doyle to the Portland Timbers for a gaggle of prospects that have as much chance of making the majors as a scratch ticket bought at your local gas & sip has of coming up JACKPOT. Graham is a guy that I like – he can deal, that much is certain, but he takes too long to get into a groove to be a consistent reliever and doesn’t have the stamina to be a consistent starter. He’s stuck in the middle – and, Yan squished him like a grape. So long Mr. Doyle – may the road ahead be paved in gold.

77 of 162: Pete Taylor (7-7, 2.57) @ Rad Taylor (0-0, 0.00)
Side Note: This rematch of the estranged Taylor bros came without planning and no interference from my marketing staff.
Win, 4-2. Rad Taylor looked sharp – 8 innings of work, 8 hits, only 2 earned runs, and 3 K’s – he’s also 2-0 against his half-brother. Aris Anaconda went 1 for 4 with a 2-run HR off the elder Taylor, Early Felger hit his 5th jack, and Harvey Allen secured his 11th save of the year. This was a good win for the team – and, while it wasn’t one that we desperately needed, it was one where the club could regain some of its standing in the local community after getting shutout by the piss-poor Dynamo in the first of this four-game series.

78 of 162: Mark Borello (4-4, 3.07) @ Mirko Samsonenko (5-8, 3.99)
Win, 4-2. Mirko left with an undisclosed injury after the 1st – sure would be nice if Graham was still around… unless it’s just a DtD thing, then, cool. Guzman gave us 4 innings in relief and fanned 5 for his troubles, Sibley nearly blew it for us when he came on for Saul as he gave up 2 runs, both on solo HRs, in the 7th, and Harvey picked up his 12th save on the year… good offensive showings from Early (2 for 3 with 2 RBIs, a run, and a walk) and Magee (3 for 4 with a double and 2 runs), a steal for Magee, and a SAC FLY from Anaconda… all in a day's work, we’re a fun club to watch when we’re clicking a bit.

Elsewhere: Matthew Krebs, of the Brooklyn Citizens, pitched a complete, 1-run game with 16 K’s in a 10-1 win over the San Francisco Seals… that was good enough for a game score of 90 (4th best this year) and his 16 K’s is the best so far in 2079 by three K’s. Not to be outdone, even though he kinda was, T-Rex Stiles, of your Barbados Tridents, pitched a complete, 3-run game with 15 K’s in his clubs 11-3 win over the Fontana Maples… he finished with a ho-hum game score of 70, but his 15 K’s has him knotted up with Seamus Calzaghe for best of the year. Calzaghe accomplished the feat against Stockton only a few days ago and was highlighted in the previous post.

Injury Update: Well, crap… Mirko will be out for 6 months.

79 of 162: Abe Meinecke (4-6, 4.13) @ Radoslav Borovsky (4-5, 3.43)
Win, 6-0. We send Houston home on a shutout… Early was at it again in a 4 for 4, 3 run, 3 RBI performance, Aris went 2 for 3 with 3 RBIs of his own, and Murray Wagner picked up his first save of the season on a 2.1 inning performance. SAC FLY from Anaconda, 5 swiped bags (Felger 2x, Scharmer 2x, and Magee 1x), and 2 double plays round this one out for us… we’ve now won 3 in a row and have completed our 14-game homestand at 9-5. Not bad.

Elsewhere: Frodo Gonzales (SEA) went 2 for 3 with a HR, 5 RBIs, and 2 runs in the Sounders’ 12-7 win over the Toronto Reds BC. Haven’t heard his name for a while – good to see that he’s still alive, doing what he loves, and, occasionally, making a difference. Oh, and file this one under, “when did that happen”… SP Randy Kline will miss the rest of the season with a torn UCL… I don’t remember him going down, but, whatever – too many bourbon’s it seems. Heathcote Kinton & Palmer Parker took home player of the week honors for their respective leagues, we are now power ranked #6, the top three is Portland, Golden State, and Phoenix… Minnesota is still ranked last and has gone 2-4 since breaking their 11-game losing streak against the San Francisco Seals. Hey! We’re a half-game up on Philly and still holding onto the 2nd slot on the NL East table.