Montreal Wanderers (47-55, .461, 6th NL East) @ Miami United (51-54, .486, 5th NL East)
The Wanderers hit bombs – they’re rated 5th in that category and flex a roster that has four batsmen in double digits already with a 5th that isn’t far behind. From #2 through #5 in their order, every guy, down to a man, can take you yard. The only problem with them is that outside of going yard, they don’t do much else of value – 11th in runs scored, average, OBP, OPS, and wOBA… who knows what these guys could do if they got on base with any regularity and then, once there, if they had even a single set of wheels amongst themselves who knows how much damage they could do on the base path. That they pair their feast or famine offense with a crackerjack staff is enough to give me fits – sure, they’re last in the NL East, but if you give them an inch, as my club so generously likes to do, they’ll take a kilometer, convert it back to the Imperial System, and run up the scoreboard like they got the multiball on G N’ R’s pinball machine and are scoring jackpot points while ‘Nightrain’ plays in the background. We’ll do our best to load the field with dead bumpers here and, hopefully, will secure another series victory before we head into an August that is likely to be as heavy on travel as it is light on wins.
106 of 162: Joseph Grace (6-8, 5.68) @ Lucas Brandt (4-7, 3.52)
Win, 7-3. Montreal managed to put two balls out of the park – both in the top of the 4th and both against our starter,
Lucas Brandt, who weathered the storm en route to a 7 inning, 5 hit, 3 run effort for us in the win.
SS Austin Eicher went 3 for 3 with a double and a run,
Homer &
Anaconda put up identical 2 for 4 lines with each scoring one and driving another in, and we got both a SAC FLY and SAC BUNT.
Brandt did his best to combat the Wanderers' superior launch angles by attacking the zone, and, outside of
Archie &
Harlem’s bombs, gave a good enough account of himself to will us to victory. That’s two in a row… hopefully, we can build a little something before turning the page on July.
Elsewhere: The Los Angeles Kings, or, more specifically, Megan Appel, traded
3B Pepper Grant to the L.A. Galaxy along with prospect
CL Jack St. Germain for
CL Don Haag… I don’t get it. They already had a pretty good closer in
Justin Esson and
Pepper is an institution in the Purple & Gold.
It kind of hurts your eyes, doesn’t it?
107 of 162: Dylan Bauer (6-7, 4.69) @ Radoslav Borovsky (7-6, 3.28)
Loss, 7-0. Yikes. Montreal put up two more dingers in this one,
DJ Wilders hit his 10th to become the 5th player on their roster to have 10 or more jacks, and
Nehemiah Jenkins hit a 3-run blast in the top of the 2nd off our starter,
Radoslav. We could only eke out 5 total hits, none of which were of the EBH variety, and stood helpless in the field as the Wanderers attacked us like
Johannes Ostermeier attacks a widebody Twilight Zone machine at an IFPA tournament. Montreal was out here running up the score on us today while our guys thought we were supposed to be playing Dig Dug.
Elsewhere: Jo Jo Jackson hit two dingers during the Cowboys’ 7-6 loss against the Vancouver Giants. His total now sits at 28 on the year, which puts him in a two-way tie for 2nd place with
Aitor Cubas. And, given that
Tom Franzone recently had a rehab setback, it’s safe to say that we are likely to see a new HR King at the end of 2079… who will it be? The well-rounded
Aitor Cubas or the free-spirited, and free-swinging,
Jo Jo who currently leads the league in K’s by a whopping 21…
108 of 162: Julen Morales (6-8, 3.94) @ Rad Taylor (2-1, 4.20)
Win, 8-1.
Rad had a breakthrough performance – a complete game, 5-hit, 1-run game with 7 K’s,
Homer Wingard hit a
GRAND SLAM in the bottom of the 3rd, and
Magee Ives went 2 for 5 with an RBI and 3 runs. We’d also get a SAC FLY from
Anaconda, 2 swiped bags from
Magee, and 3 tasty double plays. We win the rubber match, have now won two straight series and managed to navigate this one without allowing a single Montreal home run.
Elsewhere: Pepper Grant, in his first action for the Galaxy, went 1 for 3, with a 3-run homer (off of
Brisky) and a walk in LA’s 8-1 win over the Golden State Warriors… the Legend of Pepper is still being written, it seems.
SP David Arney allowed one run and retired
16 batters by strikeout for Los Angeles in the game.