Miami United (60-62, .492, 4th NL East) @ Brooklyn Citizens (59-61, .492, 5th NL East)
During my years spent toiling in LA, I had the Phoenix Suns as my rival – an omnipresent foil and the stick by which we measured our success. Brooklyn, despite the fact that they shot themselves in the foot during our day off, and even though we are 11-4 in head-to-head matchups against them this year, will occupy that space for us quite nicely, I think. We don’t like them. They, in turn, don’t get all warm and fuzzy when we enter the room. So, while certainly not a battle of behemoths, they’ll do nicely as our huckleberry, and, if we’re lucky we’ll continue to be quicker on the draw during this 3-game set. We’ve been living in the margins so far – our +2 rating against the Pythagorean and -32 rDiff tells the story of a club whose good fortune far outweighs its level of talent, while Brooklyn, after the fire sale I’ve detailed several times already, is right where they are supposed to be. So, here we are, in Brooklyn, with full lodge and board, to do battle against our self-appointed rival – in the most unsexy of matchups on the other side of the ides of August. It’s all everything bagels and garlic cream cheese from here on out – served up by an aging hipster who bides his time between sipping craft brews, pinky up, and the grooming of his statement beard.
123 of 162: Thomas Deane (7-9. 5.36) @ Dylan Tuyay (9-10, 5.05)
Loss, 5-4. Brooklyn petitioned the league to require that we didn’t wear our black caps for this series under the guise of it being too confusing for fans in the upper decks. So, because we do what we’re told when the league office is involved, we acquiesced and donned our pink crowns – and, in addition to looking ridiculous in our Bubbalicious inspired lids are now 0-1 while wearing them.
Deane gave us 5 innings of work, allowed 3 hits and 3 runs, but was lifted after doling out his 4th free pass of the game. He just hasn’t been able to tap into his A-game with any regularity…
Kyle Weaver brought his stick and went 3 for 3 with a run scored,
Rico,
Magee, and
Anaconda each drove in a run, and we managed to field an expertly crafted double play that betrayed the fact that our defense is shoddy.
124 of 162: Kordell Littles (7-10, 4.76) @ Hunter Larson (3-7, 5.22)
Win, 7-1. Before the game,
Kordell told one of the sideline reporters, a Ms. Peggy Cameron, former Team USA Softball standout, that he preferred our pink crowns to the standard black we normally wear. And, despite finding himself alone on that island, managed to style it competently during his 7.1 inning performance where he allowed only 3 hits and 1 run while fanning 5 citizens.
Iovino hit a 3-run dinger,
Homer smashed a 2-run jack of his own,
Magee hit a triple, his 4th of the year, and we got another tip-top double play. We did what was required of us today – managed to exact some small measure of revenge after last night, have pulled ourselves back into a tie with these guys, and now have an opportunity to push them below the surface of the water in the rubber match tomorrow.
Elsewhere: Cleveland Cornejo, after washing out of Chicago’s farm system at 32-years old in May, signed with the Mississippi Hound Dogs a mere 17 days later… he’s gone 6-4 with a 2.39 ERA since joining the Bush League club and pitched 6 innings of shutout baseball in his new home’s 6-0 win over the Shreveport Sashimi Samurai…
Cleveland went 24-54 with a 4.97 ERA in his 6 years as a major leaguer, including his record-setting 17-loss season in 2073. It’s a dubious distinction, sure, but it’s his. A scarlet letter earned as punishment for convincing his Skipper to keep putting him out there, I suppose.
125 of 162: Radoslav Borovsky (8-8, 3.49) @ Matthew Krebs (13-8, 4.44)
Win, 10-2. Unlike
Kordell,
Radoslav has made no bones about telling anyone within earshot about his displeasure of being forced to wear our Bubbalicious lid, but, like
Kordell, he wore it today in the style and grace of a world-class ballet dancer. Look, he’s no
Baryshnikov, but, over the course of his 7 innings of work today (where he allowed only 2 hits while fanning 8), I would’ve had a tough time telling the difference between the two.
Anaconda slithered his way to a 3 for 5 performance at the plate and touched
Krebs up for a double, a homer, and 5 RBIs, and
Scharmer hit a 3-run blast of his own. So, in addition to
Borovsky’s sublime pirouettes on the mound, we hit 4 two-baggers, two homers, recorded 3, 2-out RBIs, ripped a tasty SAC FLY, and took possession of 4th on the NL East table once and, hopefully, for all. Unless we can will ourselves into 3rd place – I’d be cool with that too.