[pauwoo]

Miami United (66-70, .485, 5th NL East) @ Houston Dynamo (60-77, .438, 5th NL West)
After 7-straight losing seasons, the Dynamo’s existence in Houston is in jeopardy if reports are to be believed… it would seem that their owner, Victor Davies, is looking to cut bait and move his money into a business where he can grow his money for a change. That he’s not particularly concerned about the plans of any potential new owner and instead is looking to maximize what he earns in a potential sale, doesn’t necessarily bode well for the city of Houston. Of course, this is all just conjecture – built on the house of cards that sports journalism has constructed – but, it could mean that this would be our last trip to Houston as a Miami based ball club. Not ideal for us given that the trip to Houston is among our shortest – but, we’ll save our worries for those things that we can control. Houston, by every statistical measure, is one of the three worst clubs in the Majors. They are riddled with injuries, have a poor offense with a shaky lineup, and, while their pitching could be described as solid, it is inconsistent and often bad. We’re sitting at 3-1 against them in head-to-head matchups so far in 2079 – a meaningless trend coming off our sweep at the hands of the lowly Seals of San Francisco, but I’m running out of places to hang my hat at this point… so, coupled with the fact that they are 3-7 in their last ten games, it’s really all we have to go on at this point. Let’s hope it’s enough to get us back on track so we can close this campaign out as strongly as possible…

137 of 162: Murray Wagner (6-7, 4.03) @ Case Bond (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 7-3. Now, this is more like it… Murray gave us an 8-inning, 2 earned run performance, OH HONG went 3 for 4 with a double and 3 RBIs, and Early Felger went 3 for 5 as well with an RBI and 3 runs. Felger also hit a SAC FLY and swiped a bag, and two of OH HONG’s RBIs came with two outs on the board. This was a fine, 15-hit performance from the Pink Tops – we chased Case Bond out of the game after only 1 inning of work and touched each of their relievers up for 1 or more runs before all was said and done. With performances like this in Space City, we sure will miss our time here if it is indeed coming to an end after the 2079 campaign.

Elsewhere: Dejuan Burns (CHI), a member of both of my championship-winning clubs, pitched a complete-game shutout against the Dallas Cowboys and fanned 8 batsmen is the Chicago Fire’s 11-0 victory. This is a nice feather in Dejuan’s cap – he’s still on the decline after leaving LA, and in fact this will be his 4th straight year of seeing a decline in his WAR if the trend holds but navigating the powerful Cowboys lineup is a difficult task for any pitcher.

138 of 162: Kordell Littles (9-10, 4.47) @ Bradley Hughes (4-4, 3.63)
Loss, 5-1. We ended up on the wrong end of a vintage Bradley Hughes performance – the former stud went 7.1 innings and only allowed 5 hits and 1 run while mowing down 6… Kordell took his 11th L of the season and was responsible for each of Houston’s five runs, our only run was brought across by Early Felger from the leadoff spot, Anaconda went 0 for 4 with 4 K’s and Oli Woodward committed his 8th fielding flub of the season. One day we’re up, the next day we’re down – could be a pattern… not sure, I’ll have Cheech run some numbers.

Elsewhere: Seattle’s Frodo Gonzales went 5 for 6 with a GRAND SLAM and 3 runs in the Sounders’ 13-9 win over the Toronto Reds BC. This was Frodo’s second career GRAND SLAM. Not bad for a guy that isn’t known for his power… yet. He does have 22 jacks this year, a career-best by a 10 HR margin. RF Tony Voorhis (PHX) went 4 for 6 with 2, two-baggers, 6 riblets, and a run in the Suns’ 13-11 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tony’s 123 RBIs so far in 2079 are already a career-best and his 25 HRs is the best number he’s put up since he hit 34 in the 2076 season while he was a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And, lastly, the second round of the Continental League Playoffs are set with Amarillo (Jets affiliate), Little Rock (Toronto affiliate), Charleston (Minnesota affiliate), and Fargo (St. Louis affiliate) all making the grade. For reasons unknown to me - I'm pulling for Fargo... feels like that would be the good news story here.

139 of 162: Radoslav Borovsky (9-9, 3.38) @ Josiah Kawka (5-8, 5.76)
Loss, 6-5. This is looking less like a limp to the finish and more like a military crawl to the finish with each passing game… Oliver and Early showed up – Oli with a 2 for 2 day that included a HR, 2 runs, and an RBI, and Early with a 2 for 4 day with 2 RBIs and a run. We battled for it, though, and hit a double and a homer in the game, but the real story here is that we hit into 3 double plays, left 8 runners stranded, got caught stealing three times, and committed two fielding errors. It just wasn’t our day…

Elsewhere: Heathcote Kinton (PDX) went 5 for 5 with a double, a HR, an RBI and 5 runs in Portland’s 12-4 win over the New York Jets. Heathcote is currently 4th in the league in WAR and has been the lynchpin for the Timbers top-rate offense in the American League. They are a dark horse contender to come out of the AL come playoff time.