The Scouting Report:
Game 1:
The Sting take game 1 of a 3-game series in Charlotte against the Brewers and give first place Denver their third straight loss.
Erik Sloan allowed 4 runs on 11 hits in 7 innings pitched to take the loss. The Brewers only managed 3 hits in this one in spite of the fact that the talented young Charlotte starting pitcher Justin Matthews left early (having pitched 4 2/3rds innings) with back spasms.
Val Guzman scored the lone Denver run, and although he was hitless in this one he did walk twice and swiped his team-best 17th base.
Joe McPhillips had the only extra base hit for the Brewers, a pinch-hit 8th inning double, his 18th of the season.
Game 2:
The Brewers broke their mini-losing streak by scoring early and often in the middle game of the series.
Joe McPhillips was one of the big drivers of the offense in this one, going 2 for 4, scoring one run and driving in 3, and he collected his 19th double and 13th home run. The other
Joe, the little one, Mr.
Willemse, was 3 for 5 with 3 runs scored and 1 RBI and picked up his 3rd stolen base of the season.
Antonio Acuna was 2 for 4, scoring twice and driving one run in and both he and
Joe McPhillips threw a runner out at home plate in this one. And
Zacarias Martell contributed a 3 for 4, 2 RBI game and hit his 7th double.
Sekien Hamasaki got the win, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits over 6 innings pitched.
Game 3:
And the Brewers win the series by taking game 3 behind another brilliant
Sadahige Kawasaki performance, his 15th quality start, 10th complete game, and 5th shutout of the season. And he needed to be every bit as sharp as he was with his team only managing to score one run for him, that on
Joe McPhillips (.295/.384/.486) 14th homer of the season.
Antonio Acuna (.367/.422/.594) was 1 for 2 in the game, drawing a walk, being hit by a pitch, and stealing a pair of bases to get to 11 on the season.
Brett Taranto (.327/.361/.435) was 2 for 4 and picked up his 15th stolen base.
Notes from around the league:
There was a time when some WPK experts projected Matt Buelvas, the Washington Night Train's 1st round pick in the 1970 amateur draft, to be one of the superstar outfielders in the game. And it is easy to see why as Buelvas has an athletic build with top of the line footspeed and base running abilities to complement an all around solid hit tool (well, other than a subpar approach in drawing walks) and adequate enough defense for a corner outfield slot. It hasn't quite worked out that way for the injury-prone young man though who recently turned 28 and put up just 1.3 WAR last year and is on pace for less than that this season. But this past week he gave the fans a tantalizing taste of what he is capable of when he is healthy and puts it all together. If only he could sustain something close to this over a longer period of time.
As for his Washington club, once among the mightiest in the SJL, they are on a bit of roll, having won 8 of their last 10, but still remain in a distant 9th place, with a 43-53 record, 23 games behind the leaders.
And that leader is now the always mighty Columbus Whalers (66-30), who have taken a 1 1/2 game lead over the San Antonio Keys (64-31). Philadelphia (55-41) is in 3rd place, 11 games back while Boston (54-42) sits in 4th place, 12 games off the pace.
In the MGL, the Brewers remain atop the standings and lead Brooklyn (55-41) by 10 games and Los Angeles (54-42) by 11. Detroit (52-44) holds onto 4th place, 13 games behind the Brewers.