[dgally]

Good thing is, we've been here before-- sub .500 and getting into the meat of the season. However, we can't have another month like June. That'd put us too far in the hole.

However, July doesn't start off hot...baseball wise. We continue our series with division rival Mississauaga and lose two heartbreaking 1 run games. Swept again. 0-2

An early All-Star break give the boys some time to regroup. Like last year, our only two Lynx are English and Buck.

We come back (hopefully refreshed) as we head down south to Tijuana. The boys come out swinging, winning the first two games 7-6 and 9-3. We can't complete the sweep though, losing the last game 6-1. But hey, series win. 2-1

Home to Montreal against Chicago. 21 yr old rookie Brackmann tosses a fine ballgame with the pitcher's duel completed by relief after 6 1/3 for a 1-0 win. We win the next too but again, can't complete the sweep. 2-1

WS contender Honolulu comes into town next. They swept us back in May and they brought their brooms with them again. Three loses, all pretty narrow. 0-3

Off to Monterrey next where we take being swept out on the Canucks, sweeping them and getting our three games back. 3-0

We hop on the plan, have a day off and face the Big Trains of Naucalpan. The day off didn't hurt our momentum however as we sweep the trains too, including a blow out 15-3 middle game led by a 6 RBI game by star 2b man English.

Road time against division leader Managua. We lose our ground. The fourth sweep in a row with this one going against us. 0-3 We fall to fourth in the division. Worse is we lose English for (only) two weeks. SS Crecelius will shift and former 1st rounder Hazelwood will come into SS.

Former MVP Crecelius is having an abysmal year, batting .224 with 2 HR. Dev be unkind.

Bouncing back home again, we face playoff nemesis San Luis. We win the first, 5-1 off Brackmann again who's pitching as a FO. We squeak out the second but fail for a fifth straight sweep. 2-1

Off to Cuba. Expansion team Havana hosts us in a four game series including a double header on day 1. This is the last series of the month and we're sitting at .500ish for the month. Day 1 goes swimmingly. Buck pitches a 8 inning 1-0 shutout and we follow it up with a 4-3 win. The broom is back. We sweep Havana.

Incredibly of the 9 series in the month, 6 are sweeps. 3 in favor, 3 not. Still the last series proves huge as we post a 16-11 July, 2 games below .500. While we're 9 1/2 back in the division, we're only 2 back of a packed WC race. Starting LF Kunz goes down with injury, out two weeks.

Rookies Brackmann and Koch have proven solid starters while CF Arnold and SS Crecelius are near liabilities.

At the deadline, we trade away backup C Fourie for some cash and SP Moises Fuentes (he'll be a rental). After 11 months on the IR, Turrieta looks done so we needed help there. We also need cash as we're 21 million over budget on our money available.

Looking at prospect Gross in AAA for a sept call up, he's playing well aside from hitting for average. I don't know how I'll play him but if we're out of the running, I'll let him play over Crecelius who's contract is up and I hope gives us a supp pick.