WIN, 8-1, 19-7, 1st NL Central I was slightly worried when the Cardinals scored so easily so early, but those fears were violently put to bed with a seven-run fourth inning. This team doesn't blow teams out nearly as often as their record might suggest, but they are going to win 99% of the time when they put up seven in an inning. I will take that bet every single time.
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WIN, 2-1, 18-7, 1st NL Central I cannot lie here. For one because it's just not a nice thing to do. For two because I'm pretty sure I made obvious in the broadcast. I was absolutely convinced Shibuya was blowing that save. I had no doubt in my mind. I was going to let him do it, but I had zero faith he was coming through after that first run scored. But, I'm sure he's thankful I did, because he came up with a great double-play ball that just totally changed the complexion of that inning. If we're going to ever build the sort of lead like we usually have in the division, we have to win games like this and fend off teams making a run at us. We have been floundering by our standards, but this is exactly the sort of game that we need to win to keep our spot.
LOSE, 3-2, 17-7, 1st NL Central Well, the series was a split, but I think you have to agree they were all four great games. I really thought we might have had something going in the ninth, but no such luck. Instead, the game pretty much boiled down to one bad inning from Stittch, and even that you might put more blame on poor defense behind him. I will say that I never thought this team was ever going to be some sort of defensive juggernaut. Joey and Tom have very good arms, but I don't know that either of them are threats for gold gloves. Joey doesn't cover a huge amount of ground at short, but I will admit he erases a lot of problems with his arm. Outside of that, I think everybody else is middling to below average in the field. It hasn't particularly hurt us overall, though. I misremembered a bit on the broadcast as well. We do have the Cardinals next, but it is a home series, not in St. Louis.
WIN, 2-0, 17-6, 1st NL Central That was nearly a carbon copy of yesterday's games. Both starting pitchers putting on clinics before the Squirrels hit a couple homers late to score all the runs. Probably not a coincidence that everybody starts hitting homers once we go on the road. And it's not just the bullpens, you know?
WIN, 3-0, 16-6, 1st NL Central That was a good bounce-back game, though I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. I was pretty sure that game was going to go into extras, and our record in extras hasn't been stellar this year. Especially once you take out the Brewers. Thankfully, for once, the rain seemed to let the runs flow. Terry got a ball just over the right-center gap fence, and then the guys managed to scrape out yet another insurance run later in the 9th. It turned out not to be necessary, as Shibuya handled things just fine today. Even got a walk-off pick-off. I think that's a new one.
LOSE, 2-1, 15-6, 1st NL Central Well, the Dodgers just continue to be a pain in our side. This is why I was really worried about having to face them in the playoffs last year, but I suppose we got it done when it mattered. This year's edition has just looked very mortal compared to past years. The start to the second season was rougher than this, but this year's team has definitely looked more like a "normal" team to this point. I've gotten so spoiled, I have to remind myself that this kind of start is still really good. This is actually closer to what I thought this team would be. It really only feels like a lot of losses because we usually only lose like two games a month. Just breathe. We're going to be okay.
WIN, 6-4, 15-5, 1st NL Central Well, we didn't get swept!. It just took us what felt like such a long time to get going. Once we finally broke the seal, though, things fell back into place. It actually was a relief to win that one. As you could probably hear in the broadcast, I was resigned to our fate when we were down 3-0. What has not fallen into place is our pitching staff. I'm not sure why Zapp has had to make so many spot starts in this first month. This should be the time all the pitchers are healthy and ready for some extended work, right? It doesn't seem to bode well for later in the season, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
LOSE, 1-0, 14-5, 1st NL Central Well, you just aren't going to win very many games if you don't score any runs. It's not like we didn't have chances. We had a lot of guys on base, including the first two batters of the game. Just absolutely no timely hitting. The Pirates didn't have a lot of that, either, but they had it one more time than we did, and that's all it took. That's the first series loss of the year for the Squirrels, and now we're just playing to not get swept. We haven't suffered very many sweeps at all. I think we took one against the Yankees in the first season in New York, and that might be the whole list.
LOSE, 2-1 (12), 14-4, 1st NL Central Well, if you keep playing with fire, you're going to eventually get burned. Our record has been stellar in extra inning games in the past, but it seems like it's averaging out a bit this season. It's still early, though, so there's plenty of time for us to rip off a 20-plus win streak. I think we've had at least one of those every season, so there's no reason to think we're not still capable of it. If we don't, though, I'm actually okay with that. I've always been a bit embarrassed that I build a super-team. That wasn't the intention. They were supposed to be good, but not record-breaking good.
WIN, 4-0, 14-3, 1st NL Central I'm going to keep this brief to make sure everything gets posted in time, but that was a really enjoyable series against the Reds. There was a bit of drama about who would win the series, all three games were tight. This last one got away a bit from Cincinnati late, but it was 1-0 for two-thirds of the game. That's a pretty enjoyable set right there and the Reds should feel good about what they did. It's off to the Pirates next, and they are a similarly good team. I don't expect things to get any easier the next few days.
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