Beginning of Series 7 and beginning of second half of the season

RED 5, QEY 6 F

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
RED	0	1	0	0	0	0	4	0	0
QEY	0	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	2

W – Wickman (1-0)            L - Wagner (1-1)             Blown Save - Wagner (1)

Both teams were looking to bounce back from disappointing series in this one, sending their number 4 starters to the mound. Former All-Star Jimmy Haynes put in a good performance for the Warriors, although the numbers look much better than the reality since he found himself working in and out of trouble for most of the evening. In his six innings of work, he was only burned once in the second inning when Paul Konerko doubled in the first run of the game. Konerko, who started off the season very slow, has gradually come to life in recent games. Aces starter Ramon Ortiz also put in a respectable effort for a control 2, 40 point 4^th starter, also going six innings and earning the quality start with just three runs allowed: a Geoff Jenkins two run shot in the third (his team leading third homer of the year) and a rally in the sixth that yielded lead-off man Luis “Cactus Pants” Castillo’s first RBI of the year. Surprisingly, things really got interesting when the bullpens took over in the seventh. Warriors reliever Sean Lowe continues to have an awful season and set himself up for his league leading fourth loss of the year when he surrendered a grand slam to Miguel Tejada in the seventh. But the Warriors battled back; reliever Paul Quantril looked shaky once again in the seventh where he surrendered a run off the bat of a Jason Barrett double. The Warriors bullpen held firm in the eighth and ninth, thanks to an encouraging performance from closer Bob Wickman, who also is looking to put a rather bad first half of the season behind him. Aces closer Billy Wagner took the mound in the ninth, trying to earn his league leading fourth save of the year. On his first pitch, Cliff Floyd singled to center. That brought Frank Catalanotto to the plate, who quickly found himself facing an 0-2 count. After fighting off almost a dozen foul balls, Catalanotto took Wagner deep, bringing home Floyd and himself for the walk-off victory. Obviously a big win for the Warriors that puts a little bit of wind back in their sails; Frank Catalanotto has really emerged as a fan favorite and leader of this team. As for the Aces, Ishmael von Corrin had the following to say after the game: “Of course I’m disappointed. And I’m a little embarrassed as well. Here we are with a record that is just a little better than .500. The fact that we currently lead Division 2 just feels hollow when I remember that. We can be doing so much better and I think we know that. We really are one of the elite teams in the league, and I think that it’s high time that we start acting like it.” Perhaps most worrying for the Aces has been the recent performance of their bullpen. Despite having six arms available, there’s been talk about Wagner being overworked. Neither Paul Quantril nor Travis Harper have been particularly good as of late. With some issues that need fixing in the starting rotation, will von Corrin have enough cap space to work with down the stretch to make any adjustments?
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MAX 4, LIN 3 F

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
MAX	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	0
LIN	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0

W – Pettite (1-2)            L - Rueter (1-2)             Save - Rivera (1)

Former Cy Young award winner Andy Pettite was back to his old self in the early innings of this one; after struggling through the first inning, he only gave up three further hits until he ran into a bit of trouble in the seventh. As for his opponent Kirk Rueter, he suffered from his characteristic “hell inning” in the third, when Delino “Delicious” Deshields notched his second RBI of the year, and Richie “Assburn” Ashburn knocked in another two runs with a clutch bases loaded double. The three run lead looked comfortable until the seventh, when the Lindsyans rallied for two runs. Things could have been much worse for the Bombers if Pettite hadn’t come up big by striking out the horribly slumping Manny Ramirez with the bases loaded to finally get out of the jam. The Maxions answered with a mini-rally of their own, with Richie Ashburn again hitting a clutch double and racking up his ninth RBI of the season, the most in the league for lead-off men. The spirit of the Jerky Bean was not down and out yet, as catcher Victor Martinez hit a solo homer off of Ugueth Urbina in the eighth to once again make this a one-run ball game. However Mariano Rivera entered the game in the ninth for the Bombers (only his second appearance of the year) and slammed the door shut on the Jelly Queen Dream Team to earn his first save of the year. This is a very bad start for the Jelly Bean Dream Team of a series of games against underperforming teams; this puts a ton of pressure on them to pick up as many wins as they can in the next five games. As for the Bombers, don’t look now, but they are now only two full games out of third place in the pitiful Division 2, and only one game out of finally getting out of the basement. A few things have come together of late that have made the Bombers look like a much improved team: starting pitching has been great, Jeff Kent is no longer an automatic out and has been a strong presence batting fifth in the order, and Richie Ashburn continues to put up All Star numbers in almost all categories.

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MEL 2, AXN 4 F

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
MEL	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
AXN	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0

W – Morris (2-0)            L - Garcia (0-2)             Save – Kolb (4)

This game is probably what most fans expected: a rather sloppy game between two of the lower ranked teams trying (rather pathetically) to get off to a good start in the second half of the season. Former Bobian Freddy Garcia first ran into trouble in the second inning, where he surrendered a bases loaded triple to Omar Vizquel. Newcomer Hank Blalock notched another run for the Darkpaws in the third inning with a solo homerun, his third homer of the year. Starter Matt Morris was solid as well, only surrendering two runs in his last inning of work in the sixth. It’s interesting to note that these three players (Vizquel, Blalock, and Morris) are the most often spoken of when it comes to trades. Fans will remember that the Green Sox aggressively pursued Blalock when he was a free agent, but eventually lost out to the Darkpaws; rumors circulated this week that the Green Sox are still indeed interested. In any case, these three players won the day for the Darkpaws, but they certainly had help from the hapless Melmegetian offense, who racked up a total of seven double plays throughout the game. Aside from an Adam Kennedy triple in the sixth, nearly every other opportunity they had was quashed with the dreaded ground ball. Darkpaw reliever Rich Garces continued to be shaky and looked for a minute that he was going to blow it in the seventh, but was rescued by yet another Marauder double play. Danny Kolb entered the game in the ninth and earned his league leading fourth save of the year; he has earned a save in every single Darkpaw win thus far this season. Series seven is off to a wacky start; could the also be the beginning of a renaissance for the Darkpaws as well?