With a 2-4 sim, Portland is just sort of treading water. The club is 15-22 on the season. Far from being world beaters but far from being a whipping boy in the league. I mean hell, the club is in 6th place in the division for a change and sees six teams with a worse record than us right now. So perhaps things are gradually looking up for the team.
Pitcher of the Sim
Jorge Alonzo
It was another failed attempt at experimenting with a short rotation and openers as now every pitcher on the staff is tired. Perhaps the club will throw in the towel on experimenting for now and go back to regular pitching usage. OF course it didn't stop Alonzo from doing his best as an opener. Alonzo started 3 games that sim, never going more than 2 innings. In fact in all, he pitched 4.1 innings, allowing a run on 3 hits and 3 walks. He didn't strike out a batter. But he did a good job of setting up the game after that, regardless of how the pitchers were used.
Hitter of the Sim
Andrew Gallagher
There has been a lot of talk of shiny blue numbers of late in Portland and Gallagher is a classic case. The club is still waiting for that shiny blue 70 to develop and the stats to match it. Thus far, it hasn't happened. Nonetheless, Gallagher had a solid sim this week where he went 7 for 22 which is a .318 average and he posted a .945 OPS. He didn't hit any homeruns and had just 2 RBI, but we'll take the other stats all day out of a guy we keep waiting to turn the corner. Could this be the sim? He at least got his WAR in the positive now for the season.
Kate's Kookies Highlight of the Week
Did we mention we beat Yellow Springs twice? Well, one of them was a classic pitcher's duel. Portland started the evening with Juan Alvarez who was given the opportunity to face 9 batters. He faced 9 and retired all 9. No one reached base. No one struck out. The team then turned to Frank Walbourne. He walked a batter and struck out a batter in 1.2 innings. But did not allow a run nor a hit. Juan Martinez followed him up for 1.1 innings. Martinez did allow the first hit of the game to the Nine, but nothing else. Manuel Martinez would single to lead off the 5th, advance to third on an ensuing single, and score on a double play one batter later. 1-0 Portland leads. Venalde would enter in the 7th inning and pitch one out into the 8th. He struck out 2. No hits, no walks. Roberto Valdez would walk a batter with an out in the 8th. It didn't hurt as Valdez picked the guy off to end the inning. After Dong-Po Thum singled with one out in the 9th, Portland turned again to the pen. This time it was Matt Alicea. He needed 2 outs for the win. A single to the first batter put runners on 1st and 2nd with just one out. After a fly-ball to right brought the game to 1 out away from conclusion, Robert Chenowith lined a single into left-center field.
The game appeared to be heading towards a blown save, possibly extra innings, or worse yet a loss. But Centerfielder Miguel Cortez ranged to his right and cut off the Chenowith hit. He glanced up and eyed Thum rounding third and heading for home. Cortez uncorked a hellacious seed towards Michael Dunn standing at home plate. The ball took one perfect hope off the Trail at Multnomah infield. Dunn snared the hop at waist level and dropped the big mitt on his left hand down on the plate. Thum never stood a chance. The home plate umpire emphatically pumped his right fist towards the ground, signaling the out at the plate. The final out of the game!
Portland defeated the Nine, 1-0! Cortez celebrated with some of Kate's Kookie after the game as his throw was the Kate's Kookies Highlight of the Week!