- VISIT - 
When the season began, BBA (GM of) Nobody Ted Schmidt asked if any team had ever dumped a bunch of money on the free agent market, and gotten good. Long Beach GM Stephen Lane’s surfers have since been on a quest to answer that question. This week they get a chance to make a statement, as they travel to the one spot of our nation’s tropical paradise that isn’t underwater to face James Walker’s Hawaii Tropics. The stakes are high. The Surfers are only a game and a half back in the standings, and having won eight of their last ten ball games. The Tropics have been no fading lily, having won eight of their last twelve.
Pitching Could Tell the Tale
The pitching matchups are always subject to change, but it appears that the rotations will be:
Game 1: Jorge Alfaro (4-4, 3.78) vs. Jesus Gonzalez (8-7, 4.41)
Game 2: Ernesto Delgado (9-11, 4.45) vs. Zak Johnson (11-9, 4.98)
Game 3: Del Willis (1-0, 5.06) vs. Alaric Wullenweber (13-5, 3.11)
The first thing to notice is that Hawaii dodges a bullet here and—unless Surfer manager Gabriel Rodriguez pulls a surprise card out of his sleeve—will not see Surfer Ace Danya Tchekanov. Tchekanov has started on four days rest on rare occasion in the past, but he threw 102 pitches in a 12-5 win at Seattle yesterday, so the chances of that seem unlikely.
Items of note here are the appearance of rookie Del Willis, who was just drafted two months ago and looks to be now asked to carry the load of facing Wullenweber, and Wullenweber himself, who is putting up another Nebraska quality season in a year that is seeing a number of them. Is this his year, or is he fated for another “close but no cigar” result. A solid victory in this clutch moment could go toward creating a legend.
The Surfers carry one of the top bullpens in the league, and will certainly hope to get into the late innings with the game close. Only Madison has used their pen as often as Long Beach, and we’re pretty sure Madison’s case isn’t by design. That said, Long Beach’s big three (Raul Alvarez, Cornelio Lozano, and Luis Manuel Rodriguez) all three throw from the left side and may not be as effective against the RHB slant the Tropics can field.
McBride Loss Looms Large
Despite that 8-4 record in their past twelve games, the Tropics are 9-9 since losing slugger Ernest McBride to a fractured hand. On the season the Hawaii offense averages 5.57 runs per game, but that has shrunk to only 4.77 since that injury—yes, small sample, but these are still numbers that keep managers up at night. Jose Camacho has been a productive hitter in the past, but the microscope is fully on him now that he’s replacing McBride, and the results have been lacking so far. Social Media pundits recently voted him most likely to be thrown off the Island next.
It should be noted that Hawaii is also without gifted center fielder Ronnie Hubbard, while Long Beach is dealing with the loss of shortstop Francisco Otero. Baseball, it seems, is a long and grueling season. We've entered the time of the year where the goal is simply to survive.
Results to Shape Race
A Tropic sweep could put a serious damper on Long Beach’s quest, so that’s got to be on every Tropic fan’s mind. But the Surfers are building steam, and a sweep their way could give them leadership of the division while building momentum into tsunami-like levels. Even a simple 2-game swing Long Beach’s way would serve to raise the pressure cooker Hawaii finds themselves in.
It’s a big moment either way, so the league as a whole sits and watches…
