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Broadcast transcript, pregame show. Fredo Torres, play-by-play announcer, with commentary by Bob Burke and Susan Price.
[start]
Fredo : Welcome back to the Monday Night Baseball Pregame Show, everybody. Bob, I wanted to first talk about the home team tonight, the Phoenix Talons. Preseason prognostications seemed to agree that this was a 89 or 90 win team, but here they are at 43 and 59. What happened?
Bob : Well, Fredo, a combination of things. For one, they lost one of their better starters, Jeremy Smith, to injury back in May. He's not coming back this year. He was replaced by tonight's starter, Tom King, who has been okay on the mound since being promoted from single-A. Pitching for this team in general has been middle of the pack. The real problem for Phoenix has been their position players, who haven't been able to field or hit well this year. They are fourteenth out of sixteen in run production, and thirteenth in defensive efficiency.
Susan : Yeah, if you look at who produced for them at the plate last year, there was Pedro Guzmán, who they shipped to Omaha after a slow start, he's gone. Their first baseman, Liann-wei Mao, is just a shadow of his former self, and Ramiro Hernández is now playing in Valencia, he's gone too. They signed Andrew Torres ...
Fredo : No relation.
Susan : They signed him this offseason to make up some of that ground, and he's been good, but not quite the impact bat that they had in Guzmán.
Fredo : And might still have, had they held on to him, Guzmán playing very well at the plate for Omaha so far.
Bob : And in the field they've just been less than the sum of their parts somehow. They pass the eye test. They don't look terrible, but the stats say they just aren't getting to balls that they should be getting to, and it's hurt them in the run prevention department.
Fredo : Alright, let's go to the other dugout. The Blazers had very low expectations coming into '49. Consensus there was about 70 wins for them this season, but they're hovering around .500, with a record of 49 and 52 coming into tonight's game. Could they make some noise in the wildcard race?
Susan : We talked about how Phoenix lacks an impact bat, well, Montreal has that covered. Juan Rodríguez is having his best season since he left Brooklyn, and Eduardo González is on his way to his best season ever. Add in a little Lineu Aldo, who homered last night, and you have a potent heart of the order.
Fredo : Unfortunately for them, they have to play in Ubisoft Field half the time.
Bob : Really what's holding this team back from a winning record is the starting pitching. Not even the pitcher-friendly park can paper over the deficiencies there. Tonight's starter, Cheslav Evgrafov might some day become a number one for this team, but we've seen that he has a ways to go in his development. I'm surprised this team is playing as well as they are, but I'll be even more surprised if we're still talking about them come September.
Fredo : Alright. Thanks, Bob and Susan. We'll have the first pitch for you when we come back.
[end]
Phoenix would go on to win this game 8-5, thanks in part to an uncharacteristically dominant performance by center fielder Tommy Bathgate (4 for 5, with a home run and two RBI).
