The end of April put a damper on the month’s results and so it was in May. Late in May a season worst five-game losing streak helped drop the team’s record in May to 12-15 which meant Louisville were 27-27, exactly at .500 after the second month, sat fourth in the JL Southeast seven games behind leaders New Orleans. The fans were not over impressed with both Huntsville and Jacksonville sneaking above them also, a sweep of Atlantic City earlier in the month was no comfort to them after both Rockville & Wichita swept them when the Sluggers visited. In fact the only real joy was a mid-month homestand which produced series wins over Charm City & Hawaii, which was Louisville’s only other successes apart from that Gamblers sweep.
Surprisingly the best pitcher in the rotation during May was lefty Doug Clement, he won four of his six starts to square his record at 4-4. Rogerio Vazquez was probably lucky to come out of the month with a 2-1 record from his five starts as he sported an ERA that was only a few points south of 9.00 and surrendered eight homers during the month. Kevin Morales was in a slump losing two out of his three starts but only one of his eight runs was unearned, only 1.7 runs of support per start didn’t really help his cause either; his problem was the three homers surrendered. The other pitchers though were hurting as the defence developed butterfingers and booted 35 balls during the month. Jaime Ramirez (9) & Pedro Saldana (6) were responsible for almost half of them and Mario Villarreal was the most victimised, six of his 26 runs allowed were unearned. It had been a little more sturdy effort from the backend of the bullpen, Carlos Rosa was tagged with a loss and two more blown saves while Lando Klomp was tagged for two losses.
Third baseman Sean Maguire was the month’s hottest hitter as he hit six homers, took 18 walks and scored 20 times. His triple slash was .351/.462/.617. Gabriel Talamante continued his recovery from his poor start as he led the team with seven homers. Rookie Vince Osborn was one of four starters that hit over .300 for the month, he hit .344/.411/.563 with four homers, 18 runs and 15 RBI. Six successful bag swipes out of seven stolen base attempts helped as he received the Rookie of the Month for May.
A worrying trend with the bat is Shag Hopkins struck out 35 times during the month, over a third of his At-Bats while Gabriel Talamante wasn’t far behind with 24. Speed on the base paths is still part of the Sluggers game plan as 42 steals in May brought their 2035 total to 100 bases, third highest in the JL. Percentage wise it was good too as they were only caught 10 times in their 52 attempts. Despite his mid-months slump Brian Clough rallied to amass 20 hits in the month, he’s now just 61 hits from the magic 3,000 mark. Only four of the hits were XBH though (all doubles) but he did work 24 walks, almost 20% of his At-Bats.
In Triple-A, Missouri went 16-10 to lift their overall record two games over .500. Lou Cotton might not have the best arm at second base but he’s giving sound defence at second and is good at first too. In May he led the Blues in homers (8) & RBI (18), also Total Bases (51) and Runs Created (13.8). 25-yr-old pitcher Augusto Pimentel is worrying the organisation and will have to buck up to keep his job; in May his K/BB ratio was 15/14 with an 8.44 ERA after giving up 20 runs in 21 innings pitched.
Double-A Alabama finished the month with a six-game losing streak, dropping the month’s record to 12-17 but still three games over .500 overall. Pitcher Wilson Padilla was promoted to the Slammers after going 6-0 in the first two months of 2035. Another second baseman, Antonio Cruz, was the main man of the month, hitting .357/.407/.704 with eight homers and 30 RBI. Ocala, the Sluggers Single-A affiliate had their second month over .500 and lead the pack chasing the division leaders. 20-yr-old starter Felix Garcia rebounded from a bad April to go 4-1 in six starts in May, giving up just five runs with a 35/5 K/BB ratio. Masahiko Ito had a rough time being tagged for three losses in his six starts but his ratio’s like HR/9, BB/9 and K/9 are still looking good. The Seminole’s DH, Yoshiaki Ohayashi, hit .344 for the month including eight homers. He scored 13 times and drove in another 13 runs