Morales and Jaramillo both went 3-0 from their five July starts
The biggest injury blow of the month was Mike Singleton only lasting one batter into the second innings of his first start before heading for the D/L with a strained oblique. The sophomore pitcher that had been dragging the Sluggers along would only make two more starts this month, right at the end, and was yanked after four innings in the second. Thankfully for Sluggers the real Kevin Morales & Pepe Jaramillo finally stood up to be counted, in their five July starts each they both went 3-0 for their first winning records of 2036. Jaramillo suffered with control issues, walking 14, but they both conceded around the dozen runs mark in the five game. Doug Clement was surprised that after getting Player of the Game honours winning his first start of the month he was sent to the bullpen as 27-yr-old Ramon Gaza was called up from Double-A Louisville Fire to replace him. Clement’s season didn’t turn round in the ‘Pen and he was tagged with four losses in five outings to reduce his record to a pitiful 3-12 with an ERA just managing to stay under five. Gaza, on the other hand, didn’t really shine either going 1-1 in four July starts with an ERA of 6.04. Sluggers did however win three of his four starts. Lefty bullpen arm Samuel Cant posted his only two decisions, it turned out, of 2036 going 1-1 and reducing his ERA to 3.36. Yasuoka Okamura was once again the steadying influence, 12 more appearances with his third straight month of a 1-0 record, and only gave up one run with came via the long ball against Valencia at KTP Stadium. He ended the month with an ERA for the month of 0.71 despite having walked 10 batters. Carlos Rosa also posted his best month having a 2-0 record and five saves along with an ERA of 2.30 in 16 outings. He also had a 28/7 K/BB ratio.
Unsurprisingly the batters also prospered in Sluggers’ best month, Jaime Ramirez managed a .376 batting average whilst scoring 15 & driving in 13 in his 26 starts. Jose Vazquez was once more on fire launching eight homers and driving in 19 runs, he went home with the BBA JL Rookie of the Month award for July for that effort. Those two were the only two starters to hit over .300 for the month, the rest struggled even to touch .250 and again, while Gabriel Talamante was a productive home run hitter (six plus 10 RBI) he struggled to make contact hitting just .185. Pedro Saldana was at least successful with all his base stealing attempts, the downside was he only attempted six times in his 22 starts. Meanwhile Ramirez was successful in 10 out of his 13 attempts