BoS Week 3 (National League)

"Mirror Performances"

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The Traverse City Panthers traveled to Roseville, California to play the Kings -- and came back with a 5-1 series victory. When the dust settled with all the results back in from the N.L. East, the Panthers suddenly sat on top with a 10-6 record (0.5 games ahead of Holland). The team has already won close to a quarter of the games they won last season, and have a lot to be proud of, but there is much work to do. The lineup still has it's glitches, with the struggles of Giancarlo Stanton & Hunter Pence. The rotation is slimming down the team ERA & is led by youngster Julio Teheran (2-1, 1.40 ERA, 28 K's & 5 walks), who is coming off back-to-back one-hit shutout performances with 13 K's -- total duplicates of one another. While Josh Donaldson is leading the league in batting average (.397), but has yet to hit a HR. The Panthers will host the Rainiers (6-11), at the bottom of the N.L. West.

The Holland Hitchhikers are a half-game behind Traverse City in the N.L. East standings; last year these two teams were in the bottom of their division. Holland is coming off a 3-3 split with a San Diego team that has been playing great ball. The starting rotation pitched better this week, Jose Fernandez (2-1, 3.26 ERA) picked up another 9 K's in a no-decision (39 K's in 30.1 innings), while Mike Minor finally had a good outing, improving to 2-0, and lowering that ERA to 3.79, after going 8 innings (allowing only one run & 3 hits) with 7 K's. Stephen Strasburg (1-1, 4.95 ERA & 24 K's) also had a great outing against the offensive juggernaut, with 8 K's in 7.2 innings, allowing 7 hits & only 2 runs. Evan Gattis tacks on another HR to his BoS leading 7 HR's (with 15 RBI), while batting .275 for the season. Their lineup is still delivering, but would like to get more out of Bryce Harper and Starling Marte. Holland's next test? Hosting the American League Champion Microbrewers.

The Hannibal Cavemen avoid a 6-game sweep of Portland in Game 6 of the series, a bad time to go through a rough skid, with T.C.'s 5-1 series victory & Holland's 3-3 split. The team's rotation is still the team's common successful thread here, as the team's pitching staff is posting a 2.99 team ERA. Gio Gonzalez got touched up a bit, and still sports a strong ERA (2.63) with 24 K's in 27.1 IP. Travis Wood and Jon Lester have been the best two starters of late; Wood has 1-1 record with 1.50 ERA, while Lester has 16 K's in 22.1 innings & a 2-0 record (1.61 ERA). Jhoulys Chacin has improved since his season debut, while Homer Bailey has gone south a bit. The team's offense continues to struggle, as it's average dipped to .210 (.612 OPS) -- Troy Tulowitzki leads all regulars with a .741 OPS, while only two regulars have an OBP over .300. This team is a contender if they can figure out the kinks of their lineup.

The Urbana Locomotives are currently feeling like they are in a bad dream, losing a series against Seattle 4-2, and now sit at the bottom of the N.L. East -- after winning the division last season with 104 victories. David Price is still pitching good, despite a little touch up, at 1-1, 3.47 ERA & 21 K's in 23.1 innings, Jeff Samardzija did not pitch last series (1-1, 2.70 ERA), and Ubaldo Jimenez (still winless at 0-3) improved his ERA to 4.37; The downside is that Cole Hamels and Hiroki Kuroda are currently not pitching to last season's forms. The team's only two good hitters at this point are Adrian Beltre (.277, 3, 11) & D.J. LeMahieu (.291, 16-for-55), but has yet to get a HR or RBI this season. The team currently has a -18 scoring differential, that will happen when your team is hitting a league-worst .208 & has a OPS of .595! Good news, the Locos host the Kings who are coming off a bad week themselves, then again... maybe that's good news for the Kings.

The Portland Microbrewers (11-5) have the best overall record in the BoS, and everything reflects that in their team stats; A.L. rankings:1st in Run Differential (+30), 1st in Runs Per Game (4.9), tied for 2nd in Batting Average (.245), 2nd in home runs (25), 3rd in OBP (.318) -- on to the pitching: 1st in Opponent's Batting Average (.206) & 2nd in ERA (2.88). Plus they are 3rd in fielding (.986 pct). The team's rotation is one of the absolute best, if not the best -- Cliff Lee (2-0, 1.93 ERA & 23 K's in 23.1 IP), Hisashi Iwakuma (3-0, 2.48 ERA, 27 K's in 32.2 IP), Bartolo Colon (1-2, 3.25 ERA, 16 K's in 27.2 IP), and Anibal Sanchez (1-1) has improved his ERA to 3.38, after allowing only an earned run in 6.1 innings (8 K's) in a no-decision against Hannibal; Only guy to struggle in rotation now is Derek Holland. Juan Uribe batted .421 (8-for-19) against the Cavemen, while Carlos Gonzalez added 3 HR's to his 5 for the season. Coco Crisp (.300, 1, 7 & 3 SB) has been playing well for the Brew Crew, as the team seems to be rolling along -- next up, a trip to Holland, Michigan.

The San Diego Heroes are known for their bats, some San Diego fans have nicknamed them the "San Diego Lumber Company", but their biggest statement so far this season has been their pitching. The Heroes lead the National League in ERA (2.87), 1st in fewest walks allowed (40), 1st in fewest hits allowed (109, 6.4 hits per game), 2nd in Opponent's Batting Average (.212) &3rd in strikeouts (143). Their offense is doing the usual: Most Home Runs (29), Runs (80), Walks (62) & Doubles (44): The team's only real problem at this point is their fielding (2nd to last, .976). A look at their rotation: Tyson Ross (2-0, 2.05 ERA, 29 K's in 22 IP), Gerrit Cole (1-1, 2.74 ERA, 17 K's in 23 IP), A.J. Griffin (3-0, 2.86 ERA & 23 K's in 28 IP), Andrew Cashner (1-2, 3.12 ERA, 20 K's in 26 IP) and Francisco Liriano (0-1, 3.60 ERA & 19 K's in 20 IP).  Edwin Encarnacion has picked up where he left off from last season, and leads the team with 5 HR (tied with Chris Davis) & has 15 RBI, Davis leads team with 16 ribbies. Ryan Zimmerman has emerged with .327 avg, 3 HR & 8 RBI (1.056 OPS). The Heroes get ready for an important series against Hannibal, a team that is struggling right now.

The Seattle Rainiers (6-11) rebounded a bit this week with a 4-2 series victory over the Locomotives. The team's batting average rose to .233 & now rank 5th in the N.L. -- but they still rank last in pitching. Wil Myers nearly doubled his playing time this season, in his series against Urbana -- in 11 games, he's batting .368 in 38 at-bats, with a HR & 7 RBI. They are still expecting more bats to improve in time for their series against Traverse City, hopefully in their case they got warmed up against Urbana. Max Scherzer currently is 1-2, with a 4.85 ERA & a league-leading 40 K's in only 29.2 innings. Mike Carp & Jose Iglesias are still big plus marks for Seattle this season.

The King Road Kings hosted the Panthers, and stumbled by nearly getting swept. Only three of their regular hitters are having a good season in Torii Hunter (leads team with .328 avg, HR & 2 RBI), Daniel Murphy (.324, 2, 13) & Michael Cuddyer (.279, 3, 14). The Panthers touched up the Kings' ace Clayton Kershaw for 5 runs in 7.2 innings, as Kershaw's ERA rose to 2.36, earning his second loss -- while Chris Sale continues to struggle at 1-2, 6.20 ERA. The rotation has been really effective with the likes of Ervin Santana, Miguel Gonzalez & Jorge de la Rosa, it's the team's lineup that can't keep up with other team's pitching & has a hard time helping it's pitching with run support; The team is batting .228 with a .293 OBP. Kings prepare for their trip to Illinois to face Urbana next.

*** This concludes the N.L. Highlights for Week 3 ***