Crunch Time
Blogging gets a late start tonight (my bad on that one) but it's worth announcing this crucial final game of the Outlaw-Armada series is shaping up to be warm-collar affair. It's 2-1 Long Beach in the bottom of the seventh. For a third straight, the Outlaws have struggled to get momentum at the plate.
It's a shame for Nick Singleton, who, despite not being nearly as automatic as Jake McKinley was last night, has pitched plenty well enough to win. He's retired 10 straight batters going into the eighth inning after giving up five hits. Four of them came in Long Beach's two-run effort in the second. He's also thrown 120 pitches, so we'll see how long he can take it.
So what's at stake here? If Long Beach wins, they will enter into another tie for first place with the Outlaws and have a 3-1 edge in the overall series between both teams this season. Should the two teams finish out the first half (which ends Wednesday) tied for first, the overall series is the next tiebreaker. Hence, this game here could decide it.