As the the league rests over the holiday weekend, we can catch you up on the four games last Thursday and Friday below.  But before we do, the regular season is winding down this week and we have eight games left on the schedule.  The playoff seedings are begining to take shape.  The statisticians tell me that the White Sox, Dodgers and Padres all have a chance at the regular season title and that seven of the eight teams are still jockying for playoff positioning.  This week, the Padres and Diamondbacks each have three games, the As and Orioles have two games and the White Sox, Dodgers, Red Sox and Cardinals each have one.

On Thursday night, the first game on C was a doozy between the Orioles and the Dodgers. The Dodgers entered the game low on pitchers and with the Ihrig brothers on injured reserve. The O’s took advantage and jumped out to an early lead prompting the Dodgers to bring in Evan Wilson to pitch who was playing in the first Majors game of his career. The Orioles used four pitchers on the night, Brendan Carson, Peter Alexopoulous, Gibson Ketterer and Spencer Thompson. Slowly but surely the Dodgers crept back in the game, however, and had a chance for a walk off win in the 6th.  They converted in the 6th and won a 17-16 thriller.  Wilson threw 81 pitches on the night and got the win for the Dodgers.
Over on Field A, the White Sox and the A’s clashed for the second time this season with the same starting pitchers, Justin Muse for the A’s and William Fiorentino for the White Sox.  The Sox jumped out early and never looked back. Offensively, they were paced by five hits from Mitchell Collins, three from Axel Osborn and two more from Nathan Wan, Fiorentino and Ben Ragosa.  Axel Osborn pitched the fifth inning and Sam Christmas the sixth in relief of Fiorentino for the White Sox.  After Muse, the Athletics went with Shane Doherty, Damon Romanos, Nate Rotondi and Grady Doherty.
In the night cap on C, the Red Sox tussled with the Cardinals.  The Sox jumped out to an early lead thanks to offense from Jovic Stachelski and Sean Boyd, among others. Boyd also got the start for the Sox and pitched very well before being relieved by Grady Sullivan and Sam Pandolfo.  The Cardinals went with four pitchers on the night: William Beach, Teddy Angell, Joe Kubicki and 10 year old William Ferrari.  The Red Sox halted a two game slide with a 10-4 victory that moved them one game ahead of the Orioles in the standings.
Only one game was played Friday and that one, between the White Sox and Cards, was moved up to a 4:30 pm start time to avoid rain scheduled for later in the evening.  Mitchell Collins toed the rubber for the White Sox and Joe Kubicki for the Cards. The Cards pushed across leadoff hitter William Ferrari in the first before the White Sox got going in the bottom of the frame.  The Sox scored six in the first and another six in the second to take the lead. Sam Christmas came in for Collins and pitched four solid innings for the White Sox in the victory.  Eli Krogmeier and Owen Richardson finished up for the Cards on the hill.