This Week In The Trans Atlantic: Week Five 2028

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This Week In The Trans Atlantic: Week Five 2028

#1 Post by Vic »

By Hamish Campbell
The Edinburgh News
05-07-2028

The Big Picture
Turns out, they’re human after all! Or at least mostly human …

The Havana Leones stumbled a bit in Week 5, opening May with a 3-4 record. They split a four-game set at home with the Kentucky Thoroughbreds and then lost a three-game home series against the Florida Featherheads.

Did the heavens open, toads rain down, and the Leones slip into quiet Trans Atlantic oblivion? Well, no. They stayed at the top of the division with their five-game lead trimmed to four, and their 21-11 mark was still good for best in the Imperial League.

Remember, I did say mostly human …

San Juan continued its solid play, posting a 4-3 record for the week to solidify its hold on second place and put a bit of distance between itself and the profoundly inconsistent Claymores, who went 3-4 and dropped to two games under .500 on the year.

London, sadly, stayed all-too consistent, winning three and losing four. The Underground have yet to post a winning week (although they did go .500 in both weeks two and three).

So where does that leave our favorite division? The Trans Atlantic is still the winningest division in the IL, with 66 wins to 65 by the Seaboard and 61 by the Dixie.

The TAD is still back, baby – by a hair.

Havana Happenings
Let’s shine the spotlight this week on talented young center fielder Maxime Plamondon, who played through a minor shoulder injury suffered on May 2 against Kentucky to slash .385/.448/.462. He banged out 10 hits and put together four multi-hit games to raise his BA from .255 to .288 on the year. Oddly enough, all of that production last week came after the shoulder injury. Plamondon, apparently, thrives on adversity. If he starts to slump, perhaps batting coach Jorge Gonzáles should drop something on his foot … Tough week for reliever Denny Davis, who gave up a couple of crucial homers that proved to be the difference in two of Havana’s losses (on May 2 against Kentucky, and May 7 against Florida). He’s yielded six dingers now in 11 appearances on the year… Game of the Week: The 4-1 victory over Kentucky on May 3 featured a signature win by ace Enrique Vázquez, who yielded just one run in 8.2 innings, allowing seven hits, striking out five and walking none. He came out of the game in the 9th after throwing 106 pitches and looked tired after running Kentucky left fielder Bartolo Mora to a full count before inducing a groundout to first baseman Ira Murdoch. “It gave me no joy to replace Enrique, but he clearly struggled against that last batter,” said manager Yoshihiro Seki. “It was time to rest and enjoy the fruits of a job well done.” Denny Davis – finding a bright spot in an otherwise dismal week – finished out the game with one pitch, inducing a grounder back to the mound by DH Pedro Rodríguez.

Coqui Cables
You can read more about this in the Daily Jumper, but the big news in San Juan last week was another fine performance by Flint Butler, who slashed .483/.545/.724 to lead the Coqui attack and win IL Player of the Week honors. (Featuring Butler as a breakout player in last week’s TWITA is looking like a pretty savvy move, eh?) … Quick shout out to closer José Gómez who flat-out dominated in Week 5, notching three saves along with a 0.25 WHIP, .071 opponents batting average, and .100 BABIP. That’s some nice throwing, José … Game of the Week: We’ll take the May 6 win by San Juan over a tough (19-13) Hartford squad. The Coqui trailed 7-4 going into the 8th inning, when Flint Butler (there’s that name again!) capped a four-run rally to give San Juan the lead. With 1B Jack Speed on third and 3B Kwan-cheol Kang on second, Butler lined a circle change from Hartford reliever He Ling over the shortstop to score both runners. The Coqui added an insurance run in the top of the 9th, and that was it. “That was a really satisfying win,” Butler said afterwards. “Classic Coqui baseball with everyone contributing. Gotta love it.”

Scottish Scoops
It was a week of streaks for the Claymores: three consecutive wins to open things up, and four consecutive losses to close things down. With the end of play on May 3, Scotland had actually climbed over .500 to sit at 15-13 and tie San Juan for second place in the division. Things went to hell in a hurry, though, as the Claymores dropped the final game in the Amsterdam series and then ran into the buzz saw known as the New Orleans Trendsetters. The Scottish lost all three games of that series, although two of them were one-run affairs … ouch … A quick shout out to pitcher Terry Dumont is in order. Early in the season, he was demoted from the starting rotation to the bullpen (where he was wildly inconsistent) to make way for GM Vic Caleca’s abortive experiment with Soichiro Ogawa as a starter. A combination of injuries and Ogawa’s ineffectiveness put Dumont back in the rotation – and he’s repaid the faith with two wins and a particularly strong outing last week. In fact, that outing is our … Game of the Week: The 4-0 victory over Amsterdam on May 3 was Scotland’s high water mark for the week. It featured 6.1 shut-out innings from Dumont, who allowed seven hits and three walks, but battled tough when it counted. The bullpen contributed strong outings from Ángelo Gonzáles, Eitoku Tamura, and closer Ken Fisher (who has yet to yield a run this season). Dumont, meanwhile, has lowered his ERA from an eye-popping 14.09 on April 16, to 5.16 as of May 8.

Underground Utterings
Finding bright spots in the London offense last week was no small task, but there actually was one: CF Bruce McGuire broke out of a season-long malaise to slash .300/.300/.600, with two homers and 6 RBIs. The highlight came on May 3, when McGuire went 3-4 with a two-run home run and 4 RBIs. He was player of the game, but deserved a severe flogging for breaking out a “we take it one game at a time” quote to the London Observer afterwards … Game of the Week: The 2-1 May 4 victory over San Juan qualifies, we think. The Coqui took a 1-0 lead, behind the lights-out pitching of starter Tatsui Kouno, into the 8th inning, before London struck back. A one-out single by SS Tony Cuevas followed by another line drive single from LF Kelvin McDonald put runners at first and second. San Juan then brought in reliever Luis Monsalve to face CF Luis Cervantes, who promptly lined a 1-2 fastball over second base to score Cuevas and tie the game. McGuire then lifted a harmless fly ball to right, bringing up catcher Miguel Angel Gálvez. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Galvez took a ball, fouled one back to the screen, and then smacked a line drive into left center field to score McDonald and give London the lead. Closer Gideon Byrd gave the 45,000 Underground faithful in attendance a couple of nervous moments when he walked two San Juan batters in the 9th, but ultimately induced Coqui RF Francisco Torres to lift a lazy fly to right and lock down the win. “Enjoyed this one!” Gálvez told reporters in the clubhouse. As did everyone who watched – except, perhaps, Tatsui Kouno, who took a heartbreaking loss.

Where they stand
As of the morning of May 8, it’s: Havana, 21-11; San Juan, 17-15, 4 GB; Scotland, 15-17, 6 GB; London, 13-19, 8 GB.

See you next week!
Vic Caleca
Scottish Claymores
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Re: This Week In The Trans Atlantic: Week Five 2028

#2 Post by Leones »

"The Trans Atlantic is still the winningest division in the IL..." ;-D

-proud member of the winningest division
Patrick Hildreth
- La leña roja tarde pero llega

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Re: This Week In The Trans Atlantic: Week Five 2028

#3 Post by Fishermen »

Owner of the league’s best division round-up too ;-D
Andy (Sim, Chaan-Shu)
GM Gloucester Fishermen
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