Road Warriors

The Mavs should be rested and ready to go after their first day off of the year. Tonight they'll start a three-game set at Arrowhead Credit Union Park against the Inland Empire 66ers. As you probably recall, the Mavs and 66ers faced each other in the first series of the year, with the 66ers taking three of four at the Mav. In those four games, both teams combined to scored 88 runs! Arena baseball at its finest!

But after watching the Mavs this past weekend down in Lake Elsinore, I'm pretty sure the only way these two teams will average 22 runs per game is if the Mavs score 20 of them. Each series, the pitching--both starting and relief--seems to improve. The Mavs got three great starts from Jon Lockwood, Aaron Cotter, and Marwin Vega, and Paul Fagan certainly had a couple of great innings in his start as well. The bullpen had a scoreless streak of 9.2 straight innings, only to have it broken in the final inning the Storm batted in the entire series.

The offense might have struggled in the last game of the series, but on the whole, it showed it can hit anywhere. If you've been reading these posts and listening to our broadcasts, you probably know Jon and I have been waiting for Mike Saunders to bust out of his shell. Well it looks like he did against the Storm this weekend, going 6-12 with two doubles, a triple, three RBIs, and three runs scored. He had to leave Sunday's game early after being hit by a pitch square in the back, so hopefully it's nothing more than a bruise.

The Mavs have yet to win a series this season, but I think there's a good chance that can change this week. If you can't make the drive down the hill tonight, remember to tune in starting at 7:00 for the pre-game and 7:11 for the first pitch.