The Atoms fell behind early against Arizona, and showed good fight, but ultimately were no match for the T-Birds. We'll try not to get whiplash as our schedule takes us directly from AltLB's best team to its worst. The Memphis Kings roll into Vegas still looking for their first win on the year, so this will be a good opportunity to get right back into the win column. Our player of the game last week was 2B/SS Xavier Edwards; the 2024 World Series MVP went 8-23 with 7 walks, 6 RBI, and a stolen base. #UpAndAtom

We've reached the All-Star Break, which means: All-Star Teams! We have 4 teams this year, for the AL East, AL West, NL East, and NL West. Since the MLB game is hosted by the Philadelphia Phillies, the AltLB game is hosted by their Legacy partners, the Chicago Pros at Speakeasy Field!

Every team earned at least one member of their division's team. As far as full representation goes:
Arizona Thunderbirds - 8 (Ben Rice, James Wood, Sonny Gray, Jesus Luzardo, Eduardo Rodriguez, Cade Smith, Trevor Megill, Dylan Lee)
Detroit Deacons - 6 (Dillon Dingler, Cristopher Sanchez, Cam Schlittler, Max Meyer, Joe Ryan, Louis Varland)
Chicago Pros - 5 (Zach Neto, Mike Trout, Taj Bradley, Sean Burke, Nick Martinez)
Las Vegas Atoms - 5 (Xavier Edwards, Ian Happ, Dylan Cease, Parker Messick, Bryan Baker)
New York Blackbirds - 5 (Ivan Herrera, Junior Caminero, Riley Greene, Zack Wheeler, Gavin Williams)
Oklahoma City Bison - 5 (Brice Turang, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Schwarber, Nathan Eovaldi, Fernando Cruz)
San Diego Pandas - 5 (Hunter Goodman, Miguel Vargas, Braxton Ashcraft, Sandy Alcantara, Logan Gilbert)
Boston Masons - 4 (Nick Kurtz, Otto Lopez, Corbin Carroll, Jacob Misiorowski)
Montreal Saints - 4 (Juan Soto, Chase Burns, Aaron Ashby, Erik Sabrowski)
Oakland Squirrels - 4 (Bryce Harper, Cody Bellinger, Riley O'Brien, Abner Uribe)
Carolina Griffins - 3 (Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Harrison, Hogan Harris)
Minnesota Giants - 3 (Yandy Diaz, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Luis Garcia Jr.)
Dallas Sidewinders - 2 (Bryan Reynolds, Foster Griffin)
Los Angeles Condors - 2 (CJ Abrams, Yoshinobu Yamamoto)
Memphis Kings - 2 (Bobby Witt Jr., Yordan Alvarez)
Milwaukee Muskies - 2 (Brandon Lowe, Mason Miller)
Seattle Samurai - 2 (Jonathan Aranda, Andy Pages)
Atlanta Firebirds - 1 (Randy Arozarena)
Havana Cubans - 1 (Shohei Ohtani)
Kansas City Colts - 1 (Alex Bregman)
Tampa Bay Turtles - 1 (Jordan Walker)
Toronto Talons - 1 (Chris Sale)

Players accumulated stats only for games they were started, and only at the position recognized at the end of the week (i.e. Shohei Ohtani at the end of the week was always credited as a UT player, so all his hitting and pitching stats went towards his UT and he does not qualify as a SP towards this). Players credited at multiple positions (such as Xavier Edwards) could get either spot. Foster Griffin was the only SP,RP player who qualified as a SP, so in his case, he went as an RP, and the next SP went into the team since Logan Gilbert earned more points than the next RP David Bednar. The five best players that missed the All-Star team were: Matt Olson (1B - TOR), Sal Stewart (1B - CAR), Pete Alonso (1B - LV), Freddie Freeman (1B - AZ), and Kevin McGonigle (SS - DET)

After a great weekend in Chicago, the Atoms' All-Stars will make a short trip north along the shore of Lake Michigan to meet the rest of the team in Milwaukee. The Muskies are having a fantastic time in their return to the AltLB, as they sit two points clear of the pack for the final AL playoff spot. We'll look to knock them down a peg and start the second half on the right foot. If we do, there will likely be an opportunity for SP/RP Yoendrys Gómez to make an appearance. The righty reliever threw 2 1/3 innings against Memphis last week, K'ing 2 and picking up a win and a pair of saves. #UpAndAtom

The Atoms came out of the All-Star break looking strong, as we pick up a win over the Muskies to stay atop the NL standings. Next up, we head south to take on the Memphis Kings, who we just beat commandingly a few weeks ago. That said, they were able to hang with a very good Detroit team last week, so we need to keep our guard up. We're breaking out the all-black look for the second time this season, and speaking of the second time this season, Tarik Skubal is back on the graphic. The southpaw looked nigh-unhittable against Milwaukee, going 14 1/3 innings, striking out 21, and allowing just a single earned run, which was enough to earn him a pair of wins and a pair of quality starts. #UpAndAtom

We dispatched of the Firebirds and continue out of the All-Star break as hot as we have always been. We now move onto the second series of our homestand, welcoming the Carolina Griffons to town as they try to salvage something out of their season being well outside of the NL playoff race. We still have a comfortable cushion in the lead for the AL, so we'll need to keep up momentum to clinch things up and get ready for the playoffs. Featured for us this week is SP Brandon Pfaadt, who has been stellar after a stint in the minors to get back to form. Despite only throwing 4 strikeouts over 11.1 innings pitched, he kept the Griffons' bats in check en route to 2 wins and a quality start in his two starts last week. #RideTheLightning