Saturday, September 24, 2016

Series 3, Part 3

QEY 0, MEL 3 F

                1              2              3              4              5              6              7              8              9
QEY        0              0              0              0              0              0              0              0              0           
MEL       0              1              0              0              1              0              1              0              0              

W – Moyer (1-1)                   L – Mulder (0-1)                  S – Koch (1)                   

Dr. Vindaloo’s Marauders sent ace Jamie Moyer to the mound seeking the teams second victory of the season after edging out the Warriors in Game 1 of Series 3. Moyer pitched his second quality start of the year, and then some: dominating for 8 innings, only giving up 4 hits and 1 walk. Only 1 Warrior reached scoring position the entire evening, off of a Frank Cattalonotto double (the only multibase hit that Moyer allowed). On the flip side, Queynos ace Mark Mulder also pitched well, but was burned by RBI doubles in the second, fifth, and seventh innings hit by Derek Jeter, Miguel Olivo, and Fred McGriff. While these were the first RBIs of the season for Olivo and McGriff, Derek Jeter continues his hot hitting (he had 2 doubles this game) after batting in the winning run in the previous game. Mulder ended up pitching the entire game, but was inevitably tagged with the loss without any run support. As Billy Koch closed out the game, Dr. Vindaloo was seen doing the Nick Jr. kid dance in his massive luxury box suite while blasting the song “How Do You Like Me Now?” For the second game in a row, he was not available postgame for an interview due to undisclosed reasons. Either way, he’s gotta be glad with his team’s sweep of the Warriors, which partially erases their awful start. The Warriors, on the other hand, perhaps underestimated the Marauders and dropped two games that they were probably counting on winning. They have a difficult task in the series ahead, facing off against Division 1 leaders Meow Meow Dui.
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BOB 3, MAX 2       F/11

                1              2              3              4              5              6              7              8              9          10          11
BOB        0              1              0              1              0              0              0              0              0           0             1
MAX       0              0              0              0              1              0              0              0              1           0             0  

W – Groom (2-0)                   L – Lowe (0-1)                     Blown save – Dotel (1)               

Although it’s still early in the season, this was one of those absolutely gut wrenching games that can impact a team very heavily going forward. And not only in terms of morale; these are the kinds of games that might prove crucial when the time comes to start paying attention to records down the stretch. Like every single Bobian game so far, this one was a classic small ball pitching duel. Roy Halladay looked much sharper than he did in his first start, although he is certainly a little bit lucky that he only have up 2 runs during his nine innings of work; the Bobians frequently stranded runners in scoring position and overall saw their offensive frustrations continue. The former Darkpaw Raul Mondesi hit his first homerun of the season while Charles “Bases Loaded CJ” Johnson notched his third RBI of the season with a single in the fourth. Bobian rookies Luis Aparicio and Ichiro Suzuki had quiet debuts; Aparicio made several nice defensive plays and stole a couple of bases while Ichiro only managed a walk and a couple of strikeouts. Not an excellent performance, but definitely the top of the order is heading in the right direction. The Maxions were similarly stymied by Jamie Moyer, who pitched very strongly through seven, only surrendering a run in the form of a Derek Jeter solo shot. However, things got interesting in this game starting in the seventh. Moyer found himself in a bases loaded no out pickle, but thanks to a crucial double play masterfully worked his way out of it. The Bobians stranded runners in scoring position themselves in the eighth and ninth, while Octavio Dotel struggled in his second consecutive appearance in the eighth. Bobian coaching decided to send him out to the mound again in the ninth the capture the two inning save, but he again struggled to finish the inning. With runners on first and second with two outs, Maxion DH Fredgar Martinez smacked an RBI double sending the game to extra innings. In the top of the tenth the Bobians again loaded the bases but failed to score. However they did manage to mount a rally in the eleventh, anchored by a clutch double from their own Fredgar and clinched by Travis Hafner’s single that brought Juan Pierre home for the winning run. A heart breaking loss for the Bombers, who now find themselves with a four game losing streak after winning their first game in thrilling fashion against cross town rival Warriors. They will look to turn the ship around next week against Mao’s Tycoons. As for the Bobians, definitely an uplifting, if not harrying win. A whole host of pharmaceutical companies have now placed big money offers to sponsor the team, seeing huge opportunities for developing a clientele for heart medicine among Spartan fans, as they typically consume massive amounts of bacon and are frequently exposed to stressful one run ballgames. Not to be outdone, traditional Bobian sponsor Dulcolax has nearly tripled their offer to become official and sole health sponsor of the Spartans. We’ll see what Ronde Barber decides, but he’s got quite a bit on his plate as is. 
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RED 2, AXN 5 F

                1              2              3              4              5              6              7              8              9
RED        0              0              0              0              0              1              0              1              0           
AXN       0              0              2              0              1              1              1              0              0              

W – Zito (1-0)                   L – Buerhle (0-1)                  S – Kolb (1)

It's amazing how refreshing a little stirring of  the pot can be. Marty Cordova replaced Mike Piazza at DH, but Coach Gorrister opted to tinker with the lineup for the first time, moving Luis Rivas from the number nine hitter to number two and Mike Cameron from number two to number five. The moves seemed to work well, as Rivas scored twice as well as notching his first RBI of the year. Cameron looked comfortable back in his number five spot, homering in the sixth. Cordova, however, grounded out into a double play twice.  The new editions to the bullpen both performed after Barry Zito pitched a very solid seven innings; Vladimir Nunez gave up a solo home run to Jason Giambi off his first career pitch, but was able to settle down afterwards thanks to a clutch double play. Danny Kolb entered in the ninth and dominated the Aces for a save in his first career appearance. Red Clay pitching was not so stellar, as Buehrle didn't finish the sixth. As a side note, the Aces turned the first triple play of the season in the bottom of the sixth off of a Mike Lieberthal ground ball. The Darkpaws will look for their second win of the season next week against the Spartans; the Aces will host the Green Sox in a tremendous Division 2 showdown.

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