LIN 4, MEL 2 F
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
LIN 0 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0
MEL 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
W – Rueter (1-1) L – Garcia (0-1) S – Nen (1)
After the Marauders drew first blood, the JELLY QUEEN DREAM TEAM stuck back in the top of the second with an RBI double from shortstop Jimmy Rollins, his first RBI of the year and his first of three doubles in this game. Through the middle innings of this game, both pitchers did alright, keeping the other team off the board but not exactly dominant. Lindsyan Kirk Rueter avoided his dreaded “hell inning” and was able to go six innings with no further runs allowed. The former Bobian Freddy Garcia was similarly mediocre, except he surrendered a big 2 run double to Brian Roberts in the fifth, and an RBI single to Season 5 all-star Shannon Stewart in the seventh. For JELLY QUEEN, Aquilino Lopez came on in relief of Rueter and pitched a strong seventh, but quickly worked himself into a jam in the eighth. With one run in, runners on second and third , and only one out, Coach Moises “Piss Hands” Alou made another call to the bullpen and brought the long time veteran reliever Jesse Orosco into the game. Facing the heart of the Marauder lineup, Orosco struck out Scott Rolen and Brandon Larson to retire the side and get out of the jam. Closer Robb Nen took over in the ninth and went 1-2-3 to earn his first save of the year. In a postgame conference, Doctor Vindaloo noted that this game did take away a little bit of momentum that the team had built up, but not all of it. Instead, Vindaloo said he was more frustrated that no Marauder had hit a homerun and therefore was unable to light up the giant Shiva Nataraja statue behind the right-centerfield wall. In any case, this puts a little wind in the sails of the Lindsyans who are back to a .500 record at 4-4. Stay tuned for what will probably be a classic pitching duel between Season 1 Cy Young Jamie Moyer and three time 5 game winner Josh Beckett.
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MAX 1, AXN 4 F
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
MAX 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AXN 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0
W - Morris (1-0) L - Pettitte (0-2) S - Kolb (2)
The Battle of the Basement dwellers got off to a rocky start for Darkpaw starter Matt Morris, who found himself in trouble in each of the first three innings. He managed to get through only surrendering a run when the speedy Delino "Delicious" Deshields was able to score from second off of a Bengie "Don't Make Fun of My Speed" Molina single. His opponent former Cy Young winner Andy Pettitte was solid through the first three, but the two might have had a body swap; Morris settled down and dominated the Bombers through the seventh while Pettitte was hit by a pair of homers: a solo homerun from Hank Blalock in his first career game and a three run shot from veteran Mike Cameron. After that, there really wasn't much action in this one. Both offenses looked rather pathetic, racking up an absurd number of bad strikeouts and double play balls. For a change of pace, the Darkpaw bullpen held the lead long enough for closer Danny Kolb to nab his second save of the year. Although the Darkpaws won their first game after restructuring their team, it wasn't the most encouraging win. Brad Fullmer and Ken Griffey Jr. 04 did not meaningfully contribute; Hank Blalock, who did hit a solo homerun, blew two crucial scoring opportunities, grounding out into a double play in once case. Well, that's not great, but at least they aren't staring at a seven game losing streak, like the Bombers are.
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MMD 3, RED 4 F
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
MMD 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
RED 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
W - Ortiz (1-0) L - Ortiz (0-1) S - Wagner (2)
If the Battle of the Basement dwellers wasn't exciting enough for you, immediately followed was the Battle of Ortiz! Meow Meow Dui starter Russ Ortiz struggled early, surrendering RBI singles to Alfonso Soriano and Jose Cruz, and eventually blowing the quality start when he gave up a two run homerun in the fourth to catcher and Long Island native A.J. Pierzynski. After that he handled the dangerous Red Clay lineup rather effectively, and went the distance to finish the game. On the other side of things, Ramon Ortiz once again punched way above his measly 40 point salary, securing his second quality start of the year. Besides a three run homer surrendered to Scott Hatteberg in the fifth, he seemed totally in control during his six innings on the mound, although the characteristically weak Meow Meow offense did squander a lead off double more than once. For Red Clay, Mike Myers entered the game in the seventh and got himself into a pickle right away, but the heart of the Meow Meow lineup embarrassingly could not bring the winning run home. That was the golden opportunity for Coach Taklamente's club in this one, since Myers was eventually replaced by Aces closer Billy Wagner, who has been largely untouchable this year. An honorable mention should go to Larry Walker 04, who was a homer short of hitting for the cycle. With this result, Meow Meow Dui officially moves out of first place in Division 1, and Red Clay dethrones Mao's Tycoons in Division 2. Look for another interesting matchup in Game 2, when both teams struggling number 1 starters attempt to get back on track: Mark Buehrle is still looking for his first win (and quality start) while reigning Cy Young Carl Pavano is still trying to get out of Coach Taklamente's doghouse after an embarrassing blowout in his last performance.
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