Series 6 Part 3: John Kruk called it!

RED 3, STL 5 F

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

W – Veres (2-0)                   L – Harper (0-1)                    Save – Isringhausen (3)

Props to John Kruk, for pretty much predicting exactly how this game would go. Cardinals starter Matt Morris seemed to recover nicely from his last start, a nightmare from which he didn’t even finish one inning. All told he did rather well, earning a quality start although just narrowly. The Aces struck first in the third, with a big hit from Alfonso Soriano, a two run triple. The Aces were not able to bring Soriano home from third, which would go on to haunt them later. Next inning the Aces offense carried on with another two out rally, with Tom Goodwin doubling in his second RBI of the year. With ever reliable Ben Sheets cruising, it looked like just about everything was going the Aces way, when Cardinals firstbaseman Orlando Cepeda tied the game with one swing of the bat, a three run homer off Sheets in the fifth. The Aces stranded runners in scoring position in both the sixth and seventh innings, including a bases loaded no outs jam that reliever Dave Veres was able to work out of thanks to a key double play. Cepeda stepped to the plate again in the seventh and hit his second home run of the game off of Red Clay reliever Travis Harper. Those proved to be the winning runs, as Jason Isringhausen 04 then entered the game and pitched two innings to earn his third save of the year. As Kruk called it, this was a big opportunity for the Cardinals to split a very difficult series; they’ve avoided being swept since the very first series of the season against MMD. This certainly keeps the pressure on the rest of the teams in Division 2, including the Aces who are now only two games up on the third place Cardinals.
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ZSY 2, AXN 1 F/11

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
ZSY	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
AXN	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0

W – Graves (1-0)    L – Kolb (0-1)  

The miracle story of the Z-Slayers pitching staff continues; Zach Day, a control 2 starter whose salary is one fifth what most starters make in the league, went six strong innings completely shutting out the hapless Darkpaw offense. Incredibly, his performance ties him for the league lead in quality starts. Although he pitched very well, he did have some help from Darkpaw batters who couldn’t seem to do much of anything right, rolling many outs on their own cards. His opponent, Kerry Wood 02, was equally as effective, doing an excellent job of navigating through a very dangerous Z-Slayer lineup without giving up any runs through seven. Thus began a battle of the bullpens; Darkpaw reliever Satoru Komiyama struggled in the top of the eighth, eventually walking in Paul Lo Duca for the first score of the game. To Komiyama’s credit, he got out of the jam without any further bloodshed. Z-Slayer long reliever Ricardo Rincon stalled also in the bottom of the inning, unable to contain the bottom of the Darkpaw lineup; Mike Lieberthal doubled, moving firstbaseman Brad Fullmer to third, setting him up to score when leadoff man Omar Vizquel singled next at bat. But here too, the bleeding stopped at a single run. Komiyama and Rincon both finished their respective parts of the ninth without incident, each then handing over the game to their team’s closer. Danny Kolb and Danny Graves both dominated in the tenth, but the eleventh inning was much more interesting. Carl Crawford leadoff for the Z-Slayers with a single, and in true Luis Aparicio style rounded the bases all the way to third with two clutch stolen bases. The always reliable Jack Wilson later brought him home with an RBI single, his tenth of the year. The Darkpaws managed to put up a fight in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with two outs. Danny Graves stayed in the game to face Ken Griffey Jr. 04; with a full count, Graves managed to pop him up and seal the win and the sweep for Tuldaria. Both teams look forward to interesting matchups next week; the Z-Slayers will host the struggling Tycoons, while the Alyxians will travel to Melmegetia to take on Dr. Vindaloo’s marauders. 

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TEN 0, MAX 11      F

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
TEN	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
MAX	0	0	0	6	0	2	0	3	0

W - Franklin (1-2)          L - Ishii (1-1)

Just when you thought the Green Sox were getting back on track, they find a way to reach a new low. Kazushisa Ishii had looked excellent in his two previous starts, but that changed abruptly in the fourth inning, where the Bombers put together their biggest rally of the year: Richie Ashburn kicked things off with a bases loaded double, was followed by Corey Koskie collecting his first RBI of the year (you read that correctly), and Edgar Martinez RBI double (his team leading 9th of the year), and finally Jeff "Automatic Hit" Kent knocking in another two with a big double. Ishii stayed in the game, but did not survive two pitches into the sixth when Jeff Kent struck again with a big blast, expanding the lead to 8-0. For the Bombers, starter Ryan Franklin was absolutely brilliant in this one, going 1-2-3 in nearly every inning, hearkening back to the days in season 3 when he won four games. He finished the game only giving up seven hits, and would have had a notable achievement if it weren't for a small string of hits that the Green Sox had finally string together in the ninth, smothered anyway before they could break up the shutout. Bengie "Don't Make Fun of My Speed" Molina lead the charge in the eight for the Bombers, adding three more runs to rub salt in the wound. While the most the Bombers can say is that they've avoided a ten game losing streak, the loss is much more significant for the Green Sox ball club. The offense has cooled considerably of late and you can't help by feel that they've lost a step on their "clogged artery" (as Ronde Barber termed it) competitors of Division 2. They face the grueling task of hosting Meow Meow Dui next round.