Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Cards Topple Big Unit; Advance to Modern NL Wild Card

ST. LOUIS -- The 01 Arizona Diamondbacks were standing tall. In fact 6-10 tall with a rested Randy Johnson toeing the rubber. The 85 Cardinals had survived one play-in game with the 84 Padres. None of their top 3 hurlers were available. They started the forgettable Kurt Kepshire with the bullpen ready to scramble any healthy arm at a moment's notice. Arizona hit Kepshire with 2 quick runs in the opening frame, sending 8 to the plate with two singles and 3 walks. Matt Williams fanned with the bases loaded or it could have been lights out right there. Aw, but this is baseball. Vince Coleman tripled to open the B1 off Johnson and the fleet Redbirds were off and running. When the dust cleared after a couple knocks, an HBP and a passed ball, St. Louis had a 3-2 lead after 1. Both clubs went 3-up, 3-down in the 2nd with the "Big Unit" blowing away all 3 Cardinals batters he faced. In the T3, Arizona made their bid to put the game away. Luis Gonzalez (8) led off with a solo shot to tie it. One out later, Reggie Sanders singled. St. Loo brought in Rickey Horton, but Damian Miller (3 hits) singled and Junior Spivey doubled home both runners. He went to third on a PB and scored on a Williams ground out. It was now 6-3 Arizona, but it would be the last runs the Diamondbacks would get against the combination of Horton (2-1), Todd Worrell, Ken Dayley, Bob Forsch and Jeff Lahti (6). Johnson retired the side in order again in the B3. In the 4th, he fanned the first two batters, then inexplicably walked the next 3. A wild pitch sent Lonnie Smith in from 3rd. Coleman plated 2 with a base hit. He then stole second and scored on Ozzie Smith's single. The Cards led 7-6. That's the way the game would finish. 

The Cardinals now head to Cincinnati to take on the 90 Reds in the official start to the playoffs. The NL Wild Card game will be the third straight 1-game, do-or-die contest for the Redbirds. 

Tudor Blanks Friars; Redbirds Move On

ST. LOUIS -- John Tudor (7-3) finished his strong season with a complete-game, 3-hit shutout in the play-in game versus 84 Padres. The 85 Cardinals now advance to play the 01 Diamondbacks in yet another do-or-die one-gamer. The winner of that contest has the right to play 90 Cincinnati in the 1-game Wild Card matchup. St. Loo won this game 6-0 and was led offensively by Terry Pendleton with 3 hits. Tony Gwynn had 2 of San Diego's 3 safeties.  

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

CLASSIC NLWC - '74-LAD rallies from 4 runs down to defeat '75-CIN in extra innings

CLASSIC LEAGUE NLWC
Riverfront Stadium
74-LAD (20-20) @ 75-CIN (20-20)
Messersmith (5-4) vs Nolan (3-5)

On a 66 degree night in the Queen City two old rivals were set to square off in a NL Wild Card matchup.  Heading into this "one and done" game the 1974 Dodgers had to win 5 straight games just to qualify.  Their reward ?  They get to play the best of the Big Red Machine teams (1975) on the road knowing that they lost 5 of 6 to that team in the regular season.  Starting on the hiss was Andy Messersmith, who on paper was this team's ace, but during the regular season he peformed more like Kenta Maeda.  Cincy trotted out Gary Nolan, who met a similar fate during the regular season. 

For the first 2 1/2 innings the game remained scoreless until 1975 & 1976 NL MVP Joe Morgan hit a 2 run shot that electrified the Riverfront crowd.  With Nolan throwing up goose eggs those two runs loomed large.  LA felt the desperation and began making suspect baserunning mistakes like trying to score Jimmy Wynn all the way from first on a Willie Crawford double in the 4th with 2 outs.  It wasn't until the top of the 7th when the aforementioned Mr. Crawford, hit a one out solo blast, that the Dodgers final got on the board to cut the Reds lead to 2-1.  That ray of hope was gne just one half inning later when the Reds threw up a 3 spot off of Messersmith to make it 5-1 with 2 innings to play.  Fans back home in SoCal began turning their TV sets off and looking to make dinner plans. 

Desperate time call for desperate measures and at that point the Dodgers needed to try anything.  The first move was to get 32 year old, seldom used veteran, Ken McMullen to pinch hit for Messersmith.  "Mac" lined a single into right center and was promptly lifted for a pinch runner (Tom Paciorek).  Davey Lopes followed with a bullet to straight away center that got out of Riverfront quicker than a blink of an eye.  With the score now 5-3 the Reds might have been second guessing themselves for lifting Nolan for Eastwick, but they were now fully committed to their reliever.  Buckner kept the party going with a hump back liner to left center.  After 1974 NL MVP Steve Garvey flew out to Geronimo in center the "Toy Canon" Jimmy Wynn launched a 2 run shot to tie the game at 5 all.  The "Penguin", Ron Cey, followed wit a jack of his own to put the Dodgers up 6-5.  Mike Marshall, who won the 1974 Cy Young award was brought on to hold down the fort for the final 2 innings.  Like so many times before during this season, Marshall was not up to the task giving up a solo run in the bottom of the 8th on a Concepcion ground out.  With neither team scoring in the 9th the game headed toward extra innings. 

Willie Crawford (4-5, 2HR) led off the inning with his second homer of the day.  This one was off reliever Wil McEnaney.  Steve Yeager, who replaced Joe Ferguson behind the plate in the 8th doubled into the gap and moved to third on a slow roller by Bill Russell.  With one out Marshall was allowed to bat and he promptly lined a single to right to supply an insurance run to make the score 8-6.  LA then proceeded to load the bases and Cincy had to go to Pedro Borbon to prevent further carnage.  Borbon served up a meatball that Cey hit to the fence in deep right center that Ken Griffey had to leap for to catch and prevent a sure grand slam, which would have been the game breaker.  In the bottom of the 10th Johnny Bench led off the inning with a shot off the wall that manifested itself in the form of a stand up double.  Marshall was able to get both Griffey and Geronimo to roll over on screwballs for easy ground outs with the latter plating Bench to make it a one run game.  Davey Concepcion lined a single to center.  Surprisingly with 2 out Cincy allowed reliever Pedro Borbon to hit.  Their faith in Borbon was rewarded with a single to put runners on the corners. 

That was all for Marshall, who never made things look easy the whole season.  Veteran Jim Brewer,
who lost his closer's job to Marshall was called on to get the final out, which was no easy task considering the fact that he would be facing baseball's all time hit king Pete Rose.  Rose, who never gave up an AB in his entire career battled Brewer by fouling off pitches to get to a 3-2 count.  With the count full Brewer threw a change to Rose who hit a one hopper to Bill Russell at short.  Russell, who made his fair share of errors this season, fielded it cleanly and threw a dart to Garvey at first to end this classic wild card game.  Marshall (7-1) got the win, but for those of us who experienced him this season, we know that he created the win with another blow save.  McEnaney took the loss, but the real goat on the day was Eastwick, who game up 5 runs on 3 homers in the 8th while recording just one out in the process.  LA moves on to take on their Brooklyn (1953) ancestors in a best of 5 LDS series.  Special thanks to Bill Schneider for being able to play the game early in the am and challenging me to be on my "A" game with this classic chess match of a game.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

CLASSIC ALWC - '54 Tribe defeats '48 Tribe 5-2

Two of the best Cleveland Indians teams of all-time, the 1948 and 1954 squads, battled in a knockout game to move into the playoffs, with managers Erik Nelson and Joe Pryweller hoping for a heated battle.


Pryweller's team had the early playoff jitters, as the 1954 team made three errors in the first two innings. However, Nelson's 1948 group could only get one run across as '54 great Bob Lemon pitched around a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the first.


WIth '48 ace Bob Feller pitching, the '54 team knew it had to capitalize on every opportunity to score runs. The chance to score arose in the third, when Jim Hegan singled, Lemon reached on a critical error  by '48 1B Eddie Robinson and Bobby Avila walked to load the bases with one out. Manager Pryweller made the decision to bring in infielder Hank Majeski to pinch hit for good-field, no-hit SS George Strickland, sacrificing defense for offense. Majeski lined a pitch up the middle, scoring two, while Al Rosen followed with a sac fly to give '54 Cleveland a 3-1.


The '54 Tribe didn't look back after that, as they scored two more in the fourth, keyed by a double from Hegan, who had a big day. Lemon shut down the '48 World Series champs after that, holding a 5-2 lead into the ninth. But after allowing two baserunners, he was lifted for closer Ray Narleski, who nailed down his seventh save.


Final Score: '54 Indians 5, '48 Indians 2.


Bring on Baltimore!


Joe P.

Toronto Clinches Post Season

Game 1 Chicago 3 Toronto 11. Both teams were limited with available starters and Chicago was also facing over usage penalties for hitters. Chicago started McDowell their last starter with innings left. Toronto countered with Musselman. Toronto gets off to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd as Whitt hits a solo HR and later Matuszek doubles scoring Moseby. They add 2 more in the 6th when Fernandez doubles scoring Whitt and Moseby. Leal leaves the game with a 4-0 lead. Jim Acker starts the 7th and Chicago lights him up Ventura singles, Jackson gets on with an error, Cora walks , Guillen singles scoring 2, LaValliere walks, Raines grounds into fielders choice scoring another. Toronto leads 4-3. In the bottom of the 7th the wheels fall off the bus and the 1st 6 batters get on base and McDowell is chased from the game.6 Toronto scores 6 enroute to an 11-3 win.

Game 2 Chicago 1 Toronto 4. Toronto starts Key and Chicago Bere. Toronto scores 2 in the 1st with Mullineks walked and Barfield doubles scoring him. A single by Whitt advances him to 3rd and he scores when Upshaw singles. Assenmacher takes over in the 6th and only last 1/3 of an inning as Whitt greets him with a HR. Moseby singles and steals a base. Fernandez singles him in. In the 9th Franco homers off of Key a single by Ventura and a walk by Cora was all for Key and Lavelle comes in for the save.

Game 3 Chicago 3 Toronto Fernandez vs Leal. Chicago strikes in the 3rd as an unlikely Raines leads off with a HR. Thomas doubles and scores on a Franco single. In the 4th a leadoff walk by Jackson he advances to 2nd on a LaValliere groundout and to 3rd on a Guillen single. He scored on a Cora ground out. Chicago up 3-0. In the bottom of the 4th a Homerun by Barfield a double by Whitt followed up by a HR by Upshaw ties the game at 3.In the 5th Fernandez gives up a leadoff triple. gets Garcia to groundout then Muillineks hits a HR scoring 2. Deleon comes in for relief and gives up a HR to Barfield. Toronto gets a 6-3 lead. Lamp comes in to pitch for Toronto in the 7th and gets the save as Toronto win the game.

Chicago and Toronto met to start the season and Chicago won the opening game in Chicago then lost the next two. This series to end off the season in Toronto got the sweep. Toronto won the season series 5-1.

Thanks to Dan for getting in the games early. Chicago finishes the season 19-21 and Toronto 23-17
--CHIZ--