PLAYER / PITCHER OF THE WEEK #4

The 0-19 Indians of Elyria come in to the Windy City to face the Mobsters who sit at 16 & 5.

C.C. Sabathia (1-0 3.68) picks up career win number #223. Chicago has on their hitting shoes pounding out 17 hits, & scoring 14 runs.
Andrew McCutchen is 2 for 4 with a Home Run & 5 RBI’s. Buster Posey Homers as well. Jose Ramirez is 4 for 4 with 2 Doubles & 2 RBI’s.

Final Score: Chicago 14 – Elyria 3

Hey! Indians win! Indians win! Ttthhhee Indians win ttthhhee Indians win!Dillon Gee (1-3 4.97) picks up the first win of the year for the Indians. Orlando Arcia is 2 for 4 with a Home Run & 2 RBI’s. Yimi Garcia picks up save #1 of his career.

Final Score: Elyria 5 – Chicago 3

Marcus Stroman (3-0 2.61) pitches 5 innings allowing only 1 Earned Run. Carlos Martinez goes the final 4 innings for his 2nd save on the season.

Final Score: Chicago 9 – Elyria 1

Felix Hernandez (5-1 1.52) goes 7 solid allowing only 2 Runs. Wade Davis & Aroldis Chapman (Save #8) pitch the final 2 innings. Justin
Morneau has a Home Run & 2 RBI’s.

Final Score: Chicago 4 – Elyria 2

Adam Wainwright (3-1 3.26) goes 7 innings, Justin Morneau is 3 for 4 & Aroldis Chapman pick up save #9 on the season.

Final Score: Chicago 6 – Elyria 4

Offense was in full swing for the final game of the series. Asdrubal Cabrera was 3 for 5 with 4 Runs Scored & Allen Craig went 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s to lead the way for the Indians. Andrew McCutchen was 2 for 5 with a Home Run & 3 RBI’s & 3 Runs Scored for Chicago. In the 10th inning Elyria scores 3 off Chapman and Yimi Garcia closes the door for the Indians.

Final Score: Elyria 12 – Chicago 11

Elyria takes 2 of 6 from the Mobsters and head home to take on the Sluggers of Virginia nest week. Chicago will head north of the border to the great white North & take on the Stalkers of Yonge Street next week.

Detroit sweeps Coconut Creek with four 1 run games in this series.

Pittsburgh drops 4 of 7 to New York.

Long Beach fighting for the playoffs vs. Selkirk simply not a good team.

Long Beach wins 6 of 7 and totally hammered Selkirk pitchers.

Iron City visits Valdosta.

Valdosta 4-1. Phil Hughes goes 8 strong IP and hands Hellickson his 3rd loss of the year.

Valdosta 3-2. Kurt Suzuki hit a 2 run 2B in the bottom of the 9th for the game winner.

Valdosta 13-5. A rare offensive outburst by the Snappers give Colin McHugh his 4th victory of the season.

Iron City 8-7 (13 Innings). Raul Ibanez homered off of Uehara in the 13th as the Yinzers get a win.

Valdosta 2-0. Teheran (2-3) went 7 scoreless and Doolittle and Kimbrel (5) combined for the save.

Iron City 4-3. Yinzers slip past the Snappers behind Hellickson (2-3) and Edgin (save #2).

Snappers take 4 of 6.

Series against divisional teams. Sacramento brings a 6-14 record into Grand Haven, who currently holds a 9-10 record

Grand Haven take 5 games of the 7 game series. It was a hard fought series between these division rivals, with 2 games going into extra
innings, and both lasting 11 innings.

(5-15) Explorers sail into to face the (9-11) Patriots. On the surface, this series looked to be a yawner, but lo and behold interesting stuff happened.

Baker vs GonzalezColumbus 9 Triple Creek 4

Explorers blast Gonzalez for 4 in the 1st inning off Carpenter and Desmond homers. Triple Creek puts up their own 4-spot in the bottom
of the 2nd but that’s all they can muster. Columbus tacks on 5 more.

Pino vs. GausmanColumbus 3 Triple Creek 4

Visitors score 1 in the 8th to knot it 3-3. In an odd move, Manager Miller calls on Chen to start the bottom of the 9th in a tie game. Chen allows a single to Pierzynski after recording an out after which Varvaro allows the game winning hit.

Tepesch vs. BucholzColumbus 4 Triple Creek 5

Patriots score 1 in the 8th to tie it up and then another in the 10th. Back to back nail-biting wins for the home squad.

Happ vs. De La RosaColumbus 3 Triple Creek 0

De La Rosa injured for 14 days after 2.1 strong innings. Happ tosses 7+ og shutout ball and the Explorer bullpen locks down the W.

Milone vs. VargasColumbus 7 Triple Creek 3

Another 2.1 innings the home Starter as Vargas gets chased after allowing 7 hits and 5 runs. Desmond paced the visitors with 3 hits
and 3 rbi.

Baker vs. GonzalezColumbus 4 Triple Creek 6

Both starters go 7 and Barker leaves with a 3-2 lead. Belisario and Dunn are both mugged in the 8th as Triple Creek pegs 4.

Columbus and Triple Creek split 3-3.The Patriots kept the drama high winning all 3 of their games with late inning heroics. Ownership rejoices with the setting a new franchise best in beer sales.

Fremont 8-12 coming off a 4-3 series win over DallasVirginia 10-11 off a 5-2 series win over Coconut Creek

VIR 9-5Tillman (2-2) gets the win. Markakis goes 3-5 with a homer (#2) and 5 RBI. Rizzo also goes deep in a 2-5, 3 RBI day.For FRE, C.Gomez is 2-2, 2 RBI and a home run.

VIR 4-2Archer (3-2) CG 4-hitter with 11 K’s. A.Ramirez gets his 1st homer for VIR.

VIR 9-8Down by 1, FRE explodes for 5 in the 5th, highlighted by W.Rosario’s Grandslam, for a 8-4 lead. But, back come the Sluggers with 5 of their own in the 6th on C.Santana’s 3-run double. 3 solid innings by the bullpen and VIR holds on for the win.

VIR 6-5A,Escobar’s 2-run double and K.Vargas’ (#3) 3-run homer had FRE ahead 5-4. Then, in the 7th, G.Stanton (#7) tied it up with a monster shot off Detwiler and in extra innings VIR won it on a SF by A.Ramirez.

VIR 5-3All tied up at 3 thanks to the Cannon’s J.Schoop and his 2-run Jimmy-Jack that negated G.Laird’s 3 RBI day things looked bleak for the home team. But with C.Qualls on to pitch for FRE, N.Markakis singles and C.Santana (#6) ends it by sending one deep to make a
winner of M.Morin (1-1)

VIR 9-0Anti-climatic series ending as VIR erupts for 7 runs in the first 2 innings and cruises to the win. G.Stanton gets 3 RBI and his 8th
homer.

Virginia gets a sweep to improve to 16-11. Hitting stars were N.Markakis, 12-26 (.462) , 7 runs, 6 RBI with 2 homers and C.Santana 9-25 (.360) 3 runs and 8 RBI with 2 homers.For Fremont, who drops to 8-18, A.Escobar was 9-25 (.360) 4 runs, 3 RBI. C.Gomez had 2 homers among his 5 hits.FRE goes back home to host Motor City next and VIR hits the road to take on Elyria.

Jersey at 10-10 on the season comes out west to Clovis with a 15-6 record.

Jersey 6 Clovis 5 12 innings.

Escobar clouts a 2 run blast off of Loup in the 12. Clovis comes up with one, but not enough to tie as Nor’easters take the opener.

Jersey 2 Clovis 0

Elias tosses 8 very strong innings and Boxberger finishes it off for a second Jersey win.

Clovis 2 Jersey 0

Lohse continues to impress the Clovis faithful with a complete game one hit shutout.

Clovis 3 Jersey 2
Former Wheat King Jeff Samardzija had his homecoming spoiled when Daniel Murphy drove one out of the park with one out in the bottom of the ninth to break a 2-2 tie and give Clovis the win. Watson picked up the win in relief while Samardzija was stuck with the hard luck loss.

Clovis 1 Jersey 0
Byrd drives in a run in the first and Richards is masterful with a complete game 2 hit shutout.

Clovis 6 Jersey 2
La Roche, Crawford, and Byrd all go deep to lead Clovis to a win on getaway day. Cashner picked up his 4th win.

Jersey wins the first two games but Clovis comes back to take the final 4 games. Next week Clovis travels to Iron City while Jersey entertains Pittsburg. Maybe they can save travel cost and share a charter flight back east.

Motor City hosts the Manhattan Project for a 7 game series between early division contenders.

MCM-1- MAN 0WP: Volquez (CG)

LP: DUffy (CG)

HR: none

Both pitchers trade zeroes until the ninth when the Muscle get Trout to third with one out. Trout scores the only run on a wild pitch.

MCM 2 – MAN 1WP: Grimm

LP: Darvish

SV: Ramos

HR: none

Grimm gets the win in relief after Lobstein leaves in the third with an arm injury. All the runs were scored in the sixth inning.

Lobstein hurt for 31 days

MCM 3 – MAN 1

WP: Leake

LP: Smyly

SV: Jenkins

HR: Loney

Leake and Jenkins combine to shut down the Project. All the scoring was done after the fourth inning. Jenkins gets a three-inning save.

MAN 5 – MCM 3

WP: Simon

LP: Locke

SV: Street

HR: Galvis, Seager, Valaika

Teams traded early HRs, then the game settled into a game of zeroes until Manhattan busted it open with three runs in the eighth. Valaika’s two-run HR in the bottom of the same inning tightened it up, but Street shut the door in the ninth.

MAN 5 – MCM 0

WP: Tanak (CG)

LP: Mitchell

HR: Freeman

RBI singles in the first staked Tanaka to a lead he ran with, allowing only two hits and stiking out seven. Freeman had three RBI.

MCM 5 – MAN 0

WP: Volquez (CG)

LP: Duffy

HR: none

Volquez returns the shutout favor, scattering six hits and striking out six in his second CG of the series. Loney and Panik had two RBI apiece.

MCM 3 – MAN 0

WP: Leake (CG)

LP: Darvish

HR: none

Leake goes the distance in a gem on short rest, allowing only two hits and striking out six. Again all the scoring was done early, with the last runs crossing the plate in the second inning.

Motor City takes the series 5 games to 2. Runs were at a premium as the pitching was superb for both teams.

Volquez pitched two complete game shutouts, striking out 13 and scattering 11 hits.

Mike Leake won two games.

Duffy was the hard-luck victim of both of Volquez’s gems, but pitched well.

There were five complete games and four shutouts in the series.

Sal Perez hit .467 (7-15) for the Muscle

Dallas visits Yonge Street in a battle of 4th place squads.

The Cougars bullpen picked up the game MVP award with 4.1 innings of scoreless relief. Dallas began the series with a 15 hit attack. 5 Cougars drove in runs, with Doumit knocking in 2. Dustin Ackley had a double and a homer in a losing effort.

DAL 7 – YSS 4

Dallas continued the hit parade with 14 more hits, including 10 off YSS “Ace” Big Game James Shields. Dallas Keuchel pitched well for Dallas but the strong pen ended up with the win after the Cougars tallied in the top of the 9th.

DAL 6 – YSS 5

The home team scored twice in the bottom of the 9th to fall just short. Nick Hundley doubled and homered to lead the surging Cougars.

DAL 5 – YSS 4

The slew of YSS double digit starters are proving to be much suckier than advertised. Once again the visitors spread the wealth, with 5 guys driving in single runs. Guthrie picks up his 3rd win of the young season as the Cougars take the first 4 games of the series.

DAL 5 – YSS 2

Just as you’d predict…the Cougars blazing start to the series was slowed by Jacob Turner. In his first start since giving up 20 hits and 16 runs, he mowed down the Cougars with 8 very strong innings. Noted slugger Ruben “Tater” Tejada somehow hit his 3rd HR of the young season to pace the Stalkers.

YSS 3 – DAL 1

Colby Rasmus’ 1st inning Grand Slam was answered by 5 YSS runs in the 2nd. Gerrit Cole settled down and the home squad held on.

YSS 8 – DAL 6

Dallas exploded out of the gates, winning the first 4 games before YSS took the final 2 to retain a shred of dignity. The teams combined for 18 errors. Baseball at its finest.

Southbend continues to play over its head as they take the series over Traverse City 5-2. Southbend got a shutouts from Whitley (Grade
3) and N. Martinez (Grade 4).   Sooner or later Southbend’s luck is going to run out.

Bethesda’s young guns look to shutdown Tempe’s league leading offense.

Beltre launched a three run bomb in the 1st and Tempe cruised.

Tempe 3-1

Gonzo get’s revenge on his old team with a three run bases clearing double.

Betheseda 5-1

Cargo ties the game at 1-1 in the 6th with a solo shot. Braun is gunned at the plate in the 7th, but a wild pitch by Ross in the 8th allows Tempe to score the go ahead run.

Tempe 2-1

Tempe shows speed with a Cespedes triple and steal of home and then power with solo homeruns by Cabrera, Cano, and Beltre. Rendon hit a solo homerun off Holland in the 9th, but it was too late.

Tempe 4-2

Iwakuma threw a complete game shutout. Cabrera, Beltre and Cargo all homered for Tempe.

Tempe 6-0

It looked like another win for Tempe until Holland collapsed. He gave up a solo homerun to Paredes and then an RBI single to Cain in the 9th that tied the game. He also allowed the go ahead run to reach in the 10th and Peralta knocked an RBI double off Barret to secure the come from behind win.

Betheseda 4-3 10 INN

Tempe tied the score at two-two in the 8th on a Cabrera RBI double. Braun led off the 9th with a triple and eventually scored the winning run when Ruiz allowed a passed ball.

Tempe 3-2

Betheseda’s pitching lived up to the hype as Tempe’s batting average for the season dropped from .284 to .271. However, Betheseda’s offense isn’t on the same level yet. Tempe used the longball and took 5 of 7. It would have been six wins if Holland’s era hadn’t jumped above 5.00 for the season.

Hollywood splits the series with Tijuana