2017 – NATIONAL LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES #2

Triple Creek Patriots @ Tempe Tempers

  Yoenis_Cespedes17DSKendall Graveman (10-11 3.72) vs. Jon Lester (25-5 1.82)

 Yoenis Cespedes gets the scoring started in the bottom half of the 1st with a Grand Slam. Top of the 2nd, Patriots Trayce Thompson jacks a big fly for 2 runs, halving the deficit. Bottom of the 2nd, Tempers Joey Votto keeps the souvenirs flying, with a 2-run job of his own. Top of the 3rd sees Marwin Gonzalez, who was hot in the Wild Card series for Triple Creek, crush a Lester fastball deep into the night, folks it’s 6-5 after just 15 outs. Things are clean until the bottom of the 6th, when Tempe pinch-hitter Troy Tulowitzki deposits the games 5th, and final, homer deep to left.

Graveman would face just 12 batters (27.00 ERA), that happens when you allow 50% of them to score, as he was horrific. Lester (16.88 ERA) would only record 8 outs before getting the hook. Tempe takes game one 8-5.

W – Law (1)
L – Graveman (1)
S – Belisle (1)

  Kevin_Gausman17DSKevin Gausman (10-11 3.72) vs. Johnny Cueto (21-8 2.10)

 Top of the 1st, Patriot’s Mitch Moreland and Trayce Thompson find holes on the infield, as they each drive in single runs. Cueto walked two to help fuel the rally. Melky Cabrera would even the score with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 2nd. Gausman was relieved in the 5th, Cueto in the 3rd, and both bullpens would toss doughnuts until the 9th. Tony Barnette, in for Tempe, allows a lead-off walk to Headley followed by a swinging bunt single by Trayce Thompson. Tempers manager signals for Matt Belisle. Triple Creek Wild Card hero Jose Lobaton steps in, and hits a little blooper down the right field line, which drops! A no-mans-land double scores both runners!! Matt Strahm locks down the 9th for a 4-2 Triple Creek series tying W.

W – Logan (1)
L – Barnette (1)
S – Strahm (1)

Matt_StrahmDS17

Marwin_GonzalezDS17 Jon Lester (25-5 1.82) vs. Clay Buchholz (13-8 4.44)

 Triple Creek hosts it’s first playoff game in MWBL history. You couldn’t fit another human being in the stadium, the buzz is LOUD, and the game hasn’t even started yet.

 Clay gets Votto out to start the game but comes up limping after covering 1st. Triple Creek’s manager is taking no chances and calls for Alex Wood. Yoenis Cespedes would end up plating Ryan Braun to give Tempe a quick 1-0 lead. Bottom of the 2nd, Marwin Gonzalez on 2nd, and Headley lofts an easy fly ball to left, Melky Cabrera drifts under it, but stumbles and DROPS it! Gonzalez puts the pedal down and scores without a play. Tie game. Bottom of the 4th, Jim Johnson on in relief after Lester allowed a Marwin Gonzalez double, facing Lonnie Chisenhall. Lonnie goes with the 1-1 pitch and just misses a home run, off the top of the wall, scoring Marwin easily. Patriots 2-1. Just an inning later the Patriots bust out a 4-spot, tagging Johnson and Layne hard, opening up a 6-1 lead. Alex Wood, holds Tempe down through the top of 6, recording 11 strikeouts. Triple Creek adds a run in the bottom half of the 6th to make it 7-1. Is this the way it would end? No, Tempe would have none of that, as they take advantage of Wood’s dealing arm icing down. Dan Jennings, Jonathan Broxton and Addison Reed form a Triage group, desperately trying to stop a Temper come back started off by a 7th inning Robinson Cano “off the foul pole!” tater tot, making it Patriots 7 Tempe 3. Top of 8, with one out, Adrian Beltre doubles bringing Reed into the game. It will clearly be Reed’s game to save. Xander Bogaerts scorches Reed’s first offering to left center, scoring Beltre, but the threat would end there. Patriots 7 Tempe 4. Triple Creek doesn’t score in the bottom half of the 8th. Votto walks to lead off the Tempe 9th and Reed gets the next two hitters out. Yoenis Cespedes tightens it up with a double to deep left center. Beltre up as the tying and he briefly hushes the Triple Creek faithful with a high fly ball to right, but Piscotty covers it easily, and the fans go nuts! Patriots lead the series 2-1. Marwin Gonzalez 4-4 w 3R and 2 RBI.

W – Wood (1)
L – Lester (1)
S – Reed (1)

 Johnny_Cueto17DS#2Johnny Cueto (21-8 2.10) vs. A.J. Griffin (7-11 4.07)

A.J. Griffin made the start against Cueto, but he only lasted one batter as the Patriots called on Cotton, their grade 18 Ace, after Votto had singled to start the game. Votto stole 2B but Cotton K’ed Braun and Cespedes to end the inning. In the bottom of the 1st, Seager crushed one to center to give the Patriots the early lead. Bogaerts tied it up in the 2nd with a solo shot. In the bottom of the 2nd, Cueto got Moreland in a run down at 3B, but threw the ball over Beltre’s head allowing the go ahead run to score. Cotton dealed for the next couple innings until the 5th, when Votto smacked a RBI triple to tie the game at 2-2. Votto, the heart and soul of the Tempers all season, then grabbed a massive lead while Cotton was still thinking about the last pitch and stole home to give Tempe the 3-2 lead! Law and Chamberlain pitched three scoreless innings for the Tempers in relief while Cotton continued to rack up K’s for Patriots. In the top of the 8th, Cotton started the inning by striking out Bogaerts, but then he started walking off the mound rubbing his shoulder. The stadium went completely silent as the fate of their improbable run had rested on the arms of Cotton and Wood. Cotton had to leave the game and Triple Creek received horrible news that Cotton would miss the rest of the playoffs (40 games). Tempe made the most of Cotton’s departure adding two runs in the eighth after Votto singled and stole 2B and Braun then singled in the pinch runner Lough and later also scored on a Gattis pinch hit double.

Tempe won it 5-2 and guaranteed a trip back to Tempe.
W – Law (2-0)
L – Cotton (0-1)
S – Belisle (2)

  Joey_Votto17DSJon Lester (25-5 1.82) vs. Kendall Graveman (10-11 3.72)Corey_Seager17DS

Lester 9.53 ERA and Graveman 27.00 ERA faced off again in game 5 and you’d think it would be nearly impossible to get any worse for either of them. Graveman showed a little improvement in the 1st by only giving up a two run homerun to Cespedes instead of another grandslam. Tempe added six more runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings to take a commanding 8-0 lead as errors undid Graveman. With the 8-0 lead and the recent memory of Cotton’s arm falling off, Tempe decided to bring in the some of the backups to insure they didn’t have any fluke injuries since no one comes back from an 8 run deficit. Lester then quickly decided to fall apart. He gave up a two run homerun to Seager and three run homerun to Thompson in the 4th. In the fifth Lester gave up a single to Graveman and Tempe couldn’t let him continue. Law came on in relief and got two quick outs before he surrendered a two run homer to Seager which put the Patriots within only one freaking run! The score remained 8-7 for the next couple of innings. In the 8th, Tempe loaded the bases with two outs, but they ran out of pinch hitters due to the earlier subbing…So, they called on recent pickup Jason Hammel. Hammel’s bat had been wasted in the AL the last couple of years and he showed why he needs to be in the NL with a clutch two run rbi single. The Tempe backups then got hot and put up a total of 7 runs off Feliz and Reed in the final two innings.

Tempe wins 15-7 with Lester’s era climbing to 11.17 and Graveman’s era dropping to 11.74 due to four unearned runs.
W – Law (3-0)
L – Graveman (0-2)

 

 Yoenis_Cespedes17DS#2 Kevin Gausman (10-11 3.72) vs. Johnny Cueto (21-8 2.10)

The momentum continued to stay with the Tempers and they returned home. In the 1st, Votto singled, stole 2B and scored when Cespedes launched his third homerun of the series. In the 3rd , Votto singled again, stole 2B, and then scored on an infield error. Votto singled again in the 5th to raise his average to .500, but wasn’t able to score this time. Gausman pitched a solid four innings, but he couldn’t keep up with Cueto who was un-hittable. Cueto pitched six innings of no hit ball and only left the game when Melky pinch hit for him with runners on 3B and 2B. Cabrera ended up striking out, but Chamberlain, Law and Barnette pitched three scoreless innings to preserve the win, but not the No-Hitter.

Tempe won 4-0 and rallied back to take final three games of the series
W – Cueto (1-0)
L – Gausman (0-1)

Tempe

 Cory Seager and Yoenis Cespedes each hit three Home Runs during the series, but Joey Votto was the unanimous MVP. Votto hit an even .500 and he had an insane OPS of 1.515. He finished with 11 Hits, 2 HR, 2 2B, 1 3B, 5-0 SB, and 8 runs (10 if you count pinch runners). He might have scored over two runs a game if Cano and Braun hadn’t hit below .200 directly behind him.Triple Creek gave Tempe and the potential NL Cy-Young (Lester) all they could handle. The Patriots may have barely snuck into the wild card this year, but they made the most of their roster during the Wild Card series and the Divisional series. Tempe is lucky to be moving on and hopeful the scare will wake up the pitching and the defense for the NLCS.

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