2021 PLAYER / PITCHER OF THE WEEK #24

WillD_Smith21Keegan_Akin21DJ_LeMahieu21Brandon_Woodruff21

NAME TEAM AVG SLG G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI K W IW SB CS HBP
SMITH,Will D. DAL  AL .727 2.091 3 11 8 0 0 5 6 10 1 2 0 0 0 0
                                   
NAME CLUB G W L S ERA IP R ER H K BB IBB WP BK HB HR
AKIN,Keegan CCC  AL 1 1 0 0 0.00 8 1 0 5 8 1 0 0 0 0 0
                                   
NAME TEAM AVG SLG G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI K W IW SB CS HBP
LeMAHIEU,D.J. COL  NL .400 1.400 3 10 4 1 0 3 3 5 0 2 0 0 0 0
                                   
NAME CLUB G W L S ERA IP R ER H K BB IBB WP BK HB HR
WOODRUFF,Brandon LBD  NL 1 1 0 0 0.00 9 0 0 2 14 4 0 0 0 0 0

Motor City Muscle @ Southwest Detroit Fighting Chihuahuas

Series Summary: Motor City Muscle Sweeps the Southwest Detroit Fighting Chihuahuas.

Hollywood Werewolves @ Mesa Solar Sox

Series Summary: Hollywood, who was hoping to fall out of the playoffs and hoping for a good draft position, begrudgingly sweeps Mesa. Looks like Hollywood’s going to make the playoffs with 5 games left in the season.

Assuming they hold on, their streak of making the playoffs extends to 11 straight years. Unless I made a mistake, the only other team to have a streak that long is Tempe, who has never missed the playoffs in their 23 year history, but took a hiatus in 2009 & 2010 (allowing other NL teams to make/win the World Series). I thought Chicago may rival it, but they lost out making it in 2014 during in a 95 in season by 1 game to Coconut Creek.

Southbend Lynx @ Tijuana Bottle Rockets

Series Preview: Tijuana hosts Southbend for a 3 game set.
Series Summary: The visiting Lynx take 2 of 3 from the hometown Bottle Rockets.

Dallas Cougars @ Cincinnati Skyliners

Series Preview: The American League leading Dallas Cougars (38-20) roll into visit the Cincinnati Skyliners (20-38) — who are fighting to stay out of the A.L. basement. The Skyliners swept Chicago last week and Dallas would like to make sure there is no repeat of the upset.
Game #1: DAL 4, CIN 2 – Will D Smith delivers a pair of home runs (this would be a theme for him in the series) and drove in three for the Cougars.
Game #2: DAL 12, CIN 0 – Six of the nine Cougars batters had multiple hits and Will D Smith had another homer.
Game #3: DAL 5, CIN 2 – Will D Smith goes three-for-four, drives in four and hammers a pair of homers.
Series Summary: Dallas sweeps Cincinnati in three games. Will D Smith has been voted King of the Universe following the series. His line: eight-for-11 hitting (.727 BA and OBP), six runs scored, ten RBI and FIVE home runs. That’s a 2.090 slugging percentage and a 2.817 OPS.
Not a bad month in a weekend!

Triple Creek Patriots @ Long Beach Dirt Bags

Series Preview: In a key series to determine playoff seeding, Long Beach hosts Triple Creek
Game #1: Woodruff threw a 2 hit, 14 strikeout shutout as Long Beach won 4-0. Reddick had 3 hits to lead the Dirt Bags offense.
Game #2: Seager hit a solo HR in the 11th to give the Patriots a 3-2 win.
Game #3: Lynn gave up 4 hits in 8 innings as Long Beach won 7-1.
Series Summary: Long Beach won 2 of 3 to lead Triple Creek by 2 games for the #4 seed.

Harsens Island Walleye @ Jersey Nor’easters

Series Summary: Jersey takes the series 2-1 with both wins shutouts.

Tempe Tempers @ Bethesda Bandicoots

Series Preview: Bethesda hosts Temp and their average grade 30 relief corps for 3 games.
Game #1: Yu Darvish (Tempe) and Austin Gomber (Bethesda) provided the crowd with a bag full of goose eggs while they were in the game.
Gomber pitched in and out of jams up into the 6th inning (as recently as the 5th inning got out of a bases loaded near disaster) but finally with the men on 2nd and 3rd and just one out he was yanked in favor of John Gant. Gan got Lugo to pop out to 2nd base and struck out Roberto Perez and that was that.
Meanwhile Darvish was cruising along giving up a whole lotta nuthin’.
Gant took over in handing out heart attacks to the Bethesda manager by walking Freddie (Fender) Freeman and then giving up a double to Marcell Ozuna to start off the 7th. Former Bandicoot David Peralta hit a shallow fly ball to centre field, but Freeman was in no mood to test Kevin Pillar’s arm. Michael Brantley was up next and he too failed to advance runners by hitting a hard grounder to 2nd base to make it 2 out. Gant then walked Alex Dickerson just to make things interesting and load the bases, but then handed the dunce cap to Xander Bogaerts who struck out to end the threat .. for now.
In the bottom of the 7th Darvish handed out his first walk to Jonathan Schoop – and the Bandicoots made him pay for it big time by stranding the runner at 1st with more nothing at the plate. Take that, Yu.
Apparently walking Stephen Vogt put the dear of God into the Tempe manager as he yanked Darvish (7.1 IP, 3 hits, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts) and brought in the first of a string of Grade 30 relievers, Ryan Sherriff. Sherriff resumed Yu’s great work and snuffed whatever the Bandicoots thought that they were starting.
The 9th inning’s only noise came in the form of a deep fly ball by Juan Soto (sought after by Tempe’s GM for a handful of magic beans earlier in the season, but we kept our cow thank you) but that was caught by Dickerson at the wall.
Tempe got on a roll in the 10th with Bogaerts smacking a one-out double and then Ben Braymer walked Joe Panik to end his night on the mound. Daniel Bard came in and struck out Jorge Mateo and induced an inning-ending ground out to Curt Casaba Casali.
The bottom of the inning started promisingly with Kyle Seager getting a walk and then swiping 2nd base. Seager was picked off while texting in his breakfast order and the inning went nowhere after that.
A single by Ozuna was the extent of the excitement in the 11th for Tempe. Bethesda continued to remain content doing nothing at all.
Bethesda reliever Brooks Raley got the tough outs he needed in the 12th (Bogaerts and Dickerson) but then crapped the bed by giving up a 2-out walk to Panik and then up came Mateo. Mateo lined the ball over 3rd base and into the left field corner and with Soto in pursuit Panik (literally) was rounding 3rd base. A perfect throw from Soto and a rare play that the catcher hung onto the ball and Panik was out at the plate to end the inning.
Bethesda’s 12th … zzzzz.
Mike Mayers started on the mound for Bethesda in the 13th and he was able to start things right with a strikeout of Casali. With Freeman … not so much. Freeman singled for his 3rd hit of the game. The next hitter – Ozuna – drove one to the wall but Soto was able to chase it down to make it two outs. Peralta had a go at it next and rammed one down the right field line triggering a showdown at the plate between mediocre armed-Jeff McNeil and mediocre running Freeman. Mediocrity won out, but apparently Freeman’s foot speed was slightly more mediocre than McNeil’s arm and for the second straight inning the go-ahead run was gunned down at the plate.
Darren O’Day decided a little payback was in order and opened the bottom of the 13th by nailing Seager in the ribs and knocking him out of the game. Aledmys Diaz came in to run for him and scuttled to 2nd base on Carlos Santana’s infield single. Paul DeJong (who has been absolutely useless all season) continued his uselessness by coming within one step of hitting into a double play. That made it one out and runners on 1st and 3rd but brought up the most useless hitter on the team (Tyler Heineman) with no one left on the bench to pinch hit for him. Heineman must have called on the power of Gray Skull or something as he actually managed to hit the ball in the air to the outfield. Diaz scrambled home and it was done. A complete theft of a win that almost had me feeling guilty but then I remembered who we were playing against. Bethesda takes it 1-0 in 13.
Good enuff!
W-Mayers (1-2, 4.29)
L-O’Day (1-1, 2.20)
HR-none
Game #2: Nowhere near as exciting as the series opener, Merrill Kelly owned the Tempers and held them to three hits while Kenta Maeda had a bit of trouble keeping the ball in the park in a 3-0 shutout for Bethesda.
The Bandicoots only had five hits of their own but they included a 2-run blast by Jeff McNeil in the 3rd inning and a solo shot by Juan Soto in the 4th – and that was it for any offense on either side.
Michael Brantley (another former Bandicoot from way back) had two hits including a double for Tempe. McNeil had two for Bethesda.
W-Kelly (3-3, 1.51)
L-Maeda (6-4, 2.29)
HR-BET: McNeil (6), Soto (16)
Game #3: The Bandicoots handed the ball to Tejay Antone who hoped to do his best to extend the Tempers scoreless streak which stood at 18 innings going into the game.
Keys to success in this game were to try and avoid heart attacks by getting the lead early, flipping relievers in and out of the game to confuse and dizzy the Tempe field boss and hold the deadly top of the Tempe lineup.
Step 1 – check … 3rd inning two-run homer by Aledmys Diaz gave Bethesda the early 2-0 lead. Antone looked great on the mound so on to Step 2.
Step 2 – damn Tempers did not follow the script. Marcell Ozuna scored on Victor Reyes’ throwing error from the outfield in the 6th to end the Tempe drought at 24 innings (although the earned run drought continued). Step 2 then went all to hell as Antone ran out of gas in the 8th and gave up consecutive singles to pinch hitter Pavin Smith, Freddie Freeman and then an RBI double to Ozuna to tie it up. Not done there, David Peralta and Michael Brantley go in on the act with RBI singles and only some surprisingly solid relief by Ben Braymer limited the damage to Tempe emerging with a 4-2 lead.
With Stefan Crichton on the mound to open the 9th, the Bandicoots jumped on him with Carlos Santana tying the game up with a two-run single and here we go again into extra innings.
The bullpens were running on fumes by the time that this one ended in the 14th with that inning pitched by Mike Mayers (Bethesda) and Anthony Bass/Dylan Floro (Tempe). Mayers was pitching into his second inning and looked fairly solid but so was the contact Curt Casali made on his fastball. Bam —- and Tempe took the 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 14th.
Anthony Bass started the inning but was pulled quickly after loading the bases with only one out. Floro came in to face pinch hitter Jonathan Schoop who thought for a moment about trying for the suicide squeeze but with non-speedster Kyle Seager on 3rd thought it was better if he just put everyone in Bethesda out of their misery by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play.
Oh well.
W-Bass (4-0, 2.02)
Sv-Floro (1, 2.20)
L-Mayers (1-3, 4.37)
HR-TEM: Casali (3); BET: Diaz (2)
Series Summary: Bethesda’s home series ends with a good one in which they were able to keep Tempe from scoring for 24 straight innings and somehow managed to even score a few runs off their pitching staff. For Tempe, although the series was pretty much a “who cares” given their lead in the division it would probably have been ludicrous to predict heading into the series that they would only hit one homer and it would be by Curt Casali. On to 2022.

Selkirk Steelers @ Columbus Explorers

Series Preview: Selkirk, hot the heels of Columbus for 2nd place AND RIDING a 14 game win streak, barrels into town to whoop up on the Explorers. Columbus, pitching on fumes (starters) braces for the shock wave.
Game #1: The streak ends as D.J. LaMahieu smacks 2 homers (5, 6) and drives in 4 runs with his 3 hits. That was enough to offset solo homers by Robinson Cano (10) and Kyle Lewis (7). Josh Tomlin goes 5 strong for the no-decision and the bullpen comes through.
SEL 3- 8-1 LP Antonio Senzatela (5-4)
COL 7-10-0 WP Jimmy Herget (6-0) BS (1)
Game #2: The trend continues in game 2, but it was a closer one. Columbus gets the 1st run but Nick Markakis ties it up with and rbi double in the 3rd. Then Trevor Story hits a 2 run bomb in the 6th. Marcus Semien triples and scores in the 7th to get it close at 3-2, Liam Hendriks fans 3 (of 3) in the 9th to close the door.
SEL 2-6-0 LP Max Fried (5-4)
COL 3-4-0 WP J.B. Wendelken (3-1) S Hendriks (19)
Game #3: The finale was even close – 10 innings but the Steelers prevail in this one on a 10th inning Pete Alonso homer (21). Evan Longoria got them there with 2 hits, 4 rbis and 2 big dingers (9, 10). Game was see-saw. Columbus 2 in the 1st, Selkirk 2 in the 3rd, Columbus 1 in the 3rd then 2 for the Steelers in the 5th for a 5-3 lead. Then 2 more for Columbus in the 6th. Then blanks until the top of the 10th.
SEL 6-6-0 WP Trevor Rosenthal (3-1) S Devin Williams (17) BS Rafeal Dolis (2)
COL 5-9-1 LP Brandon Kintzler (5-2)
Series Summary: So we stopped the Steelers streak (but they are on a new one) and gained a game on them. 5 games to go, we think we can cover the starts!!!

Rosemere Renegades @ Valdosta Snappers

Series Preview: Two teams, Rosemere and Valdosta, just trying to get through the end of the season lock horns in Valdosta.
Series Summary: Fairly even match-up of two teams that don’t hit a lot. Surprisingly, Valdosta takes 2 of 3.

Sacramento Capitals @ Portland Lumber Jax

Game #1: POR 4 SAC 2
Game #2: POR 5 SAC 3
Game #3: POR 2 SAC 0 Stripling gets the complete game shutout for Portland
Series Summary: Portland gets a rare sweep 3-0.

Yonge Street Stalkers @ Detroit Crime

Series Summary: Yonge Street Stalkers get swept by the Detroit Crime.

Virginia Sluggers @ Coconut Creek Crushers

Series Preview: Playoffs???
Game #1: Hilliard hits a 3 run bomb. That’s all Akin needs as he shuts down VIR 3-1.
Game #2: VIR jumps out to an early 5-2 lead. Their bullpen almost coughs it up, but they hang on for the 5-4 win.
Game #3: VIR sprints out to a 6-1 lead. CCC gets back to 6-5 before the wheels come off. VIR pounds the CCC bullpen into submission and wins easily 13-6.
Series Summary: VIR takes the series 2-1. Springer is the big weapon in this series.

Chicago Mobsters @ Fremont Cannons

Series Preview: Two teams scrambling to unseat Dallas at the top of the AL, Chicago and Fremont battle it out over three games.
Game #1: Fremont strikes early against Mobsters starter Julio Urias, getting a run each in the 1st and 2nd. Cannons starter Sandy Alcantara gets a little wild in the 4th, and Chicago ties it at two each.
Fremont puts Mike Yastrzemski on in the 5th, and he racks up second on a SB on a misinterpreted sign. Chicago manger Hooks Foreman pulls the hook, and Urias’s replacement Casey Mize gives up a run-scoring single to Byron Buxton to make it 3-2.
Chicago threatens in the 7th, but a popped-up bunt leads to a double play. Fremont tacks on an insurance run in the 8th to win 4-2.
W: Sandy Alcantara (5-2)
L: Julio Urias (4-4)
S: Giovanny Gallegos (10)HR: CHI- none; FRE- Yoan Moncada (3)
Game #2: Fremont again scores first, with runs in the 3rd and 4th to go up 2-0 on Chicago starter Rich Hill. Joey Votto knocks a 2-run triple in the 4th, and the game is tied 2-2.
Fremont gets a runner on 2nd in the ninth, but cannot bring him home. The game stays scoreless into the twelfth, where a Jose Iglesias 2-run homer wins it for Chicago 4-2.
W: Alex Colome (2-1)
L: Justin Topa (0-1)HR: CHI-Jose Iglesias (3); FRE- James McCann (8)
Game #3: Fremont again strikes first, with homers by Mike Yastrzemski and Yoan Moncada in the 4th off of Chicago’s Trevor Bauer. A defensive collision leads to Chicago’s first run in the sixth, with 2B Josh Rojas and OF Max Kepler sidelined for Fremont.
Fremont adds a run in the seventh, but the cushion is short lived as Genesis Cabrera gives up a two-run homer in the eighth to Joey Votto to tie it. Keibert Ruiz plays the hero, with a
solo home run in the ninth to win it for Chicago 4-3.
W:Raisel Iglesias (2-0)
L: Genesis Cabrera (2-1)HR: Joey Votto (12), Keibert Ruiz (2); FRE- Mike Yastrzemski (17), Yoan Moncada (4), Travis Shaw (4)
Series Summary: Chicago picks up a game on Fremont, but both teams fall behind Dallas and Detroit.

Pittsburgh Lumber Company @ Corktown Cycle

Series Preview:  Two lower end standing Franchises.
Series Summary:  The Lumber Company wins 2 of 3.

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WEDNESDAY 07/24/2024
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