2010 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES HIGHLIGHTS
For Immediate Release
October 14, 2010
Elyria vs. Tijuana – The ALCS was played face-to-face.
Both teams come into the series with 4 straight post season victories, strong pitching staffs and looking to make their 1st World Series.
Game 1
“Aces” is relative with these 2 rotations but we’ll run with it. Team “aces” Carpenter and Wainwright kick things off. After pitching around a leadoff double by J. Elsbury to start the game, Tijuana cashes in on a couple errors and a single to draw first blood in the bottom of the 1st. A solo shot by P. Fielder and rbi single by Beltran puts us up 3-0 after 4. Elyria gets 1 back in the 5th but that would be it for scoring by the visitors. Carpenter and 2 relievers combine in the 4-1 victory.
Game 2
Greinke vs Lester. Fielder jacks a 3-run blast in the 1st to get things rolling for the home team. Elyria strikes back with an rbi single in the 4th only to give it back in the bottom half of the inning. Greinke gives it over to the bullpen after 7 innings of 2 hit ball. M. Adams allows 2 inherited runners to score in the 9th to make things interesting but settles down and gets his 2nd save in as many chances. Tijuana wins 5-3.
Game 3
Leaving home up 2 games to none Tijuana begins to feel confident. That was a mistake. J. Jurrjens combines with 2 relievers on a 3-hit shutout. Elyria takes it 4-0.
Game 4
A rematch of game 1 starters as Wainwright faces Carpenter on his home turf. A. Cabrera gets things going for Elyria with a RBI single in the 1st. It stays 1-0 until the 5th when The Indians go up 3-0 on a 2-run double from A. Cabrera. They add 2 more in the 6th and coast to the 5-0 victory.
Game 5
It’s now a best of three series, where anything can happen. Tijuana trots out Cy Young contender Z. Greinke to face lefty J. Lester. A pitcher’s duel thru 7 when Tijuana’s bats come alive. A 2-run Mauer homer cap a 4 run 8th which blows it open. 2 more runs were added in the 9th giving Tijuana the win 8-2.
Game 6
J. Vazquez takes the mound, a win sends his team to their 1st World Series. The Bottle Rockets open it up early, getting to Jurrjens for 3 in the 2nd. That would be all she wrote. Vazquez is dominating, striking out 9 in 7 scoreless. Belisario, Miller and Adams finish things up. Tijuana takes it 5-1.
Iron City vs. Sacramento –
It was a matchup of the best hitting team in the National League and the best pitching team, testing the old adage that good pitching will beat good hitting. For the 2010 MWBL NLCS, that axiom proved to be true as the Iron City Yinzers continued to laugh at the oddsmakers, beating the favored Sacramento Capitals in five games to advance to their first World Series.
Over the course of the five games, Iron City held the mighty Sacramento lineup to a .157 batting average and just 11 runs, just two over the first three games. Iron City hit just .214 but the Yinzer offense managed to push just enough runs across – including a walk-off home run to send them to the World Series in Game 5 – to make that outstanding pitching stand up.
Game 1
Was a good ol’ fashioned pitcher’s battle between Tim Lincecum and Erik Bedard. Lincecum pitched into the eighth, allowing only three hits and one walk while striking out six. Erik Bedard also went 7 1/3 innings, yielding five hits and two walks while striking out 11. Unfortunately for him, Juan Uribe made a key error in the seventh and Mike Lowell took advantage with a two-run homer to give Iron City a 2-0 lead. And that’s how it ended, with Tim Byrdak, Kiko Calero and closer Jason Frasor tossing 1 2/3 innings of perfect baseball to give Iron City a 1-0 series lead on the road.
Game 2
The Yinzers got some stronger pitching in Game 2 from Tommy Hanson, who went 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two hits and one earned run. The right-hander did walk four, but it never got him into too much trouble. The Yinzer offense exploded four four runs in the third off of loser J.A. Happ, who was removed after that third inning, having given up five earned runs on seven hits. Nolan Reimold had two hits – including a home run – and three RBIs for the Yinzers, as the 3-4-5 hitters in the lineup went a combined 6-for-11 with all five RBIs and four of the runs scored in the eventual 6-1 triumph.
Game 3
It was more of the same in Game 3. Iron City took an early lead in the first inning, saw Sacramento tie it up on the top of the second on Jason Bay’s steal of home, then took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the frame. They tacked on two more in the sixth and an insurance run in the eighth for another 6-1 victory and a commanding 3-0 series lead. Randy Wolf tossed a complete-game fivehitter, allowing just the lone run while striking out 10. David Murphy had three extra-base hits – two doubles and a home run – to lead the offense. This time it was the bottom of the lineup that led the way, with Murphy, Elvis Andrus and Wolf (who hit a homer himself) driving in three runs , one coming on Andrus’ perfectly executed squeeze bunt.
Game 4
Sacramento rolled the dice and brought J.A. Happ back on two days rest (he only went three innings in his Game 2 start) for Game 4 and it paid off for the Capitals. The lefty went seven shutout innings, striking out eight while allowing only three hits and two walks. Sacramento’s offense wasn’t helping out much, but with single runs in the third off starter Jeff Niemann (5 IP 4 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K) and reliever Kiko Calero in the the ninth, they had a 2-0 lead with George Sherrill on the mound to start the bottom of the ninth. Sherrill gave way to Claudio Vargas and Darren Oliver, who promptly coughed up the lead to send the game into extra innings. But the Capitals didn’t quit, plating two runs off of Tim Byrdak and Brian Sanches to win the game, 4-2, in 10 innings and extending the series for at least one more day.
Game 5
Tim Lincecum was back on the mound for the Yinzers in Game 5, again against Erik Bedard, and when the Yinzers took a 3-0 lead with their ace on the hill, there was some early rejoicing in Iron City. But the Yinzers may have stayed with their ace a little too long as Sacramento scored three in the sixth and one in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead and knock Lincecum from the game. Lincecum gave up three homers, to Manny Ramirez, Jason Bay and Landon Powell. Sacramento added a run in the top of the eighth and it looked like this was headed to a Game 6. But the Yinzers added a run in the eighth to make it a 5-4 game. When George Sherrill ran into trouble in the ninth and appeared fatigued, Elmer Dessens came in to the game. After recording one out – meaning Sacramento needed just one more to extend the series for another day – he caught too much of the plate and Carlos Gonzalez made him pay, hitting a two-out, two-run, series-ending, walk-off homer. CarGo was mobbed at the plate and Yinzer Park rocked for at least 45 minutes after the game ended as Iron City celebrated their first World Series trip in franchise history.