After wining the #1 Wild Card seed & taking out the Motor City Muscle 2 games to 1, the Chicago Mobsters take on the American League Central Division Champions the Crime from Detroit.

Game #1: Felix Hernandez (25-4 1.94) vs. Madison Bumgarner (25-5 1.75)

Felix Hernandez didn’t have his best stuff, allowing 8 hits, 3 walks 7 & 3 runs in only 5 Innings.   Chicago’s three relievers allowed 2 more runs over the course of 3 innings.
Kendry’s Morales has a solo shot in the top of the 2^nd to start the scoring off for the Crime.  Morales singled in the 3^rd scoring Manny Machado.
A Kyle Schwarber pinch hit Sacrifce  Fly in the 6^th scored the 3^rd run for Detroit.
Ben Zobrist hits a solo Home Run in the 7^th inning & a Jhonny Peralta solo Home Run in the 8^th inning was all the Crime needed to put this one on ice.
Madison Bumgarner was solid throwing 7 shutout innings allowing only 3 hits, walking 2, while striking out 7 Mobsters batters.   Joaquin Benoit threw the final 2 innings allowing only 1 walk.
Chicago’s bats just couldn’t get started against Bumgarner.
Final Score:  Detroit 5 – Chicago 0 Continue reading →

Sacramento Capitals finished the regular season atop the NL West with an intimidating 120-42 record and would enjoy home e-field advantage in the National League Divisional Playoff against the new-to-winning Bethesda Bandicoots who won their second consecutive NL East title with a 96-66 record.
The two teams met 13 times in the regular season with the edge going to the Capitals who were victorious in eight of those games (but we had the edge in beer consumption).
The Capitals went into the series with a long tradition of winning behind them … Bethesda merely had a long tradition of being behind.
Sacramento Generalissimo George Skiles predicted that given the enormous similarities in the two teams (solid hitting bolstered by very good pitching) that the series would be a close one.

Game #1: Jake Arrieta (17-10 1.66) vs. Zack Greinke (19-8 2.07)
Billed as a titanic struggle between the two best starting pitchers in the National League (Zack Geinke for Sacramento and Jake Arrieta for Bethesda)in 2015 (Zack Geinke for Sacramento and Jake Arrieta for Bethesda), the first game of the series lived up to its billing and more.
Playing the role of the Titanic was Bethesda and playing the role of the ice berg was the entire Sacramento Capitals batting order.
Sacramento got on the board first in the bottom of the 3rd inning where fittingly speedster (who knew) Greinke came around to score from 1st base on Danny Valencia‘s double down the line.
The shrink wrap now removed on the scoring, Giancarlo Stanton manhandled an Arrieta offering the next inning to make it 2-0 Sacramento, but they were just getting started as Albert Pujols punched a hole in the ozone layer with a shot just a couple of batters later and voila … 3-0 SAC and Arrieta’s day was done.
Sacramento added another the next inning on a Texas Leaguer by Corey Dickerson against reliever Brandon Morrow and then it was the Erasmo Ramirez and John Axford (Shit) Show as the two relievers gave up a combined six runs over the rest of the game for a ridiculously easy 10-0 Capitals win.   All Greinke did in the game was pitch seven innings of two hit ball, walking one, striking out 8 and scoring two runs himself. Nice. Dickerson and Pujols each had a couple of hits and 3 RBIs.
Final Score:  Sacramento 10 – Bethesda 0 Continue reading →

National League Division Series #1 Preview – Clovis Wheat Kings (100-62, 2nd place NL West) vs. Columbus Explorers (126-36, 1st NL Central).

It’s the big show and a big showdown between the Wheat Kings and Explorers. Clovis bumped off the “evil emipire” Tempe Tempers in the Wild Card round and now they aim to wipe out another NL Central team – this time the Cinderella Explorers from Columbus who have danced their way to the top record in the NL. And they did it with a patch work group of pitchers – many of which don’t even qualify to start in the post season!

Columbus took the season series, but only by a 7-5 margin. Columbus is a scrappy team with only 138 HRs compared to Clovis who was 2nd in the NL with 220 (behind Tempe’s 224). But Columbus outscored the Wheat Kings by a 766-687 margin. And the Explorers 203 stolen bases was 49 more than the closest team and 150 more than Clovis. But Clovis has a good throwing catching corps in Martin and Castro who cut down about 50% of the runners.

Pitching – The Explorers ranked 2nd (2.59 era and 481 runs) and the Wheat Kings 3rd (2.74 era and 502 runs) so there might not be too much offense – unless those Wheat Kings hitters get some bombs going over the wall.

Columbus fans are excited to be in the post season – Wheat Kings fans are hoping for a final farewell to the MWBL that will be capped with a big title. The two owner, Schindel and Cooper, have met in previous post seasons in MWWL where Cooper’s team was the big underdog and they managed to win 4 straight after dropping the opener – so don’t expect paper to mean a thing in this one.

Game #1: Garrett Richards (14-12 3.63) vs. Tommy Milone (10-5 3.13)
Again the big guns for Columbus (Tomlin and Severino) did not get enough starts to qualify, so they find themselves sitting in the bullpen – but who cares, it’s the playoffs. In fact, Schindel gets nervous when Davis opens the game with a double off the wall and Tomlin quickly enters the game. Good move, he gets the next three without giving up anything. But that quickly changed in the 2nd when Byrd hits a 1 out homer (1) to break the goose eggs and give Garrett the 1-0 lead. Continue reading →

American League Division Series
Manhattan Project vs. Hollywood Werewolves

Series Preview:   Hollywood opens the playoff season at home vs Manhattan.

Game #1: Danny Duffy (10-9 2.42) vs. Clayton Kershaw (27-2 1.18)

The game stays scoreless into the 4th inning. After Kershaw gets Manhattan 1-2-3, Paul Goldschmidt walks to lead off the bottom half. After Goldschmidt steals second, let’s listen to the call. Miguel Cabrera approaches the plate. The pitch … that’s hit … back and deep the other way … back … back… … back…… Continue reading →

National League Division Series
Long Beach Dirt Bags vs. Tempe Tempers

Series Preview:   The Division Series between the Long Beach Dirt Bags and the Tempe Tempers matched the top two NL MVP candidates Robinson Cano and Victor Martinez against each other and the National League’s only 20 game winners Yordano Ventura and Wei-Yin Chen. Tempe entered the series well rested while Long Beach was missing their second best hitter J.D. Martinez for the first two games. Continue reading →