Champions League

Back from a lovely and relaxing weekend in out of the way Midway, Utah that featured delicious rib-eye steaks and watching blizzards from the warmth of a rustic old lodge, Manager Ockey’s batteries were recharged. And apparantly his starters were totally stoked as well as they pitched WELL against the Foxes and Wheelers.

Game 1, vs. Foxes. Kazmir is totally sweet, going 5 innings in which he allowed 4 hits, one UN-earned run and struck out 7 while walking none. Sabathia is very impressive for the Foxes, allowing only 2 runs in 7 strong innings, but Zumaya in relief gives up a 2-run insurance blast to Cousin Chase in the 8th and Mo earns a 2-inning save.

Game 2, vs. Foxes. Myers is also totally freaking sweet, going 6 innings allowing only 3 hits and a run while K’ing 5. Bonderman for the Foxes is VERY effective, going 7 innings, allowing only 2 runs and striking out 8. Those 2 runs both courtesy of Soriano with a solo blast and RBI single. Myers hands over a 2-1 lead to Heilman, who is supposed to be good. Unfortunately, he, along with Oliver, is really bad. He doesn’t get help as Soriano drops a flyball that should have been out #1. Heilman doesn’t respond well to that, as he throws a wild pitch then gives up a double and 2 singles to turn a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 defecit. Neshek and Nathan pitch a hitless 8th and 9th to preserve the Fox win.

Game 3, vs. Wheelers. Hamels’ turn to be freaking good. He goes 6 innings allowing only 3 hits and 2 runs (only 1 earned) while K’ing 7. As has been the case in every game, the opposing pitcher is up to the challenge as well. This time it’s Jered Weaver, who goes 7 innings allowing only 5 hits and K’ing 8. He gives up 3 runs to Hamels’ 2, though, and that’s the margin of victory - a 3-2 nut-squeezer. Hairys get all their offense in the 6th as Utley hits a solo bomb and Beltran a 2-run blast. Mo pickes up another 2-inning save and it’s a thing of beauty - no hits, no walks and 3 K’s.

Game 4, vs. Wheelers. Schilling’s turn to shine. He goes 8 innings allowing only THREE hits and strikes out 8. Beltran hits a 2-run bomb off Wheeler Lackey, who was AWESOME as well - he went 7 innings allowing 2 earned runs while striking out TEN Hairys. Wheelers immediately tie the game at 2 with Ichiro RBI single and Beltre RBI ground-out that the computer teased Ockey with, saying it should be a GDP. So, instead of going home to nail the slow of foot Johjima, I go for the GDP and of course Beltre beats it out. Lame. Anyway, it’s tied at 2 til the 3rd when Beltran gets a sac fly to make it 3-2. And that was it. Nothing but zeroes on the board the rest of the way. ANOTHER 3-2 clencher. MO can’t finish it cuz he’s been doing all this 2-inning stuff and his fatigued, so Bowie comes in and gets it done.

I can’t remember a series of games that featured such GREAT pitching duels. I was way lucky to get the wins I did. I only scored 12 runs over the 4 games, but thankfully, my opponents only scored 9. Great stuff.

Ps. My financial investment in AROD is REALLY paying off. He’s hitting .155 with 20 K’s in 80 PA’s and has hit into 5 double plays - more than twice as many as anyone else on my roster. Thanks for showing up, pal.

Miscellaneous Records:

Omar Vizquel in the only infielder to have an errorless season, 2019

Michael Young went 44 games, the longest streak ever, at shortstop without an error. He committed an error during the 2nd game of the 2016 42-game season. He played the remainder of the season error-free and all 4 playoff games. 2016 was the year of Bart’s only division championship, Young was his shortstop.

The Scorpions hit a HR in 31 consecutive games.

The Crows had a stolen base in 21 consecutive games.

The Foxes had a 12 game errorless streak.

The Crows went 8 games without allowing a HR.

The Scorpions and Knights both have had winning streaks of 10 games.

No player in PTP has been ejected twice in their career.

The Hedgehogs are the only team to steal 7 bases or more in a single game. 5 other teams have had 6.

Despite only getting  3 hits, I pulled out a great win against the Scorpions in Oakland in Gm 2.  I have to do the dishes.  And laundry.

0-0 in the bottom of the 9th.  They get a couple hits.  I warm up a righty reliever if they get to Sanchez, who hits over .400 against lefties.  Sanchez comes up with 2 men on against my lefty, Feliciano, so I right click on my bullpen to bring in my righty, but instead of the menu to bring in the pitcher, THE COMPUTER PITCHES THE BALL INSTEAD.  1st pitch, single, GAME OVER.

STRONG Cy Young contender.  Click to enlarge.

The Sox just did to me what I had just done to the Foxes. Mean-on pitching, that is.

In game 1 of our series Jennings pitched 8.2 innings against me, allowing only 5 hits and 2 runs, two dinky solo shots.

In game 2 of our series Ervin Santana pitched 9 innings against me, allowing only 5 hits and 1 run, a dinky solo shot.

So my bawling and whining about losing close games seems funny now, because I don’t feel any better having just lost two games by getting blown out instead.

Errors and unearned runs were a major problem for me, and have been for most of the season. Chipper Jones at 2nd is a glaring weakness and Cabrera at 3rd is supposed to be ok but he’s allowing huge errors preceding lots of unnecessary runs given up.

My starting pitching, so great the previous series, was awful. In game 1 we found ourselves down 4-0 in the 5th inning, and in game 2 we got down 9-0 in the 4th!

On the bright side, Howard hit two homers in the series, and my leadoff hitter Ryan Church broke an (unprecedented?) 0-23 slump. He was batting .310 with a .459 OBP and a .793 SLG heading into the slump. Now it’s not so good.

I slip into last place behind Jerry again in the Eastern standings, and my prediction recently on a comment about how the Sox are better than you’d think and on the verge of a breakthrough was all too true. They’re now the hottest team in the league with 5 wins in a row, on top of the West standings at 10-6, and looking like by far the best computer team.

Two games. 18 innings. My staff only allowed FIVE HITS AND ONE RUN. Combined.

The Hogs have now gone 9-3 after their 1-4 start.

Manny Ramirez is hot, too. The Gator went 5-6 with a homer in the series. In our last 11 games he’s 16-32. (That’s batting .500.) With a lot of homers. I couldn’t even count them all.

Both of my starters, Smoltz and Cabrera, were good, K’ing 12 guys in 11 innings, while just allowing 4 hits and that lone run, a Hafner solo blast.

My bullpen was even better, going 7 innings, allowing only 1 hit, no runs, and striking out 8.

When you’re in 3rd place you can brag a little about your accomplishments. When you’re the division or wildcard leader, it’s bad form to do so. So sorry guys, I don’t want to hear about your successes.

In a very un-merry turn of events, the Hairys were swept by the Crows in 2 one-run losses Thursday evening. They won it in the 9th of Game 1 after hitting 3 homers off Schilling then in Game 2 freaking Oliver gave up his 4th go-ahead bomb of the year - that’s what you want in a set-up guy - someone who gives up go-ahead bombs literally every time he comes in. He is now giving up 2.78 homers per 9, by the way. Nice. I really don’t want to talk about it. Manager Ockey is now on his way up to the Johnson Lodge in Midway, UT for a lovely anniversary celebration with his vice-president of baseball operations where thoughts of Darren Oliver will hopefully be purged.

Carlos Zambrano, the Grand Junction starter, came into this game with an 0-2 record and a 6.88 ERA. He had allowed 21 walks in 17 in innings! So in the first inning of our game, I easily got 3 singles, a walk, and a homer, and raced out to a 3-0 lead, and felt pretty smug.

Little did I know that he would spend the rest of the game emotionally gouging my eyes out. After that Howard 3-run jack that gave us that pretty 3 run lead, Zambrano set down my batters with ease the rest of the way, and to really drive that shrimp fork into my ocular cavities, he hit a go-ahead 3-run HOME RUN in the 5th against my best starter this year, Johnson, who had taken a 1-hit shoutout into said 5th inning. So he killed me on the mound and at the plate, single-handedly defeating my from every which way.

I couldn’t get a run the whole rest of the game after that nice 1st inning, and closer Nathan came on in the 9th to lock down the save and Zambrano’s win. Losing by just a run, this marked the 7th time in 7 losses now that I’ve had the tying run at the plate in the final inning. Clutch.

Unusual. My starter pitched great. Bedard got his first win and lowered his ERA on the season to 2.12. He allowed no earned runs in 7.1 innings, striking out 7.

And dig this - my numbers 1-5 hitters, Church, Jeter, Howard, Ramirez, Manny, and Chipper had 1 hit and no RBIs in the game. My numbers 6-8 hitters had 8 hits and 6 RBIs in the game.

We rushed out to a 6-0 lead, then in the 8th, my boy Cabrera at 3rd allowed a grounder to go through his legs with 2 outs to load the bases. You KNOW what happens next. Grand Slam, Hunter, to pull the Foxes back within 2 at 6-4. Luckily, my interim closer, Ray, got Pujols to ground to 3rd as the tying run at the plate in the 9th to save the game.