October '78 (MVP '05 Mini-Dynasty)

[Calis]

Ok, this is a little mini-dynasty I’m going to be putting together playing through the 1978 MLB playoffs. I’m going to be using MVP Baseball 2005, and the fantastic 1978 mod done by the Total Classics team. I’m not sure why I picked the ’78 one. I know almost nothing about the season, but anyhow it happened. I have in mind a bigger dynasty using the Total Classics mod which has 120 of the all-time best teams on it. I figured I’d start small.

I basically just fired up a dynasty and picked a horrible team to manager(Seattle in this case) so my doing nothing but quick simming would matter as little as possible. I’m going to sim through the season very quickly to get to the playoffs and then we’ll do each game individually. There’s some slight snags here however. It’s impossible to not have the East/West/Central divisions, so there’ll be 3. There IS a way to create your own playoffs where I could go in and edit once the season is done to pick the top two from their correct historical divisions, but I can’t seem to find it out now. We’ll be adding a twist then by having a wild card team in there.

I’ll be watching all of the playoff games CPU vs. CPU. I think I’ll try to set up something to post some screenshots and other stuff as well.

[Calis]

Regular Season Wrap-up

Ok, here comes our AL representatives in the playoffs.

Red Sox 101-61
California Angels 97-65
KC Royals 96-66
Yankees 98-64

There was an incredibly close race for the Wild Card here that ended up with the Brewers just collapsing and losing the spot to the Yankees on the final day of the season.

The NL Representatives

Dodgers 98-64
Philadelphia 96-66
Chicago 86-76
Padres 86-76

No real close races in the West.

Season Stats

Lets take a quick look at the standout stats from the season.

Batting Average
S. Bando .350
B. Buckner .344
D. Parker .339

Homeruns
R. Smith 53
J. Rice 43
F. Lynn 40

RBI
A. Otis 128
F. Lynn 126
R. Smalley 124

Stolen Bases
J. Cruz 57
D. Lopes 43
L. Bowa 43


On Base %
C. Beltran .461
S. Bando .460
B. Buckner .440

Slugging %
F. Lynn .629
R. Smith .597
D. Parker .595

ERA
B. Hooton 2.26 251.1
R. Guidry 2.41 246.2
M. Caldwell 2.46 245.0

Wins
D. Leonard 21
M. Caldwell 20
D. Eckersley 19

Strikeouts
R. Guidry 239
B. Blyleven 224
S. Carlton 216

Saves
T. Bruno 38
K. Forsch 37
M. Fidrych 37

Haven't looked at these too in depth yet. The Red Sox have a pretty nasty line-up and have the #2 and #3 Homerun hitters in the league. B. Hooton has had a dominating season leading the league in innings pitched and ERA.

We'll take a look at the first round match-ups coming up.

[Calis]

I guess I never realized this. I figured the wild card would play the top team in the league, but is this not the case if they're in the same division? I just assumed Boston would face the Yankees in the first round, which I thought would be good for excitement. I guess it makes sense though, just wanted to make sure that was right.

Kansas City
at
Boston

Game 1 Preview
Dennis Leonard going head to head with Dennis Eckersley should be a helluva pitcher’s duel. We have two pretty potent offenses battling against great pitching here. The edge definitely goes to Boston though who have had a phenomenal season.

Yankees
At
California

Game 1 Preview
Frank Tanana gets the nod in game 1 for the Angels over Nolan Ryan. He’ll be facing off against the Yankee’s Ron Guidry who is on fire as of late. The Yankees have fate on their side needing a miracle to even make it here and getting it.

Cubs
At
Dodgers

Game 1 Preview
The Dodgers will go with Hooten in game one who is a lock for the Cy Young award this season and has been nearly unstoppable. The Cubs will go with Rick Reuschel in this one, but man do they look outmatched. They’re going to be relying on Bill Buckner to give them a chance in this one against some nasty Dodger pitching.

San Diego
At
Philadelphia

Game 1 Preview
Gaylord Perry faces off against Steve Carlton for our most anticipated 1st round meeting. These two teams match-up pretty well and I have a hard time picking a winner here. I’ll give Philly the edge though.

Anyone have a preference for the first game to show? I'll probably be playing it when I get home for work tonight so there's several hours to get votes in. If anyone has any ideas to make this more interesting feel free to say so as well.

What's the easiest way to use storage for screenies? Can I use one of the free sites like Flickr or something? I know I could use my space provided by my ISP, but I don't feel like figuring that out.

[Calis]

Ok, I thought we’d start this out with a bang and dive straight into Carlton vs. Perry for the first game. Something I didn’t know(You’ll find there’ll be thousands of these things) is that Ozzie Smith played for the Pads at this . time. Here are the batting orders and the positions on the field for both teams.

San Diego Padres
LF Gene Richards
SS Ozzie Smith
CF D. Thomas
RF Dave Winfield
1B Gene Tenace
C Rick Sweet
2B Fernando Gonzalez
3B Bill Almon
P Gaylord Perry

Philadelphia Phillies
RF Bake McBride
SS Larry Bowa
3B Mike Schmidt
LF Greg Luzinski
1B Richie Hebner
CF Garry Maddox
C Bob Boone
2B Ted Sizemore
P Steve Carlton


Steve Carlton warms up before the start of Game 1

Ok, one other thing. I stupidly assumed you could control more than one team in a dynasty or at least watch the computer controlled teams games, but I was wrong. Things have changed now, we won't be playing the playoffs through the dynasty but I'll be playing them as a string of exhibition games. This shouldn't matter too much, unless a reliever goes an extended period. I might have to jump in and force the computer to use a different pitcher every so often. I might ask some opinions as well on how often or much a pitcher can throw in the playoffs as I'm sure there's folks a lot more knowledgeable than me on that.

I imagine I'll use smaller images for the most part in here, but I'll try some things out. I don't have much space on my personal page so there might not be many but we'll see how it goes.

Ok, lets play ball!

[Calis]

Ok, we’re just going to do short summaries of key events inning by inning. I like watching these games, and I don’t feel like writing a whole lot.

1st.
The Padres start out looking strong, with Thomas getting on base and then moving to 3rd on a double by Dave Winfield. Carlton strikes out the next batter to end the inning with the score still 0-0.

2nd.
No hits for the Phillies yet through 2. Carlton is showing pinpoint accuracy early, and looks very sharp.

3rd.
Perry of all people gets a nice leadoff single to get the bottom of the 3rd under way. Carlton then walks Gene Richards. Things are starting to look bad. Ozzie Smith gets a base knock scoring Perry. Dave Winfield comes up next and CRANKS one that looks to be gone but ends up bouncing off the wall. It was enough to score another run though and extend the lead to 2-0.

No hits for the Phillies for another inning.


4th.


Mike Schmidt steps into the box against Gaylord Perry

Finally the Phillies get a hit courtesy of Mike Schmidt. No one else does for either team.

5th.
Nada

6th.
Both pitchers are really in a groove now. No hits this inning either. Perry has given up 1 hit through 6 and now Carlton hasn’t given up a hit in the last 3.

7th Inning
I'm not sure I would've done this. Philly pinch hit for Steve Carlton who was really in a groove last inning. They replace him this inning with Tug McGraw. They would be punished for this move very shortly as Ozzie Smith cranks a 2 run homer to extend the lead to 4-0.

Ozzie Smith puts one into the bleachers in right to extend the Pads lead to 4-0

Phillies finally get their 2nd hit courtesy of Luzinski who has a bit of a John Goodman look about him. He’s a portly fellow. Wheels Luzinski of course gets caught up in a double play on the next pitch, and that’s that.


8th Inning

McGraw gives up a double and he’s looked pathetic. He’s had horrible control and just looks very shaky. The manager comes out to talk with him, and they give him the heave replacing him with Jim Longberg who strikes out the next batter.

Gaylord Perry walks one this inning but gives up no hits again. He’s now given up two hits in 8 innings pitched. He’s had a phenomenal game.

9th

Ozzie Smith manages to knock in another run to cushion the lead a bit more. 5-0 now, and that looked to be 4 more runs than needed to win this one.

Gaylord Perry shows his humanity in the bottom of the 9th finally. He gives up a leadoff single, but forces a grounder into a double play by the next batter. Then the wheels start to come off.

Mike Schmidt singles, then Wheels Luzinski follows it up with another single. Hebner singles at the next at bat and Mike Schmidt races for home and in a very close play is called safe at home. 5-1 Pads now with 2 men on! That was it though, as the next batter pops out and the Padres win game 1 of the series by a score of 5-1

Well not what I expected. I really thought the Phils would win this one but they were manhandled. Was this a case of Gaylord Perry just bringing his A game tonight or are the Phillies hitters in a major funk? They better get it together soon, they're two losses away from going home.

Box Score Game 1

Now this is pretty neat. I found a Box Score extractor for the game. I just ran that right after I finished up the game and it pulled out the box score, an at bat by at bat recount of the game and pulled pitch count and some other things. Very nifty.

Player of the game in my mind is pretty easy here, it's Gaylord Perry. Apart from the 9th inning where his fatigue really started to show he allowed 2 hits and no earned runs through 8. Even with the 9th inning it was still only 6 hits and 1 earned run through 9. Really odd was that he had no strikeouts, not a 1. I wonder if this is going to be a problem with these games, a lack of k's?

[Calis]

New York Yankees
at
California Angels


New York Yankees
CF Mickey Rivers
2B Willie Randolph
C Thurman Munson
RF Reggie Jackson
1B Chris Chambliss
3B Graig Nettles
DH Roy White
LF Lou Piniella
SS Bucky Dent

P Ron Guidry

California Angels
CF Rick Miller
2B Bobby Grich
RF Lyman Bostock
LF Joe Rudi
DH Don Baylor
1B Ron Fairly
C Brian Downing
3B Carney Lansford
SS Dave Chalk

P Frank Tanana

Well this game was more interesting than the first game, there were a couple moments that were pretty intense but it ended up with the same margin between winner and loser….

1st
Tanana walks Randolph on 4 pitches. That’s not a good sign of things to come. He gets out of the inning without any other trouble though.


Rick Miller leads off with a double but Guidry also manages to get out of the inning

2nd
Tanana is looking sick right now. Reggie Jackson is mowed down in 3 pitches. Craig Nettles is taken down in 3, and to finish it off Lou Pinella is retired with 3. Nasty inning

The Angels were obviously pumped by Tanana’s performance and furthermore by Ron Fairly inducing a walk to leadoff. He was followed by Brian Downing who singled to left, and then Carney Lansford brings him home to make it 1-0 Angels.

3rd
Tanana starts off the inning with ANOTHER 3 pitch K.



Nettles makes an amazing play at 3rd Base to stop what would’ve surely been a double to the corner.

4th
Snoozer

5th
More of the same, a real pitcher’s duel so far with just 7 hits between the two teams.

6th
The game gets busted wide open

Willie Randolph singles, and then is thrown out trying to steal 2nd. Thurman Munson gets a hit next, and then it’s Reggie Jackson’s turn. Chris Chambliss bloops one over the shortstop to bring home Munson and the game is tied up 1-1.

Munson crosses the plate after a Chris Chambliss hit to tie the game up 1-1.

Lymon Bostock singles, and then makes it to 2nd with some nice running on a grounder to first. The Yankees decide to intentionally walk Don Baylor and that does not pay off at all. Ron Fairly punishes them with a HUGE 3 Run Homer to take back the lead for the Angels. It’s 4-1 now!

7th
The Yankees aren’t giving up though! This is a team that fought tooth and nail to even get here. Lou Piniella singles to start things off. White gets another base knock and Piniella hustles to 3rd base. Bucky F’ing Dent connects with a good shot to score Piniella and it’s now 4-2. The Yankees aren’t done yet though. Mickey Rivers bunts to advance the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Willie Randolph comes up to bat and hits a long fly ball that drops in and both runners score! It’s a tie ballgame again! 4-4.

The Angels weren’t giving up either. Rick Miller who is on fire today hits a nice little blooper to right that gets him on base. Grich advances him and gets on himself with a nice shot between the SS and 3B. Lyman Bostock comes up and drills one to left field which brings home a run and gives the Angels the lead yet again 5-4. Guidry is starting to look flustered, and he walks Ron Baylor, loading the bases. He now has the bases loaded against the guy who took him yard last time in Ron Fairly. Ron doesn’t go deep this time, but he goes deep enough dropping one in the gap and allowing 2 runs to score. The 2nd run that crossed the plate was a very questionable call, and the Yankee Skipper was not happy with the decision at all and let the Ump know. Cooler heads prevailed though and nothing too bad happened. This was it for Guidry though. Ken Clay comes into pitch with the Yankees down 7-4. He gives up one more run before ending the inning, and the Yanks go into the 8th down 8-4.

8th
Chris Chambliss walks to get things started, but is caught in a double play when Nettles hits a screaming line drive right at first which somehow Fairly manages to get and get to the bag before Chambliss returns. That was the end of it basically, completely deflating the Yanks.

9th
It’s over.

The Angels pull off the victory in Game 1 by a score of 8-4. This was a pretty big blow for the surging Yankees and it'll be interesting to see if they can bounce back from this in Game 2. Player of the Game for me is easily Ron Fairly who went 2-3 with a walk, a 3 run homer and a single that drove in 2 more runs. He really took this game over.

Box Score

[Calis]

Going to do the after game reports a bit differently now. I guess more like a newspaper article after the game or something rather than inning by inning. It's a little easier and I think a bit more interesting to read.


Chicago Cubs
At
Los Angeles Dodgers


Chicago Cubs
SS Ivan DeJesus
CF Greg Gross
1B Bill Buckner
RF Bobby Murcer
LF Dave Kingman
2B Manny Trillo
3B Steve Ontiveros
C Dave Rader
P Rick Reuschel

Los Angeles Dodgers
2B Davey Lopes
SS Bill Russell
RF Reggie Smith
3B Ron Cey
1B Steve Garvey
LF Dusty Baker
CF Billy North
C Steve Yeager
P Burt Hooton


Ron Cey homers in the 2nd to get things going

Ron Cey got things going early in this game homering in the 2nd inning to give the Dodgers a quick 1-0 lead. It stayed close and Chicago had every opportunity to tie it up or even take the lead in the 5th when Dave Kingman singled and then Manny Trillo doubled to put men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. What followed this was one of the worst displays of hitting I’ve seen. The next two batters hit terrible weak grounders that didn’t advance the runners and resulted in two outs, and the third batter went down on three pitches. This was a huge break for Hooton and the Dodgers.

The Cubs got things going again in the 6th. Greg Gross walked to leadoff the inning, and Gross on base apparently really rattled Hooton who proceeds to make about 400 throws to first base. He settles down and gets two outs, but Bobby Murcer comes up and hits a very sharp grounder to short, and for some reason Russell tries to get Gross at 2nd rather than the out at first and he misses him by a matter of inches. The Cubs are threatening again. Dave Kingman steps up and hits a nice fly that looks like it is going to fall in right along the foul line in left field. Dusty Baker makes a spectacular play though to catch it and end the inning.

The Dodgers took the game over in the 7th. Ron Cey singles to start the inning, and Steve Garvey follows him with a double off the wall in right-center. Dusty Baker comes up and hits to almost the exact same spot and brings home two runs. It’s 4-0. Billy North hits a blooper to shallow center and Baker chugs home to make it 5-0. Steve Yeager comes up and advances North to 2nd with a little grounder. Hooton comes up and hits a nice pop to right field which moves North to 3rd. Reuschel throws a wild pitch next and North scores to make it 6-0.

Mike Vail pinch hits to lead off the 8th for the Cubs and cranks one over the wall to get the Cubs on the board, but that was all they could muster. Ron Cey homered again in the bottom of the 8th to make it 7-1 and end the day 4-4 for him with 2 homers and 3 RBI’s. I think it’s safe to say he’s our player of the game. The Cubs just looked outmatched today. They have to face Don Sutton in Game #2 as well, and that is not an enviable task. They're in trouble.




Box Score

[Calis]

Kansas City Royals
At
Boston Red Sox

Royals

LF Willie Wilson
DH Hal McRae
3B George Brett
RF Al Cowens
C Darrell Porter
CF Amos Otis
1B Pete LaCock
SS Freddie Patek
2B Frank White

P Dennis Leonard


Red Sox

SS Rick Burleson
2B Jerry Remy
LF Jim Rice
DH Carl Yastrzemski
C Carlton Fisk
CF Fred Lynn
1B George Scott
RF Dwight Evans
3B Butch Hobson

P Dennis Eckerlsey

Ok folks, the final Game 1 of the '78 Playoffs is up next and it's the one I'm most excited about. I'm a Royals fan, so I'm pulling for them to advance, but they're facing the best team in baseball this season. The Red Sox have been dominant, and they've done it with some nasty power hitting, and some clutch pitching. They're definitely underdogs, but lets see what they can do!

Game #1 coming up!

[Calis]

Well this was my most anticipated Series of the 1st round, and let me tell you the first game did not disappoint at all. I didn’t think watching a couple of AI driven teams play a video game could be this good. Lets get right into it.



Jim Rice makes an amazing catch, climbing up the left field wall in the 7th inning

Both teams were just bouncing around with nervous energy before this one started. The jitters showed early as Eckersley walks Willie Wilson to start the game. The bad omen for the Red Sox is remedied as Carlton Fisk throws a rocket to catch Wilson attempting to steal 2nd. In the 2nd inning, Yaz hits a nice little single to left, and then next up Fisk hits one hard to second base, and White makes a beautiful play and turns to flick it to Patek who is in a horrible position off the bag and both runners end up safe. Just a huge mix-up by the Royals there and it cost them. A groundout and a popout follow, but both scored runs. The Red Sox were ahead early 2-0.

The third inning shows the Sox striking again, as Remy hits a single up the middle, and then gets a beautiful jump to steal 2nd. Jim Rice hits one in the gap between right and center field, and Remy motors on home to make it 3-0. The Royals finally strike in the 4th when Hal McCrae and George Brett get a couple of singles and then McCrae is driven home by Cowen.

The fifth inning is when things start getting good. Pete Lacock singles to the left corner, and then a bunt advances him to 2nd. Frank White doubles down the 1st base line into the corner. A run scores and it’s 3-2 Sox now. Willie Wilson ties it up with a double that Dennis Eckersley almost catches. George Brett is up next and he doubles bringing home Wilson! The Royals take the lead 4-3.

The Royals stay hot in the 6th inning. Porter gets a base knock down the third base line, and Otis follows him with another hit. Lacock was up next and hit it up the middle, they nabbed Otis at 2nd, but were unable to turn two. Otis looked shaken up on the play and did not continue, we’ll have to see what we can find out about that later. Frank White hits a zinger to third base that Butch Hobson just missed by an inch. A run scores and the Royals are up by two now. Willie Wilson catches a curve by Eckersley high in the strike zone and takes it deep to left. Another run scores and it’s 6-3 Royals. Dennis Eckersley is done for the day and replaced by Tom Burgmeier.

The Red Sox are not finished by any means though. A single and a walk in the bottom half of the 6th and Butch Hobson hits a double that brings home both runners. It’s 6-5 Royals. The Royals extend the lead a little further though when Cowens homers in the 7th making it a two run game. Darrell Porter walks next, and then there’s a deep fly ball to left field that looks like it could go out, but Jim Rice makes a phenomenal catch climbing up the Green Monster to snag it.

Remy strikes again with a single, and he nabs 2nd for the 2nd time today. This kid has some wheels. He’s advanced to third on a grounder to the right side. Yaz is up to bat next and he waits for a mistake and finds one. He takes one deep, deep, to left field and it’s GONE! He’s tied it up! 7-7 now. We’re going into the 8th inning.

Remember when I mentioned the Red Sox clutch pitching? I spoke too soon maybe, as we saw a weird implosion by the bullpen here in the 8th. They walk the leadoff man Freddie Patek. Dick Drago is brough in to face Frank White. He walks him! There’s men on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Bill Campbell comes into pitch to Wilson. Wilson hits a laser to 3rd. It’s bobbled! All the runners are safe. The bases are loaded with no outs. Hal McCrae is up next and hits one down the 3rd base line and breaking his bat. Not enough though as Hobson charges and tosses to Fisk for the force at home. George Brett steps in and drives one deep to left, it looks again like it could be out of here, can Jim Rice make another spectacular catch? He does for the 2nd out! He’s got no chance to get the runner tagging up on 3rd and the Royals jump ahead 8-7.

The Royals mowed the Sox down in the 8th, and were in turn taken down in the 9th. We hit the bottom of the 9th with Rice, Yaz, and Fisk due up. This is going to be good. Rice is down on a pop out in foul territory off 1st. Yaz steps in and sends a scorcher over Frank White’s head at 2nd. Carlton Fisk shows great patience and ends up getting walked. Lynn steps up, and he waits for his pitch and hits one sharply to shortstop. This could be the ball game, Patek nabs it and tosses it to White for the force at 2nd. White turns and fires to 1st, but SAFE! Lynn was safe by a hair! We have runners at 1st and 3rd now with 2 outs. George Scott is up with a chance to be the hero, but it ain’t happening. He’s smoked by Al Hrabosky in 4 pitches and the Royals have upset the Red Sox 8-7!

Phew, what a barnburner. I apologize for the jumping back and forth from past to present tense on that recap, but hey..it was a good game.  Great game though, I really thought the Red Sox power would win them the game, but I really underestimated the speed of the Royals. They won this game by turning several singles into doubles, especially in the 6th inning. There were two for sure singles I thought that they turned into doubles. They are fast up and down the lineup. I can’t wait for game 2!


Box Score

Player of the game was a tough call. I was torn between Frank White who really stepped it up, and Willie Wilson who was also phenomenal. In the end I gave it to Wilson though, who had some clutch hits and showed some great moves on the basepaths.

[Calis]

San Diego Padres
At
Philadelphia Philles
Game 2

Well San Diego leads the series one game to nothing after that outstanding performance by Gaylord Perry in the opener. This is a must win for Philly, they can’t afford to lose two in a row at home. Randy Jones will be the starter for the visiting Padres. He doesn’t have a dominate pitch, but he has 4 pitches that he is very capable with and that can hurt you. Larry Christenson will take the mound for the Phillies and he relies on a great curveball and a pretty nasty 4 seamer. Will the Phillies be able to slow down Ozzie Smith this game? Will they get their bats going? Let’s find out.


San Diego Padres
LF Gene Richards
SS Ozzie Smith
CF D. Thomas
RF Dave Winfield
1B Gene Tenace
2B Fernando Gonzalez
C Rick Sweet
3B Bill Almon

Philadelphia Phillies
RF Bake McBride
SS Larry Bowa
3B Mike Schmidt
LF Greg Luzinski
1B Richie Hebner
CF Garry Maddox
C Bob Boone
2B Ted Sizemore



Results



The Philadelphia Phillies are now one game away from being booted out of the 1978 Playoffs. This one was another pitcher’s duel, and once again the Pads came out on top. Thomas got things going early for the Pads as he cranked one to right in the first inning opening the game up. Larry Bowa almost answered in the bottom of the first as he hit one that looked to be gone but ended up hitting the wall for a double. He was left stranded however.

Things got quiet until the 6th inning when Ozzie Smith gets things started with a single. Thomas gets another hit that pushes Ozzie up to 3rd, and then Dave Winfield smashes one to the wall in right center that scores both runner.
The Phillies finally got on the board in the 8th inning after Larry Bowa got on base with a single, and then stole 2nd. Mike Schmidt came up and knocked one out to right field. It’s 3-2.

Rollie Fingers came in to finish out the 9th for the Pads. He gave up a leadoff single, and then a beautiful sac bunt almost turned into a hit, but it did advance the runner. Next up was a beautiful defensive play by the Pads, there was a grounder to 1st base, and Gene Tenace manages to rocket one to 3rd and catch the runner advancing. Beautiful play and the game ended with a pop out by the next batter.


Box Score

I didn’t expect to see the Phillies drop both games at home. I now can’t imagine them winning even one in San Diego let alone winning two in a row. How about those Padres though? They’ve just played tough baseball out there. Are we looking to an all California NLCS? Can they keep this momentum going?

Player of the game this go round goes to Derrell Thomas. His homer in the first gave San Diego the momentum early and they never lost it.

[Calis]

New York Yankees
At
California Angels

This game is a test to see if the Yankess can bounce back. They made a marvelous run at the end of the season to even get here but fell short in game one. They will be facing off against a much talked about pitcher here at FOFC lately in Nolan Ryan. The Yanks will be bringing Figuerora out to face him. The Yankees didn’t get going until late last game, so lets see if they can strike a spark early. The Angels will be trying to put them down early once again!

New York Yankees
CF Mickey Rivers
2B Willie Randolph
C Thurman Munson
RF Reggie Jackson
1B Chris Chambliss
3B Graig Nettles
DH Roy White
LF Lou Piniella
SS Bucky Dent


California Angels
CF Rick Miller
2B Bobby Grich
RF Lyman Bostock
LF Joe Rudi
DH Don Baylor
1B Ron Fairly
C Brian Downing
3B Carney Lansford
SS Dave Chalk

Ok, I’ll admit up front I only half paid attention to this one. I kept getting distracted so the write-up won’t be too detailed on this one. It wasn’t an overly great game either. The Yankees did bounce back in this one, and it wasn’t even as close as the score made it out to be. Ed Figueroa went the distance in this game and struck out 6 while only allowing 6 hits as well. He didn’t give up a run. Nolan Ryan on the other hand didn’t fair so well. He pitched 8 innings tonight, gave up 8 hits and 4 earned runs, and walked 6.

The Yankees scored in the 2nd inning off of a little bloop single that brought home Reggie Jackson who had walked to get on base. The 5th inning rolled around and Nolan Ryan gave up a hit and two walks to load up the bases with only 1 out. The Yankees only managed to get one run out of this deal to extend the lead to 2. Bucky Dent homered later in the game, and Chris Chambliss drove in a run to give us the final score of 4-0, and to tie the series up at 1 game a piece.

Box Score

Player of the game goes to Ed Figueroa.

I didn’t expect Figueroa to be the man racking up the strikeouts in this game. He had 5 in the first 5 innings and when he lost the oomph he made up for it with great placement. Another dominating pitching performance, this seems to be a theme with these playoffs? Ryan looked very strong early but he walked batters at very bad times, and just didn’t have his usual stuff. The Umpire was pretty stingy with the strike zone as well which hurt him.

We get ready to head to New York for game 3. The Angels have to regroup and get things going, they will most assuredly face Catfish Hunter in this game, but there’s no word on the Angels pitcher yet. Whoever it is, he’s going to need more support than they got today.

[Calis]

Chicago Cubs
At
Los Angeles Dodgers


Chicago Cubs
SS Ivan DeJesus
CF Greg Gross
1B Bill Buckner
RF Bobby Murcer
LF Dave Kingman
2B Manny Trillo
3B Steve Ontiveros
C Dave Rader
P Dennis Lamp

Los Angeles Dodgers
2B Davey Lopes
SS Bill Russell
RF Reggie Smith
3B Ron Cey
1B Steve Garvey
LF Dusty Baker
CF Billy North
C Steve Yeager
P Don Sutton

Preview
Game #2 of this series is up next, and the first game was our biggest rout so far. The Cubs looked outmatched, and there’s more bad news for them today. They’re facing Don Sutton. Ron Cey was an electric 4-4 yesterday in Game 1, lets see if he can keep that up today.




Recap

Wow, this one had quite the ending. We start off pretty slowly, both teams getting a feel for the opposing pitcher. Through five innings there’s a combined 3 hits. Each team has had a guy in scoring position though.

In the 6th inning Bill Buckner makes his presence felt by going yard with a shot that was measured at 444ft to right field. That gives the Cubs a 1-0 lead, and at the rate this game is going it looks like it could be all that is needed. The Dodgers come right back though in the bottom of the 6th, with Lopes singling, then Russell walking, then a popout by Reggie Smith advancing a runner to 3rd and then Cey bringing him home with a popout to deep center. It was all tied up. The Dodgers immediately struck back though and used some nice bunting in the 8th to make it 2-1

Charlie Hough did his best to try and throw the game for the Dodgers in the 8th. He gives up a single, and the next batter sacrifice bunts but Hough picks it up, bobbles it, does some sort of spin maneuver, and NEVER throws it to 1st. Both runners are safe and the tying run is in scoring position now. There’s another nice bunt laid down, this time Hough at least gets it to 1st but both runners advance. There’s a deep pop to left next which brings a runner home and we’re tied up at 2.

The 9th inning. The Cubs do nothing, as there is two groundouts and a popout. The Dodgers were up next with a chance to win it all. Bruce Sutter is brought in by the Cubs to finish the game off, and he did just that. He starts the inning by walking Dusty Baker, and then coming back to strike out Billy North. He gives up another hit just out of Ontiveros’ reach at 3rd. He then falls behind Terry Forster 3-0 but battles back to even the count at 3-2. He finishes the at bat by throwing a horrible pitch well out of the strike zone and loading the bases. With one out and the winning run on 3rd Sutter needed a miracle. He also had to deal with Davy Lopes. Lopes fouled off the first pitch badly, and just watched the 2nd one go by for a strike. The 3rd pitch? The 3rd pitch Davy Lopes swings at and CRUSHES. That one kept going and going, and it looked like it might even hook foul, but it stayed fair and Davy Lopes had just won Game 2 with a walk-off Grand Slam! The final score in this one is 6-2 Dodgers, and the Cubs have to be heartbroken now.

Box Score


How can the player of the game go to anyone but Davy Lopes?


The Dodgers are in control, and I don’t see any possible way that they lose 3 in a row to the Cubs. I’d be surprised if they lost one to be honest. I was impressed with Lamp in this game though, he was facing a very intimidating Dodger lineup and his counterpart was an equally intimidating Don Sutton and he really stepped it up. Lynn McGlothan also came in and pitched 2 very solid innings not even giving up a hit. Bruce Sutter on the other hand? He just melted, and Charlie Hough looked pretty wobbly for the Dodgers as well. Ron Cey came back to earth, not getting a hit today but he did get an RBI with a nice sacrifice fly.

[Calis]

Royals
LF Willie Wilson
DH Hal McRae
3B George Brett
RF Al Cowens
C Darrell Porter
CF Amos Otis
1B Pete LaCock
SS Freddie Patek
2B Frank White

P Paul Splittorf

Red Sox
SS Rick Burleson (144)
2B Jerry Remy (140)
LF Jim Rice (101)
DH Carl Yastrzemski
C Carlton Fisk (154)
CF Fred Lynn (149)
1B George Scott (113)
RF Dwight Evans (140)
3B Butch Hobson (133)

P Mike Torrez


Our final Game 2 match-up. The Royals won the first meeting at Fenway is one heckuva game that went back and forth. They used superior speed and baserunning to win it(not to mention a couple of great performances from Willie Wilson and Frank White). The Red Sox decide to go with Mike Torrez in game two over Luis Tiant, we'll see how that pans out.

Teaser for the game- One of the starting pitchers barely makes it out of the first inning. This game 2 gets ugly. Results coming shortly.