Major League Championship Series Games 1 & 2

Game 1: Both teams turn to their respective aces, Steven Hyde and Pedro Lewis. New York is able to scrape together 3 runs in the first 3 innings to take the early lead. In the 4th, Denver takes the 4-3 lead on a Keith Cerrano 3-run homer.

In the bottom of the 4th, New York gets all 4 runs back, highlighted by a Tim Griffin homerun. Hyde is chased with an ugly line of 3.2-7-6-6-2-2. In the 6th, a Stan Marsh homerun cuts the lead to 8-6. Pedro Lewis then departs with his 3rd poor outing of the post-season, 6-6-6-6-1-7. After Denver threatens in the 8th, Jaret Benser comes in to get the final 5 outs and does so in dominating fashion, striking out the 2 batters he needed in the 8th to prevent Denver from scoring. New York adds an insurance run in the 8th, and wins game one 9-6.


Game 2: Kei Ijawa vs. Roger Chillingworth. This one is a pitchers duel all the way. In the 7th inning, Denver scratches a run off Roger to take a 2-1 lead. Roger departs with a solid outing of 7-6-2-2-3-11. Ijawa is just as good, going 7-8-1-1-1-7.

In the 9th, the wheels come off the New York bullpen. Not wanting to use Benser again in this situation, they go to Fritz Jones. He walks the bases loaded and is relieved with Rudiger Rocker and then Brad Pearce. Denver adds 5 insurance runs and wins game two 7-1.