Wild Card Games 9-30-2018

Las Vegas 5, Boston 4

Las Vegas made their first playoff appearance in 24 years.  For some of the fans, this was the first playoff game their team has played while they were alive.  Josh O'Keefe played for the first time since July 3rd, hit cleanup and started at short.  O'Keefe doubled off C.C. Salbacca in the first inning to give LV an early 1-0 lead.

Boston scored in the 2nd and 4th off Joe Callahan while Salbacca was cruising, with 9 strikeouts through the first 5 innings.  In the 6th Boba Fett relieved Callahan with 2 out and a runner in scoring position, and lefty specialist Ken Thornton got Alex Hamilton out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 6th Las Vegas finally got to Salbacca.  Back to back doubles tied the game, then Greg Jackson was intentionally walked.  Roberto Ruiz and Jackson executed a double steal, and Damon Nkik ordered another intentional walk, since of course he had a base open.  A single by Everett Jimenez chased Salbacca and gave LV the lead.  Won-Shik Lee then hit a two run single to make it a 5-2 game.

Boston scored 2 in the 8th to make it a one run game.  Bobby Barbettini came in for the 9th.  With one out, he allowed back to back singles to the top hitters of Boston's order.  Reggie Moore bounced into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

Game 2, and 3 if necessary, will be played in Boston.

New York eliminated the Shockers 5 to 2.  The Shockers scored the first run off Silvanos Tonka in the second.  In the 3rd Chad White hit a 2 run homer to give NY the lead.  Tonka went 6 2/3 innings, striking out 7 and allowing 2 runs for the win.  Steven Jiannetti got 4 outs, and Jon Papelbrad pitched a perfect 9th for the save.

New York will next play in Florida, with Stephen Hamburg on the mound.  This season Hamburg faced the Penguins 3 times, allowing only 9 hits and one run in 25 innings, while striking out 40.  He had a 15 strikeout 3 hitter, and a 17 strikeout 4 hitter.

Major League Wild Card Game 1

The NY Cobra defeated the Shockers by the score of 6-2.  Shockers scored first when Adrian Sandusky hit a 2 run first inning homer off Pedro Lewis.  Jeff Bowman tied the game up with a homer in the third.  After Pedro pitched 4 innings, with the game still tied, George Kird elected to pinch hit to start the 5th inning.  Luis Harris singled, stole second, moved to third on an error, and scored the go ahead run.

Steve Jianetti came out of the pen throwing heat and pitched two scoreless innings.  NY extended the lead on homers by Daniel Klein and Lee Thompson.  The bullpen never let LA mount a serious threat.

In other news, Josh O’Keefe reported to a Las Vegas workout and was finally cleared to play.  He has missed time since July 3rd with a back injury.  They will take on Boston tomorrow.

Shockers shut out Snow Sox 9-0

Jason Curry had a complete game shutout and Luis Colon had 3 hits, 2 runs, and 2 RBI as the Shockers blew out the Sox.  With one more win, the Shockers secure a playoff spot.  With 2 wins, the Snow Sox can do it.  Combined with Green Day's win, this game sealed the fate of the Major League Central as Green Day wins the division.

In other news, Buddy Dervish was ejected in the 5th inning against the Devils.  He gave up a homerun to Larry Brooks, his 35th of the season.  Dervish plunked the next batter, Jorge Allen, causing both benches to empty.  Both players were ejected and suspended.  The Penguins came back to win the game 4-2.  Brooks' homerun puts him only one behind Conn Barbarian for the league lead.  In his final at bat he was intentionally walked, perhaps as a way to keep him from catching the Barbarian.

Dervish's suspension of 6 games was reduced to 2 on appeal.  He will miss the last two games of the regular season but be available for the playoffs.

Morris wins 20th

Hawaii's Dustin Morris pitched into the 8th inning against Bay Area and came away with his 20th victory of the season.  Acquired from Cleveland in mid-season as part of the Brett Solo trade, Morris won 8 games for the Spiders and 12 for the Hounddogs.  Miguel Corballos allowed two runners to reach base in the 9th inning, but struck out Miguel Cruz to preserve a 5-4 lead and earn his 46th save.

Major League Playoff Race

With 3 to play, the second wild card race is a tie between the LA Shockers and the Alaska Snow Sox.  The first wild card will be defending champion New York.  In a fortuitous bit of scheduling, LA and Alaska play each other for the final series, so whoever wins this best of 3 gets to participate in a post-season best of 3.

Alaska can still catch Green Day for the division, however Green Day is assured of at least a wild card.  Their magic number to win the division is 2.

Superior League Playoffs Set

With 3 games to play, the Chicago Winds had one last desperate shot at a playoff spot.  They trailed Cleveland by 3 games for the Division, and were also 3 games behind Boston and Las Vegas for a wild card spot.  The silver lining was that they controlled their own destiny, the final 3 games would be against Boston.  If Chicago swept the series they would get to play game 163 to decide a wild card spot.

They sent 2 way phenom Silveran Kanan Bonis to the mound against Boston's ace CC Salbacca.  The Beaneaters jumped all over Bonis for 3 runs in the first.  Meanwhile Salbacca struck out 12 Winds in 6 innings.  He left the game with a 4-2 lead.  Bonis was able to pitch 5 innings.  The Winds got the tying run to the plate in both the 7th and 8th innings, but could not get any closer.  They went down 1-2-3 in the 9th with Joey Howell, pinch hitting for Cody Fett, striking out to end the game.

It's a tough loss for Chicago.  With one game 3 playoff spots are clinched:  Cleveland wins the central, Boston wins a wild card, and so does Las Vegas.  The only thing left to decide is home field advantage between Boston and Las Vegas.

3000 Hits

With a pair of doubles off Gene West, Frank Lewis has reached the 3000 hit mark.  Ryne Solo Jr is the only other jaws to have done that.

Milestones

Mark Crawford came into the 2018 season needing only 33 hits to reach 3000, and has long since blown past that.  Crawford is hitting over .320 for the Denver Rabbits, who are keeping the old man fresh by giving him plenty of rest against lefties.

Frank Lewis needed only 98 hits to reach 3000, but a tough injury plagued season has made this a challenge.  Currently Frank is only 3 hits away with a week left to play.

No other player will challenge 3000 hits this season.

Chad White collected his 500th homerun last week.  LeRoy Brown, Prince Coleman, and Frank Lewis will fall short of that mark and are likely to retire at season's end.

Frank Lewis has gone over 2000 career walks, he is the second player in history to do this, after Dirk Lindros.

With 9 wins this year, Roger Lewis is 3 short of 300 for his career.  This will be a tough challenge as he only has one week left. 

Joe Callahan reached 3000 strikeouts earlier this year.

Chad White Joins 500 HR club

Chad White is having a season well below his standards, but the 38 year old Cobra outfielder reached a milestone last week.  On 9/13/18, playing at home against the Hawaii Hounddogs, Chad stepped in against Ramiro Aguilar in the 4th inning of a scoreless game. 

Chad sent a 3-2 pitch out towards left field and it cleared the wall 363 feet away for his 15th homerun of the season and 500th of his career.  Cobra went on to win the game 2-0 behind the pitching of Stephen Hamburg.