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Game 1: Eagles 2 vs Raiders 3
Shields and Romero hook up in a close one. The Eagles opened the
scoring in the top of the 1st when Mike Morse singles in Ian Kinsler
after he had walked and stole second. They add a 2nd run in the top
of the 2nd when Vernon Wells led off the inning with a HR. Shields
cruised thru the first 4 innings giving up 3 hits with 2 k's, but in
the 5th gave up a leadoff single to Tejada, who then stole 2nd, and
came home on a Endy Chavez single to cut the lead in half. The
Raiders struck again in the bottom of the 6th when Hundley laced a
one out single, Billy Butler was walked, Jason Kubel singled to load
the bases, and Tejada singled to plate two which would stand as the
GWRBI. Romero was lifted after 6.1 and Holland, Dotel, and Putz
(save) closed out the victory
Game 2: Eagles 2 vs Raiders 4
The Eagles again start off with a bang on back to back game opening
doubles by Freeman and Tulo. Then Braun hits a deep fly to score
Tulo who had made it to 3rd on a groundout. Unfortunately, that was
all the scoring the Eagles would do. Again, it took a while for the
Raiders to get on the board. Yovani Gallardo had held Moon to 4
hits over the first 4 innings with 6 K's. In the 5th though, Tejada
singled and stole 2nd to lead off the inning. Then moved to 3rd on
a fly out before scoring on a Robbie Cano "Dont'cha Know" double.
Gallardo got Moon 1-2-3 in the 6th, but Kubel led off the bottom of
the 7th with a HR to tie the game. Then Tejada walked, moved to 2nd
on a 1 out bunt by Humber. Cano was IW and Below came in to face
Dobbs. Mgr DeCola promptly removed Dobbs in favor of Carlos Lee who
singled to score Tejada to make it 3-2. Casey Janssen then came in
to face Beltran who then singled to score Cano who had gone to 3rd
on Lee's single to make it 4-2. Balfour and Dotel (save) took over
after 7 strong innings from Humber and shut down Newark to preserve
the W.
Game 3: Raiders 6 vs Eagles 5
We shift to Newark and a matchup between CJ Wilson and Daniel
Hudson. This time its Moon that opens the scoring in the top of the
2nd courtesy of a error by Mike Morse whenTejada led off the inning
with a ground ball, followed by a Ludwick single to move Tejada to
3rd. CJ helped himself with a sac fly to plate the first run and
Cano followed with a 2-run dinger to make it 3-0. Wilson and Hudson
then matched zeroes until the top of the 6th when a Ryan Ludwick
single scored Jason Kubel from 2nd after another error. This made
it 4-0 and to this point all runs were unearned.
In the top of the 7th, MacDougal was brought in and got a quick out,
but then allowed a double to Cano, walked Dobbs, and threw a wild
pitch to move the runners up with Beltran at the plate. Beltran
then hit into a fielders choice which resulted in no outs and a run
scored to make it 5-0. Kubel then hit into a 6-4 force play but
Dobbs scored on the play to make it 6-0.
Everything seemed to be going Moon's way but the Newark bats finally
came alive. A Carlos Gonzalez dinger in the bottom of the 7th made
it 6-1. Then it got interesting. Utley led off the bottom of the
8th with a walk. Wilson was lifted in favor of Wilhelmsen who
promptly delivered a WP and then walked Kinsler to put runners at
1st and 2nd. He then struck out Freeman and got Tulo to fly out.
Hollad was brought in to face Tulo and promptly served up a 2-run
double to Braun to make it 6-3. Morse followed with a 2-run homer
to make it 6-5 and force Moon to bring in its 3rd reliever in the
inning in JJ Putz who got Gonzalez to K to end the inning. Moon
went quietly in the top of the 9th. In the bottom of the inning
though Hosmer came in to PH and singled but was then caught stealing
for the 1st out. Suzuki then pinch hit for Shoppach and walked.
Matt Harrison was then summoned to face Utley and got him to ground
out 4-6 to get the force at 2nd. Balfour was then brought in to
face Kinsler and got him to fly out to right to end the game.
Game 4: Zimmerman vs Buchholz
Thru the first 6 innings of this game both pitchers were throwing
darts. Buchholz had faced 21 batters allowing just 3 hits and at
one point retiring 14 Raiders in a row. Zimmerman started the game
retiring the first 8 batters he faced, but in the 4th singles by
Tulo and Braun and a sac fly from Gonzalez made it 1-0 Newark.
It looked like Buchholz would roll on in this one and we'd be
heading to a game 5, but Moon finally woke up. Hundley and Butler
led off the 7th with back-to-back doubles to tie the game. After
Kubel grounded out, Tejada was walked to put runners at 1st and
2nd. Chavez then doubled to score both runners and make it 3-1.
Zimmerman then showed bunt, but eventually drew a walk to again put
runners at 1st and 2nd. Willis was brought in but Robbie Cano "Dont'cha
know" singled in Chavez to make it 4-1. Willis then threw a WP with
PH Chavez at the plate to move the runners up. Chavez grounded out
for teh 2nd out, but Beltran was given a free pass to load the bases
for Hundley. Ziegler came in and got HUndley to hit a harmless
grounder to short to end the threat and keep Moon within shouting
distance.
Holland replaced Zimmerman in the 8th after 7 innings of 4 hit 4k
ball and immediately made it interesting. He hit Mike Morse (for
Morse the 3rd HBP in the series) to open the inning and allowed a
single to Freeman before getting replaced by Balfour who promptly
came in and struck out Tulo and Hosmer and got Braun to fly out to
end the threat.
Moon went quietly in the 9th, but Newark wasn't ready yet. Balfour
walked Gonzalez to start the inning and was replaced by Putz. Putz
got Utley to ground into a 6-4 force play, but then he allowed a
single to Suzuki to again put runners at 1st and 2nd for Newark.
Dotel then came in to face Kinsler and got him to pop out to the
catcher. Morse then lined a double down the left field line
allowing Utley to score to make it 4-2. Wilhelmsen was brought in
to face Freddie Freeman. Freeman then swung at the first pitch from
Wilhelmsen and sent it right to Kubel for the out and the end of the
game and series as Moon escaped with a 4-2 victory.
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Cano paced the
Raiders with a .444/.474/.722 line. He had a homer and led the
team with 4 RBI
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Starting
pitching on both teams was what won and lost the series. Moon
starters went 4-0 allowing 7 ER in 27.1 IP for a 2.31 ERA. In
contrast, Newark starters went 0-4 allowing 11 ER in 24.2 IP
for a 4.01 ERA (Daniel Hudson allowed 4 Unearned runs which if
earned would have bumped the ERA to 5.47).
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Newarks
bullpen was awesome. The only reliever to allow any runs was
MacDougal. In total the bullpen pitched 9.1IP and allowed just
2ER (both to MacDougal).
All in all a fun series we played over two nights. Congrats to Mike
and Newark on a hard but fun series!
Tom - Moon |
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