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The Cinderella Crown Royals travel to
Kentucky to open the series at the Great American Ballpark.
Game 1: Greinke for Toronto and Homer
Bailey for Kentucky. Wildcats score in the 1st, but then the
thunder comes - 2 bombs from ex-Wildcat Pedro Alverez and Russell
Martin and Kendrys Morales also join the homer parade. Greinke goes
7 strong and Toronto takes the open 7-1.
Game 2: Sales for Toronto and Arroyo
for Kentucky. Neither pitcher is effective, but the Wildcats pen is
the difference. Four more homers for Toronto, including another
from Pedro Alvarez. Carter and Beckham go deep for Toronto as
well. Irving Falu of no major league homers hits a 2-run shot for
Kentucky off Sale and Votto and Heisey homer as well. Kentucky
evens the series with a 6-4 win.
Game 3: Off to Toronto for the next 3
games. Hellickson (ex Crown Royal) for Kentucky and Minor for
Toronto. Pedro Alvarez hits 2 more homers (#4 and #5 of the series)
and Minor throws a gem and leaves the 9th with a 3-1 lead. Howell,
Crow and Hughes combine to crap the bed, bunching singles and walks
around a Morales error and the underdog Crown Royals blow a huge
opportunity and lose 5-3. Kentucky up 2 games to 1.
Game 4: Doc Halladay for Kentucky and
Carlos Villanueva for Toronto. Both starters stink, Doc a little
more so, but Toronto cannot score baserunners and that Alvarez bum
does nothing. Kentucky leads early and their shutdown pen does the
job behind a homer and 4 RBI from Shin-Soo Choo. Dunn and Werth
homer for Toronto and Kentucky wins 8-4 to take a 3-1 series lead.
Toronto now really regretting the game 3 loss.
Game 5: Rematch of game 1 starters -
Bailey for Kentucky and Greinke for Toronto. Neither pitcher does
well, but they both limit the runs and Bailey keeps the ball in the
ballpark this time. We're tied at 2 in the 6th when Toronto pulls
away by scoring 3, 2 of which were on a 2-run PH double by Jonny
Gomes who was pinch hitting for Pedro Alvarez. Toronto scores 3
more in the 7th and even our pen can hold 8-2 leads (sort of).
Toronto wins 8-4 and sends the series back to Kentucky.
Game 6: Rematch of game 2 starters -
Sale for Toronto and Arroyo for Kentucky. Arroyo posts 0's through
4, but gives up a RBI triple to Starlin Castro in the 5th. Sales
makes up for game 2 by throwing a shutout into the 8th before
allowing a Franklin Stubbs RBI single to tie the game. In comes Mr.
Un-hittable, Craig Kimbrel. First batter is Pedro Alvarez and he
awakens from his 2 game snooze to take Kimbrel deep into the RF
seats for his 6th home run of the series. I have zero faith in my
pen, so out goes Sale to finish what he started. Three batters
later, his 113th and final pitch closes out a 2-1 Toronto win and we
are going to game 7.
Game 7: Rematch of game 3 starters -
Minor for Toronto and Hellickson for Kentucky. Ichiro beats out an
infield hit to start the game. Werth and Dunn go out and up steps
Pedro Alvarez. Could he? Yep, deep to right center for home run #7
of the series. Toronto leads 2-0. Toronto puts runners on 2nd and
3rd to start the 5th and in comes Craig Kimbrel. We have had a
major problem scoring guys from 3rd with less than 2 out, but we get
a sac fly and take a 3-0 lead. Kudos to Rocky for bringing in his
best pitcher at a crucial point in the game. Wildcats get 1 in the
7th to close to 3-1 and threaten in the 8th before we send Minor to
the showers - a huge outing again from Minor. On to the 9th where
Jayson Werth breaks the hearts of the Kentucky faithful by hitting a
2-out, 2-run double for a 5-1 Toronto lead. Three batters later and
Toronto is celebrating another unlikely series victory, winning in
7. That is 210 victories we have sent home - pretty good for a team
that I hoped might make Noel work a little 1 series ago.
Some stats:
Toronto outscored Kentucky 33-26 and
out homered then 14-6.
Kentucky batted
.256/.323/.393 - Choo led with a .357/.400/.929 line with 2 homers
and 7 RBI.
Toronto batted ..248/.342/.483 - Pedro
Alvarez wins series MVP with a .423/.483/1.231
line with 7 home runs and 9 RBI.
The bullpen was great for Kentucky,
especially Motte, Kimbrel and Hoover. Zero quality starts for
Kentucky - starters pitched 31 innings, which was exactly half of
their innings. They allowed 21 of the 33 runs against.
Toronto starters had 4 quality starts
and aces Greinke, Sale and Minor were 3-1.
Playoff usage rules killed Rocky's
offense as he had to trot out a less than ideal lineup in game 7.
However, the unlimited reliever rules really helped him as his pen
pitched half the innings in the series and we all know how good that
pen is and how well Rocky does with his quick hooks. Having a lot
of everyday players helped me, as I only missed one of my regulars
in game 7.
Hats off to Rocky
on a well played and fun series. |
