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Message #: 29398
You have to admire the true sportsmanlike manner of the Blue Jays, as we steadfastly refuse to benefit from our talent advantage and allow any and all teams to compete on even (or better) terms with us, particularly in our luckless home games but on the road as well.... Game 1: Let's take a look at our tried-and-true checklist for how to blow a game (series, pennant....): - out-LOB the opposition by a mile (11-5), - have the #1 defense in the league donate some critical unearned runs (2, in a 1-run loss), - blow a couple of leads (check), - draw adverse surgical split cards whenever necessary (but of course), - fail to capitalize on the opposition's very hittable pitchers (check and doublecheck), And a new one for just this particular series: - have the opponent's ex-superstar (the Massively Underachieving Paul Molitor) act like he's still playing for his old team and go 0 for 12 with a timely GIDP thrown in and runners galore LOBbed (14 in 3 games; he was benched for the finale which we won). Today's final score: 4-3, with the final choke coming, naturally, in the bottom of the 9th. Todd Stottlemyre allowed 8 hits (just 9 total bases) and 0 walks in 8+ IP, but the 2 unearned runs donated by John Olerud on the first batter of the game proved fatal and led to a very undeserved loss. =============================================================== Game 2: With Angel Miranda unavailable due to usage issues, emergency starter Jeff Ballard took the mound for Milwaukee and wasn't quite prepared. Ballard's own error set the stage for a 5-run second inning during which Ballard exited and, polite guests as we always are, Toronto shut down the offense from that point forward. Jack Morris pitched a wild but mostly hit-free complete game, giving up just one late 2-out RBI. Final score: 6-1. Two MLA relievers with astronomical ERA's combined for 7.2 innings of 1-run ball as the Jays LOBbed 11. Morris, like Stottlemyre, has done surprisingly well in 1993 despite being saddled with rotten cards; the other 23 players with good-to-excellent cards have "balanced" that out by unsurprisingly underachieving whenever possible. =============================================================== Game 3: And here's one of those 23 now. Bobby Witt's '93 card isn't anything particularly special, though it's not 5.40-ERA bad either. But today, as usual, it was. Actually, it wasn't. Witt allowed only one walk and an "open triangle" single off his own card. So HAL quickly adjusted his strategy and had the mighty Brewers surgically find the hits on their own cards and Witt left in the 5th on the short end of a 5-3 score that became a 6-3 final. The Jays did not lack for baserunners against MLA starter Cal Eldred, but when he weakened in the 8th and the Jays tried to rally, Molitor came to the rescue of his former team with a critical GIDP that sealed our fate. =============================================================== Game 4: #5 starter Brian Williams is the prototypical schizophrenic Blue Jay pitcher, sometimes (like today) pitching so well on the road that he flirts with no-hitters; while at home he -- like so many of his teammates -- mysteriously misplaces his talent. Repeating our strategy from game 2, the Jays pounced for a 5-run second inning then hung on to win an unaccountably close 8-4 contest despite outhitting the Brew Crew by the hardly slender margin of 14-3. Our LOB-fest in this series resulted in a whopping 36-24 win in that category. Jeff Ballard was more prepared for the Jays today, giving up just 3 hits in 4.1 IP when Jaime Navarro was vanquished after permitting 7 hits in less than 2 innings. Williams was conveniently wild but also conveniently unhittable. He generously allowed a run in the second without a hit (2 walks on his own card and a timely WP and a sac fly); then an unearned tally in the third on back-to-back blown-x chokes by Jose Vizcaino, one of them charitably scored as a "hit". A cheap BP single bled through the infield in the MLA 7th and Williams didn't allow his first legitimate hit until the 8th -- a 2-run gopher to Greg Vaughn on what therefore became Williams' final pitch of the day. Duane Ward retired the final 4 batters without incident (!) and recorded his 10th save to save the mere series split. Alan |
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