May 9, 1984 - Late Game Heroics

Merry Christmas everyone!  I apologize I haven't had more posts over the holidays.  This is a time of year I usually get a lot of Statis Pro in, but we've been hosting family from out of town.  I hope your holidays have treated you kindly, and that you get to enjoy the break as much as I have!

Game #379 - Los Angeles Dodgers, 3 @ Chicago Cubs, 2

Larry Bowa has been uncharacteristically good with the stick in this Statis Pro season, and he continued his hot hitting in the bottom of the third.  He doubled off of Alejandro Pena and later scored on a Bob Dernier single.  The Dodgers answered back in the top of the fourth.  With one out, Dave Anderson ruined Rich Bordi's no-hitter with a surprise solo homer.

The score stay tied 1-1 until the bottom of the sixth.  Ryne Sandberg singled and then swiped second base off of Steve Yeager.  Gary Matthews was up next and singled him home to give Chicago the lead.  Once again, the Dodgers responded in the next inning.  Yeager hit a sacrifice fly that plated Greg Brock to keep the score tied.

Tim Stoddard was pitching in the top of the ninth when German Rivera doubled with one out.  Ken Landreaux singled to move Rivera to third.  Stoddard walked Bob Bailor to load the bases, and then walked RJ Reynolds to plate the winning run!

Winning Pitcher - Ken Howell
Losing Pitcher - Tim Stoddard
Save - Tom Niedenfuer
Player of the Game - Howell, 2IP, 0H's, 3K's
Hall of Famers in the Game - Ryne Sandberg

Game #380 - Philadelphia Phillies, 6 @ Houston Astros, 9

I thought this would be a fun pitching match-up between all-star lefties, as Steve Carlton toed the rubber for the Phillies and Bob Knepper was on the mound for the Astros.  Neither made it past the third inning!  Knepper gave up five runs in 2 and 2/3 innings, including homers to John Wockenfuss and Mike Schmidt.  Carlton saw eight hitters come to the plate in the first, which included a Jose Cruz home run.

The score was tied 5-5 in the top of the seventh when Ozzie Virgil crushed a solo shot to give the Phillies the lead, but Enos Cabell answered back with a homer of his own in the bottom of the inning.  The score was still 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth when
Al Holland had two runners on and was facing Bill Doran. Doran hit an unexpected three run blast to give Houston the lead and eventual victory!

Winning Pitcher - Dave Smith
Losing Pitcher - Al Holland
Save - Bill Dawley
Player of the Game - Bill Doran, game winning home run
Hall of Famers in the Game - Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton

May 9, 1984 - (AL) Westward, Ho!

Game #377 - Seattle Mariners, 8 @ Oakland A's, 3

Chris Codiroli had a nightmare start to the game in this one.  Jack Perconte and Phil Bradley both singled, and then Alvin Davis crushed a home run to plate all three.  It didn't get any better for Codiroli, because he gave up a solo homer to Gorman Thomas in the fourth, followed by another three run bomb by Ken Phelps.

Winning Pitcher - Jim Beattie
Losing Pitcher - Chris Codiroli
Player of the Game - Alvin Davis, 2-2, HR, 3RBI's, 3BB's
Hall of Famers in the Game - Rickey Henderson and Joe Morgan

Game #378 - Boston Red Sox, 3 @ Texas Rangers, 4

Speaking of three run homers...  In the top of the third Tony Armas deposited a ball over the outfield fence to score three off of Frank Tanana and give Boston a 3-0 lead.  But the Rangers scraped two from Al Nipper in the fourth inning.  Wayne Tolleson singled home Bobby Jones and Ned Yost hit a sacrifice fly to score Billy Sample.  The Rangers tied the game in the seventh when Mickey Rivers reached on a Jackie Gutierrez error.  Two batters later Buddy Bell doubled him home. 

The score was still tied heading into the bottom of ninth.  George Wright was brought in to pinch-hit for Yost and singled off of Steve Crawford.  Crawford struck out Rivers for the first out of the inning, but Gary Ward singled too to move Wright to second.  Bell then grounded out to third, but both runners advanced, leaving Wright 90 feet from home plate.  That's when Larry Parrish knocked him home - WALK-OFF SINGLE!!!

Winning Pitcher - Odell Jones
Losing Pitcher - Steve Crawford
Player of the Game - Larry Parrish, walk-off hero.
Hall of Famers in the Game - Wade Boggs and Jim Rice. 

May 9, 1984 - American League Excitement

Game #375 - Detroit Tigers, 3 @ Kansas City Royals, 4 (11 innings)

The Tigers put the first three runs of the game on the board, all off of Royals starter Mark Gubicza.  The first came in the second inning when Chet Lemon went deep for a solo homer.  Dave Bergman knocked in two in the fourth with a single. 

Dan Petry, meanwhile, was in cruise control until the bottom of the seventh.  Hal McRae hit a lead off single and then Steve "bye bye" Balboni went yard to pull K.C. within one.  With two outs in the same inning pinch-hitter Dane Iorg singled home Frank White to tie the game and force Petry to the showers.

Dan Quisenberry and Willie Hernandez, the two best relievers in the American League, each subbed for two innings without letting a run cross the plate.  In the bottom of the eleventh Aurelio Lopez was working his second inning of relief and had two outs recorded.  But Frank White came up and hit a home run to win the game!  WALK OFF!!!

Winning Pitcher - Joe Beckwith
Losing Pitcher - Aurelio Lopez
Player of the Game - Frank White, 2-4, HR, 2B, BB

Game #376 - Cleveland Indians, 9 @ New York Yankees, 4

The Inidans jumped on Yankees starter Joe Cowley early and often in this one.  Brett Butler led off the game with a single, stolen base, and run scored thanks to a Julio Franco double.  They tagged Cowley for three more runs in the fourth, though two of those runs were unearned due to a Omar Moreno error in center field.  But the Yankees kept pace scoring single runs in the second, third, fourth, and sixth innings.  Three of those runs were due to errors by Cleveland, making five total errors during the contest.

The score was tied 4-4 in the top of the ninth with Dave Righetti relieving for New York.  Tony Bernazard reached base because of a Butch Wynegar error and later scored on a Julio Franco single.  That was followed by five straight Indians reaching base.  Righetti got yanked (pun intended!) having only gotten one batter out, as Cleveland pounded the Bronx for the win.

Winning Pitcher - Bert Blyleven
Losing Pitcher - Dave Righetti
Player of the Game - Franco, 2-5, 2B, 2RBI's, R
Hall of Famers in the Game - Bert Blyleven, Dave Winfield

May 9, 1984 - Trouble on the Base Paths

Game #372 - Minnesota Twins, 1 @ California Angels, 3

Twins starter Ken Schrom stumbled out of the gate.  He gave up a two-run double to Gary Pettis in the first that scored Bobby Grich and Brian Downing.  He worked out of some other jams in the second and third, but was able to pick off both Dick Schofield and Reggie Jackson.

Meanwhile, Geoff Zahn was absolutely baffling the Minnesota hitters.  They didn't record their first hit until the top of the fifth inning.  Zahn went 8 2/3 innings before getting himself into a dangerous jam with runners on the corner.  That's when Don Aase came in to secure the victory for California.

Winning Pitcher - Geoff Zahn
Losing Pitcher - Ken Schrom
Save - Don Aase
Player of the Game - Zah, 8 2/3IP, R, 7H's, K
Hall of Famers in the Game - Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson

Game #373 - Milwaukee Brewers, 8 @ Chicago White Sox, 5

The Brewers hit into FIVE double plays in this game, but still managed to put up big innings for an easy victory.  They scored six of their seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings, which happened to be when Robin Yount went deep, twice.  Each team had a runner caught stealing as well.

Winning Pitcher - Jamie Cocanower
Losing Pitcher - Salome Barojas
Player of the Game - Robin Yount, 3-4, 2HR's, 4RBI's
Hall of Famers in the Game - Robin Yount

Happy Trails...  Tom Brennan

Tom didn't pitch a lot of games for Chicago in 1984, just four actually.  Let's look at how they compared:

Real 1984: 6.2IP, 4.05 ERA, 0-1, 1.65 WHIP, 3K's
Statis Pro:  8.2IP, 4.15 ERA, 0-1, 1.96 WHIP, 3K's

As you can see, both seasons were quite similar.  That's kind of amazing considering how small a sample size there was to work with.

That's all for now!  I've got a new poll posted - feel free to vote!!!

May 9, 1984 - Battle of the Birds

Game #371 - Toronto Blue Jays, 6 @ Baltimore Orioles, 1

This was game one in a double-header, and it featured each club's best pitchers:  Doyle Alexander and Mike Boddicker.  Unfortunately for the O's, Boddicker didn't have his best stuff.  He gave up two runs in the second inning, with one of those reaching base from an error of his own making.  But he really got into trouble in the sixth.  Toronto send nine batters to the plate and scored four runs.  A Rich Dauer error opened the flood gates this time.

On the flip side Doyle Alexander continued his dominant start to the season by silencing the Baltimore Orioles over eight innings.  The only run to score was Wayne Gross, who hit yet another home run.  (I'm worried Gross' HR rating on his card is too high.  He did knock 22 HR's in 340 AB's in 1984, but he's already halfway to that total in just 30 games...)

Winning Pitcher - Doyle Alexander
Losing Pitcher - Mike Boddicker
Player of the Game - Alexander, 8IP, 5H's, 3K's
Hall of Famers in the Game - Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray

Game #372 - Toronto Blue Jays, 13 @ Baltimore Orioles, 3

This game was actually pretty exciting until it wasn't.  The Blue Jays had a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh when the Orioles but two runs on the board with RBI hits from Al Bumbry and Mike Young.  But in the top of the eighth the Orioles bullpen had what has probably been the worst inning of the Statis Pro Season.  The Blue Jays scored TEN runs.  They sent fifteen hitters up to bat.  The ringleader was Lloyd Moseby, who started the destruction by crushing a grand slam for the first four runs.  Sammy Stewart, Baltimore's best reliever, gave up five runs without recording an out.  Bill Swaggerty followed and fared little better, giving up five runs but notching two outs.  Dennis Martinez finally got the Orioles out of the woods, but not before losing their pride...

Winning Pitcher - Ron Musselman
Losing Pitcher - Sammy Stewart
Player of the Game - Lloyd Moseby, 2-5, grand slam, 5RBI's
Hall of Famers in the Game - Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray

One interesting thing happened in the second game.  Cal Ripken got tossed from the game for arguing with the umpire on a Z card.  If I'm not mistaken, Ripken played every inning of baseball in 1984.  I slid Lenn Sakata over to short for the rest of the game, but I think I violated the laws of reality from the 1984 season...