[Pelican]

Phillies Get Past Chicago for 8-7 Win
The rain could not keep the home crowd from enjoying a good ballgame, as the visiting Phillies scored five runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Cubs in their home opener. The big blow was a long three-run home run to the Wrigley center field bleachers by Cookie Rojas.

The Cubs inexplicably stayed with beleagured starter Bob Buhl through 127 pitches and two long rain delays, into the ninth inning, before going to closer Lindy McDaniel, who was ineffective. Buhl started the ninth by walking Don Lock on four pitches. After pinch-hitter George Banks singled, Rojas hit his home run, to bring the Phillies within a run. McDaniel was then rushed into the game, and promptly walked Johnny Callison, who earlier had homered. After Dick Allen singled, Wes Covington was intentionally walked to load the bases. McDaniel then threw a wild pitch, allowing Callison to score. Cal Emery then singled to put the Phils ahead.

The Philadelphia win occurred despite a fine game by Chicago right fielder Billy Williams who was 3-4 with a home run and 2 singles. He scored 2 times and drove in 3. Philadelphia pitcher John Boozer got the win, and Jack Baldschun earned his first save. Lindy McDaniel got the loss.

Cal Emery was 2-4 with 2 singles and a walk. He drove in 2 runs. "We'll take this win and move on," said Emery.

The teams will face off again, weather permitting, on Saturday and Sunday.

That's from the game account, heavily edited. [I cannot stand the common AI approach of a lede reading "Despite a fine game by Moose Skowron and four RBI by Yogi Berra, the Pittsburgh Pirates bested the New York Yankees by 10-9 at Forbes Field on a home run by Bill Mazeroski...." Come on, man. Cut to the chase.]

This is, I suppose, why we play OOTP. Improbable, but it played out smoothly, to the point of seeming inevitable. All after Ray Culp was ineffective, and Bobby Shantz (in his Phillies debut) was worse. The Phillies still had an astounding 28 men left on base, including 8 by Ruben Amaro alone. Clay Dalrymple grounded into another DP, again with runner in scoring position. Eight runs sounds fine, until you consider the eleven hits and ten walks. Only one guy struck out. Weird game.

Reminder to self, gotta fix the AI staying way too long with a SP like Buhl, who was totally gassed, and not even warming up McDaniel. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Under Game Settings/Stats & AI, I have changed "Hook for Starting Pitcher" from "Normal" to -1 (-2 being "Quick"). For now I left Pitcher Stamina at "Normal", rather than chasing it to "Low", out of fear of the "doctrine of unintended consequences".