Playoff CITY PEOPLE GET HYPE
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October 7: It's rainy but a pretty decent 62 degrees at Three Rivers today. 34,198 fans are in attendance tonight. What is up with attendance this year? I guess the fans want to eat hot chip and play Fortnite. The Braves choose to go with George House (14-10, 3.16), who wasn't quite the ace this year but has that on his resume. He was 1-1 vs Pitt in 1972. House pitched around 60 fewer innings than he did in 1971 because of a torn hamstring that kept him out for more than a month but when he did pitch he was as effective as ever. He did finish 10th in both fewest walks per 9 (2.3) and most Ks per 9 (6.1). The Bucs go with the obvious choice for Game 1, DJ Cheeves (22-9, 2.48), the craft vet who finished 2nd in the NL in wins, 5th in ERA, 8th in strikeouts (184), and 4th in innings pitched (290). Oh, and 1st in winning percentage (.710). He's as good a candidate as any for the Cy Young Award.
Top 1st: Chris Ward fouls out to third. Clinton slaps a base hit into center. Dwyer lines out to shortstop. Riggs flies to left. 0-0.
Bottom 1st: Hearl grounds out to short. Villar knocks a liner down the right field line and is in at 2nd base before Henry Riggs can make a throw. Webster hits one to the opposite field, which for him is left, for a base hit. Villar stops at 3rd but we've got runners on the corners with 1 out and cleanup man Justin Lawson at the plate. Lawson hit .270 with 8 HRs in 159 scoring-position at-bats. He flies out to center but it's deep enough to score Villar from 3rd base. 1-0, Pirates! George House catches Arturo Ganzalez looking to retire the side. 1-0, Pittsburgh.
Top 2nd: Chairez hits a high fly to right center that Lawson gets under for out number 1. Vicente Luna grounds out to third. Aday, hitting a bit lower in the order than where he's accustomed, walks in a 3-2 curve by DJ Cheeves. He's erased on a caught stealing on the very next pitch. 1-0, Pittsburgh.
Bottom 2nd: Carrera hits one of those deep flies to center that get behind bad fielders but Michael Lee Aday's got the range to catch up to it. Out number 1. Hank Williams Jr. fouls out to the first baseman. Doug Connally hits a weak grounder to short. 1-0, Pittsburgh.
Top 3rd: Cheeves strikes out his first man of the game, Armando Flores, on a 1-2 change. George House, not the best hitter even for a pitcher (he hit .095 this year) gets a rare single to right but misjudges it and runs into an out at 2nd. Credit Carlos Carrera with the baserunner kill. Chris Ward hits a pop foul that 3B Hank Williams Jr. catches up to in time to end the inning. 1-0, Pirates.
Bottom 3rd: Cheeves hits a textbook grounder to short, 6-3, one out. Justin Hearl hits a grounder right at 1B Dante Chairez, who takes it to the bag himself for out #2. Villar is robbed of hit number 2 as Bill Clinton makes a diving stop before the ball could get into center. 1-0, Pirates.
Top 4th: Clinton follows up the web gem with... a routine grounder to 2nd. Kevin Dwyer shows off his batting-champion skills, going with a 1-1 fastball that nips the outside corner for a single into right field. DJ Cheeves misses on a 3-1 pitch to Riggs and we've got runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Dante Chairez slaps a grounder towards short; Henry Villar is up with it in time to get Riggs at 2nd but that's all as he breaks up the double play. Runners on the corners now, 2 out. Vicente Luna also hits one to Villar, which is not the wisest of decisions; the 6-3 groundout ends the inning. 1-0, Pirates.
Bottom 4th: House strikes out Tyler Webster swinging; that's his 2nd K so far. He proceeds to get Justin Lawson swinging on a 2-2 cut fastball. Ganzales hits the first pitch he sees, a soft liner that seems headed to right-center, but 2B Kevin Dwyer leaps up and makes the catch for the final out of the inning. 1-0, Pirates.
Top 5th: Michael Aday hits a screamer up the middle. Henry Villar is just able to grab onto it but can't make a play. Aday's on with a leadoff base hit. Armando Flores hits a soft fly into right field for out #1. George House lays down a good bunt that gets Meatloaf over to 2nd base. Chris Ward bangs a single back up the middle; the speedy Aday scores from 1st and we're all tied up! 1-1. Clinton hits a hard grounder to 2nd that ties up Tyler Webster; score that another base hit, the 2nd infield single of the inning. Dwyer strikes out on a 2-2 pitch, though, as DJ Cheeves wiggles out of this one. 1-1.
Bottom 5th: Carrera flies out harmlessly to center field. Hank Williams Jr. draws a walk. The 23 year old son of the famous country singer loves to walk as much as he loves to ride - I mean, I assume he loves to ride. He had 42 walks against 164 major-league at-bats this year for an OBP of .401. Doug Connally hits a hot shot right at Vicente Luna at third that looks an awful lot like a 5-4-3 double play but Williams breaks it up in time. DJ Cheeves grounds out to short to end the inning but hey, they reset the lineup. Yes, when you speak of the Pirates, you must use deadball era terminology. 1-1.
Top 6th: DJ Cheeves doesn't have his greatest stuff tonight and it shows here, as he hits RF Henry Riggs to lead off the inning. Riggs was not hit by a pitch at all during the regular season. Dante Chairez puts decent wood on his ball but gets under it and flies to right field. Luna also hits a fly to right, though his is a lot weaker. Michael Lee Aday's gotten on twice with a walk and a base hit, but this time around he's the victim of a swinging strikeout. 1-1.
Bottom 6th: Justin Hearl works George House to a 3-2 count and then takes a cutter that is around six inches outside for ball four. That's House's 2nd walk. He's mostly stayed ahead of the count and is sitting on just 65 pitches so far. Henry Villar lays down a sacrifice hit that does the trick, moving Hearl into scoring position at the cost of the first out of the inning. Tyler Webster strikes out in a very clutch situation. Justin Lawson just does manage to make contact with a 2-2 cutter that might have missed low but he hits it over to Hank Williams Jr. at third, who throws him out to end the little threat. 1-1.
Top 7th: Cheeves has given up 6 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings; it's easy to see why he's already up to 94 pitches. He'll pitch the 7th (unless he blows up of course) but who knows what'll happen after that. Armando Flores pops out to short. House hits another ball to right field that also lands; this time, he does get to 2nd base ahead of the throw for a double. This is George House's first multi-hit game all season and it could not have come at a better time. Ward flies out to left. Well... or maybe not. Wolf Blitzer comes in to pinch hit for Bill Clinton... and I just realized I had substitutions set to AI control. Oh well! I might have done this move anyway. Blitzer grounds out to 2nd to retire the side. 1-1.
Bottom 7th: Pedro Almodovar (.191, 0, 6) was Clinton's backup for the 2nd half of the year; he'll replace the aspiring politician (sorry, no Epstein jokes!). Ganzales belts a double into the left-center gap on the first pitch of the 7th inning. Carrera grounds out to third base but Ganzales, who's a pretty fast guy for a first baseman, is able to run into third ahead of the third baseman. Hank Williams Jr. walks... intentionally as George House decides he'd rather face C Doug Connally. Except what is this? He won't face Connally after all, as Dr. Jack Holman is making an emergency call as a pinch-hitter. Holman fans ion a 2-2 cutter. I think you have to pull Cheeves here too, 1-1 game or no. The pickings are slim... it's middle infielder Luke Dunnahoe (.241, 2, 18), who at least should be able to out-hit pitchers. House catches him looking to retire the side. 1-1 and you have to feel like this was a huge, huge opportunity wasted.
Top 8th: Miklos Nemeth (.198, 2, 13), a 24 year old rookie who looks like a career backup, takes over behind the plate. On the mound is, you guessed it (did you?), Paz Lemus (9-4, 2.32). Lemus finished 2nd in both games and games finished in the NL this season and is widely believed to be good. Dwyer flies to left to lead off. Riggs draws a walk, his 2nd walk and 3rd time on base overall. Chairez however erases him and ends the inning with a 3-6-3 double play. 1-1.
Bottom 8th: Hearl flies to right. Villar grounds out 3U. Webster puts a bit of a charge into one but hits it to the deepest part of the park; CF Michael Lee Aday is able to run it down for out #3. 1-1.
Top 9th: Luna strokes a leadoff base hit. One thing about these Braves: they really don't have a weak spot in their lineup. Aday follows it up with a shot into center that lands for another base hit. Lemus allowed just a .187 opponents' batting average, so this is a rare treat for Atlanta fans. Well, maybe not... Paz was 1-1, 5.87 vs the Braves in 4 appearances and 7.2 IP. Flores stays in and delivers a nice bunt towards third. It's no nice, in fact, that Hank Williams Jr. pulls 1B Arturo Ganzales off the bag with his throw. Everybody's safe on the costly, costly error, and at BEST for the Pirates we have a potential Nobletiger. As good as George House has been today, it's time to bring him out; Cranklin steps in in his place. All he has to do is hit it into the outfield... well, he does, but not deep enough to score Luna from 3rd. One down. Chris Ward hits a hard grounder to 2nd; Tyler Webster goes home with it for the out and Miklos Nemeth juuuuust misses making it a 4-2-3 inning-ending double play. We still have 2 outs and a highly clutch situation for Pedro Almodovar, who is not known as any kind of hitter. OK so I do have a guy on the bench who can technically play short so out he comes in favor of Josh Damon (.261, 13, 47). UGH. All he does is pop out to first base and the inning is over.
Bottom 9th: That shortstop is Jeremy Currie, the 25th man on this roster who was purchased from the Padres in May but got into just 8 games for the major league club. He did get into a couple games at short with the Pads. The pitcher is the Braves' own stopper, John Winn (5-7, 1.95)... this one might never end. Lawson leads things off; with a career average of .250 vs the Braves ace, he's probably one of the best guys on the team at understanding him. He strikes out on 4 pitches. Ganzalez pops out to 3rd. Carrera whiffs... and we're into extra innings. 1-1.
Top 10th: Lemus, still going strong into his 3rd inning, gets Kevin Dwyer to watch a low-80s fastball slip by him for strike 3. Riggs flies out to short center. Chairez flies to right. With Lemus due up in the bottom of the inning, that's probably the last we've seen of him today. 1-1.
Bottom 10th: Hank Williams Jr. connects with a low, outside fastball and bloops it the other way, just over the head of 3B Vicente Luna into left for a leadoff hit. After pushing the count to 1-2 with a couple of attempted bunts, Miklos Nemeth strikes out swinging. Lemus is, in fact, pinch-hit for by Mike Jackson, who I bring in on account of he should be better than the .212 average he carried in the regular season. John Winn catches Hank Williams Jr. sleeping and picks him off! Jackson striks out looking to retire the side. 1-1.
Top 11th: Now in to pitch for Pittsburgh is Brian Bruno, who was more or less the #2 guy out of the bullpen for Pitt this year. With all the starters able to go long innings and Lemus doing so much work besides, that still only meant he got into 35 games (5 starts) but hey. Bruno gets a lot of whiffs from a great change-up and a good slider and himself held hitters to a .213 average this year. Luna strikes out to leasd things off. Aday pops out to third base. With 2 outs and the pitcher due up, I'm just going to leave Flores in to hit. Well, he messes my plans up anyway and delivers a base hit into left field. That brings up John Winn... who I think I'll leve in. He's a career .238 hitter but more to the point, he's just about the only guy in the bullpen I really trust. He helps himself out with a base hit to right. Armando Flores motors all the way to third on the play. Can Chris Ward come through? He hit .301 in high-leverage situations and this is definitely one of those. NOPE. He strikes out to retire the side.
Bottom 11th: As noted, John Winn's in for the long haul. He strikes out Justin Hearl for his 5th K of the game. Henry Villar makes contact with a ball and apparently Kevin Dwyer, fielding a slow grounder to 2nd, is so shocked by this that he throws wide of first for the 2-base error. Tyler Webster flies out to center but Villar is fast enough to tag up and get to 3rd on the play. It won't matter much if Lawson can't make contact. Ooooooor, John Winn will just throw a wild pitch. GAME OVER! 2-1, Pirates win!
I was thinking going in that if the score stays low, Pittsburgh has the advantage. That said, the lower scoring the game is, the more one big play can make a huge difference. Like, today the game was all but decided by that BONER by Kevin Dwyer. Will he live it down? Tune in, bat-fans, and find out!
