The Holy War Chronicles

[AlecTrevylan006]

God damnit...

2004 Mod still, Sox vs. Yanks. Won the regular season by 11 games, so I got hometeam advantage.

First game was today, woke up and immediately played. Obviously should have woken up more...

Gave up 5 unearned runs in the first on TWO throws to the wall. Past that point I just stopped caring. Lost 11-4, got 2 HRs from Mueller, 1 from Manny. Unfortunately, I got a CS and an out at home by Dave Roberts because I was too frustrated to send him back.

Well, that blows pretty bad. Was hoping to turn it around this postseason, but that's not how to start.

[AlecTrevylan006]

~~Game 1~~
Summary above.
NYY homers from Arod, Sheff, Matsui, Lofton and Giambi.
Boston got two shots from Mueller, one from Manny.
Pedro got the loss, going 7 IP with 5 ER, 9 R. El Duque got the win in the complete game effort.

NYY: 11, Bos: 4
Winning Pitcher: El Duque (1-0)
Losing Pitcher: Pedro Martinez (0-1)
HR: A. Rodriguez (1), G. Sheffield (1), H. Matsui (1), K. Lofton (1), J. Giambi (1), B. Mueller 2 (2), M. Ramirez (1)

~~~Game 2~~~

Schilling vs. El Duque to start, both went 7 scoreless. Clark got a pinch hit homer to greet Keith Foulke (2 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, IBB, 2 K) in the 8th and Williams had an RBI single later in the inning. 

Boston got 4 baserunners on 3 hits and an intentional walk in the bottom of the 9th, but Damon was caught stealing second and Varitek struck out with the bases loaded to end the game. Mussina went 7 scoreless, Mussina got the 2 inning save with four Ks, 3 singles and an intentional walk.

NYY: 2, Bos: 0
Winning Pitcher: El Duque (2-0)
Losing Pitcher: Keith Foulke (0-1)
HR: B. Williams (1)


~~Game 3~~
Heading to New York for game 3, Pedro again faced off with El Duque. Manny Ramirez homered with 2 outs in the first for the first Boston lead of the series. After Posada was thrown out at the plate on a 4th inning single to make the second out, Lofton knocked in a run with a two out single in the 4th on a crucial misplay by the right fielder. In the top of the 8th, Johnny Damon singled and was caught in a rundown attempting to steal second base. After many throws back and forth, the second baseman threw it to the home dugout, allowing Damon to score. Wakefield came in and after allowing a bloop single to Arod, Sheff hit a scorching liner to first and Arod was doubled off.  Wakefield put down the side in order in the ninth for the two inning save. Schilling got the win with 7 IP, 1 ER while El Duque got the loss with 7 1/3 IP, 2 ER

Bos: 2, NYY: 1
Winning Pitcher: P. Martinez (1-1)
Losing Pitcher: El Duque (2-1)
HR: M. Ramirez (2)

~~Game 4~~
Mueller continued his unexpected postseason heroics with a two-run blast in the 2nd inning off of El Duque and hit an RBI single with two outs in the 3rd to give Boston a 3-0 lead. Sheffield answered with a 2-run blast when Schilling threw a fastball in on the hands on a 3-2 count. Varitek finally made the Yankees pay for their constant intentional walking of Ortiz with a two-run homer in the 5th. Roberts doubled, stole third and scored on a groundout by Damon to amke it a 6-2 lead. Giambi pounded a two run blast in the bottom of the 7th to trim the lead to two. Wakefield converted the 6-out save.

Schilling went 7 innings allowed 4 earned runs for the win, El Duque went 7 innings with 6 earned runs for the loss. Wakefield converted the save with a strikeout and a walk.

Bos: 6, NYY: 4
Winning Pitcher: C. Schilling (1-0)
Losing Pitcher: El Duque (2-2)
HR: B. Mueller (3), J. Varitek, G. Sheffield (2), J. Giambi (2)

[AlecTrevylan006]

Some notes:
Remember, due to beefed up pitchers in anything goes, and toned down hitters except for a few big guns, games are low scoring except for very rare circumstances.

I've started pinch hitter Millar for Nixon and Dave Roberts for Bellhorn. That way I get a somewhat heavy hitter in the heart of my lineup to replace a slap hitter and punish them for intentionally walking Ortiz every at bat, and Roberts is pretty much the same as Bellhorn except ridiculously fast. I've also gotten pretty good at stealing home, but only in close games.

This made my lineup a lot better, and as a result I won teh regular season by 11 gamees.


I have to be careful with Ruben Sierra these days, who usually bats 8th. Lofton usually comes in for Cairo, though he is often pinch hit for later by Giambi. Clark usually comes in for pitchers. There's a few variations depending on situation. Kapler is really the only guy Boston pinch hits for pitchers, with Millar and DRobs in every game. I tend to leave Mientkiewitz on the bench, because the pitcher is usually more likely to get a hit than him.

Wakefield remains ridiculous but is slightly more fallible... he now has one regular season loss and one regular season blown save (different games). Two earned runs this season in about 15-20 appearances. Schill and Pedro still trade starts, while El Duque starts every game.

I am not too hopeful about this postseason, even if it is tied back up, but on the bright side, I now have as many wins this postseason as my last two world series combined.

My friend is going abroad next year, so no more RBI til spring of 09 :-/

[AlecTrevylan006]

And just for the record (for when I look bat at this a good while for now), the Second World Series hitting stats were...


RED SOX
J. Damon: 5-21, 2 2B, 3B, HR, 7 K, R, RBI, CS
O. Cabrera: 5-21, 3 2B, R, 2 K
M. Ramirez: 6-20, 2B, RBI, 2 R, 7 K,
D. Ortiz: 3-11, 9 BB, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, SB, 3 K
J. Varitek: 3-20, 2B, HR, SB, 3 RBI, R, 3 GIDP, 4 K
T. Nixon: 6-19, 2B, RBI, R, 6 K, SB
B. Mueller: 4-19, 2B, RBI, 47K
M. Bellhorn: 0-7
K. Millar: 4-10, 2B, HR, RBI, R, HBP, 3 K
G. Kapler: 0-2, GIDP
D. Roberts: 1-3, SB, Run
C. Schilling: 0-8, K, GIDP
P. Martinez: 0-5, R, K

YANKEES
D. Jeter: 5-19, 2 HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, 4 K
A. Rodriguez: 6-19, 3 HR, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI, 4 K, GIDP
G. Sheffield: 2-17, 2 BB, R, 5 K, RBI
H. Matsui: 2-19, 2B, RBI, 14 K
B. Williams: 1-17, 4 K, GIDP
J. Posada: 6-17, R, GIDP
J. Olerud: 2-7, K
M. Cairo: 0-4
K. Lofton: 2-9, 2 K, 2B, GIDP
R. Sierra: 3-11, 2B, IBB, 4 K
O. Hernandez: 1-6, Sac, 2B, Run
T. Clark: 1-1, RBI
J. Giambi: 0-1
M. Mussina: 0-3, sac bunt

Note that Damon and Cabrera hit .238 (not bad), Manny hit .300, Ortiz hit .272 but with 9 walks, and Nixon hit .315 (though mostly because they kept pitching to him because it means nothing if he gets on). Millar hit .400 with a homer, double and HBP. Mueller was lost at the plate, but not as bad as Varitek (hitting .150 but with a homer)

As to the Yanks, Jeter hit .263 with a pair of long balls, Arod hit .315 with 3 bombs, Posada hit .353, Sierra hit .272... Basically, all effective guys. On the other hand, Sheffield was effectively neutralized by refusing to givee him any hittable pitches, Matsui was 0-17 with 14 Ks in his first 17 at bats before a single and a game winning RBI double in game 5. Williams was abysmal, hitting just 0.059.

[BeefMaster]

I've also gotten pretty good at stealing home, but only in close games.

How do you manage this?  Is it one of the "he accidentally throws the ball or runs to second by mistake" type of things?

[AlecTrevylan006]

For some reason he never seems to be able to run home properly. Throws by accident, runs to first, runs to second...  he usually messes it up somehow, always claims he tried to run home. I'm not really clear on how he screws it up because he usually throws his controller and pounds the couch

Mostly it's one small flaw in his game, and I try my best to only exploit my advantage when I really need to in hopes that he won't get enough practice to stop ****ing up.

[AlecTrevylan006]

Just lost game 5 to take a 3-2 series deficit, much as I expected.

It was an ominous start when Millar flew into a triple play in the first when a fly ball went over the second baseman's head and neither side thought it would be caught, but the right fielder came out of nowhere.

Mueller almost homered to straight away center to lead off the third, took third on an accidental throw to first (after 18 attempted steals that were called off when the throw went to third as expected) and scored to give Boston a 1 run lead.

Arod countered with a two run homer in the bottom of the 4th to make the final score Bos: 1, NYY: 2.

The two teams combined for 11 hits, with only 4 for extra bases. Schilling got the loss going 6 IP, 2 ER, while the Yankees  got 6 1/3 IP out of el duque for the win. Foulke pitched 2 perfect innings of relief, while Mussina pitched 2 2/3 for the save, with three Ks and the only baserunner being Oritz on the intentional walk in the top of the 9th.

[BeefMaster]

Mostly it's one small flaw in his game, and I try my best to only exploit my advantage when I really need to in hopes that he won't get enough practice to stop ****ing up.

You can say "fuck" if you want... I don't think anyone will object.

[AlecTrevylan006]

Fuck, I'm sorry... it's force of fucking habit.

[AlecTrevylan006]

~~~Game 6~~~
El Duque @ Pedro Martinez

In the top of hte first, after striking out Jeter, Pedro gave up 3 consecutive singles to load the bases. Williams grounded into a force out at home but beat out the throw to first, but Posada struck out to end the thread. This started a trend of offensive suppression early.

In the top of the 4th. Williams doubled on a homer that was pulled back into the park, but he was thrown out at third as he was so frustrated at missing the homer that he refused to stop running.

From the 5th through 8th innings, there was only one baserunner, in the person of David Ortiz on an intentional walk in the 7th.

Both pitchers left after 8 scoreless innings with no decisions. These are their lines.

El Duque: 8 IP, 0 ER, 3 IBB, 2 H, 9 K, 2 GIDP
Pedro: 8 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 2B, 7 K, GIDP

Wakefield came in and put down Jeter, Arod and Sheffield in order in the top of the 9th. Mussina came in in the bottom of the inning and after retiring Damon, gave up back to back singles to left to Cabrera and Manny. The New York manager was tormented, but decided to pitch to the man he hated, David Ortiz. The first pitch went down the line, deep but just barely foul. Second pitch was a linedrive off the bottom of the wall, just out of the center fielder's reach, plating Cabrera for the walkoff game 6 win.

This will be the first time the series has gone to a Game Seven. Of course, this game was also the first time it went past game five.

Tune in tommorow as I get sodomized like a Scottish sheep in Game Seven, but consider this a moral victory already so I'm cool with my inevitable defeat.

[BeefMaster]

"sodomized like a Scottish sheep" is something I'll have to work into my vernacular.

[AlecTrevylan006]

I just lost game 7. He didn't win it, I lost it.

He took a 3-0 lead off two Sheffield homers. I got two runs back on Damon double / moved to third on a bad throw + scoring on cabrera sac fly followed by Manny homer, but left two stranded. Bernie Williams homered in the top of the 6th to make it 5-2, and in the bottom of the 6th I got thrown out at home on a pure frustration play when a ball off the top of the wall bounced back onto the field for a double. In the bottom of the 7th I got a single, then a triple, an intentional walk and a stolen base to put tying runs on second and third with no outs. I then got struck out, caught stealing, and struck out in one of my worst performances ever. Bottom 8, IBB and double make it second and third, two outs, but nothing.

I squandered countless opportunities and misplayed a lot of his hits. Just a horrible game all around for me.

Ah well, better than 4-1, but I guess I just can't do it in the postseason.