Results tagged ‘ Blue Jays ’
East vs West National Style
Before I go talk about the National League Championship series, or shall I call it the National League Chocolate Chip series, I want to wish a special someone a happy birthday. It’s Tim McCarver’s 68th birthday!
Tim McCarver as a catcher for the St Louis Cardinals
Let’s wish Tim McCarver a happy 68th Birthday.
Joe Buck and Tim McCarver at Shea Stadium.
Keep up the good work guys, you are fun and you make us laugh with your funny analysis about the game.
Now here’s what I meant to chat about.
Phillies vs Dodgers (the memories)
This is another interesting LCS series. Since these two teams met last season in this round, I’ll talk about each team’s last League Championship series they appeared in prior to 2008.
The last time the Phillies entered the NLCS was back in 1993. The Phillies were taking on the Atlanta Braves. The Phillies had home field advantage so games 1,2,6 and 7 were at Veterans Stadium and Games 3,4 and 5 were at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Both venues are demolished as of today and marked only by where the home plate and the bases were.
Curt Schilling was pitching in game one, and the Phillies took the opening game when John Kruk scored the game winning run on a Kim Batiste base hit.
Game two would feature the Braves pounding the Phillies, by a score of 14-3. The Braves had four different players hitting a home run, (Damon Berryhill, Jeff Blauser, Fred McGriff, and Terry Pendleton) The Phillies' home runs came from Dykstra and Hollins. Greg Maddux wins the game.
The Braves took game 3, by a score of 9-4. John Kruk hammered the baseball out of the park for the Phillies but Tom Glavine won the game and Terry Mulholland pitched in a losing effort.
Phillies win game 4, by Danny Jackson's pitching efforts and Mitch Williams saving the game. John Smoltz lost. No homers.
Game 5, the Phillies take it. Dalton and Dykstra homered for the Phillies and the Braves Mark Wohlers lost it. Larry Andersen saved the game.
Phillies win the game 6 and the series back in Veterans Stadium. Tommy Greene wins for the Phils and Greg Maddux loses for the Braves. Jeff Blauser homered for the Braves and Dave Hollins homered for the Phillies.
Phillies win the series 4-2.
The Phillies faced the Braves' rotation of Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Steve Avery. Despite pitching in two games and not getting any credits for wins, Curt Schilling was named the series MVP.
What happened after the 1993 NLCS?
The Phillies would be heartbroken in the 1993 World Series via a Joe Carter game winning home run. The Phillies would never appear in another postseason until 2007. The Braves meanwhile missed their chance at another World Series spotlight, after losing to the Minnesota Twins in 1991. In 1995, the Braves would finally win it all, at the expense of the Cleveland Indians.
The Dodgers last opponent other than the Phillies were the New York Mets, back in 1988. Managers Davey Johnson (Mets) and Tommy Lasorda (Dodgers) had high hopes for what would turn out to be a fun series. The Mets were 10 wins and 1 loss against the Dodgers that year. In fact, many thought that this would have been the Mets Championship Dynasty. Despite the better record for the Mets with 100-60 against the Dodgers 94-67, the Dodgers had home field advantage.
Game one featured a pitchers’ duel between Orel Hershiser for the Dodgers and Dwight Gooden for the Mets. The Mets capped off a three run rally in the top of the ninth inning to win the game, Gary Carter driving in two runs.
David Cone pitched in game two against the Dodgers. He told the NY Daily News
“Justice. Yes, there has to be justice in this universe. Ever heard the saying: Better to be lucky than good? Trash it, because Hershiser was lucky, Doc was good. Look what happened to luck in the ninth inning last night.
It’s called justice–catching up to luck and pummeling it into the ground. We knew about Orel‘s 59 zeroes, but none of us thought he was invincible. Shoot, Doc pitched a much better game. Trouble is, Orel was lucky for eight innings.”
Did the Dodgers players read it? Yeah, they did, and they were not happy about it. The Dodgers were probably thinking “Can David Cone shut up and play the game?” Cone gave up five runs in the first two innings to knock off his starting efforts. Keith Hernandez for the Mets hit a two run homer. Tim Belcher was the winning pitcher for the Dodgers.
Mets beat the Dodgers 8-4 in game three, despite the rainy and windy conditions at Shea Stadium. Orel Hershiser pitched against Ron Darling. David Cone saves the game.
Games four and five were won by the Dodgers. Kirk Gibson hit a home run in each game. The Mets scored four runs in each loss, the Dodgers scored five runs in game 4 and seven runs in game 5. Mike Scioscia also homered. Darryl Strawberry homered.
Games six and seven were played at Dodger Stadium.
Mets facing elimination in game six, David Cone redeems himself and shuts down the Dodgers and beats Tim Leary in the pitchers duel.
The winner take all Game seven featured the “iron horse of a pitcher” Orel Hershiser against Ron Darling. Dodgers win 6-0 and the series, when Hershiser struck out Howard Johnson.
What happened after that NLCS of 1988?
The Mets became the laughing stock of the National League, while the Dodgers win the World Series against the Oakland Athletics. Tommy Lasorda said this “Nobody thought we could win the division! Nobody thought we could beat the mighty New York Mets! Nobody thought we could beat the team that won 104 games (Oakland Athletics) but we believed it!”
Let’s go to the present.
Last season’s NLCS was one sided. The Dodgers had leads, and they blew it up, or the Phillies had early hits and never looked back. The Dodgers need to show up in this series and make it go at least six games, or better yet, leave the Phillies hitters dazzled and stunned.
Like I said in earlier posts about the Dodgers doing good at home, they should continue playing the way they are at home. Despite trailing in the game, this doesn’t mean the Dodgers are going away. They’ll make you earn every out. However, the Phillies have proven to be a good road team than a home team.
How can the Phillies win this series?
1. Reach base, and hit the big one: Home runs are great, but the Phillies need some base runners so they’ll do more damage, especially speedy ones. Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino should set the tone, and Jayson Werth, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard should take care of the rest.
2. Kill the rally: The Phillies bullpen should’ve watched how the Cardinals’ bullpen fared against the Dodgers in late innings. They were scary. Memo to Ryan Madson, and Brad Lidge: “Control your pitches and don’t let one slip, or you’ll be shot.”
3. Not the same: The team the Phillies beat up is not the same this year. They are more loaded with better pitching and more hitting.
How can the Dodgers win the series?
1. The big pitch: Clay Kershaw is starting game one, which is good because there are some strong lefties hitting against him. Randy Wolf is staring at the Phillies with a vengence and doesn’t want to be their stepping stone. It’s time to go at them.
2. Big bats, come alive again: Andre Ethier was the best Dodgers hitter in the NLDS vs the Cardinals. Matt Kemp, James Loney, Russell Martin, and the rest can hit too for power and for speed. They didn’t do that much hitting, especially in the clutch, so this is the perfect time to do it.
3. Keep the peace, please: No need to hit anyone with a baseball. Last season’s NLCS was ugly for the near brawls and the hit by pitches. I hope the Dodgers get the memo not to hit anyone.
That’s all I’ll say for now. In case you’re wondering what I had said about the Yankees and Angels, check out the previous post.
Thanks for reading.
Currently the series is tied 1-1. It’s anyone’s series.
Yankees lead the Angels 1-0.
New caps, including Dodgers
In just one week, when the postseason started, I have three new caps.
Toronto Blue Jays authentic cap
New York Mets sponsor cap by Chevrolet.
This Dodger cap came in today, mailed from Cat in Long Beach. Dodger Stadium Store. Thanks for the cap, I owe you big time now.
The Toronto Blue Jays had a cool cap too.
Back in Brooklyn where the Dodgers used to play, most of them are rooting for the New York Yankees. I can hardly find any Dodgers fans in New York. Some even wished that the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. Me, I’m happy where they are, they’re doing fine. They’re a lot better in LA now. They beat the Cardinals last night too, 5-3 so they currently lead the series 1-0, pending what happens in game 2 tonight.
The quest for the World Series continues for the Dodgers.
One think that will be nice though would be a Dodgers-Yankees World Series. I don’t know who’ll win between the two teams though. I am thinking too far ahead. It’s not the League Championship Series yet.
Oh well, gotta check out the games tonight.
Go Dodgers!!!Yankee Stadium trip
It’s been about five days since I last posted so I will begin with a photograph.
That’s me standing in front of Yankee Stadium. The time was 5pm, which was about two hours before the Blue Jays took on the Yankees at this venue.
This photo was taken at 5:15pm, less than two hours before the game was about to start. Batting practice was fun to watch,
That’s me again, standing at section 234, on the 2nd deck. We are sitting in the fair area so any baseballs hit here are home runs!
My little brother Mark, with the thumbs up sign.
I’m sitting and waiting for the game to start while batting practice is going on.
The out of town scores are here, only Major League Baseball ones. No NBA, no NFL, not even the US Open tennis matches are displayed here. To the left of this screen, there’s a huge HD screen.
It’s time to stand up again, and look around the ballpark.
Look at those Blue Jays players, they’re pumped up too!
The woman with the Jeter 2 Jersey caught two balls from the Blue Jays players during batting practice.
Oh look, that’s Roy Halladay. The fans were screaming his name, and cheering for him too, just so they can take a baseball from him, and the promotional car of the Yankees. The promotional item was a toy version which we both recieved just for attending the game, so that’s a free item for us.
Looking at the car again.
Let’s get to the game now.
Sergio Mitre pitching for the Yankees.
Roy Halladay pitching to Johnny Damon
This was Travis Snider going home after he hit the two run home run, in the third inning. His home run was the most impressive play of the game, well the Blue Jays were the only team to hit home runs. Edwin Encanarcion, Adam Lind, and Jose Bautista homered too, and those home runs didn’t come cheap either.
Sergio Mitre had a strange night, giving up four home runs, he would be taken out, not his fault though.
This was unusual. I think the coversation between Jorge Posada (Yankees) and Jesse Carlson (Blue Jays) had something to do with it. Look below.
This I believe was the first of these two “meetings”
Oh well, there were other things to look at while the teams’ “meetings” went on.
This was when the game with dingers from the Blue Jays some “gatherings” finally ended.
The Blue Jays celebrate a happy ending.
That’s all from me and my little bro’s first visit at Yankee Stadium 2009. I did not read or watch anything related to the game, since I saw all of it in person. If anyone knows something I left out, I’d like to know.
Oops, I forgot to display the “promotional” item me and my little bro recieved when entering the stadium.
Thanks for reading!
Mets salvage a win in the Desert…
Is it easy to give up on the New York Mets? No. To me, I’m not giving up. The Mets can’t get any worse than they are right now. I think they still have a legit shot at winning the Division, forget their injuries, I think they are capable of having a fun September, unlike the last two years. I think there’s still some “pride” left for the Mets to pull this one out, despite a 53-61 record and being in 4th place.
So without any further ado, I’ll recap the game.
Mets won 6-4
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
R | H | E | |
|
NY Mets
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 0 | |
|
Arizona
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 2 |
The game started at 3:30pm Eastern time (1:30pm Arizona time)
Photo courtesy of AP
Oliver Perez pitched good enough to keep the Mets in the game. I felt like he deserved to win the game. Jon Garland on the other hand was pitching well too, he beat the Mets around two weeks ago at Citi Field. Garland was in line to defeat the Mets, but the Mets made a huge rally in the 6th inning.
Here’s the highlights
Bottom 3rd
Augie Ojeda scores on a double by Ryan Roberts.
Top 6th
Jon Garland makes a wild pitch and David Wright scores. David reached base on a dropped third strike.
Fernando Tatis singles and Gary Sheffield and Jeff Francoeur both score.
Bottom 7th
Josh Whitesell singles and Gerardo Parra scores. Steven Drew scores too on a Miguel Montero single.
Top 8th
Luis Castillo singles and Fernando Tatis scores. Castillo was lucky not to have struck out in that at bat.
Cory Sullivan triples to score Luis Castillo.
Jon Rauch who thought he struck out Castillo says to the home plate umpire “That ball was a strike, those are your two runs, mister.” He is later tossed. AJ Hinch, the DBacks manager was also ejected.
Top 9th
David Wright scores while Fernando Tatis strikes out.
Bottom 9th
Gerardo Parra scores on a Josh Whitesell single.
The game ends.
I find the Jon Rauch ejection a bit funny. At least the Mets go home 2-5, and not 1-6.
The Yankees beat up on the Blue Jays.
The pie attack from AJ Burnett (Photo courtesy of AP)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |  |
R | H | E | |
|
Toronto
|
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 14 | 1 | |
|
NY Yankees
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
Although AJ Burnett didn’t win the game, the Yankees did, and AJ does his “in your pie” ritual to Robinson Cano. Why, Robinson hits a walk off hit. Nice way to end the game in extra innings, a single to bring home Alex Rodriguez. Although the Blue Jays outhit the Yankees 14-7, it’s the runs that count.
Johnny Damon and Robinson Cano homered for the Yankees. Yankee fans have been getting a lot of this lately, I hope this isn’t the last time AJ gets to throw a pie at someone. I wonder what flavor that is?
Anyways that’s it for today, I know this is my second post of the day, but I just had to do it because these were wonderful day games to see. I hope you had a fun day!
Mets fans are better left sleeping, but then again…
The way the Mets have been playing, they have lost five of their last six games in this road trip, three in San Diego and two, including last night in Arizona and all those losses came during the night, their only win so far was in the daytime Sunday game. Since it’s just 7pm in San Diego, Mets fans had to watch their games as late as 10pm Eastern time. Their performances in those two cities were not that good either. Maybe some hitting here and there, pitching, however is a bit underachieving.
Has it been worth it to stay up all night in the East Coast to watch the Mets play like this? Nah, not really, especially when Everith Cabrera hits a walk off Grand Slam off Francisco Rodriguez past midnight, or the time the Mets had little or no offense in the night games played there. I bet some fans were falling asleep right before those games ended. I tried to stay awake, but there’s not a lot going on the Mets way. I think the best thing Mets fans can do is stay positive. This team is not out of it just yet, there’s a month and a half of the season left so anything can happen.
Chase Field in Phoenix is usually where the Mets dominate. Forget the 100+ temperatures, the roof is closed to keep the field cool, and that’s usually good for the Mets. Not these two nights, they lost the first two games of the series.
Game 1
Mets 4- Diamondbacks 7
Game 2
Mets 2 Diamondbacks 6
Box score for the 2nd game.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
|
NY Mets
|
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 2 | |
|
Arizona
|
1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 6 | 11 | 0 |
Livan Hernandez just lasts only four innings, giving up five runs. The Mets are considering replacing Livan (7-7) with pitchers like Tim Redding and Nelson Figueroa
“The last two games I’ve just tried to be perfect,” Hernandez said.
“That’s the problem. I’m behind the hitters all the time because I want
to be perfect. I’ve got to work it out. I’ve got to say I’m sorry to
everyone today and go and say I’m sorry to Jerry because I didn’t pitch
good today.
The Diamondbacks hit very well in the game.
Bottom 1st
Gerrardo Parra reaches on error, and Stephen Drew scores.
Top 2nd
Jeff Fracoeur hits a solo home run
Bottom 3rd
Miguel Montero singles and Trent Oeltjen scores.Alex Romero singles to bring home both Gerardo Parra and Miguel Montero.
Top 4th
Alex Cora hits a single; brings home Fernando Tatis
Bottom 4th
Gerardo Parra singles to bring home Trent Oeltjen who tripled to get on base.
Bottom 7th
Ryan Roberts doubles to bring home Miguel Montero
That’s all
Livan Hernandez loses (7-7) while Max Scherzer wins (7-6)
The Diamondbacks are hitting at all cylinders. Mets will have to salvage one game of this three game set while the DBacks will go for the sweep.
Oh here’s another one.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
R | H | E | |
|
Toronto
|
0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 | |
|
NY Yankees
|
2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | X | 7 | 14 | 0 |
Yankees beat the Blue Jays 7-5, behind back to back home run efforts by Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada. Randy Ruiz and Edwin Encarnacion also homered for the Blue Jays, but that didn’t help the Jays as much.
Posada’s home run was under review but was later upheld, as it barely cleared the foul pole in right field. Joba Chamberlain started but did not get a decision, he pitched six innings giving up four runs. He would have been in hook of a loss of 4-3, however, the Yankees scores 8 runs in the bottom of the 8th to take Joba off the losing hook.
Scott Richmond would’ve won, but his bullpen faultered and he gets a no decision also.
David Robertson wins in relief, Mariano Rivera saves the game, and Jesse Carlson is charged with a blown save and the loss.
The Yankees fly to Seattle after today’s game in Toronto, let’s hope the Yankees can fare better in the West, because that’s not been a friendly place to East Coast teams such as the Mets and Rays.
Mets fly home to New York to take on the visiting San Franciso Giants. It should be a fun series.
John Lannan completes a shutout as Nationals defeat Mets.
John Lannan pitches nine shutout innings against the New York Mets, only allowing seven hits. Lannan threw 106 pitches in which 80 of them were strikes. Oliver Perez pitches six innings, giving up four hits, and four runs. Brian Stokes and Bobby Parnell pitched no-hit innings.
Here’s the box score
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
R | H | E | |
|
NY Mets
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | |
|
Washington
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 4 | 0 |
Since the Mets did not score, I’ll discuss how the Nationals scored their runs
The scoring innings
Bottom 4th
Ryan Zimmerman walked.
Adam Dunn singles and Zimmerman goes to third.
Josh Willingham pops out.
Alberto Gonzalez hits a sac fly to score Ryan Zimmerman for the first run, Dunn to third.
Wil Nieves singles to bring home Adam Dunn. Alberto Gonzalez goes to second base.
John Lannan grounds out.
Bottom 5th
Nyjer Morgan is hit by pitch.
Cristian Guzman flies out.
Ryan Zimmerman walks, Morgan stole 2nd base while Zimmerman was batting.
Adam Dunn singles, scores Morgan, Zimmerman to third.
Josh Willingham sac flies to score Zimmerman.
Austin Kearns grounds into a force out.
The Mets had seven hits, one each by Angel Pagan, Luis Castillo, David Wright, Daniel Murphy, Oliver Perez, and two hits by Jeff Francoeur, (the best hitter of the game that is)
Mets players grounded into two double plays, and left five on base.
The Nationals had four hits, one by Ryan Zimmerman, one by Wil Nieves, and two by Adam Dunn. Nationals leave six men on base, but they won by four runs.
There were no home runs hit in the game.
Oliver Perez pitched good, despite allowing four runs, he just didn’t have any run support at all, because John Lannan was great at handling pressure situations and stranding baserunners.
At the end of the day, the Mets are 44-49, and the Nationals are 27-66, even though they played better than their record indicates.
Here are some other scores that have reached their ends.
Braves beat Giants 8-1, in which Brian McCann homered.
Brian McCann drove in four runs, Chipper Jones, Garret Anderson, Yunel Escobar, and Martin Prado each drive in one run, while Juan Uribe hits to bring home Matt Downs for the Giants.
Martin Prado had three hits while Brian McCann and Yunel Escobar each had two hits for the Braves.
Randy Winn had two hits for the Giants also.
|
San Francisco
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 | |
|
Atlanta
|
1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 8 | 12 | 0 |
The Indians beat the Blue Jays 2-1, and Scott Rolen homered for the Jays. Victor Martinez drives in two runs.
|
Cleveland
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 0 | |
|
Toronto
|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
I hope the summer is turning out great for everyone.
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