by jpgavin » Thu Feb 05, 2009 11:48 pm
[b:c34ddd2c07]Phillies sweep Giants[/b:c34ddd2c07]
The Philadelphia Phillies, baseball's winningest team, swept the New York Giants in their Division Series to advance to the League Championship. The Phils won two one run contests at home, then clinched with a 7 - 1 victory at the Polo Grounds.
The first game of the series proved to be the most dramatic as the Phillies won in walk off fashion. With the game tied at 4, the light hitting Larry Bowa led off the home half of the ninth. Always gritty, Bowa had a ten pitch at bat against Giant starter Tim Keefe before singling to right. With the winning run aboard, Keefe was aggressive in dealing with Roy Thomas. He quickly got ahead of the Philliadelphia lead off man 0 - 2 and then got him to chase a curve ball down for strike three. But Bowa, expecting Keefe to go out of the zone, stole second without a throw. Johnny Evers got a ground ball to the right side of the infield to move Bowa to third. With first base open, the Giants elected to walk Left O'Doul and bring up Mike Schmidt. Pitching coach Rick Reuschel came out to talk things over with Keefe and apparently asked his pitcher to stay out of the zone. Keefe walked Schmidt on 4 pitches to load the bases for Elmer Flick. Keefe started him with a curve ball low and away. He then came back with an inside fastball that didn't get in far enough, and Flick lined it to right to drive in the game winner.
Keefe gave up 5 runs, all earned, on 13 hits and 5 walks while striking out 6. Pete Alexander got the complete game victory for Philidelphia, giving up 4 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks. The Phillie ace had 10 strikeouts on the game. Manager John McGraw had a tough time hiding his disappointment after the game. "Any time you can score 4 runs on Pete, you want to take advantage of it. We had a three run lead against one of the best pitchers in the game and gave it back right away. That tends to be deflating to a team."
The Giants had taken a 4 -1 lead in the top of the sixth on a bases loaded, two-out, two-run single by short stop George Davis. The Phillies came right back in the bottom half of the inning though. Schmidt tirpled with one out and Flick drove him in with an infield single. Evers knocked the ball down in the hole between first and second but had no play. Roy Sievers followed with a home run to straight away center that tied the game at 4. The score stayed that way until Flick's heroics in the ninth gave the Phils the win.
Willie Mays had given the Giants a 2 run lead in the top of the fifth with a two-run single. In the bottom of the fifth, Gus Triandos drove in Sievers with an RBI ground out to get the Phillies on the board.
[u:c34ddd2c07]Game 2[/u:c34ddd2c07]
The Phils won game 2 despite a lack luster performance by Cy Young award winner Steve Carlton. The Philadelphia lefty couldn't make it out of the 3rd inning. He allowed a solo home run to Mays in the first, another to Matt Williams in the second and then gave up 5 in a third inning highlighted by Dave Kingman's three run homer to straight away center. But Clarence Mitchell bailed out Carlton, allowing just one run over the next 4 innings while his teamates scored 2 in the third and 4 in the fifth on the way to a 10 - 9 victory. The Giants hit five home runs in the loss.
[u:c34ddd2c07]Game 3[/u:c34ddd2c07]
The Phils coasted to the sweep in game 3 behind Earl Hamilton who only allowed one run on 4 hits and 3 walks over 7 and 1/3 masterful innings. Flick again starred for the Phillies offensively. He had 3 RBI on a two-run double in the first and a run scoring ground out in the third. Flick hit .500 during the series with 5 RBI and 3 runs scored. He was named series MVP as he drove in the game winning run in the 1st and 3rd games and scored the game winner in game 2 after leading off the bottom of the 7th with a triple.
[b:c34ddd2c07]Pirates get by Orioles in four[/b:c34ddd2c07]
The Pittsburgh Pirates took their Division Playoff series against the Baltimore Orioles 3 games to 1 to advance to the League Championship Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. The series hinged on game 2 in Baltimore. The game was a heartbreaker for the Orioles and their starter Tom Zachary. The Oriole lefty didn't allow an earned run until the 10th, but wound up with the loss.
Zachary was able to pitch himself out of trouble all day long. But in the fifth with a one-run lead, 2 out and a runner at third it was his glove, not his pitching, that let him down.
The Orioles had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third on a Ken Singleton RBI single. Zachary found himself in a bases loaded one out jam in the very next inning, but got Pirate firstbaseman Jake Beckley to line out to second and then got Manny Sanguillen to pop up to end the inning without any damage.
In the fifth it looked like Zachary had worked his magic again when he got Ralph Kiner to hit a slow roller to the right of the mound with two out and Maury Wills on third. Buy Zachary failed to field the ball cleanly. After he bobbled it, he looked home but the speedy Wills had long since crossed the plate. By the time he looked back to first Kiner had lumbered down the line safely and the game was tied. The fielding miscue seemed to break Zachary's concentration, and on the very next pitch he hung a breaking ball to designated hitter Chuck Klein who doubled into the right-center field gap to score Kiner and give the Pirates the lead.
Wally Gerber led off the home half and immediately picked up his pitcher. The Oriole short stop got a Harvey Haddix pitch on the inside part of the plate and pulled it down the line just inside the foul pole to even the score at 2. The Orioles had a great chance to get to Haddix, who proceeded to hit John McGraw, allow a single to Rogers Hornsby and walk Singleton to load the bases. Chuck Tanner came to the mound apparently to send his pitcher to the showers, but after an annimated discussion, the Pirate skipper opted to leave his starter in the game. It was the right call. Haddix bore down and struck out Reggie Jackson, Vic Wertz and Jim Gentile on a total of 11 pitches.
No one would score again until extra innings. The Orioles had two on with two out in the sixth, but Haddix got Rogers Hornsby to fly to left. The Pirates had runners at the corners with one out in the seventh, but Zachary induced a double play ball off the bat of Klein. In the ninth, Haddix needed Roy Face to get him out of trouble, coming on to get Jackson to fly out with two down and the winning run at second.
In the 10th, Zachary's luck finally ran out. He gave up a lead off single to Paul Waner who was forced at second on Kiner's ground ball. Zachary took a deep breath as Klein came to the plate with runners on yet again. After a couple of long foul balls down the right field line, it looked like he was in good shape as the Pirate DH flied to short right. But Freddie Lindstorm was next, and he tripled over Gene Woodling's head to give the Pirates the lead. Woodling, who was playing deep in a no doubles defense, appeared to lose the ball in the lights.
This game wouldn't end that easily though. In the bottom of the 10th, Wertz got things started with a triple of his own to put the tying run at third with no one out. Gentile then hit a fly ball to right that may have been deep enough to score the run, but respecting Waner's tremendous arm, third base coach Al Bumbry elected to hold Wertz at third. Asked why he didn't pinch run for the slow-footed Wertz, Earl Weaver said only, "With who?" Woodling followed with a fly to right that was clearly not deep enough to score the run and when Matt Nokes struck out, the Pirates were headed home with a 2 games to none lead.
[u:c34ddd2c07]Game 1[/u:c34ddd2c07]
The previous night, the Pirates took game one of the series easily, beating the Orioles 11 to 3 at Sportsman's Park. Pitching out of trouble was the key in this game as well, and Jesse Tannehill did it all day while his Oriole counterpart Ned Garver was not so lucky. Tannehill allowed only 3 runs in his complete game victory despite giving up 11 hits and a walk. He stranded runners in scoring position in 5 different innings. Garver gave up 11 runs on 10 hits and 6 walks, and couldn't make it out of the sixth inning. Wills went 3 for 4 with a walk, 3 runs scored and 4 stolen bases for the Pirates.
Last edited by
jpgavin on Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:57 pm, edited 15 times in total.