International Internet Baseball League – IIBL

Game 1 – Ervin Santana(Sco)   vs Josh Johnson(Was)  at Was. In the top of the 4th Blanco singled to lead off, and Mauer followed with a double. Holliday walked to make it bases loaded and nobody out.  Scott grounded to first and Blanco was eliminated at the plate. Chris Johnson followed with a 1-2-1 double play grounder to eliminate the threat. In the bottom of the 6th Longoria tripled with one out but was stranded when Berkman struck out and Posada grounded out.  Santana left for a pinch-hitter in the top of the 7th, having pitched 6 shutout innings,  Johnson departed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 7th. In the bottom of the 9th, with Papelbon pitching for Scottsdale, Berkman walked, Posada flied out and Orlando Hudson singled with Berkman advancing to second.  Axford came in for Scottsdale.  He struck out Jose Reyes.  Beltran then pinch hit for Stubbs and delivered a game winning double.  The final was 1-0 Washington, with the win going to Acosta and the loss to Papelbon.

Game 2 -  Sabathia(Sco) vs Lackey(Was) at Was .  With 1 out in the top of the 1st  Figgins reached second on an error by Reyes. Following a ground out Scottsdale strung together 2 singles and a 2 out triple by Chris Johnson to plate 3 unearned runs. In the bottom of the inning a walk and 3 singles yielded 2 runs to make it 3-2. Scottsdale added a run in the 3rd and that was it for the scoring. Sabathia went 7 innings for the win.  Arthur Rhodes got the save. Lackey took the loss.

Game 3 – Carmona(Was) vs Lilly(Sco) at Was. Lilly pitched 6 shutout innings and 5 other relievers accounted for 3 more as Scottsdale won 3-0 with Raphael Soriano getting the save.

Game 4 – Zambrano(Was) vs DiceK(Sco).   Cust and Ethier hit back to back homers to put Washington out to a 2-0 lead at the end of 1. Washington added a run in the third and another in the 4th on a Longoria HR.  In the bottom of the 5th Scott walked for Scottsdale with one out, one out later, Scottsdale strung together 4 singles to cut Washington’s lead to 4-3.  In the bottom of the 6th Scott hit a 2 run HR to give Scottsdale the lead. Washington tied it up in the 7th on a Cust double and an Ethier single.  In the bottom of the 8th Scottsdale broke it open on a Mauer single, a Victorino double, an intentional walk and a  Scutaro double. The lead held up as Scottsdale won it 8-5. Zumaya with the win, Acosta with the loss.

Game 5 Johnson(Was) vs Santana(Sco)  The game was never close as Johnson gave up 6 runs and Scottsdale won 8-1. Ervin Santana getting the win to clinch Scottsdale’s first ever world series championship.  Scottsdale hit only one home run during the series but their pitchers held Washington, the 2nd highest scoring team in the league during the regular season, to only 5 runs.

Washington knocks off Nashua in 5. Scores were 6-3, 10-5, 5-10, 4-1, 6-5. Nashua’s starters give up 27 runs in 23 innings of work. Their batters hit 2 HRs (down from 11 versus Cambridge’s league best pitching staff – how did we do that?). Rather than being execrable, Washington’s starters merely sucked, allowing 18 runs in 28 IP (although they did OPS .775 at the plate). Washington hit 20 doubles in the 5 game series.

Scottsdale beat Maui in seven games despite Coco Crisp’s four homers and ten RBIs.  Ted Lilly won his second game of the series, winning 3-2 in the clincher.

Washington rallies from a 3-2 deficit to beat New Orleans in 7 as andre Ethier homers five times in the final two games.

Game 1 was a nail biter, both Sabathia and Haren left after 7 innings with the score tied 2-2. In the bottom of the 10th Chris Johnson hit a walkoff Hr of Evan Meek. Paplebon was the winner.

Ubaldo Jimenez went 8 shutout innings, yielding only 3 hits and the Cardinals hit 4 solo homers – two by Choo and one by Vlad and one by Branyan to knot the series up at 1 game a piece.

Neither starter pitched effectively but Lilly left with a 6-5 lead in the fifth. 6 relievers combined for 3 2/3 shutout IP to make the final 6-5. Scottsdale.  Victorino’s 2 run HR in the 6th was the game winner.

Dan Haren, ptiching on three days rest, threw 8 shutout innings and Branyan hit his second HR of the series. Kissimmee knotted up the series 2-2 with their second shutout of Scottsdale.

Two homers by Matsui and another by Holliday paved the way for a 4-1 Scottsdale win as Sabathia got the victory.

Jimenez did not repeat his excellent outing from game 2 as the Cougars got to him for 6 runs behind Chris Johnson’s 2nd HR of the series and Russ Branyan’s third.  Ervin Santana got the victory as Scottsdale won 6-3 and eliminated Kissimmee.

Both teams kept the score low.

Maui takes game 1 – 2 to 1 in 11 innings.

Maui takes game 2 – scoring 4 in the bottom of the 9th to win 6-3 – probably the key point in the series.

Maui takes game 3 – 3 to 1 behind a nice outing by Guthrie.

Maui takes game 4 – 3 to 1 on a Crawford 3 run homer in the 4th.

Overall, the series was extremely low scoring.  Hard to pick an MVP as no one had more than 3 RBI’s.  Maui batted .213 and Bellingham batted .151.

MVP was Beltre who batted .438 with 3 RBI’s and had 7 of Maui’s 29 hits.

Team pitching saw Bellingham have a team ERA of 1.96 and Maui with 1.18.