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2004 Miller Divisional Playoffs |
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Mystic Sea Horses (95-67) vs Hollywood Heat (114-48) |
Dresden Blacks (100-62) vs Nashua Nonames (124-38) | |
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Game 1 - Mystic at Hollywood Ben Sheets (17-8) vs Greg Maddux (17-7) Veteran nerves helped, as Ben Sheets had a rough first inning, and Greg Maddux pitched calmly into the ninth. With one out and one on, John Smoltz came in to finish it off, but only retired one batter before allowing three hits to narrow the score to 5-4. Solomon Torres came on, hit the first batter to load the bases, but got pinchhitter Jolbert Cabrera to ground out to preserve a hairy win.
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Game 2 - Mystic at Hollywood Hollywood's middle relief proved much better than Mystic's as the Heat took a 2-0 series lead. The Heat piled up 25 hits, 14 over the last three innings off the underbelly of the Sea Horse relief crew. Mystic led 6-5 in the bottom of the 6th when 10 of the next 12 Hollywood batters reached on hits. By the end of the 7th it was 14-6 and a runaway win. Ivan Rodriguez led the charge with 4 hits.
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Game 3 - Hollywood at
Mystic The Heat led 2-0 going into the bottom of the 6th when Hollywood pulled Batista with 2 on and 2 outs. Dave Burba balked and allowed a 2R game tying single. He pitched poorly to start the 7th, Bobby Seay bailed him out with 2 outs, but Solomon Torres came in and immediately gave up a 3RHR to Pujols, and by the end of the inning it was 7-2 Mystic. Hollywood wasn't done with the Mystic middle relief though, as Alfonseca and Cerda gave up 4 straight hits. Finally, Cerda got the third out and Shingo Takatsu finished it.
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Game 4 - Hollywood at
Mystic Hudson, back from a three week injury, threw a 6 hit complete game. Sheets again allowed three first inning runs, built around three consecutive doubles.
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Game 5 - Hollywood at
Mystic Down 3 games to 1, Mystic went to the knuckleball. Tim Wakefield delivered, allowing only 2 earned runs while pitching into the seventh. In the seventh though, Mystic loaded the bases with one out, but Alfonseca got David Bell to ground into a double play to preserve a 4-3 lead. The Sea Horses then went to work off Solomon Torres for four insurance runs and Mystic avoided losing the series at home.
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Game 6 - Mystic at Hollywood Glavine made up for a poor performance in game two with a 2 hit shutout (Glavine led IIBL in shutouts during the regular season). Albert Pujols continued his hot hitting, getting a 2 run shot in the 4th to open up a 3-0 lead. It was more than Glavine needed, though Solomon Torres made a mess of the 8th when he came in, allowing the Sea Horses a few insurance runs. The only negative came when Gary Sheffield left the game with an injury, leaving him out of game 7.
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Game 7 -
Mystic at Hollywood Like game 7 in Nashua (see lower right), it was a 1 run victory capping off a comeback from a 3 game to 1 deficit, but it was unlike the game in any other respect. The Heat led 3-1 early, but the Sea Horses came back with three in the 5th, started off by Reed Johnson's homer, and prolonged by a Luis A. Gonzalez error. Torres (who had a playoff ERA of 54 coming into the game), got the third out and sailed through the 6th. Then Hollywood struck in the bottom of the 6th on a two run double by Luis (no A.) Gonzalez (the long time leftfielder), and a three run homer by Ray Durham off Ben Sheets. Hollywood had to protect a 4 run lead over the last nine outs, but couldn't get 3 before the game was tied. Paul Wilson (Paul Wilson?) gave up homers to Javy Lopez and Joe Randa, the first with two on, and the game was tied at 8. Closer Smoltz came on in the seventh and was notable not necessarily for his pitching but his hitting, as his single in the bottom of the seventh plated the goahead run. Though Smoltz got through the 8th, Pujols led off the 9th with a homer to tie the game. And after Lopez grounded a double down the line it was clear Smoltz was done. Fundamental baseball moved the runner over allowing him to score on a Joe Randa sac fly, and Ron Mahay mowed down Hollywood in the 9th.
123 456 789 R H E MVP - Albert Pujols, 4 home runs, all of which punctuated games, but none more than the game tying homer in the 9th inning of game 7. His 11 RBI was more than a quarter of the Mystic total. Javy Lopez was a worthwhile second fiddle, with 2 HRs and 9 RBIs. And we'll also give some kudos to Joe Randa, with a .400 average, 7 RBIs and the series winner. The choices of Paul Wilson and Bobby Seay will come back to haunt Hollywood, as (a tired) Tim Hudson and an underused Carlos Almanzar, neither of which had given up an earned run in the series, were available.
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Game 1 - Dresden at Nashua Brad Radke (19-5) vs Curt Schilling (22-4)
Blacks drew first blood on a two out Brian Giles triple and a Phil
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Game 2 - Dresden at Nashua
Pedro
didn't have it, allowing three runs in the first two innings and
four more in the 4th. Barry Larkin was the star.
He singled a run home in the 2nd, tripled home two in the 4th, and doubled
home 2 more in the 7th. He also made two superb plays in the field.
It was 12-2 after 6½ though the final looked a
little closer when Nashua got some unimportant runs back towards the
end.
Game 3 - Nashua at Dresden
Nomar got a 2 run single with two outs in the first to make it 3-0, 123 456 789 R H E
Game 4 - Nashua at Dresden
The 21 year old was nervous, allowing 3 home runs and hitting 2
batters in 3 innings, trailing 5-1 after 2½ . But El Duque had a
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Game 5 -
Nashua at Dresden Neither starting pitcher fared well, as teams traded 3 run innings in the first. Radke left after 4th, and Steve Kline was ineffective, and Nashua tied it in the 5th. The Blacks got 3 singles with two outs in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-5 lead, but the duo of Chris Hammond and Lance Carter had a terrible inning. Melvin Mora doubled home two off Hammond, Carter came in and walked Bonds intentionally, and one out later Ortiz singled home a run. A sac fly and a single, and a balked in run made it 10-7. Drew and Ortiz each had four hits, as Nashua had the better chances throughout, capitalizing 11-8.
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Game 6 - Dresden at Nashua
Millwood was staked to a three run lead, but ran into
trouble in the fourth. Chris Hammond got Ortiz, but Lieberthal and Nomar
both doubled to tie the score, and Edgar Martinez's single gave Nashua the
lead. Blacks were gifted the lead back when J.C. Romero walked the bases
loaded and allowed a 2 run single to Eric Chavez, but the Nonames tied it
on a sac fly in the 6th. Both teams had chances in the 7th through 9th,
but it was Lieberthal's walkoff homer in the 10th which evened the series
at 3 games apiece.
DRE: Millwood, Hammond (4), Wright
(5)(BS,2), Kline (6), Cordero (8), Fultz (10),
Carter (10)(L,0-1);
NAS: Martinez, Romero (5), Ledezma (6), King
(7), Nathan (7), Gordon (9)(W,1-0). HR –
Jimenez (1), Lieberthal (1).
Brad Radke came back on two days rest to face Al Leiter,
who had allowed one hit in his first outing. The short rest didn't affect Radke at all, and the teams matched zeros late into the game. Leiter threw another 1 hitter over 6 innings, but Radke allowed only 3
hits over 7 innings. The Blacks' best shot came in the 8th, tied 0-0. Ray
King walked Jimenez, and Bobby Hill failed to bunt him over, but got hit
by a pitch with two strikes. Shannon Stewart failed to bunt him over,
forcing the runner at third, El Duque came in to pitch, Surhoff came on to
hit, and a wild pitch moved runners to 2nd and 3rd. But Surhoff popped up
and Wells struck out to end the inning. Nashua scored a run much more
simply: a two out homer by Melvin Mora. That was that. Nashua wins the
final three and advances. DRE: Radke, Garcia (8), Wagner (8)(L,0-1); NAS: Leiter, Harikkala (7), King (8), O.Hernandez (8). HR – Mora (2). MVP - Al Leiter, who threw two one-hit performances, even though he didn't figure in the decision in game 7. Barry Bonds was a good choice as well, but the Blacks were able to get a number of key outs with runners on base. Brian Giles was the Blacks' best player, though there were contributions across the board. Radke, Millwood, Cordero, and Wagner (at least until the Mora homer) were Dresden's only dependable pitchers.
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