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2005 Miller Divisional Playoffs |
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Mystic Sea Horses (101-61) vs Cambridge Longfellows (114-48) |
Dresden Blacks (108-54) vs
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Game 1 - Mystic at Cambridge Ben Sheets (10-6) vs Roger Clemens(24-1) Twenty-four game winner Roger Clemens was leading 1-0 in the eighth when Mystic put together singles by Javy Lopez, Michael Young, and Brian Roberts to tie. Gary Sheffield followed with a double, and after an intentional walk to Albert Pujols, Randy Winn singled in another off Rafael Betancourt. The Cambridge offense was quiet all day, getting a second inning homer by Victor Martinez for their only run, as Ben Sheets avenged 4 losses in last year's playoffs. Clemens drops to 5-7 lifetime in the playoffs.
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Game 2 - Mystic at Cambridge Andruw Jones broke open a 1-1 tie with a 3RHR in the home 4th as John Patterson scattered nine hits in seven one-run innings. Marcus Giles added a two run shot in the 7th, tying the series at 1 game each.
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Game 3 - Cambridge
at Mystic Eric Chavez's two early homers staked Mystic to a 6-4 lead, and Glavine held it until the visitors' eighth. Matt LeCroy singled and Marcus Giles walked, and Mystic summoned their closer, Derrick Turnbow. He got bombed. Mark Sweeney pinchhit a triple to tie it, David Wright, a double for the lead, Hideki Matsui another double, and another crossed the plate before the inning was out. The Mystic offense had long since gone quiet.
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Game 4 - Cambridge
at Mystic More or less a repeat of game 3. Mystic opened up an early 5-0 lead, four coming in the first on 4 singles and two walks. Things fell apart for Mussina in the 5th. Cambridge loaded the bases with none out, and one out later pinchhitter Jorge Piedra singled home a run. This was followed by a sac fly by Wright and an RBI single by Matsui. Mystic went to Majewski in the 6th, but he allowed a leadoff homer to Victor Martinez to narrow it to 5-4, and two outs later pinchhitter Bobby Crosby singled in the tying run. David Wright then doubled home two more as Cambridge took a 7-5 lead. Mystic got one back in their half of the inning, but couldn't tie it, as Cambridge added three insurance runs in the eighth off Jason Davis. In their three wins, Cambridge leads the series 3 games to 1.
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Game 5 - Cambridge
at Mystic Not a great Clemens pitching performance, allowing single runs in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, and departing in the 6th after a two out single. But Roger came through with a 2 out 2 run single in the 2nd, and left the game tied at 3. Otherwise Sheets was strong and he departed after 7 innings. Francisco Cordero had a rocky start, walking 2 to start the 8th, but then retired the next 6. Joe Nathan worked for Cambridge through the 6th and 7th, giving way to Raffy Betancourt. Sheffield and Pujols singled with one out in the 9th, Cambridge went to Will Ohman to face Randy Winn, and he balked home the tying run.
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Game 6 - Mystic at Cambridge Both starters pitched well, Colon on three days rest. Once again it was offense from the most unlikely of sources. In the bottom of the sixth, tied 1-1, Bartolo Colon grounded a 2 run 2 out bases loaded single up the middle to make it 3-1. In the 7th, Wakefield departed after a 2 out double, but the Mystic bullpen was awful and it was quickly 6-1, and Cambridge coasted the rest of the way.
123 456 789 R H E MVP - Victor Martinez, 11-23 with 2 HRs, scored 7 runs (led team) and drove in 6 (tied for team lead). Made up for Vladdy Guerrero, who went 1-26 with a meaningless HR. Pitchers went 2-14 but had 4 RBIs, in games 5 and 6. More importantly, Cambridge pinchhitters went 6 for 8 with 2 walks and 4 RBIs. On the Mystic side, Michael Young went 13-25 on the series, but only had 1 extra base hit and no RBIs. Albert Pujols was, of course, Mystic's most dangerous weapon, and went 10-22 with 6RBIs. The much maligned Cambridge bullpen only allowed 2 runs in 15 innings, while on the Mystic side only Cordero was dependable. Mystic fails to advance as far as the prior year, while Cambridge wins their first ever playoff series.
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Game 1 - Dresden at Hollywood Kevin Millwood (21-3) vs John Smoltz (14-5) Marco Scutaro and Ray Durham each had three hits as Hollywood hung on to win the opener. Trailing 3-2 in the sixth, Scutaro's single tied it, but the Blacks forged ahead in the 7th. Neil Cotts came on for the Blacks and was awful, getting one out but then allowing a Durham single, a walk, a Floyd game tying double, and a Helton two run single. Blacks had the tying run on third in the ninth, but Gordon struck out Giles for the save.
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Game 2 - Dresden at Hollywood Maddux was masterful, allowing 4 hits and three walks in a complete game victory. Washburn was less so, allowing 7 hits and 4 runs in four innings. David Bell chipped in a 2 run double in the first, and it was all Maddux needed.
123 456 789 R H E DRE: Washburn (L,0-1), Astacio (5), Valverde (8); HOL - Maddux (W,1-0). HR - Valentin (1).
Game 3 -
Hollywood at Dresden Blacks were down 2 games to zero and fell behind quickly 4-0 by the 4th inning, as Garcia had a rough start. But the Blacks got three consecutive hits in the 4th to cut the margin in half, got another in the sixth when Randa doubled home a run off Riske, and tied it in the seventh on Peralta's single off Howry after an 81 minute rain delay. Giles slipped trying to short hop Cruz's hit in the eighth, which went for a triple, but Cruz was thrown out trying to score on Rodriguez's grounder. Wagner came in, got out of the inning, and struck out the side in the ninth. Gordon walked Giles with two outs in the ninth, Benoit came in and walked Peralta and Giambi, and Jason Vargas came on to face Javy Valentin... and walked in the winning run on four pitches.
123 456 789 R H E HOL: Hudson, Riske (5), Farnsworth (6)(H,1), Howry (7)(BS,1), Gordon (8)(L,0-1), Benoit (9), Vargas(9); DRE - Garcia, Darensbourg (4), Guerrier (5), Valverde (6), Cotts (7), Torres (8), Wagner (9)(W,1-0). HR - none.
Game 4 -
Hollywood at Dresden Blacks endured another poor starting performance; this time Radke couldn't get out of the 1st. Benoit even managed two singles as Hollywood opened a 7-2 lead in the 4th. Giambi and Valentin homered in the bottom of the 4th to narrow it to 7-5, but the Hollywood bullpen took it from there, allowing 4 hits over the last 5 innings, as Hollywood opened a 3-1 lead.
123 456 789 R H E HOL: Benoit, Riske (5)(W,1-0), Howry (7)(H,2), Farnsworth (8)(H,2), Gordon (9)(S,2); DRE - Radke (L,0-1), Astacio (1), Washburn (4), Cotts (7), Duchscherer (7), Valverde (9). HR - HOL: Floyd (1); DRE: Giambi (1), Peralta (1), Valentin (2).
Game 5 -
Hollywood at Dresden John Smoltz walked 10 in 5 innings, but because the Blacks hit into 2 DPs and stranded 11 in those 5 innings he left down only 2-0. Moises Alou then hit a 3RHR in the 6th off Urbina, and the Blacks were coasting behind Kevin Millwood, who had allowed 2 singles and a walk over 6. In the visitors' seventh, it went single, walk, walk, Huff grand slam and it was quickly 5-4. However, the Blacks' bullpen got 9 up 9 down after that to seal it, with the Blacks scoring two insurance runs in the 8th.
123 456 789 R H E HOL: Smoltz (L,0-1), Urbina (6), Vargas (7), Gordon (7), Thomson (8); DRE - Millwood (W,1-0), Torres (7)(H,1), Valverde (8)(H,1), Wagner (9)(S,1). HR - HOL: Huff (1); DRE: Alou (1).
Game 6 - Dresden at Hollywood As in game 2, Maddux was strong and Washburn was poor, as the Blacks replaced the starter after giving 3 runs in 2 innings. Larry Walker tied the game in the 5th with a homer, but the Heat went ahead in the bottom of the inning on Todd Helton's single. Heat loaded the bases in the 7th, but Vic Darensbourg came on to get Tracy to fly out to keep it 4-3. The next batter, Joe Randa, led off the visitor's eighth with a game tying homer, and the game was tied again. Blacks almost scored another but Todd Walker was gunned down by Huff to keep the game squared at 4. Wagner went 3 innings for the Blacks, and Hollywood answered with Jason Vargas and Bobby Howry, who escaped the 10th by getting Jhonny Peralta (4 for 5) on a DP. The next inning, however, control lost him, he walked the bases loaded. Javy Valentin hit a line drive to left, and speedster Geoff Zaun just beat the throw at the plate. Randa followed with another sac fly, and an error brought home a third run. Justin Duchscherer allowed a run in the bottom of the frame, but got Adam Melhuse for the final out, squaring the series at 3. Blacks used 8 pitchers.
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R H E DRE: Washburn, Radke (3), Valverde (5), Torres (7), Cotts (7), Darensbourg (7), Wagner (8)(W,2-0), Duchscherer (11)(S,1); HOL - Maddux, Riske (8), Vargas (8), Howry (10)(L,0-1). HR - HR-Peralta(2), Walker, L.(1), Randa(1), Durham(1).
Game 7 - Dresden at Hollywood For the second straight game, Peralta hit a 2RHR in the first inning, and the Blacks pounded on Tim Hudson in an anti-climactic 11-2 win. Jason Giambi and Moises Alou hit homers in the 5th to take any doubt from the game when the Blacks opened a 7-0 lead. Then Peralta hit another one out in the 6th with one on. Freddy Garcia went 6 innings allowing only 4 hits for the win, and Matt Guerrier finished up.
123 456 789 R H E DRE: Garcia (W, 1-0), Guerrier (7)(S,1); HOL: Hudson (L,0-1). HR – HR-Peralta 2(4), Giambi(2), Alou(2). MVP - Billy Wagner, 2 wins and a save in the series, retiring 16 batters all in the 8th, 9th, and 10th innings in tie games or in the one save situation. No hits, only one walk. Jhonny Peralta gets runner-up with 4 homers and 9 RBIs, including three at Hollywood in the last two games. Gregg Zaun was on base 12 of 18 times, and Moises Alou and Jason Giambi had a few key hits. The difference in the series was the bullpen. Aside from Wagne's 5.2 hitless high leverage innings, Jose Valverde allowed only two bloop singles in 6 innings, and Duchscherer, Darensbourg, and Torres all chipped in. Blacks carried 12 pitchers and needed all of them. On the other side, the Blacks were able to beat Gordon and Vargas in game 4, Howry in game 6, and scored runs off the pen in games 1 and 5 . The Dresden bullpen: 2.29 ERA in 35 innings, Hollywood, a 5.40 ERA. Hollywood's star was Greg Maddux, 1-6 lifetime in the playoffs before this series. He won game 2 and nearly, had it not been for Randa's blast, won game 6, which would have closed out the Blacks. Ray Durham was the offensive star, going 13 for 30, while Marco Scutaro went 7-17. Hollywood blows a 3-1 series lead for the second year in a row. |
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