BoS Week 2 (American League)

"Aged Pop"

Ichiro putting on a rare power display for the Boston Bravos.

A round of early division match-ups in Week 2.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

James Shields kicked off the Bronx Bombers series with South Shore on the right foot, by pitching a complete game, 4-1 victory, allowing only 6 hits & 2 walks, while striking out 6. Shields improves to 2-0, with a 0.50 ERA & 14 K's. The Bombers would pull off a surprising and successful 3-2 series win on the road. Ivan Nova (1-1, 3.00 ERA, had 7 K's in 8 IP) & Adam Wainwright (1-2, 3.57, had 7 K's in CG) also had good outings. The team's batting average jumped 30 points after rough Week 1 for their lineup. The Bronx must get Kyle Seager on track, who's hitting a lousy .091 (4-for-44 at-bats), yikes! Carlos Santana, meanwhile, is tied for second in A.L. with 11 RBI. The Bombers are now 5-6, tied with Boston, 1 game out of first.

The South Shore Fighting Imps hit a wall against Bronx's timely hitting & pitching, the team is still tops in their league in hitting at .276. Hyun-Jin Ryu is looking like the real deal for the Imps, with 1-1 record, 2.78 ERA & 19 K's in 22.2 innings -- just needs to curb down his amount of walks early on (12 walks). Veteran John Lackey (after missing all last season, due to injury recovery) is 2-0 this season. Shin-Soo Choo has collected a hit in all 11 games so far this season, only BoS player so far to do so; Choo also leads team with a .349 average (15-for-43), with 3 HR & 8 RBI. The team has four regular starters batting over .300 (Choo, Craig .341, Beltran .310 & Holliday .304).

The Swatara Eliminators almost executed a sweep of the Bravos, until Ichiro Suzuki's walk-off HR for Boston denied that; Boston also denied Swatara sole possession of first place. Yadier Molina still leads the American League in Batting Avg at the moment (.441), but has no HR & only 2 RBI to show for it, he has scored seven times though. Victor Martinez added another HR for his 3rd this season, he has 8 RBI, while batting .333 for Swatara. A couple relievers inflated the overall team ERA of 3.61 -- they are getting great starts from A.J. Burnett (1-0, 1.20 ERA, 14 K's in 2 starts), while Hector Santiago continues from his good debut, with another good outing, improving to 2-0, 1.93 ERA & 12 K's (needs to trim down walks, has 9). Next up for Swatara, a road trip to play the defending A.L. West Champs in Fairgrove.

The Boston Bravos' pitching may be sporting a low 3.31 team ERA (3rd in A.L.), but their opponents' batting average against Boston is a high .274 (league worst). Also, the team has took on the strategy out of the gate, with their starters going the distance, leaving their bullpen itchy, a bullpen that has one of the best closers in the game in Craig Kimbrel. Bravo starter Kris Medlen is not minding it so much, he is 3-0, with a 2.00 ERA with 24 K's in 27 innings. Jerome Williams (1-1, 2.50 ERA, 11 K's) and Dan Haren (1-0, 2.70 ERA) are also pitching good early in the season. Ichiro Suzuki, not only helped Boston avoid a sweep with his walk-off HR in Game 5, but he is showing some unusual power early on with 3 HR's already this season. Two other Bravos have 3 HR's this season in Matt Wieters and Adam LaRoche -- both players are among top 4 team hitters in batting average with Suzuki & Alexei Ramirez. LaRoche leads team with .992 OPS, while team flounders with .226 average.

The Fairgrove Tigers won their series against Brooklyn, 4-1 -- improving their record to 8-3, best in the entire BoS after two weeks. Madison Bumgarner has improved to 3-0, 1.88 ERA with 27 K's & a .708 WHIP in 24 innings; He has got help from teammate C.J. Wilson who is 2-0, with a 1.80 ERA & 10 K's in 15 innings. Joe Nathan added two more Saves this week to put his total up to a BoS leading 5 for the season. The team appears once again to be led by their pitching (3.06 ERA) than their hitting (.246). Adam Jones and Paul Goldschmidt keep tearing it up for the Tigers; Goldschmidt leads the team in HR (5) & RBI (12), while batting .349, while Jones is leading the team in batting average (.356) & hits (16), with 4 HR's & 7 RBI. The two studs will need some help from others in the lineup, to get this lineup that has a lot of potential, up and running.

The Brooklyn Mets are not off to a good start to say the least -- yet, they also just played two division champions from the prior season, back to back. They are at the bottom in both batting (.184 BA) and pitching (5.01 ERA). The silver lining in the pitching area, is that their bullpen has a low 1.93 ERA, led by Junichi Tazawa & Dana De La Rosa. After Michael Bourn's .343 batting average, the team falls off -- Jose Reyes is 2nd on the team, batting only .250! Bourn also happens to have 3 home runs. Tim Lincecum is 1-0, with a 3.95 ERA, he has been collecting plenty of K's of late, with 19 K's in 13.2 innings. Brooklyn will finally get a break in their schedule, as they head to Boston.

The Chicago Nine rebounded in their second series of the season against a improved, tougher Yankees team, edging them in a 3-2 series victory. Ian Kinsler has found his home run stroke and has blasted 6 HR's to kick off the young season, he already has about half of his real-life MLB total from that season, so we should expect a cool-down. David Ortiz is tied with Kinsler for the team-lead in RBI (11). Jacoby Ellsbury is second in batting average (.327) among the Nine, while leading the team with 16 hits & entire league with 13 steals. Early on the lineup is batting .262 with a combination of power & speed, while their pitching is a storm in the making -- with lots of high-end potential arms, how it all will play out for this season is a different question. Shelby Miller has looked good in his two starts; 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA & 17 K's. Chicago's pitching staff sports a 3.15 ERA, while allowing an opponent's batting average of .223.

The Buffalo Yankees cooled off across the board in their second series, they lost a tough 3-2 series against Chicago. The team needs more help from their rotation who have yet to pitch to their potential early on, the team's best starter in ERA, Wade Miley, has a ERA of 5.21! We expect to see Jordan Zimmermann to improve from his 0-1, 5.87 start (15.1 IP); Buffalo currently sports a 4.39 ERA. The bullpen on the other hand, has done it's job (2.98 ERA) in Luis Avilan, Neal Cotts, LaTroy Hawkins, and Koji Uehara. Hawkins has a 1-0, 0,00 ERA with 8 K's in 7.1 innings, allowing only 3 hits & a walk. Buffalo's lineup has stayed pat for the most part, except Brandon Moss (who batted .315 the first series) cooled off & is batting .214, despite hitting his 4th HR. Jay Bruce continues to lead the team with his .333 average, as Adrian Gonzalez has raised his average to .283, while leading the team with 8 RBI.

***This concludes the A.L. Highlights from Week 2***