The Final Four Standing in 1985 Debut League

I simulated the 1985 Debut League tonight, and one remarkable result is that 3 of the 4 real-life playoff teams made the postseason in the Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The only difference is that the Seattle Mariners won the A.L. West over the Kansas City Royals. The Royals finished in 2nd place, 6 games back.

I know what you are thinking, the Mariners?! I know, right!

The key to the Mariners' success was that they had 6 strong bats in Dave Henderson, Phil Bradley, Alvin Davis, Ruppert Jones, Jim Presley & rookie Danny Tartabull. They also had a good 1-4 rotation in Rick Honeycutt, Shane Rawley, Bud Black & Mike Moore, plus their bullpen's top half was solid in closer Ed Nunez, Ed Vande Berg & Matt Young. Mark Langston (4-7, 5.02 ERA) struggled and was relegated to bullpen duties.

Bradley was the offensive star for the M's, finishing 3rd in the American League with a .349 batting average & 3rd in WAR (8.9), while smacking 30 home runs & 112 RBI. Bradley also showed some speed on the base paths with 25 steals.

The Blue Jays were a beast, winning 109 games, thanks largely to Jesse Barfield (.304, 42 HR & 131 RBI) and Dave Stieb (22-8, 3.11 ERA, 194 K & 1.16 WHIP in 263.1 IP) on the mound. George Bell and Lloyd Moseby were no slouches as well. Bell led the A.L. with 132 RBI (just one more than Barfield), while batting .300 and hitting 27 bombs. Moseby batted .298 with 28 HR & 89 RBI, while stealing 44 bases and leading the A.L. in runs (138).

One of the Jays that came into the season quietly, but exited with a huge season was lead-off man Mitch Webster, who has a solid all-around season, batting .273 with 19 HR & 109 RBI, plus 35 steals & 19 triples, to go along with 32 doubles, 182 hits & 104 runs (70 extra-base hits), while compiling 309 total bases.

Another Jay that shouldn't go overlooked was Mark Eichhorn who converted 31 of 34 save opportunities, posted a microscopic 1.03 ERA, while posting 9.8 K/9 & 0.84 WHIP through 68.1 innings.

Before moving on to the National League. The Batting title winners were your two usual suspects in the 1980's in Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn. Boggs nearly batted .400, batting .393 for the season, topping George Brett's 1980 run of .390, while being the highest batting average for a single-season since Ted Williams batted .406 back in 1941. Gwynn edged Lee Lacy's .341 batting average, by hitting .346 for the Padres.

By the way, Boggs' Boston finished with 103 wins, but still 6 games back.

The National League batting statistics were significantly lower than the American League's, as evident of Eric Davis's league-leading .890 OPS, compared to where the A.L. had at least 7 players with over a .940 OPS for the season. Davis also led the N.L. with 40 HR, while Andy Van Slyke (of the Cardinals) won the N.L. RBI title (114).

I think its worth mentioning that Atlanta's Brook Jacoby was 2nd in the N.L. in OPS (.890) and Slugging (.521). Jacoby was one of the more productive A.L. third basemen during those days, from about 1985-1987, but you wouldn't have known it, because he was playing with Cleveland. He was named to 2 All-Star Games in his day.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the N.L. East with a 101-61 record, while the New York Mets with their high-profile rotation finished 9 games back in 2nd place. You may remember that the Mets' rotation was stacked with Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Tom Seaver & Ron Darling. Entering the season, Jerry Koosman made the rotation over Darling, but Seaver struggled badly and was demoted to relief duties, while the Mets would plug Rick Aguilera in the 4th slot of the rotation by the end of the season.

Gooden (17-9, 2.60 ERA), Scott (16-10, 2.26 ERA) & Ryan (17-9, 3.08 ERA) were as good as expected, but their lineup was nowhere as talented as the Cards' lineup.

The Cardinals' lineup was excellent from top-to-bottom, not to mention plenty of Gold Glove talent in the fielding department as well. The lineup boasted Willie McGee, Keith Hernandez, Andy Van Slyke, Terry Pendleton, Tom Herr, Jose Cruz, Garry Templeton & Terry Kennedy.

Their rotation was also talented in Steve Carlton (16-10, 3.32 ERA), Danny Cox (17-6, 2.73 ERA), Jerry Reuss (12-4, 3.18 ERA), and John Denny (17-14, 3.86 ERA).

The Dodgers won the N.L. West as expected, winning 101 games. Bob Welch (15-7) won the N.L. ERA title (1.76), while teammate Rick Rhoden finished 5th in ERA (2.59) while winning over 20 games (21-7 record). Fernando Valezuela (17-10, 3.45 ERA), Alejandro Pena (11-5, 2.30 ERA) and Rick Sutcliffe (5-1, 3.01 ERA) all contributed to their starting pitching.

L.A.'s lineup lacked production, led by Pedro Guerrero (.290, 20 HR & 102 RBI), Jeffrey Leonard (.330, 15 HR & 67 RBI) & Mike Scioscia (.291, 10 HR & 61 RBI).

Dodgers will have to lean on their rotation and hope that they can shut down the Cards' bats in the National League Championship Series.

Over in the American League Championship Series, it will be a battle between the two 1977 Expansion Teams.

Other Interesting Stats from the season...

• The worst two MLB teams were the Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros at 56-106, with the San Francisco Giants (59 wins) and the Detroit Tigers (64 wins) not far behind.

• The real-life champion Royals may not have moved on towards the promised land, but George Brett had a excellent season regardless, leading the A.L. in WAR (10.9), Slugging (.620),  OPS (1.056), OPS+ (185), Total Bases (380), Extra-Base Hits (84) & WOBA (.454). Brett finished 2nd in the A.L. with a .372 batting average while hitting 30 HR & 110 RBI. In many ways, he may be the front runner for the A.L. Most Valuable Player Award.

• Tom Brunasky hit 41 HR & 120 RBI for the California Angels.

• The Twins' Kirby Puckett finished 2nd in hits (237), 3rd in Batting Avg (.342), while hitting 89 RBI, scoring 111 runs & stealing 34 bases.

• Not a surprise, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics, led the A.L. with 75 stolen bases. Willie Wilson (64) and Gary Pettis (60) were not too far behind, the big surprise may have been Kirk Gibson stealing 54 bases for Detroit.

• The Royals' Ken Phelps hit 37 HR & 105 RBI, but only batted .211 for the season.

• The Angels' Mike Witt led all A.L. pitchers in WAR (7.2), ERA (2.72), Innings Pitched (287.1), complete games (14), WHIP (1.09) & Quality Starts (27) -- all while striking out 212 batters (ranked 2nd) & winning 15 games.

• Roger Clemens won the strikeout title (241), while sporting a 20-5 record.

• The Phillies' Ryne Sandberg may not have led in any major categories, but had a well-rounded season: .321 BA, 21 HR, 95 RBI, 208 hits, 98 runs & 39 stolen bases, all while sporting a .853 OPS & .372 OBP.

• Sandberg's teammate Mike Schmidt hit 35 HR & 104 RBI with a .841 OPS.

• Andre Dawson (.297, 28 HR, 107 RBI & 26 SB / .853 OPS) and Tim Raines (.323 BA, 131 runs, 198 hits & league-leading 98 steals) were the Expos' studs.

• Mike Scott (16-10, 2.26 ERA & 204 K) for the Mets. Scott was 2nd in both ERA & strikeouts.

• Dwight Gooden led all N.L. pitchers in WAR (9.5) & strikeouts (277), while going 17-9. 

• Reds' closer Jay Howell led N.L. with 37 saves, while posting a 2.95 ERA.

Debut League 1985

I know that I mentioned it before, but the great thing about Out of the Park Baseball (which I am playing OOTP 20) is that you can do simulations very quick, slow, or any rate you feel comfortable with.

For some of my readers, you will remember my idea of doing season simulations based on where Major League players made their MLB debuts with. 

For example, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Ken Griffey, Johnny Bench & Hal McRae will play for the Cincinnati Reds for their entire careers, because that is the team they made their debuts with. While other Big Red Machine staples like Joe Morgan (Astros) and George Foster (Giants) will play elsewhere. 

I have done a couple seasons with the 1920's (which I do plan to go back to), but wanted to do the era that inspired me to do it in the first place. Since I was a teen, I remember thinking the debut idea with my early edition of APBA cards in the 1990's. I thought then, "Wow! Could you imagine the New York Mets' pitching staff in the mid 1980's with Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Mike Scott & Ron Darling"?!

Of course, with expansion, players like Ruppert Jones will play entire careers with the Seattle Mariners, and not their actual MLB debuts, any player that was on those initial expansion years will be playing their careers for those expansion teams. Ruppert made his actual debut with the Royals in 1976. The reason for this is pretty obvious... Otherwise the expansion teams would have a difficult time fielding a team, which they already have a hard time doing (even with this rule in place) in the early years of those franchises' existence.

Here is a list of each franchise's interesting players and combinations, thanks to their MLB debuts for 1985...

ATLANTA BRAVES

• Lead-off man RF - Brett Butler.
• Veteran outfielder Dusty Baker.
• Slugger Darrell Evans, who led the A.L. with 40 home runs in 1985 -- Now add him in the middle of the lineup with Dale Murphy and Bob Horner.
• The old knuckle-baller Phil Niekro is back with the Braves.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

• Bobby Grich and Doug DeCinces are with the O's, instead of the Halos.
• Don Baylor, skills diminishing, still hit 23 HR & 91 RBI in 1985.
• Orioles rotation: Storm Davis, Mike Boddicker, Mike Flanagan, Scott McGregor and Dennis Martinez. 

BOSTON RED SOX

• Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn are back with their original team.
• Pretty solid rotation in Roger Clemens, John Tudor, Bob Ojeda, Oil Can Boyd & Bruce Hurst.
• Team closer Don Aase, who had 14 saves in 85' & 34 saves in 86'.

CALIFORNIA ANGELS

• Veteran star Carney Lansford.
• The Angels have Tom Brunasky during the middle of his power production years.
• Top 3 in rotation: Mike Witt, Kirk McCaskill & Frank Tanana.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX

• Chet Lemon and Brian Downing, two players who became bigger names elsewhere.
• Hall of Fame Closer Goose Gossage leads a bullpen featuring Terry Forster, Tim Stoddard & Juan Agosto.

CHICAGO CUBS

• Joe Carter takes his 10 years of 100+ RBI's to Wrigley Field.
• Andre Thornton is at tail-end of career, while Mel Hall is just beginning.
• Killer bullpen includes Willie Hernandez, Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith, Donnie Moore & Dennis Lamp.

CINCINNATI REDS

• Veterans Dave Conception, Hal McRae, Ken Griffey & Dan Driessen join youngster Eric Davis in the lineup.
• Charlie Leibrandt, Mario Soto, Tom Browning and two decent years in Jay Tibbs (85' & 86') are slated 1-4 in the rotation.
• Stellar bullpen in Jay Howell, John Franco, Tom Hume, Jeff Russell & Ron Robinson.

CLEVELAND INDIANS

• Buddy Bell, Von Hayes & Chris Chambliss all checker the lineup.
• Dennis Eckersley and Tommy John head the rotation.
• Consistent reliever Steve Farr is at the dawn of his career.

DETROIT TIGERS

• The usual suspects Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson & Lance Parrish are all in Motown, while joined by Tiger originals Steve Kemp, Jason Thompson & future star Howard Johnson.

HOUSTON ASTROS

• Veterans Mike Easler and Cliff Johnson are the pop in a relatively weak lineup.
• Joaquin Andujar and Floyd Bannister head the Stros' rotation.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS

• Ken Phelps bats cleanup, who hit 108 home runs in between 1985 and 1988 -- while he averaged 34 HR & 81 RBI per 162 games, during this period.
• Solid rotation in Bret Saberhagen, Danny Jackson, Mark Gubicza, Atlee Hammaker, and Dennis Leonard. 
• Pretty good bullpen arms in Dan Quisenberry, Aurelio Lopez, Mark Huismann & Bob McClure.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS

• The Dodgers' rotation is so good in Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Bob Welch, Rick Rhoden & Rick Sutcliffe, that pitchers Doyle Alexander, Don Sutton, Charlie Hough & Sid Fernandez have been relegated to the bullpen.

MILWAUKEE BREWERS

• Kevin Bass and Darrell Porter joins a productive lineup that features Paul Molitor, Robin Yount & old 1970's names such as Gorman Thomas and Sixto Lezcano.

MINNESOTA TWINS

• Hall of Famer Rod Carew enters last season of career.
• Outfielder Gary Ward will be part of a lineup that hosts plenty of dependable Twinkies in Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Greg Gagne, Graig Nettles & Tim Teufel.
• Rotation is headed by Bert Blyleven, Frank Viola and Mark Portugal.

MONTREAL EXPOS

• Prospect Andres Galarraga joins Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Gary Carter, Larry Parrish & Tim Wallach.
• Pitcher Bryn Smith is in 2nd year of a underrated, good 8-year run that witnessed Smith winning 81 games, earning a 3.51 ERA & 1.172 WHIP during that span.

NEW YORK YANKEES

• Lineup doesn't feature much after Don Mattingly, Steve Balboni & Mike Pagliarulo.
• Ron Guidry is the ace, followed by pitchers-on-the-rise in Jose Rijo & Jim Deshaies.
• Dave Righetti, Ron Davis, Gene Nelson & Tippy Martinez sport a pretty good pen.

NEW YORK METS

• Best rotation in the game: Dwight Gooden, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Tom Seaver & Jerry Koosman. Emergency starter Tim Leary sits in bullpen.
• Excellent bullpen in Jeff Reardon, Jesse Orosco, Greg A. Harris, Juan Berenguer & Calvin Schiraldi.
• Hubie Brooks is in early stage of his strong production years, which spanned from 1984-1991.

OAKLAND ATHLETICS

• Lineup features Hall of Famers Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson. 
• Dwayne Murphy (20 HR) has last decent year, while Mike Davis breaks out in 1985, batting .287 with 24 HR & 82 RBI for year 1 of a good three-year run.
• Future Star Jose Canseco makes MLB debut.
• Rollie Fingers enters last season of his HOF career.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

• Strong infield bats in Ryne Sandberg, Mike Schmidt, Julio Franco & Keith Moreland.
• Other supporting veteran bats include: Bob Dernier, Ozzie Virgil & Lonnie Smith.
• Reliever Mark Davis is just emerging.

PITTSBURGH PIRATES

• Pretty good all-around team in all areas.
• Lineup features Dave Parker, Tony Armas, Willie Randolph, Tony Pena & Al Oliver (final year).
• John Candelaria, Jose DeLeon, Ed Whitson, Pascual Perez & Bruce Kison rounds out the rotation. 
• Pretty good pen in Kent Tekulve, Gene Garber, Rod Scurry, Don Robinson & Al Holland.

SAN DIEGO PADRES

• Excellent top 4 to the lineup in Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn, Kevin McReynolds & Dave Winfield -- with 3 of them going to the Hall of Fame.
• Durable & decent rotation in Dave Dravecky, Dennis Rasmussen, Eric Show, Mark Thurmond & Andy Hawkins.
• Gary Lucas & Bob Shirley are strong bullpen arms, but the rest of the pen is a wash.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS

• Chili Davis and Jack Clark are the meat of the lineup. Davis has many big years ahead, while Clark's huge 1987 season (.286, 35 HR, 106 RBI & 1.055 OPS) is approaching.
• One good year left in George Frazier (21 HR & .792 OPS), while Dan Gladden is just getting started.
• Bob Knepper and Dave LaPoint are the only decent starting pitchers for San Fran.
• Bullpen stars the trio of Scott Garrelts, Greg Minton & Gary Lavelle.

SEATTLE MARINERS

• Youngsters Mark Langston and Mike Moore head a rotation that features veterans Rick Honeycutt, Bud Black & Shane Rawley.
• Rising stars Danny Tartabull and Jim Presley joins Alvin Davis, 85' breakout Phil Bradley, Dave Henderson & Ruppert Jones in the lineup.

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

• Solid rotation headed by Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, which features 1983 N.L. Cy Young Award winner John Denny, Danny Cox, Bob Forsch & Jerry Reuss. 
• Lineup is full of talent in Willie McGee, Keith Hernandez, Andy Van Slyke, Tom Herr, Terry Pendleton, Jose Cruz, Terry Kennedy and Garry Templeton.
• The pen is not good, with rookie Todd Worrell emerging onto scene.

TEXAS RANGERS

• Pete O'Brien and Oddibe McDowell were stars.
• Bill Madlock, Roy Smalley & Jeff Burroughs are at the twilight of their careers.
• Tom Henke is the Rangers' closer.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS

• The lineup features Blue Jays originals that were staples in the Jays' 1980's lineups -- starring Jesse Barfield, George Bell, Lloyd Moseby, Tony Fernandez, Willie Upshaw & Ernie Whitt.
• Dave Stieb and Jim Clancy are 1-2 in the rotation, while Jim Acker will get a shot as the closer.

Bruce Almighty, Disco Dan & Alexander the Great

The Unusual Suspects: Bruce Bochte, Gary Alexander & Dan Ford.

Not to sound like a broken record player, for those that may not know, my brother Chris and I, are replaying the 1978 MLB Season through APBA Baseball. Chris is using the Master Board Game to replay the Senior Circuit, while I am playing the Junior side of things, using the Basic Board Game with Optional Fielding.

I just finished April 26th on the American League Schedule, and it's been nothing short of exciting.

Three hitters have stood out for the most part in the American League so far, and those three are not your usual big names such as a Jim Rice, Reggie Jackson or Don Baylor at the time. Those three players are Seattle's Bruce Bochte, Oakland's Gary Alexander & Minnesota's Dan Ford.

On the morning of the April 16th Sunday paper, Seattle's Bochte ranked at the top of nearly every offensive category in the American League. Bochte was 4th in batting average (.422), while leading the league in hits (19), runs batted in (16), doubles (5) -- which contributed to a 1.171 OPS [On Base + Slugging]. Bochte is still batting .333 with 20 RBI for the season, but has had no home runs in the last 10 days, while he is batting only .238 (10-for-42) during that span. 

Seattle has been doing much better than their real-life 1978 counterparts at his point, posting a 10-12 record, although it didn't start out all too well, with a 3-9 start... but have since won 7 of 10, while the team owns a 4-2 record against the California Angels. The same Angels that started the season undefeated at 7-0.

The Twinkies' Ford continues to hit above .300 with a a batting average of .345, while knocking in 19 runs, with a .822 OPS. Ford has slowed down slightly, batting .289 (11-for-38), since his .391 batting average on April 16th. Besides Rod Carew (.318 BA) & Dave Goltz (3-0, 1.39 ERA) though, I can't say anything else good about the Minnesota Twins who sit at 9-11, and feel like a much worse team than the record even reflects. Their pitching has been bad (4.80 team ERA).

Last, but certainly not least, is Gary Alexander of the Oakland A's. Alexander has only heated up since April 15th, by hitting .378 (14-for-37) with 7 HR & 16 RBI during the last 11 days. Alexander was batting .318 with 4 HR & 6 RBI entering April 16th. In real life 1978, Alexander started off hot for Oakland as well, earning a spot on the cover of The Sporting News, while he batted .283 with 5 HR & 10 RBI (1.038 OPS) through April 26th. His APBA batting average is certainly up (batting .356) while his HR & RBI doubles are twice as much verses real-life. 

Alexander's 58 total bases equals that of the next two highest total base leaders on the Athletics, combined in Gary Thomasson (32) and Mario Guerrero (26).

I think the truly remarkable thing about Alexander is that he hit 27 HR in 498 at-bats during 1978, between two teams, Oakland and the Cleveland Indians. He is well above that pace at the moment with 11 HR through 15 games (17 Oakland games), while in real-life he finished tied for 8th in HR. With his fast start in the APBA replay, he has a chance to win the HR title while playing for two teams possibly if he someone like Jim Rice under-performs. 

The only other time I was hitting home runs at a crazy clip would be during high school in my brother Jared's 1993 APBA league with Francisco Cabrera hitting 19 HR in 25 games... obviously, we were not sticking to replay rules and were playing a clear J-4 backup with a serious monster card.

Rice has heated up of late, with 3 HR during last 6 games (after none first 11 games), while Andre Thornton for Cleveland just had a 3 HR day that put his season total to 7, trailing Alexander in 2nd place. 

Very likely, Alexander will come back down to Earth, just like Bochte and Ford appear to be doing as of late. A long season has it's peaks and its valleys, it's ups and downs, with teams heating up and cooling off. Players do the same, and very likely Alexander will have his dips as well... but one thing is for sure, no one can ever take away his hot start to this 1978 A.L. Replay.

Batters can't have all the fun, here are three pitchers out-performing their cards as well...

• Dick Pole (SEA / Grade D): 3-1, 2.51 ERA, 17 K & 1.186 WHIP through 5 starts & 28.2 innings of work.

• Mike Torrez (BOS / Grade C-Y): 4-0, 0.97 ERA, 2 SHO, 14 K & 0.892 WHIP through 5 starts & 37 innings.

• Moose Haas (MIL / Grade D-KZ): 1-3, 3.24 ERA, 29 K & 1.160 WHIP through 4 starts & 25 innings. 

The Twenty-Two Inning Affair

I have been playing APBA for a very long time.

I have probably rolled between 20-25 no-hitters (which included one perfect game by Don Sutton), and maybe 7 cycles through about 30 years of playing the game.

I have had teams score 20+ runs in a single game, and I have had a handful of 10+ run innings. I have had pitchers strikeout 20+ in a game. David Cone comes to mind with my brother Jared's 1993 season, in which Cone struck out 23 through 11 innings of work.

Maybe two, three triple plays ever...

I recently rolled three consecutive games all ending in walk-off home runs in the UAL mail-in league that I am in, while I have had a team get 30 hits in a single-game. 

... but I am pretty confident that I have never rolled a game that went to 20+ innings until now. I believe I remember getting to the 19th, thinking this could go 20 innings, and then it ended with a game-winner in the 19th.

My brother Chris and I, are replaying the 1978 MLB Season. I am rolling the American League games, while he is playing the National League games. You can follow on the Delphi Forums through "Brothers In Dice".

This game was between the 8-5 Detroit Tigers and the 5-8 Chicago White Sox, on April 25th (which the real-life game also went to extras, but only half the distance of mine in 11 frames).

Here is my Delphi Forum write-up...

Game Recap: Good thing that this game started out as a day game, because this game rolled on deep into the evening.... The Detroit Tigers prevail in a 22-inning marathon that featured 15 different pitchers in this one. The White Sox never led at any point in this one, while both teams went scoreless for 12 straight innings (from the 9th through the 20th). The Tigers scored first in the 3rd inning, on a double steal, with Ron LeFlore stealing home (while Rusty Staub stole second).. A few at-bats later Steve Kemp hit an RBI double (scoring in Jason Thompson), but an aggressive Staub was thrown out (by LF Ralph Garr) trying for home. The White Sox scored on a RBI single by Eric Soderholm during the bottom of the 3rd, while Jorge Orta tied the game in the 4th on a sac fly. Top of the 6th, Ron LeFlore hits a two-run double off of Chicago starter Francisco Barrios, to give Detroit a 4-2 cushion, but the White Sox answered back with a run in the 6th, and Orta once again, tying the game, this time with a RBI double in the 8th (Tied 4-4).

As mentioned above, the next run would not come until the top of the 21st, The Tigers would have a runner in scoring position in Steve Kemp (reached on single), thanks to wild pitch (Rich Hinton), and fielding error by shortstop Greg Pryor, which all set up a go-ahead RBI single by Tim Corcoran, but a fielding error by the Tigers' shortstop Alan Trammell would put the White Sox in position to tie the game, 5-5, in the bottom of the 21st. Trammell's booted grounder, allowed Pryor to lead off the inning by reaching base, and after moving up to second on a 5-3 ground-out by Garr, Jorge Orta for the third time would tie the game up on a RBI single.

But it would be Orta's error (on a ball hit by Lou Whitaker) in the 22nd that would set the Tigers up for success. Rich Hinton loaded the bases with a walk to Jason Thompson, and then would walk (Kemp) which forced in the go-ahead run (Whitaker) to give the Tigers a 6-5 lead. Third Baseman Phil Mankowski's two-run single, would give the Tigers a three-run lead entering the bottom of the 22nd, in which the Tigers' Steve Baker would hold on for the win. Baker had to pitch 5 innings of relief, in which he allowed 1 unearned run, 2 hits & no walks, while striking out 5 Chicago batters. Orta in a losing effort collects 4 hits, 3 RBI, SF & BB in 8 at-bats. Mankowski had 4 hits in 11 at-bats for the Tigers.

HR: None

2B: Kemp (DET) 1 (1), Staub (DET) 1 (4), LeFlore (DET) 1 (4), Garr (CWS) 1 (1), Orta (CWS) 1 (4)

SB: LeFlore (DET) 1 (9), Staub (DET) 1 (1), Bonds (CWS) 1 (6), Lemon (CWS) 1 (1), Molinaro (CWS) 1 (1)

SF: Orta (CWS) 1 (1)

E: M.May (DET) 1, Trammell (DET) 1, Garr (CWS) 1, Orta (CWS) 1, Pryor (CWS)

WP: Proly (CWS) 1 (2), Hinton (CWS) 1 (1)

Stat Cruncher: Even more extraordinary than no home runs being hit in 22-inning affair, is the fact that no one hit into a double play all game, despite the fact that there was 35 total hits, 15 walks & 5 players reaching on errors.