The Grand Junction Grenadiers come into town to face off against the Traverse City Fighting Tigers. The Tigers are looking to get their groove back after losing their series, 3-2 to the Ephrata Diamond Dogs.
On paper, the Grenadiers do not stack well against the Tigers, the Tigers should definitely win the series, then again anything is possible, that's why we play the game.
Game 1
Starting pitchers: Felix Hernandez (Grade C-Y / G.J.) / Jimmy Nelson (Grade B-XZ / T.C.)
Bottom of the 1st - The Fighting Tigers draw first blood, as Domingo Santana draws a bases-loaded walk to score the game's first run.
Top of the 2nd - Matt Wieters hits a two-run homer off of Jimmy Nelson, to give the Grenadiers a 2-1 lead.
Top of the 3rd - The Grenadiers add to their lead with a two-run homer by Kevin Kiermaier off of Nelson... Grand Junction 4, Traverse City 1.
Bottom of the 4th - Back-to-back RBI singles by Ehire Adrianza and Jean Segura gives Traverse City two runs, trail 4-3.
Bottom of the 6th - Bases loaded & no outs, Jose Altuve smacks a two-run single over third, as the Tigers take a late 5-4 lead. Altuve steals second on next play, putting runners on 2nd & 3rd, but the Tigers could not add any more runs as Grand Junction hunkers down and gets out an inning that could have much worse.
Bottom of the 8th - Traverse City's Marwin Gonzalez adds an insurance RBI with a sac fly, scoring in Segura, to give T.C. a 6-4 lead.
Top of the 9th - Ken Giles collects the save with runner on 2nd & tying run at the plate.
Game 2
Starting pitchers: Sam Gaviglio (Grade C / G.J.) / Taijuan Walker (Grade B-Y / T.C.)
Innings 1-2 - The Grenadiers scrap together a run in each of the first two innings. Traverse City runs with runners on 1st & 3rd & no outs in the bottom of the 2nd, could only muster one run on RBI single by Domingo Santana.
Top of the 3rd - Grand Junction's Ian Happ hits a two-out, two-run home run off of Walker, to give the Grenadiers a 4-1 lead.
Top of the 5th - Matt Davidson scores on a error by center fielder Jarrod Dyson, giving Grand Junction a 5-1 lead.
Bottom of the 5th - Grenadiers' Gaviglio was pitching pretty good up to this point, allowing 4 hits, 1 walk, while he remained relatively unscathed with one run.... then came the bottom of the 5th. Ronald Torreyes leads off with a single, while Jarrod Dyson is plunked by a pitch. Jean Segura would knock in Torreyes on a RBI single, while Dyson advanced to third. Jose Altuve, swinging a hot stick, collects an RBI single... a few batters late, Buster Posey collects an RBI single as well. The score is suddenly: Grand Junction 5, Traverse City 4
Bottom of the 7th - Jose Altuve ties the game with an RBI double, knocking in Segura.
Bottom of the 8th - Two outs, no runners on, Jarrod Dyson collects a single, while Jean Segura breaks up the tie, with an RBI double in the next at-bat. Jose Altuve, strikes again, with his 3rd RBI of the game, giving T.C. a 6-4 lead.
Top of the 9th - Ken Giles collects his 2nd save in as many games this series, while collecting his 5th save at home this season.
For the Grenadiers, it's another blown lead of at least 3-runs or more. Game 1, they led 4-1 after 3 innings, while in this game (Game 2) they had a 5-1 lead entering the bottom of the 5th.
Altuve at this point (12 games in), has 23 hits in 48 at-bats (.479 batting average) with 3 HR, 11 RBI, 13 runs & 7 stolen bases! Altuve of course, has also faced not-so-great pitching in Michigan (the first series), and now Grand Junction in two games.
Game 3
Starting pitchers: Sonny Gray (Grade B-Y / G.J.) / Jonathan Gray (Graded C-XZ)
In a pitching move that was not intentional by me to line up a Gray vs Gray match-up, I selected my rotation this series before knowing anything about my opponent's selection. I had Gray pitching this series, to give Rich Hill a break this series. We pitch with innings limits, and Hill will have plenty of rest days throughout the season.
Jon Gray has only pitched out of the pen up to this point.
Top of the 1st - Ian Happ hits a solo HR off Gray to give Grand Junction, the game's first run.
Top of the 3rd - Ian Happ, quickly becoming a thorn in my ass, hits a two-run bomb to give Grand Junction, a 3-0 lead.
Bottom of the 4th - After a lead off double by Marwin Gonzalez, Buster Posey gets an RBI with a single off of Sonny Gray, but nothing more happens that inning.
Bottom of the 6th - Grenadiers still with a 3-1 lead, start to run into trouble in the 6th. Jose Altuve, hitless in his first two at-bats, leads off with a single & steals second. Marwin Gonzalez knocks in Altuve, with a RBI single. Later, two outs, runner on second, Domingo Santana hits his 3rd HR at home this season, while giving the Fighting Tigers a 4-3 lead after 6 innings.
Bottom of the 7th - Jarrod Dyson hits a one-out single, while he would steal second & later third. With two outs, Jose Altuve records his 12th RBI at home, with an RBI single.
Bottom of the 8th - Solo HR by Gerardo Parra off of reliever Carlos Torres, the added insurance gives Traverse City a 6-3 lead.
Top of the 9th - Ken Giles comes in to go for his 6th save, but runs into trouble by allowing a lead-off single to Ezequiel Carrera. Kolten Wong hits a single, advances Carrera to third, and then steals second. Two on, no outs, Alcides Escobar and Kevin Pillar would both strike out. With runners still on 2nd & 3rd, Kevin Kiermaier rolls a 11-4... three-run homer, blown save, tie game at 6-6. Matt Davidson grounds out
Bottom of the 9th - Jarrod Dyson is plunked by Carlos Torres, two batters later, Jose Altuve comes through yet again, with his first walk-off of the season in the shape of a double!
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| Ian Happ showed a lot of pop for the Grenadiers this series. |
Game 4
Starting pitchers: Clayton Richard (Grade D-Z / G.J.) / Jeff Samardzija (Grade C-XZ / T.C.)
I decided to give some of my players some rest days, since our league plays with games limits for position players. I plan to get in many rest days for my hitters against weak opponents, and felt like a rest day against a weak-team D starter, while leading the series, 3-0 is as good as any.
Jose Altuve, last night's hero, will have an off-day on the bench, he has earned it, with 9 hits in 3 games. I also gave Domingo Santana his first rest-day of the season, while I decided to bench Gerardo Parra the rest of this series, since I am playing him well-above his 2017 MLB pace.
Watching these limits, and when to play players & pitchers will make good strategy for the season, giving us managers some interesting choices to make... It's a good learning experience for me, who has not played in a mail-in league before, or a card league with limits before (last time I played a card league was while I was in high school & the service).
Bottom of the 1st - Buster Posey hits one-out RBI double, while a couple batters later, Yoenis Cespedes will send Posey & himself home on a two-run round tripper. Tigers lead early, 3-0.
Top of the 3rd - Two-run double by Kevin Pillar with no outs, the Grenadiers would get two more baserunners on but were not able to add to their score.
Top of the 4th - Another two-run double by Kevin Pillar. Pillar was quiet this series entering this game, as he only had 1 hit in 13 at-bats, the previous three games. Grand Junction takes lead 4-3.
Top of the 7th - Albert Pujols scores on a Ezequiel Carrera sac fly.
Top of the 8th - Albert Pujols hits a sac fly to score in Alcides Escobar; Escobar collected 4 hits this game, with three runs scored, in the 9th hole.
The Grenadiers were leading 6-3 entering the bottom of the 8th, like clockwork it was time for them to surrender a late lead.
Bottom of the 8th - Looking for some pop, Traverse City pinch-hits Keon Broxton for Jean Segura, Broxton hits a lead-off double off of Jose Alvarez. Ronald Torreyes (playing for Altuve) hits a two-run homer. Buster Posey singles. Grand Junction brings in Jared Hughes, but he allows two-run homer to Justin Bour to give T.C. a 7-6 lead.
Not so fast though, just when you thought Grand Junction choked again, the Tigers bring in Bryan Shaw for the save instead of Giles, just to give Giles some rest.
Top of the 9th - Lead-off single for Ian Happ, followed by Ezequiel Carrera's two-run RBI double. Eric Sogard hits an RBI single. The Tigers briefly look like they may get out of inning with back-to-back strikeouts to Ty Wolters and Alcides Escobar, but then Kevin Pillar is plunked with pitch. The Tigers call on Dan Otero, with runners on 1st & 2nd against Aaron Hicks. Hicks would send it out of the park with a three-run blast, giving the Grenadiers a 11-7 lead.
The Grenadiers keep Jared Hughes on the mound, as he shuts down the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th, with a win.
Game 5
Starting pitchers: Brandon McCarthy (Grade C / G.J.) / Yu Darvish (Grade C-X / T.C.)
The game right off the bat would prove to be lopsided, despite the final score... while you would expect the 4 HR in the game to come from the winning team, while all of the 4 came from the losing team.
Brandon McCarthy would only pitch 1.2 innings, before being taken out of the game for Carlos Torres (McCarthy was also downgraded to a D), another two earned runs would be charged to McCarthy, after Torres gave up a 2-1 double to Ronald Torreyes. McCarthy finished the day giving 7 earned runs (9 runs), while allowing 7 hits and 3 walks.
The Tigers had a 9-1 lead after two innings, but Grand Junction would slow add a run here and there as the game went on. Albert Pujols hit a solo HR in the 1st, with Aaron Hicks (last night's hero) hitting a solo HR in the 3rd.
Top of the 4th - Ian Happ led off with a double, as Ezequiel Carrera would hit a RBI single.
Top of the 8th - Kevin Pillar hits a two-run home run off Austin Pruitt, Grenadiers suddenly trail only 9-5 at this point.
Bottom of the 8th - Two-out RBI double for Freddy Galvis.
Top of the 9th - The Fighting Tigers decide to keep Pruitt in, Ian Happ leads off with solo HR. Pruitt is taken out of the game after giving up single & steal to Carrera. The Tigers' Bud Norris would surrender a RBI single to Alcides Escobar, but would hold on to the 10-7 win.
The game was not as close as the score would indicate, or for at least most of it.
The series showed sloppy pitching on both sides, while Grand Junction surrendered leads of 4-1 (Game 1), 5-1 (Game 2), 3-1 (Game 3) & 6-3 (Game 4)... of course, they overcame the Game 4 slip-up to win the game, which would prevent a series sweep.
The Team ERAs for both clubs were 7.40 (Grand Junction) and 6.20 (Traverse City), while Traverse City batted .299 and Grand Junction batted .242; Grand Junction did most of their damage by out-homering the Tigers, 11-5.
Ian Happ hit 4 HR during the series!
Traverse City's October home stretch watched the Fighting Tigers go, 11-4. We have just got some road stats back, and Tigers did lose 4-1 to the Ephrata Diamond Dogs, we lost 3-2 at home to them, so our season series record against Ephrata is 3-7 so far & to make matters worse they are a division rival. It will be interesting to see how I did on the road against Michigan & Grand Junction, the two easier teams of the bunch.
October Team record at this point (that I know of): 12-8, with 10 unknown game results out there.
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