Michigan at Traverse City / UAL (Series #1)

Bour piled up on ribbies vs Michigan.

As my readers know I joined a mail-in APBA league that I am very excited about, my team's name is called the Traverse City Fighting Tigers. For the first series, we host the Michigan Jack Hammers.

Game 1

Starting pitchers: Masahiro Tanaka (C-XZ / MICH) / Jimmy Nelson (B-XZ / TC)

Top of the 1st - With two outs, Eric Hosmer singles to right, Giancarlo Stanton with 2 balls, hits a two-run HR in his first at-bat of the season. Jackhammers lead 2-0.

Bottom of the 1st - Back-to-back, two-out RBI singles by Justin Bour and Domingo Santana tie the ballgame at 2-2. There must have been crossed signals, as Bour is thrown out at home for stealing?

Bottom of the 5th - Jose Altuve leads off with a single & then steals second. Marwin Gonzalez strikes out. Buster Posey would smack a single over second to drive in Altuve. Justin Bour singles & moves Posey over to second. Domingo Santana reaches safely on a bunt, bases loaded, one out. Gerardo Parra flies out to left, Posey tags up and scores, two outs. Keon Broxton strikes out.

Traverse City leads after five, 4-2.

Top of the 6th - Michigan's Ender Inciarte leads off with single & steal. Eric Hosmer grounds out to second, Inciarte advances to third. Nelson intentionally walks Giancarlo Stanton & Andrew Benintendi hits into 4-6-3 double play to end the threat.

Bottom of the 7th - One-out single for Buster Posey, Tigers will pinch-run Ronald Torreyes for Posey. Justin Bour draws a 61-14 walk, runners on 1st & 2nd. Domingo Santana strikes out, 2 outs. Gerardo Parra hits it to center, where Ender Inciarte drops the ball, Torreyes scores, but Bour is thrown out trying for third. Bour with two base-running blunders in this ballgame, but the good news for him, that the Fighting Tigers lead 5-2.

Top of the 9th - Ken Giles secures the save, while final out was Giancarlo Stanton (who drew a walk) is caught stealing.

WP- J.Nelson (TC)
LP- Tanaka (MICH)
SV- Giles (TC)


Game 2

Starting pitchers: Matt Moore (D / MICH) / Rich Hill (B-XY / TC)

Bottom of the 1st - The Fighting Tigers' Justin Bour hits a three-run homer to right off of Moore.

Top of the 4th - Javier Baez hits his 2nd double of the game, a one-out double off Hill, Jack Hammers trail 3-1.

Bottom of the 6th - Two-run single by Buster Posey off of reliever Tim Mayza gives Tigers, 5-1 lead.

Bottom of the 7th - The Fighting Tigers start to pile it on with an RBI double by Jose Altuve, while Bour adds two more RBI to a 5 RBI day, with a single off Mayza.

The Traverse City Fighting Tigers win, 8-1 & improve their record to 2-0, while in the two games they have a +10 scoring differential. Justin Bour already has 6 RBI, while Jose Altuve has already logged 5 runs.

WP- R.Hill
LP- M.Moore


Game 3

Starting pitchers: J.C. Ramirez (C / MICH) / Taijuan Walker (B-Y / TC)

Top of the 1st - Lead-off double for Michigan's T.J. Rivera, Ender Inciarte drives him in with an RBI single. Inciarte will later score on an RBI single by Elvis Andrus. Michigan leads, 2-0.

Bottom of the 4th - Solo HR for Buster Posey, T.C. trails 2-1.

Bottom of the 5th - Freddy Galvis leads off with a single to left center. Two batters later, with one out, Jarrod Dyson singles, advancing Galvis to third, while Dyson steals second on the next pitch. Runners on 2nd & 3rd, runners advance one base on a passed ball (Sucre), as the Fighting Tigers tie the game, 2-2. Jose Altuve would give the Tigers the lead with an RBI single.

Top of the 6th - The Tigers up 3-2 have reliever Dan Otero on the mound for the 6th. Giancarlo Stanton singles to right, then advances to second on Andrew Benintendi grounding out for the 1st out. Elvis Andrus would single to left, Stanton rounds third, but is thrown out at home on Yoenis Cespedes' throw to home; Andrus steals second. The Jack Hammers would come up short in the 6th, failing to score.

Bottom of the 7th - The Tigers seem to love coming up after the 7th Inning stretch, scoring 3 runs their previous two games combined in this half-inning... they add to that in a major way in this one. A lead-off double-columns solo HR by Jarrod Dyson (who only hit 5 HR in all of 2017), followed by back-to-back singles by Keon Broxton and Jose Altuve. Marwin Gonzalez hits a two-run double to score in Broxton & Altuve. Domingo Santana would add an RBI double later in the inning, as the Fighting Tigers score 5 runs in the bottom of the seventh, making it a 8-2 game.

Tigers would go on to win, 8-2.

WP- T.Walker (TC)
LP- J.C. Ramirez (MICH)

Game 4

Starting Pitchers: Daniel Norris (D / MICH) vs Jeff Samardzija (C-XZ / TC)

Bottom of the 1st - After two quick 1-2 outs for Michigan's Daniel Morris, he would allow three consecutive singles to load up the bases, while walking Domingo Santana to score in a run. Norris would get out of the inning by getting Keon Broxton to ground out to second.

Bottom of the 2nd - With runners on 1st & 2nd & no outs, Jean Segura collects an RBI single, but that's all the damage the Tigers would inflict, as Norris retires Parra, Altuve & Bour.

Top of the 4th - Giancarlo Stanton hits s solo HR, his 2nd HR of the season.

Bottom of the 5th - Jose Altuve hits a solo HR to give the Fighting Tigers a 3-1 lead.

Bottom of the 8th - Marwin Gonzalez hits a two-run HR off of reliever Edwin Diaz, to give Traverse City a 5-1 lead.

Top of the 9th - With one out, and one runner on (Benintendi), Elvis smacks a two-run homer off of T.C. reliever Bud Norris. Panthers call on their closer, Ken Giles to lock down the last two outs.

Marwin Gonzalez's two-run HR in the 8th proves to be pivotal & excellent insurance runs, if he does not hit it, the game would have been tied with Elvis Andrus' round-tripper.

WP- Samardzija (TC)
LP- D.Norris (MICH)
SV- Giles (TC)


Game 5

Starting pitchers: Buck Farmer (D-Y / MICH) / Yu Darvish (C-X / TC)

Top of the 4th - Giancarlo Stanton hits a solo HR, his 3rd of the season, and this is with Traverse City avoiding him at times (Stanton drew 3 intentional walks in the series).

Buck Farmer came to pitch for the series finale as he would get three grade advancements, improving from a Grade D to Grade A.

Bottom of the 9th - With one half-inning to go, Farmer allows a game-tying lead-off homer run to Domingo Santana & then would retire the next three hitters.

Bottom of the 11th - Farmer would allow a lead-off hit to (one again) Domingo Santana, Santana would steal second... which set up Gerardo Parra to smack a walk-off double, as the Fighting Tigers pull off the 5-game sweep.

WP- B.Shaw
LP- Farmer

Domingo Santana had himself an excellent series for Traverse City.

It would not be a great series for the Jack Hammers as they batted a combined .199, while their pitching posted a 5.57 ERA against the Tigers. Like most lopsided series, one team did horrible while the other was excellent in both hitting & pitching, and that of course was the case for the Tigers who batted .324 while posting a 1.72 ERA.

The Tigers tried their best to quiet Michigan's Giancarlo Stanton, intentionally walking him three times in the series, but he still managed to hit 3 homers. Elvis Andrus was the only other Jack Hammer to show up at the plate for Michigan this series, batting .368 (7 hits) with a HR & 3 RBI, with a .895 OPS.