Welcome to the long awaited BSA Division round of the 2016 playoffs! The Jersey Shore D-Bags will take on the Vista Panthers in the first round. Since Vista was the division winner, games 1-2 and 6-7 will be played in Vista, while 3-4-5 will be played in Jersey.
We breakdown the first 2 games of the series played in Vista here:
Game 1
Former Cy Young winner Cipriano Montanez would take the hill for Vista, making him the first Vista starter to start a playoff game for the team. He would throw a ball to Peter Larson to start the game in front of a packed house of just over 40,000 fans. He would get Larson to pop out, rookie SS Lawrence Schroeder to ground out before coming to the teeth of the Jersey lineup. Mr. Triple Crown Mikey Bryant would run the count to 2-0 before roping a line drive the other way into the corner for a 2 out double and the game's first hit. On the first pitch to Matt Doyle he would hit a hard grounder through the hole between 3rd and SS, Bryant with a great jump would score the game's first run without a throw. Montanez would get rookie Dave Dodd swinging to the end Jersey's first.
Starting for Jersey Shore was their veteran ace Art Ellis. We learned early on that his control might be a little off today. He walked the leadoff man Brian Cash, gave up a single to John Doby and walked Matt House to load the bases with only one out. A very fortunate come-backer off the bat of Armando Macias would result in a force out at the plate for the 2nd out. Cesar Torres would step to the plate and see the 2nd pitch in the at bat in the dirt and to the screen, a passed ball, which would bring home Doby to the tie the game. Torres would strikeout in the at bat 4 pitches later to end the inning.
The 2nd innings treated both pitchers well with both getting 3 up and 3 down. The 3rd inning the Bags would get to Montanez again. A walk to Larson followed by singles by Schroeder, Bryant and Doyle resulted in 2 runs, giving the D-Bags a 3-1 lead. A single to Doby is all Vista could manage in their half of the 3rd, ending the inning trailing 3-1. A base runner apiece for each team in the 4th is all the action we would see, keeping the score the same.
Mistakes abound would kill Vista in the 5th inning. Schroeder would strike out to start the inning before Bryant would pull a scorching ground ball down the first base line for his 2nd double of the game. An intentional walk to Doyle would set up the double play ball seemed to be a good strategy until the 3rd pitch to Dodd would be a wild pitch to move the runners up. This forced Montanez to intentionally walk Dodd to load the bases. Alberto Perez would step to the plate, and what should have been an inning ending double play ate up SS Riley Cassidy, which subsequently would allow 2 runs to score and the inning to keep going, also this would chase Montanez from the game. Guillermo Martinez would relieve Montanez, give up a sac fly to catcher Duran, to bring home Jersey's 6th run, before getting rookie Fransisco Torres to ground out to end the inning and a big Jersey lead 6-1.
This would be all Jersey would need today. Vista would load the bases in the 6th against Ellis but only muster one run, and that was forced in by a walk from Matt House. This would chase Ellis who ended up pitching 5 2/3 innings, giving up 2 ER on 3 hits but walked 7. Jersey would get the run back and another in the 7th with a single from Duran that would bring home Doyle and Dodd and make the score 8-2. The only other base runner for the rest of the game would come in Vista's 9th when 1B Manny Dominguez would walk, before Hyo-chin Kim retired 3 batters in a row to end the game. Dominguez was the only batter Kim would let reach in 3 1/3 inning, which resulted in a save for him in his first postseason pitching.
Final Score: Jersey 8 Vista 2
POTG: Matt Doyle 3-4, 2B, BB, 2R, 2RBI
Game 2
Game 2 would offer an interesting pitching matchup. Vista would send Michael Hoffmeyer to the mound, who was 0-2 against Jersey this season with the combination of Mikey Bryant and Matt Doyle doing most of the damage in those 2 games. For Jersey they would send 21 year old phenom Jose Ramos, who shutout Vista in 7.1 IP in his only start against the Panthers this season.
Hoffmeyer and Ramos would dance around base runners in the first inning before both escaped trouble. The 2nd inning both pitchers would get 3 up, 3 down getting a pair of groundouts apiece to send us to the 3rd still knotted at 0. Besides a 6 pitch watch to Peter Larson, Hoffmeyer was all business in the 3rd, throwing 8 pitches to achieve 3 outs outside of the Larson AB.
In Vista's half of the 3rd we would finally get some action. After Manny Dominguez would strike out swinging, Riley Cassidy would come to the plate trying to redeem himself for his very costly error in Game 1. On the 2nd pitch of the AB, Cassidy would surprise everyone and drag a bunt down the line and beat it out by half a step. On a 1-1 count to Brian Cash, Cassidy would steal 2nd base, giving Vista a rare runner in scoring position. Ramos would get Cash to fly out for the 2nd out, but wasn't out of trouble yet. Roberto Bojorquez would slice a line drive down the RF line that would land fair by a foot scoring Cassidy from 2nd easily and giving Vista the early 1-0 lead. A John Doby walk would extend the inning before Matt House grounded out to Mikey Bryant to end the inning.
The Bags would show some life in the 4th, well Bryant would show some life. He started the inning with a single, his 2nd hit of the game and stole 2nd with Dodd at the plate after Doyle flew out to RF. Dodd would fly out for the 2nd out before disaster almost struck Vista and Mr. Cassidy. Alberto Perez would again ground to Cassidy which should have ended the inning but a bobble and a throw off target would allow him to reach and send Bryant to 3rd base. Duran would come to plate looking to tie this game up at 1. After running the count to 2-0, he took a big cut at a fastball which would result in a grounder to 1st, which would end the inning.
After the middle of the 4th, both pitchers would settle into a groove and besides a wayward single we would head into the bottom of the 6th inning with Vista still leading 1-0. Doby would lead off Vista's half of the 6th with a single before House and Macias hit lazy fly balls into the OF for easy outs. But again Vista would strike with two outs. Cesar Torres, the speedy OF, who had 46 2B on the year, would do what he does best and line a ball to the gap in left-center. CF Torres would have no chance to make a play on the ball, Doby would score with no throw and Vista goes up 2-0, but it wouldn't last long.
Dave Dodd would lead off the 7th for the Bags and take Hoffmeyer's 3rd pitch of the AB and deposit it 425 feet later into the RF bleachers. It would mark the first HR for either team in the series and erase the insurance run Vista just pushed across the plate. Hoffmeyer would struggle through the rest of the inning, getting 2 outs, but loading the bases in the process. The threat would be ended when he would get SS Schroeder to fly out to CF avoiding all danger and leaving the Bags with 3 runners left on to think about.
The bottom of the 7th and top of the 8th were very similiar for both starters seeing 3 batters apiece with Hoffmeyer getting Bryant, Doyle and Dodd to all groundout in order. Ramos's night would be over after pitching 7 very solid innings for Jersey, giving up the 2 ER on 6 hits while striking out 5. Jose "Dog Pound" Gomes would come in, getting a ground out and 2 strike outs to send us to the 9th.
Vista closer Alejandro Lopez would be called upon to end the game for Vista. Lopez saved 20 games on the season between Vista and St. Louis. His night wouldn't start well with a 5 pitch walk to Lopez. One of the more bizarre plays you will see happened when Duran stepped to the plate. On the 3rd pitch of the AB, Duran would lay down a bunt that immediately went back to the pitcher Lopez. Lopez would twirl and fire to 2nd to get Perez easy as the force out, but a heads up play by Cassidy to throw to first would end in a bang-bang double play off a bunt attempt. Duran had had't a successful sac bunt attempt in over 2 years and only 3 in his entire career. It was an odd decision. Jersey wasn't done yet as Torres reached after being hit by a pitch and last year's ROY Adam Morrow coaxed and 8-pitch walk to put the tying run in scoring position for leadoff man Peter Larson. But it wasn't meant to be for the Bags as Larson popped up the first pitch on the infield where 2B Cash would end the game with an easy catch.
Final Score: Vista 2 Jersey 1
POTG: Michael Hoffmeyer 8IP, 1ER, 1R, 4H, 4BB, 4K
We now head to Jersey for 3 games, tied 1 game apiece.
GO D-BAGS
No comments:
Post a Comment