Mistakes and Poor Offense Plague Jersey; Fall Behind in Series 2-1

On a day that featured 4 errors, 11 pitchers and 11 innings of baseball the Titans of Toronto ended up on top to take a 3-2 win and a 2-1 advantage in this best of 7 Divisional Series.  Though Titans starter Gonzales only pitched 4.2 innings, the Titans bullpen combined throwing 6 arms, giving up only 1 run on 3 hits in 6.1 innings, limiting the powerful Jersey offense to just 2 runs on 5 hits.

Jose Lara, making only his 2nd start since coming off his rehab assignment was sharp pitching 6.2 innings giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.  The last batter he faced reached on an error when 1B John Warner bobbled a throw, a play that should have ended the inning.  Instead reliever Angel Lara would come in and promptly give up a double to German Rivas followed by a single from Luis Gonzalez which would score two runs and give Toronto a late 2-1 lead.

Jersey would come back in top of the 8th and tie the game on back to back doubles by Alberto Perez and Matthieu Vancini, but Bryant would end up stranding Vancini on 3rd with a lazy fly ball to center field two batters later.  Toronto would strand a runner on 2nd in the bottom half and John Warner nor Warren Goyer could knock in Fransisco Ibarra from 2nd base in the Top of the 9th.

Jersey would get a real chance to pull ahead in the 11th when Ignacio Rios would hit Jersey shortstop Lawrence Schroeder with a pitch on a 2-2 count and walk Mike Bryant to put two runners on with none out.  Toronto would get the force out at 2nd on Ibarra' fielder choice putting runners at the corners for David Dodd.  The mistake came when Ibarra lazily was caught leaning off of 1st base on a pick off throw which wasn't even close.  Dodd would eventually strike out which would be Jersey's last chance to take the lead in the game.  

Toronto would start the 11th with a bloop since from Zaragoza followed by a walk from Overbeek to give the Titans life.  Reliever Gerald Johnson would get Ayala to hit a slow chopper where 3B Perez's only play was 1st base giving the Titans 2 runners in scoring position with only 1 out.  Catcher Gonzalez would be intentionally walked to set up the double play for 9th hitter Lucero.  Johnson wouldn't even give him a chance to win the game with a hit by walking him on 4 pitches and forcing in Zaragoza from 3rd for the winning run to end a frustrating and error filled game for the D-Bags and putting them in a 2-1 series hole.

This is not a position the D-Bags wanted to get into, especially with 2 more games in Toronto.  Game 4 both teams will bring back their Game 1 starters on short rest as Jose Ramos looks to even the series with another dominate performance.  Meanwhile Lebel tries to avoid losing to the D-Bags for the 5th time this season while putting team on the brink of their 3rd trip to the League Championship Series for the 3rd time in 4 season.

GO D-BAGS

Ramos Masterful; Jersey Takes 1-0 Series Lead

Jose Ramos showed today why he is one of the favorites to take home the CL Cy Young Award and why he is considered one of the best starters in the BSA.  Ramos sprinkled 4 hits in a complete game, giving up 1 earned run on a 5th inning Kevin Beasley single, walking no one and striking out 7 in a 120 pitch performance.  Only 5 balls left the infield all day, as Ramos induced 15 groundballs, including a double play. 

Ramos was aided by 11 hits by the offense, including back to back to back singles in the 4th to tie the game and 3 singles and an error in the 5th which would put the D-Bags up for good.  For the most part starting pitcher Albert Lebel for Toronto kept Jersey guessing all day, striking out 9 in 6.2 innings.  On the 10 hits that Lebel surrendered  only 1 went for extra bases.  Lebel got in trouble when he gave up multiple hits as he did in all 3 innings that Jersey scored in.  Dave Dodd added a solo HR in the 8th inning for extra measure making the score 5-1 which would be the final.

Ramos brings up his post season record to 2-5 with the win.  He had hard two years against against Austin where he went 1-2 despite only giving up 3 ER and only allowing 12 hits in 19 innings pitched.  This was Lebel's 1st post season loss after going 2-0 in 5 starts in Toronto's World Series run last season.  For the 2019 season this marked the 4th time Jersey has beaten Lebel this season.

Game 2 in Jersey Shore features SP Tim Harmon for Toronto vs. SP Sergio Martinez for Jersey

GO D-BAGS

2019 CLDS Breakdown; Toronto vs Jersey Shore

In what many saw as a wacky year in the BSA the playoff teams that eventually came out probably didn't surprise that many people.  While surprise teams Chicago and Pocatello fell short in September and left contenders Seattle and Austin under the .500 mark, the CL sent Toronto and Greenville back to the playoffs while Jersey Shore and Vista reclaimed their division titles that they both had claimed in 2017.

It took a 1 game tie breaker against division rival Greenville, but Jersey Shore held on for their 2nd division title and and the #1 seed in the CL playoffs.  They had to withstand a 24-4 September record from the 84's but had enough in the tank to win Game 163 on the road, 6-4 and win a date with Toronto. 

This will mark the 3rd time in BSA history that D-Bags and Titans will meet in the postseason.  The first being in the 2015 CLDS where Toronto took a 2-1 lead and Jersey came back and won 3 games in a row to advance and eventually make the World Series.  That Jersey Shore team won 13 games less than the heavily favored Titans who had the best record in the CL and 2nd best record in the BSA behind Hendersonville.  They would also meet a year later, this time as Jersey coming in as the team that had won 11 more games.  Toronto still had home field advantage being division winners and walked away with a convincing 4-1 series win which propelled them to the World Series as well.  This will mark the first time that Jersey will face Toronto as the better seed with home field advantage.  

Jersey won the season series this year by a slim margin of 5-4 which was mostly made up of convincing wins by either side.  There were only 2 of the 9 games decided by 2 runs or less.  It should be noted that Jersey did hand the Toronto ace Albert Lebel 3 of his 9 losses on the season.

Projected Jersey Shore lineup:

vs RHP:

LF Matthieu Vancini
SS Lawrence Schroeder
2B Mike Bryant
CF Fransisco Ibarra
RF Dave Dodd
1B John Warner
C Warren Goyer
3B Fabrice Brodeur
DH Alberto Perez

Bench:
C Albert Lopez
1B Roberto Bojorquez
3B Adam Morrow
LF Fransisco Torres
RF Jose Ortiz

vs LHP

LF Matthieu Vancini
SS Lawrence Schroeder
DH Mike Bryant
CF Fransisco Ibarra
1B John Warner
RF Dave Dodd
C Warner Goyer
2B Fabrice Brodeur
3B Adam Morrow

Bench:
C Albert Perez
1B Roberto Bojorquez
3B Alberto Perez
LF Fransisco Torres
RF Jose Ortiz

Pitching Staff:

Jersey will go with a for sure 1-2-3 of Ramos, Martinez and Jose Lara for the first 3 games of the series and will use either Art Ellis or Greg Schaefer in Game 4 or back to Ramos if necessary. Here is a list of Jersey pitchers with their season stats against the Titans.

SP Jose Ramos - 2-0, 17 IP, 15H, 4ER, 0BB, 11K, 2.12 ERA, 0.88 WHIP
SP Sergio Martinez - N/A
SP Jose Lara - N/A
SP Art Ellis - 0-2, 12.1 IP, 13H, 7ER, 4BB, 7K, 5.11 ERA, 1.38 WHIP
SP Greg Schaefer - 1-0, 6IP. 9H, 2ER, 1BB, 5K, 3.00 ERA, 1.67 WHIP
SP Jerry Burgess - 0-2, 16.2 IP, 22H. 15ER, 17BB, 11K, 8.10 ERA, 2.34 WHIP

MR
LHP Phillip Moran - 5.1IP, 7H, 5ER, 2BB, 6K, 8.44 ERA, 1.69 WHIP
RHP Yin-zhen Zong - 6IP, 9H, 2ER, 3BB, 9K, 3.00 ERA, 2.00 WHIP
LHP Pedro Vega - 2.2IP, 3H, 1ER, 1BB, 1K, 3.38 ERA, 1.50 WHIP

Setup
LHP Gerald Johnson - 1-0, 4.0IP, 7H, 3ER, 1BB. 4K, 6.75 ERA, 2.00 WHIP
RHP Angel Lara - 1-0, 7IP, 9H, 4ER, 2BB, 3K, 5.14 ERA, 1.57 WHIP

Closer
RHP Jose Ruiz - 2 saves, 2.0IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 0K, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP

GO D-BAGS

Bags Finish Off Vista in 5; Head Back to CLCS

After starting the series 1-1 playing the first two games in Vista, Jersey headed back home to The Ballpark at the Shore for their first 3 home games of these 2016 playoffs.  Jersey won game 1 handily with Art Ellis pitching them to an 8-2 win.  Game 2 was a masterpiece turned in by Michael Hoffmeyer who out dueled the rookie Jose Ramos for a slim 2-1 victory, a victory that GM Josh Swain was afraid of.  "We have the bats, they have the arms.  There's no doubt in my mind that we can beat them in a shoot out, its the 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 games that will lose us this series.  We need to stay away from those," is a quote from Swain before the series, thus far he seems to be right.  On to Jersey!

Game 3

Gane 3 would feature a matchup between Tyler "Big Train" Law of Vista and Dan "Simple Man" Macias of Jersey.  Law, who missed more than 2 months with elbow tendonitis during the year, pitched great all season, including a no-hitter against the Reno Cards.  He shut down Jersey in both his starts this season, pitching 14.2 innings of shutout ball.  Macias, the the 36 year old veteran, had his worst season as a pro as his strike out totals fell and ERA rose.  He did have a great September which Jersey is hoping for good signs during this postseason.

Macias, who struggled mightily in the playoffs a year ago, would get things started nicely for Jersey taking the first 3 Vista hitters in order.  The stadium was packed down to standing room only tickets and gave an ovation as he got All-Star John Doby to strike out to end the first.  Tyler Law would take the mound for Vista and whatever concerns Jersey hitters had about him shutting them down all season quickly disappeared.  Two quick walks and a hit by pitched loaded the bases for Matt Doyle with no one out.  Doyle would waste no time and take the 2nd offering to the gap in left-center bringing home 2 runs an sending Bryant to 3rd.  The next batter Dodd would walk on 4 pitches to re-load the bases, still with no one out.  A harmless fly ball would get Romero, but Bryant would tag and score the third Jersey run.  Catcher Warren Goyer would fly out for the 2nd out before Alberto Perez would single on a line drive over shortstop to load the bases for the 3rd time in the inning.  Law's control problems would continue as Tim Duncan would step in and not take the bat off his shoulder for 4 straight pitches forcing in the 4th run from 3rd base and surprisingly ending Law's night.  It resulted in the shortest outing of the season for him.  Carlos Arevalo would relieve Law and strike out leadoff man Sergio Rodriguez on 3 pitches.  But the damage was done.  After 1 inning, Jersey held a 4-0 lead.

Macias apparently came to work.  Even after the long delay of batting around he came out and retired the side in order for the 2nd straight time.  Jersey would waste no time getting more.  SS Lawrence Schroeder led off the inning with a single and 2 batters later Matt Doyle would connect and pull a line drive down the line that barely stayed fair for a 2 run HR.  It chased Arevalo from the game, and the 6 runs would be more than Jersey needed today.

An RBI triple from Schroeder would bring in the 7th run in the 3rd and an RBI single from Perez would bring home the 8th run in the 4th.  Macias would stay out of the trouble until the 5th when Torres connected on a 2 run HR.  Brian Cash would leadoff the 6th with a solo HR to bring the Jersey lead to 8-3 and follow that up with an RBI sac fly in the 7th to shave one more run off.  A triple and wild pitch would bring home Vista's 5th run in the 8th before Macias was done for the night.  Even though he gave up 5 ER he was effective enough to pick up the win.  Jose Gomes and Jaime Saenz would close out the last 5 batters to preserve the 8-5 win for the Bags and give them a 2-1 series lead.

Final Score: Jersey 8  Vista  5
POTG:  Matt Doyle  2-5, 2R, 2B, HR, 4RBI

Game 4

Game 4 would turn out to be the most interesting game of the series.  Vista would bring Cipriano Montanez back on short rest while Jersey would send the embattled Jerry Burgess to the mound.  Burgess was regulated to bullpen duty for much of August and September before coming back and throwing a quality start against Pocatello during the last series of the year.

Things did not start well for Burgess.  A walk, single and walk loaded the bases with no outs, just like Jersey did the day  the before.  Vista would get their 4 runs but they did it on one swing.  Roberto Bojorquez would only need one swing to send a Burgess offering high, deep and gone over the CF wall to put Jersey in a 4-0 hole before an out was recorded in the game.  Burgess would shake it off and retire the next 3 batters before heading to the dugout in a quiet stadium.  Montanez was sharp in the 1st inning, needing only 8 pitches to saw through 3 Jersey hitters to get us to the 2nd inning.  Either Manager Kevin Davis had faith in Burgess or just didn't want to waste his bullpen, but Burgess headed out to the mound for the 2nd inning.  A walk, double play, single and groundout ended the top half, while Jersey would go down in order in the bottom half to end the inning.

Burgess would go back to work in the 3rd giving up a lead off single Bojoquez before getting 2 straight outs.  But a single from Torres and back to back walks would force in Vista's 5th run, but Brian Cash couldn't capitalize and break the game open by grounding out to end the threat.  The Bags would finally show some sign of life in the 3rd getting two free passes to start things off before Luis Antonio Duran came to plate.  Duran would single up the middle which would score one, and advance the runners on the throw to home.  An RBI groundout from Larson would plate the 2nd run, giving the Bags a runner on 2nd with one out.  An Adam Morrow single would put runners at the corners and Mikey Bryant would be the 2nd D-Bag to be hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases.  Montanez probably got the biggest out of the day by getting masher Matt Doyle to weakly hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.  Both teams left the bases loaded.  Jersey shaved part of the lead off, going into the 4th, Vista led 5-2.

Burgess would finally get the hook when he surrendered a 1 out double Doby and was replaced by Greg Schaefer.  Schaefer would get an out before giving up back to back singles where Vista would plate their 6th run.  Torres would strike out with 2 runners on to end the threat.  As usual Jersey batters wouldn't lay down.  The struggling Dave Dodd led off the inning with an exciting triple and came around to score on Perez's single before Montanez retired 3 batters in a row to end the 4th.  Both teams score, 6-3 Vista lead.  The 5th went by without any damage from Vista, but MVP showed up for Jersey.  2 pitches after Schroeder pulled a double down the left field line, Bryant would take a Montanez fastball the other way landing 340 feet away and bringing the Bags to within 1 and the crowd to their feet.  It was Bryant's 1st HR of the series and just his 2nd and 3rd RBI in 4 games.

Both teams would pose threats in the 6th and 7th innings but no one could come up with a clutch hit until the bottom of the 8th.  Vista would bring in Evan Brown to pitch to the left handed hitting rookie Torres, who would get the best of him and single on a line drive to CF.  Brown would be replaced with rookie 1st round pick Edward Cadle who gave up a line drive single to former ROY Adam Morrow to put 2 runners on with no outs.  Arevalo would replace Cadle who had a battle with Peter Larson before getting him to ground into a HUGE unassisted DP from Brian Cash.  Arevalo couldn't get all the way out of trouble though.  Lawrence Schroeder would hit a grounder pasts a diving Cash to score the runner from third and knot up this ballgame at 6 runs apiece. There could have been more trouble when he walked both Bryant and Doyle, but got Dodd to lazily fly out to send to send us to the 9th tied up.

Both teams would go down in order in the 9th sending us to our first extra inning game of the series.  The 10th was no different, 6 up and 6 down.  This was a pivotal game for both teams.  Vista would threaten in their half of the 11th getting a lead-off single from Cash and a successful sac bunt from Cassidy to give Vista a runner in scoring position.  John Doby would be given a free pass and like many other times in this series, the Vista bats wouldn't come through.  Flame thrower Mungo Saenz would get Ashur and House both swinging to a huge ovation from the crowd.  They wanted a Jersey win. With the meat of the order coming up, there would be no better time for the Bags.  Bryant quickly got his 4th hit of the game a double into the left field corner and Doyle was walked to set up the double play.  Goyer would pinch hit for Dodd and fly out to right field to bring up last year's playoff hero and this year's All Star game hero Alberto Perez.  Why not? Perez took a 2-0 pitch and grounded the ball up the middle.  Bryant would score without a throw and and was met at the plate by the team for a mini mosh pit to celebrate the walk off win.  Down 5-0 and to come away winners was a great feeling.  Going up 3-1 in the series with a chance to close it out at home was an even better one.

Final Score  Jersey 7  Vista 6
POTG:  Roberto Bojoquez  2-4, R, HR, 4RBI

Game 5

If you were expecting a close nail-biter this wasn't your game.  Game 1 Art Ellis winner would take the mound against Game 2 winner Michael Hoffmeyer pitching on short rest.  Ellis was nothing short of brilliant on this evening.  Hoffmeyer labored, couldn't avoid the Jersey bats and this one was over before it even began.  Jersey scored in every inning but the 3rd and the 5th highlighted by Home Runs from Bryant and Doyle in the 4th and the 6th, 4 total hits for Bryant and 4 hits from Peter Larson.  Every Jersey regular besides Alberto Perez had a hit and Art Ellis would go 7 scoreless innings giving up 4 singles and 1 walk on his way to 8 strikeouts and his 2nd win of the series.  Hoffmeyer wouldn't get out of the 4th inning and 4 other relievers would pitch and all would give up runs.  In the end the Bags won in laughing fashion 11-0 in front of 35,000 fans and would earn their right to take on the winner of the Toronto-Greenville series, which Toronto holds a 3-2 lead in.

Final Score:  Jersey 11  Vista 0
POTG:  Mike Bryant 4-5, 2R, 2 2B, HR, 3RBI

Summary:

From what we said in the pre-series summary, if Vista is going to win they need to limit the Jersey bats.  They did in 1 game, which resulted in a Vista win.  In the other 4 games Jersey scored 8,8,7 and 11.  The bats were just too much for the Panthers. I also want to give much respect to the bullpen.  They were outstanding, only 3 hits in 15+ innings giving up no runs and striking out 16.  

Series MVP:  Mike Bryant  13-22 (.591) 7R, 5 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI

Other notable performers:

Alberto Perez: 8-21, .381, 5RBI
Matt Doyle:  6-21, 5R, 2HR, 8RBI
Art Ellis: 2-0, 1.42 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 14 K
Entire Bullpen: 15.2 IP, 3H, 0ER, 0R, 3BB, 16K

Jersey Shore vs. Vista; Tied After 2

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

2016 CLDS Jersey Shore vs. Vista; In Depth Breakdown

It took a team record of wins of 101, it took a Triple Crown Winner and a new RBI record and a rookie hurler to win 12 games in 16 starts, but Jersey is back in the playoffs!  The out battled the Chicago Machine who had a great season but fell off in September and finished 5 games back of Jersey.  The Bags will be facing this year's only newcomer to the playoff scene, the Vista Panthers.  Vista will be making their first ever trip to the postseason, and being the winner's of the CL West, they will be the home time, albeit having won 11 less games than Jersey.

This season in 9 head to head match ups, Jersey held the edge 6-3.  Jersey went 4-2 at home, and 2-1 on the road.  6 of those games were before the All Star break, and if you watched the BSA this season you know Vista was a different animal after the break.  Vista's hails from Southern California and plays in a home park opposite of Jersey Shore's.  It is very pitcher friendly and in general it is death to right handed hitters with the left field foul pole sitting 382 feet from home plate featuring a 10 foot wall. 


Let's break down the teams:

Offensively:

 

As you can see Jersey holds a distrinct offensive advantage.  Dominating every category, especially in runs.  Jersey on the season scored 5.92 runs per game, while only 4.28 for Vista.  This of course has to do with how different their home parks are as well as the offensively friendly parks in the CL East compared to the CL West, but also do to how the teams are built, Vista is primarily built on pitching.

Pitching:

Vista holds a distinct advantage in team ERA and starter's ERA.  A main to watch in this series will be how the Vista starters handle Jersey's big bats.  If they can limit damage from the 3-4-5 spots in the order, they will definitely give themselves a chance in this series.  If Vista is to win the series, I foresee them winning low scoring close games.  It will be tough for them to win a slug fest with the Bags.

The Starters vs. Vista:

Art Ellis:  0-1, 0.00 ERA, 8.2 IP, 6HA, 0ER, 1BB, 6K

Jose Ramos: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7.1IP, 6HA, 0ER, 4BB, 4K

Dan Macias: 1-0, 6.00 ERA, 6.0IP, 8HA, 4ER, 1BB, 5K

Rob Goodship: 0-2, 4.09 ERA, 11.0IP, 14HA, 5ER, 5BB, 9K

Jerry Burgess: 2-0, 0.63ERA, 6HA, 1ER, 8BB, 6K

 

Lineups:

Jersey plans to run with the usual lineups, which are as follows:

vs RHP:

1. LF Peter Larson

2. SS Lawrence Schroeder

3. 2B Mike Bryant

4. DH Matt Doyle

5. RF Dave Dodd

6. 1B Alberto Perez

7. C Luis Antonio Duran

8. CF Fransisco Torres

9. 3B Adam Morrow

vs LHP:

1. CF Sergio Rodriguez

2. SS Lawrence Schroeder

3. 2B Mike Bryant

4. 1B Matt Doyle

5. RF Dave Dodd

6. DH Manny Romero

7. C Warren Goyer

8. 3B Alberto Perez

9. LF Tim Duncan

Hitters against probable Vista starters:

vs. Hoffmeyer

Bryant 6/14  2HR      .429

Perez 3/8    .375

Morrow 3/11    .273

Doyle 2/8   1HR     .250

Duran: 2/11   .182

Larson  1/9   .111

Torres 0/4    .000

Schroeder 0/3    .000

Dodd    0/3   .000

vs. Montanez

Torres 2/4   .500

Schroeder 1/3  .333

Bryant  7/23  2HR   304

Larson  7/25  .280

Romero 3/11   .273

Doyle 5/19  1HR   .263

Perez 2/9  .222

Duran 4/19  1HR  .211

Morrow 1/6  .167

Dodd  0/4  .000

vs Law

Schroeder 1/2   .500

Taylor  3/7  1HR  .429

Romero 2/6  .333

Dodd  1/3    .333

Doyle 2/8  1HR  .250

Bryant  2/9  1HR   .222

Duran 1/5   .200

Perez  1/5  .200

Rodriguez 0/7   .000

Larson  0/6   .000

Goyer 0/3   .000

Morrow 0/3     .000

Not many AB for most of the Jersey players against the Big 3 of Vista, but not a whole lot of success for Jersey hitters.  One thing to note is both Bryant and Doyle have homered off of each starter in their career.  Does this mean anything?  Probably not.  But it's baseball, we break stuff down, it's what we do.

There will be more on this series and much more playoff talk as the week progresses!  

GO D-BAGS

      

Jersey Shore Flexes Muscle; Takes Down Toronto in 6

Staring at a 2-0 hole and a long flight back to Jersey reality set in.  After 5 years or playing decent baseball and coming up short so many times this was the playoffs. Where the best of the best come to play.  They had been good enough to enter this prestigious tournament and after 2 games had not played their best baseball, in fact it was far from their best.  A game 3 win was a boost, but it was still far from Jersey baseball. Runs scored in odd ways, not the usual Jersey style of mashing and bashing.  We held a press conference after Game 3 with GM Josh Swain and he laid out what Jersey had to do to win, and with surprise much of that came through.  What came after that was 3 straight wins.  Down 0-2 to winning the series 4-2.  4 game winning streak.  How did they do it? Here's how:

Entering Game 4 you can tell the monkey was off their backs.  There was that Jersey swagger back in the walks of a lot of the players.  It would be a rematch of Game 1 with Dan Macias taking the mound for Jersey and Ricky Bolden for Toronto, both on short rest.  GM Josh Swain told us it's the matchup he wanted.  If Dan could outduel Ricky, Jersey had the advantage.  They liked their changes agianst Jackson at home and liked the potential Ellis/Brito matchup in game 6.  Fireworks started early.  Toronto got 3 runs on 5 hits in the Top of the 1st before Jersey had a chance to bat.  But a sac fly and a passed ball in Jersey's half of the inning put the game back to 3-2.

The 2nd inning starting and things didn't stop.  D-bag killer Jaime "Gunner" Torres lifted off hitting a solo HR down the RF line to get a run back.  But veteran Leon Foster got the run right back for Jersey with a mammoth 452 run shot off of Bolden.  After the HR, a walk to Marvin Taylor, a single by Scott Powers and the eventual death blow came with catcher Luis Antonio Duran hit his 1st HR of the the postseason and 3 run blast that put Jersey up 6-4, a lead that would hold.

Macias would retire 13 of the next 16 batters before eventually being replaced and received a standing ovation from the Jersey crowd.  With Gomes replacing Macias and striking out Cuan and Rivas to end the 7th, Toronto replaced MR Cole with MR Jones, which turned out to be a mistake. A 2B, 1B, BB and HBP left a run in and the bases loaded with Al Ryan at the plate who tore open the game with his first postseason HR and first Glad Slam by a Jersey player in playoff history.  The Bags would add one more in the 8th before cruising to a 12-4 victory to the tie the series at 2 games apiece.

Who knew after the offensive explosion by the D-Bags in Game 4 that Game 5 would bring us the low scoring game of the series.  We would see Shawn Jackson start for Toronto and Rob Goodship take the hill for Jersey in what could have been the last game at the Shore for the season.  40,200+ fans showed up to cheer on their Bags.  Goodship made the first mistake in the 2nd inning when HR king John Crowe led the inning off with a solo HR to get the scoring started.  Jersey tied the score in the bottom of 3 when Sergio Rodriguez and Scott Powers both doubled.  Other than these two early runs, each starter was very good.  It wasn't until the bottom of the 7th when Sergio Rodriguez led off the inning and reached 1st when John Crowe bobbled the throw from SS Pete Harvey.  Shawn Jackson would retire the next 2 batters on a fly out and a sac fly before he was pulled in favor of the lefty Jung-Keun Li to face lefty Jose Ortiz.  Ortiz took a 1-2 pitch from Li and rapped into the corner for an easy stand up double and Rodriguez came around to score the go ahead run.  Goodship would cruise in the 8th and that would be his last inning of work.  In what you have to call the biggest game of his career, he was brilliant.  Throwing 8 IP, giving up 5 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB while striking out 9.  Mungo was called in to save the game and it only took 11 pitches to strike out John Crowe, Luis Gonzalez and German Rivas all swinging.  The crowd was in an uproar, Jersey had won 3 straight, all at home and took a 3-2 lead in the series going back to Toronto.

Game 6.  A rematch of Game 2 with Jerry Burgess facing off against Jose Brito.  Brito won the first match pitching brilliantly while Burgess was knocked around for 7 ER. Would this game be any different and could Toronto force that pivotal Game 7?  Brito was his usual efficient self facing 3 batters over the minimum in the first 4 innings and not letting any runner get past first base.  Burgess on the other hand lived dangerously.  Allowing runners 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the first get erased by a double play ball.  A walk, wild pitch and an error by SS Marvin Taylor allowed German Rivas to reach 3rd base in the 2nd inning before Pete Harvey grounded out to end the threat.  A single in the 3rd was wiped off the board with the 2nd double play of the day and in the 4th a Rivas single, stolen base and a walk to Fujita put 2 runners on before Burgess hunkered down and struck out Gunner Torres looking on a nasty slider that just brushed the outside corner.  Alberto Perez would lead off the 5th and thus far after taking over for Adam Morrow at 3B he was 0-17 in the series.  Something had to give, and it did.  He took a 2nd pitch fastball from Brito and pulled it deep and far and way back in the left-center field bleachers for his first hit of the series to give Jersey a 1-0 lead.  

Burgess would settle down and Jersey would turn their 3rd double play ending Toronto's 5th inning.  Both pitchers breezed through the 6th until some commotion in the 7th inning.  With 2 outs in Jersey's top half of the 7th the usual pinpoint Brito came way inside and hit catcher Luis Antonio Duran on the hand which immediately dropped him to the ground.  He had to be lifted from the game and came away gripping his hand.  We wouldn't find out til later he had fractured the hand.  Brito would get Taylor to ground out to end the inning.  In Toronto's half of the 7th, after a groundout Burgess came inside and hit the Toronto catcher Kyuso Fujita in the back.  Warnings were given to both sides and after 112 pitches, 6.1 IP and 0 ER Burgess was pulled in favor of Jose Gomes.  Gomes got out of the 7th without incident and we headed to the 8th.  A half check swing by Scott Powers combined with his upper echelon speed created a leadoff infield hit that chased Brito from the game.  Jose Murillo was brough in and pinch hitter Al Ryan surprised everyone when he laid down a perfect sac bunt to put the insurance run on 2nd base with 1 out.  Struggling superstar Mike Bryant came through knocking a hard line drive into RF, but Powers was held at 3rd giving the Bags runners at the corners.  Matt Doyle knocked a grounder into the hole that looked like a hit but a diving stop by Zaragoza managed to get Doyle at 1st by a half a step but couldn't prevent Powers from crossing the plate and Bryant advancing to 2nd.  The run gave Jersey a 2-0 cushion.  With 2 outs now veteran Leon Foster and put a ball right down the right field chalk line for a stand-up double easily scoring Bryant and pushing the lead to 3-0.  Murillo would get Manny Romero swinging to end the inning.  

Jose Gomes walked Lugo to lead off the 8th before striking out Cuan to end his night as he was replaced by Lucio Tapia to face John Crowe.  Tapia went 1-1 with Crowe until I can only describe as "the longest HR I have ever seen" on a 97 MPH fastball.  Crowe hitting left handed crushed it to CF and Powers barely turned his head to watch it travel 485 feet and give the Toronto crowd a reason to celebrate as Toronto was back in it and only down 3-2. A single and a walk gave Toronto the go ahead run on 1st base with only 1 out while the crowd was on their feet.  After a mound visit Tapia got the biggest out of his career by striking out All Star Kyuso Fujita before being pulled for closer Daniel Morris to face Gunner Torres.  Morris amidst the avoided danger by getting Torres to ground out on the first pitch on a 2 hopper to Doyle at first base.  Insurance runs at this point would have been nice, but Toronto brough in future HOF'er Martin Griffin to set the side down in order before heading to the bottom of the 9th.  Daniel Morris, the longest tenured D-Bag, would retire the side in order as LuGo would fly out to Leon Foster to end the game and send Jersey to their first ever series win and sending them to the CLCS to face their division rival, the waiting Greenville 84's.

We now will go live to GM Swain's press conference:

::Swain comes out, untucked button-up business shirt, D-Bags cap, and big smile:::

Reporter Vanessa Antuaco, Morgantown Today: "Mr. Swain!  You just won 4 games in a row.  We talked with Toronto GM Jason Goldberg earlier and in his tenure with the Titans this is his first 4 game losing streak, how'd your boys do it??"

Swain: "I told you at the last conference how what we needed to do to win this thing.  We needed some clutch hitting, Game 4 was full of that.  Hell, we scored 12 runs on only 8 hits!  I told you we would need another quality start and in fact we got 2 of them.  Goodship was fantastic in Game 5 and Jerry really bounched back for a great Game 6.  The bullpen stayed strong and we won the close games.  That's what October baseball is about!"

Reporter Dan Miles, NY Times: "Everyone and their dog though (Art) Ellis would be the starter for Game 6. He was brilliant, Burgess had been lit up, what were you thinking there?"  

Swain: "Burgess convo again?  I told you guys the first time through that Burgess had been better in Toronto.  Yes, Game 2 we saw him get lit up.  Art could have gone.  We thought he was close to 70% rested which would have been good enough to throw out there, but with a 3-2 lead, with us having confidence in Jerry, even a loss would have given us Ellis at 100% in Game 7.  I don't want to say I played this one right, but it worked out didn't it?"

Reporter Sally Trumpert, Trenton Free Press: "Duran left tonight's game with an apparent hand injury, can you tell us any more on what happened?"

Swain: "At this time the medical staff hasn't given us an update yet.  They have it on ice and we are waiting for the swelling to go down, but the said it doesn't look good, but we might not know for a day or two.  Losing Luis would hurt.  We already lost our 1-2 hitters against RH starters, losing 1-2-3 would almost be devastating.  But we showed this series that even losing key pieces like Larson and Morrow, we have the talent to overcome."

Beat writer Sam Toddenfield, BSAreport.com: "Speaking of Larson, will he play in the Greenville series?"

Swain: "At this point we feel as he can play towards the end of this week.  He will be added to the roster but will not travel to Greenville for games 1 and 2 but stay at home and rest and we will run some more tests.  If all goes well and there are no setbacks there's a great chance he will play in Game 3 or 4.  Last question guys!"

Beat Writer Melissa Franklin, Jerseysports.com: "You are very familiar with Greenville, what are the keys to beating them and can it be done?"

Swain: "Anything can be done.  Yes, Bosma's 84's have had our number over the past couple of seasons.  This will be a slugfest.  2 loaded offenses.  We will need some starting pitching performances and we will need someone to step up. Toronto held down our superstar bats in this series, don't expect that to happen in the next one.  Thanks everyone for your time, and I would like to congratulate you all on being here to see the D-Bags move on!"

:::Swain gets up to leave and stops:::: "Oh and one more thing.  Let me introduce you all to the 2015 CLDS MVP Al Ryan!"  :::Ryan walks out, waves, shakes a few hands and is presented with a the CLDS trophy:::

Ryan lead the team in batting during the series hitting .385, hitting 1 HR and driving in a team high 5 runs.  The bullpen was stellar and probably was the difference in the low scoring series.  They pitched 12 IP in 6 games, giving up 2 ER, 8 hits, 4 walks while striking out 18.  With Jersey knocking out Toronto and Greenville knocking out Seattle, 2015 will mark the first time in BSA history that the CL East will represent the CL in the World Series.

With Burgess going in Game 6, the probable rotation for Jersey in the CLCS is:

Game 1: Art Ellis

Game 2: Dan Macias

Game 3: Jerry Burgess

Game 4: Rob Goodship

Whatever happens will happen, but the CL East will have a representative in the World Series and here is to rooting for our D-Bags!

GO D-BAGS

 

Bags Stumble But Remain Hopeful

For the first time in Jersey Shore's history they were putting on the uniforms in the month of October.  In the visitor's clubhouse at CNE Stadium in Toronto wasn't home but this was the postseason.  "You could tell there were nerves in the air," SS Marvin Taylor proclaimed, "this is a fun loving bunch and before the game the only one yappin' like usual was Al (Ryan).  For the majority of this team this was their first postseason experience.  Their draw as the wild card was to take on the #1 seed in the CL, 110 win Toronto, which was second only to the mighty Hitmen in all of the BSA.  It is a 7 game series, but the first game was the first punch, who would land it?

  The veteran Ricky Bolden would get the start for TOR who was making his 22nd all time playoff appearance and 7th BSA playoff start. Dan Macias would get the start for Jersey marking his first BSA playoff start. He previously had playoff experience in '09 and '07 before the VBL-BSA take over.  After getting out of a 1st inning jam, disaster struck in the 2nd.  With runners on 1st and 2nd, Toronto SS Jordi Overbeek smashed a line drive between SS and 3B. Using cat like reflexes 3B Adam Morrow dove back into the hole and made a spectacular catch for the first out of the inning.  Sighs of relief came from the Jersey dugout until they noticed Morrow struggling to get up.  Trainers immediately rushed onto the field and helped him up.  Morrow obviously in pain grasping at his left shoulder as he was taken out of the game.  We would learn after the game the diagnosis: separated shoulder: recovery time, one month.  A blow to the offense.  In the last 3 weeks Jersey has lost both Adam Morrow and Peter Larson who ranked 2nd and 4th in the CL in OBP and were the team's lethal 1-2 on base machines in front of the big boys in Bryant and Doyle.  A big loss.  Things didn't get better from there, a 3 run 3rd inning capped off by a Ben Moss 2-run HR would all that Ricky Bolden would need as he cruised through 6 innings giving up 2 runs on 3 hits while striking out 7.  A triple by Maximo Zargoza in the 6th would make the score 4-1 and essentially chase Macias from the game.  Jersey had a chance in the 7th after Ryan reached on an error, Ryan Cole replaced Bolden.  He got a K, gave up a BB and big RBI 2B by Marvin Taylor to put 2 runners in scoring position with the tying run on 2nd base with only 1 out.  He would get Alberto Perez and Jose Ortiz to fly out and the Bags never threatened again, dropping Game 1, 4-2.

Game 2 started differently, a double, wild pitch and a sac fly put the Bags up a run after only producing one out, but that's where the good fortunes would end.  Starter Jerry Burgess would give back 3 runs in the bottom half on a handful of hits and Jose Brito would do the rest.  He was brilliant in his 7 IP, allowing 6 D-Bags hits, the 1 run, 1 BB and 6 K's.  A Ben Moss solo HR in the 4th would make it 4-1 and Toronto added 3 more in the 7th to chase Burgess taking a 7-1 lead.  Toronto's bullpen would work 2 perfect innings to shut the door, giving the home team the 2-0 advantage.

The good news was that the series would head to Jersey.  The bad news was the offense was struggling,badly.  3 runs on 11 hits over 2 games.  The deadly duo of Bryant/Doyle had combined to go 3/15 without an extra base hit or and RBI.  Jersey played a lot better at home all season long, playing almost .700 baseball there.  Art Ellis would be on the mound, he had an ERA of 2.28 at home this season, something had to give, and it did.  Jersey nearly equaled their hit total from the first two games and Art Ellis pitched a gem leading Jersey to their first ever playoff win in front of a crowd of 40,000+.  It was a tight game most of the way through but Ellis refused to let Toronto back in, or even on base if he could.  He gave up 3 hits through 7 innings, 2 being solo HR's by Rivas and Crowe which would be all the offense the Titans would generate.  The Jersey offense took every advantage to score runs. They plated runs on a double play, wild pitch, walk and then finally on Mike Bryant's 2 run HR that put the game away for good.  It was the first HR of the series for Jersey and Bryant's first RBI as well.  Being down in a series 2-1 sure looks better than 2-0.  Jersey is still in this thing.

We now will go live as GM Josh Swain's press conference is just getting under way:

Reporter Sally Trumpert, Trenton Free Press:  "Mr. Swain, please give us thoughts on the loss of Adam Morrow."

Swain: "Losing Adam is big.  After Pete went down we were relying on Adam to be our spark plug, our table setter.  The kid is a hustler, first in-last out type of kids, really sucks to lose him.  That first game, which was tough enough already playing a team like Toronto in front of that raucous crowd and facing that all-star studded lineup, but as they helped Adam off the field it was like a punch in the gut that took the air out of the sails.  We will move on and the combination of Perez-Taylor on the left hand side of the infield will do fine, but we will miss the boy on the field."

Beat writer Sam Toddenfield, BSAreport.com: "You were criticized and 2nd guessed for starting Burgess Game 2 and waiting to use Ellis in Game 3.  We know how it turned out, have anything to add now and would you change anything?"

Swain: "No.  I will stand by that decision.  I know Burgess had struggled in much of September, but he had been good in Toronto.  We wanted Ellis at home.  Look, even if Ellis would have been on the mound for game 2 he would have had to been perfect.  We scored 1 run.  Brito was excellent that day.  We were hoping that either Macias or Burgess could lead us to a win and Ellis could put us up in the series pitching Game 3.  You need offense to win games fellas and I still feel it was the right choice."

Reporter Dan Miles, NY Times: "With the struggles of the offense, will there be changes for Games 4 and 5?"

Swain: "What do you expect me to do?  Yes, we had to make changes to the lineup to compensate for Morrow, but other than that it's all about timely hitting.  Yes, we haven't had that many hits, but when we have had opportunities, we haven't taken advantage.  We need to score those runners from 3rd with less than 2 outs, 1 clutch hit in game 1 and we had a tie game.  Game 3 should have been a blow out, so many runners left in scoring position.  The hits will fall.  We had the bases juiced with 1 out and had Bryant and Doyle coming up and we scored 1 run when Doyle was walked.  How often is that going to happen?  The lineup will be much of the same, but look for Foster to get the start in CF in Game 4. Last question."

Reporter Vanessa Antuaco, Morgantown Today:  "What are the keys for your team for the rest of the series, how do the D-Bags pull this out?" 

Swain: "Like I said before, some clutch hitting, we won't win games scoring 3 or less runs against this team.  The bullpen needs to stay strong, they have been nearly perfect thus far and need to keep that up.  Also we need to get on the board early and keep their starters pitch counts high.  Bolden only lasted 6 innings last time and is coming back on short rest, we need to get into that bullpen which we have had success against.  We need another quality start.  We will be going with Dan in Game 4 and we need a big time Macias start. Evening up the series 2-2 with one more game at home would be huge.  Thank you for your time and questions, hopefully we can have another one of these after the series.....a winning series. ;)"

Thus far the starters have given up all 13 runs in the series.  The bullpen like Swain mentioned has in fact almost been perfect.  In 5.2 IP they have surrendered 2 hits, 1 walk while striking out 7.  Dog Pound Gomes is the only reliever to be in more than 1 game and he has seen all 3.  He came into Game 3 in the 8th to strike out Cuan and Rivas back to back to end the 8th, the only 2 batters he faced.

Game 4:

SP Dan Macias

RF Scott Powers

DH Jose Ortiz

C Luis Antonio Duran

2B Mikey Bryant

1B Matt Doyle

LF Al Ryan

3B Alberto Perez

CF Leon Foster

SS Marvin Taylor

Rob Goodship is more than likely going to be the starter in Game 5.  Jersey was waiting to see how rested Jerry Burgess will be, but based on his first start it might not matter.  Toronto will see one of the lefties in Game 5.  That is all from the Bag Report, we wish the D-Bags luck!

GO D-BAGS

 

CLDS Jersey Shore vs. Toronto; An Early Breakdown

          

We still have less than a week left of the regular season but the CL playoff match ups are set in stone regardless of the this week's outcomes.  Jersey Shore on securing the Wild Card will travel to Toronto for the first 2 games of the opening round series in the CLDS.  Though pitching staffs nor lineups have been set, we can look at the numbers and make some comparisons.

On the season Toronto holds a 5-4 advantage in the 9 games they played this season.  Jersey finished  1-2 at home and 3-3 in Toronto in the games played.  2 games were played in May where TOR went 2-0 and the other 7 played in August where Jersey went 4-3 including taking 3 of 4 in Toronto.  

6 of the 9 games were decided by 2 runs or less and in the other 3 the biggest winning margin was a 6-2 win Jersey had over Toronto.  The teams played some very good, very close baseball. 

On the hitting side of things here's how the 2 teams stack up:

Jersey                                            Toronto

.276                Batting Avg                 .279

.367                    OBP                       .357

.447                    SLG                       .446

874                     Runs                       854

200                      HR                         171

Jersey holds a slight lead in hitting categories, now pitching categories:

Jersey                                            Toronto

4.39               Stater's ERA             3.21

3.56               Bullpen ERA             3.52    

735                     Runs                     556

498                      BB                      423

1325                    K's                      1224

Toronto holds a heavy edge in Starter's ERA and runs allowed while the other categories remain fairly close.

Even key injuries are close as we both have 2 on both sides.  Toronto is missing SP Guillermo Mendoza (who has been lost for nearly the entire season) and more recently CL Jose Gomez.  On the other hand Jersey Shore lost OF Peter Larson (2nd in CL in OBP) and MR Jose Ruiz. 

This should be a fun series which includes a lot of star power on both sides.  A couple of MVP candidates, a couple of Cy Young cadidates, former rookie of the year candidates as well as 2 of the best closers we have seen since the beginning of the BSA.  When the rosters are released we will have a more in depth breakdown.

GO D-BAGS