Nomar Garciaparra launched a 1st inning Grand Slam home run to give Belfast a 4-0 lead which they never gave up.HighDesert did manage to have the winning run at the plate in the 9th but Trever Miller came in to strike out Carlos Guillen to seal the victory.Belfast 5 - HighDesert 3.
W Liriano
L Sowers
S Miller
Home Runs: Garciaparra (1) , Beltran (1)
Game 2 Jason Jennings vs. ChienMing Wang
Belfast explodes for 6 runs in the bottom of the 1st off of Jennings.All 6 runs were scored with 2 outs, the highlight being a 3 run homer by Bonds (special thanks to the Grand Jury for waiting until after the ARBA World Series to indict him).The Buzzards cruise the rest of the way for a 7-2 win.Belfast holds serve as the series heads to HighDesert.
W- Wang
L Jennings
Home Runs: Glaus (1), Bonds (1)
Game 3 Carlos Zambrano vs. Johan Santana
The 1st inning fireworks continue but this time HighDesert lights the fuse.The Diablos score 4 runs on 3 walks, 2 singles, and 2 errorsyeesh.Santana pitches a complete game gem for the win only giving up 1 unearned run.He gave up 5 hits, 3 walks, and struck out 6.
W- Santana
L Zambrano
Home Runs: Beltran (2), Olivo (1)
Game 4 Pedro Martinez vs. Matt Cain
The 1st inning fun continues with Belfast scoring two on solo shots by Sizemore and Giambi.The Buzzards pick up two more in the 2nd with a RBI single by Vizquel and a sac fly from Sizemore to make it 4-0.The Diablos plate a run in the bottom of the 4th on a double by Rollins to make it 4-1.HighDesert ties the game in the 6th on a RBI double by Aaron Hill and a 2-run homer by Carlos Beltran, his 3rd of the series.4-4 after 6.The score stays that way into extra innings.Grady Sizemore leads off the 12th with a walk of of Joe Nathan and promptly steals 2b.Cintron singles up the middle and Sizemore slides into home safely to make it 5-4 Belfast.Cintron advanced to 2nd on the throw.Nomar singles home Cintron.George Sherrill comes in to face Bonds and his first pitch gets smacked over the right center field wall to make it 8-4 Belfast.3 earned runs charged to the Nathan.Kevin Gregg relieves Sherrill and gets Swisher to ground out for the first out of the inning, but gives up a solo jack to Jorge Posada to make it 9-4 Belfast.That ended the scoring.HighDesert goes down meekly to Rafael Betancourt in the bottom of the inning to end the game.The Buzzards leads the series 3 games to 1.
The 1st inning silliness continues as Belfast scores 4 runs highlighted by a 3 run jack by Jorge Posada.Jennings somehow makes it out of the 1st inning this time after only lasting 2/3 of an inning in his game 2 start.The Diablos answer back this time with a grand slam in the bottom of the inning from Richie Sexson.HighDesert scores another run in the 3rd on a RBI single by Quinlan.They score a pair in the 4th on back to back shots from Glaus and Rollins to make it 7-4 Diablos.Belfast responds with a two run homer from Bonds in the top of the 5th, but Kyle Farnsworth gives it right back in the bottom of the 5th yielding a 2 run moon shot to Josh Bard to make it 9-6 Diablos.Mike Gonzalez and Joe Nathan shut out Belfast the rest of the way.The series heads back to Belfast with the Buzzards leadings the Diablos 3 games to 2.
Game 6 Johan Santana vs. Carlos Zambrano part duex
The Diablos jump out to the early lead with 2 runs in the 2nd on RBI singles by Ethier and Hill.Belfast ties it in the 3rd on a 2 run blast by Nomar.With the game tied Belfast turned to Francisco Liriano looking to bring home their first ARBA Championship.The score stays the same until the bottom of the 8th when the wheels fall off for HighDesert.Jeff Cirillo lead off with a lazy fly to LF that Andre Ethier played into a 2 base error.Santana then grooved one to Barry Bonds and the yetto be indicted one doubles off the right field wall scoring Cirillo as the Belfast crowd goes crazy.Thats all for Santana as Joe Nathan takes over.Jason Giambi pinch hit for Nomar and sent Nathans first offering out of the park for a 5-2 Belfast lead.The stadium is rocking.Nathan struck out Swisher for the 1st out of the inning.Posada pinch hit for Redmond and lined a double down the line.Nathan struck out Sizemore for the 2nd out of the inning.Cano pinch hit for Gomez.Nathan intentionally walked Cano to get to Gabe Kapler.Kapler hits the ball to Andre Ethiersecond range check of the inning.This time Ethier plays the ball into a double for Kapler scoring Posada.Papelbon takes over for Nathan and gives up a RBI single to Vizquel before striking out Tommy Murphy for the final out of the inning.SoHighDesert struck out the side but gave up 5 runs.Liriano got the first out of the 9th before tiring.He went 5 strong giving up 3 hits and striking out 5.Dennys Reyes gets the final two on ground outs as the crowd storms the field.
W- Liriano
L Santana
Home Runs: Garciaparra (2), Giambi (2)
World Series MVP:Ill give it to Francisco Liriano who won game 1 as a starter and game 6 as a reliever.
Congratulations to Keith on a fine season and for showing some enormous restraint at a seriously ugly run of luck.Stratya gotta love it!
Keith had bad luck playing Strat? Now that's a change. There is a house in Ft Worth with dice inbedded in the wall from when GDP and FTW use to hook up using dice and cards to play their games. Nothing like Dave Winfield getting a game winning home run on a 1 HR 2-20 2B chance in the League Championship Series.
Congratulations Dave, for bringing your 2nd team from the bottom of the barrel all the way to an ARBA Championship. My condolences to Keith on coming up just short, but I also can't have a lot of sympathy about the rolls not going his way as his luck was responsible for several Laramie disappointments over the years.
I actually told Dave that story and the one with you biting through a pencil during a bad series of rolls in a different game. Nice to know that bitterness still lives deep inside you.
As for the series, the team that I predicted to win did just that. Hdt is a tremendous team but it does not have the specialty cards that help win short series vs an evenly matched opponent. Blf could flip their lineup several times during the game to get good matchups and Hdt went with its stars and they didnt produce. Hdt very much reminds me of those Laramie teams that would easily win 120+ regular season games but get eliminated in the playoffs. It is always a successful season when Aus crashes and burns.
