This would be a very low scoring affair. SF got on the board first with a solo shot from unlimited Phillips in the 3rd. Ryu shut down HAR until the 6th inning when Tellez would hit a 2 out single to tie the game. Bullpens kept the game scoreless until the 10th when HAR got to Minor and Romo for 3 runs. SF couldn't answer and HAR took the early series lead. HAR 4-1
Fairbanks vs Bundy
Homeruns by Higashioka and Tellez gave HAR an early 4 run lead in the second. A Grandal 2 run shot in the 5th would cut the HAR lead in half. HAR added 3 insurance runs in the 8th on a rbi hit by Lindor and a 2 run shot by legendary Billy Hamilton. Taylor would hit a solo shot for SF in the 8th but that's as close as they would get. HAR 7-3
Happ vs Lynn
SF would jump out ahead early again on a Cronenworth 1st inning HR. An error by SFs 2e3 cf allowed HAR to answer with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning. HAR would tack on 3 more runs in the 3rd and 1 in the 4th and that would be all the scoring for either teams. HAR 5-1
Gomber vs Kim
Once again SF took the early lead on a Rios 2 run HR. And once again HAR would answer putting up 3 runs of their own with the help of a Story error. HAR added 3 more runs in the 2nd thanks to a Harper HR. Tellez would add 1 run in the 6th with an rbi single. Rios hit his second HR of the day in the 7th to make the score 7 to 3 but that would be all the scoring SF would do. HAR 7-3
Not how I saw this one playing out, again another great team by Rick. I have been screwed SEVERAL times by strat but I can say this might have been the worse I've seen. Anytime I needed something to happen Rick's guys made an error or missed an x chance, it got to the point I was speechless because I wasn't sure what to say as it happened again and again. I can say my bank account is happy this happened to Rick and not myself because I would probably be purchasing a new computer tomorrow after I smashed mine to pieces....as far as I know Rick didn't break anything on his end. And again always a good time playing games face to face with Rick, great guy, even while getting brutally screwed by strat.
Congratulations to Travis on another LCS sweep, matching CMD's rout of Redwood, and sending both his teams to the ARBA World Series. Unfortunately for San Francisco, the unkind dice rolling combined with HAR's seemingly infinite bullpen arms and Travis's masterful management of it, resulted in another shutdown of a strong offensive team. HAR used 11 pitchers in game one, 11 pitchers in game two, 8 pitchers in game three, and 9 pitchers in game four. This allowed HAR to endlessly gain favorable matchups. The big lefty hitters in SF's lineup seemingly never faced right-handed pitchers, as Walsh and Moran faced righties just 3 times, and Tucker faced righties just 5 times. On the flip side, Story face lefties just 4 times and Grandal had just 2 AB's against a lefty.
The result was a team batting average of just .141 with a woeful OBP of .203 and SLUG% of .320. Just pathetic. Kyle Tucker went 0-13 and Colin Moran went 0-9 (with 2 DP's), and neither guy ever reached base in the series. The big bat of Jared Walsh went just 2-12, table-setter Jon Berti also went 2-12, and the much-maligned Story went 3-13 with 2 huge errors. All five key players never scored a run or registered an RBI. That is just unbelievable. Apparently I'll need to make some sacrifice to the Strat Gods to undo their wrathful control of my dice rolling and x-chances. For now, I'll hibernate to escape the humiliation of two sweeps and/or drink heavily to erase the memory. Or, I just need to jettison the offending players from my two rosters to remove the stench of their performance from my future teams, so........they're all available!!!
