'21 Tigers take 2 of 3 from '98 Mariners

1921 Detroit Tom Davis, 1998 Seattle Jeff Shelton

Detroit 7-6 (14 innings) ,Seattle 7-2, Detroit 3-2

Game one was a wild one as it went deep into the night 14 innings and almost 5 and half hours later a depleted Seattle bullpen gives up a two out triple to Ty Cobb who scores on a single by Lu Blue , Game 2 would be just what Seattle needed as the entire bullpen was used the night before Jamie Moyer goes the distance giving up 2 runs to even the series up at 1-1 Game 3 Would see the "The Georgia Peach hit 2 homers to account for all 3 Detroit runs to win 3-2

Turning point: Pitching to Ty Cobb in the 14th inning with 2 outs lead to the win for Detroit game 1, and pitching to him in game 3 .

MVP: Ty Cobb game winning hits in 2 of the 3 games

--submitted by Jeff Shelton--

'91 Halos take 2 of 3 from '53 Nats

GAME 1 (Anaheim): '53-WAS (5), '91-CAL (2)
Mark Langston didn't have it. Chuck Stobbs did. Langston looked sluggish from the start and yielded 4 runs (3 earned) over 5 inning of work. Stobbs went 8 and gave up 2 before yielding to Sonny Dixon who notched his 1st save of the season. The Senators scored 2 in the first and 2 in the 3rd and they tacked on an insurance tally in the 8th.

GAME 2 (Anaheim): '91-CAL (2), '53-WAS (0)
Jim Abbott tossed a 4 hitter vs hard luck Bob Porterfield. Washington made 5 errors and each Angel run was unearned. Angel manager Douglas Zaner commented how Porterfield pitched much better than the results indicated. Still Abbott was brillant as he increased his record to 2-1 with a poultry 0.74 ERA

GAME 3 (Griffith): '91-CAL (5), '53-WAS (4) 10 inn
The rubber match was a classic. Both teams coveted the win to inch closer to mediocrity. Chuck Finley started for the Angels and pitched 6 solid innings. Spec Shea started for the Nats and was gone before the 2nd inning ended due to an elbow strain. Connie Marrero relieved Shea and gave up 4 runs in just over 6 innings of work. Despite the poor relief performance by Marrero the Nats showed no quit. With the score 3-2 Washington the Angels tagged Marrero for 2 runs in the top of the 8th to take a 1 run lead. Back to back jacks by Winfield and Gaetti silenced the crowd at Griffith Stadium. Angels closer Brian Harvey looked to close it out in the 9th and was well on his way to doing so after gettng Pete Runnels to ground to short and Eddie Yost to pop to shallow right. Mickey Vernon hit a hard grounder that Donnie Hill booted at second and wound up on second with 2 outs. Jackie Jensen hit a clutch single to righ to tie the game, but he got greedy trying to stretch it into a double. Reliever Sonny Dixon, who pitched out of a jam in the 9th would not be so lucky as Dave Gallagher singled home Winfield for the go ahead run. The Nats, who ran out of comebacks, went down like lambs in the bottom half of the 10th as Harvey regained his dominant form.

Exposed !!!

GAME 1 (Astrodome): 88-MON (7), 74-HOU (2)

Houston's ace, Larry Dierker had a bittersweet day. He fanned 13 Expo batters in 7 innings worth of work, but he gave up 4 runs and was out pitched by Montreal's John Dopson who went the distance and only yielded 2 runs. With the score tied at 2-2 the 7th inning was Dierker's undoing. Andres Galaraga, who had a 4 RBI day, doubled home Mitch Webster and Tom Foley. Two innings later, "El Ghatto" hit a 2 run homer to seal the game.

GAME 2 (Astrodome): 88-MON (5), 74-HOU (2)

The Expos battered around lefty Dave Roberts to the tune of 5 runs in 7 innings of work. El Presidente, Dennis Martinez notched his third win in three tries by going 8 and only giving up 2. Tim Burke pitched a scoreless and uneventful 9th for his second save of the season. Tim "Eli" Wallach and Andres Galarraga both had 3 hit days. The Expos broke it open in the 4th with 3 big runs. Wallach led off with a double down the left field line off of Roberts. Galaraga singled so hard to left, Bob Watson was able to relay the ball back to the infield and hold the runners at the corners. With the count 2-2, Hubie Brooks hit a shot into the left center gap to score Wallach and move Galarraga to third. The next hitter, Tracy Jones, fell into a 1-2 hole but Roberts was not able to punch him out. Jones lined a shot past Astros secondbaseman Tommy Helms to score 2. Catcher Mike Fitzgerald wasn't as lucky as he popped to Lee May at first for the first out of the inning. Shortsop Luis Rivera, who was hitting .107 finally hit a ball hard. Unfortunately for him it was right at SS Roger Metzger, who easily turned two to end Montreal's threat. The following inning Montreal manufactured an insurance run with 2 outs as Rex Hudler singled and stole second as Roberts was napping. The RBI man, Tim Wallach singled him in and just like that Houston was virtually done. Two runs in the 7th made the score seem respectable. In a losing cause Roger Metzger was stellar in the field and at the plate with 3 consecutive hits.

GAME 3 (Olympic Stadium): 88-MON (5), 74-HOU (4)

The closest game of the series saw the Expos jump out to a 4-0 lead. This time the Astros made more than a token effort to get back into the game. The Expos scored 2 in the bottom of the 3rd as Galarraga doubled home Dave Martinez and Tom Foley. The following inning Martinez doubled home Hubie Brooks and Nelson Santovenia to make it 4-0. Have no fear Astro fans, Neal Heaton was on the mound for the Expos. Heaton is not one of the more skilled hurlers on the Expos staff, but he did deserve a shot since Montreal's other starters were fatigued. Heaton didn't allow a run for the first 4 innings, but the pessimistic Quebecois fans seemed poised for disaster. In the top of the 5th it struck as the Astros tagged him for 3 runs all with 2 outs. Doug Rader walked and light hitting Wilbur Howard homered to score 2. The second guessers and Monday Morning Quarterbacks were all questioning Montreal's strategy of pitching to Howard while the Astro pitcher, Don Wilson, was on deck. When Wilson singled crisply up the middle a few pitches later, no one continued to question the Expos strategy. Lead off hitter, Bob Watson, then doubled hard off the wall to scroe the third run and cut the deficit to 1. In the 6th Expo catcher Nelson Santovenia doubled with 2 out and pinch hitter Jeff Huson singled him home to increase the lead to 2. It stayed that way until the top of the 9th when Cesar Cedeno led off with a walk and promptly stole second. Larry Milbourne singled to center. Houston third base coach, Paul Johnson, waved Cedeno home, but he was out in a very close play at the plate. Tim Raines made a strong throw to Mike Fitzgerald who blocked the plate perfectly. While this was occurring Milbourne snuck into second. The "Red Rooster", Doug Rader singled home Milbourne off of Expo closer Tim Burke. With Rader on 1st and down by a run Wilbur Howard, who homered in the 5th, stepped to the plate. With a 1-1 count Rader, who must have misread the sign, attempted to steal second, but was pegged by Fitzgerald by at least 2 strides to end the game. Tim Burke notched the save in an unorthodox manner to seal the series sweep.

Melton homers in all 4 games as CHW splits w/MIN

GAME 1: WOOD VS PASCUAL
SOX HIT 3 HOMERS AND WILBUR WOOD GOT HIS 2ND WIN AS SOX WENT TO 5-0 WITH 6-3 WIN OVER MINNESOTA.

GAME 2: HORLEN VS STIGMAN
BELTIN BILL MELTON HIT HIS 4TH HOMER AND SUSPECT SOX BULLPEN HUNG ON FOR A 4-3 WIN AND PALEHOSE START OFF SEASON A SURPRISING 6-0.TERRY FORSTER 2.2 SCORELESS RELIEF AND BART JOHNSON SAVE. BILL PLEIS THE LOSS

GAME 3: KAAT VS BRADLEY
THE PATHETIC SOX FIELDING REARED ITS UGLY HEAD WITH 4 ERRORS HANDING THE GAME TO THE TWINS FOR THEIR FIRST LOSS. 2 OF ERRORS CAME IN THE TWINS 3 RUN 9TH. MELTON HIS 5TH HOMER ALREADY.

GAME 4: GRANT VS B. JOHNSON
BART JOHNSON AND VINCE ROMO COMBINED FOR 13 WALKS AS MINNESOTA GETS A SPLIT. BILL MELTON ANOTHER HOMER FOR NAUGHT. 6-4 TWINS
Melton homers in all 4 games...--submitted by Dan Holm--

'06 Braves scalp '74 Stros

1974 Hou - Paul Johnson, 2006 Atl - Terry Priest

GAME1: ATL6, HOU4
The 74 Astros met the 06 Braves at Turner Field in an exciting game that may well have been announced by Rod Serling. Houston drew first blood against Atlanta starter John Smoltz in the top of the first when Bob Watson doubled home Lee May. In the bottom of the 2nd Adam LaRoche deposited a Larry Dierker pitch in the rightfield seats for his 2nd homerun of the season and a tie ballgame. In the top of the 3rd the lights went out in the Houston dugout. The power was restored within a few minutes and the game continued for an inning until the rain came in the 4th forcing a 32 minute delay. Each team posted 2-spots in the 5th and the game remained tied at 3 until the bottom of 7th. Atlanta loaded the bases and took the lead on a Jerry Johnson wild pitch. Marcus Giles then lined a single past Lee May to score 2 more runs and give the Bravos a 6-3 lead. The final score was 6-4 with Chad Paronto picking up his first win in relief while Bob Wickman recorded his 3rd save of the year. The turning point came in the bottom of the 7th when the Braves scored 3 times to take a 6-3 lead. Marcus Giles was the game MVP. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and 4 RBIs, including the game winner in the 7th.

GAME 2: ATL 6, HOU 2
Houston's JR Richard faced off against John Thomson from Atlanta in the second game of the series. The Astros led 2-0 after two innings highlighted by Lee May's first long ball of the year. Starting in the 3rd the Braves scored 6 unanswered runs to notch the win with a 6-2 final. Although Richard started the game strong fanning the first 4 batters he faced he was tagged with the loss after tiring in the 6th. Thomson recorded 2 outs in the 6th, good enough to earn his first win. Chipper Jones provided today's turning point with an RBI single in the 3rd to tie the game. Chipper also gets MVP honors for picking up another RBI in the 5th giving the Braves a lead they held for the rest of the game.

GAME 3: Atl 10, Hou 4
The series moved to the pitcher friendly Astrodome for games 3 and 4. Somebody forgot to mention the "pitcher friendly" part to Andruw Jones. He homered in his first 3 at-bats to power the Braves to a 10-4 win. Braves starter Chuck James went 6 innings to improve to 2-0 and Oscar Villareal pitched the final 3 to earn his first save of the season. Don Wilson pitched 7 innings for the Stros but give up 8 runs, all earned, and was saddled with the loss. Joining Andruw in the homerun column was Chipper Jones, Matt Diaz, Doug Rader and Lee May with 2 big flies of his own. In the 8th inning the Braves broke the game open with 4 runs to make the score 10-3. The inning was highlighted by Diaz' 2-run blast. Andruw Jones earned MVP honors with a 4 for 4 performance including 3 HRs, 4 RBIs and 4 runs scored.

GAME 4: Atl 11, Hou 7
Atlanta finished off the sweep of the Astros with a wild, seesaw 11-7 victory. Houston posted 4 runs in the bottom of the 4th to take a 4-1 lead. From there on each team scored runs every half inning until the 8th when the Braves put up 3 to take a 9-7 lead they would hold on to. Chad Paronto earned his second win of the season in relief and Bob Wickman came on with 2 out in the bottom of the 8th and produced his 4th save of the year. Ken Forsch gave up 3 runs in two thirds of an inning and was tagged with the loss. The turning point of the game came once again in the 8th inning when Adam LaRoche punched a grounder past the diving Lee May into rightfield scoring 2 runs and giving the Braves the lead. Marcus Giles was the game MVP going 4 for 6 with 4 runs scored and 3 RBIs including a 2-run homer in the 9th to cap the scoring. --submitted by Terry Priest--

Halo arms cool Mariner bats in pitching dominated series

Jeff Shelton 98 Mariners , Douglas Zaner 91 Angels

Cal 3-0 , Cal 3-0 , Cal 15-7 , Sea 4-0

Angels pitching dominate the series pitching 2 shutout in Seattle , Mark Langston , Abbott both go 7+ with zero runs in games 1 and 2 ,game 3 was a slug fest 15-7 , game 4 Ken Cloude goes 6 + giving up no runs for the Win List the turning point. The big bats of Seattle Griffey -A-Rod was a combined 2-29 in the series the 98 Marines are real lucky to win 1 game out of 4 with there Stars hitting like that. Who would you consider the MVP and why ? Langston, Abbott was the MVP from the time they stepped on the mound the 1st 2 games where over. --submitted by Jeff Shelton--

'88 Expos take 3 of 4 from '53 G-men

GAME 1 (Polo Grounds) - 88-MON (5), 53-NYG (0)
El Presidente', Dennis Martinez, continued his mastery of KOD batter by tossing a complete game 6 hit shutout. Montreal touched Giant starter, Jim Hearn, for 4 runs over 7 innings and added an insurance run off of reliever Marv Grissom to win this one easily. The Giants threatened to score in both the 4th and 5th innings, but Martinez was able to rise to the occasion and get an easy ground out to end each respective inning. As the game went on Martinez got stronger. Andres Galaraga single home a run in the 1st and plated Tim Raines with a sac fly to center in the 6th for 2 RBI's.

GAME 2 (Polo Grounds) - 53-NYG (3), 88-MON (0)
Not to be outdone by his Latino counterpart, Ruben Gomez tossed a 1 hitter as the Giants evened the series at 1 game apiece. Gomez went 6 2/3 innings before surrendering a clean single to Galaraga. That would be Montreal's lone bit of offense for the day. The game was scoreless until the 4th when Hank Thompson walked and Dave Williams singled to put runners at the corners. Alvin Dark hit a long shot to the warning track in right to score Thompson, but Dave Williams was pegged at second by a perfect throw from Hubie Brooks to end the rally. Gomez had to be almost perfect, because he was nursing a 1 run lead until the 7th, when the Giants scored 2 and virtually put the game out of reach, since Gomez was almost unhitable.

GAME 3 (Olympic Stadium) - 88-MON (5), 53-NYG (1)
Pascual Perez looked a bit shaky as the game started when he yielded a leadoff double to Whitey Lockman. Perez got some great fielding from Hubie Brooks in right as well a himself, when he sneared a hard hit combacker off of Don "Mandrake" Mueller's bat. The second inning started out almost the same as the first when Perez yielded a leadoff triple to Hank Thompson, who scored on a sac fly to center off of Alvin Dark's bat. For the Giants, this would be the end of their offense for the day. Manager Tom Davis voiced major concern after the game when he was quoted as saying, "I've never seen a Giant with this poor of an offensive showing ever". The Expos on the other hand seem to be firing on all 8 cylinders. They played a little "small ball" and scored a run in the third, when they combined 3 consecutive singles and some good baserunning. Nelson Santovenia led off with a hit, which was followed up by Mitch Webster and Tom Foley singles. Santovenia scored easily on Foley's hit. With 1 out and 2 on the most unlikely candidate for a DP, Tim "Rock" Raines, stepped to the plate and hit into a room service 6-4-3 to end the inning. Giant starter Larry Jansen really dodged a bullet, but would not be so lucky in the 4th, when Rex Hudler hit a 3 run shot to dead center to make the score 4-1. Montreal added an insurance run in the 6th, when Galaraga led off with a solo shot. Perez cruised to the complete game victory.

GAME 4 (Olympic Stadium) - 88-MON (1), 53-NYG (0)
Floyd Youmans and Sal "The Barber" Maglie hooked up in a classic 1-0 pitcher's duel. Sadly, both hurlers only went 7 and neither was involved in the final decision. With no score in the bottom of the 8th Andres Galaraga worked the count to 3-2 and walked when HOF reliever Hoyt Wilhelm bounced a knuckler in the dirt. The ever patient Hubie Brooks was up next and he too worked out a walk after Galaraga stole second. El Ghatto is a cerebral player who knew that Wilhelm's knuckler would be hard to handle, which would give him a great jump to take second. Compounding his problems, Wilhelm's 3-2 offering to Brooks skipped off the plate and rolled to the backstop. This put runners on the corners with 1 out and Tim Wallach striding to the plate. Wilhelm battled Wallach who got just enough of a 2-2 knuckler to send it to deep left field. Monte Irvin caught it on the run, but was in no position to throw home as Galaraga broke the scoreless deadlock. Irvin was not through on defense as he needed to run even harder to snare a hooking line drive off of shortstop Luis Rivera's bat to end the inning. Jeff Parrett, who came on in the 8th to relieve Youmans, started the 9th and got Alvin Dark to line back out to the box. Joe Hesketh was brought on to face the lefty Mueller, who punched an opposite field single in between Wallach and Rivera. Another lefty Hank Thompson came to the plate with 1 out and a runner on 1st. Hesketh knew that this would be the last batter he would be facing today, since closer Tim Burke was up in the pen and on deck was Bobby "Shot heard round the world" Thompson, a big righty bat. Thompson worked the count to 3-2 and everyone north of the border was on the edge of their seat. Hesketh delivered and Thompson hit a hot smash to Tom Foley at second. Foley tossed the ball to Rivera for the force and Rivera gunned a bullet over to Gallaraga who stretched to get Thompson out by a stride to end it. The Expos took 3 of 4 to increase their record to 7-1, while the Giants left Canada pondering how their potent offense got detained at Customs. At his post game press conference Giants skipper, Tom Davis, said, "Our offense has been troubled all year so far. We're really missing that Mays kid who has been in the Army since last spring. I can't help but wonder why Mays was forced to serve, yet his counterpart in the Bronx (one Mickey Mantle) was allowed a deferment." NY Post sports writing legend Jimmy Cannon had this to say in regards to Davis' comments, "Granted Mays had a great rookie campaign in '51, but let's see him do it for a sustained period of time before we order a bronze bust."