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Playoffs Round 2 (September 28, 2005) |
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Bring On The Main Event! The Arkansas Golden Falcons and Newark Sugar Bears plowed through the second round like a couple of International Federation of Competitive Eating champions at Sizzler's all-you-can-eat buffet. After demolishing the third-seeded Vancouver Iron Fist and fifth-seeded Honolulu Sharks in five games each, Arkansas and Newark will face off for a record fourth straight time. Keep up with the latest news and notes on the Playoff Page.
Welcome Back... Now Go Home!
Vancouver's offensive woes continued
into Game 2. The
fault may have been a pre-game rain shower that cut short their turn in
batting practice, but more likely it was Arkansas starter Curt Schilling
But Vancouver's work wasn't done yet,
as they still badly needed a win in Game 4 to get the series back to even and guarantee a
return trip to the Irondome for Game 6. After throwing three youngsters
against the Golden Falcons in the first three games, the Iron Fist were
finally going with a veteran in Greg Maddux
(12-9, 4.51 ERA, 12.4 R/9), who pitched like the three-time Ben McDonald Award winner of old in
the first round (1 W, 2 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 3 K, 9.0 IP) and was eager to
prove it was no fluke against his archrivals. Meanwhile, the best the
Golden Falcons could do was to send up Brad Penny
(5-9, 6.07 ERA, 15.0 R/9), who was banished to the minors during the
team's stretch run. But if the Iron Fist had any momentum coming in
from their thrilling Game 3 win, it disappeared almost immediately as B.J. Surhoff reached on a two-base throwing error
by Michael Young. Surhoff advanced to third on
a wild pitch, then scored on a Barry Larkin
ground-out, giving the Arks a very cheap 1-0 lead. After a fly out, Barry Bonds Easier said than done, however. The
Iron Fist put a man on with one out in the 2nd and 3rd, but neither
came to anything; a great scoring chance in the 4th, when Victor Martinez led off with a double, followed
by a walk to David Ortiz -- also was met with
disappointment as Moises Alou bounced into the
rally-killing 6-4-3 double-play. Kent's lead-off double in the 5th also
was wasted. But they finally touched up Penny in the 7th. Eric Chavez started it off with a one-out walk,
advanced to second on Kent's single and then scored on a Jacque Jones line drive just inside the first
base bag. Kent would then score on a Finley sac fly, but Overbay lined
out to second to end the scoring at two runs. After Penny pitched a
perfect 8th, Brad Lidge entered in the 9th,
surviving a lead-off walk to Alou by retiring the side on a strikeout,
pop foul, strikeout to preserve Arkansas's 5-2
win and give them a 3 games to 1 lead in the series. Arkansas and Vancouver have met just
twice before
in the second round, in 2001 and 2000; both times, the series went
seven games. For that to happen, though, Vancouver needed to win the
next two games, starting the rematch of Roger
Clemens and Oliver Perez in Game 5. The
Ironfist looked to jump out early after Lyle
Overbay and Michael Young led off the game
with back-to-back singles, but Victor Martinez,
David Ortiz and Moises Alou went down in order, with no one able
to get the ball out of the infield against Clemens. Arkansas also
looked like they'd get a quick jump when B.J.
Surhoff opened the bottom of the 1st with a single, but he too was
tranded when Perez retired Ronnie Belliard, Barry Bonds and Wily Mo Pena
in order, also without a ball leaving the infield. The two teams
continued to mirror each other with an uneventful 2nd, and then each
scored in the 3rd. After the Golden Falcons manufactured
a run in the bottom of the 6th --
Byrnes walked on four pitches, stole second, then scored on Mabry's
single up the middle -- and with Perez now up to 110 pitches, manager Darren Daulton felt he had to turn to his bullpen
to preserve the two-run lead. Though some, with 20/20 hindsight, will
undoubtedly criticize the move, Perez appeared to be running on fumes
and LaTroy Hawkins had been pitching
brilliantly this post-season (6.2 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 5 K). But things
fell apart immediately. Lance Berkman, pinch
hitting for Belliard, doubled deep to right center; that was followed
by a walk to Bonds to bring up Pena. While one of the league's foremost
lefty-killers (.303 BA, .412 OBP, .734 SLG), Pena hadn't done anything
against righties all season (.235/.255/.314) and it seemed like an
obvious spot for David Newhan
(.379/.432/.512 vs RHP). Instead, Brett left Pena out there, and the
23-year-old rookie rewarded his manager's confidence with an RBI single
to right to make the score 5-4. In another move sure to be
second-guessed, Daulton then went to lefty Eddie
Guardado to face the right-handed Beltre. It should be remembered,
though, that Beltre actually is somewhat better against righties
(.304/.345/.548) than against lefties (.316/.339/.445), and that
Everyday Eddie had so far had a very nice post-season (2.2 IP, 0 R, 1
H, 1 BB, 1 K). All that was forgotten very quickly,
however, as
Beltre
Back To The Drawing Board
If
there was to be a pitcher's duel in this series, it was likely to
happen in Game 1,
with Ben McDonald Award
candidates Jason Schmidt
(16-6,
3.02 ERA, 10.2 R/9) and Randy Johnson (19-9,
3.63 ERA, 10.6 R/9) facing off in The Cereal Bowl. It didn't take long,
however, to prove that there would be no duels in this series. The
Sugar Bears struck first, loading the bases in the bottom of the 1st
inning on a single by Bill Mueller and walks
to Jim Thome and Manny
Ramirez. Bobby Abreu
then plated two runs with a double that one-hopped the wall in right. Carlos Guillen picked up a third run on an RBI
ground-out,
followed by a Hideki Matsui single to score a
fourth run. Already trailing 4-0, the Sharks started chipping away in
the 2nd, with a Kevin Mench two-out double to
score Corey Koskie. Newark's J.T. Snow knocked in two more runs over the next
two innings, with an RBI double in the 2nd and a bases loaded walk in
the 3rd, to make it a 6-1 Sugar Bear lead and knock Schmidt out of the
game.  Marquis
Grissom followed that up with a three-run home run, tying the game
at 6. That was enough for Newark manager Don
Mattingly, who yanked the Big Unit in favor of rookie reliever Orber Moreno, but he too failed to get the third
out of the inning, give up a single and back-to-back walks to reload
the bases. Mattingly then called on veteran Keith
Foulke, who finally ended the inning by getting Womack to fly out
to left. Foulke stayed in for the 6th and 7th, despite giving up
lead-off home runs to Sean Casey and Grissom
to start each inning. Meanwhile, the Sugar Bear offense got to work,
tying the game at 8 in a wild 7th inning -- back-to-back one-out
singles, followed by a wild pitch, a Matsui single to score two runs,
another wild pitch, and then a walk. Honolulu manager Gary Carter finally came out to collect a
shell-shocked Kevin Gryboski -- the fourth
Shark pitcher of the day -- and, with just two relievers left in the
'pen, sent in starting pitcher Mark Mulder to
try to preserve the tie. Mulder also threw a wild pitch -- the third in
the inning -- but then Snow grounded out to finally end the 7th. Mike Gonzalez came in to
start the 8th for Newark but, after a single and a hit-by-pitch,
Mattingly again employed the quick hook and called on Akinori Otsuka. The 33-year-old rookie gave up
the go-ahead run on a pinch-hit single by Jason
Giambi, but escaped further damage by getting Liberthal to bounce
into a double play. With the lefty Mulder still on the mound for the
Sharks, Mattingly went into full platoon mode, and the lefty-killers
delivered: Marcus Giles walked, Junior Spivey singled and Frank
Menechino tripled, scoring three runs to
make it a 11-9 Sugar Bear lead. Carter was forced to go to his closer, Danny Kolb, to try to stop the bleeding, but
the hits just kept coming. Matsui singled -- his fifth hit of the game,
tying a DMBL playoff record -- followed by a Gregg
Zaun walk, and then a Chipper Jones
triple to give the Sugar Bears an NFL-like 14-9 lead. After an
intentional walk to Snow, Kolb got Giles to bounce into the
inning-ending double play. Otsuka then pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to
preserve the five-run lead and give the
Sugar Bears a 14-9 win to start the
series.
Despite the loss, Hawaiian sports
talk radio was buzzing with of confident callers before the start of Game
2. After all, the Sharks started this series just hoping for a
split in Newark, and for the second game they were sending up their
star of the first round -- Roy Oswalt (15-11,
3.91 ERA, 12.7 R/9), who went 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA, 10.8 R/9 against the
Endzone Animals. Meanwhile, the Sugar Bears were countering with
veteran southpaw Wilson Alvarez (14-5, 4.89
ERA, 14.1 R/9), who -- despite his impressive won-lost record -- was
certain to give up his share of baserunners. The Shark fans immediately
saw their dreams come true as spray-hitting Tony
Womack connected for a long home run to deep right to put the
Sharks on the board first, 1-0. The Sugar Bears came back with three
consecutive singles to start the bottom of the 1st, but it looked like
they would fail to capitalize as Manny Ramirez bounced into a double play, third
to catcher to first. After a walk to put runners on the corners with
two outs, Carlos Guillen stroked the Sugar
Bears' fourth single of the inning to finally score Newark's first run,
but that's all they would get. They'd come up with more in the 3rd,
after Oswalt walked Jim Thome to start the
inning, followed by a single by Ramirez and then an RBI double by Bobby Abreu. Guillen would then smack another RBI
single to make the score 3-1 and chase Oswalt from the game. Once
again, Honolulu manager Gary Carter called on Mark Mulder and the lefty was greeted by yet
another single, this time from Hideki Matsui,
for the Sugar Bears' 4th run. Mulder would stop the bleeding there, and
the Sharks came back in the top of the 4th with a singles barrage of
their own: Three straight singles to load the bases with nobody out,
but then -- after Kevin Mench lined out -- Shawn Green came through with a double to knock
in two runs and cut the lead to 1. Johnny Damon
followed with an RBI single to tie the game, but Abreu gunned down
Green at the plate. But Alvarez couldn't bail himself
out, hitting Womack to keep the inning alive, and Don
Mattingly decided he too would go early to the bullpen. The split meant the Sharks had
stolen home-field advantage and could win the series if they could
"hold serve" in The Shark Tank. The Fish would send Kenny
Rogers (13-9, 4.81 ERA, 13.7 R/9) to the mound for Game 3, despite his
struggles in the first round against Philadelphia (5 ER, 10 H, 3 BB in
5.2 IP). Newark would counter with another guy with a great won-loss
record and awful peripheral numbers in Carl Pavano
(13-6, 5.51 ERA, 14.8 R/9). The Sharks jumped all over Pavano from the
start, with two singles followed by a three-run home run by Jeff Bagwell to give Honolulu a first-inning
three-run lead. The Crunch With Punch replied with a solo shot by Jayson Werth, but the Sharks got it back on Johnny Damon's 2nd inning sac fly, then added
another on a Sean Casey home run to lead off
the 3rd. That was it for Pavano, who was yanked after 41 pitches for Orber Moreno, and once again the rookie would do
a fine job, yielding no runs for a third straight appearance.
Meanwhile, the Sugar Bears got to work chipping away at the Sharks' 5-1
lead, coming up with two in the 4th on a two-run shot by Manny Ramirez and one in the 5th on a solo shot
by Frank Menechino. With the Sugar Bears back in control,
Game 4
was looking like a must-win for the Sharks. But the team got a bad
break when Jason Schmidt -- despite having
thrown just 75 pitches in the first game -- woke up with a stiff
shoulder, so Gary Carter had no choice but to
turn to rubber-armed Mark Mulder -- who had
pitched in relief in the first two games -- for an emergency start.
Meanwhile, veteran Randy Johnson would come
back on three days' rest and hope to redeem himself after his
disappointing Game 1 performance. Mulder got himself into trouble
quickly, giving up a bases loaded walk for a cheap 1-0 Newark lead, but
then got out of trouble by getting Jayson Werth
to bounce into a double play. But if the 1st inning was ugly for the
Sharks, the 3rd was downright hideous as the Sugar Bears sent 12 men to
the plate, scoring seven runs on five hits and four walks, including a Manny Ramirez grand slam, a Chipper
Jones two-run home run and a Bobby Abreu
RBI double. Junior Spivey would join the party
with a two-run shot in the 4th to make it put the Sugar Bears into
double digits. Mulder hung in there, taking one for the team (10 ER, 8
H, 7 BB in 4.0 IP) before finally yielding to the bullpen to start the
5th inning. Three Shark relievers combined to hold the Sugar Bears
scoreless the rest of the way, but the Big Unit with a 10-run lead is
never an easy challenge. Johnson would give up just three hits --
including a solo home run to Marquis Grissom
-- and then the bullpen would take over for the final three innings,
cruising to a 10-4 Newark
win and a 3 games to 1 series lead. The series returned to The Cereal
Bowl for Game 5 and Don Mattingly Bah-Bah Brewie
As usual, Barry
Bonds
(.313, .943 OPS, 1 HR, 3 RBI) and Lance Berkman
(2-for-5, 2 R) had solid numbers for the Golden Falcons, but their real
second-round heroes were B.J. Surhoff (.409, 3
R, 1 RBI), Eric Byrnes (.364, 2 2B, 2 R), Wily Mo Pena
(.308, 2 R, 1 RBI) and John Mabry
(.300, 1 HR, 4 RBI)... Vancouver got a great post-season effort from
catcher Victor Martinez (.324, .889 OPS, 4 2B, 2 RBI),
giving the voters yet another reason to make him the Pat Listach Rookie of the Year. And
Steve Finley, despite making
the last out of the Arkansas series, should also be remembered for his
2 HR and 4 RBIs. How Do You Spell Relief? No starting pitcher really excelled
in the second round -- especially not in the Honolulu-Newark series,
which averaged 14.6 runs per game -- but there were plenty of
outstanding relief efforts. And in a series in which every game was
decided by three runs or less, no reliever came up bigger for his team
than Arkansas's Brad Lidge. Newark's offense demolished the
impressive numbers the Shark pitching staff had during the first round
-- their team ERA jumped from 2.80 to 6.44! Only Steve
Kline came away with a decent line (1 W, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 6 K in 6.0
IP vs. Newark); everybody else saw their numbers shoot through the
roof. The hardest hit may have been Jason Schmidt,
who had an 0.69 ERA, 4.8 R/9 after two first-round starts; the Sugar
Bears pounded him for 11 ER, 10 H and 9 BB in two starts, lasting just
2.2 IP. Mark Mulder, who didn't pitch at all
in the first round, was abused for 16 ER, 14 H and 11 BB in 7.1 IP,
including one start and three relief appearances... Vancouver's Bobby Madritsch, who didn't see any action in the
first round, threw the only shutout of the second round (0 R, 9 H, 1
BB, 7 K in 9.0 IP). The flip side of that coin is Billy
Wagner, who pitched brilliantly in the first round (2 SV, 0 R, 0 H,
0 BB, 5 K in 2.0 IP) but wasn't used at all in the second round. Of
course, the Ironfist never got to their closer in the second round --
they won just one game, and Madritsch went the distance in it... Greg Maddux (1-1, 5 ER, 16 H, 1 BB, 7 K in 17.0
IP), Ben Sheets (1-1, 6 ER, 12 H, 5 BB, 21 K
in 13.2 IP) and Eddie Guardado (1 W, 1 ER, 4
H, 1 BB, 4 K in 4.2 IP) had solid numbers over the two rounds. TWIB may have Ozzie Smith, but we have the better Smith! Zane Smith, former pitcher for the San Antonio Slingers and Sacramento Seahawks, now writes this column exclusively for the Diamond Mind Baseball League. Click Here for past articles. |
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The Vancouver Iron Fist
roared back into the playoffs after a two-year hiatus. If the Iron Fist
were to go all the way this post-season, it would have proved the old 
(17-6, 3.77
ERA, 11.3 R/9). A former Iron Fist -- he went 60-28 for the team before
being traded to these same Golden Falcons midway through the '98 season
-- Schilling loved facing his old team, going 7-2 against them over the
last five years, and tonight would be no exception. Schilling would go
seven full innings, and though he ran into trouble with two runners on
in the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th, he wriggled out each time, usually by way
of the strikeout. Meanwhile, Vancouver's Ben Sheets
(9-14, 5.64 ERA, 12.9 R/9) was looking even better, striking out five
batters in the first two innings, and surviving back-to-back singles to
lead off the 3rd courtesy of the double play. But David
Newhan
would finally get to Sheets in the 4th, whacking a two-out triple to
score Adrian Beltre and Lance
Berkman to give the Falcs a 2-0 lead. As it turned out, that's all
the runs Schilling would need tonight. The Falcs added an insurance run
with a two-out single by Berkman in the 8th, and Shingo
Takatsu and Brad Lidge closed it out with
two innings of scoreless relief for a 3-0
Arkansas win
and a 2 games to none lead in the series.
Heading home to the Irondome, the Iron Fist
needed to hold serve and win their two home games, but that's a tall
order with Pedro Martinez (20-7, 3.86 ERA,
12.0 R/9) on the mound for Arkansas in 
made his first noise of the post-season with a
towering home run a dozen rows back in the right field bleachers to
make it a 2-run lead. Lance Berkman followed
it up with a ringing double, but Jeff Kent
bailed out Maddux, retiring David Newhan on a
fantastic diving stop on the outfield grass and an even better throw to
just nip him at first base. The Fisters' combination of hot-and-cold
defense continued in the 2nd, when John Mabry
hit a three-hopper that somehow eluded Lyle Overbay
at first -- it was charitably scored a hit -- and then advanced to
second on a passed ball. After a strikeout, Kent again helped out his
long-time teammate, robbing Adam Kennedy of a
bloop single with a diving catch of a pop fly into shallow right.
Surhoff followed it up with a bullet single to center, but Arkansas
third base coach Tony Fernandez tested Steve Finley's arm again in center field, and
once again Finley proved up to the challenge, gunning down Mabry at the
plate. But Maddux was living dangerously, and it came to bite him again
in the 3rd when Larkin doubled and scored on a Bonds sac fly to make
the score 3-0. The Birds would break through again in the 5th, after a
Surhoff lead-off single followed by a Larkin double to put runners on
2nd and 3rd with none out. Two productive outs -- a ground ball to deep
third, followed by a sac fly to deep center -- plated both runs and
gave Arkansas a 5-0 lead. They'd threaten again in the 8th and 9th, but
come up empty. Still, the damage had been done, and the Iron Fist had
to get to work to erase the five-run deficit.
Eric Chavez started it
off
for Vancouver with a single, then -- after back-to-back strikeouts of
Overbay and Young -- Martinez and Ortiz finally plated a run on
consecutive singles. Alou then grounded out to end the threat with
Vancouver up 1-0. Arkansas answered immediately in the bottom of the
inning, with a lead-off home run by John Mabry,
but that as their only scoring. The top of the 4th started off wrong
for the Ironfist, with two quick outs, but then the roof suddenly caved
in on Clemens: A Jacque Jones double, followed
by back-to-back walks, loaded the bases for Young. It appeared that
Clemens had escaped the jam by getting Young to hit a two-hopper to
second, but it went right through Belliard's legs. Instead of an
inning-ending force out, the Ironfist had taken a 2-1 lead and still
had the bases loaded. Clemens, on tilt, then walked the next two
batters to force in two more runs. After a quick conference with
pitching coach Bret Saberhagen, Clemens threw
the next pitch right down the middle and Alou corked it to deep center,
but Eric Byrnes was able to run it down to
keep the score 4-1. The Falcons came back with a lone run in the bottom
of the 4th when Pena scored on a Jose Molina
single, cutting the deficit to 4-2. But in the top of the 5th, the
Ironfist knocked Clemens out of the game after a two-out solo home run
by Jones, followed by a Chavez single. Arkansas manager George Brett pulled Clemens to go for the
lefty-lefty match-up, Rheal Cormier against
Overbay, and it paid off as Cormier struck him out. But the score was
now 5-2, and the Ironfist needed four more innings to force Game 6.
turned around a 2-0 fast ball, sending it deep
into the
left-field mezzanine for a three-run home run and give the Birds their
first lead of the night, 7-5. Now the Golden Falcons were six outs away
from a third-straight World Series appearance, and Brett was taking no
chances. After Cormier struck out the first two batters to start the
8th, he gave up a double to Overbay, and it was time for Brad Lidge to wrap things up. Lidge got the final
out of the 8th, then struck out Martinez to start the 9th. He got ahead
of Ortiz 0-2, but then two very close pitches went Ortiz's way to make
the count 2-2. The big Dominican then smashed a towering home run deep
to right to make it a one-run game. Lidge then struck out Alou on four
pitches, but again that next out proved elusive as Steve
Finley stroked a clean single to right to bring the go-ahead run to
the plate. Daulton then made yet another move that will be chewed over
all off-season: He sent up a pinch-hitter for Jeff
Kent. Considering that Kent had gone 0-for-4 tonight to drop his
post-season batting average to .212, that in and of itself wasn't too
surprising. The choice of a pinch hitter, though, was rookie Ross Gload -- a lefty-masher during the regular
season who had been a mediocre .271 (.673 OPS) in 85 ABs vs. righties
this season, with 17 Ks, and had yet to appear in a post-season game.
That appeared to be a mismatch against the hard-throwing Lidge, who had
held opposing lefties to a mere .200 (.645 OPS) during the regular
season. But in the end, it was Finley -- who had gunned down a
baserunner in Games 3 and 4 -- who would be gunned down himself to end
the game. On Lidge's first pitch, Finley took off for second and was
easily thown out by Molina, ending the inning, the game and the series
with a 7-6 Arkansas win and a 4 games to 1 series
victory. 
By now
everyone knows the story of the Honolulu Sharks,
who have marched relentlessly toward their first-ever World Series
victory: In 2002, they missed the playoffs by one game; in 2003, they
made the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round; in 2004, they
survived the first round but were knocked out in the second; and this
year, after winning the first round, they were supposed to advance
through the second and next year, if the pattern held, win the World
Series. Just one problem: The Newark
Sugar Bears. Eyeing a league-record fifth straight World Series
appearance, the Crunch With Punch made short work of the upstarts,
undoing four years of methodical planning with simple brute force: 34
walks, 14 home runs and 49 runs in a five-game rout.
Orber Moreno came in and
promptly gave up the go-ahead run with a single to Sean
Casey before finally getting Miguel Tejada
to ground out and end the inning, but now the Sharks were up 5-4. The
see-saw battle continued in the bottom of the 4th, when Thome singled
and then scored on a two-run home run by Abreu to make the score 6-5
Newark. But in the top of the 6th, the Sharks would tie it up again on
another RBI single by Casey; they'd take the lead in the next inning,
on a two-run pinch-hit home run by Jason Giambi.
The Sugar Bears would strike in the bottom of the 7th with a lead-off
home run by Matsui, followed by a walk to Gregg
Zaun and a single by Chipper Jones to put
the tying run on second, the go-ahead run on first and still nobody
out. But Julian Tavarez came out of the 'pen
and got J.T. Snow to bounce into a 4-6-3
double-play, followed by a strikeout of Bill
Mueller to end the threat. In the 8th, the Brick City Bombers would
threaten again, getting two walks to bring up Guillen with one out, but
closer Danny Kolb got him and Matsui to fly
out. Kolb stuck around for the 9th, getting Zaun, Jones and Snow on
just five pitches to end the game in a 8-7 Sharks
win and tie the series at 1 game each.
Meanwhile, Moreno, followed by Keith Foulke and John Smoltz,
kept the score at 5-4 Sharks, only allowing one runner to get as far as
second base over the remainder of the game. Then, in the 8th, the Sugar
Bears struck again, with a solo home run by Marcus
Giles to tie it up. After a walk to Nick
Johnson, Junior Spivey put the Sugar Bears
ahead with a two-run shot off Rogers. Gary Carter
would then yank the Gambler, but the damage had been done: Neither team
woudl score in the 9th, giving the Sugar Bears a
7-5 win for a 2 games to 1 lead.
told his team in no uncertain terms that he did
not want to fly all the way back to Honolulu for a Game 6. "You want a
trip to Hawaii, you go on your own time," Mattingly said. "We're
winning this in five." On the flight back to Newark, the Sugar Bears
also learned that the Golden Falcons had put away the Iron Fist in five
games, so they had no interest in prolonging their own series while the
Falcs got to rest up for the winner. There was one slight problem,
though: The Sharks would be able to start a fully-rested Jason Schmidt, while the Brick City Bombers would
call again on Wilson Alvarez, despite his Game
2 implosion (5 ER, 8 H, 1 BB in 3.2 IP). Honolulu would strike first on
a solo shot by Sean Casey in the 1st, but --
just like in Game 4 -- the Sugar Bears would immediately make it a
laugher by batting around in the bottom of the 1st. When the dust had
settled, Newark had five runs on four hits and four walks, with Manny Ramirez (2-RBI double), Bobby
Abreu (2-RBI single) and Chipper Jones
(bases loaded walk) accounting for the damage. Schmidt was out of the
game after retiring just one batter, so the Sharks were looking at an
all-hands-on-deck relief effort over the next 8.2 innings, and already
trailing 5-1! To their credit, the plucky Fish kept fighting, scoring a
run in the top of the 3rd on an RBI single by Mike
Lieberthal, but the Sugar Bears would not be denied. They scored
twice more in the 3rd, on back-to-back home runs by Jones and J.T. Snow, and four more in the 4th on two-run
shots by Abreu and Gregg Zaun, giving them an
11-2 lead. The Sharks clawed back with three runs in the 5th, on
another RBI single by Lieberthal and a two-run double from Kevin Mench, but Alvarez righted the ship by
getting Johnny Damon to bounce into a
fielder's choice. After a Tony Womack single
to start the 6th, Mattingly turned to Orber Moreno
for his fourth appearance in the five-game series, and once again he
would stymie the Sharks, yielding no runs on two hits. Mike Gonzalez closed it out, giving up just one
hit -- a solo home run to Casey, his second of the game -- but it
wasn't enough as the Sugar Bears held on for an
11-6 win and a 4 games to 1 series victory.
Newark's post-season hero so far is the same guy
who propelled them to their fourth World Series title last season -- Bobby Abreu. The right fielder led all
second-round batters in just about every offensive category, hitting
.500 (1.486 OPS) with 3 doubles and 2 home runs for 9 runs and 10 RBIs
to win the 
The hard throwing closer saved three of his
team's four wins in the second round, giving up just 1 run, 3 hits and
1 walk while striking out 6 of the 13 men he faced to win the