Another game, another loss - this one's a heartbreaker.

[MarkB]

Oh, man. 3 comebacks, some great timely hitting and selective baserunning - but a loss is a loss.

Went behind in the 2nd inning, tied it 1-1 in the 6th. When Matt DeSalvo got himself into a bit of trouble in the 8th with men on 1st and 2nd base with 1 out, he got a groundball to Eric Duncan who made a nice play to grab the ball, but then threw wildly to second baseman Gabe Lopez which allowed 2 runs to score. (Oddly, none of the runs which did score as a result of the errors were counted as unearned runs - first time that's happened to me.)

Bottom of the 8th, Trenton down by 3-1, bases loaded with 1 out after a leadoff single by Gabe Lopez, then a walk to Shelley and an Eric Duncan single. With the left handed pitcher starting, J.T. Stotts started as DH, but was replaced by Michael Coleman against the right hander. Coleman hits a soft single up the middle to score Gabe and Shelley, and Eric scored on a single to put Trenton ahead by 4-3, their first lead in the game.

Top of the 9th inning, Matt DeSalvo is spent and is replaced by Justin Pope. Pope struggles, allowing 3 hits and 2 runs and is pulled quickly in favour of Matt Smith, who gets the final 2 outs of the inning after being charged with a fake error when the ball was lined off of him and he couldn't run it down in time to get the out.

Bottom of the 9th, Trenton trail again, this time by 5-4. Another comeback, but with Eric Duncan making a baserunning mistake to end the inning with the bases potentially loaded. As he singled to right field to drive in the tying run, he took a wide angle on first base and as the throw came in from right field, it was cut off by the pitcher who tossed to the first baseman and tagged him out. (I really hate that, especially as you can't control it in any way without sending your other runners back to their original bases and getting them tagged out.)

Top of the 10th, and Matt Smith bombed, allowing 3 hits in total, but should have been out of the inning when, with 2 outs, he threw a curveball to get a groundball to slick-fielding second baseman, Gabe Lopez. Lopez bobbled it and it got past him. He attempted to make the play at first base, but was just beaten by the runner and the Fisher Cats took another lead, this time 6-5. It was made 7-5 on a single before Smith finally got out of the inning.

Bottom of the 10th, Trenton trailing by 2 runs. After another series of hits, Trenton had pulled within 1 run again and after Ramiro Pena grounded out for the second out, Rudy Guillen stepped to the plate with 2 outs, men on 3rd and 1st. After working the count to 3-2, he was caught out by a curveball on the outside edge and grounded it rather timidly to the shortstop, who ran into it and threw to first base for the final out of the game.

New Hampshire crawled out of Waterfront Park with a 7-6 victory, knowing that they just escaped.

Man, that's one tough game to lose. I haven't been playing a whole lot of MVP in the last 2 months or so, but in the times that I have played, I don't think I've won a game since early September, which is really getting to me. Solid outing by Matt DeSalvo, a few less K's than normal, but also more good pitches and more groundball outs, as well as weak hacks on his good changeup.

This is where the old game log that High Heat had would have come in very useful.

Overall, a very fun game, plenty of action, but a killer to lose.

Well, maybe next week. :wink:

[tom-nyy-26]

ah thats unlucky

reminded me of a game i played with the yankees

I was away against the twins. i had mussina starting (cant remember who started for the twins). anyway, end of 1 inning its 2-0 me (g.sheffield 2R HR). in the third i scored 2 more runs, then got runners on first and second and posada went yard (so thats 7-0 me, 2 HRs for me so far).

all was going well until about the 5th when mussina got into some trouble, gave up 3 runs (7-3). i let him pitch the sixth but he gave up another run (7-4). i was thinking, no big problem here 1 out in the sixth 1 runner on first. i bring in a.small, he gives up 3 runs over 2 innings (so it was 7-6)

i hit a HR with sheffield again so the score was now 8-6 going into the bottom of the eigth. i bring in rey king (had around a 2.01ERA) so set the lead up for mo'. he struggled, getting 2 outs but gave up a run (8-7) so i brang gordon into the game. he had struggled a bit all year (he was 1-4 with an era near 4.00)...gordon gives up 1 run but gets out of the inning.

so into the ninth i go tied at 8-8...nothing happens in the top of 9th, then in the bottom i left gordon in. he gave up a double, i swapped him for j.colome who got 1 out but then gave up a single which scored a run and i lost 9-8

i was gutted after leading 7-0 but fun none the less