‘76 Big Red Machine too much for ‘95 Braves

8/16-8/17 - Fulton County Stadium
GAME 1 - Braves 7, Reds 4
Greg Maddux hit enough of "the black" to keep the Big Red Machine under 5 runs.  Maddux went 7 and gave up 3 earned runs.  His opposing number, Gary Nolan also gave up 3 earned runs, but his defense completely betrayed him and allowed 3 extra scores as the Braves took the opener by 3.  Both teams had 10 hits.  Marquis Grissom and Ryan Klesko each homered for the Braves.

GAME 2 - Reds 8, Braves 5
Neither Jack Billingham, nor Tommy Glavine were able to post a  so called qulity start in this hit fest.  Billingham however got more run support and was able to eeek out an unimpressive 5 IP / 3 R win.  Glavine, who normally has pin point control, walked 7 in 4 2/3 innings of laborious work.  With the score tied at 3 the Reds had a 4 run breakout inning vs reliever Jason Schmidt.  Shaking things up a bit, Red manager Steve Tate pinch hit for Ed Armbrister with Cesar Geronimo, who promptly delivered a line single.  Bob Bailey, who was pinch hitting for the barely effective Billingham hit a shot to the base of the wall that Klesko barely caught.  A wild pitch and a walk to Pete Rose and Ken Griffey Jr. loaded the bases for Joe Morgan who grounded hard to Mark Lemke at second to score Geronimo.  With one out and runners on 2nd and third the Braves elected to pitch to George Foster, with Tony Perez on deck.  Foster crushed a 3-1 offering deep to left for a 3 run shot.  Atlanta got 1 run back in the bottom of the inning on a Lemke homer and a solo run in the 8th, but could not catch the Reds, who got a 2 inning save from Rawly Eastwick.

8/18-8/19 - Riverfront Stadium
GAME 3 -  Reds 3, Braves 2

In a battle of bearded hurlers John Smoltz and Pat Zachry went toe to toe for 6+ innings with neither man figuring in the decision.  Smoltzie went 6 allowing only 1, while Zach went 7, while yielding 2.  The game would be firmly placed in the hands of each team's pens, and Cincy's pen (Pedro Borbon Sr. and Eastwick), showed they had the better stuff.  In an interesting twist of fate.  Borbon Sr. got the win, while Borbon Jr. took the loss.  Cincy scored solo run in the 6th, 7th and 8th to take it.  Ken Griffey Sr., was the catalyst in the 8th with a 1 out single and a stole base.  1975 MVP Joe Morgan doubled him home for the go ahead run.  Atlanta made two errors in the inning, but strangely neither played into the run that scored.

GAME 4 - Reds 7, Braves 3
A 5 run bottom of the first off of Steve Avery gave the Reds all the runs they would need on the day.  Atlanta would rally to score 3 in the 4th off of Fred Norman, but that would be all they would score on the day.  Once again Cincy's bullpen came to the rescue and pitched a perfect final 2 innings.  Eastwick finished out the game in a non save situation.  Ken Griffey Sr., led off the bottom of the first with a walk.  Dave Concepcion singled him to second.  After Joe Morgan flew out weakly to right George Foster hit his second 3 run homer of the series.  Tony Perez followed that with a triple and backup catcher Bill Plummer hit a two run shot to cap off the inning.

‘20 Tribe and ‘70 O’s split opening series

8/16-8/17 - League Park
GAME 1 - Indians 4, Orioles 1
Indian ace Jim Bagby, who won 31 games in 1920, went the distance by allowing only 1 run on 5 hits with an economical 81 pitches thrown.  The '70 O's played waited for the 3 run homer to come, but did not have enough baserunners to get it.  Cleveland got on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd no thanks to an error by the normally sure handed Mark Belanger.  With a 2-1 lead going into the 7th the Tribe scored 2 more on consecutive RBI singles by Bill Wambsganss and Doc Johnson.  That would be more than enough run support for Bagby.

GAME 2 - Orioles 4, Indians 3
Neither Jim Palmer, nor Stan Coveleski had their best stuff.   Still both 20 game winners had more than enough in the tank to keep the game close.  The O's jumped out to a 4-0 lead by scoring 2 in the first and 1 in the third.  An insurance run in the 7th was needed to hold off the Tribe who posted 3 in the bottom of the 7th.  Pete Richert came on to fan 2 in the 9th for the save.  Frank Robinson hit his first homer, a 2 run shot in the 1st.  The Tribes Larry Gardner had 3 hits in 4 trips to the plate in a losing effort.

8/18-8/19 - Memorial Stadium
GAME 3 - Indians 4, Orioles 3
It was Cleveland's turn to flip the score and notch the road win.  Ray Caldwell went the distance for the Tribe giving up 3 runs on 7 hits.  Dave McNally left on the losing side of the ledger with 1 out in the 9th.  An error by Frank Robinson, who also hit his second homer of the season, accounted for a huge unearned run that was the difference.

GAME 4 - Orioles 11, Indians 4
Baltimore jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but then the rains came in the  5th.  Oriole stater Tom Phoebus lost all control after the 33 minute rain delay and couldn't even make it out of the 5th inning.  Marcelino Lopez had to come in to get the final out, but by that point the Tribe had posted a 5 spot.  Lopez was barely effective after getting the final out in the 5th, but he didn't need to be.  Baltimore scored 7  runs over the final 3 innings and didn't even blink an eye when the Indians mounted a comeback in the top of the 9th.  Lopez gave up 3 runs before Dick Hall came on board to notch the save.  Lost in the shuffle was Tris Speaker's 3 for 4, 5 RBI day that included 2 homers.  Frank Robinson went 4 for 4 for the victors, along with 3 RBI.

A call to arms…’69 Amazin's take 3 of 4 from ‘65 Dodgers

8/16-8/17 - Dodger Stadium
GAME 1 - Mets 3, Dodgers 1 (11 inn)
Call this one a Cy Young award grudge match.  Last season Tom Seaver and Don Drysdale both suffered by playing on sub par teams.  Both however amped up their game and battled each other for the NL Cy Young, which Drysdale eventually won.  In this much hyped opening game matchup both Tom Terrific and Big D lived up to all the hype.  The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 6th when LA posted a solo run on the board when Drysdale himself homered to deep left field.  For those of you thinking that it must have been a fluke, guess again.  In 1965 Drysdale hit over .300 and had 7 homers.  The man can flat out hit.  Those '69 Amazin Mets have more intangibles than one can count.  They found a way to scratch out a run in the top of the 7th when Jim Lefebvre booted an Art Shamsky slow roller.  Tommy Agee singled Shamsky over to second and Cleon Jones doubled him (Shamsky) home to tie the game.  Drysdale was about to show us just why he's so great.  Most mortal pitchers would have been flustered with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, but not Big D, who jammed Ed Kranepool and forced the Met 1st baseman to pop out to shallow center.  Agee tried to score but "3-Dog", Willie Davis gunned him down at the plate as Johnny Roseboro applied the tag.  Neither team could score again in regulation, so off to extra innings they went.  Unlike today's pampered and overpaid starters, who would have been long gone from the game, both Seaver and Drysdale stayed on the hill.  In the top of the 11th Drysdale inexplicably threw at Seaver and wound up hitting the tall righthander from Fresno.  Two batters later Shamsky tripled to dead center to score Seaver who looked really winded from his jaunt around the bases.  A sac fly by Agee scored Shamsky to make it 3-1.  Not taking any chances on Seaver's health, Met manager Andy Weinrib brought on reliever Tug McGraw to close it out in the bottom of the 11th.  After getting Maury Wills to ground back to the box for the first out McGraw gave up a clean single to Junior Gilliam.  Groundball outs by Ron Fairly and Lefebvre ended the marathon game and gave Seaver a bit of revenge for losing out the Cy Young last season.

GAME 2 - Dodgers 1, Mets 1
No better way to get a win after a loss than to put the Great Sandy Koufax on the hill.  If ever there was a blue chip stock for pitching it would be the shy and reserved competitor from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn.  Koufax was matched up against another lefty, Jerry Koosman.  Kooz won both the 2nd and 5th games in the '69 series, so there is no doubting his pedigree in big situations.  LA scored first by posting 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the third.  On most days, 2 runs means nothing.  Unfortunately for the Amazins' those two runs were put in the possession on Koufax, who treats runs like they were the Hope Diamond.  New York's folly in the bottom of the third started when Kooz hit Willie Davis with an inside slider.  Davis attempted to steal and was thrown out easily by the rifle armed Grote.  John Kennedy hit a slow roller up the line at third that was booted by Wayne Garrett.  After Koufax struck out looking Maury Wills hit one into the gap that easily turned into a 2 out run scoring triple.  Lou Johnson walked to put runners on the corners and once again Koosman was let down by his defense as Ken Boswell booted a room service hop to second.  Jerry Koosman would leave the game in the 8th for a pinch hitter and walk away giving up only 3 hits and 2 unearned runs.  Koufax gave up a solo homer to Shamsky in the 5th.  As shocking as it was to see a lefty homer off Koufax, it was  even more shocking that Swoboda the righty wasn't in the lineup in the first place.  It all came down to the 9th inning when Agee led off with a clean single for the 3rd hit of the day off of Koufax.  Garrett, who usually platoons with Ed Charles and doesn't face lefties had to face Koufax and fanned easily.  A wild pitch on a 2-1 count to Cleon Jones allowed Agee to move to 2nd.  Jones got a hold of the next offering and hit it deep to the opposite field only to see it fall into the glove of a waiting Ron Fairly.  Agee moved over to third, but Kranepool flew out weakly to left to end it.  Koufax fanned 11 and walked none in this classic pitcher's duel.

8/18-8/19 - Shea Stadium
GAME 3 - Mets 5, Dodgers 4
Finally some runs got posted to the big scoreboard out in right center.  After seeing arguably the best 1-2 / lefty,righty punches on the hill the fans got to see the less heralded #3 starters.  LA's Claude Osteen went 6 and gave up 3, while New York’s young fireballer Gary Gentry equaled that in 7 innings of work.  LA took a 4-3 lead after in the 8th when Gentry faltered and reliever Ron Taylor could not prevent the bleeding from getting worse.  Errors by the normally sure handed Harrelson and Boswell contributed to the runs.  Gentry had a shutout going until Jim Lefebvre launched a 2 run shot over the 410 mark in dead center.  Bob Miller replaced Osteen and after throwing 2 innings of perfect relief looked to close it out in the 9th.  Things went according to plan when Harrelson flew out to shallow center for out #1.  Boswell struck out looking and the Shea faithful began heading up the ramp to the 7-train.  Shamsky came on board to pinch hit for Nolan Ryan, who bailed out Taylor.  Shamsky singled to center, which at the time only seemed to prolong the agony.  Agee then worked out a walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 out and rookie Wayne Garrett heading to the plate.  Garrett swung at Millers first  offering and hit a flare to left, which safely landed on the turf in front of a hard charging Lou Johnson.  Shamsky scored easily and the game was now tied.  Steady Eddie Kranepool came to the plate and looked squarely into the Dodger dugout expecting to see their manager on the top step heading out to bring in lefty Ron Perranoski.  That call to the pen never came and Krane lined a walkoff single to right to score Agee and once again show why these amzing Mets are truly Amazin'.

GAME 4 - Mets 6, Dodgers 2
In a battle of wily veterans Don Cardwell bested 1955 World Series MVP Johnny Podres.  Neither veteran would get a decision, but Cardwell did go an inning and a third more than his counterpart plus giving up one less run.  The score was tied at 2 heading into the bottom of the 8th thanks to a Maury Wills manufactured run.  Wills walked against reliever Nolan Ryan, then easily stole 2nd off the big Texan's slow methodical delivery.  Ron Fairly bunted him over to third and Jim Lefebvre hit one just deep enough to Agee in center to score the fleet footed Wills.  Have no fear, the magic is here.  The magic can simply be defined as the intangibles the Amazin Mets bring to games in the latter innings.  Once again they chose to victimize former original Met Bob Miller, who left to go to LA after 1 season, so that the Mets could bring back Brooklyn fan favorite Duke Snider.  By this time Snider was long retired after his 1 year cameo as a Met, but Miller was still producing dividends for the pitching strong Dodgers.  He would pay even bigger dividends to the Mets as an adversary than he ever did as component.  The 8th started with Swoboda singling to center, but getting forced out on a botched bunt attempt by Garrett.  Boswell singled to put runners on 1st and second for Jerry Grote who hit an opposite field gap double that rolled all the way to the 396 mark thus scoring  Garrett.  With the Mets now up 3-2 Art Shamsky was called upon to pinch hit for Ryan and once again the Met Magic came to life.  Down 0-2 in the count Shamsky fouled off 5 consecutive pitches before he got the one he liked.  Miller's offering was dead red over the hear of the plate and Shamsky turned on it and hooked it into the lodge section just outside the foul pole .  Shamsky's 3 runs shot gave the Amazin's a 4 run lead that Tug McGraw easily protected with a perfect 9th inning in relief.

Boys of Summer take 3 of 4 from Braves

8/16-8/17 - Ebbets Field
GAME 1 - Dodgers 16, Braves 5
Against most teams Warren Spahn dominates, but not vs the Boys of Summer.  For years Spahn dominated the NL, except for his encounters vs power laden right handed lineup of 'dem Bums.  Spahn looked good going into the 5th with a 5-1 lead thanks to his own offensive skills that supplied 4 of the 5 runs.  In the 3rd he hit a solo shot and in the 4th he hit a 3 run shot over the chain link fence and on to Bedford Avenue.  Dodger starter Carl Erskine fooled nobody, except for maybe the fool who tapped him to start.  He did however benefit from Spahn's lack of dominance.  In  the 5h 'dem Bums scored 4 to tie the game at 5.  With 2 out Junior Gilliam doubled home 2.  A costly error by Joe Adcock on a Duke Snider 2 hopper cost them another run.  Brooklyn would take the lead with 2 in the 6th and then blow the doors off the wagon with 9 in the 9th.  Karl Spooner came on in relief of Oisk and tossed 3 scoreless innings.  Russ Meyer mopped up in the 9th when the outcome was long since determined.  Every Dodger starter except Gilliam had at least 2 hits.  Gil Hodges and Don Zimmer both had 3 RBI.  Hank Aaron also homered for the Braves.  Nobody homered for the Dodgers, who banged out 18 hits.

GAME 2 - Braves 7, Dodgers 6
World Series hero Lew Burdette went the distance as the Braves offense outlasted the Dodger offense.  Dodgers starter Don Newcombe went 8 and gave up 7 (6 earned) and took the loss.  Milwaukee broke the ice in the top of the 2nd when Wes Covington hit a solo shot.  Brooklyn answered back with 3 in the bottom of the inning thanks to a titanic blast by Newk, who would be stronger with his lumber than his arm in this contest.  The Braves chipped away inning by inning.  A solo shot by Eddie Mathews in the 3rd cut the Dodger lead to 3-2.  Hank Aaron's solo shot in the 5th tied it at 3 apiece, but Roy Campanella singled home Duke Snider in the bottom of the inning to put the Dodgers back up by 1.  A two run homer by Red Schoendienst in the top of the 6th with 2 out put the Braves up by 1.  Balls were flying out of the tiny ballpark in Flatbush like crazy.  Brooklyn tied it when "the Duke" hit a solo shot into the middle of Bedford Avenue in the 8th to make it 6-6.  By this point Hilda Chester and the Dodgers Sym-phony began getting louder and louder.  It all came to a screeching halt in the top of the 9th when Wes Covington singled home Joe Adcock to take the lead.  Burdette allowed Gilliam a 1 out single and the crowd began to rev up again.  Then Snider got a hold of a change up and sent Aaron back to wall.  Hammerin' Hank jumped up with his back to the scoreboard and took a sure double away from the Duke.  Campy followed by fanning on 3 pitches as Burdette toughed out the win.

8/18-8/19 - Milwaukee County Stadium
GAME 3 - Dodgers 8, Braves 1
1955 World Series MVP Johnny Podres picked up right where he left off in real life.  The Upstate NY native tossed six shutout innings vs the Braves before giving way to Meyer, who tossed 2 shutout innings of his own.  The Braves only run, which was unearned, came in the 7th.  The Dodgers had their way with Bob Buhl, who was gone after giving up 6 in 5 innings of work.  Duke Snider had a huge breakout day hitting 2 homers and knocking in 4 runs.  Gil Hodges was 3 for 5 and Campy went 3 for 4.  Hank Aaron was 3 for 3 in a losing effort.

GAME 4 - Dodgers 6, Braves 4
Bill "Never win 20 or they'll expect you to keep doing it" Loes took the hill for the Boys of Summer to face "Giant" Gene Conley.  Brooklyn scored first in the top of the 1st when Pee Wee Reese led off the game with a triple and scored when Jim Gilliam grounded to second.  It stayed scoreless until the bottom of the 7th when Loes gave up a 2 run homer to of all people Felix Mantilla.  Mantilla didn't even start the game, but had to replace Johnny Logan at short in the top of the 3rd when Logan crashed into fence while chasing after a foul pop up.  The Dodgers tied it up on the first pitch in the top of the 8th.  Backup catcher Rube Walker pulled one just inside the foul poll in right to make it 2-2.  Bob Hazle was tapped to pinch hit for Conley to lead off the 8th and walked on 4 pitches.  Loes looked to be tiring and with 2 outs he served up a huge gopher ball to HOF'er Eddie Mathews.  Milwaukee was up 4-2 going into the 9th and it all looked to be over.  With reliever Don McMahon tired from working the previous day the Braves went to lefty Juan Pizarro to close it out.  That turned out to be a catastrophic mistake, because Pizarro is a southpaw and we all know how dem Bums murder portsiders.  Carl Furillo led off the 9th with a walk.  Jackie Robinson singled to put runners on the corners.  On a botched hit and run play Sandy Amoros swung through Pizarro's offering, but Robinson still managed to beat Del Crandall's throw to Mantilla.  A single would tie the game, but the Dodgers manager had no faith  that Amoros could supply that hit.  The decision was to call on Frank Kellert with an 0-1 count to come to the rescue.  Kellert worked the count full then singled up the middle to tie the game.  Campy came up to pinch hit for Walker and got on base.  Don Hoak bunted both runners up to 2nd and thrid and the captain, Pee Wee Reese delived the knockout blow with a 2 run double off the right center field fence.  Clem Labine pitched a scoreless 9th to close it out.  Both teams combined for 16 home runs in this exciting series.

‘85 Royals and ‘73 A’s split

8/16-8/17 - Royals Stadium
GAME 1 - A's 7, Royals 6
In a classic battle between crafty lefties (Ken Holtzman/Charlie Leibrandt) neither pitcher did more than throw batting practice.  Hotzman gave up 5 earned runs in 7 1/3 and Leibrandt gave up 7 in 7 2/3.  To categorize this as a "hitters day" would not be a far reach.  KC jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, when Willie Wilson scored on a George Brett ground out to short.  An error by the normally sure handed Sal Bando led to Lonnie Smith scoring run number two.  Leibrandt looked in control until Deron Johnson hit a two run shot in the top of the 4th to tie the game at 2-2.  Holtzman had a huge "blow up" inning in the 5th as the normally light hitting Royals exploded for 4 big runs.  DH Hal McRae's bases clearing doubled accounted for 3 of those runs.  Jim Sundberg's single plated McRae for the fourth run of the inning.  The Royal offense handed Leibrandt a 6-2 lead, but by the time the 6th inning was over it was 6-5.  Deron Johnson struck again.  This  time he hit a 3 run shot to suck a lot of the air out of the ballpark.  Oakland would finally chase Leibrandt from the bump with 2 more runs in the 8th to take a 1 run lead.  With runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs Rich McKinney was summoned from the bench to pinch hit for Ted Kubiak.  McKinney lined a single to right to score Gene Tenace and Johnson.  Rollie Fingers cam on board to get the final 5 outs as the A's won the opener.  Deron Johson was the hitting star going 3 for 4 with 5 RBI.

GAME 2 - Royals 2, A's 0
In a battle of former Cy Young award winners Bret Saberhagen outlasted Vida Blue.  Sabes fanned 9 A's and walked none for a 6 hit shutout.  Blue only gave up 2 hits.  Unfortunately for the dominant lefty, who struck out 7 Royals, those 2 hits were solo shots by Steve Balboni and Daryl Motley.  The game played in a tidy 2 hours and 27 minutes.  Deron Johnson continued his hot streak with the bat by going 2 for 4, which actually lowered his average to .625.

8/18-8/19 - Oakland Coliseum
GAME 3 - A's 2, Royals 0
The venue switched and so did the results.  This time the A's were able to get the 2-0 win.  Jim "Catfish" Hunter scattered 8 hits and fanned 5 en-route to a complete game shutout.  Bud Black went 7 and gave up only 1 and reliever Dan Quisenberry gave up a run in the 8th when Reggie Jackson hit a mammoth solo shot to right.  George Brett went 3 for 4 in a losing cause.

GAME 4 - Royals 5, A's 4 (10 inn)
KC carried a 4-1 lead into the 9th, but Steve Farr and Dan Quisenberry were incapable of holding it.  Lost in the shuffle was the 6 inning, 1 run performance by Royal starter Mark Gubicza, who wound up with the dreaded "no decision".  Blue Moon Odom was his normal sub par self yielding 2 runs in both the first and fifth innings.  Oakland scored 3 clutch runs in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game at 4.  Farr gave up singles to both Joe Rudi and Deron Johnson to lead off the inning.  Pinch hitter Dick Green struck out looking for the first out  Ray Fosse pinch hit for Angel Mangual and legged out an infield hit to load the bases for Bert Campaneris, who grounded out to third as Rudi scored easily.  Quiz was called on to replace the faltering Farr and served up a 2 run triple to the fleet footed Billy North, which tied the game.  Bando grounded out back to the box to end the inning and force overtime.  A's reliever Paul Lindblad walked the first 2 batters he faced in the top of the 10th.  With Brett and McRae on base Lindblad beaned Balboni to load the bases.  "Bye Bye" Balboni dusted himself off and strolled down to first safely knowing Lindblad was not  throwing at him in such a close game.  Frank White followed that up with a run scoring infield single.  Lindblad was then able to settle down and get Pinch Hitter Pat Sheridan to line out to second and catcher John Wathan to hit into a much needed 3-6-3 DP.  With a 1 run lead in his back pocked, Quiz went to work and this time finished off the A's.  After getting Reggie to pop out to 1st he fanned Tenace and Rudi to end the game and salvage a series split.

Motown sweeps Jays in opening series

Saturday  August 16 at the Sky Dome

The 84 Tigers and 93 Blue Jays opened the KOD10 season with a Saturday afternoon game in the Sky Dome.  Jack Morris and Al Leiter would open the season.  Morris started well, retiring the first 12 Jays he faced.  The Tigers opened the scoring in the third when Sweet Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell had back to back one out singles.  With two out, Lance Parrish drove home Whitaker.  In the sixth, Barbaro Garbey lead off with a single and moved to third on Darrell Evans' single.  Garbey scored on Kirk Gibson's sacrifice fly.  With two outs in the books, Tom Brookens singled.  Whitaker loaded the bases when he was safe on second baseman  Roberto Allomar's error.  Trammell walked to force in  the third run of the game and Larry Herndon singled home Brookens, but Whitaker was cut down at the plate.  The Blue Jays finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Tony Fernandez' triple drove home Devon White who had singled.  Morris was still cruising in the 7th when it all left him.  Jon Olerud had led off the frame with a double but Morris got the next two batters.  After Ed Sprague  singled home Olerud, Pat Borders went yard with the first homer of the season to tie the game.  Morris left and the score remained 4-4 until the top of the 12th.  With two out, Chet Lemon singled and Gibby (Kirk Gibson) drove him to third with a single of his own.  Blue Jay reliever Mark Eichhorn was overly concerned with Gibby's speed and, in an attempt to pick him off, threw the ball away.  Lemon slid home head first beating the throw from Olerud.  Dave Rozema was the winner and Duane Ward took the loss.  Tigers 5  Blue Jays 4

Sunday August 17  at the Sky Dome

In the first, Jose Guzman issued walks to Trammell and Gibson and Trammell scored on Parrish's single.  But the Jays came right back and tied the game off Dan Petry in the bottom of the frame.  A one out walk to Fernandez resulted in a run when, with two out, Olerud tripled.  In the third, White led of with a triple and came home on Fernandez' ground out.  In the fifth, White led off with a single, stole second and third and scored on Paul Molitor's two out single.  The Tigers cut the lead to one in the 6th when Evans led off with a double and scored on Rupert Jones' two out single.  Trammell led off the 7th with a single.  Mike Timlin struck out the next two Tigers but singles by Evans and Lemon tied the game.  Again the teams treated the fans to their money's worth as the game moved into extra innings.  They went into the 14th and Eichhorn again came on for the Blue Jays.  After opening the inning with walks to Trammell and Gibson, Lance Parrsh double home Tammell.  Evans' sacrifice fly scored Gibson and Lemon's double plated Parrish.  Bergman singled home Lemon to round out the scoring.  Doug Bair earned the win with 2.2 innings of work.  Eichhorn took the loss.  Tigers 7  Blue Jays 3

Monday August 18  at Tiger Stadium

The Blue Jays opened the scoring in the first off starter Milt Wilcox.  Fernandez singled with one out, moved to third on Olerud's single and scored on Molitor's ground out.  But the Tigers came right back with three of their own in the bottom of the frame off Jays starter Pat Hentgen.  And it only took three hitters.  Whitaker singled, Trammell tripled and Gibson drove a low inside fastball into the right field upper deck.  In the third, Alomar walked, stole second and went to third when Parrish's throw went nto centerfield.  In the fourth a walk to Dave Bergman and singles by Howard Johnson, Trammell and Gibson produced two runs.  A solo home run by Evans in the 7th gave the Tigers a four run lead.  Aurelio "Senor Smoke" Lopez came in to pitch the 8th but the work of the previous two days showed.  John Olerud led off with a double.  With one out, he came on a single by White and white went to second on the throw to the plate.  He probably would have ended up there anyway as the Tiger pitchers showed no ability to hold Blue Jay runners, allowing 8 stolen bases in the series.  White scored on Darnell Coles' single and Ed Sprague tied it with his first homer of the season.  For the third game in the row, the two teams would go into extra innings.  In the bottom of the 11th, Trammell led off with a walk.  Gibby made a bid to end the game but his drive to deep center was hauled in by White.  Parrish singled and Evans was intentionally walked to load the bases.  With the infield in, Blue Jay reliever Dave Stewart went after Chet Lemon and struck him out for the second out of the inning.  With lefty Dave Bergman coming up, manager Justin Ryan went back to his bullpen and summoned lefty Tony Castillo.  Tiger manager Crash Davis (not Costner, the other one) countered by sending Rusty Kuntz to the plate for his at bat of the season.  Kuntz worked the count full and then ended the game by taking a fourth ball outside and low.  Willie Hernandez earned the win with three perfect inings of relief.  Scott Brow took the loss.  Tigers 7  Blue Jays 6

Tuesday August 19  at Tiger Stadium

Finally, a game that ended in the ninth, and finally, a starter with a victory.  The Tigers scored first in the bottom of the second on Darrell Evans' second homer of the season  In the top of the third, Sprague and Alomar singled.  Rickey Henderson moved them up with a bunt.  Molitor then got his third rbi of the series via a ground out, plating Sprague.  The Jays took a lead in the fifth when Molitor, tired of driving in runs with ground outs, hit his first homerun of the season.  In the 6th, with one out, Parrish singled.  Evans followed with a walk and Lemon drilled a shot to the outfield that scored Parrish, with both runners moving up on the throw to the plate.  Bergman was intentionally walked, but Rupert Jones spoiled the strategy by bouncing an opposite field single past a diving Tony Fernandez to score two runs.  Molitor cut the lead to one in the 7th with his second homer of the game.  The Tigers got that back in the bottom of the 7th when Whitaker led off the inning with his first homer. HoJo drove home another run in the 8th with a sacrifice fly.  Juan Bereguer got the win, and Doug Bair got the save with 3 innings of work.  Blue Jay starter Todd Stottlemyre took the loss.  Tigers 6  Blue Jays 3

--submitted by Tom “Crash” Davis--

KOD10 - The Best World Series Champ Ever

Hard to believe this is the 10th Anniversary of the King of Diamonds franchise. About 3 years ago Ross Gottlieb and I came up with this crazy idea called KOD. We came to the conclusion that playing a full 162 game season online just couldn't work, but what if we could play a 30-40 game "sprint" to the pennant. To do this we made the outlandish assumption that EVERY team woke up in the middle of August in a dead heat. With around 40 games left to play they were all tied and they were in need for a fantastic stretch run to the pennant. 10 teams entered into the first KOD. Today we have 24 teams vying for the right to hoist the KOD championship. Every team that is participating in KOD10 won a World Championship. Only 1 of these teams will have the right to call themselves the "Best World Series Champ Ever".