Our first elimination game is out of the way leaving us with seven teams alive and well to win the Salt City Strat League's Commissioner's Trophy!
First off, congrats to the Craver Reds for a thrilling victory! Wow, what a game! So we should also congratulate the Tigers on a good season and a heck of playoff game. Billy "Bleepin" Russell will be muttered by Dunford's players for a long time. All dem sluggers and it's the light hitting middle infielder who pops one...playoff Strat at it;s finest! I sure the Detroit press will be talking about what could of been for months, maybe years, to come. Where was Dale Murphy and his .800+ slugging percentage vs lefties? What kind of clubhouse turmoil had lefty killer, Joe Rudi firmly riding the pine for the biggest game of the season? That's for the Detroit media and Dunford to discuss, but we're moving on to the next dyn-o-mite series!
No rest for the weary as Craver has little time to relish his first playoff victory. The Reds skipper will carry his undefeated playoff record into Shea for a best of three. The Mets have been lying in wait, like a coiled Dave Parker, ready to strike, as they host their first ever Salt City Strat League Playoff game!
Well, now they have their victim, er, foe. Expect an electric atmosphere at Shea as the almost .500 Metropolitans take the field! Let's see the H2H tale of the tape for this one:
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Head-to-Head
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Reds
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Mets
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Wins
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5
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3
|
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ERA
|
4.19
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4.75
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WHIP
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1.452
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1.375
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K/9
|
5.18
|
6.88
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OBP
|
.319
|
.343
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SLG
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.446
|
.408
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BA/RISP
|
.263
|
.262
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While the Reds took the season series, the overall numbers look pretty close! For the Reds, Abdul Jibber-Jabbe (aka Lyman Bostock), Butch Hobson and "Yahtzee" Foster led the offense when they faced the Mets. They also got some nice production from Dave Cash Money and will need that to continue if they wanna become one of the final six. The wild card here is that Boomer Scott only had two regular season plate appearances against the Mets! That's a big boom(er) to add to lineup already chock full of thump, am I right?
Now, if there's a staff that could slow down these thumpers, it'd be the New York staff. Hopefully they were eyeing that gem of a start by Figgy in the one game playoff. Question is how many times does Bill Russell get an intentional pass? The Amazins were fourth in ERA on the season and had the best FIP in the league, aided by their league leading K/9. Did I mention only the Red Sox strike out more than the Reds? With all that though the Reds did okay against the Mets "ace" Ed Halicki, scoring seven runs on him over two starts. In fact, the only Mets starter with a sub-five ERA vs the Reds this season was E-Rod, Eduardo Rodriguez. Mets pitchers will have the extra rest but is that better than momentum?
On the other side of things, the Mets offense got on base at decent clip against the Reds pitchers during the season, with Jumpsteady Templeton leading the way. He posted a .406/.441/.500 line against Cincy, with four swipes. A classic table setter, Temp will be the key cog for this Mets offense. But he can't do it alone, he'll need Pops (.222/.300/.333), Dusty (.267/.290/.500) and Cesar (.069/.156/.103) to get going in this series. At least when Dusty has connected it has been on some big ones, as five of his eight hits went for extra bases.
We've discussed the Reds pitching in this space previously, but to recap, the bullpen has lots of question marks.
Big Jim Kern and Large Lenny Barker have lived up to their names against the Mets though, combining to allow just one run over 8.2 innings! With a 4.032 FIP, Cincy's pitching has sort of shined against this New York squad. Mike Flanagan allowed just one run in 9.2, with Mr. Warmth, Mike Caldwell, Fernando "the Mando" Arroyo, and "Heartbreaker" Hartzell all chipping in quality starts in the season series. As we break this down, some of these numbers might be hard for Hoff to swallow.
You think that's hard to swallow, well check this out. In the most recent series, the Reds took three of four and their ERA in that series was 3.89. All four games in that series were decided by three runs or less, though, so let's not crown anyone just yet.
As I get set for my prediction, I will also throw this out there. The Reds come into this game, having won seven of their last eight! And the Mets? They lost six of their last seven!
It'll be a good one for sure and I think it goes the distance, with the Reds taking game three and heading to Pittsburgh.
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