World Series Game 1 and 2 Recaps

WORLD SERIES RECAPS by hurricane384

GAME 1 – Arizona @ Anaheim
Game 1 saw a bit of what each of these teams is good at. Offense, defense, pitching, it had it all. Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 5th on an Ivan Wall (2-4, 2B, RBI, R) RBI single, which followed back-to-back singles and a double play. Despite giving up 3 hits in the fifth, Clinton Carr (6.1IP, 8H, 3ER, 2BB, 2K) managed to escape by giving up a single run. Anaheim went on top in the bottom of the inning with a home run by Larry Selacek (2-4, HR, 2R, RBI), his fifth of the postseason. Pablo Tavarez (3-4, 2B, 2R, 2RBI) reached on a bloop single followed by a Justin Boyd (2-5, 2B, RBI) double for Anaheim to take the lead, 2-1. Anaheim took the lead in the top of the seventh inning with an offensive explosion, putting up 6 runs, capped by a Bernie Ortiz (1-5, HR, R, 4RBI) grand slam to take a 7-2 lead. Don Martin (7.2IP, 8H, 5R, 3ER, 3K) began to cough up the lead in the bottom of the 8th by giving up a flyball home run to left field by Tavarez. Boyd singled, which was followed by Rafael Nieves (1-4) grounding into a double play. Dicky Hatcher (0-4, R) reached on a 2 base error when Buddy Buckley (2-5, 2R) dropped a flyball. Lewis Hoyt (1-1, R, RBI) hit an RBI single to score Hatcher and you could close the book on Martin. Buddy Stoops entered and failed to record a single out while giving up two 2-run home runs. The scoring was capped when Ivan Duran (.1, 2H, ER) gave up a single by Julian Cortes (1-4, R) followed by a Tavarez double as Anaheim goes up 9-7. Bernard Townsend made things interesting in the ninth, giving up a walk and a single, but managed to record the save.
ANAHEIM, 9-7. ANAHEIM LEADS THE SERIES 1-0.

GAME 2 – Arizona @ Anaheim
Game 2 was a power filled game that saw 11 home runs hit between these two behemoths. Bernie Ortiz (3-5, 2HR, 2R, 4RBI) cracked the first of his two home runs in the first inning to give Arizona a quick 2-0 lead off of Anaheim’s Dick Bailey (6.0IP, 7H, 3ER, 2BB, 5K), but that lead wouldn’t last long. Dicky Hatcher (3-4, 2HR, 3R, 5RBI) hit a solo shot in the bottom of the first and then a 3-run bomb in the 3rd off of Ebenezer Woodson (5.0IP, 7H, 7ER, 3BB, 5K) to take a 4-2 lead over the Sun Devils. The scoring remained quiet until the 5th when Hatcher walked, and Larry Sedlacek (2-4, 2B, HR, R, 2RBI) cracked a 2-run home run to left field, and Lewis Hoyt (1-5, HR, R, RBI) followed that up with a wall-scraper to right-center to push the Trojans’ lead to 7-2. Jake Peterson (2-5, 2HR, 2R, 2RBI) led off the 6th with the first of his 2 solo homers to make the score 7-3. With a lead that would not survive the inning, Turner Evans (0.1IP, 3H, 3ER) entered and exited after 4 batters with the score 7-6 after giving up back to back home runs to Ortiz and David Sierra (1-4, HR, R, RBI). Enter Felix Seung who managed to enter and exit having given up the lead, but did not record an out after giving up 4 hits and 2 runs, including Jake Peterson’s second solo shot of the night as Arizona takes an 8-7 lead. The story in this game was that no member of either bullpen really cared to hold a lead as Guy McMasters (0.2IP, 2H, ER, 2BB) blew the save in the bottom of the 8th on back to back run scoring singles, but did manage to escape a bases loaded situation to end in the inning. Anaheim reclaimed the lead 9-8. Anaheim brought in closer Bernard Townsend (1.0IP, H, 2ER, BB) looking to shut the door on game 2…that was not to happen as Townsend did something he only did 6 times during the regular season and blew the save. He walked Buddy Buckley (2-4, 2B, 2R) to lead the inning off before recording a pop-out and a fly-out. Just as it looked like he was going to escape with a save, pinch-hitter Julian Green had other things in mind, and showed it to everyone with a 2-run home run to left-field to give Arizona the 10-9 lead going into the bottom of the 9th. Enter Fireman of the Year Justin Ward to shut the door. He enticed a pop-out, gave up an infield single, and then struck out Game 1 hero Tavarez for the second out. Up comes Rafael Nieves (2-3, HR, 3R, 2RBI, 2BB) and he took Ward deep to right field to end Game 2 with a walk-off home run in yet another epic confrontation between these two titans.
ANAHEIM WINS, 11-10. ANAHEIM LEADS THE SERIES 2-0.