Days 91-100 - East Division race is a dead heat right now! Vegas, Jimmy, Bastards all within a half game of each other!

Wow, what a race is developing in the East Division!  The Fabulous Fremonts remain atop the division but those Backwoods Bastards and now Getting Jimmy With It are only 1/2 a game behind.  Rocco's Replicas are far from out of it as well, just 4.5 behind with about 65 or so games left. 

It's business as usual in the other division as Henderson maintains a slim lead over Monterrey, and PED-Co still has a 6.5 game lead over Dublin. Getting Jimmy With It, the Fort Wayne Frosted Tips and the Henderson Rickeys all have the best record over the last 10 games, at 7-3.  The Midland Goombies suffered through a 1-9 stretch. 

Our Player of the Block is the Jimmy's own Roger Clemens!  The Rocket went 2-0 with 18 innings, 20 K's, and just 8 hits allowed and 3 earned runs given up (1.50 ERA).  Juan Gonzalez was a strong contender, with a hefty .412 average and 5 homers.  Randy Johnson was very similar to Clemens, 16 innings, 23 K's, and only 2 earned runs but only 1 victory. 


Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte 'needling' each other

Roger has added the Levitation Pitch to his arsenal

 

Day 91  What a set of games to start the block!  Dublin and Midland go to extra innings, with the Goombies tallying a run in the top of the 11th.  However, Dublin got a single and then Delino Deshields cracks his second home run of the day, a two-run walkoff, to give the Dubliners the 8-7 win!  Getting Jimmy is getting 11 runs and 17 hits as they outslug Monterrey 11-9.  Fort Wayne outlasts Henderson in 14 innings, on Tim Salmon's 20th homer.  The Fremonts get their own extra-inning victory 7-6 over league-leading PED-Co.  The Always Angry One, Carl Everett, powered Rocco and David Cone (now 10-5) to victory. A montage of some of Everett's anger issues is at the bottom of the post. 

Day 92  The drama continues as three more extra-inning classics unfolded!    Verona Ridge rallies in the 10th to eke past Fort Wayne, and Dublin's Shannon Stewart worked the squeeze play (of all things!) to perfection to get their own extra-inning victory.  Ray Lankford's 14th inning double drove home the winning run for Henderson.  Getting Jimmy's Tony Saunders throws a four-hit shutout.  Monterrey held a thin 3-2 lead over Rocco going into the 9th, but racked up five runs in the frame to eventually top the Replicas 8-5. 

Day 93  ,Fort Wayne's Woody Williams took a no-hitter into the 7th as the Frosted Tips blank Verona Ridge 4-0.  Johnny Damon doubled home the winning run in the 9th for Dublin, Todd Helton and Lima Time were too much for Backwoods, Albert Belle blasts two HRs for Rocco, and somehow light-hitting Bill "Hey, dude, it's not a" Haselman gets 4 hits and 5 RBIs for the Rickeys.

Day 94  Only two games today, and both winning teams score 11 runs!  As This Week in Baseball's Mel Allen would say, "How about that?"  Fort Wayne's other pitching acquisition shined as Kevin Millwood goes the distance and Mike Piazza gets 6 RBIs!  Roger Clemens dominates for Jimmy, striking out 10 Bastards. 

Day 95  Wow, hadn't noticed this until now, but Getting Jimmy is on an epic 10 game winning streak!  Jimmy wins 10-6, with Derek Bell accumulating 4 hits and 4 RBIs.  Tino Martinez and Ray Lankford each homered in a 2-1 win for Henderson.    It's a bloodbath in Fort Wayne as the Frosted Tips take apart the Goombies 16-0.  SS Royce Clayton hit 2 homers, and Mike Hampton goes all nine for the shutout.  PED-Co is back with an 8-4 win featuring two HRs from Vladimir Guerrero (that's a lot of vowels for just one man, Vladdie).  Curt Schilling got the win and is now tied with Midland's Pedro Martinez for the league lead with 12. 

Day 96  Verona Ridge ends Jimmy's streak just about as soon as I noticed it.  Chuck Finley held the Jimmies to just 1 run.  Tony Gwynn clubs his 9th homer as Las Vegas defeats Henderson in the "Battle For Nevada".  Mark McGwire used a new strategy, hitting doubles instead of home runs, to lead Fort Wayne to victory.  Rocco's Replicas bash the Bastards 8-2 as Mike Simms hits 2 home runs.  The Juicers beat division rival Dublin 4-2, Sammy Sosa cracked his 38th homer!

Day 97  It's another rare sighting of a 1-0 game in 1998.  This time it's the Rickeys defeating interstate rival Vegas, and Al Leiter pitched a dominant 1 hit shutout!  The Bastards get the better of Rocco in their back-and-forth series, this team 4-2 and Nomar's two-run HR was the difference.  It's Lima Time again!  Jimmy is back on the winning track and so is Jose Lima, who gets his 10th win of the season.  The Big Unit struck out 15 Goombies to tie three others (Sterling Hitchcock, Pedro Martinez, and Roger Clemens) for the league record, and Mark McGwire crunched home run #40!

Day 98  Henderson throws another nine-innings of shutout ball at Vegas, this time it's Masato Yoshii doing the honors.  Fort Wayne wins their sixth in a row, 6-5.  Midland intentionally walked Brian Jordan to pitch to Orlando Cabrera with the bases loaded, but Cabrera ripped a single to foil Manager Vanaman's strategy.  Verona topped Jimmy 4-3.  John Olerud got three hits and raised his average to .314.

Day 99  Las Vegas goes home and finds its offense again, topping Midland 7-4.  The Roadrunners get a two-run walkoff homer from Scott Mallon's favorite player of all time, Sal Fasano.  Kerry Wood is all over Jimmy, giving up just 1 run and 4 hits.  He had a no-hitter going until Todd Helton tripled in the 6th inning.  Rafael Palmeiro hits two homers and Matt Morris shuts out the Aztecs. 

Day 100   Vegas defeats Pedro Martinez and Midland, Verona gets a two-run walkoff homer from Raul Mondesi, Roger Clemens hurls a two-hitter in a 4-1 win for Jimmy over the Juicers, Rocco smashes Henderson 8-3, and Brooklyn's very grown-up sounding Bob Abreu was just a triple shy of the cycle against Fort Wayne.  Game of the day was Monterrey outlasting the Bastards in 11 innings, 8-7, despite being outhit 15-11.  The Aztecs used a groundout from big Tony Clark to bring in Hall of Famer Barry Larkin with the winning run!  



As mentioned in the Day 91 writeup, please enjoy the lighter side of Carl Everett's shining personality with this virtual montage!