FOUR CLOUTS LEAD REBELS PAST BROOKLYN

Two teams with top rotations met in Brooklyn on April 24. So how were there a combined 25 hits, 15 runs and a homer for each of the leadoff hitters?

Matt Garza (Philadelphia) and Jon Lester (Brooklyn) were the opposing pitchers. Both are young but experienced. And through the first five innings, the game was relatively well-pitched.

Garza (1-3, 5.29) was the first to break allowing Jacoby Ellsbury’s first home run of the year leading off the bottom of the first inning, as well as an unearned run after an Elvis Andrus error (his first of three in the game). The Brooklynites extended their lead to 3-0 in the second when Ben Zobrist walked and stole second before scoring on Andrew McCutchen’s bounding triple into the right field corner.

Lester, meanwhile, was crusing. He allowed three hits and two walks through the first five frames and appeared to be getting into a groove when he put down the Rebels, 1-2-3, in eight pitches in the fifth. He was even given another run to play with after Brian McCann walked with two out and came around to score on two singles.

It looked like business as usual as Lester struck out Carlos Beltran swinging to open the sixth. But when Adrian Gonzalez’s “excuse me” swing on a wicked slider produced an infield single, Lester appeared to get frazzled. The first pitch to Alex Rodriguez was hit a LONG way down the left field line….

FOUL!

Rodriguez, a little over-anxious after the near-miss, grounded slowly to third on the next pitch to advance Gonzalez. Andre Ethier, however, put a three-hopper between first and second to score Gonzalez and break Lester’s shutout. Ian Kinsler followed with a solid single in front of right fielder Carlos Quentin, bringing up Miguel Montero. Montero continuing the theme of giving Quentin exercise, hit a deep drive, JUST over Quentin’s glove and the right field wall! All tied up! Elvis Andrus followed with an infield single and moved up on a Lester wild pitch, but the lefty struck out his opposite number to end the frame.

Garza must not have been satisfied with a brand-new ballgame. Two out and no one on the base paths in the bottom of the seventh inning saw McCann and Quentin shoot singles into the outfield, bringing up Zobrist. The utility man didn’t disappoint, belting a double to Coors Field’s spacious left-center gap to score both runners.

Daniel Bard (0-2, 3.29), who replaced Lester after Ichiro’s infield single leading off the top of the seventh and didn’t allow a run, trotted back out for the eighth. This time, he faced the middle of the lineup—hitters that could crush the fastball. And that’s what happened. A-Rod was walked on five pitches to lead off, which brought up Ethier. Bard’s 0-1 pitch caught too much of the plate, and Ethier deposited it into the right-field stands for Philly’s second comeback of the game. Ian Kinsler stepped up next and did the same thing, this time off the left-field foul pole for a 7-6 Rebels lead.

That was all for Bard. Young lefty Daniel Schlereth entered and promptly allowed a Montero double before inducing a line-out and pop-out. That brought up Ichiro. The slender Japanese import lumbered up and belted another home run, Philadelphia’s third of the inning, for a 9-6 lead!

The hosts put runners on base in both the eighth and ninth, but Jose Valverde closed it out for his seventh save.

In other BARB action:

CENTRAL CA 15, LOS ANGELES 6

WP: Jeff Niemann (1-0, 6.23)

LP: Brian Fuentes (0-2, 1.80)

SV: Wheeler (1)

Central CA scored 10 runs from the fifth through the eighth to erase a one-run deficit in Fresno. Los Angeles jumped out to a hot start, with four runs in the first (knocking out Anibal Sanchez), one in the second and one in the fourth, but a Chris Coghlan error facilitated the .45s’ two-run fifth, after which they never looked back. Dan Wheeler earned his first save with three perfect innings.

WORCESTER 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 3

WP: Heath Bell (2-1, 4.15)

LP: Joakim Soria (1-4, 5.59)

SV: Rivera (4)

A Carl Crawford solo home run and Chris Johnson two-run double in the top of the ninth gave the defending champions a comeback win in Frostbite Falls. Felix Hernandez had an excellent start for the losing side, allowing one run with five strikeouts in eight innings. Colby Lewis was good in his own right, with seven innings of eight-hit, two-run ball. Joakim Soria’s second blown save of the season, however, gave the Eliminators an important win.

NEW ENGLAND 10, POTTSYLVANIA 1

WP: Tim Stauffer (2-2, 2.04)

LP: Koji Uehara (1-2, 5.82)

Tim Stauffer pitched a complete game and Aubrey Huff homered twice to lead the Yankee Stompers past visiting Pottsylvania. Koji Uehara, normally a reliever who has been forced into starting duty due to injuries, had his first poor start, allowing eight hits and six runs and not making it out of the third inning. Stauffer, on the other hand, allowed nine hits through the game and gave up his only run in the third on an Aramis Ramirez sac fly. Huff hit a solo shot in the four-run bottom of the third and a two-run homer in the fifth.

BROOKLYN 9, SIN CITY 7 (11)

WP: Justin Masterson (1-2, 6.11)

LP: Francisco Rodriguez (0-2, 6.23)

A back-and-forth game ended in the host Moabs’ favor when Ryan Howard hit a two-run homer to right off of Francisco Rodriguez in the 11^th. Brooklyn had a 2-0 lead in the fifth when Alex Rios hit a two-run bomb and Colby Rasmus brought in another run with a single. The Moabs tied it in the sixth and went ahead seemingly for good with a three-spot in the bottom of the eighth on doubles by Adrian Beltre and Daric Barton, but Rios tripled to drive in two more and then scored the tying run in the top of the ninth off of Huston Street to put the game into extra frames.