Game 3 of the 9th annual ABA All Star series will be in what was once the heart of Reagan's "Evil Empire." We now know the Soviet government could barely afford screws to hold the wheels on their fighter jets, but hey, it made for great rhetoric and fear back in the day.
Players, GMs, dignitaries, and press gathered prior to the game to generate interest since most Moscow citizens were far too occupied trying to find toilet paper to care much about a crazy American baseball game. In a display of bad taste (and way too much vodka) Aaron leader Scott Cullen banged his shoe on the podium at the pre-game press conference and proclaimed to the Mayses, "We will bury you!" League czar, Tom Krattenmacher, was visibly disturbed by Cullen.s antics stating, "As if I haven.t greased enough palms in this place, now I'll have to pay someone else off to keep him out of the gulag. It.s bad enough Alberta GM got picked up for stalking Agnetha Åse Fältskog in Sweden. Mamma mia, we.ll be sending out an SOS before we get to Botswana."
Let's get back to the series. If the All Star series were a heavyweight boxing match Mays "trainer" Tom Dymek would have his one hand on the towel ready to give it a toss. The Mayses were overmatched in games one and two and, after taking a terrific pounding in round one, were swinging blindly at thin air in round two. Were there enough smelling salts in the corner for a team on rubbery legs? One can only imagine Mays tough guy Albert Pujols before game three sitting on the bench all swollen-eyed with Tom Dymek playing the Burgess Meredith role and Pujols saying, "Cut me 'Mek".
Starters for game 3 are Joel Pineiro and Bartolo Colon. Both pitchers are quite capable of pitching deep into the game, but they are facing lineups with no holes from 1 through 8. Let's hope this isn't the Mays' "Waterloo."
Game 3: Moscow, Russia:
The Aarons smelled blood and right from the start and jumped on a couple of Colon walks to take a quick lead. But, that lead was quickly erased as Ordonez hammered a double to drive in Helton and even the score. Pierzynski made it to third with one out in the 2nd ,but was stranded. In the 4th and 5th it was the Mayses "'Putin' on the hits" to take a two run lead. Posada plated Soriano with a two out single in the 5th and Pujols doubled home Anderson an inning later. Delgado was plated by Sheffield in the 6th to cut the lead to one. Four- count 'em- double plays by the Mayses kept the Aarons at bay. Helton blasted a solo shot in the 8th and Anderson followed with one in the 9th and a three run lead was handed over to Smoltz and there was never a doubt.
So, Aarons, put the brooms away there will be no sweep.
One final note: The somewhat controversial selection of Jose reyes at shortstop may become a focal point as the 20-year-old is currently struggling at 0 for 13. Ouch.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 2003 Mayses 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 5 11 0 8 4 2003 Aarons 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 8 0 7 2 Mayses AB R H BI AVG Aarons AB R H BI AVG Anderson cf 5 2 3 1 .308 Ichiro cf 4 0 1 0 .538 Smoltz p 0 0 0 0 .000 Reyes ss 4 0 0 0 .000 Tejada ss 5 0 1 0 .182 Bonds lf 3 1 0 0 .250 Blalock 3b 5 0 0 0 .154 Delgado 1b 2 1 1 0 .250 Pujols lf 5 0 1 1 .091 Sheffield rf 4 0 2 2 .417 Soriano 2b 4 1 1 0 .182 Boone 2b 3 0 0 0 .333 Helton 1b 3 2 2 1 .333 Pierzynski c 4 0 3 0 .462 Ordonez rf 3 0 2 1 .300 Rolen 3b 3 0 1 0 .455 Posada c 2 0 1 1 .429 Pineiro p 3 0 0 0 .000 Colon p 3 0 0 0 .000 Borowski p 0 0 0 0 .000 Giles cf 0 0 0 0 .000 Rodriguez ph 1 0 0 0 .000 35 5 11 5 31 2 8 2 Mayses INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Colon W 1-0 8.0 7 2 2 5 5 121 75 2.25 Smoltz S 1 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 8 6 0.00 9.0 8 2 2 5 5 129 81 Aarons INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Pineiro L 0-1 7.0 9 3 3 3 3 123 75 3.86 Borowski 2.0 2 2 2 1 3 39 24 9.00 9.0 11 5 5 4 6 162 99 MD : Giles inserted at cf in the 9th AD : Rodriguez batted for Borowski in the 9th 2B-Tejada, Pujols, Ordonez, Pierzynski 2, Rolen. 3B-Delgado. HR-Anderson(1), Helton(1). K-Anderson, Tejada, Blalock, Helton, Posada, Colon, Ichiro, Bonds, Boone, Pineiro 2. BB-Helton, Ordonez, Posada 2, Bonds, Delgado 2, Boone, Rolen. SH-Colon. GWRBI: Posada Temperature: 66, Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: right to left at 10 MPH. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 2003 Mayses 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 5 11 0 8 4 2003 Aarons 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 8 0 7 2 Mayses -----A------ -----B------ -----C------ -----D------ -----E------ Anderson cf 1>S 3>31 5>S k 9>HR Smoltz p Tejada ss 463/gdp 31 53.1-2 7>D k Blalock 3b 5/fl 4 13 note 1 k Pujols lf 2>6 4>7 D.2-H 7 5 Soriano 2b 6 S 6 8>Borowski 7 Helton 1b W k 6>S HR Ordonez rf D.1-H S.1-2 W.1-2 43 Posada c IW S.2-H;1-3 k W Colon p 8 53 note 2 k Giles cf 1: 8/dp.2X3(85) 2: 24/SH.2-3;1-2 Aarons -----A------ -----B------ -----C------ -----D------ -----E------ Ichiro cf 1>k 9 5>53 7>S Reyes ss 6/fl 3>3 8 643/gdp Bonds lf W k 53 9 Delgado 1b W.1-2 W 6>T 8>8 Sheffield rf S.2-H;1-3 8 S.3-H 7 Boone 2b 8 4>W 63/gdp k Pierzynski c 2>D 163/gdp D 9>Smoltz S Rolen 3b 43.2-3 D IW 7 Pineiro p k 4 k Borowski p Rodriguez ph 643/gdp Mayses IN OUT ER Aarons IN OUT ER Colon A1 D6 2 W 1-0 Pineiro A1 D4 3 L 0-1 Smoltz D7 D9 0 S 1 Borowski D5 E4 2