It is Game Six and these barnstorming All Stars don.t even know what city they.re in... do they ever? The motley crew that makes up the brain-trust of these teams, however, are beginning to feel the strain of the long season and this multi-national, multi-cultural event that is the ABA 9th Annual All Star contest. After too many flights, too many airline meals, and too many wine spritzers, Tom Dymek found himself making a trade with Hudson that didn.t take full advantage of his colleague. "What was I thinking?" Dymek screamed smacking his hand to his forehead. Edelsberg threatened to leave the tour citing 'principles'.
The Aarons are on the verge of whining. Oops did I say whining? I meant winning. I would never accuse the Aarons of whining in writing. The Aarons are on the verge of taking home the Braggers Trophy. Jason Schmidt takes the mound for his second start after throroughly dominating the Mayses the first time around. Addressing Schmidt.s performance at the press conference the naturally erudite Cullen took the mic to say, "One more time, baby." Opposing Schmidt for the Mayses will be Barry Zito. Zito was excellent in his first start, but got zero support from his fellow Mayses.
So, will it be the a six game series? Or, will the Mayses live to fight another day?
It was win or go home for the Mayses. It was Zito trying to duplicate his game two effort and the rest trying not to duplicate theirs. The Mayses got things going against Schmidt right from the start. Tejada singled with one out and after Balok struck out Albert Pujoles took Schmidt into the Korean night for a 2-0 lead. Zito didn't come out sharo in the bottom of the first as he surrendered a single to Ichiro and then walked the fearsome Reyes. Sheffield singled home Ichiro to cut the Mayses lead in half. Schmidt settled down in the next three frames at one point striking out Soriano-Helton-Ordonez-Posada in a row. It was Ordonez's second strikeout. Zito, on the other hand was struggling- too many pitches, and not enough strikes. In the third inning Sheffield doubled after Delgado singled and the pesky Brett Boone tied the score with a sacrifice fly. That would be all for Zito as the Mayses would then go with his SJ staffmate Bronson Arroyo. Arroyo helped himself with a single in the fifth and scored when Garrett Anderson went long on Schmidt to give the Mayses a 4-2 lead. In the sixth inning the one-man wrecking crew that is Garry Sheffield proved that Arroyo is human and again cut the Mayses lead in half with his own shot into the Korean night. However, that was all the runs the Aarons would get and Tejada added an insurance home run to even the series at three games apiece.
The Koreans definitely got a more interesting game than the French, but who really cares about the French.
Game seven will decide it all with the Aarons truning to Pineiro and the Mayses pinning their hopes on Colon. Both pitchers pitched very well in game three.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2003 Mayses 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 5 9 0 5 1
2003 Aarons 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 9 0 10 0
Mayses AB R H BI AVG Aarons AB R H BI AVG
Anderson cf 5 1 1 2 .269 Ichiro cf 2 1 1 0 .375
Smoltz p 0 0 0 0 .000 Thome ph 1 0 0 0 .000
Tejada ss 4 2 2 1 .261 Beltran cf 1 0 0 0 .000
Blalock 3b 4 0 3 0 .250 Reyes ss 4 0 2 0 .160
Pujols lf 4 1 1 2 .136 Bonds lf 5 0 1 0 .217
Soriano 2b 4 0 0 0 .136 Rodriguez pr 0 0 0 0 .000
Helton 1b 4 0 0 0 .211 Delgado 1b 4 1 1 0 .250
Ordonez rf 4 0 1 0 .286 Sheffield rf 4 1 3 2 .478
Posada c 4 0 0 0 .263 Boone 2b 3 0 1 1 .364
Zito p 0 0 0 0 .000 Pierzynski c 4 0 0 0 .348
Arroyo p 2 1 1 0 .500 Rolen 3b 2 0 0 0 .286
Marte p 0 0 0 0 .000 Cormier p 0 0 0 0 .000
Nixon ph 1 0 0 0 .000 Guerrero ph 1 0 0 0 .000
Giles cf 0 0 0 0 .000 Gagne p 0 0 0 0 .000
36 5 9 5 Schmidt p 1 0 0 0 .000
Ensberg 3b 1 0 0 0 .000
33 3 9 3
Mayses INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Zito 3.0 4 2 2 3 0 63 36 1.86
Arroyo W 1-0 3.2 2 1 1 0 2 36 28 1.59
Marte H 1 1.1 1 0 0 1 3 23 14 13.50
Smoltz S 2 1.0 2 0 0 1 0 21 12 0.00
9.0 9 3 3 5 5 143 90
Aarons INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Schmidt L 1-1 6.2 8 5 5 1 11 106 71 3.07
Cormier 1.1 1 0 0 0 0 13 9 0.00
Gagne 1.0 0 0 0 0 3 14 10 0.00
9.0 9 5 5 1 14 133 90
MD : Nixon batted for Marte in the 9th
Giles inserted at cf in the 9th
AD : Ensberg inserted at 3b in the 7th
Thome batted for Ichiro in the 7th
Beltran inserted at cf in the 8th
Guerrero batted for Cormier in the 8th
Rodriguez ran for Bonds in the 9th
2B-Sheffield. HR-Anderson(3), Tejada(2), Pujols(2), Sheffield(1).
K-Anderson 2, Tejada, Blalock, Soriano 2, Helton, Ordonez 2, Posada 3,
Arroyo, Nixon, Bonds, Sheffield, Boone, Pierzynski, Ensberg. BB-Zito, Ichiro,
Reyes, Delgado, Rolen, Ensberg. SH-Schmidt. SF-Boone.
GWRBI: Anderson
Temperature: 50, Sky: cloudy, Wind: out to center at 22 MPH.
4/7/2004, MD03-AD03, Neutral park
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP
2003 Mayses 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 5 9 0 5 1
2003 Aarons 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 9 0 10 0
Mayses -----A------ -----B------ -----C------ -----D------ -----E------
Anderson cf 1>k 8 HR.1-H 13 k
Smoltz p
Tejada ss S 4/L k HR
Blalock 3b k S.1-2 S Cormier
S
Pujols lf HR.1-H 53 5/fl 13
Soriano 2b 8 4>k 6>k 8>9
Helton 1b 2>43 k 53 8
Ordonez rf k k S 13
Posada c 31 5>k k 9>Gagne
k
Zito p 3>W
Arroyo p S 7>k
Marte p
Nixon ph k
Giles cf
Aarons -----A------ -----B------ -----C------ -----D------ -----E------
Ichiro cf 1>S W 43
Thome ph 5/fl
Beltran cf 643/gdp
Reyes ss W.1-2 43 5>7 S S
Bonds lf 4 3>43 63 Marte S.1-3
k
Rodriguez pr
Delgado 1b 7.2-3 S 43 8>W 43
Sheffield rf S.3-H;1-2 D.1-3 6>HR k
Boone 2b 5/L note 1 k S.1-3
Pierzynski c 2>8 43 7 k
Rolen 3b W 4>Arroyo 5
5
Cormier p
Guerrero ph 7
Gagne p
Schmidt p 14/SH.1-2 8
Ensberg 3b 7>k 9>Smoltz
W
1: 8/SF.3-H;2-3
Mayses IN OUT ER Aarons IN OUT ER
Zito A1 B7 2 Schmidt A1 D2 5 L 1-1
Arroyo B8 D2 1 W 1-0 Cormier D3 D7 0
Marte D3 D8 0 H 1 Gagne D8 E1 0
Smoltz D9 E4 0 S 2