Tag: Cliff P. Lee

TWIWBL 12.3: Series X Notes – Effa Manley Division

On July 24, 2021

#Cleveland Spiders

Whit Wyatt was on the verge of WBL history, having allowed 1 hit through 8 innings against Portland. He struck out Jeff Burroughs for the first out, his 9th of the game, and then retired pinch-hitter Ivan Rodriguez on a popout to Jake Stahl at first base. But back-to-back singles by Harry Hooper and Joe Mauer were followed by a walk to Bobby Murcer to load the bases, chasing Wyatt from the mound. Terry Adams relived him and gave up an RBI single to Buddy Bell, making the score 3-1. But Adams earned the save, his 10th, by inducing another popout to Stahl to end the game, this one by Gil Hodges.

Johnny Bates hit a homerun and Stahl had 2 hits in support of Wyatt’s great outing, which improved his record to 3-1.

#Homestead Grays

The 19 inning marathon with Birmingham decimated the Grays’ pitching, a situation that worsened when Corey Kluber had to leave after just 2 innings, and was placed on the DL after the game. The Grays used 9 pitchers, necessitating additional roster moves, complicated by the previously struggling Carlos Zambrano and Kent Tekulve pitched better lately, leaving Billy Pierce the odd man out for the time being. Bartolo Colon and Cliff Lee were recalled back to Homestead, despite their earlier struggles at the big league level.

Birmingham’s Harley Young had a horrible 9th inning, giving up a double, 3 walks (driving in the tying run), and a game-winning single to Rick Reichardt as the Grays stole a 5-4 victory from the jaws of defeat. Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, and Mike Epstein had 2 hits each for Homestead, with Wagner adding his 2nd homerun of the year and Clemente his 3rd.

#New York Black Yankees

Babe Ruth hit 2 homeruns, and Lou Gehrig and Derek Jeter also went deep for New York, but it wasn’t enough, as Sparky Lyle gave up 2 runs in the 9th and Baltimore came from behind for an 8-7 victory over the Black Yankees.

TWIWBL 8.3: Series VII Notes – Effa Manley Division

By mknn

On June 21, 2021

In TWIWBL

#Homestead Grays

Corey Kluber became the first 5 game loser in the WBL, but did so with easily his best performance of the year, giving up only 1 run until things fell apart a bit in the 7th. Still, Kluber’s 7 innings and 3 earned runs was the kind of performance Homestead had hoped for from him, even if the 0-5 record is not.

For more about the slugfest with Los Angeles, read here. The injury to Francisco Liriano will cost the hurler about a month, and Cliff Lee‘s horrific outing pushed the Grays to demote him to AAA. Bartolo Colon and Earl Hamilton were called up.

#Indianapolis ABC’s

Four HRs, including 2 from Johnny Bench, weren’t enough to hold on to victory as the ABC‘s lost a 5-1 lead en route to an eventual 10-7 loss to the House of David.

Bench was the hero in the final game of the series, belting a 2-run HR in the bottom of the 11th for a come from behind victory.

#Philadelphia Stars

Jack Meyer will be out over a year, facing Tommy John surgery. Jack Easton was recalled from AAA to take his place on the roster.

The Stars salvaged a doubleheader split with the New York Gothams behind a strong performance from their bullpen and 3 RBIs from CF Willie Davis. The win went to Steve Carlton (3-3), who labored through 6 innings before turning the ball over to Rheal Cormier, Ron Reed, and Pedro Feliciano who combined to deliver 3 scoreless innings with Feliciano getting the save.

Riggs Stephenson, injured since Spring Training, will head to AAA on a rehab assignment.

Series VII Featured Game: Homestead Grays @ Los Angeles Angels, Game 3

By mknn

On June 16, 2021

In Featured Games, Game Recaps

Buckle up, y’all.

This game saw 35 runs, 42 hits, an injury, a WBL debut, and each team spending at least 2 innings with a 90% likelihood of winning.

We join the game in the bottomof the 2nd, when Homestead’s Francisco Liriano was injured and unable to take the mound after a scoreless first. He was relieved by Cliff Lee, who promptly gave up 3 homeruns, with Bobby Grich and George Wright going deep back-to-back and Jim Stephens adding a 2 run shot. That gave the Angels a 4-0 lead.

Homestead would tie the game in the top of the 4th against Pud Galvin, scoring 4 times with 2 outs, 2 runs coming home on a double by Tom Brown, 2 more on a 2-run HR from Honus Wagner.

Stephens hit his second of the game in the bottom of the frame, a 3-run shot that chased Lee from the mound, to be replaced by Hal Carlson, who loaded the bases before giving up a run-scoring single to Doug Rader, making the score 8-4 in favor of Los Angeles.

Again, though, the Grays would strike back with 2 outs with a double from Davey Johnson scoring Rick Reichardt followed by a 2-run double by Arky Vaughan. That closed Los Angeles’ lead to 8-7.

The Angels extended it to 9-7 on a solo homerun from Don Buford in the bottom of the 6th.

Then things got exciting.

Aaron Heilman had pitched a scoreless 6th, but he would only last 2 batters in the 7th, giving up hits to Mike Epstein and Johnson. Jonny Venters would relieve him, and walk Vaughn to load the bases, and then hit Brown to force in a run. Los Angeles would turn to Jeurys Familia, who gave up a 2-run single to Wagner before registering the first 2 outs of the inning.

But the Grays again struck with 2 outs, with Willie Stargell doubling in Brown and Josh Gibson walking to load the bases. Los Angeles would again turn to its bullpen, bringing in Chuck Finley, who promptly walked Roberto Clemente to force in a run and gave up a 2-run single to Johnson.

By the time the inning ended, the Grays had scored 7 runs, taking the lead 14-9.

RBI doubles from Stephens and Kal Daniels would score 3 runs, so after 7 full innings, the score was 14-12.

Reichardt would add a 2-run HR in the top of the 8th. 16-12.

The Angels would rough up Kent Tekulve in the bottom of the frame, with a Mark Ellis double scoring 1 and a single by Stephens scoring 2 more. That made it a 1-run game, with Homestead ahead, 16-15.

After Stephens hit, Homestead turned to Stan Bahnsen, just called up from AAA. Bahnsen got out of the inning with no further damage.

The top of the 9th would see Homestead score another run with 2 outs, this one coming on a single from Chris Sabo, sending us to the end of the game with the Grays ahead by 2, 17-15.

The Grays closer, Josh Lindblom, took the mound and got 2 outs quickly, sandwiched around a single from Mike Trout. But Grich took Lindblom deep to tie the game, and then 3 consecutive hits ended it: a single by Wright, a double from Ellis, and a game-winning, walk-off RBI by, who else, Stephens.

Lots of records were touched in the game, led by Stephens 2 HRs and 9 RBIs. The Los Angeles catcher went 5-for-6 and scored 4 times. Ellis also went 5-for-6, and Grich had 3 RBIs. Ellis and Wright each scored 4 runs.

For the Grays, Johnson had 4 hits and 3 RBIs, Wagner had 4 RBIs, and Brown 3.

The real story, of course, was the implosion of both pitching staffs. Only Liriano, Bahnsen, and Joe Nathan held the opposing team’s scoreless, and they only combined for 2 innings.

Lee gave up 7 runs in 2 innings, Galvin 7 runs in 5, and Carlson 5 runs in 3.1.

HOM 17 (Lindblom 0-1, 1 BS; Tekulve 1H; Bahnsen 1H) @ LAA 18 (Nathan 2-1; Heilman 1H; Familia 2 Bs)
HRs: HOM – Reichardt (2), Wagner (1); LAA – Grich 2 (3), Stephens 2 (2), Wright (6), Buford (2)
Box Score

TWIWBL 4.1: Notes from Series III

By mknn

On September 30, 2020

In TWIWBL

The New York Black Yankees saw their 10 game winning streak come to an end in a 4-2 loss to the Wandering House of David. The Black Yankees are tied with the Kansas City Monarchs for the best record in the league at 11-3, with the Brooklyn Royal Giants the only other team with double-digit victories. Those 4 teams–New York, Wandering, Kansas City, and Brooklyn–each lead their divisions.

Two decent hitting streaks are still intact: Babe Ruth has a 14 game streak (see below for a dramatic extension by Ruth) and the Baltimore Black Sox‘s Dan McGann has hit safely in 13 straight games.

Philadelphia‘s Ray Collins and Brooklyn‘s Don Drysedale are the only 3 game winners in the league (both are 3-0), and Portland‘s Johan Santana leads the league with 6 saves.

Houston‘s George Brett hit .538 with 2 HR’s and 7 RBIs to win the WBL Player of the Week.

#Brooklyn Royal Giants

Orel Hershiser (1-0) gave up only 5 hits while striking out 8 in a complete game victory over Cleveland. Hershiser’s only mistake of the day was a 2-run HR to Evan Longoria as the Royal Giants eased to a 6-2 win.

#Cleveland Spiders

Cleveland has basically created a fast shuttle between their AAA affiliate in Buffalo and the big leagues. Just across these five games, here’s who used it:

With John Ellis no longer carrying an injury, the Spiders demoted Harry Bemis.
Jim Gantner was called up from AAA to provide some depth at 2B behind Chuck Knoblauch.
Whit Wyatt returned from the DL, sending Sudden Sam McDowell down.
Yordano Ventura was put on the IL even though the Spiders were, at the time, unsure as the extent of his injuries (turns out to have been fine, Ventura is out for 4 months with bone spurs).
With the OF totally gassed and lacking depth, Peanuts Lowrey was called up.

Not all news for Cleveland was injury related: Bob Feller moved to 2-0 with 8 shutout innings against Brooklyn in a 9-1 Spiders’ victory.

#Detroit Wolverines

Phenom Ty Cobb continues to press for more playing time, going 3-for-4 with a HR in a start against Kansas City.

#Homestead Grays

With Corey Kluber still injured, Homestead recalled Cliff Lee for an emergency start. Lee was excellent, leading the Grays to keep him on the roster at the expense of Bill Fischer, who had struggled in a few early season appearances.

#Houston Colt 45’s

Bret Saberhagen was still not 100%, so the Colt 45’s did some roster juggling, sending Saberhagen to AAA for a day and recalling David Clyde. Clyde was lit on fire in his start, and sent right back to AAA after the game.

Roy Oswalt (2-1) combined with Trevor Hoffman for a 6 hit shutout against Portland.

#Kansas City Monarchs

The Monarchs’ Luke Hamlin–of all people–threw the best start of the year so far, allowing only 1 hit over 7 innings against Detroit while striking out 11. Neither Frank DiPino nor Jeff Pfeffer allowed a hit in closing the game out for a 1-0 Kansas city win.

#Miami Cuban Giants

Ramon Martinez tied the best game score of the year with a 5-hit complete game shutout of Chicago that took only 94 pitches, earning his first victory of the year.

#New York Black Yankees

With a 12-game hitting streak on the line, Babe Ruth came to the plate as a pinch hitter with his team down 2 in the bottom of the 9th and a runner on first. Ruth deposited Tom Niedenfuer‘s pitch in the left field seats for his 4th HR of the year to tie the game, extending his streak to 13 (New York would lose the game 5-4 in 13 innings).

#San Francisco Sea Lions

Lefty Grove continued his dominant start to the year, pitching 8 innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball while striking out 11 against Ottawa to go 2-0 on the season. Grove’s game score of 80 was the best in the league to date (later surpassed by Hamlin).

#Wandering House of David

OF Pete Browning continued his torrid start with a 4-for-4 game against the Black Yankees with a 2B, a 3B, and 2 RBIs to key a 13 inning HoD victory.