TRHL Owners,

Series 54 has been completed.

Congrats to the following post-season participants, with seed/rank in parentheses:

AL - Widings (4) vs. Breakers (1); Whitecaps (3) vs. Heroes (2)
NL - Marauders (4) vs. Outlaws (1); Indians (3) vs. Snowshoe Hares (2)

Results not submitted:
Pale Hose @ Sledgehammers
Isotopes @ Stogies
Glovers @ Rabid Dogs

(*) - Backup results submitted
(**) - Notified in advance

Automatic farmings due to overuse: Couldn't care less.

Any changes by the file drone can be changed immediately without penalty prior to playing the next series.

Transactions: None!

Injuries (> 3 days):
9/26 HFX Molina,Y 9
9/27 CHI Locke 10
9/27 ESH Chatwood 36

MP Issues: None

MPs ready for this series:

Series 55 LDS league file has been posted and the League File link on the website has been updated. Here's the link:
[www.trhl.org]

Note I still need to remove the "-X" tags for post-season active players. I'll do that soon and re-post the league file. Shouldn't affect your MP preparation, though.

Are we supposed to wait for an additional file, or do we go ahead and play the series?

The Marauders win the opener in a back-and-forth slugfest... and then decide to pack it in for the season, getting outscored 47-9 over the next 4 games as the Outlaws cruise into the LCS.

Epitome of how brutal this was: the Outlaws generated roughly 2x as many baserunners as the Marauders, yet somehow turned 10 DP in the series (despite an OOP Adrian Beltre at 2B!) while the Marauders managed only 1.

Bleh.

My Crescent Beach Breakers faced off against Stan Barkun's Juha Widings in the 1 vs. 4 matchup in the American League. Stan and I are friends and rivals in two other leagues, so we're used to knocking heads. The 101-61 Breakers were making their first postseason appearance since the 2009 TRHL season while the 96-66 Widings were in the playoffs for the first time under Stan's management.

However, for the series opener in Crescent Beach only the home team showed up. Big Game James Shields allowed the first five Breaker hitters to reach base and was lucky to be down only 2-0 after the first, but his luck ran out in the third. Crescent Beach scored seven against him and Bartolo Colon en route to a 24-2 dismantling, with designated martyr Colon left in to surrender the last 19 runs. Jose Altuve, Pedro Alvarez, and Marcell Ozuna combined for 17 hits and 19 RBI for the Breakers while Hisashi Iwakuma cruised.

The next day the Breakers were brought back to earth by Chris Sale, who nearly went the distance in a 1-0 Widing victory, fanning 17 while giving up only three hits. A Jayson Werth sac fly in the fourth made Jordan Zimmermann the hard-luck loser.

Two of the three games hosted by the Juha Widings went to the Breakers. Shields was again tagged by Crescent Beach and Henderson Alvarez took a 9-3 decision, then the Breakers scored four in the 11th of game four for a 7-3 win. The Widings needed a big start and got one from Ian Kennedy, who threw a six-hit shutout against Iwakuma, aided by a Dexter Fowler grand slam.

Back in Crescent Beach the two teams played a pair of games for the ages. In the sixth game Zimmermann built a 2-1 edge on Sale, but eighth-inning RBI singles by Chris Johnson and Ian Desmond pushed the Widings ahead. Altuve singled in the bottom half and stole second, so Devin Mesoraco was walked intentionally with two outs to bring up Kurt Suzuki. Suzuki doubled to the wall to score Altuve, but the Pr arm of Fowler beat the Pr running of Mesoraco to cut down the lead run. The game continued to the tenth, when Werth reached on an error by Brandon Belt and raced to third on a Chris Johnson double, then scored on a grounder to short. Ryan Flaherty drove in an insurance run that was crucial, because in the bottom half Adam Jones singled in Altuve and was stranded when Mesoraco lined to left to end the game.

The deciding game pitted Henderson Alvarez against don't-call-me-Big Game James, and Shields laid an egg for the third straight start, getting chased in the third after digging a 4-0 hole. The Widings chipped right back, scoring three in the fourth. It was still 4-3 in the eighth when Desmond walked with two outs, was singled to third by Fowler, then scored the tying run when Scooter Gennett beat out an infield single to Josh Harrison. In the bottom of the eighth Harrison made amends after Altuve and Pedro Alvarez singled by ripping a liner to left to score Altuve with the lead run for Crescent Beach. With Widings hopes centered on Nelson Cruz, Justin Morneau, and Jayson Werth in the top of the ninth, the unreliable Neftali Feliz was sent back out to close out the win. He retired the side in order to give the Breakers the 5-4 decision and the series, the first playoff win in their 8.5 seasons in Crescent Beach.

Jose Altuve was the top hitter, slashing an incredible .556/.541/.667 with ten runs scored and eight RBI. Chris Sale was stellar in his two starts, giving up only two earned runs while whiffing 24.

Whitecaps take the series 4-1 on the back of some strong hitting; an offense that has badly underperformed all year got hot at the right time at home, and after a tough 1-0 loss in Game 2 away, won 6-4, 6-4 and 8-2 in the three middle games to take the series.

Ben Zobrist had timely hits all series but Cole Hamels, though often shaky, won both his starts and was Series MVP.