Only Milwaukee Look Comfortable Following Game 2
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October 3, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
The Milwaukee Brewers, St Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers were all victorious in the MLB play-offs on Sunday.
The Milwaukee Brewers registered a 9-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2 of their National League Division Play-off Series (NLDS) to open up a 2-0 lead, and they are the only franchise looking in control at this point.
The St Louis Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 5-4 to tie their series at 1-1, while the New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers and the Tampa Bay Rays and the Detroit Tigers are both tied in their respective American Leagues Division Play-off Series (ALDS).
It was a tight encounter to begin with and the scores were tied at 4-4 going in to the sixth inning, but the Brewers batting line-up assaulted the D-backs field during the bottom of the sixth to secure five runs and knock the stuffing out of their opponents, who didn’t register any further scores.
What made it more remarkable is that it is the 16th time that pitcher Zack Grienke has taken to the mound in 2011 – and the 16th time they have won when he has done so.
Jonathan Lucroy’s bunt played a huge part in the sixth inning scoring run and the Brewers never looked back.
Ryan Braun added three hits to his stat sheet, including his first ever post-season home run and three RBIs, as he led a group of five hitters at the top of the order who accounted for eight RBIs between them.
Brad Ziegler was introduced as the D-backs relief pitcher and he had a huge part to play in the sixth inning collapse. Lucroy’s bunt left two on the bases and Ziegler’s gamble to intentionally walk pinch-hitter Mark Kotsay backfired when Corey Hart, Nyjer Morgan and Braun all registered hits to build up a lead they never relinquished.
In the other NLDS match of the evening, the St Louis Cardinals came from 0-4 down to register a 5-4 victory that levelled their series with the Philadelphia Phillies at 1-1.
After coming back from 10 ½ games behind in the regular season to get this far, four runs probably didn’t seem too much of a problem to the team.
Two RBI’s from Ryan Howard and one each from Raul Ibanez and Hunter Pence had put the Phillies seemingly in control but the Redbirds had other ideas.
Ryan Theriot got them on the board in the fourth with an RBI double and Jon Jay and Rafael Furcal added to that with singles of their own.
Another double from Theriot in the sixth continued the comeback before he scored on the Jay single.
Allen Craig scored in the seventh from a leadoff triple, started by Albert Pujol, and the comeback was complete.
The Tigers levelled their ALDS with the Yankees thanks to a 5-3 win at Yankee Stadium that survived a late onslaught from the home side.
Max Scherzer was the hero for the Tigers as he put a disappointing day at the same stadium in April out of his mind to hold a strong attack at bay and give Tigers fans hope of a series upset.
Miguel Cabrera was the batting star with three RBIs to his name from the encounter as he matched the Yankees’ total score; singles from Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones. Victor Martinez and Don Kelly got the other vital scores for the visitors.
In the other ALDS match of the evening, the Texas Rangers scored five runs in the fourth innings on their way to an 8-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays to also even their series up at 1-1.
By Leigh Gruffydd Sanders
[Image courtesy of hj_west/UCinternational]
