2014 Brassball World Series - Cook County vs. Metropolis - Game Two

Metropolis won Game One of the World Series in extra innings and looked to take a 2-0 series lead behind Stephen Strasburg. Cook County sent lanky lefty Chris Sale to the mound, hoping to get a couple lucky bounces they didn't get in Game One and even the series.

Chris Sale was dominant.

The pitchers dominated right from the start. Stasburg walked David Ortiz to start the second, but erased him with a double play. Sale did the exact same thing with Jayson Werth - leadoff walk and double play - in the second. Strasburg turned the lead off walk-then-double play trick again in the third with Michael Cuddyer. Those three walks and double plays were the best "rally" either team could mount early on. Through the top of the fifth, Sale and Strasburg combined to allow just four base runners while striking out eight.

Metropolis broke through in the sixth when they scraped together a single, bunt, error and a wild pitch to send Matt Wieters home with the game's first run. Amazingly, Jose Reyes's bunt in the inning was the very first sacrifice the Avengers attempted all season.

The Maulers fought right back in the seventh. Reliever Kasey Jansen gave up a lead off single to Cuddyer and pinch runner Rajai Davis immediately stole second to move into scoring position. Evan Longoria's double in the gap scored Davis easily and knotted the game at one. Jansen stranded Longoria at second to end the inning. Sale stayed on for the seventh and looked energized, striking out the side in the bottom of the inning Werth, Yoenis Cespedes and Carlos Quentin saw just 13 pitches in their at bats and each of the three struck out swinging.

Evan Longoria's double tied the run in the 7th inning.

Jansen and Sale breezed through the eighth and Caleb Thielbar came on for Metropolis in the ninth inning. He quickly got into trouble, walking Shin Soo Choo and giving up a single to Davis. Adam Jones bunted the runners to second and third, leaving them for David Ortiz to drive in. Thielbar was up to the challenge, inducing a ground ball for the second out and keeping the runners in place. Longoria got a slider and put a good swing on it, but it was right to third baseman Jose Bautista for the third out.

Sale went back out for the ninth inning and worked around an Andrew McCutchen double to send the game to extra innings. Sale had pitched well enough to expect a complete game win (allowing just two hits while striking out 13 Avengers), but the Metropolis bullpen had matched him out-for-out and the game kept going.

JJ Hardy reached on a two-out single in the top of the tenth, but Thielbar got Ryan Raburn to fly out to end the inning. Surprisingly, Cook County stayed with Sale for the tenth inning. He got Carlos Quentin for the first out and struck out Wieters for the second. Reyes then walked, but Sale held him close and prevented the speedy shortstop from stealing second and getting into scoring position. Even that wouldn't have mattered, as Sale retired Bautista on a fly ball to right field and the game moved to the 11th inning.

Robinson Cano slides home with the winning run.

Thielbar worked a quick 11th inning, getting Choo and Davis to pop up weakly and retiring Jones on a fly ball to McCutchen. Amazingly, Sale went back to the mound for the bottom of the inning, likely because lefty Robinson Cano was scheduled to lead off the inning. Cano won the battle, slapping a single over the shortstop's head. That was the end of Sale's day. He pitched 10 plus innings and allowed three hits and four walks while striking out 14 batters. Righty Tanner Roark came from the pen to face Andrew McCutchen. Roark got ahead of the count 1-2, but left a fastball over the plate, which McCutchen hammered into right-center field. The line drive split between Jones and Davis and went all the way to the wall. Cano read the ball off the bat and sprinted around the bases, easily beating the relay throw from Ryan Raburn to score the winning run.

Caleb Thielbar got the win. Again.

Metropolis has a 2-0 lead in the World Series, but the games could not have been any closer. Both games were 2-1 and took 11 innings to decide. Caleb Thielbar won both games and has allowed just two hits in 5 1/3 innings. The series now moves to Cook County where Mauler Jordan Zimmermann will face Justin Masterson in Game Three. The hitters are likely happy to be moving to Veeck Field, which is cozier and more hitter-friendly than the spacious Hall of Justice. Still, these pitching staffs are deep and talented and could easily put up another string of zeros in any ballpark.

Stay tuned...

BOXSCORE: 2014 Cook County Maulers At 2014 Metropolis Avengers      11/2/2014

  Maulers            AB  R  H RBI AVG     Avengers           AB  R  H RBI AVG

  S.Choo LF           4  0  0  0 .179     R.Cano 2B           5  1  1  0 .291 

  M.Cuddyer RF        2  0  1  0 .340     A.McCutchen CF      4  0  2  1 .321 

A-R.Davis PR,RF       2  1  1  0 .421     J.Satin 1B          4  0  0  0 .133 

  A.Jones CF          4  0  0  0 .149     J.Werth RF          2  0  0  0 .209 

  D.Ortiz DH          3  0  0  0 .235     Y.Cespedes LF       4  0  0  0 .278 

  E.Longoria 3B       4  0  1  1 .259     C.Quentin DH        4  0  0  0 .255 

  P.Fielder 1B        4  0  1  0 .224     M.Wieters C         4  1  1  0 .316 

  W.Ramos C           3  0  0  0 .147     J.Reyes SS          2  0  0  0 .190 

C-D.Murphy PH         1  0  0  0 .091     J.Bautista 3B       4  0  0  0 .111 

D-R.Martin C          0  0  0  0 .111                                         

  J.Hardy SS          4  0  1  0 .232                                          

  D.Lemahieu 2B       2  0  0  0 .086                                         

B-R.Raburn PH,2B      2  0  0  0 .216                                         

                     -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---     

         Totals      35  1  5  1                 Totals      33  2  4  1

A-Pinch Ran For Cuddyer In 7th Inning

B-Pinch Hit For Lemahieu In 8th Inning

C-Pinch Hit For Ramos In 10th Inning

D-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Murphy In 10th Inning

Maulers......... 0 0 0  0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 -  1  5  1

Avengers........ 0 0 0  0 0 1  0 0 0  0 1 -  2  4  0

Maulers (8-7)            IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA  SCORESHEET

C.Sale LOSS(2-2)         10       3   2   1   4  14   0   1.67  A1 E1

T.Roark                   0       1   0   0   0   0   0   4.05  E2

Totals                   10       4   2   1   4  14   0

Avengers (10-3)          IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA  SCORESHEET

S.Strasburg               6       1   0   0   2   2   0   1.75  A1 C1

K.Jansen BS(1st)          2       2   1   1   0   3   0   1.13  C2 C9

C.Thielbar WIN(2-0)       3       2   0   0   1   1   0   0.63  D1

Totals                   11       5   1   1   3   6   0

ATTENDANCE- 46,747 DATE- Sunday, November 2nd 2014 TIME- Day WEATHER- Good

UMPIRES- Gary Cederstrom, Fieldin Culbreth, Jim Reynolds, Tim Timmons

T- 2:57

LEFT ON BASE- Maulers: 5  Avengers: 5

DOUBLE PLAYS- Maulers: 1  Avengers: 2

ERRORS- E.Longoria

DOUBLES- E.Longoria(1st), A.McCutchen-2(5th)

RBIs- E.Longoria(6th), A.McCutchen(8th)

STOLEN BASES- R.Davis(2nd)

SACRIFICE HITS- A.Jones, J.Reyes

WALKS- S.Choo, M.Cuddyer, D.Ortiz, A.McCutchen, J.Werth-2, J.Reyes

STRIKE OUTS- S.Choo, M.Cuddyer, P.Fielder, W.Ramos, D.Murphy, R.Raburn,

             R.Cano-2, A.McCutchen, J.Satin-3, J.Werth-2, Y.Cespedes-2,

             C.Quentin, M.Wieters, J.Bautista-2

GIDP- A.Jones, E.Longoria, Y.Cespedes

WILD PITCHES- C.Sale

2-out RBI- E.Longoria

RLISP 2-out- J.Satin, P.Fielder, E.Longoria-2, Y.Cespedes

WEB GEMS- Bot 8th: Ryan Raburn robbed Matt Wieters of a base hit.