2015 NLDS Game One - North Georgia at Metropolis

The National League Division Series kicked off on the evening of October 8 with the North Georgia Yellow Jackets taking on the Metropolis Avengers in the Hall of Justice. The Avengers were well-rested, having watched North Georgia defeat Portland in the NL Wild Card round.

The defending Brassball champion Avengers sent new ace Carlos Carrasco to the mound in Game One. Carrasco came to Metroplolis in an off-season trade and went 15-4 with a sparkling 1.86 ERA on the season. The Yellow Jackets countered with lefty Jose Quintana, who was 14-10, 3.50 on the season.

Jose Reyes's double gave Metropolis a 4-0 lead.

The hometown Avengers jumped on Quintana in the bottom of the first. Singles by Andrew McCutchen and Jose Bautista put runners on the corners with one out. Surprise cleanup hitter Gregorio Petit drove home McCutchen with another single, putting the Avengers up 1-0. Quintana struck out Steve Pearce and hoped to get out of the inning,but then surrendered singles to Bryce Harper and Jayson Werth and was down 3-0. Quintana gave up a line drive double to Jose Reyes while Scott Carroll warmed in the pen and the visitors found themselves behind 4-0 before many of the fans had even found their seats.

North Georgia tried to rally in the top of the third, as Willie Bloomquist and Ben Zobrist singled with one out. Carrasco shut them down by striking out Erick Aybar and Leonys Martin to keep the score 4-0 Avengers.

Carroll was still on the mound in the bottom of the third, but he was clearly tiring. After getting the first out, Carroll allowed five consecutive singles to Pearce, Harper, Werth, Reyes and Chris Iannetta. That pushed the Avenger lead to 7-0, but Carroll got a groundball double play from McCutchen to avoid even more damage.

Lucas Duda's homer put North Georgia on the board.

In the fourth inning, former Avenger 1B Lucas Duda put the Yellow Jackets on the board when he squared up a Carrasco change up for a two-run homer. Carrasco had hit Adam Jones earlier in the inning and the Metropolis bullpen got active, just in case the two mistakes were early warnings of an impending meltdown.

Joaquin Benoit pitched 1 2/3 IP to close out Game One.

Carrasco did allow his share of baserunners, but managed to strand them when necessary. The visitors left two runners on in the third and fifth innings and another in the seventh. Despite that, Metropolis stuck with its starter into the eighth inning. Carrasco walked Martin to start the top of the eighth and allowed a one-out single to Jones. With a 7-2 lead, Carrasco gave the ball to reliever Joaquin Benoit, who retired Torii Hunter on an easy fly ball and struck out Duda to end the threat. Benoit stayed on for the ninth and closed out the Avengers’ Game One win.

The early Avengers runs seemed to stun the Yellow Jackets, who didn’t put up much of a fight the rest of theway. They also used five relief pitchers after Quintana’s early exit, which adds pressure to Game Two starter AJ Burnett. Metropolis sends its 21-game winner Corey Kluber to the mound tomorrow night, hoping to sweep the first two games at home before going to North Georgia for the middle part of the series.

BOXSCORE: 2015 North Georgia Yellow Jackets At 2015 Metropolis Aven 10/8/2015

  Yellow Jackets     AB  R  H RBI AVG     Avengers           AB  R  H RBI AVG

  E.Aybar SS          5  0  0  0 .276     A.McCutchen CF      4  1  2  0 .500 

  L.Martin LF         3  0  1  0 .182     R.Cano 2B           5  0  1  0 .200 

  J.Abreu DH          4  0  0  0 .360     J.Bautista 1B       4  1  1  0 .250 

  A.Jones CF          3  1  1  0 .292     G.Petit 3B          3  1  1  1 .333 

  T.Hunter RF         4  0  0  0 .304   A-P.Sandoval PH,3B    1  0  0  0 .000 

  L.Duda 1B           4  1  1  2 .174     S.Pearce DH         4  1  1  0 .250 

  E.Gattis C          4  0  0  0 .190     B.Harper LF         4  2  2  1 .500 

  W.Bloomquist 3B     4  0  2  0 .500     J.Werth RF          3  1  2  2 .667 

  B.Zobrist 2B        3  0  1  0 .316     J.Reyes SS          4  0  2  2 .500 

                                          C.Iannetta C        3  0  1  1 .333 

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

         Totals      34  2  6  2                 Totals      35  7 13  7

A-Pinch Hit For Petit In 7th Inning

Yellow Jackets.. 0 0 0  2 0 0  0 0 0  -  2  6  0

Avengers........ 4 0 3  0 0 0  0 0    -  7 13  1

Yellow Jackets (4-2)     IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA  SCORESHEET

J.Quintana LOSS(1-2)      0 2/3   6   4   4   0   1   0   7.56  A1 A8

S.Carroll                 2 1/3   5   3   3   0   1   0   3.29  A9 C1

C.Torres                  2 2/3   2   0   0   1   2   0   0.00  C2 D2

C.Young                   1       0   0   0   0   0   0   0.00  D3 D5

J.Hughes                  1       0   0   0   1   1   0   3.00  D6 E1

D.Smyly                   0 1/3   0   0   0   0   0   0   6.75  E2

Totals                    8      13   7   7   2   5   0

Avengers (1-0)           IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR    ERA  SCORESHEET

C.Carrasco WIN(1-0)       7 1/3   5   2   2   2   6   1   2.45  A1 D4

J.Benoit                  1 2/3   1   0   0   0   2   0   0.00  D5

Totals                    9       6   2   2   2   8   1

ATTENDANCE- 48,197 DATE- Thursday, October 8th 2015 TIME- Day WEATHER- Average

UMPIRES- Gary Darling, Jerry Meals, Bill Miller, Paul Emmel

T- 3:00

LEFT ON BASE- Yellow Jackets: 8  Avengers: 7

DOUBLE PLAYS- Yellow Jackets: 2  Avengers: 0

ERRORS- J.Reyes

DOUBLES- A.McCutchen(1st), J.Reyes(1st)

HOME RUNS- L.Duda(3rd)

RBIs- L.Duda-2(7th), G.Petit(1st), B.Harper(1st), J.Werth-2(2nd),

      J.Reyes-2(2nd), C.Iannetta(1st)

WALKS- L.Martin, B.Zobrist, J.Werth, C.Iannetta

HIT BY PITCH- A.Jones, A.McCutchen

STRIKE OUTS- E.Aybar-2, L.Martin, J.Abreu, T.Hunter, L.Duda-2, E.Gattis,

             S.Pearce-2, J.Werth, C.Iannetta-2

GIDP- A.McCutchen, G.Petit

2-out RBI- B.Harper, J.Werth, J.Reyes, L.Duda-2

RLISP 2-out- C.Iannetta-2, L.Martin, J.Abreu, J.Bautista, L.Duda, R.Cano

TEAM RISP- Yellow Jackets: 0 for 5  Avengers: 7 for 13