BoS Week 2 (American League)

"Aged Pop"

Ichiro putting on a rare power display for the Boston Bravos.

A round of early division match-ups in Week 2.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

James Shields kicked off the Bronx Bombers series with South Shore on the right foot, by pitching a complete game, 4-1 victory, allowing only 6 hits & 2 walks, while striking out 6. Shields improves to 2-0, with a 0.50 ERA & 14 K's. The Bombers would pull off a surprising and successful 3-2 series win on the road. Ivan Nova (1-1, 3.00 ERA, had 7 K's in 8 IP) & Adam Wainwright (1-2, 3.57, had 7 K's in CG) also had good outings. The team's batting average jumped 30 points after rough Week 1 for their lineup. The Bronx must get Kyle Seager on track, who's hitting a lousy .091 (4-for-44 at-bats), yikes! Carlos Santana, meanwhile, is tied for second in A.L. with 11 RBI. The Bombers are now 5-6, tied with Boston, 1 game out of first.

The South Shore Fighting Imps hit a wall against Bronx's timely hitting & pitching, the team is still tops in their league in hitting at .276. Hyun-Jin Ryu is looking like the real deal for the Imps, with 1-1 record, 2.78 ERA & 19 K's in 22.2 innings -- just needs to curb down his amount of walks early on (12 walks). Veteran John Lackey (after missing all last season, due to injury recovery) is 2-0 this season. Shin-Soo Choo has collected a hit in all 11 games so far this season, only BoS player so far to do so; Choo also leads team with a .349 average (15-for-43), with 3 HR & 8 RBI. The team has four regular starters batting over .300 (Choo, Craig .341, Beltran .310 & Holliday .304).

The Swatara Eliminators almost executed a sweep of the Bravos, until Ichiro Suzuki's walk-off HR for Boston denied that; Boston also denied Swatara sole possession of first place. Yadier Molina still leads the American League in Batting Avg at the moment (.441), but has no HR & only 2 RBI to show for it, he has scored seven times though. Victor Martinez added another HR for his 3rd this season, he has 8 RBI, while batting .333 for Swatara. A couple relievers inflated the overall team ERA of 3.61 -- they are getting great starts from A.J. Burnett (1-0, 1.20 ERA, 14 K's in 2 starts), while Hector Santiago continues from his good debut, with another good outing, improving to 2-0, 1.93 ERA & 12 K's (needs to trim down walks, has 9). Next up for Swatara, a road trip to play the defending A.L. West Champs in Fairgrove.

The Boston Bravos' pitching may be sporting a low 3.31 team ERA (3rd in A.L.), but their opponents' batting average against Boston is a high .274 (league worst). Also, the team has took on the strategy out of the gate, with their starters going the distance, leaving their bullpen itchy, a bullpen that has one of the best closers in the game in Craig Kimbrel. Bravo starter Kris Medlen is not minding it so much, he is 3-0, with a 2.00 ERA with 24 K's in 27 innings. Jerome Williams (1-1, 2.50 ERA, 11 K's) and Dan Haren (1-0, 2.70 ERA) are also pitching good early in the season. Ichiro Suzuki, not only helped Boston avoid a sweep with his walk-off HR in Game 5, but he is showing some unusual power early on with 3 HR's already this season. Two other Bravos have 3 HR's this season in Matt Wieters and Adam LaRoche -- both players are among top 4 team hitters in batting average with Suzuki & Alexei Ramirez. LaRoche leads team with .992 OPS, while team flounders with .226 average.

The Fairgrove Tigers won their series against Brooklyn, 4-1 -- improving their record to 8-3, best in the entire BoS after two weeks. Madison Bumgarner has improved to 3-0, 1.88 ERA with 27 K's & a .708 WHIP in 24 innings; He has got help from teammate C.J. Wilson who is 2-0, with a 1.80 ERA & 10 K's in 15 innings. Joe Nathan added two more Saves this week to put his total up to a BoS leading 5 for the season. The team appears once again to be led by their pitching (3.06 ERA) than their hitting (.246). Adam Jones and Paul Goldschmidt keep tearing it up for the Tigers; Goldschmidt leads the team in HR (5) & RBI (12), while batting .349, while Jones is leading the team in batting average (.356) & hits (16), with 4 HR's & 7 RBI. The two studs will need some help from others in the lineup, to get this lineup that has a lot of potential, up and running.

The Brooklyn Mets are not off to a good start to say the least -- yet, they also just played two division champions from the prior season, back to back. They are at the bottom in both batting (.184 BA) and pitching (5.01 ERA). The silver lining in the pitching area, is that their bullpen has a low 1.93 ERA, led by Junichi Tazawa & Dana De La Rosa. After Michael Bourn's .343 batting average, the team falls off -- Jose Reyes is 2nd on the team, batting only .250! Bourn also happens to have 3 home runs. Tim Lincecum is 1-0, with a 3.95 ERA, he has been collecting plenty of K's of late, with 19 K's in 13.2 innings. Brooklyn will finally get a break in their schedule, as they head to Boston.

The Chicago Nine rebounded in their second series of the season against a improved, tougher Yankees team, edging them in a 3-2 series victory. Ian Kinsler has found his home run stroke and has blasted 6 HR's to kick off the young season, he already has about half of his real-life MLB total from that season, so we should expect a cool-down. David Ortiz is tied with Kinsler for the team-lead in RBI (11). Jacoby Ellsbury is second in batting average (.327) among the Nine, while leading the team with 16 hits & entire league with 13 steals. Early on the lineup is batting .262 with a combination of power & speed, while their pitching is a storm in the making -- with lots of high-end potential arms, how it all will play out for this season is a different question. Shelby Miller has looked good in his two starts; 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA & 17 K's. Chicago's pitching staff sports a 3.15 ERA, while allowing an opponent's batting average of .223.

The Buffalo Yankees cooled off across the board in their second series, they lost a tough 3-2 series against Chicago. The team needs more help from their rotation who have yet to pitch to their potential early on, the team's best starter in ERA, Wade Miley, has a ERA of 5.21! We expect to see Jordan Zimmermann to improve from his 0-1, 5.87 start (15.1 IP); Buffalo currently sports a 4.39 ERA. The bullpen on the other hand, has done it's job (2.98 ERA) in Luis Avilan, Neal Cotts, LaTroy Hawkins, and Koji Uehara. Hawkins has a 1-0, 0,00 ERA with 8 K's in 7.1 innings, allowing only 3 hits & a walk. Buffalo's lineup has stayed pat for the most part, except Brandon Moss (who batted .315 the first series) cooled off & is batting .214, despite hitting his 4th HR. Jay Bruce continues to lead the team with his .333 average, as Adrian Gonzalez has raised his average to .283, while leading the team with 8 RBI.

***This concludes the A.L. Highlights from Week 2***

BoS Week 1 (National League)

"Now That's Playing with Power"

Gattis was off the grid with his power display.

The second season of the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League is underway. The first week of the National League had plenty of storylines, so let's dive into that shall we.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

The Portland Microbrewers (the defending National League Champions) started their season at the Cherry capital of the world -- Traverse City to play the much-improved Panthers (or at least they appear so on paper). Despite losing the first game with a walk-off homer, and the second game on another close one -- Portland blazed back with a 3-2 series victory. Their entire pitching staff ended the series with a 2.62 ERA, while no player had a ERA higher than Cliff Lee (3.86). Hisashi Iwakuma has been working with the pitching coach & appears to be off to a good start this season with a 1-0 record, sporting a 2.76 ERA, with 12 K's in 16.1 innings -- holding the Panthers to a .203 batting average. The team's batting was starting to come around later in the series, as the team batted .249 against the Panthers; Juan Uribe's 2 HR's & 4 RBI in only 8 at-bats was the clear standout in the series.

The Traverse City Panthers had a good start to their six-game series against Portland, with two good wins -- the opener had a walk-off home run by Alejandro De Aza. The third game, Ryan Raburn started for Giancarlo Stanton & racked up three hits (plus his 1st HR & 2 RBI); Stanton would struggle all series with Hunter Pence -- the Panthers must find a way to get those bats going. Raburn played mostly off the bench this series, which he will be used at most of the season (a big weapon off the bench with that .901 MLB OPS). Yu Darvish & Julio Teheran both didn't get past the 2nd Inning in starts for T.C. as they got rocked (Darvish did have good Opening Day), while Corey Kluber's start suffered a called game due to rain, with a 6-0 lead in the 4th. Matt Harvey shined in his 8-inning, three-hit performance that allowed only one run, while collecting 8 K's. The bullpen by the end of the series, started racking up innings. Team is not concerned about its 4.66 team ERA.

A whole lot of whacking home runs a going on! The Holland Hitchhikers were one of a few teams this week that put on such a power display, that it's surprising they didn't knock out a few power grids. Evan Gattis made a rookie statement with 4 HR's in the opening series against Seattle, while batting .346 (9-for-26) with 9 RBI. Martin Prado was a on-base, slugging machine (1.356 OPS), hitting .440 (11-for-25) with a HR & 4 RBI, smacking 3 doubles, 2 triples, while drawing 5 walks. With those two guys' performances, you almost forget that they have Bryce Harper, who hit .273, 3 HR & 8 RBI. The pitching has yet to show it's true colors, and its 4.58 ERA doesn't do it justice; Jose Fernandez shined with his league-leading 21 K's & 2-0 record (3.94 ERA). Oh by the way, the Hitchhikers are batting .323 in it's opening week.

The Seattle Rainiers can be encouraged for better success in the future with their lineup, after their opening series against Holland, considering that players like Jose Altuve, Yoenis Cespedes (batted only .214, despite 2 HR & 8 RBI) & Jonathan Lucroy were overall, relatively absent. Matt Carp was their best overall hitter, batting .467, with 2 HR & 6 RBI. Their pitching had the roughest opening series in the entire BoS with a 6.67 ERA performance; Justin Masterson's 13 K, 3.38 ERA, 8-inning performance was the team's best by a starting pitcher, while Adam Ottavino was the bright spot for the bullpen with 8 K's, 4 hits allowed & 1.13 ERA in 8 innings. Too early to say where this team sits, as much as the rest of the league, but one thing is for sure, Rainiers really don't want to repeat this formula.

The San Diego Heroes opened the season with the most HR's in the season, not surprising since they were only second in the league (as the Sacramento 66'ers) last season with 226 HR (trailing only the Urbana Locomotives); Last season they had the only 50 HR club member in the entire league with Edwin Encarnacion (50, to be exact). San Diego had 10 different players homer against Urbana, two players had 2 HR each (Andrew McCutchen & Chris Davis). McCutchen batted .400 (10-for-25) with 3 RBI to go along with the homers, while he was one of four players with over a 1.100 OPS (the team had 7 players over .900 OPS). The team's concern going into their season was certainly not their offense, but their entire pitching staff, yet you would have not guessed it with a team ERA of 2.67, and shutouts by Andrew Cashner (7 K, two-hitter) and Tyson Ross (12 K, four-hitter); Gerrit Cole also had a great performance, allowing only 4 hits & a earned run (1.29) in his 7 K victory. Kenley Jansen is tied in the league with 3 saves.

The defending N.L. East champs Urbana Locomotives have the unfortunate luxury to be the only team in the BoS to start the season on the road for it's first two series; One at San Diego, the next series in Traverse City -- a double-dosage of the Baier brothers. Urbana won the first game 7-3, with 6 runs in first four innings -- but lost second baseman Aaron Hill to injury for 10 days. They would get shutout in two of the games (Games 2 & 5), while collecting 16 hits in another loss. Adrian Beltre's bat woke up in Game 4, as he went 4-for-5 with 2 RBI -- yet once again they lost. D.J. LeMahieu has done well filling in for the injured Hill, batting .316 (6-for-19). Jonny Gomes, despite batting .200, does have 3 solo HR's. The Locomotives knew entering the season, that the team was going to take a few steps back possibly, but it's much too early to panic in Urbana -- the lineup will certainly improve their .213 batting average. 

The King Road Kings' lineup had a rough series against Hannibal, batting .206 while managing only 42 hits & 18 runs; The silver lining? They played much better in their last three games of the series, in which 29 of their 42 hits came from. 15 of their hits came from Michael Cuddyer (.348, 1, 4) and Billy Butler (.318, 3 RBI). Newly acquired free agent, Justin Smoak (former Rainier) hit 2 HR's & 8 RBI. The team's strength, their pitching, is led by possibly the best two lefties in all of Major League Baseball (and BoS) in Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale. Kershaw went 1-1, 0.53 ERA, and 16 K's in 17 innings, while Sale ended up with no decision, 2.84 ERA in 6.1 innings. The Kings host division rival Seattle next, another team that batted poorly, but the Kings have a far better team ERA of 2.95 compared to Seattle's 6.67.

The Hannibal Cavemen finish the week one game behind Holland in the N.L. East Division race with a 4-2 record; Just like Holland, the team is much improved all-around. The team sported a 2.48 ERA (tops in N.L.), while only one of their starting pitchers (Jhoulys Chacin) had a bad week; Jon Lester (1-0, 1.00 ERA), Travis Wood (ND, 1.13 ERA, 7 K's), Gio Gonzalez (1-1, 2.20 ERA & 11 K's) & Homer Bailey (ND, 2.45 ERA & 6 K's) all looked pretty sharp. The bullpen (1.80 ERA) only allowed 3 hits in 10 innings, despite a little wild (7 walks). The pitching staff also boasts the lowest opponent batting average (.204). The power bats belonged to Dominic Brown (2 HR & 5 RBI) & Manny Machado (2 HR & 6 RBI). James Loney leads the team with a .353 batting average, followed by Troy Tulowitzki (.294) and Pablo Sandoval (.292) -- yet the team only batted a low .227 (which still ranked higher than three teams in the N.L.). The team has no problem keeping opponents off the scoreboard, but must improve their 3.2 runs per game. 

That concludes this week's highlights.

BoS Week 1 (American League)

"Off and Running"

The second season of the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League is underway. The first week had plenty of action, I didn't think it was possible to top last season's opening week, but I think some of the interesting storylines from this week may have topped that.

Chicago's Jacoby Ellsbury doing his best Rickey imitation.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

The South Shore Fighting Imps, as you all know, are on a quest to repeat. They are off to a good start with a 4-2 series victory in Week 1 over the new Brooklyn Mets (former Carolina Eagles).  Hyun-Jin Ryu, their first round 2014 BoS Draft pick showed why the Imps took him with a two quality starts (including a complete-game shutout), going 1-0 with a 1.62 ERA, plus 14 K's. The team has a 2.47 ERA, while batting .267. Four regulars are batting over .300, led by Allen Craig's .346 average; Two of the other 3 hitters that are batting over .300, have 2 HR's (Shin-Soo Choo & Matt Holliday). Mariano Rivera starts his going-away party with 2 saves.

The Imps kept the Brooklyn Mets to a .198 batting average, while Brooklyn also had a league low .259 on-base percentage for the week. The team had a few bright spots with speedsters Michael Bourn and Jose Reyes getting it done with the bat; Bourn batted .316 (6-for-19) with a HR & 3 RBI, while Reyes batted .273 (6-for-22) with a HR & 3 RBI. Justin Verlander, last season's runner-up to American League Cy Young, is off to pretty good start -- although he has not recorded a win, but a complete-game loss, he does have 17 K's in 16,1 innings, while sporting a 3.31 ERA. Adam Dunn did hit 2 HR's with 6 RBI (both currently team best), but is batting below the Mendoza line at .130.

The Boston Bravos finished the week tied, going 4-2 on the road to Chicago. Every starting pitcher oddly pitched a compete game, not sure if I ever have seen that. The pitcher that truly shined was Kris Medlen who got a little revenge on the team that traded him, Medlen is the first player to have been traded twice in this league's existence. Medlen went 2-0, 1.50 ERA & 17 K's in 18 innings. The Bravos' catcher Matt Wieters had a big week at the plate, hitting .381 (8-for-21), 3 HR & 8 RBI; His teammate Adam LaRoche didn't do too shaby either, with .333, 2 HR & 5 RBI against the Nine. The only problem, the rest of the team was absent, as the team batted .213 during the series.

Now Matt Wieters may have beat the Chicago Nine with his bat, but Wieters couldn't stop Jacoby Ellsbury, to save his life -- who set a few records. In two separate games he stole 5 bases, he ended the six-game series with 12 steals! The team stole 18 bases for the series, while Ellsbury broke the record of 4 steals in a ballgame set by Buffalo's Rajai Davis; the 12 steals in a series is most likely a record. David Ortiz .346 with his new team, while leading his team with 6 RBI -- his most interesting accomplishment was his two triples in the opening series (he had only 2 triples that season in the MLB). Nolan Arenaldo made a rookie impact in the hit column with 10 hits in 23 AB's (all singles, one RBI). The King, Felix Hernandez went 1-0 with 8 K's in 7 innings, allowing only 2 hits & a walk -- sporting a 1.29 ERA.

The Buffalo Yankees are off to a nice 4-2 start this season, and look to contend with Fairgrove this season. Koji Uehara has already saved 3 games for Buffalo, he has 8 K's (which leads the team) in 5 innings of work, allowing only 3 hits & no runs. On offense, Buffalo's Brandon Moss (batting .316) has put three over the fence, with 5 RBI; He has already drawn 6 walks. Jay Bruce is batting .407 (11-for-27) with a HR & 5 RBI. The team is batting .270, which is a great sign as Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Gonzalez -- the team's two offensive stars from last season, for the most part, have not got rolling just yet. That plus, a new & improved pitching staff should be a formula for better success this BoS Season.

The Swatara Eliminators are 2-4, but don't let their record or start fool you. They only have a -3 scoring differential, and their team improved in a few areas from their last season version of the Washington Filibusters. Each game with Buffalo was decided by no more than 3 runs, and two of the games went to extras (11 innings & 16 innings -- splitting the two games). Hector Santiago had a good season debut with 7 K's & a 1.50 ERA in 6 innings. The team hit a total of 10 HR's for the first series, with 4 players at 2 HR's each in Brandon Phillips, Victor Martinez, Anthony Rizzo & newly acquired Lorenzo Cain (acquired from South Shore in the Carlos Beltran deal). "V-Mart" is enjoying his good start, especially since he had to sit out the entire 2013 BoS Season with a leg injury (2012 MLB Injury), he also added four doubles. Phillips is batting .369 with 6 RBI. Yadier Molina leads the team with a .476 batting average, with 10 hits & 3 doubles.

The Fairgrove Tigers are 4-2, and are on a quest to repeat as A.L. West Division Champions. Madison Bumgarner is picking up where he left off, with one complete game, two quality starts that have resulted in a 2-0 record, with a 2.12 ERA & 18 K's in 17 innings. Joe Nathan logged 3 saves to start the season for the Tigers, with a 3.86 ERA. The Tigers showed some troubles with their lineup, the team falls off dramatically after the production from Adam Jones, Andre Ethier, and Paul Goldschmidt. Jones hit two solo HR's and leads the team with a .400 batting average. Ethier hit a solo HR & went 6-for-16 (.375), while Goldschmidt batted .348 with 2 HR & 5 RBI. Salvador Perez (1-for-24, .042) & Jason Heyward (1-for-21, .048) are sluggish out of the gate.

The Bronx Bombers opened up their season series with only two wins, the good news is that they were both complete-game shutouts by starting pitchers James Shields and Jarrod Parker (a free agent acquired in the 2014 BoS Draft); Both were shutouts against a really tough ballclub in the Tigers. Meanwhile, Adam Wainwright had two dates with bad luck, going 0-2, with a 4.61 ERA. The team's lineup had only one bright spot, and that was Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez batted .357, with 2 HR & 4 RBI with a double & steal. The Bombers only batted .209!


That was the highlights in the American League for Week 1, National League highlights for Week 1 are out tomorrow.

2013 BoS Award Winners & Recap

Beltre had a mammoth 2013 BoS Season, is he ready to do an encore?

Today I sent off our season's first Commissioner File (C-File) to the league. It is Opening Day for our league, the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League (BoS). Our first season used players from the 2012 MLB Season, making it our 2013 BoS Season.

It dawned on me that I have not got around on the Boys of Summer blog site about the player awards & etc, so a quick recap is needed.

The season ended with the South Shore Fighting Imps defeating the Portland Microbrewers in the World Series, 4-1. We had our 2014 Annual BoS Draft take place on November 1st, which contained MLB players making their 2013 MLB debuts, free agents, and newly added free agents by being released by their prior BoS teams.

The top pick went to my Traverse City Panthers, we ended up drafting Yasiel Puig. At one point, last season, I debated (if I got first choice) in drafting Jose Fernandez or Puig. Could you imagine a rotation with Yu Darvish, Matt Harvey, Jose Fernandez, Julio Teheran & Corey Kluber?! But my senses kicked in, I realized I need some outfield studs, plus some much-needed offense -- who more exciting than Puig? He now teams up with a strong outfield in Giancarlo Stanton & Hunter Pence (acquired last season from Boston). I added some depth to my outfield to go along with Alejandro De Aza & Jarrod Dyson in sleeper Scott Van Slyke and surprise Tampa Bay Rays youngster Kevin Kiermaier.

The second overall pick would end up being Fernandez, who would be drafted by the Holland Hitchhikers.

The 2013 BoS Award Winners were led by Adrian Beltre, he took home the most hardware during the off-season. He won the 2013 N.L. Most Valuable Player Award, along with the N.L. Batting Title (.349 BA), A Gold Glove and Silver Slugger at his respective position, while helping his team, the Urbana Locomotives, to a N.L. best record of 104-58. The Locomotives also featured award winners N.L. Cy Young Award - David Price & N.L. Manager of the Year - Thomas Nelshoppen (from The APBA Blog). The N.L. Fireman of the Year went to Portland's Glen Perkins.

Adrian Gonzalez: Buffalo's other stud.

The big awards in the American League were led by the Buffalo Yankees' Miguel Cabrera, who fell short of a triple crown. Cabrera lost the batting title & RBI race during the last two weeks of the regular season. Cabrera won the league's MVP honors, plus received a Gold Glove & Silver Slugger at this position (3B). His teammate first baseman Adrian Gonzalez would be runner-up to the league MVP, eclipsing Cabrera for the league-lead with a .319 batting average. Gonzalez also won a Gold Glove. The A.L. Cy Young  went to Ryan Vogelsong (Fairgrove Tigers) edging the Carolina Eagles' Justin Verlander by five votes. The World Champion South Shore Fighting Imps got two major award winners in A.L. Manager of the Year - Bill Gillam and Fireman of the Year - Fernando Rodney.

To check out, who all won Gold Gloves & Silver Sluggers, check them out below.

2013 BoS Gold Glove Award Winners

AMERICAN LEAGUE

C - Yadier Molina (Washington)

1B - Adrian Gonzalez (Buffalo)

2B - Brandon Phillips (Washington)

3B - Miguel Cabrera (Buffalo)

SS - J.J. Hardy (South Shore)

LF - Andre Ethier (Fairgrove)

CF - Adam Jones (Fairgrove)

RF - Jay Bruce (Buffalo)

P - Matt Cain (Carolina)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

C - Buster Posey (Hannibal)

1B - Freddie Freeman (Portland)

2B - Aaron Hill (Urbana)

3B - Adrian Beltre (Urbana)

SS - Yunel Escobar (King Road)

LF - Curtis Granderson (King Road)

CF - Andrew McCutchen (Sacramento)

RF - Justin Upton (Hannibal)

P - Clayton Kershaw (King Road)

2013 BoS Silver Slugger Award Winners

AMERICAN LEAGUE

C - Joe Mauer (South Shore)

1B - Adam LaRoche (Boston)

2B - Robinson Cano (Bronx)

3B - Miguel Cabrera (Buffalo)

SS - Elvis Andrus (Fairgrove)

LF - Melky Cabrera (South Shore)

CF - Shin-Soo Choo (South Shore)

RF - Carlos Beltran (Washington)

DH - Matt Holliday (South Shore)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

C - Buster Posey (Hannibal)

1B - Edwin Encarnacion (Sacramento)

2B - Aaron Hill (Urbana)

SS - Erick Aybar (Sacramento)

3B - Adrian Beltre (Urbana)

LF - Ryan Braun (Sacramento)

CF - Mike Trout (Portland)

RF - Josh Hamilton (King Road)

DH - Josh Willingham (Seattle)


2013 BoS Sultan of Swat Award

1B - Edwin Encarnacion (Sacramento) - 50 HR's

2013 BoS Batting Titles

A.L. - Adrian Gonzalez (Buffalo) - .319

N.L. - Adrian Beltre - .349

Once again, thanks to the great guys who joined my league, which I like to say is "our" league, by helping make this league a fun to league to participate in, and the fact that you do enjoy it makes everything so worth it! This league would be nothing without you.

The BoS World Series: Game 5

Top of the 4th, a lead-off double by Allen Craig. David Wright strikes out, while Matt Holliday draws a walk. Runners on 1st & 2nd, with one out -- Erik Kratz hits a RBI double, Holliday will have to hold third. J.J. Hardy draws a walk, as the Portland crowd is nervous. Matt Harrison to face Ben Zobrist, with bases loaded, Zobrist grounds it into a fielder's choice at second, run scores -- It's now only a 4-3 sliver of a lead for Portland.

Portland has had some lost chances on insurance runs early, and let South Shore back into this ballgame.

Holliday watches his blast off Harrison in the 5th.

Top of the 5th, back-to-back double by Melky Cabrera and Allen Craig ties the game up, at 4-4. South Shore not done -- Matt Holliday sends one deep,  hitting his second HR of the series, a two-run blast giving the Imps a 6-4 lead now. This crowd has been silenced, and are in a state of shock.

During the top of the 6th, South Shore would tack on a few more runs with a RBI single by Joey Votto, plus a two-run double by David Wright. Matt Harrison was taken out of the game after five innings, allowing 9 hits & 7 runs, while walking 4 Imps. 8 runs by South Shore during a three-inning span, has made it's imprint on this game.

Bottom of the 6th, Doug Fister would load up the bases for Portland, one out. Pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano would pop up, while Austin Jackson hits a liner down the first base line... which is snagged by Joey Votto, showing some leather! The Microbrewers come up flat in a golden opportunity.

Allen Craig collects hit #4 with a solo shot in the top of the 9th, to make it 10-4. During the bottom half, the South Shore Imps send in Darren O'Day instead of their usual closer Fernando Rodney. The Imps were one out away from running onto the field, when David Ortiz hits a double. Playoff hero Freddie Freeman would score him in with a double of his own. 10-5, two outs with a man on second, it's O'Day versus Jason Kipnis. O'Day delivers, two strikes now on Kipnis. Kipnis steps out, back in the box, the pitch, swings, and comes up empty! The South Shore Fighting Imps are the World Champions of the BoS! Congrats to Bill Gillam and his amazing ball club, from day one it seemed they ran the table, made the deals that brought in Joey Votto and Allen Craig. They always had a answer for their division rivals, the Boston Bravos when that team was on fire, the Imps knocked them back down, or went on a winning streak of their own.

SOUTH SHORE 10, PORTLAND 5

Doug Fister was not as sharp as in Game 1, but his offense helped him collect his 2nd win of the series; he allowed 8 hits, 4 runs & 3 walks in 7 innings -- he had a series ERA of 2.25 in 16 innings.

Matt Holliday walks away with World Series MVP honors, batting .444, 2 HR's, 5 RBI -- plus 8 hits, 4 runs & drawing two walks. Holliday had a series OPS of 1.333 (.500 OBP + .833 Sligging).

The 2013 BoS World Series: Game 4

The Portland Microbrewers will attempt to pull off the impossible... well, almost the impossible -- It has happened once in Major League Baseball history, coming back from a 3-0 series deficit. Do they have what it takes to overcome South Shore's terrific pitching this series? The fans in Portland are packing into the stadium, from all the excitement here, you would think it's the other way around in this one.

Game 4 - Tom Milone - S.S. (18-8, 3.16 ERA) vs Hisashi Iwakuma (9-7, 4.18 ERA).

Scoreless ballgame until the bottom of the 3rd, after a Marco Scutaro single, Mike Trout followed with a two-run homer to give Portland a 2-0 lead.

The best was yet to come for the Microbrewers who have been aching for some offense. Bottom of the 4th, Russell Martin hits a two-run HR after Alfonso Soriano reached first on a single. This was only the beginning -- Austin Jackson hits a double, and is scored in by a Marco Scutaro single. Mike Trout collects his 3rd hit of the game already on a infield single. After giving up a wild pitch, South Shore's Tom Milone offers up a three-run cookie to David Ortiz. Freddie Freeman gets himself a single, just before South Shore's manager pulls Milone out early in this one. Milone gives up 8 run on 12 hits, in 3 1/3 innings -- ouch!

Mike Trout was all smiles in his Game 4 performance.

Top of the 5th, down 8-0, the Imps' Matt Holliday hits a solo HR off of Hisashi Iwakuma to put South Shore on the scoreboard. Shortly after, Iwakuma walks off the mound in pain, word came after the game that he was done for the season. Alfredo Simon comes in to relieve Iwakuma; Simon pitches 2.2 innings of scoreless relief -- while Luis Avilan and Glen Perkins also do a good job keeping the Fighting Imps from adding more to the score.

Mike Trout would collect 4 hits in Game 4, along with his HR & 2 RBI; while David Ortiz finished 2-for-3, with 3 RBI & BB. The top four hitters in the Brewers' batting order, collected 11 total hits -- the team finished with 16 hits, as their offense finally woke up. Their 16 hits was more than their 13 hits combined from the first three games of the series.

The South Shore Fighting Imps had a hard time in this game, as they only managed four hits & a run, while leaving five runners on base -- while the Portland Microbrewers avoid a sweep, and will take it one game at a time.

PORTLAND 10, SOUTH SHORE 1

South Shore leads the series, 3-1.

The 2013 BoS World Series: Game 3

Game 3 is a must-win for the Portland Microbrewers, coming back from a 2-0 deficit has far better chances than trying to recover from a 3-0 deficit. The good news the Microbrewers are back home for this one, in front of a packed house.

Game 3 - Scott Diamond - S.S. (12-9, 3.54 ERA) vs Chris Tillman (9-3, 2.93 ERA).

The South Shore Fighting Imps jump off to a big lead early on. After back-to-back singles by David Wright & Matt Holliday, A.J. Pierzynski takes advantage of a pitch left up by Chris Tillman, sending a deep blast to center field to make it 3-0.

Top of the 3rd, David Wright (with two outs) hits his second single of the day. The next batter, Matt Holliday sends a double down the left field line, the Imps send Wright around third in an attempt to score, but Austin Jackson once again throws out a runner at the plate -- bringing up memories of the NLCS against Urbana.

The Imps' Pierzynski: 3 hits & 3 RBI.

The Brew Crew would not get their first hit off of Scott Diamond until the 5th inning, a single by Alfonso Soriano with two outs -- Portland would be unable to do anything else with that, as the score still remains 3-0. Diamond pitched a no-hitter earlier in the season (Game #71) against the Washington Filibusters.

A.J. Pierzynski gets a two-out double in the top of the 6th with two outs, knocking out Portland's starting pitcher Chris Tillman; Portland calls on Nick Vincent. Vincent would not allow South Shore to score that inning. During the bottom half, Portland finally gets on the board with a solo home run by Austin Jackson.

South Shore would tack on a few more runs, with Matt Lindstrom as their reliever, so he'll earn a save with 2.2 innings of relief. Scott Diamond records the win, Chris Tillman the loss. The Imps would record 14 hits, while Portland struggles once again offensively with 3 hits -- while scoring only one run in the first 3 games.

SOUTH SHORE 5, PORTLAND 1

Portland finds themselves in a huge 3-0 hole, will South Shore go undefeated this post-season, and finish the World Series with a sweep? Or does the Microbrewers have some fight left in them?