After incredible pitching duels between the Braves and Cubs and then the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in the last two games we played, it was time to go to the No. 4 starters for the same team matchups. We play all home-and-home doubleheaders, and either pitch the ace and No. 4 in the rotation, or the 2nd and 3rd in the rotation. The batter happiest this was the No. 4 pitcher and in the hitters park in Arizona was ...
Max Muncy who homered twice off Ryne Nelson in the first three innings to lead the Dodgers to a 9-7 win. Muncy was part of a dominant first four in the line-up that went 15 of 30 in the two games.
This included four hits from both Freddie Freeman and Will Smith, but it also included a 3 of 7 by Trayce Thompson after replacing an injured Mookie Betts in the first game. We only play that series last for the rest of the series, but Thompson is a very good hitter and against right-handed pitchers hits almost as well as Betts with an 87 or 88 turned into a single and runners advance two bases. We actually left him in Betts lead off spot.
The Diamondbacks stayed close with home runs by Corbin Carroll and Christian Walker, and the No. 9 hitter Nick Ahmed also added a homer and finished with teh team best 3 of 7 for the 2-game series to keep Arizona close in both games. But Walker did strike out in the bottom of the 8th to end the inning with the bases loaded and the Dodgers clinging to a 9-7 lead. That was a disappointment after closer Joe Mantiply (only a slightly above average PB2-7) let a 2-1 lead slip away.
Counting down relief pitchers
If the whole bull pen is rested, like in our first game of a 2-game series, the closer should normally be saved for the 9th inning, the set-up reliever for the 8th, then to figure out the rest subtract the Number Reliever the cards says he is from 10. So the No. 3 reliever would normally pitch in the 7th, the No. 4 in the 6th etc - except if a pitcher has an Max IP 3 then you can reserve two innings for him to pitch (the Max IP is actually one higher then you should normally use him).
In these games when the starting pitchers are knocked out early (both after three innings) you need to count out the best relievers available from the 9th inning back to the inning in which you want to replace the starter. The trick is the "Maximum IP" is really 1 inning higher than the number of innings you should use the pitcher, but the extra inning listed if for in case they need to come in during the previous inning and then pitch the next inning. Most relievers have a Max IP 2 so pitched one inning of relief each, but the Dodgers Gavin Stone and the Diamondbacks Tommy Henry both have a Max IP 3 so we scheduled them for two innings each in counting them down.
Reminder Note: To play our own Statis-Pro Baseball games, click and print the batters cards here, then these pitchers' cards and finally the Statis-Pro rules which will have everything you need to play. Also note that we had one error in earlier notes - the adjustments listed at the bottom of some pitcher cards to the batters they face (changing a HR to Out or vice versa) must be used every time they pitch, not just in road games as previously listed. You may notice this season that our blogs are picked up by https://www.baseball-reference.com/ so when a player is mentioned you can link for their stats by clicking.
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