In real baseball Friday night, Spencer Strider struck out 12 batters in 6.2 innings - despite losing his first game of the season when the Braves were shut out. On April 24 he became one of five players this season to strike out 13 batters - tied for most of the season.
This season our Statis-Pro season seemed to be lagging a behind MLB when we realized a calculation error when making the cards - which was easily corrected by changing all 77-84 random numbers on pitcher's cards into strikeouts instead of outs on balls put into play. Still, 10 Ks seemed the limit in Statis-Pro games so far until Strider registered 15 in our Statis-Pro game to beat the Dodgers.
Strider had 12 strikeouts through 7 innings and a 5-0 lead, which is listed as his Max IP = 7 innings. However, in Statis-Pro the Max IP does not mean the pitcher cannot pitch further, but it means his SR (or RR for relievers) automatically drops to 0 at the end of the Max IP to lower his PB by 1. After 7 innings that means we had to drop Strider to a PB 2-8 (from the best in the game 2-9) but since the Braves had no relievers with higher than a 2-8 he was still the best they had. His 5-0 lead mean if he could pitch one more inning then the Braves would lead by 5-runs (5-0) at the end of 8 innings and and a win would give them credit for a 3 games to 0 sweep instead of the normal 2 games to 1 edge (just a fun rule we play that each game counts as three games).
However, Mookie Betts led off the 8th to ruin that with a home run and the final would be 5-1, so just a 2 games to 1 edge so when the Dodgers won the second game 3-1 the series was recorded as a 3 games to 3 tie for the two top teams this season.
With the sweep already ruined but no save situation left, we let Strider stay in the game even though the homer (reduce one for run scored and one for allowing a runner reach base) he dropped to a PB4-7 - and he recorded two more strikeouts in the 8th to get to 14, and we even left him in in the beginning of the 9th and he got number 15 before walking a player to set up a save possibility (still 5-1, but two on so tying run on deck which creates a save opportunity) so he left with 15 strikeouts and the wi, with Iglesias getting the save.
Clayton Kershaw was excellent as well, but despite being an excellent PB 2-8, the Braves do have several players who kill lefties including Travis d'Arnaud who had a hit on an 85 (the biggest advantage possible in a platoon is an 85 which means 85-88 turns into a hit) and Ozzie Albies had a hit on an 87. Kershaw also does give up a lot of hits for a great hitter, with his hits allowed range 11-25 compared to the average of only 11-23. His walk range is tiny, and he was able to scatter 8 hits over 6 innings with no walks allowed for a quality start due to not allowing any walks, good enough to stay in our top 10 Statis-Pro ERAs but not enough for a win on this night.
He left with only 1 run allowed, but a 7th inning leadoff double by d'Arnaud. Cole Phillips came into relief and allowed all three batters he faced to hit. Rosario greeted him with a double to score Kershaw's running, Orlando Arcia drew a walk, and then Acuna homered to make it 5-0 and give the Braves a chance at the sweep until Betts homered.
The Dodgers won the second game 3-1 to even the series, on the strength of all four relievers giving a scoreless inning - with Brusdar Graterol getting the save.
The second inning the Braves had 1st and 2nd with no outs, and it is the first time we remember an inning three Clutch Defensive plays for all three outs. On a CD for catcher Will Smith's CD-4 came into play as he made a tough play to throw out the lead runner at 3rd base. Then on a CD on the pitcher's card he made a nice catch on a foul ball. Then second baseman Lux, who is actually out for the season but we are playing everyone this year, made a diving catch on a line drive that would have gotten by the majority of second baseman.
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