Another Chipper Jones GW Homer Beats Cuba 4-2; Clinches Final Title Spot With Texas and Puerto Rico

For the second game in a row, Chipper Jones delivered a game-winning home run. this time off Cuba's Raisel Iglesias. Cuba's Yordan Alvarez singled in Bert Campaneris in the top of the 8th inning to tie the score at 2-2. However, Florida's Trea Turner singled and stole second in the bottom of the eighth before Jones home run made it 4-2. You can click here for all 12 World teams.

Cristóbal Torriente - the Negro League star from the 1920s for Chicago's championship team, started the game for Cuba with a homer off Zack Greinke, but Greinke allowed only one other baserunner in his six innings pitched.

Cuba had one last shot in the 9th against closer Tom Gordon. Tony Oliva singled and Tony Perez walked, and Cuba pinch hit slugger Jose Conseco - who drove the ball to centerfield for a potential game-winning, but it was caught by Tim Raines to improve Florida to 4-1. Jones and Raines were the only two players in the game with two hits, and Jones other hit was a double while Raines stole three bases. 

The win makes Florida 4-1 in the South Division and clinches first place without them playing their last game. The Dominican Republic is 4-2 but was swept by Florida so will finish second place in the South.

Here is what is left:

For 2nd Place in North - Pennsylvania vs. New York in final regular season series that matters - Pennsylvania advances if they win at least one game, and New York if they sweep. 

One Game Playoff of 3rd place teams for Final Playoff Spot:

Central America (3rd in Pacific) at Venezuela (3rd in South)

Round Robin of Preliminary Playoff Pool (each team plays six games)

1. California (2nd in Pacific)
2. Dominican Republic (2nd in South)
3. Pennsylvania or New York (2nd in North)
4. Central America or Venezuela (3rd place play-in game)

Championship Pool (also six games each team)

1. Texas (Pacific Champion)
2. Puerto Rico (North Champion)
3. Florida (South Champion)
4. Winner of Preliminary Playoff Above

Clinching Game	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cuba	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0		2	3	1
Florida	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	x		4	8	0

  

Cuba	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes		Florida	Pos	AB	R	H	RBI	Notes
Cristóbal Torriente	8-CF	4	1	1	1	HR		Tim Raines	8-CF	4	2	2	0	3 sb
Minnie Minoso	7-LF	3	0	1	0			Trea Turner	6-SS	4	1	1	0	1 sb
Sandy Consuegra	1-P	0	0	0	0			Chipper Jones	5-3B	3	1	2	3	2B, HR
Raisel Iglesias	1-P	0	0	0	0			Anthony Rizzo	3-1B	3	0	1	1
Tony Gonzalez	ph	1	0	0	0			Robby Thompson	4-2B	4	0	0	0
Tony Oliva	9-RF	4	0	1	0			Andre Dawson	7-LF	3	0	1	0
Martín Dihigo	2-C	4	0	0	0			Gary Sheffield	9-RF	3	0	1	0
Tony Perez	3-1B	3	0	0	0			Mickey Rivers	9-RF	0	0	0	0	sb
Yoan Moncada	5-3B	3	0	0	0			Al Lopez	2-C	3	0	0	0
Jose Canseco	PH	1	0	0	0			Zack Greinke	1-P	2	0	0	0
Tony Taylor	4-2B	3	0	0	0			John Henry Lloyd	PH	1	0	0	0
Bert Campaneris	6-SS	3	0	1	0	sb		Mike Clevinger	1-P	0	0	0	0
José Méndez	1-P	1	0	0	0			Jay Howell	1-P	0	0	0	0
Yordan Alvarez	7-LF	2	0	1	1			Tom Gordon	1-P	0	0	0	0
Totals - .156 BA		32	1	5	2	1 sb		Total - .267 BA		30	4	8	4	5 sb

Cuba Pitching	PB	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Dec
José Méndez	2-7'	5	3	1	1	1	2
Sandy Consuegra	2-7'	2	3	1	1	1	0
Raisel Iglesias	2-8'	0.1	2	2	2	0	0	L
Aroldis Chapman	2-9'	0.2	0	0	0	0	2
Florida Pitching	PB	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Dec
Zack Greinke	2-8'	6	2	1	1	0	7
Mike Clevinger	2-7'	1	0	0	0	0	1
Jay Howell	2-7'	1	2	1	1	0	1	W
Tom Gordon	2-8'	1	1	0	0	1	0	S

S. Korean Magic Extends to Baseball & Ohtani Homers Off Seaver

 

The South Korean magical World Cup soccer run ended against the heavily favored Brazil, but the debut of our Statis-Pro Baseball Classic started with a shocker against heavily favored California.

South Korean Ji-Man Choi homered in the 10th inning to give the the all-time Asian team a 2-0 win against Dennis Eckersley. 

Pool Play and Schedule

This was the debut game in our World Cup style play after finishing the 12 Teams for Statis-Pro Baseball (see this blog) game using the greatest career cards for 19 batters and 18 pitchers for each team.

West/Far East Pool - California (tournament favorite), Asia, Texas, Central America.

Northern Pool - New York, Pennsylvania, Canada and Puerto Rico due to heavy Puerto Rican population in New York.

Southern Pool - Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Florida.

Each team goes through 6-man starting pitcher rotation playing each of the three teams in its pool in a double header. If teams are tied for any of the 1st through 4th stats after six games, tie-breakers are broken by "head-to-head" then "fewest runs allowed" then "most runs scored" then "fewest innings at bat" (since a team that doesn't hit in the bottom of the 9th has a disadvantage in runs scored) then if still tied a one-game playoff.

All three second place teams and the highest ranked 3rd place team advance to a second round, from which only the top team advances to the championship round, using the same 6-game record and tie-breakers as above.

The three 1st place teams go straight from the 1st round to await the winner of the second round - and once again all teams play each other in double headers to determine the champion. However, if tied for 1st the teams play a 3-game championship series.

California is the favorite because they feature 20 Hall of Famers on their roster -  they are so deep that Tony Gwynn pinch hit in both games - and Asia features none. However Japan's Ichiro and perhaps the best player in the game today - Shohei Ohtani - will be in the Hall of Fame once eligible. 

Ohtani pitched 6 scoreless innings against a line-up that includes 3, 4 and 5 hitters Barry Bonds, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.

Williams and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Gordon hit DEEP drives to the wall that were caught.

Ichiro singled twice and stole second both times, but Randy Johnson threw 2-hit ball for 7 innings before Eckersley came in as the one closer who could go up to 4 innings.

In the second game Tom Seaver won to give California the split, allowing only a homer to Ohtani in a 5-1 win. Max Fried, Dan Quisenberry and Trevor Hoffman pitched the last three innings - while Hideo Nomo pitched the final inning for Asia.

The split is a huge win for Asia, as a sweep over Mexico would guarantee them at least a 3-3 mark in poll play and good shot at advancing.

Here is the 10 inning 2-0 upset win by Asia, followed by the 5-1 win from California to split the first series.

Greatest 18 Pitchers from 12 Countries or States

We already posted the batting cards for pitchers for our new World Baseball Classic Statis-Pro Baseball Cards, and here are their actual pitching cards. They also appear on this google sheet, and I will see if the reader who put together the great PDFs can do the same with these. We still need to create the batter sheets for the same teams.

I selected the top 6 starting pitchers and those are in blue at the beginning of each team. If my first game is Asia vs. California, then I would start Shohei Ohtani against Randy Johnson. If you scroll across you will notice that I have not filled in whether a pitcher is left-handed or righthanded, and for now I also just made everyone an average fielder.

The biggest factor in determining a pitchers PB rating is his career ERA divided by the average ERA in his middle nine seasons. The only pitcher in the game whose ERA was less than half the MLB average is Mariano Rivera. Also the changes in eras do yield different ranges due to types of play. For example, even Nolan Ryan's incredible strikeout records at the time yield an 18-42 strikeout range - amazing at the time but actually just above average in today's game of strikeouts and home runs. However, only allowing hits on 11-16 puts the all-time no hitter champion in a spot to do it anytime he is hot.

I went with 6 starting pitchers so that if I play in my four team divisions, each team can play the other three in a double header and have each starter pitch in one of those games. The pitchers in black font are then the middle relievers in order of best to worst, and then the three pitchers in red are the closers to use in late innings. Obviously you can use any pitcher in your games, but I want to set them up on a logical order to make it easier to choose.

Darvish Stops Dominion Republic, but then they clinch vs. Mexico to face SEC, Pac-12 or Venezuela

Update: Dominican Republic clinches, will face Venezuela, Pac-12 or SEC for World Baseball Title. Click for the scoresheets for all games this season, or for the google sheet game-by-game grid or click on all game summaries. The final games will be summarized below the standings. Click here for the game and all 2021 Projected Cards.

Standings before the Games listed below:

Continential Division	W	L	GB	Off	Def	K/Start	HR	BA	St ERA
Venezuela	22	-14	0	4.3 (5)	2.7 (2)	5.2 (4)	1.7 (3)	0.237 (4)	2.15 (2)
SEC	19	-17	3	3.2 (8)	2.2 (1)	7.1 (1)	1.1 (7)	0.223 (8)	1.99 (1)
Pac-12	18	-18	4	4.3 (4)	4.7 (9)	6.9 (2)	1.2 (6)	0.231 (7)	3.23 (6)
ACC	15	-21	7	5.1 (2)	5.3 (10)	3.0 (10)	1.5 (4)	0.280 (1)	6.47 (10)
Big-12	15	-21	7	3.1 (9)	4.4 (8)	4.8 (7)	1.3 (5)	0.193 (10)	3.21 (5)

Key to standings - The best (1) through worst (10) team is noted in each of the following categories: best offense based on runs scored ("Off" DR 1st at 5.6 runs per game, Mexico last/10th at 2.7 runs per game), best defense ("Def" SEC 2.2 runs per game, ACC 5.3), most strike outs per start by starting pitchers (SEC 7.1, ACC 3.0), Most Home Runs per game (DR 2.5, Japan 0.8), Team batting average (ACC 0.280, Big-12 0.193), the ERA's for Starting Pitchers only (SEC 1.99, ACC 6.47).

When we get to the final two series we let the first place team playout to see if they clinch. If they do not then we let the second place team play out etc.

Venezuela fails to clinch, going 5-7 vs. the SEC and Pac-12 to finish 27-21. They were held to only 11 hits total in 2 games against the SEC, but did manage to score 3 runs in 7 innings against both Buehler and Scherzer to claim a split 3 games to 3. Suarez was the only player with three hits, including one HR, and D. Suarez threw 6 shutout innings before the bullpen lost, after Carrasco allowed only 1 run in 7 hits for the win. Pac-12 relievers threw 10 scoreless innings against Venezuela and completed the 4 games to 2 win when Jose Altuve could not come up with a clutch defensive play at 2nd base in the 10th inning off Conforto's hard grounder. The Pac-12 won the other game 6-2 on just 5 singles and doubles by Healy and Crawford.

Coming off the 4 games to 2 win against Venezuela, the Pac-12 is 22-20 heading into their final series against the Big-12. They own all the tiebreakers, so if they sweep 6 games to 0 they are Division Champs and play the Dominican Republic for the World title. If they go 5-1 they finish ahead of Venezuela, and win the division UNLESS the SEC goes 6-0.

Unless the Pac-12 goes 6-0 against the Big-12, the SEC at 22-20 will play the ACC with a chance to go to the championship, and they do own the tie-breaker against Venezuela (division record) but not against the Pac-12. If the Pac-12 goes 5-1 in the previous series, then the SEC can only win the division by going 6-0. If the Pac-12 goes 4-2 or worse, then the SEC can win the division with a 5-1 mark. 

If both the SEC and Pac-12 go 4-2 or worse, then Venezuela wins the division and plays the Dominican Republic.

A walk off double by Muncy followed 2 earlier homers by Cron to give the Big 12 a 6-5 win and eliminate the Pac-12. The Pac-12 needed to pull out that game and then win their season finale by 5+ runs - a real possibility with Bauer on the mound. However the blew a 4-1 lead built after Cahna homered in the 1st and Crawford tripled and Lamb homered in the 2nd. With them out, the SEC will win the division if they go at least 5-1, and if not Venezuela will be crowned.

The SEC stayed alive with a thrilling back and forth 5-4 win. Three straight singles by Yastrzemski, Anderson and McCann gave the SEC a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 7th, but Aaron Nola gave it back with a 2-run homer to Taylor to give the ACC a 4-3 lead.  It looked bleak with Chad Green coming in for the 8th, but Merrifield greeted him with a Homer, his real life Yankees teammate LeMahieu doubled, and Alonso doubled him home to give the SEC the 5-4 and let them live another day.

The ACC exploded in the 3rd and 4th innings on homers by Turner, Blackmon and Fisher to make it 4-0 in the SEC's finale. The SEC only averaged 3.2 runs a game this year (8th best if 10 teams) and that hole meant they would have needed to score 9 runs to get credit for the 5-run sweep and take the division from Venezuela. They scored only once despite a double and homer from McCann and three singles from LeMahieu, to fall 4-1 and let Venezuela back into the playoffs with a 27-21 mark. 

The Dominican Republic (30-15 with a 3-game series left) will host Games 1, 2 and if necessary 6 and 7 against the 27-21 Venezuela.

 

Multi-Coast Division	W	L	GB	Off	Def	K/Start	HR	BA	St ERA
Dominican Republic	24	-12	0	5.6 (1)	3.8 (3)	5.2 (5)	2.5 (1)	0.274 (2)	3.11 (4)
Japan-S.Korea	18	-18	6	3.3 (7)	3.8 (4)	5.7 (3)	0.8 (10)	0.233 (6)	3.35 (7)
Cuba	17	-19	7	4.3 (3)	4.2 (5)	4.2 (8)	2.1 (2)	0.243 (3)	3.94 (8)
Mexico	16	-20	8	2.7 (10)	4.3 (7)	4.2 (9)	0.9 (9)	0.203 (9)	2.58 (3)
Puerto Rico	16	-20	8	3.5 (6)	4.2 (6)	5 (6)	1.1 (8)	0.233 (5)	4.79 (9)
League Average	18	18		3.9	3.9	5.1	1.4	0.235	3.48

The Dominican Republic came in averaging a league best 5.6 runs per game, but was shut down by Japan to fail to clinch with a 27-15 record. Earlier in the year Yu Darvish started the World Baseball Classic with a no-hitter, but his 8 innings of shut out ball in a 2-0 win over the Dominican Republic may have been more impressive. He allowed only 3 hits against the team that was hitting 0.274 (second in the league) and averaging 2.5 homers (1st). Japan averaged a league low 0.8 homers per game, but Ohtani led of the series with a homer. In the second game five Japanese pitchers likewise presented any homers, but Tatis tripled to lead of the 1st inning and then singled and stole to lead off the 4th to lead the 3-1 win that left the surprising 2nd place Japanese team 21-21 and alive for though needing to finish 6-0 and have the Dominican Republic finish 0-6.

The Dominican Republic did finally clinch in their next to last game, erupting against the light-hitting Mexican team (last place 2.7 runs per game) for an 11-2 win. The first three batters in the line-up dominated, as Lindor reached his first four times up, and Ramirez drove him in once iwth a single and once with a 2-run homer. Soto doubled and score twice. The Division-clinching win made the Dominican Republic 30-15, and will let them play All-Stars who have been riding the bench since the best any other team could do is 17-19 Cuba, which can finish no better than 29-19 even if they win out.

The Dominican Republic (30-15 with a 3-game series left) will host Games 1, 2 and if necessary 6 and 7 against the 27-21 Venezuela.

As stated at the top of the blog, Click for the scoresheets for all games this season, or for the google sheet game-by-game grid or click on all game summaries. The final games will be summarized below the standings.