Divisional Series: Montreal vs. Carolina, Game One

Congratulations to Carolina. As a reward for winning 91 games, you get to face a team that 105 games this season in the Roberto Clemente League and has the most wins in the ABL.

Odds against the Crush are long. The Bandits were the top hitting team in the RCL and were a top three team in most pitching categories. Against that, Carolina has the best bullpen and maybe the best defense. While their starting pitching is solid, it probably isn't as good as the Bandits and the Crush's hitting is well into the bottom half of the RCL. In terms of run differential for the season, Montreal is +332 runs while Carolina is +22.

Of course, none of that matters as we're down to a single series, and two games have been played.

Game 1 featured Aurelio Ramírez against Raúl Pérez in Montreal.

Raúl Pérez

Raúl Pérez was dominant early in the game, striking out four in the first three innings. In the fourth, he ran into some trouble, walking both Scott Andrews and Chris Barrett to start the inning. Perez worked out of trouble with a ground out and two more strikeouts.

Aurelio Ramírez worked just as well early, getting through four clean innings against the frightening Bandits offense. The fifth was where he made his first mistake with two outs. Bob Reece hit a two out single, and Emílio Guerrero crushed a first pitch home run into the seats for a 2-0 lead.

George Gilliam

The Crush answered in the top of the sixth, also with two outs, when Greg Beard walked and George Gilliam doubled him home.

Montreal widened its lead in the bottom of the sixth, though, and it's likely the fans had some questions about the moves made in this inning. Ramírez walked Robert Carr to lead off the inning. Tom Becker grounded out, but moved Carr over to second for a productive out. The next move by the Crush manager was an interesting one, walking Stanislav Izyurov to fill first and put the double play in order.   Ramírez got the next batter, Eric Ware, out swinging on a full count.  

At this point, Ramírez was pulled with just 84 pitches thrown due to an oblique injury, aggravated on his final pitch to Eric Ware.

Wilton Collins

Antonio Aguirre came in and should have gotten the last out, but an error by Frank Moyer at first base loaded the bases. A single by Wilton Collins scored both Izyurov and Carr to put the Bandits up 4-1.

Raúl Pérez cruised the remainder of the game, giving up just one more run, a home run to Chris Barrett. Joe Lowry came in to get the save in the ninth.

Pérez finished the game with 8 IP, 2 ER, and 10 Ks. Both teams gave up six hits and two earned runs. Without that costly error at first by Moyer, this game could easily have ended up in extra innings.

Game 2 report upcoming ...