The Black Sox closed out the regular season on a 9-3 run, with a 6-4 win over the Golden Marlins. This club is one of several teams that finishing the regular season on a strong note, and loom a strong contender to earn one of the 3 semi-final spots that are up for grabs in the double elimination tournament on the weekend after Labor Day. The Black Sox capitalized on John Latorre's early trouble locating his pitches. During the first two innings John was up in the zone, and the Sox made him pay. David Booker hit a two-run homer, driving in Paul Scuteri (who had singled), to open the scoring in the top of the first. Ralph Caputo would follow with a single, and Fred Phillips would drive him home with a RBI double. Mike Aiello would make it 4-0, with a RBI single. The Fish would plate a singleton in the bottom of the first, to make it 4-1, on a single by Ron Lochner and a RBI double by Mike Ferraro. Greg Hoin would get things going again for the Sox, in the bottom of the frame, by reaching on an infield error. A double by Paul Scuteri would score Hoin, to make it 5-1, and after an error moved Scuteri to third, Fred Phillips would extend the lead to 6-1 on a sacrafice fly. Mr. Latorre would settle down and shut down the Black Sox offense the rest of the way, allowing just two singles and no walks, over the last 5 innings, while striking out four. The Golden Marlins, however, were unable to mount any offense until the bottom of the seventh. The inning started with great promise as Jim McQuade, John Reel, and John Latorre all worked walks to load the bases with nobody out. Bob Coffey followed with a RBI single. Still none were out. The Black Sox pitcher (Don Wixon please fill in the pitching details) then got the Marlins next hitter to ground into a 1-2-3 double play. That was a huge play in this game because the Marlins had the top of the order coming up next. With two outs and Marlin runners on second and third, Tom Maney worked a walk to reload the bases. Randy Craft and Ron Lochner came up clutch, with RBI singles to make the score 6-4. With two outs and the bases still loaded, the Black Sox closed out the win by inducing the Marlins' number four hitter to fly out to short. Congratulations to the Black Sox on sweeping the season series with the Fish, two games to none. The 9-3 finish to your regular season sends the rest of the division a message as the playoffs approach: The Black Sox are a favorite to land one of the three semi-final spots, and are a dark horse to win it all. Don't take this team lightly in the playoffs, or you will be going home!
Mike, for not being there, you gave an accurate recap of the game. The M&M boys, McQuade and Maney, tracked down several hard hit balls by the Black Sox to keep the game in check. Rich Kreig, with little notice before game time, took the bump and kept the Marlins at bay through six innings. In the top of the 7th Rich tired and walked the first two batters, and Ralph Caputo come on in relief. Ralph did a great impersonation of Broxton-Lidge-Papelbon, and ultimately got the job done, inducing the 1-2-3 double play and getting the pop-up with the bases full. The Sox infield of Aiello, Caputo, Ramos and Phillips played outstanding games turning every groundball to the infield into an out accounting for 13 of the 21 outs. There were 3 other key plays for the Sox. In the third inning with the sun directly in the rightfielders eyes Greg Hoin snagged a shot by Randy Craft to end the inning. On back to back plays in the sixth Phillips, Musella and Ramos came up big. On a pick-off attempt at first a wild throw was knocked down by Fred Phillips' bare hand keeping the runner at first. We ain't Einstein's just ballplayers. On the next pitch, a pitchout, the runner broke for second and Brian Musella's throw was right on target and Glen Ramos applied the tag for the second out of the inning. Momentum building plays. The Marlins always make it interesting. A great team and one to watch in the playoffs. A solid bunch of guys, good luck in the playoffs.
