Minutemen Take Down Axemen in Game 7 Playoff Classic

Just when it seemed the Axemen were set to advance to the next round of the 2021 MDTL Playoffs, Culpeper got a two-out double by Cesar Hernandez to keep them alive in the top of the 10th. Next up, late-inning defensive sub Byron Buxton to face P-Town closer Brad Hand.

Byron Buxton

With Hernandez taking his lead against the P-Town left-hander, Buxton deposited Hand's next pitch over the outfield fence, giving the Minutemen a 6-4 lead in Game 7 of the back-and-forth classic that the Axemen had looked to wrap up just an inning before.

Alas, James Hoyt closed out the Axemen after Trevor Story reached on an error, a fielder's choice and a double-play grounder by Eric Hosmer. The win sent Culpeper onto the next round, where they will face the County Road Rebels.

The late-inning triumph gave Culpeper a 4-3 series victory, and concluded P-Town's season. A familiar late-season surge had propelled P-Town to a 95-67 record and the top spot in the Frey Division of the Mason-Dixon Tabletop League, now in its 49th season. 

Anthony Rendon

As Axemen fans silently exited P-Town Stadium, GM/Manager Rob Priewe could utter but a single word to sum up the series versus Culpeper, "Wow." 

(Click here for complete P-Town stats.)

With the squads trading off series victories, the difference proved to be Culpeper's 21-14 edge in home runs, including dingers from Buxton, Mitch Moreland, Anthony Rendon and Anthony Santander in Game 7. 

Here's Culpeper Manager Mike McClurg Jr.'s fine summary of the series:

Game 1

                 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |  | R | H | E |

Culpeper | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |  |  | 8 | 11 | 0 |

P-Town | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |  |  | 4 | 4 | 0 |

WP: Lamet LP: Plesac

HR: CM - Walsh, Betts, Moreland, Santander  PT - None

Culpeper gets 3 runs in 2nd inning on Betts 3R HR.  CM adds another run in 3rd when Dalbec doubles to score Locastro, Culpeper takes a commanding 6-0 lead in 4th on back-to-back HR's by Santander and Walsh. CM goes up 8-0 in 6th with a Moreland 2R HR.

PT finally gets on the scoreboard with 4 runs in the 7th, McNiel has an RBI double and Grisham a bases-loaded double.

Game 2

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |  | R | H | E |

Culpeper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |   |  | 1 | 4 | 0 |

P-Town | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |   |  | 6 | 6 | 0 |

WP: Cole LP: Kim

HR: CM - Buxton  PT - Grisham, Moncada

PT gets 2 runs in first when Hosmer hits a 2R double, scoring Verdugo and McNiel.  PT gets 2 more in 2nd on a Moncada 2R HR. 

Culpeper finally gets a run in 7th to make it 4-1 on Buxton HR.  PT jumps back on CM for 2 runs in bottom of inning

with a solo HR by Grisham and an RBI double by Story.

Game 3

                | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |  | R | H | E |

P-Town | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |  |  | 4 | 8 | 0 |

Culpeper | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |  |  | 10 | 11 | 0 |

WP: Sanchez LP: Bundy

HR: PT - Story 2, Upton  CM - Walsh, Dalbec, Castro, Betts, Rendon, Buxton

PT gets 2 runs in first inning for 2nd game in a row on Story's 2R HR.  CM gets 3 in 2nd with a Rendon 3R HR. 

PT ties game in 3rd on Story's 2nd HR in the game.  Castro makes it 4-3 with a solo shot in 4th.

Culpeper blows open game in the 5th with 4 runs on Walsh solo HR, Dalbec solo HR, and a 2R HR by Betts.  Culpeper cruises to a 10-4 win.

Game 4

                    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | R | H | E |

P-Town | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 13 | 0 |

Culpeper | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 14 | 0 |

WP: Pressley Save: A.J. Cole LP: Urias

HR: PT - Story, McNiel, Stassi, Grisham  CM - Walsh, Hernandez, Suarez

Marathon  game going 16 innings.  P-Town scores in the 1st inning for 3rd game in a row with 4 runs powered by Stassi 3R HR.  Culpeper cuts it to 4-3 with 3 in the 2nd on a 2R HR by Hernandez and a solo shot by Suarez. 

McNiel hits a solo HR in 3rd to make it 5-3.  PT gets a unearned run in 5th on a steal of 3rd and a throwing error by Perez.  Walsh hits a solo HR in bottom of inning to make it 6-4. 

Pitchers hold both teams scoreless for next 3 innings.  Culpeper rallies to tie game in 9th on an RBI double by Rendon and then Walsh singles him home. 

Game goes scoreless until 14th, when Cronenworth hits a solo HR but Culpeper ties game in bottom of inning on a Walsh RBI double. 

PT blows open game in the 16th inning for the win with 4 runs powered by 2R HR's by Grisham and Story.

Game 5

                    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |  | R | H | E |

P-Town        | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |  |  | 1 | 2 | 0 |

Culpeper      | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |  |  | 5 | 6 | 0 |

WP: Kim LP: Cole

HR: PT - None  CM - Santander, Rendon, Rosario

Culpeper finally holds PT scoreless in 1st inning and gets a run in bottom of inning on Santander solo HR.  CM goes up 3-0 in 3rd on Rosario 2R HR. 

PT gets on scoreboard in 4th when McNiel doubles in Verdugo. 

CM gets 2 insurance runs in 7th on Rendon's 2R HR. 

Kim gets CGW for Minutemen, allowing only 2 hits.

Game 6

                    | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |  | R | H | E |  

Culpeper     | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |  |  | 0 | 4 | 0 |

P-Town        | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |  |  | 5 | 8 | 0 |  

WP: Bundy LP: Sanchez

HR: CM - None  PT - Cooper 2

P-Town scores in 1st inning for the 4th game in the series on Cooper's 2R HR.  Verdugo doubles in Moncada in 3rd to make it 3-0.  PT adds 2 insurance runs in 8th on Cooper's second 2 run HR of the game. 

Bundy cruises to complete game shutout for the Axemen. 

Series is now tied 3 games each.

Game 7

                 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  | R | H | E |

Culpeper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |  | 6 | 7 | 0 |

P-Town | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |  | 4 | 8 | 0 |

WP: Hoyt LP: Hand

HR: CM - Santander, Rendon, Moreland, Buxton  PT - Cronenworth, Cooper

Game is a pitchers' duel between Plesac and Lamet until Culpeper gets back-to-back Home Runs by Santander and Rendon in 6th. 

PT is held scoreless for 7 innings but rallies for a 3-2 lead in the 8th. Cooper starts the rally with a pinch-hit 2-run HR and Hosmer singles in Grisham who was on second base with a double. 

The 9th inning starts quietly for Culpeper with Plesac quickly retiring the first 2 batters in the inning.  Betts then hits a single and then Moreland hits a 2-run HR to put Culpeper up 4-3.  Cronenworth quickly ties game on back-to-back dice rolls of 11 and the Axemen crowd erupts after having their hearts ripped out in top of inning. Verdugo then hits a double but is stranded at second base when Grisham grounds out to end the inning and send game to extra innings.

Hand strikes out Suarez to start the 10th, then Hernandez hits a double and then Buxton, who had entered game in the 9th for defense, hits a 2-run HR to put Minutemen up 6-4. 

Story leads off bottom of inning, reaching base on a Correa error but after a fielder's choice by McNiel, Hosmer hits into a game-ending double play and Culpeper wins the series.  Hoyt gets the win.

 

Buxton and Rendon are co-MVPs for the Minutemen.

Buxton -- AB 20 H 6 R 4 RBI 5 HR 3 ... Series-winning home run

Rendon -- AB 21 H 8 R 5 RBI 8 HR 3

--

Note: Word leaked during the series that several P-Town players might be traded after the season, which definitely may have impacted performances by McNiel, Hosmer and Gurriel ...

Update: Indeed, within hours of the series end, McNiel, Hosmer, Gurriel, Kiermaier and several others were dealt as P-Town quickly began retooling for 2022 ...

rp

-- 66 --

Discovering the Baseball Art of Graig Kreindler ... Just, Wow!

Johnny Vander Meer

If you haven't seen Graig Kreindler's work ... you really must ...

The artist's homepage: www.graigkreindler.com 

A very cool 5-minute video: https://youtu.be/fih3vaEPwlA 

I learned about it today listening to one of the latest installments of Ben Lindbergh's "Effectively Wild" baseball podcast on Fangraphs.

Enjoy.

rp

-- 66 --

Loggers 2021: Ugh! Better Luck Next Year ...

Given how many of its star players had "off" years, it shouldn't have been surprising that the P-Town Loggers slumped to such a sad finish of its 2021 season in the Sunrise Baseball Association. 

Loggers MVP Bryce Harper.

Nevertheless, who could have predicted the team would lose 12 of its final 13 games and once again miss the playoffs. The Loggers finished 74-88, putting them in fifth place in their division, 31 games behind Jerry Conca's Yankees squad, which would go on to win this year's SBA Championship. (Congrats to Jerry on his first SBA title!)

Although this year's edition of the Loggers scored a few more runs (771 vs. 757) than in 2020 they allowed way more (820 vs. 703)! Yikes! And that pretty much sums up this dismal season, though things were looking pretty good at midseason at 50-48.

So not everyone sucked ... 

Bryce Harper (.246/.346/.504) led the offense, scoring 104 runs, driving in 130, smashing 40 HR's and stealing 21 bases. It helped that he walked a team-high 92 times. 

Leadoff guy Brandon Nimmo scored 115 runs and hit a whopping 30 home runs. His .356 OBP was driven by 88 walks and 27 HBP's. 

Starling Marte (.269/.329/.408) also contributed mightily in the two hole: 113 runs, 45 doubles, 28 stolen bases. 

Chris Taylor just missed the century mark in RBI, driving in 99, scoring 77 runs and hitting 25 home runs, though he also lead the team in whiffs with 175 and errors with 37, mainly at second base, where he is rated a 7. 

In part-time duty, Edwin Rios contributed 27 HR's, 38 doubles and 70 RBI. 

On the flip side, the Loggers suffered from down years by its perennial MVP Nolan Arenado (.209/.246/.372), whose pandemic slump resulted in only 20 HR's and 64 RBI. Likewise, shortstop Brandon Crawford could manage only a .195 batting average, though he did hit 29 dingers.

The pitching is where things really went off the rails, with Gerrit Cole (BXZ) avoiding losing 20 games, barely, finishing 10-19 with a 5.55 ERA! (He had gone 19-10 the year before ...)

Antonio Senzatela (BRZ) led the starters with a 12-15 record, 3.56 ERA and 10 complete games and 5 shutouts. Other starters were: Zach Eflin (7-12, 5.08); Lance McCullers (8-11, 5.34); rookie Triston McKenzie (8-6, 5.14); and Drew Smyly (5-6, 4.04). 

Fan fave Josh Hader.

The bullpen was equally below par, though Yimi Garcia (A&BX) led the team with 25 saves and a 2.23 ERA. Grant Dayton (AY) contributed a 9-7 record, 4 saves and an ERA of 4.50. Sadly, the team's most popular player, Josh Hader (CXYW), only pitched 23 innings with an 8.87 ERA. Ouch!

The team ERA was 4.66, compared to 3.91 the year before. (Click here for all team stats.)

As noted, the team hit about the same as the year before ... .230/.305/.426 compared to .228/.303/.435, though home runs were down to 230 from 255 in 2020. 

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season, though there is definitely hope for the year ahead with strong bounce-back years for Arenado, Crawford and Hader. Harper, of course, earned the NL MVP and we're looking forward to rolling for his 1-1-0-0-0-10 APBA card. 

(BREAKING NEWS: Next year's offense will have some more pop with the addition of Polar Bear Pete Alonso and his 1-1-0-0 card, though the Loggers waved goodbye to Starling Marte, who along with Arenado, Cole and Crawford have been the foundation of the Loggers lineup all these years.) 

Who knows? Maybe get a few better arms in the draft to go with all those home runs and things are already looking up for 2022. (rp)

-- 66 --