Welcome back to The Good Phight's All-Time Phillies Tournament. Today we have 4 random games to be played, one from each bracket. These are the second four games from round one. Here are the lineups for each game.
#1 Bobby Abreu vs #16 Rico Brogna
#6 Juan Samuel vs #11 Gary Matthews
#3 Dick Allen vs #14 Tim McCarver
#2 Sherry Magee vs #15 Dode Paskert
You can find the most updated bracket by opening the link on the left bar, or clicking the link below.
The Good Phight's All-Time Phillies Tournament
Round 1 - Game #5:
#1 Bobby Abreu vs #16 Rico Brogna
Here we see our first #1 versus #16 matchup. Bobby Abreu has been a controversial #1, but we only look at the numbers here. Sure, he is highly likely to not come up big in late game situations against Brogna because the computer knows he has no heart, but the seeding doesn't take that into account. Fortunately for weak willed Bobby, not one game required late inning heroics or good defense. Game 1 saw Bobby get out to a 3-0 lead in the third and never look back winning 10-1. Bobby seemed to regain some of his lost power stroking 5 extra base hits and walked 6 times. Game #2 was a little close and Rico jumped out to the early lead this time scoring 3 in the first and 2 more in the second to lead 5-2. Bobby responded with 3 in the bottom of the second and 2 more in the third and coasted the rest of the was enroute to a 11-7 win. Bobby lost his power stroke (interestingly enough) with just 2 doubles, but replaced it with speed as he stole 3 bases with nary a CS. Rico swatted his first 3 homers of the series, but, alas, it was not enough. Bobby then decided he wanted to get home for a siesta and game three was only in doubt early on. But 6 runs in the 4th and 5 in the 5th allowed Bobby to put in the bench Bobbys and take it easy winning 17-3.
G1: 10-1 Abreu
G2: 11-7 Abreu
G3: 17-3 Abreu
Abreu wins series 3-0.
Round 1 - Game #6:
#6 Juan Samuel vs #11 Gary Matthews
Sammy may be sporting the best looking salad in all the contest, but can will that help him really shine? In game 1, Sammy started off flashing his speed and power stealing a base and smacking a 2 run shot and going up 3-0 early on. GMat fought back and took the lead 4-3 in the sixth. Sammy showed that smallball and bigball can work together leading off the bottom of the 8th with a homer and then hitting a triple and scoring on a sac fly. However, he came undone when Matthews put 2 on in the 9th and they both scored on an error to shortstop giving Matthews the victory in game 1. GMat wanted to put Sammy away quickly and after a 2 run first for Juan, Matthews scored 5 in the second enroute to a 11-4 win and the verge of moving on to the second round with an upset. All look over for Samuel as Matthews came out firing in the day game with 5 in the first on the back of 2 two run home runs. Sammy responded, showing up the big bat with some quickness, scoring 5 runs by beating out 2 infield singles, getting a stolen base, and smacking four singles. He then took the lead in the second on a groundout. Behind 10-6 in the 9th, Matthews scored 2 runs and had 2 men on base before he Ked twice to end the game. With renewed vigor, Sammy shot out of the gates in game 4 scoring 2 in the first, 4 in the second, and 2 more in the 3rd to go up 8-0. That is all he would get and Matthews started to chip away with 3 in the sixth and 2 more in the 8th. That all ended as he went 1-2-3 in the 9th. Can Sammy perform the biggest comeback in TGP A-TPT history? The series is all knotted up at 2-2. Sammy came out quickly again in game 5, but fizzled late. Would it cost him? A 7-0 lead looked good heading into the 6th, but Matthews put up 3 in the 6th with some smallball of his own. 2 more in the eighth set up the dramatic 9th inning. Matthews, needing 2 to tie it lead off the 9th with a 11 pitch walk. The next Matthews followed that up with a first pitch single to center. Up came Matthews, waiting for his pitch. Ball. Ball. STRIKE! Here's the pitch, liner to second, SAMMY'S ACTUAL POSITION!. Flip to second, back to first, double play. The tides have turned, but the tying run is still up to bat. 3 pitches later, Sammy moved on to round 2.
G1: 6-5 Matthews
G2: 11-4 Matthews
G3: 10-8 Samuel
G4: 8-5 Samuel
G5: 7-5 Samuel
Samuel wins series 3-2.
Round 1 - Game #7:
#3 Dick Allen vs #14 Tim McCarver
The much maligned Dick Allen is facing the "got into this tournament based on his name" Timmy Mac. McCarver would normally be providing his excellent insight on this game, but he was unavailable for comment. Anyhoo... Game 1 showed why people loved to hate Dick Allen. Timmah took a 2-0 lead in the 4th and Allen responded with 1 in the bottom of the inning. Timmy kept putting the pressure on with 1 in the 5th and 3 more in the 6th. Allen came back with 2 more in the 5th, but then decided that he didn't feel like playing the rest of the game and flipped the bird to the fans. People trashed the field with old records and disco balls yelling, You Suck Dick! Fortunately, nobody was ejected and Timmyboy won game 1. Apparently Allen does have a heart and after forcing the announcer to state his name as Don't Call Me Dick, he came out firing in game 2. He scoring in each of the first 5 innings and cruised on to a 17-4 victory. Allen followed the same script in game 3 scoring in the first 5 innings again, building up a 13-1 lead. McCarver, after hearing about how he had no heart from himself after game 2, fought back ferociously. But, his 5 run 7th ended up to be for naught as Allen scored 3 more in the bottom of the inning and 3 more in the 8th to take the game. Don't Call Me Dick loved to come out firing and he did it again scoring in each of the first four innings, cruising onto victory.
G1: 7-3 McCarver
G2: 17-5 Allen
G3: 19-10 Allen
G4: 11-2 Allen
Allen wins series 3-1.
Round 1 - Game #8:
#2 Sherry Magee vs #15 Dode Paskert
Sherry versus the Dode. They don't name them like they used to. Sherry scored the first run of the game in the 5th but Dode responded with 2 in the sixth to lead 2-1. In the 7th, Sherry scored 2 more and did the same in the 8th to lead 5-2. Dode lead off the top of the 9th with a homer to pull within 5-3. After a couple of flyouts, he reached base on an error to SS. The next pitch of the game he hit deep to right, that ball is FOUL! The pitcher after that was a lazy fly to right field to win the game for the Sherster. I like to call game 2 Dode's revenge as Sherry put up a run in each of the first three innings, but Dode scored 2 in the 5th and then exploded for 7 in the sixth to tie up the series. Sherry, deciding he didn't like it when Dode won, put up 5 runs in the second inning in game 3. After Dode scored 3 in the 5th, Sherry put another 5 spot on him and cruised to a 16-8 victory hitting 9 extra base hits in the process. Game 4 was a tense battle between two professionals. Dode took a quick 1-0 lead with a third inning homer. Sherry responded with 1 in the bottom of the inning. Sherry then took a 2-1 lead in the 5th and Dode responded with 2 in the 8th inning on a 2 run single that featured the old school player scoring from first. That is what we call hustle people. Sherry got it back in the bottom of the eighth, scoring the tying run on a double. And that is where we'd stand for another 4 innings. Each player had their chances to win it. Dode got two men on with 2 outs in the 9th, but grounded out to end the inning. Sherry lead off the bottom of the 9th with a single. After striking out, he got another single putting men at first and third. Dode then feared the hard hitting Sherry and intentionally walked him to pitch to the lighter hitting Sherry. Fortunately, he got a strikeout and a ground out to end the 9th and send it into extras. Extra innings were fairly uneventful with a team getting no more than 1 baserunner until the 13th. Dode grounded out to lead off the inning but then stroked a single to center. After that, a stolen base and a passed ball put him on third. A single then plated the lead run. After another out, an error put men on first and third and Dode ended the inning with a caught stealing. Hasn't he read the book?!?! Would it cost him??? Evidently it would as Sherry came firing back with a 1 out homerun to tie the game. He then beat out an infield single and stole second. The next batter hit a flyball to center, and Sherry tagged up. The ball was caught, and the throw was perfect, but Sherry had tripped as he headed down the line and had to scramble back to third. Oh, the irony! Fortunately for him, the next Sherry smacked single to left and won the series for them.
G1: 5-4 Magee
G2: 12-4 Paskert
G3: 16-8 Magee
G4: 5-4 Magee
Magee wins the series, 3-1.