It’s Sunday morning and I’m writing the ALCS recap.
Truth be told, I probably could have wrote this on Tuesday
evening, but I figured I’d get started now. It will save me some time when I
finish it up on Monday evening while I watch the Eagles game. I’m sure by then,
Crox will have another 5 home runs.
In total, he had 20 last week against the Gamblers, who
never really had a chance.
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| HanRam loves the big JLB stage Can you believe that with the Crox making it to the World Series, Hanley Ramirez has been a part of six of the last eight World Series contenders? It's true. In 2009, he was a member of the Jimmy Jammers losing squad. In 2011 he competed in the World Series and won for the Slammers. He was on the roster for half of the season in 2012 when the Slammers won again. In 2013, he was on the Choo for one of his World Series losses, and in 2015, he was on the Cheese Steaks for their World Series title. Now, he's on the Crox as he vies for his first World Series title. So, take out 2010 and 2014 when he wasn't a part of either World Series member, and put an asterisk on 2012 because he played only half the season before getting traded to Choo, and Hanley has played in five of the last eight World Series. He's a good luck charm, and this year, with the way he is hitting, he could be the reason Crox pulls off a win. With 5 homers last week and 12 in his last 30, he's certainly a big reason why he is here. |
The fact is, Crox is the hottest team in the JLB at this
moment, even hotter than the Outs, who as I write this, is clinging to life
with an 11-10-1 lead over Steroid.ERA. Now that I’ve come back up here to this
paragraph on Monday night, I can tell you that the Outs did hold on and won
12-8-2.
But I’ll get to that matchup later.
For now, let’s talk about Crox (baby).
His 15-3-4 win was as dominant as the final score denotes.
Outside of two poor Drew Pomeranz starts (can they send him
back to San Diego after that scandal?) and a pair of awful spot starts by Mike
Foltynewicz and Matt Wisler (11 runs, 21 hits combined), Crox dominated on the
pitching side.
Ervin Santana and Jon Lester led the way, helping Crox win 7
of 11 categories.
Parker, who had one of the better pitching staffs all
season, just couldn’t put together a good week of starts. David Price struggled
in his second start of the week, totaling 7 runs allowed in 14 innings; Julio
Teheran gave up 5 in 5.1 innings, and August free-agent pickups Anibal Sanchez
and Andrew Cashner combined to give up 16 runs in 10 innings.
He was forced into digging into the waiver wire back in
August because he lost his big stud in Stephen Strasburg.
What was once a promising, championship-worthy staff
completely dissolved over the last month.
Offensively, the Gamblers knew he was going to be in for it
if he hit a hot team. That’s why he was reliant on his pitching coming through.
Even still, he could never have imagined the offensive
juggernaut that is now known as the Crox Sox. Winning 8 of 11 categories, Crox
manhandled the Gamblers and it wasn’t even close, winning 5 of those categories
by more than 10.
Crox batted .357 for the week with 48 runs, 59 singles, 19
doubles, 2 triples, 20 homers and 56 RBIs. Those are OUTrageous numbers, as in
numbers we expect from the Outs.
Hanley Ramirez and Jean Segura led the way combining for 27
hits, 10 of which were homers (5 apiece) with 20 RBIs. Yasmani Tomas and
Charlie Blackmon also had double-digit hits, and Gary Sanchez blasted three
more homers.
Since the start of August, Crox’s offense has really been
the difference. He finished August with a .314 average, posting 190 runs, 208
singles, 79 doubles, 6 triples, 62 homers and 171 RBIs.
In contrast, his highest monthly totals were: 36 homers in
April, 138 RBIs in May, .286 average in April and 152 runs in May.
Now, he takes that hot hitting into the World Series where
he’ll face the Outs who knows a thing or two about hot hitting. His months of
June and August make Crox’s August stats laughable.
Outs hit .310 in August with 68 homers and 200 RBIs, and he
hit .296 in June with 73 homers and 219 RBIs.
He’s that scary.
That’s why when he was trailing to Steroid.ERA at several
points throughout the week, he had to be worrying about the one thing he feared
the most — a slump during the playoffs. He said it to me a few weeks ago and it
almost happened.
He had a big Friday, Saturday and Sunday batting, collecting
38 of his 77 hits during that span to pull his average up to .289 for the week.
That was enough for him to pull out 6 of 11 batting categories. His two Sunday
homers helped him edge Steroid 8-7 to get that category.
Freedie Freeman and Stephen Vogt combined for 13 RBIs to
help him win that one 41-25.
But what it came down to was pitching, and the Outs got
enough strong starts to pull off the ERA and WHIP wins in what had to be an
unfair moment for Steroid.
Steroid posted a 2.77 ERA and 1.14 WHIP and lost because the
Outs put up a 2.22 and a 1.11. Hell, he even got two complete games.
But the near no-hitter that Kyle Hendricks threw was the
difference as he went 8 innings, giving up 1 hit and one run. Jose Quintana
also had a strong 8-inning outing, allowing just one run and Alex Cobb went 6.2
innings giving up just one run on two hits.
So now it’s on to the World Series, which technically
started this afternoon with a matinee between the White Sox and Royals.
Looking at the stats now, there are already 5 homers, 3 for
Outs and 2 for Crox. I’m sure there will be another 30 homers between the two
by the end of this week. It’s warm and the ball is flying, and these two teams
are on fire.
And there’s only one thing I know for sure: I can’t wait to
write about it next Monday.
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