2nd Round Playoff Results
Championship Tournament
AZ SnakePit 3, Fighting Amish 6
SnakePit's fairy-tale run ended over the weekend, but it was close: Amish took BA by .001 and SB by one. Runs proved easier for the teams to get than RBIs - they had 66 runs but only 46 RBI, with Rolen's 10 easily the top figure. Hamels had a win and 11 K's for Amish, and Cordero's three scoreless saves were also crucial. Willingham (AZ) led all players with three homers.
Man of the Match: Hernandez (Amish) - 9 R, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .478
JByrnesIsMyHomie 2, BBTNG 7
It was the ease of Byrnes' defeat, as much as that it happened at all, which was the shock. But perhaps the writing was on the wall after their final week loss, their worst of the year. Still, between weeks 6-9, Byrnes dropped only seven in total, so this was monumental. BBTNG swept hitting, as Byrnes batted only .196, with 4 HR and 16 RBI. Their pitching was better, but Capuano and Verlander ballooned the ERA north of five. BBTNG managed just two wins and no saves, but hit over .300, and Pujols 7 runs led all players as well.
Man of the Match: Hunter (BBTNG) - 6 R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, 2 SB
GregSchulteOverdrive 6, The Loose Seals 4
Greg took fifth place with this win over Seals. Even though they pounded out 11 home-runs, it was their pitching dominance that really prevailed: WHIP, by 0.01 was all that Seals managed. Cy Young contender Carpenter powered Greg's arms to a 2.03 ERA, while Thomas hit three homers and drove in eight. Lilly won two games for Loose, and A-Rod had nine RBIs for them.
Man of the Match: Carpenter (Greg) - 2 W, 15 K, 0.56 ERA
Consolation Tournament
DFA'ders 9, BigLebowski 1
DFA crushed Big, to move into the Consolation Final: most of the categories were fairly close, but DFA took them all bar saves. There, Street's three trumped DFA. Furcal also had three homers, but Big found no other success. DFA batted 3.08 and had a WHIP of 1.00, with Sanchez fanning 12, while Young and Suzuki also had extremely solid weeks.
Man of the Match: Uggla (DFA) - 7 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, .429
?Chalino Sanchez! 4, Random Fandom 4
Chalino managed their second straight win over a higher-seeded team, beating Fandom on the ERA tie-breaker, 2.66 to 4.05. Shutout wins for Peavy and James overcame the loss of Liriano, though Fandom took K's, behind a dozen each for Johnson and Lackey, and saves, thanks to four from Torres. Only Guillen (Random) had more than one HR; Ramirez (Chalino) led all players with 9 RBI.
Man of the Match: Peavy (Chalino) - 1 W, 0.00 ERA, 0.67 WHIP
Uk Dbacks 7, 7-2 Offsuiters 3
UK finished eleventh, batting .332 for the week on their way to winning every hitting category, even though 7-2 also were over .300. Kendall (7-2) scored six runs, while Bay, Bradley and Lopez stole two bases each for UK. Duke was the best pitcher, bringing two wins and 13 K's to 7-2's total, while Nathan picked up three saves to give that category to UK.
Man of the Match: Cano (UK) - 5 R, 2 HR, 14 RBI, .321
Week 25 Games
Championship Tournament
Grand Final: BBTNG (seeded #4) vs. The Fighting Amish (#2)
3rd/4th: AZ Snakepit (#6) vs. JByrnesIsMyHomie (#1)
Consolation Tournament
7th/8th: DFA'ders (#7) vs. ?Chalino Sanchez! (#12)
9th/10th: BigLebowski (#11) vs. Random Fandom (#8)
The final round of games covers the last two weeks of the season. BBTNG take on Amish for the First AZ SnakePit Fantasy Baseball Championship; the teams previously met twice in the regular season. In Week One, Amish were easy winners, 8-2, but the Week Fourteen encounter ended a 5-5 tie. Since then, Amish have replaced Beltre with Zimmerman at third, Bonds with Pierre in the outfield, and Penny is in the rotation instead of Beckett. BBTNG have a new catcher in Ianetta (replacing Estrada), and Kent is on the bench, Cuddyer taking over at second; Snell gets to start for them, in place of Lee. Expect a mid-game update on all the contests next Monday.