Game 1 - Yankees at Bulldogs

Pedro Martinez (20-4) vs John Smoltz (19-1)

What a great pitching duel!

Martinez was superb, pitching 8 shutout innings while parting with 8 hits and 3 walks, striking out 3. He got out of a number of jams as he stranded all 11 baserunners. Unfortunately for him, John Smoltz was also up to the task. Check out this pitching line:

INN H R ER BB K
Smoltz 10.0 1 0 0 2 8

The biggest threat Smoltz faced was in the 5th when, after Bond singled and Rolen struck out, Delgado walked making it first & second with one out. Smoltz beared down, struck out Mondesi and got Charles Johnson on a lazy fly to right.

Unfortunately for Smoltz, the Bulldogs stranded those 11 baserunners. It took 13 innings but the Dawgs finally got to Armando Benitez for an unearned run. Piazza reached on an error by Todd Walker. Greer walked and Guillen popped up his bunt attempt (the 2nd failed sac of the game for the Dawgs). When Aurillia flied to right everyone was wonder whether another chance would be squandered. Eric Young flared one to left and Piazza could only get to third.

Bases loaded for Stan Javier (0-6 on the night). Benitez was out of gas and walked the lefty batter.
Dawgs win 1-0.

Game 2 - Yankees at Bulldogs

Bartolo Colon (16-6) vs Todd Stottlemyre (16-7)

Colon showed his inexperience and nerves as he didn't last the first. After 5 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks and the bases loaded, Albie Lopez was brought in to stop the bleeding. The Yankees never did recover as the Dawgs cruised to a 9-4 victory in game 2.

Game 3 - Bulldogs at Yankees

Bobby Jones (18-3) vs Dustin Hermanson (14-5)

Another great pitching duel!

2-2 after eight innings and the second guessing of the computer manager happens again. After a one-out homer by Mike Piazza, the CM left in Hermanson to give up a two-out, pinch-hit, three-run to Dante Bichette. With the score 6-2, Chris Peters came into the game an got into a first-second jam before Juan Acevedo put out the fire.

Dawgs win 6-2. Lead series 3-0..

Game 4 - Bulldogs at Yankees

John Burkett (15-9) vs Ismail Valdes (8-8)

Another good pitching duel.

John Burkett allowed 3 hits and 2 walks over 7 innings to clinch the sweep for the Bulldogs. He ran into trouble in the third when after a SF to Barry Bonds, he reloaded the bases by walking Ken Griffey but got Scott Rolen to flyout to RF Dante Bichette to end the threat. The Dawgs scored 3 in the 6th off loser Ismail Valdes on RBI singles by Dave berg and Dante Bichette and a SF by John Olerud. Bichette singled home Stan Javier in the eighth to finish the scoring. Juan Acevedo closed it out.

Series MVP

No one really stood out on the offensive side (although Bichette was 4-for-6 with 5 RBI in limited playing time). The real MVP was the pitching staff, who gave up 12 hits over the 4 games (40 innings) including that gem from John Smoltz.