Friendship League

Bobcats Advance to face Thunder in Star Chicken Clash

The Boston Bobcats showed the rest of the league that the Star Chicken was the King of the Friendship league this year.  With the Thunder sweeping best record Michigan the Bobcats made it a double sweep by also taking Dirty Bastard winner Pittsburgh down in four.  The Bobcats starting pitchers were brilliant in this series as they only went to the bullpen four times.  Lets get to the action.

Game 1 saw Marcus Stroman facing Jose Berrios for the Phantoms.  Boston got three in the 2nd off of him and was led by Eduardo Escobar who doubled in that inning and he was followed by a Lorenzo Cain single.  Miguel Sano homered in the 5th to make it 3-1.  The Bobcats countered with Escobar going deep this time.  Andrelton Simmons doubled in a run as well.  Sano would homer again and have three RBI on the day but the Bobcats coasted home 7-4 behind Stroman's strong 8 innings.  Mychal Givens got into trouble in the 9th but Anthony Swarzak closed the door with the tying run at the plate.

Game 2 had the blockbuster matchup of James Paxton and Luis Severino.  Yan Gomes had a big two out RBI single in the 2nd and Devin Marrero knocked another run across in the 3rd.    It was more than Severino would need.  He was unbelievable in this one with a complete game one hitter.  He allowed just one walk and had a whopping 11 strikeouts.  Juan Castro had the lone hit for Pittsburgh and the game final was 2-0.

Game 3 moved to Pittsburgh and Dallas Keuchel squared off against Yu Darvish (rule).  It was great pitching on both sides once again.  Delino Deshields played a key part in this one with RBI singles in the 2nd and 4th innings for Boston's only runs.  He was 3-4 on the day and swiped three bases.  Keuchel shutout the Phantoms over 7 1/3 and Swarzak took over at that point to put out a Phantom rally in the 8th.  So with Boston leading 2-0 into the 9th the Phantoms were back at work.  An error by sure-handed Simmons led to a rally that allowed the Phantoms to cut the lead to 2-1 with a Starlin Castro RBI single.  With the winning run on base Swarzak was able to put Andrew Benintendi away to secure the win and open the series to 3 games to none.

Game 4 Boston sent Stroman back to the hill to face newcomer J.A. Happ.  The Phantoms would gain the only lead they had in the series on a 2nd inning homerun by Mike Moustakas.  Boston would only let them have that lead for an inning.  In the 5th Yunel Escobar smashed a two run shot to complete a four run inning. They added one in the 6th on a Brian Dozier double.    Pittsburgh countered with a run in the bottom half with Alex Presley singling in S. Castro.  Alex Avila hit a pinch hit homerun in the 9th and the Bobcats were celebrating with a 6-2 win.  Stroman pitched 7 2/3 with just one earned and Swarzak closed out the game once again.  Happ had 5 inning with 5 earned.

MVP- Marcus Stroman 2 wins 15 2/3 16 hits, just 2 walks and 13 k's

Honorable mention- Luis Severino win 9 inn, 1 hit, 1 walk, 11 k's