Boston eliminates Lake Erie in Six games

Game 1 in Boston saw Cy Young runner-up Lance Lynn taking on the Commodores Gerrit Cole.  Tony Kemp led off the bottom of the first with a solo homerun and that would be all the Bobcats would need.  Lynn cruised with 3 hit ball through 7 innings while striking out 8 batters.  John Loaisiga closed out Lake Erie over the last two innings in route to a 1-0 win.  Gerrit Cole was just as good after the homerun allowed.  Going 7 1/3 with 3 hits and 10 strikeouts.  But games like this you can't afford to make a mistake and Cole do that in his first batter faced.

Commodores 0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  --0 5 3

Bobcats          1 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0 --1 3 0

Lynn W 1-0  Cole L 0-1 Save--Loaisiga 1

HR Kemp 1

Game 2 Lake Erie was able to even the series.  Chris Bassit was solid through 7 innings and the Hernandez brothers both had RBI hits in the 1st and 2nd innings to help build an early 4-0 lead off Frankie Montas.  The Bobcats chipped away at that lead with a Jake Fraley homerun and Matt Olson drove in Tony Kemp to make it 4-2.  Bo Bichette's pinch hit single in the 9th would bring the winning run to the plate but the Bobcats fell short 4-3.

Commodores 1 2 1  0 0 0  0 0 0---4  12  1

Bobcats          0 0 1  1 0 0  0 0 1---3  9    1

Bassit W 1-0  Montas L 0-1  Save Hendriks 1

HR Fraley 1

Game 3 shifted to Lake Erie and would see Aaron Civale take on John Means.  The Bobcats wasted no time on jumping all over Means.  Culberson homered in the first inning and they put up 3 runs.  Lake Erie countered with 2 runs in the bottom of the first.  Enrique Hernandez homered twice and drove in 4 runs as the Commodores rallied to take a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the 5th.  Boston countered with back to back homeruns from the big guys, Matt Olson and Salvador Perez in the top of the 6th.  That was all the scoring and the Bobcat bullpen with Kittredge and Loaisiga closing the door on the Lake Erie hopes.

Bobcats               3 0 0  0 1 2  0 0 0-----6  11 0

Commodores      2 0 0  1 2 0  0 0 0-----5    8  1

W- Civale 1-0 L King 0-1  Save Loaisiga 2

HR-Culberson 1, Olson 1, Perez 1, E. Hernandez (2) 2

Game 4 was a matchup between Tyler Glasnow and Kyle Gibson.  Glasnow was brilliant, pitching 8 2/3 innings with just one hit, one run, 4 walks and a whopping 15 k's.  Gibson surrendered 3 runs in the middle innings, led by a two run bomb by Perez in the 4th.  The Bobcats coasted to a 3-1 win and a 3-1 series lead.

Bobcats             0 0 0  2 1 0  0 0 0----3  7  1

Commodores    0 1 0  0 0 0  0 0 0----1 1  0

W- Glasnow 1-0  L Gibson 0-1  Save Loaisiga 3

HR Perez 2

Game 5 was the rematch between Lance Lynn and Gerrit Cole and the two went at it again with brilliant performances.  It was Kemp again who led off the game with a solo homerun off of Cole.  Altuve would homer to tie it in the 2nd inning.  Both pitchers cruised along until the 8th inning.  This time it was Lynn who made the mistake.  Anthony Santander homered in the bottom of the 8th for 2-1 win.  All runs were scored on solo home runs.  

Bobcats          1 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0----1 3 0

Commodores  0 1 0  0 0 0  0 1 x ---2 5 0 

W- Cole 1-1 L Lynn 1-1 save Hendriks 2

HR- Kemp 2, Altuve 1, Santander 1

Game 6 moves back to Boston with Lake Erie trying to stay alive and Boston trying to avoid a dangerous game 7.  It was Bassit against Montas again.  Bassit would be injured in the 4th inning however and this game would really test the bullpen of the Commodores.  Lake Erie would get a run on another E. Hernandez homerun in the 4th.  Boston would tie it on a Fraley homer in the 7th.  They would move to extras and Colin McHugh would pitch 5 innings in relief.  Montas left in the 8th for Louis Head and he pitched 3 1/3 innings with just one hit and 4 k's.  In the 12th inning Loaisigia gave up go ahead single when Ty France was still in the game and became a 5 at 2b on a hold.  The former Bobcat A. Simmons came up with that big hit.  Liam Hendriks came in to close out the game.  Hendriks imploded a year ago against the Bobcats with the World Series berth on the line and he would fail again.  Sal Perez led off with a single.  Fraley singled him to 3rd and then he stole second to put the winning run into scoring position.  Jeimer Candelario then singled off the glove of Gurriel and Billy Hamilton who was pinch running came around to score the winning run and series ender.  All three hits coming off the x-chart after Doug Ebbole had gotten the lead off the x-chart in the top of the inning.

Commodores 0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 1---2 6 1

Bobcats          0 0 0  0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 2---3 7 1 

W- Loaisiga 1-0 L Hendriks 0-1

HR- E. Hernandez 3, Fraley 2

MVP- Jake Fraley 5-12, 2 HR, 3 BB game 6 hero with a game tying homerun and single plus stolen base in the 12th to set up the win.

Others worth noting:

Glasnow 8 2/3 innings 1 hit, 4 BB, 15 K, 1 ER and big game 4 win

Ty France 10-23 .435

 J. Loaisigia 4.1 innings 1 ER, 3 saves and a win