The Cards Are Back In Town!

Hard to believe the shortened-cards' season is over? Me too. In a season with a lot of changes, it's over and out of the mix, the St. Louis Cardinals became P.B. Cup champions, winning the World Series over the upstart Atlanta Braves, and their young manager, in seven games.

Moving into the new season, three historic teams are changing cities: newly-crowned Cardinals are leaving the red of St. Louis to the blue of Toronto, becoming the Blue Jays; another long-running franchise the Atlanta Braves - having played their last game down south - moved to Detroit, becoming the Tigers; and with some surprise the glorious Pittsburgh Pirates have now become the sensational Chicago Cubs.

Darby's Atlanta Braves hosting the St. Louis Cardinals in the last play of any kind for these two teams and for Darby a repeat of his finals appearance last year.

Game 1 .... Bieber vs Keuchel... I have no issue getting people on base but scoring is another issue.. First Story and then Soto get injured and while it's not for long it doesn't look good for scoring runs Judge bails me out with a 7th inning homer and I lead 1-0...and Bieber goes 7 no-hit innings but Cruz AKA Darby wakes up and when the 8th is over Darby leads 3-1 and Gonsolin and Hendricks hang on for a 3-1 win for Darby despite me stranding 9 !!! ARGH!!!

Game 2 ... Darvish vs Gray... Soto is back ....After Atlanta starts off with an early 1-0 lead I storm back with 2 in the 3rd (Soto 2-run shot) and 5th and hang onto an eventual 4-3 win... Cruz again making it interesting.

Game 3 ... Back to my park... Story is back and it's Cole vs Bauer.... Bauer has no luck all year so he is due. I take an early lead but Darby hit's a 2-run shot by Seager to take lead and stretches it to 3-1 until I storm the field with four in the 7th- the backbreaker being Wendle's 3 run shot as he gets the start over LeMahieu- and one more in the 8th and eventually win 6-4 but not til Cruz hits his 3rd in 3 games. Oh... I now lose one of my catchers Knapp for one more.

Game 4 .... Lynn vs Castillo. this is zeros for 3 innings until Lemahieu hits one in the 4th ( I think it was him) and then I tack on another in the 7th to win 2-0. Darby can't score or has too many right handed bats either way he is colder than my ex-wife!

Game 5 .... Knapp is back but Keuchel vs Bieber means he sits anyways... I score in 1st with another 2 run shot by Soto.. and then Pollock hits a 3 run shot... both BP homeruns in my park 1-5 so am feeling lucky so far. While behind 5-0 Darby in the 6th Darby goes nuts and I bring in the pitcher that has a 6-8 Triple 1-17 and Darby smacks it to make it 5-4 and then the tying run scores on I think a SF and I throw my first die of the night. Luckily I manage to get one back and hang on for dear life with Bobo warming in the pen to take it 6-5 and the series 4-1

Homeruns:

Darby's Atlanta Braves hit only 4 : Cruz 3, Seager

Baker's St. Louis Cardinals hit 8 : Soto 2, Judge 2, Wendle, LeMahieu, Pollock and Story

A tight series... notable that Darby's CF Lewis missed two homeruns 1-15 .... stranding both doubles ( 16-20) and those would have made a difference in at least one game maybe more.

Thanks to everyone for a great season.... and my wife hates this trophy but who cares!

Alexander Kieth's stars of the series:

1....All the Starters ... max innings in 4 games

2.... Alcantara .... a shutdown RH who pitched in 8 of 10 games in playoffs going a total of 8 innings.

3 ... Team defense ..... Four 1's in infield plus two sharing RF... it helped a lot.

See y'all on Friday Mar 25th... likely a 8:15 start...

LAST POINT........ Darby.... you stole my dice!!!.. WTF... are you trying to weigh them?

Gord