Warpigs 5, Rhinos 0

It was not a happy Cinco de Mayo for the Rinoceronte against the Guerra de Cerdo.

Game 1 @ The Rhino Reserve - Warpigs win 4-3. In retrospect, this game was the offensive extravaganza of the series. The Rhinos scored single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings, the latter coming on a BP homer (1-5) by Cody Bellinger. The Pigs' Corey Seager doubled home a run in the 4th to close the gap, and then Aaron Judge homered to lead off the 6th to tie the game at 2. The Pigs followed with 2 more runs in the 6th - both unearned - to take a 4-2 lead. Kris Bryant tried to make up for his error in the top of the inning by homering in the bottom of the inning, but both bullpens settled down with 3 shutout innings each. Luis Severino (6-2) went 6.1 for the win. Adam Warren got the final out for his 4th save.

Game 2 @ The Rhino Reserve - Warpigs win 2-1. Tommy Pham's 2-out single brought in the winning run in the top of the 7th. Raisel Iglesias (6-0) got the win in relief. Steve Cishek came on to get his 10th save.

Game 3 @ The BallPork - Warpigs win 1-0 in 16 fucking innings. Thanks to Luis Castillo and Jacob deGrom, neither team (obviously) could generate any offense. The two teams' cleanup-hitting first basemen (Votto and Mauer) combined to go 0-for-13. The Pigs did have some chances. J.T. Realmuto tripled with 2 outs in the 7th. In the 8th, the Pigs loaded the bases with 1 out, but a 3-6-3 grounder ended the inning. Even more frustrating was the bottom of the 9th. Adrian Beltre led off with a walk. Seager was next and lofted a flyball to the sure-handed Jake Marisnick in cf (1e5), but he dropped the ball for a 2-base error. But, of course, the next 4 batters went K, LO, HBP, K. Seager finally ended the game with a 16th inning HR. Iglesias (7-0) gets another win in relief.

Game 4 @ The BallPork - Warpigs win 4-0. There was still a lid on the basket for the Rhinos, getting only 4 hits. Joe Mauer hit a solo homer in the 6th to break up another scoreless battle. The fact that Mauer has W-power weighed on the mind of the Rhino manager, and when he loomed on deck in the next inning, with runners at 2nd & 3rd and Aaron Judge up with 2-outs, the intentional walk that had already happened twice in the series was eschewed. The fear of Mauer's awesome power (and maybe his clutch hits and lefty bat) resulted in pitches thrown to the Judge, who deposited one of them onto the roof of the Western Metal Supply Company. Severino (7-2) went 7 innings for the win, with Warren getting save #5.

Game 5 @ The BallPork - Warpigs win 5-1. It took 29.1 innings for the Rhinos to score at the BallPork, and even that run was unearned, coming on a passed ball. Jake Odorizzi had a perfect game thru 4, but chose the 5th inning to allow his only hit and his only 2 walks... and that tired him. COME ON!!! So yeah, he exited with a 4-1 lead in the 5th inning... none too happy. Iglesias (8-0) was awarded the win.

The Rhinos scored 1 unearned run in 34 innings at the BallPork. In the 5 game series (52 innings) , the Rhinos only scored 5 runs (4 earned) on 29 hits. They hit .165. The Pigs weren't much better with the bats, hitting .205, although they did draw 29 walks and got hit by the pitch 7 times (4 by Pham). Despite rolling in his column in half of his ABs, Realmuto's triple in game 3 was his only hit in 19 tries. Bellinger was 2-21 with no walks for the Rhinos.