Warpigs 4, Sidewinders 1

Netplayed... or as we like to call it... Disconnect from Multiplayer and Reconnect.

Game 1 (at Snake Park) - Sidewinders win 4-1. Ubaldo Jimenez allowed only 3 hits over 8 innings. Stephen Drew homered for the only Pig run. Jhonny Peralta and Seth Smith both had big hits in a 3-run 8th. Craig Kimbrel earned the save. Jordan Zimmermann took the loss.

Game 2 (at Snake Park) - Warpigs win 6-5 in 10 innings. The Warpig 10th started with a walk to David Freese. Zimmermann pinch hit, and his sacrifice attempt turned into a single. The official HAL post game summary says, "Jordan Zimmermann came to the plate and ripped a one-base hit." Jake Westbrook followed with an actual pinch hit sacrifice bunt to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Cameron Maybin plated the go ahead run with a sacrifice fly. Mark Melancon came on for the save. Jim Thome homered twice for the Snakes. Drew hit his 2nd homer in as many games.

Game 3 (at Snake Park) - Warpigs win 2-0. Mike Minor and Marc Rzepczynski combined for the 5-hit shutout. The Pigs had only 4 hits themselves, but one of them was a 2-run homer by Freddie Freeman. John Danks took the loss.

Game 4 (at the BallPork) - Warpigs win 2-1. Zimmermann got the win. Rzepczynski got the save. Jake Peavy was the tough luck loser. Thome homered for the Snakes. The tying run scored when Maybin doubled in front of Seth Smith, who then drop-kicked the ball into the stands while Maybin raced around the bases with a little league home run.

Game 5 (at the BallPork) - Warpigs win 6-2. Peralta's double in the 7th tied the game, but Cameron Maybin threw out the potential go ahead run at home on the play. The Pigs took the momentum from that inning-ending assist and proceeded to score 4 runs in the bottom half of the inning.

In the last game, just as we had decided that 5 games of struggling with NetPlay was enough, we hit a snag. Peralta's double scored the tying run but ended the inning on a play at the plate. The Snakeman went to the pen to bring in Neftali Feliz to start the bottom of the 7th, but accidentally brought in Ubaldo. To fix the problem, I went with the Delete Last Play option. Big mistake. With NetPlay, you can't switch to manual entry to recreate the previous at bat. At first we just let Peralta hit again. He made an out, leaving the Snakes down 2-1. But that wasn't fair, so we deleted that play too. This time I just had Gee intentionally walk Peralta and the following batter to force in the tying run. The problem was, Colby Rasmus was having none of this "make an out" business and blasted a grand slam. Grrr. Delete Last Play. Finally, after the two IW's, Rasmus made an out and the world was semi-right again. On retrospect, the answer would be to go ahead and let Ubaldo pitch to a batter. Then pull him and just change the stats to make it seem as though Feliz faced that batter. NetPlay is frustrating in so many ways.