HOFL Playoffs - Round 2

The Boston NinetyAughts stay hot, upsetting the St. Louis LeftOuts in 7 games. And while the Boston hitting finally held up its end, the pitchers were again the story, striking out at least 14 LeftOuts in each game. The highlight of the series was the shutout by Randy Johnson in game 6. He scattered 5 singles, walked only 1, and struck out TWENTY.

The Boston pitching was the most evident in how they shut down the meat of the St. Louis order. Barry Bonds 4/28 with 19 strikeouts and only 1 HR. McGwire was 5/28 (although with 4 homers) and 14 Ks. But the biggest flop of all was Edgar Martinez. He finished 8th in the league with a .333 batting average, but against Boston pitching was held to 3 hits in 28 at bats and struck out 15 times.

Griffey homered 5 times in the series. The Big Hurt homered twice and, along with Wade Boggs, led everyone with 13 hits.

Game 1 - Boston wins 8-3. Eddie Cicotte gives up 3 homers.
Game 2 - St. Louis wins 3-2. Luis Tiant continues the regular season success he had.
Game 3 - Boston wins 9-3. Griffey homers twice, and Schilling gets routed. Pedro Martinez, despite giving up 3 home runs gets the easy win.
Game 4 - St. Louis wins 8-6 in 15 innings. Greg Maddux took a no-hitter and a 5-0 lead into the 6th inning. He lost the no-no in the 6th, and then completely came apart in the 7th, giving up a 3-run shot to McGwire and solo homers to ARod and Piazza. Lee Smith threw 6.2 innings of 1-hit shutout ball for the win.
Game 5 - St. Louis wins 6-4. Cicotte settles down; Nolan Ryan gives up taters to Joe Jackson, McGwire, and ARod. The LeftOuts head home with a 3 games to 2 lead, needing only 1 more win to advance.
Game 6 - Boston wins 3-0. Randy Johnson was dominating, striking out 20 and getting the NinetyAughts to a game 7 and a favorable matchup of Pedro vs Schilling.
Game 7 - Boston wins 9-8. Well, it wasn't a pitcher's duel. Pedro surrendered 5 long balls, but got McGwire out with 2 on in the bottom of the 9th to end the game.


Boston advances to the World Series to face the New York PreThirties. And while NY dominated most of the HOFL (including 17-1 against the Cincinnati SeventyEighties!), they only went 9-9 against Boston.

The box scores...