Tennessee Smokies Wrap -- September 13

by Josh77 on Sep 13, 2009 4:44 PM CDT in Minor Leagues Comment 9 comments

The Smokies are going to the Southern League Championship Series after outshining the Huntsville Stars, 3-1 this afternoon.

The game started out as a pitcher's duel as starter Hung-Wen Chen got into trouble in the first two innings, but pitched out of it each time. In particular, after a walk and an error in the second inning, Chen threw a wild pitch to put men on second and third with only one out. But a strikeout and a line out got Chen out of the inning with no runs scoring. Chen went five innings and allowed no runs on only one hit. He walked three and struck out four.

The Smokies took the lead in the bottom of the first inning when infield singles by Starlin Castro and James Adduci put two on with nobody out. After a failed sacrifice bunt erased Castro from the basepaths, first baseman Blake Lalli singled home Adduci.

That's the way it stayed until the seventh inning. Reliever Jayson Ruhlman allowed a solo home run to tie up the game in the top of the inning. Ruhlman gave up one run on two hits over 1.1 innings before giving way to Marcos Mateo.

The Smokies answered in the bottom of the seventh. They scored two runs, the first on a single by Castro and the second when pinch-hitter Russ Canzler reached on an error.

Mateo picked up the win after striking out both batters he faced in the seventh inning after relieving Ruhlman. Brian Schlitter entered the game in the ninth inning and got his third save in as many games to clinch the series. Schlitter allowed a lead-off single, but a pop out and a double play put the Smokies into the Southern League Championship Series.

Shortstop Castro was 3 for 4 today, and was the only Smokie with more than one hit.

The Smokies will play either Jacksonville or Birmingham for the Southern League Championship. Jacksonville currently leads the series 2-0. Yesterday's game 3 was suspended in the bottom of the first with Birmingham leading 1-0. They will finish that game tonight, weather permitting.

0 recs | Comment 9 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Let me add something

Don’t forget, the Daytona Cubs won the FSL championship last season, and a lot of the players on that team play for the Smokies this season.

There may be some mistakes because I’m not absolutely sure of who was on the post-season roster last year in Daytona, but I believe James Adduci, Blake Lalli, Ty Wright, Russ Canzler, Jonathan Mota, Marcos Mateo, Andrew Cashner, Jayson Ruhlman, Marquez Smith, Tony Thomas, Hung-Wen Chen, Brian Schlitter,Jeremy Papelbon, Casey Coleman and Marco Carillo are all going for two straight championships.

by Josh77 on Sep 13, 2009 7:37 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

so AAA title next season

and the WS the season after. Awesome

Just say no to players named Aaron on the Cubs.

by nji232 on Sep 14, 2009 5:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

That

would be the response of a football fan, not a baseball fan.

by Slamdog on Sep 14, 2009 5:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Congrats to the Smokies.

It was strange going into Smokies park for a big playoff game with the attendence of 1,539. I bought tickets this moring for me and my family and got front row behind home plate. Smokies Park holds 6,000 and averages between three and five thousand. Hung-Wen Chen was a little wild early, but figured it out and held the Stars to one hit and no runs over 5 innings. Relief looked good and held the Stars to one run the rest of the way. It should be interesting to see how they do against the winner of Jacksonville next week. Good luck to the Smokies the rest of the way. Alson, I tried to take a video of the final out, however the quality was terrible and the sound didn’t show up on youtube. Oh well, here it is if you want to watch.

"No enemy is more dangerous, than the enemy that has nothing to lose." Mark Grace

by GateCity, VA Cubs Fan on Sep 13, 2009 9:43 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Minor League Playoff Attendance

It tends to be low. I was very impressed that the Memphis Redbirds drew over 5000 for their conference clinching game against the Albuquerque Isotopes. It was a legit 5000+. It wasn’t like the regular season when corporations like FedEx and AutoZone buy a lot of season tickets that aren’t used.

"The big possums walk late." - Harry Caray

by memphiscub on Sep 14, 2009 9:18 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Absolutely true

Minor league playoff games aren’t scheduled long in advance and since most fans in attendance of minor league ball really don’t care who wins or loses, a playoff game isn’t any sort of draw.

by Josh77 on Sep 14, 2009 11:24 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also

in alot of the Southern League town’s its football dominated and school has started which takes away from the baseball crowds to go along with those fans who dont care who wins or loses.

by Slamdog on Sep 14, 2009 5:40 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's Jacksonville

In a bit of an upset, the Suns swept the 92 win Birmingham Barons—although Jacksonville did win the second half title.

So game 1 of the Championship Series will be tomorrow in Jacksonville.

There’s a great picture of Ryne Sandberg being interviewed amongst the celebration on the front page of milb.com (click on “Southern League Playoffs”) There’s also an article on the playoff win here. There’s a great shot of Alex Maestri and Marco Carillo dumping Gatorade on Sandberg there.

by Josh77 on Sep 14, 2009 11:40 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs