Pittsburgh and New York Grab 1-0 Leads

In the Platonic League, Pittsburgh won a wild and wooly affair by a score of 11-9 in 11 innings to open the 2004 playoffs. Seattle jumped out to a 6-1 lead after Ronald Veit and Carlos Araoz hit home runs in a four-fun fourth inning. With "Happy" Diederich on the hill, the lead looked invulnerable. Yet, Pittsburgh responded with two runs in each of the fourth, sixth, and eighth innings to tie the game at seven.

It remained there into extra innings when Seattle struck first in the top of the tenth when George Pullum stroked an RBI single with two outs off of league saves leader Ariel Santos. But, a two-out wild pitch by the Ministry's Alberto Hernandez allowed pinchrunner Rudolph James to score the tying run in the bottom of the frame. Seattle rebounded in the top of the 11th though and retook the lead on a sacrifice fly by Herman "Semi" Colon. Unfortunately, the Seattle bullpen completed the collapse in the bottom of the 11th when Gary Croce hit a solo home run to tie the game and Brian Staudt stroked a two-run shot to win it.

A wild game, featuring 20 runs, 31 hits, and six home runs. What a way to start the series. Brian Staudt took home Player of the Game honors for his game-winning heroics.

In the nightcap, the two Gotham starters were strong, as New York and Brooklyn were tied at three after seven innings. But then, the Brooklyn bullpen fell apart and gave up six runs in the last two innings. The Bombers struck back for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little, too late as New York claimed Game 1 by a 9-5 score. New York second baseman Roger Kirby won the Player of the Game honors, for reasons that escape this writer.

Game Two in each series will be tomorrow, simmed by Nate. Stay tuned.