Game 1 – Jake Arrieta meets expectations by hurling a 3-hit shutout. Justin Upton’s 6th-inning 3-run homer is more than enough, yet Eric Hosmer adds an exclamation point solo shot in the 7th. Lymebees win, 5-0.
W – Arrieta; L – Chris Archer (0-1)
Game 2 – Marwin Gonzalez and Christian Yelich doubles give the Lymebees a 1-0 3rd inning lead. Ryan Braun and Maikel Franco go back-to-back in the 4th, so the Bees have all they need to win 3-1.
Fun facts: Yelich leads off the bottom of the 1st with RP Board #24. The Fielding One Speakers roll 1 of the 5 necessary numbers (Fielding 2) to strike out Yelich and get him ejected. (There must have been history between Christian and the home plate ump.) The Speakers finally get their first runner to 3rd base (Woo-hoo!) in inning #15 of the series.
W – Sonny Gray; L – David Price (1-1); S – Carter Capps
Game 3 – The Speakers offense finally wakes up, but the consistent (and then some) Bees never stop hitting. As part of their double-digit hits, the Lymebees crush 3 more homers (Josh Reddick, Hosmer, Robinson Cano) and 3 more doubles. However, the Speakers ride Rajai Davis’ 2 triples and Andrelton Simmons’ 3 RBIs to a 6-5 squeaker. The Speakers require 3 9th-inning relievers, finally stranding the tying and winning runs in scoring position.
W – Matt Harvey (2-0); L – Kyle Hendricks; S – Tony Sipp (1)
Game 4 – The Lymebees crank out another 14 hits, adding safeties in every inning but a very rare 1-2-3 in the 2nd. Meanwhile, the Speakers make the most of their 8 hits, 3 of them leaving the park — all solos by Anthony Rizzo, Buster Posey and rookie Kyle Schwarber.
The big blow comes in the 5th when Schwarber bloops a ball into short right field. Cano, Hosmer and Reddick all collide while 2 runs score. Cano and Reddick leave for precautionary reasons while Hosmer stays to rack up his 9th hit of the series. (You read that correctly: 9-14, 2-D, 2-HR, 3-RBI, 5-R!)
At that point of the game, the Speakers have a 6-0 lead, yet require 5 relievers to get through the final 4 innings, allowing 5 ER on 8 hits. The Speakers barely gain a split with another 6-5 final.
W – Carlos Martinez (1-0); L – Noah Syndergaard; S – Jeurys Familia (2)
Ironically, 1 of the 5 outs that Hosmer makes in the series is the final out of Game 3 with the tying run at 3rd and go-ahead run at 2nd!