RESULTS: ROUND 1 - REGION 2:
5) 1984 Detroit Tigers vs. 12) 1957 Milwaukee Braves
Game 1 featured a dandy of a pitching matchup on paper, with Jack Morris taking on Warren Spahn. You have to figure that any chance the Braves have in this series would rely on Spahn pitching well a couple times. That wasn’t the case though. The Tigers, maybe still smarting from what many observers felt was a low seed, abused Spahn and every other Milwaukee pitcher today for an 11-0 rout. Five different Tigers homer’d, seven drove in at lease one run, and Jack Morris went complete game giving up three hits, no walks, and no runs.
Game 2 now had a lot of pressure on Lew Burdette to keep the Braves realistically in the series and he wasn’t really up to it. He gave up two in the 1st inning, and was down 3-0 at one point when Hank Aaron tried to pull them back in with a two run shot in the 4th. He did settle a bit from there, but Taylor Phillips would eventually relieve Burdette and give up 4 runs in the 7th and despite two late runs by the Braves making it look better this was still a 7-4 Detroit win.
The friendly confines of Milwaukee County Stadium did not help the Braves’ bats as they only had six hits in game 3. Lucky for them starter Bob Buhl went 7.1 ip and held Detroit to five baserunners in a 2-0 win. The Braves are back in the series.
Game 4 had the same story as game 3, but with the teams reversed. The Tigers managed only eight hits but pushed two across in the 5th. Detroit starter Juan Berenguer went 8 innings and gave up 2 hits to push Detroit to the within a game of the next round.
In game 5 the Braves will have their ace and one more home game to try to and turn the momentum. This time Spahn was up to the challenge. He went 8 innings, struck out 8, gave up 4 hits, 2 walks, and 0 runs. The Braves hit three balls out of the park and won by a final of 6-0. The third straight game in the series to see the losing team shut out.
The series now heads back to Detroit where the Tigers will have two more chances to close it down. They would fail for the second straight game. The Braves would chip away a run at a time and build a 4-0 lead before some late inning dramatics by the Tigers pulled them close. Kirk Gibson’s 2-run double in the 7th started it, then in the bottom of the 8th they added another. Don McMahon would put the tying run on in the bottom of the 9th but put the fire out from there for his 2nd save of the series. The Braves have forced a game 7, and with their star Hank Aaron hitting a paltry .100 thus far for the series you have to feel he may just be due.
Game 7 is a pitching matchup rematch of game 3, where Milt Wilcox was pretty good for Detroit, but Bob Buhl threw a gem for the Braves. This time it was reversed. Buhl held his team in it with the game going 2-0 into the 8th, but Wilcox was unhittable. In 8 innings he struck out 7 and gave up 2 baserunners and no runs. Willie Hernandez came on to strike out the side in the 9th and the Tigers are moving on!
Shortstop Lou Whitaker takes series MVP honors hitting .444 with a homer and five runs scored.
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