[Syd Thrift]

Team Overviews
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WORLD SERIES BABYYY
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The bloom is off the rose. The Reds dropped Game 2 late and are now deadlocked with the Twins at a game apiece. The Twins do feel like this is their turn after dropping a close 7 game series to the Mets last year; however, like last year the Reds were the better team during the regular season.

Major Transactions
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October 12: The Cubs trade SS Mark Weber (.276, 6, 48 at AAA Tacoma) to the Astros for SS John Timonen (.190, 5, 17). Timonen is the Ray Oyler of this league - fantastic fielder (he could win the Gold Glove this year even though he only got into 99 games this year), terrible hitter. The Cubs potentially have use for Timonen as a late-inning replacement for 26 year old SS Jeremy Taylor (.235, 27, 89) and Weber, a solid if not a great prospect, was pretty well blocked in Chitown. He's potentially blocked in Houston, too, by SS Jordan Green (.275, 4, 23) but Green missed 99 games this year with injuries and Houston needs to set up in case this becomes a recurring issue.

October 13: The White Sox trade 1B Josh Lewis (.234, 10, 54) and LF Josh Coldiron (.149, 0, 0) to the Royals for LF Jeff Nation (.292, 21, 84) and P Nick Colucci (1-0, 8.10). Nation's clearly the biggest piece in this trade; the Royals were dissatisfied with his fielding but the White Sox go in thinking they might be able to train him into not being a complete disaster at third base (he played 43 games there and fielded .897). If not, they've got room for him at first base or left field. The Royals get back Josh Lewis, a former #77 prospect who wore out his welcome in Chicago after he lost 67 points in batting average this year. The Royals have a guy at first already but Yahashi Ono (.286, 11, 72) is 39 and there's no telling when his Cinderella story will come to an end. Also included in this deal is Josh Coldiron, a 23 year old for the 1970 season (he just turned 24 on October 5th) who, frankly, was rushed to the big leagues after hitting .336 in AAA Tucson. He's a phenomenal outfielder who could win multiple Gold Gloves if he can figure out how to hit major league pitching.

News
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October 12: President Richard Nixon announces the US will withdraw 40,000 more troops from Vietnam by Christmas.

October 13: In Lebanon, Saeb Salam is appointed Prime Minister for the fourth time.

Game Infos
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Reds @ Twins

Pregame: It's clear skies and - what is this? - 70 degrees in Minnesota.

Joe Hagan pitched like an ace in his last game, scattering 10 hits in the NLCS-clinching 8-0 shutout of the Pirates. I expect things get harder from here.

Angelo Ramos, like I said earlier, is 2 wins away from tying the modern record for postseason wins. Of course, the guys in front of him all got theirs during the World Series but I don't believe in asterisks. He has a lifetime postseason record, by the way, of 4-1 with a 2.59 ERA and 45 Hs in 62.2 IP.

Top 1st: Ortiz does the leadoff man's job of letting the rest of the team look at some pitches as he grounds out to third after a 10 pitch at-bat. Wendth grounds to third. Kraljevic, who by the way was 4th in the NL in runs scored in 1970 (109), pops out to short.

Reds 0, Twins 0

Bottom 1st: Hagan strikes out Morgenstern. Pellot sends a base hit the other way into right. Martinez works a 9-pitch at-bat into a walk. Brookes hits a hard grounder to first, which is picked up and thrown to second by 1B Stephen Clark, but SS Mike Wendt is unable to complete the DP. Pellot advances to third on the play. Cortes flies out to right.

Reds 0, Twins 0

Top 2nd: Cannon singles into center. Jensen Ks, his 9th strikeout of the postseason in 22 at-bats. Williams also goes down on strikes. Clark hits a flare into center that CF Jose Villasenor makes a diving stop of.

Reds 0, Twins 0

Bottom 2nd: Villasenor lays down a nice bunt that catches Bobby K off-guard. He's not able to field it in time and Jose beats out the infield hit. Reed walks. Mendel works the count to 3-2 before flying out to right field; the ball is not hit deep enough to advance Villasenor. Ramos drops down an excellent bunt of his own; this one serves its purpose and moves both Villasenor and Reed into scoring position with two out. Morgenstern flies to right.

Reds 0, Twins 0

Top 3rd: Wilkes grounds to first. Hagan flies out to shallow center. Ortiz grounds out to shortstop.

Reds 0, Twins 0

Bottom 3rd: Pellot grounds to 2nd. Martinez grounds to short. Brookes grounds out 3-1. This is shaping up to be a pitchers' duel.

Reds 0, Twins 0

Top 4th: Ramos hits Wendt with a 2-2 changeup. Kraljevic walks. Junior Cannon takes advantage of the wildness and cranks a homerun to the left field alley, his 2nd of the postseason. Jensen grounds to third. Williams doubles off the right field fence. Clark makes a productive out, grounding to second and allowing Williams to get to 3rd. Wilkes flies to center.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Bottom 4th: Cortes strikes out swinging at a fastball that was outside of the strike zone. Villasenor grounds out to short. Reed flies to left.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Top 5th: Hagan hits a weak grounder to short and goes down 6-3. Ortiz singles past 2B Marty Mendel. Wendt flies to center. Ortiz runs for second on a 1-0 pitch and gets in easily. Kralcevic strikes out to retire the side.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Bottom 5th: Mendel grounds out to short. Ramos strikes out looking at a 91MPH fastball. He's a pitcher, Joe, give him a break! Morgenstern hits a ball into center that CF Chris Wilkes misplays into a double. Pellot grounds out to first.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Top 6th: Cannon grounds out to short. Jensen pops out to 1B Angelo Martinez. Williams hits his second double of the game, this one into the right-center gap. Clark flies out to left.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Bottom 6th: Martinez strikes out on 3 pitches. That's 4 for Hagan. Brookes grounds out 5-3. Cortes slaps one to Ortiz but he can't come up with it. It's ruled a base hit. Villasenor gets way ahead of an 0-2 changeup and Ks.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Top 7th: Wilkes lines out to right. Hagan singles to right. Ortiz gifts Ramos with the pitcher's best friend, a 5-4-3 DP.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Bottom 7th: Potential big decision coming up this inning... Reed flies to right. Mendel grounds out to shortstop. Okay, so maybe not; with 2 outs, it's probably better to reset the lineup here anyway, given that this is not a 1 run game, and Ramos has pitched well outside of the wild stretch in the 4th. He hits a pitcher's groundball to second.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Top 8th: Wendt grounds out to Mike Brookes at third. Bobby K is called out on a 2-2 change-up that, to be honest, missed the plate. He's having none of it. He jaws with the ump a bit too long and he's been thrown out of the game! Cannon strikes out, too, but makes sure he gets a cut in.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Bottom 8th: 1B/3B Fidelio Guerrero (.268, 1, 8) will take over for Bobby K at the hot corner. A backup corner infielder, he didn't see a lot of time after being called up midseason, but he's an adequate fielder, I guess.

Morgenstern flies to center. Pellot belts one off the right-centerfield wall and slides in with a double. That's only the 4th hit allowed by Hagan today. Martinez strikes out on a changeup that might have just nicked the zone. Makeup call? Brookes hits one into left but it's right at LF Junior Cannon. The Twins are down to their final 3 outs.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Top 9th: Ramos strikes out Williams looking, his 3rd straight strikeout. Williams is all like "uh uh" and makes contact with the first pitch he sees; he pushes it into center where CF Jose Villasenor gloves it for the out. Clark also hits the first pitch and drives it into left field for a base hit. Wilkes strikes out to retire the side.

Reds 3, Twins 0

Bottom 9th: Hagan's kind of shutout-locked at this point. He doesn't have a lot left but I would be angering the baseball gods if I took him out now. Cortes walks to lead it off. Villasenor doubles into the gap in right-center. The tying run comes to the plate in the person of Brad Reed. I'm going to go ahead and pull him for Matt Theroff for the second time in the postseason. He hits a ball into right that just does drop in front of Jensen.

So... now that the shutout's gone, I think it's clear that Hagan is done. Time to bring in Ricky Rosas, making his first appearance in a week.

Mendel, who's hitting just .174 in the postseason, is an obvious pinch-hit replacement for, um, Mike Grigg. The wording is weird. Grigg hits it to medium to deep center but the Twins' third base coach decides it's not quite deep enough to send Villasenor home. That's one out. In for Ramos is Jon Barnes, who has a 2 run pinch-hit HR already this October. I should stop typing stuff like this. He hits ANOTHER HOMERUN TO LEFT IT IS GONE THE TWINS WIN IN TWINTOWN

FINAL: Reds 3, Twins 4