IAL update: Miguel Gonzalez is not happy with his IAL manager

Some APBA games just go your way.  I was playing an Illowa APBA League series with my Pittsburgh pal Todd Ventresca and his Three Rivers Gamblers tonight.  He won the first three and I won the next.  What happened in the next game is one for the record books.  

It was game five.  Rookie Eduardo Rodiguez vs. Josh Collmenter.  My Twin City Thunderchickens immediately scored three runs on Collmenter in the first inning then one more in the second.  In the fourth, we added four more runs. It was during that inning when Todd pulled Collmenter for reliever Miguel Gonzalez. 

Poor Miguel Gonzalez.  

It was then when the floodgates let loose.  With homeruns by Jung Ho Kang and JD Martinez, we plated seven more runs in the fifth inning.  Eleven batters came to the plate that inning.  By now, it was 15-1 (Pedro Alvarez hit a solo homer for the Gamblers in the fourth). 

With our shutout gone, I decided to pull Rodriguez and save his graded innings for another day.  Tanner Roark came in after five exemplary innings by E-Rod.  Two hits allowed with just one run allowed.  Roark gave up a solo homer to Adrian Beltre who hadn’t gotten the memo yet. 

Twin City wasn’t done scoring though.  Martinez drove home another run in the seventh inning.  In the eighth, the Thunderchickens scored three more on a rally started by double by Tanner Roark himself. 

A summary of the damage done

• Score: 19-2
• 27 hits by the Thunderchickens.  Four hits for the Gamblers.
• Every Twin City batter except PH Adam LaRoche got a hit AND scored a run (that includes Rodriguez and Roark)
• Seven batters had two or more hits and five had three or more hits
• Three (Nick Markakis, Jung Ho Kang, and Austin Jackson) had four hits
• The line on Gamblers’ reliever Miguel Gonzalez:  4 1/3 IP, 16 H, 11 R, 11 ER
• Five rbis for Kang

Roark (a DZ) did a great job as a reliever and earned his four inning save.  Like Rodriguez, he allowed just two hits, one a solo homer. 

After a while, the offensive barrage just became funny.  I would have felt bad for Todd except I knew that regardless of how much how I was beating him, I would still be down 2-3 when the game was over. 

The Gamblers and the Thunderchickens will resume their series on Saturday morning.  Do the Gamblers have vengeance on their mind?