Week 11: Miracle Max casts spell over Wonders; Grays' late rally upends Uglies

Morris Partee of the Plug Uglies pitches to Jay Sadowski of the Dorian Grays.

Wednesday: Dorian Grays 8, Plug Uglies 5
Thursday: Wonderboys 1, Phillies

Max Strubel

Two words for you all today: pitching and defense.
Here's two more: Miracle Max.

Max Strubel, the vernerable righthander for the Phils, held the ageless Wonders in check over 7 innings Thursday and in the process outdueled Chris Ciepiela to win 2-1.
Wonders manager Larry Pietras called it one of the best-pitched games in the history of the league. And he has a point.

A quick review of results over the past three seasons reveals this is the only game with a final score of 2-1, and it's only the second time where the total runs scored for both teams was fewer than than four. (Phils 2, Plug Uglies 0, July 7, 2017).

Ciepiela had a standout game in her own right: 6 hits and 2 runs - both unearned - over 6 innings.
"Chris C. pitched a supurb game," Strubel said.
But Strubel was just that much better with 5 hits and 1 run over 7. He also had three strikeouts.

"Max kept hitters off balance all game," Larry said. "A crisply played 'squeakah' as someone with a Boston accent would say."
The Wonders scored once in the 6th, and managed a mini-rally in the 7th. With two runners on and no outs, the runner on second tried to score on a single to left. But the Phils executed a perfect 7-6-2 relay to nail the runner at the plate.

Chris Ciepiela

The loss cost the Wonders their position at the top of the standings. With their loss and the Dorian Grays win on Wednesday, they are now a half-game back.

Speaking of the Dorian Grays, they trailed the the Plug Uglies 5-1 going into the 6th. But then in an instant, they came back from the dead, kind of like Lazarus in cleats.

The Grays batted around in the 6th, scoring 6 runs by the time the inning was done. They would tack on an insurance run in the 7th.
Stu Clark of the Grays was the hitting star of the game, driving in 3 runs.

Mike Whately got the win, and Jay Sadowski picked up the save. Morris Partee got the loss.