2001 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
 
HollywoodVampires@Flora-BamaMullets |
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| PREVIEW – Hollywood Vampires (102-60) vs. Flora-Bama Mullets (109-53) The two power houses in the National League squared off for a ticket to the World Series. The Mullets offense led the National League with .273 AVG .804 OPS and 629 extra bases hits, but the Vampires weren’t far behind with a .261 AVG, 767 OPS, and 568 extra base hits. The Mullets pitching was powered by three 20 game winners while the Vampires relied on a solid rotation and four lights out closers in the pen. |
| GAME #1 – Roy Oswalt (14-2 2.76 ERA) vs. Randy Johnson (27-3 1.99 ERA)
Cliff Floyd pulled a fast ball over the right field fence to put Hollywood on the board in the 1st inning. Hollywood added another run in the 4th, on a A.J. Pierzynksi RBI single after Randy Johnson lost his control and hit Randy Velarde and Jeromy Burnitz on consecutive pitches. Flora-Bama shifted to the pen in the 5th. In the 7th, Floyd hit his second homerun of the day to make 4-0. Flora-Bama finally got to Roy Oswalt in the 7th, when Armando Rios hit a two run homer. Hollywood fired back with homeruns from Paul Konerko (8th) and Jeff Cirillo (9th) to put it away. Jason Isringhausen, Steve Kline and Chad Fox put up zeros the final three innings for the easy win. Final Score: Hollywood 7 – Flora-Bama 2 Win: Roy Oswalt 1-0 (3.00) |
| GAME #2 – Wade Miller (15-9 3.29 ERA) vs. Curt Schilling (21-12 3.38 ERA)
In the bottom of the 2nd, Jeff Leifer and Torii Hunter singled with one out. Wade Miller then lost his control and hit Adam Kennedy and pinch hitter David Segui to force in a run and give Flora-Bama the 1-0 lead. Hollywood decided to pull Miller after just 1.1 innings and go with Steve Kline to face John Olerud. Kline walked Olerud to make it 2-0. Hollywood went to the pen again for Keith Foulke. Foulke got Lance Berkman to hit a grounder to 1B, but Foulke made an error covering 1B. 3-0. Foulke did get Mike Piazza to hit into a double play to end the inning with bases loaded. In the top of the 3rd, Hollywood scored a run after Gabe Kapler doubled and A.J. Pierzynksi singled. Flora-Bama scored two more in the bottom of the 3rd on consecutive hits from David Bell, Hunter and Kennedy. Hollywood got one back in the 4th on doubles by Cliff Floyd and Paul Konerko, but that was all Curt Schilling would allow over seven innings. Kazuhiro Sasaki and Jose Mesa pitched a quiet 8th and 9th for the save. Final Score: Flora-Bama 5 – Hollywood 2 Win: Curt Schilling 1-0 (2.57) |
| GAME #3 – Randy Johnson (27-3 1.99 ERA) vs. Mark Mulder (18-11 3.56 ERA)
This was an absolute pitching gem as both starters put up zeros inning after inning. Mark Mulder gave up a few more hits and walks, but he worked out of every jam and turned it over to the pen in the 8th. Steve Kline pitched a quiet 8th and 9th for Hollywood. In the bottom of the 9th, Randy Johnson gave up his first walk of the game to Rafael Furcal to start the inning. Furcal then stole second base to put the winning run in scoring position. Heff Cirillo dropped a sac bunt down and beat it out to put runners on 1st & 3rd with no outs. Cliff Floyd hit a liner to right….Rowand is galloping in … and he makes the shoestring catch! … that looked like a sure hit Furcal’s headed home, here’s the throw home … and he’s … safe. Final Score: Hollywood 1 – Flora-Bama 0 Win: Steve Kline 1-0 (0.00) |
| GAME #4 – Curt Schilling (21-12 3.38 ERA) vs. Roy Oswalt (14-2 2.76 ERA)
Hollywood was up two games to one and their rookie ace was scheduled to make two more starts in the series. What could go wrong… Roy Oswalt’s first pitch to Olreud sailed over the catcher to the backstop and he fell down holding his elbow. He left the game with a major injury (13 days) and his post season over. Halladay came on and worked a quick first inning. In the bottom of the 1st, Hollywood jumped out to a 3-0 lead on homeruns from Cliff Floyd and Randy Velarde. Curt Schilling shook it off and recorded seven strikeouts over the next four innings. In the top of the 5th, Adam Kennedy doubled and John Olerud drove him in to break up the shutout and force Hollywood to turn to the pen. 3-1. Doubles by Alex S. Gonzalez and Jeff Liefer off Chad Fox made it 3-2 in the 6th. In the 7th, David Segui walked with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. Hollywood chose to intentionally walk Berkman to face MIke Piazza and get a potential double play. Jason Isringhausen popped up Piazza for the second out. Isringhausen then popped up Gonzalez near the plate, but A.J. Pierzynski dropped the ball to load the bases. Armando Rios tomahawked the first pitch he saw to clear the bases. 5-3 Mullets. In the bottom of the 9th, Kazuhiro Sasaki popped up Randal Simon for the first out. He got Jeromy Burnitz to ground to third, but the pressure got to Charles Gipson an he threw it away. Gabe Kapler then popped out to Hunter. With two outs, a bench player named David Ortiz was called to pinch hit. David tied it up with a shot to right. 5-5. In the top of the 10th, Hunter rallied Flora-Bama with a solo homer to left field off Foulke. It was only the second home run hit by the Mullets in the series. Sasaki stayed on in the 10th and locked it down. Final Score: Flora-Bama 6 – Hollywood 5 (10 Innings) Win: Kazuhiro Sasaki 1-0 (0.00) |
| GAME #5 – Robert Person (20-8 3.04 ERA) vs. Wade Miller (15-9 3.29 ERA)
Flora-Bama only hit two home runs in the first four games, but they definitely made up for it in game five. John Olerud hit a solo in the 1st , Jeff Liefer went deep in the 2nd, and Mike Piazza launched one in the 3rd to give the Mullets a 3-0 lead. Robert Person went four scoreless innings and Norm Charlton, Josh Beckett, and Cliff Politte pitched three scoreless innings in relief. Armando Rios homered in the 6th and the 7th as Flora-Bama jumped to a 9-0 lead. Mike Hampton gave up a couple runs in the 9th as both teams utilized backups the last two innings. Wade Miller finished the series 0-2 with an ugly 9.39 era. Final Score: Flora-Bama 9 – Hollywood 3 Win: Norm Charlton 1-0 (0.00) |
| GAME #6 – Mark Mulder (18-11 3.56 ERA) vs. Randy Johnson (27-3 1.99 ERA)
Déjà vu of game three? Randy Johnson dominated again but left the game after 7.2 innings looking like he was going to lose his third game of the series. The Vampires only managed four hits in the game, but two of the hits came in the third when Jeff Cirillo doubled and Randy Velarde came up with a RBI single. Mark Mulder pitched his 14th connective scoreless inning of the series in the 7th and came back to start the 8th. #9 hitter David Bell, singled on a weak grounder to start the inning and Cutler asked Mulder for the ball. Some strong words were exchanged, but Mulder eventually conceded and Steve Kline came on. Kline struckout Lance Berkman for the first out, but David Segui worked a walk. The Mullets fearing this was their only shot, brought on Charles Gipson and Gerald Williams to pinch run. Kline popped up Mike Piazza for the second out. With two outs, Juan Gonzalez tapped a blooper over first base that managed to stay fair. Charles Gipson scored the tying run from second and the speedy Williams came all the way around from first. 2-1 Flora-Bama! In the top of the 9th, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Cliff Politte, and Jose Mesa each recorded an out to lock down the series victory. Final Score: Flora-Bama 2 – Hollywood 1 Win: Norm Charlton 2-0 (0.00) |
| SUMMARY – Flora-Bama struggled with leaving runners left on base for the first few games, but they finally found some cracks in the Hollywood bullpen and rallied back from the 2-1 deficit to win the series in six games. The defense for both teams performed poorly during the series and a misplay by Hollywood ultimately led to them losing the pivot-able game four.
The series MVP award was shared by Armando Rios who hit .250 and slugged .875 with 3 homeruns and 8 RBI and Torii Hunter who played excellent defense and hit .318 and slugged .636 with 4 doubles and 1 homer. |