A fun 16-inning marathon

[cobberjoe]

It was a bit of work to get the lineups correct for tonight's Red Sox-Twins tilt. I tried MLB Today Season, which listed the correct pitchers (Lester vs. Marquis), but lo and behold Marquis isn't on the Twins roster yet, so I adjusted the roster so he was available. MLB Today updates the roster, so I have to manually change it again. Now, I notice that Marlon Byrd hasn't been "traded" from the Cubs to the BoSox yet, so I go back to the rosters to fix that. Save the rosters and I'm set to go.

As the Twins, I gave up a leadoff hit and then retire the next 8 batters. Lester is perfect through 5.1 innings. The perfect game is broken up when Parmelee strikes out on a pitch in the dirt, not caught by Saltalamacchia. The throw pulls Gonzo off the bag, and Parmelee dives in safely.

I got a couple of hits the next inning, and left runners on 2nd and 3rd. Marquis pitches seven strong innings giving up 7 hits and no runs. Lester finishes the 9th inning with about 109 pitches. He ends up throwing 13 scoreless innings, 4 hits, 141 pitches (99 strikes), and a no decision. I just missed a few pitches along the way, but he was tough to hit.

I have used all but one of my bullpen guys, and have gotten a couple of timely double plays to keep the Sox scoreless though I have given up 11 hits.

Finally, leading off the 16th inning, Danny Valencia hit a walk-off home run against Franklin Morales, who was starting his third inning of work. 1-0 Twins win.

[baprecure]

I played earlier today Pittsburgh v Seattle and ended up going to the 14th before getting a run across. Long and stressful it was.

[mkharsh33]

Like reading these stories... My longest was a 20 inning game in which I lost 6-5 (a couple weeks ago). I simply ran out of pitchers... LOL!

[Mules50]

@cobberjoe

What sliders were you using? I have been tweaking with the sliders for my franchise mode but I just can't seem to get them correct. I either give too much edge to the hitters or too much edge to the pitchers. You look like you have the sliders down with a game like that, do you mind telling me what sliders you are using?

[cobberjoe]

Untweeked defaults, pro difficulty. I haven't had time to mess with the settings. I wish the CPU would throw a few more balls. I like to take pitches, get deeper into counts, and get into the bullpen, as this was a good strategy for me last year. However, this year, the CPU has tended to stick with its starters deep into games, as they did in this case. I have only had a couple of games where the CPU starter was out before the 8th or 9th inning.

Playing as the Twins, I feel offensively challenged and our pitching isn't too great either. On their off days, I've played some other teams. The Dodgers are fun this year, for example.

Let me know if you find some good sliders.

Cobberjoe

[Draven1234]

Sounds like a exciting game! My Red Sox Chise has 2 Long Relief Men ( Aceves and Masterson, who I traded for). If I have a long game I just use them for several innings.

In that game, how long was Aceves in for? Seems he is the Closer ( MLB Today) I assume one inning?

[crumpled_heap]

i play on all-star and have found that contact swing is more like a defensive swing and power swing is more like a normal swing.

[Hunkerdown]

You got nothing on me...