SERIES #20 v CLEVELAND - Stouts Rock 'N Rolled. Outscored 31-12 In Sweep

Baltimore heads home to take on the surging Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers, winners of 11 of their last 16.  They currently are stalking the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the Classic League's ultra-competitive Rust Belt Division.  Heading into action, they are four games out of the division lead.  The Stouts have been struggling of late, although they did just take two of three against the Cincinnati Red Stockings on the road.  Overall they sit at 25-32, four games back of division leading Milwaukee.

Game 1
Memorial Stadium

June 3, 2014

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers (30-28)	0	1	2	1	6	0	3	0			13	18	1
Baltimore Stouts (25-33)	3	0	2	2	0	0	2	X			9	14	0
	W: B. Tomko (3-1)   L: J. Lieber (3-8)

HR: E. Alfonzo (12, 2nd inning off J. Lieber 0 on, 0 out), J. Kendall (4, 3rd inning off J. Lieber 0 on, 1 out), M. Williams 2 (3, 4th inning off J. Lieber 0 on, 1 out; 5th inning off J. Lieber 0 on, 2 out), R. Hidalgo (13, 5th inning off J. Lieber 1 on, 2 out)
HR: T. Helton (16, 1st inning off B. Colon 1 on, 0 out)

Jon Lieber came to the Stouts with a reputation of giving up the long ball, having allowed 16 homers for the Atlanta Stonecutters in his 11 starts for the team.  Well, he surely didn't disappoint in that regard in this one, allowing FIVE dingers in what would be his worst outing by far in a Stouts uniform.

MATT WILLIAMS LAUNCHED A
PAIR OF HOMERS IN GAME 1

The game started off well for the home team as they plated three runs in the bottom of the first.  But Cleveland was resilient in this one, coming right back with a run in the 2nd and two more in the 3rd to tie it up.  Baltimore pushed across two more in the 3rd to chase Cleveland starter Bartolo Colon, only for the Rock 'N Rollers to respond with another run in the 4th.  The Stouts scored another pair in the bottom half of the inning to take a 7-4 lead heading into the 5th.

Lieber just couldn't get out of his own way in this game.  Cleveland scored six runs in the 5th, all with two outs in the inning.  Out of the nine runs Leiber allowed, all but two were a direct result of the long ball.    Baltimore could never recover and the Rock 'N Rollers take the opener 13-9.  The teams combined for 32 hits.

Matt Willimas belted two homers in the game.  He came into the game with only a single HR through his team's first 57 games.  Edgardo Alfonzo went 4-5 with a homer an three RBI.

Game 2
Memorial Stadium

June 4, 2014

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers (31-28)	0	0	1	7	0	0	0	0	0		8	13	0
Baltimore Stouts (25-34)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0		1	3	1
	W: M. Hampton (6-5)   L: K. Rueter (3-4)

HR: M. Williams (4, 4th inning off K. Rueter 3 on, 0 out)

Stouts slugger Todd Helton was ejected in the 1st inning in this contest for arguing balls and strikes.  That incident set the tone for the entire game.  Baltimore could never get anything going against Cleveland starter Mike Hampton.  The lefty was brilliant, keeping the Baltimore batters off-balance throughout.  He allowed only three hits and one run while going the distance for his sixth win on the year.  The Rock 'N Rollers got all the runs they needed and then some in a seven run 4th inning.  Matt Williams once again went deep, launching his third homer in the series in a five at-bat span.  He's now gone 5-9 with six RBI in the two games combined.



Game 3
Memorial Stadium

June 5, 2014

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers (32-28)	0	1	0	0	4	1	2	0	2		10	14	0
Baltimore Stouts (25-35)	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0		2	7	1
	W: K. Brown (6-4)   L: B. Rekar (2-4)

HR: E. Alfonzo (13, 7th inning off A. Osuna 1 on, 0 out)
HR: G. Anderson (11, 6th inning off K. Brown 1 on, 2 out)

Another game, another blowout loss at the hands of the Rock 'N Rollers, who are most certainly on a roll.  The Cleveland bullpen may as well have stayed home the last two games.  Kevin Brown this time goes the distance, limiting the Baltimore bats to only seven hits and a pair of runs.  Edgardo Alfonzo goes 3-4 with three runs scored, two doubles, a homer and two RBI.  For the series, Alfonzo was 8-12 with five runs scored, seven RBI, three doubles, two homers and three walks.


Cleveland exits the series with a sweep in hand.  They are now winners of 14 of their last 19 games, including series sweeps against not only Baltimore, but also Atlanta and Washington in the past two weeks of action.  The Stouts have now lost five of their last six after their series sweep of Oakland a week ago.  Next up for Baltimore is a home date against the Rust Belt Division leaders, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, who are fresh off a series sweep of their own against Toronto.