GAME 1 - Manhattan 8, Montréal 5    BOXSCORE
Pitchers Duel Devolves into Sloppy Walk-Fest
MONTRÉAL (Sept. 23) -- Bill Singer struck out a playoff-record six batters in a row in Tuesday's Game 1, as he battled Manhattan's Steve Rogers to a 0-0 tie through four innings, but the wheels came off in the fifth, and the pitchers' duel turned into a sloppy game of walks, singles, and errors, at the Gray Sox took an 8-5 win.  Ollie Brown had three hits and Tom Grieve drove in three as the much-touted Montréal pitching staff put 20 men on base, including nine walks.  Rogers got the win and Ken Tatum got the save with a shutout ninth inning.

GAME 2 - Manhattan 3, Montréal 2    BOXSCORE
Bochte Pinch Double Sinks V's
MONTRÉAL (Sept. 24) -- Bruce Bochte's pinch-hit double off Jim Rooker in the ninth gave the Gray Sox a 3-2 win and a commanding 2-0 lead as the Semi Series heads back to the Big Apple.  Buddy Bell led off the scoring with a two-run double off Ernie McAnally in the second, but the Voyageurs knotted it up with a pair of Gary Carter solo homers in the fourth and eighth.  Steve Garvey then led off the ninth with a double and scored the go-ahead run on Bochte's pinch hit, and Ken Tatum notched his second save in as many nights, ending the game with an Andre Thornton groundout.  Montréal, the President's Trophy winners, head to Manhattan with a two-game deficit.  Game 3 probables are Mike Nagy (17-6, 2.62) and Steve Carlton (18-8, 3.61).

GAME 3 - Montréal 7, Manhattan 2      BOXSCORE
Coggins Slam Buries Sox Early
MANHATTAN (Sept. 26) -- Rich Coggins, who hit seven home runs all year, hit a grand slam to cap a six-run first inning that sunk the Gray Sox before they even came to the plate.  Mike Nagy held on for a complete game win, allowing 11 hits, but only two runs.  All six runs charged to Steve Carlton were unearned, but he left the game after just three innings.  The Sox pen allowed just one run in six innings, but the offense failed to sustain a rally.  Gary Carter slugged a solo homer in the seventh, his third of the series, and Warren Cromartie was 3-for-5.  Rico Petrocelli had three hits but committed two errors, including the one in the first that to the six-run outburst.

GAME 4 - Montréal 7, Manhattan 4      BOXSCORE
Carter Homer in 10th Levels Series
MANHATTAN (Sept. 27) -- Gary Carter delivered a three-run homer in the 10th inning, his fourth of the series, the square things up at two games apiece.  Manhattan took an early lead on Tom Grieve's two-run blast in the first and Craig Robinson's solo shot in the fourth made it 3-1 before the V's finally reached Steve Rogers with a three-run fifth.  Rich Coggins and Greg Gross singled and scored on Bobby Grich's triple, and Grich then scored on Carter's groundout.  The score held at 4-3 until the sixth, when Ollie Brown launched the Sox' third homer off Dock Ellis, a solo shot the tied it at 4-4.  Rogers and Ellis then settled down, with closer Bill Grief spotting for Ellis in the ninth.  The Sox chose to let Rogers pitch the 10th, a fateful decision as Gross led off with a single and Grich walked to set up Carter's game-winning crank.  Carter is batting .529-4-7 in the series, with a 1.353 SLG and a 1.908 OPS.  Game 5 will be the last of the series in Yankee Stadium, and will feature Bill Singer vs. Don Sutton.

GAME 5 - Montréal 7, Manhattan 2      BOXSCORE
How the Grich Stole Game 5
MANHATTAN (Sept. 28) -- Bobby Grich homered and doubled, driving in three, and the 1-2-3 hitters combined for nine hits and 6 RBIs, as the Voyageurs moved within a single win of the UL World Series in just their second season.  Manhattan scored first on Tim Blackwell's RBI double in the second, but the visitors plated four in the third and never looked back.  The Sox were only outhit 15-13, but left an incredible 32 men on base: 7 by Gorman Thomas (0-5), and 6 each by Tom Grieve (1-4) and Buddy Bell (0-5).  Bill Singer got the win, scattering 11 hits over seven innings, and Don Sutton took the loss for Manhattan, who now must win two in a row north of the border to stave off elimination.

Game 6 - Manhattan 11, Montréal 0      BOXSCORE
Carlton Dominantes in Rout
MONTRÉAL (Sept. 30 ) -- Lefty Carlton authored a four-hit shutout and the Gray Sox wracked Ernie McAnally and three equally hapless relievers for 15 hits and 11 runs in a display of utter domination by Manhattan, who force a Game 7 with the win.  The Sox pounded out nine extra-base hits, including two doubles and a homer by Buddy Bell, two doubles by Steve Garvey, and a two-run triple by MVP favorite Tom Grieve.  For his part, Carlton allowed just four hits, all of them with the bases empty, walked two and struck out six.  Game 7 probables are Steve Rogers and Mike Nagy.

Manhattan 7, Montréal 6
Manhattan Returns to Series
Sox Nearly Unravel, But Rogers Holds On
MONTRÉAL (Oct. 1) -- The visiting team won for the 12th time in 13 Semi Series games, as the Manhattan Gray Sox built build an early 5-0 lead, then nearly saw it melt away en route to a narrow 7-6 win.  The home side was victimized by errors, pickoffs, and baserunning gaffes, rallied but failed to push a seventh run across the plate and exits the playoffs disappointed but proud as the youngest expansion team ever to make the playoffs, and a President's Trophy for best regular season record.

Manhattan jumped all over Mike Nagy with a five-run second inning that got started when Bobby Grich booted a ground ball off the bat of Steve Garvey.  Two batters later, Garvey scored on Buddy Bell's sac fly, and singles by Tim Blackwell and Ollie Brown set up a three-run blast by Craig Robinson.  By the time Garvey led off the 5th with a home, the Sox led 7-1 and it looked like they were punching their tickets to Detroit for Game 1 of the Fall Classic.  But in classic Glen Reed style, the Voyageuers never gave up, chipping away at Steve Rogers and the lead.  Rick Burleson, Greg Gross, and Grich cranked extra-base knocks in the four-run fifth and Bill Madlock tripled and score in the sixth to make it 7-6.  But Rogers bent but didn't break, getting out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by striking out Madlock and Burleson, then inducing a double play to end the eighth after Jerry Hairston's leadoff walk.  Buzz Capra sat down the 3-4-5 hitters in order to notch the save, while rested closer Ken Tatum watched from the bullpen.  Rogers was 2-1 in the series despite a 6.17 ERA, and the MVPs were Tom Grieve (10 RBIs in 7 games) and Steve Carlton (0.00 ERA in 2 starts, including the four-hit shutout game in Game 6).

Manhattan, UL champions in 1968, will travel to Kiner Field to face the Detroit Griffins in Game 1.  Detroit won the season series between the clubs, 8-4.  Game 1 probables are Don Sutton (0-1, 5.40) and Bruce Kison (0-1, 2.63).




GAME 1 - Detroit 12, Los Angeles 5    BOXSCORE
Allen Bomb Keys Five-Run Eighth as Griffins Rout Outlaws
LOS ANGELES (Sept. 23) -- Dick Allen's three-run homer highlighted a five-run eighth inning that blew open a tight 4-4 game, as the Griffins exploded to bury Los Angeles starter Fritz Peterson and piled on insurance runs off reliever Brent Strom.  Detroit ended the game with 18 hits, including 10 by their 1-2-3 hitters Claudell Washington, Matty Alou, and Allen.  Washington had four hits, including a double, and drove in three runs.  Bruce Kison was chased after 5.2 innings, having allowed four runs, but the Griffins pen allowed just one run in 3.1 innings of relief work to nail down the win.

GAME 2 - Detroit 5, Los Angeles 3    BOXSCORE
Outlaws Can't Recover From Early Deficit
Griffs Take 2-0 Lead to Detroit
LOS ANGELES (Sept. 24) -- Detroit touched Phil Niekro for four runs in the first inning and the hosts never recovered, as the Griffins won 5-3 to take a 2-0 Semi Series lead back to the Motor City.  A bases-clearing, two-out double by catcher Gene Tenace blew the game open early, but other than the three-run fourth inning, Los Angeles couldn't get anything going offensively against Ken Holtzman and two relievers.  Niekro left the game after three innings with elbow inflammation and will miss the rest of the playoffs.  D.W. Roberts' two-run double made it 5-3 and the Outlaws bullpen was outstanding, pitching six shutout innings with four hits and no walks, but Jim Hardin and Tippy Martinez were up to the task, with Martinez earning just his second UL save after 21 with Triple-A Twin Cities this year.  Kiner Field will host its first postseason game on Friday, with the probable starters Larry Dierker (17-9, 2.86) and Dave Hamilton (11-7, 3.50).

GAME 3 - Los Angeles 8, Detroit 4     BOXSCORE
Roberts Homers Twice, Outlaws Rout Hamilton
DETROIT (Sept. 26) -- In the first postseason game in Detroit since 1945, D.W. Roberts homered twice and Gary Thomasson added a third as Los Angeles won its first game of the Semi Series, 8-4.  Roberts' homers, in the sixth and seventh innings, came in the midst of a run of six unanswered runs as the Outlaws piled on runs on Dave Hamilton and Bob Locker to pull away.  Larry Dierker got the win, holding Detroit to six hits and two runs in 6.2 innings.  Jorge Orta singled, doubled, and tripled and Don Money homered for Detroit, a two-run blast in the eighth that was mere consolation.
 
GAME 4 - Los Angeles 8, Detroit 4     BOXSCORE
Thomasson, Roberts Homer Again, Topple Griffins Late
DETROIT (Sept. 27) -- Gary Thomasson snapped a 1-1 tie with a second solo shot off Bruce Kison and D.W. Roberts added another off Larry Demery as the Outlaws knotted the series up at 2-2.  Detroit struck first with an RBI single by Kison to plate Brian Downing in the second inning, but L.A. tied it up in the fourth with Thomasson's first homer.  Kison and Leonard then settled in for a pitchers' duel.  Kison allowed just seven hits and two runs, and Leonard struck out six and allowed just one run.  But Thomasson's second dinger of the game broke the deadlock with two outs in the eighth and Roberts led off the ninth with an insurance clout.  Detroit hosts Game 5 with probable starters Fritz Peterson and Ken Holtzman before the series shifts back to the West Coast for Game 6.

GAME 5 - Detroit 4, Los Angeles 0     BOXSCORE
Holtzman Arrests Outlaws
Ken Holtzman turned in the best pitching performance of the playoffs thus far, six-hitting the Outlaws and striking out seven for a 4-0 shutout that puts the Detroit Griffins on the verge of their first World Series appearance.  L.A.'s Fritz Peterson battled the 29-year-old lefty pitch for pitch until the bottom of the fourth, when Sal Bando's error set up a two-run dinger by Bobby Bonds.  The Flyin' Lions tacked on spare ribs in the 7th and 8th with an Enos Cabell RBI single and a Don Money sac fly.  Detroit got good production from the bottom of their order: all 4 RBIs came from the 5-8 hitters, Enos Cabell was 3-for-3, and even Holtzman pitched in with three successful sac bunts.  The series returns to Tinseltown for Game 6, with Dave Hamilton set to face off against Larry Dierker.

GAME 6 - Detroit 7, Los Angeles 2     BOXSCORE
Griffins Feast on L.A. Bullpen, Book Trip to First World Series
Los Angeles, owners of the league's second worst bullpen, made it through five playoff games without a game-changing bullpen collapse, but it came in Game 6.  With the score 2-0 and the Outlaws pinning their World Series hopes on a solid bullpen to give their offense a chance to get back in the game, Larry Andersen and Brent Strom instead served up five runs in the last two innings, relegating Mike Ivie's would-be game-tying pinch homer in the bottom of the eighth to a footnote in the Griffins path to their first UL World Series.  Willie Stargell smacked a two-run single off Andersen to score Don Money and Denis Menke and double the lead to 4-0.  Ivie's homer briefly got the West Division champions back in the game, but the Flyin' Lions tacked on three in the ninth on RBIs by Brian Downing, Money, and Menke, and Detroit didn't even have to use one of their closers, as Gary Nolan stayed in with a comfortable five-run lead.  Ken Holtzman was named series MVP with a 2-0 record, 0.57 ERA, and 14 strikeouts in a pair of starts.  Money led all Detroit batters with 11 hits, 16 total bases, and a .440 batting average, and the team that lead the league in home runs managed to score 32 runs with only three round-trippers in the whole series.  The extra day of rest means that ace Bruce Kison will be on tap to pitch Game 1 of the World Series, either at Montréal or at home against Manhattan.  The Griffins were 8-4 against the Sox and 3-9 vs. the V's in regular season play.