World Series Game 4 Updates

Jake's offense comes alive, the pitcher that Avery didn't pitch get 24 points, but the relief pitchers keep Avery in the game.

Had Avery picked Felix Hernandez, he would have been in the books at 55 points and forced John Lester to score 12 or more for Jake. Instead, Justin Verlander and some luck are needed for the eight-time FNFT King if he is to take Game 4. Jake leads 43-31 going into today's action with only the two starting pitchers still in play.

The first to the hill will be Verlander in a 3:10 p.m. start in Minnesota and Carl Pavano. The Twins are in hot pursuit of the Tigers in the AL Central so this will be a hard fought battle. Verlander is 0-1 with a 5.11 ERA against the Twins this year. Pavano has beaten the Tigers four times in '09 with a 1.49 ERA against the Cats.

Three hours after the bar is set, Jake's pitcher Jon Lester takes the mound in Baltimore. He is 3-0 with an impressive 0.84 ERA against the Birds this year. His opponent will be David Hernandez. Yeah, I never heard of him either.

Jake wins the tiebreaker thanks to the keen hitting eye of Billy Butler whose three walks contributed to his 15 point game. Therefore, Verlander must outscore Lester by 13 points if Avery is to win. If not, we will be knotted up at 2-2.

I won't be home (again) tonight, but the suspense will kill me so I may try to blog from my phone. We'll see. If not I'll try to post an update before I crash and as a last resort, as always. I will have the final stats posted long before all of you drag your sorry asses out of bed Sunday morning.

UPDATE 7:20 a.m.

Look at the two offenses we have playing in the FNFT World Series:

C	Bengie Molina
1B	Mark Teixeira
2B	Jose Lopez
SS	Alexei Ramirez
3B	Maicer Izturis
OF	Jason Bay
OF	Marlon Byrd
OF	Denard Span
DH	Shin-Soo Choo

C	Joe Mauer
1B	Billy Butler
2B	Ben Zobrist
SS	Asdrubal Cabrera
3B	Ryan Zimmerman
OF	Nick Markakis
OF	Seth Smith
OF	Jayson Werth
DH	Randy Ruiz

I obviously know NOTHING about fantasy baseball. I'm not sure either of those would make an above average MLB offense.

(Both Jake's and Avery's teams have phenomenal pitching. And as you know: pitching, pitching, pitching. It's apparently never been more true.)

By the way - none of those guys have their own little McFarlane statues so I'm obviously going to have to get creative again with the trophy. Teixeira and Mauer might, but no way any of the others do.

UPDATE Sunday 6:40 a.m.

That's gotta hurt. Had he played King Felix instead of the pitcher that Jake cut, Avery would have delivered a knockdown punch in the FNFT World Series. Instead, Jon Lester easily covers Verlander's 5 and Jake wins Game 4.

Series all tied at 2-2. Jake's has Josh Beckett on Tuesday, while Avery's has only his #5 Jonathan Sanchez. The tide has turned. Can he pull a Chuck Smith out of that hat?

UPDATE 7:00 a.m.

There is a player sitting out there who is such a blatantly obvious pickup for Avery that it's almost laughable. Let's see if he finds the nut.