game 1: Miller v. Reitsma
Da Bronx came out in droves to watch the 5-1 Brawlers in their home debut.  The grass was green, the sky was blue, and Alannis Morrissette's rendition of "In the Ghetto" had the crowd ready for the National Anthem.  Unfortunately, the decision to have Eminem come out to sing it was a very bad idea and had the crowd ready for blood by the time the last stanza was being rapped.  Little Timmy Johnson, 6, from Piscataway NJ was shocked, not even knowing about "slappin' dat ho" being part of the Star Spangled Banner.

Da Bronx started off the scoring in the 3rd after Jeremy Giambi had worked out a walk with an RBI double by Omar Vizquel.  This was tied up in the top of the forth when Shea Hillenbrand chopped a grounder to Rey Sanchez, scoring Shawn Green, who had also drawn a leadoff walk.

The Jim Beam Fifth inning saw the Brawlers secure their lead after Lightning 3B Hillenbrand bounced a throw to first, putting Giambi on first, another Vizquel double gave Da Bronx a 2-1 lead, which was expanded to 4-1 on a Cliff Floyd 2 run homer.  A Giambi double in the 6th finished the scoring giving Da Bronx a 5-1 victory behind terrific pitching by Chris Reitsma.

Essentials:
LL        000 100 000       1 7 2
DBB     001 031 00x       5 7 0

Long
Pitching             Miller (L) 6 Redding 2
Catching            Ausmus 8
Home Runs        none
SB                    none
inj/ejection         none
limits                none

Bronx
Pitching            Reitsma (W) 7.3 Politte 1.7
Catching           Myers 9
Home Runs       Floyd (4th, 1 on, 1 out)
SB                   none
inj/ejection        none
limits                none

game 2  L. Hernandez v. Baez
Having the National Tourette's Syndrome Choir sing the Anthem was definitely a bad idea as the sporadic bits of cursing definitely ruined the crowd's mood.  Fortunately other problems messed up the Lightning's day.

"18 men left on base" was all Kalashian could say after the game "18 men".  The Lightning abandoned more runners than Latrell Sprewell has abandoned children as Danys Baez and Hector Mercado spread 10 hits and 8 walks just perfectly to hold the Lightning in check and give Da Brawlers a 9-2 victory on the strength of Mike Cameron's 4 RBIs and Russell Branyan's 2 run dinger.

the essentials:
LL         002 000 000      2 10 1
DBB      021 411 00x      9 10 1

Lightning
Pitching      C Hernandez (L) 4 Thurman 2 Henriquez 2
Catching     Ausmus 8
HR             Green (3rd, 0 on, 0 out
SB             none
inj/ej           none
limits          none

Brawlers
Pitching      Baez (W) 5 Mercado (S) 4
Catching     Wilson 9
HR             Branyan (2nd, 1 on, 1 out) Cameron (6th, 0 on, 1 out)
SB             none
inj/ej           none
limits          none

game 3        Armas v. Ishii
Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon's singing of the National Anthem was not well received.  Neither was the 6 run 3rd inning by the Lightning, who shook out of their doldrums in a big way, blowing out Kaz Ishii and taking an early 6-0 lead which expanded to 8-1 when Shawn Green homered in the top of the 6th.

However, Da Brawler never say die and a poor Lighning Pen allowed The Bronx to score 5 in the 8th and 2 in the 9th to unexpectedly bring the game to extra innings.

In the top of the tenth, Eli Marrero popped a Mariano Rivera slider just over the left field wall to take a 9-8 lead going into the bottom of the tenth.

Julio Lugo, replacing Matt Williams at 3rd after a mosquito ran into his shoulder, injuring him, committed a dumb error putting Floyd on, and then walked Cameron.  Subsequent pop flies by Blum and Sanchez put Lightning manager Mike Kalashian "of the Titans" in an interesting situation.  Da Brawlers had used all their pinch hitters getting to this situation, and the #8 hitter was up.  So Myers was intentionally walked forcing Mariano Rivera to bat with the bases loaded and 2 outs.  Unfortunately, he was unable to get his bat near the ball and whiffed on 4 pitches, allowing one of the great come from behind games ever to fall just short as the Deathpen blows its 2nd game of the season.

The essentials
LL        006 002 000 1    9 11 1
DBB     000 010 052 0   8 11 1

Lightning
Pitching      Armas 6 Riske 1 Rodrigues .3 Alvarez .3 Escobar (W) 2.7, Henriquez (S) 1
Catching     Ausmus 10
HR             Pena (3rd, 1 on, 1 out), Green (6th, 1 on, 1 out), Marrero (10th, 0 on, 0 out)
SB             none
Inj/Ej          Matt Williams, Shoulder, injured 2 days
Limits         none

Brawlers
Pitching      Ishii 3 Mota 2 Politte 2 Wohlers 1 Cordero 1 Rivera (L) 1
Catching     Myers 10
HR             none
SB             Crisp (7th)
Inj/Ej          none
Limits         none