ELIMINATORS ‘ELIMINATE’ BROOKLYN ‘BRO’

Worcester—Jeremy Bonderman, working with a sore elbow, never found his stuff and the host Eliminators took advantage, rapping out four extra-base hits in the first, including Grady Sizemore’s 12th HR of the year, as the Worsters scored seven times in the first two frames against Bonderman (11-6, 3.18) and rookie Fausto Carmona, and giving Chris Young (10-7, 4.12) all the cushion he would need—and all the grief that Moabs fans would require to fill up an off-season of regret.

Despite a furious four-run eighth against three relievers, the Moabs would end up losing their 68th game of the season, and so, on Game Day 152 they were finally ‘eliminated’—and, most painfully, by their sibling rivals in Worcester. Shades of 2006, when in the final weekend the Moabs swept a three-game series to clinch a playoff spot at Worcester’s expense, while Frostbite Falls won its last four games to repeat as division champs.

Brooklyn will no doubt look to their prodigious farm system to shore up the pitching, particularly the bullpen, that betrayed them in 2007 while attempting to maintain the league’s most potent blend of speed and power. They certainly have young talent on the rise with 1B Daric Barton, SS Troy Tulowitzki and OF Cameron Maybin and Jose Tabata.

In other BARB action:

FROSTBITE FALLS 8, DARWIN 6 (1st game of DH)

WP: Pat Neshek (4-2, 2.94)
LP: Cla Meredith (6-4, 1.93)
SV: Nathan (35)

DARWIN 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 3 (2nd game of DH)

WP: Kelvim Escobar (14-6, 3.60)
LP: Johann Santana (17-10, 3.21)
SV: Hoffman (32)

The two clubs with the best record in BARB resolved nothing on Game Day 152, splitting their final pair of games with each other in a doubleheader Down Under. Darwin elected to start rookie Yovani Gallardo in the first game looked good through six innings, with Gallardo allowing just two runs and the Finches holding a 6-2 lead. But Dustin McGowan and Cla Meredith gave it all back in the seventh, as the Squirrels rallied to score six times, the big blow being Brad Hawpe’s 16th homer of the year, a three-run shot.

In the nightcap, Chipper Jones’s 29th boundary belt gave the Finches a 3-2 lead in the sixth and Johnny Estrada hit a rare solo shot for an insurance run that turned out to be needed when the Squirrels’ Carlos Beltran led off the eighth against J.J. Putz with HIS 29th of the season. Trevor Hoffman, who spectacularly failed just two games previously, creaked his way through the ninth in part by avoiding Barry Bonds, and with the go-ahead runs on got Mark Teahen to line out sharply to Chone Figgins at third.

So, with just four games to play, Darwin and Frostbite Falls have IDENTICAL 90-62 records and the Finches will go on the road against the Boom Sticks while the Squirrels will travel to Pottsylvania.

ARIZONA 4, YUMA 2

WP: Felix Hernandez (9-7, 4.21)
LP: Roy Halladay (15-9, 3.32)
SV: Street (14)

“King Felix” put together another good effort (7.2 IP, 2 ER) and veteran C Ivan Rodriguez drove in three runs to get the ball to Huston Street, and Arizona’s closer converted his eighth consecutive save opportunity since coming off the DL to keep the D-Backs playoff hopes alive. With the win, Ron Melkonian’s club is 80-71, 2 ½ games out with five to play. A strong finish, but Arizona will need to run the table AND San Jose sweep their final three games with Yuma to take the West. Still....stranger things have happened.....