Down Under----The Darwin Finches (a BARB-leading 93-63 in the regular season) got all they could handle in the opening two games of their series from the Las Vegas Luchadores (80-76), champs of the Central Division, and after a marathon pair of games that saw Vegas score 13 runs on 19 hits have to figure they’ll need to take their best game on the road.
Curiously, Vegas matched up two starters with losing records in the regular season: Derek Lowe (12-14, 4.04) and Brett Myers (5-7, 5.08), but that was to give A.J. Burnett (still nursing a sore arm) a fifth day’s rest coming into the post-season. Darwin, meanwhile, countered with Scott Kazmir (16-9, 3.72) and John Smoltz (7-8, 3.20), which seemed to definitely favor the Finches. Darwin even took early leads in both games, with a two-run shot by David Ortiz off Lowe in the opener, and a (Emeril: BAM!) grand slam from Lance Berkman in the second game off Myers.
Yet, despite all of that, Darwin was forced to seriously depart from their usual game plan, going to the bullpen often yet never using Trevor Hoffman, en route to a nerve-racking split of the first two games. How did it happen? Read on....
As mentioned, Ortiz gave the Finches an early lead, roping a ball over the wall in right-center with his fluid swing. But the Luchadores came back, with Gary Matthews hitting a solo shot with two out in the second and Jimmy Rollins tieing the ballgame 3-3 with a two-run blast: Kazmir had not been able to hold the lead! The southpaw’s teammates took him off the hook, however, scoring three runs in the fifth and sixth, with Berkman hitting a two-run single and Chipper Jones a bases-loaded double.
As it turned out, Darwin would need the offense. Kazmir, left in with a 6-3 lead, began the top of the sixth by giving up a triple to Matt Holliday. Jonathan Broxton came on and his first pitch was hit out of the ballpark by Manny Ramirez. You can say what you want about Manny’s world, but in his world, Manny hurts pitchers....
So it came about that the Finches would lead 9-5 after six innings, and this would be the final score, but not before Luchadore hitters forced the Finches to use the bullpen twice, with erstwhile starter Tom Glavine coming on to finish off the last five hitters. Kazmir (1-0, 7.20) got the win despite not pitching particular well, and Lowe (0-1, 13.50), even more miserably, took the loss.
With a 1-0 Series lead and having saved relief stars J.J. Putz and Trevor Hoffman, the Unnatural Selections could’ve been forgiven for feeling confident. But, if so, their confidence was shaken. As mentioned, Berkman staked Darwin to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on Berkman’s grand slam. But that was the last scoring the Finches would manage, and things fell apart for John Smoltz (0-1, 7.20) in the third. Ramirez (that guy, again) and Fielder each drew walks with the bases loaded, and Ramirez (owch) scored on a passed ball to tie the game. Iguchi and Soriano hit run-scoring singles to put the Luchadores ahead, and an inning later Ramirez (gaaahhhh) put the icing on the cake by drilling a two-run shot off J.J. Putz.
Rookie Dustin McGowan, who was put on the roster instead of Chad Billingsley, came on to put out the bleeding but the Luchadores were able to hand an 8-4 lead to Mariano Rivera with one down in the eighth. Rivera worked a five-out stint in what was not a save situation, but what definitely put a punctuation mark on Vegas’s series-evening win, and (with two games at home) the Luchadores’ odds of gaining a playoff upset had just gone from slim to respectable.
To say that the Finches were deflated by this turn of events is like saying that Manny is, well, Manny.
No comments:
Post a Comment