Office of the League Commissioner—Led by 1B Mark Teixeira, the Worcester Eliminators finally swung the bats, collecting 15 hits while rallying from six runs down to stay alive in the 2007 playoffs. That was more hits than they put together in each of the previous two losses to the Western champ Yuma Firebirds, but things didn’t start off well at all for Matt Caskey’s troops, as the starting pitching continued to struggle.
It seemed as if Chris Melkonian’s club was in line for a sweep of the wild card Eliminators when Gil Meche (12-6, 4.61 in the regular season) dug his club an early hole, surrendering a two-run homer to Travis Hafner, then hitting the showers in favor of rookie Tyler Clippard after Miguel Tejada’s three-run homer in the fifth. The Firebirds would go on to hit another dong with runners on off Clippard (Ryan Braun was the culprit this time), and after two and a half frames led 8-2.
But Mark Teixeira was not to be denied. Teixeira singled home Hanley Ramirez in the first, singled and scored in the third, then doubled home two runs as part of a three-run fourth that saw Worcester narrow Yuma’s lead to 8-6. Scott Shields relieved the tiring Roger Clemens, but was no more effective, allowing a double steal by Derek Jeter and Carl Crawford and a two-run single by Ramirez to tie the score! Worcester had rallied from six runs down, and with four innings left to play, had a chance to get into Yuma’s pen and pull out a win!
Which they did, in weird fashion. With the score still knotted 8-8 with one out in the seventh, Rafael Soriano hit Jeter in the forearm. Jeter stole second for the second time in the game, and a rattled Soriano walked Carl Crawford. Ramirez flew out softly to short right, no runner daring advance, but Teixeira, working the count deep, fouled off four 3-2 pitches before finally drawing a walk to load the bases. Now for the weird.....with Grady Sizemore batting, Soriano broke off the old 54-foot curveball, which sailed over Martin and the ump alike. Jeter scored with ease, but Carl Crawford, going on contact, electrified the crowd by scoring standing up just ahead of Soriano’s lunging tag: the Elims had scored two runs on a WILD PITCH. Two batters later, Joe Mauer followed with a bases-clearing double to cap a five-run inning and Worcester now led, 13-8!
The Elims would take no chances with their first lead of the series. After Brad Lidge gave up a single run, they went immediately to Jon Rauch, extending him for the third straight game, and then let Chad Cordero work the ninth in a non-save situation. When Cordero fanned Raul Ibanez to end the game, Worcester fans let out a fierce yell, a mixture of triumph and anger. With one game left in their home park, the Elims would now face the task of corralling Roger Clemens to force a fifth game, still down 2-1 in the Series....
1 comment:
I WOULD LIKE TO BE THERE FOR MY PLAYOFFS GAMES. I RECEIVED NO INFORMATION AS TO WHEN MY GAME WOULD BE PLAYED. PLEASE INFORM ME FOR THE NEXT GAME.
Post a Comment