BATTLE FOR CENTRAL GOES 16 INNINGS

The look of a feared hitter?

The 2011 BARB season promised two almost-equal opposing forces in the Central division: Philadelphia’s starting rotation and St. Francis’ offense. On May 9, the two clashed in an epic battle that saw a total of five runs scored in the 16^th (and, obviously, last) innings. Which team came out on top? Read on to find out…

The game began as a match between two lefties: Philly’s crafty veteran Cliff Lee and youngster Zach Britton, making his first career BARB start.

It was scoreless into the top of the third, when Shin-Soo Choo gapped Lee’s 0-1 pitch with two on and two out. Result: Choo standing on second base and a 2-0 lead for Scott Hatfield’s charges.

The Rebels came right back in the bottom of the frame, when Carlos Beltran pulled a get-it-in 2-0 fastball from Britton down the left field line and inside the foul pole. “Trader Ron’s” team added to their lead in the fifth. Lee doubled to lead off, Ichiro singled, Beltran doubled, and Adrian Gonzalez singled to take the lead. Alex Rodriguez hit a double play that brought in another, and the Rebels went to the sixth with a 4-2 advantage.

The back-and-forth continued: Rod Barajas hit a solo shot in the top of the sixth to pull within one. Kevin Youkilis launched a two-run shot in the seventh to take back the lead for St. Francis. A-Gon’s two-run single put Philadelphia back on top, but a Jose Bautista 8^th-inning bomb tied it back up.

In the ninth, Choo skied a sacrifice fly to score Vernon Wells, and Francisco Cordero had a chance to save it with two out and Asdrubal Cabrera on second base in the bottom of the frame. But he had to face Matt Wieters, who lined a shot back the middle that ALMOST took off Cordero’s head! Cabrera scored easily, and into extra innings they went.

Between the 10^th through the 13^th, the only real threat was made by the Friars in the 11^th. Two walks and a single loaded the bases with just one away. Big Paul Konerko was stepping up to the plate. Konerko was 0-4 with a walk up to that point. Make that 0-5. Jose Valverde’s 2-1 offering was pounded into the ground, right at second baseman Mike Aviles. Aviles came home to Miguel Montero for one, and Montero threw to Gonzalez at first for the 4-2-3 double play.

Konerko finally reached again when his fly ball to center fielder Adam Jones was dropped in the 14^th. Konerko moved to third after a walk and force out, but J.J. Putz dropped the hammer for a big three-pitch see ya on Juan Uribe.

The Rebel offense, quiet since the ninth, finally made noise as the game went into the 15^th. Andre Ethier singled, and Jones played small ball to the T with a sac bunt. Montero was walked intentionally by Leo Nunez (in his fourth inning of work) to set up the double play. The hitter was Elvis Andrus, whose speed enables him to beat out many twin killings each year. Alexei Ramirez-Uribe-Konerko, however, was the story as Andrus ended just the inning, not the game.

J.J. Putz entered the 16^th having thrown 38 pitches over three innings of relief. He normally goes just one inning per appearance, so one could fault the current Rebel (who knows what uniform he’ll be wearing when the wind changes) for tiring. The “Greek God of Walks” recognized Putz’s fatigue, drawing a five-pitch walk. Choo, already 2-for-5 with a double and three RBI, stepped up expecting a fastball, and that’s what he got.

Ethier and Jones could only watch. Choo’s blast sailed well over the right field wall at Citizens Bank Park, and just like that the Friars had a 9-7 lead. Putz kept the ball down after that, inducing two groundouts and a strikeout. But the damage was done, and if Nunez could just get three outs the marathon would be over, in favor of St. Francis.

But Philadelphia had other ideas. Alberto Callaspo grounded a ball so weakly that Ramirez couldn’t get to it in time. Ichiro lined a single over the second baseman, and Mike Aviles put it in the two hole on the ground, bringing up big Adrian Gonzalez with no one out and the bases loaded. Nunez would have none of it, striking him out on a foul and two swing-throughs.

Next up? Putz. Unfortunately, no one was left on the Rebel bench, so the pitcher had to hit for himself. All the Friars needed was a double play, and they relaxed after seeing the batter. Putz took a ball, fouled a pitch off, and then took a good hack at a hanging curve ball, sending it past the bag…

FAIR down the left field line! Callaspo and Ichiro scored easily. Bautista, playing in on the pitcher, cut it off and held Putz to a single with Aviles advancing to third. Tie game off the bat of the PITCHER! A relief pitcher, no less! Nunez was instructed to walk Ethier intentionally to create a force at any base, and Matt Guerrier came on to face Jones and got him to pop out. That left it up to Montero. A hit or a mistake and the game is over, but an out and it could go on, and on, and on…

Montero worked the count full. Bases loaded, two out. Tie game in the bottom of the 16^th. There’s no way Guerrier would throw out of the strike zone, right?

Actually, no. A BP fastball, right down Van Ness. Montero pulled it, a sure single between third and short. Aviles scored, and just like that it was over.

The final tallies: 10 runs on 23 hits, just one error and a one-game division lead for the host Rebels. Nine runs, 12 hits and no errors for Hatfield’s squad; 12 runners left on base. Putz (1-0, 1.80) with four innings and a two-run single. Nunez (0-1, 3.38) with 4.1 IP, not able to hold the only lead he was given. A tough loss, sure, but GM Jack McKeon just sighed and threw up his hands.

“You’re not going to win them all. We have a long season ahead of us.”

In other BARB action:

ST. FRANCIS 8, PHILADELPHIA 0

WP: Brett Myers (4-3, 3.16)

LP: Ricky Nolasco (2-3, 5.32)

The Friars came back to win the second game of the three-game set, and then they sat back and watched as Brett Myers had a game for his career. Myers pitched a two-hit shutout (both were soft singles to Carlos Beltran), didn’t walk anyone and struck out three on 87 pitches. He erased Beltran on a double play after one of the hits to face just one batter over the minimum. St. Francis, which scored three runs in both the first and fifth, had a breakout game from new acquisition Felix Pie: 3-for-5, two runs, three RBI, a triple and a home run.

LOS ANGELES 6, CASSELTON 5 (1^ST game of DH)

WP: Derek Holland (1-2, 3.27)

LP: Ramon Ramirez (0-1, 2.70)

SV: Lindstrom (1)

CASSELTON 8, LOS ANGELES 3 (2^nd game of DH)

WP: R.A. Dickey (2-4, 6.96)

LP: Tim Hudson (1-4, 4.70)

Derek Holland vultured a win after blowing a save opportunity by allowing Casselton to tie the game in the sixth after they put runners on against Jordan Zimmerman. Ramon Ramirez took the loss after committing an error in the bottom of the eighth that lead to a sacrifice fly from Luke Scott, who was 2-for-2 with two runs and two RBI. Horned Toads starter John Danks didn’t finish three innings. He walked five and allowed three hits and three runs, all earned.

Travis Hafner (?!) and Jay Bruce hit back-to-back triples as part of a five-run fifth inning as the Horned Toads beat the Wolverines at Chavez Ravine in game two. To be fair, Hafner’s “triple” was just a liner that centerfielder Nick Swisher couldn’t come up with on the dive, but it wasn’t ruled an error. Hafner drove in a total of three runs in support of R.A. Dickey. The knuckleballer went eight strong, giving up five hits and two earned runs while walking one…and without any wild pitches.

POTTSYLVANIA 6, SIN CITY 4 (1^ST game of DH)

WP: Chris Carpenter (3-4, 3.81)

LP: James Shields (1-4, 6.55)

SV: Marmol (7)

SIN CITY 14, POTTSYLVANIA 5 (2^nd game of DH)

WP: Jaime Garcia (4-1, 2.79)

LP: Mark Buehrle (1-5, 5.89)

Carlos Pena raised his average to a robust .170 with a 4-for-4 day with four RBI. Two of the runs came on a two-run shot in the first inning, and Pena added run-scoring singles in the second and fourth innings in support of Chris Carpenter, who inched closer to .500 with a workman-like six and two-thirds innings (nine hits, four runs allowed on 111 pitches). Aaron Hill, batting .100, added a possibly wind-aided home run to left at the Creeper Dome.

The Cowboys salvaged a single win in the three-game set when the offense broke out for 18 hits, six of them home runs (each from a different hitter), and Jaime Garcia pitched well enough to earn his fourth victory against just a single loss. Sin City scored four times in the third inning and then got the circuit clout party started with back-to-back shots from Gaby Sanchez and Brandon Phillips in the fourth. Kurt Suzuki, Alex Rios and Colby Rasmus went long in the sixth (none in a row), and David Wright ended the scoring with a two-run homer off the pole in left in the seventh.