St. Francis won the opener in extra frames and seemed poised to return to the World Series after Stephen Strasburg’s outstanding outing, but Yuma won the next three contests to earn their seventh Series berth. The details? Read on:
GAME ONE: ST. FRANCIS AT YUMA
Strasburg, in fact, represented the ‘good, bad and the ugly.’ The good: a personal-best 12 K’s in Game One, and a single playoff series mark of 17 strikeouts. The bad: manager Jason Varitek left Strasburg in the game in the seventh having already thrown over a hundred pitches with two runners on. Anthony Rendon hit a game-tying two-run double that knocked Strasburg out of the game, letting David Price (17-12, 2.68 in the regular season) off the hook despite surrendering ten hits.
Fortunately for Varitek in this contest, the Kansans were able to rally late, as Michael Cuddyer doubled off David Carpenter (0-1, 9.00) in the top of the 10th to give St. Francis a 3-2 lead, with Fernando Rodney (1-0, 0.00) finishing a second inning of shutout ball for the win. But the rest of the playoffs would not augur well for Varitek’s future with the ballclub.
GAME TWO: ST. FRANCIS AT YUMA
Things started off well for the Kansans in this game, as well, as Aramis Ramirez drilled a one-out fastball from Yuma starter Chris Sale (14-7, 2.95) with a man aboard for a 2-0 lead after just half an inning. Ramirez, a backup much of the year behind the sidelined Pedro Alvarez, was a key part of St. Francis’s impressive depth in the regular season and would hit .416 overall in the playoffs.
Varitek, having lost confidence in Clay Buchholz (13-8, 3.45) late in the season, had elected to give veteran knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (12-12, 5.14) the start despite Dickey having been dumped from the rotation in mid-season. With two out, a runner on and a base open, Varitek opted to let Dickey pitch to Buster Posey with the light-hitting Andrelton Simmons behind him. Posey made Varitek and the Kansans play by hitting a game-tying blast, effectively keeping Sale in the game after the lefty had looked shaky early.
As it turned out, Sale was one of Yuma’s best assets on offense. The lefty hit a one-out double in the third, then singled to reach with one out in the fifth. Underrated (and former Kansan) Ben Zobrist turned on a Dickey ‘heater’ with Sale aboard to launch a second two-run blast, and a 4-2 Yuma lead. Sale (1-0, 3.00) would end up going all the way, not allowing another hit after veteran Adam Dunn’s solo shot in the seventh, to hang the loss on Dickey (0-1, 7.50).
Yuma had tied the Series at home, and would now need to win at least one road game to advance to the Series.
GAME THREE: YUMA AT ST. FRANCIS
With the series tied, Yuma would send impressive rookie Marcus Stroman (5-3, 3.16 in 16 starts) to the hill. Meanwhile, St. Francis manager Jason Varitek was in a quandary: start Buchholz, who had moved down the pecking order with several poor starts late in the season, or start Tyson Ross? Ross had begun as a swing man in St. Francis’s bullpen, but had been a mid-season revelation (8-1, 3.24 ERA in 15 starts) when added to the rotation. But a sore arm had meant that Ross had not pitched regularly for nearly two weeks.
Varitek went with his veteran, and while Buchholz only allowed one run, he looked shaky doing it. After his 70th pitch of the ballgame was tagged for a double leading off the fifth, and already trailing 1-0, Varitek pulled the slight-framed, visibly-laboring Buchholz. Ross was summoned, and while effective (3.2 IP, just one run) into the ninth, his early appearance meant that both starters would be unavailable the rest of the series.
Still, the Kansans got back into the ball game. Stroman finally faltered in the eighth, nursing a 2-0 lead after a solo HR from Andrelton Simmons had doubled his cushion in the seventh. Pinch-hitter Grant Green grounded meekly to Simmons, but after a one-out single from St. Francis SS J.J. Hardy, CF Jacoby Ellsbury launched a no-doubt bomb into the alley in RF, tying the ballgame at 2-2, shifting the advantage to the home club.
In the top of the 10th, that man Ben Zobrist worked
a one-out walk for the Firebirds with LaTroy Hawkins (0-1, 6.75) pitching. Varitek called on his best reliever, Koji Uehara, to finish the frame. Anthony Rendon hit a slow roller to Hardy to force Zobrist, but Danny Espinosa’s strong-armed relay was just a bit too late to nip the athletic Rendon at first. With two out, that brought the left-handed CF, Andrew McCutcheon, to the plate. Arguably Yuma’s best player (.305, team-leading 25 HR and 109 RBI), why would anyone pitch to him with the oft-injured Casey McGeehee behind him?
But pitch to him is what Uehara and Varitek did, and McCutchen made them PAY. In the playoff’s pivotal moment, McCutchen smashed a liner that carried, carried, CARRIED the other way OVER THE WALL in left, a 4-2 YUMA LEAD. All that remained was for Mark Melancon to work his third inning in the bottom of the 10th, and after allowing a soft single to Hardy, Melancon got Ellsbury to ground into the hole.....where Andrelton Simmons, as if it was routine, picked it and retired Ellsbury by a full step.
YUMA had won, 4-2, in extra frames to take the lead in the playoffs!
GAME FOUR: YUMA AT ST. FRANCIS
At this point, the cold realities for St. Francis were this: they lacked the pitching depth of their foe, and they had to win to force a fifth game. Yuma would bring on its fourth proven starter, Jeff Samardzija (12-7, 4.16), knowing that if they lost they would go back home, and have a rested David Price to start their fifth game.
St. Francis, meanwhile, could’ve started Travis Wood (18-5, 3.17) or swing man Jon Niese, both of whom would’ve been fresh. But the Kansans were well aware of Yuma’s tremendous record in the regular season against southpaws: the Firebirds were an incredible 34-8 against lefty starters. But if not a lefty, who? Macho as ever, Varitek chose to bring back Strasburg on short rest. As with his decisions to pitch to Posey and McCutcheon when he didn’t have to, this would come back to haunt the Kansans.
This was the “ugly” for Strasburg: Rendon and McGehee singled with one down in the top of the first, and after Ryan Zimmerman singled in Rendon, there was really no place to put Yuma LF Ryan Braun. Strasburg’s get-ahead ‘heater’ was LAUNCHED, a three-run bomb, and after just a half of a frame, Yuma led, 4-0!
That was pretty much the ballgame and the series for St. Francis, which played very poorly the rest of the way. Strasburg, to his credit, righted the ship for three more innings, in which the Kansans scratched out three runs against Samardzija to narrow the lead to 4-3. But Varitek’s macho philosophy met its end in the fifth, perhaps lulled into confidence by the way his young ace kept piling up the strikeouts. Strasburg (0-1, 7.15) walked Zobrist to open the inning....but he fanned Anthony Rendon on a full count. They intentionally walked McCutchen this time to get to McGehee, and dispatched him on three pitches. That brought up Zimmerman and pitch #79...the last of the night for Strasburg. Zimmerman JUMPED on the first fastball he saw and hit it over the wall, several rows back, a three-run bomb and a 7-3 Yuma lead.
In the St. Francis owner’s box, a soft oath was muttered but you could’ve heard a pin drop. The Kansans were effectively done at that point. Andrelton Simmons would hit another solo shot and later draw a bases-loaded walk (owch) from R.A. Dickey in long relief. Ryan Braun would add an RBI double, and even singles hitter Casey McGehee would get into the act with a rare HR off Jon Niese. Veteran Jason Frasor would pitch the final two innings for Yuma to save their pen, and get Ellsbury and pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro for the last two outs.
SIMMONS EARNS MVP HONORS
The FINAL: YUMA wins, 11-4, and advances to the Series....and ST. FRANCIS, licking its wounds, could only regroup after more than a hundred wins ended in ashes.
The MVP of this four-game affair? Clearly, it was SS Andrelton Simmons.
Not only did he homer twice and drive in key runs, but it was his spectacular defensive play that bailed out his club time and time again in the first three games whenever the Kansans were threatening to have a big inning.
Yes, the vaunted Kansan bats didn’t do much against Simmons or the Firebirds. St. Francis, minus left-handed power hitters Chris Davis and Pedro Alvarez, wasn’t able to manage much on offense in the series. Jose Bautista, who went deep seven times in the final two weeks to help the Kansans clinch their third playoff berth in four years, was remarkably ineffective against Yuma’s pitching, having just three singles in 17 trips. In all St. Francis scored 12 runs and hit a pedestrian .234 en route to their playoff exit, and back to the drawing board.
“The disappointment is real,” said GM Scott Hatfield. “This was the best club we had ever put together, and after reaching the World Series last year, we felt this was our best shot to win it all. From this year’s draft, we were ‘all win’ to win. I feel bad for the St. Francis fans, who have supported us with record attendance. But we have to tip our hats to the other playoff clubs, including Yuma, for making it a challenge and a goal worth aspiring to. St. Francis has won more than two hundred games this year, but we came six wins short of our goal for 2014. We are going to lace ‘em up this spring and get after it, just like the last two years.”
No comments:
Post a Comment