Two games down; one win apiece. With the series shifting to
Brownsville for Games 3 and 4, would the Cutters be able to take advantage of
the home turf and advance their playoff dreams?
In the early
going, it sure looked promising. Despite three hits in the top of the 1st,
Jacob deGrom escaped having only allowed one run – Dexter Fowler’s leadoff
homer. In the bottom half, the hosts excited the crowd as Jose Abreu (4-for-9
with a HR and 4 RBI in the first two games) pulled a liner just inside the left
field foul pole at Cockerton Field with a man aboard to give his team a 2-1
lead.
deGrom settled
down, retiring the Firebirds in order from the second through the 5th, and he
got a tad more run support with an Aaron Judge solo blast in the bottom of the
3rd.
In the top of
the 6th, however, deGrom faltered once again. This time, it cost
Brownsville the game. He set down the first two hitters with ease, marking 15
batters retired in a row going back to the final out of the 1st, but
Corey Seager, Mookie Betts and Anthony Rendon all notched singles. Seager
scored on the final base hit in that stretch to bring Yuma within one.
deGrom,
clearly losing it despite having thrown just 77 pitches, was left in to face
Brandon Crawford. The righty went ahead 0-2, but Crawford laced the next pitch
over the head of A.J. Pollock in center, the ball nearly slamming off the fence
399 feet from the plate. When the dust settled, both Betts and Rendon had
crossed the plate and Crawford was standing on third base having silenced the
raucous Brownsville crowd with a Firebird lead.
The inning
wasn’t over. Hunter Strickland replaced deGrom and promptly hit Ian Kinsler
while ahead in the count. It appeared he would escape with only a one-run
deficit when Brian Dozier grounded to sure-handed third baseman Manny Machado…but
the corner was just a bit too hot for Machado and the ball kicked away,
allowing Crawford to score.
Now trailing,
5-3, the Brownsville troops rallied and gave their fans hope. A pair of one-out
singles were followed by a two-out error on Machado’s counterpart Rendon
(eliciting murmuring in the press box about the possibility of pebbles near the
third base bag), but the ducks were left on the pond in the home half of the 6th.
Fast forward
to the bottom of the 9th, with the scoreboard still reading a
two-run Yuma lead. Steve Cishek, who had hurled nearly-perfect ball through the
7th and 8th, didn’t come close in a walk to Tyler
Flowers, bringing the potential tying run to the plate with none out. Southpaw
Sean Doolittle didn’t fare much better on his first hitter, as Maikel Franco
took a free pass. Javier Baez was next. The youngster smashed a drive to
left-center. It was HIGH, it was DEEP, and it was…………………SNAGGED!!! Brett
Gardner, brought in for defense in the 7th, made his manager look
the part of a genius by running down a ball that had “TIE GAME, OR MORE”
written all over it! Flowers did tag and go to third, but Franco still stood on
first, seemingly a light-year from home plate.
The walk and
flyout scare earned Bryan Shaw an appearance for the third-consecutive game,
and he immediately raised the stakes with a four-pitch walk to Machado. Bases
loaded, one down. The next two hitters had provided all of Brownsville’s
offense on the night: Judge and Abreu. The noise was deafening, as Cutters fans
expected to see their team get a leg up on BARB’s most dominant squad of 2017.
Judge, however, faltered in the big moment by flailing on three pitches. The hulking
Abreu then saw the count even at a ball and a strike but rolled over a breaking
ball on the outside. The result? A harmless grounder to short. Crawford went
the short way, and Yuma celebrated their second-straight come-from-behind
victory, just one win from their fourth World Series appearance in a row.
FINAL:
YUMA 5, BROWNSVILLE 3
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