After surrendering four home runs in the opening game of the
series, two to rookie Cody Bellinger, the visiting Squirrels would turn to
second-half revelation James Paxton (10-3, 2.36) in a marquee matchup of
southpaws, vs. St. Francis’s Rich Hill (12-6, 2.94 ). A win would tie the
series and guarantee two games at home for the visitors, whereas a loss would
hand the Kansans a commanding lead.
To that end, Frostbite Falls tweaked their lineup a bit, allowing
veteran backup C Nick Hundley to receive Paxton, rather than starter Gary
Sanchez, based on Hundley’s numbers against lefties. And Paxton was definitely
up to the challenge, coming out of the gate with great stuff. But the second
hitter in the bottom of the first, 2B Jose Altuve, pulled a 2-2 pitch over the
wall in left, the fifth circuit shot of the series for the home team, good for
an early lead:
ST. FRANCIS 1, FROSTBITE FALLS 0!
HILL, PAXTON DOMINATE
Given a lead, Hill was effective, retiring the first seven he
faced, including Hundley. It was Paxton himself who broke the string with a
two-out free pass in the third, but Hill pushed a rising fastball over the bat
of Mike Trout to end that threat. Other than a leadoff walk in the fourth to
Paul Goldschmidt, Hill was in control and after five frames had six strikeouts,
and no hits allowed!
But after Altuve’s first-inning rocket, Paxton had been if
anything more dominant! Other than J.D. Martinez, who twice doubled with two
out, Paxton had the Kansans lineup unable to locate his two-strike slider, and
he racked up the strikeouts: two in the 1st, three in the 4th, and at least one
‘K’ in every frame but the third.
This kept things a one-run ballgame going into the middle innings,
and it was here, for the first time, that the Squirrels found life in their bats.
After Paxton struck out to start the top of the sixth, Trout ended the
no-hitter with worm-killer that Hill couldn’t snag, and Goldschmidt followed
with a dying quail over short to put two runners on.
A shocking play kept Hill in for an extra hitter, though: with
Evan Longoria at the plate, both runners attempted to advance on a ball in the
dirt, but Wilson Ramos somehow grabbed it and whipped it to second to nail
Goldschmidt, who might have slid too far! Yet, on the play, Trout advanced to
third, and Hill made his first real mistake, leaving a flat curve over the
plate. Longoria drilled off the left-field wall, a double, and Trout trotted in
with the tying run! Though Hill retired the left-handed hitting Bryce Harper to
escape further damage, you could see Scott Hatfield shake his head in the
owner’s box. The right-handed Trevor Cahill had been ready, but the club had
elected to stay with Hill because of a baserunning gift, rather than play the
percentages:
ST. FRANCIS 1, FROSTBITE FALLS 1!
The Kansans went quietly in the bottom of the 6th, and in the 7th
sent out enigmatic Ken Giles to hold the fort down. But former Kansans SS Elvis
Andrus walked, and ‘That Man’ Nick Hundley, only catching because of a lefty
starter, hit a solid single off the right-handed Giles to put two on. Giles
fanned Alex Bregman, but then walked pinch-hitter Nick Willams on a full count
to load the bases. Giles yielded to Cahill, and the Squirrels got the matchup
they desired, using left-handed slugger Justin Bour off the bench to pinch-hit
for Paxton.
Bour . . . . .NEARLY dialed ‘8’, hitting a long ball that CF Kevin
Kiermaier had bounce off the wall to corral. An EASY ‘sac fly’ that missed
being a grand slam by a fraction, Andrus coming in to score the go-ahead run.
Rookie Josh Hader, who had already warmed up four times in this series, was
finally brought in, and it was a spot: summoned to retire Mike Trout with two
runners on. But Hader got Trout to roll an 0-2 breaking ball to Cozart, who
went the short way to force Williams to get out of the jam. But the game was
now the Squirrels to lose:
FROSTBITE FALLS 2, ST. FRANCIS 1!
Yet things would not last for the Squirrels and their
‘bullpen-by-committee’. Slow-working Pedro Baez fanner Kiermaier, but gave up
an infield single to Wilson Ramos (!), and when pinch-hitter Adam Duvall slowly
grounded to short, pinch-runner Kike Hernandez was able to avoid the force
play, Duvall out at first.
That brought up the left-handed hitting Didi Gregorius
pinch-hitting for Zack Cozart. Gregorius hit a roller JUST between short and
third, which kept rolling to short left! Hernandez, with the play in front of
him, never looked at Keon Broxton in left, and rounded third! Broxton’s throw
was . . . .well up the line, and Kike’s ‘daring dash’ with two out had paid
off. A series of improbable plays, beginning with Ra0mos’s infield hit, had
allowed St. Francis to tie the ballgame:
FROSTBITE FALLS 2, ST. FRANCIS 2!
Adam Ottavino came on bail out Baez, and while he fanned Altuve,
the fatigue was still showing on a Squirrels club that had been forced bite and
claw its way past its wild card matchup with Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the rested
St. Franchis pen frustrated the visitors: Chris Devenski worked a 1-2-3 eighth
with Kenley Jansen (BARB’s top closer in 2017) ready and waiting.
That brought up the bottom of the eighth. Justin Turner,
previously hitless, worked a full-count walk against Ottavino, and J.D.
Martinez laced the first pitch he saw into left to put two runners on. That
brought up Cody Bellinger, who had drilled two bombs in the opener, who would .
. . MAKE IT THREE IN THE SERIES, a big fly over the wall in deep right, a
three-run shot, and the first real ‘breathing room’ for either side in the
game. Ottavino (0-1, 20.25) retired the next three straight, but screamed in
his glove as he walked off the mound, knowing he had put his team in desperate
circumstances entering the final inning:
ST. FRANCIS 5, FROSTBITE FALLS 2!
The well-rested Jansen, perhaps amped up, allowed a walk to
Andrus, his former teammate, but then fanned pinch-hitters Gary Sanchez and
Jason Kipnis in quick succession, before a harmless ground ball from Nick
Williams rolled to Altuve, who pegged it to Bellinger . . . GAME OVER! Devenski
(1-0, 0.00) had the win, Jansen the save, the Kansans had taken the second game
and would take a 2-0 Series lead on the road to Frostbite Falls.
Frustratingly for the Squirrels, their lineup of stars had so far
been unproductive compared to the 6-HR onslaught of the Kansans, led by three
off the bat of their rookie 1B. Someone (Jake Arrieta? Julio Teheran?) needed
to put a lid on that, and someone (anyone) in their lineup needed to find THEIR
home-run swing if they were going to get back into a series against St.
Francis’s nine.
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