With their
backs against the wall of an 0-2 deficit and smarting from a pair of contests
that had seen their power mostly neutralized, the Frostbite Falls Flying
Squirrels returned home with one thought in mind: support their pitching with
big flies, extend the series to four games and give the defending world champs
a shot at returning to the World Series.
To that end,
the Squirrels would have to win a matchup of staff win leaders: Julio Teheran
(15-7, 3.76) had led the defending champs with 15 wins in the regular season in
his fourth year in Frostbite’s rotation, and would be matched with Ervin
Santana (15-8, 4.70), a free agent plucked off the scrap heap who had paced the
Kansans.
Santana’s win
total belied his chief weakness against a club like Frostbite Falls, however:
namely, that he had led his ballclub with 38 home runs surrendered, the
fourth-highest total in the league. So it was no surprise that, leading off the
bottom of the first, last year’s Series MVP would touch them all against the
veteran, as Mike Trout popped a 1-1 pitch down the left-field line, JUST FAIR,
for the game’s first run-----and, notably, the first long ball in the series
for the Squirrels:
FROSTBITE
FALLS 1, ST. FRANCIS 0!
LONG BALLS THE
THEME
So, the
Squirrels had a blast and a lead, but Teheran had shown a propensity for giving
up big flies as well (28 in the regular season), and it took no time for Cody
Bellinger and the Kansans to answer in the top of the 2nd. J.D. Martinez took a
full-count pitch for ‘ball four’, and when Teheran bounced a curve ball, was
given credit for a stolen base on the very next pitch. Bellinger popped his
fourth circuit shot in three games to put two on, erasing Frostbite’s brief
edge.
But THAT only
lasted until the bottom of the second, when the Squirrels got another leadoff
HR, this time off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt, to tie the game at 2-2. AND,
when Jason Kipnis added another solo shot in the 4th, the third blast allowed
by Santana, the lead changed again in favor of the home team! NOW, with a 3-2
lead, they needed to just get another frame out of Teheran, and let their
bullpen-by-committee mix and match the rest of the way.
The only
problem with extending Teheran? The fact that, in addition to giving up a pair
of long balls, he had walked four and already thrown 80 pitches entering the
fifth. To make the plan work, he would need to be economical. Altuve
cooperated, popping up a
0-1 change to
shallow left, a can of corn. But Justin Turner (a .636 hitter in the Series!)
stayed back on Teheran’s next change, pushing a 1-1 pitch up the middle under
Teheran’s glove and past a diving Andrus. That brought up J.D. Martinez, who
had worked Teheran to a full-count walk earlier in the game. The player dubbed
‘Kong’ by agent Scott Boras took a close 2-2 pitch to wring another full count
out of Teheran, and the next pitch, the hurler’s 91st of the ballgame . . . .
CLUBBED!
Off the end of
the bat, arcing like an easy fly, but carrying, carrying, GONE! A two-run HR,
another lead change, and the end of the road for Teheran:
ST.
FRANCIS 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 3!
Alex Colome
relieved Teheran, and the momentum of the game had clearly moved in favor of
the visitors and their BARB-leading bullpen. Santana (1-0, 5.40) worked a solid
fifth, and then a parade of arms were brought forward to anesthetize the
slugging Squirrels: Lucas Giolito worked a perfect sixth against the middle of
the lineup, Andrew Miller set down Andrus and a pair of pinch-hitters in
succession, and Kenley Jansen, BARB’s top closer in the regular season (7 wins,
26 saves, 124 K’s in 89 frames) was brought in to start the eighth. Clearly, if
he was performing, this would be a six-out save situation.
Mike Trout
wasn’t going quietly! He doubled over the head of Kevin Kiermaier to start the
frame, giving the trio of Sanchez, Harper and Longoria a gold-plated
opportunity to tie the frame with a runner in scoring position. Just get a hit!
But Sanchez fanned on three pitches, and, with Trout leaning at second, Harper
DRILLED a ball up-the-middle that Altuve snared running to cover the bag, and
doubled off Trout to end the inning, the defensive play of the series and a
dagger in the hearts of the Squirrels!
To make
matters worse, in the top of the ninth, Altuve hit the first pitch he saw from
Pedro Baez over the left-field wall, an insurance run and a 5-3 St. Francis
lead. While Brad Boxberger came in to prevent further damage, the Squirrels
would need to get some offense from the middle of the order in Jansen’s second
inning of work. With one out, Paul Goldschmidt raised their hopes, going deep
to right with no one aboard, narrowing the Kansans lead. It was their fourth
boundary belt of the contest, after hitting none in the first two games. But,
as owner Andrew Haynes ruefully remarked, “All solo shots.”
So it was that
the game ended with a whimper and an exclamation point: a soft fly to medium CF
by Kipnis, and then pinch-hitter Justin Bour fanning on three straight cutters!
A six-out save for Jansen, a three-game sweep for the red-hot Kansans, and a
trip to the World Series:
ST.
FRANCIS 5, FROSTBITE FALLS 4!
CO-MVP’S?
How to decide
who best deserved honors? Was it Steven Strasburg, who set a playoff record
with more than a dozen strikeouts in Game One? The clutch hitting and defense
of Jose Altuve? The big cleanup bat of J.D. Martinez?
In the end,
none of the above, as journeyman IF Justin Turner, finally a regular, saw his
7-for-11 streak partner with the 4 HR of rookie 1B Cody Bellinger to take home
MVP honors in almost fairy-tale fashion, as seemingly every break had gone in
favor of the Kansans, who compiled a 2.33 ERA, hit .299 and slugged .607 for a
convincing sweep. They would now take their storybook season to the next stage,
and play in just their second World Series in nine seasons!
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