EXTRA-INNINGS DOMINATE GAME DAY 150
Brooklyn---The Eastern-leading Darwin Finches finished off the playoff hopes of the host Moabs on Game Day 150, but they needed twelve innings to complete a three-game sweep and an exceptional day from RHP Zack Greinke (11-7, 4.36), who scattered two hits in six scoreless innings in relief of starter Oliver Perez to win for the first time since being sent to the bullpen in late August.
Greinke came into the game with the Unnatural Selections riding a high: the Finches had knocked out Brooklyn ace Roy Oswalt (7-10, 4.79) on Milton Bradley’s team-leading 24th homer of the year, while Scott Kazmir scattered four hits over seven frames to improve to 15-5, 3.10 in Darwin’s 5-2 victory. In the second game, Chad Billingsley (6-5, 3.98) overcame a first-inning run with help from Josh Hamilton, whose two-run triple keyed a five-run fifth against Scott Baker (6-11, 6.45) as the Darwinians went on to win 8-3.
This set up an absolute must-win game for the Moabs in the series finale if they were to have a shot at the playoffs with eight games left in the regular season. Perez got off to a rocky start for the Finches, but Placido Polanco tied up the game 3-3 with a rare homer, his sixth of the season, off Fausto Carmona. The so-so Perez would depart in favor of Greinke, but Carmona would put up zeroes the rest of the way. Ken Griffey twice hit doubles with one out, the only hits that Greinke would allow in his long relief stint, but each time the Finches were able to pitch around BARB RBI leader Chase Utley to get out of scoring threats. So it was, in the twelfth, Bradley would get a shot at Brooklyn’s fourth hurler of the day, Duaner Sanchez. Bradley had hit his 25th of the year leading off the game, and with two out drilled a ball just over the wall for his second blast of the game and third of the series. Darwin led, 4-3, and in the bottom of the inning J.J. Putz went after his 18th save of the year. It wasn’t easy: Ichiro Suzuki worked a 3-2 pitch for a walk to open the frame and stole second to put the tieing run in scoring position. But Putz fanned Griffey and Cabrera, the Finches intentionally walked Utley, and Troy Tulowitski’s opposite-field liner was snagged by Lance Berkman at first for the final out: the Finches had eliminated the Moabs in 12 innings, and now owned a three-game lead with seven to play.
A good position, but not one that guaranteed much of anything, however, since the Finches had seven games left with Frostbite Falls and Worcester had seven left with slumping Brooklyn. If both of their rivals could win five or more of their remaining games, Darwin could be on the outside looking in. Stay tuned!
In other BARB action:
WORCESTER 7, FROSTBITE FALLS 4 (15 innings)
WP: Pedro Feliciano (4-3, 2.45)
LP: Joakim Soria (4-6, 2.43)
SV: Guerrier (4)
The ragged Eliminators pen outlasted the host Squirrels, and the visiting Eliminators overcame a pair of HR (30,31) by 1B Albert Pujols, and Mark Teixeira cashed in an error by Michael Young with a two-run triple to help Worcester win its biggest game of the year, a marathon that went fifteen frames and had a bit of everything.
Elims starter Jon Lester had outlasted Felix Hernandez, sending a 4-2 lead to his mates in the pen. But Pujols’s second homer of the game sent Lester to the showers leading off the eighth, and pinch-hitter Brad Hawpe tied the game two batters later with an RBI single, forcing extra frames. Frostbite Falls would leave the bases juiced, however, and would then leave runners on five of the next seven frames, ratcheting up the tension. In the fifteenth, the Squirrels’ eighth pitcher (Joakim Soria) retired the first two hitters, then gave up a soft single to Jason Bay. Young then threw away Alex Rios’s ground ball to put runners at the corners, and Teixeira tripled home a pair.
Matt Guerrier, the fifth Elims hurler, then worked a scoreless fifteenth for his fourth save of the season, and with their final series with sibling rival Brooklyn, Worcester had to feel pretty good to pull out the extra-inning win, which keeps them tied with Frostbite Falls (84-61) for the loop’s second best record, still in contention for the East crown and ahead of both Yuma and Lexington for a coveted wild card spot.
OAKEYLAND 4, YUMA 3 (13 innings)
WP: Brad Lidge (5-6, 3.83)
LP: Matt Capps (2-2, 2.70)
What is it with all these extra-inning games? They take so long to write up! In this one, much-maligned Nick Swisher kept his club hanging on in the Central race with three hits, including a clutch two-out single in the bottom of the thirteenth to beat Matt Capps and the visiting Firebirds, scoring J.D. Drew after neither club had scored since the fourth, a span of nearly nine innings.
Oakeyland (72-74) has now won four straight games facing elimination, keeping Vegas’s ‘magic number’ for clinching the Central at four games while playing some tough contests against Western contenders. Yuma, meanwhile, fell to 81-65, their fifth straight loss, falling a game-and-a-half behind sibling rival Lexington.
LEXINGTON 12, POTTSYLVANIA 1
WP: Josh Beckett (9-7, 3.19)
LP: Pedro Martinez (0-8, 9.15)
Former ace Pedro Martinez’s miserable 2008 campaign with the hapless Creepers reached new lows, as the visiting Rebels (83-64) won their fourth straight, knocking out Pedro with a five-run first keyed by a double from Adrian Gonzalez, who later smacked his 25th homer of the season as part of the rout. Josh Beckett, meanwhile, showed signs of shaking off the erratic outings that marked his play prior to going on the DL last month, allowing only one run (unearned) through eight frames. But, how much can you draw from that? After all, this is the Creepers, who with a league-worst 51-95 mark will in all likelihood be drafting ahead of all other BARB teams in the spring of ’09…
Stay tuned!
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