PUJOLS, MAHOLM SNUFF FINCHES: IS IT OVER FOR DARWIN?

PUJOLS, MAHOLM SNUFF FINCHES: IS IT OVER FOR DARWIN?
Frostbite Falls—Trailing 2-1 already in this year’s World Series, the Darwin Finches took their most bitter defeat yet, a 10-0 whalloping that saw Squirrels 1B Albert Pujols club his post-season-leading third homer and unlikely starter Paul Maholm (!) scatter five hits en route to a shutout.

Maholm (1-0, 0.00) had a healthy 7-0 lead after two frames, thanks to Pujol’s two-run blast and another five-run uprising against a completely-ineffective Chad Billingsley (1.2 IP, 6 H, 3 BB). It was a surprising turn of events for the Squirrels, who had signed the lefty off the league’s free-agent scrap heap and assigned him to AAA and had not bothered to use him the entire season despite injuries to starters Ben Sheets and Brad Penny. Maholm had been recalled twice to fill a roster spot, but had done nothing more than lace up his cleats.

Finches manager PZ Myers was bitter. "How does it happen that a guy who does nothing the whole year in BARB can pitch a shutout in the Series? I don’t know who to be angrier with: the league, for allowing Maholm to pitch in that situation, or my ridiculous, religiously-impaired lineup? That wasn’t Sandy Koufax out there...and I should know, I’m a Koufax Award winner!"

Myers continued to mutter imprecations to whatever baseball gods that couldn’t possibly exist, anyway, and it was clear that the many reports of team dissension were as clear as the surprising dominance of journeyman Paul Maholm. For, only when it became clear that Sheets would not be able to go in the post-season was Maholm given a shot. And yet, with "his" club up 2-1 in the Series, GM Andrew Haynes handed the southpaw the ball and the rest was history, as Maholm held the vaunted trio of Finches switch-hitters (Bradley, Jones and Berkman) to just one safety in twelve trips.

This put a complete damper on the Darwinians, who would need to win their final game on the road to force a Game Six and give themselves a chance to come back in the Series against a high-flying Squirrels lineup. Darwin had won a 9-7 slugfest in Game Three to get themselves back into the Series, bashing three boundary belts, but that seemed a million years ago.