The 2009 regular season having ended with the red-hot Brooklyn Moabs and the defending world champion Squirrels with identical 81-63 marks in the ultra-competitive East on the final day, while the Worcester Eliminators (having led the East for most of the season) finished one game out.
That meant the Elims, with arguably the league’s most explosive batting lineup, would miss the playoffs by the slimmest of margins while the sibling rival in Brooklyn would have a chance to win the division and a shot at the BARB World Series.
Eric Caskey’s Moabs had finished strong, winning their last six games as part of a final month that saw the club play over .700 baseball to catch, then pass the Eliminators. But to win out, they would need one more win in the loop’s toughest division, against the league’s most storied club, the Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels.
In 2008, the Squirrels had finished 87-65 and earned a wild card spot, but they had been the hot team. They won a 14-inning thriller over the Lexington Rebels to spark a three-game sweep, and then got four of their eight Series home runs from eventual MVP 1B Albert Pujols agains the Darwin Finches, manhandling their division rivals in six games, the finale an 11-1 laugher, for their fourth league title. Certainly Pujols and Company were geared up to make another run, with the Squirrels 1B among the league leaders in batting (.316), hits (189), 2B (44), HR (32), runs (104) and RBI (116).
But Brooklyn would counter with an underrated pitching staff heavily-buoyed by the promotion of several young arms to key roles in their bullpen, among them Jose Mijares, Justin Masterson and Daniel Bard...and an offense, led by veteran RF Jermaine Dye (.296, 29, 102) and 2B Chase Utley (.273, 29, 91) more than capable of launching the long ball. And, because Brooklyn had won the head-to-head matchup in the regular season, the Moabs would be at home. And Jone Lester, a southpaw who had won 12 games, would be matched against 13-game winner Matt Garza! Who would prevail?
Based on past history, beating the Squirrels would begin with nullifying Pujols, who time and time again has proven to be the difference-maker these last few BARB campaigns, and the one offensive constant in a rotation Frostbite lineup. So, in the top of the first, it was 1B Ryan Howard who set the tone for the early going. With two out and none on, Pujols smacked an 0-1 pitch into the hole. Troy Tulowitzki flagged it, then heaved a desperation peg that was off the bag. But the hulking Howard deftly came off the bag and his sweep tag caught the back of Pujols’s left hip a fraction of a second before his foot touched the bag!
It was a heads-up play, and in the bottom of the frame the Moabs went to work on Garza. Ellsbury worked the count full before popping out to Pujols, but Victorino hit a 1-2 pitch between Evan Longoria and Michael Young for a single. Utley lined the first pitch he saw from Garza to center, a base hit that sent Victorino all the way to third. Howard then came up with a chance to give his club the lead. The owner of a team-high 132 strikeouts, Howard did not chase a put-away slider from Garza, but instead went with the pitch, dunking it over Young’s head for a base hit to score Victorino. A rattled Garza then wild-pitched with Jermaine Dye at the plate to allow Utley to score, and the Moabs had a 2-0 lead!
Brooklyn would add another run in the second on an RBI single by Victorino, but it was Howard who had the key play in that frame, pulling in a poor throw by Utley to turn a double play on Jayson Werth’s ground ball to third, that kept the Squirrels off the scoreboard. With defense like that, Lester (13-10, 3.63) continued to challenge the Squirrels, especially Pujols, who made another ground ball to Tulowitzki to end the third.
But, in the sixth, the defending world champs began to make some noise. Magglio Ordonez beat out a slowly-hit ball that Utley couldn’t get a handle on which was called an infield hit. That brought up speedy (but powerful) CF Carlos Beltran, who SMASHED a ball over the first base bag...
...FLAGGED on one hop, a hot shot, by HOWARD, who wheeled and threw to Tulowitzki.......back to HOWARD at first, a DOUBLE PLAY!
As it turned out, it was an absolutely key play, because the Squirrels would score twice with two out in the inning after an abortive pickoff play by C Brian McCann put two unearned runs on for Longoria, who delivered a clutch two-run double to narrow Brooklyn’s lead to 3-2. Lester got C Victor Martinez to hit a ball at Tulowitzki for the final out of the inning, but Frostbite Falls had made a game of it.
Howard would reach on a single in the bottom of the frame, however, and Jermaine Dye knocked Garza (13-10, 3.59) out of the game with an RBI single. Lester would depart in the top of the seventh in a play that would lead to a Frostbite run, but against the thick-legged Howard would provide an unexpectedly slick fielding play to quash Frostbite hopes. Jayson Werth led off the frame with a double off Lester, and the Moabs began warming up Justin Masterson. With one down, rookie Adam Lind lined a base hit to Dye, who came up gunning in an attempt to nail the running Werth at the plate. But, as the throw tailed toward the line, an alert Howard jumped to snag Dye’s peg, and then whipped it sidearm to Tulowitzki, who slapped down a tag on the stunned Lind attempting to take second! Two out, and a potentially big inning snuffed! Justin Masterson came on to pitch to Magglio Ordonez with sacks empty, and kept the score 4-3 by getting Ordonez to (what else) hit another ground ball to short....to Howard at first....inning over!
GM Andrew Haynes, in attendance, could be seen visibly slumping at this turn of events. When Miguel Cabrera launched a deep drive off reliever John Grabow to start the bottom of the eighth, that seemed to be the exclamation point. If the Squirrels were to reach their sixth post-season, they would need to do so against Francisco Rodriguez. ‘K-Rod’ gave up a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth to Jayson Werth to make things interesting, but then blew away Michael Young and Adam Lind with rising fastballs they both popped to the infield. It was Rodriguez’s BARB-leading 34th save, the 82nd win of the year, and a division title for the resilient Moabs, who had been 29-29 and eight games back on June 1st but had posted a BARB-high .602 winning percentage since the All-Star Break.
Congratulations to the Moabs, who will join Central and West division winners Pottsylvania and Darwin in the playoffs. Next up for Brooklyn: a five-game series with wild-card winner Yuma, with the winner headed to the BARB World Series!....which, if things go according to Hoyle, we will get to in (sigh) January....
No comments:
Post a Comment