CLASSIC DUEL IN OAKLAND, A CLINCHER AND A COLLAPSE

CLASSIC DUEL IN OAKLAND, A CLINCHER AND A COLLAPSE
Oakland—In one of the most memorable games in BARB history, Moabs starter Yovanni Gallardo and Oakland ace Danny Haren took a scoreless duel into the ninth, part of a no-hit bid that would go into extra innings on the road against Oakland United!

Gallardo was surpassingly brilliant, facing the minimum 24 batters through eight innings of work, perfection in action. Acquired as part of a blockbuster mid-season trade with Arizona, the former Pottsylvania prospect fanned nine, induced seven ground balls and five easy fly balls as part of his work. Gallardo's only threat came on a screamer off the bat of Marco Scutaro that slick-fielding 3B Brandon Inge had to dive for, but speared a foot off the turf.

While hardly unhittable, Oakland starter Danny Haren was also impressive. Haren also struck out nine while scattering singles to Inge, Troy Tulowitzki and Manny Ramirez, all without a walk, in lowering his ERA to 3.77. In the ninth, with a perfect game in the works, the Moabs elicited boos by electing to pinch-hit for Gallardo, and boos became louder as Shane Victorino flew out to Nelson Cruz for the first out in the ninth. Haren would finish up with nine innings of shutout ball!

Brooklyn setup man (and likely future closer) Neftali Feliz came out to start the bottom of the ninth, and was similarly dominant. Nine innings of perfection! That took things to extra innings, with Haren (having thrown 122 pitches was removed) in favor of Oakland's sagging bullpen. Chris Ray (1-6, 5.85) promptly gave up two singles. Jeremy Affeldt relieved and struck out Ryan Howard, but walked Ramirez on four pitches to load them up for Corey Hart. Aging closer Trevor Hoffman came on, but walked Corey Hart on a full count to force in the game's first run. Inge followed with a bases-clearing double, and before Matt Capps could bail out the side, five runs had scored.

With the score 5-0 in the top of the tenth (and Feliz removed in favor of pinch-hitter Jimmy Rollins), the only drama remaining was whether Brooklyn's veteran closer Billy Wagner could finish the perfect game, or at least with a no-hitter! Wagner would preserve the win for Feliz (10-3, 1.93), but walked Andruw Jones to lead off the bottom of the tenth. There went the perfect game! Brandon Philips, an unlikely candidate to be doubled up, nevertheless grounded sharply to Utley, and Tulowitzki's strong throwing arm completed the DP! Could a no-hitter be in the cards?

Sorry, no! Oakland 3B David Wright finally snapped the string with a solid line drive over short, breaking up the bid at immortality. Scutaro hit into a force play to end the game, a combined one-hitter, and a 5-0 win for Brooklyn. It was the seventh straight win for the Moabs, moving them a half-game ahead of Frostbite Falls in the ever-tightening Eastern race, and also gave them the lead in the wild card race.

"An amazing game," commented Commissioner Hatfield. "To take a pitcher out with a perfect game, in a pennant race, remarkable. But that's how it played out!"


YUMA CLINCHES!

St. Francis—Joey Votto drove in runs in each of his first three at-bats, including his team-leading 25th boundary belt of the year, and the Yuma Firebirds became the first BARB team this year to clinch a division title and a playoff berth, claiming their fifth Western crown in eight seasons and seventh playoff appearance overall with a convincing 13-9 slugfest over host St. Francis and their ace, RHP Roy Oswalt.

Oswalt (8-10, 4.47) had one of his worst outings of the year in his final start of 2010, giving up six runs in three-plus frames, surrendering an RBI single and an RBI double to Votto as part of a 6-2 lead that eventually burgeoned to 13-2 after seven innings, more than enough run support for reliever Rafael Soriano (6-2, 2.90), who officially ‘earned' the win after David Price was removed in the fifth with his club far ahead.

The Friars would score seven late runs in what amounted to a ‘tuneup' for left-handed relievers Hong-Chih Kuo and Matt Thornton, as veteran C Jason Varitek continues his remarkable late-season push with another pinch-hit HR, but this game's outcome was never in doubt. For much of the year, Yuma has underperformed on offense, but in the last two months they have hit their stride due to the resurgence of DH Vladimir Guerrero and the emergence of rookie C Buster Posey.

At 87-58, the Firebirds have also clinched the loop's best record and will be the #1 seed in this year's playoffs, a testimony to the club's depth and the patience of talent evaluator (and GM) Chris Melkonian. Winner of two world titles already (including last year), the defending world champs will be looking to add a third flag to their trophy case. But who will they face? You'll have to keep checking this blog to find out!

CHAPMAN ELECTRIFYING, BUT POTTSYLVANIA IMPLODES

Creepers 1B Carlos Pena, leading all of BARB with 49 home runs, was ejected from the game with his club trailing 5-2 after being called out on strikes, and the sagging Creepers would lose for the seventh time in their last ten games despite another thrilling outing by rookie Aroldis Chapman, dropping them to .500 (74-74) and officially eliminating them from the playoffs, ending any thought of repeating a Series berth with just four games left in the regular season.

It was a disappointing turn of events, with late-season acquisition Fausto Carmona (4-7, 5.30) not being able to build on recent strong outings, opening the third by loading the bases in what would become a four-run Darwin innings. Pena struck out with men aboard vs. a wild (6 BB) Max Scherzer, who nevertheless improved to 9-7 with a 5.56 ERA by denying the Creepers again, leading to their slugger's ejection.

As for the mercurial Chapman, the left-handed smoke machine entered the game with the Creepers down 6-3, having allowed just two hits and striking out 15 in his first eight BARB innings. But, as the crowd ‘oohed' and ‘ahhed' over his triple-digit fastball, the Unnatural Selections became the first person to touch the phenom, who gave up a leadoff excuse-me, I'm-just-trying-to-protect-the-plate accidental double to David Ortiz, then unraveled and loaded the bases. Three more runs would score against Chapman and rookie Tony Pena, and the rout was on. Journeyman Sean O'Sullivan, to add insult to injury, had arguably his best outing of the year in long relief, going four innings to pick up the save while allowing just one run.

In other BARB action:

WORCESTER 4, FROSTBITE FALLS 3

WP: Ryan Dempster (14-10, 4.07)
LP: Felix Hernandez (13-10, 3.54)
SV: Rivera (34)

In a critical Eastern matchup, the host Eliminators took over the divisional lead by the slimmest of margins, with closer Mariano Rivera striking out Squirrels superstar (and league RBI leader) Albert Pujols with Jose Reyes in scoring position.

Victor Martinez and Jason Heyward had smacked back-to-back long balls off Worcester starter Ryan Dempster leading off the sixth to erase a 3-1 deficit, but Joe Mauer (who had four hits in the game, including his 30th HR of the season) scored the game-winner when the Elims successfully played ‘small ball' in the bottom of the inning courtesy of a Cano sacrifice and a solid single from Delmon Young.

It was the fourth straight loss for the Squirrels against divisional rivals after clinging to the East lead for nearly two weeks down the stretch, but despite the setback the Squirrels still have a favorable schedule, just one game back and six of their final nine vs. sub-.500 Oakland.

ARIZONA 4, BLACK MESA 2

WP: James Shields (8-11, 4.47)
LP: Erwin Santana (5-13, 6.01)

Mid-season acquisition James Shields saved his best BARB start of 2010 for the final week of play, winning a duel with another underachieving pitcher (Santana), and going all the way on 111 pitches, 75 for strikes, as the Thunder snapped a six-game losing streak to improve to 74-70, still mathematically alive in the Central behind division-leading Casselton. The big difference in this game came from Alex Rodriguez, who smacked his 28th long ball of the season with a man aboard in the first and made three outstanding plays to take hits away from Black Mesa.

MADTOWN 6, CASSELTON 4

WP: Jeff Niemann (14-12, 4.78)
LP: Joe Saunders (5-15, 5.75)
SV: Wilson (21)

Corner OF Hunter Pence and Matt Holliday both homered off Joe Saunders, and middle man Dan Wheeler bailed out an ineffective Jeff Niemann to get the lead to Brian Wilson in the ninth, where the Murlocs won for the eighth time in their last 10 games to stay in the playoff hunt.

While being eliminated from the division race on the same day, GM ‘Chops' Braga and company remain alive for a post-season berth by virtue of being only one game back (80-66) in the wild card standings behind Brooklyn and Frostbite Falls. They are only one of six teams guaranteed a plus-.500 finish, which is nice work for a club that was an abandoned doormat last season, and even more impressive when in the same division as two clubs that both went to the playoffs last season. So, regardless of the final outcome, a great season for Madtown in their first full campaign with their new GM!

As for the Horned Toads, despite the loss, their magic number for clinching the Central is down to ‘3' with five games to play. Already assured of their club's first plus-.500 finish as well, it would take a historic collapse with some losses to sub-.500 clubs to deny them a berth.



CLASSIC DUEL IN OAKLAND, A CLINCHER AND A COLLAPSE