Worcester---The Eliminators, whose team ERA (4.09) was in the middle of the BARB pack in 2010, whitewashed the visiting Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels in the opening game of the 2010 World Series!
The Squirrels had dispatched the Yuma Firebirds in four games, whereas Worcester had needed five to rally from an 0-2 deficit and displace upstart Casselton. As a consequence, the Eliminators had needed to start ace Adam Wainwright (13-8, 4.18) twice and would have to turn to third starter Phil Hughes to begin the series against the Haynes brain trust's best hurler, Felix Hernandez (13-10, 3.55).
True to form, Hernandez arguably outpitched Hughes in the Game 1 opener: the Frostbite star fanned nine, held batting title winner Joe Mauer hitless, and needed only 86 pitches to scatter three hits through seven. Hughes had reached 99 pitches in the sixth, and would not start the seventh. Nevertheless, it was Hughes (1-0, 0.00) who would take the game, because Mark Teixeira, leading off the top of the second, had pulled a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right-center for a solo HR: WORCESTER 1, FROSTBITE FALLS 0!
Hot-hitting Carlos Beltran had singles in his last two trips to make things interesting for the Squirrels, but Craig Breslow and Peter Moylan handled everything else in the middle innings. In the ninth, the peerless Rivera came in to pitch to the most prolific playoff batter BARB has ever known, 1B Albert Pujols, the MVP of the Atlantic Playoff Series. True to form, 'Prince Albert' got ahead, and then hit a 2-0 pitch like a rocket---but right at a moving Hanley Ramirez for the first out! Adam Lind grounded harmlessly to Cano, and Victor Martinez hit a big fly that chased Beltran to the track, but that was it: a 1-2-3 ninth, a save for Rivera, and a big win to open the 2010 World Series!
Attempting to get back on track, the Squirrels would brandish another big-time arm in Game 2, as Tim Lincecum (16-11, 3.97, 245 K's) would match up with Ryan Dempster (14-11, 4.18).
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