EAST IS BEAST

October 1: Gonzalez and Hernandez shine as Eastern division teams strike the first blow in their respective playoff series.

Worcester, Mass—Johnny Cueto shook off his tough regular season  to keep the Central Division champion St. Francis Friars from taking the lead long enough for the Eliminator bats to wake up.

Cueto, who had a 5.86 and 4-4 record for the East Division champs and BARB single-season wins record holders, allowed two singles in the first inning but also induced a double play grounder. He was perfect the next three frames before Salvador Perez hit a single, stole second, moved to third on a fly out (yes, a CATCHER) and scored on J.J. Hardy’s base hit.

By that time, Worcester had already gone ahead. Robinson Cano led off the bottom of the second with a rope over the centerfielder’s head and scored two batters later on a Brandon Moss single.

The tie in the fifth didn’t last long. The first hitter in the Eliminator half of the inning was Jason Heyward, and he got a hold of one DEEP to right. The only question was whether it would curl foul, but it cleared the foul pole with room to spare to put the hosts back up by one.

Worcester struck again in the seventh, and this time in a big way. St. Francis stuck with starter Bronson Arroyo a few batters too long, as he walked Jarrod Saltalamacchia and caught the fat part of the plate to Martin Prado, who lashed a double to left center. Enter Craig Breslow. The lefty, acquired from Brooklyn in midseason, had a 2.19 in 74 innings between the two teams. He also struck out nearly four batters for every walk.

Jonathan Lucroy was sent up as a pinch hitter for Heyward, and Breslow immediately walked him to load the bases for Adrian Gonzalez. The lefty-lefty matchup seemed to favor the hurler, but Gonzalez liked what he saw in the 1-0 pitch. A-Gon lifted a SOARING drive to right field…and GONE! A GRAND SLAM for Worcester sent the fans into a frenzy.

One inning later, Billy Butler grounded a seeing-eye single through the middle to score two more. St. Francis plated a run in the top of the ninth, but it was much too little and much too late. The 8-2 victory behind a starter from the bottom of their rotation seemed to further assert Worcester’s dominance and put St. Francis in a hole that even the Sabermetricians couldn’t find a silver lining to.

FINAL: WORCESTER 8, ST. FRANCIS 2

MEANWHILE, 2800 MILES AWAY…

Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez, two top contenders for the BARB Cy Young award, geared up for the first game of the series between the West Division champion Yuma Firebirds and wild card-winning Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels.

Both teams came in after winning more than 100 games and producing run differentials over 200. The Squirrels had a league-leading 908 runs scored (the first time since 2005 that a BARB team plated that many), while the Firebirds allowed a league-best 585. One of the two had to give.

From the start it seemed more cracks would fell the Frostbite armor.

In the bottom of the second, Denard Span lined a single with one out to bring up Ryan Zimmerman. Hernandez fell behind, 2-1, and then Zimmerman barreled the next pitch up: a drive to left, 10 rows up in the Safeco Field bleachers! Just like that, Yuma had a 2-0 advantage for one of the best pitchers in the game.

Through six, Verlander didn’t disappoint. He scattered a few walks and two doubles in keeping the visitors off the board. Hernandez settled down after the rough start and kept his Squirrels in it, and in the seventh he was rewarded.

Jason Kipnis led off with a single and Yonder Alonso doubled down the line. Wilson Ramos lifted a ball to right that carried…back…but caught at the edge of the warning track. It was, however, deep enough to score Kipnis and move Alonso to third. Frostbite’s Mr. Clutch, Evan Longoria, stepped in and fell behind, 1-2, before pulling a line drive JUST over the leaping Andrelton Simmons at short to tie the score! Verlander stayed in but walked Kendrys Morales on a full count, and Tyler Clippard was brought in.

The ace reliever didn’t endear himself to his home fans with a wild pitch on his first offering. He then proceeded to walk Mike Trout, loading the bases for Austin Jackson. Jackson took advantage of Clippard’s control issues by lashing a first-pitch single to left to score Longoria for a 3-2 Frostbite lead. Bryce Harper made an out, but it was just a groundout to first with Morales scoring as baseball pundits everywhere wondered why Joey Votto didn’t throw home to try and force the plodding designated hitter.

With newfound life, Hernandez came back out for the bottom half of the seventh. Zimmerman greeted him with a double, but “King Felix” sandwiched three strikeouts around a subsequent single to finish the shutdown inning.

Hernandez got into trouble again in the eighth, however, and this time he didn’t make it out. After a hard-hit groundout, Ben Zobrist dribbled an infield single down the third base line. At 123 pitches and with Buster Posey, Span and Zimmerman approaching, Mike Noakes decided to pull his ace for righty Al Alburquerque. Two walks and a strikeout later, Anthony Rendon stepped up and hit a slow chop past the mound. Jose Reyes couldn’t whip the ball to first in time, so Zobrist came across the plate to bring Yuma within a run and close the book on Hernandez (7.1 IP, 8 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 11 strikeouts). Antonio Bastardo was next to try to shut the door, and he was able to sling a slider past Jurickson Profar and end the inning.

Frostbite’s lead was safe for the moment, but they knew the top of the Firebird order was due up for the ninth and the names Markakis, Votto and McCutchen wouldn’t make it easy. So the offense went out and scratched out an insurance run, with two walks and the fleet Jackson beating out the back end of a double play. Runners on first and third with just one out allowed Harper to get under one for a sac fly and 5-3 advantage into the bottom of the ninth.

Frostbite Falls, which worked with a “closer by committee” system all season, left Bastardo in for the ninth. He closed it out rather uneventfully with a groundout, walk and two strikeouts. The visiting team had struck the first blow in what promised, from the start, to be a series played to the full five games.

FINAL: FROSTBITE FALLS 5, YUMA 3