PRICE PULLS ONE BACK

Price celebrates the shutout

October 4: The favored Yuma Firebirds, stunned twice at their home by wild-card winner Frostbite Falls, traveled to the great white north in need of two wins in enemy territory just to keep its season alive. Luckily for Chris Melkonian and company, David Price stepped up to the challenge.

Despite an 11-4 record, 3.08 ERA and three shutouts in the regular season, Price was only Yuma’s fourth-best starting pitcher. He was given the Game 3 start because Kris Medlen had fallen off toward the end of the season.  

Price was given a buffer before he threw a pitch, as the Firebird offense scored twice in the first off Frostbite starter Matt Garza.

Garza easily set down the first two hitters of the game on groundouts before Andrew McCutchen dumped a single into shallow left. Ben Zobrist followed with a four-pitch walk, and Buster Posey lashed the first pitch he saw from a clearly rattled Garza down the left field line to bring McCutchen around. Denard Span was next, and he brought in Zobrist with a seeing-eye single just past the glove of a diving Mark Ellis, and Yuma led, 2-0, after one frame.

Price walked a batter in the bottom of the first but escaped unscathed, and it wasn’t long before the Firebirds plated another. Rookie Anthony Rendon, leading off the second, put an uppercut on Garza’s 2-0 offering and BLASTED a shot way back to left field. Yuma added another in the third on a solo shot by Zobrist for a four-run lead just a third of the way through the game.

The rest of the game sailed along. Garza was gone after walking Ryan Zimmerman leading off the fourth, and Carlos Villanueva pitched five innings of scoreless long relief before allowing a Rendon RBI double in the ninth. The Firebirds added another in the final inning when Rendon scored on a Nick Markakis groundout.

The host Flying Squirrels, meanwhile, couldn’t get anything going against Price. Their first hit was a Mark Ellis single in the third, but he was promptly erased on a double play grounder. Price finally had issues in the sixth, as Kendrys Morales lined a single and Mike Trout and  Austin Jackson walked to load the bases with no outs. The big lefty dug in, however, getting Wilin Rosario to line to right (too shallow for the plodding Morales to try to score), striking out Evan Longoria and inducing a can of corn from Jose Reyes to end the threat.

The last nine Frostbite hitters went quietly, leaving Price with a dominant masterpiece: two-hits, four walks, eight strikeouts; a shutout on 128 pitches.

The 6-0 Yuma victory meant a Game Four would be in play, with the Firebirds planning to throw Kris Medlen, who had a no-hitter against Frostbite in the regular season, against either rookie Alex Cobb or erratic Tim Lincecum for the Squirrels.

FINAL: YUMA 6, FROSTBITE FALLS 0