Playoff Round 2 - October 8

November 11, 2021, 07:19:32 AM

Maniax vs ACL's:
Gallen vs Bieber

Gallen was kind of shaky to start, allowing a walk and single in the 1st but no runs were scored. The ACL's continued the onslaught with 3 consecutive singles to start the 2nd inning. But Gallen settled down from there and got out of the frame only allowing one run. In fact he really settled down as he only allowed one other baserunner (a 6th inning single which was immediately erased with a double play). Gallen was pulled after the 7th with a 2-1 lead, allowing only 5 singles and 1 walk.

I mentioned the Maniax had a 2-1 lead at that point, curtesy of 4th inning HR by Tatis and Judge.

The scored stayed that way until the bottom of the 9th where Sano reached via a walk. But Meadows followed that with a strikeout so the ACL's were on upset alert down to their last out. Pinch hitter Willie Calhoun took the 2nd pitch he saw deep to left center for a double and Sano (not known for his legs with only AV speed) came all the way around to tie the game 2-2. No errors on the play but I'd have loved to see exactly what happened there, maybe it took a funky bounce off the wall or something. Anyway, free baseball!

Unfortunately, extra innings was rather dull unless you are a fan of 1-2-3 innings. Nothing really happened, except the excitement was building. Something has to happen at some point. And then it did...

Mookie Betts hit a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 13th for the 3-2 win. The ACL's win on a night where their offense only accumulated 7 hits and struck out 15 times. This is a game the Maniax will want back...

ACL's win 3-2 and have a 1-0 lead in the series

Dogs vs Brewers:
Wait, wait? Cole lost G7 for the Dogs? How the eff did that happen?
Brewers vs Bums:
Darvish vs Manaea

The Brew Crew struck early getting a Marte HR in the 1st and then Semien lead off the 4th with another HR. A Soler double followed by a Cron triple (a triple? what is getting into these guys? Cron has only FR speed and had 1 triple all season) added another run so the Bums were feeling "bummed" about falling behind early 3-0.

It's not like the Bums didn't have chances up to that point. But Darvish got out of the 1st with a double play and in the second he got struck out Laureano (no steroid testing in DMB) stranding runners on 1st and 3rd. In the 4th again the Bums left runners in scoring position (1st and 2nd) when Verdugo flied out to RF. So Darvish was playing with fire, finally he got burned in the 6th.

A walk, single, wild pitch, RBI ground-out, single, walk = 2 runs before Darvish was pulled. Watson ended the threat though so the Brewers still had a 3-2 lead. Fun fact - Laureano ended this threat with a strikeout as well, ending the night 0-3 with 3 K's.

Anyway, that's where the scoring stayed until the bottom of the 8th when new Brewers pitcher Phelps entered the game. Maybe he should have stayed in the bullpen. The first two pitches he threw were both deposited deep to LC, curtesy of Arenado and Alonso. No one really likes the Bums, so the limited fans at the ballpark were scrambling from their seats behind home plate to retrieve the HR balls for souvenirs.

Hader was a little shaky in the top of the 9th allowing a couple baserunners, but with the tying run at 3rd he got pinch-hitter Gomes to fly out to RF to end the game.

Bums win 4-3 and have a 1-0 lead in the series