Before we move on to Game 7, a review of MLB history reveals that while there has been a WS ending walkoff HR in a Game 6 (Joe Carter), there has never been a come from behind walkoff HR in Game 6 by the team trailing in the series. The ending was a stunner and the managers took a few days off before taking on the final game. (The games are played as though they occur on consecutive calendar days so no extra rest is given.)
There were some predictable things about the final game. Since our league has a rule that starters must face 9 hitters or give up three runs before they can be pulled, this game would probably see the relievers early and the winner would be the team that could score off the opponent's strong relievers.
Pitching Match-ups are Strasburg vs. Salazar.
SBN had to decide whether to use Strasburg or Matsuzaka and BEL gave Salazar his first playoff start. No one was sure what would come next.
After Salazar had a 1, 2, 3 inning, BEL got off to a great start in the first with 5 of the first 6 batters reaching base, however, a DP mixed in limited the rally and left BEL with a 2-0 lead. (Interestingly, another single through the SS area by Holt due to SBN holding Beltre at first even though he has little stealing speed.) In the top of third, Salazar had only given up one hit but a quick hook by BEL brought in Betances who quickly gave up a double to Weeks cutting the lead in half. The 3rd inning got ugly as Rizzo and Reddick homered jumping SBN into a 3-2 lead and they now had their top reliever, Sanchez, in the game. Betances settled in and pitched a total of four innings yielding no other runs and striking out 7 but the damage was done and turned the game over to Giles. Sanchez matched both pitchers although he gave up one hit each inning except the 4th bringing us to the top of the 8th with SBN ahead 3-2. After Giles gave up a hit, Chapman was brought in and was able to get Rizzo and Reddick to bring us to the bottom of the 8th.
McCutchen lead off with a double followed by a ground out by Adams that advanced him to 3rd and a Beltre single tied the score. The top of the ninth brought a critical play. With Fiers now pitching for BEL, Arenado lead off with a double. On a sacrifice bunt attempt by Ozuna, the defense was given a chance to try to throw the runner out at 3rd. With a 40% chance of him being safe and resulting in a 1st and 3rd with no one out, BEL decided the risk was worth the potential of having a runner on 3rd with only one out. The play turned out to be a fielder's choice erasing Arenado and Fiers retired the other two hitters. BEL went out quietly in the 9th bringing us to an extra inning game 7 with Fiers and Sanchez on in relief.
BEL made a critical change to tighten its defense, it did the reverse of the prior game with Lemahieu and Murphy. BEL is much weaker defensively with Murphy in left and Holt at 2nd and it had cost at least three infield singles due to Holt's fielding so BEL moved Holt to left and brought Lemahieu in to play 2nd where he is among the best and Murphy, the Game 6 hero, who batted in the 9th was removed from the game.
Unfortunately for BEL, SBN repeated a sequence seen several times in this series, two singles (Weeks and Rizzo) wrapped around a sac bunt brought SBN to a 4-3 lead with Rizzo advancing to 2nd on the attempt to nail Weeks at home. Fiers settled in and K'ed Tulo and Arenado wrapped around an intentional walk to Reddick.
McCutchen lead off the bottom of the 10th with a walk. First big decision... what to do? sac bunt? PH with Cervelli? leave Adams, a high DP risk to hit away? The decision was to hit away. Adams lined out. Now, it was Beltre up and he was BEL's best hitter in the playoffs but also a DP risk. Beltre grounded out to 2nd advancing McCutchen to 2nd. With two outs, this brought up Brock Holt. It was another one of those, this is probably the last at bat for the season moments but thinking wouldn't it be cool if he could somehow get a hit and push this to the 11th inning?
Well, Brock Holt hit a walkoff two run HR to win the 7th game in astonishing fashion. It was a stunning moment and since we play this on line with no verbal (only written) communication, I was able to go crazy without being seen as not a gracious winner. (My opponent would have done the same thing.)
The odds of these two players, Murphy and Holt, hitting come from behind walkoff HRs in consecutive games with both wins aided by singles through Tulo are so small, that it's difficult to even calculate. I'll just take the win!
Recap and Post mortem to follow. For now, here's the box score...
BOXSCORE: 2015
South Bend Fighting Irish At 2015 Bellingham Bozos 11/9/2015
Fighting Irish AB
R H RBI AVG Bozos AB R H
RBI AVG
R.Weeks DH 5
1 3 1 .267
N.Markakis RF 5 0
1 0 .224
M.Holliday LF 3
0 0 0 .226
J.Jaso C 5 0
0 0 .250
A.Rizzo 1B 5
1 2 2 .190
B-S.Vogt C 0 0
0 0 .087
T.Tulowitzki SS 4
0 0 0 .292
A.McCutchen CF 3 3
1 0 .211
J.Reddick RF
4 1
1 1 .241 M.Adams 1B 4
1 2 1 .273
N.Arenado 3B 5
0 1 0 .288
A.Beltre 3B 4 0
1 1 .288
M.Ozuna CF 3
0 0 0 .188
B.Holt 2B,LF 5 1
3 3 .322
E.Hernandez 2B 2
1 1 0 .174
E.Encarnacion DH 3 0
0 0 .269
A-C.Hernandez
2B 1
0 0 0 .400
J.Reyes SS 4 0
1 0 .246
S.Perez C 4
0 0 0 .227
D.Murphy LF 3 0
1 0 .167
C-D.Lemahieu 2B 0 0
0 0 .256
-- -- -- --- -- -- -- ---
Totals 36
4 8 4
Totals 36 5 10 5
A-Subbed
Defensively (2B) For Hernandez In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively
(C ) For Jaso In 10th Inning
C-Subbed
Defensively (2B) For Murphy In 10th Inning
Fighting
Irish.. 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0
1 - 4 8 0
Bozos...........
2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
2 - 5 10 0
Fighting Irish
(11-9) IP H
R ER BB
SO HR ERA
SCORESHEET
S.Strasburg 2 3
2 2 3
1 0 12.51
A1 B2
A.Sanchez
LOSS(1-3) 7 2/3 7
3 3 3
4 1 3.24
B3
Totals 9 2/3 10
5 5 6
5 1
Bozos
(11-6) IP H
R ER BB
SO HR ERA
SCORESHEET
D.Salazar 2 2/3 1
1 1 0
2 0 3.38
A1 A9
D.Betances 4 3
2 2 1
7 2 3.32
B1 C7
K.Giles 0 2/3 1 0 0
1 1 0
1.84 C8 D2
A.Chapman 0 2/3 0
0 0 1
1 0 1.04
D3 D5
M.Fiers
WIN(3-1) 2 3
1 1 1
2 0 2.45
D6
Totals 10 8
4 4 4
13 2
ATTENDANCE-
40,124 DATE- Monday, November 9th 2015 TIME- Night
UMPIRES- Tim
Timmons, Tim Tschida, Greg Gibson, Chuck Meriwether
T- 3:30
LEFT ON BASE-
Fighting Irish: 8 Bozos: 8
DOUBLE PLAYS-
Fighting Irish: 3 Bozos: 0
DOUBLES-
R.Weeks(4th), N.Arenado(11th), A.McCutchen(4th)
TRIPLES-
M.Adams(1st)
HOME RUNS-
A.Rizzo(5th), J.Reddick(6th), B.Holt(1st)
RBIs-
R.Weeks(4th), A.Rizzo-2(9th), J.Reddick(18th), M.Adams(3rd),
A.Beltre(10th), B.Holt-3(5th)
SACRIFICE HITS-
M.Holliday-2
WALKS-
T.Tulowitzki, J.Reddick, M.Ozuna, E.Hernandez, A.McCutchen-2, M.Adams,
A.Beltre, E.Encarnacion, D.Murphy
STRIKE OUTS-
R.Weeks, M.Holliday-2, A.Rizzo, T.Tulowitzki-3, J.Reddick,
N.Arenado-2, M.Ozuna, S.Perez-2,
J.Jaso-2, A.Beltre, B.Holt,
J.Reyes
GIDP- J.Jaso,
A.Beltre, E.Encarnacion
WILD PITCHES-
A.Sanchez
2-out RBI-
M.Adams, B.Holt-3, R.Weeks
RLISP 2-out-
E.Encarnacion, M.Holliday, J.Jaso, J.Reddick, J.Reyes, N.Arenado
TEAM RISP-
Fighting Irish: 2 for 8 Bozos: 3 for 9
40,124 fans
watched an exciting game at PNC Park.
The Bellingham Bozos topped
the South Bend
Fighting Irish by the slimmest of margins, 5 to 4.
Both teams had
scored 3 runs after nine full innings.
Bellingham came out the
victor in the
10th inning. Andrew McCutchen opened up
the inning nicely when
he drew a
walk. Two outs later Brock Holt came to
bat and blasted a two-run
home run giving
Bellingham the win much to the delight of the home town
crowd. Bellingham totaled 10 hits on the night.
The winning
pitcher was Mike Fiers(3-1) who allowed 1 run in 2 innings. Aaron
Sanchez(1-3)
took the loss in relief. He pitched 7
and 2/3 innings allowing
7 hits and 3
walks.
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