Thanks to Alan from Lonesome Dove for the write-up. Lonesome Dove 4-2.
Game #1The Lonesome Dove Legends came into the season as one of the favorites to make a deep playoff run. So imagine the terror in South Texas when Dayton rallied to erase an 8-1 Game 1 deficit and send the game into extra innings.
“We thought it would be close,” said Johan Santana, Legends’ Game 1 starter . “But then we jumped way out. So we figured it would be easier than we’d hoped”.
The game was tied 1-1 after four frames but Lonesome Dove plated four in the bottom of the 5th with a three run blast from Edgar Renteria and an Albert Pujols sac fly. The Legends got three more off Dayton starter Derrick Lowe in the 6th on a Pujols three run homer.
Santana whiffed eight Flyers in his 7.1 innings, but left in the 8th. Maglio Ordonez greeted Justin Speier with a two run single for an 8-3 margin. Speier might have gotten into more trouble but Brian Fuentes got the final out on a long fly to minimize the damage.
That was important because Fuentes started the 9th by walking the bases loaded with one out. Jose Valverde came on to finish a suddenly tight game. But despite being solid all season the veteran closer gave up a Norris Hopper sac fly and a three run homer to Ordonez. Then Mike Lowell tied the game with a majestic solo.
“I don’t know what happened”, said Valverde. “I made a good pitch to Ordonez, but he hit it out. I guess that distracted me because I hung a slider to Lowell and he made me pay.”
Both bullpens traded goose eggs until the bottom or the 13th inning. Pedro Feliciano got the first out quickly but then he went to a 3-2 count on Shelly Duncan. The big righty hit the next pitch well over the wall in left to end the unlikely marathon.
“Thank God Shelly bailed me out,” Valverde said afterwards. “I blew one and it almost cost us big time.”
Game #2Game 2 couldn’t have been more different. John Maine held the Legends scoreless until the 9th inning. Twenty game winner Roy Halladay was snakebitten from the beginning. He gave up hit after hit in the first two innings and even saw a batter reach on a rare catcher’s interference call.
“It was as if everything that could go wrong, did,” said Halladay. “But as bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse”.
He was right. A key double play and several strikeouts with runners in scoring position kept the game within striking distance.
Maine walked Pujols with one out in the 9th before giving way to Mariano Rivera. One out later, Carlos Beltan made it 3-2 with a homer to right, but the Legends couldn’t avoid the loss. Rivera picked up the save.
Game #3As the series shifted to Ohio, the Texas boys seemed more confident than nervous.
“The Flyers are good, but we think we’re better,” said Beltran. “We knew we would come out fighting as soon as the first pitch was thrown.”
Actually it took a little longer than that. Chase Utley waited for the third of Andy Sonnanstine’s pitches to rake it down the right field line for a double. Then Barry Bonds walked and Pujols popped out. Timo Perez, making his only start of the series, lined a single to right to plate the first run. Carlos Guillen followed with a bleeder single up the middle that was slow enough to allow even Bonds to score.
In the bottom of the first Dayton cut the lead in half on a Miguel Tejada sac fly. But that was the closest the Flyers would get in the game.
Lonesome Dove answered with six runs, half of which scored on a Beltran blast. The Legends pulled away for an 18-5 win, stacking up 24 hits compared to nine by the Flyers. Bonds was 5 for 6 with 5 runs and 4 RBI. Beltran fell a double shy of a and joined Perez and Bonds with 4 RBI of his own. Cole Hamels was the beneficiary of the run support.
“Get the #$#* away from my locker,” said Bonds. “And don’t step on my bearskin rug, you punks. I know you’re all racists. So I won’t #$*#* talk to you @#$*#s.”
Game #4While Bonds was obviously angry at the world, the Flyers came out angry, too in Game 4. Curt Schilling outpitched young Chad Billingsley. The greybeard wasn’t dominating, allowing eight hits and three walks in seven innings, but he escaped jam after jam as the Legends stranded nine runners in the game. Bonds, Utley and Beltran combined for a 1-11 night.
“What, are you #$*#*s still here?!?!” shouted Bonds after Game 4. “I told you to take your miserable #$*#es out of my locker room!!!”
Tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 4th, JD Drew yanked a solo homer down the right field line to put the Flyers up. Then in the top of the sixth, Beltran tied the game with a single and took third on a Perez pinch single. Schilling intentionally walked Renteria to load the bases and coaxed Pudge Rodriguez into an inning-ending twin killing.
Schilling used another double play to escape trouble in the 8th and then Rivera threw a shutout 9th for a save in the 4-2 win.
Game #5 With a chance to win another in their last game of the series at home, Dayton again turned to Lowe to duel Santana. And for four innings neither of them gave up a run.
“Game five is so pivotal when you’re tied,” said Santana. “It’s a best two of three at that point. And I had to bear down against those big right handed bats they have in that lineup.”
He worked so hard, in fact, that he forgot to pitch to Lowe in the bottom of the 5th. The burly right hander launched a long homer to left for a 1-0 Flyer lead.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Santana said. “He yacked that ball so far you’d think he was an outfielder or something. I just left a slider up and he crushed it.”
As bad as that homer was, it could have been worse. Two batters earlier Victor Martinez had singled to lead off the inning but was erased on a line drive when Pujols snared the screamer and stepped on the bag.
Neither team scored in the 6th but with one out in the top of the 7th Bonds and Pujols both walked. They moved up on an infield ground out before Perez tied the game with another pinch single. Jose Guillen walked to load the bases. Ryan Raburn came on to face Lowe. Dayton countered with southpaw Javier Lopez.
So the Legends sent Damion Easley, who had mauled lefties all year, to the dish with the series in the balance. In a move that some are still pondering, the Flyers chose to walk in the go-ahead run by intentionally walking Easley.
“I’ve never seen that one,” said Easley, smiling. “I’ve been walked to load the bases. But never to walk a run in. I guess I should be proud that they respected me so much.”
The move was gutsy but didn’t work. Ryan Dempster came on to face Pudge Rodriguez but the stocky catcher defied the odds with a two run single. Then Santana plated two more with a triple. When the dust had settled, Lonesome Dove had won 10-1.
Santana went the distance, allowing only five hits, a walk and whiffing 10.
“Don’t let the final score fool you,” he said. “That game could have gone the other way if one or two things happened differently.”
Game #6Game 6 was not as suspenseful, though. Maine, who had pitched so valiantly in Game 2, couldn’t do it again.
The Legends jumped on him for four runs in the bottom of the first inning and never looked back. The key blow was a bases clearing Beltran double. Pudge later added a three run clout while Beltran, Utley and Carlos Guillen all chipped in solos en route to a 10-0 win.
Halladay scattered 10 hits in eight frames, but used three double plays to get out of trouble.
“This series was a lot like our season,” said Halladay. “We did a lot right, but weren’t as consistent as we had hoped to be. One day we’d set the world on fire with our bats but the next, we’d have to scrape for a couple of runs to stay in the game. Hopefully we can survive the next round.”
Beltran was the series MVP, going 11 for 26 (.423) with three homers, three doubles and a triple. He also scored five and knocked in 11 runs. Pujols was 11 for 23, scored eight and knocked in five. Perez was eight for 13 (.615) with six RBI in limited action.
Thanks to John for playing online. I know it was tough for him to find the time.
Lonesome Dove will now advance to play Philadelphia in the NLCS.
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