Bethlehem outlasted Brooklyn and came back from a 3 games to 1 deficit in the FLDS to advance against Santa Fe, who ripped off 4 wins in a row against Sewell after dropping the series opener. Both teams won over 100 in the regular season and most league watchers predicted they would match up in the FLCS.
Game One: Verlander (16-12, 4.25) vs Halladay (16-11, 3.77)
The Bombers struck first, with Travis Hafner driving in two on a fourth-inning single following a Billy Buter double. Santa Fe responded in the bottom of the inning with a Wright RBI triple and a 2-out 2-run Soto double to take a 3-2 lead. That would hold up until the 9th when Ian Stewart took a mighty swing at a Mo Rivera cutter and lofted the ball just over the right field fence....but Hunter Pence reached over and brought it back for an out! A pumped-up Rivera struck out the next two batters to preserve the SFE win.
Game Two: Gallardo (15-9, 4.39) vs Wainwright (22-5, 2.80)
The Geckos struck early with a 2-run double by Wright in the second inning followed by a Soto sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. Bulter got Bethlehem on the board with a solo homer in the fourth, but that was the last real threat as Wainwright shut the powerful Bomber linup down for 8 innings and Rivera collected his second save in the 3-1 Santa Fe victory.
Game Three: CJ Wilson (16-11, 4.01) vs Lincecum (21-5, 3.31)
The first true offensive explosion in the series happened in the top of the 6th, as SFE scored 6 off Wilson and Cueto behind home runs from Beltran, Wright, and Napoli. The teams would trade a couple more runs but the game was essentially decided at that point, with Santa Fe taking a 3 games to none lead in the series behind a 7-2 victory.
Game Four: Jamie Garcia (17-6, 2.86) vs Halladay
Their backs against the wall, BTM scored early on a Seth Smith home run and a Butler RBI double. With the early 2-0 lead, they went to their shut-down bullpen early even though Garcia had not allowed a hit in his three innings of work. The strategy held true, as Benoit, Thornton, and O'Day combined for 6 scoreless innings while the Bombers tacked a few more runs on Hallday for a 5-0 BTM victory. The win came with a price, though, as Hanley Ramirez was injured for 3 days (joining Fukudome, who went down for 15 days in game 1, on the trainers' table).
Game Five: Verlander vs Wainwright
Bethlehem was looking to send the series back to Santa Fe, and Travis Hafner struck a big blow for that goal with a 3-run homer in the third to double Wainwright's ER total for the postseason. Delmon Young added a solo blast in the 4th, but Santa Fe finally countered in the 6th with a 2-run Bautista homer and a Rasmus solo shot to cut the lead to 4-3. Young and Cabrera each added to the pyrotechnics but BTM went into the 9th inning with a 5-4 lead. Napoli singled to start the inning and was promptly pinch-run for. Thornton retired Pence and new pitcher Guerrier got the second out of the inning. After a long mound conference, Guerrier stayed in to face Papi Ortiz....who hammered a pitch to give Santa Fe their first lead of the game at 6-5!
Rivera came on to try for his third save of the series and promptly retired Jones and Morse before PH Tejada hit a bouncer to David Wright...who let the ball get between his legs and then threw it past Huff at first for a single and error! An unusually unfocussed Rivera plunked McCann with his next pitch to put two runners on (and give BTM their third injury of the series). Butler worked Rivera for a walk, bringing up Gecko-killer Hafner. Hafner worked the count to 3-2 and fouled off a few tense pitches before turning on one...and grounding out to short. Santa Fe wins a tense 6-5 game and takes the series!
Despite the 4-1 outcome, this was a very tense and close series. BTM had two BP HR caught at the wall in Game 1 and generally didn't get the benefit of much luck with the dice (a very fast team only twice got their jumps, and one of those times got thrown out anyway). With better breaks, this series easily could've gone the other way.
Congrats to Dave on a great team and a great season.
