Santa Fe tied BTM for the best record in the league at 113-49, while Sewell surged past MGG to win the FL South at 96-66. Who would advance to the LCS?
Game One: CC Sabathia (22-6, 3.83) vs Roy Halladay (22-5, 2.88)
The Tadpoles struck first with an Arbeu ground-out RBI in the 3rd followed by a Konerko RBI single to take the 2-0 lead. Santa Fe got to Sabathia in the bottom of the fourth when the big man lost his control and walked the first two batters then allowed an RBI double to Big Papi. Active manager Kevin Dahm immediately turned to his deep bullpen to summon David Robertson, who struck out Downs but couldn't prevent Cabrera from tying the game with a well-placed suicide squeeze bunt.
Sewell retook the lead with another Konerko RBI single in the fifth while Sewell decided to let Robertson pitch as long as they went with their starter. That worked well until the sixth inning when pinch-hitter Napoli doubled leadoff man Bautista, on base with a walk, to third. While Robertson managed to induce a weak grounder to the drawn-in infield from Papi, he was overexicted and uncorked a wild pitch to tie the game before collecting the next two outs.
With Robertson clutching his sore arm, Sewell turned to shutdown closer Kimbrel in the 7th. After getting the first batter, he hit DeJesus with a pitch and walked Wright to set up a clutch single by Pence to make it 4-3 SFE.
After a tense contest to that point, things got truly out of hand in the 8th as the Geckos abused a parade of Tadpole relievers to take a 10-3 lead before Halladay completed his start for the victory.
Game Two: Brett Myers (11-12, 4.23) vs Tim Lincecum (15-7, 4.11)
With the teams' aces back on the bench, we were of course treated to a pitchers' duel. Sewell again pulled their starter early when a passed ball put men on second and third with two out in the fourth, but Villanueva (who had allowed 2 runs without getting an out in game 1) ended the threat. While both teams had a couple of walks, it was still 0-0 with a total of 3 hits between them going into the bottom of the 6th inning. Kimbrel, who had entered the game in the 5th, struck out Bautista and Ortiz to make it 4 consecutive Ks before Arencibia hit a nubber to third that just went out of ARod's reach for a single. That must've rattled the Tadpole closer, as he beaned Freeman with his next pitch and Wright squibbed a single into left with the not-speedy Arencibia racing home just ahead of the throw.
With a slim 1-0 lead, Mariano Rivera came on in the 8th to lock down the game, which he did with some extra assistance in the bottom of the 8th when Wright took Storen deep for a 2-run homer. Santa Fe wins again, 3-0.
Two games, two losses for Kimbrel. Ouch!
Series to hopefully resume this weekend, schedules allowing.
