The stars finally aligned and Santa Fe met Brooklyn in the Federal League Championship Series. BRK had taken the Central Division title over SFE with a 114-48 record, while SFE managed to go 100-62. BRK won the season head-to-head matchup 11-7 and swept Tinton Falls in the FLDS, while SFE had to win the play-in round against SUR and then went 7 games to advance past Sewell, so all indications were for a Brooklyn victory and their second-ever appearance in the World Series.
Game One was an affair so mind-crushingly insane that the Strat gods decided that the box score could not be saved. If we hadn't played it in person, it might not have been believable at all. BRK tied the game in the 9th on a Carlos Gonzalez homer, both teams scored a run in the 12th, and then SFE exploded for 6 runs in the 16th inning. Of course, that meant it was finally time for BRK to rally but they could only manage 3 runs and the Geckos took the game 11-8.
Game Two was a Wainwright special, as he went the distance allowing only an Encarnacion solo homer while striking out 13 in a 4-1 SFE victory.
Game Three was very close through 6 innings until ARod exploded with 2 homers off the SFE bullpen while BRK got 5 scoreless innings from Parnell, Tazawa, and Johnson to win 7-3.
Game Four was a shellacking, with Kinsler, ARod, and Encarnacion homering for BRK while Maholm and a parade of SFE relievers were brutalized to the tune of 12-4.
Game Five was the first game won by the home team, as Papi and Rasmus contributed multi-run homers in the 4th and Wainwright pitched another gem, allowing only 1 earned run for a 7-2 victory.
Game Six had the Geckos start well with a Napoli 3-run shot in the first and they added two more against Norris before he was pulled in the 5th. The Blow Monkeys battled back for four runs, including yet another Encarnacion homer. But Albers, Oliver, and Rodney managed to preserve the fragile lead as SFE took the series with a 5-4 victory!
So, congrats to Jon for having a great team that I think was actually better than SFE, but I got the rolls when it counted. Wainwright is series MVP, going 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA in his two complete games.
And so, for the third consecutive year, it's Santa Fe vs Shiner in the World Series!!
