The series moved back to Harmony Grove with Shiner leading 3-2. The Toppers surprised the Blondes by starting Dickey, the long-timer Shiner ace. How would they handle the crafty knuckleballer? Dickey retired 4, but then a single and walk gave Mazara a chance to salvage his terrible series performance. He delivered a single and Cabrera beat the throw home. After a strikeout, Hardy singled to score another run, but Mazara was thrown out to end the inning. In the 3rd, Travis doubled home Hamilton to give Shiner a 3-0 lead and send Dickey to the showers. We still love you, man! HAR got their first hit in the 3rd, but he was erased on a DP. Their 2nd hit came in the 5th when Bradley went deep to spoil Estradas shutout. Shiner loaded the bases in the 6th, but failed to score and also lost Desmond to a 3-game injury. In the bottom of the 6th, Carrera walked with 1 out and SHI replaced Estrada with Reed, who immediately served up an RBI double to Pedroia, who was thrown out at 3rd. That loomed large when Lindor singled and was stranded. Not content with a 1-run lead, Shiner struck again in the 7th with a Bourjos bunt single was followed by 2 more singles and an RBI groundout to make it 5-2. In the 9th, Rua tripled and then Hamilton beat out a squeeze bunt to score another run. So yeah, Strats hate for Travis was STRONG in this one. Reed turned it over to Blevins in the 9th and he retired 2 before handing the baton to Eickhoff, who got Beltre to end it. Harmony Grove somehow managed to avoid having a single runner in scoring position despite scoring 2 runs. SHI 6-2
This was a very low-scoring series as SHI outscored HAR 21-13 in 6 games. HAR had 3 HR and SHI had 2. SHI hit .217/.275/.283 vs. .197/.240/.279 for HAR. Shiner didnt have a very powerful offense in the regular season either, but it was a very disappointing performance from HAR. Cabrera and Hamilton were the only SHI regulars to hit better than .300. Hardy, Peraza, and Mazara were all under .200, but each had their 1 RBI in Game 6. Beltre led HAR with a .250 BA. Oddly, all 3 HAR HR and 6 of their 12 RBI came from 2 guys (Bradley and Montero) who combined to hit .154 (6-39).
The mighty HAR bullpen mostly lived up to the hype, led by 22 IP with 2 R (1 ER) by Devenski and Davis. However, the SHI bullpen rose to the occasion, led by Addison Reeds 13.1 scoreless IP in 5 games. Shiners starters pitched much better than their counterparts from Harmony Grove. HAR still had a 2.57 team ERA though, so most of the blame falls on their bats who allowed SHI to post a 1.69 ERA. The HAR defense had some brutal misplays early in the series, but ended up with a respectable 79.3 X% thats still much worse than it should have been with all their great defenders. Shiners D was better in the playoffs than it was in the regular season, finishing 85.4% on X plays.
Congratulations to Travis on yet another great regular season and condolences on yet another brutal playoff loss. I often had to shake my head at how painfully obvious Strats burning hatred for him was in this series. Kudos to him for acting like a good sport, although it was more like he was fatalistically certain of inevitable doom, which was reasonable given the circumstances.
Okay, so Shiner wins in 6 and advances to face New Monmouth in the CLCS. Who will get the dubious honor of facing Santa Fe in the World Series?
