The ARBA 2017 World Series kicked off last night with the Santa Fe Gecko Lizards representing the Federal League against the CL's New Monmouth Mosstroopers.
New Monmouth won the CL South with a 99-63 record and has had little trouble advancing through the postseason, sweeping wild card winner West Chester and then losing just a single game to Shiner in the League Championship Series. Santa Fe had a little more trouble getting here, winning their division by the slimmest of margins - having the same 121-41 record as hated rivals Surprise but avoiding the Wild Card by having the better head-to-head record. They advanced 4-2 over a tough Sewell squad (which beat Surprise in the Wild Card game) and then 4-1 over the mighty Redwood Pioneers.
Game One: Rich Hill (11-2, 2.45) vs Justin Verlander (20-10, 3.77)
Santa Fe's more difficult journey through the playoffs meant that their ace Max Scherzer would not be available until Game 2. That looked bad for the Geckos when New Monmouth started the game single-walk-walk and a Michael Saunders grand slam, giving them a 4-0 lead before an out was recorded in the bottom of the first. He regrouped and stayed in the game while the Geckos chipped away at the lead with #9 hitter Andrew McCutchen driving in Segura after a single and stolen base and then mashing a 2-run homer in the 4th to make it 4-3. Mookie Betts laced a single into the outfield with 2 out and runners and second and third in the 6th to give Santa Fe a 5-4 lead and Otero and Oh threw 2.2 perfect innings in relief to give the Geckos the 1-run win.
Game Two: Max Scherzer (21-3, 2.66) vs Steven Matz (12-5, 3.56)
Both starters dominated early with the first run coming on a Manny Machado solo homer in the 5th. The Geckos got on the board the next inning with a 2-out double by LuCroy sending two men home. The lead wouldn't last, however, as Harper doubled home Tucker Barnhart who barely beat the throw home from Betts (hitting the 1-6 safe on the Play at the Plate rule). Harper, who had advanced to third on the throw, then scored on an Andrus sacrifice fly. Santa Fe had a chance to take the game back in the 7th inning when they loaded the bases against Matt Bush with two out and brought Steve Pearce to the plate to face Aroldys Chapman. Pearce got the pitch he was looking for, smashed the ball hard to deep center......and watched Crisp catch it at the wall for a missed BP homer. Chapman would go on to pitch 2 more perfect innings, striking out 5, to give New Monmouth the 1-run win at 3-2 and tie up the series.
Game Three: Chris Tillman (14-12, 4.21) vs Aaron Sanchez (18-6, 2.88)
Machado started the Mosstroopers off well with a solo homer in the first and LuCroy tied it with an RBI double in the second. The Geckos got plenty of men on base against Tillman and benefitted from a rare 2-base error from the normally-steady Elvis Andrus, but could not bring men home from scoring position with less than two out. Carpenter doubled home Harper in the sixth, but Jayson Werth hit a PH 2-run homer against Chapman to give Santa Fe the lead back in the bottom of the inning. Clinging to a one-run lead in the 8th, lefty Diekman got beat by Harper for a deep RBI triple to score Crisp but Otero came on and managed to strand Bryce on third to preserve the tie. Encarnacion doubled to lead off the 9th but Otero got the next two men on strikeouts, leaving it up to Tucker Barnhart, the backup catcher who was promoted to full-time when Shiner drilled Matt Weiters in the LCS to knock him out for the rest of the playoffs. Having already been one of the unlikely heroes of Game Two, you surely wouldn't think that Barnhart would come through again, right? Well, you would be wrong, as he doubled home the run and Jansen shut the door with a perfect ninth to give the Mosstroopers the 1-run win 4-3.
Game Four: Verlander vs Sean Manaea (9-3, 3.14)
Manaea had been Santa Fe's secret weapon in the postseason, throwing 10 scoreless innings - would he keep it up? He didn't pitch well, allowing 9 baserunners in 4 innings before being lifted, but he managed to dance between the raindrops with none of them actually scoring. Meanwhile, the Geckos cobbled together a pair of runs on RBI doubles by Donaldson and Segura and a 2-run homer by McCutchen, who is clearly angling for more playing time. Derek Law and Kyle Ryan combined for 5 innings of scoreless relief and after three 1-run games we had a relative blowout as Santa Fe tied the series up at 2 with a 4-0 victory.
So the World Series is now down to a best-of-three. Fans are looking forward to seeing how this tight well-fought series concludes, and to what will happen when Barnhart runs out of PA and New Monmouth has to play Michael Saunders at catcher!
