The Surprise Zombies (113-49) kept their playoff run alive by defeating Brooklyn in the FL Wild Card and then just barely surviving an epic 7-game series with the defending ARBA champion Camden Lumberjacks.  Their longtime division rival, the Santa Fe Gecko Lizards (126-36) had the leagues best record in the regular season and then dispatched Sewell in 5 games.  Although their annual Series 12 match-up often has strong playoff implications, SUR and SFE havent actually met in the playoffs in a long time.  Could this FLCS possibly live up to the massive hype?  Spoiler alert: YES!  

Game 1: Rick Porcello vs. Max Scherzer

Porcello was shockingly effective against SFE in the regular season, going allowing only 6 runs in 4 GS to beat them 3 times.  However, he would need to be even better to beat the Mighty Max Scherzer.  Both teams had chances early, but Turner stranded 2 in the 1^st and 3 in the 3^rd.  Im sure that wont come back to haunt the Zombies.  However, Rick Porcello continued to frustrate the SFE offense.  They had 2 runners on in the 2^nd and runners at the corners in the 6^th but came up empty.  He finally tired in the 7^th and LOOGY Montgomery took over with runners on 1^st and 2^nd.  SFE sent in former Zombie Matt Holliday, but he grounded out.  Scherzer closed out 9 scoreless innings, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 14!  Treinen walked Bogaerts to start the bottom of the 9^th and SUR went to Strop and his superior hold rating.  Sandoval delivered a huge single to left and Bogaerts raced around toward 3^rd base.  He had a 70% chance of success and the Zombies regretted not replacing Martini with Marte.  Feeling like they had to get this out to stop SFE, Martini tried to throw him out anyway and got him!  Strop got the next 2 outs and we went to extra innings with a scoreless tie.  With 2 outs in the 10^th, Turner stepped to the plate.  At this point, he was 0-4 with 7 LOB, but kept this inning alive with a double off Pressley.  Surprise PH with former Gecko Lizard Steve Pearce and SFE countered with ROOGY Ryan Brasier, whose name is suspiciously similar to mine.  Pearce delivered a single and there would be a play at the plate!  Turner only had about a 40% chance to score but obviously had to go for it hereand he scored!  Brasier drilled the next batter because hes a jerk, but then got the 3^rd out.  Strop got the 1^st out in the bottom of the 10^th, but then Betts singled and in came Will Smith.  He got a big strikeout of Freeman, but would have to face Aguilar, who has killed me for 2 years.  Not this time, he struck out to end it!  Wow!  SUR 1-0 (10)

Game 2: Miles Mikolas vs. Zack Greinke

Surprise made the dubious move of trading Greinke to their bitter rival before this season for Amed Rosario, who has been a pinch runner while Galvis started at SS.  Genius!  However, the Zombies greeted their old friend rather rudely in this one.  Cain led off with a walk and scored on a 2-out single by game 1 hero Steve Pearce.  Hicks crushed a homer to lead off the 2^nd and the Zombies suddenly had an insurmountable 2-0 lead.  SFE nearly surmounted it in the bottom of the 2^nd, but Merrifield hit into a bases loaded DP.  It was still 2-0 in the 5^th when Betts singled with 2 outs and then Freeman doubled.  SFE waved the speedy Mookie home, but it was a great throw!  Cervelli tried to block the platebut failed, runner scores.  SFE rallied in the 6^th as Aguilar doubled with 2 outs, but Betts mysteriously didnt have a chance to score.  McCutchen hit a deep fly ball, but was robbed at the wall by Cain!  Moving right along, it was still 2-1 in the 9^th.  Hicks led off with a single, but foolishly tried to get the jump with a 95% steal chance and was picked off.  Treinen had pitched a perfect 8^th and tried to close it out.  However, Ramos drew a 1-out walk and the speedy Gentry pinch ran.  He did not get picked off but didnt get the jump either.  Would Merrifield atone for his big DP in the 2^nd?  No, he did it again to end the game!  SUR 2-1

Game 3: Sean Manaea vs. Corey Kluber

So the series went back to Surprise with the Zombies up 2-0 and outscoring the Gecko Lizards 3-1.  They scored in the 1^st inning again on an RBI groundout by Turner.  McCutchen hit a deep fly ball in the 2^nd, but was robbed by Cain.  Kluber cruised through 6 innings and the Zombies added an insurance run when Canha doubled in Turner.  However, Kluber suddenly lost his mojo in the 8^th as Holliday walked and Gentry pinch ran.  Merrifield bounced one to Votto that turned into a single with the runner held! (Frakkin 8 with 1b-2!)  SUR went to Jeffress this time and he allowed a stolen base then a 2-run single from Benintendi!  So SFE tied it up.  SUR loaded the bases in the bottom of the 8^th, but Doolittle struck out Cervelli.  In the top of the 9^th, Jeffress walked a guy, then Strop walked another one and then Smith walked the bases loadedstill with no outs.  Awesome.  Kelly got a bit out, but then Benintendi hit one just deep enough for Bogaerts to attempt to score.  Its close for a play at the plateand hes safe on another missed plate block!  WTF!  Hicks had a 1-out single off Doolittle to give Freddy Galvis the chance to play the unlikely hero, but he flied out.  SFE 3-2

Game 4:  Max Scherzer vs. Rick Porcello

Could the Zombies win this matchup again?  Rick looked a little shaky in the 1^st, but escaped the jam.  Scherzer didnt have his best stuff, giving up a Smith RBI single in the 1^st and Marte 2-run double in the 3^rd.  The Zombies even added an amazing 4^th run on a brutal misplay by Merrifield in the 5^th.  SFE finally chased their nemesis Porcello with 2 hits in the 7^th and Treinen wild pitched in a run, but then struck out Sandoval.  He stayed in to retire 6 more, striking out McCutchen to end it and put Surprise one win away from a return to the World Series!  SUR 4-1

Heres where we took a lunch break?  Would that finally wake up the slumbering Santa Fe bats?  SPOILER ALERT: Yes!

Game 5: Zack Greinke vs. Miles Mikolas 

SFE had 3 singles in the 1^st to score a run. Ramos hit the first SFE HR of the series in the 2^nd.  In the 3^rd, a groundout scored on another run when SUR failed to bring their corners in.  The Zombies finally got on the board with Vottos RBI single in the 4^th, but he was thrown out trying for 2^nd base.  Mikolas responded with a HBP and BB to start the 5^th, so he was replaced.  McCutchen drove in the 4^th run.  Merrifiled and Freeman homered in the 6^th to make it 6-1.  Canha homered for SUR, but SFE added another run to win easily after scoring a total of 5 runs in 4 games.  SFE 7-2

Game 6: Corey Kluber vs. Clay Buchholz

The series returned to Santa Fe for what might be the last start in Klubers stellar Zombie career.  He was far less than stellar in this one.  Neither team scored in the first couple innings, which was weird. Kluber got into trouble in the 3^rd and faced Freeman with 2 on and 2 outs.  He delivered the RBI single and then Aguilar crushed a long fly ball just over the wall for a huge 3-run home run! Oh no!  4 runs is clearly an insurmountable lead in this series.  However, SFE added 1 in the 4^th and 3 in the 5^th, just to make sure.  All 8 runs were charged to Kluber, so hopefully that wasnt the end.  Ugh.  Buchholz went 8 scoreless innings, allowing only 2 hits.  SFE 8-0

Game 7: Rick Porcello vs. Max Scherzer, Part 3!

Could Surprise bounce back from 2 brutal beatdowns to win this pitching matchup for the 3^rd straight time?  In case you arent keeping track, this is now my 3^rd of 3 playoff series to go 7 games.  Inevitably, this was another epic pitchers duel.  Through 6 scoreless innings, Scherzer had allowed 2 hits and struck out 9!  However, the Legendary Rick Porcello matched him with 6 scoreless innings, allowing 1 hit, 2 BB and a HBP.  Both even pitched around unlikely errors.  Scherzer mowed down 2 more to start the 7^th, but then Turner drew a walk.  Cervelli ripped the next pitch and it almost went out, but instead went off the wall for a double.  Oh no, were going to have yet another huge play at the plate!  Turners not the fastest guy, but he had to try, even with a chance of 40% or so.  Its close, with yet another chance to block the plate..hes safe!  Scherzer got another K, but the damage was done.  SFE finally chased Porcello with a 1 out double and Holliday drew a rare walk from Treinen.  Could Merrifield play the hero for SFE?  No, he struck out!  Scherzer finished off the 9^th, allowing only 1 run on 4 hits and 1 BB with 13 Ks, but would it result in a tough loss?   Aguilar drew a walk to start the 9^th and SFE pinch ran with the speedy Gentry.  SUR called on Strop to hold the runner at 1^st.  McCutchen hit into a fielders choice and Bogaerts struck out.  Down to their last out, SFE called on the lefty Tzu-Wei Lin.  The Zombies seriously considered countering with one of their many LH relievers, but stuck with Strop.  Oops!  Lin delivered a huge double and McCutchen raced home!  Is this series really going to be decided by yet another play at the plate?  Yes!  Uh-oh, I forgot to replace Cervelli with McCann, so this had better not be another block the plate chance.  Cain made a strong throwand hes out!  The game is over and Surprise wins the series!  SUR 1-0

Wow!  I hope that this write-up at least came close to doing justice to that crazy series.  All games were played today, so it was quite a wild ride!  Congratulations to Tom on assembling another great team that somehow came up short in the playoffs. Theyll be a strong contender again next year and wont have to worry about Surprise, who is making this last run at glory before the rebuilding begins.   

Looking at the series stats, this outcome just doesnt make sense.  SFE outscored SUR by 20-12 and outhomered them 5-2.  However, SUR went 3-1 in 1-run games, including a pair of 1-0 shutouts.  In case you were wondering, the mighty SFE offense was shut out twice in 162 regular season games.  Pitching obviously was the big story in this series.

SFE hit .219/.304/.335 and SUR hit .177/.250/.261

I mean, how does a team win a 7-game series scoring only 12 runs with a .431 OPS?  Oh yeah, I just went through that in great detail, but its still very hard to believe. 

The only SFE batters with BA > .286 were Lin (3-7) and Plawecki (1-1).  Most of the regulars had some big moments to salvage their overall performance, but Merrifield (5-26), McCutchen (4-27), Gyorko (2-14), and Ramos (2-20) all hit under .200 to consistently kill the SFE offense.

The SFE pitchers deserved much better, finishing with a 1.71 ERA!  Pressley allowed 1 run in 0.2 IP, but Maneas 2.84 ERA was the next highest.  Scherzer somehow went 0-2 with a 1.73 ERA in 26 IP across 3 GS with 34 Ks.  Greinke was 1-1 with a 2.25 and Buchholz was great in his 1 start.  The rest of the SFE bullpen didnt have to do much, but didnt allow any runs, although Brasier gave up the big hit in G1 on run charged to Pressley.

SUR also had only 2 batters with BA > .286: McCann! (1-1 with HBP) and Martini (5-10).  Votto and Hicks were the only regulars who hit better than .200.  Cain (4-26), Marte (2-15), Galvis (2-19), Turner (2-20) and Torres (1-23!) were terrible.  Yet somehow they won. 

Oh yeah, heres why.  The overall ERA was inflated to 2.86 by the last 2 losses.  Mikolas and Kluber both had one good and one bad start.  A few relievers got hammered in limited opportunity.  Treinen was dominant in 7.1 scoreless IP with 13 K.  6 other relievers also had 0 ERA, but Prices performance was when we were getting blown out.  Strop did get some huge outs, including the last one.  Then theres Rick The Living Legend Porcello.  Matching  up with Scherzer every time, he went 2-0, 0.47 with only 1 run allowed (on a Treinen WP) in 19 1/3 IP.  He allowed 10 hits, 6 BB and struck out 18.  Wow.  Oh yeah and SUR won 1-0 in 2 of his starts.  So obviously Rick Porcello is the FLCS MVP!

Okay, I'm finally done talking about this.  Congratulations/Condolences to anyone who actually read the whole thing.  Bring on Harmony Grove or San Francisco!