The CL Wild Card game featured two teams that barely missed out on winning their divisions in the Bali Dawgs (102-60, 4 GB of HAR) and the Terre Haute Explosion (99-63, 3 GB of SHI).
Bali featured presumptive CL Cy Young Justin Verlander (21-8, 2.93, 303 Ks) heading a rotation that also included Jake deGrom, Tyler Glasnow, and John Means with an offense starring Anthony Rendon, Charlie Blackmon, Sterling Marte, Trey Turner, and Nick Castellanos. With the strong offense and unparalleled rotation the Dawgs were poised for a deep run in the playoffs, but first they would have to get by Terre Haute in a one-game play-in.
Terre Haute has its own strong offense led by Yordan Alvarez, Michael Brantley, Willson Contreras, Ozzie Albies, and Max Muncy but after ace Walker Buehler their pitching falls off rapidly. Would it be enough to hold off BAL?
The game opened with LaMonte Wade Jr. missing a 1-6 BP HR with a 7, and that was all the offense we would see for a few innings as Buehler and deGrom pitched beautifully, but in the third Newman singled and stole second and then beat the throw to third base advancing on a Wade fielders' choice to put 2 on with one out. That made it time for the second of Bali's aces as Glasnow came into the game to face TER's lefties. Unfortunately, his first pitch to Brantley was off target and was deposited into the seats for a 3-run homer! Alvarez then singled and Glasnow's night was over after 2 pitches.
Verlander got out of the inning and ultimately pitched 3 perfect innings with 6 Ks, but meanwhile the Bali bats couldn't do damage against Buehler, who always got a K or a groundout when he needed one. Going into the bottom of the 9th it was still 3-0 TER with a tired Buehler unable to go for the shutout, forcing TER to go to its unreliable bullpen.
Explosion closer Lorenzen made the TER fans nervous by surrendering a leadoff homer to Turner, but he then retired Blackmon and Jordan Hicks came on to get Rendon and Mancini and nail down the 3-1 TER win!
Condolences to Aaron, who built a fantastic team that was clearly better than TER (among other playoff teams), but with Buehler and a little luck TER managed to get by him. I know that the whole league is rooting for him to unseat the tyrranical HAR next season!
