Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! What better way to celebrate the holiday than reading an exceedingly long recap of the ARBA World Series? That's obviously a trick question, because surely there could be none. So find a comfortable chair, grab your favorite beverage, and settle in for a wild ride!

The 2020 ARBA World Series featured the Shiner Blondes (102-60) and the Camden Lumberjacks (116-46).  SHI barely beat out TER for the division title, overcame SF in a 6-game series, then surprisingly dispatched HAR in 5 games.  CMD had a much easier path, winning their division by 19 games, sweeping BRK, then polishing off once mighty SFE in 5 games.  Camden won the championship 2 years ago and this is their 2^nd World Series appearance.  Shiner is also trying for their 2^nd championship and hoping to even their WS record after losing 2 of 3 to SFE in 2011-2013.  CMD has home field advantage since its an even year and looks like the stronger team, but you just never know in Strat, particularly in the playoffs.

G1: Gonzales vs. Woodruff

Yelich hit a solo homer in the 1^st, but then Gonzales settled down to pitch 5 strong innings. Woodruff only allowed 1 hit through 9 batters, but with 2 outs in the 3^rd, CMD called on Chapman to strike out the dangerous Soto. SHI threatened in the 6^th when Cain singled, stole 2^nd, advanced on a groundout, then tried to score on a fly ballbut Gallo threw him out as Phegley blocked the plate! DArnaud led off the CMD 6^th with a DO and then things got silly. PH Marquez failed to bunt, so Davis PH and SHI countered with Kela, so CMD PH with Bell who walked. Donaldson delivered a single, but Cain got his revenge with a strong throw and Casali blocked the plate. SHI used 2 more pitchers to escape the jam. Yeah, it was that kind of series. In the 7^th, CMD doubled their lead when Arenado took Diekman deep. CMD had a 2-0 lead with Hendriks pitching in the 8^th, but he walked Ramirez and SHI called on veteran David Freese to PH with 1 out. He delivered a huge blast to tie the game! On to the 9^th, where Devers and Olson gave SHI the lead with back-to-back doubles. Vazquez got 2 Ks and Yates got 1 to close it out. Whew! SHI 3-2    

G2: Miley vs. Syndergaard

Miley was Shiners best regular season starter but has been horrible in the playoffs. That continued in the 1^st as Gallo crushed a 2-run HR. He escaped a jam in the 2^nd, but CMD added 2 more runs in the 3^rd before leaving the bases loaded. SHI had their chances but stranded a few and had another thrown out at home. With 2 outs in the 6^th, they rallied with a walk and double to chase Thor. CMD went to Chapman again and PH Cabrera drove in 2 runs to cut the lead in half. SHI threatened again in the 7^th, but Soto hit into a DP. Pence delivered a 2-out RBI single in the 8^th, but Hendriks escaped the jam. Soto drew a 1-out walk in the 9^th and Anderson came in to face the dangerous Freese. Could he play the hero again? Not this time! He hit into a DP to end it.  CMD 4-3

G3: Urias vs. Duffy

The series moved to Shiner and the home team scored first again on Pences solo HR in 2^nd. With 2 on and 2 out in the 4^th, SHI called on Freese again and he delivered a 2-run double to finish Urias. On the other side, Duffy almost made it through 3 innings, but put 2 on with 2 outs and Kela bailed him out. In the 5^th, Bell took Walden deep to put CMD on the board. SHI added another run in the 7^th thanks to a wild pitch. With 2 outs in the 8^th, CMD got 2 baserunners to bring the tying run to the plate. However, Vazquez struck out 4 of the last 5 to close it out.  SHI 4-1

G4: Marquez vs. Gonzales

Gonzales matched his game 1 performance by only allowing a solo HR to Yelich through 5. Marquez matched Woodruff by rolling through 2 2/3 then getting pulled for Chapman to strike out Soto. However, Chapman lost his mojo in 5^th as Ramirez doubled, advanced on a WP, then scored on Wongs single with the infield in. (Note that Strat apparently pulled some BS here by not allowing Travis to change the IF alignment after the WP.) Webb came in and PH Bichette crushed a 2-run HR. CMD tried Moronta, but Cain singled and then MadBum served up a 2-run HR to Soto, who proved that he really can hit lefties. Just like that, SHI had a commanding 5-1 lead and a golden opportunity to put CMD on the ropes. SHI stuck with Gonzales until Acuna singled with 1 out in the 7^th, then turned to Tyler Duffey, one of their dominant and expensive relievers. However, pinch hitters Holt and Bell got their own cards to load the bases for PH Seager. The roll finally went to Duffeys card, but for an X-chance with the worst fielder. RF Hunter Pence somehow butchered the fly ball into a DO+E that scored 4 runs and tied the game! So much for that big lead. SHI quickly reclaimed the lead thanks to wild man Hendriks, who walked 2 then threw a bases-loaded WP. With Clippard pitching in the 8^th, Gallo found the only hit on his card for a game-tying homer. Both teams threatened in the 9^th, but we went to extra innings. In the 11^th, Holt leaned into a pitch to reach base. That brought up light-hitting Joe Panik, who tried the H&R against the mighty Yates. Of course, he found the only hit on the pitchers card for a run-scoring double! Could SHI rally this time against Camdens 12^th pitcher of the game? Nope! Ottavino easily retired the side. Woodruff earned the win with 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Ugh.  CMD 7-6 (11)

G5: Syndergaard vs. Snell

This felt like a must-win game for Shiner after blowing the last one to guarantee a return to Camden.  Their offense struck quickly in the 1^st with Sotos solo HR and Freese crushed a 3-run HR in the 3^rd. Snell made it through 2 1/3, but was not allowed to face Gallo a 2^nd time. Duffey brought more shame on his ancestors by allowing 2 walks and a single with 2 outs in the 4^th to score a run. However, Devers responded with a 2-run single and the rout was on. Ha! As if it could ever be that easy. SHI had chances to really blow the game open, but instead had a runner thrown out to end the 4^th, 2 more thrown out to ruin the 5^th, and a DP in the 7^th. Sanchez and Yelich hit solo homers in the 7^th to cut the lead to 6-3, forcing SHI to use precious IP from their top relievers. At least Vazquez and Yates did the job by getting the last 8 outs. Syndergaard got roughed up, but did last all 8 innings to preserve the overworked CMD bullpen.  SHI 6-3

G6: Miley vs. Woodruff

Camden quickly took advantage of their bandbox and Mileys garbage pitching with homers by Davis and Machado. SHI cut the lead to 3-2 in the 2^nd to chase Woodruff and Chapman struck out Soto yet again. Miley was shot after the 1^st and the SHI bullpen looked dominant with 6 straight Ks until 2 outs in the 4^th when Hill just couldnt resist plunking the pesky Holt. Bell defied the odds with a single and then Sanchez crushed a crushing 3-run HR. Shiner still battled back as Soto homered in the 6^th but that damn Holt singled home a run after the damn Duffey balked. Shiner rallied again in the 8^th as Polanco doubled home a run, but Hendriks struck out Pence and enjoyed a quiet 9^th. On to Game 7! CMD 7-4

G7: Gonzales vs. Stanek

Shiner quickly took the lead with a Devers HR in the 1^st. Gonzales ran into trouble with the bottom of Camdens order in the 3^rd. After a walk and single, Phegley hit into a run-scoring DP to tie the game. With Walden pitching in the 5^th, Schoop went deep to give CMD a 2-1 lead. SHI tried Diekman, but he gave up 2 hits and Clippard had to save the day with 2 strikeouts. MadBum threw 3 nearly perfect relief innings for CMD and Wongs CS helped Moronta through the 5^th. In the 6^th, CMD turned to their last lefty and young Urias quickly got 2 outs, but then went wild, walking the bases loaded. Hendriks got the big K, but only after his wild pitch scored the tying run. He quickly ran into more trouble in the 7^th as Wong doubled and advanced on another WP. PH Freese drew a walk and then Cains long flyball scored a run and moved PR Bettis to 2nd. Hendriks rallied with a big K of Soto and then intentionally walked the dangerous Devers. Ramirez drew another walk to load the bases and then Marshall walked Olson to score another run. Anderson struck out Bichette, but SHI now led 4-2. CMD threatened in the 7^th when Vazquez hit Lopes with presumably his last pitch in ARBA. Soto then inexplicably dropped a fly ball hit by the pesky Holt. However, Kela and Hill got big outs to escape the jam. Harper, Camdens 10^th pitcher, allowed a single and walk in the 8^th, but Soto struck out again. Running out of options and wanting to save Yates for the 9^th, SHI gave Duffey another chance in the 8^th and he rewarded them by serving up another HR to Yelich. With 1 out in the 9^th, Ramirez doubled and CMD called for the IBB of Olson so Harper could face the RH Bichette. Bo responded to this insult by crushing a 3-run homer!  SHI got 2 more baserunners before Sadler finally ended it. Now leading by 4 runs, SHI stuck with Duffey and he immediately made an error but rallied to retire the last 3 batters and preserve a Shiner victory! SHI 7-3

Wow, that was an incredible series! I hope that my epic recaps did it some justice. These teams were very evenly matched and might have kept alternating wins into infinity. Fortunately for Shiner, the series is a best of 7 and they won all the even-numbered games. Congratulations to Travis for assembling yet another great team that did not get quite enough Strat luck to win it all.

Overall, SHI outscored CMD by 33 to 27. CMD outhomered SHI 13 to 9, but most were solo shots. Shiners offense was not great but ended up with a semi-respectable line of .241/.337.414/.751.  That looks a lot better compared to the dismal showing by CMD: .179/.288/.362/.650. In the regular season, CMD had an incredible .906 OPS while blasting 386 HR, but many of their big bats failed to show up in this series.

Yelich was easily Camdens best regular, putting up a 1.078 OPS with a team-leading 3 HR and 5 BB. Part-timers Davis, DArnaud, Bell and Holt played well, but not often. Everyone else hit .200 or worse. Gallo still had an .829 OPS with 2 HR and 3 BB. Sanchez also hit 2 HR and Machado hit 1 to somewhat salvage their stats. It gets really ugly after that with Arenado (4-25, 1 HR), Seager (2-17), Donaldson (2-24) and Travis pick for SHI MVP: Acuna (2-24 with 13 strikeouts)!

The Soto/Devers/Ramirez trio carried Shiners offense through the first 2 rounds, but Camdens lefty relievers mostly held the first 2 in check. Soto was only 6-29, but still hit 3 HR to lead SHI. Ramirez had another excellent series, hitting .300 with 3 DO, 5 BB and a team-leading 7 runs. 2B Wong led the regulars with a .348 BA and his .429 OBP trailed only Ramirez. However, some of the biggest hits came from 2 guys with only 22 combined PA. Bichette was only 2-10 but drove in 5 with 2 HR. In his final season, David Freese went out in a blaze of glory by hitting 4-8 with 2 DO, 2 HR and a team-leading 7 RBI. He added 3 walks and a HBP to put up an incredible .500/.667/1.500 line.

As for pitching, both teams relied very heavily on their bullpens. Syndergaard was the only CMD pitcher to reach the 5^th and that was in his G5 CG loss. He had a 5.68 ERA in 12 2/3 IP, by far the most on CMD. MadBum, Chapman, and Urias got a lot of action as CMD tried to contain Shiners lefty bats. The 2 veterans were mostly dominant, but Urias (7.94 ERA) was not. However, Liam Hendriks has to be the most disappointing CMD pitcher as he was acquired to be a bullpen stopper. He earned a big win in G6, but was mostly terrible with a 9 ERA in 5 IP over 5 games. Wildness was the main issue as he somehow walked 9 and threw a couple wild pitches.

On the Shiner side, Marco Gonzales (2.57 ERA in 14 IP) was surprisingly effective in his 3 starts and was the only starter to make it past the 3^rd inning, achieving it twice! Duffy and Snell escaped unscathed in their short outings, but Miley (14.73 ERA in 3.2 IP) was horrible in 2 starts. The dominant bullpen is really what carried Shiner and they had mixed success in this series. Duffey, Hill, and Walden got hammered but did have some good moments. Clippard and Yates were mostly great but gave up big runs in blowing G4. Vazquez (0.00 ERA and 11 K in 5.2 IP with 2 wins) had an amazing performance to presumably end his baseball career as he heads to prison. Thanks for your service, Felipe!

On that note, I will finally wrap up this epic saga. Congratulations again to Travis for assembling a great team that could easy have won this very competitive series. Im sure that all of you are thrilled to see me win again, but with Shiner this time. Thanks for your support!