Game 1 was Spencer Strider against Framber Valdez. Strider struck out 16 batters, but Salem had their chances against him too, with 7 hits off Strider. Among those, three came from three straight batters, Rengifo, Langliers and Volpe, and that plated a run in the second inning. Two innings later, with a man on first and two out, Langliers struck again with an RBI triple. In between, Robbie Grossman doubled home Brandon Crawford for a Sewell run. Thus it was 2-1 Salem after five. Then Salem's pitching staff had the kind of inning we all dread, but we've all seen. After a leadoff double by Ohtani and a Marte walk chased Valdez, Tanner Scott came on, pitched to four batters, walked three of them and retired one on a sac fly, making it 3-2 Sewell. Rogers then came on and struck out Fairchild, but then he issued another bases loaded walk, followed by an error by Josh Lowe (RF3e3) that plated two more runs and made it 6-2 Sewell. Things spiraled from there, Sewell went on to win SEW 12 SSS 4
Game 2 was Ohtani against Alcantara. While game 1 was a pitcher's duel until it wasn't, this one was low scoring throughout. Alcantara struck out 7 and walked none, scattering 6 hits in 7.2 innings, but he had an ugly moment in the 4th. With the score 0-0, Ramon Urias doubled with one out, advanced to third on a fly out, and then Alcantara balked him home before successfully retiring the next batter. In the bottom of the inning Lowe immediately re-tied the game with a leadoff homer, but that would be one of only two hits Ohtani allowed in 8 innings, with 13 strikeouts. Perez and Straw singled as the first two batters of the 5th, giving Sewell a first and third nobody out situation, and then Alcantara got Ahmed to ground into a double play that nonetheless plated Perez for a 2-1 lead. That was still the score in the top of the 9th when Salem relievers walked the first two batters, got a double play, but then allowed an RBI double to Ward for an insurance run. David Robertson came on and struck out the first two batters of the bottom of the 9th. SAlem got the tying run to the plate when Lewis singled, but Santander flew out to end the threat and the series, SEW 3, SSS 1
Sewell obviously got great pitching, but honestly a lot of Sewell's runs just felt like gifts. Salem had a very good team, and the same thing could easily have happened in reverse.
