The Hollywoo! Horsemen took on the Deadwood Desperados in a much anticipated playoff series. Before we began, Eric wrote, "My main thought is that the playoff matchup I've dreaded all season has arrived even earlier than expected! Oh well, I need to face the peril anyway."
Indeed.
Game 1: Deadwood abused Ragans as Ramirez hits a homerun and is on base three times to jumpstart the impressive Desperado offense. Snell pitched like an all-star and Hollywoo! never threatened. DED 6-0.
Game 2: Paredes at 3B for Hollywoo! Tried his best to give this game to Deadwood, making two errors and allowing hits on what seemed like every other X-play chance. But Jansen was a beast at the end of the game, giving the Horsemen 1.2 innings in relief to preserve the win. WOO 4-1.
Game 3: Hollowoo! Scratched out a 3-2 lead in the 5th behind a Harris 2-run HR. The Horsemen then used 8 relief pitchers while Deadwood used six pinch hitters as everyone clawed for the slightest advantage. Woo's bullpen hung on. WOO 3-2.
Game 4: Deadwood got out to a 2-0 lead and Hurter pitched 5 shutout innings. Probably should have been more, since Imanaga "scattered" 11 hits over 5+. The Horsemen got to Gaddis again (who seemed unhittable early in the series) thanks to some shoddy defense. Homeruns by Judge and Parades gave Hollywoo! A 3-2 lead, and Jansen shut the door. WOO 3-2.
Game 5: Hollywoo! Gets out to an early 3-0 thanks to an unlikely 1 in 20 chance triple by Neto and a pass ball from Contreras. Deadwood twice got the game to within one run despite a 2-hit, 1-walk, 13-K performance from Ragans. Eric definitely was the better manager in the 9th inning, generating two approx. 10% HR chances in the 9th innings against a worn-down Hollywoo! Bullpen, but the rolls were not in Deadwood's favor and a tired Jansen got the last out to clinch the series. WOO 4-3.
Hollywoo! grabbed three one-run games at the end to clinch 4 games to 1, which shows how this series could have gone either way. Jansen was the series MVP for Hollywoo!, saving all four wins. Ramirez was expected to terrorize Hollywoo!'s left hand pitching, but hit only .250 in the series, which was probably the difference.
Congrats to Eric on another great season. The playoffs are a crapshoot and his team just did not get the rolls. But that should not diminish Deadwood's accomplishments
Congratulations to Josh and Hollywoo! for validating my season-long dread of this matchup! Deadwood had the best regular season offense by runs, HR, and OPS, doing approximately equal damage to LH and RH. They also had the best team ERA. The pitching staff held up their end as the dangerous Horsemen scored only 14 runs in 5 games. However, the offense disappeared after scoring 6 in game 1, managing only a paltry 8 runs in the 4 narrow defeats. What was most frustrating is that DED had plenty of baserunners but just kept failing to drive them home. Those games obviously could have gone either way but Josh's moves worked out better than mine. Oh well, Strat's a bitch, particularly in the playoffs. It was frustrating, but this sort of thing is easier to shake off after riding Lady Luck to some championships.
On a related note, I will take this opportunity to announce that the franchise is abandoning Deadwood after 3 cursed seasons where they averaged 115 regular season wins but got knocked out once in the Wild Card and twice in the FLDS. I don't want any more of that, thanks. Therefore, the team is returning to Surprise, where they actually won 5 championships. What could possibly go wrong?
