Gm 1 - Kirby vs Hanifee

Austin go on the board early with a Soto walk and Horwitz HR.  Harmony Grove answered with 1 in the bottom of the inning on Yelich single and stolen base with the help of a WP before Lindor GO.  HAR took a 2 run lead in the 2nd on singles by Chourio and Burger followed by a Taveras double and Yelich single.  A Lindor double and Chourio single added another run in the 3rd.  A Taveras single, Yelich walk, and Correa double added another run as Yelich was gunned down at the plate.  AUS got back on the board with a Devers HR in the 6th.  HAR added some insurance runs in the 8th with a Chourio HR, Diaz single, Altuve double, and Burger single.  HAR 8-3

Gm 2 - Littell vs Musgrove

AUS lit up Musgrove early scoring 3 runs on walks by Soto and Norby, with a Devers double and Torres single mixed in.  HAR answered with 3 of their own on singles by Freeman, Suzuki, and Chourio, with a Harper walk included.  A Raley HR off Yates in the 3rd reclaimed the lead for AUS.  Burger answered in the 4th with his own HR.  Not to be outdone AUS came right back with 2 in the 5th on a Soto walk and Butler HR off Banda.  A Lindor HR in the 5th brought HAR within 1.  HAR would tie it up in the 6th on an unlikely event.  With the bases loaded and 2 outs AUS brought in righty killer to face Suzuki.  HAR countered with Perkins and his .270 obp.....and as you can imagine Perkins leans into the pitch to bring in a run.  Tied in the bottom of the 9th Perkins had a chance to walk it off with a 5 bp hr on 7, but alas he is too weak and can only manage a single.  Fast forward to the 11th.  After a Moore leadoff triple Soto grounds into a FC as Moore tries to score from 3rd on a 12 and is thrown out.  Not to fear Austin fans, Devers, who will end up carrying his team all series smokes a triple off Matsui (who has been terrible the entire playoffs) to take the lead.  Duran would come in to try and slam the door but would give up a leadoff double to Correa.  Freeman would move him to 3rd on a sac bunt.  Perkins would follow with hard hit ground ball to the infield playing in and Correa has no chance to try and score.  Duran would get Lindor to fly out ending the game.  AUS 7-6

Gm 3 - Francis vs Ryan

A rare Soto HR would get AUS on the board first in the 3rd.  Apparently this angered HAR as they would go on to score the next 10 runs unanswered.  HAR had home runs by Correa, Altuve, and Chourio.  HAR 10-1

Gm 4 - Taillon vs Kirby

AUS once again scored first with a 2 run HR by Lowe in the 2nd.  HAR would tie it up in the 5th on an Altuve lead off HR.  A Lowe error would allow Burger to reach following Altuve's HR, it would prove costly as Burger would work his way around the bases and score on a Suzuki single.  HAR would take a 1 run lead in the 8th.  With 2 outs and no one on Diaz reached on a single followed by an Altuve walk.  Righty killer Sands was brought in to face Burger and promptly walked him.  Correa would work a bases loaded walk to take the lead and Duran finally ended the inning with a Yelich GO.  HAR would add 3 insurance runs in the 9th.  Freeman walked and Perkins beat out a sac bunt attempt.  Harper would bunt Freeman and Perkins over and Chourio scored them on a double.  Chourio would come around to score on a Diaz single.  HAR 6-2

Gm 5 - Hanifee vs Darvish

With a bullpen full of tired relievers this game was not looking promising for HAR.  Once again a Devers HR got AUS going early.  Taveras would lead off the 3rd for HAR with a GO and Darvish having used up his innings would be replaced with righty killer Randy Rodriguez.  Lindor would sub for Correa and getting things going with a single.  Freeman followed up with a single but Suzuki didn't help, striking out.  Yelich and his lefty bat would be intentionally walked to load the bases, of course the next pith to Chourio would be wild plating a run.  In the end it wouldn't matter because Chourio put the next pitch into the outfield seats.  The score would remain the same until the 7th and here is where things would get wild.  A Lindor leadoff HR followed by a Suzuki walk, Perkins single, and Diaz single would score 2 important runs.  AUS would make it interesting scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th off tired pitchers Coulombe, Diaz, and Treinen, plus not tired closer Clase who was just looking to stop the bleeding.  Clase was not as affective as he had been all series, giving up a sac fly to Torres and back to back walks to Soto and Devers, scoring a run.  Taveras got a run back in the 8th on a HR, which Butler answered in the bottom of the inning with his own HR.  With a 2 run lead and the chance to go to the World Series hanging in the air HAR would try and close it out.  Matsui (a not tired reliever) was brought in to face Bichette and got him to fly out.  Koenig (a tired reliever) entered the game to face Soto and in usual fashion for this series Soto GO.  Devers in usual fashion for this series kept the AUS season alive by lining a single.  Unused and untired Chafin was brought in to try and close it out but would give up singles to Profar and Norby to bring AUS to within 1 run with 2 outs and runners on the corners.  HAR would turn to a tired Banda (last pitcher left on the HAR bench) to try and get Butler out to end the game and series.  Butler missed the 2 or less roll and lined out to end AUS's season.  HAR 7-6.

Strat was not kind to Eric, it wasn't so such much missed rolls but just not getting many hits on good hitter cards.  Devers and Lowe carried the team but it wasn't enough.  12 out of 18 hitters had an average under .200, tough to win games trying to scratch out runs like that.  I'm sure next time we meet in the playoffs it will be my turn for strat to crush my dreams!  Congrats to Eric on a good season!