It was well known heading into the 1978 KCS that the teams respective bullpens could be a their area of greatest weakness, and in game 2 it was the Brewers bullpen that played a crucial role in blowing a narrow late lead, giving the El Paso Dawgs the first post-season win in their history.
Sekien Hamasaki gave up 10 hits over his 6 1/3rd innings but still managed to hold the Dawgs to just 2 runs, and only 1 of them was scored prior to his departure. Young left-handed reliever
Rand Pinti was responsible for a pair of runs in the 8th inning and
Victor Colon gave up what proved to be the game winner in the top of the 9th.
Brett Taranto,
Joe McPhillips, and
Zacarias Martell each collected a pair of hits in the loss, with
Martell hitting a double for one of only 2 extra base hits for the home team (
Jake DiCesare tripled in the 9th inning and scored the final run of the game, but it was not enough.)