[JayW UK]

2043 Playoffs

Divisional Round

The EL featured four teams who had all missed the playoffs in 2042, Indianapolis and Tampa Bay, owners of the EL’s most prolific offenses, would meet in what was sure to be an entertaining series while Philadelphia would host 98-win wildcard team St. Louis. The western league returned only two teams from 2042, Las Vegas and Sanfrancisco, the Gold had the unenviable task of facing the 109-win Omaha Braves the WL’s top seed, while Denver were the opponents for Las Vegas.

An unseasonably warm October evening saw the first ever playoff meeting between St. Louis and Philadelphia with both starters (Les Scott for STL and Mariano Rojo for PHI) in good form. The only blemish between the pair was a SS Antonio Flores solo homerun off the pitching of Mariano Rojo which gave the visiting Reds an early lead. With both men beginning to flag in the seventh, the teams swapped scores before Philadelphia took their first lead of the night when CF Alfonso Sosa drilled a 2-run homer off Reds reliever Earl Ritter in the bottom of the eighth. With Philly holding a slim 3-2 lead heading into the ninth manager Jose Pacheco turned to Harry Davis to close out the game, Davis immediately ran into trouble walking 2B Jose Concepcion before surrendering a sharp single, leaving runners on the corners with no-one out. A sacrifice fly from CF Doyle Arnold scored Concepcion to tie the game before next man up RF Vicente Hernandez drilled the second pitch he saw, deep into the stands to give the Reds a dramatic 5-3 lead. St. Louis turned to closer Pablo Hernandez to protect their advantage, and the all-star delivered, retiring the side to preserve the win. The following evening saw another pitching duel between Brett Knight (STL) and J.R McDowell (PHI) with both men carrying shutouts into the fifth inning, Knight was the first to crack, surrendering a 2-RBI single to 1B Diego Pagan to put the Independence ahead. St. Louis tied the game on a pair of RBI singles in the sixth before C Luis Guerra drilled a solo homer to put the Reds ahead one inning later, a lead they would not surrender as Philadelphia found multiple ways to shoot themselves in the foot (hitting into inning ending double plays in both the 8th and 9th innings, and committing a vital error in top of the 9th to extend the inning and allow St. Louis to plate a pair of insurance runs) as the Reds took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of five series. Although Philadelphia out-hit St. Louis 7-6 in game three, 1B Rodger Comber, LF Jim Scott and CF Luis Ortiz all hit homeruns for St. Louis while Philadelphia’s hitters struggled against Reds starter Anastasio Gonzalez who turned in a flawless performance, striking out 7 while scattering six hits over eight shutout innings, as St. Louis booked their place in the ELCS for the first time with a comfortable 5-0 victory.

The second ELDS featured offensive powerhouses Indianapolis and Tampa Bay, with both teams having averaged over five runs per game during the regular season an exciting high scoring series was expected. Game one was a muted affair with both offenses held largely in check by stronger than expected pitching, a seventh inning LF Joe Scott sacrifice fly put the visiting Hurricanes ahead for good as Tampa Bay edged the series opener 4-3. The following night was a similar story as once again pitching nullified the potent offenses, Tampa Bay’s veteran Cristobal Chapa (7.1 IP, 7H, 3ER, 6K) put forth a strong performance but Indianapolis starter Juan Montoya went the distance, with Rick Flynn’s 8th inning RBI-single breaking up his shutout bid as the hometown Racers evened the series with a hard fought 4-1 victory. After two closely contested games dominated by pitching, fans finally got to see the promised high-powered offenses in game three, Tampa Bay 1B Jose Otero went 2-for-2, belting two homeruns, including a Grand-Slam, while collecting 6-RBI while on the other side of the ledger catcher Gabriel Lopez and 1B Mitch Higgins both hit a pair of homeruns for Indianapolis, as the Racers topped Tampa Bay 11-9 to edge ahead in the series. The following night Tampa Bay stormed into an early lead, plating four runs off Indianapolis starter Juan Cuesta in the first, their lead didn’t last though as LF Allen Hood and 2B Percy Sterrenberg both had big hits as Indianapolis clawed their way back to tie the game. A seventh inning 3-run homer from 1B Mitch Higgins (his third HR of the series) put Indianapolis ahead and although Tampa Bay put two men aboard in the eighth and loaded the bases in the ninth, they could only muster a single run as Indianapolis booked their place in the EL pennant series for a record eleventh time.

Over in the west, Las Vegas and Denver were meeting in the playoffs for the third time in their history and in an interesting quirk of fate, both previous meetings had resulted in Las Vegas wins (2031 & 2038) and on both occasions the Gamblers had gone on to reach the World Series. Denver named Valentin Morales as starter for game one while the Gamblers countered with Jesus Delgado, a 2nd inning Joseph Floores homerun provided early impetus for Las Vegas, an impressive outing from Delgado (7.2 IP, 5H, 1ER, 10K) and timely hitting from the likes of RF Danny Wheeler and SS Joaquin Corona saw the Gamblers roll to a comfortable 6-1 victory. Denver starter Antonio Correa struggled for control in game two, issuing five walks and surrendering four runs in just 4.2 innings of work, a fifth inning RF Mike Carson homerun sparked Denver into life as over the next two innings the Wildcats turned the game on its head, scoring five unanswered runs to take a 5-4 lead. The game took another turn in the bottom of the eighth when Mike Phair hammered a Matt Damone pitch into the top deck for a two-run homer nudging the Gamblers back in front, star closer Philip Redmond completed the turnaround for Las Vegas with a routine ninth inning as the Gamblers edged past the Wildcats 6-5. Game three saw Bartolo Garcia (DEN) and Gil Wallace (LV) engage in a tit-for-tat pitching battle with the game tied at two after six innings, Bartolo led off the seventh allowing a single and a walk (the first time either team had put more than one man on base in the game) which prompted a pitching change with Francisco Borges taking the mound. Borges got off to the worst possible start, walking C Manny Mendoza on four pitches to load the bases and then issuing another free pass to SS Joaquin Corona to force home a run, next man up RF Danny Wheeler hit a deep sacrifice fly that was caught at the warning track before CF John Smyth blooped a single into rightfield bringing home yet another run. The ineffective Borges was replaced by Dave Day who finally got Denver out of the inning, but the damage was done. Las Vegas relievers Felix Martinez, Rich Sutton and Philip Redmond combined to keep Denver off the scoreboard the rest of the way as the Gamblers completed the series sweep with a hard fought 5-2 victory.

Having won 109 regular season games (the third most in NABL history), Omaha were heavy favourites in their series against a Sanfrancisco team who had had to win a play-in game against San Diego just to be in the postseason. Game one went as expected for Omaha, a strong pitching performance from starter Jacobie Harksdale and homeruns from C Manuel Barrone and 1B Alfred Bloom carried the Braves to a series opening 9-4 win. The following night was shaping up to be more of the same when Omaha took a first inning lead on 2B Tom Lockhart’s 2-RBI double but when Braves starter Russell Harris tweaked his hamstring and had to leave the game in the third, things began to turn in Sanfrancisco’s favour. Homeruns from RF Sul-Shik Choi, C Kent Blanton and CF Dennis Brookes turned the tide and put the Gold in charge while pitcher Remi Moreau recovered from his early mishap to hurl seven innings of two-run ball as Sanfrancisco evened the series with a comfortable 6-2 victory. In game three Omaha starter Kanko Ota’s outing was excellent apart from one inning, the eighth, through the first seven frames Ota had allowed a grand total of two baserunners but an uncharacteristically sloppy eighth (two walks and four hits and an error) resulted in five Sanfrancisco runs, as the Gold turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead. Benton Hartman took the mound for Sanfrancisco in the ninth looking to wrap the game up, instead he produced an equally sloppy inning, surrendering a pair of walks and three hits, the second of which was a go-ahead Grand-Slam to 1B Carl Stokes. Omaha turned to veteran Mike Mayfield to close out the game, the former Boston man took 13-pitches to see off Sanfrancisco as Omaha edged ahead in the series. Game four saw game one starters Jacobie Harksdale (OMH) and George Buchanan (SF) back on the mound, neither man had a chance to settle as both teams came out swinging, plating four runs apiece in the first inning. As quickly as the offense came, it disappeared again as both hurlers regained control, pitching shutouts through the next four innings until George Buchanan ran into trouble, former teammate Herminio Azurara (who had been traded mid-season) took advantage, slamming a two-run homer to put Omaha ahead. Third baseman Jose Aguilar’s 2-RBI triple in the eighth put the game out of reach of Sanfrancisco as Omaha eased to a series clinching victory.