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2045 Playoffs
Championship Round
The Eastern League Pennant series was between division foes Philadelphia, the most complete team in the majors and wildcard entry New York, who had given Philadelphia all sorts of trouble during the regular season (taking the season series 13-7). Played on a damp chilly night in Philadelphia game one was not a classic, sloppy play on both offense (five runners caught stealing and two thrown out at home on ill-advised attempts to score) and defense (seven errors between the two teams) kept the score close as Philly slipped past New York 3-2 to take the series lead. The following night the weather was the same but the play was much improved, Philly opened a 5-1 lead early, keyed by LF Julian Morin’s third inning 2-run homer only for New York to mount a spirited fightback tying the game on PH Jim Holman’s RBI-single in the ninth and sending the teams to extra innings. After missing an opportunity in the eleventh inning (runners on the corners with only one-out) Philadelphia finally closed the deal in the twelfth when 3B Seishiro Sanu launched a 2-RBI walk-off homerun to give Philly a 2-0 series lead to take to New York. Two nights later the teams reconvened in front of a record crowd at New York’s Motorola Stadium, the hometown Senators used the electric atmosphere to their advantage pulling out a thrilling 4-2 victory, with 1B Jerry Wright clubbing his sixth homerun of the postseason in the process. Game four saw New York starter Bernie Baldwin struggle early, allowing five runs (including a 2-RBI double to opposite number P Alfonso Zamora) in just two innings of work. Twenty-one-year-old pitcher David Salas replaced Baldwin and hurled four shutout innings to stem the Philly tide and give his teammates a chance to rally, although both LF Michael Miller and RF Javier Gutierrez both went deep for the Senators, Philadelphia held on for the win leaving them one game away from winning the series. Julio Mejia took the mound for New York in game five while Philadelphia countered with their ace Mariano Rojo, both pitchers were on song not allowing a run through the first five innings. Philadelphia broke the deadlock in the sixth on a 2B Jose Villalobos RBI-single and broke open the game one inning later when SS Geoffrey Adams slammed a 3-run homer, even though New York mounted one last rally reliever Jeremiah O’Hearne stranded a pair of runners in the ninth to close out the 4-2 victory and send Philadelphia on to their first World Series for thirty-one years.
The WLCS saw Seattle take on Sanfrancisco for the right to represent the Western League in the World Series, Sanfrancisco with their lockdown pitching and high-powered offense were expected to comfortably see off Seattle, although the Pioneers explosive batting lineup could certainly make things interesting if they got going. Seattle's game one starter Jorge Cisneros was well below par struggling through 2.2 ineffective innings (including a disastrous 52-pitch, six-run second), digging a hole that the pioneers couldn't climb out of, as Sanfrancisco cruised to a 10-2 series opening victory. Another early offensive outburst, keyed by RF Carl Crawford's 3-run first inning homer, saw Sanfrancisco build a commanding lead in game two. Seattle's hitters were unable to solve Sanfrancisco’s pitching for much of the night until four late runs gave the final 8-4 scoreline some respectability. The shellshocked Pioneers returned home to Seattle for game three looking for answers, a 3B Skip Kaufman two-run blast put the Pioneers ahead early but from then on, the night belonged to Sanfrancisco ace Bryan Marburg, he pitched eight stellar innings cooling Seattle's hot bats and allowing his own teammates to chip away at the lead. Catcher Kent Blanton's RBI-Double in the eighth put Sanfrancisco on top and Chris Miller's 8-pitch ninth closed the door, leaving Seattle one game away from elimination. That fear became a reality the next night as 1B Jesus Diaz (3-for-4, 3-RBI) and RF Carl Crawford (2-for-3, HR, 2-RBI) provided the ammunition for Sanfrancisco’s 6-3 victory as the Gold clinched their return to the World Series, the win came at a cost though as LF Juan Rodriguez suffered a knee injury ruling him out for the rest of the postseason.
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