If game 4 had been a must win, the spikes were on the other foot, or in the other leg, or something for game 5. Annapolis had just seen a loss in heartbreaking fashion the day prior, and the prospect of going to Allentown needing to win two seemed daunting. David Rowe closed down all media interaction. The sign posted on the clubhouse door simply said, "KEEP OUT, WHOEVER YOU MAY BE!"
The outlook wasn't favorable. The Middies weren't hitting, and they'd be sending Henriques to the mound. Gonzalo had gotten blown apart in game two, and some worried that his confidence was completely shaken after his sixth inning meltdown.
There was a smattering of boos around the park when rightfielder Michael Jones was introduced in the starting lineups.
A few drops of rain splattered down at the start of play. Henriques, to the relief of fans and the manager, pitched an easy 1-2-3 inning. Fans figured the heavy wet air should maybe help Gonzalo's breaking stuff, and would probably keep any mistakes inside the ballpark.
It was something of a surprise then when the catcher, Richard Bozek, got hold of a fastball from Pearson, hitting it solidly a few rows back into the rightfield stands. Bozek had come into the game hitting a paltry .139 in the postseason and he'd hit only 4 homers during the regular season. Now he'd given Annapolis the early lead, and the fans cheered.
Allentown squared things up in the top of the third. Pearson helped his own cause by bunting Segovia to second base, then Earl Bearce got a two out single back up through the middle. Gonzale Henriques' foot had slid on him when delivering that pitch to Bearce, and it looked that if he hadn't fallen badly he might have had a chance to stop the ball from getting through. As if to add insult, it thereupon rained a bit harder.
And the rain, bit by bit, picked up in intensity, and after Jose Neyra grounded out to shortstop to end the third inning, the umpiring crew halted the game and the groundcrew rolled out the tarp. Finally, a little over an hour after suspending play, the game resumed on top of a wet field.
Henriques looked tight after play resumed. He walked Billy Rhynes, and hit Dennis Suniga in the top half of the 4th. Rowe judged that Henriques wasn't going to loosen up again, and would send Mohammed Fishel to pinch hit for Gonzalo in the bottom half of the inning. There were tense moments in that half of the inning when Pearson plunked Brubaker with a fastball. Brubaker got up and stared down Pearson; Pearson lifted his arms as if to say, well, it's hard to say, and such ambiguous gestures looked almost to be a match to the powderkeg. But the umpire sternly warned Brubaker and Pearson, and the inning closed with no further incidents.
Pearson would get pinch hit for the next inning he was up as well. Both teams had lost their starting pitchers after only 4 innings of work. The game was even, it would be decided by the bullpens.
So Rowe called upon Zubiaga to soak up some innings. But after getting getting Segovia to ground out to shortstop, Zubiaga shook his arm and then grabbed it. The trainer came out to examine him, and the decision was made that Zubiaga was too hurt to continue. So on came Alex Solis, a junkballer who relied mostly on his slider and change to keep batters off balance. He would end up keeping them off balance through the seventh inning.
The bottom half of the seventh started off tamely. 8th hitter Jones struck out for the second time in the game, and got booed a bit more. The pinch hitter James Walthall, hitting for Solis, grounded out to second. Boris Landeros then lined a pitch into the rightfield gap, and chugged into second with a two-out double. Richard Bozek singled, driving home his second run of the game, and for the second time, gave the Middies a one-run lead.
Lucas Casares and Pascual Rocha combined to take care of Allentown in the 8th inning. For the 9th, David Rowe called upon young Sammy Salinas to save it, the last arm he had in the bullpen because the closer Rozek had been taken out the game before with a hurting elbow. Salinas gave up a leadoff single, then got Ferrant to fly out. Thomas Segovia hit a fly ball down the rightfield line and it was falling quickly. Michael Jones, the goat of the day before, made a catch on the dead run, following it up with enough presence to stop, and fire the ball back in to prevent any attempt to move to second base.
Salinas then faced Hassan Jones, who had hit the double to drive home 2 the day before. Trying to get in on Jones's fists, he got too far inside and hit Jones. Finally, Salinas was able to get Earl Bearce to hit a groundball to short, which Sauceda and Cueva turned into a force play at second.
Annapolis 2, Allentown 1. Annapolis's third win when scoring only 2 runs.
Code:
BOX SCORES Allentown @ Annapolis
Game #: 1636, (GAME LOG) , Wednesday, 10/20/1999
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Allentown 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 7 0
Annapolis 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 X 2 7 0
Allentown AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
E. Bearce 2B 5 0 1 1 0 0 4 .146 0 3
G. Baeza RF 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 .167 1 3
B. Rhyne CF 3 0 1 0 1 1 0 .350 4 10
1-G. Castrjn CF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .167 0 0
Z. Coil LF 4 0 1 0 0 1 2 .175 0 2
E. McGill 1B 4 0 1 0 0 1 3 .237 0 7
D. Suniga C 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 .211 3 9
A. Ferrant SS 3 0 1 0 1 1 3 .189 0 1
T. Segovia 3B 4 1 1 0 0 0 2 .222 0 0
D. Pearson P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .333 0 0
2-R. Degnan PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
J. Tally P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
3-A. Peraza PH 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000 0 0
R. Starks P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
J. Shetler P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
4-H. Jones PH 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .391 1 3
Totals 32 1 7 1 2 6 18 .244 135 670
Substitution Notes
1 - G. Castrejon pinch ran for B. Rhyne in the 8th
2 - R. Degnan pinch hit for D. Pearson in the 5th
3 - A. Peraza pinch hit for J. Tally in the 7th
4 - H. Jones pinch hit for J. Shetler in the 9th
BATTING
Runs Batted In: E. Bearce (3)
Sacrifice Hits: D. Pearson (4)
Team LOB: 6
FIELDING
Double Plays: 1 (Bearce-Ferrant-McGill)
Annapolis AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG HR RBI
B. Landeros LF 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 .316 3 4
R. Bozek C 4 1 2 2 0 0 1 .175 1 4
J. Cueva 2B 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 .294 1 4
J. Neyra 3B 4 0 1 0 0 0 3 .195 1 7
M. Truong 1B 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 .367 0 5
W. Brubaker CF 3 0 0 0 0 0 4 .229 1 5
J. Sauceda SS 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 .243 0 3
M. Jones RF 3 0 0 0 0 2 2 .079 0 1
G. Henriques P 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
1-M. Fishel PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .143 0 0
F. Zubiaga P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
A. Solis P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
2-J. Walthall PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200 0 0
L. Casares P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
P. Rocha P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
S. Salinas P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0 0
Totals 30 2 7 2 1 3 14 .257 159 745
Substitution Notes
1 - M. Fishel pinch hit for G. Henriques in the 4th
2 - J. Walthall pinch hit for A. Solis in the 7th
BATTING
Doubles: B. Landeros (3, 7th inning off Starks, 0 on, 2 out.)
Homeruns: R. Bozek (1, 1st inning off Pearson, 0 on, 1 out.)
Runs Batted In: R. Bozek 2 (4)
Team LOB: 2
FIELDING
Double Plays: 1 (Sauceda-Cueva-Truong)
Allentown IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA RECORD
D. Pearson 4 4 1 1 0 2 1 49 32 2.79
J. Tally 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 10 5.06
R. Starks L 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 24 12 2.70 1-1
J. Shetler 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 12 6 1.59
PITCHING
Batters Faced: D. Pearson 18, J. Tally 7, R. Starks 6, J. Shetler 3
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: D. Pearson 6-4, J. Tally 4-2, R. Starks 1-1, J. Shetler 2-0
Game Score: D. Pearson 52
Annapolis IP H R ER BB K HR PI PS ERA RECORD
G. Henriques 4 3 1 1 1 3 0 50 28 12.10
F. Zubiaga 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 3.12
A. Solis W 2.2 2 0 0 1 2 0 37 19 0.00 1-0
L. Casares H 0.1 1 0 0 0 1 0 9 6 5.40
P. Rocha H 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 5 5.06
S. Salinas S 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 10 7 0.00 1 SV
PITCHING
Batters Faced: G. Henriques 16, F. Zubiaga 1, A. Solis 11, L. Casares 2, P. Rocha 2, S. Salinas 5
Inherited Runners-Scored: P. Rocha 1-0
Ground Balls-Fly Balls: G. Henriques 6-1, F. Zubiaga 1-0, A. Solis 3-3, L. Casares 0-0, P. Rocha 1-1, S. Salinas 1-2
Game Score: G. Henriques 54
GAME INFO
Time: 3:01
Attendance: 44974 (45000, 99.9%) at Annapolis Ballpark
Weather: Rain (60 degrees), wind blowing right to left at 9 mph
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Richard Bozek
Game Notes:
63 minute rain delay in 4th inning. Felipe Zubiaga was injured while pitching.