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I plan to do a more detailed season recap once the season is over, but not until then.
Right now, I wanted to just focus a bit on the playoffs.
As it turns out, there was a three way tie for the Wild Card this year.
Texas and Omaha played to determine the winner of the NL Midwest. The loser of that game, played us for the right to advance to the playoffs via the Wild Card.
We beat Texas and managed to capture the Wild Card berth out of the National League.
Two seasons and two playoff appearances. It'd be impressive, if for the fact that Memphis and Omaha are both 2nd year expansion franchises who have done exactly the same thing, despite the fact that I used the inaugural draft to implode all of the teams.
Our ace, Zach Brennan who for a good part of the season was leading the league in ERA and was just DOMINANT was out for three weeks and will be back in time to pitch in Game 3 of the playoffs.
Our 2nd baseman Mauro Ayala got injured and is still out for two more weeks. We hope to make it to the World Series to use him.
SO we're depleted, but not decimated. But in a short series, you often don't get many second chances.
With that, we face off against the defending NL champs in Omaha in our Division Series.
GM 1: Santa Maria 3, Omaha 0
The first two games are on our home turf and we win the first one.
GM 2: Santa Maria 5, Omaha 4
GM 3: Omaha 8, Santa Maria 1
Taking a cue from the other series, the Marshals lose on the road. So far, in each series, the home teams have won every game.
GM 4: Omaha 4, Santa Maria 2
Same deal here, as with all of the others. Each of the division series will advance to a decisive Game 5 for the right to advance to the League Championship Series of both leagues.
GM 5: We'll see how useful homefield advantage is, as we play in Game 5 of the NLDS.
The game was tied 3-3 into the 9th, after Omaha tied it up with a run in the top of the 8th.
The game seemed to last forever. The game broke open in the Top of the 14th, when the Owls scored on a double by Luis Martinez to take a 5-4 lead.
With two outs in the bottom of the 14th inning, the Marshals replaced SS Robert Fisher with a pinch hitter Hidetada Yamamoto, who was signed the last week of the regular season, to replaced an injured player and somehow squeaked onto the post-season roster.
Yamamoto, given the seemingly impossible situation of having to save the season of a team he barely knew, hitting .125 in the playoffs, advanced on an error. That brought up Rich Reynolds, who came in to play center field in the 11th innings and in his first at-bat of the night, notches a double off Omaha reliever Jeff King, which scored Yamamoto and tied the game at 4-4.
That brought up rookie phenom Cris Zavala, who posted the game winning double off King to give the Marshals an improbable 5-4 victory and their second straight trip to the LCS. But this time, in the National League.
The Owls woes were probably attributed largely to their FOUR errors in the decisive Game Five loss.
OTHER SERIES:
AL
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Tampa Bay defeats Hamilton 3 games to 2
Memphis defeats Baltimore 3 games to 2
NL
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Portland defeats San Bernardino 3 games to 2
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