Montreal Impact @ Brooklyn Citizens (Game 4, MTL leads 2-1)
Brooklyn spent 7-innings having their behinds handed to them in this one before a 7-run outburst over the last two innings – a 3-run homer for Landowski gets them started in the 8th, and another 3-run homer for Mercedes finishes it up in the bottom of the 9th as Brooklyn walks off the heavily favored impact by a score of 8-7. Breakout games for their #1 & #2 hitters, Landowski & Mercedes do it all in this one with 7 riblets between them. Tough series-tying road loss for Montreal – a game they all but had in the bag until those disastrous final two frames. Surprising result here – the Impact are up against it now. Side note: Fregoso wakes up a bit in this one – 2 for 4 with and an RBI.
Seattle Sounders @ Chicago Fire (Game 5, Series tied 2-2)
Chicago C Laz Braun is clutch city – 3-run homer for the young man in the bottom of the 1st, where Chicago smacks the Sounders on the jaw with 5 early runs. Seattle 2B Joshua Letzring was huge in this one – a 5-RBI, 1 HR day – but it wasn’t enough as the Fire secured the 3-2 series lead with an 11-7 home victory. Jun Wu is big again – 2 for 5 with 2 runs and 2 RBI – 1B Jason Brown finished 3 for 5 with a run and 2 RBI. Balanced… Chicago will be a tough out for anyone, but I’m a bit surprised by Seattle’s fall from grace here – still, they’re not completely out of it, and they are capable of stringing a couple of W’s better to secure a spot in the 3rd round.
Green Bay Packers @ Jacksonville Jaguars (Game 5, JAX leads 3-1)
Green Bay finished with the best record in the AL, in, arguably, the toughest division in all of the MLB – they were power ranked at #1 throughout most of the 2075 campaign, and, according to baseball pundits were the likeliest of champions to cap off this season. Punditry be damned – Jacksonville, it seems, had other plans… thoroughly dominating the favorites here, and securing a bid to the 3rd round by a score of 8-2. Mercury Aghajari went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI, and Series MVP, LF Isidro Lutz went 2 for 3 with a riblet of his own – and hit .450 for the series with 8 RBI. An absolute drubbing for Green Bay at the hands of their most hated division rival – it’s ‘take a good, long look in the mirror” time for the Cheeseheads… couldn’t happen to a nicer group of guys. C’est la vie, Wisconsin.
