Las Vegas Outlaws (2-0, 1.00) @ Los Angeles Leopards (0-0, .000)
That the Las Vegas Outlaws were on my short list of opponents I’d have rather avoided during the playoffs should not be surprising at all – and while we ran roughshod over their club during the regular season, besting them 12 times in 17 tries, and are, down to a man, a poor matchup for their club, they are a club that looks to have turned a corner, to have put their regular-season unluckiness behind them, finally playing up to their capabilities and getting the results expected while doing so. This then, without even a single game contested so far, is gut check time – are we the team who has a date with destiny, on the road to fulfilling it as back-to-back champions, or are we just another casualty of false bravado, misplaced confidence, and shoddy post-season execution?
1 of 7: Cam Murphy (1-0, 2.57) @ Stephen Estevez (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 2-1. We’d kick off the Second Series on something of a somber note, quietly going about our business and riding a superb, 5.2-inning, 6-hit, shutout performance from
Estevez as our offense has seemingly carried our last regular-season performance, that 4-game disaster in Mexico City, into the postseason.
Oh Hong managed to get our Leopards on the board early with a run-scoring double off
Cam during the bottom of the 3rd and
Tyler Hill smashed his first DINGER of the postseason an inning later to give us what would turn out to be all the cushion we’d need as
Ram Chen, who managed to complete the hold despite allowing a runner to plate, and
Don Haag each performed admirably in relief, shutting the door on our NL West nemesis in game one.
Elsewhere: Brooklyn’s
Bradley Hughes pitched a 7-inning, 5-hit gem and fanned 10 Pittsburgh batters during the Citizens’ 6-1, game one victory over the Pipers in their park. The game would also feature a 4-run top of the 2nd as
Heathcote Kinton kicked things off with his 2nd homer of the postseason, a solo shot in this instance, followed by runs batted in for
C Jasper Herrera (2) and
RF Roan Munoz (1) during the frame.
2 of 7: Jack Sanchez-Flores (1-0, 3.86) @ Merl Crawford (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 4-5. Clipped, at home, by the Las Vegas Outlaws – a sort of theme for the ’79 season – as Vegas was buoyed by a 3-run top of the 1st, not relinquishing that lead the rest of the way, en route to claiming one of two against us in our park to start the series. The usual Sin City suspects of
Jason Bland, Homer Wingard, Jacob Wells, and
Ray Gerhold all came to play, while their bullpen did the same, taking over for
Sanchez-Flores in the 7th and not allowing another run the rest of the way… for our part, we’d get good performances from
Bill Cox and
Dom Cooke, with
Bill’s 2-for-3 day with a run-scoring double and 2-run TANK leading the way for us offensively while
Merl Crawford allowed four earned with another getting across on a
Hutchinson error that, ultimately, if you want to attempt to blame it on one thing, sealed our fate.
Elsewhere: The rest of our playoff games featured blowouts as Brooklyn and Denver each shut out their opponent, on the road, by a score of 7-0, Brooklyn over Pittsburgh, and Denver over the Vancouver Mounties, while Toronto opened things up at home with a smash mouth, 12-2 win over the visiting Detroit Motors.
Evan Prag led the way for the Leafs, finishing 4-for-4 on the day with TWO TANKS and 8 TOTAL RBI. And, while it sure would have been cool, neither DINGER was a grand slam.
Record: 1-1
Up Next: We’ll head to Las Vegas for some fall baseball, contesting the next three games of this series in their house…