Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluenoser
Awesome stuff - now the suspense is killing me.
Bottom of the 9th please  |
OK, here we go. With the pinch runners used I make some defensive changes but decide to keep my righty setup man Bouma in the game. We will face the bottom of the order R-L-R, then the top of the order L-L-R-L. My lefty closer is ready to come in but for the moment I stick with Bouma who has been superb. Both setup man and closer have appeared in 4 games in the series and are slightly tired.
My setup man quickly gets ahead 0-2 and then gets a fly out to CF. Two outs away from the championship! I decide to stay with Bouma and let him face the lefty. On the first pitch the no. 8 hitter singles to right. Neptunus then pinch hits for the no. 9 hitter with a LHB and I go to my closer.
On a 2-0 pitch the pinch hitter doubles to left and all of a sudden the tying runs are on base. My closer Roos gets ahead 0-1 and then incredibly is called for a balk! Absolute disaster! As a team we had a total of 5 balks called against us in the 88 game regular season and Roos has 2 career balks in 200 appearances. Just like that it's a one run game with the tying run on third. In the span of 5 pitches we go from 1 out nobody on to this.
Next pitch is a strike 0-2 and on the next pitch the batter swings and misses. Two away, one out from the championship! Next hitter takes the first pitch for a ball. Then on the next pitch he hits a groundball to the second baseman Girigorie.......