Season 4
The Playoffs
American League Championship Series
Clemente Shines As Bucks Fly
Pirates Look Miles Ahead Of Nervous DBacks
Playing in the regular season is one thing, but when the bright lights of the postseason come on, certain teams and stars seem to steal the limelight. Roberto Clemente is such a player who is at his best on the big stage and in this ALCS, he was brilliant. Clemente went 10 for 18 and played great defense even as the series stood in the balance after the two teams split the in Arizona.
The 1969 Pirates took all three games at Three Rivers Stadium including game 5 where Bob Veale threw a three hit shutout and Pittsburgh fans celebrated their pennant. MVP Candidate Paul Goldschmidt did not have a single RBI in the series while Aaron Hill went 1 for 21 as the 2013 Arizona stars fell right out of the sky.
Confident and playing some of their best baseball at exactly the right time, the Pirates now look for their grandest moment in the World Series where the best team in the league, the 1924 New York Giants await them.
National League Championship Series
A Giant Comeback Truly Excellent
Giants Refuse To Lose As Shock Haunts Mets
The 1924 New York Giants, who had the best record in the league for season 4, played their best baseball with their backs against the wall in the NLCS to eliminate the 2018 Mets and make it to the World Series.
Game Seven was one for the ages, but before we get there, the 2018 Mets looked to have everything in their favor jumping to a convincing 3 games to 1 series lead. Jacob DeGrom pitched a shutout in game one and at CitiField the Mets carried the momentum to get to just one game from the clinch. Virgil Barnes had other ideas and was excellent in game five allowing no runs in 8 plus innings to beat Noah Syndergaard and send the series back to the Polo Grounds.
With new life the Giants made an example of the Mets and had the kind of win in game six that losing teams cant recover from. The Giants won 18-4 as George Kelly had 8 RBI and the club ended with a historic 26 hits. The Mets surely felt that the Giants and John McGraw had run up the score and tensions were high anyway for game seven.
Jacob DeGrom was the perfect man for the moment. DeGrom held the Giants hitless for five innings but his opponent, Art Nehf, also refused to budge and the game was scoreless in the 8th. Amed Rosario came to the dish and hit a home run almost out of the stadium. Rosario hit it 479 feet and the Mets closed out the 8th and needed three outs to win it.
Seth Lugo, the Mets closer who had 41 saves allowed a single to Ross Youngs and with one out faced hank Gowdy. Down two strikes, Gowdy hit a towering fly to left that swayed just fair and changed the entire narrative as the Giants walked it off and Giant fans stormed the field.
The Mythology of this one and New York baseball will not be lived down forever. Now the Giants move on to face a rested 1969 Pirates team for the right to win it all.