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2040 Playoffs

Championship Round

The EL Championship series saw top seed St. Louis face off against defending champions Boston, for St. Louis this was their first trip to the Pennant series while their opponents were making their third straight and fourth in the last five years.
A full house at St. Louis' Gateway stadium witnessed an excellent outing from ace Les Scott (8.0 IP, 5H 1R, 10K) propel the home town Reds to a series opening 5-1 victory. The following night Mitch Woodroffe picked up where Scott left off, hurling six innings of 1-run ball before exiting with an ankle injury. Boston 1B John Herman's seventh inning Grand-Slam signaled a pitching meltdown, turning a comfortable 7-1 St. Louis lead into a nervous 8-6 win for the Reds. With the series moving to Boston the hometown Pilgrims would need to dig deep to find a way back into the series. Game three could not have started worse as St Louis plated three runs off Boston starter Jim Jacques in the first, before adding a fourth run in the third, leaving Boston with a mountain to climb. But climb it they did, in the fourth they finally broke their scoring duck before tying the game on 3B Eric King's 3-run homer in the sixth. The seventh brought another homerun Boston's way, this time solo shot from catcher Eduardo Moreno which signaled the end of the night for Reds starter Nathan Cortez. Boston kept on hitting against the St. Louis bullpen racking up eight hits and five runs in the eighth to lift the Pilgrims to an impressive 10-4 victory. A flurry of runs saw Boston fall behind early in game four, but just like the previous night the Pilgrims refused to buckle mounting a fight back and cutting the Reds lead to one entering the sixth inning. St. Louis pushed the lead back up to three on LF Ramon Vega's 2-run homer, but in the home half Pilgrims veteran LF Vincent Drew blasted a go ahead Grand-Slam (his first hit of the postseason) to give Boston the lead, but the Pilgrims were not done as over the next two innings they added five more runs as they ran out 13-8 winners. After back-to-back offensive outbursts, game five was the turn of Boston's pitchers to put on a show. Mike Mayfield, Louis Mack and Patrick Evans combined for a 3-hit shutout, giving Boston the series lead and all the momentum ahead of the final two games back in St. Louis. With Mitch Woodroffe unable to go due to his ankle injury St. Louis turned to Brandon Stanton for the start in game six. Stanton produced a solid performance holding Boston to three runs over seven innings but received precious little help from the Reds offense or bullpen once he left the game. The pilgrims scored six times over the final two frames against the beleaguered St. Louis relief corps as they eased to a comfortable 9-3 series clinching win. Boston's victory pushed their record in EL pennant series to a perfect six of six and gave them a place in their third straight World Series.

The Western League Pennant Series was a divisional matchup between Las Vegas and Phoenix, the two teams had met at the same stage 14-years previously with the Gamblers emerging victorious in five games on their way to winning the World Series. The visiting Eagles stunned the Gamblers faithful in game one, burying Las Vegas starter Adrian Knapp under an avalanche of runs early while only a late 3-run homerun from Vaughan Snyder gave the Gamblers anything to cheer about in a demoralising 9-3 defeat. Phoenix continued their dominance over their hosts in game two, starter Nick Ford pitched an excellent eight innings (4H, 1R, 10K) while homeruns from 2B Mike Brown and RF Adrian Ramirez powered the Eagles to a comfortable 7-1 victory. Las Vegas finally got on track in game three, shortstop Joaquin Corona’s third inning three-run bomb put the Gamblers in control before a determined Phoenix rally was stopped dead by star closer Philip Redmond to give Las Vegas life in the series. Game four began as a tight pitching duel with both starters George Buchanan (PHO) and Kade Blackford (LV) throwing well, with the Gamblers leading 2-1 in the seventh Phoenix’s bats came alive, with SS Brandon Buck drilling a 2-RBI double down the leftfield line to blow the game wide open, Donaldo Gonzalez’s 2-run homer provided the emphatic conclusion to a disastrous 7-run inning for Las Vegas. The Gamblers by contrast could only muster a single run in reply over the final two frames as Phoenix took a commanding 3 to 1 series lead. With the Gamblers facing elimination game five was a tense affair with neither team able to take control, Phoenix entered the ninth inning holding a slim 3-2 lead with closer Al O’Brien on the mound. With Joaquin Corona on second and two men out, the partisan crowd were on their feet anticipating sweet victory until Las Vegas RF Danny Wheeler drilled a 2-1 pitch deep into the stands to instantly silence the crowd and give the Gamblers the lead. Las Vegas turned to star closer Philip Redmond to finish the job, Redmond had been unhittable during the playoffs (allowing just a single hit through six innings of work), however he was not his usual dominant self, retiring two men but putting two others on base. Phoenix first baseman Domingo Vargas stepped into the batter’s box representing the winning run having never managed a career hit against Redmond (0-15 lifetime), this state of affairs looked to have changed when he connected on a 2-1 fastball sending it screaming down the leftfield line only for the ball to turn foul at the last moment, two pitches later Vargas hit another fastball deep down the same leftfield line that once again seemed destined to end up foul, until in a dramatic turn of events it clattered into the foul pole and to the delight of Phoenix fans everywhere, bounced fair for a game-winning 3-run walk-off homer to send the Eagles on to the World Series.