Harry Lyerly and the Denver Brewers of the WPK

[BirdWatcher]

Okay, we aren't going to dwell on this one too much. Maybe chalk it up to a bit of pennant clinching hangover or just meeting a red-hot team or just needing to get a little something out of our system prior to the post-season. But upshot is, the offense went cold and we lost 3 straight to the lowly, but recently inspired, Wild Things.




Pretty much every Brewer hitter struggled in this series with the exception of Mike Foster. Foster (.324/.363/.464) sat out the first game but went 4 for 5 in game 2 with 2 RBI to get to 94 on the season and hit his 33rd double and 12th HR and then went 2 for 4 in the finale, driving in his 95 run of the season. Some credit should be given to Hector Hard, who did a fine job in the middle contest, working 7 innings and giving up 2 runs on just 4 hits.

But overall, bad series for the Brewers and they will look to get the offense going, in particular, before they head off to the World Series.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brewers wrap up the road portion of their 1974 regular season with a three-game series at Detroit against the 9th place Falcons.

In the first game the Brewers hitting woes continue. The lose 3-1 to extend their losing streak to 5 games. Harry Lyerly gets his last start of a disappointing 1974 campaign- his worst yet as a big leaguer- and really pitches pretty well, allowing 3 runs on only 3 hits in 6 innings pitched. But with no run support he drops to 9-12 with a 4.30 ERA. The Brewers collect a total of 2 hits so not much else to report here.


Game 2 was an epic battle. Having fought to a 3-3 tie through 9 innings, the game stretched into extra innings. And the bullpens took over, denying any scoring in the 10th, the 11th, the 12th, and on, until finally, in the 15th inning, the Brewers break through. Having entered the game in relief in the 14th inning, young 2-way player Ben Flynn, who pitched a flawless 14th, came to bat with 2 men on and 1 out (Ryan Rodgers having drawn a 1-out walk and John Flores hitting a single, sending Rodgers to second base) and Flynn worked a full count and then hit a long drive over the head of the center fielder for a double, scoring Rodgers. The Brewers had a chance to add to the run total, especially after Rodrigo Rodriguez followed up with an infield hit single, but as has been happening too often lately, Bobby Erbakan couldn't come through in the clutch, hitting into a fielder's choice and Joe McPhillips hit a deep fly out to right to end the inning.

Out to the mound went the young hitting star Flynn for another inning, in which he would face a few of the most dangerous hitters in the Falcons lineup. And in fact he did give up a lead-off single to second baseman Takeyuki Obana. With plenty of arms still fresh in the 'pen a few of Flynn's veteran teammates looked to the dugout to see if the skipper might pull the kid, knowing that the Brewers desperately needed to end their skid. But no. After the game the manager said, "the kid got us the lead and I was gonna give him every chance to hold it. Hey, we see Ben as an important part of our team going forward and we needed to know that he could do the job. But more importantly, he needed to know he could do the job." Flynn focused on his catcher, veteran Kevin Curtis, the third catcher used in the game by the Brewers, took a deep breath, and on the first pitch to Greg Potter saw the Falcons catcher drop down a good looking bunt, and then saw his catcher jump on it with catlike reflexes, pick up the ball and fire it to second baseman Joe Willemse, who skillfully placed the tag on Obana at second. One out. And looking at Flynn you could see the weight lifting from his shoulders. His catcher had given him a lift and now he knew he had this. Three pitches later, a Kurt Joiner groundball out and a Tyler Brooks fly out to left, and the losing streak was over. The kid did it.
Cheol-han Lee had started the game, working 7 innings, giving up 3 runs on 8 hits. Including Flynn's double, the Brewers hit 5 in the game. Joe McPhillips (.290/.381/.515) went 3 for 6 in the game, walking twice, and hitting his 8th triple.


Although both teams were exhausted after the game 2 marathon, it appeared that the Brewers were finally breathing easy again and could return to normal. And that is exactly what they did, winning easily in a 9-1 game. Matt Helm's last start of the regular season was pretty typical of his 1974 season. In other words, very good. Helm lasted 8 innings, giving up 1 run on 6 hits, striking out 4 batters and walking none. Helm even went 2 for 4 at the plate, driving in 2 runs. With the win he finishes the season with a 14-6 record and an ERA of 2.71. It is easily a career year for the Brewers captain. It was also a big game for a potential future captain. Catcher Kirk Patnode was called up from AAA about a week and half ago. And in his few starts since then he has not been particularly impressive, in spite of his sterling defensive reputation. There is much talk about the possibility of Kevin Curtis time as a Brewer coming to an end this off season with Patnode taking over as the backup for Zacarias Martell. Some were starting to question whether that was a bit premature. Perhaps Patnode was aware of that, perhaps not. But in this game he showed up to play, and he gave a taste of what he is capable of. Patnode went 3 for 5, driving in 3 runs, hitting his first big league double and doing a fine job behind the plate. Whether he meant it to be or not, it was a statement game, and one that he needed. Joe McPhillips (.293/.384/.518) making a push to compete with teammate Ryan Rodgers for the league MVP award (Bobby Erbakan seems to have taken a step back, but has 3 more games to try to get back in it) went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored (117) and an RBI (103), hitting his 23rd double, drawing his 71st walk, and picking up his 18th stolen base. (Bobby got stolen base #19 in the game.)


The Brewers return home for one last series: 3 games against the Brooklyn Aces, who have won 6 straight and shown great grit in climbing back into 2nd place in spite of being eliminated from the MGL race. While it is felt that the Brewers management would love to see the team get to 100 wins on the season, with an eye towards the World Series they will be giving some players a bit of rest and almost surely none of the expected members of the starting rotation in the WS will be getting starts the rest of the way.

[BirdWatcher]

It wasn't decided until the penultimate day of the 1974 regular season, but the Jacksonville Wolf Pack, the reigning WPK champions, have once again won the SJL pennant and will face the Denver Brewers in the WPK World Series as they try to win back-to-back championship trophies.


The Wolf Pack clinched largely thanks to another great start from the ace of their rotation, Juan Maldonado, who becomes just the second pitcher this year to win 20 games (the other, Aaron McNally of Brooklyn, is going for his 25th win in the final game of the season in Denver.)

[BirdWatcher]

The 1974 WPK regular season has come to an end and Ryan Rodgers, having turned 36 just a week ago, has won the third batting title of his career, finishing the season at .372. This is the second highest mark of his illustrious career as he led the SJL in batting average in 1967 with a .373 mark. Ryan led the league in bases on balls for the 4th time in his career (113, 3rd highest total of his career), in OBP for the 7th time (.495, his and the WPK's highest season mark ever), in OPS for the 1st time (.960, the 2nd highest total of his career), and in WAR for the 4th time (7.4, his 6th highest total of his career.)


He is considered one of the favorites for the MGL MVP award this season but what he wants more than anything is to get his 3rd World Championship ring.

[BirdWatcher]

The Brooklyn Ace's ace Aaron McNally won his 25th game of 1974 on the final day of the season against the Denver Brewers to put together probably the single best pitching season in WPK history. He ends up with just the second pitching triple crown in WPK history, joining the great Jaime Schardein, who did it while pitching for the Charlotte Sting in 1965.

[BirdWatcher]

Okay, I'm going to put this out there for feedback.
On the last day of the regular season Jonathan Koch suffered a knee bruise that has left him day-to-day with moderate effects on his running and should stretch a least to game 3 or 4 of the World Series.

Koch has been pretty good when healthy this year, but was out quite a bit with an injury earlier in the season. He is one of our potential power bats and a very fine fielding second baseman. Speed isn't his game though he does have decent raw speed and will leg out some infield hits.

I'll be giving a lot more details about this soon- but suffice it to say for now that our WS opponents, the Jacksonville Wolf Pack, are using a starting rotation for the series that is 3/4ths lefthanders. And Koch is a right-handed hitter. On the other hand, their bullpen is almost exclusively right-handers. But also pretty bad.

If I leave Koch off the roster, figuring he is not at full strength and that playing might just cause a worse injury, I can have Joe Willemse and/or Rodrigo Rodriguez man second base. They are both left-handed hitters, so there's that. Willemse is even better defensively than Koch. RodRod doesn't have a lot of experience at second and while he has good basic skills he is very error prone and with his lack of experience likely a real defensive liability. (A better backup at third for Mike Foster.) But a better hitter overall than either Koch or Willemse. I could also add David Bennett to the post-season roster. A right-handed hitter, a decent hitter, and a very good fielder. And Oscar Vargas will be there and is an amazing fielder- the best of the lot- and hits left-handers pretty well, with some power to the gaps and over the fence and the ability to draw walks.

If I stick with Koch, Bennett is definitely out. Then depending upon how many pitchers I take, maybe I can keep two of three out of Vargas, RodRod, and Willemse. In the post-season I don't think you can have too many great contact hitters who drive the ball into the gaps well. Which describes RodRod. And late in games, against the right-handed bullpen, he could be a very valuable pinch-hitter. Willemse and Vargas provide very similar value- both very good defensively (edge to Vargas), Willemse a better contact hitter but mostly a slap hitter and Vargas with poorer contact but more likely to do real damage when he does connect.

(In case it isn't clear- I'm also thinking this out as I type this- possibly finding the answer through this process. But I'd still love input.)

To Koch or not to Koch, that is the question. Any ideas?

[BirdWatcher]

So let's take a quick look at the final standings in the WPK this season:



Looking back at the pre-season predictions there is quite a bit that the prognosticators got right, and of course some things they blew. One of the things they were certainly right about was the relative parity in the SJL. Although things didn't turn out quite a close as they thought- they saw the difference between 1st and last place being only about 11 games- it was certainly a much tighter race than the MGL. The team that was largely considered the favorite to win this season, San Antonio, was in the race until pretty late, but finished in 4th place. The pre-season predictions did not see Jacksonville repeating as the SJL champ, and they nearly didn't, but in the end they prevailed. And while they were right about the Milwaukee Cadets finishing in last place, the biggest miss was the Philadelphia Mud Hens, who were predicted to finish next to last and instead were in the running to win the league until the next to last day of the season.

The pre-season predictors were right about the Denver Brewers winning the MGL and were almost spot on about their record, though they saw the Brewers getting one more victory than they did. They saw the Brewers winning over Brooklyn by 6 games. Right about who would finish in 2nd, almost right about the margin. And they had L.A., Charlotte, and Baltimore all finishing in the next 3 spots, just in slightly different order. And really, they were pretty close with the rest of the MGL standings too, with San Francisco finishing in last, though with 98 losses not 105.

(Now I want to step outside the WPK reality a moment and talk about something I love about this league so far. I am very happy that 10 years in things have stayed so stable and reasonable in terms of team wins and losses. The best won-loss record thus far is that of the Brewers in 1971, when we were 108-54. The best thus far in the SJL was the 104-58 of the Columbus Whalers in 1969. The worst record so far was admittedly pretty bad: the El Paso Dawgs went 45-117 n 1967. In the MGL the worst was the Charlotte Sting in 1969, when they went 55-107. But there have also been seasons with no 100 win teams and no 100 loss teams. If things continue on this path, I will be very happy indeed.)

[Palaaemon]

Bird,

I am not a happy camper. I spent considerable time and effort writing a post to "help" you with your requested feedback and was finished, was going to post (doing this on a kindle) and accidently hit the back arrow. POST GONE! So now as I was tired before I am even more so now, I am going to give you the short hand version and if you wish more info as to the whys I will give you that later.

Making some assumptions and suggestions. Also I don't remember (I really should after following the Brewers all this time) every players info.

Assuming 12 pitchers (Will explain reasons why I suggest that if you wish. You and I think alot alike so we probably don't need to talk about it. I have considered the posibilities of an 11 man pen but that can be too dangerous in the post season).

Assuming standard bench - 1 catcher, 2 IF, 2 OF. However the Brewers could be better served with a different combination. I don't have all the information.

Ok. Without as much explanation as the previous disappearing post.

Koch - out (Too many unknowns. Cannot have a dead roster slot in the championship series).

RodRod - out (Not reliable to be used as a fielder in a championship series. An error could lose the game and that and bad defense cannot be allowed to be a part of the plan). Your offense can win games, however as you know in the games that the offense does not come through, pitching and DEFENSE will. No weak links!

Bennett - start vs. L, bench vs. R.
Willemse - bench vs. L, start vs. R.
Vargas - bench utility
All very good to elite defenders.

Hope this helps. Feel free to use any or all of my suggestions. Also if you do not wish to use any of my ramblings just make sure you check in your shoes/boots before you put them on next time as I may or may not be responsible for the contents thereof.

Have a good night!

Palaaemon

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by Palaaemon

Bird,

I am not a happy camper. I spent considerable time and effort writing a post to "help" you with your requested feedback and was finished, was going to post (doing this on a kindle) and accidently hit the back arrow. POST GONE! So now as I was tired before I am even more so now, I am going to give you the short hand version and if you wish more info as to the whys I will give you that later.

Making some assumptions and suggestions. Also I don't remember (I really should after following the Brewers all this time) every players info.

Assuming 12 pitchers (Will explain reasons why I suggest that if you wish. You and I think alot alike so we probably don't need to talk about it. I have considered the posibilities of an 11 man pen but that can be too dangerous in the post season).

Assuming standard bench - 1 catcher, 2 IF, 2 OF. However the Brewers could be better served with a different combination. I don't have all the information.

Ok. Without as much explanation as the previous disappearing post.

Koch - out (Too many unknowns. Cannot have a dead roster slot in the championship series).

RodRod - out (Not reliable to be used as a fielder in a championship series. An error could lose the game and that and bad defense cannot be allowed to be a part of the plan). Your offense can win games, however as you know in the games that the offense does not come through, pitching and DEFENSE will. No weak links!

Bennett - start vs. L, bench vs. R.
Willemse - bench vs. L, start vs. R.
Vargas - bench utility
All very good to elite defenders.

Hope this helps. Feel free to use any or all of my suggestions. Also if you do not wish to use any of my ramblings just make sure you check in your shoes/boots before you put them on next time as I may or may not be responsible for the contents thereof.

Have a good night!

Palaaemon

Thanks for the feedback (and sorry for the technical glitch- I hate it when that happens, though usually I only lose a sentence or two). I figured I could count on you for a thoughtful response.

And I am going to continue to give this thought. I keep vacillating on the Koch question and your feedback helps. The only part I'm pretty sure I will not follow your advice on is RodRod. Though I agree with you that I will probably limit his defensive chances and mostly use him as a pinch-hitter. But with the Wolf Pack's mostly right handed bullpen I just think a left-handed bat with his great contact, gap power, and even decent HR power skills is vital. Although this probably also means no Bennett.

Now another factor I didn't mention before is that I should have a few good extra right-handed bats that can be used in key late-inning spots in relievers Jordan Stephens and Ben Flynn. And yes, I plan on keeping 12 pitchers, partly because of the ability of these two to also hit and play a defensive position with some skill (Stephens-third base, Flynn-first base.)

Pitching looks like this: 4-man rotation of Cheol-han Lee, Erik Sloan, Steve Green, and Hector Hard. That's right, left, right, left. Bullpen of Jaden Francis, Liann-wei Hua, Jordan Stephens, Jeremy Walker, Sam Pruiett, Matt Helm, Ben Flynn, Eric Marino. So 4 LHP and 4 RHP, with Helm of course being our long reliever/emergency starter.
The obvious omissions: Harry Lyerly (that one hurts, but it makes sense to me), Justin Peacock. And then a few of the young relievers who bounced back and forth from AAA and Denver and qualify for the WS roster.

Catchers: Zacarias Martell and Kevin Curtis, LHB and RHB respectively. (With 3/4 of the Wolf Pack starter being lefties, this might mean Curtis starts more but Martell comes into most games once we get to the Wolf Pack bullpen.)

Infield: Bobby Erbakan (RHB), Mike Foster (RHB), Chad Brown (Switch hitter, but better from the right side), Oscar Vargas (RHB)- and then I guess all the question marks.

Outfield: Andrew Kennedy (LHB), Joe McPhillips (LHB), Ryan Rodgers (RHB), John Flores (RHB), and Josh Schaeffer (LHB). But here is the other small question for me. Do I need Schaeffer on the squad? He has slumped much of the second half and is a good fielder but not as good as either Rodgers or Flores. He draws walks as well as anyone on the team not named Ryan Rodgers. But he's also our worst work ethic guy. (Now, in pure OOTP game play terms, that shouldn't matter in a best of 7 series, right? But in full immersion mode, would I want a guy like this on the WS roster if I have more talented hard workers ahead of him?) With some very durable outfielders (McPhillips being the question mark in this area) I might not need 5 outfielders.

Okay, mapping this out now I think I see that if I leave Koch off the roster I only need to eliminate 1 of the following 4: Willemse, Bennett, RodRod, Schaeffer.
I think I should keep Schaeffer even though part of me doesn't want to.
I am pretty committed to keeping RodRod's potent left-handed bat on the bench.
That leaves Willemse and Bennett. And I think I keep Willemse for his defensive versatillity (Bennett is a very fine second baseman, but that's it, and Vargas and Willemse are both excellent at second and can also play great third base and shortstop.) Can probably afford not to have Bennett's right handed bat with Stephens and Flynn as options. Willemse also doesn't lose a lot of contact, which is his offensive strength, versus left-handers.

This assumes I leave Koch off. But I think you are probably right that this is the smart move.

[BirdWatcher]

So before we move on to the World Series lets wrap up the Brewers 1974 regular season quickly.

For the last 3 games of the season the Brewers came home to take on the 2nd place Brooklyn Aces. Wanting to rest their front-line pitchers for the upcoming post-season, the Brewers sent out Justin Peacock in game 1, Jack Hinkel in game 2, and Sekien Hamasaki in the final regular season game of 1974. Meanwhile, the Aces were countering with 1973 All-Star Shannon Petrik (admittedly having a down year in 1974), 1973 18-game winner Jose Mendoza (again, not as good in '74), and ace of all aces (and Aces) this season, Aaron McNally.
Predictably this didn't go well for the Brewers. Although it didn't go as poorly as might have been expected as the Brewers won game 1, 11-6, then barely lost game 2, 10-9, and finally lost to McNally in game 3, 7-3. Mike Foster ends the season hot as he hits 2 homers in game 1 to get to 14 and hit his 34th double, and then was given the final 2 games off. Zacarias Martell also finished strong, going 3 for 4 in game 2 with 4 RBI and hitting 3 doubles to get to 19 on the season. Oscar Vargas hit 2 HR's in the series to end the season with 5. And Chad Brown hit his 4th HR of the season in the second game. And while Bobby Erbakan ended the season struggling at the plate, he did steal 2 bases in the series to get to 21 on the season, a career high for him.

[BirdWatcher]

Ricky Salinas has been a fine WPK player for years but he's mostly flown under the radar in spite of winning 4 Gold Gloves, being an All-Star 3 times, and having 3 championship rings and being named the World Series MVP in 1969.


But after leading the SJL this season with a .352 batting average and collecting a league best 223 hits, while also leading the SJL in WAR with 6.7, anonymity should be a thing of the past for the 29-year old hard-working team sparkplug.


And now he will try to lead his team to a second consecutive WPK championship by defeating the MGL's best, the Denver Brewers.

[BirdWatcher]

Now a quick look at some of the final offensive leader boards for the SJL in 1974:

[BirdWatcher]

And some of the pitching statistical leaders in the SJL:

[BirdWatcher]

And batting leaders in the MGL:

[BirdWatcher]

And finally, pitching leader boards in the MGL:

[BirdWatcher]

With the 1974 WPK World Series set to begin later today, let's take a quick look at the two teams competing for the ultimate prize in the WPK. We'll start with the SJL's Jacksonville Wolf Pack.



As many of you may realize, the Wolf Pack are the most storied franchise in the SJL in the league's short history thus far. They collected their 5th SJL pennant this year and are in search of their 4th WPK Championship. Their team record in the 10 years the WPK has existed is a robust 961-659 for a winning percentage of .593, by far the best in the WPK up to this point. They are the reigning WPK champs, having won 103 games in 1973 and then survived a grueling 7-game series against the Los Angeles Spinners to take the title.

Things were much tighter in the SJL this season and the Wolf Pack just narrowly held off the surprising Philadelphia Mud Hens and a late-season surge from the Washington Night Train to win the SJL with just 93 wins. The Wolf Pack won largely on the strength of their power hitting lineup and their excellent starting rotation. They had a good offense, finishing near the top in most categories but only led in one- home runs. Their starting pitching was excellent and they finished with the best starter ERA in the league but with a porous bullpen they only managed to finish 4th in the SJL in runs allowed. Their team defense and running stats were middle of the pack and below.

The key for the Brewers in facing the Wolf Pack is to neutralize their powerful heart of the lineup, which is primarily left-handed with the exception of veteran third baseman (and future HOF'er) Jesus Casiano, who is a switch-hitter but hits much better from the left side of the plate and their best player of 1974, Ricky Salinas.
Another key will be to try to wear down the starters and get to the bullpen early in games. This might not be as difficult as it seems, as other than 4th starter Randy Cali, this rotation isn't particularly known for their great stamina. In fact, the lone right-hander, Eddie Osorio, who had a career year this season, is known to tire early in games.
A real wild card in this series that could have an impact is the fragility of several of the Wolf Pack's key players, including 1-3 of their starting rotation. An injury to one of these three, in particular, could lead to disastrous outcomes for the reigning champs.


A few notes about the Jacksonville ballpark- Fidelity Financial Stadium. It is a pretty good hitting park, especially for the long ball, and especially for right-handed batters. Left-handed batters will not struggle to hit the long ball here but over time their batting averages could suffer a bit.
The Wolf Pack, maybe partly because they are left-handed hitter heavy, actually put up a better road record than home record this season (.580 to .568.) They also fared better against right-handed starting pitchers (.580) than left-handed starters (.560)- again, not a surprise.

One last note: one member of the Wolf Pack roster is a former Brewer- relief pitcher Justin Bismark, who the Brewers took in the 1st round of the 1966 draft and traded to Jacksonville this past July. Bismark may have extra motivation to do well against his former club and is one of the more talented members of the Wolf Pack bullpen. Though that's not saying much. It's a pretty bad bullpen.

[BirdWatcher]

And let's take a look at how things turned out for our Denver Brewers this year and what the World Series keys might be.

The Brewers are an offense first team. We led the MGL in almost every offensive category other than finishing 3rd in home runs and not being a very good base stealing or base running team. The Brewers outscored the Wolf Pack by exactly 100 runs this season. At first I thought this might be a product of different offensive environments in the league. But in fact, the SJL overall scored more runs than the MGL- by more than 200 runs. The MGL had a slightly higher batting average, but just barely (.264 to .261.) The Brewers just simply outscored everyone in 1974 and it wasn't close.



Pitching, on the other hand, which they say wins championships, was pretty average for the Brewers. The bullpen was strong and led the league in ERA until pretty late in the season, but still finished 3rd and was respectable. But the starting staff was not great. Then again, Harry Lyerly, who struggled the most, isn't even on the post-season roster and Hector Hard was only with the club for the second half of the season. Cheol-han Lee is still an ace, Steve Green had a very strong second half and finished with one of his finest seasons, and Erik Sloan was also very good down the stretch. Against the great left-handed batters of the Wolf Pack, Cheol-han and Steve Green will particularly be tested.

Then again, as I said, the Jacksonville park favors right-handed hitters and so, as it happens, does Denver's Centennial Stadium. And if Fidelity Financial is a pretty good hitters park, Centennial Stadium is a great hitters park.
The key for the Wolf Pack starters will be, of course, to get late into games, but even more it will be to neutralize the Brewers best right-handed hitters: Bobby Erbakan, Ryan Rodgers, and Mike Foster.

The Brewers also have home-field advantage in this series and that might be huge. The Brewers this season played to the tune of a .667 winning percentage at home this season with a more modest .568 on the road.
The Brewers had a bit of difficulty late in the season against left-handed starters, largely due to slumps by Bobby Erbakan and Chad Brown, but overall still had a better record against lefty starters than righties. With 3/4ers of the Wolf Pack rotation left-handers this could bode well for the Brewers.


Perhaps the key to the series for the Brewers is for Bobby Erbakan to break out of his recent slump and Mike Foster to not cool off from his recent hot hitting. If these potent right-handers with some pop can get things going against the left-handed Wolf Pack starters, things could work out very well for the Brewers. The Brewers will be hoping for an outcome something like 1970, when they defeated the Wolf Pack 4 games to 1 for their lone championship (and Jacksonville's lone World Series defeat) while the Wolf Pack will be looking for revenge.

[BirdWatcher]

Well, it certainly wasn't easy as they had to battle back from being down 2-0 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Brewers managed to get Game 1 of the WPK World Series to extra frames and then won it with a walk-off hit by Joe McPhillips, who went 2 for 4 in the game.



The Brewers were handcuffed by the Wolf Pack's lefty starter, Randy Cali, who pitched a masterful game, until they broke through in the 8th thanks to a Kevin Curtis lead-off double, followed by a Jordan Stephens pinch-hit single, scoring Curtis for the first Brewer run of the game. The Brewers then got a gift when the Wolf Pack shortstop Bruce Heath muffed a ground ball off the bat of Chad Brown for the lone error of the game. Joe McPhillips walked, loading the bases. Ryan Rodgers struck out for the 1st out of the inning. But then Bobby Erbakan lifted a fly ball deep enough into center field to score Jordan Stephens with the tying run.

It involved using three more relief pitchers in addition to Stephens (with Liann-wei Hua having pitched a perfect 8th in relief of Lee), but the Brewers held the Wolf Pack scoreless the rest of the way, with young lefty Eric Marino pitching a beautiful 10th inning to earn the win. Former Brewer Justin Bismark took the mound to face his former teammates in the bottom of the 9th. He may have had some measure of revenge in mind, but it was not to be. Chad Brown led off the inning with a double into left-center. And on the first pitch he saw, Joe McPhillips hit a sharp grounder up the middle for a single, sending the speedy Brown home with the winning run.

John Flores contributed a 2 for 4 game for the Brewers, hitting one of the 3 doubles for the home team in the win.

[stevem810]

KCS (Kinsella Championship Series)

[BirdWatcher]

Originally Posted by stevem810

KCS (Kinsella Championship Series)

Perhaps I should start making a list (starting with this) and well before the next season's end set up a vote to decide what the series will be called hereafter.