It's really hard for me to pick against San Antonio but I flipped the coin and Los Angeles came out on top.  This will be a great series and I am sure the TBBL will be disappointed if we don't get extra innings in Game 7.  Los Angeles wins it on a Brett Gardner bunt single in the 13th!

SAN ANTONIO, TX -- The San Antonio Saints rallied past the Los Angeles Halos to win the TBBL World Series in five games.  The Saints relentlessly attacked the Halo pen and scored seven runs in the top of the 9^th in the decisive game to blow open a tie game.  Jose Bautista was named the MVP for his .375/.522/.563 performance.  He also scored five and knocked in five runs. 

Game 1: SAS 5, LAH 2 

The Halos got on the board in the top of the third when David Ortiz grounded an RBI single off Dan Haren.  Jason Heyward launched a solo homer in the 4^th to extend the lead. 

CC Sabathia held the Saints scoreless until the bottom of the sixth when Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Stanton, and David Wright smacked RBI doubles.  Corey Wade came in and surrendered a pinch double to Lucas Duda for a 4-2 SAS lead.  Gonzalez hit a 7^th inning solo  to provide the final margin.  Eric O’Flaherty worked 1.2 perfect innings before David Robertson finished the game with a perfect ninth for the save. SAS 1, LAH 0 

Game 2: LAH 6, SAS 4 

LAH again jumped out to an early lead, but they held on this time.  Macier Izturis doubled home Brett Gardner in the 4^th and scored when Curtis Granderson launched a Matt Garza fastball for a two run homer.  Yadier Molina capped the rally with his own solo later in the inning.  Gonzalez cut the lead in half with a two run double off Vinnie Pestano in the 5^th, but Pestano helped his own cause with an RBI single in the bottom of the 6^th for a 5-2 bulge.

In the bottom of the 7^th Jose Reyes had an RBI triple and scored on a Bautista sac fly to cut the lead to one run.  But former Saint Vlad Guerrero touched up Jesse Crain for a solo homer in the top of the 9^th to salt the game away.  Mo Rivera was perfect in the 9^th for the save.  SAS 1, LAH 1 

Game 3: SAS 9, LAH 6 

The teams jetted out of South Texas and went to California for the rest of the series.  The Saints showed no sign of jet lag as they jumped all over Cory Luebke for five early runs.  Mike Stanton’s two run blast was the big blow. 

This time the Halos were the team that rallied back, scoring six times in the middle innings off David Price.  All the runs came on homers with Granderson ‘s blast the only one that wasn’t a solo.  Granderson hit a three run homer while Ortiz, Mark Teixeira and Izturis also took Price deep.

Instead of collapsing after their lead evaporated the Saints fought back with four late runs.  Gonzalez’s two run triple in the top of the 7^th gave SAS a 7-6 lead.  Bautista singled in another run in the 8^th off Rivera and Wilson Ramos capped the scoring with an RBI double in the 9^th.  A tiring Robertson worked into and out of a bases loaded jam in the 9^th before recording the save. SAS 2, LAH 1

“That was the key game”, said Bautista after the game.  “If we had lost it we would have been doubting ourselves after losing the lead on the road.  The Halos are a great team, so we had to keep them down.”

Game 4: SAS 4, LAH 3 

This time it was the Saints’ turn to score all their runs on homers.  Brandon Morrow sliced the SAS batters down, striking out 11 in six innings.  But he allowed a Chris Duncan solo in the 4^th and served up a two run Bautista blast in the 5^th.

The Halos tied it in the bottom of the inning with RBI singles by Gardner, Granderson and Molina, chasing Shawn Marcum.  But Ramos blasted a solo off Wade in the top of the 6^th to give SAS a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.  Seven different Saint relievers pitched in the game, with Jordan Walden picking up the save.  SAS 3, LAH 1

Game 5: SAS 10, LAH 3 

The final score screams ‘blowout’ but the game was tied into the 9^th inning.  In fact, the Halos had touched up Haren for three runs after two innings and looked to take this game until Sabathia tired late.

Granderson hit a 1^st inning solo and Kevin Youklis added RBI singles in the 2^nd inning.  Stop me if you’ve heard this before…Then the Saints rallied…I thought you had.

Ramos had an RBI single in the 4^th and Bautista cut the lead to a run in the 5^th with his own RBI single.  It stayed 3-2 until the 8^th inning when Buster Posey lifted a sac fly off Rafael Betancourt to tie the game.

 Rivera came on to start the 9^th and Reyes greeted him with a single to left.  Reyes couldn’t get a jump to steal, but Rivera seemed distracted while walking Bautista.  Gonzalez hit a long fly out that allowed Reyes to take 3^rd.  Then Rivera threw a wild pitch that even Molina couldn’t corral.  Rivera almost escaped only down a run but pinch hitter Drew Sutton lined an RBI double.  Then it really got out of hand when Wade came on and gave up a slam to Chris Duncan. 

“It was almost sacrilegious that it got so ugly there at the end” said AGone after the game in a riotous clubhouse. “This series was so close for most of the innings that it shouldn’t have ended this way.  Of course if we had gone into the bottom of the 9^th only up 4-3 they might have stolen the game, so I am glad we got it done.”

SAS hit .285/.347/.492 for the series while LAH hit .233/.289/.433.  The Saints hit 12 doubles and seven homers while the Halos hit six doubles and nine homers.

If LAH had won the MVP would likely have been Granderson who turned in a .286/.286/.714 series with the three homers and a series-high seven RBI.

The Saints win the World Series in their first year in South Texas.  The franchise also took home the hardware as Chemung in 2007.

Thanks to Greg for being such a good sport.  His team was good enough to win this in five games but we just got hot at the right time (or wrong time for him).  He will be back.