San Antonio!!! 

The San Antonio Saints overcame a 3-1 World Series deficit and fought back from a 6-2 hole in Game 6 to sneak past the Protect Your Nuts in 7 games.  Matt Kemp, the PYN catchers and the pitchers each raked at the plate to put SAS on the brink of elimination.  Late inning pinch hitting heroics brought the Saints back time and time again.  Buster Posey barely beat out Kemp as the MVP.  The win marked the third time in four years that the Saints have won the TBBL title.  Last season the Colorado Gladiators beat the Saints in the division series and went on to win it all.

Game 1: PYN 6, SAS 5 (11)

The Nuts were perceived by most pundits as having better pitching than the Saints but significantly less hitting.  The numbers seemed to back up the perception as SAS scored 938 runs while allowing 611 in the regular season. PYN tallied only 660 and surrendered 556.

But those numbers went out the window as the Nuts pounded Matt Garza in the top of the 1^st for four runs on five consecutive one-out hits.  Dustin Pedroia started it with a single and went to second when Miggy Cabrera hit a single.  They both moved up on a wild pitch and scored on an Adam Lind single.  Lind scampered to third when Matt Kemp slapped a double and scored when Nick Markakis singled.  Kemp scored on a Brandon Crawford ground out.

Kershaw was in total command for the Nuts, giving up only a harmless hit until the bottom of the third when Jose Bautista ripped a solo homer with two outs.  Buster Posey started the bottom of the fourth with a double and scored when Kershaw threw a pair of wild pitches.

PYN added an insurance run in the 6^th when Kemp doubled again.  Two outs later he scored when Caleb Joseph smacked an unlikely double down the LF line.  Meanwhile, Kershaw got stronger, retiring 12 consecutive batters from the 4^th through 7^th frames.  In the 8^th Jose Reyes singled and moved to second on a Bautista single.  With two outs Posey fought off four consecutive 3-2 offerings to draw an 11-pitch walk.  Since Kershaw had thrown 111 pitches to that point, Scott replaced him with Brandon League.  Few managers would even consider pulling Stanton for a pinch hitter because the mighty right hander blasted 43 HRs in the regular season.  But Alan replaced him with little-used bench bat Kirk Nieuwenhuis to exploit the splits advantage.  It paid off as the little lefty snuck a grounder past Miggy and down the LF line, tying the game 5-5.

Nuts fans groaned, knowing their bullpen had been their weak link all year.  But they were wrong. The PYN bully was perfect in extras and Joseph was AGAIN the unlikely hero smacking an 11^th inning RBI double off Joaquin Benoit.  LaTroy Hawkins hurled a perfect 11^th to earn the save.

“Man, it hurt to lose that one,” said Posey after the game. “When you fight back against a great pitcher like Kershaw, you just know you are going to win.  We have done it all year in situations like that.  But today we couldn’t finish it” W-Badenhop L-Abad

Game 2: SAS 5, PYN 2

The Nuts grabbed the early lead again in game 2, as Kemp crushed a long solo in the 2^nd off David Price. Pedroia added an RBI double in the 4^th inning.  Yordano Ventura had a lot more trouble with the Saints than Kershaw did in the opener, giving up at least one base runner in each inning.   He stranded them until the 5^th when Bautista followed a pair of singles with an RBI double. Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman made a crucial error that allowed another run and Posey made it hurt with a blistering three run blast.

Price was gone by that point, having surrendered 10 hits in 4.1 innings.  So David Robertson picked up the win in relief.  He and Pedro Baez finished the game with 4.2 scoreless frames, with Baez going the final 3.1 innings. W-Robertson, L-Ventura, S-Baez

Game 3: PYN 5, SAS 2

Posey stayed hot, smashing a solo homer off Cole Hamels in the top of the 1^st when the series moved to Camden Yards.  In the next inning, Reyes plated a run with an RBI single.  But Hamels buckled down after that and his offense got to Kyle Lohse.  Crawford lifted a sac fly in the bottom of the 2^nd to cut the lead in half. In the 4^th, Reyes booted a one out grounder and Markakis yanked a two run shot for a 3-2 Nuts lead. Joseph again played hero in the 6^th when he mashed his own two run shot for the final tally.

The Saints threatened in the 5^th and 8^th but back-breaking GDPs killed both of the rallies.  Scott intentionally walked Bautista in the 5^th and Posey hit an easy 6-4-3 DP.  League and Hawkins each faced the minimum to finish the last two innings.  W-Hamels, L-Lohse, S-Hawkins (2)

Game 4: PYN 7, SAS 5

Scoring first meant nothing in this series as the Saints AGAIN got on the board early but couldn’t hold the lead.  In a game that featured cringe-inducing “defense” it was an omen that the game started when Jeff Samardzija booted Bautista’s leadoff grounder.  David Peralta followed with an RBI triple.  Posey was drilled by a pitch and Walked followed with a 4-6-3 DP that plated Peralta. Kemp got a run back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single.  Michael Wacha helped his own cause in the top of the 2^nd with a safety squeeze that brought home Stanton.

The Nuts took the lead in the 4^th when Markakis doubled in a pair and Samardzija doubled him home for a 4-3 bulge.  That score lasted until the 7^th when Bautista launched a two run blast.  The Saint defense failed Benoit in the bottom of the frame when he booted a one out grounder, threw a wild pitch and then allowed the tying run on a Miggy single.  After a walk, Kemp plated both runners with a two run double.  Jake Diekman hurled a perfect 8^th and Tolleson notched the save with a perfect 9^th. W-Samardzija, L-Benoit, S-Tolleson

Game 5: SAS 3, PYN 0

Nobody wants to face elimination with Kershaw on the hill.  As expected, was again superb, allowing the Saints two runners only twice, but ended both threats quickly.  Garza was better in his 2^nd chance, escaping early jams in the first three innings.  In the 3^rd Jacoby Ellsbury drew a one out walk and stole 2^nd.  He went to 3^rd when Wilson Ramos’ throw soared into the outfield.  With the infield drawn in, Pedroia topped a ball to second and Neil Walker’s throw home nipped Ellsbury on the slide to keep the game scoreless.

Garza settled down, allowing no other serious threats thru the 7^th.  In the 8^th, Papelbon retired the side in order.  In the 9^th Kershaw was chased after a leadoff Ramos double.  League came on to walk Walker intentionally.  Nieuwenhuis came off the bench to do it again for SA, again pushing a double past Miggy at 3^rd and scoring the pinch runner as Walker stopped at third.  League then intentionally walked Carl Crawford to load the bases.  Reyes lifted a sac fly for a 2-0 lead and Corey Spangenberg singled in the final run.

Abad was sloppy in the 9^th, walking Zimmerman to open the frame, but he got a Kemp GDP to wipe the bases clean.  That was huge because he then allowed a single and drilled Brandon Crawford with a pitch.  Baez came on to strike out pinch hitter Matt Weiters who represented the tying run.

“You seldom get two shots at a pitcher as good as Kershaw”, said Ramos after the game. “So when he left that curve up to me in the 9^th, I jumped all over it.  I thought it would get out, but was happy that it did fall anyway.” W-Papelbon, L-Kershaw, S-Baez

Game 6: SAS 7, PYN 6

With the games moving back to Central Texas and the big win over Kershaw in the previous contest, the momentum seemed to be on the SA side.  But that didn’t last long.  With two outs in the first inning, Kemp turned around a Price fastball for a three run homer.  Ventura retired the first eight Saints he faced before walking Reyes in the third inning.  Bautista followed with a towering double that hit the top of the fence in right center field to break the goose egg.  Lucas Duda then smashed his own double to make the score 3-2.

It stayed that way until the top of the 4^th when the Nuts hammered Price for three more runs.  Kemp led off the inning with a single.  Three consecutive PY hitters poked singles through the infield with Alex Rios’ hit scoring Kemp.  Catcher Ryan Hanigan doubled home two more runs, though Peralta’s throw nailed Rios at the plate for the first out.  Ellsbury’s single chased Price and brought Baez in to stop the bleeding and he escaped more damage.

Ventura looked superb in the middle innings and Baez narrowly escaped a rally in the 5^th that might have turned the clincher into a blowout.  With two outs, Markakis singled and Crawford reached on yet another error on Reyes.  Rios singled to right and Stanton threw a laser to the plate to cut down Markakis.

“At the time it seemed like we were just playing out the string,” said Stanton.  “Ventura had frustrated us the whole night and we couldn’t seem to get anything going.  Everything was dropping for them and we weren’t pitching or fielding well at all.  I think my throw might have sparked us a little.”

If so, it wasn’t immediate.  In the bottom of the 6^th, Duda worked a leadoff walk and Adrian Gonzalez moved him to third an out later with a double.  Scott intentionally walked Posey to load the bases.  Walker got the Saints back in the game with a two run double down the first base line.  Peralta hit a grounder that Ventura was able to turn into an out at the plate to keep the game 6-4 before ending the threat with a K.

Baez worked a perfect 6^th and 7^th before leaving in the 8^th. Benoit gave up a two out double to Miggy in the 9^th but got Zimmerman on a grounder to end the game. W-Tazawa, L-Tolleson, S-Benoit

Game 7: SAS 3, PYN 2

Knowing how scoring first is a kiss of death in this series, neither team wanted to do it, despite getting runners on in almost every inning.  Lohse allowed three base runners in the first five frames and Hamels allowed runners in scoring position in each of the first three innings.  In the bottom of the 4^th, the Saints broke through. Walker drew a leadoff walk and scored from first an out later when Reyes ripped a double into the RCF gap.  SA got another in the 5^th when Crawford singled, moved to second on a Stanton single and scored two strikeouts later on a Walker single.

Ellsbury poked a leadoff triple in the 6^th and scored an out later on a Miggy ground out.  The Saints threatened in the bottom of the inning when Peralta singled and moved to third with two outs on a Gonzalez single to right.  But the inning ended when Tim Hudson struck out Stanton.

Zimmerman led off the top of the 7^th by blasting a long solo to tie the game.  In the bottom of the frame, Hudson induced a double play to end a Saint threat.  Lohse sat the Nuts down in order in the top of the 8^th and Lucas Duda came on in the bottom of the frame as a pinch hitter.  He obliterated a monster solo to right center to give the Saints a 3-2 lead.  Bautista singled two outs later and moved to third when Gonzalez singled.  But Hawkins extinguished the fire by coaxing a Stanton fly out.

“That pitch was right in my wheelhouse,” said a champagne-dripping Duda in the victorious clubhouse after the game. “I knew I could get one out if I could get one to turn on.  It felt great leaving the bat, but I didn’t expect it to go THAT far.  Man, I will never forget that feeling!”

Papelbon faced the heart of the order in the 9^th and retired Miggy on a routine grounder to third.  He got Kemp swinging on a slider down and away.  The series ended anticlimactically when Lind, batting for Zimmerman, grounded out to Walker. W-Lohse, L-Hudson, S-Papelbon

Posey hit .348/.483/.696 in the Series, with two homers, two doubles, five runs and four RBI.  Kemp both scored and drove in seven runs with two homers, three doubles and a slash line of .379/.400/.690.  The Nuts pitchers had three hits, two of them doubles  for a .333/.333/.556 line.  The PY catching platoon of Joseph and Hanigan only had four hits for an average of .150 but three of those hits were doubles and the other was a homer as they combined for six RBI.

Scott displayed the patience of Job, putting up with a myriad of netplay interruptions until we got the firewall and hosting issues settled.  He was frustrated that he couldn’t quite win the big ones at the end but he got more out of his team than even he expected to coming into the Series.  This won’t be his last appearance in the Fall Classic.