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AL Championship Series --- Capital City Capitals (90-72 verse San Carlos Aces (112-50)

Central Division Champion Capital City Capitals (90-72)  vs. West Division Champion San Carlos Aces (112-50)

Game One - Lance Lynn (15-10) vs.Gerrit Cole (24-7)
Capitals know that face a formidable opponent in Gerrit Cole on the hill.   Jose Altuve starts the game off with an 0-2 double down the first base line.  Cole gets two quick outs, but Nelson Cruz gets into one and hammers a long Home Run to jump out on top 2-0.   Capital dugout is hopping as Francisco Lindor follows with a double and is plated when Marcell Ozuna also doubles to stake a 3-0 lead in the first.

Bottom of the 3rd the Aces strike back with a Home Run from Xander Bogaerts.  JT Realmuto counters with a lead off Home Run in the top of the 4th for the Capitals.    Gerrit Cole is going strong into the 6th despite being down 4-2.   His control falters walking two consecutive batters and then Jose Altuve delivers a two out double that scores two making up for the throwing error yips the previous inning that cost the Capitals.   Lindor add a 7th inning Home Run and Bogaerts counters with his 2nd Home Run of the game.  

Capitals surprisingly take Game One over Gerrity Cole and the loaded Aces by a score of 8-3.

Game Two - Hyun-Jin Ryu (15-5) vs. Yu Darvish (20-4)
Aces run out to the hill another 20 game winner in Yu Darvish.   Ryu and Darvish battle pitch-for-pitch for quite some time with the only damage being an Anthony Rendon double where he scores on a sacrifice fly in the 4th.   Darvish battles out of a bases loaded jam by striking out JT Realmuto and JD Martinez back-to-back.

Capitals take a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th when the Aces offense explodes.   AJ Pollack walk, followed by a Jorge Alfaro single, Hernan Perez single, Bogaerts double, Vladimir Guerrero walk…...and then a monster 3-run Home Run by Cody Bellinger to cap a six run inning for the Aces.     Chrisitan Yelich adds an 8th inning Home Run for the Aces to seal the deal.

Aces knot the series at one game apiece winning game two 7-1.

Game Three - Patrick Corbin (16-8) vs. Spencer Turnbull (12-11)
Series goes to Capital City home park and fans witness a terrific game.  Aces draw first blood in the top of the 2nd when AJ Pollack doubles down the third base line.  Two batters later, Jorge Alfaro hits a deep Home Run to right to give the Aces a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the 3rd the Capitals scratch across a run on a walk to Jose Altuve.    Wild pitch moves him to 2nd and Anthony Rizzo drives him in with a single.  From there both staffs but on the clamps, shutting down all offense from both sides.  

Will Harris enters the bottom of the 9th to shut the door on the Capitals.   Francisco Lindor reaches first on an error by Carlos Santana.   A strike out to Realmuto, leaves Marcell Ozuna at the plate.  Capitals manager scans the bench for additional options but decides to roll the dice with Ozuna……...and he delivers.   He hammers a 2-2 pitch out of the park for the walk-off Home Run!!!   Capitals’ fans go crazy!

Capitals go up 2 games to 1 on a 3-2 victory behind Patrick Corbin 12 k performance and Marcell Ozuna walk-off HR.  

Game Four - Aaron Nola (11-9) vs. Gerrit Cole (24-7)
After the emotional victory the previous day, Capitals are greeted with the formidable task of seeing Gerrit Cole step back onto the hill.   

Aces strike first when Shohei Ohtani singles home Max Muncy in the top of the 3rd.   Capitals rebound with 2 runs in the bottom half behind doubles from Kevin Kiermaier, Jose Altuve and Anthony Rendon.   Francisco Lindor leaves the bases loaded however with a line out to third.

Teams trade single runs each in the top and bottoms of the 5th and 6th innings behind solo shots from Kiermier, Christian Yelich and then Lindor.   The Capitals makeshift bullpen of Reyes Moronta, Bryan Shaw, Rogelio Armenteros, Oliver Perez and Brad Hand shut the door for the final three innings.

Capitals take 3-1 series lead beating Cole for the second time in four games despite him having 18 Ks.

Game Five - Lance Lynn (15-10) vs. Jordan Lyles (11-8)
Aces take an early two run lead in the top of the 2nd behind a Max Muncy double.   A triple by Alex Gordan, followed by a sac fly cuts the lead in half at the end of two.   The bottom of 3rd the Capitals get a lead off single from Cesar Hernandez, walk by Anthony Rendon and then a long 3-run Home Run by Anthony Rizzo.  In the fifth inning Rizzo comes to the plate after that Home Run and is drilled in the back by Nick Ramirez.   Rizzo takes exception and charges the mound and is ejected from the game!

Capitals take that 4-3 lead into the top of the 7th were the wheels come off the bullpen after two quick outs.  Cody Bellinger and AJ Pollock both draw walks.   Aces manager counters the Capitals bringing in Andrew Miller to face Max Muncy by pinch-hitting Starlin Castro.   The move pays off in a major way as Castro delivers a 3-run Home Run!

Bottom of the 9th and Will Harris is summoned from the bullpen to maintain the 6-4 lead.  JT Realmuto leads off with a double, when Harris’s nemesis Marcell Ozuna steps to the plate.   Ozuna gets a 1-1 fastball and hits another dramatic Home Run to tie game at 6!   JD Martinez walks and is sacrificed to 2nd by Kevin Kiermaier.    Jose Altuve walks to build the tension.   Anthony Rendon is at the plate and the 3-1 pitch sails over the catchers head and JD Martinez races around 3rd to score on a literal walk-off run to win the series.

Capitals win game five by the score of 7-6 and take the series 4 games to 1.

It was truly a crazy series with each game having major swings back and forth!    Despite all the action, it was mostly a pitching duel as major bats on both sides were almost non-existent.  

Aces offensive bright spots were Xander Bogearts .318, Jorge Alfaro. 400 leading 8 hits in the series.  Aces struggles were .083 Ohtani, .053 Bellinger, .100 Carlos Santana, .077 Max Muncy, .125 Jason Heyward.   

Capitals had batting averages of .125 Anthony Rizzo, .133 Nelson Cruz, .133 JD Martinez, .211 Francisco Lindor, .235 JT Realmuto. .200 Marcell Ozuna, .250 Anthony Rendon.   

Jose Altuve was are only consistent offensive player hitting .333 but series MVP goes to Marcell Ozuna for the two most clutch Home Runs in Franchise History.

I want to offer a huge congratulations to Jeff on building a fantastic team and being an amazing person when things weren’t going his way.    We say this often but I really did have all the breaks swing my way and Jeff showed incredible graciousness the whole series.   It’s fun playing DMB with someone competitive but understands that the game works like that from time-to-time.  Thanks again Jeff, awesome season.

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NL Championship Series --- Emerald City Bombers (99-63) verse Gotham CityHawks (104-58)

Game One - Jacob DeGrom (17-8) vs. Sonny Gray (14-3)

Gotham got on the board first in the bottom of the first going up 1-0. The Bombers then turn on the bats scoring 7 un-answered runs in innings 3-6 with Jason Castro picking up 3 RBI's during the binge. With the big lead, Emerald City pull DeGrom to save him for game 4. Well, that may have been a bad decision. Gotham scores 2 in each of the 7th and 8th innings to bring the game within two runs, 7-5. Brosseau hit a home run in the top of the 9th to put the lead back at three and led Emerald City to bring in their closer, Josh Hader. Gotham ends up tying the game off Hader 8-8 to push it to extras. Brosseau was the hero at the plate in game one by doubling in Trevor Story to put the Bombers up 9-8 and Ponce de Leon closed it out.

Bombers lead series 1-0.

Game Two - Kyle Hendricks (16-6) vs. Clayton Kershaw (14-4)

Game two was not so exciting. It was the Nolan Arenado show as he hit a 3-run homer in the first inning, collected all 5 RBI's in the shutout of the Bombers, also hitting 2 HRs. Kershaw was on fire, going 7 innings and only allowing runners to reach base.

Series tied 1-1.

Game Three - Zach Wheeler (11-9) vs. Masahiro Tanaka (9-12)

The Bombers decide to jump on Tanaka early scoring 4 runs in the first two innings, with Jason Castro and Jay Bruce at the bottom of the lineup providing some power, each hitting home runs. Gotham started chipping away at the lead, scoring one in the 4th and one in the fifth innings. The score stayed the same until the 9th when Arenado hit his 2nd HR of the game making the score 4-3. Ryan Pressly held on for the save, securing the close victory.

Bombers lead 2-1.

Game Four - Jacob DeGrom (17-8) vs. Sonny Gray (14-3)

Game four was a repeat of game one and the teams aces were dealing for the first 5 innings, the only blemish being Starling Marte's HR of Gray in the 3rd inning. In the bottom of the sixth, the Bombers were able to manufacture 5 runs going up 6-0. The score stayed the same for the rest of the game as DeGrom lead the charge of the team's shutout.

Bombers lead series 3-1.

Game Five - Adrian Houser (4-7) vs. Trevor Williams (7-0)

The CityHawks get on the board in the first 1-0 when Tauchman lead the game off with a triple and scored on Tommy Edman's single. The game stayed the same score until the bottom of the 5th when Trevor Williams walked in a run to tie it 1-1. The Bombers scored another in the 7th and two more in the 8th to go up 4-1 entering the 9th. The Bombers turn to closer Hader again, and, he decided to make things interesting again. Renato Nunez hit a 2-run homer with 2 outs in the ninth before Hader struck out Laureano to end the game and the series.

Bomber win series 4-1.

The CityHawks' Arenado didn't disappoint his organization by smacking 4 HR's and collecting 7 RBI's in the series. However, the team as a whole only hit .194 off the Bombers. Kepler, Laureano and Thames went a combined 6 for 49. Kershaw and Williams held their own, but, ace Sonny Gray was lit up by the Bombers allowing 21 hitters reach base over 10.1 innings and had a 9.58 ERA for the series.

The Bombers offensive MVP for the series was Jason Castro as he went 7 for 13 with 3 HR's and 7 RBI's. Trevor Story and Starling Marte also held their own, hitting .412 and .381 respectively. The team ace, Jacob DeGrom, struck out 14 in his 12 innings leading to a 0.75 ERA for the series.

Thanks for the fun series Chris!! Your team had a great season.