Off Topic
Barn-burner Series Highlights Post-Season of Highlights
Again, they said.
It’s happened again. The Nine, who had taken a 2-0 lead, were squandering it.
But Rex Foster—a lad for whom the club had paid a robust $14M to simply draft in 2039, and who has quietly become one of the better hitters in the league—hit a solo homer into those same left field stands in the bottom of the inning, signaling to the faithful that things were not yet done, and that it was a bit too early to brig out their dead. Then, some three and a half scintillating hours later, Foster would lower the curtain on the series by drilling an Emanuel Mercati fastball into the dark Yellow Springs night, yanking the solo shot to right field to ignite a walk-off celebration.
“It was a great night for baseball,” Foster would say later.
The Brewster universe was celebrating all around. Yes, Edmonton had squeaked past Brooklyn in six games, but every other series in the Doubleday round was seeing a Game Seven—and the UMEBA, the baseball world’s Middle Easter Wing, saw not only a Game Seven for their United Cup championship, but enjoyed a delicious David and Goliath ending that say Mumbai take down the mighty Manama Pearls.
Between those two shots by Foster, the team scratched and clawed for three more runs—each of them as important as the rest. The Nine’s second run came after Foster’s first blast when catcher Jesus Rodriguez tripled in Series MVP Robert Chenoweth. Unassuming DH Javier Rodriguez added a solo shot in the third to tie the game up, but Louisville countered with two more runs in the fourth. Jesus Rodriguez hit a fifth-inning sacrifice fly to draw the club back to within one run. Dong-po Thum did the same an inning later, which set up the score for that faithful 9th inning.
Late season addition Jorge Garcia and rookie Derrick Cheney held the Sluggers scoreless for the last three and two-thirds innings.
“We know it’s Louisville,” said manager Sam Brewington, “and we know what that means to the fans. But to be honest, we’re just happy to be hanging on. That’s a damned good team there.”
The team will now move on to face Twin Cities, who out-lasted Pacific division champion Long Beach in, natch, seven games. “We’ll worry about that tomorrow,” Brewington said. “Tonight we get to celebrate. Tomorrow we’ll get back to work.”