Starscreams: A Valencia Stars Baseball Blog
Recap of Stars Postseason, Game 1
10/6/2051
Brianna Robles, Starscreams contributor
This game had the feel of a heavyweight fight as the two teams traded blows into extra innings. It would be the hometown Nine who would come out on top thanks to a walk-off solo home run by Yellow Springs second baseman, and guy you probably should never give anything to hit with the game on the line, Tomás Borges. Losing such a close game on the road had to be a blow to Stars morale, and they never really look like they recovered from it in the rest of the series.
The pitching match-up looked attractive, at least at first blush, with António Hernández, a bona fide ace, squaring off against the Stars' Ken Arroyo, Valencia's sometime putative ace. Arroyo started out well enough, giving up no runs in the first two innings, but came undone in the third which looked like this: single, single, home run, single, K, BB, BB, fly out, ground out. Hernández looked better longer than did Arroyo, but ran into trouble of his own in the sixth, which looked like this for him: single, double, K, double, double, fly out, BB. At this point, Hernández left the game, making way for Byron Ratcliffe, who induced a weak grounder to first to end the inning.
That would end the scoring until the bottom the eighth, when the Nine's Jeremy Pickens tacked on an insurance run via solo homer at the expense of Gerardo López. This would lead to a very strange sequence of events. López would stay in the game when, with two out and a man on second, Stars manager Mel Jenkins called for the intentional walk of Burhan Tahir in order to pitch to Tomás Borges. Tahir isn't a bad hitter (114 OPS+ against RHP), but he isn't in the same category as 2051 Borges (146 OPS+ against RHP). López would strike out Borges, but it's hard to make any sense of this move.
In the top of the ninth, Yellow Springs brought in their closer, Derrick Chaney, to put the game to bed. The Stars would not go quietly, however. With one out in the inning, Yodo Sato, batting ninth, hit a line drive double. Lead-off man Mike Brodt followed that up with a single. Outfielder Gilberto Falchonelli would tie things up with a double to right field.
In the tenth, Jenkins would tempt fate again, calling for an intentional walk of Tahir in order to face Borges, arguably to set up a double play with one out in the inning. López would induce a pop-up from Borges and strike out Stewart Illingworth to end the inning.
The teams would each score a run in the eleventh. The Stars would load the bases with one out in the twelfth, but a Sato fly out and Brodt strikeout would strand three runners in that inning. And you already know how the game ends.
A late bloomer? A poster boy for better living through chemistry? It's difficult to know what to make of Borges's 2051 season. What we do know is that this thirty year-old middle infielder who had never hit more than 30 home runs in a season before somehow busted out a jaw-dropping 53 taters this past year, all while playing half his games in a park not known for being overly friendly to power hitters. His 53 in '51 falls in at number 3 on the team all-time single-season home run record list, nestled in among Joe Belinda's mid-nineties seasons.
Regardless of how Borges is doing it, he's hitting for an OPS+ of 173 against left-handed pitching on the year. It's a question worth asking, why would you let the lefty, Cornelio Lozano, pitch to Borges with one out and the bases empty in a tie-game in the bottom of the twelfth? Mel Jenkins's decisions in this game bring to mind the equal parts baffling, infuriating, and sad late stage Tony La Russa. He had been daring Borges to beat the Stars all night long, and to the surprise of none (save Jenkins himself), he eventually did.
Starscreams | An Excruciating Recap of Stars Postseason, Pt. 1 (51.15)
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Starscreams | An Excruciating Recap of Stars Postseason, Pt. 1 (51.15)
Morris Ragland
President, Baseball Ops, Beirut Cedars (8/25/46 - 10/23/47)
President, Baseball Ops, Valencia Stars (10/24/47 - present)
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"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - W. Churchill
President, Baseball Ops, Beirut Cedars (8/25/46 - 10/23/47)
President, Baseball Ops, Valencia Stars (10/24/47 - present)
925-891 Lifetime Record
2048 Caleca Winner
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - W. Churchill
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Re: Starscreams | An Excruciating Recap of Stars Postseason, Pt. 1 (51.15)
Great rebound from last season though.
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Re: Starscreams | An Excruciating Recap of Stars Postseason, Pt. 1 (51.15)
Indeed. As much as I wanted to give @aaronweiner my vote for GM of the Year, Morris had the best turnaround and actually made playoffs. Last season was BRUTAL and Donald Miller and others stepped it up this year.
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