One More Game to Win...Right? One More Game to Win...Right? The two great wins today will become less (way less) important if we bet beat by the Scouts. The Scouts are a good team, and we have to play good baseball to walk into the locker room with a 3-0 day and a trip to the finals. I mean, we win the tiebreaker with the Thunder, just having beat them . Ski has the ball for the Nor'easters and Jeff Whitehouse has the ball for the Scouts. It's quite a bit cooler than it was this afternoon at the stadium. Bordering on cold. This is a seven inning game and we are the visitors.
The Nor'easters were still in winning mode once the game started, and Web punched across the game's first run with one out in the top of the first. With Buck on second and Papi on first, Web ripped a single to left center, Buck scoring That was the extent of the damage, but a good start. Going into the home half of the first, Nor'easters 1, Scouts coming up.
The Scouts had a mini uprising going in the first, but ran themselves into a DP and doused a promising inning for themselves. In the second, the Nor'easters took advantage of 3 free passes and tallied twice, taking a 3-run lead, Buck driving in Ice and Tito.
The Scouts got right back into the game in the bottom of the inning, and might still be batting if it wasn't for the Imaculate Catch by Nails.
EHd singled leading off the second. Chap singled him to second and Ecc ripped one to center for a hit. EHd was steaming home as Supe took the relay and fired home. The ball reached Nails at the same instant EHd did, but the throw one hopped right under EHd's leg as he landed on Nails. As the unpire stared at the pile, Nails held up the ball and the umpire called EHd out! We don't have a picture of this, but from the TNB archives, we have a picture of Nails tagging EHd out at the plate in a nearly identical play... Now imagine this picture, but with Nails squatting and catching a short in-between hop right under EHd's left leg while EHd lands on Nails, just as the ball arrives... Unbelievably, Nails hung onto the ball. I have NO idea how. It was a huge play, because the Scouts were having a big inning that would have been a problem for us. They scored two, and we'll take it.
After 2, Nor'easters 3, Scouts 2 The Nor'easters had productive 3rd and 4th innings with big hits from "Mike" and "Ski", stretching the lead to 8-3. Kind of a shaky 8-3. However, the game settled right there and the Phagues walked off the field thinking about the finals and ...who?...the Red Sox maybe?.....Nice!.....pause...
I don't remember exactly when I found out that we actually LOST! a tiebreaker to the Thunder, but I was getting bits of conversation on the way to the Clubhouse that were making me nervous. Like, "The Thunder still think they will win the Division"...huh!? I decided to think about more pleasant things, like Bullet, Ricky Bobby and maybe even Grass will be ready enough for the game tomorrow, and I love the way we are playing right now. About a 100 yds from the Santuary, a Red Sox player told me that the Rebels beat the Red Sox (and their Lefty) and were going to the finals. Hmmmm....that's interesting. The Rebels were a pretty good team, but Dog completely tamed them, although their pitching somewhat tamed us too. Should be a good game.
Well, it was a good game, except we weren't playing in it. I didn't get the news first, I think Papi, Bullet, and Supe did. I was going through Damnit's locker for legal stimulants.
John, smiling that ever present "it's all good" smile, imformed us that the Thunder were representing our Division in the Finals by virtue of the second tiebreaker, ...run differential. The Black Sheep, The Thunder and The Nor'easters had the same Divisional record. Thunder wins. The fact that we beat both of these teams, and the fact that we had a better overall record than the Black Sheep, and the fact that our record was identical to the Thunder, except we had just beat them, (today in fact) mattered not. Although there is a logic to the unfair result, given the tiebreaker rules, there isn't the same logic to the tiebreaker system itself. Why should run differential even be one of the considerations in Goodwill Rules, with teams playing unbalanced schedules?? Why should run differential be a tiebreaker and overall record not??
Well, it's always something....But hey, Who has the Bragging Rights!
Game 6 Box Score 1-22-11Nor'easters 8, Scouts 3