Staring at a 2-0 hole and a long flight back to Jersey reality set in. After 5 years or playing decent baseball and coming up short so many times this was the playoffs. Where the best of the best come to play. They had been good enough to enter this prestigious tournament and after 2 games had not played their best baseball, in fact it was far from their best. A game 3 win was a boost, but it was still far from Jersey baseball. Runs scored in odd ways, not the usual Jersey style of mashing and bashing. We held a press conference after Game 3 with GM Josh Swain and he laid out what Jersey had to do to win, and with surprise much of that came through. What came after that was 3 straight wins. Down 0-2 to winning the series 4-2. 4 game winning streak. How did they do it? Here's how:
Entering Game 4 you can tell the monkey was off their backs. There was that Jersey swagger back in the walks of a lot of the players. It would be a rematch of Game 1 with Dan Macias taking the mound for Jersey and Ricky Bolden for Toronto, both on short rest. GM Josh Swain told us it's the matchup he wanted. If Dan could outduel Ricky, Jersey had the advantage. They liked their changes agianst Jackson at home and liked the potential Ellis/Brito matchup in game 6. Fireworks started early. Toronto got 3 runs on 5 hits in the Top of the 1st before Jersey had a chance to bat. But a sac fly and a passed ball in Jersey's half of the inning put the game back to 3-2.
The 2nd inning starting and things didn't stop. D-bag killer Jaime "Gunner" Torres lifted off hitting a solo HR down the RF line to get a run back. But veteran Leon Foster got the run right back for Jersey with a mammoth 452 run shot off of Bolden. After the HR, a walk to Marvin Taylor, a single by Scott Powers and the eventual death blow came with catcher Luis Antonio Duran hit his 1st HR of the the postseason and 3 run blast that put Jersey up 6-4, a lead that would hold.
Macias would retire 13 of the next 16 batters before eventually being replaced and received a standing ovation from the Jersey crowd. With Gomes replacing Macias and striking out Cuan and Rivas to end the 7th, Toronto replaced MR Cole with MR Jones, which turned out to be a mistake. A 2B, 1B, BB and HBP left a run in and the bases loaded with Al Ryan at the plate who tore open the game with his first postseason HR and first Glad Slam by a Jersey player in playoff history. The Bags would add one more in the 8th before cruising to a 12-4 victory to the tie the series at 2 games apiece.
Who knew after the offensive explosion by the D-Bags in Game 4 that Game 5 would bring us the low scoring game of the series. We would see Shawn Jackson start for Toronto and Rob Goodship take the hill for Jersey in what could have been the last game at the Shore for the season. 40,200+ fans showed up to cheer on their Bags. Goodship made the first mistake in the 2nd inning when HR king John Crowe led the inning off with a solo HR to get the scoring started. Jersey tied the score in the bottom of 3 when Sergio Rodriguez and Scott Powers both doubled. Other than these two early runs, each starter was very good. It wasn't until the bottom of the 7th when Sergio Rodriguez led off the inning and reached 1st when John Crowe bobbled the throw from SS Pete Harvey. Shawn Jackson would retire the next 2 batters on a fly out and a sac fly before he was pulled in favor of the lefty Jung-Keun Li to face lefty Jose Ortiz. Ortiz took a 1-2 pitch from Li and rapped into the corner for an easy stand up double and Rodriguez came around to score the go ahead run. Goodship would cruise in the 8th and that would be his last inning of work. In what you have to call the biggest game of his career, he was brilliant. Throwing 8 IP, giving up 5 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB while striking out 9. Mungo was called in to save the game and it only took 11 pitches to strike out John Crowe, Luis Gonzalez and German Rivas all swinging. The crowd was in an uproar, Jersey had won 3 straight, all at home and took a 3-2 lead in the series going back to Toronto.
Game 6. A rematch of Game 2 with Jerry Burgess facing off against Jose Brito. Brito won the first match pitching brilliantly while Burgess was knocked around for 7 ER. Would this game be any different and could Toronto force that pivotal Game 7? Brito was his usual efficient self facing 3 batters over the minimum in the first 4 innings and not letting any runner get past first base. Burgess on the other hand lived dangerously. Allowing runners 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the first get erased by a double play ball. A walk, wild pitch and an error by SS Marvin Taylor allowed German Rivas to reach 3rd base in the 2nd inning before Pete Harvey grounded out to end the threat. A single in the 3rd was wiped off the board with the 2nd double play of the day and in the 4th a Rivas single, stolen base and a walk to Fujita put 2 runners on before Burgess hunkered down and struck out Gunner Torres looking on a nasty slider that just brushed the outside corner. Alberto Perez would lead off the 5th and thus far after taking over for Adam Morrow at 3B he was 0-17 in the series. Something had to give, and it did. He took a 2nd pitch fastball from Brito and pulled it deep and far and way back in the left-center field bleachers for his first hit of the series to give Jersey a 1-0 lead.
Burgess would settle down and Jersey would turn their 3rd double play ending Toronto's 5th inning. Both pitchers breezed through the 6th until some commotion in the 7th inning. With 2 outs in Jersey's top half of the 7th the usual pinpoint Brito came way inside and hit catcher Luis Antonio Duran on the hand which immediately dropped him to the ground. He had to be lifted from the game and came away gripping his hand. We wouldn't find out til later he had fractured the hand. Brito would get Taylor to ground out to end the inning. In Toronto's half of the 7th, after a groundout Burgess came inside and hit the Toronto catcher Kyuso Fujita in the back. Warnings were given to both sides and after 112 pitches, 6.1 IP and 0 ER Burgess was pulled in favor of Jose Gomes. Gomes got out of the 7th without incident and we headed to the 8th. A half check swing by Scott Powers combined with his upper echelon speed created a leadoff infield hit that chased Brito from the game. Jose Murillo was brough in and pinch hitter Al Ryan surprised everyone when he laid down a perfect sac bunt to put the insurance run on 2nd base with 1 out. Struggling superstar Mike Bryant came through knocking a hard line drive into RF, but Powers was held at 3rd giving the Bags runners at the corners. Matt Doyle knocked a grounder into the hole that looked like a hit but a diving stop by Zaragoza managed to get Doyle at 1st by a half a step but couldn't prevent Powers from crossing the plate and Bryant advancing to 2nd. The run gave Jersey a 2-0 cushion. With 2 outs now veteran Leon Foster and put a ball right down the right field chalk line for a stand-up double easily scoring Bryant and pushing the lead to 3-0. Murillo would get Manny Romero swinging to end the inning.
Jose Gomes walked Lugo to lead off the 8th before striking out Cuan to end his night as he was replaced by Lucio Tapia to face John Crowe. Tapia went 1-1 with Crowe until I can only describe as "the longest HR I have ever seen" on a 97 MPH fastball. Crowe hitting left handed crushed it to CF and Powers barely turned his head to watch it travel 485 feet and give the Toronto crowd a reason to celebrate as Toronto was back in it and only down 3-2. A single and a walk gave Toronto the go ahead run on 1st base with only 1 out while the crowd was on their feet. After a mound visit Tapia got the biggest out of his career by striking out All Star Kyuso Fujita before being pulled for closer Daniel Morris to face Gunner Torres. Morris amidst the avoided danger by getting Torres to ground out on the first pitch on a 2 hopper to Doyle at first base. Insurance runs at this point would have been nice, but Toronto brough in future HOF'er Martin Griffin to set the side down in order before heading to the bottom of the 9th. Daniel Morris, the longest tenured D-Bag, would retire the side in order as LuGo would fly out to Leon Foster to end the game and send Jersey to their first ever series win and sending them to the CLCS to face their division rival, the waiting Greenville 84's.
We now will go live to GM Swain's press conference:
::Swain comes out, untucked button-up business shirt, D-Bags cap, and big smile:::
Reporter Vanessa Antuaco, Morgantown Today: "Mr. Swain! You just won 4 games in a row. We talked with Toronto GM Jason Goldberg earlier and in his tenure with the Titans this is his first 4 game losing streak, how'd your boys do it??"
Swain: "I told you at the last conference how what we needed to do to win this thing. We needed some clutch hitting, Game 4 was full of that. Hell, we scored 12 runs on only 8 hits! I told you we would need another quality start and in fact we got 2 of them. Goodship was fantastic in Game 5 and Jerry really bounched back for a great Game 6. The bullpen stayed strong and we won the close games. That's what October baseball is about!"
Reporter Dan Miles, NY Times: "Everyone and their dog though (Art) Ellis would be the starter for Game 6. He was brilliant, Burgess had been lit up, what were you thinking there?"
Swain: "Burgess convo again? I told you guys the first time through that Burgess had been better in Toronto. Yes, Game 2 we saw him get lit up. Art could have gone. We thought he was close to 70% rested which would have been good enough to throw out there, but with a 3-2 lead, with us having confidence in Jerry, even a loss would have given us Ellis at 100% in Game 7. I don't want to say I played this one right, but it worked out didn't it?"
Reporter Sally Trumpert, Trenton Free Press: "Duran left tonight's game with an apparent hand injury, can you tell us any more on what happened?"
Swain: "At this time the medical staff hasn't given us an update yet. They have it on ice and we are waiting for the swelling to go down, but the said it doesn't look good, but we might not know for a day or two. Losing Luis would hurt. We already lost our 1-2 hitters against RH starters, losing 1-2-3 would almost be devastating. But we showed this series that even losing key pieces like Larson and Morrow, we have the talent to overcome."
Beat writer Sam Toddenfield, BSAreport.com: "Speaking of Larson, will he play in the Greenville series?"
Swain: "At this point we feel as he can play towards the end of this week. He will be added to the roster but will not travel to Greenville for games 1 and 2 but stay at home and rest and we will run some more tests. If all goes well and there are no setbacks there's a great chance he will play in Game 3 or 4. Last question guys!"
Beat Writer Melissa Franklin, Jerseysports.com: "You are very familiar with Greenville, what are the keys to beating them and can it be done?"
Swain: "Anything can be done. Yes, Bosma's 84's have had our number over the past couple of seasons. This will be a slugfest. 2 loaded offenses. We will need some starting pitching performances and we will need someone to step up. Toronto held down our superstar bats in this series, don't expect that to happen in the next one. Thanks everyone for your time, and I would like to congratulate you all on being here to see the D-Bags move on!"
:::Swain gets up to leave and stops:::: "Oh and one more thing. Let me introduce you all to the 2015 CLDS MVP Al Ryan!" :::Ryan walks out, waves, shakes a few hands and is presented with a the CLDS trophy:::
Ryan lead the team in batting during the series hitting .385, hitting 1 HR and driving in a team high 5 runs. The bullpen was stellar and probably was the difference in the low scoring series. They pitched 12 IP in 6 games, giving up 2 ER, 8 hits, 4 walks while striking out 18. With Jersey knocking out Toronto and Greenville knocking out Seattle, 2015 will mark the first time in BSA history that the CL East will represent the CL in the World Series.
With Burgess going in Game 6, the probable rotation for Jersey in the CLCS is:
Game 1: Art Ellis
Game 2: Dan Macias
Game 3: Jerry Burgess
Game 4: Rob Goodship
Whatever happens will happen, but the CL East will have a representative in the World Series and here is to rooting for our D-Bags!
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