We think we can… we think we can!
The Urbana Locomotives survived Portland. Going into Portland down 0-2, the Locomotives won two of the three games at the Microbrewers home stadium. Win or lose, the Boys of Summer National League Championship will be decided in Urbana!
A quick summary of the last three games of the LCS in Portland:
Game 3
It was all Urbana as they capitalized on back-to-back homers by Tyler Colvin and Garrett Jones in the 2nd inning. Jones added another later in the game and Hiroki Kuroda gets the win. Urbana 5 Portland 2
Game 4
Jonathan Niese pitched a complete game win for Portland while Freddie Freeman continues his reign of terror. Freeman hit two homers and his rbi count for the series rises. Portland 6 Urbana 0
Game 5
David Price gets back in the groove while Garrett Jones hits a three-run homer to help the cause. Meanwhile, Justin Maxwell who is subbing for injured Nick Markakis, is doing his part. His homerun followed immediately after Jones’ and he now has four hits for the series. Urbana 6 Portland 2
So what are our chances now that we’ve made a comeback in our opponent’s territory? Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good
We’re still alive: this can’t be overstated enough. Brad Stark and his Microbrewers could have won the Games 3 and 4 and we would be out of it. Instead, we force a game 6 in home territory.
We have two of our best pitchers available for Games 6 and 7: Cole Hamels and Hiroki Kuroda have combined for 40 wins in the regular season.
Justin Maxwell seems to like the playoffs: After coming in for inured Nick Markakis, Maxwell is on fire. A .220 hitter in the regular season, he has four hits and one homer in three games.
The Bad
Price will be watching the rest of the season: As good as Hamels and Kuroda are, we won’t have Price on the mound. David Price won Game 5 so we’ll be without his services for the rest of the LCS.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz will also be on the bench: Ruiz who hit .362 for the year, was hit by a pitch and will be out for eight games. Most likely, he will be missing a good part of the World Series too. He joins Nick Markakis on the DL.
The Ugly??
A heated rivalry going bad? Microbrewer Freddie Freeman who has five homers so far in the series, has been injured by a David Price pitch. Fortunately for the Microbrewers, he’ll be out for just one day. With both Ruiz and Freeman both getting the treatment, the media is drumming up a crazy story involving a heated exchange between the players and an attitude of an “eye for an eye” and “we protect our own”.
As far as both managers know, there’s nothing to it. We’ll see what happens in Game 6.
American League action
We are down to three teams in the postseason in the Boys of Summer postseason. Congrats to Bill Gillam whose South Shore Fighting Imps (110-52) swept Larry Waddell’s Boston Bravos in the American League Championship Series.
Congrats, Bill!
