In a back-and-forth series, the Springfield Isotopes won Game Six to force a Game Seven in its NLCS match up with the Metropolis Avengers. The winner gets a trip to Santa Barbara for the first game of the Brassball World Series. Tim Lincecum got the ball for Springfield and Doug Fister for the Avengers. Lincecum won Games One and Four while Fister looked to avenge a Game Four debacle in which he gave up seven runs in just one inning.
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| Avenger catcher Matt Wieters tagged out Marco Scutaro in a first-inning Isotope rally. |
Springfield immediately pounced on Fister, who hit leadoff hitter Nyger Morgan with his second pitch. Marco Scutaro then hit a double into the left-center gap, sending Morgan home. However, Alex Gordon and Jose Reyes executed a perfect relay to nail Morgan at the plate for the first out and keep the game 0-0. The great play helped Fister, but he had trouble helping himself. He walked Lance Berkman and then misplayed Hunter Pence's comebacker to load the bases with just one out. Todd Helton got a ball to hit, but he hit it right at Corey Hart for a sacrifice fly and a 1-0 Springfield lead. Ryan Zimmerman followed with a single, but Berkman got a poor jump and couldn't score from second on the hit. Melky Cabrera grounded out to end the inning and strand the bases loaded, leaving the Isotopes to wonder how they scored just one run on two hits, a walk, a hit by pitch and an error.
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| Robinson Cano had struggled in the playoffs, but put Metropolis ahead with a two-run homer. |
Metropolis was lucky to be down just one run, and they got it back right away. In fact, they got more than one. Lincecum walked Jose Bautista with one out in the bottom of the first and then grooved a change up to Robinson Cano, who launched a homerun into the right field stands. Suddenly, the Avengers had the lead and the momentum despite looking like they might get blown out in the top of the first.
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| Nyjer Morgan tied the game with a surprising second-inning homer. |
Fister had a lead, but not his good stuff. He gave up a leadoff single to Jerry Hairston, Jr. in the second. Fister did get Jorge Posada to ground into an easy double play, erasing Hairston. That was particularly lucky for Fister because Morgan surprised everyone by hitting a high sinker just over the right field wall and out of Hart's reach for a solo homer to tie the game.
With the game tied once again, the two starters seemed to settle down. Fister and Lincecum began throwing strikes and retiring hitters, keeping the game 2-2 through the third and fourth innings. Lincecum walked two Avengers with one out in the fifth, but got retired Bautista and Cano to keep the game tied.
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| Hunter Pence left the bases loaded after hitting into a double play. |
Metropolis went to its pen first, calling on Kenley Jansen to start the sixth. He got a double play to help him out of the sixth and Lincecum easily retired the Avengers to send the game to the seventh. Jansen again got into trouble, walking the first two hitters. Scutaro sacrificed them into scoring position and Metropolis intentionally walked Berkman to load the bases with one out. Pence came to the plate but took a weak swing at a Jansen 98 mile per hour fastball, hitting it right to Reyes for an easy double play to end the inning.
Lincecum stayed in for the seventh and looked strong in easily retiring Lucas Duda, Matt Wieters and Travis Hafner. Jansen retired the favor in the top of the eighth, allowing a Zimmerman single but striking out Cabrera and Josh Thole to strand another Isotope runner and keep the game tied.
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| McCutchen's RBI won the game and helped make him the NLCS MVP. |
Lincecum gave way to reliever Troy Patton in the eighth. Jose Reyes hit the third ball Patton hit hard, but directly to second baseman Miguel Cairo first out. Jose Bautista hit the next pitch even harder, over Cabrera's head in left field for a double. Suddenly, the Avengers had the go-ahead run in scoring position.
Springfield had seen enough and called on closer John Axford to face the Avengers 3-4-5 hitters with the season on the line. He got Cano to ground out, but the Bautista advanced to third on the out. That brought up Andrew McCutchen, who was red hot in the first few games of the series. Axford worked McCutchen inside and the two battled for six pitches. On the seventh, McCutchen hit a clean single right through the box to that easily scored Bautista with the go-ahead run. Axford retired Alex Gordon to end the inning, but the damage had been done and the Avengers were just three outs from eliminating the two-time Brassball champions and advancing to the World Series.
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| Strasburg finished off the save and the NL crown for Metropolis. |
In a somewhat surprising move, Metropolis called on Stephen Strasburg to start the ninth and not the dominating Craig Kimbrel. Strasburg quickly retired the first two Isotopes but then gave up a single to Scutaro and walked Berkman to put the tying run in scoring position. Hunter Pence, who stranded the bases loaded in the seventh, came to bat with a chance to redeem himself and tie the game, or more. Strasburg got ahead on two 99 mph fastballs and then threw a curve that Pence somehow took for the first ball. Strasburg threw another heater, this one at 100 mph, which Pence hit into right field which Hart caught for the out to seal the game and the National League crown for Metropolis.
Next, the Avengers will travel to Santa Barbara to open the World Series against Justin Verlander and the American League champion Outlaws. The Avengers have won back-to-back seven-game series and hope their good fortune will hold against the Santa Barbara juggernaut that went 127-35 in the regular season.
BOXSCORE: 2012 Springfield Isotopes At 2012 Metropolis
Avengers 10/28/2012
Isotopes AB
R H RBI AVG Avengers AB
R H RBI AVG
N.Morgan CF 3
1 1 1 .280
J.Reyes SS 3 0
0 0 .263
M.Scutaro SS 4
1 2 0 .255
J.Bautista 3B 3 2
1 0 .326
L.Berkman DH 2
0 1 0 .255
R.Cano 2B 4 1
1 2 .167
H.Pence RF 5
0 0 0 .222
A.McCutchen CF 3 0
1 1 .275
T.Helton 1B 3
0 1 1 .224
A.Gordon LF 4 0 0 0 .164
R.Zimmerman
3B 3
0 3 0 .420
C.Hart RF 3 0
0 0 .213
M.Cabrera LF 4
0 0 0 .271
L.Duda 1B 3 0
0 0 .205
J.Hairston Jr
2B 3
0 1 0 .176
M.Wieters C 3
0 1 0 .211
B-J.Thole C
1 0 0 0
.375 T.Hafner DH 2
0 0 0 .188
J.Posada C 2
0 0 0 .310
A-M.Cairo PR,2B
0 0 0 0
.273
C-R.Doumit PH
0 0 0 0
.385
D-M.Downs PH
1 0 0 0
.105
-- -- -- ---
-- -- -- ---
Totals 31 2
9 2 Totals 28
3 4 3
A-Pinch Ran For Posada In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Hairston Jr In 7th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Cairo In 9th Inning
D-Pinch Hit For Doumit In 9th Inning
Isotopes........ 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 -
2 9 0
Avengers........ 2 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 -
3 4 1
Isotopes (7-6)
IP H R
ER BB SO
HR ERA SCORESHEET
T.Lincecum
7 2 2
2 4 7
1 5.79 A1 C9
T.Patton LOSS(0-1)
0 1/3 1 1
1 0 0
0 7.20 D1 D2
J.Axford
0 2/3 1 0
0 0 0
0 4.32 D3
Totals
8 4 3
3 4 7 1
Avengers (8-6)
IP H R
ER BB SO
HR ERA SCORESHEET
D.Fister
5 6 2
1 1 3
1 6.26 A1 C4
K.Jansen WIN(3-0)
3 2 0
0 4 3
0 1.80 C5 D8
S.Strasburg SAVE(1st)
1 1 0
0 1 0
0 4.66 D9
Totals
9 9
2 1 6
6 1
ATTENDANCE- 45,329 DATE- Sunday, October 28th 2012 TIME-
Night WEATHER- Good
UMPIRES- Brian Gorman, Bruce Dreckman, Sam Holbrook,
Gerry Davis
T- 3:14
LEFT ON BASE- Isotopes:11
Avengers: 5
DOUBLE PLAYS- Isotopes: 0
Avengers: 3
ERRORS- D.Fister
DOUBLES- M.Scutaro(2nd), L.Berkman(2nd), T.Helton(4th),
R.Zimmerman(7th),
J.Bautista(3rd), M.Wieters(4th)
HOME RUNS- N.Morgan(1st), R.Cano(1st)
SACRIFICE HITS- M.Scutaro
SACRIFICE FLIES- T.Helton
WALKS- N.Morgan, L.Berkman-3, R.Zimmerman, J.Posada,
J.Reyes, J.Bautista,
A.McCutchen,
T.Hafner
HIT BY PITCH- N.Morgan
STRIKE OUTS- N.Morgan, L.Berkman, H.Pence, M.Cabrera,
J.Hairston Jr, J.Thole,
R.Cano, A.McCutchen, A.Gordon, L.Duda, M.Wieters, T.Hafner-2
GIDP- H.Pence, M.Cabrera, J.Posada
2-out RBI- N.Morgan, A.McCutchen
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