Pirates Comeback Down 3-1 To Win Game 7, Win KPSL Title Against Cardinals
Managers:
Regular Season Champions, St. Louis Cardinals: Todd Schmidt
2nd place Regular Season: Pittsburgh Pirates: Steve Madonia
Both managers at the onset discussed how evenly matched these two powerhouses of the KPSL are in regards to strengths and weaknesses. Managers agreed this series can clearly come down to the team that Doesn't get the rolls, not necessarily the team that does get the rolls in their favor. This series will go 7 games. Each agreed IT'S JUST A GAME.
Here we go:
Game 1 in St. Louis
Starters: Skenes vs Rodon
Weather: Average
Pitching was the name of the game in this one. Both starters were just dominant as expected. No score in this one through 6 innings. The Cardinals get a go ahead run in the bottom of the seventh inning. A 2-out single by Burleson followed by a Freedie Freeman classic double in the gap put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Pirates decide to pull Rodon with Wilson C coming to the plate. In comes Svanson to relieve Rodon. Cardinals pinch hit with Yelich and he draws a key walk. Bases are loaded for the Cardinals and William C coming to the plate. He works the count full and draws a walk to force in a run! Winn strikes out to end the inning. Cardinal led 1-0 through 7.
Skenes goes 8.2 completely dominating the Pirates. Gives up 4 hits while striking out 8. In comes Esteves for the save. Strikes out Hernandez for the victory. Cards win! Both teams had 4 hits. This was the quint essential pitchers dual for a game 1 in the World Series.
WP Skenes goes 8.2 with 4 hits, no walks, striking out 8
LP Rodon goes 6.2 with 3 hits no walks striking out 5.
S: Esteves
Game 2 in St. Louis
Starters: Nelson vs Greene
Weather Good
Both teams come with their bats loaded this game.
Pirates strike with a leadoff homerun by Betts. Cards answer right away with a leadoff double by Friedl, moving to 3rd on a fly ball B to the outfield. Burleson hits a long ball to the warning track to score Friedl. Game tied 1-1 after 1.
Top of 2 the Pirates answer with 2 runs led by a leadoff walk to Hernandez, a single by Edwards and a single by Torrens drives in Hernadez. with 2 outs Betts walked intentionally, and Victor Scott comes through with a key rbi single. Pirates lead 3-1 But wait here comes the Cardinals. Bottom of the 3rd the Cardinals strike for 3 runs led by a leadoff single by William C, walk to Friedl, a huge double by Bader followed by a sac fly by Burleson. After 3 innings its Cardinal 4-3.
Pirates get a run in the 4th by a leadoff triple by Bellinger; a Sanoja Sac fly gets the game tied. Betts triples with 2 outs but Scott grounds out to end the inning. Yep 2 triples in 1 inning.
Cardinals get an insurance run in the 8th: Leadoff single by Wison C I believe, followed by a single by Burleson. Runners on the corner with no outs. Paredes pops out and here comes Freddie Freeman. A long fly to right scores Benson from 3rd. Cardinals up 5-4 going into the 9th.Rogers in relief shuts down the Pirates in the 7th and 8th and he hands the ball to Esteves to close out the game. With 2 outs the Pirates rally: back-to-back singles by Johnson and Betts. Steve has a hunch and leaves Scott in to face Esteves. Esteves gets Scott to ground out to 2nd game over. Cardinals win 5-4
WP: Rogers
LP: Gibson
S: Esteves
Cardinals had 7 hits and Pirates had 10.
Bader had 2 doubles, Burleson with 2 fly ball sacrifices for the Cardinals
Betts had a homerun and triple, Bellinger had a triple and a single for the Pirates
Cardinals up 2-0 heading to Pittsburgh for 3.
Game 3: MUST WIN or Pirates
Starters: Peralta vs Gausman
Weather: BAD
With the weather being lousy this one was going to be all about the pitching.
Both teams get zero offense through 6 innings. Pirates had 2 hits through 6 while the Cardinals had 4.
Bottom of the 7th and Pirates scratch 2 across to take the lead 2-0. A leadoff single by Johnson. with 2 outs Torrens hits the 2-9, homerun 1-7. A fortunate roll of the 20-sided die and it's a homerun. Pirates lead 2-0.
Peralta goes 6 strong giving up 4 hits, no walks, striking out 9. Gausman goes 8, giving up 4 hits, 2 walks striking out 6.
Pirates bullpen of Lucchesi, Holmes and Santana do their job and the game ends 2-0.
WP Luchessi, LP Gausman
Homerun: Torrens
Game 4:
Starters Rodon vs Imanaga
Weather: Average
2 Lefties going head-to-head in the BIG game 4.
Cardinals strike 1st in the 2nd inning. Freeman single, Wilson HBP, rbi single by Winn. 1-0 Cardinals
Cardinals strike again the 4th: leadoff walk by Freeman, double by Altuve, 2 rbi single by William C. With 2 outs, walks to Jake the Snake and Hayes loads the bases. Tyler Freeman Flys out to end the threat. Cardinals led 3-0.
Pirates get a run in the 4th and 5th, but the Cardinals pulled away with 4 runs late in the game. Led by Freddie the hammer Freeman, hit a long moon shot off of Hader in the top of the 9th to seal the game. Cardinals win 7-2
WP Imanaga - goes 5 giving up 2 hits walking 1, striking out 6.
LP Rodon - goes 6 + gives up 4 hits, 5 walks and 4 earned runs.
Game 5 in Pittsburgh: Win or go home for the Pirates
Starters Schwellenbach vs Skenes
weather: GOOD
Pirates strike for 2 in the bottom of the 1st. Leadoff single by Edwards, a walk to Stanton, RBI single by Tucker. Alonso strikes out but Betts hits a sac fly to score Stanton.
Pirates get 2 more in the bottom of the 4th off of Skenes: Leadoff walk by Betts followed by Jazz rolling the 1-6 straight homerun. Pirates lead 4-0 after 4. Jazz immediately taken out of the game for defense.
Cardinals get a run in the 8th by Freddie Freeman hitting another moon shot over the centerfield fence.
Pirates get 2 more in the bottom of the 8th walk to Tucker, Double by Alonso a big 2 run single by Betts. 6-0 Pirates headed to the 9th.
WP Schwellenbach goes 6.2 giving up 2 hits, 1 walk, striking out 6
LP: Skenes goes 7.1 giving up 6 hits, walking 3, striking out 9.
Homerun: Jazz
Game 6 back in St. Louis
Starters: Nelson vs Schwellenbach
weather: average
Pirates get 2 runs in the 5th, leadoff double by Sanoja, a 2-run blast by Betts. Pirates get another run in the 3rd, back-to-back singles by Edwards and Stanton, Bellinger hits one deep enough to score Edward's form 2nd base. Pirates lead 3-0.
Cards get a run across in the bottom of the 8th. Solo blast by Yelich Steve called this homerun before the roll, as always Todd was very gracious and asked Steve to do that one more time.
Greene goes 7 strong giving up the solo blast to Yelich, the bullpen brought in to close this one out for the Pirates. Svanson and Santana get the job done. Pirates win 3-1 to force game 7.
WP: Greene
LP Nelson
S: Santana
Homerun: Betts, Yelich
Before we go into the game 7 matchup, I thought this is a good place to validate what Todd and I had said prior to the start of the series. From game 5 to the 6th inning in game seven the Cardinals bets just went cold. They went 24 innings without getting a run across Homeplate. Not that the Pirates bats were hot. But just good enough to scratch out the runs to win the games.
Game 7 here we go;
Starters; Gausman vs Rodon
Weather Bad in St. Louis
Pirates get a combines 7 runs in the 4th and 5th innings. in the 4th back-to-back walks to Alonso and Tucker, a single by Stanton to load the bases with 1 out. Edwards fly's out to shallow right field, but deep enough to score Alonso. Yep, I believe it was 1-8, a lucky roll of 6 scores Alonso. With 2 outs the Pirates regular season MVP, Cody Belling delivers a huge single to drive in 2 runs.
Top of the 5th the Pirates break out the bats. Doubles by Johnson and Tucker. Steps up Mr. October but in a Pirates uniform! Stanton hits the 3-7, Homerun 1-19. A 3-run blast that puts the Pirates out in front 7-0.
The Home team cardinals bounce back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th. Freddie Freeman HPB, walk to Willam C, a pinch hit 3 run blast by Altuve. The Cardinals again muster another rally in the 8th. Bases loaded with 2 outs for Wilson C. Tying run at the plate. Hader told give him the heater Josh..... Strike 3 inning over.
Cardinals go down 1-2-3 in the 9th. Final sore Pirates 7-3.
WP: Rodon goes 7.2 with 4 hits, 3 walks, 4k's, 3 earned runs
LP Gausman goes 7, 6 hits, 4 walks, 5k's 7 earned runs.
Pirates win the series on unbelievable pitching display in games 5-7.
MVP of the series: Not 1-person stands out so we are going to go with the Pirates entire pitching staff.
Total stats: These may be missing some numbers
Total hits per team: Cardinals 34, Pirates 40.
Homeruns: Cardinals: 4, Pirates: 6
total runs: Cardinals: 17 Pirates: 24
Errors; Cardinals: 0, Pirates 2
SB: Cardinal: 1, Pirates: 2
Pirates win the 2nd KPSL world series in 3 years.
Thanks again to Todd for such a well manager series, it was an honor to participate.
Said many times during the series, IT"S JUST A GAME. Rigoberto Sanchez - you mean peanut boy! It's going to be ugly said Bo. This guy knows the fast ball is coming and still can't hit it! A combination of Koufax, Carlton and Johnson.! The fastball isn't even his best pitch! Show him the CURVE....A good movie quote.....Amy Adams is hot...
Please excuse any typos or information not quite as accurate as what happened...
See you guys at the winter meetings. Dinner on me.
