Game Report from August 17; updated August 19
Leafs come from behind to beat Red Sox
Controversial 6-5 win keeps Series hopes alive
The Red Shirts were surrounded. An angry army of blue stood menacingly nearby, while local citizens hurled epithets and abuse. Total chaos threatened to sweep across the field of battle.
But one batter later, the Red Shirts were heroes! That's baseball for ya...
Yes, the umpires had finally called the third out in the ninth inning of a dramatic come-from-behind victory for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Down 3-1 in the Intercounty League Semi-Finals, the Leafs beat Brantford Red Sox 6-5 Sunday afternoon at Christie Pits to force a Game Six in Brantford tomorrow (Monday) night.
Sunday's game was a dramatic, see-saw affair, ending only after controversial, game-altering umpiring in the ninth threatened to undo the Leafs best shot at keeping the series alive. Two best shots, in fact - one by Rob Butler to tie it, and one by Kevin Treishel to put the Leafs in front.
After those two perfectly timed solo shots in the eighth, which started with the Leafs trailing 5-4 and ended with them leading 6-5, reliever and eventual winner Chris Rauth had three outs to get. But he walked his first opportunity in the ninth, leading to an obvious sacrifice situation. Brantford's Rick Reid obliged, but he popped up his bunt just high enough for a charging Maple Leaf 1B Rob Patterson to snare the ball and steal an out - while holding the runner in place!
The game called for it, and Patterson's great defense answered.
Now, with Red Sox leadoff hitter Dave Parsons up, Rauth and the Blue faithful were looking for a double-play, and Parsons obliged - it seemed. His tailor-made grounder to second was picked up by SS Sean Travers, who neatly stepped on the bag and relayed to Patterson at first to end the game.
Almost. The red-shirted umpire called Parsons safe in a close, but for the fans out-no-question-about-it, play. Patterson was furious, the Leafs aghast, the fans outraged. But Jesse Robertson was up, and there was still an out to get. A pitch or maybe two went by, and the shouting and commotion erupted at first again. Patterson was ejected, red-carded as it were, but he still had words for the ump even so.
As the Leafs charged to the rescue, more ejections seemed imminent, and Manager Tim Harkness had to be restrained. CF Kevin Foley held him back, and C Damon Topolie tried to bring order to the infield. Patterson had to be replaced for sure, and with John Chadwick doing the honours at first, Rauth settled in to pitch - again - to Robertson.
On his first offering, Parsons and the Red Sox hoped to catch the distracted Leafs napping, and he was off and running. But Topolie fired a bullet to second to nab the speedy Parsons, and Koitsopolous held aloft the indisputable evidence - this time, it was the third out! The ump confirmed it, and the Leafs stormed the field again, this time in victorious celebration.
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That these dramatics were at all necessary is, in itself, quite amazing. Leaf LHF Paul Spoljaric, he of the record-setting 11-0 season, lost his first game of the year on Saturday! That it was Game Four of the series made his loss all the more shocking, leaving the Leafs in a do-or-die situation in the playoffs for the first time in who-knows-how-long. That he lost the game in the ninth only made going into today's ninth inning, knowing all-too-well how the Red Sox could come back, all the more nerve-wracking. That the inning turned out to be so all by itself is only fitting.
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The game started much differently. Three Maple Leafs runs, courtesy two singles and a Topolie round-tripper, put the home team, desperately in need of a win, in front 3-0 early. Starter Jon Lockwood looked good, setting down the Red Sox in order through the first three innings, marred only by his own fielding error. But in the fourth, he got careless. How this at-times overpowering righty - he had four strikeouts tallied at the end of the second- can suddenly go sloppy is perturbing - at the end of the fourth, after two walks and three hits, he was behind 4-3. He's lost to these guys before, of course - in this series!
The Leafs came back, though, in their half of the frame. After two outs, Treishel singled. RF Adwin Springer worked hard for a walk, keeping the inning alive for Patterson. His clutch single scored Treishel, tying the game, moving Springer to third. But Foley ended the uprising with a fly ball to centre.
Still, Patterson and the Leafs put Lockwood back in a good position; how he answered the bell in the fifth was telling.
Brantford CF Parsons was leading off for the third time in the game with nothing to show for it yet. This time, however, the Red Sox slugger smacked a shot just over the right field fence, putting the Sox ahead again.The slim lead would hold up for three more innings, but it's not like the Sox weren't trying. More walks, a couple of singles here and there, and no fewer than three sacrifice bunts showed how scrappy this team is, even if the scoreboard didn't.
It was not until Butler's own solo shot in the eighth, tying the game yet again, that the fans began to chirp up. Perhaps even the team. After the tight heartbreaker loss Saturday in Brantford, after the ugly nosebleeder loss Wednesday night at home, no one could really be sure of anything anymore. Then, one batter after Butler, when Treishel went well over the left field fence, the fans were soaring right along with the ball.
It was 6-5, Rauth was in for a tiring Lockwood, and he had held the Red Sox in their eighth.
Their ninth, then, was a crash to earth. Followed by another take-off. The missed double-play was painful. For a moment... the then caught stealing was bliss. For the moment.
Now, there's expectation.
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The series continued Monday in Brantford, and the Leafs needed every last at-bat to beat Red Sox, 7-6. They scored three runs in the top of the ninth, and Chris Rauth won his second game in a row by shutting down the Red Sox at the end of the game. Game Seven, now necessary, is back at Christie Pits on Tuesday evening, the 19th, at 7:30 p.m.
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