There will not be a repeat World Series champion this year,
and with only one team left that has won a JLB World Series, there’s a 75
percent chance at this point that we’ll have a new champion altogether.
The only champ left is the 2013 JLB World Series winner
Outs, who beat the Choo handedly.
The Outs, courtesy of the bye week, got a chance to sit back
and wait for the winner of the Cheese Steaks-Vandelay matchup. And the reigning
World Series champion Vandelay fell apart after a strong run to lock up the
third seed, falling 14-4-4 to the Steaks (score pending one more batter in play who cannot make a difference in the matchup).
For Cheese, it was a huge boost of confidence after his
several-week slide that lost him the division title.
Cheese won seven categories in both batting and pitching to
take the playoff matchup, and that included 11 homers with 40 RBIs and 10
stolen bases. Todd Frazier launched three homers for six RBIs, Jose Bautista
hit a pair for seven RBIs and Edwin Encarnacion had two for six RBIs. All three
have been trade acquisitions over the years.
In the pitching department, it was another two trade
acquisitions leading the way as Masahiro Tanaka had two quality starts with 17
strikeouts and a 0.60 ERA and Max Scherzer had one quality start in two chances
with 12 strikeouts and a 3.21 ERA.
Vandelay’s ace, Chris Sale, struggled mightily in two
starts, going 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA. He gave up 9 runs in 10 innings and only —
and for Sale, this qualifies as only — 11 strikeouts. That’s typically one game
for him.
That pitching would have been just fine in the American League
where the Bombers took the ERA battle with a 5.91 ERA over the Panthers’ 7.29
mark.
Even with that pitiful ERA, the Sex Panthers beat the
higher-seeded Bombers to win her first playoff series since 2012 when she beat
the Bombers 12-9-3. She then fell to a heavily favored Gamblers team in the
ALCS 11-8-5.
Against the Bombers this year, she took seven of 11 batting
categories, winning 11-7-4 overall. She advances to the ALCS where she’ll face the
mighty Choo, who is looking for his third straight trip to the World Series.
With David Price and Clayton Kershaw, anything short of that
would lead to a few buildings in Bethlehem falling down as the Choo goes
Godzilla on the historic town.
It would be a scary day in the Christmas city when Choozilla starts stomping around, and Gina will watch and laugh at it all from the safety of her WFMZ regional cameras.
Cheese Steaks will join her for a chuckle if he, too, can pull off the upset.
Comments