It takes roughly 41 weeks to make a baby.
Of all people in the JLB, the Cheese Steaks knows this all too well.
The proud papa of four can walk away from the JLB World Series feeling like a father of five.
He made a World Series baby and he’s going to name him Clayton Maxwell Vaughn.
You see, 41 and a half weeks ago, JV got together with the JLB’s easiest trader on a cold December evening to consummate the biggest deal of the offseason. After a little chit chat, Choo sent Clayton Kershaw to the land of extraordinary pitchers.
With a Cy Young winner already on staff in Max Scherzer, why the hell did JV need Kershaw?
Maybe it was because he knew in the World Series Kershaw was going to get two starts.
“I wish I had those prophetic skills,” Jim Vaughn soon after he mathematically eliminated Ol’ Country Breakfast.
Kershaw struck out 12 in 14.0 innings last week, going 1-1 with a quality start.
To make matters worse for Ol’ Country, Max Scherzer also had a two-start week, and he was dominant, striking out 17 over 13.0 innings, going 2-0 with two quality starts.
It just wasn’t fair for Sam.
“The bats ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting for me over the last few weeks,” JV said, “but it was fitting that on the last day, it would be Max and Kersh stepping up and bringing it home.”
In total, the Steaks posted 104 strikeouts, and they were all needed as Sam put up a hell of a fight on the pitching side. He had 95 strikeouts at 9 p.m. Sunday night with McCullers still pitching.
We all knew pitching was going to lead JV, but man did the offense come alive late with some smart pickups. That included Shin-Soo Choo (2 homers this week), Chris Taylor (2 homers and a triple this week) and Rhys Hoskins (7 RBIs this week).
Hector Neris also worked out to be a huge help for him, recording 3 saves and 8 strikeouts in 4.0 innings of work.
Sam really made JV work for this, rallying back on Friday and Saturday, but sometimes it’s just luck of the draw. Chris Sale had just one start this week, striking out 13 in 8.0 innings. Had he gotten a second start, I might be writing about World Series Champion Breakfast.
Instead, it’s just another loss for the American League, now totally seven straight. The National League has had four different winners over the last seven years, including a pair for the Cheese Steaks and a pair for the Slammers. The other three went to teams currently being disassembled by our two newest owners.
They have some interesting players on their rosters already and I’m sure sometime in December, Jim Vaughn is going to look at them and make an offer.
He has to get started on another World Series baby.
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