How about that for a final Sunday?
The No. 3 seeds are moving on once again.
And it was really all about the bats on the final day and 13 was the lucky number for Crox and Slammers.
Crox trailed 11-9-4 as Sunday began and he needed to flip some categories to move on to the ALCS for the third time in franchise history.
The last two times he advanced, he moved on to the World Series (and that's where we'll stop the reminiscing, so he doesn't hit me).
On Sunday, the only kind of hit he was dealing was singles. Twelve of his 13 hits on Sunday were singles, which helped him flip that category. He had trailed 44-41 to start Sunday and wound up winning 53-50. Those hits also helped him flip batting average.
Still, Crox needed more and he got it in the way of a sacrifice fly from Xander Bogaerts, which helped him win that category.
That would have been enough to win it, but Crox couldn't count on all that so he threw a bunch of bullpen pitchers in his lineup to try and catch Choo in a few categories.
The plan worked, but not as expected. Choo countered with starting some of his bullpenners, and a pair of blowups added to WHIP and losses. Crox's pen had already pitched well enough to best the WHIP that Choo had to start the day, but the loss coming from Kenley Jansen's seventh blown save of the year was pivotal as it took away a win for Choo.
WHIP was just wild, though. Choo led 1.005-1.007 to start the day. Crox dipped down to 0.993 to win it. It was that close.
End of the day, though, Choo pitched really well and was let down by his bats, which were so good all year. Best in the JLB through 20 weeks with 249 homers. But he managed only 7 homers for the ALDS. The last time he didn't hit double-digit home runs in a week was Week 5.
Corey Seager batted just .160 for the week with 4 hits and 2 RBIs. Ronald Acuna batted .174 (4-for-23) and Charlie Blackmon batted .125 (2-for-16). Even with 2 homers, Manny Machado struggled batting .227 (5-for-22).
Crox, on the other hand, got big weeks from J.T. Realmuto (.375), Jose Abreu (.308), Bogaerts (.389), Alex Verdugo (.360) and Christian Yelich (.300).
And how about Yelich. He had a team-best 9 hits with 7 runs, 3 doubles, a homer and 5 RBIs.
Finally that trade is paying off!
Now, Yelich and the Crox Sox move on to face the AL's best, Breakfast.
This may sound familiar because it happened back in 2018. Crox was the No. 3 seed and he took care of second-seeded Gamblers to face the No. 1 seeded Breakfast. He then edged Breakfast to move on to his second World Series.
Will history repeat itself?
Well, it somewhat did on the NL side, too. In 2018, the Slammers — Can you believe I waited this long to talk about myself? — won as the No. 3 seed to move on the NLCS. This time, though, instead of beating the Dude to face the Cheese, the Slammers beat the Cheese to face the Dude.
And this matchup came down to the late Sunday games — one of those being an early Sunday game that had such a long rain delay that it was still being played as all the afternoon games ended.
And it certainly involved a little luck.
The Cheese Steaks, after trailing 14-7 as late as Friday, rallied on Saturday to cut it to 11-10, and after a big sacrifice fly by random mid-week pick-up TJ Friedl (he actually had 2 on the week for JV), the Steaks lead 12-10 at about 5 p.m.
All seemed lost.
But then the Phillies-Nats game finally restarted and CJ Abrams and Joey Meneses went to work, combining for four very important singles and a run.
I said luck because this all happened with Aaron Nola out of the game. The Phillies ace lasted just 2 innings thanks to the long rain delay.
Those singles and run, all off the bullpen, helped me tie it up at 11-11, but as JV noted in our sidechat, he had the tiebreaker. I needed more.
I needed another run or a sacrifice.
"You have plenty of at-bats left," JV said around 6 o'clock.
And at 7:03, the magic happened.
Meneses was in the on-deck circle with a runner on second and 1 out. I needed an easy single that moved the runner over to third. That's all I kept saying to myself. And somehow, someway, Lane Thomas curved a ball into fair territory to get to first and move the runner over.
Just look at this. How?!
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The baseball gods answered Part 1 of my prayer.
The next part was hoping Meneses could hit one deep enough to drive the run in... And he did with a long fly to right field.
Matt Vierling actually had to make a great run and grab to keep Meneses from doing what he has done so much this season — hit.
So strange to root for an out over a hit in the worst way.
That sacrifice, plus an Austin Riley late run, was all that was needed to complete the 11-9 NLDS win.
Meneses, a name JV got very familiar with, finished the week with 10 hits, 3 doubles, homer, 7 RBIs and 2 very important sacrifices. The 30-year-old rookie is now batting .326 in his 35 major league games.
His teammate, CJ Abrams, added 9 hits (batted .429 for the week on active roster) with a triple and 5 runs scored. He was joined by Randy Arozarena, who also had 9 hits and 4 runs scored, and Adley Rutschman, who had 7 hits and 5 runs scored.
Now, it's on to face the Dude who won two out of three series against the Slammers this year. Those wins have been blowouts — 16-4-4 and 17-7-0. The Slammers won the midseason matchup 13-7-4.
Since this is only the second time the Slammers have been in the playoffs since 2012, that aforementioned 2018 matchup was the only time these two have met in the playoffs.
It's going to take one helluva week for me to improve that playoff record against the Dude to 2-0.
Or, maybe it will just take a little luck.
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