Major League Playoff Special: Day Ten

Great Lakes Loons 4 - Seattle Mariners Clinton LumberKings 0

Great Lakes leads series, 2-1

We are down to just one team contending for a championship; unfortunately, Clinton is now facing elimination after dropping another game to Great Lakes. For the second straight night, the LumberKings were blanked by the Loons, and now face a do-or-die scenario at Dow Diamond. Kevin Gadea got the start for the LumberKings, and while he’ll be saddled with the loss, the lanky youngster pitched excellently over his 5.1 innings, giving up just two runs while striking out eight and walking two. Gadea had his fastball working well today, consistently climbing the ladder with it to blow it past batters for strikeouts. He was lifted in the sixth after walking two batters back-to-back and was replaced with Joey Strain, who promptly gave up back-to-back doubles to put the LumberKings in an 0-3 hole. Strain would give up another RBI single before the inning ended, and that would be the sum total of offense for the game. LumberKings pitching would put up 12 strikeouts on the day, thanks mostly to Gadea and Lukas Schiraldi, who struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth.

The LumberKings had plenty of chances to put runs on the board, due to some sloppy play by the Loons, who finished the day with three errors. The LumberKings didn’t have a hit until the fifth, even though players reached base on errors in the innings before that, when James Alfonso hit a comebacker that whacked Loons starter Caleb Ferguson in the head. Ferguson was lifted two batters later, but Clinton would also struggle against his replacements, Andrew Istler and Shea Spitzbarth, which I swear is his real name and not just something I tried to slip into this recap to see if anyone’s reading. Only three LumberKings players would record hits—Alfonso, Chris Mariscal, and Connor Hale—while the LumberKings stranded 14 runners and struck out nine times. They will play to keep their season alive tomorrow at 11:05 a.m. PST.