[Jazzmosis]

Chapter 81: NLDS Game 4 October 10, 2010


Every series was locked up at 2-1 - and like Detroit, San Francisco, and Seattle, we had our backs against the wall. What was even more perplexing was the fact that the teams that had the better record, in all 4 series, were the teams trailing. I had the choice of starting Duncan for game 4, or marching out Andrze. What eventually swayed me to Duncan, despite his brutal game 1 performance, was the fact that Florida was 24-16 against lefties, and just 62-60 against righties. I didn’t know who was starting for Florida until the lineups were exchanged - and it turned out we were having a rematch, English vs. Duncan. I subbed Dardey in for Gober in right, although it didn’t seem to make much difference since between the two, there was only one hit recorded (and guess which hit it was?). I was playing superstition on the move though - Gober was clutch in pinch hits so I was thinking he’d come off the bench big time if I needed a pinch single.

The last two games had been decided late - so I was hoping that we could jump out in front early and not have to worry about late-innings at all. The team was barely breathing under the thunder of the Florida fans, looking to see them proceed for the 3rd straight year against us. I didn’t have much to say before the game, because I knew I felt the same way as my players. But, knowing I had to say something, I stood up in the dugout when everyone was there, and English taking his warmups.

“Let’s break some hearts tonight, boys. We won the most games in the majors this year; if anything, the pressure is on them to beat what is unquestionably the best team in all of baseball. Know that when you’re out there. You’re the best, and they’re the underdog.”

I received some grunts and “that’s right, boys” in response before all attention turned back to the game. As per usual, Hickman led off the game. And after a ball, Hickman swung through 3 straight pitches, striking out to start the game. The Florida fans were not taking anything lying down - from the very first strike they were rowdy, foaming at the mouth for our blood. Taylor dug into the box, and took the first pitch outside, followed by two fouls. English reared back and delivered a hot 95 MPH fastball at the knees, one which Taylor swung at and one-hopped back to the pitcher.

It was Deguzman that got us started off, taking a 2-0 changeup between third and short for our first hit of the game. Our bench clapped in support, but Clough followed him up with a 3-pitch strikeout, which ended the uneventful inning.

Jacques White led off the bottom of the first. He had been hitting in the two-slot, but his postseason average was .462, which was nothing short of phenomenal. Duncan greeted him with two fastballs, the second of which induced a harmless groundout. Manzo followed White’s lead, but it was Bennett, hitting only .111, that ripped a double down the line. That brought the crowd to their feet and Molina’s .375 average to the plate. Duncan looked unfazed, though - getting him to swing over a backdoor curve on a 1-2 count. Inning over, no damage.

Dekker led off the second - taking the second pitch he saw for a liner, one that Bennett 2 made a diving stab on before it could roll into the leftfield corner. The crowd loved it; we just hung our heads. Kolo took a deep flyball to centre that was caught, and Delgadillo struck out afterward, and Florida was doing what they’d done so well in the first three games - keeping us on the defensive side of the game.

And for them - of course - it paid off. After Duncan quickly disposed of Bennett 2, Carrillo took a hanging curve over the fence in dead centre. Fans went wild, while Florida’s bench exchanged high-fives. And so, the series continued how it had thus far - 1-0 Florida. And after Duque grounded out, Waterhouse FINALLY found a way to bury us - after a single, Duncan gave up a ridiculous double to the pitcher, and Waterhouse trotted home to the tune of a 2-0 Florida lead. I immediately called down to the bullpen and got Andrzejewski to start warming up.


English made short work of us, again, and Manzo led off the third with an infield single. He was erased on a fielder’s choice by Bennett, but Duncan then delivered the next pitch over Molina’s head, putting Bennett on second with one out. Luckily, Molina flew out to Dardey and Bennett 2 wiffed to end the threat.

“Get on him, now!” I yelled to the batters. That much didn’t even come close to happening, as English picked up K number 6 and 7 in his third-straight 1-2-3 inning. Duncan nearly got through an inning facing the minimum, but it was Waterhouse with a two-out triple that kept it alive. Waterhouse was finding his swing, which was exceptionally bad for us. However, he was left on third when Duncan K’d English.

Dekker finally provided the second baserunner of the game when he hit a leadoff single. There were a few claps in our bench, and I saw the hit-and-run put into motion - Dekker took off right away, and Kolo ripped a single to left. Dekker easily took third, and with nobody out, we had runners on the corners. However, things looked to go south quickly, as Delgadillo whiffed and Dardey popped out in foul ground. That brought up Duncan, who I considered pinch-hitting for, but left in and prayed. My prayers were answered - after fouling off a series of pitches, Duncan drew a miraculous walk, only the tenth in his entire career. However, the bases loaded situation came to nothing, as Hickman swung at the first pitch and bounced out to second. Nobody scored. Still 2-0 Florida.

In the 5th, Manzo singled to ensure Duncan wouldn’t go 3-up, 3-down, but there was no damage. But Florida was certainly wearing him down, as his pitch count was already at 86. I got Perez and Crumley warming, just in case.

Taylor led off the 6th with a single. Deguzman then came up and hit into a near-perfect double play grounder, but Taylor went hurtling into White to break it up. White had some words, but Taylor just ignored them. Clough then came up and hit a carbon copy of Deguzman’s ball, and Deguzman came in hard, but White got the ball out. It hopped twice on the way to Bennett, which allowed Clough to just barely leg it out. Luck had seemed to finally swing in our direction. Dekker then came up And took an 0-1 pitch down the first base line, which allowed Clough to huff home from first, surprisingly on no throw - Molina instead tried to pin Dekker at second, but was way off. 2-1. Kolo then grounded out, not surprisingly, back to Carrillo, and the inning ended. But we’d got on the board.

After Duncan got two outs, Duque ripped a double in the same spot that Dekker had - which brought up Waterhouse, hitting .455 thus far. I decided to roll the dice. With English on deck, I intentionally walked the catcher. Surprisingly, Sanson lifted his pitcher for pinch hitting James Bagwell. If we can get Bagwell out, we escape a jam and remove the pitcher, I thought to myself, although I knew most of the bench was thinking the same thing.

Turns out, I’d lost the roll. Bagwell took two balls before singling up the middle, and Florida had immediately got back the run we’d took. White then took two balls as well, and hit a hard liner to right - this one had gap all over it - but I saw Dardey streaking in at lightning speed, and on a dive, picked the ball out of the air just before it hit the grass. We erupted in the dugout and Duncan pumped his fist, but the score was still in Florida’s favour, 3-1.

I pinched Duncan with two outs in the 7th for Harshaw. He worked a nice, full count walk against Juan Zimmerman, but Hicky grounded out to all-outs Carrillo, and we were down to our final 6 outs to do something with the bat.
I brought in Popper in the bottom seven. I should have had him start the game, because he took the 2-3-4 batters and made them look like A ball players, striking out two, and at long last giving us our first 3-up, 3-down inning of the game. Zimmerman returned the favour, of course, striking out the ever-choking Clough on three pitches.


Popper started the 8th, but after getting a close first out, he gave up back to back singles to Carrillo and Duque, which prompted me to send in Aitken. Aitken, fairly unused because we hadn’t held a lead past the 5th inning in the series, whiffed Waterhouse, and got pinch hitter Irick to fly out.

We now had to face Howie in the top of the 9th. It was do-or-die time, quite literally. The Florida fans were in the middle of losing their minds, anticipating our knockout. I looked up at the scoreboard between the inning, and saw that of the other three games, only San Francisco looked to extend the series to 5 games. Detroit was in the top of the 9th losing 3-0, and Boston led Seattle 6-1 in the 7th.

Dekker led off the inning for us. He quickly gave us hope, singling on the second pitch. Kolo was coming up to the dish, and I wondered if I should get Dekker to steal, or if I should try again for the hit-and-run. I decided not to do anything, figuring Sanson would think I’d try something. And I was right - first pitch: pitchout.

And then Dekker started to play his tricks - he danced a lot around the dirt cutoff when Howie was looking - and faked a move, which caused Howie to balk. We all cheered as Dekker trotted over to second, while the crowd booed loudly at the umpires. The next pitch Kolo turned on - ripping it over White’s head and into the gap. Manzo hustled over and fielded the ball, hurrying his throw to the plate as Dekker slid past. Kolo dove into second, receiving no throw as Manzo had overthrown the cutoff. We exploded on the bench in cheers as Dekker received a warm welcome. Delgadillo was due up, 0-3 on the night with 2 K’s, and hitting only .111 in the series. My choice was obvious and simple; but the irony caused me to smile from ear to ear as I called out to the umpire. “5 for 24!”

The bench and Chicago fans cheered loudly as Gober picked up a bat and exchanged hands with Delgadillo. He’d unloaded against Howie two games earlier, and he had the chance to do it again here. After a few practice swings, he stepped into the box.

Ball one.
Ball two.

Howie then threw a 91 MPH fastball directly over the heart of the plate, as if to challenge him. Gober swung his bat at it as hard as he could. The ball leapt off the bat; high in the air, heading towards the rightfield corner. Molina sprinted after it as we all jumped off the bench; Gober was sprinting down the line, waving his hand, urging it to clear the wall – we all were doing the same in the dugout. Kolo stayed put between the second and third baseline - Molina got within a couple feet and leapt. His body, the wall, and the ball all met simultaneously, and all three broke apart from each other a quarter-second later. The ball fell to the ground beside Molina. Kolo immediately turned and rounded third, scoring without a throw, but sliding in anyway. Gober slid into second safely; we now had a 3-3 tie. The fans groaned; our bench went insane for Gober’s back-against-the-wall heroics. If he wasn’t a fan hero from game 2, he was now.

Dardey came up and flew out to shallow centre. I pinch hit Martinez for Aitken, who promptly walked. Hickman then came up, prompting Sanson to lift Howie for Cicero.

His first pitch was wild; moving us to 90 feet from the go-ahead run. Fearing that, Cicero walked Hicky. Sanson once again made a switch to Aaron Springer, who finally induced Taylor to ground into a tight double-play, getting Florida out of the inning. But the game had changed very suddenly, thanks to who would go down in the clubhouse as Robert “Season Saver” Gober.

I called on rookie Rob Tyler to pitch to the top half of the order in the bottom of the 9th. Just two years ago, he’d been the 45th overall pick in the draft. Now, he was trying to keep us alive in the first round of the playoffs. He got White to ground out on a good slider, and then struck out Manzo on a high heater. He pitched around Bennett for a walk, something I didn’t mind. To my surprise, Bennett immediately tried to steal, and he picked a decent pitch to do it; an 84 MPH slider. McCree, who’d subbed in Dardey’s spot, grabbed the outside slider and hurled a bullet to Deguzman, who applied the tag for the out. I saw McCree pump his fist, but Tyler looked ever so calm as he simply walked off the mound with a blank expression. When he got to the bench, though, it was a different story. To extra innings we went.

I took another glance at the scoreboard. The Detroit/Oakland game was over, with Detroit going quietly. San Francisco had extended their lead to 8-1, and Boston and Seattle were at the same score in the 8th, at 6-1. We, however, had tied it. Deguzman led off the inning, facing Springer. Springer won that battle, getting him to swing over a diving splitter. Clough continued his uselessness at the dish, picking up the golden sombrero. Dekker, however, kept the inning alive with his 4th hit of the game, yet another double to the gap. That brought up Kolo, who was hitting 2-4 in the game. Between him and Dekker, they had accounted for 6 of the 9 total hits. This time, Springer got him to ground out, and Florida was back up in the 10th.

I left Tyler in for the 10th, and he rewarded me with another 1-2-3 inning, getting Molina, Bennett 2, and Carrillo out quickly.

The top of the 11th looked like it would be pointless, with Gober flying out to start it off. But McCree then singled, and Martinez flew out. However, Hicky then whipped a ball up the middle, one that Carrillo made a diving stop on, but couldn’t get any outs. That brought up Tyler, who I wanted to leave in the game but had to pinch hit for the last guy on my bench: Alex Cuddy. Cuddy took two balls before hitting a hard grounder to White, who retired Hicky at second for the third out.

With Duque coming up, I called on Perez for the lefty-lefty matchup. He worked a 2-1 count, but then what I feared most finally came true: Perez left a ball up in the zone, and Duque ripped it. Not just ripped, but hit an absolute bomb. I saw everything fall apart so quickly that it hurt my brain - Perez just walked off the mound, dejected, while Florida fans went insane and the Marlins piled onto the field in jubilation.

It was so heartbreaking it was almost surreal. But after getting two to tie in the 9th, Florida’s Samuel Duque had won the game, and the series, in the bottom of the 11th with a walkoff solo shot. For the third straight year, Florida had sent us home in the playoffs.