[Jazzmosis]

Game 3

Let me tell you, there's nothing more comforting than coming home. After the tough losses in Grand Rapids, seeing the stream of fans coming into the newly-constructed Duluth Stadium was a comforting sight. I was only hoping that they would be as rowdy for us and would propel us to a great victory.

The stadium didn't sell out - that much I expected - but there was 20,000 fans that packed themselves in, waving the Express flags that were handed out.

I was tossing Matt Natali, our second lefty starter, against another one of the Eagles' sharp starters, Herbert Bower - who'd staked himself to an 8-2 record with a tidy 2.83 ERA. I was wondering if there was any end to the stream of difficult starters that Grand Rapids seemed to march out. Natali, on the other hand, went 7-8 with a 3.71 ERA. We had our work cut out for us.... again.

I tweaked the lineup, taking out 9th inning hero Stewart, who was downright awful vs. LHP, for young gun Pedro Sanchez - a solid LHP hitter but certainly less than stellar vs righties. I left Warden and Zeman in the 3-4 slots - and prayed they'd wake up.

Natali gave the Duluth fans a bright beginning by being the first starter to get through the first inning unscathed, giving up only a harmless walk to Arias. In our half, we put runners on 1st and 2nd with only one out, but couldn't execute, as a series of ground balls ended any potential threat we mounted.

And the momentum certainly favoured Grand Rapids. After Natali gave up a leadoff walk to 1B Paul Gayhart, their version of Lehman wrapped a ball around the first base bag and into the outfield corner, stretching a double into a close triple that also gave Grand Rapids first blood again. And if history was any indication... well, we hadn't led at any point in this series.

Natali looked a bit rattled, as he threw his next pitch right down the middle. Ramirez turned on it and put it back up the box on the ground - it had single all over it - until Corey Watson made a sparkling diving stop and delivered a strike to first. The run scored, but the bases were clear. Natali seemed to calm down from there, getting the next two batters and hustling off the diamond as quickly as possible. 2-0 Grand Rapids. It was going to be a fight, but our defense wasn't going to let us down this game. Already, they'd made three highlight reel plays - two by Watson. Coupled with his stellar .375 average as leadoff, he was the clear MVP of the team thus far.

Sergio Elizade led off the bottom half of the inning. Up to this point in the series, he'd only made a pinch hit appearance (and mind you, made the most of it with a single). He took a first pitch ball, then unloaded on the next ball, and put us right back in the thick of things with a leadoff homerun. The fans cheered loudly and exuberantly as Sergio rounded the bases.

I was the first to greet him at the top step of the dugout. "That's the response I like to see. Right away!" I shouted and slapped him on the back.

After a quick out, backup C Warren Mandell worked a walk - bringing up Natali, who fouled out on three bunt attempts. Watson then strode to the plate and ripped the first pitch he saw to deep left field. We all rose to the top to watch the ball soar majestically through the air. Buhr raced back to the wall and leaped. The fans roared.

Buhr fell to the ground, ball firmly entrenched in his glove. The Grand Rapids bench erupted in cheers, and I saw Bower pump his fist in jubilation. We'd been denied our first lead of the series by Buhr's steal of Watson's home run. However, we had scored. 2-1.

After Natali got two outs in the top of the third (one thanks to Mandell gunning down Raines trying to swipe second), the terrible two struck again, with Arias taking a free pass and Buhr himself playing hero, knocking a triple that was nearly identical to Lehman's. Grand Rapids had quickly got back that run. 3-1.

Sanchez struck out on a nasty splitter to start the bottom of the third. Warden then stepped up, and at long last, his bat looked to be waking up. On a 1-1 pitch from Bower, he gave a powerful hack to dead centre that had Arias running back to the wall, but not bothering a leap - we'd responded right away - again - and this game looked like the winner was going to emerge from whichever team could outslug the other.

Zeman walked and went to third on a two-out single by Elizade, but that was as close as we came to tying the game when SS Corkery grounded out. 3-2.

Natali finally had a quick inning, giving up only a single but getting through the 4th unscathed. However, Bower returned the favour.

The 5th inning was much like the 4th for Matt, as he looked to be finding his groove. Naturally, Bower had also settled down.

The 6th proved to be a tough inning for Natali, as Lehman continued to punish him with a double that he scored on a two-out bloop single. Natali finished out the inning, but Grand Rapids had got themselves an insurance run and now lead 4-2. When Natali came in, I told him his night was finished. His line was respectable, with 6 innings and only 6 hits given up - but the problem was the 5 walks - 3 of which had scored. Take those away, and we'd be leading.

After an uneventful bottom 6, I called upon Cesar Ortiz to take over mound duties. After two outs, Arias proved his annoyance by working a 6-pitch walk. But we had a silent rejoicing as Grand Rapids lifted Buhr for a pitch hitter named Dave Colome. Ortiz went into the stretch and stared him down. And with a quick flip, he turned towards first and rifled the ball to Salazar, who applied the tag on Arias for a beautiful pickoff that got the dormant fans a little excited. Inning over, and Buhrs had been removed.

Watson rewarded us with a leadoff single, raising his postseason average to .364. Pedro Sanchez then battled back from an 0-2 count to work a walk, and very suddenly we were posing a very real threat. And with Warden stepping up and Zeman on deck, if they were going to wake up, now was the time. Grand Rapids' manager went out and removed Bower from the game - and he'd really battled, so I had to tip my hat. But I was more happy than anything else to have him out - and a fresh reliever named Aaron Rasch that hadn't seen game time in nearly a week.

Warden took two pitches - one a ball, one a strike - before turning on a fastball and punching it just by Gayhart at first. Watson peeled around third and slid into home without a throw, much to the delight of the fans, who were coming alive at a rapid pace. Warden had delivered; now it was Zeman's turn. Rasch, seemingly aware of Zeman's hunger despite his 0-7 postseason, walked him on 5 pitches. Bases loaded, nobody out.

Salazar came up to the plate. He'd been nearly as useless as Zeman, going 1-11 thus far. After two balls, he lifted a harmless fly to centre field. Sanchez wasted no time on the ball, dashing for the plate as soon as Arias had gloved it. Arias thought about trying to gun it home, but instead tossed to third, holding Warden at second. However, the fans and our bench were more than happy with that trade off, as we had once again tied the game at 4 - but this time, in the bottom of the 7th. And with Elizade coming to the dish, we had a chance to take the lead. I called a hit-and-run. Elizade hit a weak grounder to second, but it was more than enough to move the runners along. With Corkery coming up, I pinch hit him for Ron Stewart. He didn't deliver, grounding out to end the inning. No matter. 4-4.

Ed Sieber came out for the 8th inning. After a quick out, he walked Gayhart. That brought up Lehman, who continued to punish us with a single up the middle. Two on, one out. I called the bullpen and told Casablanca to start warming up, and fast.

But it was too late. One pitch later, Kevin Ramirez made Sieber pay. With one swing, he erased all the progress we'd made, and put us down by three runs. The fans went dead silent. All that we could hear was Grand Rapid's dugout cheering. 7-4 Grand Rapids.

Sieber regained his form and got two strikeouts to end the inning, but the damage was certainly done. Everyone slunk into their seats, and the usually calm Sieber lost it. He punched the cooler as hard as he could and threw his glove down the clubhouse stairways before disappearing down the steps. However, we could hear the echo of his frustrated screams during the Eagles' Richard Shade's entire warmup pitches. Sieber frustration was simply an outburst of what we were all feeling but not saying. How the f*ck were we supposed to beat this team?

Shade got Mandel and Leo West on two deadly strikeouts before Watson came up and proved that it didn't matter who was on the mound, he would deliver. Sanchez followed suit with a single of his own, but Grand Rapids called in their closer Springer to face Warden - and struck him out on three pitches. Warden threw no temper tantrum - his face just had the looked of someone defeated instead. That look was much worse for a manager to see.

Casablanca came in for the top of the 9th. With the help of Salazar's diving stop against Arias, he gave us a three-up-three-down inning - the very first of the game.

It made no difference. Springer looked much more like the ace closer he was, shutting down Zeman, Salazar, and Elizade in order to pick up his first save of the series, and give Grand Rapids a commanding 3-0 series lead.

We were up against what seemed like an insurmountable challenge. We had to win the next four games in a row.

And we hadn't even led for an inning yet.