The San Antonio Saints fought their way back to the World Series by outlasting the Beartooth Bitterroots in six nip and tuck games. The finale was typical in that Beartooth jumped out to leads of 3-0 and 4-2 but the Saints got three unlikely homers to take the game and series.  Neither team hit very well as the pitching staffs were good and wiggled out of jams.  Beartooth’s Andrew McCutchen won the NLCS MVP award by turning in a line of .423/.423/.800 with a pair of HRs and a series-leading 6 RBI. 

Game 1: SAS 4, BEA 0 

Despite the seven game 1^st round battle that SAS barely won, David Price was fully rested to start the NLCS.  It showed as he stymied the Bitterroots with seven shutout innings.  The big lefty allowed only four singles and two walks while striking out seven.  Mike Rizzo hammered a Mike Fiers slider for a two run blast in the 4^th and singled in two more in the 6^th.  The Saint bullpen worked two perfect innings to ice the opener.  SAS 1, BEA 0

Game 2: SAS 8, BEA 7 

Matt Garza could only start one game in the NLCS but was forced to start game 2 when neither Lucas Harrell or Jonathan Niese was rested enough to take the hill.  It looked like a bad call when McCutchen doubled with two outs in the 1^st and Prince Fielder yanked a long homer.  Beartooth’s Mike Leake looked great and held that 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 4^th.  But then David Wright and Buster Posey started the inning with walks and Rizzo singled home a run.  Giancarlo Stanton tied the game with a ground out and Adrian Gonzalez mashed a two run homer for a 4-2 Saint lead.  Gonzalez added to the lead with a 6^th inning RBI single.

It stayed 5-2 until the top of the 8^th when Michael Kirkman relieved Garza.  Bryce Harper pinch hit a single up the middle and Kirkman plunked Alex Gordon.  Both runners eventually scored but McCutchen struck out and Fielder ended the inning with a double play grounder.

That one run lead was hanging by a thread until the Saints added three runs in the bottom of the inning as Sean Marshall gave up a pair of singles and Brandon League walked in two runs and Alex Rodriguez booted a ball that allowed another to score.

Leading 8-4 into the top of the 9^th Jonathan Papelbon wasn’t able to concentrate and gave up two singles, a walk and drilled a batter.  When the dust cleared SA was able to hold on  for a scary 8-7 win and the game shifted to Montana.  SAS 2, BEA 0

Game 3: BEA 5, SAS 2 

Johnny Cueto and Lucas Harrell both looked strong until the bottom of the 3^rd.  Then the  Bitterroots got to Harrell for four runs.  Elvis Andrus doubled and took 3^rd when Posey muffed Cueto’s sac bunt.  Gordon followed with an RBI double and Cueto scored an out later on an infield ground out.  Harrell could have escaped only down those two unearned runs but Jay Bruce and Arod scorched RBI singles to blow the game open.  A Brandon Phillips RBI single in the 4^th made it 5-0.

The Saints loaded the bases in the 4^th but couldn’t score.  In the 7^th they got RBI singles from Jose Reyes and Posey but Sean Marshall struck out the last two batters to end the inning with the tying run at the plate both times.  Matt Belisle got the save. SAS 2, BEA 1

Game 4: SAS 3, BEA 2 

In what proved to be the pivotal game, Niese outdueled Cliff Lee in a battle of southpaws.  Lee dodged trouble in the early innings as he escaped unscathed despite a 3^rd inning triple by Reyes and a three bagger from Pete Kozma in the 4^th.  Reyes and Wright each drove in a run in the top of the 5^th, though, and Stanton hit a leadoff HR in the 6^th.  Niese got out of jams in the 4^th and 5^th before handing the ball to Junichi Tazawa in the 7^th with one out.  Tazawa got the last two outs without incident and started the 8^th with a strikeout.  Then McCutchen launched a homer and Tazawa left the game.  Raul Valdes came on and gave up a ringing HR to Fielder.  So on back to back homers pitchers who had the matchup advantage and had been brilliant all season gave up homers.  Manager Alan Lehmann stuck with Valdes, though, and was rewarded.  The southpaw whiffed ARod and Bruce to end the inning.  Then Papelbon struck out the two batters he faced in the 9^th and Luis Perez ended the game by striking out Harper.  I wonder how many times a TBBL playoff game had the last six outs recorded as strikeouts.  SAS 3, BEA 1

 Game 5: BEA 4, SAS 3

Price couldn’t return to form in game 5 and was battered early.  McCutchen doubled in a run in the bottom of the 1^st and homered in the 3^rd.  Those runs sandwiched a Reyes RBI double in the top of the 3^rd off Fiers.  BEA went up 4-1 in the bottom of the 4^th when Andrus slapped an RBI single and (who else) McCutchen rocketed an RBI single.

The Saints cut the lead with a run in the 6^th and had the bases loaded but couldn’t get closer.  In the 8^th Kozma gapped an RBI triple with no outs but couldn’t score the tying run.  Marshall induced a weak fly to shallow right and then struck out Carl Crawford before ending the threat on a ground out.  In the 9^th the Saints were teased again when Wright got a leadoff walk off League and moved to 3^rd with one out.  But League struck out the final two batters to save the game.  SAS 3, BEA 2

Game 6: SAS 11, BEA 5

The Saints seemed to be in a good position with two chances to win one game at home.  But the Garza out of turn start haunted them.  Neither Harrell or Niese was rested for game 6 and starting a tired Harrell in game 6 would mean an equally tired Niese would need to start game 7 if necessary.

So Travis Blackley got the surprise start in the most important game of his career. If this were a fairytale, the lefty would have thrown a shutout.  Instead his shutout lasted a perfect 1st inning and three ugly batters into the 2^nd.  He drilled Fielder to start the 2^nd frame and then gave up an Arod single.  Bruce punished the southpaw with a two run triple and scored on a Chris B Young single.  Blackley avoided any more bloodshed in the 2^nd and his team got a pair back off Beartooth’s Ian Kennedy in the bottom of the inning when Neil Walker unexpectedly hit a two run HR.  But Blackley gave up a 3^rd inning single to McCutchen and an RBI triple to Fielder (wouldn’t you pay per view to see THAT?!?) and his day was done.  Tazawa wriggled out of the jam down 4-2 and worked a scoreless 4^th.

In the bottom of the 4^th Crawford led off with a homer and Tazawa stayed on to bat with two outs and the bases empty.  He fisted a single into center field that looked harmless until Reyes followed with a shot to RCF that just cleared the fence.  McCutchen’s RBI grounder in the top of the 5^th tied the game at 5-5.  But that didn’t last.

Gonzalez knocked an RBI single through the infield to reclaim the lead and Kozma’s sac fly made it 7-5.  It stayed that way until the bottom of the 8^th when Wright cleared the bases with a double and another ARod error led to the final margin.

Mike was a true gentleman throughout the series and could easily have won this match if he had gotten a hit instead of one of the dozens of GDPs his team hit into at key moments.  He never uttered a cross word though I would have in his shoes.

His team will get more shots at the Series.

SAS had a team line of .254/.336/.423 while BEA hit .254/.326/.371

The Saints move on to the World Series where the LA Halos await.  The Series will be a rematch of last year’s teams.  SAS won that series in 5 games.