August 27 2006

Now that was a game.

In between our epic pre-game cheer (a compilation of previous cheers, a "best-of", if you will, with a shout-out to newlywed Kelly - congrats!) and the final out, there was much drama, much excitement, much heartache, and, finally, much celebration. Okay okay, so much of the "much celebration" happened immediately after the final out.. there was still a bit of much celebration after Rod laid down a pressure bunt in the eighth. We'll get to that later. First...

The other semi-final had just concluded, so we knew the finals would be the Sabres vs winner of Biscuits/Indians(us!). The game started well for us. Lee started on the mound, and he was on. And we mean on. Two thumbs up on; Chris can vouch for that. Bottom of the first we got on the scoreboard quicksmart. Two walks to start it off, and then Redge smoking a triple to right-centre.

From there, we kinda coasted, and some details escape us. We do know that Lee had 9 Ks through 4 innings. That's right, 9 of the 12 outs had come via the strikeout. Can't remember how he did in the fifth inning. Perhaps a nice little pixie will come along and enlighten us. Despite Lee's dominance, we couldn't take a strangle hold on the game. We had a 3-1 lead extended to 6-1, and promptly blew that, due to some sketchy fielding and timely Biscuit hitting. They scored one run in the seventh, and then four in the eighth. The Biscuits' bench became more animated with each run scored, and as the tying run came across there were loud cries of "it's a whole new ballgame!" Simmer down lads, simmer down...

Bottom of the eighth was small-ball time. Leadoff man Ryan got on, and stole second. We think the catcher overthrew second and that's how Ryan got to third, but we may be confusing that with another play. At any rate, Ryan was on third, Rod was at the plate, and the squeeze was the plan. The pitch was low, the bat pulled back, and Ryan scampered back to third. The infielders came in for the next pitch, squeeze was called again, and Rod laid down a beauty. The pitcher came home with it but it wasn't even close. We tacked on two more after that, for insurance's sake, and for vanity's sake. The game was in the bag. Or was it?

Top of the ninth the Biscuits loaded the bases. The sacks were juiced. Two outs. A triple would tie the game. A double may tie the game. A single probably wouldn't tie the game. Heeeeeeerrrre's the pitch. It's a liner right at Chris. He snowcones it. This game is ovah.

See alls y'all at the finals. Date and time and place is TBA. Hmmm, after typing that last sentence we checked the Sabres' website. According to them the date of the final is September 10. Time and place is still TBA.