NALB 2019 World Championship Series - Game 4

K. Fields
2020-09-17T13:23:47-04:00
Baseball

The Phoenix Rattlers entered game four of the World Championship Series (WCS) in an enviable position. Playing at home, they had a 3-0 series lead over the Brooklyn Knights. Not only were they but one win away from winning the series, they had the opportunity to secure a four-game sweep. In 17 previous WCS appearances, the Knights had never been in this position before.

Brooklyn's starter Aaron Patterson (15-7, 3.11 ERA) had a lot of pressure on him in this win or go home game. Phoenix had 30 year old journeyman José Sandoval (0-1, 2.14 ERA) on the mound. The Rattlers acquired Sandoval from the Maples in July. Sandoval hadn't seen much action this year, starting only two games and pitching some relief work in 11 games.

The Knights wanted to get out in front quickly and they got their wish. A base on balls and a pair of singles led to the game's first run. That lead was squashed, however, in the third inning. A 3-run home run by first baseman Jonathan Grandberry and a 2-run homer by catcher Sancho Alguirre put the Rattlers on top 5-1. The Knights felt the game slipping away but managed to load the bases in the fourth inning. Syman Lowery crushed a Sandoval fastball and his grand slam tied the game at 5-5. The Rattlers kept fighting and scored a run in the fifth off of a double by Sancho Alguirre. It looked like Brooklyn had a chance to tie the game in the eighth when pinch hitter Ramon Alconer singled to right field. However, the speedy base-stealing threat took too big of a lead off of first base and was picked off for the inning's first out. That was bad news for the Knights as Syman Lowery delivered a line-drive double to the center field wall in the very next at bat. It was probable that Alconer would have scored on that hit. The Rattlers added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when second baseman Ríco Gómez hit an RBI single.

Final score: Phoenix 7, Brooklyn 5

             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R  H  E
Brooklyn     1 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0   5 10  0
Phoenix      0 0 5 0 1 0 0 1 X   7 12  0

W: D. Green
L: X. Scaife