Friday, August 27, 2010

So close

This is the kind of drama that sports fans dream of at night even though, in an epic game, Calgary was just a sliver better than Victoria in eking out a very important 7-6 win and bumping their lead back up to two and a half games over the Seals.

Victoria jumped out to an early lead thanks to a couple of RBI’s in the second by the hot-hitting Brian Rios and the ever-clutch Colin Moro. But in what would become commonplace, the Vipers came right back with 2 of their own. Twice more Victoria took the lead, and twice more the Vipers came back to tie. Punch, counter-punch.

In what has become a quirky but reliable tactic, yet another Seals pitcher had a clutch pinch-hit. This time was Issac Hess driving in two runs in his only at bat in the sixth. Amazing. Hey Kip, I thought you told us these guys couldn’t hit?!

As the game wore on, both teams switched pitchers as often as Heather Locklear switches rocker boyfriends, but at the end of the day it was a fielding error by Brian Rios with 2 outs in the 8th inning that allowed the speedy Caonabo Cosme to score the winning run from second.

Every game is like playoff baseball now and as the number of remaining games decrease, the tension and importance increases - especially for Victoria as they are in chase mode. The Seals now need to take the final two games against the snakes to at least keep it interesting in Edmonton. It’s a big ask, but they’re right there and if they can sweep the last two and then get at least two out of three in Edmonton we will be welcoming back a team that is very much in the hunt for the playoffs.

Let's hope this was just a bump in the playoff road.