SPORTS – GNATS NOW
Gnats Fall Second Straight Year in Division Series
Updated: October 16, 2030 – 11:45 PM
By Howard Heskin, Gnats Beat Writer and ESPN PEBA Correspondent – Twitter @HowardHeskin1
Once again for the second year in a row, closer, Javier 'Random' Jiménez became the pariah going into the off-season with another disappointing playoff performance in game one of the Divisional Playoff against Aurora. Jim 'Nitro' MacCowan pitched 6.2 strong innings of work. Nolan 'Sleepy' Kuhn and Kyle Weaver combined for no hits and no runs to hand off the top of the 9th inning with a 7-5 lead. Jiménez entered the game and immediately gave up a one pitch hit to Stewart Arundale. He would strike out Harry Hutchins as Arundale stole second. He would get his second out by striking out Ricardo Zamora. Then the meltdown would begin in earnest... as he walked Nick Heath to place men on 1st and 2nd. Manny Castro would then follow up with an infield single to load the bases to bring up the dangerous veteran Paul Carlisle. Walk him to let in a run? No let's pitch to him decided the ledgendary manager Joe Matterson. Strike 1... foul ball strike 2.... we got this.... oh no...... its going, going gone over Carpenter's head for a grand slam. The Gnats fans file out of Ellison Park in shame.
Javier 'Random' Jiménez would lose the closing job for the rest of the series where set up man, Josh Hall would also melt down in game three, giving up 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th to hand over another game to Aurora. Those two games the difference in the series. The Gnats hand over 2 games in the 9th where they had leads. Jiménez in 6 playoff starts has only 2 saves in 5.2 innings of work. Most memorable are the 2 home runs he has surrendered resulting in blown series to NeoTokyo last season and now Aurora.
The Gnats showed heart down 3-0 fighting back to take games 4 and 5. Where the season would be left up to Dean McNeal back at home with the Gnats needing to sweep the last 2 games at home to move on in the playoffs. McNeal would not be able to hold the line and was chased out of the game after 4 innings of work giving up 5 earned runs. But the Gnats would run out of gas and the bats fell silent to Bartolo Esquivel and Luis Nieves who combined to give up only 6 hits and no walks with only one earned run - an Ed Brown solo shot in the 5th.
So as another season closes the books for the Gnats in 2030, but questions remain for the core that will return in 2031. The window for Nitro, Carpenter and Parker is starting to close... Can they find a way to get over the top after winning back to back seasons over 100 wins?