I’ve already written about our Illowa APBA League’s All-Star weekend recently. During that weekend, we all got in some regular season play. Unfortunately, my Twin City Thunderchickens went 12-18 for the month. Against the Colona Upperdeckers in particular, we split our series, 3-3. We could have so easily won one more game against Marcus Bunch and claimed at least one series win. But we didn’t.
Why?
Because we brought in an A*K to close out the 9th inning in Game 3.
Let’s set up the scenario
It’s game 3 between my Twin City Thunderchickens and Marcus’ Colona Upperdeckers. We were up 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth inning. I decided to bring in my limited closer Michael King. Now, King is graded as a A*K so we were looking good.
After the Upperdecker’s Matt Chapman grounded out to the pitcher on a 43-29, Marcus rolled a 53-20 on Joey Votto which is an automatic error on Jonathan India. Marcus smartly pinch ran for Votto with Nick Madrigal.
The King’s downfall
So we had one out and a runner on first. #9 hitter Dylan Carlson was up to the plate.
Marcus rolled a 12-25. Thinking I had won the game, I began to fist pump
…until I realized.
Michael King has a K and that turns the double play into a mere strikeout with a runner on first base.
That’s okay, I figured. A strikeout is still an out, right? Marcus had two outs with a runner on first. We can get through this.
That’s when Michael King lost his stuff. He then walked leadoff man Ha-Seong Kim. With runners on first and third, Andrew Benintendi is up next. Marcus got into the second column with him and ends the game with a triple on a play result number 2 driving in both baserunners.
That won it for the Upperdeckers 4-3. You can see the fateful inning on my scoresheet to the right.
Here’s the frustrating thing; if I had brought in any other pitcher without a K rating (even Jeurys Familia who is a grade D*Y pitcher), we would have won the game after the first three batters of the inning. My legit choice would have been Dylan Floro who is a B*YZ but seeing as he is 1-12 with a 6.26 ERA for me, I was a little hesitant.
So the lesson here is to pay attention to the K results on the board. Marcus did and it earned his Upperdeckers a win.
