Brewers advance to the finals after 8-7 win

In a game highlighted by short bursts of scoring and some terrific all around play, the Miller Lite Brewers outlasted the Pirates 8-7, Wednesday night, to take Game 2 from the Pirates and advance to the championship series of the Saipan Major League baseball playoffs at Francisco M. Palacios baseball field.

Starting pitcher Bobby Castro pitched four solid innings for the Brewers, allowing just two runs off of two hits and striking out one. The Brewers’ manager Tony Rogolifoi opted to relieve Castro before the start of the fifth with Mr. Strikeout, Roy Celis. The king of K’s pitched the final five innings in the victory, allowing five runs off of six hits, walking two and fanning three.

The tandem was able to accomplish what Kevin Kapileo could not. Kapileo went the distance in Game 2, gave up eight runs over nine innings off of 12 hits, and recording a pair of strikeouts in the loss.

The Brew crew did most of their damage to the Pirates in the first two innings when they took an early five-run lead courtesy of four errors and timely hitting. After leading by a nickel, the Pirates were able to chip away at the lead, whittling it down to 5-4 after six. The Brewers tallied a run in each of the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings to go up by four and it looked like it was over for the black and gold. That was until slugger Peter Tomokane launched a two-strike two-out three-run dinger to right field to bring the game to 8-7.

The Brewers needed only one out to advance to the finals and the Pirates needed one run to stay alive as heavy hitter Jerome Delos Santos came up to bat. It just wasn’t the night for the Pirates as Delos Santos was K’d by Celis to end the game and the series.

“That last inning was kind of scary. [Celis] gave up that big home run to Peter, and you know Peter can pull the ball and that’s exactly what he did. I was scared of Jerome because he is a homerun hitter too. Lucky [Celis] pitched smart to him,” said Rogolifoi.

For the first time in weeks, the field conditions were finally not an issue, as the players shook off the rust and got down to business. Apparently not all of the rust was shaken off as the Pirates allowed the Brewers their first base runner when Joe Guerrero reached the bag via error.

After JR Suel walked, he was subsequently sent back to the dugout when Tony Camacho hit into a fielder’s choice. Camacho advanced Guerrero and later stole second to set the stage for Manny Sablan. There was nothing out of the ordinary as Sablan came through with a big hit to bring the runners in.

Up 2-0 in the top of the second, Castro singled before the Pirates lost that glovin’ feelin’, allowing Guerrero another free pass to first. Suel singled to score his pitcher, and an error in the outfield allowed him to second. Guerrero must have had a guardian error watching over him as he crossed the plate thanks to another Pirates miscue.

The black and gold quickly got their act together, holding the Brewers scoreless on two hits for the next four innings while they began to rally.

It was time for the Crew to make some mistakes in the fourth as Castro served up his fourth walk of the game; this one to Tomokane. With PT on first, and Delos Santos at the plate, the Brewers’ infield erred to give the Pirates runners on first and second for free.

The Brew crew didn’t stop there as they let the duo reach home plate courtesy of another error and a wild pitch before they could end the inning.

“Bobby Castro did a good job. There was only one hit on him when he started getting tired, and when the pitcher’s tired, the hitters take advantage. So I had to take him out and put in my ace pitcher to try to hold them down,” said Rogolifoi.

It worked in the fifth as Celis threw a measly seven pitches to retire the side in the fifth inning. It didn’t work as well in the sixth as the Pirates led off with two runners on base. After catcher Craig Sanchez laid down a well-placed sacrifice bunt, it was JJ Laniyo’s turn at the plate. Just before he got in the box, teammate John Reyes said, “Hey, only if it’s good, huh?” A loud “Let’s go one nine, let’s go one nine” was coming from the dugout when Laniyo hit a liner to left to score Joey Dela Cruz and Ed Kapileo.

Over the next three innings, the Brewers manufactured three runs and had a comfortable four-run lead going into the bottom of the ninth with their ace pitcher on the mound.

After James Fleming and Tony Pangelinan were on base, Tomokane made his way to the mound. Tomokane had a rather lackluster night up until the moment when he gave the ball a beating with his three run shot, but it was not enough.

“I had a feeling he was going do what he did. I said that if Peter could get a clutch hit and get a triple or a double or a homerun, they’ll be by one or two and it happened. It got close and I thought we were going to tie the ball game up, but we fell one run short,” said Reyes.

As the Brewers walked out onto the field congratulate their pitcher, someone said, “Championship here we come baby!”

As for the championship, the Brewers will face the defending champion Northern Yankees in Game 1 on Monday night, July 19, 6:30pm at Palacios field. Games 2,3, (and 4,5 if necessary) will remain unscheduled until the board can decide what to do in the absence of big name players and coaches in Guam for the Asia-Pacific Tournament.