Dodgers sink Pirates, 14-12

The Dodgers stayed afloat in the 2023 Tan Holdings-SBL Masters League championship series after they sunk the once unsinkable Pirates’ undefeated bid for the championship last Monday night at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Baseball Field.

In a do-or-die continuation of Game 2, the Dodgers needed to tie up the series after the Pirates took Game 1 last week. Game 2 was rained out last Wednesday and the Dodgers came back onto the diamond with renewed vigor with a close 14-12 win.

The Dodgers were up, 7-6, heading into the continuation of the game—and the Pirates were raring to take them down. However, even after the Pirates scored three to put them up, 10-9, the Dodgers’ Mark Villagomez hit a two-run home run that took the lead by one once again, 11-10, in the sixth inning.

Two more Dodgers batters got on base—Glen Camacho and Robert Bansil—and they were in perfect scoring position to add insurance runs.

It was like something from the baseball movie Moneyball, when pinch hitter of the Oakland Athletics’ Scott Hatteberg stepped up to the plate and delivered the pinch-hit, walk-off homer that clinched their 20th straight win—Dodgers pinch hitter Mel Manahane had a similar moment.

He stepped up to the plate and delivered a clutch two-RBI triple that cleared the bases to make it 13-10.

The Dodgers’ dugout and their fans on the bleachers exploded into cheers as they needed those runs—it wasn’t over yet because the Pirates still had a chance to rally at the top of the seventh inning. Manahane went on to score off Ed Manibusan and the Dodgers had a 14-10 lead.

With no time to spare, the Pirates then hacked away at Dodgers pitcher Jeff Cruz with a leadoff single by Mark Toves. Toves scored and inched closer to the Dodgers, 11-14, then another run scored later by Pete Sablan to make it 12-14.

If the pressure wasn’t on before, it was on now as Cruz needed to close out the game while they still had a small margin to win it. The Pirates didn’t give up and continued to swing at pitches but resulted in much needed strikeouts for the Dodgers.

Cruz was then in a bases-loaded jam but went on to register the third out via a fielder’s choice—clinching Game 2 and forcing a winner-take-all Game 3 tonight.

Dodgers coach/manager/player David Attao was ecstatic after the game and said that “it was a well-fought battle between the two best teams in the league. I told you guys we’re coming, and we came, so we want to keep going.”

As for handing the Pirates their first loss all season and extending their championship run by one more game, Attao said, “We respect the Pirates obviously because they went undefeated in the regular season. But someone has to lose sometime and we’re just trying our best to get to the next level. We always thank the Lord above and our family, friends, and sponsors…”

The mindset heading into Game 3? Attao said, “We’re going out on Wednesday and play it one ball at a time—one inning at a time. Nothing special—we’re just going to play hard.”