A quick reset before we try to alleviate the suspense. Despite losing five of six games, Jack Bauer Squared went into the final two games of the season tied for the division lead in the NL West. The 24×24 League is down to the wire, and even with a weak 77-83 record we were still playing for something and a playoff spot still very much in our grasp.
The four-game series at Olympic Stadium continued with our best starter, Mike Cuellar, taking the hill. $24 and Some Change got off to a good start in the top of the 1st inning with a two-run homer by Willie McGee. A homer by Dave Kingman in the 6th added another for the visitors.
Meanwhile aside from Bobby Bonilla’s second-inning double, JBS couldn’t get hits off Dave Righetti. Through 6 innings, that was all we’d produced. As I’ve noted, a sim doesn’t know the difference between Game 1 and Game 161, or the standings, or the desperation. So the game just unfolds with no special urgency in the air.
We got a rally started in the 7th inning, with back-to-back singles to start the inning followed by a couple outs. Then Rafael Ramirez singled to load the bases and bring up pinch hitter Bob Bailey with a chance to get us back into it. Bailey was not up to the task, however, striking out looking to end the threat.
$24 put it out of reach in the 9th when McGee hit his second homer of the game, and we went down meekly, 6-0. Predictably, our co-division leaders Steroids Make You Fast won their game to take a 1-game advantage into the season finale.
That put our backs to the wall in a big way. We’d lost four in a row and six out of seven. It’s a depressing way to finish when you led by 3 games with eight left and suddenly to be down a game and the season finale looming.
The only good scenario left would be for us to win and Steroids to lose in Game 162. Better take care of business, or it won’t matter what they do.
Burt Hooton got the start and immediately walked the leadoff batter and hit the next one. Up stepped catcher Ron Hassey, who drove in both runners with a double.
Believe it or not, Hooton wouldn’t allow another hit the rest of the game. He retired the next 20 in a row before yielding a walk in the 7th. The only question was whether we could get the runs to make the effort worth it.
In the bottom of the 1st we certainly looked like we could. Kal Daniels led off with a double off Dennis Martinez and scored on Bobby Murcer’s ground out. That made it 2-1.
In the 2nd inning, we got two runners on, but Ryne Sandberg flied out to end the threat. In the 3rd, we went down 1-2-3.
In the 4th, we got a walk but nothing else. In the 5th, Kingman made an error, but we left the runner on 2nd.
In the 6th, we went down 1-2-3. In the 7th, Ramirez led off with a single, and we got a runner to second with one out. But Martinez struck out Daniels and Sandberg.
In the 8th, we went down 1-2-3. Our bullpen kept $24 to just the one hit with a perfect 8th and 9th, so it went to the bottom of the 9th stuck at the same 2-1 score from way back in the 1st inning.
$24 called on Tom Niedenfuer, a longtime Dodgers reliever perhaps best known for giving up two disastrous home runs to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1985 League Championship Series. Dodgers fans certainly don’t remember his mostly effective run across his tenure with the team.
Sure, I digress, but the point is Niedenfuer was remarkably capable of blowing this game and giving us a chance to make the playoffs. He gave up a walkoff homer to light-hitting Ozzie Smith in Game 5 of that NLCS, after all.
So up stepped Garry Maddox to start us off, and he took strike three looking. Not helpful.
Bailey came in to hit for Gene Tenace, and he struck out on a bad pitch. Really not helpful.
Joel Youngblood came in to hit for Ramirez and try to keep hopes alive. He grounded to second. Final, 2-1.
Feeble finish to the game. Feeble finish to the season.
It was, of course, a one-run loss. We would wind up 17-27 in such games. Going .500 in them at 22-22 would have put us 4 games ahead in the division. Such is the difference bad luck can make.
Five straight losses, including the final four at home against a team with nothing to play for. Lost eight of the final 10.
We finished 77-85 despite allowing only 3 more runs than we scored. With normal luck, we would have been 81-81, which would have been good enough.
And of course, predictably, Steroids Make You Fast lost its finale and won the division by a single game. Yup, get even one of these painful 1-run losses back and we’re tied. Win two of them, and we’re in the playoffs.
Instead, the season comes to a screeching halt. We choked away our lead and couldn’t manage even a single win when it counted.
Here’s the (almost) final NL standings. There is still a tie for the wild card to be resolved before the playoffs can begin.
What felt like maybe a magical storyline instead turned into a humbling one. We played our way out of last place to sit with a solid lead only to fritter it away. It’s been an exciting season, if not a successful one ultimately. I’ll have a post mortem post to write on what went right and what went wrong.
Life, as with sim baseball, will go on. I’ve got 18 other teams going right now, and 11 of them are in first place. Three are deep into the seasons and doing very well. I could have made a better choice to build a running story around, but you can’t predict that. Hopefully it’s been worthwhile anyway.
I’m not done here even if the season is. Plenty more to say, and infinite space to say it in. See you in the next post …
