2018 – NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The Columbus Explorers (117-45) and Sacramento Capitals (106-56), winners of the NL Central and NL West Sacramento, face each other in the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons. With the exception of the Tempe Tempers and the Chicago Mobsters, Sacramento (.607 Win %) and Columbus (.558 Win %) are the winningest teams during that 10-year period. Both have had modest success in the playoffs, with winning percentages hovering around the .500 mark, while Columbus hopes to make its first World Series appearance in franchise history, the Capitals have hopes to return to the World Series for the first time since 2012.

Over the course of the regular season, Columbus and Sacramento were relatively closely matched. While both held a .984 FLD %, Sacramento had the advantage with its star-filled rotation. Both Sacramento and Columbus were top in the NL in pitching, with Sacramento holding teams to a 2.75 ERA and 494 Runs and Columbus holding teams to a 2.94 ERA and 536 Runs. Columbus, however, had the advantage with the most powerful offense in the National League; Sacramento held a .257/.317/.436 triple slash with 237 HR and a 4.9 RC/G while Columbus held a .267/.335/.440 triple slash with 224 HR and a 5.6 RC/G.

The bats were quiet, very quiet, in the opening game as the NL Central winning Columbus Explorers hosted the Sacramento Capitals. Both Santana and Scherzer pitched a scoreless game through the first three frames, but a Trey Mancini walk and a Giancarlo Stanton home run in the top of the 4^th would give the Capitals enough to win the opener. Max Scherzer would do the rest by pitching 8.2 innings of near-perfect baseball, giving up only 1 base on balls and while earning the “W”. Like Sale in the NLDS, Max was on a pitch count and was pulled one out away from a no-hitter. Ervin Santana was nearly as effective, giving up 2 runs over 8.1 innings on just 6 hits.

Sacramento – 2

Columbus – 0

W – Scherzer (1-0)

L – Santana (0-1)

S – Olson (1)

First on the scoreboard again is Sacramento, this time in the top of the 2^nd inning. Stanton boarded on a walk and was driven home on a 2-out RBI single by Yadier Molina. That is all the offense either team would see until the 9^th inning when Giancarlo, doing what he does, smacked a 2-run home run to give Tyler Olson a little breathing room to earn the save. Chris Sale was spectacular once again, pithcing 7 strong innings while giving up 5 singles and no runs. Alex Meyer might have actually been better for Columbus in this one, pitching 6 innings of 1-hit ball, with the only hit being a costly single to Molina.

Sacramento – 3

Columbus – 0

W – Sale (1-0)

L – Meyer (0-1)

S – Olson (2)

Both teams got off to a hot start in Game three, with Columbus scoring first with a Ryan Zimmerman single scoring a speedy Dee Gordon in the top of the 1^st. Sacramento took the lead right back off a 2-run home run off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton, again with Mancini on 1^st. Columbus came right back to to tie it up at 2 with an Alex Avila solo home run in the top of the 2^nd. Tied up at 2 in the bottom of the 3^rd, Reddick reached on a 1-out single and promptly stole second; with a runner on 2^nd, Flores hits a topper to Happ, who promptly throws it right past Carpenter at 1^st, scoring Reddick and landing Flores at second. Mancini strikes out and Stanton gets the base on balls. Two out, two on, Lindor up … and he gets the knock to RF, scoring Flores and giving Sacramento the 4-2 lead. Sacramento would hold the lead until the top of the 9^th inning.

Olson in for the save. Eduardo gets a lead-off infield base hit to start the 9^th. With one on, Columbus calls on Tyler Flowers to bat for Alex Avila; Flowers drills the first pitch he sees to left-center for a double, and Nunez stops at 3^rd with no outs. Tying run at 2^nd with no outs and the pitcher’s spot up next. Ian Desmond steps up to the plate and hits a looping drive to the gap in right-center, Reddick hurries and dives for it, making the one-handed grab as he hits the ground! But, Columbus holds Nunes at 3^rd and no damage was done. Two on, one out. Dee Gordon step up to the plate, a hard grounder to Lindor, and Lindor drops it! Nunez scores and Gordon takes a big turn around first, Molina fires the ball to first, Gordon’s out! Runner on 3^rd and two outs, Matt Carpenter steps up, bounces it to Lindor, who slowly and carefully under-hands the ball to Moreland at 1^st for the final out.

Greinke and Happ both pitch well, with the former pitching 6 IP while giving up 8 H and 2 ER; Happ also turned in 6 IP with 5 H and 2 ER. The difference in this one was 3 unearned runs from two fairly solid defensive teams.

Sacramento – 4

Bethesda –  3

W – Greinke (1-0)

L –  Happ (0-1)

S – Olson (3)

Columbus got the scoring going in the top of the 2^nd inning with a 3-run home run by Alex Avila off Max Scherzer. Trey Mancini closed the lead in the bottom half of the inning with a 2-run home run, only to see the lead extended back to 3-runs in the top of the 3^rd off a Paul DeJong 2-RBI double, scoring Zimmerman and Carpenter. Down 5-2 in the 3^rd, Sacramento would inch closer with another home run, this time a solo shot, by Mancini in the bottom of the 4^th, and would tie it up in the bottom of the 6^th with a 2-run home run off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton. Tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 9^th, no outs, Wilmer Flores stepped up to the plate, and took Yusmeiro Petit deep for the walk-off victory.

Columbus –  5

Sacramento – 6

W – Holland (1-0)

L –  Petit (0-1)