Divisional Series Game 4

ZSY - 6   MMD - 4   F

ZSY wins best-of-five series 3-1

W - D'Amico (1-0)   L - Schilling (0-1)   S - Graves 04 (1)

ZSY: D'Amico: 6 IP, 2 ER, QS (1) 

MMD: Schilling: 7 IP, 6 ER

ZSY: Harvey: 2-4, HR (2), 3 RBI (4)

ZSY: Kiner: 3-4, 2B, RBI (6)

MMD: Zaun: 2-4, HR (1) , 2 RBI (3)

The script was flipped in this exciting Game 4, which saw what appeared to be the rather lop sided pitching matchup of control 2 Jeff D'Amico going up against control 5 Curt Schilling. D'Amico was shaky early on and got burned early by a towering two run homer off the bat of hot hitting Gregg Zaun. It also looked like he was going to get tagged again in the third, but got out of a bases loaded jam thanks to a the heroics of his third baseman Jeff Cirillo who successfully turned a double play ball. On the other side of things, "Schilling was chilling" as they say, and made mincemeat of the Z-Slayers lineup, giving up only one hit and no walks in the first three inning. But here is where things changed. D'Amico pitched a strong top of the fourth; Schilling ran into trouble in the bottom of the inning. After surrendering two consecutive singles to Juan Pierre and Jack Wilson, a sacrifice fly from Albert Pujols moved Pierre to third. The rise was unnecessary however, as next batter Ralph Kiner split the right center field gap with a line drive, a double that brought home Kiner's sixth RBI of the series. Things went from bad to worse with the very next batter, second baseman Ken Harvey who brought Kiner and Wilson home with a three run homer. With that, the tables had turned D'Amico pitched the next two innings with confidence while Schilling was constantly under siege by the Z-Slayers attack, which added another two run rally in the fifth. With a comfortable 6-2 lead, Lord Sith turned to former Zachrian Ricardo Rincon, his team's best reliever this year. Rincon was a little shaky in the seventh, and even worse in the eighth, where he found himself in a bases loaded jam with only one out. After giving up a run, he was bailed out again by his defense coming up with a huge double play. Going to the top of the ninth, Z-Slayer closer Danny Graves entered the game in a save situation even though he was on short rest having pitched in the game prior. To the delight of the hometown MMD fans, in a matter of a few pitches Graves had loaded the bases without a recording any outs. In a very strange scene, Coach Sith was picked up and carried fireman style by General Manager Sinister out to a meeting on the mound. It is unsure what was said in this meeting, only that upon reaching the mound, Sith was handed over to Albert Pujols but slipped out of the first baseman's hands and limply fell into the dirt where he laid splayed out while Sinister gave the pep talk to his pitcher and infielders. After Sith was picked up and dragged back into the dugout, MMD shortstop Marco Scutaro hit a ground ball that barely dribbled into the outfield, good for an RBI single that brought MMD within two runs of tying the game. The next batter was Gregg Zaun, who had homered earlier in the game. He almost repeated that feat, rolling a 2 on his own card that was almost a 20. After him was Ryan Freel, who completed the tragedy by grounding out into a double play to end the game and the season for MMD. It was certainly a tumultuous season for the team, with the murder of their long time coach perhaps being one of the biggest stories of the year. Their future is uncertain, but if rumors are any indication, it's probable that the franchise will most likely be abolished in the offseason.  As for the Tuldarian Z-Slayers, this win sets up a long awaited showdown between them and the Bobians in what has been termed "the real Championship final." Although the games were close, the Bobians swept the Z-Slayers during their regular season matchup in Series 12.