‘It’s anybody’s game’: Ticket to championship series on the line as Goldeyes face Saints

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This article was published 12/09/2016 (3652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. PAUL – Do-or-die. Winner-take-all. Go big or go home.

Use whatever cliche you like, but the Winnipeg Goldeyes and St. Paul Saints find themselves facing a clutch situation tonight in Minnesota. The two American Association rivals will play the fifth and deciding game of their league semi-final, with a ticket to the championship series against Wichita on the line.

“It’s anybody’s game,” Goldeyes manager Rick Forney told the Free Press.

It shouldn’t come as much surprise this series is going to the max. Winnipeg and St. Paul met 17 times in the regular season, with the Goldeyes holding a 9-8 edge. They were nearly identical in the 12-team league in several statistical categories.

Winnipeg staved off elimination on Sunday night with a dramatic 5-4 victory that came on a 9th inning, bases-loaded walk to Maikol Gonzalez with two outs and a full count. One night earlier St. Paul stormed back from a 2-0 deficit in the 8th inning to win on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Last Friday, the Goldeyes built a big early lead and then hung on for dear life in a tense 9-7 win at Shaw Park. That came one night after St. Paul pulled off a 1-0 victory to open the series in Winnipeg.

There’s very little to separate these two teams through the first four games of the series, even though the overall stats slightly favour the Goldeyes.

Winnipeg has outscored St. Paul 16-15 and outhit them by a 41-35 margin. As a team, the Goldeyes are batting .297 while St. Paul is hitting .261. Winnipeg pitchers have combined for a 3.34 ERA, while St. Paul’s have posted a 3.86 mark.

David Rohm led the Goldeyes in batting average during the regular season, and he’s been even hotter in the playoffs. Rohm is 11-for-16 through the first four games and got Sunday night’s victory going by leading off the ninth inning with a single. Offensively, the Saints have been led by Nate Hanson, who is 8-for-15 so far this series.

Tonight’s game will be a re-match of the starting pitchers from that first game. The Goldeyes send 10-game regular season winner Mikey O’ Brien to the mound, while the Saints counter with All-Star hurler Mark Hamburger, who won 12 regular-season games and led the league in numerous pitching categories including a record-setting seven complete games.

Both pitchers will be working on just three days of rest, rather than the usual four. That likely means it will be an “all-hands-on-deck” mentality that could see the bullpens and even other starting pitchers pressed into duty with so much on the line.

“For us, it’s imperative that Mikey’s good because we don’t have seven or eight innings worth of bullpen available to us,” said Forney. “Hopefully Mikey can get through six good ones and we’ll do the best we can to match-up.”

Wichita is waiting in the wings to see what happens. If the Goldeyes win, the best-of-five league final would go Wednesday and Thursday in Winnipeg before moving to Kansas for the final three games. If St. Paul wins, the Wingnuts stay at home for the first two, then go to Minnesota for the duration.

This will mark the 31st playoff elimination game the Goldeyes have played in their history. They are now 15-15 overall following Sunday night’s win.

Tonight will also be the 11th winner-take-all game in the Goldeyes history. They are 4-6 in the previous 10. However, they have lost their last five such games, with the most recent victory coming way back in 2002 in Lincoln.

First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca