Postseason sim - LCS Games 1

Here we go, folks! It's time for the 2023 postseason, featuring everybody's favorite commissioner, Zev Steinhardt, in the postseason again. That's why I'm running the sims for the first round, so Zev can concentrate on his tall task: defeating the defending Cecil Cup champion Maui Mashers in the League Championship Series.

It was a breezy, cloudy day in Brooklyn as Kevin Kepner took the mound for the hometown Wolves. Kyle Fike opposed him for the boys from Hawai'i. Not much happened in the first few innings, as Brooklyn had runners on the corners with one outs in the bottom of the second, but Fike got out of that jam with a strikeout and a ground out.

In the top of the third, Brooklyn lost its centerfielder, Kevin Works, as he injured his ankle making an amazing catch. He'll miss the rest of the postseason, but, on the plus side, ends with a perfect 1.000 batting average after tripling in the second.

Maui finally opened the scoring in the top of the fourth, scraping two singles together around a walk to take a 1-0 lead. But, the Wolves finally feasted on Fike in the bottom of the fifth, as their second time through the lineup allowed them to score twice, taking a 2-1 lead. A solo home run by Jeff Wardlaw in the 7th extended the lead to 3-1, and a two-run shot by Kathuhiko Jouda in the 8th gave the Wolves a 5-1 lead.

Timothy Mendiola tried to spark a rally by leading off the ninth with a triple off Kepner, and scored on a sacrifice fly two batters later, but Pino Pontoni relieved Kepner and got the final batter to ground out to preserve the 5-2 win for Brooklyn on its owner's birthday. Happy birthday, Zev!

Kevin Kepner got the #2 performance of the day with his 8 and 2/3rds innings of 7 hits, 2 walks, 2 earned runs, and 8 strikeouts in the win. Kyle Fike was the loser.

If Kepner was the #2 performer, who possibly was better than him tonight? Well, if you have been following OOTP baseball the past 15 seasons or so, you probably would have answered "Whoever was pitching for Seattle" and have been absolutely correct. Enrico Hernandez pitched a dazzler, a complete game 2-hitter the Seattle Monarchs cruised to a 9-1 thrashing of the feel-good story, Hickory Huskers. Welcome to reality, Frank.

So, both home teams held serve in the first game of their series. Game 2 for both series will be tomorrow night!