The 4th-seeded Straphangers now stand one game away from their first-ever DMBL World Series and push the top-seeded Vancouver to the brink of elimination.
Schimpf is 1-for-6 in the postseason against left-handed pitching and was just 2-for-28 against lefties during the regular season in a second base platoon with Javier Baez.Schimpf's homer was just the second extra base hit of the game as both teams did most their damage with singles and sacrifices.
Charlie Blackmon had the only other extra base hit of the day and it played into Vancouver's first run. Blackmon's double in the 3rd inning advanced Stephen Vogt, who had singled to lead off, to third base. Vogt scored on Josh Reddick's groundout and Blackmon advanced on Anthony Rendon's groundout but J.D. Martinez then struck out for the third out.
James Paxton limited Sardine City to just 1 hit through 5 innings before getting in trouble in the 6th. Joc Pederson and Christian Yelich hit back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and Tyler Flowers came through with another RBI single in the postseason, tying the game at 1-1 and sending Paxton to the showers after 78 pitches.Corey Seager greeted Xavier Cedeno with a single to shallow center, scoring Yelich for a 2-1 Sardine City lead. Baez sacrificed, pushing Flowers to 3rd base and Seager to 2nd, setting up Stephen Piscotty's sac fly to left, scoring Flowers. Eric Hosmer struck out to end the 6th but the Straphangers now had a 3-1 advantage.
Blake Treinen worked a scoreless 7th for Vancouver and walked 2 in the 8th before getting out of the inning.
In the top of the 8th, Vancouver strung together three singles to load the bases, the third of which came after Evan Longoria dropped a foul pop by pinch-hitter Scott Schebler to keep his at-bat alive. With the bases loaded, Sardine City turned to the bullpen after 7 innings and 88 pitches by Joe Ross. Pedro Baez came on to strike out J.D. Martinez before Jake Lamb stroked a sac fly to right, scoring Blackmon. Reddick took 3rd base on the sac fly and scored on Jonathan Schoop's single up the middle to knot the game at 3-3. Baez came back to strike out Brandon Crawford to end the 8th.
Schimpf had come on as a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning for Baez after two walks but struck out. The Straphangers nearly plated the winning run in the 9th inning, leaving the bases loaded. Another lead-off walk, this time to Hosmer, brought the call for Miller. The left-handed closer struck out Longoria and coaxed fly out from Kurt Suzuki before walking Pederson, the No. 9 hitter.
The usually reliable Brandon Crawford botched Christian Yelich's ground ball to load the bases, to bring up Flowers. The Straphangers' catcher has had timely hits throughout this postseason but not this time, striking out to end the 9th.
Seager led off the 10th inning by striking out before Schimpf tagged Miller with the walk-off jack, sending the fans at The Cannery happy and as close as they've even been to a finals appearance.Baez was saddled with the blown save despite just 1 hit allowed and Koji Uehara was credited with the save for his two innings of one-hit relief. Ross went 7 innings, allowing 9 hits and 3 runs (1 earned), with 5 strikeouts.
Paxton went 5 innings, allowing 4 hits and 3 runs, with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Miller took the loss, striking out 3 and walking 1 in 1 1/3 innings, and the only hit allowed being the game-winning homer.
Both teams left six men on base but Vancouver outhit the Straphangers 11-6, with four Iron First each collecting a pair of hits.
The top-seeded Iron First now are faced with having to win three games in a row to avoid elimination, something they did 16 times in 2017, including a season-best seven-game win streak to close the regular season. Sardine, which had a nine-game win streak of its own in June as well as a nine-game losing streak in September that tightened their division race, will try to punch its ticket to the DMBL World Series in Game 5 in Vancouver.
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