Sardine City evens up series at 2-2

Sardine City throttled the Hoboken bullpen, erupting for 6 runs in the 6th inning, on its way to a 8-5 win in Game 4, to tie the DMBL World Series at 2 games a piece.

Javier Baez provided the biggest blow, swatting a 3-run home run to break a 4-4 tie. The homer was the fourth straight hit off Tyler Thornburg, who had come on in relief of Clayton Kershaw with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out.

Kershaw started the 6th inning with a 4-1 lead. He gave up a single to Eric Hosmer and got Evan Longoria to fly out but a double by Kurt Suzuki was his final pitch. Thornburg came in to face Joc Pederson, getting him to ground to 3rd, with Adrian Beltre gunning down Hosmer at home for the second out. Christian Yelich singled to bring home Suzuki, Tyler Flowers followed with a single to score Pederson, before Corey Seager doubled down the first-base line to tie the game at 4-4 by plating Yelich. Baez then lifted a deep fly ball into the left field seats for a 7-4 advantage as The Cannery erupted.

Working on three days rest, Kershaw went 5 1/3 innings, scattering 7 hits and 3 runs. He had walked just 1 in 5 previous starts but walked 4 (including two intentional passes, both to Stephen Piscotty) and struck out 5. Thornburg was tagged with the loss, and blown save, with a hideous line of 1 inning, 6 hits, 5 earned runs allowed.

Alex Wood earned the win for Sardine City, going 6 innings. He surrendered 4 runs on 9 hits, finishing with 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. Adam Ottavino picked up his 2nd save in the series, 3rd of the post season, with 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief.

Hoboken opened the scoring in the 1st, with the first three batter reaching base. Jarrod Dyson singled and Jose Reyes walked before Beltre singled to score Dyson for a 1-0 lead. Wilmer Flores singled to shallow left and Yelich came up throwing, gunning down Reyes at home for the first out. Wood then got Miguel Cabrera to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Sardine City returned fire in the bottom of the first. Yelich singled and Flowers doubled to immediately get to runners in scoring position and have more hits and baserunners than the Straphangers managed in Game 1 versus Kershaw. Yelich scored on a groundout by Seager to tie the game at 1.

Jose Reyes smacked a two-out single in the 3rd and then stole second before scoring on a double by Beltre to grab a 2-1 lead. The Cutters added two more runs in the 5th. Matt Joyce walked to lead off the inning and Dyson drilled a double down the left-field line to open the inning with two in scoring position. Joyce scored on a groundout to short by Reyes and after Beltre's fly ball to left advanced Dyson to 3rd, the speedster scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-1. Flores again struck out to end the 5th just as he had in the 3rd.

After the Straphangers grabbed the lead in the 6th, Hector Rondon relieved Wood, throwing a one-hit 7th inning. Sardine City kept clobbering Thornburg, with Kurt Suzuki singling home Evan Longoria who had doubled earlier. Brad Hand came in get out of the 7th, trailing 8-4.

The Cutters got a run back when Adam Eaton led off the 8th, pinch-hitting for Flores, with a homer to center off Rondon to make it 8-5. After Miguel Cabrera struck out, Ortiz walked and Curtis Granderson came to the plate for Rene Rivera. Sardine City turned to the bullpen, bringing in Ottavino who got two ground ball outs to get out of the inning and then pitched a clean 9th to preserve the victory.

Sardine City finished with 8 runs on 14 hits, leaving 8 men on base, while Hoboken had 5 runs on 11 hits, stranding 6 runners. Flowers and Suzuki had 3 hits a piece for the Straphangers and both had 1 RBI and a run scored. Baez led the team with 3 RBI while Yelich was 2-for-5 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. Beltre led the Cutters with 2 RBI and Dyson had 2 runs scored. Four Cutters has 2 hits a piece.

The series heads back to Hoboken for Game 5 on Monday night, with starters expected to be Rick Porcello for the Cutters and Daniel Norris for the Straphangers.