Paul DeJong clubbed three home runs and drove in 6 but Tucson still needed a walk-off single by Avisail Garcia to
pull off an 8-7 win in a back-and-forth Game 4 Tuesday night that puts them one win away from their second title in three years.
The 4th-seeded King Snakes now lead the best-of-seven series, 3-1, over No. 2 Hopatcong. They'll have a chance to wrap things up Thursday night along the shores of Lake Hopatcong. The Floating Fish are now in must-win mode, not just to get back to Tucson for Game 6 but ultimately find a way to get a Game 7 back in Hopatcong. They've dropped three in a row to the King Snakes and now must win three in a row if they want to claim their first league title.
The good news: Hopatcong will have their ace, Stephen Strasburg, fully rested on the mound for Game 5. The bad news: so will Tucson, with Max Scherzer available on full rest and needing just one win to finish the series.
But back to the most exciting game yet of the 2018 DMBL World Series.
DeJong, making his second start of the postseason, slugged home runs in his first three at-bats: a 3-run blast to give Tucson a 3-1 lead in the 2nd; a 2-run jack in the 4th to make a 1-run lead a 5-2 advantage (both came off Hopatcong starter Paul Blackburn), and then a solo shot off lefty reliever Tyler Lyons in the 6th that tied the game at 7-7.
The rookie shortstop got his 4th plate appearance leading off the bottom of the 9th inning of a 7-7 game but struck out against Hopatcong's lefty closer, Alex Claudio, who had already tossed a scoreless 8th inning. No. 9 hitter Andrew McCutchen singled between short and 3rd to put the winning run on base and bring up the top of the order.
Jose Altuve bounced a chopper to the right of 2nd base and beat it out for an infield single, with McCutchen moving another 90 feet closer to home. Brett Gardner lined out to shortstop for the second out of the 9th, bringing up batting champ Avisail Garcia, who devastated left-handed pitching during the regular season with a .443 average and 1.025 OPS. Garcia singled to shallow center where Jacoby Ellsbury came up firing home but McCutchen got in ahead of the throw for a thrilling 8-7 King Snakes victory.
Tucson earlier squandered a leadoff walk to Altuve in the bottom of the 7th. After an error by 1B Joey Votto but men on 1st and 2nd, Marcell Ozuna grounded into an inning-ending double play -- just as he had in the 5th.
The two lineups actually had been quiet in the final third of the game after both scored 2 runs apiece in a wild 6th inning. Mike Zunino belted his team-leading 4th homer of the playoffs, a solo shot deep to left center sent Blackburn packing. Lyons came on in relief, retiring Luis Valubena before DeJong's 3rd dinger deep to left tied the game at 7-7.
Hopatcong had grabbed a 6-4 lead in the top of the 6th inning but who knows if they could have had more. Between walks to Gary Sanchez and Zack Cozart, Nick Castellanos struck out. Tucson called in lefty Felipe Rivero to relieve Luis Garcia and face Ellsbury, only to hit him, loading the bases for the switch-hitting Gonzalez. Inexplicably, Sanchez was caught stealing home for the 2nd out, with Cozart and Ellsbury advancing into scoring position. Gonzalez delivered a two-run single to shallow left for a 7-5 lead and that brought up Votto. He ended the 6th by flying out to right.
Hopatcong had drawn first blood in the 2nd after wasting a pair of singles in the opening frame. Cozart took Tanner Roark deep to left center to open the scoring with a 1-0 lead. Tucson countered in the bottom of the inning when DeJong connected for a dong deep down the left field line after singles by Zunino and Valbuena. The Floating Fish got another run back in the top of the 3rd on Bryce Harper's 2nd homer of the series, a two-out solo shot off Roark to make it 3-2.
DeJong followed another hit by Valbuena - this time a double - in the bottom of the 4th with a drive over the wall in deep left center to make it 5-2.
Hopatcong got things going in the top of the 5th, when they chased Roark. Ellsbury drew a leadoff walk and took 3rd on a single up the middle by Gonzalez. Votto drew his 10th walk of the postseason to load the bases with no outs for Harper, with his team trailing 5-2. Harper grounded to 2nd where Altuve flipped to DeJong, who fired to 1st for a crucial double play that allowed Ellsbury to score as Gonzalez to 3rd base. Zimmerman took advantage of the scoring opportunity, belting a two-run homer deep to left to tie the game at 5-5 and call it a night for Roark. Luis Garcia came in from the pen to retire Robinson Cano to end the top of the 5th.
Roark went 4 2/3 innings, giving up 5 earned runs on 6 hits, including 3 HRs. He struck out 6 and walked 2. Of his 103 pitches, 63 were for strikes (.611). Five Tucson relievers scattered 2 hits and 1 run, walking 4 and striking out 5 over the last 4 1/3 innings. Garcia walked 2 in the 6th, one of whom scored. Rivero plunked a batter and gave up a run-scoring single but was bailed out to some extent by the caught stealing at home. Both pitchers recorded 2 outs. Pedro Strop went 1 2/3 innings after Blake Parker's scoreless 7th inning but Kimbrel (1-0) got the win in relief, retiring just one batter.
Blackburn didn't fare much better than Roark in his start for Hopatcong, lasting 5 1/3 innings, yielding 6 runs on 9 hits (also 3 HRs), with 1 strikeout. He was around the plate though, throwing 57 of his 80 pitches for strikes (.712).
Lyons was credited with a blown save for giving up the game-tying homer to DeJong in the 6th but escaped the 7th thanks to the Ozuna's 2nd GDP. Claudio suffered the loss (0-1), going 1 2/3 innings but giving up all 3 hits and 1 run in the bottom of the 9th.
Tucson finished with 8 runs on 13 hits and left 5 men on base. Hopatcong had 7 runs on 8 hits, stranding 7 runners.
The three home runs in a game by DeJong could be a playoff record. A rookie 1st rounder (picked 13th overall), he did most of his damage during the regular season against left-handers, slugging .513 with 10 of his 14 homers. He led all batters obviously with 6 RBI and 3 runs scored but Tucson also had 2 hits and 2 runs scored from Valbuena and Zunino along with 2 hits from Garcia, including the game winner.
Gonzalez had 3 hits and 2 RBI for the Floating Fish, who also got 2 RBI from Zimmerman's homer.
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