Fishes vs. A's Season 8 NLDS

Final score of the Fishes' series-clinching win in Game 3

## Overview

In the Season 8 playoffs, the #2 seed in the National League, the Seattle Fishes, coached by elchrisblanco, were matched up against the #3 seed Crazy A's, coached by crazyei8hts. The series that ensued was thrilling, nail-biting, and may go down in history as one of the most exciting series in BBL playoff history.

## Background

In Season 8 of the BBL, the Seattle Fishes and the Crazy A's won their divisions, with records of 11-3 and 10-4, respectively. In their first matchup, during Week 11, the Fishes won with a 15-9 run differential. Coming into the series, crazyei8hts and elchrisblanco had each won one game and lost one game against each other. In playoff history, crazyei8hts was a perennial postseason player, reaching the World Series three times and winning once, while elchrisblanco had made the playoffs once and lost in the first round.

## The Series

A relatively new requirement for BBL postseason play was to stream and/or record all games. Because of this, coaches crazyei8hts and elchrisblanco agreed to record all their games and have them broadcasted side by side for the rest of the league to watch.

### Game 1

Game 1 was hosted by the higher-seeded Fishes at their home park, Cement Gardens. The A's had a significant boost to pitcher Catherine Asher, boosted from 6/4/9/3 to 8/7/10/8. The Fishes, meanwhile, had a moderate nerf to pitcher Esther French, who was nerfed from 6 running to 2.

The game started off in the Fishes' favor, they were up 9-2 after three innings, highlighted by a two-run single by Jocinda Smith.

In the top of the 4th, the A's started to make their move. They put together a 5-run rally after home runs by Franky Holly, Alicia Blakely, and Chico Pappas. However, they also hit into a double play, awarding a power-up to the AI Fishes, which they used to score a run of their own. On the Fishes side, they answered with a 3-run inside-the-park home run by Sarah Maxwell, to make it 13-6 after 4 innings.

In the top of the 5th, the A's climbed closer to the Fishes with another 5-run rally. Franky and Sophie Meyer each hit two-run home runs in the inning. The Fishes responded with a solo shot by Jocinda Smith, but they also gave up a home run to AI Chico Pappas in the top of the 6th inning before finishing out their game.

So, going into the 6th inning, the Fishes led 13-11 after their home team multiplier. The home team wins ties, so the A's would have to score 3 runs in the top of the 6th, assuming they did not allow any in the bottom of the 6th. Of course, this was unbeknownst to the A's at the time, but known to the viewers watching the broadcast. The A's quickly loaded up the bases with one out in the inning. Alicia Blakely popped out via the infield fly rule, leaving the bases loaded with two outs. Isabelle Marelli smacked a double into deep left-center, off of Dante Robinson's head, driving in two runs, tying the game 13-13. The A's star player Chico Pappas then came up with two outs, Sophie Meyer on third base, and Isabelle on second. Chico drove a low liner into left field, past the third baseman, and Sophie headed for home. Gwen Sears scooped up the ball in left field, rifled it in to third baseman Esther French, who then relayed it home to catcher Linda Potter, just barely tagging Sophie out at the plate, ending the A's inning and winning the game for the Fishes!

The stars of the game for the A's were Chico Pappas, who went 4-5 with a double, a home run, 4 RBIs, and nearly driving in the game-winning run, and Franky Holly, who went 3-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs. The star of the game for the Fishes was Sarah Maxwell, who went 4-4 with 2 doubles, 2 home runs, 6 RBIs, and scored every time she batted.

Game 1 can be viewed in its entirety here.

### Game 2

For Game 2, the teams shifted to the A's home stadium, Scrapco Field. In a reverse of Game 1, Catherine Asher of the A's was nerfed from 6/4/9/3 to 6/2/8/1. Significant boosts for the Fishes included a boost for Jimmy Rollins to 10 running and a boost for Veronica Lee to 9 batting.

Both teams started out hot. In the top of the 1st, Veronica used her batting boost to smash a 2-run home run into left field, and the Fishes scored 3 in the first frame. Then, in the bottom of the 1st, Chico Pappas hit a single off of a Spitball to earn a Screaming Line Drive for Catherine Asher, who immediately used it to hit a 2-run single. Later in the inning, after an at-bat that last 1 minute and 27 seconds in real time, Franky Holly blasted a 2-run homer to left, picking up where he left off in Game 1. The A's tacked on 1 more, and counting the multiplier, led 6-3 after one inning.

The 2nd inning saw even more offense. In the top half, the Fishes scored 6 runs on a rally that consisted mostly of singles. Sarah Maxwell drove in a run on a bases loaded walk, and Dante Robinson drove in 2 runs on a single to second base. However, the A's had another answer, scoring 6 runs of their own, via 5 different home runs from Isabelle Marelli, Chico Pappas, Nomar Garciaparra, Franky Holly, and Shawn Green. Nomar, Franky, and Shawn hit their home runs on 3 consecutive pitches. After two innings, it was 13-9 A's.

The offenses slowed down a little bit. After 4 innings, the score was 14-12 A's. The one run the A's scored was a 610-foot home run by Franky Holly, his third home run of the game and 5th of the series. The Fishes' runs were on three separate base hits.

Things heated up even more in the 5th inning. During the simulcast, Isabelle Marelli hit her second home run of the game for the A's, but soon afterwards, Carlos Ocampo of the Fishes hit a bases loaded triple on a Crazy Bunt, driving in three runs and taking the lead for the Fishes, 16-15. Esther French grounded out, scoring Carlos, and tacking one run onto the Fishes' 17-15 lead. However, the Fishes did not score any more runs in the top of the 5th. The 5th inning was the A's last chance to score. Franky Holly hit a fly ball off the top of the left field fence, just missing his 4th home run of the day, but it did drive in Chico Pappas to cut the lead to 17-16. The next batter, Shawn Green, worked the count full with two outs before hitting a soft liner off of left fielder Gwen Sears' glove, and over the fence for a 3-run home run! This shot gave the A's the lead, 20-17. (They gained an extra run due to the home team multiplier)

That Shawn Green homer turned out to be the difference, as the Fishes failed to score in the top of the 6th. After a Veronica Lee single, Linda Potter, Jocinda Smith, and Carlos Ocampo all lined or popped out consecutively to end the inning. The A's tied the series, forcing a game 3 back at Cement Gardens.

The star of the game for the Fishes was Jocinda Smith, who went 3-5 with a home run, 4 RBIs, and 2 runs scored. The star of the game for the A's was Franky Holly, who went 4-4 with 3 home runs, 5 RBIs, and 4 runs scored.

Game 2 can be viewed in its entirety here.

### Game 3

Game 3 was back at Cement Gardens, and fans were hoping for another nail-biter, just like the first two games. Neither side had any significant boosts or nerfs, so this was going to be a pretty even contest.

The game started out in favor of the A's, although both teams were a little shaky. In the top of the first inning, Chico Pappas hit a solo home run, but that was all the A's could muster. In the bottom of the first, the Fishes loaded the bases with their first three batters, but were remarkably unable to score any runs after a strike out by Dante Robinson, an infield fly by Veronica Lee, and pop out by Jocinda Smith. In the second inning, the A's earned two more runs after a 2-run home run by Shawn Green. In the bottom of the second, the Fishes once again loaded the bases and scored no runs. It was 3-0 A's after two full innings.

The offenses came alive in the third inning. Nomar Garciaparra bounced a ground ball out of the alleyway in left field for a two-run home run, and Franky Holly followed that up with a high fly ball for a home run of his own, his sixth of the series! The A's took a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third. However, the A's would soon see their lead dissipate, as the Fishes bounced grounder after grounder and took advantage of many mistakes by the AI A's defense. Gwen Sears hit a two-run triple that went out of play, and Veronica Lee recorded an RBI on a hit of her own that went out of play. The huge inning culminated with a three-run home run by Jocinda Smith to give the Fishes their 10th run of the inning, which counts as 12 with the home team multiplier. It was suddenly 12-6 Fishes after three innings.

Even more runs were scored in the fourth inning. The A's put together another 5-run rally, including an 892-foot home run down the left field alleyway by Nomar Garciaparra. This home run is believed to be the longest non-power-up home run in BBL history (although there may be some longer ones whose distance markers never showed before the player completed their home run trot). Additionally, Chico Pappas hit a two-run inside-the-park home run for the AI A's, cutting the Fishes' output to +10 while the A's took the lead, 11-10. But, the Fishes would take that lead right back, scoring 9 more runs of their own, including three 2-run bases loaded hits by Linda Potter, Gwen Sears, and Sarah Maxwell. After the multiplier, it was now 20-11 Fishes.

In stark contrast to the first two games of the series, the final two innings were anticlimactic, as there was only one more run scored, by the A's, for a 20-12 final score and a Fishes' victory. The Fishes won their side 19-2 despite scoring all their runs in the 3rd and 4th innings. The Fishes won the series two games to one, giving coach elchrisblanco his first series victory in the BBL playoffs.

## Statistics

The 6 home runs hit by Franky Holly were more than the 4 he hit during the entire regular season. His surprising success drew humorous comparison to Playoff Frank, earning him the short-lived nickname "Playoff Franky".

Catherine Asher threw two shutouts during the series, a slight surprise considering she hadn't thrown a shutout since Week 7.

Sarah Maxwell and Jocinda Smith would both be fine choices for the Most Valuable Player of the series for the Fishes. None of Jocinda's three home runs were inside-the-park, which is notable as she is known for being a high contact/low power hitter.

## Aftermath

The Fishes advanced to face the Bombers in the NLCS, while the A's were eliminated from championship contention. In another tightly contested series, the Fishes lost to the Bombers in three games and were eliminated.