No Christmas Miracles: Furious Comeback Falls Short; Dejected Demons Drop Two and are Virtually Eliminated from Playoffs
Topic: Front Page
DECEMBER 26 - The playoff picture is almost entirely in focus today, after the Floral Park Flesheaters exploded for 29 runs in two games and won the final two games of a three-game series with the St. Jack's Demons.
 
The losses leave St. Jack's on the verge of elimination and the Flesheaters needing to win at least seven of their last eight games just to force a one-game playoff with the Massapequa Hitmen. The West Side Stories are officially in the playoffs and will be the #2 or #3 seed in January, an incredible accomplishment for a team in only its second year of existence.
 
The first and the third game of this short series were blowouts. Carlos Zambrano pitched a complete game for the Demons in the opener, which used the strength of a six-run first inning to cruise to a 9-2 win. It was the fourth straight win for St. Jack's, which neded to sweep the series and win a makeup game against the Gramercy Riffs to force a one-game playoff with the Stories.
 
The bottom fell out in Game 2, as the Flesheaters chased Rich Harden from the home mound after just 1.1 innings. By that point the score was 5-0 and it would only get worse from there. Carlos Villanueva and Takashi Saito couldn't stop the bleeding and the Flesheaters took a 13-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
 
It was there that the Demons made a valiant last stand. They scored four runs in the seventh and one in the eighth, trying desperately to claw their way back into this one. Hector Carrasco, was entrusted with the final two innings, but he could not stop the Flesheaters' attack, which pounded out 21 hits on the day and took a 16-8 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
 
With the game seemingly salted away, Floral Park Owner/GM Jason Varvaro left Scot Shields in to finish things off, even though he was tired at that point. Two straight singles off Shields's card, at spots where a rested pitcher would've gotten the first two outs on the inning, forced Varvaro to change his strategy.
 
The Demons faithful begged their team for more and got it when a walk to Josh Bard made the score 16-9 and loaded the bases with no one out. The eternally infuriating Grady Sizemore followed with yet another 2-7 in what has been a lost season for him, striking out right between a WALK and a SINGLE**. Manny Ramirez, fresh off a 3 for 40 slump, then hit a shocking grand slam to make the score 16-13 and to keep the Demons' flickering hopes alive.
 
Nick Johnson, who went 0 for 10 in the three game series, made the second out, but Frank Thomas kept the game alive with a double. The Demons bench was depleted, so Marco Scutaro was forced to bat against Dennys Reyes, the third pitcher of the inning for the Flesheaters. Scutaro rolled a 4-5 on Reyes's card - HR 1-3, Flyball-(B) 4-20.
 
Demons Owner/GM Jack Flynn tossed the 20-sided die high into the air and let it bounce along the floor of Marillac Cafeteria, leaving his fate in the hands of the Strat gods. The die smashed around, came to a stop near a table and spun around, further prolonging the agony. When the die finally stopped, it showed the unlucky number 13. Just one side away was the number 1, robbing the Demons of another shocking home run and the chance to continue what might've turned out to be the all-time great comebacks in league history.
 
Once that game finally ended, the Stories had clinched their playoff berth and St. Jack's found itself in what was basically an elimination game. The 11-game winner Roy Oswalt took the ball and tried to put the franchise on his back one more time in 2007. Again it was not to be. The Flesheaters scored six runs in the first, three of them unearned thanks to a Sizemore three-base error, and Oswalt could only get through 3 innings before departing. There were no more comebacks left in the Demons and they started emptying the bench in the seventh inning, on the way to a disheartening 12-4 loss.
 
St. Jack's is still alive, although Massapequa could clinch the third and final playoff spot by simply winning one of its final three games against the Flesheaters next week. The Demons need the Flesheaters to sweep that series from the Hitmen and then lose at least two of their five remaining games with the Riffs.
 
This would trigger a scenario where three disputed games would have to be replayed - two between the Hitmen and the New Jersey Bandits and one between the Demons and the Riffs. A Demons win there, coupled with two Hitmen losses, would leave both teams at 48-36 and force a one-game playoff. Even if the Hitmen win one game and eliminate both the Demons and the Flesheaters in one fell swoop, those games may need to be replayed for playoff and draft seeding purposes.
 
Floral Park is barely breathing as well, needing to sweep the Hitmen just to keep their season alive. Doing so would put the Flesheaters at 44-35 and in need of at least four more wins against the Riffs to force even the possibility of a one-game playoff with the Hitmen. Even if Floral Park wins out, they'd only finish at 49-35 - the Hitmen would only need to split the final two disputed games against the Bandits to force the one-game playoff and could eliminate the Flesheaters outright by winning both games.
 
In the meantime, big changes are coming for the Demons. A rumored Curt Schilling for John Maine deal with the Riffs is all but done, with the teams expecting to make it official sometime next month. At least two teams have already inquired about Saito, who set a St. Jack's club record for saves this season with 16. The minor-league franchise is moving from Pearl River to Wilmington, NC, where cellular phone titan Brian Mackle will run the franchise.