Red Sox win 11-10 (10 innings)
Series tied 3-3
See you at the Pits.
This long, dramatic quarterfinal series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Brantford Red Sox will go to a deciding seventh game, after Brantford won 11-10 in 10 innings last night.
The Sox walked it off, literally, when Brandon Dailey was hit by an Adam Garner pitch with the bases loaded. That brought the winning run across the plate amid a cacophony of cowbells and kazoos at Arnold Anderson Stadium. That was some racket.
From the outset, game six of this series felt as if it was being played out in a kind of bizarro parallel universe. Everything went against the established pattern.
All of which to say: it was a weird game.*
Red Sox in their road reds, Maple Leafs in their home blues. Graham Tebbit on the mound against Trevor Caughey. Toronto scored first, putting two runs on the board in the opening frame. One of the baserunners to cross home plate was DH Jon Waltenbury. One inning later, Waltenbury was ejected from the game for arguing a called third strike.
Brantford scored a run in the bottom of the second, before the Leafs added to their lead in the third to make it a 4-1 ballgame.
The Red Sox rallied back in the bottom of the fourth. The inning included a bases-loaded balk by Caughey and the Leafs' lead was reduced to 4-3.
The back-and-forth continued in the top of the fifth. Three runs were scored by Toronto as they extended their lead to 7-3.
After a scoreless sixth, Brantford added two more runs to make it 7-5 Leafs through seven.
Caughey turned the ball over to Justin Cicatello to start the bottom of the eighth. All hell suddenly broke loose as Brantford scored five runs to take a 10-7 lead.
Down to their final three outs, the Mapes rallied for three runs to tie the game and send it to extras.
It was 10-10 in the bottom of the 10th and Adam Garner was on the mound in relief of Cicatello. The momentum swung back in Brantford's favour as they loaded the bases, and then Garner delivered the decisive pitch. He appeared to hit Dailey on the arm. Dailey immediately rushed to first, followed by a mob of teammates as the winning run came home. A pile of Leafs fell upon the home plate umpire to question the call. After a conference with the rest of the crew, the ump rendered his final decision and pointed to first base. The game was over and the series was tied three games apiece.
* Pointstreak's breakdown of the game is a mess and I'm having to write most of this recap from memory, making for an unreliable narrator. You are welcome to deride this as my worst recap ever.
Toronto 10-13-1
Brantford 11-16-2
W - Harvey (1-1, 13.50)
L - Garner (0-1, 4.50)
BOXSCORE
After six memorable games, this quarterfinal will be decided on Sunday afternoon at Christie Pits. First pitch is 2:00 pm.
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