GAMERS 2 LAUREATES 0
Two teams were on the brink: the LA Gamers and the Boston Secrets. The Gamers were at home in Los Angeles, down 3-1, and called on their ace throughout the season, Lewis Carroll (17-13, 3.04).
Before a raucous, insulting, Dublin crowd, Carroll suffered a 9-4 loss in Game 1. His opponent again, in Game 5, was the fearless ace of the Laureates, Jonathan Swift (22-5 2.80).
Lewis Carroll allowed six hits, struck out four, and walked one, as he blanked the Dublin Laureates, 2-0. A throwing error by Dublin’s Rod McKuen allowed James Whitcomb Riley and Heather McHugh of the Gamers to score in the bottom of the 8th inning—for the only runs of the game. Jonathan Swift was dominating, as he has been all year, perhaps more so, as he struck out 18 hitters, including Billy Collins four times. The ninth inning was almost a disaster for the Gamers. Dublin’s Oliver Goldsmith singled to open the inning. After Carroll retired Dumas and Dickens, Aphra Behn singled and Colley Cibber walked. Boris Pasternak then hit a slow grounder to the left of the mound, and it looked like everyone was going to be safe. Goldsmith was heading for home, Joe Green, the Gamers third baseman, was going after the ground ball, as was Carroll, off the mound. Noel Coward, the shortstop, raced to cover third, just ahead of Aphra Behn, and yelled for the ball, and Carroll somehow scooped up the grounder which had almost come to a stop, and in a gasp of heated and exhausted despair, flipped the ball to Coward, who had to reach for it awkwardly, running full tilt, and Coward was able to graze Behn with his glove for the final out. The Gamers are alive, but they’re going back to Dublin, down 3-2.
SECRETS 6 BANNERS 1
Edgar Poe, Game 1 loser for the Secrets, like Lewis Carroll, saved his team from elimination yesterday. Both Poe and Carroll are known for their mathematical minds, and both throw a great variety of pitches. Poe throws hard, has a slow, mocking breaking pitch, and throws change-ups quite frequently, while using the geometry not only of home plate but the space occupied by the hitter.
The Secrets lost to Dante Alighieri 4-1 in Game 1 in Boston. Had Dante, the ace of the Banners, beat them here in Florence, the Secrets’ season (with the best record in the league) would have been over.
Poe struck out 9 and held the Banners to one run (a home run by John Keats) as the Secrets won in Florence, 6-1.
Paul Simon homered and tripled, knocking in 5 runs for the Secrets. Kanye West added an RBI single.
The Secrets need to win the next two in Boston to advance. Plato and Pushkin are scheduled to face Shelley and Virgil.
UNIVERSE 1 CRUSADERS 0
The Phoenix Universe have beaten Beethoven for the second time as they take the lead in the series, 3-2. Harriet Beecher Stowe shut out the Madrid Crusaders and Maya Angelou knocked in Alice Walker for the game’s only run. Chuck Berry climbed the fence in left field to take a home run away from the Crusaders’ Anne Bradstreet in the ninth. Beecher Stowe had 5 shut outs during the regular season, with a 2.79 ERA. She struck out 10 on the way to her 1-0 win in Game 5. Beethoven fanned 14, but is now 0-2 in the series. Beecher Stowe is 2-0, the only starter who kept her job throughout the season, as Steven Spielberg replaced Harold Bloom, Randall Jarrell, and Marge Piercy with Lucien Freud, Raymond Carver, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The series now returns to Madrid, where the Crusaders will go with Mozart and Thomas Aquinas (if necessary). The Universe, who need one more win, will counter with Lucian Freud and Raymond Carver.