2014 Mets Score Early, Hold off Giants in Detroit 18+

Detroit MSBL 18+ Division

Mets 12, Giants 8

Submitted by Brian Robert, co-manager

The Mets blow it open in 3rd, beat Giants 12-8 for first MSBL Championship!!!

After the first game exhilaration, the Mets were handed the task of getting their heart rates back in check and winning it all with what ended up as the season finale against the Giants. As visiting squad, and after a little “between game” BP, the Mets got started early and often and came out bats a ‘crackin’ for the second of this two headed monster.

The Mets put the pressure on early with some good situational hitting in the first inning.Alex started things off with an infield single, took second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Weinberger groundout to the right side and was plated on a sacrifice fly by Poll. The lead was extended to 3-0 in the third after a walk to Dickenson and a single by Robey put two runners on before Bill Kandilian connected with a huge two-out, two-run double to the left-center field gap.

The early lead proved to continue the momentum achieved after the storybook finish to game one and kept the hopes of the Giants low. The Mets then did the unthinkable to take the game out reach by scoring the first seven batters that stepped to the plate in the third inning to take a massive 10-0 lead. The “big inning” has been a calling card of the Mets attack all year with this outburst being the seventh time this season the Mets put up an inning with seven or more runs. The inning was once again started by an Alex single, which was then proceeded by a Weinberger walk, a Poll walk, a Greene bloop RBI single down the right field line, a Hall scud single up the middle, a Dickenson rocket shot single that scooted under the right fielders glove to clear the bases, a Robey rip RBI double to deep center field, and finally an RBI single from Bill Kandilian.

The Mets were able to add a couple more runs in the fifth to work the Giants for a total of 12 runs – a feat that no other team was able to accomplish all season. Featured offensive performances came from Alex 2-2, including another broken bat depleting his bat inventory to ‘zero’, Robey 3-4 with his seventh double of the season, followed by an attempted hidden ball trick move by the Giant’s middle infield, Dickenson 1-2 with two walks and three runs scored and Kandilian 3-3 with 4 RBI.

On the defensive side of the pill, the Mets sent Rob Poll to the hill to bring home the title, which he eventually did even though he, along with all other Mets on the field, was unquestionably running out of gas by the fourth inning. Although the Mets have managed a number of large early leads this season, this game was a whole new beast given the gravity of this one. The strong Giants offense did their best to keep it interesting, as there were a few misplayed balls connected to a couple solid rips late in the game. Things started on a downward trajectory in the fourth after Poll had to deal with the impact of a sky high pop-up taken off his collarbone following a dual with the elevated lip near the fence in foul territory. The large lead, injury, and fatigue put Poll in a position the Mets are unaccustomed to seeing, but Poll and the Mets were able to persevere ending the game with the tying run at the plate and the bases juiced with a ground ball to shut the threat down.

After the closure of the game, the Mets celebrated – as there were a couple comments of“…it’s about damn time…” and snapped a couple pictures of the championship crew (eat your heart out, Deep Deep!!). All of that hard work finally paid off, hours of BP and practice, time at the cages, dealing with the fury of wives, jockeying work schedules to make it to games, and such made it possible to reap the spoils of victory in solid form post game.