Laredo ends Wingnuts’ season in first round of playoffs

The team that wins an elimination baseball game in the playoffs is often the team that makes more off-the-wall ideas look brilliant.

Using a starting pitcher in relief two days before he would start the opener of the following series? It’s worth a shot. Pulling a starter in the third inning immediately after he recorded consecutive outs? Might work.

Laredo’s game-changing unconventionality against the Wingnuts in Game 5 of the American Association first-round playoff series was using closer John Brebbia for four innings.

The brilliance of the idea was realized as Brebbia retired all 12 batters he faced, preserving an unlikely Laredo rally and the Lemurs’ 8-6 win on Monday night at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Laredo won the series 3-2 and advances to the championship series to face Sioux City. The Wingnuts eliminated Laredo from the postseason the previous two seasons, but Laredo kept Wichita from repeating as league champion.

“I try and always be ready for whatever they tell me to do,” Brebbia said. “Am I usually going to go four innings? No, I haven’t this year. But I figured it’s Game 5, you’ve just got to do whatever you’ve got to do.”

Brebbia made the only five starts of his career last season for Sioux Falls and his longest relief outing of this season was 3 1/3 innings. But once Laredo took the lead with three runs in the sixth inning, the Lemurs seized the chance to shorten the game by turning to their most dominant reliever.

Brebbia used an overpowering fastball to strike out four and limit the Wingnuts to one ball out of the infield. In their second chance against Brebbia, the top three hitters in Wichita’s order — Nick Van Stratten, Taylor Oldham and Brent Clevlen — were quietly retired in the bottom of the ninth.

“Twelve up, 12 down,” Hooper said. “He’s had a really good year and they’ve gone to him a lot. They’ve used him a lot, I know, throughout the season. He’s a real good pitcher. He comes out to you, and he’s got the velocity to blow it by quite a few guys in this league.”

It appeared Brebbia would have to settle, at best, for mop-up duty after the Wingnuts took a 6-2 lead through four innings. Like Laredo, Hooper went to the bullpen early, but in a much more dangerous situation, replacing starter Eddie Medina with Alex Boshers with the based loaded and no outs in the fifth.

Laredo scored three to trim the Wingnuts’ lead before the game’s biggest hit happened an inning later. Daniel Bennett, usually Wichita’s eighth-inning reliever, allowed a three-run home run to No. 9 hitter Phil Pohl to put Laredo ahead 8-6 in the sixth.

Pohl, Laredo’s catcher, batted .529 in the series with two homers, three doubles and eight RBIs.

“(Bennett) has been phenomenal all season,” Oldham said. “The wind is blowing, and (Pohl) put a good swing on it. It’s a tough loss all the way around.”

Even though they were on the cusp of winning three straight after losing the first two games of the series, the Wingnuts didn’t seem to have many defining moments during the series.

The first four innings of Monday’s game came were close, as Andy Laroche’s four RBIs included his two-run home run that put the Wingnuts ahead 3-2.

Tim Brown’s excellent Game 3 start was a highlight, but Wichita’s pitching was mostly spotty, as the Wingnuts allowed 30 runs in the series. Laredo, known primarily for a heavy-hitting lineup, captured the series with strong starts in the first two games and a dominant relief outing to clinch it.

“(Bennett) is a groundball guy and one swing of the bat got you,” Hooper said. “That’s the game of baseball. It’s kind of been our season – ups and downs, ups and downs. I know I’ve referred to it as a roller coaster a lot — that game tonight was kind of a roller-coaster game, which is kind of significant to our season.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Laredo ends Wingnuts’ season in first round of playoffs."