American Association Insider: Miles Wolff Cup Final Game One

 It was the battle of the two division winners. One team, Milwaukee, built on a solid pitching staff, and weapons in the middle of the batting order. The other, Kansas City, who can out slug any team in the league with pitching that was middle of the road during the season. But as we often see in the post season, it was the pitching that came out ahead, except in this case it was the Monarchs pitching. On a veteran laden team it was rookie Sawyer Allen threw six shutout innings and four relievers combined to shutdown the Milkmen the rest of the way. 

The Monarchs got on the board first in the third inning. A one out single by J.D. Davis was forced out, but Tyler Gentry walked and Austin Callahan poked a single to left field to score Grant Richardson from second base. Jhordany Mezquita avoided any other damage by coaxing a ground out with the bases loaded from Saul Garza. In the bottom of the frame, Charlie Marion doubled to lead off the inning but was left stranded on third. 

In the Milkmen fifth, Marion reached on a hit by pitch and Yordys Valdes singled but Allen got Delvin Perez to fly out to center to end the threat. 

Building off the momentum, the Monarchs added to the lead in the sixth. Callahan collected his second hit of the game, advanced to second on a walk to Luken Baker, and scored on an Onix Vega single that ended the night for Mezquita. The Monarchs loaded the bases but Justin Kelly got a ground out from J.D. Davis to end the inning. The second time the Monarchs had left the bases loaded in six innings. 

Walks became an issue for the Monarchs in the seventh inning. Allen walked Griffin Doersching to lead off the inning. Allen left the game with an apparent injury. Buddy Reed came in to relieve and walked Chase Waddell and Edrick Felix to load the bases. Exit Reed, enter Emmanuel Chapman who houdinied the Monarchs out of the inning. Marion struck out, Valdes bounced into a 1-2 forceout and Perez continued his tough night leaving runners in scoring position in his third at bat in a row. 

Tyler Myrick and Durbin Feldman both threw a scoreless inning to complete the combined shutout.



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