Baseball Dream Season 2 Mega Pro League Final: Chicago Gales Sweep Baltimore Crabs

The Chicago Gales are the Season 2 champions of the Mega Pro League. Across four games of the final they allowed the Baltimore Crabs just three runs and swept them 4-0. Having followed every game of these playoffs, I wanted to write down everything I saw.

Strong from the start

You could see it coming in the regular season. The Gales finished 92-34, scoring 855 runs and allowing 503, a run differential of +352 and the most balanced team in the league. The Crabs were no pushovers at 84-42, with 829 runs scored and 548 allowed. Their offence was close to Chicago's; the difference was pitching.

Four games

Game 1 in Chicago went 3-2 to the Gales, the only one-run game of the series. Winning that opener at home mattered, and the Gales played looser from then on.

In Game 2 the bats came alive in an 11-0 shutout. In Baltimore, the pitching staff threw another shutout in Game 3, 2-0, and the Gales closed it out 5-1 in Game 4. The Crabs never scored more than two runs in any game of the series.

The road to the final

It was not an easy run for the Gales. Their first-round series against the San Jose Sparks went six games, ending with a 1-0 win. The second round against the New York Skyscrapers also went six, with the last two games both 2-0 shutouts. Only in the conference final did they find their rhythm, sweeping the Houston Orbits. They finished the playoffs 16-4, winning their last eight games.

The Crabs had their own story. They won their first two series 4-1, then led the Denver Mustangs 3-0 in the conference final, lost three straight and won Game 7 by 3-2. Perhaps that seven-game series took something out of them; their bats never warmed up in the final.

The bullpen was the star

Pitching won the title, and the bullpen above all. Reliever Giovanni Chambers pitched in 17 playoff games and allowed one earned run in 32 innings, with 34 strikeouts and five wins. He seemed to appear in every big game. Sam Jegger gave up four earned runs in 28 1/3 innings with 27 strikeouts, and closer Tripp Vincent saved six games.

With a bullpen like that, Chicago's starters did not need to go deep. Five or six good innings were enough before the relievers took over, which is a big reason they threw so many shutouts.

A steady bat

At the plate, second baseman Anze Hribar was the most reliable bat: 29 hits in 75 at-bats, close to a .400 average, with six home runs and 11 RBIs. In a postseason full of pitchers' duels, a hitter who keeps getting on base and can change a game with one swing is worth a great deal.

Worth remembering on the losing side

Crabs reliever Anders Faris struck out 44 batters in 28 2/3 innings and allowed just three earned runs, one of the hardest pitchers to hit in the whole postseason. Second baseman Marvin Jackson drove in 12 runs as the heart of the Baltimore lineup. The Gales simply had the deeper staff.

The numbers behind the sweep

The final's run totals tell most of the story: Chicago scored 21 runs in four games and allowed three. Even taking away the 11-0 win in Game 2, the Gales outscored the Crabs 10-3 in the other three games, all of them tight on the scoreboard until late, and all of them decided by pitching that did not give in.

What other managers can take from it

The lesson for me: the playoffs are not won by an ace alone. The Gales had several relievers who could pitch long and shut teams down, so every game could be handed to whoever was sharpest. When you draft, trade and sign players next season, bullpen depth deserves more attention.

Season 3 is under way. Here's to a new champion, or to seeing whether the Gales can repeat.

Dream Sports Network