Comeback fall short against Expos

The game between Storm and the Expos started with a bang. Both metaphorically and literally. Derek launched a home run to left while Jeff was getting acclimatized to having grass under his feet. After questioning why he was in the outfield because of his lack of depth perception, he turned and made a valiant attempt to catch the home run ball by going…through the fence? He didn’t realise where he was and crashed into the fence bruising his face and taking a chunk out of his two front teeth. Now he’s like the boy from the song. “All he wants for Christmas are his two front teeth.” The next batter also hit a home run and it looked like it was going to be one of those days. Storm managed to get out of it giving up five runs instead of six. Duran launched a solo home run in the bottom of the inning, but that’s all Storm could muster and they trailed 6-1. 

The second inning treated Storm much better as they were able to hold the Expos to two runs and their bats came alive. Storm scored six capped off by Rene’s two-run (would have been three but for the mercy rule) home run. 7-7 after two. 

Both teams seemed to lose their offensive chops as Storm was blanked in the third, fourth, and fifth innings and managed just one run in the sixth. The Expos didn’t do much better, scoring four in the third and then being blanked in the fourth and fifth and scoring one in the sixth. The Expos drop in offense could be attributed to the pitching change, as Brad continued his dominance. It also helped that a ball that was clearly over the fence featured Mills leap on the fence, reach over, and catch the ball. Apparently that was a message to Jeff about how you use the fence. You climb on it, you don’t crash into it. 

The Expos finally figured out Brad in the seventh, and scored three expanding their lead to 15-8. Storm was down seven, but they’d been here before against the Expos and come back. Bob started the seventh inning rally with a double.Three singles and a walk kept the line running until Mills hit a sac fly. Joey also hit a sac fly and there were two outs. Rene walked and Bob singled, and the bases were loaded with the tying run on second and the go ahead run on first. A solid single would tie the game and complete the comeback. Unfortunately, Jeff’s bad day continued. He lined out to centre field to end the game. 

Storm made a valiant attempt at a comeback. The problem is that they only scored eight runs in the first six innings. Storm has had a strange season offensively. They are the team with the highest run total, but in many of their losses, Storm has struggled to score runs. In a year when they’ve given up more runs than normal, that has caused some problems. Storm still has time to figure it out, and when they are at their best they are still a formidable team. It just seems that there are fewer days where Storm has all elements of the game going at the same time. 

Final Score: Expos 15 - Storm 13