1995 – NATIONAL LEAGUE WILD CARD ROUND

Long beach had better fielding than Winnipeg during the year. .983 to .978
Long beach had slightly better pitching 3.65 vs 3.75 but the teams were 2 and 3 in NL pitching
Winnipeg slightly better hitting .265 to.257 and Winnipeg had 12 more homers.
The difference in +/- runs was Winnipeg by 1!!!
So Vegas odds makers called it a toss up, baseball writers like LBT because of Worrell and Mesa.

Winnipeg sent Schilling and Long beach Dennis Martinez. Winnipeg started off as they hoped Lofton gets one scores a run then scores another in the 3rd as Ventura drove him in twice. Up 2-0 the Titan got a rally off Schilling and score two in the 4th and one in the 6th. Up 3-2. But in the 7th Winnipeg’s McGwire drove in Hosey off Kiefer to tie the game. But in the 8th Long Beach got to Veres and took a 4-3 lead. Mesa came in and locked the door! 4-3 Long Beach

Looking bad Winnipeg needed their ace Glavine to come through. Long Beach keep getting runners on but her got two huge DPs and a lot of luck pitching around 10 base runners in 7 innings. Hamilton for Long beach had a better Whip just 2 hits and 2 walks in 6 innings but left for the killer Titan pen and a pinch hitter. Maldanado pitch hitting got a hit but could not score. Buhner for Winnipeg homered int he 7th and Lofton got an RBI run in the 8th as Kiefer took the loss. 2-0 Winnipeg

So it was the final game – Winnipeg Abbott our best pitcher all year dispute being a 10 winning 18 vs Castillo a 12.
Samuel who was amazing for the Titans Hits a 3 run homer in the 1st! But Winnipeg did not panic as Lofton scored a run so it was 3-1 game. Long beach got two more off abbot and down graded him as he allowed 5 in 3 innings. Winnipeg down 5-1 Long beach pulled Castillo after 2.1 and were saying we have this best pen in the league.
Winnipeg was in trouble even if we did hit we would be using 8’s and 9’s as Abbott poor start ment no way Reed the 18 and Veres the 16 could go 6 innings atbest 4.
Winnipeg did not give up and chipped away. 1 in the 4th 2 in the 4th as Meares and Henry errors led to two Winnipeg runs. It was 5-4 LBT after 5. Then Winnipeg got 2 in the 6th off Risley as Buhner homered and and insurance run off Minor as Ownes pinch hit homer. It was 7-5 Winning after 7 innings. A tired Reed allowed a run as back to back Ventura errors allowed a run to score and forced Krivda in to face Boggs with a runner on 2nd. But with two out Krivda allowed a single to Baerga now 4 for 4 but Lofton nailed O’Brien at the plate with 2 out as Long beach could not pinch run for the catcher. The a 7-6 game Candiotti the 4th starter came in relief and got a 1-2-3 9th with 2 K’s as the Knuckler was dancing. 7-6 Winnipeg

Long Beach out fielded Winnipeg .982 to .966 but Winnipeg turned 4 DP vs 2
Winnipeg out pitched LBT 3.60 era to 3.00
Long Beach out hit Winnipeg .271 to .241 but Winnipeg had 10 extra base hits Long Beach just 6.

Shocking Winnipeg’s pen was way better allowing just 2 runs one unearned vs 8 runs 6 earned for Long Beach. As they went 1-2 with 1 save and one blown save.

Congrats to Peter and Long Beach on a great year, but just came up short as they could not hold a 5-1 lead with a all-star bullpen in the final game.