Boston came into day 2 of the World series, which is the start of double elimination with a 3-0 record and as the four seed.  The Renegades would play two game on this day regardless of their outcome.  The Houston Hurricanes would be the first game.  They started off the World Series 0-2 losing to the Atlanta Chaos 5-4 and the Indy Thunder 19-10.  The winner of this game would stay alive in double elimination while the loser would go to the losers bracket and have to fight their way back with a loss hanging over their heads.

The Hurricanes were a new team but they did not have a single rookie player on their roster.  This team was pieced together with players from the Bayou City Heat, BCS Outlaws, Lonestar Roadrunners and Aztec Warriors.  It was just a repacked team of players primarily from Texas, many who have played for years- and a few who have played on championship games

The Houston Hurricanes were a new team by name only.  All of these players had played for the Bayou City Heat, Lone Star Roadrunners and Aztec Warriors.  This would be the first game of double elimination.  Boston entered the bracket as the 5 seed, while Houston was the 13 seed losing to both Atlanta and the Indy Thunder.

Boston Stops the Hurricanes 18-5

This would be the third coin toss in a row that Boston would lose setting them up as the away team again.  Boston was beginning to embrace this role as it liked to score first.  For the Renegades, the pitching rotation would be the same.  Peter Connolly would get David Sanchez and Shayne Cantan while Ron Cochran would face the rest of the lineup.  Peter Connolly would call the right side of the defense while Jason Lenicheck would call the left side.  The big internal news on the team was that Shawn Devenish was left at the hotel for this game to help him regulate his body temperature and make sure he could keep food in after is bout with heat the previous day.  Again, it was next Renegade up! Drew Crook would get the start and play both ways in this game as he had been limited in his playing time on day one to rest his leg.

Joe McCormick led off the game with a ground ball up the middle and another run as he continued his hot streak.  This brought up David Sanchez, hitting 2nd in the lineup for the first time ever.  Some people had laughed that the second spot in the lineup was unlucky to Shawn.  Would it be unlucky to Sanchez? Sanchez hit it into left field but Doug Biggins, in the third line of defense made the stop on him for the first out of the game.  Cantan would then hit a dribbler to the left side.  Drew Burnett would collapse on the ball but was unable to pick it up in time as Cantan beat him to third base.  Maybe his Godzilla foot steps scared Drew off a little, but it was effective.  Dias hit the hardest ball of the inning, but Biggins was there again to make the stop in the 3rd layer of the defense.  Kimball would then ground out weakly to Drew Burnett to end the inning.  Boston scored a pair and Biggins made two stops.  Biggins was a late addition to this team’s roster as he was added after the July deadline.  That late addition was killing the Renegades!

Drew Burnett would leadoff for Houston.  He last faced the Renegades wearing a BCS Outlaws shirt in 2019.  He hit a weak flare to the right side that Sent Guy Zuccarello in on the ball. Guy slid past the ball  but was able to come back on it to make the stop.  This brought up the president of the NBBA, Blake Boudreaux.  Blake last faced the Renegades wearing a Bayou City Heat shirt in 2019.  Dias moved to his left but the ball kicked off his body toward the center of the field and Blake scored to put Houston in the board.  Dias would make the next stop with ease as the Hurricane hitter slipped and fell as he tried to get out of the box.  It would not have mattered as Dias made a great stop in his hands.  Jason Walters was next, he was also last playing against the Renegades as a member of the Bayou City Heat.  Walters lofted a fly ball up the middle which McCormick came in on, as he slid for the ball he booted it with his knee right to Zuccarello.  Guy had crept into the area – but was not low and by the time he got to the ground, Walters had tied the game up.  John Marquez, formerly of the Lone Star Roadrunners would go down on strikes to end the frame.

Drew Crook would get his first start of the series and score on a fly ball to deep center to lead off the second inning. McCormick would have a 6 pitch at bat and go down swinging.  That brought Peter to the mound, celebrating his wedding anniversary on this day.  Sanchez would loft a pop fly with spin on it to the right side.  Josh Perry, playing DF raced in on it as Sanchez missed first base.  Sanchez was able to come back and hit the base just as Perry was trying to get the ball away from his body for the 2nd run of the inning.  Shayne then hit a bomb into left field and ran 4 steps to third base before correcting himself and running to first.  He was able to get away with it and scored the third run of the inning.  Dias hit another fly ball to left field, right at Biggins who would make his third stop of the game in the third layer of the defense.  Kimball would not be denied as he blasted a line drive into left and scored with ease.  Crook would be stopped on a grounder up the middle to Blake Boudreaux, who some people think looks like Drew Crook.  Boston led 6-2 heading to the bottom of the second.

The Hurricanes would get strike outs from Biggins and Burnett to start the inning. Boudreaux would then score again on another ball hit up the middle.  This ball kicked off Joe McCormick’s hands as he went into a dive and the ball rolled into center field.  Chris Kimball was called up, but could not find the ball in time to get Blake.  The last out of the inning was a pop up to the right side.  Guy took one step to his right and laid out as the ball bounced into him perfectly for the out.  Boston led 6-3.

The third inning was quick for Boston.  McCormick got back in his scoring ways with a ground ball that got slowed down in the first line of defense, but rolled into no-man’s land in the second line of defense.  Sanchez hit a line drive up the middle and was stopped by Boudreaux as he slowed up right before hitting the base. Cantan was stopped on a bang-bang play by Burnett.  Dias would then hit another chopper to Burnett and had a chance to score, but he went wide of first base and was called out.  Some bad base running cost the Renegades 2 runs.  The Renegades grew the lead to 7-3

The bottom of the third was not good for Houston.  Walters struck out.  Marquez grounded to the left side as the call was taking the defense to the line.  Dias quickly corrected the call as he over ran it which helped Shayne corrected himself and he stopped the ball with his hands, then got up to pick up the ball in enough time to get Marquez.  Biggins who was killing it in the field, whiffed for the second time.  Houston had a goose egg in the third.

Chris Kimball would lead off for Boston in the 4th.  He would hit a fly ball up the middle of the field which Blake would over run.  Houston called for a dead ball, but it was still making noise.  This may have been the first ball Kimball knocked the beep down in his career.  Drew Crook then laced a hard shot into left field.  Biggins was shifted toward the middle where Crook hit it the last time. Biggins dove at the ball and came up just short as Crook touched third base for his 2nd run of the game and the 9th run for Boston.  that would be it for Boston as McCormick would whiff for the second time as Sanchez and Cantan would be stopped by Blake Boudreaux.  Shayne assisted Blake with bad base running as he took 2 steps to third before correcting and running toward first base which was the third possible run lost for the Renegades.  Thanks to the 5& 6 hitters, Boston held a commanding lead after three and a half.

The fourth was similar to the first for Houston.  Burnet would strike out to start the inning.  Boudreaux would score for the third time as he hit a ball that skipped off the hands of Rob Dias.  Dias had to go into foul territory to chase it, but Blake beat it out.  the next hitter hit the ball right at Dias again, This time the ball skipped over the hands of Dias and right to Shayne Cantan.  Jason Walters then hit a ball down the first bae line to no-man’s land for his 2nd run of the game and the 5th for Houston.  Houston would switch pitchers as Gonzalez came into face Marquez.  He would hit a grounder to the right side which Zuccarello made a nice diving stop on to end the inning.  Boston held a 9-5 lead

The fifth would put the nail in the coffin in this game.  Dias would hit a bomb, take one step to the wrong base, but still score on the first pitch he saw.  Kimball would hit the ball right at Drew Burnett, who made a nice diving stop for the first out.  Crook would go back up the middle this time and Biggins was unable to get him as Crook scored his third run of the game.  McCormick scored on a nice line drive for his third run of the game.  Sanchez would sacrifice himself again in the second hole as he whiffed and the curse of the second spot in the order was in effect. With the score 12-5, Boston would catch fire.  The next 6 hitters would plate runs with a little drama involved.  Shayne hit a hard shot into left and scored his third run of the game.  Dias scored on a dribbler.  Kimball scored on a play that the Hurricanes defense just missed. After a Crook foul ball, some drama ensued.  Drew Burnett was rushed off the field by his spotters and he threw up in the third baseline, twice.  Weissman argued that he should be removed from the game for player safety to no avail.  He also argued that the sanitation of Burnett’s puke was not safe for our runners.  The head umpire used the “Renegade shovel” to clean the puke off the field.  The concern here was no medical team looked at Burnett.  In this heat, there was no guarantee of the root cause, though Houston said this was common for this player due to his medical issues.  Weissman’s argument did nothing to convince the head umpire that player safety should be considered.  Crook then launched a bomb and easily scored to first base for his first 4 run game of his career.  McCormick then put himself into the third full count of the game, but came out of this one with his 4th run of the game.  Sanchez made it 18 runs for Boston with a line drive to the right side.  That would be it for the Renegades as Cantan grounded out to end the inning.  This was just the 13th inning in team history that Boston had plated 9+ runs in an inning and the second time this week.

Houston was down 18-5 and would start to empty the bench.  Navarro would whiff to start the inning.  Robert Selby hit the ball up the middle of the field.  Luis Soto was trying to make a play on the ball when Selby’s team stopped him as he was running at the Houston bench.  This was Soto’s first ever World Series put out.  Joe McCormick would get a stop off the bat of Hunter Mouton.  This would put the game into the 12 run rule.  All three hitters in the 6th would strike out to end the game.

Boston was now 4-0 at the Series and had won 9 straight games on the season.  Some highlights for Boston included:

⁃            This was only the 19th time in team history, Boston had scored 18+ runs in a game

⁃            The team hit .546 in the game, the 28th best game ever

⁃            This game was tied for the 9th lowest Strike out rate in team history at 9%

⁃            The 13 run differential was tied for third all-time and only the 2nd time in team history it was not against an East Coast team

⁃            Drew Crook had his first ever 4 run game

⁃            Chris Kimball had his first ever 3 run World Series game

⁃            Luis Soto was credited with his first ever World Series defensive stop

 

Boston would advance in the winners bracket and send the Hurricanes to the losers bracket.

Boston Beats Philly for the 2nd Time in 2022: 19-13

With 4 straight World Series wins and a 9 game win streak, the Renegades would face off against another team with 4 straight World Series wins.  In fact, the last loss this each team had was against each other.  The Philly Fire were fired up to get the Renegades back for beating them on their turf just 2 weeks prior to this game.  Boston was awarded the 4 seed and the Philly Fire had the 5 seed.  The winner of this game would get the top seeded, Indy Edge and would have to play one less game on the week!

For Boston, they would deploy the same pitching rotation.,  Cochran would have 4 of the 6 starters while Connolly would be facing Cantan and Sanchez.  On defense, Grillo would be in the field calling the left side with Lenicheck calling the right side.  Neither team was at full strength in this match.  For the Fire, both Casey Krause and John Margist were playing with broken pinky fingers earned as a badge of honor running the bases.  For Boston, Shawn Devenish would start, but was limited to DH duties as he was recovering from heat issues he had the day before.  He was also placed at the bottom of the lineup with the uncertainty of how he would feel during the game. Boston lost the coin flip for the 4th tine in a row and would be the away team.

Joe McCormick got things started with a weak grounder to the left side that Krause could not haul in.  David Sanchez then hit a grounder past Krause and Margist which bounced off Justin Rhines for the 2nd run of the inning. Margist would make the next play as he stopped Shayne Cantan for the first out.  Dias hit a laser into deep left field, but Rhines would make a nice stop.  Devenish would get off to a tough start and would strike out to end the inning.

Justin Rhines would leadoff for Philly but he would start off the game with a strike out.  Tyler Rodriguez would bat second in this match as Margist was moved down in the order (possibly due to his broken finger).  He hit a grounder to the left side that Dias hit the ground on.  The ball was bouncing and bounced off Dias’s body and over him.  Dias crawled for the ball on his knees but could not get it up in time.  Nick Silver then hit a flare to the right side.  Guy took a step to his right and laid out as the ball rolled by where he was standing.  Silver missed first base and David Sanchez crept up to make the defensive stop and the 2nd out of the inning.  This was the first ever defensive stop by David Sanchez in his career.   Hogwood then hit a ball to the left side that went under Dias, Shayne dove and was no-where near the ball and Guy had the ball go under him as well.  This tied the game up.  Margist then hit a dribbler that barely cleared the 40 foot arc.  Dias appeared to get frozen on the call and was late to charge it, he dropped before he got to the ball and this gave Margist the time to score.  Lezcano next hit a room service ball to Dias for the last out of the inning.  Philly led 3-2.

Drew Crook would enter the game for Chris Kimball.  He would hit a ball that got into the third level of the defense as Rhines stopped him on a bang-bang play.  McCormick would hit a line drive into the third level and score easily for his 2nd run of the game.  Sanchez would go down on 4 straight swings and misses for the second out.  Cantan would hit a dribbler but Krause would struggle to pick it up and Cantan was on the board.  Dias would then hit a line drive up the middle that bounced of the diving Fire.  On the play, Dias would get hurt.  He came up lame right as he hit third base.  He would have a hamstring injury and he was done for the day as the Renegades hoped it was not something serious.  Devenish dug in and missed the first pitch thrown to him.  He then fouled 4 pitches off before lofting a fly ball into the outfield for his first run of the day.  Crook then hit a bomb thru the trees in deep left field as Justin Rhines ran through the tree line trying to get him out.  A sure safety issue as Weissman asked the umpire why the player was allowed to chase the ball through the trees.  McCormick would strike out to end the inning.  The damage was done, as Boston plated 5 runs, but Dias and Devenish (two of the Renegades better defensive players were both not on the field for defense any longer).

Boston had to make some changes on defense in the second inning. McCormick was moved to play the left shorty position, while Cantan was moved to play mid field and Drew stayed in the game at third base.  Luis Rodriguez would play the rover spot.   Rhines would lead off the 2nd like he did the first, with a strike out.  Tyler Rodriguez would hit a room service ball to McCormick who made the play easily at left shorty.  Nick Silver was next, and this time he would hit from the left side.  He lofted a spinning fly ball to the left side.  McCormick over ran it and it spun away from him for a run.  Hogwood then lofted a fly ball to third base.  Drew dove to the ground and picked it up just after Hogwood hit the base.  Crook would get redemption as he would make a nice play to stop Margist who would make the last out of the inning.  After two innings, Boston led 7-5.

Sanchez would lead off the 3^rd inning and after swinging and missing three times, hit a grounder into right field.  Nick Silver slid over and made the play right as Sanchez arrived at first base.  Shayne got the best of Casey Krause again as the ball kicked past him and Cantan scored easily.    Luis Rodriguez would go down on strikes without making contact as he was over swinging.  Devenish hit a line drive into left that Rhines bobbled and picked up a hair after Devenish hit third base.  Crook would strike out to end the inning. Boston held a 9-5 lead.

Philly would start the third straight inning off with a strike out.  This time, Lezcano led off with the whiff.  Rhines would strike out for the third straight time for two outs. Tyler Rodriguez hit a slow roller up the middle.  McCormick dove at it late and Shayne held his ground at mid field, and Tyler beat out the play for a run.  Silver, batting right handed hit a bouncer up the middle on the right side, Zuccarello made a nice play to stop it and pick it up for the out.  Boston won the inning again and would lead 9-6.

Weissman pulled the Renegades together before they hit and gave a pep talk.  Boston was in the driver’s seat and needed a big inning as momentum was in their favor.  McCormick hit another bouncer to the left side and scored.  Sanchez hit a hard grounder into right field and would score the 2nd run of the inning. Cantan would loft a high fly ball to the center of the field as Philly called for a dead ball, it was not dead and Boston had three up and three in.  Chris Kimball re-entered the game to hit for Luis Rodriguez. Kimball would foul off 4 straight balls down the line before striking out.  Devenish hit a line drive by everyone into left center for the 13th run for Boston.  Crook would hit a weak grounder to the left side that Tyler Rodriguez would stop.  Tyler was moved to this spot when Krause was struggling.  McCormick hit a line drive and scored his 2nd run of the inning.  Sanchez kept the party rolling with a hard grounder up the middle, and his second run of the inning.  Philly had to call a defensive time out as the score was now 15-6.  Shayne Cantan then scored on a ball that kicked off Tyler Rodriguez into foul territory.  Kimball would have another epic at bat, but would have the same result.  His whiff ended the 7 run inning.

Scott Hogwood would lead off the 4^th for Philly and for the first time all game, they would not strike out to start the inning.  Instead, he would hit a grounder to the left side.  McCormick was late to get down and it rolled by him, Kimball hit the ground with poor form and the ball kicked off his knees as Hogwood scored.  Margist whiffed without making contact.  Lezcano lined a ball to the right side by a diving Sanchez for his first run of the game.  Rhines finally got things going with a nice pop fly to the left side over McCormick.  Crook slid to his left and dove and missed it, Kimball was late to the ground and Rhines had his first run of the game.  Tyler hit a hard grounder down the third base line and scored.  Silver (batting left handed) struck out for the 2nd out of the inning.  Hogwood hit a hard grounder to left center and Kimball missed it for the final run of the inning as Margist whiffed for the 2nd time in the inning.  Boston escaped with all three outs coming by the way of the whiff.   This was Philly’s best inning, but their 5 runs still lost the inning and Boston led 16-11.

Devenish was hot, scoring three straight times on hard hit balls.  This time in the 5th, he came up empty and struck out for the 2nd time of the game.  Crook then hit a weak pop fly that landed at about 50 feet.  The defense was frozen by the big swing as Tyler Rodriguez sprinted forward as the lumbering Crook was put out just before he hit the base.  McCormick then got his 5th run of the contest.  Sanchez struck out to end the inning as Boston only scored a single run, their worst output of the day. Boston held a 17-11 lead.

Cesar Lezcano would get things started in the 5th, and for the 2nd inning in a row, Philly would get a lead-off run hitting a grounder down the third base line that kicked off McCormick into foul territory for a run.  Rhines hit a ball up the middle and Shayne Cantan checked in with his first defensive stop of the day making a nice diving play to his right.  McCormick made a nice play on a slow roller to the third base line and easily stopped it with his belly.  Silver whiffed, batting right handed.  Philly wasted an opportunity to win the inning and Boston had a 17-12 lead heading into the 6th inning.

Shayne Cantan got things started in the 6th with a blast on the first pitch he saw, into left field, for his best hit of the game and just his 2nd 5 run game in his career!  Kimball would make contact with the first pitch he saw but Krause would stop him in the middle of the field.  Devenish would score on a weak grounder up the middle.  This would bring Luis Rodriguez to the plate in Crook’s spot.  On the 7th pitch of the at bat, he hit a dribbler up the middle and was stopped by Nick Silver who was moved to play the right short position. McCormick would be stopped by Tyler Rodriguez to end the inning.  Boston got 2 insurance runs and led 19-12 heading into the bottom of the 6th.

Scott Hogwood who had 4 straight runs hit a hard grounder to the left side.  Mac dove and missed it, Shayne threw his feet to the ball and missed it but David Sanchez made the stop in the third layer for his 2nd career stop on defense!  Margist then hit a ball off McCormick that went into foul territory as Margist scored.  Lezcano struck out for his 2nd time and the 9th time for Philly for the 2nd out.  Rhines then hit a grounder to McCormick, Mac slid to his right and as he went into his dive, the ball kicked off his body and up in the air.  Mac rolled over and caught the ball as it came down for a circus out.  Boston had won!

Boston had won 10 in a row.  This was a big gut check game with Devenish returning from heat issues and Dias getting hurt.  The Renegade defense held on and got big contributions from David Sanchez and Drew Crook on defense.  Offensively, McCormick and Cantan had 5 run games while Devenish pitched in four.  McCormick also paced the defense with three stops as Sanchez kicked in two  – for the first two of his career.  Boston stayed alive in the winners bracket. They would play the top seeded Indy Edge on the next day.  Philly would go to the losers bracket to take on the Tyler Tigers.

 

Boston Runs Into Trouble & Loses to the Edge 16-5

Four teams entered Thursday alive in double elimination without a loss.  Those four teams were the three seed, Indy Thunder, the ten seed Austin Blackhawks, the four seed Renegades and the one seed, Indy Edge.  These teams would all just have one game to play on this day regardless of the result of the game.

The Indy Edge had won every game they had played during the 2022 season and most of them had been by the 12 run rule.  Boston would be facing its toughest opponent of the season.  For the Renegades, they actually won the coin toss and chose the home team.  Bryan Grillo and Jason Lenicheck would call the defense.  Connolly would start the game with Cantan and Sanchez as his hitters, while Cochran would have the rest of the starting lineup.  Rob Dias would be ruled out for this game due to his hamstring injury.  Either way, Boston would only be playing one game on this day because this was the final round where there was only 4 teams standing without a loss in double elimination.

This would start really bad for the Renegades and it would ultimately get even worse.  Eric Rodriguez would lead off for the Edge and with a full count would hit a grounder down the third base line that no Renegade came close at making an out on as McCormick and Luis Rodriguez dropped to the ground too early.   Nick Mulherin would then hit a bomb into right field past everyone for an easy score. Corian White would hit a grounder up the middle, Devenish just missed it as it went under him for a run. Corey White then hit the very next pitch on the ground right at McCormick but he missed it.  Rodriguez missed it and Kimball could not get it in time. Holland then hit a weak grounder at McCormick, but he misplayed the ball for the Edge’s 5th straight run.  Aaron See then launched a fly ball into right center.  Shayne Cantan over ran it and could not recover in time for 6 straight runs without a stop. Rodriguez came up for the 2nd time and hit a fly ball to the right side right at Cantan.  Shayne had one chance to make the play and it got by him for the 7th run.  Boston would call time out and have Shayne, Rodriguez and Kimball change positions.  Mulherin would whiff for the first out.  Corian White then hit a fly ball to the left side that bounced off Shayne Cantan for the 8th run of the frame.  Cory White hit a laser down the third base line.  Cantan fell to the ground and the ball hit him but got by him.  White missed first base and that gave Shayne enough time to recover for the second out of the inning.  Another gift by the Edge.  Holland should have been the last out of the inning as hit a dribbler up the middle that Guy Zuccarello was all over, but the base operator was not paying attention and the base did not go off.   That allowed the Edge to continue batting practice on the Renegades.  Holland worked the count full then blasted a ball right at Chris Kimball who could not make the play. See hit a fly ball up the middle, just over McCormick’s head and Devenish could not get the ball up in time. Rodriguez scored his third run in the inning on a grounder to the right side.  Mulherin would then it a slow grounder to the right side just under a diving Zuccarello but Chris Kimball lined this up for the only real stop of the inning.  The Edge scored 11 runs.  This was only the third time in Renegade history that a team scored 11 or more runs against them in an inning.  The last time it happened was in 2019 in the 2nd inning against the San Antonio Jets in pool play.

A very big hole was dug as Boston played horrible defense and the Edge hit the ball everywhere and hard.  The bats would need to get going fast.  McCormick would deliver with a line drive down the third base line on the first pitch he saw for a run.  Devenish would also hit a hard shot into deep left , giving the Renegades a little life.  Shayne Cantan then lofted a fly ball to Rodriguez.  Shayne ran wide of first base and was put out.  Luis Rodriguez would hit a dribbler up the middle and would be stopped by Eric Rodriguez.  This brought Drew Crook to the plate.  This also brought controversy.  Drew hit a blast into left field which sent Marc Morris into the trees.  The umpire yelled stop as his eyes were on Morris and he did not want him to get hurt, but yelling stop freezes the base runner as well.  For safety, it was a do over.  Drew hit the next pitch even further, through the tree line.  Boston thought this was a run but the umpires made us redo this again.  An argument ensued because of the inconsistency of how this was called all week.  Boston felt punished for hitting the ball too hard with the fact the trees were so close to the field.  In prior games this was called an automatic run and the defense was stopped for safety.  The head umpire was called over to discuss this and player safety.  After a discussion with the head umpire, the umpires felt it was umpire discretion.  Weissman argued that player safety needed to be considered here and that no player should be running into the trees and that anyone calling stop should be allowed to help players be safe. Weissman lost this battle.  Crook showed his mental toughness as he was not given a fresh count and hit a weaker ball that got past Rodriguez for the third run of the at bat.  The Edge thought it was a dead ball, but it was still beeping faintly.  Zuccarello would hit a line drive up the middle and would be stopped by Eric Rodriguez.  The Edge held an 11-3 lead heading into the 2nd inning.

Corian White would lead off and hit a fly ball to the right side.  Devenish ran over and slid knocking the ball down but not making the play as the Edge kept on rolling.  Corey White then laced a line drive to the left side that Shayne Cantan could not make a play on.  Holland scored on a dribbler right at McCormick, the ball went under McCormick’s hands, He called for Shayne to come up, but Shayne bobbled the ball and Holland had a run.  Aaron See then hit a grounder to the right side that Zuccarello laid out for and stopped for the first out of the inning.  That brought up Eric Rodriguez and this is where things got worse.  He hit a shot into right field that Kimball gave chase to, into the trees.  He had no time to stop as the tree line was less than 10 feet from the right field line.  He bounced off the tree and went down screaming in pain.  Play was stopped on multiple fields as Kimball awaited the medics.  A truly scary time for everyone on the Renegades and everyone watching at home.  This injury rocked the Renegades hard.  Weissman attempted to talk to the umpires about why they had been calling things wrong in relation to the trees and that umpire discretion was not going to work earlier in this game.  Sadly, the proof cost Kimball a major injury and a trip in an ambulance to the hospital.  The Renegades were furious but at the same time shaken up at what had just happened to their very own, Chris Kimball who was appearing in his first ever World Series.

This play was not done over as what had happened to Crook earlier because the stop call came from the Renegades and not the umpire.  The pure lack of regard for player safety could have been much worse as Chris was inches away from going head first into the tree.   Boston voted as a team if they wanted to continue playing with the score 15-3.  They voted to play.  This brought Elana Regan on to the filed for Boston.  The Edge would get one more run from Mulherin, before Shayne Cantan stopped Corian White and Jacory Wiley struck out.

Boston decided to empty the bench at this point with the goal of keeping their remaining players healthy for their next game which would be a must win game to avoid elimination.   Rob Thayer, Ivan Rodriguez, Luis Soto and Elana Regan were all in the game now.  The game would enter the 12 run rule after Thayer, Ivan and Soto made outs in the bottom of the second inning.  Their 10 game win streak would come to a halt (This was the 4th time the Renegades have won at least 10 games in a row with the career best being 12 in 2016 & 2018)

The only highlights for the rest of the game for Boston would be that Zuccarello and Soto would plate runs.  The Edge would have an easy 16-5 victory.  Thankfully, news would break from the hospital, that Kimball’s x-rays were negative and the initial diagnosis was a bone bruise.  This game was a beat down on so many levels as the Renegade defense struggled.  This was one of the worst defensive games Boston had played in its history as it made just 20% of the stops in this game (and one was a gift due to a missed base). A key Renegade was lost for the season as the team prayed for Kimball’s health.  The Edge would eventually roll through the entire league and win the series.  This was no surprise to anyone in the league.  There was only 2 starters on this team from the 2019 Edge team which Boston defeated.  Since 2019, the Edge recruited one exciting player in Aaron See but then raided other teams for four of their starters.