#FFXIV #GenshinImpact #meme #crossover #Fontaine
Genshin Impact: Genshin Misadventures - Thelxie's Fantastic Adventures, ...
#GenshinImpact #Fontaine #Freminet
Montreal Carabins: 2023 Vanier Cup Champions
Jonathan Senecal and a stout Montreal Carabins defence proved too much for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon in Kingston, Ont.
Senecal's second-half touchdown led Montreal to a hard-fought 16-9 Vanier Cup win over a game Thunderbirds squad. The Carabins' defence didn't surrender a touchdown and finished the season allowing just seven field goals in their four playoff victories.
"We were confident coming in with the way our defence was playing," said Montreal head coach Marco Iadeluca. "When your defence plays that kind of football, going into any game you have to feel comfortable.
"And then we have number 12 [Senecal] at quarterback, which is just spectacular."
Seneca was awarded the Hec Crighton Trophy on Thursday as Canadian university football's most outstanding player. He added Vanier Cup MVP honours after completing 11-of-26 passes for 171 yards and an interception, as well as a team-high 50 yards rushing on 10 carries with the TD.
Senecal's seven-yard touchdown run at 8:47 of the third put Montreal ahead 16-6. The drive followed Kieran Flannery-Fleck's 14-yard punt that gave the Carabins possession at their 38-yard line.
"This is what we wanted," Senecal said. "We worked hard for 16 weeks and were able to come out on top, it's just a great feeling.
"Our defence is the best in the country and they just prove that week after week. They just make everything easier."
Montreal linebacker Nicky Farinaccio earned top defensive player honours.
UBC makes it interesting
UBC made it very interesting, pulling to within 16-9 on Kieran Flannery-Fleck's 24-yard field goal at 9:48 of the fourth. The Thunderbirds marched from their 51-yard line to the Montreal 16-yard line before settling for three points.
Later, UBC drove to the Montreal 33-yard line before Garrett Rooker's pass on third-and-four fell incomplete with just over two minutes to play. After their defence held, the Thunderbirds took over at their own 35 with 1:30 remaining, but Rooker's pass on third-and-four gave the Carabins possession at the UBC 41 with 1:02 to play.
That led to a Philippe Boyer punt, which gave UBC a final possession at its 18-yard line with 3.8 seconds to play. Rooker completed his pass to Jason Soriano, but he was tackled short of centre field.
Montreal to face UBC in Vanier Cup after downing Western in Uteck Bowl
"We knew going in we had to be able to move the ball and score some points and we just weren't able to," said UBC head coach Blake Nill. "We moved the ball at times but I thought we had a couple of situations where you'd like to have back but that's the way the game is played.
"Montreal is a very good football team. We're a good team too, we just didn't make enough plays."
'Toughest team we played all year'
Coach Iadeluca had nothing but praise for the Thunderbirds.
"That was the toughest team we played all year," he said. "They were resilient on offence, very athletic on defence.
"But I am so proud of this football team. They work hard, they're disciplined, they wanted this from day one and kept their eye on the prize the whole time."
Rooker finished 26-of-40 passing for 278 yards before an energetic Richardson Stadium gathering of 7,100 on a cool, breezy, overcast afternoon. Isaiah Knight ran for a game-high 73 yards on 15 carries.
Montreal's defence also came up big early in the fourth, stopping Knight cold on third-and-two at the Carabins' 53-yard line to protect their 10-point lead.
These two teams met in the 2015 Vanier Cup, which UBC won 26-23 in Quebec City. The Thunderbirds made their seventh appearance overall, having won four times, while Montreal was in the title game for a fourth occasion, also winning in 2014.
UBC held the edge in total offence with 345 yards to 323 for Montreal, but the Carabins dominated the rushing game with 163 yards to 84 for the Thunderbirds.
City of champions
With the Carabins' win, Montreal becomes the first city since 1980 to boast Vanier Cup and Grey Cup champions in the same year. Last week, the Alouettes upset the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-24 in Hamilton to secure the franchise's first CFL title since 2010.
Edmonton last claimed the Vanier Cup-Grey Cup double title 43 years ago.
Iraghi Muganda had Montreal's other touchdown. Boyer booted the converts while the other points came on a safety.
Flannery-Fleck finished with three field goals for UBC.
Flannery-Fleck's 41-yard field goal at 14:09 of the second quarter cut Montreal's half-time lead to 9-6. The Carabins threatened to extend their advantage with Carl Chabot taking Senecal's third-and-four completion to the UBC six-yard line on the quarter's final play.
It appeared Chabot had room to maybe get out of bounds, stop the clock and give Montreal a final opportunity to at least try a short field goal. Then again, UBC made an interesting decision to decline a holding penalty against the Carabins that gave them their third-and-four situation instead of second and long.
UBC mounted a promising drive from its 23-yard line but it ended with Knight's fumble that the Carabins recovered at their own 39 with 6:02 left in the quarter.
Flannery-Fleck put UBC on the scoreboard with a 32-yard field goal at 4:01.
Muganda's 18-yard TD run at 12:17 of the first put Montreal ahead 9-0. The Carabins went ahead 2-0 at 7:10 when Flannery Fleck conceded the safety.
Vanier Cup headed to Saskatchewan for 1st time
The Vanier Cup will head to Saskatchewan for the first time.
U Sports announced Saturday the '25 Vanier Cup will be played in Regina. The 60th edition of Canadian university football's championship game will go at Mosaic Stadium and coincide with the University of Regina's 50th anniversary.
It will be just the third time ever the Vanier Cup is held in Western Canada.
U Sports also announced Quebec City will host the '26 Vanier Cup. It has staged the game seven times.
Genshin Impact: Genshin Misadventures - Thelxie's Fantastic Adventures, ...
#GenshinImpact #Fontaine #Freminet #Thelxie
Genshin Impact: Genshin Misadventures - Thelxie's Fantastic Adventures, ...
#GenshinImpact #Fontaine #Freminet
Australia: 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Champions
Australia 241 for 4 (Head 137, Labuschagne 58*, Bumrah 2-43) beat India 240 (Rahul 66, Kohli 54, Starc 3-55, Cummins 2-34, Hazlewood 2-60) by six wickets
India may be where the heart of the game now resides, but the coolest Head in cricket has once again been shown to be Australian. Travis Head, to be precise, who set up his side's record-extending sixth World Cup victory with a triumphantly paced 137 from 120 balls in Ahmedabad, but whose most significant contribution arguably came some six-and-a-half hours beforehand, with one of the most match-turning catches in ODI history.
What might have been for these two teams had Head not held onto a steepling, sprawling take, running backwards into the covers to saw off India's captain, Rohit Sharma, in his prime? Australia's eventual target of 241 would have been significantly higher, no doubt, and to judge by the ferocity with which India's new-ball bowlers clawed at their opponents in the powerplay - with Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami inevitably to the fore - there would have been all the more opportunities for their chase to have toppled off its tightrope.
Instead, Head held on, and in so doing, he applied a handbrake to a runaway innings that would never be fully released. On Rohit's watch, India had racked up 10 fours and three sixes in blazing along to 80 for 2 in the first powerplay. Once he'd gone, India mustered just four more fours, and 160 more runs, across the next 40 overs. It meant they were unable to post a total big enough to mitigate against the inevitable onset of dew - the primary reason why Pat Cummins had risked letting Rohit and Co. set the agenda in the first place.
And so Australia's victory came at a canter in the end, with six wickets standing and a huge 42 balls unused - a margin that would have been greater still but for Head's dismissal to the penultimate ball of the chase. Undeterred, Glenn Maxwell pulled his first ball for two to take his side through to a victory target which - as fate would have it - was the exact total that England and New Zealand had been unable to split by conventional means four years ago.
But that ease at the finish told nothing of the jeopardy that had preceded it. At 47 for 3 after seven overs, with Steven Smith inexplicably failing to review an lbw from Bumrah that was shown to have struck his pad outside off, Australia were in the thick of a do-or-die tussle against two of the most outstanding performers of India's previously peerless campaign.
David Warner, in what may turn out to be his final ODI innings, had scuffed Shami's first legitimate delivery to Virat Kohli at slip for 7, having fenced his own first ball of the innings (from Bumrah) past the same fielder's boot for four, and with Mitchell Marsh's attempt to hit the quicks off their lengths ending in a loose cut through to the keeper, the crowd had found its full voice for the first time in the game.
But Marnus Labuschagne, retained in Australia's starting XI despite the sense, mid-tournament, that he and Head were competing for a solitary berth, showed the value of his Test pre-eminence with an indomitable sidekick's role of 58 not out from 110 balls. Over by over, run by run, he and Head extended their crucial fourth-wicket stand of 192, seeing off pace and spin alike until, at some indefinable moment around the 20th over of the chase, the bite in a two-paced wicket was replaced with the even-sprayed skid of the long-promised dew.
When Bumrah returned for the 28th over for a last roll of the dice with Australia beginning to accelerate away on 148 for 3, he was greeted with three flayed fours from Head, either side of an excruciating umpire's call appeal for lbw against Labuschagne that felt like final proof that India's hope had gone.
Ultimately, it was a clinical and ruthlessly passion-killing display from the most formidable winners in the world game. Every man in Australia's XI played his part in sucking the marrow from a contest that, to judge by the sea of blue in the Narendra Modi Stadium's stands and the expectant attendance of the eponymous PM himself, had been intended as a coronation. Instead, the closing hour of the match was greeted in stunned silence by a 92,453-strong crowd, and nothing epitomised the sense of national anticlimax quite like the trophy-lift itself, for which Cummins was left forlorn on the podium for a full 20 seconds before his team was able to join him after accepting their handshakes away from centre stage.
Not that the lack of in-situ acclaim will derail Australia's sense of achievement. As Head's pivotal catch would ultimately prove, the tone for their victory was once again set in the field. As had been the case in the semi-final against South Africa, the 37-year-old Warner was their barometer, flinging himself with gusto to cut off numerous boundary balls, but while Rohit was on deck, it seemed that Cummins' brave decision to bowl first might get soon overwhelmed, like so many opponents before them, by India's extraordinary weight of strokemakers.
Instead, he backed his bowlers to complete the job they had started in their extraordinary tournament opener in Chennai, where India's top three had all made ducks in slumping to 2 for 3, only for their sub-par target of 200 to be picked off with ease. This time, the dew notwithstanding, he figured the pressure of the big occasion might weigh more heavily in the first innings than the second - especially if his attack could make their early breakthroughs.
All of which made Rohit's shortlived onslaught all the more brave, selfless even, as he shouldered the entire responsibility for India's powerplay proactivity, particularly against Josh Hazlewood, the instigator of that Chennai collapse. In the manner of his charging down the pitch to meet his hard lengths, there were shades of Sachin Tendulkar's pre-emptive attack on Glenn McGrath in the 2003 final … except on this occasion it seemed, briefly, to be working.
But then came the unequivocal moment of the match - a act of fielding majesty that stood immediate comparison with Kapil Dev's running catch off Viv Richards at the pivotal juncture of the 1983 final. Rohit had already slammed ten runs in two balls from Glenn Maxwell's second over, when he stepped into another slap over the long-off boundary, and miscued high out into the covers. Travis Head tracked back from point with the ball skewing high over his shoulder, and with his eyes never leaving the prize, timed his dive to perfection to cling on with both hands.
It will go down as a seminal World Cup moment. Australia had still been battered for 80 runs in the first powerplay - the joint-most conceded in that phase of the first innings of a World Cup final - but now they sensed their chance to turn the contest on its head. Two balls later, Cummins, into his second over, found Shreyas Iyer's edge as he poked without conviction or footwork, and at three down in the 11th, with Shubman Gill already gone to a flaccid pull off Mitchell Starc, Hardik Pandya's absence as India's lower-order pivot was suddenly revealed to be the weakness that Shami's stunning impact with the ball had hitherto concealed.
There had been no such angst while India had been pounding along in each of their ten previous tournament wins - including five untroubled chases to launch their campaign, and a net margin of 875 runs in their five subsequent bat-first victories. As a consequence, India's Nos. 6-11 had barely been called upon in scoring a total of 240 runs between them in those matches, the lowest of any team in this tournament, and now suddenly, with Shami and Bumrah inked in at Nos.8 and 9, none of their set batters dared to be the one to set that descent into the tail into motion.
At least in Kohli, India had a man whose tempo in such circumstances could be trusted. On his team's better days, and in spite of his formidable tournament haul of 765 runs at 95.62, his ruthless devotion to run-making had been mistaken for a weakness. Now his 56-ball fifty was the bedrock of his team's recovery, albeit the reaction to his latest landmark was a pent-up roar that merely exacerbated the anxious hubbub that had preceded it.
But Australia's magnificent attack could not be denied, especially after Cummins had seized on his opponents' visible reticence to smuggle through a churn of change bowlers. Between them, Maxwell, Head and Marsh burgled ten overs for 44, a perfect holding pattern that bought back options for the back end of the innings.
That included the return of the captain himself for the 29th over. With the third ball of his second spell, Cummins hit an awkward length with his short ball, and Kohli looked genuinely emotional as he under-edged onto his stumps with an angled bat, glared at the length from which it had lifted, and glanced over his shoulder before trudging off, as if assessing the pull shot he had chosen to keep in his locker.
KL Rahul endured, but was scarcely unable to unfurl either, even though he did break a 97-ball sequence without a boundary by lobbing Maxwell over his shoulder through fine leg for four, the longest such barren spell for any team in this tournament other than Netherlands, and India's longest between overs 11-50 since 1999.
But on 66, he and the lower order came face to face with another threat that India's own seamers would be forced to do without. In preparing a visibly dry and abrasive deck for this final, the curators had opened the possibility of reverse-swing, and few teams have more eager exponents than Australia. Starc, from round the wicket, straightened an unplayable delivery into Rahul's edge and through to the keeper.
Though Ravindra Jadeja is renowned as a scrapper in such circumstances, his promotion to No.6 couldn't contend with Hazlewood's similarly late movement. After surviving one review for caught-behind he succumbed to the very next ball for 6, at which point, India's easy progress to the final fully caught up with them. With no situational experience to fall back on - and no pace in the wicket with which to access his inverted V from fine leg to deep third - Suryakumar Yadav ground out 18 from 27 before lobbing Hazlewood to the keeper, by which stage he'd faced just five balls out of a possible 17 in his ninth-wicket stand with Kuldeep Yadav.
Kuldeep and Mohammed Siraj kept the innings alive to the final ball, but the mood within the stadium was never able to emerge from its funk. Australia had come with a plan, and the sure knowledge of what it truly takes to win the biggest title in the sport. Ahmedabad turned blue alright, but only with a wistful sense of what might have been.
Montreal Alouettes: 2023 Grey Cup Champions
.jpg)
The Grey Cup is heading back to Montreal.
The final game of the 2023 CFL season was played on Sunday at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field in front of a sellout crowd, where the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers by a 28-24 score.
Montreal’s Tyson Philpot scored the winning touchdown with just 13 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Winnipeg carried a 17-14 lead into the fourth quarter, where the only score of the third frame was a 23-yard receiving touchdown from Montreal’s Cole Spieker.
Winnipeg got the scoring started in the first quarter, nailing a 25-yard field goal off the foot of kicker Sergio Castillo to take a 3-0 lead with 8:32 to go in the opening frame. A quick first drive from the Alouettes quickly gave the ball back to Winnipeg just over a minute later on their own 44-yard line. On the ensuing drive, Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira scored the first touchdown of the day, a five-yard run up the middle to give Winnipeg a two-score lead.
Montreal replied with a major score of their own on the next drive, with the Alouettes’ William Stanback breaking open a 35-yard rush touchdown to get his side back within a single score with five seconds left in the opening frame.
The second quarter wasn’t quite as high-scoring, with Winnipeg stopping Montreal at the 1-yard line with eight seconds left in the opening half to keep the score at 17-7.
It’s safe to say this wasn’t quite the match up most were predicting when the CFL playoffs got underway earlier this month.
NY/NJ Gotham FC: 2023 NWSL Champions
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – A new champion was crowned on Saturday night as NJ/NY Gotham FC earned a NWSL Championship trophy following a worst-to-first campaign from last year to now. Gotham produced a 2-1 win as it relied on goals from forwards Lynn Williams and Esther González to best a Reign side that got on the scoresheet via midfielder Rose Lavelle in the first half.
The match was hampered after just five minutes as an injury to Reign’s Rapinoe saw her exit forced, writing an unfortunate end to the NWSL icon’s career. Replacing Rapinoe was forward Bethany Balcer, who jumped in and attempted to adapt to the circumstances straight away.
The first opportunity of the night came in the 21st minute when a cross into the box from Gotham defender Bruninha was headed to the opposite side of the area by a Reign defender where Gotham forward Lynn Williams was waiting. Williams was able to collect the ball and get a shot away that sailed toward the far post, but she could not get over it enough to direct it into the back of goal.
However, Gotham did not have to wait much longer for the night’s opening goal, and it came through Williams again as she tapped home a Midge Purce cross to send her team ahead midway through the first half. In the 25th minute, Purce was sent down the right side of the field into space, and as she worked her way toward the endline she was able to pull a cross back and pick out Williams in the middle of the box. From there, Williams pushed an effort past Reign goalkeeper Claudia Dickey and in. The goal is Williams’s first playoff goal since the 2016 NWSL Championship and her first playoff goal scored in regulation time. In addition, the assist was Purce’s first in the NWSL Playoffs.
Four minutes later, though, the Reign found themselves level again as Rose Lavelle got in behind the Gotham defense and buried a chance past Gotham goalkeeper Mandy Haught to reset the match and even the score at one-all. Lavelle had been played clean through the Gotham defense, leaving her in a 1-on-1 with Haught in goal. Though the shotstopper did all she could to get back, Lavelle still squeezed a shot around her and in.
Another big chance in the first half came by way of Gotham midfielder Delanie Sheehan, who rattled the bar with a strong effort in the 38th minute after a loose ball had yet to be fully cleared away in the Reign penalty area. An initial chance for Williams, the forward could not get enough on her shot to get it through the Reign defense, but the ball bounced around the penalty area and eventually fell into Sheehan’s path. With a venomous right-footed effort, Sheehan ripped the ball off the underside of the crossbar and back into play before it was eventually cleared.
Gotham would continue to knock on the Reign’s door before the halftime break, and in the second minute of first-half stoppage time Gotham forward Esther González put her team in front. Midge Purce was on corner kick duty where she delivered a ball into the middle of the box where Esther was in position to meet it. Guiding her headed effort past Dickey, the Spaniard restored her team’s lead just ahead of the interval.
Into the second half, the Reign came close to finding a second goal on the night and a second equalizer as forward Veronica Latsko was played through on goal by Lavelle. Lavelle, who had done brilliantly to spin out of trouble just inside her own half, unleashed Latsko down the right side with a powerful through ball on the ground in between Gotham defenders. Latsko then latched onto the pass and approached goal, but her hesitation in picking a direction allowed Haught to get big and push Latsko’s effort away to preserve the lead.
Then, just as the fulltime whistle was looming, a dramatic ending saw Gotham goalkeeper Mandy Haught sent off for handling the ball outside the box as Reign attacker Elyse Bennett came sprinting toward a pass over the top. Haught had attempted to cut off the pass early, but in doing so it was ruled that she handled the ball outside the box and so after VAR review she was sent off and Gotham had to finish the match with 10 players.
The Reign were then awarded a free kick on the edge of the box with Gotham midfielder Nealy Martin stepping into goal for her side in the closing moments. Lavelle stepped up to take, but her effort clattered off the wall and was eventually cleared away, putting an end to the Reign’s opportunities in front of goal.
After 12 minutes of total added time played, the fulltime whistle sounded and Gotham FC won its first-ever NWSL Championship after finishing bottom of the league last season.
Fluminense: 2023 Copa Libertadores Winners
John Kennedy struck a spectacular extra-time winner as Fluminense ended their long wait for a first ever Copa Libertadores crown on Saturday with a 2-1 victory over Argentina's Boca Juniors.
Substitute Kennedy volleyed home from the edge of the area in the 99th minute of an ill-tempered final at Rio's Maracana Stadium after the match finished 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Kennedy was promptly sent off for collecting a second yellow card for an over-exuberant celebration among Fluminense's delirious home fans following the goal.
The 21-year-old Kennedy – named by his history-loving father after the 35th President of the United States – had been a decisive influence for Fluminense after being brought on as a substitute for playmaker Ganso 10 minutes from the end of normal time.
At that point, Boca looked to be getting on top after equalising with a 72nd-minute shot from Peruvian international right back Luis Advincula which cancelled out Fluminense's 36th-minute opener from veteran forward German Cano.
But the arrival of Kennedy breathed fresh life into the Fluminense attack and in the first half of extra-time, the young forward made the breakthrough.
A deft touch by Keno teed up the ball for Kennedy in space, who crashed a thunderous right-foot volley beyond the dive of Boca's former Manchester United and Argentina international goalkeeper Sergio Romero.
Tempers flared near half-time of extra-time with an ugly multi-player melee after unsuccessful Boca appeals for a penalty.
- Cagey 90 minutes -
Boca's Frank Fabra was given his marching orders by Colombian referee Wilmar Roldan after a VAR review caught him aiming a slap at Fluminense defender Nino.
With both teams down to 10 men, Fluminense could have wrapped up victory but Guga's effort after a sweeping counter-attack came back off the inside of the post and rolled across the face of goal.
Fluminense, the four-time champions of Brazil, were one of just two of the country's 12 biggest clubs never to have won the Libertadores prior to Saturday’s victory.
But Kennedy's extra-time thunderbolt handed Fluminense a victory that gives Brazilian clubs a fifth straight win in the tournament since the introduction of single-match format finals in 2019.
The game had gone to extra-time after a cagey 90 minutes finished level at 1-1.
Fluminense had taken the lead with a well-worked opening goal from veteran striker Cano after 36 minutes.
Keno was involved in that goal too, playing a neat 1-2 with Jhon Arias before pulling back for Cano, who swept in an emphatic low finish.
The final looked to be Fluminense's for the taking against a toothless Boca side who had just one shot in the first half.
The second-half began in much the same way, but as Boca began to press for an equaliser, Fluminense dropped deeper and looked increasingly nervous.
They paid the price for that approach on 72 minutes when right back Advincula advanced on goal, cutting in from the flank and unleashing a superb effort into the far corner beyond the dive of Fluminense goalkeeper Fabio.
The goal silenced the Maracana as Fluminense's fans feared the worst against the Argentine giants.
But Kennedy's arrival wrested momentum back in favour of the Rio club, setting up his extra-time winner.
Texas Rangers: 2023 World Series Champions
PHOENIX -- The Texas Rangers are World Series champions for the first time in franchise history after surviving Arizona ace Zac Gallen’s no-hit bid, getting a gutsy effort from starter Nathan Eovaldi and bringing their ample bats to the late innings in a thrilling 5-0 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Chase Field.
In ending MLB’s longest title drought among title-less teams, the Rangers, who joined the American League as the expansion Washington Senators in 1961 before moving to Arlington and rebranding in '72, showed their mettle in what was, for eight innings, an ultra-tight tilt.
One night after erupting for 11 runs -- including 10 in the second and third innings -- Texas was held scoreless until Mitch Garver’s seventh-inning single brought newly minted two-time World Series MVP Corey Seager home to break a scoreless tie. The Rangers then took advantage of an untimely Alek Thomas fielding error in a four-run ninth highlighted by Marcus Semien’s two-run homer.
Eovaldi, on the other hand, had to sweat his way to success. He had baserunners abound, allowing four hits and five walks in six innings. But the D-backs went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position against him to strand all nine of those runners. They had two aboard with none out in the third, when No. 3 hitter Gabriel Moreno questionably put down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, and nothing came of it.
In short, the Snakes let Eovaldi off the hook and, in the process, left themselves vulnerable to anything short of perfection by their ace.
"I kind of joked around that I didn’t know how many rabbits I had left in my hat," Eovaldi said. "I didn’t really help myself out in some of those situations. Other times, they put together quality at-bats and were able to find the whole. A lot of the credit goes to Jonah back there behind the plate. He called a great game. We were on the same page for the most part. We were able to come out on top. That was the main thing."
Gallen finally bent in the seventh, and it began in an ironic way. Seager broke up the no-no, but he didn’t do it in the style that suited him all series. Rather, it was a softly hit grounder to the opposite side -- a ball that would have been harmless if third baseman Evan Longoria hadn’t been shifted toward shortstop. The ball reached the outfield grass, and the Rangers had life.
Reflecting a theme of this series, the Rangers seized the moment in a way the D-backs did not. Evan Carter ripped a double to put two runners in scoring position. And after a consultation on the mound with pitching coach Brent Strom, Gallen gave up a ground-ball single up the middle to Garver to bring Seager home with the game’s first run.
"Gallen was unbelievable tonight, but we came through," Semien said. "Once Corey got the first hit, everybody kind of woke up."
Though Gallen recovered to strike out Josh Jung and October relief hero Kevin Ginkel came on to record the last two outs and escape a bases-loaded jam of his own making in the eighth, the D-backs were made to pay for their early inability to cash in at the plate. The Rangers came out swinging in the ninth against Arizona closer Paul Sewald with consecutive singles from Jung and Nathaniel Lowe. Heim ripped a single to center that Thomas misplayed. The ball scooted toward the wall, as Jung and Lowe hustled home and Heim streaked to third. Two outs later, Semien went deep for the second time in as many nights to make it 5-0, igniting a Texas-sized soiree, 52 years in the making.
"This is the biggest moment, the World Series," Semien said. "Put up four runs in the ninth inning to be up 5-0 after being no-hit, it just felt so good. [I] just looked over to the bench and screamed. It’s just an unbelievable feeling."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)