Playoff Spot, Here We Come

“That’s how NOT to give up.”

Rob Linn said it best after Tuesday night’s battle in Brighton with the Braves.

For anyone who watched the first five innings of last night’s game, I’m sorry you saw the worst of it. The McKay Club was seemingly down and out, falling into a 6-1 hole fueled by bloops, errors, bad base running and a lack of energetic, inspired play in the field. After I exited during the fourth inning, my head was low, I’ll admit to it. At the time, we were chasing four runs and it looked like another abysmal night under the lights at spacious Rogers Park.

But in some odd reoccurrence of events, we managed to rally back for yet another come-from-behind-win up in the airy, affluent City of Brighton. Almost two weeks to the day, our very own McKay Club watched a lead ebb away like the outgoing tide to the Black Sox of Brighton, only to come back to win it in the seventh. And much like last night, a late surge was necessary to fuel a must-need win, a win that keeps us in the center of that playoff picture.

It reminds me of Back to the Future II, where Marty is looking at the picture of himself and his family fading quick but he saves the day, watches them reappear on the photograph again and everything is good once again in The Future. We were that family fading away quick, almost totally invisible. Maybe we had an arm or a leg left. That was it. That was until we got saved and reappeared. What a relief…

There were so many heroes last night, I really don’t know where to start. It was a team effort to bring us back into the picture, that’s for damn sure. We were all but off the photo for good after our captain got ejected for, what do you call it exactly, yelling at the umpire? Whatever it was, he was tossed and the game seemed to be going down hill faster than the Jamaican bob sled team. Our boy Nando Trindade wasn’t feeling the bad vibes though, as he launched a liner down the left field line. It rolled, skipped, rolled some more and by the time it stopped, our faux first baseman had himself a three run homerun which cut the lead to 6-4.

It was at that point precisely when our bench got up to congratulate Nando, looked at each other and thought collectively “hey, this game isn’t over, let’s go!” Nando’s first career Yawkey League homerun couldn’t have come at a better time. That awoke the sleeping giant known as the McKay Club. In the blink of an eye, the game was a game again, not just us pretending and going through the motions.

Now I can’t write anymore until I mention the total wildcard of this game, Joe Ceurvels. I don’t know what to say really. Here’s a guy who before last night had thrown one inning all season. One inning. Warming up the other pitchers became a regular activity until last night when Joe came in to get the final two outs of the fourth inning and then proceeded to pitch two hitless innings that we needed more than anything. It takes a lot of patience and dedication to wait 27 games to get a chance to pitch meaningful innings, but Joe did it and last night it was a Godsend.

Last night was a show-me game, and we showed last night. We showed it to our selves once again how to come back and win a game. Dan Ciooca -- who is a bulldog by the way -- showed us all how to tie a game in the top of the seventh inning with a 2 RBI single through the left side of the infield. That gave Ciocca 24 RBI on the season and about 700 clutch hits so far this year. What a beast. Jackie Owens showed us how to win a game, smacking an 0-2 pitch up the middle to drive in the game-winning run in the eighth inning (his biggest hit of the season in my books). And Adam Kulis showed us how to close out a game, going two scoreless innings of relief to get us one win closer to a spot in the playoffs.

What a night at the ball park. Just when you think we’re out of it, we pull you back in. It’s like one of those movies with a stellar cast but a soggy plot. You’re about to shut it off and go watch ESPN News, but then the movie takes a turn for the better and all the sudden your eyes are glued. That’s the McKay Club in a nutshell. We’ll make you cringe sometimes, and maybe once in a while you’ll want to walk away but when it comes down to it, we fight ‘til the end.

And besides, with loud obnoxious individuals like Rob Linn and Chris Deane, why wouldn’t you want to watch us? Tune in next time, Friday night, Ronan Park, 7:30. You just never know what you’re going to see happen.