The San Francisco Firebells ended the inaugural regular season of the Women’s Pro Baseball League with a flourish, coming from behind to nearly lap the Boston Hunters in a 13-7 win, completing a regular-season sweep of their semifinal opponent. Firebells captain Kelsie Whitmore put the cherry on top on Sunday, hitting her 11th home run to match Heights catcher Denae Benites and wrap up the league’s thrilling home run race in a tie.
The Hunters were 0-4 against San Francisco entering this game, but early on it looked like this might finally be their night. Center fielder Lexi Hastings led off the game with a single, benefitted from a blown call on her attempt to advance on a wild pitch (Hastings was out by at least a foot but called safe), and came around to score on a pair of groundouts to give Boston an early lead. Hunters lefty Olivia Bricker, making her first start of the season, then faced the minimum number of Firebells through the first two innings, erasing a first-inning single by Whitmore with a double play.
In the top of the third, with Hastings leading off again, the Hunters got a real rally going against San Francisco starter Niki Eckert. First baseman Alli Schroder, batting third for the first time this season, followed walks to Hastings and third baseman Denver Bryant with a ringing double to left that plated them both, then scored herself on Edith De Leija’s opposite-field double down the line in left. De Leija then scored when Firebells third baseman Ayaka Yamamoto skipped a throw past first baseman Andréanne Leblanc for a two-base error.
At that point, the Hunters were up 5-0, their largest lead in any game since they beat the Heights 6-1 on Aug. 13, and the only two errors in the game had been made by their opponent (Firebells second baseman Amanda Gianelloni’s boot of a grounder in the first proved harmless).
Then Lucy pulled the football away.
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I asked Gianelloni after the game if falling behind 5-0 woke her team up. She replied, “Absolutely.”
The Firebells proceeded to send 27 batters to the plate over the next three innings, exploding for 12 runs, seven of them off reliever Maïka Dumais in the fourth, to put the Hunters right back in their place. WUMP!
The initial blow was Whitmore’s. With one out in the third, Bricker plunked center fielder Ela Day-Bédard, then surrendered a single to Ayaka Yamamoto, but she recovered to get Gianelloni to fly out, recording the second out without the runners advancing. Then came Whitmore. Bricker’s first pitch was a slow curve to the outside corner, but, as Bricker told reporters after the game, “a little too over the plate. Next time that’s not happening.”
Whitmore was ready for it, sending the ball 338 feet over the wall in the left-field gap. After the game, Whitmore told reporters that the home run race was “getting old for me,” but in that moment, she was clearly elated, pumping her fists, leaping in the air between first and second base, and grinning ear-to-ear as she rounded the bases.
The three-run shot tied Whitmore with Heights captain Denae Benites for the league’s home run lead, and they would remain tied forevermore. Whitmore got at-bats in each of the next three innings, but couldn’t get another ball over the fence.
As Whitmore detailed after the game, when she came to the plate in the fourth, the inning after her home run, home plate umpire Kate Hart told her, “nice hit,” only to have Hunters catcher Beth Greenwood reply, “I didn’t like that hit,” causing Whitmore to have to hold back a laugh while preparing for the pitch. She grounded out to shortstop on the first offering from Dumais and was one of just two Firebells not to reach base that innig.
In the fifth, Whitmore hit a pitch from reliever Kate Blunt to the deepest part of center field, but, as she told reporters after the game, she knew off the bat that she didn’t get all of it, and Hastings tracked it down for a sacrifice fly.
Finally, in the sixth, with the Firebells up 12-5 and sure not to bat again in the seventh, Whitmore was due up fifth. Facing righty Gigi Schiano, the first two batters of the inning, left fielder Jua Park and Day-Bédard, reached via a walk and a hit by pitch, but Yamamoto erased Day-Bédard via a double play, putting Gianelloni in the position of needing to reach base so not to strand Whitmore in the on-deck circle. Gianelloni told reporters after the game that she thought to herself, jokingly, “If I don’t get a hit, Kelsie’s gonna kill me.”
Gianelloni went 3-for-5 on the night with three doubles, three RBI, and two runs scored, but her RBI double in that at-bat in the sixth, to give her teammate one more chance, may have been her most clutch performance of the night.
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For perhaps the only time this season, Whitmore came to the plate in that inning trying to hit a home run. Schiano’s first pitch was a changeup away, and Whitmore took a huge swing at it, but missed. Schiano stayed away for a ball, a very questionable strike two call, and ball two, then came back over the plate with another changeup, and Whitmore again swung from her heels. Alas, the mighty Kelsie struck out.
The Hunters, who had sent only one more than the minimum to the plate in the fourth through sixth innings against Eckert and Firebells relievers Rosi del Castilo and Peyton Coria, then made one last charge. Hastings, leading off an inning for the third time, reached for the third time, dropping a double down the left-field line just beyond the reach of the sliding Jua Park. Denver Bryant then plated Hastings with an apparent double of her own, one-hopping the wall in right center, but Firebells right fielder Skylar Kaplan, owner of the best outfield arm in the league, cut Bryant down at second base with a throw on the fly from the wall.
Alli Schroder followed with her first home run of the season in her final at-bat of the regular season, but that was as close as the Hunters would get. Coria avoided further damage to wrap up the game at 13-7, getting Hunters left fielder Ticara Geldenhuis to fly out to Park in left for the final out of the first WPBL regular season.
These two teams now have just two days off before they come right back and do it again in first playoff game in WPBL history, Game 1 of their semifinal, at 7 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Firebells manager Matt Williams told reporters after the game that his starting pitcher in Game 1 will be Whitmore. Hunters manager Jemile Weeks would not name a starter when asked, but his choice is almost certainly between Alli Schroder, who threw 50 pitches in a single inning on Saturday and would be on three-day’s rest, and Kate Blunt, who threw 23 pitches in this game and would be on two-day’s rest, though the Hunters could consider that a between-start throw day for Blunt, as her last appearance prior to Sunday was last Wednesday, Sept. 2.
I’ll have an extensive preview of both semifinal series (the other, starting Thursday, pitting the Queens against the Heights) in my Baseball Insider column tomorrow.
Injury News:
The Firebells success this season is even more impressive when you consider they have been the team hit hardest by injuries. Jill Albayati was a huge contributor on both sides of the ball before straining a hamstring on Aug. 21, but San Francisco has gone 5-1 without her (and, despite not playing since, Albayati still finished the season tied for the league lead in doubles with six).
Albayati was active on Friday and threw a bullpen during Friday night’s game, but, manager Matt Williams told reporters after Sunday’s game, she “felt it a little bit the next day,” so they scrapped their plan to have Albayati pitch an inning in Sunday’s game. Williams said that Albayati will “probably do a live session against hitters on Tuesday to test it again and make sure,” but suggested that he expects to have Albayati available in the semifinals against the Hunters later this week.
Williams also said that, “for now,” they’re treating Albayati as a pitcher-only, though he added that she has “been running on the treadmill … she hit over the last couple of days, so it’s all progressing well. At the same time, we all know that quick reaction movement oftentimes gets you if you’re not fully healed. So, hopefully a couple more days will do the trick for it.”
Catcher Sam Gutierrez, who was hit in the eye by a nasty hop while taking infield practice before Friday’s game, was back in the dugout Sunday night but inactive. Williams told reporters, “Sam is feeling great. The swelling went down really well [on Saturday]. She has a little trouble seeing, at the moment, out of the eye, but the swelling subsided … So we’ll give her another day [and] see what she looks like on Tuesday in preparation for Wednesday, [but] so far, so good. … I anticipate that Sam will be ready to go when the playoffs start.” Williams said that reliever Peyton Coria is his emergency catcher and will back up Alexia Jorge if Gutierrez isn’t ready to return.
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Righty Rosi del Castillo made her third appearance since returning from a knee injury on Sunday. All of those appearances have been just one inning, but describing del Castillo’s progression to reporters Sunday night, Williams said, “First time out [on Aug. 30], she was about 70%. Last time [on Sept. 2], a little bit better, and tonight she let it go. So we’re really happy about that, and by Wednesday she’ll be able to go multiple [innings] for us.” Like Albayati, del Castillo was a two-way player for San Francisco before her injury but appears likely to be limited to pitching in the semifinals.
Notes:
Over the last two weeks, Hunters captain Alli Schroder has gone from being used almost exclusively as a pitcher to being one of the top two hitters on the team. Schroder was the Hunters’ Opening Day first baseman and started at designated hitter in their third game, but went 0-for-5 with a walk and two strikeouts in those games, both of which came under original Hunters manager Keith Foulke.
In Jemile Weeks’ first game as manager, on Aug. 9, Schroder was an mid-game replacement for Denver Bryant at third base and went 0-for-1 with another walk and another strikeout to push her season line to 0-for-6 with two walks and three strikeouts. Weeks then used Schroder exclusively as a pitcher until Aug. 26, when he gave her a start at first base.
Schroder hit eighth in that game and went 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. She pitched the next game and did not hit. Then she started at first base on Sept. 2, hit fourth, and went 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, an RBI, and a run scored. Despite admitting in front of her manager that she wants to hit in the games she pitches, as well, she pitched the next game and did not hit. Then, Sunday night, she again started at first base, hit third, and went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, four RBI, and two run scored.
Over the Hunters’ last five games, Schroder has started at first base in every game she hasn’t pitched and has gone 7-for-10 with two doubles, a home run, six RBI, four runs scored, and a walk and has worked her way up from eighth to third in the lineup. Despite her slow start at the plate, her final batting line this season is .412/.524/.706 (162 OPS+), ranking second on the team in batting average, slugging, and OPS+ and third in on-base percentage. She also finished fifth on the team in total bases despite having the third-fewest plate appearances of any non-P.O.
After Sunday’s game, Schroder called her final at-bat home run, “very satisfying” and credited her change of fortune at the plate to “making lots of adjustments throughout the season, working with my coaches, [and] putting the extra work in.” Adding, “to see it all pay off in the last at-bat of the regular season is huge for me.”
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Catcher Hyeonah Kim was one of the Hunters’ two inactive players for this game, leaving Boston with just one active catcher. Manager Jemile Weeks told reporters after the game that, in that situation, if the active catcher is injured and can’t continue, the inactive catcher can be activated during the game.
That’s the first I’ve heard of that rule, and it makes me wonder why teams don’t always list their backup catcher as one of their inactive players, as it effectively gives them 16 available players rather than 15. Looking over the rosters, however, I realized that the Queens almost always have both catchers — Maggie Foxx and Jamie Mackay — in the lineup. Similarly, when the Firebells start backup Sam Gutierrez behind the plate, they typically start regular catcher Alexia Jorge at designated hitter, and before her recent injury, manager Williams appeared interested in getting Gutierrez’s hot bat in the lineup more often at third base (which is why she was taking the infield practice that resulted in her injury). As for the Heights, they don’t have a clear backup catcher, as Denae Benites has caught every inning this season. Still, that rule has “loophole” written all over it and should probably be changed before next season.
