The New York Heights clinched second place in the inaugural WPBL regular season and home-field advantage over the Los Angeles Queens in next week’s semifinal with a dominant 14-2 win over the first-place San Francisco Firebells on Friday night. The game, the Heights’ last in the regular season, set their final record at 8-7. They will host the third-place Queens in Game 1 of their semifinal series on Thursday.
The Heights’ 12-run advantage in Friday’s game was the second-largest margin of victory in a WPBL game this season behind the Firebells’ 17-3 win over the Queens on Aug. 14. The 32 runs the Heights scored in their final two regular-season games are the largest two-game outburst by any team this season, besting the Firebells’ 28 runs across Aug. 14 and 15.
Despite that, the star of the game was not a Heights hitter but New York’s starting pitcher, right-hander Emi Saiki. In a league that averages nearly eight runs per team per game, pitchers don’t make a lot of positive headlines. But on Friday, Saiki, making just her second pitching appearance of the year, held the most productive offense in the league — which entered this game hitting .386/.487/.577 (1.064 OPS) — hitless for the first 4 1/3 innings. Saiki also became the first pitcher in WPBL history to complete six innings in a game, doing so with apparent ease and just 76 pitches.
After the game, Saiki told ESPN’s AJ Andrews that her slider wasn’t good in the bullpen before the game, so catcher Denae Benites suggested sticking to her fastball and curveball. Andrews reported during the game that the Firebells’ hitters said they couldn’t tell the difference between the two pitches coming out of Saiki’s hand. In the postgame press conference, Saiki said that she and Benites did work her slider back in as the game progressed and that it was sharper in-game than it had been in the pen. That gave her something new to show hitters as she got deeper into the game.
Through the first four innings, Saiki allowed just two baserunners, walking Firebells right fielder Skylar Kaplan with one out in the first and plunking San Francisco third baseman Ayaka Yamamoto with one out in the second. Neither advanced past first base.
In the fifth, Yamamoto reached again, on an error by Heights shortstop Val Perez. But Saiki got designated hitter Amanda Gianelloni to hit into a fielder’s choice for the first out before left fielder Jua Park singled for San Francisco’s first hit and put its first runner on second by pushing Gianelloni up. Saiki then stranded both runners by striking out second baseman Hinano Beppu, who was making her first start of the year, and getting Kelsie Whitmore, who went 0-for-3 with a walk on the night, to pop out to Perez.
The Firebells finally broke through in the sixth on a leadoff single by Kaplan and a two-run home run by first baseman Andréanne Leblanc, her second in as many games. But Saiki didn’t allow another runner past second base, finishing with a line of six innings pitched, three hits, two earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts and a hit by pitch.
I plugged that line into a modified version of Bill James’ game score (giving credit for innings pitched above three, rather than four, to reflect the WPBL’s shorter games). By that metric, Saiki’s outing on Friday tied Ayami Sato’s against the Firebells on Aug. 7 as the best by a starting pitcher in league history.
Sato’s line was five innings pitched, four hits, one run allowed (unearned), no walks and four strikeouts in just 55 pitches. I’ll take Saiki’s performance over Sato’s. Interestingly, both were the pitchers’ second start of the season.
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While Seiki doused the Firebells’ bats, the Heights lineup showed the same relentlessness on Friday that they did in scoring a league-record 18 runs against the Queens the night before. They took advantage of every opportunity they were given and every miscue the Firebells made and refused to let up.
After San Francisco lefty Liz Gilder set down the top of the Heights’ lineup in order in the first, New York broke out with five runs in the bottom of the second on three walks, three San Francisco errors, a misplayed pop-up, four stolen bases and three singles. The Heights added two in the third on the second home run of the season by veteran Kylee Lahners, who is the usual designated hitter but made her first start of the year at third base.
In the fourth, New York sent 10 runners to the plate for the second time in three innings and again put up a five-spot with the help of: two walks, a misplayed pop-up by Beppu, two steals, a throwing error by catcher Alexia Jorge trying to catch a runner stealing third base and allowing them to score instead, and a two-run homer that was Perez’s first round-tripper of the season.
In the fifth, the Heights capped their scoring as Firebells reliever Jua Park walked three, two to help load the bases and one to drive in a run. She plunked second baseman Madison Willan (who went 3-for-3 on the night) to drive in another.
Altogether, the Heights scored their 14 runs on just 13 hits. They drew eight walks, swiped six bases, struck out just once and went deep twice. The Firebells, meanwhile, made five official errors (not counting two pop-ups that dropped untouched). Afterward, manager Matt Williams called the game “the first clunker we’ve had this season.”
The Heights now have five days off before Game 1 of their semifinal series against the Queens. The Firebells will wrap up the WPBL regular season on Sunday by hosting their semifinal opponent, the fourth-place Boston Hunters. Williams, who made an effort to get underused players and pitchers into Friday’s game, said that lefty Niki Eckert will get the start on Sunday and that the season finale will “feel like a normal game.”
On Saturday, the Queens will wrap up their regular season against the Hunters. Boston is 1-7 against its two opponents this weekend, with the lone win coming against the Queens on Aug. 23.
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Injury news
Firebells manager Matt Williams intended to start backup catcher Sam Gutierrez at third base on Friday. But in pregame infield practice, Gutierrez took a “pretty nasty” hard hopper to the eye, in the words of her manager, and instead spent the game in the hospital. Williams told reporters that Gutierrez had X-rays, had a CAT scan, was put through concussion protocols, and was “showing signs of” a concussion. But, he added, “Hopefully she’s feeling OK.”
Heights pitcher, center fielder and third baseman Jaida Lee (right ankle) was still in a walking boot on Friday but no longer on crutches. Prior to the game, she told ESPN’s AJ Andrews (while holding an adorable black and white dog named Atlas that she’s fostering), “I’m hoping I’m good next week. I mean, the swelling’s gone down. I’m able to put some weight on it and walk around a little better now. So I’m hopeful I’ll be back next week.”
Lee was seen elevating her right foot on a cooler in the dugout during the game but also rushed out of the dugout to join the home run celebrations.
Firebells two-way star Jill Albayati was active for this game but did not play. Williams said that was due in part to Albayati’s late arrival after traveling back from her college in California. Per Williams, Albayati “got on the [bullpen] mound a little bit” during the game to test her sore hamstring and will throw an inning in Sunday’s game with the same intent, “just to test it,” after which she will be evaluated.
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Notes
Heights infielder Val Perez was ejected in the fifth inning of Friday’s game amid some confusion about where to place the runners after a batted ball hit Heights baserunner Kiera Izumi on the foot. Perez was not demonstrative at all, and manager Rocky Henley said after the game that from what she’d heard, all Perez did was say, “I think you’re wrong” to base umpire Cody Hawkins while walking back to the base.
Asked if she expects Perez to receive an automatic one-game suspension — as was the case with Hunters manager Jemile Weeks, the only other person to be ejected from a WPBL game — Henley replied that she has “not seen any policies for player ejections.” Henley said she hopes that “the league will look at it … and say, ‘Maybe this is just a warning or a small fine’ or something like that.”
The Heights’ only remaining games this season are in the postseason, making a one-game suspension for Perez a far heavier punishment than what Weeks (who was also not demonstrative) served.
Amanda Gianelloni, the Firebells’ starting second baseman and leadoff hitter in each of their first 13 games, made her first start at designated hitter on Friday to allow teammate Hinano Beppu to start in front of her parents, who were visiting from Japan. Manager Matt Williams also hit Gianelloni seventh in Friday’s game in anticipation of in-game moves involving the DH and pitcher.
Williams said after the game that Gianelloni would continue to lead off and play second base “in a normal game.” So expect to see her back in her usual spots both Sunday and into the postseason.
ESPN’s AJ Andrews attempted to explain why so many pop-ups haven’t been caught this season after Beppu, who also misjudged a pop-up by Denae Benites in the second inning, appeared to lose sight of one by Heights first baseman London Studer in the bottom of the fourth. Andrews said that because Robin Roberts Stadium is a single-deck ballpark, the lights are lower than in a taller stadium despite being on tall stanchions. So balls in the air more often cross in front of them, which for a fielder is similar to losing a ball in the sun. Andrews also seemed to imply that, once it gets dark, a ball that travels above the height of the lights disappears into the darkness before reappearing on its descent, giving a fielder insufficient time to react to its trajectory.
Heights manager Rocky Henley told reporters that she is not at all concerned about the six-day layoff before the semifinals. “We need a couple of days off … some rest … some treatment,” she said. “We need to get our bodies right to get ready for Thursday’s game.” Henley said her team will get a full day off on Saturday, have an optional practice on Sunday, be off on Monday “because we can’t find a location to practice” on Labor Day, and then “go hard Tuesday [and] Wednesday.”
Henley said she does not have a pitching plan for the semifinal yet. “I will reevaluate and talk to athletes over the weekend to see [who is] going to be fresh and ready to go for Thursday,” she said.
Neither New York’s Benites nor San Francisco’s Kelsie Whitmore homered on Friday. Benites went 3-for-5, all singles, with two RBI, two stolen bases and a run scored. Whitmore went 0-for-3 with a walk. Benites finishes the regular season with 11 home runs, while Whitmore, who has 10, has one more game against the Hunters on Sunday to catch or surpass Benites for the regular-season home run crown.
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