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</div>SYRACUSE, NY — Koichi Nakashima has a 1.30 ERA in his postseason career.
So said the Syracuse Stadium scoreboard as the man known as Gargoyle entered the game in the top of the ninth Sunday night with his Slammers club leading the Maine Guides 6-2.
The 35-year-old right-hander from Tsuyama, Japan took to the mound looking to continue his playoff success after producing one of his finest regular seasons to date. After flirting with both distinctions for years, he had finally completed an entire regular season while allowing fewer than ten bases on balls and without permitting a single home run.
Syracuse stood poised to send the series back to Maine for Games 6 and 7 while needing to capture only one more road win to advance to the Domestic League Championship Series. The Slammers have taken two trips to the next round during their run this decade, the most successful of the franchise's history. But with age and salaries creeping up, and budget room and time slipping away, everyone wearing orange around the stadium Sunday night knew their championship window wasn't long for the world. "This is our last chance" was the common refrain.
So Nakashima came in from the bullpen at Syracuse Stadium, as he has so many times since joining the Slammers 12 seasons ago.
Guides left fielder B.J. Mulcahy, he of the 42 home runs and 145 RBIs, the anchor of Maine's formidable lineup, stood in. Mulcahy grounded out on four pitches.
Syracuse 6, Maine 2.
Two outs to go for Nakashima.
Consecutive singles to center from Enrique Zurita, Taylor Clarkson, and Travis Basker loaded the bases.
Zak Gaston, the seven-time All-Star appearing in his first playoff series at age 37, pinch hit. He followed with yet another single to score Zurita and Basker.
Syracuse 6, Maine 4.
When Nakashima snuck one of his magnificent curveballs by Lucca Memmoli for a full count strikeout, it looked like Syracuse might yet escape with the win.
The Syracuse crowd could feel it, tantalizingly close.
Just one out away.
The out that wasn't meant to be.
Nakashima battled with William Lehnhardt for ten pitches — an at-bat that included a full count and the hitter fouling back six pitches as it came down to a final strike.
Lehnhardt ended the dramatic showdown with a line drive single to score Basker.
Syracuse 6, Maine 5.
Steve Suarez, the hero of Maine's 2006 championship run in which he hit .325 with eight home runs, stepped in with runners on first and third.
And then it happened.
Nakashima's curveball, known for its marvelous movement, simply moved too much.
Perhaps Ruben Luna, Nakashima's long-time Syracuse battery mate, would have somehow snared it with his sure hands.
But Luna had strained a calf muscle running the bases seven innings earlier, and Todd Collins had come on to replace him. Collins had not frequently caught for Nakashima and is not known for his ability to block balls behind the plate.
So the 1-0 breaking ball bounced, and clanged off the backstop, plating the tying run as the Syracuse crowd looked on helplessly.
Syracuse 6, Maine 6.
On 2-1, Suarez looped a fly ball into the left-center field gap.
Whether Makato Kataoka should have caught it is still a subject of great debate a day later. Did he lose it for a brief moment in the Syracuse Stadium lights? We do not know for sure.
But we do know he didn't catch it. And the go-ahead run scored.
Syracuse 6, Maine 7.
It was the loudest silence this writer has ever heard.
Nakashima left the game shell-shocked, pulled for Angelo Chavez, having seen five runs cross the plate and the lead evaporate without a walk or an extra base hit — or that elusive last out.
Chavez found the final out, in the form of a Ray Davila strikeout, but it was too late for Syracuse on Sunday night.
Guides' closer Marco Perez entered in the bottom of the ninth and quickly got the three outs his counterpart couldn't.
And so the series stands three games to two in favor of not Syracuse, but Maine.
The teams head back to Old Port Park, the place the 108-win Guides call home, the place where Syracuse's postseason dreams ended two seasons ago.
Perhaps the ending will be different this time.
After all, it is their last chance.
</div>SYRACUSE, NY — Koichi Nakashima has a 1.30 ERA in his postseason career.So said the Syracuse Stadium scoreboard as the man known as Gargoyle entered the game in the top of the ninth Sunday night with his Slammers club leading the Maine Guides 6-2.
The 35-year-old right-hander from Tsuyama, Japan took to the mound looking to continue his playoff success after producing one of his finest regular seasons to date. After flirting with both distinctions for years, he had finally completed an entire regular season while allowing fewer than ten bases on balls and without permitting a single home run.
Syracuse stood poised to send the series back to Maine for Games 6 and 7 while needing to capture only one more road win to advance to the Domestic League Championship Series. The Slammers have taken two trips to the next round during their run this decade, the most successful of the franchise's history. But with age and salaries creeping up, and budget room and time slipping away, everyone wearing orange around the stadium Sunday night knew their championship window wasn't long for the world. "This is our last chance" was the common refrain.
So Nakashima came in from the bullpen at Syracuse Stadium, as he has so many times since joining the Slammers 12 seasons ago.
Guides left fielder B.J. Mulcahy, he of the 42 home runs and 145 RBIs, the anchor of Maine's formidable lineup, stood in. Mulcahy grounded out on four pitches.
Syracuse 6, Maine 2.
Two outs to go for Nakashima.
Consecutive singles to center from Enrique Zurita, Taylor Clarkson, and Travis Basker loaded the bases.
Zak Gaston, the seven-time All-Star appearing in his first playoff series at age 37, pinch hit. He followed with yet another single to score Zurita and Basker.
Syracuse 6, Maine 4.
When Nakashima snuck one of his magnificent curveballs by Lucca Memmoli for a full count strikeout, it looked like Syracuse might yet escape with the win.
The Syracuse crowd could feel it, tantalizingly close.
Just one out away.
The out that wasn't meant to be.
Nakashima battled with William Lehnhardt for ten pitches — an at-bat that included a full count and the hitter fouling back six pitches as it came down to a final strike.
Lehnhardt ended the dramatic showdown with a line drive single to score Basker.
Syracuse 6, Maine 5.
Steve Suarez, the hero of Maine's 2006 championship run in which he hit .325 with eight home runs, stepped in with runners on first and third.
And then it happened.
Nakashima's curveball, known for its marvelous movement, simply moved too much.
Perhaps Ruben Luna, Nakashima's long-time Syracuse battery mate, would have somehow snared it with his sure hands.
But Luna had strained a calf muscle running the bases seven innings earlier, and Todd Collins had come on to replace him. Collins had not frequently caught for Nakashima and is not known for his ability to block balls behind the plate.
So the 1-0 breaking ball bounced, and clanged off the backstop, plating the tying run as the Syracuse crowd looked on helplessly.
Syracuse 6, Maine 6.
On 2-1, Suarez looped a fly ball into the left-center field gap.
Whether Makato Kataoka should have caught it is still a subject of great debate a day later. Did he lose it for a brief moment in the Syracuse Stadium lights? We do not know for sure.
But we do know he didn't catch it. And the go-ahead run scored.
Syracuse 6, Maine 7.
It was the loudest silence this writer has ever heard.
Nakashima left the game shell-shocked, pulled for Angelo Chavez, having seen five runs cross the plate and the lead evaporate without a walk or an extra base hit — or that elusive last out.
Chavez found the final out, in the form of a Ray Davila strikeout, but it was too late for Syracuse on Sunday night.
Guides' closer Marco Perez entered in the bottom of the ninth and quickly got the three outs his counterpart couldn't.
And so the series stands three games to two in favor of not Syracuse, but Maine.
The teams head back to Old Port Park, the place the 108-win Guides call home, the place where Syracuse's postseason dreams ended two seasons ago.
Perhaps the ending will be different this time.
After all, it is their last chance.
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