The IBL's Chicago Iron Pigs

[gehrig38]

Fan Interest is at 88, I expect that to pick up as we near the post season. Mr. Marquis has no reason to be anything except very happy, as the club is hitting it's stride. It's ALL going to be about health this last month. I honestly don't know that my pitching can handle Baltimore or Philly in 7 games, but to do it, or have a shot, I need my A lineup healthy and hitting.

Attendance is at +19.6%, and we've already drawn 2.96M, with 18 home dates left. Our stadium holds 47.5, if we max out, or near it we could draw north of 3.75 million, even after increasing our tickets to 19 bucks!

Our payroll is still ranked near the bottom, and is going from 18.3 to 22.9 with 4 Arb cases (Potts, Ferrer, Pacheco and van Bodegraven). I have arms in the wings (though messing with the teams best asset outside it's offense feels wrong at this point).

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by gehrig38

Attendance is at +19.6%, and we've already drawn 2.96M, with 18 home dates left. Our stadium holds 47.5, if we max out, or near it we could draw north of 3.75 million, even after increasing our tickets to 19 bucks!

This turned out to be a great move. Timing is everything.

[threesportgeek]

Good stuff going on in here. Iron Pigs rock!

[gehrig38]

WEEK 24
1 vs Columbus (73-63 12 GB CL Central)
2 @ Baltimore (80-55 5.5 GB CL East)
Off Day
3 vs Fresno (59-77 22.5 GB CL West)

GAME 137
This was a game that was 1 pitch away from spinning out of control on about 10 occasions. Spike Davis (7-3) got through about 5 of them going 6-7-2-2-1-9, then van Bodegraven (H9) Jose Sanchez (H2) Pacheco (H19 though he was a disaster today, 3 hits, 2 walks and a HR in 7 hitters) Kevin Johnson (H1) and Pennington (H16) all did something, and Cruz got the final 4 outs for save 35. Chicago hit 4 HR’s, Lorenzelli (7) Hudson (10) Morgan (27) and Collins (33). Collins went 3-4 with 2 RBI’s, Morgan 2-4 with 2 RBI’s.
CHI 7 COL 5 (86-51 +13)

GAME 138
De La Torre (14-8) battled through 5.1-8-4-4-2-2 but old nemesis (well he’s young but old in a ‘he’s done this before’ sense hit 2 triples including a 2 run triple in the 3 run 4th. Flynn Woods (9-8 4.37) went 7.1-5-2-2-2-4 and Jorge Bautista got his 3rd Save. Jean Chartier went 2-4 with 2 RBI’s as Chicago managed just 2 runs on 4 singles and a Leon Russell triple.
BAL 4 CHI 2 (86-52 +12.5)

INJURY NEWS
Columbus lost 26 year old OF Antonio Santana today for the next 4 months with torn ankle ligaments. Santana went down in April after tearing a groin and has had ankle problems for three straight seasons now. Antonio has hit 280/341/353 in 281 IBL games with 57 2B’s, 3 3B’s and 4 HR, stealing 61-96 bases and scoring 161 runs.

GAME 139
Up against former 20 game winner Albert Luna (won 20 at the age of 21 in 2012 (20-11 3.54) and was 15-10 3.73 last year.

Jeff Bentley (3-4) outpitched Luna (14-7 3.41) who went 7-10-3-3-0-6. Potts (H6) and Torres (H12) got the game to Cruz for his 36th Save. Hugh Collins had 3 hits and 2 SB’s (40) and Wes Morgan hit his 28th HR. Ernesto Gutierrez went 3-4 with a double.
CHI 3 BAL 2 (87-52 +13.5)

OFF DAY NEWS
The Brooklyn Cyclones lost the services of 26 year old MR Trey Howard for the next 4 weeks after he strained an oblique. Howard was 9-6 1 SV 2.67 in 65 games this season.

Las Vegas 51’s OF Chad McGee slammed 3 HR’s and drove in 5 in a 10-5 LOSS!! Vs Pittsburgh today. McGee is hitting 225-20-49 in 76 games this year after hitting 206-19-57 in 116 games last season.

Diablo Catcher Cesar Barron went 5-6 with 3 RBI’s in a 13-4 El Paso win over West Michigan. The 2 time Gold Glove winner is hitting 311/368/435 in his best offenseive season to date. At 24 he’s primed to be a top 5 catcher for years to come.


GAME 140
Mark Williams pulled up lame ending the 1st and was pulled. KJ came in, went 3.2-1-0-0-3-5 to get the W. The pen did their thing and Eric Hudson went 3-3 and drove in 3 runs. There’s a delicate balance now of playing the regulars, getting call ups in the game, and not getting anyone hurt. Williams is sore, nothing major, but DtD for a bit.
CHI 6 FRE 2 88-52 +15)

NEWS
We now possess the IBL’s best record, 1 game better than Philly, 3 better than Tulsa…

AAA Tulsa is in the playoffs, as is Class A Belleview. Gerardo Zamora took the AAA start and went 6.2-5-0-0-1-3 to get the win.

GAME 141
Alejandrez (16-9 3.43) and Antonio Espinoza (8-10 5.12) gave the fans a pitchers duel today. Alejandrez went 7-3-1-1-0-6 and Espinoza threw a complete game 8-7-2-2-1-3. Jose Pacheco (H20) and Ryan Pennington (H17) got the game into Ernesto’s hands and he got the final 3 outs for his 37th Save. Raul Feliz was the Chicago offense going 2-4 with his 8th HR and 2 RBI’s.
CHI 2 FRE 1 (89-52 +16)

STUFF
The “K record” bug appeared in notes again. Says Walt Thompson broke the K record, when he in fact still has it. I think it’s recognizing different leagues for the record or something. Thompson now has the top 3 seasons for strikeouts, and with the starts he has left could break the record of 278 he set in 2012. If he went insane, he has an outside shot at 300.

GAME 142
Entering the bottom of the 9th, down 4-1, Paul Riggs leads off with a triple, Alexander singles him in and advances to 2nd on an error and Wes Morgan blasts his 29th to tie it at 4. Jose Pacheco relieves Ken Johnson in the 10th, bases loaded no outs, they nail Qi-chen Jung at home on a FC, with the entire IF in, and then Jason Lewis lines into a double play. Sotolo leasds off the bottom with a single, Collins walks, Riggs pops his sac bunt attempt up for an out and Alexander then grounds into a 4-6-3. Pacheco starts the 11th. 2 ground outs, single, WP and an intentional walk to Rich Stone and Jung k’s to end the inning. With 1 out in the bottom Chartier walks, Gutierrez gets the green light and lines out with Chartier going, but he gets back. Chartier then steals on the 1st pitch and 3 pitches later Eric Hudson singles to left to win it. Collins hit his 34th (he’s 6 away from 40/40 and Chartier stole his 31st, he’s at 24/31). Spike Davis threw 6-4-3-2-6-3 and Pacheco won to go 5-0.
CHI 5 FRE 4 (90-52 +16)

WEEK 24 WRAP
Thomas Hood, hitting .330 and trying to get the AB’s needed to get intot he batting race, was injured for the third time in 3 months. Hood strained ribs on 7/30, back problems 8/8 and he hurt his back again today meaning he’ll likely miss the remainder of the season and not qualify for the batting crown.

Houston Ace Raul Gonzalez tossed a 6 hitter in Michigan to move to 10-7 3.46 on the year.

Buffalo Bison 3B Jeremy Moore went 11-20 with 2 HR’s and 3 RBI’s to win FL PotW. Moore is hitting 255-10-35 on the year.

Houston’s Paul Reeves won CL PotW honors after his 10-16 3 HR 7 RBI week. For the season Reeves is hitting .227-18-62.

IBL Power Rankings
1) Chicago
2) Los Angeles
3) Tulsa
4) San Antonio
5) Baltimore (First time this year I think Philly is NOT in the power rankings top 5

Bottom 5
20) Buffalo
21 New Hampshire
22) Corpus Christi
23) Fresno
24) Michigan

[gehrig38]

3 weeks to go, 1 week in September in the books.

[Izz]

The Cyclones or Yankees could win their division playing under .500 ball? That's not something you see very often.

[gehrig38]

I hear ya. But if you have read along, you'll remember this....This was September 23rd of last year, the first day Sacramento had been at .500, and they'd go on the represent the FL in the 2013 World Series.

[Izz]

It doesn't matter how you get to October as long you get there, right?

[gehrig38]

WEEK 25
1 vs Fresno (60-82 26 GB CL West)
3 vs Philadelphia (88-53 +4 CL East)
3 vs Corpus Christi (54-88 36 GB CL Central)

Big meeting with Philly. I need to at least get SOME confidence we can play with them if/when we see them next month. It’s now looking like we could draw Baltimore in the 1st round.

GAME 143
Through the first 4 innings we held an 8-0 lead and Paul Riggs had 5 RBI’s on 2 doubles and a HR (4) and Bill Alexander had 3 RBI’s on a HR (46) and a double. We tweaked the lineup, moving Gutierrez to leadoff, Collins to the 4 hole with Morgan sliding down to 6th. Oh and Carlos De La Torre had faced 13 Grizzly hitters, with no walks and no hits. Garza would break up the bid in the 6th with a leadoff single. Carlos would go the distance in a 118 pitch 5 hitter (9-5-1-1-0-8). Riggs finished the day 4-5 with 3 runs and 5 RBI’s. Alexander went 3-5 with 3 RBI’s.
CHI 8 FRE 1 (91-52 +16)

STUFF
Joel Downs (TUL) is sitting on 19 wins, Mike Holmes (COL) and Chris O’Slattery (BAL) are the only two pitchers at 18. Chartier is leading Vince Soto .338 to .330.

Staten Islands Ron Pearce, out most of the year with a ruptured tendon in his finger, shut out New York on 5 hits yesterday to move to 4-5 3.17 in 13 starts. In the game New York lost 31 year old RF Lee Allen for the remainder of the year with a fractured hand. Allen was hitting 304-22-66 in 97 games this season after coming over from Brooklyn this winter. (He’d moved from Fresno to Brooklyn mid season). The win helped the Yankees stay 2 back of Brooklyn, who’s climbed to within a game of .500

(EDITOR NOTE) In this next series with Philly I am actually writing the game notes as I play the game, so they’ll be more informative (or just ‘wordier’ for people that don’t like it, and longer.

GAME 144
Big series against Philly, we are getting the top of their rotation too. Whiteway (17-4 4.22) and O’Dell (16-6 3.69) and Olson (12-12 4.09). This is likely a preview of who we’d get in a series with them in October, but we can’t like up our staff, with Jeff Bentley going game 1, someone in place of the still sore Mark Williams in 2, and Alejandrez in 3.

Carlos Arredondo sent a not so subtle message to us, and Bill Alexander, in the 1st. Drilling his 50th HR to put the Freedom up 2-0. That was followed by a Lorenzelli error and Salvador Chavez’s 9th HR to make it 4-0. Dave Ladd would follow another Chicago error in the 2nd with his 28th HR, a 3 run shot to make it 7-0, which was immediately followed by Arredondo’s 51st to end Bentley’s day. Arredondo stepped up against Kevin Johnson in the 4th, with 2 on and 2 out, and proceeded to hit his 52nd HR of the year, through three innings he was 3-3 with 3 HR’s and 6 RBI’s. Whiteway (18-4 4.09) would go 7-7-1-1-0-8. Bentley’s line (3-5) was 1.2-5-8-6-2-1. Jose Cabral went 2-4 with 2 doubles and 2 RBI’s in the beating.
PHI 13 CHI 3 (91-53 +16)

STUFF
The IBL single season HR record is 60 set by Daytons Bill Hill in 2012, and Cy May of Houston holds the RBI record at 157. May’s former teammate Carlos Arredondo is poised to break 1, and a legitmate threat to get to the other and also threaten the coveted *61 of Roger Maris!

Chartier is still ahead of Soto, but it’s .336 to .333 now, with Ernesto Gutierrez at .327. Hugh Collins is threatening Andrales in SB’s, down by 3. On a side note? Jean Chartier’s 2014 season vs LHP (63 games, 123 at bats, 26 runs 55 hits, 5 doubles, 6 HR’s 26 RBI’s 23 walks and 14 k’s for a slash line of 447/534/634 for an OPS of 1.168.

GAME 145
Ramiro Morales gets the spot start and ‘lambs to slaughter’ immediately jumps to mind. But this is the potential “REVERSE LOCK” of all time. Gutierrez opens the scoring in the 3rd with a ground out scoring Massi Lorenzelli who had tripled. Morales escaped a jam in the 5th when, with runners on 1st and 2rd and Arredondo up, a wild pitch put runners on 2nd and 3rd, so he walked him to load’em up and got out of it. That would be his final inning, having thrown 103 pitches in a (5-4-0-0-4-6) outing. Bill Alexanders 47th HR in the 6th made it 2-0. Navarro would hit a 1 out double in the 7th, van Bodegraven would intentionally walk Arredondo. Then he punched out Dave Ladd but Antonio Vargas drilled a first pitch double to tie the game at 2. In the bottom half Chartier reached on 3B error, Morgan was intentionally walked. Eric Hudson would sacrifice runners to 2nd and 3rd and Raul Feliz would be walked to load the bases, then Lorenzelli hit a sac fly to put us up 3-2. Gutierrez singled to load the bases and Paul Riggs would K swinging to end the inning. Potts would open the 8th walking Byrd and Dan Land to start the inning and Ryan Pennington came on with 4 Freedom lefties coming up, he would punch out Jose Rodriguez, Roberto Flores then pinch hit, grounding out to 3rd base, moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd and Salvador Chavez would then pinch hit and Ernesto Cruz would come in to try and get the last 4 outs. Cruz K’d Chavez to end the threat, and the 8th. Arredondo would lead off the 9th with a single, Dave Ladd followed with another single, and Antonio Vargas grounded out moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Kevin Peters would hit a sharp grounder to 2nd in a drawn in infield and Tom Byrd would hit a 2-2 pitch to 1st, where Morgan would flip to Cruz covering for the 3-2 win. Arredondo would end up 3-3 with a run on 3 singles. Cruz save is his 38th. Andrew Olson (12-13) went the distance (8-5-3-2-3-4).
CHI 3 PHI 2 (92-53 +16)

The batting race is down to 2 pts, Chartier is leading .334 to .332

GAME 146
Alejandrez vs Dan Hill

Vargas opens the scoring with a single in the 1st driving in Jose Rodriguez. We walked Arredondo with a runner on 3rd and one out, and Alfredo K’d Dave Ladd but couldn’t escape. He followed that up by walking Peters, and then Byrd to force in the 2nd run. Dan Land follows with his 24th HR, a grand slam, and it’s 6-0 before we hit. Riggs drives in Leon Russell in the 3rd to make it 6-1. Alejandrez leaves after 104 pitches in 5 going (5-5-6-6-5-4). Jorge Sanchez gives up a run on a double and wild pitch in the 6th to make it 7-1. Arredondo drills him for his 53rd to open the 7th, and make it 8-1. Fred Huff hits his first IBL Hr in the bottom to make it 8-2. In the 8th Paul Riggs opens the frame with a single, Hudson walks and Chartier hammers his 25th HR to make it 8-5. Alexander greets new Freedom pitcher Elmer Osborn with his 48th HR and it’s 8-6. Morgan flies out for the innings first out, Huff then singles but Hugh Collins grounds into a DP to end the threat. Pennington punches out Arredondo to start the 9th and Cruz K’s the next to, to take it to the bottom down 8-6. Julio Arroyo gets PH’s Gutierrez and Feliz and retires Paul Riggs for a perfect 9th and his 41st save. Alejandrez is the loser (16-10) and Hill wins it (12-8). Chartier goes 2-4 with 3 RBI’s, Alexander 3-4 with a run and RBI, Fred Huff goes 2-3 and Collins 2-4.
PHI 8 CHI 6 (92-54 +15)

STUFF

Los Angeles clinched the Coastal League Western Division Title today with a 7-1 win over Corpus Christi. It’s the Sky Sox second division title, having won the West in 2012 with a 94-68 record.

Chartier moves to 5pts up in the batting race .335 to .330.

We finish the regular season 2-13 vs Philly.

And the Coastal League race for home field is
Chicago 92 wins
Philly 91 wins
Los Angeles 90 wins.

GAME 147
Spike Davis (7-4) gives up 11 hits in 6.2 but just 3 runs. That ended up a problem as Hooks starter Salvador Rodriguez (1-3) went 7-7-2-1-4-2 and Dave Barber pitched a perfect 9th for his 28th save. Bill Alexander and Wes Morgan went 2-4 in the loss.
CC 4 CHI 2 (92-56 +15)

STUFF
Home Field
Chicago 92
Philadelphia 91
Los Angeles 91

In the FL Staten Island is now a game out. Brooklyn has gone 2-3 and the Yanks 3-2. Brooklyn leads at 72-75.

In the West El Paso has opened the lead to 4.5 over Sacramento. And San Antonio gained a game to moveto 5.5 up on the River Cats in the Wild Card.

21 year old Dayton Dragons rookie Alfonso Gomez tossed a 3 hitter to beat West Michigan 3-0. Gomez is 2-1 3.18 in 3 starts after his combined 17-5 2.10 season in A Ball. He threw 210 innings and gave up an amazing 139 hits while striking out 197. The 2013 #1 pick (22nd overall out of Vanderbilt) came into this season the IBL’s #28 prospect.

GAME 148
De La Torre (15-9) had a horrible game. 3.1-6-6-6-5-4 and an early 4-0 lead , and the game, disappeard. Wes Morgan connected on a 1st inning grand slam for his 30th HR but that was about it. The offense was held to 5 runs on 3 hits as Corpus Christi’s pen went 4.1-0-0-0-0-4 in relief of SP Donald Kemsley. Don Evans went 2-4 with 4 RBI’s in the win.
CC 8 CHI 5 (92-56 +14)

STUFF
Baltimore gained a game on Philly and is now 3 back. Chartier is leading Soto .334 to .331, with Soto’s teammate Pat Adams at .328. Another LA hitter, Henry Wilson, is now 1 behind Alexander for the RBI chase with 141. Soto has also taken over the WAR lead at 6.9 to Alexanders 6.4 and Collins 6.2.

HOME FIELD RACE
Chicago 92
Los Angeles 92 (LA is 6-0 this week)
Philly 91

Columbus lost closer Ivan Lopez for the rest of the season. He’s 2-5 with 35 Saves and a 3.79 in 61 games.

New York Knights 2B Hayden Haynes will retire after the 2014 season. He’s hit .253 with 14 HR’s and 79 RBI’s in 207 games.

GAME 149
The Chicago Iron Pigs clinched their 2nd Coastal League Central Division title when Hugh Collins 35th HR, leading off the 8th, broke a 3-3 tie and Ernesto Cruz pitched a perfect 9th for his 39th Save. Jose Pacheco got the win after blowing the lead to go 6-0. Collins went 3-4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI’s, and Bill Alexander went 2-3 with a run and an RBI. Jeff Bentley went 7-5-2-2-2-3.
CHI 5 CC 3 (93-56 +14)

WEEK 25 WRAP
AAA Tulsa lost their 1st round post season series to the Winston-Salem Furious (Houston’s AAA) 2-0 and Class A Belleview is in the finals for the IBL A (S) League against the Beulah Valley Aviators (Tulsa’s A(S)) team.

Daytons Ben Simmons took home FL PotW honors afer he went 11-22 with 3 HR’s and 7 RBI’s. Simmons is hitting .243-15-59 in 91 games.

Baltimore Railcat Jorge Ortiz went 11-19 with 3 HR’s and 12 RBI’s to win CL PotW honors. The 24 year old is hitting .231-6-25 in 42 games.

IBL Power Rankings
1) Baltimore
2) Los Angeles
3) Chicago
4) Philadelphia
5) San Antonio

Bottom 5
20) Buffalo
21) New Hampshire
22) Corpus Christi
23) Fresno
24 Michigan

Race for Home Field
Chicago 93 wins
Philadelphia 92 wins
Los Angeles 92 wins

[gehrig38]

A look at the IBL with 2 weeks left.

[gehrig38]

WEEK 26
1 vs Corpus Christi (56-93 37 GB CL Central)
3 @ Los Angeles (92-57 Clinched CL West)
Off Day
2 @ Las Vegas (70-78 21.5 GB CL West)

A chance to see the final playoff team in the Coastal League, and one of the hottest teams in the game since the break.

Which, btw, is a good point to look back on, the 81 game mark, to see some surprising things in the races.
Brooklyn has gone 30-38 since the halfway point, Staten Island the same 30-38, so the division stands exactly as it was over 2 months ago.
Tulsa has gone 44-24, which is a good thing because San Antonio has been the best FL team at 45-23. West Michigan fell out going 31-37.
El Paso has gone 39-30 while Sacramento went 33-35 to relinquish the division lead, and San Antonios hot streak is meaning Sacramento might need to win the division or go home.
The wild card is going to be San Antonio, or Sacramento, or whomever they would win the division over.

In the Coastal League Philly’s 39-29 run was beaten by 2nd place Baltimore’s 41-27 to get the, within 3. Baltimore’s run also assured that these two teams are going to the post season, in some order.
We went 42-26 to move from 10 to 14 up. Columbus went a respectable 38-30 but our run killed them.
The West saw LA lap the field. Going an amazing 47-21 to Fresno’s 20-49 crash and burn and Vegas’s 30-38. Michigan is just bad, going 20 47.

I had to take a peek at Fresno to see where it went wrong, and it wasn't hard to find. The Grizzly's went a whopping 3-22 in July! They are 2-11 in September, but, I mean come on! 3-22??? So in looking at their schedule they won their FIRST game of the month on July 20th after losing 14 in a row, then lost their next 7 before winning 2 out of 3. A few bad losses but nothing out of the ordinary.

The only thing left here is to figure out who is playing who as the 4 teams are decided.

[gehrig38]

GAME 150
Ramiro Morales (9-4) was unhittable and very hittable, all within 5.2 innings. He went 5.2-5-5-5-4-10 as the offense took charge. Jean Chartier hit a 2B (14) and 3B (3) and drove in 3, Ernesto Gutierrez went 3-4 and scored 4 times, Paul Riggs went 3-5 with 2 runs and 4 RBI’s in his first career 2 HR day (6) and Bil Alexander hit his 49th HR. Wes Morgan went 3-4 and Bob Barbour hit his 1st HR of the year.
CHI 13 CC 8 (94-56 +15)

STUFF
Race for Home Field
Chicago 94
Los Angeles 93
Philadelphia 92
Baltimore 90

Chartier is up by 3, but it’s now 2 guys chasing. He’s at .332 and teammates Pat Adams and Vince Soto are at .329.

San Antonio is 1.5 out over in the FL Central and Staten Island is 1 behind Brooklyn.

Chris O’Slattery became the 1st IBL 20 game winner this year, with a 4-1 win over Vegas he went 8-5-1-1-1-7 and is now 20-7 2.82.

GAME 151
Up against a hot LA team. We’ve fared incredibly poor against the other 2 playoff teams (2-13 vs Philly and 6-9 vs Baltimore). We are 8-4 against the Sky Sox this year, most of those wins coming early.

Vince Soto goes 4-4 with 2 triples (15) to take over the batting race lead from a resting Jean Chartier. Ruben Cruz (13-12 4.61) goes 8-6-2-2-1-7 and Tommy Ray closes it out for his 4th save. Massi Lorenzelli went 2-3 with 2 solo HR’s (9). Alejandrez (16-11) went 6.1-10-3-3-2-4 in the loss.
LA 3 CHI 2 (94-57 +14)

STUFF
Race for Home Field
Chicago 94
Los Angeles 94
Philadelphia 92
Baltimore 90

San Antonio dropped a game back but Tulsa behind Joel Downs 20th win, beat Sacramento to help them in the WC. Brooklyn is still 1 up on Staten Island.

Soto’s at .334, Chartier .332 and Adams .329.

GAME 152
Ugh. Soto and Adams sit, and my guess it was because they’re being rested for the playoffs. Mark Williams battles huge 6-9-1-1-2-4 and we get 3 DP’s. Tommy Hobbs keeps it a 2-1 game through 8 (8-6-2-2-1-2) and Ernesto Cruz comes in after Pennington (H20) to get the final 2 outs. Antonio Gallardo greets Cruz with a double, and LA Manager sends Pat Adams to the plate to pinch hit and he promptly lines a ball into the left field seats for a 2 run PH walk off HR (only his 5th HR of the year!). Cruz’s 6th blown save of the year (3-4).
LA 3 CHI 2 (94-58 +14)

STUFF
Soto .334 Chartier .332 and Adams .330.

Staten Island drops 2 back, Brooklyn gets to 1 game under .500 and Tulsa opens up a 3 game lead on San Antonio. Sacramento falls 3.5 back of El Paso. Philly stays 2 up on Baltimore

Race for Home Field
Los Angeles 95
Chicago 94
Philadelphia 92
Baltimore 90

Edmonton’s Manuel Garcia went 4-5 with 4 RBI’s in a 12-5 win over Phoenix. The 27 year old first baseman hit a Grand Slam in his cycle. For the year he’s hitting 256-21-85 after hitting 77 HR’s and driving in 250 over the past 2 seasons.

Denison Pitching Coach John Horton and Manager Amazuz Louahla will likely not return to the organization. I expect both to get jobs in the IBL next season.

GAME 153
A Raul Feliz 9th inning error put runners on 2nd and 3rd of a 5-4 Chicago lead, with 1 out. Cruz intentionally walked Vince Soto and then struck out Julio Martinez and got Antonio Gallardo to pop up for his 2nd straight 40 save season. Spike Davis (8-4) went 6.1-9-3-3-3-3 for the win. A terrifying moment late in the game as Hugh Collins pulled up lame but trainers have told me it’s a bad back and a DtD thing. Jean Chartier went 2-4 with his 26th HR (now hitting .333) and Wes Morgan hit his 31st in a 2-3 2 RBI day. Vince Soto went 2-3 to move his average to .336.
CHI 5 LA 4 (95-58 +14)

STUFF
Soto .336 Chartier .333 Adams .330.

Brooklyn reaches .500 and moves 3 up on the Yankees. Tulsa ups their lead to 4 and El Paso 4.5. San Antonio is now 7 up in the WC. Philly remains 2 up on Baltimore.

Race for home Field
Chicago 95
Los Angeles 95
Philadelphia 92
Baltimore 90

Vincent Bray won his 19th. Short of some miraculous disaster Greg McCain of Edmonton will set a new IBL record for single season batting average. He’s at .373, 27 pts better than runner up Curt Whimster

OFF DAY NEWS
Staten Island moved back to within 2 of Brooklyn with a 6-1 win at Buffalo. Brooklyn and Staten Island meet, in Brooklyn, in the season’s final 3 games.

Philly is still 2 up on Baltimore after being, and this is amazing, SWEPT by Corpus Christi 5-3, 9-6 and 3-1. They now place cellar dwelling New Hampshire before a HUGE 4 game series IN Baltimore.


GAME 154
De La Torre (15-10) was bad, and a few relievers were worse. A 15-2 pasting. Massi Lorenzelli went 4-4 with a run in the loss.
LV 15 CHI 2 (95-59 +13)

STUFF
Philly and Baltimore made it official, knocking Columbus out. Philly still holds a 2 game edge with their big series coming up.

Soto .335 Chartier .335 Adams .328

Walt Thompson needs 14 or 15 K’s over his last 2 starts to break the IBL record. He’s at 264. Valentin Maitani (EP) and Curt Whimster (TUL) are tied for the FL HR lead with 45. Whimster looks like he will place in the top 3 in the triple crown categories, he’s at .347-45-123.

GAME 155
Ronald Wright hit a 2 out 2 strike pinch hit Grand Slam in the 8th inning off Ryan Penningto (3-4) to cost Chicago a game they appeared to have in hand. Alejandrez went 6-7-3-3-0-5 and van Bodegraven (H12) Torres (H14) and Pacheco (H22) each gave up a run on Penningtons grand slam. Jean Chartier stole 4 bases (36) Hugh Collins went 4-5 with 2 SB’s (43) and Bill Alexander hit his 50th HR. Wes Morgan Slammed his 32nd as well. Alejandro Sotolo was hurt late in the game but no word on how bad yet.
LV 8 CHI 6 (95-60 +12)

WEEK 26 RECAP
Soto .335 Chartier .334 Adams .329

Joel Downs (TUL) won his 21st yesterday. He’s leading teammate George Perkins in wins 21-18 in the Frontier League.

Tulsa Manager Antonio Banuelos has not come to terms and will likely look elsewhere. Same with Omaha Manager Rickey Glenn.

Brooklyn RF Carlos Berrera took home FL PotW honors going 8-15 with 3 HR’s and 6 RBI’s.

Catcher Mark Doyle of Corpus Christi won the CL PotW award for his 12-24 2 HR 2 RBI week.

TOP 5 Single Season K Totals
Walt Thompson (BRO) 278
Walt Thompson (BRO)264 (and counting)
Walt Thompson (BRO) 255
Chris O’Slattery (BAL) 245
Chris O’Slattery (BAL) 236

IBL Power Rankings
1) Tulsa
2) Los Angeles
3) Baltimore
4) Philadelphia
5) San Antonio
6) Chicago

Bottom 5
20) Fresno
21) Phoenix
22) Corpus Christi
23) Michigan
24) New Hampshire

Interesting to note 3 of the top 4, and 4 of the top 6 are CL teams as well as the bottom 3, explains the races ending so fast.

[gehrig38]

1 week to go, 2 HUGE series coming up as Brooklyn goes to Staten Island for the final 3 games of the season to determine the Frontier League East and Philly goes to Baltimore in 2 days for 4 games to determine the Coastal League East.

The Brok/SI series has far more impact as the team not winning the Division is going home.

In the FL Central El Paso and Sacramento finish their 3 game set tomorrow, Sacramento has won the 1st two to close to 2.5 back. The Diablos then play Tulsa for 3, and Phoenix for 4. Sacramento has 3 at Edmonton, an off day and finishes with 3 in Dayton.

[gehrig38]

WEEK 27 and the end is near!!

This is a long post, as I give running commentary of the races around the league inside each games highlights….

To be honest I've never used the Network feature much but I'll be damned if it wasn't perfect, and a blast to do this. I have posted this just prior to the start of the final weekend, with the races shaping up how they did, I likely will post the last weekend one day at a time.

1 @ Las Vegas
3 @ Houston
Off Day
3 vs Michigan


GAME 156
Down 2-0 in the 4th as Marshall Wall is 2 hitting us. El Paso has a 5-4 lead in the top of the 5th on Sacramento. Vince Bray tossed a 3 hitter today, punching out 12 in a 7-2 Pittsburgh win. The 12 K’s move him past Chris O’Slattery 231-230 for the CL K Title and the win was his 20th of the year. Jean Chartier pops his 27th HR, and is hitting .334 now, to make it 2-1 Vegas. They’ve moved to the top of the 6th in Sacramento, El Paso still up 5-4. In Edmonton Ernie Kelly (DAY) beat them 3-2 for his 17th win in an otherwise dismal season for the Dragons. Moving into the 9th, down 2-1. El Paso has added a run and now leads 6-4 heading into the bottom of 7. Randall Bentley has a 2 hitter for Houston, in LA, as they are locked up 0-0 heading into the 9th. Vegas brings in Closer Anbar Suhayb, who goes 3 up 3 down for his 36th Save. Williams (12-7) went 7.1-6-2-1-3-4 and continues to pitch well. Wall goes 8-5-1-1-3-5 for win 16 (16-10).
LV 2 CHI 1 (95-61 +12)

STUFF
Sacramento mountd a furious rally but fell short, losing 8-7 and is now 3.5 out with 6 to play, El Paso has 7. San Antonio and Tulsa clinched playoff berths yesterday. Tulsa leads by 4.5 with 6 to play (SAN has 7 left).

Philly and Baltimore clinched berths yesterday but Philly won and Baltimore lost dropping the Railcats 3 back with 7 to play.

Brooklyn won, Staten Island lost, Brooklyn is now 2 up and they are getting ready for a HUGE 4 game set.

Fresno’s Jeff Holland went 5-6 in a 12-9 win over Michigan yesterday. He’s hitting .291-10-51 on the year.

Tulsa got some bad news today as well. 2B Edward Young will be out 2 more weeks with his sprained ankle. Young is having a career year at .257-21-101.


Race for Home Field
Los Angeles 97
Philadelphia 95
Chicago 95
Baltimore 92

Tulsa has home field in the FL, locked up, and will play division rival San Antonio in the first round, either way the division finishes.

Soto .334 Chartier .333 Adams .329

GAME 157
We draw Roughrider Ace Raul Gonzalez, again, in game 1.
Spike Davis gets into a runner on 2nd 2 out situation, and walks Cy May to bring up 2B Chip Reynolds in the 1st. Reynolds promptly lines a 3R HR for a 3-0 lead. In Baltimore, the Railcats lead the Freedom 2-0 into the 5th. Boyd and Feliciauo have hit solo HR’s for Baltimore. WOW! Freedom SP Dan Hill and Railcat hitter Jon Davis were ejected after Hill drilled him following the 2nd HR! Mitch Ball, Houstons RF, drills a 2 run shot off Davis in the 2nd to put them up 5-0. Davis is done after 3.2, giving up 8 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks. An Arredondo RBI ground out makes it 2-1 Baltimore, and Philly’s Roberto Flores drills a 2 run 2B to put them up 3-2. Flores is then helped off the field. 3-2 Philly Bottom 7. Cy May takes Kevin Johnson deep for his 33rd HR and 109 RBI’s, making it 12-0. The rout is on. We get nothing today, scattering 10 hits Gonzalez goes the distance (11-9) punching out 5. Riggs and Alexander have 2 hit days. May and Reynolds drive in 4 each for the Roughriders, each hitting HR’s.
HOU 12 CHI 1 (95-62 +11.5)

STUFF
We are limping into the playoffs, flat as hell. That’s 4 losses in a row, and 6 of our last 7.

Baltimore scores 2 in the 8th to get the lead back and win, closing it to 2 games again. Davis and Hill were each suspended for 7 games!

Belleview Hitting Coach Jesus Molaya will likely look for an IBL job this winter as we couldn’t meet his price with our budget and he’s too good to be in A ball anymore.

Race for Home Field
Los Angeles 97
Philadelphia 95
Chicago 95
Baltimore 93

Staten Island begins a 3 gamer with West Michigan, Brooklyn is at NY for 3 before their final season ending series.

Soto .334 Chartier .332 Adams .330

GAME 158
Alexander drives in Riggs and Hudson with a bases loaded 1st inning single, and Collins Sac Fly makes it 3-0 after 1. In Baltimore a Kevin Peters 3R HR has put Philly up 6-1 into the 5th. Brooklyn has just tied New York 3-3 in the 5th and Ron Pearce (SI) has given up 2 hits through 5 and they lead West Michigan 1-0. Wes Morgans 33rd HR and Hugh Collins 36th put us up 6-0 after 3. In Baltimore the Railcats have pushed 3 across in the bottom of the 5th to close to 6-4. New York has gone up 4-3 in the bottom of the 6th on Brooklyn and Pearce (SI) has allowed just 4 hits through 7 as the Yankees lead West Michigan 1-0 in the bottom of the 7th with Staten Island hitting. Millard O’Reilly breaks up the De La Torre no hit bid in the top of the 5th with a single. De La Torre falls apart, giving up 5 more hits before Ryan Pennington comes in to get the last out, 6-5 game now. Doug Winston walks with the bases loaded, scoring Lando Jongmans and Baltimore has rallied from down 6-1 to lead Philly 7-6 in the top of the 8th. In Staten Island, Ron Pearce lost his 1-0 lead in the top of the 9th and he’s still in the game in the 10th, 1-1. Brooklyn scored 2 in the top of the 7th and now leads NY 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th. Eric Hudson’s RBI ground out scores Massi Lorenzelli and gives us a 7-5 lead after 6th. Leo Russell singles in Wes Morgan after his 1 out triple, 8-5 Chicago after 7. Baltimore has beaten Philly 7-6. West Michigan scores 2 in the top of the 10th and beats Staten Island 3-1. Brooklyn and NY are tied 5-5 into the 11th. Jose Cortez of Brooklyn is 4-5 with a 2B, HR and 2 RBI’s. Alexander singles in Jean Chartier (who had singled and stole 2nd) to make it 9-5. Riley Potts gets the last 7 outs and we hold on to win 9-5. Alexander ends the day 3-5 with 3 RBI’s, Chartier 2-4 with 2 Runs and his 37th SB. Morgan 2-4 with 2 runs and an RBI. Hugh Collins drove in 3 with his 36th HR. Pennington was the winner (4-4).
CHI 9 HOU 5 (96-62 +11.5)

STUFF
Brooklyn scored 2 in the 11th to win 7-5. They lead the Yanks by 3 now. Baltimore has closed to 1 game back of Philly. Tulsa’s loss to El Paso and San Antonio’s win over Buffalo move the Silver Stars 2.5 back of the Drillers.

Chartier .335 Soto .333 Adams .330

Race for Home Field
Los Angeles 98
Chicago 96
Philadelphia 95
Baltimore 94

GAME 159
An Art Doane single drives in DH Juan Cabrera in the 1st to put Houston up 1-0. In New York Knights slugger Mathew Moore’s grand slam has put the Knights up 7-1 on Brooklyn entering the 4th. In Staten Island the Yankees are leading the White Caps 9-2 in the 3rd. El Paso has jumped on Tulsa with 2 in the top of the first. Bill Alexander’s RBI ground out scores Ernesto Gutierrez to knot the game 1-1 after 1. In the 2nd Gutierrez hits a 2 run single scoring Hudson and Lorenzelli, 3-1 Iron Pigs. Philly and Baltimore enter the 6th tied at 1. Brooklyn scored 5 in the 4th to close to 7-5 with the Knights. Staten Island is pouring it on West Michigan, 12-4 after 4. Tulsa answered El Paso’s 2 in the 1st and it’s 2-2 entering the 3rd. San Antonio is up 2-0 on Buffalo entering their half of the 3rd. Bentley gets knocked silly in the 4th and leaves with the game tied 3-3, bases loaded no out. Sib van Bodegraven limits the damage but Houston scores 4 to take a 5-3 lead. Gutierrez then leads off with his 3rd hit, and later scores on Wes Morgan’s double play grounder. Hugh Collins follows with an RBI double to tie it at 5. The Freedom and Railcats enter the top of the 9th knotted at 1. Philly starter Andew Olson went 6.2-5-1-1-2-8 and Baltimore SP Fernando Martinez went 7.1-5-1-1-5-8. NY has added a run and leads Brooklyn 8-5 entering the 9th. Staten Island has a 12-5 lead on West Michigan entering the 7th and El Paso and Tulsa are still locked at 2-2 in the 6th. San Antonio leads Buffalo 2-1 entering the 6th. Hugh Collins drills his 37th HR, a 2 run shot, in the 6th, Chicago leads 7-5. Johnson and Torres get the ball into Ernesto Cruz’s hands for the 9th, leading 7-5, while elsewhere: Philly and Baltimore enter the 13 tied at 1. El Paso and Tulsa go to the bottom of 7 tied at 2. Edmonton leads Sacramento 4-0 entering the 7th. San Antonio wins behind SP Greg Durham (14-6). Staten Island demolishes WMI 18-6 , Ernesto Castron goes 3-3 with a HR and 6 RBI’s. New York pours it on late, beating Brooklyn 11-5. Mathew Moore drives in 4. Ernesto Cruz gets the final 3 outs around a walk, and notches Save 41. Kevin Johnson gets the win (2-0). Gutierrez goes 3-5 with 2 runs, 2 RBI’s, Collins goes 2-4 with a run and 3 RBI’s and Eric Hudson goes 3-4. Sergio De La Garza (14-12 3.83) takes the loss going 6.1-11-7-4-3-3.
CHI 7 HOU 5 (97-62 +11.5)

STUFF
Chartier .334 Soto .333 Adams .331

Walt Thompson punched out 10 in his last start (his 14th 10+K game of the year) and now sits at 274 K’s, 4 shy of his IBL record 278.

El Paso clinched the Frontier Leagues Wester Division today, beating Tulsa 5-3. Brooklyn has one final game today versus NY and then closes the season out with Staten Island. The Yankees also play today, one more vs West Michigan. If Brooklyn wins and the Yankees lose Staten Island will have to sweep to tie for the division.

In Baltimore, LATE last night, Philly’s Kevin Peters his 24th HR of the year in the top of the 17th inning to give Philly a 2-1 win, and move them to 2 games in front of the Railcats with one game in their series remaining.

Race for Home Field
Los Angeles 98
Chicago 97
Philadelphia 96
Baltimore 94

OFF DAY
The New York Knights got a 2R HR from Mathew Moore (26) in the bottom of the 8th to turn an 8-7 deficit into a 10-8 win over Brooklyn. The Knights scored 4 in the 7th and 3 in the 8th to come from down 8-3 to win.

Meanwhile in Staten Island the Yankees got 4 RBI’s from DH Alejandro Villanueva on his 43rd double and 24th HR. Staten Island will host Brooklyn for the seasons final 3 games, trailing the Cyclones by 1 in the standings.

In Baltimore, Philadelphia gave the ball to 27 year old Rafael Rosales for his 1st 2014 appearance and all he did was go 8 innings, give up 4 hits and a run to beat Baltimore’s Albert Luna (14-10) 2-1. Julio Arroyo saved his 44th. The win clinched a tie for Philly with 3 games remaining. They will finish the season in Columbus while Baltimore heads to New Hampshire for their final 3 games.

San Antonio lost to Buffalo yesterday to fall 2 back of Tulsa. Tulsa will head to Edmonton for the final 3 games and San Antonio will go to NY.

[gehrig38]

FINAL WEEKEND SERIES, Saturday September 28th, 2014
5 races to watch, that I will update
FIRST
In the FL East Brooklyn is 78-81 and Staten Island is 77-82. They begin a 3 game series today, in Staten Island. Whichever team does not win the division is out of the playoffs. If Brooklyn wins today they’ll clinch at least a tie.

SECOND
In the FL Central Tulsa is 96-63 and San Antonio is 94-65. Both are in, now it’s just to determine the division winner and wild card.

THIRD
Phildadelphia is 97-62, Baltimore is 94-65. Any Philly win or Baltimore loss clinches the division for Philly. Philly is in Columbus, Baltimore is in New Hampshire.

FOURTH
Race for the #1 seed in the Coastal League. Right now it’s like this
Los Angeles 98
Philadelphia 97
Chicago 97

We have the tie breaker vs LA, but Philly has it on us.

FIFTH
Coastal League Batting Title
Jean Chartier .334
Vince Soto .333
Pat Adams .331
Ernesto Gutierrez .328

This will be fascinating to watch unfold as we both are in, and I have to measure the health, and rest, of my players versus an individual award. I’ve love to see Jean go 5-5 and put it out of reach today.

We are finishing the season with Michigan. I am starting Alejandrez today and will pitch the regulars unless something happens and I no longer need to.

Saturday September 27th, 2014
Brooklyn @ Staten Island
Brooklyn is rolling out their ace, Walt Thompson (17-5 3.25), who’s pitching for a bunch of things in addition to the division crown! The Yanks are starting Kent Martin (10-13 5.01)
A Will Hariss single scores Weber and Villanueva, Staten Island leads 2-1 and is hitting in the bottom of the 5th.
No change, bottom of 6 Staten Island hitting.
Game stays 2-1 into the 7th when Carlos Barrera doubles to make it 3-2 Cyclones. Ivan Gonzales follows with a 3R HR for a 5 run 7th and a 6-2 Brooklyn lead. Walt Thompson has set a new single season K record with his 279 strileout. He’s gone 8-6-2-2-1-7. Patterson saves his 37th and Thompson goes 18-5, with the win Brooklyn clinches a tie of the FL East Division title.


Philadelphia @ Columbus
Richard O’Dell (17-7 3.92) vs Will Cannon (15-12 4.06)
Columbus has jumped all over O’Dell and Philly. Dean Strong with a 2R HR, they lead 7-2 in the bottom of the 4th
Philly does nothing, into the bottom of 5 still 7-2. A 6th inning Columbus errors allows Phill a run, 7-3 Columbus entering the bottom of the 6th.
Philly adds another in the 7th, 7-4 into the 8th. Philly adds another in the 8th to make it 7-5. Columbus hitting in the bottom.
Game ends a 7-5 Clipper win, Cannon (16-2) with Strong’s 26th and former Iron Pig Jorge Diaz hitting #16.


Baltimore @ New Hampshire
Ken Williams (14-12 4.34) vs Roberto Salazar (13-15 5.23)
New Hampshire scored 2 in the 1st, 1 in the 3rd and just scored again in the 4th, they lead the Railcats 4-1.
New Hampshire scored another run and now headed into the bottom of 5, 5-1 Fisher Cats.
5-1 bottom 6, Joreao Tio walks, Kevin Moore hitting. Nothing brewing as Baltimore goes quietly, Fisher Cats hold a 5-1 lead after 7. SP Roberto Salazar has gone 7-6-1-1-1-5.
Baltimore goes quietly in the 8th, Fisher Cats hitting in the bottom, still 5-1.
The visiting clubhouse in Columbus erupted as New Hampshire recorded the final out in a 5-1 win over the Baltimore Railcats, giving Philly the 2014 CL Eastern Division Title, again.



Michigan @ Chicago
Al Stroud (7-18 5.91) vs Alfredo Alejandrez (16-11 3.67)
We end the 1st 0-0.
A leadoff Bill Alexander single ends with nothing. 0-0 into the 3rd.
The 3rd goes quick, Alejandrez has 4 K’s through 3. 0-0 top 4.
Spencer Moore hits a leadoff single, Alejandrez K’s 2 more, 0-0 bottom 4.
Wes Morgan belts his 34th HR, a 2 run shot with 2 outs, Chicago 2-0 after 4.
SS Jamie Vance starts the 5th with a double, Mike Johnston K’s, Luis Manuel Osorio grounds out and the wheels come off. Spencer Moore singles after a Fernando Rey walk, scoring 1, and Bob Herman pummels his 37th HR, a 3R shot, to put Michigan up 4-2 heading to the bottom of 5.
Alejandrez has a clean 6th, and his day is done. 6-6-4-4-2-9. Ken Johnson takes over. Punching out Osorio to start the 7th, and Fernando Rey drills his 19th HR on a 1st pitch fastball, 5-2 Battlecats.
Wes Morgan drills his 2nd HR of the game (35) leading off the bottom of the 7th. With 2 outs and none on, Leo Russell doubles, Lorenzelli reaches on an error by SS, with runners on 2nd and 3rd Paul Riggs then hits a grounder that 3B boots, Russell scores to make it 5-4. Eric Hudson singles to tie it at 5 heading into the 8th.
In the bottom of the 8th DH Fred Huff drills his 2nd HR in as many days, a 3 run shot of Al Stroud to put us up 8-5.
Ernesto Cruz locks it down in the 9th for save 42. Torrez wins (6-4) and Stroud takes the loss (7-19)
CHI 8 MICH 5 (98-62 +12)





Los Angeles @ Fresno (To watch teammates Vince Soto and Phil Adams in their quest for the batting title) They will face Antonio Espinoza (9-12 5.37)
Vince Soto sat, and Pat Adams went 2-5 with 4 RBI’s on his 7th HR of the year.
Soto .333 Chartier .332 Adams .332 Gutierrez .328

In New York last night San Antonio’s Dave Williams slammed his 26th HR in the 8th, his team down 3-2, to give them a 4-2 win over the Knights.

While in Tulsa the Edmonton Trappers beat 21 game winner Joel Downs and the Drillers 4-2.

San Antonio is now 1 game behind Tulsa with 2 to play for the FL Central Division Title.

Race for Home Field
Los Angeles 99
Chicago 98
Philadelphia 97

SOME ORG NEWS
Bakersfield 2B Artie Turner and CF Brian Walker won the AA Gold Glove in the Primal League. In the Class A (N) Pacific League P Brian Ablett took home the Gold Glove.

[gehrig38]

With the 5 “races” now whittled down to 3, here they are:

FIRST
Brooklyn has clinched at least a tie, Staten Island is 2 back with 2 to play.
Staten Island grabs a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the 3rd, but Brooklyn plates 1 in the 4th and 2 in the 5th to tie it up at 4 heading into the bottom of 5. The Yankees got a Travis Bryant solo HR in the 5th to pull ahead 5-4. Bryant is 2-3 with 3 RBI’s on the day. The Yankees plate 3 in the 6 and now lead 8-4 after 7.
The Yankees hold on and win 8-4. HR Bryant (33) Castro (3) Weber (11)

Staten Island is 1 back with 1 to play.


SECOND
Tulsa is 1 game up on San Antonio. Both teams are in the playoffs, they are playing for the division and #1 seed in the FL. Tulsa is at Edmonton, starting Shane Ross (8-9 4.58) and San Antonio is at New York starting Noah Jenkins (14-9 5.55)

San Antonio got 3 in the 1st but Birger Kjorsvik drilled a 2R game tying HR in the 4th. 3-3 in the bottom of 5. A Silver Star error allows NY to score, going ahead 5-4 bottom 6 and NY has the bases loaded 1 out. Top of the 9th, San Antonio still down 5-4.
New York pulls out the win, 5-4, with Clark saving his 37th, and Kjorsvik (19) and Gillespie (18) homering.

In Tulsa, Edmonton has taken a 1-0 lead into the bottom of 3. Tulsa scored in the bottom of the 5th to tie it at 1-1 after 5.Edmonton scores 4 in the 6th, and another in the 7th and leads 6-1 heading into the bottom of 7.

Both teams lose, so into the seasons final day Tulsa has a 1 game lead.


THIRD
The race for the Coastal League Batting Title is as tight as it could possibly be with 2 Sky Sox and 2 Iron Pigs 5 pts apart. LA gets Fresno’s RHP Lou Renouf (1-9 8.63) and we draw Michigan LHP Enrique Yan (7-19 5.66). Gutierrez likely won’t start.

Chartier goes 0-3 to fall to .331, Soto goes 2-3 to get to .335 and Adams goes 1-5 to drop to .331

GAME 161
Willims gives up an RBI single in the 1st but Enrique Franco drills a 3R HR after an Alexander RBI single and Morgan Sac fly to make it 5-1 after 1. Chartier walked and scored in his 1st AB.
Eric Hudson drilled a solo shot in the 2nd (11) to make it 6-1. Chartier flew out, 0-1 .332.
Wes Morgan drills his 36th, a 2 run shot, and Eric Hudson drives in 2 with a 2 run single. 11-1 after 3. Chartier grounds into a FC to go 0-2, now hitting .331. Michigan grabs to in the top of the 4th, 11-3. Eric Hudson hits a 2 out RBI single in the 5th, 12-3 Chicago, Chartier k’s looking, 0-3 331. Hudson is 4-4 with 2 runs and 4 RBI’s on the day. Starters are pulled with Williams going 5-7-3-3-3-1. Some sloppy play at the end but we take this one 15-8. Williams wins (13-7) and Enrique Yan loses (7-20). Fernando Rey goes 4-5 with 5 RBI’s in the loss hitting his 21st HR. Paul Riggs goes 2-4 doubles and scores twice, Wes Morgan goes 2-4 with wth 2 runs and 5 RBI’s hitting 2HR’s (37).
CHI 15 MICH 8 (99-62 +13)

Race For Home Field
Los Angeles 100
Chicago 99
Philadelphia 98
We are either the 1 or 2 or 3. If we catch LA we win the 1. If Philly catches us we are the 3. We have the tie breaker with LA, Philly has it over us.

WEEK 27 WRAP
San Antonio’s Pat Peters picked a great time to get hot. The 32 year old slugger went 12-27 3 HR’s and 8 RBI’s to help help the Silver Stars in the stretch run this week. Peters has had a phenomenal season, hitting .292-32-124.

Houston’s Millard O’Reilly went 14-26 2 HR’s 6 RBI’s to win CL PotW. O’Reilly has been one of the lone bright spots in Houston hitting .325-26-106 this year.

INJURY NEWS
Huge news out of Tulsa. Edward Young (257-21-101) will miss at least 3 more weeks recovering from his sprained ankle. That means he’s likely out the entire post season.

IBL POWER RANKINGS
1) Los Angeles
2) Chicago
3) Philadelphia
4) San Antonio
5) El Paso

Bottom
20) Phoenix
21) New Hampshire
22) Fresno
23) Corpus Christi
24) Michigan

[gehrig38]

Monday September 29, 2014
The regular season comes to a close today. Here’s what we’re watching.

FIRST: FL EAST DIVISION TITLE: Loser goes home
Brooklyn (Octavio Vazquez 12-10 5.24)at Staten Island (Ron Pearce 4-7 3.08) with the winner taking the Frontier League East Title, and the loser going home. Either way the post season graduate in this division will be a sub .500 club.

Brooklyn grabs a run in the 1st but Staten Island’s Will Harris hits a 2R HR in the 2nd AND a 2R HR in the 5 run 4th. Staten Island leads 7-1 in the bottom of 4.
Staten Island adds an 8th run in the bottom of 5, but Brooklyn gets 2 in the top of 6, 8-3 heading to the bottom of 6.
Brooklyn got another run in the 8th, heading into the top of the 9th Brooklyn trails 8-4.
A Jose Cortez double made it 8-5 in the 9th, where it stayed and the Staten Island Yankees beat the Brooklyn Cyclones and clinched a tie for the Frontier League Eastern Division Title, they will meet in a 1 game playoff tomorrow!



SECOND: FL CENTRAL DIVISION TITLE: Winner gets #1 seed, loser is the FL Wild Card

Edmonton (Brandon Osborne 6-6 5.26) at Tulsa (George Perkins 18-4 3.11)
0-0 after 1.
1-0 Edmonton on a Matt Neal solo HR, top of 4.
Edmonton added a run in the top of the 4th, and the game is now into the bottom of 6 2-0 Trappers.
It stays 2-0 and Edmonton wins. Now if San Antonio can pull it off they’ll be the FL Central Champs.
Edmonton’s Brandon Osborne went 8-3-0-0-6-5 (7-6) and E Mendez saved it (32).

San Antonio (Steve Copeland 14-8 5.14) at New York (Alberto Rivera 6-10 5.09)
San Antonio got a 2R HR from Dave Williams in the 2nd and is up 2-0 going to the bottom of 4, New York doesn’t have a hit yet.
Williams hits another HR, this time a solo, San Antonio 3-0 into the bottom of 6. Copeland has gone 5-1-0-0-6-6.
The Knights explode for 5 runs in the bottom of the 6th, and now lead 5-3 in the bottom of the 8th.
The Silver Stars couldn’t pull it off. Losing 5-3, meaning the Tulsa Drillers will win the FL Central and meet San Antonio in the 1st round of the playoffs!


For the FL Central Division crown and FL #1 seed. They will play each other in round 1, regardless, and that makes me wonder why or if they’ll (SAN) start Copeland?

THIRD: SEEDING FOR COASTAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS:
If LA wins they’re the 1. If we tie LA we get the 1, they get the 2, Philly 3. If Philly ties us LA is 1, Philly 2, we are 3. Whoever gets the 1 gets Baltimore in the 1st round.

Los Angeles (Rafael Garza 17-6 3.34) @ Fresno (Santiago Medina 5-4 4.96)
Fresno’s Orlando Rios singles in Rich Stone in the 1st, 1-0 Fresno, bottom 2.
That was all they needed really. Santiago Medina (6-4 4.44) hurls 8-7-0-0-0-4 and Glenn Hanna saves his 25th in a 2-0 Fresno win.

Philadelphia (Whiteway 18-5 4.19) @ Columbus (Holmes 19-9 3.47)

Holmes is trying to tie Bray (PIT) and O’Slattery (BAL) for the CL Wins crown.
Both teams trade single runs in the 1st and 3rd, tied 2-2 in the bottom of 4.
Same score in the bottom of 6, 2 outs no one on.
This one still tied, 2-2 bottom of 8.
Former Chicago Iron Pig Jorge Diaz drilled his 17th HR in the top of the 9th and Julio Arroyo finished a 3-2 Philly win for his 46th Save. If we win we are the 2 seed at worst, if we lose we are the 3 seed and would meet Philly in the 1st round.

GAME 162
Michigan (Jensen 8-13 6.28) @ Chicago (S. Davis 8-5 4.84)

Gutierrez singles in the first (.329), Chartier grounds out (.330). 0-0 at the end of 1.
A Lorenzelli error preceeds Jamie Vance’s 2R HR (5) in the top fo the 2nd. In the bottom Eric Hudson doubles in Morgan and Collins, and Lorenzelli drives in Hudson. Gutierrez walks (.329) and Chartier flys out (.329).
Jamie Vance hits his 2nd HR of the game, another 2R shot (6) and Brian Kempton goes back to back with his 21st. Bill Alexander answers with a solo shot (51) in the bottom of the inning, 5-4 Michigan into the 4th.
Feliz guns down Spencer Moore at the plate to end the top of the 4th, same score. Feliz also hurt himself on the throw and it looks serious, very serious.
Chartier triples (.331) to drive in Gutierrez who singled (.330). 5-5 top of 5.
Fernando Rey drills a leadoff HR (22) in the 5th, and that will be it for Davis (5-8-6-5-0-4) as he gives up 4 HR’s.
Wes Morgans answers by drilling a lead off HR (38) in the bottom half of the inning. 6-6 after 5.
Van Bodegraven comes in, and gets 2 double plays in 2 innings then gives way to Randy Pennington with 2 outs, runner on 1st and he K’s Kempton.
Gutierrez flies out (.330) and Chartier draws a walk (.331). 6-6 into the 8th.
Pennington gets an out in the 8th, walks Jason Cole and serves up a 2R HR (38) to Bob Herman on a 1-1 fastbal!
In the 8th Gutierrez grounds out (.329) and Chartier does as well (.330)
Cruz, to get an inning in, gives up a run on 2 hits. Headed to the 9th down 3.
Meat of the lineup up, 3 up 3 down, game over.
Word came down after the game too, Raul Feliz will miss the post season with a strained lat.
MICH 9 CHI 6 (99-63!! DAMN! Missed the 100 win season! +13

Side note. Bill Alexander is at 154 RBI’s, just 3 behind the IBL record of 157 set by Cy May in 2012.

FOURTH: COASTAL LEAGUE BATTING TITLE:
Soto (LA) .335 (2013 Batting Champ) 2-4 in 2-0 Loss
Chartier (CHI) .331 1-4 in 9-6 Loss
Adams (LA) .331 0-4 in 2-0 Loss
Gutierrez (CHI) .328 2-4 in 9-6 Loss
O’Reilly (HOU) .325 (just in case something stupid happens!) 1-4 in 7-1 Loss

What's it mean?

Soto wins his second Coastal League Batting title.
Soto (LA) .336
Chartier (CHI) .330
Gutierrez (CHI) .329
Adams (LA) .328
Leduc (LV) .325
O'Reilly (HOU) .325


Side note: Arturo Lopez of New Hampshire beat Chris O’Slattery (why the hell is he starting?) 3-2.

[gehrig38]

GAME 163
Staten Island (Javier Gutierrez 14-9 4.22 ) @ Brooklyn (Sam Greaves 8-13 3.95)
It’s over before it starts. Staten Island scores a Yankee record 9 times in the top of the first en route to a 13-1 blow out. Francisco Ordonez hit a 3R shot in the 1st (3) , Rick Williams and Alejandro Villanueva drove in 3 runs each. Javier Gutierrez (15-9 4.10) went 8-3-1-1-1-5 for the win. Greaves (8-14) was pounded for 6 runs in 1/3rd of an inning and the Cyclones committed 3 errors.
SI 13 BRO 1

Staten Island wins the Frontier League Eastern Division Title.

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A look at the final regular season picture, awards and stuff
First up the Batting Champions

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In the Frontier League, here are the final winners in statistical categories for Offense