American Association Baseball Insider

 Kevin Luckow In what will go down as the most anticlimatic Miles Wolff Cup in history, the Kansas City Monarchs are the 2026 Champions. In a season in which teams often put up ten runs a night, the Cup featured a combined ten runs in three games. It really goes against any 2026 baseball logic.  Series MVP Tyler Gentry opened the scoring with a solo home run to left field in the third inning. Monarchs starter Michael Mariot was cruising along but was victimized by the only Monarch to have a multiple hit game in the series, Yordys Valdes. Valdes went 4-4 and singled in the the only Milkmen run of the series. J.D. Davis put the Monarchs back in front in the sixth with an RBI. With the Monarch bullpen in shutdown mode, Grant Richardson hit an insurance home run in the eighth inning. The Milkmen were set down in the ninth and the celebration was on. And it apparently included the scorekeeper because as of 10:41 the box score on iScore is not completed, so I also have no attendance...

 Kevin Luckow You hate to call a Game Two of a five game series a do or die situation, but it was looking like that on Tuesday night as the Milkmen were looking to even the series at a game each. There has not been a team that dropped the first two games of the Miles Wolff Cup in recent history that came back to win the last three on the road. Even splitting the first two games at home has not been a recipe for success. But that was the best the Milkmen could hope for going into Tuesday night's game. It was not mean to be however as the Milkmen were shutout for the second consecutive night, 4-0, on a combined two hitter. It's a shame for the Milkmen who held the Monarchs to six runs, four earned in two games, and have nothing to show for it.  The Monarchs wasted no time getting on the board. Tyler Gentry led off the game with a double off the base of the left field fence, stole third base and scored on a Luken Baker ground out.  In the fourth, Baker led off with a long fl...

 It was the battle of the two division winners. One team, Milwaukee, built on a solid pitching staff, and weapons in the middle of the batting order. The other, Kansas City, who can out slug any team in the league with pitching that was middle of the road during the season. But as we often see in the post season, it was the pitching that came out ahead, except in this case it was the Monarchs pitching. On a veteran laden team it was rookie Sawyer Allen threw six shutout innings and four relievers combined to shutdown the Milkmen the rest of the way.  The Monarchs got on the board first in the third inning. A one out single by J.D. Davis was forced out, but Tyler Gentry walked and Austin Callahan poked a single to left field to score Grant Richardson from second base. Jhordany Mezquita avoided any other damage by coaxing a ground out with the bases loaded from Saul Garza. In the bottom of the frame, Charlie Marion doubled to lead off the inning but was left stranded on third....

 Kevin Luckow We have the matchup now for the Miles Wolff Cup Final as the Kansas City Monarchs defeated the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks  to advance to meet the Milwaukee Milkmen.  Kansas City 10 Fargo-Moorhead 9 After a blip in Game Four, the Monarchs got back to doing Monarch things and that was enough to take down a game RedHawks club. A Luken Baker home run (of course) got the Monarchs off to a roaring start with a three run home run. Is there any doubt now that Baker may have been the real player of the year in the American Association? Grant Richardson and Tyler Gentry both homered in the first four innings to stake the Monarchs to a 9-2 lead after four innings. But the RedHawks reminded everyone how proud of a ball club they are, fighting right to the end. Jose Sermo's three run home run in the fifth inning got the RedHawks back to within three runs at 9-6. Down 10-6 in the ninth inning Tucupita Marcano homered to get the RedHawks to within a run. Tripp Clark followed ...

 Kevin Luckow Both Game Fours are in the books and it was an eventful day as half of the Miles Wolff Cup Final equation has been solved, an era in American Association baseball comes to an end, and the table has been sent for a doozy of a Game Five tomorrow night.  Milwaukee 7 Kane County 1 With rainy weather scheduled for Friday night, the Milkmen and Cougars began during what most of Wisconsin refers to as Happy Hour. And a Happy Hour it was for 129 Milkmen fans enjoying $1 beers at Franklin Field. After Matt Bottcher got the Cougars on the board in the first inning, the Milkmen took over. Alec Olund hit a two run home run and Griffin Doersching drove in a run to give the Milkmen the momentum back.  The Milkmen had three other home runs as Doersching connected for a solo in the sixth, while Delvin Perez and Andy Blake went back to back with solo shots in the seventh.  It was more than enough run support as Angelo Cabral threw five innings allowing one run on one hi...

 Kevin Luckow Both game threes are in the books and both higher seeds have held serve leading to two possible eliminations on Friday night. Milwaukee 3 Kane County 0 Such an odd game, but in the end the Cougars are shutout for the second game in a row. We thought the Cougars had got on the board in the third inning. Sam Dexter launched a ball to left field that he believed had left the park. The umpiring crew ruled it had not. With Dexter trotting, he was easily retired between first and second base. Witnesses claimed that the ball had indeed left the park but bounced off the berm and back onto the field. With a white line at the top of the fence, that's a tough call to make with a white ball. Just a thought here, but how about a yellow line and or a basket beyond the wall that would catch the ball? The Milkmen scored a pair in the bottom of the frame as Cougars starter Jake Gilbert walked three Milkmen and was burned for a two run triple by Delvin Perez. Griffin Doersching added a...