American Association Insider: Division Finals Game One Takeaways

 Kevin Luckow

(Non member of IBWAA)

Are we entertained yet? Both games of the American Association Finals delivered on a Monday night. If the rest of the week looks like tonight, we are in for two fun series.

Kane County 4 Milwaukee 3 (10 innings)

As much as Cougars fans were bemoaning the injuries of Claudio Finol and Todd Lott midway through the season, the injury to Alex McGarry went under the radar. Boy has McGarry made his presence known in the playoffs. His three run triple in Oconomowoc on Saturday got the Cougars the lead. And tonight, in a game that I was thinking was going to go deep into the Geneva night, McGarry singled in Josh Allen to win Game One over the Milkmen. 

Konnor Ash vs. Jhordany Mezquita was a great pitching matchup. But the Cougars jumped on Mezquita for three runs in the first two innings. Mezquita settled in and got through five innings. Cougar fans, you got your ace pitcher back. Ash who had struggled in the last month, allowed just one run, a Charlie Marion home run, in six innings to set up the Cougars for the win.

But the Milkmen were not deterred. The Milkmen got to Art Warren for a run in the seventh, then against reliever of the year Jake Gozzo in the ninth, on a two out Yordys Valdes two out single. 

The Cougars threatened in the ninth, but with two runners on base, Alec Olund made a spectacular catch to keep the game tied. But after Zach Veen set down the Milkmen in the 10th, it would be time for the McGarry heroics.



Kansas City 6 Fargo-Moorhead 4

The Monarchs scored a pair of runs in the first inning and added another in the third. It looked like clear sailing until Newman Magic struck in the sixth inning. In what became a night all about MLB veterans, Dillon Thomas smashed a grand slam to give the RedHawks a 4-3 lead. 

In the seventh, Sahid Valenzuela's fly ball down the left field line was caught by Eric Filia. Shortstop Aiden Byrne was also rushing to catch the ball. Much like a safety knocking a ball out of a wide receiver's hand, the collision caused the ball to fall and Valenzuela reached third and eventually scored.

In the eighth. it was another MLB veteran Luken Baker who sent a bomb that stood a chance of reaching the Fargodome and gave the Monarchs a 5-4 lead. Baker was the lead off hitter in the eighth inning. Much like I said about Joshua Mears last week, you have to give Baker the Barry Bonds treatment. Kids, put Barry Bonds walks into your Google machine. Baker would've broke the league home run record if he wasn't too busy being a major leaguer for part of the season. Pitch around him, if it means a walk, so be it. But this was a deflating blow for the RedHawks. 

MLB Veteran Tyler Gentry singled in an insurance run in the ninth inning. It was part of a three hit night for the Monarachs lead off hitter that fell just a home run away from a cycle. The RedHawks got two runners on in the ninth and Jose Sermo just got under one as the RedHawks could not strike back. 

How many times in sports do we see a heavy favorite nearly get upset in the first round of the playoffs, then go on to win a championship? I think the Sioux Falls series got the Monarchs attention. If Fargo-Moorhead cannot win tomorrow night, I don't see the Monarchs dropping three at Legends Field. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Association SUNDAY Insider: Speaking in terms of "what if?"

Image
 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) What was once a rumor passed between league colleagues, has now been reported by media. The story being the potential move of the Kane County Cougars and Cleburne Railroaders to the Frontier League, soon to be renamed National Association of Professional Baseball. The move would be made for the 2027 season. A real blow to an American Association that has ambitions of expansion.  To get a real feel for what this would mean to AAPB, let's go all the way back to 2006. In the Fall of 2005, the St. Paul Saints, Sioux Falls Canaries, Sioux City Explorers and Lincoln Saltdogs all departed the Northern League. Philosophical differences between ownerships being cited as a major reason for the defection. But a four team league was not going to cut it. Enter the St. Joe Blacksnakes as a stopgap, a team that likely would not have long term stability but filled an immediate need.  Enter Texas. The Texas-Louisiana League was winding down. So the five...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: The underpaid, overworked liaisons of the American Association

Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA)  The idea of this Insider came to my head on Thursday night as I was watching a game in Cleburne. It was the 750th American Association broadcast for voice of the Railroaders, Brad Allred. The Railroaders produced a video for Allred with numerous colleagues from the past, former players and current players paying tribute to Allred.  It got me to thinking just how important the play by play men are to the teams which they are employed. Teams in the AAPB do not have local newspapers following the teams on the road. Often times it is the play by play guys that may put a game story on their team website that the local newspaper picks up to condense into a tiny part of the newspaper. Not to discount the media relations director who also do gamers with no byline given if the newspaper picks it up.  For myself this goes all the way back to the Northern League. Although St. Paul had great coverage from Mike Augustin (mentioned a few weeks ago in...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: American Associaiton returning to Minnesota

Image
 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) It's been funny. I've seen stories, thoughts and opinions all around about the announcement of an American Association team in Blaine. They are nice recaps, crosses the t's and dots the i's. But all from an outsider perspective. There's a phrase I like to use when people refer to me as knowledgeable about the going ons in Independent Baseball. It's not that I'm smart, it just means I've been around a long time. For this story I think we have to go back to September of 2020. The St. Paul Saints were playing their final game of the Covid season against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. It was in front of a relatively sparse crowd. A weeknight in mid to late September and there was nothing at stake outside of who was going to win the American Association batting title. Drew Ward would end up edging Correlle Prime after Prime was robbed of a base hit late in the game. After the game I talked to Jeff Bittiger who was traveling w...
Read more