American Association Insider: Division Finals Game Two Takeaways

 Kevin Luckow

Should we expect anything else in this wild season of American Association Baseball. Both series are now knotted up at a game apiece. One game a nailbiter, the other was decided early.

Fargo-Moorhead 5 Kansas City 4

In a game that had a similar script to Game One, the Monarchs jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a two run double by J.D. Davis and a Tyler Gentry single. Down 4-1 in the fourth inning, it was Jose Sermo crushing a two run home run to center field. Rumor is the ball was eventually stopped in Baudette, Minnesota trying to cross into Canada without proper documentation. Eric Filia tied the game with an RBI single in the sixth inning. The game was decided on a bad hop in the seventh. Tripp Clark tripled on a ball that took a bad bounce on a hard charging Gentry in right field. Brian Fuentes singled to drive in Clark. An interesting play later in the inning saw Tucupita Mercano trying to add an insurance run by stealing home, but the gamble did not pay off. Kansas City had a runner in the ninth but a double play and strikeout from closer Tyler Jeans snuffed out the rally.



The RedHawks bullpen, led by 3.1 innings by Bryce Brass Field, allowed one earned run in seven innings of work. Brassfield picked up the win while Ryan Anderson picked up his second loss of the post season allowing one run in two innings.

The series shifts to Kansas City. Frankly I think Legends Field plays just as well for the RedHawks as it does the Monarchs. Let's remember how the RedHawks ended the Monarchs season last year, there is a history. It should be a fun series here on out. 

Milwaukee 13 Kane County 0

I don't know how it works on a team bus as far as music selection, if there is any on the bus. But if there was a song playing in the Milkmen bus heading back to Franklin, it should be Double Vision by Foreigner. The Milkmen his six doubles and Andy Blake put the game out of the question with a grand slam in the fifth inning. Wendell Marrero matched Blake with four runs batted in as part of a 3-4 evening at the plate. 

Christian Young, a seasoned veteran of American Association Playoff ball, was on tonight cruising through five scoreless innings allowing just two hits, striking out six Cougars batters. Cougar starter Reese Sharp who three innings three days ago was touched for four runs in three innings. Westin Muir who also threw last Friday for three innings did not have a good go of it, allowing seven runs while recording just four outs.

Although Kane County did not win a game in Milwaukee in six regular season tries, expect this series to go the distance. The lopsided score allowed the Cougars to rest their main bullpen arms. Meanwhile Milwaukee finally saw their offense break out after struggling to score runs at home in the Cleburne series. I have a hunch we see Saturday night baseball at the Shrine to Bovine.  











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