American Association Insider: Wednesday September 3rd Takeaways

 Kevin Luckow

(non member of IBWAA)

Another full night of American Association pennant chase baseball and the playoff picture has not become any clearer than it was when the night started. What else should we expect in this crazy season in American Association Baseball?

Sioux City 11 Kansas City 2

There's a sound bite that is played at times when the Explorers radio broadcasts comes back from break when it is proclaimed "the hot dogs are ready, the popcorn's popping and the drinks are cold". They may have to add, "and the Explorers are hot" to the end of it. The X's won their fourth game in a row, their longest streak of the season and made easy work of the West leading Kansas City Monarchs. A five run fifth inning highlighted by a grand slam by Wilfredo Gimenez broke the game open. Hunter Poe got the win going seven innings, allowing two runs winning his third start in three outings as an Explorer. However the Explorers remain a tiebreaker behind Sioux Falls because.......

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Andreachi


Sioux Falls 5 Cleburne 4

This may have been the biggest win of the season for the Canaries as a loss would've put them out of a playoff spot for the first time this season. The Canaries were listless for a large part of the game, but Waggin' Wednesday magic returned as the Canaries tied the game on a fielding error setting the stage for the dramatics. With two outs and the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, Jabari Henry went opposite field for a walkoff home run to keep the Canaries in front of the Explorers by a thread. The Canaries and Explorers gained a game on third place Fargo-Moorhead because.......

Winnipeg 5 Fargo-Moorhead 2

The RedHawks have dropped five games in a row technically as their only win in their home stand being a continuation of a game they led 11-1. With one more at home versus Winnipeg then four at Milwaukee, the RedHawks may now have to look BEHIND them as the Siouxs are now both only two games behind the RedHawks. Noah Marcelo and Giandido Tromp both drove in a pair of runs in the victory. The race for first place just got juicier too as the Goldeyes are now just two games behind Kansas City. With a little luck tomorrow, the Goldeyes could go into their series with Winnipeg just one game out. Five teams in the West with playoff aspirations and no clue who they may be playing. 

Lincoln 3 Milwaukee 1

Tanner O'Tremba's solo home run broke a one all deadlock as the Saltdogs knocked off the Milkmen. But with Sioux City and Sioux Falls both winning tonight, the Saltdogs have been mathematically eliminated. The only thing to play for now is to be a spoiler this weekend when they play in Sioux Falls. The Milkmen miss out on an opportunity to pull away from Kansas City for best overall record, and Lake Country for the East Division lead. 

Gary SouthShore 12 Lake Country 8

The RailCats weren't going to let another big league slip away as they took a 10-3 lead in the fifth inning and parlayed it into a win. Nick Podkul hit a grand slam and had five runs batted in for the night. Elvis Peralta added a home run, a two run shot in the sixth inning. The DockHounds now trail Milwaukee by four games with five left to play. But they now are looking behind them as the Kane County Cougars now trail the Hounds for second place by a half game. 

Kane County 11 Chicago 2

The Cougars scored the first ten runs of the game and sent the Dogs to their eighth consecutive loss. Alex McGarry may have already clinched batter of the week with two home runs and seven runs batted in. Josh Allen also homered twice for the victorious Cougars. Reese Sharp scattered ten hits in six innings to pick up the win. But the news on the pitching front was the return of Westin Muir as he threw a shutout inning in his first outing since July 17. It will be a big plus if Muir can contribute for the Cougars in the postseason. 










































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