Yesterday was one for the record books. Iowa entered the day trailing Oklahoma City by three games in the division. If they swept the doubleheader, that margin would narrow to one. On the other hand, given the very few games left in the year, Oklahoma City could all but eliminate the Cubs with a sweep of their own. This series, in other words, is a very big deal so far as the playoff picture is concerned and yesterday was the biggest day of the series.
Minor league doubleheaders are supposed to be seven innings each. And then this happened.
End of the 18th. We'll play 19 innings, an Iowa club record. Beats previous record of 18 innings (2x). #GameOneofaDH#PlayoffPush
[Iowa] Carrying a large portion of the extra inning load in Game One for the Cubs was a pair of relievers, Blake Cooper (4 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 4 K) and P.J. Francescon (4 IP, 4 BB, 4 K).
[Iowa] As a team, the Iowa only allowed 9 hits in the marathon Game One, but they gave up 17 walks. They also struck out 19.
[Iowa] Chris Valaika finished 2 for 8 with a triple, his first, in Game One. Taylor Davis doubled twice and finished with 3 hits, and Emilio Bonifacio tallied 4 hits.
[Iowa] Carlos Pimentel pitched all of Game Two himself. He finished with 3 runs allowed on 5 hits and a walk while striking out 4 over 6 innings.
[Tennessee] Albert Almora pushed his hitting streak to 13 games with a single.
[Tennessee] Bijan Rademacher finished with 3 hits, all singles. Bryan Flete collected a pair of hits.
[Myrtle Beach] Tyler Skulina struck out 5 over 5 innings, allowing just one hit in the process. Josh Conway followed that up with 2 innings of one hit ball, allowing 2 walks and striking out 2.
[Myrtle Beach] As a team, the Pelicans drew 16 walks in this game, and struck out just 7 times. Chesny Young led the way with 4 walks and no strikeouts.
[South Bend] Tommy Thorpe struck out 4 over 6 innings of work. He allowed a run on 3 hits and a walk.
[South Bend] Rashad Crawford tripled (his 5th) and finished 2 for 5.
With their twin losses, the Iowa Cubs dropped to five games back in the division and their elimination number dropped from six to two. Any combination of Oklahoma City wins or Cubs losses that adds up to two eliminates Iowa.
The Tennessee Smokies have been eliminated from post season contention.
With their win, Eugene opened a one game lead over Hillsboro for first place in the division, and they also took a one game lead over Salem-Keizer in the overall standings. Winning the division is enough to make the playoffs, but should Hillsboro catch Eugene in the division, then it will be overall standings that decide the second half playoff slot.
The Pelicans wore jerseys that paid tribute to “Animal House” this year, and some of them are now for sale online. If you are a collector, check it out here.
There were unofficial reports on Twitter yesterday that Gleyber Torres has been moved up to Myrtle Beach for the rest of the season and the High A playoffs. This would not surprise me in the slightest, but so far I have not seen anything confirming this move from the teams. That may appear a little later today.
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NEWSLETTER
Yesterday was one for the record books. Iowa entered the day trailing Oklahoma City by three games in the division. If they swept the doubleheader, that margin would narrow to one. On the other hand, given the very few games left in the year, Oklahoma City could all but eliminate the Cubs with a sweep of their own. This series, in other words, is a very big deal so far as the playoff picture is concerned and yesterday was the biggest day of the series.
