New York Penn League Baseball Notes: Playoff Postioning

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Now that the All-Star break is over in the New York Penn League, it’s time for the final push toward the playoff. A week and a half is left in the season. Teams are fighting in all three divisions for one of four spots for the postseason. If the playoffs began today, West Virginia would face Lowell and Hudson Valley would meet Brooklyn. Each series is best of three.

The most interesting division of the three is the McNamara. That’s because all of the teams are above .500. And because of this, all five teams are still alive for both division and wild card spots.

Hudson Valley has a percentage points lead over the Brooklyn Cyclones for the lead in the division. In the wild card race, Brooklyn is holding off both Aberdeen and Staten Island by a half-game with twelve games to play in the season.

In the Pinckney, a close race for the top spot is between the Black Bears and the Muckdogs. West Virginia holds a percentage point lead as play resumes. Batavia is still in the Wild Card hunt as well as they sit a game back of Brooklyn. The last week and a half should be full of great baseball.

Aberdeen IronBirds catcher and number one overall pick in this past June’s draft, had quite a night for himself this past Monday night at home. Adley Rutschman went five for five and drove in a career-high four RBI in his team’s win over the Vermont Lake Monsters. One of his hits was his first career home run as a professional player. The blast was recorded at 107 mph off his bat as it traveled over the wall in right-center field. Later in the game, he would unload a bases-clearing triple down the right-field line into the corner. Aberdeen would come back and win this game 6-2 over Vermont.

West Virginia is being led on offense by two players. One is Jared Triola who leads the team in Batting Average at .270, and in RBI with 32. In his last ten games, Triola is hitting .364 (16-for-44) with nine runs batted in. The other offensive threat is Matt Gorski who is the top guy in both Runs with 27, Stolen Bases with 11, and Home Runs with three. In his last ten games, Gorski is hitting only .244 (10-for-41), with a home run and four stolen bases to his credit.

The back end of Batavia’s bullpen is well taken care of thanks to the 12 saves registered by Evan Brabrand. The twelve saves lead the Penn league. Six of those saves have come in his last ten outings. In those relief stints, Brabrand numbers look like this: 9,2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 10 SO, 5 BB. His record is 2-1 with a 1.86 ERA. He has gone more than one inning three times in those appearances.

The struggles of the Lowell Spinners have become well known. However, it should be said they have been in first place in the Stedler division for over 60 straight days. In recent days, their pitching staff has come under some fire. It could be the fact that the staff has had a hard time keeping the ball in the park. The Spinners have given up a league-leading 43 home runs. As they head to Vermont for a three-game series, they will be without a member of that bullpen. Hildermaro Requerra was called up to Greenville on Thursday.

That’s a look at what’s going on in the New York Penn League.

Next week it will be about the final regular-season week before the playoff.