Yeah, there's still baseball left. I'll keep it brief.

AA: Carolina 11, West Tenn 2
Carolina leads series 2-0

Tracy Thorpe: 5.1 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 6 walks, 5 K
Roman Martinez: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 3 K
Jason Kershner: no outs recorded, 1 ER, walk
Shawn Kelley: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 5 ER (HR), 2 walks, K
Anthony Varvaro!: one out, 1 H
Mike Wilson: 2-4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, K
rest of DIAMOND JAXX: 3-26, 7 walks, 7 K

There's still at least one game left, but in case you can't tell, this series, and the DIAMOND JAXX season, is basically over.

- Everett ended their season not with a bang but with a whimper, managing only a run in the 1st inning in a 2-1 loss. The Eugene Emeralds finished tied with Salem-Keizer at the top of the NWL West division with a 40-36 record, but the Vocanoes have the tiebreaker, and move on to the NWL Championship.

Everett, meanwhile, sits all alone in the NWL West basement with a 32-44 record. They closed their season with a 6 hit performance from the batters, 4 of which came from sub-Mendoza liner Ryan Royster and from Manny Pimentel.

- West Tenn played Game 1 in the Southern League divisional playoffs, and indeed they got rolled by the Carolina Mudcats, 7-1. Joe Woerman lost a handle on his command in the 2nd, allowed a run, and then put two men on in the 3rd before Cameron Maybin blasted a 3 run backbreaking bomb to make it 4-0.

Johan Limonta doubled home a run in the 5th, but the wind had already been knocked out of West Tenn's sails, and Joe Woerman capped a bleh night by getting taken deep by Scott Cousins with one out in the 6th. In the 8th, against Marwin Vega, three seeing eye singles and an Adam Moore passed ball helped Carolina add two more to make it 7-1 and put the game well out of reach.

To stay alive, West Tenn now faces the task of winning 3 of the next 4 games, with 3 of those games in Carolina. RIIIIIIGHT.

Stats below the jump.

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The season's not over yet for two teams.

- Against a Eugene Emeralds team still scrapping with Salem-Keizer for the division title, Everett (which is simply battling to get out of the cellar) rallied for a couple runs, with help from a Geoff Vandel wild pitch, to take a 4-3 lead on Eugene in the top 6th. But Luis Nuñez botched a leadoff grounder at 2B in the bottom half, and Blake Tekotte made him pay immediately with a game tying RBI double off Eddy Fernandez to snatch the win from Aaron Brown after an erratic but effective 2 hit, 5 inning performance.

Eugene had a chance to win in the bottom 9th after Dan Robertson doubled with two outs, and Matt Renfree intentionally passed Jaff Decker. James Darnell lined a single to left, but Bennett Billingsley picked it, fired home and got Robertson at the plate for the 3rd out! It was the utilityman Billingsley's first outfield assist of the year, and it sent us to extras.

But Renfree lost control of the strike zone in the bottom 10th, and three walks and two wild pitches later, Cole Figueroa came in for the winning run.

- The DIAMOND JAXX begin their quest for playoff glory (uh...) today at 5:05 pm PDT with Game 1 of the 5 game series in Jackson against the Carolina Mudcats. The radio feed for both teams is available on the West Tenn main page at MiLB.com. Not sure who's going to start for West Tenn (and they may not be either) but here's a playoff preview.

- And finally, congratulations to Mike Wilson for being named to the Southern League Postseason All Star Team.

Stats for Everett's game below the jump.

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- Luis Nuñez has discovered the utility of ball four, and I don't mean Jim Bouton: he drew ANOTHER walk yesterday.

- Wisconsin's season may have been one prolonged disappointment, but Michael Pineda made sure they ended the season with a bang, striking out 14 and allowing only a 5th inning infield single from Domnit Bolivar in a season ending one hitter. Pineda struck out at least one batter in every inning and all but one of Pineda's K's were swinging strikeouts.

1st: Groundball, flyball, strikeout (swing)
2nd: Strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing)
3rd: Groundball, groundball, strikeout (swing)
4th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing)
5th: Groundball, flyball, groundball, strikeout (swing)
6th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), flyball
7th: Groundball, flyball, strikeout (swing)
8th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), strikeout (called)
9th: Strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing), pop up

Groundballs: 9
Flyballs: 4
Line Drives: 0
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 0
Strikeouts: 14

Pineda's line drive rate over the last month? 10.3%.

- Also finishing with a bang despite a whimperous season were the High Desert Mavs, using a 4 run 6th to power ahead, enough to withstand a 3 run Lake Elsinore rally in the bottom half to close the season with a 6-4 win.

- The West Tennessee DIAMOND JAXX, however, ended their regular season with a whimper: rainy weather cancelled their season finale against the Mississippi Braves. They'll go to the playoffs thanks to winning the Southern League North division 1st half championship. They get the rarely seen but often dominant Carolina Mudcats, whose key to victory is one of the Southern League's better defenses: their .660 defensive efficiency is a close 3rd behind league leaders Huntsville and Birmingham, good for a 2nd lowest 4.34 runs per game. Their pitching is alright but hardly spectacular, thanks to the requisite control issues... though closer Chris Mobley is pretty tough to hit. Good luck getting flyballs to drop against these guys.

- Three good things about the Rainiers' season finale:

1. Chris Jakubauskas bailed out a struggling Robert Rohrbaugh in the 4th and responded with 4 shutout innings in which he struck out 8.

4th: Pop up, strikeout (swing), flyball, strikeout (swing)
5th: Strikeout (swing), line drive, strikeout (called), strikeout (swing)
6th: Flyball, strikeout (swing), groundball
7th: Pop up, strikeout (swing), strikeout (swing)

2. The September callups for the M's left a slight vacuum in the Rainiers roster for closing day. In the case of Brandon Morrow, he was done for the year here anyway so big deal. Replacing Luis Valbuena was as easy as Kevin Howard sliding over to 2B, but supplanting Tui at 3B was AZLer Scott Savastano, who responded with two hits, and was the man aboard in the 9th for...

3. ... Prentice Redman's season ending walkoff 2 run home run to win the ballgame 6-5. Yep, Redman did not warrant a look from the M's, but he made sure that he and the Rainiers closed the season, as many others did yesterday, with a bang.

Stats below the jump. West Tenn has at least two games left and Everett finishes their season Wednesday.

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- LATE.

- Speaking of LATE... turns out they did play Game 2 of the DSLMs playoff series after all.  They just had a delay in getting the results back to MiLB.com.

As expected, the DSLMs bats revived once the series returned to Santo Domingo North for Game 2... though only for a couple of well-timed big innings.  Bruno Mercedes, the relief ace in the Twins series, got the call to start and... ran into trouble.  Bruno had cruised through the 1st and 2nd, and was two outs on his way in the 3rd when Jose De La Cruz lined a single and the excessively named Robedluis Fuentes doubled him in to make it 1-0.  Bruno finished the 3rd without further damage, but met his demise in the 4th. Sundrendy Windster jacked one over the straightaway center wall with one out to make it 2-0, and Bruno plunked the next batter before he got the hook for Jose Perdomo.  Perdomo himself plunked a batter, allowed a lined single to load the bases, and leaked a runner home on a groundout to make it 3-0 before getting out of trouble.

And then the DSLMs awoke in the 5th.  Three batters reached base and two scored out of the gate to chase Argenis Sanchez, and Bertoni Garcia came in, struck out Rudy van Heydoorn... then walked the next two batters to reload the sacks before getting pulled himself for Alejandro Mendez, who uncorked a wild pitch to bring in Ramon Morla and TIE THE BALLGAME at 3.  Alejandro walked Hector Mercedes to reload the sacks... but Efrain Nuñez grounded out to 2nd to end the threat.

Hassiel Jimenez passed two balls in the 6th, including strike three agaist Cesar Osuna to put him on, to set up a go-ahead RBI single that cashed in Osuna to give Los Gigantes a 4-3 lead.  Miguel Celestino loaded the bases with two outs in that frame, but got Carlos Willoughby to strike out and end the threat.

The DSLMs got to the bottom 9th, three outs from their playoff demise.  Victor Ozuna lined a single and Ramon Morla bunted himself on.  Rudy van Heydoorn bunted them over for one out, and Alejndro Mendez, still in the ballgame for Los Gigantes, intentionally walked Axel Wel to load the sacks.  Hassiel Jimenez, having giveth runs via screw ups earlier, then tooketh runs away by facilitating a screw up himself, getting plunked to force in a run and TIE THE BALLGAME.

Then Hector Mercedes, needing only a sac fly, base hit or well placed groundball, took a page from Richie Sexson, went for the whole shebang and jacked a WALKOFF GRAND SLAM to tie the series up at one game apiece!

- The DSLMs now needed to remember their bats for yesterday's 3rd and deciding game in Boca Chica.  Manager (Not That) Jose Guillen turned once again to his horse Henry Perez, hoping that O Enrique could contain Los Gigantes on their home turf.

He failed.  The first two Gigantes batters reached base, and with one out, Victor Santana ripped an ill advised suck pitch over the LF fence to make it 3-0 Gigantes.

Perez held it together, though, getting out of the 1st, withstanding 2nd and 3rd with two outs in the 2nd to escape unscathed, and escaping the 3rd despite three hitters reaching base (Hassiel Jimenez atoned for yesterday's gaffes by catching the first runner stealing).  Perez, however, did not escape the 4th unscathed, as Jose De La Cruz led off with a walk, got bunted over to 2nd, and came home on a one out single from Julio Izturis to make it 4-0 Gigantes.  Series over, correct?

HELL NO.  Janelfry Zorrilla and Angel Zapata each bunt themselves on against Miguel Ferrer to lead off the 5th.  Ramon Morla walks to load the bases, and Rudy van Heydoorn himself draws a walk to force in Zorrilla, get the DSLMs on the board and keep them loaded... for Axel Wel.  And Wel singled to left to cash in Zapata, cut the lead to 4-2, and keep them loaded.  Ferrer ran like a scolded dog for the clubhouse and Franklin Noel came in to put out the fire, except the pine tar on the DSLMs bats was actually grease, and Hassiel Jimenez lined a single to right to cash in Morla, cut the lead to 4-3, and KEEP THE BASES LOADED.  Hector Mercedes then... lined a single to center to cash in van Heydoorn and TIE THE BALLGAME while... KEEPING THE BASES LOADED.  Maybe the actual Mariners should have sent a videographer down to the Dominican to take some notes on how to keep the pressure on in a rally.

But then Efrain Nuñez surprisingly got pulled for a pinch hitter, and his replacement, Augusto Marte... struck out.  Maybe Efrain got hurt, because otherwise I don't get it.  Janelfry Zorrilla, in his 2nd AB of the inning, flew out to right to end the rally.

Here they went again in the 6th.  Angel Zapata led of with a walk, then Victor Ozuna walked, and Franklin Noel got the hook for the neatest name in the Gigantes bullpen, Raymundo Montero.  Ramon Morla bunted them over to scoring position for one out, and while Rudy van Heydoorn's flyball was caught in left for two outs, Zapata came in to give the DSLMs a 5-4 lead, as Ozuna took 3rd.  Axel Wel got an intentional pass, and then once again, fate killed the rally like a turntable screech at a party.  Wel took off for 2nd on a pitch to Hassiel Jimenez, and on the throw, Ozuna broke for home, but he broke just a bit too early, because 2B Julio Izturis snifed it out, cut the throw off, threw to 3B Cesar Osuna and tagged Ozuna on the basepath for the 3rd out.

The DSLMs really could have used those potential runs.  Bruno Mercedes got treated like a high school pitcher, brought in for the 6th just one day after 3+ innings of work.  Julio Izturis led off the 7th by drawing a walk off Bruno, and Carlos Willoughby bunted him over, but it was all for naught, because Hector Sanchez took Bruno deep to give Los Gigantes a 6-5 lead.  Sundrendy Windster did get on with two outs and took 2nd on a wild pitch, but Bruno got out of it without allowing another run.

The DSLMs came up in the 8th six outs from doom.  Angel Zapata drew a one out walk, and then Victor Ozuna, two innings after his baserunning gaffe killed the 6th inning rally and potentially cost his team a valuable run... hit a laser over the left field fence to give the DSLMs a 7-6 lead!

The DSLMs got two more runners on, but Luis Azocar relieved a tiring Raymundo Montero, and Azocar got out of the jam without further trouble.  But then we went to the bottom 9th with Los Gigantes on the ropes for the first time in this series, three outs from doom themselves.

Julio Izturis repeated the last rally's harbinger and drew a walk, this time off Nelson Germocen, to lead off the bottom 9th.  Again, Carlos WIlloughby bunted him over for one out.  Germocen,in part to recreate the force out but also in memory of this guy's go-ahead HR the last time up, intentionally passed Hector Sanchez.  Sanchez took a seat for speedy Ramon Abad, representing the winning run, and Germocen put down Victor Santana on strikes for two outs.  One out away!

But Sundrendy Windster drew a walk to load the bases, the tying run now 90 feet away.  And with Cesar Osuna at the plate, a breaking ball got away from Germocen, got away from Hassiel Jimenez, and Izturis came on home to TIE THE BALLGAME.  Abad took 3rd and Windster took 2nd.

All Germocen needed to do was get Osuna, and the DSLMs at least could try to win it in extras.  But Osuna's grounder went right past Germocen and right between Bertin Sanon and Ramon Morla into center field!  Abad scored, and Los Gigantes walked off with the 8-7 victory and the series win to move on to the DSL Championship.

What a way to end your season, DSLMs.  Against the best offense in the DSL, you did not go down without one hell of a fight, and after building a 4-0 lead in the clincher, they still had to make two comebacks to sink you.  Great work, DSLMs.  May the best of you end up playing on the mainland in 2009.

- They snuck by me last week, but Luis Nuñez drew 2 more walks!  He walked on August 28 against Vancouver, and on August 30 against Salem-Keizer.  This brings his August total to 5.

Luis Nuñez season walks total prior to August:  1

- Military Man Nick Hill finished High Desert's 5-4 win with a scoreless 8th and 9th for his 1st Mavs save.  It's not spectacular in itself, but this is a big deal in that, with the Mavs' season finale today, yesterday's appearance was likely Hill's last (barring an unlikely relief appearance on no rest in today's game) before returning to the Army to serve two mandated years with the U.S. Armed Forces.  Word on the street is that he must do so after this season, and if so, I wish the Military Man the best of luck as he serves the United States in arms, and hope to see him again on the field, one way or another, by 2011.

- Brandon Morrow's final start went well despitethe usual iffy control.  The only hit he allowed was a hot grounder to 1B Shawn Garrett in the 1st that portly Paul McAnulty somehow beat out.

1st:  Flyball, groundball, groundball, flyball
2nd:  Strikeout (swing), groundball, strikeout (swing)
3rd:  Groundball, strikeout (swing), line drive
4th:  Groundball, strikeout (called), walk, groundball
5th:  Strikeout (swing), walk, pop up, flyball
6th:  Flyball, flyball, walk, line drive

Groundballs:  6
Flyballs:  5
Line Drives:  2
Pop Ups:  1
Walks:  3
Strikeouts:  5

Stats below the jump.  Also, today is the season finale for several teams, so tomorrow's Wrap-Up will be the last full one of the season.  West Tenn's playoff games and Everett's final games will be all that remains beyond that.

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- Game 2 of the DSL Mariners playoff series with the DSL Giants was scheduled but no results are listed. Hurricane Gustav passed a few days ago, and an earlier game for the other playoff series did occur. But another rain storm may have struck the island in time to postpone the DSLMs game. Given they had varying forms of inclement cloud cover passing over the island throughout yesterday (per Weather Channel radar animation), I'd gather that's what happened. They have playoff games for both series scheduled today, so I anticipate this series will resume today as usual.

NO WAIT EDIT:  They did post results.  Looks like there was simply a delay in relaying the information.  I'll run down any and all games between Saturday and yesterday tomorrow.

- Amidst other events, it slipped by me: yesterday's AZLMs game was their season finale. They finished with an overall record of 21-35 and, needless to say, did not quality for the AZL playoffs in either half. The key to their relative weakness was their younger lineup: their .667 OPS was 3rd least in the AZL, their 73 doubles last in the AZL, their 144 team walks drawn last in the AZL, and their 17 team HRs tied for 2nd least with the AZL Angels. We did see improvement as the season progressed from 6th round pick Jarrett Burgess (227/297/293) and catcher Henry Contreras (345/360/429), and Scott Savastano showed flashes in an unspectacular but consistent season (298/365/415).

The young pitching also struggled with the developing kids behind them, the .618 defensive efficiency in the league's lower half while the 6.13 runs allowed per game was 3rd most. The staff's 428 K's was 2nd least in the AZL, so it was up to the defense more oftne than usual to make outs, and there just weren't enough.

- Thanks to Lance via the comments at Mariner Minors for relaying this info to a vacationing/indisposed J and, by proxy, the rest of us: Steven Hensley has been shut down for the season with an elbow problem. Granted, there's only a handful of games left, so the time missed is not a huge deal, but let's hope the 4th round pick from this season's draft is okay for 2009.

- Not much else to say, other than guess who made his final start of the season last night in Tacoma? And it was a good one....

Stats below the jump.

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- So much for a high scoring DSL playoff game: Anthony Fernandez pitched 6 strong innings for the DSLMs, striking out 8 while allowing only 2 runs, but Edward Concepcion of the DSL Gigantes threw 6 strong innings of his own, albeit with more help from the defense, as he only struck out 3 while walking 3 and allowing only an unearned run to outduel Fernandez and the DSLMs bullpen despite a fine effort against a good offense.  Unspectacular but useful Gigantes reliever Franklin Noel (24 app, 2.28 ERA, 51.1 IP, 22/50 BB/K*) threw three perfect innings in relief to lock up the 2-1 win and take one of the two needed wins to knock out the DSLMs.

* - Remember, DSL pitchers get a big strike zone, so don't read much into the high K rate.  Key on the walk rates, and abnormally high or low K rates.

As has been the case these entire playoffs, the lineup left their hitting at the Santo Domingo North complex, finishing with only 3 hits, getting their only run on a Hector Mercedes sac fly, and even that was set up by a Gigantes error.  Once Los Gigantes popped in two runs in the 2nd off Fernandez, it may as well been 2 goals in a soccer match.  The DSLMs just didn't have enough hitting to sustain a rally, let alone get more than the gift run they got.

- Unlike the DSLMs, the Pulaski Mariners' playoff run came to a quick end.  One day after a 7-4 defeat, the Elizabthton Twins blanked the PMs 7-0 in Elizabethton to sweep the three game series.  Like Nick Czyz, Brooks Mohr got bombed out of the gate, and in his case did not finish the 2nd inning.  Stephen Penney did a fine job with 4.2 shutout innings of relief, but with Liz Twins starter Daniel Osterbrock dealing, striking out 11 PMs over 7 innings, this game was as good as over before the 3rd, and the final 7 innings took on the aura of a formality.

Congratulations to the Pulaski Mariners for a fine first season in the App League.  The Liz Twins just had more offense, came out mashing from the get-go and put both games out of reach before the PMs knew what hit them (pun obviously intended on account of look who's writing this).  But that doesn't detract from fielding a new team at a new level in a new league and outplaying most of the league.

- Despite only one base hit and no free passes, Gavin Dickey stole FOUR bases for High Desert against Rancho Cucamonga yesterday.

1.  Dickey grounds to short with one out in the 2nd and gets on after PJ Phillips muffs it.  Dickey then steals 2nd base.

2.  Dickey then stole 3rd base.  He later scored on a Carlos Triunfel sac fly.

3.  Dickey grounds to 3rd with two outs in the 3rd, but 3B Larry Infante throws YIKES AND AWAY to put him on.  Dickey follows up by stealing 2nd.  Unfortunately, the Human Temp Agency, Kevin Reynolds, responded by grounding to 3rd, and Infante did not screw up the throw this time.  Inning over.

4.  Dickey grounds to 2nd with two outs in the 8th, and beats it out to get on. Dickey then swipes 2nd base... but once again, Reynolds came up empty, striking out to end the frame.

Steals by Gavin Dickey for High Desert coming into last night's game:  5
Steals by Gavin Dickey last night:  4

Stats below the jump.

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- In the do-or-die game of their playoff series, the DSLMs could not get much going at the plate against the Twins in Boca Chica. However, neither could the Twins, and the DSLMs workhorse Felix Bautista, aka The Other Felix, pitched into the 6th without allowing a run. After Victor Ozuna popped in the first run of the game in the top 6th, and Bautista done, manager (Not That) Jose Guillen turned to another horse: Henry Perez, who pitched brilliantly in a 1-0 loss in Game 1. Henry was up to the task, finishing the 6th and not allowing more than a single hit over the rest of the game to seal the Twins' doom and move the DSLMs into the DSL semis.

The DSLMs now get a juggernaut in the DSL Gigantes, the Boca Chica South campeones whose .742 OPS is best in the DSL, though as previously mentioned, their pitching and defense leaves some to be desired. They walk far more batters than the Twins and their pitchers' control problems frequently get Los Gigantes into trouble. This should play opposite to the low scoring series the DSLMs just completed with the low-scoring Twins. The DSLMs will have a bit of a pitching edge (which may be neutralized some as top pitcher Henry Perez will need some rest), and the key will be if the DSLMs bats can score enough runs against the iffy Gigantes pitching/defense... because chances are likely the DSLMs pitching can contain, to some extent, the high scoring Gigantes offense.

Gigantes bats of death include 1B/DH Hector Sanchez (348/458/502), corner OF Sundrendy Windster (268/356/460 with a team leading 10 HR, huge in the DSL) and an on-base machine in IF Julio Izturis (284/471/355). Most of the team runs an OPS in the 720-750 range, pretty good for the dead-ball DSL.

Key starters include workhorse Edward Concepcion (14 GS +1, 4.20 ERA, 75 IP, 2 HR, 20/64 BB/K), the erratic Argenis Sanchez (14 GS, 3.57 ERA, 70.2 IP, 1 HR, 30/61 BB/K), and strike throwing out machine Miguel Ferrer (11 GS +2, 2.44 ERA, 62.2 IP, 1 HR, 16/42 BB/K). Marcos Prada (13 GS, 4.60 ERA, 58.2 IP, 2 HR, 29/39 BB/K) also starts but isn't that great and I doubt we see much of him in this series. The bullpen, almost to a man, takes advantage of the large DSL strike zone and nets a lot of K's but walks a ton of guys as well. The DSLers, by and large, are patient, and if they can get to the Gigantes bullpen, they can probably sit on their bad control and chunder forth a few extra runs.

- Meanwhile, the PMs are now in the hole after Nick Czyz bombed and got pulled before the 3rd inning, leaving the PMs in a 4-0 hole from which they never quite emerged in a 7-4 loss. The PMs got within 5-4 in the 5th, but the bats quieted down and the bullpen let 2 more slip.

- Sign Number Umpteen That the Mavs Have Officially Said "Screw It" To This Season: 3B Ronnie Prettyman started yesterday at SS. (Triunfel played 2B)

- Joe Woerman got a mulligan from me after his last crappy start, but the bad one against Mississippi yesterday does not get a pass: he walked 6 in 4 innings and only recorded 4 groundouts and a K.

1st: Flyball, strikeout (swing), walk, line drive, walk, flyball
2nd: Line drive, groundball, flyball, groundball
3rd: Pop up, groundball, walk, line drive, flyball, groundball, groundball
4th: Line drive, walk, bunt groundball, walk, walk, groundball, flyball

Groundballs: 6 (plus 1 bunt)
Flyballs: 5
Line Drives: 4
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 6
Strikeouts: 1

- Luis Valbuena is on fire, 19 for his last 45 with 6 walks. Granted, all but one of those hits are singles (and the other was a double), and his LD rate this month has actually slid over the last few weeks, so he's largely benefitting from positive variance. But given this guy was hitting everything into the ground in June, I'll take it.

Stats below the jump.

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- With Tropical Storm Gustav having passed, the DSLMs and DSL Twins played Game 2 of their playoff series in Santo Domingo, and the DSLMs bats finally awoke. Rudy van Heydoorn doubled in a run in a 1st and later scored on a wild pitch. Rudy doubled home another run in the 3rd, and the Twins did not respond off of a strong Miguel Celestino until getting a gift run in the 7th off a muffed catch in LF by Angel Zapata with a man on 2nd. But the DSLMs loaded the bases in the 8th and Hector Mercedes cleared them with a one out double to stretch the lead out to 6-1.

Bruno Mercedes pitched for the 2nd time in 3 days and struggled, giving up a couple runs on a 2 out double to make it close. But catcher Hassiel Jimenez caught runner Carlos Vasquez off the bag between 1st and 2nd, threw to 2nd and 2B Bertin Sanon ran him down to end the game and tie the series at one game apiece.

The DSLMs will see if they can bring their bats to Boca Chica this time, as they face the DSL Twins in the decisive Game 3 today.

- How's this for a name: the Vancouver Canadians reliever who pitched the 8th and 9th innings of Vancouver's 5-1 win over Everett was Mathieu LeBlanc Poirier. The last two names are his surname and would go on the back of his jersey... if NWL teams did that sort of thing. Other than that, there's isn't much else to say about the lefthanded Quebecois, who is getting a brief test run in the NWL after an unlucky but productive stint with the AZLAs.

- The Montgomery Biscuits sent their B lineup out against Edward Paredes, making his 2nd AA start, and go figure he had himself a good night, throwing 6 shutout innings and striking out 6 with 9 groundouts on only 3 hits and 2 walks.

1st: Line drive, groundball, groundball
2nd: Groundball, groundball, hit batter, strikeout (swing)
3rd: Groundball, pop up, strikeout (called)
4th: Flyball, groundball, groundball, walk, strikeout (swing)
5th: Hit batter, strikeout (swing), walk, groundball
6th: Groundball, strikeout (swing), flyball, strikeout (swing)

Groundballs: 9
Flyballs: 2
Line Drives: 1
Pop Ups: 1
Walks: 2 (plus 1 hit batter)
Strikeouts: 6

As the 1st half North division champs, the DIAMOND JAXX will likely face the much improved Mississippi AA Braves (I blame the brief but inspiring veteran presence of Jeff Francoeur's cameo appearance) in the Southern League playoffs, and chances are likely that they're going to get creamed, but their hopes will rest on the abilities of guys like Paredes, so if they can finish strong... never say never.

- Speaking of never saying never... you can say 'never' now to the Rainiers PCL playoff chances: the Salt Lake Bees, who matched the Rainiers step for step in the win column once they got within 5 games, have officially clinched the PCL Pacific North division.

The Rainiers shouldn't have even been in the race, with Salt Lake starting the season 21-1 and the Rainiers playing a hair under .500 ball most of the way. But then the Bees cooled off and played .500 ball, the Rainiers rattled off 12 straight wins, and suddenly, with about two weeks left, the Rainiers were 5 back and people suddenly pushed the idea of a Rainiers pennant race.

Sure enough, however, though the Rainiers stayed hot, the Bees woke up, kept pace all the way, and 5 games was as close as the Rainiers would get before the Bees locked it up. I'm a Rainiers fan as much as anyone and I would have loved to see them come all the way back, especially against the Angels' AAA affiliate... but I think the small sample size of the Astros miracle 2005 NL Central run (where they went from 8 back to tied in 8 days), the Phillies comeback on the Mets in the NL East last year, and the M's famous run in 1995... have colored some perspectives on how unlikely it is to make up a 5 game deficit in such a short span of time. Even after their winning streak closed the gap, the probability of the Rainiers making up 6 games (there is no one game playoff if tied, and the Bees have the tiebreaker) in less than two weeks, given a wealth of statistical precedence, was remote at best. Great run, Tacoma Rainiers, but the pennant race was over long ago, and in the big picture of the division title race, this excellent run is akin to making a 10-1 deficit a 10-7 loss. It looks better at first glance in the newspapers... until you take a closer look at the boxes.

But that is not to detract from what the Rainiers did this past month. Winning games and playing great in August? That's awesome. Winning streaks despite half the team getting called up to the Mariners failboat? That's awesome. A lot of awesome things happened in Tacoma this month, and the comeback in the standings, though not enough to prevent a walkover, was a statement in itself.

And hey, there are still games left, so if you live in Puget Sound and want to be reminded what winning baseball looks like, take the chance to head to Cheney Stadium one more time before the season ends.

- Chris Jakubauskas became the latest injury-lister to come back. He relieved another fellow Team DLer, Robert Rohrbaugh, in the 5th, worked through the 6th, and though he allowed 2 unearned runs on 4 hits, he struck out 5 on 48 pitches, 34 for strikes. We'll see if he finished strong, and then we'll see if the org keeps him around or cuts him loose. Normally, these Indy vets come and go, but the 29 year old Jakubauskas appeared to be on his way to forcing himself into the 25 man conversation when he got hurt.

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- After getting rocked his first time out, 3rd round pick Ben Pribanic looked far better in a 3 inning relief stint with the AZLMs yesterday.

4th: Strikeout (swing), flyball, flyball, strikeout (called)
5th: Strikeout (swing), bunt groundball, groundball, hit batter, line drive
6th: Groundball, flyball, strikeout (called), walk, flyball

He's still showing flyball tendencies, but given he just got hammered his first time out, this is a relief.

- Jarrett Burgess in August: 309/356/420... 10% LD rate, .424 BABIP, 25.3% K/PA. He certainly needed a good month, but there's a lot of luck involved here.

- Robert Rodriguez in August: 107/138/161... 10% LD rate, .207 BABIP, 46.6% K. He's just blown.

- Pulaski's last regular season game got rained out, but congratulations to the PMs on winning the Appalachian League's East Division title in Pulaski's first year back in the league. Their reward? A 3 game Championship Series with the West division champions, the Elizabethton Twins. The Liz Twins led the league with 6.33 runs per game, an .823 OPS, 142 doubles, 263 walks, and 88 HR. No, really, they led the league in all those respective categories.

The Liz Twins home park, Joe O'Brien Stadium, is possibly a contributing factor, as they have also allowed the 3rd most runs in the league (5.27). Their 181 walks issue is tied for the lowest total in the App League, while their 52 HRs allowed is the most. Maybe it's the park, maybe not: their .602 defensive efficiency is lowest in the App League.

With no park factor data below A ball, there's no definite stats to point at and say yes or no. I'll have to do some research this offseason on the subject, but in any case, the PMs are facing a team that can score a lot of runs and surrender a lot of runs. Win or lose, this should be a fun series.

- Pulaski's playing for a championship, but Everett's just trying to stay out of the division cellar. Going into yesterday tied with Vancouver for the bottom slot, they eked out a rain shortened 4-2 win to move out and leave the Canadians by themselves.

The culprit for Everett has been consistent weakness across the board: their .702 OPS and 4.69 runs per game are 3rd least in the Northwest League, their 573 K's are tops, their 249 walks are 2nd least, their 5.41 runs allowed per game tied for worst, their 44 HRs surrendered 2nd most, and the kicker: their .617 defensive efficiency is worst in the league by a comfortable margin. They can't even make the youth excuse, as they have one of the NWL's more veteran rosters, with the majority of their team in the 22-23 year old age range (whereas the average NWLer is 21-22) with only a handful of teenagers.

- One guy that's going to get on M's fans' nerves in a few years is Venezuelan pitcher Jose Perez. He struck out 10 T-Rats in yesterday's 4-0 Cedar Rapids win. He had struggled in his first 3 starts with the Angels affiliate since his callup from Orem of the Pioneer League, where he struck out 77 in 58.1 IP with only 8 walks but also surrendered 7 HR and ran an ERA in the 4's with a 17% LD rate. The guys is a strikeout machine that doesn't walk anybody once he gets the hang of things, and if he can do a better job of keeping the ball down... I suspect he'll be another in a long line of useful Angels SPs.

- West Tenn had 11 hits total in their doubleheader sweep defeat to Montgomery. Mark Kiger (227/356/294) had 5 of them.

The M's are allegedly trying to keep the DIAMOND JAXX roster loaded for the playoffs, but I'm not sure it's worth it. The current team as is just isn't very good, let alone competitive in a short series. They're far too flat, the pitching far too hittable, too many inconsistent, struggling arms, far too many empty lineup spots, and the hitters who can hit aren't consistently productive enough to offset any of this. Whoever they face in the Southern League playoffs will probably take the series in a walkover. What use is Shawn Kelley in the 8th inning of a 3-0 deficit or a 10-2 rout? You may as well call him up to AAA and be done with it. But if they want to load a playoff-bound roster and take their best shot, even if it's a longshot, then go for it.

- The first game of last night's Rainiers doubleheader was resumption of a scheduled game from way back on April 6. I love how, with two outs in the bottom 1st, a flurry of substitutions takes place for players who are no longer with the Rainiers, and in a couple of cases not even with the org anymore.

Defensive Substitution: Chris Denorfia replaces center fielder Nicholas Blasi, batting 1st, playing center field.
Defensive Substitution: Matt Murton replaces left fielder Todd Linden, batting 4th, playing left field.
Pitcher Change: Vincent Mazzaro replaces Brad Knox.
Offensive Substitution: Pinch runner Luis Valbuena replaces Bronson Sardinha.
Offensive Substitution: Pinch runner Michael Saunders replaces Greg Norton.
Offensive Substitution: Pinch hitter Victor Diaz replaces Wladimir Balentien.
On-field Delay (of about 4 months and 3 weeks).
Victor Diaz strikes out swinging.

Also, Nick Blasi, subbed out for on the River Cats side, was at one point on this Rainiers roster. He's currently with Charlotte, his 3rd AAA team this season.

- After his awesome start last time, Brandon Morrow threw 79 pitches (47 for strikes) after picking up where Robert Rohrbaugh left off in the suspended game, but took a bad beating in the 5th.

2nd: Strikeout (called), flyball, groundball
3rd: Walk, pop up, strikeout (swing), flyball
4th: Flyball (HR), strikeout (swing), groundball, flyball
5th: Line drive, walk, flyball (HR), walk, flyball, groundball, flyball, flyball, pop up
6th: Groundball, groundball

Groundballs: 5
Flyballs: 8 (2 HR)
Line Drives: 1
Pop Ups: 2
Walks: 3
Strikeouts: 3

The two HRs were his 1st and 2nd long balls allowed in Tacoma as a starter. His LD rate going in was only 12.5%, and obviously wasn't affected too much, but Morrow certainly hasn't been a groundball pitcher. His rate there was 40.6% and that certainly went down a bit yesterday.

Stats below the jump.

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