Majors’ playoff prep underway

Around the Diamond: London’s goal now is scouting potential playoff foes; A look at the leaderboard — Boon, de Oleo & Joseph; No more rotating rotation; Kayne McGee has a hot bat. Our latest news & notes …

Josh Williams calls for time after doubling in London’s 11-5 win over Hamilton Wednesday, August 9, 2023. Williams went 3-for-4 in the contest. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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The London Majors may be seventh in Intercounty Baseball League standings, but they’ve been a winning team over the last two weeks. Since snapping a six-game losing skid, London has gone 5-3 since July 28 – and they enter the weekend having won three of their last four.

The most recent? An 11-5 win over the Hamilton Cardinals Wednesday at Labatt Park. Veteran Owen Boon was in his usual fine form, turning in a quality start over six innings with 12 strikeouts. He continues to lead the league in punchouts, having racked up 98 in 66 2/3 innings over 10 starts. And the offense showed up, too, including putting up a seven-run second inning to build a commanding lead.

Hamilton (16-20) is one of the two teams London could catch in the standings before the end of the regular season. The Cardinals enter the weekend just two games ahead of London (13-21), and the two teams will play Sunday in Hamilton. The other team is Guelph (17-20), currently 2.5 games ahead of the Majors.

As it currently stands, the Majors appear to be in line to face either the Barrie Baycats or Kitchener Panthers in a first-round playoff series (they play Kitchener Friday at home). If they were to jump two spots in the standings, they’d likely face the Toronto Maple Leafs. Those two teams exchanged wins last weekend at their respective home parks.

So, the Majors’ plan for the remainder of the year? Prepare for playoffs, scout the potential opposition, improve on the little things, and key in on the mindset needed to win a playoff series. They’ll have no shortage of opportunities. A hectic August schedule will see London play eight games over the next 10 days. It starts this weekend with Kitchener at home Friday, Brantford on the road Saturday, and at Hamilton Sunday …

1) The winning inning. Shades of 2022 have crept into the Majors’ recent play – most notably, the team’s ability to produce high-scoring innings that pave the way for a win. In fact, in each of their last four games (three of those wins), the Majors have enjoyed an inning where they scored six runs or more.

In their big 16-7 win over Toronto last Friday, London scored six in the second inning; They scored six in the fourth inning of a 13-4 win over Brantford last Saturday; Despite a lopsided loss Sunday in Toronto, they put up eight runs in the eighth inning; and in Wednesday’s win over Hamilton, they scored seven in the second inning to give ace Owen Boon more than enough to work with.

The big inning, of course, was a huge feature of the 2022 championship-winning offense. How has the current squad been tapping into the same phenomenon recently?

“I think it’s just confidence, and then the hitting becomes contagious,” said Majors manager Roop Chanderdat. “A couple guys get hits, and it starts rippling through that lineup. It’s contagious when no one’s hitting and everyone’s striking out, and it’s also contagious when a few guys start hitting and then you just hand it off to the next guy.”

Most impressive about Wednesday’s seven-run 2nd inning? Six of those runs came with two outs in the inning. The Majors racked up seven hits in the frame, including a two-run single by Byron Reichstein and RBI hits from Eduardo de Oleo, Tommy Reyes-Cruz and Kayne McGee.

2) A look at the leaderboard. With a very productive couple of weeks, a pair of Majors find themselves among the top five in the league in runs batted in. Eduardo de Oleo and Starling Joseph enter action this weekend with 40 RBIs apiece, good for a tie for fourth in the IBL. Kitchener’s Raul Gonzalez leads with 48. 

An argument could be made, of course, that de Oleo, who is second in the league with 13 home runs, would be leading in both categories had he not missed nearly a month of action due to injury earlier this season. He’s batted .330 in 26 games so far this year. Joseph, meanwhile, has his average up to .326. He’s also the only Major to play in every game this season.

Byron Reichstein, who sports the Majors’ highest batting average among qualifiers at .333 (32-for-96) in 25 games, is 15th overall in the league. A hot stretch could move him into the top 10. Joseph is second in the league in doubles with 14.

Owen Boon, as mentioned, leads the league in strikeouts with 98. He’s 22 ahead of Guelph’s Yuki Narita. Boon’s 3.51 ERA, meanwhile, ranks third in the IBL behind Barrie’s Frank Garces and Kitchener’s Christian Hauck.

Owen Boon, the Majors’ ace, leads the IBL in strikeouts. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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3) No more rotating rotation? After several changes in the Majors’ starting pitching rotation throughout the season, with import players coming and going, things are locked in now – at least for the team’s top three arms. After Boon, London is rolling with Wilbur Martinez and Jordan Schulefand. They’ll be the top three to go in a playoff series, and all three enjoyed good starts last week.

Martinez earned his second straight win last Friday when London beat Toronto for the first time this season. The right-hander went 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits. He walked two and struck out seven.

“He’s been keeping teams off balance,” Chanderdat said. “That’s his second good start in a row, and you can see the guys now have confidence in him.

“And same with Schulefand,” the manager added. “He’s had a few good starts here in a row. He’s a bulldog. We’re gonna need these guys if we’re gonna win a series.”

Schulefand drew Brantford in his most recent start, last Saturday, and held the Red Sox to four runs in seven complete innings. Notably, the righty struck out 10. That’s 16 strikeouts (to just two walks) over 13 innings in his first two starts in a Majors uniform.

Martinez is penciled in to start Friday against Kitchener, and Schulefand will start against either Hamilton Sunday or Brantford Saturday.

4) Kayne is able. Do all good things start with a home run? That appears to be how it’s worked out for Majors’ first baseman Kayne McGee, who smacked his first IBL homer in Kitchener July 23 and has since had a hot bat.

Including his 2-for-4 performance in that London win, the 24-year-old has batted an impressive .424 (14-for-33) in his last nine games to raise his season average to .320 over 75 at-bats in 31 games. He’s had a pair of three-hit games during his current hot stretch, as well as a pair of two-RBI games.

That’s darn good production from a bat in the lower third of the lineup, which is where McGee has usually been featured. Against Hamilton Wednesday, the big first baseman went 2-for-4 with a walk and a pair of RBIs. After leading off the second inning with a single, McGee came up again, after the Majors had batted around, and drove in the sixth and seventh runs of the inning to give London a commanding lead.

An underrated bat by opposing pitchers, McGee could play a key role in the Majors’ lineup come playoff time. If London’s ‘bigger name’ hitters, like Reichstein, de Oleo, Brownlee and Joseph, are locked in, it could mean problems for the opposition if guys like McGee pose a problem, too.