Around the Diamond: Pennant fever; Career year for Mr. Major?

The Majors’ fate is in their own hands. Win both this weekend and they’re IBL pennant winners two years in a row; Has 2022 been Brownlee’s best?; Reichstein rounding into form. Our latest news & notes …

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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1) Controlling their own destiny. Yes, the three-way battle for top spot in the IBL could eventually come down to tie-breaking scenarios and a one-game playoff to decide first place. But Majors manager Roop Chanderdat isn’t thinking about any of that. He’s looking at the loss column, and that’s where London has the edge. Simply put, if the Majors (30-10) win both their games this weekend, they finish first and earn the IBL pennant for the second year in a row.

They’ve got their hands full, to be sure, facing two strong teams to close out the regular season. Friday night offers up a great matchup for baseball fans, with the Guelph Royals (28-11) coming to town for a 7:35pm start at Labatt Park. The Majors have won five in a row. The Royals have won six in a row (and 13 of their last 15).

Guelph is a club with a potent offense (including former Blue Jay Dalton Pompey) and a top arm in Claudio Custodio, who has a 2.35 ERA and an eye-popping 181 strikeouts (a league record) in 111 innings this season heading into Friday’s game.

Welland (28-11), currently tied with Guelph at 1.5 games back of first, is the third team with pennant ambitions. Like the Royals, the Jackfish have three games remaining (compared to London’s two). It’s conceivable there could be a three-way tie and/or a one-game playoff to decide top spot heading into the playoffs, but that’ll all get sorted out this weekend. Whoever finishes first guarantees themselves home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

A reminder, all eight teams make the playoffs, and there are no byes. The first round will feature No. 1 vs. No. 8, No. 2 vs. No. 7, and so on, with each series being a best-of-five. The second round is also a best-of-five, while the IBL Finals will be a best-of-seven.

2) Milestone watch. A phenomenal season for pitcher Jose Arias could end up etched in the Majors’ history books. The ace right-hander, who will take the mound Friday night with a record of 10-1 and a league-best 1.61 ERA, is eight strikeouts shy of tying Mike Kilkenny’s all-time single season mark of 129, set back in 1975. 

Arias’s 121 strikeouts (in 89 2/3 innings) are second most in the league (behind Custodio). Teammate Owen Boon, meanwhile, is third with 101 punchouts. Boon should enter the top five in franchise history during his start Sunday in Toronto. He needs just two strikeouts to tie and three to overtake fifth spot, ahead of Jon Owen’s 103 in 1981. Boon actually has slightly more strikeouts-per-innings-pitched than Arias this season (1.38 compared to 1.35).

Cleveland Brownlee already reached his milestones. The 37-year-old slugger (who turns 38 next Friday) has set new single-season career highs in both home runs (15) and RBIs (52) during his exceptional 2022 IBL regular season. His previous bests (13 and 50, respectively) had been set in 2013, during his age-28 season. Entering action Friday, he’s played the same number of games (40) as he did during that campaign, and the numbers are very similar – nine years apart. 

2022: 40 games, 15 HR, 52 RBI, 41 R, 16 BB, 45 K.
2013: 40 games, 13 HR, 50 RBI, 37 R, 12 BB, 34 K.

The only edge 2013 has is batting average, as Brownlee hit .369 (59-for-160) that season, the second-best mark of his career (he hit .387 in 35 games in 2011). Heading into action Friday, he’s at .336 (51-for-152) this season.

Byron Reichstein, last year’s team MVP who re-joined the Majors on Canada Day, has been rounding into form as the playoffs approach. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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3) Reichstein rounding into form. He was the team’s MVP last season; the first to post a batting average of .400 or better since outfielder Ryan LaPensee did it back in 2013 (Majors catcher Robert Mullen, currently at .413, has a good shot to do it this year – and win a batting title in the process). He famously belted the game-changing home run in Game 5 of last year’s IBL Finals against Toronto.

But Byron Reichstein stepped away from playing this summer, committing himself to other activities, including serving as a coach for the London Badgers’ U16 team – until he came back. He’s still coaching, but Reichstein has been pulling double duty since making his return to the Majors on Canada Day. He got off to a slow start, perhaps not surprisingly with the time off, batting .212 (7-for-31) in his first nine games back, but he’s turned things on since then.

Reichstein has hit safely in seven of his last eight, batting a more Byron-like .407 (11-for-27) during that span. He’s homered in two straight, including blasting a first-inning grand slam last Sunday in an eventual 17-2 lopsided Majors win over Kitchener. The 29-year-old went 4-for-5 in that contest, and suddenly has his season average up to an even .300 entering action this weekend (with a .403 on-base percentage).

He's still hitting out of the six spot in the lineup, but that speaks more to the Majors’ potent offense than to anything else. Jakob Newton (.380, second in IBL) has excelled atop the order, while Taylor Wright is a force at No. 2. His .394 batting average would actually put him second in the league if he qualified (he’s 20 plate appearances short). Brownlee and Mullen have been locked into the 3-4 spots all season, and Starling Joseph, at .352, is No. 5. Reichstein, then, gives London arguably the best No. 6 hitter in the league.

4) McQueen makes his return. Family commitments and a busy schedule forced veteran Chris McQueen to take a step back from the team earlier this summer, but the second baseman is now back with the team and available off the bench this weekend in London’s two crucial contests.

It’s been a bit of a trying season for the 28-year-old, both at the plate and in the field, but there’s no denying McQueen can provide a spark for the Majors, as he’s done in years passed. He’s a career .315 hitter, after all, in his six seasons wearing the London pinstripes. Even this year, despite batting just .236 (13-for-55) in 18 games, he’s posted a .400 on-base percentage, showing off his on-base skills and plate discipline (he’s walked 12 times compared to just five strikeouts).

He also offers speed on the basepaths and can play multiple positions. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a veteran in the clubhouse and someone Chanderdat expects to contribute in a variety of ways during London’s playoff push and quest to repeat as IBL champs.

Don’t be surprised if Chanderdat gets McQueen into this weekend’s games against Guelph and/or Toronto – perhaps in a key situation as a pinch hitter or a pinch runner. It’s all hands on deck as the Majors try to win out and earn their second straight IBL pennant.