Around the Diamond: Cardinals up next; Finals on deck?

The Majors kick off their semi-final series Saturday against Hamilton. Who has the momentum — the pennant winners or the team coming off a big upset win? Our latest news & notes …

Majors ace Jose Arias gets the ball for Game 1 Saturday. He’ll be followed by Owen Boon in Hamilton Sunday for Game 2. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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And then there were four. London’s semi-final opponent wasn’t known until after 10:30pm Friday night, but it’ll be the Hamilton Cardinals – beginning Saturday night – after the Cardinals, who finished seventh in the regular season, upset the No. 2 Guelph Royals in their quarterfinal series (Toronto and Welland will square off in the other semi).

And the Cardinals did it in exciting fashion, coming back from a 4-0 deficit to win 6-4 in extra innings – on the road. It’ll be a quick turnaround for Hamilton Saturday (less than 24 hours), as they’ll travel to London for Game 1 of an IBL semi-final series Saturday night. First pitch at Labatt Park is scheduled for 7:05pm.

For the Majors, it was about who they’d be facing in the semis, after they made quick work of Brantford in their own quarterfinal, sweeping the Red Sox in three games. Had Guelph won, it would have been Toronto – a rematch of last year’s IBL Finals. But Hamilton had other plans.

The Cardinals opened their best-of-five series against Guelph – who just a week ago narrowly lost out on first place in the league after a tie-breaking loss to London – by winning each of the first two games. And, despite dropping the next two, they managed to pull off the upset in Friday night’s Game 5. They battled Guelph’s top two pitchers, including Claudio Custodio (who started the contest, on just two days rest) and Jeifry Nunez.

It was Nunez they got to, scoring three runs off the right-hander in the sixth inning to tie things 4-4. Then, in the 10th, they rallied to score two more and come away with the extra-inning win.

1) Cardinals flying high. It was a whirlwind week for the Hamilton Cardinals, and they’re certainly flying high after knocking out one of the best teams in the league. They’re also certainly running on adrenaline, having played five games in the last seven days. That’ll be seven in their last nine days by the end of the weekend, with Game 1 against London going Saturday night and Game 2 going Sunday.

Will the busy schedule impact Hamilton’s chances against the Majors? It’s hard to say, but London’s pitching staff is well-rested, while the Cardinals’ arms are certainly not. And that may be key to the series, as Hamilton boasts a strong bullpen. Case in point: On Friday night, three Cardinal arms (Jose Fernandez, Daury Torrez and Corben Peters) combined to shut out Guelph, one of the league’s best offenses, over the final six innings, striking out nine in the process.

How did these teams fare against each other during the regular season? It was one-sided, in London’s favour, with the Majors winning all six times and outscoring the Cardinals 67-22 in those contests. London scored double digit runs in the first five. In the sixth, back on July 29, the Majors won a 7-0 contest at home. Fernando Fernandez made the start in that game, and London showed off their own bullpen, as Anderson Acevedo, Daniel Gore and Braeden Ferrington contributed to the four-pitcher shutout win. Cleveland Brownlee and Taylor Wright (3-for-4, 3 RBIs) both homered in that contest.

On paper, then, this series seems like an uneven matchup. But not so fast. The Majors haven’t seen Hamilton in over a month, and after that July 29 contest, the Cardinals, despite finishing in seventh place in the standings, have played better than .500 baseball (9-6). Included in those nine wins are an eye-popping four against Guelph, who they bounced from the playoffs Friday night (they also beat Toronto during that stretch). 

IBL Playoffs Semi-Final: London Majors vs. Hamilton Cardinals (best-of-five series)

Game 1: Sat. Sept. 3 (7:05pm at Labatt Park)
Game 2: Sun. Sept. 4 (2:00pm @ Bernie Arbour Stadium)
Game 3: Tues. Sept. 6 (7:35pm at Labatt Park)
Game 4: Wed. Sept. 7 (7:30pm @ Bernie Arbour Stadium) (if necessary)
Game 5: Fri. Sept. 9 (7:35pm at Labatt Park) (if necessary)

London won all six games against Hamilton during the regular season, but the Cardinals are 9-6 in their last 15 and just knocked off No. 2 Guelph in the first round of the playoffs. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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2) A clean sweep. Things weren’t so nail-biting in London’s quarterfinal series, as they made quick work of the Brantford Red Sox, winning three straight – in three straight days – to punch their ticket to the semis. It’s what they earned with their tie-breaking win over Guelph for the pennant last Thursday, and they got the job done in short order.

They also did it without using either of their top two arms, Jose Arias or Owen Boon. It was Pedro De Los Santos and Gore who got the job done in Games 1 and 2, and Fernandez and Acevedo who held the Red Sox in check in Game 3. Not that it was a close affair, as the Majors put up 23 runs in Game 3 to close out the series in convincing fashion (game scores were 8-0, 15-7 and 23-4).

London’s offense was simply too much to handle for the Sox in the series, punctuated by 24 hits in the finale, during which Starling Joseph belted two homers (and had 7 RBIs), Byron Reichstein went deep, and Dan Perrier went 5-for-6 with three runs scored. Kieran Bowles, giving Robert Mullen a break behind the plate, went 3-for-5 with a double and 5 RBIs.

That’s 3 💣‘s in 2 games🤯‼️#MajorsCity #ibl1919 pic.twitter.com/DfS5Sbc8zK

— London Majors (@londonmajors) August 29, 2022

For the series, Jakob Newton went 7-for-12 with eight runs, Wright was 6-for-11 with five runs and five RBIs, Brownlee went 7-for-12 with a homer, five runs scored and six RBIs, and Reichstein was 4-for-10 with a homer, triple and five RBIs.

3) The aces return. With the Majors quickly going up 2-0 in their series against Brantford, neither Owen Boon nor Jose Arias was needed in the series, and the staff aces got some well-deserved rest heading into the second round of the playoffs. And they’ll be the first two up for London against Hamilton, as Arias will take the mound Saturday at Labatt Park, and Boon will work Game 2 on the road Sunday.

For Arias, it was extra beneficial, as the right-hander had worked 97 2/3 innings during the regular season – second-most in the league behind Guelph’s Custodio. Arias threw 128 pitches in his final regular season start – a pitcher’s duel against Custodio that the Majors lost 2-0. He then started six days later, in the tie-breaking game for the pennant (one night before playoffs began), but manager Roop Chanderdat had him go only three innings. The righty wasn’t quite as sharp as usual, allowing a pair of runs (one earned) with two walks in a game London eventually won 4-3.

Boon, too, had a heavy workload during the regular season, going 79 1/3 innings (fourth-most in the IBL) in 13 starts. Between the two of them, Arias and Boon combined for a 20-2 record and 2.29 ERA (Arias’s 1.58 mark was tops in the league). They finished second and third in strikeouts, racking up 132 and 111, respectively.

Who starts Game 3? That’s still to be determined, although Pedro De Los Santos, after his masterful outing last Friday, has to be in consideration. The crafty lefty, who had an up and down regular season, turned in a gem of a start against Brantford in Game 1 of the quarterfinals, tossing a complete game shutout with 13 strikeouts. He allowed just three hits and one walk in what was by far his best outing of the season.

Fernando Fernandez is another strong option, himself coming off a nice relief outing in the Brantford series (4 2/3 scoreless with three strikeouts in Game 3). The left-hander has shined in his starting opportunities this year, and he’s on a roll, having allowed just one earned run over his last 21 1/3 innings dating back to July 23.

4) What to watch for. As Hamilton showed against Guelph (and over the last month-plus of the season), they can shorten games, so to speak, with a strong bullpen. What that means is they don’t need to go as long with their starting pitchers, instead having bullpen arms work multiple innings. That’s where their best arms are, including talented import pitchers Jose Fernandez and Daury Torrez.

Fernandez has dominated since joining the Cardinals in July. He allowed just one earned run in 10 appearances (15 innings) out of the bullpen (0.60 ERA) during the regular season, racking up 30 strikeouts (two per inning) to just two walks. In the Guelph series, he appeared twice, tossing three scoreless innings with a save and nine strikeouts (in other words, all his outs came via the strikeout).

Torrez, meanwhile, also earned a save in the Guelph series, striking out 10 in 7 2/3 innings over four appearances. Corben Peters, who earned the win Friday night, is another strong arm out of the pen for Hamilton. He also made a start in that series, earning a win in Game 2.

And offensively? The Cardinals are led by Luis Jean, who hit .336 (37-for-110) with 12 stolen bases in 29 regular season games, and Tyler Duncan, a BC native who batted .316 with 20 extra-base hits and 27 RBIs while playing in all 42 contests (his 54 hits tied Cleveland Brownlee and Welland’s Brandon Nicholson for sixth most in the IBL). Catcher Jeremie Veilleux, meanwhile, had a strong series against Guelph, reaching base 11 times in five games, batting .316 with a homer and three RBIs.