On deck: Majors vs. Leafs in IBL Final

The Majors are back in the IBL Finals for the first time since 2014. How did they get here? And can they win it all for the first time since 1975?

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

The London Majors’ season will come full circle when they take the field Friday to begin the 2021 Intercounty League Baseball finals. With the championship on the line, they’ll face the same team they did to begin this whirlwind, post-pandemic, fans-allowed season. 

Just like on Opening Night, a mere 10 weeks ago, it’ll be the Toronto Maple Leafs in the visiting dugout at Labatt Park on Friday as the teams begin the league’s championship series, a best-of-five affair that will crown a winner for the first time since 2019 – and a champion other than the Barrie Baycats or Brantford Red Sox for the first time since 2007.

Who won that year? The Toronto Maple Leafs. The Majors, who have reached the finals twice since then (most recently, in 2014), are seeking their first title since 1975, a remarkable 45-year drought that has seen too many close calls to count.

Will 2021 be the year they win that elusive title?

If so, it’ll likely be on the strength of their pitching. The Majors boasted the best 1-2 punch in the league during the regular season, with righty Owen Boon and lefty Pedro De Los Santos finishing top two in all major pitching categories.

Boon was tops with eight wins and 66 strikeouts. De Los Santos was second with seven and 57, respectively. The latter, meanwhile, led the league with a 2.19 ERA (Boon was second at 2.33).

And the pair continued their dominance in London’s semi-final series against the Brantford Red Sox. De Los Santos earned the win in Game 1, a 9-5 Majors victory, allowing three earned runs over eight innings. Boon’s series-clinching win in Game 2, a 6-0 victory in Brantford, was arguably the most dominant pitching performance in the league this season. The right-hander tossed a complete game shutout, striking out a career-high 16 batters along the way.

That’s been the way it’s gone for the Majors all season. Between them, the team’s two aces threw nearly half of London’s innings during the regular season, combining for 123 2/3 innings out of a total 257 (48 percent) while making 18 of the team’s 30 starts. No other team in the IBL has relied so heavily on their top two arms this year.

When you add Braeden Ferrington into the mix, that percentage goes up to 60 percent of innings between the three of them. Ferrington, the team’s leading arm out of the bullpen, turned in a pristine 0.86 ERA in 31 1/3 innings during the regular season, and he was the only arm other than the pair of aces to appear in the semis for London, tossing a scoreless ninth in Game 1.

Will this setup be sustainable during the league championship against the Maple Leafs? It’s a best-of-five series, after all, and while that’s shorter than the normal best-of-seven affair in a non-pandemic season, it will still require more innings to be filled.

Notable, however, is the scheduling of the series. De Los Santos and Boon will go in Games 1 and 2 Friday and Sunday. But it’s likely they’ll also be able to throw Games 4 and 5 (if necessary), since those games will happen later the following week. That could mean the Majors would need to start only one other arm in the series (potentially Luke Kelley or Nick Carrell).

Pedro De Los Santos, one-half of the Majors’ pair of aces, along with Owen Boon, will play a major role for London in the IBL championship series against Toronto. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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Speaking of scheduling, this is how things line up for the 2021 IBL championship series, with the Majors having home-field advantage thanks to their pennant-winning finish in the regular season: 

IBL Championship Schedule: London Majors vs. Toronto Maple Leafs 

Game 1: Fri. Sept. 24 (7:35pm at Labatt Park)
Game 2: Sun. Sept. 26 (2:00pm @ Christie Pits)
Game 3: Tue. Sept. 28 (7:35pm at Labatt Park)
Game 4: Thurs. Sept. 30 (7:30pm @ Christie Pits) (if necessary)
Game 5: Fri. Oct. 1 (7:35pm at Labatt Park) (if necessary)

How did we get here?

You could say it all started with a matchup between these two teams on a July night at Labatt Park, which opened both clubs’ seasons in this summer’s condensed, post-pandemic return to baseball. That night, it was all Majors.

It had been 696 days since the last official IBL game at Labatt Park, and the Majors came out strong in front of a (COVID-restricted) capacity crowd of 1,100. Boon earned the win in a 12-1 London win over Toronto, going six innings on Opening Night, allowing just an unearned run on four hits (he walked two and struck out three).

It was a sign of things to come, as the Majors went wire to wire in first place in the IBL standings in 2021 en route to winning the league pennant (their first since 2016 and just their third since 2008). They finished with a 22-8 record, including 12-3 at home.

Aces aside, the Majors’ bats have also had something to say this year. Byron Reichstein was the team’s offensive MVP during the regular season, finishing with a .411 batting average, good for fifth-best in the league. It marked the first time since 2013 (Ryan Lapensee) that a Major had hit over .400 for a season. Reichstein hit a home run in London’s playoff opener and finished the semi-final series 5-for-9 with a pair of runs driven in.

Catcher Hayden Jaco has also had a strong year at the plate, batting .379 during the regular season, with four home runs and 19 RBIs. Carlos Arteaga, meanwhile, hit .337 and drove in 28 runs, just one shy of Reichstein for the team lead. Chris McQueen (.317), Adam Filmon (.312), Keith Kandel (.304) and Austin Wilkie (.303) each finished with .300+ batting averages, while Cleveland Brownlee’s seven home runs tied Reichstein for the team lead (Brownlee also had 21 RBIs).

Maple Leafs at the plate

You want to talk offense? The Toronto Maple Leafs have that in spades, and that will be the primary challenge facing the Majors in this year’s IBL championship series. The Maple Leafs, who finished tied with the Kitchener Panthers for second in the regular season with a 16-14 record, and then went on to sweep both their quarter final (Hamilton Cardinals) and semi-final (Barrie Baycats) matchups, trot out a lineup that is dangerous essentially one thru nine.

Long-time IBL veteran Sean Reilly, at 44 years of age, led the league in hitting (.442), with his 23-year-old teammate, Garret Takamatsu, finishing second with a .419 mark. Catcher Justin Marra, who batted .350, led the league in home runs (13) and RBIs (43). Jordan Castaldo, Johnathan Solazzo and Marcus Knecht were also dangerous hitters for the Maple Leafs this summer.

As a team, Toronto led the league with a .323 batting average (London was second at .312). The Maple Leafs were first in most offensive categories, including runs, home runs, RBIs, walks and OPS. Playing out of Christie Pits helped, to be sure, as the Maple Leafs’ hitter-friendly home ballpark is known to produce high-scoring games, but there’s no denying the potency of the Toronto lineup that will step into the box against London’s pitchers in the IBL finals.

Byron Reichstein has led the Majors offense in 2021, along the way becoming the first London player to hit .400 in a season since 2013. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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Projected Lineups

And what will that lineup look like? Here’s a projected Toronto lineup, which the Maple Leafs rolled out in their semi-final series-clinching win over the Barrie Baycats:

Toronto Maple Leafs:

1. Jordan Castaldo 1B
2. Justin Marra C
3. Sean Reilly DH
4. Garret Takamatsu 2B
5. Marcus Knecht RF
6. Johnathan Solazzo 3B
7. Dan Marra SS
8. Chandler McLaren LF
9. Connor Lewis CF

And here’s a projection of what the London Majors’ lineup will look like in the championship series:

London Majors:

1. Chris McQueen 2B
2. Carlos Arteaga 3B
3. Humberto Ruiz LF
4. Byron Reichstein RF
5. Cleveland Brownlee DH
6. Hayden Jaco C
7. Austin Wilkie CF
8. Adam Filmon 1B
9. Keith Kandel SS

Season Series

Following that Opening Night 12-1 win by the Majors over the Maple Leafs on July 9, the teams met four more times during this year’s regular season, with London winning the season series three games to two. On July 18, in Toronto, the Leafs came away with a 5-4 win. Catcher Hayden Jaco actually made the start for the Majors in that game, one of two starts on the year for the backstop.

On August 6, in London, the Majors returned the favour with their own 5-4 win. Robert Doyle and Ferrington combined for seven innings and just two earned runs in that contest, with Ferrington picking up the win.

Back in London on August 27, the Majors won again, this time 5-1 on the strength of a seven-inning scoreless outing from Boon, his second win against Toronto on the year. Four days later, in Toronto, the Maple Leafs ransacked the Majors, 21-12, in a classic slugfest at Christie Pits on a night the balls were flying out of the yard. London’s Luke Kelley took the loss in that contest, which also featured import pitchers Carrell and Eduardo Perez making appearances on the mound.

Of note? The Maple Leafs have not faced Pedro De Los Santos, who could start Game 1 Friday, at all this season. That’s not to say they aren’t familiar with the left-hander. After all, De Los Santos spent three seasons pitching for the Maple Leafs, from 2017 to 2019. The Santo Domingo native served as a starter and reliever during his time with Toronto.

Now, he’s looking to beat his former team, and for an IBL championship title – for a Majors franchise that hasn’t accomplished the feat in 45 years. It’s perhaps the best chance the Majors have had during manager Roop Chanderdat’s tenure to win it all, but predictions don’t count for much. London will need to get it done on the field – and it all starts Friday night at Labatt Park.