Backs against the wall, but Explorers 8-2 at home against Canaries
By Terry Hersom, Journal sports editor | Posted: Thursday, August 28, 2008
Two games into that postseason bid they worked so hard to earn, the Sioux City Explorers haven't done themselves any favors.
That's why it will be do-or-die for these X's tonight at Lewis and Clark Park, where American Association baseball's best-of-five North Division championship series moves into Game 3 (7:05 p.m. start).
The Sioux Falls Canaries, champs of the North during the season's first half, is one game away from the league championship series after turning back the sputtering Explorers 2-1 and 7-1 in the playoffs' first two games Monday and Tuesday at the Bird Cage.
So, there's no margin for error for Sioux City Manager Les Lancaster's club, which has seemed to be out of gas after a difficult fight to nail down the North's second-half title.
"Maybe these guys play under pressure a lot better, when it's do or die,'' said Lancaster taking a hopeful approach. "The last few weeks, that's the way it's been, matching wins with Lincoln and matching wins with Sioux Falls, all that pressure.''
After a Game 1 loss that was little more than a coin flip, the X's weren't very competitive at all in Tuesday's second game. After scoring a run in the first inning, Lancaster's troops surrendered seven unanswered runs.
It was discouraging enough to have the Canaries unload on Sioux City starter Alexander Francisco, coming off a 12-1 regular season that set a club record for wins. Francisco had gone 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA in three previous starts against the Birds, helping the Explorers win the regular season series and the I-29 traveling trophy by an 11-8 margin.
Every bit as discouraging, though, was the production Tuesday from the bottom third of the Canaries' potent lineup. Patrick Reilly, Paul Smith and Tim Hutting were a combined 8-for-11 and scored six of the Birds' seven runs.
Hutting, all but a lock to be the MVP of this series, drove in five of those seven runs on a double and two singles, following up a seventh-inning single that broke a 1-1 tie to decide Monday's series opener.
"Batting average aside, Tim has hit the ball as hard as anybody on this team,'' said Sioux Falls Manager Steve Shirley, handing out bouquets to a shortstop whose .232 batting average paled alongside his team's league-leading (by 15 points) .296 percentage.
Paige Dumont, a 6-foot 8-inch rookie righthander, brings a 7-4 record and a 3.34 ERA into the Game 3 start for Sioux City. Sioux Falls, which had four starters reach 10 or more wins after totaling exactly four double-digit winners in 15 previous seasons, will send out Travis Kane (11-6, 3.45).
Kane started no fewer than five of his team's 19 encounters with Sioux City during the regular season and went 3-2 with a 4.72 ERA. The X's batted a hefty .359 against him, hammering out 37 hits in 26 2/3 innings.
Dumont, who made three starts and three relief appearances against the Canaries, is 2-1 with a 4.30 ERA for his share of this year's rivalry.
"By no stretch of the imagination do I feel this is a done deal,'' said the Canaries' Shirley, who managed the X's in 2005 and has another former Sioux City skipper, Benny Castillo, on his coaching staff. "We've got a lot of work left because I know going down there is no picnic.''
Indeed, the Canaries were just 2-8 this season at Lewis and Clark Park and that included a 6-2 win July 26 in the teams' last regular season meeting, snapping six straight Sioux City home wins over the Birds.
Three in a row, then, is not out of the question.
The big key for Sioux City, of course, will be to crank up an offense limited to single runs in the first two games. That's painfully reminiscent of a first-half offense that produce a paltry .252 batting average. The X's hit .281 in the second half, better complementing a pitching staff that finished second in the league in team ERA (3.76).
Walter Young, whose solo homer tied Monday's game at 1-1 in the seventh inning, is 3-for-7 in the series, as is leftfielder Chad Gabriel. The rest of the Explorers are just 8-for-48 (.167) and Juan Camacho (0-8), Derek Schermerhorn (0-6), Alex Llanos (1-6) and Nick McCoola (1-6) are a combined 2-for-26.
Not only did Sioux City have a winning record against Sioux Falls (the only team to do so against the Canaries), they also had the upper hand in their limited meetings with the two teams in the South Division finals.
The X's went 5-2 against Fort Worth, which has won the championship in two previous seasons since this new league configuration came into existence. They were also 3-0 in their only encounters with Grand Prairie -- a late-season series hosted by the first-year franchise from suburban Dallas.
Grand Prairie, incidentally, has won the first two games of the South Division finals, both at Fort Worth's LaGrave Field, just 22 miles from QuikTrip Park, where Game 3 and any additional games, if necessary, will unfold.
That's why it will be do-or-die for these X's tonight at Lewis and Clark Park, where American Association baseball's best-of-five North Division championship series moves into Game 3 (7:05 p.m. start).
The Sioux Falls Canaries, champs of the North during the season's first half, is one game away from the league championship series after turning back the sputtering Explorers 2-1 and 7-1 in the playoffs' first two games Monday and Tuesday at the Bird Cage.
So, there's no margin for error for Sioux City Manager Les Lancaster's club, which has seemed to be out of gas after a difficult fight to nail down the North's second-half title.
"Maybe these guys play under pressure a lot better, when it's do or die,'' said Lancaster taking a hopeful approach. "The last few weeks, that's the way it's been, matching wins with Lincoln and matching wins with Sioux Falls, all that pressure.''
After a Game 1 loss that was little more than a coin flip, the X's weren't very competitive at all in Tuesday's second game. After scoring a run in the first inning, Lancaster's troops surrendered seven unanswered runs.
It was discouraging enough to have the Canaries unload on Sioux City starter Alexander Francisco, coming off a 12-1 regular season that set a club record for wins. Francisco had gone 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA in three previous starts against the Birds, helping the Explorers win the regular season series and the I-29 traveling trophy by an 11-8 margin.
Every bit as discouraging, though, was the production Tuesday from the bottom third of the Canaries' potent lineup. Patrick Reilly, Paul Smith and Tim Hutting were a combined 8-for-11 and scored six of the Birds' seven runs.
Hutting, all but a lock to be the MVP of this series, drove in five of those seven runs on a double and two singles, following up a seventh-inning single that broke a 1-1 tie to decide Monday's series opener.
"Batting average aside, Tim has hit the ball as hard as anybody on this team,'' said Sioux Falls Manager Steve Shirley, handing out bouquets to a shortstop whose .232 batting average paled alongside his team's league-leading (by 15 points) .296 percentage.
Paige Dumont, a 6-foot 8-inch rookie righthander, brings a 7-4 record and a 3.34 ERA into the Game 3 start for Sioux City. Sioux Falls, which had four starters reach 10 or more wins after totaling exactly four double-digit winners in 15 previous seasons, will send out Travis Kane (11-6, 3.45).
Kane started no fewer than five of his team's 19 encounters with Sioux City during the regular season and went 3-2 with a 4.72 ERA. The X's batted a hefty .359 against him, hammering out 37 hits in 26 2/3 innings.
Dumont, who made three starts and three relief appearances against the Canaries, is 2-1 with a 4.30 ERA for his share of this year's rivalry.
"By no stretch of the imagination do I feel this is a done deal,'' said the Canaries' Shirley, who managed the X's in 2005 and has another former Sioux City skipper, Benny Castillo, on his coaching staff. "We've got a lot of work left because I know going down there is no picnic.''
Indeed, the Canaries were just 2-8 this season at Lewis and Clark Park and that included a 6-2 win July 26 in the teams' last regular season meeting, snapping six straight Sioux City home wins over the Birds.
Three in a row, then, is not out of the question.
The big key for Sioux City, of course, will be to crank up an offense limited to single runs in the first two games. That's painfully reminiscent of a first-half offense that produce a paltry .252 batting average. The X's hit .281 in the second half, better complementing a pitching staff that finished second in the league in team ERA (3.76).
Walter Young, whose solo homer tied Monday's game at 1-1 in the seventh inning, is 3-for-7 in the series, as is leftfielder Chad Gabriel. The rest of the Explorers are just 8-for-48 (.167) and Juan Camacho (0-8), Derek Schermerhorn (0-6), Alex Llanos (1-6) and Nick McCoola (1-6) are a combined 2-for-26.
Not only did Sioux City have a winning record against Sioux Falls (the only team to do so against the Canaries), they also had the upper hand in their limited meetings with the two teams in the South Division finals.
The X's went 5-2 against Fort Worth, which has won the championship in two previous seasons since this new league configuration came into existence. They were also 3-0 in their only encounters with Grand Prairie -- a late-season series hosted by the first-year franchise from suburban Dallas.
Grand Prairie, incidentally, has won the first two games of the South Division finals, both at Fort Worth's LaGrave Field, just 22 miles from QuikTrip Park, where Game 3 and any additional games, if necessary, will unfold.
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