Moonshiners Monitor, Vol. 1.31: September Recap

[lchronister]

Entering the final month of the season 8 games behind first-place Baltimore in the Johnson and 3 games ahead of Louisville in the wild-card race, Greenville needed a minor miracle to win the division and at least a little bit of luck to hold off the Cardinals and get into the postseason.

That miracle nearly happened thanks to the Monarchs crapping the bed far greater than could have been expected, going 8-18 in September and finishing in a tie with the Moonshiners, who went 16-10 over that span. Both teams finished a game ahead of Louisville, despite the Cardinals putting up a blistering 18-8 record.

"Fuck fuck fuck me in the ass," Louisville general manager Matt Szczepanski said.

Greenville's march back up the standings began in August when they finished the month by taking three straight games from Baltimore. The Moonshiners finished the series sweep in the first game of the month behind a 2-for-3, 2 HR performance by Dan Manville. Oh, and a PERFECT GAME by Corey Haim.

"I saw Jay Lee's perfect game last month and I wanted to one up him in both performance and opponent. I needed to show him that he wasn't the only guy on the team who could pitch so well."

The month didn't end as well for Greenville, which went 4-6 over the last 10 games. The Moonshiners took 2 of 3 against the Monarchs, but then went 1-3 against the Cardinals. That single win against Louisville was enough to tie Baltimore for first place in the Atlantic, forcing a one-game playoff the day after the season ended. Greenville struggled at the plate that day, though, scoring just two runs and falling, 5-2 to finish second in the division and win the wild card by half a game over Louisville.

Greenville will face Valencia in the first round of the playoffs.

"Our preference would have been to face Madison," Greenville general manager Levi Chronister said, "since they had a worse record than Valencia. Also, Valencia is a team built around pitching, which we feel is harder to defeat than good hitting in the playoffs."

[elligator]

I'm glad we're facing the fading Monarchs rather than your squad in the Doubleday Series.

[lchronister]

I'm glad we're facing the fading Monarchs rather than your squad in the Doubleday Series.

Thanks I'd definitely rather be facing your pitching, but your offense scares me more than Valencia's. Here's to hoping we both make it out of the first round and see what happens.