Chasing The Storm 2041-5 The Playoff Chase Heats Up

[njherdfan]

The Seattle Storm have a record of 76-70, which puts them 1.5 games behind the Hawaii Tropics in the hunt for the playoffs. Of course, as Seattle fans are more than happy to tell you, they have a run differential that is 60 runs better than Hawaii's. As Seattle enters the season's stretch run, they will need to go on a hot streak and win a number of consecutive games. Seattle's next 3 games are against Hawaii, and a sweep of those games would do wonder for Seattle's hopes.

The main reason that Seattle is currently on the outside looking in at the playoff picture is their almost incomprehensibly bad performance in July. In that month, the Storm went 6-20. The Storm have a winning record in every other month, with the exception of a 13-14 performance in April. If the Storm end up not making the playoffs, much of the blame will be placed on that terrible month.

One notable performance that has helped Seattle's fortunes of late has been that of the recently promoted Jarred Perkins. Perkins was originally drafted as a starting pitcher, which is where he spent his years in Seattle's minor league system. However, there was concern that Perkins had reached his ceiling as a starting pitcher, and because his third pitch had never developed, he would never be a successful starter. Instead, Seattle decided to move him to the bullpen, and the results have been fantastic. Perkins has 37 strikeouts in 27.2 innings, and a FIP of 2.45. He has been simply dominant out of the bullpen, and Seattle fans have reason to hope that he will be a fixture out of the pen for the foreseeable future.

[jleddy]

Good decision on Perkins. When God gives you lemons, make it a reliever.