The Duluth Huskies are in the thick of the second half playoff picture with a mere six games to play on the season. Here is the second installment of Path to the Playoffs: Huskies Rooting Guide.
Entering play on Sunday, the standings in the Great Plains East division are as follows:
T-1) Duluth (17-12)
T-1) Eau Claire (17-12)
3) Thunder Bay (15-14, -2.0 GB)
4) Rochester (14-14, -2.5)
5) Waterloo (14-16, -3.5)
These five teams are all in the running for the second half crown, and all five teams need it in order to qualify for the postseason and take on La Crosse in the first round.
So, who should Huskies fans be rooting for? Let’s dive into it, in order of importance for the Huskies.
The first one is pretty simple. Monday at 6:35 pm CST, the Huskies take on the Rochester Honkers. Root for the Huskies to take down Rochester, of course, and push the Honkers to 3.5 games back, a near insurmountable deficit with just five games remaining. Currently, the Huskies do control their own destiny. Win out, and they’re in.
Unfortunately, baseball is a funny game and that is likely not going to be the case. The next situation is super important, but pretty tricky. Eau Claire and Thunder Bay play each other yet again on Monday. They will do so three more times following the game tomorrow. This is a tough, pick your poison, kind of deal. In a vacuum, a split between the two teams benefits the Huskies the most. If that’s your preference, root for the Border Cats to take one at home since the Express won both games at Carson Park. That scenario would give the Huskies the lead in the division, assuming they defeat the Honkers. However, there are two important things to keep in mind. First is that the Huskies hold the tiebreaker over the Express, meaning that if the two teams finish the season with the same record, the Huskies would be the ones to go through to the postseason by virtue of their 8-4 head-to-head record against Eau Claire. The other is that the Express finish the season on the road at the Madison Mallards, who have been one of the best teams in the league all summer. Thunder Bay finishes with an easier matchup, taking on the Bucks, who may or may not be out of the race by then. Furthermore, Duluth lost the season series against Thunder Bay, so they do not hold the tiebreaker there. If you trust the Mallards can beat the Express at the end of the year and are worried about the Border Cats tying Duluth at the end, root for the Express to win a third in a row.
That being said, the Express winning too many of those games would not be a good thing for Duluth. So, regardless of which outcome you prefer, root for each team to lose at least twice over the course of the six-game series. For today, that might mean rooting for the Border Cats. Bigger picture, if Thunder Bay worries you, root for the Express to take four out of six, then get swept by the Mallards. That result would also give the Huskies the tiebreaker over the two other teams if all three finish with the same record. Note: if all the why’s behind the tiebreaks bores you, skip the next paragraph.
Here is the why behind that. Defeating Waterloo yesterday guaranteed the Huskies the best winning percentage against the Bucks, the next best team behind the top three by overall record, among the three teams. In the event of a three-way tie, the first tiebreaker is the record of each team against the other two. Currently, the Huskies are 13-11 against the other two combined. Eau Claire is 10-10, Thunder Bay is 9-11. If one of the other two teams matches the Huskies record in the event of a three-way tie, it goes to the team with the best win percentage of the team with the next best overall record, which is likely going to be Waterloo. With one more win, the Huskies would win the season series with the Bucks. Neither Eau Claire or Thunder Bay can say that. Here are all the tiebreaker rules.
As for the Bucks, the Huskies already dealt them a really tough blow by sweeping them in Waterloo over the last two days. They take on the La Crosse Loggers for a pair. Huskies fans can be happy with whatever outcome these two games provide. If Huskies fans are worried about the Bucks still catching them, root for the Loggers to take them down and basically finish them off. However, the other outcome might be more beneficial in the end. The Loggers currently sit 3.5 games back of the Huskies in the overall record department. The team that makes the playoffs that has the better overall record has home-field advantage in the first round, best-of-three series. In the Northwoods League, that means playing Game 1 on the road then hosting Game 2 and a Game 3, if necessary. In order for the Huskies to keep that advantage, root for the Bucks to beat the Loggers and essentially guarantee that it will be the Huskies who have home-field. After all, if La Crosse, or Waterloo for that matter, is able to make up 3.5 games in five days, it likely means the Huskies didn’t make it anyways.
In order to help you keep track of all the scores, a link to the Northwoods League Scoreboard is at the top of this post. To join the crowd for the final four games of the regular season, tickets can be found here.
Magic Number: 6
Tragic Number: 7