Wednesday 9/07/11 Minor League Updates

[texasdave]

Nothing doing for Billings in the bottom half of inning number six. Muhammad hurls a scoreless seventh. 4Ks in 2IP.

7th-inning stretch time.

[mace]

It's kind of tough to trail 4-3 when your pitchers have struck out 13 batters and the other team has fanned only one.

[texasdave]

Helena leading 6-3. Need a big comeback or a Great Falls defeat. Both would be nice.

[texasdave]

Billings loses 8-4. Arias with a solo blast in the 9th. Great Falls trails by one heading into the ninth. All is not lost.

[mace]

Arias homered in the ninth, but Billings came up short, 8-4. Great Falls trails 5-4 after eight. If they lose, the Mustangs will have one more chance, tomorrow night, to catch them and tie for the division title (second half).

Edit: Dang, you got me. I thought you'd gone to bed.

[mace]

Great Falls loses. Everything has to go Billings' way tomorrow night. Same opponents for both teams. Carlos Gonzalez is the scheduled starter for the Mustangs.

If Billings loses, it will miss the playoffs in spite of having the best overall record (first + second half) in the division.

If Billings wins and GF loses, it appears to me that Billings wins the tiebreaker. Here's the procedure:

Second-half ties
If two teams tie for the second half title with exactly the same winning percentage, the following tie breaking rules are used to determine the second half champion:

* 1. Head to head records between the two teams tied during entire season;
* 2. Won/loss percentage in Division games during entire season;
* 3. Won/loss percentage in overall play during the entire season; and
* 4. Coin flip by League President.

If I've counted correctly, Billings holds a 9-7 advantage in head-to-head.

[texasdave]

If Billings loses, it will miss the playoffs in spite of having the best overall record (first + second half) in the division.

A Cincinnati tradition.