The Flyers played 6 games this week, including 2 in Montreal and 4 at home against Jacksonville. Charlotte ended up splitting the 6 games while their two closest competitors for the final wildcard spot in the Johnson League both won more games than they did, making it more difficult for the Flyers to earn a spot in the postseason.
After dropping the first 2 games in their series in Montreal last week, Charlotte started this week with a loss as well. The Blazers jumped all over Andres Gonzales for 6 runs in 3.2 innings. The Flyers were never able to dig out of that hole and lost 6-2.
The series finale against Montreal was highlighted by an outstanding performance from Dallas Dixon. Dixon tripled on the first pitch he saw in the top of the 1st inning. Two innings later, he hit his 5th home run of the year on a 1-0 pitch. Then, in the 4th inning, he singled on the second pitch he saw. He was retired in the 6th inning after just missing out on completing the cycle on a line shot into the corner that landed just foul. He also walked in the 9th inning. Dixon scored 3 times and drove in 1 as the Flyers won the game 7-3 in Jim Fleming’s Charlotte debut.
After a day off on Wednesday, Charlotte came home to take on Jacksonville. In game 1, Little Johnny Rasmussen earned his 15th win of the season. Alejandro Chavez picked up his 39th save (15th with Charlotte) against his former team. The Flyers won 3-2.
Game 2 of the series was a big win for the Flyers. Tadataka Yoshikawa had 4 hits, including a home run, and drove in 3 runs as Charlotte won the game 9-3. Most of the runs came late in the game, so Mauro Mendoza didn’t get credit for the win despite only allowing 2 runs in 6.2 innings.
The Charlotte offense never got into a rhythm against Jacksonville starter Hayden Bennion and a pair of relievers as the Hurricanes won game 3 of the series 4-0. Josh Clark got the loss despite allowing just 2 runs in 5 innings.
The series finale saw former Jacksonville starter Juan Marroquin struggle against the men he recently called teammates. He allowed 5 runs in just 4.2 innings as the Hurricanes picked up the 5-3 victory..
That 3-3 record, combined with a 5-1 week for New Orleans and a 6-0 week for Phoenix, means that the Flyers are currently 3 games out of the final wildcard spot. According to the numbers, they have the easiest strength of schedule of any of those 3 teams, but they will need to capitalize on that and get some help if they want to be playing baseball in October. The Flyers will start the final stretch with 4 games in Rockville. So far this season, Charlotte has won 8 of the 10 games they have played against the Pikemen. After that series, they head home for 4 games against Atlantic City. They have won 6 of the 10 games against the Gamblers so far this year. Then the Flyers head to Brooklyn to face the team with the fewest wins in the league. While that sounds encouraging for Charlotte, they have only won 5 of the 10 games so far against the Robins this season. If Charlotte can take care of business in those 12 games, then they will have a lot riding on a 4 game home series against Charm City. The Jimmies are fresh off of a series win against Montreal that put those two teams into a tie for the Atlantic Division lead. So far this year, the Flyers have won 6 of their 10 games against Charm City.
It seems very likely that the Flyers will need to win at least 11 of their remaining 16 games to have a shot at the postseason. If they win 11 of those games, they would end the year with 90 wins and would need Phoenix or New Orleans to play no better than .500 ball in their remaining games. Charlotte really needs to have a great week against Rockville and Atlantic City if they want to have a chance at making it into the playoffs. They will also be watching the scoreboard, rooting for Brooklyn and Jacksonville to win some games against the Crawdads and Boise and San Antonio to win games against Phoenix. You can bet the Flyers players will be hanging around in the clubhouse to watch those Frontier Division matchups after they finish their games this week. It looks like there will be some very compelling storylines over the next 3 weeks for fans of the Charlotte baseball club.
