Loons Take Playoff Quest to Final Game of the Season

MIDLAND, Mich. - In the end, the Great Lakes Loons did everything they could to secure a spot in the Midwest League playoffs.

The Loons won three of their last four games - including a dramatic 2-1 victory over Lake County in front of the largest crowd in Dow Diamond history - and battled throughout the season's final weeks in a five-team race for a wildcard spot.

But they needed some help and didn't get the kind they needed.

The Fort Wayne TinCaps clinched the final Eastern Division wildcard spot with a 4-0 win Monday over Bowling Green. The Loons needed to win against West Michigan (and did) but needed Fort Wayne to lose.

Instead, Fort Wayne won for the sixth time in seven games and finished a half-game ahead of the Loons. The TinCaps' late surge was clearly in a different direction from the one they had earlier in the second half when they set a franchise record for consecutive losses (13). And it was just enough.

The final half-game difference was the by-product of the Loons not playing all 140 games. Their game on Aug. 23 against Bowling Green was postponed by rain, and because the teams weren't scheduled to play again it wasn't replayed. Ironically, the Loons led 4-0 in that game before the rains hit.

Had that game been played and the Loons won, they might very well be preparing a playoff series this week. After all, if the Loons and TinCaps had finished in a tie, the Loons would had have advanced to the postseason based on a better head-to-head record against Fort Wayne.

"That one hurts us," said Loons manager Bill Haselman during the Loons final homestand. "But what can you do? You can't go back."

Instead, the Loons kept pushing forward, sometimes an inch at a time, during an eventful final month that included significant roster changes and a large sampling of the kind of games which became their trademark, i.e., low-scoring, well-pitched and well-defended.

Sometimes they won with Hollywood-scripted endings, and none was better than the one they wrote in their final home game on Aug. 29. Playing in front of a record crowd of 6,191 on a beautiful night at Dow Diamond, the Loons scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a single by Alex Santana. They celebrated on the field and then greeted fans leaving the stadium. It was a night to remember.

They then showed their pride in the season's final game on Monday. They learned of Fort Wayne's wildcard-clinching win over Bowling Green while waiting out a rain delay at West Michigan, but still battled for one final victory when nothing was left on the line.

Statistically, the Loons finished with some memorable numbers, as well. Their pitchers set a franchise-record by striking out 1,256 batters, nearly 100 more than the previous record, while they also stole 183 bases to lead the Midwest League. They finished tied for first in fielding percentage and tied with Kane County for the fewest number of errors (119).

Their bullpen was arguably the league's best from start to finish, with the likes of Victor Araujo (1.32 ERA), Michael Johnson (1.83), Jacob Rhame (2.00), Mark Pope (2.26) and Jordan Hershiser (2.28) providing consistent shutdown performances.

Rhame, the hard-throwing right-hander from Texas, set a Loons record for consecutive scoreless innings and took over the team's closer's role down the stretch.

They struggled at times, too, as an offense that led the league in several categories through the season's first several weeks hit some serious speed bumps along the way. The Loons averaged 3.96 runs per game and hit a franchise-low 62 home runs, while their .242 team batting average ranked just above the bottom in the MWL.

Still, they battled to the end.

"This team has never quit fighting," said Haselman after the final home game. "We always feel like we have a chance to win every game."

As it turned out, they didn't win quite enough. But they carried the fight to the last possible day, and that's something the 2014 version of the Loons can hang its hat on.