Patriots Notebook 9/22/24: Championship Series Preview
Bridgwater, New Jersey – The Patriots punched their ticket to the Eastern League Championship Series for the second time in three seasons after making quick work of Hartford by completing a two-game sweep of the Yard Goats in the Division Series on Thursday night with a pair of one-run victories.
Bridgwater, New Jersey – The Patriots punched their ticket to the Eastern League Championship Series for the second time in three seasons after making quick work of Hartford by completing a two-game sweep of the Yard Goats in the Division Series on Thursday night with a pair of one-run victories.
Somerset will now lock horns with a familiar foe as a rematch of the 2022 Championship Series is set to get underway on Sunday night in Erie. It will be a best-of-three matchup against the defending champion SeaWolves after they took a decisive Game Three from Akron on Friday night.
Somerset has essentially been playing postseason baseball for a month after rallying from six games down in the standings to overtake Portland in the final week of the regular season just to make it into the dance. There is confidence and an aura surrounding the club right now that feels palpable – once the postseason rolls around, the regular season standings get thrown to the wayside in favor of momentum. Right now, the Patriots are certainly not lacking in that area.
PLAYOFF BAILEY DEES SHOVED😤
— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) September 18, 2024
6️⃣.2️⃣ IP | 2️⃣ R | 4️⃣ H | 1️⃣ BB | 9️⃣ K pic.twitter.com/qvwaoDqtqD
“I think this team is just in a great spot right now,” said pitcher Bailey Dees. “The togetherness, the chemistry – it’s there and it’s an at all-time high right now.”
Dees fired 6.2 innings and allowed just 2 runs with 9 punch outs in a 3-2 game one victory against Hartford last Tuesday night in Bridgewater. Outfielder Spencer Jones highlighted the offense in Game 1 after going 3-for-5 with a monstrous 453-foot homer that was registered at 115 MPH off the bat.
SPENCER JONES SENDS A PLAYOFF MOONSHOT DEEP INTO THE NIGHT💣
— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) September 17, 2024
115 MPH | 453 FT🚀 pic.twitter.com/hsTR0sLTb4
“We told ourselves that we weren’t out of it last time we were playing them [Hartford]," said Jones. “We wanted to take advantage of it the last few weeks and build up some momentum going into the postseason and we’re just going to keep it rolling.”
“It started in Hartford [in August], funny enough,” added Dees. “We kind of started to come together a little bit closer and we’ve got this mentality that we’re going to take each game as a playoff game. I think we’re just starting to hit our stride, and I think we’re hitting it at the right time.”
Right-hander Zach Messinger, who has been a workhorse for the Patriots all season long, tossed 6.2 strong innings against Hartford in the series clincher on Thursday night – he allowed 3 earned runs and fanned 6 before the bullpen tossed 3.1 shutout frames of relief in the 4-3 victory in 10 innings. Messinger has pitched to a 1.69 ERA over his last nine starts.
SPENCER JONES GO-AHEAD RBI SINGLE IN THE 10TH!! pic.twitter.com/hKmZ430Cd2
— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) September 20, 2024
Jones was again the hero in Game Two, delivering a go-ahead RBI single in the 10th to cap a 2-for-5 night en route to a date in the ELCS. The Yankees’ second ranked prospect is currently riding a 10-game on-base streak heading into the Championship Series in which he is 14-for-39 with 3 homers, 6 RBI and 7 runs scored.
PLAYOFF RAFA IS HERE AND HE'S PERFECT💥
— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) September 20, 2024
Rafael Flores, the Yankees' minor league leader in homers with 21, just hit his first of the playoffs to extend a 3-1 Somerset lead! pic.twitter.com/VUo0CnpBRW
Rafael Flores, who led all Yankees minor leaguers with 21 homers this season, went 2-for-4 with a solo homer in Game Two. During his postseason career with the organization going back to 2022, the catcher/first baseman has gone 13-for-31 with 3 homers and 6 RBI.
After being crowned EL champions in 2023, the SeaWolves again proved to be among the Eastern League elite with a 77-58 record on the year. The Tigers affiliate is fundamentally sound and does everything well in all aspects of the game. Erie’s pitching staff was second in the EL in team ERA (3.54) and third in strikeouts (1297) while their offense was second in the league in runs scored (692), batting (.254) and on-base percentage (.341).
The Patriots tangled with Erie twice during the regular season, once at home and once on the road. The SeaWolves won five-of-six at TD Bank Ballpark and went 9-3 overall during the team's 12 matchups. Historically, Somerset is just 17-25 against Erie with a 1-4-2 series record, but like we said earlier, regular season milestones get thrown out the window this time of the year. Despite only having a single series victory against the SeaWolves in regular season play, the Patriots did beat them to hoist the 2022 championship trophy.
Infielder Gage Workman led the Eastern League in RBI this season with 89 and finished tied with teammate Chris Meyers for third in homers with 18. Workman, a 2020 fourth-round draft selection is the Tigers' 30th ranked prospect but has been one of the hottest hitters in the league since July and should prove to be the most dangerous healthy hitter for Erie. The 24-year-old ASU product is hitting .339 since 7/1 and has blasted 10 homers since the calendar turned to August.
The Tigers eighth ranked prospect, infielder Hao-Yu Lee and 11th ranked prospect, right-hander Troy Melton, are both on the 7-day IL.
The SHIP Is Gassed Up🛸⛽️ pic.twitter.com/7yyUDqS1pw
— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) September 20, 2024
Manager Raul Dominguez will hand the ball to southpaw Ben Shields in the series opener on Sunday night. The 25-year-old undrafted signee was promoted to the Patriots on 7/3 and has been a key cog in a dominant Somerset rotation for the last two-plus months, pitching to a 3.12 ERA with 65 punch outs in 52 innings of work. The lefty made his second Double-A start on the road against Erie on 7/10 and it was one of his best outings of the season – he allowed just 1 earned run on 5 hits while striking out 8 over 7 strong innings.
The series will shift back to TD Bank Ballpark on Tuesday night and one of the clubs will have the chance to hoist the championship trophy. Somerset hopes that righty Cam Schlittler will be on the bump in a potential clincher in game two. The 23-year-old righty was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year earlier this week after pitching to a 2.60 ERA in 17 starts for Hudson Valley before a well-deserved promotion to Double-A came on 8/10. Schlittler, who led all Yankees minor leaguers this season with 154 strikeouts, has fanned 43 batters in 32.1 innings while pitching to a 4.45 ERA in seven appearances for the Patriots. Tuesday night will mark Schlittler’s first career start against Erie.
If the championship series were to come down to a decisive game three on Wednesday night in Bridgewater, right-hander Trystan Vrieling is scheduled to toe the rubber for the Patriots. In his first season of pro-ball after missing considerable time due to injury last year, Vrieling showed his health woes are behind him after tossing 147.1 innings, second in the EL only to teammate Zach Messinger. Vrieling registered a league-best 13 victories in 2024 while his 132 punch outs ranked sixth. Much like Somerset as a whole, Vrieling has been playing his best ball when it has counted down the stretch, pitching to a 2.35 ERA since 8/1. In three starts against Erie during the regular season, Vrieling allowed 10 earned runs in 17 innings of work, though 7 of those runs came in one outing on 8/22 in his second start of the series.
The Patriots believe they’re flying and moving at light speed right now. A championship feels like it is within reach for a team that has been playing for their playoff lives for six weeks now. “Gas up the ship” has become the team’s postseason rallying cry. The players on board know that they are two wins away from the prize after there was serious doubt that the ship would ever take flight.
“This is our team and we’re up in space – we’re in the ship,” explained Dees. “We’ve got a lot of talent, got a Jedi on board, but we don’t have enough gas to get to light speed yet – we’ve got to hit that light speed button. We hit it once we made playoffs; we’ve got enough fuel and now we’re at light speed. Playoffs. Let’s gas up the ship.”
Championship Series Probable Pitching Matchups:
Game 1, Sun: LHP Ben Shields (2-2, 3.12 ERA) vs. RHP Wilkel Hernandez (5-7, 4.34 ERA)
Game 2, Tue: TBD vs. RHP Cam Schlittler (2-4, 4.45 ERA)
Game 3 (If Necessary), Wed: TBD vs. RHP Trystan Vrieling (13-7, 4.58 ERA)
Matt Kardos | SomersetPatriots.com Senior Writer
Matt Kardos has covered the Yankees minor league system for over a decade and will spend his 12th season on the beat covering the Patriots for SomersetPatriots.com. Throughout his career, Matt has contributed to MLB.com, YES Network and Pinstriped Prospects. When he’s not at the ballpark, Matt enjoys traveling with his wife Kimberly, watching Jets football and collecting sports cards.