One for the money for Sky Sox
The Sky Sox handled the first of their two must-win games in Tacoma on Sunday, beating the Rainiers 5-2 and setting up a winner-take-the-division scenario in today’s season finale.
If Colorado Springs wins it would capture its Pacific Coast League division by two games. If it loses, it finishes tied with Tacoma and misses the playoffs based on a tiebreaker.
The Sky Sox fought off elimination on Sunday behind 6 1/3 solid innings from Esmil Rogers and a key two-run single from Matt Miller.
The Sky Sox — working with a bare-bones 10-man pitching staff following several major-league callups — plan to call up Samuel Deduno from Double A to start today’s game. The right-hander is 12-4 with a 2.57 ERA in Tulsa.
Tacoma will start 23-year-old Gaby Hernandez (9-9, 5.39 ERA).
The Sky Sox haven’t been out of first place since June 17 and led by 7 1/2 games on Aug. 21 before losing nine of their last 14. The team hasn’t been in the postseason since 1997, the longest such drought for Triple-A teams who have been around that long.
