The big-league Yankees are on pace for perhaps the best season in MLB history – but they didn’t get to punch the organization’s first playoff ticket, nor did they have the only walk-off magic on Sunday.
Both of those honors went to the Double-A Somerset Patriots, who won the Eastern League’s first half championship Sunday on the back of a scoreless Aroldis Chapman rehab outing and top prospect Anthony Volpe’s walk-off homer.
Chapman was the first “hero,” following six scoreless innings by Luis Medina with a 1-2-3 seventh, needing 11 pitches (seven strikes) for a scoreless frame that included one strikeout sandwiched by a pair of diving grabs by Elijah Dunham in left field.
Come the bottom of the frame, Volpe started off the scoring in the game, taking a bases-loaded hit by pitch to give the Patriots a 1-0 lead, and Dunham’s subsequent double had them up 4-0 after seven and Chappy in line for a win in his second rehab outing.
Hartford tied it against Josh Maciejewski and Carlos Espinal in the eighth, thanks in part to a Volpe throwing error, and come the bottom of the tenth, Hartford was up 5-4 looking to take the win to steal a come-from-behind win and the first-half title.
Volpe had other plans, though, taking Gavin Hollowell’s 1-2 offering over the high wall in left-center field, scoring automatic runner Mickey Gaspar ahead of him for a 6-5 win and the first-half title.
The win finished off a six-game homestand against Hartford where the Patriots needed just a split or better to win the first-half title, then lost three of the first four to go down one game before sweeping the weekend to take the crown.
They are the first Yankees affiliate but second New York-affiliated team to qualify for the minor-league playoffs, as the Low-A St. Lucie Mets won the Florida State League’s East Division first-half title earlier in the week.
Per MiLB.com, the format for the 2022 postseason for all leagues Double-A and below is four teams per league, with a best-of-3 division series and a best-of-3 championship series, with the winners of each division from both halves qualifying for the division series, and the winners of those series advancing to the championship.
Somerset (44-25) had the best record in the Eastern League in the first half, and should they win the second half as well, the team in the Eastern League Northeast Division with the second-best full-season winning percentage would qualify to face them in the Division Series.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Listen live to WFAN via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
Follow WFAN on Social Media:
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch