It has been a long while since Bill Sobkow led the Yorkton Cardinals to the Western Major Baseball League Playoffs, the Weyburn Beavers are doing the best to ensure that the Cardinals long streak of missing the playoffs continues.
After a huge Alnardo Rodriguez walkoff double gave the Cardinals a huge Sunday win over the defending champion Regina Red Sox capped off two straight walkoff wins at home after an extra innings win over the Saskatoon Yellow Jackets Friday, Yorkton would have a rematch with the Weyburn Beavers at Jubilee Park Tuesday with the East Division's final playoff spot on the line with the two teams neck and neck in the final month of the season.
With the season series and a huge win in the standings on the line, Sobkow handed the ball to David Toth with the hopes that the starting pitcher from the University of Southern Indiana would be able to get them a huge win at home. Playing seven of their final ten on the road including two four against division leaders Swift Current and Medicine Hat, Tuesday's game was almost a must win with things becoming very difficult for Yorkton with a loss.
Weyburn would continue their trend of piling on the Cardinals early with a three run top of the first giving Cardinals fans deja vu after their five run first in the previous game. Chris Manning would continue to haunt the Cardinals, getting a clutch two out double on a ground ball down the middle right over second base to extend the Beavers inning and earn the second run of the three run onslaught.
Toth would allow another run in the top of the third before eventually settling down to last six innings allowing four runs on nine hits and striking out six Beavers batters. Toth's opponent on the mound, Ben Moore out of Tulsa, Oklahoma was in command for Weyburn for much of the game shutting down the Cardinals offense.
Weyburn would add an insurance run in the top of the eighth inning as a Dallas Monk single would score Manning to give Moore a five run lead to work with as he looked to find the final three outs to wrap up the complete game shutout.
Yorkton would manage to end Moore's shutout with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it would be too little too late as they couldn't find a way to extend their late inning magic to a third game, losing 5-2 and falling behind to the Beavers by a game with two games at hand.
The loss earned the Beavers the season series win over Yorkton with the two teams playing two more time on the final week of the season in Weyburn in what could potentially be a playoff deciding game for the two teams who have been neck and neck for most of July.
Yorkton will now have to deal with what is an extremely difficult schedule this week as a road trip to Swift Current and Medicine Hat sees the Cardinals play two of the WMBL's division winners in the Central and West Division leaders in the Indians and the Mavericks at the same time as busing the long distance between Yorkton and Medicine Hat before playing the Beavers on Monday in the sixth straight game in six days.
Pitching is going to be the key during the next two weeks as the Cardinals will need quality starts to ease the workload on the bullpen with ten games over an 11 day span bound to put a strain on pitching arms. Normal outfield pitchers have stepped in at times for the Cardinals in relief to varied success, but the Cardinals are going to need the best of their everyday pitchers if they are going to outlast Weyburn for the final playoff spot.
The games against Weyburn July 22 and 26 will be circled on Cardinals fans calendars as key games at the two teams chase down a playoff spot that would mean the world to a Cardinals ballclub that has not seen the postseason since the turn of the decade. First the Cardinals will have to survive a weekend against two of the WMBL's title favorites, a test at their ability to compete for a title come playoff time is on deck this weekend. Whether or not the Cardinals get that far may just hinge on showing that they can pull off an upset.
