The summer at the Shore is nearing its momentous end, and that means the Jersey Shore BlueClaws are nearing their final home stand of the season... or are they?
The team's final series in Lakewood of the regular season begins Tuesday, Aug. 27 and it will also be the Phillies ' High-A affiliate's most important series of the year. The BlueClaws will host the Yankees' affiliate, the Hudson Valley Renegades, who currently sit atop the second half standings in the division as Jersey Shore is hoping to steal a playoff berth.
"Once you get one win, two wins in a row, I feel like once you get rolling that helps you out as a team. And I feel like right now would be a really good time for us to start doing that," said BlueClaws pitcher Luke Russo. "We're all together, we've all got pretty good chemistry. So once we get a couple of these under our belt, I think we can get a good winning streak going."
The BlueClaws had their own imminent playoff berth pilfered by the Greensboro Grasshoppers earlier this year. Jersey Shore finished 1.5 games back in second place of the first half season standings. That meant they narrowly missed clinching a playoff birth, and are currently in a position where they could miss the playoffs despite holding the third-best overall record in the South Atlantic League.
How do the MiLB playoffs work?
The playoff format is roughly the same across the Double-A, High-A and Single-A levels with more details available here . Triple-A has a very different and more elaborate playoff format that crowns the overall best team of the minor leagues in a championship game in Las Vegas.
The transient nature of the minor leagues means an unorthodox playoff structure compared to the majors. Because most of a successful minor league team's top players are often promoted during the season, the playoff berths are decided by dividing the season into two halves. In the High-A South Atlantic League that includes the BlueClaws, that means the four playoff spots go to the North and South division winners of the first half of the regular season. Teams' records essentially reset to 0-0 at the halfway point, and the winners of each division in the second half fill out the remaining two playoff spots.
For the BlueClaws, this meant that the team narrowly had a first half lead slip away as Greensboro finished out the first half on a nine-game winning streak. Now, Jersey Shore's postseason hopes hang in the balance of the second half of the season.
BlueClaws' final home series will be pivotal to playoff fate
In an exciting twist for BlueClaws fans, the final home stand of the year is a high-stakes matchup that will likely decide a playoff spot.
As of Thursday morning, Jersey Shore is just a one-and-half games back of the top spot in the North Division held by Hudson Valley. Another variable is that the team is tied for second place with the Aberdeen Ironbirds. An emphatic series victory at home could be enough to secure the pole position atop the division, followed by another season-defining series on the road against Aberdeen.
Although there's been plenty of roster turnover, Russo is one of the team's key additions that has experience with making a playoff push. He was elevated to Jersey Shore from the Single-A Clearwater Threshers after helping that team clinch a playoff birth in their respective first-half of the season. The competitiveness emanates from the very top levels of the Phillies organization
"After the draft and everything, they told us about 'Protect the Standard', that's a big thing in this organization," said Russo. "Going out there to compete and giving it all. So once we do that every game, we have a good chance to win."
Russo knows the margin of error is slim as the team inches closer to the end of the regular season. And it should be an exciting finish for the BlueClaws in their final home series as they aim to edge out divisional rivals for a chance at the league title.
"We've had plenty of games that are one-run games, so I think limiting the freebies," said Russo. "We have the stuff to do it. We have good stuff to strike people, get people out. So just going out there and trying to just do what we're supposed to do."
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: BlueClaws aim to make playoff push in final homestand of 2024
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