The regular season ended in Australia on Saturday, but two Pittsburgh Pirates will continue on into the playoffs. Here’s a recap from the last two days of action. The next winter article will be next Sunday, with a recap for the week. Then once all of the Pirates are done for the winter, we will do a full winter recap.
Robbie Glendinning will be part of the playoffs with the Perth Heat. He had a tough final week, but still finished the regular season with strong numbers at the plate. However, he committed four errors over the final four games, dropping him down to a .945 fielding percentage at shortstop in 21 games. At the plate, he went 2-for-11, with a walk, run scored and an RBI over the weekend. That gave him a final slash line of .333/.408/.506 in 98 plate appearances.
Sam Street didn’t pitch either Friday or Saturday, but he too will be going to the playoffs. His team finished in fourth place and they will take on first place Brisbane in the best-of-three series starting on Friday. Glendinning and Perth will play third place Canberra in their series, which also begins on Friday.
As for the two players who are now done for the year, Michael Suchy and Connor MacDonald were unable to get Sydney into the final playoff spot. Suchy saw his 22-game on base streak end on Friday during an 0-for-5 night. During a doubleheader on Saturday, he went 0-for-2 with a walk in game one, and 1-for-4 with an RBI in the second game. He finished with a .299/.376/.540 slash line in 38 games.
MacDonald started off the final week strong with his tenth home run on Thursday. He went 1-for-5 and drove in two runs on Saturday, then went 2-for-3 in the first game on Sunday, before finishing his season with a 0-for-4, three strikeout game. MacDonald finished with a .277/.344/.555 slash line in 37 games. He can now concentrate on making the switch to a pitcher for the Pirates. He made two appearances in blowout games in Australia, throwing a shutout inning each time.
Elvis Escobar saw his season end as his team lost 4-0 on Saturday night, finishing the league finals in six games. He went 0-for-2 before leaving for a pinch-hitter. Escobar batted .316 in the finals, with a homer and two doubles.
The Dominican league finals were off on Thursday and rained out each of the last two nights. Richard Rodriguez is still playing, once they get back to playing.
