Will Mother Nature Affect Bowie's Pennant Race?

The Baysox are locked in the middle of a wild pennant race—but the question is will one small rain-out have an affect on it.

As of Wednesday, Harrisburg leads Bowie by 1 1/2 games in the Western Division of the Eastern League. The Baysox then also lead Richmond by 1 1/2 games in the battle for second place. The top two teams in each division get playoff spots, and those four teams take part in post-season play.

But this could possibly have an affect on the final standings.

Bowie’s game on Sunday with Trenton was rained out, and it was decided that the two teams won’t make it up. Therefore, Bowie will finish by playing 141 games, one less than the other teams in its division.

The Eastern League has said it will decide the playoff spots by won-loss records only, not percentages, so that could help the Baysox—or hurt them. Only time will tell.

The season has just under two weeks left, with play scheduled to end on Labor Day.

BIG HITS

The Baysox had plenty of problems in the early part of the season getting hits at the right times. But those days are long gone.

They’ve been consistent throughout the second half of the second with getting both two-out hits and hits with runners in scoring position. That’s why the Baysox have gone from a club battling to stay at .500 to one fighting for the division lead.

Bowie showed that skill in . Four of Bowie’s seven RBI came with two outs, something that helped the team break the game open.

“Two-out hits are tough—they don’t grow on trees,” said Bowie manager Gary Kendall. “But we did a good job with guys in scoring position and got some big RBIs with two outs. It was nice to see guys throw hits out throughout the lineup. We hadn’t been hitting as a lineup one-through-nine, and it was nice to see it spread throughout because that’s what you need to do to put some games behind you.”

YOUNG PITCHING

Bowie’s going to have rely on some young arms in the closing days and if it makes the playoffs.

Minor-league baseball is different from the majors; there’s constant change of a roster. That’s what the Baysox have dealt with and now they’ve got pitchers who led Frederick to first place in Class A ball, guys like Oliver Drake and Bobby Bundy.

Both are trying to get settled in with Bowie, and what they do could determine how far Bowie goes.

In addition, both have struggled at times, but Drake came through with a solid five-inning effort in Monday’s win. Bundy also has been up and down at times—which is common for pitchers moving to a higher level—but has done well at times also.