A to Z League playoff preview

After completing a 168-game regular season schedule four clubs remain alive in the battle to determine baseball's best letter. Bainbridge Island will have home-field advantage in the best-of-seven series for the west side divisions, and Moses Lake will host Goldendale for the first-round series between east side division winners. A, B, G, and M will fight it out for the coveted prize of "best letter."

Moses Lake vs. Goldendale

Greg Maddux will start the first-
round playoff series opener for
Moses Lake.

Moses Lake enters the playoffs with the league's best record of 106-62, and they won the East Division by four games over Wenatchee, which ended up with 102 wins and was in the hunt until the end. The M's will take on Goldendale, which captured the South Division by four games over Pasco. Goldendale led by as many as 13 games, but had a couple of rough patches during the last six weeks of the season, but managed to hold on.

Moses Lake scored 866 runs, second in the league. They were led by Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, who both hit 34 home runs. Mays led the club in runs scored with 136, and Mantle was the club RBI king with 115. Greg Maddux led the mound corps with a 20-8 record, and Pedro Martinez went 14-4.

Lou Gehrig

Goldendale was third in the league in scoring, their 863 runs just three fewer than Moses Lake. Lou Gehrig led the club hitting .318-54-134 and scored 120 runs. Ken Griffey, Jr. hit 49 homers and led the team with 128 runs scored. Josh Gibson clubbed 39 homers and six other G's reached double figures. Tom Glavine had the best record on the staff, 16-6.

Moses Lake won five of the eight meetings of the two clubs during the regular season.

Scheduled starters for the first two games of the series are Maddux and Bob Gibson for game one and Martinez and Glavine for game two. Goldendale is missing starter Lefty Grove, who is injured and will be out for the series, so their game-three starter has yet to be determined. Ron Guidry, Lefty Gomez, and Dwight Gooden are all in the mix. Moses Lake has penciled in Mike Mussina for game three.

Bainbridge Island vs. Aberdeen

Barry Bonds leads Bainbridge.

Bainbridge Island finished the regular season at 103-65, eight games ahead of Snoqualmie in the Puget Division, and will host the first two games of their playoff series against Aberdeen, which won the Coast Division with 96 victories, topping Hoquiam by ten games. The Puget race was tight for most of the season until Bainbridge Island went on a tear, winning 19 of 20 games starting on August 31, including 14 in a row at one point, to put the race in the bag. 

Barry Bonds drove the Bainbridge offense, hitting 53 home runs, driving in 134, and scoring 119 runs, all tops on the team. His father Bobby Bonds chipped in with 30 home runs, and four other Bees hit 20 or more. Bert Blyleven led the club with 16 wins, and Rod Beck went 12-6 and had 39 saves out of the pen.

Pete Alexander won
19 for Aberdeen.

Pete Alexander anchored the Aberdeen pitching staff with a 19-3 record and 2.91 ERA, while Ted Abernathy went 15-4 out of the bullpen. The A's posted the second-best club ERA in the league. Dick Allen led the hard-hitting offense, hitting .301 with 42 homers and 131 RBI. Hank Aaron hit 37 homers and led the team with 119 runs scored. Joe Adcock chipped in with 39 homers reached double figures in circuit clouts.

Aberdeen won six of the eight contests between the two clubs during the regular season. In fact, the A's broke the Bees' 14-game winning streak by sweeping a four-game series at Pioneer Park out at Gray's Harbor in late September.

Alexander and Blyleven are scheduled to start the series opener, and Keven Brown and Babe Adams are expected to be the game-two starters. Game three will likely be Jim Bunning against Jake Arrieta.