June

June 5: Toronto 8, Windsor 1. José Ramírez goes 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, and a home run. He leads Toronto to an 8-1 victory. Ramírez leads all of baseball with a .332 batting average.

June 6: Traverse City 3, Chicago 0. Pedro Morales collects his 2,000th hit on a swinging bunt. In the third inning, he chopped the ball towards the first baseman and beat the pitcher to the bag.

June 9: Detroit 1, Toledo 0. Sam Goerts (8-3) throws seven shutout inning. This is the fourth straight start in which he hasn’t allowed a run. It’s been 33 2/3 innings since he last allowed a run—an unearned run—and 46 2/3 innings since he last allowed an earned run.

June 10: Kingston 7, Thunder Bay 0. Gabriel Rodríguez pitches a one-hitter. The only hit he surrenders is a leadoff single in the third. He also walks five, hits a batter, and throws a wild pitch, so he actually has to work out of a couple jams.

June 12: Hamilton 7, Thunder Bay 6 (11). Reliever Marvin Cartwright, in the 11th plate appearance of his career, leads off the 11th inning with a double. Ronald Miller singles him in to win the game.

June 13: Kingston 1, Windsor 0 (14). Windsor’s Manuel Moreno pitches 9 2/3 shutout innings but gets a no-decision.

June 14: Kingston 8, Windsor 6. Comet rookie Greg Patterson (10-1) becomes the first pitcher in baseball to reach 10 wins this season.

June 23: USA 2, Canada 0. Earl Stretton and Rafael Morales hit solo home runs. Stretton, who also doubles, wins All-Star Game MVP.

June 30: Toledo 5, Detroit 4 (10). Kerry Stevens hits his first major league home run. It’s a solo shot in the top of the 10th that wins the game for the Neptunes.

July

July 6: Detroit 6, Traverse City 0. Sam Goerts (9-4) shuts out the Bears. He strikes out 12, walks none, hits one batter, and allows just two singles. He retires the last 13 batters that he faces, and he strikes out the side three times.

July 7: Detroit 7, Traverse City 5. T-Bird backup catcher Martín Ríos came into today batting .159 without a home run. Today he has one of the best offensive performances of the season. Ríos goes 4-for-4 with two three-run home runs. The second of those comes in the ninth inning and lifts the T-Birds to a 7-5 win over the Bears.

July 11: Chicago 9, Milwaukee 8 (15). The Eagles take a 5-0 lead into the eighth where the Architects proceed to score eight runs. Rick Blackmore caps the inning with a grand slam. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Milwaukee’s Tsuneari Sugano singles in the tying run, but a Maël Durant RBI single in the top of the 15th wins the game for Chicago.

July 17: Traverse City 5, Toledo 4. Pedro Morales goes 5-for-7 with a home run, double, walk, three runs score, and three RBIs. His double comes in the bottom of the 15th and drives in the winning run.

July 19: Toledo 10, Traverse City 5. Toledo shortstop Ron Knowles doubles and scores in the third, hits a grand slam in the fourth, and triples in the sixth. Needing only a single to complete the cycle, he strikes out in the seventh, and is left standing in the on-deck circle in the ninth. He scores three times and drives in five.

July 28: Detroit 5, Milwaukee 0. Sam Goerts (11-5) pitches a one-hit shutout, striking out 10 and walking two. Milwaukee’s only hit comes off the bat of Goerts’s opposite number, pitcher Mack Guillaume.

August

August 6: Owen Sound 6, Milwaukee 0. Waverider pitchers toss their fourth consecutive shutout—the previous three were all 1-0 victories—and win their seventh straight game. In May, Owen Sound pitchers tossed 32 consecutive scoreless innings. They best that this week by pitching 37 consecutive scoreless innings.

August 8: Chicago 17, Toledo 1. The Architects score 17 runs on 16 hits and nine walks. Daniel Huffman goes 2-for-4 with two walks, a double, and a three-run homer.

August 15: Duluth 5, Milwaukee 1. Duluth rookie Francisco Pérez (1-0) has come in from the bullpen 35 times this year. Today, the 22-year-old got his first major league start. He goes eight innings, allows just one run, and picks up his first major league win.

August 21: Hamilton 6, Owen Sound 3 (19). Jim “Prowler” Ashley hits a three-run home run in the 19th inning to win a game that takes over six-and-a-half hours.

August 22: Kingston 6, Toronto 3. In the bottom of the first inning, Stefan Herrmann hits the 300th home run of his career. Kingston moves into a three-way tie for first place alongside Toronto and Thunder Bay.

August 30: Duluth 1, Toledo 0 (10). Duluth’s Lawrence Green pitches a nine-inning no-hitter—but he gets a no decision. Toledo’s Martin Storey tosses a shutout. The game goes into extra innings. Green gets the first out in the 10th inning, then walks a batter. Reliever Harry Gilroy (4-3) retires the final two. Duluth scores in the bottom of the 10th to win. Green strikes out six and walks four.

September

September 11: Traverse City 12, Duluth 0. Traverse City first baseman Bernie Stoddart goes 5-for-5 with a double, home run, and four runs scored.

September 13: Kingston 6, Owen Sound 3 and Thunder Bay 9, Hamilton 3 (18). It’s the final game of the season, and Thunder Bay has a one-game lead on Kingston. The Comets need to win, and they need the Caribou to lose.

It looks good for Thunder Bay early. They jump to a 3-0 lead against Hamilton while Owen Sound jumps to a 2-0 lead against Kingston. But one by one, Kingston and Hamilton claw back runs. A sac fly in the fourth scores one for the Comets. A wild pitch in the fifth lets a Mountie trot in from third. In the sixth, each of the trailing teams hits a solo home run. Mountie Jim Riordan’s cuts Thunder Bay’s lead down to one run, 3-2, and Comet Esteban Chapa’s ties the game with Owen Sound, 2-2.

In the Kingston seventh, Stefan Herrmann and Felipe Bravo hit back-to-back home runs! The comeback Comets take the lead, 4-2! But could the Mounties complete their comeback? In the eighth, Riordan doubles in Giovanny Paolillo, tying the game, 3-3. With both leads blown, Thunder Bay seems destined for a collapse. Kingston holds on to their lead and beats Owen Sound, 6-3. Comets players go to the clubhouse to watch the Thunder Bay game. Their fans stay in the stands and watch on the video scoreboard.

And the game just … continues. Tied after nine, the game goes into extras. Inning after excruciating inning goes by. The Mounties strand two runners in the 10th and 11th. The 12th and 13th see both sides retired in order. Each team singles in the 14th, and Hamilton gets a two-out double in the 15th. In the 16th, a pair of singles puts a Caribou runner on second base—the last time that Caribou put a runner in scoring position was back in the fifth, 11 innings prior. They strand him, and then they strand a runner on third in the 17th.

Finally, in the 18th inning, Troy Lee walks, steals second, and scores on a Charlie Ruíz double. Hamilton falls apart. A walk and two errors score Ruíz and load the bases. An Esteban Fiero triple clear the bases, and a Nelson Wooten single scores Fiero. In total, six runs score.

After nearly seven hours of play, Thunder Bay clinches the Wild Card.