Brooklyn, St. Lucie Set for Playoffs This Week

Playoff baseball is back.

The High-A Brooklyn Cyclones will visit the Greensboro Grasshoppers Tuesday in Game 1 of the Division Series of the South Atlantic League playoffs. Meanwhile, the Low-A St. Lucie Mets will battle the Daytona Tortugas in Game 1 of the Florida State League Division Series. Both series are best of three.

Brooklyn vs. Greensboro

Channing Austin, 23, gets the 6:30 p.m. Game 1 start for the Cyclones after giving up two earned runs in three innings in his High-A debut last week. The right-hander went 2-4 with a 4.31 ERA in 20 appearances (11 starts) for St. Lucie, striking out 66 in 71 innings before he was promoted. Game 2 and Game 3 (if necessary) will be in Coney Island on Thursday and Friday.

The minor-league playoffs pit the division winner of the first half against the second half (if the same team wins both halves, second place in the second half qualifies) and Brooklyn (72-59 overall) was the first-half champ with a 46-20 record. With many of their best players promoted (Carson Benge, Jacob Reimer, A.J. Ewing, Chris Suero), the Cyclones went 26-39 in the second half. Greensboro, a Pirates affiliate, went 88-43 overall and 43-23 in the second half.

Brooklyn will look for offensive production from, among others, infielders Marco Vargas and Colin Houck and recently promoted OF-3B Yonatan Henriquez. Vargas stole 38 bases and posted a .624 OPS in 408 plate appearances. Houck is a 2023 first-round pick who posted an .812 OPS at St. Lucie before slashing just .198/.269/.289 in 54 games for Brooklyn. Henriquez stole 33, hit eight homers and posted a .749 OPS in 104 games at St. Lucie. He’s 7-for-28 in seven games with the Cyclones.

The Cyclones will start Joel Díaz (5-5, 3.80 ERA) in Game 2 on Thursday and Noah Hall (5-7, 2.72 ERA) in Game 3 on Friday if necessary.

Díaz, 21, of the Dominican Republic struck out 98 in 106 2/3 innings for Brooklyn. Hall, 24, a seventh round pick in 2023 from the University of South Carolina, fanned 115 in 112 2/3 innings. Greensboro has not announced any of its starting pitchers.

The winner of the Brooklyn-Greensboro series will play in the South Atlantic League Championship Series, a best of three that will start on Sunday.  The Bowling Green Hot Rods (Rays) are playing the Hub City Spartanburgers (Rangers) in the other Division Series.

St. Lucie vs. Daytona

St. Lucie (77-53 overall) finished first in both halves in their division. They will visit Reds affiliate Daytona (65-66 overall, 36-29 second half) for Game 1 (6:35 p.m. ET) and host Games 2 and 3 on Thursday and Friday if necessary. Jose Chirinos, who has 56 1/3 innings and a 3.20 ERA under his belt for St. Lucie, will get the start for the Mets.

One St. Lucie player to watch is infielder Mitch Voit, 20, who was drafted in the first round (38th overall) in July from the University of Michigan. He has stolen 20 bases in 22 games while posting a .638 OPS in 99 plate appearances. He hit 14 homers and slashed .346/.471/.668 in 56 games for the Wolverines this year and had a breakout week last week.

Daiverson Gutierrez, a 19-year-old catcher from Venezuela, hit four homers and slashed .242/.362/.309 in 91 games for St. Lucie and 1B-OF Randy Guzman has been hot since his promotion from Rookie Ball, hitting .333/.381/.604 with three homers, 13 doubles and two triples in 26 games. He is a 20-year-old from the Dominican Republic.

The winner of St. Lucie-Daytona will play in the Florida State League Championship Series, a best of three that will also start on Sunday. The Lakeland Flying Tigers (Tigers) are playing the Clearwater Threshers (Phillies) in the other Division Series.

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