2023-09-19 07:00:00
The Reno Aces, last year’s Pacific Coast League champions, need a strong final week of the regular season if they’re going to keep alive their hopes of defending that PCL title.
This year, the PCL playoffs will pit the first-half winner against the second-half winner. Oklahoma City won the first half and will host the second-half winner in a best-of-three series starting Sept. 26.
Round Rock has the best PCL record in the second half at 41-28, which is two games ahead of Reno (39-30), which also trails Las Vegas (40-29) by a game. Tacoma (38-31) also remains in the mix for the second-half championship as does Albuquerque (38-31). All five of those teams could face Oklahoma City in the PCL championship series with a strong final series.
Reno owns the tiebreaker on Round Rock and must make up two games on the Express in the final week of the regular season. Reno starts a six-game series at Las Vegas on Tuesday and likely needs to go 5-1 or better in the series to win the PCL’s second half. Albuquerque hosts Oklahoma City in a six-game series and Round Rock plays at Tacoma. Each of those will be crucial in determining who advances to face Oklahoma City.
The winner of the best-of-three PCL championship series advances to play the International League winner in a single-game championship format Sept. 30 at Las Vegas Ballpark.
Reno beat El Paso in the PCL championship — it was a one-game format — last year before losing to Durham in the Triple-A championship game, 10-6, after leading the game entering the ninth inning. Reno has won the PCL twice in its history, doing so in 2012 and 2022, and also won the Triple-A title in 2012.
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