Healthy Chukars set to open playoffs with high hopes, expectations

IDAHO FALLS — Entering the season, manager Troy Percival believed his Chukars squad could win 50 to 55 games.

Then they lost two of their top five starting pitchers before the end of the first series of the season — one to a major league organization and the other to injury. Still, the skipper’s confidence remained steadfast.

The injuries kept coming. In a rollercoaster-esque season, the Chukars battled through the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, with numerous key players missing extended stretches to injury.

But at the end of that 96-game rollercoaster ride, the Chukars were right where the skipper thought they would be: at 54 wins, enough for the three-seed in the PBL playoffs.

Now, the Chukars (54-41) open their postseason in Missoula, Montana, against the No. 2-seed PaddleHeads (64-32).

Percival is cautiously optimistic about his squad’s health. He notes that it is the healthiest it has been all season, but some of the players returning from injury have not seen live at-bats in weeks.

The skipper also spoke about the way the PaddleHeads stumbled to the finish line, finishing with losses in six of their last 16 games, and how the Chukars surged late, winning 10 of 16 to close out the regular season. But Percival added it was important to note that Missoula had already secured a playoff spot and had little to play for.

“I like the fact that we had to compete all the way to the last day of the season. I think that could come into play,” Percival said following the Chukars’ practice Tuesday before the team departed for Montana on Wednesday morning.

“When you have a three-game set, anything can happen,” he added. “Trust me, they know that we can beat them, and I know that they can beat us.”

Idaho Falls split a six-game set with the PaddleHeads in Missoula in late-August. Even that series, though, should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Percival.

Benjamin Rosengard, who finished the season as the PBL’s leading hitter with a .463 average, took just seven at-bats in that series. But Adam Fogel, half of Missoula’s one-two power punch, missed most of that series as well.

Pitching keys

Starter Gary Grosjean (11-6, 5.45 ERA) has been rock-solid since making his first start of the year, finishing the regular season among the PBL leaders in wins (11), innings pitched (112-1/3) and strikeouts (102).

For much of the season, though, Idaho Falls was looking for more pitching.

“It’s been kind of a whirlwind,” Grosjean told EastIdahoSports.com about the ups and downs of the season, particularly regarding the team’s health woes.

Finally, a series of late-season acquisitions and a second-half surge from some of the pitchers who benefitted form the staff depth gave the Chukars what was one of the league’s top pitching staffs down the stretch.

Grosjean will start Game 1 on Thursday. Nathan Hemmerling (8-4, 6.43 ERA), who was red-hot late winning each of his last four starts, will get the ball in Game 2. Nathan Shinn (2-1, 7.32 ERA), acquired in a trade with the Grand Junction Jackalopes in August, would get the nod if there is a third game.

The story of the Chukars pitching woes this season, though, has little to do with the rotation — at least directly.

For several months, Percival and pitching coach Bob Milacki were searching for any reliever who could consistently get outs. They went so far as to use top starters Grosjean and Shane Spencer as late-game bullpen arms.

Grosjean laughed while discussing the fact that, at one point during the season, he led the team in both wins and saves — of which he recorded two on the year.

“As a starter, you always have a little bit of a fantasy about, maybe closing out a baseball game here and there,” he said. “To be able to say that I have a couple saves under my belt, it’s enjoyable to me.”

That worm turned over the closing month of the season, when, suddenly fully stocked, the Idaho Falls bullpen was nearly untouchable. According to Percival, the Chukar relief corps carried a sub-2 ERA over the final 50-plus innings pitched.

“These guys have been, in my opinion, the most dominant bullpen in the league,” he said. “They’ve just been outstanding.”

Percival admits that Missoula, throughout the regular season, boasted more starter depth than the Chukars. But in a three-game series, depth isn’t entirely necessary.

“I’ll take our top three out there against anybody right now,” he said.

And with a bullpen that has been incredibly stingy, the manager carries a confidence that, should it be required, he can hand the ball to a reliever and expect him to “roll zeroes.”

“I’m very content going into the series knowing that our bullpen can hold a lead,” Percival said.

The game plan for the Idaho Falls pitching staff is to limit two- or three-ball counts. But also, they need to tread carefully around the middle of the Missoula lineup, where Fogel (.388 average, 34 homers, 108 RBIs) and Roberto Pena (.358 average, 46 homers, 129 RBIs) await to do damage.

Grosjean, like his manager, is confident that the two pitching staffs match-up well.

“I don’t think it’s a lopsided matchup,” he said. “I feel like we can truly go beat them with pitching. … If our offense can stay hot, and our pitching just does exactly what we’re doing already, I feel like we’re going to come out of there victorious.”

Offensive keys

Spender Rich, who was leading the team in homers and stolen bases before suffering a leg injury, along with Simon Baumgardt and batting champ Rosengard, are among the ranks of injured Chukars returning to action.

Since Aug. 24, the trio has taken a combined 24 at-bats — 22 of which coming from Rich, who had been out since July 8.

They will rejoin a squad that finished the season leading the league in hits (1,243), extra-base hits (422) and runs (948), and was second him home runs with 168 — to the PaddleHeads, with 180.

The anchor in that well-rounded and potent Idaho Falls attack is Trevor Rogers, who hit .379 with 28 homers and a PBL-record 37 doubles. Rogers was also the only Chukar to knock in over 100 RBIs (104)

He spoke about the performance of his team throughout the season, and was quick to mention, like Percival and Grosjean, the injuries that plagued the Chukars through the middle of the year.

“In the middle (of the season), we didn’t have the bullpen that we thought we had going into the year — a lot of moving parts, a lot of injuries, a lot of people tired,” Rogers said. “Then at the end of the year, everybody buckled down and just kind of grinded it out.”

Despite hitting in the much more pitcher-friendly confines of Melaleuca Field than Missoula’s Ogren Park at Allegiance Field, the Chukars, with a .350 team average, outhit the PaddleHeads and their .319.

That, Percival said, is because of the depth within Idaho Falls’ lineup. Sure, he admitted, Fogel and Pena are two of the most dangerous hitters in the league, but the Chukars have power throughout the lineup.

Nine Chukars hitters clubbed at least 10 home runs, and seven had batting averages above .360.

Like the pitching staff, the offense is the healthiest is has been all year. Heading into the postseason, the only major question mark looms over the head of star center fielder Tyler Wyatt.

Wyatt (oblique) has not taken an in-game at-bat since Sept. 2, but faced teammates during a live-pitching batting practice session Tuesday. Percival said that his health will be assessed when the team arrives in Montana, and his availability will be determined then.

The Chukars would benefit from having a healthy Wyatt in the middle of the order, but even without him they are “healthy and ready to go,” in Rogers’ words.

Asked what he thinks will be needed from his team to take two of three from the PaddleHeads, Rogers said simply, a “great” and “gutsy” effort from the entire squad.

Gametime

The Chukars will play a best-of-three series against the PaddleHeads in Missoula, with games scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Which ever team wins will advance to take on the winner of the Ogden Raptors-Oakland Ballers series in Oakland. The championships series is a best-of-five set, scheduled for next week, with the lower seed hosting the first two games and the higher seed hosting the final three.

That means, if the Chukars take the series in Missoula, they will host at least one playoff game, and Percival is hopeful to bring postseason baseball to Idaho Falls, a community that has been so supportive and he has seen rally around the success of the club this season.

Whether they win the championship, though, Percival will consider this season a success, and a building block toward what he sees as a promising future for the franchise.

A believer in looking at “realistic” expectations, the growth from a 40-win season to 54 was proof enough that the team is trending upwards. And a first playoff appearance since 2021 for an organization that last won a league title in 2019 is something of which everyone involved can be proud.

“But we’re going to try (to win it all),” he added. “We’re going to give it hell.”