{"id":854677,"date":"2026-09-20T20:26:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854677\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T20:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:26:36","slug":"the-tigers-have-some-talent-aging-at-double-a-erie-as-this-weeks-championship-series-confirms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/854677\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tigers have some talent aging at Double-A Erie, as this week\u2019s championship series confirms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/substackcdn.com\/image\/fetch\/$s_!d8iy!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep\/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb9f36704-0d64-400f-876f-ad5fe4057f46_1422x2708.jpeg\" data-component-name=\"Image2ToDOM\" class=\"image-link image2 is-viewable-img can-restack\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/b9f36704-0d64-400f-876f-ad5fe4057f46_1422.jpeg\" width=\"1422\" height=\"2708\" data-attrs=\"{&quot;src&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/b9f36704-0d64-400f-876f-ad5fe4057f46_1422x2708.jpeg&quot;,&quot;srcNoWatermark&quot;:null,&quot;fullscreen&quot;:null,&quot;imageSize&quot;:null,&quot;height&quot;:2708,&quot;width&quot;:1422,&quot;resizeWidth&quot;:null,&quot;bytes&quot;:893244,&quot;alt&quot;:null,&quot;title&quot;:null,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;image\/jpeg&quot;,&quot;href&quot;:null,&quot;belowTheFold&quot;:false,&quot;topImage&quot;:true,&quot;internalRedirect&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/tigersintelligencereport.substack.com\/i\/216585379?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1c8cb621-072e-4995-990e-e3e9ad50127a_4032x3024.jpeg&quot;,&quot;isProcessing&quot;:false,&quot;align&quot;:null,&quot;offset&quot;:false}\" alt=\"\"   fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"sizing-normal\"\/><\/a>Kenny Serwa\u2019s knuckleball last week was on a tight leash \u2014 and helped the SeaWolves steam into this week\u2019s championship series.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that will teach the Erie SeaWolves to be so doggone pesky in September.<\/p>\n<p>They could have been headed by now for an offseason break after five months of games and bus rides had the Tigers\u2019 Double-A partner not pushed its way into the Eastern League playoffs, beating Richmond twice last week, to set up a best-of-three championship series against Reading that begins tonight (5:05 p.m.) at UPMC Park.<\/p>\n<p>Credit those SeaWolves players for these two overtime playoff series:<\/p>\n<p>Peyton Graham, shortstop and all-around defender, who\u2019s continued to hit and thieve bases. Zyhir Hope, the former Dodgers blue-chipper and outfielder the Tigers got in their Tarik Skubal swap. Woody Hadeen, another all-position wizard who switch-hits. Thayron Liranzo, whose three-run homer Thursday beat Richmond, 5-3, and sewed up a championship series ticket.<\/p>\n<p>Notice, also, that knuckleballer Kenny Serwa was Thursday\u2019s winning pitcher, thanks to seven innings of four-hit ball, walking only one batter, while striking out four, with one blemish: a three-run homer he allowed when a man who lives by his knuckleball decided unadvisedly to throw a fastball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got some parts,\u201d Erie manager Tony Cappuccilli said during a Saturday phone conversation. \u201cRight now, when playing our best nine, it means we\u2019ve got a couple of tough decisions -\u2013 somebody\u2019s sitting who should be in the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we\u2019re throwing a lineup out there with a balance of some speed and power. And that balance seems to be favorable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A surprise or two also has factored in a team that finished the regular season with a 79-58 record and was first in the Eastern League\u2019s Southwest Division.<\/p>\n<p>Consider catcher Luke Shliger, all 5-foot-7, 197 pounds of him. In last Tuesday\u2019s first playoff game against Richmond, he smashed a pair of grand slam homers, good for eight RBIs in Erie\u2019s 18-6 romp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenny Serwa\u2019s knuckleball last week was on a tight leash \u2014 and helped the SeaWolves steam into this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-854677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}