Wild Wild West League Playoffs Begin Friday, August 19th
This weekend is the final weekend of Wild Wild West League play at Walker Stadium, where the Portland Gherkins, Portland Rosebuds, Gresham Greywolves, and Willamette Wild Bills will compete for the championship.
The Wild Wild West League regular season is nearly complete, and the final standings and playoff seeding have been set. The Gherkins have earned first place, while the Rosebuds are in last and the Greywolves and Wild Bills find themselves in the middle. Playoff matchups are set accordingly, with the highest-seeded Gherkins facing the Rosebuds in semifinal 1 (Friday 7:30 pm) and the 2-seed Wild Bills squaring off against the Greywolves in semifinal 2 (Saturday 3:30). The championship game is set for Saturday, August 20th at 7:30 pm, the same day as the biggest Pickle party in Portland: Picklefest.
get tickets now for this weekend
The road to this point has included ups and downs for each team, with the road particularly rocky for the Rosebuds (2-8). However, the Rosebuds might be the most interesting team coming into the Postseason. Last season, they were also underdogs, seeded third, but managed to pull off two consecutive upsets to win the 2021 Wild Wild West League Championship. This season, they find themselves in a similar situation after a disappointing regular season, one which did end on a high note after the Rosebuds defeated the top-ranked Gherkins in the night game on August 14th.
The Gherkins (8-2), before that Sunday night loss to the Rosebuds, had cruised through the regular season mostly unscathed, save for a 15-0 route at the hands of the Greywolves. The Gherkins were dominant in games they won this season, beating opponents by an average of 7 runs. Their performance was certainly the most consistent of the Wild Wild West League teams, and they are favorites to win the title because of their solid pitching staff and deep batting order. Still, it shouldn’t be ignored that full-strength efforts from the Greywolves and Rosebuds proved the Gherkins are not invincible.
No team experienced ups and downs quite like the Greywolves (5-5), who as previously mentioned no-hit the Gherkins in a 15-0 win but also lost by 6, 8, and 11 runs to those same Gherkins in their three other meetings. The Greywolves did, however, edge out the season series with the Wild Bills with three wins and two losses. Gresham’s solid hitting contrasted its pitching staff, who at times flashed greatness but mostly struggled to keep opposing hitters at bay. The good news for G-Wolves fans is that the pitching staff is expected to be at full strength for playoff weekend, making it difficult to count the Greywolves out.
The two-seeded Wild Bills (6-4) didn’t manage to beat the Gherkins this season, but they swept the season series against the Rosebuds and collected two wins over the Greywolves. The Bills only exploded on offense a few times this season but were able to win a handful of close games thanks to clutch pitching and timely hitting in late innings. The Wild Bills and Greywolves match up one more time before playoff games begin at 3:30 on Friday, August 19th, then again as the two and three seeds respectively on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 in the second semifinal game.
Saturday, August 20th is championship day and also Picklefest, where 10 breweries will be in attendance. Get tickets now for the matchups on Friday and for the games and Picklefest on Saturday!
