The Bellwater Ironclads clinched their first playoff berth in six years Tuesday night at Founders Park, closing out a turnaround season that began with a new manager's promise to fix a bullpen that fell apart at the worst possible time last September.
The Ironclads secured the clinching win with a 6-4 victory over a divisional rival at Founders Park, improving to 93-59 with four games left in the regular season and locking up the franchise’s first playoff appearance since a run six years ago. The turnaround comes one season after Bellwater lost five of its final six games and missed the postseason on a tiebreaker, a collapse that prompted the organization to promote Delacroix from its Double-A affiliate over the winter. “We talked about this exact kind of night back in spring training, and I don’t think anybody in that clubhouse actually believed it would feel this good,” Delacroix said after the game.
The bullpen that refused a repeat
The relief corps that allowed 31 runs during last year’s collapse finished this season with a combined 3.14 ERA over the final two months, according to figures General Manager Sandra Tolliver shared before Tuesday’s game. Right-hander Desmond Cade, signed over the winter after posting a 2.31 ERA at a rival Triple-A affiliate, took over ninth-inning duties for six weeks in the middle of the season while closer Julio Vasquez recovered from a shoulder strain, converting 11 of 13 save chances during the stretch. Vasquez returned in August and has not blown a save since, giving Delacroix a two-man closer rotation he said he plans to lean on again in the postseason.
The front office also added right-hander Corey Landis at the trade deadline, acquired from the Portage Millers organization in exchange for a minor league infielder, to further deepen the middle innings. Landis has a 2.89 ERA in 24 appearances since the trade. “Last year we found out in September exactly how thin we were in the sixth and seventh innings,” Tolliver said. “This year we made sure that if one guy got hurt or wore down, there was somebody behind him who had already proven he belonged in this league.”
Every team in this league has arms. What separates the teams that make the playoffs from the teams that collapse in September is whether the bullpen believes in itself when it matters, and I think you saw that belief on the field the last six weeks.
Ray Delacroix, Manager, Bellwater Ironclads
Ontiveros finishes what he started
Third baseman Miguel Ontiveros, who hit .312 with 19 home runs last season before a wrist injury ended his year in late August, played all 152 games this season and finished with a .298 average, 26 home runs and a career-high 84 RBI. Ontiveros said the clubhouse’s willingness to talk openly about last September, rather than avoid the subject, helped the team close out close games this year instead of unraveling. “Last year it felt like something we weren’t allowed to bring up,” Ontiveros said. “This year it was basically why we showed up early every day. Nobody wanted to feel that again, and I think that showed up in how we played in the eighth and ninth innings all summer.”
Right-hander Theo Aldrich, who started the team’s home opener after logging a career-high 162 innings last season, finished the year 14-7 with a 3.42 ERA and is expected to start Game 1 of the divisional series. Delacroix said he has not finalized the rest of his postseason rotation but expects to lean heavily on Aldrich and a second starter who emerged during the summer, declining to name that pitcher publicly until the team’s off day later this week.
A city watching a full house again
Tolliver said Founders Park has drawn its highest average attendance in nine years this season, a figure she credited partly to the playoff push and partly to a wave of after-work group outings from Foundry Row’s growing biotech and startup employers. “We used to sell mostly to families on weekends,” Tolliver said. “This year we sold out Tuesday-night games in July, which never used to happen here.” The team has also fielded a wave of ticket requests from fans in West Bellwater and Cedar Hollow who Tolliver said are watching the city’s new bus rapid transit corridor construction with interest, hoping it eases the parking complaints that have topped the team’s customer surveys for a decade.
Delacroix, who managed against several of this year’s likely playoff opponents during his years in the league’s Double-A ranks, said he is trying not to let the clinching celebration distract from preparation. “I told the coaching staff we get one night to enjoy this, and then Wednesday morning we’re back to game-planning,” he said. “Last year taught this organization that momentum in August doesn’t mean anything if you can’t hold a lead in a big spot two weeks later.” The Ironclads will learn their first-round opponent this weekend, with the divisional series set to open at Founders Park.
For a franchise that has cycled through three managers in the past decade, the clinching win also settles, at least for now, questions about whether Delacroix would get more than one season to prove himself. Team ownership had publicly declined to commit to a multi-year extension when Delacroix was hired, saying only that his contract would be evaluated after his first season. Tolliver said Tuesday’s result should end any lingering uncertainty. “I don’t think there’s a case left to make that this hire needs a second look,” she said. “You inherit a team coming off a collapse, and in year one you get them into October. That’s not a fluke, and ownership sees that as clearly as I do.”
Delacroix, for his part, said he has tried not to think about his own contract status during a season he described as consumed almost entirely by the day-to-day work of managing a 25-man roster through a 144-game schedule. “I haven’t had a single conversation with anybody in this organization about my own job security since March,” he said. “We’ve all just been focused on not repeating September. Everything else takes care of itself if you get that part right.”
Ontiveros said the veteran players on the roster have noticed a change in how Delacroix runs the clubhouse compared to the previous coaching staff, describing him as more willing to let players work through in-game mistakes without pulling them immediately. “He trusts guys to fix things themselves in real time instead of yanking you the second something goes wrong,” Ontiveros said. “That sounds small, but it changes how you play when you’re not looking over your shoulder every time you make an error.”