Redline Fundraising at Franchise Sports Media

Pacific Coast League Championship Series

FSM Feature: Aviators play host to the Tacoma Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League Championship Series

Las Vegas putts into the postseason as the Rainiers look ready to erupt as the Pacific Coast Championship Series gets underway.

Aviators vs Chihuahuas — Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aviators

With the regular season now in the rearview mirror, the Las Vegas Aviators now set their sights on the Pacific Coast League Championship Series against the red-hot Tacoma Rainiers, who secured their own spot in the postseason after posting a 47-27 record to close out the second half of the season.

After cruising to a 49-26 record in the first half of the season, Las Vegas has had a spot in the playoffs since mid-June.

A lot has changed since then.

Mainly, the majority of the Aviators’ lineup, along with the consistent winning play that saw them lose only one series in the first half of the season, while tying in two and winning the rest. Las Vegas was a force to be reckoned with in the first half of the season, scoring 522 runs while allowing only 346, good enough for first in the Pacific Coast League in both categories.

Tacoma, on the other hand, didn’t fare as well. The Rainiers finished the first half of the season, sitting 11 games behind the Aviators at 38-37. While Tacoma did have a +37 run differential against their opponents, the Rainiers had a difficult time when they played away from the Pacific Northwest, going 10-20 away from Cheney Stadium. Las Vegas, on the other hand, had no trouble on the road, as the Aviators sat at 21-15 when they played away from the desert heat in the Las Vegas Ballpark.

But it was a tale of two halves… of the season, for both teams.

Aviators vs Express — Photo Credit: Alon Sowell/Franchise Sports Media

With the Athletics and Seattle Mariners, Major League affiliates of the Aviators and Rainiers, respectively, sitting at opposite ends of the American League West standings for much of the season, changes were needed for the Athletics, while Seattle has continued to have a stranglehold on first place. Around the All-Star Break, the Aviators lost the majority of their lineup to promotions.

Players like Denzel Clarke, Colby Thomas, Carlos Cortes, Darell Hernaiz, Max Muncy, Brett Harris, Willie MacIver, and Jack Perkins, to name a few, all traded their orange and blue for green and yellow when they got the call. With mostly 2025 Aviators now on the roster, the Athletics would come out of the break hot, but they would ultimately fizzle out as they currently sit 10 games below .500 at 73-83 and are eliminated from playoff contention.

With the Athletics picking the Aviators’ lineup apart, Las Vegas struggled to find consistency in the latter half of the season, going 34-40 in one back-and-forth series after another. The Rainiers, however, did the opposite, storming their way to a 47-27 record as they found a way to win on the road, going 23-12 from visitor’s clubhouses. Regardless of where the teams’ trajectories were heading, though, the Aviators always seemed to have Tacoma’s number in their three series against one another, winning all three with Las Vegas holding a 14-4 record that includes a six-game sweep over Tacoma.

Now, the Rainiers and Aviators will face each other one last time in a best-of-three series to decide the Pacific Coast League champions.

And if the 2025 regular season has given either team an idea of what to expect, surely they expect another back-and-forth series that could very well go three.

I know I do.