Agan cleans up, the rest try to catch up

With around a dozen games left to the regular season and two of three playoff spots still unsecured, this is as close a playoff race down the stretch as any other in the past five seasons of the Taiwan Major League (TML).

Regular-season champions, Taichung Agan clinched the regular-season title on Aug. 25 after Kaohsiung Fala lost to Chiayi Luka -- meaning the two remaining playoff spots would be fought out among the other three teams in the league.

The regular season second-placed team will host games one, two, and five (if necessary) in a best-of-five first-round series immediately after the end of the regular season.

Currently sitting in the number two spot is Fala, which is two wins or two Gida-losses away from clinching second place and home-field advantage in the first round of playoffs.

The winner of the first round will than take on regular season champion Agan in Taichung for a best-of-seven league championship series.

Though Agan and Fala seem to be sitting pretty, a postseason run looks anything but a sure thing for Taipei Gida and Chiayi Luka.

Every game from this point on is a "must-win" for them because the two teams are only separated by a 0.003 point margin in terms of winning percentage as of Tuesday.

To further complicate the scenario, Gida and Luka only have three more head-to-heads, which means the Agan and Fala results will have just as much impact on the two teams' hopes as their own performances.

The team with the best winning percentage at the end of the season will move on to the postseason, while the loser will sit it out.

One reason Agan has done so well this season is the standout performances of individual players.

Nearly all the player awards have been wrapped up by Agan, with its team members likely to win out in all but one of the individual honors in both the offensive and pitching categories.

Defending champion Taichung Agan Manager Wu Fu-lien (吳復連) tried to downplay his team's dominance in both team play and individual achievements saying, "It's great for the team that we won the regular season title and wrapped up most of the individual awards, but that does not mean the team will take home the championship trophy.

"Now that we are in the playoffs, we must focus on physical conditioning and bench depth, which will be the key to an Agan repeat."