With the Tides having a strong late-season showing, everybody should mark their calendars for next Wednesday and Thursday. It’s now looking possible, or even likely, that Norfolk will take the wild card spot for the IL playoffs. That means that they will start the playoff series at Harbor Park on September 4 and 5. There may be little point in speculating on the matchups at this point, but at least “save the dates” in your Outlook.

Since I last wrote, we bade farewell to Freddy Garcia who, at 36, left us to try for one last chance in the majors with the Braves. He didn’t have a very good showing when we faced him at Gwinnett, so in a way, he was still playing for us, and we appreciate the thought.

Gausman was recalled to Baltimore yesterday. That’s not much of a surprise, although I was a little surprised that the O’s sent Chen down to GCL to make room on the roster for Gausman.

We also want to congratulate Jairo Ascensio who has been named to the post-season IL all-star team as the top relief pitcher in the IL. As of this writing, he has 24 saves.

I can barely believe that we have only three regular-season home dates left on the schedule for 2013. Only four games remain. The last homestand begins with a doubleheader Saturday. That will be a 5:05 start, so don’t be late. It’ll be a full evening! The first game is a makeup from a rain-out with Durham and will complete eight remaining innings of play. The second game will be a seven-inning contest. Then, after all of that, they’ll have a fireworks show for us. Not bad for the price of admission!

Sunday’s game with Durham starts at 6:05 and will also be followed by a fireworks show. Monday’s game is the last of the regular season. It’ll start at 12:05. Keep an eye on the weather for that one. It’s going to be hot and storms are expected.

That’s it for now…will post again as the playoff picture shapes up. – RR