This pretty much sums it up:

What this means in plain English is that following Wednesday night’s 9-3 pounding of the Cal League North Division champion Visalia Rawhide (Rockies) by the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes at Recreation Park in Visalia to take a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five California League Championship Series, and following Thursday’s off day, Game-3 of the series at LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga on Friday night could very well be the final game of 2018 for the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate.

It’s impossible not to call Cody Thomas‘ grand slam home run in Game-2 of the 2018 California League Championship Series on Wednesday night the defining moment of the best of five series. The Quakes are hoping to close out the series in Game-3 on Friday night at LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga.
(Ron Cervenka – file photo)

A bit presumptuous, you say? Perhaps. But consider this:

Even though Visalia won six of the eleven regular season games between the two respective division champs, the Quakes posted a 52-18 record in the second half of the season. Not only was this the best second half record in the highly competitive California League, it was the best second half record in MiLB history at any level.

During this historic second half, Quakes manager Drew Saylor’s team set a new franchise record of 15 consecutive wins between mid-June and mid-July. They also led the Cal League with 202 home runs, 281 doubles, 841 runs scored, 776 RBI, 2,309 total bases, a .351 on-base percentage, a .474 slugging percentage, and a .825 OPS.

As such, it’s hard not to give the edge to Rancho to sweep the best-of-five series over Visalia on Friday evening in front of what is expected to be a sold out LoanMart Field.

However, and this is significant, of the four regular season games between these two Cal League powerhouses played at LoanMart Field, the Rawhide won three of them, and did so in the second half. This, coupled with the fact that Visalia will be playing with their backs to the wall with a ‘win or go home’ mentality, makes them a very dangerous opponent. That being said, and although stranger things have happened, all three remaining games – if necessary – will be played in Rancho Cucamonga.

Ironically, when the Cody Bellinger / Alex Verdugo-led Quakes won the Cal League Championship in 2015 over the San Jose Giants, they did so on the road at Municipal Stadium in San Jose. As such, one has to believe that the 2018 Quakes will be even more motivated to sweep their opponents in front of their hometown fans on Friday night than that extremely powerful 2015 Quakes team did on the road in 2015. That 2015 Quakes team was managed by Bill Haselman, who now manages the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate Oklahoma City Dodgers.

Here again, although any team can beat any other team on any given day, you’ve got to like the Quakes chances of a sweep heading into Game-3 – a game that could very well be the last one of 2018 for the Quakes.

You do not want to miss this one.