Playoff baseball is back in Wichita. What to know about Wind Surge’s title chances

For the second straight summer, playoff baseball is back in Wichita after the Wind Surge won the second-half Texas League North division championship.

Wichita will host Game 1 of the best-of-3 divisional series against the Tulsa Drillers at Riverfront Stadium at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday with the game carried on radio by ESPN Wichita 92.3-FM.

Wichita fans looking to buy playoff baseball tickets can find them for as cheap as $10 on the Wind Surge’s official website.

Here are the five things to know about the Wind Surge’s playoff run.

1. The road to a championship for the Wind Surge

The Wichita Wind Surge will play the Tulsa Drillers in a best-of-3 divisional series, pitting the winners of each half of the season in the North division of the Texas League in what is essentially a semifinal matchup.

For the second straight year, the Wind Surge are back in the MiLB playoffs after losing in Game 5 of last season’s championship series.

Tulsa will host Game 2 on Thursday, Sept. 22 and Game 3, if necessary, on Friday, Sept. 23. The winner will face the winner of the South divisional series between Frisco and San Antonio, as the best-of-3 Texas League championship series is slated for Sept. 27-30.

2. How Wind Surge have fared against Tulsa this season

Tulsa has won 14 of the 24 matchups this season and is the only team in the North division of the Texas League that the Wichita Wind Surge do not own a winning record against this season.

But context is needed: Tulsa is the first-half champions of the division, a span when it racked up many of those victories over Wichita; the Drillers entering the playoffs are nowhere close to the same team.

While Wichita posted a 43-26 record in the second half of the best, the best record in the Texas League by five games, Tulsa dropped off and finished with a 29-40 record in the second half.

The last time the two teams met, at Riverfront Stadium for a 6-game series in mid-August, the Wind Surge won five of those games.

In order to win the series, however, Wichita must find a way to win in Tulsa, something that has been a problem for the Wind Surge this season, given their 2-7 record on the road against the Drillers.

3. Wind Surge slated to start a lefty in Game 1

The Wichita Wind Surge will start Brent Headrick in Tuesday’s Game 1 against the Tulsa Drillers.

Headrick, a 6-foot-6 left-handed thrower, has made eight starts in Wichita with a 2-3 record, 4.81 earned run average and 59 strikeouts to just 12 walks in 43 innings pitched. The 24-year-old was a Round 9 pick by the Twins in the 2019 MLB Draft.

He has made one start against Tulsa this season, where he struck out 10 batters without a single walk but gave up four earned runs in five innings and was the losing pitcher in a 7-3 loss.

Tulsa will counter with Nick Frasso, a 6-foot-5 right-hander who was a fourth-round pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2020 MLB Draft and has been dominant at the lower levels of minor league baseball so far. Frasso’s time in Double-A has been a different story, however, as he has a 5.40 ERA and opposing batters are hitting .261 against him in four starts in Tulsa.

4. Twins prospects to watch in the postseason

The Minnesota Twins are sending seven prospects to the Arizona Fall League, which begins on Oct. 3, and the Wind Surge roster features five of those players: shortstop Austin Martin, second baseman Edouard Julien, catcher Alex Isola, pitcher Denny Bentley and pitcher Francis Peguero.

Martin, who has spent nearly the entire season in Wichita, is considered one of the organization’s top MLB prospects. He recently recovered from an injury and is hitting .268 in the month of September. Julien leads the Texas League in walks and on-base percentage, while he leads the team in hits and RBI and ranks third on the team in home runs.

Yunior Severino, who recently had a 17-game hitting streak, is another prospect to watch for the Wind Surge. Severino hit .388 with six home runs and 14 RBI during the streak, which came to an end last Friday.

5. Wichita has experience of playing in close games

The Wind Surge are 23-23 this season in 1-run games, a win total that leads the Texas League and a 46-game total that ranks second in all of the minors.

Bolstering Wichita’s late success is the strength of its bullpen, which has registered the win in 10 of the last 14 wins. The bullpen has combined to compile a 55-27 record this season with an ERA of 4.33, the second-best mark in the league.