SIOUX CITY, Iowa—The Sioux City Explorers (61-34) added another milestone to their impressive 2025 campaign, clinching the West Division title with a decisive 9-4 victory over the Sioux Falls Canaries (54-41). Fueled by broken records, dominant pitching and clutch extra-inning wins throughout the season, the X’s rose to the occasion in front of a fired-up home crowd to secure their first division crown since 2018.
After blasting two home runs on Tuesday, Abdiel Layer picked up right where he left off on Wednesday night. With runners on the corners and two outs, Layer lifted Cole LaLonde’s 1-0 offering into the gap in right-center field, just beyond the reach of Josh Rehwaldt’s outstretched glove. Torin Montgomery and Maikol Escotto came around to score, giving the Explorers a 2-0 lead.
After a scoreless third for both teams, Sioux Falls went to work in the top of the fourth. Peniel Otaño gave up two singles to open the inning, putting runners at the corners and none out. Mike Hart stepped up next and smoked one to third base that Layer snared and fired to first base to try and double up Calvin Estrada. The heave missed the target and bounded away, bringing home Bottcher.
Later in the inning, with two outs and two runners in scoring position, Peter Zimmermann smashed a single to center to plate both runners and put the Canaries in front.
Sioux City returned the favor in the bottom half of the frame. Montgomery singled to begin the inning, and Escotto walked to set up an RBI chance for Kurtis Byrne. The catcher waited for his pitch and smoked it over Rehwaldt’s head in right-center field. Montgomery scored on the play, and when the relay throw sailed to the backstop, Escotto scored to give the X’s a 4-3 lead.
Byrne later scored on another Sioux Falls defensive miscue to pull ahead by two. Joe Vos led off the ensuing half-inning to bring the Canaries within one, but that’s the last offense the matchup would see for a while. Nate Gercken worked out of trouble to post a scoreless sixth while Ryan Beaird breezed by in the seventh and eighth.
The X’s tacked on four insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth capped off by Layer’s fourth home run of the series to take a 9-4 lead as the ninth inning approached.
Heading into the night, the Explorers needed to win and a Kansas City loss to Milwaukee to clinch the West Division. Milwaukee held up its end of the bargain as Felix Cepeda emerged from the bullpen for the most important inning of the 2025 campaign.
The Dominican flamethrower easily finished off the Canaries and the Sioux City Explorers won their first division championship since the 2018 season. The West Division title now allows the X’s the opportunity to choose who they will play in the first round of the Miles Wolff Cup Playoffs.
Box Score
Notes from the Booth with DV:
-Sioux City’s current 61 wins is third all-time in team history.
-Austin Davis extended his hitting streak to 15 games.
-The season series is now 9-7 in favor of Sioux City.
-The X’s now have 260 stolen bases.
-Josh Day has seven RBI in the last five games.
-Abdiel Layer homered on back-to-back nights and has six against Sioux Falls this season.
-Sioux Falls leads the league in home runs but the X’s have hit 21 homers against the Canaries while the “birds” only 10 head-to-head.
-It was the club’s league leading 32nd win at home.
-The X’s are 10-3 on Wednesday.
-The Explores magic number is zero due to the head-to-head with Kansas City.
-Sioux City will play game one of the playoff next Wednesday September 3 at a site to be determined. The team will play game two and game three (if necessary) on September 5 and 6.
