Under the radar: Reese Miller of the Grand Junction Jackalopes has quietly put together a monster season out of the bullpen. In 28 appearances this season, Miller is 0-2 despite a 0.52 ERA, with 10 saves and 51 strikeouts over 34.1 innings of work. The Jackalopes haven’t given Miller many opportunities for saves in the second half of the season; they are 4-9. 

Things are not so Rocky: After finishing the first half of the season in eighth place with a 22-25 record the Rocky Mountain Vibes are tied with the Missoula PaddleHeads atop the standings with a 9-4 record. They started out their second half of the season winning four-straight games over the Billings Mustangs before dropping their final two of the series. They followed that up with a 3-2 series win over the Yuba-Sutter High Wheelers and are currently riding a three-game winning streak with five games left this week against Grand Junction. 

More of the same: Both the Oakland Ballers and Missoula PaddleHeads clinched a playoff berth with their records in the first half of the season and so far, the second half tends to be trending in that same direction. Oakland currently sits one game behind Missoula and Rocky Mountain and is tied with Yuba-Sutter with an 8-5 record. While both teams have formidable offenses, this season it is the pitching that has been getting it done. The Ballers lead the league in team earned run average, giving up 270 runs in 61 games, good for a team ERA of 4.43. The PaddleHeads are next with 322 runs over 61 games, for a team ERA of 5.28. 

Notable: The top of the leaderboard in strikeouts and home runs hasn’t changed at all throughout the season with Glacier’s Ty Bothwell leading the Pioneer League with 82 strikeouts, including seven strikeouts in a no-decision Sunday. Trailing Bothwell is teammate Grant Taylor with 76 -- he picked up eight of those Ks in Tuesday’s 5-3 win over Idaho Falls. ...The PaddleHeads’ Roberto Pena continues to lead the league in home runs with 28, however Christopher Sargent, Jr. of the Ogden Raptors has leapfrogged Pena’s teammate Adam Fogel for second place. Sargent has gone yard seven times in 11 games in the second half of the season and now has 23. ...The Glacier Range Riders lost two-straight games in the knockout round last week to Missoula and were in danger of dropping five-straight games before their franchise-leading home run hitter, Kingston Liniak, saved Sunday’s game. After Glacier’s bullpen gave up four runs in the top of the ninth inning, Eli Paton — who joined the team in the second half — hit an RBI double to close the Riders to 5-3 before Liniak laced a three-run shot, his 37th as a Range Rider, over the left field wall for a 6-5 walk-off win. ... As of Wednesday the PBL had yet to release its pitcher and hitter of the week for Week 10.  

— Josh Amick