BILLINGS, Mont. — The Billings Mustangs are postseason bound and will host a playoff series at home in September.<\/p>\n
Before the postseason arrives, though, two Mustangs standouts made some franchise history of their own during the team\u2019s recent road trip to Great Falls.<\/p>\n
Outfielder A.J. Shaver and catcher Charlie Muniz each broke a modern-day single-season franchise record in a span of just three days.<\/p>\n
Shaver got things started last Friday when he launched a three-run home run against the Voyagers, giving him the most RBIs in a single season in Mustangs history with 96 and counting.<\/p>\n
The home run moved Shaver past Jack O\u2019Dowd, who set the previous record last season. O\u2019Dowd is now in the Colorado Rockies\u2019 farm system.<\/p>\n
\u201cLong season, left, I am happy however it turns out,\u201d Shaver said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to be the guy who breaks it first, but it\u2019s all about these next four weeks and getting into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaver has been one of the Mustangs\u2019 top offensive performers all season. Heading into Tuesday night’s game against Glacier, he currently leads the Pioneer League with a .430 batting average\u00a0<\/p>\n
The record is also meaningful for Shaver because of his relationship with O\u2019Dowd. The two became close friends and roommates during the first half of last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were super tight and were roommates for probably the first half of the year,\u201d Shaver said. \u201cHe had an awesome year, so to see that get broken I know he\u2019s probably pumped for us and he\u2019s going and having a killer year right now and we are all striving to be where he\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just two days after Shaver broke the RBI record, Muniz followed with some history of his own.<\/p>\n
The catcher hit his 23rd home run of the season, breaking the Mustangs\u2019 single-season home run record \u2014 another mark previously held by O\u2019Dowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year I was here when O\u2019Dowd broke it, so I was thankful to see that moment and be in the clubhouse for that moment,\u201d Muniz said.<\/p>\n
The Puerto Rico native has plenty of experience putting the ball over the fence. During his college career at the University of the Cumberland in Kentucky, Muniz set the all-time NAIA career home run record with 115.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite his history with the long ball, Muniz said his latest milestone had him thinking more about the people who helped him get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably thinking about all of the work I have put in, and my family back home,\u201d Muniz said. \u201cThinking of them and I am just thankful for the opportunity to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
With roughly a month remaining before the playoffs, the Mustangs will look to Shaver, Muniz and the rest of their roster to carry that momentum into the postseason.<\/p>\n
The team will host a semifinals playoff series September 10-12, after clinching a postseason berth in the first half of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BILLINGS, Mont. — The Billings Mustangs are postseason bound and will host a playoff series at home in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[95666,5,44782,25263,2536,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,10004,95667,16935,36915],"class_list":["post-776580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-aj-shaver","tag-baseball","tag-billings-mustangs","tag-charlie-muniz","tag-local-sports","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-montana-sports","tag-mustangs-baseball","tag-pioneer-league","tag-pioneer-league-baseball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117081550601598646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}