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Rio de Janeiro was seven games ahead of anyone else in the Southern Cone League at the all-star break with a 64-33 record. Fortaleza tried to give them a run with the Foxes’ 41-24 record in the back-end, but the Redbirds claimed the top seed and Southeast Division at 101-61. Fortaleza finished at 98-64 atop the North Division, which ended an 11-year playoff and division title drought for the Foxes.

Rio led the league in run differential (+202) and runs scored (771) en route to a third straight playoff trip and second division title in the run. Sao Paulo was a very distant second at 85-77, ending their playoff streak at four years. The Padres have had only winning seasons since 2021, but this was their fifth playoff miss of that streak.

Recife finished five back on Fortaleza in the North at 93-69, which was good for the first wild card. The Retrievers ended a three-year playoff drought and allowed the league’s fewest runs at 561. Salvador was a distant third at 86-76, which fell four short of the second wild card. Defending league champ Brasilia was middling at 82-80 for only their third playoff miss of the 2030s.

In the South Central Division, Valparaiso and Salta battled back-and-forth The Silver Hawks took the lead by going 13-1 to end August, but a Voodoo sweep to start September evened them up at 80-63. They both finished the regular season at 90-72 which guaranteed a spot for both, as the non-division champ would get the second wild card. As BSA doesn’t give division champs seeding preference, they were guaranteed to be the #4 and #5 seeds



Still, winning the division title was important and the tiebreaker gave home field for the first round playoff series. Valparaiso won the tiebreaker game 6-2 to repeat as champs, while Salta’s playoff streak grew to five seasons. Notable was also Santiago’s drop to 74-88; the first losing season for the Saints since 2008. The division did also see a turnaround by Mendoza, as their 81-81 was a far cry from the 64 and 51 wins they had the prior two years.



Salta’s Sol Rubio won Southern Cone League MVP for the second time in three years. He pulled it off despite not leading in a major stat, getting 28 first place votes. Rio de Janiero’s Simon Veronese had 11 and Sao Paulo’s Arbert Calderon had one. Many had Veronese as the favorite on the top seed, leading in WAR (8.3), average (.363), RBI (124) and OPS (1.099) with 50 homers.

Rubio was by no means bad, although the popularity of “Bruiser” certainly helped. The 28-year old Argentinian third baseman had 209 hits, 114 runs, 29 doubles, 11 triples, 40 homers, 100 RBI, .345/.375/.627 slash, 167 wRC+, and 7.8 WAR. After the prior season, the 6’6’’ Rubio signed an eight-year, $144,300,000 extension to stick with the Silver Hawks.

Rio’s Nereus Rebellin repeated as Pitcher of the Year and was the unanimous winner, although he didn’t lead the traditional big stats. Recife’s Rudy Maldonado had the best ERA at 2.10, although Rebellin was a close second at 2.16. Salvador’s Miguel Lebrija had the most wins (23) and Belem’s Onofre Cruz led with 312 strikeouts.

Rebellin was the WARlord though at 9.4 and led in WHIP (0.92), complete games (16), shutouts (6), FIP- (49), and FIP (1.93). The 27-year old Brazilian lefty had an 18-5 record and 287 strikeouts with a 179 ERA+ over 233 innings. Rebellin had been the #3 draft pick in 2033 by the Redbirds. Since his 2035 rotator cuff tear, he has been reliably one of the league’s top arms.



Valparaiso swept Salta on 3-1 and 7-2 wins in the first round. The Voodoo kept the momentum going into the divisional series, upsetting top seed Rio de Janeiro 4-3 in the opener. The game went 11 innings with Zacarias Ramos hitting the RBI double that put Valparaiso ahead. The Voodoo then stunned the Redbirds 3-1 in game two, taking the advance back home to Chile.

Game three also went 11 innings and again Ramos was the hero. This time, he led off the bottom of the 11^th and socked a homer to left, giving Valparaiso the 4-3 win and a stunning sweep over top seed Rio. The Voodoo became the first of the six expansion teams from 2029 to advance to their league final, an impressive feat in only the squad’s tenth season.

On the other side, Fortaleza got 8-4 and 3-2 wins to open over their divisional rival Recife. The Retrievers grabbed game three 8-3 at home, but the Foxes cruised to a 13-4 victory to seal the series in four games. Fortaleza earned its first trip to the Southern Cone Championship since the 2025 pennant win. They also had an impressive 52-29 record at home, but it didn’t help them as Valparaiso opened the series with 5-4 and 3-1 road wins.

Notably in game one, pinch hitter Lukas Hintersteiner had a two-run go-ahead homer in the ninth. In game two, the Voodoo used four hits to plate two runs in the ninth. Valparaiso then took game three 6-5 at home, putting them in position to run the table. Fortaleza avoided the sweep with a 7-4 win in game four, ending what was a 13-game win streak for the Voodoo going back to the end of the regular season.

In game five, Hintersteiner was again a key pinch hitter with a one-out double in the eighth. Dries Uyl brought him in on a RBI single to put the score at 3-2, which was the final tally. Valparaiso took their first title in five games with an all-time dominant postseason run from the #4 seed. They became the 34^th different franchise to earn a trip to Copa Sudamerica. LF Rob Granadoz was series MVP going 12-20 with 1 HR and 4 RBI.