Capitals manager Patrick Scalabrini is now talking about it openly: the Quebec team is aiming for first place in the standings and nothing else at the end of the Frontier Baseball League regular season.

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"It's 100% our goal," said Scalabrini, whose team began a three-game series against the Wild Things on Friday night in Washington. We put ourselves in that position and with the playoff format, you have to finish first. Absolutely."

Remember that the two best teams in the standings, in each association, will play a match without a future to start the playoffs while the best formation will obtain a pass.

"It's exciting a suicide game for fans, but not bad for a manager, said Scalabrini, with humor. But seriously, it's also that you lose your starting ace for the first game of the next series.

With a 45-18 record going into play Friday night, the Capitals held a seven-and-a-half-game lead over the Ottawa Titans (38-26) in the Eastern standings.

One last long journey

After the three games against the Wild Things by Sunday, the Capitals will head to New Jersey to face the Jackals next week. For the rest, the Quebec team will play 18 of its last 27 games of the season at home, at Stade Canac. The games abroad will also take place mainly in Ottawa and Trois-Rivières. Grueling journeys will therefore be absent before the start of the playoffs

“We saw, when the calendar came out, that the end of the season was going to be a lot at home and that could benefit us, noted Scalabrini. It's simple, but the fact of batting last in baseball is always very important.

Before taking advantage of a more favorable schedule, Scalabrini was focusing in the short term on the present challenge, six consecutive games in the United States.