With a tie (out to two decimal points) at the top and 9 teams within 4 games of first, I am pretty sure the EFL pennant race is much hotter than it’s ever been this far into the season. And to add to the excitement: over everything looms a terrifying fact, which you will read about in this post.

Standings

Team	Wins	Losses	WPct	GB
Cascadia Glaciers	31.63	26.37	.545	0.0
Haviland Dragons	31.63	26.37	.545	0.0
Portland Rosebuds	31.21	26.79	.538	0.4
Canberra Kangaroos	30.65	27.35	.528	1.0
D.C. Balk	29.96	28.04	.517	1.7
Peshastin Pears	29.67	28.33	.512	2.0
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	28.48	29.52	.491	3.2
Flint Hill Tornadoes	28.19	29.81	.486	3.4
Salem Seraphim	28.03	29.97	.483	3.6
Kaline Drive	21.36	36.64	.368	10.3
Old Detroit Wolverines	15.96	42.04	.275	15.7

Haviland 0.56 v. Cascadia 0.44

Glaciers are supposed to retreat in the heat. And they did retreat, technically, yesterday, enough to see their 0.1-game lead disappear entirely. Sure, being slow-moving is a stereotype about glaciers, but our Glaciers haven’t been shy about zipping around in the standings.

The Dragons did manage to take a chip off the Cascadia block of ice, despite having a dismal day on the mound (only 1.7 ip with 2 earned runs allowed, all by Bryan Hudson, whoever he is. Their hitting wasn’t much better (.211 BA, .286 OBP) except for home runs by Vinnie Pasquantino and Aaron Judge (.526 SLG).

The Dragons’ achievement is even more impressive when you look at the Glaciers’ numbers from yesterday. Cascadia’s Daily Stats for Thursday’s games report 7 hitters making 28 plate appearances producing a .375, .464, 1.083 slash line! Glaciers blasted 5 homers! Ah, but Gio Urshela’s homer was at Cascadia’s AAA affiliate. (Gio is on ice somewhere in AAA, allocated at 0% for reasons that, as far as I know, have not been announced.) And 80% of one of Jose Siri’s two home runs was hit in the batting cages, as he is only allocated at 40%.

Cascadia’s batting slash for the week now stands at .255, .321, .440 , compared to Haviland’s .221, .293, .326. Cascadia, carrying 3 replacement innings, has a team ERA of 1.74, compared to Haviland’s 1.96. Cascadia is still winning the weekly series, 2.8 to 1.2, but the ratio between the two teams’ raw winning percentages (.844 for Cascadia to .703 for Haviland — the league’s top two raw winning percentages for Week 10, so far) shrank a little yesterday.

Portland 0.85 v. Pittsburgh 0.15

Portland slashed its distance from first place in half yesterday, despite getting no pitching. Led by Abraham Toro’s 3 for 5 with a double, they hit a respectable .276, .323, .414 over 31 plate appearances, clearly better than average in MLB this year. The Alleghenys who showed up (none of them being pitchers) had an even better slash line (.316, .409, .579) but there are two caveats. First, those shiny numbers were dimmed by at least 9 replacement plate appearances. And second (and more importantly), Portland had enough innings stored up to absorb the pitching sabbatical and apply their spiffy 2.47 weekly ERA to cover Thursday’s game, while the Alleghenys only had one extra inning in the bank, so had to take on 6 innings at a 7.50 ERA.

MLB 0.99 v. Canberra 0.01

It wasn’t a great day Down Under. Eight Kangaroo batters “amassed” a paltry .136, .208, .455 batting line, despite homers by Riley Greene and Isaac Paredes. 1 Kangaroo relief pitcher lasted 1 inning and gave up 1 earned run. The implacable mean-MLB juggernaut flattened the K’s, leaving them one tiny crumb of a win.

DC 0.57 v. Flint Hill 0.43

I feel duty-bound to warn the leaders: among you there are two teams who have not yet gotten to ride the Wolverine elevator up the standings. One of them is the DC Balk, who are on the OD schedule next week. The Balk are hoping to get as close as possible to first place so the anticipated boost from playing the league’s worst team (maybe ever?) can launch them into a clear lead.

The Balk made a little progress toward that elevated elevator launching pad Thursday. Like other leading teams, they skipped the pitching entirely, since they already had enough to cover the 4th day of the week. They only sent 6 players to bat – a mistake, in my view — and only covered 20 plate appearances, but the batting they got was decent: .263, .300, .421. The Balk offense was much better than Flint Hill’s, who only managed to hit .148, .233, .222, The Tornados did get some useful pitching: 6.3 innings, 3 earned runs), so they kept the game close.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks in Flint Hill — and yet they are still only 3.4 games out of first place!

Kaline 0.92 v. Old Detroit 0.08

Kaline is on the Wolverine Elevator right now. On Wednesday the Elevator shockingly broke down, awarding more than a win to the Woeverines, but repairs were made so Kaline could resume its ascent Thursday. Which they did, especially thanks to 4 shutout innings compiled among three relief pitchers. The hitting was not so good, with Logan O’Hoppe’s homer the only highlight in a .150, .250, .300 day.

That doesn’t seem like a lot of production from Kaline, but remember: they were playing the Woeverines. Who can record a batting line about 1/3 as good as Kaline’s disappointing .450 OPS? Why, the Woeverines can! (0.059, 0.059, 0.176). Who can stink it up on the mound so you can give your hurlers the day off with no bad repercussions? The Woeverines can, even on a day when Mason MIller pitches two innings: 7.7 ip, 5 er.

And, my fellow EFLer fellers, here is the scariest thing of all, the terrifying fact I alluded to at the beginning: besides the Balk (and the three days left for the Drive), the only EFL team still awaiting its chance to ride the Wolverine Elevator is…

… the Glaciers !