On the seventh day — when we have seventh days — our teams “rest”: they don’t play any game. But it isn’t a true sabbath. The players CAN add to their stats. This is a boon especially to two kinds of teams: those with thin rosters who have trouble avoiding replacement players, and those whose rosters have had a string of poor play that can be somewhat corrected with a good Seventh Day.

I don’t usually expect to see big changes on the Seventh Day. But there were a few this time.

Standings at the end of Week 6 (May 5)

Team	Wins	Losses	WPct	GB
Canberra Kangaroos	23.26	12.74	.646	0.0
D.C. Balk	19.12	16.88	.531	4.1
Flint Hill Tornadoes	18.20	17.80	.506	5.1
Peshastin Pears	18.06	17.94	.502	5.2
Cascadia Glaciers	18.00	18.00	.500	5.3
Haviland Dragons	17.73	18.27	.493	5.5
Salem Seraphim	17.10	18.90	.475	6.2
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	17.07	18.93	.474	6.2
Portland Rosebuds	16.85	19.15	.468	6.4
Kaline Drive	13.94	22.06	.387	9.3
Old Detroit Wolverines	9.73	26.27	.270	13.5

Canberra lost to Old Detroit: (- 0.03) to 0.03. The Kangaroos lost Saturday to the Wolverines, 0.49 – 0.51. They lost even bigger Sunday! The Kangaroos had a day that looks like a team on the way to a championship: . 342, .490, .658 from the plate (with ample 51 PA), and three shutout innings. Canberra has the #1 and #3 hitters for week 6 (20 PA minimum) in Brent Rooker (30.25 rc/g) and Riley Greene (18.12 rc/g).

SPECIAL CHALLENGE: Guess who was the second-most productive hitter in the EFL in week 6. Answer is below.

Meanwhile, Old Detroit walked 8 times and took a HBO to amass a nice .438 OBP (to go with its .217 BA and SLG), and got 10 strong innings for only 3 earned runs allowed, erasing a layer of replacement at bats, and the last shreds of replacement innings for the first time all season! OD’s sorta good day did more to improve them than the Canberra could, since the K’s already were having such a great week. So the Wolverines shaved six more microscopic slices off their huge distance from first place. The ‘Roos ended with the best raw winning percentage (.732) and the best adjusted winning percentage (.791) in the league for week 6, so they can’t complain. The Wolverines got their raw winning percentage all the way up to .419, sixth in the league. So even though their adjusted winning percentage (.209) is distinctly the worst in the league for the week, the team is upbeat because they can almost see .500 play from that .419 spot, and they didn’t give any ground in the standings over the weekend.

DC lost to Portland, (-1.01) to 1.01. This was a big loss for the seventh day. It didn’t kick the Balk out of second place — they’ve held that spot since April 27, uninterrupted — but it did leave the Balk more than 0.9 games further from first place. The Balk were hesitant at the plate (.175, .190, .225), and cautious on the mound (4 ip, 2 er, all by Sixto Sanchez). But the Rosebuds played with blossoming abandon. Aged Carlos Carrasco looked a little like his old self, going 6 innings for only 1 earned run, leading the team to 13 ip, 5 er. Meanwhile the ‘Buds outhit the Balk, going .217, .321, .376, led by the resurgent Jesse Winker’s homer and double in 4 trips to the plate.

Flint Hill lost to Haviland, (-1.78) to 1.78. I really should have highlighted the other father-son series this week, with Flint Hill facing Haviland. The Tornados had the upper hand going into Sunday’s play, and ended up with a very nice .627 raw winning percentage for the week. However, on Sunday, Tornado pitchers coughed up 5 earned runs in 9 innings pitched — and their hitters could only manage a .122, .213, .293 line. Meanwhile, the Dragons were out there mashing .263, .356, .605, thanks to homers (and walks) from Tucker, Heim, and Judge. (Judge added a double, too.) And Dragon pitchers were covering 13.7 innings at a cost of only 5 earned runs, obliterating any lingering traces of replacement pitching, and finishing off a weekly ERA of 2.49. Somehow Flint Hill managed to cling to 3rd place, but the Dragons got their raw winning percentage up to .650, soared two notches in the standings, and snatched a narrow weekly series victory over the Tornados, 3.15 wins for HD to 2.85 for FH.

Peshastin recovered 0.91 of a win against Kaline. The Pears’ weekly raw winning percentage was all the way down to .072 after Saturday’s disaster. But the P’s pulled that back up to .168, and pulled the Drive an equal distance further from 1.000 (where things go crazy fast in terms of adjusted winning percentage), giving Peshastin just enough to get back above .500 for the season, and back in front of the Glaciers. Pear management can thank Garrett Crochet and James Paxton, two not-quite-rock-solid starters, for splitting 12.7 ip, each allowing only 1 earned run. Pear hitters were not as dominant (.188, .235, .488) but they did get a double and a triple from Bobby Witt, Jr., and a homer from Cal Raleigh. Kaline pitchers only allowed 2 earned runs, too, but in only 4.3 innings — just enough to erase the replacements, but still leaving the team ERA for the week at 5.18 compared to Peshastin’s 3.28.

Cottage executed an eye-popping precision landing, slicing a mere 0.02 wins off their weekly results against Pittsburgh so they could end the week with an exactly .500 record. Cascadian batters produced rather lightly (36 PA, .182, .229, .273), but seven Glacial pitchers combined for 19.3 innings at the cost of only 6 earned runs, eliminating any hints of replacement pitching. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, probably hoped for more than 0.02 wins Sunday, especially when they saw the Dragons soar past them, and the Seraphim also improving, while Allegheny hurlers were combining to usher in 8 earned runs in only 5 innings. In fact, the Alleghenys almost fell behind the Rosebuds, and would have, if it hadn’t been for homers from Jackson Merrill, Oneil Cruz, Teoscar Hernandez, and Dansby Swanson.

DID YOU GUESS who was the SECOND most productive hitter this week in the EFL, tucked in right between Canberra’s Brent Rooker and Riley Greene? The answer: Pittsburgh’s Jurickson Profar (25.98 rc/g). Or, more accurately, Nolan Jones’ mojo in Profar’s body.

Salem regained a third of a win against the average MLBers Sunday, bringing their weekly win total to 2.1 out of 6, and restoring them to 7th place ahead of the Alleghenys. Salems slingers disappointed, finishing only 4 innings (with 3 earned runs allowed), leaving the team saddled with 9 replacement innings and a weekly ERA of 5.66. However, Seraphic sluggers did their jobs a lot better, (.278, .366, .444), featuring Rule 5 swipee (and badly-needed-infielder) from the Wolverines Luis Garcia, Jr., who went 4 for 4 with a homer and a stolen base.