Standings: Week 12, Game 6 (June 15, 2024)
There was that time when I was coaching 3rd base and gave John Johnson the stop sign so he wouldn’t get thrown out at home. But he ignored me like he was Andy Pages… and the result was entirely predictable.
(In case you can’t predict the result, I’ll tell you later in this post.)
Team | Wins | Losses | WPct | GB |
---|---|---|---|---|
Haviland Dragons | 43.13 | 28.87 | .599 | 0.0 |
Portland Rosebuds | 42.33 | 29.67 | .588 | 0.8 |
Canberra Kangaroos | 37.60 | 34.40 | .522 | 5.5 |
D.C. Balk | 37.54 | 34.46 | .521 | 5.6 |
Peshastin Pears | 37.30 | 34.70 | .518 | 5.8 |
Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 35.65 | 36.35 | .495 | 7.5 |
Cascadia Glaciers | 34.59 | 37.41 | .480 | 8.5 |
Flint Hill Tornadoes | 34.10 | 37.90 | .474 | 9.0 |
Salem Seraphim | 31.97 | 40.03 | .444 | 11.2 |
Kaline Drive | 27.50 | 44.50 | .382 | 15.6 |
Old Detroit Wolverines | 23.19 | 48.81 | .322 | 19.9 |
Haviland 2.08 v. Peshastin (-1.08)
Did the Dragons even read yesterday’s post? Didn’t they get the warning about how uneasy lies the head that wears a crown? To be fair, they played well, but not so well they could have predicted this dramatic an invasion of first place. They batted a respectable but homerless .273, .368, .333. They pitched a very nice 8 ip, 2 er behind Seth Lugo’s 6 ip, 2er. One might expect good results from this — but grabbing a win, plus a win, plus a sliver of a third win in a single game?
The Dragons’ re-ascension into first place was as much the work of the Pears as of the Dragons. Pear hitters did NOT bat competitively (.231, .276, .231). And Nathan Eovaldi served up a lot of Mariner runs (4 earned) in only 3 innings, his 12.00 daily ERA constituting the entirety of the Pearish pitching performance. Maybe the Dragons were just trying to get closer but lost their footing and slipped across the line.
Canberra 0.54 v. Portland 0.46
Further evidence that the Dragons may only be accidental leaders comes from Portland’s stats from yesterday. They enjoyed a Happy Edgar Martinez day at the plate (.333, .409, .564), led by Jarred Kelenic’s 3 for 5 with a homer. But their pitching was problematic, consisting entirely of Carlos Carrasco’s 5 ip, 5 er. Still, Portland might have survived that Carrasco crash had Canberra continued to sleep-walk through this week. But they did not. They batted almost as well (.341, .383, .568), including Riley Greene’s two-homer day. But they pitched much better than the Rosebuds, behind Grayson Rodriguez’ 7 innings and 2 earned runs (and some scoreless relief). So the Kangaroos stopped the Rosebud train for one day, at least, which might have been another thing the Dragons didn’t expect.
Taking over accidentally doesn’t make the crown rest any firmer on one’s head, you know.
DC 0.99 v. Salem 0.01
DC is another team that did not pummel its opponent at the plate. They only batted .122, .182, .220. But they did pitch VERY well: 14 ip, 2 er. Shota Imanaga completed 7 innings for 1 earned run, and Jose Quintana nearly matched him (6 ip,, 1 er). Salem tried to make up for the innings they skipped by declining to pitch two days in a row. They got 11.7 innings yesterday, but had to yank Keaton Winn after only 4.7 innings since he had surrendered 5 earned runs, which (with 7 other innings by two other pitchers) resulted in a daily ERA of 6.15.
Pittsburgh1.93 v. KD (-.93)
The Alleghenys are a legendary franchise in this league. You cannot abuse them like the Drive did yesterday (1.78 wins!) and expect to get away with it. And they most definitely did not.
The Alleghenys got all that back, and more, but outdoing Edgar Martinez at the plate — .341, .444, .634 — led by JD Martinez’ two homers, a single, and two walks in 5 plate appearances. They pitched marvellously, getting a shocking 5.3 scoreless innings from Bryce Wilson, and 6 more fine innings (2 er) from Erick Fedde.
Drive pitching could not match that,. coming in with only 2 innings, 1 earned run allowed. The hitting was, if anything, both worse and more: 37 PA, .188, .297, .375. At least Logan O’Hoppe had a nice day: 2 for 4 with a homer.
Cascadia 1.30 v. Old Detroit (-0.30)
Those Glaciers! I have written a lot about their dangerous implacability, their surprising early success, their vulnerability to fire and global warming. I have not given enough attention to their merciful kindness. They noticed my week-long angst about how not activating Drew Thorpe this week was a blunder that could cost me the pennant, . The Glaciers figured out how to relieve me of that worry.
By demolishing the Wolverines Saturday.
It was not a fiery, explosive demolition. No, it was Glacial: slow, quiet, almost gentle, but numbingly cold. The Glaciers muffled their bats (.148, .258, .296). They improved their pitching more by doing a lot of it (15.3 ip) than by tormenting hitters (4.71 ERA). They stuck the needle into the Wolverines with only a pinprick of pain (they let purloined Wolverine Nate Pearson pitch a scoreless inning out in public where I could see it). They could see Wolverine “ace” Jared Jones having his worst day yet (4.7 ip, 6 er) and Andrew Nardi making things worse with another triple chulk (0.7 ip 2 earned runs) for a daily ERA of 9.73, pushing the W’s weekly adjusted ERA 60% higher. They knew the W’s batting, although not bad (.222, .417, .389), was too thin (24 PA) to salvage the day. The Gentle Glaciers made a disastrous Wolverine day hurt a lot less than one might expect.
MLB 0.53 v. Flint Hill 0.47
The Tornados almost played medium major leaguers to a draw yesterday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto left his game ominously after only 2 innings, limiting the entire named staff to 2.7 scoreless innings. Batters struggled, but did at least come up with two home runs (by superstars Julio Rodriguez and Juan Soto).
Oh, yeah, I need to tell you what happened the last time John ran through my stop sign.
He scored safely. And so did the guy running behind him, who is also in this league.