In yesterday’s post, which I forgot to post until 9:30 or so last night, I started a speculative conversation about what we should call Sal Frelick’s feat (walk, single, double, triple). Today I wonder what we should call Cal Raleigh’s feat (hitting a homer from both sides of the plate, as he’s done twice now THIS WEEK!).
Standings: Week 16, Game 4 (July 11, 2024)
| Team | Wins | Losses | WPct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Rosebuds | 53.37 | 40.63 | .568 | 0.0 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 51.65 | 42.35 | .549 | 1.7 |
| Haviland Dragons | 51.14 | 42.86 | .544 | 2.2 |
| Peshastin Pears | 50.65 | 43.35 | .539 | 2.7 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 46.37 | 47.63 | .493 | 7.0 |
| D.C. Balk | 45.95 | 48.05 | .489 | 7.4 |
| Salem Seraphim | 45.29 | 48.71 | .482 | 8.1 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 45.17 | 48.83 | .481 | 8.2 |
| Cascadia Glaciers | 42.84 | 51.16 | .456 | 10.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 36.31 | 57.69 | .386 | 17.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 34.23 | 59.77 | .364 | 19.1 |
Portland: 0.46 [Wk: 0.86 – 3.14]
Luis Castillo did his best to help Portland win the day, pitching 6 scoreless innings, followed by another such inning by Matt Strahm. But the hitters could not do their part, as easy as it should have been. In 30 plate appearances, seven Rosebuds batted .170, .244, .357. It’s not Spencer Steer’s fault: he went 3 for 5 with a double and a stolen base.
It’s like a curse this year – every team in first place has gone through a slump. When the week started, Portland was on pace to win 94.4 games this season. That’s down to 92.0 now. Our first-place team was on pace to win 100.3 games as recently as May 11, exactly 2 months ago, when Canberra was in its 16th day as our leader. The K’s pace slipped under 100 wins the next day, and three days later Canberra had sunk to second.
I am not complaining. One way to keep our race exciting is for the leader not to just take off and leave the rest of us behind, never to return. And the current erosion in our leader’s pace is not the worst it has been — that pace sunk below 90 wins — to 89.6 — on May 27, on the last day of one of the Dragons’ terms in the top spot. The next day the the Rosebuds usurped the lead, to start their first turn at the top, on an 89.7 pace. The NEXT day that Rosebud term was over, and the Glaciers took the lead, but only at an 88.6 pace. That Ice Age only lasted one more day, ending on May 31 when Haviland surged to a 90.4 pace and regained the throne. By June 9 they had the pace up to 97 wins, attaineing that peak again on June 15. It’s been generally downhill ever since.
Canberra: 0.03 [Wk: 1.59 – 2.41]
The Kangaroos’ march to regain first place stumbled yesterday. Their hitters only managed a .205, .262, .308 sub-replacement day, the only highlight being Austin Wells going 2 for 3 with a homer. Ryan Thompson pitched the only innings produced by the team. At least it was a scoreless inning.
Haviland: 0.23 [Wk: 0.87 – 3.13]
Haviland is one of only two EFL teams not to have accumulated at least 1 entire win yet this week. The good news is the other team without an entire win yet is first-place Portland, and the OTHER good news is Portland has won less of a win than the Dragons — by 0.01 wins. The T’s got 1.7 scoreless innings from Bryan Hudson before they shut down their pitching for the day. They only sent 4 men to the plate, but at least those four did a pretty good job: 18 PA, .250, .333, .438. Yandy Diaz doubled twice in 4 PA.
Peshastin: 0.66 [Wk: 1.85 – 2.15]
I didn’t make a real big deal about Cal Raleigh homering from both sides of the plate when he did it the last time — Sunday or Monday, I forget which. But he did it again last night, and doing it twice in such a short span IS a big deal. Brandon Marsh almost matched Raleigh today, hitting a homer and a triple, but it wasn’t the second time this week, and he didn’t also get a single, like Raleigh did. Those two led the team to an eye-popping .333, .348, .905 batting line.
But not to an entire win. The 8 batters the Pears sent to the plate only accumulated 23 plate appearances. And their two pitchers combined for only 3 innings. They only allowed 1 earned run, but they also left room for replacements. The Pears gained on everyone in front of them, but it feels like they should have been able to gain even more.
Pittsburgh; 1.10 [Wk: 1.75 – 2.25]
The Pears did NOT gain on the team behind them… but I doubt this worries Peshastin fans much, because the gap between the Four Frontrunners and the five back in the Pack is pretty wide. And they are right to not worry, unless the Alleghenys can do what they did yesterday for, say 8 or 9 days straight. Can Paul Skenes pitch 7 no-hit innings every time? Probably not. Can the A’s bat .305, .359, .444 for a long stretch in a row? Doubtful. But for those of us watching from outside the pennant race, it would be a fun spectacle to see.
DC: 0.44 [Wk: 2.32 – 1.68]
The Balk ceded the position as the leader of the Pack yesterday. Hitting was not the problem, neither in volume (10 batters, 41 PA) nor in quality (.333, .366, .538). Santiago Espinal and Danny Jansen had the best day, both going 2 for 4 with a homer (Espinal adding a double), but every batter with more than 3 PA reached base safely at least once. However, Cole Irvin surrendered 4 earned runs in 4 innings, and Ryan Yarbrough added another earned run in his 2 innings, giving the Balk a perfect, un-replaceable 7.50 replacement-level day on the mound.
Even with this disappointing result, however, the Balk still have won more games this week than they’ve lost, something none of the five teams in the first division can say.
Salem: 0.41 [Wk: 2.48 – 1.52]
Salem pitcher were a little better than their Balky rivals — 8.6 ip, 6 earned runs, thanks to nearly identical outings from Shane Baz and Landon Knack who both went 4.3 ip and allowed 3 earned runs. Seraphic batters were a little worse than the Balky ones, going only .240, .321, .440, despite a Trea Turner homer as part of a 2 for 4 day with a walk and a stolen base. But notice that the Seraphim also are winning the week so far — the envy of all 5 of our top teams.
Flint Hill: 1.15 [Wk: 2.54 – 1.46]
The Tornados won more than a game Thursday to join the group, deep in the standings, who have won at least 2 of their first 4 Week 16 games. They did this despite only getting 1 scoreless inning of pitching, because their hitters went wild: 35 PA, .333, .429, .767. Wilyer Abreu was the best (3 for 4 with a homer and a double) but Julio Rodriguez wasn’t far behind — 3 for four with a walk, but lacking the homer.
Cascadia: 0.04 [Wk: 2.00 – 2.00]
The Cascades had a crummy day — 0.01 better than the Kangaroos, but still not good. Bryan Abreu provided the standard 1 scoreless inning of pitching, the entire team output at his position. But six Glacial hitters only got 25 plate appearances, at a replacement-ish .217, .240, .348. I would mention Go Urshela’s 2 for 5 with a double, except he also hit into a double play, seriously marring his daily performance. BUT even with such a dismal day, the Glaciers just barely did not dip into sub-.500 territory for the week, something none of the 5 top teams can say.
Old Detroit: 0.79 [Wk: 3.07 – 0.93]
Brandon Pfaadt (6 ip) and Andrew Nardi combined for 6.3 scoreless innings, and nine Wolverine hitters did just enough (33 PA, .241, .303, .414) to keep their excellent work from going to waste. Austin Riley finely calibrated his 2 for 4 with a double day to not mar Pfaadt’s day, waiting to hit the double until Pfaadt had been relieved. And the Wolverines are now the fifth team in a row to be at or above .500 on the week, territory where none of the 5 top teams can be found.
Kaline: 0.53 [Wk: 1.38 – 2.62]
Kaline is not above .500 on the week, but they were above .500 Thursday, which none of our top 3 teams can say. This is no thanks to any of the 13 Drive hitters, who hit no drives, apparently, managing only 5 singles in 34 at bats. They also earned 6 walks, which allowed them to post a .147, .275, .147 line.
The good news in Kaline was the pitching. MacKenzie Gore struggled (4.7 ip, 4 er) but Aaron Civale didn’t (6.3 ip, 1 er), nor did Jason Adam (1.3 scoreless innings) so the daily ERA was a nice 3.66 — and the impact was even greater since they erased 5.3 replacement innings.
The Drive gained a tenth of a game on the Rosebuds, and now sit 19.1 games back. That sounds kind of dismal, but we should note: the 11th-place team was 20.4 games back 5 days ago. The 11th place team (the Wolverines at the time) first fell 20 games back on June 16, reaching a nadir of 21.4 games back on June 20. Since then we have been gradually gaining ground on first place, dipping back under 20 games out on June 27. Kaline slipped a bit over the 20-games-back line on July 6 and July 8, quickly corrected each time. We Sedimentarians have outplayed our league leaders since June 20!
