The Portland Rosebuds tried to blow the pennant race wide open, and partially succeeded. Meanwhile there were several smaller tremors in the middle of the league, and a major disturbance in the Sediment.
Standings Week 15, Game 5 (July 5, 2024)
Team | Wins | Losses | WPct | GB |
---|---|---|---|---|
Portland Rosebuds | 51.90 | 37.10 | .583 | 0.0 |
Haviland Dragons | 49.75 | 39.25 | .559 | 2.2 |
Canberra Kangaroos | 49.32 | 39.68 | .554 | 2.6 |
Peshastin Pears | 46.98 | 42.02 | .528 | 4.9 |
Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 44.22 | 44.78 | .497 | 7.7 |
D.C. Balk | 43.92 | 45.08 | .493 | 8.0 |
Salem Seraphim | 42.71 | 46.29 | .480 | 9.2 |
Flint Hill Tornadoes | 42.55 | 46.45 | .478 | 9.4 |
Cascadia Glaciers | 40.72 | 48.28 | .458 | 11.2 |
Old Detroit Wolverines | 32.67 | 56.33 | .367 | 19.2 |
Kaline Drive | 32.19 | 56.81 | .362 | 19.7 |
Portland: 1.83 (3.82 – 1.18)
Thirteen Rosebud batters, in 59 plate appearances, battered opposition pitchers for 19 hits and 5 walks. Five of those hits were for extra bases: 2 doubles (both by Jesse Winker), two triples, and one home run (by Spencer Steer). The resulting Happy Edgar Martinez Day (.352, .407 .519) pretty much assured the Rosebuds would come out ahead Friday. Put that together with tons (23.4 ip) of excellent (2.59 ERA on 7 earned runs allowed) pitching and the ‘Buds nearly got TWO wins. Unless the Dragons could answer with a great day of their own, they were in trouble.
Haviland: 0.09 (0.27 -3.73)
The Dragons could not answer the Rosebuds’ challenge. They hit about replacement level (.242, .297, .242) — probably a little under replacement — since all 8 hits in 33 AB were singles, and there were only 3 walks. They pitched better (4.50 daily ERA) but less than required (2 IP).
Canberra: 0.32 (3.69 – 1.31)
The Kangaroos were leading the Week 15 EFL attack against MLB competition before Friday. They hit very well: .250 .315, .773, with three homers filling out the slugging percentage nicely. They pitched perfectly… for 1/3 of an inning. And then left the rest of the game to ringers… I mean, replacements. At least Willson Contreras made up for his terrible day on Thursday by going 2 for 5 with a homer Friday (plus a walk). At the end of the day, the Kangaroos lost 1.5 games in the standings. Had they GAINED 1.5 games, they would be in first place! So they were, indeed, within reach of the top, as I mentioned yesterday. They’re still in the pennant race, so all is not lost.
Peshastin: (-0.41) (2.25 – 2.75)
The Pears tried the “only one inning” approach, which maybe wasn’t a good idea since they only had 28.7 ip to start the day and thus needed at least 6.3 innings to keep the replacements at bay. Or maybe they WANTED to put in more innings, especially after Orion Kerkering (not a real name, obviously) executed a shutout inning. But Paul Sewald infinitely chulked (0 ip, 3 er) and that was that for Pear pitching. Pear hitting was so-so: .267, .353, .300 — marred by two double plays.
Pittsburgh: 0.99 (2.63 – 2.37)
The Alleghenys overwhelmed with numbers (58 PA) and quality (.327, .431, .469) in their attack. They also got a solid game from Paul Skenes: 7 ip, 2 er. The result was almost an entire clean win, plenty to put them in the lead in their series against MLB competition. Jurickson Profar had kind of a down day by his standards (only one homer in 4 AB, plus a walk) or they might have transformed part of a loss into a win.
DC: 0.33 (2.25 – 2.75)
Balky hitters only managed 7 hits in 40 plate appearances… but, in this ongoing foreshadowing of later news, three of those hits were doubles, and one was a home run… plus they walked 5 times to patch together a .175, .261, .325 slash line. Reese Olson delivered 5.7 high-quality innings (1 earned run).
Salem: 1.11 (3.53 – 1.47)
Salem got solid pitching from Shane Baz ( 6 ip, 3 er) and Daniel Hudson (1 ip, er). But the secret to their big day was their hitting: .378, .465, .757. Trea Turner blasted 2 home runs, and Luis Garcia, Jr, captured from Old Detroit in a midwinter raid, went 4 for 5 with the Seraphim’s third homer.
Aggh! I just had a terrible thought! Did they have to kill poor Luis to transform him into an angelic being?
Flint Hill: (-0.17) (1.07 – 3.83)
It was not a good day for fans nestled among the Flint Hill. Two relievers had just completed 2.3 scoreless innings when John Schrieber took the mound. One out later 2 earned runs had scored for a small but painful sextuple chulk. A dozen Tornado swept through the batters box 48 times, but only got 6 hits (3 singles, 3 doubles) and 5 walks for a .140, .229, .209 batting line — about half as good as replacement. Even though the T’s did not take on any replacement innings Friday, they had to repair some of the damage they had done to their MLB opponents earlier in the week, leaving with 1/6 of a win fewer than they had come with.
Cascadia: (-0.09) (1.05 – 3.95)
The Glaciers hit a lot like the Tornados had: .156, .263, .188. They pitched better (3 ip, 1 er) but they still took on 4 new replacement innings to take much of the shine off those results. Elly De La Cruz looked really good amid all this dismality, going 1 for 2 with two walks and a stolen base. Ryne Stanek delivered a scoreless inning for at least the second straight day. If the Glaciers keep going like this, they might someday be able to bear the ignoble title of Sedimentarians.
Old Detroit: 1.30 (3.06 – 1.94)
I wondered if this would ever happen in 2024: the Wolverines escaped the cellar!. They are clearly still obvious Sedimentarians, 8 full games behind the Glaciers. (Of course, just 3 weeks ago they were 6.1 games behind the Drive!). How did the Woeverines achieve this impossible dream?
They got good pitching. Drew Thorpe got through 6.3 ip, with only 1 earned run, and utility pitcher Matthew Liberatore added another 2/3 of a scoreless inning to ward off any more replacement innings. That was the foundation. Now if only the offense could build something good on it.
In a positive sign, the W’s got something like the most PA they have had all season: 47, from 10 different players. But here’s the thing: they only hit one single, by Byron Buxton. They did also get hit by 2 pitches, and worked 3 walks. Buxton also hit a double, as did Joey Loperfido. No one hit a triple. As for homers: they did get some of those: one each from Correa, Riley, and from — well, looky here, it’s Parker Meadows, back from burning up Triple A!
Oh, and Will Smith went 3 for 3 with two of those walks. And three home runs.
Final line: .214, .298, .690.
Bam!
Look out above! (maybe in August.)
Kaline: 0.09 (0.75 – 3.25)
The Wizard is a very gracious opponent. He let Aaron Civale surrender 4 earned runs in 5 innings, and limited his hitters to a .242, .297, .273 batting line, to make the Wolverine jump from 11th to 10th place more definite and dramatic. The W’s may be back to relieve the Drive from cellar-dwelling duty before long. If they don’t come back, they’ll try to send someone else to liberate the Drive.