Sal Frelick did that Wednesday for the Seraphim.
Standings: Week 16, Game 3 (July 10, 2024)
| Team | Wins | Losses | WPct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Rosebuds | 52.91 | 40.09 | .569 | 0.0 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 51.62 | 41.38 | .555 | 1.3 |
| Haviland Dragons | 50.91 | 42.09 | .547 | 2.0 |
| Peshastin Pears | 49.99 | 43.01 | .538 | 2.9 |
| D.C. Balk | 45.51 | 47.49 | .489 | 7.4 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 45.27 | 47.73 | .487 | 7.6 |
| Salem Seraphim | 44.88 | 48.12 | .483 | 8.0 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 44.02 | 48.98 | .473 | 8.9 |
| Cascadia Glaciers | 42.80 | 50.20 | .460 | 10.1 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 35.52 | 57.48 | .382 | 17.4 |
| Kaline Drive | 33.70 | 59.30 | .362 | 19.2 |
Portland: (-0.04) (Wk: 0.40 – 2.60)
Michael Lorenzen struggled (5 ip, 5 er, relieved a little by a scoreless 2/3 of an inning. Rosebud hitters didn’t hit much: 67 PA, .203, .239, .328. Kyle Isbel went 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk, and Yainer Diaz went 3 for 4, but the other twelve hitters only managed 8 for 57 for a .140, .169, .225 line.
Canberra: 0.04 (Wk: 1.56 – 1.44)
The Kangaroos only did slightly better than the Rosebuds. Two relievers covered 2 innings with 2 earned runs. Canberran batters went .250, .333, .396. The “hitting” star might have been Isaac Paredes for his 3 walks in 5 PA. Whatever, it was enough to lift the ‘Roos one tenth of a game closer to first place.
Haviland: 0.25 (Wk: 0.64 – 2.36)
Seeing the troubles of the ‘Buds and ‘Roos, the Dragons skipped pitching altogether. They hit better than either of the teams ahead of them: .302, .295, .442 (although the lack of free passes and 2 GDP’s hurt them significantly). It’s a little hard to pick out a hitting star. Two hitters who had two hits did so in doubleheaders, so they were spread out over 8 or 9 plate appearances,, although one of Lars Nootbaar’s hits was a home run and the other was a double. Slumping Jonah Heim got 2 hits in only 4 plate appearances, but also accounted for one of the GDPs. Ezequiel Tovar got 2 hits in only 5 plate appearances, and one of those was a double. So the star is… Nootbaar?
Peshastin: 0.48 (Wk: 1.19 – 1.81)
Pear pitchers mostly struggled. Michael Wacha and Chris Bassett each pitched 5 innings and allowed 3 earned runs. Joe Jimenez chulked (1ip, 2er). Two other relievers actually relieved, covering 1.3 scoreless innings. On the hitting side, Pears got 13 hits in 43 PA for a nice .302 BA but didn’t garnish that with much, winding up with a .304 OBP and a .372 SLG. Geraldo Perdomo knocked 2 doubles and a single in 3 AB to lead the attack.
DC: 1.01 (Wk: 1.88 – 1.12)
The Balk got lots of pitching on Wednesday — 16.7 ip. Martin Perez was tagged for 5 earned runs in 4.7 innings, but Reese Olson (5 ip, 3 er ) did better, and Shota Imanaga (6 ip, 0 er) did MUCH better, so the result was a passable 4.31 ERA. Having erased an entire game’s worth of replacement innings, and met their pitching needs for Wednesday, the Balk didn’t need too much hitting to have a great day. So their .238, .319, .357 line was good enough for a complete win (and just a touch more). That was enough to squeeze past the Alleghenys into 5th place.
Pittsburgh: 0.43 (Wk: 0.53 – 2.35)
The Alleghenys almost exactly duplicated DC’s pitching: the same number of earned runs (8) in the same number of innings — plus an extra out (17 ip) for a 4.24 ERA on the day. The Alleghenys outslugged the Balk .409 to .357, thanks to three home runs from Matt Vierling, Luis Robert Jr., and Matt Chapman. But the A’s lagged badly in BA and OBP (.182, .229), and are still carrying 2 replacement innings and a penalty inning for not having a lefthander take the mound. .
Salem: 0.98 (Wk: 2.07 – 0.93)
This is getting a little creepy: the Seraphim also pitched 17 innings! But they allowed only 7 earned runs, thanks especially to Tobias Myers’ 8 ip, 0 er performance. After toeing the middle-standings line on innings pitched, the Seraphim went crazy at the plate, having a great Happy Edgar Martinez Day: .366, .422, .437. With five doubles, a triple, and 9 other singles (15 hits in all), the Seraphim soared to almost exactly on entire win.
No one homered for the Seraphim but Sal Frelick singled, doubled, tripled, and walked. That’s a cycle of some sort, and ought to have a name. Vinnie Chulk chulked multiple times before we gave his name to his signature achievement. Sal Frelick has only done this smaller cycle once that I know of. “Chulk” sounds like a bad outcome, kind in the same vibe a “choke” and “balk.” “Frelick” has no vibe. So the junior cycle is not going to be called a frelick. It’s not a mini cycle — it’s four elements, just like a regular cycle. Any ideas? Or do we have to wait to spot another one before we’ll know what to call it?
Flint Hill: 0.34 (Wk: 1.39 – 1.61)
The Tornados broke the string of 17-inning pitching performances, settling for only 9.3 innings — good innings, scattered among 5 pitchers, at a cost of only 3 earned runs. Marcus Stroman had the best day: 4.3 ip 1 er. Tornado hitting wasn’t better than their pitching: they slashed .237, .293, .342. Jarren Duran’s 3 for 5 led the way.
Cascadia: 1.06 (1.96 – 1.04)
Ryne Stanek’s shutout 2/3 of an inning was the entire extent of Glacial pitching Wednesday. But it didn’t matter, not while Glacial batters were going off to the tune of .409, .469, .545. Alejandro Kirk, Noelvi Marte, and Matt Wallner all got three hits. Kirk did it in 4 AB. Marte did, too, but one of his was a double. Wallner did it too — one of his 3 hits was a homer! — but it took him 6 plate appearances (one of which was a hbp). Which was the Cascadian star yesterday. I’ll let you decide.
Old Detroit: 1.08 (Wk: 2.28 – 0.72)
Matthew Liberatore struggled (1.7 ip, 3 er) — but that’s about it for bad news. Drew Thorpe (6 ip, 2 er) and Mason Miller (1 ip, 0 er) picked him up to make the day not a pitching disaster. Then the hitters took over: 33 PA, .467, .515, .833 — even better than Seraphic! Austin Riley went 3 for 4 with two doubles. Carlos Correa went 4 for 7 with a homer and a walk. Joey Loperfido went 2 for 4 with a triple and a home run. The Wolverines are still a LOONG way from 9th place — and gained essentially nothing on the Glaciers despite having such a great day on the diamong. But we can dream, can’t we?
Kaline: 0.38 (0.85 – 2.15)
The middle clump of EFL teams who all pitched 17 innings hogged up the innings, so only 1.3 were left for Kaline. They made the best possible use of those innings (0 er). Then they had a solid day at the plate: .270, .310, .541. Mark Vientos (.667, .750, 1.333) went 2 doubles for 3 AB, and added a walk. Ernie Clement (.750, .750, 1.500) went 3 for 4 with a homer. I suppose Clement had the better day.
A mini cycle is a tricycle, aka a trike. Or maybe a wheelie?
Maybe, but a tricycle has three wheels. A baseball cycle has four events.
I suppose the other question is what is it when you get a walk, a single, a double, a triple, and a home run? It should be bigger than a cycle, and maybe refer to the five events.
What to call Fraleigh’s feat should resonate with what we’d call the super cycle.
The actual cycle is named after what? No one knows. The fact that it is 4 things is simply arbitrary. There is nothing definitional about cycle that implies 4…so we don’t have to beholden to it somehow inferring 4 things. It could simply refer to something less than a natural cycle. Or that implies a relation to cycle but is less flattering, even made up (ie chulk). So my new suggestion is “forcel”. You need four balls to complete it, it sounds related to cycle and it sound a little less cool than cycle. And because forty drops the u, this does, too.
I vote for Matt Wallner as Wednesday’s player of the day, mostly because of his rise after being a roster afterthought. The Twins sent him to AAA in April with an atrocious BA, and he was terrible there too for several weeks. But by June, he caught fire and earned a return to the majors. This was just in time too since the Glaciers suddenly needed another outfielder to allocate. Wallner was my #1 pick in the expansion draft and I’d been second-guessing that decision until recently, but my hope is rising.