… by which I mean “catching up on updates, since I didn’t do one yesterday.” I do NOT mean “catching up with the Rosebuds” since no one did THAT yesterday, although two teams have technically “caught up” just a teensy bit since the end of Week 19. But, as you will see, only one of those two teams has any reason to hang hopes on the tiny hook Week 20 has so far provided.
Standings Week 20, Game 2 (August 7, 2024)
| Team | Wins | Losses | WPct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Rosebuds | 68.77 | 47.23 | .593 | 0.0 |
| Peshastin Pears | 64.81 | 51.19 | .559 | 4.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 64.81 | 51.19 | .559 | 4.0 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 60.91 | 55.09 | .525 | 7.9 |
| Salem Seraphim | 58.54 | 57.46 | .505 | 10.2 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 57.77 | 58.23 | .498 | 11.0 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 57.08 | 58.92 | .492 | 11.7 |
| D.C. Balk | 51.89 | 64.11 | .447 | 16.9 |
| Cascadia Glaciers | 50.90 | 65.10 | .439 | 17.9 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 46.46 | 69.54 | .401 | 22.3 |
| Kaline Drive | 42.37 | 73.63 | .365 | 26.4 |
Portland: 0.05, 1.51 [1.56 – 0.44]
It’s the Battle of the Brothers, round 2 this week. The Rosebuds stumbled alarmingly on Tuesday, when Luis Castillo was mediocre (6 ip, 3 er) and the Rosy lineup wilted to go .130, .146, .130. The Portland mastermind fixed all that in 24 hours. Joey Estes and Cole Ragans were basically twice as good as Castillo, covering 11.3 ip for the same number of earned runs — and got an additional scoreless inning of relief pitching from Hunter Gaddis. And 13 Rosebud hitters did about three times better over a whopping 60 PA: .321, .350, .464. Jackson Merrill went 4 for 6 with two home runs Wednesday, and three other batters went 3 for 5. One of those three was Jackson Chourio he added a walk and two stolen bases. Portland stole half of a win from Flint Hill yesterday.
Peshastin: 0.96, 0.82 [1.78 – 0.22]
The Pears did even better than the Tornados on Tuesday, and managed to nearly repeat the result on Wednesday, clobbering the Balk two days in a row. Peshastin got overwhelming pitching Tuesday: 15 ip, 3 er, led by Colin Rea’s uncharacteristically-dominant 7 scoreless innings. Combining that with decent hitting (.222, .323, .407), especially by Keibert Ruiz (3 for 5 with a double and a homer), the Pears gained nearly an entire game on the Rosebuds, and almost overtook the Dragons for second place. They finished the latter task Wednesday despite poor pitching (8.3 ip, 6 er) and struggling to get on base (.216 BA, .293 OBP) but clouted 4 home runs (two by Bobby Witt, Jr.) to salvage a monster .622 SLG and .914 OPS. The Pears still had to give up 0.7 of the 0.9 games they had gained on Portland, but they inched past the Dragons by some amount indiscernible to human eyes and now occupy second place.
Haviland: 0.06, 0.61 [0.67 – 1.33]
So we had teams winning 0.04 (DC), 0.05 (Portland), and 0.06 (Haviland) games on Tuesday. Brutal. For the Dragons, this must have been super-frustrating, since they hit well, if unspectacularly (.346, .393, .385) and pitched decently, too: 12.3 ip, 6 er). And yet the lowly Glaciers clobbered them. The Dragons pitched better on Wednesday (8.7 ip, 3 er) behind Tarik Skubal’s dominance of the Mariners (7 ip, 2 er). And they hit respectably (.256, .333, .395) led by Aaron Judge who went 3 for 6 (all singles) and walked 3 times over 9 plate appearances. This effort produced a much more satisfying (although not dominant) result for the Dragons… except it left them microscopically behind the Pears.
Canberra: 0.33, (-0.07) [0.26 – 1.74]
The Kangaroos have been in the doldrums since they faced the Wolverines, and it’s putting pressure on their status as a contender in the pennant race. Tuesday they gained a third of a win even though they pitching struggled (11.7 ip, 11 er), Hayden Birdsong leading the way with a triple chulk (2 ip, 7 er). Decent hitting (.296, .424, .444) countered some of the impact. Isaac Paredes was the stalwart there going 2 for 3 with a home run and a walk. The hitting stayed about the same Wednesday (.289, .364, .368), and the pitching improved by not pitching so much (1.7 ip, 0 er), but the Alleghenys still snatched back a slice of Canberra’s Tuesday gains.
Salem: 0.67, 0.47 [1.14 – 0.86]
In a league littered with lopsided results, the Seraphim-Wolverine series has been the closest so far. Salem jumped out to an early lead with a nice .300, .382, .333 batting line, led by Alec Bohm (3 for5). But minimal, and poor, pitching (2.7 ip, 2 er) prevented the Seraphim from a super-dominant result. Wednesday the pitching had improved a little (5.38 ERA), but it made up in quantity (11.7 innings) for what it had gained in quality, so much so that even an outstanding .364, .417, .667 batting line didn’t suffice to let the Seraphim win on the day. (Although the Wolverines had something to say about that outcome.)
Flint Hill: 0.95, (-0.51) [0.44 – 1.56]
Without an update yesterday, the Tornados may have been robbed of their moment of glory: winning almost everything a team possible can in the first day of an EFL week, leapfrogging the Seraphim, and gaining 9/10 of a game on their fraternal rivals. From the perspective of a team trying to stay clear of the symbolically fatal 10.0 games behind, Tuesday’s results multiplied the T’s cushion against irrelevancy by a factor of 10 on Tuesday, despite pitching poorly (11 ip, 9 er), because they hit well. Or, more precisely, supplemented their 6 singles in 22 AB with 6 walks and a HBO, for a remarkable .273 – .448, .273 slash line. But on Tuesday they only got 4 free passes in 46 PA , and despite sending 4 pitchers to the mound, only accumulated 3 innings (albeit for the cost of only 1 earned run). That calm effort struck no fear in Rosebuddy hearts, and most of what was gained on Tuesday was lost on Wednesday, leaving the T’s back in 6th place, under .500, and suddenly 11 games out. Can they get their heads above water today, and move back toward relevancy? Or will the merciless Rosebuds puncture the 2024 Tornado balloon once and for all?
Pittsburgh: 0.67, 1.07 [1.74- 0.26]
The Alleghenys join the Pears as the only teams to make any ground (0.2 games) on the Rosebuds so far this week, by beating up on the Kangaroos. Pittsburgh didn;t bother with pitching Tuesday, focussing successfully on their hitting: 52 PA, .283, .365, 6069, starring Dansby Swanson (3 for 5 with a homer). They got all the pitching they needed so far this week (15 ip) and it was great (3 er), the innings divided evenly between Fedde, Phillips, and Gil, with Gil (0 er) making up for Phillips’ stumble (4 er). Allegheny hitters cooled off a bit (.261, .333, .522) but were still good enough to get more than a win. All of this would be more exciting if the A’s were on the other side of the 10-games-behind line.
DC: 0.04, 0.18 [0.22 – 1.78]
The Balk were the innocent bystanders to Pear ambition Tuesday and Wednesday. Well, sort of innocent: no one made them skip pitching entirely Tuesday so even though they matched the Pears’ hitting (.233, 303, .433), they were defenseless against the Pears’s masterful pitching. What pitching they got on Wednesday was actually worse than no pitching at all. Trevor Rogers performed decently (5 ip, 2 er) but Ryan Yarbrough spoiled it with a quadruple chulk: 0.7 ip, 3 er. And the hitters essentially took a nap: .182, .294, .295. The Balkans are looking awfully Sedimentarian now. They’re 5.2 games behind the Alleghenys, and only 5.4 ahead of the thoroughly Sedimentarian Wolverines. Also, the Balk have been locked in to 8th place since July 19, except for two days they spent in 10th place. Showing no ability to escape their assigned level at or near the bottom of the standings is the mark of a Sedimentarian, the other being closer to the bottom — or at least to unquestionable Sedimentarians — than they are to teams still showing some signs of dynamism in the standings. On behalf of my co-Sedimentarian Drive, I can assure the Balk we are prepared to welcome you to our muddy club.
Cascadia: 0.94, 0.39 [1.33 – 0.67]
Glaciers are not supposed to be capable of showing up by surprise in unexpected places, but that’s what the did to the Dragons on Tuesday. Nick Lodolo pitched well (6 ip, 2 er), but the real surprise was the towering .475, .512, .675 Glacial batting line, led by Elly De La Cruz: 4 for 5 with two doubles and a stolen base. Of the 9 other Glacial batters, 8 got at least one hit, 8 reached base safely at least twice, 7 got two hits, and 4 reached base safely 3 times. Alas, the Glaciers cooled down on Wednesday, allowing 10 earned runs in 17 innings pitched, and batting “only” .283, .367, 415. The bright side: Joey Ortiz, who apparently was slumping, went 3 for 4 with two doubles and a walk.
Unfortunately, everything I said about the Balk looking rather Sedimentarian applies a little bit more the Glaciers. We will either have to admit both of them, or deny admission to both of them, as long as they are running so close together in the standings.
Old Detroit: 0.33, 0.53 [0.86 – 1.14]
Like the Alleghenys, the Wolverines ignored pitching Tuesday to concentrate on hitting. Unlike the Alleghenys, their concentration had no visible effect on their hitting, since they went only .229, .270, .400, even though Parker Meadows showed up out of nowhere to hit a homer as part of a 2 for 4 day. Four Wolverine pitchers conspired Wednesday to produce just enough competent innings to cover two games (14 ip, 7 er). And the hitters upped their game, too, going .295, .319, .636, featuring 4 home runs, two of them off Josh Bell’s bat, and one from Jackson Holliday who now has a three-game home run hitting streak.
Kaline: 0.08, 0.25 [0.33 – 1.67]
The Drive were held to 0.08 wins Tuesday, leaving a gap in our 0.04, 0.05, 0.06 string of frustrating Day 1s. Pitchers struggled (6.3 ip,, 4 er), and so did batters (.172, .250, .241.). Things got better Wednesday for the pitchers, as four relievers combined for 6 innings and only 2 earned runs. Batters were only slightly improved (.214, .279, .286), partly because Logan O’Hoppe had a horrible day: 0 for 10 with 6 strikeouts. This is Kaline’s week to face MLB competition, so no one in the EFL benefitted from the Drive’s slow start. So you don’t need to hold back, O Wizard, because Kaline success doesn’t cost anyone anything this week – unless you manage to catch the Wolverines, in which case there will be much howling and gnashing of teeth.
