Week 20 is our last 6-day week. It will end on Sunday, as will Weeks 21 – 27.
Speaking of dyings: did the pennant race expire for the Seraphim and Tornadoes this week? Both were pushed to the very brink of double-digit games behind, which is generally fatal this time of year.
Standings
| Team | Wins | Losses | WPct | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Rosebuds | 67.21 | 46.79 | .590 | 0.0 |
| Haviland Dragons | 64.14 | 49.86 | .563 | 3.1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 63.03 | 50.97 | .553 | 4.2 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 60.65 | 53.35 | .532 | 6.6 |
| Salem Seraphim | 57.40 | 56.60 | .504 | 9.8 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 57.33 | 56.67 | .503 | 9.9 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 55.34 | 58.66 | .485 | 11.9 |
| D.C. Balk | 51.67 | 62.33 | .453 | 15.5 |
| Cascadia Glaciers | 49.57 | 64.43 | .435 | 17.6 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 45.60 | 68.40 | .400 | 21.6 |
| Kaline Drive | 42.04 | 71.96 | .369 | 25.2 |
Salem: (-0.41) [2.12 – 3.88] (As penance for omitting the Seraphs yesterday, I am putting them first in line for commentary today. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the day the Seraphs wanted to be in the spotlight, but that is not really my fault.)
Can one reliever getting one out in game 114 doom his team’s pennant race to failure? Angel Zerpa — whose names cover the gamut from A to Z while firmly identifying him as in the Seraphic class — executed a duodecal Royal Chulk yesterday, surrendering 4 earned runs in 1/3 of an inning. Even with a scoreless inning of subrelief by Daniel Hudson, the Seraphic daily ERA was 27.69. Pair that with a daily OPS of .431, and you from beating MLB competition to losing almost 4 games out of 6 just like that.
Portland: 0.41 [4.77 – 1.23]
Foreshadowing the fate of the Seraphim, Rosebud pitcher Cooper Criswell, whose names do not veer from a C-average — acheived a small triple chulk yesterday (2/3 ip, 2 er allowed) which left his team with a daily ERA of 12.86, even after another reliever got two more outs scorelessly. Compared to the Seraphs, however, the Rosebud batting line was heavenly: .222, .344, .370.
Haviland: 0.98 [3.22 – 2.78]
Haviland hurlers had a hiatus yesterday, leaving all the work to the offense. Which only covered 18 PA, but did so with impressive resonance: .222, .222, .444. I don’t know when the last time was that a team’s BA and OBP were exactly the same, and added up exactly to its SLG. The way to do this is to have 4 hits, one of which is a Carlos Santana double, and another of which is a Vinnie Pasquantino home run. While the numbers are artistic, they are not super scary, and don’t seem to merit nearly an entire win. So there’s another shoe to drop in Flint Hill.
Peshastin: 0.13 [3.49 – 2.51]
Peshastin got plenty of competent pitching yesterday — 6 ip, 2 er from James Paxton, and a scoreless inning of relief. But the Pears still struggled, because of inadequate hitting: only 24 PA at a slash rate of just .143, .250, .190. Bobby Witt Jr. did not have a good day. He went 1 for 4 but erased his single by also hitting into a double play.
Canberra: 0.80 [2.06 – 3.94]
Canberra’s hopes for a championship are not dead, but they are in serious condition and need to avoid another bad week. The Kangaroos lost 2.7 games in the standings this week, but Kangaroo pitchers kept it from being worse. Nick Martinez completed 5 scoreless innings and on the way to a team total of 7 ip, 1 er. Kangaroo hitters could have done better: .185, .313, .222 is not a great day.
Flint Hill: 0.02 [2.78 – 3.22]
That shoe-dropping sound was Cade Smith triple chulking in familiar fashion (2/3 ip, 2 er), But in Flint Hill the other relief pitcher, also completing 2/3 of an inning, allowed an additional run, leaving the Tornados with a nasty 19.29 daily ERA. Flinty hitters approximated Haviland hitting without the aesthetic (or power-hitting) pizzazz the Dragons displayed: 21 PA, .211, .286, .263.
Pittsburgh: 0.87 [2.51 – 3.49]
The Alleghenys started the week 9.6 games out, essentially where the Seraphim and Tornados are at the end of the week. The Allegheny fate does not augur well for Salem and Flint Hill. They lost 2.3 games in the standings… and it could have been worse. The A’s finished Week 19 on a high note, thanks to Logan Webb’s 5.7 innings with only 1 earned run. Once again, an EFL offense did too little to offend their foes: .167, .219, .367. We’re six teams into this recap and we haven’t yet seen a great EFL offensive performance…
DC: 0.20 [3.94 – 2.06]
… and DC didn’t give us one, either, going only .161, .161, .355. Is Harrison Bader the EFL’s hitting “star” today, since he hit two doubles in 4 plate appearances? The Balk balked at pitching, too, so we’ve got nothing to work with there when it comes to great performances.
Cascadia: 0.59 [1.23 – 4.77]
After taking a drubbing from the Rosebuds all week, the Glaciers finally picked up their heads on Day 6. Elly De La Cruz tanked the “EFL hitter of the day” award away from Bader by blasting two home runs in 4 ABs. Two Glacial pitchers combined for 3 ip, 1 er, for a respectable daily ERA of 3.00 (before taking into account replacement innings).
Old Detritus: 0.21 [2.79 -3.21]
The bloom is definitely off the Wolverines. All hints of championship potential are dead and buried now. The team that once led the league in second-half standings is back to its Sedimentarian patterns:
- not enough healthy players: only 3 showed up. Two hit well: both Josh Bell and Bo Naylor hit a triple and a single. But Will Smith went an ugly 0 for 4.
- pointless pitching. Hunter Brown went 6 strong innings for only 1 earned run, and Matthew Liberatore went two more scorelessly. But it wasn’t enough to win the day because…
Kaline: 0.79 [3.21 – 2.79]
… the Drive were busy doing almost all the hitting that got done in the EFL yesterday, going .444, .476, .778. There were only 6 Driven batters, but that was twice as many as the W’s, and every one of them reached base safely. Andres Gimenez went 3 for 4 with a double, and Gabriel Moreno went 2 for 4 with a homer. The result: we true Sedimentarians are packed in together more firmly than ever, and deeper, at the bottom of the EFL standings.
