… and so is anyone else who dreamed of passing someone.

I am anticipating no material effects to our standings, and possibly not even to our spring draft order, from today’s Mets-Braves doubleheader. I wouldn’t be surprised if no one in the EFL even cares about today’s bonus bonus day games. EFL excitement level is waning among our fans — as you can see here in these live photos from my living room:

Standings

TeamWinsLossesWPctGB
Haviland Dragons101.6760.33.6280.0
Portland Rosebuds92.1269.88.5699.6
Peshastin Pears90.3871.62.55811.3
Pittsburgh Alleghenys83.1478.86.51318.5
Salem Seraphim81.8780.13.50519.8
Flint Hill Tornadoes80.4481.56.49721.2
Canberra Kangaroos75.7986.21.46825.9
D.C. Balk71.8390.17.44329.8
Cascadia Glaciers70.8591.15.43730.8
Old Detroit Wolverines67.6394.37.41734.0
Kaline Drive62.6399.37.38739.0

Haviland: (-0.61) [4.71 – 1.29] v. Portland: 0.61 [1.29 – 4.71]

Live photos from the Dragons’ living room presumably show a different picture. Although the Dragons may have rested all their stars yesterday judging by the sudden reversal in their performance against the Rosebuds. Roansy Contreras ended his season with a thud, nonuple chulking for the Dragons (0.33 ip, 3 er). Luis Arraez went a for 3 to fend off Shohei Ohtani for the batting title, preventing Ohtani from collecting a Triple Crown. Meanwhile, the Rosebuds got 3 scoreless innings from Ryne Nelson to entirely account for a favorable adjustment in the raw winning percentage and the termination of any risk of falling into 3rd place.

Peshastin: 0.05 [5.00 – 1.00] v. Canberra: (-0.05) [1.00 – 5.00]

The Pears uncorked 14.7 innings at the cost of only 5 earned runs. But Pear hitting (.268. .268, .439) wouldn’t have been enough to catch Portland even if the Dragons had taken all the wins Portland had amassed this week. Second place wasn’t really in the cards Sunday. But Cal Raleigh did homer to put himself more firmly among the best catchers in the first three years of their careers. Which got the Pears a tiny boost given Canberra’s hitting (.179, .324, .321) and pitching (12.3 ip, 7 er).

Pittsburgh: (-0.19) [3.37 – 2.63] v. DC: 0.19 [2.63 – 3.37]

One gets the impression our teams were mostly playing out the string yesterday. The A’s put up an uninspiring batting line (.224, .270, .293) (except for Dylan Crews’ 3 for 4 with a homer, a hbp, and a stolen base) and a meager effort from the mound (1.7 ip, 0 er). Balk batters did about the same (.222, .300, .222) but Balk pitchers struggled more: 7.3 ip, 6 er.

Salem: 0.91 [4.35 – 1.65] v. Kaline: (-0.91) [1.65 – 4.35]

The Seraphim did not just show up Sunday. They hit like they meant it (.270, .378, .351) and pitched even better (11 ip, 2 er). Some of the Drive seem to have left the team early. Only 1 pitcher turned out, and he pitched only 1 innings (scoreless). Seven batters only managed to cover 17 plate appearances, and not really with glory (.200, .294, .333).

Flint Hill: 0.46 [4.70 – 1.30] v. Cascadia: (-0.46) [1.30 – 4.70]

The Tornados went out like dust devils: .167, .219, .200 at the plate, and just 3.7 innings (albeit scoreless) from the mounds. It was enough, because Glacial hitters were slushy (.179, .207, .357) and their pitchers melted down entirely: 10.7 ip, 10 er, for a nasty 8.49 ERA.

Old Detroit: 0.04 [3.37 – 2.63]. v. MLB.

The Wolverines are proud to match, in their series against MLB competition, the much superior Allegheny team’s record against the also-superior Balk. Brandon Pfaadt pitched surprisingly well (5.1 ip, 1er) but Gabe Speier fixed that (1 ip, 2er) and Wolverine batters kept the W’s within the bounds of their modest expectations (.258, .324, .2900. The only Wolverine playing tomorrow is Jose Iglesias for the Mets. He is more likely to help the W’s record than hurt it.