In my defense my Sunday was upended when Ben made a surprise appearance on our front porch, on a short leave from his Navy duties.

Standings: Week 24, Game 6 (September 7, 2024)

Team	Wins	Losses	WPct	GB
Portland Rosebuds	89.22	54.78	.620	0.0
Haviland Dragons	86.22	57.78	.599	3.0
Peshastin Pears	78.87	65.13	.548	10.4
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	73.66	70.34	.512	15.6
Flint Hill Tornadoes	72.37	71.63	.503	16.9
Salem Seraphim	71.80	72.20	.499	17.4
Canberra Kangaroos	69.68	74.32	.484	19.5
Cascadia Glaciers	63.86	80.14	.443	25.4
D.C. Balk	62.28	81.72	.433	26.9
Old Detroit Wolverines	56.46	87.54	.392	32.8
Kaline Drive	54.81	89.19	.381	34.4

Portland: 0.97 [5.49 – 0.51] v. Old Detritus: 0.03 [0.51 – 5.49]

Five Rosebud pitchers covered 22 innings for only 6 earned runs. Even though Portland hitters mumbled to a .208, .250, .321 line, the Wolverines did not take advantage. The W’s hit great (.346,.379, .462) but pitched little (1 ip 0 er) and are being smothered under 17 innings of replacement pitching (pending play Sunday).

Haviland: 0.62 [4.61 – 1.39] v. MLB

The Dragons are only short 1.3 innings at this point, so they have plenty of good innings to buffer some relatively poor pitching Saturday (16.3 ip, 11 ER). Hitting went somewhat better: .233, .281, .400. The Dragons go into the bonus day still within 3 games of the Rosebuds, even though the Dragons — unlike the ‘Buds — had competent opposition this week.

Peshastin: 0.95 [4.45 – 1.55] v. Salem: 0.05 [1.55. – 4.45]

Salem didn’t put much pressure on Peshastin Saturday, going only .154, .233, .359 at the plate, and surrendering 6 earned runs in 6 innings. So how did the Pears win 95% of the game while batting poorly (.190, .286, .238) and pitching even worse (2.7 ip, 4 er)? The key was Seraphim Grant McCray , who went 2 for four with 2 homers, was allocated at 0% this week. So those homers happened for the Corvallis Cherubim, and Salem ACTUALLY hit more like .114, .185, .171. Probably there’s more lurking in there but I don’t have time to dig deeper.

Pittsburgh: 1.33 [4.50 – 1.50] v. Flint Hill: (-0.33) [1.50 – 4.50]

The T’s slipped behind the A’s into fifth place despite DJ Herz’ 5 scoreless innings (and a 7 ip, 1 er line as a team) because Tornadic hitters only managed a .125, .222, .167 line; and because Allegheny starters Logan Webb and Jose Berrios each went 6 innings (for 3 and 1 earned runs, respecively) and A’s hitters performed respectably (.242, .300, .355) to help the A’s take a commanding position in their series against the Tornados.

Canberra: (-0.03) [1.78 – 4.22] v. Kaline: 1.03 [4.22 – 1.78]

Kaline continued to give Canberra fits Saturday. Driven pitchers produced 6.3 fine innings (just 2 earned runs) while Driven hitters compiled a solid .294, .368, .382 line. No Kangaroos pitched, undermining the effect of their teammates’ own solid .282, .333, .513 batting line.

Cascadia: (-0.08) [2.76 – 3.24] v. DC: 1.08 [3.24 – 2.76]

The Glaciers probably thought they had done a decent job Saturday, pitching 11 great innings (3 er) and hitting sort of bad .(.162, .234, .236). But DC was not content to match their work: batting better (.211, .311, .368) and pitching nearly perfectly: Jose Quintana’s 6.7 scoreless innings