Reminder: LEAGUE MEETING STARTS AT 7:30 PDT this evening (or tomorrow morning, depending on your location).

Salem hitched to the Kangaroo slingshot yesterday, and got a good ride. Can they keep it up like previous slingshot customers have.

Salem 1.1, Kaline (-0.1). Kaline leads the series, 2.6 – 1.4.

Salem snuck up on Kaline yesterday, making a big show of batting meekly (45 PA, .229 BA, .257 SLG) but those sneaky Seraphim also took 10 walks to generate a .400 OBP and one of the strongest .657 OPS you’ll ever see. Beloved (by Seraphim) Dodger Emmet Sheehan almost chulked (2 2/3 ip, 5 er) but the other four pitchers covered 14.7 innings with 0 earned runs allowed. Anthony Kay (6 1/3 ip) and Gavin Williams (5 2/3 ip) accounted for 12 of those shutout innings.

The Drive may have been lulled to sleep on offense by Salem’s low-key attack. Fourteen Drives batted — all of them getting either 4 or 5 PA for a total of 59. But they were sluggish: .127, .169, .218. This malaise did not infect the Driven pitchers, three of whom combined for 13 2/3 innings and only 3 earned runs.

MLB 0.5, Cascadia 0.5. Cascadia leads the series, 2.1 – 1.9

Cascadia’s task was compounded when only Bryan Abreu pitched. He got through 2/3 of an inning without allowing a run, which was nice and all, but not enough to move the needle very far. The offense was not overwhelming, either: 54 PA, .250, .321, .313. Wilyer Abreu supported his unrelated brother with the team’s only home run.

But somehow that was enough for the Glaciers to tie their MLB foes, and maintain their very slim lead in the week’s standings.

Canberra 0.5, Flint Hill 0.5. Canberra leads the series, 3.2- 0.8.

Since the All-Star game the Kangaroos have been driving events in the EFL. In Week 17, coming out of the All-Star break, Canberra turned what might have been the best Wolverine weekly performance of the season (raw winning percentage .717) and made it look like a pathetic loss by running up a raw winning percentage of .955. Once the W’s broke free from the Kangaroos,, they have put together outstanding winning percentages of their own (Week 18: .739 raw, .829 adj; Week 19 so far .899 raw, .977 adjusted).

Then in Week 18 the ‘Roos ambushed the Dragons for another huge win (.890 raw wp, .846 adj wp) and ruined a nice .595 raw wp week for Haviland. This week Haviland is up to .658 raw and ,965 adjusted winning percentage.

Meanwhile, Canberra keeps rolling along. Its raw wp is .883, just a smidge behind their proteges the Wolverines (.899). But this time the Kangaroos are facing a team that has been hot recently in the Tornados, who have a sharp .652 raw wp of their own. And they held the ‘Roos even yesterday — even though their pitching was so-so 6.7 ip, 3 er) and their hitting was replacement-ish at best (33 PA, .200, .219, .333).

The T’s were lucky yesterday not to lose wins. The K offense was its usual (lately) self: 40 PA, .242, .375, .606, powered by four home runs: Keaschall (for the second day in a row), Rafaela (ditto, except it might be 3 days in a row), Sal Stewart, and Jeremy Pena (also on a recent home run binge). But the only Canberran pitcher was Bradgely Rodriguez, who apparently got his feet tangled like my tongue does in that overly-lettered first name: 2/3 ip, 1 er.

Peshastin 0.7, Portland 0.3. Peshastin leads the series, 2.7 – 1.3.

In this matchup of two teams who have not been jazzed up by the Kangaroos yet, the Pears parlayed passable pitching (12 2/3 ip, 6 er) and passive hitting (34 PA, .250, .294, .344) to produce a daily win. Cal Raleigh clouted the team’s only home run, which had to be a pretty percussion to Peshastinians.

Portland’s day was a lot sparer. Only 6 batters batted, trying to execute the same sneaky maneuver the Seraphim used: the Rosebuds only produced a .200 batting averate and a .250 slugging percentage, but pulled off a .400 OBP by walking 6 times and getting hit by one pitch.

Old Detroit 1.2, Pittsburgh (-0.3). Old Detroit leads the series, 3.9 – 0.1.

Perha ps Pittsburgh didn’t recognize the ongoing effects of the Kangaroo Sling on the Wolverines. The Allegheny hitters did a lot of standing there in their 31 plate appearances, producing only a .167, .194, .167 slash line — only 1 free pass, 10% ot what the wily Wizard’s team did. Allegheny hurlers hurled 16 2/3 overly generous innings (10 earned runs allowed). Cade Cavalli was the Pittsburgh star of the day, I suppose, going 6 innings at the cost of 2 earned runs.

Old Detroit, on the other hand, did everything it could to keep the Kangaroo sling-shot effect working. 10 Wolverine hitters used 36 PA to produce a .313, .389. 469 slash line, with quiet super-star Jose Caballero supplying the only home run. Kumar Rocker was a little rocky (5 1/3 innings, 3 earned runs) but Walbert Urena and Matthew Liberatore (!) both tossed 6 scoreless innings.

I don’t need the Wolverines to win the pennant. I’m having plenty of fun monitoring their play in this wonderful Kangaroo-induced spell. But might the championship still be possible? The W’s have maintained their position lately in the standings: more or less twice as far out of first as the Kangaroos. If the Kangaroos reduce their distance from first to 0.0 games — well, what’s twice as far as that?

Bingo!

Haviland 0.9, D.C. 0.1. Haviland leads the series, 3.9 – 0.1.

Of course, Haviland is still lurking not far behind the W’s and are also clearly benefitting from their own ride in the Kangaroo slingshot. Yesterday that worked out like this: 10 1/3 innings of crummy-but-not-disastroud pitching (6 er allowed), dragged down by Landon Roupp (4 2/3 ip, 5 er) but boosted a bit by two relievers delivering a scoreless stretch of 3 2/3 innings. Dragon hitters were also surprisingly flat for a team riding the Kangaroo slingshot: .34 PA, .267, .324, .267.

The D’s raw wp sagged to .658, but the Balk were ready to lend a hand. Their pitchers were handing out earned runs at a 13.40 ERA pace (4 2/3 ip, 7. er). And, except for two home runs (Patrick Bailey and Tyler Soderstrom) the Dragon offense was slumbering in its lair: 29 PA . 179, .207, .464.