Saturday’s Big Battles

Saturday was a big sports day. The horse with no name — or pretty much no name since American Pharaoh is oxymoronic or self-negating because the US Constitution guarantees we’ll never have a Pharaoh — won a big race.  I don’t know what the big deal was. He’d already won two other big races.

And a bunch of women started playing soccer up in Canada. On artificial turf. And this is so popular around the world that a billion people are going to watch it, according to the BBC.  It’s a good thing the BBC always lists women’s cup teams with the word “Women” attached — Canada Women beat China Women Saturday, as did the Netherlands Women over the New Zealand Women.  You’d hate to have a billion watchers turn the telly off thinking they’d watched the Men’s World Cup. Although I guess that would be understandable — given Jack Warner’s exposé of FIFA’s plan to mollify the US with a special men’s world cup starting this week.

And at least the BBC is covering the women’s world cup.  Try to find coverage in any US paper of, say, women’s NCAA soccer prior to their playoffs.

We aren’t like those misogynistic chauvinists at the BBC. We’ll cover every big head-to-head confrontation in the EFL with absolutely no regard to whether the participants are male or female. And if they happen to be female, we won’t make big arrows pointing to the fact.

(Note: the stats I cite below are BP’s raw MLB stats from Friday and Saturday games.)

Old Detroit: W 2, L 0; 17-8. .394, .450, .626; 15.3 ip, 7 er.    When your daily OPS soars over 1.100, it can be a little hard to identify one confrontation that mattered more than others.  But our players play in two places at once — not just in Old Detroit or Peshastin or Canberra, but also in places like Cleveland, where Peshastin’s Danny Salazar was mowing down the Baltimore Orioles — 7 ip, 10 k, 1 w.  Only one man stood between the Orioles and utter humiliation: Wolverine Manny Machado. So he homered off Salazar in the third inning, the only run the Orioles scored Saturday (and, equally significant, keeping the Pears from picking up a shutout).

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Old Detroit:   1 – 0

Peshastin:      0  – 1

Haviland:  W 0, L 2;  (-1) – 10.  .146, .186, .220. 17.3 ip, 8 er. (The Dragons and Wolverines have been nearly twinsies since the second week of the season. They would have been this time, too, except the W’s stole all the offense off the T’s plate.) This is not an earthshaking confrontation, but you get the feeling Matt Barnes is not going to be in too many of these head-to-head EFL confrontations.  Before Saturday he’d pitched a grand total 0f 0.3 innings in June. Since our players only constitute 30% of the MLB, Barnes could go a long time without confronting a fellow EFLer at that rate.  But yesterday he did, so we’d better celebrate it while we can.  Brought in to get the third out with runners at first and second, Barnes had to face Canberra’s Marcus Semien, who is having a very nice season.  He worked Semien to a 1 – 2 count then threw a ball breaking down and away. Semien tried to check his swing but couldn’t.  The inning and Barnes’ work for the day were over.

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Haviland:       1 – 0

Old Detroit:   1 – 0

Peshastin:      0 – 1

Canberra:       0 – 1

Peshastin: W 3, L (-1); 16 – 1. .338, .389, .556; 16.3 ip, 2 er.        The Pears’ Billy Burns and the Rosebuds’ Joe Kelly had quite a duel Saturday.  Billy led off the game for the Athletics but Kelly got him to ground out. In the third Billy tripled, driving in the first A’s run. But in the fifth came the most exciting confrontation.  Burns grounded sharply to Kelly.  Kelly fielded the ball, looked at exceptionally fleet Burns hustling down the line, and decided to race him to the bag.  Kelly won.

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Portland:        1 – 0

Haviland:       1 – 0

Old Detroit:   1 – 0

Canberra:       0 – 1

Peshastin:      0 – 2

Flint Hill: W 2, L 0; 16 – 10.  .298, .384, .417;  6.3 ip, 4 er.   With one out in the top of the ninth, Tornado Chris Davis tried to advance to second on a muffed strike three. Wolverine Yan Gomes scrambled for the ball, threw, and…  Hey! What happened? I was looking at the beautiful evening. Why is everyone leaving the field?

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Old Detroit:   2 – 0

Portland:        1 – 0

Haviland:       1 – 0

Flint Hill:       0 – 1

Canberra:       0 – 1

Peshastin:      0 – 2

 

Pittsburgh: W 0, L 2; 2 – 14.  .233, .305, .301;  7.3 ip, 6 er.    Jose Altuve’s MLB team, the Astros, have been benefitting incidentally from Altuve’s fine EFL season (.303, .344, .412), although his offense has been down in recent weeks.  Altuve faced the Cheese’s Drew Hutchison, who held the rest of the Astros to a harmless .222, .263, .222, batting line.  Altuve’s line against Hutchison was .667, .667, .667. In the third he drove in the Astros’ only run with a two out single. On the next pitch  Altuve took off for second to get into scoring position, but Hutchison and his catcher cut him down.  Altuve had Hutchison’s number… and vice versa.

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Old Detroit:   2 – 0

Portland:        1 – 0

Haviland:       1 – 0

Cottage:          1 – 1

Pittsburgh:     1 – 1

Flint Hill:       0 – 1

Canberra:       0 – 1

Peshastin:      0 – 2

 

Cottage: W 2, L 1; 8 – 6.  .270, .308, .514 (but only 39 PA);  22 ip, 9 er.   Hutchison, as I mentioned, humiliated the Astros Saturday. Well, except for Altuve. (More evidence that the Alleghenys are the best.) One of those Astros was Preston Tucker, the brand-new Dragon. Tucker came into the game batting 2 for 14 for Haviland.  He left it batting 2 for 18.  In the fourth Tucker worked a full count and fouled off 4 potential strike threes before Hutchison induced a fly ball to right. That’s almost a victory for Tucker, since Hutchison only threw 91 pitches all game. Tucker made him throw 11% of his game’s worth of pitches in a single at-bat.  However, Hutchison got him with a single pitch in the first and the sixth — and threw one more pitch to him in the third inning, the one on which Altuve was thrown out stealing. So you’d have to count this as a win for Hutchison.

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Old Detroit:   2 – 0

Portland:        1 – 0

Cottage:          2 – 1

Haviland:       1 – 1

Pittsburgh:     1 – 1

Flint Hill:       0 – 1

Canberra:       0 – 1

Peshastin:      0 – 2

 

Canberra:  W 2, L (-1); 13 – 6. .306, .398, .597;  3.3 ip, 1 er.     Christian Bethancourt came into Saturday’s Pirates at Braves game batting .179, .207, .250. In his first three at-bats he went 2 for 3, scored a run and drove in one, to raise his batting average to .195.  He and Wolverine Gregory Polanco were trading key plays all game. Polanco led off the game with a single. Bethancourt threw him out attempting to steal. Polanco scored the first run of the game for the Pirates, just ahead of Andrew McCutchen on the latter’s game tying homer in the fourth. Bethancourt drove in the Braves’ third run in the fourth to restore their lead, then padded it by scoring in the seventh to put Atlanta up 4 – 2.  But in the top of the 8th Polanco re-tied the game with a two-out, two-run single.

The game was still tied in the bottom of the ninth.  Bethancourt was due to lead off, so the Pirates brought out their best reliever, Vance Worley. How do I know he’s their best reliever? Because he’s on the Alleghenys! And in my faith system, the Alleghenys are always best.  Worley showed his mastery by disposing of Bethancourt with a single pitch. Bethancourt showed his pluck by disposing of the ball in the right field stands — for his first EFL homer! (Also, incidentally, his first MLB homer.)

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Old Detroit:   2 – 0

Portland:        1 – 0

Cottage:          2 – 1

Canberra:       1 – 1

Haviland:       1 – 1

Pittsburgh:     1 – 2

Flint Hill:       0 – 1

Peshastin:      0 – 2

 

Kaline:  W 2, L 0; 5 – 3. .286, .341, .364; 18.3 ip, 3 er.  Jason Hammel took on four EFL rivals Saturday — and he did it using only one hand!  The Rosebud’s Ryan Zimmerman was helpless against him, going 0 for 4.  Peshastin’s Anthony Rendon and Canberra’s Denard Span each went 0 for 3, although they each coaxed a harmless walk.  Only one EFLer could touch Hammel: wunderkind Bryce Harper, who singled in the first and homered to lead off the ninth, driving Hammel from the game. But that’s three wins for Hammel, one for Harper, in the head-to-head match-ups.

Record on head-to-heads Saturday, so far:

Kaline:            3 – 1

Old Detroit:   2 – 0

Cottage:          2 – 1

Portland:        1 – 1

Canberra:       2 – 2

Haviland:       1 – 1

Flint Hill:       0 – 1

Pittsburgh:     1 – 3

Peshastin:      0 – 2

 

 

Portland: W 1, L 1; 8 – 7.  .232, .270, .432; 16 ip, 6 er. The Rosebuds  picked up Mark Canha in our May 8 draft, but he had an uninspiring May.  Up to Saturday, he’d only gotten 8 plate appearances, although he reached base safely in half of them (all singles, walks, or HBPs).  Canha came up in the seventh inning still struggling, hitless on the day and his batting average dipping toward the Mendoza line.  He faced Alexi Ogando, acquired by the Tornadoes in the same draft, but also up to that point uninspiring (5.11 ERA since May 1). Ogando had just come in as a reliever.  With their baseball careers possibly on the line, the two men battled to a full count.  Then Canha lifted a homer over the Green Monster in Boston.

Final record on head-to-heads Saturday:

Kaline:            3 – 1

Old Detroit:   2 – 0

Cottage:          2 – 1

Portland:        2 – 1

Canberra:       2 – 2

Haviland:       1 – 1

Pittsburgh:     1 – 3

Flint Hill:       0 – 2

Peshastin:      0 – 2