Only in the EFL

I got to thinking about what makes the EFL unique.

Old Detroit:   W 3, L 0; 13 – 7.  .258, .314, .258; 14 ip, 0 er.  (Liriano! 8 ip.  Erasmo! 6 ip.)  Only in the EFL can you:

• Play a tripleheader,
• Win all three games by a combined score of 13 – 7
• (Even though your pitchers go 14 innings without giving up a run
• And your hitters couldn’t manage anything more than singles)
• And still end up losing ground in the standings
• To a team that played only one game.

Haviland: W, 11 – 4.  .429, .556, .679; 1 ip, 0 er. And only in the EFL could you have four fewer wins and four more losses than the first place team, and be only 3.2 games behind!  Or from the first place team’s perspective,  objects in the mirror can be much closer than they appear.

Cottage: W, 7 – 4.  .294, .400, .353,  0.3 ip, 0 er.  Only in the EFL can you offer only 1/3 of an inning of actual pitching and get an entire game out of it.  By the way, you Ben Zobrist skeptics out there: what are you saying now, after his 1 for 1 with 3 runs scores last night? (He walked 4 times.)

Peshastin: “L”, 8 – 6. .313, .389, .500; 3 ip, 3 er.  We’re all very familiar by now with “losing” games where the other team scores fewer runs.  Another less prominent peculiarity of the EFL is the ability to play three catcher full time and fourth half time in the same game, and meld them all together into a .250, .357, .667 batting line.

Flint Hill: W 2, L 1; 17 – 14.  .214, .292, .333;  31 ip, 16 er.  Only in the EFL can you got 2 – 1 in a tripleheader and see your winning percentage go down. Or finish the tripleheader with only 47 total plate appearances.

Pittsburgh: W, 4 – 3. .280, .357, .440;  8 ip, 2 er.  Only in the EFL can a team from Pittsburgh utterly dominate, winning 55.5% of the league’s championships. Or win a baseball game with only 7 positions players.

Kaline: “L”, 4 – 3.  .261, .261, .348; 7 ip, 1 er.  Only in the EFL can a team finish the game by making its 35th out while ahead, and be charged with a loss.

Canberra: W, 0 – (-2).  .219, .306, .219; 15 ip, 5 er.  Only in the EFL can a team  win while being shut out by the its opponents, because nowhere else could a team force its opponents to give back runs from previous games.

Portland: L, 2 – 8.  .262, .279, .310;  0 ip, 0 er.  Only in the EFL can Mookie Betts prove he’s ok by going 3 for 4 while playing defense next to Starling Marte, who went 4 for 5 with a double. The rest of the team got four hits, too, in the other 33 AB, batting .121, .144, 152.