The Fall of the Ryan Empire

Sheesh.  The Kangaroos have only been in first place for less than a fortnight. Already Baseball Prospectus publishes an article entitled “The Fall of the Ryan Empire.”  Look, I know people are nervous.  I myself am a little uneasy about how — or even whether — the Kangaroos will keep their promise to cede first place, once we more fully tame the Dragons, Rosebuds, Alleghenys, etc.  But in a league in its 13th year, we should be able to handle some non-traditional league leadership for a few days in May without losing our cool.

Really, the captain Kangaroo should take this premature proclamation of his collapse as a compliment.  After all, no one writes about the Fall of the Phil Empire. (I hear that snickering. Cut it out. Unless you are Mark W. or John J.,  I could have as easily said no one writes about the fall of  your empire.  But it wouldn’t alliterate like the Fall of the Phil Empire.) (And I notice no one is writing about the Fall of the Ron Empire anymore.  It’s been so long, it’ll have to wait until the ancient historians can get around to it.)

However unfortunate this rush to bring down the Ryan Empire might be, we all know how the media are.  There isn’t much we can do about their addiction to the sensational.  Our duty now is to make sure we’re ready for the Fall.

Canberra: L, 5 -11.  (.211, .286, .500; 5.3 ip, 7 er).  The closing ceremony of the 2016 Kangaroo/Wolverine Summit was a ceremonial trip to Baltimore to watch the Mariners play the Orioles. It was a Mariners blowout: 10 – 0 over the Orioles, with Wolverine Wade Miley taking a no-hitter into the fifth inning. Kangaroo Chris Davis went 1 for 2 with a walk, to at least offer some encouragement to his Captain in attendance. But some of the shine was marred when we noticed Rick Porcello’s poor effort (5 ip, 4 er), and I imagine even more will come off whenever the Captain notices Michael Tonkin’s little nonuple chulk (0.3 ip, 3 er).  I wouldn’t call Tuesday the Fall of the Ryan Empire, but it certainly was its Stumble.

Haviland: W, 7 – 0. (.250, .348, .475; 20 ip, 5 er).  This isn’t the humongous day the Dragons had Monday, but it’s still awfully good.  Only 5 Dragons (down from 8) OPSed over 1.000, and seven went hitless.   Six pitchers appeared, and combined for a 2.25 ERA over 20 innings, but only one sort of dominated:  Vincent Velasquez with his 10 strikeouts in 5 innings and 103 pitches. Still, it was enough for the Dragons to cut the Kangaroos’ lead another 1.5 games, leaving only 1.1 games between the two teams.

Old Detroit: W, 10 – 2.  (.357, .500, .571 — Happy EMD!; 20 ip, 4 er.)  I was especially pleased to watch Miley in what passes for glory for him, plus see Manny Machado play shortstop.  At the plate he only managed a walk in four trips, but the rest of the team did very nicely, including 8 walks in 36 plate appearances. The W’s are a little embarrassed they let the Dragons get through the caution tape so easily, so they’re scrambling to head them off from getting a shot at the ‘Roos.

Portland: L, 2 – 7.  (.268, .318, .341; 14.3 ip, 6 er).  Yordano Ventura struggled (5.7 ip, 4 er) but Chase Anderson picked him up (8.7 ip, 2 er), as did Chesl0r Cuthbert (3 for 4 with a double) and Steve Pearce (2 for 3 witha t homert.   But the rest of the roster was out smelling themselves… no, no, it’s ok, they’re Rosebuds.

Pittsburgh: W (-1), L 2 ; 1 – 15. (.190, .222, .190; 1.7 ip, 10 er)    Modern technology is so amazing. Here I sit in Reagan National Airport in far off Arlington, VA. Thanks to Dave (and whoever else helped him create the internet), I have the exquisite pleasure of savoring Aaron Blair’s achievements last night in distant Pittsburgh:  1.3 ip, 1 so, 1 bb, 9 hits, 9 earned runs.  Along with Arquimedes (Caminero) and Alexi (Ogando), the entire A(llegheny) team achieved a smooth sextuple chulk! (1.7 ip, 10 er).   And that’s not the end of the wonder.  I also have this vision of Mark Weinert, somewhere in Europe, connecting to Dave’s website and getting a mouthful of the same information. (Yes, Blair is active 100% this month.)

The A’s dropped to 5th place, dropping behind a team that was itself losing pretty decisively.  That should satisfy the “tame the Alleghenys” clause of the EFL Defense Pact.  Now for the rest of you…

Flint Hill: W, 9 – 3. (.342, .405, .658 — Happy EMD!; 9.3 ip, 3 er)  A great day to be a Tornado! (Did I mention it drizzled through much of the game in Baltimore last night? But the Tornados remained at a safe distance from us.) Joc Pederson’s 2 homer in 4 trips to the plate led the way, assisted able by John Jaso’s 3 for 3 with a double and Evan Gattis’ 2 for 4 with two walks. Solid pitching from Jesse Hahn (6.7 ip, 3 er) and a bevy of relievers sealed a nice win.

Kaline:  L, 6 – 12. .250, .327, .591; 12.7 ip, 11 er).  Tuesday could have been such a nice day:  good hitting, solid pitching. But then Marcus Stroman got mugged for 7 runs in 5.7 innings, and the Jays were on there way to a small disaster instead.

Peshastin: W 2, L (-1); 7 – 2. (.324, .405, .622 — Happy EMD!; 15 ip, 4 er) . We  saw Seth Smith go 1 for 3 with 2 walks — and an odd play where he ran all the way in from right field to catch a pop up in front of Robinson Cano, who had been camped under the pop up after having moved maybe 5 feet back onto the grass. Cano stood there bemused, and apparently took some grief from Smith as he trotted back to his post in the outfield.  Our guess was there has been a directive from the Pear High Command to all its fielders to go to whatever lengths necessary to boost their defense ratings.

Cottage: “W”, 3 – 5. (.250, .289, .500;  2 ip, 0 er). I keep thinking the magic Dave makes with the database will carry over to the Cheese.  But maybe magic is a finite resource.

D.C.: L, 6 – 12.  (.375, .375, .625;  0.7 ip, 3 er).  If they’d had more than 16 AB, that great hitting would have been even greater.  Although the Balk would still have needed more pitching.