The Kindness of Dragons

EFL Standings for 2017

.

Cottage: W, 5 – 4. (.267, .313, .333; 16 ip 5 er)  Hitting and pitching just good enough to close May with a win. But, really, with the Dragons on one’s tail, this isn’t generally going to be enough to hold on to first place.

.

Haviland: W, 7 – 2. (.240, .321, .560; 23.3 ip, 7 er). See how the Dragons did everything a little better than the Cheese? But do you also see how they kept a lid on it, calibrating their play so as to NOT take over first place just yet? This is shrewd, to preserve their draft position advantage for next month’s managers meeting. On the other hand it is as kind a gesture as you’ll ever get from a Dragon, letting the Cheese end May still in first place.  But I’m warning you, Cottage:  by the time we come out of the beginning-of-the-month tunnel where we won’t get standings updates for a few days, do not be surprised if the kindness of Dragons has expired.

.

Flint Hill: W, 8 – 4.   (.385, .448, .577;  12.7 ip, 5 er).  The Mariners (!) battered Senzatella a little (5 ip, 4 er) but Dan Straily and Brad Hand stepped in to halt the damage.  On the offensive side, the Tornadoes got only 29 plate appearances from six hitters, but they were Edgar Martinez-class plate appearances.

.

Pittsburgh: L, 4 – 4. ( .209, .261 .302; no pitching).  The Alleghenys went out of May like a lamb.

.

Kaline: W, 6 – 2. (.304, .355, .500; 5.3 ip, 0 er).  The Drive got into the birthday spirit yesterday. James Paxton came off the DL and dominated the Rockies. Michael Saunders had a perfect day at the plate (albeit in one plate appearance). Mike Zunino had his third straight two-hit game, one-double game. Sixteen hitters showed up for the party, and everyone brought at least a small gift except Brandon Phillips and Ian Desmond (who went 0 for the day).

.

Peshastin:  W, 3 – 2. (.213, .260, .340; 10 ip, 1 er). Max Scherzer threw a complete game earned-run shutout, and the Pears mounted just enough offense to turn that into a win.

.

Portland: W, 9 – 1.  (.279, .367, .651; 7 ip, 0 er).  Now that’s a pretty team line, especially since it covers 49 plate appearances.  Junior Guerra compiled 6 shutout innings, and Eric Thames doubled, homered, and walked twice in 5 trips to the plate.

.

Canberra: L, 3 – 7. (.205, .225, .410;  2 ip, 3 er). The Kangaroos let things slip Wednesday, sliding far enough behind the Rosebuds that it is beginning to look like the peleton is leaving them behind.  There’s a 2.3 – game gap between Canberra and Portland. Seventh place Portland is only 1.9 games out of third place.  And even worse, the ‘Roos are now closer to 9th place than they are to first place.  This is something you definitely want to avoid. Let’s hope June is better in Canberra than May, although since they are from the antipodes where fall is sliding toward winter, this may be a vain hope.

.

Old Detroit: L, 2 – 8.  (.200, .273, .333; 4.3 ip, 2 er).  Don’t let that mediocre pitching line fool you. 4 of those innings were by David Paulino who snuck into the major leagues to make his Wolverine debut on the last day of May.  I had no idea he was there.  And he was unallocated.  So the W’s got no benefit from Paulino’s work.  Still, we whooped it up a little in the Woeverine offices.  If we want to have a better June than our May we need pitching help wherever we can get it.

.

.

Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2017