Seven Days in May

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EFL Standings for 2018

Portland: W, 3 – 2.  (.225, .326, .425;  7 ip, 1 er).  The Outs’ ouster was touch-and-go.  Three key contributions from the Rosebud roster were crucial:  two homers (one by veteran Paul Goldschmidt, one by super-deb Gleyber Torres) and six strong innings from Chris Archer (1 earned run) were crucial to the Rosebud victory. Without those performances, a so-so day at the plate would not have gotten the job done.

Brookland: L, 2 – 8.  (.250, .286, .300; 11.7 ip, 8 er).   Even with the Rosebuds’ brave efforts to restore constitutional order, the outcome depended on finding patriots among the Outs who would defy their orders. The only two batters who really stuck their necks out for truth and justice were brave ex-Wolverines Gregory Polanco (0 for 4, but with a walk) and Manny Machado (0 for 4). But there is evidence that most of the more cautious Out hitters were doing what they could to assist the counter-coup while maintaining plausible deniability.  While the non-ex-Wolverines batted over .300, they only walked once and delivered only two extra bases — which were erased by a caught stealing and a GDP.  On the pitching side, Jake Arrieta proved himself to be perhaps the only enthusiastic supporter of the Brookland coup, pitching 6.7 innings, striking out 7 and allowing 0 earned runs.  The heroic Zack Godley almost chulked (3.3 ip, 6 er) and the superheroic  David Robertson triple chulked (0.7 ip, 2 er).  Someday we’ll erect statutes to commemorate Godley, Robertson, Polanco and Machado for their bold actions to end the 7-day coup.

Old Detroit: W 2, L 2; 11 – 12. (.146, .222, .146; 5.3 ip, 6 er).  We saw the four-game day coming.  But we were pathetically unprepared to use it to vault the W’s into first place and end the occupation ourselves.  Half our batters too 0-fers. The other half only batted .250, .333, .250 — essentially like replacement batters.  On the pitching side, Doug Fister might as well have been in the employ of the Outs:  he surrendered 6 runs in only 4.3 innings. However, in the one display of Wolverine management’s competence all season, Fister was left behind in Toledo on May 1, and has not been activated in Old Detroit, so his perfidy didn’t hurt anyone but himself.

Canberra: L, 3 – 4. (.182, .325, .212; 2 ip, 1 er).  Canberra is still reeling from… something. I don’t know why Canberra is reeling?  Did the Outs slip something into the soup?  No Kangaroo starting pitchers appeared. Or maybe Dellin Betances was the starter, with his two innings of work?  Maybe Canberra management wasn’t watching the Rays closely enough last weekend, and didn’t notice  that you are supposed  to follow your starting reliever with a relieving starter.  They sort of left the second part out, and thus played no role in restoring the league to proper order.

Flint Hill: W 2, L 2; 17 – 14. (.233, .258, .467; 18 ip, 8 er).  The quadruple header we AL Easterners had to play yesterday would have caught be completely off-guard, but the Top Tornado kindly alerted me yesterday morning to its impending arrival (when the Red Sox took over first place from the NYY). He assured me the W’s would be fine because we have so many extra plate appearances and innings pitched.  I was too polite (for once) to voice my doubts in his hearing, since he was trying to be kind and all, but I thought my recent numbers wouldn’t be good enough to move me forward much. Flint Hill, it turns out, was much better positioned to make a surge boosted by the quadruple header. Their batters produced a respectable batting line, and their pitchers kept their ERA’s from exceeding 4.00 on the day. So while the W’s mostly treaded water while the switch was being made at the top of the standings, the Tornados actually gained on everyone.

                                                                                                                                                                  Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018