Tico Time!

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Portland Rosebuds	44	29	.602	—	375.5	298.5
Canberra Kangaroos	43	29	.591	0.9	325.0	270.4
Old Detroit Wolverines	42	28	.593	1	307.4	253.3
Brookland Outs	41	32	.557	3.3	385.7	346.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes	36	34	.520	6.1	294.9	282.9
Cottage Cheese	38	35	.514	6.5	365.8	355.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	37	35	.508	6.9	370.4	370.1
Haviland Dragons	36	39	.481	8.9	318.6	331.9
Kaline Drive	36	39	.480	9	319.6	332.4
Peshastin Pears	32	41	.434	12.3	301.0	347.0
D.C. Balk	31	41	.431	12.5	297.0	341.1

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Portland:  W, 7 – 2. . (47 PA, .225, .327, .450; 20.3 ip, 7 er). How does such a mediocre batting line produce 7 runs? Well, you find the three guys who went 0 for 4 and you clairvoyantly under-allocate two of them two weeks ago, so their 0 for 8 turns into about an 0 for 3, and your EFL batting line jumps to .257, .357, .514.  Put that together with some excellent pitching and you have a recipe to frustrate your pursuers.

Canberra:  W, 7 – 7. (51 PA, .304, .365, .457; 12.7 ip, 7 er). Debutant Mike Soroka (4.7 ip, 4 er) almost dumped the Kangaroos back into 3rd place, and Brock Stewart tried to finish off the job with an infinite chulk (0 ip, 1 er: a walk and two hits).  But Blake Snell saved the day on the mound (7 ip, 1 er) and the stout Kangaroo offense came through big.  In fact, only one ‘Roo out of 12 failed to reach base safely (Mitch Garver). Much maligned Billy Hamilton led the offense, going 2 for 4 with a walk and a homer. Soon (VERY soon) to be maligned Adam Eaton went 2 for 4 with a walk. Pah.

Old Detroit: W 2, L (-1); 8 – 2. (60 PA, .298, .443, .617; 6 ip, 0 er). Happy Edgar Martinez Day, Wolverine Fans!  Trea Turner turned in the best performance of his Wolverine career Tuesday, going 4 for 4 with a double and a homer.  His buddy Michael Taylor also had a perfect day, but because he is being unjustly denied playing time since golden boy (and fellow National) Adam Eaton came off the DL, Taylor only got one plate appearance. Every Wolverine batter reached base safely, thanks to 10 walks and 3 HBP:  music to Wolverine management ears. Four homers, too. And yet, the W’s did not achieve their rightful second place. Why not? Because Rafael Devers (2 for 4 with a homer) is allocated at 0 (his recent hot streak leaving him still short of the team average for hitting). And Old Detroit management just spent its last June move doubling Rich Hill’s activation (thereby adding two shutout innings to the team pitching stats, so far).

Brookland:  W 3, L 2; 26 – 26.  (50 PA, .205, .300, .386; 8.7 ip, 4 er) The Outs are fading out of the thick of the EFL pennant race.  They haven’t sunk all the way down to the Tornado’s level — in fact, they’re still closer to second place than fifth — but a noticeable gap has appeared between the Outs and the leading pack. Aaron Hicks tormented the Mariners, going 3 for 4 with a homer. But 5 Outs combined to go 0 for 14, torpedoing the team’s chances to leap forward during their quintuple header.

Flint Hill: L, 4 – 7.  (.205, .295, .436; 11.3 ip, 7 er).  Miguel Andujar also tortured the Mariners with a homer and a single in 4 at bats, leading the Tornado offense… but not leading it all that far. Not far enough, anyway, given what the pitchers were doing. Domingo German ALSO abused the M’s ( 7 ip, 1 er), but he’s only allocated at 50%, so the T’s had to take him out after only 3.5 innings. His four relievers combined for 4.3 innings and 6 earned runs.

Cottage: W 3, L 2; 24 – 22. (37 PA, .267, .405, .433; 3.0 ip, 2 earned runs). Facing a rare quintuple header, the Cheese couldn’t mobilize nearly enough pitcher to cover the innings needed. They needed 30 starter innings in particular, but got 0, so now they’re carrying 24 starter innings.  I realize the schedule is brutal, but it’s not my fault — speak to whoever caused all the early season postponements for snow and wintry conditions.  Time for your daily Mike Trout update:  1 for 1 with 2 walks. According to MLB.com,

He has recorded only seven outs over his last 37 plate appearances (.778 OBP), batting .696 (16-for-23) with four home runs, nine RBIs, 11 walks (four intentional) and one hit-by-pitch.

That’s a .696, .778, 1.261 batting line, for a 2.039 OPS.

Pittsburgh: “W”, 5 – 6. (51 PA, .261, .333, .435; 5 ip, 4 er). Luke Weaver didn’t do all that well, but cut him some slack since he was the ONLY Allegheny pitcher to show up for work yesterday. Ender Inciarte led the offense with his two doubles, a single, and a walk in 5 PAs.

Haviland: W, 6 – 3. (46 PA, .229, .413, .371; 11.7 ip, 4 er).  I gushed at such length over the Wolverines’ 13 free passes Tuesday — but the Dragons nearly matched them with 11. In fact, 11/46 is a higher ratio than 13/60. The Dragons didn’t do as much else to support all those walkers, so they only got 6 runs out of it. Vincent Velasquez struggled in his start (6 ip, 4 er) but four relievers combined for 5.7 scoreless innings to nail down the win. Should we be doing daily Bryce Harper updates, too?  Here’s a trial run: 4 AB, 1 double, 1 walk for a very respectable .900 daily OPS. Only 1.100 less than Trout, and only 1.033 less than teammate Ian Kinsler (1 for 3 with a homer, a walk, and a HBP).

Kaline:  L, 4 – 6. (.273, .313, .477;  1 ip, 0 er).  If we were doing a daily Kris Bryant update, we’d tell you about his TEN plate appearances Tuesday in which he hit two doubles and a triple for a 1.000 OPS.  Leonys Martin chipped in with 3 for 3, including a double and two walks, to nearly imitate Trea Turner.  Kelvin Herrera — recently traded for minor leaguers — pitched the one scoreless inning the Drive recorded.

Peshastin: L, 2 – 9. (.200, .243, .314; 8 ip, 7 er). The dreaded two-way bad day: poor hitting and poorer pitching, both hovering just below replacement levels. Dan Straily only finished 1.3 ip, coughing up 4 earned runs on homers by Buster Posey and some other Giant, and getting himself tossed for hitting Posey his next time up.  Not an impressive outing, Mr. Straily. You got 4 outs, walked 2, gave up 2 homers and 2 other hits, and after your team was warned not to throw at anyone you hit Posey (on the wrist, it looked like, very dangerous), activating an automatic ejection for you and your manager.

DC:  W, 6 – 1. (57 PA, .320, .404, .480; 7.7 ip, 1 er). A great day to be a Balkan!  Isiah Kiner-Falefa had a perfect day: 3 for 3, two doubles, a walk. Mike Clevinger pitched brilliantly — all those 7.7 innings are his, plus his 10 strikeouts and only 2 walks and 5 hits.

AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
New York Yankees	48	22	.686	—
Boston Red Sox	49	25	.662	1
Old Detroit Wolverines	42	28	.593	6.5
Flint Hill Tornadoes	36	34	.520	11.6
Tampa Bay Rays	34	39	.466	15.5
Toronto Blue Jays	33	39	.458	16
Baltimore Orioles	20	51	.282	28.5

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Atlanta Braves	43	29	.597	—
Canberra Kangaroos	43	29	.591	0.4
Washington Nationals	39	31	.557	3
Philadelphia Phillies	38	33	.535	4.5
New York Mets	31	39	.443	11
D.C. Balk	31	41	.431	12
Miami Marlins	29	45	.392	15

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Cleveland Indians	39	33	.542	—
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	37	35	.508	2.4
Detroit Tigers	36	38	.486	4
Minnesota Twins	32	37	.464	5.5
Chicago White Sox	24	48	.333	15
Kansas City Royals	22	51	.301	17.5

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Milwaukee Brewers	43	30	.589	—
Chicago Cubs	41	29	.586	0.5
Brookland Outs	41	32	.557	2.4
St. Louis Cardinals	38	33	.535	4
Cottage Cheese	38	35	.514	5.5
Pittsburgh Pirates	36	37	.493	7
Cincinnati Reds	27	45	.375	15.5

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Houston Astros	49	26	.653	—
Seattle Mariners	46	27	.630	2
Los Angeles Angels	39	35	.527	9.5
Oakland A’s	37	36	.507	11
Haviland Dragons	36	39	.481	13
Kaline Drive	36	39	.480	13
Texas Rangers	31	44	.413	18

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Portland Rosebuds	44	29	.602	—
Arizona Diamondbacks	40	33	.548	4
Los Angeles Dodgers	38	34	.528	5.5
San Francisco Giants	36	38	.486	8.5
Colorado Rockies	35	38	.479	9
San Diego Padres	34	41	.453	11
Peshastin Pears	32	41	.434	12.3