Yesterday I failed to update the entirety of the National League Standings. I think I got interrupted after doing the American League, and when I came back to it I forgot I wasn’t finished. You’d think I’d notice there were a lot of teams with no games played in my update yesterday. I did, but it didn’t stir in me more than the vaguest hint of curiosity. I just assumed there had been a spate of new teams taking over first place.
Sometimes one can know too much. Or think one does. This is one of the occasions when disagreement is a gift. Jamie gave me that gift yesterday when he gently pointed out I hadn’t updated the Brewers standings. He kindly left out the other 14 I didn’t update. I noticed all those when I did today’s standings.
EFL Standings for 2021
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 64 | 26 | .707 | — | 524.0 | 337.2 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 59 | 31 | .659 | 4.3 | 457.0 | 326.1 |
| D.C. Balk | 57 | 29 | .662 | 4.7 | 482.7 | 345.7 |
| Peshastin Pears | 55 | 33 | .626 | 7.5 | 422.9 | 330.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 56 | 34 | .619 | 7.9 | 468.5 | 366.4 |
| Haviland Dragons | 54 | 36 | .604 | 9.3 | 457.2 | 380.3 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 50 | 36 | .581 | 11.6 | 427.9 | 368.0 |
| Cottage Cheese | 48 | 43 | .531 | 15.9 | 516.0 | 498.4 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 47 | 41 | .528 | 16.1 | 444.8 | 418.4 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 46 | 42 | .521 | 16.8 | 374.5 | 354.4 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 37 | 51 | .425 | 25.2 | 438.2 | 516.1 |
Old Detroit: W, 5 – 3. (40 PA, .237, .275, .500; 18.7 ip, 13 er, 6.26 ERA). How did a team with a 6.26 ERA allow only three runs? First, Mike Minor was foolishly activated yesterday morning, just in time for him to go 4 ip and allow 6 earned runs — but he was only set at 50%, so it works as 2 ip, 3 er. Combine that with Ross Stripling’s bad outing (3.7 ip, 4 er), Marcus Stroman’s disappointing work (5 ip, 3 er), and Walker Buehler’s sterling 6 ip, 0 er, and you get 16.7 ip, 10 er, for a daily ERA of 5.40. Then there were some replacement innings erased by this boatload of pitching, saving 2.67 runs, and the W’s escape a bad day in reasonably good shape.
The offense wasn’t lovely or elegant. What there was consisted of pure brutish strength. The W’s generated 10 extra bases from 9 hits, led by homers from Tommy Edman and Adolis Garcia and a Gavin Lux triple — the only offensive asset the W’s garnered from the Dodgers’ 22 – 1 shellacking of the poor Diamondbacks.
Flint Hill: W, 11 – 0. (54 PA, .261, .370, .522; 14 ip, 2 er, 1.20 ERA). Yesterday was the Tornados’ turn to have a huge, lopsided win. Mookie Betts slurped up those fat Arizona pitches, going 2 for 3 with a homer and three walks. Paul Goldschmidt added his own 2 for 3 with a homer and two walks. Betts and Goldschmidt thus accounted for 1/3 of the Flinty hits, 1/2 of their extra bases, and 5/6 of their walks.
On the pitching side, the T’s rode German Marquez’ back, with his 7 shutout innings with just 3 hits, one walk, and 9 k’s. James Kaprelian added a solid 5 ip, 2 er, and two relievers combined for 2 shutout innings. Thus vaulted past the Balk, the Tornados moved 0.5 games closer to first place.
DC: W 2, L 1; 14 – 13. (45 ip, .171, .244, .463; 10.7 ip, 4 er, 3.36 ERA). The Balk took a hit from having to add three games in one day, since my skilling the NL for a day tangled them up with an extra game plus the second game of a doubleheader. Pete Alonso was the only player to contribute two games’ worth of hitting, but his 7 plate appearances comprised 6 outs and one home run. Other homers by Joey Gallo and Xander Bogaerts helped.
Given the weak offense, it could easily have been a one-win, two loss day, especially since Martin Perez stumbled out of the gate, surrendering 3 earned runs in only 3.7 innings. But Joe Musgrove did much better (1 earned run in 4.3 innings) and two relievers combined to cover 2.7 more innings without allowing a run.
This heroic stand by Balkan pitchers was not enough to keep the Balk in second place, nor to keep up with the Wolverines’ modest win. DC slipped 0.1 games to 4.7 games behind.
Peshastin: W 1, L 1; 9 – 8. (46 PA, .225, .326, .400; 13 ip, 5 er, 3.46 ERA) The Pears absorbed an extra game played without too much trouble. Homers by Floridians Mike Zunino and Jazz Chisholm led the offense from the traditionally light-hitting skilled positions (catcher and shortstop), which might have portended a huge offensive output, especially since young catcher Joey Bart added a 2 for 5 performance. But everyone else went only 4 for 27 with only 1 extra base hit (a Yoan Moncada double), so what could have been a two-win day decayed to just one win.
It wasn’t the pitchers’ fault. Starters Trevor Rogers and Freddy Peralta combined for 9 innings, 5 earned runs, but three relievers added a total of 4 scoreless innings. Thus the Pears remain in 4th place, albeit now 0.4 games further from first (7.5 games behind) and 0.5 games further from third (the gap is now 2.8 games).
Kaline: W, 5 – (-2). (58 PA, .250, .362, .417; 12.7 ip, 3 er, 2.13 ERA). The Drive had a nicely balanced game, with excellent pitching and solid hitting, winning on both sides of the ball. Kwang Hyun Kim led the way for the pitchers, twirling 6 shutout innings. Leadership was more widely spread among the hitters, with Zack Short going 2 for 3 with a homer, and Omar Narvaez going 3 for three with a double and a walk. Aaron Judge also homered.
This pushed the Drive a notch closer to first place, 7.9 games back, and a half-game closer to 4th place, now just 0.4 games back.
Haviland: “L”, 11 – 8. (48 PA, .370, .396, .587; no pitching). Had the Dragons found some pitching, this could have been a resounding win. It was still a win in reality with a winning percentage improved by .002, and almost keeping pace with the league leaders (slipping only 0.1 games). Brandon Lowe led the way for the offense with two home runs and a walk.
Nelson Cruz reached base four times on three singles and a walk — and celebrated by stealing a base. This was actually Nellie’s second SB of the season. Cruz has 78 career stolen bases, 37 of which came in the 2009-2010 seasons. But it looked like his base-stealing days had completed faded away. He stole 5 in 2013, 4 in 2014, 3 in 2015, 2 in 2016, 1 in 2017, and 1 in 2018. Then 0 and 0 in 2019-20. But here is, back to his life of thievery.
Canberra: W 0, L 3; 8 – 22. (22 PA, .111, .273, .111; 8 ip, 9 er, 10.13 ERA). The team with the rudest shock from my failure to update the NL standings yesterday has to be the Kangaroos. They didn’t even get one game’s worth of plate appearances, so the sudden addition of three games to their record weighed then down with over 57 replacement plate appearances, when it looked yesterday like they had dug themselves out of that hole. And the hitting they did get was awful. Javier Baez got the team’s only hits — two singles — with the rest of the offense consisting of 4 walks, two by Nate Lowe.
The pitching was even worse. 7 innings of it was a gorgeous start by Chris Flexen — 7 shutout innings — tucked in just behind German Marquez as the third best start of the day in all of MLB. But then Caleb Smith took the mound in LA against the Dodgers. Smith got through the first inning, coughing up 5 earned runs. He went back out for the second inning, which went like this: Walker Buehler singled, Mookie Betts walked, Chris Taylor walked, mound visit, Justin Turner hit a grand slam home run. What a mound visit that had to be! That was it for Smith — 1 ip, 9 earned runs, a nasty, nasty nonuple chulk.
Thus the Cannies collapsed 1.9 games in the standings, and 0.023 in winning percentage — a most discouraging result made more brutal by being concentrated in one day rather than the gentler, kinder 2 days it should have been. The Commissioner’s Office hereby apologizes for the needless pain caused by its error.
Cottage: W 1, L 1; 13 – 10. (47 PA, .310, .383, .548; 2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) The Cheese almost kept pace with the W’s (losing only 0.1 game in the standings) by producing very nice offensive numbers. Eleven Cheeses appeared on the plate, and all eleven reached base safely at least once. Jeff McNeil reached base safely three ties, including a double. Marcus Semien, Alec Bohm, and Dodger Zach McKinstry contributed home runs. )Shohei Ohtani only walked, and the got caught stealing, part of the Mariners’ nice 2-0 win over the Angels.) Bailey Falter’s perfect two innings — the ones stolen from the W’s at the last draft, doggone it — was the only contribution from the pitching side… too bad, because with all that hitting, the Cheese could have advanced in the standings with merely adeqyate pitching.
Pittsburgh: W, 2 – 1. (38 PA, .237, .275, .316; 15.7 ip, 3 er, 1.72 ERA) I mean, what would have happened if the Cottage’s great hitting could have been matched up with the Allegheny’s outstanding pitching? The WORST Allegheny pitcher was Tyler Anderson, who allowed 2 earned runs in 6 innings pitcher. Vladimir Gutierrez added 6 more innings, with one earned run, and four relievers combined for 4.7 scoreless innings. Well, no, that’s incorrect: Nick Sandlin permitted 3 runs to score in his 2/3 of an inning, but managed to make them all unearned.
Dansby Swanson led the hitters with his 2 for 4 with a double. But that was the best of a mediocre lot, leaving the Alleghenys with only a modest win, just enough to keep pace with the Wolverines from 16.1 games back.
Bellingham: W, 4 – 1. (26 PA, .182, .308, .273; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) One wouldn’t expect a team to win with those paltry offensive numbers. Ronald Acuna led the way with a double, a walk and a stolen base in 3 plate appearances. But with Anthony DeSclafani’s 6 shutout innings, # 4 on the Baseball Reference list, and AJ Minter’s inning of shutout relief, the Cascades had plenty for a solid win, gaining 0.2 games on the Wolverines.
But alas, Acuna’s day was cut short when he tried to catch Jazz Chisholm’s inside the park home run. Acuna tore his ACL completely on the play, and is out for the rest of the season. This is bitter, bitter news for a Cascades team
currently leading the EFL in July with an 8 – 1 record.
Portland: W 1, L 1; 9 – 9. (43 PA, .206, .333, .471; 10 ip, 3 er, 2.70 ERA) A balanced performance by our last-place team. Andrew Benintendi led the offense, going 3 for 5 with a home run. Jorge Polanco and Tyrone Taylor added homers — but half the team went 0 for the day. Mike Foltynewicz led off the pitchers with 6.7 ip, 3 earned runs, and Matt Peacock and Daniel Norris combined to finish the day with 3.7 scoreless innings.
Had this all been for one game, it would have been a solid win. Bit over two games it didn’t quite stretch far enough for two wins.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 64 | 26 | .707 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 59 | 31 | .659 | 4.3 |
| Boston Red Sox | 55 | 35 | .611 | 8.6 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 53 | 36 | .596 | 10.1 |
| New York Yankees | 46 | 42 | .523 | 16.6 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 44 | 42 | .512 | 17.6 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 28 | 60 | .318 | 34.6 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 57 | 29 | .662 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 50 | 36 | .581 | 6.9 |
| New York Mets | 47 | 39 | .547 | 9.9 |
| Atlanta Braves | 44 | 44 | .500 | 13.9 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 43 | 44 | .494 | 14.4 |
| Washington Nationals | 42 | 46 | .477 | 15.9 |
| Miami Marlins | 38 | 50 | .432 | 19.9 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 53 | 35 | .602 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 47 | 41 | .528 | 6.5 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 46 | 42 | .521 | 7.1 |
| Cleveland Indians | 45 | 42 | .517 | 7.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 40 | 50 | .444 | 14 |
| Minnesota Twins | 38 | 50 | .432 | 15 |
| Kansas City Royals | 36 | 53 | .404 | 17.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 53 | 38 | .582 | — |
| Cottage Cheese | 48 | 43 | .531 | 4.7 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 47 | 42 | .528 | 5 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 44 | 46 | .489 | 8.5 |
| Chicago Cubs | 44 | 46 | .489 | 8.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 33 | 56 | .371 | 19 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kaline Drive | 56 | 34 | .619 | — |
| Haviland Dragons | 54 | 36 | .604 | 1.4 |
| Houston Astros | 54 | 36 | .600 | 1.7 |
| Oakland A’s | 51 | 40 | .560 | 5.2 |
| Seattle Mariners | 48 | 42 | .533 | 7.7 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 44 | 44 | .500 | 10.7 |
| Texas Rangers | 35 | 54 | .393 | 20.2 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| San Francisco Giants | 56 | 32 | .636 | — |
| Peshastin Pears | 55 | 33 | .626 | 0.9 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 55 | 35 | .611 | 2 |
| San Diego Padres | 53 | 39 | .576 | 5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 39 | 51 | .433 | 18 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 37 | 51 | .425 | 18.6 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 26 | 65 | .286 | 31.5 |