Jamie suggested the title “Fear Knot?” for today’s post. I’m afraid I don’t understand it. Am I supposed to feign phobia of knot-tying, as if my failure to master knots was why I washed out of the Boy Scouts?
I deny it! As I remember it, I had my mom fill out a form so I could join the Cub Scouts, but lost heart on the way to school and never turned the document in. It wasn’t fear of not tying knots. It was just general social timidity, not being all that excited about joining a group where I might knot know anyone. I did NOT wash out of the Boy Scouts. I just failed to wash in.
I don’t know. Three straight days stuck on titles about (k)not fearing seems excessive, unless there’s a really good reason.
EFL Standings for 2021
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 103 | 46 | .688 | — | 853.5 | 574.5 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 98 | 51 | .659 | 4.4 | 828.8 | 589.8 |
| D.C. Balk | 92 | 54 | .627 | 9.5 | 839.2 | 648.3 |
| Kaline Drive | 90 | 58 | .611 | 11.6 | 784.9 | 625.2 |
| Peshastin Pears | 90 | 59 | .607 | 12.1 | 753.7 | 613.2 |
| Cottage Cheese | 82 | 66 | .552 | 20.4 | 819.4 | 754.3 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 81 | 65 | .552 | 20.5 | 775.9 | 711.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 80 | 68 | .540 | 22 | 739.3 | 680.6 |
| Haviland Dragons | 79 | 69 | .532 | 23.2 | 760.7 | 737.3 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 77 | 71 | .517 | 25.5 | 632.0 | 611.3 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 73 | 76 | .488 | 29.8 | 783.8 | 813.5 |
Old Detroit: “W”, 5 – 7. (47 PA, .279, .298, .465; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 era) Replacement innings flooded the Wolverine stat line yesterday, since Craig Kimbrel was the only healthy Oldie pitcher to brave the elements. Here in Dundee the elements were rain; I gather in Detroit they were sticky heat. Rafael Devers, provoked by complaints he was being outshone by Bobby Dalbec, revved himself up to go 3 for 5 with a double, leading an underwhelming Old Detroit offense that needed rounding up to look like 5 runs.
I think Jamie’s suggestion to title this post “Fear knot?” was more of his psychological gamesmanship. Mayb he’s subtly suggesting that maybe I SHOULD fear ending the season knotted in a tie. But in the EFL a tie is virtually impossible. Records that look like ties would be resolved by calculating the team’s winning percentage to more decimal points. Our runs scored/runs against would have to be exactly equal, which is essentially impossible when we count our runs to however many decimals our computers can handle.
So, for the record, I do not fear ending the season knotted in a tie…. not even if we’re talking about knotting a necktie. It’s been 4 years since I wore one of those.
Flint Hill: “L”, 5 – 5. (54 PA, .217, .333, .304; 11 ip, 1 er , 0.82 ERA). On the other hand, allocation issues seem to be tying the Tornados in twisted twister knots. Look at that amazing pitching line! That’s mostly Yu Darvish pitching 7 shutout innings, with 9 Ks and only 4 baserunners. Guess how much Yu is allocated.
0 %.
Brad Boxberger is also allocated 0%, so the Flinties aren’t burdened with his 1 ip, 1 er. The only pitcher they got innings from was Alex Wood, who went 3 scoreless, the only baserunner being a man he hit with a pitch.
On the other hand, that unimpressive hitting line netted 5 runs scored, helped by the wisdom of allocating Patrick Wisdom 0%, thereby skipping out on his 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts.
The Tornados gained 0.3 games on first place, but it could have been better had Yu Darvish been in Flint Hill instead of Rock City.
DC: W 2, L (-1); 9 – 0. (45 PA, .341, .400, .512 — Happy Edgar Martinez Day!; 7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Whoa! A double-win, lost-loss day for the Balk. Xander Bogaerts saw Devers’ day, and upped the ante by going 3 for 5 with a homer (rather than a double). The only batters not to get hits were two pinch hitters and Sean Murphy. Jame Kaprelian twirled 6 100% allocated scoreless innings, and got another inning total from two relievers.
All this really good stuff enabled the Balk to leap an entire game forward in the standings, from 10.5 back to 9.5 back. With 15 (or in the Balk’s case, 16) games to go, at that pace the Balk would end up in first place with a 6-game cushion.
Hmmm. The Tornados gained 0.3 games. On today’s pace, they would end up 0.1 games ahead of the Wolverines, but in second place (to the Balk) deeper than they are now. I admit to a trace of uneasiness about this pace, but it’s not a tie I fear. Nor is it a knot of fear in my gut, knot yet. It’s not even a thread of fear. Maybe it’s a mote of fear… for me, but for Jamie, now almost as close to 3rd place as to 1st, I could see where the fear might have more fiber, getting ready to be knotted.
Kaline: W, 5 – 0. (51 PA, .250, .294, .500; 8.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) Look at all this pitching we’re getting! Brad Boxberger’s non-allocated inning is the only one we’ve encountered so far when a run was scored. Even leaving Yu out of it, we have 19.3 scoreless innings (26.3 with Yu in there). Aaron Civale pitched 6 of the Drive’s shutout innings, the rest spread among three relievers. Home runs from Willson Contreras, Andres Gimenez, and Daulton Varsho led the Kaline offense.
All this good stuff boosted the Drive 0.7 games toward the league lead, on a pace that would pull them to within 2 games of the lead at season’s end. Not enough to swamp the Wolverines, but plenty to drown the Tornados. So… more evidence that the “Fear knot?” question may actually describe the state of the Top Tornado’s tummy.
Peshastin: W (-1), L 2; 1 – 9. (39 PA, .182, .308, .303; 2 ip, 2 er, 9.00 ERA). Aha! We finally encounter a pitcher giving up counting earned runs, in the person of Yimi Garcia, who surrendered both of the Pears’ earned runs in his one inning of work, mostly via a home run he served up. The database reacted awfully strongly to the termination of our scoreless streak, saddling the Pears with nearly 9 runs allowed (including replacement innings).
Cottage: “W”, 5 – 5. (39 PA, .243, .282, .378; 16 ip, 8 er, 4.50 ERA). The dam has broken, and pitchers are now permitting the batters to score. Perhaps that impressive show among the top 4 teams was an answer to yesterday’s results when they all lost, and the bottom teams all won. “See,” the top teams say, “we can shut down hitters whenever we want to. We just usually don’t want to.”
Sure. Whatever.
Brandon Nimmo homered and tripled to account for all the Cheese’ extra bases. Starting pitching was a three Cheese omelette of varying degrees of effectiveness, since they ranged from 5.7 ip, 2 er (Steven Matz) to 4 ip, 4 er (Baily Ober) with Luis Gil coming in with 4.3 ip, 3 runs scored (2 of them earned). The Cheese scored a fraction fewer runs than they allowed, but got a win from the database and a 0.1 game gain
in the standings.
Canberra: W, 8 – 7. (28 PA, .391, .500, .522; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Jackie Bradley Jr didn’t reach base safely… but he was the only Kangaroo batter to fall short that way. Manuel Margot, who doesn’t get mentioned much here, earns a mention for his 3 for 4 with a double and a walk.
I remember the Captain Kangaroo crowing about getting Kyle Tucker in the rookie draft. There’s no mystery now about why he did that. Tucker got a nice write up on MLB.com as the ’21 rising star you might have missed — and showed a bit of why he earned it with a 2 for 4 with a double of his own.
Emmanuel Clase pitched a scoreless inning as a statement about where the Kangaroos see their true home in the standings (with the teams shutting out opponents yesterday) — and are now only 0.1 games out of the 6th-place pivot point where they could arguably claim to be among the top teams. Perhaps that knot of fear Jamie was talking about is born of his empathy for the Cheese and their precarious position in the standings.
Pittsburgh: W, 6 – 4. (30 PA, .280, .400, .360; 10 ip, 3 er, 2.70 ERA). Bobby Dalbec is a sly guy. Wth Rafael Devers going 3 for 5 with a double, and Xander Bogaerts 3 for 5 with a homer, Dalbec chose to go 2 for 4 with a double. That shows proper rookie deference for his more senior teammates.
But Dalbec snuck a walk in there, too, which makes his day effectively 3 for 5 with a double. Maybe it’s not sly, maybe it’s classy. “Yes, I’m still the rookie here, I acknowledge that, but I am not conceding anything else.” There’s no knot of fear in that one.
Sonny Gray wishes he could say the same: 6 ip, 3 er, but also a fourth unearned run. But that’s nothing compared to Edward Cabrera: 4 ip, 3 runs allowed… all of them unearned. So 4 of 7 runs allowed by Allegheny pitchers were unearned. But what do you expect? No one can match the genius of our all-time most-decorated franchise owner.
Haviland: “W”, 2- 2. (43 ip, .195, .233, .317; 10.4 ip, 4 er, 3.46 ERA) The Dragons sent a horde of pitchers to the mound, seven in all, none of whom covered more than 3 innings, and two of whom accounted for all the earned runs scored: Tarik Skubal: 2 er, 3 ip; and Justin Garza, 0.7 ip, 2 er. Unfortunately, the Dragon offense had no fire in its belly. Brendan Rodgers homered for the second time in recent days, and doubled, and singled, thereby accounting for 4/5 of the team’s extra bases and 3/8 of the team’s hits.
Bellingham: W, 3 – 3. (49 PA, .217, .265, .348; 8.3 ip, 2 er, 2.17 ERA). Charlie Morton got through his 5 innings with 2 earned runs allowed, good for a 3.60 ERA on the day… not bad. But then four other Cascade pitchers combined to cover 3.3 more innings without allowing a run of any kind.
This great work opened the door for an easy Bellingham win… but the hitters barely escaped with a decimal point win. Jace Peterson homered, and DJ LeMahieu doubled, singled and walked, to provide the main fiber in the Bellingham offensive diet.
Portland: L, 1 – 5. (47 PA, .163, .217, .279; 8 ip, 4 er, 4.50 ERA). We say, rightly, that the EFL is not a zero-sum league. One team’s success does not have to be reflected in another team’s failure. Our pitchers dominating does not mean our hitters have to be dominated.
But today seems to suggest there is a link, even if it is attenuated. We haven’t had much offense as a league, on a day when we’ve had great pitching.
The Rosebud’s pitching wasn’t great – Adbert Alzolay guaranteed that with his 3 ip, 2 er outing. Rosebud hitting matched the league’s mood a little better. Tyler O’Neill’s homer was the highlight. Portland’s quest to top .500 took a step backward.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 103 | 46 | .688 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 98 | 51 | .659 | 4.4 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 92 | 57 | .617 | 10.5 |
| Boston Red Sox | 85 | 65 | .567 | 18 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 83 | 65 | .561 | 19 |
| New York Yankees | 83 | 66 | .557 | 19.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 47 | 101 | .318 | 55 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 92 | 54 | .627 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 81 | 65 | .552 | 11 |
| Atlanta Braves | 76 | 70 | .521 | 15.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 76 | 72 | .514 | 16.5 |
| New York Mets | 72 | 77 | .483 | 21 |
| Miami Marlins | 62 | 86 | .419 | 30.5 |
| Washington Nationals | 60 | 88 | .405 | 32.5 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 84 | 64 | .568 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 80 | 68 | .540 | 4 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 77 | 71 | .517 | 7.4 |
| Cleveland Indians | 72 | 74 | .493 | 11 |
| Detroit Tigers | 71 | 78 | .477 | 13.5 |
| Kansas City Royals | 67 | 81 | .453 | 17 |
| Minnesota Twins | 65 | 84 | .436 | 19.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 91 | 57 | .615 | — |
| Cottage Cheese | 82 | 66 | .552 | 9.3 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 78 | 69 | .531 | 12.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 77 | 72 | .517 | 14.5 |
| Chicago Cubs | 66 | 83 | .443 | 25.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 56 | 92 | .378 | 35 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kaline Drive | 90 | 58 | .611 | — |
| Houston Astros | 87 | 61 | .588 | 3.5 |
| Oakland A’s | 81 | 67 | .547 | 9.5 |
| Seattle Mariners | 79 | 69 | .534 | 11.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 79 | 69 | .532 | 11.7 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 72 | 76 | .486 | 18.5 |
| Texas Rangers | 55 | 93 | .372 | 35.5 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| San Francisco Giants | 97 | 52 | .651 | — |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 95 | 54 | .638 | 2 |
| Peshastin Pears | 90 | 59 | .607 | 6.6 |
| San Diego Padres | 76 | 72 | .514 | 20.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 73 | 76 | .488 | 24.2 |
| Colorado Rockies | 70 | 78 | .473 | 26.5 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 48 | 100 | .324 | 48.5 |