What should be my feature story today? The choices:
- The St. Louis Cardinals have won 14 straight, tying their franchise record, but they find themselves in second place for best record in September, behind the unlikeliest of EFL teams.
- Juan Soto’s string of reaching base safely in 12 straight plate appearances was snapped last night. I don’t know what the record is for consecutive times reaching base safely, but I can’t recall a longer streak.
- Paul Sewald was a Mariners hero last night, especially considering the managerial (and general managerial) abuse he has to endure.
The Cardinals aren’t in the EFL, so they lose that tie-breaker. And Paul Sewald’s abuse is unlikely to be over with, so we may have another chance to highlight it. So Soto gets the photo today.
EFL Standings for 2021
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 106 | 48 | .688 | — | 893.0 | 601.6 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 100 | 54 | .647 | 6.3 | 853.1 | 628.4 |
| D.C. Balk | 96 | 57 | .627 | 9.6 | 880.5 | 680.3 |
| Kaline Drive | 95 | 59 | .616 | 11.1 | 817.6 | 645.7 |
| Peshastin Pears | 93 | 61 | .601 | 13.5 | 788.3 | 651.9 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 85 | 68 | .554 | 20.7 | 819.7 | 746.8 |
| Cottage Cheese | 84 | 70 | .545 | 22 | 844.9 | 786.8 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 82 | 72 | .533 | 23.9 | 759.5 | 708.9 |
| Haviland Dragons | 81 | 73 | .526 | 25 | 794.2 | 780.8 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 78 | 76 | .509 | 27.5 | 653.6 | 643.0 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 78 | 76 | .507 | 27.9 | 830.3 | 828.1 |
OLD DETROIT: W, 6 – 5. (67, .242, .284, .452; 7.3 IP, 4 ER, 4.93 ERA) That batting line improves to about .270, .320, .520 once you take into account exiles to Toledo, which explains how the Wolverines concocted 6 runs. Byron Buxton seems to be regaining some of his early-season form, now that there’s only a week left. He hit a home run, joining Marcus Semien and Rafael Devers.
There’s no subtlety in the pitching line: every able-bodied Wolverine pitcher is allocated 100%. Logan Gilbert became the nth Wolverine starter in a row to stumble: 5.3 ip, 4 er. Unlike the three previous starters, he kept his ERA below replacement (6.75). That made it possible for Kimbrel and Pearson, by each tossing a shutout inning, to a) forestall any more replacement innings, and b) get that daily total ERA under 5.00.
FLINT HILL: L, 6 – 14. (82 PA !!, .257, .317, .432; 9.3 ip, 10 er, 9.68 ERA). Tornado management has the luxury of putting healthy pitchers on the bench without incurring replacements. Right now the T’s have a whopping 2/3 of an inning of real pitching in reserve. That’s exactly what they had before yesterday’s action, because Hirozaku Sawamura’s 2.3 ip from yesterday all occurred in AAA.
Which is too bad, because his 0 earned runs could have helped. Without them, the other 3 Tornado pitchers completed 7 innings with 10 earned runs allowed, for an ERA of almost 13 (leading to 14 runs allowed once you tack on unearned runs). TJ McFarland’s 1/3 of an inning, 1 er triple chulk didn’t help, but Nathan Eovaldi did the most damage to Tornado chances by finishing 2.7 ip with 7 earned runs allowed.
In fact, Eovaldi did the most damage worldwide of any pitcher anywhere yesterday by serving up all those runs to Yankee hitters, preventing the Mariners from gaining a game on NY for the second AL Wild Card.
Tom reminded us all to “do no harm” yesterday in our email thread about Adam Civale. Eovaldi did not heed that sage advice. And now the Tornados are 6.3 games back with 8 to play – and only 3.3 games ahead of the surging…
DC: W 1, L 1; 8 – 5. ( 40 PA, .200 .300 .314; 11.6 ip , 2 er, 1.55 ERA) The Balk came up just a little short on innings for their doubleheader yesterday, so they added 2.3 replacement innings to their monthly total. On the other hand, the Balk had enough plate appearances at all their offensive positions to be able to draw on them to cover the doubleheader with stored up offense. Good roster management paid off yesterday, allowing the Balk to gain 0.2 on the Wolverines and an entire game on the Tornados.
KALINE: W, 3 -1. (50 PA, .186, .280, .395; 14 ip, 3 er, 1.93 ERA). Home runs by middle infielders Willy Adames and Jose Altuve were the highlights of a slender offense Friday, enough for a win on a day when Max Fried hurled a complete game 3-hit shutout. The merciful Wizard, taking pity on his foes helplessness, suggested they play a few more innings, and had Paulo Espino go the extra 5, surrendering 3 earned runs. Merciful, or shrewd: those extra 5 innings erased more replacement innings.
With the Wolverines basically slowed to a stroll, the Drive may be harboring ambitions of finishing less than 10 games back. The Wizard will deny it, but I am not 100% convinced.
PESHASTIN: L, 3 – 13. (33 PA, .185, .303, .333; 4.6 ip, 9 er, 17.61 ERA). Yikes. Five Kangaroo pitchers could only cover 4 2/3 innings of a 14-inning double header — and no one was clamoring for more of that chulkish ERA. Chasen Shreve triple chulked (1 ip 3 er), erstwhile ace Jack Flaherty sextuple chulked (0.3 ip, 2 er), Yimi Garcia Royal Chulked (0.3 ip, 4 er).
Max Schrock rushed into the flaming building to try to save the day, but his homer made hardly a dent. Nor did Ryan Mountcastle’s 2 for 5. Things went so badly for the Pears that Juan Soto was only walked 4 times and made 2 outs, ending his string of reaching base safely in 12 consecutive plate appearances, during which he went 7 for 7 with a double, two homers, and 5 walks. That’s a 1.000, 1.000, 2.000 batting line over two entire games and three other plate appearances. Soto’s season slash line is up to .324, .472, .557.
Here are the three top MVP candidates in the National League:
Player G PA HR R RBI sb AVE OBP SLG fWAR
| 1 | Juan Soto | WSN | 143 | 617 | 29 | 109 | 92 | 9 | .324 | .472 | .557 | 6.5 | ||||||||||
| 2 | Bryce Harper | PHI | 133 | 568 | 33 | 97 | 81 | 13 | .312 | .433 | .618 | 6.5 | ||||||||||
| 3 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | SDP | 122 | 519 | 41 | 98 | 95 | 25 | .288 | .372 | .624 | 6.2 |
None of these teams is going to the playoffs. The Phlllies are not eliminated, but they’re 5 games out with 8 to play and the Braves still ahead of them, too. I’d say Tatis is out of the NL MVP, but I’m not convinced Harper is his replacement atop the leaderboard.
Of course, in reality, counting the EFL teams, the Phillies were eliminated from the postseason a long time ago, and the Pears have essentially clinched the second wild card. And Soto is the reason why. So Soto for NL MVP.
CANBERRA: W 1, L 1; 11 – 14. ( 27 PA, .261, .370, .435; 4 ip, 1 er, 2.25 ERA). That line is plenty good enough to win a game, but nowhere near the volume required to win two. Tommy La Stella went 3 for 5 with a homer to embody all on himself half of the Canberra offense while making 2/17ths of the team’s outs. Casey Mize had a successful light workout (3 ip, 1 er) and Paul Sewald…
Scott Servais put Paul Sewald into a vice and cranked it down hard. Coming into the ninth with a 1 run lead, Sewald got Brandon Marsh to fly out to the warning track on the first pitch. He threw two balls to Ohtani, then Servais ordered an intentional walk, putting the tying run on first. Gosselin doubled on an 0 -1 cont, so Servais had Sewald walk Jared Walsh intentionally. One out, bases loaded, two of those runner put on base intentionally by the Mariner manager.
RELIEVER ABUSE!!
Jack Mayfield came to bat, already 2 for 4 on the day. Sewald struck him out. Then Sewald quickly got Jose Rojas to an 0 – 2 count, and threw a pitch at the bottom of the zone a hair higher than the first pitch of the at bat. The 0 – 2 pitch was called a ball. Four pitches later, the count 2 – 2, Sewald induced a tricky grounder to first, fielded the underhand toss from Ty France, and got the putout at first base to end the game.
Sewald became the closer when DiPoto made his infamous trade: Kendall Graveman to Houston (on the day after Graveman saved a huge win over the Astros) for EFL cult-favorite Abraham Toro. So the pressure has been on Sewald to cover for perhaps the most effective closer of the first 2/3 of the season. Sewald’s ERA has risen a little, but last night it edged part way back down to 2.88. Sewald should be a candidate for Fireman of the Year (do they still call it that?) for not only putting out last night’s blaze fueled by the cruelty of his own manager, but putting out (mostly? maybe still a few embers glowing?) the season-sized arson fire set by his own heartless general manager in trading Graveman.
COTTAGE: W, 8 – 3. (50 PA, 310, .420, .476; 10.3 ip, 3 er, 2.62 ERA) Here’s a nice, clean, straightforward win. That batting line should produce 8 runs or so, and it did. Adolis “Done Nothing, No Nothing At All” Garcia went 3 for 5 with a double and a stolen base. Shohei Ohtani walked 4 times (twice intentionally) and struck out the other one.
And the pitchers were either solid (Tony Gonsolin: 5 ip, 2 er) or better (Bailey Ober: 5.3 ip, 1 er). All the marks of a well-managed (except he STILL hasn’t apologized to Adolis Garcia), talented team, the kind you would expect to occupy first place in a well-run league, instead of the stumbling, bumbling, emergency ward mavens we’ve got up there now.
But please, Dave, make things right with Garcia before he wins AL Rookie of the Year.
PITTSBURGH: L, 4 – 8. (20 PA, .211, .250, .526; 25 ip, 16 ER, 5.76 ERA) No, Mark, it is NOT true that you can use surplus innings pitched to make up for replacement ABs. You now have 48 replacement PAs, and no replacement innings. Also it is most provoking to trout out FIVE starting pitchers in a single day when some of us barely have four sort-of-functioning starters total. Montas was brilliant (7 ip 1 er), but the others less so (Berrios: 6 ip, 3 er; Megill and Gray both 4 ip 4 er, Cabrera 3 ip, 3 er).
Yes, Megill, Gray and Cabrera count as sort-of-functioning, since they did about as well as Buehler, Stroman and Gilbert did as a group, my most recent starters, all I’ve had going back to Tuesday.
It was too many runs allowed. They put a win out of reach. Luis Robert and Dansby Swanson each homered, but those were half the Allegheny hits and 80% of the team’s total bases.
HAVILAND: L, 2 – 10. (47 PA, .244, .277, .289; 12.7 ip, 12 er, 8.50 ERA). Yesterday wasn’t a good day for EFL pitchers. Here we have our third team with a daily ERA above replacement level. Spencer Howard didn’t help (4 ip, 4 er) but Alex Reyes did the most damage (1.7 ip, 4 er). Aristides Aquino went 2 for 2 with a stolen base. Brett Gardner went 2 for 4 with a double and a walk. Brendan Rodgers went 3 for 5 with a double And those were the offensive highlights.
My heart broke a little for the Dragonmaster, when he commented yesterday that looking at his team would ruin his vacation. Sometime when I have a little more time I’ll try to highlight the good in the Dragon season. For now — this season-ending Brett Gardner resurrection story line is good.
BELLINGHAM: L, 4 – 7. (40 PA, .222, .282, .389; 1.3 ip, 2 er, 13.85 ERA). I cocked an eyebrow when I read Jamie’s recent speculation that the Cascade’s brain trust might be trying to finish in last place, angling to get a better draft pick. Nah, I thought. No one would do that.
Today’s numbers might encourage more suspicion, but I think it’s unjustified. The man who puts the Bell in Bellingham doesn’t play the games. His players do. And look, there’s banjo-hitter Alcides Escobar blasting a homer and a double in 6 ABs yesterday. The Jack Mayfield who was the last batter for the Angels last night was 2 for 4 with a stolen base until he had to face Sewald. Theres not much else for highlights from the Cascade box score, but those are enough to prove the team is still trying to win.
PORTLAND: W, 12 – 2. (37 PA, .364, .432, .818; 11.4 ip, 3 er, 2.37 ERA) The hottest team in the EFL, almost as hot as the Cardinals (14 straight wins!) is our soon to be ex-last-place Rosebuds. They are now 17 – 5 in September, on pace for the best month of any EFL team in 2021, the best of any team in MLB, percentage points better than the Cardinals’ 18-6. The Rosebuds have passed the much-touted Padres (by 0.001 in winning percentage) who just a week ago were still in the NL playoff picture.
Yesterday Tyler O’Neill hit two home runs and a single in 9 PA, and Harrison Bader added another homer plus 2 doubles and 2 singles in 7 PA. Somebody the ‘Buds picked up out of discards named Eric Lauer pitched 6.7 brilliant innings (1 er, 9 so, 2 walks 3 hits). Sigh.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 106 | 48 | .688 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 100 | 54 | .647 | 6.3 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 95 | 59 | .617 | 11 |
| Boston Red Sox | 88 | 66 | .571 | 18 |
| New York Yankees | 87 | 67 | .565 | 19 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 85 | 69 | .552 | 21 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 49 | 105 | .318 | 57 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 96 | 57 | .627 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 85 | 68 | .554 | 11.1 |
| Atlanta Braves | 81 | 72 | .529 | 14.9 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 80 | 74 | .519 | 16.4 |
| New York Mets | 73 | 80 | .477 | 22.9 |
| Miami Marlins | 64 | 89 | .418 | 31.9 |
| Washington Nationals | 64 | 90 | .416 | 32.4 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 87 | 67 | .565 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 82 | 72 | .533 | 4.9 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 78 | 76 | .509 | 8.6 |
| Cleveland Indians | 75 | 78 | .490 | 11.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 74 | 79 | .484 | 12.5 |
| Kansas City Royals | 70 | 83 | .458 | 16.5 |
| Minnesota Twins | 69 | 85 | .448 | 18 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 92 | 62 | .597 | — |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 85 | 69 | .552 | 7 |
| Cottage Cheese | 84 | 70 | .545 | 8 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 79 | 75 | .513 | 13 |
| Chicago Cubs | 67 | 87 | .435 | 25 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 57 | 96 | .373 | 34.5 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kaline Drive | 95 | 59 | .616 | — |
| Houston Astros | 91 | 63 | .591 | 3.8 |
| Seattle Mariners | 85 | 69 | .552 | 9.8 |
| Oakland A’s | 83 | 71 | .539 | 11.8 |
| Haviland Dragons | 81 | 73 | .526 | 13.9 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 73 | 81 | .474 | 21.8 |
| Texas Rangers | 56 | 98 | .364 | 38.8 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| San Francisco Giants | 100 | 54 | .649 | — |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 99 | 55 | .643 | 1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 93 | 61 | .601 | 7.5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 78 | 76 | .507 | 21.9 |
| San Diego Padres | 78 | 76 | .506 | 22 |
| Colorado Rockies | 71 | 82 | .464 | 28.5 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 49 | 105 | .318 | 51 |
From couchguysports.com:
“Setting aside the relative specificity of the record, it got me thinking about getting on base. We know about Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak, and fewer may know about Ted Williams’ 84 consecutive games reaching base, but how many know the record for consecutive plate appearances reaching base?
“Two players hold the record for consecutive plate appearances reaching base, with 17. Piggy Ward and Earl Averill Jr. are the joint record holders. Interestingly, both reached their milestone in June. Despite neither being in the Hall of Fame, both players have stories worth mentioning. Let me tell you their stories.
“Piggy Ward
Frank “Piggy” Ward was the first to achieve the streak in his 1893 season. Before this, he had a cup of coffee in the majors as a 16 year old in 1883 for one game and again in 1889, playing 5 games. He again played relatively little in his 3rd return to the bigs in 1891 with just 6 games that season before finally becoming more of a regular, with 56 games in 1892, 53 in 1893, and 98 in 1894 before moving on to various teams in the minor leagues until 1906.
“While there’s less information on Piggy’s career as a whole, he has some very interesting circumstances. This surrounds his on base streak in 1893. His streak started on June 16th while playing for the Baltimore Orioles. He was traded and finish the streak with the Cincinnati Reds. In his first game with the Reds on the 18th, Ward reached base 8 times in a 9-inning game, which also stands as a record. Comprising the eight are two hits, five walks, and a hit by pitch. While he wouldn’t play much longer in the majors, he stands in two places the record books thanks to this three game stretch.
“Earl Averill Jr.
Earl Averill Jr., son of Hall of Famer Earl Averill, signed with his father’s former team in the Cleveland Indians after starring for two years at the University of Oregon, becoming the school’s first All-American. After three years in the minor leagues, he went to the majors; playing 42 games with the 1956 Indians, batting .237 with 3 home runs. Modern teams would have loved him, as he also has a .343 OBP and .398 SLG for a .740 OPS, good for a 94 OPS+ that year. However, with the prioritizing of batting average during this time, Averill Jr. spent 1957 and most of 1958 with the San Diego Padres, who were a minor league team at the time. His play for the Padres earned him PCL MVP in 1958.
“However, this wasn’t enough for the Indians to keep the now 27 year old. He was traded to the Cubs before the 1959 season. He was then traded again the next season to the White Sox, playing just 10 games for them. After that, he was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the 1960 Expansion Draft. After a great first year with the club where he hit .266 with 21 home runs, he seemed set to finally reach his potential with an everyday role. There was confirmation in June of the next year. As from the 3rd to the 10th he reached his milestone, reaching base for 17 consecutive plate appearances before losing it in the second game of a doubleheader on the 10th. Despite this, he hit just .219 on the year. He was traded to the Phillies the following year. He played in 47 games with them before spending the rest of his playing career in the minor leagues. Despite some strong play at times, he failed to live up to his full potential.
“Legacy
While both of these players are recognizable by only a handful of people, their record had withstood the tests of time. In recent times, the closest to do it was Freddie Freeman. He reached base 14 times in a row from April 16-19th prior to recording a ground out. Due to the rise of so many “three true outcomes” hitters, it’s unlikely we’ll see this streak repeated for a while. But maybe someday Freeman’s son Charlie will make it 18 times on base in a row!