“I will lift up mine eyes unto the West Hills, from whence cometh my help…” Psalm 121:1 (RWV)
Today’s scripture reference will require a little background: how I do the daily update these days.
I start with whichever team is in first place so as I update the other teams, I can see right away whether they gained or lost ground in the pennant race. In this phase of the season, the first place team’s performance isn’t settled until I also do the EFL team they are playing against. So I did the Balk first, followed by the Cascades. I did note that the Balk gained 0.1 games on the Wolverines even before the Wolverines played, which was a problem because I also knew the W’s had a poor day Wednesday — but this has been true throughout Week 19, as I have mentioned before.
Then, to be systematic and make sure I don’t skip anyone, I work from the bottom of the standings. So the next team I did was the last place Pears, coupled with their EFL opponents the Seraphim. I did the Pears, then moved to the Seraphim.
That’s when the trouble began. The Seraphim had a very good day, compiling a .325, .405, .425 batting line led by the much-maligned (by Salem management) Adolis Garcia, who went 3 for 4 with a walk and a stolen base (1.550 OPS), and a 2.95 team ERA comprising three starting pitchers (Johnny Cueto, Robbie Ray, and Taijuan Walker) going 6 innings and allowing only 2 earned runs. (Ray added an extra third of an inning to get that ERA down to 2.95). All that solid competence with substantial overtones of excellence had a devastating effect. It rocketed the Seraphs from 4th place 2.1 games out into 2nd place 1.2 games out.
Ah, but the Kangaroos (who started the day in 3rd) and the Wolverines (who started the day in 2nd) were yet to be updated.
Ayi! I already knew the W’s had played poorly (again!) and were more likely to lose ground than gain it. And so it proved: when the Wolverine update was done, the W’s were in third place 1.6 games back. (The W’s pitching was almost angelic — 3.29 ERA over 13.7 innings — but the hitting was outright anemic: .536 OPS). So I lifted up mine eyes to the Portland West Hills, where the Rose Garden shelters Portland’s most famous rosebuds, and prayed for help.
It was a desperate prayer. The ‘Buds had been beating up the Wolverines all week. At one point Portland’s winning percentage for the week was way up over .900, all at Old Detroit’s expense. Going into Wednesday’s games it was still .781, the ‘Buds hogging 3.9 of the available 5.0 wins for themselves.
There was no solace in Portland’s offense. It wasn’t great — .224, .296, .449 for loud but somewhat thin .745 OPS — but it wasn’t bad enough to help the Wolverines.
But, lo! The Rosebuds’ pitching was thorny, and without any pretty blossoms. Mitch Keller merely struggled a little (5.3 ip, 3 er), but Jakon Junis chulked! (2.3 ip, 6 er). That was enough to cut Portland’s raw winning pewrcentage for .727 to .517, and its adjusted weekly winning percentage from .781 to .625. And THAT was enough to launch the Wolverines back into second place, a mere .622 games behind the Balk.
The Seraphim did retake the lead in season-long raw winning percentage (.683 to .676), but linger 0.6 games behind the W’s.
What about the Kangaroos? Could they pull off a similar miraculous escape? A glance at their Wednesday results would have given ‘Roo fans hope. After all, they OPSed 1.029 as a team, and posted a .000 ERA. But the ERA was only for 3 innings pitched, and the Kaline Drive did almost as well (.947 OPS and an ERA under 4.00). In our format, where we sum up entire weeks, the RATIO of runs scored to runs allowed is important, and the RATIO of one team’s ratio to the other is what generates our records. And the Drive had done enough to shrink the Kangaroo/Kaline ratio somewhat. So the Drive ended up where they had started — 1.6 games behind the Balk — while the Seraphim zipped past them.
All this makes sense. The West Hills and the Rose Test Gardens thrive to this day, it’s sustaining virtues intact, so one can count on help from there. But the corner of Kaline and Trumbull (or is it Michigan and Kaline?) is a recreation-level ball diamond adjacent to apartments. No longer the magical place it once was, from whence might expect help to come in a pennant race.
Here is consolation, all ye Kangaroo fans: the ‘Roos did complete yet another of their consecutive weeks of improved adjusted winning percentage. And, remember, they finished week 19 1.6 games out, but started it 3.8 out! That’s a 2.2 -game gain, very dramatic, and second only to the Seraphim’s 2.5 – game gain. And WAAAY better than the Wolverines’ 2.6 games lost in the standings (from 2 games up to 0.6 games out). That’s 10 straight weeks of improving records! The second best current streak, I believe, is the Alleghenys, who’ve just completed week 6 of their improvement streak.