Well, it probably wasn’t technically miraculous, because we can explain it pretty easily — but when you make startling moves like this, people are going to react!
Yesterday the standings looked like this:
Today they look like this:
That’s right: the Seraphim soared 1.4 games in relation to the Balk (1.6 in relation to the Wolverines, and 0.9 in relation to the Kangaroos) on the last day of week 20 to re-take the lead in the standings.
It’s shocking, and upsetting, and tragic… or joyous, I guess, if you’re a Seraphim fan, assuming there are any. But it isn’t miraculous, really. There are some simple explanations.
- Explanation 1: Outstanding leadership from the EFL Commissioner. Just yesterday our Commissioner exhorted us to “Flip that switch!” like the Mariners did the night before when they turned a burgeoning perfect game being pitched against them into an 8-run game-winning rally. Here is the entire Commissionorial exhortation, slightly edited: “Flip that switch!… (T)here’s no point in waiting…” And what happened within the next 12 hours? The Seraphim Flipped That Switch! And didn’t wait! All they needed was a little leadership.
- Explanation 2: Shohei Ohtani. Yesterday afternoon Talkin’ Baseball tweeted out this poignant line “Four-hit day for Shohei including a homer and a triple, but the Halos fall to the Mariners 11-7.” That set off a cascade of tweets feeling sorry for Shohei and berating the Angels for wasting the prime of his career — unable to win a game where he went 4 for 5 a double short of a cycle, driving in 4 and scoring 2 — an .800, .800, 1.600 day, good for 196.3 rc/g. As one tweeter pointed out,
“TWP Ohtani Today: hit 4-5 with a HR, a Triple, 4 RBIs. Yesterday: hit 3-4 with a stand up triple. 2 days ago: a Starting Pitcher with a QS . Ohtani’s ERA+ and OPS+ are both 140+ (100 ERA+ / OPS+ is League Average) Angels lost 3 games in a row.”But somewhere over the rainbow there is a place where Shohei Ohtani is not going to waste — even though he is still on a team named after angels.
- Explanation 3: Tony Pasquantino. For Week 20, Ohtani OPSed 1.388, 10 for 23 with 2 homers and 4 walks. But Pasquantino OPSed 1.565, 10 for 20 with a double, three homers, and three walks.
- Explanation 4: Tony Gonsolin. For Week 20, Ohtani pitched 6 innings, allowing 2 earned runs, for an ERA of 3.00. Gonsolin pitched 13.7 innings, allowing 1 earned run, for an ERA of 0.66. Gonsolin pitched 7 of those innings, 0 runs allowed, last night.
- Explanation 5: Ohtani was only the second best hitter and the 4th best pitcher on the Seraphim squad this week.
- Explanation 6: When the LA Angels are ready to win, I know where they can find a GM who can put a good team together around Shohei Ohtani.