If we define an incandescent pennant race as one where the four top teams are all within 1 game of each other, I am happy to announce: we have arrived at incandescence!
If you want to add “and they all look like they have the same record”, well, we’ve got that, too.
And if you want to add “and they all have series left against each other”? We have that, too!
The featured image above is a photo of a solar flare on the surface of the Sun. It has been filtered immensely so your eyes don’t burn to crisps looking at it. But imagine it without the filtering effect! That’s more like what we’ve got boiling atop our standings today:
How did this happen?
- Today’s update didn’t add a game to our total games played, so it was more like a supplement to yesterday’s stats. So, for instance, when Peshastin’s pitchers, who had not pitched at all Thursday, covered 7 shutout innings, suddenly the team ERA dropped from 6.00 to 0.00, and the team’s raw winning percentage rocketed up to 1.000. The Wolverines almost did the same thing, going from 0 pitching to 8 ip and 1 er, mostly thanks to Matt Manning’s sterling 7 ip, 1 er start for the Tigers (who lost to the Angeles anyway, 1 – 0). That helped the W’s leap all the way back into a virtual tie with the Drive and the Kangaroos.
- Also helping – a correction in the Weekly Results section where the Flint Hill rs/ra were not being reflected in the section where the Tornados are listed as the Wolverines’ opponents. Fixing that improved the W’s adjusted winning percentage enough to gain about 0.2 games in the standings.
- The Kangaroos only slipped about .002 in adjusted winning percentage, mostly because of weak hitting. Kyle Tucker wasn’t weak: he went 2 for 4 with a homer and a double. But the other 10 Kangaroos went a combined 5 for 34 with two doubles and three walks (.147, .216, .206) — sub-replacement by quite a bit.
- Also, the Haviland Dragons, who are facing the Kangaroos this week, had no pitching on Thursday but got 15 innings at the cost of only 4 earned runs to cut their team ERA from 6.00 to 2.40. That the ‘Roos only slipped a smidgeon in the standings after that kind of shut-down pitching is a very positive sign for ‘Roo fans the world over. Meanwhile, the Dragons edged 0.2 games closer to joining the roiling dogpile atop the standings.
- Meanwhile the Drive eased up on the Balk in this week’s battle of the EFL Unimplurables (the EFLu). Having gotten 14 innings for only 2 earned runs from the pitchers Thursday, the Drive added 6.3 more innings at the cost of 3 earned runs Friday. This allowed the Balk to use a fair day at the plate and from the mound to balance their rs/ra ratio to gain 0.2 games on the Seraphim.
- Looking forward to the donnybrook, the armageddon, when these four teams meet each other? It will all happen in the the last three weeks of the season.
- Week 25: DC v. CK, OD v. SS
- Week 26: DC v. OD, CK v. SS
- Week 27: OD v. CK, SS v. DC
- Those of you hoping to see the Dragons climb into the mix, it might happen in those three weeks, when HD plays BC, PP, and FH. This week the Dragons start four straight weeks agains the top 4: CK, OD, SS, DC. If they don’t get pushed out of the race in these weeks, they’ll be in great shape to catch up or even WIN the race in the last three weeks.