Nearly caught up

No. I am not singing the praises of the Allegheny juggernaut now nearing the summit, nor the bounding Kangaroos and/or the accelerating Drive.  I only meant to say I am almost caught up on updates.

OK, so I enhanced them a little. Not enough, however, because do you see where the Alleghenys are?  One really good day out of first place.  This is not good.

Old Detroit: L, 5 – 10.  .188, .297, .469;  3 ip, 6 er.  DeSclafani chulked and almost all the hitters stank.  The W’s would be in second place within a game of the Alleghenys except Justin Upton went a little crazy: 3 for 3 with two homers and a walk. Santana is hurt, Castillo hasn’t got a hit all month,

Haviland: “W”, 0 – 2.  .143, .167, .191; 32 ip, 11 er.  Here’s another team putting up a fight like they were the Iraqi Army defending Ramadi.  First place was there for the taking, but the Dragons had no Justin-Upton class slugger to bail them out of their offensive doldrums. Seven Dragons pitched Sunday, none of whom chulked, although Samardzija did allow 8 earned runs in 8 innings.

Pittsburgh: W, 0 – (-2). .171, .256, . 229. 23.3 ip, 4 er.   I realize how my Haviland comments essentially equate the Alleghenys with ISIS.  This was unintended. A mere byproduct, with all the attendant risks of error. Would ISIS only bring a .485 OPS to a major battle? No. Would they kidnap a pitcher from Old Detroit and force them to throw no-hitters through 8 2/3 innings? Well, yes,  I think they would.

Cottage: W, 3 – 3.  .233, .258, .333;  2 ip, 0 er.  Man — all these top 4 teams really lacked luster Sunday.  Makes one appreciate Justin Upton — he singlehandedly lifted the W’s offense to the top performance per the top four mans in the league.

Canberra: W, 10 – 7.   .357, .441, .571; 4.7 ip. 3 er.  Finally!  A team that can hit like a championship-caliber squad.  Kipnis is hot (.933 OPS Sunday). Semien is hot (1.000 ).  Even Logan Forsythe is producing (1.100).  But they’re all little hechevarrias compared to the new Mike Trout:  Bryce Harper, who went 3 for 4 with a triple, a homer and a walk for a 2.8000 OPS.  Not Upton’s 4.000 OPS, but Harper’s been doing it for 13 days now: 22 for 43, 3 doubles, a triple, 9 homers, 10 walks — .512, .604, 1.256.  The Kangaroos are looking as tough as the Alleghenys, and have now arrived where Pittsburgh was at the beginning of the month.

Peshastin: L, 5 – 5. .219. .297, .313; 1.7 ip. 2 er.  Mimicking the laggard ways of the privileged elites of this league, the Pears lollygagged around the diamond Sunday.  It would have been worse except that Jay Bruce (1.800 OPS) remembered for a day  that he was Jay Bruce the slugger rather than Jay Bruce the putter, Jay Bruce the cougar killer, or Jay Bruce Sitay the chubby pediatrician, not to mention Bruce Jay the realtor or Bruce Jay the dentist.

Kaline: W 2, L 1; 8 – (-3).  .341, .408, .545; 16 ip, 1 er.  Now that’s how you do it. Your entire team mimics Edgar Martinez at the plate, and King Felix  (16 ip, 1 er) from the rubber. Surely this ascension by the Drive will last for awhile.

Flint Hill: W (-1), L 2;  (-2) – 4. .114, .162, .143;  18.7 ip, 13 er.  A disappointing day from both pitching and hitting.  Newcomer Chris Heston “led” the way for the Tornado hurlers by completing a model 2 ip, 5 er chulk. Yes, that’s the Chris Heston we already discovered Flint Hill had left in the minors for this month. The key is this:  Heston is an inspiration on the Tornados with his gift of taking on the chulks so they won’t hurt the team.

Portland: L, 2 – 5.  .182, .213, .341; 1.3 ip, 0 er.  Another dismal day from supposedly major league EFL hitters, like five or six of the other teams had. Kind of depressing over all.

 

Time to take my jet-lagged body off to bed. I’ve got another update to write in the morning, and then we’ll be back on track.