The Dragons played small ball, but it might not have been a great idea. The Rosebuds had a Happy Edgar Martinez day in very round numbers. The Alleghenys got back to .600 by employing a double negative, while Tornado Yordano — Hey! I could save space and add precision by calling him “Yornado”! — managed to get Flint Hill to a place that looks a lot like .500. And DC stands for Drama Club, judging by they way their race with the Twins is going.
| EFL | ||||||
| Team | Wins | Losses | Pct. | GB | RS | RA |
| Haviland Dragons | 97 | 54 | .642 | — | 786.8 | 585.6 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 95 | 55 | .635 | 1.2 | 775.3 | 586.9 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 90 | 60 | .602 | 6.1 | 737.9 | 591.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 89 | 60 | .600 | 6.5 | 806.9 | 658.7 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 86 | 64 | .570 | 10.8 | 739.8 | 631.5 |
| Peshastin Pears | 82 | 68 | .548 | 14.1 | 745.9 | 668.2 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 75 | 75 | .497 | 21.9 | 663.5 | 662.4 |
| Kaline Drive | 69 | 82 | .459 | 27.6 | 728.7 | 801.4 |
| Cottage Cheese | 63 | 87 | .422 | 33 | 675.5 | 789.4 |
| D.C. Balk | 55 | 95 | .365 | 41.7 | 635.2 | 850.2 |
Haviland: W, 8 – 4. (.400, .400, 1.600; 6 ip, 2 er). Only four Dragons appeared at the plate Sunday, amassing only 5 plate appearances, two of which produced home runs. If you’re going to have such a small turnout, this is the way to do it.
Old Detroit: W, 8 – 0. (.258, .324, . 452; 8 ip, 0 er) The W’s erased Saturday’s lost ground when Madison Bumgarner and Will Harris combined for 8 scoreless one-hit, 0 walk 10 strikeout innings. FIP says that kind of pitching will generate 1.40 runs. FIP doesn’t know what it’s talking about. For once allocation helped: Brandon Drury went 0 for 4, leaving the rest of the team with a .296, .367, .519 batting line.
Portland: W, 6 – 0. (.333, .400, .500; 14 ip, 4 er). Those round batting numbers might make you think Rosebuds had a turnout as sparse as the Dragons. But you’d be wrong. The ‘Buds batted 40 times! An entire game’s worth. The closest race in the EFL — the one for third place — shifted in Portland’s favor, with Mookie Betts (a homer and two walks in four plate appearances) leading the way, and Tyler Anderson and Jason Hammel each producing 7 innings with 2 earned runs. Portland is on target to win the NL West, leading the Dodgers by 5.3 games.
Pittsburgh: DNP, (-3) – (-5). (.213, .275, .319; 14 ip, 2 er). The Alleghenys outpitched the Rosebuds, but could not play with them offensively. Marco Estrada one-hit the Mariners over 7 innings. Booo. Still, I suppose I should understand: the Alleghenys are trying to nail down first place in the AL Central, where they lead the Cleveland Indians by only 3.4 games.
Canberra: “W”, 2 – 3. (.167, .211, .333; 21.3 ip, 7 er). The ‘Roos are out of the EFL race, but only trail the Nationals in the NL East by 2.4 games. That hitting didn’t do them any good, but they almost made up for it with lots of solid pitching.
Peshastin: W (-1), L 2; (-3) – 10. (.118, .167, .147; 1.7 ip, 3 er). Only 4 hits in 34 at bats, with only 1 walk and 1 hbp to help, left the team with too little to work with to overcome a solitary, nasty, brutish and short outing by Blake Wood.
Flint Hill: W, 4 – 3. (.267, .313, .467; 10.7 ip, 3 er). The Yornado pitched 9 shaky innings — think about it: 9 shaky innings — featuring 2 homers and 9 hits, worth a 5.23 FIP, for whatever FIP is worth. This bought time for a shaky Tornado lineup to whip up just enough offense to take a narrow victory and produce a 75-75 record that looks like .500 from a distance. Hearts are beating fast in Flint Hill.
Kaline: L, 2 – 6. (.233, .233, .367; no pitching). I originally wrote that as “no pithing” but the Drive actually did get sort of pithed. James the Lone(y) Bright Spot went 3 for 4 with two doubles. Everything else was unmemorable, or in the case of the pitching, nonexistent.
Cottage: “L”, 8 – 7. (.421, .476, 1.000; 6.3 ip, 5 er). The Cheese generously gave as much as they took Sunday. Dylan Bundy gave away an earned run in every one of his 5 innings, while all 6 Drive batters who appeared got at least one hit.
DC: L. 2 – 6. (.200, .243, .286; 2 ip, 0 er). The Balk slipped back behind the Twins by 0.3 games in the barnburning race for 39th place. Or, to put it another way, the Balk just took back the lead in the amazing race for the first draft pick.