Can anyone make the Cheese unconfortable?

EFL Standings for 2017

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Cottage:  W, 12 – 7. (.341, .404, .683;   15 ip, 10 er).  Sigh. The Cheese pitchers get beat up pretty good, but the Cheese still win. It’s that darn Mike Trout (1 for 1 with a homer, a walk, a hbp, and 2 stolen bases). And that darn Bryce Harper (5 for 8 with a double and a homer). And that darn Jorge Soler (1 for the withe a homer and a walk). If the W’s were pretending to contend, this would be highly frustrating. I haven’t heard two peeps of grumbling from the actual contender pretenders, though, so maybe our new league leadership is in a better spiritual and moral place than our traditional elites.

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Kaline: L, 6 – 7. (.318, .392, .432; 1.7 ip, 1 er).

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Haviland: W, 9 – 6.  (.344, .432, .594;  15 ip, 8 er).  Still not stellar pitching, but monster offense made up for it… but this was still just barely enough to keep up with the Cheese’ pace.

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Peshastin: L, 3 – 8.  (.279, .347, .558; 8 ip, 4 er).  That’s a lot of offense for only 3 runs scored. I looked into this a little — it seems the hitters who had good days tended to be allocated to similar positions, where there are too many plate appearances. So they are surpressing some of each other’s work.  I don’t think that explains all of the low run output, but it does help.

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Portland: W, 14 – 8.  (.313, .433, .667; 4.7 ip, 6 er).

Canberra: W 1, L 1; 18 – 9. (.361, .489, .861; 1 ip, 0 er).   Look how the ‘Buds and the ‘Roos replicated the Cheesy formula: staggeringly-powerful offense so mediocre pitching can’t faze them. Michael Conforto hit for the cycle! With a walk thrown in. Chris Davis went 2 for 2 with a homer and three walks. Paul Goldschmidt went 2 for 5 — but the 2 were homers. These teams both gained on the Cheese!  They’re a long way back, so you might not really notice them, but If I was the Cheese, these are the guys I’d watch out for.

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DC:  W 1, L 1; 8 – 11.  (.184, .311, .395; 13.7 ip, 6 er). Aaron Altherr really IS breaking out. He hit another homer, plus a single, a walk, and a HBP Sunday. Sam Dyson walked the tightrope again, surrendering two hits in an inning’s work, but not allowing an earned run.  He’s got his season ERA down to 10.66.

Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2017