The big news in baseball today is the Indians’ 22-game win streak. MLB even has a giant infographic with a bunch of “dominant statistics” from the streak.
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Give me a break. OK, maybe no team in the AL has ever won 22 games in a row. But there are a lot things no team in the AL has ever done:
- Won 2 and lost (-1) in a single day. This happens, on average, two or three times a month in the EFL.
- Won 3 and lost (-1) in a single day. This has happened at least once in the EFL.
- Won a pennant race by 0.9 games. This has happened twice in the EFL.
- Won over 46% of the league’s championships. We have a team right now with this championship success rate — which is about to go back up to 50%.
- Won games while being outscored. This happens almost every day in the EFL
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If winning 22 straight games is so special, why are the Indians still 2 1/2 games worse than the Dodgers, who just broke their 10-game losing streak the day before yesterday? And why do they have only the 5th best record in the EFL/MLB? And why are they still 13.4 games out of first place in their own division?
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And why is there a better than 50% chance their record, set yesterday, will be broken today?
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EFL Standings for 2017
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 104 | 43 | .710 | — | 864.3 | 534.6 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 95 | 51 | .653 | 8.5 | 752.8 | 547.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 94 | 52 | .641 | 10.2 | 860.4 | 642.4 |
| Cottage Cheese | 88 | 58 | .603 | 15.8 | 772.8 | 622.9 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 85 | 61 | .585 | 18.4 | 817.4 | 672.2 |
| Peshastin Pears | 82 | 64 | .560 | 22 | 744.6 | 667.1 |
| Kaline Drive | 81 | 65 | .555 | 22.9 | 736.3 | 661.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 77 | 69 | .526 | 27.1 | 739.5 | 689.6 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 70 | 76 | .481 | 33.6 | 702.4 | 732.0 |
| D.C. Balk | 57 | 89 | .394 | 46.4 | 709.3 | 883.5 |
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(Stats are for games Wednesday and Thursday.)
Pittsburgh: W 2, L 0; 16 – 2. (.322, .394, .576; 18.3 ip, 4 er). MLB is touting the Indians’ 142 – 37 run differential during their streak. That should produce .936 winning percentage and a 21 – 1 record for 22 games. So they’ve been lucky. In September, the Alleghenys have outscored their opponents 116.3 – 27, good for a .949 winning percentage and a 14 – 1 record. They have not been lucky. They just are that good.
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Wait, check that. As Jamie pointed out to me Wednesday, politely, the A’s got lucky with the Shelby Miller deal. He kindly didn’t mention I was the one who gave them Shelby Miller (and Jose Altuve in the same deal!). So actually, Pittsburgh is way luckier than the Indians. The Indians don’t get to play in the same league as the Wolverines.
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Flint Hill: W 1, L 1; 18 – 11. (.364, .475, .621; 20 ip, 2o er). … Although it should be noted that the Tornadoes also are lucky enough to play in the EFL, where the Old Detroit Chumperines play. So why is Pittsburgh running away with the championship? Again. (Also — that 20/20 rs/ra line is some kind of wonderful. How did you do that?)
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Haviland: W 1, L 1; 13-13. (.250, .324, .484; 23.7 ip, 7 er) . I believe I predicted on Wednesday that the Dragons would be dragging back beyond the 10 games behind mark by about Friday. Behold: it’s Friday, and the Drag-ons are 10.2 back.
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Cottage: W 0, L 2; 5 – 16. (.205, .297, .330; 4 ip, 3 er) I think I’ll buy all my draft picks from Cottage from now on. When I bought the Cheesy pick back in July, they were 1.4 games behind (the Dragons) with the third-best record in baseball and the 28th pick. They are now 15.8 games out, tied with the Astros for the 7th best record in baseball. If they can let the Astros slide past them the Cheese will deliver to the W’s the 25th pick. Greg Bird — whom the Cheese cited as their reason not to give up on the season — has a .268 OPS for September. To its credit, Cottage has already apologized to him. In the same vein (vane? vain?), I probably should send Bird a thank-you card.
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Portland: L, 2 – 2. (.226, .262, .371; 17.7 ip, 6 er). The Rosebuds have improved their draft standing by maybe one spot since they sold their first round pick to me. Not bad, but still not the kind of customer service the Cheese provide.
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Peshastin: W, 10 – 10. (.321, .385, .642; 7.7 ip, 9 er). Ouch. Max Scherzer got torched for 7 earned runs in 6 ip. So the Pears sent in Matt Wisler — who coughed up two more in his one inning. It took Rhys Hoskins’ 3 for 4 day with two homers and three walks for the Pears to pull this one out by about 0.2 runs. (Note: in Hoskins’ 7 plate appearances he hit two homers, walked three times, hit a single, and made one out. His BABIP was .500. His true outcomes percentage was .714.). The Pears are going to miss Rhys Hoskins next year.
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Kaline: W 2, L 0; 21 – 4. (.444, .524, .806; 3 ip, 3 er). Woah! The Drive acted like they were Allegheneys the last two days. All 11 Drive batters reached safely at least once. Eight of them OPSed 1.000 or better and a ninth OPSed .900.
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Old Detroit: W, 1, L 1; 13 – 16. (.304, .351, .478; 13.7 ip, 5 er). In contrast to the Cheese, the W’s have been trying to ruin the draft pick they traded to the Pears back at the start of July. Back then the W’s had a .440 winning percentage and the 7th pick in the rookie draft. Now that pick has fallen all the way to #16. I will do all I can to avoid repeating this kind of service next year.
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Canberra: W 0, L 2; 7 – 14. (.304, .351, .478; 13.7 ip, 5 er). Last evening I got a text from the Captain Kangaroo:
” I just got to watch my very own Matt Albers pitch an inning.
Yes I’m bragging.
Yes it’s kind of a lame brag.”
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Not totally lame, since Albers’ inning was scoreless. But still, I knew my duty. In my commissionorial role as maintainer of proper decorum, I replied:
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“I just got to watch my very own Sam Mock score his first goal for the NHS varsity.
Tied 1-1 at half.”
Then I pointed out that I have a parental bragging license, whereas he does not. Let’s hope that puts an end to this plague of Kangaroo bragging.
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DC: W 1, L 1; 11 – 6. (.309, .345, .564; 23.7 ip, 8 er). The Balk can take heart in Andrew Benintendi (OPSed 1.750 for the last two days, .842 for the month) and Mike Clevinger (5.7 ip, 1 er this last outing, carrying a 0.51 ERA for the month).
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2017
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 95 | 51 | .653 | — |
| Boston Red Sox | 83 | 63 | .568 | 12.4 |
| New York Yankees | 80 | 66 | .548 | 15.4 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 77 | 69 | .526 | 18.6 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 72 | 75 | .490 | 23.9 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 72 | 75 | .490 | 23.9 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 68 | 79 | .463 | 27.9 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Washington Nationals | 89 | 57 | .610 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 70 | 76 | .481 | 18.8 |
| Miami Marlins | 68 | 78 | .466 | 21 |
| Atlanta Braves | 66 | 79 | .455 | 22.5 |
| New York Mets | 63 | 83 | .432 | 26 |
| D.C. Balk | 57 | 89 | .394 | 31.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 57 | 89 | .390 | 32 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 104 | 43 | .710 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 91 | 56 | .619 | 13.4 |
| Minnesota Twins | 77 | 69 | .527 | 26.9 |
| Kansas City Royals | 72 | 74 | .493 | 31.9 |
| Detroit Tigers | 60 | 86 | .411 | 43.9 |
| Chicago White Sox | 59 | 87 | .404 | 44.9 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Cottage Cheese | 88 | 58 | .603 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 80 | 66 | .548 | 8 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 77 | 69 | .527 | 11 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 77 | 69 | .527 | 11 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 68 | 79 | .463 | 20.5 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 63 | 84 | .429 | 25.5 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 94 | 52 | .641 | — |
| Houston Astros | 88 | 58 | .603 | 5.6 |
| Kaline Drive | 81 | 65 | .555 | 12.7 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 74 | 72 | .507 | 19.6 |
| Seattle Mariners | 74 | 73 | .503 | 20.1 |
| Texas Rangers | 72 | 74 | .493 | 21.6 |
| Oakland A’s | 64 | 82 | .438 | 29.6 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 94 | 52 | .644 | — |
| Portland Rosebuds | 85 | 61 | .585 | 8.6 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 85 | 62 | .578 | 9.5 |
| Peshastin Pears | 82 | 64 | .560 | 12.2 |
| Colorado Rockies | 80 | 67 | .544 | 14.5 |
| San Diego Padres | 65 | 81 | .445 | 29 |
| San Francisco Giants | 57 | 91 | .385 | 38 |