Blossoms, budding and fading and blowing up in one’s face

The cherry blossoms are out in DC, where Wolverine management just finished a very pleasant looong weekend being hosted by Canberra management and traipsing around the territories of the DC Balk and Brookland Outs.   Reality is setting in for the latter two franchises, but the former two are clinging to beauty we all suspect is doomed to fade.

Old Detroit: “L”, 4 – 1.  (.289, .373, .378; 1.3 ip, 0 er). Yes, you can “lose” in the EFL even while outscoring your foes when your winning percentage on the day is lower than your winning percentage for the month.  Maybe we would have outright lost, except for little Nick Ahmed. He doubled in the tying run with two out in the bottom of the 15th, and then scored the winning run,  making his daily line 3 for 6 with a double and a walk, and his season line  .471, .526, .824.  I should have handed shortstop over to Ahmed entirely, moved Turner to second, and traded Wong (0 for 7 with a walk and diminished playing time).

Canberra: L, 4 – 5. (.231, .333, .346; 5 ip, 3 er).  The Kangaroo offense consisted pretty much entirely of Jose Abreu (3 for 4 with a double), Alex Bregman (1 for 3 with a double and two walks) and Jonathan Lucroy (2 for 3 with a double). Everyone else went 0 for 16. Kolten Wong would fit right in!

Kaline: W, 7 – 0.  (.189, .333, .459; 7 ip, 1 er)  Darn Brian Anderson. Kaline let me choose between him and Ryan Schimpf in the Pearce/Soler disaster salary dump.  As I inspected the two, I now believe, Anderson was sandbagging, deliberately hiding his talents.  So I chose 0 for 30 Ryan Schimpf. Yesterday Anderson went 6 innings, struck out 5, and allowed one earned run.

On a more positive note, Kaline’s Chris Owings hit a three run homer with two out in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game with the Dodgers that Ahmed, six innings later, won with own heroics.  It is an honor to team up with the Wizard to send two little Davids out to slay a Goliath.

Portland:  W, 8 – 4. (.289, .372, .658; 1 ip, 1 er).  The Rosebuds continued blooming Monday, led by Welington Castillo’s 2 homers in 4 trips to the plate.  (And with his two strikeouts, Castillo produced 4 true outcomes!) Aledmys Diaz also homered, along with the less surprising Mookie Betts.

Pittsburgh:  L, 4 – 6. (.208, .269, .333; 4.7 ip, 5 er). Lance Lynn lobbed 4 innings, allowing 5 earned runs, to put a dent in the Allegheny’s run to regain the top spot in the EFL.

Cottage: W 2, L (-1); 7 – 1. (.316, .381, .500;  7 ip, 0 er). The Cheese’ Tyler Mahle pitched like an ace — 6 ip, 0 er, 7 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk — to lead Cottage to a double win. Mike Trout is still asleep, going 0 for 3 to bring his season line down to .261, .292, .522.  Teams populated with mere mortals had better make hay now before the leviathan awakens.

Brookland:  L, 6 – 7. (.273, .433, .455; 1 ip, 0 er.) There was nothing wrong with the Brookland offense or pitching — except there wasn’t enough of of the latter.  An .888 OPS is plenty good, and 29 plate appearances is JUST enough (if spread perfectly among the defensive positions, which this was not).  Ex-Wolverine and expansion-draft pluckee Gregory Polanco was especially devastating with his 1 double and 4 walks in 5 plate appearances.  But 1 inning, no matter how scoreless (and hitless) isn’t going to cut it.

Flint Hill:  “L”, 3 – 0. (.184, .311, .289; 8 ip, 0 er). Are we getting a record bloom of great pitching this spring? Is it always like this? Can someone look it up?  At any rate, this time it was Charlie Morton twirling 6 scoreless innings with only 3 hits and 2 walks backed by Archie Bradley’s 2 more scoreless innings.  Although the Tornados disguised the outcome as a loss, we all know it was a nice little win despite uninspiring offense.

DC: W, 2 – 2. (.179, .207, .321;  5.3 ip, 0 er). Mike Clevinger joined the non-hit parade of pitching prowess to salvage the narrowest of wins for the Balk despite measley offense.  Matt Chapman’s homer and single in 4 plate appearances was also crucial.

Peshastin: “L”, 4 – 4. (.217, .250, .478; 5.3 ip, 2 er).  Peshastin achieved an outcome essentially equal to DC’s but with a more standard mix of fair pitching and mediocre hitting — marked by a crucial homer (this time by Trey Mancini).

Haviland: “W”, 6 – 10. (.229, .413, .486;  4.3 ip, 5 er).  Ever the nonconformists, the Dragons walked (1o walks!) and slugged their way to 6 runs. Bryce Harper led the way with 4 walks and homer in 6 plate appearances.  But Sean Newcombe, in a burst of dragonish iconoclasm, sneered at the perported pitching bloom and perfectly negated Harper’s day by surrendering 4 walks and Harper’s homer along the way to 5 er in 4.3 innings pitched.  It’s best, John, to get someone else’s pitcher to serve up Harper’s homers.