Big July Finale – The Official EFL Web Site

No, the big finale is not the Nationals’ 25 – 4 win over the Mets. That kind of thing has been done before. No, today you are getting something you’ve never seen before: two updates in a single post! And also one or two big changes in the standings.

First, let’s look at what happened on July 30.

EFL Standings for July 30, 2018

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Portland Rosebuds	65	42	.604	—	552.0	440.2
Old Detroit Wolverines	65	43	.601	0.3	494.8	401.5
Brookland Outs	60	45	.568	4.1	564.4	493.6
Canberra Kangaroos	59	47	.560	4.8	485.1	430.9
Cottage Cheese	57	48	.543	6.7	544.4	498.6
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	55	50	.520	9.1	551.2	533.7
Kaline Drive	56	52	.516	9.4	486.0	465.9
Flint Hill Tornadoes	55	53	.507	10.5	487.5	480.7
Haviland Dragons	54	54	.498	11.4	487.2	485.6
Peshastin Pears	49	58	.462	15.2	450.0	487.9
D.C. Balk	44	62	.418	19.9	444.4	525.6

Portland: “W, 2 – 3. (24 PA, .136, .208, .318; 6.7 ip, 2 er, 2.70 ERA). Marcell Ozuna homered and Carlos Martinez managed to get through 4.7 ip with only 2 earned runs to salvage an official win while being outscored. Thus the Rosebuds continued their pennant-race-preserving performance plateau. Thank you!

Old Detroit: W, 5 – 4. (18 PA, .294, .333, .706; no pitching). The Wolverine offense woke up — or maybe I should just say the four hitters who were awake showed up, going 5 for 17. Each of the four (Acuna, Ahmed, Hedges and Muncy) contributed one extra base hit, with Acuna’s homer and Muncy’s triple standing out. Thus the W’s closed the gap to 0.3 games!

Brookland: W 1, L (-1); 4 – 1. (26 PA, .333, .462, .762; 7 ip, 2 er, 2.57 ERA). I have to admit I stopped worrying about the Outs a while back. They’d sunk to 5th place and seemed kind of stuck there. But here they come, again making all the veteran owners nervous. Robinson Chirinos led the attack Monday: 3 for 4 with a double and a walk. Derek Holland did a teensy bit better than Carlos Martinez: 5 ip, 2 er.

Canberra: “L”, 5 – 5. (23 PA, .300, .348, .500; 1 ip, o.00 ERA). Seranthony Dominguez pitched a scoreless inning but needed more backup despite a fairly robust offense, led by Rhys Hoskins (2 doubles in 5 trips to the plate) and catchers Mitch Garver (2 for 4 with a double) and Jonathan Lucroy (1 for 2 with a double and a walk) .

Cottage: DNP, (-6) – 0. (37 PA, .147, .211, .235; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). The Cottage offense cratered Monday, costing the team 6 runs scored on the season! Even Eric Thames’ homer couldn’t salvage the situation.

Pittsburgh: W, 5 – 4. (38 PA, .233, .368, .367; 13 ip. 5 er, 3.46 ERA). Stephen Piscotty hit a homer to pit a little starch in the Allegheny offense — just enough, in fact, to help David Price (8 ip, 1 er) get the A’s out of the hole Marco Estrada dug (4 ip, 4 er).

Kaline: “W”, 1 – 5. (35 PA, .100, .229, .200; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). One good inning was the most common EFL team pitching performance Monday. It’s not really enough if the offense can’t generate more than 2 singles in 30 AB, even if you throw in 5 walks and a homer.

Flint Hill: W, 5 – (-2). (30 PA, .269, .333, .346; 19.7 ip, 8 er, 3.66 ERA) James Paxton, in his last start as a Tornado, pitched 7 dominant shutout innings: 8 strikeouts, no walks, three hits. The Tornados are going to miss him.

Haviland: W, 6 – 4. (17 PA, .286, .412, .643; 8.3 ip, 4 er, 4.32 ERA). All four Dragon hitters reached base, Miguel Sano leading the way with a walk, a single and a double in 4 plate appearances. Ervin Santana struggled (4 er in 5.3 innings) but three relievers each supplied a scoreless inning to clean up after him.

Peshastin: L. 1 – 5. (21 PA, .095, .095, .238; no pitching). Aledmys Diaz’ homer was the sole highlight o of the day for Pears fans.

DC, L, 3 – 7. (30 PA, .185, .267, .333; 0.7 ip. 0 er, 0.00 ERA). The Balk got the economy version of the 1 ip, 0 er pitching day from Gabriel Moya, but it proved a false economy when replacements had to finish the game. Brock Hold supplied the offensive punch with 2 doubles and a walk in 5 plate appearances.

…..

Which brings us to the standings for the final day of July.

			EFL Standings July 31, 2018
Team		Wins	Losses	Pct.	GB	RS	RA
Old Detroit	Wolverines	66	43	0.607	—	505.4	404.1
Portland	Rosebuds	65	44	0.599	0.9	560.6	452.7
Brookland	Outs	61	45	0.572	4.1	572.1	495.8
Canberra	Kangaroos	59	48	0.552	6.2	488.9	442.7
Cottage	Cheese	58	48	0.545	6.9	548.1	499.3
Pittsburgh	Alleghenys	56	50	0.524	9.2	561.0	539.2
Kaline	Drive	56	53	0.515	10.1	488.3	470.0
Flint Hill	Tornadoes	56	53	0.514	10.2	498.3	482.1
Haviland	Dragons	54	55	0.495	12.3	490.4	492.4
Peshastin	Pears	49	60	0.448	17.4	458.2	510.5
D.C.	Balk	44	63	0.412	21.1	445.9	533.8

Old Detroit: W, 11 – 3. (48 PA, .364, .417, .545; 13 ip, 4 er, 2.77 ERA). God love ’em, my Wolverines just do not listen. I told them over and over: if you’re going to pass the Rosebuds, do it after the first of August! Don’t let the Rosebuds sucker you into letting them get the right to match our bids in the crucial final draft of 2018! But they got all excited. Trea Turner and Michael Taylor were in the Nationals 25 – 4 blow-out win and couldn’t stop themselves from going a combined 7 for 10 with a triple and 3 walks! (Usually I can count on Wolverines in blow-outs going 0 for 5 while their MLB teammates are amassing 15 hits.)

Actually, the heart of my roster did listen. The six listed alphabetically from Jeimer Candelario through Shohei Ohtani went a combined 2 for 22 with a double (.091, .091, .136) while the other five Wolverine hitters (Acuna, Ahmed, Smith, Taylor and Turner) impetuously went 14 for 22 with 2 2b, 1 3b, 1 hr and 3 walks: .636, .680, .955.

Clayton Richard was appropriately restrained (2 er in 5 ip), but he was toiling in Toledo. Walker Buehler was eager to put his last awful outing behind him. He succeeded: 7 ip, 1 er.

Oh, well, sometimes you just have to let things roll off your back and make the best of the situation.

Portland: W 0, L 2; 8 – 12. (37 PA, .235, .297, .471; 4 ip, 5 er, 11.25 ERA). The Rosebuds were hoping to be more like 0.000001 games behind at the end of July, but it’s hard to get these things that precise in baseball, so I’m sure they’ll be satisfied with the 0.9 – game deficit they so shrewdly constructed to secure that crucial advantage over the Wolverines in next month’s draft. Part of what made the deficit a little bigger than intended was Sam Gaviglio, distraught over his impending exile and the loss of his chance to win an EFL championship, throwing a dispirited 2.7 innings, allowing 5 earned runs. Niko Goodrum and JT Realmuto homered to keep the team from slipping more than a game off the pace. 0.9 games is going to be nothing to a team that has already reloaded by trading for Buchholz, Jake Bauers, Harrison Bader, and dumping Jonathan Villar off on the hapless Orioles. (Which is legal, by the way, as the Commissioner will explain in a forthcoming ruling.)

Brookland: W, 8 – 2. (44 PA, .316, .409, .579, Happy Edgar Martinez Day!; 26 ip (!), 9 er, 3.12 ERA). Wow! What a day! Those Outs, so quiet for the entire month, ended with a Vesuvian eruption of outstanding baseball, inserting themselves back into the pennant race with a big win, and securing their hold on third place. Daniel Murphy romped with the other Nationals yesterday, going 3 for 4 with two homers for a daily OPS of 3.000. But Gregory Polanco also continued to blossom like a rose in Brookland without the benefit of the Nationals’ tailwind: 2 for three with a homer and a walk for a 2.417 daily OPS.

And then there is all that pitching. Bartolo Colon stumbled (5 ip, 5 er) but the other three Outs starters (Arrieta, Godley, and Morton) combined for 20 innings and 3 earned runs. This is a scary team, which I will not again forget this season!

Canberra: L, 4 – 12. (41 PA, .235, .341, .353; 2.3 ip, 7 er). Ouch! The Kangaroos spent nearly the entire month of July creeping up on the frontrunners, only to crash and burn in the last four days of the month. This time it was Steven Matz’s Royal Chulk (0.7 ip, 7 er) that did them in. That 94.50 ERA on the day was impossible to digest, even with Dellin Betances and Seranthony Dominguez appearing in relief. James Paxton cannot join the team fast enough.

Cottage: W, 4 – 1. (37 PA, .219, .297, .281; 6.7 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Cottage is lurking just behind the Kangaroos on the outer fringes of pennant contention. Troubled “ace” Danny Duffy had a good outing (5.7 ip, 0 er) which may raise hopes around the Cottage that a run toward the top is still possible.

Pittsburgh: W, 10 – 6. (39 PA, .364, .462, .576 — Happy EM Day! 12 ip, 7 er, 5.25 ERA). Ten Alleghenys batted. Five of them OPSed 1.000 or better, topped by pinch hitter Mark Reynolds who earned a 5.000 OPS with a home run. Ryan Yarbrough (5 ip, 6 er) struggled, but Dereck Rodriguez certainly did not (7 ip, 1 er).

Kaline: L, 2 – 4. (30 PA, .143, .200 , .250; no pitching). AJ Pollock homered, but other than that there wasn’t much to get worked up about from the Drive’s last day in July. For the moment the Alleghenys have strengthened their grip on the pivot position in the EFL.

Flint Hill: W, 11 – 1. (.37 PA, .333, .351, .806; 9.3 ip, 2 er). A fine day for the Tornados, with a whirlwind of an offense featuring five homers (Andujar, Bauers, K. Davis, Gattis, and Trout). Eight Tornados OPSed 1.000 or better. The other two both went 0 for 3: Castellanos (who is in an awful slump) and Solarte. Trevor Cahill had a strong start (6 ip, 2 er) and was backed by stellar relief from Matt Barnes, Diego Castillo and Brad Hand.

Haviland: L, 3 – 7. (45 PA, .293, .356, .390; no pitching). The Dragon offense was shaped like the Kangaroos’ — solid OBP but little power — except at a higher level by a notch. What the Dragons lacked to match the ‘Roos was Matz or some other Mets pitcher facing the one-day Nationals juggernaut.

Peshastin: W 0, L 2; 8 – 23. (37 PA, .265, .324, .441; 28 ip, 22 er). That 8 – 23 score is over two games so, no, the Pears did not provide the pitching for the Nationals’ to feast on. It’s really more like a pair of 11 – 4 losses. Tyler Skaggs’ triple chulk (3.3 ip, 10 er) formed the backbone of the Pears’ paltry pitching effort. Most of the Pears’ pitchers struggled, although not as mightily as Skaggs. Wade Miley’s seven shutout innings were the bright spot for Peshastin moundsmen. Javier Baez (3 for 4 with a double and a homer) was the brightest spot for Pears at the plate.

DC: L, 2 – 8. (51 PA, .205, .340, .341; no pitching) The Balk are doing a great job of resisting the pull of the tides trying to carry them out to sea. They are 21.1 games behind, but that number has barely increased for quite some time now. Kole Calhoun carried the team with his homer, two singles and a walk in 5 plate appearances.