God hears our prayers

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Portland Rosebuds	101	54	.652	—	862.2	613.7
Old Detroit Wolverines	98	57	.634	2.8	777.0	583.0
Canberra Kangaroos	87	68	.559	14.5	707.9	632.9
Brookland Outs	84	70	.548	16.3	797.2	731.4
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	84	70	.543	17	820.9	757.4
Flint Hill Tornadoes	81	74	.523	20.1	733.6	694.6
Haviland Dragons	77	77	.497	24.1	736.4	736.7
Cottage Cheese	74	80	.478	27	732.8	762.9
Kaline Drive	73	81	.473	27.8	671.9	710.7
Peshastin Pears	73	82	.470	28.3	673.0	716.0
D.C. Balk	70	85	.453	30.9	662.6	734.6

Portland:  L, 4 – 4  (3.9 – 4.1).  (55 PA, .255, .309, .412; 2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Slim on pitching Saturday, the Rosebuds were going to rely on their league-leading offense to pad their lead. Three of their 1.000+ OPSes were by frequent contributors Nick Castellanos (1.750), That Man Tommy Pham  (1.5400), and Anthony Rendon (1.167).  But the fourth 1.000 OPSer was Nick Hundley — who was intentionally walked in his lone plate appearance.   Other than that there wasn’t much offense of note in Portland Saturday. That left the gate open for other teams to gain on them.

Old Detroit:  W, 6 – 3.  (56 PA, .269, .321, .481; 12 ip. 4 er, 3.00 ERA).  Rich Hill (7 ip, 1 er) backed up Rick Porcello (5 ip, 3 er) and Trea Turner went off like he does about twice a month:  2 for 3 with a double, a homer, and a walk.  This cut the Rosebud lead by 0.3 games.  The W’s would need to do that only 10 more times to win.  Hmm.  Anyone for extending the season two days?

Canberra:  W, 5 – 2.  (39 PA, .281, .410, .438;  2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  The Kangaroos matched the Rosebuds’ pitching exactly, but significantly out-hit them thanks mostly to Tim Anderson’s homer and walk in 4 plate appearances plus three other 1.000+ OPSes and the team’s 7 free passes in 39 plate appearances.

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Brookland:  “L”, 4 – 10. (51 PA, .213, .260, .447; 2.7 ip, 8 er, 27.00 ERA). Brookland’s inexplicable collapse continues. Jake Arrieta and Bartolo Colon each allowed 4 earned runs (8 total) in 2.7 total innings pitched for a joint triple chulk. Despite 5 hitters OPSing 1.000 or better, the Outs didn’t hit enough to make up for that pitching.

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Pittsburgh: W, 4 – 7.  (54 PA, .292, .370, .438; 8 ip, 6 er, 6.75 ERA).  Jose Altuve  has had a substandard September, by his lights. Even after he uncorked a homer, a walk and two singles in 5 plate appearances for a 2.300 OPS Saturday, his overall September line was still only .254, .382, .429, compared to .346, .410, .547 in 2017.  His vintage work Saturday was sort of wasted when Dereck Rodriguez, Jose Jimenex and Shane Greene all contributed to the a disappointing day of pitching.  Despite the disappointment, the Alleghenys edged another 0.2 games closer to the Outs.

Flint Hill: L, 5 – 8. (39 PA, .250, .256, .500;  4 ip, 3 er, 6.75 ERA). The Tornados were the most extreme in their results on th efield. On one hand, five people OPSed over 1.000:  Andujar, Goodrum, Lucroy, Semien, and Trout.  On the other hand, the other eight batters to appear could not reach base safely in a total of 18 plate appearances.  That’s all 13 of the Tornados accounted for — no one in the middle, just the polar extremes: dead calm or deadly windy.  That’s how Tornados are, in their season, right?

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Haviland: L, (-3) – 6. (44 PA, .049, .114, .073; 8 ip, 4 er).  The most offensive offensive performance of the year (I hope) for the Dragons came Saturday as Haviland was 2-hit over 13 innings. In MLB you sometimes see teams score a run without an RBI.  The Dragons drove in a run but didn’t score any.  This was one of those games you can pretty much reconstruct from the Dragon’s box score. Chad Green and five innings of replacement pitchers kept the game scoreless until Tyler Glasnow relieved to start the 7th inning. He continued the shutout until the top of the 13th when he stumbled, allowing three runners to reach without recording an out. All of those runners score, plus one of the two Jesse Biddle faced and didn’t get out.  The next reliever,  Taylor Williams, got a strikeout and a pop up or something, but then gave up a hit, so John brought in Drew Steckenrider to get  the final out without giving up any more runs.

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There.  It’s perfect.  But there’s still the bottom of the 13th.  Something happens then so the final score ends up not 0 – 4 but (-3) – 6.  Oh, and Steckenrider earns one of those rare saves when his team loses.  I’ve given you a good start, so I’m sure you can figure out the rest.  Whoever figures it out first gets one of those Commissioner’s Award Bonus First Round Rookie Draft Picks we hear so much about but so seldom see.

Cottage: “W”, 2 – 5. (33 PA, .200, .273, .433; 6 ip, 3 er, 4.50 ERA).  I’ve written before about the Cottage Diet (although this is the first time I’ve used that label): you know, Dave’s sparing approach to the game, trying to live on the very minimum PA and IP.  Saturday they came up an inning short, but if they happened to get all their batters perfectly aligned they had enough PA to avoid replacements.  Let’s see.  Here are all the Cheesy plate appearances from Saturday:

C:  Wilson Ramos (4 PA)

1b:  Grandal (4 PA)

2b: Moncada (4 PA)

ss: J Polanco (4 PA)

3b:  Phillips (3 PA),

OF:  Kepler (4 PA),  Margo (4 PA), Pederson (4 PA)

OH: Thames (1 PA), Y Diaz (1 PA)

That is a thing of beauty. Bat Phillips and the OH at the b   dottom of the order and you’re only short one plate appearance — and the other 7 positions are actually gaining  0.9 each against a future game.  Dave should put on an allocation clinic.

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Kaline: W, 4 – (-3).  (53 PA, .213, .302, .426; 9.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Wow — a more-than-complete game shutout!  This is another one of those box scores that tells the complete story of the game. In this one Trevor Williams, Brian Johnson, and Xavier Cedeno combine to shutout the opposing team for 9.3 innings and earn Williams the win. My guess is the game was called in the top of the tenth after Cedeno had so tortured opposing hitters that they agreed to pay 3 runs to be released from the game. Baseball Prospectus confirms this hypothesis, as it awards Cedeno a FIP of -2.88 runs, almost precisely the 2.8 runs the Drive took from the opponents’ score in our records. Those of you who have been secretly skeptical about the propriety or even the possibility of removing runs from opponents scoresheets, repent of your doubt: when Dave’s database, my old spreadsheets, and BP all agree, it must be true.

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Peshastin:  W, 7 – 2. (39 PA, .306, .359, .528;  3 ip, 0 er , 0.00 ERA).  Kaline, gaining 0.8 games on the Rosebuds, had the best day in the EFL (once again wasted on a team somewhere else than in 2d place!). But the next best performance was the Pears’ 0.7 game gain.  Good hitting, with Javier Baez leading the way again (2 for 4 with a homer and a walk)  and good pitching albeit only 3 innings’ worth: that’s a winning formula.

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DC:  L, (-1) – 3. (29 PA .154, .241, .154;  6.3 IP, 2 er, 2.84 ERA).  Look at that! I uttered that prayer, and God immediately smote the Balk and took away their great game  — or at least, the hitting part.  But where did it go?  I bet it’s going to show up in Sunday’s results!  Oh boy, oh boy. I bet it’s coming to Old Detroit… I can’t wait until morning and the next BP update…

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AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Boston Red Sox	105	50	.677	—
Old Detroit Wolverines	98	57	.634	6.7
New York Yankees	95	59	.617	9.5
Tampa Bay Rays	86	68	.558	18.5
Flint Hill Tornadoes	81	74	.523	23.9
Toronto Blue Jays	71	84	.458	34
Baltimore Orioles	44	110	.286	60.5

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Atlanta Braves	87	68	.561	—
Canberra Kangaroos	87	68	.559	0.3
Philadelphia Phillies	78	76	.506	8.5
Washington Nationals	78	77	.503	9
New York Mets	72	83	.465	15
D.C. Balk	70	85	.453	16.8
Miami Marlins	61	93	.396	25.5

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Cleveland Indians	86	68	.558	—
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	84	70	.543	2.4
Minnesota Twins	71	83	.461	15
Detroit Tigers	63	92	.406	23.5
Chicago White Sox	61	93	.396	25
Kansas City Royals	53	102	.342	33.5

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Chicago Cubs	90	64	.584	—
Milwaukee Brewers	88	67	.568	2.5
St. Louis Cardinals	86	69	.555	4.5
Brookland Outs	84	70	.548	5.7
Pittsburgh Pirates	78	75	.510	11.5
Cottage Cheese	74	80	.478	16.4
Cincinnati Reds	66	90	.423	25

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Houston Astros	97	57	.630	—
Oakland A’s	94	61	.606	3.5
Seattle Mariners	85	69	.552	12
Haviland Dragons	77	77	.497	20.5
Los Angeles Angels	75	80	.484	22.5
Kaline Drive	73	81	.473	24.1
Texas Rangers	65	89	.422	32

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Portland Rosebuds	101	54	.652	—
Los Angeles Dodgers	86	69	.555	15.1
Colorado Rockies	84	70	.545	16.6
Arizona Diamondbacks	79	76	.510	22.1
Peshastin Pears	73	82	.470	28.3
San Francisco Giants	72	83	.465	29.1
San Diego Padres	62	93	.400	39.1