Friends:
I had this almost done at 9:30 Tuesday morning, when I had to set it aside for a zoom meeting with a student. Then I forgot all about it.
Until just now — 1:00 AM Wednesday morning.
My apologies.
There’s supposed to be a total lunar eclipse in three hours. Maybe I’ll stay up for it.
Nellie the dog, aged and perhaps a bit senile, is wandering the house looking for Melanie. Melanie gets back from visiting her sister in St. Louis tonight (Wednesday evening) about 20 hours from now.
I am still upset about the school board meeting a few hours ago. I probably couldn’t sleep now anyway.
Let’s see if I can finish this thing before Jamie does another one in the morning. I’ll try to remember to change the “yesterday”s to “Monday”s.
EFL Standings for 2021
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Peshastin Pears | 33 | 15 | .697 | — | 223.2 | 147.0 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 34 | 15 | .688 | 0.3 | 284.9 | 191.4 |
| Haviland Dragons | 33 | 16 | .683 | 0.5 | 238.9 | 163.7 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 32 | 17 | .651 | 2.1 | 228.6 | 168.7 |
| Kaline Drive | 31 | 18 | .638 | 2.7 | 241.0 | 181.0 |
| D.C. Balk | 27 | 14 | .656 | 3.1 | 208.6 | 151.4 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 23 | 18 | .560 | 7 | 225.6 | 201.4 |
| Cottage Cheese | 24 | 23 | .515 | 8.8 | 268.8 | 267.6 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 23 | 23 | .501 | 9.4 | 234.1 | 230.8 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 23 | 25 | .482 | 10.3 | 242.8 | 251.8 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 20 | 26 | .424 | 12.9 | 184.3 | 221.5 |
Peshastin: “L”, 3 – 3. (25 PA, .200, .200, .400; 5 ip, 1 er, 1.80 ERA) When I put quotes around an L for a score that looks tied, it means the team scored more tenths of runs than it allowed. In this case, the Pears on Monday whomped on their foes 2.8 – 2.5. Willi Castro hit a homer and a double representing more than half of the Pear offense, but with a margin of victory that narrow, every good thing the Pears did, including a walk taken, was required for the win. Except no Pears took any walks or HBP or stolen bases.
Pear pitcher Trevor Rogers put up a good line — 5 ip, 1 er — but hidden in that line is a tinesy detail that looms as large in this context as Castro’s homer: Rogers actually surrendered two runs. But one of them was unearned because of an error — by the Pears;’ own Jazz Chisholm Jr. !!
Had Jazz flubbed his throw less conspicuously, the Pears might be in second place right now.
Old Detroit: W, 5 – 4. (16 PA, .154, .313, .462; 8 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Monday the Blue Jays lost to the Rays 14 – 8. Oldie pitcher Ross Stripling pitched seven innings for Toronto/Dunedin. In his previous outing, Stripling gave up 6 earned runs in only 3.7 innings. How many of yesterday’s 14 runs did Stripling give up?
When I asked Ryan to guess the answer, he guessed 7. The actual answer was…
Zero. Not zero earned runs. Zero runs at all!
Stripling was not the starting pitcher. Portland’s Trent Thornton had that honor. Thornton surrendered 5 runs in the first inning, so Stripling replaced him to start the second inning. He proceeded to throw 7 shutout innings, striking out 7, walking none and allowing only two base hits. After nine innings, the score was tied 5 – 5. The teams traded 2-run 10th innings, and then Tampa Bay scored 7 in the top of the 11th to seal the win.
When I saw what Stripling did, I expected to wake up this morning to the Wolverines back in first place! But they aren’t. They somehow gave up 3.7 runs. I forgot one little detail: I benched Stripling 100% the day after his last start.
They say it’s foolish to try to time the stock market. You should just stick your money in there and leave it. I tried to time Stripling. If I had just left him alone, the W’s would be in first place right now.
Haviland: “L”, 7 – 6. (30 PA, .292, .433, .333; 2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Michael Kopech twirled those two scoreless innings, which make the 5.7 runs allowed a little hard to take. But the Dragons are dragging 11.5 replacement innings around this month, so Kopech was only making a dent in the daily ERA. Speaking of making dents, the Dragon offense hardly made a dent with only one extra base hit, and 6 of their 13 baserunners reaching on a walk or a HBP for a shiny OBP but a sad SLG. It was still enough to score 6.6 runs, Haviland’s benched players contributing 0 for 8 with a GDP. Kopech didn’t do a lot of pitching, but it was still enough to give the D’s a win under that “L”, and limit their slide in the standings to 0.1 games.
Flint Hill: L, 6 – 11. (25 PA, .320, .393, .480; 11 ip, 10 er, 8.18 ERA). Monday Tornado management made poor Anthony DeSclafani the goat for a 6 – 12 loss, even though the former Wolverine only allowed 10 of those runs in his 2 innings. Well, now we get to see how effective this motivational strategy was: the team cut its runs allowed by 8.33% to only 11 in one game. With ownership’s comments ringing in their ears, Blake Snell took the mound for 3.7 innings, giving up 5 earned runs. Tanner Scott relieved himself on the mound for 0.3 ip and 2 earned runs, a nice little sextuple chulk. It’s biblical: the tongue is like a small rudder steering a great ship. A slip of the tongue can set a forest ablaze. (James 3: 3 – 6)
Kaline: “L”, 7 – 5. (17 PA, .364, .529, .636; 11 ip, 6 er, 3.94 ERA). Willy Adames debuted for the Brewers Monday, and walked twice in four plate appearances. The other three Drive hitters drove hits — Kyle Lewis for a home run. John Means means to be an ace, I think and looked like it, going 7 innings and giving up just two solo homers. The Drive kept pace with the Pears, and watched as the Tornados retreated 0.8 in Kaline’s direction.
DC: W, 4 – 4. (14 PA, .154, .214, .385; no pitching). An unmemorable day for DC. No one did much, the weak hitting was also thin enough to not cause much damage, and Ryan McMahon hit another home run. So the result was a mere 0.1-game slip in the standings. DC is still in the elite tier, although that tier seems to be splitting in twain as Flint Hill joins Kaline and DC more than 2.5 games behind the Pears.
Canberra: W, 6 – 4. (20 PA, .250, .250, .700; 3 ip, 2 er, 6.00 ERA). There’s something stark, like a Nevada landscape, about the Kangaroo offense from Monday. No walks or HBP blur the batting average. But Vlad Guerrero Jr. had another 2 homer day, Manuel Margot tripled, and Mitch Garver doubled to turn a bare .250 batting average into a .700 slugging percentage and a .950 OPS. That was enough to a) overwhelm any bad influence from the three rocky innings three relievers produced; b) keep up with the Pears; c) boost the Cannie winning percentage to .560, another .003 boost, and d) watch the bottom of the elite tier inch another 0.1 game closer to the Kangaroo position.
Cottage: L, 5 – 9. (17 PA, .250, .294. .500; no pitching) There was a lot of this no pitching Monday in the EFL. It doesn’t seem to help the team win. The Cheese tried to copy the Kangaroos’ stark offensive landscape, but Australia is a lot more like Nevada than Cottage Street is, so they didn’t really nail it. Marcus Semien did his a home run. And Randy Arozarena drove a double. But he also slipped up and took a walk, and no one tripled. So the effect just wasn’t the same. The Cheese slipped another half-game behind the Kangaroos, clinging to the familiar contours of the grounded tier.
Pittsburgh: W, 7 – 6. (11 PA, ..300, .364, .900; 6.7 ip, 4 er, 5.37 ERA) How many EFL teams are going to do this? A strictly limited number of hitters? Check — the Alleghenys only sent 3 guys to the plate. No walks? — well, not quite. Garret Hampson walked. Stark power numbers looming over the rest of the line like a virtual Sierra Nevada? Check — another team cycle, similar to Canberra’s: Double by Andrew Vaughn, triple by Hampson, and homer by.. Vaughn. The Alleghenys, however, also pitched 6.7 innings. Unfortunately, 6 of those were provided by Frankie Montas, who surrendered 4 earned runs because he couldn’t handle the Mariners. Thus did Pittsburgh peek back over the .500 line, by 0.001.
Portland: L, 2 – 4. (14 PA, .077, .143, .077. 7.3 ip, 3 er, 3.70 ERA). You can see what happened just by looking at this batting line. There can’t have been more than one single, which had to be supplemented by a walk. This is more like a Saharan landscape! You’ll never guess who got the lone single!
How’d you do that? Of course it was Luis Urias. And, at the risk of spoiling Jamie’s post 6 hours from now, can you guess how this former Wolverine prized prospect was rewarded in Tuesday game?
Yes, you’re right. He was benched in favor of Kolten Wong, w as a defensive sub in the 8th, and struck out in his only plate appearance. I am rooting for Urias, and will until the Rosebuds pass the Wolverines in the standings. He keeps having to fight off mediocre competitors for his position. Getting squeezed between Wong and Adames is the worst fix he’s been in so far…
Anyway, the Portlies lost 0.3 games in the standings to both the Pears and the Kangaroos.
Bellingham: W, 7 – 6. (25 PA, .333, .360, .750; 2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) Another almost-successful attempt to reproduce an intermountain western landscape. Once again we have one home run (by that offensive monster Brad Miller, currently batting .318, .375, .534 !!. But the Cascades know how to build a western mountain: you taper it. So if your peak is one homer, then the middle part of the mountain has to be two triples (Rowdy Tellez and Corey Dickerson), and the base has to be 3 doubles. (Dickerson, Rhys Hoskins, and Tim Anderson. Unfortunately that left room for only two singles, so there’s some work to be done.
Oh, and Cam Bedrosian twirled two scoreless innings. And that’s how the Cascades kept pace with the Pears on Monday.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 34 | 15 | .688 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 32 | 17 | .651 | 1.8 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 30 | 19 | .612 | 3.7 |
| Boston Red Sox | 29 | 19 | .604 | 4.2 |
| New York Yankees | 28 | 19 | .596 | 4.7 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 23 | 22 | .511 | 8.7 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 17 | 30 | .362 | 15.7 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 27 | 14 | .656 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 23 | 18 | .560 | 4 |
| New York Mets | 21 | 20 | .512 | 5.9 |
| Miami Marlins | 23 | 24 | .489 | 6.9 |
| Atlanta Braves | 23 | 24 | .489 | 6.9 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 23 | 25 | .479 | 7.4 |
| Washington Nationals | 20 | 23 | .465 | 7.9 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 27 | 19 | .587 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 25 | 20 | .556 | 1.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 23 | 23 | .501 | 4 |
| Kansas City Royals | 22 | 23 | .489 | 4.5 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 20 | 26 | .424 | 7.5 |
| Detroit Tigers | 18 | 29 | .383 | 9.5 |
| Minnesota Twins | 18 | 29 | .383 | 9.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 26 | 21 | .553 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 24 | 22 | .522 | 1.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 24 | 23 | .515 | 1.8 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 24 | 23 | .511 | 2 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 20 | 25 | .444 | 5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 18 | 28 | .391 | 7.5 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 33 | 16 | .683 | — |
| Kaline Drive | 31 | 18 | .638 | 2.2 |
| Oakland A’s | 28 | 21 | .571 | 5.5 |
| Houston Astros | 26 | 21 | .553 | 6.5 |
| Seattle Mariners | 22 | 26 | .458 | 11 |
| Texas Rangers | 22 | 27 | .449 | 11.5 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 20 | 27 | .426 | 12.5 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Peshastin Pears | 33 | 15 | .697 | — |
| San Diego Padres | 30 | 18 | .625 | 3.5 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 29 | 18 | .617 | 4 |
| San Francisco Giants | 28 | 19 | .596 | 5 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 23 | 25 | .482 | 10.3 |
| Colorado Rockies | 19 | 29 | .396 | 14.5 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 18 | 30 | .375 | 15.5 |