When the Wolverines were down — you know, down in third place — and their pitchers were struggling (or on Wednesday, not pitching), along came the Pirates to give them one last bit of hope.
The Pirates lost a doubleheader Wednesday by a total score of 1 – 15. They had been above .500 for the week, which left the Wolverines bearing the full burden of their poor play. But after their doubleheaded debacle, the Pirates are now back to their old game, finishing the week outscored 21 – 31, so the W’s could get the adjusted winning percentage up to .796, their position in the standings back up to 2nd, and their distance from the Seraphim down to 4.4 games. Thank you , kindly Pirates. The rest of the W’s good fortune is thanks to Eloy Jimenez, who homered, doubled and singled against the Mariners, keying their loss, but adding an ember to Old Detroit’s dying pennant race fire.
The pennant race is down to embers because the darn Seraphim keep winning. The Tornados did not roll over for Salem — they had a weekly winning percentage a bit above .500 — but that only shaved a small slice off Salem’s raw .832 winning percentage. For the first time all season, I believe, Salem has taken over as the EFL’s best offense, now outscoring the W’s 818 to 815. They are relentless, their pitching is so deep you can’t see the bottom, and unlike the rest of us, they will not have to play a team better than them the rest of the season.
Salem overtook the W’s on offense even though Salem’s superstars weren’t at all super at the plate to close out the week. Over his last two games, Mookie Betts OPSed only OPSed .347, and Shohei Ohtani only .556. But the S’s just shifted their reliance over to big names like Oscar Gonzalez, Alejandro Kirk, and Francisco Mejia (1.357, 1.500, 1.143 OPS, respectively).
The Balk passed the Seraphim in pitching, now having allowed 1 run fewer than Salem. That was partly because Taijuan Walker had a rough outing Wednesday (5 ip, 4 er) for Salem — although so did Zach Thompson for DC (3 ip, 3 er), part of the Pirates’ generosity. Ah, but that DC mastermind was at work: Thompson is allocated at 0% this week. There are only four weeks left now, though, so if the Balk intend to catch the Seraphim but outsmarting them, they’re going to have to pick up the cognitive pace.
The Kangaroos will be glad to see the 9th-place Alleghenys playing someone else starting Thursday. The EFL Pittsburgh team was brutal on the Kangaroos’ pennant hopes. While Canberra ran up a very nice .687 raw weekly winning percentage, the Alleghenys outdid them with a .737 winning percentage of their own. This left the ‘Roos sagging 2.2 games further off the Seraphic pace for the week. However — take heart, Kangaroo fans! The other Pittsburgh team (the Pirates) roll into Canberra tomorrow. Perhaps they can be as kind to Kangaroos as they were to Wolverines.
After weeks of handing out winning percentage drubbings to other EFL teams, the Dragons took a break in Week 23. The Dragons did their best to boost Balk fortunes by limiting their raw winning percentage to .422 this week. Did the Balk respond in kind (or kindness)? Not a bit. They boosted their already fine .874 raw winning percentage all the way to .905, and briefly took second place away from its rightful owner.
Boy — you try to interfere with the Drive when they are in the pivot spot in the standings, you’d better watch out — as the Cascades learned this week. Kaline posted a ruthless .818 raw winning percentage, with Dalton Varsho leading the way, going 7 for 21 with 5 homers and a walk. The Cascades responded meekly, only troubling Kaline with a .348 raw winning percentage, but of course that only made things worse, upping Kaline to an .894 adjusted percentage, the highest in the league after DC.
I regret to report that the Rosebuds’ prized theft from the Wolverines, Eric Lauer, let his new team down badly Wednesday, almost triple chulking by coughing up 7 earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. That opened the door for the Alleghenys to re-leap over Portland into 8th place. Fortunately fellow ex-Wolverine Luis Urias came through with a 1.103 weekly OPS (3 for 11 with a double, a homer, 3 walks and a hbp) to bolster Rosebud management confidence in their ability to shear the fleece off the Wolverines.
The Pears benefitted from Lauer’s collapse, eking out a rare above .500 weekly adjusted winning percentage by outdoing the Rosebud’s raw winning percentage .566 to .550. Cal Raleigh — of course! — was the star of the week for the Pears, going 6 for 14 with a double, 4 dramatic homers, and two walks. Cal’s 1.632 OPS was the third highest of any EFL players with more than 4 plate appearances, just behind Haviland’s Aaron Judge (1.779) and Flint Hill’s Bo Bichette (1.642).
One last note: we had a rash of poor pitching performances by pitchers who were just drafted at the last manager’s meeting:
- Old Detroit: Andre Pallante (1.3 ip, 4 er) and Mitch White (2.3 ip, 5 er)
- Haviland: Javier Assad (6.3 ip, 5 er)
- Pittsburgh: Tommy Henry (4.3 ip, 5 er)
Plus Cade Cavalli, Canberra’s choice, pitched 4 1/3 inning on Aug 26, allowing 7 earned runs. Canberra drafted him anyway, but before he could pitch he went on the IL. So he fits on this list.
One exception to this trend: Brayan Bello, he of the sky-high ERA and low FIP when Jamie outbid me for him. Bello’s outing this week: 6 ip, 0 er.
