Yesterday, during the first inning of the Braves playing the Mariners at T-Mobile park, I got this poignant note from Ryan:
“Julioooooo (off of Odorizzi, sigh)”
The star Kangaroo debutant taking a Kangaroo rotation stalwart deep, to the benefit of the Mariners — a team Ryan roots for in real life — was just the start of a looong Sunday for the Captain Kangaroo.
As any Mariners fan would have, Ryan’s spirits rose as the M’s built a solid 6 – 1 lead going into the 8th inning. But the first four runs of that lead came at a cost: Kangaroo Odorizzi couldn’t get out of the 4th inning, having surrendered 4 earned runs. Two of those were driven in by Peshastin Pear Adam Frazier’s triple. Not that the Kangaroos are afraid of the Pears or anything… but still — did Frazier have to pile on?
Also, the Braves got on the board in the 4th on an Austin Riley solo homer, lifting the Wolverines another tenth of a game or so ahead of the hungry, hungry Kangaroos.
Kangaroo Matt Brash boosted the Captain’s mood with his one scoreless inning in relief for the Mariners. On the other hand, Rosebud Michael Harris II dented that mood with a top-of-the-eighth solo blast, cutting the M’s lead to 6 – 2.
Then Diego Castillo — not on any EFL roster — struck fear in the Captain’s Mariner-loving heart, getting two outs, and two strikes, but putting two men on. Instead of getting that last strike, Castillo coughed up another home run to Rosebud Harris, cutting the lead to 1.
On came Kangaroo stalwart Paul Sewald. Who can always be counted on to quell trouble. But this time Sewald surrendered a single, then a homer to 9th-batter Robbie Grossman — and now the M’s were trailing, 7 – 6. A
Then Sewald hit Ronald Acuna to put another runner on. It was small relief when Sewald finally got Allegheny Dansby Swanson out.
Bottom of the ninth, Mariners broadcasters reeling at the disastrous pending loss so suddenly inflicted, the Captain reeling at the collapse of even Paul Sewald. With a man out, Julio Rodriguez blasts a 117 mph laser into the auxiliary scoreboard over the left field wall, his first career multiple homer game. Game tied, Kangaroos consoled a little bit.
With another man out, Eugenio Suarez homers to deep left center. M’s win.
Can the Captain take solace from his players in other games? Absolutely! Julio’s 3.050 Sunday OPS (3 for 4 with 2 homers and a walk) leads the team, but he has plenty of support: Brandon Nimmo’s 2.167 (2 for 4 with a double, homer, and two walks); Kyle Tucker’s 2.100 (2 for 4 with a double, a homer, and one walk); Nathanael Lowe’s 1.000 (2 for 4), and Vladito’s 1.000 (2 for 5 with a double). The team overall blasted out a .436, .511, .872 line — outstanding!
But even with 3.3 scoreless innings of relief, Kangaroo hurlers hurled a 7.36 daily ERA.
Even so, the Kangaroos’ season winning percentage ticked up from .612 to .615. That’s pretty good for this late in the season!
Even so, the Kangaroos’ deficit to the Seraphim did not move. But the remaining season shrank by one more day. And even worse, the Wolverines extended their intra-familial lead over the ‘Roos from 3.2 to 3.3 games.
…
I do not mean to slight any other EFL team by focusing so closely on the Kangaroos. Instead, I offer their day as a representative for all the days of all the EFL teams.
Except Salem, of course.
When the season is down to 21 games and your closest pursuer is 4.3 games back and only gains 0.1 games in the standings, you aren’t on a roller coaster. You are just gliding toward a practically certain finish.
Just like the Mariners yesterday, up 4 runs with two outs in the top of the other team’s ninth. You’ve got nothing to worry about.
(Commissioner’s note: The Wolverines gained ground on the ‘Roos because the commissioner noticed they had only been credited with 5 games played last week. All the player stats had been entered for the week, but the number-of-games slot on the data entry sheet had not been updated from 5 to 6. This was easily corrected, and resulted in a 0.2-game boost in the standings, half of which the Wolverines immediately gave away with a so-so day.)
(Other commissioner’s note: We now have three division leaders (50% of the total), and five teams in the playoffs (45.5% of the total) despite only constituting 27.1% of the 41 major league teams. Go EFL!!)
(Superfluous commissioner’s note: Fear not. We are on pace to average just under 85 wins. We are in no danger of having a competitive balance expansion draft next off-season. )
(Egregiously superfluous commissioner’s note, will he ever shut up?: We have head-to-head competition to thank for not facing a competitive balance expansion draft. Our raw winning percentages right now would put us on pace to notch 90.45 wins — just 0.45 wins over the competitive expansion draft threshhold.)
