We could have been the EMRL, I suppose

Today I descend so far as to reference a Briton, who as far as I know, has no connection to baseball.  Although, in his defence, he was born in England, has moved to the US (bringing him closer to baseball), and apparently appreciates cricket (a poorer, even slower cousin of baseball, and about as close as an English school boy can get).  Note: the references to this poor Briton don’t start until I get to Canberra.  I took a break between Pittsburgh and Canberra to finish reading something.

EFL Standings for 2016

Haviland: W, 8 – 6. (.305, .431, .525;  13.7 ip, 8 er).  Jose Berrios struggled through 4 innings (4 er) before Seung Hwan Oh and Kelvin Herrera cleaned everything up. With all that offense, the Dragons did not leave much opportunity for other teams to make up their losses from the Wednesday Night Massacre.

Old Detroit: W, 11 – 9. (.311, .329, .649;  12 ip, 6 er). Good hitting, mediocre pitching is the theme this year for the W’s. Not good enough anymore. Liriano (inactive) pitched 6 scoreless innings.  Bumgarner (active) surrendered 4 er in 5 ip.  So that was backwards.

Portland: W 2, L 1; 15 -16.  (.323, .394, .425; 26.3 ip, 14 er).  Very similar numbers to Old Detroit’s, with twice the pitching. Exciting rookie Michael Fulmer stumbled (5.7 ip, 6er).  Bozring (perhaps the MOST boring pitcher in baseball) Tom Koehler delivered Being inches apart isn’t as exciting when it’s a race for second place.

Pittsburgh: W 1, L 1; 11 – 11. (.284, .341, .554;  3.3 ip, 2 er).  The Peak Allegheny told me yesterday how hard it was for him Thursday morning when he realized the A’s had been ejected from the pennant race in a single day. If only he’d gone a little easier on us over the years. I could have felt sorrier for him now. (Just between you and me, there’s still plenty of time for the Alleghenys to sieze the top spot.  But let’s keep that between ourselves for now, ok?)

Canberra: W 2, L 0; 17 – 8. (.326, .356, .558; 7 ip, 2 er).  I have just finished reading a book by Neil Gaiman — Stardust — full of his unique brand of Fantasy, or maybe Magical Realism, and a lot less gross than American Gods (which was too gross for my taste). Stardust isn’t quite as good as The Graveyard Book. I appreciated its homages to Narnia, both direct and indirect. And it’s still plenty enchanting. So keep that in mind when I say “one reason I think Pittsburgh is still in the race is my sense that we have not heard the last of the Kangaroos, either. They have recovered from Wednesday’s shock, and have resumed peeling daily half-games out of EFL leads.  And if a team 8 games out is still in it, so would be a team only 5 games out.”

Peshastin: W 2, L 1; 23 – 22. (.344, .488, .688;  5.3 ip, 3 er).  Huge offensive numbers but Peshastin is trying to stretch 5 innings and 41 plate appearances over 3 games.  They did an impressive but still inadequate job.  I’m unwilling to say the Pears are out of the race, but my magical thinking powers aren’t enough to make it seem so.  Thus the burden of proof is on the Pears over the next week or two.

Kaline:  W 2, L (-1): 19 – (-2). (.459, .522, ..803; 20.7 ip, 6 er) Wow! Two days FAR above an EMDay in every offensive category. The Drive gained 1.8 games on first in two days; go from 8 games under .500 to just 5 in two days; flash past the Tornados like a 103 MPH Edwin Diaz fastball… At the rate they’re going even the Drive would catch the Dragons before the season is over.  I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t think that’s possible.  On the other hand, it would be possible in a Neil Gaiman novel, and Gaiman writes fantasy fiction, and we’re in a fantasy league…

Flint Hill:  L, 8 – 9. (.256, .347, .696; 13 ip, 10 er).  Um, well, if there’s any magic  in Flint Hill — other than ordinary everyday sort embodied in thoughtfulness for others (like refraining from sending tornados rampaging through inhabited areas) — if there’s any of the magic in Flint Hill that lifts humble 8th place teams to league championships, I haven’t see it yet.  Evan Gettis went 5 for 7 with a homer and two walks — and a stolen base! — so there is probably more to Flint Hill that meets the eye… but still, the road is so long and the Tornados as a team are so going the wrong direction…

Cottage:  W 0, L 2; 5 – 15.  (.247, .287, .348; 4.7 ip, 4 er).  Actually, it would be totally inappropriate for an EFL Commissioner to declare anyone out of the race, at least not before we start September.  For one thing, there’s math.  The earliest you can be mathematically out a race is the first day of a month when your team has fewer games left to play than the number of games it is behind the leader.  So right now Cottage is 22.5 games out. At the beginning of September Cottage might have as many as 30 games still left on its schedule (the season, and thus September, isn’t over until Oct. 2).  In theory, if the Cheese is still within 30 games of first when September opens, it could go 30 – 0, and everyone above it could go 0 – 30.  In fact, as long as the Cheese is within 30 games as of Sept 1, even of they have gone 0 -29, still could in theory win the last game 2000 – (-200) and go 30 wins, (-29) losses, while (in theory) everyone else could lose all their wins and replace them with losses… but the maximum effect is the number of games they had left when they started September. So… I can’t declare the Cheese out of it, technically.

DC:  W 0, L 2; 10 – 11.  (.260, .345 .325;  13 ip, 6 er).  It would be inappropriate, as I said, to declare anyone out of the race at this point. But I will mention this: at the moment the Balk are 35.5 games out. They have to bring that number down or they WILL be out of the race on September 1. But not out of their race with the Braves, who are only 2 games ahead.