Yesterday I apologized for what I believed was my error in recording Tuesday’s standings. But it wasn’t my error.
Here is how MLB CURRENTLY (as of 11:00 pm Wednesday evening Aug 23) reports the W/L record for each division’s first place MLB team :
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Team August 21 August 22 August 23
Boston: 71 – 53 72 – 52 73 – 53
Cleveland: 69 – 54 67 – 55 69 – 56
Houston: 76 – 48 76 – 48 77 – 49
Washington: 74 – 48 74 – 48 75 – 49
Chicago Cubs: 66 – 57 67 – 57 68 – 57
LA Dodgers: 88 – 35 88 – 35 89 – 36
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There were no double-headers Wednesday. So someone at MLB.com messed up the standings August 22. It wasn’t my fault. Nor will any nasty standings surprises today be my fault.
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EFL Standings for 2017
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 85 | 40 | .678 | — | 713.8 | 488.4 |
| Haviland Dragons | 82 | 44 | .649 | 3.5 | 760.8 | 558.0 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 81 | 45 | .642 | 4.3 | 655.0 | 487.2 |
| Cottage Cheese | 79 | 46 | .636 | 5.4 | 673.9 | 505.3 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 74 | 51 | .592 | 10.8 | 715.1 | 582.5 |
| Kaline Drive | 70 | 56 | .559 | 14.9 | 628.7 | 558.6 |
| Peshastin Pears | 69 | 56 | .555 | 15.4 | 621.4 | 563.4 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 67 | 59 | .534 | 18 | 632.9 | 576.4 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 58 | 65 | .473 | 25.7 | 587.6 | 622.2 |
| D.C. Balk | 48 | 75 | .387 | 36.1 | 609.5 | 769.5 |
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Pittsburgh: W 3, L 0; 20 -10. (.310, .396, .452; 20.7 ip, 8 er). The A’s are so good they can sail straight through standings snafus with aplomb. They won three “games” even though they ate all of Daniel Gosset’s 5 ip and 5 er. But this is not my fault either. I didn’t trade them Corey Kluber, nor any other rent-a-players. Well, I did trade them Shelby Miller, which is how they got Ender Inciarte who went 4 for 5 yesterday, so maybe it’s a little bit my fault — but the Miller trade was several years ago.
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Haviland: W 2, L 0; 15 – 4. (.278, .395, .528; 10.3 ip, 1 er). The Dragons kept pace with the “3 – 0” Alleghenys with sheer excellent play Wednesday. Ervin Santana spun 7 innings with only 1 earned run, and the offense purred along so nicely that Jake Lamb and Anthony Rizzo’s fine twin days ( a double and a walk in 5 plate appearances for a .900 OPS) were almost exactly average for the Dragons. The Dragons really could use a Harper from the Cheese. They’ll be getting a Puig instead, via Portland. I shopped Kluber to Haviland a couple of months ago, but the offer I got wasn’t as good as Trea Turner, so it’s not my fault if the Dragons don’t catch the Alleghenys. And it’s not my fault if they do, either.
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Flint Hill: W 1, L 1; 10 – 12. (.237, .341, .342; 1.7 ip, 0 er). Tornado management is on the ball, for sure. They noticed anomalous standings and wrote to me about them this morning. I had already figured out the problem — I wrote the intro to this post last night — so I already told them it wasn’t my fault. If they want to find the flaw that cost them 0.7 games in the standings today, they might look closer at the mediocre offense the Tornados whipped up Wednesday. For example, Byron Buxton went 0 for 4. I have tried to trade for Buxton at least twice. So it’s not my fault if he is dampening the Tornados’ force.
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Cottage: L, 3 – 3. (.205, .314, .295; 6.7 ip, 1 er). I didn’t trip Bryce Harper. I didn’t short Mike Trout on his Wheaties causing him to go 0 for 3. WIl Myers, either. I didn’t move the Cheese bullpen so it would fail to appear when most needed.
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Portland: W 1, L 1; 8-8. (.209, .261, .349; 6 ip, 2 er). My man Manny Machado is a Rosebud now, the best player I had to offer (OPSing 1.062 in August). He even hit a walk off home run last night — plenty for the puny Orioles to win, but somehow not good enough for the Rosebuds. Don’t blame me. I did everything I could to help.
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Kaline: W (- 1), L 3; 5 – 23. (.171, .256, .229; 15.3 ip, 18 earned runs). That was Marc Rzepczyinski who sextuple chulked (0.3 ip, 2 er) and Asher Wojciechowski who nearly chulked (3.3 ip, 7 er), and Jhoulys Chacin and Marcus Stroman who stank, to0 — not me, nor any of my ex-Wolverines. In fact, no ex-Wolverine appeared for the Drive last night unless Joe Kelly was once a Wolverine. I can’t remember. Anyway, he did 1.3 scoreless innings, so it wasn’t his fault either.
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Peshastin: W 2, L 0; 15 – 5. (.333, .389, .758; 10 ip, 0 er). Don’t blame me for whatever terrible thing happened to the Pears Wednesday. Oh, wait, nothing terrible happened to the Pears. They hit beautifully, they pitched flawlessly, they even gained a little on the distant Alleghenys. I gave them Jose Iglesias in the Kluber deal: he went2 for 4 with a homer . I gave them Trevor Williams in the Alex Wood deal: he pitched 8 scoreless innings. Every effect I had on the Pears was benign.
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Old Detroit: W 1, L 1; 11 – 5. (.219, .265, .469; 22.0 ip, 6 er). Sometimes bad things just happen. Sometimes no one is to blame, really, except impersonal fate or maybe the baseball gods. Consider the case of Rich Hill. In the fourth inning I noticed he was pitching a shutout against Trevor Williams and the Pirates/Pears. In the eighth inning I noticed he was pitching a no-hitter. So I turned on my MLB.tv feed just in time to see Chase Utley save his PERFECT GAME with a dazzling play at second base. Then the wifi at this Sunriver house we’re in hiccupped and I irretrievably lost my MLB.tv feed, so I switched over to the radio feed just in time to miss Logan Forsythe’s bottom of the ninth inning error that spoiled the perfecto. But I was still listening in the bottom of the tenth when Josh Harrison came up, with Hill still on the mound.
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I had the Pirates’ feed on because I like their announcers. “Granderson leaps and… where’s the ball? Where’s the ball? It’s a home run!” From their point of view, this was a miraculous end to an all-time classic game. They celebrated. “This is a game we will always remember!”
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No doubt they will. But so will Rich Hill. As the Pirate’s announcers mentioned more than once, Hill’s story is so unusual, with his comeback from being out of baseball and then a Long Island Duck just two years ago. And here he had a perfect game through 8 and a no-hitter through 9… and lost in the tenth on a walk-off home run.
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According to MLB (and Elias Sports Bureau)Hill was the first pitcher in over 100 years to lose while pitching nine or more innings, allowing one or fewer hits, and issuing zero walks. He was the first to have a no-hitter spoiled on a walk-off homer. He’s the only pitcher on record to lose while striking out 10, walking 0, and allowing only 1 hit. He’s the first pitcher to lose a one-hitter in extra innings since Pirate Harvey Haddix lost in the 13th after 12 perfect innings in 1959. (Haddix lost on a walk-off double that ruined his no-hitter.)
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Why did Hill suffer like this? Doesn’t it seem like the work of deities toying with him? These were the DODGERS who lost Hill’s near-perfect game. The Dodgers who were, coming into the game, on pace to match the Mariners’ 116-win season. Who held them scoreless while Hill was perfect?
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Trevor Williams. The EX-Wolverine. He’s the Pears’ pitcher now. So it’s not my fault.
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Canberra: “L”, 6 – 5. (.295, .340, .500; 0.7 ip, 0 er). Michael Conforto was injured today, after going 2 for 4 Wednesday. He swung and missed at a pitch. I didn’t throw the pitch. Robbie Ray did.
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DC: W, 9 – 4. (.333, .395, .788; 8.0 ip, 4 er). Welington Castillo led the boisterous balk offense Wednesday, going 2 for 3 with a homer and a walk. I had nothing to do with it. When Castillo was a Wolverine he couldn’t hit. He learned how within a week after we let him go.
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Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2017
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 81 | 45 | .642 | — |
| Boston Red Sox | 73 | 53 | .579 | 8 |
| New York Yankees | 68 | 57 | .544 | 12.5 |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 67 | 59 | .534 | 13.7 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 62 | 65 | .488 | 19.5 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 62 | 65 | .488 | 19.5 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 60 | 66 | .476 | 21 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Washington Nationals | 75 | 48 | .610 | — |
| Miami Marlins | 62 | 63 | .496 | 14 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 58 | 65 | .473 | 16.9 |
| Atlanta Braves | 56 | 69 | .448 | 20 |
| New York Mets | 55 | 70 | .440 | 21 |
| D.C. Balk | 48 | 75 | .387 | 27.3 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 46 | 79 | .368 | 30 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 85 | 40 | .678 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 69 | 56 | .552 | 15.8 |
| Minnesota Twins | 65 | 61 | .516 | 20.3 |
| Kansas City Royals | 64 | 61 | .512 | 20.8 |
| Detroit Tigers | 54 | 71 | .432 | 30.8 |
| Chicago White Sox | 49 | 76 | .392 | 35.8 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Cottage Cheese | 79 | 46 | .636 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 68 | 57 | .544 | 11.4 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 66 | 62 | .516 | 14.9 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 64 | 62 | .508 | 15.9 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 61 | 66 | .480 | 19.4 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 53 | 74 | .417 | 27.4 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Haviland Dragons | 82 | 44 | .649 | — |
| Houston Astros | 77 | 49 | .611 | 4.8 |
| Kaline Drive | 70 | 56 | .559 | 11.4 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 65 | 62 | .512 | 17.3 |
| Seattle Mariners | 65 | 63 | .508 | 17.8 |
| Texas Rangers | 63 | 63 | .500 | 18.8 |
| Oakland A’s | 55 | 72 | .433 | 27.3 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 89 | 36 | .712 | — |
| Portland Rosebuds | 74 | 51 | .592 | 15 |
| Peshastin Pears | 69 | 56 | .555 | 19.6 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 69 | 58 | .543 | 21 |
| Colorado Rockies | 68 | 58 | .540 | 21.5 |
| San Diego Padres | 56 | 70 | .444 | 33.5 |
| San Francisco Giants | ||||
Old Detroit