Broken Spirits

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Portland Rosebuds	60	38	.609	—	516.8	407.9
Old Detroit Wolverines	60	40	.596	1.1	464.4	381.4
Canberra Kangaroos	55	41	.575	3.6	429.4	369.6
Brookland Outs	54	43	.561	4.8	511.3	454.1
Cottage Cheese	54	43	.557	5.2	501.4	443.2
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	50	47	.519	8.9	509.6	494.9
Kaline Drive	52	49	.515	9.2	467.7	443.3
Flint Hill Tornadoes	50	50	.498	11	430.3	433.7
Peshastin Pears	47	51	.476	13	418.7	443.2
Haviland Dragons	45	56	.446	16.1	431.3	485.9
D.C. Balk	39	57	.409	19.4	399.9	482.2

Portland:  “W”, 3 – 4. (31 PA, .214. .290, .250; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Probably due to a spate of east coast rainouts, only six Rosebuds came out to bat, Saturday, plus only one lonely reliever. Niko Goodrum (0 for 4) and Marcell Oznua (1 for 7) were almost completely shut out at the plate, sabotaging the fair work of the rest of the team (5 for 21 with a double and three walks: .240, .333, .289.   Not great, but the Rosebuds are supposed to be steadily pulling away from everyone else right about now, judging by the pre-season chatter.

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Old Detroit:  W, 9 – 5. (54 PA, .304, .352, .457; 10.3 ip, 6 er, 5.23 ERA).  Fortunately for the Wolverines, Anthony DeSclafani is pitching in Toledo right now, so his 4.3 ip, 3 er didn’t count.  That left the W’s with 6 ip, 3 er: a 4.50 ERA. Not great, but not devastating, either.  The hitting was very nice by Wolverine standings, lead by under-performers Josh Bell (4 for 4 with a double) and Jose Iglesias (2 for 3 with a double and a homer).  W’s fans, used to our recent history of also-running, are waiting for the inevitable collapse — but so far, it hasn’t happened.

Canberra:  W (-1), L 1, 0 – 2. (24 PA, .150, .333, .300; 6 ip, 5 er).  The Kangaroos struggled on both offense and pitching Saturday. Steven Matz did the 5 ip, 5 er start.  Only three of the 7 Kangaroo batters got hits — 3 for 9 with a home — but it was almost enough for the Kangaroos to tread water and let the Rosebuds come back to them. (What about the Wolverines? They’re practically invisible. o one expects the W’s to actually, you know, win this year.The W’s don’t seek out the limelight. They hardly get mentioned in even the EFL press.)

Brookland:  W 1, L 2; 1 – 15. (47 PA, .098, .213, .122; 14 ip, 8 er).  The Outs are having trouble getting traction in the pennant race.  They sent a BUNCH of people (twelve, to be exact)  to the plate Friday, but got only 4 hits and six walks for all that work.  They sent a bunch of people to the mound (6 of them) and got slightly better outcomes (5.14 ERA over 14 innings) but Bartolo Colon (5 er, 4.7 ip) and Zack Godley (5 ip, 3 er) set the stadium on fire.  In a bad way. 

Cottage: W 2, L 1; 19 – 12. (33 PA, .267, .333, .300; 2.7 ip, 1 er).  The Cheese have apparently been living right. They got caught in a surprise summer triple header, produced barely a game’s worth of hitting, and less than half a game’ worth of pitching — but still managed to win 2 and lose only 1 and, more importantly, cut 0.7 games off the gap between them and first place. And they did it quietly.  7 of their 9 hitters contributed to the offense, and both pitchers did ok.

Pittsburgh: L, 5 – 6.  (21 PA, .250, 429, .313; 15.3 ip, 8 er).  Those east coast rainstorms caused way more havoc than one would imagine, with only two games cancelled but several EFL franchises struggling to field a full team. At least all five of the A’s hitters actually hit — except Altuve, who walked twice. Three starters — Lynn, Weaver and Yarbough — combined to allow 8 earned runs in 13 innings, but two relievers took the edge off with 2.7 scoreless innings.

Kaline: W, 5 – (-2). (44 PA, .256, .318, .487; 22.3 ip, 5 er, 2.01 ERA).  Kaline had another very nice day.  This team has been making the biggest move in the league since the All Star break, and is now soaring over .500, just behind the Alleghenys and almost 2 games ahead of the Tornados.  Aaron Judge went 3 for 4 with a double and a homer to be one of the four hitting studs with at least a 1.000 OPS for July.  Marcus Stroman (7 ip, 1 er) and Brian Johnson (5 ip 0 er) led the pitchers to a strong finish, too.

Flint Hill: W, 3 – 1. (44 PA, .167, .318, .222; 13 ip, 3 er, 2.08 ERA).  It isn’t as bad as it looks. The pitching was very good, and this hitting… well, it has a bright spot in Miguel Andujar’s 3 for 4 with 2 doubles. Mike Trout failed to hit a fair ball… and that was the last straw for the Tornado leadership.  They sounded the retreat by trading James Paxton to the wily Kangaroos for two pitchers whose value lie entirely in the future.

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The Commissioner’s Office feels bad about this.  We obsessed with following the Mike-Trout-laden Tornados and chronicled Trout’s failure to add zip to the windy ones (Trout Saturday: 0 for 2 with 2 walks).  I think this is the first time the Commissioner’s Office ever broke a team’s spirit.  I am remorseful.  So remorseful that I invite the Tornados to raid our larder of prospects like they just did for our rival Kangaroos. We owe you one or two.

Peshastin: “W”. 2 – 4. (41 PA, .211, .268, .237; no pitching) Another dismal day for an EFL offense — there were so many of them Saturday! But Aledmys Diaz wasn’t affected.  He went 2 for 3, building on his 4 for 5 day Friday to compile a two-day line of .750, .750, 1.250.  What a great pick-up by the Pears!  But watch out for those Tornados!  They are crashing through the lineup like… um… whirling wind storms. They may maneuver themselves into your spot in the draft order!

Haviland: W, 8 – 1. (29 PA, .360, .448, .600 — Happy Edgar Day!; 11 ip, 0 er — Happy Randy Johnson Day!)  It’s interesting to compare what demoralizes people. The Tornados trade for the best player alive, find themselves sinking just as fast into the nether regions of the league, and then get worse rather than better.  That demoralizes them, and they start tearing things down by trading Paxton.  The Dragons, on the other hand, have a wonderful day at the plate (Yonder Alonso — 2 homers!) and the mound (Dylan Covey two-hitting the Mariners over 8.3 innings of shutout baseball!). But the Dragons look around and see themselves still in 10th place and advertise a yard sale on all their expiring contracts. www

DC: DNP, 2 – (-8).  (39 PA, .324, .410, .353;  14.3 ip, 4 er).  Congratulations to the Balk and their fans wherever they may be!  The Balk had a great day kind of like the Drive did, and gained almost an entire game on the Rosebuds.  Four Balks batted over 1.000 OPS. Carlos Carrasco and Alex Cobb had strong starts (11.7 ip, 3 er between them) and the bullpen did its job. If Haviland offloads enough talent, and the Tornados keep careening wildly toward the bottom of the league, there could be quite a dust-up for that first draft pick next spring.

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AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Boston Red Sox	69	31	.690	—
New York Yankees	63	34	.649	4.5
Old Detroit Wolverines	60	40	.596	9.4
Tampa Bay Rays	49	49	.500	19
Flint Hill Tornadoes	50	50	.498	19.2
Toronto Blue Jays	45	52	.464	22.5
Baltimore Orioles	28	71	.283	40.5

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Canberra Kangaroos	55	41	.575	—
Philadelphia Phillies	54	42	.563	1.2
Atlanta Braves	53	42	.558	1.7
Washington Nationals	48	49	.495	7.7
Miami Marlins	43	57	.430	14.2
New York Mets	40	56	.417	15.2
D.C. Balk	39	57	.409	15.8

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Cleveland Indians	54	43	.557	—
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	50	47	.519	3.7
Minnesota Twins	44	52	.458	9.5
Detroit Tigers	42	58	.420	13.5
Chicago White Sox	34	63	.351	20
Kansas City Royals	29	68	.299	25

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Chicago Cubs	57	40	.588	—
Milwaukee Brewers	56	44	.560	2.5
Brookland Outs	54	43	.561	2.6
Cottage Cheese	54	43	.557	3
St. Louis Cardinals	50	48	.510	7.5
Pittsburgh Pirates	50	49	.505	8
Cincinnati Reds	43	55	.439	14.5

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Houston Astros	66	35	.653	—
Seattle Mariners	59	40	.596	6
Oakland A’s	56	43	.566	9
Kaline Drive	52	49	.515	14
Los Angeles Angels	49	50	.495	16
Haviland Dragons	45	56	.446	20.9
Texas Rangers	41	58	.414	24

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Portland Rosebuds	60	38	.609	—
Los Angeles Dodgers	54	44	.551	5.7
Colorado Rockies	53	45	.541	6.7
Arizona Diamondbacks	53	46	.535	7.2
San Francisco Giants	51	49	.510	9.7
Peshastin Pears	47	51	.476	13
San Diego Padres	40	60	.400	20.7