Justice delayed would have been just fine, thank you.
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| EFL | ||||||
| Team | Wins | Losses | Pct. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 79 | 46 | .633 | — | 608.5 | 454.3 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 78 | 47 | .620 | 1.6 | 657.6 | 506.1 |
| Brookland Outs | 71 | 52 | .577 | 7.2 | 650.7 | 559.1 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 66 | 57 | .535 | 12.4 | 563.6 | 530.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 65 | 58 | .527 | 13.3 | 636.8 | 607.7 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 65 | 60 | .517 | 14.5 | 570.4 | 549.2 |
| Cottage Cheese | 63 | 60 | .509 | 15.6 | 611.9 | 601.8 |
| Kaline Drive | 62 | 62 | .497 | 17 | 551.8 | 553.7 |
| Haviland Dragons | 61 | 63 | .492 | 17.6 | 571.0 | 577.1 |
| Peshastin Pears | 56 | 69 | .452 | 22.7 | 522.0 | 577.4 |
| D.C. Balk | 53 | 70 | .433 | 24.9 | 525.9 | 602.6 |
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Old Detroit: “W”, 1 – 2. (46 PA, .103, .239, .231; no pitching). Saturday the fates punished the Wolverines for celebrating a great pitching day Friday. Saturday’s pitching was totally opposite from Fridays, as if the law of averages was actually a LAW and new regulations had just come out requiring all streaks of good luck to be cancelled immediately with equal and opposite bad luck. No more going soft of people, like the Mariners getting to believe they were good for two months, then there being a pause for a month, and THEN the payback hitting the M’s like it has, capped (I hope!) by the humiliating 12-1 loss to the Dodgers Sunday.
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Where was I? Oh yeah: no more going soft! So the now the W’s have paid within 48 hours for both the hitting and the pitching good luck they had on Friday. If it weren’t for the 7 innings of nearly shutout DeSclafani pitching the W’s added with their third and final August roster move, what’s left of their lead in the standings would be even smaller.
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Portland: W, 3 – 3. (50 PA, .200, .280, .267; 10.7 ip, 3 er, 2.53 ERA). The Rosebuds wilted at the plate yesterday — not nearly as badly as the Wolverines, but pretty badly for the exalted Rosebud offense, the second best in the league. But German Marquez (7 ip, 2 er) helped the pitchers have a good day, salvaging a narrow win and taking some advantage of the Wolverines’ comeuppance from the fates.
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Brookland: W, 9 – 5. (47 PA, .317, .404, .756; 12.3 ip, 7 er, 5.11 ERA). On a day when the EFL-leading Out offense was knocking ’em out of the park (5 times, no less, by four alphabetically adjacent Outs: Cron, K Davis, Descalso, and Gattis), the Outs pitching staff was well short 0f its prime. Jake Odorizzi and newly-acquired Anibal Sanchez combined for 11.7 innings with 7 earned runs.
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Canberra: L, 8 – 11. (47 PA, .302, .354, .605; 3.3 ip, 9 er, 24.30 ERA). Too bad about that pitching. It ruined what would have been a great day, after that nice hitting performance. For example, Billy Hamilton had 2 triples! But Andrew Suarez nearly chulked (2.7 ip, 5 er) while Tim Myza sextuple chulked (0.7 ip, 4 er).
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Pittsburgh: W (-1), L 2; (-1) – 14. (33 PA, .212, .212, .303; 1.7 ip, 6 er). The day went steadily downhill, culminating in Ryan Borucki’s nonuple chulk (0.7 ip, 6 er). Borucki’s August ERA has swollen to near-replacement 7.13.
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Flint Hill: “W”, 1 – 2. (32 PA, .179, .281, .321; 6 IP, 1 ER, 1.50 ERA). Tyson Ross only lasted 3 innings, albeit without an earned run. Three relievers stepped up to finish the day well. But most of the hitters were unable to match the pitching. Austin Barnes did manage a double and two walks in 5 plate appearances, and Carlos Santana homered, but those were the offensive highlights.
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Cottage: “W”, 5 – 7. (38 PA, .219, .342, .531; 11 ip, 7 ER, 5.73 ERA). Cheese hitters completed exactly one game’s worth of work, making exactly 27 outs. They went 7 for 32, added 6 walks, a sacrifice bunt, and a double play. Max Kepler led the offense with a homer and a walk in four trips to the plate. Cheesy pitchers mostly had a good day, except for Sean Manaea’s 6 er in 4 ip.
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Kaline: W, 6 – 6. (40 PA, .270, .325, .622; no pitching). Five guys over 1.000 OPS on the day is a good way to start (Gurriel, Myers, Pollock, Wendle and especially Renfroe at 2.417). Kaline needs the pitching that went missing yesterday — they picked up a few replacement innings.
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Haviland: L, 4 – 6. (21 PA, .190, .346, .190; 0.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Amed Rosario went 3 for 5 — and the rest of the team went 1 for 16, albeit with 5 walks. That’s not counting the replacement plate appearances (about 5 in total) that came at catcher and second base.
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Peshastin: L, 2 – 4. (31 PA, .143, .226, .179; 6 ip, 1 er, 1.50 ERA.) If only James Taillon could have gotten a little more support from his offense… but they could only manage 4 for 28 with three walks and a double. Javier Baez did about half of that all by himself (2 for 5 with a double).
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DC: W, 7 – 2. (43 PA, .325, .249, .650; 7.3 ip, 1 er, 1.23 ERA). I tell ya, those Balks are maybe the hottest team in the league. Mike Clevinger dominated in 6 innings, with 7 Ks, 1 W, and no earned runs. Five guys OPSed over 1.000 (Chapman, Gennett, Riddle, Russell and especially Narvaez at 2.417) — just like Kaline, except the Balk had great pitching, too .