To Walk or Not to Walk

Old Detroit:  “W”, 2 – 3.  (42 PA, .167, .167, .429;  2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA)   What I meant when I said “I love walks” is “I love it when my team walks.”  Bill James converted me to this enthusiasm in 1984, when I first encountered his Baseball Abstracts.  I am not the only one in this league with this taste:  my Wolverines ranked 2d in walks in April (to DC), May (to KD), and June (to KD), and are tied for second right now in July (to KD).  But, as Jamie noted, a few days ago they went walkless.  And they did it again yesterday: striking out 14 times, but walking 0. And not getting HBP, either. 

Instead, they hit for power.  Five of their seven hits went for extra bases.  Rafael Devers topped the Baseball Reference list of hitters by going 2 for 4 with two homers.  Josh Bell homered, and Will Smith and Austin Riley doubled.  But if there is any such thing as empty power, this was it.  Even with 11 extra base hits, the W’s scored only 2.3  runs, took a phony win, and saw their lead gutted by 0.3 games.

Flint Hill: W, 5 – 3. (44 PA, .211, .318, .289;  1.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  The Tornados did a little bit of everything. 

• They had a little power: 1 Bo Bichette home run, and that’s it. 
• They had a little bit of patience at the plate: 5 walks (and a HBP)
• They had a little bit of hitting: 7 singles to go with Bichette’s homer.
• They had a little bit of pitching: just Tanner Scott’s 1.3 innings of shutout shoving.

The Tornados had one thing in extravagant plenty: managerial shrewdness, which I assume is how the T’s harvested 4.8 runs from that replacement-level batting line. The unallocated trio of Brad Miller, Tyler Naquin and John Nogowski combined to go 1 for 8 with a walk.  Remove their stats and the team slash line morphs to .233, .343, .333, which at least gets us to 4.5 rc/g. 

Peshastin: W 1, L (-1);  (-1) – (-10).  (28 PA, .222, .250, .407;  12.3 ip, 3 er, 2.20 ERA).  Willi Castro homered, and Ozzie Albies and Mike Zunino doubled, to “lead” the 7-member Pear-shaped offense to a negative 1 run outcome.  Meanwhile, the Pears’ five-member pitching crew had one slip-up (Zach Thompson’s 3 earned runs in 5 ip), mended by 7.3 scoreless innings from the other five Pear hurlers. 

The Pears had the best day of any EFL team, despite losing a run scored.  They slashed 0.9 out of their games behind the league leaders without playing a game.

DC:  W, 10 – 4. 38 PA, .344, .421, .750;  8 ip, 3 er, 3.38 ERA).  The Balk made it simple: stomp their opponent!  Pete Alonso clouted 2 homers, and Matt Chapman and Sam Hilliard added one apiece.  Out of 11 Balk hitters, the only one not to reach base safely was pinch hitter Jorge Alfaro.  Bryce Harper went 2 for 3 with a double and a walk… and a steal of 2b, 3b – and home!

Joe Musgrove pitched well (6 ip, 2 er) to make the stomp lopsided and propel the Balk 0.6 closer to first.

Kaline:  W, 5 – 4.   (47, .275, .362, .450;  8 ip, 4 er, 4.50 ERA).   Daulton Varsho homered and doubled, and three others doubled, too. 10 of 12 Drive hitters reached base safely.  One who didn’t was Wilmer Flores, whose one plate appearance turned into the only Drive GIDP of the day.

Pitcher Max Fried struggled to 5 ip, 4 er, but was bailed out by three relievers, who each produced a scoreless inning, just enough to gain 0.1 games on the Wolverines.

Haviland:  W, 7 – 8. (48 PA, .233, .313, .535;  no pitching)  Haviland compensated for a low batting average with 4 walks and a HBP, and lots of slugging.  Harrison Bader, JT Realmuto, and Nelson Cruz hit homers (Cruz for his new MLB team, the Rays).  Jake Cronenworth tripled, and there were two doubles. But without pitching, it wasn’t enough to get a win.  But with the Wolverines’ lackadaisical disdain for the walk, the Dragons held steady at 9.8 games out of first.

Canberra:  L,. 7 –  7.   (30 PA, .310, .33, .621;  4.7 ip, 3 er, 5.74 ERA)  Jake Odirizzi struggled for 4.7 ip, 3 earned runs. With 2.3 more replacement innings added in, the Canberran pitchers set their hitters a difficult target for a win.  The hitters responded, with homers by Kyle Tucker and Javier Baez, a triple from Nate Lowe, and a double from Baes.  But with only one walk, there were just no enough baserunners to outscore the opposition.  

I’m pretty sure the ‘Roos gained on the W’s but it wasn’t enough to overcome the fog of rounding errors.

Cottage:  “L”, 0 – (-1). (41 PA, .162, .220, .189;  10.7 ip, 3 er, 2.52 ERA)    In the Cottage it was the hitters setting a tough target for the pitchers.  They set a low .162 batting average baseline by going only 6 for 37.  They walked only 3 times, leaving the sluggers little to work with.  But it didn’t matters, since the only slugging was a single Alex Verdugo double. 

But the Cheesy pitchers were up to the task.  Alex Cobb and Steven Matz each pitched 5 innings (5.7 for Matz), and allowed just 2 runs (only one earned for Cobb), replacing 3.7 replacement innings to erase a run and gain 0.2 games in the standings.

Pittsburgh:  W, 5 – 4.  (33 PA, .241, .333, .379;  11.6 ip, 4 er, 3.10 ERA).  Frankie Montas ate 6 innings, with 3 earned runs, leaving 5.3 innings for three relievers to cover.  They did so well (only 1 more earned run) to give the offense a chance to win. 

The Allegheny offense responded just well enough. Andrew Vaughn led the way with a homer and a double. The A’s gained 0.2 games in the standings.

Bellingham:  L, 2 – 6.   31 PA, .214, .290, .286;  5.7 ip, 4 er, 6.32 ERA)  Tyler Mahle did his job: 5 ip, 2 er.  Brusdar Graterol, freshly promoted to MLB by the Dodgers, did not. He added another 2 earned runs in just 0.7 ip.  

Things weren’t any better on the hitting side.  Only two doubles and three walks were not enough to transform a .214 batting average into a win. Not that Rhys Hoskins didn’t try: he singled and walked, and stole a base – but also got caught stealing to undo most of his work.

Portland:  DNP,  0 – (-2).  (42 PA, .286, .381, .457;  5 ip, 2 er, 3.60 ERA.)    Ryan Jeffers went 3 for 4 with two doubles, and Jorge Polanco followed with 3 for 4  and a double and Tyrone Tyler homered.  Had there been a game to win, this would have been enough to win it, especially since three Rosebud pitchers put together a solid 5 innings.  Even without a game to play, the Rosebuds moved 0.2 games closer to first.