I was listening Saturday evening to the Mariners trying to hold off the Dodgers. Clinging to a 4 – 3 lead, Edwin Diaz faced the Wolverines’ Max Muncy with one out in the top of the ninth, bases empty. I thought how nice it would be for Muncy to hit a homer — but decided I didn’t want him to tie the game.
Meanwhile I had the Angels-Rangers game open in my browser. Shohei Ohtani came to the plate as a pinch hitter. Two of my key summertime draftees were batting at the same time! “Hey,” I thought, “Ohtani could go ahead and hit a home run. I don’t care about the Rangers.”
Sure enough, Ohtani blasted a home run! (Yippee!)
And five seconds later, so did Muncy. (No, no! A double would have been plenty.)
Apparently, the staff over at the wish fulfillment office aren’t masters of precision. On the other hand, the Mariners still won on a walk-off Balk. No, I take that back. The Balk haven’t walked off yet. I mean “a walk off balk.”
.
EFL Standings for 2018
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 78 | 46 | .632 | — | 607.6 | 452.8 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 77 | 47 | .620 | 1.5 | 654.4 | 503.2 |
| Brookland Outs | 70 | 52 | .583 | 7.5 | 641.3 | 554.3 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 66 | 56 | .542 | 11.3 | 637.7 | 593.7 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 66 | 56 | .537 | 11.9 | 555.5 | 519.1 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 64 | 60 | .517 | 14.3 | 568.9 | 546.9 |
| Cottage Cheese | 62 | 60 | .509 | 15.3 | 606.5 | 595.0 |
| Kaline Drive | 61 | 62 | .496 | 16.9 | 545.4 | 547.5 |
| Haviland Dragons | 61 | 62 | .494 | 17.2 | 567.3 | 571.6 |
| Peshastin Pears | 56 | 68 | .454 | 22.2 | 520.5 | 573.6 |
| D.C. Balk | 52 | 70 | .428 | 25.2 | 518.6 | 600.4 |
.
Old Detroit: L, 10 – 12. (44 PA, .350, .409, .625; 23.7 ip, 20 er, 7.61 ERA) Yesterday I was reveling in my team’s 21.7 ip, 2 er, 0.83 ERA. I thought it was the dawning of an amazing new world, when all my pitchers would drain their opponents’ offense down to tiny puddles. But, of course, it wasn’t really a miraculous transformation of my pitchers’ skills. It was just all the water running out before the tsunami hit. Over the two days, my pitchers pitched 42.3 innings and allowed 22 er, for a true ERA of 4.68. As partial consolation, every Wolverine batter reached base safely at least once yesterday.
.
Portland: W, 5 – 3. (47 PA, .273, .319, .432; 5 ip, 1 er, 1.80 ERA). The W’s troubles, and a solid day for the Rosebuds, helped them breach the 2.0 game buffer zone the Wolverines were maintaining. This, of course, is in line with forecasts indicating the ‘Buds are still the favorites.
.
Brookland: L, 5 – 8. (47 PA, .233, .298, .419; 12 ip, 9 er, 6.75 ERA). The Outs were one of the few teams to lose ground in the pennant race, thanks to an unfortunately timed partial meltdown by their pitchers.
.
Pittsburgh: W, 7 – 4. (35 PA, .364, .371, .636; 7.7 ip, 4 er, 4.70 ERA). The Alleghenys firmed up their hold on fourth place.
.
Canberra: “W”, 2 – 5. (40 PA, .179, .200, .385; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Seven out of 11 Kangaroos went hitless yesterday. Five of those seven were 0 for 4.
.
Flint Hill: W, 6 – (-2). (29 PA, .250, .379, .417; 16 ip, 2 er, 1.12 ERA). It’s always nice when one’s pitchers erase runs allowed in previous games.
.
Cottage: L, (-2) – 4. (41 PA, .073, .152, .171; 6.3 ip, 2 er) Hey, maybe that lack of offense was just the water running out before today’s huge tsunami of cheesy runs!
.
Kaline: L, 4 – 9. (40 PA, .278, .325, .417; 0.7 PA, 3 er, 40.50 ERA). AJ Minter quadruple chulked and no one came out to help him.
.
Haviland: L, 3 – 9. (30 PA, .241, .267, .345; 9.7 ip, 8 er, 7.45 ERA). When the Mariners scored their winning run in the 10th last night, charged to Caleb Ferguson even though it was some other dummy who committed the walk-off balk, I was happy that some EFL team had to take that earned run. But I didn’t realize it was Haviland — I thought it might be Portland. I would not have rejoiced much if I’d known it was Haviland. I learned last year what it’s like to be stuck in next-to-next-t0 last place, especially after their Alex Colome took on 2 earned runs for the Mariners in the 8th inning of the same game.
.
Peshastin: L, 3 – 4. (40 PA, .243, .300, .324; 5.7 ip, 1 er, 1.59 ERA). The Pears are still floating rather high in the water for a rebuilding team.
.
DC: W, 5 – 0. (37 PA, .270, .289, .459; no pitching.) Now the Balk’s incentives all run to winning as much as possible, going out with a bang. And they started on that project yesterday. Watch out, Pears!
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2018
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Boston Red Sox | 88 | 36 | .710 | — |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 78 | 46 | .632 | 9.6 |
| New York Yankees | 77 | 45 | .631 | 10 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 64 | 60 | .517 | 23.8 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 62 | 61 | .504 | 25.5 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 55 | 68 | .447 | 32.5 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 37 | 86 | .301 | 50.5 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Atlanta Braves | 68 | 54 | .557 | — |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 68 | 55 | .553 | 0.5 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 66 | 56 | .537 | 2.5 |
| Washington Nationals | 62 | 62 | .500 | 7 |
| New York Mets | 53 | 69 | .434 | 15 |
| D.C. Balk | 52 | 70 | .428 | 15.8 |
| Miami Marlins | 49 | 76 | .392 | 20.5 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Cleveland Indians | 70 | 52 | .574 | — |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 66 | 56 | .542 | 3.9 |
| Minnesota Twins | 58 | 64 | .475 | 12 |
| Detroit Tigers | 51 | 73 | .411 | 20 |
| Chicago White Sox | 45 | 77 | .369 | 25 |
| Kansas City Royals | 38 | 85 | .309 | 32.5 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago Cubs | 71 | 51 | .582 | — |
| Brookland Outs | 70 | 52 | .573 | 1.1 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 68 | 56 | .548 | 4.1 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 68 | 57 | .544 | 4.6 |
| Cottage Cheese | 62 | 60 | .509 | 9 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 62 | 62 | .500 | 10.1 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 54 | 69 | .439 | 17.6 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Houston Astros | 74 | 49 | .602 | — |
| Oakland A’s | 74 | 49 | .602 | — |
| Seattle Mariners | 71 | 53 | .573 | 3.5 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 63 | 62 | .504 | 12 |
| Kaline Drive | 61 | 62 | .496 | 13 |
| Haviland Dragons | 61 | 62 | .494 | 13.3 |
| Texas Rangers | 55 | 70 | .440 | 20 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Portland Rosebuds | 77 | 47 | .620 | — |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 68 | 56 | .548 | 8.9 |
| Colorado Rockies | 67 | 56 | .545 | 9.4 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 66 | 58 | .532 | 10.9 |
| San Francisco Giants | 61 | 63 | .492 | 15.9 |
| Peshastin Pears | 56 | 68 | .454 | 20.6 |
| San Diego Padres | 49 | 77 | .389 | 28.9 |
…