Hardly anything happened yesterday, perhaps less than any other day in which games were played in MLB. In fact, in Canberra, it couldn’t have been less eventful.
Also, I am attending the Friends Association of Higher Education conference this week, all by Zoom. The conference began the day today with worship at the convenient hour of 6 AM — a little east coast systemic bias against people in the Pacific time zone. At the moment I am listening to a presentation on Quaker work during WWII, considering the tensions between those (including Howard Kershner and the American Friends Service Committee leadership) who wanted to emphasize humanitarian feeding projects (requiring some communication with Vichy French officials) and those who were willing to risk that work to help Jewish children and intellectuals escape the death camps. (It turned out to be a pretty good session, although the discussion never really took off. Perhaps I should have been paying more attention.)
EFL Standings for 2021
| EFL | ||||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB | RS | RA |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 43 | 18 | .711 | — | 359.0 | 228.9 |
| Peshastin Pears | 41 | 18 | .692 | 1.5 | 289.4 | 191.4 |
| Kaline Drive | 40 | 21 | .659 | 3.1 | 321.3 | 229.4 |
| Haviland Dragons | 39 | 22 | .646 | 4 | 275.7 | 206.1 |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 39 | 22 | .635 | 4.6 | 292.2 | 216.6 |
| D.C. Balk | 34 | 18 | .646 | 5.2 | 261.6 | 193.1 |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 31 | 21 | .592 | 8 | 284.3 | 238.4 |
| Cottage Cheese | 31 | 28 | .527 | 11.3 | 317.1 | 310.9 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 29 | 30 | .499 | 12.9 | 294.2 | 293.3 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 29 | 30 | .484 | 13.8 | 296.4 | 305.8 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 27 | 32 | .460 | 15.2 | 232.0 | 253.7 |
Old Detroit: DNP, 0 – 0. (9 PA, .167, .444, .167; no pitching). Rafael Devers and Jurickson Profar showed up yesterday. Devers got a hit, while Profar walked twice. This minimal OBP-based approach cost the W’s 0.3 runs. It’s hard to say this opened a door to pursuers. It was more like a tiny crack.
Peshastin: DNP, 0 – 0. (8 PA, .250, .400, .250; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Pear hitting didn’t move the needle perceptibly on Peshastin’s runs scored total. But Curtis’ clean inning shaved half a run off the Pesties’ runs allowed. The Pears pressed themselves into the crack the Oldies left open, and gained 0.1 games on Old Detroit.
Kaline: DNP, (-5) – (-2). (12 PA, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00; 2 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). The Drive batted for 4 innings, with Hunter Renfroe, Willson Contreras, and Bobby Dalbec going out in order each time. This charade was enough to cost Kaline 5 runs scored on the season. Three Driven pitchers combined for those 2 shutout innings, paring 0.2 runs from Kaline’s runs allowed, before everyone gave up on the project, limiting Kaline’s loss in the standings to 0.1 games.
Haviland: DNP, 0 – 0. (10 PA, .333, .400, .333; no pitching) Ten solid at-bats, producing 3 singles and a double (and a Joc Pederson GDP), added 0.2 runs to the Dragons’ season collection. This didn’t move the needle perceptibly in the standings, but it no doubt left Haviland a few hundredths of a game closer to first place.
Flint Hill: DNP, (-1) – 0. (8 PA, .286, .375, .286; 1.3 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA) Anthony Rendon and Enrique Hernandez singled (and Hernandez also walked) in four trips to the plate each. Hirokazu Sawamura’s produced a clean 1.3 ip, but is only 33% active, so the Tornados’ efforts didn’t produce a visible improvement in the standings.
DC: DNP, 1 – 0. (9 PA, .375, .444, .375; 1.3 ip, 1 er, 6.92 ERA). Xander Bogaerts and Jorge Alfaro each reached base safely twice, enough to add 0.8 runs to the season total. Chris Rodriguez stumbled a little on the mound adding 0.4 runs to the total allowed. The combination sliced 0.1 games from the Balks’ distance from first place.
Canberra: DNP, 0 – 0 precisely. (0 PA, 0 ip, 0 anything) I don’t recall ever posting an EFL update before in which a team did absolutely nothing, but here it is: no Kangaroo batters or pitchers appeared Monday. This was a super-efficient approach, and producing a 0.1 game gain in the standings.
Cottage: DNP, 2 – 1. (8 PA, .400, .625, .600; 5 ip, 3 er, 5.40 ERA). Ryan Weathers was one of only two EFL pitchers to produce 5 innings. Had they been better innings, the Cheese could have gained a bunch in the standings yesterday, because Shohei Ohtani (3 walks in 4 PA) and Alex Verdugo (2 for 4 with a double) hit well enough to add 2 runs to the season total. As it was, the Cheese gained 0.1 games on the Wolverines.
Pittsburgh: DNP, 2 – (-1). (8 PA, .333, .500, .833; 1 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA). Jorge Soler homered, and Kevin Plawecki singled and walked, giving the Allegheny’s a solid 2-run boost in season runs scored. Meanwhile, the intriguingly-named Anthony Bender spun a clean inning. This produced the biggest gain of the day in the standings (0.3 games) and brought the A’s to the brink of .500 again.
Portland: DNP, (-2) – (-1). (4 PA, .000, .000, .000; 8.7 ip, 6 er, 6.21 ERA) The Rosebuds’ truncated day wasn’t truncated enough to avoid losing ground Monday. Andrew Benintendi went 0 for 4, and Dylan Bundy’s good 5.7 ip, 2 er outing was ruined by Adbert Alzolay’s 3 ip, 4 er struggle. The Rosebuds ended up 0.1 games further back.
Bellingham: DNP, 0 – 0. (6 PA, .200, .333, .400; no pitching) Here’s another case of remarkable efficiency, almost as quiet in Bellingham as in Canberra: the Cascades gained 0.1 games with this minimal effort, mostly Chris Dickerson going 1 for 5 with a double. Perhaps it was Ha-Seong Kim’s walk in his only plate appearance that made the difference.
Combined MLB + EFL Standings for 2021
| AL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Old Detroit Wolverines | 43 | 18 | .711 | — |
| Flint Hill Tornadoes | 39 | 22 | .635 | 4.6 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 38 | 23 | .623 | 5.3 |
| Boston Red Sox | 37 | 23 | .617 | 5.8 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 30 | 27 | .526 | 11.3 |
| New York Yankees | 31 | 29 | .517 | 11.8 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 21 | 38 | .356 | 21.3 |
| NL East | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| D.C. Balk | 34 | 18 | .646 | — |
| Canberra Kangaroos | 31 | 21 | .592 | 2.8 |
| New York Mets | 29 | 23 | .558 | 4.6 |
| Atlanta Braves | 28 | 29 | .491 | 8.1 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 28 | 30 | .483 | 8.6 |
| Washington Nationals | 24 | 32 | .429 | 11.6 |
| Miami Marlins | 25 | 34 | .424 | 12.1 |
| AL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Chicago White Sox | 36 | 23 | .610 | — |
| Cleveland Indians | 31 | 26 | .544 | 4 |
| Kansas City Royals | 29 | 29 | .500 | 6.5 |
| Pittsburgh Alleghenys | 29 | 30 | .499 | 6.6 |
| Bellingham Cascades | 27 | 32 | .460 | 8.9 |
| Detroit Tigers | 24 | 35 | .407 | 12 |
| Minnesota Twins | 24 | 35 | .407 | 12 |
| NL Central | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 33 | 26 | .559 | — |
| Chicago Cubs | 33 | 27 | .550 | 0.5 |
| Cottage Cheese | 31 | 28 | .527 | 1.9 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 31 | 30 | .508 | 3 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 28 | 29 | .491 | 4 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 23 | 35 | .397 | 9.5 |
| AL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Kaline Drive | 40 | 21 | .659 | — |
| Haviland Dragons | 39 | 22 | .646 | 0.8 |
| Oakland A’s | 35 | 26 | .574 | 5.2 |
| Houston Astros | 33 | 26 | .559 | 6.2 |
| Seattle Mariners | 30 | 31 | .492 | 10.2 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 28 | 32 | .467 | 11.7 |
| Texas Rangers | 23 | 38 | .377 | 17.2 |
| NL West | ||||
| TEAM | WINS | LOSSES | PCT. | GB |
| Peshastin Pears | 41 | 18 | .692 | — |
| San Francisco Giants | 37 | 22 | .627 | 3.8 |
| San Diego Padres | 37 | 25 | .597 | 5.3 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 34 | 25 | .576 | 6.8 |
| Portland Rosebuds | 29 | 30 | .484 | 12.3 |
| Colorado Rockies | 24 | 36 | .400 | 17.3 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 20 | 41 | .328 | 21.8 |