_ . _ . _ _ . _

EFL
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB	RS	RA
Old Detroit Wolverines	51	20	.722	—	412.2	255.9
Flint Hill Tornadoes	46	25	.648	5.3	337.8	250.6
Kaline Drive	46	26	.646	5.3	376.2	278.5
D.C. Balk	42	22	.662	5.4	348.1	249.9
Peshastin Pears	46	25	.642	5.7	340.9	258.8
Haviland Dragons	46	26	.633	6.2	351.2	272.5
Canberra Kangaroos	38	26	.596	9.6	333.4	277.9
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	39	32	.542	12.8	357.0	327.0
Cottage Cheese	38	33	.541	12.9	396.0	375.9
Bellingham Cascades	34	37	.480	17.2	286.4	300.5
Portland Rosebuds	31	40	.442	19.9	365.1	418.5

 

Old Detroit:  W (-1), L 1; 0 – 2. ( 56 PA, .255, .321, .490;  13 ip, 6 er, 4.15 ERA).  Walker Buehler took a no-hitter into the 8th inning, but then surrendered 2 runs, both of which scored after a reliever took over.  Logan Gilbert struggled: 5.7 ip, 4 er.  In the same game Will Smith collected a homer, a double, a single, and a walk in his first four plate appearances, but flied out to center instead of hitting his triple in his last time up.  JP Crawford hit a grand slam homer but otherwise never reached base under his own power.  

 

And Byron Buxton played for the first time in weeks. But he only went 1 for 4. 

 

I knew these were spotty results, but I did not expect to lose a win and gain a loss. 

 

 

 

Flint Hill: DNP, (-4) – 1.  (38 PA, .167, .316, .200;  5.3 ip, 3 er, 5.09 ERA).  The Tornados took a more measured approach to a day when we were not going to play a game (net).  It wasn’t good hitting — Mookie Betts’ double and two walks were almost half the total offense.  And it wasn’t very good pitching. And the Tornados were the only team in the EFL not to gain on the Wolverines. But at least they didn’t take a loss. 

 

 

Kaline: W, 12 – 2. (40 PA, .395, .425, .789;  4 ip, 0 er, 0.00 ERA).  Now here’s a team who siezed the day!  Sudden super-shortstop candidate Willy Adames went 4 for 5 with three doubles and a homer — that’s a 2.800 OPS! Bobby Dalbec was right behind, going   3 for 4 with a homer and a triple (2.750 OPS).  Jonathan Schoop only had an OPS of 1.825 (a homer, a single and a walk in 5 PA). 

 

The last time we checked on Rafael Montero and Mark Melancon they had combined for 1.7 innings and 6 earned runs, a joint ERA of 31.77. Yesterday they did a little better: a combined 2 scoreless inning.

 

The result was a huge Drive victory, the biggest of the day in the EFL.  Kaline gained 1.2 games on first place, and leapt from 5th place to within a hair’s breadth of second.

 

 

 

DC: W 1, L 1;  10 – 7. (45 PA, .286, .333, .381;  7 ip, 1 er, 1.29 ERA)  The Balk watched the Drive whiz past, but they had a good day themselves, gaining 0.6 games on first even though they slipped a notch into 4th place.  The offense was ok, led by Matt Chapman’s homer.  But the pitching was outstanding.  Martin Perez got through 5 innings with only 1 earned run, and two relievers twirled shutout innings. 

 

 

 

Peshastin: W, 12 – 10.  (47 PA, .375, .447, .700;  4.3 ip, 5 er, 10.47 ERA).  The Pears took a different route to a win: scoring a ton, while allowing nearly a ton to score.  Ryan Mountcastle was the offensive star: 4 for 4 with three homers! After a slow start, he has raised his season OPS to .769 — and his June OPS to 1.186.  Mike Zunino tried to sink his Mariners alma mater with a homer — which might have been the difference for the Pears, but wasn’t quite for the Rays, who slipped out of first among the non EFL teams in the AL East.  The Pesties slipped to 5th place, but gained 0.5 games on first. 

 

 

 Haviland:  W, 9 – 4. (46 PA, .268, .348, .585;  13.3 ip, 7 er, 4.74 ERA).  Haviland had a nice day at the plate, like the other teams in this region of the standings.  Homers by Brandon Lowe, Jake Cornenworth, Gio Urshela and Nelson Cruz led the offense. Pablo Lopez edged out Buehler for the best start of the day because he left after 7 innings on 1-hit pitching, whereas Buehler didn’t leave after 7 because he had a no-hitter going. Domingo German messed up the pitching line with 4 er in 4 ip, and Jesus Luzardo added some scars with a 0.3 ip, 3 er nonuple chulk.   But all that offense made up for is, enabling the Dragons to gain 0.7 games on the Wolverines. 

 

 

 

Canberra:  W 1, L 1; 8 – 9. (20 PA, .167, .250, .556;  0.3 ip, 2 er, 60.00 ERA).  Vladdy blasted another homer and a double, and his sidekick Manuel Margot added a homer, to lead the Kangaroo offense which could only muster 3 hits, but made them all count.  Super reliever James Karinchak revealed his humanity with a small sextuple chulk: 0.3 ip, 2 er).  

 

No win there, but still: after tasting 10 games out of first on two days ago, the ‘Roos doubled their cushion from that terrible landmark to get within 9.6 games of the lead. 

 

 

 

Pittsburgh: “W”, 4 – 5.  (23 PA, .190, .261, .381;  12.4 ip, 8 er, 5.81 ERA.)  Pittsburgh earned a nominal win — and gained a real  0.2 games on first place — without having a stellar day on either side of the box score.  Andrew Vaughn’s homer was the main highlight from  dismal day at the plate.  Wil Crow’s 4.7 ip, 2 er outing, while not outstanding, was the highlight for the pitching. Fellow starter Vlad Gutierrez could only manage 5 ip, 5 er.   

 

 

 

Cottage: W, 15 – 10.   (41 PA, .371, .463, .771;  5.3 ip, 6 er , 10.19 ERA).  A 10.19 daily ERA is bad news, but it can be overcome with stellar hitting — which is precisely what the Cheese did.  Super Shortstop Trea Turner went 5 for 7 with a double and a homer.  His super-shortstop-sidekick blasted 2 homers and walked once. (Somehow I don’t think any other ss tandems have caught them yet).  

 

With the big win, the Cheese gained 0.7 games on first place, and closed the gap with Pittsburgh to 0.1 games. 

 

 

Bellingham: W, 10 – 4. (31 PA, .429 .484, .857;  no pitching).  The Cascades did well without any pitching, giving the the second or third best day in the league.  Rhys Hoskins homered twice and doubled once to lead the offense; Clint Frazier went 2 for 3 (both doubles) and walked once; and Jonathan India contributed a 3 for 5 day.   The Bellies gained 1.1 games on the Wolverines, 1 game on .500, and 0.4 on the Cheese.  I suspect the latter matters most to Bellingham. 

 

 

 

Portland: L, 5 – 6. (29 PA, .208, .345, .375;  5 ip, 3 er, 5.40 ERA).  The Rosebuds were the only team to suffer a straight, simple, unmodified loss Saturday — but even they gained on the W’s, stepping 0.1 games back from the dreaded 20-games-behind mark they touched yesterday morning.  Too little pitching, and what there was was mediocre, is what created the loss.  Also, poor batting average.  But the ‘Buds walked 5 times, and got a home run from Gary Sanchez, to keep the day from being a disaster, and to give them the silver lining of gaining on the Wolverines… like (almost) everyone else. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Old Detroit Wolverines	51	20	.722	—
Flint Hill Tornadoes	46	25	.648	5.3
Boston Red Sox	43	28	.606	8.3
Tampa Bay Rays	43	29	.597	8.8
New York Yankees	37	33	.529	13.8
Toronto Blue Jays	34	35	.493	16.3
Baltimore Orioles	23	47	.329	27.8

NL East
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
D.C. Balk	42	22	.662	—
Canberra Kangaroos	38	26	.596	4.2
New York Mets	36	28	.563	6.4
Philadelphia Phillies	34	34	.500	10.4
Atlanta Braves	32	35	.478	11.9
Washington Nationals	32	36	.471	12.4
Miami Marlins	31	39	.443	14.4

 

AL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Chicago White Sox	43	28	.606	—
Cleveland Indians	38	30	.559	3.5
Pittsburgh Alleghenys	39	32	.542	4.5
Bellingham Cascades	34	37	.480	8.9
Kansas City Royals	31	38	.449	11
Minnesota Twins	29	41	.414	13.5
Detroit Tigers	29	42	.408	14

NL Central
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Milwaukee Brewers	39	32	.549	—
Chicago Cubs	39	32	.549	—
Cottage Cheese	38	33	.541	0.6
Cincinnati Reds	35	34	.507	3
St. Louis Cardinals	35	35	.500	3.5
Pittsburgh Pirates	25	44	.362	13

 

AL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Kaline Drive	46	26	.646	—
Haviland Dragons	46	26	.633	0.9
Oakland A’s	44	28	.611	2.5
Houston Astros	42	28	.600	3.5
Seattle Mariners	37	36	.507	10
Los Angeles Angels	36	35	.507	10
Texas Rangers	25	45	.357	20.5

NL West
TEAM	WINS	LOSSES	PCT.	GB
Peshastin Pears	46	25	.642	—
San Francisco Giants	45	26	.634	0.6
Los Angeles Dodgers	43	27	.614	2.1
San Diego Padres	41	32	.562	5.6
Portland Rosebuds	31	40	.442	14.2
Colorado Rockies	30	42	.417	16.1
Arizona Diamondbacks	20	52	.278	26.1