This Week

With the season entering the home stretch, a number of teams won in dominant fashion.  The Kraken routed the Wolf Spiders in the best showing in the league.  The Possums crushed the Hares despite both teams having horrific pitching.  The PhoeGnomes cruised against the Goofballs.  The only teams to keep it close were the Armadillos and Skyline Sluggers.  Charlie gave it his all to pull off the upset, but it wasn’t to be. 

CP Kraken (10-6-2) vs. KK Wolf Spiders (9-8-1)

The Kraken are a long-shot to win the title, but the continue to do their best to stay in contention.  This week they demolished the Wolf Spiders in spectacular fashion.  They posted the best overall week for the entire league.  Leading the way was Juan Soto with 4 home runs and an OPS of 1.370.  Just behind him was Aaron Judge with a pair of home runs and a 1.264 OPS of his own.  Brice Turang added 4 steals.  The Wolf Spiders couldn’t keep up, and managed just 1 steal for the week and hand no regular with an OPS over 0.800 with most players in the 0.600’s.

Chris’s dominance didn’t end with hitting.  He easily tallied the best pitching numbers for the week.  Blake Snell continued to rampage with two starts totally 13.1 IP.  He had 21 strikeouts and a 0.68 ERA.  Bryan Woo had a solid start, as did Cole Ragans.  Josh Hader remained a dependable source of saves.  Kyle had a nice start for Christopher Sanchez, who threw 9.0 iP and allowed just 1 earned run, but also struck out just 4.  Ultimately the Kraken won in style, and look to finish out the season and push the Armadillos.

RK Possums (9-9) vs. JK Hares (6-9-3)

The Possums enjoyed a dominant win over the Hares behind strong offense.  Rick tied for the league lead in home runs and runs, and won RBI outright.  Adolis Garcia was the standout with 3 home runs and 6 RBI.  In total 8 different players had at least one home run.  Jose Caballero added 3 steals.  James Wood led the team with 1.116 OPS.  The Hares struggled mightily with only Marcell Ozuna showing any signs of life.  Josh Bell embarrassed himself with a 0.481 OPS and a pathetic 3/22 hitting line.  Brent Rooker and Elly De La Cruz both struggled mightily as well.  The Hares were unable to mount any true challenge for the week.

Neither team distinguished itself on the pitching side but the Possums were able to do enough to win easily.  The Hares got one good start from Bryce Miller but other pitchers let the team down.  Corbin Burnes allowed 8 earned runs in just 4.0 IP.  This was nothing compared to the Possums’ nightmare start from Robbie Ray.  He pitched 0.2 IP and allowed 5 earned runs for a 67.50 ERA.  Seth Lugo, Tyler Mahle, and Sonny Gray also managed ERAs over 10.00 for the week.  However, the Possums were somehow able to post enough volume to win the non-rate stats because the Hares’ better starts were still short and lacked strikeouts.  The Possums cruised to a win, while the Hares fall back into a tie for 7^th place.

KG Capital City Goofballs (6-7-5) vs. HP PhoeGnomes (6-11-1)

The week’s final big winner was the PhoeGnomes.  Heather has struggled this year, but she was able to move ahead of the Hares thanks to a strong performance this week.  As usual, the effort was led by Bobby Witt Jr.  He had 3 home runs and a whopping 1.428 OPS.  Nolan Arenado and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each had a pair of home runs with solid OPS numbers.  The Goofballs were unable to challenge on offense, and suffered through a tough week across the board.  Rafael Devers and Spencer Steer each had 2 home runs and OPS’s above 1.000.  However, no other Goofball regular was able to reach this level.  The Goofballs won steals thanks to CJ Abrams and Steer, but Heather took the other four with ease.

The Goofballs were better on pitching but the PhoeGnomes were on another level, easily posting the best numbers in the league.  The only PhoeGnomes who allowed more than a single earned run was Tanner Houck and allowed…. 2.  Clayton Kershaw turned back the clock for two solid starts allowing 1 earned run in 11.2 IP.  Michael Wacha was great with 9 strikeouts and 0 earned runs in just 6.0 IP.  Andres Munoz allowed 1 earned run, and that was it.  Heather’s squad didn’t allow any other earned runs.  The ERA and WHIP totals are likely two of the best ever seen in the league.  When combined with Heather’s offense, the Goofballs didn’t stand a chance.  The win also moves Heather out of 7^th place with just four weeks left in the year.

CM Skyline Sluggers (5-12-1) vs. LK Armadillos (13-2-3)

The week’s final match was also its closest.  The Armadillos can sense the finish line is close at hand, but Charlie tried his best to pull off the upset.  Neither team posted great numbers on either side, but they weren’t terrible either.  The Skyline Sluggers were led by Shohei Ohtani and William Contreras.  Each had 4 home runs, but Ohtani added a whopping 5 steals.  This gives Ohtani 39 home runs and 37 steals for the year.  While unlikely, it is possible that Ohtani could finish the year with 50 home runs and 50 steals.  The Armadillos’ best player was Gunnar Henderson who had 3 home runs.  Jose Ramirez added 4 steals, while Shea Langeliers and Michael Toglia had 1.560 and 1.227 OPS’s respectively (though in limited duty).  The Armadillos had more depth and took four categories.

Both sides had decent pitching, but nothing to compare to the Kraken or PhoeGnomes.  The Armadillos enjoyed a find start from JP Sears, who had 9 strikeouts over 7.2 IP with just 1 earned run.  Charlie  had an even better effort from Nestor Cortes who also turned in 7.0 IP and 9 strikeouts but with 0 earned runs.  Charlie had the edge in both strikeouts and IP, but was unable to flip ERA to secure the tie.  The Armadillos marched on, moving one week close to the elusive title.

Players of the Week

The players of the week go to Clayton Kershaw for turning back the clock and making a solid pair of starts when his team needed the boost.  The best offensive player has to be Shohei Ohtani, who is making the most of his offense-only season.

Next Week

With just 4 weeks left in the season, the Armadillos have only one team who can catch them, and they face them this week – the Kraken.  Chris must win if he wants to stay in the race.  In fact, Chris will essentially need to win out and have help to have a chance.  The Skyline Sluggers will face the Possums, who want to stay above 0.500.  The Goofballs will try to get on tack against the Hares, who need a win to stay out of the bottom of the league. Finally, the PhoeGnomes will look to continue their solid performance versus the Wolf Spiders.