Week 21 may have decided the championship. The entire season had been building toward Hares versus Goofballs, 1st against 2nd, with Kevin having the opportunity to drag himself level at the top and seize the tiebreaker advantage. Instead, after a matchup that remained genuinely unresolved deep into Sunday, Jeff somehow emerged with a 5-4-1 victory. The margin between winning and losing the league may ultimately have been a handful of strikeouts squeezed out of relievers, 6 suddenly competent innings from Zack Wheeler, and one last stolen base from the Goofballs that wasn’t quite enough.

JK Hares 5-4-1 (15-4-2) over KG Capital City Goofballs 4-5-1 (13-6-2)

For 7 days, the 2 best teams in the league traded categories back and forth, and by Sunday there was still no obvious winner. Jeff’s offense had done enormous damage, hammering Kevin 41-33 in runs, 12-5 in home runs and 36-23 in RBI while posting a ridiculous .886 OPS. Sal Stewart detonated for 4 HR, Jackson Chourio added 3, and the Hares appeared to have built themselves enough of a cushion on offense to survive whatever happened on the mound.

This turned out not to be the case… Kevin’s pitching was vastly better. The Goofballs finished with a 2.77 ERA and 1.15 WHIP against an absolutely hideous 5.22 and 1.38 from the Hares. Michael Wacha threw 12 innings with 9 K and a 0.83 WHIP, Michael King allowed nothing in 7 innings, and suddenly the matchup had transformed from an offensive Hares victory into a Sunday knife fight over the remaining counting categories.

Jeff threw everything he had at strikeouts. Both Hares relievers were pushed for aggressive appearances Sunday and somehow produced 4 critical K. Zack Wheeler, who had been obliterated earlier in the week, came back from the dead and delivered 6 strong innings. A category that looked like it could slip away instead finished 55-52 Hares. Three strikeouts. In a matchup with the championship potentially hanging in the balance, that was the difference.

Meanwhile, Kevin was fighting back elsewhere. Esteury Ruiz, used as a spot start by Jeff, stole a base early Sunday to pull the Hares level in SB. Kevin answered with a late steal of his own to rip the category straight back, 5-4. The Goofballs also found a clutch Sunday save to keep pace in saves, which ultimately finished tied 2-2. Every time one team appeared to have found the decisive category, the other punched back.

And then came Chris Bassitt. Kevin needed strikeouts. Bassitt was one of his final opportunities to get them. Instead he got shelled for 5 ER in 5.2 innings and managed only 4 K. The Goofballs never closed the gap. The Hares held strikeouts by 3, saves remained deadlocked, and when everything finally stopped moving Sunday night, the scoreboard read 5-4-1.

That is how close this was. Jeff won R, HR, RBI, OPS and K. Kevin won SB, IP, ERA and WHIP. Saves were tied. Flip 3 strikeouts and the entire championship picture looks different. Instead, the Hares survived.

After months of baseball, it may have taken 4 strikeouts from desperate relievers and Zack Wheeler redeeming himself to decide the Dirt Mountain title. The Hares now have a 2-game lead, the tiebreaker, and only 3 weeks standing between the Hares and the championship.

RK Possums 6-4-0 (10-9-2) over CM Dirt Mountain Anchors 4-6-0 (3-16-3)

Rick didn’t exactly bludgeon Charlie into submission here. The Possums hit only 4 HR, drove in 22 and posted a gruesome .636 OPS, but they found the categories they needed and turned them into a 6-4 win.

The biggest weapon was speed. The Possums stole 10 bases, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. personally accounting for an absurd 6 of them, while Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. added 2 apiece. Rick also took runs 31-16, giving him enough offense to survive losing HR, RBI and OPS.

The pitching staff did the rest. Jesús Luzardo was magnificent, allowing 1 hit over 7 scoreless innings with 9 K, Parker Messick contributed 12 innings with a 1.50 ERA, and Rick’s bullpen produced 4 saves. Bryan Baker and Mason Montgomery supplied 2 each, while the Anchors finished the entire week with 0.

Charlie actually received a perfectly respectable 3.43 ERA and 1.21 WHIP, and Kevin Gausman struck out 13 across 12 innings, but the Anchors couldn’t manufacture enough counting stats around it. Rick took IP 47.1-44.2, K 49-40, saves 4-0 and WHIP 1.14-1.21, enough to secure the 6-4 victory and move the Possums above .500 at 10-9-2.

KK Wolf Spiders 5-4-1 (10-7-4) over HP PhoeGnomes 4-5-1 (3-15-3)

Kyle won this matchup in perhaps the most Wolf Spiders way imaginable: absolutely annihilate Heather offensively, get absolutely annihilated on the mound, shake hands at 5-4-1 and go home.

The offensive side wasn’t remotely competitive. The Wolf Spiders swept all 5 hitting categories, winning runs 38-23, HR 10-3, RBI 40-10, SB 6-1 and OPS .787-.567. Daylen Lile drove in 9, Ezequiel Duran had 8 RBI, and Luis García Jr. went 8-for-18 with 6 runs and a 1.307 OPS.

Then Kyle’s pitchers attempted to give all of it back. The Wolf Spiders finished with a catastrophic 7.30 ERA and 1.67 WHIP. Jacob deGrom was battered for 8 ER in 3.2 innings, Gavin Williams allowed 5 ER while recording only 4 outs, MacKenzie Gore surrendered 4 ER in 3.2, and Yoendrys Gómez somehow allowed 4 ER in two-thirds of an inning. Heather’s staff, by comparison, was spectacular: 69.1 IP, 65 K, a 2.08 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP.

That created the ridiculous final distribution: Kyle won every offensive category, Heather won IP, K, ERA and WHIP, and saves finished tied 1-1.

CP Kraken 6-4-0 (11-9-1) over LK Armadillos 4-6-0 (8-8-5)

Chris quietly put together one of the strongest all-around performances of Week 21, beating Larry 6-4 behind a combination of huge offensive counting numbers and excellent pitching.

The Kraken erupted for 43 runs and 12 HR while stealing 9 bases. Coby Mayo drove in 8 with 2 HR, Junior Caminero went 9-for-22 with 2 HR, and Otto Lopez swiped 4 bags. Larry actually won OPS .851-.786 and wasn’t far behind with 10 HR, but Chris took runs, HR, RBI and SB.

The Kraken were even better on the mound. Logan Henderson allowed just 1 hit across 7 innings, Hunter Brown struck out 10 in 6.2 innings, Blake Snell added another 10 K, and Raisel Iglesias and Louis Varland combined for all 4 saves. Chris finished with a superb 2.02 ERA, giving him ERA and saves while Larry countered by taking IP, K and WHIP.

That produced the 6-4 final and moved the Kraken to 11-9-1, keeping Chris firmly in the upper half of the standings as the season enters its final 3 weeks. But everything else this week was background noise compared with what happened at the top. The Goofballs had their shot. Kevin pushed Jeff all the way to Sunday, stole back a category late, matched him in saves and came within 3 strikeouts of changing the complexion of the entire race.

Next Week

With only three weeks left to play, the Hares will clinch the title with a win in any of the final three weeks. They also clinch with any Goofballs’ loss. They will clinch with any Goofballs’ tie as long as they also tie. The race is probably over, but that won’t stop Kevin from fighting to the bitter end. The Hares have looked shaky in the last few weeks, so expect Kevin to do everything he can to extend the battle. Elsewhere, The Armadillos meet the Wolf Spiders and the Possums face off against the Kraken. The race for silver and bronze position are still in play, and there are important battles for better slots in the draft lottery.

Week #20 somehow managed to make the top of the league even tighter and set up the biggest matchup of the season. The Hares survived one of the most absurd finishes imaginable, beating the Possums by literally 0.1 IP to maintain sole possession of first place. The Goofballs kept the pressure on with another convincing win, the Wolf Spiders demolished the Kraken to climb into 3rd, and the Armadillos continued their late-season recovery against the Anchors. With 4 weeks remaining, the Hares lead the Goofballs by exactly 1 game, and now the top 2 teams finally meet head-to-head. Given what happened Sunday, Jeff should probably buy a lottery ticket before setting his lineup.

JK Hares 5–3–2 (14–4–2, 1st) over RK Possums 3–5–2 (9–9–2, 6th)

There is winning a fantasy matchup, there is stealing a fantasy matchup, and then there is whatever the the Hares just did to Rick. The Possums entered Sunday with a legitimate chance to knock Jeff out of first place and produced a heroic final-day effort, piling up 9 RBI and a save as Rick desperately tried to drag his team across the finish line. Instead, the entire matchup came down to innings pitched, and the Hares won the category 46.2 to 46.1. One out. That was the difference between Jeff remaining alone atop the league and potentially surrendering first place.

The sequence that produced that 0.1 IP margin was even more ridiculous. Shota Imanaga had one of the strangest starts of the week for the Possums, lasting just 4.2 innings while allowing 6 hits and 4 earned runs. Rick could desperately have used one more out from him. Meanwhile, Ryan Weathers lasted only 3.1 innings for the Hares before an injury cut his start short, seemingly putting Jeff in serious trouble in the IP race. Then Foster Griffin, of all people, came to the rescue. Griffin delivered 11 innings across the week with 10 strikeouts and a 2.45 ERA, giving the Hares just enough volume to scrape past the Possums by that microscopic margin.

The rest of the matchup was almost secondary to the insanity of the finish. The Hares won runs 39–36 and OPS .813–.755, while Rick took HR 10–7 and RBI 31–26. Pitching was similarly tight, with the Hares taking ERA 3.66–4.66 and WHIP 1.31–1.36 while the Possums dominated strikeouts 63–51. Sal Stewart drove in 7 for Jeff, Yandy Díaz scored 7 runs, and the Hares somehow survived despite a brutal 16.20 ERA from George Kirby. Fernando Tatis Jr. nearly stole the matchup himself for Rick, going 12-for-25 with 4 HR and 11 RBI.

It is difficult to overstate how lucky this was. An injury-shortened Weathers start, a bizarrely short Imanaga outing on the other side, an 11-inning rescue job from Foster Griffin, and a final margin of a single out. Change virtually anything and the Hares are no longer sitting alone in first place.

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KG Capital City Goofballs 7–2–1 (13–5–2, 2nd) over HP PhoeGnomes 2–7–1 (3–14–3, 8th)

While Jeff was surviving a heart attack against the Possums, Kevin took care of business against the PhoeGnomes and moved to within exactly 1 game of first place. The Goofballs crushed the offensive side of the matchup, scoring 46 runs with 10 HR, 36 RBI and an .822 OPS. Heather managed to steal strikeouts 48–43 and push saves, but there was never much doubt about who had the stronger week.

Jordan Walker led the Goofballs with a monster 12-for-34 performance, producing 9 runs, 3 HR and 8 RBI, while Max Muncy added 2 HR and 7 RBI and Kyle Schwarber supplied another 2 HR and 6 RBI. Kevin also received strong pitching from Michael Wacha, who worked 12 innings with 9 strikeouts, while Clay Holmes, Jacob Latz, Brayan Bello and Trevor Megill all helped keep the ratios under control. Logan Webb tried his best to sabotage the operation with a 16.88 ERA and 3.38 WHIP, but the rest of the roster absorbed the damage.

The PhoeGnomes actually had some excellent individual performances. Zach Neto went 14-for-28 with 2 HR and 9 RBI, Randy Arozarena hit 3 HR, and Nolan McLean was outstanding over 12 innings with a 0.75 ERA. But Heather simply could not match Kevin’s offensive depth, finishing with 33 runs, 8 HR, 28 RBI and a .691 OPS.

That leaves the Goofballs at 13–5–2, exactly 1 game behind the Hares, and the timing could not possibly be better.

KK Wolf Spiders 8–2–0 (9–7–4, 3rd) over CP Kraken 2–8–0 (10–9–1, 4th)

Kyle picked a hell of a week to make a statement. The Wolf Spiders absolutely dismantled the Kraken 8–2, vaulting into 3rd place and suddenly putting themselves firmly into the late-season picture. Chris won runs 32–27 and stolen bases 9–7, and that was it. Everything else belonged to Kyle.

The Wolf Spiders’ offense was particularly ruthless in the categories that mattered, hammering 9 HR and 41 RBI while posting an .818 OPS. Oneil Cruz drove in 7, Gabriel Moreno somehow produced 8 RBI, and Willson Contreras added 2 HR and 6 RBI. Even with Ronald Acuña Jr. having an ugly 3-for-28 week, Kyle had more than enough offense scattered throughout the roster.

The pitching was even better. Jacob deGrom threw 6 innings of 1-hit shutout baseball with 10 strikeouts, MacKenzie Gore added 6 scoreless innings with 7 strikeouts, and Yoendrys Gómez contributed 3 scoreless innings and 3 saves. The final line was excellent: 51 IP, 58 strikeouts, 5 saves, a 3.18 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP.

Chris, meanwhile, had a nightmare buried inside an otherwise respectable pitching week. Peter Lambert was obliterated for 9 earned runs in 3.2 innings, and Casey Mize wasn’t much better with 4 earned in 2.2. The Kraken still managed a 3.86 ERA and 1.35 WHIP overall, but against what Kyle produced, respectable wasn’t remotely enough.

The Wolf Spiders are now 9–7–4 and sitting in 3rd. After spending much of the year lurking behind the leaders, Kyle has suddenly put himself in position to matter very much down the stretch.

LK Armadillos 5–2–3 (8–7–5, 5th) over CM Dirt Mountain Anchors 2–5–3 (3–14–3, 7th)

Larry continued quietly rebuilding his season with a 5–2–3 win over Charlie, and the formula was overwhelmingly pitching. The Armadillos threw a massive 57.1 innings to the Anchors’ 33.2, struck out 63 to Charlie’s 35, won saves 4–2 and took both ratios with a 3.30 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. Charlie managed to win runs and OPS, while HR, RBI and SB all finished tied.

Cade Cavalli was the star of Larry’s staff, throwing 6 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts, while Gerrit Cole allowed only 1 earned run over 6 innings and Tarik Skubal added 11 strikeouts. Riley O’Brien did his best to create some excitement by posting an 18.00 ERA and 3.00 WHIP, but the volume and quality elsewhere were simply too much for the Anchors.

Offensively, Pete Crow-Armstrong supplied nearly the entire Armadillos highlight reel by himself, scoring 6 runs with 5 HR, 8 RBI and 2 steals while posting a 1.566 OPS. The rest of Larry’s lineup combined for only 4 HR. Charlie countered with Shohei Ohtani’s 3 HR and Bryce Harper’s 6 runs, but neither offense was particularly overwhelming.

The win pushes the Armadillos to 8–7–5 and keeps Larry alive in the increasingly crowded group behind the top 2. The Anchors, meanwhile, fall to 3–14–3 after another week in which a short pitching staff left Charlie almost no margin for error.

Next Week

The entire league now turns toward one matchup. The Hares have spent the season clinging to first place, and after escaping the Possums by the smallest possible margin, their reward is a direct confrontation with the team chasing them. Jeff leads Kevin by 1 game. A Hares victory creates a 2-game cushion with 3 to play. A Goofballs victory creates a tie for first with Kevin holding the tiebreaker, and Kevin’s more difficult closing schedule makes getting that advantage now absolutely critical.

With the finish line suddenly getting uncomfortably close, Week 19 delivered exactly the sort of chaos the top of the standings did not need. The Hares finally stumbled, the Goofballs took advantage, and the Kraken continued hanging around with the persistence of something that absolutely refuses to be flushed. Jeff still owns 1st place at 13-4-2, but Kevin is now only 1 game back at 12-5-2 and Chris sits 3rd at 10-8-1. With just 5 matchups left, the title race is officially back open.

LK Armadillos (7-7-5) def. JK Hares (13-4-2), 7-3

For most of the week this looked like another Hares victory in the making, but the Armadillos mounted a late rally and turned the matchup on its head, handing Jeff a costly 7-3 loss just as the championship race was beginning to look comfortable. The funny part is that the Hares actually had the louder offensive week, piling up 44 runs and 42 RBI against 34 and 23 for the Armadillos, with Alec Burleson going berserk for 2 homers, 12 RBI and a 1.298 OPS. Yandy Díaz added 2 homers and 6 runs, and the Hares finished with a solid .801 OPS, yet somehow all of that translated into only 3 categories.

Larry found his openings elsewhere and exploited them. The Armadillos took homers 9-7, steals 7-5 and OPS by the narrowest of margins, .806 to .801, while also grabbing strikeouts 51-47 and saves 3-2. Gunnar Henderson was the offensive engine with 8 runs, 2 homers and a 1.209 OPS, while Wilyer Abreu added 5 runs, 2 homers and a 1.250 OPS. On the mound, Cade Cavalli’s 8 innings of 1-hit, scoreless baseball were enormous, and Gerrit Cole and Cristopher Sánchez helped keep the ratios just respectable enough for the late charge to stick.

Jeff still won ERA at 3.38 and had strong weeks from Ryan Weathers and Jacob Misiorowski, but the Armadillos’ late surge turned what could have been another step toward the trophy into a genuine setback. The Hares remain in 1st, but the cushion that was 2 games a week ago has been chopped to 1. For the first time in a while, Jeff can hear footsteps.

KG Capital City Goofballs (12-5-2) def. KK Wolf Spiders (8-7-4), 6-3-1

Kevin could not have picked a better week to make his move. With the Hares losing, the Goofballs took care of the Wolf Spiders 6-3-1 and climbed to within a single game of 1st place, turning what had looked like Jeff’s title to lose into a proper race. The Goofballs controlled the offensive side with 38 runs, 10 homers, 35 RBI and a .808 OPS, while Kyle managed only 29 runs, 4 homers, 18 RBI and a .669 OPS. Corbin Carroll was outstanding with 9 hits, 5 runs, 2 homers and a 1.519 OPS, Kyle Schwarber added 2 homers and 4 RBI, and Jordan Walker chipped in 4 runs and 5 RBI.

The pitching was much less attractive, but Kevin did not need attractive. He needed enough. Clay Holmes was excellent, Logan Webb gave him 6 innings of 1-run baseball, and the bullpen helped produce a 1.08 WHIP that comfortably beat Kyle’s 1.58. The Wolf Spiders did salvage innings, strikeouts and ERA, thanks largely to Payton Tolle’s 8 scoreless innings and MacKenzie Gore’s 14 strikeouts, but there simply was not enough offense behind them to make the matchup competitive.

Kyle remains firmly in the middle of the standings at 8-7-4, but the bigger story is Kevin. The Goofballs are now 12-5-2 and only 1 game behind the Hares with 5 to play. That sound coming from behind Jeff is getting considerably louder.

CP Kraken (10-8-1) def. CM Dirt Mountain Anchors (3-13-3), 8-2

Chris absolutely buried Charlie 8-2, although this was less an offensive explosion than a methodical dismantling of an Anchors team that continues finding inventive ways to lose categories. The Kraken hit just .574 in OPS with 30 runs, 6 homers and 21 RBI, numbers that would normally inspire an apology to the league, but Charlie answered with only 25 runs, 3 homers and 19 RBI. Junior Caminero did most of the heavy lifting for Chris with 6 runs, 2 homers and 8 RBI, while Matt Olson added 2 homers and 5 RBI.

The real difference came from volume on the mound. Chris rolled out 53 innings and collected 49 strikeouts and 4 saves, while the Anchors managed only 30.2 innings, 34 strikeouts and 2 saves. Charlie actually won ERA behind strong work from Sonny Gray and Logan Gilbert, and his .708 OPS was comfortably better than the Kraken’s miserable .574, but there were simply too many categories in which Chris accumulated more of everything. Louis Varland’s 4 saves alone doubled the Anchors’ team total.

At 10-8-1, the Kraken remain 3rd and are not quite in the same position as the top 2, but Chris has kept himself close enough that another week of chaos could make things interesting. Charlie, meanwhile, falls to 3-13-3 and continues his season-long experiment to determine how few innings a fantasy baseball team can throw before somebody calls the authorities.

RK Possums (9-8-2) tied HP PhoeGnomes (3-13-3), 5-5

Rick and Heather fought to a 5-5 draw in one of those matchups where the two teams seemed determined to be good at completely different things. The Possums took runs 28-22 and homers 7-5, while Heather answered with RBI 24-15 and steals 6-2. Neither offense was particularly frightening, with the PhoeGnomes posting a .683 OPS and the Possums limping home at .592, but Heather did enough there to claim another category.

Pitching was where both teams actually looked dangerous. Rick threw 52.2 innings with 58 strikeouts and a 2.22 ERA, getting 13 scoreless innings and 12 strikeouts from Eury Pérez along with 7 shutout innings from Chase Burns. Heather was even stingier, finishing with a ridiculous 1.61 ERA and 0.92 WHIP over 44.2 innings. Cam Schlittler, Paul Skenes, Nolan McLean, Dylan Lee, José Soriano, Chris Sale and Yoshinobu Yamamoto combined to make runs extremely difficult to find, even if the PhoeGnomes somehow emerged from all that pitching without a single save.

The split leaves Rick at 9-8-2 and still hanging around in 5th, while Heather moves to 3-13-3. It was not particularly helpful to either side in the standings, but at least nobody had to spend Sunday night staring at a 3-7 and wondering where everything went wrong.

Five weeks remain, and the championship picture has changed dramatically in the space of 7 days. Jeff still has the Hares on top at 13-4-2, but Kevin and the Goofballs are now only 1 game behind at 12-5-2. After spending much of the season trying to create separation, the Hares suddenly have company again, and there is now almost no room left for another bad week.

Next Week

This week features a new test for the Hares. They battle the Possums, who are firmly in the middle of the pack. The Goofballs have their final contest against the PhoeGnomes. Meanwhile the Anchors will face the Armadillos and the Kraken will try to keep the flame of hope burning aginst the Wolf Spiders. The Hares are in the heart of their toughest stretch – they have a monumental battle with the Goofballs looming in Week #21.

Week 17 has been consigned to the dustbin of history, so we move directly to Week 18, where the race for the Dirt Mountain title suddenly became a lot more interesting. The Possums knocked off the second-place Goofballs, the Hares took advantage by beating the Kraken, and Jeff now sits 2.0 games clear at the top with only 6 games left to play for the title. Elsewhere, Heather continued her late-season revival with another win, while Kyle handled the Anchors to keep the Wolf Spiders moving in the right direction. The finish line is finally in sight, and for the first time all season the Hares can see a path to close out one of the most unlikely runs in league history.

Possums (10-8-1) def. Capital City Goofballs (11-6-2), 6-3-1

Rick did Jeff a hell of a favor this week, handing the second-place Goofballs a 6-3-1 loss and giving the Hares some actual breathing room in the title race. The matchup was remarkably close on the offensive side, with both teams scoring exactly 37 runs and Kevin actually winning RBI 37-35 and steals 9-2. The difference was power, where the Possums clubbed 14 home runs to the Goofballs’ 9, and just barely took OPS .770 to .765.

Dillon Dingler apparently has no intention of cooling off after his monster Week 16, adding another 3 home runs and 8 RBI, while Fernando Tatis Jr. matched him with 3 homers of his own and scored 8 times. Carson Benge had an excellent week with 2 home runs, 5 RBI and a 1.294 OPS, giving Rick more than enough offense despite getting almost nothing from James Wood before he hit the IL and a combined 0-for-11 from Nick Gonzales, Jung Hoo Lee, Griffin Conine and Esteury Ruiz. It was a strange offensive week, with a handful of guys doing almost all the damage, but the guys who hit made it count.

The Possums really won this one on the mound, where Jesus Luzardo was terrific across 15 innings, striking out 19 while allowing just 2 earned runs. Max Fried gave Rick 6.1 scoreless innings and Parker Messick added another solid start, helping the Possums pile up 65 strikeouts to Kevin’s 38 while also taking innings, ERA and WHIP. Kevin actually got an outstanding 14 innings from Logan Webb and 4 spotless innings from Trevor Megill, but there were too many land mines around them. Clay Holmes, Joe Ryan and Shane Drohan all got knocked around, and the Goofballs couldn’t generate nearly enough strikeouts to make up the difference.

It’s a big win for Rick in his own title chase, but it may end up being remembered just as much for what it did at the top of the standings. Kevin entered the week as Jeff’s closest pursuer and left it 2.0 games back with only 6 left on the schedule. There isn’t much runway remaining.

Hares (14-3-1) def. Kraken (9-9-1), 6-3-1

With the Goofballs stumbling, Jeff had a chance to put some daylight between himself and the rest of the league, and the Hares took care of business with a 6-3-1 win over Chris. It wasn’t one of their usual pitching clinics, either. This time the offense did most of the heavy lifting, pounding out 16 home runs and 33 RBI while posting a .790 OPS.

Alec Burleson and Jackson Chourio were the wrecking crew, with each blasting 4 home runs. Burleson drove in 7 and posted a ridiculous 1.851 OPS, while Chourio added 5 RBI and reached base often enough to finish at 1.169. Josh Naylor and Elly De La Cruz each went deep twice, and even though the Hares actually lost runs 40-38 and steals 5-4, the power barrage gave Chris very little room to maneuver in the other offensive categories.

The Kraken certainly didn’t roll over. Jake McCarthy had a monster week, going 14-for-27 with 2 homers, 5 RBI, 8 runs and 3 steals, while Matt Olson and Junior Caminero each hit 3 home runs. Chris finished with 63 hits and 40 runs, but the lineup couldn’t match the Hares’ power, and the pitching staff picked a bad week to have Casey Mize get absolutely annihilated for 8 earned runs in 3.1 innings. Without that disaster, the Kraken’s pitching numbers would have looked considerably different.

Jeff’s staff wasn’t exactly pristine either, with Foster Griffin and Zack Wheeler taking some punishment, but Dylan Cease was sensational with 7 scoreless innings and 10 strikeouts, while Ryan Weathers added 6 more scoreless. That was enough for the Hares to win strikeouts 55-39 and ERA 3.97 to 4.74, while the Kraken salvaged WHIP by a fairly comfortable margin.

More importantly, the Hares are now 14-3-1 and have opened a 2.0-game lead with only 6 games left to play for the title. There is still enough baseball remaining for something stupid to happen, and this league has never lacked for wild things happening, but Jeff is now firmly in control of his own destiny.

PhoeGnomes (4-13-2) def. Armadillos (6-8-5), 6-4

Heather’s season may have gone off the rails months ago, but apparently nobody told the PhoeGnomes they’re supposed to stop trying. They picked up another win this week, taking down Larry 6-4 behind a combination of excellent pitching and a surprisingly potent offense that posted the best OPS of any team in the league at .897.

Kyle Tucker and Mickey Moniak each hit 2 home runs, while Munetaka Murakami added 2 of his own and Bryson Stott went 10-for-22 with 8 walks, 3 steals and a 1.236 OPS. Heather only scored 29 runs and drove in 26, both well behind Larry, but the PhoeGnomes made their hits count and took home runs 10-9 and OPS comfortably.

Larry’s offense was bizarre. The Armadillos scored a league-high 39 runs, drove in 36 and stole a ridiculous 13 bases, but much of that production came from Pete Crow-Armstrong deciding to impersonate an entire fantasy roster. PCA scored 11 times, hit 2 home runs, drove in 7, stole 4 bases and posted a 1.078 OPS. Wilyer Abreu also had a huge week with 5 runs and 7 RBI, while Pete Alonso homered twice and drove in 6. Unfortunately, several other Armadillos did almost nothing, and all those counting stats couldn’t overcome Heather’s advantage in OPS and the pitching categories.

The PhoeGnomes’ rotation did the rest. Cam Schlittler struck out 17 across 10 innings, Drew Rasmussen threw 7 scoreless, Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed no earned runs in 5.2 innings, and Matthew Boyd continued his steady work. Heather finished with 58 strikeouts, a 2.96 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, sweeping those categories from an Armadillos staff that got absolutely detonated by Jared Jones’ 11 earned runs in 7 innings and Clayton Beeter’s memorable 54.00 ERA cameo.

Heather isn’t going to turn this into the season she envisioned back in April, but the PhoeGnomes have now won 2 straight reported matchups and suddenly look like an extremely annoying team to draw down the stretch. At this point, ruining somebody else’s season is a perfectly respectable goal.

Wolf Spiders (9-6-4) def. Dirt Mountain Anchors (3-13-3), 7-1-2

The Anchors actually pitched beautifully this week, which makes losing 7-1-2 feel particularly cruel. Charlie’s staff posted a 2.30 ERA and 0.89 WHIP, both excellent numbers, but Kyle essentially matched him at 2.31 and 0.99 while throwing nearly 19 more innings, striking out 24 more hitters and picking up the only 2 saves of the matchup. When you pitch that well and still only manage ties in ERA and steals, it’s probably safe to assume the fantasy gods have stopped returning your calls.

Troy Melton was the star for the Wolf Spiders, throwing 13 scoreless innings, while Payton Tolle struck out 14 in 6 innings and Jacob deGrom added 9 strikeouts with a 1.80 ERA. MacKenzie Gore also chipped in 6 scoreless innings, giving Kyle enough quality and volume to dominate the counting categories without sacrificing much of anything in the ratios.

The offenses were closer than the final score suggests. Both teams hit 10 home runs and stole 3 bases, while Charlie actually won OPS .842 to .722. Bryce Harper had a classic Bryce Harper week with 2 home runs, 5 RBI, 10 walks and a 1.050 OPS, while Brandon Nimmo, Shohei Ohtani and Jarren Duran each homered twice. Unfortunately for the Anchors, they managed only 24 runs and 31 RBI, which left just enough room for the Wolf Spiders to sneak past them in both categories.

Kyle got his biggest production from Ronald Acuña Jr., who hit 3 home runs, and Ezequiel Duran, who collected 8 hits while driving in 6. Nico Hoerner also quietly had an excellent week with 8 hits, 4 runs and a home run, and that was enough offense to complement a pitching staff that carried most of the load.

The 7-1-2 win pushes the Wolf Spiders to 9-6-4 and keeps Kyle firmly in the mix as the season winds down. For Charlie, meanwhile, the Anchors somehow managed to produce a 2.30 ERA, a .842 OPS and still get hammered. If that doesn’t summarize the season, nothing will.

Next Week

The Hares face a tough test with their final match up against the Armadillos. This is essentially a must-win for Larry, who will never go down without a fight. The Goofballs face the Wolf Spiders, who also play with prdie and want to disrupt the title race. The Kraken will fight for pride against the Anchors, who need a win to try to improve draft lottery status. Finally, the Possums and PhoeGnomes meet, as two teams looking for a late season surge.