League Schedule

The stats don’t quite match up with the schedule, as the East reported that they were finished, but the stats say there are still games to play.

Speaking of the East, Punxsutawney finished the season with 94 wins, which probably won’t be enough to end up as the best record in the league. The Groundhogs went 15-15 this month, with an uncharacteristic 4.19 era. The standouts were R Ray, who went 3-1 with a 2.86 era; and J Luzardo finished 3-1 with a 3.23 era. C Estevez anchors the bullpen this month with 7 saves and a 2.61 era. P Alonso rebounded this week to finish with a .250 ave, scoring 18 runs with 20 rbi; T Turner will walk away with the batting title this season as he batted .319 with 9 runs and 10 rbi. D Lile is still on fire, batting .333 with 12 runs and 14 rbi. R O’Hearn was the big acquisition for the Hogs, and he batted .308 with 12 runs and 12 rbi this month, and for the year he finished with a .280 average, 34 runs and 31 rbi with 10 homeruns in 3 months. And I’m sure the Punx pitchers appreciated moving Alonso off first base and into the DH role. Colorado blasted into 2nd place in the East by going 18-12 this month with a .276 batting average and a 3.55 era. People are reporting that they are a lock for the playoffs, but we’ll wait for the final stats to be imported before making that announcement. Either way, though, the Reavers are looking great as the pitching staff had 8 relievers this month with era’s under 3, so once the team got a lead, the relief corp locked it down. K Gausman ended up 3-1 with a fantastic 1.88 era; and M Fried was 3-1 with a 2.40 era. J Hader collected 5 saves with a 2.08 era. K Schwarber was a beast, as he ended the month with 30 rbi, which not many hitters do. He batted .283 with 23 runs and 12 homeruns. D Swanson was solid, hitting .255 with 18 rbi and 14 runs. M Moniak tuned up for the playoffs by hitting .312 with 6 homers and 12 rbi, and H Goodman will be dangerous as well: he batted .312 with 17 runs. Hells Kitchen took the “spoiler” role seriously this month. The Westies finished 17-13, with a very good 2.95 era and a pretty low .234 batting average. Pitching lead the way in this successful spoiling month: S Alcantara went 2-0 with a 1.62 era; Q Priester was 3-1 with a 1.76 era. Reliver T Kinley locked down leads with a 1.98 era himself, and even collected wins as he went 3-1. While not all the batters hit the ball consistently, the ones who did made it count. B Harper batted .273, scored 15 runs with 15 rbi, and bashed 6 homeruns. S Steer pitched in with 5 homers, 15 rbi and a .268 ave, and B Baty was a pest to opposing pitchers as he hit .328. Cue up Linda Ronstadt’s “Blue Bayou” on your favorite streaming platform because they are singing sad songs out on the Bayou. Sadly, the Saints have stopped hitting: in September they batted .221, while the team went 13-12. What the heck happened to the team that has the league’s best team era and second best run differential? The batters went cold at the most inopportune time, especially the homerun hitters. We expect E Suarez to hit .218 as he did this month, with 5 homers and 13 rbi; but R Devers was drafted for his offense, and he hit just .222 this month with 2 homeruns and only 9 rbi. In his defense, he did score 14 runs, but everyone expected a few more homeruns in this important month. Let’s give it up for old man Degrom who has gone 3-0 this month with a 2.25 era, and C Rodon, who went 2-2 despite a 1.52 era.

In the West, the old saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same” rings true. Woodland Hills still stands at the top, since they played no games this week. The Chompers are tied with Punx with 94 wins with 10 games outstanding. It would have to be an act of God, as well as 6 natural disasters, and an alien invasion for this team to lose all 10 games and fall into a tie for best record in the league. So, it’s pretty certain that the Chompers will once again roll into the playoffs with home field advantage. Hollywood has gone 15-10 this month, and has a pretty good shot to be in the playoffs despite having 5 more games to play with Ohtani and his mashing crew. The Swingers’ 3.06 team era was anchored by an unusually consistent Z Wheeler, who went 4-1 with a 1.82 era. C Holmes closed out the season by going 2-0 with a 2.63 era. The team’s .254 batting average had help from another unlikely person: L Arraez finally found some consistency and hit .333. J Soto also upped his batting ave by hitting .299, scoring 22 runs with 13 rbi with 5 homeruns. J Naylor, acquired for this stretch run and the playoffs, continues to help as he hit .317 with 11 runs and 10 rbi. The rest of the west still have games outstanding, but the reality is that this is not spoiler month for the west. That happened in August, when Hollywood still had a chance to have a bad month and fall out of the playoffs. But as reported last week the Florida Windburns, the other playoff hopeful, just ran out of at bats and innings.