August 21, 2022 Edition

Pennant Races

We’re getting down to where “Magic Numbers” are starting to matter. Both Crystal Lake and Shin Seiki have sizable leads in their respective divisions. The Crystal Lake Sandgnats have a 14.5 game lead over the Duluth Warriors with a magic number of 24. The Shin Seiki Evas have a 13 game lead over the Okinawa Shisa’s with a magic number of 26. The Desert Hills Division has a race going on and a new leader for this edition of Races and Chases. The Aurora Borealais has grabbed the lead from the Yuma Bulldozers by riding a 9 game winning streak. A key 3 game sweep over the Yumans at home in the cold confines of Northern Lights Park was sweep revenge for the Yuman’s taking the previous series between the two in Yuma. Aurora now has a 3.5 game lead over Yuma as we head into the last few series’ in August. The race is on. Will Aurora put the Bulldozers in their rear view mirror or will Yuma gather it up and chase the Borealis back down and pass them for the win?

Wild Card Races

Yuma is has a comfortable 7.5 game cushion in the Wild Card races. The 2nd spot belongs to Duluth with a 3 game cushion and the Tempe Knights are on the bubble with a 65-59 record. Chasing the top 3 are the Okinawa Shisa at 2 games behind, the Bakersfield Bears at 3.5 games and the Niihama Ghosts who are 4.5 games in the red. With some key series’ coming up in the next few sims, this could get pretty interesting.

The Chases

Batting Champion:

Canton Longshoremens OF-Gabriel Martinez and Tempe’s 1B/3B- Javier Padilla are tied on top of the leader board with .339 batting averages. Martinez hit safely in 4 ot the 6 games in the last sim with Padilla getting hits in 5 of 6 to keep the pressure on. Aurora’s OF-River Pope trails in the 3rd spot hitting at a .330 clip. Pope himself is riding a 6 game hitting streak.

Home Run King:

While Martinez and Padilla are slugging it out for the Batting Title, Shin Seiki’s OF-Ryozo Takeuchi and Fargo’s 1B-Jarrod Wright are going at it to try and claim the Home Run King title. Takeuchi leads by the slimmest of margin’s with 36 homers with Wright on right on his tail with 35 round trippers. Yuma’s OF-Jarrod Ricks still within striking distance with 32 bombs on the season.

RBI Crown:

Takeuchi leads the RBI Crown as well. Ryozo has 111 RBI’s this season but only holds a narrow lead by 2. Crystal Lakes 1B-Wilson Munoz is keeping the pressure on with 109 ducks. Trailing those two at a distance is Yuma’s Ricks who has 94 runs batted in.

Cy Young:

Crystal Lakes’ Francisco Robles leads the top Sovereign League pitchers with 16 wins on the season. The 32 year old lefty is 16-5 with a 3.35 ERA and 101 strikeouts. We have a tight log jam behind him. Yuma’s Gunner Macgruder holds the number 2 spot down with 15 wins and there are 3 pitchers tied with 14 wins each. That would be Aurora’s Michel Provost, Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani and Niihama’s Koki Watanabe

Strikeout King:

Every pitcher wants to pound his chest and show off his Strikeout King hardware to all his friends. And this chase shows how bad they all want to take that trophy home and put it on their mantles. But only one will get too. Well unless there’s a tie. In that case we’ll have to carve the trophy up. And nobody wants that. And it’s just another reason why i hate ties. I hate ties so much I won’t even wear one. But that’s another story. The big story is Fargo’s Ernesto Molina and Aurora’s Provost sharing the lead with 162 k’s on the year. A tie? Say it ain’t so. Duluth’s 28 year old left hander Julian Thomas is a close 3rd with 161 sit em downs. Aurora’s Arturo Jimenez is next with 156 and Shin Seiki’s Suitani still in pursuit with 151 k’s.

The Fireman Award:

Duluth’s Julio Gonzalez holds on to a decent lead with 34 saves. He’s been putting out fires left and right, but mostly right. The 26 year old right handed McAllen, Texas native has a 7-4 record, 3.39 ERA and 77 strikeouts. Chasing him is Tempe’s Raul Cruz 30 saves, Aurora’s wile e ole veteran 35 year old Bryant Burris with 29, Crystal Lakes’ Ramon Contreras has 28 and Kalamazoo’s Robert Vincent trails with 27 saves.

That’s it for this edition of Races and Chases. The Desert Hills had a big change for the lead, the Wild Card race is heating up, the batting title is knotted up and both home run and RBI battles are up for grabs. And who knows who will come out on top in any of the pitching categories cause those are some pretty wild chases going on right there.

So til next time.

We’ll catch that can of corn when we return for the next edition of SL Races and Chases.

Good Night Everybody