Two divisions sewn up, but North race, wild-card battle rage

Superior and Boulder have effectively sewn up division titles, but Satellite Beach and Bushwood are in a dogfight in the North, and five teams are separated by five games in the battle for two playoff spots as the I-75 League heads into October’s final 20-game stretch.

Superior bolted past Boulder in September with a 14-win month to put itself in position to claim the No. 1 seed for the postseason. With 87 wins, the Titans have two more than the Tree Huggers for the league’s best record. More significantly, Superior expanded its two-game lead in the West to a whopping 13 as Dyersville collapsed with a 3-17 month.

At 85-55, Boulder also leads comfortably in the South with a 10-game lead over Savannah.

The races to watch are in the North, where Satellite Beach played leapfrog with Bushwood once again, hopping from one behind to one ahead with a 14-6 September to Bushwood’s 12-8. Regardless of how that division crown shakes out, the loser is likely to earn a wild-card berth, absent a Dyersville-like collapse in October.

So that’s four spots. Berths five and six will come from among the cluster of Margaritaville (76 wins), Savannah (75), Dyersville (74), Greendale (72) and Applegate (71).

WILD-CARD STANDINGS

DIVISION LEADERS	W	L	Pct.	GB
SUPERIOR	87	53	.621	—
BOULDER	85	55	.607	—
SATELLITE BEACH	83	57	.593	—
WILD-CARD RACE	W	L	Pct.	GB
BUSHWOOD	82	58	.586	+7
MARGARITAVILLE	76	64	.543	+1
SAVANNAH	75	65	.536	—
DYERSVILLE	74	66	.529	-1
GREENDALE	72	68	.514	-3
APPLEGATE	71	69	.507	-4

Clip Files for September

Stumbling to a 9-11 record in September, Applegate’s playoff hopes have been put on life support at 71-69. Barring about a 14-6 final month, the Clips will fall far short of the season they envisioned for themselves last offseason, running through the draft and a 14-6 slate in March. Applegate hit a feeble .212 as a team in September, giving up 40 homers even after purging Mike Fiers and Yonny Chirinos from their rotation, and saw ace Stephen Strasburg go 0-5 with an 8.07 ERA.  The pinnacle of futility came in a 2-3 series vs. Savannah in which Applegate hit .186 with just 1 homer and 13 runs for the entire series. … The Clips were outscored 114-77 on the month and only salvaged as many wins as they did by going 5-0 in one-run games. First-round pick Liam Hendriks had his best month with five saves and two wins in 10 appearances. Seven players hit below the Mendoza line, including Yuli Gurriel (.184 in 49 at-bats, 0 homers, 0 RBIs).  Aaron Judge hit .150 in 40 at-bats with 0 homers and Eduardo Escobar hit .083 in 48 at-bats with 1 homer and 3 RBIs. With only 20 games left in the season, Gurriel needs 16 homers in October to match his 2019 real-life total of 33; Judge needs 9 to get to 28 and Escobar needs 13 to get to 37. Gurriel hasn’t homered since July 25. What else do they all have in common? Their power numbers are in their 1 column. Xander Bogaerts, a 2- column guy, needs 7 homers to get to 35. But, 3-column guys have met or exceeded their homer totals: Josh Bell has 43 after a 39-homer season; Aristides Aquino has 20 after 20;  Byron Buxton has 11 after 11. … Slugger Mike Ford was activated in September for the first time to provide a power boost and contributed a .081 average in 37 at-bats with 1 homer and 2 RBIs. He too is a 1-column guy. … Marcus Stroman went 2-0 with a 4.03 ERA in his debut month for the Clips.

Lava Flow for August

As provided by John McMillan:

In what is becoming an all-too familiar script, August play saw the Volcanoes post some ferocious offense numbers, with the Won/Loss total eroded by crappy relief pitching.  August play saw:

• Christian Yelich post slash line of .368 / .415 / .754 with 7 HR’s and 16 RBI’s
• Ryan McMahon in his first active month of 2020 hit .382 with 6 HR’s and 9 RBI’s
• Mitch Garver and Gary Sanchez combine for 10 HR’s in 89 at-bats
• Luis Arraez returned well rested after his July vacation, hit .320 and led the team with 19 RBI’s.

In all, 6 Volcano batters had at least 10 runs scored, and 10 RBI’s, as the Volcanoes scored 140 runs in 20 August games.  Yet, only 11 wins were posted against 9 losses.  What went wrong?

• Kenley Jansen allowed 13 runs in 10 innings with a 7.20 ERA (0 wins / 2 losses)
• Julio Urias allowed 7 runs in 8 innings with a 7.88 ERA (0 wins / 1 loss)
• Daniel Hudson allowed 11 runs in 9.2 innings with a 10.24 ERA (seriously?)(1 win / 3 losses).

If only the carnage were limited to the bullpen:

• Luis Castillo gave up 17 runs in 22 innings for a 6.45 ERA
• Brandon Woodruff gave up 28 hits, 4 HR’s and 15 runs in 19 IP for a 7.11 ERA
• Domingo German gave up 19 hits and 11 runs in 16.2 IP for a 5.94 ERA.

In 20 August games, the Volcanoes surrendered 119 runs.