Blow Out Loss All but Ends Murderer’s Row Regular Season

The Bad News Bears have been in a dog fight with HOMERsexuals for the top spot in the fantasy baseball standings. If the Bears claim the crown, they will owe Murderer’s Row a huge thank you for putting them over the top.

The Row secured a win in three of the last four weeks and five in the previous eight. The magic was not there in their week 21 matchup, an 8-1-1 dubbing to the Bears.

Matchup Recap

If any fans looked at the final score of this matchup, they would notice it reads 8-1-1 in favor of the Bears. Without checking the box score, people would assume it was a lopsided win and not as close.

These two teams tied one category (wins) with three other categories (home runs, RBIs, and saves) separated by one point. The only sure win for the Bears was strikeouts, which they won by 51 points. There was quite a separation in batting average (46 points) even though both teams collected over 60 hits in about 245 at-bats.

The Bears pitchers threw 78 innings, which was 30.8 more than the Row, yet with all those extra innings, there wasn’t a massive gap in the numbers outside of strikeouts. The ERA numbers are only 0.76 points apart, while the WHIP was much closer at 0.22. One lousy game from any starter could have altered those numbers and made the matchup that much closer.Week 21 was a blowout in the scorebooks and almost a shutout in regards to daily lead changes. The Bears opened the matchup on Monday with a commanding 7-1-2 lead which only grew on Tuesday and Wednesday. Somehow Murderer’s Row rebounded and cut the deficit to just two points on Friday. In one of the most shocking moments of the season, the Row battled back to take a 5-3 lead after Saturday night’s action. Despite their best efforts, the Row had no chance to keep the momentum going with the Bears rolling out an arsenal of ace pitchers on Sunday afternoon, snatching back their victory.

Statistics

It took a very lopsided loss to see any of Murderer’s Row numbers change. The team has found a home in the seventh spot regarding RBIs for the bulk of the season. After a productive week at the plate, the team moved up one place to sixth. Two other categories changed, ERA and home runs.

The team’s ERA numbers have been the third or fourth-best for most of the season, so there hasn’t been any significant movement in that department. However, the Row has been the worse team in terms of home runs since week eight. After a lengthy stay at the bottom, they moved up a notch to ninth overall.

The Row is still chasing down the batting title and WHIP crown with one week left in the season. Out of the ten categories the league keeps track of, these are the only two that could yield any results.

At the beginning of the season, the Row was the top team regarding stolen bases. However, they fell to third overall in week four and have hung out in that spot ever since. It would take a monumental week to catch the league leader in the category, 15 bags ahead.

Standings

It took 21 weeks, but the league finally punched everyone’s ticket to the postseason. Although it was no big surprise, the top four teams in the league all advanced to the championship bracket. There is still an ongoing battle for the top spot in the league and who will finish in third or fourth.

The gap between playoff-bound teams and those who will play in the consolation bracket was 12 games. Defending league champion Screw the ‘Stros will not advance to defend their title, so the league will have another new winner when the league records the final out.There is still something to play for between the fifth and eighth place teams. Only 3.5 games separate the ‘Stros and the Row, which means a lot is on the line in the final week of the season. Although it is a long shot, Colegio Andes could have their best week of the season and surpass The Dick Pounds. However, there hasn’t been a shift like that in the standings yet this season.

Roster Moves

After a plethora of roster adjustments in the Row’s week 20 matchup, the team took a step back and made only one move during this past week’s matchup. Sammy Long (San Francisco) disappointed in his one performance with the Row so management was quick to cut ties with the pitcher.

Uncertain of how their matchup would play out, management browsed the free agency pool and couldn’t make a decision on whether or not to add a positional player or another pitcher. They ultimately decided upon Wander Franco, the young rookie from the Tampa Bay Rays. At the time of his signing, he was in the middle of a 30+ game on base streak with very respectable numbers. His addition meant some extra pop in the lineup.

Weekly Move Total: 1/4

Season Move Total: 29/40