This update will be pretty short, sort of like the Frogs' stay in the playoffs this week...
As mentioned above the Frogs went 120-42 (+384) this week. This was the 5th time (and 4th week in a row) the team has topped 120 wins. Unfortunately, it was also the 2nd time the team has won 120 and not won the title.
The problem down the stretch was going 3-6 against Long Beach-Compton (123-39, +460). LBC, the other whale in the division, ended up winning the division by 3 games which was the margin of that final nine-game h2h stretch of games. It the Frogs went 5-4 against LBC, the division would've been ours. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Placed in the precarious position of 120-win team fighting 89-win team in winner-take-all game before 97,815 fans, it did not go well. The Faybik Experience advanced behind 100 Johan Santana and a 3-1 victory over the Frogs. The Frogs out-hit Faybik 10-5, but also committed an error (Ripken Jr.), a passed ball (Pudge), grounded into 2 double plays (Randolph, Ozzie), got caught stealing (Ichiro), and left 8 men on base. Ed Walsh wasn't quite good enough to work through all that. It was a fitting way to exit for a team that strangely struggled to score runs (.271 average, 877 runs scored are both the lowest output in the previous 4 seasons when winning 120+ games became a "thing").
Good luck to all still simming!