SBL Notebook, Week 18

The second week of the August interleague interlude was ugly and American. The AL mashed the NL, 33-3, a result that stirred uncomfortable memories of 2005, the year every National division team finished under .500, in no small measure because of the AL's huge advantage in interleague play. No such hideous disparity exists this year, and the NL at least sports two winning teams . . . but this week was an exception to season-long trends. Only one NL team managed to win any games at all -- Vic's Godfathers, who eked out three 6-5 victories. Everyone else in the division went 0-6, while three AL team enjoyed 6-0 weeks and the other three went 5-1. The best of that lot were the last-place Bristow's Bat-Faced Girls, who rose up to post their best offensive week of this and perhaps any other season (49 runs, 46 RBIs, 17 HR, 42 TB, .381 OBP) and even tossed in some quality pitching (2.81 ERA, 1.15 BR, 7 saves) -- a combination that made them untouchable. The closest game they had was 9-2. . . . The massive tilt in the AL's direction made it a no-harm, no-foul week in the division races, which for obvious reasons remained virtually unchanged. Paulo's Zero's did add a game to their AL lead (now eight games), while Dan's Cherry Valley Bombers remained eight up on JP's Whiteskins. The AL wild-card chase grew even tighter, if that's possible, with only three games separating Dennis' Prodigious Pontiffs in second place from Mikee's Moaners in fifth.