As we reach June 10, the Pittsburgh Pisces are red-hot and the Ramapough Mountain Indians are ice-cold. The Pisces have won 13 games in a row and now lead Miami (who is a fairly impressive 8-2 in their last ten games) by 2.5 games. Ramapough, meanwhile, has lost 10 straight and has fallen to fourth, a half-game behind Stockholm. Cairo and Maryland remain tied.

In the Socratic League, the Brooklyn Bombers still lead the Jersey City Skeeters by two games. New York is third, but is now 3.5 games out of first and 1.5 out of the wild card. Seattle has moved back to fourth, nine games behind the division leaders. Gainesville has lost four straight and is now fifth, 9.5 back. Marietta brings up the rear.

In transactional news, Miami signed free agent Bryan Blackstock to a one-year, league minimum contract. No other league news.

Injuries struck again. Brooklyn ace reliever Forrest Stiff suffered back spasms, which doesn’t sound so bad. But, the spasms will cause him to be out for 13 MONTHS, which is awful. Two season-ending injuries in recent days for the Bombers. New York’s Carlos Araoz is out 1-2 weeks with bruised ribs. Miami’s Lewis McGurk and Seattle’s James Bray are both day-to-day for about a week.

On to the game action.

On June 5, Pittsburgh’s Danilo “Spike” Henriquez was 2-2 with two home runs, three walks, four runs scored and five RBI leading the Pisces to a 17-2 thrashing of Cairo. Brooklyn edged Gainesville 2-1 in a tight contest with Freddie Mendes winning his eighth game of the year. Frankie Garnett hit his 18th home run of the year for Seattle but New York won 9-4. Marietta got home runs from Kevin Grow and Kenrokurou Yoshii in beating Jersey City 9-1.

On June 6, James Lineberry (recently arrived from Miami) threw a four-hit shutout at New York, striking out ten. Garnett hit his 19th home run in the Pilots’ 7-0 win. Maryland and Stockholm went to extra innings, only to see three Poedamnedmonium hitters club back-to-back-to-back solo home runs in the tenth inning for a 6-3 Maryland win. Meanwhile, Marietta led Jersey City 6-1 entering the ninth inning. But, the Skeeters got two walks, a single, a two-run double, and a three-run home run, all with nobody out, to tie the game. At that point, it was just a matter of time before Jersey City pushed a run across in the 11th inning to win 7-6.

On June 7, Seattle got its second straight complete game as William “World B.” Freeman went the distance in a 6-2 victory over the Mammoths. New York edged Brooklyn 2-1, despite recording only three hits and yielding ten to the Bombers. Miami led Stockholm 6-2 as the game went to the bottom of the ninth. But, three singles, an error, and a three-run double tied the game at six. The pitching staffs then shut the two teams down for the next four innings. Finally, in the 14th inning, Slugger Reuben Gilcrease drove in Marvin Weist to give Stockholm the 7-6 win.

On June 8, Tyler “Ex” Conn threw eight more shut out innings as Brooklyn topped the Knights 2-0. In Ramapough Mountain, the Indians and Pisces engaged in a lengthy pitchers’ duel before Pittsburgh prevailed 2-1 in 12 innings when reserve outfielder Alex Dinardo collected the first RBI of his young major league career.

And, on June 9, everyone rested.

In the College World Series, the University of Washington prevailed four games to two over SFI Riksby. Go Dawgs! More managers and GMs were fired. I assume the GM is really the Director of Recruiting, or some such thing.

League file is up and posted. Remember, the draft is now just two sims away, so fill out those draft lists. Next sim, on Friday, will be up to June 15, the eve of the draft.