We’re into late June now and the post-season races are taking shape. Unfortunately, the playoff spots in the Platonic League seem destined for Pittsburgh and Miami, barring a dramatic comeback by the 2007 World Champion squad in Stockholm or another team well below the .500 mark so far. But, the Socratic League seems to promise a three-team brawl in Gotham between Brooklyn, Jersey City, and New York. Now that the draft is past us, speculation will turn to the trading deadline. Who will make moves to boost their playoff chances? Who will sell? Can one of the teams currently below .500 make a run to get into contention?

In the Platonic League, Pittsburgh’s winning streak was broken after 20 victories in a row, but the Pisces still extended their division lead over Miami to seven games. Stockholm is in third, 8.5 behind Miami. Ramapough Mountain is another half-game back in fourth. Cairo has moved 1.5 games ahead of Maryland.

In the Socratic League, Brooklyn reassumed first place, a half-game ahead of Jersey City, with some very remarkable pitching. New York is three games out of first and 2.5 out of the wild card. Seattle is 5.5 further back and a game ahead of Gainesville. Marietta remains securely in the cellar.

In league news, there was a draft! Also, Stockholm’s Marvin “The Martian” Weist and Gainesville’s Dan “The Man” Rushing took home Player of the Week honors. No significant transactions, other than that amateur draft thing.

On the injury front, the news was bad again for Miami outfielders, an apparently dangerous occupation. Ronald Veit is out 3-4 weeks with a fractured wrist. Pittsburgh’s Oscar Woodworth also had a minor boo boo, but his mommy kissed it and he’s all better now.

And now, on to the game action.

On June 15, Freddie Mendes threw a two-hit shutout in Brooklyn’s 2-0 win over Gainesville. Matt Truesdell lowered his already low ERA to a Platonic best of 1.76 with eight shutout innings in Ramapough’s 1-0 victory over Stockholm. Miami got a game-winning tenth-inning home run from Veit (before his injury) to beat Cairo 5-4. Marietta used a solo home run, a double, a single, and an outfield error to score two in the ninth and come from behind to beat Jersey City 9-8.

On June 16, Jersey City’s Eric Pellham shut out Marietta 6-0. The Mammoths recorded only three hits and a walk on the day. Seattle thumped New York 12-2, with Myles Horne predictably leading the way with two doubles, a homer, and four RBI. Pittsburgh and Maryland played a wild game. The score was tied at five entering the bottom of the eighth. The Pisces’ Danilo Henriquez hit a two home run, immediately followed by Alberto Jimenez’s solo shot to give them an 8-5 lead. The Poedamnedmonium rallied for three in the ninth with four hits off new closer Douglas “Liberty” Isabell. The Pisces prevailed 11-8 though when Henriquez hit a three-run, game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth. Gainesville also was victorious by a 5-3 margin thanks to three runs in the ninth, handing Brooklyn closer Steve Corner his fourth loss of the season.

On June 17, Tsukijirou “T-Rex” Tashiro used his imposing 6 feet and 7 inches to awe Maryland with eight shutout, two-hit innings in the Pisces’ 13-0 rout. Tashiro is the OEL’s only 12-game winner so far this season. Stockholm beat Ramapough 6-5 in 11 innings on Harold Lawson’s solo home run. Nathan continued his Funkiness for Brooklyn with 8.1 shutout innings in the Bomber’s 5-0 win over the Purple Porpoises. Marietta got a solo home run from new acquisition Sixto Arenas to tie the Mammoths’ game against the Skeeters in the ninth inning and won 6-5 on Stephen Hyer’s RBI single in the tenth.

In an abbreviated schedule on June 18, Brooklyn got its third shutout of the sim, beating Marietta 6-0 behind Tyler Conn’s eight shutout innings. The three top ERAs in the Socratic League now belong to Bomber starters (Conn, Funk, and Mendes). Heck, Conn’s been good for 62.3 VORP, or over six wins, in less than half a season. Wow. Also, Maryland edged Ramapough 3-2 and Seattle stopped Jersey City 6-3.

On June 19, Miami crushed the Pisces and their winning streak 9-4, outhitting the fish 15-8. Ben Towell hit two “Sugar” sweet home runs and Richard Vuong drove a “Wedge” in with a home run of his own. Marietta managed to score a run in the ninth inning against Brooklyn, but still lost 5-1. Cairo got two runs in the ninth inning to beat Stockholm 6-5. New York and Gainesville went into extra innings tied at 5. Carlos Araoz’s home run in the top of the tenth gave the Knights the lead, but Dan Rushing doubled and scored on Reinaldo Salerno’s two-out single to tie the game again. The winning run came home in the 11th inning on Florian Mejia’s wild pitch to Pio Pastrana with two outs.

League file is posted. I probably won’t get a chance to update the web pages again before this weekend. Sorry.

The next sim will be Wednesday, probably by me. Now that we’re past the election and the amateur draft, we’re going to try to get Nate back up and running on sim duty. Not that I don’t love devoting my life to making electrons dance three times per week.

A friendly reminder that the short-season A and rookie league seasons will start with Friday’s sim. So, everyone should get lineups and pitching staffs together for those affiliates.