The calendar has flipped from June to July, home of the trading deadline. Nothing much has changed in the standings this sim. Pittsburgh and Miami still are comfortably in their playoff positions in the Platonic League. In the Socratic League, Jersey City lost a game of ground, but everything else stayed the same among the top three teams. So, Brooklyn is now 2.5 games ahead of Jersey City and 3.5 ahead of New York. Seattle has won seven in a row, but is having difficulty making up ground as the Socratic League is generally beating the hell out of the Platonic League.

In league news, Stockholm’s Charles Hicklin and Seattle’s Myles Horne won Player of the Week honors. The monthly awards for June were also handed out. The top hitter, pitcher, and rookie in June in the Platonic League were Pittsburgh’s Danilo Henriquez, Miami’s Cruz Alonso, and Pittsburgh’s Alberto Jimenez. Their Socratic counterparts were Gainesville’s Daniel Rushing, Brooklyn’s Tyler Conn, and Seattle’s James Bray. No significant transactions.

There were some significant injuries. Ramapough Mountain’s Leon Strecker and Cairo’s Randy McGinn were both lost for the season. Will this be the end of the road for the Ageless Wonder McGinn? Also, Jersey City’s James Pilla is day-to-day for 1-2 weeks with a blister and New York’s Eric Guglielmo is out three weeks due to a strained calf muscle.

On July 30, Gainesville’s Russell Frederickson threw seven shutout innings in the Purple Porpoises’ 3-1 win over Pittsburgh. Stockholm saw Carroll Pinon homer and drive in five but lost 14-6 to Seattle. Brooklyn eked out another close win, beating Cairo 2-1 in 10 innings. Ramapough Mountain scored twice in the eighth to edge Jersey City 5-4.

In the first games of July, Richard Ro struck out 12 in the Pisces’ 10-2 win over Gainesville. New York swept Maryland, winning the last game 3-1 behind eight strong innings from Chad Gomez. Seattle scored twice in the ninth, with the winning run coming on a two-out, bases-loaded walk, to beat Stockholm 5-4.

On a short July 2 schedule, Gainesville topped Ramapough Mountain 2-1 in a game featuring five hits. New York was thumped by Pittsburgh 17-0 and Gaby Duran collected his 14th win of the year in the process.

On July 3, Ralph Batz homered twice and drove in five in Seattle’s 7-3 win over Cairo. New York scored eight times between the eighth and ninth innings to beat Pittsburgh 11-5. The Knights slugged five home runs along the way. Miami shut out Brooklyn 6-0 with Martin Hernandez’s eight innings of three-hit pitching. Maryland scored four in the ninth to come back and beat Jersey City 7-6.

On July 4, New York took the series between last year’s division winners with a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh. Brooklyn returned the shutout favor in a 2-0 win over Miami, with Terry Benda throwing eight four-hit innings. Marietta shut out Stockholm 7-0 as four relievers combined for the two-hit blanking. Gainesville edged Ramapough 2-1 and Jersey City scored on an error with two outs in the ninth to beat Maryland 6-5.

The next sim will include the All-Star game. To make things work out for the end of July and the trading deadline, I will probably sim six days, up to July 11. That will include four days of games, an off day, and the All-Star game. We’ll then be able to go on normal five-day sims all the way through the rest of July.

League file is posted. Nate and I will probably run another test tomorrow and try not to screw up everyone else when we do it.