The Chips are Sliding and the Fishbiscuits Are Taking Advantage

Earlier this evening the Otherton Fishbiscuits caught and then passed the DC Chips for the American League Wild Card lead.  This completes a slide that began in early June, but picked up in earnest in mid August.  While DC has lost 17 of their last 25, Otherton has won 15 of 26, and now own a half game lead in for the Wild Card.

Through August 14 (119 games) the Chips had scored 4.3 runs per game and yielded 4.0, good enough for a +35 run differential.  Since August 15 (25 games) those values have dipped to 3.5 and 4.8 respectively, poor enough for a -32 run differential.

Their starting pitching is mostly to blame:
12.27 ERA - Bert Blyleven (1 GS)
10.67 ERA - Wall Bunker (3 GS)
 5.94 ERA - Dutch Leonard (7 GS)
 5.75 ERA - Art Ditmar (4 GS)
 4.40 ERA - George Zettelin (6 GS)

Ty Cobb (.220 / .288 / .320) and Mel Ott (.216 / .296 / .318) have also chosen inopportune times to slump.

For their part, Otherton has turned their season around in the opposite way.  Over the same time frames, their Run Scoring has increased from 4.1 r/g to 4.8 r/g, while their run prevention has improved from 4.3 r/g to 3.5 r/g.

Their stars:
1.49 ERA - Amos Rusie (6 GS)
2.61 ERA - Warren Hacker (10 IP)
3.24 ERA - Bill Bernhard (7 GS)
3.57 ERA - Grant Jackson (17 IP)

No regular has an ERA over 4.00 and George Stone batted .400 / .455 / .500*

*This should probably be another blog post entirely, but has any trade ever worked out better for two teams in the history of ATB?  On August 17 Otherton and Imre swapped 6 players.  Since then, Otherton has a 14-8 record and took the wild card lead.  Imre has a 13-7 record and also took the wild card lead.  Here is how the 6 are faring:

Imre

• Kevin Brown (3-0, 1.80 ERA, 25 IP, 19 H)
• Hong Chi Kuo (1-1, 2 Sv, 1 bad outing)
• George Gore (2 H, 4 AB)

Otherton

• Warren Hacker (2.61 ERA, 10 IP in relief)
• George Stone ( .400 / .455 / .500 in 80 AB)
• Hilton Smith (1 IP, 0 H)