PSPBL Week 13 Recap

Bryan Reynolds has helped breathe new life into the Zimas’ offense (Imagn Images)

THE CHASE

The streak is dead. Long live the streak.

JOHN JACOB ZIMAHEIMER SCHMITT did in Week 13 what no other team had been able to do until this point in the 2026 PSPBL season: Beat LANCER PRIDE.

The Zimas had a spectacular week on the whole in handing the Pride a 9–4 defeat, but it was on the hitting side where the Zimas looked particularly dangerous, slashing .324/1.020, hitting 18 home runs and driving in a whopping 52 RBI. Bryan Reynolds and Kyle Schwarber did a lot of that damage, with Reynolds slashing .526/1.655 and Schwarber hitting five home runs and driving in 10 runs total.

If anything, the Zimas’ win made the playoff chase a little more boring. The Pride still lead the Harris Division by 17 games with the loss. The Zimas, meanwhile, greatly solidified their status as the third and final wild card team, moving six games ahead of the next-closest team.

The other two wild card teams held serve this week, too. JUDAS PRIESTER continued the SOUTH BEND BENDERS’ woes, handing them a 9–6 loss. The Benders’ offense slashed an anemic .210/.651 and recorded an impressively poor minus-3 number in the net stolen bases category, while Priester netted nine stolen bases and went 6–2 at the plate with young, unfortunately named catcher Dillon Dingler continuing to impress with a .417/1.173 slash line. Priester is seven and a half games clear of the Zimas in the second wild card seed, while the Benders have won just one matchup since Week 7 and are seemingly fading into the din.

BIG WINNER

The top wild card seed looked solid as could be this week.

FUKUROUND AND FINDOOT posted an impressive 1.50 ERA and 11.75 strikeout rate as it handed the woebegone ANDY HACKS AT 3–0 a 10–3 defeat. F&F went 6–1–1 on the pitching side, led by Dylan Cease, who threw just five innings against the Red Sox but held them scoreless and struck out seven.

F&F may be a ways off from the Pride yet, but has the league’s second-best record and is clear of Priester for the top wild card seed by eight full games.

WEEK 13 ONE TO WATCH

RHUBARB BIKINI continues to flirt with .500 — but like a stealthy submarine, it continues laying just beneath the surface.

Bikini showed it can run with the big boys by getting an 8–5 win over EAMUS CATULI. Bikini went 4–2–2 on the mound with a strong 11.23 strikeout rate and two net wins. Brian Woo threw seven innings of three-hit ball and struck out nine in the best start of the week for Bikini’s staff.

Bikini remains a game below .500, but sits seven games ahead of the Glorioso Division, a comfortable lead considering the way that division has trended. As for Catuli, even with the defeat, they’re the only team from the Schulz Division that appears somewhat threatening at the moment. They actually now have a larger divisional lead than the Pride’s at 18 games.

WEEK 14 ONE TO WATCH

For quite some time, the league’s top two wild card teams have been F&F and Priester. They’re staring down a postseason showdown if everything stays as it is.

That said, despite being in the Harris Division together, they haven’t faced each other yet this year. That changes this week as they engage in their first of two meetings to come over the course of the next four weeks.

A look at Priester’s upcoming schedule reveals one that could be topsy-turvey. Two matchups with F&F, plus one each against a seemingly revived Zimas team and a Fall Guy team that’s still doing its darndest, do not look like easy games for JP. They also face the Hackers, Mercy and Benders before the season comes to a close, too. It may balance out, but even at 12 games over .500, Priester can’t be too loose with its goods.

Stuck as these teams seem to be in their placement, it’s difficult not to look at this matchup, and the next one, as possible playoff previews.

TWENTY WEEKS, 20 YEARS: 2019

Rafael Devers (AP)

BUBBLER BASEBALL BY @MUPFEIF CHAMPION: BULDINKY ‘N’ POPPYCOCK RUNNER UP: ELROY WHOTESOX LEAGUE TEAMS: 12 DIVISIONS: Three (Lou Perini, Bud Selig, Mark Attanasio)

MLB AWARD WINNERS: **NL MVP: Cody Bellinger (Dodgers) AL MVP: Mike Trout (Angels) NL Cy Young: Jacob deGrom (Mets) AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (Astros) NL Rookie of the Year: Pete Alonso (Mets) AL Rookie of the Year: Yordan Alvarez **(Astros)

2019 might be the first of the “it doesn’t feel that long ago” season recaps we have, though next week’s will cover the loop-de-loop oddness of the pandemic season of 2020.

Nonetheless, 2019 definitely feels a lot like the league as we know it now. Still a 22-week season without randomization, but one in which every team played every other team twice. Divisions named after esteemed Milwaukee baseball team owners. However, the big change over the offseason came to the categories, as a focus was placed on pitching rates over sheer accumulation of pitching numbers.

Any thought that this might keep Buldinky ‘n’ Poppycock (now Bikini) from winning a title, however, was in error.

BNP wasn’t quite the dominant regular-season force it had been in some previous years in 2019, but was one of three teams in the Perini Division to qualify for the postseason, with Fall Guy claiming that division’s title and Marquette Baseball (Lancer Pride) joining BNP in earning a wild card spot. The Elroy Whotesox (Priester) took the Selig, while the Hackers claimed the Attanasio with the Interceptors (F&F) winning the final wild card seed.

BNP got its toughest challenge of the postseason from Marquette in the WIld Card Round, but won a pitchers’ duel, 9–7, while the Hackers ended the Interceptors’ first postseason appearance quickly with a fiercely competitive 8–7 win. The Hackers couldn’t survive the Whotesox in the semis, though, falling 8–5, while BNP knocked off the Stuntmen, 9–5, to reach the Final.

This marked the third-straight time the Whotesox franchise had reached the Final, having lost to Fall Guy in 2017 and Catuli in 2018. And, alas, they’d start earning Buffalo Bills comparisons in 2019 as well. WHile the Whotesox’s pitching was competitive in the Final, its hitting, simply, was not, slashing just .204/.676. That allowed BNP to claim the plate half, 5–2–1, and the title by a 9–5 tally. BNP’s offense was strong in 2019, with Rafael Devers slashing .393/1.057 in the final to lead the way.

BNP couldn’t help but leave a final post on the league’s message board at the end of the season boasting about how even the rules changes simply couldn’t stop them in their quest for a third title. And honestly, they had every right to brag a little as they showed not only could they win titles, they could adjust their team style to do it, making them a true champion. •