[Westheim]

Raccoons (44-71) @ Gold Sox (53-60)

We faced Laurentij Mlotkovsky (rather hard to type at 1am), who had been included in the trade for Christopher Powell four years ago. He was consistently posting losing records with ERA’s over 4, so that was one of the few trades I did not want to shoot myself for.

Mlotkovksy no-hit the Raccoons into the sixth in a scoreless games, before Logan Evans himself ripped a double down the left field line to lead off the top 6th. The Raccoons failed to score him. Top 7th, still 0-0. Dawson doubles to lead off, Ben Simon is walked intentionally and Sherwood Henderson singles through the gap on the left. Bags full and nobody out. Johnston popped out, and Edgardo Gonzalez rolled a slow grounder to short, that SS Paul Connolly for reasons unknown failed to pick up from the ground, and Dawson scored on the error. We coughed another run in when Sánz pinch hit for Evans and flew out to deep right. Gaston pitched two innings in relief and Grant West saved the 2-0 win, although two Gold Sox got on base in that ninth inning, before he ended it with back-to-back K’s. This was Evans’ 10th win of the season, as both teams evenly split six hits between them.

The long string of games took it’s toll on the team. Ken Clark had been rested in game 1 (with a PH appearance), and in game 2 we rested Daniel Hall and Ben Simon. Both teams had two hits in the first inning (thus already bringing up 67% of game 1’s offense), and the Raccoons led 1-0 after Dawson had doubled in Clark. The Gold Sox tied it in the third, when Pedro Sánz left the game with some kind of injury after hitting the wall on a play. (Technically, he was still benched but had played RF with Henderson in LF to rest Hall). An RBI double by Johnston in the sixth and a 3-run home run by Troy Scott in the seventh made it a 5-1 game and Jorge Romero went for the showers after a scoreless bottom 7th. Bocci planted a ball in the seats for another 3-run shot in the eighth, 8-1. Now, wait for the bullpen implosion – of course it came, almost. Coleman was unable to complete the eighth and Tony Lopez got a double play that held the damage to one run, but then struggled in the ninth. Cunningham came to issue a walk that filled the bases with one out, but then struck out the last two Gold Sox to seal the 8-2 win. Bocci had been 3-5 with 1 HR, 3 RBI; Scott 2-3, 1 HR, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-4, BB, 1 RBI;

Thus ended a stretch of eight games in which the Raccoons each time had scored two runs or less, while still somehow going “only” 3-5 during that time on account of strong pitching. We had 11 (of 15) games in August with two runs or less scored. In the other games they had scored six, seven, eight, and ten runs for a flat 3.0 R/G average for the month. Alarmingly slow.

Game 3 saw the first suit back together. Minus the injured/benched/whatever Pedro Sánz, now with Troy Scott in right instead of Henderson. The Raccoons scored two in the first to get mop-up-turned-starter Carlos Moran an early lead. He got into trouble in the bottom 2nd with the two first Gold Sox getting on. We wiggled through by intentionally walking SS Dane Cubitt (a .193 hitter!) with runners on second and third, allowing Moran to K the pitcher, Mike Clarke, and end the inning without damage taken. The Gold Sox tied the game in the fourth on errors by Simon and Bocci, then went ahead 3-2 in the sixth on a run-scoring uncaught third strike with two out. Such things only ever happen to my teams, I swear.

From there it was merely an escalating natural disaster with a cascading effect. Jason White punched his ticket back to AAA with facing two batters in the bottom 7th and surrendering home runs to both. Another throwing error (by Dawson) plated two in the eighth and the Raccoons lost 7-2.

What a game. (facepalm) All three runs to poor Moran, who wound up with the loss, were unearned, plus one to Grant West.

We also got news that Pedro Sánz suffered a concussion when he nailed the wall in game 2. His season was over and he went to the 60-day DL. Pity! With White going to AAA, we recalled Rich Hughes, the lefty reliever who had spent all year recovering from an elbow injury. Sánz was replaced by Dale Armstrong.

Raccoons (46-72) vs. Blue Sox (44-74)

Enter: the two worst teams anywhere to be found. Let’s figure out, which one is the worst overall.

Round 1 definitely went to the Raccoons – which was bad, since we were looking for the worst team here. They were not able to mount the slightest slice of offense against a team with intense troubles with their pitchers, giving Simmons his 17th loss this season. Down 2-0, they somehow filled the bags in the bottom 8th, but Dawson grounded into a double play to end the inning. A wild pitch scored a run for the Raccoons in the bottom 9th, but Cook and Gonzalez were unable to bring the tying run in from third base. 2-1 loss, and it was horrible. Only noteworthy “achievement” for the Raccoons was the fact that Rich Hughes came into the game in the top 8th and retired lefty LF Brian Henry, the only batter he faced.

The Blue Sox scored once against Powell in the first, but Ben Simon hit a 2-run double to turn it around immediately. There you go, Christopher. 2-1 lead, you ain’t gonna get no more!

That was actually not true. In the bottom 3rd, Daniel Hall singled to right, followed by a Mark Dawson single to left. Ben Simon walked and the bags were full with one out. Wyatt Johnston flew out to deep center but Hall tagged up and scored. Edward Peterson came up, getting his odd start to rest a tired Bocci. He drilled the ball out of leftfield to make it a 6-1 game. Still 6-1 after six innings, Powell was lifted to be pinch hit for in the bottom 6th with no countable results. Coleman gave away a run in the ninth, and Lopez had put runners on the corners before Gaston came in to record three outs in the eighth, but the Raccoons won 6-2. Simon was 2-2 with 2 BB and 2 RBI.

Logan Evans pitched 1-run ball over seven innings and when he was pinch hit for in the bottom 7th was in line for the loss. There, Sherwood Henderson walked to load the bases with one out – a chance the Raccoons had already blown earlier in the game. Ken Clark this time at least got a sac hit and the game was tied. Cunningham walked three in the top 8th without damage, before Hall hit a ball about 10 feet far to lead off the bottom 8th. He still hustled into first successfully. Mark Dawson unloaded to the leftfield stands for a 3-1 lead. West pitched around a leadoff double to save the 3-1 win in the top 9th.

Back-to-back series wins! We’re on a roll, baby! These four wins against Gold Sox and Blue Sox also were the only wins in interleague play for the Raccoons this year: 4-14. The Blue Sox were now the only team we had a winning record against: 5-4.

Some shuffling was done prior to the next series. Cameron Green was ready to return from a broken hand and rejoined the team. This created a tight spot around 2B, since I was lacking Nixon to put there. Sending down Edgardo Gonzalez would not have helped because of that, and so Dale Armstrong had to go down to AAA again, since Dawson could also play on either outfield wing. He would temporarily move to RF, and Green play 3B.

Raccoons (48-73) @ Crusaders (55-66)

Jorge Romero was whacked around in game 1 and didn’t get through the fifth inning. Six earned runs were charged to him in the 8-2 loss. Edgardo Gonzalez had three hits, that was it for good news.

The Raccoons got three early in game 2, but a Hector Atilano home run tied it up in one big swoosh in the bottom 6th after Carlos Moran had 2-hit the Crusaders through five. Ben Simon answered with a rocket out of leftfield in the top 8th to make it 4-3. By then Rich Hughes was in, having relieved Moran against lefties, which there were plenty of in the Crusaders lineup. Cunningham and West held the Crusaders at bay from there. In the top 9th the Raccoons missed another 3-on-1-out chance, but it was still enough for a 4-3 win. Hughes got the win. His 1981 record so far was interesting: 3 G, 8 PI, 1 R, 0 ER, 1-0, 0.00 ERA.

By all chance, the Raccoons should have lost game 3. First, Gary Simmons started the game. Second, the offense was slow as ketchup again. They scored a run in the top 2nd when Gonzalez scored Dawson, and then nothing. Simmons wobbled all over the place with his 1-0 lead, filled the bags with nobody out in the third and still got out thanks to Mark Dawson and Edgardo Gonzalez making unbelievable catches of line drives for the first two outs. In the sixth he walked Dan Younger, who was replaced by speedster Leonard Barnett, also with nobody out. He then balked Barnett over to second. Barnett was sacrificed over by Miguel Fuentes. Simmons struck out Freddie Riley – his only K that day – to bring the pitcher to the plate, and Tom Moulds, who went the distance, grounded out. Simmons walked Cecil Ward with one out and was replaced by Wally Gaston, who got a grounder to end the inning. Hall and Dawson fabricated another run in the top 9th and West entered with a 2-0 lead. He walked the first two batters, then got a 5-star play by Edgardo Gonzalez for a double play. He then got Riley to pop out to end the 2-0 game – a truly intense game! Gary Simmons: 7.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K.

In other news:
August 16 – Jack Pennington 3-hits the Bayhawks in a 4-0 Buffaloes win. He is 5-0 with a 0.96 ERA since joining the Buffaloes. (facepalm)
August 16 – The Capitals beat the Knights 6-5, with most honors going to 2B Sergio Martiel, who goes 5-5 with 4 RBI and only lacks a home run for the cycle. Meanwhile Falcons CF Gilbert Dougan also racks up 5 hits in an 8-3 win over the Blue Sox. Dougan falls a triple short of the cycle, but also bats in four runs.
August 17 – Gold Sox 1B Francisco Lopez becomes the first player this year to score six hits in a game, going 6-6 in a 9-6 win over the Falcons. His line read 6-6, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI.
August 21 – A big chunk breaks out of the Cyclones’ offense as Jeremiah Carrell (.360, 0 HR, 63 RBI) breaks his thumb in a game against the Buffaloes. To add insult to injury, the Cyclones lose 2-1 and fall to 1.5 games behind the Buffaloes.
August 24 – Thunder RF Jonah Frank goes 5-5 in a 10-3 win over the Aces. He gets a home run, a triple, and three singles – only a double away from the cycle. The 2-run shot was only his second homer this season.

The last 14 days, the team has played 13 games with an 8-5 record, yet 33-35 in runs. With just a tad more offense we could …!! Gmnraaahh!!

I pitched contract offers to Christopher Powell (finally: 6 years, $3.54M, last year team option, thank god he has a down season!) and to Daniel Hall, who will be arbitration eligible for the first time this year: 4 years, $1.4M ($350k/y). His estimate is $260k at this time. Ben Simon and Stephano Bocci keep refusing reasonable offers. Wyatt Johnston, who will turn 40 next February, will receive a contract offer for 1 year at $250k. This is a desperate measure. Hoyt Cook has batted himself into foul ground, and Matt Workman, our prospect for 1B at AAA, is constantly injured and is not playing much this year. When he is playing, he’s batting .376 with raw power at AAA, so he is ready for the majors. Cook needs to go, but I can not replace two first basemen. So Workman and Johnston are slated to share 1B next year. Workman is also on the list of call-ups come September in a week.