[Westheim]

Double time!

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 3-5, 2018

The Raccoons were to open the season on Tuesday with nine straight games coming up at home before hitting the road for the second weekend of the season, and then straight into poisonous Elkland. But for now the 62-100 Titans came to town trying to bounce back from their second 100-loss season in three years. They had not enjoyed a very good offseason, and when your biggest addition to the roster is the #69 prospect as your fourth starting pitcher, you’re probably not gonna get far from the bottom. Rick Ling was 23 and would not encounter the Raccoons for his debut. In ’17, the Raccoons had gone 12-6 against Boston.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Zach Boyer (0-0)
Tadasu Abe (0-0) vs. Chris Klein (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Dave Priest (0-0)

Three right-handers to start the year. The aforementioned Ling would be their only southpaw starter.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – 2B Lawson – RF Blake – LF J. Avila – SS M. Rivera – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Toner

The first panic of the season occurred right in the first inning, where Jonny logged two outs before Tom Thomas and Steve Butler both singled to center and Derek Lawson walked in a full count. With the bags stacked, Jonathan Blake struck out to keep the Titans away. Toner turned it up a notch after that and would strike out two in each of the first four innings. The Coons’ first six batters were turned away by Boyer until he walked Shane Walter to start the third inning. Tim Prince’s first at-bat resulted in a force at second base, but Prince then took second base, from where he didn’t move while Toner grounded out. Cookie then singled to left past the diminishing reach of an aged Mike Rivera, and Prince scored easily from second base, the first run of the season for the Raccoons. Mike Denny added two more in the fourth, plating DeWeese (who had walked) and McKnight (doubled to right center) with another single to left. Boyer continued to melt, with Walter hitting a single and Prince walking to load the bases, but Toner grounded back to the pitcher and caused Denny to get forced out at home. Cookie then flew out to Jose Avila in left, leaving the score at 3-0. The Titans would make up a run in the sixth (after Toner struck out the side in the fifth, giving him 11 K) thanks to Alex Mata’s leadoff pop falling into shallow left. Tom Thomas beat R.J. DeWeese with a liner into the gap to score the run, but was himself left on third base eventually. Toner had no K’s in this or the seventh inning, but nevertheless batted in the bottom 7th with one out and nobody on. He singled to center, and Cookie was quick to add a single of his own. Matt Nunley had been 0-for-3 so far in the opener, but crashed a pitch to deep right, where it missed being a 3-piece by precious little and instead rammed off the wall and bounced away from Jonathan Blake for a 2-run double. Boyer’s line would get worse by another three runs in the inning thanks to an intentional walk to Mendoza, and unintentional walk to DeWeese, and when Bill Pollard relieved him, the actual relief was marginal. McKnight hit a 2-run double, and Walter hit a sac fly to leave Boyer burdened by eight runs total. Toner’s day ended after a 2-out walk to Armando Galan in the eighth inning, but Jason Kaiser cleaned up behind him and the Raccoons won the opener handily. 8-1 Coons! Carmona 2-5, RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 1-2, BB, RBI; Toner 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

The Coons only had eight hits in the game, so it’s not like we completely blew Zach Boyer, who was unlucky by an enormous amount.

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – 2B Lawson – RF Blake – LF J. Avila – SS M. Rivera – P Klein
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Abe

Not only was Matt Nunley quick to make his first error of the season, skipping a throw through the dirt on Thomas’ 2-out grounder in the first so that Shane Walter couldn’t come up with it, no, that error also snowballed into three unearned runs in a real hurry. Abe walked Steve Butler, and other than Toner on Tuesday didn’t get out of his 2-out jam. Lawson singled to center, scoring Thomas, and Blake doubled up the leftfield line to plate two more before Avila’s drive to deep right was intercepted by Mendoza to prevent more damage from occurring. While Nunley was also the only Furball to get a hit the first time through the lineup, hitting a single in the bottom 1st, he wasn’t the only one to make an error early on. Walter committed one that put Galan on base at the start of the top 3rd, although this time the Titans didn’t score. Nunley in fact had the Critters’ first two hits, hitting a triple in the bottom 3rd and scoring on Mendoza’s bloop single to left, but while the Raccoons out-hit the Titans 7-4 in the first five innings, they couldn’t catch up with them on the scoreboard, and Abe also threw 102 pitches in five innings. When he faced the right-handed Lawson at the start of the sixth, Lawson jumped on him for a leadoff jack to left, and that was it for Abe in this game. The Coons continued to hit singles and to not score anybody. They had two one-base hits in the sixth, another one in the seventh, and didn’t come any closer. Maybe McKnight’s leadoff double in the bottom 8th could turn out helpful! Well, maybe, but the bottom of the order fabricated a groundout, reaching on Butler’s error, and then finally a double play. While that did score the run, the Coons ran out of outs without threatening much *despite* Eddie Jackson hitting another leadoff double in the bottom 9th. He was never scored as the 1-2-3 batters grounded out 1-2-3 times against Matt Branch. 4-2 Titans. Nunley 3-5, 3B; H. Mendoza 2-5, RBI; Denny 2-4; Walter 2-4, RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

We out-hit them by the final tally of the season series from 2017, 12-6, but it was just not enough to crack them open…

Game 3
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – 2B Lawson – RF Blake – LF X. Williams – SS M. Rivera – P Priest
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B Walter – C Margolis – 2B Mathews – P Santos

Cookie took his first base of the season in the first inning on Thursday, which allowed him to score on Mendoza’s single to center, putting the Coons up 1-0 early. Mendoza was then caught stealing when DeWeese flailed badly on a hit-and-run, but even calling it was probably stupid. Hector Santos would only allow one hit in the first three innings, but then allowed two at the start of the fourth inning, sending Galan and Thomas to the corners with no outs. Steve Butler’s fly to left was contained by DeWeese, but deep enough to tie the game on a sac fly. At least Thomas was stranded, and the Raccoons got their own sac fly in the bottom 4th to grab a new lead at 2-1. Mendoza had drawn a leadoff walk, DeWeese had singled, and after McKnight grounded into a fielder’s choice, Walter’s fly to center allowed Mendoza to come home from third base.

But with Santos pitching, a 1-run lead never left you comfortable. Too many balls jumping off bats. While he had only allowed one really deep drive early on, he allowed two of those in the sixth, though Mendoza and Cookie took care. By the seventh, the contact he allowed got even harder until with two outs Xavier Williams yanked one past the wall, a game-tying 2-out home run, 2-2. Margolis hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, but got washed up in Mathews’ double play. Chris Mathis’ season debut was a good one, holding the Titans short in the eighth, and technically we were still waiting for our own first home run of the season. DeWeese hit a drive to right in the bottom 8th, two outs, nobody on against Priest, but it fell down before breaking the desired plane and also into Blake’s glove. While we got another inning from Mathis (although he hit Williams with two outs), the Titans stuck to Priest, who entered the bottom 9th on 92 pitches. McKnight singled on pitch #93, putting the winning run on base. Walter bunted into a double play, which led to more than one guy in the ballpark dropping his beer in shock (and I sure hoped that Slappy would get the booze stain out of my carpet), and even then Margolis drove a ball to deep right – and that one ended with Blake as well for extra innings. Alex Ramirez dealt with the Titans quickly in his own season debut in the top 10th, whiffing two, before the bottom 10th saw Mathews roll out against Branch, and then Eddie Jackson’s drive to center was denied recognition by Alex Mata. Cookie came up, lined to left center for a hit, and stretched his paws a bit to reach second base with a double, which ended up not mattering with Nunley walking in a full count. Mendoza came up, ran 2-2 against Branch and then peppered another deep ball to center. Mata ran after that one in vain – the Coons walked off when the ball came down in front of the warning track. 3-2 Critters. Carmona 2-4, BB, 2B; H. Mendoza 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-4; Santos 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K; Mathis 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Twice in this series I let Cookie, Nunley, and Mendoza bat in order against the left-handed Matt Branch. If this continues to work with a 50% success rate, I’m probably fine with it. It never came to DeWeese’s spot to come up, which would be an automatic PH assignment for anybody, even if it’s Chad with the ****ing mascot head still on.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Falcons (2-2) – April 6-8, 2018

The Falcons had allowed 18 runs in their series with the Thunder, which was the most so far in the Continental League, but they had also played the most games, so there was that. Steve Huibregtse had somehow driven in six runs already to lead the CL, but I’m almost sure that that was not going to hold up. The Coons lost the 2017 season series against Charlotte, 3-6, and they were the team we had the worst all-time record against among all the CL South teams at 182-187.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (0-0) vs. Alex Vallejo (0-0)
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Bobby Guerrero (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 1.17 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (0-1, 7.20 ERA)

That is three more right-handed pitchers. Since I like to give everybody a day off in the first string of games of a new season, and we might not be able to get to the Aces’ southpaw after this series, we will weave in f.e. Eddie Jackson over the weekend already. So far, the only non-starting-pitcher on the roster not to appear in a game so far is right-hander Wade Davis, although Petracek has only gotten one at-bat.

Game 1
CHA: SS Good – 1B Myers – C Holliman – RF Benson – LF Huibregtse – CF Je. Stephenson – 2B J. Estrada – 3B J. Soto – P Vallejo
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – C Denny – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza

That Falcons lineup contained seven left-handed batters, and that was about seven more than Ricky Mendoza could cope with. The first two innings were already dances on the edge of the volcano, while the Raccoons also both times left a man in scoring position, but he retired none of the first five batters in the third inning. He drilled Matt Good, who had started the game with a bunt base hit and a stolen base, but didn’t get to stealing again with Ralph Myers homering to dead center to give Charlotte a 2-0 lead. Ryan Holliman and Travis Benson both singled, Steve Huibregtse doubled, 3-0, and then the inning graciously ended on consecutive pops to left by Jeremy Stephenson and Juan Estrada. Benson didn’t go the first time against DeWeese’s arm, but made for it the second time and was thrown out at home. The Falcons added a run with a Benson homer in the fifth inning, but Alex Vallejo suffered a meltdown in the bottom of the inning. Ricky Mendoza opened with a single against the opposing pitcher – always nice when it happens for your team – but was forced by Cookie, who then stole second base. Nunley singled him in – the Raccoons’ only hit in the inning, while Vallejo walked another three batters, but with the bases loaded and in a 4-2 game, Denny flew out to Huibregtse to end the inning.

Ricky Mendoza’s day ended in the seventh inning after a 1-out single by Holliman, the only right-handed position player in the Falcons lineup. Kaiser replaced him, but conceded the run on Benson’s double, putting the Coons down 5-2. The tying runs were on base with one out in the bottom 7th however. Vallejo reached eight walks on the day with free passes to the Tiger and Eddie Jackson, while McKnight hit a 1-out single. Denny struck out, and after that reliever Blake Parr got PH Brandon Johnson to fly out to center… While the Raccoons kept failing, the Falcons kept adding. Juan Estrada tripled off Chet Cummings to start the eighth, and given Cummings’ general lack of stuff or even good fortune for his entire career, that run was not gonna stay on base. The Raccoons never got back on base and lost this one handily. 6-2 Falcons. Nunley 2-5, RBI; H. Mendoza 0-1, 4 BB;

The Tiger tied a franchise mark with four walks that all remained without any effect whatsoever as he scored zero runs. Held by a flurry of batters, the mark was most recently attained by Sandy Sambrano in 2016. Clyde Brady and Daniel Hall have the most 4-walk games as Critters, each doing it three times in regulation games, but Hall had another 4-walk game that stretched into extras. The only player with two 4-walk games in the playoffs? Vern Kinnear.

I could not sleep at all before the Saturday game.

Game 2
CHA: SS Good – 1B Myers – C Holliman – RF Benson – CF Feldmann – 2B B. Reyes – LF Mugan – 3B Pellot – P B. Guerrero
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – 1B Walter – C Denny – LF Johnson – 2B Prince – P Brown

… and for good reason. While Brownie struck out Ryan Holliman in the first inning – his first K in five appearances – he also lost Myers to a single and Benson to a homer and was 2-0 behind instantly. The Coons made up a run in the bottom 1st, which again involved Cookie singling, stealing, and scoring, this time on a Walter single, but Brownie tasted stale and crumbled all over the mound. While he struck out Alfonso Pellot in the second – 2 K! The rage! – he had the bases loaded in the third inning with one out and looked a bit lost. Benson grounded to Prince, whose only play was at first, and the Falcons got a run to get to 3-1. Then Ryan Feldmann blatantly hacked himself out to waste a golden chance to break open the score early. My bitter tears caused a brief rain delay in the bottom 3rd, and Brownie soldiered on, even whiffing Matt Good along the way before frightful defense completely unwound him in the sixth inning. Holliman drew a leadoff walk, but when Benson chopped a grounder in front of the plate, Denny wildly launched a throw to centerfield for a 2-base throwing error. Nunley couldn’t come up with Ryan Feldmann’s grounder on a 3-1 pitch and it escaped for a 2-run single to left, although Feldmann wound up at second base thanks to Brandon Johnson’s hopeless throw to home plate. Brown finished on a somewhat high note, striking out Bob Reyes (5 K?? Wut??) and escaped when both Troy Mugan and Pellot popped out, but the Falcons still held a 4-run lead and the Raccoons’ offense was dozing against Bobby Guerrero, and quietly made it through the game without raising much fuss. The exception was when they faced Blake Parr. Walter hit another single to reach base with one out, after which Jackson hit for Denny and rolled into a highly deflating double play. 5-1 Falcons. Carmona 2-4; Walter 2-4, RBI;

Brownie took all five runs, but two were unearned thanks to Denny’s horrendous throw right out of a third-rate 90s slasher movie.

All of Chad’s movie recommendations are third-rate 90s slasher movies, so I know a thing or two about those…

Game 3
CHA: SS Good – 1B Myers – C Holliman – RF Benson – CF Feldmann – LF Huibregtse – 2B B. Reyes – 3B Pellot – P Durr
POR: 3B Nunley – 1B Walter – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – C Denny – CF Petracek – 2B Prince – P Toner

Matt Good drew a leadoff walk to start the game against Jonny Toner, but the Falcons soon enough crashed their effort with a strike-em-out-throw-em-out when Good went just as Ralph Myers whiffed on 1-2, but the Falcons just waited another inning to jump onto Toner. Feldmann singled, Bob Reyes was drilled, and with two outs Alfonso Pellot lined a ball up the rightfield line that Jackson had no chance to make a play on, and Pellot slid in with a 2-out, 2-run triple. The Raccoons’ first four batters all grounded out to Reyes before Jackson took a ball to left for a double. Mike Denny finally broke into the home run column, the first dinger on the team, a mighty shot to left, tying the game again at two. DeWeese would fly out to strand runners on the corners in the bottom 3rd, and in the following inning Toner’s turn to bat came up with Jackson on second, Petracek on first, and two outs. Myers mishandled his grounder for an error and the bases were loaded for Matt Nunley, batting leadoff on Cookie’s day off, and popping out to Reyes.

Toner struck out eight through five innings, including another clean sweep in the fifth, and finally got a lead in the bottom of the same inning. Walter hit a leadoff single, but was forced out on McKnight’s grounder. DeWeese, batting .125 early on, doubled to the base of the wall, but McKnight had a bad read of that. Benson got a very bad bounce (or no bounce at all) and McKnight could have handily scored, instead stopping at third base. While he scored on the following single by Jackson, if he had gone home, maybe DeWeese could have moved to third with a triple. For some reason I got really worked up about this, but when Denny singled to right, DeWeese scored anyway and the matter didn’t matter anymore. Durr was removed before the inning was over, with Jose Cappelletti allowing another run to score on Prince’s 2-out single, his first RBI for the Coons. Toner whiffed to end the inning with a 5-2 score. He mowed down the Falcons through the middle innings up to the seventh, then suddenly hit a wall in the eighth. Reyes, Pellot, and Mugan all hit singles. None were hard, but all came with nobody out, and Ron Thrasher inherited a tremendous mess with the score down to 5-3, and runners on first and second. Matt Good was tasked to bunt, which was an interesting call as he was batting .385 out of the gate. The 24-year old got the runners into scoring position, but there they died as Thrasher struck out Myers and got a pop from Holliman to short, holding onto Toner’s lead for now. The Coons scratched out an insurance run in the bottom 8th off southpaw Johnny Watson, who issued a leadoff walk to Tim Prince. Cookie hit for Thrasher, grounded out, but that moved the runner over. Nunley plated him with a single to right. The inning looked like it was going to end when Tiger Mendoza hit for Walter and grounded to the right side, but Myers couldn’t make the play and the Coons had two on with one out even before Watson balked, then walked McKnight. Bases loaded, with Mathews batting for DeWeese and hitting a sac fly for another run. While that denied Alex Ramirez a save opportunity for the moment, Seung-mo Chun couldn’t stand the fact and desired to help him out. He allowed a single to Feldmann, then a 2-run homer to Reyes, and Ramirez came into the ninth after all, collecting a groundout from Pellot for his first save of the year. 7-5 Critters. Nunley 3-5, 2B, RBI; H. Mendoza (PH) 1-1; Jackson 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Denny 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (2-0);

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Aces (2-4) – April 9-11, 2018

The Aces were in last place in the South, and had lost their last four games after going up 2-0 initially to start the season. Hey were fifth in runs scored, but 11th in runs allowed. None of this means much after one week’s worth of games. We won the season series two years in a row, both times with a 6-3 outcome. While the Falcons had been our worst team all-time in the South, we had enjoyed the best success against the Aces over 41 years, 194-175 total.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (0-1, 1.80 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (1-0, 1.50 ERA)
Hector Santos (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Enrique Guzman (0-0, 1.59 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (0-1, 7.11 ERA) vs. Clark Johnson (0-1, 9.53 ERA)

As expected, we miss their southpaw Alex Morin (0-0, 5.87 ERA), so this series has us against three more right-handed starters. The only players that have not been rested so far are McKnight and Nunley, and we’ll start with the former in the series opener.

The Raccoons will be closerless in this series, as Alex Ramirez suffered a cut on the hand repairing his garage door on Sunday night. At least that’s what we skillfully leaked out to the ravenous press. I understand that this injury was incurred during sexual intercourse as his dear wife hung feet up from the ceiling ventilator and continuously spanked him with a set of whips, some of which had spikes woven into the fabric. But hey, to each his own. We’ll close by committee during this midweek set.

(inspects spiked whip) Alex, is there a shop for that or do these get specially made? – I see. – No, I only have an account with Amazin.com…

Game 1
LVA: CF Hubbard – RF D. Brown – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – 2B R. Walsh – 1B A. Perez – SS Hebberd – C D. Rice – P Valdevez
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – C Denny – SS Walter – 2B Prince – P Abe

In another early disaster, Abe got the first two outs in the first inning and then got shackled. He walked Izzy Alvarez before Matt Hamilton singled. After a wild pitch, he walked Rich Walsh as well, and then fell to a 2-run single by Arturo Perez that went to shallow center. The Coons produced a run in the bottom of the inning after singles by Nunley and DeWeese before Jackson reached on Bill Hebberd’s error. Mike Denny singled to left, DeWeese was sent from second and was thrown out. Abe continued to be out of control, issuing single walks in the next two innings, and also made an error in the second inning. Mendoza dropped a foul ball for another error in the bottom 3rd, as the Coons continued to play sloppily as a whole. None of those walks and errors gave the Aces another run, but it was UNPLEASANT TO LOOK AT.

That didn’t change as the innings passed. The Coons twice had two men on and then found their way into an inning-ending double play, hit by Mendoza first and Jackson later. Abe dangled on the edge of the cliff with the tips of his claws almost constantly, and somehow fudged together 6.1 innings of 2-run ball, evicted after a walk in the seventh, with Kaiser cleaning up after him. He remained on the hook after seven. The bottom 7th saw Denny hit a leadoff single before Walter and Johnson made unhelpful outs. McKnight batted for Kaiser, singled to left, but that was only enough to move Denny to third base, and Cookie’s fly to left was caught by Max Erickson to end the inning. The Coons faced Steve Rob in the bottom 9th, still in a 2-1 game, with the 5-6-7 batters up against the right-hander that had a 1.50 WHIP but a zip ERA so far. Jackson popped out, Denny grounded out, Walter grounded out. 2-1 Aces. Nunley 2-4; Denny 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1; Davis 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

I seriously miss some power ‘round here, and how about some clutch hitting in general?

Game 2
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – RF D. Brown – 3B A. Perez – 2B Hebberd – C D. Rice – P E. Guzman
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Walter – 2B Mathews – RF B. Johnson – C Margolis – P Santos

The Critters got the early start in the middle game on Tuesday as Cookie drew a walk, stole second base, and came home on McKnight’s double. McKnight in turn moved up on Mendoza’s fly to center and scored on a wild pitch before the Coons recrowded Guzman with a 2-0 lead. DeWeese doubled, Mathews reached on an error, but Brandon Johnson extended his early-season futility to 0-for-8 with a grounder to Bill Hebberd, which ended the inning. He hit a single his next time up, which came with the same score, two outs, and nobody on and thus was not entirely helpful, especially with Margolis haplessly flying out to Dan Brown. But at least Margolis had thrown out a runner to end an inning earlier, so he still had his uses…

While the offense for the home team continued to be crummy and they had no other hits in the first five innings, the contact that the Aces made off Santos became increasingly louder in the middle innings. Adam Flack hit a hard single with two outs in the sixth, the fourth hit for the Aces, and then DeWeese, who had already sucked up two potential doubles earlier, dropped Matt Hamilton’s fly to left for a bad error that put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs. Brent Burke came up, Santos missed grossly twice, then came down the middle, but Burke flew out harmlessly to DeWeese to waste the gifted chance. A few fans had already snoozed off when Shane Walter whacked a solo shot in the bottom 6th, bringing the score to 3-0 in an inning that had started with synchronized strikeouts by Mendoza and DeWeese, with both dropping their ice cold batting average to .208 in unison. Santos made it through seven before Danny Rice hit a leadoff double to right in the eighth. With left-handed batter Max Erickson out to pinch-hit, and three more left-handers atop the order, Ron Thrasher was called out urgently. He did the work in the grimmest way possible, striking out Erickson, Jimmy Hubbard, and Flack in order. After a sad bottom 8th the ball was handed to Chris Mathis, who got two outs before Brown singled. Arturo Perez was 0-3 with 3 K, but avoided the golden sombrero with a fly to right center. It still ended the game – Cookie was there. 3-0 Coons. Santos 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0); Thrasher 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

The offense – after eight games – is really crummy. Denny, McKnight, and Nunley are the only regulars over an .800 OPS, and only Shane Walter is close among the rest. All three starting outfielders are batting under .230 for a start. Prince is batting .118, and the bench has been unnoticeable so far with the exception of Eddie Jackson, who has a .789 OPS. It is early, but it is not pleasant.

Game 3
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – RF Erickson – C D. Rice – P C. Johnson
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza

Tiger Mendoza hit his way into another double play in the bottom 1st, but that was okay, since Cookie had reached on an error anyway. While the Raccoons took cover after that, Ricky Mendoza faced another lineup loaded with left-handers, and the 6-7-8 batters were all left-handed batters and they all hit 2-out singles in the second inning to plate a run for Las Vegas. The Aces had their first two men on base in the third before Izzy Alvarez hit sharply into a double play that helped Mendoza out of there, but in the fifth the Aces did get their second run when Danny Rice, who had driven in the first run with a single, homered to center. The bottom of the order kept unwinding Mendoza, who didn’t make it through six. Hamilton had hit a 1-out single in the inning and was still on first after Burke’s out. Mendoza walked Rich Walsh, then allowed an RBI single to Erickson and was yanked before Rice could to more damage to him. Kaiser came in to face him and got a grounder to Prince to end the inning with a 3-0 deficit.

The Coons had two measly hits in five innings and looked thoroughly beaten. Cookie rolled out, closing in on .200 fast, Nunley grounded out, and Mendoza somehow walked. When DeWeese whacked a homer off Johnson, well outta rightfield, it got the Critters back to 3-2, and maybe, just maybe, this could spark some life. Before we could get an answer to that, however, the Aces crowded Kaiser and Chun in the seventh inning and scored another run on a sac fly by Hamilton after getting three singles to load the bases, two of those off Kaiser, who was charged the run. Wade Davis threw 15 pitches in the eighth inning, none of which were called strikes. He walked Walsh and Hebberd, but the Aces made outs in 2-0 and 1-0 counts three times total.

All those shenanigans were entirely unhelpful in trying to turn a 4-2 game around. The Critters would get a splendid chance in the bottom of the eighth, however. Cookie drew a walk in a full count against Ken Chilcott, a left-hander, and then made it to third when Nunley singled to left. Hugo Mendoza struck out, with Jackson batting for DeWeese. The Aces sent Garret Purifoy to throw with the right arm, but Jackson singled to right to plate Cookie and move Nunley to second. With McKnight next, the Aces brought another lefty in Brian Aschenbrenner, who got the K, before the fourth pitcher of the inning faced Denny, with Justin Guerin coming in. Petracek batted for him, struck out, and after the greatest pains taken to score one run that didn’t matter, the Aces just snipped another one onto the board in the top 9th with Adam Flack’s triple off Mathis to start the inning. He scored on Alvarez’ sac fly, and they even loaded the bases before Rice grounded out to leave three men on. 5-3 Aces. DeWeese 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

(clenches fist, then bites into it)

Raccoons (4-5) @ Canadiens (3-6) – April 13-15, 2018

Last place loomed for the Critters in their first excursion into the uncivilized northern wildlands, meeting the Canadiens who had the fewest runs scored in the Continental League (not even three per game), but the Raccoons were certainly not displaying any offensive prowess right now. The Elks’ pitching was fifth in runs allowed, so mostly sound. The Raccoons had lost the season series three years in a row, including a 7-11 shaming in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. R.J. Lloyd (0-1, 9.64 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (0-1, 2.30 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (0-2, 2.38 ERA) vs. C.J. Fishel (2-0, 0.77 ERA)

One of these guys is a left-hander, one’s middle name is Jolie, and one has actively failed as a Raccoon and will undoubtedly beat Jonny on Saturday, because the universe hates us.

I decided against skipping Brownie at the first convenient opportunity, because it was not completely bad for him in his first start, and it would also be humiliating for him. Whether conceding eight runs in two innings to the ****ing Elks will be more humiliating can be discussed later on. He’ll always have that no-hitter, though.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – 2B Prince – P Brown
VAN: 3B Partyka – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – LF K. Evans – CF Rinehart – SS Grooms – P Lloyd

The Coons got a run in the first, Cookie singling, stealing, scoring, and he was now 5/5 in the theft game in ’18. Mendoza got the RBI with a single to right. The lead didn’t last because the Elks got three singles for a run off Brownie in the bottom of the second. The Coons had three singles of their own, Mendoza, DeWeese, and McKnight hitting them consecutively with one out in the top 3rd, but didn’t yet get a run, only loading the bases for Mike Denny, who technically still had a 1.021 OPS, but was also prone to whiffing or getting doubled up. In this case he lined out instead, and Shane Walter grounding out to Jose Gutierrez kept the bases teeming. More bases loaded drama in the bottom 3rd; Gutierrez singled, Ezra Branch walked, and Brown drilled Dave Padilla, but then got out of the inning when Jesus Ramirez whiffed and Kurt Evans rolled over to Prince. Brownie failed in the top 4th, bunting badly to get Prince forced out, then also failed in the bottom 4th, conceding two runs on a whopping five singles that were hit every which way. The Coons had the bases loaded again with a leadoff single by DeWeese and walks issued to McKnight and Prince in the top 5th when Brown’s spot came up with two outs. It hurt me greatly, but he was to be pinch-hit for. Joey Mathews came out and of course grounded out harmlessly. We didn’t know it at that point, but after knocking nine hits and scoring only one ****ing run from them in five innings, the Raccoons would only get one more base knock the rest of the way. The Elks also cooled down, but got single hits off Cummings and Thrasher in the bottom 7th to add a run to their tally. Not that the Raccoons had been close to bringing up the tying run at all. 4-1 Canadiens. Carmona 2-5; Mendoza 2-5, RBI; DeWeese 2-4; McKnight 2-4; Prince 1-2, 2 BB;

All hits were singles. It was the Raccoons’ fifth game of the year with no extra-base hits or at most one extra-base hit. They have lost them all.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Walter – LF Jackson – 2B Mathews – P Toner
VAN: 2B Rinehart – CF K. Evans – C Padilla – RF Branch – SS J. Gutierrez – 1B J. Ramirez – LF Cameron – 3B Partyka – P Bartels

After Cookie reached on an error by Jeff Rinehart to start the game, the Raccoons rapped off three straight singles to plate two early runs for Jonny Toner, who as usual for all starters on the roster had things unravel for him with two outs in the bottom 1st. Padilla hit a single to center, Branch hit an infield single on Mathews, and then Gutierrez walked to load them up. Jesus Ramirez flew to center, Cookie had to hustle in, but made the grab to end the inning and strand three. Bartels got romped in the third. Mendoza singled, and McKnight doubled the lead with a 2-run homer. Walter singled, Jackson hit off the wall in left, in the same general direction where McKnight’s drive had gone over, for a double, and then Mathews got four wide ones, bringing up Toner, no bad hitter, with one out. Not to our amusement, Jonny poked at 3-1 and grounded into a fielder’s choice, but the guy that was out was Mathews, and another run scored. Cookie fouled out on the first pitch to continue his early-season slump, but it was now 5-0 and we should be able to avoid sitting in last place after this or the next game (ties excluded) if Jonny could pitch halfway decently for another bunch of innings.

Yeah, well. Mathews made a wild throwing error to put Rinehart on to start the bottom 3rd, causing an extra run of damage when Dave Padilla homered to left, right into the crater left by McKnight’s bomb, and it was 5-2. Mathews knew he had to make up as a fringe addition to the roster, and when he had Walter and Jackson on the corners in the fifth inning he raked a Scott Hanson pitch to deep right, planting a 3-run homer in a full count, 8-2. Jonny was not as sharp as in the first two games, however. He issued a few walks, and he struck out considerably less. When the Elks had two on in the bottom 6th with only one out on the board, he could have used a K on Don Cameron, didn’t get it, but at least Mathews made a good defensive play for the second out. Then Mike Partyka yanked the first pitch he got (Toner’s 98th already) to deep right. The Tiger’s stripes were in motion as he hustled after that one, robbing Partyka of a 3-run shot right over the edge of the fence! What a play! The Elks in agony! Toner was soon as well; he hit a single in the top 7th, remained in the game after that, and was witness to the proceedings just long enough to walk Rinehart and get bumped by Padilla with a 2-run homer, bringing the Elks back into slam range. Jose Gutierrez homered off Wade Davis in the eighth to further close the score and we had to get Thrasher into the game to remove the two left-handers before a crisis could break out. Chun also pitched in the eighth, striking out Partyka to end the inning. No insurance run was in the cards, and Alex Ramirez got his first feature length save opportunity of the season, starting with PH Tim Pace in the bottom of the ninth. The right-hander doubled on 0-2, after which Rinehart and Evans made hard outs to Johnson in right and DeWeese in left, respectively. Dave Padilla, who had two homers and 80% of the Elks’ damage, struck out to end the game. 8-5 Furballs. McKnight 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Walter 2-3, 2 BB; Jackson 2-4, 2B; Mathews 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

Hey, hey, look, more than one extra-base hit – automatic win for the Coons.

We shall not ignore the fact though that Cookie batted 0-for-6 to drop UNDER .200 for the season, and that was not only the most horrible performance on the day. Nope, that honor belonged to Mike Denny, who went 0-for-5, striking out … every … single … ****ing … time.

Game 3
POR: 3B Nunley – LF Jackson – CF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – 1B Mathews – 2B Prince – C Margolis – RF Petracek – P Abe
VAN: 2B Rinehart – CF K. Evans – C Padilla – RF Branch – SS J. Gutierrez – 1B J. Ramirez – LF Cameron – 3B C. Alexander – P Fishel

The Tiger got his first home run of the season with a 2-piece in the first inning, collecting Jackson, who had singled. That was before Tadasu Abe completely crapped out and walked four Elks in the first inning. The Elks still didn’t score because Padilla hit into a double play in between and Jackson spoiled Ramirez’ vicious drive to left at the plate, but come on, Abe! What is it now!? In an outing that was *interesting* to put it mildly, Abe drew a walk for himself in the second inning, while issuing one walk each in the bottom 2nd and 3rd, and a wild pitch in the latter. He had no strikeouts through three innings, but had thrown 64 pitches, and had not allowed a run. The best explanation at that point was that the Elk Grounds had become entangled in one of those space anomalies everybody knew from Starship Otherwise, and when Abe came to bat – still in a 2-0 game – in the top 6th with two on and two out against Scott Hanson, the best guess was to just let him swing and hit that inevitable 3-run homer. Or maybe the ballpark would break free from the anomaly at this precise moment – Abe struck out, then got a K (his first) in the bottom 6th right before allowing singles to Ramirez and Cameron, back-to-back with two outs. Time to end his misery. Mathis came out, of course blatantly walked 26-year old rookie Chris Alexander, and then was lucky that Mendoza was quick on the feet and could catch up with Mario Rocha’s pinch-hit soft fly to shallow center, spoiling it before it could tie the game.

There hadn’t been much talk about the Raccoons’ offensive exploits after the first inning, which had a reason of course, since there weren’t any such exploits. They barely existed, and reached scoring position only once before the eighth inning when Mathews hit a 1-out double to left. Lefty Jose Flores was pitching, so I wasn’t going to hit either spare outfielder right now for Prince (who grounded out) or Margolis, who would have grounded out, but Alexander threw away his roller and that allowed Mathews to scamper home with the third run of the game. Petracek flew out to end the inning, Kurt Evans making the catch in center. Cookie batted leadoff in the ninth, still against Flores, in the #9 hole, where Jason Kaiser had just spun a 1-2-3 eighth. Cookie splintered a bat, but reached on the resulting dying swan to shallow center, which was all we could hope for right now. After Nunley and Jackson made poor outs, Cookie was caught stealing, for the first time this season, ending the inning. Alex Ramirez drilled the rookie Alexander in the bottom 9th, but the tying run did not come up. 3-0 Blighters. Mathews 2-4, 2 2B; Carmona (PH) 1-1;

Nunley batted squid-for-five in the leadoff spot, so he’s the next guy that needs a talk. We are having a flurry of problems really early on……

In other news

April 2 – Eight Opening Day games see a rainout, two 1-0 games, a 2-0 game, a 3-0 game, and two 3-1 games. The Wolves’ 7-5 win over the Gold Sox sees as many runs scored than all but one of the remaining contests.
April 3 – Three outfielders have 5-hit games; LVA LF/RF/1B Matt Hamilton (.667, 0 HR, 2 RBI) does so in a 5-1 win over the Knights, hitting two doubles in his five hits, SFW RF/LF Mike Bednarski (.556, 1 HR, 3 RBI) gets ample opportunities in the Warriors’ 18-9 shootout against the Stars, including a homer and a double in his five knocks, and SAC OF Ray Meade (.556, 0 HR, 3 RBI) has one double in his five hits in a 14-0 blowout of the Pacifics, in which SAC SP Noah “Bloody” Bricker (1-0, 0.00 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout.
April 4 – The Miners are dealt an early blow with news that star shortstop Tom McWhorter (.111, 0 HR, 0 RBI) will miss most or all of April with a separated shoulder.
April 4 – After 14 innings of 1-1 ball, the Loggers and Indians are still tied at 1-1. The Loggers push a run across in the top 15th on Kyle Burns’ double, but never get an out in the bottom of the inning as Marco Garza doubles, two guys walk, and the Indians walk off on Jong-beom Kym’s single to center when Andrew Cooper’s throw back in is totally wild and escapes his teammates.
April 8 – New York’s SP Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (1-0, 0.00 ERA) allows only two hits in a 7-0 shutout of the Thunder.
April 10 – OCT LF Jose Jimenez (.360, 4 HR, 13 RBI) smacks three home runs in a 10-3 thrashing of the Loggers. Jimenez provides the margin of victory all by himself with a pair of 3-run shots off Ian Prevost and a solo homer off Luis Calderon. The 36th 3-homer game for a player is the first time ever that the Thunder are involved. It is also the seventh occurrence of the feat since the start of the 2016 season.
April 12 – LAP LF Jimmy Roberts (.278, 1 HR, 2 RBI) sprains a finger on a defensive play and will have to sit out for two weeks.
April 12 – Plantar fasciitis will put MIL OF Victor Hodgers (.400, 1 HR, 5 RBI) out for a month.
April 13 – No-hitter! Michael Foreman (2-1, 2.11 ERA) pitches the Loggers’ first no-hitter since Bill Warren in 1980, sniffing out the Crusaders on four hits and ten strikeouts in a 2-0 game. Foreman issues all the walks in the first three innings. If not for an error by Juan Ortíz, he would have retired the last 20 batters in a row.
April 13 – The Capitals go down without much of a sound in a 14-0 drowning at the hands of the Blue Sox.
April 14 – Cincy’s 2B Ieyoshi Nomura (.326, 1 HR, 6 RBI) gets his 2,000th career base hit in a 3-1 loss to the Rebels. Nomura singles off ex-Cyclone Shunyo Yano in the eighth inning to reach the mark.
April 14 – The Knights plate nine in the seventh inning to crush the Falcons in a 17-3 rout.
April 15 – The Bayhawks figure to be without LF/RF Chris Almanza (.286, 4 HR, 10 RBI) for a month due to a high ankle sprain.
April 15 – The Wolves score an innocent run in the top of the first inning against the Warriors, then go down silently while the Warriors score 18 unanswered runs in an 18-1 trashing, putting up a 6-spot and two 5-spots.

Complaints and stuff

I liked Starship Otherwise a great deal, really. I especially felt with the guys in the red uniforms. They always got the worst deal, and that is pretty much what I’ve been in forever and ever. Everything blows.

Yoshi… I miss Yoshi, badly. Interesting how he got his 2,000th hit off a former Cyclone, and both are former Raccoons. We know that well, because Yano was the price in the Jonny Toner deal with the Cyclones years back, but did you know that between the Rebels and the Cyclones, Yoshi and Yano were actually traded for another? Not only that, they were traded for another *almost* exactly one year after before the 2,000 hits game. The trade took place on April 17, 2017.

Who are the only Raccoons to strike out five times in a game? Mike Crowe, Concie Guerin, and now Mike Denny.

Well, well, ****ty news ain’t over. Danny Arguello, our lone remaining meaningful prospect, threw one inning to start the minor league season before leaving the game with great discomfort in the shoulder. Bascially it’s a bad case of inflammation and all gooey in there. The Druid recommended a clean cut and amputation, but we might try healing that out first. In any case, this season looks like it might be entirely lost for him.

This sucks.

The Thunder claimed Barry MacDonald at the start of the season, which does not really do any damage to us. Instead, we get that quarter million back. Even so, our budget room is just about $700k now, and since we would normally like to sign the odd international free agent in July, I really really really hope that the available player personnel will be enough.