[Westheim]

Raccoons (25-18) @ Condors (26-17) – May 21-23, 2018

This was the last series of the 16 straight games the Raccoons had around the middle of May, their first string longer than nine games this season. The Condors were second in the South, but had a better record than the Raccoons, who led the North in which five teams were under a blanket, more or less. They were barely average in scoring runs, but their pitching allowed the second-least amount of runs, and they were mostly feasting off that. This was the first matchup between the teams in the 2018 season. The Raccoons had won five of nine games against Tijuana in 2018.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (2-2, 4.30 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (4-1, 2.03 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-0) vs. Casey Hally (4-1, 3.16 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-1, 2.11 ERA) vs. Andrew Gudeman (3-2, 2.44 ERA)

We’d avoid their lefty and get three right-handers to contend with. Meanwhile their lineup is stashed with three switch-hitters, which tends to make matching pitchers difficult…

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 2B R. Jackson – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – C A. Gonzales – SS A. Rodriguez – P Menendez

Cookie made two strong plays right in the first inning, first coming in on Mun-wah Tsung, then going far back against Jimmy Oatmeal, after Rickey Jackson had hit a 1-out single. Josh Rawlings hit a triple to open the bottom of the second, but would not score thanks to Mike Herrera popping out to shallow center, Alfonso Gonzales whiffing, and after an intentional walk Duarte made a good play on Menendez’ liner to center to end the inning. Although Menendez retired the Coons in order the first time through, the Critters still got the first run of the game after Cookie’s leadoff single in the fourth. Advancing on a wild pitch and a balk, he eventually scored on the Tiger’s sac fly to pretty deep center. The lead was short-lived. Mendoza drilled Jimmy Oatmeal to start the bottom 4th, the second straight inning in which he hit the leadoff batter. Rawlings objected to that and homered to center, flipping the score, and Mendoza allowed another three straight singles and a run before striking out Menendez for the first out of the inning. Craig Dasher’s groundout plated another run, with the Condors leading 4-1 after four.

Time for some stupidity then. After McKnight fouled out to start the fifth, Walter doubled to center, but kept swinging his stupid pig stompers anyway and was thrown out by Herrera on third base. Way to break a slump, Shane. Way to break a slump. Ricky Mendoza didn’t make it out of the fifth himself, allowing a dinger to Oatmeal and a double to Rawlings (which left Rawlings a single short of the cycle) before being replaced by Chun, who stalled Rawlings at third base. But let’s be honest. Down 5-1 after five, the Coons were completely done. Just as I said that, Menendez loaded the bases in the sixth on Cookie’s second single and two walks drawn by Mendoza and DeWeese. McKnight with two outs sent a drive to deep left, but Jimmy Oatmeal spoiled it. Of course he did. While Rawlings was denied his fourth hit by Jason Kaiser, and Jimmy Oatmeal took some more fly balls to deep left to break my heart, the Raccoons made another out at third base in the game – the final one; Nunley singled with two outs in the ninth and DeWeese tried to reach third base from first. He didn’t. 5-1 Condors. Carmona 2-4; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

No bats go. No bats go.

Cookie was sore on Tuesday morning and was left out of the lineup, but was available for pinch-hitting.

Game 2
POR: CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF E. Jackson – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Knight
TIJ: 2B Sykes – C J. Vargas – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – 3B Rivas – SS A. Rodriguez – P Hally

Although Knight opened with a K to Harrison Sykes and also retired Jose Vargas in the first, the next three Condors all reached, with Rawlings’ RBI single giving them a lead. The Coons had one ****ing hit through five innings and didn’t merit being mentioned at all, really, but Knight sat down ten straight Condors after the RBI single and arrived in the fifth in quite decent shape. There, he issued a 4-pitch walk to Alex Rivas to get going, and the Condors were on the corners after Armando Rodriguez’ single to left center. Casey Hally however bunted into a double play, and Sykes fouled out, stalling Rivas at third base and keeping the game nominally close at 1-0.

R.J. DeWeese drew a 2-out walk in the seventh inning, which drew attention from the press box, since that was the Coons’ second base runner for the entire game. Eddie Jackson singled, but Walter flew out to center, ending the ‘threat’. From my suite and with my binoculars I could see the Agitator skunk in the press box giggling while typing on his magical flatbook thing. The Condors reached third base in the bottom 7th, yet that came only on a throwing error by Margolis, and Knight wiggled out of there. Margolis walked with one out in the eighth, and Knight remained in the game to bunt him over, because why the **** not? Alex Duarte had an oh-for going like just about anybody else, but knocked a ball to deep right where it eluded the quite capable Rawlings and made it to the wall for a game-tying RBI double. Offense? Well, a lone run does not constitute offense. Knight’s day’s work ended up being eight innings and maintaining a tie, which was quite fantastic for him, and we had the middle of the order up in the ninth to do damage to right-hander Brian Gilbert, but nobody reached of course, and Chris Mathis’ scoreless ninth sent the game to extras, where Danny Margolis’ persistent attempts to be a home run hero, which netted him a .180 batting average and getting his chocolate treats he kept in his locker switched with week-old cat poo every other day, FINALLY paid off. With Nunley on first after a bloop single, Margolis finally met a ball and rallied it across right center for a 2-run homer. Duarte also hit a solo shot off Gilbert with two outs, and Ramirez staved off the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the inning. 4-1 Raccoons. Duarte 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Knight 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

Three runs in an inning? Danny Margolis really goes off on the cat poo!

We made a roster change before the next game, sending away Russ Greenwald (.118). Brock Hudman, 28 and a utility infielder in AAA, was called up. He had last appeared for the Coons in 2015, and was a .280 batter in 164 major league at-bats. To get him onto the 40-man roster, AA SP Jeff Magnotta was waived outright and designated for assignment.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 3B Walter – 2B Mathews – C Margolis – P Toner
TIJ: 3B R. Jackson – C J. Vargas – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Rawlings – CF M. Herrera – 2B Sykes – SS A. Rodriguez – P Gudeman

Toner allowed a leadoff single to Rickey Jackson in the first, then whiffed two while mixing in two wild pitches. Oatmeal grounded out to strand Jackson at third, but that was not a good inning, especially between our battery. The first run was again the Coons’, and came in the third inning. Margolis led off with a single to right (pretty darn close to pushing Denny out of the way right now!), and when Jonny bunted, Tsung tried to get Margolis, and didn’t get anybody. Margolis scored from second on Cookie’s line drive double over Tsung’s head, and when Duarte walked the Coons had them loaded with no outs and the hammer division approaching. The Tiger lined out to short, where Rodriguez seemed to strain something as he tried to double off Cookie unsuccessfully. Rivas replaced him. After DeWeese’s fly to left, the Raccoons would have scored NUTHIN’ from three on, no outs if McKnight’s grounder to short hadn’t been bungled by Rivas for an unearned run. Walter hit a 2-run single, 4-0, before Mathews struck out. With Toner awesome and only struggling with Tsung, who hit singles in his next two plate appearances, but was all alone with that, and the Raccoons being as they were, the middle innings breezed past before Cookie singled in the seventh. Duarte grounded out for the second out to move him over, and then the Tiger hit a liner into the gap that split Oatmeal and Herrera successfully for an RBI double. Toner was suddenly hittable in the seventh, with Rawlings hitting a single and Herrera going deep to cut into the 5-0 lead for two runs. With a lengthy struggle to extricate himself from the seventh, Toner did not return for the eighth, although he eventually finished with back-to-back K to Adrian Quebell and Rickey Jackson. After Thrasher pitched the bottom 8th, the Coons picked up an insurance run when Mendoza drove in Cookie once more in the ninth. Thrasher remained in for the bottom 9th with Rawlings, who walked, and Herrera, who hit into a double play, not something I wanted a shallow-end right-hander go after. With them dealt with, Thrasher got to feast on Harrison Sykes and blew him away to end the game. 6-2 Furballs! Carmona 3-5, 2B, RBI; H. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Denny 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (7-1); Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, SV (3);

I didn’t plan to use Thrasher that way. He is too valuable to pitch two innings in a 4-run game, but it was not a 4-run game to start with. If the combo hadn’t been left-switch at the start of the inning, I would have gone to Wade Davis or somebody like that.

Raccoons (27-19) @ Aces (22-25) – May 25-27, 2018

The Aces had lost four straight games to drop from the playoff fringe in the South and were now 7 1/2 games out. They didn’t really have a place in the playoffs anyway with some gaping holes on the roster, like the league-worst bullpen. They were fifth in offense but were in the bottom three in terms of runs allowed, and they were trending to the bottom quite hard. Despite their struggles, they were 2-1 against the Critters in 2018.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-2, 2.59 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (5-1, 1.79 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (2-3, 4.83 ERA) vs. Enrique Guzman (2-4, 4.11 ERA)
Ryan Nielson (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Alex Morin (1-4, 5.09 ERA)

Morin is one of their two left-handers. We won’t get the other one, Brian Aschenbrenner (3-0, 4.37 ERA), who pitched on Thursday, our off day.

We subtly skipped a start by an injury replacement by moving Nielson, who’s turn would have been on Thursday, behind Santos and Mendoza, who thus went on regular rest. Damani Knight would slot behind Jonny Toner for a Tuesday start.

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

Both teams had a single hit through four innings, despite both pitchers allowing plenty of hard contact. The Coons were up 1-0 on the strength of McKnight’s second-inning home run, while Santos hadn’t allowed a base hit until Matt Hamilton singled with two outs in the fourth. Shane Walter getting hit and Nunley’s single put two on with nobody out in the top 5th, but Denny hit into a double play, and handing Santos a bat with two outs was never a smart thing. The next base hit in the game didn’t come until the bottom of the seventh when Brent Burke singled to left with one out. He moved up on Rich Walsh’s groundout, after which the Aces pinch-hit left-hander Max Erickson for right-hander Dan Brown. Santos remained in there but allowed a line drive single to center. Duarte came in, Burke was sent around third, Duarte fired home, and DEAD AT HOME was Burke! Santos got one more out in the eighth on Danny Rice’ pop before left-hander Bill Hebberd pinch-hit for Valdevez. Thrasher came out (with two more left-handers atop the order), struck out Hebberd, but then was singled against by Jimmy Hubbard (not related, but very confused). Alex Ramirez was called out for a 4-out save when Mike Cook pinch-hit for Adam Flack. Cook popped out, after which the Coons started the top 9th with two outs before Ken Chilcott walked the Tiger and Jackson (hitting for DeWeese) with two outs. McKnight rammed a ball off the leftfield fence for an RBI double, but when Walter also lifted a fly there, Matt Hamilton caught it on the track. Ramirez finished the game with two strikeouts, then a Burke single, but got Walsh to pop out to end this contest. 2-0 Critters. McKnight 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Santos 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-2); Ramirez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (13);

Three hits. Three mighty hits. Hmmz…

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P R. Mendoza
TIJ: CF Hubbard – RF D. Brown – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – 1B A. Perez – C D. Rice – P E. Guzman

Both teams got a 1-out double in the first, but neither scored. The Coons went down quick, but Mendoza walked Izzy Alvarez and only escaped when Matt Hamilton flew out to shallow left, and Nunley made a blistering grab-and-spin to collect the third out from Brent Burke. The Aces had two more on in the second thanks to an error by Ricky Mendoza and a single by Arturo Perez, and this time it would be Hugo Mendoza to make a strong defensive play with two outs, swiping a hard grounder by Jimmy Hubbard and sprinting to first to end the inning. Ricky Mendoza was out of luck by the third, when Hamilton hit a 2-out solo shot.

So far, the Critters were asleep, but they woke up in the fourth. McKnight reached walking with two outs, Walter singled, and despite being down 0-2, Matt Nunley managed to rip a drive to right center. Stretching, it is stretching, it is gone! 3-run homer for Matt Nunley, perhaps the right thing to break out of his rut! Walsh was on for the Aces in the bottom 4th, but the inning ended on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Rice also involved. Speaking of strikeouts, while not all was roses for Ricky Mendoza, he did strike out eight batters through five innings, though none beyond that, and he didn’t get out of the sixth inning, either. The Aces had them on the corners with two outs and left-hander Danny Rice up, who had some power. Kaiser came in, allowed an RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2, but then struck out Hebberd hitting for Guzman. While the lineup didn’t do much at all, Mathis and Thrasher had scoreless innings to advance the game to the ninth, where McKnight and Nunley reached base before Steve Rob threw a wild pitch with one out to move them into scoring position, with Eddie Jackson already hitting for Margolis. Petracek hit for Thrasher and whiffed in a full count against Rob before Cookie at 0-1 hit a floater to left that Hamilton tried to get to, but couldn’t. The ball fell in, hit Hamilton in the shin, and that extra two seconds allowed Nunley to score along with McKnight to extend the lead to 5-2. Duarte walked in a full count, and Rob ran another one against the Tiger, who was 0-for-4, but broke Rob with a bases-clearing triple up the rightfield line. Of course, getting an 8-2 lead over quickly would be asked too much. Chet Cummings faced five batters in the bottom 9th, and four reached base on three hits and a walk. With two runs in, runners on the corners, and one out, we still tried to bypass Ramirez and went to Wade Davis. He struck out Alvarez before Hamilton flew to right. Eddie Jackson made the play. 8-4 Critters. Duarte 2-4, BB, 2B; Walter 3-4;

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – LF E. Jackson – SS McKnight – 2B Mathews – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P Nielson
LVA: CF Hubbard – 1B Flack – 3B I. Alvarez – LF M. Hamilton – C Diersing – SS Burke – 2B R. Walsh – RF A. Perez – P Morin

The Raccoons left the bases loaded – where they arrived when McKnight was drilled with two outs and then stood at first base wincing – in the first inning when Alvarez made a mighty jump to snag Joey Mathews’ soft liner to left. Nunley opened the second with a double to center and ended the inning still nailed to second base, while Mathews started the fourth with that single to right we would have liked to have in the first. This time things ended well, however, with Nunley hitting another drive to deep center, and Hubbard didn’t get that one, either. Nunley had an RBI triple for the first run in the lefty shootouts, but Mike Denny blatantly failed in another RISP situation, grounding out to Alvarez and sending Nunley scurrying back to the bag. Nielson didn’t; singling to rightfield, he gave himself a 2-0 lead, and would end up scoring on a Duarte single for a 3-0 advantage. In the fifth, Mathews was tossed from the game for arguing strike three, giving Brock Hudman his first big league appearance in three years as his replacement at the keystone. Also, Nunley singled after that, putting him a dinger short of the cycle. Nielson meanwhile dominated the Aces and held them to one hit through 4 1/3 innings before eroding in the bottom of the fifth, allowing a single and then walking two. Morin hit a sac fly to center for the only hard damage in the inning, but the Aces were back to 3-1. Hubbard struck out to strand two.

The run was made up by the Furballs right away when Duarte and Tiger hit back-to-back 2-out doubles in the sixth, the first off Morin, the second off right-hander Joe Duerksen (which spelled Dirk-sen). Flack and Alvarez opened the bottom 6th with consecutive singles, but Hamilton hit into a fielder’s choice, and Bobby Diersing grounded to short for a double play, but Brock Hudman also hit into a double play in the seventh, and Nunley’s bid for a homer fell well short and into Hamilton’s glove. The Aces stranded a pair in the bottom 7th against Nielson, Chun, and Kaiser, but the Coons scratched out a run in the eighth. Cookie’s 2-out double was followed by a single by Duarte, running the score to 5-1, but we didn’t make it out of the game without touching the expensive cutlery. Walsh homered off Wade Davis in the bottom 9th, which drew the Aces to 5-2 with two outs to claim, and Arturo Perez singled on the very next pitch. With Hebberd pinch-hitting, Thrasher came in, already badly abused this week. Six pitches to Hebberd and Hubbard – six strikes; game over! 5-2 Coons! Duarte 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson 2-5; Nunley 3-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Nielson 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

May 22 – DAL SP Chris Domingue (3-4, 5.34 ERA) and MR Reynaldo Rendon combine for a 1-hit shutout of the Blue Sox in a 5-0 Stars win. Andrew Showalter breaks up the no-hitter with a seventh-inning single.
May 23 – New York’s legend LF Martin Ortíz (.281, 5 HR, 18 RBI) sends a note around the league that he is not dead yet. The 38-year old bangs three home runs in a 12-8 Crusaders win over the Aces, plating four runs in the game. The 37th occurrence of someone hitting three home runs or more in a game makes Ortíz the second player to achieve the feat twice. He previously hit three home runs in a game against the Canadiens in 2015. Stanley Murphy is the only other player to have two 3 HR games. Michinaga Yamada, Gabriel Ortíz, and Jesus Ramirez also achieved the feat as Crusaders in the past.
May 23 – The Scorpions lose SP Noah “Bloody” Bricker (4-3, 4.04 ERA) to shoulder inflammation. The 29-year old right-hander could miss most of the remaining season.
May 24 – IND RF/CF John Wilson (.236, 6 HR, 23 RBI) could miss the rest of the season with a broken kneecap.
May 24 – In a 12-11 slugfest that goes Vancouver’s way, the Canadiens and Knights combine for five blown leads, seven home runs amongst 35 total hits, and ten innings total.
May 26 – The Scorpions get mauled by the Cyclones, 15-4. CIN RF D.J. Fullerton (.321, 5 HR, 24 RBI) drives in six runs on two hits, including a grand slam.
May 26 – The Crusaders score a 7-6 walkoff win on a passed ball charged to the Condors’ Alfonso Gonzales.
May 27 – The Thunder’s two runs in the top 10th against the Loggers turn out to be insufficient as Milwaukee comes roaring back in the bottom of the inning and plates three runs for a 4-3 walkoff win.

Complaints and stuff

Jeff Magnotta went unclaimed. Surprise there. I thought everybody would be on the heels of a 25-year old ex-prospect with a 6.95 ERA in AA.

The offense was slightly more effective starting on Wednesday, which neatly coincided with a 5-game winning streak. Even then, that was only 21 runs in four games, so not outrageous by any means. But consider that those 21 runs are the most they scored in ANY 4-game stretch since April 23-27 and it gets dizzying. Hopefully we have that nasty slump out of the system now and things will get better.

Oh please, things, get better. I am very close to begging!

Casual notice that the Tiger leads the Continental League in RBI, which is something that literally never happens with the Coons, with only SAC Alberto Rodriguez with more RBI (44) over in the Federal League, and that is for a losing team. Jonny leads the league in strikeouts and ties for the lead in wins, but the ERA isn’t there right now. Juan Valdevez, who escaped destruction this weekend, leads the CL with a 1.72 ERA. In the FL, SFW Jose Acosta has a 1.38 ERA. Cookie is one bag behind Matt Good for the CL lead.

Next week: Knights, Titans. Those two just played another, with the Knights sweeping the Titans on the weekend. The Titans have lost five straight to crash to the bottom of the league. They were as little as 2 1/2 games out as late as Tuesday morning.

This week was almost exactly three hours. I like those! Nope, not tired at all of this in the bigger picture, but it's been a tough month with the Critters.