Raccoons (61-37) vs. Aces (48-51) – July 22-24, 2019
The Raccoons came in with a 2-1 edge in the season series and trying to win the season series for the fourth year in a row. The Aces weren’t necessarily close to defending their 2018 championship, trailing by six and a half games in the CL South. This was nothing that could not be overcome, however, and they would certainly be looking towards hurting the Critters once more. They were fifth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed, which didn’t shake out to a team that would be heading to the World Series.
Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (8-5, 2.91 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (11-4, 2.45 ERA)
Juan Mendoza (0-0) vs. Juan Valdevez (9-7, 3.73 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (9-5, 2.54 ERA) vs. Jason Clements (8-6, 3.24 ERA)
The Aces’ rotation was entirely right-handed.
We made a roster move coming into the series, sending Damani Knight (3-2, 4.56 ERA) to AAA to create an open roster spot for Juan Mendoza to start the Tuesday game on day 10 of Abe’s 10-day suspension for brawling with Ezra Branch. If not for the suspension, Knight would probably have been skipped on Thursday’s off day anyway, so he had his feelings hurt one way or another. Mendoza was a 26-year-old right-hander and former international free agent picked up in the July 2010 signing period, so it has been some time, and he has never received any attention in the nine years that have passed since. Mendoza had a nice cutter and splitter and was throwing 96, but control was an issue for him.
Game 1
LVA: SS Burke – CF Flack – 3B I. Alvarez – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – LF Curro – C T. Perez – 2B Arrieta – P N. Jones
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – P Pierson
The first Critter to make a grab into the toilet in the game was Cookie, who hit a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, thought he’d have two, but very much didn’t and was thrown out by Adam Flack. The Coons didn’t have another hit until the third when Cookie hit an actual 2-out double, but was stranded nevertheless. Pierson was coping with the no-show of the offense initially despite frequent on-base traffic by the Aces. Twice did they have two on, but the inning ended on a timely strikeout, two of those even in the fourth inning when Pierson whiffed both Rich Arrieta and Nem Jones to end the inning. Pierson would soon enough grab into the toilet himself, allowing a line drive rocket to deep left center to Saverio Piepoli in the sixth that banged off the very top of the fence for a 1-out triple. Corey Curro flew out to shallow right, but Tony Perez hit a horrendous bloop single into shallow center to plate the first run of the game. The bottom of the inning saw the Coons load the bases with no outs, with Walter and Mendoza contributing singles while McKnight got drilled by Jones. Three on, none retired was the perfect scenario for more fumbling in the toilet, which got never cleaned by Slappy, by the way. DeWeese struck out, Denny hit into a double play, nobody scored. One inning later, Jackson hit into another double play. The Raccoons never got any of their **** together, and flushed the game down, even without Tony Perez’ eighth-inning home run off Will West. 2-0 Aces. Carmona 2-4, 2B; Pierson 6.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, L (8-6);
I had them cornered in the locker room. I asked them whether I must scream. Nobody said anything.
Nobody said anything.
Three hours later, everybody went home.
Game 2
LVA: SS Burke – LF D. Brown – 3B I. Alvarez – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – C D. Rice – CF Curro – 2B Arrieta – P Valdevez
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Mathews – SS Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – C Denny – P J. Mendoza
Nunley extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the second inning, the only Raccoons hit before a storm hit the area and play was interrupted for 90 minutes in the third inning. The storm killed Mendoza’s career debut; he ended the third inning, but missed grossly to start the fourth and walked Dan Brown in a hurry. Izzy Alvarez lined out hard to Mathews, and Mendoza was hauled in. Valdevez also didn’t get through the fourth inning, and both teams were into their bullpens in a scoreless contest.
The first run in the game was unearned, and the Aces’. With Danny Rice on second base and one out in the fifth inning, Matt Nunley slipped while fielding Rich Arrieta’s grounder, allowing runners on the corners for Vegas. Jason Kaiser couldn’t get rid of PH Jose Navarro, who grounded out to plate Rice, and the Aces were up 1-0. Another run scored against Chun in the sixth, with Izzy Alvarez reaching on an infield single, stealing second against the curiously observing Denny, and coming home on Piepoli’s single to center, and like that wasn’t enough, Chun completely ****ed up in the seventh. Rice hit a leadoff single, Curro bunted, but Chun’s piss-poor throw eluded Mathews for a 2-base throwing error, and the runs scored on Arrieta’s double through Mendoza and up the rightfield line, 4-0, and don’t you think Chun would be able to hold Arrieta on base. Two more runs scored off Will West in the eighth on a Matt Hamilton home run and a flock of singles after that. The Raccoons didn’t do anything, ANYTHING. 7-0 Aces. J. Mendoza 3.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;
… there’s no booze powerful enough to make them bearable.
Game 3
LVA: CF A. Martinez – LF D. Brown – 3B I. Alvarez – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – C D. Rice – SS Navarro – 2B Arrieta – P Clements
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B Jackson – 2B Mathews – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – P Abe
The Raccoons started the game by loading the bases with Clements walking a pair after Cookie’s leadoff single in the first inning. Eddie Jackson manned first for the universally useless Dumbo Mendoza and hit a fly to deep right that Piepoli caught, but one run scored on the sac fly. Mathews hit an RBI single, DeWeese hit an RBI double to keep the line moving. The streaking Nunley didn’t get anything to swing at and walked to refill the bases, but Margolis hit into a double play to end the inning. Up 3-0, Abe struck out the side in the second, still feeling some anger from his last outing, but ran into a tough spot in the third inning, losing Dan Brown on a 2-out single and Alvarez on a double. Two in scoring position, Matt Hamilton represented danger, but then popped out to Mathews on the first pitch. The Coons put up a second 3-spot in the bottom of the same inning; McKnight was on initially and was on second base when DeWeese hit a 2-out single to center, but somehow fell asleep when contact was made and only reached third base. Not to worry, though, because Matt Nunley still had to collect his daily base knock and did so with a 2-out, 2-run triple to center, running the hitting streak to 12 games. Margolis hit a double through Alvarez to extend the lead to 6-0.
Abe was basically fine through five innings, whiffing eight against four scattered base hits. In the sixth, he got the first two batters before Piepoli and Rice whacked back-to-back doubles to get the Aces onto the board and to shorten the gap to 6-1. Abe ended the inning, which was his last one, with a wonderful Oregon summer forcing another rain delay in the bottom of the same inning. With 40 minutes spent under the tarp, Abe was surely toast and removed from the game. Dumbo Mendoza hit for him with two down and nobody out, singled to left, Cookie walked, and Duarte hit an RBI single to restore the 6-run gap. The Raccoons would win this one, but at which price. Emptying the bullpen the previous day and not getting any start longer than six innings in the series, despite the lopsided score we had to send the elite relievers to pitch. Thrasher got the eighth and was welcomed by a leadoff jack off Hamilton’s bat. That was not the main problems. Thrasher retired the next two, then retired himself from the contest with some itch or twitch or other bothering him tremendously. Wade Davis ended the game. 7-2 Raccoons. Duarte 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B, RBI; Nunley 1-2, 2 BB, 3B, 2 RBI; H. Mendoza (PH) 1-1; Abe 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (10-5);
The one thing that I find miraculous is that Cookie still has all limbs attached after 400 at-bats this season…
Raccoons (62-39) vs. Knights (55-46) – July 26-28, 2019
The two division leaders in the Continental League would square off, although both teams were badly battered and were lacking a number of important players (more on that in a second). The Knights had the most productive offense in the league, but their pitching was crummy at best, with the third-most runs being conceded by them. The Raccoons had already claimed the season series by virtue of winning five of the previous six games this season. Good pitching beats good hitting, maybe, but what if most of that good pitching has disappeared into a hammock?
Yes, all into the same hammock.
Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (10-5, 2.74 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (4-8, 5.94 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (5-6, 4.13 ERA) vs. Leon Hernandez (8-4, 4.02 ERA)
Cole Pierson (8-6, 2.85 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (3-11, 5.20 ERA)
Three more right-handers from the Knights.
Both teams are about equally healthy. We are down four key pieces, they have six guys on the DL, including regulars Marty Reyes, Devin Hibbard, Tony Jimenez, starting pitcher Drew King, and also bench guy Jeremy DeFabio. I’d still claim that we’re off worse. No news on Thrasher so far. The Druid ran out of pickle brine and had to set up a concoction overnight first.
The Knights had made a trade the previous day, sending C Matt Wittner (.297, 4 HR, 17 RBI) to the Capitals for right-hander Jared D’Attilo (1-5, 3.93 ERA).
Game 1
ATL: RF Mims – SS Patino – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B Esquivel – 1B Herlihy – CF Walrath – 2B A. Chavez – P F. Ramirez
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P Santos
The team was already up 1-0 when Nunley extended his streak to 13 games by blooping a single into shallow center, loading the bases after Mendoza’s leadoff walk and stolen base and now three straight singles. Nobody out, come on, boys, how about something big? Mike Denny hit a ball hard to the right side, Armando Chavez caught it with a lightning-quick glove swipe, and uh-oh, the Coons had been going on contact. Chavez threw to second to double off Bareford, and then Edwin Patino hauled it over to first, where Nunley had fallen down trying to reverse and was … tripled off. The 4-6-3 triple play drove me to the booze cabinet, Coons ahead 1-0 or not. With Santos pitching and a heart of the order with 55 dingers opposing him, a 1-run lead was like no lead, and proving the point was Gil Rockwell’s solo bomb in the fourth inning, evening the tally on the scoreboard with his 25th home run of the season.
The Coons had them loaded again in the bottom of the fourth and again Denny came to the plate. Rest easy, though, because there was one out, and the best Denny could hit into would be a double play, and that mostly went away when Felipe Ramirez threw a wild pitch to plate Mendoza and give the Critters a 2-1 lead. On the flip side, this took the bat away from Denny, who was put on intentionally, Santos whiffed, and Cookie grounded out to short to end the inning and leave them loaded. Santos had done somewhat okay so far, but in the fifth started to run full counts to explode his pitch count, and not only that, with two outs he walked Chavez and then allowed a single to Ramirez before Mims popped out. All this left Santos over 90 pitches through five. Santos got through the sixth, but we just weren’t getting any length from the crew this week.
After a scoreless seventh by Chun, the Coons got an insurance run in the bottom 7th on doubles by Mathews and Walter, but Troy Charters didn’t make it through the eighth inning, walking Kyle Mims and allowing a single to Patino with two outs. With the left-handed Ruben Luna and his 19 dingers coming up, Jason Kaiser was sent in and got a *huge* K. Ramirez got the ninth by default again given that we had six deceased setup pitchers to cope with, and retired Rockwell to start the inning on a deep fly to center, but Antonio Esquivel reached on a bloop single just outside of Walter’s range. The Knights found no way back into the game, though. Clint Philip pinch-hit for the pitcher in the #6 hole, and the ex-Logger hit right into a double play to end the game. 3-1 Blighters. Bareford 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-3; Mathews (PH) 1-1, 2B; Santos 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (11-5);
By now the Druid reported back about Ron Thrasher, in whose shoulder he had found all kinds of stuff, some soreness, some inflammation, a pair of surgical scissors someone had forgotten in there in the past, and also a rusty M4 Sherman tank from eons past.
Thrasher was out for the season and put on the DL accordingly. Jeff Boynton was moved to the 60-day DL to make room on the 40-man roster for Ryan Nielson, who had been starting in AAA, but would be used out of the pen up here. Nielson had been 6-6 with a 4.55 ERA for the Alley Cats. For his major league career, a train wreck that had started in 2017, he was 3-5 with a 4.94 ERA in 26 games (11 starts).
Game 2
ATL: RF Mims – SS Patino – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B Esquivel – 1B Herlihy – CF Walrath – 2B A. Chavez – P L. Hernandez
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P Guerrero
The Knights scored a run from two singles and two stolen bases in the first inning, so it could have been worse. Worse like, you know, the Coons’ offense. They had no hits in the first three innings. Walter hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, moved up on McKnight’s groundout, but Mendoza flew out poorly to center. DeWeese hit a ball hard to right center, and that raced all the way outta here! Guerrero had held on since the first, so this one flipped the score, 2-1 for the Coons. Not that the lead held; Guerrero put the first two in the fifth inning on with a single to Jeffrey Walrath and a walk drawn by Armando Chavez, Hernandez bunted them over, and Kyle Mims’ grounder to second scored the tying run to get teams even at two.
Guerrero got through seven innings in the tied game, not getting assistance before his removal as the Raccoons were held to two measly hits in six innings, the two hits that scored their runs in the fourth. DeWeese got the team’s third hit, a 1-out single in the bottom 7th, but that was literally all they put up for Guerrero before the inning was over. Support only arrived for Troy Charters, who put the 1-2-3 batters away in the eighth inning. Leon Hernandez struck out Denny and Duarte in the bottom 8th before Cookie flicked a single to center and took second by force for his 21st steal of the year. This gave Walter a good chance to drive him in, but Cookie would not have needed the extra base: Walter yanked one out of right center to break the tie and give the Coons a 4-2 advantage. Alex Ramirez would have gotten the ball anyway in the ninth. He put away Rockwell and Esquivel on soft contact, then surrendered a double to rookie Trent Herlihy. Walrath was the tying run, but struck out. 4-2 Coons. Walter 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Guerrero 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;
This was the first W for Charters as a Critter. Shane Walter’s homer ended Matt Nunley’s hitting streak after he had gone 0-for-3 in the game and had hoped to come up in the ninth.
Between games, the Knights acquired SP Luis Flores (7-9, 3.45 ERA) from the Condors to shore up their troubled rotation, sending two prospects to Tijuana. Luckily, the southpaw did not arrive in time to start the last game of the set. Included in the package for the Condors was #12 prospect OF Adrian Feliz.
Game 3
ATL: RF Mims – SS Patino – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B Esquivel – 1B Herlihy – CF Walrath – 2B A. Chavez – P Priest
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B H. Mendoza – 2B Mathews – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – C Margolis – P Pierson
Another low-offense game in the early innings, as both teams amounted to only one base hit in the first three innings, with Pierson responsible for the Coons’. Patino and DeWeese hit deep flies to center in the fourth inning, but none got it past the centerfielder of the other team. Priest didn’t even strike anybody out until the fifth inning; the Raccoons were just plain unable to make decent contact and rolled over grounder after grounder. The game only got real in the sixth inning when some patrons had already dozed off. Chavez opened that inning with a hard double to the base of the leftfield fence, but when Priest bunted, he made hard contact and sent a convenient ball, bouncing once, to Mendoza, who made a bare-handed grab and zinged to third where Walter tagged out Chavez. Pierson walked Mims on four pitches, but got soft outs from Patino and Luna to keep the Knights off the board. The Raccoons got Cookie on with a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, but he was caught stealing when Walter didn’t hit on a hit-and-run. Mendoza drew a leadoff walk the following inning and was bunted over by Mathews, as we got more desperate for one measly run. DeWeese drove a 1-1 pitch to right, Mims went back but quite couldn’t get it. The ball came down on the track for a double and Mendoza scored easily to break the scoring drought.
After Duarte got walked intentionally and Margolis dropped a soft fly into shallow right to load the bases, Pierson’s spot came up. He was going REALLY good, allowing only two hits so far, but we were kind of eager for another run or two. Eddie Jackson batted for him rather than Matt Nunley, because we wanted the mediocre Priest to stay in the game rather than a crack left-hander replacing him. That one worked out, for once, as Jackson lined up the leftfield line and almost into the corner for a 2-run double! Priest stayed in the game, conceding RBI singles to Cookie and Walter before McKnight grounded out, but he even faced Mendoza already down 5-0 and with two on base. Mendoza finally found a ball to murder and hit a 3-bomb to center. Out of NOTHING, the Raccoons had thrown up an 8-spot. Margolis would hit a sac fly in the eighth, while Davis, Nielson, and West finished out the game. 9-0 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Petracek (PH) 1-1; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Pierson 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (9-6) and 1-2;
Dumbo Mendoza had his first RBI’s this week, and only his second game with RBI’s since a July 14 game against the Elks in which he rapped out four hits. That was also his most recent multi-hit game.
In other news
July 23 – CIN SP Fred Dugo (11-4, 3.09 ERA) is done with 2019 after having ruptured a finger tendon.
July 24 – Boston southpaw Rick Ling (9-7, 3.13 ERA) shines with a 1-hit shutout against the Thunder. The Titans win 8-0, with the only hit separating Ling from a no-hitter a single off Chris Gosnell’s bat in the sixth inning.
July 24 – The Condors trade C Jose Vargas (.257, 6 HR, 26 RBI) to the Buffaloes for two prospects.
July 25 – Out for the season: SFB SP Zach Boyer (10-10, 3.25 ERA), who has come down with shoulder inflammation.
July 26 – The Warriors lose SP Jose Acosta (5-8, 4.24 ERA) for up to two months with shoulder inflammation.
July 27 – DEN 1B Stanley Murphy (.287, 18 HR, 66 RBI) gets his 2,500th career base hit in the Gold Sox’ 6-5 win over the Miners, knocking out two base hits to contribute. The first of those, a first inning single against starter Pedro Hernandez, is the milestone hit. Murphy, 39 years old and a 2-time World Series winner (2011, 2012), 2011 FLCS and WS MVP, 2012 FL Player of the Year, and 7-time All Star, is career .290 batter with 327 HR and 1,363 RBI. He spent most of his career with the Pacifics before brief stints with the Raccoons, Warriors, and Gold Sox.
July 28 – Yet again lost to injury is the Bayhawks’ sparkling star OF Dave Garcia (.343, 4 HR, 18 RBI), who will miss six weeks with a forearm strain. Riddled with ailments, Garcia has only 99 at-bats on the season.
July 28 – The Indians are out-hit 11-5 by the Thunder, but beat them 5-4 on the strength of home runs by SS Raul Matias (.313, 11 HR, 61 RBI) and 2B Jong-beom Kym (.211, 3 HR, 15 RBI).
July 28 – An 8-run fourth inning paces the Aces in their 16-7 win over the Canadiens.
Complaints and stuff
The Raccoons are 7-5 in the last two weeks. They scored 47 runs in those games (3.9 per game). In their losses, they scored four runs total, getting swept by Indy last week and putting up two goose eggs to start this week.
Here come the Loggers! Good for them. We will probably fold next month due to a lack of players.
Below, an unofficial photo of the Coons’ DL hammock that leaked onto the internets. It’s at the same time pretty and not pretty.
(Link to video where this is capped from: Say 'Critters'! )
The Loggers.
The Gold Sox wanted to deal us Pat Walston, a catcher we were vaguely after in an offseason a long time ago, kindly requesting Hector Santos in return, plus a prospect. Does thin air make dizzy in the head? I think yes.
THE LOGGERS.