[Westheim]

Raccoons (19-17) vs. Loggers (21-16) – May 17-20, 2021

Somehow, anyhow, these were the top two teams in a mediocre CL North, meeting for the first time in 2021. The Loggers had so far put the most runs on the board in the Continental League, and just enough to survive a mediocre rotation. Actually, that rotation also had help from the league-best relief corps, so overall a lot of things were going right for the Loggers right now, including everybody else playing ineptly. The Raccoons had taken the (regular) season series in each of the last two years with identical 12-6 records.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (1-1, 4.45 ERA) vs. Ron Bartlatt (0-0, 1.29 ERA)
Michael Foreman (3-2, 1.60 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (3-2, 3.04 ERA)
Travis Garrett (3-2, 4.39 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (2-1, 3.60 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-1, 3.14 ERA) vs. Chris Sinkhorn (4-2, 2.18 ERA)

Do you avoid Prevost, who is after all probably their best starter, or Sinkhorn, the left-hander, or Julio San Pedro (5-2, 3.17 ERA), the opponent in the bedeviled tie-breaker game last October? Well, in this case San Pedro will not pitch in the series, but I’d much rather not see Prevost or Sinkhorn.

Game 1
MIL: 1B Tadlock – SS Burns – CF Coleman – RF Gore – 3B Velez – LF Cooper – 2B T. Stewart – C Wool – P Bartlatt
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – C Margolis – SS Zuhlke – CF Metts – 3B Petracek – P Abe

Ian Coleman led the league in batting average and hit a double his first time up to bump his clip to .417, but that one came with two outs and Brad Gore struck out to end the top of the first. Neither team showed much offense early on. Abe allowed two hits through four innings and Margolis’ leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth was only the Coons’ third base hit in the game, the other two having been Mendoza singles. Ron Bartlatt was a bit lucky after that, because he allowed two more hard drives to Adam Zuhlke and Dwayne Metts, but Coleman and Andrew Cooper took care of those. They were however deep enough to move Margolis around to score for the first run of the game. The lead had brevity to it: Cooper socked a 2-0 pitch well enough for a leadoff jack in the fifth, re-knotting the score right away. After contact against Abe got fatter by the inning, there wasn’t any contact at all in the seventh. Abe walked Gore, walked Alberto Velez, then walked to the showers. Jason Kaiser got into the game, got through Cooper and Stewart, but on 1-2 to Josh Wool surrendered the runs on a single to left. The Raccoons engorged themselves in little cakes in the dugout, and double plays on the field, Margolis hitting into one to end the sixth with Mendoza on, and Petracek eight-balling Zuhlke into oblivion in the seventh. Bartlatt continued in the eighth, throwing 1-out walks to Cookie and Yoshi, bringing up an unretired Hugo Mendoza with the tying runs aboard. Naturally, the world-renowned Ron Bartlatt would shrug off the puny challenge by the Raccoons’ middle of the order. Mendoza struck out. Hamilton struck out. Margolis worked a leadoff walk against Ian Ward in the ninth. McKnight hit for Zuhlke and popped out, and Jackson hit for Adam Cowen and hit into a double play. 3-1 Loggers. Mendoza 3-4;

That’s some raw misery right here…

We activated Matt Nunley off the DL for the Tuesday game, meaning that Guillermo Aponte’s days were counted for. He had collected six hits in 13 attempts while on the roster, meaning we could get rid of him just before the inevitable 1-for-27 stretch.

Game 2
MIL: 1B Tadlock – SS Burns – CF Coleman – RF Gore – 3B Velez – LF Cooper – 2B T. Stewart – C Wool – P Arevalo
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – RF Jackson – CF DeWald – P Foreman

Another day, another Coleman double in the first that didn’t cause harm ultimately, but be careful and don’t let empty plastic bags lie around in the dugout, otherwise we’ll have little Critters suffocating in them in secon- Nunley!! (frantically rips plastic bag off Nunley’s blue-hued head) …

Arevalo made his first Loggers start since arriving from Charlotte via trade. Before he retired someone as Logger, he loaded the bases, issuing two walks to start the game and then McKnight singled through on the right side. Mendoza scored a run with a groundout, while Nunley and Margolis both struck out, but Arevalo felt pity with the sorry creatures and plated them another run with a wild pitch while he already had Margolis down to his final strike. Two more scored in the second, one again only thanks to another wild pitch. Originally Foreman batted with nobody out and Jackson (walk) and DeWald (single) on the corners. He grounded up the middle, where Tyler Stewart’s only play was to first; Jackson scored. A wild pitch moved DeWald to third, from where he scored on Cookie’s groundout. 4-0 looked like a sure thing with Foreman, who would need approximately 25 innings to blow that lead given his ERA, but ultimately this was baseball, and there were no sure things in baseball. Andrew Cooper bombed Foreman in the fourth, getting the Loggers onto a 4-1 board. This was Cooper’s second home run of the series, and also of the season.

The Loggers had stranded a pair in the third and left Ron Tadlock on second base in the fifth when Coleman grounded out to short, so Foreman was far from untouchable. Maybe an add-on run wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. The Coons would have an opportunity – a pretty fat one actually – in the bottom of the fifth inning when they loaded the bases on an infield single that fooled the entire infield personnel and put Mendoza on with one out, followed by Nunley walking and Margolis singling to the left side. Jackson came up with a full plate, and Coons you’d expect to love full plates. So of course Eddie struck out. That sent up DeWald with two outs, a displaced AAA player who was already 2-for-2 in the game and wasn’t due another big league hit until 2022. He chipped a 2-2 pitch to right, past Stewart, in for a single, and it scored two indeed. Oh, why do I even think about stuff anymore? That single, pushing the score to 6-1, was the end for Arevalo in his Loggers debut, which could have gone better, especially given that Foreman(!) and Cookie both knocked 2-out base hits to score the runners he left on for Jimmy Van Meter, 8-1.

Foreman didn’t last much longer than Arevalo, though. Brad Gore was caught stealing after drawing a leadoff walk, but he just walked Velez and surrendered a single to Cooper, placing them on the corners. He had obviously lost the art of pitching while running the bases, and Jeff Boynton would come in and try his utmost, in this case actually succeeding with K’s to Stewart and Wool to end the inning. The Loggers’ stellar pen would continue to crumble, with Van Meter allowing two more runs in the sixth, and one run scoring in the seventh. The Raccoons’ pen would not be left alone, either, with Sugano in the eighth and Chun in the ninth both being tagged by a run. The biggest concern was with Cookie Carmona however, who injured himself running the bases in the seventh inning and had to be evaluated in thin slices by the medial staff. 11-3 Raccoons. Nomura 3-4, BB; Mendoa 2-4, RBI; Margolis 2-5, RBI; DeWald 3-4, 2 RBI; Zuhlke (PH) 1-1; Boynton 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

All of the starting nine had at least one base hit, and the team had 16 in total – all singles.

Also, Cookie had tweaked an oblique and that would not only hold him back for a few days, but probably keep him out of the next two or three games altogether. We’ll just be glad it’s nothing worse…

Game 3
MIL: 1B Tadlock – SS Burns – CF Coleman – RF Gore – 3B Velez – LF Cooper – 2B T. Stewart – C Wool – P Prevost
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – LF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – RF Jackson – CF Metts – C Olivares – P Garrett

Coleman didn’t get his double until the fourth inning, but then it was to lead off the frame in a scoreless contest, with both teams only managing to scratch a single hit off the opposing starter in the first three innings. Garrett struck out Gore to regain a degree of control before walking Alberto Velez, which was not an ace’s Plan A. But he got a bouncer back from Cooper, which he took for an out at second base, then got Stewart to ground out to Yoshi Nomura anyway, exiting the inning with runners on the corners. It started to rain soon after that, the typical good Portland spring weather in the first half of the year, right up to June 30, after which it would turn abruptly into fall. The rain forced a delay between the fourth and fifth innings that lasted about 30 minutes. Both pitchers returned afterwards, with Garrett delivering a scoreless top 5th before bunting Metts (single) and Olivares (single) into scoring position in the bottom 5th. Yoshi came up with one out, hit a pathetic grounder that scored nobody, and Nunley grounded out easily to Tadlock. Garrett found another zero somewhere for the top of the sixth, but that was probably all we could get for him after the rain delay. Support for his cause was not forthcoming, with Hamilton reacting to Mendoza’s leadoff walk in the bottom 6th with a perfect grounder for two to Tyler Stewart. Prevost put the Coons’ catchers on base with two outs, Margolis following up on Olivares’ walk with a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the seventh. Yoshi was just not getting it done today, however, and struck out.

Noah Bricker retired one batter, ex-Coon Jason Seeley, in the eighth inning before walking to the dugout right away. He had enough experience with injuries so he knew whenever his body had shed another vital part – and it had just so happened. Chun fooled another ex-Coon in “Dingus” Morales onto the bases with a single to right, and the 38-year old had the guts and speed to steal second base. Lillis came out to replace Chun with .411 Coleman appearing in the box and threw him hooks until Coleman submitted to his rule. Morales was stranded, and the game was still scoreless. The Raccoons got runners into scoring position against Robby Delikat in the bottom of the eighth before Brad Gore got the third out on a headlong dive to catch Eddie Jackson’s grounder, showing complete disregard for his own body integrity. Lillis fell apart in the ninth, conceding the go-ahead run on a huge Velez homer to left, then walked Cooper and drilled a pair in Stewart and 2-for-29 Brad Tesch. Somehow, Tony Ramos struck himself out, because there had been three runs ripe for driving in on the bases. Not that it mattered – the Raccoons were too ****ing inept to score anyway. 1-0 Loggers. Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; McKnight 2-4, 2B; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Garrett 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K;

The Druid proclaimed that Noah Bricker had a mild calf strain after the game, and after measuring the circumference of his skull at nose height also announced that he only needed two to three days of rest to regain full strength.

At this point, the Raccoons were third in runs scored, third in runs allowed, and eighth in wins in the Continental League. Bricker will pitch when he feels ready. What’s another day here or there when all you can do to contain the urge to just end yourself by walking into the Willamette is to keep drinking, drinking, drinking?

Speaking of injuries, Josh Stevenson came off the DL in time for the Thursday game, sending Kevin DeWald (4-for-12) back to AAA.

Game 4
MIL: 1B Tadlock – SS Burns – CF Coleman – RF Gore – 3B Velez – 2B Stewart – LF Tesch – C Wool – P Sinkhorn
POR: 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – LF Mendoza – C Margolis – 1B Hamilton – CF Stevenson – SS McKnight – 2B Zuhlke – P Toner

Jonny Toner attainted the sought-after achievement of striking out four batters in an inning, doing so in the top of the second of the Thursday game. Brad Gore was the initial strikeout, but Margolis lost the ball between his legs and his lunch box and Gore legged it out to first base, which didn’t help him given that Toner would strike out Velez, Stewart, and Tesch in order, and all four strikeouts would be of the swinging variety. Those were also the only K’s for Toner the first time through, a tour that ended with a 1-out walk to Chris Sinkhorn in the third inning. Tadlock and Burns however were no match even after Sinkhorn stole second base, and both struck out. The Raccoons would score first thanks to Adam Zuhlke’s leadoff jack in the bottom 3rd, but Toner coughed up Coleman’s daily double to lead off the fourth inning, then drilled Gore. Velez was a big help here, hitting to Zuhlke for a double play, and Stevenson caught Stewart’s fly to center, stranding Coleman on third base.

Bottom of the fourth, Mendoza opened with a long fly to center, but not good enough to beat Coleman. Margolis walked and moved to second on Hamilton’s groundout. Stevenson singled to right and soft enough for Gore to take time to get there, allowing Margolis to score, 2-0. McKnight singled past a diving Stewart, and then Zuhlke hit a ball to deep center. Coleman didn’t get that, and it fell in for an RBI double. Toner had two in scoring position, but also two strikes on him with two down against Sinkhorn before he chopped a ball into play. Tadlock came in to play it and threw it behind the hustling Sinkhorn’s back for a 2-run error that sent the home crowd into a near-frenzy. Nunley grounded out, but Jonny Toner now held a 5-0 lead. Mendoza even added a run with a solo home run in the fifth inning, but the Loggers finally got a knock on Jonny in the sixth. Leadoff walk to Kyle Burns, then a single by Coleman on which Burns went to third, drew Jackson’s throw, and Coleman moved up to second in its shadow. Toner couldn’t recover from that, both runs scoring on the next two plays. Things only went south from here, with a leadoff single by Wool in the seventh. Tony Ramos came up with a pinch-hit RBI double, and Margolis put a man on with an error. When Burns grounded to Zuhlke, the Coons couldn’t turn two, and Toner left embattled in a 6-4 game with a man on first and Coleman (.414) in the box. Kaiser inherited the 1-out situation, and between a strikeout and two walks filled the bags for Tyler Stewart, who would face Boynton – and flew out to Mendoza. After another rain delay (splendid Portland weather!) Sugano struck out the bottom of the order in the eighth, with the Coons facing right-hander Ivan Morales in the bottom 8th. An insurance run would be nice! Margolis led off with a single before Hamilton popped out to make it to 0-for-12 in the series. Yoshi batted for Stevenson and singled up the middle, and McKnight walked to fill them up with one out. And here comes Cookie! Cookie with a bat! Batting for Zuhlke, he clipped a ball to shallow right, an RBI single! Petracek immediately ran for him while Metts batted for Sugano, hitting hard into a double play. Lillis ended the Loggers in 13 pitches. 7-4 Coons. Nomura (PH) 1-1; McKnight 2-3, BB; Zuhlke 3-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (21-19) vs. Condors (24-17) – May 21-23, 2021

Sure, why not play both division leaders in the same week? That sounds like joy. The Condors came off consecutive 70-92 campaigns so it was a bit of a surprise to see them contend and have the best record in the Continental League in the middle of May. The Condors not only had the best rotation by ERA in the Continental League, they had also taken over the position of best pen in the league after the Loggers’ pen had been shackled – very selectively – by the Raccoons in the middle of the week. This also meant they had allowed the fewest runs in the CL. Offensively, they were more on the soft side, scoring only the ninth-most runs, and their run differential was a meager +13. For comparison, the Raccoons’ was +47, they just couldn’t harness that into anything remotely useful. This was the first meeting between the two teams in 2021, with the Raccoons having won the season series for four straight years, taking six out of nine games in 2020.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (4-2, 3.56 ERA) vs. Kyle Eilrich (2-2, 3.45 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (1-2, 4.46 ERA) vs. Rafael Cuenca (0-2, 5.40 ERA)
Michael Foreman (4-2, 1.52 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (4-4, 3.37 ERA)

Eilrich would put us up against back-to-back left-handed starters. Their other four are all right-handers.

Cookie would be back in the lineup for the opener, with Hamilton getting the day off against Eilrich after a wholly rotten Loggers series that saw him drop his average to .279.

Game 1
TIJ: SS B. Rojas – 2B Read – 1B Saenz – CF Jamieson – RF Boggs – C Sanford – LF Larios – 3B Feery – P Eilrich
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Stevenson – 3B Petracek – P Santos

Santos got whacked right in the first inning as the Condors scorched him for four hits, including three for extra bases, and three runs. Howard Read doubled, Omar Saenz homered, Robby Boggs doubled again, then scored on Pat Sanford’s single to left. And don’t make the mistake and think that the outs were soft, either. Sometimes you just know that the starter isn’t going to see the sixth inning, and this was one of those days. Sanford hit a monumental 3-piece in the third inning, and Santos wasn’t seen again by the fourth, his post taken over by Adam Cowen.

Finding the most staggering thing in the game was actually hard. While Santos had been hacked for six runs in three innings, Cowen’s first three innings in long relief were scoreless. Then there was the fact that the Condors made two errors before the Raccoons landed two base hits, and when Eddie Jackson batted with two unearned runs in scoring position and two outs in the bottom 5th, he of course grounded harmlessly to short. The Coons had actually scored a negligible run in the second inning following a Mendoza double, but they wouldn’t get back to the board until the sixth, when Mendoza led off with a single and Margolis crushed an Eilrich pitch to center for a 2-run homer. That still left them short by three, mind, and the following batters went down easily and would probably have done more harm to Eilrich had they tried to comb his hair.

Cowen threw 55 pitches which amounted to 3.2 innings of scoreless relief, leaving a man on base in Saenz, who was stranded when Chun got Robby Boggs to ground out to McKnight in the seventh. The bottom 7th was led off by Cookie, who singled to right for his second base knock of the week (…), then was caught stealing (…). Bottom 8th, Margolis led off with a single. McKnight grounded up the middle, Howard Read’s throw to first was exceedingly poor, and Saenz couldn’t come up with it for the Condors’ third error in the game, this one pulling up the tying run with nobody out. The Condors sent a reliever in right-hander Angelo Savinon, who walked Stevenson to load them up. Nunley was of course going to bat now for Petracek, and the Condors sent a new pitcher … another right-hander (!?) in George Griffin. Who’s that kid? Looks like 17 – and making his major league debut! Kill him, Matt. Matt struck out. Metts had earlier entered in a double switch and batted in the #9 hole. He hit a fly to left near the foul line that Omar Larios couldn’t get to. It dipped in for a 1-out, 2-run double, and Cookie knotted the score with an RBI single to right. Yoshi showed no mercy either, giving the debutee Griffin – a tender 21 years old – all kinds of nightmares with a go-ahead 2-run double into the leftfield corner! The raucous home crowd wanted more, they wanted ALL of Griffin’s blood be smeared over the outfield walls!

That put the Coons in a dilemma. The earlier double switch had removed Jackson and Manobu Sugano had been put in the #3 hole to collect the last five outs (mostly right-handed bats) of the game in a sure 6-3 loss that was not a sure 6-3 loss anymore, or any loss at all. Lillis had pitched the last two days and had thrown 42 total pitches, so if possible I would like to stay away from him here. The thing was that Kaiser had also thrown two days in a row (and 19 of the last 15), Bricker was getting read his future by the Druid and was not available, which left us with all of Jeff Boynton’s 0-4 record and 4.70 ERA. Yes, Manobu? You have no bat? Yeah, the ****, Nobu, borrow a ****ing stick from one of the suckers! This game is all yours! Sugano bunted, and the inning ended as Mendoza grounded out. The 8-6 lead was now Sugano’s against the top of the order. Struck out Bob Rojas! Struck out Howard Read! Struck out Omar Saenz! Ballgame! 8-6 Critters! Carmona 2-4, BB, RBI; Nomura 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Mendoza 2-5, 2B; Margolis 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Metts 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Cowen 3.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Sugano 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

NOBU THE MAN.

Not exactly a pitcher that will draw Hall of Fame consideration but he does have 10.6 K/9 for his career. Never mind the nearly five walks per nine…

While we could now use a long outing from Abe, every time I say that something goes HORRIBLY wrong so I won’t even bother mouthing the usual nonsense…

Game 2
TIJ: C Sanford – 2B Read – LF K. Evans – 1B Saenz – CF Jamieson – SS A. Rojas – RF Larios – 3B Feery – P Cuenca
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Stevenson – P Abe

Of course Abe crapped out right in the first inning. Walking Sanford and Kurt Evans was bad enough already, but he also found ways to allow singles to Matt Jamieson and Adrian Rojas, then walked in a run on four pitches against Larios. Aaron Feery grounded out to Yoshi, stranding three in what was already a 2-0 game. In a case of “It could be a whole lot worse”, Cuenca was shackled even harder in the bottom of the first inning. Yoshi doubled, Mendoza singled, Hamilton walked. With the bases loaded, McKnight brought in the first run on a grounder to the right side before Margolis plated the remaining runners with a 2-out, 2-run single to the left side. Nunley blooped a single into left center before Stevenson flew out to Kurt Evans, leaving the Coons 3-2 ahead.

Cuenca’s leadoff single in the top of the second led the pitching coach to call the bullpen, the suckers were to start drawing straws as to who would pitch three-plus today. To nobody’s amazement at all, Abe was completely in the ****. While the Condors didn’t hit him in the second, they sure did in the third. Leadoff single by Saenz, who scored on a long 2-out double by Larios. The Coons intentionally walked Feery, who was a useless roster spot occupant for normally abled pitchers, to bring up Cuenca, because how often could he line up the leftfield line? Turns out, at least twice. His double plated two, the Condors were 5-3 ahead, Abe balked, then walked Sanford, before somehow Read struck out. The bases however would be loaded in the bottom of the inning. Cuenca allowed hard singles to Mendoza and Hamilton, then walked Margolis after McKnight flew out to right. Nunley batted with three on and one out, hit an RBI single to center, and then Stevenson had to **** up and hit into a double play.

The Coons were in their pen by the fifth inning, since Abe had been led behind the shed after the fourth, and still down 5-4 with Boynton taking over for at least two innings. But when are things ever easy? Boynton had a quick fifth; but Cuenca was just as bad as Abe, the Coons were just too hapless to tear him like the phone book of Rexburg, Idaho. The bases were loaded once more in the bottom 5th, and again for Stevenson, and again with one out. Before Stevenson could do something ****ing stupid, Cuenca did something ****ing stupid and threw a wild 0-1 to tie the game. That however opened first base, but the Condors didn’t walk Stevenson. They waited for him to get himself out, and indeed the miserable ****er grounded out to the mound, keeping the runners pinned. We NEEDED Boynton to keep on pitching. He batted. He struck out. He then walked Sanford to start the sixth, balked him over, and conceded the run on productive outs. I wasn’t sure in what order to take a final drink and then to shoot myself, so enraged did Boynton get me!!

Neither pitcher got the loss they deserved. Both ended up laden with six runs. Cookie knocked out Cuenca with a leadoff double in the bottom 6th and scored on Hamilton’s double after Nomura and Mendoza had failed to get a meaningful at-bat in against right-hander Omar Gonzalez. After this, neither side found an opening against the opposing bullpen in the seventh and eighth, with Boynton and Kaiser holding off the Condors, while Brett Lillis pitched a scoreless ninth, which in theory allowed the Raccoons to walk off with a single run against Mike Peterson in the bottom 9th. Peterson was a southpaw and would be in his second inning. McKnight led off and struck out. Margolis singled. Nunley hit into a double play. Extras! There, singles by Omar Larios, Eric Stephenson, and Pat Sanford scored the go-ahead run in the top 10th, all hit off Lillis, who had left his April form in April. Bottom 10th, right-hander Jayden Reed (0.34 ERA) pitching, a member of the 2017 Coons, who had started his career with the Condors in ’07 and had been nearly everywhere since. Metts flew out to right batting for Stevenson, but Jackson found a hole on the left side for a single. That was all there was to the rally, however. Cookie popped out, and Yoshi flew out to center. 7-6 Condors. Mendoza 2-5; Hamilton 3-3, BB, RBI; Margolis 3-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4, BB, RBI;

…!

Game 3
TIJ: SS B. Rojas – C Sanford – 1B Saenz – CF Jamieson – RF Boggs – 2B M. Rivera – LF Larios – 3B Feery – P Menendez
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Mendoza – 1B Hamilton – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Stevenson – P Foreman

For once, the Critters didn’t incur a deficit in the first inning. Leadoff man Bob Rojas singled, but was stranded, and in the bottom of the inning the Coons scored a run, even though it was unearned. A throwing error by Feery had put Mendoza on base and Hamilton had driven him in. The game was not one of offense in the early inning, sometimes because the batters couldn’t generate it (that was the Condors’ case) or because the teams fudged themselves out of runs. Cookie was sent stealing – and obviously caught – in the bottom 3rd after a leadoff single. Mendoza later uselessly tripled, just before Hamilton struck out to end the inning.

It took the Condors until the fifth for a real threat, but when Mike Rivera hit that leadoff triple, the Coons’ lead was sure gone. Larios struck out, but Feery’s grounder up the middle was good enough to bring in the run and tie score. It was the 25-year old Texan Feery’s first career RBI. God bless him. (casually shatters glass while holding it) … Foreman had been strong through four, but was anything but after that. Sanford hit a 1-out double in the sixth, after which Foreman promptly walked the bases loaded. Robby Boggs hacked himself out, but it took a strong play by Hamilton on Rivera’s quick bouncer to keep the Condors off the board in the inning and the score in shape at 1-1. The Raccoons put Hamilton and McKnight on board in the bottom 6th, an inning in which both Mendoza and Margolis uselessly popped out over the infield. The top 7th saw the end for Foreman, who along with Sugano walked the bases loaded. Bricker came in to face the right-hander Sanford, who hit a 2-run single to center to give the Condors a 3-1 lead. With singles by Stevenson and Carmona the tying runs were on with one out in the bottom 7th against the left-hander Peterson, who struck out Nomura. Mendoza hit an RBI single to left, but Hamilton went down looking at whatever.

The bottom of the eighth would see the Condors recycle relievers at rapid pace. By the fourth man up in the inning – Stevenson – they were on their fourth reliever of the inning, and that was poor George Griffin, who inherited McKnight on second as tying run, and Nunley on first as go-ahead run. Metts batted for Stevenson with Griffin’s appearance, walked, and the bags were full for … Olivares. The Coons had already employed two double switches, and Olivares, 0-for-1, had come in on the first. He had to bat. Griffin, being fed to the wolves, walked him to knot the score. All we needed now was a sound base hit by Cookie and maybe the week would then not be a complete disaster. Cookie hit a single over Rivera to score the go-ahead run, the park was on its feet at once, and the befuddled Griffin, who had a dark spot form on the front of his pants, between his legs, threw a wild pitch to Yoshi Nomura to bring home Metts. And then another one to score Olivares. COME ON GEORGIE, CAN YOU DO THE DIAZ!? He could in fact not. Yoshi walked, but the inning fizzled out. The Raccoons had a 6-3 lead to protect and a pen that resembled Chicago after the Fire. Lillis was sent into the ninth, and the Condors had the tying run in the box at once. Read reached on a bloop single, and Eric Stephenson lined into shallow center. Two on, nobody out. Adrian Rojas popped out, but a grounder by Pat Sanford escaped between McKnight and Nunley. The bases were loaded for Saenz, a left-handed .291 batter that struck out in a full count. Lillis, 22 pitches in, now faced Jamieson, a .220 righty, with sweat running down his face like the Mississippi. It was a ****ing 41 degrees outside. Chun got ready and would face Boggs, with Kaiser right behind. No other reliever came into the game, though – Jamieson struck out. 6-3 Blighters. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Mendoza 2-5, 3B, RBI; Hamilton 2-4, RBI; McKnight 1-2, 2 BB; Stevenson 2-3; Olivares 0-1, BB, RBI;

Adam Cowen pitched one third of an inning for the W, only the second of his career against six losses in 62 games.

In other news

May 17 – TIJ LF Jimmy Eichelkraut (.269, 4 HR, 20 RBI) has to retire from baseball after tearing his labrum in a game. The 32-year old Eichelkraut, a former #3 draft pick, played his entire 10-year major league career with the Condors, hitting .266 with 158 HR and 510 RBI.
May 17 – The Dunn train keeps on chooing in Boston, with left-hander SP Tim Dunn (7-1, 2.15 ERA) fashioning a 2-hit shutout of the Indians in a tightly-knit 1-0 game. Dunn, who won Pitcher of the Month honors in April, strikes out eight for his second consecutive shutout.
May 17 – A sore shoulder lands CIN CF Nando “Doodle” Maiello (.345, 2 HR, 16 RBI) on the DL. The 24-year old should be back by early June.
May 22 – The Knights crumple the Canadiens, 18-6, scoring seven runs in the second and another eight runs in the eighth. LF Marty Reyes (.309, 2 HR, 16 RBI) leads them with four RBI.
May 23 – The Buffaloes lose LF/RF Bill Adams (.292, 5 HR, 20 RBI) for the season. The 32-year old has ruptured his achilles tendon.

Complaints and stuff

CL Player of the Week? New York’s Alex Duarte. That Alex Duarte. I - … (waves arms)

WHAT IS THIS MADHOUSE??

I will accept explanations as to what happened to our 1-2-3 punch in the rotation, because I don’t have any. That Foreman pickup looks REALLY good now.

Overall, the team is running out of talent on many fronts. I don’t know. How many .300 batters do you NEED to field a team that is meaningfully outrunning the .500 mark?

I don’t know whether it is worth musing about details. Why does the sun rise in the East after all? Because then Portland is the last piece of the U.S. mainland she’s gotta rise for. THAT’S WHY.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
70th – Andres Ramirez – 1,895 – HOF
71st – Jorge Chapa – 1,886
72nd – Greg Cain – 1,875
73rd – Mark Warburton – 1,861
74th – Jesus Bautista – 1,860
75th – Jonathan Toner – 1,847 – active
76th – Manny Ramos – 1,846
77th – Neil Stewart – 1,842 – HOF
78th – Xavier Mayes – 1,833
[…]
89th – Pedro Alvarado – 1,738 – active, free agent
90th – Lou Corbett – 1,733
91st – Daniel Dickerson – 1,730
92nd – Henry Becker – 1,729
93rd – Billy Robinson – 1,728 – HOF
94th – Hector Santos – 1,718 – active
95th – Larry Cutts – 1,714
96th – Samuel McMullen – 1,707 – active
97th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699

Jorge Chapa is still well-known I guess, because of the unique name and because he spent his entire career in the Continental League between only two teams, the Bayhawks and Titans. He was an All Star nine times, finished a shiny 199-118 with a 3.20 ERA, but didn’t exactly challenge for the Hall of Fame. He was the 2004 CL Pitcher of the Year, a 23-7 record with a 2.14 ERA, both the only times he led the league in those marks, with the Titans.

The true gem is “Beagle” Ramirez, a career closer, and maybe still remembered as the other guy I had on top of my draft list prior to the 1977 Amateur Draft. ‘The guy’ of course turned out to be Daniel Hall. Ramirez wound up pitching for 25 years major league seasons, including debuting soon after the draft at age *17* with the Warriors, with whom he spent 11 years eventually and whose insignia he wears in the Hall of Fame. He led the league in saves three times only, but kept amassing them constantly, eventually ending up with a heap of 770 of the little buggers – still the all-time record. Overall he made 1,612 appearances, all in relief. We never saw much of Ramirez, because he spent only four years of those 25 in the Continental League, 1992 with the Indians, and then two stints for three total years with the Condors.