[Westheim]

Raccoons (26-23) @ Knights (21-28) – May 30-June 1, 2022

There were things to like and things to hate on the Knights, who were second from the bottom in terms of runs scored, not doing well in any particular category. They were fourth in terms of runs allowed, but that came with an asterisk. Their rotation was the second-best in the league with an ERA just a whisker under three, but they had an incredibly decrepit bullpen that was posting an outrageous 5.62 ERA – far and away the worst mark in the league. But they were to be treated cautiously – just on Sunday, they had crushed the Titans in a 17-0 rout. The season series however had been all Coons so far, as we had swept them during our first meeting of the season.

Projected matchups:
Frank Kelly (3-2, 3.02 ERA) vs. Luis Hernandez (3-2, 3.41 ERA)
Ricky Martinez (0-5, 6.31 ERA) vs. Jonathan Ryan (3-2, 3.32 ERA)
Travis Garrett (4-2, 5.44 ERA) vs. Luis Flores (6-2, 1.39 ERA)

The left-hander Flores had the best ERA in the entire league, and was also their only left-hander. They had one significant injury in outfielder Marty Reyes, who had appeared in only 14 games so far this season and was laboring on a torn rib cage muscle ever since.

Oh happy day – Cookie Carmona came off the DL to begin this series and slotted right back in the leadoff slot, pushing Bullock to second, and the walk-resistant Jarod Spencer to the bottom of the order.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – C Rice – 1B Rockwell – 2B Spencer – CF Romero – P Kelly
ATL: CF Stuckey – SS T. Jimenez – 1B Herlihy – 3B Avalos – RF Fullerton – 2B Hibbard – C C. Ramirez – LF Folk – P L. Hernandez

Cookie returned with a leadoff single off Hernandez, but was quickly forced out on Bullock’s grounder to Devin Hibbard. Bullock however stole second base, then scored on Nunley’s single. Mendoza ran a 3-0 count before popping out, which was so great to see, and the Raccoons scored only the one run in the opening inning, but would get another one in the second inning when Ricardo Romero knocked his first home run as a Critter, a 2-out solo job to leftfield. It was not exactly smooth sailing however for Kelly, who had his first batter on base in the game; Johnny Stuckey took advantage of Gil Rockwell’s clumsiness for an infield single for a really, really undeserved infield single. Kelly got through that, then had runners on the corners in the second inning. A key strikeout to Brody Folk and Hernandez’ pop in foul ground bailed him out of that, and when Tony Jimenez singled in the third inning and Kelly drilled Trent Herlihy, but Tony Avalos hit into a double play.

Top 5th, Romero had an infield single leading off, and Kelly dropped down a bunt. It was a real dandy; Avalos had to hustle in at great speed, had to fire on the move, and missed Herlihy, badly. The throwing error put runners in scoring position with no outs for the top of the order. Cookie was up to the job, singled up the middle, and drove in the third run of the game; Kelly was held at third base, but would score on Nunley’s groundout later, giving Kelly a 4-0 lead. Rockwell would have two moments in the sun after that, first picking off Folk from first base after Stuckey lined right into his mitten in the bottom 5th, then homering off Hernandez in the top of the sixth, a solo job that was kindly acknowledged by the team whose insignia would once adorn his Hall of Fame plaque. Kelly maintained a shutout through six, getting another double play turned in the bottom 6th, but then loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh. D.J. Fullerton’s double was followed by two walks. Folk popped out behind home plate, courtesy of Danny Rice, but that was it for Kelly. With the left-hander Joe Cowan pinch-hitting for Hernandez, Sugano replaced Kelly. Sugano extricated the Critters from the inning with only one run scoring on Cowan’s sac fly to right, and struck out Stuckey, maintaining a 5-1 lead, which Jarod Spencer extended to 7-1 in the eighth against left-hander Antonio Quintana. Finding Mendoza and Rockwell in scoring position, Spencer singled to right, scoring them both, but the bottom 8th brought more trouble. Cory Dew allowed a leadoff single to Jimenez and was swiftly replaced by David Kipple, who also didn’t seem inclined to retire anybody. He walked Herlihy, and Avalos singled; three on, no outs. Alas, the Knights wouldn’t score, although that required help from Noah Bricker. Kipple whiffed Fullerton, but then was replaced for the right-handers that approached. Bricker struck out Hibbard, and Chris Ramirez flew out to center. That was the last threat in the game. 7-1 Raccoons! Carmona 2-5, RBI; Rockwell 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Romero 3-4, HR, RBI; Bricker 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – C Rice – 1B Rockwell – CF Stevenson – 2B Armetta – P Martinez
ATL: RF Stuckey – LF Folk – C Luna – SS T. Jimenez – 1B Herlihy – 2B Hibbard – 3B Avalos – CF Cowan – P Ryan

Crowned by Tony Avalos’ 2-piece over the rightfield fence, the Knights poured five runs on Martinez right in the first inning. There was just no reasoning with this turd. Stuckey led off with a double, and the situation escalated from there. Ricky Martinez was never in command of any at-bat against anybody. This included the pitcher, Jonathan Ryan, who would knock two hard hits against Martinez, a leadoff single in the second inning, and a 2-out RBI single in the third inning that ran the score to 7-0 and ended Martinez’ major league career.

Logan Sloan replaced Martinez with runners on the corners and two down, got a fly to right from Stuckey, and thus closed the line at seven runs. The Raccoons had only one hit against Ryan at that point, and were slow to add more, but even when Cookie hit a leadoff double to left in the sixth inning they were unable to get him in. Sloan pitched three innings in relief, allowing another run to the Knights, extending their lead to 8-0. Tony Jimenez would build on that, hitting a solo shot off Kipple in the seventh inning. The Raccoons would have another leadoff double eventually, Sam Armetta lining one over the head of Herlihy to lead off the top of the eighth inning. Neither Ricardo, Romero or Carmona, could get the runner in, but the Brazilian Wonder could, Daniel Bullock doubling into left center with two outs. Jonathan Ryan fell one out short of a complete game; after striking out Rice and Rockwell to begin the ninth, Zach Graves’ pinch-hit single extended the contest. Armetta grounded to third, Avalos botched the play, and at 120 pitches, the Knights decided that this was it for Ryan. Danny Martin replaced him and got Romero to ground out to end the inning. 9-1 Knights. Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B; Graves (PH) 1-1;

As mentioned before, this was it for Martinez. I would rather send out my long-deceased Uncle Jim into a game before Martinez (0-6, 7.26 ERA) gets the ball once more. He was waived and designated for assignment, with Ryan Nielson getting called up from AAA. 29 years old by now, Nielson was from the Damani Knight mold of pitchers that refused to go away because they were relying on the meal money. He had most recently pitched for the Raccoons in 2020, going 2-0 with a 3.29 ERA and a lotta luck probably in eight games, six starts. Last year he swingmanned through the AAA season, going 11-9 with a 3.76 ERA and a save in 30 outings, 22 of those starts. This season, he was 6-1 with a 3.60 ERA in eight starts.

This was not going to bring salvation, but perhaps it could stop the bleeding for a bit.

Also, up in the rubber game for the Knights, the newly anointed Pitcher of the Month for the Continental League.

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – RF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – 3B Nunley – 2B Spencer – C Olivares – CF Stevenson – P Garrett
ATL: CF Stuckey – SS T. Jimenez – C Luna – 1B Herlihy – 3B Avalos – RF Fullerton – 2B Hibbard – LF Folk – P L. Flores

The usual variant was another one, but in the second inning Jarod Spencer singled, stole second, and moved around on productive outs to score the first run of the game. While the first and third innings both saw Matt Nunley ground out to Herlihy with two men on base, the Knights also had no trouble to equalize their early deficit right away against Tragic Travis. Avalos hit a 1-out single in the second inning, Stevenson flubbed the pickup and gave him an extra base, but he probably would scored anyway on Devin Hibbard’s long double to right center. The Knights would also strand a pair in the bottom of the third, presumably to make Nunley feel less terrible.

The top of the fourth inning saw a big chance for the Raccoons, if only due to Ruben Luna’s throwing error. Spencer had drawn a leadoff walk, followed by Olivares chomping a ball into the ground in front of home plate. Luna pounced and rushed a throw to first, but it skidded through the dirt and Herlihy couldn’t come up with it. Runners were in scoring position with no outs for Stevenson, but the Knights preferred Garrett to bat with the bases loaded. The Raccoons “pitcher” kindly struck out, but Cookie at least restored a 2-1 lead, flying out to Fullerton deep enough to allow Spencer to hurry home. A walk to Bullock loaded the bags for Mendoza. Dumbo struck out. A 2-1 lead was not a lot with the Knights hitting drives all over the place against Tragic Travis, who allowed two hard ones in the bottom 4th. Avalos was contained by Cookie leading off, but Fullerton got a double to drop next to Stevenson in deep left center. After Hibbard struck out raking, an intentional walk to former Elk Brody Folk pulled up Flores, who was not the greatest of batters and struck out, stranding a pair, and the Knights left another pair stranded in the fifth, Garrett striking out Herlihy and Avalos.

The Raccoons failed to exploit another Luna throwing error in the top of the sixth, but the Knights had Fullerton on base with a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, at least until he was caught stealing. At that point, either team’s pitching could still explode. Garrett stumbled along into the seventh inning before allowing an infield single to Stuckey, then walked Jimenez. With left-handers approaching, Sugano replaced him. Two on, one out, Luna flew out to center before Herlihy drove a ball really hard to left. Cookie raced back, raced back, raced back – and made the catch on the track. After Sugano and Dew wobbled through the eighth inning, the Raccoons at last manufactured an insurance run in the ninth against closer Harry Merwin, who issued a leadoff walk to Ruben Pelles, who then scored on Mendoza’s 2-out double. Lillis would close the deal, but without drilling Tony Jimenez to create some final drama with two outs in the bottom 9th. 3-1 Coons. Mendoza 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Rockwell 3-5; Stevenson 0-1, 2 BB, RBI; Garrett 6.1 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (5-2);

Travis Garrett is a living embodiment of win-loss records not meaning ****. His ERA is a healthy 4.96 …

Raccoons (28-24) @ Titans (36-18) – June 3-5, 2022

Second in offense and tied for fifth in terms of fewest offense allowed, the Titans had gone on a run in late April and the first half of May, going 19-4 at one point, including a 3-game sweep of the Raccoons in Boston from April 29 through May 1. This stretch had given them their lead in the division, although they had suffered a rough 1-5 week against the Bayhawks and Knights prior to this week. They had taken two of three from the Falcons before this series and had not had an off day as opposed to the Critters. Home runs were still not their strong suit, and they were in the bottom three of teams in the category, but they were pesky once on base, with the third-most stolen bases, and they were on base quite a lot. The Coons so far had been unable to handle them, losing five of six games played between the two teams so far.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (4-4, 4.31 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (5-1, 3.34 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-3, 3.50 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (5-4, 4.50 ERA)
Frank Kelly (4-2, 2.88 ERA) vs. John Schneider (6-2, 4.61 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up here; the Titans had some injury woes to worry about as well, with Antonio Esquivel and Adrian Reichardt occupying spots on the disabled list right now.

Oddly enough, while they had no left-handed starters, they sure had plenty of left-handed relievers: Ron Thrasher, Mike Tharp, Edwin Balandran, Brent Beene, and Matt Branch were all huddled together in their bullpen.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – C Rice – 2B Spencer – 1B Rockwell – CF Stevenson – P Guerrero
BOS: CF W. Ramos – RF Cornejo – 3B Jam. Wilson – SS Kane – C Leonard – LF K. Evans – 2B Casillas – 1B Flack – P Cope

The Titans scored single runs in the first and third innings after the same pattern. Guerrero couldn’t find the zone, issued a walk or even two, and then they nicked a single to where the defenders ain’t. Mike Kane drove in the run in the first, Gil Cornejo did the honors in the third. It wasn’t that the Titans were really swinging the sticks that hard – but the Raccoons were doing even less and were not exactly fighting for the spotlight. Nunley hit a 1-out double in the fourth inning that led absolutely nowhere. Spencer hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but got doubled up by Rockwell’s sharp grounder to Jamie Wilson.

Truth be told, Guerrero probably did better than anticipated. The Titans had carted up no less than seven left-handed batters, and that he made it through five, then six, with only two runs allowed was probably a success. He nicked Wilson to start the sixth inning. Bullock shrugged and turned him a double play on Kane’s grounder. Then Guerrero walked Keith Leonard. A RUNNER SHALL BE ON BASE, ALWAYS. Kurt Evans voluntarily struck out. Guerrero even made it through seven before being pinch-hit for. Stevenson stumbled on base ahead of his spot, but got forced out on Graves’ grounder. Two down, Cope lost both Cookie and Bullock to walks, and Nunley drove a ball to deep center, where it was caught in spectacular fashion. Jamie Wilson hit the most unnecessary homer in history off David Kipple in the bottom of the eighth; like Ron Thrasher would have needed any further assistance before he retired the Raccoons’ 4-5-6 batters in order in the ninth… 3-0 Titans. Stevenson 2-3; Guerrero 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, L (4-5);

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – RF Graves – 2B Spencer – C Rice – CF Romero – P Toner
BOS: CF W. Ramos – RF Cornejo – 3B Jam. Wilson – SS Kane – C Leonard – LF K. Evans – 2B Casillas – 1B Flack – P J. Fuentes

There were also seven left-handers for Toner to cope with, and there was also an early sign from the baseball gods. Cookie hit a leadoff single in the top of the first, then was caught stealing for the first time this season. Oh, that was probably the doom bell. I know how the game of baseball works. We’re dead. For now, Toner had a scoreless first, and the Coons loaded the bases in the second inning; Graves walked, Spencer and Rice hit singles, and there was nobody out for Romero. Nobody scored, since Romero struck out, Toner’s fly to right wasn’t deep enough to get Graves home, and Cookie grounded out to Mike Kane. The Titans got their first two batters on base in the bottom 2nd, with Kane singling and Keith Leonard working a walk from Toner, but Kurt Evans smacked a ball to Spencer for a double play before Tony Casillas struck out.

Indeed, nothing worked for the Coons. Adam Flack laced a double past Romero to begin the third inning, and then Rice lost a ball to Fuentes. The runners moved up, the pitcher stopped bunting and instead hit a double past Romero’s other side – Toner had allowed the go-ahead run on a double by the pitcher. Any more signs of the apocalypse needed? Two strikeouts helped him ease from the inning, but there was no denying that the Raccoons were consigned to lose their next 29 games. Oh well, somehow we gotta wobble on, I guess.

Top 5th, down 1-0, Cookie drew a leadoff walk. Bullock hit a single to right, and both then took off for a double steal. Leonard’s throw was late, and the middle of the order now just had to NOT their thing. Nunley grounded out to first, runners staying put. Mendoza grounded out to short, runners staying put for whatever reason. No it had to be Graves, who singled past a diving Casillas into rightfield, plated both runs and flipped the score. Spencer grounded out, but Toner seemed up to the challenge and moved through the next three innings with only one runner on base.

Conundrum occurred in the eighth. Graves singling and Romero walking pulled up Toner’s spot with two outs. He was on 94 pitches, so he probably wouldn’t finish the game anyway, and we would probably entrust our fate to Brett Lillis for more than three outs anyway. This was a tough one. In this case, Toner lost out. Gil Rockwell batted for him, jumped on Julio San Pedro’s first pitch and rammed it up the leftfield line, barely fair, but far away from Javy Cisneros, for a 2-run double! After Mike Tharp replaced the former Logger San Pedro, Cookie grounded out, but the hard part came only now. Joel Davis allowed a liner to Cisneros that Cookie caught, and after that was Brett Lillis’ entry, and he knew he had to get five outs starting with the #1 batter. The tying run came up in the inning thanks to Willie Ramos’ infield single and a strange walk to Wilson, but Kane flew out to Romero in centerfield to leave the runners stranded. Before Lillis could create more drama, the Coons exploded Tharp in the top of the ninth. Bullock reached base, Nunley reached base, Mendoza reached all the bases with a booming 3-run homer to leftfield. There was another infield single in the bottom 9th, but the Titans didn’t manage to even vaguely challenge Lillis and the 6-run lead. 7-1 Critters! Carmona 2-4, BB; Graves 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Rice 2-5; Rockwell (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (6-3); Lillis 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (12);

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – SS Bullock – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – 1B Rockwell – C Olivares – CF Stevenson – 2B Armetta – P Kelly
BOS: CF W. Ramos – RF Cornejo – 3B Jam. Wilson – SS Kane – C Leonard – LF K. Evans – 2B Casillas – 1B Flack – P Schneider

Leave Jonny Toner out of the equation and the Titans had a habit of slowly grinding through your right-handed pitchers. A walk and two singles off Kelly scored a run in the first, Kane doing the honors with the RBI, like in the series opener on Friday. Offense was at a premium overall, with the Titans only managing one more base hit through four innings, and the Coons only landing one hit overall, Cookie’s leadoff single in the first that saw him stranded at third base eventually. The Critters’ next hit came from Armetta, a 2-out single in the fifth inning, and he even stole second base and reached third on Leonard’s terrible throw, but Kelly still flew out easily to make the third out.

The Titans upped their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the inning thanks to Tony Casillas’ leadoff triple into the corner in rightfield. Adam Flack’s sac fly scored him easily, and the Raccoons had to get creative now, or, well, find some skill in their lunch boxes. Cookie looped a leadoff single into shallow right in the sixth, renewing futile hope. Then, one out, two out, three out, no ball even hit out of the infield, or hard, or in Bullock’s case, at all.

Kelly lumbered through six, striking out nobody and was probably done at that point, having issued five hits and four walks, but avoided a big Garrettesque explosion at least. Then came the top of the seventh. Rockwell was walked leading off the inning, and the Olivares fought off his .198 average demons and cranked a double into the gape. Rockwell wasn’t gonna score on most doubles, and he didn’t here, either, but the tying runs were in scoring position with nobody out against a pitcher that was normally not exactly dominating. After Stevenson uselessly flew out, Graves batted for Armetta. He grounded to short, Kane hiccupped, had to pick up the dropped ball and threw late. This was generously scored a single for everybody involved; Rockwell scored, and the Coons were really in the business now, thus also hitting for Kelly regardless of his own state (which was not splendid). Danny Rice batted for him, fully knowing that we were likely to invoke the pandemonium of endless left-handed relievers with the move, but the Titans stuck to Schneider, Rice drew a walk in a full count, but all that Cookie managed was a run-scoring groundout, Bullock flew out to left, and the Titans escaped in a 2-2 tie. The Raccoons failed to mount anything meaningfully in the eighth or the ninth, while the Raccoons pieced outs together between Dew, Sugano… at least until the ninth. Eric McPherson hit a single off Sugano with one out in the bottom 9th, prompting a move to Joel Davis against right-handed pinch-hitter Javy Cisneros. But sometimes, you could just as well stick to Sugano… Cisneros hit a bomb to left, and that was game over. 4-2 Titans. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Armetta 1-2; Graves (PH) 1-1, RBI;

In other news

June 3 – The Condors send SP Jim Bryant (4-4, 2.88 ERA) and cash to the Falcons for two prospects, neither of them ranked.
June 4 – The Aces’ struggles will probably deepen with LF/RF Dan Brown (.203, 9 HR, 33 RBI) going to the shelf with a strained hamstring. The 27-yer old right-handed batter is expected to miss time until the All Star game.

Complaints and stuff

A 3-3 week was enough to move us past the Wolves again into the lead position amongst the Northwest teams. It’s a tight race for once; the Coons at 29-26, the Wolves 28-26, and the Elks at 26-29, recovering from a little slump in May.

Cookie is off the DL, qualifies for the batting title race again (he did not for one day) and leads Bobby Marshall by 15 points at this junction. Even more interesting is the Federal League leader at this point. Why, it’s dear old Yoshi Nomura! Yoshi is batting .381 with two homers for the Gold Sox, but has been out since the end of May with a quad strain. He will return around the middle of June, though likely not before his 3.1 PA/G qualifier expires. 38 years old – still a goody!

The jury is still out on the Nomura/Kelly trade, but even then, without the Yoshi trade we would not have been able to start Jarod Spencer consistently. And I would be happier with starting him consistently if he wasn’t absolutely allergic to walks. He has THREE walks in 208 plate appearances. Although that is actually a 280% increase to his walk rate from 2021.

Ricky Martinez: 2-10 with a 4.67 ERA in 25 starts, now consigned to hell, I hope. Next to be dealt with is Travis Garrett, but the fact that I went to Nielson and his career record resembling wet gunpowder for Martinez’ replacement tells you a bit of the state of our AAA rotation. Dave Dyer and Rico Gutierrez both have ERA’s over five. Blake Kelly has an ERA over six. Reese Kenny had a 3.37 ERA, but was walking people left and right even in AAA.

There was a reclamation project in Ham Lake, AA, you might remember. Roger Kincheloe made a few (terrible) appearances for the Critters in 2020. Six games, five starts, 1-1 with an 8.18 ERA: Since then his body had fallen apart and had been reassembled, and he was about to turn 26 years old. He was however pitching to a 1.61 ERA in Ham Lake, whiffing 9.2 per nine innings. Never mind the four walks. As soon as somebody goes down, it might as well be Kincheloe to leap-frog the AAA crew despite me pronouncing him dead repeatedly the last few years.

Here is an interesting stat:

PORTLAND RACCOONS FRANCHISE SLUGGING LEADERS (min. 250 PA)
1st – Royce Green - .545
2nd – Jose Morales - .527
3rd – Hugo Mendoza - .514
4th – Ron Alston - .494
5th – Tetsu Osanai - .485
6th – Luke Black - .466
7th – Albert Martin - .465
8th – David Brewer - .454
9th – John Alexander - .447
t-10th – Ramiro Cavazos - .446
t-10th – Zach Graves - .446

Well look at tenth place. Cavazos was a Raccoon for only the 2001 season and I have long forgotten about him. 59 extra-base hits, but only drove in 67 for a morbidly decrepit team, and trading for him cost us the career of Salvadaro Soure and his 499 saves, but I actually mean Graves. How does he make the list!? Ahead of Neil Reece, ahead of Daniel Hall, ahead of Vern Kinnear, ahead of so many good sluggers we had over the years? What does it say about Zach Graves that is not superficially visible due to his career total of negative five home runs?

And yes, the 250 PA were picked carefully; that gets “Dingus” Morales on the list, but no even shorter-lived players. The list also once again admonishes me for ever parting with Al Martin in favor of Adrian Quebell,

Fun fact: Adrian Quebell and Daniel Hall tie for 14th in the list of franchise sluggers with at least 250 at-bats, behind Matt Hamilton, Dylan Alexander, and Werner Turner. Both had a .437 SLG mark with the Raccoons.

They did arrive at that value in different ways, though. Quebell was ever the singles slapper, and often enough he slapped into a double play, poking right at the shortstop. His batting average was 25 points higher than Dan The Man’s (.291 / .266), but Hall hit more doubles, more triples, more home runs, and even walked a bunch more, and his offense was worth 78% more WAR while he only had about 48% more plate appearances in his Coons career than Quebell, which relates to the offensively depressed era that Dan the Man started his career in. The odd outlier notwithstanding, the Continental League has been in the 3.90s or reasonably close to the 3.90s in teams of league ERA ever since about 1992, but throughout the 1980s the CL ERA was often in the 3.60s.

So this means that Dan The Man’s slugging was the same as Quebell’s, but it was better because everybody else slugged less. Right, Slappy?

Right? My life is not a lie, Slappy, right? – Slappy?

(Slappy wordlessly extends a fresh bottle of booze)