[Westheim]

Raccoons (50-61) vs. Loggers (51-59) – August 8-11, 2022

Let’s just say, between these two teams there was a lot of disappointment in the Portland ballpark. The Loggers were in seventh place in runs scored in the Continental League, but still in the bottom three in runs conceded and last outright in bullpen ERA. The Loggers were also one of only four teams the Critters had a winning record against (7-4) in 2022. The others were the Elks (8-3), Knights (5-4, F), and Rebels (2-1, F).

Projected matchups:
Ryan Nielson (4-5, 3.32 ERA) vs. Morgan Shepherd (3-7, 4.47 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (0-2, 4.35 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (6-11, 5.32 ERA)
Travis Garrett (6-5, 6.15 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (8-8, 3.46 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (5-4, 2.57 ERA) vs. Chris Sinkhorn (8-6, 3.43 ERA)

Three right-handers, then Sinkhorn, still the defending Pitcher of the Year. Let’s assume he’s not gonna be it in ’22, and Toner won’t be it either, who’s gonna steal the crown?

The Raccoons started the week by disabling Brian Perakis with his ankle woes and recalled Dwayne Metts and his sparkling .095 batting average. Omar Alfaro still had punishment time in St. Petersburg!

Game 1
MIL: 3B A. Velez – 1B Jaeger – CF Coleman – LF Berntson – C Wool – 2B Stewart – RF Reese – SS Dasher – P Shepherd
POR: LF Carmona – CF Stevenson – 3B Nunley – 1B Rockwell – C Rice – RF Graves – SS Armetta – 2B Spencer – P Nielson

An 0-2 pitch that struck Alberto Velez and then a Kevin Jaeger grounder that vanished in Nielson’s pants to begin the week somehow didn’t blossom into a 5-run inning. The Loggers scored zip in fact, though credit should go to Stevenson, who spoiled a mighty drive to center by Jon Berntson. Stevenson was also the first Critter on base, singling in the bottom 1st, which Nunley also did to put two on for Gil Rockwell, who grounded straight to Tyler Stewart for a double play. The two teams tallied up 11 base hits in the first five innings, yet scored zero runs. The Coons had six hits, including a Stevenson triple, and drew a pair of walks, AND got an error by Craig Dasher (a makeshift shortstop at best!) in the bottom 5th instrumental in loading the bases, but still couldn’t get anybody across. In that inning, Cookie singled, Stevenson reached on the error, Nunley flew out to deep left, and Rockwell batted with two on for the third time in the game and after a double play and a strikeout drew an actual walk this time. Three on, two down, Danny Rice struck out, Shepherd’s ninth victim in the game. The Loggers hurler at one point struck out five in a row, and romped his total to 11 by the sixth. Following Zach Graves’ leadoff single that hit off Tom Reese’s shoe in rightfield, Sam Armetta popped out before Jarod Spencer and Ryan Nielson both whiffed. Cookie hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, stole his 27th bag, then was stranded. Stevenson and Nunley hit balls right at people, and Rockwell completed Shepherd’s dirty dozen. At least that was all for Shepherd, who was done after 112 pitches. Mike Denny drew a leadoff walk in his spot in the top 8th, but was doubled off when one first baseman (Jaeger) lined out to the other first baseman (Rockwell). Rockwell would even make three nice plays in the ninth inning, containing two spiced grounders by Ian Coleman and Jon Berntson, then scooped Armetta’s terrible throw on Stewart’s grounder following Josh Wool’s single to center. Nielson completed nine – but the Coons were still not on the board! Tim Stalker batted for him to lead off the bottom 9th and reached base – the fifth straight inning with the leadoff man on base for Portland!! – on Stewart’s clumsy error. The Coons outrageously signaled COOKIE to BUNT. Desperation had many faces – this was one of them, easily. Cookie hadn’t bunted since elementary school, knocked it back to the pitcher Mike Kress, and Kress threw to second base … wildly. Two on, none deserved! Josh Stevenson looped a ball to shallow center, Coleman coming in, in, in, lunging, sliding OHMYGODHEMADETHECATCH!! STALKER STANDS AT THIRD BASE!! Fortunately Coleman was in no condition to make a play at second base after digging up the field with his headlong slide, the ball landing just barely in his outstretched glove. Had his arm been one inch shorter, the Coons would have walked off, but no Stalker had to dig his way back to second base, arriving there with his own head-first slide. Nunley flew out to left. That brought up Rockwell. Kress fell behind 2-0, then condeded a fly to right. Tom Reese over – but not over far enough! The ball found the gap, and the Coons walked off after all …! 1-0 Blighters! Carmona 2-4; Stevensno 2-5, 3B; Rice 2-4; Nielson 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (5-5);

Doubly-unearned walkoff… oh well, who am I to complain? This was the 30-year-old Nielson’s first career complete game and also first career shutout in 28 games started.

Game 2
MIL: LF Tesch – SS Dasher – CF Coleman – RF Gore – 3B A. Velez – C Wool – 1B Reese – 2B March – P Arevalo
POR: LF Carmona – CF Stevenson – 3B Nunley – 1B Rockwell – RF Graves – 2B Armetta – SS Stalker – C Prieto – P Chavez

Chavez entered the start with exactly 60 major league innings across ten starts, and a 1-6 record and 5.25 ERA. That was … improvable. However, starting the game with a 4-pitch walk to Brad Tesch was not something that would improve your resume in the long run. The Loggers quickly went about dissecting Chavez in the first inning. Dasher singled, Coleman hit an RBI single, and after Brad Gore struck out, Alberto Velez hit an RBI double to center. Josh Wool hit a liner to right that fell for an RBI single, with Graves throwing out Velez at home plate. Good, good! We’ll have to take outs any way we can! Reese struck out to end a 3-run first, and by my count the Coons weren’t due another run until like Friday, so that was that. Come back again tomorrow, people. Thanks for paying!

While Chavez shook of the suckage after the rough first innings and would line up a few zeroes on the board, the Raccoons had absolutely nothing going in this game. Arevalo struck out hardly anybody, but also yielded no base hits in the first five innings, allowing only a walk in those. The Raccoons wouldn’t enter the H column until Cookie flicked a soft single to shallow center with two outs in the bottom 6th, at which point the Loggers were still “only” three runs ahead with Chavez still in the game. Nothing came off Cookie’s single, however, with Stevenson floating one out to Coleman. Chavez would not make it through seven, allowing a 2-out single to Dasher before Sugano came in and retired Coleman on a fly to Cookie. Rockwell walked in the bottom 7th before being caught stealing; the eighth saw a Prieto single to right, our second base hit in this moist game. Danny Rice batted for Sugano, who had struck out the side in the eighth, got nicked, and then Cookie dropped another single. Thus the tying runs were on base with two outs for Stevenson. The fans were up and clapping and chanting, but to no avail. Stevenson slowly grounded out, and all the runners were stranded. It was the Critters’ only vague chance to upset Victor Arevalo’s 3-hit shutout. 3-0 Loggers. Carmona 2-4; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 3
MIL: LF Tesch – SS Dasher – CF Coleman – RF Gore – 3B A. Velez – C Wool – 1B Reese – 2B March – P Prevost
POR: LF Carmona – RF Stevenson – 3B Nunley – 1B Rockwell – C Rice – 2B Spencer – SS Stalker – CF Metts – P Garrett

Tragic Travis had the chance to tie Jonny Toner in wins in August if he could secure a W here, but conceded three hits, two stolen bases, and one run in the first inning before Velez hit into a double play to safe his sorry bum. The Coons also had three base hits in the bottom 1st, but scored no run at all thanks to Cookie being caught stealing in between, but would score in the bottom 3rd after another leadoff single. Stevenson also singled again, sending him to third base, and Nunley’s groundout to first base moved Cookie across to tie the game before the Coons went ahead 2-1 on Rockwell’s single to right center.

Amazingly, that 2-1 lead survived both Tragic Travis in general and Ian Coleman’s leadoff triple in the fourth inning in particular. Gore struck out, Velez lined out to short, and Wool rolled one over to Nunley for three outs without the runner getting the whiff of a chance to score. Garrett wobbled through six until his spot came up in the bottom 6th with one out and the bases loaded; Rice had singled and then Prevost had issued a pair of 1-out walks to Stalker and Metts. This was a good spot to send Zach Graves! Hitting a ball expertly back to the pitcher, Graves caused Rice to be forced out at home, but the bases remained loaded for Cookie, who dropped his third single of the day near the leftfield line, plating two runners! Meanwhile Graves was meandering around between second and third base, and a sharp throw by Velez back to Dasher got him tagged out to end the inning. Oh well, at least we were up 4-1 and Graves was moved out of sight with Billy Brotman taking over in the #9 slot. Brotman collected four outs, Bricker collected two more after a pinch-hit single by Jaeger, and Brett Lillis was readying himself for a rare save opportunity. Brad Gore hit a double in the ninth, but that was all the Loggers got. 4-1 Coons. Carmona 3-4, 2 RBI; Stevenson 2-4; Nunley 2-4, RBI; Metts 0-1, 2 BB; Garrett 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (7-5);

We activated Quinn MacCarthy from the DL for the Thursday game, placing Will West on waivers and DFA’ing him. We still have an additional reliever on the roster right now.

Game 4
MIL: 2B March – 1B Jaeger – CF Coleman – RF Gore – LF Berntson – 3B Velez – C Denny – SS Dasher – P Sinkhorn
POR: LF Carmona – RF Stevenson – 3B Nunley – 1B Rockwell – 2B Spencer – CF Romero – SS Stalker – C Prieto – P Gutierrez

Stevenson’s single, Dasher’s error on Nunley, and a walk drawn by Rockwell loaded the bases in the bottom 1st before the Coons ran out of talent, but so did the Loggers’ Dan March, who bobbled Dasher’s feed on Jarod Spencer’s grounder and lost his double play chance. Stevenson scored the first run of the game, after which Ricardo Romero struck out. Gutierrez retired the first eight Loggers before Sinkhorn reached base with an infield single (…?), but March grounded out to end the third anyway. Gutierrez would not get out of the fourth so easily, though. Coleman hit a 1-out double, stole third base, and somehow Gutierrez lost it right there, walking the next two batters. Velez flew out to Stevenson, but deep enough to bring in Coleman with a sac fly, tying the game at one. Denny grounded sharply to Nunley, who remained in control and got the final out of the inning, stranding a pair. Completing five were a 2-out bid by the Loggers in the top 5th that ended with Coleman popping out to strand runners on the corners, and the Coons getting the leadoff man on base in the fourth and fifth, only to hit into a double play each time with Stalker and Cookie (!)…

Brad Gore’s leadoff double in the sixth was undoubtedly trouble, and Gutierrez was just not in a position to offer much resistance at this point. Berntson flew out, but Alberto Velez’ single put the Loggers ahead. Denny walked, Dasher hit into a double play to keep the score at 2-1. Sinkhorn issued leadoff walks in the next two innings. Nunley’s in the sixth led nowhere nice, neither did Stalker’s in the seventh. Stalker was even stranded on first base. Between MacCarthy and Sloan in the eighth, the Raccoons loaded the bases entirely with walks, but Romero snagged Dasher’s 2-out drive to center to keep the Loggers from extending their lead. Sinkhorn entered the bottom 8th on 107 pitches, four hits and six whiffs, and the Coons still couldn’t overturn him with their 2-3-4 batters. It would be the right-hander Justin Guerin and his 4.88 ERA in the bottom 9th; Spencer hit a leadoff single before Graves batted for Romero and knocked the ball straight into a double play. Oh for crying out loud! Armetta batted for Stalker and singled, and Guerin knicked Prieto afterwards. However, that left us with exactly two options with two on and two out. Either bat Sugano, which SOUNDED bat, but you know, the only alternative left on the bench was Dwayne Metts. (sigh) Oh **** it, bring Metts. To nobody’s surprise, he struck out real hard. 2-1 Loggers. Nunley 2-4; Armetta (PH) 1-1; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, L (5-5) and 1-2;

Raccoons (52-63) @ Gold Sox (64-49) – August 12-14, 2022

The Gold Sox’ rosy .566 winning percentage had them nowhere near the lead in the FL West. They trailed the Scorpions by 9.5 games, and looking at their +6 run differential maybe they had been too lucky even for the record they had. They were seventh in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed, but the overall mix just didn’t cry out WE’RE WINNING to anybody. Many of their best players were relief pitchers, which sometimes explained a thing or two. Well, and Yoshi Nomura, who at age 38 was batting .357 with three homers and 37 RBI. He had just come off the disabled list after recovering from hamstring issues and was currently not qualifying for a batting title. Through mysterious ways, this was the 11th consecutive year these two teams would play another. The series had ended in sweeps in each of the last four seasons, with each team coming out on top twice. The Coons took all three games in 2021.

Projected matchups:
Matt Huf (1-3, 5.82 ERA) vs. Mike Tandy (8-7, 3.70 ERA)
Ryan Nielson (5-5, 2.92 ERA) vs. Mike Cavallin (4-2, 3.36 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (0-3, 4.28 ERA) vs. Warren Polito (12-6, 4.65 ERA)

Three starters we may have never seen before; none of them was older than 26, and none of them had ever played in the CL before. Cavallin was the lone left-hander in the group, and also a rookie swingman that was striking out nine per nine.

The Gold Sox had major injury woes. While Yoshi was back, they had six players on the DL, including SP Tommy Weintraub (8-4, 3.50 ERA), who was out for the season with radial nerve compression, and three guys from the starting lineup with Justin Godown, Rich Hereford, and Ramon Luna. All of those three had batted at least .283, leaving them with a rotten bottom half of the order.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Stevenson – 3B Nunley – C Rice – RF Graves – SS Stalker – 2B Spencer – 1B Armetta – P Huf
DEN: LF F. Salazar – CF B. Ortega – 2B Nomura – RF Rocha – 3B I. Alvarez – C Luckert – 1B Bean – SS Camacho – P Tandy

Izzy Alvarez’ error on Huf’s easy grounder produced the only base runner for either team through three innings. Cookie took a sharp liner by Yoshi Nomura into left, and that pretty much the only danger from either lineup. Matt Nunley’s home run in the fourth inning was also the first base hit in the game, and Danny Rice could have followed that success up with a double down the rightfield line, but standing on second base the Gold Sox appealed to the first base umpire that Rice missed the bag, and the man in black duly raised his fist, sending Rice back to the dugout. That was the Coons’ only offensive outburst in the middle innings. Huf remained perfect through five innings before drilling Tim Bean. Omar Camacho then singled to right, with Graves spotting Bean making a run for third base and throwing him out. Camacho reached second base on the play; while Tandy flew out easily, Felix Salazar singled up the middle, easily scoring the speedy shortstop to tie the game.

The Raccoons remained offensively awful, not reaching base again until the eighth inning when Jarod Spencer hit a 1-out single. Armetta flew out to left, which brought in Rockwell to bat for Huf in a desperate move that would not pay off at all with him grounding out to short. The Gold Sox missed scoring Izzy Alvarez after his leadoff walk drawn against Bricker in the bottom 8th, and neither team managed to amount to much in the ninth inning, sending the game to extra innings tied at one with six hits total in the snoozey nine innings. The Critters had only two of those, but doubled their output in the tenth inning in every regard. Zach Graves stretched the paws for a double on a ball that didn’t even get past Mario Rocha right at the rightfield line, then ran like crazy on Jarod Spencer’s 2-out single to center. Bobby Ortega’s throw was that wee bit late, and the Critters squeezed the go-ahead run across, then had to watch in abhorrence as Brett Lillis issued a leadoff walk to Jerrod Luckert in the bottom of the tenth inning. Luckily, Armetta made a good play on PH Julio Candela’s grounder, getting Luckert forced at second base, and keeping the double play intact that Camacho then grounded into. Stalker to Spencer to Armetta, ballgame. 2-1 Blighters. Spencer 2-4, RBI; Huf 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
POR: LF Stevenson – SS Stalker – C Rice – 1B Rockwell – RF Graves – 2B Spencer – 3B Armetta – CF Romero – P Nielson
DEN: LF F. Salazar – SS Camacho – RF Rocha – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B Nomura – RF B. Ortega – C Luckert – 1B Bean – P Cavallin

The Gold Sox were ready to rip Nielson a new bum hole, with five hard base hits piled up by them in the first two innings, including all of the first three batters hitting line drive singles. The fact that they only scored one run in the two innings stemmed from the fact that they made two outs on the bases, Salazar getting thrown out on a double steal before Mario Rocha, the disgusting ex-Elk, could score him with a single, and Ortega was thrown out by Graves at home plate in the second.

Through five innings, the Coons would amount to three singles. Stalker got on in the first, but was caught stealing. Armetta hit a leadoff single in the third, but only reached second base, and Graves hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but also seemed to stall at second base, which he only reached on a wild pitch. The Sox walked Romero intentionally with two outs to bring up Nielson, but unfortunately Cavallin also lost him to a walk, filling the sacks for Stevenson, whose easy fly to right was so easy, Rocha was actually yawning while it was in flight. So much excitement! Because things were just going to be ****, a few moments after stranding a full set of runners, the Raccoons also watched Cavallin bomb Nielson for his first career homer, running the score to 2-0… That wasn’t the last home run in the game, and not only in the same half-inning. After a Camacho double with two outs, Mario Rocha also hit a blast to left center, extending the Gold Sox to a 4-0 advantage. The Raccoons would remain held to the same hits total they enjoyed the day before – four – and this time would never challenge home plate. They only reached third base once in the entire game. 4-0 Gold Sox. Armetta 1-2, BB;

Interlude: waiver claim

Sunday saw the Raccoons claim a Luke Newton-type player off waivers, as they selected OF/1B Frank Santos (.212, 0 HR, 1 RBI) from the Wolves.

Santos, 28, was a career nobody who had collected some 500 career at-bats since 2018, batting .270 with two homers in the meantime. He was a right-handed batter and a bit of a defensive option for all his positions. The Raccoons mainly picked him to get rid of Dwayne Metts again.

Raccoons (52-63) @ Gold Sox (64-49) – August 12-14, 2022

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – 1B Rockwell – C Rice – RF Graves – SS Stalker – CF Romero – P Chavez
DEN: LF F. Salazar – CF B. Ortega – 2B Nomura – RF Rocha – 3B I. Alvarez – C Luckert – 1B Bean – SS Camacho – P Polito

The Coons were actually still alive and scored a few early runs. Romero hit a 2-out single in the second inning to late Rockwell from second base, and in the third inning Cookie and Spencer were on the corners with nobody out and Nunley hit into a run-scoring double play. Hey, whatever the **** works! Never mind the long homer .176 batter Tim Bean ripped off Chavez in the bottom 3rd – the Coons were still up 2-1. On to the fourth, where the first four Coons all reached base, with Rice and Graves hitting singles to right center, Stalker ramming an RBI double up the leftfield line, and Romero being walked intentionally to bring up the pitcher. Chavez managed a fly to left for a sacrifice fly that scored Graves, 4-1. Cookie popped out to short, but Spencer got nicked, bringing up Nunley with the bases loaded. Now, remember, Matt. There are two outs, you can not hit it to the shortstop. Nunley never hit anything, instead drawing a run-scoring walk, after which Rockwell flew out to left to strand three in a 5-1 contest.

The Gold Sox had two on in the bottom of the fourth inning, which dissolved in a Jerrod Luckert grounder to short for an inning-ending double play; they had two more on base in the fifth, this time with 2-out singles by PH Alex Manteiga (with Polito out of the game) and Felix Salazar. Bobby Ortega rammed a ball to deep center that was uncatchable and fell for a 2-run triple. I considered walking Yoshi here intentionally, but there was power behind him… Chavez continued to get raked, allowing the RBI single to Yoshi, then another single to Rocha. That was it. Get that sucker outta there. Cory Dew replaced him, only to get ****ed as well, allowing straight hits to Alvarez (single to load the bags), Luckert (2-run single) and Bean (2-out double) before getting beaten off the mound by the pitching coach with a sock containing three soap blocks. Joe Moore collected the third out from Camacho after EIGHT STRAIGHT 2-out hits. The Coons were thoroughly shell-shocked after the 7-run outburst there and didn’t quite know what to do. Startled as they were, one after the other bolted from the batter’s box in panic. The Gold Sox bullpen would retire nine of them in order until Joe Medina drilled Ricardo Romero to begin the ninth inning in a 9-5 game. Romero cried and screamed for help from Mama Coon, but the umpire was unrelenting – he had to go to first base. Soon enough he also had to run the bases following Cookie’s 1-out double. Spencer hit a sac fly, finally allowing Romero to seek safety in the darkest corner of the dugout, and Nunley struck out to end a forked game. 9-6 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-5, 2B; Rice 2-4;

The late pseudo challenge brought closer Jarrod Morrison (5-3, 3.96 ERA; 40 SV) into the game to log two outs for his 300th career save. The 36-year old was of course the Indians’ closer for six years (2014-2020). He’s a 3-time All Star, and 5 K removed from 1,000 for his career. The workhorse has lasted 985 outings so far, and has appeared in 67 or more games for *12* consecutive years!

In other news

August 8 – SAL OF/1B Abel Mora (.296, 11 HR, 56 RBI) will miss about six weeks with a sprained ankle.
August 12 – MIL RF/1B Tom Reese (.260, 6 HR, 25 RBI) lands his 2,000th base hit in the Loggers’ 7-4 win over the Stars. Reese hits a leadoff single off Arturo Arellano in the ninth inning to complete 2k base knocks. The two-time All Star Reese is now 37 years old with a .258/.349/.410 career slash line and 230 HR and 1,136 RBI. He also stole 256 bases.
August 14 – The Crusaders kept chopped up by the Scorpions in a 17-2 drubbing. SAC 2B Ricky Luna (.273, 17 HR, 96 RBI) drives in six with two base hits including a grand slam off Bryce Neal.

Complaints and stuff

We’ll play the Miners and Elks next week, and finally will have another off day on Thursday. Our next loss will be the 3,600th in the regular season, with the current team tally at 3,811-3,599. Also, getting ruffled by the Elks could bring last place with itself, so it shall be avoided.

Oh we’re so doomed.

Guerrero (abdomen) and Bullock (elbow) figure to return by Monday, and I need to set the pen straight again, too. It is not like Billy Brotman is efficient at retiring batters, so he will probably suffer demotion, too.

Fun fact: Tom Reese was born and raised in Portland, Oregon! Other Portlanders in the majors right now include Joe Medina (who allowed the run in the ninth on Sunday) and Miners lefty Angelo Velazquez; also Salem’s Andy Wright, though that’s the Portland in Maine.

Of course Tom Reese never played for the Raccoons. But he always makes me think about the olden days and Neil Reece in centerfield. Not that Reece was even remotely from Portland, but rather from Massapequa on Long Island.

Ah, Neil Reece. (sigh!) – Maud, do we have any Neil Reece bobbleheads left over? – Why not?

I would like to bobble one…..