[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-20) @ Knights (24-19) – May 21-23, 2024

Competing in the packed CL South, the Knights were one game off the division lead, just as the Raccoons were as the series opened on Tuesday in Atlanta. The Knights ranked fourth in runs scored and tied for fifth in runs allowed, and overall ranked right in the middle of the pack in many important categories. The 2023 series had been a bit of a disaster for the Raccoons, who had won but a single game from Atlanta and had dropped the other eight.

Projected matchups:
Dan Delgadillo (3-1, 3.46 ERA) vs. Frank Kelly (2-4, 2.98 ERA)
Mark Roberts (2-3, 2.79 ERA) vs. Chris Chatfield (4-3, 3.53 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (1-6, 4.50 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (4-2, 3.55 ERA)

That would be three right-handers, but if the Knights would elect to skip somebody, they would move left-handed Chris Rountree (4-4, 4.52 ERA) into this series.

Game 1
POR: SS Stalker – 2B Walter – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Carmona – RF Alfaro – 3B Grigsby – P Delgadillo
ATL: LF Stuckey – SS T. Jimenez – C Luna – 1B Avalos – CF Houghtaling – 2B Hibbard – RF Sauceda – 3B Rolland – P Kelly

Coming up after an intentional walk to Jaylen Rolland following Alex Sauceda's 2-out double, Frank Kelly burned his old team with a 2-run double into the left-center gap, his first base hit of the season. That was almost his final action of the game, leaving the game with an injury in the top of the third inning after retiring seven of the eight batters he faced. Not that anything got much better for the Raccoons against the bullpen – they amounted to a grand total of three base hits through five innings, although one of those was a solo shot by Jon Gonzalez off Efrain Isidoro in the fourth inning. Too little, though, because the Knights also knew how to slug one. Tony Avalos went deep to left center with one out and Tony Jimenez aboard in the bottom 5th, stretching the Knights' advantage to 4-1. Jimenez had reached on a leadoff walk, the fourth free pass administered by Delgadillo in this game. In his six pitching innings, he struck out only three batters, so it was not an outrageous thing to say that he did not exactly repeat his strong previous outing. The Raccoons remained statistically active, yet in all the wrong columns, until the seventh inning, where they faced travelling old Frank Yeager, who issued a leadoff walk to Elias Tovias, and then allowed a Cookie single into centerfield. That brought up Omar Alfaro, all .210 worth of our hope for better times, but who according to his scouting report could from time to time maybe whack one, and was the tying run. He swung away at the 3-1 and cracked it over Avalos up the rightfield line. Sauceda couldn't cut it off, and Alfaro reached third base with a 2-run triple, and there was still nobody out in the inning. Grigsby brought in the tying run with a sac fly to center, his maiden career RBI, and also the last run in the inning, despite Spencer's pinch-hit double. Stalker was walked intentionally, Walter flew out to center, and then Abel Mora drove a ball really hard to right, but Alex Sauceda made one of those yearbook catches in the gap that made you take a bite out of your cap in anguish. That feeling of everything being for naught only worsened with David Kipple getting ripped up in the bottom of the inning. A single, a double, a walk to Tamio Kimura's dead body, and finally Alex Sauceda's 2-out, 2-run single up the middle did him in, and the rest of the crew right along with him. 6-4 Knights. Grigsby 2-3, RBI; Spencer (PH) 1-2;

Ack… although the game was not all bad… more on that in the Complaints section.

Game 2
POR: SS Stalker – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Carmona – RF Alfaro – 3B Grigsby – P Roberts
ATL: LF Stuckey – 3B Rolland – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – SS T. Jimenez – 2B Hibbard – 1B McIntyre – RF Sauceda – P Chatfield

With weather on the approach, the Knights put two aboard in the first inning, but were stymied by Houghtaling's pop and Tony Jimenez flying out easily to Alfaro. The Coons would score first, Grigsby hitting a leadoff single in the third inning, being bunted over by Roberts and finally scored by Jarod Spencer's 2-out single. Roberts struck out four in the first three innings, then was in trouble in the fourth, and it was only partially self-made. Houghtaling hit a leadoff single, after which Jimenez grounded to short. Stalker threw wildly past second base, putting two on instead of two out. A double play was only turned on Devin Hibbard, but Will McIntyre kissed the sweet spot on a 97mph fastball to flip the score in the Knights' favor, 2-1. The runs were unearned, which was little consolation to anybody but Mark Roberts.

Not that Roberts was flunk-resistant. With Alfaro and Grigsby aboard in the fifth, his bunt to first base was so bad that McIntyre had ample time to throw out Omar at third base. Luckily, Chatfield lost Stalker to a walk, ultimately negating the bad bunt – the bases would have been loaded with one out one way or another, although there was now a terrible runner at second base. Spencer hit into a double play to clean the bases of annoying Raccoons and keep the Knights ahead. Roberts soldiered along in an intermittent drizzle, and his spot was up to bat with two outs in the seventh and Alfaro at third base. There were still a few pitches to shake from that arm, and Chatfield didn't look like he was going to topple any time soon, so the Coons sent their hurler to bat. He rolled a ball to the mound, Chatfield couldn't play it, and the Critters tied the game on the infield single with Alfaro dashing for home. That wasn't all, because NOW Chatfield was mixed up. He walked Stalker, and allowed a gapper to Spencer for a 2-run triple. Mora singled, Gonzalez doubled, and five runs scored in total in the inning on five straight 2-out runners. Roberts finished eight innings, retiring the last nine batters he faced while reaching double-digit whiffs. Jimmy Lee pitched the ninth inning, his first non-horrendous outing in a while. 6-2 Coons! Spencer 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Mora 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Grigsby 2-4; Roberts 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (3-3) and 1-2, RBI;

Thursday morning, Baseball was stunned by the news that Frank Kelly had retorn his surgically repaired UCL on Tuesday, and would be heading for another Tommy John surgery by the weekend.

Wow, the poor sod…

Game 3
POR: SS Stalker – 2B Walter – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Carmona – RF Alfaro – 3B Grigsby – P Chavez
ATL: LF Stuckey – SS T. Jimenez – C Luna – 1B Avalos – CF Houghtaling – 2B Hibbard – RF McIntyre – 3B Rolland – P Cope

Hibbard in the second and Avalos in the fourth had 2-out singles for the Knights, but that was all early on against Jesus Chavez, who seemed to avoid the usual bitch slap for once. Unfortunately the Raccoons amounted to the same pile of non-offense through four, taking the lead only on Elias Tovias' leadoff jack in the fifth inning, his fourth home run of the season. The Knights didn't lock him in the wringer until the sixth inning of a surprisingly fast-moving game, when Tony Jimenez hit a 1-out single, advanced on Ruben Luna's groundout, and Avalos legged out an infield single to put them on the corners for Houghtaling, who was batting .224, but was an ex-Elk, so that was automatically doubled against the Coons. Beware the mighty .448 batter! Of course he ticked the first pitch into no man's land in shallow left center to tie the game. Hibbard also singled, but McIntyre flew out to Alfaro in a full count, keeping the score tied at one.

Chavez crossed 100 pitches in that sixth inning and was not to be seen again, although the Coons spotted him with a chance for the W in the seventh inning on straight 2-out singles by Tovias, Cookie, and Omar. Vince D allowed a leadoff single to Jaylen Rolland, a ****ty blooper, but Cope bunted into a double play to thwart the blossoming threat in the bottom 7th. The Coons left the bases loaded when Avalos threw himself in front of Tovias' fast bouncer to scramble for the third out in the eighth inning, but Billy Brotman threw up a zero in the bottom of the inning.

Top 9th, Cookie drew a walk off closer Jarrod Morrison to begin that inning. He was itching to go (with 400 career stolen bases around the corner more or less), but Alfaro fouled out on the hit-and-run call. Grigsby singled to right in a full count, with Cookie pressing hard for third base. McIntyre gave his all on the throw, which ended up wild and up the leftfield line, allowing Carmona to score with an insurance run. Cory Briscoe's infield single and Daniel Bullock's pinch-hit groundout produced another run. More was better this year with Brett Lillis, who's ERA was still over seven and who was one more cockup away from losing his job at the end of the pen. He walked Houghtaling on four pitches to begin the bottom 9th, which was bad on multiple levels. Hibbard whiffed, and Abel Mora sold out to retire McIntyre on a drive to center. Jaylen Rolland went down on strikes before it could get really ugly. 4-1 Raccoons. Tovias 2-4, HR, RBI; Grigsby 2-4; Graves (PH) 1-1, 2B; Briscoe (PH) 1-1; Chavez 6.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (2-6);

Chavez won a game? Oh my, to witness that before I'd die …!

Raccoons (25-21) @ Thunder (25-21) – May 24-26, 2024

Fourth in the South, but still only one game out, the Thunder were tied for fourth in runs scored and third in runs allowed in the CL. They had the fourth-best rotation, but a mediocre bullpen, but they also had plenty of injuries, including missing starters Bryan Hanson and Max Nelson (outfielder Ezra Branch was also on the DL). There was virtually no power in their lineup; they ranked last in homers in the Continental League. This was the second meeting between these teams in 2024, with the Coons holding a 2-1 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (4-3, 4.31 ERA) vs. J.J. Menendez (4-2, 4.89 ERA)
Travis Garrett (4-0, 2.91 ERA) vs. Jose Vigil (2-0, 3.09 ERA)
Dan Delgadillo (3-1, 3.72 ERA) vs. Alex Telles (5-2, 1.66 ERA)

No living left-hander in their rotation; they also have only one southpaw in the pen.

Game 1
POR: LF Briscoe – 2B Walter – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – 3B Grigsby – C Delgado – SS Bullock – P Gutierrez
OCT: CF Bareford – RF Dobbs – SS Serrato – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – C A. Baker – LF Sagredo – 3B Flournoy – P J.J. Menendez

Menendez shuffled the bags full in the first inning, but the Coons would be limited to an Alfaro sac fly before Grigsby struck out. Menendez would also be the first Thunder to reach base off Gutierrez (not that the outfielders hadn't robbed the Thunder of a couple o' doubles…) with a dropping 2-out single in the third inning, but ex-Critter Andy Bareford grounded out instead of building on his .311 batting average. Omar Alfaro added a second RBI when he came to bat for the second time, smacking a leadoff jack in the fourth inning to announce his slugger's bid. It was his third homer of the season, all in May. Oklahoma's rightfielder, Brett Dobbs, would match his feat in every aspect in the bottom of the fourth inning, moving the score to 2-1, and the Thunder took the lead after a single by Zhang-ze Ts'ai and Adam Baker's subsequent home run to left. The Coons would hit two singles in the fifth, but couldn't get any of three flies past the outfielders and were thus denied of a run, and two more singles by Delgado and Gutierrez himself – a lousy hitter – were landed in the sixth, but Cory Briscoe K'ed to leave them on the corners, too.

Maybe Shane Walter's double to begin the seventh would help us out of this predicament here. The ball hit the chalk of the rightfield line, so that had to be some kind of stupid-lucky charm, right? Right? Guys? Indeed – the Thunder sent their only southpaw, Scott McLaughlin, to face the not-left-handed part of the order (beyond Mora at least) and he – got – ripped. Gonzalez doubled to tie the game, Grigsby walked, Delgado singled to left to take the lead, and Bullock hit a double to deep left to score another run. Now, Gutierrez ain't no Roberts. He had a few more pitches in his arm, but the quality of those would be dubious at best, and there were TWO runners in scoring position and Tim Stalker was on the bench (as well as Cookie, but we were facing a lefty here). When Stalker got hit by a 1-2 pitch, Spencer batted for Briscoe. Still no right-handed relief in sight, but Spencer flew out to Dobbs, keeping the score at 5-3. Both teams scratched out a run in the eighth, with Alfaro driving in the Coons', while a leadoff double by Alex Serrato and John Elliott's single coupled with a Zach Graves error allowed the Thunder to score a run with nobody out against Vince D. Ts'ai was retired on a grounder to short (now manned by Stalker, with Bullock off to third base), before left-handed pinch-hitter Bobby Marshall appeared and we deemed it time for Brett Lillis to pitch a 5-out save with the tying run at the plate. Actually, the Thunder lined up four left-handed bats here now, but Kevin Surginer hadn't pitched all week and could in theory face the right-handed 1-2-3-4-5 batters if need be. Actually, Surginer entered THIS inning, but not until after Lillis had already blown the save with three singles hit by the first three batters he faced. Marshall singled in Elliott on the first pitch, and Luis Sagredo and David Flournoy also singled. Mike Pizzo grounded out, with the go-ahead runs in scoring position and two outs, and Surginer up against left-handed pinch-hitter Chris Kuzman, who grounded out to second base, keeping the score even at six. The Thunder would complete a teeth-grinding upset of the Coons in regulation, with Surginer coughing up a John Elliott singled, walking Ts'ai with two down and losing the game on a pinch-hit single by former Titan Mike Cesta. 7-6 Thunder. Walter 4-5, 2B; Gonzalez 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Alfaro 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Bullock 3-5, 2 2B, RBI;

And now? Billy Brotman to close??

Well, no need to make a decision on this before Sunday, since the Saturday start was "Tragic" Travis' to blow.

Yes I know he still hasn't lost a game this season, but HAVE YOU SEEN HIM PITCH??

Game 2
POR: SS Stalker – 2B Walter – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Carmona – RF Alfaro – 3B Grigsby – P Garrett
OCT: CF Millan – RF Sagredo – C Pizzo – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – 3B B. Marshall – LF Dobbs – SS Serrato – P Vigil

Gonzalez' groundout plated Shane Walter in the first inning, Walter having doubled earlier and having moved to third on Abel Mora's single, which was not a lot of early support for competitional walker Travis Garrett, who nevertheless completed the first inning on just four pitches and three weak groundouts. Which was ****ing Garrett's way of luring you into a sense of false security and that it would all be fine. It wouldn't.

Trouble started with Ts'ai's double in the bottom 2nd, and swiftly Garrett issued a walk, a wild pitch, a sac fly to Dobbs and a real bomb to the light-poking Serrato that would probably be shot down in Russian airspace about eight hours from now. Even Vigil required effort from Cookie to retire on a deep drive to left, ending the bottom 2nd with a 3-1 deficit. The Coons hit four singles in the third inning to get back one run, but after those four mildly-struck singles, when Cookie actually made contact and drove a ball to left center, Brett Dobbs made it there to catch the drive and end the inning with three Furballs stranded.

Throughout the middle innings, the Coons would frequently put the tying run on base, and then find way to not score him, which usually required extremely untimely strikeouts, or some defensive heroics. Heck, in the seventh inning Garrett hit a leadoff single(!) and was stranded at third base. This included 90 feet gained on a wild pitch by Vigil, who still held on to that 3-2 lead with his teeth. There was some unusual life to Garrett's game in the later innings now that he was behind in the game and saw his zero in danger. Bobby Marshall hit a 1-out double in the bottom 7th, which looked like it could make for a great insurance run, and suddenly Garrett reached back and struck out both Dobbs and left-handed PH Chris Kuzman. Little useful life could be registered from the lineup, though Jon Gonzalez became the umpteenth incarnation of the tying run with a leadoff single in the eighth. Tovias flew out to shallow center, Cookie grounded out. Vigil was removed there, with right-hander Jesus Lopez walking. Zach Graves batted for Grigsby, prompting the appearance of Mr. Southpaw, Scott McLaughlin, who struck him out. Garrett made it through eight, then was hit for by Briscoe to begin the ninth against right-hander Manny Gomez, who was not really a strikeout pitcher, but walked hardly anybody. Briscoe flew out to left, with Stalker putting a 3-1 pitch in play, grounding to the left side. David Flournoy's throwing error put him on second base, and NOW it was a really interesting game, with two more left-handed bats coming up against Gomez, and then our slugger. That slugger never appeared, with Walter flying out to center and Mora lining out to second base. 3-2 Thunder. Mora 2-5, RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, RBI; Alfaro 2-3, BB; Garrett 8.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, L (4-1) and 1-3;

Coons had nine hits, Thunder had five. They stranded two, we stranded ELEVEN.

The game lasted only 2:25, but felt like six hours. For heck's sake, Garrett pitched all of it, no wonder I was constantly monitoring my heartbeat.

Ugh, this team… by the way, we are behind the Elks now.

Game 3
POR: SS Stalker – 3B Walter – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Carmona – 2B Spencer – RF Graves – P Delgadillo
OCT: CF Millan – RF Sagredo – 3B Flournoy – C Pizzo – LF Kuzman – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – SS Serrato – P Telles

Abel Mora's 400-footer in the first inning counted for two, collecting Tim Stalker, and if nothing good would happen to the Coons for the next three hours, at least we had taken a dump on Alex Telles' 1.66 ERA. There were five left-handed bats atop the Thunder lineup, so I feared the worst with Delgadillo, who promptly walked the first two batters before having some sense shaken into him by the pitching coach. Cookie robbed Flournoy of extra bases in left, with Pizzo whiffing and Kuzman flying out to shallow right to keep the Thunder from scoring in the first inning. Well, they'd be back before long…

By then, the Coons' lead was 4-0, Jon Gonzalez having gone deep for the tenth time in the third inning, and having taken Mora with him on a journey round the bags. That didn't help Delgadillo one bit, though. Not only did four of the five left-handers reach against him in the bottom 3rd, but with two runs already in, John Elliott singled to load the bases with one out. The Coons couldn't turn a double play on Ts'ai's grounder to short, costing another run, and only Serrato's groundout ended this inning from hell. There was a scoreless fourth, but there was a Kuzman homer in the fifth that would tie the score…

Delgadillo was yanked in the sixth after a Serrato single, with the Coons diving into their notoriously wobbly bullpen. Kipple struck out Omar Millan in a full count to end the inning, but we still had to restart the offense entirely, which had gone to sweet dreams after zooming out to 4-0. Alex Telles however retired them in order in the seventh, retired them in order in the eighth, and Tim Sloan pitched a perfect ninth. Adam Baker hit a leadoff single in the bottom 9th against Surginer, who then misfired Omar Millan's bunt to second base, advancing the winning run for Oklahoma. Brett Dobbs grounded sharply to third, Shane Walter starting a double play, 5-4-3. That brought up Flournoy with the winning run at third base. Surginer's first pitch was lazy and made him the hero, Flournoy cracking a hard single to left to complete a weekend sweep of the Raccoons. 5-4 Thunder. Walter 2-4; Mora 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

In other news

May 20 – INF Izzy Alvarez (.261, 4 HR, 20 RBI) is traded from the Gold Sox back to the Aces, along with a prospect, for LF/CF Armando Martinez (.323, 3 HR, 26 RBI).
May 20 – The Bayhawks beat the Crusaders, 1-0, on SFB OF Dave Garcia's (.309, 8 HR, 19 RBI) solo home run.
May 22 – The hitting streak of SAC CF Justin McAllester (.304, 6 HR, 38 RBI) ends after 21 games as he goes empty-handedly in a 5-3 win over the Capitals.
May 22 – Loggers and Condors play 14 scoreless innings before both score a single run in the 15th inning. The Condors eventually run out of pitching in the 19th inning, with the Loggers plating five runs for a 6-1 road win. TIJ INF Bob Rojas (.262, 0 HR, 17 RBI) goes 4-for-9 in the game.
May 22 – The Rebels drop 37-year-old C Jamal White (.100, 0 HR, 4 RBI in 20 AB) on the Falcons in exchange for a third-rate prospect.
May 23 – The Blue Sox hit four home runs and rout the Warriors, 15-1, with three Sox driving in four runs apiece. Jerrod Luckert (.333, 4 HR, 9 RBI) and Matt Otis (.225, 1 HR, 16 RBI) do so while having two base hits, while Tom Schorsch (.191, 4 HR, 10 RBI) plates his four runners with four base hits.
May 24 – LAP SP Vincent Alfaro (4-5, 3.17 ERA) holds the Miners to two base hits in a 2-0 shutout.
May 25 – Atlanta's Leon Hernandez (1-3, 4.26 ERA) has to be flawless for his first win of the season, turning over only two hits in a 7-0 shutout of the Titans.
May 25 – SAL SP Carlos Barron (3-4, 3.63 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout over the Cyclones in the Wolves' 7-0 victory.
May 26 – DEN SP Tommy Weintraub (6-2, 3.28 ERA) will miss at least one start with a shoulder strain.

Complaints and stuff

After this week, the good news is that I asked for sanctuary at St Edward the Martyr's deep in the Oregon woods and I have been accepted. This is a good old Carthusian monastery, which means no talking, no outside world, no nothing. – What is it, Maud? – No meat and no booze?? – Okay, I'll come up with another plan by next week.

Meanwhile, this team is … in a rut? Well, we have no offense, and we kinda have no pitching, and the pen cocked up again this week, and Brett Lillis should have walked his way and that would have been better for all. You're always smarter after the fact. This season shall pass, too, I guess, but for now nobody's hot, nobody's funky, and everybody's kinda miserable around here…

Fun Fact: On July 21, 2011 the Raccoons traded Jose "Dingus" Morales and Luis Beltran to the Capitals for Mike Cook, Jason Bergquist, Joe O'Brian, Gary Dupes… and Ricardo – soon to be "Cookie" – Carmona.

Nary 13 years later, Cookie Carmona reached 2,000 base hits in his major league career. Unfortunately he had to do so in the Coons' soulless 6-4 loss to the Knights on Tuesday, singling off Frank Yeager in the seventh inning.

He is also the only player to ever reach the 2k mark for the Raccoons. Neil Reece stopped at 1,983 for the Coons, and then six more for the Pacifics after we could no longer responsibly have him stand out there in the bright sun, erring in the general direction of objects hit right at his head…