[Westheim]

Raccoons (3-3) vs. Knights (4-2) – April 14-16, 2025

Somehow we had beaten the Knights 6-3 last season, but I wasn't betting on a repeat of that experience. After the first week of the season, the Knights were seventh in runs scored and fourth in run allowed, with a +4 run differential. It was not much to go by so far, except that they had more than twice the Coons' total in their runs account, which was depressing me right out of the gate, so let's open this week's first bottle of Capt'n Coma early, shall we? (breaks off the bottle neck by hitting it against the edge of the desk)

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (0-0, 1.13 ERA)
Jack Sander (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Estevan Delgado (0-0)
Graham Wasserman (0-1, 4.26 ERA) vs. Yoo-chul Kim (0-1, 13.50 ERA)

Delgado would be the sole left-hander in this selection of opponents. The Knights had not used the 23-year-old sophomore during the first week, and he was ostensibly moving into the rotation to replace Antonio Quintana (0-0, 0.00 ERA), who had broken his thumb in his first start of the year and would only return in May.

Game 1
ATL: LF Stuckey – 2B T. Jimenez – SS Showalter – CF Houghtaling – 1B Tello – C Luna – 3B V. Ramirez – RF A. Sauceda – P Cope
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez

Early signs of doom included Jon Gonzalez getting called out on strikes with Abel Mora on second base in the opening inning, and dropping a select few words of choice to the umpire, who hesitated not a second to toss him from the game, leading to Kopp moving in to first base and Alfaro entering the scuffle in right. Kopp would immediately make a bad decision in the top 2nd, when Rico Gutierrez – yet not showing signs of excellency – already had two aboard with one out and Brian Cope bunted to first. Kopp threw to third to nip the slow Ruben Luna, but came late, and the Knights had the bags full. Johnny Stuckey's grounder over second base escaped Jarod Spencer for an RBI single, the first run in the game, before Tony Jimenez hit to Stalker for a double play that ended the inning. Unexpectedly, the Raccoons burst out for a 5-spot in the bottom 2nd though. Kopp and Nunley began the frame with singles, and after a fielder's choice that Stalker hit into the Coons, including Gutierrez, drew three straight 1-out walks from Cope, with Gutierrez and Spencer getting their first RBI's of the year. After Mora struck out, Tovias hit a bases-clearing double into left-center, and Omar Alfaro, a true force in the lineup, struck out. As far as Gutierrez was concerned, the 5-spot sucked the air out of the Knights at once, and he effortlessly pitched another five innings with only two base runners against him, until he ran out of steam owing to his early-game struggles. Neither did the Raccoons pile on much. Cope got through six innings after the early shelling, and when the Raccoons did plate another run it was Matt Otis' turn as a pinch-hitter for Gutierrez in the bottom 7th, crashing a solo homer off Efrain Isidoro, still known as the pitcher that last year served up Cookie Carmona's first home run in four years. The rest of the game was Omar Alfaro, for once. He hit an RBI double up the line in the same inning for the Coons' seventh and final run of the game, and then made a sliding catch in shallow right to save Billy Brotman from embarrassment on Matt Wright's blooper in the ninth inning following two walks issued by Brotman. 7-1 Raccoons! Mora 2-5, 2B; Nunley 2-4; Carmona 2-3, BB; Otis (PH) 2-2, HR, RBI; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-0) and 0-1, BB, RBI;

This more than doubles our previous best for runs in a game this season, which is not something I want to discuss in more detail here.

Game 2
ATL: LF Stuckey – 1B Tello – SS Showalter – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – 2B T. Jimenez – 3B V. Ramirez – RF Briscoe – P E. Delgado
POR: 2B Otis – SS Stalker – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – P Sander

Portland moved ahead in the first inning when Jon Gonzalez made the ball leave the field instead of himself, cracking a 2-piece over the leftfield fence after initially Matt Otis had reached base on Tony Jimenez' throwing error, making both runs unearned. The next three Raccoons all reached base, but Ramon Tello intercepted Cookie's sound grounder to right to end the inning with three aboard. With that cushion under his bum, Jack Sander retired the first 11 Knights he faced until serving up a long one himself to Andrew Showalter, the veteran hitting his third dinger of the season. That one remained the Knights' only base hit through six innings, but the Raccoons couldn't tack on against the 23-year-old Delgado, either, amounting to four hits through six innings, and no more damage on the scoreboard.

The top 7th saw Sander lose Ruben Luna on a 4-pitch walk to begin the inning, but Jeremy Houghtaling, the former Elk, chipped hard at Matt Otis for an easy double play with the catcher running. Tony Jimenez then hit a double into the gap, thought he had a triple, and was thrown out by Omar Alfaro at third base, ending the inning. In turn the Coons small-balled their way to an insurance run against Alfredo Morua in the bottom 7th: Spencer singled sharply to left leading off in Sander's spot, then was bunted over by Otis and scored on Mora's 2-out single, extending the lead to 3-1, which turned out to be insufficient to cope with a collective bullpen brain fart in the eighth inning. Vince D walked Vinny Ramirez, Justin Hess walked Matt Wright – both times facing a batter of matching handedness – and Kevin Surginer allowed the runners to score on base hits by Devin Hibbard and Alex Sauceda, those two pinch-hitting in the 1-2 spots. The stunned Raccoons would get Otis aboard in the ninth, would also get him picked off, but after two scoreless innings by Jimmy Lee in extra innings had a chance to walk off in the bottom 11th. Elias Tovias batted for Lee in that 11th inning with Nunley (single), Alfaro (single), and Cookie (walk) aboard and one out, ran a 2-2 count and popped out foul to Luna to really deflate the procession here; except that Matt Otis was still to bat with two down, and the veteran bench piece flicked a soft blooper to shallow center that dropped well in front of Houghtaling to walk off the Raccoons with Matt Nunley crossing home plate. 4-3 Coons! Otis 2-5, RBI; Mora 2-5, RBI; Delgado 2-5; Spencer (PH) 1-1; Sander 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Lee 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
ATL: LF Stuckey – 1B Tello – SS Showalter – C Luna – CF Houghtaling – 2B T. Jimenez – 3B V. Ramirez – RF Briscoe – P Y.C. Kim
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Wasserman

The Raccoons had plated five in the second inning on Monday, but the Knights tore up Wasserman for five in the second inning on Wednesday; Ruben Luna drew first blood with a leadoff jack, and after a walk and a single Wasserman arrived at Yoo-chul Kim with two on and two out, and unforgivably allowed an RBI single to the opposing pitcher. It got worse against Johnny Stuckey, who hit his first long ball of the year, a 3-piece to dead center that was truly towering. Portland had a subtle answer in the bottom of the inning, with Terry Kopp's first homer in '25, but that was a solo job.

The Raccoons dragged Wasserman into the fifth inning, with him allowing a run on a wild pitch *and* hitting an RBI single, both in the third inning, but down 6-2 allowed a single to Showalter with one out in the fifth and was replaced by Justin Hess, who already had three walks in 1.1 innings pitched this year and loaded the bases with another two walks to Luna and Houghtaling. Surginer replaced the weirdly inept left-hander and held the damage to a sac fly by Jimenez that deepened the chasm to 7-2. The home team lacked punch in those middle innings and didn't put up much of a threat. When they did get two on base on a Nunley single and a walk to Dustin Jurek in the seventh inning, only an error by Yoo-chul Kim got a run across to get the team within slam range, but with two on and two out Abel Mora popped out to short, in the process extinguishing the Coons' last attempt with a man in scoring position in this game. 7-3 Knights. Ohl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Devereaux 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Unfortunately we have now lined up an 11-inning game with a bad outing by a starter, and there is no rest for the wicked here, as we have no off day this week, and instead have to go to Indy for a 4-game weekend right away.

Raccoons (5-4) @ Indians (4-4) – April 17-20, 2025

The Indians were sixth in runs scored (Coons: 12th) in the CL, and were even one rank better in runs allowed (Coons: 2nd), with a +3 run differential that you would not have expected even in early April for a team that had lost a hundred in 2024 and had not found all that many improvements over the winter. The Raccoons had won the last two season series against them, both times by a narrow 10-8 margin.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
Mark Roberts (1-1, 3.29 ERA) vs. Tom Shumway (0-1, 5.40 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (1-0, 0.66 ERA) vs. Ernesto Lozano (1-1, 7.27 ERA)
Jack Sander (1-0, 0.69 ERA) vs. Jason Clements (0-0, 11.25 ERA)

The Indians played a double-header on Wednesday, so we have at least that going for us; who of their two starters from Wednesday will go again on short rest on Sunday is uncertain so far; the alternative to Clements would be Dave Priest (1-0, 2.20 ERA). In any case, the usually excellent Tom Shumway is the only southpaw they can line up against us.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – LF Kopp – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – CF Metts – P Chavez
IND: 2B Claros – 1B Ri. Mendez – 3B M. Green – CF Linnell – SS Folk – RF Staebell – LF Cesta – C T. Perez – P Arevalo

Tony Perez' sac fly in the bottom 2nd set the Indians ahead in this game, coming after Mike Cesta had legged out an infield single on which Jon Gonzalez and Jesus Chavez didn't exactly gel in their defensive coordination. That one loaded the bases with one out, and Metts had no chance on a play at home on Perez' plenty deep fly. Arevalo struck out to end the inning, the first K for Chavez in the game after whiffing 11 in his first outing of the year. While the Coons' lineup was searching in vain for their mojo and they amounted only to two hits through four innings, including a 2-out double by Terry Kopp that was followed by a poor pop by Alfaro in the fourth, the Indians loaded the bases entirely without a base hit in the bottom 4th. Richard Linnell and Mike Cesta drew walks, Brody Folk in between was nailed, and somehow Chavez made it out of the mess with a K to Perez and Kopp catching Arevalo's easy fly for the third out.

Once five offensively depressing innings had been completed by the Raccoons, Jon Gonzalez was batting a .206-sort of cleanup, and everybody below him in the order was batting below .200 even. Only the top of the order offered even a vague sort of hope, and the fact that the Indians couldn't convert their many chances against Chavez, who walked four in the first five innings; Jarod Spencer drew a leadoff walk from Arevalo in the sixth inning and then Nunley found the gap in right-center for a double. Runners in scoring position, no outs! Elias Tovias made hay immediately – he drilled the first pitch from Arevalo for a 3-run homer to right, flipping the score in the Raccoons' favor at this point, 3-1.

Chavez got through seven on 103 pitches, and the Coons had a chance in the top of the eighth against Arevalo. Nunley on second, Tovias on first, one out, Terry Kopp grounded to Raul Claros at second. The 4-6-3 wasn't completed on some juggling by Brody Folk, leaving runners on the corners. Abel Mora came out to bat for the inept Alfaro, but before he could do anything much, Kopp got himself picked off first base to end the inning. The Coons sent Chavez back out for the eighth, for one batter only, right-hander Mike Green to begin the inning. With three left-handers in the next four batters, Brotman would then replace him. Green grounded out to Nunley, but Brotman walked Brody Folk and then almost surrendered a game-tying bomb to John Staebell. Kopp made the catch against the fence; too high and not quite deep enough. This didn't mean the panic was over; Jonathan Snyder's day at work in the ninth was rough, with a leadoff single by Cesta and a walk to Perez putting the tying runners aboard with nobody out. Chris Grubbs grounded out pinch-hitting, advancing the runners, and Claros flew to Kopp, with Cesta tagging and scoring. Rich Mendez popped out to end the game just before the bullpen could cock up the lead again… 3-2 Raccoons. Nunley 2-4, 2B; Tovias 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Chavez 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
POR: LF Spencer – 2B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Delgado – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – RF Alfaro – P Roberts
IND: RF Faulk – LF Grubbs – C T. Perez – 3B M. Green – 1B Ri. Mendez – SS Folk – 2B Claros – CF Linnell – P Shumway

Roberts struck out three batters the first time through the order, but that was mostly guys falling over face first swinging for the fences. Batters mostly made hard contact, but early on the Indians didn't get the ball out, although A.J. Faulk hit a double off the fence right at the start of the first inning. In fact, neither team got the ball to fall in much. Through five innings, it was a pitchers' duel, at least on the board, with Faulk landing both of the Indians' two hits, and the Raccoons had been held to a single base knock by Shumway, an Abel Mora single. It took Portland until the seventh inning to get even a second base hit, and it was Mora again with another single, but behind him Gonzalez flew out (with Mora advancing to second), Delgado was walked intentionally, and Matt Nunley popped out near the foul line. Mark Roberts had gotten better in the middle innings, the Indians had gotten worse, and Roberts whiffed ten in seven innings of shutout ball, including Raul Claros to end his final inning. Claros was not amused and got ejected, with Man-su Kim filling in henceforth. Good job, Roberts, really. (quips) Get a proven coonskinner into the lineup! Good job! Where's my blunderbuss!?

The eighth saw an impregnable Tom Shumway work around a leadoff walk to Stalker before Jimmy Lee disintegrated in the bottom of the inning with some vicious support by the defense. A leadoff walk to Ricardo Vargas, who had drawn a walkoff walk in Wednesday's double-header with the Falcons, was a bad start, and while Vargas was forced on Staebell's grounder, the Indians then loaded them up with an infield single by Cesta against Otis, and Nunley's bad throw on Chris Grubbs' grounder for an error. Straight base hits by Tony Perez, Mike Green, and Rich Mendez plated four runs for Indianapolis, and Ricky Ohl had to dig out an overburdened Lee to even get out of the inning. Mora and Gonzalez got on base against Nick Salinas in the ninth, but the Indians' reliever got the final outs from Kopp, who struck out, and Nunley, who rolled one to first base. 4-0 Indians. Mora 3-4; Roberts 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 10 K;

The offense is unspeakably awful. It is entirely likely that random beatings with a good belt will begin while we are still on the road…

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Gutierrez
IND: RF Faulk – LF Grubbs – C T. Perez – 3B M. Green – 1B Ri. Mendez – SS Folk – 2B Claros – CF Kim – P Lozano

Lozano came in with eight walks and three strikeouts in 8.2 innings, but that didn't mean that the Raccoons would devour him on first sight. Which is to say he faced the minimum the first time through the order. Matt Nunley hit a second-inning single, got picked off, and everything was horrendous. For what it was worth, the Arrowheads also had only one runner the first time through, Gutierrez walking Mike Green, but Mendez hit into a double play to clean up. Top 4th, Abel Mora doubled as one of the three players not completely dead at this point, and the third (besides Nunley) of the group, Tovias singled to right as the next man up. Mora was waved around third base and thrown out at home by Faulk, but … ugh, where is the bar in this rotten joint?

The Raccoons *did* take the lead in the fifth inning as the Indians were visibly begging them. Nunley reached on an error by Mendez, and Stalker got hammered with a pitch, putting two on for Cookie, who popped out, and then with two outs for Rico Gutierrez, a pretty dire batter even for a pitcher. That pretty direly hitting pitcher was still better than most of the lineup, hit a ball to center that Man-su Kim gravely misjudged and played into a 2-out, 2-run triple. The Indians put two on with singles in the bottom of the inning, probably because Gutierrez was slightly out of breath from his accelerated jog around three quarters of the infield. Gutierrez lived through seven, putting two on again in his final inning, although to be fair Jon Gonzalez started that with a throwing error that put Mendez aboard. Brody Folk singled, but in a bind, Gutierrez retired Claros, Kim, and PH Mike Cesta in order, with Gonzalez visibly exhaling afterwards. Oh Jon, at least you are starting the offense for SOME TEAM!!

Neither starting pitcher was around by the eighth, with Ryan Corkum facing his team for the last three months of 2024. Walk to Cookie, walk even to Omar Alfaro, and nobody out with the top of the order approaching. Oh please, I'm begging you – ANY sign of life, PAW-LEASE!! Spencer singled to load them up (and to get his average over .200…), and Mora sent a fly to deep left, but couldn't beat Grubbs. It was still a sac fly, Cookie bringing home the third run of the game. Tovias' RBI single ran the tally to 4-0, after which left-hander John McInerney replaced the shackled Corkum although for now there was still a right-handed batter up, .186 monster Jon Gonzalez. He singled over Folk into left to restock the bags. Nunley opened the Indians' veins for good with a fly to center that beat Kim cleanly for a 2-run double, 6-0, and two more runs scored on Dustin Jurek's PH appearance that saw him ground out to Claros, and then Tim Stalker's 2-out RBI single. After that 6-run frame, the rest of the game was mostly Jon Gonzalez getting more entries into the box score. He made a second error in the bottom 8th, and had a second at-bat that wasn't a complete waste of his roster spot in the ninth, hitting a run-scoring groundout for the final score of the game as the Coons whipped the Indians by nine after all. 9-0 Raccoons. Spencer 2-5; Tovias 2-4, BB, RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-0) and 1-2, 3B, 2 RBI;

And it took these nine runs to get the team's runs/game value even over the mark of three. 37 runs in 12 contests now…

How precisely we have made it to half a game out in a densely packed CL North at this point is beyond me.

Game 4
POR: CF Mora – 2B Otis – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – LF Carmona – SS Jurek – P Sander
IND: 2B Claros – 1B Ri. Mendez – LF Grubbs – 3B M. Green – CF Linnell – SS Folk – RF Staebell – C T. Perez – P Clements

What Rico Gutierrez did to the Indians on Saturday, Jason Clements did to the Raccoons on Sunday, hitting a bases-clearing double off Jack Sander in the bottom 2nd after we had already walked Tony Perez intentionally with two outs. Raul Claros singled to center to score Clements, 4-0, after which Abel Mora came out of the game with a finger ailment – like we have no other issues to worry about! Dwayne Metts replaced him, at which point they could have called off the remaining seven innings given that the Raccoons had a hard time impressing a freshman in junior high with a running nose throwing 75…

One base hit through five innings wasn't going to cut it, and it was even Gonzalez trying to shake the cobwebs off the bat with a double. The first time the Coons had more than one batter on base in an inning occurred in the sixth. Still down by a slam, Metts singled up the middle, his first base knock of the season and raising his average to a healthy .100! Clements lost Otis to a walk, and the same happened to him against Tovias, that one in a full count. Jon Gonzalez was the tying run with nobody out, and he brought in a run alright, although no RBI was awarded on his double play grounder to short that didn't require Brody Folk to move much at all. The Indians pulled the run back right away on John Staebell's 2-out RBI single in the bottom 6th, the last inning delivered by Sander on this sad Sunday. The Raccoons had no rally in them, and to be fair they had never claimed such thing. 5-1 Indians. Kopp 2-4; Spencer (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 16 – RIC MR Eddie Krumm (0-1, inf. ERA) concedes the Rebels' contest with the Stars in the bottom of the 11th inning, 6-5, balking with fellow pitcher DAL MR Matt Diduch (1-0, 0.00 ERA) on third base.
April 19 – DEN SP Chris Sinkhorn (2-1, 3.52 ERA) 3-hits the Pacifics in a 5-0 shutout.
April 20 – The Falcons get smothered by the Knights, 17-3, with Tony Jimenez (.400, 0 HR, 6 RBI) and Andrew Showalter (.373, 3 HR, 10 RBI) both chipping in four hits and two RBI apiece.
April 20 – A 9-run fourth inning paces the Wolves to a 16-7 win over the Warriors, with utility man Raimondo Odescalchi (.339, 3 HR, 9 RBI) landing three base hits and as many RBI, tying for the team lead in both categories.

Complaints and stuff

A walkoff balk occurred! Always my highest holiday.

Once of these days a Raccoon will concede a walkoff balk and I will shoot him in the face with the blunderbuss.

We are coming up on our 4,000th regular season win, slowly but surely. 13 more to go for 4K, so no chance for cake next week, when we will face the Loggers and Falcons.

How much we will see of Abel Mora next week is not known yet. It seems like he has a blister on his throwing hand, which normally shouldn't be a huge issue. Given that his backup is either Metts or Alfaro, we have a vested interest in him pulling through this. Oh, the offense…

Fun Fact: Mark Roberts ranks second in the Continental League with 22 strikeouts after two weeks, trailing NYC Mike Rutkowski with 29. In the Federal League, two pitchers are ahead of him.

This includes Washington's Tadasu Abe with 27 K. While we will see a completely broken discard of us next week, probably, in Jonny Toner, at one point we also had Abe on the "broken discard" pile. He hardly could get anybody out in 2021 and was traded to the Blue Sox mid-season in a 6-player deal that gave us Billy Brotman and Tim Stalker. He remained crummy for Nashville in '21, but once he signed with the Capitals in 2022, he put up respectable numbers again. 14-14 with a 3.35 ERA in 2022, not quite that good in the two most recent years, but he was at least getting people out again.

Yet, while he has struck out 27 batters in 22 innings this year, in three starts he is 0-2 with a 2.86 ERA. Sometimes, the curse of being a Raccoon at one point lasts a lifetime.