[Westheim]

The Raccoons started their week with an off day on Monday which was used to send Terry Kopp to the DL with that broken wrist, leaving them with three outfielders; Cookie Carmona, who had boosted his average to .281 the previous week, and which was certainly a fake glimmer of hope, Abel Mora in a 2-for-23 slump, and … Greg Borg. We reluctantly called up Justin Gerace, hitting .377 with five homers in AAA, in vain hope for a spark and that our newly-installed team leadership could stop him from being a distraction again.

Raccoons (11-8) @ Thunder (11-8) – April 29-May 1, 2025

Despite scoring at a rate generally best described as "hesitantly" (3.4 R/G), the Raccoons had enjoyed(?) a fairly decent start to the season and sat second in a tightly-packed CL North as they were on the way to the last stop on their elongated road trip, hitting up with the Thunder, who had the same record, plated a spiffy six runs per game, but lacked any sound pitching at all. Early on it was still enough for first in the South, but how far exactly was a 5.01 ERA rotation going to carry a team? The Coons in any case hadn't won a season series against Oklahoma for three years, and had gone down without much of a squeal in 2024, dropping seven of the nine games then.

Projected matchups:
Jesus Chavez (1-0, 3.10 ERA) vs. Danny Martin (2-1, 6.98 ERA)
Mark Roberts (2-1, 1.61 ERA) vs. Andy Palomares (3-0, 3.90 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (2-1, 1.01 ERA) vs. Tim Sloan (2-2, 3.86 ERA)

Those two right-handers on the tail end of the series where by far the Thunder's best. Southpaw Martin was their worst, but sometimes even an ERA pushing seven can merit a winning record apparently…

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C Delgado – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – RF Borg – P Chavez
OCT: LF Millan – CF D. Garcia – C Pizzo – SS Serrato – RF Sagredo – 1B L. Davis – 2B Ts'ai – 3B Flournoy – P D. Martin

Jon Gonzalez made his fifth(!) error of the season, far outpacing his home run rate, in the opening inning, fumbling the sorry grounder of .357 batter Dave Garcia, the constantly-broken former Baybird. Mike Pizzo's double play grounder to Spencer kept the error from being an issue, but COME ON GONZALEZ!! Justin Gerace tripled in the second, which was not enough for a run in either a vacuum or the Coons' lineup, while Chavez stacked the bags by hitting Luis Sagredo in the bottom 2nd, followed by Luke Davis and Zheng-ze Ts'ai singling, but David Flournoy found his way into a double play. Chavez remained the horror, though, issuing an unforgiveable leadoff walk to Danny Martin in the bottom 3rd, drilling the brittle Garcia, and then surrendering RBI singles to both Pizzo and Sagredo to fall 2-0 behind.

While Abel Mora gave the Raccoons a flicker of hope with a solo homer in the fourth inning, hope was entirely misplaced here. Jesus Chavez sucked the living **** out of the baseball and got pummeled from the game in the bottom of the fifth. Dave Garcia homered, #4 for him, and Pizzo and Sagredo hit doubles to zoom out to a 4-1 lead before Luke Davis and Ts'ai both drew 1-out walks. Bases loaded, Justin Hess in, despite his tendency to just keep the line moving with six walks in 4.1 innings. He struck out Flournoy, then conceded a 2-run single to the opposing pitcher, which was a continuous Raccoons habit that was driving me up the wall. Down by five, the Raccoons were completely dead. They collected two more extra-base hits in the game, a Delgado double leading nowhere nice in the seventh, and a double by Greg Borg in the eighth, which at least saw him score following a Cookie single and Spencer's sac fly. That was indeed all. 6-2 Thunder. Carmona 1-1;

Matt Nunley did not appear in this game. With that, only Gonzalez, Spencer, and Stalker have featured in all Raccoons contests this season.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Gerace – RF Carmona – SS Jurek – P Roberts
OCT: RF Sagredo – SS Serrato – LF Dobbs – CF D. Garcia – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – C Kubesh – 3B Flournoy – P Palomares

Both teams had three base runners in the first three innings without plating any of them. For the Raccoons it was three disjointed singles, while the Thunder reached by various means, like Roberts' very first pitch in the game finding Sagredo's ribs. Matt Nunley broke the scoreless tie with a solo home run in the fourth inning, his first longball of the season, and it seemed very much like that was all that Mark Roberts was ever going to get. Unfortunately he walked Sagredo with two outs in the bottom 5th, allowed a single to Serrato, and then a 3-run blast to Brett Dobbs, who until this point had not logged an RBI in 2025. Roberts, the fool, would not log another out; from here on out it was single, homer, single homer, and then he was hauled in laden with a 7-1 deficit that he thoroughly deserved. As did the rest of the bunch. When Ricky Ohl allowed singled to Flournoy and Palomares (GODDAMNIT!!!) it gave the Thunder a full run through the entire lineup with everybody reaching base… AND WITH TWO OUTS! Sagredo grounded out then, but what did it matter, as we were all covered in shards of shattered hopes? The Thunder added a 4-spot to their 7-spot in the following inning. Jarod Spencer's throwing error on Serrato's grounder that started the mess led to three of the runs being eventually unearned, but that could hardly mask that Dave Garcia and John Kubesh hit two more 2-run homers off Ricky Ohl, giving Oklahoma five multiple-run dingers in this rotten contest. The Raccoons would have the final say in the game with Justin Gerace's RBI double in the eighth, but that merely prevented them from getting stomped by double digits. 11-2 Thunder. Mora 2-4; Nunley 2-4, HR, RBI; Carmona 2-4, 2 2B; Armetta (PH) 1-2;

So, with that it is safe to declare the Raccoons not fit for competition and we will file papers for their legal disbandment before the end of the week.

While the league's mulling over that one, it's also time to clean up the cleanup spot where Jon Gonzalez is playing and smelling like a corpse. With Cookie batting over .300 now by virtue of a treacherous mirage, he's moved back to the leadoff spot, and everybody slides down one notch, except for Gonzalez, who slides down a bushel.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
OCT: RF Sagredo – SS Serrato – LF Dobbs – CF D. Garcia – 1B J. Elliott – 2B Ts'ai – C Kubesh – 3B Flournoy – P T. Sloan

The Raccoons homered first again, a 2-piece by Abel Mora in the opening inning that cashed in on Spencer's 1-out single, and lo and behold, Jon Gonzalez – dropped to the #6 spot – hit an RBI double in the same inning to score Tovias, who had also doubled. What's more, Gonzalez hit a 2-out RBI single in the very next inning as the Raccoons continued to take Tim Sloan to town. Gonzalez' RBI single came after Mora's own RBI single in the inning, and the bases remained loaded for Gerace, who drew a walk to extend the score with a sixth run. Stalker grounded out.

You'd be tempted to think that Rico Gutierrez could handle a 6-run advantage for sufficient time to reduce the bullpen's dynamite potential to a minimum, but that would be where you'd be wrong. Both the first and second innings began with infield singles, and both of those runners would score. What was even worse was the fact that yet another ****ing Raccoons pitcher allowed a 2-run base hit to yet another ****ing non-Raccoons pitcher, in this case an RBI double to cut the lead to 6-2, and from there we went Sagredo single, Serrato double, Dobbs double, and when Dave Garcia struck out he left the tying run in scoring position in a 6-5 game after two tiny frames. The Thunder comeback was complete by the third inning thanks to Ts'ai tripling and then scoring on Kubesh's grounder to second base.

Ts'ai made an error in the fourth inning that allowed the Raccoons to take the lead anew; Mora was on first with one out for Nunley, who grounded to the second baseman. Ts'ai's feed to Serrato was sufficiently poor to deny not only the likely double play, but any play, and Jon Gonzalez' single to center scored Mora from second base, 7-6. Tim Stalker would chip in an RBI single before Gutierrez was allowed to bat for himself against reliever Max Nelson, which didn't end well for Gutierrez. Up 8-6 it still seemed like he might be able to drag himself through five innings at least, until John Elliott homered in the fifth and the miserable Ts'ai hit yet another triple past Gerace. Vince Devereaux replaced him and got out of the inning without the tying run coming across, maintaining a ludicrous 8-7 lead, to which the Coons wouldn't tack on anymore. Nelson whiffed five over 3.2 innings, and was succeeded by similarly untouchable relief pitching, while the Coons scrambled to line up their own bullpen. Hess pitched the sixth without imploding, which was laudable, and Surginer gave the Coons five outs from five batters. Billy Brotman retired Flournoy to end the eighth, then remained on the mound for the ninth with left-handers up to start the inning and Jonathan Snyder having pitched an inning in the previous night's rout. Snyder came on with one out and the tying run on first after Brotman walked PH Ezra Branch in the #1 spot. Two pitches to Alex Serrato ended the game, with the 1-0 being hit sharply at Matt Nunley, who started a 5-4-3 just as sharp to wrap up the Thunder. 8-7 Furballs. Spencer 2-4, BB; Mora 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Gonzalez 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Surginer 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (12-10) vs. Crusaders (10-11) – May 2-4, 2025

The Crusaders were in last place, which probably meant they were pissed and the more dangerous. Offense hadn't been their thing so far – though not comparable with the Coons' level of just not hitting – and they were tied for ninth in runs scored. Runs conceded saw them fifth in the CL, but overall with a -7 run differential. Their pen had been significantly better than their rotation. New York held a 2-1 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (1-1, 3.16 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (2-2, 2.76 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-2, 4.37 ERA) vs. Ed Hague (2-1, 1.69 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (1-1, 4.74 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (1-1, 4.18 ERA)

Right, right, right. There were some injuries to their lineup, though, with Xavier Garcia (hammy) and Sergio Valdez (rib cage) both on the DL. The latter had batted .340 and both were sorely missed. Also, Nate Ellis was on the DL with back stiffness and was reportedly ready to return, but had to wait out his 15 days. He was eligible to come back on Sunday.

Game 1
NYC: CF Douglas – RF Hodgers – 3B Schmit – SS McWhorter – 1B A. Diaz – LF Loya – 2B R. Soto – C Walston – P Klein
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gerace – SS Otis – P Sander

Few showed their peak performance in the Friday opener, with Matt Otis failing completely at short, conceding all the balls hit in his vicinity on Sander's ledger either for hits or that one error, while Sander himself had such bad control that he blasted through 100 pitches in the sixth inning of what could have been a 2-hit shutout, and Matt Nunley had a Bad Hair Day, with unkempt fur protruding wildly from beneath the ill-fitting cap. At least he didn't fall over any balls to third base… With Sander done after the top of the sixth, the Raccoons had staked him to the slimmest of leads, a 1-0 edge courtesy of Cookie and Mora both doubling in the first inning. When a second RBI fell into the Coons' box score, that was Mora's too, attained on a solo home run off Klein in the bottom 6th. While Jimmy Lee logged four outs for the Coons as they tried to inch the victory to completion, Billy Brotman was the next guy to fall by the wayside, struggling with control as well and putting the tying runs in scoring position in the eighth on a walk to Victor Hodgers, a single to Andy Schmit, and Justin Gerace's error overrunning the Schmit ball in leftfield didn't help either. Kevin Surginer inherited two on, two out, and once formidable lineup cornerstone Tom McWhorter at the plate. The 36-year-old in his first Continental League season was batting .300 with three dingers. Any base hit was very bad right now. He grounded out to Nunley in a full count, and the entire park exhaled audibly. In the bottom 8th Klein, who technically was on the losing end but had never been in serious trouble, finally arrived at his own spot of bother, loading the bags with Cookie (single), Spencer (single), and Mora (walk) and only one out. Elias Tovias had not had an RBI since April 22, but this would be a chiefly good spot for it! Tovias turned around a 1-2 pitch for a single to right, and it would be Nunley to wear the fool's cap when he hit into a double play to strand three. He angrily scratched his itching back fur with the knob end of the bat as he trudged back to the dugout. As Snyder had been in consecutive games now and Surginer had yet to have a "moment", no pitching change occurred for the ninth; at least until there were two on with one out. Snyder came out after all, got a grounder from Pat Walston (40 years old!) to Jarod Spencer, and Spencer was agile enough to call ballgame against a guy that ran like a 40-year-old for sure. 3-0 Furballs. Carmona 3-4, 2B; Mora 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Tovias 2-4, RBI; Sander 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (2-1);

Game 2
NYC: CF Douglas – RF Hodgers – 3B Schmit – SS McWhorter – 2B Walter – 1B A. Diaz – LF Loya – C Walston – P Klein
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – C Delgado – RF Borg – SS Stalker – P Sander

Ed Hague gave his darndest to get in line with the pile of pitchers that had already put the hurt on the Coons this season, but Spencer made a jumping catch on his impressive line drive in the second inning that came with two outs and Angel Diaz and Ricky Loya in scoring position. It was one of the harder hit balls in a game in which neither team tore out a limb to overdo it with the offense. Through six the score would be tied at one, with the runs occurring on a Gonzalez homer (a sign of life!) in the fourth and Andy Schmit being moved around after a leadoff double in the sixth inning. Wasserman went seven without getting any more support, and the second Justin Hess entered the game in the eighth inning he allowed singles to Schmit (who was run for by Robby Soto) and McWhorter. Soto stole third with Ricky Ohl already having replaced Hess, then scored on Blake Doering's groundout to second base to break the tie. Ricky Loya homered off Ohl in the ninth to extend the gap to two runs. Facing Steve Casey (13 K in 9.1 IP) in the bottom 9th, the Coons at least got the tying run up with nobody out thanks to Nunley's leadoff single to right. Delgado struck out. Gerace struck out. Stalker fell to two strikes, but then …! Then he grounded out to Doering at second base. 3-1 Crusaders. Nunley 2-4;

Oh how I wish for a Daniel Hall-shaped batter from time to time……

Game 3
NYC: CF Douglas – 1B A. Diaz – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – 2B Walter – LF Shaffer – C Walston – P A. Mendez
POR: RF Carmona – LF Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – SS Stalker – 2B Armetta – P Chavez

While Nate Ellis' first at-bat off the DL was a leadoff jack in the second, and the Crusaders tacked on a run on Lance Douglas doubling and stealing third base in the third inning with a well-placed out by Diaz after that, the Raccoons continued to display their usual disturbing semi-conscious automatism of strolling to the plate, doing nothing, and returning to the dugout, with no recollection of what had happened in the meantime. By the sixth and still only up by two runs, "Ant" Mendez and the Crusaders looked like sure winners in this rubber game until Matt Nunley reached on a bloop single to center and Jon Gonzalez rammed a ball over the fence in leftfield, his third homer of the season and second of the week. Chavez struck out eight through seven innings, then was allowed to bat for himself in the bottom 7th, leading off. He singled, to the Crusaders' great disturbance, before being forced on Cookie's grounder to the shortstop McWhorter. Spencer singled hard to center, placing speed in scoring position with one out for Mora, who didn't help the cause with a groundout to Diaz. Tovias flew out to Hodgers in deep left, keeping the score tied.

Tied it remained through eight, which was as far as Chavez went against the Crusaders. Kevin Surginer would face the heart of the order in the ninth inning, and somehow pulled through despite Schmit's leadoff single, Soto running for him again, AND a wild pitch moving him into scoring position. Surginer also struck out Ellis and Shane Walter to escape the sticky situation. When "Ant" Mendez completed nine without soaking another run, the Coons required an outfield assist by Abel Mora that killed Armando Leal at third base to survive the top of the 10th, but at least they could bring up the juicy part of their lineup against Casey in the bottom of the inning. Here it was the Crusaders' own failures that even produced them a chance after Mora struck out and Tovias rolled one over. Nunley singled, but Gonzalez' grounder to Robby Soto at third base should have ended the inning, really. It didn't because Soto's throw never arrived with Angel Diaz at first base, but sent everybody in the Coons' dugout scattering before the ball hit off the facing of the dugout roof after all and bounced back into foul ground. That put runners in scoring position for all .179 of Stalker's bat. He hit the ball to deep left on a 1-1 pitch … but J.D. Laughery made a decently appealing catch out there to extend the game.

After Portland stranded Cookie aboard in the 11th, and we began to run seriously low on pitchers, the 12th brought up the 3-4-5 crew again against Travis Giordano in the 12th. Mora grounded out, but Tovias and Nunley singled with one out. That gave Jon Gonzalez a chance again to win back some lost credit. He popped out to short, pulling up Stalker again, which was such a thrill. The count ran full, any moment Stalker could rip over ball four, but he didn't, instead grounding to left. Matt Nunley would have had that one. But Matt Nunley was on first base. The ball escaped between Soto and McWhorter, and with two outs Tovias was in full flight around third base. Laughery's throw bounced early and was too late even for the catcher, who ended the game in walkoff fashion! 3-2 Critters! Spencer 3-6; Nunley 4-5, BB; Chavez 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K and 2-3;

In other news

April 28 – The Wolves report SP Alex Telles (2-0, 5.61 ERA) to miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum.
April 29 – The Canadiens beat the Falcons, 1-0, on a ninth-inning homer by OF Elijah Luckett (.306, 1 HR, 10 RBI).
April 30 – VAN OF Tony Coca (.364, 2 HR, 16 RBI) is going to miss at least one week with a sprained finger.
May 1 – The hitting streak of Pittsburgh's Carlos de la Riva (.325, 1 HR, 11 RBI) ends at 23 games after a dry day in a 13-4 rout the Miners suffer in Los Angeles.
May 1 – The Blue Sox' pitching keeps diminishing with an injury to SP Josh Bell (0-3, 5.79 ERA). The 24-year-old is done for the season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
May 3 – The Falcons walk off on the Thunder on MR Max Nelson's (0-1, 3.46 ERA) throwing a wild pitch in the bottom of the 12th to allow Chris Erskine to score from third base and give Charlotte an 11-10 win.
May 4 – NAS SP Juan Muniz (2-3, 2.97 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout in 5-0 win over the Rebels.
May 4 – Goat of the game in the Warriors' 10-inning, 4-3 loss in Dallas is SFW MR Ken Gautney (0-2, 7.94 ERA, 6 SV), who ends the game with a walkoff balk.
May 4 – The Bayhawks murder the Condors, 14-1, with SFB C/1B Mike Pizzo (.295, 4 HR, 18 RBI) chipping in four hits and 3 RBI.

Complaints and stuff

Walkoff balk!! =)

Dwayne Metts went unclaimed on waivers, eventually ending up in St. Petersburg again this week. Some things always seem to come full circle, like the Raccoons leeching all the fun out of baseball.

Cookie Carmona has started to hit balls again, at least for a few days. So we promptly moved him back to the top of the order out of desperation and blind hope against hope. Since being in leadoff, he's gone .235/.316/.294 – make of that what you want.

The stinking Elks come in for four next week, and then we will be off on a quick hop to Sacramento.

Fun Fact: Pat Walston debuted with the Blue Sox in 2007 when the Raccoons' primary catcher was Craig Bowen, who on August 31 of that season against the Loggers became the so far only ABL hitter to hit four home runs in a single game.

Walston spent the majority of his career for the Blue Sox (nine seasons), while Bowen spent the majority of his with the Coons. His two stints of 6 1/2 seasons in total were separated by a stint with … the Blue Sox.