[Westheim]

Originally Posted by alexsimon99

I see a trip to Boston upcoming. How many are left against them this season? I'm trying to hold out hope still...

With this week in the books, there'll be seven more! Will reality catch up with you this week?

+++

Raccoons (61-45) @ Aces (54-48) – August 4-6, 2025

Last meeting with the Aces this year, with us so far holding a 4-2 edge in the season series and hoping to build on that. Gone was the terrible pitching; this week the Raccoons would have to contend with actually capable hurlers. The Aces brought up the fifth-best rotation with an overall staff conceding the fourth-fewest runs in the league. They sat sixth in runs scored, but were on a 4-game losing streak.

Projected matchups:
Jack Sander (8-6, 3.70 ERA) vs. Miguel Morales (10-5, 2.51 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (4-6, 3.51 ERA) vs. Joel Trotter (7-7, 4.71 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (6-5, 3.71 ERA) vs. Abramo Archibugi (12-5, 3.78 ERA)

Left-hander on Wednesday, with two more southpaws that we'd bypass on our trip through the desert, including a 9-9 Sam McMullen and his 4.16 ERA.

McMullen, the 2016 Pitcher of the Year in the Continental League, was clearly not getting any younger – he'd turn 37 on October 2, but still sat a few wins (199) and strikeouts (2,550) shy of having a plausible Hall of Fame case. His career ERA (3.40) was not conducive for induction. In fact, he had pitched to a sub-3 ERA only three times in his career, foremost that 2016 season with the Elks when he went 20-7 with a 2.10 ERA and whiffed 218. His own teammate at the time, Rod Taylor, whiffed 233 to deny him a triple crown.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Borg – C Tovias – 1B Mora – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Stalker – P Sander
LVA: SS A. Medina – 2B Burrier – LF Serrano – 1B Retzer – C J. Vargas – CF Raynor – RF I. Alvarez – 3B J. Navarro – P M. Morales

There was plenty of traffic in the early innings, with the Coons stranding a pair in the third inning, and the Aces leaving pairs on twice. Portland specifically had Stalker and Spencer on the corners with a pair of singles, only to have Borg pop out foul and Tovias roll out to Andres Medina at short. Abel Mora would put the first run on the board with a leadoff jack in the fourth inning, only to have Ron Raynor match the feat in the bottom of the inning, and even almost into the same spot. For Mora, it was the 14th bomb of the season, while Raynor reached 18. Vegas took the lead the following inning when Medina raced for a leadoff triple into the leftfield corner and was brought home right away by Cy Burrier's single to centerfield. At this point and in a 2-1 deficit, the Raccoons resorted to proven recipe; Nunley saw Mora on base with a leadoff single in the sixth inning and smacked into a double play, and so did Stalker in the seventh after Cookie had reached with a leadoff walk against Morales, AND Borg after Spencer's leadoff single in the eighth. I had hardly a concept of a more demoralizing way to lose even after almost five decades with this dismal franchise. The Aces added a run on a Medina homer off Sander in the seventh, while the idea of adding runs was completely alien to the Raccoons. 3-1 Aces. Spencer 3-4; Mora 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
LVA: 2B Burrier – 1B Retzer – LF Raynor – RF Curro – 3B I. Alvarez – CF Hollingsworth – C Schoeppen – SS A. Medina – P Trotter

Joel Trotter was not averse to walking people with just over 5 BB/9 this season, while the Raccoons liked anything but to walk, sitting bottoms in the league in free passes coaxed from incompetent pitchers. To nobody's great surprise, the Raccoons did their royal best to avoid being put on base, and largely disappeared inconsequentially in the early innings. Rico Gutierrez in turn had an interesting bottom of the second inning, in which Izzy Alvarez and Steve Hollingsworth both reached on scratch 1-out singles, after which Gutierrez brain-farted a 4-pitch walk to raging .171 batter Casimiro Schoeppen to fill the bags. Medina however popped out foul and Trotter went down on strikes, keeping this game scoreless in the early going. There wasn't a run until the fifth inning when Cookie Carmona singled, stole second, and scored … when Medina dropped Jarod Spencer's terrible 2-out pop to short. WHATEVER THE **** WORKS.

Medina also put Jon Gonzalez on second base with one out in the sixth inning, unleashing a terrible throw way past Allen Retzer on Gonzalez' grounder right into his preferred position. That Gonzalez grounder came on a 3-0 count, still preventing Trotter from walking anybody in the game. To nobody's great surprise, Nunley and Alfaro managed to keep the free runner at second base with a pair of sorry grounders. At this point it was really just waiting for Rico Gutierrez' collapse, which still didn't come about in the bottom 6th with Cy Burrier's leadoff single, with the Aces stranding their runner on second base, too. Hollingsworth came close to a homer in the seventh inning, but was caught and retired by Alfaro against the fence. Top 8th, Abel Mora hit a 1-out double for the first spot of bother the top of the order gave Trotter in this game, but was stranded just alike. Rico lasted 7.1 innings before Burrier singled sharply to right to knock him out. Vince D came on to retire Retzer and Raynor and protect the 1-0 lead, only for Jonathan Snyder to **** up completely in the ninth inning. Corey Curro tied the game on a first-pitch homer and Alvarez and Schoeppen (…) hit sharp singles to go to the corners. Jose Navarro lined into center, Mora nowhere near it, and the Aces walked off. 2-1 Aces. Carmona 2-4; Gutierrez 7.1 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Joel Trotter pitched a complete game for the win, striking out five and walking nobody.

Or so I think. Can't really tell. I'm pretty busted right no- (falls off the chair)

Game 3
POR: LF Spencer – 2B Otis – RF Alfaro – 1B Gonzalez – CF Borg – C Delgado – 3B Bullock – SS Jurek – P Chavez
LVA: SS A. Medina – RF Curro – LF Serrano – 1B Retzer – C J. Vargas – CF Raynor – 2B Moroyoqui – 3B J. Navarro – P Archibugi

Portland plated a pair in the first inning on Jon Gonzalez' 2-run single to left, chasing home Otis (walk) and Alfaro (double). Unfortunately, Jesus Chavez was a pretty lousy pitcher facing a lineup that almost impossible to pitch to with no less than FIVE switch-hitters, and struggled from the outset, offering two singles and two walks in the first inning as well to give one run right back to the Aces before Jesus Moroyoqui flew out to Spencer with the bases loaded to end the parade. The bases were also loaded in the top of the second inning, beginning with Dustin Jurek's 1-out single to shallow right. Chavez struggled to get a bunt down, and when he finally did it was quite hard at Allen Retzer, who considered Jurek easy prey, but erred in his judgement. Everybody was safe on the play, and Spencer's single loaded them up for Otis, who struck out, and Alfaro, who grounded out to the pitcher. Instead, the Aces tied the score at two in the bottom of the inning thanks to a leadoff walk issued by Chavez to Navarro, whom Corey Curro drove in with a 2-out single to left-center.

As a further sign that the end times were near, the game was interrupted but not one, but TWO rain delays in the third and fourth innings, taking a total of 80 minutes and knocking out Chavez, who had nevertheless sucked his pitch count all the way to 92 pitches in just THREE innings. Yes, this was the desert, maybe we could tie him to a cactus somewhere? Long man Kevin Surginer was taken for a long ball by Medina right in the bottom 4th, this one being a 2-piece that put the Aces 4-2 in front. The Raccoons watched curiously as the Aces worked on a sweep of them, but didn't do anything directly going to affect the outcome of the game. Vegas added a run in the seventh on Justin Hess, who allowed singles to put Danny Serrano and Allen Retzer on the corners to begin the inning, before Jose Vargas hit into a run-scoring double play. The Coons did absolutely nothing through eight innings, "amassing" four hits against Archibugi before the Aces handed the ball to Franklin Alvarado, who right away allowed a pinch-hit leadoff double to Cookie Carmona. After that, Nunley and Jurek made poor outs, and Elias Tovias was hit by a pitch, which at least brought up the tying run in Spencer, who singled through the left side to plate Cookie. Then Otis lined out to Moroyoqui and everything was awful. 5-3 Aces. Spencer 2-5, RBI; Carmona (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Raccoons (61-48) @ Titans (73-35) – August 7-10, 2025

Anybody expecting anything else than a massacre at this point was probably highly delusional and should seek help. Yes, technically we had 11 games left against the Titans and that was always covering our 12 1/2 game deficit, but … eh, come on! Some sense of realism? The season series stood 4-3 in the Titans' favor, which was a much better effort from the Raccoons than in any of the previous three seasons, but I was fully expecting another sweep in this series. Boston ranked first in runs scored and second in runs allowed, a category still led by the Raccoons, the difference right now being 20 runs, which merely sounded like a challenge for the Titans…

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (3-9, 3.73 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (5-3, 3.79 ERA)
Mark Roberts (13-5, 2.74 ERA) vs. Jeremy Waite (6-8, 3.42 ERA)
Jack Sander (8-7, 3.71 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (9-8, 4.70 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (4-6, 3.30 ERA) vs. Julio San Pedro (6-0, 2.74 ERA)

Four right-handers. What else for good news? We'd miss the beast Morgan Shepherd (16-1, 2.23 ERA). There were also some injuries to the Titans right now, but it was mainly pitching, and their pitching wasn't my main concern even. In terms of position players, they were only missing Rhett West (.340, 3 HR, 35 RBI), otherwise fielding the full force.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Stalker – P Wasserman
BOS: CF Reichardt – C Leonard – 1B Herlihy – RF Braun – SS Jam. Wilson – 2B Kane – LF St. Germaine – 3B Corder – P Choe

Graham Wasserman was torn a new hole right in the first inning, which started with Adrian Reichardt's infield single, progressed with a walk issued to Trent Herlihy, Adam Braun's RBI single, another single by Jamie Wilson, and then a bases-loaded walk to Mike Kane. Adam St. Germaine brought in the third and final run of the inning with a sac fly. Another run scored in the second on a throwing error by Abel Mora, and Wasserman walked another two batters in the third inning, bringing him to five free passes in three horrendous innings. Portland actually had a chance to rally from the depths of hell in the fourth inning, though, starting the inning with a leadoff double by Elias Tovias, and then progressing through straight singles hit by Gonzalez, Nunley, and Alfaro, putting the tying runs aboard with nobody out for Cookie in a 4-1 deficit. The Coons ended up scoring two runs, sort of. Cookie struck out, but a run came home on Stalker's grondout, and Choe also brought Nunley across with a wild pitch to Wasserman, who eventually struck out with Stalker on second.

The Coons somehow dragged Wasserman's bum through five-and-a-third without conceding another 20 runs, then pieced things together with the pen, but still were trailing 4-3 and didn't make a serious move for a few innings. In the eighth, Abel Mora hit a leadoff single off replacement reliever Lorenzo Viamontes to get the tying run aboard, but Tovias struck out, Gonzalez lined out to short against new right-hander Javy Salomon, and Nunley only reached base on an infield single because his lame-ass roller near the third-base line was waited out by Adam Corder to cross the paint, but refused to do so. Omar Alfaro was up next, took a 1-1 pitch and lined it up the rightfield line, all the way to the wall! Mora in to score! Nunley in to score! The score was flipped! Delgado batted for Devereaux and grounded out to end the inning, and after Billy Brotman logged two outs from Mike Kane and Adam St. Germaine to start the eighth, we were down to Snyder, who was recently as reliable as a cat in a steel cage with its tail on fire. He struck out Adam Corder to end the eighth, but put the tying run aboard right away in the ninth with a leadoff single by Yasuhiro Kuramoto. Reichardt flew out to deep left, Keith Leonard also flew out, and Keith Leonard struck out as the Raccoons stole a game from the Titans. 5-4 Furballs! Tovias 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-4; Alfaro 4-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Okay, only ten more to go.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – P Roberts
BOS: CF Reichardt – LF Kuramoto – RF Braun – C T. Robinson – 3B Corder – 1B St. Germaine – SS Spataro – 2B Kane – P Waite

Perpetually pale Jeremy Waite was about to face the minimum through three innings – including a Nunley single and Alfaro's double play – until Mark Roberts doubled up the rightfield line with two outs in the third inning. Spencer walked, and Mora drove a ball to deep center, but without beating Adrian Reichardt, who made the catch on the warning track not too far from an annoying 434' sign. Roberts had the opposition under control through three innings, striking out as many, but then had the bases loaded with nobody out after the 2-3-4 batters landed two hits and a walk to begin the bottom 4th. Roberts snorted, shrugged off the threat with strikeouts to Adams Corder and St. Germaine, then got Keith Spataro on a pop to Gonzalez. Even some Titans fans politely applauded.

No score through six, with desperation breaking out in the Raccoons camp. When Jon Gonzalez hit a leadoff single up the middle in the seventh, Nunley was ordered to bunt, which he executed perfectly to get the go-ahead run to second base. The Titans responded with an intentional walk to Alfaro to bring up the light-hitting 7-8-9 faction. Cookie however loaded them up with a single cracked into centerfield, with the only problem being Reichardt sitting on top of it right away, preventing Gonzalez from scoring from second base, and giving all the responsibility to Daniel Bullock, whom Waite struck out without much fuss. That forced the Coons' paw – Roberts had to go. Matt Otis batted for him, held still while Waite was missing, and drew a walk that pushed home Gonzalez with the first run of the game. Spencer then grounded out. Bottom 7th, Ricky Ohl retired the bottom of the Titans order without much further ado, with the Coons continuing their hard scrabble in the top of the eighth. Mora reached base to begin things and stole second while Tovias cashed his third strikeout in four attempts. Gonzalez was now walked intentionally and Nunley flew out for the second retirement, but Omar Alfaro didn't. Now facing right-hander Dustin Cory, Alfaro crashed the first pitch for a 410-footer out of rightfield that extended the gap to 4-0! There was another run in the inning, that one unearned; Cookie reached on Spataro's error, then was double in by Bullock, 5-0! That score held up well, with Jimmy Lee retiring the Titans in the last two innings for the second win in two games in Boston. 5-0 Furballs! Mora 2-5; Alfaro 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Roberts 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-5) and 1-2; Lee 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – LF Borg – SS Stalker – P Sander
BOS: CF Reichardt – C Leonard – RF Braun – SS Jam. Wilson – 2B Kane – LF St. Germaine – 1B Cornejo – 3B Corder – P Rutter

The Coons' unlikely rally quickly hit a major impediment in Jack Sander, who walked Keith Leonard in the bottom 1st and surrendered two runs on hard doubles by Jamie Wilson and Mike Kane, giving the Titans a quick 2-0 edge. Jon Gonzalez opened the top 2nd with a single to left, Rutter lost Nunley in a full count, and after Alfaro whiffed, Borg singled into center. Gonzalez was waved around third base and arrived well ahead of Adrian Reichardt's throw to immediately cut the deficit in half, and the runners advanced on the throw to home plate, too. Unfortunately, with runners on second and third and one out, Tim Stalker struck out, and Sander's fly to centerfield was nothing that would make Reichardt break a sweat. The Coons briefly did get even in the third inning, with Spencer singling, stealing, and scoring on Tovias' base hit up the middle, but Sander was rightfully atrocious and conceded another run in the bottom 3rd on another 2-out sequence of doom. Jamie Wilson walked on four pitches, then scored on straight singles by Kane and St. Germaine. Gil Cornejo somehow managed to fly out to keep the score at 3-2. While the Critters then failed to plate Spencer after a 1-out triple in the top of the fifth, the Titans completed their dance with Sander, who allowed a walk to begin the inning, then surrendered line drive singles to four of the next five batters, with Cornejo's RBI single extended the score to 5-2 and keeping the bases loaded with one out in the inning. Ohl replaced the yanked Sander and struck out Corder and Rutter to keep the Titans within reach. Although the question begged – what did we keep them close for? The offense looked really dead once more against Rutter and did nothing at all in the fifth and sixth, and in the seventh Spencer reached base with his third base hit of the day, but was caught stealing by Leonard, while the Titans started to run circles around the Coons' relievers. A key stolen base by St. Germaine led to a run in the bottom 7th against Justin Hess, giving the runner the extra base to come home on Cornejo's 2-out single, 6-2. The next runner was Nunley in the ninth, walked to begin the inning by Javy Salomon, only for Alfaro to crack a ball right at Mike Kane at the keystone for a 4-6-3. Otis grounded out to end the game. 6-2 Titans. Spencer 3-4, 3B; Alfaro 2-4; Ohl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Interlude: Trade and roster moves

The Raccoons and Cyclones completed a waiver trade on Sunday, with the Raccoons divesting themselves of SP Graham Wasserman (3-9, 3.78 ERA). The 35-year-old would have been a free agent after the season anyway and was never more than a stopgap solution with Dan Delgadillo going to miss most of the season. Delgadillo was on the way back and rehabbing in AAA right now, and Wasserman wasn't getting the Raccoons anywhere but deeper into the ruckus now.

In return, the Raccoons received 31-year-old C/1B Brett O'Dell (.269, 7 HR, 23 RBI), who despite his advanced age was still not eligible for free agency after the season, lacking roughly a month of service time by season's end. O'Dell had an outside chance of inheriting the backup job from Delgado after the season and for now would be carried as third catcher and right-handed pinch-hitter.

To accommodate O'Dell on the roster, the Raccoons returned INF Dustin Jurek (.229, 3 HR, 9 RBI) to the Bayhawks; Jurek had been selected nine months earlier in the rule 5 draft, but had only collected 83 at-bats during the season.

Completing the roster move parade was Lance Legleiter (1-0, 0.79 ERA) being recalled from St. Petersburg to pick up Wasserman's next start on Tuesday.

Raccoons (61-48) @ Titans (73-35) – August 7-10, 2025

Game 4
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – RF Alfaro – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – C Delgado – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
BOS: SS Spataro – LF Kuramoto – RF Braun – C T. Robinson – 1B St. Germaine – CF F. Rodriguez – 3B Jam. Wilson – 2B Kane – P San Pedro

The Coons burst out for a 3-spot in the first inning, getting base hits from their first three batters. Spencer and Mora went to the corners on a pair of singles, then both scored on Alfaro's gapper in right-center. Alfaro in turn was moved around by Gonzalez' deep fly and Nunley's groundout to short. That rush of adrenaline only made the clubbing that Gutierrez received in the bottom 2nd the more gruesome. The Titans got Tim Robinson on with a leadoff walk, then also St. Germaine and Wilson with infield singles, the latter already plating Robinson. Kane grounded out to advance the runners and with two down San Pedro hit a most regrettable drive to deep right-center that fell past Abel Mora's reach to tie the game at three. Yeah, he gave up a 2-out hit to the pitcher, but there should not have been so many runners on base to begin with …!

Infield singles could work both ways, though. After two innings of mostly vague threats, Jarod Spencer knocked a leadoff double over the head of Kuramoto in the fifth and advanced on Mora's groundout. Alfaro grounded past San Pedro to the back of the mound, with Mike Kane having to hustle in, but unable to make a play in time. Spencer scored to make it 4-3 on the play while Alfaro was safe at first. Then Alfaro was caught stealing… AND Keith Spataro took Gutierrez deep to re-knot the score in the bottom of the inning.

Rico at least held on to the tie, doing so through seven innings, then still had a chance for the win. Salomon walked two in the top 8th, half of those (Gonzalez) intentionally after a leadoff walk to Mora, who advanced on Alfaro's groundout to St. Germaine. Nunley singled to left, right into Kuramoto's maws, which kept Mora honest at the head of the line, and brought up Cookie with three on and one out. Salomon couldn't be bothered to find the strike zone now either, lost Cookie on four pitches, and thus pushed in the go-ahead run for the Critters. Tony Delgado made it 6-4 with a sac fly, Tovias legged out an infield single in Stalker's spot, but Otis flew out to Fernando Rodriguez to strand a full set. Vince D went on to retire the 2-3-4 batters, all right-handed, in the eighth, but the ninth promised to see only left-handed batters turn up and so Billy Brotman got ready alongside Snyder while Jose Fuentes turned away the Coons in order in the top 9th. It was in fact Brotman who appeared for the save, issuing a leadoff walk to St. Germaine before running a full count to left-handed pinch-hitter Keith Leonard, who cracked a shot into play that bounced just once in front of Spencer's nose, but somehow Jarod remained not only alive, but also on top of that ball AND turned it for a double play! Brotman finished the game after that to claim a series win for the Coons! 6-4 Furballs! Spencer 2-5, 2B; Alfaro 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Stalker 1-2, BB; Tovias (PH) 1-1;

Take that – we are now actually AHEAD of Boston in the season series, 6-5! (gasps)

In other news

August 4 – SFW SP Mike Fernandez (5-9, 3.75 ERA) spins a 2-hit shutout over the Miners, claiming a 5-0 victory.
August 4 – The Rebels walk off against the Pacifics on doubles by catcher Matt Dehne (.224, 8 HR, 36 RBI) and utility man Raimondo Odescalchi (.270, 11 HR, 45 RBI) for a 6-5 win in 18 innings, following ten innings without any sort of scoring.
August 5 – MIL CF/RF Ian Coleman (.274, 3 HR, 42 RBI) will miss the rest of the month with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

Maud told me the Agitator didn't mention the waiver trade on Sunday at all on its online page thing. Maybe they're saving their vitriol for the Monday paper! Well, it wasn't a spectacular trade. The Coons gave up NOTHING in Wasserman and maybe got a new backup catcher for '26. Whoah, the rage…

Mark Roberts has won four consecutive starts now after initially taking a loss in Vancouver in his first start after the All Star Game. Since June 12, he is 9-1 in 11 outings, with a 2.54 ERA.

Fun Fact: Not only Ricky Ohl pitched without allowing an earned run in Saturday's loss in Boston, but also Billy Brotman, the latter delivering a scoreless eighth inning. With that game, both relievers had not been charged with an earned run in at least 20 games as well as at least two months.

This includes 20 appearances without an earned run for Ohl, and even 21 (now 22) outings for Brotman without an earned run. Both had conceded an unearned run in those spans, however; Brotman had allowed an unearned run on June 25 against the Loggers, and Ohl had allowed an unearned run against the Crusaders on July 12.

I am looking at Ricky Ohl and I see a closer candidate!