[Westheim]

Raccoons (75-63) @ Crusaders (70-66) – September 8-10, 2025

The Crusaders were on fire, even though it was too late for them, and had won their last 10 games played. Well, here come the Coons! Even on a hot streak, they were still fairly unremarkable, seventh in both runs scored and runs allowed in the CL. During their streak, they had scored 64 runs while conceding 43. The Raccoons were trailing in the season series, having lost seven of the 12 games played so far this year.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (8-7, 3.21 ERA) vs. Ed Hague (11-10, 5.16 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (8-7, 3.59 ERA) vs. Ben Jacobson (7-8, 4.20 ERA)
Mark Roberts (18-6, 2.23 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (13-8, 2.83 ERA)

Right, left, right for this series. They were still missing key pieces despite being on fire, with "Ant" Mendez, Mike Rutkowski, and Sergio Valdez on the DL in particular.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – LF Gerace – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – SS Stalker – RF Mansfield – P Gutierrez
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – LF Loya – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – C F. Delgado – 2B Doering – CF R. Torruellas – P Hague

Rico sat down the first 11 Crusaders in this game until Andy Schmit bombed him with a blast to left in the bottom of the fourth inning. That was the first run in the game, with the Raccoons having not exactly cornered Hague and beaten him senseless. They had runners on the corners with nobody out in the third, courtesy of singles by Stalker and Mansfield, but Gutierrez and Spencer both grounded out to a corner infielder, keeping Tim Stalker at third base the whole time, and then Abel Mora popped out over the infield. Straight singles by Felipe Delgado, Blake Doering, and Rafael Torruellas plated a second run for New York in the fifth inning, with the Raccoons only starting to get into a groove slowly. Spencer had a leadoff single in the sixth, but got forced out by Mora. Gerace was hopeless, but Gonzalez hit a single up the middle to send Mora to third base with two down, followed by Nunley's blooper into shallow right. That one was in for an RBI single, Nate Ellis overran the ball, and the error allowed Gonzalez and Nunley to reach scoring position, where they remained when Tovias struck out.

Rico Gutierrez survived a bottom of the seventh inning in which him and Nunley shoveled themselves a stylish grave early on, putting Tom McWhorter aboard on Matt's error, then also Delgado when Gutierrez tried to get the lead runner on the catcher's bunt. None of this was particularly effective except in giving the Crusaders a chance with nobody out, but somehow they flunked out of it by making three poor outs and keeping the runners on base. The Coons carted up the top of the order in the eighth, with neither Spencer nor Mora reached. Gerace singled to center, which brought up Jon Gonzalez, who had already extended his hitting streak to 14 games and now reached out to tie Abel Mora for the team lead in home runs (with a sad-sack 17), crashing an Ed Hague fastball over the fence in left-center. This flipped the score, lined Rico up for a W, and brought major bullpen drama in the bottom 8th. Gutierrez struck out the left-handed Xavier Garcia to begin the inning, then yielded for Ricky Ohl, who retired Ricky Loya alright, but then walked Andy Schmit, for whom Robby Soto came out as pinch-runner, carrying the tying run. We moved on to Billy Brotman against Nate Ellis, who singled in a 1-2 count, putting runners on the corners while the bullpen door kept flinging open. Kevin Surginer was tasked with Tom McWhorter, and was probably lucky that Jon Gonzalez caught his foul pop by leaning into the Crusaders' dugout, who were none too pleased about his feat. The extended inning put Jonathan Snyder up against the bottom of the order in the ninth inning, which didn't mean that it was smooth sailing or anything like that. Jason Asay ripped a pinch-hit double, putting the tying run on second base with one out, and while Gerace remained master of Jamie Richardson's fly to left, the Crusaders still had a dangerous pinch-hitter in the dugout, the CL leader in stolen bases (one ahead of Spencer), Lance Douglas, a left-hander with 12 homers, who came out to bat in the #9 spot… and got rung up by Snyder. 3-2 Coons! Gonzalez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Mansfield 2-4; Gutierrez 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (9-7);

Hague, who struck out seven, pitched a complete game 8-hitter for the loss. I'm sorry, what winning streak are you talking about again?

Game 2
POR: LF Spencer – 2B Otis – RF Gerace – 1B Gonzalez – CF Borg – 3B Nunley – C O'Dell – SS Stalker – P Chavez
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – CF Douglas – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – 2B Walter – C Asay – LF Loya – P Jacobson

Spencer reached base on McWhorter's fumbling error to get the game underway, but didn't get off a stolen base attempt at all thanks to Matt Otis' homer to leftfield, which was a tough thing to be mad about, but with proper effort I could probably conjure up some genuine disgruntlement…! Portland left the bases loaded in the second without scoring, Otis popping out this time, but plated two more runs in the third, which Justin Gerace opened with a double through Andy Schmit and into the leftfield corner. He scored on Gonzalez' single to center and drew a throw that allowed Gonzalez to advance, and by extension provided opportunity for Nunley to plate him with his single to center, which ran the score to 4-0. Before long, the gloomy skies leaked some water, putting the game in a rain delay in the fourth inning, which certainly messed with the starting pitchers. Jacobson would not get through five innings, completely losing the zone in the fifth and being bailed out by the bullpen eventually, but not until after allowing a solo homer to Gonzalez. Chavez, who had only thrown 42 pitches before the rain delay, remained in better shape and completed five innings at least, allowing three base hits in total, two of those after the delay. He had a quick sixth, but allowed line drive singles to ex-Coon Shane Walter and to Jason Asay in the seventh and was brought in for the pen to pick eight outs from the Crusaders without blowing a 5-0 lead, which was a task not too tall to not be completely ****ed up. Will West surrendered one run on Loya's sac fly, but got the Coons out of the seventh still ahead by a slam. Abel Mora singled for West to begin the eighth inning, but was forced out on Spencer's grounder, which however gave Jarod a chance to be sneaky again. He took off with Otis at the plate (you never know if you get two chances, pal!) and Asay's throw was well late again, handing sole ownership of the CL stolen base lead to Spencer, who ended up being left on base by Otis and Gerace. Justin Hess surrendered a run in the bottom 8th on Garcia's leadoff double and Douglas' RBI single up the middle, but Schmit involved Douglas in a double play before he could think about getting back even with Spencer. Snyder put the Crusaders away in the ninth… AFTER allowing a double to Walter and walking the bases full. Xavier Garcia struck out to end the game. 5-2 Coons. Spencer 2-5; Gonzalez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Mora (PH) 1-1; Chavez 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (9-7) and 1-2, BB;

The Raccoons activated Terry Kopp from his rehab assignment for the Wednesday game, hoping to liven up the outfield corners. Kopp, crippled by injuries, had so far missed 107 games this season and was batting .267 with 3 HR and 12 RBI in just over 100 at-bats.

Wednesday was also a must-win game because Mark Roberts was moved ahead of Jack Sander to keep his triple crown ambitions in the best shape possible in giving him plenty of starts as we were still mentally gnawing on Dan Delgadillo's idiotic wild pitch that had given Morgan Shepherd an unnecessary win on the weekend.

Game 3
POR: LF Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – C Tovias – 2B Otis – SS Bullock – P Roberts
NYC: 1B X. Garcia – 2B R. Soto – 3B Schmit – RF Ellis – SS McWhorter – C F. Delgado – LF Douglas – CF Shaffer – P Klein

Roberts didn't really come out sharp and conceded a run in the first inning on a walk and two singles, but the Coons had their own way of turning this thing around fairly soon. Daniel Bullock randomly ripped his first dinger of the season in the third inning, with Spencer and Nunley hitting singles to go to the corners after that. Nate Ellis contested Spencer's taking of third base with a wayward throw, the error allowing Spencer to come home with the go-ahead run instead before Gonzalez grounded out to end the inning.

The lead wasn't permanent. The following inning, Terry Kopp hit a leadoff double, but was thrown out at home plate by Nick Shaffer on Tovias' single to center, and the Coons didn't get aboard for a while after that. Shaffer in turn dropped down a bunt leading off the bottom 5th and legged it out for a single, got bunted over by Klein, and scored on Robby Soto's 2-out single over a leaping Otis to even the score at two. The inning ended with a K to Andy Schmit, Roberts' eighth in the game and 200th on the season. Roberts did his all, but the offense didn't. The game remained tied at two through eight innings, with Mark striking out a sound 11, but not getting a lead to convert into a win. Well, the Coons were still to bat in the ninth in his support, facing Steve Casey, the first guy out of the Crusaders' pen with Gonzalez leading off. Casey struck out both Gonzalez and Kopp before yielding a single to Tovias. Madly looking for a quick run, the Coons sent Gerace to bat for Otis, but he popped out to shallow center. The Coons in the bottom 9th were nerve-wrecking indeed. Vince D walked Douglas with one out, and the runner swiped second base when neither Bullock nor Stalker covered the base, giving me another one of those mild strokes. Devereaux shoveled the bases full, eventually handing the left-handed bat of Jamie Richardson to Brotman with two outs. Richardson drove a 3-2 well to center, but Mora caught the ball, sending the game to the most dispiriting extra innings in a while.

Extras saw New York's Travis Giordano whiff four between the 10th and 11th innings before Gilberto Castillo allowed a leadoff single to Tovias in the 12th. Kevin Surginer was up next and instead of a pinch-hitter we used him to bunt, then sent Dwayne Metts to pinch-run for Tovias from second base. He scored handily on Bullock's sharp single up the middle, breaking the tie, finally, but it was the Coons' only run despite Stalker singling right afterwards. Spencer popped out, Mora whiffed, and it was on Justin Hess now to the save the game against three left-handed bats. Chris Peters grounded out, J.D. Laughery struck out, and so did Nate Ellis, putting this series in the books as a Coons sweep. 3-2 Furballs. Gonzalez 2-5, 2B; Tovias 3-5; Bullock 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Roberts 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K; Surginer 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (6-4);

Raccoons (78-63) vs. Canadiens (68-71) – September 12-14, 2025

This was the last series with the damn Elks this season, with Portland holding a narrow 8-7 lead in the season series. Vancouver ranked third in runs scored, but third from the bottom in runs allowed, with a -22 run differential. Nevertheless, they still had a valid shot at a .500 season or better, which would be the first time since 2018 that they didn't wind up with more losses than victories.

Projected matchups:
Lance Legleiter (1-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. Luis Vasquez (3-7, 4.72 ERA)
Dan Delgadillo (1-3, 6.12 ERA) vs. Ivan Morales (8-10, 3.99 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (9-7, 3.18 ERA) vs. Fernando Estrada (9-5, 4.38 ERA)

We would carefully paw our way around their left-handed pitchers and draw only right-handers in this weekend set.

Game 1
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – CF Day – RF Coca – LF A. Torres – 1B Myles – 2B Gura – SS Crosby – C Tanzillo – P Vasquez
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – C Tovias – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – P Legleiter

Elias Matias Tovias Diaz briefly blinked in the depths of his endless slump and hit a 2-run homer off Vasquez in the second inning for the first tally in the game. The Raccoons would up that to 3-0 on a 2-out RBI double by Gonzalez in the following inning. He not only drove in Nunley, but also extended his hitting streak to 17 games. Meanwhile, the Elks enjoyed themselves in making outs on the base paths. Jonathan Morales hit a single to begin the game, but was caught stealing by Tovias, and Norman Day was struck down by Terry Kopp at third base, trying to get an extra 90 feet on Tony Coca's single in the fourth. While Jarod Spencer was also caught stealing by Chris Tanzillo to end the fifth inning, the Coons were at least being silly with a lead…

Legleiter developed a shutout bid in the middle innings, sprinkling isolated singles, although it wasn't only keeping the opposing team off the board for him, since he probably had to do away with a team in 100 pitches or less due to his short stamina. While that was going on, there were additional runs in the sixth, with Nunley leading off with a double that Spencer wouldn't let him hit in the previous inning, and then Kopp was put on intentionally because he might have missed triple-digit games this year, but remember the slump that Tovias was in? Yeah, slump my ***, Tovias shouted, crushed a 3-piece to right, and that casually also rendered Vasquez' service for the Elks complete for the day, saddled with six runs in 5.1 innings. The Elks would bring the monster with a handful of RBI in the game up one more time in the eighth inning, then with right-hander Jasper Devitt already having his thoughts concerned with two runners again. Tovias wouldn't get another one to drive, and flew out softly to Day in center, but the inning continued with Justin Gerace coming up, and Devitt just served up a fastball right down the middle to him. Gerace also knew where the fence was, and deposited a 3-piece of his own next to the batter's eye, measured at 432 feet. With a 9-run lead, Legleiter began the ninth inning, got Morales to ground out, but Day singled to center. He claimed to have something left in the tank, got a bouncer from Tony Coca that he turned for an out at second, but not for a double play. Alex Torres and his 22 homers would be his last batter one way or another. The count ran full with Legleiter already over 105 pitches, and running visibly on fumes until Torres chopped a poor grounder into play. Tovias pounced, Tovias threw, and Tovias had him at first base. 9-0 Coons! Nunley 2-4, 2B; Tovias 2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Legleiter 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (2-2);

Unsurprisingly, this was Lance Legleiter's first career shutout, but it was also only the ninth career start in the majors for the 28-year-old.

Game 2
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – CF Day – RF Coca – LF A. Torres – SS Calfee – 2B Gura – 1B Hargraves – C Tanzillo – P I. Morales
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – RF Kopp – C Tovias – LF Gerace – SS Stalker – P Delgadillo

The Coons' reclamation half of a Cuban square-off didn't fare badly at all, allowing two base hits in the first five innings, although that unfortunately included a 2-out RBI double by Norman Day, cashing the pitcher in the third inning. The Raccoons saw Jon Gonzalez extend his hitting streak in the first inning, Jarod Spencer steal two bases inside the first five innings, and still didn't score from their six base hits, trailing 1-0 after five. Hey, boys! Hit a double from time to time!! Terry Kopp obliged, doubling in the bottom 6th after Gonzalez had already singled to begin the inning. Tony Coca was on the ball quickly near the rightfield line, keeping Gonzalez honest at third base, but the Coons now had a prime chance with runners on second and third and nobody down. Elias Tovias hit a hard grounder, but the persistently despicable Ted Gura intercepted that on the right side of the infield. Still, he had to dig himself out of the dirt there, and while Tovias was well out at first base, there was no shot at Gonzalez, who scored to tie the game. Next, Justin Gerace aimed for the fence again, hitting a ball off the top of the wall in rightfield, with Tony Coca bouncing off the fence beneath and losing track of the ball for long enough to allow Gerace to slide in with an RBI triple, 2-1 Coons. Tim Stalker got hit and Delgadillo grounded out, after which the Elks went to right-hander Fernando Ortega for Spencer, whom he nevertheless walked to load them up for Mora, another struggling slugger. But you just had a to hang a breaking ball to him to get him going. Ortega threw a *69* mph breaking ball that had so much hang time that Abel Mora could point it out to his dugout and had time to explain how he would hit that one for a slam. Then he did. Dead center, 430 feet. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

Delgadillo lasted seven-plus, issuing a pair of walks in the eighth to get removed for Justin Hess, who retired the next three Elks in order to keep them at a safe distance. The Coons never scored more than they did in their 6-run sixth, but that turned out to be plenty. Will West retired the Elks in order in the ninth inning to put this game in the books. 6-1 Coons! Spencer 2-4, BB; Mora 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Gonzalez 2-4; Gerace 2-4, 3B, RBI; Delgadillo 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (2-3);

Jarod Spencer – first to 40 stolen bases in the CL! Douglas is still at 38.

Thanks Vince, for that pointless walk on Wednesday…

Game 3
VAN: 3B Jon. Morales – 2B Gura – CF Coca – LF A. Torres – SS Calfee – 1B Myles – RF Day – C Holliman – P F. Estrada
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – 1B Gonzalez – C O'Dell – LF Borg – SS Bullock – CF Metts – P Gutierrez

As the Raccoons vied for a 6-0 week, their offense first got going in the bottom of the second inning. Brett O'Dell threw out John Calfee in the top of the second inning, but made an out to begin the bottom of the second himself. After that, Greg Borg tripled into the gap in left-center, with more support coming behind him. Bullock hit an RBI double, even lowly Dwayne Metts singled, and Gutierrez chucked a ball high to center to allow Bullock to scamper home on the sac fly. Speaking of lowly Dwayne Metts, he had another single in the fourth, then again with Bullock on second base, chasing him home with two outs this time for a 3-0 lead.

Rico contended well with a mostly right-handed lineup, which often gave him fits, although the Elks helped out wherever they could. Adan Myles hit a leadoff single in the fifth inning, after which Gutierrez whiffed Day, the only left-hander in the Elks' order. Ryan Holliman worked a 3-0 count before getting hungry and cracking away at the fourth pitch of the at-bat, grounding it to Jarod Spencer for a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play. Gutierrez wasn't blowing them away; he had only three strikeouts through six innings, but walked nobody and in the process reached the mark of 100 more strikeouts than walks on the season. But these were still the damn Elks – anything could happen, at any point, more so than with any other team. They were less human, and more a force of nature. When Tony Coca reached base to begin the seventh, legging out a poor grounder in no man's land for an infield single, my alarm went off for sure. However, Torres smashed another grounder at Spencer for another double play to take care of that runner.

Reliever Ortega wasn't relieving very well again in the seventh inning, plating an additional run for the Coons on a wild pitch, bringing in Terry Kopp with two outs for a 4-0 advantage. There was no reason not to let Rico pitch in the ninth inning then, since the Elks hadn't amounted to much of a threat since about the last time they had been in Portland. Mike Chaplin struck out in a full count in the #9 hole to begin the inning. Morales grounded out to Bullock on the first pitch. And Ted Gura hit the first pitch to center, Metts going back, and he made the catch, ending this perfect week! 4-0 Coons! Bullock 2-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Metts 2-3, BB, RBI; Gutierrez 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (10-7);

This was the fourth career shutout for Rico Gutierrez, the second this year.

In other news

September 8 – SFB SP Matt Huf (15-11, 4.33 ERA) twirls a 1-hitter against the Condors, claiming a 5-0 win with one walk and seven strikeouts. TIJ LF/RF Willie Ramos (.202, 1 HR, 13 RBI) singles right in the first inning for the Condors' only base knock.
September 8 – LAP C Dylan Allomes (.260, 9 HR, 52 RBI) is done for the season with a pretty badly strained hamstring.
September 9 – Cincinnati's CL Troy Charters (4-5, 2.35 ERA, 37 SV) is done for the season with a partial tear in his labrum, and as if that wasn't enough the Cyclones also lose CF Nando Maiello (.312, 2 HR, 49 RBI) to a herniated disc. Maiello is also unlikely to help them down the stretch again as they trail the Buffaloes by 2.5 games.
September 9 – Season over as well for SFW SP Mike Fernandez (6-11, 3.79 ERA). The 31-year-old right-hander is battling shoulder inflammation.
September 11 – The Crusaders acquire LF Juan Espinosa (.197, 3 HR, 27 RBI) from the Blue Sox for two prospects, including #51 SP Pablo Correa.
September 14 – The Scorpions win a double header from the Warriors, claiming the second game with an 8-run 11th inning when the Warriors' pitching staff runs out of talent completely. SAC LF/RF Doug Stross (.354, 7 HR, 76 RBI) has two hits, three walks, and drives in one run in his team's 12-4 victory.

Complaints and stuff

(waves visitor over to the window that overlooks the field) Do you see this down there? (points at solitary figure applying the broom to the concourse) That is Slappy. He only does this whenever the Raccoons have a perfect week during which they play the Elks. I think that is the first time he's held a broom since '96 or so.

Marvelous!

The Raccoons and Matt Nunley would like to announce their agreement on a 2-year, $1.2M extension for Nunley, who doesn't want to go anywhere else, and the Coons don't have a real prospect at third base, so it was just best to keep together what belonged together. He also took another slight pay cut, because all his favorite food places were right near the ballpark and it was just too much asked to test free agency and then find food someplace else.

Nunley, the 132nd pick in the 2010 draft, will thus stick in the organization for a 17th and 18th year, in all likelihood being on the path to tie Daniel Hall for longest attachment to the organization for a position player. They are however not even close to Nick Brown, who was in the Raccoons organization for 24 years, and now is in the Hall of Fame!

I like to mention that from time to time.

Jarod Spencer became only the sixth player in franchise history to reach 40 stolen bases in a season. Actually, he's the fourth player to reach the mark; Cookie Carmona did it three times between 2013 and 2018 with a high of 52 bags in '14. Matt Higgins was the first to steal 40 or more, taking 42 bags in 1993, y'know, the weird year in which a career .259/.320/.346 batter was our starting first baseman.

Of course the most stolen bases ever by a Raccoon in a season is 54 by Yoshi Yamada in 2005. Yamada, 27, in his only full season, reached base at a .238 clip, and STILL stole 54 bases …

We won our 79th game on Friday, which already put us over our total from each of the last three seasons. The Coons also seem like they will beat their 2021 mark (85-77). They could still easily win 90 or more! Problem is, the Titans have already won 90.

Or more.

Fun Fact: The most recent pitcher to win a 90th game in a season for the Raccoons was Jonathan Toner, beating the Loggers, 4-1, on the final day of the 2020 season.

Not only is Toner a Logger now (and for a change lost a 1-0 game on Friday, dropping to 8-13 this season), which has its own sad reasons, but the save in that game went to Nick Lester, collecting four outs in a wild switcheroo of roles.

Two days later, the Loggers drove their bats up Lester's bum in the seventh inning of the second tie-breaker game. This included balking in the go-ahead – and eventually winning – run for the Loggers.

No, I have not heard of his whereabouts, and if I ever find out and get hold of him, I will pick ever single hair out of his pelt, one by one, including the whiskers.