[Westheim]

Raccoons (60-44) @ Falcons (44-62) – July 31-August 2, 2028

Charlotte was home to the CL team with the worst pitching, with 5.3 runs falling out of the Falcons per game. Their offense ranked them eighth in the CL, which wasn’t going to help them a whole lot as they sat in last place in the South, 20 1/2 games out of the leading Condors. Of course, their season had long been written off as a loss, but at the same time the Coons had so far had a hard time with them, splitting the first six games of the season evenly with them.

Projected matchups:
Dan Delgadillo (2-4, 6.30 ERA) vs. Chris Rountree (3-12, 5.02 ERA)
Mark Roberts (12-3, 2.76 ERA) vs. Jesse Schiebout (5-7, 4.98 ERA)
Kyle Anderson (7-4, 3.82 ERA) vs. Joel O’Brien (3-2, 6.19 ERA)

Some grim ERA’s there; their “ace” was Mike Fernandez with a 4.04 ERA and a pale 5-12 record. Rountree was the only southpaw in the bunch.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – LF Morales – 1B Correa – 3B Hereford – RF Gomez – 2B Spencer – C Tovias – CF Magallanes – P Delgadillo
CHA: 1B Fowlkes – 3B G. Ortíz – LF Salto – CF N. Nelson – C Sigala – RF Camps – SS Webb – 2B Rolland – P Rountree

Two shackled pitchers turned up and a pitcher’s duel broke out, at least for the first four innings. The Coons had nothing against Rountree, and Delgadillo looked vaguely competent, at least until the fifth inning when he bunted into a force at third base to ruin the top of the inning, then got roughed up in the bottom half, too. Jaylen Rolland hit a 1-out double, then scored on Rountree’s single to center, swiftly followed by a long ball over the leftfield fence hit by Pat Fowlkes. In a hurry, the Coons were down 3-0 before hitting a bushel of singles in the top 6th. Morales led off with one, Correa whiffed, Hereford singled, Gomez whiffed, Spencer singled, and with three on and two outs Elias Tovias broke up the procession with a ball over the head of Graciano Salto for a bases-clearing double that put the Coons even again. Magallanes was walked intentionally, Delgadillo was not hit for and struck out, and the inning ended in a 3-3 tie. Fascinatingly, the offenses then stopped again; both pitchers went through seven innings without further harm, but the Coons got a good chance in the top of the eighth against Rountree. Rich Hereford singled to left to begin the inning, Salto overran the ball, and the error put the go-ahead run on second base with nobody out. Rafael Gomez got four wide ones to get to Spencer, which was a strange choice one way or another, and Jarod singled to left to load the bags again for Tovias, but this time it was a double play scenario. He executed masterfully, bouncing fast to Fowlkes, who fired home to get Hereford, and they even got the lumbering Tovias at first base. Stalker batted for Magallanes, but flew out to Juan Camps in right, stranding runners in scoring position.

But the Falcons would try again – top 9th, righty Jimmy Shearer pitching to Ryan Allan, now in center and batting ninth. Allan hit a ****ty grounder that Jairo Sigala couldn’t dig out in time and that resulted in an infield single. Ramos whiffed on a hit-and-run, but Sigala threw the ball into centerfield to allow the go-ahead run to third base with nobody out. Ramos turned the first-pitch strike into a walk, but Danny Morales flew out to shallow center, keeping the runner on, and Allan also wasn’t going to score on Jon Correa’s soft fly to Sal- oops, no, he dropped it. The third critical error by the Falcons was the one that finally allowed the Coons to score. Hereford singled to load them up, but we only got a pinch-hit sac fly from Harenberg under our own power before sending in Josh Boles for the 4-5-6 batters. For the third time in a week, Boles was one strike away from ringing up the side when Juan Camps hit a double on a 1-2 pitch. Jason Carmichael pinch-hit after that one, and the Falcons would lose on another grievous error when Carmichael singled to center. Camps went around and scored, but Carmichael had not stopped at first base and was caught up in a rundown by Ryan Allan from which he emerged thoroughly pelted for the final out in the contest. 5-4 Coons. Hereford 3-5; Spencer 3-5; Tovias 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Magallanes 0-1, 2 BB; Allan 1-1;

Despite my best efforts, the Raccoons failed to land another reinforcement at the trade deadline, which silently passed.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – C Leal – 2B Stalker – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – 3B Nunley – RF Gomez – CF Allan – P Roberts
CHA: SS Hobbs – CF N. Nelson – 1B Fowlkes – RF Kok – LF Salto – C Sigala – 3B Webb – 2B Rolland – P Schiebout

In a weird-ass game, there was a Falcons error on Fowlkes right at the start of the game, but the Coons couldn’t get Ramos around… or anybody else, in fact. They loaded the bases on three singles in the second inning, but when Roberts lifted a ball out to Salto and the Coons sent Nunley from third he was thrown out at the plate and the inning was over. The Coons didn’t do anything else through five innings, while Salto walked, stole second, and scored on Ernie Webb’s single in the bottom 2nd. Mark Roberts also had to fight off rain and a brief rain relay, and struck out nobody until the fifth inning, then still in a 1-0 deficit. He also walked the pitcher Schiebout once, and fell behind 2-0 on Fowlkes’ homer in the bottom 6th, but that was after Tim Stalker had drawn a leadoff walk, stolen second, and had still been stranded when Nunley hit into a double play to erase Kevin Harenberg and the second walk of the inning. At some point, we realized that the loss in this game was divined to fall onto the Coons… Ramos was on base to start the eighth, but was caught stealing, even though Armando Leal then singled. Nothing worked … until Rich Hereford ran into a hanger thrown by righty Brian Bowsman and powdered it some 410 feet outta right center. That one tied the game with two outs in the eighth and left Mark Roberts with a no-decision in a crummy start. Bottom 9th, Fleischer walked Barend Kok on four pitches to get going, then allowed a double to Salto, putting the winning run on third base with no outs. Hugo Ochoa grounded to Ramos, who fired home – out! But when Ernie Webb also grounded to short, Ramos didn’t get Salto as well… that throw was late and the Falcons walked off. 3-2 Falcons. Ramos 2-4;

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Correa – RF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – CF Magallanes – P Anderson
CHA: 1B Fowlkes – SS Hobbs – RF Kok – LF Salto – CF N. Nelson – C Sigala – 3B Webb – 2B Rolland – P O’Brien

The Coons walked three times the first time through the lineup, but had no hits and the Falcons chipped in no errors, so there was no early scoring, at least not for the visiting team. The home team went up 1-0 in the second in the rubber game for both this series and the season series when Nate Nelson doubled and scored on Jairo Sigala’s single, and then 2-0 in the third on Michael Hobbs’ solo shot. The Coons only became active in the fourth. Harenberg drew a leadoff walk, Tovias doubled, and Magallanes was put on intentionally. Anderson struck out, but that was only the second out; Ramos singled hard past Ernie Webb, who had robbed him three of four times in this series, but couldn’t catch up with this ball as it escaped into the outfield and tied the game as two runs scored. Tim Stalker put the Coons in front with an RBI single to left before the inning fizzled out.

O’Brien walked six in this start and was done before completing six innings, but the Coons failed to pummel him like they had failed to pummel any of the Falcons’ horrendous starters in this series. This had to come back to bite them in the furry bum; Sigala came through again in the bottom 6th, finding runners on the corners with two outs and doubling off the fence to flip the score in the Falcons’ favor, 4-3. Anderson lasted seven but was still on the hook when the Falcons cycled through their entire pen in the Coons’ half of the eighth. Tovias led off with a shy single. Magallanes failed to bunt him over, poking into a force at second base. Morales flew out to Salto. Ramos hit an infield single. By the time Stalker stepped into the box, the Falcons were on their fourth reliever of the inning, righty Josh Pillsbury, who got Stalker to ground back to the mound to suffocate the wannabe rally. Pillsbury went on to retire the middle of the order 1-2-3 in the ninth, including K’s to Hereford and Harenberg. 4-3 Falcons. Ramos 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Tovias 2-3, BB, 2B;

Well… at least the Crusaders didn’t do much either… we are still up by 4 1/2…

Raccoons (61-46) vs. Indians (48-59) – August 3-6, 2028

Next stab at a foundering team. The Indians had a 9-game losing streak going and were last in batting average and runs scored in the Continental League. Their pitching was solid, allowing the fifth-fewest runs, but when you were only scratching out 3.6 runs a game, any sort of momentum was hard to get. Or so I hear. The Coons led the season series, narrowly, 4-3.

Projected matchups:
Rin Nomura (10-5, 2.87 ERA) vs. Jim Kretzmann (0-1, 15.43 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (8-5, 2.38 ERA) vs. Frank Kelly (0-0, 9.39 ERA)
Dan Delgadillo (2-4, 6.00 ERA) vs. David Saccoccio (8-9, 3.09 ERA)
Mark Roberts (12-3, 2.74 ERA) vs. Mark Matthews (2-2, 4.22 ERA)

All right-handers, if they really go in that order. Injuries had ravaged the Indians’ rotation and anything was possible. Frank Kelly was the ex-Coon continuously trying to come back from some sort of injury. He had been blown up over nine relief appearances so far this season. Kretzmann was a rookie that had been strafed in his first career start. He had made three relief appearances last year… and had been strafed.

Can we get any sort of offense … at all?

And, oh, what nice surprise… the dear owner decided to fly by for the first two games and already brought some helpful advice, like, adding a hometown player to get more people to the park.

Game 1
IND: SS Pizano – 2B T. Johnson – CF Suhay – C Kennett – RF Ryder – LF M. Cowan – 1B Aleman – 3B Roesler – P Kretzmann
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Correa – RF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – CF Magallanes – P Nomura

Much to the pleasure of my peptic ulcer, the Coons were hellbound to not score Rich Hereford after his leadoff triple in the second inning, but their evil plans were foiled when Kretzmann uncorked a wild pitch to Tovias, and that one got Hereford home with two down for the first marker on the board. Tovias (and Magallanes) actually went on to single, but that was with the pressure and the RISP off, so he wasn’t fooling me with no “oh I woulda…!” – but the Coons turned over the lineup for the third, which would surely not be all bad. Stalker doubled, Correa singled, Hereford hit a boomer for three, his 20th homer on the season, and he was now also at 87 RBI and had had his paws in all the Coons runs in the 4-0 game.

While Nomura was very good, he was not all dominant. In fact, the Indians had a man in scoring position in three of the first four innings, twice on a double; Ben Suhay hit one into the leftfield corner in the first, and Mario Pizano doubled off the fence and the tip of Hereford’s glove in the third, but neither got around to score. Kretzmann in turn was sent to bed by the fourth, in which Nomura singled, Stalker doubled, and Jon Correa brought in a run with a well-placed groundout, 5-0. The sixth inning was unremarkable in that Nomura retired the top of the Indians’ lineup in order, except that Suhay was thrown out by Nunley on a grounder that was rather near the mound, but he still raced in and made a bare-hand play to beat the centerfielder on a bang-bang play – 37 years old and still got the guts! …including those of some poor animal no the sandwiches he had brought in his lunchbox and that were stinking up the dugout.

The Furballs went up 6-0 in the bottom 6th on doubles by Stalker and Hereford, which was remarkable in that Rich was now a single short of the cycle, but was not guaranteed another at-bat at this point. At the same time, Nomura got stuck in the seventh, bleeding three singles for a run before hitting Jon Gonzalez with his 100th pitch of the game. That loaded the bases with two outs, the Coons went to Surginer to face Pizano, but the opposing shortstop ripped a 2-run single on Surginer’s first pitch. Todd Johnson struck out to end the inning, now in a 6-3 score. Nunley walked and Morales had a pinch-hit single in the bottom 7th, which was not enough for a run, but enough to bring up Hereford in the eighth, which the Coons entered facing southpaw Ben Knox after a perfect eighth from Jonathan Fleischer. Knox retired Stalker and Correa before facing Hereford with two outs and nobody on. Hereford spanked the first pitch right at third baseman Mike Roesler… but it was hit so hard that Roesler couldn’t play it cleanly as the ball bounced just in front of him and hit off his glove before striking him in the stomach. Roesler moaned, recovered, but got nothing on the throw to first and Hereford legged it out – RICH HEREFORD HAS HIT FOR THE CYCLE!!!

That was not the last straw in the game, either. After the videoboard flashed up with congratulations and the home crowd was done snickering in appreciation – and even some of the Indians players applauded Hereford for undoing them in probably their 10th straight loss – Rafael Gomez batted for Harenberg and hit a 2-piece over the fence to give Portland a 5-run edge. Nick Derks put two on, but eventually nailed down the ninth in his memorable win. 8-3 Furballs! Stalker 3-5, 3 2B; Hereford 4-5, HR, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Gomez (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4, BB; Morales (PH) 1-1; Nomura 6.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (11-5);

Guess what – Nick Valdes basically told me “well done” on the trade that got us Rich Hereford last season. In fact it has been a year and four days since the deal with the Gold Sox that sent him over.

Game 2
IND: SS Pizano – LF Plunkett – 1B Jon Gonzalez – CF Suhay – C Kennett – 2B T. Johnson – RF M. Cowan – 3B Dichio – P Saccoccio
POR: SS Ramos – C Leal – 2B Stalker – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – 3B Nunley – CF Magallanes – P Gutierrez

A day after once-in-a-decade heroics, Rich Hereford was involved in double plays in his first two trips to the plate and beyond and it was never really his fault. He lined into an inning-ending double play in the first inning that I tended to blame on Armando Leal’s lack of awareness for his surroundings that allowed the Indians do double him off second base, then was the first out on Rafael Gomez’ ball into a 6-4-3 double play that ended the fourth inning. In between, three players had gone yard, all with solo shots, but the Indians were up 2-1 on homers by Pizano and Suhay. Leal had gone deep for the Coons in the bottom 4th. Portland knotted the score against Saccoccio in the bottom 5th when both Nunley and Magallanes hit doubles to right to begin the frame, and the Indians added more runners with an intentional walk to Ramos after Gutierrez had gone down whiffing. Leal singled past Jon Gonzalez into right for an RBI single, putting Portland up 3-2, and when Stalker walked in a full count, the bags were full for Hereford, who ripped away at the first pitch he got, which turned out the last pitch from Saccoccio, and was also never found again after clearing the batter’s eye – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!

Staked to a 7-2 lead after the 6-run fifth, Rico basically only had to keep working well. Don’t spark a meltdown! And he didn’t; Rico retired the Indians in order all the way to the ninth inning, where the annoying all-or-nothing hitter Ben Suhay hit a 1-out triple into the rightfield corner. That was a bit of a problem; we would have liked for Rico to finish the game, but again… don’t spark a meltdown. He would get one more batter, Elliott Kennett, but we got Ricky Ohl up just in case. Kennett struck out, Rico’s 10th victim in the game… and he made it 11 on Todd Johnson to end the game…! 7-2 Furballs! Ramos 1-2, 3 BB; Leal 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Hereford 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Gutierrez 9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, W (9-5);

As Valdes left he told me to keep up the good work.

What the heck does that mean? – Maud? – Maud? – What did he say?

For now, we’d shuffle in some off days for the everyday guys. Including Hereford! We will not have an off day next week either, and I don’t want to run everybody into the ground while we are up by more than a handful.

Game 3
IND: SS Pizano – 3B Roesler – 1B Jon Gonzalez – CF Suhay – LF Plunkett – RF Ryder – C M. Sanchez – 2B T. Johnson – P F. Kelly
POR: SS Stalker – 2B Spencer – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – LF Morales – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – CF Magallanes – P Delgadillo

There was a rain delay as early as the second inning, by which time the Indians led 1-0 on account of Roesler’s first-inning triple and Jon Gonzalez’ run-scoring groundout. The Coons tried to strand as many runners as possible early on, or like Harenberg in the bottom 1st just simply hit into a double play. Harenberg drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 4th, moved to second on Morales’ single, to third on Tovias’ fly to center, then froze when Nunley flew out to Zachary Ryder in right. Magallanes walked against the drifting Kelly, whose state made me sad and had done so for years, but all that did was bring up the pitcher with three on and two down. Lo and behold, Delgadillo singled over the second-base bag, two runs scored, and the score was flipped in favor of the home team!

Stalker flew out to strand another pair and the tender 2-1 lead was always in danger of going extinct with 2028 Dan Delgadillo on the mound. Yusneldan gave up a leadoff double to Suhay in the sixth, and also walked Ryder with two outs. Suhay had moved up on Mike Plunkett’s fly to center, and Ryder took second base via steal, but when Manny Sanchez lined to the left side, Stalker jumped and made the catch, just barely. Now, would the Indians bat for Frank Kelly with three on and two outs? Probably! But it wouldn’t hurt to feel their pulse. Todd Johnson got directions to first base to load them up for the #9 hole, the Indians did not bat for Kelly, the count ran full, and then Kelly flew to center. Magallanes was there and - … dropped the ball. Two runs scored as the entire ballpark gasped at once. That one had the potential to unspool the entire team… I could feel it in my guts. Pizano fouled out on a 3-0 pitch, but we really needed to get some runs right now, down 3-2. Nothing happened in the bottom 6th, but Kelly walked Magallanes to begin the bottom 7th. Ramos batted for Delgadillo, struck out (!), but Kelly disappeared after walking Tim Stalker. Right-hander David Wayne with his 6.53 ERA threatened to snuff out the Coons once and for all, the weirdly cursed Jarod Spencer popped out, but Rafael Gomez singled to left and Magallanes was waved around to score and tie the game. But that noise you heard was Wayne coming apart – he surrendered an RBI single to Harenberg, putting Portland up 4-3, and then a gasp that threatened to fall into Plunkett’s mitten at the fence before coughing over said fence for a 3-piece to Danny Morales. Spencer did manage a 2-out RBI single in the eighth, though. 8-3 Furballs! Spencer 2-5, RBI; Gomez 2-5, RBI; Morales 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Magallanes 0-1, 2 BB; Delgadillo 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (3-4) and 1-1, 2 RBI;

This was the first game all season in which Rich Hereford did not appear. He was the last Critter to show his whiskers in all contests of the year.

Game 4
IND: SS Pizano – 2B T. Johnson – 1B Jon Gonzalez – C Kennett – RF Ryder – LF Aleman – CF M. Cowan – 3B Roesler – P Matthews
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – LF Correa – 3B Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Tovias – CF Allan – P Roberts

While Portland scored first on Sunday thanks to Ramos’ leadoff triple and Spencer’s sac fly in the first, the Indians were on the brink of doing some major damage in the third inning, in which they hit three singles through the same seam between Ramos and Hereford. No fault on the defense, just three perfectly placed grounders in the inning. That loaded the bases with one out for Gonzalez, who struck out, and then Kennett, who … struck out. PHEW. Oh, never mind – the Indians just kept singling Roberts every which way they liked. They had three more singles in the fourth inning, two through the left side, with Roesler driving in Alex Aleman to tie the game at one. Roberts sat on seven base hits through four innings. Bottom 4th, leadoff walk drawn by Jon Correa, then a single over Johnson hit by Hereford. That one came AFTER Zachary Ryder dropped a foul pop near the sidewall, which gave Hereford a second shot. When Matthews lost Harenberg in a full count, the Coons had three on and nobody out, a.k.a. The Danger Zone. Gomez’ run-scoring groundout was all they got. Tovias was walked intentionally, Allan struck out, and Roberts flew out to Mike Cowan.

Then came the fifth and more boundless horrors. Todd Johnson hit a leadoff single that Allan overran to put the tying run on second base. It did not matter much for Roberts drilled the next TWO batters to load the bases with no outs… Weirdly enough, once **** was steaming, he seemed to get it back together… He rung up Ryder, surrendered the tying run on Aleman’s sac fly, but then also got Cowan to pop out and strand them on the corners in the 2-2 game. At this point, his pitch count was completely shot, but he would hang around long enough to surrender a go-ahead home run to Pizano in the top 6th… The Raccoons picked two innings from Nick Derks while their lineup continued to be no real help for the cause of a 4-game sweep, but the Indians’ pen crumbled ever so slightly in the eighth. Knox walked Hereford, who advanced on Harenberg’s groundout, then scored when Gomez singled off Wayne. That tied the game, but not more. Kevin Surginer held the Indians in place in the top 9th, bringing up the 8-9-1 part of the lineup against righty Brandon Smith and his 6.27 ERA in the bottom 9th. Nunley led off after entering in the second double switch of the game, grounded out, and the Coons didn’t get somebody on until Ramos singled with two down. When he was caught stealing, the game went to extras. There the Arrowheads continued to hit them through the seams; Kennett and Ryder went to the corners after both rolled a ball through between Spencer and Harenberg to begin the inning. Dominique Dichio lined hard to left, but Nunley made a marvelous play AND doubled off the confused catcher! …and then the Indians still scored on Bill Boggus’ double to left… Spencer hit a leadoff single in the bottom 10th, was doubled off by Correa, and then Johnson handled Hereford’s grounder to salvage a game for the Indians on the way out. 4-3 Indians. Ramos 2-5, 3B; Derks 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

July 31 – BOS 1B/RF/LF/2B Matt Good (.281, 8 HR, 36 RBI) lands his 2,000th base hit in the Titans’ 7-3 loss to the Aces. Good reaches the milestone on a first-inning RBI double off LVA SP Ed Hague (9-9, 5.04 ERA).
July 31 – The Thunder feverishly rally past the Crusaders in the eighth inning, scoring nine times to turn a 6-2 deficit into an eventual 11-6 win.
August 1 – BOS 3B/2B Rhett West (.250, 4 HR, 40 RBI) figures to miss the entire month of August with a strained triceps.
August 2 – OCT CF Dave Garcia (.290, 10 HR, 49 RBI) will probably miss a month once again with a sprained thumb.
August 5 – SFB 1B/3B Eddie Moreno (..270, 7 HR, 24 RBI) lands his fourth hit for the Bayhawks after a July trade, which is also the 2,000th of his career, in a 5-3 loss to the Thunder. The marquee hit is a pinch-hit RBI single off OCT MR Max Nelson (6-6, 5.42 ERA) in the eighth inning.

Complaints and stuff

Mark Dawson – Vic Flores – Adrian Quebell – Rich Hereford

…those are the Raccoons that have hit for the cycle. We had actually not been involved in a cycle for 19 1/2 seasons, ever since Quebell’s in May of 2009. The Indians had not been in a cycle for 16 years, having fallen victim to Hall of Famer Martin Ortíz of the Crusaders in 2012.

Not entirely by surprise came Rich Hereford’d dedication as Player of the Week in the Continental League, torturing opposing teams with a .423 clip (11-26), 3 HR, and 10 RBI.

Pitcher of the Month in the Continental League? Mark Roberts of your dear Raccoons. He made five starts, won them all, and posted a 2.04 ERA in 35.1 innings with 40 K while yielding only 24 hits and seven walks.

As expected (…), the Coons went worse against the bottom feeders (4-3) as they had against the top teams in the South (4-2) the week before. And up next? The Loggers that almost unwound us completely in July, when we went 4-5 against them in some extended home-and-away action in the pair of 4-game sets around the All Star Game. After that: the Gold Sox, deeply regretting the Rich Hereford deal I assume.

Abel Mora started a brief rehab assignment in the middle of the week. He should be back in Portland to start the next week!

Fun Fact: The Indians have two cycles to their credit. Both came in the 2000s with Jose Paraz (2004) and Angel Solís (2007).

Solís’ cycle is one of six natural cycle in league history. Overall the ABL has seen 76 cycles. Hereford’s was the first this season.