[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-30) @ Wolves (37-24) – June 13-15, 2033

The 33rd ever regular-season Oregon Brawl would take place in Salem. The Coons were 54-42 against them all-time, and had won the last two meetings, two games to one each, with the most recent encounter taking place in ’31. The Wolves were a stunning first in the FL West and actually had the second-best record in the league behind the Bayhawks. Like every other team the Raccoons were playing these days, their sixth-place offense relied on the long ball and could hardly steal a base (but even the Miners had gotten three off the Critters, so…). They had allowed the fewest runs in the Federal League, but were only fourth in both runs allowed and runs conceded.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (7-3, 3.24 ERA) vs. Brandon Nickerson (6-7, 5.17 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (4-5, 3.65 ERA) vs. Brian Frain (7-4, 3.95 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (5-4, 2.78 ERA) vs. Phil Harrington (10-1, 1.71 ERA)

All of these three were right-handers.

Harrington was maybe the best pitcher in the game right now. He was an Oregon boy from Klamath Falls, and had been taken #51 in the 2023 draft. He had led the FL in both ERA and strikeouts for three straight years, but had not been able to get the wins to notch the triple crown, having topped out at 16. He was however a 2-time Pitcher of the Year AND a 1-time Reliever of the Year – the Wolves had used him as closer in his first two full seasons. At 28, he had piled up 37 WAR (a useless stat), and right now stamina was his only weak spot. He struggled to reach even 200 innings or six innings per start. He had a single complete game in his career.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Marsingill – CF Reichardt – LF Wallace – C Thompson – 1B Ferrero – RF M. Fernandez – 3B Perkins – P Chavez
SAL: SS J. Castro – CF Higashi – 1B I. Pena – LF Weinstein – RF Banfi – 3B McGee – C Canody – 2B J. Perez – P Nickerson

Bernie’s struggles continued for a bit longer. His stuff was unconvincing and the Wolves found ways on base… but also ways off base again. Jon Perez was nicked to begin the bottom 3rd, but doubled up by Nickerson’s poor bunt before Jose Castro walked, Rai Higashi singled, and Ivan Pena stranded them all with a comebacker to Chavez for the third out. Kyle Weinstein and Tyler Canody drew walks in the fourth, but were left stranded when Perez struck out in a full count. And while that was all rather sad to watch it was still more than what the Raccoons’ offense cobbled together against the pushover Nickerson through four innings, managing two singles and nothing else. Top 5th, Ferrero was nailed to begin the frame, which at least put someone on base, at least until he was thrown out stealing. Manny Fernandez grounded to short, then reached second base on a throwing error by Castro. It still didn’t lead to a run, despite a 2-out walk to Chavez and a wild pitch. Ramos grounded out to Perez, leaving the runners stranded. Chavez got through five in shutout fashion too, albeit needing over 80 pitches and while falling to 3-1 on Nickerson in the fifth before the opposing hurler would fly out to shallow center.

The Coons stranded a pair in the sixth, and Chavez fell apart in the same inning. Ivan Pena hit a leadoff single, but was doubled up by Weinstein. From there, Bernie had Luigi Banfi at two strikes and walked him, Chris McGee at two strikes and allowed an RBI triple, and then walked Canody as well on his way to the dugout. Anaya replaced him and got the .190 hitter Perez to ground out, keeping this a 1-0 deficit. Top 7th, Fernandez led off with a fly do deep left. Weinstein made the catch before bouncing off the fence, falling down and losing the ball in the process. By the time he rescrambled all his limbs and fangs, Fernandez slid into third base with a leadoff triple. He scored on the ****tiest bloop single off Justin Perkins’ bat, dropping in front of the still uncomfortable Weinstein, tying the game again. Anaya was employed to bunt, bringing Perkins into scoring position for Ramos, who was put on intentionally. Marsingill popped out, Reichardt lifted out to Banfi, and that was that…

Top 9th, Fernandez reached base again to begin the inning… even if only on an error by pitcher Miguel Salazar, who dropped a feed from Rai Higashi. Something started to brew in the measliest of ways with a Perkins infield single. Next up was Travis Zitzner, already inserted into the #9 spot in a double switch the previous inning. He buried a ball in the right-center gap far away from Banfi and Yachi Tabata for an RBI double, and the Critters had the lead! Berto was again walked intentionally, getting us to three on and no outs. Salem had the infield in, Marsingill grounded a ball right at Perez, and he fired home to kill off Perkins rather than take two and concede a run. Reichardt pulled the exact same move, just with Castro on the other side, and Wallace fell to 0-2 while I wondered whether my favorite liquor store in Salem had been on 12th or 14th street. But Jimmy came through, knocked a single near the rightfield line, far away from Banfi, and two runs scored! Salazar walked Thompson, but rung up Tim Stalker to finally end the inning after three (unearned) runs. Wise retired the Wolves quickly to get this one in the books. 4-1 Raccoons! Perkins 2-4, RBI; Zitzner 1-1, 2B, RBI;

How many tooth-to-nail games have we had in a row now? This is exhausting!

Game 2*
POR: SS Marsingill – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – 3B Perkins – P del Rio
SAL: SS J. Castro – CF Higashi – 1B I. Pena – RF Benfi – 3B McGee – C Canody – LF Way – 2B Tabata – P Frain

With Fernandez and Stalker on base, Jimmy Wallace hit a drive to deep left that already had me excited when it annoyingly dropped into the glove of Brian Way right at the fence. Zitzner fouled out, and the Coons didn’t score in the first inning – but they did in the second. Reichardt was nailed by Frain, Thompson singled, and after Perkins’ awful groundout the first run came home on del Rio grounding out to second base. Marsingill upped to 2-0 with a triple to right before Fernandez flew out to Way. Too bad Yachi Tabata took it all away with a 2-out, 2-run homer in the bottom 2nd, scoring Canody. First base had been open, but the matchup looked like it was in del Rio’s favor and we wanted to avoid the intentional walk. Well, that greed did not become us.

Tabata was up again with two outs in the fourth, but then with Banfi on second and Canody on first, and this time del Rio prevailed with a K. The Coons had hit into double plays in the third and fourth innings, hit nothing bloody much in the next two innings, and then got Reichardt on base in another hit-by-pitch scenario to begin the seventh. Thompson and Perkins were no great help, and with two outs we let del Rio bat because he had the Wolves somewhat under control now and the runner was still on first base. The count on del Rio ran full before he slapped away at another pitch with his tiny black button eyes closed. The bat made clonk when it hit the ball and slapped it deep into the gap in right-center. Since Reichardt had gone on movement, he easily scored from first base to break the 2-2 tie, with del Rio reaching second base before scoring on a Marsingill single to make it 4-2. Fernandez struck out, ending the inning, and when del Rio was back on the mound he offered a leadoff double to Canody, who reached third base on a passed ball. Del Rio struck out the next two before veteran left-handed batter Tsuneyoshi Tachibana hit for Frain, at which point we elected to bring on David Fernandez. A strikeout ended the seventh inning. Castro would hit a leadoff single off Fernandez in the bottom 8th, but get doubled up by Ivan Pena to end that frame, sending Wise to warm up. He got an extra run to work with in the top 9th, with Thompson walking against righty Nick Wright before being brought around on singles by Ramos and Marsingill. Wise didn’t need the add-on run; he retired the Wolves on three grounders. 5-2 Coons! Marsingill 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Stalker 2-4; Thompson 1-2, 2 BB; Ramos (PH) 1-1; del Rio 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (5-5) and 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

Coons! Coons! Coons!

…however, the offense was struggling every day and I didn’t see them beating Harrington unless they would exhaust him early and get the pen involved in timely fashion.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – 3B Hawkins – C Garcia – P Sabre
SAL: SS J. Castro – C Canody – 1B I. Pena – LF Weinstein – RF Banfi – 3B McGee – CF Way – 2B Tabata – P Harrington

In a mild stunner, the Coons scored in the second inning on a pair of doubles by Zitzner (in the gap) and Hawkins (up the line). Unfortunately, the Wolves turned the game right away on Sabre, who allowed a leadoff double to Kyle Weinstein, an RBI single to Banfi, who moved up on Fernandez’ throw home, and then two groundouts in 2-strike counts, which gave Harrington a 2-1 lead he was not considered likely to relinquish. The Coons failed to get another base hit off Harrington through five, with Reichardt at one point being robbed in the gap by Brian Way, who himself in turn then hit a leadoff double past Wallace in the bottom 5th. Yachi Tabata singled him in right away, extending the score to 3-1, but was stranded thanks to gritty defense. Fernandez hit a single in the sixth, but it just wasn’t enough. On top of that, Sabre came apart in the sixth, facing four batters and retiring none. Pena and Weinstein hit soft singles, he struck Banfi with another pitch, and Chris McGee’s 2-run double put the final nail in the coffin for Sabre. Nick Bates replaced him, allowed an RBI single to Way, and this game was moving into rout territory even though Bates then rung up Tabata and got Harrington to hit into a double play. On the mound, Harrington was impossible to tackle, let alone stage a comeback. He lasted eight innings, allowed four hits and rung up seven, before lefty Jacob Poirier came on for the ninth, facing the 3-4-5 batters. Stalker and Zitzner reached. With one out, Marsingill hit for Kyle Green in Reichardt’s deserted slot and dropped a single in front of Weinstein, who overran the ball, giving everybody an extra base. Stalker scored, 6-2, and the tying run was in the on-deck circle. Miguel Salazar replaced Poirier, rung up Hawkins, and Thompson, who batted for Garcia, too. 6-2 Wolves. Marsingill (PH) 1-1, RBI;

After six hits and five walks beaten out of him over 5.1 innings of his major league career, Kyle Green got his first strikeout on McGee in the eighth.

Raccoons (35-31) vs. Canadiens (29-37) – June 17-19, 2033

As usual, I had a very bad vibe in my stomach with this series, but maybe it was just the usual expectation that with the damn Elks around, stupid things would happen. They were in last place which made them no less dangerous, and they had the highest batting average in the CL while they scored the fourth-most runs. They also gave up only the fourth-most runs with a decent -8 run differential, so they were due a few wins… We had won three of four from them in Vancouver earlier in the year.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (3-5, 4.52 ERA) vs. Steve Corcoran (7-6, 2.83 ERA)
Andy Palomares (5-6, 4.99 ERA) vs. Logan Bessey (6-6, 4.48 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (7-3, 3.13 ERA) vs. Jeremy Truett (7-3, 3.03 ERA)

After a week without southpaws, we’d get two to start this series; Truett would be a right-hander. Elks mainstay Alex Torres and closer Raul de la Rosa were on the DL; the latter was out for the season.

Game 1
VAN: 2B Morrow – 3B Anton – LF LeJeune – C Ross – RF Korecky – 1B E. Arroyo – CF Pohl – SS L. Hernandez – P Corcoran
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Marsingill – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – 2B Stalker – C Garcia – RF Ferrero – P Gutierrez

Rico Gutierrez continued to be a mixed bag, getting no strikeouts, but instead removed Esteban Arroyo from the series entirely the first time through. He struck the first-sacker in the knee, and the Elks had to take him out and replace him by Tony Hinojosa. Portland had the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom 2nd following Zitzner’s walk and Reichardt and Stalker singles, then farted and let the chance mostly slide away. Only Ferrero singled home a run, everybody else hit ****ty pops. The Elks weren’t much cleverer about their chances early on and Gutierrez would rough-and-tumble through four and two thirds with a shutout, but that came apart on Matt Anton’s homer to dead center. That one counted for two and gave the damn Elks the lead, thanks to a leadoff walk drawn by Lazaro Hernandez in the inning. Ramos – forced out by Marsingill – and Wallace would hit singles in the bottom of the inning, but were stranded when Zitzner flew out to Will Korecky, who would get a ball outta here in the sixth inning, a solo shot to right, burying the Coons two deep. Fernando Garcia, the former Elk, would put some hurt on his former team with a solo homer of his own in the bottom of the inning.

Eric Morrow’s 2-out triple in the seventh did not bring in a run, but a reliever for the Raccoons with Ed Blair replacing the yanked Gutierrez. The damn Elks countered, with Brian Wojnarowski and his .311 clip and eight homers pinch-hitting for Matt Anton. Blair lost him in a full count, then was lifted for Garavito. Demonic Jesse LeJeune still slogged an RBI single into right. Only Toby Ross, .283 with 14 homers, grounded out. Corcoran lasted seven and two thirds; Zitzner hit a leadoff double in the eighth, but was stranded anyway on Reichardt’s grounder, Stalker whiffing, and Garcia grounding out against Matt Tillman. In turn the stupid Elks scored two runs on Kyle Green, who shoveled the bags full in the ninth and Nick Bates couldn’t dig him out. A Manny Fernandez homer in the bottom 9th didn’t matter. 6-3 Canadiens. Garcia 2-4, HR, RBI; M. Fernandez 1-2, HR, RBI;

Game 2
VAN: 2B Morrow – CF Pohl – LF LeJeune – C Ross – RF Wojnarowski – SS L. Hernandez – 3B M. Cole – 1B D.J. Robinson – P Bessey
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Marsingill – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – 3B Perkins – C Garcia – RF Pinkerton – P Palomares

It wasn’t like I hadn’t known it – of course more depressing crap came up in the middle game. Palomares’ second inning saw a Wojnarowski single to begin things, Hernandez getting nailed, but the he retired Mike Cole and D.J. Robinson … before conceding a 2-out RBI single to the ****ing pitcher. Morrow hit another one of those, making it 2-0, before Pohl struck out to end the inning. The Coons had another one of their patented slow starts and had only two soft singles in the first three innings before Jimmy Wallace’s wake-up call put him at six dingers for the season, a leadoff jack in the bottom 4th. Zitzner and Reichardt pasted singles to right to increase the pressure. Perkins fell to 0-2 before poking a bouncer to the left side that narrowly escaped Cole for another single, but an adept third baseman might have turned it for two. Garcia stepped up with the bags full, the tying run 90, the go-ahead run 180 feet away. He hit the 0-1 into no man’s land in shallow left-center; three Elks converged, none made play, and the tying run scored while the bags remained full for Pinkerton, who lobbed an 0-2 pitch over the head of Robinson for a 2-run single, putting Portland ahead 4-2. Palomares bunted over the runners, one run scored on Ramos’ groundout, another one on a Marsingill single, and Bessey filled the bags again with a pair of walks. Logan Bessey’s days ended there, but he was loaded with another run on a Reichardt single as right-hander Casey Glenn made his first appearance of the season. He got Perkins to fly out to left, ending a 7-run riot of a fourth inning.

That was not all. Glenn walked the 7-8 batters in the fifth. Palomares bunted them over, Ramos singled them home, 9-2. Glenn was in for distance, and not for style points. He shoveled the bags full in the sixth, but got out of that when he reached the bottom of the order, but then allowed a tenth Critters run in the seventh on Ramos and Wallace doubles. The battering continued against Denny Marsh, the next garbage reliever. Zitzner and Reichardt had hits for one run, Perkins hit a sac fly, and on that play the Elks lost Pat Pohl to injury. Garcia hit an RBI single, increasing the lead to 11 runs. Meanwhile Palomares kept ticking off innings with little to no pressure and was also not hit for in the bottom 8th. Palomares was sent to go get them a ninth time, but gave up a leadoff single to LeJeune. That was where the NO YOU WON’T kicked in. Palomares released the reserves. He struck out Ross. He struck out Wojnarowski. He struck out Hernandez! 13-2 Furballs!! Ramos 3-6, 2B, 3 RBI; Marsingill 2-5, RBI; Wallace 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Zitzner 2-4, BB, RBI; Reichardt 4-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Garcia 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Palomares 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (6-6);

All starting position players had at least one base hit, and only Palomares didn’t have one from the starting lineup.

I bet we lose the rubber game, 1-0!

Game 3
VAN: 2B Morrow – 3B Anton – LF LeJeune – C Ross – RF Wojnarowski – SS L. Hernandez – CF Pohl – 1B D.J. Robinson – P Truett
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – 3B Perkins – P Chavez

Infield single, walk, single, single, single – the first five batters all reached base in the rubber game. Ross singled home Morrow, but Anton was thrown out at home by Adrian Reichardt on the same play. With the bags full, Lazaro Hernandez’ groundout plated a second run before Pohl – with a barking back – struck out to strand a pair. Bernie Chavez remained off the rolls. The Coons turned the game around however in the bottom 1st. Ramos with a leadoff single and Fernandez with a walk reached base, stole a pair of bases, and Stalker scored a run with a groundout. Truett lost Wallace on balls, but Zitzner’s groundout kept Fernandez pinned at third. Reichardt batted with runners in scoring position, floated a blooper to shallow right, Wojnarowski dove for it and missed it, and the Coons took the lead on a 2-run single and error! Thompson grounded out, but it was already a 3-2 game.

The offense died down a bit, because Bernie allowed only two runners in the next three innings and because the Coons stranded five in the same time, including Tim Stalker fouling out with three Critters aboard in the bottom 4th. Wallace had a great snatch on a Morrow drive in the fifth, and yet it was all in vain, because for the second time in the game, Bernie waved five consecutive stupid **** Elks on the bases. Four singles, a hit batter, and three runs, all with two outs, and all three runs with two strikes, before Pat Pohl, still in pain, struck out and stranded Wojnarowski and Hernandez. Bottom 5th, the tying runs reached scoring position right away; Wallace singled to left, Zitzner doubled to left, and the chance for an instant comeback was there. Reichardt grounded out, plating Wallace, 5-4, Thompson grounded out uselessly, and Perkins was walked with intent by the Elks. Marsingill hit for the battered Chavez, but grounded out to Matt Anton, leaving them on the corners.

The pen did its very best to allow the offense to come back. Anaya got three outs, Fernandez got four, and Bates got two in the next three innings. The offense did nothing, except for stranding Perkins at third base in the bottom 8th. Chris Wise got the ninth inning in search of work, nailed Morrow with one out, but pitched around that to keep the Elks off the board, and they would have another comeback chance in the ninth, sending the meat of the order against right-hander Ed Miller and his 3.98 ERA. Tim Stalker whipped Miller’s second pitch for a double to left, and the winning run was at the plate. Wallace hit it on the ground, though and grounded out to first base, but that advanced Stalker to third. Zitzner struck out. Reichardt knocked a 1-1 pitch to left, Anton dove for it – but missed it! Single! Coons tie the game!! Elliott Thompson’s fly to left ended up with LeJeune, sending the game to extras. Nobody reached in the 10th, and Ed Blair gave up a 2-out double to Cole in the 11th, his second inning of work, but pitched around that and got out of the inning. Bottom 11th: Matt Stonecipher returned to Raccoons Ballpark. He had basically a walk and a strikeout per inning and a 4.45 ERA. Manny Fernandez singled hard to right. Tim Stalker singled softly to right, and Manny dashed to third base with nobody out! A decently sized fly would end the game! And he hit it! Fly to center, Pohl caught it, wincing, but he would never get a throw off in time – Manny Fernandez raced home and won us the game!! 6-5 Raccoons!! Ramos 3-5, BB; M. Fernandez 2-4, BB; Stalker 2-6, 2B, RBI; Reichardt 2-5, 4 RBI; Perkins 2-4, BB; Blair 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (4-1);

In other news

June 13 – Dallas’ INF Jon Ramos (.326, 2 HR, 28 RBI) has six RBI from the leadoff spot in the Stars’ 9-5 win over the Bayhawks, including the deciding walkoff grand slam off SFB MR Mike Simcoe (1-3, 4.00 ERA, 1 SV).
June 13 – PIT SP Matt Brost (2-2, 2.78 ERA) might miss a month with a back strain.
June 14 – VAN C Toby Ross (.281, 12 HR, 46 RBI) drives in five runs on three base hits in the Canadiens’ 17-9 shellacking of the Blue Sox. NAS OF Raul Sanchez (.262, 2 HR, 31 RBI) has four hits and three RBI himself.
June 18 – Capitals rookie SP Greg Fischer (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 2-hits the Blue Sox in his third career start, walking three and whiffing seven in a 6-0 Capitals win.
June 19 – It takes 13 innings for a run to be scored in the Blue Sox-Capitals game. Nashville takes the 1-0 win on an RBI single by OF/1B Carlos Montellano (.268, 1 HR, 10 RBI), who came off the bench.

Complaints and stuff

I liked the last two games against the damn Elks! I didn’t like the first one so much. Well, I also don’t like Bernie’s pitching recently. He’s had three clonkers in the last five games.

The walk that Manny Fernandez drew in the bottom of the first inning on Sunday was his first career walk – after merely 80 at-bats without drawing one. Oh, that can only get better… I hope…

The Critters are within 2 1/2 of the foundering Titans. I hate to entertain pointless excitement, but maybe the Titans can stink some more and keep the door open for an exciting summer?

We’re off to New York now and will return via Tijuana next week. We will alternate pair of home and road series until late July now.

Fun Fact: 11 years ago today, San Francisco’s Rafael Gomez hit for the cycle in an 8-6 win over the Thunder.

That was before he landed in Portland via Richmond. We acquired him in a deal for Felipe Delgado, Mike Grigsby, and Vince Devereaux in December of ’25. Rafael was a key part to our two titles that followed, hitting for .749+ OPS values in his first three seasons before falling into a deep hole in ’29. He hasn’t been above average since. He also has not been seen in the majors this year. The career .267/.321/.407 hitter with 136 homers and 694 RBI has been assigned to AAA Monmouth by the Aces.

*Yes, this game started with the way less effective alignment up the middle due to my gross incompetence, but I corrected it in the first inning. However, since I’m anal when it comes to these things, we’ll put it the way it was on the lineup card.