[Westheim]

Raccoons (8-11) vs. Falcons (11-7) – April 24-26, 2034

Neither of these two teams had managed to win more than five games in the season series for six years in a row. It had all been 5-4 tilts, and unfortunately the Falcons had come out on top five of the six years, and three years in a row. As this season started they were up to third place in the South with a winning record, which was not exactly something Charlotte fans were used to. The Falcons had not posted a winning record since they won the division in 2022, and had finished fifth of sixth in every single one of the last 11 seasons. Even now there were signs on the wall. Their crummy offense actually left them with a -1 run differential (Coons: -7), they were not hitting for power, they had no speed, and their defense was problematic to say the least.

Projected matchups:
Pat Okrasinski (1-2, 5.29 ERA) vs. Doug Clifford (3-0, 3.13 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (1-1, 4.13 ERA) vs. John Jackson (2-1, 1.71 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (0-1, 3.44 ERA) vs. Bryce Sparkes (2-2, 4.62 ERA)

Southpaw to start the series, then two right-handers; aside from catcher Ernesto Huichapa’s .328 clip with four homers and 17 RBI, their lineup looked rather barren.

But can you imagine a player with 17 RBI at all? Wow, I wonder whether we will ever have something like that…!

Game 1
CHA: CF J. Aguilar – RF Trahan – LF Montes – C Huichapa – 3B G. Ortiz – SS O. Camacho – 1B Amundsen – 2B Westmoreland – P Clifford
POR: SS Zeltser – 3B Hawkins – RF Salgado – 1B Zitzner – LF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Okrasinski

Without a hit being recorded, the Raccoons loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd, at least as long as you discounted the HIT that Travis Zitzner took to begin the inning. Rubbing his sore bum he jogged to first, then was gently moved along when Stalker walked, Clifford balked, and Reichardt again walked. Elliott Thompson was up with three on and one out, and at least turned an 0-2 pitch into a sac fly. That was the only run of the inning; Okrasinski grounded out to Gavin Westmoreland. Portland’s hurler was untouched the first time through the order, whiffing four, but then had to contend with Jerry Aguilar on base when the centerfielder reached to begin the top of the fourth inning, courtesy of Zitzner throwing away his grounder. Dave Trahan, Andy Montes, and Huichapa were retired in order, though, and the runner stranded on third base.

Many runners there were not; the Raccoons finally got a base hit in the bottom 4th, two actually, but Zitzner’s and Stalker’s singles led nowhere nice with the bottom of the order. Zeltser hit a 1-out single in the fifth and was also stranded. Okrasinski’s no-hitter and gem lasted until the sixth inning, when he came apart at once; he walked leadoff batter Doug Clifford, the darned pitcher, then surrendered a single to Aguilar. Dave Trahan bunted, nobody found their way to the ball, and the infield single loaded the bases with nobody out. Doomed again – what a surprise! Montes grounded up the middle, where Tim Stalker intercepted the ball deep on the infield dirt, but had no play – ANOTHER infield single tied the game and there were still two on. Then the crummy offense of the Falcons struck, Huichapa popped out, and Greg Ortiz grounded into a 6-4-3 inning-ender, keeping the game tied at one. Truth be told, both these teams deserved to be contracted…

Okrasinski’s day ended when he nailed Omar Camacho to begin the seventh. Garavito got the ball and got through the bottom of the order, but that didn’t help Portland to score any markers. Bottom 7th, Alberto Ramos hit for Thompson and singled to left. The Raccoons did not send another pinch-hitter for Garavito, who was asked to bunt, popped two pitches foul, and then actually got the bunt down to move the go-ahead run to second base. Zeltser grounded out, Tom Hawkins flew out to left, and Ramos was stranded. Garavito kept pitching and produced runners on the corners in the eighth, walking Trahan, balking, and conceding a single to Montes. Anaya replaced him with one out against Huichapa, who cracked a ball over Tim Stalker for the go-ahead RBI single. Ortiz also singled before Camacho hit into a double play, mercifully. Camacho soon dealt more damage to his team; in the bottom 8th, not one, not two, but three grounders narrowly escaped to either side of him, allowing Salgado, Zitzner, and Stalker to reach base with singles, the latter one tying the game at two. Billy Jennings ran for Zitzner at this point, carrying the go-ahead run, but Adrian Reichardt’s single to right bounced square into Trahan’s loaded cannon and Jennings had to be held at third base. However, Berto had been retained in the #8 hole (Scheffer was catching and batting second), and extended his stranglehold on the team RBI lead (…!) with a sac fly to Brian Hubbard in left. Jimmy Wallace batted for Anaya, but lined out to Westmoreland to end the inning. Chris Wise retired the Falcons in order in the ninth to put the game away a victory. 3-2 Blighters. Zitzner 2-3; Stalker 2-3, BB, RBI; Thompson 0-1, BB, RBI; Ramos (PH) 1-1, RBI;

I would like nothing more than for once a 5-spot in the first … and our hurler not giving it back right away.

Game 2
CHA: CF J. Aguilar – SS Coughenour – LF Montes – 1B R. Morales – 3B G. Ortiz – RF Trahan – C K. Morris – 2B Westmoreland – P J. Jackson
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P Rendon

Not quite five, but Jimmy Wallace hit a bomb in the first inning to give Rendon a 1-0 lead, and the hurler didn’t implode on first sight, instead retired all position players in the Falcons’ order once before allowing a 2-out single to John Jackson. Aguilar flew out to end the top half of the third, while the bottom half saw three Critters on and nobody out after Rendon walked, Ramos singled, and Zeltser also walked. Wallace brought home another run, this time via the vaunted 6-4-3 double play, and Travis Zitzner grounded out to Ortiz to end that inning… Billy Jennings hit a triple in the fourth, but that came with nobody aboard, two outs, and was swiftly followed when the Falcons queued up an intentional walk to Thompson and precise removal of Rendon via pop out.

At least Rendon held up with a 3-hitter through five, then finally got more support in the bottom of the fifth inning with a Ramos Special – Berto singled and stole second before scoring – with the scoring part coming on a Bob Zeltser homer to right, extending the lead to 4-0, although the Falcons took a stab back at it in the sixth. Dave Coughenour singled, Andy Montes tripled into the gap, and they got a 1-out run. Crucially though, Roberto Morales was rung up in a full count, followed by Ortiz grounding out to Zeltser to strand Montes at third base and keeping the lead at three runs… except that the Raccoons clawed that run back in the bottom of the inning. The 7-8-9 batters hit straight singles, with Rendon cashing his first Raccoons RBI, before the inning fell apart with the top of the order; Berto was guilty of hitting into a double play, Zeltser walked, but Wallace grounded out easily.

Rendon hung around until the eighth, which he begun with back-to-back walks to PH Erik Amundson and Aguilar before Coughenour hit into a double play. Although Montes batted left-handedly, Rendon assured the coach he had one more out in him… but didn’t. Montes singled to center, Amundson scored, 5-2, and John Hennessy relieved Rendon to retire Morales. The ninth was more of a mess, too, with Chris Wise allowing Dave Trahan on base with a 1-out single. After Kevin Morris made the second out, Trahan took off for second base, Thompson threw the ball away, and the runner scurried to third before scoring on Westmoreland’s double to right. Omar Camacho pinch-hit as the tying run, while Huichapa was nowhere to be seen, and struck out. 5-3 Raccoons. Ramos 2-5; Reichardt (PH) 1-1; Jennings 2-3, BB, 3B; Rendon 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-1) and 1-2, BB, RBI;

And as of this game, we were last in homers in the CL despite two shots in this contest, but had scrambled our way to the top in stolen bases. Ramos led the team with six, tying him for second in the CL. Oklahoma’s Lorenzo Celaya led the pack with eight bags swiped.

Game 3
CHA: CF J. Aguilar – SS Coughenour – LF Montes – C Huichapa – 1B R. Morales – 3B G. Ortiz – RF Trahan – 2B O. Camacho – P Sparkes
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Scheffer – P Chavez

Not included in the game plan: Bernie Chavez walked Ortiz and Trahan, Camacho reaching on a bad throw by Zeltser, and the Falcons having the bases loaded with two outs in the second inning. At least Sparkes struck out… Portland had Fernandez and Jennings on the corners in the bottom 2nd until Philip Scheffer hit into a double play at 0-2. You know, Phil – sometimes you should just strike out instead. Give the pitcher a chance!

The Coons would take the lead eventually when another unlikely player entered the scalding hot RBI lead race. Tim Stalker tied Berto with 11 ribbies when he found Zitzner (single) and Fernandez (walk) on base in the bottom 4th and hit a home run over the fence in right-center to make it 3-0 in favor of Bernie, who had yet to surrender a base hit. Meanwhile, the team homer lead, that had been split between four players prior to this game, saw Bob Zeltser (!) become its sole custodian in the bottom 5th with a 2-run BLAST to right, scoring Ramos in the process.

With a 5-0 lead, attention shifted to Bernie for good; the Falcons had not reached base since the second inning, but he was on 83 pitches through six innings. Huichapa grounded out, Morales whiffed, and Ortiz grounded out in the seventh inning, but that also took 11 pitches to accomplish, and he was on 94 total with six outs to collect. But before we could get into deep arguments whether we should let him throw 128 pitches in pursuit of a no-hitter, Omar Camacho hit a double over the head of Fernandez in the eighth, and the point was moot. That one came with one out and on his 105th pitch, and with a left-hander in Amundson pinch-hitting in the #9 hole also ended his day. Hennessy got the K, and then Prieto coaxed a groundout from Aguilar to end the eighth and keep Bernie’s ledger clean. The ninth went by quickly, despite a Huichapa single off Prieto with two outs. David Fernandez at last got involved in the series, throwing two pitches to get a pop to short from Morales, completing the sweep. 5-0 Coons! Ramos 2-4; Wallace 2-4; M. Fernandez 1-2, BB; Stalker 1-2, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Chavez 7.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-1);

…but it was not like no no-no did occur on this day …! [see below]

The Titans got only three runs and one win in their series with the Knights, keeping them in check, and the Loggers (who had been off on Monday) had no luck against the Condors, so things looked a lot less drab as it had on Monday morning. On Thursday morning, the Raccoons were only 2 1/2 games back in the division.

And then the damn Elks came back.

Raccoons (11-11) vs. Canadiens (9-12) – April 28-30, 2034

Since winning two of three from Portland at the start of the season, the damn Elks hadn’t won a damn lot, but for them it had not been about their own success in many years. Their entire spiteful existence revolved around peeing into our pea soup! In this 3-game set the Raccoons hoped to get at least even in the season series against the #8 offense and #10 pitching in the CL. Their rotation was fairly competent, but their bullpen was a complete tire fire, at the bottom of the Continental League with a *7.22* ERA. Get to those relief men, boys! They were also tying for first place in stolen bases along with us.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (1-1, 5.57 ERA) vs. Fernando Nora (1-3, 5.01 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (2-0, 3.97 ERA) vs. Geoff Swayze (2-2, 3.06 ERA)
Pat Okrasinski (1-2, 4.30 ERA) vs. Ed Miller (1-3, 5.40 ERA)

We would dodge Steve Corcoran (2-2, 2.68 ERA) and instead try go feast on their two weakest right-handers and the southpaw Swayze in between.

Game 1
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – 1B Mezzanotte – LF LeJeune – C Ross – RF Korecky – 2B Morrow – CF Creech – SS S. Green – P Nora
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF M. Fernandez – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – 2B Marsingill – P Sabre

After Berto tripled to begin the bottom 1st, Zeltser popped out, but Wallace was awake and at least hit a grounder to a spot where the damn Elks couldn’t cut down Ramos at home plate. The run scored, and it was 1-0, and while Sabre looked shaky to say the least, he had a part in an offensive stir in the bottom 2nd. Adrian Reichardt and Justin Marsingill were on the corners with a pair of singles, and Sabre swung away with one out, hitting a grounder that died halfway up the third base line. Nora had to attempt a play himself, but had none – Sabre legged out the infield single, but since Reichardt had figured he’d get beaten by either Nora or D.J. Robinson on the play, he had held at third base. Ramos batted with the bags stacked, grounded up the middle, and while Eric Morrow made the play to get Sabre out at second, Ramos legged out the throw to first, allowing Reichardt to score. Then Zeltser popped out again… But the pressure remained on in the 2-0 game. Bottom 3rd, leadoff single Wallace, then a Zitzner double, presenting the 5-6-7 batters with a fat chance with runners in scoring position and nobody out. Jimmy scored on Manny Fernandez’ groundout, Zitzner scored during Sam Green’s fumble error of a Reichardt grounder, and it was 4-0. Reichardt stole second, and while he was ultimately stranded, the open base at least cleared the pitcher’s spot after an intentional walk to Marsingill. Things were, overall, looking good after three innings.

Things even looked good through five, with Sabre briefly coming alive and racking up a few strikeouts, but D.J. Robinson opened the sixth with a single and suddenly the damn Elks were hitting the ball well. At least the offense kept up; while Robinson stole second base, he ultimately was stranded at third thanks to a quick swipe by Zitzner on Jesse LeJeune’s bouncer, and Reichardt tracking down a deep drive by ex-Coon Toby Ross. Sabre needed 91 pitches through six, a subtle hint that there was more to his outing than the mere statement of an active 2-hit shutout. A leadoff walk to Will Korecky in the top of the seventh didn’t help. Eric Morrow landed a single, but Gabe Creech lined out to right, Sam Green whiffed, and Sabre somehow bailed out when the Elks’ Nora was not hit for and instead flew out. That was the end for Sabre though, having tossed well over 100 pitches in a solid effort that was however still mischaracterized by merely stating “seven shutout innings”. It was also still a 4-0 game because the middle innings had been a big snooze for the Portland offense. In the seventh, Fernandez singled, but was caught stealing, and then Reichardt hit a 2-out single. A wild pitch moved him to second, and then Nora came right down the middle with a 3-2 offer to Elliott Thompson, and not only E.T. was gonna miss that one, hitting it right out of the basket on his bike and over the fence in left to extend the score to 6-0. What looked like a done deal after seven looked like it was actively becoming ruins in the ninth. After Garavito and Anaya had shared in doing the eighth the original plan had been to just get three more outs with Anaya. That didn’t happen. Two singles, a walk, and a run later, John Hennessy was called upon to face PH Tomas Caraballo, but allowed another 1-out RBI single. Suddenly, we had a save situation and Chris Wise was hurriedly kicked out of the pen. He fell to 3-1 against D.J. Robinson before the leadoff batter grounded out to Marsingill. The runners advanced into scoring position while damn Dusty Mezzanotte stepped into the box. He had almost single-handedly won the season-opening series… but the didn’t win this game, going down on strikes. 6-2 Raccoons. Reichardt 2-3, RBI; Marsingill 2-3, BB, 2B; Sabre 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-1) and 1-3;

The Loggers had beaten the Condors on Thursday, and with the Titans and Loggers playing each other on the weekend we had no actual shot at the division lead. However, their Friday contest was rained out, with a double header scheduled for Saturday, so at least we made up half a game on Friday.

Game 2
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – CF Creech – LF LeJeune – C Ros – RF Korecky – 2B Morrow – 1B T. Caraballo – SS S. Green – P Swayze
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Hawkins – LF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – RF Salgado – 2B Stalker – C Scheffer – P del Rio

Hawkins in the first and Stalker in the second unfortunately erased leadoff batters with double play grounders, curtailing early offensive attempts. No Coon reached in the third, while del Rio held the damn Elks to a hit and a walk through four innings. Manny Fernandez dropped a leadoff single in the fourth, bringing up another solid double play choice in Travis Zitzner, but the Zitz resisted his most vicious urges and instead hit a ball over the fence, his third homer of the year, and a 2-0 lead for the Raccoons. That score did not persist for long, for Sam Green ran into a juicy del Rio fastball with two outs in the fifth and nailed that one over the fence in left, too, but at least nobody was on base. Pitcher rung up pitcher, and it was 2-1 in the middle of the fifth.

In the sixth, Robinson drew a leadoff walk, but the damn Elks never got the runner to scoring position. Creech popped out, LeJeune forced out Robinson with a comebacker, and then LeJeune’s itches to advance on his own (he also had 8 stolen bags by now) meant that he strayed far off first base… and was picked off to end the inning. Portland put Reichardt on with a 1-out single in the bottom half of the frame. Salgado popped out – he was the fifth of five consecutive .300+ batters in this lineup and yet we still couldn’t wrap up Swayze in timely fashion… – but Tim Stalker came through with a double into the corner behind Wallaceian defender Will Korecky. Stalker would end up with an RBI triple, 3-1. Scheffer was walked with intent to bring up del Rio, and the pitcher hit a gapper that beat LeJeune for an RBI double – HAL-LE-LUYAH!! Unfortunately, Ramos couldn’t get the ball past Robinson with two outs, stranded a pair, and kept the score at 4-1. One inning later, however, Fernandez doubled, Zitzner was walked intentionally, and Reichardt was nailed by Swayze to load the bases. The pen got involved for Vancouver, but too late, and not with great success, as per usual. Salgado and Stalker both slapped RBI singles before Dave Peluso hung a 74mph breaking pitch right in front of Scheffer’s pointy black nose. The ball was never seen again – GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMM!!!!

Del Rio hung around until the eighth, but also ran out of steam with one out, conceding singles to Green and Matt Anton. One run scored on a 2-out RBI single Creech hit off David Fernandez. Prieto kept the Elks off base in the ninth, though, and the Coons remained undefeated on this week. M. Fernandez 3-5, 2 2B; Zitzner 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Salgado 3-4, RBI; Stalker 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI; del Rio 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (3-0) and 1-4, 2B, RBI;

Three homers here, three homers there, but the month is almost over and Zitzner has yet to reach double digits in ribbies… I mean, wow …!

We still lost ground in the division for Boston swept the double header with Milwaukee, but right now all was well. Six wins in a row!

Game 3
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – 1B Mezzanotte – LF LeJeune – C Ross – RF Korecky – 2B Morrow – CF Creech – SS S. Green – P E. Miller
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – RF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – CF Reichardt – 2B Stalker – C Thompson – P Okrasinski

Another game, another fast start for the Critters – Ramos walked, stole second, and scored on a single by Fernandez, who stole second, then scored on a Zitzner homer; THERE are double digits for our slugger boy! Unfortunately it also didn’t take long for the Elks to flay bits and pieces out of a yowling Pat Okrasinski’s bum. Sam Green hit a jack in the third inning, and then he walked Ed Miller on four pitches, which was slightly concerning, and bad enough that I fumbled away the cap of the Capt’n Coma bottle after unscrewing it for the first time all week. Fine, Cristiano, score me an error. At least Robinson hit into a double play…

Portland came back roaring with a Zeltser triple and Manny Fernandez homer, extending the score to 5-1. Okrasinski responded by completely annihilating the damn, dumb Elks in the middle innings, allowing not a single base runner, but then nailed LeJeune to start the seventh. Oh well, it was a defensible move; I don’t like his face, either. Toby Ross flew deep to right, but was caught at the fence by Fernandez, Korecky fanned, and Morrow bounced out to Zeltser, keeping Okrasinski unharmed in the seventh. We were reasonably cocky enough to have him bat leading off the bottom part of the inning. He struck out for the second time, which was all the K’s on Miller’s ledger, before Berto doubled, but the Critters couldn’t get him in. LeJeune retired Manny in deep left to end the inning. All the Okrasinski episode in the bottom 7th did was to maybe waste a run and then set up stupid Elks on the corners with no outs for PH Tomas Caraballo in the top 8th. Creech and Green had both singled to begin the inning, and the Critters now scrambled for Garavito after all. He was no help immediately, allowing an RBI single to right. Green spun his tires on the way to third, Fernandez unleashed a throw, but it was wild and Zeltser had to chase it down in foul ground, allowing Green to score and Caraballo into second base. Caraballo reached third on Robinson’s single – the tying runs were on base now – and scored on Mezzanotte’s double play roller to Ramos. LeJeune grounded out to Stalker, but all the cushion had turned into tension. Tack-on offense against right-hander Howard Haws turned out not to be a thing, and so it was Chris Wise against lots of middling right-handed batters in the ninth. Toby Ross grounded out to Zeltser. Korecky singled to center. Morrow grounded up the middle, Stalker picked and lobbed it to Ramos in a fluid motion, Berto avoided the barreling Korecky and tossed to first – IN TIME!! SWEEP!! 5-4 Furballs!! M. Fernandez 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Reichardt 1-2;

In other news

April 25 – In the Wolves’ 13-4 win over the Capitals, SAL LF/RF Kyle Weinstein (.264, 2 HR, 10 RBI) shines with a 4-hit day and 4 RBI. He misses the cycle by the double.
April 25 – Blue Sox and Pacifics play for 18 innings and well over five hours before the Blue Sox squeeze out two runs in the top of the 18th via a Raul Sanchez (.300, 1 HR, 14 RBI) home run to take a 3-1 win. Neither team scored for 12 innings before both teams put up a marker in the 13th.
April 25 – The Rebels amount to only one hit in a 10-0 thrashing delivered to them by the Stars. DAL SP Logan Bessey (2-2, 4.28 ERA) goes eight innings and only sheds a single to RIC C/1B Willie Carbonell (.222, 0 HR, 3 RBI).
April 26 – No-hitter! The Knights’ Drew Johnson (2-1, 2.30 ERA) keeps the Titans guessing all the way and completes a masterpiece in a 2-0 victory that takes only 2:16 to complete, with the 26-year-old right-hander Johnson walking two and whiffing seven. This is the third Knights no-hitter (Glenn Ryan, 1990; Mario Rosas, 2031) and the first time the Titans have been no-hit since 1991 (SFB Chris O’Keefe)!
April 28 – WAS SP Colt Willes (1-1, 4.03 ERA), who already missed most of 2033 to injury, will be on the DL for most of the month of May at least after straining his biceps.
April 28 – The Pacifics ride a 10-run second inning for a 14-0 rout of the Warriors. LAP OF Tom Dunlap (.345, 5 HR, 18 RBI) leads all players with four base hits, three singles and a double. He drives in two runs, but scores every time he reaches base.
April 29 – As new figurehead for the dreaded sophomore slump, SFB LF/RF/1B Doug Levis (.161, 0 HR, 4 RBI) is out for the season with a broken elbow, a hard crash from lofty heights (which is about how the elbow thing happened) for the 2033 Rookie of the Year that never found his footing in the new season.
April 29 – WAS SP Michael Frank (3-1, 2.01 ERA) 3-hits the Cyclones in a 3-0 Capitals shutout.
April 30 – 28-year-old Indians rookie INF Jason Mazzarella (.125, 0 HR, 1 RBI), who *scored* the winning run in a walkoff scenario the previous day, wins the Indians’ game with the Crusaders in the 11th inning by blindly flailing at a pitch by NYC MR Jason O’Leary (0-2, 7.36 ERA). Since the bat smacks the glove of New York catcher Danny Monge (.260, 0 HR, 5 RBI), the Crusaders are called out for catcher’s interference. Since the bases are loaded in a tied game, the Indians walk off 3-2 winners.
April 30 – An 11-run eighth turns around the Blue Sox’ game against the Miners, which they eventually win, 15-3. NAS 2B Danny Duenas (.255, 2 HR, 11 RBI) drives in five runs from the #8 hole.

Complaints and stuff

Sweep week! Sw-Sw-Sw-… Sweep week! (boogies through the room until stopped by searing hip, back, and neck pain) Ah, Cristiano…! (drops onto the couch) You have it nice, you can sit all day long. (Cristiano shoots a piercing look)

As smitten as I was after the 2-7 start, Friday’s win gave us our first winning record of the season at 12-11, which made for a nice turnaround. The offense remains crummy, but at least individual guys are doing reasonably well now.

Batting for average isnot a problem for this team, we have the second-highest team average and many players are pushing the .300 mark, but we struggle to turn it all into runs, although the power burst on the final weekend here at least lifted us out of the cellar in terms of homers. On the pitching side the first half of the month was much rougher than the second one and the bruises can still be seen. This week Raccoons pitching allowed only 13 runs (while the offense scored 34), so we are definitely going in the right direction. Also: 7-game winning streak!

Mario Rosas was Pitcher of the Month in the CL, going 4-2 with a 2.49 ERA for the Condors, and that is the least aggravating part of the CL’s monthly award trifecta. Disgusting skunk weasel Shane Sanks was Hitter of the Month, and goddamn Dusty Mezzanotte, who’s so fresh that I have yet to find a resentful name for him, was Rookie of the Month.

Luxury problem developing in St. Pete: Jonathan Dykstra has started the season 3-1 with a 1.55 ERA, and Darren Brown is even 4-0 with a 1.10 ERA! To be honest, the peripherals on Dykstra are much better (BB/9, K/9 and so on), and so far we can claim it’s early, but there’s two kits begging for attention in AAA.

The Raccoons will barely be home next month after playing three weeks in Raccoons Ballpark in April. To be precise, it will be six home games in two single-series stints in a May laced with three East Coast road trips. We will start with a spin through New York and Richmond next week.

Fun Fact: Drew Johnson has yet to post a season ERA better than 4.89.

He made his debut in the 2030 season, going 17 games for Richmond with a 6.62 ERA before arriving in Atlanta via trade. He pitched another 19 games (all his appearances that year were in relief) for a 3.43 ERA and a 4.89 ERA total. It did not get better from there as he posted ERA’s of 5.30, 5.45, and 5.03 in a swingman role the following three seasons. Maybe moving him to the rotation permanently has fixed all his ills – he has made four starts and no relief appearances so far in 2034, with a 2.30 ERA and no-hitter against the Titans. What more can you want from a pitcher?