[Westheim]

Raccoons (63-66) @ Falcons (51-76) – August 27-29, 2035

Trailing 2-4 in the season series, the Raccoons had some winning to do against the Falcons, who by record and performance had long been eliminated. They were last in offense and mediocre in pitching, with a relatively good bullpen but a shoddy rotation. We needed wins, wins, wins.

Projected matchups:
Josh Livingston (6-1, 2.06 ERA) vs. Matt Moon (8-12, 3.72 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (9-10, 4.85 ERA) vs. Jeff Horton (1-6, 3.59 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (7-7, 3.96 ERA) vs. Bryce Sparkes (13-10, 3.75 ERA)

Getting the three good right-handers here…

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Morales – 1B Zitzner – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – P Livingston
CHA: 2B O. Aguirre – 1B Tadlock – CF J. Reyna – C Huichapa – RF Trahan – 3B G. Ortiz – LF Amundsen – SS Aparicio – P Moon

Neither team put a batter on base until Tony Aparicio drew a walk in the bottom of the third inning. Moon bunted, Oscar Aguirre whiffed, and we remained scoreless in Charlotte. Jimmy Wallace and Jonathan Reyna each found a single in the fourth inning, which also led nowhere, with Ernesto Huichapa hitting into a double play. When the Raccoons loaded the bags in the fifth after a Tony Morales leadoff double they did it in the weirdest way, not getting two men on until Tim Stalker was walked with intent. Livingston walked without intent, and then Berto fell to 2-2 before grounding to second base. Aguirre, a plus defender, warped over, but his throw to first was not in time, and the Raccoons scored the game’s first run on the 2-out infield single. And then Fernandez grounded out haplessly after that…

Top 6th, Wallace Unslumbered ripped a leadoff double to right. The Falcons feared the CL RBI leader and walked him intentionally with nobody out, but Moon then allowed a single to the rookie behind Fowler and the bases were full with no outs for … well, Travis Zitzner. One obvious strikeout later, reliever Joe Feltman got Zeltser to pop out, then nailed Stalker with a 1-2 pitch to force in a run. Livingston softly lined out to Aparicio to strand another three, and at some point this just HAD to come back and bite the Critters in the furry tush…

Of course, when the Falcons came, they came in the most-stupidest way possible. Tony Aparicio, batting all of .137, hit a leadoff jack to left-center to begin the bottom 6th, and then ex-Coon Tom Hawkins hit a pinch-hit double. Somehow grounders to second base kept him from scoring in the inning, but who was even surprised that the Falcons were able to score without 30 free passes…? Livignston pitched into the bottom 8th before things got dicey enough for him to get yanked. Erik Amundsen drew a leadoff walk, representing the tying run. Lorenzo Herrera ran for him, and Kevin Morris hit for Aparicio, who wouldn’t get dumb/lucky twice and hit a deeeep F9. Chris Wise (and Justin Marsingill) came on in a double switch, but Tom Hawkins singled, Aguirre bunted, and former Logger Ron Tadlock drove the dagger in with a 2-out, 2-run double to center. Portland went down in order in the ninth against southpaw Juan Vela. The stupid striped team had done it again… 3-2 Falcons. Wallace 2-4, 2B; Morales 2-4, 2B; Livingston 7.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K;

Eight left on base, including twice a set of three. Neato.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – C Morales – CF Fowler – 3B Zeltser – 1B Zitzner – LF Hooge – 2B Stalker – P Chavez
CHA: LF L. Herrera – 1B Tadlock – CF J. Reyna – C Huichapa – RF Trahan – 3B G. Ortiz – 2B O. Aguirre – SS Aparicio – P Horton

The continued slash reconstituted, maddening presence of Travis Zitzner on the roster yielded a 3-run homer in the second inning, a frame in which the Raccoons sent Justin Fowler to the plate twice and put six runs on poor Jeff Horton as if Monday had never happened. After Zitzner homered Fowler and Zeltser home, Tim Stalker reached base, stole second, came home from third base on an infield single with two outs legged out by Berto (the second one in the series), Berto stole second, Fernandez was nicked, stole second, and Morales drove both of them in before Fowler flew out harmlessly. Alright, what’s for dinner?

MAYBE slices of Chavez’ ham, if I was in the mood. After the 6-spot concluded, Billionaire Bernie immediately gave up three singles while not getting anybody out. Aguirre hit into a 6-4-3 double play, scoring a run, which at this point was good news, and Aparicio popped out – if you’re pretending to be in a playoff race, you can’t intentionally walk .146 hitters, no matter how many homers they ram off your sorry snout!

Horton was gone after three, and Morales took a beating in the fourth. With Manny on second and two outs, relief man (and former ace) Victor Govea nailed the young catcher. Fowler singled to right past Tadlock, and on the ensuing play Fernandez scored, while Morales bid for third base and was violently slapped out by Greg Ortiz, the Falcon I desperately had tired to make a Critter a few years earlier. In the bottom of the inning, he bettered his season to .277 with 8 homers and 34 RBI, hitting a 2-out 2-piece off Chavez, who – and I counted – was due another $12.4M … The Critters tried to scrabble more runs together; Hooge singled and scored on Stalker’s double in the fifth, getting the score to 8-3, which still wasn’t necessarily Bernie-safe. …and he didn’t get the win. Tadlock doubled, Huichapa hit an RBI single, and after 4.2 innings of 9-hit, 4-run ball on 95 tosses, Chavez was yanked. Garavito ended the fifth on one pitch, getting a groundout from Dave Trahan.

The drama subsided slightly with Bernie Chavez banished to the sidelines. Dennis Citriniti pitched five outs before Huichapa appeared with Falcons on the corners in the bottom 7th. Prieto replaced the rookie and got a groundout to Zeltser. Actually, no, the panic crept back in with Prieto. He walked Trahan to begin the bottom 8th, then gave up an RBI double to Ortiz, who was caught in a rundown between second and third, 8-5. Aguirre tripled immediately. Aparicio whiffed, but PH Kevin Morris singled to left. The tying run now appeared in the box, and everything was horrendous. The Raccoons sent for Ed Blair, hoping for some 4-out magic. They got a walk to Herrera, a wild pitch, then thankfully an easy fly to Preston Pinkerton in rightfield to end the inning. Reyna grounded out to begin the ninth, and then Huichapa homered, 8-7. Trahan singled to center, Ortiz singled to left. Blair got a good yelling-at on the mound while David Fernandez was getting ready to be tossed in as a last resort. When Aguirre struck out, the Coons stuck to Blair since the Falcons also didn’t hit for Aparicio, already a .150, but come on, how many more homers was that little bastard going to hit in the series? None on Tuesday, that much was for sure; he grounded out to Zeltser. 8-7 Critters. M. Fernandez 2-4; Zeltser 2-5; Zitzner 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Hooge 2-4, 2B;

Garavito got his second win of the season for throwing precisely one pitch.

Also, Dr. Chung! Dr. Chung! – They make my heart race, and not in a good way! – Make them stop?

Dr. Chung recommended less booze and pills and more exercise for me, which was not exactly the phrase I longed to hear. Oh, shucks. (claps paws) Come on, boys, Poppa needs a win in he rubber game!

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – C Wall – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – 3B Zeltser – 2B Vickers – P Sabre
CHA: LF L. Herrera – 2B O. Aguirre – CF J. Reyna – C Huichapa – RF Trahan – 3B G. Ortiz – 1B Amundson – SS Aparicio – P Sparkes

Portland jumped out early again with Berto and Wall landing base hits. Manny hit a sac fly and Jimmy Wallace went yard for an early 3-0 score. Then came Sabre, allowed hard liners for singles against Herrera and Aguirre, a soft RBI single to Huichapa and barely escaped disaster when Rich Vickers made a good play on a sharp Ortiz grounder… Huichapa had another 2-out RBI single in the bottom 3rd, then after a soft Reyna single… and a wild pitch. Somehow, the Coons’ rotation had filled with slow-motion train wrecks…

Through four innings, the Coons still led 3-2, but Sabre had allowed seven base hits, much like Chavez the day before. The brazenness of the Falcons was also something to be admired; with Amundson and Aparicio on base in the inning and one out they wouldn’t bunt with Sparkes, who instead lined out to Manny Fernandez. Herrera got a K to end that inning. Huichapa came up with a man on again in the bottom 5th – Reyna with another single – but this time hit into an inning-ending double play. The writing had been on the wall for a while, so maybe some renewed offense would help. The Coons had drawn blanks for a while against Sparkes, and only got Fowler on base with two outs in the sixth. Jimmy Wallace homered seemed to have found the groove again and fired his second 2-run homer of the game to right-center, extending the score line to 5-2. And after Zitzner whiffed, Dave Trahan immediately romped a leadoff jack off Sabre…

Sabre retired the first two in the seventh, then was mothballed before Reyna and Huichapa could do decisive harm to the score. The Coons brought out Dusty Kulp, who got a first-pitch groundout from Reyna to end the inning, then walked Huichapa at the beginning of the next. The Coons went to David Fernandez in a double switch that removed Wallace, who had landed a 2-out RBI single in the top of the inning to now hold five shares in the Coons’ 6-3 lead, and all driven in with two down in the respective inning. Nevertheless, the rate at which things went wrong increased exponentially. Trahan doubled on Fernandez’ first pitch, and Ortiz hit a sac fly on the second. Fowler caught that fly, then waved for the trainer and was removed from the game with neck pain. Well, if he can wave, how hard can it be? Right? Right? RIGHT, DR. CHUNG?? … The inning ended with two strikeouts and Preston Pinkerton filling up the outfield. The Coons had nothing in the top 9th, and the Falcons couldn’t get to Fernandez in the bottom of the inning, either, so we limped out with a W. 6-4 Raccoons. Wall 3-4, 2B; Wallace 4-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; D. Fernandez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (4);

But at what cost!? At what price!?

Oh, there’s the medical report. Dr. Chung listed Fowler as day-to-day with a herniated disc in his neck. Fowler wanted to soldier through it (and who else would bat cleanup??), but Dr. Chung estimated that he would still continue to whine about it for about two weeks. Two weeks!? But that is most of the time we got left in the season!

Dr. Chung shrugged, mumbled something about digging trenches for exercise, and then left me alone with my sorrow, and I had an entire off day to grumble about the recent developments.

Raccoons (65-67) @ Indians (60-73) – August 31-September 2, 2035

The Raccoons returned to where it had started – on August 3 they had lost both ends of a rain-induced double header in Indianapolis, including an 8-0 lead blown in Game 1, which somehow caused the glass door to the balcony in my hotel room to shatter. Since then, they had been a .792 (19-5) ballclub, powerballing themselves back into contention. They hadn’t lost as much as consecutive games since that wretched August 3 double-header, and only twice had lost by more than one run.

For this to continue they had to make the Indians bleed in this weekend set. The competition had largely been static in the North during the midweek series, and Portland was still 2 1/2 games out of first. The Indians were eight back after having been swept in Tijuana. They were hitting the most home runs, but were also pretty poor in many other aspects o the game. They weren’t stealing bases, they had the worst defense, and had little goods to show off on their pitching staff. We were up in the season series, but only 6-5.

Projected matchups:
Gilberto Rendon (11-7, 2.92 ERA) vs. Josh Walsh (12-8, 3.17 ERA)
Colt Willes (10-10, 3.72 ERA) vs. Jim Kretzmann (7-14, 5.08 ERA)
Josh Livingston (6-1, 2.09 ERA) vs. Mike Burris (4-8, 3.38 ERA)

Those were all right-handers, which made one plan, to put Justin Fowler into the lineup against lefties only, a bit … complicated, at least for the weekend. Maybe we’d weave him in at some point anyway, but in any case he wasn’t in the lineup on Friday, the final day before rosters expanded.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – C Morales – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – CF Hooge – P Rendon
IND: SS Benito – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 3B Hutson – C J. Herrera – 1B I. Pena – RF Plunkett – P J. Walsh

Through four innings, both teams had three hits and two double plays to their name, and no runs on the board. Stalker’s 6-4-3 in the top 2nd after Walsh had walked Morales and Zelts to begin the inning was particularly vexing. Juan Herrera broke the ice with a leadoff jack in the bottom 5th, his 13th homer putting the Indians ahead 1-0. And what now? The Raccoons had nothing in the top 6th, the middle of the order disappearing in just a couple of pitches. In the bottom of the inning the Indians knocked up Rendon for good; sharp hits by Juan Benito, Dan Schneller (an RBI double), and John Baron put two more runs on the board, and Rendon didn’t get out of the sixth, walking Herrera with two outs. Garavito struck out Ivan Pena, but the damage was well done in a 3-0 game in which the Raccoons had yet to put up a token threat.

Bob Zeltser reached first on an uncaught third strike to begin the top 7th, which was perhaps the key to unlocking Josh Walsh, who walked Stalker, but then Ed Hooge hit into his second double play of the game. Desperate for anything, the Raccoons sent Justin Fowler to pinch-hit in the #9 hole. He did nothing less than rip an RBI triple. Berto poked a single to bring him home, and that brought up Fernandez as the go-ahead run. Walsh was on 109 pitches when Manny ripped the 0-1 to right. High. Deep. See ya! A 4-run comeback out of thin air, and now we just had to find nine outs without blowing the resulting 4-3 lead. Prieto did the seventh perfectly fine, but when Chris Wise came on for the eighth, Schneller hit a single to shallow left and Wallace overran the ball for an error at the very worst of times. The tying run moved to second base with nobody out. Baron flew out, bringing up the .330 bat with 17 homers owned by Josh Garbinski, with right-handers coming behind him. The Raccoons tried to out-fox the baseball gods – Garbinski was walked intentionally to get Wise to see Dan Hutson, with only right-handed bats but switch-hitting rookie Mike Calderín on the bench for the Arrowheads. Hutson whiffed! Herrera hit a 1-0 to center that sent Hooge back, and back a bit more, and back a bit more… and there he made the catch, stranding two…! The Coons found nothing in their bats, bringing up Ed Blair against the bottom of the order in the ninth and still a 4-3 score on the board. Ivan Pena lined out to Stalker. Mike Plunkett struck out. Joe DiGiacomo … popped out! 4-3 Raccoons!! M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI;

By the skin of their teeth …!! This game also, for the first time all week, brought the Coons actually closer to the top of the division, now 1 1/2 back of Elk City.

Garavito won yet another game, this time on four pitches. The lazy bum!

And then roster expanded. Normally we’d get two arms and two bats, but with Fowler day-to-day or rather week-to-week, though not entirely incapacitated, we’d get some more. The first addition was Steve Gowan, who had refused an assignment to AAA all the while since having been waived, and had not been released either. He was added back to the roster on the 1st, and told to shut the **** up if he valued his whiskers.

The other additions were the always curious case of Nick Bates (2.31 ERA in AAA, 19.29 ERA in Portland, but a 2.75 ERA in Portland in his spotted career) and 2029 second-rounder Bob Thomson for he pen; Thomson had been close to a call-up earlier in the year, but things had worked out without him then. He was a run-of-the-mill left-handed starter, had recently turned 25, and was not going to wow anybody. We’d use him in the pen as third southpaw option.

Philip Scheffer was rewarded for good behavior in AAA at 34 years of age by a promotion to third catcher. We brought up a surprise as additional infielder forgoing the meh Edgar Barrios for Matt Triolo, a 26-year-old elite defensive option with no bat to speak of, but maybe he could poke the odd single; he was a lefty batter and would make his major league debut. We also brought back Hugo Salgado… and then made another move in an attempt to reach the stars. With Fowler confined to light duty (like tripling…) for another two weeks, the Raccoons called up 21-year-old Jesus Maldonado, who had batted .347/.419/.498 in 56 games in St. Pete after starting the year in Ham Lake. He was a multi-talented outfielder, capable of playing every position in the infield and outfield (though had no experience at second base), and his bat got rave reviews… except that maybe it was too early for him… oh, yeah, and he was the #6 prospect in the league.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – C K. Wall – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Maldonado – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – P Willes
IND: SS Benito – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 3B Hutson – C J. Herrera – 1B I. Pena – RF Plunkett – P Kretzmann

Maldonado tried to make Kretzmann rub up a new one in his first at-bat, but instead became the 100th strikeout victim of the Indians hurler on the season. Kretzmann otherwise walked two and allowed a single to Stalker in the inning, but Willes grounded out to strand the bases loaded. Instead the Indians knocked up Willes with straight 2-out singles by the 6-7-8 batters. Herrera and Pena were on the corners when Plunkett singled to right. One run scored on the single, and the other on Manny Fernandez’ throwing error when Pena dashed for third base. Another three singles scores another run for Indy in the third…

The Age of Maldonado had its first base hit in the fourth, a 2-out single that led nowhere. The Raccoons didn’t get another fat chance until the fifth, and then for a Willes double to left. Berto dropped in a blooper that landed between Schneller and Plunkett, and Fernandez came up as the tying run with the two runners on the corners and one out. He flew out to Garbinski on the first pitch for a sac fly, and Kurt Wall popped out. Wallace opened the sixth with a single, then got doubled up by Zitzner, and I still wasn’t entirely clear what he did on the roster to start with… Maldonado had another single, stole second, but Zeltser popped out to strand him again.

Willes lasted six and two thirds before a walk to Benito made him make room for the enlarged bullpen. Dusty Kulp got out of the inning. Fernandez then opened the eighth with a double to right, once more bringing the tying run to bear on Kretzmann, who was extremely resilient until Kurt Wall hit an RBI double in the gap. The Indians were in all due time preparing a pitching change, but Wallace hit a grounder before that could take place. Pena contained the ball behind first base, then tossed terrible behind Kretzmann’s back for an error. The ball bounced into foul ground, Herrera had to chase it down, but this took so long that even Kurt Wall had time to chuck it home from second base, tying the score, with Wallace sent to second base. The Indians walked Zitzner intentionally (snort!) to get Kretzmann to pitch to the debutee and then send a lefty for Zeltser. That debutee though ripped a liner through the space between a panicked, ducking Dan Hutson and his hovering cap, up the line for a go-ahead, RBI double! MAL-DONADO!! The Indians walked Zeltser, still retained Kretzmann, who got a 6-2-3 double play from Tim Stalker’s grounder, *then* oversaw another intentional walk issued to PH Justin Fowler. This loaded the bags for Berto with two gone and Ramiro Benavides and his 6.02 ERA coming on. Berto lined out to Benito, stranding three…

The bottom 8th saw the Coons up 4-3 and trying to dawdle it away again. Calderín singled off David Fernandez. Hutson singled off Wise. With runners on the corners and two outs, Garavito came on to face Pena, but the Indians pinch-hit with veteran Luis Leija, who ran a full count before shooting a ball up the middle. Berto rushed, picked, spun, avoided Hutson’s reaching spikes, and tossed to first to beat Leija by half a step to kill the threat. Benavides was still around in the top 9th. Manny flew out, but Wall reached base on a Benito error. Salgado ran for him and reached third when Wallace cracked a single past Gold Glover Dan Schneller. Hitting for Zitzner seemed like a good idea, but the Indians stuck to the lefty, so maybe … and he struck out. There was no hitting for a 3-for-4 debutee, but Maldonado grounded out to Benito. Bottom 9th, Blair. J.J. Henley singled with one out, and so did Benito. Salgado’s throw to third base allowed the trailing runner and the winning run to advance into scoring position. Dan Schneller rolled a grounder near third base, Zeltser hustled in and tossed to first – not in time, and the tying run scored. Scruffy bench hugger Sam Wall then batted in the #3 hole, a lefty bat against Blair… and walked off the Arrowheads on the first pitch with a soft blooper into shallow right. 5-4 Indians. Ramos 2-5; Wallace 2-4, RBI; Maldonado 3-5, 2B, RBI;

Eviscerating.

And then there he was – the left-handed pitcher that we didn’t think we’d get. The Indians moved Arnie Terwilliger (9-12, 4.97 ERA) into the Sunday game.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – C K. Wall – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – RF M. Fernandez – 1B Maldonado – 2B Stalker – 3B Marsingill – P Livingston
IND: SS Benito – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – 3B Hutson – C J. Herrera – 1B I. Pena – RF Plunkett – P Terwilliger

For a nice change, the Raccoons scored first on Jimmy Wallace’s 16th homer of the year, only for John Baron to rip #23 in the bottom of the first to tie it up again, 1-1. After the Baron homer, the Coons didn’t have another hit until the fourth when Fowler singled and was left on, while Livingston constantly seemed to have an Arrowhead on base, but despite landing four more base hits through the end of the fourth, the Indians couldn’t score again. The fifth inning then saw the 8-9 in the Coons’ order reach with one out and on consecutive errors by Pena and Terwilliger, respectively. Oh, but now – they HAD to break through now! Berto struck out, Wall walked, and Wallace popped out foul on a 2-0 pitch, stranding another set of three, FOR ****’S SAKE!!

All the best-laid curses didn’t help, the Raccoons couldn’t find a way to score off the decidedly mediocre pitcher on paw. Instead, Livingston got singled to death in the sixth. Garbinski hit a 1-out double, then scored on a Hutson single, with the batter advancing to second on a lame throw to home. Herrera singled HIM home, and Pena also reached base on another single before the inning fizzled out with the Arrowheads 3-1 ahead. And despite being out-hit 11-2, and unable to get the ****ing baseballs to fall in, the Raccoons still had a chance to tie the game in the eighth when Wallace drew a 2-out walk from Terwilliger. Boldly, the Indians left him in there against Fowler, aching, but 1-for-3 in the game. The Coons needed a homer NOW. They got a fly to center, Baron caught it, and it was all ****. The soft end of the bullpen then came apart for two more runs in the bottom of the eighth, one each charged to Thomson in his major league debut, and Citriniti, who walked two and allowed a 2-run single to Schneller. The Coons faced lefty Juan Melendrez in the ninth. He retired them in order. 5-1 Indians.

In other news

August 27 – Pacifics swingman Jinten Kaneshiro (4-10, 5.40 ERA) might miss most of next season, too, after going on the DL with a torn rotator cuff.
August 28 – 49 games into his ABL career, DAL 2B/SS Hugo Acosta (.357, 0 HR, 21 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak at barely 21 years of age.
August 28 – RIC 3B/SS Guillermo Obando (.264, 0 HR, 34 RBI) hits a 2-run double in the bottom 17th to not only stave off defeat, but win the game, 7-6, for the Rebels, who had conceded a run in the top of the inning against the Scorpions.
August 31 – BOS SS/2B Keith Spataro (.245, 5 HR, 49 RBI) is out for the season with a strained hamstring.
September 1 – The hitting streak of DAL 2B/SS Hugo Acosta (.352, 0 HR, 21 RBI) ends after 22 games in a 5-2 loss to the Warriors. Acosta goes 0-for-3.
September 2 – CIN SP Emilio DeClerk (11-5, 3.16 ERA) will spend all winter recuperating from a torn back muscle.

Complaints and stuff

It started in Indianapolis, it ended in Indianapolis. The first consecutive losses since *that* double header in August, and If that ****fest of a weekend set didn’t rob all your illusions, nothing ever will.

But since nobody else seems to mind winning any amount of games, and Maud insists that I play positive and motivational, especially when there are sponsor representatives around (points at the Roger Hotchkiss “Bud” DeVilane II -employed hitman in the black suit and broad-rimmed hat hiding in the dark corner), why don’t we take a look at the remaining games for all the pretenders…? (with BNN-supplied strength of schedule and playoff probability)

BOS (69-68) – IND (6), POR (4), CHA (3), MIL (3), NYC (3), TIJ (3), VAN (3) – .480 – 48.9%
VAN (68-68) – POR (7), NYC (4), BOS (3), IND (3), MIL (3), OCT (3), SFB (3) – .497 – 28.0%
POR (66-69) – VAN (7), BOS (4), IND (4), MIL (3), NYC (3), OCT (3), SFB (3) – .500 – 18.8%
NYC (64-72) – MIL (6), IND (4), VAN (4), BOS (3), CHA (3), POR (3), TIJ (3) – .485 – 3.0%
MIL (64-74) – NYC (6), ATL (3), BOS (3), IND (3), POR (3), LVA (3), VAN (3) – .477 – 0.4%
IND (62-74) – BOS (6), NYC (4), POR (4), ATL (3), LVA (3), MIL (3), VAN (3) – .482 – 0.8%

And **** will get real really quick now – the damn Elks are in town on Monday, starting a 4-game set. Realistically speaking, it could be over for us by Thursday night, especially given our recent performances against them… Elks and Titans will play next weekend, while we have the Crusaders in on the weekend.

Maybe Jimmy Wallace can do something about the threat of the stall. One week after completing an 0-for-33 decomposition he won Player of the Week honors, barring .526 (10-for-19) with 3 HR and 6 RBI.

Baseball, huh!?

Should we somehow fail our way into the World Series, the Buffaloes won’t be the opponents for a 2028 rematch, as they were eliminated on Sunday, the first ABL to be so and also the first assured a losing record this year. The Condors suffered a couple of walkoff losses to Vegas on the weekend, so it’s not like we are the only team with ambitions that can’t keep their holes closed.

Darren Brown started a rehab assignment in St. Pete this week. The plan is to get him back after two starts and see whether he can be any help down the stretch. Still on the DL is John Hennessy and he won’t come off until the second half of September, so while he might be an option at the end of the season he already struggled in the brief time between injuries and I don’t see him making the playoff roster.

Fun Fact: Matt Triolo was on his second tour of duty in the Coons’ minor league system before getting called up on Saturday. He had previously been around for three months in 2028.

Originally a third-rounder by the Miners in ’26 we had gotten him off the trash heap prior to the 2028 season but included him in a trade with the Bayhawks for Jon Correa in July. It was the first of three trades he was involved in during that year, eventually ending up with the Buffos, but nobody ever saw him as major league material. Prior to getting another trash heap contract this March, he had been through eight minor league organizations.