[Westheim]

Raccoons (5-7) @ Canadiens (8-5) – April 22-24, 2036

Monday was off, and while I went home, the Raccoons’ Traveling Clown Show moved up to Elktown to play three games starting on Tuesday. The damn Elks had won 11 games from the Critters in ’35, but that has still not been enough to make the playoffs, something they were almost a quarter century removed from. The Elks had the third-worst batting average in the CL, but the fourth-most runs scored, the reason for which was mostly early-season randomness, and, well, the Coons had the highest batting average, somehow, and couldn’t score a lick. The Elks’ pitching was average so far, but they had a very good defense, spelling probably more trouble for Alberto Ramos and all the other BABIP strugglers.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (0-0, 0.60 ERA) vs. Bryce Neal (2-0, 4.70 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (0-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. Raymond Pearce (1-0, 1.13 ERA)
Darren Brown (0-2, 6.10 ERA) vs. Joe West (2-1, 2.75 ERA)

Neal would be a southpaw. The Elks had only one of those in their pen, and the Raccoons had three, but would be a man short in the pen as Yeom Soung had come down with a violent case of the ****s. While he hugged the toilet in his hotel room, 24 Critters tried to take on the Elks… At least the off day meant that the Raccoons could use a starter as emergency long man if things got dire or went deep into extra innings.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – LF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – CF Fowler – C Wall – RF Pinkerton – 1B Maruyama – P Chavez
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – C R. Castillo – CF Outram – 1B J. Lopez – RF Phillips – LF LeJeune – 2B Morrow – SS Cabral – P Neal

All the defense in the world helped Bryce Neal nothing for his performance in the second inning, which saw him issue four walks, including one with the bags already stacked with the 6-7-8 batters and Alberto Ramos at the plate, forcing home the first run of the game. Myers drew another bases-loaded walk, and Fernandez hit a sac fly. Tim Stalker dropped an RBI single, and then Justin Fowler turned a 1-2 pitch around for a 3-run homer to left, breaking a 45-AB RBI-less streak to start his season all while saddling Neal with a 7-spot.

If you naively assumed that the Raccoons would ride that 7-spot right till the end, you for once would not be mistaken. The Elks lied down and took it, and the only major outrage was when Bernie Chavez drilled Jerry Outram quite substantially in the third inning. While I did not disapprove of nailing Elks until they bled, it was probably not the right time to put runners on base – Ricky Castillo had drawn a leadoff walk. Nothing came of it due to a combo of poor outs going forwards, and Bernie would later cruise through the middle innings. Berto singled home Pinkerton in the fifth to tack on one more run, 8-0. Bernie then lost cohesion in the later innings and ran three long counts for three outs in the bottom 8th. That put him on just over 100 pitches, and his spot came up with two outs and Hooge and Keller on the corners in the top of the ninth. The Raccoons were willing to let him at least start the ninth with an 8-run cushion. Jonathan Snyder, a Raccoon long, long ago, struck him out. Bottom 9th, Castillo struck out, but ran a full count, getting Bernie up to 110 pitches. Outram struck out, but ran *another* full count. Well, Bernie would definitely get one chance at the shutout against Johnny Lopez, the reigning CL Rookie of the Year, albeit for different CL North team… Lopez hit the 1-2 pitch to center, Ed Hooge came on and made the catch, and everything was well for a day! 8-0 Raccoons! M. Fernandez 2-4, RBI; Fowler 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Wall 2-5, 2 2B; Pinkerton 2-4; Keller (PH) 1-1; Chavez 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (1-0);

Huzzah!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Sabre
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – C R. Castillo – CF Outram – 1B Lopez – RF Phillips – LF LeJeune – 2B Morrow – SS Cabral – P Pearce

Unbelievably, the Raccoons beat an Elks starter to death early for the second straight game. Raymond Pearce gave up a 7-spot in the first, with Berto getting 2 RBI in the inning after initially singling, stealing second, and coming home on Dave Myers’ single. Justin Fowler hit a 2-run homer before the bases filled up for a 2-run single by Maruyama, and after Sabre bunted the remaining runners into scoring position, Ramos got his 2-out, 2-run single. So, kick back and relax? Well, maybe not. Sabre’s first pitch of the game was hit to the fence (but into Ed Hooge’s mitten) by D.J. Robinson, so maybe it was too early to show cocky behavior. Castillo reached base, but the Elks didn’t get the runner into scoring position, and instead the Raccoons tacked on a single run a bit later, just like on Tuesday, this time with a Hooge homer in the top 3rd – and then got another homer from Fernandez in the fourth. Outram would hit a leadoff double and scored on two productive outs in the bottom 4th, 9-1, but we were at a stage where getting steady outs was good enough and the odd run on the board didn’t matter.

The Elks used Gavin Lee in long relief until he left with an injury, but held the Coons off the board after the fourth inning. Sabre meanwhile pitched well without overpowering (only 3 K) until he didn’t anymore and the Elks ruffled him in the bottom 7th. With two outs in the inning they landed a string of base hits with an Eric Morrow single, an RBI double by Ramon Cabral, an RBI single by Will Korecky, who moved up on Fowler’s throw to home plate, and then a walk to Robinson. The Coons threw the anchor there and brought in Dusty Kulp for Castillo, with David Fernandez lined up to come in right afterwards against Outram and the following batters, but would have to wait another inning, since Kulp got his man on a grounder to Dave Myers. When his time came, Fernandez retired all four Elks he got, and the final two outs were collected by Casey Moore from Morrow and Cabral. 9-3 Furballs! Ramos 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; M. Fernandez 2-5, HR, RBI; Hooge 2-4, HR, RBI; Vickers 2-5, 2B; Maruyama 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

You know what would make me even more happy? If the boys could score TEN in the final game!

And won it, too.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Brown
VAN: 3B D.J. Robinson – C R. Castillo – CF Outram – 1B J. Lopez – RF Phillips – LF LeJeune – 2B Morrow – SS Cabral – P J. West

Unfortunately, Game 3 seemed to go the other way and most of the blame was on Darren Brown, who walked Robinson to begin the game, with the runner stealing second and taking third on a wild pitch. Castillo struck out, but Outram hit an RBI single, Brown walked the bases full, and then was lucky to escape with a LeJeune sac fly and a Morrow groundout to short, only 2-0 down. Brown issued a fourth walk in the bottom 2nd before he had his deficit made up by Dave Myers with a big homer in the top of the third; Brown contributed to that, opening the inning with a single up the middle.

Brown didn’t allow any more base runners in the fourth and fifth innings, while Joe West remained in shape much longer than his two predecessors combined, but in the sixth inning the Critters started off by loading the bases. Morales, Hooge, and Vickers singled in order to present the suddenly not quite as useless Chiyosaku Maruyama with three on and no outs. He was now batting .297 after a hot weekend and some more hits in this series, and broke the tie by freezing when a 1-2 pitch darted for his elbow, which was legit, we’d give him an extra point for that (affixes little gold star sticker on his scoresheet back home in Portland), with Tony Morales jogging home to put Portland up, 3-2. Hitting for Brown was the question now, but with nobody out the Coons felt good about taking this out and hoping for more outs from Darren later. Unfortunately he flew out to right in what became a dismal play, as Ed Hooge went for home, was thrown out by Ryan Phillips, but the rightfielder also hurt his hand or arm on the throw and had to be replaced by Pat Pohl, while the trailing runners advanced into scoring position, where Ramos left them when he flew out to LeJeune. Brown would get four more outs before leaving the game on five walks and five strikeouts, and somehow only two hits allowed. Garavito finished the bottom 7th, still up 3-2.

Joe West put Morales on base with a leadoff single in the eighth, but Hooge hit into a 6-4-3, at which point the Coons were up by eight hits, but only a measly run. Rich Vickers doubled, raising his average over .400, and Maruyama found a hole on the left side to get a single between Cabral and Robinson. Vickers scooted around for a long-awaited insurance run, and then Tim Stalker hit gapper for an RBI double in the pitcher’s spot, 5-2! Berto walked, but Erik David, who had replaced West three hits into the inning, struck out Dave Myers to strand two. Bottom 8th, and Dusty Kulp and disaster both got involved at the same time. Robinson hit a leadoff single, but was doubled up on Castillo’s grounder to short (now manned by Stalker with Ramos given the rest of the day off). Then Kulp nailed Jerry Outram. Lopez walked. Pohl hit an RBI single. LeJeune was up – LEFTY! LEFTY! Only David Fernandez was left for lefties, came in, the Elks sent Will Korecky as pinch-hitter to counter – but Fernandez got the strikeout, stranding the tying runs! Fowler (single) and Morales (walk) reached in the ninth, but were left stranded by Rafael Urbano before Chris Wise got involved with a game, and maybe he’d even get through the bottom of the order without ****ing up? Morrow led off the bottom 9th with a jack, 5-4. Cabral whiffed, though, so maybe – Josh Keen lined out viciously to Myers, who swiped blindly while squeaking for his life, but it still counted for an out. Robinson, a .119 hitting lefty, was the Elks’ last straw. He grounded out to Maruyama. 5-4 Critters! Morales 2-5; Hooge 2-4, BB; Vickers 3-5, 2B; Maruyama 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Stalker (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Aces (12-3) – April 25-27, 2036

The Aces had won eight in a row, including sweeps over the Knights and Thunder, and 11 of their last 12 games after initially dropping a series to the Falcons. They had yet to concede more than four runs in ANY game this season, so there was ONE subtle clue at what made them good. Unsurprisingly they were first in pretty much all pitching categories that mattered, and fourth in runs scored. We had lost five of nine to them last year.

Projected matchups:
Gilberto Rendon (0-0, 5.06 ERA) vs. Drew Johnson (1-1, 2.70 ERA)
Colt Willes (2-0, 1.59 ERA) vs. Matt Diduch (2-0, 1.13 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (1-0, 0.38 ERA) vs. Jamie Klages (2-0, 0.87 ERA)

All righties; the Coons still were without Yeom Soung, who had spent three days on the pot and was now completely exhausted and remained unavailable for at least Friday. But hey, we had spent three days in Elktown without ever using Antonio Prieto…

Game 1
LVA: RF Jorgensen – 1B Stedham – CF M. Hall – 2B Briones – C Kuehn – LF J. Nelson – 3B T. Johnson – SS Schneider – P D. Johnson
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Rendon

Right away, the Aces put three on Rendon, who retired none of the first fourth batters. Steve Jorgensen singled to right, Jesse Stedham walked, and Mike Hall legged out an infield single. Mario Briones hit a 2-run single up the middle to get something memorable on the board, and a Paul Kuehn sac fly would make it three before Justin Nelson struck out and Todd Johnson popped out. As expected, the Raccoons had nothing going early on against Drew Johnson, but Rendon would just keep on drowning. The Aces were on base in the second without scoring, but in the third inning Rendon nailed Mike Hall, who moved around on a stolen base and a Briones single. Rendon was knocked out before completing four innings, Stedham singling home Brian Schneider with two outs in the fourth, running the score to 5-0. Casey Moore got the ball, allowed another two singles to Hall and Briones to allow Stedham to score, then kindly struck out Kuehn in a 6-0 hole…

Manny Fernandez hit a jack in the bottom 4th, but that was not enough to stoke a rally. It was in fact about all they did to Drew Johnson in seven innings. After four outs from Moore, the Coons sent Prieto to burn him for three innings, which amounted to eight solid outs and then a pinch-hit homer by John Marz. The Raccoons couldn’t poke the Aces’ pen either, and lost this one by a country mile. 7-1 Aces. M. Fernandez 2-3, HR, 2B, RBI;

Maybe we should aim for scoring four runs in the series…?

Game 2
LVA: 3B T. Johnson – 1B Stedham – CF M. Hall – 2B Briones – C Kuehn – LF J. Nelson – RF E. Martin – SS McNatt – P Diduch
POR: SS Ramos – 3B D. Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – 2B Vickers – RF Keller – C Wall – 1B Maruyama – P Willes

The Coons broke out first on Saturday, landing three hits and a walk right in the bottom of the first inning. Myers singled, scored on Manny Fernandez’ double in the gap, and after Fowler walked and Vickers popped out, Jason Keller got his first Coons RBI with a single to center. While Willes allowed only one hit but quite a few hard knocks that somehow all ended up with the defense – the only Aces hit early on was actually an infield single by Briones – the Raccoons would again stir trouble with the same part of the lineup in the bottom of the third. Dave Myers reached base, but was forced out by Fernandez, who however stole second base, then got a good jump on a Fowler single and scored to make it 3-0. Would the Raccoons actually be the first to put a pawful on the Aces? Not in this inning – both Vickers and Keller made poor outs to strand Fowler. Maruyama singled with one out in the fourth, though, was bunted, and scored on a Berto single to make it 4-0.

One run away from setting a new record of scoring against the Aces this year, the Raccoons first saw the Aces cobble three hits together to get a run off Willes in the sixth inning. Diduch actually hit a single with Jeff McNatt already having stolen second base after a leadoff single. With runners on the corners, Todd Johnson hit into a run-scoring double play before Stedham hit a 2-out single that led nowhere. Diduch left with back pain in the bottom of the inning, while Willes still looked solid on paper after six; up 4-1, he had thrown only 61 pitches, but also only had two strikeouts, so hadn’t fooled many. Then, out of the blue, he whiffed the 4-5-6 batters in order in the seventh. McNatt singled off him in the eighth, but John Marz hit into a double play in his pinch-hitting appearance this time, leaving the score 4-1 in the middle of the eighth. The Raccoons got Fernandez on base in the bottom of the inning, but didn’t score again, so unless Chris Wise blew the save we in fact wouldn’t score a pawful after all… Hey, Wise – Don’t you dare be encouraged!! - … Wise faced the top of the order and allowed a double to Johnson right away. Stedham struck out, but Hall struck a base hit to left, and Fernandez’ poor throw home not only allowed Johnson to score, but also got Mike Hall to second base, taking away the double play, not that Briones’ following grounder would have lent itself to two. .211 hitter Paul Kuehn was up with two outs and the runner at third, and Wise carved up the switch-hitter to finish the game. 4-2 Coons. Myers 2-3, BB; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Willes 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (3-0);

Game 3
LVA: RF Jorgensen – 1B Stedham – CF M. Hall – 2B Briones – C Kuehn – LF J. Nelson – 3B T. Johnson – SS McNatt – P Klages
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Myers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Morales – LF Hooge – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Chavez

Justin Fowler hit his third homer of the week and the season, plating Berto (single) and Fernandez (forced out Myers) for a 3-0 lead in the bottom 1st. It was also his third homer of the season and he was still short of .200, but, eh, baby steps, and a 5-1 week would be great on its own merits… The inning continued with a Tony Morales single, but Hooge flew out. Stalker was nailed by Klages, to which Maruyama objected. The 26-year-old Japanese whatever player took offense to his nearest friend on the field getting plunked like that and banzai’d a fastball over the fence in left-center for ANOTHER 3-run homer, and THAT one broke the Aces’ streak of 17 straight games of allowing fewer than five runs.

Morales doubled home Fernandez in the bottom 2nd to make it 7-0, but Bernie Chavez wouldn’t pitch a shutout this time; he in fact got roughed up in the third. John Marz hit his second pinch-hit jack in the series hitting for Klages in the top 3rd, and then Steve Jorgensen and Mike Hall reached base before Mario Briones hit a 3-piece of his own to cut the lead to 7-4. Maybe it was another example of that one dismal unlucky inning? Bernie retired the next seven in a row to complete five, but with an advanced pitch count. He was however not hit for in the bottom 5th with two outs and Hooge on second and Maruyama on first. He poked a 1-0 pitch by righty Jerry Hodges up the middle, McNatt didn’t reach it, and the Coons got an RBI single out of it, extending the lead to 8-4. Berto then struck out, unfortunately.

Bottom 6th, Hodges and John Jackson filled the bags with Myers, Fowler (intentionally walked) and Hooge, bringing up Stalker with two outs, but the veteran popped out to short. Bernie in turn retired another six in a row (and 13 total in a row to end his day) before being lifted for a pinch-hitter with one out and nobody on in the bottom 7th. Vickers singled in his spot, Berto flew out to left, and Myers walked with two down. Fernandez grounded up the middle, where Briones made a strong play and fling to second base to force out Myers to end the inning. Portland had to get six outs from the pen without blowing a 4-run lead. Yeom Soung got the ball for the first time all week and retired Evan Martin, Jorgensen, and Stedham in order in the eighth despite looking emaciated. Right-hander Felipe Jacquez was then eviscerated by Justin Fowler, who blasted a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left for a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th! Four homers on the week! Still not batting .200 though… The next three Critters made outs, and that sent Dusty Kulp to the mound for the ninth. Hall singled. Briones walked. Kuehn singled. Kulp was yanked. Chris Wise got this sticky situation and began with a K to Nelson, which was a nice start. Todd Johnson also struck out waving, bringing up .178 batter Jeff McNatt as the last straw for Vegas. He fell to 1-2, then – of course… – hit a sighing single to right for two runs. Oh well, those were Kulp’s problem… Brian Schneider was pinch-hitting in the #9 hole and Wise’s problem… but he flew out easily to Fernandez before things could get REALLY ugly. 9-6 Raccoons! Ramos 2-5; Fowler 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Morales 2-5, 2B, RBI; Vickers (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 21 – SFW RF/1B/LF Tim Sheaffer (.214, 1 HR, 3 RBI) hits a homer for the sole scoring in the Warriors’ 1-0 win over the Stars.
April 21 – SFW SS Jesus Matos (.282, 0 HR, 8 RBI) would miss three weeks with a strained hammy.
April 22 – 41-year-old NAS SP Mark Roberts (2-0, 2.01 ERA) shuts out the Buffaloes on six hits but only one strikeout in a 2-0 Blue Sox win!
April 22 – BOS OF/2B Moises Avila (.255, 1 HR, 5 RBI) will be out at least to late May with a broken thumb.
April 23 – With two outs in the bottom 12th, Dallas’ LF Abel Madsen (.333, 2 HR, 13 RBI) fouls off no fewer then six pitches by SFW MR Derek Barker (1-1, 2.70 ERA) before knocking a single to give the Stars a 4-3 walkoff win.
April 25 – CIN OF/1B Dick Oshiita (.364, 4 HR, 14 RBI) reaches 30 games on his hitting streak with an RBI single in an 11-2 rout of the Wolves.
April 25 – The Falcons’ T.J. Bennett (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI), in only his third assignment to the starting lineup all year, churns out five hits with a triple and one RBI in a 12-3 rush of the Loggers.
April 27 – The hitting streak of Cincy’s Dick Oshiita (.373, 4 HR, 14 RBI) reaches 32 games by week’s end with a 2-hit day in a 4-3 loss to Salem. A second-inning double gets the job done early, and he adds a single later.
April 27 – Tijuana 1B Tomas Caraballo (.189, 1 HR, 4 RBI) could miss four months with a strained hip muscle.
April 27 – SFW RF/LF Doug Stross (.263, 1 HR, 10 RBI) will be on the DL for at least a month with a strained oblique.
April 27 – Every player in the Stars’ lineup, including SP Jong-hoo Cho (2-1, 2.52 ERA) has at least one hit and scores at least one run in a 17-2 ravaging of the Rebels.

Complaints and stuff

We swept the Elks, with a combined 22-7 runs. I liked that. That tasted good!

Justin Fowler exploded for four homers and 10 RBI after getting NOTHING done in the first two weeks. He wasn’t remotely close to Player of the Week honors though since because he did get a hit in every game this week (and on Sunday prior) and has a 7-game hitting streak, he actually got multiple hits only twice and struck out seven times. He batted only 8-for-23, or in other words, half his hits were homers. Whatever works!

Manny Fernandez leads the league in OPS with a 1.051 mark, seven points ahead of some Capitals bloke. Who that? .388 with four homers? Adam what? – Maud, you must pronounce it cleanly. – Avakian? – Never heard of that guy. – NO MAUD I NEVER HEARD OF HIM.

We’re two games out, which isn’t horrendous right now. At least we got Maruyama and Fowler and Berto to do ****ing anything. The offense wasn’t bad at all this week, and the pile of early outbursts got us to sixth in runs scored in the CL after that desolate start. I still think it could have gone better with Harenberg and Wallace around, but that glass of milk has not only been spilled but also lapped up by the cats by now.

What up in AAA? Jeff Wilson, Jose Brito, and Will Luna, all non-trivial prospects 23 or younger, are all batting .270-something with one homer at this point. Cory Cronk is hitting .271 with no homers. Of course we have a bigger prize yet, Jesus Maldonado. His slash is .310/.359/.479 with two homers. He still looks like lots of strikeouts, but he could probably be called up and contribute now. He turned 22 in March.

Fun Fact: Tuesday was the first career shutout for Bernie Chavez!

That is actually true, which is quite amazing for a guy that’s not perfect but certainly hugely talented and got SOME idiot to pay $16M to him. The shutout came in his 127th ABL start. He is now 47-33 with a 3.64 ERA for his career, with 611 strikeouts and six complete games. Not bad for a fourth-rounder that was only washed aboard because we needed to get rid of Rin Nomura’s contract at the deadline in ’29.