[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-27) vs. Knights (27-23) – June 2-4, 2042

The Portland Slowpokes returned home, only to find the Knights waiting for them, so there was no time to hide in shame after a 6-game week in which the Coons scored all of seven runs – baseball was back on the menu as early as Monday. Atlanta was in second place in the South, 3 1/2 games back. They were in the bottom three in runs scored and many offensive categories, but they had conceded the fewest runs in the league, and there was but little hope that the Raccoons would break out of their offensive funk any time soon. Atlanta led the season series, 2-1.

Projected matchups:
Josh Brown (5-1, 2.05 ERA) vs. Bill Nichol (3-5, 3.16 ERA)
Angelo Montano (1-3, 3.45 ERA) vs. Jose Medina (3-1, 2.90 ERA)
Nelson Moreno (2-5, 6.53 ERA) vs. Kurt Olson (4-3, 3.86 ERA)

Medina was the only left-hander in the Knights’ rotation.

Game 1
ATL: RF Hester – 1B Jam. King – 2B Crim – CF B. Oliver – SS McKoy – C Raymond – LF Kristoff – 3B Lusk – P Nichol
POR: 1B Ramos – CF Romero – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – 3B Trevino – RF Cortes – C Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – P Brown

While Josh Brown scattered three hits the first time through the order, but didn’t concede a run in the first two innings and thus dropped his ERA to below two, the Raccoons wasted a Romero double in the first before getting a Cortes single with one out in the second inning. Jeff Wilson popped out, but Omar Gutierrez hit his first major-league home run, a 2-out 2-piece to right for the first markers on the board. The Knights kept singling, but Joe Crim in the third and Tyler McKoy in the fourth both hit into double plays to erase singles by Billy Hester and Brian Oliver, respectively. Bryant Raymond hit another single with two outs, but was stranded, but the Knights were on the corners in the fifth after singles from Kyle Lusk and Hester, bringing up certified slugger Jamie King, but King had always been weak against left-handers and had mostly murdered right-handers. He hit the first pitch he got to Gutierrez for the third straight double-play rally killer.

Nichol allowed five hits through four innings, but didn’t walk anybody until giving back-to-back 1-out free passes to Berto and Romero in the bottom 5th. Hunter flew out to Hester in deep right, but Manny slapped an RBI single to go up 3-0. A throw to home plate that was ultimately nowhere near the goal allowed the trailing runners to advance into scoring position, which cost the Knights when Cosmo dropped a ball into shallow right-center for a 2-out, 2-run single, 5-0. Cortes struck out to end the inning. Brown continued into the seventh before finally running out of luck and giving up a run on back-to-back hits by Justin Kristoff, who stole second, and Lusk. Marc DeVita also singled, putting the Knights on the corners with one out, but our old aversion of replacing lefty with lefty struck again and Brown remained in to see Hester, who struck out, and King, who grounded out to Gutierrez again, keeping the Coons up 5-1. Portland loaded the bases against ex-Coon David Fernandez in the bottom 7th, with the 3-4-5 reaching with two outs, but Cortes grounded out to short. The Coons dragged Brown further – despite 11 hits allowed through seven, his pitch count was only in the eighties – and a quick eighth inning got him into the ninth, too. Kristoff hit a 12th knock off Brown with a 1-out single to center, but it wasn’t a save opportunity yet and Brown still had some left on 95 tosses. He threw four more to Lusk, who ended the game with another 4-6-3 grounder. 5-1 Coons. Hunter 2-4, 2B; Fernandez 2-4, RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 12 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (6-1);

Brown was one of three qualifying pitchers with a sub-2 ERA (1.92 precisely) at this point, and the only one in the CL. The others were Mark Holliday (1.89 on the Stars!), and … oh, just Ryan Bedrosian (1.77) in Salem.

Game 2
ATL: RF Hester – 1B Jam. King – 2B Crim – CF B. Oliver – SS McKoy – C Raymond – LF DeVita – 3B Lusk – P J. Medina
POR: 2B Trevino – CF Romero – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – RF Cortes – 3B de Wit – C Kilmer – 1B Wilson – P Montano

Montano was dealt a couple of blows in the first inning, giving up five hits to the Knights, including 2-run bombs by Joe Crim and Tyler McKoy that put the Raccoons into an early deep hole. Bryant Raymond would add a third 2-run blast (all to left) before the third inning was over, and Montano was silently hit for in the bottom of the third inning and never talked about again. The Raccoons were hitless through three, with only Romero reaching base with a walk and a stolen base the first time through, and there was no point pretending. Travis Sims got the ball – although he also had a 3-ish ERA, we well knew he was a 5-ish ERA player, and this was the game to prove it. Sims staved off expectations with three scoreless innings, hitting a single in the bottom 5th to show up the position player corps (although Hunter had landed a double in the fourth that had led nowhere nice). Cortes tripled in Hunter in the bottom 6th with two outs, the first run for Portland, then scored on a single by de Wit up the middle, but Jay de Wit barely made it back to .240 with that hit and the writing was on the wall that his time as a starter was ending. Kilmer struck out to end the inning. The Knights got a run tacked on in the eighth with a McKoy homer off Jon Craig, who put two more runners on base before yielding to Brent Clark. PH Jose Garcia hit a 2-out single to load the bases, but Clark rung up Hester to end the inning, curtailing the last time a team had a scoring opportunity in this game. 7-2 Knights. Hunter 2-4, 2B; Sims 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K and 1-1;

With this blasting of Angelon Montano, the Raccoons fell to 10 games out in the division for the first time this year. They would probably stay there.

Also, a two roster moves were made. Montano (1-4, 4.83 ERA) was sent back to AAA to bring back Corey Mathers (0-4, 8.06 ERA), who had turned **** around very well in St. Pete. The other dismissal was Steve Nickas, hitting .207, with Arturo Carreno arriving from AAA to begin his major league career. He was hitting .291 in AAA at this point. The righty hitter was 22 years old and had been signed out of the Dominican Republic for $60k in 2036.

Game 3
ATL: RF Kristoff – 1B Jam. King – 2B Crim – CF B. Oliver – C Horner – LF Hester – SS McKoy – 3B Lusk – P Olson
POR: 1B Ramos – CF Romero – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – RF Reyna – 2B Carreno – 3B Trevino – C Kilmer – P Moreno

Meanwhile, Moreno gave up the leadoff jack to Kristoff in the rubber game. Like Montano the day before, Moreno kept getting whipped, allowing three more hits and an RBI double to Adam Horner, plating Crim with two outs. Portland tied the game with a Manny 2-piece in the bottom 1st after Ramos and Romero reached, and Hunter hit into a double play. Moreno, who knew he had to be inches from demotion for an underdone Jason Wheatley, buttoned up in the next few innings, allowing only a single in the third inning, at the end of which the Coons had an unearned lead. Romero and Hunter had gotten on with two outs, but Manny flew out to Kristoff – who dropped the ball, allowing Romero, going hard with two outs, to score and the remaining Critters into scoring position. Kristoff then handled Reyna’s fly to strand them there.

It was still 3-2 in the bottom 4th with Cosmo and Kilmer hitting back-to-back 1-out singles, bringing up Moreno. The Coons rolled the dice and had him swing away on his .278 average, getting a double play for their bothers, but that got Berto to lead off the bottom 5th with a single. He advanced on a wild pitch, then scored on Romero’s double in the right-center gap, 4-2. Hunter flew out, Manny was walked intentionally, and then removed on a fielder’s choice, bringing up Carreno with runners on the corners and two outs. He had started his career 0-for-2 with two grounders, but now snapped a single to left that scored a run, and the ball was overrun by Hester to put two runners in scoring position for Cosmo, who slashed a first-pitch single to center to plate both of them, knocking out Olson in the process. Kilmer popped out against David Fernandez, keeping it a 7-2 game through five.

So that shifted attention to Nelson Moreno, who at this point had a 6.27 ERA and at best three claws on his job. Hester and Lusk hit singles off him in the sixth inning, but were stranded on a pop by PH Juan Garcia, and Moreno came back to retire the 1-2-3 in order in the seventh to finish out his day, securing his job for another week. The Raccoons would maintain the lead with Chuck Jones and Josh Rella, while Jeff Kilmer hit a solo homer in the eighth for the final score. 8-2 Raccoons. Ramos 2-5; Romero 1-1, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2 RBI; Kilmer 2-4, HR, RBI; Moreno 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (3-5);

Raccoons (24-28) vs. Canadiens (34-20) – June 6-8, 2042

Oh boy. The damn Elks led the season series, 5-1, and they also led the CL in scoring, hitting .285 as a team, and with considerable power. They were fourth in runs allowed. In the division, they were tied with the Loggers for first place. The Raccoons were in for trouble…

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (3-3, 3.43 ERA) vs. David Arias (4-4, 4.41 ERA)
Rich Willett (5-6, 2.85 ERA) vs. Paul Medvec (3-2, 3.27 ERA)
Josh Brown (6-1, 1.92 ERA) vs. Alexander Lewis (5-3, 3.30 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday? Both Lewis and Matt Sealock (8-0, 2.45 ERA), a righty, had pitched in a double-header on Tuesday, so things were *possible*.

Game 1
VAN: C Clemente – 1B J. Lopez – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B G. Ortiz – RF V. Vazquez – SS R. Johnston – P D. Arias
POR: 1B Ramos – CF Romero – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – RF Cortes – 2B Carreno – 3B Trevino – C Kilmer – P Jackson

The damn Elks loaded the bases to start the game, with a double from Timóteo Clemente, Johnny Lopez getting hit, and a shy single by Jerry Outram, hitting about .400 as the series began. They got one run on Dan Schneller’s sac fly, but then hit into a fielder’s choice with Melvin Hernandez, while Greg Ortiz struck out. The Elks stranded two more in the second inning, while the Raccoons moved a pair into scoring position with two outs in the bottom 2nd with a Cortes single and a Cosmo double – but Cosmo also limped after a bumpy slide into second base and came out of the game with a bruised ankle. Jay de Wit replaced him. The damn Elks pitched to Kilmer with first base open, but he flew out to Outram to end the inning and I slumped deeper into the cushions. Instead, an Ortiz sac fly cashed Outram in a 2-hit top of the third, and the damn Elks moved out to a 2-0 lead. There was help on the way, though, with Berto reaching base with one out in the third inning, just before Tony Romero whacked a game-tying homer to left.

Jackson did not help the cause though by hitting batters. He nailed Ryan Johnston in the fourth, which led nowhere, then Melvin Hernandez in the fifth with Outram already on the base, then walked Ortiz for three on and one out. Victor Vazquez hit the go-ahead RBI single to right, Johnston struck out, but Jackson walked in a run against the ******* opposing pitcher, and that was the axe for him. Craig replaced him, got a comebacker from Clemente, but ****** up the play and the damn Elks got another run on the error as the game went down the drain. Lopez flew out to left, ending a 3-run inning in which only Outram had actually landed a base hit. Schneller instead tacked on a run with a homer off Craig in the sixth, 6-2. The Raccoons did get the tying run to the plate in the bottom 6th, though, stacking Carreno (who was forced out by de Wit), Kilmer, and Reyna with two outs. Gilberto Castillo arrived to face Berto, who did what he did best and grinded out a walk to force home a run, 6-3. Romero grounded out to third to strand the tying runs, all of them. The Raccoons did nothing the next few innings while the pen at least held the damn Elks reasonably close with scoreless ball from Lambert, Clark, and Sims. The bottom 9th brought Josh Boles against Miguel Reyna in the #9 hole, who had replaced Berto in the field earlier, and singled. Wilson hit for Sims in the #1 spot, the only righty bat on the bench, but flew out to left. Romero singled to bring the tying run back to the plate, but was out on a fielder’s choice on Hunter’s comebacker. Manny did something countable, hitting a 2-out single through the right side, keeping them on the corners with a chance to win for Carlos Cortes, hitting all of .224 – and he grounded out to short. 6-4 Canadiens. Ramos 2-3, BB, RBI; Romero 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Trevino 1-1, 2B; Reyna (PH) 1-1, BB;

Maud, can you make an appointment with Dr. Zwiebelkopf for Monday morning? I will need it.

Cosmo Trevino was day-to-day with the bum ankle and not in the lineup at least for Saturday, giving another start to Jay de Wit.

Game 2
VAN: C Clemente – 1B J. Lopez – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – LF M. Hernandez – 3B G. Ortiz – RF V. Vazquez – SS R. Johnston – P Medvec
POR: 1B Ramos – CF Romero – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – RF Reyna – 2B Carreno – C Kilmer – 3B de Wit – P Willett

There were no base hits through three innings in the middle game, and only three walks were drawn, all by Critters, who nevertheless got nowhere with them. The damn Elks first reached base when Willett walked Lopez after retiring 10 straight, which of course turned into a run on a ******* double by Dan Schneller with two outs. That was the only damage incurred by Willett through five, although he did force out Jay de Wit on a bad bunt in the bottom 5th after de Wit had dropped in the Coons’ first single with one out. Then Berto singled, which MIGHT have been good enough for the tying run if de Wit had been at second base rather than the pitcher at first base… although the Coons still tied the game on a sharp single to right-center by Romero. Medvec then ran a full count to Hunter, and not wanting to face Manny with the bases loaded, through a fastball that Hunter turned into an RBI single to center, good enough for a 2-1 lead. Manny grounded out.

The lead lasted for the time being at least. While Lopez hit a 2-out single off Willett in the sixth, Outram’s hard liner to right was caught by Reyna on the run to spoil the damn Elks’ bid to tie the game. Carreno hit a single with one out in the bottom 6th, then was moved on by a wild pitch. Kilmer then was walked intentionally with the count 2-0, bringing back de Wit, who had started the rally in the bottom of the previous inning, and kept this one going with an RBI single between Outram and Vazquez. Willett’s bunt this time was good – in fact so good that the Elks had no play at all and Berto came up with the bases loaded, but he popped out and Romero whiffed to waste a perfectly good scoring chance, which made me cover my googly black eyes with my paws again when Willett came out for the seventh with a 3-1 lead, but got three grounders for outs from the 4-5-6 batters. Vazquez struck out to begin the eighth, but Johnston hit a double to center. Justin Simmons dropped a single on 2-2, with Johnston scoring and Simmons racing to second on the throw to home plate. Rella replaced Willett at that point, got to 0-2 on Clemente before the ball was put in play and de Wit fumbled it for an error. Rella walked Lopez to fill the bases, then was yanked for Clark against Outram. The count was 1-2 when Outram cracked a liner, but right at Carreno for the second out. Craig then came in for Schneller, who also put the 1-2 in play, but flew out easily to Manny and kept the Coons afloat but narrowly, 3-2. The Coons would have singles from Carreno and Cortes in the bottom 8th against John Roeder, but Berto grounded out to leave them on. So we took the protective dust cover off Wyatt Hamill for the first time in forever. He saw righty pinch-hitter Derek James to begin the ninth inning, getting a groundout on the first pitch. Ortiz struck out. And so did Vazquez! 3-2 Critters! Carreno 2-4; de Wit 2-4, RBI; Cortes (PH) 1-1; Willett 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (6-6) and 1-3;

Maud, I’ll need a towel. That was tense!

No Southpaw Sunday – the damn Elks went with Matt Sealock, who was undefeated. Oh boy.

Game 3
VAN: LF Mann – C Clemente – CF Outram – 2B Schneller – RF V. Vazquez – 3B G. Ortiz – 1B M. Hernandez – SS R. Johnston – P Sealock
POR: 1B Ramos – CF Romero – SS Hunter – LF Fernandez – RF Cortes – 2B Carreno – 3B de Wit – C Wilson – P Brown

The Coons scored first with a leadoff jack by Manny Fernandez in the second inning, but the lead disappeared fast with a leadoff walk to Hernandez, a Johnston single, a bunt, and a sac fly by Jeremy Mann in the top of the third, and things came apart entirely in the fourth for Brown. Schneller doubled, Vazquez hit an RBI single, and Ortiz hit a crusher over the fence in left, taking the damn Elks to a 4-1 lead. I sighed and resorted to numbing the senses, the usual escape mechanism…

It didn’t get any better, either. Brown was chewed up after six innings, while the Raccoons amounted to all of two hits other than the Fernandez homer through six innings, which included a Hunter single that also saw Hunter caught stealing. The damn Elks put the game away in the seventh then, getting Clemente on before Cory Lambert was burned with back-to-back homers by Outram and Schneller. The Raccoons poked a little bit late, but too late; Berto hit a double in the eighth and was singled home by Tony Hunter, but that still left a 5-run gap. Travis Sims pitched a scoreless ninth, walking Outram and Schneller while striking out every other hitter he faced, while Sealock was still going in the bottom 9th. Cortes flew out to center. Carreno singled to center, and Reyna singled to right in de Wit’s place. Wilson popped out, but with two outs in the inning the damn Elks sent lefty reliever Ryan McConnell to replace Sealock against Stephon Nettles. Nettles grounded out meekly. 7-2 Canadiens. Hunter 2-4, RBI; Fernandez 2-4, HR, RBI; Reyna (PH) 1-1;

In other news

June 3 – The season of LVA SP Chris Crowell (5-3, 3.41 ERA) might be over with news of ruptured finger tendons in his dealing hand.
June 4 – SAL CF Armando Herrera (.382, 1 HR, 28 RBI) chips in six base hits in an 11-8 Wolves win over the Miners, contributing a double and five singles plus an RBI.
June 5 – BOS 3B/SS Antonio Gil (.233, 0 HR, 12 RBI) might be lost for the year with a badly broken ankle.
June 6 – DAL 2B/SS Hugo Acosta (.370, 1 HR, 35 RBI) has three hits in a 5-1 win over the Warriors, giving him a 20-game hitting streak.
June 8 – NYC SP Juan Garcia (1-7, 4.11 ERA) breaks into the W column in style, 1-hitting the Indians in a 5-0 shutout. IND 1B/C Mike Sawyer (.250, 1 HR, 2 RBI) hits a double in the fifth for the only entry into the Indians’ hit column.

FL Player of the Week: SAC 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.358, 14 HR, 39 RBI), hitting .462 (12-26) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL LF/CF Bill Reeves (.369, 8 HR, 36 RBI), batting .481 (13-27) with 3 HR, 12 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Well, at least they scored some runs again. It only came out for a 3-3 week, but at least they scored four runs per game. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s more than SEVEN IN A WEEK. Pitching gave up 25 runs, so the 3-3 tally is probably fair. I am just angry because they keep losing to the damn Elks and I HATE LOSING TO THE DAMN ELKS.

No off day for a while now – we won’t be off again until the 26th. We’re off to Boston for four games now, then will return home to play the Stars, then go back east for three more series in Cincy, New York, and Indy, which makes no sense.

The draft will also be next Sunday, so I have to go out of town again even earlier than the rest of the team. Woe is me.

Bad news on the prospects front, with #14 Tony Negrete out for the year, needing elbow surgery to remove bone chips from there. I hear it’s creaking and cranking whenever he does as little as eat his breakfast fries. He was 4-3 with a 3.53 ERA in 11 starts for the AA Panthers, whiffing 6.4/9 against 4.9/9 walks.

Fun Fact: Armando Herrera is the second ABL player to land a pair of 6-hit games, a feat previously only achieved by Bartolo Hernandez.

Hernandez is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, being elected in 2019. He had a 19-year career starting with the 1995 Loggers, for whom he played for most of his time in the majors, until 2009. He led the league in hits three times and in stolen bases once, and won five Gold Gloves, all consecutively from 2003 through 2007, for his defensive work at second base. Some say he was a compiler, hitting for an .800 OPS only three times in his career, but he was definitely an elite leadoff hitter, just without any sort of power. For his career he piled up 2,849 hits, including only 65 dingers, while hitting .308/.354/.385, and he stole 344 bases. He won a Platinum Stick in 2003, but never won a championship.