[Westheim]

Raccoons (29-14) @ Knights (24-19) – May 22-24, 2045

Off to the road, the Raccoons were meeting up with the Knights starting on Monday. The Knights were fifth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, having a rather mediocre run so far. They were hitting .253, third-worst in the CL, but their starters had the second-best starters’ ERA. They were also playing the worst defense. Atlanta had won six of nine games between the two teams in 2044.

Projected matchups:
Brent Clark (4-3, 5.44 ERA) vs. Bill Nichol (5-3, 4.08 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-3, 3.45 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (0-2, 6.53 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (5-3, 3.75 ERA) vs. Brad Santry (4-4, 2.86 ERA)

Only righty pitchers facing the Critters in this set, which was also the last one in a string of games before a much-needed day off on Thursday.

Game 1
POR: SS Waters – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – LF Fernandez – 1B Gurney – C Kilmer – 2B Martell – P Clark
ATL: SS Venegas – RF Marz – 1B Delagrange – LF Hester – 3B Crim – CF Melendez – 2B Sprague – C Krumholz – P Nichol

The Raccoons scattered a few hits early on, while Bryce Toohey, last week’s Player of the Week in the CL, hit two deep fly balls off Nichol his first two times up, but into two deep outs, the first time with Herrera and Maldonado on base. Brent Clark started well, allowing one hit and whiffing four in the first three innings before having another vexing meltdown in the fourth of a scoreless game. John Marz opened with a single before Clark walked the bags full against Chris Delgrange and Billy Hester. Joe Crim was nailed, Bill Melendez doubled in two, and somehow the inning ended with a double play before the Knights could pile on another umpteen runs. Down 3-0, the Raccoons brought the tying run to the plate with nobody out in the sixth inning; Waters hit a double, Herrera hit a scratch single, and the big boppers were coming up. They hit into a run-scoring double play and whiffed, ending the inning with the Portlanders still down 3-1. Derek Baskins would hit a leadoff single in the eighth before being doubled off by Waters, just before Armando Herrera hit a double. Maldonado grounded out, and in the bottom of the inning Preston Porter was taken apart for three hits, including a pair of RBI doubles from Joe Crim and Glenn Sprague, that put the game away. 5-1 Knights. Waters 2-4, 2B; Herrera 2-4, 2B; Gurney 2-3; Baskins (PH) 1-1;

Clark pitched seven innings and whiffed eight. More of those 8 K performances and we can start selling at the deadline…

Game 2
POR: SS Waters – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – LF Baskins – C Zarate – 2B Castner – P Wheatley
ATL: SS Venegas – RF Marz – LF Hester – 1B Delagrange – C Horner – 3B Crim – CF Melendez – 2B Sprague – P Freels

Two ropes past Toohey for an RBI triple for Billy Hester and an RBI single for Delagrange, and the Raccoons trailed timely again on Tuesday, 2-0 after the first inning, with the Knights having opened with an Anton Venegas single. The Coons faced a pitcher with an ERA over six and didn’t get a hit until the fourth inning, which was nothing new – Manny hit a single with Toohey already on base after walking, but there were also two outs in the inning, and Derek Baskins grounded out to Sprague to make it all moot. While offense was an alien concept for the Critters, the Knights kept whacking hits off Wheatley. They stranded two runners in the second, same in the third, and one more in the fourth. Adam Horner had enough and socked a homer to right in the bottom 5th, extending Atlanta’s lead to 3-0. Bill Melendez then reached on a Wheatley error, Glenn Sprague singled to left, and while Bobby Freels was down 1-2 with two outs, he still managed to whack a 2-run double to left against the hapless Wheatley, who was then excluded from further playtime. Jon Craig conceded the runner on a Venegas single, burying the Raccoons six runs deep. And that was more or less the entire ballgame. Craig and Norris pitched garbage innings after Wheatley’s early departure, while the Raccoons didn’t get a second base knock until John Castner hit his first career single in the eighth inning… and was left on first base. Pat Gurney reached on an error in Maldonado’s place in the ninth inning, then scored on a Toohey double; as pointless a run as there had ever been. 6-1 Knights.

It's not often that a season has ended in May, but this one just might.

Game 3
POR: SS Waters – LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 2B Martell – 3B Jimenez – P Okuda
ATL: SS Venegas – RF Marz – 1B Delagrange – LF Hester – 3B Crim – CF Melendez – 2B Sprague – C Krumholz – P Santry

For something new, the Raccoons took a lead. (looks confused) Waters singled, Baskins doubled, and after Herrera fanned, Toohey mastered a run with a sac fly to center. Manny Fernandez knocked in the second run before the top 1st ran out of juice and before Okuda blew the lead at once, walking Delagrange and getting bombed by Hester in the bottom of the inning. The Knights’ second hit of the game would also be for extra bases and for a run; Venegas hit a triple to the base of the fence in centerfield in the third inning for a 1-out three-bagger, then scored on John Marz’ sac fly, giving the Knights a 3-2 lead.

Santry countered with a pair of walks to Manny and Kilmer with one out in the fourth, then surrendered the tying run on Al Martell’s clean single through the right side. And then Ricky Jimenez continued to do as much damage to his own team as a $3M salary legally entitled him to, and hit into a 4-6-3 double play. The Coons went on to hit straight singles with their 1-2-3 hitters in the fifth inning… but Waters had already been caught stealing before Baskins and Herrera reached, and nobody scored. Joe Crim instead singled home Venegas with two outs in the sixth to establish another 1-run lead for the Knights in a 3-hit inning against Okuda. It also began to rain in the sixth and a 40-minute rain delay would knock out Okuda – but not Santry, who returned for the top of the seventh, at least until Herrera singled with two outs. Mike Lechowicz then struck out Toohey to sit down the Critters.

Down 4-3 in the eighth, Manny hit a leadoff single off lefty Aaron Curl. Martell drew a 1-out walk before right-hander Sam Heisler (10.00 ERA) entered the game for Atlanta. Pat Gurney batted for Jimenez, who was as useful as a burning paper bag full of dog poo, but grounded out to first. Maldonado batted for Nate Norris in the #9 spot, but his fly to center ended up with Melendez. The top of the order was then up against ex-Raccoon Josh Livingston in the ninth inning. Waters grounded out. Baskins was called out on strikes, slammed his bat on the ground, and was ejected. It didn’t matter, because the rest of the team was done with the game just four pitches later, with Herrera also out on strikes. 4-3 Knights. Waters 2-5; Baskins 2-5, 2B; Herrera 2-5; Fernandez 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Martell 2-3, BB, RBI;

Bleakness.

And an off day spent staring into the abyss.

Raccoons (29-17) @ Thunder (26-21) – May 26-28, 2045

The Raccoons, at this stage 9-13 in May and officially in trouble, went on to Oklahoma, where the Thunder had a 7-game winning streak, so things immediately promised to get worse rather than better. They also were seventh in both runs scored and runs allowed with a -5 run differential, but similar numbers had not helped us against the Knights, either. They were top three in OBP, but bottom three in power and speed. Their pen and defense were tough as nails, though. The season series was led by Portland, 2-1, so far….

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (6-3, 3.92 ERA) vs. Matt Peterson (2-4, 5.94 ERA)
Jake Jackson (5-1, 3.05 ERA) vs. Ignacio del Rio (4-5, 4.77 ERA)
Brent Clark (4-4, 5.21 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (2-4, 4.66 ERA)

Not even the prospect of Southpaw Sunday could lighten my mood at this point.

Game 1
POR: SS Waters – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Baskins – RF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 2B Martell – P Mathers
OCT: RF Zurita – CF Tortora – C Adames – SS R. Cox – 1B S. Henderson – 3B B. Simon – LF Phinazee – 2B C. Vega – P M. Peterson

Manny’s leadoff jack in the second inning put the Raccoons on the board first, but also meant that Baskins had stranded a pair in Manny’s more usual #5 spot in the first inning. Like Okuda on Wednesday, Mathers blew the lead immediately, and then some. Sterling Henderson doubled, was singled home by Brad Simon, who reached second base on a throw to home plate, and then scored as well on two productive outs, and the Raccoons were trailing again, 2-1…

Peterson left with an injury in the third inning, bringing on their Jon Craig in relief. Their Jon Craig had a decent ERA, and I’d try to exchange them subtly on the way out of here on Sunday, but ours was white and theirs was black and I was afraid they’d notice. The Thunder tacked on a run in the bottom 3rd, which began with Mathers nailing Angelo Zurita. Cullen Tortora singled, and Zurita eventually scored on Ryan Cox’ sac fly. Top 4th, though, the tying runs were in scoring position with nobody out after Craig walked Manny and Kilmer whacked a ground-rule double in left-center. The Thunder elected to put Martell on intentionally, giving three on with nobody out to the pitcher, an insult so grotesque I was snapping in my suite and wishing so bigly on a Mathers grand slam that I almost broke my thumbs in my clenched fists. Mathers hit a sac fly, which was as much as the Raccoons would get. Waters struck out. Herrera lined out to Carlos Vega. In turn, Brad Simon singled, Mal Phinazee doubled, and the Thunder hit two sac flies to score two more runs, going up 5-2 after four.

Maldonado hit a leadoff double in the fifth, but was stranded on second base as the next four batters divined to strike out three times between them; only Manny reached base with a 2-out walk against Craig. Mathers in turn was yanked in the same inning after walking and beaning the bases loaded, with Cox knocked from the game after getting drilled with a fastball and replaced with Jonathan Ban. Brad Simon singled in two against Kelly as the Raccoons continued to make sinking noises. A dropped pop by Toohey and two singles off the brown-hatted Jon Craig gave the Thunder another run in the bottom 6th, as if they needed any more; on the other paw, reliever Bill Dickinson was the third Thunder player to leave the game with an injury, doing so after putting on Herrera to begin the top 7th. He’d be charged with a run after righty Sean Green gave up hits to Maldo and Manny, but Kilmer popped out in foul ground to strand the pair. Vega made up that run with a homer off Craig in the bottom 7th. The Coons got a pointless run off Alan Fleming in the ninth inning, Maldonado hitting another double and being scored by Baskins for no great reason at all. 9-4 Thunder. Maldonado 4-4, BB, 3 2B; Fernandez 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Dustal (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: SS Waters – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – LF Fernandez – 1B Gurney – RF Dustal – C Zarate – 2B Martell – P Jackson
OCT: RF Zurita – CF Tortora – C Adames – SS Ban – 1B Phinazee – 3B B. Simon – LF C. Greer – 2B C. Vega – P del Rio

For the third game in a row the Raccoons scored first, putting up a pair in the first inning this time. Herrera singled, Maldo was nailed, and Manny and Gurney found more singles before Dustal fouled out and Zarate flew out to Tortora to strand two in scoring position. When Jackson retired the Thunder for only a 2-out walk to Jesus Adames in the bottom 1st, he became the first Raccoons tosser to finish an inning while in the lead this week. But, oh, it was only Saturday…! Blowing the lead became harder (but our hurlers are feisty and know all the tricks…) with a 2-out rally in the top 2nd, as Waters and Herrera reached and Maldo bent a 3-run homer around the foul pole to go up 5-0.

Jackson scattered two hits and two walks in the first three innings, but managed to dodge the actual bullets. His luck ran out in the fourth inning, though, with a leadoff walk to Ban and a 1-out single by Simon. Jackson had them on the corners, but he also waived for attention from Dr. Padilla, who dutifully trudged out, engaged in polite conversation, and then returned to the dugout with Jackson. Hu-wheee! Bullpen game! … The Raccoons readied Preston Porter, who gave up a run on a single to Chad Greer, nailed Vega, and gave up another run on PH Ethan Moore’s infield grounder for the second out. The next move was to bring in Chuck Jones – Zurita was the tying run and there were four lefties in the top 6 in the order – in a double switch in the farthest-removed lineup spot, which was Manny’s. Baskins took over leftfield. Zurita hit an RBI single at 1-2, but Tortora made the final out as things had taken a turn for the worst yet again.

Jones would log five outs, and our Jon Craig threw in two to get through six innings with a 5-3 lead. There was no tack-on offense to speak of in the middle innings, but against Ray Thune in the seventh inning the Coons put three on with two already out. Dustal, Zarate, and Martell were hoping for a good knock by Derek Baskins, who came through on the right side on the 2-1 pitch, singling home a pair. Waters grounded out to end the inning. The pen remained stingy – Kelly got two outs in the seventh, and Moreno pitched the Coons through the completion of eight, without allowing a Thunder on base. Josh Rella was up for the ninth anyway – he had not been active all week (how would he have been?) and apart from him only Norris was unused. Carlos Vega hit a single off him in the ninth. That was it. 7-3 Raccoons. Herrera 2-5; Fernandez 2-3, RBI; Zarate 2-4, BB; Baskins 1-2, 2 RBI;

Game 3
POR: SS Waters – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – RF Toohey – LF Baskins – C Kilmer – 3B Jimenez – 2B Castner – P Clark
OCT: RF Zurita – CF Tortora – C Adames – SS R. Cox – 2B C. Vega – 3B B. Simon – LF C. Greer – 1B Phinazee – P V. Marquez

Herrera and Maldonado got to the corners in the first inning, and Bryce Toohey got to hit into a double play to make them all go away. At least Brent Clark wasted no time pretending, gave up a hit, a walk, and a 3-run homer to Adames in no time, in a bid for another pathetic loss. Clark was crap to start the game, continued to be crap, and never became anything other than crap. On the other paw, the Raccoons couldn’t do ******* anything against Marquez, and were on two hits and no runs after five innings, and down 5-0, thanks to more inept shenanigans by Clark, who could not be yanked early on after the Raccoons had already engaged in a bullpen bonanza on Saturday. He tossed six innings for five hits, five walks, five strikeouts, and five runs, but only the one loss, somehow. The Thunder would lift Marquez after a leadoff walk to Waters in the eighth inning, but Herrera popped out and Maldonado hit into a double play against Thune, who struck out three in the ninth inning. 5-0 Thunder.

In other news

May 22 – The Cyclones beat the Scorpions, 3-2 in 16 innings, on a walkoff homer by CIN LF/CF Jayden Lockwood (.265, 4 HR, 16 RBI). It is also a come-from-behind home run, as the Scorpions had taken a 2-1 lead in the top of the inning.
May 23 – The Bayhawks lose SP Rafael Pedraza (5-4, 3.72 ERA) for the season. The 32-year-old is diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff.
May 24 – Warriors LF/RF Mario Villa (.389, 7 HR, 25 RBI) would miss two weeks with an oblique strain he suffered while roughhousing with his dogs.
May 27 – Gold Sox OF Sandy Castillo (.330, 7 HR, 34 RBI) will miss a month on the DL owing to an oblique strain.
May 28 – A broken finger will cost WAS LF/RF Eduardo Avila (.231, 1 HR, 13 RBI) at least a month on shelf.

FL Player of the Week: SFW 2B Hugo Acosta (.366, 2 HR, 31 RBI), hitting .522 (12-23) with 1 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 3B/2B Doug Richardson (.333, 7 HR, 18 RBI), batting .455 (10-22) with 4 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

What we have, isn’t working. Not even close.

I also have no idea how to dial around on it. By the way, those were not even the cities were nothing good ever happens to the Raccoons.

The offense was ****, the pitching was *******. What do we have on offer? Victor Merino might come up anyway if Jackson is hurt, and Brent Clark is begging or a demotion to Siberia. Jeremy Baker has a 1.89 ERA in AAA, but also way too many walks. Adam Capone (who?) might be an option. There’s also some bullpen material available. Offensively? Not a whole damn lot. 2041 seventh-rounder Ben Coen was a casual defender on the infield, but hitting for an .821 OPS in AAA without warning. He had been a .223/.320/.334 wheezer in Ham Lake last year. Apart from that it was mostly Van Anderson, and we had no room to play Van Anderson, or Ricardo Bejarano… at least for guys hitting for an .800 OPS, and Anderson was doing it in under 70 at-bats.

Nope, the Raccoons are in trouble.

Fun Fact: 21 years ago today, Tijuana’s Pat Sanford hit three home runs in a 9-8 Raccoons win.

Ha, kids! When we still won games from time to time…! The olden days.

The catcher Sanford played 15 years in the majors, the first half of those with Tijuana. He won two Gold Gloves behind the dish, but apart from that was a fairly steady league-average hitter, poking .250/.321/.401 with a 104 OPS+ for his career, with 176 HR and 761 RBI. He had 1,374 hits in total, making 100+ starts only six times in his career, while often serving as a backup. He never led the league in anything worth recounting.