[Westheim]

Raccoons (39-23) @ Rebels (39-23) – June 12-14, 2045

The Raccoons embarked on a road trip with only three and a half guys on the bench, which was a bit of an issue; Matt Waters was yet being processed and undiagnosed, while the non-too-useful John Castner had a “sore paw”, whatever that whining was about. Meanwhile, we faced the Rebels in Richmond, having lost two of three to them in the last meeting in 2043. The Rebs were seventh in runs scored and second in runs allowed. They had the best rotation in the FL, and were second in stolen bases, but were remarkably average in most other categories. At least they had no injuries to worry about…

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-0, 1.23 ERA) vs. Omar Lara (8-4, 2.76 ERA)
Brent Clark (5-5, 4.80 ERA) vs. Steve Miles (4-5, 3.16 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (5-5, 3.44 ERA) vs. Bill McDermott (1-2, 4.67 ERA)

Lara was the only southpaw on staff for the Rebels – that included the bullpen! Only righty relief to come on for them.

Game 1
POR: C Kilmer – CF Herrera – SS Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Fernandez – RF Dustal – 3B Jimenez – 2B Castner – P Merino
RIC: CF G. Cabrera – RF de Luna – LF P. Gonzalez – C K. Duncan – 3B Frazier – 1B A. Marquez – 2B L. Harrison – SS A. Aguilera – P O. Lara

Pablo Gonzalez and Alex Marquez hit homers off Merino – both in the first inning and with two outs, with Kyle Duncan and Josh Frazier reaching in between, giving the Rebels a quick 4-0 leg up. With that, the Raccoons for the most part decided that they hated Mondays and went back to bed. Castner reached on an infield single and scored on a Herrera single for a token run in the third inning, but apart from that and a few Toohey and Manny hits, never in a way that added up to anything, they were just not really engaged, while Merino was kept in for length after a rough weekend on the bullpen, getting lit up for another three runs by the time he finished six innings. He was unlucky in it, too – the Rebels only ever got six hits off him, but made seven hits out of that, two walks, and a hit batter. The pen – consisting of Porter (who notably was not sent to Josh Rella’s rescue in the 10th on Sunday) and Kelly – would put up two scoreless at the end, but in a game that was long lost by then. 7-1 Rebels. Toohey 2-4; Fernandez 2-4;

Dr. Padilla, what’s with Waters? – You still don’t know?? – Well, but he *is* still breathing, right? – Right?

Game 2
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – 2B Gurney – C Zarate – SS Martell – P Clark
RIC: 2B L. Harrison – RF de Luna – LF P. Gonzalez – 3B J. Frazier – 1B A. Marquez – CF Mejia – C K. Morris – SS Guillory – P S. Miles

Miles lasted less than one inning, putting the Coons’ 3-4-5 on with two outs in the first, including two walks where he lost command from one moment to the next. The trainer checked him out twice, removing him only after the walk to Manny Fernandez. Right-hander Larry Thompson would replace him, having more walks than strikeouts on the year in 15.1 innings, but also carrying a 2.35 ERA. He walked Gurney with the bases loaded, allowed a single to left to Zarate, then a double to right to Al Martell, amounting to four runs in total. Clark struck out to keep it there before taking the 4-0 lead with him into battle. Brent Clark looked like the same hot garbage he was most of the time this season in the first two innings, but put up zeroes despite two hits and a walk, with kind assistance from the defense. He then hit a 2-out RBI double off J.J. Hendrix in the third inning, extending his lead to 5-0. That was the fourth Coons hit in the inning, but Manny Fernandez after singling and stealing second had been thrown out at home plate on a Zarate single.

Lance Harrison and Rich de Luna opened the bottom 3rd by getting on base, but Pablo Gonzalez popped out and Josh Frazier found Martell for a 6-4-3 double play. Two more reached base in the bottom 4th, Marquez and Kevin Morris, but Landon Guillory whiffed and Ernesto Hernandez popped out to keep them on. At least it got better after that. He put on only one batter each in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings – although he also didn’t finish the seventh, whiffing Lance Harrison after a leadoff walk to Gil Cabrera before being replaced with Jon Craig, who got a pop and a grounder from the 2-3 batters to end the inning. The Raccoons in the meantime were asnooze for a very long time, before starting to twitch their whiskers in the ninth inning against Allen Faber. The right-hander allowed straight singles with one out to Gurney, Zarate, and Martell for a tack-on run, 6-0. Kilmer grounded out hitting for Chuck Jones, but Derek Baskins raked a 3-run homer to right to break the game wide open. Porter followed on Craig and Jones for a scoreless ninth, finishing off a combined 7-hit shutout. 9-0 Raccoons! Maldonado 2-3, 2 BB; Toohey 3-5; Gurney 2-4, BB, RBI; Zarate 3-5, RBI; Martell 2-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Clark 6.1 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (6-5) and 1-4, RBI;

The Crusaders lost on Tuesday, ensuring the Raccoons to stick in first place ahead of the big meeting on the weekend, now up by 1 1/2 games.

Dr. Padilla gave up – he declared Matt Waters to be suffering from elbow soreness, and that was to be it. He was however to be sat for the rest of the week.

This put us into more of a pickle. He was already out since the 10th, but a DL stint would lose him for almost a further week. Since we weren’t keen on losing his bat for longer than ABSOLUTELY necessary, we’d have to swallow the bitter pill and keep going with the short bench up to and through the coming Crusaders series.

Still beats amputation.

Game 3
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – 2B Gurney – C Kilmer – SS Martell – P Wheatley
RIC: CF G. Cabrera – 2B Gould – 1B A. Marquez – C K. Duncan – SS A. Aguilera – LF P. Gonzalez – 3B Guillory – RF Mejia – P McDermott

Wheats made the start in the rubber game, and also a mess in the second inning, which began with a Duncan double, a walk to Alvin Aguilera, and continued with a 2-run triple by Gonzalez. He did strike out two and got McDermott to pop out after that, but the Raccoons would have to work out of a hole. Pat Gurney would get the job done with a 2-out, 2-run homer in the fourth, collecting Manny on base to get us all even at two. The Rebels shrugged, Aguilera hit a single, and then Gonzalez hit a total blast to center for some 440 feet. They also chewed up Wheatley for 101 pitches in a 5-inning clunker, and well hadn’t he been due for one?

Down 4-2, the Raccoons loaded the bases with Herrera (forced by Maldo), Manny, and Gurney, which knocked out McDermott with two outs. In came the pen in person of J.J. Hendrix, and the pen gave up a bases-loaded walk again to Kilmer, narrowing the score to 4-3. Al Martell fell to 1-2 against the righty, but then lobbed a ball over the head of Thomas Gould and into the shallow end of the right-center gap. With two outs, the Coons went on contact and two runs scored to flip the score…! Wheatley was thus hit for while in line for the W, but Jimenez struck out to strand a pair. Zack Kelly got the ball for the bottom 6th, and with his first pitch gave up a game-tying homer to Gonzalez. Landon Guillory singled, and Norris gave up a 2-out RBI double to Gil Cabrera that put Richmond on top again. Gould walked, but Marquez lined out to Gurney.

Top 7th, Herrera hit a 1-out single. Maldo walked, and Hendrix threw a wild pitch, moving the tying run to third base. Hendrix then came back to strike out both Toohey and Manny to cause me some internal deflation. Top 8th, leadoff double for Gurney up the leftfield line…! The Rebels sent righty Kurt Crater, who only faced Kilmer, who grounded out, moving the tying run to third base. Martell was in the key spot against Faber, but hit a poor groundout to keep the runner pinned. Dustal then popped out, making for consecutive innings with the tying run stranded at third base. It would thus be the top of the order in the ninth, facing right-hander Jesse Beggs and his 5.00 ERA (but 32 K in 27 innings). Baskins singled over the shortstop to begin the inning, but Herrera flew out to center, and Maldonado grounded into a force at second base. Toohey was 0-for-4 in the game, but also the best shot for a good outcome, and singled to left. Maldo stopped at second base, with Manny coming up. He grounded out to Harrison. 6-5 Rebels. Herrera 2-5; Gurney 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

With that it was off to New York. After all the fun that a draft without a first-round pick could offer [see next post], the Raccoons got to play the Crusaders in a potentially pivotal series.

Raccoons (40-25) @ Crusaders (38-26) – June 16-18, 2045

Boys – don’t get swept. Please. We were 2-2 with New York this year, and they had lost their last five games to allow a non-too-hot Coons outfit to slip past them into first place again. They were second in runs scored and third in runs allowed, with a +45 run differential, while for the Coons it was the other way round (third and second, respectively), and with a +58 run differential after some lopsided routing of the damn Elks the week before. The New Yorkers had some injuries, although only Andy Montes (broken finger) was an actual loss; although, Willie Ojeda was day-to-day with groin tightness and we weren’t quite sure how much that would bother him. Of course the Raccoons were still without Matt Waters and thus short on the bench, too.

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (7-4, 4.03 ERA) vs. Rich Willett (3-5, 4.07 ERA)
Corey Mathers (7-5, 5.03 ERA) vs. Carlos Malla (3-3, 4.22 ERA)
Victor Merino (1-1, 3.92 ERA) vs. Paul Paris (7-2, 4.10 ERA)

Starters’ handedness would be opposite for all games, so the Raccoons would face a lefty in the middle game between two right-handers.

Boys – don’t get swept.

Game 1
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – SS Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 2B Martell – 3B Jimenez – P Okuda
NYC: SS Adame – C Alba – 2B Briones – RF Willie Ojeda – 1B D. Hernandez – 3B Nash – CF Rico – LF Graf – P Willett

The Raccoons had four base hits the first time through, and scored nobody. Maldo singled with two outs in the first and was forgotten about by Toohey, while Manny opened the second with a single and was doubled off by Kilmer. Martell singled and Jimenez doubled to left, but they were stranded in scoring position when Okuda was rung up. Instead, the Crusaders took the lead on their first hit of the game, a Fernando Alba single in the bottom 3rd on which Joe Graf, on with a leadoff walk, went aggro to third base. Manny threw the ball past Ricky Jimenez, and Graf scored on the error. Mario Briones then grounded out to Martell to keep Alba at second. Before long, Jimenez made his own error in the fourth, which was doubly concerning behind an Okuda that was obviously having nothing – zero strikeouts in four innings – and Joe Graf was out of the game, hurting himself pursuing a Martell fly in the fifth. He made the catch, though, then was replaced with Angel Villarreal, who drew a leadoff walk to begin the fifth – the third leadoff walk given up by Okuda in the game. Willett bunted badly to force him out and the runner never got off first base, but my discontent with the game was growing.

Singles by Baskins and Maldonado in the sixth put runners on the corners with one out – these were in fact the Raccoons’ first base knocks since the four in the first two innings that led absolutely nowhere. Toohey tied the game with a grounder to Randolph Nash, which was at least *something*, but Manny struck out to end the inning. New York took the lead right back in the bottom 6th: Briones opened with a double to center, and was driven in by Dave Hernandez. Vittorio Riario ran for Hernandez, but was caught stealing to help Okuda out of the inning.

Okuda went seven, without a strikeout, while the Coons made three errors behind him (Toohey joined the wicked fun), then was hit for down 2-1 to begin the top half of the eighth. Gurney flew out in his spot and the Coons went down 1-2-3. Norris did the same to the New Yorkers in the bottom 8th, which brought up lefty Mike Lynn with no cushion against the 3-4-5 batters. Maldo took it all away at once, homering to left on the first pitch of the inning! The next three went down in order, though, and the Crusaders got Nash on with a leadoff single against Jon Craig in the bottom 9th, but could not drive him in, sending the game into overtime. Marcus Goode offered a leadoff walk to Al Martell, who reached second when Jimenez grounded out on a hit-and-run to short. Dustal flew out, but Derek Baskins came through, up the middle, for an RBI single! That was not the last 2-out single in the inning: Herrera hit one, so did Maldo for an RBI, then stole second, and Toohey singled home two to smash Goode into little pieces. PH John Castner popped out for Craig, ending the top 10th with a 4-run lead and sending in Preston Porter, with Rella backing him up in the pen. Josh Rella came in with two outs after an Alex Adame single to begin the inning and a 4-pitch walk to Ojeda. He struck out Riario to put the game away. 6-2 Raccoons! Baskins 2-5, RBI; Herrera 2-5; Maldonado 3-5, HR, 2 RBI;

That K to Riario was only the second strikeout for a Coons pitcher in that game. Riario also fanned against Norris in the eighth.

Then there was NO left-hander on Saturday. Sensing urgency, the Crusaders skipped Malla and went straight to Paul Paris – both teams had been off on Thursday, so this was an available option to them.

Game 2
POR: LF Baskins – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Fernandez – 2B Gurney – C Zarate – SS Martell – P Mathers
NYC: SS Adame – C Alba – 1B D. Hernandez – RF Willie Ojeda – 2B Briones – LF Garris – 3B Nash – CF Rico – P Paris

Mathers got socked right out of the gate, with Adame, Hernandez, Ojeda, and Josh Garris all hitting singles off him for three runs in the opening frame. While Paris retired the Coons in order the first time through, Mathers’ struggles went on with having the bases loaded with one out in the bottom 3rd. Walks to Dave Hernandez and Mario Briones had piled up with dropping Toohey’s feed for an error on Willie Ojeda’s grounder to right. Garris grounded out to score a run, 4-0, and Nash popped out to Zarate, but the Raccoons were a bit despondent with some of their starters…

Portland scored two in the fourth, with Baskins and Herrera opening with singles, taking off for a double steal, and having Alba throw away the baseball into leftfield. Baskins scored, Herrera went to third, then came home on Maldo’s sac fly, which was Maldo’s 50th RBI on the year, one behind Toohey.

None of it helped. Mathers was bombed from the game with back-to-back jacks by Alba and Hernandez in the bottom 5th, and we were trailing 6-2 for it. The Coons did not get another hit until the eighth inning, when Martell hit a 2-out double, which went nowhere with Dustal grounding out behind him. Paris went into the ninth on a relatively low pitch count, retiring Baskins and Herrera before Maldo hit a double to left. Toohey went down on strikes to end the game. 6-2 Crusaders. Jones 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

The runs on Paris were unearned, too… He finished with a 4-hitter.

By Sunday, the Crusaders new that Joe Graf (.326, 2 HR, 12 RBI) was out for the year with a broken elbow, while the Raccoons got Matt Waters back at least one day earlier than expected. He jumped right in for the rubber game.

And we knew that the rubber game would also be a Southpaw Sunday, with Malla up against Merino.

Game 3
POR: SS Waters – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – RF Toohey – LF Fernandez – C Kilmer – 3B Jimenez – 2B Castner – P Merino
NYC: SS Adame – C Alba – 2B Briones – RF Willie Ojeda – 1B D. Hernandez – 3B Nash – CF Rico – LF Riario – P Malla

Portland struck first, although technically Malla struck first, brawning Toohey with a fastball after a Maldonado single. Manny slapped a 2-out RBI single past Alex Adame for the game’s first run, but Kilmer struck out, and the Crusaders made up the run right away with a leadoff double by Adame, an infield single for Alba, and Briones’ groundout. The Raccoons then failed to score both on a 2-base throwing error by Adame in the third, as well as 2-out singles by the runts of the litter, Castner and Merino, in the fourth. Instead, the New Yorkers went up 2-1 on a Briones leadoff jack in the bottom 4th…

Like Okuda on Friday, Merino apparently also couldn’t strike out anybody or anything. He also didn’t walk anybody through five, but was whacked around for eight hits, including a Briones RBI double with two outs in the fifth inning that extended the Crusaders’ lead to 3-1. Hernandez struck out in the sixth against Merino, which would be his only K, while the Raccoons remained toothless against Malla. A Toohey single in the eighth at least brought the tying run back to the plate, and Manny reached on a bloop single in front of Riario to get the tying run on base, all with one out. Kilmer ran a full count before flying out, after which the Crusaders went to righty John Steuer. Jimenez was called back at once and Derek Baskins would pinch-hit, but grounded out. Kelly and Moreno (mostly Moreno though) held the Crusaders at their distance in the bottom 8th, after which Lynn was back up. But there was no faith in John Castner, who was hit for with Gurney, who singled to right, so that was that. Dustal struck out for Moreno, but Matt Waters livened up an oh-fer with a deep fly to left – high! – gone!! Second game-tying, ninth-inning homer for the Coons in this series! But Lynn also got the next two, while Norris got into a 3-0 count against Garris to begin the bottom 9th, before Garris stupidly grounded out.

This helped Nate Norris to a 1-2-3 ninth, sending yet another game to extras, where Toohey drew a leadoff walk from Lynn, and Manny singled to left to push him to second base. Lynn walked Kilmer, putting three on with – oh, **** – nobody out. Also, with lefty hitters coming up. Only Martell (no help in particular here) and Zarate were left on the bench. Baskins struck out against Lynn, who seemed to reel himself in, but then threw a fat pitch to Pat Gurney that got raked over Nash and down the third base line for extra bases. Toohey in! Manny in! Kilmer waved around and sliding in safely! BASES-CLEARING DOUBLE FOR PAT GURNEY!! After John Landrum restored order for the Crusaders, the 3-run lead went to Josh Rella. Alba grounded out to Gurney. Briones whiffed. Ojeda – uh… hit a homer to center. But Hernandez flew out to Baskins, and the Raccoons grabbed the rubber game with both paws…! Uh, all four paws! 6-4 Raccoons. Toohey 1-2, 2 BB; Fernandez 3-5, RBI; Gurney (PH) 2-2, 2B, 3 RBI;

In other news

June 12 – DEN SP Roberto Pruneda (6-5, 2.86 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout in a 6-0 win over the Indians.
June 13 – The Falcons’ LF/CF Joe Besaw (.336, 10 HR, 46 RBI) puts together a 6-hit game in a 10-8 win over the Blue Sox. Besaw profits from the fact that the game goes 15 innings, getting the sixth and final hit, also the game-winning hit, in the 15th inning.
June 16 – IND OF/1B Bill Quinteros (.227, 4 HR, 11 RBI) singles home 1B Miguel Barrientos (.221, 5 HR, 16 RBI) to walk off the Indians against the Titans, notching a 1-0 win that took 13 innings to complete.
June 17 – Aces 3B/2B Doug Richardson (.333, 9 HR, 33 RBI) has four hits and as many RBI in a 15-2 wonking of the Falcons.
June 17 – The Blue Sox walk off in 15 innings against the Buffaloes, the clincher being a sac fly by CF/RF Jim Price (.270, 6 HR, 43 RBI).
June 18 – SAC LF/RF Mike Preble (.332, 9 HR, 32 RBI) is a triple shy of the cycle in a 5-hit, 1-RBI battering of the Wolves, who go down 4-1.

FL Player of the Week: NAS INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.312, 6 HR, 29 RBI), hitting .519 (14-27) with 2 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL 1B/LF/RF Aaron Brayboy (.323, 12 HR, 42 RBI), batting .464 (13-28) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Edgy series win against the Crusaders there, increasing our refound lead in the division to 2 1/2 before returning home. It wasn’t dandy, but at least we got two clutch homers by Maldo and Waters to tie it in the ninth twice, and then found a way to win quickly in the tenth.

The offense … mostly works, unless they run into Paul Paris. The pitching remains a concern. I have an urge to trade for an ace in the coming weeks, with Jackson out for the year, Mathers and Clark inefficient, and Wheats being highly chimeric. Some days he’s the goat. Sometimes he’s some scaly animals’ ***.

Maybe we should check out Tony Negrete first. He has a 2.07 ERA in St. Pete, and is on the 40-man anyway after making an emergency start last year. The 23-year-old lefty could easily switch places with Merino for the moment, while I work out a smart solution.

Knowing my luck with trades for stars, the smartest solution would be to get somebody involved who knows what the **** he’s doing. – (looks at Honeypaws)

I sincerely doubt the Raccoons have ever had two players with 50+ RBI in their 67th game of the season. Toohey was on pace for 121 RBI right now, which would be amazing, and also tie for a top 5 season in RBIs in franchise history. Tetsu Osanai got 121 RBI twice for fifth place, and there were only four more productive seasons: Troy Greenway drove in 132 on 42 homers in ’38, Hugo Mendoza had put in 133 in ’20, and Tetsu had a paw in the tie for the franchise’s high-water mark, 140 RBI in 1989, later matched by Rich Hereford in a blazing 2028 campaign.

And next? Quick home series with the Arrowheads, then a weekend trip to Mexico that will somehow already begin the 17-game stretch before the All Star Game. We will have a week at home there, then a week on the road before the break. Falcons, Elks, Loggers, Titans coming up there, and of course the Loggers again right after the break.

Fun Fact: The only other Falcons player to get a 6-hit game was Barend Kok, putting that many on the Bayhawks in a 15-1 rout in 2024.

The Dutch Antillean Kok played 15 seasons in the majors, with 2024 actually being his debut year. He was the silently productive type, never leading the majors in any category, never winning an award, not even making the All Star Game. But he also had 11 out of his first 12 seasons with an OPS over 100, and hit 20+ homers five times in his career, which was also riddled with injuries. He played more than 128 games only three times.

For his career he batted .270/.334/.432 with 204 HR and 780 RBI.

As far as Dutch Antilleans go, Kok is the second-best offspring of the island by WAR (17.4), behind Piet Oosterom (26.6). The Elks’ Arnout van der Zanden would have a chance to stir it up with those two in the future, but had less than 5 WAR so far (at age 23!).