[Westheim]

Raccoons (56-42) @ Aces (46-51) – July 24-26, 2046

The Aces had an average offense, but had overtaken the damn Elks for the leakiest outfit in the CL, sitting at the bottom of the table in runs allowed, with a -46 run differential. Their rotation and bullpen both had 4.40-ish ERA’s, both in the bottom three. They were also without closer David Williams (and the Coons were without news on infinite walk machine Ryan Person even after an off day on Monday). Vegas did have the most stolen bases in the league, a whopping 128 in 97 games. We were trying to make up a 1-2 deficit in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (7-7, 3.49 ERA) vs. Oscar Valdes (5-10, 5.66 ERA)
Victor Merino (8-5, 2.66 ERA) vs. Josh Henneberry (8-8, 3.96 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (11-4, 3.83 ERA) vs. Steve Huffman (4-5, 5.59 ERA)

Only right-handed opposition scheduled for this series.

Game 1
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – 2B Martell – P Jackson
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C F. Gomez – RF M. Roberts – 2B Landstrom – LF Montana – 3B Luna – 1B Quintana – CF Cramer – P O. Valdes

Jackson conceded the Aces’ 129th stolen base of the year to Mike Roberts in the first inning, but also drove in Tony Morales with two outs in the top 2nd for his own 1-0 lead, so there was that. Al Martell jiggered first-to-third on the play, then scored when Nelson Mercado dropped a single into shallow center. Armando Herrera rammed a ball down the leftfield line for a 2-run double, then scored when Eddy Luna threw away Maldonado’s grounder, that would have ended the inning, for two bases. Toohey singled him home, a discombobulated Valdes nicked Tony Morales, and Waters hit an RBI single to center, which became an extra base for the trailing runners after a late throw home by Brent Cramer. The 7-run outburst ended with Manny’s groundout to Josh Landstrom, four of them being earned. Now it was about watching Jackson, who had an unhappy history of faltering with big leads.

But Jackson was solid the first few innings, which was not something that could be said about the Aces’ pitchers. Valdes departed after three, giving up a solo homer to Mercado before leaving, and then three Aces relievers were taken apart for six more runs in the in the fourth inning – although Mike Nett left with an injury after facing only one batter. Manny, Martell drove in a run each, Jackson and Maldo drove in two apiece, the inning ending with Herrera caught in a rundown. At this point, in the middle of the fourth, every Raccoons starter already had a hit, and had scored a run, and only hot paw Tony Morales did not have at least one RBI (Jackson, sillily, led the team with three).

The Raccoons’ scoring rush stopped after that, but Jackson held up well enough. The Aces got an unearned run in the fifth after a Morales throwing error, and Landstrom drove in Angel Montes de Oca for an earned run in the sixth. Maldo and Toohey left at the seventh-inning stretch, while Jackson pitched seven and two thirds on 98 fine pitches before being replaced with Zack Kelly, to see whether he could blow a 12-run lead against lefty hitters. He actually held up, retiring everybody he faced except righty hitter Bob Montana, who hit a ninth-inning single that led nowhere. 14-2 Raccoons! Mercado 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Herrera 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Toohey 3-5, RBI; Morales 2-4, 2B; Martell 3-5, RBI; Jackson 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (8-7) and 2-4, 3 RBI;

That was fun!

Of course, no amount of fun can go unpunished by the baseball gods. By Wednesday we learned that Ryan Person was out for the season with ulnar nerve irritation. He was a “possible” for the playoffs, but not exactly likely, and considering how he pitched before wouldn’t have been the smartest toss of a shoe for a starter in the playoffs anyway.

Welcome back, Bubba Wolinsky, then!

While Wednesday would have been his turn in AAA, we’d slide him into Person’s spot behind Wheats; everybody was a day late with the off day, just roll with it.

Game 2
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – SS Waters – LF Fernandez – 2B Martell – P Merino
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C F. Gomez – RF M. Roberts – LF Montana – 2B Landstrom – 1B Quintana – 3B Luna – CF Garbutt – P Henneberry

The Aces went up 1-0 on Wednesday when Merino yielded two hits to Bob Montana and Eddy Luna, plus a walk to Angel Quintana, in the second inning and looked as a whole to be struggling with command. He did open the third inning with a single to right, and Mercado and Herrera slapped two more to bring up the big boys with three on and nobody out. Maldo lined out unluckily on a screamer right back to Henneberry, but Toohey tied the game with a single that eluded Landstrom on the right side. Tony Morales, the monster, then drove in two with a double to right. Matt Waters hit an RBI single, 4-1, then stole second, and the Aces bench got the big-inning-long-face again. Manny logged two RBI with a wallbanger in right that saw him leg out a double, but Martell and Merino grounded out to the right side to end this particular 6-run onslaught.

The problem was then Merino … too many 3-ball counts. He didn’t get a K until the fourth (Quintana), although he had also only walked two batters. The Aces were pretty good at stepping on their own feet against him so far. He began the fifth by hitting Cole Garbutt, though, then threw a wild pitch that almost took off the head of relief pitcher B.J. Brantley, the poor sod. The Aces protested a bit, but even the blind guy in the third row behind home plate had seen that Merino was completely off today. Garbutt came around to score on productive outs, 6-2. The Raccoons dragged him through six and a bit before going to the bullpen. Bob Ibold got a fly to center from PH Brandon Owen to strand Quintana on second base in the bottom 7th, which kept the distance at a slam – again, the Raccoons had not tagged on after scoring a pile in an inning; they did get to Mark Zdrojewski (pronounced Stro-ciao-ski, I am told, but he had a 7+ ERA, so who gave a thing?) in the eighth. The right-hander had already taken a beating on Tuesday, and now allowed leadoff singles to Martell and Floyd, with Mercado rolling to first for an RBI groundout. Baskins hit for Herrera at that point, but flew out, and Maldo grounded out to strand Floyd. It didn’t matter – Ibold and Hickey added scoreless innings at the end to put the game away easily. 7-2 Raccoons. Mercado 2-4, BB, RBI; Herrera 2-4; Morales 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Waters 2-3, BB, RBI; Floyd 1-1;

Game 3
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Gurney – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Baskins – P Wheatley
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C F. Gomez – RF M. Roberts – LF Montana – 3B Luna – 2B B. Owen – 1B Speth – CF Cramer – P Huffman

Singles by Baskins and Mercado, a well-placed Herrera groundout to take the lead, and then Maldo whacked a 2-out RBI triple for a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Toohey was caught in deep left, but here was some support for Wheats, the Critters’ leader in wins. He did not allow a base hit the first time through, although he walked Eddy Luna in the second, and then Felipe Gomez to lead off the fourth. Neither runner got very far, although he then also bunted badly to get Baskins bowled out at second base after he had drawn a leadoff walk in the top 5th, then got to partake in baserunning for no great reason. He scored, though, coming around on singles by Mercado and Maldonado, before Toohey narrowly missed a homer in right and had to settle for an RBI double. Gurney added an RBI single, 5-0, before Waters grounded out to Brandon Owen to end the inning.

Wheats walked Cramer in the fifth, but it took until the sixth that a Gomez single broke up his no-hit bid (albeit on the 84th pitch). Gomez was also stranded, while Maldonado doubled home Herrera, who had stolen his 20th base of the year, to go up 6-0 in the seventh. Gurney and Gonzalez singles against right-hander Miguel Mauricio added another run. Wheats pitched seven shutout innings before being hauled in after throwing 108 pitches with some bouts of wildness in there; his spot also led off the eighth inning. Manny Fernandez drew a walk in his place, then scored after Mercado and Herrera hit singles. The Aces were content with letting Mauricio take this particular beating, the remaining runners scoring on groundouts by Maldo and Toohey. A run fell out of Preston Porter at the end there, but it’s not like we really noticed… 10-1 Critters! Mercado 4-5; Herrera 2-5, 2 RBI; Maldonado 3-4, BB, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Gurney 3-5, RBI; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (12-4);

Well, wasn’t that a riot of a series!?

Raccoons (59-42) vs. Falcons (46-54) – July 27-29, 2046

Although they had a worse record than the Aces had had before running into the Raccoons and their buzzing chainsaws, the Falcons were much closer to respectable, except for a bleeding bullpen with an ERA over five. They ranked fifth in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, but their rotation was in the top four in the CL. Their run differential was -7, and they were up on us for the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Bubba Wolinsky (2-0, 2.21 ERA) vs. Oscar Flores (9-8, 3.49 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (7-7, 3.64 ERA) vs. Adam Messer (5-7, 4.63 ERA)
Jake Jackson (8-7, 3.36 ERA) vs. Jerry Felix (10-9, 3.48 ERA)

The Falcons had no lefty starter on staff right now (and only one reliever in Justin Kaiser). Natanael Abrao, Chris Kokoszka, and Jordan Marroguin were all on the DL, and probably all lost for the season.

Game 1
CHA: 2B M. Martinez – 3B Watanabe – LF Besaw – SS Aparicio – RF Turley – 1B Haertling – CF Allegood – C Kuehn – P O. Flores
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – LF Fernandez – 2B Martell – SS Floyd – P Wolinsky

Solid, but inefficient pitching remained a topic – Wolinsky had a wicked first, allowing a single to Shintaro Watanabe, a wild pitch, a walk to Tony Aparicio, then still bailed out with a K to Archie Turley, who had torn up the Critters last time these teams had met, and while he didn’t allow more than another single each in the next two innings, was already over 50 pitches at that point. The Raccoons took their time to get the sticks going, but spotted Wolinsky the lead in the fourth, Maldo opening with a double to left before scoring on Manny’s 2-out single. Martell hit a first-pitch double to left to put two in scoring position with two outs. Here, the Falcons, who had pitched to Floyd (and whiffed him) with Morales in scoring position in the bottom 2nd, balked and put him on base intentionally, pulling up Wolinsky, who was 0-for-7 for his career, and found 0-for-8 with a groundout to Watanabe. A leadoff double by Paul Kuehn and Miguel Martinez single then tied the game again in the top 5th, with Martinez additionally hurting himself clobbering into Floyd at second base. Adam Shay replaced the 23-year-old that had a certain Dave Garcia glass ballerina vibe about him; word came out in the late innings that Martinez was off to the DL with a lat strain.

Wolinsky nailed Watanabe next, while Shay stole third base. The Falcons broke the tie with Joe Besaw’s sac fly, 2-1 to them, but when Tony Aparicio flew out to Manny, Watanabe also made for home, but was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. Wolinsky was then chased by left-handed batters’ hits against him to begin the sixth, an Ed Haertling single and a Mike Allegood double. Both scored on groundouts against Bob Ibold, and the 4-1 gap seemed terminal, because in the fifth, sixth, and seventh, the Critters could get nothing against Oscar Flores. Herrera hit a leadoff single to left in the bottom 8th, which was at least something – and then Maldo fired a homer to left to narrow the gap to one run! Toohey and Morales grounded out, but Nelson Moreno held the Falcons where they were in the top 9th, bringing out ex-Coon Antonio Prieto in the bottom 9th. A sign of a bad pen, he had a 4.83 ERA. The Critters grounded out three times to Shay, though, ending their 9-game winning streak. 4-3 Falcons. Maldonado 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Martell 2-4, 2B;

Second day in a row that Maldonado missed the cycle by one bit; it was a homer on the last day in Vegas, here it was the triple.

Game 2
CHA: CF Allegood – 3B Watanabe – LF Besaw – SS Aparicio – RF Turley – 2B Shay – 1B Marroquin – C Kuehn – P Messer
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – C Morales – 1B Gurney – SS Waters – LF Baskins – 2B Martell – P Okuda

While Joe Besaw hit a solo homer in the fourth for a modicum of Falcons offense, the Raccoons were hitless against Adam Messer for a prolonged amount of time. Herrera had drawn a walk in the first, but had been caught stealing, and they didn’t reach base again until Messer nicked Morales to begin the bottom 5th. Gurney and Waters flew out to Turley, and Waters grounded out to Shay to pass over the chance quietly. Okuda, who fought like a lion with seven strikeouts in six innings, drew a 1-out walk in the bottom 6th, only to get forced out on Pellicano’s grounder. Herrera put away the no-hitter at least, singling to left-center with two outs, but Maldo grounded out to let the chance slip away. The Falcons for all intents and purposes put the game away in the seventh. Out of the blue, Okuda collapsed, with Mike Allegood, Shintaro Watanabe, and Joe Besaw all reaching base with two outs. Tony Aparicio then buried us with a grand slam to left-center. Portland only got put on the board in the bottom 8th when Al Martell hit a homer to right-center to begin the inning, which wasn’t a great help with a 5-0 deficit. Then Mercado hit for Hickey in the #9 hole and socked another homer, 5-2. Pellicano singled to right on 0-2, and Herrera hit a jack to left, his first of the year! In four batters, three home runs and a 5-0 lead scrubbed down to 5-4 …! Maldo grounded out. Morales grounded out. We were constantly anticipating Kaiser and were holding back Toohey for that opportunity, so Gurney also batted for himself – and a homer to center! FOUR IN THE INNING!! Tied game!!

Nobody scored in the ninth, sending the game to extras, where Nelson Moreno, shockingly, issued a leadoff walk to Shay. It was only Moreno’s fourth walk on the year in 36 innings. At least he kept the runner from scoring, getting soft outs from there. The Critters had the top of the order up against Prieto in the 10th, but were retired in order, much like the Falcons’ 1-2-3 struck out collectively against Mike Lynn in the 11th. Prieto was still at it in the bottom of that inning, walking Tony Morales to begin things, then yielded a double to Gurney. Toohey would then bat for Waters with the winning run on third base and nobody out, because a better spot was unlikely to come up anymore (looks skywards to wait for baseball gods’ shenanigans) …aaaand he struck out. Baskins was walked intentionally to bring up Martell, who flew to Turley at 1-1. It was not deep. Morales was not fast. He was sent anyway. He would have been dead on arrival, if Turley’s throw hadn’t been off by a good 15 feet, conceding the game to the Raccoons on a throwing error. 6-5 Critters. Herrera 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gurney 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Mercado (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

How the actual **** did we scratch out this one?? Holy cow!

Game 3
CHA: CF Allegood – 3B Thibault – SS Aparicio – LF Besaw – 1B Haertling – RF Turley – 2B Watanabe – C N. Evans – P Felix
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 2B Gurney – 1B Toohey – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – SS Waters – 3B Martell – P Jackson

Solo home runs by Pat Gurney in the first and Matt Waters in the second gave the Raccoons a 2-0 lead while the game was early on also about runners being caught stealing. The Coons had Mercado struck down in the third, while Turley was thrown out by Gonzalez in the second, and Allegood in the fourth. The Critters also turned two double plays for Jackson, who was not exactly flawless, but seemed in control in the first five. When Watanabe opened the sixth with a single to left, Nate Evans struck out, and then Felix jammed a bouncer back to Jackson for another 1-6-3 double play.

Jackson went eight, whiffing as many, but would also be toast after just over 100 pitches, regardless of whether the Raccoons would tack on in the bottom 8th or not – and they hadn’t scored since that Waters homer in the second inning, hitting into three double plays themselves while frittering away nine base hits. They were pretty much out in order in the bottom 8th, except that Watanabe dropped Toohey’s 2-out pop for an error to prolong the inning. Felix then walked Baskins in a full count, after which Morales batted for an unlucky Gonzalez, fell to 1-2, but then found the hole between Watanabe and Haertling for an RBI single. Waters was out to Bobby Thibault, stranding two. With Allegood and Thibault batting left-handed to start the ninth inning, the Raccoons gave the 3-0 lead to Mike Lynn and shored up their infield defense by shifting Waters and Gurney one to the right, with Floyd entering for Toohey. Lynn retired the lefties without effort, then lost Tony Aparicio in a full count. Besaw, however, struck out, giving the series to the Raccoons (though not the season series). 3-0 Raccoons. Toohey 2-4; Morales (PH) 1-1, RBI; Jackson 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 8 K, W (9-7);

In other news

July 25 – The Canadiens pick up righty MR Juan Ramos (0-5, 3.71 ERA, 1 SV) from the Rebels for two prospects.
July 26 – The Loggers give up and trade LF/RF Daniel Hertenstein (.219, 9 HR, 39 RBI) to the Indians for MR Cesar Suarez (3-3, 8.65 ERA) and an unranked 2045 first-rounder in SS John Wieczorek.
July 28 – The Thunder acquire SP Josh Brown (9-3, 2.43 ERA) from the Aces for two prospects.
July 28 – IND SP Jason Palladino (6-7, 3.84 ERA) 1-hits the Bayhawks in a 4-0 shutout for the Indians. SFB OF/1B Alex Marquez (.305, 7 HR, 30 RBI) has a second-inning single for the only Bayhawks entry into the H column.
July 29 – Pacifics OF Tony Romero (.255, 3 HR, 36 RBI) is lost for the season with a torn labrum, and might be questionable for Opening Day in 2047, too.

FL Player of the Week: DAL SS Leo Villacorta (.293, 4 HR, 43 RBI), batting .560 (14-25) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ 3B/2B Sergio Barcia (.320, 8 HR, 33 RBI), swatting .579 (11-19) with 3 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

A sweep of the Aces to the tune of 31-5 runs, then a bit more of a fumble series with the Falcons, where we could have easily lost two in a row but didn’t. 5-1 week, same as for the Indians, who thus maintained their 6 1/2 game gap.

Four homers in the eighth to rally out of a 5-0 hole on Saturday was quite the thrill, I must say!

But we lost Person for the year, and whether Wolinsky is a great replacement remains to be found out. He killed our winning streak for a starter… We are still scratching on a team to get another lefty reliever, because there is no trust left in Zack Kelly. He was *alright* this week, but when has *alright* ever won a championship?

Only two days left to the deadline, and I am absolutely against trading any offensive piece here – the machine is now humming too well to throw cranks into it. We rushed up to a +106 run differential this week…! And we’re on 99 homers in 104 games.

We will spend deadline day with the Condors in Tijuana, then return home for a 4-game set with the Indians. The Titans will be in after that.

Fun Fact: Wolinsky’s loss to the Falcons on Friday was the first L for the Raccoons against a team other than the Titans in the month of July.

It is true. We were 18-3 up to that point, of which the four-and-four with Boston made up a 5-3 portion. There was a win in the final game with the Elks to begin the month, then a loss to open the set in Boston. We won the rest of the Boston games and swept the Loggers before the break, then had a pair of wins against the Titans at home, sandwiched by sad 2-1 losses. After that we swept three straight sets until we ran into Oscar Flores.

20-4 now – not that bad a month! For comparison, the Loggers are drowning to the tune of 4-19 this month.