[Westheim]

Raccoons (85-38) vs. Crusaders (55-69) – August 19-21, 2047

The Crusaders came back to Portland, with us holding a 9-3 edge in the season series. New York was seventh in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, which didn’t sound so bad, and their run differential was only a modestly bad -49. Their rotation struggled without ends, sitting second from the bottom in ERA, and a crummy defense played part in that. They also had no speed, sitting bottoms in the CL in stolen bases, but they were fourth in homers. Like the Coons, they had shed starting pitching, too, with Carlos Malla and Yataro Tanabe on the DL as they came in.

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (9-7, 3.12 ERA) vs. Matthew Owen (4-5, 3.50 ERA)
Jeremy Baker (3-2, 3.56 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (0-6, 7.29 ERA)
Victor Merino (12-7, 3.40 ERA) vs. Jim White (5-11, 3.64 ERA)

The rookie Zeigler was the only left-hander coming up, and seemed clearly not destined to make any more starts after originally being brought up as a reliever.

Of course the Raccoons were by now also down three of their starting pitchers. Wheats was placed on the DL to begin the week, with Kevin Hitchcock being promoted for this week. We’d bring up a fifth starter for the Bayhawks series looming next week, including a Monday double header.

Oh speaking of weather and double headers… we had one on Tuesday after Monday was all rains and no funs. That would not help with our rotation jamboree either. Immediately the plan with not getting a fifth starter up until next week was in disarray, because without a fifth starter, somebody had to go on short rest on Saturday…

Game 1
NYC: SS Gates – 3B Kaufman – 2B Briones – LF C. Cortes – RF Rogers – C Urfer – 1B de Luna – CF Rico – P M. Owen
POR: SS Adame – 2B Waters – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – CF Baskins – RF Fernandez – C Morales – LF Medina – P Okuda

A flurry of singles gave the Raccoons a 4-0 lead in the second inning. Baskins and Manny hit grounders that escaped through the holes for two base hits to begin the inning before Medina drove in Baskins with a single that looped down between Brian Kaufman and Carlos Cortes near the leftfield line. With a late throw to home, the trailing runners reached scoring position, from where Alex Adame singled both of them home with two outs. Adame stole second and scored on a Waters single before the inning ended with Maldo’s fly out to Phil Rogers.

Unfortunately, Okuda seemed hellbent on making a mess out of this game *and* the next, pitching messily and with an exploding pitch count. He opened the game with a walk to Prince Gates, and it never really got better after that. He allowed a run on three singles, the first by Owen, in the top 3rd, and then walked pairs of runners in both the fourth and fifth without the Crusaders getting them home. Waters hit a solo home run to right in the bottom 5th, but Okuda was knocked out for good with one out in the sixth after Danny Rico doubled home Rich de Luna, 5-2, and Kaufman would single home Rico against Bob Ibold, 5-3. Ibold added a clean seventh before Roberto Medina took former Raccoon Tony Negrete deep to left for his first career home run…! The balls kept flying, though, with Hitchcock serving up a homer to Prince Gates in the top of the eighth, 6-4. Maldo almost joined the club, hitting a leadoff double off Jeff Frank that graced the top of the fence in left-center, but refused to go over. He would score with two outs, singled home by Tony Morales after Baskins had walked. Medina also walked, filling the bags for Ruben Gonzalez to pinch-hit with two outs, and whiff to leave everybody aboard. Mike Lynn got the ball for the ninth, and retired the Crusaders in order to put the game away. 7-4 Raccoons. Adame 2-4; Waters 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Maldonado 2-3, BB, 2B; Baskins 1-2, 2 BB; Medina 3-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Game 2
NYC: SS Gates – 3B Kaufman – 2B Briones – LF C. Cortes – RF Rogers – 1B D. Salazar – C Wiersma – CF Rico – P Zeigler
POR: SS Adame – RF Pellicano – 1B Maldonado – LF Toohey – C Gonzalez – 2B Waters – CF Baskins – 3B Coen – P Baker

To my endless dismay, the Raccoons had another pitcher ready to be turned into dog food opposing them and did nothing against them. They had one hit the first time through – a Baker single – and just as many the second time through; the latter one was at least a solo homer by Ruben Gonzalez, his 10th on the year and tying up the 1-0 deficit that Baker had occurred on two singles and a walk in the opening frame. Unfortunately, Ken Wiersma, the annoying bugger, hit a go-ahead jack to left as soon as the Crusaders were back at the plate after the Gonzalez homer, giving them a new 2-1 lead in the fifth inning. Danny Rico singled home a tack-on run in the seventh, with the Raccoons still clueless against Zeigler and his 7+ ERA that was by now more like a 6+ ERA. At least they put the tying runs on the corners with nobody out in the bottom 7th, courtesy of a Gonzalez double in left-center, and an infield single that Waters legged out on a bang-bang play. Zeigler finally twitched, plating Gonzalez with a wild pitch and moving Waters to second, then gave away the lead on Derek Baskins’ double into the rightfield corner. Coen and Adame singles brought in Baskins to flip the score to 4-3 Portland, before grounders by Pellicano and Maldonado ended the inning.

The Raccoons now lined up Porter and Moreno for the last two innings, but of course it wouldn’t be quite that easy. Porter didn’t get through the eighth, with a Maldonado error putting Kaufman on base – to be replaced by pinch-runner Tom Labedz – and Porter walked Mario Briones to add a second runner. Carlos Cortes popped out, but when Josh Garris batted for Phil Rogers, we went to a lefty in Aaron Curl, who walked Garris to fill the bases. Next was Nelson Moreno against Salazar, a Coons farmhand at one point. Salazar flicked a 2-run single on the first pitch to flip the score, Wiersma hit an infield single (the ******* ****!), but Danny Rico struck out to strand a complete set of runners. The Crusaders added two runs off Moreno in the ninth, hitting a pair of doubles either way past Bryce Toohey in leftfield, before Pat Gurney socked a now very unhelpful leadoff homer in the bottom 9th, facing Julian Ponce. The score was 7-5, then 7-6 when Adame hit *another* homer to left. Pellicano walked to put the tying run aboard, but unfortunately Maldonado had been lifted in a double switch and the Raccoons had to make do with Al Martell as a pinch-hitter. He popped out, Toohey lined out to Prince Gates, and Gonzalez flew out to Cortes in deep right… 7-6 Crusaders. Adame 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, HR, RBI; Waters 1-2, 2 BB; Baskins 2-4, 2B, RBI; Gurney 1-1, HR, RBI;

First career homer or not – Roberto Medina (.231, 1 HR, 10 RBI) was returned to AAA the day after, making room for Nelson Mercado, who came off the DL.

Game 3
NYC: SS Gates – 3B Kaufman – 2B Briones – RF Rogers – C Urfer – 1B D. Salazar – LF de Luna – CF Rico – P J. White
POR: CF Mercado – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Baskins – 1B Gurney – P Merino

Merino was perfect the first time through, whiffing a batter in every inning, but the Raccoons were doing just as little in the Wednesday rubber game. Briones singled in the fourth, but was left on when Rogers grounded out to short. Instead, Portland went up 1-0 in the same inning, when Adame hit a leadoff single, stole his 26th base, and came around on a Maldo single – which by the way gave Maldonado his first RBI on a rotten homestand. He was then promptly picked off before Toohey doubled, Gonzalez was nicked, and Baskins walked, costing at least one run. Gurney batted with three on and two outs, got to 3-1, then swung and poked a grounder up the middle. While I groaned in agony, Gates missed the ball by inches, and the Raccoons scored two runs on the single, one of them when Rico dropped the ball as he was about to throw it back to the infield, allowing Ruben Gonzalez to be waved around to score from second base. Merino then flew out to right to end the inning, then allowed two singles and a 2-out walk to Jim ******* White to load the bases in the top 5th. Somehow, Gates grounded out instead of doing terminal damage to my mood.

The Crusaders had two more singles in the sixth before Rick Urfer killed the effort with a 6-4-3 double play, with Merino tacking on two clean innings after that to nurse the 3-0 lead. Not tacking on? The rest of the team. It was still 3-0 and Merino was on 100 pitches as the ninth inning dawned. With nothing but righty hitters up and in light of our rather dramatic situation in the starting pitchers’ field hospital, he did not get the chance to face the 3-4-5 in the ninth. We instead went to Lynn, who made it interesting by allowing a leadoff double to Briones and a walk to Rogers. The next two struck out, Rich de Luna singled home Briones, but Danny Rico grounded out to Waters to conclude the game. 3-1 Critters. Adame 3-4, 2B; Gurney 2-3, 2 RBI; Merino 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (13-7);

One of our starters made it to 13 wins and lived to tell the tale!? Magnificent!

Unrelated, just sent away Roberto Medina appeared in one AAA game before hitting the minor league DL with a strained rib cage muscle. We had no luck with injuries right now…

Kevin Hitchcock was returned to the minors on Thursday, with Carlton Harman promoted to make at least two spot starts here while Wheats was incapacitated. And that didn’t even cover for Monday yet…!

Raccoons (87-39) @ Falcons (55-70) – August 23-25, 2047

Bottoms in the CL South, the Falcons were steadily approaching mathematical elimination in the weirdest way. Despite being 15 games under .500, they had a +9 run differential, which immediately made me consider a gypsy curse as the main reason for their toils. They ranked ninth in runs scored, fifth in runs allowed, and the only thing they really lacked was home run power. They even had the best-rated defense in the CL! Strange, very strange. The season series was even at three.

Projected matchups:
Carlton Harman (0-2, 7.36 ERA) vs. Josh Swindell (1-6, 5.58 ERA)
Jeremy Chaney (0-1, 4.76 ERA) vs. Chris Jones (3-1, 3.31 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (10-7, 3.19 ERA) vs. Cameron Crawford (0-1, 3.86 ERA)

While the Raccoons were scratching the bottom of the barrel in terms of pitching, the Falcons also had a few starters on the DL with Evan Henshaw and Matt Schwartz out. Joe Besaw and Miguel Martinez were also on the DL, tearing two holes into their lineup. All three of the Falcons’ projected starters in this series were right-handers, and all three had started the season with the AAA Chesapeake Wanderers.

Game 1
POR: CF Mercado – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Baskins – 1B Gurney – P Harman
CHA: CF Marroquin – 2B E. Sandoval – RF Allegood – 1B Sevilla – LF Marroguin – 3B Thibault – C Torreo – SS Vamos – P Swindell

Harman quickly became a question rather than an answer, leaking a single, two walks, and a Jordan Marroguin grand slam in the first inning. The Raccoons loaded the bases on their own with Toohey, Gonzalez, and Baskins in the top 2nd, bringing up Gurney with one gone. He ran a 3-0 count – then popped out to Bobby Thibault. I got watery black googly eyes, with Harman flying out to left to end the inning. The next bases-loaded situation was cashed in on, but it was the Falcons again. Harman crapped the bags full with runners with nobody out in the bottom 3rd, and the Falcons went on to hit two sac flies to get another two runs home, 6-0.

The fourth saw Harman’s day end, finally, while Matt Waters put a token run on the board with a homer to right, his 14th on the year and chasing Maldonado for second on the squad. Jake Bonnie was then unmothballed to pitch two garbage innings, walking a pair, but not giving up a run for once. While the pen held up, with Josh Rella also turning in two innings – neither of those two had been in action against the Crusaders earlier in the week – the Raccoons had a vague hint of a rally against Swindell in the eighth, which Mercado opened with a double. The bags were full with Maldo and Toohey joining before Waters whiffed. Kyle Conner replaced Swindell, but gave up a 2-run single to Ruben Gonzalez before lefty Tyler Weems came to the rescue, getting out Gene Pellicano, who hit for Baskins. Antonio Prieto shut down the Raccoons in the ninth. 6-3 Falcons. Toohey 1-2, 2 BB; Gonzalez 2-4, 2 RBI; Bonnie 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K; Rella 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
POR: CF Mercado – SS Waters – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Martell – RF Pellicano – LF Fernandez – C Morales – P Chaney
CHA: C Torreo – 2B E. Sandoval – RF Allegood – 1B Sevilla – LF Marroguin – 3B Thibault – CF Caballero – SS Vamos – P C. Jones

The middle game was another 4-0 deficit in the bottom 1st, with Chaney getting torn apart on two singles, two walks, including a 2-out walk to Thibault with the bases loaded, before Oscar Caballero emptied the bases with a double in the gap between Manny and Mercado. Only Josh Vamos ended the inning, grounding out to Maldonado. Portland made up a run in the second, drawing walks through Toohey and Manny before Tony Morales hit an RBI single. Chaney hit a fly to left that Marroguin had to run for pretty far, but made the catch to end the inning. Waters added another solo homer in the third, 4-2, but Chaney just kept sucking. Mike Allegood opened the bottom 3rd with a single, Raul Sevilla walked, and Marroguin hit an RBI single. Two outs later, Vamos doubled home the remaining runners to put Charlotte up 7-2. Three more runners and a run later, Chaney was yanked from an 8-2 rout in the fourth inning as the thought crept up in me that we were really, truly in the ***** now. Bob Ibold cleaned up and disposed of Chaney’s soiled rug, but the game was very much over already.

Matt Waters’ tear continued without any deeper meaning at all. He hit a leadoff jack in the sixth off Jones, and while the Raccoons added two more 2-out runs in the inning after Toohey singled, Pellicano walked, and Coen singled (in the #7 spot previously dis-Mannied in a double switch) to load the bases, and Tony Morales got home two with a grounder up the middle for a single, Derek Baskins as the tying run then grounded out easily in an 8-5 game. The Raccoons never threatened again and just wasted more scoreless innings from their pen. 8-5 Falcons. Waters 3-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Coen (PH) 1-1; Morales 2-4, 3 RBI; Curl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Pitching change for Sunday – while the Raccoons were very relieved to get an established name on the mound, the Falcons longed to do the same as they went for the throat, and sent Jerry Felix (9-6, 4.03 ERA), also a right-hander.

Game 3
POR: CF Mercado – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – RF Pellicano – 1B Gurney – LF Fernandez – P Okuda
CHA: CF Marroquin – 2B E. Sandoval – RF Allegood – 1B Sevilla – C Kilmer – SS Marroguin – 3B Thibault – LF Caballero – P Felix

Always good for some offensive upsets, Okuda hit a gapper in right-center with two outs in the top 2nd, driving home Gurney and Manny for the first runs in the Sunday game. Mercado walked, Adame whiffed, Okuda had a clean second, and then Waters hit a single in the top 3rd and stole second base as he made a case for Player of the Week. Ruben Gonzalez drove him in with a double up the leftfield line, but knocked his knee into Jordan Marroguin’s leg in a tight play at second base and had to leave the 3-0 game in pain. In pain, I was as well – but more in the chest area. Tony Morales obviously replaced Gonzalez. He scored after a Pellicano single and a Gurney fielder’s choice, 4-0.

At least Okuda held up, and Pellicano doubled home Waters, who was just unretireable right now, in the fifth to go up 5-0. Okuda scattered four hits in six shutout innings with a low pitch count, then gave up a leadoff double to longtime Coon Jeff Kilmer in the seventh. Marroguin walked, but we were not yet going to the pen, who would be needed again on Monday… Okuda came through, getting two grounders to short. The Raccoons could not turn two on Thibault’s, but did turn two on Caballero to strand everybody and get out of the inning! The eighth saw another single and walk for the Falcons, but also another inning-ending double play, this time Mike Allegood going to Waters for a 4-6-3. The Raccoons didn’t score in the late innings, but they technically had plenty on the board as Okuda returned for the ninth inning, facing 4-5-6 on 98 pitches. Leadoff walk to Raul Sevilla – not great. He struck out Kilmer. Marroguin flew out to Mercado. And Caballero flew out to Manny Fernandez in left-center, the grizzled old veteran going for a diving grab on the ball just before it could dink in! It’s a shutout! 5-0 Raccoons! Gonzalez 1-2, 2B, RBI; Pellicano 3-5, 2B, RBI; Fernandez 1-2, 2 BB; Okuda 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, W (11-7) and 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Why is Manny Fernandez heading for Dr. Padilla as he walks off the field, rather than joining his teammates in the huddle?

In other news

August 20 – The lone tally in the Titans’ 1-0 win over the Loggers comes on a home run by Boston’s Joe Ritchey (.229, 8 HR, 33 RBI).
August 21 – DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.314, 27 HR, 105 RBI) socks a walkoff grand slam off A.J. May (2-3, 3.81 ERA, 1 SV) in the ninth inning to beat the Pacifics, 7-6.
August 22 – A hamstring strain might mean season over for Dallas SP Dave Hils (11-7, 3.52 ERA).
August 23 – BOS SP Brian Jackson (9-10, 2.77 ERA) 3-hits the Aces in a 5-0 shutout.
August 23 – Cincinnati and Sacramento play scoreless ball for nine innings before CIN MR Josh Livingston (2-6, 2.88 ERA, 1 SV) ends the game with a wild pitch, allowing SAC INF Kenny Leon (.263, 6 HR, 37 RBI) to score the winning run in walkoff fashion in the 10th inning.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.320, 30 HR, 111 RBI), hitting .417 (10-24) with 4 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 1B Sam Witherspoon (.261, 12 HR, 53 RBI), batting .474 (9-19) with 2 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

So, the Raccoons barely scratched a 3-3 week, found out that their replacement pitchers oughta be replaced, and then, just before the lights went out, shed another two players on Sunday. Ruben Gonzalez’ knee was not so bad, but he might not make it into a game next week, with the crouching and all. Manny Fernandez, however, broke his wrist and was out for the rest of the regular season, and highly unlikely for the playoffs, which also yoinked his vesting option for 2048 for good. Never mind that we’re on the end of our tethers for replacements in the outfield, too.

It’s ******* Verdun out there, isn’t it?

So we will need a third catcher AND an additional pitcher on Monday. How the **** are we gonna do that??

October will be brief for the Coons, routed out of the CLCS with the pathetic remainders of their rotation that won’t be able to hold up … anything, really. Yeah, they will probably win 100+ for the second time in franchise history. But it didn’t amount to a ring last time, either.

Dr. Padilla, we need these replacement body parts, NOW!!

Next week, that stupid set with the Bayhawks that opens with the EXTREMELY INCONVENIENT double header on Monday, then a Loggers set at home on the weekend. Rosters expand on Sunday, which, fun fact, is too late for us in the current roster crunch.

Fun Fact: The roster expansion comes too late for us in the current roster crunch.

Fact!

(hits head on door frame repeatedly)