[Westheim]

Raccoons (96-53) vs. Condors (66-83) – September 16-18, 2047

Four series to go, the Raccoons were up against the Condors as they tried not to fumble the 20-game lead they had held in August. The Condors just wanted the season to end; they were seventh in runs scored, ninth in runs allowed, and quite a bit below their expected record with a mild -27 run differential (Critters: +146). Rikuto Ito and Alex Lopez were on the DL to weaken the lineup, while the Coons were up 4-2 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (12-8, 3.02 ERA) vs. Marc Hubbard (11-15, 3.47 ERA)
Jeremy Baker (3-4, 3.91 ERA) vs. Ben Lehman (4-5, 4.82 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (12-8, 2.73 ERA) vs. Kellen Lanning (13-10, 4.06 ERA)

All right-handed opposition here – Lehman was a 24-year-old rookie, the #4 pick from 2044, that would make his 13th major league start.

Game 1
TIJ: 2B Navarro – CF M. Gray – SS Aparicio – 1B S. Henderson – C Mittleider – LF J. Becker – RF Reidinger – 3B Quintana – P Hubbard
POR: 2B Carreno – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – RF Mills – P Okuda

Tijuana made errors in the first two innings, first putting Toohey on base in addition to Carreno, but Waters struck out to strand both of them, then placing Derek Baskins at second base with an Angel Quintana throwing error to begin the bottom 2nd. Gonzalez and Mills had grounders to the right side, getting the run across for a 1-0 lead, and it was 2-0 after three when Toohey doubled home Maldonado, who had drawn a 2-out walk from Hubbard. Waters singled to put them on the corners after that, but Baskins got stuck at short and Tony Aparicio and the inning ended. Ruben Gonzalez’ double, an Okuda single, and Carreno’s sac fly extended the lead to 3-0 in the fourth. Okuda was playing the control game so far, but began the top 5th with a walk to Marty Reidinger, then gave up a double to left to Quintana, putting two in scoring position with nobody out. Hubbard whiffed, while Chris Navarro legged out an infield roller for a single – the other runners had to hold, though, and the bags were full for Mike Gray, who went down on strikes. Two gone, Tony Aparicio and his .305 stick with 15 homers were up. He shot a hard grounder on the first pitch, but right at Maldonado for the third out.

The Critters also began their half of the fifth with their first two batters aboard. Maldo flicked a leadoff single, while Toohey was nicked by a pitch. Between the next three hitters, the Coons got two strikeouts and a groundout, and no run(s). Sterling Henderson and Jon Mittleider hit two leadoff singles off Okuda in the sixth, but the Condors then also made three poor outs in succession without scoring. Okuda pitched into the seventh, giving up an unearned run; Navarro singled, stole second, and a poor throw by Gonzalez had the ball skip away from Carreno, allowing Navarro to take third base. He scored on Gray’s grounder to Waters. Josh Rella and Aaron Curl would fill in for the rest of the seventh and the eighth, keeping the 3-1 score in one piece. When the Critters did not progress beyond a 2-out single by Ken Mills in the bottom 8th, they picked Plan A for the ninth, sending out Mike Lynn. He got out Quintana and PH Dan Schneller, then walked Navarro. Gray flew out to Mills, though, ending the game. 3-1 Raccoons. Carreno 2-3, RBI; Toohey 2-3, 2B, RBI; Okuda 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (13-8) and 1-3;

The Arrowheads beat the Aces, 6-3, but we scrubbed down the magic number to three at least.

The 97th win this year also meant we had eclipsed the recent winning seasons; the most-recent higher win total was 98 in ’28, and after that there was only 1996 (108-54) to aspire to. The September Slide Job we had performed (5-10 including Monday) however meant that we’d have to be near-perfect to get there now…

Game 2
TIJ: 2B Navarro – RF J. Alcala – SS Aparicio – 1B S. Henderson – C Mittleider – LF J. Becker – CF M. Gray – 3B Quintana – P Lehman
POR: 2B Carreno – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Baskins – RF Pellicano – C Morales – P Baker

While Maldo was picked off first base to end the bottom 3rd, he had at least singled home Arturo Carreno for the game’s first run. Baker was unharmed in the early innings, despite issuing two walks and facing an all-righty lineup. He also walked Justin Becker to start the fifth inning, but three groundouts kept the Condors from scoring. Carreno was then scored again in the fifth, which was a bit of a mess. Tony Morales hit a leadoff single to left, but was forced out on a bad Baker bunt. Carreno then forced out the pitcher with a grounder to short, but stole second base and came around on a Herrera single to right, 2-0. Armando Herrera scooped his 20th bag of the season then when he swiped second, but was left on with Maldo whiffing to end the bottom 5th.

Bottom 6th, three on, nobody out. I sighed. Toohey doubled, Waters walked, Baskins singled, bringing up the bottom of the order. Gene Pellicano ran a full count, then chopped a clean single into shallow right to score a run – alright, good start! Morales’ sac fly made it 4-0, and Baker batted for himself, swinging into a 6-4-3 double play so he could get back to pitching… Shutting out the Condors on 66 pitches through six innings was no mean feat, and he retired the 4-5-6 batters in order in the seventh on top of that. He was knocked out of the eighth without retiring a batter, however, giving up a leadoff double to Gray and an RBI single to Quintana, both to left. Bob Ibold replaced him and retired the next three, whiffing Schneller and Jose Alcala. Portland would not tack on, so the 3-run lead went to Lynn again for the ninth inning. Aparicio grounded out, after which he walked Henderson. Mittleider and Becker went down on strikes, however, putting the game away. 4-1 Raccoons! Herrera 2-4, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, RBI; Morales 1-2, RBI; Baker 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (4-4);

Indy also grabbed another W – Ron Kurtz’ walkoff homer did the trick – so the magic number only went down to two.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Navarro – 2B Quintana – 1B S. Henderson – C Mittleider – CF M. Gray – RF D. Gonzales – LF B. Mendoza – 3B Barcia – P Lanning
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – SS Martell – 2B Carreno – P Wheatley

Wheats was thus up for the potential clincher, but fell behind in the first inning, allowing three singles while Chris Navarro after reaching base also stole his way to third to score easily on a Mike Gray single. David Gonzales grounded out to Maldo to strand a pair.

Then the season fell apart for good. Bottom 2nd, Bryce Toohey was on with a leadoff single. When Baskins grounded to short, Toohey collided with Angel Quintana at second base – and when he picked himself up from the dirt, the cameras immediately caught his right paw with an obviously broken claw. Dr. Padilla removed him from the game in favor of Pat Gurney, but it was immediately obvious that his season was over. And what would we do in the playoffs without Bryce Toohey?? I tried to jump out of the nearest window, but Maud and Cristiano held on to my shirt and while I dangled over the ledge for a while, those two appendages were too wide to fit through the window next to each other and to my great annoyance they managed to pull me back in…

But maybe there’d be no playoffs after all. It increasingly looked unlikely that this would be the clincher, with Wheats offering a leadoff walk to Navarro in the third, and Quintana singled right away after that, putting the runners on the corners. Quintana stole second, and both runners scored on a Mittleider sac fly and a Gray single, 3-0. The Coons had six hits through five innings, but scattered them as inefficiently as possible before Herrera hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th and Maldonado socked a homer, his 21st of the year, narrowing the score to 3-2. Gurney struck out, after which Lanning was removed for lefty David Fox. Baskins, Gonzalez, and Martell answered with 1-out singles, loading the bases in a real hurry. Carreno popped out to second, though, and then the Coons chose violence, batting Pellicano with two outs over Wheatley – but he struck out.

So, no clincher W for Wheatley, but could we for once at least take him off the narrow hook? Fox walked Mercado to begin the bottom 7th, and Herrera singled, so that was a neat start. Up came Maldonado, and somehow the Toohey injury, the extent of which was well known by then, somehow had ignited Maldo’s afterburners – he absolutely RAKED a 94mph fastball for a HUGE 3-run homer to left, flipping the score at once, 5-3! Portland added another run in the inning when Ben Coen hit a sac fly, in Martell’s place, off lefty Brian Shan following hits by Baskins and Gonzalez. From there, Nelson Moreno nixed the 3-4-5 batters in the eighth inning, while the Coons made two outs to begin the bottom 8th, then put on Herrera with a single, Maldo by getting nicked (will ya please…), and then Gurney, already counting as replacement, legged out a 1-2 grounder and pulled something in the process, limping off the field. At this point, it got a bit sketchy with replacements… Safe for the already hurting Alex Adame, we were out of infielders (in September and a regulation game…), and Ruben Gonzalez was moved to first base, while Jimmy Dalton took over catching duties after being inserted as pinch-runner. Baskins grounded out to strand three, while Jake Bonnie got the ball for the ninth inning (why break Lynn, too?). Bonnie tried his best to break the 6-3 lead; he gave up a leadoff double to lefty hitter Ryan Robbinson (sic!), then walked another lefty in Benito Mendoza. Sergio Barcia struck out, and Jose Alcala flew out to Baskins in deep left. After an RBI single by Chris Navarro to center, the Coons wet to Bob Ibold, drawing lefty pinch-hitter Marty Reidinger, who popped out at 0-2 to complete the sweep. 6-4 Furballs. Herrera 4-5; Maldonado 2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Toohey 1-1; Baskins 3-5; Gonzalez 2-4, 2B; Martell 2-3;

First career win for Kevin Hitchcock, who followed on Wheats in the seventh and thus got the benefits of Maldo’s second homer.

And that was it – the Indians blew a 4-1 lead in the ninth, then lost in 11 innings to the Aces, 5-4, to actually put the division away for Portland! Fourth year in a row, baby!

Too bad that the baseball gods have by now reduced us to a bunch of one-legged, one-eyed casualties…

Bryce Toohey was out for the year, there was no way around it. His .859 OPS would not play in October. Same for Gurney – an oblique strain would render him out for the rest of the season, very much including October.

On the other paw, Jake Jackson came off the DL in time to make two starts at the tail end of the season here to get tuned up for the playoffs. No more Carlton Harman in the rotation…!

Raccoons (99-53) @ Crusaders (65-88) – September 20-22, 2047

That lousy record played for fourth in the CL North, which was a bit shocking. New York sat fifth in runs scored, but 11th in runs allowed, with a -70 run differential. Their rotation was the second-worst in the CL, and the pen was not much better. Unsurprisingly, they were also in the bottom three in defense. The Raccoons led them 11-4 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (14-8, 3.10 ERA) vs. Jim White (8-13, 3.51 ERA)
Jake Jackson (12-4, 2.84 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (1-6, 6.75 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (13-8, 2.90 ERA) vs. Matthew Owen (4-11, 4.49 ERA)

Zeigler would be the only left-hander up this week, but we might just as well see a different lefty in former Critter Tony Negrete (3-7, 4.66 ERA) in that spot. A jumbled rotation was what the Crusaders contended with for losing Carlos Malla, Jeff Johnson, and Yataro Tanabe from their lead five. Mario Briones was also unavailable in this series.

Meanwhile the Raccoons were out of first basemen all of a sudden. Maldo was an option, but he was now also pretty much the only one. We dug deep – Evan Van Hoy, 25, was brought up from AAA as an afterthought. Jeremy Chaney ended up on waivers to make room on the 40-man roster. Van Hoy had been an eighth-rounder in 2042 and had been in AA for a long time, only promoting to AAA late this year, getting into 16 games with the Alley Cats, batting .286 with no homers. He was not a high-power first-sacker; he was much more speedy than beefed up.

All we needed, though, was a warm body…

Game 1
POR: CF Mercado – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – RF Mills – LF Medina – 1B Van Hoy – P Merino
NYC: C Urfer – SS Gates – 1B Yamamoto – CF D. Hernandez – RF Rogers – 3B F. Martinez – LF de Luna – 2B Kaufman – P J. White

Roberto Medina hit a 2-run homer in the top 2nd just ahead of Van Hoy singling in his first major league at-bat, but we also had Merino up against an all-righty lineup, and as usual that mix did not end well for Merino. He gave up five runs in as many innings, all with two outs. The first two came in the bottom 2nd on a Jim White double, which stung me quite a bit, and the others came in the fifth, when Dave Hernandez hit a 2-run double with two aboard, and then scored on Phil Rogers’ single. Danny Cancel did the sixth, getting his first major league K on Rick Urfer, but with the offense looking pretty dead against Jim White, Carlton Harman was sent in to pitch the probably-final-two innings here. The bottom 7th was scoreless, after which the Raccoons reached the corners in the top 8th with 1-out walks drawn by Waters, who stole second and reached third on a bad throw by Urfer, and Gonzalez. That was the end for White, with right-hander Jeff Frank taking over pitching duties with the tying run at the plate. He gave up a sac fly to Ken Mills, then rung up Medina to end the inning. Harman then promptly got swamped in the bottom 8th, giving up two hits and two walks for only one out. Preston Porter was no great help, giving up another two runs on a Prince Gates single before whiffing Shuta Yamamoto and popping out Eddie Baker. Top 9th, Portland began with a Van Hoy single. Baskins grounded out, Mercado was nicked, and Alex Adame hit an RBI single, 8-4. The Crusaders went to closer Julian Ponce at that point, but he gave up a 1-out single to Maldonado to load the bases. Waters hit a sac fly, which was not all that helpful. Ruben Gonzalez stung an RBI single to center, putting the tying run on base with two outs, at which point Armando Herrera batted for Mills, but flew out to Aaron Foss in the left-center gap. 8-6 Crusaders. Adame 2-4, BB, RBI; Maldonado 2-5; Gonzalez 3-4, BB, RBI; Van Hoy 2-4;

Game 2
POR: 2B Carreno – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – RF Pellicano – 3B Coen – LF Medina – P Jackson
NYC: 3B Labedz – 2B Kaufman – RF C. Cortes – LF Garris – SS Gates – CF Rogers – 1B D. Hernandez – C A. Lara – P Zeigler

Jake Jackson showed obvious rust, beginning the game with a walk to Tom Labedz and continued to spend most of his time behind in the count, but the Crusaders actually scored with three sharp base hits in the third inning. Angel Lara singled, Labedz did as well, and Brian Kaufman whacked a double, giving them a 2-0 lead. The Raccoons had no base hits in the early innings, and they scored in the fourth, still without a base hit – Herrera drew a leadoff walk, Maldo got nicked (…), and Gonzalez hit a sac fly eventually. A 2-out single by Gene Pellicano was the first actual entry into the H column for the visitors. Zeigler walked Coen to fill the bases, but Rogers caught a shallow pop from Medina to strand all the runners.

The bottom 6th saw Josh Garris smash a leadoff jack, 3-1, while Pellicano took a tumble on a catch on Phil Rogers and also left the game hurting. For crying out loud…! (looks upwards with a flicker in his eyes) WHAT DID I DO TO YOU *NOW*????

The baseball gods were unmoved, and Nelson Mercado replaced the fallen Pellicano. The Raccoons hit for Jackson in the seventh for no great result, but then loaded the bags with two outs with their 1-2-3 hitters, bringing up Waters with a chance to do damage. Damage he did, whacking a 2-run single to right-center to tie the game at three before Gonzalez grounded out to Labedz. The Coons went on to get a scoreless inning from Jake Bonnie, but Rella gave up a leadoff homer to Brian Kaufman in the bottom 8th, setting them into trailing mode again. Lefty Jordan Calderon was out for the ninth after we had whittled away Julian Ponce in a long inning on Friday for no actual wins. Carreno drew a leadoff walk, but the next two batters hit grounders to middle infielders. Herrera stayed out of the double play, while Maldonado very much did not. 4-3 Crusaders. Herrera 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Mercado 1-1;

Adam Bates rejoined from the DL on Sunday, while Dr. Padilla had no news on Pellicano so far, despite working hard overtime all week long.

Game 3
POR: CF Mercado – SS Adame – LF Baskins – 2B Waters – C Morales – 3B Coen – RF Mills – 1B Van Hoy – P Okuda
NYC: 3B Labedz – SS Gates – 1B Yamamoto – LF C. Cortes – CF D. Hernandez – C Urfer – RF Garris – 2B Kaufman – P M. Owen

The Critters scored before making an out on Sunday, Mercado ripping a leadoff double to center and scoring on an Adame single against Owen. Baskins doubled, too, but with two in scoring positions, both Waters and Morales hit grounders so poor that they kept the runners pinned, and Ben Coen struck out to end the inning. Okuda walked a pair in the first inning, wiggled out of there, but gave up a run on an Urfer single and Kaufman RBI double in the bottom 2nd to get the teams tied again. Portland went up again in the top 3rd, despite Baskins hitting into a double play after Adame’s leadoff single. Matt Waters tripled, and Tony Morales singled to right, 2-1. Coen flew out to Garris in deep right. Another run was added in a weird fourth; Van Hoy drew a walk, then was forced out on Okuda’s bunt. Mercado coaxed a 2-out walk out of Owen, and then Adame doubled over Dave Hernandez. Okuda scored, but Mercado was thrown out at home plate to end the inning in a 3-1 score. Back-to-back doubles by Baskins and Waters added a run to begin the top 5th, with Morales drawing a walk and Coen reaching on a Labedz error to fill the bags with nobody out. Mills struck out, but Evan Van Hoy grabbed his first career RBI with a single through the right side, 5-1. Okuda added one more run with a sac fly to Garris, while Mercado also flew out.

While a Waters double and Morales single off Steve Arrowsmith allowed the Coons to reach a 7-1 score by the sixth inning, Okuda seemed in a real groove at that point after the difficult first few innings, then out of the blue allowed four straight 2-out hits in the bottom 6th to conceded two runs, RBI’s going to Garris and Kaufman. Top 7th, Ben Powers allowed singles to the bottom three in the order to begin his outing, with Okuda singling home Mills, 8-3. A walk to Mercado filled the bases with nobody out, a.k.a. the Danger Zone. Indeed, they choked at once; Adame hit into a run-scoring double play (better than nothing, huh?) and Baskins flew out to Hernandez. That was the final inning with runs in the game. The Coons went to bed, while Okuda regained control to complete eight innings before Oscar Alcala and Kevin Hitchcock combined for the ninth. 9-3 Critters. Adame 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Baskins 2-5, 2 2B; Waters 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Morales 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Mills 2-4, BB, 2B; Van Hoy 2-4, BB, RBI; Okuda 8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-8) and 1-3, 2 RBI;

16 base hits, including seven doubles and the Waters triple. That will usually do!

In other news

September 18 – NYC OF Phil Rogers (.273, 14 HR, 71 RBI) drives in six runs in a 13-2 whomping of the Bayhawks.
September 20 – ATL INF/RF Joe Crim (.295, 19 HR, 89 RBI) is out for the year with a torn labrum.
September 21 – It’s 300 career home runs for VAN 1B Chris Delagrange (.245, 18 HR, 72 RBI). The 38-year-old takes deep IND SP Bill Drury (13-13, 2.96 ERA) in what ends up being a 3-2, 13-inning win for the Canadiens. A former #3 pick, Delagrange has split 14 seasons between five teams, mostly in the Federal League, batting .265/.370/.436 along the way. He has 1,219 RBI to his name.
September 22 – The Knights get blown out late by the Thunder thanks to an 11-run bottom 8th that allows Oklahoma to claim a 17-4 win. Angelo Zurita (.287, 6 HR, 68 RBI) has four hits and as many RBI from the leadoff spot for the Thunder.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF Mario Villa (.376, 15 HR, 109 RBI), batting .556 (15-27) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ SS/2B Chris Navarro (.382, 0 HR, 12 RBI), poking .520 (13-25) with 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

100 wins for the first time since 1996!

Unfortunately it won’t amount to anything. This week we lost Bryce Toohey, Pat Gurney, and probably Gene Pellicano, too. We’ll probably take some of the Mills / Medina / Carreno brigade of “eh” hitters to the CLCS. The Thunder will probably not be too impressed. No back-to-back titles. Shambles.

Is Ben Coen gonna be a sleeper for a CLCS breakout? He has a 107 OPS+ after all! Well, no. His BABIP is .357 and he hit way less in AAA this year. Somehow, he’s rotted at the far end of the bench for more than half of this season, but started only 18 games so far (might add a few in the last week as we try to nurse at least Maldo into the playoffs…). At times he was not even used. F.e. from May 28 through June 12 he was on the roster the entire time, and had all of three plate appearances. He’s not a winning bat. He knows it. We know it. Even Mama Coen knows it.

There’s still regular season games left to get hurt in, though, with the damn Elks (who really came on strong in the second half) and Indians visiting Portland to complete the 162-game slate.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons make the playoffs for the fourth straight season, the first time they kept a grip on the CL North that long.

We previously won the division three years in a row from 1991-93, each time advancing to the World Series to play the Caps (and winning twice), and from 2017-19, but then we exited in the CLCS every time.

We did get close in 2020, but then got the wicked idea to send out Nick Lester to pitch in extra innings of the second tie-breaker against the Loggers.

The Loggers!

That L was the final career appearance for Lester in the majors, by the way. Done at 27! He went 2-4 with a 6.20 ERA (but was quite good in late ’20!) and one save in 53 career games. In 2020, overall, he was 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA and that lone career save over 16 appearances.