[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-9) @ Thunder (10-9) – April 27-29, 2049

The Raccoons scuffled into Oklahoma to face a team they had beaten only twice in all of 2048, but at least it hadn’t been all roses for the Thunder either. They were fourth in runs scored, but ninth in runs allowed, they had no speed whatsoever, and their defense was drawing rather rough reviews. On the plus side, they led the CL in homers with 16. On the minus side, they had already shed a key player, Ryan Cox, to injury.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-0, 1.69 ERA) vs. Danny Orozco (1-1, 3.00 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-1, 1.24 ERA) vs. Juan Ramos (1-1, 4.13 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (1-1, 2.96 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (3-1, 3.20 ERA)

Ramos was a righty in a lefty sandwich here.

The Coons used the common off day on Monday to not lose any sleep over a fifth starter; instead Danny Cancel was kept around a bit longer. Merino, who was fine to pitch on Tuesday, got an extra day of, and Wheats and everybody behind him would go on regular rest. We thus only needed a replacement pitcher for Saturday.

Game 1
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Toohey – RF Avila – C Gonzalez – P Merino
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – SS Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – LF Humphreys – RF Benavides – C Adames – CF M. Allen – 2B Schmitt – P Orozco

Mike Preble doubled home Maldo (who forced out Herrera) and Waters with two outs in the first inning for a quick lead, and the bases filled up in the second when Orozco allowed a single to Gonzalez, Merino to reach by his own errant throw to second base, and Adame on another single, all with one out. Armando Herrera added a run with a groundout to Bobby Schmitt, but Maldo's fly to left was caught by Steve Humphreys. Mike Allen answered with an RBI double in the bottom 2nd, and that was only the beginning of the Thunder’s rally to destroy my and Victor Merino’s soul. The bottom 4th was the disemboweling inning here. Humphreys hit a 1-out single that didn’t look like that much, but then Merino threw not one, but TWO wild pitches to Juan Benavides, who then plated Humphreys with a grounder to the left side, 3-2. Two outs, bases clean – single, single, walk, and a first-pitch, 2-run single with the bags stacked from the ******* opposing pitcher. Score flipped, Angel Montes de Oca hit another single up the middle, and the inning only ended by Herrera throwing out Bobby Schmitt at home plate.

Top 5th, the Raccoons had the bags full of their own again, and again in unearned fashion, Maldo reaching on an error with one out. Waters walked and Preble singled, bringing up Toohey with a fat chance. He tied the game with a grounder to the left side that Montes had to whack to first base to get anybody at all, and then Eduardo Avila showed some life after all and singled home two more with a clean single to center, 6-4. J.J. Hendrix replaced Orozco, while Avila stole second, which led to a free pass handed to Ruben Gonzalez. Merino, his fuzzy ears still ringing from the atrocity of the previous half-inning, then slapped an RBI single through a hole on the infield, 7-4. Adame singled to left, Humphreys overran the baseball for an error, and another run scored. Herrera flew out to center, so the Thunder’s 3-spot had been thoroughly countered with a 5-run fifth.

But Merino wasn’t fixed. He ran into another whacking in the bottom 5th. Leadoff double for Jonathan Ban, and then Humphreys hit a 1-out RBI single. A walk to Benavides was the end for Merino, who couldn’t turn a ******* 8-spot into a W. Neither could Nate Norris, it seemed. He ran a full count to both Jesus Adames and Mike Allen. The first popped out, the second smashed a 2-out, 2-run double, 8-7. Schmitt reached on a Maldo error. Somehow Jim Price popped out to strand the tying run at third base and keep it 8-7.

Top 6th, more bags full, more drama. Maldo led off with a double, Preble walked, and Toohey got smacked in the wrist by Elijah Powell, and that one neither looked nor sounded good. He left the game with Dr. Padilla, which was becoming a common sight to see, and Pat Gurney ran for him. The Coons got nothing out of the ordeal when Avila hit into a 6-4-3 double play. The 8-7 lead then turned out to be not quite enough in the bottom 6th, which became the third riot over some brown-clad corpse in three innings. Jonathan Ban homered the game tied off Norris, and Humphreys hit a 2-out single. Julian Ponce then replaced Norris, gave up two singles, a double, and three runs without retiring anybody, and was then yanked again. Cancel walked Schmitt, gave up a fifth run (in the inning, not overall) on a Carlos Lara single, and by then it was 12-8 and I had quite enough of all of them. The Thunder did in fact not, and Bobby Schmitt would hit another 2-run homer off Cancel before the game finally ******* ended. 14-8 Thunder. Adame 2-5, RBI; Waters 2-4, BB; Preble 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

To sum it all up, we lost A) the game, B) Danny Cancel for throwing 40 pitches and thus losing uselessness as garbage reliever for the rest of the series, and C) Bryce Toohey to the DL with a bruised wrist that would cost him about three weeks.

Oy vey.

Steve Richardson was called up for assorted palooka reliever duties, while … oh man, anybody remember Evan Van Hoy!? The first-sacker, scrum corner-outfielder was brought back for some bench-warming duties. He had 15 games of big league experience, five of them in the 2047 postseason, where he had somehow hit a home run and had a 166 OPS+.

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – 1B Gurney – CF Herrera – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – 2B Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – RF Benavides – LF Humphreys – CF M. Allen – C Adames – SS Jo. Jackson – P Ju. Ramos

Initial signs were discouraging, with Preble driving home Maldo and Waters with two outs in the first inning, which was exactly how Tuesday’s **** fest had begun. The lead didn’t last; while Wheatley put a runner on base in each of the first two innings, but pitched around those, there was no pitching around, no coloring nicely the huge moonshot that Ban hit off him in the bottom 3rd, and with Montes on base to boot. That tied the game; the Coons had Waters on base with a leadoff double then in the fourth, but couldn’t get him in, while the Thunder lost Juan Ramos to injury in the same inning. I hadn’t been aware at all of baseball being played with 50% more landmines this year……

Jesus Adames doubled home Humphreys with two outs in the bottom 4th to hang Wheats on the hook, and he was to remain on that during his time in the game. The Raccoons did zero in the fifth or sixth innings, and while Preble and Herrera got on base in the seventh, Gonzalez and Zurita made hapless outs to strand them – the latter while pinch-hitting for Wheats with two outs. Nobody came to his rescue in the eighth either, but at least Hitchcock and Richardson kept the Thunder where they were, up 3-2, and thus Matt Waters’ leadoff single off Brian Grohoski in the ninth put the tying run on base. Preble ran a full count before plonking a chopper near the third base line that saw three Thunder converging and none making a play, leaving Preble with an infield single, Waters to second. And then Gurney struck out, and Herrera hit into a double play…. 3-2 Thunder. Waters 3-4, 2B; Preble 3-4, 2 RBI;

The Thunder lost Juan Ramos (1-1, 4.18 ERA) to an abdominal strain. And the Raccoons were losing hope altogether.

Game 3
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – C Brooks – P Wolinsky
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – SS Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – LF Humphreys – RF Benavides – C Adames – CF M. Allen – 2B Schmitt – P V. Marquez

The Thunder opened with two singles to left and a Maldo error to fill the bases with nobody out. Bubba struck out two, but also walked in a run against Benavides for an early 1-0 deficit in the first inning. While the Raccoons looked dead from the waist up AND the waist down in the first run through the lineup, the second time around actually brought (unearned) improvement. Maldo hit a single in the fourth, Waters reached on Schmitt’s errant throw, there was a balk called on Marquez, and then Gurney snuck a 2-out grounder through between Schmitt and Ban for a 2-run score-flipper to go up 2-1. Gurney then was caught stealing.

A hit and stolen base from Avila, a throwing error on Adames, and a sac fly by Justin Brooks extended the score to 3-1 in the fifth inning before a half-hour rain delay complicated things, but ultimately didn’t seem to have done much to Bubba, who returned with two quick and precise innings, retiring six post-thunder Thunder with three strikeouts mixed in. On 81 pitches, he batted for himself and struck out with Gurney and Brooks on the corners and two gone in the top 7th, then returned to the mound, getting a K, a grounder, and a pop from the 6-7-8 batters to complete seven innings of 3-hit ball. He returned for the bottom 8th when the Thunder sent a lefty pinch-hitter in Luppe Timmerman to begin the inning, but of course gave up a leadoff triple, because we could not have any nice things. Preston Porter conceded the run, but maintained a 3-2 lead. Nelson Moreno saved the game … but not without nailing the tying run on base in Benavides… 3-2 Coons. Gurney 2-4, 2 RBI; Brooks 2-2, RBI; Wolinsky 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (2-1);

Raccoons (10-11) @ Indians (13-9) – April 30-May 2, 2049

The Arrowheads had won five in a row, and while they were only fifth in runs scored and third in runs allowed, I feared simply the worst and nothing less. Yes, we were up 2-1 on them after winning the opening series of the year. But that was also pretty much since when things had started to go downhill.

Projected matchups:
Dave Hils (0-2, 9.15 ERA) vs. Enrique Oritz (1-3, 2.56 ERA)
Cesar Salcido (0-0) vs. Bill Nichol (2-2, 3.44 ERA)
Victor Merino (1-0, 4.43 ERA) vs. Brian Jackson (1-1, 2.48 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday – and that was about the only bright side here.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Preble – CF Herrera – 3B Luna – C Gonzalez – P Hils
IND: SS Russ – 2B de Castro – LF D. Rivera – 1B Brayboy – 3B B. Anderson – CF Locke – RF Poupard – C A. Pedraza – P E. Ortiz

Bad signs continued with early offense from Mike Preble, who hit a 3-run homer in the top 1st this time, but should really just shut it up to reroll the momentum dice here, or however the **** baseball actually worked… There were three base runners against Hils the first time through the Indians order, and none of his making. Waters committed not one, but TWO errors, and Alex Pedraza was walked intentionally with two outs in the bottom 2nd to get the last out there from Ortiz, which Hils did. While Hils pitched behind in the count A LOT, the Indians didn’t get a hit until Aaron Brayboy (makes the soft drink in his right paw boil through sheer hatred alone) singled in the bottom 4th, but the Indians didn’t get off first base in the inning, either. When they finally started to go to work on Hils in earnest, he collapsed like a house of badly cut playing cards. Pedraza hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, then was tripled in by the abomination that was Andrew Russ. Alex de Castro hit an RBI single, then was caught stealing, but the tying run returned on base with Danny Rivera’s 2-out single. Brayboy surprisingly grounded out, ending the fifth with the Coons up 3-2, but with the Coons also not having hit a thing since the first inning…

Hils continued, putting Philip Locke on with an error of his own in the bottom 6th, but Locke was then immediately caught stealing by Ruben Gonzalez. Josh Poupard struck out, completing the inning. We took it in small steps from there, with Pedraza and Ortiz being weakly retired to begin the bottom 7th. Russ hit a single… but de Castro had no power, so we would try to squeeze the last out with Hils before a southpaw would come in for the middle of the order… and then Russ squeezed the last out himself, also getting caught stealing. Hah! Sucker!!!

Watt and Maldo got on base in the eighth, but were stranded when Waters grounded out. Lynn then took the ball and 3-2 lead, got de Castro and Rivera out, but walked Brayboy in the bottom of the eighth. Norris rung up Bobby Anderson, the only righty hitter in a string of five from #3 through #7. Facing Sang-hoon Kim in the top of the ninth then, Armando Herrera hit a 1-out single to left and Eddy Luna walked. Angelo Zurita batted for Gonzalez, but struck out, and Pat Gurney had pinch-hit for Hils and had taken over first base from Maldonado earlier, but now popped out to strand the runners. Zurita remained in the game over Preble, the Coons’ only offense, so it was Moreno putting the Indians away or die. A strikeout on Locke, then two pops on the infield ended the game. 3-2 Raccoons. Watt 2-3, BB; Maldonado 2-4; Preble 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Hils 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-2);

The Indians then moved Brian Jackson ahead to pitch on Saturday – boo! The Raccoons in turn moved Steve Richardson, who had appeared only once, to make room for Cesar Salcido.

Game 2
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Preble – RF Avila – C Brooks – 3B Luna – P Salcido
IND: SS Russ – 2B de Castro – LF D. Rivera – 1B Brayboy – 3B B. Anderson – CF Locke – RF Elkin – C A. Pedraza – P B. Jackson

Salcido retired the Indians in order in the first, the was briefly dismayed by a wallbanger double for Brayboy to lead off the second. The runner was stranded though, with a Locke groundout, the two strikeouts, both strike threes called. Salcido then opened the top 3rd of a scoreless game with a single. Adame was nicked in the ribs by Jackson, then took an elbow and a knee in a collision at second base with de Castro on Herrera’s grounder to short. He was out – both on the ump’s call and by appearing disoriented and in pain, and was replaced with Pat Gurney taking over second base and the #1 spot, and Waters moving over to short. At least we took the lead; runners on first and third, one out, Maldo fell to 1-2, then poked a single to center, bringing in Salcido with the game’s first run. Jackson hit Waters, then gave up a 2-run double to left to Preble, who was piling up RBI’s this week, having reached 22 for the season by now. Avila hit an RBI single, 4-0, but then Jackson struck out Brooks and Luna to get out of the inning.

Salcido, who hit another single his next time up, but was doubled off by Gurney, then got around a leadoff walk in the third, but allowed a run on three singles in the fourth, 4-1. That blip aside, Salcido in his sixth major league start looked AMAZING. He allowed six hits in total, but whiffed nine batters in seven innings of 1-run ball…! The Coons then got Waters and Avila into scoring position, but Brooks popped out and Luna whiffed to kill the top 8th before the bullpen croaked again. De Castro singled off Hitchcock, Ponce walked Rivera and gave up a 2-out, 2-run double to Brayboy, before Preston Porter barely got out of the inning still up 4-3… No tack-on offense came forth, and the Coons sent Norris against the bottom of the order in the bottom of the ninth. He got rid of Steve Elkin and Alex Pedraza, then walked Steve Lapinski, allowed an RBI double to ******* ********* Andrew Russ, and the game went to extras when Josh Poupard struck out.

Now, there was a scoring chance in the top 10th. Sang-hoon Kim was out, walked Maldo to begin the inning, and then Waters looped a double near the rightfield line. Runners in scoring position, no outs! The ghastly Indians elected sabotage, walking Preble intentionally to give us a fatal case of three on, no outs. An Avila sac fly was all me got, with Zurita and Luna making pathetic outs to strand a pair. Mike Lynn tried his paws on a save then in the bottom 10th. Up 5-4, he struck out Rivera, then … nailed Brayboy (although I wanted to punch him in the face as well, there was a time and a place!), walked Anderson (Jon Sullivan ran for Brayboy now), and then threw a pitch in the dirt that Ruben Gonzalez failed to contain. The tying and winning runs were in scoring position now with one out – but Jordan Santiago also struck out. And then Elkin walked. Bases loaded for Pedraza, a righty batter. The Coons went all in and brought Moreno, third day out in a row. Strikeout – worth it. 5-4 Raccoons. Waters 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Avila 2-4, 2 RBI; Salcido 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K and 2-3;

Adame had a bruised wrist (like Toohey), but it didn’t swell to the size of a watermelon (unlike Toohey). He was listed as day-to-day until perhaps the middle of next week, and was not in the lineup on Sunday against righty Josh Henneberry (2-1, 4.61 ERA).

To compensate, Evan Van Hoy was returned to AAA without having gotten into any of the games he was up for. The #37 pick from 2045, Rich Seymour would replace him. A right-handed second-sacker that was mostly a defender and a hitter a distant second, he would probably grab a few starts here, including right away on Sunday. He was hitting only .211 in AAA in 17 games, but had spun a .775 OPS in Ham Lake for most of ’48. He was also only 22.

Game 3
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – SS Waters – RF Preble – 1B Gurney – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – 2B Seymour – P Merino
IND: SS Russ – 2B de Castro – LF D. Rivera – 3B B. Anderson – 1B Santiago – RF J. Sullivan – C J. Rose – CF Locke – P Henneberry

The game started for Merino like the last one had ended, with him getting whacked in the snout. Three hits scored a run on a Brian Anderson double, and that was after de Castro had been caught stealing, which spared Merino some early damage for sure. He settled down some after that, which was really good for my nerves, and the bullpen too.

The Coons? The only one to reach the first time through was Rich Seymour, who drew a walk, the was stranded. Herrera opened the fourth with an infield single for the first actual base hit for Portland. He never got off first… And then Merino turned sour again as well, walking two in filling the bases and giving up a 2-run double to Philip Locke to fall behind 3-0. He remained crap for the rest of the game, giving up another run in the sixth on a Santiago double and a Jason Rose RBI single, 4-0.

The Arrowheads put another run on Altreche on three hits in the seventh, while the Raccoons continued to be utterly unable to hit Josh Henneberry – the infield single by Herrera aside. The Raccoons didn’t get an outfield hit until the ninth, but that one was at least ******* outta here, broke up the shutout thusly, and sent Henneberry to bed. Matt Watt had walked to start the ninth, and Matt Waters added a few watts with a 2-run homer to left. That was it, though, David Farris whiffing both Preble and Gurney to send the Critters back to .500; 5-2 Indians.

In other news

April 26 – VAN SP Terry Herman (2-0, 0.57 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over the Condors. All the offense comes from a home run by Bob Mancini (.318, 3 HR, 13 RBI) in the top of the ninth inning.
April 27 – The Blue Sox deal 2B/SS Chris O’Keefe (.136, 2 HR, 7 RBI) and a prospect to the Scorpions to get the services of SP Ryan Person (0-2, 6.28 ERA, 1 SV).
April 28 – CIN 1B/LF/RF Jose Rivera (.375, 0 HR, 1 RBI) was out for the season with a ruptured achilles tendon.
April 28 – Boston announce that OF Leo Estrada (.233, 0 HR, 1 RBI) required surgery for a partially torn labrum and could be out for the rest of the year.
May 1 – The Pacifics lose SS Jorge Gonzalez (.326, 0 HR, 4 RBI) for the season with a broken kneecap.
May 1 – The Titans beat the Loggers, 2-1, all runs being only scored in the 13th inning.
May 1 – The FL has its own game going to extra innings without a score, with the Capitals eventually beating the Blue Sox, 1-0 in 11 innings.
May 1 – VAN OF Angel Escobido (.273, 2 HR, 10 RBI) singles home Bob Montana (.276, 0 HR, 2 RBI) to walk off the Canadiens, 3-2 over the Crusaders, in the 16th inning.
May 2 – Sioux Falls loses 21-yr old INF Julio Moriel (.402, 1 HR, 6 RBI) to a partially torn labrum. He might miss all of the remaining season.

FL Player of the Week: DEN INF Ivan Villa (.345, 9 HR, 27 RBI), socking .423 (11-26) with 5 HR, 14 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC LF/CF Joe Besaw (.421, 5 HR, 18 RBI), batting .520 (13-25) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.396, 6 HR, 24 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC LF/CF Joe Besaw (.402, 4 HR, 15 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Mike LeMasters (5-0, 2.60 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Brian Buttress (3-0, 0.93 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: TOP OF Alex Vazquez (.407, 0 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN SP Terry Herman (2-0, 0.57 ERA)

Complaints and stuff

There are some defensive issues that have dropped us to 11th in defensive efficiency, which is also leading to regular riots on our pitching staff. And it’s not just Maldo – nobody is playing otherworldly defense. I’ve seen some boys on the varsity team of the Willamette Institute for the Limbless and the Blind playing better with their prosthetic legs and their guide dogs…

We’re now even in runs scored and runs allowed, too, because we really love losing by eight or so. Yes, my mood is getting darker and darker.

Maybe seeing the Loggers starting on Monday will help. They are 5-20, with a -58 run differential, and have the worst defense in the league. Could become a real clownshoes series…

Fun Fact: Jerry Outram is alive and well.

.355/.495/.513, which ranks him 4th/1st/6th in the CL, and his OPS is third only to Joe Besaw (!) and Julio Diaz, his teammate on the damn Elks. A distant fourth with a .900 OPS? Matt Waters.

Outram, 34, had looked like the hellfire might be dimming on him after missing most of 2047 to injury and starting only 90 games in 2048 (coming off the bench 59 times), but so far he’s been a regular, starting all but one game for the Elks, and his OPS is back to pre-injury levels.

Not that he NEEDS another couple of seasons with a 1.000 OPS to make the Hall of Fame… His plaque’s already chiseled.