[Westheim]

The week began with an off day, and by Tuesday, the Raccoons got to activate Armando Herrera from the DL. Ed Crispin (.294, 0 HR, 4 RBI) was returned to AAA to make room.

Raccoons (48-45) vs. Crusaders (41-52) – July 20-22, 2049

Well out of it, the Crusaders were in fifth place in the North. They ranked sixth in runs scored, seventh in runs allowed, and we held a 5-4 lead in the season series. Injuries had decimated their pitching staff especially, with Carlos Malla, Jerry Felix, and Jeff Frank down, but they were also without Randolph Nash, Ed Haertling, and Aaron Foss by this point as the roster kept getting thinner for them.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (8-5, 4.53 ERA) vs. Taylor Stabile (6-3, 2.74 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (7-6, 3.38 ERA) vs. Jeff Johnson (8-7, 3.49 ERA)
Dave Hils (9-4, 4.36 ERA) vs. Jim White (5-11, 4.15 ERA)

Only right-handers to see here.

Game 1
NYC: 3B Haney – LF Garris – SS Gates – 1B D. Hernandez – 2B R. Martinez – C Brewer – RF Arens – CF Ceballos – P Stabile
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – RF Nigro – SS Adame – C Gardner – P Merino

Merino fell behind on homers by Dave Hernandez and Aaron Brewer, both solo shots, in the second inning, and while Wade Gardner singled home Pat Gurney in the bottom 2nd to make up one of the two runs, by the fourth inning the Crusaders appeared set to single Merino to death. Prince Gates and Hernandez opened the inning with base hits. Ricardo Martinez flew out to center, but Aaron Brewer singled to right-center. Gates scored, with Gurney as the cut-off man noticing the trail runners also advancing and instead firing to third base, where Hernandez and Maldonado collided viciously, complete with caps and false teeth flying, and both were out – Hernandez on the ump’s call, and Maldo on suffering some sort of old man’s pain or other. He was replaced by Eddy Luna. Merino then allowed another single to Ron Arens, then beaned Mario Ceballos out of the game; Nick Crocker took his spot as the bases were loaded with two outs and Stabile up, whom Merino had stupendously walked to begin the top 3rd, but who grounded out now to end a dismal inning.

Top 5th, Mark Haney singled, Josh Garris walked, and Merino was ready for lifting before getting two soft outs. Martinez however sent a drive to deep left and I groaned… but Watt made a good dash for it *and* the catch, stranding the runners in scoring position! A soft leadoff single by Wade Gardner and a sharp 1-out single by Matt Watt then put the tying runs on the corners in the bottom of the inning. Stabile lost Herrera on balls to fill the bases, but Eddy Luna popped out to short. Waters was still slumping, but laid off the garbage to draw a bases-loaded walk, shortening the gap to 3-2, but then Gurney flew out to center. And then Stabile singled home Ron Arens with two outs in the sixth against Merino, and I was ready for the season to officially end…

The tying runs were on with Nigro and Adame to begin the bottom 6th, but Gardner, Preble, and Watt made poor outs in order and nobody scored. Nate Norris then retired absolutely ******** nobody in the seventh inning; Gates walked, Hernandez and PH Randy Anton singled, and Norris fumbled a comebacker from Brewer for another base runner, leaving with one run in and three Purple Poopers on the bases with nobody out. Ponce replaced him and ****** up no less badly. PH Danny Rico hit a sac fly, Crocker walked. Stabile singled home another run, as did Mark Haney. Garris plated a run with a groundout. Gates then singled home two more off O’Higgins before Hernandez grounded out to short. All in all, a 7-run seventh, three of them earned, all deserved, and I casually remarked that it wouldn’t be so bad if the team bus crashed into a flood-swollen river on the way to the airport on Sunday, which deeply upset Autumn, who protested that all life was precious. She had apparently not been watching the game.

Because the amount of misery was still insufficient according to the baseball gods, the Coons made up a run with the RBI going to Waters by a groundout (eh…) in the bottom 7th, before the umpires – in an EIGHT-RUN GAME – made us sit out a rain delay of AN HOUR AND A HALF in the eighth inning. Somebody reportedly hollered “Eh!! Blue!! You SUUUUUCK!!” from somewhere high up in the bleach areas, and it might have been me. When play resumed, Brett Lillis jr. pitched the last five outs. Mike Preble hit a homer in the bottom 8th. Nobody cared. Only the incorrigibles were left at the ballpark anyway. 11-4 Crusaders. Herrera 2-4, BB; Luna 2-3; Gardner 2-4, RBI;

This was the last game with New York for Ricardo Martinez (.269, 7 HR, 44 RBI), who was traded to Dallas for ex-Coon Chris Robinson (.184, 0 HR, 6 RBI) afterwards.

Game 2
NYC: 3B Haney – RF C. Robinson – 3B Gates – C O. Ramirez – 1B D. Hernandez – LF Garris – SS Labedz – CF Arens – P J. Johnson
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – RF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – SS Adame – 3B Luna – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley

While Luna homered with Gurney aboard for a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom 2nd, Wheats only allowed Garris aboard the first time through, issuing a walk in a full count to the outfielder. That was the only New York runner through five, Wheats whiffing as many, while the Raccoons failed to tack on. Waters almost hit a 2-out homer in the third, but was denied by Robinson at the fence (angrily shakes fist), while Luna doubled in the bottom 4th but was left on with an intentional walk to Ruben Gonzalez and a K on Wheats. Bottom 5th, Watt drew a leadoff walk, then was doubled home by Preble with one out, 3-0.

Ron Arens then broke up the no-hit bid with an 0-2 single up the middle to begin the sixth inning. Wheats was visibly angry with himself, then turned Jeff Johnson’s bunt into a 1-6-3 double play purely out of spite. Haney popped out to complete six for New York. The bottom 6th saw Luna leg out an infield single, which put him a triple shy of the cycle. He again didn’t score, but not because of Wheats, who hit a 2-out double. Watt then left the pair in scoring position, grounding out to second.

And then Wheats exploded in the seventh. Gates hit a 1-out single, and Omar Ramirez struck out after that. And then nobody made an out anymore. Dave Hernandez doubled. Wheats threw a wild pitch to score Gates. Garris singled home Hernandez. Anton singled. Arens singled, tying the game. Omar Sanchez singled, giving New York the lead. Wheats was finally removed, screaming into his glove as he left the field, while I screamed into my bottle of Capt’n Coma. Porter got a groundout from Haney, but my big black googly eyes were wet anyway.

Luna would come up in the bottom 8th, with Adame on second as the tying run after doubling off Eddie Sopena, with righty Kyle Conner in as replacement, and one out. Luna needed a triple, but struck out, and Gonzalez grounded out to kill the inning for good. Lynn had pitched the eighth and got one more out in the ninth before the Coons, who had the #9 spot to begin the bottom 9th, double-switched out the battery for Moreno and Gardner. Moreno got the last two outs in the top 9th, while Gardner singled to begin the bottom 9th. Watt walked, pushing the tying run to second base and representing the winning run on base himself. Sean Yates struck out Herrera, but walked Preble to fill the bases. Waters had another 0-for-3 around his neck, but there was also no reasonable pinch-hitting for him. I shrugged. Waters whiffed. I shrugged some more. Gurney staved off defeat, slapping a single over Danny Rico at second base on the first pitch, but Adame flew out to center, sending an annoying game to extras, where Moreno had a 1-2-3 tenth, with Luna getting another chance for the cycle, leading off the bottom 10th against Yates, but this time walked. Nigro batted for Moreno, ran a full count, then doubled, but Luna was held at third base against the arm of Chris Robinson. Winning run at third, no outs, the Coons dragged it out. Gardner made an out to third base, pinning the runners, while Watt grinded out a walk to set up a double play to send us to the 11th. Herrera grounded to the shortstop’s area left of second base – but the Crusaders didn’t have a shortstop there anymore. Using up the entire bench and some shuffles had left Haney at short, and he didn’t reach that ball, allowing Herrera to walk off the Critters. 5-4 Raccoons. Preble 3-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Gurney 2-4, BB, RBI; Luna 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Nigro (PH) 1-1; Gardner 1-2; Moreno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (1-1);

Game 3
NYC: 2B Haney – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – C O. Ramirez – LF Garris – RF C. Robinson – 1B Anton – CF Arens – P J. White
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – RF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – SS Adame – 3B Luna – C Gonzalez – P Hils

Preble homered in the first for a 1-0 lead in the rubber game under dark clouds, his 13th of the season, breaking a tie in the rather subdued race for first with Waters. It was still 1-0 when Jim White left the game with an injury in the third inning, replaced by Leborio Valdevesso. The dark clouds soon opened, giving us a 25-minute rain delay in the fourth, and Hils allowed only two hits in 5.2 innings, but with some long counts and the rain delay was then lifted for Julian Ponce against a heavily lefty-leaning lineup. Ponce struck out Ramirez to complete the top 6th and keep the 1-0 lead in one piece.

1-0 became 4-0 in the bottom 6th with Sopena pitching. Herrera and Preble reached on consecutive errors by Gates and Haney, and then Waters unloaded all of the slump, hopefully, into a 452-footer to right. The ball was just GONE – and the home run race on the team was tied again, with both him and Preble at 13 now. Edwin Sopena was gone, with Jonathan Ramsey taking over. He walked Gurney, and Adame reached on an error by Omar Sanchez, as the inning began to devolve into a third-rate comedy. Luna singled to load them up, Gonzalez whiffed, and the Coons wished to keep Ponce around to pitch and batted him with three on and two outs, ending the inning with a K. Ponce had a clean seventh, then allowed a leadoff single to Arens in the eighth. Norris got a double play from the pinch-hitting Dave Hernandez on his way out of the eighth then. Bottom 8th, Waters doubled off Matt Fries, then scored on a throwing error by Sanchez – which made for four New York errors against three base hits – while Lillis got the ninth in a 5-0 game. Sanchez and Gates hit singles off him, but he was about to get out of it when Luna threw away Robinson’s 2-out grounder for a run-scoring error. The Raccoons twitched, sent Mike Lynn, and he got a K from Anton to end the game and send the Crusaders out of town. 5-1 Coons. Waters 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Luna 2-4; Hils 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (10-4);

Still not processed by the end of the series, or the start of the next? Maldo.

Dr. Padilla, what’s up with Maldonado? – What do you mean, who is Maldoado?? He should be somewhere down in your butchery! – Well, then stop having coffee with Autumn and go look for him!

(shakes head)

Slappy, you shaved?? – But it’s the middle of the season!

Raccoons (50-46) vs. Thunder (57-40) – July 23-25, 2049

The Thunder came in half a game ahead of the Bayhawks for the lead in the South, with the Condors just 3 1/2 behind. We had lost two of three of them so far, and they came in with no injuries, and while leading the league in runs scored, batting average and homers. Speed was not their thing, nor was defense. Their pitching was sixth in runs allowed, as well as starters’ and bullpen ERA.

Projected matchups:
Bubba Wolinsky (7-6, 4.55 ERA) vs. Ben Lehman (6-6, 3.82 ERA)
Victor Salcido (2-6, 4.16 ERA) vs. J.J. Hendrix (2-3, 6.48 ERA)
Victor Merino (8-6, 4.61 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (9-5, 2.26 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday…! Although an off day could also allow them to skip Hendrix, move up Marquez, and send righty Juan Ramos (7-5, 3.90 ERA) on Sunday instead.

Game 1
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – 2B Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – LF Humphreys – RF Benavides – SS R. Cox – C Adames – CF M. Allen – P Lehman
POR: CF Watt – 3B Luna – LF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – SS Adame – RF Nigro – C Gardner – P Wolinsky

Bubba struck out four the first time through, but also fell behind 1-0 on a Jesus Adames homer in the second inning. He nicked Angel Montes de Oca with two outs in the third, then gave up a run on two more singles after that, 2-0. Luna singled home a run in the bottom 3rd to get the Coons on the board, the runner scoring being Bubba, who had bunted badly to force out Wade Gardner. The Coons had two on in the bottom 4th, didn’t do anything, then found themselves 4-1 down in the fifth when Steve Humphreys doubled and Juan Benavides homered to right-center. Bubba Wolinsky, once again, was just not having much of anything…

Luna walked with two outs in the bottom 5th, stole second, and was then singled home by Preble, 4-2, but Waters grounded out to end that inning. I was then distracted by bickering, Maud being upset that Slappy had shaved on a random Friday in the middle of the season, but hadn’t shaved for her birthday a couple weeks earlier. By the time bickering was over, Wolinsky was gone in the sixth, Porter finishing that inning, and the Raccoons were batting in the bottom 6th. Gurney got on base with a leadoff walk, and then Adame crammed an RBI triple into the leftfield corner. The score was shortened to 4-3, but Adame limped off after calling for time, and the Raccoons had another injured infielder. Rich Seymour ran for him, but was also stranded when Lehman struck out Nigro, struck out Gardner, and got a groundout from Herrera… The game then fell apart in the seventh, which the Raccoons intended to be pitched by O’Higgins, who got one out and put runners on the corners before being lifted for Lillis, who got romped for one out and four runs (two charged to O’Higgins) before Nate Norris had to come in just to end the ******* inning. Norris pitched the eighth, Ponce the ninth, all in another waste of everybody’s time. 8-3 Thunder. Preble 2-4, RBI; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1;

Okay, plenty of roster moves after this one. First, Alex Adame hit the DL with an intercostal strain. 15 days should be enough for him to get it back together. Then, both Brett Lillis jr. (1-1, 4.35 ERA) and Polibio O’Higgins (0-0, 7.56 ERA) were purged back to St. Pete for being underdone and wildly unhelpful.

And by Saturday we also discovered, finally, a fracture in Jesus Maldonado’s ankle that would put the old man out for the season. He ended up on the 60-day DL, with the 40-man roster currently full.

The roster was restocked with Kevin Hitchcock (1.04 ERA in AAA) and 2045 10th-rounder Bryan Lenderink (0.89 ERA in AAA!), the latter being a 25-year-old righty with a 91mph heater and a neat curve that was not going to be part of a championship winner, but at this stage the only reasonable goal was to click off another 65 games with some sort of dignity. On the batting side, Ed Crispin returned after four days away, and we also divined to give Lorenzo Lavorano, popular prospect even though he had never been ranked in the top 100, his major league debut while Adame was down. Lavorano was an elite level defensive shortstop that at age 22 was hitting a nice .280 with five homers for the Alley Cats. He could steal bases almost at will, too, and we kinda had high hopes for this player that had been washed in as a random scouting discovery from the Dominican Republic six years earlier. Our scout on location down there had found him while watching a group of boys harvesting fruit in an orchard, with Lavorano chugging the fruit to the next boy over with deadly precision, and beating fruit refusing to be shaken off with a stick with great vigor.

Great vigor can give you a job on this team…!

Game 2
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – 2B Ban – RF Benavides – SS R. Cox – LF Humphreys – 1B B. Jenkins – CF M. Allen – C Adames – P Hendrix
POR: 3B Luna – CF Herrera – LF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – SS Lavorano – RF Nigro – C Gonzalez – P Salcido

Jonathan Ban singled, Ryan Cox homered, 2-0 Thunder in the first. Lavorano reached base his first time up… on a throwing error, which plated Pat Gurney, who had shoved a 1-out triple into the corner in rightfield just ahead of the debutee, who was left on base carrying the tying run. Salcido whacked a leadoff double to left in the bottom 3rd, then was left to rot on second base by the 1-2-3 batters. Whiff, pop, pop, inning over. A disappointed Salcido returned to the mound, then immediately gave up a blast to Humphreys to begin the fourth, 3-1. Adames singled, Hendrix doubled (…), Montes walked, and somehow Jonathan Ban grounded out to Gurney to strand the whole lot of them. Bottom 4th, leadoff double off the wall for Waters…! He, too, was stranded. F8, K, F1. I had enough – I went for the cookie jar, having to fight for access to it with Jesus Maldonado, who, hindpaw in a red cast, was inexplicably laid up on the trusty brown couch with Slappy and me, and kept blinking at Autumn, who kept blinking back. By the fifth, Slappy and Maldo were hissing at each other for Autumn’s attention.

By the sixth, Salcido gave up another run, Adames singling home Bill Jenkins, and by the seventh, we were in the pen. Salcido departed with Benavides and Humphreys on the corners and two outs, with Hitchcock getting Jenkins out to end the inning. Nigro and Crispin reached base in the bottom 7th, but were stranded when Luna fanned. To begin the eighth then, Bryan Lenderink became the second Coons debutee in this game. He gave up five straight singles and three runs before retiring ******* anybody, then got Benavides, Cox, and Humphreys in order while stranding a pair, which also made the casual observer realize that the Coons had given up on this game. The cavalry wasn’t gonna come – fix your own mess, will ya!? The Coons entered the bottom 9th trailing by five, then put Nigro and Gonzalez on base against Brian Grohoski to begin the inning. Crispin popped out, Watt whiffed, and Herrera flew out to center. 7-2 Thunder. Waters 2-4, 2B; Gurney 2-4, 3B, RBI; Crispin (PH) 1-2;

Lavorano went zip in his debut, but at least didn’t make stupid errors, which technically beats out two innings of 3-run ball for Lenderink in my book, thus earning the worthless title of Debutee of the Day…

Game 3
OCT: 3B A. Montes de Oca – 2B Ban – 1B B. Jenkins – LF Humphreys – RF Benavides – SS R. Cox – C Adames – CF M. Allen – P V. Marquez
POR: 3B Luna – CF Herrera – LF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – RF Avila – SS Lavorano – C Gonzalez – P Merino

Montes opened the Sunday game with a triple to left, Merino walked Ban, and Jenkins cleaned up with a run-scoring, 6-4-3 double play. The Coons also hit into a double play in the first. Waters was the guilty party, following three singles with the 6-4-3 killer. No runs scored – Luna had been caught stealing before Herrera and Preble got on. Adames homered in the second, 2-0, but the Thunder then lost Marquez to injury in the third inning. Felix Alvarez, a righty, took over with one out and nobody on. Luna would reach on an error, but was left stranded. Bill Jenkins then fell on a leadoff double in the top 4th, limping off supported by the Thunder trainer and replaced by Jim Price. The pinch-runner scored on a Benavides single, 3-0.

Alvarez gave up the first big league hit to Lorenzo Lavorano, a fifth-inning single. Nothing great came off it, Lavorano being then caught stealing by Adames. Alvarez pitched 3.2 innings to thoroughly earn the W, while Merino drowned with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh. Bobby Schmitt pinch-hit for Alvarez in that precise spot, with the Coons countering with Preston Porter, who got a K from Schmitt and a grounder to Waters from Montes to salvage Merino’s line. Nothing could salvage the Coons’ batting lines, though. Tom Spencer, Elijah Powell, and Brian Grohoski followed Alvarez to complete a 7-hit shutout. 3-0 Thunder. Herrera 2-4, 2B;

In other news

July 20 – ATL OF Jon Alade (.254, 5 HR, 51 RBI) is going to miss three to four weeks with a knee sprain.
July 21 – The Condors receive 1B/2B/LF/RF Bob Mancini (.321, 8 HR, 41 RBI) from the Canadiens for OF Tim Burkhart (.259, 7 HR, 35 RBI).
July 24 – New York loses two players on Saturday: SP Jim White (5-12, 4.13 ERA) is headed for surgery for a stretched elbow ligament and will miss up to 12 months, while INF Prince Gates (.306, 3 HR, 45 RBI) breaks his thumb sliding into a base and could also miss the rest of the season.
July 24 – The Condors pick up SP Larry Colwell (6-3, 3.83 ERA) from the Knights for #39 prospect, SP Kyle Brobeck.
July 25 – The Miners drum the Scorpions, 17-1, with six RBI’s each being piled up by 1B/2B Mario Briones (.276, 6 HR, 52 RBI) and LF/RF Pablo Gonzalez (.264, 6 HR, 35 RBI), their 7-8 hitters in that game, with Briones in addition missing the cycle by the double.
July 25 – CIN LF/1B/RF Eddie Moreno (.245, 16 HR, 60 RBI) hits the DL with a back strain for at least three weeks.

FL Player of the Week: RIC INF Felix Vazquez (.301, 4 HR, 22 RBI), batting .429 (12-28) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA 1B Raul Sevilla (.265, 10 HR, 52 RBI), hitting .500 (13-26) with 1 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Outscored, 34-19, this week, Maldo out for the season, and who are all those faces on the roster?? The next years will be hard on me. – Yeah yeah, Autumn, and the fans. Why does nobody ever think of the kids…!?

We are very open to trading Pat Gurney and Mike Preble, but the offers haven’t been very good. I would especially like to trade them to the offensively-challenged Titans, but the Titans’ farm is so dire that I can’t find anything there that I’d like to trade for…

We signed our Dominican righty Duarte Damasceno for $590k this week. As indicated, he’s the only international free agent we take this year, and we thus stayed under the $642k soft cap and would get a new run at it without limitations next year.

Up next, road trip – Vegas, Charlotte, Baytown. I’m quite glad to get out of Bickering Central for a while. Slappy and Chad both want to bake muffins for Autumn tomorrow, and that just sounds like the kind of thing that will leave seven innocent bystanders dead… Thankfully, the Coons travel lightly, and I only take Pat Degenhardt and Dr. Padilla with me in terms of staff.

Fun Fact: The last time the Raccoons posted a losing season was in 2042.

Isn’t it amazing how we always hit the gutter at the end of the decade, then gradually recover over the start of the next one?

By the way, the last time we had *consecutive* losing seasons? All the way back in 2030-32. And I don’t see us holding it together this year *and* rebuild in time next year.