[Westheim]

The Raccoons had Monday off, while the Crusaders and Elks began their head-to-head series in Vancouver. The Crusaders won the opener, and by a bunch: 10-0, with six runs driven in on two homers and three total hits by Raul Sevilla (.259, 19 HR, 93 RBI). So by the time we got underway on Tuesday, we were up by five games.

Raccoons (86-57) vs. Titans (58-86) – September 16-18, 2053

Boston was bottoms in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, with a -153 run differential. We held a 10-5 lead against them, and the only thing the Titans were remotely good at was stealing bases; they were third in bags bagged this year. Boston also had a host of injuries, including but not limited to Jamie Guidry, Ian Davison, Angel Montes de Oca, and Ruben Gonzalez.

Projected matchups:
Victor Scott (10-6, 4.07 ERA) vs. Chris Ferguson (14-13, 3.63 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (13-10, 2.84 ERA) vs. Marcus Wilkins (8-10, 4.40 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (11-5, 2.82 ERA) vs. Justin Johns (7-12, 4.86 ERA)

These three starters would all be right-handers.

Game 1
BOS: LF Roura – C R. Salas – RF D. Gonzalez – CF Whitlow – 2B M. Martinez – 3B Ro. Jimenez – 1B Steel – SS M. Navarro – P Ferguson
POR: 3B Malkus – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – LF Crum – C Gowin – CF Thomason – P Scott

The Coons got going quickly against Ferguson, who nicked Malkus and gave up a single to Lonzo to begin the bottom 1st. Matt Waters narrowly missed a homer to tie Pucks with 25, but his double off the top of the fence drove home the runners and put him over the 100 RBI mark with ribbies 100 and 101. The next three batters failed to get Waters home, however. That seemed to be enough for Scott, who had been a Titan for the first six years of his career, and who encountered little trouble, the fifth inning aside, when the bottom pair, Mario Navarro and Ferguson, reached the corners with a 2-out walk and a single, but then Dave Roura struck out. The Coons? Well, they had two runs, why continue to bother?

That was not a great attitude, especially once Miguel Martinez opened the seventh with a single to center. Rocky Jimenez popped out, but Jesse Steel singled to right. Martinez went for home – but was thrown out by Pucks! Ken Crum grabbed a Navarro fly to left to end the inning. Scott opened the bottom 7th with a single and was left on first, then logged two more outs before Raul Salas’ single in the eighth inning. Dave Gonzalez would be his last batter, but the left-hander stuck an RBI double to the base of the wall in right, and that was the end for Scott, now with the tying run on second base. The Coons went to Daley in a double switch, Knight replacing Lonzo at short, but he walked the bags full … then finally struck out PH Nate Oden to bugger out of the inning. Daley furthermore allowed a 1-out single to Marty Serna in the ninth, but Aaron Brewer chopped one to Knight for a game-ending double play. 2-1 Coons. Lavorano 2-4; Gowin 1-2, BB, 2B; Thomason 1-2, BB, 3B; Scott 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (11-6) and 1-2;

New York beat the Elks again, 7-5, so the gap remained at five.

Wilkins wasn’t pitching on Wednesday – Justin Johns was moved up into this game.

Game 2
BOS: LF Roura – C R. Salas – CF Whitlow – RF D. Gonzalez – 2B M. Martinez – 1B M. Gilmore – 3B Ro. Jimenez – SS Tamargo – P Johns
POR: 3B Malkus – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – LF Crum – C Gowin – CF Marroguin – P Taki

Taki and first innings… This time he walked Dave Roura, although Salas hit into a double play, which was all the better considering Eric Whitlow bombed a fastball outta leftfield for a 1-0 Boston lead that would have been 2-0. From there, both teams had pretty much a runner per half-inning, and neither could put anything together. The Titans hit into another two double plays before the seventh inning stretch, and the Raccoons never touched third base apart from Ken Crum’s 2-out triple in the second inning (which saw him stranded by Gowin) while having Waters caught stealing, making nothing out of five hits and a walk received in six innings.

Crum was good for another extra-base knock in the bottom 7th, a leadoff double to right. Maybe that could get the Critters going! Yes, that, and Dave Roura misplaying a Chris Gowin fly into an RBI triple, which tied the game. Marroguin singled home Gowin, 2-1 Coons, but Tony Lopez flew out hitting for Taki, and Malkus found a double play against reliever Alex Diaz. Here, the Coons tried to get the game in without using Daley, who had thrown a pile of pitches in his glitchy 4-out save the day before, so Cornejo came in for the top 8th. Salas hit a 2-out single off him, but Whitlow grounded out easily before Sencion would have faced Dave Gonzalez. The Coons didn’t tack on, and instead Hitchcock got the ball in the ninth. Gonzalez, Martinez, and Serna went down in order. 2-1 Raccoons. Crum 2-3, 3B, 2B; Gowin 2-3, 3B, RBI; Taki 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (14-10);

The Crusaders also won another one in Elk City, this time 5-2.

Kind of surprisingly, we drew a left-hander for the series finale. Just as surprisingly, the Titans would try to get a 21st loss onto David Barnes (4-20, 4.63 ERA).

Game 3
BOS: LF Roura – C R. Salas – CF Whitlow – RF D. Gonzalez – 2B M. Martinez – 1B M. Gilmore – 3B Ro. Jimenez – SS Tamargo – P D. Barnes
POR: 3B Malkus – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – LF Puckeridge – 1B Crum – C Gowin – CF Marroguin – RF Lopez – P Wheatley

Pucks joined the 100 RBI club when he singled home Lonzo in the first inning on Thursday, which put the Coons ahead, 1-0. Tony Lopez drew a 1-out walk in the second, was bunted on by Wheats, and then came home on a gap double by Travis Malkus, who was slumping badly otherwise. Lonzo flew out to strand him. All of that went out the window in the third inning; Wheats had struck out the first two batters in the game, then didn’t get any of the next dozen, of which he walked three and another three had hits. All of that piled up in the third inning for a Barnes single (meh), a walk to Roura, and a 3-run homer by Salas… The Coons pulled even in the same inning as Waters doubled and was singled home by Ken Crum with a dinker into left-center, but it was a short start for Wheats, who walked four and struck out six in five near-tumultous innings and was then lifted.

He was lifted with a lead, though, due to a homer to right for Matt Waters in the bottom 5th, which gave him a 4-3 lead and did put Waters level with Pucks. The pen flushed the potential W instantly, however. We tried to scratch the bottom of the order with the shallow end of the pen in the sixth inning, but while Reese got his man (Gilmore), Medrano was torn up, putting Jimenez and Tamargo on base, and conceding the runs on a 2-out single by Roura, which flipped the score. Harmer held that 5-4 score after that before Malkus walked and Lonzo singled to begin the bottom 7th against Barnes, who was still bidding for his 21st loss, and potentially found it; after Waters grounded out sharply to first base, Pucks, who sneered at the thought of bowing to Waters for the team homer crown (and potentially the league title, too!), CRUSHED a 3-piece to right, which flipped the score back to 7-5 Critters. Ex-Coons farmhand Kenneth Spencer put Crum and Gowin on base right afterwards, then gave up a 2-out RBI single to center to Tony Lopez. Naughty Joe then grounded out to end the inning. The Titans gave in to their fate at that point, though – against Cornejo and Daley, no Boston batter got on base anymore in the last two innings. 8-5 Furballs. Waters 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Puckeridge 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Crum 2-3, BB, RBI; Lopez 2-2, 2 BB, RBI;

That was the first W for Harmer this season, who was now 1-1 in 30 games and 30.2 innings. Last year he was 1-1 in 30 games and 31.2 innings.

It took 11 innings, but the Crusaders completed a sweep of the Elks with a 3-2 win, which kept the distance at five games, while the magic number for the Coons was down to 12.

Raccoons (89-57) vs. Aces (64-82) – September 19-21, 2053

Another bottom-feeding team was in, although the Aces were fifth in the South and the season series was even at three. They were not nearly as dismal as the Titans though, despite a superficially similar record; their run differential was “only” -53, with mediocre runs totals, but they weren’t in the bottom three in either category. Of the major statistics, only their bullpen ERA ranked as low as the bottom three, 11th with a shoddy 4.73 mark. Notable DL cases included Matt Sealock, Dustin Ransford, and Jim White.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (10-4, 4.39 ERA) vs. Juan Mercado (6-11, 4.23 ERA)
Victor Salcido (10-8, 4.13 ERA) vs. Chris Cornelius (10-9, 4.57 ERA)
Victor Scott (11-6, 3.94 ERA) vs. Medardo Regueir (8-17, 4.16 ERA)

Two more southpaws in this set with ex-Coon Mercado and then Medardo Ramba-Zamba or whatever his name was on Southpaw Sunday.

The series began with Pucks tying Tony Aparicio for the CL homer lead at 26, and him 10 RBI behind David Worthington, who was day-to-day with a sore thumb. He had fallen to 15 points out in the batting race though. The Crusaders would play the last-place Baybirds.

Game 1
LVA: LF Blair – RF Austin – SS Welter – 1B D. Riley – CF Bishop – 2B Howington – C DeFrank – 3B T. Stone – P J. Mercado
POR: 3B Malkus – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – LF Puckeridge – RF Rivera – 1B Raczka – CF Lopez – C Philipps – P Brobeck*

Offense was scarce in the early going, although the Coons went up 1-0 with a leadoff double for Oscar Rivera and two productive outs by Raczka and Lopez to get the runner home in the bottom 2nd. Mercado walked Pucks to begin the bottom 4th, with another walk offered to Raczka with one out. Mercado’s 1-1 to Lopez was wild, advancing the runners, but didn’t make much difference ultimately; Lopez singled to center on the next pitch, but Pucks would have scored from second, and Raczka wasn’t gonna unless Steve Bishop broke a hip fielding the ball, which he didn’t. 2-0, and the corners, but Tyler Philipps chucked a bouncer to Brian Howington to kill the inning, 4-6-3 style.

Howington opened the fifth by drawing a walk, then scored on a 2-out single by Mercado, which was such a thrill. Dave Blair reached on a Raczka error, but the inning ended on an easy fly by Aubrey Austin. That was Brobeck’s last inning; he threw only 74 pitches, but was then not brought back for the sixth, in which the Aces brought the all-lefty 3-4-5 batters to the plate. Vic Flores allowed a double to Dan Riley, after which Alfaro came on, walked Howington again, but got Ray DeFrank on a grounder to keep the 2-1 lead in one piece.

Alfaro ended up logging five outs across three innings before that left-handed array came back up. Eloy Sencion went out this time, but gave up a Jeremy Welter drive that clanked off the left foul pole to tie the game before seeing out the inning. All even at two now, with the Coons down in order in the bottom 8th, while Hitchcock pitched around a Harry Ramsay error in the ninth to keep the game level for the bottom 9th, when lefty Nelson Garcilazo would see the Coons’ middle of the order – and sat them down in order.

The Aces took the lead in the 10th inning, though. Dave Blair hit a single to center against Hitchcock, stole second base, and then scored on productive outs, the RBI going to Welter. Quick turnaround, though: Adam Eutsler got the ball in the bottom 10th and offered a leadoff walk to Marroguin. Ramsay then cranked a pitch into the right-center gap. Marroguin went like hell and scored, and Ramsay slid in safely at third base, so the winning run was just 90 feet away with nobody out! The end came quick after that. Eutsler missed grossly twice, then came over the middle of the plate. Even Tyler Philipps could tick that one to center for a walkoff. 4-3 Raccoons! Lopez 1-2, 2 RBI; Ramsay 1-2, 3B, RBI; Philipps 2-4, RBI;

Of note, the walkoff killed Lonzo’s 14-game hitting streak with an 0-for-4, while the Crusaders also ended their winning streak with a ninth-inning meltdown and 7-4 loss to the Bayhawks. The lead was now six games, and the magic number was 10. The Indians were mathematically eliminated on this day, while the Elks could be killed off as soon as Saturday.

Game 2
LVA: CF Hummel – LF Austin – SS Welter – C B. Ortega – 1B D. Riley – 3B Blair – RF Kaniewski – 2B J. Cruz – P Cornelius
POR: SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – LF Crum – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – CF Marroguin – P Salcido

The Coons had another productive first inning… well… after the Aces’ Blair and Riley made a pair of errors on Lonzo and Pucks balls, which already got a run home. Pucks stole second, Ramsay singled him home, and the bags then filled up with one out for Crispin, who drove home Ramsay with a 3-2 dinker into shallow left. Facing Marroguin, Cornelius walked in a fourth run, and the line kept moving even as Salcido came up to bat. He singled over Jorge Cruz to drive in another run. Lonzo hit into an out at second base, but a sixth run scored, and three more came around when Matt Waters whacked a 3-piece to right. That was the end for Chris Cornelius, who lasted 0.2 innings, gave up five hits, two walks, NINE runs – and NONE of them were earned!! Reliever Jeremy Fetta allowed a single to Pucks, but got Ramsay out to end the endless inning.

So it was now Salcido’s to lose. He did mostly fine, but gave up a 2-run homer to Bobby Ortega in the fourth inning. That aside, the Raccoons put the hindpaws up and scattered just the odd hit after their early outburst. The Raccoons lifted their 1-2-3 and #5 batters after the sixth inning, with Knight, Naughty Joe, Lopez, and Thomason taking over. Matt Knight drove home the Coons’ first runs since the first inning when he came to the dish with two outs in the bottom 7th and Crispin and Marroguin in scoring position, and shot a liner to left-center for a 2-out single off Bill Lawrence, while Salcido pitched eight innings. Brett Lillis jr. took over in the ninth, whiffing two to get around a Welter double. 11-2 Raccoons! Knight 1-1, 2 RBI; Crum 2-4; Crispin 2-3, BB, RBI; Marroguin 2-3, BB, RBI; Salcido 8.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (11-8) and 1-3, RBI;

The Crusaders drowned the Baybirds without much faff on Saturday, winning 9-1 with a big first inning, just like the Critters. The gap remained at six.

Game 3
LVA: CF Hummel – RF Austin – LF Kaniewski – C DeFrank – 1B Blair – 2B Howington – SS Welter – 3B Hager – P Regueir
POR: 3B Malkus – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – CF Puckeridge – LF Crum – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – RF Lopez – P Scott

The Coons went up 1-0 in the first, and this time even without shenanigans, although after Malkus and Lonzo went to the corners, Waters only got the run home with a 5-4-3 double play grounder. A Dave Blair single and Howington’s homer then flipped the score immediately in the second inning. The Coons had only Lonzo’s single the first time through, and he hit another one of those to lead off the bottom 4th, but was caught stealing. The next Coons hit was a 2-out single for Tony Lopez in the bottom 8th. Blackshire batted for Scott, but struck out.

While Medrano and Alfaro brought scoreless innings to the plate, the Raccoons’ offense remained substantially absent, aside from the persistently singling Lonzo, who jabbed one to left in the bottom 6th, but was stranded this time. Ramsay singled in the seventh, but was doubled up with Gowin’s grounder to short. The Coons then changed the battery to get Phil Baker, who had not pitched since having been called up, two innings to work with, entering him in a double switch with new pitcher Tyler Philipps. He nicked a batter and walked another in the eighth, but Philipps doubled to right in the bottom 8th and made it to third base on a Malkus groundout, but just when we needed a Lonzo single the most, he lined out to Jorge Cruz at second base. Baker was yanked after putting Danny Encarnacion and Dan Riley on base with one out in the ninth. Cornejo gave up a 3-1 single to Aubrey Austin to load the bases, and when Bishop batted for John Kaniewski, was right away vacated for Sencion, who secured on a pop to short on the only pitch he threw. Hitchcock then entered and struck out DeFrank, so the Raccoons still only had one run to make up to at least extend the game in the bottom 9th. Eutsler came up against the meat of the order, which hadn’t worked terribly well for the Aces on Friday, but today Waters, Pucks, and Crum went down in order. 2-1 Aces. Lonzo 3-4; Philipps 1-1, 2B;

In other news

September 16 – CIN SP Arthur Pickett (6-4, 3.93 ERA) cranks his back in the gym and will have to sit out for at least two weeks.
September 17 – CHA C Kevin Weese (.297, 2 HR, 43 RBI) will miss two weeks with elbow soreness.
September 18 – Terrible news for the FL East-leading Capitals, who lose OF Neville van de Wouw (.289, 27 HR, 79 RBI) to shoulder soreness. He would miss the rest of the regular season and was highly questionable for the playoffs.
September 18 – The Indians beat the Loggers, 2-1 in 19 innings. The winning run scores on a throwing error by MIL C Jose Cadena (.211, 0 HR, 7 RBI).
September 18 – The Stars beat the Wolves, 3-2 in 17 innings. DAL RF/LF/1B Dario Martinez (.293, 23 HR, 84 RBI) singles to plate Leo Arguello (.256, 0 HR, 21 RBI) for a walkoff.
September 18 – The Capitals break through with three runs in the top of the 15th inning to beat the Blue Sox, 7-4.
September 21 – Bayhawks LF/RF/INF Bobby Wiener (.346, 1 HR, 12 RBI) swings a hot stick in a 3-1 win over the Crusaders, hitting two doubles and three singles, and driving home one of the three San Fran runs.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF Mario Villa (.350, 17 HR, 103 RBI), hitting .464 (13-28) with 1 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC 1B Raul Sevilla (.269, 19 HR, 95 RBI), batting .517 (15-29) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We didn’t quite manage to knock off the damn Elks in the numbers, but our 5-1 week and getting swept by the Crusaders at home had nevertheless eliminated them, their magic number being one. That left the Crusaders to deal with, and New York did pretty well this week, posting a 5-2 week, which still cost them half a game in the standings.

POR (91-58) – VAN (4), IND (3), NYC (3), OCT (3) – .554 – 97.0% (+4.5%)
NYC (85-64) – IND (4), MIL (3), POR (3), TIJ (3) – .506 – 3.0% (-4.4%)

Yeah yeah, 3% chance to blow it. We still have three games with the Crusaders and four with the vile hooved demons up North, so I am taking that 6-game lead with a grain of salt. Next up were the Thunder, then the Indians. The former were not so much concerned with the 3-game set in Portland starting on Monday – they could clinch their own division even by losing the series – but with that 3% chance the Crusaders were being given to topple the division yet. The Thunder were ready for EVERYTHING … except facing the Raccoons in the CLCS yet again. The Coons had won the last six times these teams had met in the CLCS, including FOUR such occurrences since 2045.

As far as individual honors were concerned, Pucks’ gap to Omar Sanchez in batting only grew on the weekend, while there were now FOUR batters tied with 26 homers: Pucks, Waters, Aparicio, and Zach Suggs. Sam Witherspoon had 23, with Dave Worthington still day-to-day and also at 23. Worthington drove in one run on the weekend, and led that RBI list with 114, ahead of Aparicio (109), Waters (105), Pucks, and Danny Rivera (both 104).

Fun Fact: Of the 10 games played on Thursday, half went extras.

In addition to the 19-, 17-, and 15-inning games above, there were two 11-inning games: the Crusaders completing the sweep of the Elks, and an otherwise unremarkable 8-7 win of the Aces over the Knights. That’s an average of 2.8 additional innings per game played on the day.

Or in other words: 28 tack-on innings, or enough to play three more games of regulation baseball.

+++

*That was supposed to be Ramsay, but I suck and grabbed Raczka instead. Don’t ask how long it took me to notice.

Whoopsie!