[Westheim]

Raccoons (16-22) vs. Indians (15-22) – May 18-21, 2054

The two bottom-feeding teams in the CL North would get to haphazardly slap away at each other for four games to continue the homestand here, with the Indians somehow having a run differential as far under evens as their record was at -7. Slow to score runs, but with decent, above-average pitching. We had won ten games from them in 2053. They had a few notable injuries, including Tan Brink, Mario Ceballos, and Nick Fernandez all sitting around on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Arthur Pickett (3-1, 4.43 ERA) vs. James Powell (3-1, 4.47 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (2-1, 4.97 ERA) vs. Mario Godinez (2-2, 4.32 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (2-4, 5.72 ERA) vs. Pete Becker (0-0, 1.88 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (0-7, 5.14 ERA) vs. Enrique Ortiz (4-2, 2.41 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up against the Coons in this set. The Raccoons still started the week with Harry Ramsay suspended for another three games and thus a short bench in addition to the lean lineup.

Game 1
IND: CF R. White – 2B D. Diaz – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C Poindexter – 1B Yamamoto – LF Escobido – SS Clover – P J. Powell
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – 1B Crum – RF Cox – LF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – CF Suzuki – P Pickett

The Raccoons took the early lead with singles by Crum and Waters in the second inning, but Pickett was upended before long, giving up three hits in the fourth inning, singles to Bill Quinteros and Manny Poindexter, and then with two outs, an especially painful 2-run double to Shuta Yamamoto. Gowin’s homer in the bottom of the inning leveled the score again before Cox, Pucks, and Waters all scrambled onto base with one out. Suzuki slashed an RBI single by the reaching Danny Diaz to give the Raccoons a new 3-2 lead. Unfortunately, Pickett briefly thought he was a Grenadier Guard when strike three whizzed by him, not moving an inch, and Venegas popped out to leave a full set.

The Coons also let a Lonzo leadoff double get away in the fifth, and Pickett blew the lead in his sixth and final inning, when Diaz, Quinteros and Bobby Anderson all reached to begin the inning, including Anderson doubling home Diaz and putting two in scoring position with nobody out in a 3-3 game. The thin red line held, though, as Manny Poindexter struck out, Yamamoto was out on a comebacker to Pickett, and Angel Escobido popped out in foul ground to Ken Crum. Ryan Harmer pitched a scoreless seventh, which was newsworthy, but Lillis then had a bit of a Light Brigade moment, charging straight into doom when Quinteros singled off him, Anderson reached when Suzuki blundered his fly for an error in centerfield, and Poindexter walked. This time, though, Captain Nolan wasn’t hit in the chest by a shell and disaster was staved off when Kevin Hitchcock turned things around with strikeouts to Yamamoto and PH Jose Garza. Chris Gowin then hit his second homer of the game off Powell, this one to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom 8th. Bill Quinteros was hurt tracking down Cox’ fly later in the inning, but the Raccoons emerged victorious with just a few scratches from the tussle, dodging a 2-out triple by Rusty White in the ninth inning when Daley got a grounder to short from Diaz that Lonzo handled for the final out. 4-3 Coons. Gowin 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Waters 2-3, RBI;

The Indians reported Quinteros as day-to-day with a chest complaint, which could mean anything. He was however back in the lineup on Tuesday, so maybe much ado about nothing.

Game 2
IND: CF R. White – LF J. Garza – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C Poindexter – 1B Yamamoto – 2B D. Diaz – SS Ed. Ortiz – P Godinez
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – 1B Crum – RF Cox – LF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – CF Tenazes – P Brobeck

Brobeck’s pitching remained depressing, and he nicked Garza and walked two while giving up a run the first time through the order. For what it was worth, his leadoff double in the bottom 3rd also got the Coons going; Venegas singled him home to tie the game, the bags filled up after that, and Ryan Cox drew a 1-out bases-full walk for a 2-1 lead before both Pucks and Waters, the struggling stragglers, struck out.

Nobody struck out against Brobeck, but he gave up a leadoff double to Edwin Ortiz in the fifth, which smelled like trouble. Godinez bunted the ball back to Brobeck hard, though, and Ortiz was thrown out at third base. But then Brobeck walked White, Garza grounded out to first, and the tying and go-ahead runs were in scoring position with two outs and Bill Quinteros (.388, 7 HR, 23 RBI) in the box. The Raccoons walked him intentionally to get the righty and totally harmless bat of Bobby Anderson (.320, 5 HR, 21 RBI) up instead. Anderson popped out to Crum, and the inning ended. Whoa!

Less whoa was the Raccoons’ offense in the bottom 5th after Gowin and Crum went to the corners on the strength of two leadoff singles. The 5-6-7 batters made three excessively pathetic outs and the runners were left right at those corners. Brobeck’s messy pitching meant that he was done after six innings, giving up two singles himself in the top 6th. Sencion got the 2-1 lead, which seemed bold, but it hadn’t felt like he had pitched like a guy with an 8.76 ERA would pitch – yet. White, Garza, and Quinteros, all left-handed bats, went down in order, with two strikeouts. Chris Edwards in the bottom 7th gave up a leadoff double to Gowin, who was then promptly stranded by the next three muppets in line. Bak’s scoreless eighth handed the ball back to Daley, who had the 8-9-1 batters to contend with. Ortiz grounded out, Jerry Cordova struck out, and White flew out to Pucks. 2-1 Critters. Venegas 2-5, 2B, RBI; Gowin 2-3, BB, 2B; Crum 2-4; Suzuki (PH) 1-1;

The Indians moved Enrique Ortiz into the Wednesday slot; he would still start on regular rest.

Game 3
IND: CF R. White – LF J. Garza – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C Poindexter – 1B Yamamoto – 2B Ed. Ortiz – SS Clover – P En. Ortiz
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Cox – 1B Crum – LF Puckeridge – C Philipps – CF Suzuki – 2B Boese – P Taki

Edwin Ortiz cost Enrique Ortiz at least one unearned run in the bottom 1st, although the latter Ortiz had dug a hole for himself with walks to Venegas and Cox to begin with. Ken Crum’s grounder to second was then thrown away by the former Ortiz for two bases and the run, but the latter Ortiz then escaped runners in scoring position with strikeouts on Pucks (…) and Philipps. Bottom 2nd, another leadoff walk to Suzuki, and then Naughty Joe singled to left for his first knock of the year. Taki then categorically failed to get a bunt down, fooling his way to 0-2 before stopping the tomfoolery and waiting on Ortiz to walk him, too, which filled the bases with nobody out. Venegas’ grounder forced Taki out at second base, but scored a run, yet Lonzo struck out (but still led the team RBI race comfortably and depressingly). Cox came through with a 2-out RBI single, 3-0, but Ken Crum opened the real can of whoop-ass with a 3-run bomb to right-center, 6-0!

The game then entered a dead phase; Ortiz held out for a few more innings, but Taki dominated the Indians, allowing only two base hits before the seventh-inning stretch. No more runs were scored until the Coons took to the corners in the bottom 7th with Lonzo and Pucks, and with two outs right-hander Matt Green threw a wild pitch to allow Lonzo across. Taki returned for the eighth, but got no more outs. Venegas bungled a Chase Clover grounder for an error, and Cordova drew a pinch-walk, both in full counts, rushing Taki’s pitch count to 108. Sencion came on, drilled Rusty White to fill the bases, but then got a pop from Garza and a double-play grounder from Jason Perry, pinch-hitting in place of the ailing Quinteros. The Coons added a run in the bottom 8th, filling the bases with Boese, Tenazes, and Venegas, then got a sac fly from Lonzo and no more against left-hander Bubba Poss. 8-0 Raccoons. Tenazes (PH) 1-1; Taki 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (3-4);

We scored the eight runs from just five hits for a change, all singles except for that Crum homer.

Prospero Tenazes had batted 6-for-18 (no RBI’s) in ten games and was handed back to AAA as Dave de Lemos returned from the DL on Thursday.

The Raccoons would be up against right-hander Jimmy Charles (1-4, 3.06 ERA) in the final game of the set.

Game 4
IND: LF J. Garza – 2B A. Rios – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C Poindexter – 1B Yamamoto – CF Cordova – SS Clover – P Charles
POR: 3B Venegas – RF Cox – C Gowin – LF Crum – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – CF Suzuki – 2B Boese – P Wheatley

Winless Wheatley made excellent progress towards 0-8 right in the first inning, allowing a single to Antonio Rios and then back-to-back bleeping blasts by Bill ‘n Bobby in the middle of that Arrowheads order. 3-0 remained the score through the middle of the fifth inning when an earlier drizzle turned into actual rain and the game went to a rain delay that took just over an hour, or enough time to hit your head against the doorframe over Wheats’ demise precisely 1,000 times. The Raccoons had gotten four hits in the four innings they had batted in, getting precisely zero runs from those four hits. Lonzo pinch-hit for Wheatley in the bottom 5th, singled, and was doubled up by Venegas to get the Indians back in the box. Charles finished that inning, qualifying for the inevitable W to drop Wheats to 0-8.

Lefty Michael McLaughlin got whacked around a bit in the bottom 7th, but after Suzuki doubled, Pucks tripled, and Venegas doubled all over the park, Matt Cox struck out to waste the tying run in the 3-2 game in scoring position. Quinteros answered by taking Hitchcock deep to right in the top 8th, giving Indy an insurance run. Gowin drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, but was doubled up by Crum. Ramsay legged out an infield single, advanced on a wild pitch by Chris Edwards, and was still surviving at second when a 2-2 foul pop by Waters was flubbed by Yamamoto to keep the inning going – but in a full count Waters struck out.

When Lillis and Harmer pieced the ninth together, Suzuki’s leadoff single to left off Caleb Martin in the bottom 9th put the tying run in the batter’s box. Ed Crispin pinch-hit for a 1-for-13 Naughty Joe, but flew out to Jason Perry, who had again replaced the knocked-up Quinteros, whose dirty deeds were done. Dave de Lemos batted for Harmer and hit a screamer to left for a double – now the tying runs were in scoring position! Venegas responded with a pathetic pop to shallow right which Perry had easily, and the runners had to freeze. Two outs. Cox ran a full count, and I couldn’t imagine the Indians wanting anything from Chris Gowin, who was in the on-deck circle and batting a staggering *.415* at this point after a month-long hot streak. Nah, Martin would have to go after Matt Cox. For inexplicable reasons he threw him a 70mph curveball. Cox hung out his tongue, took aim, and huzzah’ed a deep drive to right. Perry chasing, but this one was high, deep, and gone!! It’s a walkoff!! 5-4 Furballs! Cox 1-5, HR, 3 RBI; Gowin 2-3, BB; Suzuki 3-4, 2B; Lavorano (PH) 1-1; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; de Lemos (PH) 1-1, 2B; Terrell 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

(throws Honeypaws in the air) Sweep!! (catches Honeypaws and gives him a thick smooch on the nose) Honeypaws! I LOVE COX!!

Cristiano, what’s there to snicker?

Raccoons (20-22) vs. Thunder (30-10) – May 22-24, 2054

The Thunder? Third in runs scored, first in runs allowed. Rotation ERA under three, bullpen ERA under two. Best defense, second in homers. Ha-hah, nope. Was nice having a winning streak though. They were last in stolen bases with just ten, but given that they had a 9 1/2 game lead in May, they probably didn’t need any stolen bases to begin with. The Coons had dropped the season series against the Thunder for seven straight years, 6-3 in ’53, but since I have nothing else to drone on about I have to mention that we had at least won the two CLCS’es in the same timeframe.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (2-4, 3.44 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (2-4, 5.09 ERA)
Arthur Pickett (3-1, 4.44 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (3-2, 3.99 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (3-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (5-1, 2.29 ERA)

Not that there weren’t some pieces missing, most notably David Barel, Ryan Cox, and Ed Soberanes, the latter being days away from returning to action. Zeigler and Marquez were the southpaws on duty in that rotation, but the Thunder had also gotten some pretty good results from spot starter Jay Gunderson (4-0, 1.44 ERA) in Barel’s absence, and were probably not shy about using him again.

Game 1
OCT: 2B Ban – SS Spehar – 1B Worthington – LF Harmon – C Weese – RF S. King – CF Ward – 3B Lamotta – P Boyer
POR: LF Crum – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – RF M. Cox – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – 3B Crispin – P Shui

Kevin Weese’s single and Scott King’s homer in the second inning gave the Thunder a 2-0 lead that stood all the way to the seventh-inning stretch, while the Raccoons’ offense was too little, too late, or just mistimed. Chris Gowin went as high as .420 with a single in the first inning, but then didn’t get a connection the next two times up. Matt Waters doubled in his second at-bat, but had popped out with two runners on base in his first appearance. The Thunder did this mostly with their pen, having lost Zach Boyer to injury in the third inning. Vic Flores, a Coon in 2053, put Waters on base to begin the bottom 8th, but then yet more relievers turned away Venegas, Suzuki, and Crum in order to keep the Raccoons from scoring. Hyun-soo Bak followed Shui, who went eight pointless innings, and walked a pair before giving up an insurance run on a 2-out single by Ricky Lamotta, who had been a Coon a while ago. Alex Mancilla closed out the game against Lonzo, Gowin, and Cox anyway. 3-0 Thunder. Waters 1-2, BB, 2B; Shui 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (2-5);

Game 2
OCT: 2B Ban – SS Spehar – 1B Worthington – LF Harmon – C Weese – RF S. King – CF Ward – 3B Lamotta – P Zeigler
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – LF Crum – RF M. Cox – 2B Waters – 1B Ramsay – CF de Lemos – P Pickett

Pickett gave up a run in the first inning against the 3-4-5 batters; Dave Worthington doubled, Mike Harmon walked, and Kevin Weese singled home Worthington from second base. King struck out, and then Pickett came to bat in the bottom 2nd with the bases loaded with Cox, Ramsay, and de Lemos. Batting with one out, he fell to 1-2 before poking a grounder to short. Two, easily – except that Ryan Spehar botched the play, brutally, and the tying run came across, and the bases remained loaded for Venegas. Agreeing in principle that to exploit such regrettable blunder would be unbecoming of a Victorian gentleman, Venegas grounded into Pickett’s double play instead to end the inning. Venegas! Thou dankish, folly-fallen maggot-pie!!

Worthington lobbed a homer to left, only his second of the year, to give the Thunder a new 2-1 lead in the third inning, but the Coons would accrue on base in full numbers without suffering a dismissal in the bottom 3rd. Lonzo, Gowin, and Crum then all stared intently at the new batsman, M.H. Cox of San Franciscoshire, who flipped some dilly-dally of a ball to legside to tie the game once more, two-all. Each of the next batters also brought home one run: Waters walked, Ramsay singled, and de Lemos hit a sac fly, before Pickett was dismissed, leg-before-wicket. Wicked. Venegas’ single, however, ran the tally to 6-2, before Sir Lorenzo Lovingbottom flew out to rightfielder Scott King, ending a 5-run partnership.

No, Maud, you don’t have to call Dr. Padilla. Why would you think you’d have to?

The next two overs were uneventful, but the Thunder began to crowd Pickett in the sixth inning. Two hits and a walk for the 4-5-6 hitters loaded the bases with Jayden Ward and his .212 lumber at the crease. His liner to right could not be reached by Waters, a run scored, but Lamotta then hit into a double play to end the inning. The Coons had no answer in the bottom 6th, but the Thunder lost Ryan Spehar to injury as he took a tumble to snare a Lonzo liner. Spehar left the game holding his elbow, and was replaced by Felix Vazquez while Eloy Sencion took the ball from Pickett to begin the seventh, retiring three in order. Bottom 7th, the Coons now had the bags full with one out after Crum singled off Ralph Needham, who added Cox and Waters by ways of walks. Ramsay drove in two with a shot into the rightfield corner, and de Lemos added another run with a groundout to get ahead by six … five once Mike Harmon took Harmer for the verges with a boundary shot in the eighth, and seven once the Raccoons brutalized Raul Cornejo – there was another ex-Coon! – in the bottom of the same inning. But Harmer was sent back out for the ninth and it didn’t exactly go great. Two walks, two hits, one run in, and three runners on base – the rally was a batter shy of a save opportunity, but Daley was brought in hurriedly anyway. He struck out Worthington for the second out, then gave up a bases-clearing double to Harmon… Daley! Thou weedy, toad-spotted flap-dragon!! (angrily clonks bottle down on the table) Lonzo then fudged a Weese grounder that was supposed to end the inning, and instead brought up King as the tying run. He popped out to Waters to end the circus. 11-8 Raccoons. Venegas 2-4, 2B, RBI; Gowin 2-5, 2B; Crum 3-4, BB, RBI; Cox 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Ramsay 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; de Lemos 2-3, BB, 3 RBI;

That, shambolic pitching or not, was already more than I dared to expect from this series.

Better take cover for the rubber game. (builds a pillow fort for himself and Honeypaws)

Game 3
OCT: 2B Ban – C Weese – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – LF Harmon – CF Ward – RF M. Allen – 3B Lamotta – P Gunderson
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – C Gowin – RF M. Cox – LF Crum – 1B Ramsay – CF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – P Brobeck

The game started with a celebration, which was unusual, but Jonathan Ban singled off Brobeck for his 2,000th career hit, half of them against the Coons in just 11 years in the majors. In fact, the first three Thunder that batted against Brobeck all reached base with hits; two into the outfield and one into the just-returned Ed Soberanes’ hip. None of them scored, courtesy of two pops and a K to Jayden Ward. The Coons went 1-0 instead on a Gowin homer to left, just after Venegas got himself caught stealing in the bottom 1st. A second run scored on Waters’ groundout with Crum and Pucks on the corners in the second inning, but all that was wiped off the board when Harmon homered with Worthington on base in the third. The Thunder kept chewing up Brobeck and crowding the bases, putting two on in the fourth without scoring, and loading them up with Soberanes, Ward, and Mike Allen in the fifth, where Brobeck then walked Lamotta with two outs to push the go-ahead run across. Gunderson struck out, stranding three, but Brobeck was done after that inning, having thrown 109 pitches for seven hits, five walks, and three runs only, somehow.

Worthington took Bak deep for a 2-run homer in the sixth to extend the Thunder’s lead to 5-2, while Gunderson walked Crum and Ramsay reached on a Ban error in the bottom of the inning, bringing up Pucks with two on and one out. The Coons had already failed in the third inning, when Venegas and Lonzo had reached to begin the inning, and now Pucks and Waters continued their death spiral into hard terrain with a soft pop to Worthington and a foul pop to Lamotta, respectively, killing the inning. Ed Crispin’s leadoff single in the bottom 7th led to the inning ending on Lonzo’s double play grounder to short. While the Thunder remained wasteful – they had three hits, two walks, and just one run off Terrell in the last two innings – the Raccoons nevertheless couldn’t get ******* anything together. 6-2 Thunder. Ramsay 2-3, BB; Crispin (PH) 1-2;

In other news

May 19 – At age 38, WAS 1B Manny Liberos (.254, 3 HR, 19 RBI) lifts his 300th career home run in an 8-6 win over the Blue Sox. The second-inning shot off Rafael Mendoza (1-5, 5.59 ERA) is Liberos’ only hit in the game, but counts for three runs. Liberos, a 17-year veteran and 3-time Gold Glover spent most of his career in the Federal League, only visiting the CL last year with a short stint with the Canadiens. He led the FL in doubles twice and in RBI once, and for his career has been hitting .245/.348/.437 with 1,762 hits, 300 homers, and 1,191 RBI.
May 19 – PIT INF Alex Vasquez (.401, 0 HR, 19 RBI) has hit in 20 straight games thanks to a fifth-inning single in a 5-2 win over the Cyclones.
May 20 – With a strained MCL, SAC OF/1B Omar Gonzalez (.243, 1 HR, 10 RBI) was going to miss at least four weeks.
May 20 – ATL SS/3B Leo Villacorta (.336, 3 HR, 26 RBI) hits a lone single while CHA SP Felix Castano (3-3, 3.65 ERA) and four relievers shut out the Knights in a 3-0 Falcons win.
May 21 – A knee contusion would keep NAS 1B Alejandro Ramos (.234, 2 HR, 14 RBI) out of games for at least a week.
May 23 – The hitting streak of Pittsburgh’s Alex Vasquez (.394, 0 HR, 19 RBI) ends at 22 games with a hitless appearance in a 5-4 win over the Scorpions.

FL Player of the Week: LAP 1B Chris Rice (.327, 5 HR, 18 RBI), hitting .500 (13-26) with 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND 1B/LF/RF Bill Quinteros (.392, 9 HR, 27 RBI), batting .500 (12-24) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

That week could have been worse. The Coons swept Indy and stole one game from the Thunder to rally to fourth place in the North, six games behind the damn Elks. Was there a winning record in this team after all? We’d have to find out on the following road trip down south on I-5, with six games in Tijuana and San Francisco next week. There’d then be another 2-week homestand to being the month of June.

I can also report that Raffy de la Cruz has FINALLY started his rehab assignment. He threw 50 pitches in his first outing against the Baton Rouge Servals, and how did that surgically reknitted elbow do? Cristiano, do you have the numbers?

What do you mean, “one inning plus”? How can he have pitched only an inning plus?? – Five hits, four walks, seven runs, all earned?

(grabs Honeypaws and clutches him to his chest, then rocks back and forth, bawling)

Fun Fact: Jonathan Ban is a two-time CL batting champion.

He hit .367 in 2047 and .337 in 2052 for the two trophies, and despite not being much of a power hitter at all – his single-season record for bombs was 11, twice – he led the CL in WAR both times and three times in total (plus ’49). He was never voted Player of the Year, however.

Nope, but as a singles slapper with speed and Gold Glove defense (six awards there), the 4-time All Star was menace enough as he was. For his career he was batting .322/.379/.415 with 67 homers and 726 RBI. He didn’t even have speed – 25 SB for his career – he was just very, very good at slapping singles.