[Westheim]

Raccoons (79-50) @ Knights (77-52) – August 30-September 1, 2055

A difficult week for the Critters was to start with a 3-game set in Atlanta, the Knights also sitting in first place in their division and leading the Bayhawks by eight games. This pitted the best offense in the league (Atlanta, in case you hadn’t paid much attention) against the best pitching and defense, while the Raccoons had to poke up to the #3 pitching staff. This had so far not been a recipe for anything but disaster, the Knights having already carried away the season series, 5-1.

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (9-7, 3.24 ERA) vs. Jeremy Baker (10-9, 4.07 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (5-1, 2.67 ERA) vs. Vic Harman (7-4, 3.51 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (5-7, 4.60 ERA) vs. Bruce Mark jr. (7-7, 4.44 ERA)

The series began with a southpaw and twice-ringed former Raccoon and would then bring only right-handers after that. What it wouldn’t bring was the established middle infield for Atlanta, with both Willie Acosta and Eric Miller on the DL, along with Eddie Moreno.

Game 1
POR: 1B Brassfield – SS Lavorano – LF Venegas – RF Munn – 3B Brobeck – C Gowin – 2B Waters – CF Tenazes – P Taki
ATL: 2B R. Thompson – C Almaguer – 1B P. Fowler – LF Kirkwood – CF Alade – RF Stipp – 3B Villacorta – SS Kaufman – P J. Baker

The Coons went up 2-0 in the first inning as Lonzo and Venegas hit singles and both scored from the corners when Danny Munn hit a ball all the way to the fence in the right-center gap for a 2-run double. Brobeck walked, but was doubled up on Gowin’s grounder to Brian Kaufman. The second inning already saw an hourlong rain delay, because that was what we needed with Taki on the hill and then Laurel and Hardy scheduled for the rest of the series. Taki had thrown only six pitches in the first inning, though, so the hope was that it wouldn’t put him out of sorts too much. The only batter that got a single off him the first time through would be the opposing pitcher, which seemed to happen more often than called for, but Pat Fowler cranked a homer to left in the fourth inning to cut the lead back to 2-1. Taki then melted and walked the bases full with straight free passes to Chris Kirkwood, Jon Alade, and Pat Stipp, which was slightly disconcerting. Leo Villacorta popped mile high up and out to Prospero Tenazes in shallow center, and Brian Kaufman lined out to third base. The count to Baker ran full, but Baker whiffed on a 3-2 pitch that burrowed itself a new home in the dirt. It also got away from Gowin, and suddenly the runners were in motion. Gowin scurried after the ball, flung it to first base, and Trent Brassfield somehow managed to snatch the ball, reaching into the running lane, and then twisted away before the steaming Baker could tear his arm off – inning over…!

Taki retired five more batters after that before he walked Villacorta with two outs in the bottom 6th. Kaufman singled sharply to left, and with Eduardo Avila, another ex-Coon, pinch-hitting at that point, the Raccoons went for the pen. Avila bounced the first pitch by Tikitaka up the middle, Lonzo speared it on the run, and then lost grip on the wet ball and the error filled the bases. The count to Ronnie Thompson then ran full, and his quick bouncer went through the left side between Lonzo and Brobeck for two runs, flipping the score, while a fourth run for Atlanta scored on a wild pitch… Pedro Almaguer ended the inning with a backwards-K, but by then the damage had been done in abundance. Jon Alade added a run with an inside-the-park home run in the bottom 7th. Eloy Sencion threw a bad pitch, and Danny Munn couldn’t reach the drive in the rightfield corner, which ended up bouncing off both the fence and the sidewall, just like Munn shortly before he fell down.

The Coons hadn’t had a whiff of a threat for multiple innings at that point. Brobeck had hit a double in the middle innings. That had been about it. But David Hardaway gave away singles to Gowin and Pucks to begin the ninth inning, and suddenly the tying run was at the plate with nobody out. Harry Ramsay batted for Tenazes, but flew out meekly. Matt Knight had been in the #9 hole for a while since a double switch that had put Matt Waters to bed, and he dropped a single in front of Alade to fill the bases for Trent Brassfield. And not everything shiny was automatically golden, but Brass sure was, blasting a drive to deep left center and outta here!! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!

Suddenly Kevin Hitchcock had to be mobilized to pitch the bottom of the ninth, now with a 1-run lead. It didn’t get any more than that with Lonzo and Venegas making outs against Ramon Montes de Oca to end the top 9th. But Hitchcock also didn’t need any more support – he retired Kirkwood, Alade, and Gustavo Pena in order, with two strikeouts! 6-5 Raccoons! Brassfield 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Venegas 3-5; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – 2B Waters – 3B Crispin – C Philipps – P Argenziano
ATL: 2B R. Thompson – CF Alade – LF Kirkwood – 1B P. Fowler – RF Stipp – C Almaguer – 3B Villacorta – SS Kaufman – P Harman

Another day, another 2-0 lead in the first inning, this time with Brass and Lonzo hitting singles, tearing the tardy Knights battery for a double steal, and then scoring on Pucks’ groundout and Munn’s sac fly to left. Argenziano had a good first inning, but soon began to run into trouble. The third inning began with a 1-2 pitch that nailed Kaufman, and even though Harman popped out foul after that, a walk to Ronnie Thompson moved the lead runner to second base anyway. Alade then hit a fly to deep left, but it was too high and not long enough and dropped into Brass’ mitten on the warning track, although Kaufman scurried on to third base. Kirkwood hacked himself out on a bad 3-2 pitch to leave runners on the corners. Inefficiency continued; when Kaufman hit a 1-out single in the bottom 5th and a bad bunt by Harman forced him out at second base, Argenziano nevertheless walked Thompson yet again with the tying run. This time Alade was not denied and rushed an RBI single past Crispin, but Kirkwood flew out to Munn in deep right.

The Coons had only one base hit between the 2-run first inning and a 2-out double that Pucks mashed to right in the sixth inning. Ronnie Thompson lunged and reached Munn’s following bouncer and beat him with a blind throw to first base to end the inning, though. Argenziano threw only one more pitch which Brassfield recovered on the run, catching Pat Fowler’s screamer in left-center. Hyun-soo Bak replaced Argenziano, but only served up two 2-out doubles to Almaguer and Villacorta to blow the lead after all…..

A new lead came from an unexpected source. I was already thinking “oh well, maybe next inning…” when Ramsay’s leadoff single in the seventh didn’t go any further than first base for the cost of two outs, although he was replaced with Crispin on the base. Then Harman made a mistake on a 3-2 pitch to Tyler Philipps, who cranked only his second homer of the season to establish a new 4-2 lead…! Philipps almost hit another 2-out 2-piece in the ninth inning, but it went to the wrong part of the park and was caught by Alade in deep center, which was the fourth straight goose egg on the board between the two teams as both pens were very efficient. The Raccoons had gotten the seventh from Reynaldo Bravo and the eighth from Matt Walters, and with the bottom 9th starting with the left-handed Villacorta, the Raccoons actually stuck to Walters for the time being. Only after the leadoff man flew out to Pucks did Hitchcock come on. Kaufman quickly hit a single to right, but Felix Rojas popped out foul for the second out. Thompson, no homers on the year, hit a bouncer to Lonzo, who made an easy last out of the night. 4-2 Critters. Brassfield 2-4, 2B; Lavorano 2-4;

With this, the Raccoons completed a 21-8 August, their second-best month of the year. We entered September with a 6-game lead after the Indians had already extended their losing streak to three games and their extended rotten run to 5-15.

Rosters expanded, too. The Raccoons did not call up their recently acquired #44 prospect SP Craig Kniep right away, but planned to so by next week. Bringing him up earlier would have put him up against the damn Elks in their tundra tristesse, and what a soggy debut would that be?

For more hurling options, right-handers Colby Bowen and Ryan Harmer returned (with Ricky Lamotta moved to the 60-day DL to make room for Harmer), and we also added Geoff Sather again, who had a 1.25 ERA (with a .191 BABIP) in AAA this season. Sather had made 14 appearances last year, posting a 7.45 ERA for the Coons. Jeff Raczka joined the team as third catcher again (no other catcher was on the 40-man…), while Carlos Solorzano rejoined from his rehab assignment. Daniel Espinoza was recalled as an extra infielder.

Game 3
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – 1B Ramsay – P Brobeck – C Gowin – 2B Waters – 3B Espinoza
ATL: 2B R. Thompson – 3B Villacorta – 1B P. Fowler – CF Alade – RF J. Luna – C M. Nieto – LF Stipp – SS Kaufman – P Mark jr.

Walk, single, single, and within nine pitches Bruce Mark jr. was surrounded by Furballs and had yet to retire anybody on Wednesday. Munn *just* got an RBI single over the glove of a jumping Ronnie Thompson, while Ramsay hit a sac fly to Alade for another 2-0 lead in the first. It got better, though: Brobeck dished an RBI double to left, and Gowin walked. Waters whiffed, but a wild pitch scored a fourth run, and then Espinoza shoved a single through the left side on a 1-2 pitch to score two more! Brassfield found another hit to right-center, but Lonzo flew out to Alade to end the first inning after merely six runs were scored. Mark lingered until the third inning when he gave up another hit to Brobeck and an RBI double to Walter for a 7-0 score. Amari Walker replaced him, but the left-hander gave away a single to Espinoza, walked Brassfield, and then conceded another run on a Lonzo single to shallow center. Pucks hit an RBI single to right, but Munn struck out for the second out of the inning. From there, Walker threw another wild pitch, then hung a ball that Ramsay rammed for a 2-run double, which made for the Raccoons’ second 6-spot of the game! Walker was yanked for right-hander Joe Napier, who soon drilled Brobeck, then got a grounder to Villacorta from Gowin for what should have been the third out, finally, but was thrown away for a run-scoring error. Matt Waters singled to right to add two more runs before Espinoza grounded out to end the inning. Coons 15, Knights … zilch!

Well, Brobeck knew how to give the Knights crowd something to smile, having himself taken deep by the reliever Napier in the bottom 3rd for a solo shot. Napier would also hit a single off Brobeck in the fifth inning, but didn’t find any support from his teammates and was stranded on first base. Napier got two more outs in the sixth for nine total before giving up straight singles and a run to the 1-2-3 batters and getting replaced with Morgan Aben. Munn flew out to deep left to strand a pair in the 16-1 game. The Raccoons then replaced a bunch of players in the middle of the sixth inning: the top four in the lineup were all removed, as was Waters. Brobeck followed in the bottom 7th, offering a leadoff walk to Stipp, a single to Kaufman, and an RBI double to PH Dan Riley. Thompson popped out, after which Brett Lillis jr. replaced him against the array of lefty hitters coming up. Strikeout, groundout, inning over, and the remaining two runners were stranded in scoring position. He got two more outs in the eighth from the left side before Bravo and Bowen did the rest of the dirty work. 16-2 Furballs!! Brassfield 2-3, BB, 2B; Lavorano 3-5, RBI; Puckeridge 4-5, 2 RBI; Ramsay 2-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Waters 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Knight 1-1; Espinoza 2-5, 2 RBI; Brobeck 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (6-7) and 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Those collapsing noises you hear? The Knights’ confidence.

NOW I was cocky. Two days from now I’d lie rolled up on the couch whimpering as the Coons were getting nowhere in Elk City, I bet.

We didn’t even score the most runs on that Wednesday – the Bayhawks routed the Crusaders by 14 runs as well, but won 17-3 rather than 16-2.

Raccoons (82-50) @ Canadiens (63-70) – September 3-5, 2055

The Critters went to Canada up by seven games in the division as the Indians kept merrily collapsing, but I was not in celebration mode yet. There were still seven games left against the damn stinking Elks, so basically as far as I was concerned WE HAD NO LEAD. That even with the Elks well out of it, but still second in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed in the CL. They also had a lead in the season series, 6-5.

Projected matchups:
Kennedy Adkins (15-4, 1.63 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (11-9, 4.30 ERA)
He Shui (18-5, 2.88 ERA) vs. Terry Herman (10-9, 3.64 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (9-7, 3.19 ERA) vs. Hyuma Hitomi (4-14, 4.88 ERA)

Only right-handers expected here.

Game 1
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Puckeridge – RF Munn – C Gowin – 1B Ramsay – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – P Adkins
VAN: CF D. Moreno – 3B Adame – 1B Wheeler – RF A. Walker – LF K. Hawkins – C Waker – SS Mullen – 2B Nicholson – P A. Jesus

The Elks, who had already lost starter Alex Mancilla to injury earlier in the week, lost Anton Jesus by the second inning of a scoreless game, as he left the game with a calf strain. The Coons were up against Federico Purificao after that, but the game remained scoreless for a bit longer. Adkins scattered three hits in the first three innings, including singles by Brian Nicholson and Damian Moreno in the bottom 3rd, but then got a 6-4-3 double play inning-ender from ex-Coon Alex Adame, who had hit an infield single his first time up on the day. The Coons’ first two hits in the game were Danny Munn singles, the latter coming with two outs in the fourth inning. Munn went as soon as Chris Gowin made contact on Purificao’s 1-0 pitch, and was already at second base and turning hard-left before the ball smashed a crater into deep centerfield. Damian Moreno didn’t make the best play and Munn was waved around to score on an RBI double, the first run of the game. Rams hit a soft single after that, but Venegas grounded out to leave runners on the corners, just ahead of Adkins getting smashed for three straight 2-out hits in the bottom 4th; Mullen singled home Kyle Hawkins, while Adkins then plunked Nicholson to fill the bases. Adam Magnussen pinch-hit for Purificao, but grounded out to Lonzo to end the dismal inning. It didn’t get any better. By the fifth he was exclusively behind in the count, conceded more hits to Adame and Aaron Walker, and then balked home the go-ahead run with two outs. Hawkins flew out to Brassfield to end the inning, and that was also the end of Adkins’ day, which somehow had entailed 103 pitches in just five innings.

It still didn’t get better; the Coons disappeared 1-2-3 in the sixth, while Bak and Walters gave up four singles and a balk between them, with another run going on the board, charged to Bak, and that was with the Elks having made the first out on third base, Tristan Waker getting thrown out there going first-to-third on a Dan Mullen single. While Ben Arner pitched some more stoic long relief without the Raccoons reaching base in the seventh and eighth against him, the Elks poured a total of 13 hits onto the Coons’ staff, which somehow didn’t allow more runs through eight despite trying their best to do so. Ruben Mendez got the ball for the ninth against the meat of the order, which had yet to produce a whole lot on the day. Pucks flew out to left, Munn whiffed, and Gowin only reached when he was nailed with a 1-1 pitch. Ramsay shoddily grounded out on a 3-1 pitch to drive me up the wall… 3-1 Canadiens. Munn 2-4;

Like I said, seven up and seven with the Elks – basically no lead. Even the Indians were inspired to win their first game in almost a ******* week.

Game 2
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – 1B Puckeridge – RF Munn – C Gowin – 3B Venegas – CF Solorzano – 2B Knight – P Shui
VAN: CF D. Moreno – 3B Adame – 1B Wheeler – C Waker – 2B K. Hawkins – LF Magnussen – RF A. Walker – SS Mullen – P Herman

Pucks crunched a first-inning solo home run for the Critters’ fourth first-frame foray onto the undiscovered country of the scoreboard, while Shui scattered three singles and a walk and somehow didn’t allow a run the first time through. Moreno was forced out by Adame, who was doubled up by Jeff Wheeler in the first; and the bottom 2nd saw Tristan Waker, Aaron Walker, and Dan Mullen all stranded when Herman popped out on the first pitch. The third time was the charm for the damn Elks, who got a leadoff double over the head of Munn mashed by Damian Moreno in the bottom 3rd, and then scored him on productive outs to get even at one.

The ******* leadoff batter was on base yet again in the bottom 4th, then with an infield single for Kyle Hawkins. Magnussen doubled him up with a 4-6-3 gem, while Walker lined out to Lonzo. Notably, Shui had zero strikeouts through four innings… and the Coons only had two base hits as the offensive woes continued. Pucks was 2-for-2, having singled and stolen second base in the top 4th, but then Munn and Gowin had both struck out. While Shui finally had a 1-2-3 inning (against 8-9-1) in the fifth, the Raccoons got somebody other than Mr. Puckeridge on base when Brassfield scratched out an infield single in the sixth. Lonzo popped one to the catcher for the second out, but Pucks’ third hit of the day was a single to right and sent Brass to third base. Munn grounded out and nobody scored…

Bottom 6th, Shui somehow stalked his way around singles by Wheeler and Waker, walked Magnussen with two outs, and then yet had Aaron Walker pop out to Lonzo on a 2-1 pitch to strand another three runners. Like Adkins the day before, he was pitching shoddily, and the pen would take over in the seventh despite him having only thrown 81 pitches so far. The Coons still had nothing cookin’, but Matt Walters struck out the 8-9-1 batters in the bottom 7th to at least keep the game tied. Rastafari and Sather made their way through the eighth inning, the latter giving up a pretty long fly to center to Hawkins with Waker on first base, but Solorzano hustled back to make an over-the-shoulder catch.

Still tied, Ruben Mendez gave up a leadoff double to Lonzo to left as the ninth inning broke. But now, boys!! Pucks was as of yet unretired on the day, but grounded out to Wheeler, which at least moved the go-ahead run to third base. Danny Munn quickly fell to two strikes, and back at home in Portland I covered my face with Honeypaws, but Munn then actually bashed a 2-2 pitch to center. That one was sure to get Lonzo home one way or another, and actually fell in for a double! Speaking of falling in, Munn fell into second base and limped off with Luis Silva eventually, which didn’t cause me any increased agony AT ALL. Jason Monson ran for him, and scored on Gowin’s single to center, 3-1, which was the end for Mendez. Bernardino Risso replaced him, gave up a single to Venegas, and then pinch-hitters moved Gowin’s tack-on run to third base when Waters hit into a fielder’s choice, and across to home plate when Philipps’ grounder was fudged by Hawkins. Tenazes finally grounded out. Hitchcock got the ball for the bottom 9th. He dismissed the 6-7-8 batters in order. 4-1 Coons. Puckeridge 3-4, HR, RBI;

Geoff Sather threw one pitch for his first major league win. Half of it he’d better give to Solorzano…

Danny Munn was out with a knee contusion. While that sucked, the good news was that he might be able to come back in ten days or less. He was thus not sent to the DL since I had a hunch we might have a use for him inside the next 15 days…

Indy lost on Saturday, so we were back to seven games ahead. Or, by my advanced math, two games ahead given there were another five contests with the Elks on the schedule.

Game 3
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 1B Ramsay – 3B Venegas – 2B Waters – CF Monson – C Raczka – P Taki
VAN: CF D. Moreno – 3B Adame – 1B Wheeler – C Waker – LF Magnussen – RF A. Walker – 2B Uranga – SS Mullen – P Lausch

The Elks carted up a different right-hander in Jesse Lausch (7-8, 4.99 ERA) for the Sunday rubber game. He was the fourth opposing pitcher this week to fall 2-0 or worse behind in the first inning, courtesy of a Lonzo single and another first-frame jack by Pucks, this one to almost straightaway centerfield. Jason Monson’s no-doubter clocked to rightfield made it 3-0 in the second inning, marking Monson’s second homer for the Coons and the sixth between the three teams he’d played for this season. An inning later, a pair of 2-base throwing errors by Waker and Magnussen put Pucks on base and back in the dugout for a fourth Coons run, then with Rams taking over the unearned occupancy at second base. He was stranded, though, when both Venegas and Waters grounded out to Dan Mullen. Jesse Lausch then also became the second pitcher this week to hit a single after the rest of his team had drawn eight blanks against a Raccoons starter, then scored on a long Moreno double in the right-center gap. Taki answered with a 2-out double in the fourth inning, but that came with nobody on base and with Brassfield flying out to Magnussen afterwards.

The rest of the lead disappeared in typical Elk City ******* frozen tundra utter ******** fashion in the bottom 4th. On Taki’s first two pitches of the inning, Wheeler and Waker hit not one, but two infield singles. Magnussen quickly smashed an RBI double to right, Walker added a sac fly, and Jorge Uranga singled home the tying run… Portland rebounded with a Pucks single, a wild pitch that moved him to second base, and Rams’ RBI single in the fifth inning, 5-4. Lausch was yanked for Jameson Monk, while Taki came pretty close to also not seeing the light of day at the end of the fifth inning after drilling Adame with an 0-2 pitch for a 1-out base runner in the bottom 5th. Wheeler spanked a ball to Lonzo for a double play, though, and we indeed were up 5-4 through five.

He still didn’t get a win, despite hitting a 1-out single single in the sixth inning. Brassfield’s grounder and Lonzo’s single moved him to third base, but from there it was back to the dugout when Lonzo was caught stealing to kill the inning. In turn, when Magnussen hit a 1-out single off Taki in the bottom 6th and was run for by Julio Caballero, not only did Caballero successfully steal second base, but Raczka also threw the ball into his legs and it caromed into rightfield to allow Caballero to reach third base, from where he scored on a wild pitch, at which point I was beginning to show third-degree gasping and the first signs of a heart attack. Lillis and Sayonara giving up three singles and the go-ahead run with two outs in the next ******* inning didn’t exactly improve my condition and Honeypaws threatened to call 911 at that point if I wouldn’t calm the **** down.

A fourth Elks error put Monson on base with one gone in the eighth inning and Dan Lawrence pitching, but Jeff Raczka found a double play with absolutely deadly precision, bouncing out to Hawkins at second base. Sencion held off the hordes in the bottom 8th and then it was the rather unimpressive right-hander Jared Bramel in the ninth inning that was assigned holding the 6-5 lead against the Raccoons’ 9-1-2 batters. Ed Crispin, who was already batting ninth after a double switch, began with a single to center. Brassfield and Lonzo were no help and made meek outs that didn’t even advance the runner, and Pucks grounded out to Nicholson behind the second base bag, but Nicholson was carried into centerfield by momentum and had no play at either first or second, giving Pucks an infield single. This here would now have been a great spot to have Danny Munn bat, but Danny Fun was now Danny Bum Knee, and the Coons had to make do with Ramsay, he of two homers in 231 at-bats this year. But no! Make that three homers in 232 ******* at-bats! First pitch, A TREMENDOUS KNELL, a HUGE drive to center, and THAT – WAS – OUTTA THERE!!! SECOND DEAD-AS-DISCO, NINTH-INNING, COME-FROM-BEHIND HOMER OF THE WEEK!!!

I was still screaming like a common wild buffoon when Kevin Hitchcock entered the bottom 9th to try his luck with a newly-established 8-6 lead. Nicholson whiffed. Damian Moreno grounded out to Waters. Alex Adame singled to center. Chad Walton – who?? – walked on four straight balls. HITCH!! STOP ******* AROUND!!! He had Julio Diaz at 1-2 before throwing a wild pitch that sent the tying runs into scoring position. Another ball filled the count. HIIIIIITCH!!! ******* ****!! STRIKE HIM OUT!! So striking him out, he did. Ballgame…! 8-6 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-5; Puckeridge 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Ramsay 3-4, BB, HR, 5 RBI; Crispin 1-1;

(falls asleep on the couch from exhaustion)

In other news

August 30 – Las Vegas rookie OF/1B Gunner Epperson (.274, 12 HR, 70 RBI) enters the record books by hitting for the cycle in a 7-4 win over the Indians. Epperson, 24, adds a walk to the 4-4 day with 2 RBI. This is the fourth cycle of the season and the third in just five weeks.
September 1 – The season of DEN 2B/3B Ivan Villa (.284, 19 HR, 81 RBI) ends with a broken thumb.
September 3 – The Miners beat the Rebels by a football score, 18-12. Half the runs score in the fifth inning; five for the Rebs and ten for Pittsburgh. RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.322, 20 HR, 59 RBI), while on the losing side, ostensibly has the best day, going 4-for-4 with a walk, two homers, and a handful of RBI.
September 5 – SAC 2B/SS Ryan Harris (.230, 7 HR, 52 RBI) has suffered a career-ending tear to the labrum in his throwing shoulder. The 27-year-old played for three FL teams in two seasons, batting .246 with 13 HR and 102 RBI.

FL Player of the Week: RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.321, 21 HR, 60 RBI), crushing .545 (12-22) with 7 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC INF Zach Suggs (.322, 17 HR, 75 RBI), peppering .560 (14-25) with 5 HR, 9 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DEN 1B Bill Joyner (.340, 17 HR, 75 RBI), batting .393 with 4 HR, 23 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: ATL 1B Pat Fowler (.294, 17 HR, 63 RBI), socking .304 with 9 HR, 31 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS SP Tony Llorens (11-7, 2.95 ERA), going 5-1 in 6 games with a 1.76 ERA, 25 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: POR SP He Shui (18-5, 2.88 ERA), going a perfect 6-0 with 1.65 ERA, 35 K
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN RF/LF/1B Nelson Aguilar (.373, 5 HR, 27 RBI), batting .377 with 2 HR, 13 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: LVA OF/1B Gunner Epperson (.273, 12 HR, 72 RBI), shooting .291 with 5 HR, 21 RBI

Complaints and stuff

That was… a week.

The bullet points are, however, that the Coons went 5-1, and the Indians went very much the opposite. They got swept by the Aces, and they lost two games against the Titans, and they have now rapidly fallen eight games behind. I’m not saying we’re running away with this, because I know the baseball gods are always watching and they always have some more lightning ready. I’m just saying BNN thinks this race is ending briskly (with strength of schedule and playoff odds):

POR (84-51) – BOS (7), NYC (4), VAN (4), CHA (3), IND (3), MIL (3), TIJ (3) – .471 – 99.3%
IND (76-59) – MIL (6), BOS (4), OCT (4), VAN (4), ATL (3), NYC (3), POR (3) – .497 – 0.7%

The Indians have to get themselves straightened out fast – their last chance to take games from the Coons directly will already be on the next weekend, and in Portland. We’ll have an 11-game homestand now, hosting the Titans, Indians, and Elks.

Quick look at Lonzo, who four weeks ago had reached 29th on the career stolen base table, and who had quickly disposed of 28th-place Pedro Cisneros. Lonzo stole ten bags in the last four weeks, compared to nine for Chris Navarro, whom he was chasing up the table currently. Andrew Russ was sitting mostly on the bench for New York and had not stolen a base in over a month.

23rd – Jose Rivas – 404 – active
t-24th – Piet Oosterom – 393
t-24th – Andrew Russ – 393 – active
26th – Javier Rodriguez – 391
27th – Chris Navarro – 381 – active
28th – Lorenzo Lavorano – 379 – active
29th – Pedro Cisneros – 370
30th – Paul Connolly – 366 – HOF
31st – Billy Bouldin – 365 – HOF

Jose Rivas was a 36-year-old infielder on the Thunder. His speed was largely gone; despite hitting .306 in 69 games for Oklahoma, he had stolen only a single base this year. He led the FL in steals with 59 in 2045, then with Dallas, but his last season with double digits was 2052, and he had put together just five sacks in the last three seasons. Apart from stolen bases, he had won a batting title in ’44 and three Gold Gloves in total. He had just five career homers in his 2,582 hits.

Fun Fact: The most efficient starter for the Raccoons in the last few weeks would be… Cameron Argenziano.

4-0 with a 1.32 ERA in his last eight appearances, dating back to mid-July. We’re not quite sure how he’s doing it, offering 2+ walks in all but one of the starts, and usually striking out only modest numbers. But he has allowed more than one earned run just once in the stretch, and so while he’s not always going very deep into games (three starts of five innings or less in those eight games), somehow he’s holding on.

Somehow.

That’s the part that concerns me, because we’re relying on a 27-year-old “who?” that spent all of last year in AAA and put up an ERA near five. His K/BB was worse in AAA than in the majors even *this* season. He’s an explosion waiting to happen. But for the time being he hasn’t been beaten in six weeks and has scrubbed down his career numbers to 6-9 and 3.81 ERA, and he even got the career BB/9 under five now.

Yes, that’s our fourth-best starter now. We’re not calling the ring factory yet…