[Westheim]

Raccoons (51-61) @ Titans (60-52) – August 5-7, 2058

The Portland Dimwits travelled further up the coast to Boston for a 3-game series there starting on Monday, while not having scored a single run themselves in their last three games, and only a singular run on a stray Trent Brassfield homer in their last 41 innings. It looked a lot like they had quit for the year. The Titans, sliding ever further out of the picture in a no longer tight CL North race, had the seventh-most runs scored, but second-fewest runs allowed in the Continental League and badly needed the Critters to hold still for another three days. The season series was even at six.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (1-6, 5.66 ERA) vs. Mike Pohlmann (8-7, 3.80 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (9-7, 3.03 ERA) vs. Larry Broad (12-4, 3.15 ERA)
Zach Stewart (8-10, 2.95 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (7-5, 3.21 ERA)

We’d see only right-handers, not that handedness of the opposing pitcher mattered much right now.

Game 1
POR: RF Royer – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C M. Chavez – 3B Brobeck – 1B Starr – 2B Bribiesca – P C. Fox
BOS: CF Torrence – SS Leitch – 1B M. Rubin – C Burkart – LF Y. Valdez – RF J. Harris – 2B W. de Leon – 3B D. Mendoza – P Pohlmann

The scoreless streak did not extend to infinity, courtesy of Noah Caswell’s first-inning solo home run off Pohlmann that gave the Raccoons the early lead. The physical presence of Chance Fox in the ballpark of course meant that a 1-0 lead wasn’t gonna do, but when Pohlmann failed the bags full with a Brobeck double and walks issued to Bribiesca and Fox with two outs in the top 2nd, Royer popped out in foul ground to let the chance slip away. Brobeck’s error in the bottom 3rd and a Pohlmann single put two Titans on base to begin the inning then, but Fox withstood the 1-2-3 of the lineup, getting a pop, a K, and a grounder to short from Ethan Torrence, Alan Leitch, and Manny Rubin, respectively, to slip away from potential damage. Joel Starr hit a triple to center in the fourth inning, but with two outs and nobody on, and an intentional walk to Bribiesca and Fox’ pop to Yoslan Valdez in shallow left meant that no additional run was scored. Bottom 4th, and Brobeck made his second error to begin an inning, bobbling Bruce Burkart’s bouncer, badly. Valdez followed up with a near-homer to deep right that Royer caught while bouncing off the fence. A four-pitch walk to Jonathan Harris and a K to Willie de Leon followed before Diego Mendoza bounced to Brobeck – and Brobeck’s throw to first was terrible and barely kept on the field by a lunging Starr. All Titans were safe, bringing up Pohlmann with two outs and the bags full. He flew out to Caswell, somehow, instead of hitting a doubly-unearned grand slam.

The Titans finally flipped the score in the bottom 5th, with Fox blowing the game all on his own, allowing a walk to Leitch, a single to Rubin, and then with two outs back-to-back RBI singles to Valdez and Harris, 2-1 Boston, before de Leon grounded out to second base. Top 6th, and Joel Starr tied the game with the third single of the inning after Brass and “Three-Fingers” Brobeck had taken to the corners already with the first two hits of the inning. It was the first run scored on a ball in play by the Raccoons since Wednesday, approximately 6,928 innings ago. Bribiesca’s RBI single completed the re-flip of the score to 3-2 Coons, but Fox and Royer made poor outs with a guy on third base. Fox made it through six innings, but when he returned after the stretch walked the first two Titans coming up and then was yanked for Siwik, who got out of the jam without getting rid of the skinny lead, and also popped out Mendoza to second base in the bottom 8th; Eloy Sencion got the last two outs in that inning, setting up Walters. Leitch hit a sharp leadoff single to right and would advance on a wild pitch with two outs, but apart from that the Titans remained just as harmless as when Brobeck was still creating panic in the field – Tony Benitez had taken over by now, though – and went down on two pops and a strikeout to Walters. 3-2 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-4, 2B; Brobeck 2-4, 2B; Starr 2-4, 3B, RBI; Bribiesca 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1;

Fox gave up seven hits, four walks, and was attacked by Brobeck with three errors across six innings, and the Titans still couldn’t get in front of him. Maybe they had no place in the playoffs after all.

Game 2
POR: RF Royer – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C M. Chavez – 2B Labonte – 1B Starr – 3B Benitez – P B. Herrera
BOS: 2B W. de Leon – LF Ma. Gilmore – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – RF Y. Valdez – SS Leitch – CF J. Harris – 3B Torrence – P Broad

Lonzo singled, stole his first base in a while, and then scored on Brass’ single for another first-inning 1-0 lead for the Coons. Little else happened in the early innings; Tipsy Bobby kept the Titans to a walk against three strikeouts, and no base hits, while the Raccoons went on to load the bags in the fourth inning with Cas and Brass, who did the dirty double steal, and then Labonte, who walked. Starr batted with one out, but his fly to left-center was caught by Harris and he was held to a sac fly. Tony Benitez, already 0-for-11, flew out to Matt Gilmore to strand the remaining runners. Boston answered with a run in the bottom 4th as Jorge Arviso singled, Manny Rubin doubled, and Valdez hit a sac fly of his own to Royer. It got worse from there; Ethan Torrence hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 5th and Broad’s fly to center was dropped by Caswell. De Leon and Gilmore got a single and a walk out of Herrera, and then Arviso got one out of the park for a 6-2 Titans lead.

When the Raccoons next loaded the bases with Chavez, Labonte, and Starr in the sixth inning, they only got a double play grounder to end the inning from Benitez. Pucks, Royer, and Lonzo then hit straight singles to begin the seventh – now down 7-2 after Bravo gave up a run in between – to knock out Broad and bring in the pen with righty Dan Lawrence. One pitch to Caswell was a strike, but the second one was launched over the fence in right for the second four-piece of the game. GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!

While nothing takes air out of an inning quite like a grand slam, the Raccoons kept scratching even after making two outs following the blast. Labonte then singled with two outs and Starr sent a ball up the leftfield line for an RBI double to tie the score at seven! He was left there when Benitez walked and Pucks flew out to right. The Coons sent out Ornelas for two innings then, which worked well enough in the bottom 7th, but not the eighth, which Torrence opened with a double to right. A grounder and a sac fly scored the runner against Sencion and gave the Titans a 1-run lead going into the ninth inning with Josh Penington and his 6.56 ERA going out to the mound. Marcos Chavez grounded out, but Labonte singled through between Torrence and Danny Encarnacion on the left side. Starr grounded out to first, moving the tying run to second base, and Brobeck then batted for 0-for-zillon Tony Benitez. He singled to right on the first pitch, Labonte went from second base, Valdez got to the ball and fired home hard – but not on point, leading Arviso to vacate the plate and chase the ball. Labonte scored, Brobeck went to second base, and the game was extended, although Cortez Chavez then whiffed to end the inning. Bottom 9th, Neal Hamann came, saw, gave up three singles, and then a game-ending sac fly to Hector Weir… 9-8 Titans. Lavorano 3-5; Caswell 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Brassfield 2-4, BB, RBI; Labonte 4-4, BB; Starr 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Brobeck (PH) 1-1, RBI; Puckeridge (PH) 1-2;

Arf.

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Brassfield – 3B Brobeck – RF Martinez – LF Puckeridge – C C. Chavez – P Stewart
BOS: CF Torrence – SS Leitch – 1B M. Rubin – C Burkart – RF J. Harris – 2B W. de Leon – LF Weir – 3B D. Mendoza – P Glaude

Offense through five innings was negligible, with only two hits for the Raccoons and no threat worth waffling about. The Titans had a leadoff triple from Mendoza in the bottom 3rd, but Glaude struck out, Torrence grounded out poorly to Brobeck, and Leitch grounded flew out to Pucks, keeping that runner stranded. It was Pucks though to invite the Titans to take a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning later on, dropping a fly ball from Leitch that would have ended the inning if caught properly, but as it was the error allowed Hector Weir to score from third base after having drawn a leadoff walk. Rubin also walked in the inning, but Bruce Burkart flew out to left to end it. Stewart struck out five batters in the first three innings and none in the middle three innings, in addition to coming apart entirely in the bottom 6th. Harris walked, de Leon singled, Weir singled home a run, but Mendoza popped out at least. Stewart had PH Yoslan Valdez at 0-2 before beaning him, and then gave up a 2-run single to Torrence, leading to his removal. Rubin singled in another run against Tanizaki with two outs and Boston took a 5-0 lead. Another run scored off Brobeck (…) in the eighth inning as Mike Tobin got walked to begin the inning and was bunted over, stole third base, and came around on Leitch’s groundout. The Coons never got even close to scoring position in the late innings. 6-0 Titans. Lavorano 1-2; Puckeridge 0-1, 2 BB;

Tony Benitez was batting 0-for-14 at this point and was obviously to blame for everything and purged to St. Pete for the off day. Next candidate: Richard Anderson, batting .239 even in AAA…

Raccoons (52-63) @ Scorpions (62-52) – August 9-11, 2058

The Scorpions were two and a half games out in the FL West and needed the wins, which was such a good coincidence for them; why not play a team that never scores…!? Whether Sacramento deserved the playoffs was another thing entirely, because while they were ten games over .500 they were actually 10 runs under .500, giving up more runs than they scored and sitting seventh in both runs scored and conceded. These teams last played three years ago, with a two-to-one series win for Portland.

Projected matchups:
Ramon Carreno (5-10, 4.18 ERA) vs. A.C. Stebbins (11-3, 2.63 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (6-1, 2.51 ERA) vs. C.J. Harney (7-12, 4.93 ERA)
Chance Fox (2-6, 5.37 ERA) vs. Mike McCaffrey (6-8, 4.13 ERA)

We’d see the sole left-hander and the only starter with an ERA better than 4 on that roster in the opener, and on Sunday struggling star Mike McCaffrey, who had four FL Pitcher of the Year crowns, including in the last two seasons. This year he seemed cursed with a .335 BABIP, and the walks were creeping up. He was still striking out 11 per nine innings, though.

Game 1
POR: 1B Royer – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 3B Brobeck – RF Martinez – 2B Bribiesca – P Carreno
SAC: SS C. Navarro – 2B Russ – RF Buras – 1B S. Wyatt – LF Velasco – CF Gough – C Korfhage – 3B Arguello – P Stebbins

Carreno was begging for a beating from the start, but the Scorpions stranded pairs of runners in scoring position in both of the first two innings before getting their two runners to second and third without much provocation and especially without anybody out in the bottom 3rd. Andrew Russ (hiss!!!!) and Will Buras both singled, and Carreno boldly balked them ever onwards. Steve Wyatt’s groundout and Andres Velasco’s sac fly both plated one of the runners and the Stingers were up 2-0. Stebbins didn’t set a foot wrong, really, until Brobeck hit a leadoff double in the fifth inning and Martinez snuck a single through the left side, putting runners on the corners for the Raccoons in a rush of offense that nevertheless died a sad and lonely death as Bribiesca popped out, Carreno whiffed, and Royer flew out to Buras. Nobody scored. Ever. The Coons got six sullen innings from Carreno, then botched the rest together with Bravo, Hamann, and Ornelas, who somehow allowed four runners between them but again no runs against clumsy Scorpions, who won by two runs but it felt like seven. 2-0 Scorpions. Brobeck 3-4, 2B; Martinez 2-4;

(groans)

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Puckeridge – 3B Brobeck – P Argenziano
SAC: RF Velasco – 2B Russ – SS C. Navarro – CF Buras – 1B S. Wyatt – C J. Luna – LF Gough – 3B Arguello – P Harney

Argenziano gave up a run without a base hit in the first inning, walking the bases full before giving up a sac fly to Wyatt, but in turn hit a doubly-unearned 2-run double in the second inning after both Joel Starr and Pucks reached on errors with one out. Brobeck hit an RBI single to tie, Argenziano batted himself ahead, and Labonte added another single. Lonzo lined out to John Gough in shallow left, which prevented Argenziano from going, and Caswell also made a meek out to leave runners on the corners. Brassfield then went yard in the third inning to extend the lead to 4-1.

Argenziano ran up the pitch count fast, despite allowing only one hit through four innings. Four walks and five strikeouts put him at 69 pitches through four, and he didn’t get through the fifth at all. Harney whiffed, but then Velasco singled and Russ and Chris Navarro both hit doubles, narrowing the score to 4-3 on the latter drive. Buras popped out, but a 2-out walk to Wyatt ended Argenziano’s day after four and two thirds innings. Siwik entered with Jesus Martinez in a double switch (Pucks went home), Jose Luna hit an infield single on a 3-0 pitch (…), but Gough then grounded out to short to strand the bases loaded in a 4-3 game.

The Coons couldn’t score in the sixth despite a single by Martinez and an error by Luna, then made two outs in the seventh against righty Tim Moore before Bribiesca batted for Siwik in the #7 spot and singled. Brobeck hit another single, and Martinez found the gap in left-center on an 0-2 pitch for a 2-run double, 6-3…! Labonte legged out a single that died on the infield grass against lefty Eric Reese in relief of Moore, but Lonzo ordinarily grounded out to short to end the inning with runners left on the corners. The Scorpions answered by stranding a full set in the eighth inning as Eloy Sencion got out two left-handed bats, but walked right-handers Gustavo Pena and Andres Velasco, whilst Russ (growl!!!!!) reached on an error by Brobeck (releases steam from his fuzzy ears) to fill ‘em all up. Tanizaki came in, ran a full count against Navarro, and then somehow beat the speedster to the bag on a grounder to Starr’s right. Starr made an error himself in the ninth inning behind Matt Walters, but the closer pulled through … 6-3 Coons. Labonte 3-5; Starr 2-5; Brobeck 2-5, RBI; Martinez 2-2, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Puckeridge – 3B Anderson – P Fox
SAC: LF Velasco – 3B Gates – SS C. Navarro – RF Buras – 1B S. Wyatt – 2B Russ – C J. Luna – CF Gough – P McCaffrey

Lonzo reached on an error, stole second and reached third on another error, and scored on a Caswell sac fly for first-inning “offense” against the 36-year-old McCaffrey, who gave up an earned run in the fourth inning on a Chavez double and Starr’s RBI single to make it 2-0. At this point, young Chance Fox was perfect, although this stopped at 11 straight retired Scorpions when Chris Navarro hit a double to right in the bottom 4th, but was stranded by Buras’ fly to center. In an otherwise rather uneventful game, Fox outlasted McCaffrey, who was replaced with Reese after giving up a hit to Pucks and a walk to Anderson with two outs in the seventh, but Reese then went on to whiff Fox and no runs were added.

When I say Fox outlasted McCaffrey, I also mean that he outlasted his 2-0 lead, which went up in flames in a 4-single, 2-run bottom of the seventh. Of course that abomination of hells unseen, Andrew Russ (eagerly lobs a whole clove of garlic at the field) had a twisted hoof of his in the scheme, singling home Navarro with two outs in the inning, followed by more singles by Luna and Gough. He finished the inning, but the Raccoons went in order in the eighth and the chance to win games back-to-back was gone. Much the contrary, Tanizaki shuffled the bags full with sheer ineptitude in the bottom 8th, nailing Velasco with an 0-2 pitch, allowing a single to Prince Gates, and walking Navarro – all with nobody out. His replacement, Eloy Sencion was no less *****, allowing a run on a grounder, one on a sac fly, and two more on a Luna double after a walk to Russ. (tears a seat out of its bolts and screws in section 327) … 6-2 Scorpions. Fox 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

August 5 – Shoulder inflammation ends the season of Miners closer Cruz Madrid (6-6, 3.88 ERA, 24 SV).
August 6 – Another closer down: SFB CL Oscar Juarez (3-2, 2.21 ERA, 25 SV) might not even be ready for next season after tearing a flexor tendon in his elbow.
August 7 – Cyclones LF/CF Juan del Toro (.236, 3 HR, 20 RBI) reaches 2,000 career hits with a 2-for-4 day against the Miners. Pittsburgh wins 8-2, while the 2048 FL Player of the Year and 7-time All Star lands the milestone in the first inning with a single against Cincy right-hander Chad Shultz (5-0, 3.05 ERA, 1 SV).
August 7 – Los Angeles takes on the last year and a half on the contract of 3B Bobby Anderson (.252, 8 HR, 52 RBI) and $3M in cash in a trade with the Falcons, who receive two prospects.
August 7 – The Knights’ C Marco Nieto (.375, 6 HR, 54 RBI) has put together a 20-game hitting streak after putting out two singles and a double in a 12-5 win against the Aces.
August 8 – The Aces get revenge on the Knights with an 8-2 win and also kill the hitting streak of Marco Nieto (.371, 6 HR, 54 RBI), who goes 0-for-5 in the game.
August 8 – MIL SP Tyler Riddle (10-4, 3.27 ERA) is headed for 12 months on the mend with a damaged elbow ligament.
August 10 – The season is over and the next Opening Day questionable for Capitals outfielder Neville van de Wouw (.282, 3 HR, 25 RBI), who has torn a medial collateral ligament.

FL Player of the Week: RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.356, 23 HR, 74 RBI), thrashing .458 (11-24) with 5 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.409, 2 HR, 49 RBI), hitting .522 (12-23) with 1 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We’re closing in on the point where any hot paw in AAA can find playing time in the last quarter of the season. No obvious candidates come to mind right now, though.

We’ve known for a while that Steve Royer and Neal Hamann are only here to sit out the final years of their contracts, but the Kyle Brobeck tenure also looks to be coming to an end here, as he is no longer remotely useful as a garbage pitcher and his defense is so horrendous that it doesn’t merit further bothers with what is this year a decidedly mediocre bat.

They’re all mediocre, aren’t they?

Tales from the field hospital: Last year’s #9 pick Brett Cotton was 8-4 with a 3.73 ERA and 9.7 K/9 after a May promotion to Ham Lake, but has now been shut down for a case of elbow inflammation. A tender 20 years old, he might still appear in St. Pete next year.

Heading home to look like horse **** against the Miners and Indians now…

Fun Fact: Fun is dead.

Dead and forgotten.