[Westheim]

The Raccoons added personnel (carefully avoids calling it “talent”) at the start of September. Four pitchers were added in J.J. Sensabaugh, Colby Bowen, Adam Harris, and Elijah LaBat. Sensabaugh had his St. Pete ERA down to 2.79 and might even get another whiff at a couple of starts down the line. Bowen was only here for garbage innings, while the other two increased our lefty headcount in the bullpen to *six*.

For a third catcher, we didn’t want to use up another spot on the 40-man roster, so that left only Deshawn Beard and Cortez Chavez as options, who had hit .170 as backup with the Coons either this year or last year. In the end we grabbed Chavez, who at least wasn’t ancient. Chavez had worn #18 last year, since reassigned to Joey Christopher, since moved to the DL. Chavez got #40.

For first base prospects, Joe Agee had unfortunately moved to the DL and Forbes Tomlin had already disappointed (in very limited chances, though) and we instead went to the other half of the trade for Angel Perez this summer and brought up 1B/CF (!) Jack Kozak. Neither position was an available spot on the roster right now, but we had already started to accustom him to leftfield in the minors in the last month. He had hit for an .815 OPS in 31 games with the Alley Cats, so at least the stick seemed to be working, and should be face another left-hander, ever, he would slide into the lineup for either Starr or Caswell.

The final two call-ups were 21-year-old centerfielder Ben Morris, who had already been up for a few games last year without hitting anything, but who had a .395 OBP in St. Pete and with the way things were going we were ready and willing to toss him into the leadoff spot for a week; also Vernon Hudalla, because we definitely needed more lint options for the middle infield.

Raccoons (70-60) @ Knights (70-59) – September 1-3, 2059

While the Raccoons pretended they had rallied into contention again, the Knights were in *actual* contention, only half a game out in the South. They were sixth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed with a -20 run differential, though, so it was still hard to take them seriously, except that they led the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (5-6, 3.69 ERA) vs. Morgan Aben (12-5, 4.01 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-4, 3.65 ERA) vs. Enrique Ortiz (4-8, 4.60 ERA)
Bobby Sneeze (1-2, 3.52 ERA) vs. Vic Harman (12-7, 3.64 ERA)

More tip-toeing around southpaws, missing Jose Villegas (3-10, 4.26 ERA) by a day.

Game 1
POR: LF Morris – 2B Ortega – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Ojeda – SS Bean – C Monaghan – P Damasceno
ATL: SS Moya – CF Nork – LF Abercrombie – 1B C. Rice – 2B del Toro – C G. Mendez – RF Callaia – 3B Triplett – P Aben

Ben Morris never showed up in leftfield, striking out to begin the game, while Bernie Ortega grounded out. Cas and Brass then hit singles, but Cas also limped off the field with a tight hammy. The outfielders were reshuffled without ever putting on their mittens, with Morris to center, Brass to left, and Konecny showing up in rightfield, at least after Starr fanned to end the inning. The Raccoons then continued to be offensively illiterate, while DD feigned competence for a few innings, but then offered a leadoff walk to Morgan Aben in the bottom 3rd and it was pretty much downhill from there, even with Joaquin Moya hitting into a double play. Chris Rice drew another leadoff walk in the fourth, Juan del Toro (pff!) doubled, and the runners then scored on a Gabriel Mendez sac fly and a single by another ex-Coon, Gaudencio Callaia. Damaseceno also walked Doug Triplett, and the inning didn’t end until after Aben’s bunt and Moya’s groundout to Ojeda. Dan Nork hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but didn’t advance. Damasceno had racketed up the pitch count, though. He got a grounder from Mendez to begin the sixth, then was removed after 96 pitches.

The Raccoons then got outs from LaBat (three), Rios (one), and Sencion (four) to get through eight innings without much offense from the Knights, either, but Morgan Aben was still pitching a 5-hit shutout in the ninth inning. Konecny grounded out on the first pitch of the inning, but then Brass socked a double to center and Starr walked in a full count, and for some reason, even with the tying runs on, the Knights stuck to Aben – even after an error by Triplett put Ojeda on to load the bases. He wasn’t removed until after Labonte batted for Sencion, grounded out to bring in a run, and *now* Ryan Dow came out to get one out in a 2-1 game with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Angel Perez batted for Monaghan, fell to 1-2, and then turned it around and struck a score-flipping, 2-out, 2-strike, 2-run double to left! Dow threw a wild pitch, then gave up an RBI single to Hudalla (!), and then the Knights went down quickly against Matt Walters in the bottom 9th. 4-2 Blighters. Caswell 1-1; Brassfield 2-3, 2B; Perez (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Eloy Sencion got an unlikely W here.

The good news about Cas was that the hammy was still intact, but he was sore on Tuesday and listed as day-to-day. He might miss a day or two, but that should be it. Morris (0-for-5 and reaching on an error only) would start in centerfield, and Jack Kozak would make his Raccoons debut in leftfield. It was not his ABL debut – he had appeared in 17 games with the Pacifics last year, batting .192 with no homers.

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – 2B Labonte – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – LF Kozak – SS Bean – 3B Benitez – P Fox
ATL: CF Nork – 1B C. Rice – C M. Nieto – LF Abercrombie – 2B del Toro – 3B Triplett – RF Jarvis – SS Moya – P En. Ortiz

Ortiz left with an injury in a scoreless game after just 2.2 innings, departing with Jon Bean on second base. His replacement, Oscar Juarez, walked the bags full with Morris and Labonte, but then got Brassfield to ground out to Triplett instead of tripling in a triplet. The Raccoons remained woeful at the dish. Starr singled to begin the fourth, but was stranded. Morris drew a 2-out walk in the fifth, stole a base, and was stranded. Finally, Foxie Brown, who had held the line so far, ran face-and-whiskers-first into a 3-run inning in the bottom 5th. He walked del Toro to get going, which was always great, then gave up a single to Triplett, an RBI double to Bobby Jarvis, an RBI groundout to Matt Worden, balked, and then allowed an RBI single to Dan Nork before finally fanning Chris Rice.

The Raccoons responded with Joel Starr… reaching on an error by Triplett. It got better, though; Jack Kozak singled after whiffing in his first two times up, and then Jon Bean found the gap in right-center for a 2-run double. Tony Benitez was walked intentionally with two outs, but the Raccoons were not shy about yanking starters in September, sent Kelly Konecny to bat for Fox, but only got a groundout and the inning ended. We then needed three pitchers to get through the bottom 6th, as Adam Harris allowed singles to Marco Nieto and Abercrombie, Bobby Jarvis walked against Bravo, and finally Ricky Herrera got a groundout from Moya to leave the bases loaded.

Baseball remained wicked even as the leaves turned yellow. Ricky Herrera pitched the bottom 7th as well, wobbling Dan Nork to third base but then whiffing Rice and getting Nieto to pop out and leave the insurance run 90 feet away. The Raccoons then started the top 8th with a fly to left from Starr that was caught by Abercrombie, but Perez’ fly to right dinked in for a double. Kozak whiffed instead of jacking, but Juan Ojeda batted for the hero from two innings ago, Bean, when the Knights went to left-hander Amari Walker, and Ojeda socked his second homer of the year over the fence in leftfield to flip the score and put Ricky Herrera in line for an unprecedented 11th win in relief as a Raccoon. Sencion and Sensabaugh, the wicked pair, held the 4-3 lead in the bottom 8th, but the Raccoons only got a Labonte single and then saw him caught stealing in the ninth inning, so there was no insurance for Walters, who faced the bottom of the order again in the ninth inning. Jamie Harmon pinch-hit for a leadoff single to left, but then Moya, Matt Diskin, and Gabriel Mendez whiffed in order to put the game into the books. 4-3 Raccoons! Bean 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Ojeda (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; R. Herrera 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (11-4);

R. Herrera now had more wins than B. Herrera…!

Oh, baseball. You silly goose.

Game 3
POR: LF Morris – 2B Labonte – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – SS Bean – 3B Ojeda – P Sneeze
ATL: C M. Nieto – CF Nork – LF Abercrombie – 1B C. Rice – RF J. Harmon – 2B del Toro – SS Moya – 3B Triplett – P Harman

The Knights went up 3-0 on one base hit, which ended the inning, in the bottom 1st, which sounded wicked, and it was. Bobby Sneeze (gesundheit!) was garbage, walking Dan Nork with one out, then nicking Chris Rice with two, and then walking another three batters in a row before giving up an RBI single to Triplett on which del Toro was thrown out at home by Morris to end the bedeviled inning. Sneeze then retired six straight in the next two innings, which was all the more perplexing. The Raccoons didn’t get on the board until Caswell – back in the lineup, thank goodness! – socked a leadoff jack to right in the fourth, his 18th of the year and breaking the tie for the team lead with Brass, who struck out. Singles by Starr and Bean and a 2-out error by del Toro that put Ojeda on base then loaded the bases with the pitcher’s spot up, and Sneeze was yoinked. Bernie Ortega struck out, but at least we tried…

Ornelas walked Moya and gave up an RBI double to Triplett in the bottom 4th to restore the 3-run gap, while Harman seemed to get better as the game moved along. He had eight strikeouts in six innings, but then suddenly faced the bases loaded with nobody out in the top 7th, and none of the three singles that got him there had been hard it. Ojeda had snuck a slow roller right over the second base bag and out of reach by the middle infielders. Kozak hit a bloop single over del Toro’s head. And Morris legged out a grounder to Moya’s right. However, three on and nobody out was not exactly a guarantee that the Raccoons would have a good time, even with the big bats near. Labonte struck out. Cas popped out. Brass… struck out.

After Brad Loveless got lit up for two runs in the bottom 7th, the Raccoons had three on and nobody out against Harman *again*, but at this point I was past pretending after Starr walked, Perez singled, and Bean was… beaned. The Raccoons scored exactly ZERO runs again, this time with Ojeda hitting into a depressing 9-2 double play and Kozak whiffing. Colby Bowen gave up another run in the eighth, and the Raccoons had the bases loaded with one out in the ninth against right-hander Jake Hill, who walked in a run against Joel Starr, and then was lifted for Ryan Dow. Perez hit a sac fly, but Bean’s groundout ended the game. 7-3 Knights. Gonzales (PH) 1-1; Perez 3-4, 2B, RBI; Bean 2-4; Kozak (PH) 1-2;

Harman struck out 11. The Coons also had 11 hits, but they managed to leave a full dozen on base. The total of individual runners left on base was 30.

We gained a game on the Crusaders during the whole thing, however, as they lost their series with the Bayhawks, two games to one. We thus ventured to New York with a 7 1/2-game deficit.

Raccoons (72-61) @ Crusaders (80-54) – September 4-7, 2059

So we were down by seven(-ish), had seven left with the Crusaders, and had already won seven from them this year (against four losses). That’s a lot of lucky sevens, if you ask me! (deranged stare) New York ranked fourth in runs scored and second in runs allowed in the CL and had a +104 run differential (Coons: +57). The only real injuries for them were Kennedy Adkins and Nick Fowler.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (6-9, 3.39 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (8-11, 4.45 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (10-10, 3.06 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (16-6, 3.25 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (5-6, 3.68 ERA) vs. Jose Luera (9-6, 2.10 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-4, 3.70 ERA) vs. Mike Cantrell (11-8, 2.80 ERA)

There was no left-handed starter on staff for the Crusaders.

Game 1
POR: LF Morris – 2B Labonte – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – SS Bean – 3B Ojeda – P DeRose
NYC: CF Branch – LF Deeley – 2B O. Sanchez – RF Zeiher – C Seidman – 3B V. Velez – 1B Sevilla – SS Zucal – P J. Ortega

DeRose was getting whacked around from the beginning, and the Crusaders had all the petals picked out of him by the third inning. The first was scoreless, but the second he already gave up a single to Victor Velez, a double to the opposing pitcher, and then an RBI single to Tommy Branch with two outs before Chris Deeley made the final out. In the bottom 3rd, there was no end to it. DeRose faced eight batters and gave up six hits, including doubles to Omar Sanchez, Mike Seidman, and Velez, which scored two runs; then an RBI single to Raul Sevilla and a single to Roger Zucal. Ortega bunted the pair on base into scoring position, and they scored on a wild pitch and Branch’s single. LaBat replaced DeFlowered, but got LaBattered, retiring none of the three lefty batters in the 2-3-4 spots, surrendering Branch’s run, and then finally getting a groundout from Seidman to leave the bases loaded in an endless inning. The score was now 7-0, and we could run out the trash can crew and prepare for Friday’s duel of aces. There was never a hunch of a rally; the Raccoons had all of two base hits in the game against Ortega, who went into the ninth inning, but ran out of juice and was replaced by Medardo Regueir for the last two outs. The best part of the game was the garbage relief, with J.J. Sensabaugh offering three innings of 1-run ball. Loveless and Colby ******* Bowen also pitched. 8-0 Crusaders.

Well, now that we got *that* out of our system…

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – LF Ortega – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Ojeda – SS Bean – C Monaghan – P B. Herrera
NYC: CF Branch – LF Rodriquez – 2B O. Sanchez – RF Zeiher – C Seidman – 1B Seeley – 3B V. Velez – SS Zucal – P Seiter

The Coons needed Bobby Herrera to be at the top of his game to overcome Ben Seiter, and he seemed to deliver in the early going, striking out four in otherwise uneventful two innings to begin the game. Seiter had two strikeouts in the first two innings, but then ran into a spot of bother in the top 3rd, giving up a leadoff double to Eric Monaghan, which was bad enough. Herrera then singled to center, and the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on another single to center by Labonte, but Seiter then got his crap together and got three poor outs from the next three batters, not even getting Herrera home from second base. Bobby remained perfect the first time through, adding two more whiffs of Zucal and Seiter to complete three.

No K’s in the fourth, but Tipsy Bobby retired a dozen straight, but then got worked for a leadoff walk by Zeiher in the bottom 5th. Zeiher would steal second base, but Seidman popped out and Mark Seeley and Victor Velez struck out to keep him stranded. Seiter didn’t get strikeouts in the middle innings, but he kept getting meek contact. Brass hit a single in the sixth, but then was immediately doubled up by Starr, and that was close to describing the entire extent of offense for the Raccoons in the middle frames. Roger Zucal’s leadoff single in the bottom 6th was the beginning of the end then. Seiter bunted the runner to second, and then Tommy Branch got a hanger and punted it over the wall in left-center to flip the score to 2-1 Applemunchers…

When Labonte walked in the eighth, he too got doubled up on an Ortega grounder to short, ending the inning. Both pitchers ended up going eight innings, with Seiter hit for to no effect in the bottom 8th as Herrera held the 2-1 line. The Raccoons brought up the meat of the order against Zachariah Alldre(a)d in the top of the ninth. Cas grounded out to Sanchez. Brass grounded out to Velez. Starr drew a walk to delay the inevitable. Konecny batted for Ojeda… and grounded out to Zucal. 2-1 Crusaders. Brassfield 2-4; Monaghan 1-2, BB, 2B; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, L (10-11) and 1-3;

And now it was really, actually, definitely over.

We would still pretend for the last two games in New York, but there was no way back from here, now 9 1/2 games out with 27 to play and not ******* hitting anything. Youth would get more of a chance from next week on.

Game 3
POR: 3B Benitez – 2B Ortega – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – RF Konecny – SS Bean – P Damasceno
NYC: CF Branch – LF Rodriquez – RF Zeiher – 1B Seeley – 3B V. Velez – 2B Russ – C Reese – SS Zucal – P Luera

Three on and one out in the bottom 1st, and of course the Crusaders were less of ******** ***** than the Raccoons and after Branch singled, Tony Rodriquez was nicked, and Sean Zeiher walked, scored two runs on a Seeley groundout and Velez’ sac fly before Andrew Russ grounded out. Damasceno had less trouble with the bottom of the order, but the top of the order came back ‘round eventually at the start of the bottom 3rd. Branch doubled, Rodriquez walked, and Zeiher socked a 3-run homer. Damasceno was shanked after loading the bases again the inning after with nothing but idiocy, a leadoff walk to Justin Reese, fudging Luera’s bunt into an extra runner, and then another walk to Branch. Eloy Sencion struck out Rodriquez and got a pop from Zeiher to keep the score at 5-0 while Luera was casually no-hitting the Critters.

That ended in the fifth inning with leadoff bloopers by Starr and Perez that both dropped in for singles. Konecny hit an RBI double to left in one of his rare flashes of competence, and while Bean made a soggy out, Ojeda hit a sac fly in the #9 spot. Benitez singled, but Konecny only got to third base, and the two were stranded when Ortega as the tying run grounded out to Velez. The Raccoons managed to slaughter Luera for good in the fifth inning, though. Doubles by Cas, Perez, and Konecny scored two runs, and Bean’s 2-out RBI single tied the game and knocked out Luera. With Ornelas in for long relief, we took the third out with him, preferring for him to stay on the mound a bit longer. Turns out, even 16 pitchers on the roster are sometimes not enough…

Ornelas pitched seven outs, followed by LaBat to complete the bottom 7th while the game remained tied at five. Angel Perez hit a fly to deep left off Regueir in the eighth, but had it picked at the fence by Chris Deeley. Andrew Russ, the professional piece of ****, then zapped a leadoff triple to right against Reynaldo Bravo in the bottom 8th. While Bravo got a K from Reese, Zucal’s grounder brought in the go-ahead run. Bravo then continued to smell and loaded the bases with runners before getting yanked for Ricky Herrera, who walked in a run against Zeiher in a full count before whiffing Seeley to get out of the miserable inning. No 12th win for Herrera either, due to no measurable offense against Alldred in the ninth. 7-5 Crusaders. Perez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Konecny 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Ornelas 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 4
POR: LF Morris – 2B Ortega – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Ojeda – SS Gonzales – P Fox
NYC: CF Branch – LF Rodriquez – 2B O. Sanchez – C Seidman – 3B V. Velez – 1B Seeley – RF Deeley – SS Zucal – P Cantrell

Chance Fox, always good for being annoying, ran three 3-2 counts with two outs in the bottom 1st. All the runners reached base, and a walk and two singles gave them a 1-0 lead. A walk to Deeley and a Branch homer added two runs in the second, and in the third inning Fox was even taken deep by .143 hitter Mark Seeley, for crying out loud, while the Raccoons had once more no base hits in four innings. Starr then got a leadoff single in the fifth again, and went to third base on Ojeda’s single. Gonzales popped out, which helped zero, while Chance Fox, useless on the mound, hit an RBI double to right to get the Raccoons on the stupid scoreboard. Morris then fanned big as the tying run.

The Raccoons failed forwards into the seventh inning when singles by Morris and Ortega with one out put the tying run in the box again, with Cas facing right-hander Jason Rhodes. He hit into a fielder’s choice that had Ortega out at second, and Brass flew out to Rodriquez to end the inning. Adam Harris held the 4-1 line in the bottom of the inning, after which Starr opened the eighth with a triple to center against Kyle Turay. Perez’ grounder to third base kept him pinned, but he scored on Ojeda’s single to left. Konecny batted for the Rule 5er Gonzales and singled as well, and now the tying runs were on the corners. Labonte popped out foul, and with two outs Jack Kozak batted for Morris – and tied the ******* ballgame with a double to right…!! First Coons RBI’s for Jack Kozak! The new pitcher Cory Leonard got Jon Bean on a grounder to the right side, though, so the inning ended.

J.J. Sensabaugh then held off the Crusaders long enough to send the game to extra innings, where Starr hit a double to right with two outs against Leonard, but everybody else was hellbent on grounding out to second and the Raccoons didn’t score. The top 11th had Richard Castillo offer 1-out walks to Konecny and Labonte in the 8-9 spots before the Raccoons batted Monaghan for Sensabaugh in the #1 spot … and he found the double play that killed the inning, 6-4-3. We brought our secret weapon in the bottom 11th, getting a scoreless inning from 11-time winner Ricky Herrera, which would surely win us the game in due time! Except that after a leadoff walk to Jon Bean in the 12th, nothing good happened anymore as the 3-4-5 collectively croaked. Instead the Crusaders walked off against Sencion, who offered a leadoff walk to Rodriquez in the bottom 12th, followed by an error made himself, and two singles by Velez and Zeiher to end the game. 5-4 Crusaders. Kozak (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 3-6, 3B, 2B; Ojeda 3-5, RBI; Konecny (PH) 1-1, BB; Sensabaugh 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

September 3 – The Crusaders win their game with the Bayhawks in the first inning with an unanswered 10-spot, then take it casually from there for an 11-3 win.
September 3 – The Aces score in every inning but the third in their 15-2 takedown of the Indians. Outfielder Ken Hummel (.302, 13 HR, 88 RBI) has four hits, a double and three singles, and drives in a team-high six runs.
September 4 – One of the weirder lines in a box score is posted by NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.217, 15 HR, 49 RBI) in a 16-5 rout of the Capitals. Roman goes unretired and walks four times, steals two bases, and still finds time to hit two home runs and drive in five runs in the game.
September 4 – A torn posterior cruciate ligament will put RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.326, 22 HR, 75 RBI) on the shelf not only for the rest of this season, but is likely going to cost him the start of next season as well.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF/RF John Kaniewski (.311, 16 HR, 79 RBI), slapping .600 (12-20) with 1 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC OF Tommy Branch (.231, 15 HR, 51 RBI), romping .483 (14-29) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Well. That’s that then.

Branch against Portland by the way: .500 (8-16) with 2 HR, 6 RBI. He’s a 24-year-old rookie that was ended up in New York when they traded Jeff Buss to the Wolves in ’57. He was a #6 pick three years ago. That’s the same bloody draft where we got all of Joe Agee, Elijah LaBat, and Bobby ******* Sneeze (gesundheit!) with three of our first four picks, *and* then still Cortez Chavez in the seventh round.

We’ll see more of our own younger guys in the last four weeks of the season. Which is a hell of a long string to still have to play out.

Sigh.

First impressions of Ben Morris (.111/.304/.111) are more like he’s not going to be the solution. Not that we *need* Joey Christopher for much of anything anymore this year, which is, fun fact, over. Although there’s one question still left to answer: can Ricky Herrera become the Coons’ win leader for the season…!?

The Raccoons will now take their ball and their 5-game losing streak and go home. Monday will be off, and after that it’s a 3-game series against Indy, followed by a weekend trip to Elk City that I will gladly skip.

Fun Fact: Boston’s Randy Wilken (.266, 31 HR, 88 RBI) is playing with his hair on fire.

The 36-year-old yearlong rental had stormed into the home run lead in the CL by hitting .225 with 12 homers in August. He hit another one this week, and he hit two in late July, so since July 27, in 148 at-bats, Wilken has punched 15 home runs for the Titans.

(looks at Cas and Brass)

Ah, we’re fiiiine.