[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-47) @ Falcons (48-54) – August 2-4, 2060

The Falcons were third in the South, 12 1/2 games out, and waiting for the end of the season, just like the Critters. We led the #10 offense and #5 pitching in the CL, four games to two this year. Their rotation had taken a beating with Neil Mongillo and Art Schaeffer on the DL, and outfielder Kyle Fisher was also out.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (0-0) vs. Phil Baker (2-11, 4.60 ERA)
Justin DeRose (7-7, 3.86 ERA) vs. Andres Lopez (4-3, 3.14 ERA)
Chance Fox (10-7, 4.23 ERA) vs. Josh Doyle (2-1, 3.35 ERA)

Both Lopez, the only left-hander up in this series, and Doyle had started before in their careers, but had spent the majority of this season coming out of the bullpen.

Speaking of injuries, the Raccoons had a 22-man roster available for the series opener, and that already included the reluctantly recalled DD in the opener. Ruben Mendez was day-to-day (back), Trent Brassfield was day-to-day (hammy), and Oscar Caballero was out and in fact still stuck in Luis Silva’s portable inflatable beep machine and squealing for help. Neither Mendez nor Brass were expected to contribute much in this series, but Brass would be available to pinch-hit.

A roster move was made, with Brad Loveless (2-3, 5.12 ERA) was returned to AAA after going all-out in garbage relief on Sunday and was replaced with a fresh(er) arm, fellow lefty Mike Goldfield. So the pen was supplied, but the best spare outfielder we had on the roster was Jon Bean…

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Maresh – 3B Fowler – CF Morris – LF Kozak – P Damasceno
CHA: CF J. Rodriguez – 1B Valcarcel – RF D. Ceballos – C L. Miranda – 2B Yoshikawa – LF C. Jimenez – SS Hullander – 3B Tomko – P P. Baker

Joey Christopher opened the week with a single and getting stranded on base, while the Falcons loaded the bases with Takuro Yoshikawa, Chris Jimenez, and Chris Tomko in the bottom 2nd against DD, but then saw Phil Baker whiff and Jose Rodriguez pop out to Nye to end the inning. When the Raccoons loaded the bases as well in the top 3rd it was mostly on Falcons errors. Christopher opened with a single, but both Lonzo and Nye got on base on defensive mishaps, creating three on and nobody out terror for the 4-5-6 batters. The usual doldrums passed us by though – each of the next five batters would get an RBI one way or another, as Starr drew a 4-pitch walk off a discombobulated Baker, Maresh brought in a run with a groundout, and Fowler and Morris chopped RBI singles. Kozak hit a sac fly, and DD still hit another single with two outs, then was caught in a rundown on Christopher’s inning-closing RBI single; 6-0 in the middle of the third inning…!

Baker was gone after that inning, and while Damasceno was not giving up runs early, he also wasn’t very efficient, needing 64 pitches through four shutout innings, and the Raccoons would have liked a little length from him. Jose Rodriguez and Luis Miranda hit singles off him in the bottom 5th and while the Falcons stranded the runners on the corners, it took DD up to 90 pitches to deal with the situation in nearly exclusively long counts. But he shut out the Falcons through six eventually, which beat Mike Goldfield, who got whacked for three hits and a run while getting just two outs in the bottom 7th before requiring rescue by Reynaldo Bravo. Rescuing him Bravo did by getting a groundout from Luis Miranda, then struck out two while also dealing with the eighth inning. The Coons then had to go to Matt Walters in the ninth despite a 5-run lead, because somehow we still didn’t have enough pitching. Walters hadn’t pitched since going out three straight games against the Thunder, gave up an infield single to Rodriguez, but finished up with a K to Falcons star Danny Ceballos. 6-1 Raccoons. Christopher 3-5, RBI; Morris 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Damasceno 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

No, they didn’t hit a lick after the 6-run outburst.

Goldfield (0-0, 7.36 ERA) was whisked right back off the roster to get up a right-hander, who turned out to be Bobby Sneeze.

Gesundheit.

Oscar Caballero could use some gesundheit, too, but he had a bum knee with some inflammation flaring up and would be out for at least a week, and the Raccoons weren’t gonna fudge around with that and DL’ed him. Right-handed outfielder Felix Ayala, who had batted .188 in six games with Portland earlier, was recalled, leaving the Alley Cats to fight on with just two healthy outfielders.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – 3B Gonzales – CF Ayala – P DeRose
CHA: CF J. Rodriguez – 1B Valcarcel – RF D. Ceballos – C L. Miranda – 2B Yoshikawa – SS Hullander – LF R. Holder – 3B Tomko – P A. Lopez

Christopher and Nye socked bombs to left off Lopez right in the first inning and since Lonzo singled and stole a base in between, the Raccoons got a 3-0 lead on the board nearly instantly. Nye stole a base himself after drawing a leadoff walk in the third inning, then was driven in by Kozak with a 2-out single to add a fourth run while the Falcons were hitless one time through the order against DeRose. It was Ceballos to break the hits ice for Charlotte with a leadoff single to center in the fourth inning, but he was then also immediately doubled up on a comebacker by Miranda, 1-6-3 style. DeRose had a quick fifth, then gave up a leadoff single in the bottom 6th to Chris Jimenez, batting for Lopez. DeRose balked, then hit Rodriguez, which was preferable to the other way round, then got a comebacker from Jesus Valcarcel that he turned into an out at third base. Ceballos popped out and Miranda struck out to leave two runners on base.

Ayala opened the seventh with a single after some silent middle innings from the Portlanders, then stole his first base. Falcons veteran Jim Larson filled the bags with a walk to Christopher and a brushed sleeve on Lonzo, but Nye hit into an inning-ending double play. DeRose got into the eighth, but ended up facing Ceballos after Chris Tomko and Jose Rodriguez had put themselves on base with a pair of singles. The Raccoons maneuvered Ricky Herrera into the game in a double switch in what was a save situation with the intent for the lefty to get the last four outs after wasting Walters the day before. Herrera struck out Ceballos… then retired nobody in the bottom 9th. Miranda walked, Yoshikawa singled, Joe Hullander reached on an error by Lonzo, and Rex Holder doubled to left. It was 4-2, the tying runs were in scoring position, and there wasn’t a single ******* out on the board. NOW came Walters… He gave up a sac fly to Tomko, 4-3, but Holder held at second with the tying run. Tim Stone struck out. Rodriguez grounded to Nye on the very next pitch, and the grounder ended the game. 4-3 Critters. DeRose 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (8-7);

We had seven hits, and no player had more than one.

Ruben Mendez reported back for duty on Wednesday, but Brass was still day-to-day with sore hammy. He had not appeared in the last two games, but was expected back in the lineup on Thursday.

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Fowler – CF Morris – LF Kozak – P Fox
CHA: CF J. Rodriguez – 1B Valcarcel – RF D. Ceballos – C L. Miranda – 2B Yoshikawa – LF C. Jimenez – SS Hullander – 3B Tomko – P Doyle

Foxie Brown would try to make it ten in a row on Wednesday, but had to labor hard in the first inning after a Valcarcel double and a full-count walk to Miranda to get a K on Yoshikawa and bugger out of the inning with runners on the corners. Both pitchers only allowed one hit the first time through, but Joel Starr then committed a rare error at first base to put Rodriguez on base in the bottom 3rd. The runner advanced on Valcarcel’s groundout for the second out of the inning, then scored on a Ceballos single to center to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead. Mirada grounded out to short. Yoshikawa opened the fourth with a double, but Fox then struck out the 6-7-8 in order to get through that. Doyle then grounded out to begin the bottom 5th before Fox hit Rodriguez. That opened the gates for all sorts of mayhem. Rodriguez stole second, then scored on a Valcarcel single. Ceballos singled, Miranda plated a run with a groundout, and Morris dropped Yoshikawa’s inning-ending fly to center for another error and run. From there, the Falcons poked another three 2-out singles, running the score to 5-0 to end the Coons’ winning streak.

It got WORSE from there, with Lonzo coming up lame on a defensive play in the sixth inning and leaving the game with Luis Silva. Jon Bean came in as defensive replacement at second base, with Nye to short. Fowler singled home Starr for a token run in the seventh inning, but apart from that the Coons went down silently with just four total hits in the game. 5-1 Falcons.

A dark day in Portland once more as Lonzo was off to the DL again with a mild hamstring strain. He might miss the rest of the month, so there went the stolen base title – at the time of the injury, he was second in the CL with 34 steals, three behind the damn Elks’ Danny Garcia.

Speaking of the damn Elks…

Raccoons (61-48) @ Canadiens (39-69) – August 5-8, 2060

The Raccoons led the season series against the last-place Elks, 5-2. They were having a horrendous season, sitting bottoms in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a -172 run differential and 54 games to play. The only thing they managed somewhat competently was stealing bases (third in the CL, just behind the Critters), and they had a bunch on the DL as well with Jeff Kozloski, Steve Scarpa, Alex Maldonado, and a few bits and pieces more all out and injured.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (7-10, 3.88 ERA) vs. Larry Broad (3-10, 4.49 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (9-4, 3.02 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (5-13, 4.55 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (7-11, 4.63 ERA)
Justin DeRose (8-7, 3.54 ERA) vs. John Morris (1-3, 5.60 ERA)

Right, left, right, left from the Elks, while I was sitting in the office in Portland and trying to keep calm with Maud’s embroidery hoop, making an honest attempt of stitching an image of Lonzo sliding into second base safely with lots of brown and green yarn strewn around the place… and a bottle of Capt’n Coma or two.

The Raccoons brought up Bernie Ortega to share second base duties with Jon Bean and David Gonzales, while Nick Nye would now play at short again with Lonzo on the DL. Ortega, 24, was batting .341 for the Alley Cats. He had hit .265 with e homer in 67 games in Portland last year.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – 3B Fowler – SS Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF B. Morris – 2B Bean – P B. Herrera
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Younce – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – 3B C. Sullivan – C E. Salazar – 2B Roldan – P Broad

So of course the damn Elks would get singles from Mark Younce and Jose Campos, then a 3-run homer by Damian Moreno to right in the very first inning… The Raccoons lacked notable offense the first time through, but began to crowd Larry Broad in the fourth inning with the very successful, always great, never failing method of putting three on with nobody out through singles by the Nicks and Starr drawing a walk instead of just ******** leathering one. – Maud, I think I accidentally stitched the bottle into the … the thing. Do something. Please. … Brass did something, laying off a precariously borderline 3-2 pitch and getting the call, pushing in the Coons’ first run on the bases-loaded walk, 3-1. Perez’ sac fly narrowed it further, and Morris hit a scratch single to load the bases again, also in a full count. Jon Bean’s grounder up the middle was knocked down by Rafael Roldan, who got a lob to Younce off, but the Elks had no double play and the tying run scored. The inning ended with Herrera, but he retired the Elks in order in the bottom 4th and the Raccoons then took the lead in the fifth as Christopher drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and then jogged home on Starr’s 2-out homer, 5-3.

“Taki” Herrera went into the eighth inning allowing just one hit in the six innings following the initial clobbering and holding the 5-3 lead, but then walked Danny Garcia and allowed a single to Jose Campos. Chad Cardenas popped out to short for the second out, but with Moreno up the Raccoons went to Ricky Herrera, who gave up loud thud to deep right and Moreno thought he had his second 3-spot of the game, but the ball ended up coming down in Christopher’s glove on the warning track to end the inning with the tying runs left stranded. The ninth was no easier despite Matt Walters’ deployment. Chris Sullivan flew out, but Enrique Salazar singled. Roldan whiffed, but Juan Aragon snuck another single to center. Danny Garcia hit *another* single, driving home pinch-runner Bobby Needham from second base. Younce flew to right – and to Christopher to end the game. 5-4 Raccoons. Fowler 2-4; B. Herrera 7.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (8-10);

(shows off his embroidery) Does this look like a batter’s helmet to you, Slappy? – So you see the M1 Abrams in this one as well…

Game 2
POR: 3B Gonzales – 2B Ortega – SS Nye – RF Brassfield – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – CF Ayala – P Riddle
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 3B Whittington – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – 2B Younce – C E. Salazar – SS C. Sullivan – P Overy

The Elks got two soft singles in the first, but no homer, and Younce socked a leadoff double in the second, but a grounder by Salazar and two strikeouts stranded him at third base. Danny Garcia was doubled up with Thomas Whittington’s grounder to short after another leadoff hit in the bottom 3rd. Whittington’s 2-base throwing error to put Brass on base didn’t help the Raccoons to score in the fourth inning, and instead the Elks finally plonked Riddle for three singles and a run, driven in by Sullivan with two outs, in the bottom 4th before Overy struck out. Seven hits and five strikeouts in four innings for Riddle – improvable. He evened it up with two more strikeouts in the fifth.

The Coons had one base hit through five innings, a Perez single, so that was also very much improvable, but besides a pair of flies to the deeper regions in left hit by Perez and Starr in the seventh inning, the Brownshirts made no inroads on that 1-0 deficit against Overy. Riddle finished seven innings without allowing another hit, but putting up a total of ten strikeouts, but was still trailing one-zip. Kozak, Ayala, and Fowler went in order against Overy in the eighth inning, too. Ryan Sullivan held the Elks to their lone run in the bottom 8th, while Overy was sent back out for the ninth inning. Gonzales grounded out, but Maresh then batted for Ortega and drew a walk that ended Overy’s day and brought on right-hander Erik Swain. Nye popped out and Brass grounded out to end the game anyway. 1-0 Canadiens. Riddle 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, L (9-5);

Angel Perez – one base. Everybody else – zilch.

(stitches some flames into the stands in the background of the Lonzo scene)

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – 3B Fowler – SS Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Maresh – CF B. Morris – 2B Bean – P Damasceno
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Younce – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – 3B C. Sullivan – C E. Salazar – 2B Whittington – P A. Jesus

The Raccoons, suddenly struggling for runs again without Lonzo (surely that was the reason!), had pairs on base in the first and third innings, but Brass popped out to strand Nye and Starr in the first instance, and after that Christopher and Fowler were left on by Nye and Starr. We had no runs through five, nor did the Elks, who collected three scattered hits and two walks, almost all from their left-handed batters, but also couldn’t get a run across, and on top of that lost Thomas Whittington to injury running the base paths and being replaced by Roldan.

The Coons’ middle of the order went down in order in the sixth inning, but the Elks got Cardenas and Moreno on with 1-out singles, plus Chris Sullivan by means of a walk, and then took a 1-0 lead on Salazar’s sac fly in the home half of the sixth. I sighed and stitched the Raccoons having zero runs on the scoreboard at the top of the embroidery scene. Roldan grounded out to leave on two, but we were on pace for another 1-0 loss now, at least until Garcia socked a homer in the seventh, 2-0.

The tying runs were on base to begin the eighth inning. Kozak walked in DD’s spot, and Jesus then *plunked* Christopher. Oh, to get a base knock now…! Fowler popped out (…), but Nye singled to left, however, Kozak had to stop at third base, and the bags were full for Joel Starr, who hit a ball good to deep right – but not good enough to beat Cardenas or the fence. Sac fly, though, and Brass fired a drive to left after that for a 2-out RBI double, which at least got us even. Maresh, with a pair in scoring position, drove the next pitch to deep center and Moreno could not catch up with that, the ball falling for a 2-run double…! Morris popped out to end the inning. Bravo and LaBat put the bottom 8th together without allowing a base runner, and it was back to Walters in the bottom 9th. There was a pinch-hit single by Aragon, but the Elks went down quickly. 4-2 Raccoons. Nye 2-4; Damasceno 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, W (2-0);

14 games over .500, 14 games outta first, and still fourth in the division.

(stitches frowns onto the faces of the spectators)

Joel Starr got a day off on Sunday. Some bum still had to bat left-handed, though, and that turned out to be Ben Morris.

Game 4
POR: 3B Gonzales – 2B Ortega – SS Nye – RF Brassfield – C Perez – 1B Kozak – LF Ayala – CF B. Morris – P DeRose
VAN: C E. Salazar – 3B Corpus – 1B J. Campos – CF D. Moreno – SS Younce – LF Needham – RF Aragon – 2B C. Sullivan – P J. Morris

Both teams drew two walks in the first inning, but only the Elks also added four base knocks to torch DeRose for five quick runs, all earned, with the biggest hit being Needham’s 2-run double. Kozak’s solo home run in the second inning wasn’t enough to make up the difference, and both teams drew two walks again in the third inning. While Perez hit into a double play to kill the Coons’ effort, the Elks also had a Younce single ahead of walks to Aragon and Sullivan, then brought up John Morris with three on and nobody out. Morris jammed into a double play to kill that inning, too, but DeRose still wasn’t brought back after the third inning.

Kozak began the fourth with a single, and Ayala added a double on the next pitch. Ben Morris’ sac fly reduced the gap to 5-2, and Fowler walked in the pitcher’s spot. Gonzales’ single loaded the bases. Bernie Ortega was 0-for-7 since being called up and now had the tying runs on base – and he finally got a hit, an RBI single to center, 5-3. Morris lost Nye to a walk in a full count, his fifth free pass issued in the game, and that got us to 5-4, and then Brass hit a grounder in front of home plate that Salazar jumped on and tapped home for a force there, and Perez flew out to right, stranding three runners in the 5-4 game…

Instead, the Raccoons sent up Bobby Sneeze to gain ground, but instead they gained the bases being walked full in the bottom 5th and Rafael Roldan socking a bases-clearing triple to re-establish slam range from the #9 spot. Well, back on the rally horse then. Christopher, Gonzales, and Ortega started the top 6th with singles against Alex Lodes, with Ortega already driving home a run, 8-5. That brought up the middle of the order as the tying runs, and Trent Brassfield indeed smacked a homer…!! It just didn’t tie the game because Nye had nicked one into a double play ahead of him and instead we were only back to 8-7.

Mendez put two on in the bottom 6th and required bailing out by Ricky Herrera, whose spot then came up with runners on the corners and one out against Josh Costello, who had just given up a pair of singles to Ayala and Ben Morris. On one paw, we wished for more outs from Ricky H., but on the other paw Joel Starr was a perfect match for Costello on the hill, and that was the tying run on third base. Starr pinch-hit, got home the tying run, but only on a grounder to short. Morris went to second, and was stranded when David Gonzales grounded out to Campos.

In the 8-8 tie, LaBat got four outs for the Raccoons and Bravo collected two more to get the teams to the ninth inning, where the Elks brought out the closer Swain. The Coons’ 5-6-7 went in order, but Chris Sullivan, Enrique Salazar, and Alex Corpus beat up Bravo for three singles and a walkoff in the bottom of the ninth. 9-8 Canadiens. Gonzales 2-4, BB; Ortega 2-5, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Kozak 2-5, HR, RBI; Ayala 2-5, 2B; Morris 1-2, BB, RBI; Christopher (PH) 1-1;

In other news

August 3 – Aces SP Bobby Shenk (9-7, 3.68 ERA) 2-hits the Indians while striking out seven batters in a 6-0 win.
August 3 – Crusaders OF Sean Zeiher (.317, 18 HR, 91 RBI) could miss six weeks with a broken thumb.
August 6 – LAP SP Dave Robinson (8-11, 4.02 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Warriors, but also walks five in a 4-0 win.
August 6 – Scorpions LF/CF Rick Miles (.292, 0 HR, 16 RBI) is a homer shy of the cycle in a 5-hit day against his prior team, the Gold Sox. The Scorpions lose, 8-3.
August 7 – Pacifics and Warriors go deep into extra innings on Saturday before L.A. prevails, 8-5 in 15 innings.
August 8 – Crusaders OF Kelly Konecny (.267, 2 HR, 24 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 9-0 win against the Loggers, with some cherry on top, since the mandatory home run is a grand slam and he drives in six of the team’s nine runs. It’s the second cycle for a Crusaders player in Loggers Ballpark in three years, as Gunner Epperson achieved the same feat in April of 2058.
August 8 – DAL SP Ray Walker (9-9, 4.06 ERA) shuts out the Wolves on three hits in a 10-0 rout.
August 8 – The Gold Sox lose two players to injury: 1B Bill Joyner (.339, 11 HR, 68 RBI) would miss six weeks with a knee sprain, while SS/3B Jesus Nunez (.251, 4 HR, 32 RBI) was out for the year with a broken elbow.
August 8 – The Cyclones beat the Capitals, 2-1 in 15 innings. Both teams score one run in the ninth inning before the Cyclones, who out-hit Washington 16-6 in the game, finally get on top in the 15th. CIN OF Bob Wright (.275, 1 HR, 25 RBI) has five hits with a solo home run in the ninth inning.

FL Player of the Week: RIC C Ramon Lopez (.286, 4 HR, 42 RBI), batting .519 (14-27) with 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL 2B/SS Ken Sowell (.290, 12 HR, 69 RBI), hitting .423 (11-26) with 1 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Doesn’t matter how much we’re winning, we remain in fourth place in the division, and it’s not like the gap to New York is narrowing at all. Another 49 games of string!

Speaking of string, Maud, I think I stitched my paw into the death ray shooting alien starship hovering over the ballpark here, can you … can you lend a paw…

Nothing else to say really, besides that losing Lonzo for three or four weeks sucks, and since Lonzo isn’t gonna be around for the quarterpost of the season, we can cast a quick look on the top of the career stolen base table right now, because nothing matters anymore.

1st – Pablo Sanchez (HOF) – 721
2nd – Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino (HOF) – 708
3rd – Guillermo Obando (HOF) – 686
4th – Alberto “Berto” Ramos (HOF) – 677
5th – Alex Vasquez (active) – 636
6th – Lorenzo Lavorano (active) – 611
7th – Rich de Luna – 570
8th – Omar Sanchez (active) – 519
9th – Danny Ceballos (active) – 504
10th – Chris Navarro (active) – 502

Despite a 10-game suspension and a few games of injury to finish the week, Lonzo gained two bags on Vasquez, beating him 8-6 in the last five weeks, being idle for roughly half of it. Sanchez got four, Ceballos got seven, and Navarro five, the latter two becoming the ninth and tenth members of the 500 SB club.

Did we mention Lonzo is also in a contract year? (Also: Stewart, Caballero, Maresh)

Next week, the back half of the awkward road trip with stops in Indy and Dallas.

Fun Fact: Kelly Konecny did not hit a home run as a Raccoon in 2059.

(calmly keeps stitching scenes of Armageddon in the ballpark)