[Westheim]

Raccoons (74-57) vs. Bayhawks (62-68) – August 30-September 1, 2060

Battle of the third-place teams, with the Bayhawks being ten games back in the South, while the Raccoons were eleven games behind in the North – so probably no cookie for either team at the end of the year. The Coons were up 4-2 against the CL’s #5 offense and #8 pitching. San Fran was near the bottom in OBP, but led the CL in bombs. They had three pitchers on the DL, including starters Eric Braley and Hector Montenegro.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (4-0, 1.89 ERA) vs. Mark Jacobs (12-7, 3.47 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-8, 4.04 ERA) vs. Garrett Giustino (7-4, 5.82 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (10-11, 3.75 ERA) vs. Jeff Crowley (5-10, 4.07 ERA)

The series would open with a left-hander, but after that it was a bit up in the air due to the Montenegro injury that had occurred just a few days prior. Also, the rosters would expand on Wednesday, the finale of this series.

Game 1
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 1B Escalera – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – C Cantu – CF A. Walker – RF C. Morris – 3B Carbajal – P M. Jacobs
POR: 3B Gonzales – SS Lavorano – LF Kozak – RF Brassfield – C Maresh – 1B Starr – CF Caballero – 2B Ortega – P Damasceno

San Francisco went up fast with a four-pitch walk offered to Xavier Reyes and a Jose Escalera double to right-center that put a pair in scoring position real quick, and then an RBI groundout from Grant Anker and a 2-out RBI single by Jose Cantu, who also got himself thrown out at second base to end that inning on the same play. But Jacobs also stumbled out of the gate: David Gonzales and Lonzo hit singles, Jack Kozak popped an RBI double that barely dropped in behind Grant Anker, so Lonzo was caught in between going and retreating for a bit and then had to stop at third base. A walk to Brass filled the bases with nobody out (dreadful expression). Maresh tied the game… with a 6-4-3 double play. Jacobs walked Starr, then fell behind on Caballero’s RBI single that brought in Kozak from third base. Bernie Ortega grounded out to end the inning. Maresh hit into another double play his second time up, while DD failed to blow the 3-2 lead in the top 3rd with a leadoff single and his own error before getting anybody out, then tried again with a Chris Morris leadoff single followed by nicking Ricky Carbajal in the fourth. Jacobs bunted successfully, and walks to Reyes and Escalera pushed in the tying run before Grant Anker singled in two more. Armando Montoya and Jose Cantu flew out to keep it at three for the inning, and 5-3 overall.

While Damasceno was returning to expected form, the Raccoons had the tying runs in scoring position to begin the bottom 4th as Starr walked and Caballero doubled to left. The Bayhawks opted for the intentional walk to Ortega, and the Raccoons opted for a pinch-hitter with three on and nobody out. Joe-Chris hit a sac fly, 5-4, before Gonzales grounded to short, but Reyes dropped the ball when he tried to start the 6-4-3 double play and instead got nobody, bringing Lonzo back to the plate with the bases loaded. Lonzo lobbed a ball over Reyes into shallow left for an RBI single, tying the score and ending Jacobs’ day. Roberto Mendez got a pop to shallow right from Kozak and whiffed Brassfield to end the inning with three runners stranded.

It was 6-5 Coons after five, thanks to Maresh having no double play available to him leading off the inning and instead doubling to right. Starr walked, and two productive outs moved Maresh around to score, the go-ahead RBI going to Bernie Ortega. Didn’t last, though; Reyes’ triple and Anker’s homer to right flipped the score against Curt Therien in the sixth inning, but the Raccoons would get even at seven in the seventh with Brass getting nicked by Bill Grau. The southpaw then gave up singles to Maresh and Caballero to bring Brass around, but Maresh was also thrown out trying to go first-to-third on the Caballero knock.

Reynaldo Bravo got five outs across three innings, retiring Reyes on a pop to begin the top 8th for his final action of the game. Ricky Herrera then sorted out the next two hitters on two more pops, then slid his furry tush into the potential W column when the Raccoons scratched out a run in the bottom 8th on Nick Fowler’s leadoff single, pinch-hitting for Ricky H., Gonzales’ groundout that moved him to second base, and then Lonzo’s fourth base hit of the day, an RBI single to left-center…! The Bayhawks changed left-handers to Travis Davis, who walked Kozak and allowed a soft single to Brass to load the bases, but Maresh popped out and Starr flew out to Anker in left. San Fran began the ninth with a Montoya single off Matt Walters, but that was as good as it got for them. Cantu popped out foul to Starr, and Aaron Walker and Chris Morris went down flailing. 8-7 Critters. Gonzales 2-5; Lavorano 4-5, 2 RBI; Maresh 2-5, 2B; Caballero 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1;

Ricky H. was now 7-2, lechering another three wins in his last six outings.

Ricky H. (23-9) now had more career wins than Justin DeRose (22-29).

Lonzo played like his tail was on fire, and normally he had gotten a day off quite regularly in a full week-plus of games in a row, but right now we’d keep him in the lineup and feel his pulse daily, at least until he posted an oh-fer.

Game 2
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 1B Escalera – 2B A. Montoya – LF Anker – CF A. Walker – C Redfern – RF Ogawa – 3B Sostre – P Giustino
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Fowler – LF Brassfield – CF B. Morris – 2B Bean – P Fox

Fox’ ERA went down to four-sharp before Keith Redfern and Ikuo Ogawa reached and Bill Sostre socked a 3-run homer in the second inning, which surely didn’t help the ol’ ERA, nor did Sostre’s second homer of the game, and 12th for the season, a solo shot in the fourth. Sostre clobbers accounted for all RBI’s in the 4-0 game at that point, with only modest offense for the Raccoons so far. Lonzo extended his hitting streak to 16 games in his second attempt, singling to center with two outs in the bottom 3rd before getting himself caught stealing to end the inning. Bottom 4th then, and within six pitches the Raccoons’ 3-4-5 batters hit three singles and loaded the bases with nobody out. This time Brassfield hit into a run-scoring double play, although Ben Morris knocked in a second run before Jon Bean was knocked by a fastball. Fox grounded out to leave the tying runs on base, though, then got lit up even further in the top 5th. The Bayhawks there also started the inning with three singles, scoring a run, and Fox was yanked after a 1-out walk to Ogawa. Ruben Mendez popped out Sostre, but then gave up a stinging 2-run double to Giustino before Reyes flew out to Christopher. 4.1 innings for seven runs, all earned, and surely not helping Foxie Brown’s ERA…

So while that ended Fox’ day after not even half a game, technically, the Raccoons never got Giustino out of the game. The right-hander went all the way with a scattered 9-hitter, without getting a single strikeout (!!) – it was just an abundance of miserable contact whenever somebody was in scoring position for Portland, for whom Therien won more garbage duty in the last two innings and gave up a run in both of them, although at this point in time we were just abusing that left-hander… 9-2 Bayhawks. Perez 2-4; Brassfield 3-4, 3B;

And with that, rosters expanded.

The Raccoons didn’t bring up a starting pitcher at this point, but Zach Stewart was doing rehab now in AAA and would be back next week, probably. Three pitchers were added, including swingman J.J. Sensabaugh, who put up a 4.65 ERA in 124 innings for the Alley Cats, and relievers Bryan Erickson and Adam Harris.

For batters – NO third catcher at this point. Cortez Chavez was out for the year, and Matt Stanton was also injured right now, and was not on the 40-man (which was full) anyway. We’d have to work something out there, but right now there were only ten healthy catchers in the system, and it wasn’t like we were pushing for the division title.

Furthermore, none of the two AAA first basemen Joe Agee and Forbes Tomlin, who had 32 homers between them (but with 24 for Agee) with the Alley Cats, were brought up. We already had two first basemen! I … I just didn’t know where to put them all. Every cupboard you opened in this ballpark, you found a furry first baseman sitting in there and emptying a cookie jar…!

Only two batters were brought up at this point: Todd Oley and Armando Suriel. Neither figured to play a lot.

Game 3
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 1B Escalera – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – C Cantu – CF A. Walker – RF C. Morris – 3B Carbajal – P Crowley
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Fowler – LF Brassfield – CF B. Morris – 2B Bean – P B. Herrera

Angel Perez hit his 13th home run of the year in the first inning, and Aaron Walker answered with his 14th home run of the year, but Perez had Starr on base and so his bomb counted for two and the Coons had a 2-1 lead in the early innings. Starr socked a leadoff homer to right his second time up in the bottom 3rd, 3-1, while Perez reached on a throwing error by Reyes, then scored on a 2-out single by Ben Morris. Both Bean and Bobby bopped a single after that, allowing Morris to score as well, but Joe-Chris was then rung up to end the 3-spot.

The top 4th saw the bags full with nobody out for San Fran as Cantu and walker clipped singles off Tipsy Bobby, and Christopher then clonked a Chris Morris fly to right to fill the bases. Herrera reared back, struck out Carbajal and Crowley, and got out of the mess on Reyes’ full-count grounder to Jon Bean…! After a few rather quick early innings, the middle innings were rather chewy for Herrera, though, and his pitch count rocketed up over 90 by the completion of six frames, although the 5-1 lead was still in one piece. He grounded out to lead off the bottom 6th still, after which Crowley walked Christopher and Lonzo drove a double to left, extending the hitting streak to 17 after starting out with an 0-for-3. Starr was walked with intent after which Perez’ comebacker was taken to home plate by Crowley for the last out he got in the game. A walk to Nick Fowler pushed home the Coons’ sixth run and saw him replaced with Bill Goda, who struck out Brassfield to strand a full set on base.

Herrera got two more outs, including a long fly out by PH Ogawa, then lost Reyes in a full count and was replaced, giving the army of lefty relievers in that pen. Reyes stole a base off Adam Harris, but Escalera struck out and the inning ended. Ricky H. and Erickson got the last six outs from there, while the Raccoons got Christopher to third base in the bottom 8th, but left him there. 6-1 Raccoons. Starr 1-2, 3 BB, HR, RBI; Perez 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Bean 2-4; B. Herrera 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (11-11);

My, it’s barely September, and Bobby Herrera already has a .500 record…!

Raccoons (76-58) vs. Canadiens (54-79) – September 2-5, 2060

The Raccoons had a chance to clinch a losing record for the damn Elks this year, and the season series at the same time, if they could win three out of four in this weekend set. So far we led the series against the Elks 7-4. They were bottoms in runs scored (although we were just 15 runs up on them), and also bottoms in runs allowed, with a -158 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (9-8, 3.67 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (7-14, 4.43 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (10-7, 2.91 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (9-14, 4.66 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (4-0, 2.89 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (11-5, 3.24 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-9, 4.35 ERA) vs. Guillermo Herrera (0-2, 10.31 ERA)

Overy was the only southpaw on offer here.

Crucially, the Elks’ Danny Garcia (.273, 4 HR, 32 RBI) had gone down for the season with torn hoof tendons on Tuesday, while leading the CL stolen base race with 44 bags. Now, there were other people in between (and by now tied (MIL Scott Franks) with) him and Lonzo, and Lonzo had been caught in his last three attempts to nap a sack, and Lonzo had played for nine games straight, and Lonzo had a 17-game hitting streak, and Overy was the left-hander, and SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME MAKE UP MY ******* MIND.

Cristiano and “Banjo” sorted out that Lonzo should start against the southpaw, but Friday was penciled in as a day off for him, no questions asked beyond that, while I sat back in the corner, holding Honeypaws while rocking back and forth and suckling my thumb.

Game 1
VAN: 2B Roldan – 3B Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – LF Hambrick – P Overy
POR: 3B Gonzales – SS Lavorano – 1B Kozak – RF Brassfield – C Maresh – LF Caballero – 2B Ortega – CF Morris – P DeRose

The Elks grounded out three times to Lonzo in the first, nastily trying to break him like it was their nasty nature, while Overy walked three in the bottom 1st, but the Coons only got a scratch RBI single from Maresh and eventually left the bases loaded when Ortega flew out easily. DeRose did not allow a hit the first time through, but then conceded leadoff singles to Rafael Roldan and Alex Corpus in the fourth inning. Jose Campos’ fly moved Roldan to third base, and the Coons couldn’t wind up a pair on Chad Cardenas’ grounder to second base, having to settle for an out at second base, while Roldan scored and tied the game. Damian Moreno walked, but Mark Younce grounded out to short.

For Portland, Ortega in the fourth and Brass in the fifth hit into double plays; the latter came with Lonzo and Kozak on the corners, but Lonzo was still looking for a base knock in the game, having reached base with a walk (!). The Coons took a 2-1 lead an inning and a batter later on Chris Maresh’ jack to left-center. Caballero doubled after that, but didn’t go anywhere nice from there. Alex Maldonado’s 2-out double in the seventh knocked out DeRose in conjunction with the left-handed Chris Sullivan batting for Christian Hambrick. Elijah LaBat came in, allowed a single to put the runners on the corners, then walked another lefty pinch-hitter, Thomas Whittington to fill the bases. Juan Aragon was ANOTHER lefty pinch-hitter for Roldan, but he FINALLY struck out and the bags remained stacked. Lonzo began the bottom 7th with a fly out to left, which probably ended his hitting streak unless the Raccoons could put some offense together and bring him back to the dish in the bottom 8th. Walks offered by Josh Costello to Kozak and Maresh, plus an error by Campos that put Maresh on, certainly moved the Coons through the lineup, but Joey Christopher struck out batting for Ortega and the bags were left full for the umpteenth time this week. The bottom 8th saw Morris and Fowler go down against Costello before Bean batted for a hitless Gonzales… and walked! That gave Lonzo another chance at the plate… but he struck out. Walters drove the nails in with a 1-2-3 ninth. 2-1 Blighters. Kozak 1-2, 2 BB; Maresh 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Caballero 2-3, BB, 2B; DeRose 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (10-8);

Hitting streak over. (mopes) The Coons had only six hits in this game, but the Elks walked TEN Critters. And we managed to hit into three double plays and still strand more than a dozen (13). What a special team we are!

Game 2
VAN: CF Scarpa – 2B Corpus – 1B J. Campos – SS Younce – 3B Whittington – RF D. Moreno – C E. Salazar – LF Hambrick – P A. Jesus
POR: RF Christopher – CF Morris – 1B Starr – C Perez – SS Fowler – LF Kozak – 2B Bean – 3B Suriel – P Riddle

Alex Corpus went deep to center in the first inning to give the Elks a 1-0 lead, but the Raccoons got their chane eventually when Armando Suriel led off the bottom 3rd with a soft single to left, and Riddle’s bunt was fielded by Enrique Salazar, who then threw the ball into Riddle’s furry tush as he ran to first base. The ball glanced into foul ground, and the Raccoons got two bases out of it, putting a pair in scoring position with nobody out. Christopher, ever happy to walk, walked, which wasn’t helping in that moment, giving us three on, no outs. Morris grounded out to Corpus, which brought in the tying run, and Starr drew another walk, allowing Perez to hit into another double play…

The Elks immediately retook the lead in the fourth inning with singles by Whittington and Moreno to get to the corners, and Hambrick’s RBI single to make it 2-1 Elks. Jesus then flew out to Christopher to end the inning, and Nick Fowler socked a leadoff jack to right to tie the game back up. Bean and Suriel followed up with 1-out singles, but Riddle lined out to short and Christopher lined out to left and no runs were scored, as usual. When Corpus tripled and scored on a Campos sac fly in the fifth, that ticked off the hard half of the cycle for him. It also gave the stinking Elks another lead, at least until the Coons’ own sac fly in the bottom 5th tied it up *again*. For the second time in a row, it was Fowler to get the score-knotting RBI, plating Morris with him and Perez on the corners. Morris had singled, stolen second, and gained third base on a Whittington error, which made that run unearned – as well as the ones that scored on Kozak’s RBI double and Bean’s RBI single that followed and put the Coons up 5-3!

Riddle never found a groove, striking out just two batters in 6.2 innings of work. He left with Chris Sullivan on third base, merit of a leadoff single from the #9 hole and two groundouts, putting a dent into Corpus’ cycle bid, too. Bravo came in for Campos, gave up a scary deep fly to left, but Kozak caught it on the warning track. The eighth was pieced together from Bravo, Ricky H., and Mendez; the first two each put a guy on base, and the third one allowed Salazar’s sac fly to score Bravo’s runner, Mark Younce and his leadoff single. Maldonado pinch-hit and grounded out to Bean to let the Coons get away with a 5-4 lead.

Lonzo’s day off ended in the bottom 8th, which began with a Bernie Ortega double to left off lefty David Figueroa, that one being hit as pinch-hitter for Jon Bean. Suriel popped out before Lonzo batted for the pitcher, singled up the middle, and that allowed Ortega to score with the insurance run! Lonzo stole second base, which prompted an intentional walk to Brass batting for Christopher. Caballero singled in Morris’ place and the bags were full. All for naught – Starr popped out and Perez flew out to left, and we stranded a full set AGAIN. And then Walters almost tripped up in the ninth, offering a leadoff walk to Cardenas and a single to Corpus, who missed the cycle by the double in the end when Campos took a 3-1 pitch, spanked it hard at Suriel, and the coons turned a game-ending 5-4-3 double play. 6-3 Furballs! Morris 2-4, 2B, RBI; Caballero (PH) 1-1; Fowler 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Bean 2-3, RBI; Ortega (PH) 1-1, 2B; Suriel 2-4; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 3
VAN: CF Scarpa – LF Hambrick – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – C A. Maldonado – SS Younce – 3B C. Sullivan – 2B Roldan – P Brink
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Fowler – LF Brassfield – CF Morris – 2B Bean – P Damasceno

The Elks had three singles and four strikeouts against DD the first time through, stranding runners on the corners in the second inning when Brink struck out. The Coons had only one hit from their first six batters, but then had Morris hit a 2-out double in the bottom 2nd. Bean singled and drove him home, and DD hit another single, but Christopher grounded out and the score remained 1-0. That score did not survive because Damasceno kept giving up hits. Cardenas doubled and Younce singled to score him and tie the game in the fourth. With two outs, Roldan drew a walk, and then Brink hit an RBI single to give himself the lead… (gnashes teeth) Steve Scarpa then grounded out to Bean to strand a pair on the corners.

Damasceno didn’t make it out of the sixth inning, knocked out by Chris Sullivan’s 2-out single, the eighth hit against him on the day. Therien then struck out Roldan to escape and got two more outs in the seventh, then was replaced with Ruben Mendez in a double switch that put Gonzales on third base instead of Fowler. Hambrick popped out against Mendez to bring on the stretch. The Coons just couldn’t get going; Perez doubled with two outs in the sixth and was stranded by Fowler, and Morris walked in the seventh, but was caught stealing.

Mendez also got two outs in the next inning, then allowed a single to Maldonado. Adam Harris came in and conceded the run on two pinch-hit singles by Moreno and Corpus, who got the RBI, before finally whitting Whiffington. Bottom 8th, Gonzales grounded out before Christopher singled off Brink on the first pitch he got and Lonzo reached on an error by Scarpa, and a double steal put them into scoring position with one out for Starr who grounded the middle, but the play was made by Corpus. Christopher scored, 3-2, but Perez grounded out to short and Lonzo was left on base. The 2-run gap was re-established with a pinch-hit jack by Salazar off Bravo in the ninth. Erik Swain retired the Critters in order. 4-2 Canadiens.

Just one of those games, but every L to the L-ks feels like you just swallowed a whole full ashtray…

Game 4
VAN: CF Scarpa – 2B Corpus – 1B A. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – 3B Whittington – LF Hambrick – P G. Herrera
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Kozak – C Perez – 3B Fowler – LF Brassfield – CF Caballero – 2B Bean – P Fox

The Coons’ first three batters packed the bases in the bottom 1st before the next three again did precious little. Perez whiffed, Fowler brought in the only run of the inning on a groundout, and Brass flew out to Hambrick. The Elks answered with straight singles from Younce, Maldonado, and Whittington to tie the game with nobody out in the top 2nd, and got another run after Fox walked Hambrick and gave up a sac fly to Herrera. Scarpa and Corpus then both flew out. Bottom 3rd, bases loaded again for the Coons. Lonzo forced out Christopher and then stole second, while Perez walked and Fowler singled, bringing up Brass with three on and two outs, and he popped out to Younce…

No, it took a Chance Fox double with two outs and nobody on base to get a run home on the following Christopher single. That tied the game for like five minutes before the Elks retook the lead on Corpus’ single and stolen base and a 2-out RBI single by Cardenas… Maldonado then led off the sixth with a double to left, then went on to score on two very deep fly outs by Whittington and Hambrick, the latter getting the sac fly to go up 4-2, while the numbnuts in the brown shirts hit into double plays in the fifth (Fowler) and sixth (Caballero). The Elks knocked out Fox with Corpus’ 1-out walk in the seventh. Corpus stole second against Erickson, who walked Campos, too, and LaBat gave up Fox’ run on a pinch-hit single by Damian Moreno, who was caught stealing as the Elks worked their way out of the inning. And Lonzo hit into another ******* double play in the bottom 7th because the baseball gods forbid we ever beat a tosser with an ERA in double digits…! EVERYBODY sucked in this game. Harris was put into the eighth and gave up two walks, two hits, and two runs before being yanked for Sullivan to find a way out of the ******* inning. The Raccoons put a pair on the corners without scoring in the eighth – but no double play! Progress! Yay! – before going down in order in the ninth. 7-2 Canadiens. Christopher 2-3, 2 BB, RBI;

In other news

August 31 – NAS SP Travis Baker (8-12, 4.29 ERA) 1-hits the Wolves, who get an eight-inning single from C Mike Seidman (.304, 0 HR, 17 RBI) and nothing else in the 3-0 Blue Sox win.
August 31 – CL stolen base leader VAN OF Danny Garcia (.273, 4 HR, 32 RBI) will miss the rest of the year after tearing finger tendons.
September 1 – The Thunder beat the Loggers, 9-5, on a walkoff grand slam by OCT 1B Andy Metz (.291, 24 HR, 96 RBI).
September 1 – Gold Sox RF/CF Chris Lauterbach (.271, 11 HR, 53 RBI) will miss three weeks after suffering a biceps strain.
September 2 – A broken foot ends the season of Warriors 2B Mike DeFusco (.254, 13 HR, 67 RBI).
September 3 – The Gold Sox lose their closer Josh Penington (1-1, 2.01 ERA, 35 SV) for the rest of the year. The 34-year-old had to undergo surgery to scratch bone chips out of his elbow.
September 3 – The Cyclones beat the Capitals, 17-16 in 10 innings. The Cyclones put up a 13-spot in the fourth after the Caps scored 11 runs in the first three innings. WAS LF/RF Tony Rodriquez (.258, 7 HR, 39 RBI) and CIN INF Matt Wartella (.297, 4 HR, 31 RBI) each have a home run with five RBI, with Wartella never taking the field, appearing as pinch-hitter for the fourth churned-up Cyclones pitcher and batting twice in the 13-run fourth before being replaced with another pitcher.
September 4 – Crusaders UT Omar Sanchez (.318, 2 HR, 49 RBI) collets five base hits, including the 2,000th of his career, in a 9-5 win over the Loggers.
September 5 – WAS CL Ben Lussier (4-9, 3.13 ERA, 32 SV) puts away his 300th save in a 3-1 win against the Cyclones. The 2-time All Star won a ring with the 2056 Crusaders and is 51-65, with a 3.64 ERA for his career.
September 5 – SAC OF/1B Israel Santiago (.359, 2 HR, 13 RBI) announces his retirement at age 28 after having suffered a knee injury terminal to his career ambitions in July. Santiago batted .272 with 20 HR and 163 RBI in a six-year career with the Titans and Scorpions.

FL Player of the Week: PIT 3B/SS Brendan Mayer (.282, 8 HR, 48 RBI), batting .625 (10-16) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND INF Matt Kilday (.334, 1 HR, 63 RBI), batting .519 (14-27) with 8 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Chad Pritchett (.295, 12 HR, 69 RBI), batting .389 with 3 HR, 18 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: OCT INF/LF/RF Omar Lira (.335, 8 HR, 55 RBI), going .413 with 4 HR, 20 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS CL Ben Lussier (4-8, 3.11 ERA, 30 SV), closing 10 games while going 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA, 13 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: OCT SP Aaron Harris (11-11, 2.79 ERA), with a 4-1 record, 2.04 ERA, 36 K
FL Rookie of the Month: CIN OF Bob Wright (.294, 2 HR, 32 RBI), batting .394 with 2 HR, 12 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA 1B Jesus Valcarcel (.283, 6 HR, 60 RBI), hitting .299 with 1 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

A 4-3 week that felt like 1-6 with the way they were constantly choking with people on base. I’m so angry, I could throw half of them through the nearest brick wall right now…

Tyler Riddle claimed the team’s 7,100th regular season win on Friday.

10 1/2 games back I don’t see us making another run for it from here, so prepare for me being even more annoying about individual achievements. Matt Walters leads the CL in saves with 46, nine ahead of Josh Carlisle and 15 ahead of anybody else. Bill Hernandez of the Buffos also has 46 and an 11-save lead in the FL.

And yes, I will totally screech more about Lonzo and the stolen base table. He stole four against the Elks for a season tally of 41, and is now just four behind the CL leader Scott Franks of the Loggers, who was 45 for the year. The only other opposition – with Danny Garcia’s demise on the DL – was Indy’s Matt Kilday on 44. Nobody else was within ten of Franks. Joey Christopher’s 32 bags ranked him sixth in the CL.

Nick Nye should come off the DL by Friday and Noah Caswell will also make a late-season return inside the last two weeks perhaps, not that they will do much to rally us from another bottom-half finish in runs scored…

Next week: chaos in the schedule with a 3-trip to Loggerland followed by a 3-game homestand against the Indians.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have scored 800 runs in a season just once.

That was in their all-time best season in 1996, when they went 108-54 and won nothing for it, a whopping 840 runs, 51 ahead of the nearest seasons of 1989 and 1992. That dynasty back there also occupies another spot in the franchise top 5 with 1995. Only one recent season makes it into the top 5, in fourth place, with 775 runs in 2044: Bryce Toohey, Jesus Maldonado, Matt Waters, Manny Fernandez, and Sal Ayala drove the offense that year, each with 65+ RBI, and a great supporting cast behind them.

And the first of five straight pennants and three rings in four years!