[Westheim]

The third-to-last week of the season began with the splendid, just splendid, news that Ryan Sullivan had a tear in his rotator cuff and was out for the season… and the next season as well, probably. Squee…

Noah Caswell in turn was sent on a rehab assignment for the last few games of the AAA season and would rejoin the team at the end of the week when the Alley Cats’ regular season would end. The Alley Cats had already clinched their division and qualified for the playoffs.

Raccoons (81-63) @ Canadiens (56-87) – September 14-16, 2060

The damn Elks had lost six in a row, and according to me could lose another three now for all I cared. The season series was 9-6 in the Coons’ favor against the team sitting bottoms in runs scored *and* runs allowed in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (11-4, 3.16 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (7-16, 4.39 ERA)
Justin DeRose (10-8, 3.39 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (9-16, 4.76 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (12-7, 2.95 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (12-5, 3.16 ERA)

Overy was the only left-hander on offer.

Game 1
POR: LF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – RF Brassfield – C Perez – 1B Starr – CF Caballero – 3B Gonzales – P Stewart
VAN: 2B Corpus – SS Younce – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – C A. Maldonado – 3B Whittington – LF Hambrick – P Overy

David Gonzales made an early move for Dolt of the Week, committing an error in the first inning that put Jose Campos on base along with Mark Younce, and extended the inning long enough for Stewart, in his first start back from injury and rehab, to give up a pair of 2-out RBI singles to Damian Moreno and Alex Maldonado before Thomas Whittington finally flew out to left. Stewart proved to remain very hittable, giving up a leadoff triple to Christian Hambrick in the bottom 2nd and an RBI single to Overy before Alex Corpus hit into a double play; and in the third inning had another pair of runners on base already when Overy and Corpus hit another pair of RBI singles. After ten hits allowed in 2.2 innings, Stewart was yanked, and replaced for J.J. Sensabaugh for garbage relief. At this point, the Raccoons had ZERO base hits, and when Brass hit a single in the top of the fourth, he was immediately doubled off by Angel Perez grounding to short.

The Raccoons had to rummage through the garbage bin in Elk City for a long time, but finally found some edible treasure in the sixth inning, even though that inning actually began with Jack Kozak doubling to left and being thrown out at third base… Lonzo then singled and stole second, while Nick Nye walked. Brass grounded out, but Perez’ single plated Lonzo, and Starr doubled home a pair before Caballero struck out to end the inning, the gap reduced to 5-3. Alas – J.J. Sensabaugh and garbage relief… he walked four batters in 2.2 innings, and put two Elks on base in the bottom 6th, and when Elijah LaBat replaced him he had nothing better to do than to walk the bags full with Maldonado and give up runs on a Whittington single to left and Hambrick’s sac fly to left. Overy grounded out, stranding two, but slam range was re-established. They added two more runs in the seventh inning against Erickson, who gave up a single to left to Corpus, which was also bobbled by Kozak for an extra base, and then a Jose Campos homer. The Raccoons put up another 3-spot in the eighth against Josh Costello; Brass and Perez singled, Starr walked, and the bags were full with one out. Caballero’s groundout brought in Brassfield, and Nick Fowler singled home a pair, but the inning ended with Jon Bean grounding out, and the Elks were still three runs ahead. Lonzo hit another single in the ninth inning, but was doubled up by Nye, and that was the ballgame. 9-6 Canadiens. Lavorano 2-5; Brassfield 2-4; Perez 2-3, BB, RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

Can we please not finish an even 9-9 with the damn Elks, who are last in EVERYTHING??

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – CF Morris – P DeRose
VAN: 2B Roldan – 3B Corpus – 1B J. Campos – CF D. Moreno – RF C. Cardenas – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – LF Needham – P A. Jesus

On Wednesday, the Raccoons took an unearned 2-0 lead, and right in the first inning as Starr reached on an error by Campos and then Nye singled and Brassfield zinged a double into the leftfield corner to cash in the pair of them before being left on base by Nick Fowler. Hard singles that Moreno and Younce whacked off DeRose in the second inning, as well as a wild pitch by said starting pitcher, helped the Elks to make up half of that deficit, and Rafael Roldan’s homer in the third inning did the rest…

Straight singles by Brass, Fowler, and Maresh allowed the Raccoons to take a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning, but Christopher was caught stealing after getting on base to begin the fifth inning, and the Elks were still whacking the ball hard against DeRose; they were just finding the defense on a somewhat regular basis. Nick Nye did not find the defense when he led off the top 6th with a jack to left, which made it 4-2 Coons.

DeRose’s *basic* pitching worked out as long as the defense was on the call, but they dropped after five innings. Fowler threw a grounder away in the sixth, which was not yet the end of the world, but in the seventh the Elks’ Alex Maldonado and Bobby Needham led off with singles and Christopher capitally threw away that second base hit to give everybody an extra base; Maldonado, who had already been gunning for third base, scored, and Needham went to second base with the tying run. Then Maresh threw away Jesus’ bunt for another two ******* bases, and the game was tied. Now the stinking Elk on second base was the go-ahead run. When Chris Sullivan pinch-hit for Roldan, the Coons brought Ricky Herrera to match the lefty stick, and Sullivan grounded out for the second out of the inning. Corpus whacked an RBI double with two outs, and when he then tried to steal third base, Maresh threw that ******* **** baseball away as well, allowing Corpus to score. One inning, three hits, three throwing errors, and four runs for THE ******* ELKS. “Clownshoes” Fowler then continued the ******** with a double play grounder following Brassfield’s leadoff single in the top 8th.

Jon Bean led off the ninth with a pinch-hit single, but was forced out by Christopher. Lonzo singled off Erik Swain, putting the tying run on base, and Starr drew a walk to fill the bases. Nick Nye grounded to short, but shortstop Tom Hetzel was not quick enough with his throw to second base and the Elks only got one out on the play while Christopher scored. Brassfield was next. With two outs, the count ran to 2-2, and then Brass socked one to right-center. Moreno missed it, and two runs scored, flipping the score to 7-6 Critters. Fowler grounded out. The bottom 9th saw Walters bidding for his 50th save of the year. Whittington and Juan Aragon grounded out before Christian Hambrick hit a single to left. Corpus grounded out easily to end the game, though. 7-6 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-5; Nye 2-5, 2 RBI; Brassfield 3-4, BB, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1;

Four errors in the game, but don’t be fooled. While they looked like blithering idiots in the field, they really *are* blithering idiots in the field…

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF Morris – 3B Bean – P Riddle
VAN: 2B Corpus – SS Younce – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – CF D. Moreno – C A. Maldonado – 3B C. Sullivan – LF Hambrick – P Brink

Trent Field brassed his 11th homer of the year in leadoff jack form in the second inning for the first run in the rubber game, although the team was quick to tack on as Brink walked Angel Perez and then right away gave up another homer to Ben Morris, a wrapper around the foul pole in right. That was already it for offense in the first five innings. The Coons had only one more base hit, and the Elks had two, but Riddle had them well under control; even when Maldonado opened the bottom 5th with a double to right, Riddle rung up all of the bottom of the order to get out of the inning.

Riddle was bidding for 200 K for the season, too, at this point, though if the Raccoons stuck with a 6-man rotation he would only get two more starts after this. Entering with 177 K and up to seven on the day after mopping the floor with the 7-8-9 batters in the bottom 5th, he nevertheless faced another 11 batters in the game – and struck out none of them. On the contrary, the Elks got a run in the seventh with Chad Cardenas’ leadoff triple and Moreno’s RBI groundout, narrowing the score to 3-1, and then had the tying runs on the corners with 1-out singles from Corpus and Younce in the eighth when Riddle was yanked. Bravo came in very helpfully walked Campos to fill the sacks before giving up a sac fly to Cardenas, while Ricky Herrera balked before popping out Damian Moreno, ultimately stranding the tying run at third base in the inning. The Raccoons frittered singles by Brass and Perez in the ninth inning before bringing back Walters, who struck out Whittington, but then gave up a double to left to PH Manny Saunders. The veteran quad-A reserve was found astray of the bag though when Hambrick lined out to Lonzo, and the Raccoons got a game-ending double play that way. 3-2 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-4, HR, RBI; Morris 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (13-7);

Raccoons (83-64) @ Thunder (64-82) – September 17-19, 2060

Here was another team long out and in a real rut right now as the Thunder were stricken with a 7-game losing streak as the Raccoons came in. They had the third-most runs scored, but also the third-most runs allowed in the CL. The Coons led the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Duarte Damasceno (5-1, 2.50 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (11-12, 2.90 ERA)
Chance Fox (12-11, 4.33 ERA) vs. Mike Chartrand (5-13, 5.13 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (12-12, 3.56 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (6-10, 4.55 ERA)

The Thunder had been off on Thursday, so they had wiggle room to skip somebody, but all candidates to pitch were right-handed.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – CF Morris – 3B Fowler – P Damasceno
OCT: CF Martaranha – 2B Woodrome – 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – SS O. Lira – C Burkart – RF R. Hummel – LF D. Guzman – P Aa. Harris

Lonzo stole his 44th base after forcing out Christopher and his leadoff single, which ended up salvaging a run in the opening frame once Nick Nye landed a 2-out RBI single in left-center. Brass’ groundout to third base ended the inning, while Nye was also instrumental to the two runs the Raccoons scored in the third inning. Following a 1-out double by Joel Starr, Nye drilled a triple into the left-center gap, then scored on Brass’ sac fly to Danny Guzman near the gap, but not quite stuffed down it enough for another extra-base knock. Guzman and Bernaldin Martaranha then answered with the Thunder’s first two hits in the game, a pair of singles, to get a run back from Damasceno in the bottom 3rd. Ian Woodrome worked a 2-out walk, but Christopher made a running catch on Andy Metz’ shallow fly to right to keep the tying runs from scoring.

Fowler reached on an error by Woodrome in the fourth inning, but DD struck out trying to bunt, which made for two outs. From there, Christopher drew a walk, moving Fowler to second base after all, and then Lonzo singled up the middle. Fowler came around to score, 4-1, and a double steal attempt by Christopher and Lonzo was met with a throwing error by Bruce Burkart, and another run scored as Christopher scampered home. Starr grounded out, leaving Lonzo on third base. Nye then opened the fifth inning with his second triple of the game, this one down the leftfield line, and scored again on another sac fly by Brassfield to get to 6-1, but hits by Guzman and Woodrome gave the Thunder a run back in the bottom half of that inning, and they got another one on a Burkart homer in the sixth. That was after Damasceno had struck Omar Lira in the ankle with a pitch that broke a bit much and pinch-runner Steven Spalding had been caught stealing. Damasceno got through that inning and collected another out from Travis Anderson in the #9 hole in the bottom 7th, then left for Adam Harris – his namesake long gone by then – who sorted out the top of the order. Erickson got two more outs after that before the Coons double-switched in Elijah LaBat for a potential 4-out save in the bottom 8th, with Gonzales replacing Fowler at third base. Ian Stone grounded out in Burkart’s deserted spot to end the inning, but Randy Hummel drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 9th of a 6-3 game – and then was doubled off, 6-4-3, by Guzman grounding to Lonzo. Travis Anderson struck out to finish off the game. 6-3 Raccoons. Christopher 2-3, BB; Nye 3-4, 2 3B, 2 RBI; Perez 2-4;

First career save for the 26-year-old Elijah LaBat in 67 games.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – CF Morris – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Fowler – SS Bean – P Fox
OCT: CF Martaranha – RF Whitlow – C Burkart – 2B Woodrome – LF Gillum – 3B McNeal – SS Spalding – 1B Metz – P Chartrand

The bags filled up in the top 1st on precious little as Morris legged out a 1-out infield single and Chartrand then walked the bags full. Appropriately, Brass popped out and Perez whiffed and nobody scored. The second inning threatened to be just as brilliant, beginning with Fowler and Bean singles. The two were bunted onwards by Foxie Brown, but Christopher then whiffed. Morris found a hole on the right side with two outs, though, and singled, and Eric Whitlow threw away the ball trying to kill off Bean at the plate, allowing Morris into scoring position, although Starr struck out to keep it at 2-0.

The Coons’ offense then took a nap and let Foxie Brown have a go at glory. He pitched a *fine* game, shutting out the Thunder through the early and middle innings. The first sticky spot actually came in the bottom 6th when Whitlow and Burkart opened the inning with singles, but were then kept from any advance on a K to Woodrome and easy pops by Brian Gillum and Josh McNeal. Fox also tried to jumpstart the offense with a leadoff single in the seventh. Joe-Chris drew a walk, and Morris’ groundout put the pair in scoring position for Starr with one out. Both him and Nye flew out to center; Starr got a sac fly out of it, but Nye just ended the inning.

Fox finished seven shutout innings, then was taken deep by his final batter, the leadoff man in the eighth, Martaranha, narrowing the score to 3-1. Ruben Mendez came on, hit Whitlow with a fastball, but then got Burkart to ground to short for a double play and rung up Woodrome. Matt Walters in the ninth allowed his almost customary single at this point, this one to McNeal, but retired three others to put the game away without a major crisis developing. 3-1 Critters. Morris 2-4, 2 RBI; Starr 1-2, BB, RBI; Fox 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (13-11) and 1-2;

That’s 52 saves for Matt Walters, and just two short of the franchise record for a single season held by Angel Casas.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – RF Oley – 2B Ortega – P B. Herrera
OCT: CF Martaranha – 2B Woodrome – RF Whitlow – 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – SS O. Lira – LF R. Hummel – C Burkart – P Ju. Juarez

The Raccoons had four hits in the first five innings and made three outs on the basepaths, which included Lonzo and Oley being caught stealing and Bernie Ortega being thrown out trying to go first-to-third on a Herrera single to end the fifth inning. The Thunder were just as listless on four hits and no runs against Tipsy Bobby, although they didn’t make quite as many voluntary outs.

Lonzo singled again in the sixth and this time stole the base, but received no support from Starr and Brass and was left in scoring position in a scoreless game. Lonzo had another hit in the eighth, but then didn’t get a jump and made no attempt while the inning ended behind him. The Thunder did get through Bobby Herrera in the bottom 8th; singles by Burkart, Ian Stone, and Woodrome plated them a run in the inning. Whitlow grounded out, and Ricky H. came in to relieve Bobby H. against Andy Metz, the switch-hitter, but the Thunder sent righty Brian Gillum, who flew out to Morris in center, stranding a pair in scoring position. Right-hander Jerry Washington then faced the 5-6-7 batters in the ninth. Fowler grounded out before Christopher batted for Maresh and drew a walk. Washington walked Oley as well before Kozak batted for Bernie Ortega and dropped a blooper on 1-2 into shallow right. Whitlow narrowly missed it, the ball hit off his shin, and Christopher was quickly whisked onwards to score the tying run, while there were still two men on for Nick Nye batting for Ricky Herrera. His grounder to left was knocked down by Lira, but there was no play, and the sacks were full for Morris, who grounded to second base, and Woodrome fired home with no hesitation, getting the out at the plate on Todd Oley. Bags still full for Lonzo – and he got his fourth hit of the day with a single up the middle! Two runs scored, Washington was knocked out, and lefty Ryan Hogues gave up another RBI single to Starr. Hogues threw a wild pitch to move the pair into scoring position, and Brass then singled to right-center to plate them. Armando Suriel, the fourth pinch-hitter of the 6-run inning, then grounded out, ending the onslaught. Adam Harris would finish off the game. 6-1 Coons! Lavorano 4-5, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-5, 2 RBI; Oley 3-4, 2B; Kozak (PH) 1-1, RBI; Nye (PH) 1-1; B. Herrera 7.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K and 1-2, BB;

In other news

September 13 – ATL SP Vic Harman (16-6, 2.29 ERA) follows up his no-hitter against the Bayhawks with a 3-hit shutout of the Falcons, taking the 2-0 win while going the distance.
September 16 – Dallas OF Chad Pritchett (.291, 13 HR, 76 RBI) will miss the rest of the year after breaking his foot.
September 17 – CHA OF/3B/2B Chris Tomko (.238, 8 HR, 62 RBI) drives in seven runs on three hits from the #8 spot as the Falcons apply the neutron disruptors to the Canadiens, who get exploded in a 20-6 rout.
September 17 – The only scoring in the Stars’ 2-0 win against the Buffaloes is courtesy of veteran 2B/1B Erik Stevens’ (.252, 4 HR, 59 RBI) 10th-inning walkoff home run.
September 18 – Buffos CF/LF Jose Ambriz (.309, 8 HR, 54 RBI) is out for the year with a tear in his hamstring.
September 18 – The home run hit by RIC 3B Bobby Anderson (.282, 12 HR, 57 RBI) in the first inning is all there is to beat the Wolves, 1-0.

FL Player of the Week: SAC RF/CF Will Buras (.260, 20 HR, 74 RBI), socking .407 (11-27) with 4 HR, 13 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND OF Steve Thompson (.312, 9 HR, 43 RBI), batting .542 (13-24) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Ricky Herrera, the sneaky bugger, scratched out another W on Sunday while getting just one out, and now has eight wins this year, well shy of the 11 last year.

Another 5-game winning streak, although we’re still behind by double digits because the Crusaders will win a hundred and then some, and all we’re doing is getting a terrible draft pick.

I know I promised Noah Caswell would be back from rehab by now, but we actually have a bit of an issue with getting him back on the 40-man roster. We kinda need… everybody on there…?

Final homestand of the year coming up, hosting the Condors and Titans. Come in, come in, and marvel at the Furballs before they become unsightly during cookie dough season…!

Fun Fact: Logger Scott Franks has probably run away with the stolen base title.

Unless Lonzo can pound out 15 singles and steal a base every time now, it’s probably that for the stolen base title. Franks dashed up to 52 this week, while Lonzo is at 46. And in between is still Indy’s Matt Kilday at 47.

Oh well, the Loggers like winning something too, occasionally… although… he’s also leading the batting title race… Run harder, Lonzo! Run!!