[Westheim]

Raccoons (54-38) @ Canadiens (44-49) – July 16-18, 2063

The Critters’ first stop on their weeklong road trip was Elk City, where the resident ballclub ranked eighth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed in the CL. They were almost mediocre throughout except for a sturdy bullpen and ranking second in homers. We were up 6-3 on them for the year.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (6-3, 3.50 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (4-6, 4.31 ERA)
Angel Alba (9-5, 3.19 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (4-8, 4.09 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-3, 2.44 ERA) vs. Roger Pritchard (9-6, 2.43 ERA)

First post-All Star Game left-hander would be Roger Pritchard on Wednesday.

The Coons activated both Lonzo and Jim White from the DL and a rehab assignment, respectively, and Victor Morales (.242, 2 HR, 18 RBI) and Joe Gardner (.267, 0 HR, 1 RBI) got sent back to AAA.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 2B White – SS Lavorano – LF Crumble – P Riddle
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Cardenas – LF Lozada – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P C. Torres

The Elks took a 1-0 lead in the second on a homer to left by Chad Cardenas, while the Raccoons scattered four singles and two walks, and had nothing to show for it except Malik Crumbling into a double play and leaving five on base otherwise in the first three innings, and after five innings we were at seven hits for no runs, including Corral’s leadoff double in the top 5th. The Elks had two hits through five, and Roberto Lozada getting plunked by Riddle in the fifth.

The Raccoons finally got on the bloody board in the sixth when Arellano hit another leadoff double and then Jim White, fresh from St. Pete, uncorked a 2-run homer to left-center to flip the score to 2-1 Portland. Lonzo singled and Crumble was nicked after that, with Riddle bunting them into scoring position for the first out. The Elks chose not to go after Corral and walked him intentionally, after which Kozak struck out. Rich Monck however turned on a breaking ball and bashed it over the wall in rightfield – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!

That one seemed to suck the air out of the Elks, who went down in order in the next couple of innings, while the Raccoons came up against 2051 Critter Juan Mercado in the eighth inning. He walked Kozak and Starr before giving up an RBI single to Arellano, then nicked White to load them up with two outs. Lonzo grounded to the left side; Alex Corpus intercepted the ball with a dive, but had no play, and another run scored as all the runners advanced 90 feet. Crumble grounded out to leave the bags full. Riddle went into the ninth inning before he allowed a single to Jose Campos and – regrettably – another homer to Cardenas, after which Rich Read got the baseball. He collected the last two outs required. 8-3 Raccoons. Corral 2-5, BB, 2B; Monck 4-6, HR, 4 RBI; Arellano 2-5, 2B, RBI; White 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Lavorano 4-5, RBI; Crumble 2-4; Riddle 8.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (7-3);

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 2B White – CF M. Campos – LF Crumble – P Alba
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – LF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF D. Moreno – RF Lozada – 3B Spalding – P Nielsen

Tuesday saw the Critters strike first with Corral’s leadoff single and a 2-out RBI knock by Joel Starr for one run in the first. However, the Elks matched them to a every dot on every letter I, as Alex Castllo and Chad Whetstine hit singles for a game-tying run in the bottom of the inning. Nielsen then failed the bases full with walks and a hit Marco Campos in the top 2nd, bringing up Alba with nobody out. The pitcher struck out, but Jose Corral drove in a pair with a single to right-center while the remaining runners were left stranded by Lonzo (pop) and Monck (groundout). A leadoff walk to Starr and Arellano and White singles then loaded the bases *again* with nobody out in the third inning. This time the Coons got one run on a wild pitch before bumbling into a 9-2 double play on Marco Campos’ fly to Lozada. Crumble was walked intentionally and Alba had obviously run out of base knocks for the year in May and whiffed.

Alba was far from perfect, too, and put Castillo and Jose Campos on base in the bottom 3rd. Chad Whetstine’s 2-out double to right-center was going to score a run, but Campos also tried to come home from first base and was very much thrown out by Corral now, which ended the inning with a 4-2 score. That lead was taken to the sixth inning with notably less offense from the Coons’ side in those middle innings before being fudged to all hell and back in a real team effort in the bottom 6th, which Jose Campos opened with a triple to center. Whetstine’s unproductive groundout prevented him from scoring, but he sure came home when Crumble dropped Alex Maldonado’s fly for an error, 4-3. Alba then drilled Damian Moreno before he gave up a pair of 2-strike RBI singles to Lozada and Steven Spalding, which swung the score around as well as the bullpen door open. Chris Richardson hit into an inning-ending double play against McDaniel.

Meanwhile, an error had given the Elks the lead, and an error took it away again in the seventh inning. Monck reached on a 2-base throwing error by Corpus, and then scored on Arellano’s 2-out double into the left-center gap against lefty Gabe Hill. Jim White ran a 3-1 count, but then lined out hard to Castillo to keep the score even at five, but Hill served up a tie-breaking homer to left to Malik Crumble in the eighth, 6-5.

The game continued in oh-boy fashion when Matt Walters invited Whetstine and Maldonado on base to begin the bottom 8th. Moreno struck out, while Lozada grounded to short. The Coons could not turn two because Maldonado sliced through Jim White, who fell on his shoulder and then required consultation from Luis Silva, and eventually left the game with him, replaced by Jon Bean. Murdock replaced Walters, allowed a single to PH Chad Cardenas to tie the game, another pinch-hit single to Kenny Graves that loaded the bases, and then walked in the winning run for the Elks before Corpus grounded out to Starr to leave three on. 7-6 Canadiens. Corral 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Arellano 3-4, 2B, RBI; Crumble 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

Say, Steve from Accounting, is there any way to get out of that $1.2M contract with Murdock for 2064? – Can you make it look like an accident, though?

Funnily enough the Crusaders called about acquiring Murdock and a prospect on Wednesday. Problem was that they were wishing to trauma-dump Tristan Waker, and I was not into that. Waker was washed as a catcher, and we already were dragging a catcher around that was only borderline useful. They were not willing to swap Murdock for even a triple-A infielder, and so they had to bugger off.

Also, Jim White, we hardly knew ya. Two days off the DL, he was right back on it with a separated shoulder. See ya in the middle of August or something like that. Hellllo, Joe Gardner.

Game 3
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – RF M. Campos – LF Crumble – 2B Gardner – P Fox
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Cardenas – LF Lozada – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P R. Pritchard

Both pitchers struck out four batters in the first three innings, but while Pritchard was perfect, Foxie Brown scattered a few runners and gave up a solo homer to Steven Spalding in the second to trail in the game. Pritchard turned away a total of 11 batters to start the game before Monck reached on a throwing error by Castillo that was worth two bases. Arellano immediately hit an RBI single, and another single by Starr and a walk issued to Marco Campos loaded the bases for Crumble, who strung a grass top skimmer up the middle for a 2-out, 2-run single, taking a 3-1 lead. The remaining runners then tried a double steal, Orphanos threw the ball away, and that allowed Campos to score before Joe Gardner grounded out. The Elks then also loaded the bases against a wobbly Foxie, with Cardenas, Lozada, and Spalding all reaching in the bottom 4th before Orphanos popped out and Pritchard grounded out to keep three aboard.

While Fox reached on an error by Whetstine to begin the top 5th and was soon joined on base by Kozak, Pritchard left the game with an injury and was replaced with Alex Diaz, a right-hander that fell 3-0 behind Monck with one out before Monck smashed into an inning-ending double play that kinda hurt me in the soul. In turn, the Elks had a Castillo homer, a Corpus single, and another homer by their Campos to tie the score at four at once in the bottom 5th. Fox ****** two more batters on base before being yanked, and Orphanos singled home the go-ahead run against Pohlmann before the inning was over, 5-4…….

The Raccoons would have Arellano and Marco Campos on the corners with one out in the sixth before the latter was caught stealing and the former left on base by Crumble. But Arellano was not done with the icky Elks quite yet. He came up in the eighth against righty Brian Doster, who had just put Monck on base with a 1-out single and *belted* a ball high into the leftfield stands for a score-flipping homer…!

The next traitor in line was then Carrillo, who came into the bottom 8th, walked Castillo, and then *drilled* the bases full with Chris Richardson and Cardenas. I mean, I hated the damn Elks like everybody on the team, but maybe don’t go about it like *that*! The Raccoons went to McDaniel with three on and one out, which would have been madness for most of the year (32.1 IP, 20 BB), but McDaniel struck out the switch-hitting Lozada and got Whetstine out with a grounder to first, preventing the damn Elks from scoring. Top 9th, left-hander Jeremy Garvey left the Raccoons some insurance when he gave up a pinch-hit single to Nick Fowler in the pitcher’s spot, retired Kozak, but then hung a ball to Lonzo that disappeared in the gap for an RBI triple, 7-5. Rich Monck went even more gangbusters on the volume and *chonked* his 21st homer halfway to Alaska. The Coons then left Carlisle in the pen and got the last three outs with Read in a 4-run game. 9-5 Furballs! Monck 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Arellano 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (56-39) @ Aces (35-59) – July 20-22, 2063

The Aces were bottoms in the South but had won their last three games against the Knights. Overall though they were in the bottom three in runs scored and runs being stuffed into them, with a -103 run differential. The Coons had swept them the first time around this year, allowing just four runs to the Aces in three games. Vegas was last in a bunch of individual statistics, including home runs and starters’ ERA, although they had also rotated starters a lot already this year.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (6-6, 3.01 ERA) vs. Adam Edge (4-5, 4.39 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-1, 1.67 ERA) vs. Steve Hunter (6-6, 3.77 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (7-3, 3.49 ERA) vs. Dan Graham (5-9, 4.92 ERA)

Both Hunter and Graham were left-handed while Edge was a 23-year-old uninteresting rookie that had made 40 relief appearances and just three starts so far, and walked everything with legs (5.9 BB/9).

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – CF Campos – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – SS Fowler – LF Crumble – 2B Bean – P Elling
LVA: LF Lorenzo – SS Veguilla – RF K. Hummel – 3B A. Alfaro – CF Jad. Wilson – 1B D. Williams – 2B M. Roberts – C Wheat – P Edge

The Raccoons didn’t draw many walks (two in five innings) and didn’t hit Edge around either, while Elling at least matched the pace. Neither team scored on their three base hits in the first five innings, but both pitchers were near 70 pitches in making it that far. Campos hit a leadoff single in the sixth, but was caught stealing, and both teams lined up another zero. Funnily enough Edge would *draw* a walk from Elling in the seventh inning, but the Aces didn’t make anything out of that 2-out free pass either. Elling was then hit for to begin the eighth against Edge. Lonzo grabbed a stick, fell 1-2 behind, then fired a home run to left-center that ended the rook’s shutout at once. Edge then brushed Corral, who was forced out by Monck, then walked Starr with two outs and was yanked. Ubaldo Piteira struck out Arellano to leave the runners on. Murdock struck out two in the bottom 8th before walking Alex Alfaro, upon which Walters came on to retire Jaden Wilson on a groundout to Jon Bean. Carlisle got three straight outs in the ninth to put the game away. 1-0 Blighters. Starr 1-2, 2 BB; Bean 2-4; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Elling 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (7-6);

I love Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend!

November will be very hard on me.

Game 2
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – RF M. Campos – LF Crumble – 2B Gardner – P Applegate
LVA: 2B M. Roberts – SS Veguilla – RF K. Hummel – 1B D. Williams – CF Jad. Wilson – LF Marazzo – 3B Karch – C Wheat – P S. Hunter

Jeff Applegate’s first career win zoomed into the distance in the first inning on Saturday as he got pummeled for four hits and four runs, including a 2-run homer by Nate Marazzo in his first career at-bats. So much for career-firsts. Applegate *did* get a first in the second inning, his first career RBI. He came up as the tying run after Joe Gardner’s RBI double that plated Starr and moved Crumble to third base, and grounded out to get Crumble across home plate. Hunter then issued 2-out walks to Kozak and Lonzo to load the bases for Rich Monck, who grounded out meekly to end the inning. Applegate answered with two walks and a 2-out, 3-run homer served up to Ken Hummel in the bottom 2nd and was not seen after that.

Arellano and Campos drew more walks from Hunter and Crumble singled to load the bases with one out in the third inning. Gardner legged out an infield single to get a run home, 7-3, and Jose Corral pinch-hit for Applegate, seeing out a full-count walk to push home another run against Hunter, but Kozak then ****** into a double play to end the inning. Hunter was removed after four disastrous innings with Kris Robbins inheriting a 10-4 lead following another 3-run homer Ken Hummel thrashed off Rich Read in the bottom 4th. It got better though… for the Aces. After three shoddy innings by Read, who was reported as assigned to AAA before the game was even over, the Coons got a good one from Carrillo before Murdock got ****** even harder and served up a grand slam to Miguel Veguilla in the seventh. Rich Monck hit a 2-run homer off David Gaither in the eighth, not that it was gonna make a difference. Jon Bean was pitching in the bottom 8th, putting together another 1-2-3 inning for some wicked reason. 14-6 Aces. Lavorano 1-2, BB; Lawson (PH) 1-1; Crumble 3-5; Gardner 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Bean (PH) 1-2 and 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Oy.

Rich Read (0-0, 6.75 ERA) was replaced with …

Interlude: Trade

That night, the Raccoons acquired MR Jimmy Dingman (2-0, 2.57 ERA) from the Blue Sox for merely Malik Padgitt (1-0, 5.40 ERA). Dingman, 31, was a steady right-hander that had been nicknamed “Jimmy Dingerman” at one point, but had not allowed a homer so far this year in 35 innings. Note how I’m teasing the baseball gods here. He also wasn’t particularly flashy with just 5.7 K/9, btu the good news was that if he annoyed us he’d be gone after the season.

Raccoons (56-39) @ Aces (35-59) – July 20-22, 2063

Game 3
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 2B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – RF Campos – 3B Fowler – C Lawson – P Riddle
LVA: LF Lorenzo – 2B M. Roberts – RF K. Hummel – 1B D. Williams – CF Jad. Wilson – 3B A. Alfaro – SS Karch – C Wheat – P D. Graham

The rubber game saw the Raccoons go up 1-0 in the second on Crumble’s leadoff double and Fowler’s 2-out RBI single. Riddle wobbled however, and had pairs on base in the second and third innings before the Raccoons tacked on a run on straight 2-out singles by the 6-7-8 batters in the fourth inning. However, Dustin Williams socked a leadoff double to center against Riddle and scored on two groundouts to claw the run back for the Las Vegans in the same inning. Riddle looked like another ghastly box score entry in the making for sure, so tacking on more runs was advised. Kozak opened the fifth with a ground-rule double to right and scored on Monck’s 1-out single to left-center. The throw home allowed Monck to scoot into second base, but he was stranded right there by Crumble’s grounder and Starr’s fly out before Riddle annoyed the crap out of me even harder with a leadoff walk to Tom Wheat. However, Graham’s bunt was bad and Starr pounced on it to get a force out at second base, and Graham was then stranded at first base.

Riddle then had a good sixth before a goofy seventh in which he allowed singles to Sean Karch and – worse – to Graham with two outs. The Coons went to Pohlmann against the switch-hitter Victor Lorenzo, but the Aces answered with Veguilla, and he swatted another huge homer to flip the score to Vegas, 4-3. Monck singled off Graham to begin the eighth inning but was doubled off by Starr as the Coons didn’t score again facing Graham. The ninth dawned with Curt Crater on the hill for Vegas. The right-hander got Campos on a grounder, but walked Fowler with one out. Oley batted for Lawson and whiffed, and Corral batted for Pohlmann and grounded out. 4-3 Aces. Monck 2-4, RBI; Fowler 2-3, BB, RBI;

In other news

July 17 – New York’s Omar Sanchez (.288, 0 HR, 24 RBI) has the only two hits against BOS SP Mike Bell (5-7, 3.85 ERA) and three relievers as the Crusaders drop a tight game, 2-0.
July 17 – The Scorpions beat the Pacifics, 7-5, in a value offering of a baseball game that goes 18 innings. SAC SS/3B Zach Suggs (.272, 15 HR, 52 RBI) manages to go 0-for-8 across five-and-a-half hours.
July 20 – The hitting streak of Rebs SS Jason Turner (.270, 12 HR, 54 RBI) reaches 25 games with a 3-hit, 2-homer, 4-RBI game in an 8-6 loss to the Warriors.
July 22 – The Knights stomp out the Loggers, 17-4, somehow doing so without any Atlanta player exceeding three hits, three RBI, or three runs scored in the game.
July 22 – IND CF/RF Eddy Ramirez (.218, 5 HR, 22 RBI) has four hits with a homer, two doubles, and drives in five runs in a 19-4 rout of the Bayhawks.
July 22 – The Stars suffocate the Blue Sox instantly with an 11-run first inning before managing the 13-5 final result to the end.

FL Player of the Week: SAC RF Will Buras (.316, 12 HR, 53 RBI), batting .571 (16-28) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN 3B/SS Steven Spalding (.281, 12 HR, 35 RBI), hitting .500 (10-20) with 1 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Considering we played two last-place teams this week, this was a **** road trip. 3-3 in terms of games, 33-33 in terms of runs scored. So even when the Raccoons score 5.5 runs a game, they still somehow manage to **** it all up. The bullpen needs even more work, although we already called the Salvation Army, and they’re not gonna take Murdock as a charitable donation to help the poor and miserable.

Rich Monck has crept up on Eddie Marcotte (24 HR) again in the CL homer race. Nobody’s near the Miners’ Nick Ding(er)man with 29 bombs to his credit. And he’s a catcher…!

We go home now to play the Bayhawks and Condors for six games next week. Thursday is another day off, but after that we will play 20 straight games without another day off.

Fun Fact: 29 years ago today, the Aces’ Nick Danieley no-hit the Canadiens.

For a #1 pick (by the Buffos in 2022), Danieley had a rather mixed career. He never won any major awards besides two Pitcher of the Month accolades, and the only thing he ever led a league in was in walks in ’33. Ick.

The stars aligned on that day though as he held the Elks – for whom he’d pitch two years later – hitless when otherwise nothing went well in his age 34 season, which he finished 6-11 with a 4.85 ERA, missing 11 starts due to injury. At that point in his career he was already three years removed from his final winning record, 16-7 with a 3.31 ERA with the Buffaloes in ’31. After ten years with Topeka, Danieley then changed teams every year for six more seasons, with two stints with the Cyclones and Wolves. The seasons with the Aces and the Elks were his only CL stints.

For his career, he went 177-165 with a 4.10 ERA in 441 games (426 starts). He struck out 2,223 batters in 2,933 innings.