[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Indians (0-0) – April 6-8, 2065

The Raccoons started the season with a 6-game homestand and the Indians in particular, a team that the Coons hadn’t won the season series against in four years, taking only eight games from them in ’64. The Arrowheads were looking like they were on the way down, which probably made them only more of a stepping stone.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (0-0) vs. Mike DeWitt (0-0)
Shoma Nakayama (0-0) vs. Raul Ontiveros (0-0)
Angel Alba (0-0) vs. Ramon Carreno (0-0)

DeWitt was the only left-hander in the Indians’ rotation.

Game 1
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – LF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF B. Johnston – SS G. Lujan – 2B B. Ellis – P DeWitt
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Burkart – LF Spicer – CF Garmon – SS Novelo – P Elling

Neither team scored the first time through the lineup in the new season, with a pair of singles from Burkart and Novelo in the second inning and them ending up stranded on the corners when Elling flew out to Bryan Johnston to end the inning. In the fourth it was the other two batters from the bottom half of the lineup, Spicer and Garmon, who got on base and were stranded when Elling grounded out to Matt Martin. I tended not to blame my pitchers for not hitting as long as they were pitching well, which Elling did through four innings, allowing just one hit and one walk so far. The Indians could not get it going against him and went silently in the next two innings as well until the Raccoons finally put something together. Malcolm Spicer, all 20 years old of him, hit a single, stole second base, and scored on Garmon’s single to left-center to put an actual run on the board in the bottom 6th. The Indians – after being comatose for the entirety of the game – then nearly got a homer from Danny Starwalt to right with one out in the seventh, but Corral picked it off the top of the fence. Vinny Atencio and Bryan Johnston then clipped a pair of 2-out hits, but were stranded on a K to Guillermo Lujan, but perhaps it was wise to get the relievers up and stretching. Corral, after taking the Starwalt drive away, then smacked a home run to send DeWitt to bed in the bottom 7th, and also rescued a 12-game hitting streak from 2064 after six months of hibernation. Elling meanwhile got two more outs before being taken over the fence by the other team’s leadoff man, Eddy Ramirez, cutting the lead in half. Cruz Madrid replaced him, got Matt Martin to pop out, and that concluded the top 8th. The Coons had a Burkart single in the bottom 8th and had Starr walked intentionally when he batted for Corey Garmon, after which Yukio Aoki batted for Novelo and hit into a double play. McGinley then got the ball in the ninth, struck out PH Miguel Falcon, but gave up a double to Starwalt. Atencio and ex-Coon Cortez Chavez then made weak outs, though. 2-1 Critters. Burkart 2-4, 2B; Garmon 1-2, BB, RBI; Novelo 1-2; Elling 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

The Indians signed Keith Thompson (80-104, 4.48 ERA, 2 SV) on a deal worth $4.7M over two years that night. Thompson, lastly on the Wolves, was the last type-A free agent from the offseason. It would cost Indy their #14 pick, and Thompson was expected to start the final game of the series.

Game 2
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – LF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF B. Johnston – SS G. Lujan – 2B B. Ellis – P Ontiveros
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – 3B Morales – SS Aoki – P Nakayama

Freshly arrived in the ABL, Shoma Nakayama retired the Indians in order the first time through – almost… if it hadn’t been for Vic Morales to get right back into that freshly cleaned E column and put Vinny Atencio on base by throwing away a grounder. Nakayama struck out four Indians the first time through before Eddy Ramirez hit a single with two outs in the top 3rd. Matt Martin grounded out. The fourth got more interesting as rookie Justin Dowsey singled and Starwalt worked a walk before getting doubled off in 1-6-3 style by Atencio. Johnston flew out to Kozak to leave the rook at third base. In turn the Raccoons took the lead in the bottom 4th when Kozak singled and Rich Monck got his first hit of the year, a 2-run homer to right…! Burkart nearly hit another one, but it glanced off the top of the fence in left for a double. Morales singled, Aoki walked, and the bases were loaded for the pitcher with one out. Nakayama had marginally more success than Elling in the season opener, hitting a sac fly to Dowsey in left. Corral grounded out to leave the remaining runners on base.

The Indians got on the board with a Ben Ellis hit, a walk drawn by Ramirez, and then Martin’s RBI single to get back to 3-1 in the fifth, but Kozak immediately answered with a homer to center. Nakayama then nursed the 4-1 lead to the stretch, but got over 100 pitches doing so and would not return afterwards. McDaniel got the ball instead, which immediately started the derailment noises all around the ballpark when he smacked Dowsey in the hands with a fastball, forcing the rookie out of the game for pinch-runner Darby Laybolt (actual name!). McDaniel walked Starwalt before getting a double play grounder from Atencio to Monck in a flashback to the fourth inning. Johnston then popped out to short and the Indians left another guy, Darby Laybolt (actual name!), on third base. At least McGinley held up so far and put the Indians down in order in the ninth inning – except for another error, but not by Morales, who had been replaced with Novelo. Instead, Monck butterfingered Falcon’s pop with one out, but McGinley got out Ramirez and Martin to end the game. 4-1 Raccoons. Spicer 2-4; Kozak 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Morales 2-3, 3B; Aoki 0-1, 2 BB; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Corral’s last-year hitting streak didn’t make it much further into the new season as he went hitless in this game.

Game 3
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF B. Johnston – SS G. Lujan – LF Lovins – 2B B. Ellis – P K. Thompson
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – 3B Morales – SS Aoki – P Alba

Alba struck out four against little resistance the first time through the order on Wednesday, but the Coons got on the horse a bit earlier this time and scored in the third inning on a Kozak double and Monck single. However, they already had EIGHT hits at that point and stranded six guys on base in three innings, while Spicer was on base and caught stealing right ahead of the pair of hits in that bottom 3rd.

Bottom 4th, Aoki singled for the ninth Coons hit in the game. Alba’s bunt was taken to second zealously, and in fact overzealously, but Matt Martin, which did not result in an out. Corral grounded out, Spicer hit a sac fly to center, 2-0, and Kozak did what he did second-best after hitting homers, and whiffed.

The game then went south in the top 5th; the Indians didn’t have a lot, but at least they didn’t scatter absolutely everybody for no good reason on base. Chris Lovins and Eddy Ramirez got to the corners against Alba in the inning, and then Martin struck a 2-out, 3-run homer to flip the score and gave the Coons their first deficit of the season. Starwalt upped the score to 4-2 by swatting a back-to-back homer, while the Coons in the inning had Monck draw a walk and Starr single, and then Burkart bumbled into a double play to derail the effort.

Bottom 6th, Aoki opened with a single, Garmon singled in place of Alba, and another single by Corral loaded the bases. That made it 13 hits for two runs, but a fourth single by Spicer finally brought in a run, but Kozak struck out and Monck hit into a 3-6-3 double play… At least Carrillo, after giving up a leadoff double to the pitcher Thompson, right through Vic Morales, in the seventh inning, then retired the next three Indians rather stingily and kept the runner stranded on third base as well. The Coons, however, were absolutely ******* doomed. Starr singled to begin the bottom 7th and was immediately doubled off by Burkart. Sansao Tyson made his Coons debut in the eighth and gave up an unearned run after a 2-base throwing error by Aoki, while the Coons had – yay! – more singles to begin the bottom 9th against Cody Kleidon, with Kozak and Monck getting on before Starr, Burkart, and Morales struck out in order to end the game. 5-3 Indians. Spicer 3-4, 2 RBI; Kozak 3-5, 2B; Monck 2-4, BB, RBI; Starr 2-5; Burkart 2-5; Aoki 2-4; Garmon (PH) 1-1;

Well, we were bound to have a stinker game at *some* point this year…

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Bayhawks (2-2) – April 10-12, 2065

San Francisco came off a really rancid season, had traded away Grant Anker, and had split four games with Tijuana to begin the year. They had given up the most runs in the CL so far, but there also were only two teams that had played four games.

Projected matchups:
Jeff Crowley (0-0) vs. John Steele (0-0)
Chance Fox (0-0) vs. Austin LaRosa (0-0, 9.00 ERA)
Josh Elling (1-0, 1.17 ERA) vs. Goffredo Merlin (1-0, 4.26 ERA)

No southpaw in sight here. LaRosa was a 23-year-old rookie and waiver claim from the Knights, for whom he had made a few relief appearances last season, who had made one relief appearance against the Condors now, and who was scheduled to get his maiden start on Saturday.

Game 1
SFB: RF J. Paez – LF Laws – 2B A. Montoya – CF Navarre – SS D. Cox – 3B D. Sandoval – 1B Cordero – C L. Marquez – P Steele
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – 3B Morales – SS Aoki – P Crowley

Armando Montoya, the last great hitter left in that lineup, hit a double in the first, but was left on base by Nate Navarre. However, Dan Sandoval and Rico Cordero hit back-to-back homers in the second inning to get the deadbeat Baybirds up 2-0. However, Yukio Aoki hit a 2-run bomb in the bottom 2nd with Morales, who forced out Starr earlier, to get back even. The Coons weren’t even for long though, because Cordero got back up to Crowley in the fourth inning and swatted a 3-run homer to put the Raccoons into an even deeper hole. Crowley also put Lorenzo Marquez and Juan Paez on base in the inning before getting yanked after only 3.2 innings of work in his Coons debut. Carrillo got Scott Laws on a groundout to end the inning, and held them off for another three outs, allowing Jose Corral to tie the game with a 3-run homer of his own in the bottom 5th. This one came with Aoki and Garmon on base and nobody out, and also ended Steele’s day in favor of olden-day Coon Ricky Herrera.

Of course the Coons would find somebody to bottle another lead to the Bayhawks, and it was Jesse Dover in his season debut. He nailed Dan Sandoval, walked Rico Cordero, and a few dominos later gave up runs on Juan Paez and Laws singles, 7-5, before being dug out by Jarod Morris. Things remained relatively close through the seventh and eighth although the Coons showed no signs of a rally, and then the ninth inning rolled around and Cruz Madrid got absolutely exploded for four runs, including another 3-piece by Sandoval, as the Bayhawks flew off into the distance as a winning team *and* Sansao Tyson had to finish the inning, which he did *barely*. The Coons loaded the bases with Arellano, Corral, and Spicer in the bottom 9th, and two outs, and then had Kozak strike out to end the game. 11-5 Bayhawks. Corral 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Aoki 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Serrano (PH) 1-1, 2B; Arellano (PH) 1-1;

Four games in, and the first hue of blue on the bullpen’s face.

Ace.

No starting debut on Saturday as the Baybirds moved up Merlin to the middle game.

Game 2
SFB: RF J. Paez – C Bogdan – 2B A. Montoya – CF Navarre – SS D. Cox – 1B J. McLaughlin – LF J. Echols – 3B D. Sandoval – P Merlin
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – C Arellano – SS Novelo – P Fox

Fox was down after two batters as Paez doubled and scored on Bryan Bogdan’s single. He gave up another two hits to Navarre and Jared McLaughlin and another run in the inning as things threatened to spiral out of control in week 1 once more. From here, there were good news and bad news. The good news was that Chance Fox after that horrendous inning *really* buckled down and would not only throw seven scoreless innings after that, getting to the middle of the eighth, but they were seven *hitless* innings, only losing Armando Montoya on a walk in the middle frames. The bad news was that the Raccoons were just as listless at the plate. Novelo had a single in the third. Spicer had a single and stole a base in the sixth. Neither made it to third base, let alone scored, and those were the only hits off Merlin, who also walked a pair through seven, as if that would lead anywhere nice. He retired Arellano and Novelo to begin the bottom 8th, then walked Serrano batting for Fox. Corral doubled to left, which suddenly put the tying runs in scoring position for the young hopper Spicer, whom he lost in a full count, which got us to Kozak with the bases loaded and two outs. There were only a few possible outcomes in my mind here, and all of them involved empty bases in some sense, but in fact after falling to 2-2 he managed to slap a single through the right side to drive in a run. Monck then got the chance and popped out right over home plate to leave three runners stricken on the bases. Navarre homered off Carrillo in the ninth to restore the 2-run gap, and the Coons didn’t come close to making up even one run against Zach Johnson in the ninth… 3-1 Bayhawks. Aoki (PH) 1-1; Fox 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, L (0-1);

Game 3
SFB: RF J. Paez – LF Laws – 2B A. Montoya – 1B J. McLaughlin – SS D. Cox – 3B D. Sandoval – CF Blackham – C L. Marquez – P Egley
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – 3B Aoki – SS Serrano – P Elling

Paul Egley (0-1, 11.57 ERA) had been lit up in his first start, but at least was spotted a 1-0 lead in the top 1st. The Bayhawks coulda had more, but Juan Paez, after singling on an 0-2 from Elling and stealing second, was thrown out trying to steal third base ahead of two doubles by Montoya and McLaughlin that ended up producing only one run. Kozak hit a single in the first but was left on, and then Starr legged out an infield single to begin the bottom 2nd, but already fell down as he stepped on home plate, and rolled into a whimpering ball right behind the base. He couldn’t get up and had to be stretchered off the field while I had a little blackout. Kozak ended up moving to first and Garmon manned centerfield from there. He ended up scoring the tying run as pinch-runner following a 1-out walk drawn by Aoki and Serrano’s RBI single to center, and then Elling gave himself the lead, singling home the remaining runners with a ball through between Dustin Cox and Dan Sandoval, 3-1.

Third inning, Montoya both reached on an error by Burkart and then made an error that put Kozak on base. The former play did not lead to a run, but Rich Monck tried to hit his way out of a dire start to the season and swatted an RBI double to center before scoring on productive outs by Garmon and Burkart.

Elling pitched competently to the stretch – except whenever Lorenzo Marquez showed up at the dish. The #8 hitter took Elling deep both in the fifth and seventh innings, luckily only for a single run both times, and the score was still 5-3 at stretch time. Ricky H. was out for the bottom 7th, got Corral, but then allowed a single to Spicer, who stole second, walked Kozak, and gave up a run on a Monck single before Garmon and Burkart both flew out to end the inning. Madrid and McGinley then ended the 3-game slide with competent late inning relief work, like McGinley holding the terror Marquez to a single in the ninth. 6-3 Coons. Monck 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 1-1; Aoki 1-1, 2 BB;

The news were not pleasant and Joel Starr, who had torn his hamstring entirely and was gonna be out for months. Luis Silva gave me hope for the All Star Game, as in, he might be taking grounders during the break.

Starr was off to the DL (sniff!) and the Raccoons called up 1B Alex Vargas, a switch-hitter that was going to turn 25 on Friday. He had been taken by the Wolves in the Rule 5 draft ahead of the 2063 season and made seven appearances batting .143 with 1 RBI for them before being returned. Last year in AAA, he had hit .276 with 12 homers.

Raccoons (3-3) @ Knights (2-3) – April 13-15, 2065

The Knights had scored 21 runs and given up 33 runs so far, hitting only one homer while their pen allowed themselves to get battered at a rate of a 10.80 ERA. That number probably would get better eventually. Nick Nye and Andy Younge were still on the DL for injuries suffered last year, when the Raccoons had beaten them in the season series, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (0-1, 9.00 ERA)
Angel Alba (0-1, 6.00 ERA) vs. Josh Doyle (0-0)
Jeff Crowley (0-0, 12.27 ERA) vs. Andres Lopez (0-1, 5.40 ERA)

Lopez was the only left-hander in that rotation.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – C Burkart – 3B V. Morales – 1B Vargas – SS Aoki – P Nakayama
ATL: 2B Kilday – RF J. Evans – 1B Savalli – SS C. Ramsey – C McLaren – 3B Labonte – LF Sheridan – CF Fumero – P Koga

Carlos Fumero had a fly by Monck glance off his wrist rather than catch it with his glove while running backwards with two outs in the first, which made the ball fall for a double and allowed Kozak to score from first base for the game’s first run, but Burkart then left Monck on base. The Knights did not leave a lot on base in the bottom 1st, as Jake Evans singled and scored on Justin Savalli’s score-flipping homer, and then Casey Ramsey doubled and scored on Matt McLaren’s single. It only got worse as the next inning saw Matt Kilday on with a 2-out single and then Nakayama served up a homer to Evans, 5-1. While Vic Morales singled in his first two runs of the year in the third inning, that was just a brief intermezzo here as Nakayama kept getting nailed for another run in the third, and then put Kilday on base with a 1-out single in the fourth and was yanked, not that that made anything better. Both Morris and Tyson got raked by the Knights, who went on to score four runs in the ******* inning to take a 10-3 lead. Tyson was booked for another run in the fifth, which Koga opened with a single. When the Coons’ 6-7-8 batters loaded the bases to begin the sixth inning it was admittedly a long shot for them to rally back into the game, but the little ***** surely could have done better than Garmon popping out and Corral hitting into a double play…

Bruce Burkart drove in two runs with a seventh-inning double against the 41-year-old Kodai Koga in the seventh inning, but that was after Dover had given up another run in the sixth with generally clueless tossing, beginning with a leadoff walk. McDaniel also offered a leadoff walk in the seventh, but became the first ******* Raccoons pitcher in the game to put a zero on the ******* board. Novelo became a shortstop/pitcher for the third time in his career in the bottom 8th and pitched another scoreless inning, though not without loading the bases. To make the game suck even harder, Ryan Harmer shut the door on the silly Critters… 12-5 Knights. Serrano (PH) 1-1; Monck 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Morales 2-4, 2 RBI; Aoki 1-2, 2 BB;

Gross.

Alex Vargas’ Raccoons debut was well in line with the rest of the team effort, 0-for-3 with a walk.

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – 3B V. Morales – C Arellano – CF Garmon – SS Aoki – P Alba
ATL: 2B Kilday – RF J. Evans – 1B Savalli – SS C. Ramsey – C McLaren – LF K. Hummel – 3B Ovalle – CF Fumero – P Doyle

The Coons began with singles from Corral and Spicer before Kozak whiffed and Monck hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Instead, the Knights took the early lead on a first-inning solo shot by Jake Evans. Top 2nd, the Raccoons’ 4-5-6-7 batters singled the bags full with nobody out before Aoki and Alba repeated what Kozak and Monck did earlier. That was five hits the first time through and zero runs, and the Fritters stranded another pair of runners between Corral and Monck in the third inning, at which point I was beginning to froth from the snout.

Pedro Ovalle’s homer made it 3-0 in the fourth inning thanks to Ramsey standing around on base, but at least after another Spicer single in the fifth Rich Monck finally found the right angle and bashed a 2-run homer of his own to get the Coons back to within one run. Jake Evans answered with another homer off Alba as I increasingly despaired. Alba somehow lasted seven innings, giving up six hits, half of which were bombs. He was down 4-2 and remained down 4-2 at the start of the eighth when Monck launched a blast off Brad Fales that Fumero picked off the top of the fence in the deepest depths of centerfield. A Morales single and Arellano double, both to left, put the tying runs in scoring position with one out, though, and Garmon hit a sac fly to right. The Coons sent lefty Ricky McMahan after Aoki with two outs, which meant Novelo was batting, but he grounded out to strand the tying run at second.

It managed to get worse yet; on the first batter that the Coons’ disgusting bullpen faced (Ramsey), Cruz Madrid gave up a rocket to the fence in deep right, which Corral caught while crashing into that fence, but he also caught a shoulder injury and left the game with his arm angled in front of his body, to be replaced by Randy Tallent. It was all for nothing, as Vargas, Tallent, and Spicer went down in order against Erik Swain in the ninth. 4-3 Knights. Spicer 2-5; Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Morales 3-4; Arellano 2-4, 2B; Garmon 1-2, RBI;

Jose Corral had a bit of a sprained shoulder, but no major structural damage, Luis Silva ruled on Wednesday. He was nevertheless going to hit the DL for at least two weeks as the Coons’ season continued to fall apart at a blistering rate. The Raccoons went with a new face and called up 24-year-old OF Carlos Matas, a scouting discovery that had actually risen from the puddles of the lower minors, although he was only 11 games into his AAA career. This was a defensive, lefty-hitting outfield option. He was not expected to hit.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – 3B V. Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Burkart – CF Garmon – SS Novelo – RF Tallent – P Crowley
ATL: 2B Kilday – RF J. Evans – 1B Savalli – SS C. Ramsey – C McLaren – LF K. Hummel – 3B Labonte – CF Fumero – P A. Lopez

Spicer walked and Morales hit a jack to left to begin the series finale, which actually put the Raccoons on top for a change. However, Crowley gave up a solo homer to Evans to cut the 2-0 lead in half, then shuffled the bags full before somehow getting a disposed-of ex-Coon, Paul Labonte, to pop out to leave the bases loaded. Monck and Burkart had reached base in the top 1st and had been left stranded, which meant Tallent led off the second, doing so with a walk. Crowley’s bunt was thrown into orbit by Labonte for two bases, and the runners scored one by one on Spicer’s single and Morales’ groundout before Kozak singled home Spicer from second on a 1-2 pitch before the inning fizzled out with Monck and Burkart. For giving up five runs in two innings, Andres Lopez was pinch-hit for at the first opportunity, J.P. Sheridan batting for him for no greater gains in the bottom 2nd. The Knights then got a walk, a balk, a hit batter, two RBI singles, and three runs in total off the completely derelict Crowley in the bottom 3rd, though, and the score was down to 5-4.

Top 4th, Spicer walked and Morales hit a jack to left to begin the inning, which was a nice throwback to an hour earlier, and extended the lead to 7-4 again. This one came off Luis Morales, righty reliever. The pummeling of Crowley didn’t stop though, and the Knights got another run off him on three singles in the bottom 4th. He was not seen afterwards, being hit for with Franklin Serrano in the next half-inning. Serrano was plunked and stranded.

Matas made his major league debut in the bottom 6th when he was double-switched in with Sansao Tyson to replace Dover (four outs, no runs, best boy in the pen by default) and Garmon. Tyson got five outs to get through seven, and Matas struck out in his first ABL at-bat in between. Cruz Madrid offered a leadoff walk to Kilday in the eighth, but had the situation resolved with a double play grounder by Savalli. The 7-5 score went to the ninth inning where McGinley was behind every batter and pretty soon **** got real. Casey Ramsey legged out an infield single to begin the inning before Justin Hart grounded out. Ken Hummel walked, and Labonte reached on an error by Monck, which loaded them up for Fumero, the 2063 CL ROTY. He tied the game with a single to center before Brad Fales – for a lack of pinch-hitters – rumbled into a double play, giving us extra innings.

The Coons hit nothing for two innings against Erik Swain while getting an out from McGinley against Kilday to begin the bottom 10th before putting Morris in for better or worse, to the point where Morris batted and struck out to begin the top 12th against Cory Leonard, who then went on to nail Tallent, batting a flat NOTHING. Tallent still got legs though and stole second, then moved to third on Matas’ groundout. Spicer walked in a full count, Morales walked before reaching a full count, and that brought up “All Or Nothing” Kozak, who ran another full count on the right-handed Leonard before slapping a 3-2 pitch into the left-center gap – and they weren’t gonna get there! The ball was down, went to the warning track, and Kozak emptied the bases with a double!! From there, an intentional walk to Monck by Leonard and an unintentional walk to Burkart by McMahan loaded the bases again, bringing back Aoki, who normally didn’t face left-handers in big spots, but the Raccoons only had Arellano left on the bench and couldn’t bat for him. He popped out, leaving a save situation to Carrillo, the last fresh reliever in the pen. Fumero slapped him for a leadoff double and scored on groundouts by McMahan and Kilday, but Evans’ out ended the bloody ballgame… 10-8 Raccoons. Morales 3-6, BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Kozak 2-6, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Vargas (PH) 1-1;

Vargas had the only base hit from the bottom four spots in the lineup, who did draw two walks and scored three runs, somehow.

In other news

April 6 – The Blue Sox and Capitals slug it out for 12 innings on Opening Day until Nashville prevails, 15-13.
April 7 – Stars 3B/SS/LF Xavier Reyes (4-for-8, 0 HR, 4 RBI) gets two hits in a 9-7 win against the Pacifics to reach 2,000 for his career at age 30. Reyes, a career .313 hitter with 38 homers and 461 stolen bases, gets the milestone in style with a bases-clearing triple off LAP MR Jon Toribio (0-0, 16.20 ERA).
April 7 – The Cyclones beat the Rebels, 1-0 in ten innings. The winning run is driven in by Cyclones C Brycen Fink (1-for-2, 0 HR, 1 RBI), who then finishes the game at third base.
April 9 – Two days later, C Brycen Fink (1-for-2, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is dealt from Cincy to Topeka for SP/MR Dan Albrecht (1-0, 3.86 ERA).
April 9 – The season of LVA SP Adam Edge (0-0, 0.00 ERA) ends with a flayed elbow ligament.

April 10 – The Stars fire off an 11-run eighth inning to beat the Buffaloes, 14-7. DAL C Chris D’Alessandro (.600, 0 HR, 6 RBI) drives in six runs from the #8 spot.
April 10 – CIN INF Jorge Munoz (.125, 0 HR, 1 RBI) was out for the rest of the month after suffering an oblique strain.
April 11 – LAP 1B/CF/RF Jared Allen (.391, 1 HR, 6 RBI) ends the Pacifics’ game against the Blue Sox with a come-from-behind, walkoff grand slam, 6-3.
April 11 – MIL INF Kyle Reber (.182, 1 HR, 5 RBI) drives in five runs from the leadoff spot in a 14-2 rout of the Condors.
April 11 – Richmond’s SS Jason Turner (.077, 0 HR, 1 RBI) will miss the entire season with a torn posterior cruciate ligament.

April 12 – CIN 3B Rick Healey (.357, 0 HR, 0 RBI) would miss a month with a torn ankle ligament.
April 12 – Crusaders OF Coby Thore (.304, 0 HR, 4 RBI) leaves a game against the Aces with a quad strain and will miss at least four weeks.
April 14 – The Buffos also acquire INF Alex Corpus (.296, 0 HR, 2 RBI) from the Gold Sox, along with a prospect, for OF Tommy Branch (.143, 0 HR, 2 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.520, 3 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: VAN INF/RF Carlos Castro (.600, 0 HR, 3 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Carlos Matas should not be confused with Carlos Mata, another outfielder that played in 53 games for the Raccoons a few years ago and was currently a 35-year-old free agent.

Why no Marco Campos, f.e.? Torn ankle ligaments, not coming back until late May. No, it was not a great start to the season for the Raccoons in ANY regard. The numbers are **** almost throughout except for some bright spots (Spicer!), and the DL already contains two five-and-a-halfths (Burkart?) of the engine that powered the team to a #1 finish in runs scored last year.

The pitching has been especially ludicrous so far. The two new starters put up three stinkers in four attempts, and the pen is as ******ed as ever.

No off day here either as we’re right off to Boston for a 4-game set. The Monday after that will be off, and then we have nine home games against the Loggers, Falcons, and Thunder, who lost their first six games of the year and are now 1-8, worst in the league. They can’t wait to face the Critters.

Fun Fact: The longest-ago Raccoon still in the organization is…… J.J. Sensabaugh.

He made 11 starts in 2057 after being acquired from New York at the deadline, going 2-4 with a 4.20 ERA. Needless to say it was all downhill from there, and yet he is drawing a paycheck.

The only other Raccoons still going back to the 2050s are Chance Fox (2058), Joel Starr (2058), and Jack Kozak (2059).