[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-23) @ Crusaders (24-14) – May 18-21, 2065

The Crusaders would host the Raccoons lusting for wins to break the tie with the Titans for first place in the North in their favor. They ranked second in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, with a +44 run differential while the Raccoons were at -27 and s(t)inking. The Raccoons somehow had won 11 of 18 games from New York last year.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (3-4, 3.67 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (4-2, 1.77 ERA)
Jeff Crowley (1-3, 5.49 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (1-3, 4.57 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-1, 2.45 ERA) vs. Josh Barcellona (2-4, 5.97 ERA)
Josh Elling (4-2, 2.88 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (7-0, 3.06 ERA)

The Coons were up against nothing but right-handers in this series.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – CF Garmon – SS Aoki – P Alba
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – C M. Nieto – 1B Jo. Alvarez – P Seiter

Angel Alba allowed walks to Bryant Box and Omar Sanchez in the bottom 1st and the Crusaders were off to the races from there, doing a double steal and scoring on a Kazuhide Takeuchi groundout and Jake Cline’s single past Victor Morales. The Crusaders kept hitting and running, getting Jose Alvarez on base in the bottom 2nd. He, too, stole second base and scored with help from the top of the order to make it 3-0 already. Alvarez jumped the score further to 5-0 in the fourth inning with a homer to right after Marco Nieto had already doubled to left.

The horrendous Raccoons had nothing going – one hit in four innings – before Bruce Burkart got ejected for sneering at a call that in his opinion Seiter got and Alba wasn’t getting. The ump had none of it, and the Raccoons were on their last catcher after an ejection to their primary. That still didn’t score them a run, although Spicer and Morales would pool two singles and a wild pitch together to twiddle out a run in the sixth inning. Tyson and Carrillo split the required innings after Alba was removed just five frames in, walked four between them and somehow didn’t give up a run, while the Crusaders removed Seiter after eight innings and brought in Curt Rosato, who saw Morales reach on an error by Omar Sanchez, and then allowed a single to Monck. Kody Mello was brought in as this constituted a save opportunity now, but gave up an RBI double to Arellano. Kozak was the tying run, but only produced an RBI groundout, and Vargas whiffed batting for the pitcher in the #7 hole. Yukio Aoki’s foul pop to Steve Dilly ended the game. 5-3 Crusaders. Morales 2-4, RBI;

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – CF Garmon – SS Aoki – P Crowley
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – C D. Cruz – 1B Jo. Alvarez – P E. Lee

It didn’t get any ******* better on Tuesday, when the Raccoons didn’t really take place on offense beyond a first inning in which Spicer and Morales singled, but Spicer also was caught stealing right away and things went absolutely nowhere. Crowley offered a walk in each of the first three innings, although the Crusaders never got somebody around to score, but then in the fourth inning Dilly hit a solo homer to begin the inning, and David Cruz hit a 2-run jack with two down to jump the score to 3-0 right away. For the 26-year-old Cruz, that was the first homer of his career.

The Crusaders would chew through Crowley for good in the sixth inning when they got straight hits from their 5-6-7-8 hitters to spit Crowley out on the other side of the box score, scoring two more runs for a 5-0 lead in the process. McDaniel had to dig Crowley out from there, Dover pitched a scoreless seventh, and Novelo then was brought in to pitch garbage relief once again in a game in which the Raccoons were so out of everything that even at “just” 5-0 it didn’t matter anymore. Nevertheless, Novelo pitched a scoreless eighth. Burkart 2-4; Serrano (PH) 1-1;

It's … it’s not getting better.

(climbs into nearest garbage can and closes the lid over his head)

(sobbing noises from inside the garbage can)

Vic Morales was not in the lineup on Wednesday because he was lying very silently in his darkened hotel room with a migraine attack. He was listed as day-to-day.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – SS Serrano – CF Garmon – 3B Tallent – P Walla
NYC: CF Box – C M. Nieto – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – SS Jim White – 1B Jo. Alvarez – P Barcellona

Another low-scoring affair on Wednesday, but – lo and behold! – the Raccoons not only scored, but also scored first, when Jack Kozak hit a solo homer in the second inning! Would wonders ever cease?? (picks banana and orange peels out of his fur) On the other side of the box score, Nick Walla pitched reasonably well until he gave up a triple into the right-center gap to Jose Alvarez in the bottom 5th and then couldn’t get a strikeout on Barcellona, who grounded out but scored the tying run with the second out of the inning. The Coons got the lead back in their next half-inning when Spicer singled with two outs, which marked his third time on base in this game. He had already been caught stealing once (and had made it to second once), but this time Takeuchi overran his ball for a free pass to second base on an error, and from there Burkart singled him home for a 2-1 lead. Monck grounded out to short, and the Crusaders had a pair of singles as well, but left their runners Dilly and Coby Thore on the corners against Walla in the sixth. Walla went on into the seventh, where Barcellona hit a 1-out single, and then gave up back-to-back RBI doubles to Nieto and Dilly to find himself a hole to curl up in and take the loss. He was replaced with Tyson to get out of the inning, while Barcellona pitched into the eighth, but left the game after a consultation with the team trainer before he could retire the Raccoons in order. McGinley had a scoreless bottom 8th in what we figured were the last pitching outs of the game for the Raccoons, but we underestimated Rich Monck, who followed Burkart’s leadoff single in the top 9th and struck a score-flipping homer to center. McDaniel then got the ball for the bottom 9th and managed to get three outs without blowing the skinny lead…! 4-3 Raccoons. Vargas (PH) 1-1; Spicer 3-4;

Vic Morales was back at the ballpark on Thursday, but remained in the clubhouse wearing sunglasses and getting a massage. He would be available in a pinch. He might even be able to see the ball coming.

Game 4
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Vargas – 3B Novelo – C Arellano – SS Aoki – P Elling
NYC: CF Box – C M. Nieto – 3B Dilly – 2B Cline – LF Thore – SS Jim White – RF A. Romero – 1B Jose Alvarez – P Je. Washington

Corral and Spicer led off with a double and single on Thursday, but were left on the corners by the 3-4-5 batters, who struck out, lined out, and grounded out, in order. Instead Elling got beaten around for three hits, a walk, and two runs in the bottom 1st. Jose Alvarez brought in the first run with a groundout in a bases-loaded situation, but the 2-out RBI single by Jerry Washington was the one that really hurt.

The game then trundled along into the sixth without either team doing a whole lot. Top 6th then, and Kozak and Monck began the inning with a pair of singles before collective diarrhea threatened to set in again and Vargas hit into a fielder’s choice and Novelo lined out softly to short. Arellano was drilled before he could do something stupid, and Aoki came up batting with the bags full and two outs, and hit a 3-2 pitch up the middle where it got through between the veterans Jim White and Jake Cline for a game-tying 2-run single. Elling flew out to left to leave runners on the corners after that, then wasted no time getting beaten up for the loss. He hit Thore with a 1-2 pitch to begin the bottom 6th, then gave up hard hits to White and Alex Romero, the latter doubling home two runs and scoring on a Box single with two outs.

New York added an unearned run on an Arellano throwing error in the bottom 7th, but that was after Cruz Madrid, the useless prick, had already failed two runners on base. The Coons wouldn’t score in the eighth, when Novelo hit a 1-out triple, and otherwise went down with as little noise and kicked up dust as possible. 6-2 Crusaders. Spicer 2-5; Kozak 2-4; Novelo 2-4, 3B; Aoki 2-4, 2 RBI;

How much longer will Jose Corral stink up the leadoff spot batting .181/.225/.352? Probably not much longer, although that .214 BABIP is screaming out about injustice. He hit for a .293/.373/.461 slash last year, if you might want to remember.

Raccoons (16-26) @ Condors (24-18) – May 22-24, 2065

The Raccoons ached into Tijuana for three games with the Condors, who were leading the South with the CL’s #2 offense and average pitching. While they were down a few pitchers (Brett Bebout, Vince Ellison) and John Kaniewski was also day-to-day, I wasn’t expecting anything but more beatings. The Coons had won the season series last year, with the last three seasons having seen the teams alternate 5-4 series wins.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (2-5, 3.66 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (2-3, 3.20 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-5, 4.17 ERA) vs. Ryan Singletary (2-2, 2.96 ERA)
Chance Fox (1-4, 5.52 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (4-0, 1.87 ERA)

No southpaws this week! Also still no Vic Morales on Friday although he was by now back in the dugout.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Vargas – 3B Novelo – SS Serrano – CF Tallent – P Nakayama
TIJ: 2B W. Acosta – LF McInnis – C Brann – 1B Metz – RF Ewig – 3B D. Miller – CF Arcos – SS Veguilla – P M. Clemente

Burkart narrowly missed a homer in the first inning on Friday, and instead settled for a double off the top of the wall and getting stranded at second base. Nakayama put the leadoff man on in the first with his own error, dropping a feed by Vargas at first base, and in the second with a leadoff walk to Matt Ewig, but worked around both of those and then hit a soft single following Randy Tallent’s leadoff double in the top 3rd. Corral hit a sac fly to put the game’s first run on the board, but Nakayama was left on base as Spicer and Burkart ended the inning with groundouts.

Bottom 3rd, and another leadoff man on for Tijuana as Willie Acosta singled. McInnis grounded, Monck dropped Mike Brann’s pop to put them on the corners, and while Andy Metz lined out sharply to Serrano for a key second out, Nakayama then ****** up RBI knocks to Ewig and Danny Miller to fall 3-1 behind. Roberto Arcos flew out to Corral, who hit the ground hard on a headlong dive and came up hurting. He left the game, with Corey Garmon taking over rightfield duties.

Over the next three innings, the Coons left seven runners on base, scoring only once when Burkart singled home Garmon in the seventh after Garmon and Spicer singles had dissipated on Burkart’s groundout in the fifth and the 6-7-8 had loaded the bases in unearned fashion in the sixth before Nakayama grounded out. Vargas drew a walk after the Burkart RBI single in the seventh, but Novelo grounded out to leave the pair stranded. Instead, after seven ho-hum innings of Nakayama, useless Juan Carrillo fudged another two runs on the board with straight hits allowed to Miller, Roberto Arcos, and Miguel Veguilla, who doubled home the two insurance runs with a shot through Novelo at the hot corner. The Coons then suffered the additional indignity of being closed out by Takenori Tanizaki, the former Critter… 5-2 Condors. Garmon 2-3; Burkart 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI;

So Morales was back in the lineup on Saturday, but now Jose Corral was dead man walking on the roster as we continued to work with a short bench.

Additionally, Rich Monck had a day off even with a day off on schedule lurking on Monday.

Game 2
POR: RF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – LF Kozak – 1B Vargas – 2B Serrano – CF Garmon – SS Aoki – P Alba
TIJ: 2B W. Acosta – LF McInnis – C Brann – 1B Metz – RF Ewig – 3B D. Miller – CF Arcos – SS Veguilla – P M. Singletary

Morales returned with a 1-out single in the first inning before Singletary single-handedly walked the bags full with Burkart and Kozak, still couldn’t find the zone against Vargas and walked the game’s first run in, and then the dumb ***** in the 6-7 spots poked and popped out and grounded out in four total pitches. Alba IMMEDIATELY ****** the 1-0 lead all to hell then with a free pass to Willie Acosta, who easily scored on Matt McInnis’ double, and Andy Metz singled the go-ahead run home for the Condors just one out later. Alba kept being the absolute worst with another leadoff walk to Roberto Arcos in the bottom 2nd and Veguilla singled. Singletary grounded out to move them over before Acosta struck a 2-run double and McInnis one-upped him with a 2-run homer, 6-1.

Ironically, Singletary would be out of the game first; in the third inning he gave up a 2-run double to Garmon, plating Burkart and Serrano with two outs, and then nicked Spicer on base in the fourth before giving up hits to Morales and Burkart, and at that point, up 6-4, he was yanked. Aaron Sloan gave up an RBI double to Kozak, which made it 6-5 with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, then struck out Vargas, but fell over Serrano and his 2-run single to center, which made it 7-6 Coons before Garmon grounded out. Alba technically pitched longer, but was also yanked with a lead in the fourth, getting two outs before ******* Acosta on base with another walk and giving up a single to McInnis. Dover and Tallent entered in a double switch that ended Garmon’s night early. Dover walked Brann to fill the bases, but struck out Metz to get out of the bloody inning. He then got three straight outs in the fifth.

Sloan was still going in the sixth, putting Morales and Burkart on base before getting Kozak on strikes. Vargas singled in a run, though, 8-6, and Serrano struck out before Monck batted for Dover and flew out to left. He then remained in the game in place of Serrano, batting an odd seventh. The Condors then lost Willie Acosta an inning later as he was hit in the thumb on an odd bounce a Morales grounder was taking as Acosta tried to bare-hand it, forcing him out of the game in favor of Danny Guzman, decidedly not a middle infielder.

Meanwhile the lead survived two innings of Sansao Tyson and an eighth-inning appearance by Cruz Madrid, setting up Jon McGinley for the ninth, where he immediately allowed a leadoff single on a 3-1 pitch to Veguilla before walking John Kaniewski outright on four pitches. Guzman, batting first, lined out to Novelo at short, and McInnis and Brann surprisingly struck out to leave the tying runs on the corners. 8-6 Critters. Morales 2-5, 2B; Burkart 1-2, 3 BB, RBI; Serrano 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Tyson 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Sunday, still no news on Corral, and for the fifth game in a row, the Raccoons were four paws short.

Game 3
POR: RF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – LF Kozak – 1B Vargas – CF Garmon – SS Novelo – P Fox
TIJ: 2B D. Guzman – 1B L. Jimenez – LF Kaniewski – 3B D. Miller – CF Arcos – C Eaton – RF Frasher – SS Veguilla – P J. Lugo

The Coons tried their luck with Chance Fox again, who had last started 20 days ago and had pitched only once in between, which didn’t mean he hadn’t been able to cash another loss. Fox did put up three zeroes to begin the game and hold it scoreless, although that didn’t say a lot about the long flies hit by the Condors (all caught) and the two singles they did it, of which one – Miller’s – ended up with the batter-runner being thrown out at second base by Spicer. The first tally on the board came from the Portlanders, who strung together straight 1-out singles from their 3-4-5 batters (what a rare sight these days!) for Kozak to drive in Burkart for a 1-0 lead in the fourth. Vargas hit another RBI single to right, but then was foolishly picked off first base and Garmon struck out to leave Kozak on third base in a 2-0 game. That became 2-1 in the bottom 4th with a Leonardo Jimenez leadoff double to left and Arcos’ 2-out RBI single, but the Coons got more singles from Novelo, Spicer, and Morales to extend the lead to 3-1 in the top 5th. Burkart flew out to right and Monck grounded out to second to leave a pair stranded. Kozak, Garmon, and Novelo piled up more singles for a run in the sixth, 4-1, before Fox whiffed and Spicer lined out to a hustling Kaniewski to leave another pair on the table.

At that point you were just waiting for the Condors to put together ONE inning and be done with it, which promptly threatened to happen in the bottom 6th. Jimenez got on and Miller homered, 4-3, and then Fox ****** the bags full with gross ineptitude, a hit batter and two walks. Dover came in to replace him, and got not one, but two comebackers from the Condors’ 8-9 batters for a force at home and then the third out at first base, keeping the Raccoons narrowly afloat.

The Coons began the top 7th with more singles from the 2-3 batters before Monck made a bid for the fence, but made an out, moving Morales to third base, but no greater gains, except that Kozak then managed to get him home with a sac fly to center, 5-3. Nick Leigh allowed another single to Vargas, walked Garmon, and then got Novelo to ground out and strand another dumpster full of runners.

Dover pitched three more outs before Serrano batted for him to begin the eighth, with Leigh giving up three straight singles to load the bases to Serrano and the 1-2 batters. Burkart singled over a jumping Veguilla into center, where Arcos overran the ball for an error, allowing two runs to score rather than one, and Monck was walked intentionally. Dan Beare struck out Kozak, then walked in a run against Vargas. Garmon hit a sac fly to Eric Frasher, and Aoki batted for Novelo and singled home Monck from second base with two outs. Serrano came around to bat again and slapped an RBI double up the leftfield line before the inning ended with Spicer’s groundout to first base; the Coons had broken out for six runs and had an 11-3 lead.

The Coons still poured out singles in the ninth inning. Morales and Burkart got leadoff hits, Kozak reached on an error by Guzman, and then Dan Beare found it necessary to strike Alex Vargas in the paw. Vargas ran to the dugout immediately, saving Luis Silva a trip, and didn’t reappear; Randy Tallent was the last guy off the bench to pinch-run for him and manned first base in the final half-inning – after Garmon drove in another run with another single. It was surely entirely coincidental that Carrillo drilled Guzman with two outs in the bottom 9th. 13-3 Furballs. Spicer 2-6; Morales 4-6, RBI; Burkart 4-6, 2 RBI; Monck 2-4, BB, 2B; Kozak 2-5, 2 RBI; Vargas 2-3, BB, 3 RBI; Garmon 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-4, RBI; Aoki (PH) 1-2, RBI; Serrano (PH) 2-3, 2B, RBI; Dover 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

May 20 – CIN RF/LF Roberto Soto (.326, 7 HR, 23 RBI) is expected to miss one month with a strained hamstring.
May 21 – The Falcons beat the Bayhawks in a 6-5 game that takes 14 innings to complete.
May 22 – IND SP Keith Thompson (2-3, 2.54 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout to beat the Aces, 5-0.
May 22 – Capitals SP Jon Reyes (3-2, 4.24 ERA) will be shut down for a month to try and rehab a forearm strain.
May 22 – The Wolves get 1B Kevin Huffman (.236, 5 HR, 17 RBI) from the Capitals in exchange for outfielder Ivan Anaya (.273, 1 HR, 4 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.337, 9 HR, 31 RBI), hitting .414 (12-29) with 3 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR C Bruce Burkart (.341, 1 HR, 16 RBI), batting .476 (10-21) with 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Bruce Burkart turned his week around nicely enough after initially getting ejected from an 0-2, 2 K game on Monday. He then hit over .500 the rest of the way for Player of the Week honors.

So the Raccoons posted another losing week, and that’s before you get into all the injuries. Morales overcame the headaches (but we have yet to overcome all the headaches in the bullpen), but we are still awaiting news on Jose Corral, who left the game on Friday after colliding soundly with the ground, and I am not getting any good vibes from Luis Silva with Alex Vargas’ paw, which is probably definitely broken and he’ll be on the DL until the All Star Game. So Kozak will probably be more at first base again with Starr nowhere near returning, and we have to dig yet deeper into the outfield charts.

Depending on what’s with Corral now, we might get another debutant up soon, as 25-year-old former first-rounder John Bentley, playing the corner outfield and first, batting lefty, and hitting .276 with four homers in AAA might be close to the next guy up. Him or more of Colter. It was already the fourth season that Bentley spent at least partially in AAA, and there was no reason to expect him to *actually* hit any time soon.

Chance Fox was far from great on Sunday, but I feel like giving him another start on the coming weekend while trying Crowley in garbage relief. They’re ALL garbage, but we need to get order into who is gonna be garbage in the first three innings, and who’s gonna be garbage in the second three innings.

The Coons will have Monday off and then play three game in Vegas on the way home, although we’re only there for the weekend to host the Knights, and then have to go cross country right away again.

Fun Fact: Alex Vargas will disappear to the DL with the second-best OPS on the team.

He’s of course not qualifying, but he wasn’t that far away from qualifying and had a 121 OPS+ going. He’s gone from a second-round pick to a Rule 5 pick to making just seven appearances off the bench for the Wolves before being sent back unceremoniously, and then being stuck in AAA for two more seasons before the Joel Starr injury allowed him an opening…

…and then Dan Beare was being a **** in a 12-3 game. Sigh.