[Westheim]

Raccoons (21-36) vs. Titans (36-17) – June 9-11, 2065

These two teams were off on Monday – the only ones in the league, even due thanks to two double headers there were actually 13 games played – while I got mentally ready for a severe beating. The Raccoons came off a sweep of the Indians that ended a 9-game losing spill, but the Indians were barely breathing, so what did that mean after all? The Titans were first in runs allowed and third in runs scored. They were so stomping, they had a +103 run differential already, a week ahead of Draft Day. Boston was in the top 3 in almost all crucial categories, although they were only 6th in the CL in stolen bases and defense, which they were certainly crying about. They had actually lost a game to the Coons already, while winning three of four in the first meeting of these two teams.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (3-7, 5.06 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (5-3, 2.16 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.91 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (5-2, 2.65 ERA)
Josh Elling (5-4, 3.63 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (4-0, 2.41 ERA)

The Titans are only bringing right-handed starters, and were without regulars Steve Humphries and Ryan Spehar, who were stowed away on the DL.

Game 1
BOS: RF Joe Washington – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – LF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P Brenize
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Alba

If you brought any hope to the Tuesday opener because it was Brenize pitching and the Titans never scored for Brenize, then Angel Alba had a nasty surprise in for you; two actually, as in, a pair of 2-run homers he served up to Eddie Marcotte and Andy Lee right in the first inning, along with another hit, two walks, and a balk. That was the game, pretty much right there. Brenize firmly pressed a pillow on the face of the Raccoons’ offense, and also hit an RBI double to drive in Diego Mendoza in the fourth inning to go up 5-0. Alba retired Joe Washington and Bobby Ellwood to get out of the inning, but then walked Marcotte to begin the top 5th and was disposed of. Garvey replaced Alba, got three outs without allowing a run in part because Marcotte was caught stealing, then allowed a leadoff single to Lee in the sixth and yielded for a very unhappy Jeff Crowley in more garbage relief.

Brenize slipped in the bottom 6th, allowing singles to Tallent (who entered in a double switch with Crowley), Spicer, Monck, and Kozak, the latter two cashing 2-out RBI singles before Colter flew out to Lee in shallow center to end the inning. Crowley pitched two and two thirds before walking Lee in the top 8th and then left the game after a consultation with Luis Silva – yay, more injuries! – and Madrid came in, allowing another 2-run homer to Yoslan Valdez in a #9 hole vacated by Brenize in the top of the ninth. The Titans put lefty Tyler Gleason into the bottom 9th. He nicked Kozak on base to begin the inning with a 7-2 lead, then got bombarded with right-handed pinch-hitters, of whom Serrano and Arellano whacked a pair of 2-out doubles to left, Arellano plating the two runners ahead of him. Jason Rhodes then came in and stopped the shenanigans very quickly. 7-4 Titans. Spicer 2-5; Serrano (PH) 1-1, 2B; Arellano (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Crowley 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

No news on Crowley so far. And no Bryce Wallace on Tuesday. Chalmers was up on regular rest instead.

Game 2
BOS: RF Joe Washington – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – LF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – 2B Onelas – P Chalmers
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – SS Serrano – RF Bentley – CF Garmon – P Walla

Serrano was involved on both ends of a baserunning blunder in the second inning on Tuesday, being thrown out by Washington going first-to-third on a Corey Garmon single, which ended the inning, but before that he had snatched a scalded Diego Mendoza liner and had zinged it to first in time to double off an adventurous Andy Lee, who had strayed too far off first base, and was retired 6-3. Neither team scored in the early going, although the Titans worked Walla for plenty of pitches in the early innings. Burkart reached base on a Mendoza error in the fourth, but was then doubled off by Monck’s grounder to short as things just continued to not go very well for the Critters. On the other side, Morales threw away Marcos Onelas’ grounder in the fifth for his tenth error of the year (gulp!) and two bases, but Walla worked his way around that, too. Serrano opened the bottom 5th with a single and was doubled off swiftly by John Bentley.

Walla very commendably fought the Titans to a zip-zilch draw for seven innings, but the bad early pitch economy meant he was done after that, having gone 97 pitches, but allowing only two hits. Left-handed pinch-hitter Pat Fowler then was nailed by Sansao Tyson to begin the eighth, but the Titans couldn’t get that runner around, either. The scoreless tie was not broken until the ninth inning when John Nesbitt got his filthy paws on the ball and allowed a single to Marcotte, a double to Joyner, and then saw the go-ahead run score with two outs when a pitch to Mendoza escaped through Bruce Burkart’s oddly-shaped hindlegs. Mendoza actually grounded out after that. Chalmers was still going in the bottom 9th, which began with Colter batting for Nesbitt. He grounded out, but Spicer dropped a single behind Ellwood and the Titans again made the move to Rhodes mid-inning. Two pitches later the game ended, Vic Morales grounding into a 4-6-3 double play on a 1-0 pitch. 1-0 Titans. Serrano 3-3; Walla 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

Six hits, three double plays hit into. (blows!)

Game 3
BOS: RF Joe Washington – SS Ellwood – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – LF A. Lee – 3B I. Berrios – 2B Onelas – P B. Wallace
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – SS Serrano – C Arellano – RF Bentley – CF Garmon – P Elling

Elling had tire marks on his back in the first inning, too, giving up a leadoff jack to Washington before surrendering three straight singles to the 2-3-4 batters, walking in a run against Lee, and then seeing another run score on an Ivan Berrios grounder, which put the Titans up 3-0 before Onelas struck out to end the inning. Washington, Ellwood, and Jorge Arviso all singled their way on base against Elling in the second inning, and Bill Joyner’s fly to deep left was rushed down by Spicer to end the inning. Elling filled the bases again in the fourth with Washington, Ellwood, and Marcotte, the latter two drawing walks, and was then yanked after 84 pitches for just ten outs. Garvey struck out Arviso and got Joyner to ground out to Kozak to prevent the Titans from tacking on, but they had ravaged Elling for eight hits, and the Raccoons had zero against Wallace so far.

That changed in the bottom 4th with a leadoff triple to right or Kozak, who was then swiftly doubled home by Monck, and Serrano hit a shy single to put the tying runs on the corners. Arellano grounded to short, but stayed out of the double play somehow while Monck scored, 3-2. Wallace threw a wild pitch, Bentley’s grounder moved Arellano to third base, and Garmon walked with two outs. Aoki batted for Garvey, but struck out to end the inning.

Dover wasn’t scored on in the fifth, but Boston restored the 3-run lead in the sixth against Carrillo, who gave up four straight singles to Marcotte, Arviso, Joyner, and Lee as the Raccoons got beaten around once again. With Crowley uncertain and nobody in AAA that wasn’t getting his head beaten in, the Raccoons had to reserve Chance Fox for Saturday, popping relievers in and out for an inning at a time, and still had to go to Novelo in the ninth inning of a 5-2 game. He was well off this time, walking two and giving up an RBI double to Mendoza in between before Pat Fowler overeagerly hit into an inning-ending double play to bail him out. Right-hander Matt Taylor began the bottom 9th for Boston, giving up a single to Bentley and then straight away a 2-run homer to PH Randy Tallent! The Titans had run out of part-inning charges on their Jason Rhodes wonderweapon though, and then had to switch to another right-hander in Tony Castellanos. Novelo grounded to short and Mendoza threw that ball away for a 2-base error, promoting the tying run to the dish. Spicer popped out to Joyner in foul ground, but Morales’ 1-out single brought up Kozak as the winning run. He struck out as it began to rain quite heavily and quite quickly, but Monck’s 2-out RBI single kept the game alive, 6-5. However, Serrano flew out to Lee to end the game. 6-5 Titans. Monck 3-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Bentley 2-4; Tallent (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Sigh!

Sigh!!!

The sighs didn’t get less when Luis Silva came back with some ugly imaging that showed a partial tear in Crowley’s labrum, which would put him out of action until August easily. So he was whisked off to the DL, and Chance Fox won the Saturday start by default, which was not to be misunderstood as a commendation for his services. Tetsu Kurihara was called up to replace Crowley on the roster.

Raccoons (21-39) vs. Miners (24-36) – June 12-14, 2065

The Miners were on a 5-game losing streak, but their overall numbers were not *that* bad, as they were ninth in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed in the Federal League. They had a -40 run differential, still better than the Coons’ -61. The Raccoons had won the last EIGHT meetings with the Miners, one sweep and seven 2-1 series, including a series played in each of the last four years.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (2-8, 3.48 ERA) vs. Kerry Sheats (1-5, 7.45 ERA)
Chance Fox (2-5, 6.97 ERA) vs. Coby Strutz (6-5, 3.40 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-8, 5.40 ERA) vs. Chris Hale (3-8, 6.55 ERA)

If those three Miners (and the Coons) made you shiver, then behold of the Miners’ Juan Betancourt – who we would not see unless they skipped one of the left-handers Strutz and Hale. Although, why would they? Betancourt had a 6.19 ERA from 13 starts – of which he had lost *every single one*!

Maybe some high scoring upon us! Don’t rest on any 9-1 lead.

The Miners would play the entire series with a short bench, because of a 6-game suspension to Elmer Maldonado, who was a full-time starting outfielder for the Miners after a year of fine fourth outfielder service in Portland, for punching Cincy’s Blake Anderson this Tuesday. Maldonado has been hitting .276 with a homer and 21 RBI so far. He batted .252 with 11 homers in just under 400 at-bats for the Coons.

Game 1
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – C N. Dingman – CF McNamee – 1B Jo. Campos – RF Milian – 2B Hood – LF Andon – P Sheats
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Nakayama

Nakayama was taken way deep by Brian Robinson in the first inning. There was more hard contact off him after that, but it ended up with outfielders, Colter making a couple of daring catches, mixing in all sorts of colors on his uniform by the fourth inning, while the Raccoons found another 7+ ERA pitcher and immediately acted like he was an endangered species that needed to be protected. The Coons only brought up one over the minimum in the first three innings, then got Morales on with a single and Burkart with an error to begin the bottom 4th, but Monck immediately rumbled into a double play and Morales was left on third base when Kozak went down fann-tastically. Sal Andon hit a sixth-inning jack off Nakayama then, making it an insurmountable 2-0. An inning later, Monck and Kozak hit 1-out singles, only to get stranded by Colter and Aoki… Nakayama pitched eight innings without a shred of support; when Bentley and Spicer hit a pair of 1-out singles off Sheats in the bottom 8th, Morales was right on the spot to smack into a 6-4-3 double play. Sheats was still going in the bottom 9th, now with his ERA in the low 6’s, but only oversaw a sharp groundout by Burkart before being lifted for left-hander Ryan Croft. Monck grounded out, but Kozak hit a jack over the wall in left with the team down to their final out. Serrano batted for Colter and singled, but Tallent popped out to short end the game ended. 2-1 Miners. Spicer 2-4; Kozak 3-4, HR, RBI; Serrano (PH) 1-1; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Nakayama 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, L (2-9);

(has face deeply buried in his paws)

Game 2
PIT: 2B E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – C N. Dingman – 1B Jo. Campos – SS R. Ortiz – CF McNamee – LF Andon – RF Milian – P Strutz
POR: SS Serrano – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – LF Spicer – CF Garmon – RF Tallent – P Fox

Fox allowed three singles and struck out four the first time through the order, without allowing a run in case you weren’t sure, then actually got a lead in the bottom 2nd when Monck singled, Kozak doubled, and … well, then it got dumb for a bit, because Monck shied back to third base on Spicer’s grounder to Edgar Gonzales, which almost cost us a Kozak, who had gone to third base before realizing that Monck returned and had to really scramble to get back to second. Strutz then nicked Garmon to fill the bases, only to have them unfilled on the very next pitch as Randy Tallent buried a liner deep in the right-center gap for a bases-clearing triple. Fox whiffed, but Serrano hit a jack to extend the lead to 5-0.

The Miners appeared stunned after that 5-run inning; they didn’t get another hit until Sal Andon singled in the fifth, and Nick Dingman hit a double in the sixth, but both were stranded. Likewise, Strutz hung in there with all his will to live, and didn’t allow diddly-squat to the Raccoons after the early assault. However, Fox, with some help from his friends in the outfield, managed to put seven shutout innings together somehow, and on exactly 100 pitches. Novelo batted for him to lead off the bottom 7th, but grounded out as Strutz put up another 1-2-3 inning. Roland Hood then batted for the left-hander to start the eighth. Between Carrillo and Nesbitt, the bases were loaded within four batters, and Jose Campos brought in the Miners’ first run, although that was with a rather unsmart sac fly on a 3-0 pitch by Nesbitt, who got yelled out and struck out Robert Ortiz to end the inning… but not until after he plated a second run with a wild pitch. Garvey then got the ball for a save opportunity in the ninth inning, fell to 3-0 on Kevin McNamee to begin the inning, and the next Miner poked at a 3-0 and made a stupid out, McNamee rolling over to Monck. Sal Andon and David Milian went down in order, too. 5-2 Raccoons. Kozak 2-3, 2B; Tallent 1-3, 3B, 3 RBI; Fox 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-5);

This was the seventh career save for Jeremy Garvey, the other six obviously having come with the damn Elks, none after ’63.

Game 3
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – C N. Dingman – CF McNamee – 1B Jo. Campos – RF Milian – 2B Hood – LF Andon – P Hale
POR: 2B Serrano – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – SS Novelo – LF Bentley – CF Garmon – RF Tallent – P Alba

Alba was whacked around for two screamers by Edgar Gonzales, who stole second, and Dingman, who tried to get him home from there, but saw him thrown out at the plate by Bentley. McNamee drew a walk, but Campos’ groundout ended the inning. Dingman hit another single in the third, but not to great effect ,and Campos singled to lead off the fourth before Milian’s fly to center was dropped for an error and two bases by Garmon. Now in a bit of a spot of bother, with runners on second and third and nobody out, Alba found a quantum of what had made him fun to watch in 2062-63 and struck out Hood, Andon, and Hale in order to get out of the inning.

The Coons had a few good swings and long flies in the early innings, but couldn’t beat the outfielders for anything. Morales began the bottom 4th with a single, and Kozak walked. Novelo then chipped a single through the right side and Morales got a good start and actually made it around to home plate safely from second base to score the game’s first run. Bentley’s shy single loaded the bases, but Garmon struck out and Tallent popped out to Gonzales to leave a full set of runners on base. Garmon then also couldn’t catch up to McNamee’s 2-out fly to deep center that dropped for an RBI double, scoring the unretireable Dingman from first base to get us even at one.

Serrano and Morales had 1-out singles in the bottom 5th to go to the corners, upon which Burkart grounded sharply to third base. Brian Robinson visibly considered two, then changed his mind, then threw the ball ten feet past a diving Campos at first base for a 2-base error of his own, this one scoring the go-ahead run and putting a pair in scoring position for Kozak, who predictably struck out, but Novelo was there to slap a 2-run double to left-center, 4-1. Bentley grounded to the right side; Campos contained the ball and threw it to Hale – who dropped it for another error, allowing Garmon to hit a doubly-unearned 2-out RBI single before Tallent made the last out to short. In fact, all runs in the inning were unearned. Sal Andon’s solo homer to left in the top 6th was very much earned, and cut the lead to 5-2.

Straight singles off Steven Fenstermacher (German for window maker, not: widow maker) by Alba, Serrano, and Burkart loaded the bags for the Portlanders in the bottom 6th, before they were waiting for Kozak to do something again. This time he got hold of the first pitch and singled over Hood to drive home a run, but Novelo crashed into a double play to kill the effort. Alba finished seven, while Monck doubled in place of Garmon in the bottom 7th, then scored on a pinch-hit single by Spicer in the #9 spot. Spicer stole second, but Serrano grounded out to end the inning. The ball was then given to Cruz Madrid, who allowed a single to Campos and saw Hood reach on a Morales error (…), but Andon found a double play to shut up the Miners. Kurihara handled the final inning for a pinch-hit single by Ortiz, but nothing else as the Coons took a series from the Miners for the ninth straight time. 7-2 Critters. Serrano 2-5; Morales 2-4; Arellano (PH) 1-1; Kozak 2-5, RBI; Novelo 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Bentley 2-4, 2B; Monck (PH) 1-1, 2B; Spicer (PH) 1-1, RBI; Alba 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (4-8) and 1-3;

In other news

June 12 – ATL SP Ben Peterson (4-5, 3.91 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves for a 7-0 shutout in his third Knights start after being traded over there from those same Wolves.
June 12 – The Titans beat the Buffaloes, 15-3, in a rare case of winning a game in the first inning, in which they already score 11 runs.
June 14 – The Condors beat the Blue Sox, 7-6 in ten innings, by scoring a single run exactly in the last six innings they play, from the fifth through the tenth.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.326, 14 HR, 54 RBI), smashing .542 (13-24) with 5 HR, 13 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS C Jorge Arviso (.277, 9 HR, 40 RBI), going .391 (9-23) with 3 HR, 13 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I don’t think Chance Fox could be more erratic even if he tried. His last two starts he went 10 runs in two innings (Game Score: -5), then no runs in seven innings (69, nice). In between, that 3-frame save (no runs). He pitched only four times in May for being annoying and still managed to **** up 21 runs. Two outings in June, no runs.

2.92 runs of support across his 13 starts: I hear Shoma Nakayama (2-9, 3.36 ERA) is mulling giving the Raccoons all their money back and $500k in his savings from Japan, just so he can go back home, because **** this team.

I am mulling over whether I’m paying *him* $100k so he takes me with him to Nagoya, because **** this team.

We are having the draft on Monday, along with the start of a 3-game set in the Wolves’ den. The Crusaders will then pay a visit on the weekend for another three games.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons’ #17, #19, #21, and #23 wearing players are all stowed away on the DL.

Nobody is wearing #25 currently, but can someone conduct a welfare check on good old #15, Daniel Hall? He might have fallen and broken a hip without anybody noticing.