[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-40) @ Wolves (23-39) – June 15-17, 2065

My, wasn’t Oregon baseball just in the *best* place…? You couldn’t light a fire by clanging these two hard-boiled eggs of teams together, both sitting in the bottom four in both runs scored and runs allowed in their respective leagues. The Wolves had the worse run differential at -70, though the Raccoons were not far behind at -54. For what it was worth, scarily enough the Wolves had an even more ridiculous bullpen ERA of 5.82 than the Coons. These teams had met in both of the last two years, and both times Portland had taken home two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.50 ERA) vs. Levi Harre (2-4, 5.00 ERA)
Josh Elling (5-5, 3.82 ERA) vs. Juan Cuadrado (0-3, 3.91 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-9, 3.36 ERA) vs. Jimmy Nelson (4-6, 4.52 ERA)

Only right-handers that knew what it meant to get nowhere coming up here. The Wolves had three injured relievers (including Raffy de la Cruz), and catcher Steve Preston was also on the DL.

Game 1
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – RF Colter – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – P Walla
SAL: RF Derbyshire – 2B Labonte – LF Consuegra – CF B. Davidson – 1B Huffman – C Opsahl – SS N. Kelly – 3B Macomber – P Harre

Walla had a hard time with the Wolves’ lineup, with his pitch count rapidly escalating especially in the third and fourth innings, running four full counts for two walks in the former and having the bags full with Kevin Huffman, Jerry Opsahl, and Phil Macomber and only one out after three singles in the latter, although Levi Harre then popped out and Palmiro Derbyshire (what a name!) flying out calmly to Jamie Colter in right prevented the Wolves from scoring. Regardless, Walla was up to 89 pitches in just four innings of a scoreless game in which the Raccoons’ offense again looked worse than useless. Walla in his despair hit a leadoff single in the fifth, but that was as good as it got for him, as Spicer forced him out and then didn’t get past second base in the inning. Walla then ended up not getting through the fifth inning, allowing a leadoff single to Paul Labonte before striking out Jose Consuegra and Bill Davidson, but he was then lifted before the left-handed slugger Huffman, who was 2-for-2, could have another go at him. Tyson was used to get a pop to Morales and bugger out of the inning.

Top 6th, Harre walked Arellano and allowed a single to Colter to get going. Aoki made a useless out, while Garmon flew out to Derbyshire, who tried to catch the ball with his wrist, which left him with an error and the Raccoons with the bases loaded and one down… and Sansao Tyson batting. We needed more outs from the southpaw, so he had to bat for himself – and singled to center to get the game’s first run home. Colter tried to score from second, but was thrown out at the plate, holding Tyson to one RBI, and the Coons to one run overall since Spicer then popped out to Labonte.

Tyson got three more outs before Nesbitt got the seventh inning. Derbyshire and Labonte hit 1-out singles, but Consuegra found Monck for a 4-6-3 double play to get the Coons and their pathetic 1-0 lead outta there. Cruz Madrid had a 1-2-3 eighth (!!), before the Raccoons got leadoff singles from pinch-hitters John Bentley and Franklin Serrano to begin the ninth inning against righty Pat Bidwell, who next walked Morales. Three on, nobody out in a 1-0 game! Kozak was walked and a run forced in on four pitches, none of them close, and while Bidwell went back into the zone, he still surrendered another run on a Monck sac fly before being replaced with Hiromichi Saito and his 12.84 ERA. Arellano struck out, but Colter singled in another run before the inning ended, sparing us any cruel thoughts about who in that rancid pen you could entrust with a save against a last-place team. In the event, the ball went to Carrillo, who could resist the urge to blow up once more and put the Wolves away in four batters. 4-0 Raccoons. Serrano (PH) 1-1; Colter 2-4, BB, RBI; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Tyson 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-0) and 1-1, RBI;

First RBI for Sansao Tyson in four years, when he made a few spot starts for the Loggers and picked up a bunch of at-bats that way. He now had five for his career.

He’s so gonna bat sixth on Tuesday!

Batting second on Tuesday was Franklin Serrano, who somehow had spotted himself a 10-game hitting streak together despite generally inconsistent usage.

Game 2
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Kozak – C Burkart – RF Bentley – CF Tallent – P Elling
SAL: 2B Labonte – LF Consuegra – RF J. Acuna – CF B. Davidson – 1B Huffman – SS Lloyd – C Opsahl – 3B Macomber – P Cuadrado

Spicer singled his way on base to begin the game, stole second base, then was thrown out making an attempt at third base – again. However, the Raccoons through Kozak made such poor outs, that indeed the only way to somehow get home would have been to steal his way all the way around… However, with two outs in the second inning, Bruce Burkart started a string of singles with Bentley and Randy Tallent that saw Burkart score the game’s first run from second base before Elling grounded out to leave a pair on base, then proceeded to fool the bases full for the Wolves with a single and two walks in the bottom 2nd before getting Cuadrado to pop out to Serrano at short to keep everybody stranded.

While Elling like Walla the day before strung up zeroes on the board while having his pitch count explode at a rapid pace, the Raccoons narrowly missed the fences (or the ground for that matter) with Morales in the third inning and Monck to begin the fourth before Bentley struck a leadoff double in the fifth inning. Tallent’s grounder to short was peppered away for an error, two bases, and a run by Ted Lloyd, 2-0, before Cuadrado hit Spencer and gave up an unearned run on Serrano’s RBI single. Morales hit another RBI single, but Monck’s bleak year continued with an inning-ending double play to Lloyd, Labonte, Huffman.

97 pitches just about got the 4-0 lead through five for Elling, who ran two full counts and issued a leadoff walk to Labonte in the bottom 5th. His spot came up with two on and two out in the sixth, but the Raccoons took the L at the plate hoping for a few more outs – which worked out as planned when Elling grounded out and then retired the Wolves in order in the bottom 6th.

Rich Monck then had a brief glimpse into his 2064 season in the seventh, ending Cuadrado’s night with Spicer and Morales on the corners and a huge 3-run homer to right-center, which ran the tally to 7-0. The Wolves in turn finally scored against Garvey and Kurihara in the eighth inning when the Coons gave up two hits, two walks, one run on a Huffman single, and then buggered out when Jerry Opsahl struck out with the bases loaded against the Japanese right-hander. Morales doubled and Monck got hit by Guido Branco in the top 9th, but they were left on base, while Kurihara got another three outs to finish the game. 7-1 Coons! Spicer 2-4; Morales 3-5, 2B, RBI; Burkart 2-5, 2B; Bentley 3-3, BB, 2B; Novelo (PH) 1-1; Elling 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (6-5);

Sshh! Don’t tell the boys, so they don’t get nervous, but we actually had a 4-game winning streak now…! It was our longest of the year so we were probably due a face-first splat into a bucket of lard.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – RF Bentley – C Burkart – 1B Colter – CF Garmon – P Nakayama
SAL: 2B Labonte – C Opsahl – RF J. Acuna – CF B. Davidson – 1B Huffman – SS Lloyd – LF Derbyshire – 3B Macomber – P J. Nelson

The Wolves scored first in the final game of the set as Paul Labonte had a leadoff single, stole second, and came around after an Opsahl groundout and Javier Acuna’s sac fly, although the Raccoons got a 2-out run of their own in their next go at the plate as Burkart singled and then just barely scored from first on Colter’s gap double in left-center before Garmon grounded out. The Wolves then had a walk and a single in both the second and third innings without scoring, then got another leadoff walk drawn by Lloyd in the fourth. Lloyd stole second, but was left on third base by the bottom of the order.

Burkart drew a leadoff walk, the first free pass issued by Nelson, to begin the top 5th, then moved to second on a Colter single. Garmon’s single through the right side loaded the bases with nobody out for Nakayama, which predictably led nowhere, but Spicer then grinded Nelson down for a bases-loaded walk and the go-ahead run in a full count, 2-1. Nelson then allowed a run each on: a balk, a Serrano single, and Morales’ sac fly, then was removed from the 5-1 game. Branco struck out Monck after coming far inside again, leading to some hissing from Monck and Branco howling back, but nothing bigger broke out.

Bill Davidson struck a solo homer in the sixth, his 13th of the year, to shorten the score to 5-2 against Nakayama, who was failing bravely onwards. Next half-inning, Garmon singled and stole second before Serrano stamped a 2-run homer into the box score, extending the lead to 7-2. Morales singled, but cursed Rich Monck lined out to Labonte against Saito. Nevertheless it looked like the Raccoons would cruise towards a rather comfy sweep, as Nesbitt had a quick eighth after seven dodgy, but successful innings by Nakayama. Jesse Dover got the ball for the ninth inning, allowed a leadoff single to Phil Macomber, then grabbed his thigh and limped off with Luis Silva. Tyson replaced him, but walked Kyle Grulke and allowed an RBI single to Opsahl with one out. With right-handers up, the Coons went back to Carrillo, who put Acuna on base before whiffing Davidson. Huffman was next as the tying run with two outs, and the Raccoons brought in the fourth pitcher of the inning, having Garvey match handedness with the occasional slugger, who was then replaced with right-hander Fernando Contreras, who was 3-1 ahead before bouncing out to Kozak at first base. 7-3 Raccoons. Serrano 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Colter 3-4, 2B, RBI; Garmon 2-4; Aoki (PH) 1-1; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (3-9);

Dover went to the DL on Thursday, which was an off day, with a strained hamstring and was expected to miss a month for that reason. Dover was wearing #20, so maybe that whole area of numbers was cursed. The only player with a number between #17 and #23 still standing was Rich Monck.

The 40-man roster was full; the Raccoons wanted to get right-hander Paul Barton back from AAA, but he had been waived off the roster (and “want” was boldly applicated here), and no roster spot was available. However, Jeff Crowley was likely going to miss nearly two months anyway. So instead of molesting the waiver wire with our castoffs, we moved Crowley to the 60-day DL to make room for Barton.

Raccoons (26-40) vs. Crusaders (37-30) – June 19-21, 2065

After some time with other teams that were threatening to drown in the shallow end of the pool, the Raccoons – on a 5-game winning streak if nothing else! – had to play the Crusaders, who were struggling to keep up in the division race and were nine games out by now, but were confident they could handle the Critters some more after winning three of four games from them earlier in the year. New York ranked third in offense and fourth in pitching in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.96 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (8-2, 1.97 ERA)
Angel Alba (4-8, 5.15 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (3-5, 3.65 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-2, 2.29 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (7-3, 3.35 ERA)

Another series without a lefty opponent.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P Seiter
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – RF Bentley – 1B Kozak – C Arellano – CF Garmon – P Fox

Expectations for Chance Fox were rather basic against Seiter, and boiled down to begging him to not make us use six pitchers right after a day off, or Pablo Novelo in post-carpet bombing relief. While the Raccoons’ offense was absolutely hopeless against Seiter, and didn’t amount to a base hit until Kozak hit a single in the fifth inning, Fox to the surprise of even Honeypaws kept pace with Seiter and did not allow a run through six innings. Now, there was a couple of asterisks. He only struck out two batters, and he gave up a couple of hard fly balls that ended up with an outfielder rather than falling in for extra bases. Fox also walked two batters early on, and both were cleaned up with double play grounders; in the sixth, he allowed 1-out singles to Bryant Box and Omar Sanchez before Steve Dilly grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to still keep the Crusaders off the scoreboard. He almost seemed to have *something* … but then the Crusaders started the seventh with a single by Kazuhide Takeuchi, a Jake Cline double through Morales, and then he simply nailed Coby Thore. Ex-Coon Juan Ojeda batted for Jose Alvarez, and the Raccoons went to a right-hander to meet the threat. Cruz Madrid gave up a sac fly to Ojeda, but nothing else as he removed the New York battery, but Seiter had the Raccoons where he wanted them. Yeah, Monck hit a soft 1-out single in the bottom 7th, but then he struck out Bentley and Kozak flew one to center … which Bryant Box completely misplayed. He went back, realized his mistake, came in, dove for the ball and missed it, and then it was off to the races in Portland, Box trying to pick himself up and chase after the ball along with Coby Thore, and Monck hurrying to score from first base, while Kozak was also swinging the old hindpaws to get around first, around second, and around third, and there was still no throw from the outfield, and Jack Kozak flipped the score with an inside-the-park home run!!

Of course, nothing good could ever last in Portland, and the bullpen immediately blundered the magnificent lead away as Carrillo gave up a leadoff double to Box, eager to redeem himself, and then Tyson gave up a game-tying single to Takeuchi… and a homer to Dilly. Bottom 8th, Garmon started with a groundout, but Seiter then lost Colter on balls. Spicer and Serrano singled with one down to load the bases, which the Crusaders were not prepared for. Seiter was only removed *after* he gave up a bases-clearing double into the leftfield corner to Vic Morales, which put the Raccoons back on top, 5-4…! Monck singled home Morales off Kody Mello, who then picked him off, then allowed a solo homer to Bentley. John Nesbitt then retired the Crusaders in the ninth inning for a stunning win in a late-game frenzy. 7-4 Raccoons!! Monck 2-4, RBI; Kozak 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Well, that was exciting. (fur stands in all directions)

It was also the first career save for John Nesbitt in 42 games scattered across four seasons, a day after the right-hander from Idaho turned 27.

Game 2
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P E. Lee
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Burkart – RF Bentley – 1B Kozak – CF Garmon – P Alba

Saturday’s contest began with Box sticking a triple into the rightfield corner, and while Alba got a K on Omar Sanchez, Steve Dilly plated the runner with a groundout for an early 1-0 New York lead. The second brought more raised eyebrows; first Jake Cline reached when Bentley dropped his fly to right for an error, and then Garmon caught Thore’s fly to center, but left a brown smear in the outfield grass after a headlong dive and was collected by Luis Silva, whose collection of broken bones had to be almost complete by now… Tallent replaced Garmon in centerfield. Alba got around the unearned runner in that inning, but then allowed a run in the third – again with Takeuchi driving in Box – to fall behind 2-0.

The Coons had pairs on base in the second and fourth innings. The former attempt ended with a Tallent fly out to Thore on the warning track, while Kozak hit into a double play to smash the hint of a chance offered by Burkart and Bentley singles. Alba singled in the fifth, but found no friends to support him with that attempt, either. The Coons kept putting out singles; Morales hit one to center to begin the bottom 6th, and Monck singled to right. Burkart hit a low liner to center that Box tried to play on the run, then pulled up too late and had it bounce off his shin for an extra base, a run, and an error. The score was now 2-1, with a pair in scoring position and nobody out. Discouragingly, Bentley grounded out to first for no advance, but Kozak’s clean single to left tied the game before Tallent ran out of such and hit into a 6-4-3 double play to wreck the inning.

Alba – on the bright side – pitched into the eighth inning, but then put a pair of Crusaders on base as Sanchez singled and he walked Dilly with one out, and then was lifted for a bullpen that brought precious little in terms of relief. Tyson struck out Takeuchi, but Nesbitt gave up the go-ahead run on Jake Cline’s 2-out RBI single. Jose Alvarez struck out to keep two New Yorkers on base. The Raccoons had chances to overturn that 1-run deficit when Burkart walked in the eighth and Aoki hit a pinch-hit single in the ninth, but both times the next guy coming up – Kozak and Colter, respectively – smacked into a double play and that killed the winning streak. 3-2 Crusaders. Burkart 3-3, BB, RBI; Alba 7.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, L (4-9);

Game 3
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – 2B Cline – LF Thore – 1B Jose Alvarez – C P. Gonzales – P Je. Washington
POR: LF Spicer – SS Serrano – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Burkart – 1B Kozak – RF Colter – CF Tallent – P Walla

The Raccoons played a guy short on the bench since Garmon was still being assessed on Sunday, which somehow affected their ability to play defense. Burkart committed a throwing error on a base stealing attempt by Bryant Box in the first inning, although Box would be left on third base by the New Yorkers, and Spicer misplayed a Thore single into two bases, leading to a run for New York after all in the second inning when the luckily advanced runner was driven in on another single by Alvarez. Box led off the third with a double and scored on two productive outs before another Takeuchi double, although Cline grounded out to short to keep that runner on base.

The Coons were held to three singles by Washington through five innings, including a first-inning single by Serrano that ran his hitting streak to 15 games, and while Walla entered the sixth inning, the Crusaders quickly tore him a new one as Dilly and Takeuchi hit a pair of leadoff doubles, 3-0, and then an Alvarez single and a walk to Pedro Gonzales loaded the bases with two outs for Washington, who swiftly singled in two runs and knocked out Walla. Garvey struck out Box to end the dismal inning, but gave up a homer to Takeuchi-on-fire in the seventh, 6-0. Barton pitched (badly) in the eighth inning, giving up two runs that happened to be unearned thanks to another throwing error by Burkart. Things did NOT get better with Kurihara in the ninth; he walked Alex Romero getting going, gave up a double to Cline, one run scored on a Thore groundout, and then another one on a throwing error by Kozak, who threw Alvarez’ grounder behind Kurihara’s back for the fourth Coons error in this complete stinker. One of the two runs on Kurihara were unearned, while Jerry Washington was still merrily marching along. Bentley and Monck hit a pair of singles against him in the bottom 9th, but Arellano and Kozak made the final poor outs in a game full of them on the right side of the box score. Washington ended up with a 5-hit shutout. 10-0 Crusaders. Bentley (PH) 1-1;

In other news

June 18 – The Cyclones win a rain-shortened, seven-inning game against the Crusaders, who need to get out of town. CIN SP Dan Albrecht (3-6, 4.42 ERA) gets a budget 5-hit shutout, the first shutout of the 32-year-old late bloomer’s career.
June 20 – The Miners wish for the acquisition of MR Mike Goldfield (0-2, 5.33 ERA) from the Capitals hard enough to part with #75 prospect SP Freddie DeWitt.
June 21 – 21-year-old MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.335, 2 HR, 19 RBI) has put a 20-game hitting streak together with a single in a 4-3 loss to the Canadiens.
June 21 – LAP SP Javier Arocho (4-3, 2.64 ERA) would miss the rest of the season with a ruptured UCL, which the Pacifics would try to rehab.

FL Player of the Week: PIT C/1B Nick Dingman (.313, 22 HR, 56 RBI), smashing .500 (8-16) with 5 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS C Jorge Arviso (.298, 11 HR, 43 RBI), batting .500 (11-22) with 2 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Brief 6-game winning streak intermission in the general sucking, but I think we got back on track on Saturday (for the offense) and on Sunday (for absolutely everything).

With Garmon down, the Raccoons are threatening to run short on outfielders that can do *anything*, but Jose Corral is scheduled for a rehab assignment in the coming days and could rejoin the Raccoons on the weekend. Joel Starr should also start rehab before the month is over, although he should get at least a week, better ten days, to get warmed up. He should still rejoin the team ahead of the All Star Game.

We’ll be away in Loggerland and at the Bay of Tears next week. It’s another home week with the Condors and Titans, then another road week in Siberia and Indy before the All Star Game. The damn Elks are our four-by-four matchup this year.

Fun Fact: Pittsburgh’s Nick Dingman has 22 homers in 69 team games this year.

Dingman, a catcher and kinda first baseman to keep his bat in the lineup, has appeared in 62 games himself. Dingman socked 43 and 44 homers, respectively, in 2062 and 2063 before being held to 25 in an injury-addled ’64. In both his 40+ HR seasons and this year he hit well over .300 as well and for OPS well above .900.

And it’s still not enough to get the Miners to .500!

Dingman was a #29 pick by the Blue Sox in 2056 but ended up in Pittsburgh in a trade for Kodai Koga in 2060 after appearing in 51 games for the Sox, hitting .242 with 7 homers. Since then he’s hit another 170 bombs and brought up his career slash line to .299/.340/.548. Two years ago he was the CL Player of the Year, and he’s no slouch behind the dish either, taking home two Gold Gloves so far.