[Westheim]

Raccoons (60-83) vs. Crusaders (85-59) – September 15-17, 2065

Last chance for those Crusaders to load up on wins against the Raccoons, whom they had been skinning at an 11-4 rate this year. This was the #2 offense and #4 pitching in the Continental League, and they were two games behind the Titans for the division title.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (8-8, 3.99 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (14-6, 2.92 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (8-17, 3.84 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (16-5, 3.04 ERA)
Angel Alba (7-14, 4.17 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (9-11, 4.71 ERA)

The Crusaders would bring up only right-handed pitchers.

Nakayama was reinserted early into the rotation instead of having to wait a full turn after his three innings in overtime relief on the weekend.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – 2B Cline – SS O. Sanchez – 1B Dilly – RF Takeuchi – C Reyna – LF Menchaca – 3B B. Wilken – P Jer. Washington
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Burkart – RF Corral – CF Matas – 2B Gardner – P Fox

The Tuesday opener saw minimal offense as Chance Fox wore out Pablo Novelo to great success, getting one grounder to short after the other, including two double plays to erase Crusaders runners like Bryant Box, who drew a walk from Fox at the very start of the game. The Raccoons, off two consecutive routs in Elk City, were not exactly bubbling over with offense, either, but took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 3rd on singles by Gardner and Spicer. That was already it for excitement through five innings. Box was on base again to begin the sixth with a single to right, but was then doubled up again by Jake Cline’s grounder to the left side, the third two-for-one Foxie Brown got in the game. Spicer and Vic Morales then went to the corners with 1-out singles in the bottom 6th and Joel Starr doubled the tally with a sac fly to Box in center, while Burkart struck out.

Fox went on and added to more zeroes to the scoreboard, but reached 102 pitches and then his spot led off the bottom 8th in a 2-0 game, and kindly remember that we have no closer to speak of. Corey Carmon batted for him against the left-handed Pedro Mendoza, singled, and was doubled off when Novelo got a taste of his own medicine with a 6-4-3 grounder to Omar Sanchez, who then also got a 2-out single to Spicer up the ninth inning against Jeremy Garvey, who had gotten the ball facing the lefty-oriented top of the order. Steve Dilly then got Jesse Dover, was hit for with Alex Romero instead, but Dover prevailed with a strikeout. 2-0 Coons. Spicer 2-3, RBI; Morales 2-3; Corral 3-3; Garmon (PH) 1-1; Fox 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (9-8);

Game 2
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Dilly – RF A. Romero – C Reyna – LF Jose Alvarez – 2B Aoki – 1B Duhon – P Seiter
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – C Burkart – CF Garmon – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Nakayama

The Crusaders put their 3-4-5 batters on base against Nakayama in the first inning, but after a Dilly single, a Romero double, and a walk drawn by Victor Reyna, Jose Alvarez calmly grounded out to Ryan Bonner, who in the bottom 2nd singled home the first run of the game when he came up with one out and Burkart and Colter on the corners. Nakayama hit an RBI single of his own through the left side, 2-0, and a Sanchez error on Novelo’s grounder loaded the bases. From there, Spicer hit a sac fly and Morales drove in two more runs with a sizzling double to left as the Raccoons battered Ben Seiter around for the second time in consecutive starts against them, putting up a 5-spot (two earned) before Starr grounded out to end the inning. Seiter would soldier on regardless, even when the defense continued to bungle things behind him, like Dilly making another error in the third inning.

The Raccoons cruised for a bit on the 5-0 lead, but Nakayama soon enough got slapped around a bit; Box reached base with a single in the top 5th, stole second, and scored on a Sanchez triple. Sanchez came home on a Dilly groundout to shorten the score to 5-2. Nakayama didn’t finish another inning, hitting PH Eddie Menchaca with his 105th pitch and two outs in the top 6th, and Sansao Tyson had another crappy outing, allowing two singles to the lefty-swinging Box and Sanchez to concede Nakayama’s runner, then after Dilly struck out, another lefty leadoff single to Romero in the seventh before getting yanked for Carrillo, who got out of the inning with a K and a 4-6-3 double play.

Bottom 8th, and the Raccoons actually still existed as an offensive entity after 90 minutes of mostly nothing. Bill Grau offered a leadoff walk to Tallent, batting for Colter against the southpaw, but got out Alex Vargas batting for the pitcher Ricky Baca. Gardner was in the #9 hole after an earlier double switch. Tallent stole second base, then scored on a single to center. Novelo was walked intentionally, Spicer flew out to center, but with two outs Vic Morales blew the doors off with a 3-run homer over the fence in left. Juan Soriano handled the 6-run lead with care in the ninth to finish the game. 9-3 Coons. Morales 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Colter 2-3;

The Crusaders could be tied for first place by now thanks to the Titans also losing on both days against the lowly Indians. Does anybody here want to make the playoffs?

The Coons got their home run leader back (with 12 dingers all year, before you get excited) as Rich Monck returned from his rehab assignment for the series finale, while the Crusaders brought Erik Lee (9-10, 3.35 ERA) to start the game instead. Still a right-hander, though.

Game 3
NYC: CF Box – SS O. Sanchez – RF A. Romero – C Reyna – 2B Cline – 3B A. Acevedo – LF Takeuchi – 1B Duhon – P E. Lee
POR: LF Spicer – RF Corral – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – CF Matas – SS Gardner – P Alba

The Crusaders appeared to get back on the horse on Thursday, taking a 4-0 lead within their first five batters. Box opened with a double and Sanchez flew out, but Alba then issued a four-pitch walk to Romero. A double steal led to a run when Arellano threw the ball into the ground in front of Vic Morales, who couldn’t contain it, and the error allowed Box to score, before Victor Reyna singled home Romero. Jake Cline then cranked a homer to left. Romero doubled home another run with two outs in the second inning, and the game reached a whole new level of bizarro style in the third inning. Cline led off with a single to right, but Alba then struck out SIX straight batters to cover this inning and the next before allowing a leadoff single to Romero and a double to Reyna in the fifth. A mound conference rejiggered his antennae once more and he got a pop from Cline, a K on Andres Acevedo, and got Kazuhide Takeuchi to fly out to Corral to keep the runners stranded. That was his whole wretched outing, allowing five runs in as many innings, and on 105 pitches. The Coons were being two-hit by Lee at that point. Joe Gardner drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, but Bentley, Spicer, and Corral then made straight outs to keep him on base. It did not get better for the Coons from there. The Crusaders tacked on a run in the seventh between Tyson and Mello pitching ineffectively, and the same inning Lee gave up a pair of soft 1-out singles to Matas and Gardner, but then got Colter and Spicer out to keep the shutout going. He kept that going into the ninth inning – but lost it with two outs on the third single of the inning as Spicer drove in Alex Vargas, who had opened the inning with a pinch-hit single to right. Gardner had also singled. Ricardo Montoya replaced Lee, struck out Jose Corral, and that was the ballgame. 6-1 Crusaders. Vargas (PH) 1-1; Gardner 2-3, BB;

The Crusaders entered two games behind the Titans, the Crusaders left two games behind the Titans, who beat the Indians to finish their 4-game set. Jason Brenize was actually on the right side of a 1-0 game for once.

Raccoons (62-84) vs. Aces (66-80) – September 18-20, 2065

The Aces were in last place in the South, with the Raccoons still bidding for last place in the North. The season series was even at three against the #10 offense and #6 pitching in the CL. The Aces were tops in stolen bases, bottoms in homers, and near the top in defense. They also had four starting pitchers on the DL and Alex Alfaro was also down with a swollen knee. Thankfully for everybody involved, the end of the season was within sight now.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (10-13, 4.69 ERA) vs. Josh Mayo (6-7, 4.53 ERA)
Nick Walla (6-9, 4.07 ERA) vs. Alex Cruzado (1-6, 6.70 ERA)
Jeff Crowley (1-5, 6.43 ERA) vs. David Gaither (6-8, 3.51 ERA)

The Aces had just sent backup infielder Cesar Pena (.312, 2 HR, 24 RBI) to the Titans for two prospects, who by the nature of this September waiver trade were nothing special. All three of their starting pitchers for this series had either pitched in relief and/or in AAA this year, including the only left-hander, blink-and-you-missed-it former Raccoon Josh Mayo.

Game 1
LVA: CF D. Lewis – 2B M. Roberts – C A. Gomez – RF Jad. Wilson – 3B D. Sanchez – 1B Edger – LF Marazzo – SS Medford – P Mayo
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – C Burkart – 2B Monck – RF Tallent – CF Garmon – 1B Vargas – P J. Sanchez

The Friday opener went pear-shaped early as well because Sanchez was both hittable and being betrayed by the defense. Tallent made an error in the first inning on a fly ball by Alex Gomez, but Sanchez got around that, however, in the second inning, Sanchez opened with strikeouts against Dave Edger and Nate Marazzo, although the latter reached on an uncaught third strike. Daniel Medford singled, there was a double steal, and Mayo singled home the pair of runners before scoring on Don Lewis triple – who was then thrown out trying to steal home in a fit of hysteria. Besides being hittable, Juan Sanchez also bunted into a double play in the third inning, but was thankfully nowhere near the plate in the bottom 4th when Mayo walked both Morales and Burkart and with two outs gave up a game-tying, 3-run homer to Randy Tallent. Garmon and Vargas followed that with 2-out hits, but Sanchez made the final out to keep the game even.

Sanchez ached through five and got the lead in the bottom 5th when Burkart stuck an RBI double into the rightfield corner to chase home Pablo Novelo for a 4-3 lead. Sanchez got two more loud outs, including nearly serving up a homer to left to Edger – Spicer made the catch against the fence – before being removed in favor of Soriano, who got Marazzo to finish the top 6th. Instead, Vargas, Bentley, and Novelo each hit singles in the bottom 6th to get another run off Mayo, 5-3.

The Critters got four outs from rookie Josh Carrington before Gomez hit a single off him with one gone in the eighth. Baca came on, allowed a single to the left-handed Wilson, who was then forced out on a grounder to short by Spicer’s foe for the stolen base title, Victor Lorenzo – neither of them had a steal this week so far. Carrillo was the third pitcher of the inning and ended it with a K on PH Aaron Warner, leaving runners on the corners. Lacking better ideas, Carrillo remained in the game for the ninth inning and retired the Aces in order on just six pitches. 5-3 Raccoons. Novelo 2-5, 2B, RBI; Burkart 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Vargas 4-4, 2B; Bentley (PH) 1-2; Carrillo 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (3);

Game 2
LVA: LF Lorenzo – 2B M. Roberts – RF Jad. Wilson – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Davis – 3B D. Sanchez – CF A. Warner – SS Medford – P Cruzado
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – RF Corral – CF Matas – P Walla

The Raccoons sent Cruzado packing inside three innings, whacking a home run off him in every inning (!!??) and then some. An infield single by Novelo and a Morales homer to center got things going in the first, and Jose Corral showed he still had a stick with a solo home run in the second inning. The Coons then added another four runs in the third inning. Spencer drew a 1-out walk, scored on a Morales double, Monck clipped an RBI single past Mike Roberts, and after Starr grounded out, Bruce Burkart cranked another 2-run homer for a 7-0 lead while Walla kept Vic Lorenzo and most other Aces off the bases in the early innings.

The middle innings saw Jesus Aquino shut up the Raccoons in garbage relief, and Lorenzo finally singled his way on base and stole the next one in line to creep up closer to Malcolm Spicer, but was left stranded. After another quick seventh, Walla finally stumbled in the eighth inning and gave up an RBI double to Daniel Medford, who drove in Aaron Warner and a full-count walk, but Nate Marazzo and Lorenzo then made two more easy outs against Walla to complete the inning. Walla entered the ninth inning and struck out Mike Roberts, but then walked Jaden Wilson and allowed a single over Novelo to Alex Gomez and was lifted. Ricky Baca threw a singular pitch to Mike Davis, received a comebacker, and started a 1-6-3 double play to kill off the Aces. 7-1 Coons. Morales 4-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Walla 8.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (7-9);

Nice break in the relentless sucking that Walla had subjected everybody to in the last few weeks!

Game 3
LVA: LF Lorenzo – 2B M. Roberts – RF Jad. Wilson – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Davis – 3B A. Alfaro – CF Marazzo – SS D. Sanchez – P Gaither
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Arellano – RF Corral – 3B Gardner – CF Matas – P Crowley

Lorenzo doubled, Wilson tripled, and Gomez singled for two first-inning runs for Vegas against Crowley, who just kept coming under the wheels. For the Coons, Spicer singled in the first, but was caught stealing by Gomez, before the Coons loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom 2nd as Monck was nicked, Arellano singled to left, and Corral reached on an error by Mike Davis. Gardner struck out, Matas struck out, and Crowley … clapped a bases-clearing double into the right-center gap because baseball refused to make sense sometimes. It was Crowley’s first hit of the season, too, and his first three RBI. Of course he ****** the unforeseen 3-2 lead all to hell immediately in the top 3rd, allowing a leadoff single to Lorenzo, walked Roberts, the runners did a double steal to whittle away Spicer’s stolen base lead, and then he balked in the tying run in a breathtaking display of … breathtaking…? It was hard to find words; best to just clutch Honeypaws and wait for the barrage to end, although Roberts scored on a groundout as well to give the Aces a 4-3 lead. Spicer singled again in the bottom 4th and although it was obvious he was going to steal the Aces didn’t get him this time, the jump was just too big. They did strand him on third base though as the 3-4-5 batters made miserable outs.

The Coons tied the game again in the bottom 4th with leadoff knocks for Corral, a double, and Gardner, an RBI triple to right, off Gaither. Carlos Matas’ fly to left was caught by Lorenzo, but deep enough to get home Gardner for a 5-4 lead. Crowley would not get another chance to blow it, as he was pinch-hit for with Alex Vargas, who stuffed another triple into the rightfield corner. Novelo walked and Spicer hit an RBI single to chase Gaither, too. Up 6-4, the Raccoons now engaged in a rap battle with who could make the most impossible calls to send the runners; we sent Novelo and Spicer on a double steal with one out and Aquino pitching, but Novelo was thrown out at third base, upon which Starr was walked intentionally with two outs. **** that, another double steal! This time Gomez went after Starr – but didn’t get him, and Spicer got #49! Rich Monck then slapped a 2-out, 2-run single up the middle to extend the lead to 8-4, kindly reminding me that the game was still about scoring the most RUNS. The inning ended with Arellano’s fly out to center, and by the way, we were only through four innings at that point.

Carrillo pitched a scoreless fifth around a Jaden Wilson single and became provisional holder of the W that Crowley had sucked too hard to be entrusted with going forwards. Soriano got the sixth, walked a guy and hit another, and somehow avoided getting routed. Dover retired the side in order in the seventh, in which Jose Corral also hit a homer to right against Ubaldo Piteira to increase the lead to 9-4. The Raccoons even managed to get a scoreless inning out of Sansao Tyson in the eighth inning, but when we tried to sneak a ninth inning to complete a sweep with useless Rich Read, the baseball gods objected quite visibly. He walked the first two batters in the inning, Danny Sanchez and Aaron Warner, got an out from Lorenzo, but then Roberts whacked an RBI double and we were in save territory. Garvey replaced him, allowed a run on a sac fly to center, and then struck out Gomez to bring the game to an end. 9-6 Critters. Spicer 3-5, RBI; Corral 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Gardner 2-4, 3B, RBI; Vargas (PH) 1-1, 3B;

In other news

September 14 – The season of Nashville OF/1B Tony Roman (.259, 32 HR, 82 RBI) ends due to a partial tear being discovered in his labrum. Roman holds the FL lead in home runs at this point, just one ahead of Dallas’ Tyler Wharton.
September 14 – The same DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.365, 31 HR, 114 RBI) loses his 23-game hitting streak by going empty in a 3-0 win against the Warriors.
September 16 – The Bayhawks smother the Falcons in a 16-4 rout.
September 17 – BOS SP Jason Brenize (16-6, 2.57 ERA) does it all to beat the Indians, 1-0, throwing six and two thirds scoreless innings while also landing two of his team’s three singles and scoring the only run on a sac fly by LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.287, 29 HR, 97 RBI).
September 19 – The Thunder’s OF/2B/SS Felix Gomez (.257, 4 HR, 28 RBI) misses the cycle by the double in a 4-hit, 2-homer game in which he also walks twice and drives in four runs while the Thunder thrash the Indians, 14-2.
September 19 – New York INF/RF/LF Omar Sanchez (.275, 1 HR, 52 RBI) misses the cycle by the triple as he hits his first home run in two years and drives in five runs for the Crusaders in a 13-2 romp of the Falcons.
September 19 – The Stars clinch the FL West by virtue of the Warriors’ 3-0 loss to the Blue Sox. Dallas themselves lose to the Rebs, 2-0.
September 20 – TOP INF/RF/LF Jeff Buss (.292, 14 HR, 70 RBI) will miss the rest of the season and potentially the start of next season with a torn labrum that requires surgical intervention.
September 20 – Pacifics OF Daniel Montes (.279, 2 HR, 15 RBI) staves off getting no-hit by the Cyclones’ Edwin Moreno (11-5, 3.18 ERA) with a fourth-inning double, the only base hit for L.A. in a 7-0 loss to Cincy. Moreno is eventually relieved after seven innings with no no-no on the board anymore.

FL Player of the Week: TOP OF Wade Griffith (.264, 9 HR, 59 RBI), clipping .407 (11-27) with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA OF Jaden Wilson (.282, 9 HR, 56 RBI), batting .407 (11-27) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Wilson did most of the actual damage against the Condors earlier in the week, including both homers. He drove in two runs against the Coons on Sunday, while batting 4-for-10 in the series.

Malcolm Spicer is up four (49-45) in the stolen base race against Vic Lorenzo after that excitement of sweeping the Aces on the weekend. Eddie Marcotte tied for third place with 35 steals, which was far off, but he led the league in homers and was third in RBI, but nevertheless posed the interesting question what you’d call it if someone led the league in two triple crown categories *and* stolen bases?

All those silly wins are of course only worsening our draft position for next year; for much of the summer the Coons would have held the #2 pick in an Oregon 1-2. At this point we were down to the #5 pick, and not far away from #7.

Sansao Tyson dropped it to the Agitator that he saw himself as a worthy closer for this team. There was nothing inherently wrong about that remark – the Coons were loaded with absolutely ghastly relievers that had nothing better to do than blowing games, so why shouldn’t he be made their king? Thankfully Tyson was on a 1-year deal and that particular spook would end just a few weeks down the road…

The Alley Cats ended up winning their division and headed for the AAA playoffs against the Rebels’ affiliate, the Albion Vanquishers.

Just three more home games against the Knights before we lock the old ballpark for the winter. After a day off on Thursday, we’ll face the Loggers in Milwaukee on the weekend.

Fun Fact: Chance Fox is a box of chocolates.

You never know what you ******* get. Nine times this year he allowed zero or one run in a start (and two more games where he allowed just one *earned* run). But six times this year he’s allowed five or more runs in a game, including three sevens and a tenner at his low point in May, when he was out of the rotation and was being assigned to the Alley Cats, which he refused. At that point, only longevity kept him from being released (no one would trade for him), because even a raging Raccoons GM wouldn’t straight-up fire the longest-serving player on the team.

For his career he was now at 86-72 with a 3.78 ERA (same as his ERA this year after all the madness), and with 1,042 strikeouts in 1,420 innings. He had a $2.5M contract for 2066, and was currently not on the verge of being sent to Florida or any other major league team again.