[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-10) vs. Falcons (9-8) – April 26-28, 2066

The Falcons had taken seven of nine games from the Coons last season. For the time being they were combining the #3 offense and #4 pitching, although there were asterisks all over the place. Their offense was relying on the sustainability of a .284 team batting average, while their pitching was contingent of a 1.46 bullpen ERA while the starters were getting beaten around to the tune of a 5.56 ERA. Those marks were, respectively, the best and worst in the league. They also had a bunch of injuries already, including outfielder David Flores and a couple of relievers. Infielder Trent Taylor was on the roster, but battling a bum elbow.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (1-1, 2.79 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (0-2, 8.59 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (1-3, 2.57 ERA) vs. Phil Baker (1-0, 1.86 ERA)
Chance Fox (1-2, 3.00 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (1-3, 3.54 ERA)

The Falcons were only carrying right-handed starters.

Game 1
CHA: 3B Schmidt – CF T. Garcia – C O. Matos – 1B M. Rubin – SS Tr. Taylor – 2B Duhe – RF Nakamura – LF Padgett – P J. Lugo
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Spicer – 2B Gutierrez – SS Novelo – P Sanchez

The Falcons got three hits in the first inning, which included two infield singles for John Schmidt and Trent Taylor sandwiching an Oscar Matos home run, and Sanchez also walked the bases full before getting the final out from Cody Padgett, a fly to right. The 2-0 deficit was erased by Rich Monck; not in the first, when he came up with Corral and Lopez on base and hit into an inning-ending double play, but in the third inning, when Sanchez legged out an infield single, Wilson and Lopez added more scratch singles to load the bases, and then Monck singled through the left side to get Sanchez and Wilson home and even the score at two. Slumpin’ Starr then hit a ball to deep right, but couldn’t get it out, nor beat the reach of Natsu Nakamura, and the inning ended. The Falcons got their 2-run lead right back though, because Sanchez was awful. He walked Padgett to begin the fourth, which was his fourth walk against no strikeouts in the game, and surrendered a run on Schmidt’s RBI single following Lugo’s bunt, and Tony Garcia singled Schmidt to third base, from where he scored on a Matos groundout, 4-2. Manny Rubin flew out to deep right like Starr, ending that inning.

Sanchez was yanked just one out in the fifth inning after another walk to Jared Duhe and a Nakamura single to center. Justin Cullum came in and got a double play grounder from Padgett to Gutierrez to get out of that jam. The funny part was that Lugo also had no strikeouts going for himself, but worked his way around a Nakamura error that put Jose Corral on base, and a walk to Starr in the bottom 5th anyway without surrendering a run. Lugo finally got a K on Pablo Novelo in the sixth, the Coons surrendering in order in that inning. Lugo added another scoreless inning after that, and the Raccoons drew nothing but blanks against the Falcons’ pen after him, while Hudson, McMahan, and Soriano put up scoreless, 1-hit relief combined with Cullum for 4.2 innings – all to no avail. 4-2 Falcons. Lopez 2-3, BB; Gutierrez 2-4;

Game 2
CHA: 3B Schmidt – SS Tr. Taylor – C O. Matos – 1B M. Rubin – CF T. Garcia – RF Nakamura – LF S. Brown – 2B Duhe – P P. Baker
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Spicer – 2B Gutierrez – SS Novelo – P Nakayama

The Coons‘ offensive day on Tuesday started with Jaden Wilson drawing a walk and being immediately doubled up by Corral’s grounder to second. Ramon Lopez then tripled, but Monck grounded out. In turn, Manny Rubin singled to lead off the top 2nd, Monck fumbled Tony Garcia’s grounder for an error, Natsu Nakamura singled off Shoma Nakayama (be sure to bring the right one back!), and the bags were full with nobody out. The Falcons would get two runs out of this on Scott Brown’s run-scoring groundout and an RBI single to center off the stick of Jared Duhe, before Baker and Schmidt went down. The third inning then began with Oscar Matos reaching on catcher’s interference, and things went into the toilet from there with consecutive hits from Rubin and Garcia, and the Falcons got two more runs out of that inning.

Bottom 3rd, and the Raccoons had a chance to wipe the board with a Nakayama single, Wilson getting nicked, and a walk to Corral to begin the inning. Lopez batted as the tying run, hit a sac fly, and Monck batted as the tying run, and hit another sac fly, and then Joel Starr batted as the tying run, and we had run out of chances to hit more sac flies, and there was no runner on third base now anyway. Starr was hitting .141 with a lone homer and two measly RBI at this point, but doubled two of the categories with a game-tying homer to right! Yaay, he’s not quite dead yet!! (tosses Honeypaws into the air)

In the 4-4 tie, Nakayama worked around a leadoff walk in the fifth, then nicked Nakamura with force to start off the sixth inning. The two exchanged a death stare before Nakamura pretended to be unbothered and stalked to first base. He then swiftly stole second, but the Falcons’ bottom of the order failed to get him around to score from there. Stalling Nakamura at third base against PH Dan Geiger was also the last act for Nakayama in this game.

Cullum held the score tied in the seventh while the Falcons were on the second inning of relief for Tony Lira in the bottom 7th; the right-hander got Branch and Wilson out before giving up a tie-breaking homer to Jose Corral. Lopez then hit a gapper for two bases, although he thought he’d have three until convinced otherwise by Tony Garcia on the throw, and John Schmidt on the tag. The Coons somehow held on to the lead in the eighth despite Paul Barton pitching in the first place, then walking Garcia with one out. When Garvey replaced him and continued his struggles with a single allowed to Nakamura, the Falcons pinch-hit catcher Mike Seidman for the speedier Scott Brown, leading to a 6-4-3 double play and a graceless end to the inning. The ninth went to Dover, who got two groundouts in full counts from Duhe and Scott Moore, then a line drive to left that Spicer caught from Schmidt. 5-4 Coons. Lopez 3-3, 3B, 2B, RBI; Spicer 2-4;

Game 3
CHA: 3B Schmidt – CF T. Garcia – C O. Matos – 1B M. Rubin – SS Tr. Taylor – 2B Duhe – RF Nakamura – LF Padgett – P E. Mauricio
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – LF Branch – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 2B Caballero – P Fox

Fox put a pair of runners on base in both of the first two innings. He was able to escape with Trent Taylor hitting an inning-ending comebacker to him in the first, but John Schmidt drove in two runs with a double to left in the second inning to give the Falcons the early lead. The Raccoons didn’t have a hit the first time through, but Caballero drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 3rd before scoring on 1-out doubles by Wilson and Novelo. Corral then cleaned up in the worst way with a double play grounder, ending the inning, and Fox was slapped around for another three singles and a run driven in by Schmidt in the fourth. He was not fooling anybody in this game, and allowed seven hits in four innings, with Tony Garcia leaving a pair in scoring position with a grounder to Rich Monck for the third out. The Raccoons got that run back with a Monck single and Starr’s RBI double (any sign of life was appreciated) in the bottom of the inning, but remained one behind, 3-2.

The Raccoons then stopped getting hits, while Fox ached his way into the seventh inning. Tony Garcia hit a 1-out single off him, while Matos popped out. Fox was lifted for Soriano in a double switch, inserting Gardner for Caballero, but that helped little when Arellano threw away Manny Rubin’s 2-out grounder for two bases, and Trent Taylor zinged a 2-run single up the middle. Duhe grounded out to short to end the inning. McMahan and Barton would go on to collect the final outs from there, but the Coons’ offense refused to restart against Mauricio or a parade of three relievers in the eighth inning. Jason Stine, left-hander, entered for the bottom 9th with a 5-2 lead and got Arellano on strikes, but then gave up singles to Ramon Lopez (who extended a 10-game hitting streak) and Gardner to bring the tying run to the plate. Jaden Wilson drove a ball to right-center that fell between Scotts Moore and Brown to drive in a run and put the tying runs in scoring position with one out. The Raccoons had Novelo coming up as a righty batter and then had to wonder whether they could potentially find another one of those somewhere between the refreshments, but Novelo ended the game on his own with his first home run of the season, a no-doubt drive to left that sent the team pouring out of the dugout before the ball had a chance to break the plane above the fence. 6-5 Furballs!! Wilson 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Novelo 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Corral 2-4; Lopez (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (11-11) vs. Indians (9-12) – April 30-May 2, 2066

The Indians were back; the Raccoons had swept them to open the season, which felt like it had been a long time ago now. Indy ranked eighth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. Their -2 run differential hinted at the potential to move upwards again in the division, and we should not say a word about the Raccoons’ -22 mark.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (2-1, 1.33 ERA) vs. Keith Thompson (1-0, 4.50 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (2-1, 4.01 ERA) vs. Vince Ellison (2-1, 3.25 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (1-2, 3.80 ERA) vs. Joe Napier (1-2, 3.67 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up in this series, since Mike DeWitt (0-3, 4.94 ERA), their only lefty starter, had gone on Thursday, the Coons’ off day.

Game 1
IND: CF E. Ramirez – SS Aredondo – LF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – RF T. Torres – 3B M. Martin – C Atencio – 2B Falcon – P K. Thompson
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 2B Gutierrez – P Walla

Like Fox on Wednesday, Walla was beaten around quite a bit in his start as the Indians gave him the business for seven hits in the first four innings. Straight hits from Oscar Aredondo, Justin Dowsey, and Danny Starwalt plated two runs for them in the third inning, while the Coons had a Starr double the first time through and … nothing besides that, really.

It was Novelo to get the Coons on the board with a solo homer in the bottom 5th, thus going yard in back-to-back games. Spicer then singled right afterwards and was caught stealing before Gutierrez also singled and was left on by Walla. The distance was only temporary shortened to one run, however, as Jose Corral clonked a Vinny Atencio fly to right for a 2-base error leading off top of the sixth, and from there Walla walked Miguel Falcon, the runners were advanced on a bunt, and Eddy Ramirez hit an RBI single to center. Falcon also tried to score, but was thrown out by Wilson, and Walla did not allow an earned run in the inning, which ended with a K to Aredondo. Bottom 6th, and the Coons went to the corners as Thompson appeared to become more hittable; Corral and Lopez put out hits to present Monck with the tying runs, and his single over the head of Falcon shortened the score to 3-2 again. Thompson then lost Starr in a full count, filling the bases with one out… but a game-tying sac fly by Novelo was as good as it got before Spicer grounded out.

Walla held the tie through seven muddled innings, allowing ten base hits. Thompson also reached ten hits allowed in the bottom 7th on 1-out singles by Caballero and Wilson before he lost Corral in another full count. Again, the Raccoons managed a sac fly, this time by Ramon Lopez and to go ahead, but could get no more as Monck was retired for the third out. Garvey then held the Indians short in the eighth before right-hander Victor Ramirez appeared for the Indians in the bottom 8th. Joel Starr drew another walk, Novelo whiffed, Spicer singled, and Gutierrez flew out to left. Tommy Branch then batted for Garvey and whacked a 3-run homer with his eyes closed to put the game away. Cullum got the last three outs to make it happen. 7-3 Raccoons. Corral 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Starr 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Spicer 2-4; Caballero (PH) 1-1; Branch (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI;

Game 2
IND: C Atencio – SS Aredondo – LF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – RF T. Torres – 3B M. Martin – CF Laybolt – 2B B. Ellis – P Ellison
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 2B Tallent – P Damasceno

DD was all over the place on Saturday. He walked one in the first, two in the second – and to begin the inning – and the CL Rookie of the Month, Darby Laybolt, followed up the free passes to Tony Torres and Matt Martin with an RBI single to right. The remaining runners were somehow stranded, as were Dowsey and Starwalt on base hits in the third, but the traffic was quite voluminous. Things had to go badly at some point, and the fourth began with a Laybolt single and stolen base. Ben Ellis doubled home the runner, 2-0, before Damasceno got two outs, but then walked Aredondo and gave up a 3-run homer to Dowsey for a 5-0 score. The Coons offense was nowhere to be seen, nor was Damasceno after the fourth inning.

The gap only widened with another Dowsey homer, that one for two runs and off Steven Hudson in the sixth inning. The Coons were on just two hits at that point in a 7-0 game, but Carlos Gutierrez drew a walk in the pitcher’s spot, stole a base, and then was doubled home by Corral to at least leave *a* mark on the board. Starr hit a leadoff homer in the seventh, and the Indians created more traffic with Novelo reaching base on an error by Starwalt. Spicer singled, but Tallent didn’t get more than a fielder’s choice. Tommy Branch pinch-hit with two on again, but had to settle for a sac fly, 7-3, and Wilson ended the inning calmly. Ellison nicked Lopez on base with one down in the bottom 8th, then was taken deep by Monck, cutting that deficit in half (after Dover had rescued McMahan after two walks issued in the top 8th), but Dover then gave up a 2-run homer of his own to Matt Martin in the ninth inning, and that was the ballgame for good then. Dover issued another walk to Laybolt, and that runner was waved home by Garvey, when he gave up a 2-out triple to Vinny Atencio… and then another RBI single to Aredondo. 11-5 Indians. Starr 2-4, HR, RBI; Spicer 2-4;

Ramon Lopez ended an 11-game hitting streak in this game.

One day we’ll fix the pitching.

One day.

Maybe I’ll still be alive then.

Game 3
IND: CF E. Ramirez – RF T. Torres – 3B M. Martin – 1B Starwalt – LF Dowsey – 2B Falcon – SS B. Ellis – C J. Edwards – P Napier
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Branch – 1B Spicer – SS Tallent – 2B Gutierrez – P Sanchez

A hit batter and a walk in the first; an error and two singles in the second; and then three singles to start the third inning – the Indians were crowding Juan Sanchez in an uncomfortable way to begin the rubber game. They left all five runners on base in the first two innings, but Sanchez wouldn’t Houdini his way out of the most recent mess, despite getting a pop to shallow center for no gains from Miguel Falcon. He walked in a run against Ellis, John Edwards hit an RBI single, and while Napier struck out, Eddy Ramirez slapped in two more runs with a ball through the left side, and the Indians were up 4-0 again. Tony Torres was rung up to end the miserable inning. Meanwhile, the Coons through three innings? One runner. Spicer had singled and been stranded in the second.

Bottom 4th, Corral reached on an error by Ben Ellis. Lopez’ triple in the right-center gap got the Coons on the board, and Monck hit an RBI single through between Falcon and Starwalt, to bring the tying run to the plate. Napier walked Branch, Spicer grounded out, Tallent hit a sac fly, 4-3, but an intentional walk to Gutierrez and Sanchez went down to end the inning.

Sanchez departed after six busy innings – the first three much more so than the last three – and was still behind by a run. Monck singled his way on base in the bottom 6th, but was forced out by Branch, who gained a base on an errant pickoff attempt and then scored the tying run on a 2-out single by Randy Tallent, all even at four! Tallent then stole second, after which the Indians curiously walked Gutierrez with intent again, as if they didn’t see Joel Starr in the on-deck circle. Starr promptly punished them with a go-ahead RBI single zinged past a diving Falcon, 5-4! Jaden Wilson then killed Napier for good with a 2-run double into the rightfield corner before Melvin Guerra restored order with a groundout from Corral to end the inning.

The Coons now had to get nine outs with a 3-run lead and their dunderheaded bullpen, which sounded like a challenge. Cullum collected three in a quick seventh before things went to McMahan in the eighth and Laybolt and Torres appeared on the corners before long. The Coons brought Soriano for Martin with two outs, the triple switch removing Branch from the game, while Tallent went out to left and Novelo entered at short. All the shenanigans helped little when the Indians hit back-to-back RBI singles to rightfield to narrow the score to 7-6, before Dowsey popped out to short. The Raccoons passed on the chance to tack on, despite Gutierrez singling and stealing a base and Wilson getting nicked on base with two outs. Brian McLaughlin came in and struck out Corral to end the bottom 8th, and now what? Dover had been beaten up for 28 pitches the day before, Garvey had pitched two days in a row, and the only other pitchers left in the pen were Barton and Hudson, neither of whom screamed “circle of trust” (although that was true for the entire roster). We stuck with Soriano, who allowed a leadoff single to Falcon, who was – as tying run – immediately run for with blitzing fast Matthew Parker. Ellis popped out. Edwards grounded out to third, moving the runner along. Aredondo pinch-hit in the #9 spot, struck out, and Juan Soriano escaped with a save…! 7-6 Raccoons. Monck 2-4, RBI; Starr (PH) 1-1, RBI;

In other news

April 26 – Rebels INF/RF Robby Cox (.206, 0 HR, 2 RBI) is done for the season after tearing his posterior cruciate ligament.
April 26 – Pacifics SP Joel Luera (1-1, 2.45 ERA) might miss up to two months with a tear in his meniscus.
April 27 – Season over as well for SFW SP Alex Dominguez (2-1, 2.19 ERA), having his kneecap broken on a comebacker line drive.
April 27 – DAL SP Andy Canada (4-0, 1.55 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout to beat the Blue Sox, 6-0.
April 28 – Titans SP Will Glaude (1-1, 2.79 ERA) is expected to miss a month with a strained biceps tendon suffered in the second inning of a 14-3 rout of the Knights. The Titans land 13 hits and draw 15 walks in that game; every position player in the lineup walks at least once.
April 29 – In three CL games on this Thursday, all road teams are shut out. The Knights beat the Titans, 5-0, the Condors win 4-0 against the Indians, and the Thunder have just two hits in a 2-0 win against the Loggers.
April 30 – The Scorpions engage in not one, but two deals at the end of April, trading C/1B John Vaillancourt (.268, 2 HR, 8 RBI) to the Rebs for INF/LF Jon Barrientos (.211, 1 HR, 5 RBI); and LF/RF/1B Josh Bursley (.214, 0 HR, 1 RBI) and $3M in cash go to the Bayhawks for 1B Jared McLaughlin (.292, 0 HR, 8 RBI).
May 1 – The Warriors’ veteran RF/3B/2B/LF Adam Peltier (.257, 3 HR, 12 RBI) finds his 2,000th base hit at age 38 with a single in a 6-5 loss to the Wolves. Peltier was on his fourth ABL team in a 16-year career, batting .277 with 141 home runs and 909 RBI. He had won a Gold Glove along the way.
May 1 – Thunder catcher Travis Anderson (.333, 1 HR, 1 RBI) goes yard to beat the Aces, 1-0.
May 1 – The Knights beat the Condors, 7-5 in 15 innings.
May 1 – The Bayhawks take even longer – 17 innings – to beat the Falcons, 6-5. Before pushing the winning run across on three singles in the top of the 17th inning, the Bayhawks had gone a dozen innings without scoring and had blown a 5-0 lead in the process.
May 2 – The Rebels get flogged by the Buffaloes, 15-0. The Buffos put out 15 hits and draw 12 walks, while C J.P. Jack (.267, 2 HR, 16 RBI) leads them with four RBI on three hits, including a double.

FL Player of the Week: SAL 3B/RF Eric Frasher (.322, 7 HR, 21 RBI), cranking .368 (7-19) with 4 HR, 13 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND CF/LF/1B/3B Matt Martin (.320, 2 HR, 16 RBI), clipping .462 (12-26) with 1 HR, 4 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Chad Pritchett (.364, 6 HR, 21 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL INF Kyle Reber (.346, 3 HR, 19 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: NAS CL Curt Carter (3-0, 1.54 ERA, 8 SV)
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Jason Brenize (5-0, 1.53 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN OF Chris Tuck (.291, 0 HR, 5 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: IND LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.400, 1 HR, 5 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

The team narrowly climbed out of the cellar for runs scored in the CL on Sunday, even though it was hard to believe that barely scoring 3.5 runs per game could even get you to 11th in the league. As it was, the Aces had sunk to 3.4, so that was their problem. At the same time, the pen was also 11th in ERA in the league.

No it was not going great, and I wasn’t quite sure how we were (just) above .500 at this point. And we were gonna run out of Indians games at some point…

Midwest week coming up next with games in Milwaukee and Nashville. The poor Loggers had found last place once more, but the Blue Sox were atop their division right now.

Fun Fact: Juan Soriano’s age is a bigger number than his number of career games.

The right-handed former scouting discovery that ended up in Portland as a waiver claim in ’64 and then immediately got hurt and vanished to AAA for the rest of that season and most of the next turned 29 years old in April. His first career save on Sunday, which came more in “aw shucks” fashion than in any sort of plan, came in his 26th career game, all but one of which he contested as a Raccoon. He made one appearance for the Stingers in ’62, then two in ’64, 13 last year, and now ten this season for the Brownshirts.

For what little career he’s been having, he’s 0-1 with a 3.33 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 24.1 innings.