[Westheim]

Raccoons (38-60) @ Bayhawks (51-45) – July 27-29, 2066

The listless Raccoons were on the way home and stopped over in San Francisco at the Bay of Tears, although there was hardly anything that could make this season yet more worse and irritating than it already was. San Francisco was fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed in the league, with the very worst rotation, which ran an ERA of 5.38 between them, which was kind of astonishing. They had won two of three games against the Critters in the first meeting of the year, though. Outfielder Juan Paez was the only DL case for them.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (6-9, 3.58 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (10-7, 4.25 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-2, 3.90 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (8-8, 3.94 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (5-8, 3.81 ERA) vs. Vince Vandiver (4-1, 3.52 ERA)

We would miss the worst offenders in that rotation and instead get only right-handers with decent ERA’s.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Colter – 2B Arantes – P Nakayama
SFB: RF J. Ward – 1B Jer. White – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – CF Navarre – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 3B O’Donnell – P Wittman

Nakayama adopted a paws-on approach for generating victories and not only pitched a scoreless first inning, but also hit a 2-out, 2-run double to center to plate Pablo Novelo and Jamie Colter for an early lead after Leon Arantes couldn’t get anything done ahead of him. Unfortunately that was as good as it got and Armando Montoya immediately sounded the rally horn for the Bayhawks, hitting a leadoff jack over the wall in left, his 16th of the season. Nate Navarre and Chris Haynes added singles to right, the latter of which was overrun for an error by Corral, and the Bayhawks added an Adan Yniguez sac fly and Chad O’Donnell singled in the go-ahead run right away in the inning. Rich Monck tied the game again in the top 3rd with a sac fly after Corral drew a leadoff walk and Ramon Lopez doubled to left, but the go-ahead run was stranded on base. Jeremy White then tried to take the lead back, doubling to left to begin the bottom 3rd, but Nakayama struck out the next three batters in order, his first three whiffs of the game, to complete the inning, and then made it four in a row with Haynes in the fourth inning.

The teams remained locked at three with little offense in the middle innings, but Jaden Wilson then stuck a ball into the rightfield corner to lead off the seventh inning with a triple. The Coons threatened not to score after an intentional walk to Corral and a K on Lopez, but Rich Monck dinked in the go-ahead single in shallow center, on which Corral tried to reach third base and was thrown out by Nate Navarre for the second out, and Joel Starr popped out to short to bring on the stretch. Nakayama only got two more outs before hitting lefty PH David Blackham in the #9 spot in the home half of the seventh. When another left-hander appeared – Josh Bursley batting for Jake Ward – the Raccoons went to Quinones, who got the out on an easy fly. Bob West and Jose Salazar for San Francisco and Manabu Yamauchi for Portland then held the score into the bottom 9th, when the 4-3 lead went to the recently battered Jesse Dover. He struck out Haynes, Yniguez, and O’Donnell in order to finish off the game! 4-3 Raccoons. Wilson 2-5, 3B; Monck 2-4, 2 RBI; Colter 2-4; Caballero (PH) 1-1;

Both teams brought back Tuesday’s lineup for the middle game, where Tony Gaytan would make his sixth big-league start on his 23rd birthday!

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Colter – 2B Arantes – P Gaytan
SFB: RF J. Ward – 1B Jer. White – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – CF Navarre – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 3B O’Donnell – P Egley

Ramon Lopez singled and stole his first base as a Raccoon in the first inning, but was left on anyway. Neither team scored in the early innings, but Gaytan was behind in the count quite a bit. He allowed a hit and a walk the first time through before striking out Egley and Ward back-to-back in the bottom 3rd. He had a quick fourth inning and appeared to turn it around, but then ran a few full counts in the fifth inning. Yniguez singled and O’Donnell walked with one out, and Egley’s bunt was bad and taken by Gaytan to third base to get a force out there. Ward then flew out to Wilson in center, keeping the game scoreless, and both teams on just two base hits, through five innings.

Jaden Wilson led off the sixth with a single to left and stole second base, after which Corral was walked intentionally and successfully, as Lopez hit into a double play. Didn’t cover Rich Monck, though, who clipped a 2-out RBI single for the game’s first run, was balked to second base, and then left there when Starr popped out. Jeremy White hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th for San Fran, but was stranded. The Coons didn’t know what to do with a Colter double in the seventh, and the score was still 1-0 as Gaytan pitched into the eighth inning, where Egley struck out for himself, oddly enough, and then Ward doubled to right, which marked the biggest Bayhawks threat in a while. Gaytan rung up White while we were waiting for the inevitable lefty pinch-hitter that never came – almost that entire Bayhawks lineup was right-handed! – so he bumped into the meat of the order with two outs. After a mound conference it was decided to have him face Ian Streng, whom he rung up on his 107th pitch of the game, and that would be it for him.

The Raccoons got Novelo on with a single in the ninth inning and used Malcolm Spicer to run for him. He stole second before being stranded. Joe Gardner then took over the shortstop position in the bottom 9th, which again featured Dover on the bump. He allowed a leadoff single to Armando Montoya, threw a wild pitch, and a grounder moved Montoya to third. Critically, Haynes struck out, and the Bayhawks still didn’t bat for Yniguez, who struck out on three pitches to end the game…! 1-0 Critters. Wilson 1-2, 2 BB; Colter 2-4, 2B; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (2-2);

Look at you, Tony Gaytan, turning it around!

Hopefully. Maybe.

I see you already helped yourself to a present. (pats Gaytan on the head while he’s nearly choking on an entire chocolate cake, burning candles on it and all)

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – LF Colter – RF Corral – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 1B Spicer – 2B Caballero – P Sanchez
SFB: RF J. Ward – 1B Jer. White – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – CF Navarre – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 3B O’Donnell – P Vandiver

The Bayhawks hung on to their right-handed lineup as the Raccoons rocked up with the southpaw Sanchez, but it didn’t help them a lot in the early going. While they got a hit in every inning from the first through the fourth, they couldn’t overcome Sanchez, who also walked a pair, to get on the board. Nor did the Coons – the Critters had only one hit through four innings against Vandiver until Spicer hit a single in the fifth inning, stole second base, and then was tripled in with a ball into the leftfield corner hit by Caballero for the game’s first run. Sanchez got the run home with a fly out to Ian Streng, 2-0, then put Jeremy White and Streng on the corners with 2-out hits in the bottom 5th, but Montoya popped out to Spicer in shallow right. For White, who was hitting .290 with six homers and 40 RBI, this was a 20-game hitting streak.

Rich Monck had an 11-game hitting streak once he singled up the middle in the sixth, following another single by Corral, but both of them were then made to walk back to the dugout when Novelo wrapped it into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Sanchez held on through six, but then allowed a leadoff single to Vandiver in the bottom 7th before getting taken deep by Jake Ward, tying the game at two. He walked White and allowed another double to Streng, and then was unceremoniously removed. Shockingly, with runners on second and third and nobody out, Justin Cullum came in and got a pop from Streng, a K on Montoya, and a cozy fly to center from Haynes to strand the runners and keep the game tied, sparing Sanchez a loss for which McMahan then applied by giving up a homer to Josh Bursley, batting for Yniguez, on the first pitch in the bottom 8th. Righty Jose Salazar got the ball for San Francisco in the ninth inning, facing the meat of the Coons’ order with a 1-run lead. Corral fanned, but Monck singled. He was however forced out on a grounder to short by Novelo. Jake Flowe, playing in this game because we expected lefty opposition on the weekend, then lined out to first to end the game. 3-2 Bayhawks. Monck 2-4; Spicer 1-2, BB;

Raccoons (40-61) vs. Aces (42-58) – July 30-August 1, 2066

Final call for the Aces this year, with the season series even at three. Both teams were in last place in their divisions, in the bottom three in runs scored in the CL, and while the Aces were also tenth in runs allowed, they were only ten runs behind the eighth-place Critters. Vegas led the league in stolen bases, but sat bottoms in homers. Joe Hade was their only injury, but he was out for the year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (9-6, 3.33 ERA) vs. Chris Monahan (5-9, 5.14 ERA)
Evan Alvey (2-2, 3.79 ERA) vs. Ben Peterson (10-6, 5.14 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-9, 3.60 ERA) vs. Preston Young (4-5, 3.65 ERA)

The Aces had three southpaw starter, but had shuffled them so that the Coons would only face one of them, Peterson. Our next off day was not until August 12, but it was probably too early for extra off days for Rich Monck… assuming he survived the next 48 hours on the roster.

Game 1
LVA: LF Lorenzo – CF Marazzo – SS Vic. Morales – C A. Gomez – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B M. Davis – 2B Medford – RF Caceres – P Monahan
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Colter – 2B Caballero – P Walla

Walla fell behind in the first, walking Vic Lorenzo and getting two outs before surrendering the run on 2-out singles by Alexes Gomez and Alfaro. Mike Davis then grounded out to strand a pair. Jaden Wilson also drew a leadoff walk, but all that got him was getting doubled off by Corral. Walla kept leaking hits, six in total in just three innings, and allowed a Nate Marazzo single to begin the third inning before being taken over the fence by Alex Gomez for a 3-0 score. The Raccoons scored a run in the bottom 3rd on a Caballero double and Wilson’s RBI single, but couldn’t do anything with a 2-base throwing error by Daniel Medford that put Monck into scoring position in the fourth.

Walla never got it together in this start and was yanked with two outs in the fifth after giving up a double off the wall to Alfaro. Ubaldo Piteira and Arantes entered in a double switch that removed Caballero, but the left-hander conceded Walla’s fourth run on a 2-out single by left-handed hitter Mike Davis before Medford flew out to Colter. Portland got back to 4-2 with a Wilson triple and Corral single in the next-half inning before Lopez hit into the next inning-ending double play… Colter then singled home Starr with two outs in the bottom 6th to narrow the score further to 4-3. Spicer then batted for Piteira, but grounded out.

After a scoreless seventh by Yamauchi, the Aces brought ni David Gaither for the bottom 7th, and he kept disintegrating. Arantes landed a hit, and Gaither then immediately walked the bags full with nobody out. Lopez’ sac fly tied the score at four, and Monck hit a soft single that reloaded the bases for Starr, who singled to left and drove in one run as the Coons went station-to-station, 5-4. Novelo hit another sac fly before Javier Huichapa came in and retired Colter to end the inning. The Raccoons got two more outs from Yamauchi, in line for the W, before a second double-switch inserted Pedro Mendoza with the delirious thought of a 4-out save; Novelo was out of the game, Tallent joining the infield. Mendoza finished off the Aces in order then. 6-4 Critters. Wilson 2-3, 2 BB, 3B, RBI; Starr 1-2, 2 BB;

Game 2
LVA: LF Lorenzo – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Vic. Morales – C A. Gomez – 1B A. Alfaro – CF Marazzo – 2B M. Roberts – RF Caceres – P B. Peterson
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Arantes – 1B Starr – 2B Caballero – RF Tallent – P Alvey

Evan Alvey pitched for the first time in 13 days after the Raccoons hadn’t gotten him into a game in relief earlier, and had only pitched 3.1 innings in the entire month of July with the Pacifics before being traded to Portland; nevertheless he had already voiced his displeasure with the trade and was demanding another trade to get outta here. Solid foundation for a good work relationship!

Vic Lorenzo drew a leadoff walk off the rusty Alvey, but was hit by a batted ball of former Furball Vic Morales’ bat and was thus ruled out, while Morales got a 1-out single. Gomez also singled, but the inning ended with Alfaro flying out to Arantes in left. The Raccoons had three on and nobody out in the bottom 2nd as the 5-6-7 batters were all put on by Peterson. Randy Tallent hit a clean RBI single to center for the game’s first run, Alvey struck out, and Peterson walked in a run against Wilson, 2-0, before the inevitable inning-ending double play from Novelo to Koji Hakateyama. The lead was temporary and erased in the fourth when Alvey walked Morales and was taken deep by Alfaro, leveling the score at two.

The Raccoons were silent in the middle innings while Alvey soldiered on until there were two outs in the sixth inning and he allowed a hit to Gomez, then walked the bags full with Alfaro and Marazzo, and then was removed. Cullum Houdinied the Raccoons out of another bases-full situation, getting a fly from Mike Roberts to Randy Tallent to end the inning. Peterson also rejoined the bases-loaded fun club in the same inning, allowing singles to Monck and Arantes, then walked Starr, all with one out. While Caballero popped out on the infield – which at least was an interesting variant to the double play! – Peterson lost Tallent on balls to force in the go-ahead run. Corral batted for Cullum, but flew out to left, leaving three runners on base, and then Quinones and Yamauchi were upended quickly in the seventh inning. Singles by Jorge Caceres and Lorenzo off the former tied the game, and PH Phil LeVan then took the latter deep for a new 5-3 Aces lead.

While I muttered to Honeypaws that the bullpen would never be fixed and that it was all hopeless, Ubaldo Piteira pitched two scoreless innings to keep the Aces’ lead manageable, and the Raccoons went down meekly in the eighth. Right-hander Danny Zepeda had more walks then strikeouts in 42.2 innings this year, but got the save opportunity in the bottom of the ninth, with Tallent leading off the inning and singling to center. Spicer pinch-hit and flew out, but Zepeda walked Wilson and the winning run came to the plate. Novelo indeed ended the game – by jamming into another double play. 5-3 Aces. Arantes 2-4; Tallent 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Piteira 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

The trade deadline passed with no further action by the Raccoons ahead of the rubber game.

Game 3
LVA: LF Lorenzo – CF Marazzo – SS Vic. Morales – C A. Gomez – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B M. Davis – 2B M. Roberts – RF Caceres – P P. Young
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Colter – 2B Caballero – P Nakayama

Nobody reached in the first inning on Sunday before the Alexes got singles off Nakayama to begin the top 2nd, but Gomez hurt himself sliding into third base and walked off the field with the trainer. Ex-Coon Angel Perez would replace him; the pinch-runner scored on Davis’ 4-6-3 double play grounder for the game’s first run. Vegas got another run in the third when Preston Young singled and was forced out by Lorenzo, who then scored easily on Marazzo’s double to left-center. Nakayama walked Vic Morales, and Angel Perez singled, but Marazzo was thrown out at the plate by Colter to end the inning.

Nakayama then labored through another three innings while holding the 2-0 score and while the Raccoons were absolutely not taking place, drawing only 44 pitches from Young, less than HALF of what the Aces made Nakayama throw through six innings, and he was then hit for to begin the bottom 6th without landing a single strikeout in the game – except for striking out against Preston Young. Spicer singled in Nakayama’s place, but advanced on a wild pitch before being singled home by Corral, 2-1.

Colter hit a deep fly that was caught at the wall by Lorenzo in the seventh inning, denying the Raccoons their first homer of the week with time running out. Instead, an overdue bullpen meltdown occurred. McMahan had pitched a scoreless seventh, but walked switch-hitting Vic Lorenzo to begin the eighth and was replaced with Dover, who was doubled off by Marazzo and Perez, then walked Alfaro before being replaced with Pedro Mendoza, who got a 4-6-3 double play grounder from Davis to end the inning.

Bottom 8th, down 4-1, the Raccoons got walks drawn by Flowe and Wilson with one out. Corral whiffed, but Lopez dropped a shy single to left to load the bases ahead of Rich Monck, who had yet to extend his 13-game hitting streak, and the Raccoons could also kinda use a grand slam. He struck out in a full count, and that was kinda it for the day… and the hitting streak. Monck then added an error to all the other crap and helped Quinones allow an unearned run in the ninth inning before the ball went to Adam Edge.

Starr drew a leadoff walk in a 4-run hole, but was forced out by Joe Gardner, batting for Novelo. Gardner stole second, then scored on a double by Colter to center, but Colter also tweaked his calf and was run for with Tallent by necessity. The Aces went to Zepeda, who walked Caballero and set up Flowe, who had remained in the game instead of Ramon Lopez, as the tying run. He singled to fill the bases, with Tallent held in deference to Jorge Caceres’ killer arm in rightfield. Wilson now batted as the winning run. He took a ball, but Zepeda then made a mistake in the middle of the plate, and blew the save all in one go when Wilson crammed that ball into the rightfield corner, where it bounced awkwardly, and Caceres had to chase the ball halfway into centerfield while Wilson legged out a game-tying, bases-clearing triple…! (throws Honeypaws in the air!) Wheee, Coons!! The game wasn’t won, though, because that winning run still needed 90 feet. Corral was walked intentionally, and Arantes batted for Quinones – he was the last stick off the bench. He grounded to second base, there was no shot for two, and Vic Morales aggressively went home – and got Wilson thrown out at the plate…! Noooo…!! But here came Monck with another shot at extending his hitting streak…! – but he grounded out to Alfaro at third base, and the game went to extras.

The Raccoons were not exactly endowed with pitching anymore for the tenth inning (and the bench was empty). We ended up with Tallent in left, Gardner at short, and Cullum pitching in the tenth, and he retired the Aces in order with two strikeouts in the inning. Joel Starr then singled off Zepeda to begin the bottom 10th and then took off with Gardner swinging (and missing) to get in one of his two or three odd ninja steals a season – and Perez’ throw was late, and the Coons had the winning run in scoring position. It got chewy from here, as Gardner grounded out to left side, Tallent walked in a full count, and Caballero grounded out to advance the runners, bringing up Flowe with two outs, and Zepeda still tossing. He fell behind, 2-1, and then gave up a grounder up the middle that escaped between Morales and Roberts, and Jake Flowe walked off the Critters with a single…! 6-5 Furballs! Spicer (PH) 1-1; Flowe (PH) 2-2, BB, RBI;

None of the five pitchers the Raccoons employed in regulation got a strikeout on an Ace. Still managed to walk five, though.

In other news

July 26 – Dallas SP Alan Deakin (10-5, 3.99 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout with nine strikeouts against the Rebels, claiming a 4-0 win.
July 28 – The Condors acquire MR Dave Lister (3-5, 3.61 ERA) from the Warriors for no fewer than three prospects, including the ranked #101 Brady Mefford and #167 Zachary Wyld, both relief pitchers.
July 30 – Knights UT Carlos Fumero (.342, 2 HR, 44 RBI) misses the cycle by the double in a 4-hit, 5-RBI romp against the Indians, who fall to the Knights by a score of 13-3.
July 30 – The Capitals beat the Stars, 2-0 in ten innings, after neither team could be bothered to score in regulation.
July 30 – The Loggers trade SP Ignazio Flores (2-9, 4.21 ERA) to the Indians for a prospect.
August 1 – Falcons SP Goffredo Merlin (8-5, 4.10 ERA) 3-hits the Canadiens in a 7-0 shutout.

FL Player of the Week: LAP 1B Alejandro Olivares (.303, 13 HR, 52 RBI), clicking .500 (11-22) with 2 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 1B/3B Alex Alfaro (.290, 5 HR, 36 RBI), flicking .476 (10-21) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SFW OF Danny Perez (.326, 8 HR, 49 RBI), batting .326 with 3 HR, 17 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.362, 14 HR, 77 RBI), bashing .349 with 6 HR, 21 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: LAP SP Sergio Davila (11-5, 4.09 ERA), going 3-0 in 6 starts, with 2.31 ERA, 40 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Matt Taylor (14-4, 2.63 ERA), hurling for a 5-1 record with 2.81 ERA, 25 K
FL Rookie of the Month: SAC INF Alex Gonzilez (.270, 4 HR, 11 RBI), batting .348 with 4 HR, 8 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: BOS INF/RF Israel Diaz (.275, 0 HR, 20 RBI), making his ABL debut this month

Complaints and stuff

Despite a 4-2 week against meh competition we remain the worst team by record in the CL, but there’s four sub-.400 teams in the Federal League right now. That winning week was also not enough to prevent us from posting a (basically) .300 month, which somehow isn’t even close to our worst month this season.

Tony Gaytan keeps getting watched with great interest and will get two turns next week. He won his second ABL game on his 23rd birthday on Wednesday and survived the ensuing cake orgy, and I want to see more starts like Wednesday’s going forward. Despite his late start to the season, he is tied for third in the league in quality starts by a rookie (3), trailing only Denver’s Juan Ybarra (6) and the Condors’ Bronson Vanderven (5).

The Raccoons tried to trade for the #28 prospect, Boston’s AAA outfielder Manuel Garcia this week, but couldn’t get it done with just one of Rich Monck and Shoma Nakayama – the Titans wanted both, and not chip in anything else. I passed, and by then the trade deadline did so as well.

Jamie Colter is day-to-day with a tweaked calf, so Spicer will invariably be back in the lineup next week agains the Knights after being used in more homeopathic doses this week. After a weird single-city trip to Atlanta the Raccoons will return right back home to face the Titans and Loggers.

Fun Fact: Titans pitchers Jason Brenize, Mike Bell, and Matt Taylor are 1-2-3 in wins in the CL.

Yes, that rotation fascinates me. I wish we had a rotation like that.

Or a bullpen that can pet a kitten without having a fatal accident.