[Westheim]

Raccoons (49-68) vs. Cyclones (64-53) – August 17-19, 2066

I didn’t know a lot of things, but I knew that these were the final games against a Federal League opponent this year… Cincy had won six games in a row and was second in runs scored and third in runs allowed in the Federal League. They had a good team – but they were 11 1/2 games behind the Blue Sox and it didn’t look like they were gonna catch up anymore. These teams had played the last two years as well, the Coons both times winning two of three games. The Raccoons had in fact won the last FIVE series from the Cyclones, but that streak was in some danger now.

Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (4-2, 3.42 ERA) vs. Blake Anderson (8-9, 4.24 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-10, 3.90 ERA) vs. Sean Sweeton (13-8, 3.03 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (2-3, 3.99 ERA) vs. A.C. Stebbins (10-6, 3.60 ERA)

Sweeton, who was 40 years old at this point, had of course had some nice years with the Critters, and Stebbins was the only southpaw coming up here.

Game 1
CIN: SS J. Munoz – RF F. Cruz – 3B D. Mendoza – LF M. Avila – C J. Contreras – CF Valencia – 2B J. Hernandez – 1B D. Baker – P B. Anderson
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – C Lopez – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – 3B Colter – SS Novelo – CF Matas – P Alvey

Fernando Cruz hit his first homer of the season (in the majors; he had five in AAA) as the second batter of the game, putting the Cyclones up 1-0. Corral answered with a leadoff double for the Critters in the bottom 1st, but three poor outs stranded him on third base. In turn, Alvey drilled Jonathan Contreras and Jordan Hernandez in the second inning and was battered by Dallas Baker with a 2-run double off the wall, which he probably deserved at this point. Corral hit another double his second time up, but nobody besides him reached base in the first three innings.

Alvey pitched five innings in the 3-0 game before being chased by rain and we sat with our wet fur through another 1:15 rain delay. Anderson returned after the delay to finish five innings himself and qualify for the W. The Coons got a sixth inning from Yamauchi in 1-2-3 fashion before Piteira took over and allowed a leadoff double to Baker. He then got two outs from Mario Padilla and Jorge Munoz, then got collected by Luis Silva after shaking out his arm in a weird way. Cruz then doubled home the runner against Pedro Mendoza, 4-0, and big bopper Roberto Soto came off the bench and socked his 25th homer of the year off Mendoza in the eighth inning, a solo job to right that was outta here just on sound off the bat alone. The Raccoons never came even close to producing such a loud sound – and in fact they never got a base hit against Anderson and three relievers after the second Corral double in the third inning. 5-0 Cyclones. Corral 2-4, 2 2B;

Game 2
CIN: SS J. Munoz – LF M. Avila – CF F. Cruz – RF R. Soto – 3B D. Baker – 1B S. Jordan – C Heath – 2B D. Mendoza – P Sweeton
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – C Flowe – 2B Arantes – CF Tallent – P Nakayama

Another game, another second-batter home run, this time by Melvin Avila. Cruz then doubled, but was left on base; however, the Cyclones would eat up Nakayama in a terrible third inning, in which Jorge Munoz first grounded out, but then the bags filled up with 1-out walks to Avila and Soto around a Cruz single on 0-2, and then runs scored on a passed ball, a Baker sac fly, and – after Steve Jordan walked – on singles by Josh Heath and Diego Mendoza, cranking the score up to 5-0 before Sweeton ended the inning by grounding out.

The Raccoons had a Tallent double the first time through, and a Jamie Colter double to begin the fourth inning. The latter run came around to score – (claps his paws together excitedly for all the offense!) – on a Starr grounder and Monck’s sac fly to center, 5-1. That run was put back on the board by Heath with a solo homer off Nakayama in the fifth, which was the starter’s last inning. And the gap wasn’t getting any closer from there; Quinones had a scoreless sixth before allowing a single to Steve Jordan in the seventh, and that run was surrendered by Cullum by serving up a double to Mendoza, 7-1.

Bottom 7th, and the bases filled up, even though it was in unearned fashion and with two outs as Sweeton walked Jake Flowe, Arantes hit a single, and then Tallent reached on an error by Baker. Ramon Lopez batted for Cullum and slapped a clean RBI single to shallow left for a run, but Corral then popped out to Jordan behind first base and the inning ended. Again the Cyclones immediately answered with another run, this time against Pedro Mendoza, who also didn’t seem like he could get anybody out. Cruz doubled home Munoz to make it 8-2. Sweeton continued into the ninth inning, where Spicer batted for Novelo to begin the inning and was brushed near the belly by an inside pitch. Spicer stole second base… but then was stranded by Flowe, Arantes, and Matas, as Sweeton finished a 114-pitch, complete-game 5-hitter, which wasn’t terrible at age 40! … 8-2 Cyclones. Lopez (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Raccoons remained an arm short for the final game of the series, as Piteira remained undiagnosed.

But at least Maud baked muffins! (dunks a muffin into a bowl with Capt’n Coma)

Game 3
CIN: SS J. Munoz – LF M. Avila – CF F. Cruz – RF R. Soto – 3B D. Baker – 1B S. Jordan – C Heath – 2B J. Hernandez – P Stebbins
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Arantes – 1B Caballero – 2B Gardner – CF Tallent – P Gaytan

Again the second hitter mashed a homer – but this time the second hitter from the bottom, #8 Jordan Hernandez, and it counted for two with Dallas Baker on base and two outs, as the Cyclones took yet another lead on the hapless Coons. That 2-spot made me way less angry than the one Gaytan allowed in the fourth inning, when he issued two walks and then the runners scored with two outs, one by one, on a Hernandez single and then a wild pitch… It wasn’t all bad about Gaytan in this game, f.e. he struck out seven batters in five innings, and for the first time this week the Raccoons starter got somebody out in the sixth! …and then he allowed another 2-run homer to Josh Heath with one out and was finally chased from the 6-1 game, the only Coons run comng in the bottom 5th on a Gardner single and Tallent RBI double. Another run came home in the bottom 6th as Corral led off with another double and scored on Lopez’ single to right-center, but that still left the team behind by a slam.

And again, that only got worse. Melvin Avila took Yamauchi deep for a solo homer in the seventh, 7-2, and when Tallent hit a 2-out single and tried to score from first base on a Spicer double to left in the home half of that inning, he was thrown out at the plate by Avila. Novelo and Lopez reached base in the bottom 8th before righty Pedro Valentin replaced Stebbins with two outs, right as the Coons arrived at Cullum in the #5 hole. Joel Starr came off the bench and struck a liner to center, but Cruz caught that on the slide and the Raccoons were turned away again. Surrendering, we then put Novelo on the hill for the ninth, and somehow he was able to get three outs in order when nobody else ******* could on this team…!! 7-2 Cyclones. Lopez 2-3, BB, RBI; Gardner 2-4; Tallent 2-4, 2B, RBI; Spicer 2-2, 2B;

Welp.

On top of everything else, add injury: Ubaldo Piteira was found to have a torn UCL, and was headed for Tommy John surgery. So he was off to the 60-day DL, and the Raccoons tried to paw through the detritus in AAA and brought up Paul Barton, who was currently on rehab in AAA for a meniscus he had torn in May while with the Critters.

Raccoons (49-71) vs. Crusaders (70-50) – August 20-22, 2066

The Raccoons were 3-8 against the Crusaders this year, with some box scores that deserved an R rating. New York had a 4-game winning streak (but they were still ten games behind Boston), and the Raccoons had now dropped seven in a row without making it seem like a major achievement. The Crusaders scored the second-most runs in our league, and also allowed the second-fewest runs, with a +143 run differential. The Coons were racing for -200, and were just 25 runs away from that, which sounded totally doable in a 3-game set now. The Crusaders also had injuries, mostly around the fringes on the roster, though. Ryan Spehar, Jose Ambriz, Victor Reyna, and relievers Ryan Harmer and Jarod Nesbit were all either on the DL or battling nagging injuries while hanging onto their roster spot.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (6-8, 3.77 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (11-4, 3.03 ERA)
Nick Walla (10-7, 3.41 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (7-6, 4.70 ERA)
Evan Alvey (4-3, 3.58 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (9-7, 3.16 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up in this series.

And beatings.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – RF Takeuchi – 3B B. Wilken – LF Menchaca – SS Blackshire – 1B Jose Alvarez – C Norwood – P R. Montoya
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Arantes – CF Matas – P J. Sanchez

For the fourth time in four attempts this week, the scoring started on a homer surrendered by the Raccoons’ starter, this time a solo piece to Eddie Menchaca in the second inning. While I found it worse to then give up a leadoff double to Ricardo Montoya in the third inning, at least Sanchez buckled down and kept that runner on base. The next time Montoya was up in the briskly proceeding game – thanks to one team just passing on offense – he found himself in a 3-0 game leading off the fifth inning. He then chomped a fat pitch into play, a bouncer to third base that Monck threw away for two bases. (facepaws) Omar Sanchez, he of the recently 3,000 base hits, and Kazuhide Takeuchi, last week’s CL Player of the Week, then hit singles to get the unearned runner home, and another unearned run scored on Ben Wilken’s RBI groundout, 3-0. Menchaca then grounded out to Leon Arantes to end the inning.

Bottom 6th, Colter led off with a single, and Ramon Lopez then pounded a ball over the wall to shorten the deficit to 3-2, which somehow felt like being reborn after a whole midweek series of falling behind quickly and then just continuing to lose until it was over. Monck then singled, but was left on first base until the end of the inning. Sanchez held the score through another inning despite allowing another hit to Montoya, which confused the crap out of me. Spicer batted for him in the bottom 7th, singled, was caught stealing, and then Corral homered to tie the game. Brilliant!

The Raccoons’ pen answered by giving up a 3-run eighth between three different relievers, which was … (buries face in paws again) McMahan was in first, allowing a 1-out single to Dave Blackshire, who pulled something and limped off the field, replaced by Willie Villafan, and then McMahan lost PH Eric Whitlow on balls in a ull count. Barton came in, struck out Zachary Norwood, then was replaced with Quinones when Cesar Santiago pinch-hit in the #9 hole, lining up a lot of lefty bats… to which Quinones served up three straight 2-out, RBI singles before Takeuchi grounded out. Quinones remained in the game in the ninth, ****** the bags full, and gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to another left-handed batter, pinch-hitter Jared Allen. (pets Honeypaws, trying not to strangle innocent bystanders) To put the cherry on top, Duarte Damasceno then finished off the game for New York… 8-3 Crusaders. Colter 2-3, BB, 2B; Spicer (PH) 1-2; Sanchez 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-2;

Roster move on Saturday: Joe Gardner (.214, 0 HR, 4 RBI) ended up on waiers, and the Raccoons started the clock on 21-year-old natural-born New Yorker Brian Hills, the #58 pick from the 2064 draft, who was hitting .321/.408/.484 in 58 games since promotion to St. Pete.

Game 2
NYC: RF Jose Alvarez – 2B O. Sanchez – CF Box – LF Takeuchi – 3B B. Wilken – 1B J. Allen – C Norwood – SS N. Cross – P Kozloski
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Hills – 2B Novelo – CF Matas – P Walla

Good news! On Saturday the scoring did NOT start on a homer by the opposing team! …instead Walla got lit up by Alvarez, Sanchez, Box, and Takeuchi with a single, a double, and another two singles, and with the aid of a wild pitch surrendered three runs before Monck started a 5-4-3 double play on Ben Wilken to eventually nudge him out of the inning. The battering of Walla never stopped, and the Crusaders wasted a hit in the second before Takeuchi doubled home Omar Sanchez in the third inning, as they rapped Walla for seven hits inside of three innings, and took a 4-0 lead. Walla hit a single, the second base hit for the Critters, in the bottom 3rd, and together with Colter getting hit and Lopez walking, the bases filled up. Kozloski then lost Monck on balls as well, walking in a 2-out run, but Starr floated out to Takeuchi and the inning ended…

Hills struck out his first time up, but then hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, only to be immediately doubled off on Novelo’s grounder to short on the next pitch by Kozloski. Carlos Matas then ended an 0-for-15 string to begin his spotty big league season with a 2-out double to left and scored on another single by Walla. Corral also singled, and then Jamie Colter uncorked a 3-run homer to right, and suddenly the Raccoons were on top, 5-4! The Crusaders dropped Kozloski, while Walla continued into the fifth, but continued to get shellacked and gave up the lead on a Box single and another RBI double for Takeuchi. He was then done after five ****** innings.

Paul Barton pitched a scoreless sixth and then got in line for the W when the Raccoons whacked Crusaders righty Jason Fick around in the bottom 6th. Matas hit a single, reached third on a Spicer single, but Spicer was then caught stealing, and Corral walked and Colter hit the go-ahead single to center, 6-5. Lopez grounded sharply up the middle; Nigel Cross dove for the ball and contained it, but had no play, and the bases were full for Monck, who struck out in a full count, but Fick was finally torn up by Starr with a 2-out, 2-run double and replaced with another lefty, Ben Caldwell, who walked Hills, but then struck out Novelo, both in full counts.

Pedro Mendoza continued to get nobody out, especially left-handers, allowing leadoff singles to Alvarez and Sanchez in the top 7th, and surrendering both runs on a Takeuchi single (which made three singles by lefty hitters off him) and Wilken’s sac fly, narrowing the Raccoons’ lead right back down to 8-7 before Menchaca struck out. Yamauchi walked a pair in the eighth and looked highly clueless. When the Crusaders, who had the pitcher batting second at that point, arrived at that point and sent lefty Cesar Santiago to pinch-hit with two outs, the Raccoons called on McMahan, who had pitched two days in a row, gave up a fly to center, but Matas was ranging over and made the catch to end the inning.

Bottom 8th, “DD” Damasceno walked Colter leading off. Tallent pinch-ran for him, but Lopez popped out and Monck got nicked without him getting a jump, and the inning ended with whiffs by Starr and Hills, which gave Dover the ball and the 8-7 lead. Box singled sharply on an 0-2 pitch to begin the ninth, and Takeuchi dropped a wheezer behind Hills for another single. Wilken popped out to Novelo at second base, and Menchaca ran a 3-1 count before grounding sharply at Novelo, and the Raccoons ended the losing streak by turning a 4-6-3 double play. 8-7 Critters. Colter 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Lopez 2-4; Matas 2-4, 2B; Spicer (PH) 1-1;

Takeuchi (.314, 26 HR, 97 RBI) had five hits in the game, a double and four singles, and drove in 26 runs … at least that was how it felt. The box score said it was only three runs. (hisses at Cristiano) Damn intellectuals!!

Game 3
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – RF Takeuchi – 3B B. Wilken – LF Menchaca – SS Spehar – 1B Jose Alvarez – C Norwood – P Seiter
POR: RF Corral – LF Colter – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – SS Hills – CF Matas – P Alvey

As much as Takeuchi was raking, on Sunday he made a pretty gross throwing error in the first inning on the second of consecutive 2-out singles by Ramon Lopez and Rich Monck, that allowed Lopez to take another left turn at third base and score the game’s first (and unearned) run. Nothing great happened with Starr from there, but the Raccoons scored first for the first and only time this week…! The lead didn’t last long, since Alvy failed the bases full in the top 2nd and issued a 2-out wild pitch that plated Jose Alvarez with the tying run. Seiter and Box were stranded when Omar Sanchez struck out in a full count. Alvey then continued to achieve the dubious feat of hitting a triple without seeing your team score a run in the inning in the bottom 2nd; the heroics came with two outs and nobody on, but Corral apparently wasn’t interested and grounded out to first.

It hadn’t been Seiter’s best season by a wide margin, and this was far from his best start. He walked three Coons through four innings, then issued leadoff walks to Corral and Colter in the bottom 5th. Lopez struck out and Monck hit into a 1-6-3 double play to politely decline and let the old man live.

Top 6th, and Alvey put Menchaca on with a single, but Ryan Spehar – just off the stretcher – forced him out with a grounder. Alvarez walked, there was a wild pitch, then an intentional walk to Norwood to get Seiter to the dish with two outs – and then Alvey threw ANOTHER ******* RUN-SCORING WILD PITCH. Box was laughing so hard that he struck out to end the inning, but the Crusaders were now up 2-1, but the Raccoons also loaded the bases in the bottom 6th. Seiter walked Starr, Hills reached with an infield single, and Matas got on base on a Spehar error. Spicer batted for Alvey with three on and one out, grounded up the middle, and Sanchez got to it, but had only one out at second base on offer, while Starr scored with the tying (and unearned) run. Seiter then rung up Corral to exit the dicey inning.

Nobody else reached base until Seiter – who was still going on 120+ pitches – walked Hills with two outs in the bottom 8th. Matas dropped a dying quail single on the next pitch, and Jake Flowe batted for Cullum in the #9 hole, but the Crusaders still didn’t go to the pen, and why would they? Sanchez contained Flowe’s easy grounder, and the inning ended. In turn the ninth inning began with a gap triple in right-center for Jose Alvarez against Jesse Dover, but Santiago then struck out and another pinch-hitter, Mike Velazquez, hit a comebacker to Dover for the second out, with Alvarez hugging third base. Dover rung up Box to finish the inning without conceding the run from the leadoff triple and now the Coons had a chance to walk off against righty Dave Hyman. Corral grounded out, but Colter singled to center to put the winning run on base. Tallent pinch-ran for him again and stole second base before Lopez popped out. Rich Monck however had dinner reservations and ended the game with a single to left-center, Tallent coming around to score easily from second base on the play. 3-2 Critters! Monck 2-5, RBI;

In other news

August 16 – Dallas C/1B Jason Bothe (.280, 9 HR, 58 RBI), hits an RBI double in a 5-3 win against the Thunder to get his hitting streak to 20 games.
August 17 – Boston outfielder Steve Humphries (.295, 9 HR, 62 RBI) will miss the rest of the regular season with a quad tear, but there is hope to get him back for the playoffs.
August 17 – LAP SP Sergio Davila (12-6, 4.04 ERA) is out for the year with a torn triceps.
August 17 – The Crusaders beat the Capitals, 1-0 in 13 innings. 38-year-old New York corner outfielder Eric Whitlow (.286, 0 HR, 4 RBI) chops a walkoff single to end the game.
August 18 – CHA 1B Manny Rubin (.268, 19 HR, 84 RBI) strikes four hits, misses the cycle by a triple, and drives in five runs in a 17-7 blowout of the Wolves.
August 19 – The Wolves beat the Falcons, 2-0, but take 12 innings to do so.
August 20 – The hitting streak of Dallas C Jason Bothe (.276, 9 HR, 58 RBI) ends at 21 games with an 0-for-4 against the Pacifics, whom the Stars beat regardless, 8-7.
August 20 – In that same game, which goes 11 innings before Dallas prevails, LAP 1B Alejandro Olivares (.319, 15 HR, 62 RBI) clips five hits, including a homer and a double, and drives in four runs.
August 20 – DAL SP Alan Deakin (11-6, 4.06 ERA) is out for the season after coming down with a case of shoulder inflammation.
August 22 – While the Gold Sox-Warriors game is postponed, the remining five Federal League games all see the winner score double digits: the Cyclones beat the Caps, 10-7; the Rebs rush the Miners, 13-4; the Wolves also get 13 to beat the Stingers by 11; the Blue Sox thrash the Buffos, 14-2; and the Stars trump everybody with a 15-0 rout of the Pacifics, in which DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.334, 22 HR, 76 RBI) hits two homers and drives in eight runs.

FL Player of the Week: PIT 2B Roland Hood (.322, 13 HR, 66 RBI), batting .600 (15-25) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA 1B/3B Alex Alfaro (.310, 8 HR, 49 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 1 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Another casual 8-game losing streak in the books, what else is new? Somehow we’re still at .500 for this month.

There really is not much to say here except that we keep finding new 21-year-olds to throw into the woodchipper. Maybe Hills can hit something! Somebody’s gotta hit something at some point, right??

Monday is off, then three with the Elks, and then four with the Condors, with a double header on Friday, all at home. We might be looking at a spot start by Quinones there, although throwing the game by using Vinny Morales from AAA would also be possible. It’s at least likely that Morales will be in Portland as mobile reserve between games. And don’t count out Sensabaugh, we’re not done sucking the air out of this season yet!

Fun Fact: 28 years ago today, the Condors’ Alvin Zuazo hit for the cycle in an 18-1 riot against the Bayhawks.

Zuazo was a quietly reliable first baseman and occasional leftfielder for 16 seasons in the majors, of which the first six-and-a-half were spent with the Condors, starting in 2033. Posting above-average OPS values in ten full seasons and a 106 OPS+ for his career, Zuazo then moved frequently and eventually played for three FL West teams, then three CL North teams, and then another three teams all over, for a total of ten employers out of 24 franchises. Across all this time, he led the league in something once, hitting .280 with 22 homers and 117 RBI to lead the FL in the last category at age 36 with the 2046 Cyclones.

Overall for his career, Zuazo batted .270/.343/.393 with 1,703 hits, 133 homers, 792 RBI, and 158 stolen bases. He won a ring in his final productive season with the 2048 Stars, and won a Platinum Stick for his 2046 heroics.