[Westheim]

Raccoons (62-81) vs. Titans (92-51) – September 14-16, 2066

The Raccoons entered this final set against the Titans with an 8-7 lead in the season series because baseball had funny ways of upsetting first-place teams, even if it was just mentally, and even though the Titans with their #5 offense and #1 pitching in the CL had a realistic chance of sealing the division even this week. They were, however on a really wretched run of 1-8 in their last nine games, beginning with losing the final two games of the series in Portland played two weekends ago. On the weekend, the Indians had swept them in a 4-game series in which the Titans scored only eight runs, seven of them in the series finale, which they lost anyway. There were some injuries, with Cesar Pena and Steve Humphries out on the Boston side, as well as a couple of fringe relievers.

Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (5-3, 4.44 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (9-9, 3.02 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (8-12, 3.75 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (18-4, 1.81 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-5, 4.03 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (5-6, 4.10 ERA)

Still only righty starters on that Boston team. At least Rich Monck had served his suspension and was back in the lineup to begin this week.

Game 1
BOS: SS I. Diaz – RF Joe Washington – CF Marcotte – 3B Z. Suggs – C Arviso – 2B Onelas – 1B I. Berrios – LF S. Leon – P B. Wallace
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – 2B Arantes – LF Spicer – SS Arredondo – P Alvey

For the first inning, both teams got a single from their #2 batter – Joe Washington and Jose Corral respectively – and then a double-play grounder to short from the #3 hitter, Eddie Marcotte and CL Player of the Week Ramon Lopez being the culprits. Rich Monck then cranked his 20th homer of the season to begin the bottom 2nd and open the scoring. The Raccoons saw Starr fly out after that before the 6-7-8 batters filled the bases with two walks and Spicer’s single up the middle. Alvey was batting with the bases loaded, at least until he was sent to first base for Gold Glover Jorge Arviso sticking his glove into his swing path and being called out for catcher’s interference, which pushed home Leon Arantes with a run. In reality, it was costlier, because it opened the floodgates: Jaden Wilson bashed a 2-run double through 40-year-old Zach Suggs, Corral hit an RBI single to right, and Lopez plated a run with a groundout before Monck’s fly to shallow left ended the inning, but the Raccoons had scored six runs. Joel Starr made it 7-0 with a leadoff homer to right in the third inning, and Arantes dropped in a single to chase Wallace from the game.

Eddie Marcotte, who had missed over 50 games on the DL this year, then rallied the troops for Boston. He got Alvey for a leadoff jack in the fourth inning, and for a 2-out, 3-run homer in the fifth after Alvey had lost two Titans on balls. Five innings were in fact all that the Coons got out of Alvey, his pitch count hitting 107 just getting through five innings. While the Titans got four innings of long relief from right-hander Jim Allen, the Raccoons went to Josh C for the sixth inning, where he retired the 6-7-8 batters in order, but the seventh was chaos again. Mendoza, Cullum, and McMahan cycled through pitching duties in that inning, allowed two hits, two walks, and two runs between them – both of which were charged to Mendoza, who allowed three runners, but only one was earned, because Joel Starr kindly also chipped in an error on Cullum’s watch. McMahan, always considerate to our guests, walked in a run with the bases loaded and two outs, facing Bobby Ellwood before Ivan Berrios grounded out to strand three more in a 7-6 game the Coons were desperately trying to lose. Top 8th, Monck mishandled Sergio Leon’s grounder to put the tying run on base with an error before McMahan walked Ricardo Alvarez. Israel Diaz grounded out, advancing the runners, before Chris Brown batted right-handedly for Washington. The Raccoons went to Jesse Dover, who got a comebacker that shooed back the runners and grabbed the second out, but then lost Marcotte on balls. And Brendan Snyder, too. And Jorge Arviso. And that forced in two runs and gave the Titans the lead. Ellwood popped out on the infield to end the misery. And that was before Soriano and Thomas ****** up another five runs (four earned thanks to a throwing error by Manny Arredondo, who was ALSO useless) in the ninth inning. 13-7 Titans. Corral 2-5, RBI; Monck 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Spicer 2-4;

The Raccoons went to the pretty unconventional step – in September! – to send Sean Thomas (0-0, 20.86 ERA) to the tannery. The 24-year-old had allowed 13 hits and 10 walks in 7.1 innings, and maybe it was him. He ended up on waivers even, and the Raccoons replaced him – with a sigh – with Rich Read. Which, y’know… yaaay…

Game 2
BOS: SS I. Diaz – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF Joe Washington – 2B Onelas – LF Ellwood – 3B Macomber – P Brenize
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Arantes – LF Early – SS Novelo – P Nakayama

Israel Diaz began the game drawing a walk and stealing second base and scored on productive outs by Joyner and Marcotte before Jorge Arviso popped one over the fence in left for a 2-0 score, so by now the Raccoons had conceded 15 unanswered runs in their last seven innings of tossing. That string ended two innings later in the bottom 3rd, which Marquise Early led off with a double. Novelo hit a shy single to put them on the corners, and after Nakayama did nada, Jaden Wilson dropped a single into shallow center to get Early across. Corral hit an infield single to load the bags, but Lopez popped out to shallow left. Monck with two outs hit a soft roller that died between the mound and third base, but Phil Macomber had played back and Jason Brenize was falling to the other side, and that ALSO became an infield single and tied the game at two! Starr grounded out sharply to Diaz, though, leaving three runners stranded.

Something felt off about Brenize, too, as he came in whiffing 232 batters in 214.1 innings, and through five innings here he struck out NOBODY. He definitely wasn’t on his game, but outside of that wretched third inning he didn’t allow any base hits to the Critters, either, until Joel Starr socked a 2-out double to center in the sixth inning. Arantes hit a soft single, Starr holding at third base, and then Marquise Early, who mindbogglingly had hit a homer off Brenize in the previous series in Boston, rammed a 2-run double off the wall in left to break the 2-2 tie in the Raccoons’ favor! Brenize finished that inning against the bottom of the order, but looked thoroughly disgusted with himself and was crowded by his manager, coaches, and trainer between innings, as they tried to find out what the **** was wrong with him. In any case, Zach Suggs hit for him, but struck out to leave Ellwood on second base in the top 7th, as Nakayama kept on trucking to the stretch, but also hit triple digit pitches by then and didn’t return afterwards.

A Wilson double and Corral’s RBI single extended the score to 5-2 in the bottom 7th. Marcos Arellano pinch-hit for Starr against the left-hander Willie Mendoza in the inning and singled, turning that batting average around just before it could slam into the .100 mark. The Raccoons then tried to get outs from Jorge Quinones, a foolish proposition that netted them a walk to Diaz and a 2-run homer by Marcotte, his third in the series and 16th on the year. The Raccoons answered with a Novelo double and Wilson’s 2-out RBI single in the bottom 8th, giving a 6-4 lead to… (blows) … all the half-decent relievers had been roughed up on Tuesday, so we went to Josh Carrington with the save opportunity, facing the bottom of the order starting with Marcos Onelas, He retired the Titans in order, even though Onelas and Macomber both hit long fly balls for outs. Ellwood whiffed in between them. 6-4 Coons. Wilson 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Corral 2-5, RBI; Arellano (PH) 1-1; Early 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-3, BB, 2B; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (9-12);

The Raccoons had now beaten Jason Brenize in consecutive games and were thus KINGS OF THE WORLD! Hah!!

The difference was that ten days earlier Brenize had still rung up 13 Coons and had given up only three hits, two of them homers. This time he was periodically very hittable and struck out NOBODY.

Game 3
BOS: SS I. Diaz – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF Joe Washington – LF A. Lee – 2B Onelas – 3B Macomber – P Glaude
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Colter – 3B Monck – 1B Tallent – C Flowe – 2B Arantes – SS Novelo – P Gaytan

Pitchers had a good day at the plate as Tony Gaytan hit a shy single with two outs in the bottom 2nd that moved Arantes from second to third where he was left when Wilson flew out to end the inning, and then Will Glaude drew a leadoff walk from Gaytan to begin the third inning, and scored on Joyner’s homer to center that put the first two runs on the board. Glaude led off again in the fifth and hit a single off Gaytan, who, when he was not facing the pitcher, was almost pitching a halfway decent game. That time Diaz forced out Glaude with a grounder, while with two outs in the inning, Gaytan hit a snag and walked Marcotte, balked, and walked Arviso to fill the bases. Joe Washington then flew out to Colter on the first pitch he saw, stranding the whole complement on base. Randy Tallent had shortened the score to 2-1 with a fourth-inning home run, but in the fifth Corral singled and Monck doubled, but that wasn’t good enough for a run as the pair was now stranded by Tallent’s groundout.

Gaytan then washed out in the sixth inning, walking Onelas before arriving at the pitcher’s spot with two outs. This time he got a grounder from Glaude to Arantes… but Arantes threw the ball away and the Titans scored an unearned run. Gaytan was mentally done with the inning, walked the bags full, and then was replaced with Cullum against Marcotte, who cranked his fourth homer of the series in grand slam fashion. The three extra runs on Gaytan were unearned, but Cullum’s was earned for the homer. The slam also basically ended the game, since the Raccoons had the air sucked right out of them. Glaude went seven without much trouble, and it wasn’t until the ninth inning that the Critters scored a confused and unearned consolation run that involved a pinch-hit double by John Bentley, a balk, and an error by Diaz to come together. 7-2 Titans. Monck 3-5, 2B; Arredondo (PH) 1-1; Bentley (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Raccoons (63-83) vs. Bayhawks (74-72) – September 17-19, 2066

The Bayhawks were second in the South, but eight games out and without any real hope at this point with just 16 games to play. They were third in runs scored, but also allowed the third-most runs. Their run differential was -11, while the Raccoons were again approaching -200, being just five runs shy right now. Infielder Chad O’Donnell was the only injury for the Bayhawks. The season series was even at three.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (8-8, 3.36 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (9-12, 3.84 ERA)
Nick Walla (11-9, 3.81 ERA) vs. Jon Mendosa (10-9, 5.74 ERA)
Evan Alvey (5-3, 4.61 ERA) vs. Vince Vandiver (9-2, 3.35 ERA)

Again we would only face right-handed starting pitchers.

Game 1
SFB: RF J. Paez – CF J. Ward – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – 1B Navarre – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 3B Harvey – P Egley
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 2B Arredondo – P Sanchez

Sanchez faced an all-right-handed lineup, which didn’t impress him initially, until he allowed a single to Bill Harvey in the third inning and then a 2-out RBI triple to Juan Paez when the lineup flipped over. Jake Ward then tied the game with a single, erasing the two sac flies the Raccoons had gotten from Monck and Wilson in their first two batting innings. The Raccoons regained the lead with a solo homer by Joel Starr, his 15th on the year, in the bottom 3rd, while the fourth saw 2-out singles from Wilson and Corral, but then a heroic dive by Ward for a liner to center hit by Ramon Lopez. He made the catch, left a deep brown scar in the outfield grass, but the inning ended and the runners were stranded.

Throughout the middle innings, the Bayhawks eagerly made contact against Sanchez, for whom strikeouts were not in the cards except against the bottom of the lineup, but couldn’t get the balls to fall in and so only made lots of quick outs, which got Sanchez rather briskly through eight innings. Along the way, Corral hit another homer to right, extending the lead to 4-2, which it still was when Sanchez’ spot came up with two down in the bottom 8th and Spicer on second base. Arantes batted against lefty Bob West and dropped an RBI single into center. Jaden Wilson hit another single, but Corral grounded out to third base to end the inning and keep the score where a save was on offer for Jesse Dover. He turned away the 3-4-5 batters in order and quickly. 5-2 Raccoons. Wilson 2-4, BB, RBI; Corral 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Arredondo 2-4; Arantes (PH) 1-1, RBI; Sanchez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (9-8);

The Coons added another arm with Cruz Madrid, whose rehab chances in AAA ran out when that season ended on Friday. To make room on the 40-man roster, Applecore was put on waivers and DFA’ed.

Game 2
SFB: RF J. Paez – CF J. Ward – LF Streng – 1B Navarre – 3B D. Sandoval – C Haynes – 2B Jer. White – SS Harvey – P J. Mendosa
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 2B Arredondo – P Walla

Scoring started quickly after Nick Walla retired the Baybirds in order to begin the Saturday game when Wilson walked and Corral peppered a homer to right-center for a 2-0 lead. Lopez hit another single, but the Raccoons then made three straight outs, while the Baybirds got a run on three singles by Dan Sandoval, Chris Haynes, and Bill Harvey in the top 2nd. Mendosa struck out to leave runners on the corners.

For the next three innings, the Baybirds would get a single off Walla in each go, but never made it past first base with that runner, while about the most offense on the Critters’ side was Ramon Lopez getting hit by a pitch. Walla lost Ian Streng in a full count to begin the sixth inning, but struck out Nate Navarre and then started a 1-6-3 double play on a grounder by Dan Sandoval to bugger out of the inning. Novelo hit a single in the bottom 6th, but was left on base. Harvey’s 2-out double to right in the seventh created some noise, but the Bayhawks didn’t bat for Mendosa, and the made the last out to Novelo.

Walla got into the eighth, where Juan Paez hit a leadoff single to center, putting the tying run on base yet again. Ward’s groundout was the last action for Walla, Cullum replacing him against the 33 homers in the 3-4 spots, giving up a single to Ian Streng (13 bombs) before Nate Navarre (20) hit the first pitch he got to left. Spicer made the catch, Paez dashed for home plate on the play, and – he was thrown out!! Spicer kept the lead together, and the Coons remained with Cullum to begin the ninth inning after Mendosa turned them away in 1-2-3 fashion in the bottom of the eighth. Sandoval flew out to right, Haynes sent Wilson back to make a catch in deep center, and Jeremy White grounded out to end the game. 2-1 Blighters. Corral 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Arredondo 1-2, BB; Walla 7.1 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (12-9); Cullum 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (5);

Game 3
SFB: RF J. Paez – CF J. Ward – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Haynes – SS Yniguez – 1B Jer. White – 3B Harvey – P Vandiver
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Colter – SS Novelo – 2B Arredondo – P Alvey

Alvey didn’t seem to gel with the right-handed lineup as much as the others, and Armando Montoya doubled home a run against him right in the first inning, but the Raccoons had the bases walked full by Vandiver between their first four batters in the bottom 1st, and Joel Starr launched a homer to right to leave a dent in the scoreboard – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!

Not that this fixed Alvey and his tendency to give up loud contact himself. Montoya was back at the dish with Ward on second and two outs in the third inning and struck a triple to center, narrowing the score to 4-2 before being left on base when Haynes grounded out to second. Adan Yniguez and Jeremy White were on base in the fourth inning and Alvey took forever to ache his way around those two runners to get out of the inning unharmed, and it would be another short outing for him…

The Raccoons didn’t get another runner on base until Novelo hit a single in the fourth inning. Arredondo added another single by Yniguez, but Alvey then popped out to end the inning, then went on to put Streng on base and give up a homer to Montoya to tie the score at four. This was the 300th career homer of the 35-year-old Montoya, and it also put Armando Montoya a single away from the cycle with four innings to spare, and the Raccoons were back to the drawing board, Rich Read replacing Alvey with the lead already blown. Read walked the bags full with the only three batters he faced before being disposed of, and Yamauchi struck out Harvey and got a fly to Colter from John Parrish, batting for Vandiver, to strand all those stupid runners and keep the game tied. Yamauchi also did the sixth, while Roberto Mendez, right-hander, was also in his second inning of work in the bottom 6th. Monck and Starr clipped singles, and Colter drew a walk to make it three on, nobody out. Novelo cramped into a 5-6 double play, but at least got Monck home with the go-ahead run…

Montoya led off the seventh inning against Josh C, who got him to 0-2 before allowing a grounder to the left side. Novelo dove and contained the bouncer, but had no play, and Montoya got the cycle on an infield single…! Carrington went on to get two outs before giving up a game-tying double to Jeremy White. He instead got in line for the win when Jaden Wilson got on base and Ramon Lopez fired a homer to left against Zachariah Alldred in the bottom 7th, 7-5 now. Monck narrowly missed another homer right afterwards, doubling on the next pitch, but he was left on base when Starr flew out to Ward afterwards. Cruz Madrid then made his first ABL appearance of the year. Missing five months of the season on the DL, he had pitched four scoreless innings on rehab and now added a scoreless eighth, allowing a single to Ward with two outs but nothing else.

Montoya led off another inning in the ninth and reached again facing Dover, but this time on a 2-base throwing error by Rich Monck… Haynes grounded out before Nate Navarre singled home the unearned run, 7-6. When Dover walked PH Jeff Yates and was taken deep by Dan Sandoval, those runs were earned, and he was yanked afterwards. McMahan finished the inning instead, while the Raccoons got a leadoff single from Ryan Bonner in the #9 spot to bring the tying run to the plate against Jose Salazar in the bottom 9th. Wilson and Corral passed on the opportunity, and that brought up … oh… Arantes. Convinced of victory looming, the Coons had pinch-hit with Flowe in the bottom 8th and had left him in the game over Ramon Lopez, whose spot was now occupied by an infielder – but an infielder that singled up the middle to get the runner home, and now Rich Monck came to the dish was the winning run…! He also grounded out to Montoya. 9-8 Bayhawks. Arantes 1-1, RBI; Monck 2-4, 2B; Starr 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Yamauchi 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

September 13 – A solo home run by WAS 3B/SS Danny Miller (.257, 14 HR, 56 RBI) is enough to beat the Miners, 1-0.
September 15 – TOP SP Coby Strutz (6-14, 4.33 ERA) 2-hits the Cyclones and strikes out eight batters in a 3-0 shutout.
September 15 – DEN SP Juan Ybarra (6-9, 3.67 ERA) and two relievers pitch a combined 1-hitter against the Pacifics for a 6-1 win. The sole Pacifics knock is a second-inning home run by LAP 3B/2B David McFarlane (.229, 7 HR, 55 RBI).
September 15 – The Blue Sox beat the Rebels, 6-4 in 14 innings.
September 16 – The Stars beat the Wolves, 3-2, to tie down the FL West with 16 games to spare.
September 16 – Sacramento’s Carlos Torres (8-7, 4.21 ERA) 2-hits the Warriors with 11 strikeouts for a 4-0 shutout.
September 17 – LAP SP Joel Luera (8-5, 3.16 ERA) is done for the year with a sore shoulder requiring him to be shut down.
September 18 – Visiting VAN SP/MR Dallas Samson (11-5, 3.76 ERA) drills OCT RF/LF Tony Rodriquez (.271, 1 HR, 32 RBI) with the bases loaded to give the Thunder a 10-inning, 5-4 walkoff win.
September 18 – The Aces beat the Titans, 12-4, on the strength of an 11-run fourth inning.
September 19 – Atlanta routs Milwaukee, 15-3, also scoring 11 runs in the fifth inning.
September 19 – The Indians beat the Falcons, 4-3 in 14 innings.
September 19 – The Gold Sox out-hit the Buffaloes, 13-5, but lose the game, 6-5. The Buffaloes make up the difference with nine walks issued by Denver pitching.

FL Player of the Week: NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.264, 35 HR, 91 RBI), socking .469 (15-32) with 5 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS OF Eddie Marcotte (.306, 19 HR, 73 RBI), raking .524 (11-21) with 6 HR, 16 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We consider using Vinny Morales to take Alvey’s remaining starts, because Alvey isn’t showing anything we want to see, and maybe Morales has something left on the tail end of the season. He’s not necessarily in the conversation for a roster spot come April, but it wouldn’t take a lot to improve on his earlier showcases…

Miracle of miracles, Sean Thomas cleared waivers and was assigned back to AAA.

Stolen base race, because we don’t have anything else to watch once again, and here Malcolm Spicer was now four bags clear of Vic Lorenzo and Bryant Box. Here was a 22-year-old that might conceivably win his second stolen base title in two full seasons, had batted .280 each time, and somehow all the schmart metrics (side eye to Cristiano Carmona) claimed that he was useless and below replacement level. Make it make sense!

Three more home games remaining against the Thunder, then one final day off, and a 10-game slog through Elk City, New York, and Indy to wipe up this mess.

Fun Fact: Armando Montoya (.294, 23 HR, 104 RBI) had the third Bayhawks cycle in this decade on Sunday.

Grant Anker and Jonathan Echols previously did the honors, against the Loggers and Knights, respectively. Neither of them also hit their 300th homer in the same game they cycled in, though.

A career Bayhawk with a healthy $56M in career earnings, Montoya had been the CL Rookie of the Year in 2053, and since then had won a ring with San Fran in 2061, and had collected six Platinum Sticks and five All Star nominations. He had led the league in hits and doubles once, and in triples and RBI’s twice each, but never in home runs, despite hitting in the high 20s four times in his career – and he was on 23 this season, so power definitely was still part of his game, even though his defense and his health record were spotty these days, and the speed had gone a good while ago.

Nevertheless, Montoya was at .287/.345/.482 for his career, with 2,282 hits, 449 doubles, 101 triples, 300 homers, 1,321 RBI, and 217 stolen bases.