It went up to 98... 
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Raccoons (9-9) @ Thunder (10-8) – April 26-28, 2067
The Thunder had beaten the Raccoons, 6-3, across their nine games in the 2066 season and were looking for more. They sat in first place despite the middling record, and were hoping their #9 offense would kick it into gear against the Critters. They had given up the third-fewest runs so far and had a +2 run differential.
Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-1, 3.15 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (2-0, 2.57 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-2, 7.71 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (3-1, 2.77 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-1, 3.62 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (2-2, 4.39 ERA)
We were expecting a southpaw in the Thursday series finale. Both teams were off on Monday.
Game 1
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Gaytan
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – LF Deisinger – RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – 3B R. Vargas – P J. Ortega
Tony Gaytan had only walked one batter in 20 innings to begin the season, but issued walks to the switch-hitting Coby Thore and catcher Martin Bohannon, and then a scratch single to Ian Stone that filled the bases with one down, but also struck out Jose Palominos, Jamie Deisinger, and Roberto Almanza to leave the bases loaded. Needless to say, that inning already took him over 30 pitches. Instead, the Critters ran up a score in the second inning, which began with Ortega plunking Monck on base. Dowsey doubled, and Novelo popped out, but the Coons made the board on a groundout by Mike Roberts that scored Monck from third base. Carlos Matas then popped his second homer of the season in two games, 3-0. Rich Monck hit another 2-run homer the next inning with Corral on base, and the fourth inning began with a solo homer to center from Pablo Novelo, and that marked the end point for Ortega in a 6-0 game. Roberts and Matas singled off Nick Leigh, but Gaytan’s bunt was bad and got Roberts forced out before Corral hit into a double play to end the inning.
So that put the focus on Gaytan, who now had to make for length. Almanza hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, but was forced out on a Daniel Richardson grounder, and Gaytan then picked Richardson off first base. Unfortunately he then seemed to completely lose it in the fifth inning, allowing a run on a single and three walks, Deisinger drawing a bases-loaded walk with two down to get the Thunder on the board and to further explode Gaytan’s pitch count to 90 at the end of five innings. In between in the top 5th, the Raccoons had scored an unearned run when Ramon Lopez singled, stole second, and scored on a 2-out error by Deisinger. The Coons got a quick sixth from Gaytan, but that would be all, wasting countless pitches on six walks in as many innings, while striking out four.
The Raccoons loaded them up in the seventh on Lopez and Starr singles and Dowsey grabbing a 1-out walk, but poor outs from their middle infielders meant that nobody scored in the inning. Colter and Corral reached base in the eighth inning when Lopez hit a 1-out double into the right-center gap. Colter scored from second, but Corral was held at third base. There he remained, thanks to a Starr pop and Monck grounding out. We then asked Holzmeister for two innings after Josh C had pitched a scoreless seventh. He got the Thunder in order on nine pitches in the eighth before the Portlanders loaded the bases again facing Erik Swain in the ninth. Dowsey walked, Novelo singled, Roberts walked, and there was nobody out. Matas hit into a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play before Colter socked a 2-run homer from the #9 spot. Swain put two more batters on base before getting yanked for another reliever, Raul Ontiveros, and the Raccoons then went back to Holzmeister, who gave up a leadoff double to Vince Goll, walked Thore, and then got a double play grounder from Bohannon. Palominos’ groundout ended the game. 11-1 Raccoons! Lopez 4-4, BB, RBI; Novelo 2-5, HR, RBI; Matas 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Colter (PH) 1-1, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;
Game 2
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Rios
OCT: RF Almanza – C Bohannon – 2B Archuleta – SS Palominos – LF Deisinger – CF Thore – 3B D. Richardson – 1B I. Stone – P Seiter
Offense on Wednesday was slow, as the Thunder got only one hit off Rios in the first five innings, although they also drew four walks, including Palominos and Deisinger to begin the fourth inning before they tumbled into a 6-4-3 double play hit by Coby Thore and Richardson popped out to leave the remaining runner at third base. The Raccoons were up 1-0 at that point since Ramon Lopez had singled home Matas in the third inning, but were on only four soft singles through five as well until Joel Starr went over the wall in right for a sixth-inning solo shot. The troublesome 4-5 hitters for the Thunder then got a pair of 2-out singles off Rios in the bottom 6th, going to the corners with the tying runs, but Thore faltered again and flew out to Corral to end the inning. Richardson hit a leadoff single in the seventh before being doubled off by Ian Stone, and Seiter hit a single with two outs and advanced on a wild pitch before the inning ended with Almanza’s grounder to short, and the Raccoons realizing that they were about to run out of luck with Rios and the bullpen should take over in the eighth inning. That didn’t necessarily make it better; Yamauchi put two Thunder on base in the bottom 8th, and was lifted for McMahan to face Thore with two outs, but McMahan gave up an RBI single to right. Richardson then grounded out to Monck, leaving the tying and go-ahead runs stranded. Dover came in for the ninth and nicked Vince Goll on base, but then wiggled his way out of the inning eventually… 2-1 Coons. Matas 2-3; Rios 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K, W (2-2);
Ben Seiter pitched a complete-game 5-hitter for the loss.
Game 3
POR: 2B Roberts – C Lopez – RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Arantes – 1B Starr – CF Tallent – LF Early – P Nakayama
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – LF Franks – 3B R. Vargas – P D. Baca
Roberts had an awkward .156/.333/.200 slash line with a .200 BABIP, so why not give him the chance to lead off with a lefty pitching for the Thunder? He reached on an error by Ricardo Vargas to begin the Thursday game, which didn’t help that batting average, and then was stranded at first base, which didn’t help with winning the game and sweeping the Thunder. In turn, Ian Stone doubled home Thore and Palominos in the bottom 1st, both of which reached on walks issued by Nakayama, who also came out and didn’t know which side was up… Starr reached on an error by Scott Franks, who dropped his fly to left, but was then doubled off by Tallent in the second inning.
The Coons’ next two base runners were Mike Roberts hitting singles in the third and sixth innings, and not getting advanced past second base either time, while Nakayama ran up a pitch count of 113 across seven innings. He gave up one more run on two hits in the sixth inning, getting buried 3-0 down, and it didn’t look like the Raccoons had a rally in them against the southpaw Baca. Monck batted for Nakayama in the eighth and singled, but was left on first base. Bob West had a 1-2-3 eighth in relief, but Swain did the same to Corral, Novelo, and Dowsey in the ninth, and the Raccoons had to leave town with two outta three. 3-0 Thunder. Roberts 2-4; Monck (PH) 1-1;
Raccoons (11-10) @ Canadiens (11-10) – April 29-May 1, 2067
The Raccoons had to finish the road trip with a threat of frostbite in a weekend set in Elk City. These two teams had split a 2-game set to begin the season, and the Elks were third in offense, but tenth in pitching for a -8 run differential. Matt Kilday was out with a bum knee and unlikely to play and stir up dust in this series. The Elks had the worst pen and the worst defense, but were stealing the second-most bases, while the Raccoons – unlikely as it might sound – entered the series tying for the CL lead in homers – and STILL scoring the fewest runs!!??
Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (0-0, 19.13 ERA) vs. Martyn Polaco (1-1, 3.48 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (1-2, 2.39 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (1-2, 7.20 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-1, 3.80 ERA) vs. Nate Freeman (1-2, 8.05 ERA)
Alvey took the spot start in the spot of Walla, who was still banhammered for the first two games of the series. The Elks had two southpaws lined up for the first two games, but had been off on Thursday and might be tempted to skip one of their two trouble children between Villegas and the right-handed Freeman. The next guy in line would be righty Ken Nielsen (2-1, 2.20 ERA).
Game 1
POR: 2B Roberts – CF Tallent – 1B Dowsey – C Lopez – 3B Monck – SS Arantes – LF Early – RF Colter – P Alvey
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – C Varner – LF D. Moore – 1B Whetstine – SS Barraza – P Polaco
The Coons grabbed a quick 1-0 lead on singles by Roberts and Ramon Lopez, who got the RBI, but Alvey also allowed two singles to Nick Vaughn and Roberto Lozada to put runners on the corners, and then conceded the tying run on Rick Atkins’ sac fly to left – which still shaved more than a full run off his ERA… It hardly got better from there. Dan Moore was on base in the second inning, and Vaughn hit an infield single in the third before Atkins whacked another drive, that one over the fence for a 3-1 Elks lead.
While Alvey was awful and tried to break every bone in his defenders’ bodies as they had to lay out to make catches, the Raccoons had Lopez and Monck singles in the fourth before Leon Arantes fell to .139 by hitting into an inning-sullying double play. Polaco then lost cohesion all at once in the fifth inning; after not walking a batter in four innings, he filled the bags with Colter, Roberts, and Tallent on a dozen balls. He did not recover from that – Dowsey ran a full **** and then bent out of the way of ball four well inside, forcing in a run and shortening the score to 3-2. Polaco was then torn up for good with a pair of 2-run knocks to center by both Lopez and Monck, and was yanked from the 6-3 game. Arantes singled off Dallas Samson, but Marquise Early and Jamie Colter went down and left a pair on base. To nobody’s surprise, Alvey would not get away with a W, since he didn’t make it through five from there, allowing singles to Carlos Castro, Vaughn, and Lozada in the bottom 5th, a run-scoring fielder’s choice to Atkins, and then a double to Steve Varner that parked the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with two outs. Carrington and Corral entered in a double switch for Colter and Alvey, and Dan Moore grounded out to Monck on two pitches. The score through five was 6-5 Coons.
Josh C would give the Coons three more outs in the sixth before McMahan got the ball against the top of the order. He got rid of the 1-2 batters in the seventh, but Lozada hit a single and the Coons sent Yamauchi and Starr in another double switch (Dowsey leaving), and now Atkins grounded out to end the inning. The Coons then scratched out an insurance run in the eighth as Robbie Lingard walked Arantes, who stole second base, and Starr, and allowed an RBI single to Corral. The top of the order then left a pair stranded, and upon Yamauchi’s return a Varner double to right and a Moore homer to left tied the game at seven anyway…
Two outs into the bottom 8th and with Tyler Chenette pinch-hitting from the left side, the Coons then made their third double switch, Tallent and Yamauchi leaving for Matas and Bob West. West rung up Chenette, and Matas and Monck made it to the corners in the ninth against Jon McGinley before Arantes popped out and Early struck out to leave the runners on base. Castro hit a leadoff double to center against West in the bottom 9th, giving the Elks a great chance to walk off but they then made three poor outs and sent the game to extras instead, where the Raccoons did nothing useful in the top of the tenth inning against McGinley, and then went to Holzmeister, who briskly lost the game allowing a single to Moore and a walkoff homer to Chad Whetstine… 9-7 Canadiens. Roberts 2-5, BB; Lopez 3-5, 3 RBI; Monck 3-5, 2 RBI;
Blech.
Also, we had now used almost the entire pen with the exception of Dover, all for nothing.
Game 2
POR: 2B Roberts – CF Tallent – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – C Aguilar – RF Arantes – P Musgrave
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P J. Villegas
The Coons went up 2-0 in the first on … nothing? Tallent and Dowsey were nicked by Villegas, Novelo reached on an error, Villegas walked in a run against Starr, and plated another with a wild pitch before walking Aguilar and then finally getting the last out on Arantes’ fly to Lozada. No base hits, just two awkward runs. The Coons did not get a base hit until the fourth when Joel Starr hit a solo jack to make it 3-0 in support of Musgrave, who remained reliant on the defense behind him, but at least had yet to give up a run. All seemed well for the veteran until Moore opened the bottom 5th with a double to left and he lost Roberto Barraza on balls. The Elks bunted the runners into scoring position with the pitcher Villegas, and they were both driven in on a single by Carlos Castro to narrow the score to 3-2. At least Castro remained on base with groundouts by Vaughn and Lozada…
Musgrave reached exactly 100 pitches through six busy innings and then was hit for to no effect with Jose Corral in the seventh as the Raccoons were on just three hits by the stretch. The Coons tried to cover nine outs with Holzmeister facing the 7-8 batters, then McMahan for most of the lefty sticks in sight, and then Dover for more than three outs to close it out, but Holzmeister allowed 0-2 singles to both Moore and Barraza before being kicked off the hill again, and McMahan conceded the lead on Chenette’s sac fly to center. Castro whiffed and Barraza was caught stealing, before Vaughn led off the eighth with a single off McMahan, but was doubled up 4-6-3 style by Lozada. However, without the lead, the Coons now went to Josh C in a double switch that ended Dowsey’s day in favor of Matas, who went to centerfield, with Tallent to left. Atkins grounded out on one pitch to end the bottom 8th, while both McGinley and Carrington exchanged 1-2-3 ninths to send another game in extras. McGinley pitched a tenth inning and six outs for back-to-back days (!), getting around Matas reaching on an error by Barraza in the top 10th, while Carrington gave up a leadoff double to Barraza in the bottom 10th. Bob West was sent in for the third straight day, and got groundouts from Andy Friend, the winning run going to third base, and then Castro, the winning run going for home – but Novelo pounced and fired home and Barraza was out!! Vaughn grounded out to Starr, and the game continued, Portland still on three base hits after ten frames.
Lingard faced the Coons in the 11th. Colter led off batting for West in the #3 spot and clipped a soft single to right, followed by Monck cracking a double down the rightfield line, but Lozada cut the ball off and Colter was anchored at third base. Novelo came through with an RBI single right over the second base bag, though, and the Raccoons took the lead…! Starr lined out, but Justin Aguilar lobbed another RBI single over Vaughn. Ramon Lopez batted for Arantes against new righty Dallas Samson, and hit a sac fly to left. Matas and Roberts hit 2-out singles to drive home Aguilar, and Samson lost Tallent on balls to fill the bags with two outs for Colter, who got a second chance, but grounded out to short to end the inning. Dover took the ball with the 4-run lead, kept the commotion in the bottom 11th to a minimum on a Whetstine single with two outs, and otherwise evened the series. 7-3 Critters! Colter (PH) 1-2; Novelo 2-5, 2B, RBI;
That was fun, but how about a nice regulation win with a good, long outing by Nick Walla, fresh out of the slammer…?
Game 3
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Walla
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P N. Freeman
The Coons went up 1-0 in the first in the rubber game, this time actually doing something for their run, which came together on singles by Lopez, Monck, and Dowsey before Novelo flew out to Lozada on the warning track to leave two on. That gave the ball to Walla, who got three long outs in the first, and didn’t allow a hit the first time through, except for nicking Whetstine in the second and walking Barraza in the third inning. In fact, the first hit that Walla was involved in was his RBI single that plated Matas from second base after his own single and stolen base in the fourth inning, and that made it a 2-0 game. The bags filled up with the 1-2 hitters and a Vaughn error and Lopez’ single to center, after which Starr’s grounder to third set up Castro for an easy out on Walla at home plate, but they didn’t get Starr at first base, and Monck grounded up the middle with one out. Vaughn intercepted the ball, had no shot, and fired it wildly past first base anyway for his second error, this one costing two runs, and then progressively more as Dowsey dropped an RBI single to center, and Novelo singled over the bag for another RBI single to center. Although Vaughn had his antlers in all of this, the Elks culled Freeman first, bringing in righty Juan Rosado, who allowed a sac fly to Roberts, walked Matas, allowed ANOTHER single to Walla, loading the bases, and then finally rung up Corral. All in all, six runs scored, three of them unearned, and Walla was up 7-0, though on 48 pitches after three innings.
Lozada took the no-hitter idea away right away with a single to lead off the bottom 4th, but remained on base as the next three batters made outs. Walla struck out the 7-8-9 batters in the fifth, had a quick sixth as well, but then saw Starr make an error that put Rick Atkins on base to begin the bottom 7th, and conceded that unearned run on singles by Varner and Barraza. Josh Meighan gave up a run on four singles to Monck, Dowsey, Novelo (who got the RBI), and Matas in the eighth before Walla and Corral left the bases loaded, while Walla got one more out before being sent packing on a Vaughn single in the bottom 8th. Yamauchi cleaned up behind him, and in fact got the last five outs for only two singles allowed, and no runs. 8-1 Raccoons! Corral 2-6; Monck 3-6; Dowsey 3-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; Matas 2-4, BB; Walla 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (3-1) and 2-5, RBI;
We had 15 hits in this series winner – all singles.
In other news
April 25 – Rebels SP Jay Perrin (3-1, 2.36 ERA) fires a 3-hit shutout against the Wolves for a 7-0 win.
April 26 – 16 innings are played before the Gold Sox beat the Capitals, 8-5.
April 27 – Condors RF/LF Matt Ewig (.250, 4 HR, 10 RBI) goes yard for the only score in a 1-0 win against the Canadiens, securing the 255th career win of TIJ SP Kodai Koga (2-2, 4.13 ERA).
April 29 – The Thunder and Bayhawks go the extra mile in a 15-inning game that ends with a 6-5 Oklahoma City walkoff.
April 30 – Wolves 1B Tyler Eaves (.369, 1 HR, 9 RBI) ends the month on a 20-game hitting streak after getting a ninth-inning double in a 6-3 loss to the Warriors.
April 30 – Rebels LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.398, 4 HR, 17 RBI) could be out for six weeks after a diagnosis of shoulder tendinitis.
FL Player of the Week: DAL SP Andy Canada (3-2, 3.26 ERA), going 2-0 with an 0.67 ERA and 10 K in two starts
CL Player of the Week: CHA INF John Schmidt (.286, 0 HR, 4 RBI), clipping .522 (12-23) with 1 RBI
FL Hitter of the Month: RIC LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.398, 4 HR, 17 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL OF Jonathan Merrill (.433, 1 HR, 16 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: DEN SP Tom Delaney (4-0, 1.75 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Bryce Wallace (4-0, 0.33 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN OF Dusty Wilson (.317, 0 HR, 10 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL C/1B Ian Lulich (.290, 0 HR, 5 RBI)
Complaints and stuff
The Loggers…!
Before you get excited, we’re just one run ahead of the Condors for bottoms in the CL. But I feel like the team overall made a step in the right direction this week, even though we have several people on the team that don’t hit their body weight in pounds, or that look like we should skip the Rule 5 draft altogether from here. But there’s vague competence on display this week, and hasn’t that been rare these last few years??
The Raccoons had four games at home with the Indians coming up, then three games in Pittsburgh next week.
Fun Fact: The Loggers are scoring 7.2 runs per game and it’s probably not going to last.
As impressive as it is, their middling pitching and terrible defense should get the better of them in the long run, even though they had three .400+ hitters at this point, with Jonathan Merrill (.435, 1 HR, 18 RBI), Cesar Ramirez (.419, 2 HR, 24 RBI), and Carlos Dominguez (.414, 2 HR, 18 RBI). They were relentless and never let up!
Like when they scored 31 runs on the Coons in a 4-game set earlier, but only got a split for it…