[Westheim]

All Star Game

The Federal League prevails over the Continental League, 4-3, and never trails thanks to early runs against Boston’s Mike Bell, who takes the L for allowing two runs in the second inning on a home run by Richmond’s Darby Laybolt, who wins MVP honors.

Rich Monck pinch-hits and grounds out, while Ricky McMahan retires the only batter he faces in the game.

Raccoons (46-43) @ Indians (37-52) – July 14-17, 2067

The Coons would get another poke at the Indians on the long weekend, now with the season series tied at four. Indy was still bottoms in runs scored, and now eighth in runs allowed. Jose Corral was the only player on the DL for either team.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (6-7, 3.55 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (4-8, 3.58 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-5, 2.78 ERA) vs. Ignazio Flores (6-10, 4.85 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (8-6, 3.28 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (6-8, 5.58 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-6, 4.61 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (10-5, 2.97 ERA)

Flores and DeWitt were left-handers.

The Coons exchanged catchers again over the break, sending Jake Flowe back to AAA for Justin Aguilar.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Brassfield – 2B W. Martinez – P V. Perez

The Coons began the post-ASG schedule with three straight singles to load the bases. Monck popped out, but Dowsey singled in two runs before Novelo grounded into two outs for the price of one. We had the bags full again to begin the second inning when Perez walked Colter, Bonner singled, and Gaytan’s bunt was taken to third base by Perez, but not in time to get Colter – or anybody else – out. Only one run would score from this three-on, nobody-out situation on Wilson’s sac fly before Lopez and Starr made meek outs. The 3-0 lead then began to be whittled away with Wil Mejia’s solo homer in the second, and three straight Indy singles to begin the third inning, but they then also got only one run on a groundout hit by Mejia. The Raccoons wasted walks to Bonner and Wilson in the fourth, and nobody would score in the middle innings at all, the Indians also stranding a runner each in the fourth and fifth innings.

Jimmy Dingman held off the Raccoons in the seventh, while the Indians then sent Malcolm Spicer to bat in the bottom 7th and he legged out an infield single. Matt Martin struck out, and Gaytan drilled John Baxley before getting yanked. When Spicer embarked to steal third base against McMahan, Lopez threw the ball away, allowing Spicer to turn third base and score the tying run. Baxley went to third base, then scored when Matt Rogers hit a sac fly to Jaden Wilson. Alex Gomez struck out, but Indy was now on top, 4-3.

The Raccoons got a free runner in scoring position to begin the eighth inning against lefty Matt Stephens when Wil Martinez threw away Monck’s grounder for two bases. The Coons were too useless to open the gift, stranding Monck at third base between Dowsey’s groundout, Novelo’s pop to third base, and Colter’s groundout against three different relievers. Mike Roberts drew a walk in the ninth against Jorge Flores, but then was caught stealing to remove the tying run off the base paths again, and the Coons never got another shot. 4-3 Indians. Lopez 2-4;

Even with this game, Malcolm Spicer has only four stolen bases on the season. He’s basically rotting on the bench, and for a while sat around in AAA. He has started only three ABL games this year.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – 2B Bonner – P Walla
IND: CF Ma. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – SS Baxley – 2B W. Martinez – P I. Flores

Nick Walla had the best ERA and the fewest wins on the Coons’ starting rotation, and early signs were that if anything about that was going to change, it was the former. Wil Mejia got him, too, for a homer in the second inning, but this one came with Alex Gomez on base for a 2-0 Indy lead…

The Raccoons disappeared quietly the first time through, but Ramon Lopez hit a homer to left in the fourth to get the team on the board. That was all the support that Walla would get in seven innings of poking from the Raccoons, while no defense the Critters were similarly unhelpful. When Walla offered a leadoff walk to Tony Torres in the bottom 7th and allowed a single to Baxley, Novelo would next **** on a double play grounder by Wil Martinez, and the bases were loaded with nobody out. Flores’ groundout and Martin’s sac fly each brought in a run before Walla was yanked and Alvey got a pop on the infield from Eddie Menchaca to end the dismal inning. Matt Rogers then drew a leadoff walk from Alvey in the eighth, advanced on not one, but TWO wild pitches, and scored on a sac fly. Ignazio Flores finished a complete-game 4-hitter on 111 pitches, whiffing five. 5-1 Indians. Lopez 2-4, HR, RBI;

Yikes.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Musgrave
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Brassfield – 2B W. Martinez – P Glaude

The Arrowheads scattered three runners in the first two innings against Musgrave, who then singled to begin the top 3rd for the Raccoons. Wilson’s single to right was then bobbled by Torres, and both runners gained an extra base, arriving in scoring position with nobody out. The 2-3 batters each got an RBI, Lopez on a groundout and Starr with a single to center. Dowsey hit another single with two outs in the inning, but Novelo’s pop to first left them on base. Matt Martin hit a bloop single to begin the bottom 3rd, but was caught stealing, and the Raccoons got Colter and Bonner on base to begin the fourth, but Musgrave failed himself to 0-2 trying to bunt. The Raccoons sent the runners on the 0-2, gloriously running into a 2-5 double play on the swinging strikeout and Colter getting thrown out at third base – although that didn’t stop Will Glaude from walking the bags full and giving up another RBI single to Joel Starr. Monck’s groundout to Martinez ended the inning and left another three runners on base in a 3-0 game.

Mejia and Colter hit into double plays to kill offense in the following two half-innings, before the Coons blew another 3-0 lead with rank stupidity involved. Trent Brassfield opened the bottom 5th with another single, stole second, and then scored on a Martinez single. Dowsey threw home for no good reason at all, allowing Martinez into second base. He was bunted to third base then, but then Musgrave hung a brain fart to Martin, who bombed it for a game-tying 2-run homer to left anyway.

Musgrave and Colter participated in the 3-3 game until the stretch, but left for different reasons. Musgrave had thrown nearly 100 pitches, and Colter was barking when he was called out on strikes to end the top 7th and was shown the door by the umpire. He was replaced by Marquise Early in left, Dowsey moving over to right, while McMahan took the ball. Martin got on against McMahan, but was caught stealing again, and Josh C had a scoreless eighth. When the Raccoons failed to score or even be relevant in the ninth inning, the Raccoons sent Chance Fox after the Indians in the bottom 9th. He drilled Mejia, allowed a single to Jose Hilario, Brass bunted the runners over, but Fox just walked Sam Dixon to fill them up … and then DRILLED John Edwards to end the game. 4-3 Indians. Starr 3-5, 2 RBI; Dowsey 3-4;

Offense – dead
Pitching – dead
Spirit – dead

Although… (unscrews a fun-sized bottle of Capt’n Coma) … some spirit stays always with you!

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Bonner – SS Novelo – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Dowsey – C Aguilar – RF Tallent – P Nakayama
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Spicer – 2B W. Martinez – P DeWitt

The Coons had Marquise Early picked off first base in the second inning, but still managed to cobble a run together with a Tallent double and Nakayama’s RBI single in the third. The lead didn’t last long; the Coons didn’t make anything out of Rich Monck’s 1-out double in the fourth, but Matt Rogers went yard to right to tie the game at one. Apart from that, offense was scant through five, with those couple of sentences already dealing with more than half of the six combined hits the two teams tallied through there.

DeWitt, the CL strikeout leader was whiffing plenty of Raccoons, seven through six, while Nakayama had just one strikeout through six and lived off his defense, which was a bold strategy as we had seen the last couple of days. Top 7th, Dowsey and Aguilar opened the inning with soft singles before Tallent flew out to the warning track in left. Dowsey jiggered up to third base with the go-ahead run, at which point Joel Starr batted for Nakayama and belted a ball over Matt Martin for an RBI double, and a 2-1 lead! Easy fly outs by Wilson and Bonner then stranded the runners in scoring position…

The Coons then surprised everybody with Gabriel Rios in relief; Monday was off, so we didn’t need a fifth starter unless we really wanted to, and we’d rather have Rios go *here* as we had already gotten plenty of use out of our left-handed relievers in this series. Rios had a scoreless seventh before Rich Monck tacked on a run with a homer to centerfield. Rios got another inning down, but walked a guy in each of the two innings before Jesse Dover got the ball in the bottom 9th. John Edwards, Rogers, and Gomez were retired on three straight grounders for the Coons’ early win in the series. 3-1 Coons. Monck 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Colter (PH) 1-1; Starr (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Nakayama 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (8-6) and 1-2, RBI; Rios 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

In other news

July 12 – The Aces acquire left-hander Nick Robinson (1-2, 4.43 ERA, 1 SV) from the Indians in exchange for two prospects.
July 13 – More pitchers into the desert, as the Aces bring in SAL SP Josh Jackson (3-9, 5.55 ERA) for another two prospects.
July 14 – The Canadiens overcome the Crusaders for a 9-6 win with a 6-run rally in the ninth inning.
July 15 – The Warriors acquire INF Franklin Serrano (.296, 4 HR, 23 RBI) from the Pacifics, along with a prospect, for sending OF/2B Jesus Alvarez (.294, 6 HR, 38 RBI) to Los Angeles.
July 17 – The Falcons’ INF Diego Mendoza (.308, 9 HR, 31 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 25 games with a late single in an 11-inning, 2-1 loss to the Condors.
July 17 – The Rebels beat the Capitals, 1-0, on a home run by OF Willie Ospina (.278, 10 HR, 39 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: WAS 1B Alex Mendez (.350, 3 HR, 23 RBI), batting .667 (8-12) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC C David Johnson (.304, 14 HR, 59 RBI), shooting .526 (10-19) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Pretty dim series against the worst team in the division. I couldn’t tell you a single name that did well this week, unless you go so low that you get joy out of a single 1-2-3 appearance, in which case Dover and Josh C are your guys. Yamauchi didn’t pitch at all, so at least he didn’t annoy the crap out of me.

We’re off on Monday. Rios pitched in relief in the series finale, so he won’t get a start until Saturday next week after everybody else has taken another turn against the Titans and Thunder, both on the road.

After this it is just one more week to the trade deadline. We already dangled the odd player, but there’s little to no interest. Meanwhile, with Rich Monck chasing a home run crown, the Agitator is banging the drum for him to get a contract extension.

Fun Fact: Jose Corral is still tied for third in homers in the CL!

He’s also still going to be on the DL for another week and who knows whether he can use a couple of rehab games before rejoining the team after that.