[Westheim]

Raccoons (55-57) @ Indians (46-66) – August 8-10, 2067

The Indians were still clearly in the rear in the CL North, but they were already 7-5 ahead in the season series against the Raccoons, and the Raccoons crawled in having lost five straight games with the offense having gone absent without leave. Overall the Indians were scoring the fewest runs in the league, but the Raccoons had sucked their way down to tenth in runs scored once again.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (9-7, 4.00 ERA) vs. Justin Esch (4-4, 2.45 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-8, 4.36 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (4-10, 4.20 ERA)
Nick Walla (7-7, 2.84 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (7-11, 5.03 ERA)

We would not see the sole southpaw and ace on staff, Mike DeWitt (11-9, 2.97 ERA), in this series.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – C Lopez – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 2B Gutierrez – P Nakayama
IND: CF Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B Ma. Rogers – 3B P. Weber – LF Brassfield – SS Baxley – 2B Falcon – P Esch

The game began with a Jaden Wilson double to right-center. Novelo reached on an error by John Baxley, then was doubled up on Starr’s grounder to short, but Wilson scored the unearned run. Lopez singled to begin the second, but was doubled up on a Corral grounder, and there was already a certain pattern developing there. Matt Martin and Tony Torres reached base for Indy in the bottom 1st, but Nakayama then struck out Alex Gomez, Matt Rogers, and Paul Weber in order to keep them on base.

Corral hit into another double play in the fourth, and Dowsey and Gutierrez reached base to begin the top of the fifth and were bunted into scoring position, but now Esch was instructed to walk Wilson intentionally to fill the bases, then struck out both Novelo and Starr to end that inning. The score remained 1-0 through six innings, Nakayama holding the Indians to Matt Martin’s single to begin the bottom 1st and two walks, but it also started to drizzle at the end of the sixth inning. Dowsey and Gutierrez got on base with leadoff singles in the seventh, and Nakayama dutifully bunted them into scoring position again. Wilson was walked intentionally, and I wondered whether I was trapped in a time loop, but this time the tarp came onto the field before Novelo could do something stupid, although the rain delay was brief and play soon resumed with Novelo hitting into the Raccoons’ fourth 6-4-3 double play of the night. The Raccoons had the bases loaded again in the eighth against Danny Nava, as Ramon Lopez was hit with a pitch with two outs, Corral singled, and Dowsey was ALSO hit by a pitch. Scoring in that situation would be rude though, so Gutierrez grounded out to Matt Rogers, uselessly.

Nakayama went eight innings on a 100-pitch 1-hitter before Milian batted for him to begin the ninth, singled, and then was doubled off on Wilson’s grounder to short, which made it FIVE double plays. Obviously, McMahan then blew the lead in the bottom 9th, allowing a walk to Alex Gomez, hitting Rogers, and conceding the game-tying single to Paul Weber. ********. John Edwards popped out and Malcolm Spicer grounded out to Starr to send a stupid ballgame to stupid overtime. The Coons got nothing off Jimmy Dingman in the tenth, but a Dowsey double to open the 11th was interesting. He advanced on Gutierrez’ groundout before Ryan Bonner batted for Yamauchi, who had thrown a scoreless bottom 10th. Bonner singled through Weber to break the tie, then was caught stealing, but Jesse Dover at least made the skinny lead stand up in the Indians’ chance at looking useless just before 11 at night. 2-1 Blighters. Lopez 2-4; Dowsey 3-3, BB, 2B; Gutierrez 2-5; Milian (PH) 1-1; Bonner (PH) 1-1, RBI; Nakayama 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K;

Worse than glue, but at least they snapped the L5 before I could get *really* angry…

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – RF Corral – 2B Gutierrez – P Rios
IND: CF Ma. Martin – LF Brassfield – 1B M. White – C A. Gomez – RF T. Torres – 3B P. Weber – 2B Baxley – SS S. Dixon – P V. Perez

Rios was constantly behind in the count, Jose Corral made a clumsy error in the first inning, then hit a 2-out double with Dowsey on first base in the second inning, but Dowsey was thrown out at the plate by Torres, and the Raccoons didn’t score; and overall we were putting up another lousy display of how not to play baseball. Rios, while blundering boldly onwards, eventually walked Torres and gave up a huge homer to Paul Weber to fall 2-0 behind in the fourth inning. Control never got any better for him into the sixth inning, where the Indians finally took him apart when he walked good old Trent Brassfield and Gomez inside the first three batters of the inning. Torres struck a 1-out, 2-run double, 4-0, and Rios was yanked when Baxley drew another walk with two outs. Carrington replaced him and got a groundout from Sam Dixon to stop the bleeding, then added a scoreless seventh, but it didn’t really matter with the Raccoons doing zilch against Perez. By the time of the seventh-inning stretch, they had ONE hit in addition to that cursed Corral double, and that was the single that put Dowsey on base in the first place, all the way back in the second inning.

Corral singled in the eighth inning and Matas added a single batting for Josh C with two outs. Perez then lost Wilson on balls and suddenly Novelo came to the plate as the tying run, but never got anything to hit and drew a four-pitch walks as Perez came off his hinges. Danny Nava replaced him after the bases-loaded walk, Joel Starr flew out to center, and that was that. The bottom 8th went to Chance Fox when the Raccoons remained behind by a bunch. He started with strikeouts against Mike White and Alex Gomez, then filled the bags with two singles and a walk to Baxley. Sam Dixon ran a full count, but then grounded out to Monck, and Indy didn’t tack on. In turn, John Nesbitt got a save against his old team… 4-1 Indians. Corral 2-3, 2B; Matas (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – RF Corral – 2B Bonner – P Walla
IND: CF Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – 1B Ma. Rogers – 3B P. Weber – LF Brassfield – SS Baxley – C J. Edwards – 2B Falcon – P Glaude

The Raccoons went up early with straight 2-out singles from the 3-4-5 batters in the first inning before Lopez ground out to Weber to keep Monck and Dowsey, who got the RBI, stranded. Ryan Bonner hit a single in the second inning, stole second, and scored on Wilson’s 2-out single before Wilson was caught stealing as Edwards denied him his 30th bag taken of the season. In the third, Monck and Dowsey hit 2-out singles only to get stranded by Ramon Lopez again, but at least Walla began the game with two strikeouts and then kept retiring the Indians in order all the way through the lineup in the first three innings, albeit without further whiffings.

Nick Walla retired a dozen Indians in a row before Paul Weber singled to center to begin the fifth inning, but didn’t get off first base. Still no more strikeouts for Walla, though, who kept feeding it to the defense pretty reliably. This eventually had to become a problem, and it did so in the bottom 6th, which Miguel Falcon opened with a double. Walla then had several batters at two strikes, including Martin, who walked, and Rogers, who bashed a game-tying, 2-run double, but couldn’t put either one away, and that reset everybody to square one.

Ironically, Walla then singled up the middle to begin the seventh inning. Although Wilson forced him out, that at least put a runner on base that could score from second on a Starr single to center, which did happen, and which gave the Raccoons a new 3-2 lead. Monck and Dowsey then added singles against Jimmy Dingman, the latter driving in another run, but Lopez saw another righty, Jorge Flores, and grounded out to short to end the inning. Walla then returned and got slapped around for three straight singles in the bottom 7th, plating a run, and Carrington plated the tying run with a wild pitch as the Coons pissed another lead away in baffling manner, and Walla was again left with a no-decision, this one however of his own ******* making.

Corral and Bonner led off the eighth by getting on base, but Milian hit into a double play to derail the effort. Wilson walked, and Novelo grounded out, leaving runners on the corners. Alvey and Holzmeister held the fort in the bottom 8th before Starr singled on the first pitch of Takenori Tanizaki in the ninth inning. He was run for with Carlos Matas, but the move proved superfluous when Rich Monck craned a 2-run homer to right against his former teammate. Juan Pera then replaced Tanizaki, a quad-A right-hander of 29 years of age with ghastly stats that a good team might extend the lead against. The Coons struck out twice before Corral and Gutierrez went to the corners with hits, and then Randy Tallent popped out to keep them on the corners. Jesse Dover then tried to **** that 6-4 game up; he allowed a leadoff single to Baxley in the bottom 9th before Edwards forced the runner out. Jose Hilario struck out, but Gomez singled in the #9 spot and Martin walked… and so did Torres, pushing home a run. Rogers hit a fly to right-center, but Corral tracked it down to end the bloody ballgame. 6-5 Coons. Starr 3-4, BB, RBI; Monck 4-4, HR, 2 RBI; Dowsey 3-5, 2 RBI; Corral 3-4, 2B; Bonner 2-4; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1;

Rich Monck home runs were not exactly frequent at this point, but somehow he now led the league by five clonkers. He had 24 homers, and nobody else in the CL had more than 19 (Starwalt). Monck would at this stage tie for second in the FL with Pittsburgh’s Nick Ding(er)man, but the Blue Sock Tony Roman had TEN more homers than anybody else in the entire league.

TEN.

Imagine that guy playing in Dallas 81 games a year…

Raccoons (57-58) @ Stars (67-45) – August 12-14, 2067

We came to visit the #1 offense in the Federal League – just over 5.2 runs per game – but the Stars were also allowing the fourth-most runs in the FL, and they had “only” a +84 run differential (Portland: +12). They somehow also led the league in OBP and stolen bases, but not home runs. Defensive was “mid”, and the pen was actively in trouble. The Coons had lost the last three series against Dallas, including getting swept last year, and I had no hopes for this series. This was gonna be a beating of epic proportions. The only hope was that the Stars had played 13 innings in Denver on Thursday and perhaps arrived a tad tired from scoring 14 runs over five hours of baseball.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (7-11, 3.48 ERA) vs. Alex Quevedo (10-7, 3.93 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-7, 3.79 ERA) vs. Ray Walker (4-1, 3.28 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (9-7, 3.77 ERA) vs. Ian Peters (11-5, 3.90 ERA)

Again, nothing but right-handers. “Crabman” Walker had missed much of the season with injuries; this was only to be his eighth start of ’67.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – RF Corral – 2B Gutierrez – P Gaytan
DAL: RF V.D. Morales – 3B X. Reyes – 2B Yocum – CF Wharton – LF Pritchett – SS Robichaud – 1B Fresco – C Bothe – P Quevedo

Victor David Morales homered off Gaytan to begin the bottom 1st, with the bases filling up for a hit Xavier Reyes, an Andy Yocum hit, and a walk to Tyler Wharton, who was on “only” 20 homers thanks to some injury issues of his own. Chad Pritchett popped out to Bonner, Jared Robichaud hit a sac fly for a 2-0 Dallas lead, and Belchior Fresco flew out to Corral, but to say that Gaytan was comfortable in the shoebox would have been an overstatement. He walked Jason Bothe and Morales in the second inning, and Robichaud in the third before finally getting a K on Fresco to end that inning. The Coons were very silent in the first few innings, but Monck doubled off the wall in right in the fourth before being brought in with a 2-out single by Lopez. However, the Stars shrugged that off as a temporary setback. Gaytan was still off, walked Morales and allowed hits to Reyes and Wharton in the bottom 4th, and allowed two more runs. He then left after just four ******* awful innings, having tossed up *102* pitches for NOTHING.

Evan Alvey pitched two innings, getting beaten around for another two runs in the latter, the bottom 6th. Holzmeister was taken deep for a homer by Jason Bothe in the seventh inning, and Yamauchi didn’t get off scoff-free either in the eighth, issuing a leadoff walk to Morales, who was driven in by Yocum for another tack-on run. The Raccoons never even got close to another run and were soundly beaten in the opener. 8-1 Stars.

Boys, I don’t claim to know everything, and I couldn’t throw a strike for my life, but maybe it’s not the smartest approach to issue SEVEN walks in this ******* ballpark!!

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Milian – 2B Gutierrez – P Musgrave
DAL: RF V.D. Morales – 3B X. Reyes – 2B Yocum – CF Wharton – SS Maudlin – LF Pritchett – 1B T. Pritchard – C Bothe – P R. Walker

Morales opened another first inning with a homer, and Musgrave looked even worse than Gaytan the day before. He walked Reyes, gave up an RBI double to Wharton, who stole third base and then scored on Jeff Maudlin’s single for a really fast 3-0 hole. At that point it was already clear that Musgrave had to wear it because Chance Fox was not going to live if sent out against this heavily right-handed lineup. The Stars then sabotaged themselves quite a bit in the following innings, hitting into a pair of double plays, and Pritchett was caught stealing to help Musgrave along. “Crabman” Walker scattered three singles early without allowing a run, then piled up strikeouts for a bit to keep the Raccoons in their place, while Musgrave wobbled into the bottom 6th where he met with obliteration. Wharton led off with a single to left-center, and Maudlin and Pritchard both socked RBI doubles up the leftfield line. Bothe grounded out, and maybe Musgrave could at least complete the inn- … no, Walker singled to center, 6-0, and that was curtains for Musgrave. Useless Jason Holzmeister threw a wild pitch and allowed another RBI double to left to Morales before Reyes grounded out to Starr in a 7-0 game.

Walker allowed a homer to Ramon Lopez in the seventh inning, but that made only a tiny dent in the huge Dallas lead, and then the Stars waffled Holzmeister for another two runs in the bottom 7th anyway. Dover was the first Raccoons pitcher to not allow a run in the series with a scoreless eighth, and that sounded better than it was because he fudged a runner on base with his own error, and then conceded a pair of 2-out singles before striking out Pritchett with the bases loaded. 9-1 Stars. Lopez 2-4, HR, RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Blech.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 2B Bonner – RF Corral – SS Gutierrez – P Nakayama
DAL: RF V.D. Morales – 3B X. Reyes – 2B Yocum – CF Wharton – SS Maudlin – LF Pritchett – 1B T. Pritchard – C D’Alessandro – P Peters

Nakayama filled the bases with Morales and Reyes singling and a walk to Maudlin with two outs, but Pritchett popped out to Bonner, and the Raccoons were not sawed in half right in the first inning on Sunday…! Oh well, then we’ll just go down 2-0 in the second! And the runs were unearned, because Lopez now threw away Peters’ bunt following Chris D’Alessandro’s 1-out single, putting a pair in scoring position. The runners scored on Morales’ sac fly to left, and a Reyes single following a wild pitch that moved the pitcher Peters to third base…

The Coons had a double play in the first, Lopez going 5-4-3 after a leadoff walk drawn by Jaden Wilson, while Corral and Gutierrez then led off the top 3rd with singles through the holes on the infield and were bunted into scoring position as the tying runs by Nakayama. Wilson drove in the runs with a single to left-center, then was caught stealing, still short of 30 stolen bases.

Peters then had a hand into getting a new lead in the fourth inning when he hit another single off the very hittable Nakayama. Reyes and Yocum hit more singles, the latter getting the go-ahead RBI, but Wharton flew out to Corral in deep right to end the inning. The bottom 5th began with a walk to Maudlin, and then Monck threw away a Pritchett grounder for two bases. There was obviously no recovery from there, but Tommy Pritchard socking a 2-run double into the leftfield corner was maybe a bit sooner to surrender the runs than we had hoped for after a mound conference…

Down 5-2, Lopez singled to left to begin the sixth inning, but was doubled up by Starr’s grounder to short. Rich Monck then hit one over the fence, which felt pointless, 5-3. Nakayama returned for the bottom 6th, gave up singles to Reyes, Yocum, and Maudlin, and then was rightfully purged and sent back to Japan after another 5.1 ****** innings. Carrington struck out Pritchett and got Pritchard to fly out to Dowsey, stranding all the runners, and keeping the earned damage on Nakayama to two runs in the 5-3 game. Peters was still batting in the seventh inning, hitting the first of three singles off Yamauchi and scoring another run. The right-hander hung around and got beaten even harder in the eighth, giving up (finally) a homer to Wharton and a single to Maudlin and an RBI double to Pritchard before the Raccoons went to Gabriel Rios – Monday being off – to get the last two ******* outs in the ******* series. Peters went eight-and-a-third before Starr and Monck singles and a walk to Aguilar batting in Bonner’s spot loaded the bases. Roberto Ramirez replaced him, and got his 35th save of the year on Corral’s 4-6-3 double play grounder and just two pitches. 8-3 Stars. Monck 2-4, HR, RBI;

In other news

August 8 – The Titans snap the 21-game hitting streak of MIL 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.301, 16 HR, 86 RBI), but lose to the Loggers, 5-3.
August 9 – A home run by VAN RF/LF Roberto Lozada (.311, 14 HR, 75 RBI) in the top of the first inning is all the scoring that occurs in a 1-0 win against the Crusaders.
August 9 – Similarly, CIN RF/LF Roberto Soto (.265, 14 HR, 65 RBI) goes yard in the top of the first to beat the Miners, 1-0, on the same day.
August 10 – From a 3-3 tie through regulation, the Wolves score three runs in the top of the tenth inning, but the Pacifics answer with four and celebrate a stunning 7-6 walkoff win.
August 11 – WAS SS/2B Tyler Gilliam (.284, 7 HR, 67 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 14-2 rout against the Rebels, driving in six runs on four hits with a bases-clearing triple and a 3-run homer.
August 11 – The Stars slog it out for a 14-12 win in 13 innings against the Gold Sox, including a 7-run rally in the seventh inning to erase a big deficit. Both teams scored a run in the 12th inning. DAL INF Andy Yocum (.351, 2 HR, 58 RBI) drives in four runs, most of all participants, on a home run and two singles.
August 13 – The Knights blast away the Miners in a 12-run second inning, although Pittsburgh keeps scratching and eventually loses only by a score of 13-9.
August 14 – The Scorpions walk off on the Canadiens, 4-3 in the ninth inning, in true fashion: 3B/SS Ben Wilken (.279, 1 HR, 19 RBI), RF Will Buras (.263, 1 HR, 5 RBI), C Greg Solomon (.227, 2 HR, 15 RBI), and INF Alex Castillo (.232, 5 HR, 38 RBI) all draw walks off Vancouver’s Paul Wolk (2-6, 4.75 ERA, 2 SV) to bring the winning run across home plate.

FL Player of the Week: RIC OF Willie Ospina (.289, 12 HR, 59 RBI), batting .524 (11-21) with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL C Justin Hart (.301, 6 HR, 64 RBI), socking .538 (14-26) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I didn’t expect much from the trip to Dallas, and yet I was still hurting when we left there. What a garbage series. Pitching ****, offense ****, defense ****. And all the walks!! At least challenge them, you *****!!!!

The only people I will exclude from getting yelled at in this case would be Dover, Josh C (who both were scoreless in their only outing), McMahan (who didn’t get used thanks to the suffocatingly right-handed lineup), and Chance Fox (who we didn’t even let put pants on). Everybody else can consider themselves getting a death stare.

The Coons are sliding away from .500 and threaten to post their first 3-year stretch of losing records since 2030-32.

Monday is off (and Rios was used pointlessly in the eighth on Sunday), and the Raccoons will then have a 6-game homestand against the Caps and Loggers. At least the competition will be reasonably friendly and not particularly aggravating. No ELKS. No CRUSADERS.

Fun Fact: Tyler Gilliam’s cycle on Thursday is only the second in Capitals franchise history.

Kenny Elder hit for a cycle against Sacramento in 2043.

The only other team with only two cycles are the Indians.