[Westheim]

Everybody in postseason chase mood…!!?? (excitedly grins and pulls string that makes two small paws on the front of his new Raccoons cap clap together repeatedly)

Raccoons (85-70) vs. Indians (74-81) – September 24-27, 2068

The Indians had just made the Titans trip, and they had also rallied a lot from their rancid start to the season, so the Raccoons wouldn’t get auto-wins here, even being up 10-4 on the season against the Arrowheads. Indy was eighth in runs scored and tenth in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Alex Dominguez (16-7, 3.63 ERA) vs. Jorge Flores (12-9, 4.77 ERA)
Vinny Morales (9-5, 3.17 ERA) vs. Justin Esch (8-6, 3.83 ERA)
Nick Walla (14-12, 2.64 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (15-8, 2.94 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (7-10, 4.53 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (12-7, 3.84 ERA)

DeWitt was the only southpaw around in that rotation.

Game 1
IND: CF Hilario – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – 2B P. Weber – LF Spicer – SS Valadez – P Jo. Flores
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – RF Colter – 2B Novelo – P Dominguez

Offense was hard to come by, with the Raccoons having one base hit through five innings and all, and even when Jorge Flores walked three batters, they still managed to hit into two double plays with Starr in the first and Early in the fourth – but also scored a run: Jake Flowe drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 2nd, Mendoza doubled, and Jamie Colter got the game’s first run home with a grounder to the right side, but Mendoza was left on base. It sure was not a lot of offense, but for the time being Alex Dominguez did his very best – surely more than in the last four to six weeks against anybody – to make it stand up, and held the Arrowheads to two base hits through five shutout innings. Jamie Colter hit a deep F7 in the bottom 5th, but apart from that the Raccoons remained rather anemic. Alex Gomez actually found outfield real estate for a double in the sixth inning. This came with two outs though and Matt Rogers didn’t find a way to get him around to score. However, Malcolm Spicer also hit a 2-out double in the seventh. Eddie Menchaca batted for Fernando Valadez, struck an RBI double to left-center, hurt himself, and likely ended his season with a bum ankle. Jorge Flores grounded out to end the inning, now in a 1-1 game.

Dominguez held out for 100 pitches and eight innings of fine baseball, but the lead was gone, and the Raccoons were still on one base hit against Flores. Colter drew another walk in the bottom 8th, but that led nowhere. Matt Rogers then took Josh C deep in the ninth inning and then the Raccoons put two more Indians on base with walks before finally getting out of the inning. Right-hander Brian McLaughlin got the ball for the ninth for Indy, walking the leadoff man Duhe, who was forced out Wilson’s grounder to Paul Weber. Starr dropped a soft single into shallow center, only the second Portland hit in the game, and Wilson moved to second base. Starr was forced out on Early’s grounder to shortstop Guillermo Lujan, so Flowe batted with the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners and two outs. He popped out to Lujan. 2-1 Indians. Dominguez 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K;

(still holds the string but has nothing to clap for)

The Titans took a 1-game lead again with a 2-0 win against the damn Elks, and killed the 21-game hitting streak of Roberto Lozada in the same go. The Crusaders beat the Loggers, 6-2, to stay technically relevant.

Game 2
IND: CF Hilario – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – 2B P. Weber – LF Valencia – SS Valadez – P Esch
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – LF Ramirez – 2B Archuleta – RF van Otterdijk – P Morales

Starr hit a double in the first inning, but that on itself wasn’t gonna give the Raccoons a run, and instead the Indians took the lead in the second, in which they got their second leadoff single of the day. Matt Martin singled to right, Paul Weber walked on four pitches, and Rafael Valencia hit an RBI single. He would hurt himself running the bases, while Esch would drive in a second run with a groundout, and Jose Hilario left the third runner on base. The Raccoons answered with Mendoza and van Otterdijk doubles for a run in the bottom 2nd – which marked the first career RBI for George van Otterdijk – before Morales made the third out. However, Jaden Wilson socked a game-tying homer in the bottom 3rd.

The game was tied for about three seconds before Matt Martin strung a leadoff triple into the leftfield corner in the fourth inning and he scored on Weber’s groundout on the very next pitch, so the Indians took a new 3-2 lead. Eddy Ramirez then singled to begin the Coons’ half of the fourth. He stole second, Archuleta popped out, and then van Otterdijk tied the game back up with a single to left-center, his second RBI knock in a row…! He was bunted on by Morales, and then Duhe singled to center, getting the rookie around to score and the Raccoons were up, 4-3.

Hilario hit another single in the fifth and stole his 46th base of the year, but the remainder of the lineup didn’t find a way to get him around from there. However, Weber hit a 1-out single in the sixth to knock out Vinny Morales. Sean Thomas came in for the left-handers, and gave up a game-tying triple to Matthew Parker on the very first pitch he tossed up there. Valadez then struck out Wil Mejia walked, and Hilario grounded out, and it was four-all in the middle of the sixth.

Futile poking continued for two innings before the Raccoons opened the bottom 8th with Mendoza and Ramirez singles against Shamar King. Colter batted for Archuleta and scratched a 1-2 pitch out of the dirt to flick it over Wil Martinez into shallow right for another single, but Mendoza was held at third base. Batting with three on and nobody out was van Otterdijk, who for some wicked reason was yet to be retired in this game, also fell 1-2 behind, and then lofted a fly to right that Tony Torres caught, but Mendoza hurried home in time to score the go-ahead run on the sac fly. Novelo batted for McMahan and smacked an RBI double to left, Duhe found an RBI single in center, and when Pablo Apodaca replaced King, he walked the bags full with Wilson, bringing up Starr with one out. Both Starr and Flowe struck out, and so Pedro Valentin had a 3-run lead to work with in the ninth inning, He retired Corey Vazquez and Hilario before Tony Torres slapped a single into right. Alex Gomez went own on strikes, though. 7-4 Raccoons. Duhe 2-5, 2 RBI; Mendoza 2-4, 2B; Ramirez 2-4; Colter (PH) 1-1; van Otterdijk 3-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Novelo (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Everybody was back to square one with a 10-7 win the Elks nailed down against the Titans.

New York beat Milwaukee again, 5-4, which kept them hypothetically engaged, even though for them to get even to a tie-breaker scenario they now had to win out AND the Elks had to take two more from Boston AND the Coons had to drop their last two to Indy AND the Titans-Raccoons couldn’t end in a sweep … and then it was still a 3-way tie.

This was the last division race going on as both the Cyclones and Warriors clinched with wins on Tuesday.

Game 3
IND: CF Hilario – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – 2B P. Weber – LF G. Lujan – SS Valadez – P M. DeWitt
POR: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr – LF Early – 3B Mendoza – 2B Archuleta – RF van Otterdijk – C D’Alessandro – P Walla

Ramon Archuleta hit a solo home run in the second inning to give the Coons a 1-0 lead, but also struck out to end the third inning with the bases loaded without any additional runs having been scored. Walla, who had put two on base in the first inning, but seemed to have overcome that, was then blown up in the fourth inning as the last fleeting hope of an ERA title was rudely dashed, beginning the bane of general and field level managers everywhere, a leadoff walk to Alex Gomez. With one out, singles by Martin and Weber tied the game, and then Lujan cranked a 3-run homer to give Indy the 4-1 lead. Walla then ****** the bases full in the fifth with Hilario’s infield single (Torres forced him out), a walk to Gomez, and nicking Rogers, then as unceremoniously yanked. Jesse Dover entered the game in the FIFTH, struck out Martin and Weber to keep the damage to what had already been incurred, and that was the inning.

The Indians instead added two runs against useless Sean Thomas, who faced five batters, four left-handers and a switch-hitter, and managed to give up three screamers for a double, triple, single, and two runs, and then still wasn’t out of the top of the sixth inning. Cam Bridges struck out Gomez to end the inning, and the Raccoons then finally did *something*, anything really, against DeWitt with back-to-back bombs bashed by Archuleta and van Otterdijk in the bottom 6th, reducing the gap to 6-3 again. This was the first career home run of van Otterdijk, too. However, Bridges walked Rogers to begin the seventh and then was immediately taken deep by Matt Martin, restoring the Indians’ 5-run lead. Bridges would finish that inning, Cody Childress allowed another run across the final two innings in his first outing of the year, and the Raccoons got beaten quite comprehensively in the end. 9-3 Indians. Archuleta 2-3, 2 HR, 2 RBI; van Otterdijk 3-4, HR, RBI;

In the worst kind of good news, the damn Elks won a game, beating the Titans, 5-4, fending off a late rally there. The Crusaders were eliminated by virtue of a 5-1 loss to the Loggers and were no longer going to bother anybody.

Game 4
IND: CF Hilario – RF T. Torres – 1B M. Rogers – 3B Ma. Martin – 2B P. Weber – LF Spicer – C J. Edwards – SS Valadez – P V. Perez
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – 2B Archuleta – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gates – P Gaytan

While the Indians had the leadoff man on base in each of the first three innings and never scored, the Raccoons made something out of a 1-out single by Duhe and Wilson walking in the bottom 3rd when they took off for a double steal. John Edwards’ throw bounced off Wilson’s fat tush into centerfield for an error, and Duhe scored, while Wilson scurried to third base, scoring after Starr walked on an Early groundout, 2-0. Whatever ******* works!! (pulls the string and claps the hat paws!)

It was still 2-0 in the bottom 5th, which Gaytan, somehow pitching a 2-hitter, and Duhe opened with a pair of singles. Wilson’s groundout moved them into scoring position, and Joel Starr – very silent so far in this series – tacked on by the modest means of a sac fly to Spicer in left. Early’s groundout left Duhe stranded.

Jake Flowe’s first home run in 2 1/2 months (!) added a run to begin the bottom 6th, while Gaytan was still fooling around with the baseball, walking Matt Martin to begin the seventh inning – his third leadoff walk in the game – before putting a K on Weber and getting a double play grounder from Spicer (!), buggering out of the inning. Gaytan pitched into the eighth until he walked Valadez and Wil Martinez hit a single with one out. Rios replaced him, got a fielder’s choice grounder from Hilario, and then rung up Torres to keep the Raccoons’ sheets clean. He remained around to pop out Rogers to begin the ninth, then was replaced with Nava, who collected two groundouts to put the game away. 4-0 Raccoons. Duhe 4-4; Starr 1-1, 2 BB, RBI; Gaytan 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (8-10) and 1-3;

The Titans scored four in the first inning on Thursday, then blew that lead by the sixth inning and suffered a terrific bullpen explosion that left them short despite another late rally of their own. The damn Elks beat them, 10-8, and the Raccoons now had a 1-game lead in the division. (frantic hat paw clapping and a really, really stupid grin)

The scenario for the weekend was thus clear: the Raccoons had to beat the Titans twice; by Sunday would be preferred, but we could make do with a second win on Monday (which would be a Walla start, for better or worse).

The damn Elks were still alive, but the only way they could still get into a tie-breaker was with a sweep of the Loggers, and with the Titans inning exactly two games on the weekend, which would set up a 3-way tie, which was the best that the Elks could do at this stage.

Raccoons (87-72) vs. Titans (86-73) – September 28-30, 2068

The Titans arrived looking slightly embarrassed, but nevertheless determined. They had lost three in a row, and they had to stop losing quick to turn this thing back around. Third in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed, they brought a +78 run differential, twice the +39 differential the Raccoons had to offer. The Titans also had already won twice as many games in the season series, with a 10-5 tally in favor of Boston. Their only injury was ace Mike Bell.

Projected matchups:
Girolamo Pizzichini (6-9, 3.56 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (11-9, 3.28 ERA)
Alex Dominguez (16-7, 3.53 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (12-10, 3.24 ERA)
Vinny Morales (9-5, 3.29 ERA) vs. Jesse Cruise (1-2, 4.88 ERA)

Montoya was the final right-hander the Raccoons would see in the regular season, with two southpaws at the end of the series. In case a tie-breaker would have to be played on Monday, we expected to face Bryce Wallace (10-15, 3.74 ERA), another righty.

Game 1
BOS: LF S. Humphries – C Arviso – RF M. Garcia – CF Marcotte – 2B Jer. White – 3B D. Miller – SS Robichaud – 1B I. Berrios – P R. Montoya
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – 2B Archuleta – RF Colter – 3B Mendoza – P Pizzichini

Boston led very early on as Pizza walked Steve Humphries, Jorge Arviso legged out an infield single (…), and while Manuel Garcia found a double play to hit into, Eddie Marcotte as always good for an RBI single against the Furballs… The brown-hatted team (hat-paw-clap!) had a Duhe double to begin the bottom 1st, and Mendoza single to begin the bottom 3rd, scored from neither of those situations, and was 3-0 behind following a Garcia homer to begin the fourth inning and then Marcotte singling, stealing, and scoring on Danny Miller’s single. Pizza would be yanked after a 1-out single by Humphries in the fifth inning, and Josh C kept the runner on base.

The tying run was at the plate in the bottom 5th in… circumstances; Mendoza hit a 1-out double to left and van Otterdijk batted for the pitcher, grounded to short, and Jared Robichaud just plain fumbled the ball and the error put runners on the corners. Duhe flew out to shallow right, with no way for a runner to head home against Garcia’s arm, but Jaden Wilson got the team on the board with an RBI single to right-center, and that sent Starr to bat with the tying runs on base. A wild pitch even advanced the runners, but Starr hit a sharp grounder right at Ivan Berrios, and the inning ended.

The Titans responded with two idiotic runs on Cam Bridges, an idiot, despite Marcotte doubling and being thrown out at home by Wilson on a Jeremy White single to center. Danny Miller whiffed, and Bridges then hit Robichaud and allowed RBI singles to Berrios and MONTOYA. Nava replaced him, allowed another RBI single to Humphries, 6-1, and then finally got Arviso on a fly to right, at which point the game looked pretty dead, and the Raccoons resorted to sending Rated-R to pitch the last three innings. Danny Miller became the fifth Boston player with 20 homers on the year when he took Rated-R deep in the eighth inning – but not that it mattered. The Coons drew mostly blanks against Montoya for seven innings, and it didn’t get better against Joe Cash after that. 7-1 Titans. Mendoza 2-3, 2B;

23-year-old shortstop Dan Eggert kept the damn Elks alive with a walkoff single in the 13th inning to beat the Loggers, 10-9.

Brilliant.

Game 2
BOS: LF S. Humphries – C Arviso – RF M. Garcia – CF Marcotte – 2B Jer. White – 3B D. Miller – SS Robichaud – 1B I. Berrios – P Riddle
POR: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr – LF Early – 3B Mendoza – 2B Archuleta – RF van Otterdijk – C D’Alessandro – P Dominguez

The Raccoons tried to get a W from a pitcher who hadn’t won a game since August 17, and didn’t get a single hit of support from his team the first time through the order. Danny Miller singled for Boston in the second, but apart from that the Titans were just as silent in the early going, before they got singles on back-to-back pitches from Garcia and Marcotte to lead off the fourth inning. White’s RBI single gave Boston the lead, and Dominguez walked Miller to fill the bases before Robichaud plated a second run with a fielder’s choice to short. Miller was out on that play, Robichaud was then caught stealing, and Berrios grounded out to leave White on third base in the 2-0 game. Early hit a 2-out single in the bottom 4th that led nowhere.

An Arviso homer, his 28th of the year, extended the Titans lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning, while Archuleta found the gap for a leadoff triple in the bottom 5th and scored on a groundout by van Otterdijk, which was better than nothing at this point. Another home run by Marcotte made it 4-1 in the sixth and Dominguez was yanked after a 1-out single to center hit by Miller. Holzmeister replaced him, and the inning ended with long fly outs to left by Robichaud and Berrios.

Holzmeister went on to walk Humphries with one out in the seventh inning. Thomas came in to face Arviso, allowed a single that sent the lead runner to third base, and then Garcia hit a sac fly, 5-1, off Carrington. Marcotte struck out, but the game was really out of paws now, even before the Raccoons – who amounted to TWO base hits in eight innings – suffered a 3-run implosion between Schmieder and Kehoe in the ninth inning. 8-1 Titans. Archuleta 1-2, BB, 3B;

The damn Elks out-clubbed the Loggers again on Saturday, this time winning 12-11 in regulation to be just one more silly score away from getting into a 3-way tie.

Although that required the Raccoons to actually win a ballgame.

Game 3
BOS: LF S. Humphries – C Arviso – RF M. Garcia – CF Marcotte – 2B Jer. White – 3B D. Miller – SS Robichaud – 1B I. Berrios – P Cruise
POR: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr – LF Early – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Mendoza – P Morales

The Titans brought up a 28-year-old quad-A pitcher for this win-or-sob game, and the Raccoons brought up a 27-year-old … well, he had qualified for the rate statistics after all… and then Vinny Morales faced ONE batter, retiring Steve Humphries, and then drew attention from Luis Silva for shaking out his arm and was taken out of the game. (unceremoniously tosses the paw cap behind himself and opens a bottle of Capt’n Coma)

The stunned Coons sent in Cody Childress for a mixture of length and “ohmagawd-ohmagawd-ohmagawd-what-are-we-gonna-do??” and tried to do something with the sticks in the meantime, but it was Robichaud to give the Titans a 2-0 lead with an INSIDE-THE-PARK homer in the second inning with Jeremy White on base. The hole was already four feet deep at that point, but Archuleta singled and Flowe doubled in the bottom 2nd and the tying runs were in scoring position with one gone, but van Otterdijk popped out and Mendoza grounded out to third to **** the chance away.

Suddenly it was the fifth inning, Childress had tossed four innings of 6-hit, 2-run, 6-K ball, and then was knocked out when Arviso singled. The Coons went to Nava, who got Garcia and Marcotte out, bunted Mendoza onwards in the bottom 5th, but Humphries ran down a Duhe fly to left-center and the runner was stranded in scoring position. Nava and Rios put the sixth together, while Cruise was still on a 3-hitter. He walked Eddy Ramirez to begin the bottom 6th, but Starr – ******* plainly not having a good week at all – hit into a double play. Bottom 7th, another leadoff walk to Archuleta, and a full count to Flowe, who chopped a slow roller into play that just died a hero, and the tying run reached on an infield single. Van Otterdijk *scorched* a liner – right into the glove of Berrios, who found Flowe off base and tagged him out for a 3-U double play. Mendoza grounded out, leaving Archuleta to die at second base.

Jesse Dover overcame Marcotte and Miller singles to keep the Titans from tacking on in the eighth inning. Wilson batted for him to begin the bottom 8th and flew out to Joe Washington in deep right. Duhe singled, Ramirez flew out, and that brought up Starr as the tying run, and I felt like this was the Raccoons’ final whiff at a tie-breaker game. We needed #35 from Starr, badly. He popped out foul behind the plate.

Valentin retired the Bostonians in order in the ninth inning before they sent their own closer Cody Kleidon after the Critters to nail down this 2-0 game and the whole ******* season. He struck out Early. Archuleta flew out to Humphries on a 2-1 pitch. Novelo batted for Flowe and ran a 3-1 count … and then grounded out to Robichaud. Curtains. 2-0 Titans. Flowe 2-3, 2B;

In other news

September 24 – The Warriors beat the Scorpions, 3-2 in 14 innings.
September 25 – TIJ SS Jason Turner (.240, 13 HR, 52 RBI) hits a home run for the only tally in a 1-0 win against the Bayhawks.
September 27 – The Wolves win a 2-1, 16-inning game from the Gold Sox.
September 28 – WAS SP Jon Reyes (9-11, 4.39 ERA) will have Tommy John surgery to repair a torn UCL and is expected to miss the 2069 season.
September 30 – ATL SP Rob Wilkinson (11-12, 4.21 ERA) throws a 1-hit shutout against the Condors for a 5-0 win. TIJ C/1B Mike Brann (.224, 24 HR, 61 RBI) singles for the lone Condors base hit.
September 30 – Blue Sox CL Roberto Navarro (7-3, 2.62 ERA, 26 SV) was going to miss at least the first two months of the 2069 season due to requiring surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
September 30 – The Crusaders and Indians treat the fans in attendance to an 18-inning, 5-4 New York win on Closing Day.

FL Player of the Week:
CL Player of the Week:

Complaints and stuff

(cries in the dark while holding Honeypaws and an empty bottle)