[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-25) @ Blue Sox (21-39) – June 13-15, 2072

The Sox had the worst record in the league, the second-worst offense in the FL, and the third-worst pitching in the FL. They had a -69 run differential, which was not so nice. It was hard finding anything nice to say about the roster at all, and then there were also injuries taking out three pitchers including starter Jarrod Annear, ex-Coon George Kehoe, and reliever Aaron Heelan; and also catcher Ryan Rogers. At the last meeting in 2069, the Raccoons had won two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Crispino D’Urso (4-4, 4.08 ERA) vs. Austin Cross (3-5, 4.38 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-5, 4.30 ERA) vs. Edgar Gutierrez (0-6, 6.53 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (4-4, 4.48 ERA) vs. Justin Taylor (5-4, 4.15 ERA)

This was three right-handers, including former Critter Edgar Gutierrez not doing well at all as replacement starting pitcher.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B J. Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P D’Urso
NAS: 2B Custer – SS Sellman – LF Roman – 1B M. Ford – RF D. Schmidt – 3B A. Ochoa – C Pagan – CF G. Warner – P Cross

Both teams were held to three singles in the first five innings, and the Raccoons hit into a pair of double plays to self-torpedo themselves, while Crispy Bear had the leadoff man on base three times in the first four innings. He got around Rob Custer in the first, as he was doubled off as well, and Matt Ford in the second inning, but a leadoff walk to Tony Roman in the bottom 4th pretty quickly led to a 1-0 Blue Sox lead when Alfredo Ochoa drove in the runner with a 2-out single. Hamel doubled in the sixth for no gains, while D’Urso nailed Jordan Sellman and walked Roman to begin the bottom of the same inning. Ford flew out to Hamel, and Dustin Schmidt spanked a bouncer into a 3-6-1 double play to get out of that stupid inning.

When the Raccoons’ 6-7-8 batters piled onto the bases by means of three 1-out singles in the seventh, the Coons sent van Otterdijk to pinch-hit, but he crashed into a 6-4-3 double play. Former Raccoon Kody Mello then had the ball in the eighth. Humph drew a leadoff walk and stole second base to move the tying run into scoring position again, but Yocum popped out. Hamel singled to left-center, Humph wasn’t in the mood to get stranded at third base and dashed for home plate instead, sliding in safely because Roberto Soto’s throw from leftfield hit him in the back instead of getting through to catcher Pete Gillin. Hamel dazzled to second on the play, then to third on Woodley’s bloop single. New reliever Vince Murray conceded the go-ahead run on a sac fly to V.D.; and yet another former Critters reliever, Brian Doster, then got Rivas to ground out and end the inning. Rismiller held the line with a 1-2-3 bottom 8th, and for the third straight outing, all of Valentin’s outs came by the strikeout, and the Blue Sox went down in order in the ninth inning. 2-1 Blighters. Hamel 2-4, 2B, RBI; V.D. Morales 2-3, 2 2B, RBI; D’Urso 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K;

Four straight wins. A bit more offense would be nice, though…….

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B J. Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS Vigil – P Wharton
NAS: 2B Custer – CF D. Woodley – RF M. Ford – SS Sellman – 1B Roman – 3B A. Ochoa – LF Peck – P E. Gutierrez – C Gillin

Humph took a walk, stole second, and scored on Josh Woodley’s 2-out double in the first inning, giving the Raccoons a super early lead of … well, one run. Jimmyboy then retired the first seven batters he faced, although Tony Roman nearly hit a homer, and the former Raccoons PITCHER Edgar Gutierrez, batting EIGHTH, then ACTUALLY hit a homer. This tied the game in the bottom 3rd. (gnashes teeth)

The Raccoons failed to convert a leadoff single by V.D. and an error in left by Matt Peck that added Rivas to the bases into anything other than another inning-ending double play that Vigil mashed into in the fourth, and the Coons wasted Yocum and LeVan singles with two down in the fifth inning. Alfredo Ochoa hit an infield single to begin the bottom 5th and got doubled up by Peck, and Gillin and Custer hit TWO infield singles to start the sixth, but the 2-3-4 batters made nothing but pointless outs and didn’t advance them an inch.

Jimmy struck out the side in the seventh, getting him to nine strikeouts in a game that otherwise lived mostly off failure and was still tied at one. Jimmy also struck out PH Carlos Cervantez in the bottom 8th to get to double-digit whiffings, but still wasn’t in line for a W, and after 102 innings also wouldn’t be back for the ninth inning. Gonzales drew a 1-out walk in the ninth and Hamel batted for Vigil so we could maybe get something other than a double play, and hit into a double play. Newhard sent the game to extras, as if I needed to see more of THIS.

Thankfully Humph broke the tie with a homer off right-hander Jose Gomez in the top of the tenth inning so there was hope for a quick end to the misery. Yocum singled, but got forced out by LeVan, who stole second, and then was left on base when Gomez rung up Josh Woodley. Since Valentin had pitched three of the last four days, the Raccoons sent Rios into the bottom 10th, also inspired by lefty-hitting Tony Roman being the first man up. He grounded out to first, and Ochoa flew out, but then Gordie Warner and Dustin Schmidt snapped 2-out singles. The Coons blinked, sent Rismiller against Gillin, who was of course hit for with outfielder Roberto Soto – and he flew out to Humph to end the game. 2-1 Blighters. Humphries 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Yocum 2-4, BB; LeVan 2-5; Wharton 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K;

I can’t make up my mind whether they’re ready for the glue factory or whether they’re already coming back from there. Most uninspiring 5-game winning streak ever!

Also still tied with Indy.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B J. Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – SS McFarland – C Brown – 3B Luebbert – P Gaytan
NAS: C Pagan – SS Sellman – LF Roman – 1B M. Ford – 3B A. Ochoa – 2B G. Warner – RF R. Soto – CF D. Woodley – P J. Taylor

If the Coons wanted to win on Wednesday they’d need more than two paltry runs, since Gaytan already gave up that many in the second inning for nailing Warner and giving up a whole bunch of singles to Soto, Danny Woodley, and the ******* pitcher, the 8-9 batters getting RBI’s to overturn Sam Brown’s RBI double to score Morales from the top of the inning. Vinny Pagan struck out to keep a pair of Sox stranded.

Roman, although 37 years old, robbed Humph with a headlong dive to begin the third inning, but the Raccoons got the tying run across through defensive deficiencies elsewhere after LeVan hit a 2-out double to right and Warner threw away Josh Woodley’s grounder for a 2-base error. V.D. drove in Woodley with a single to right-center, taking a new (and unearned) 3-2 lead, but McFarland grounded out, and then Gaytan began to threaten to give up home runs, with Jordan Sellman flying right to fence in the bottom 3rd, but being caught by Humphries. Ochoa got it over the wall leading off the bottom 4th to tie the game, and the Sox took a 4-3 lead in the inning, spanking more screamers with Warner (double) and the ******* pitcher (RBI single) yet again…!

That lead didn’t hold, either. After a relatively calm fifth inning, and after Josh Woodley flew out to Danny Woodley to start the sixth, McFarland buried a 2-out triple in the gap and then scored on Sam Brown’s roller through the right side for an RBI single. All even at four, Luebbert singled to right as well, and the Otter batted for Gaytan, but as usual grounded out to short.

The Coons turned to long man Vinny Morales, who got immediately raked for four runs in the bottom 6th to give the game away. Warner flew out on the first pitch, but Soto walked on TEN, and then Woodley singled, Justin ******* Taylor singled for the third time in the game AND LeVan overran the ball for an error, and Pagan and Roman added yet more singles to beat Morales’ numb skull in. The Sox would add another two unearned runs against McMahan in the eighth inning; Yocum started the entire inning with an error, but McMahan also got beaten around for three hits… 10-4 Blue Sox. Brown 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

When Sam Brown is the best guy on the team, you got problems.

Raccoons (39-26) @ Titans (29-34) – June 16-19, 2072

The Raccoons had to play four games in Boston next, where the resident Titans had lost four in a row and all three games previously played against Portland this year. They ranked second from the bottom in runs scored and had the worst rotation with a 5.01 combined ERA.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (7-1, 2.93 ERA) vs. Angel Suarez (5-4, 5.12 ERA)
Steve George (3-0, 2.04 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (5-4, 3.38 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (4-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (3-6, 4.58 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-5, 4.00 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (1-7, 6.66 ERA)

The Raccoons would stalk their way around the only left-handed starter the Titans had, Jesse Cruise (5-2, 6.15 ERA), who had pitched on Draft Day.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Vigil – P Walla
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – CF B. Davidson – 3B D. Miller – C R. Perez – SS M. Roberts – P A. Suarez

Carlos Fumero was laboring on a sore rib cage muscle and was day-to-day, and his limited agility cost the Titans a run in the first inning as Hamel grounded to short after the 2-3-4 batters had filled the bases with two walks and a single, and Fumero just couldn’t turn quick enough after being fed by Mike Roberts, allowing Hamel to leg out the return throw. Gonzales then struck out to leave a pair on the corners. The Titans turned it around super quickly, though, bashing Walla for three runs in the bottom 1st. Vic Lorenzo singled, and with two outs Manuel Garcia drew a walk in a full count before Bill Davidson and Danny Miller struck back-to-back doubles to drive in two and one run(s), respectively. Ruben Perez then flew out to Morales. Walla wasn’t really fooling anybody in this start, as the Titans usually put the ball in play rather briskly. Despite the damaging first inning, Walla threw only 44 pitches in four innings, K’ing two Titans, and allowing another wallbanger double to Miller in the fourth inning. The Raccoons also didn’t really rally any time soon, but in the fifth got Humph and Woodley to the corners as the tying runs with one out thanks to a pair of singles, but a Morales sac fly was as good as it was gonna get for the time being.

Lorenzo singled but was left on in the bottom 5th, but Walla got pummeled some more in his sixth and final frame of the game. Garcia led off with a sharp single, and he nailed Davidson. Miller doubled in a run, and Perez plated another with a groundout, 5-2. Roberts and PH Javier Acuna both struck out, but that was it for Walla in a forgettable (hopefully) outing. McFarland singled off former Raccoon Jesse Dover leading off the seventh in Walla’s spot, and more singles by Humph and Yocum loaded the bases with nobody out. Oh, if only we had some power in this bloody lineup…! For the time being, Dover walked Woodley with the bases loaded to force in a run, 5-3, but Morales popped out to third, and Hamel’s fly to left was caught by Lorenzo to hold him to a sac fly, 5-4. Yocum also had to be held at third base on Gonzales’ scratch single off the next former Raccoon, Tetsu Kurihara, with two outs, and Brown flew out to Lorenzo to leave the bases loaded. Humph walked and got doubled up by Yocum in the eighth to torpedo another attempt to take Walla off the hook, and then the middle of the order was up against Jerry Washington in the ninth inning. Woodley singled through the right side to put the tying run on base, then was run for by Luebbert, but the 4-5-6 batters made too pathetic outs to get the tying run around to score… 5-4 Titans. Humphries 2-4, BB; Woodley 4-4, BB, RBI; McFarland (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS Vigil – P George
BOS: 2B Fumero – C R. Perez – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – CF B. Davidson – 3B D. Miller – LF Parrish – SS M. Roberts – P M. Bell

Humph and Yocum continued to *try*, but there was no reasoning with this team, and after they reached base on a walk and single to begin the game, Woodley smashed into a double play and Morales flew out easily to right. George then quickly became the second consecutive Coons right-hander to face this overwhelmingly right-handed Boston lineup and just struggled endlessly (only John Parrish batted lefty in this starting nine), giving up an 0-2 single to Fumero to begin the bottom 1st, saw him advance on a passed ball, and then of course gave up a 2-out RBI single to Garcia to fall behind right away. Miller bashed another double in the bottom 2nd, but had no support from the 7-8-9 batters and remained on base. Fumero then hit an infield single in the bottom 3rd, stole second, reached third on Rivas’ throwing error, and scored on Perez’ groundout.

George fooled the bases full in the fourth inning before Bell hit into an inning-ending double play. The Raccoons, who had seen Woodley hit a double to center and get thrown out at third base in the top 4th, then scratched out a pitiful run on Gonzales and Vigil singles in the fifth inning, but Garcia immediately came back with a 2-run homer off George in the bottom of the frame. George put Miller and Roberts on base in full counts in the bottom 6th and was yanked after Bell struck out trying to bunt for the second out. Jackson got Fumero out on a grounder to second, and the Raccoons then loaded the bags with the tying runs, the 4-5-6 batters, and nobody out in the seventh. Rivas crashed into a double play, and Vigil grounded out for one sullen run, and a 4-2 deficit at the stretch. Rios and Newhard melted down for another two runs in the eighth, including a Davidson homer off the lefty, and the Coons looked pretty clueless as they tumbled towards another loss. 6-2 Titans. Yocum 2-4; Woodley 2-4, 2B;

This offense.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B Woodley – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P D’Urso
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – 3B D. Miller – C R. Perez – CF Parrish – SS M. Roberts – P E. Lee

Saturday started like Friday, as Humph walked, Yocum singled, and then the next dolt hit into a double play; however, Woodley got a grounder through the right side for an RBI single, so the Raccoons at least briefly held a 1-0 lead before Crispy Bear went out and got battered again. Fumero drew a walk and got to third on Lorenzo’s single to center, then scored on a wild pitch. Another walk to Hector Moreno, a wild pitch, and a groundout gave Boston the 2-1 lead, but somehow Moreno was then left on base. The Coons got even again in the top 2nd on pretty much a Rivas single and nothing else. He advanced on a wild pitch and a balk by Lee, and then scored when McFarland grounded out…

Boston got the lead back in the bottom 2nd when Gonzales threw Lee’s bunt away for two bases, maneuvering Mike Roberts to third base after he had drawn another walk, and Fumero’s groundout plated him. Lorenzo struck out to leave the pitcher at third base, but Lee also walked Humph to begin the third inning and Yocum singled to right. Humph went to third base, Garcia unleashed a terrible throw that went past everybody, and Humph went home to score and tie the game again, with Yocum into second base. LeVan smashed an RBI double into the right-center gap, 4-3, Woodley singled, the Otter lined out to Lee, but Gonzales’ groundout got LeVan home from third. Rivas also grounded out, and the 5-3 score then persisted through five innings and a 30-minute rain delay, and D’Urso shuffling another four runners on base, none of whom scored, before being quietly ushered away after 96 messy pitches.

Hamel batted for D’Urso and doubled home McFarland with two down in the top 6th, extending the lead to 6-3, which then went to Vinny Morales, who was all over the ******* place and put Roberts and Davidson into scoring position with screamers for hits, but then struck out Fumero to end the bottom 6th. The Coons thankfully saw the need to tack on; LeVan opened the seventh by singling off lefty Travis Davis, then stole second. Woodley walked, and the Otter hit an RBI single to center. Gonzales’ soft single loaded the bases, but Rivas popped out. McFarland hit into a fielder’s choice at second base, bringing in another run, and Vinny took a K to leave them on the corners, but now with a 5-run lead we wanted more innings out of him. So of course 2-out singles by Garcia and Perez and his own stupid error to also put Miller on base in the bottom 7th loaded them up for Parrish. We sent McMahan, who saw the need to give up two runs on a single to the lefty hitter, then struck out Roberts instead, as the team continued to be infuriating in almost every aspect. Rismiller held the score in the eighth, and Valentin struck out Garcia to begin the bottom 9th, but then things… well, Miller hit a long fly to center that LeVan caught, but Perez bashed a double and Parrish blasted a homer to continue making Valentin’s ERA look like a car crash. He then walked Roberts, but Acuna finally grounded out. 8-7 Coons. Yocum 3-5; LeVan 2-5, 2B, RBI; Woodley 3-4, BB, RBI; Gonzales 2-5, RBI; Hamel (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Humph got a day off on Sunday to keep his 35-year-old body in one piece. Our next off day was on Thursday.

Game 4
POR: 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Wharton
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – CF B. Davidson – 3B D. Miller – RF Parrish – C J. Gutierrez – SS M. Roberts – P B. Wallace

Somehow Jimmy struggled the least against the heavily right-handed lineup (although Jonathan Gutierrez and Bryce Wallace both added to the lefty sticks in this series finale) and struck out five Titans through three innings, giving up a hit in the process. The Raccoons had only drawn two walks, one by Wharton, so far, though, so the game was still scoreless. But of course, the Coons went down in order in the fourth inning, while Jimmy gave up singles to Lorenzo and Moreno, walked Davidson, and suddenly had three on and nobody out. Miller popped out to Morales in shallow right, but Parrish drove in two runs with a hit to left before Jimmy regained control and got Gutierrez and Roberts out. And now his pitch count was shot.

The Coons got on the board on a 2-out walk to McFarland, and another E9 when Jimmyboy singled to right, McFarland bid for third base, and Parrish threw the ball away this time around, allowing the sneaky shortstop to score, 2-1. Wallace then walked the bags full, and then still walked Woodley with the bases loaded, forcing home Jimmy Wharton to tie the game. V.D. cracked a liner to right for a 2-out, 2-run single and a 4-2 lead, but the Otter’s high fly to left hung too long and got caught by Lorenzo.

Kurihara replaced Wallace after he was pinch-hit for and walked Yocum to begin his second inning of work in the seventh. Yocum stole second and reached third on a bad throw by Gutierrez, and Kurihara also walked LeVan. Woodley’s grounder to third only advanced the back runner, Morales’ groundout advanced NOBODY, and the Otter flew out to right, scoring NOBODY. Oh, and it also began to rain at this point, and during the stretch the intensity picked up. Jimmy got Gutierrez on a pop to shallow left to begin the bottom 7th, but then the game went into a rain delay that lasted an hour, and so Jimmyboy was obviously gone. Newhard replaced him when play resumed, gave up a pinch-hit double to John Baxley, but also struck out two batters to complete the seventh inning.

The Coons then somehow scored runs just by letting the Titans throw balls away in the eighth inning, getting three additional, doubly-unearned markers on little more than throwing errors by Roberts and Perez, and hits by Humph and LeVan, while the Titans lost Danny Miller to injury. Rismiller got only two outs in the eighth before Rios had to dispose of his accumulated runners, and the left-hander then got the last four outs in the game. 7-2 Raccoons. V.D. Morales 2-5, 2 RBI; Humphries (PH) 1-1, 2B; Wharton 6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (7-5) and 1-2, BB;

The Titans made four errors, and walked seven Critters, while we got only six hits.

In other news

June 13 – San Francisco eventually prevails in Salem, 7-6 in 15 innings.
June 14 – Sacramento shoots down Boston, 21-3, scoring eight in the second and seven in the fourth for a quick start to the game. Five runs are driven in by each of leadoff man 2B/SS Ryan Philpot (.267, 5 HR, 22 RBI) and 3B Rick Healey (.290, 8 HR, 42 RBI), both of whom hit a grand slam, and Healey even hits two home runs in the game.
June 14 – SAL 1B Jeremy McDermott (.305, 12 HR, 50 RBI) will miss three weeks at least due to knee inflammation.
June 18 – LAP SP Chris Redmond (4-7, 4.66 ERA) 3-hits the Warriors in a 6-0 shutout.
June 18 – The Aces beat the Thunder, 11-4 in 12 innings, after Oklahoma kinda runs out of pitching in the top of the 12th.
June 19 – Sacramento acquires Salem’s SP Bill Logalbo (4-6, 4.64 ERA) for 23-year-old SP/MR Jeff Tolliver (1-7, 8.31 ERA), who was a top 50 prospect for four years before losing eligibility this season. Tolliver has been plagued by a .409 BABIP in the majors this year.

Player of the Week (FL): RIC OF Juan Licona (.285, 10 HR, 26 RBI), clubbing .500 (11-22) with 3 HR, 11 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): SFB OF/1B Ryan Redding (.271, 10 HR, 40 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I think the best stat to describe the offense is a combination of Humph, Yocum, and Woodley all hovering around .390 BABIPs, and never scoring because the teams’ power department tops out at five homers, the team lead being shared between all of a backup outfielder, a busted #5 pick, and a medically infirm slugger that’s played all of 13 games so far this season.

No, there’s no budget to acquire a slugger before the deadline. At least not one that costs actual money. We can only pay with prospects and regret it later, like three games’ worth of Raúl Castillo for the entire Hall of Fame career of Dennis Fried. Throwback to 1990, if I may.

Crispy Bear looks underdone and George doesn’t get strikeouts. Both are appearing superficially competent, but what if I told you that George had a .238 BABIP and that Crispy Bear’s BABIP was even LOWER …?

Meanwhile, and for science, Pedro Valentin was trying to have both a 10+ K/BB *and* 10+ ERA. He might succeed if he keeps going like that…

The Raccoons had three games in Milwaukee on the way home, then a day off – the last off day before the All Star Game. We’d then play six at home against the Knights and Thunder.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons played only one series against a winning team in their 20-8 May, and so far only three in June.

We went 2-1 against the Loggers in May.

This month we went 5-5 against the Crusaders, Indians, and Stars, scoring just 3.1 runs per game.

The Knights with their #2 offense and pitching should be a bit of a rude awakening and show us where we really stand in this league… we’ll play a winning team or the fiendish Elks, which never goes well, for 21 of the next 24 games.