[Westheim]

All Star Game

Raccoons position players drove in all the runs in the Continental League’s 4-3 victory over the Federal League in Oklahoma City. Rich Hereford started at second base and went 1-for-4, but that hit was a 2-run homer off ex-Coon Tadasu Abe, while Jon Correa entered as pinch-hitter and replacement for the Elks’ Tony Coca and went 1-for-1 with a 2-run double and a walk, an effort for which he was named MVP of the contest.

Abe hung with the loss, while the Condors’ Jonas Mejia took the win.

The other Raccoons in the game had a bit of a mixed bag. Rico Gutierrez pitched a scoreless inning, but Mark Roberts allowed a run in his outing. Kevin Surginer faced two batters and retired both. Tim Stalker went 0-1 as pinch-hitter, while Ricky Ohl did the same – the reliever was sent to pinch-hit (!!) and struck out.

Raccoons (50-38) vs. Loggers (35-52) – July 13-16, 2028

The season series was now merely 4-3 in Portland’s favor after a mild disaster in Milwaukee last week. The Loggers were still 11th in runs scored, but now 9th in runs allowed after a solid pitching performance in that forgettable 5-game set.

Projected matchups:
Rin Nomura (8-5, 3.12 ERA) vs. Alex Contreras (2-9, 4.59 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (8-4, 2.52 ERA) vs. Danny Soto (4-9, 4.67 ERA)
George James (6-7, 4.58 ERA) vs. Morgan Shepherd (5-7, 4.20 ERA)
Mark Roberts (9-3, 2.95 ERA) vs. Francisco Colmenarez (6-7, 4.73 ERA)

The Coons’ rotation was a bit dictated by All Star Game events. Nomura didn’t pitch, so would start the back half of the season. Rico threw only eight pitches and would go out on three days’ rest. James would slide in next, since I didn’t want our three southpaws all go in a row, so Roberts slid into Sunday. But next week offered a day off on Thursday, so we could skip James at that point.

The Loggers had no All Stars whatsoever; they could do whatever they pleased with their rotation and assorted personnel.

Coming into the series, the Raccoons activated Ryan Allan from the DL and sent Wilson Rodriguez back to St. Petersburg.

Game 1
MIL: CF V. Diaz – 3B Parten – LF W. Trevino – 1B W. Aquino – C S. Garcia – SS Ferrer – RF Rueda – 2B Rauser – P Contreras
POR: SS Stalker – 2B Spencer – LF Correa – 3B Hereford – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – CF Allan – P Nomura

Offense was slow to start this 4-game set. The Loggers had a first inning double (Vinny Diaz), a sixth inning double (Steve Garcia), precious little in between, but the Coons also only pooled five singles in five innings, but for once managed to hit three in a row between Correa, Hereford, and Gomez in the fourth inning to take a 1-0 lead. Nomura remained around through seven, shedding a 1-out single to Jason Rauser, who was bunted to second, but then stranded there upon Diaz’ groundout to Spencer. But when Nomura walked Jason Parten to begin the eighth, that was a problem. It put him on 100 pitches, no left-handed batters anywhere near, and the Coons went to Ricky Ohl. Weirdly dysfunctional Ricky walked Willie Trevino, threw a wild pitch, then gave up a disturbingly long blast to Wilson Aquino that sunk the Coons once more. Rauser homered off Kearney in the ninth to establish a 3-run gap, but the Coons brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom 9th. Unfortunately, that was Harenberg facing the lefty Greg Becker with runners on the corners and one out. A ball sharply hit to the shortstop, that Manny Ferrer inexplicably missed, and up came the winning run in Tovias following that “RBI single”. He hit into that double play the Coons always deserved and always got… 4-2 Loggers. Stalker 2-4; Correa 2-4, 2B; Gomez 2-4, RBI; Nomura 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K and 1-2;

Alberto Ramos returned for the Friday game. Hopefully that was The Spark, because I could not think of any other way to make a goddamn fire here anymore…

…and then there was no Friday game on account of another rainout. A double header was scheduled for Saturday, which was not going to help Portland any one bit. In the meantime, the Crusaders inched to within a single game in the standings…

Game 2
MIL: 3B V. Diaz – C S. Garcia – LF W. Trevino – RF Schorsch – CF Hollingsworth – 1B W. Aquino – SS Ferrer – 2B Parten – P Shepherd
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Correa – 3B Hereford – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – CF Allan – P Gutierrez

Rico allowed nobody on base through five innings except for Jason Parten, twice. Parten hit an infield single in the third, got nailed in the fifth, but never got around to score. The Coons took a tender 1-0 lead again on a Hereford homer in the bottom 2nd, and that was all for the early innings. Rico nailed Willie Trevino in the thigh in the sixth, with the Loggers having to replace him with Roberto Amador, but a Tom Schorsch grounder to short solved that problem, too.

The bottom 6th would see **** get real, potentially. Ramos led off with a walk, stole second base, his 16th this year in 29 games, Stalker walked, and Jon Correa fooled them all for an infield single between Shepherd and Vinny Diaz. Three on, no outs, Hereford up, but Steve Hollingsworth held him to a sac fly in center. That made it 2-0, and a Rafael Gomez single restocked the bags for Harenberg. Shepherd did him a favor and nailed him, 3-0, and then Tovias’ lineout to short and Allan’s grounder to Parten ended the inning. Rico in turn shed a run on two singles and a walk in the seventh, also reached 98 pitches through seven and led off the bottom of the inning. Nothing good happened there, while the eighth saw Brotman give up a 2-out single to Alexis Rueda, but struck out Hollingsworth… except that Tovias lost the ball, couldn’t recover it, and Hollingsworth reached on the uncaught third strike. Brotman followed up with an angry K to Aquino to keep the 3-1 score in place for Josh Boles, who hadn’t gotten into a meaningful game in a while. With one out the bags were full thanks to a Ferrer single, a walk dawn by Tyler Canody, and a Diaz single. Of course it blew up – Steve Garcia lashed a liner to left, out of reach for Danny Morales, and the Loggers emptied the bags on the triple. Roberto Amador hit a sac fly, and the Coons were spiraling into complete annihilation. Bottom 9th, Gerster batted for Allen, walked, and Spencer singled. The winning run was up once more. Ramos hit a little looper into left to load the bases. Armando Leal batted for the battered Boles, Becker lost Leal on balls, and was now near getting battered, too. Spencer to tie, Ramos to win – Correa batting with nobody out. Another liner to left, and Amador didn’t get that one, either. Another single, Spencer scored, but Ramos had to hold, all the speed be damned. Tied ballgame, Hereford up to bat, and Becker came apart for good, surrendering a single to right-center. 6-5 Blighters. Ramos 1-2, 3 BB; Correa 2-5, RBI; Hereford 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Gutierrez 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K;

We would not put Ramos in both ends of the double header just after the injury. Maybe as pinch-hitter, but he would not make two starts on Saturday.

Game 3
MIL: 3B V. Diaz – C Canody – LF W. Trevino – RF Schorsch – 1B W. Aquino – SS Ferrer – CF Cooper – 2B Rauser – P D. Soto
POR: 2B Stalker – SS Gerster – RF Gomez – 3B Hereford – LF Morales – 1B Harenberg – C Leal – CF Magallanes – P James

George James got flogged, to put things in short form. The Loggers tagged him for eight hits and six runs in the first three innings; one in the first, one in the second, and an Andrew Cooper slam in the third. The Coons couldn’t be choosers, shrugged, and let him continue to do whatever his idea of pitching was. Cooper had runners on the corners and one out in the fifth, hit into a run-scoring double play, but at this point it was the outs that mattered rather than the runs. In terms of runs, the Loggers led 7-0 and Danny Soto had a 3-hitter cooking. Harenberg led off the bottom 5th with a double and went on to score on a Diaz error as the direness continued. In the bottom 7th the Coons put two on, but Jon Correa struck out when he pinch-hit for Kearney with two outs. The following inning, Stalker, Gerster, and Gomez all reached to begin the inning. Three on, no outs for Hereford, with the tying run still some distance away. Hereford struck out, Morales hit into a double play, and darkness was going to consume us all. 7-1 Loggers. Gomez 1-2, 2 BB; Harenberg 2-4, 2 2B; Derks 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 4
MIL: 3B V. Diaz – C S. Garcia – LF W. Trevino – RF Schorsch – 1B W. Aquino – SS Ferrer – CF Cooper – 2B Rauser – P Colmenarez
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – RF Correa – 3B Hereford – LF Morales – 1B Gomez – C Leal – CF Magallanes – P Roberts

The Raccoons bitterly needed to at least come up with a tie in the 4-game set with their lead down to 1.5 games, and Mark Roberts seemed like the guy who could deliver; he 1-hit the Loggers through three, then surrendered a Trevino triple in the fourth. That came with one out, but Roberts blasted both Schorsch and Aquino away on strikes to maintain a 2-0 shutout, which the Coons had scratched out on run-scoring groundouts by Morales (plating Hereford in the second) and Ramos (scoring Magallanes in the third). But the Raccoons could not tack on despite good chances in the middle innings, f.e. Gomez and Leal stranding Hereford and Morales in scoring position with one out, and Roberts wandered into a tight spot in the seventh. He hit Aquino, then allowed singles to Ferrer and Cooper. The Loggers, with one out, forced the issue, sending right-hander Jason Parten to pinch-hit for Rauser, Parten, however, popped out on the first pitch, and Roberts claimed Colmenarez’ guts for his tenth K in the contest, stranding a full set. But the Coons fudged up a Gomez double in the bottom 7th – Leal got walked intentionally, and Magallanes hit into a 6-4-3 – and Roberts filled the bags again in the eighth in the same manner. 1-out hit batter, two singles, three on, one out, and this time he was on 108 pitches and yanked. This time the Critters sought refuge in the arms of Kevin Surginer against Wilson Aquino, who had murdered them on Thursday. This time he struck out … but Surginer walked Ferrer to force home a 2-out run, then ran another full count against Andrew Cooper… but Cooper struck out, and the Coons wiggled out with a lead, but went on to strand Ramos and Correa in the bottom 8th anyway. Shaky Josh Boles would face the 8-9-1 batters in the ninth. He would strain our nerves to the max. After Harenberg, a defensive replacement, shagged an Alexis Rueda line for the first out, Boles got Amador on a strikeout, but then bled a single to Diaz. Steve Garcia ran a full count with Boles missing generously time and again, and he did miss again on the 3-2… but so did Garcia. The whiff secured the series split. 2-1 Critters. Roberts 7.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (10-3);

In other news

July 10 – The Rebels send SP Jaden Baldwin (4-9, 5.58 ERA) to the Cyclones in exchange for two prospects including #55 prospect INF Jose Madrid.
July 11 – It could be season over for TIJ SP Jorge Villalobos (7-4, 3.48 ERA) after the 31-year-old starter has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus.
July 13 – The Blue Sox trade SS/3B Mike Martin (.277, 5 HR, 24 RBI) to the Bayhawks for veteran lefty Danny Munos (1-2, 5.20 ERA, 1 SV) and a third-rate prospect.
July 13 – SAC RF/LF Pablo Sanchez (.335, 4 HR, 46 RBI) will miss the rest of the month with a herniated disc.
July 13 – Nashville’s third-string catcher Craig Lundy (.179, 0 HR, 8 RBI) goes 5-for-5 and misses the cycle by the long ball in the Blue Sox’ wild 15-11 loss to the Cyclones.
July 16 – The Buffaloes pick up 1B Jay Elder (.263, 6 HR, 35 RBI) from the Crusaders in exchange for 25-year-old AAA OF Chris Reardon (no stats).

Complaints and stuff

The third-rate prospect in the Mike Martin deal was Matt Triolo, who the Bayhawks had received in the Jon Correa deal. Whenever a guy has this sort of turnover, he is either the greatest blender of the decade, or saw teams see something that others don’t. Oh I am sure we will find out before long…

And, oh, to have a bevvy of prospects. The Raccoons had none, also no depth, and found it near impossible to make more moves. I was after a few players this week, mostly pitchers to plug some holes in a swingman role, but could not get anything done. Same issue as always – Ramos or Vamos.

Truth be told, a lot of issues could be fixed (like Derks/Fleischer conspiring to blow an 8-run lead last Sunday) if we could trust Dan Delgadillo again…

Next week, Crusaders (shivers) and Baybirds, both on the road. Not like series in San Fran have ever been good to us…

Fun Fact: The damn Elks have not made the playoffs since the 2012 season.

(cues everybody’s least favorite tune, “Ray Gilbert and the Darkness”)