[Westheim]

Our organziation had bloated up to over 120 players; after the season, there would have some serious cutting to be done. Brett Justice had come back from a torn labrum and was sent to AAA for a rehab assignment.

Back to daily business now. We met the Loggers for three in Milwaukee. Struggles continued. Besides weak hitting, all starters seemed to have dropped into a hole on top of it. Erratic pitching led to losses in both of the first two games, 3-2 in ten innings in the first, followed by a 4-3 loss. The last game broke both Johnston’s and Sullivan’s hitting streaks, but at least the Raccoons somehow squeezed out a 2-1 win on just four hits. Hatfield got his first save opportunity in over a week and the rust showed as he loaded the bases (aided by a Johnston error though), before he was able to coax out a double play grounder to end the game.

Hatfield thus saved the 100th win in franchise history. Compare that to 130 losses *and* the recent slide from six over .500 to just under .500 in June. Ben Jenkins came off the DL and joined the Raccoons again. Robbie McNeill was waived and designated for assignment. I was sure that someone would pick him, but he was not good enough to stay on the roster. Greg Swift, Johan Dolder, and Brett Justice were all with the AAA team rehabbing after their injuries.

June 19 was a terrible day. The Indians killed the Raccoons 13-0, and there was not a single ray of hope. The team didn’t get anything done. In the eighth, with everything long lost, they loaded the bases and still didn’t get in a run. Just whack that ball somewhere. No. Pathetic outs. Romero went 2.2 with 5 ER, Vazquez 2.0 with 6 ER. Talk about a mopped up mop up guy. The Raccoons now head the worst pythagorean record in the Continental League (28-41, which was five under real), and the third worst in the majors. No offense. At times horrendous pitching. Our 220 runs through 69 games ranked last in baseball, and 39 behind the next closest teams, the Canadiens and Falcons.

Indians won the next one 7-4. Wally Gaston gave up a 3-run homer to Rodrigo Hernandez to blow an eighth inning lead. Gaston had come in with a 0.90 ERA and surrendered as many earned runs in this game in .2 innings as in 30.1 innings up until this game this season. Following this, Pedro Sánz was activated from the DL, and Greg Swift was called up to the majors again after a few days of healing out in AAA. Hector Mendez and Luis Hernandez were sent down. Sánz slotted back to #3 in the lineup (Pickett had a sore quad anyway) after Robby Davis and Ed Sullivan. Swift was in #6 (R) and #7 (L). Darryl Maloney was also healthy again. Sanderson remained on the roster for another day until Jesse Jeffries would be activated from the DL. All of this didn’t help at all, the Indians completed the sweep 6-2, the Raccoons scored only through solo home runs by Johnston and Flores.

Frustration. Massive frustration. The Warriors claimed McNeill off waivers. More massive frustration.

How could I make this team score some fricking runs!? Well, Sánz bolted a 2-run shot to go ahead in the first game against the Aces, but the Raccoons lost 9-5 as Ned Ray allowed SEVEN runs in 2.2 innings and I had enough of him. His 1.61 WHIP and inability to get K’s was annoying me a ton.

Ray was demoted to AAA immediately and I did something my scouts had urged me to do for some time now: I brought up Logan “Crazylegs” Evans, who would start the next game right away since this would have been his turn in AAA now. Evans went 6.1 innings in his first outing, giving up a homer, three runs, four walks, six hits, and fanned four. Hatfield almost blew a 3-run save in the bottom 9th, K’ing the first two, then gave up a single, followed by three walks and a pathetic groundball, that somehow made an out at second. Raccoons won 6-4. Pickett replaced Robby Davis in the lineup for game 3, Flores was batting leadoff again and Pickett was moved to #7. They lost the rubber game 6-2. Romero and Wright combined to surrender three homers. The Raccoons had gone out to lead 2-0 after the top 1st in every of the three games, yet came back with little to show. Evans’ half way solid outing was what should be remembered, at best.

BNN’s stat of the week: ABL leaders in career losses. Topeka’s Jonathan Knapp tops the list with 28, followed by Juan Berrios tied for 2nd with 26. Honestly, if he hadn’t pitched that no-hitter last year, I would have shot him a long time ago.

Next: Condors at home. Powell stepped in first and allowed four runs in the first inning, and five in total in the 5-3 loss. Berrios went up again Alex Miranda the next day. I almost snapped. Not only did Miranda pitch eight scoreless, he also batted in the winning run himself and scored a run on a wild pitch by Berrios. And the Raccoons? Down 2-0, they loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom 9th – and lost 2-1. MAD!! I am so MAD!! Go the [feep] out and score some [feep] runs!! X-((

I recalled Johan Dolder from his rehab assignment and shoved Jorge Lopez (batting .095) to AAA before game 3. Dolder didn’t get to start in CF yet. Game 3. Craig Hoyt started for the Condors and had no fun. He was bombed for eight runs by the low-offense Raccoons. So, Logan Evans got an 8-0 lead going into the third inning. That should be enough, right? No, it wasn’t. Evans surrendered four in the third, and walked the bases full in the fifth, and all runs got across eventually, and the Condors tied it in the sixth. I don’t [feep] believe it. The Raccoons scratched together two more runs late in the game and won 10-8, but not before Gaston walked the bases full as well (he got out of it, though), and Hatfield also got the tieing run to second base before closing it.

What a miserable team. That bunch of losers would next face the Crusaders, who were scoring 80% more runs than them. This could only end badly, and four times so. After that: road trip to Vancouver and Boston before the All Star break.

In other news:
June 20 – Craig Hoyt of the Condors shuts out the Knights on three hits in a 6-0 win.
June 21 – Jack Pennington (9-5, 3.55) will miss three weeks with shoulder inflammation, hurting the Cyclones in their playoff race with the Rebels.
June 23 – Alex Miranda tosses another shutout allowing only three hits as the Condors beat the Indians.
June 26 – The Warriors send outfielder Chris Smith (.317 last year, just .262 this year) to Atlanta for reliever Juan Carlos Gomez (0-1, 2.57).