[Westheim]

Brett O'Dell was FINALLY disabled on Monday with a bruised wrist. No fractures, no strains, no traumatic amputations, no third-degree burns… MENA – WHAT TOOK SO LONG?? – MENA!!

… no, he licked that yellow frog again and is out. We're on our own.

Raccoons (21-11) vs. Pacifics (15-17) – May 11-13, 2026

The Pacifics were already ten games out of the dominating Scorpions in the FL West, although their case was a weird one. They were more or less like the Raccoons; they were average in scoring runs, and had very good pitching, and somehow they were still two games under .500 despite a +21 run differential (Coons: +38). They had suffered some rotten luck so far, apparently, and we should better be cautious going into this series. The Raccoons had not won a series against the Pacifics since 2018, and the last time they had encountered them in 2023 had gotten swept.

Projected matchups:
Dan Delgadillo (3-0, 1.66 ERA) vs. Shane Baker (2-2, 3.50 ERA)
Mark Roberts (4-2, 1.69 ERA) vs. Gavin Lee (4-0, 2.41 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (4-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Dave Christiansen (2-3, 3.12 ERA)

Christiansen was the only one of their three southpaws we would be facing in this series. His nickname was "Mauler" – the same that the great Juan Correa had carried in the 70s and 80s. A major leaguer since 2024, he had yet to deliver a season with a sub-3 ERA, but then again he was only 23… Included in those left-handers we would miss was old foe Sam McMullen (2-3, 1.91 ERA).

The Coons put Brett O'Dell on the DL and brought up a reliever to balance their numbers again, selecting Nick Derks from St. Petersburg for the third time this season.

Game 1
LAP: SS Cook – 2B Hansen – CF Jamieson – C Allomes – LF Pence – RF Fullerton – 3B Janes – 1B Read – P S. Baker
POR: SS Alb. Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Gomez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – C Burrows – P Delgadillo

Only Jon Gonzalez had a base hit the first time through either lineup, and his single was immediately wiped off the board and especially the bases on Rafael Gomez sharp grounder to John Hansen; to Ben Cook, to Howard Read, double play! Hansen would also have the Pacifics' first hit, a single to start the top of the fourth that got through between Nunley and Ramos, and then Matt Jamieson immediately parked a fastball in the leftfield stands to put L.A. up 2-0. That lead didn't last, with Ramos' single and Mora's double placing the tying runs in scoring position in the bottom of the inning. Jon Gonzalez singled again, getting the ball just barely past Erik Janes, and both runners scored to tie the contest again. The following inning Cookie led things off with a bloop single to shallow left. The quirky Coons concocted some sort of weird plan, using Burrows to bunt, and then told Delgadillo to swing away. At least they didn't blunder into a double play this way, got Cookie to third base, and Alberto Ramos flipped a single to shallow center to plate him with two outs for a 3-2 lead.

This lead was in mortal danger in the sixth inning, which saw Dylan Allomes double to center with one out. This was a tricky lineup, especially for Delgadillo, who was a bit prone to walking people, and from Allomes on down the Pacifics had rolled out five left-handed batters in a row, including some old Continental League opponents. Delgadillo promptly lost Eddie Pence on balls, then got a bouncer from D.J. Fullerton that he threw into Ramos' legs at second base, loading the bases on the error. The Coons had snoozed at this point, didn't have a left-hander ready, and Delgadillo faced Erik Janes, who sent a fast bouncer to the left side, but right into the deadly glove of Matt Nunley, who started an around-the-horn double play to get the Critters back into their dugout, still ahead 3-2. Delgadillo got through the seventh without issue, but also reached 100 pitches. When Cookie hit another leadoff single in the bottom 7th, the Raccoons already knew they were hitting for Delgadillo, so they bunted with Burrows again, giving Terry Kopp a chance with a man in scoring position. The Pacifics, weirdly, didn't bite and walked him intentionally, preferring to go after the rookie with 96 more points of batting average. But it worked; both Ramos and Spencer flew out to centerfielder Matt Jamieson, and the inning ended. Snyder and Boles combined for a scoreless eighth, although much credit was again due to Nunley for starting another double play to end yet one more inning, this time on Allomes. So; who will close this one now? No insurance run came forth, so pickings against the 5-6-7 batters consisted of Brotman, Ohl, and Mudge, all overused, and a fresh Nick Derks if you felt that special kind of crazy. We didn't, and here came Ricky Ohl, while we simultaneously braced for impact. Impact duly occurred, with a pinch-hit single by Brian Roberts, a single by D.J. Fullerton, and then Erik Janes' 2-run double, all with nobody out. Alex Ramos would do away with the Coons in the bottom of the inning. 4-3 Pacifics. Ramos 2-4, RBI; Gonzalez 3-4, 2 RBI; Carmona 2-4; Delgadillo 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K;

Congratulations, Jonathan Snyder, old and new closer.

And **** you, Ricky. Just **** you.

Game 2
LAP: RF Vanatti – 2B Hansen – CF Jamieson – C Allomes – 3B Avent – LF Pence – SS Janes – 1B Read – P G. Lee
POR: SS Alb. Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gomez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – C Tovias – P M. Roberts

Both teams had three base runners in the opening inning; while Roberts stranded his with consecutive strikeouts to Dan Avent and Eddie Pence to avoid a terrible start, the Raccoons put out singles by Ramos, Mora, and Gomez to get the game's first run across. Terry Kopp would get nailed to begin the bottom 2nd and Tovias drew a walk, bringing up Roberts with two on and nobody out. His bunt was pounced on by Allomes and used to put out Kopp at third base, but the Raccoons still turned the inning into something even after Ramos' grounder into a fielder's choice at second base. Well, Gavin Lee deserved most of the credit for plating Tovias with a wild pitch, which also advanced Ramos into scoring position, which he promptly exploited on Jarod Spencer's single to left-center, 3-0. While Roberts reigned himself in after the shaky beginning and held the Pacifics off the board through five, he also needed 90 pitches to get there for some long counts throughout his day, and was thus not going to go very deep into the game. It also started to rain in the bottom 5th, and the Raccoons were secretly hoping for drowning rain to end the game early… and got just that! Roberts threw three pitches to Matt Jamieson in the sixth inning for a 1-2 count, and by then the rain was bad enough for the umpires sending the game to a rain delay. We never emerged from that, and the game was called 90 minutes later. 3-0 Coons! Gonzalez 2-3; Tovias 0-0, 2 BB; Roberts 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (5-2);

Technically, this was the fourth career shutout for Mark Roberts, and the first this season, as well as his first "complete game" this year and 10th overall.

Any which way which doesn't involve the bullpen!

Since we currently had no backup infielder with third base experience and wanted to get Matt Nunley off his paws against the left-hander Christiansen, Jarod Spencer got the off-beat third base start in the rubber game, with Stalker at second. It would be the first time that Jarod Spencer played at the hot corner in the major leagues. Sorry, Rico, I do what I can…

The plan didn't noticeably change when bad weather persisted and wiped out baseball on Wednesday. Since neither team had places to be on Thursday, the Pacifics hung around the park for most of the day while everybody involved played no their phones or picked their noses, and the rubber game was rescheduled for Thursday. Christiansen remained the starter, and Jarod Spencer remained at the hot corner.

Game 3
LAP: RF Vanatti – 2B Hansen – CF Jamieson – C Allomes – 3B Avent – SS Cook – LF B. Roberts – 1B Janes – P Christiansen
POR: SS Alb. Ramos – 3B Spencer – LF Gomez – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – CF Borg – RF Kopp – 2B Stalker – P Gutierrez

The second inning was a good one for Rico, as he first struck out the side, then drove in Borg (single) and Kopp (drilled once more) with a 2-out single in the bottom of the inning. Christiansen would get his revenge, sort of, with a 1-out double into the gap in the third inning, with John Hansen driving him in with a 2-out single of his own, but for the moment the Coons remained 2-1 ahead. The fourth saw the bags fill up for the visitors; Allomes singled, Brian Roberts singled, and Rico nicked Erik Janes with a 1-2 pitch. That brought up Christiansen with two outs, and Rico also had him at 1-2, and also could not put him away. "Mauler" Christiansen cracked a liner to right, but Jon Gonzalez threw himself in the way and somehow fondled the ball in his mitten to end the inning. Off the bat, that damn thing looked like a 3-run double… In turn, Rico also stepped in with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth inning, but he got the chance with nobody out following a Borg walk and a pair of singles against Christiansen, who had yet to fan anybody, but used this spot to ring up Rico. Alberto Ramos grounded slowly past the mound, with Janes having to hustle in and Christiansen having to hustle over, and they barely beat out Ramos at first, but couldn't prevent Borg from scoring. That ran the score to 3-1, and when Jarod Spencer rushed a liner into the left-center gap for a first-pitch double, he score advanced to 5-1.

But this game was far from over. Rafael Gomez couldn't get in Spencer, then also couldn't get to Joe Vanatti's drive at the start of the fifth. Vanatti doubled off the wall, moved to third on Hansen's single, and then scored on Jamieson's grounder to Spencer, who got an out at second base at least, keeping the double play in order at least until Gutierrez threw a wild pitch… somehow, the Pacifics let him get off the hook despite hitting rockets all over the place and remained 5-2 behind, but it was 5-3 by the sixth, an unearned run in which Ben Cook's single conspired with a passed ball charged to Tovias and a throwing error by Alberto Ramos to get the Pacifics a bit closer. Rico Gutierrez was also done at this point after 106 somewhat messy pitches. So here came the pen, and we closed our eyes once more. Kevin Surginer survived a leadoff single by Hansen in the seventh, while Billy Brotman struck out the side in the eighth. Indeed it would be Jonathan Snyder with the save opportunity in the ninth, then even with the max allowance in terms of runs after a solo homer (the rage!) by Jon Gonzalez in the bottom 8th against Joey Hopkins. Snyder got pops from Mario Diaz and Vanatti before facing the surging Hansen again … but struck him out to clinch the series. 6-3 Furballs! Borg 1-2, BB; Gutierrez 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (5-0) and 1-2, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (23-12) @ Indians (13-20) – May 15-17, 2026

The Raccoons had won two out of three from Indy in the first series between the two teams in '26 and hoped to get more of that in this weekend set. The Indians were right near the bottom in runs scored in the CL with a 3.9 runs per game, but had respectable pitching that nevertheless couldn't quite keep up with the lack of support. Their rotation was actually the second-best by ERA behind the Coons'.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Anderson (2-2, 5.64 ERA) vs. Brian Leser (1-2, 4.50 ERA)
Lance Legleiter (2-3, 3.40 ERA) vs. Mo Robinson (1-3, 2.56 ERA)
Dan Delgadillo (3-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Mark Matthews (3-2, 3.00 ERA)

Those would be their three right-handed pitchers, but they had an off day, too…

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gomez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – C Tovias – P Anderson
IND: SS Pizano – CF Linnell – 3B Good – 1B Herlihy – C T. Perez – RF Kaczenski – LF Mack – 2B Chambers – P Leser

The Raccoons got a run without landing a base hit in the opening inning thanks to Trent Herlihy's gross throwing error that put Ramos on second base to begin the game, then two productive outs from Spencer and Mora. The following inning, Kyle Anderson became the second Raccoons starting pitcher in a row to nip a 2-run single in the second inning, dropping one in against Leser to score Nunley and Kopp, and the following inning Jon Gonzalez mashed a 400-footer in solo fashion and the Coons put Gomez and Nunley to the corners to allow Kopp to bring in a fifth run with a sac fly to Craig Mack. Brian Leser wouldn't be around much longer; Alberto Ramos' single in the fourth inning would not lead to a run, but besides extending Ramos' hitting streak to 13 games also knocked out Leser after 3.1 innings. Myles Mood got the Indians out of the inning, but would load up the bases in the fifth, walk Anderson with two outs (…!), and then plated another run with a wild pitch.

Meanwhile, Kyle Anderson, heretofore routinely beleaguered, was nursing a 2-hitter and didn't let the Indians get to him all that much. By the bottom 5th, he had that ghastly ERA down to the 4's and also had six strikeouts on his ledger after getting only 12 K in his first 30.1 innings of the season. All was well until the sixth, in which Mario Pizano and eternal thorn-in-the-side Matt Good hit singles to go to the corners, Anderson hung a 1-2 breaking piece to Trent Herlihy and it was never seen again on the slugger's sixth dinger of the season (and only his 14th RBI). A single by Robert Chambers and a 2-out walk to Pizano jammed Anderson for good in the seventh and the Raccoons sent for Billy Brotman with three left-handers drawing up. He entered in a double switch with Cookie at Kopp's expense, and got Richard Linnell to fly out to center rather easily on his first pitch of the day. Portland had a chance to put the game away for good in the eighth with bases loaded against Mike Lake, but the right-hander rung up Gonzalez to end the inning, after which Brotman shoveled two batters aboard in the bottom 8th and somehow escaped thanks to a nifty double play started by Spencer. The Raccoons DID score two in the ninth, though. Nunley doubled off the fence, scored on Justin Gerace's pinch-hit single, with the throw home allowing Gerace to reach second base. Tovias was walked intentionally despite a blinding oh-fer, and Cookie dinked in an RBI single. However… with a 9-3 lead, Nick Derks managed to create a save opportunity in the bottom 9th, walking three and allowing an RBI single to Pizano in between. The Raccoons had to send Josh Boles to face Herlihy with three on and two outs, and a 1-2 pop to Spencer FINALLY ended this game. 9-4 Raccoons! Spencer 2-6; Gonzalez 2-5, HR, RBI; Nunley 3-3, 2 BB, 2B; Kopp 1-2, BB, RBI; Gerace (PH) 1-1, RBI; Carmona 1-1, BB, RBI;

Well, that is the first career save for Josh Boles, and wholly unexpected…

The virtual tie for first place that had more or less persisted since Monday (although the Elks had taken a half-game lead during our initial rainout on Wednesday, which he had gotten back on Thursday) was broken here, with the Titans beating the Elks, 4-3, giving the Raccoons a full game lead again for the first time since Sunday night.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Gomez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – C Tovias – P Legleiter
IND: SS Pizano – LF Loya – 3B Good – 1B Herlihy – C T. Perez – RF Kaczenski – CF Duarte – 2B March – P M. Robinson

Herlihy's sac fly gave the Indians the lead in the first after singles by Pizano and Good, but the Coons rapped out three singles of their own to begin the top 2nd, Gomez, Nunley, and Carmona doing the honors in order to begin the inning. That already tied the game, but Tovias' double play bouncer almost ended the inning, putting Nunley on third with two outs. Lance Legleiter became the third Coons hurler in a row to get an RBI in the second inning, flipping a 2-out single into shallow right that Gary Kaczenski even overran for an error, but Nunley was of course scoring all the way to give the Coons a 2-1 lead. While now one half of the team started to play sketchy defense, Mora in the third and Ramos in the fourth being charged with errors that somehow didn't derail Legleiter, the other half continued to hit into double plays. The Raccoons had Gomez and Nunley aboard again after leadoff singles in the top 4th, but this time Cookie was the double play goat, and the Indians escaped with four wide ones to Tovias (hitting absolutely nothing at this point) and whiffing up Legleiter. It was a low-scoring game throughout the middle innings, but by no means a pitchers' duel either. Both teams landed plenty of base hits, the Coons reaching ten by the eighth inning, but couldn't push another run across for the longest time. Even weirder, Legleiter had no strikeouts whatsoever through seven innings, and faced two more batters in the bottom 8th, but lost them both in full counts. Pizano – a speed demon – hit an infield single, while Ricky Loya walked. The Coons were as good as doomed with two fast players on the bases, but sent for Brotman to pitch the third day in a row in a terrible spot. He faced only Matt Good, who flew out to center, which advanced Pizano, after which the Indians sent right-hander Ricardo Vargas to hit for Herlihy. Jeff Mudge was sent to see him, but had to considered rusty after seeing no action all week long up to this point. He failed to keep the lead alive, surrendering a sac fly to left to Vargas before Tony Perez grounded out, with the game locked 2-2 after eight. Top 9th, Nick Salinas whiffed Tovias and Kopp before Ramos singled to left, extending his hitting streak at what was maybe the last opportunity. He even stole second base, but was stranded when Spencer grounded out to Pizano. The Raccoons now hoped to get to extras with Kevin Surginer at the helm, which worked, then for offense in the 10th, which didn't, despite the Indians sending in Jose Fuentes, who had walked SIXTEEN in 9.1 innings, but the Raccoons were too damn ****ing impatient and poked, poked, and poked, making three pathetic outs between the heart of the order, and none of the ****ers got the ball out of the infield. Richard Linnell bombed Surginer as pinch-hitter in the bottom 10th, ending the game with the walkoff homer. 3-2 Indians. Gomez 3-5; Nunley 3-4; Legleiter 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K and 1-2, RBI;

****ing Jose Fuentes entered with a "SCORE NOW" sign hung from his neck, and the Coons produced two grounders and a pop. Wow.

WOW.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – LF Gomez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – C Burrows – P Delgadillo
IND: SS Pizano – CF Linnell – 3B Good – 1B Herlihy – C T. Perez – RF Kaczenski – LF Tinsley – 2B Chambers – P Matthews

Both sides had three hits in the first three innings, and neither scored. The Coons couldn't convert a leadoff single by Ramos in the first, nor a leadoff double by Burrows in the third inning, while the Indians started the bottom 3rd with a Chambers single to right, only to have Matthews bunt badly to get him forced out by Delgadillo, and then Matthews also made third out at third base on Linnell's single to center. Top 4th, Gomez hit a single, Terry Kopp was hit with two outs, but that only brought up Burrows, not much of a hitter in general, and here – HO-LY COW, WHAT A DRIVE!! And it's OUTTA HERE!!!

While I should stop making comments about batters' individual abilities, the Raccoons now had a 3-0 lead, Delgadillo struck out seven through five innings, and it was raining again, so maybe … nah, the baseball gods wouldn't give us two rain-shortened wins in a week, would they? For the moment, they gave Jake Burrows another RBI on a 2-out single in the sixth, plating Rafael Gomez, and while the tarp did come onto the field in the bottom of the inning, its time in play was but brief this time and play resumed with Delgadillo finishing a 1-2 count from before the rain delay for a K on Dan March pinch-hitting in the #9 hole and holding the Arrowheads off the board through six. Portland added an unearned run on Adam Howell in the seventh, Spencer scoring from third base on Mora's groundout after arriving there on Perez' errant throw on his attempt to steal second. Delgadillo ran out of juice in the eighth inning, which saw Kopp pick a borderline homer by Kaczenski off the top of the fence, his early unravelment with some 80 pitches probably something that could be blamed on the rain delay throwing him off sync. Enter Ricky Ohl, pitching for the first time since being disgraced and now tasked with getting four outs in a 5-0 game. For starters he rung up Robert Chambers to end the inning. To anybody's baffled surprise, that was not his only strikeout in the appearance. Come the ninth, Ricky Ohl struck out Alex Duarte, struck out Mario Pizano, aaand struck out Richard Linnell. 5-0 Coons! Ramos 2-5; Gomez 3-4, BB; Burrows 3-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Delgadillo 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K, W (4-0); Ohl 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

In other news

May 11 – VAN SP Andrew Gudeman (3-2, 2.44 ERA) pitches the Canadiens into the top spot in the CL North with a 1-hit shutout over the Scorpions. Only a single by 3B Jason LaCombe (.303, 1 HR, 11 RBI) spares the Scorpions from getting no-hit in Canada.
May 12 – Torrid VAN LF/RF Alex Torres (.364, 5 HR, 22 RBI) will miss a week with a strained oblique.
May 13 – DAL OF/1B Adam St. Germaine (.228, 1 HR, 9 RBI) will be out until early June with a strained hammy.
May 13 – Indians and Capitals play a 19-inning marathon that ends with IND LF/CF/1B Ricky Loya (.308, 6 HR, 10 RBI) homering off WAS SP Killian Savoie (0-4, 7.24 ERA) in the bottom of the 19th, giving Indy a 9-8 win. Prior to that, neither team had scored since the eighth. IND C/1B Tony Perez (.396, 2 HR, 13 RBI) dishes out five base hits in eight attempts and drives in two.
May 15 – MIL INF/LF Danny Mancia (.268, 0 HR, 9 RBI) is likely lost for the season with ruptured foot tendons.
May 17 – CIN SP Diego Mendoza jr. (7-0, 2.69 ERA) not only stays unbeaten in 2026, but also holds the Capitals to three base hits in a 6-0 shutout.
May 17 – The Crusaders expect to be without RF/LF Nate Ellis (.294, 4 HR, 16 RBI) for three weeks as the 32-year-old outfielder is suffering from a herniated disc.
May 17 – The Warriors cream the Stars, 15-2, with four base hits and two RBI chipped in by SFW C Mark Thompson (.252, 6 HR, 24 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

First off, first in the power rankings!

Mark Roberts' rain-shortened win on Tuesday not only kept the Coons in lockstep with the surging Elks, but also moved Roberts into the lead in the ERA table and got him even with several other pitches with five wins in the Continental League. He had already been at the top of the strikeout board, so on May 13 the reigning triple crown king was again on pace for a triple crown. As he made no start for the rest of the week, it was not exactly likely that he would remain atop all leaderboards, and he didn't, with Carlos Marron of the Crusaders lowering his ERA to 1.42 by Sunday night, and technically also Dan Delgadillo moved ahead of Roberts. Both showed identical 1.54 ERA's by Sunday night, but Delgadillo's is actually 1.537 while Roberts' is 1.542 …!

There was also a new entrant into the batting title race from Portland, with Ramos foundering a wee bit despite having an active 15-game hitting streak. No, it's Matt Nunley! Matt sits third in the CL with a .333 batting average right now, trailing Alex Torres (since DL'ed) and his .364 mark as well as .354 batter Danny Serrano on the Aces.

Ricky Ohl's Monday cock-up ended our string of ten consecutive series-opening games won from the start of the season until… well… Monday. No idea what is wrong with him. And that yellow frog looks pretty much covered in saliva.

What about Rin Nomura, that pretty decent Japanese guy we signed late in the winter? He has made seven starts at AAA, but the numbers are not good. Walks are okay, but he strikes out not even six per nine innings, and has given up six homers. He has a 3.52 ERA despite top-notch defense (.255 BABIP). Not a worthwhile candidate for a call-up right now. Even George James looks better with a 2.40 ERA and 6-1 record, also aided by great defense. Only three homers, but he also has nary a strikeout, 33 K in 56 innings.

Well, so far it was all fun and games, but we have a VERY serious week coming up. Four in Boston (who tore up the Elks on Sunday, 12-0), then three in Vegas. This will be … "interesting"! Yeah, the Titans may be five games out, but I still see them as the biggest threat in the division even though they were in fifth place for a few days this week.

Fun Fact: Terry Kopp has been nailed as many times (six) as he has extra-base hits on the season (six). All of those XBH are doubles.

I… yeah… I… I don't know. That's a pretty ****ty bid for a contract year!