[Westheim]

The Coons returned to Portland to grim news that Dr. Chung had diagnosed Ignacio del Rio with an acute case of being a pussy, and also shoulder inflammation. The 23-year-old righty was out for the season and the Raccoons had to turn elsewhere to find a replacement.

…which is where Travis Coffee will become involved. He had pitched to a 5-7 record with a 4.31 ERA last year, and was 1-0 with a 6.23 ERA in relief this season. Well, well – wasn’t that a solid base to build upon? In AAA, he had a 2.85 ERA in a swingman role.

I don’t care, Maud, whether it’s an off day, I need ****ing booze in my system!!

Raccoons (63-55) vs. Cyclones (58-60) – August 16-18, 2033

Just like us, the Cyclones were in second place and could sniff the postseason. Never mind their negative record and run differential (-6). Their rotation was in the bottom three in the Federal League and routinely preventing their very good pen from doing good things for wins. We had not played each other in three years, and the Coons had not won a series against Cincy since we were still a team with only two rings, so it was about time!

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (10-8, 3.26 ERA) vs. Tim Wells (6-8, 4.87 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (4-11, 4.32 ERA) vs. Emilio DeClerk (10-6, 4.26 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (11-7, 3.87 ERA) vs. Brad Quintero (5-10, 4.93 ERA)

Wells was their sole southpaw.

Game 1
CIN: CF N. Hall – 2B E. Williams – LF Oshiita – SS de la Riva – C Cedillo – RF Metzger – 1B Yi – 3B Lusk – P Wells
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Hawkins – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – 3B Zeltser – C Garcia – RF Camps – CF Catella – P Sabre

Sabre didn’t have the best of starts to this Tuesday game, walking Nate Hall on four pitches. Hall stole second base, and the next two batters, Elijah Williams and Dick Oshiita, both slapped singles. On BOTH plays, the Cyclones had their runner thrown out at home plate! Catella axed Hall, and Williams was cut down by Juan Camps! Contrast that with the Coons getting a run on next to nothing they did themselves in the bottom 1st. Ramos and Hawkins made fast outs before Wells walked Wallace and Zitzner before he also failed to dig out Bob Zeltser’s roller and conceded an infield single. With the bags full, he threw a wild pitch before Garcia flew out to strand a pair in scoring position in a 1-0 game. But that was not going to be enough, for Sabre had one of those “no bueno” days. He didn’t fool anybody, and he was quickly knocked for a few. Walking somebody with nobody out in every inning surely didn’t help, either. He issued a leadoff walk to Rey Cedillo in the second, and then a walk to Hall again in the third. That Hall walk came after Wells had already struck a leadoff single, and it just didn’t get any better any time soon. Carlos de la Riva smacked a 2-out, 2-run double over Sean Catella to flip the score, but at least Tom Hawkins found a stray homer in his bat to tie the game again in the bottom of the inning. From there through five, neither team had another base knock in the 2-2 contest.

Zeltser and Garcia landed 2-out singles in the bottom 6th, but Brian Metzger caught up with Juan Camps’ fly to end that inning. As terrible as Sabre had been in the early innings, he turned unhittable in the middle frames, and also retired the 6-7-8 batters in order in the top 7th. Now he just needed a little nudge from his own offense, but that proved hard to come by. Berto hit a 2-out single in the bottom 7th, stole second, but was stranded when Hawkins whiffed. Nate Hall ended the Cyclones’ hitting drought with a 1-out double to center in the eighth. He beat the range of Manny Fernandez, stationed out there after Marsingill had unsuccessfully batted for Catella in the previous inning. Williams flew out, but that drew up left-hander Dick Oshiita, batting .285 with 16 homers. The Coons saw Sabre on 101 pitches and didn’t like the smell of this. Hennessy came in to face the slugger. Oshiita hit a bomb on a first-pitch fastball, and that game was about over… Jimmy Wallace hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th, but that only cut the gap to 4-3. Thankfully, Travis Zitzner strung a double into the rightfield corner right after that! Zeltser flew out to Oshiita, but Garcia walked. Camps grounded to short, but at least legged out the return throw to break up the double play and the Coons had runners on the corners for Marsingill, who grounded out to Kyle Lusk, ending the inning. But they did make up that run in the ninth against closer J.D. Hamm! Jennings’ pinch-hit single and Manny Fernandez’ double got the job done! … but they still lost. In between, Hennessy and Anaya had come apart for two runs in the top 9th against the bottom of the order. 6-4 Cyclones. M. Fernandez 1-1, 2B, RBI; Zeltser 2-4; Jennings (PH) 1-1;

DeClerk would be booted from the middle game in favor of unsteady veteran Nick Danieley (10-10, 5.21 ERA).

Game 2
CIN: C Cedillo – 3B Lusk – CF Oshiita – 2B de la Riva – SS E. Williams – LF Kirkland – RF V. Pacheco – 1B T. Caraballo – P Danieley
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Marsingill – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P Gutierrez

Speaking of unsteady veterans, Rico Gutierrez was perfect with 2 K the first time through, but also didn’t get any run support. The most hitting the Coons did in the early innings was Berto lining a ball into Danieley’s bum, which also resulted in an out. All the Coons did the second time through would be a Manny Fernandez double that led nowhere in the bottom 4th, and Thompson drawing a leadoff walk in the fifth that ended up with him getting forced out on Gutierrez’ bunt. That was the first and only serious mistake made by Rico at that point, even though the Cyclones made three loud outs in the fourth inning, and another one each in the fifth and sixth innings, but still had to get on base in any way, shape, or form. Bottom 6th, Fernandez (who forced out Zitzner) and Marsingill went to the corners but were stranded when Billy Jennings grounded out to de la Riva.

Gutierrez’ first pitch of the seventh inning was taken into left by Rey Cedillo – gone was the perfect game, gone the no-hitter, too, and now **** got real. Lusk flew out to right, Oshiita singled to right, and de la Riva flew out to deep right. The entire sequence also took only five pitches, and Gutierrez was on 63 total, indicating that the Cyclones had no trouble identifying suitable pitches; they were just not hitting the sweet spot. Neither did Elijah Williams; he popped out on a 1-1 pitch, stranding the runners. In turn, Elliott Thompson hit his first goddamn homer of the season, a leadoff jack in the bottom 7th …!

While that was all for offense, the Coons had Gutierrez pitch around a walk to Vincent Pacheco in the eighth. The Cyclones did not bat for Danieley with a man on first and two outs, leading to an easy fly and third out to centerfield. But Gutierrez was not going to face the top of the order without a cushion – the Coons needed to score in the bottom 8th to give him a chance for the shutout. At least one, better two – but they got none. Fernandez and Rich Vickers (yes, he was still stowed away some place or other) hit 2-out singles, but Jennings grounded out to Tomas Caraballo, and no cushion was added, and thus we resorted to Chris Wise in the ninth. PH Tom Frazell led off by legging out a roller for an infield single, and on a 1-2 pitch, to begin the hopefully final frame. Lusk singled up the middle, Frazell went to third, and on Fernandez’ throw to third base Luks moved up to second. There it was – the end of all hope and dreams, again. Oshiita’s groundout tied the game, and Elijah Williams’ bloop single to left dropped out of Juan Camps’ reach to win it. The addition of Camps for defense directly led to the loss because the #3 spot, where he had replaced Jimmy Wallace for defense, came up with Hawkins (single) and Ramos (walk) in scoring position and two outs in the bottom 9th. Camps struck out. 2-1 Cyclones. Vickers (PH) 1-1; Hawkins (PH) 1-1; Gutierrez 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

This ninth inning of this particular nut-squisher would have been handled differently had we been 15 games out at this point.

Maybe then we would have ****ing won it.

Game 3
CIN: 2B N. Hall – SS E. Williams – CF Oshiita – LF Gibbs – C Cedillo – 1B T. Caraballo – RF Metzger – 3B Lusk – P DeClerk
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Hawkins – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – RF Jennings – 2B Vickers – C Thompson – P Chavez

Back-to-back bombs by Williams and Oshiita continued Bernie Chavez’ regress into nothing special at all, right in the first inning. Down 2-0, the Coons responded by pouting and/or rolling up and covering their eyes with their striped tails, pretending nothing was happening. Chavez remained ghastly, benefitting from Jimmy Wallace’s keen eye in the third inning where Nate Hall was on second base with one out. Wallace correctly gauged that his pitcher had NOTHING and that once he fell to a 3-1 count on Oshiita he needed to play at least ten rows deep to have a chance at a swipe. He played extremely deep – and caught livid 3-ball drives by both Oshiita and Ken Gibbs to end the inning and starve the runner at second. There was no catching of Brian Metzger’s fly to right in the fourth inning; that thing was just OUTTA here. It also came with Cedillo (single) and Caraballo (walk) on base, and shot Chavez’ ERA well over four. He was yanked after the inning.

The Critters would then make up three runs in the middle innings, none of them coming across home plate on a base hit. Rich Vickers hit a sac fly in the fourth to bring in Manny Fernandez, and the 5-6 pair led off the sixth inning with a pair of singles. Fernandez took off for third base with Vickers at the plate, Cedillo threw the ball into Fernandez’ legs, from where it caromed away from Lusk and into foul territory. Fernandez scored, Jennings got all the way to third base, and then scored on another Vickers sac fly, crawling all the way back to 5-3. The next two batters made the last two outs, including Nick Bates, who was kept around to get a few more outs pitching, but left the game with an injury in the top of the seventh inning. Oh great, more grief! (breaks the neck off a bottle of Capt’n Coma by hitting it against the edge of the desk and drinks right from the jagged and splintered edges, sending both booze and blood pouring down onto his shirt)

Berto’s leadoff jack in the bottom 7th was measured at 382 feet to right, and was both surprising because he was a light-hitting shortstop and now had three bombs on the year (same as Billy Jennings…), it also cut the gap to a single run against DeClerk. Hawkins singled to left, Wallace was robbed by Metzger in deep right, but Zitzner singled up the middle, moving the tying run to second base with one out for Fernandez, who looped a ball over the head of Williams for another single. Bags full for Jennings! Time to polish up that homer total! … or to fly out to Gibbs in shallow left and not get ANYBODY home. Whatever pleases you, I toast you. Maud, why is my shirt red? (faints off the chair just as Rich Vickers hits a 2-out, 2-run double off J.D. Hamm into the right-center gap)

That was not the last double that Hamm allowed in the game; the Coons got three more off him, and two of those in the same inning. Thompson hit a 2-run double to right, and the same direction was chosen by Bob Zeltser for a pinch-hit RBI double. Ramos was walked intentionally, Hawkins whiffed, but it was a 6-spot all the same, and it won the game for Portland. Hennessy and Blair would finish the game without allowing a run to the Cyclones, who had to be content with two wins out of three. 9-5 Raccoons. Ramos 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Zitzner 3-5, 2B; M. Fernandez 2-4, BB; Jennings 2-4, BB, 2B; Vickers 2-3, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Zeltser (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Raccoons (64-57) vs. Indians (61-59) – August 19-21, 2033

The Arrowheads were in third place and still had plausible chances to win the division, too, given the Titans’ reluctance to sniff out the competition. Offense was the usual issue for Indy, as they merely tied for ninth in runs scored in the CL while nursing a top 3 pitching staff despite a sometimes wonky rotation. We’d however see some of the best they had to offer. The season series stood at 6-5 in our favor.

Projected matchups:
Mario Rosas (13-7, 2.06 ERA) vs. Andy Bressner (15-5, 2.72 ERA)
Travis Coffee (1-0, 6.23 ERA) vs. TBD
Raffaello Sabre (10-9, 3.27 ERA) vs. David Saccoccio (6-10, 4.46 ERA)

The middle game would be Jim Kretzmann’s (4-3, 2.99 ERA) turn, but he was also laboring on a biceps strain and it was unknown whether the Indians would send him out, skip him with a spot starter or by having someone pitch on short rest, or DL him altogether. If they went the short-rest route, Saccoccio would move up to Saturday and Sunday would most likely be their only left-hander, John McInerney (8-11, 3.92 ERA) also going on short rest.

Dr. Chung, what’s with Bates? – So you don’t know. – They’re ALL screaming when in pain! – But this is not North Korea …!!

Game 1
IND: LF Acor – 2B Schneller – RF Plunkett – CF Baron – 1B Barber – C Kuhlmann – 3B de Luna – SS Benito – P Bressner
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – RF Jennings – 2B Vickers – C Garcia – P Rosas

Rosas went to two strikes against the first three batters he faced and allowed three rockets. Jennings caught Dan Schneller’s drive, but Dustin Acor and Mike Plunkett both hit doubles for an early 1-0 lead. Two more 2-strike hits led to another Indians run in the fourth, then with John Baron and Morgan Kuhlmann participating. Both hit singles, and in between Rosas balked Baron into scoring position. So again, not the greatest start for a pitcher, and the offense was even worse. Zitzner and Jennings landed hits to go to the corners with one out in the bottom 2nd, only for Vickers to hit into a double play. That was all for them in the early innings; Wallace hit a double in the bottom 4th, but was left stranded. Top 5th, Rosas had Bressner at 1-2 to begin the inning, and couldn’t get him removed in surgical fashion either. Bressner grounded out to Zeltser instead. He walked Schneller with two outs, allowed a single to Plunkett, and then served up a 3-piece to John Baron. That one, to be fair, was a 1-1 pitch…

The Coons were down 5-0 for the second time in two days. Only this time, they lacked the scramble to get back into it. With Vickers and Garcia on the corners in the bottom 5th and one out, Marsingill struck out in the spot of the arsonist Rosas, and Ramos grounded out to Schneller to strand everybody. In turn Schneller lined out to Ramos to strand three runners against Victor Anaya in the top 6th. He had hit Edwin de Luna, allowed a single to Bressner (classic!) and walked Acor to get into that particular mess, but ended up with two scoreless innings after all. The home team failed to rally, however. Bressner pitched into the ninth inning having shed the shutout bid in the bottom 7th on Fernandez’ leadoff double and Vickers’ RBI single, but other than that was largely unfazed even when Zitzner hit a leadoff single up the middle in the ninth. Fernandez struck out, Jennings flew out to center. Vickers was retired on an 0-2 poker on the infield. 5-1 Indians. Zitzner 2-4, 2B; Vickers 2-4, 2B, RBI; Anaya 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Both Wallace and Zitzner extended hitting streaks with doubles. Wallace was now at 14 games, while Zitzner had reached 12 games.

The Titans split a double-header with the Crusaders on this Friday, making up the game they had been missing and getting rid of the fraction in distance. We were now three full games behind. The Crusaders, the fourth candidate to rule the North, were 5 1/2 back.

Game 2
IND: 1B Witte – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – C J. Herrera – RF Plunkett – LF Acor – 3B Conner – SS Benito – P Kretzmann
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Vickers – C Thompson – RF Camps – P Coffee

Indy went with Kretzmann and his sore biceps, and the Coons went with Coffee, the lukewarm pumpkin-spiced frappuccino of my nightmares. Neither of them gave up a run by the time Coffee called for Dr. Chung to take a look at his throwing paw in the second inning. The NWSN cameras showed Coffee pointing to a spot on the paw repeatedly, while Dr. Chung had crossed his arms in front of his chest and was shaking his head, but ultimately Coffee just walked past him and straight through the dugout into the tunnel. (claps hands enthusiastically) Bullpen day! Never mind that the bullpen was a ****ing man short because Nick Bates was also ailing for no good reason at all …! With Anaya having tossed two innings the previous night, even with a mostly righty lineup for the Arrowheads our best bet was to pick David Fernandez, who had the best stamina and the most rest among the remaining relievers. And while he got out of the inning, having inherited Plunkett on first and one out, the Coons would shuffle the bags full ahead of him with two outs in the bottom 2nd. Zitzner was nicked, Vickers singled, and Camps walked in a full count. There was no hitting for Fernandez here, but at least he was a career .333 hitter (1-for-3)! He unceremoniously struck out.

Portland took the lead in the fourth; Fernandez and Vickers reached base, then were scored by a long double into depths of rightfield off Elliott Thompson’s bat, all of that coming with no outs, for a 2-0 lead. Thompson was stranded because the bottom of the order couldn’t poke a ball in play, and after Ramos was walked intentionally with two out, Zeltser flew out. Top 5th, leadoff walk for Acor against Fernandez. The runner stole his 18th base, moved up on Josh Conner’s grounder, and then tried to steal HOME with Juan Benito at the plate and two outs. While not completely indefensible given Benito’s light hitting and the pitcher on deck, the move looked worse because Thompson threw himself into the runner and tagged him out, thus getting Fernandez threw another scorelessinning. Benito was rung up to end it. David Fernandez rung up the pitcher to begin the sixth, then lost Oliver Witte on balls, and that was it for the long man. Four innings of (so far) shutout ball on 64 pitches provoked major applause from the grief-accustomed fans in the park. The Coons wanted Ed Blair to finish the inning; now Blair had pitched in both of the last two games, but had thrown only 11 pitches in total. However, he walked Schneller on straight balls, the runners pulled off a double steal, but Baron whiffed for the second out, bringing up Juan Herrera, batting .265 with 20 bombs himself. The count ran full before Herrera ripped at a 3-2 … and popped out to Vickers. Anaya retired the 5-6-7 in order in the seventh, and we resigned to try a 6-out save with Wise after that. The move also ended Wallace’s hitting streak since he struck out to tally an 0-for-4 and end the bottom 7th and Wise was dropped into his spot. Jennings, who had opened the bottom 7th with an infield pop in the #9 hole, remained in leftfield. Wise retired Benito, Kretzmann, and Witte in order in the eighth, needing only nine pitches, but Schneller hit a leadoff single in the ninth, bringing up the middle of the order as the tying runs, and they merely had 56 homers between them. Baron was at least easily fooled and hacked out. Herrera also struck out, but looking. Plunkett swiped at a 1-2 cutter… and missed! 2-0 Furballs!! M. Fernandez 2-4; Vickers 2-4; Thompson 1-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; D. Fernandez 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (3-1); Wise 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (27);

No hitting streaks of any sort left!

We got news by Sunday morning that Nick Bates was out with a stretched elbow ligament. Dr. Chung said he’d normally say that this would take six months to heal, but because Bates was such a degenerated hunchbacked weakling, it would take him ten months. So that removed a 1.04 ERA arm from the pen for the foreseeable future and the Coons were left scrambling. Both Bates and Coffee (“paw soreness”… I’m with Dr. Chung on this one…) were placed on the DL. Coffee would have been able to pitch sooner, but the Critters right now needed the roster spot. With an off day on Monday, we would not need a fifth starter until next Saturday anyway, so could bring up two relievers instead.

Because times were dire and we could retool one game later, we brought up the only two pitchers from AAA that were on the 40-man roster and rested, Kyle Green (12 BB in 14 IP earlier this year) and Jason Gurney. The latter had spun a 6.29 ERA in almost 162 innings with the ’32 Coons and had tossed to a 4.58 ERA out of the Alley Cats’ pen this season.

Beggars can’t be choosers though. And despite the addition of two relievers, we were still not blessed with options. Anaya, Blair, and Fernandez were all unavailable on Sunday. Wise had only spun 24 pitches after two days of rest, so was ready to go. Both Hennessy and Garavito had not pitched on Saturday and were thus also available.

Game 3
IND: 1B Witte – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – C J. Herrera – RF Plunkett – LF Acor – 3B Conner – SS Benito – P Saccoccio
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Vickers – RF – Jennings – C Thompson – P Sabre

Portland was bludgeoned in the very first inning with Sabre stupidly walking both Schneller and Baron before he started to surrender rockets. Herrera hit an RBI single, Plunkett an RBI double, and Acor singled to left. That scored two runs once Jimmy Wallace got twisted into a knot trying to make a sliding catch. He had to be carried off the field, too, with Juan Camps dropped in. Acor stole third base, Josh Conner popped out, but Benito dropped in a single to make it 5-0 before he was thrown out at second base. Everything was horrendous and I was swiping up the shards of glass that had been lying under my desk all week to see whether I could eat those.

Things looked a high level of bleak even when Saccoccio tried to have his own meltdown in the bottom 2nd. Fernandez, Vickers, Jennings, and Thompson had straight base hits to begin the inning, plating two runs and bringing up the tying run. Sabre bunted the runners into scoring position, but Ramos grounded out to Witte. Zeltser walked, and for the second time this week we found the unwelcome Juan Camps in a spot that belonged to Jimmy Wallace and he made the third out, this time stranding three. Plunkett homered off Sabre, who ended up with six runs allowed in three ****ing **** innings. He was hit for in the bottom 3rd with the tying runs on board AGAIN. Jennings and Thompson were on the corners; the former had tripled in Fernandez and Vickers to make it 6-4, and there was one out. Marsingill flew out to right in the worst way, keeping the runner at third base, and Ramos rolled a ball to the mound, but Saccoccio was falling the other way and took too long to scramble back to the ball to have any way – infield single, Jennings scored, 6-5. Zeltser flew out to left to end the third.

Unfortunately, with Sabre gone we were smack-dab into the new shallow end of the pen. Kyle Green got the ball for the fourth inning, facing the bottom of the order. Conner popped out, Benito walked (…!!!), and PH Joseph McClenon hit into a double play on the first pitch. The very next pitch of the game was offered by lefty Juan Melendrez to Juan Camps, who peppered it over the fence in left, and that tied the game at six. One of those games, huh? For now I was not filling my mouth with shards – I kinda wanted to see where this dismal game would go…!

Indy put Baron and Herrera on the corners against Kyle Green with two outs in the fifth, but Zeltser handled Plunkett’s grounder to end the inning. After two innings from him we turned to Jason Gurney with the utmost reluctance, but had no other choice. This was where things started to south. Acor hit a leadoff single, stole second, and scored on Benito’s single. The shortstop moved to second base on the throw to home plate, and while PH Matt Barber struck out for the second out, Oliver Witte ticked a 1-2 pitch into right for a single. Benito was sent – and thrown out by Jennings at home plate, ending the top 6th. Gurney allowed a 1-out walk to Baron in the seventh, threw a wild pitch, walked Herrera anyway, and then was dumb-lucky enough to have Plunkett hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 bonanza. The offense couldn’t get going, and instead Garavito took over the 7-6 game in the eighth. He allowed a single to Acor right away, putting the biggest pest of the series back on, threw a wild pitch to move him into scoring position, and then allowed another RBI single to Benito, who AGAIN was thrown out at second base, although this was little consolation for the team that was already behind…

The Coons saw Lance Legleiter, briefly, in the bottom 8th. He was removed after a 1-out walk to Thompson when Garcia hit for Garavito in the #9 hole. Victor Govea came on and allowed a single on the first pitch, presenting Berto with the tying runs. Ramos never got anything to hit and walked on four pitches, bringing up Zeltser with three on and one out. Govea fell to 2-0, then HAD to come inside and was promptly knackered. Zeltser hit a double in the gap, but Acor made a very good play there and the Coons had to throw the anchor on Ramos at third base, even if that meant only tying the game and bringing up the maligned Camps again in a crucial spot. I was nervously walking laps around Cristiano Carmona, who was visibly uncomfortable with that. Camps failed – lining out softly to Benito, but at least the runners were aware and held their positions. Zitzner hit a foul pop in right, which Plunkett raced and lunged for and caught it… until he hit the ground in head-long fashion and lost it out of his glove. The umpire at first base mercilessly shook his head and Zitzner would get another chance, but at 2-2 grounded out to short. Wise was called on to face the good stuff in the top 9th. Schneller hit a ball into centerfield for a single, Baron hit a ball to Vickers for a double play, and the Indians didn’t score, but neither did the Coons in the bottom 9th. The unavoidable Acor hit a 1-out single off Wise in the 10th, and advanced on Conner’s groundout. Benito walked, but Morgan Kuhlmann made the third out to Vickers…! Facing right-hander Mike Burris, Hawkins pinch-hit for Wise in the #9 hole to begin the bottom 10th – he was the last guy off the bench. He also struck out as the Coons made three quick outs. We had nowhere to go but Hennessy for the 11th, but Rico Gutierrez was also sent to the pen to warm up – the second time this had happened in a short period. His services would not be needed. The Indians’ 1-2-3 hitters exploded Hennessy with a sequence of single, double, double, and Plunkett found a 1-out RBI single after Herrera grounded out. Devastation looked like Hennessy, covering his black-and-white face with his cap as he crawled towards the dugout after a 3-run drumming. Bottom 11th, Camps hit a leadoff single, but was doubled up by Zitzner. Fernandez singled to right, and Vickers grounded out to short… 11-8 Indians. Zeltser 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Camps 3-6, HR, RBI; M. Fernandez 3-6, 2B; Jennings 2-4, BB, 3B, 4 RBI; Catella (PH) 1-1; Garcia (PH) 1-1; Green 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K; Wise 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

In other news

August 16 – VAN OF Brian Wojnarowski (.286, 16 HR, 61 RBI) is done with the 2033 season after tearing ankle ligaments.
August 19 – The Miners’ bid for relevancy largely collapses when 1B Danny Santillano (.338, 19 HR, 76 RBI) breaks his finger and figures to miss most of the remaining season.

Complaints and stuff

(still has blood running from one corner of the mouth, a black eye, and patches of fur between the ears missing) Well. At least we have Monday off!

Anyone up for more injury news? In this case, it’s Tim Stalker starting a rehab assignment on Sunday. He should return next week, unless he manages to drown in the Gulf of Mexico in the meantime. I would not put the team above something like that right now! Of course, with Jimmy Wallace now also injured, the season is dead anyway…

Signs of doom: Rico Gutierrez is your best starter the last two times through the rotation. 1-0, 1.15 ERA.

We would have given Antonio Prieto, unranked closer prospect and former #18 draft pick as well as the main loot in the Joe Vanatti deal two years ago, his major league debut on Sunday after the most recent rash of devastating injuries, but he had tossed 43 pitches on the weekend already and was not available.

Fun Fact: Rich Vickers is a streaky bugger.

He started his career batting 9-for-26 with 2 HR and 12 RBI, then immediately fell off a cliff. From July 19 through August 12 he batted 6-for-42 with 1 RBI. He also was in the lineup only three times in the first half of August. Since then? 11-for-22 with 7 RBI.

So now we have a .289/.313/.489 hitter with only one position that is coveted by three other players, average or slightly above average defense, middling speed, and a tendency to freeze mid-romp.

Oh well, you can do worse when you claim someone off the Scorpions…