[Westheim]

We revamped our rotation after the break to order the guys accounting to who struggled the least. It was a tight race, but Powell now led off with Ray, Berrios, and Morris behind him. In reality, they all would have been the #8 starter…

Powell had a 2-hit shutout going to open the next series against the Canadiens. He ran out of steam in the ninth and Justice and Gaston closed out the 3-0 victory. Maloney was 3-4 with two RBI. Hall stole three bases. At the same time we put Clint Rhodes and his 25-game hitting streak away. Ned Ray in game 2 pitched well enough to win the game with some power support. Sullivan homered for three in the third and plated four in total. Maloney had three hits again. The Raccoons moved from 5-4 to 8-4 in the top 9th, and Bill Craig was tasked with getting the last three outs. He nicked the first batter, then walked another. A double play left a runner on third. Another walk. To hell with Craig, bring another one! With lefties up, O’Rearden came in. He nicked the first batter, and I saw this before. A single later, two were across and I finally resigned and turned to Wally Gaston, who whiffed the next guy to end it with the 8-6 win.

Gustavo Zuniga ended up once more on the casualty list with a sore shoulder, out for four weeks or so. Dolder replaced him in the lineup for the next few games, but only until Pedro Sánz would come back. Then we would try to slot either youngster, Cox or Hall, into center. Dolder’s .200 hitting was not that thrilling. (Well, Hall was batting .213 …) Until Sánz’ return we’d play a man short.

Game 3. The Raccoons out-hit the Canadiens 11-6, but two throwing errors by Maloney plated two unearned runs that derailed the game for Berrios and the Raccoons lost 3-2. Game 4 was perhaps the biggest thriller in the series. Down 2-0 early on Jerry Morris totally out of control, the Raccoons rallied bit by bit, tying it in the fifth on a homer by Kieran Lawson, and then took a fragile 3-2 lead when Hall bashed one out in the sixth. Pitching was certainly not boring for the Raccoons that day as Morris in the sixth and Hatfield in the seventh both ended up with threats and second and third, but somehow weasled through. In the top 8th the Raccoons slammed three home runs (Hall, Johnston, and Lawson, the latter two back-to-back) to put the game out of reach. We won 7-2.

Pedro Sánz is back! Hurray! Unfortunately he went 0-4 in his first game back against the Titans. Raccoons led 2-0 through six, but things got out of hand in the eighth, when Powell left with a 2-1 lead, two out and runners on the corners. Brett Justice came to face the lefty up next, but surrendered a triple. Raccoons then lost 3-2, which was followed by a 9-4 defeat the next day in the middle game. Ned Ray struck out six, and allowed six earned runs as well – we’ll call this a mixed outing. O’Rearden had another inefficient outing doing mopup. Sánz landed a pair of hits, and Hall homered in the bottom 9th when people were already going home. Hall is at .237 now with his batting, slowly crawling up after that terrible April.

The Raccoons led again in game 3, 2-0 after four, and lost 7-4. Justice, Hatfield, and Gaston were torched for five in the final two innings, after we had entered 2-2. So, the Raccoons led all three games early against the Titans, lost all three on bad pitching, and now had dropped from 3.5 games back to fifth place in the division to 6.5 again. Great, really. Those guys could not beat a team of blind, one-legged orphans …….

The game 3 loss was already the 250th defeat in Raccoons history. Compare that to 168 wins. That’s just a scratch over .400 overall. The Falcons were now the first of three CL South teams to come to Portland, with the Bayhawks and Aces after them. This should get the Raccoons to sub-.400 for all time again. And maybe they’d stay there forever.

Still not enough bad news? You may remember Juan Martinez, an outfield prospect, discovered in Mexico at age 17 with an enormous bat. He tore his posterior cruciate ligament last year – turned out he had frecked up his knee for good and we would have to put him on a bus back to Mexico. Career over at age 18.

The Falcons. The Raccoons were again shot down in the first game, 8-5, but Christopher Powell seemed to come around for good again. He delivered a 98-pitch complete game the next day in a 5-1 win, and only missed a shutout because Darryl Maloney allowed a passed ball that eventually got the run in for the Falcons in the first inning. Powell also executed a suicide squeeze perfectly in the fourth inning that scored Ben Simon. In his last seven starts, Powell has gone 5-2 with 11 ER, shaving his ERA by almost a full run down to 3.57 – imagine a rotation with Powell in his 1977 and mid-1979 form at #2, behind a sharp sub-3.00 Romero and an equally solid Logan Evans (because I believe he has the potential), and there is your .500 plus team. If they stay healthy. Two thirds of them haven’t.

So I went into game 3 in a good mood again. Yet the signs weren’t good, the intestines of the sacrificed animals spelling trouble as Ned Ray faced Joe Ellis, with the latter having less than half the former’s ERA. But it wasn’t all Ray that was the problem. Sometimes it just wouldn’t work out. An error by Angel Costa (rare enough) plated two in the first inning, although Ray walked two and nicked another to accelerate the unevitable. The Falcons scored in every inning but the seventh and ninth and wrapped up the Raccoons 14-3. Pitching allowed three wild pitches and 11 walks. In addition to a million hits, of course.

Bill Craig and Frank O’Rearden were banished to AAA after the series. Both had terrible control and were causing damage in great amounts. Roman Ocasio and Tony Lopez were recalled. Ocasio would start again with Ray moving to the pen. This hadn’t worked in the past, this won’t work in the future.

After an off day we faced the Bayhawks, starting with Berrios going against Kinji Kan. The latter had a no-hitter going that wasn’t broken up until the seventh, when Ed Sullivan doubled to right. The Raccoons managed to get two hits in total and lost 3-0. Game 2 was much the opposite. Jerry Morris surrendered seven runs in less than three innings and the Bayhawks got enough momentum from there to win 11-8.

Game 3 was Powell starting and maybe he could get a W here. It had come this far. I was relying on last season’s “Bozo of the Year Award” winner to get a win. Powell went 7.2 innings with a 4-3 lead. With a runner on first and lefty Michael Bolton up, I brought Justice. Bolton homered and that was not the first time this happened with Justice this year. Ironically, Justice wound up being credited the W, when Daniel Hall doubled in two in the bottom of the 8th for a 6-5 win. Hall was 3-5 with a homer and 3 RBI this game. His average was over .240 now.

Aces series. Roman Ocasio, who had gotten to an 8.00 ERA in his first short (for obvious reasons) stint with the team earlier this year, started. He allowed only one run over seven innings, but his performance was exceptionally twisted and he relied heavily on our defensively solid infield. Hall homered to make it 2-1 in the bottom 5th and with Hatfield coming on in the eighth I thought I was sure. Hatfield gave up three straight hits, the Raccoons lost 3-2.

We slotted Maloney back to #1 catcher. Lawson was just as glitchy with passed balls lately and Maloney was at least batting .250. Besides, what the hell, I will clean house in the off season and if everything goes to plan, those two will be gone. To a far away land, if I get a voice in there.

Game 2 against the Aces. Berrios got his 16th loss and hurt himself in a 2-1 loss. A 4-1 loss completed the sweep.

In other news:
July 15 – The runaway Cyclones lose their motor Jeremiah Carrell (batting .422) for two weeks to a foot contusion.
July 15 – The Loggers wash up the Indians 9-0, with Eduardo Jimenez throwing a one-hitter.
July 16 – Sergio Salazar, ace of the Falcons, is out until next year with a torn rotator cuff.
July 17 – Chris Lynch of the Warriors has himself a 20-game hitting streak.
July 20 – “Mauler” Correa shuts out the Cyclones on three hits in a 4-0 Scorpions win.
July 20 – The Warriors lose 3-2 to the Blue Sox, and Lynch goes 0-3 to end his hitting streak at 22 games.
July 21 – LF Chad White of the Capitals only lacks a triple for a cycle in a 6-0 win over the Gold Sox. He went 5-5 with 10 TB and two RBI.
July 23 – The Stars send their closer Roberto Vega (86 saves in his career) to Tijuana for pitching prospects.
July 24 – The Rebels lose their monster batter Juan Medine to a back injury for a few weeks.
July 27 – Starter Jesse Thompson, 43-23 with the Cyclones for his career, will miss many months with radial nerve compression.

News flash after the Aces series: Juan Berrios has a torn rotator cuff. Season over. That’s the third guy to go down from those four that started the season in the rotation. The fourth is Morris.

Won’t it ever stop to hurt?