[Westheim]

The Buffaloes series started off with a never-ending struggle that went for 16 innings, five and a half hours. Back 3-0 early, the Raccoons only tied the game down to their final out in the bottom ninth, then walked off seven grueling innings later when Anderson and Sullivan doubled back-to-back with no outs in the bottom 16th. The Raccoons lost Johan Dolder, who was hit by a pitch from Lowell “Wacky” Booth and broke a finger, disabling him for up to six weeks, possibly also ending his season. With the pens thoroughly wrecked, Alex Miranda was tasked with going deep and well in the second game. He failed and allowed all runs in the 6-3 loss. The Raccoons then left a bunch of runners in scoring position in the last game, plus Tim Anderson thrown out at home in the third, in a 2-0 complete game loss to Powell, concluding interleague play for this year. Overall we had gone 8-10 against the Federal League. None of the six series had been a sweep.

Another injury to compensate somehow. There were also five injured players on my AAA and AA teams, further reducing my options. I would open the Canadiens series one guy short, then activate Maloney for game 2 and go with three catchers for two days, then get things in order again the following off day.

Weak offense continued into the weekend series with the Canadiens, which started with another 2-0 loss due to no offense from the team. It took the returning catcher Darryl Maloney to break up the dry spell for the Raccoons as he batted in Anderson in the second inning. The Raccoons still lost 7-3, and they also lost Pedro Sánz AGAIN, after three days in the lineup. This time he banged into the wall catching a flyball, and hurt his shoulder. He went to the 15-day DL. This posed a lot of problems, as I was left with only four outfielders. Worse, this included .000 Correa and in AAA I also had only four healthy outfielders. Ed Sullivan was an emergency leftfield option. I wanted to bring somebody up anyway, and I went with Hector Mendez, the infielder. We ended up swept by the Canadiens, losing 8-4 in the last game.

Simon, Maloney and Lopez signed their new contracts. This left Flores and Powell to resign. And to decide on Green, who had lowered his ERA considerably since getting out of the closer role and more into a seventh / eighth inning role.

And here we were in another losing streak of already five games and the Indians came up, and even worse, we started the series against Salah Brunet (of no-hit fame). The Canadian started with three perfect innings, while the Indians piled on Powell for four runs, but then Brunet glitched and allowed four in the fourth to tie the game. And there came eight innings of dreadful deadlock. The Indians loaded the bases in the eighth, but Gaston got out of it. The decision came in the 13th inning. Sullivan singled to start it off, Wyatt Johnston flew out, Ben Simon walked. Martin Hansen then threw a wild pitch that advanced Sullivan and Simon into scoring position. The Indians went on to walk Greg Swift intentionally (he was 4-5 that night). Bases loaded, one out, Tim Anderson grounds into short and Sullivan is thrown out at home. Bases loaded, two outs, Maloney up. And in an anticlimactic ending, Hansen walks him on five pitches, forcing in the winning run, and ending our losing skid. Phew!

Juan Berrios didn’t feel well before game 2, he had been plagued by migraine for a few days now, but he wanted to start anyway. He was mostly okay on the mound, but struggled with control. Five early Raccoons runs gave a little cushion, but things derailed in the fifth. Luis Hernandez was injured on a play and had to be removed from the game – that was ANOTHER rightfielder out of action. We came out tied 5-5 from the fifth and Berrios was removed for Bruce Wright, who surrendered a home run in the sixth that ended up being the winning run as the Raccoons lost 6-5. We got to the Indians 7-1 in the last game, winning that series.

The Aces were next for the final series against them and the final series on this home stint. Injuries kept piling up as reliever Bruce Wright threw only three pitches in the first game, a 5-3 loss, then left with a painful stiff neck. Aww, little girl has a boo-boo. Arf. The Raccoons were swept with further scores of 5-1 (3 hits of our own) and 1-0 (2 hits of our own). Seems like the Aces are the Indians of the CL South.

We’d finish the month on the road in Atlanta, with a 4-game series in Boston starting on September 1. Outfielders Lopez and Sánz are to come back sometimes during or after the Titans series. I need them. Really.

In other news:
August 19 – William Williams of the Knights 1-hits the Aces in a 4-0 win.
August 21 – Crusader Bruce Farrell has 20 consecutive games with a hit.
August 23 – The Titans lose their power bat Shawn Gilmore (16 HR) to a broken finger until around the end of the season.
August 24 – Farrell’s streak ends at 22, while Brian Adams of the Titans now has 20 games with a hit.
August 27 – Adams’ hitting streak also ends at 22 against the Bayhawks.