[Westheim]

Raccoons (28-28) vs. Canadiens (31-23) – June 4-6, 2030

These teams had split a 4-game set right down the middle earlier in the season, back then when both looked like they might be able to compete. Right now, one of the teams led the division, and the other was erring through the night and had run out of matches. The damn Elks were scoring the most runs in the CL, but were also giving up plenty, with the fifth-leakiest pitching. The rotation was especially troubled, struggling in the bottom three by ERA. Not that any of this could help the direly doomed Coons…

Projected matchups:
Dave Martinez (7-2, 3.20 ERA) vs. Victor Govea (4-4, 4.54 ERA)
Mark Roberts (5-2, 4.56 ERA) vs. Joe Martin (5-3, 3.94 ERA)
Jose Menendez (5-3, 3.04 ERA) vs. Chris Sinkhorn (3-2, 4.28 ERA)

The Elks had not played on either Thursday (off day), Friday (climate got in the way), or Monday (common off day), but had been involved in a double header on Saturday. Their rotation was messed up thusly. Neither Govea nor Martin had pitched in (almost) a week. Sinkhorn, the only southpaw, and Rodolfo Cervantes (4-4, 5.08 ERA) had both gone on Saturday.

Game 1
VAN: CF Tessmann – 1B N. Day – SS Bennett – RF Wojnarowski – LF A. Torres – 3B Anton – C F. Garcia – 2B L. Hernandez – P Govea
POR: SS Ramos – RF Allan – CF Mora – 1B Harenberg – 3B Nunley – LF Hereford – 2B Stalker – C Pizzo – P Martinez

While Nick Valdes and me were discussing why there were little Odilon idols distributed all over the premises – of which I had honestly known nothing before Tuesday morning – the Elks already jumped right into Martinez’ face in the opening inning. Danny Tessmann opened with a double off the fence, and it was off to the races from there. T.J. Bennett singled, Brian Wojnarowski hit a sac fly, and with two outs Martinez surrendered another hit to Alex Torres, then walked Matt Anton and Fernando Garcia to force in a run, before Lazaro Hernandez stranded three with a grounder to short in what had quickly become a 2-0 game. The Raccoons sure as heck stranded Ramos on the bases after Alberto’s leadoff double in the bottom 1st, and likewise left Rich Hereford on third base in the bottom 2nd after the struggling straggler and former slugger had dropped a single into right, stolen second, and advanced on a wild pitch. Even with the Elks’ so-so pitching trying to help out, the Coons didn’t bite, and Mike Pizzo (good investment of a million bucks and change!) grounded out pathetically to first base. Bottom 4th, Portland had Mora and Harenberg on the corners with nobody out thanks to a pair of singles. Nunley popped out, Hereford got rung up, and Stalker gingerly rolled out to Hernandez.

Neither pitcher made it through the top of the sixth. Mike Pizzo had somehow hit a closed-eyes solo homer in the bottom 5th to cut the insurmountable gap to 2-1, but Martinez got only one out in the following half-inning before putting Anton on base with a single and Garcia with a 4-pitch walk once more. Billy Brotman replaced him, whiffed Hernandez, then overcame PH Nelson Millan as the Elks tried to break the game wide open with the righty raker. Only one run continued to separate the teams, with the Raccoons bringing the tying run to third base once more in the seventh after singles by the pinch-hitting Matt Jamieson and Ramos, both with two outs. Allan got run up by Fernando Nora, a right-handed reliever, though, and the inning ended. On to the eighth, where Jonathan Fleischer retired exactly nobody between a leadoff walk issued to Alex Torres, a sharp Anton single that sent Torres to third, with Anton taking second via the steal, and then another clueless walk to Garcia. PH Matt Good would get a sac fly off Mauricio Garavito for the only tack-on run, but how were the Coons supposed to rally from a 2-run deficit? Nick Valdes helpfully pointed out that we only needed a bloop and a blast to tie the game, to which I gruntlingly replied that he’d better go and find me some players that could do such things. Instead, right-hander Eric Davidson with an ERA over six retired the heart of the order with no issues in the bottom of the eighth. Raul de la Rosa likewise retired the Portland detachment in order in the ninth inning. 3-1 Canadiens. Ramos 2-4, 2B; Jamieson (PH) 1-1; Brotman 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Doom.

Mr. Valdes, I don’t think you should rub the belly of these idols…

Game 2
VAN: CF Tessmann – 1B Good – SS Bennett – RF Wojnarowski – LF A. Torres – 3B Anton – C F. Garcia – 2B N. Millan – P J. Martin
POR: SS Ramos – RF Allan – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – C Pizzo – 2B Baldwin – P Roberts

“Launchpad” Roberts got through the opening frame on four pitches, which could mean anything, but there were two spiked grounders right at infielders included on those four pitches. If they gained a liiittle heigh- and they did in the second. Alex Torres tripled, Matt Anton doubled, and we were desperate enough to stop them that we walked Nelson Millan intentionally so that Roberts could ring up the opposing hurler with two outs, which he did. The Coons’ offensive attempts were wholly abortive in the early innings. Ramos drew a 2-out walk in the third and stole second for #20 on the year, but was stranded when Allan flew out to Tessmann. Wojnarowski opened the fourth with a jack to center, which was the thing that only saddened you, but had long lost its stun with Mark Roberts pitching. Mind that dead center has been 418’ for about as long as the park has been standing… Roberts walked Torres in the inning, then almost gave up a 2-out bomb to Millan, but Allan made the catch right against the fence in rightfield.

The bottom of the fourth would offer the flimsiest situation with the tying runs on base and nobody out. Mora had reached on a Millan error, and Nunley coaxed a walk on a generously called 3-2 offer. Two years ago, Rich Hereford would have flipped the game, now he rolled a grounder back to the mound. At least Millan fell in the other direction and the damn Elks would only get the out at first base, offering the tying runs in scoring position to Kevin Harenberg, the Unking of Unclutch. Nick Valdes whispered into my ear whether he'd hit a homer. I told him no. He never had, and he never would, hit a homer that would flip a crucial game. He flew out to Torres in shallow left, runners having to hold, and Pizzo flew out to Wojnarowski, stranding them. Roberts leaked another run in the fifth, Bennett singling home Matt Good with a 2-out single after Good had doubled. This came after Tessmann had doubled to right… and had been caught stealing third base, so it could have come well worse for Roberts, and deservedly so. Bottom 5th, Ramos and Allan both reached on 2-out errors… and Mora struck out. There was just no hope with this team.

Roberts lasted six and two thirds, allowing seven hits (five of those for extra bases) and three runs, good enough to trail 3-0 with Joe Martin tossing a 1-hitter until Pizzo’s leadoff single over the head of Millan in the bottom 7th. Baldwin singled to left, and Rafael Gomez, who had entered in a double switch along with Kevin Surginer, spanked hard into a 6-4-3 double play, after which Tessmann robbed Ramos in the gap in left-center. Valdes moaned whether he’d ever get to see his team win a game. I told him no. I still hadn’t received any player that could do anything here. The Raccoons would get the leadoff man on base in the bottom 8th with an Allan single… then had him doubled off by Mora. And that was their last bid for a comeback. 3-0 Canadiens.

In positive developments, Nick Valdes left town on Thursday morning to buy land next to an orphanage in Billings, Montana, to use it as a toxic waste dump. At least I had that guy off my back now…

Game 3
VAN: CF Tessmann – 1B N. Day – SS Bennett – RF Wojnarowski – LF A. Torres – 3B Anton – C F. Garcia – 2B N. Millan – P Sinkhorn
POR: SS Ramos – CF Baldwin – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – RF Gomez – 3B Hereford – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – P Menendez

The stars aligned for a first-inning run for the Coons on 2-out extra-base knocks by Stalker (double) and Jamieson (triple), before Gomez flew out easily to Torres. With that, they had already attained their average run total of the last five games: 1.0 runs per game. That was NOT ALL! The bottom of the second saw Harenberg get nailed, Tovias with a flimsy single, and after Menendez bunted the runners over, Alberto Ramos flicked a 2-out single into left-center that chased home both slow-footed teammates to extend the lead to the loftiest heights of 3-0! On the other side of the box score, Menendez was nearly untouchable, too. He allowed a sole base hit in the first five innings, and while he offered two leadoff walks in the first and fifth innings, he both times got a double play to clear traffic.

Then came the sixth and a 4-pitch walk to the leadoff man once more… and this time it was Chris Sinkhorn. That sure rang an alarm or two, including in the pen, but Tessman went down looking, and then Sinkhorn was the odd pitcher with great speed that could swipe bags. He had three stolen bases on the season, and a healthy 54 stolen bases for his 13-year career. He attempted another one here – and was thrown out. That was ahead of back-to-back singles by Norman Day and T.J. Bennett, then another single to center by Wojnarowski. Day was waved around third and thrown out at home, concluding a 3-hit, 1-walk inning with no runs for the damn Elks, and six shutout innings for Menendez. The Coons’ starter got more support in the bottom 6th, when Hereford singled and Harenberg went yard against Sinkhorn (see – never a homer in a critical spot!) to extend the lead to 5-0. Menendez made it through the seventh, but retired nobody in the eighth. Nelson Millan led off with a sharp single, Matt Good pinch-hit and rolled a single through between the pair of recent Gold Glovers on the right side, and both runners reached scoring position on a throw by another recent Gold Glover, Rafael Gomez, into nowhere. Brotman replaced Menendez, and while he retired the next three batters, the runners scored on Tessmann’s groundout and Day’s sac fly, bringing the damn Elks to within three. The Coons would load them up in the bottom 8th against Jesus Chinchilla, with a Tovias walk, Magallanes single, and Baldwin single, all around Ramos flying out to Wojnarowski in right. Stalker batted with one out against the southpaw Chinchilla, whiffed, and Jamieson rolled out to Lazaro Hernandez at short, an injury replacement for Bennett. Boles put the game away with a minor hiccup, a 2-out walk to Matt Anton in the ninth. 5-2 Coons. Jamieson 2-5, 3B, RBI; Tovias 1-2, 2 BB; Magallanes (PH) 1-1; Menendez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (6-3) and 1-2;

Man, just when I wanted to replace our closer with a sandbag…

Raccoons (29-30) vs. Capitals (28-33) – June 7-9, 2030

To close out the week, another team that had bitten off more than they could chew. The Capitals had won the FL East four times in the last decade, but had finished fourth with winning records the last two seasons and were now ready to sink into the abyss. They were pretty old, they had horrendous defense, they could not run, they could not hit (fifth-fewest runs in the FL), they could not pitch (second-most runs allowed) and they had a bunch of injuries, adding just this week SP Tom Grant (4-3, 3.80 ERA) with a torn rotator cuff that would see him miss a full year. It was also ten years since the Coons had last won a series from the Capitals; we had dropped two out of three four times in the meantime.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (2-4, 4.97 ERA) vs. Colt Willes (1-1, 6.00 ERA)
Tom Shumway (2-5, 3.50 ERA) vs. Chris Munroe (3-0, 5.18 ERA)
Dave Martinez (7-3, 3.21 ERA) vs. Johnny Nelson (5-6, 4.75 ERA)

All of their currently non-disabled starting pitchers were right-handers, including the long-ago Coon Chris Munroe.

Game 1
WAS: CF Whitner – C J. Wood – 2B E. Trevino – RF Tachibana – 3B S. Williams – 1B D. Lane – SS Pick – LF D. Brown – P Willes
POR: SS Ramos – RF Allan – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – LF Hereford – 2B Stalker – C Pizzo – P Gutierrez

There were three singles and four pop outs to Rico Gutierrez’ first run through the Capitals’ order, and more than anything else (but a W) the Raccoons could probably use getting him on track with his ERA scratching five at this point. The third inning turned into a mess, however, with Dan Whitner’s leadoff double quickly leading to a run as Rico shed another two singles to Enrique Trevino and Tsuneyoshi Tachibana, and with two outs walks Danny Lane to fill the sacks. Pat Pick grounded out to Nunley, who had to hustle and bare-hand the ball to have a play at first, and managed to strand all the runners. At that point it was 1-0 with the Coons having done nothing, including Harenberg flying out to center harmlessly to strand a pair in the bottom 1st. Dan Brown opened the fourth with a double to right and scored on two groundouts, putting Portland in a 2-0 hole, which didn’t change even after Harenberg and Hereford dropped 1-out singles in the bottom of the inning. Stalker and Pizzo both struck out, one feebly, the other in a wild hack. Next time around, Harenberg found Nunley on first with no outs, hit into a double play, and then Hereford hit a jack to left… that made it 2-1, and I was just about ready to cry. Stalker doubled to left, the Capitals walked Pizzo with intent, and that sent Matt Jamieson to the plate in place of Rico, and Jamieson delivered a stellar choke job, ramming a ball into the ground right in front of home plate. The ball didn’t even get out of the quarter circle of dirt that was in fair territory before Jimmy Wood pounced on it and threw out Jamieson by about 69 feet.

Garavito did a good job in the top 7th, getting through the top of the order, and then the Caps showed some of that bad defense that kept derailing them. Ramos drew a walk off Willes to begin the bottom 7th, but everybody knew that he’d run and Willes watched him more than the batter. Ramos never made an attempt, but reached second on Allan’s grounder to Trevino, who was indecisive and lost the play on the lead runner, only getting Allan at first, but they could not have gotten two anyway. Mora then popped out, bringing up Nunley, who shot a ball through Stephen Williams (not a Gold Glover, although he’d deserve one) for a 2-out RBI double, tying the score. And Harenberg? Singled to right, but Nunley wouldn’t be able to – OH, TACHIBANA OVERRUNS IT!! The ball emerged behind the slugging rightfielder, and now Nunley was windmilled past third base and scored the go-ahead run! Harenberg got a generously assessed RBI, his 38th of the year. Tachibana semi-redeemed himself with a catch on Hereford’s fly in the gap, then hit a double off the fence off Garavito to begin the eighth. The Coons went to a righty on schedule, sending Ricky Ohl, who would encounter two left-handed pinch-hitters in David Lessman and Dave Menth, also proven veterans past their primes, and rung up both of them. Pat Pick popped out easily to shallow center, stranding Tachibana. The Coons had nothing in the bottom 8th, sending up Boles, who struck out Alfredo Quintana, D.J. Fullerton, and got a grounder from Dan Whitner to second that Stalker played to first for the… second out. See, Fullerton got on base on an uncaught third strike, which was the sort of thing that had gotten catchers outright murdered with a blunderbuss blast to the face before, and – NO, MAUD! LET GO!! I HAVE TO - … (struggles) … so Fullerton was the tying run on second with two outs and .217 hitting righty Jimmy Wood up. Boles got to 2-2 on him, then surrendered a sharply spanked grounder to the left side. Nunley lunged! Nunley contained! Nunley spun around! Nunley to first! Ballgame!! 3-2 Raccoons. Allan 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Harenberg 2-4, RBI; Hereford 2-4, HR, RBI;

Ryan Allan got his 18th and 19th base hits of the season, including the first one that was not a single.

The Coons even moved out of fifth place now, passing the Titans.

Game 2
WAS: SS Menth – C J. Wood – 2B E. Trevino – RF Tachibana – 3B S. Williams – 1B D. Lane – CF Pick – LF D. Brown – P Munroe
POR: SS Ramos – CF Allan – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – LF Hereford – RF Gomez – 2B Stalker – C Tovias – P Shumway

While Tim Stalker briefly interrupted a monthlong nap to put the Coons on the map, 1-0, with a solo homer to left in the second inning, Shumway retired the first six before offering a leadoff walk to Pat Pick in the third inning, and while it sounded like the worst pun, the Shumster actually PICKED him off first base after Dan Brown had made the first out… and then he walked the opposing pitcher Munroe, who had last been a Coon 13 years ago, so I would not feel too mellow about him getting ravaged for six or nine runs. You hear me, boys? They scratched out a run in the third on three singles, including Harenberg’s RBI single with two outs, but I waited in vain for a big knell early. Instead, Shumway allowed a leadoff double to Wood in the fourth and would eventually score him with a 2-out balk, cutting the lead back to 2-1, and then put two on base with singles in the fifth, Danny Lane with nobody out, and Chris Munroe with two outs… Menth flew out to Allan to strand those runners.

At this point, it was all a mess – Munroe, who had come in with 20 walks against 18 strikeouts, but had reversed the balance in the game already, walked Shumway to begin the bottom 5th, which was such a great way to help your team rally. And Ramos hit into a double play, so what do I know about baseball? Probably still more than Shumway. The ****ing ass blew the game single-pawedly in the sixth inning, putting the speedy Trevino on base with his own dumb error simply failing to pick up a slowly rolling baseball, then conceded the tying run on a Stephen Williams single with one out. He then threw eight balls to Lane and Pick, and finally fell to a Dan Brown grand slam to dead center, which – still – was up to 418’ away. That buried the Coons down by four, got Shumway shown the door after the inning (though all the runs were unearned on his precious ERA), while now the team would doubtlessly trundle towards another depressing loss.

Bottom 6th, Nunley led off with a soft single and Munroe got bombed by Harenberg, cutting the gap in half to 6-4. Hereford whiffed, but Gomez, Tovias, and Mora all reached base, presenting Ramos with the tying runs and more with two outs. A liner in the gap or something would really help us out here. He flew out to Tachibana. Oh well, there was still time for some trundling from here… Allan and Nunley made quick first outs (after Fleischer narrowly avoided getting bopped in the top of the inning) in the bottom 7th before Harenberg reached with a liner for a double in leftfield. The Caps hung with Monroe against Hereford, who had looked particularly bad in his last at-bat, and quickly fell to two strikes again before striking – a shot to right, easily 410 feet, and outta here to tie the game! Rafael Urbano replaced Munroe one batter too late, got out of the inning, but then got pierced with straight 2-out singles by Pizzo, Ramos, and Allan in the bottom 8th. Pizzo scored to give the Coons their first lead since Shumway had imploded, but they would also cart up Boles for the third straight day in the ninth inning. He struck out the side anyway. 7-6 Critters! Ramos 2-5; Nunley 2-4, BB; Harenberg 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Pizzo (PH) 1-1;

First series win against the Capitals since 2020 – achieved.

Alright – no Josh Boles on Sunday, though. We don’t do four in a row here in June, and certainly not after throwing 58 pitches across three outings with one walk, six strikeouts, and neither hits nor runs.

Game 3
WAS: LF Quintana – 3B S. Williams – C Lessman – 1B D. Lane – SS Menth – 2B Pick – RF D. Brown – CF Whitner – P J. Nelson
POR: SS Ramos – CF Allan – 3B Nunley – 1B Harenberg – RF Hereford – LF Jamieson – 2B Stalker – C Pizzo – P Martinez

Neither pitcher looked particularly sharp, with Martinez being taken deep by Stephen Williams in the first and then allowing another run in the fourth on three sharp base hits, including a leadoff double by Danny Lane, who quickly scored on Dave Menth’s single. That erased a 2-1 Coons lead; Harenberg and Pizzo had both hit doubles to tie the game in the bottom 2nd, and a leadoff triple by Ramos had allowed the Raccoons to take the tiny lead, since blown, when Allan grounded out behind second base. They took the lead back though, in the bottom 4th even: Jamieson hit a 1-out single to left, and then was running when Tim Stalker belted a ball to deep left and just barely over the fence for a go-ahead homer, 4-2.

Not that it helped Martinez, who continued to struggle and needed 83 pitches through five. Ramos then led off the bottom 5th with a single to left, was caught stealing, and that annoyingly came ahead of an Allan single and Nunley drawing a walk on four pitches. Could have been three on, no outs, but MAYBE this was better, because the Coons stunk with three on and no outs. Nope, Harenberg grounded sharply to short on the very next pitch, and only a slight fumble by Menth prevented the double play. Hereford came up with men on the corners, poked at the first pitch as well, a ****ty bloop into shallow center, just ahead of Dan Whitner’s glove – it was an RBI single though, no matter how ugly it was, and this was a 5-2 game. Jamieson became the third batter in a row to reach for the first pitch, chucked a ball into the left-center gap, and this one became a 2-out, 2-run triple! Oh, FINE. Do whatever you want! Who needs to work pitch counts? Stalker would ground out to short against reliever J.R. Hreha, who despite the Caps’ best efforts could not have come in earlier during the 3-run barrage. Those were not the final runs in the game; Pizzo would drive in a run in the eighth with an RBI triple (!), while the Raccoons sent Sean Rigg to pitch in relief of Martinez, who lasted only six innings. Rigg was scheduled to pitch until encountering serious trouble with a 5-run (later 6-run) lead, but those troubles never materialized, and Rigg completed the sweep with a 3-inning save instead. 8-2 Coons! Ramos 3-5, 3B; Jamieson 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Pizzo 2-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Rigg 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

In other news

June 3 – The hitting streak of OCT 2B/SS Alex Serrato (.321, 10 HR, 38 RBI) ends at 20 games after the 30-year-old right-handed hitter goes hitless in a 4-2 loss to the Aces.
June 3 – All but one of the Warriors’ starting position players collect multiple hits in a 17-6 strafing of the Wolves that sees the Warriors plate 10 men in the fifth inning alone.
June 4 – OCT 3B Dave Garcia (.299, 10 HR, 27 RBI) socks his 300th home run off MR J.J. Ringland (2-1, 2.93 ERA) in the Thunder’s 6-1 win over the Aces. The 35-year-old two-time Player of the Year is batting .291 and has plated 846 runners not himself in his career.
June 6 – The Warriors out-hit the Wolves 11-4, but still lose the game, 3-2, with the Wolves getting two of their hits in the bottom 8th after walks had loaded the bases.
June 7 – The Aces trade 32-yr old OF/1B Joe Vanatti (.240, 2 HR, 8 RBI) to the Gold Sox for 25-yr old SS Ted Schlegelmilch (.326, 4 HR, 22 RBI).
June 8 – 34 hits, 12 walks, four errors, seven homers, and a 17-13 final are the result of the Warriors’ wacko win over the Indians, who despite piling up more than a dozen never lead the game and trail by as many as 11 runs. Two players land four base hits: IND 1B Jon Gonzalez (.319, 8 HR, 44 RBI) and SFW SP Pat Okrasinski (5-3, 2.55 ERA).
June 8 – PIT INF/CF Carlos de la Riva (.270, 5 HR, 19 RBI) hits a second-inning homer for the only scoring in the Miners’ 1-0 win over the Bayhawks.
June 9 – ATL 2B/SS John Johnson (.292, 5 HR, 23 RBI) has hit safely in 20 straight games with a 3-hit effort in an 11-2 rout of the Rebels.

Complaints and stuff

It may feel like it, but this was actually not the first sweep for us this season. We swept the Knights April 22-24, and depending on your stance on rain-shortened sets, we also swept both games from the Loggers on May 10-11.

Boles, Ramos, and Harenberg are the lead All Star vote recipients at their respective positions at this juncture. I get Boles. I surely get Ramos. I don’t get Harenberg. He batted .272 with ten homers, which was surely not otherworldly. Jon Gonzalez was second with a .319 clip and eight homers, but more RBI (44).

Schlegelmilch is a third-year player that is not much of a defensive shortstop and who added 268 points to his 2029 OPS at the time of the trade. That one will be interesting to follow.

Okrasinski allowed six runs, three earned, in seven innings in the Warriors-Indians tilt on Saturday. A former #5 pick, the righty is still more valuable on the mound, having won 20 games last year. It took him a while to get established with a 3-pitch mix and sometimes lacking control, but this is the second straight year where he bids for the ERA title in the Federal League.

Next: quick hop down the coast to play three in L.A., then another home series against the Crusaders on the weekend. We will then be hitting up the Midwest with a 2-city trip to Milwaukee (including a double header with the makeup game of the postponement mentioned earlier) and Oklahoma City the week after that. The draft will also take place on the coming Saturday.

Fun Fact: Sean Rigg earned his second career save on Sunday. His other save came last season, but in more conventional circumstances.

…as conventional as you can call him saving a 7-5 lead in the 10th against the Rebels, nailing a guy with two outs and thus pulling up the opposing reliever Seth Odum with the Rebels’ bench completely used up. Weird quirk: Odum is on the Capitals now, but did not feature prominently in Sunday’s game.