Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (31-18) @ Condors (31-18) – May 28-30, 2063

First-place teams clashed in this series and I sure hoped the Coons had found their baseballing abilities again after a rather uninspired sweep of the bottom-dwelling Falcons on the weekend, because that sort of performance wouldn’t beat the CL’s #5 offense and #2 pitching. We had a 2-1 lead in the season series, but the Condors had a +50 run differential, five times exactly that of the Critters. Outfielder Querubim Churricho, a bit of a pest in the first series we played this year, was off on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (5-2, 2.77 ERA) vs. Brett Bebout (3-3, 4.29 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-2, 2.68 ERA) vs. Vince Ellison (6-0, 2.04 ERA)
John Bollinger (1-2, 3.94 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (6-1, 2.88 ERA)

Three right-handed opponents lined up by the Condors.

The Raccoons made two roster moves ahead of the series, optioning INF/RF Victor Morales (.250, 1 HR, 11 RBI) and MR Hachiro Yokoyama (1-0, 0.00 ERA) back to the Alley Cats to bring up veteran presence Lonzo from a month less one day on the sidelines with a shoulder injury, and right-handed reliever slash failed starter Daniel Benitez, who had a nice 2.13 ERA in St. Pete. Benitez had made two appearances (one start) for the Coons in ’62 for a 6.75 ERA. He had then worn #53, since assigned to Josh Elling, and now rocked #40.

Game 1
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – RF Corral – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Alba
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – 1B Metz – SS C. Ramsey – 3B Frasher – 2B Serrano – C Fuller – CF E. Maldonado – P Bebout

The Monday opener breezed by with breathtaking pace. One reason for that was the Raccoons’ utter lack of offense, scattering two hits through seven innings, while Alba allowed five hits in the same stretch and relied on his defense quite a lot. Four hits were plonked about by the Condors for no runs in the first three frames, but ex-Coons backstop Tim Fuller lifted a homer to left in the fourth to give them a 1-0 lead. Things looked a bit over going into the late innings, with Bebout still dealing (7 K through seven innings), but Arellano poked a leadoff single and was bunted to second base by Alba. Kozak whiffed, and Lonzo’s grounder up the middle was intercepted, but bungled by Casey Ramsey, putting runners on the corners for Starr. His drive to center ended up with Elmer Maldonado, ending the inning. Alba retired two more in the bottom 8th before fudging the bags full with Alf Mendez, who singled, then walks to Andy Metz and Ramsey. Murdock replaced him and got a groundout to Jim White from Eric Frasher to kill the threat, before the Coons disappeared orderly against Jose Lugo in the ninth. 1-0 Condors. Alba 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, L (5-3);

Game 2
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – LF Campos – 3B Fowler – C Arellano – P Fox
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – SS C. Ramsey – C Brann – 1B Metz – 3B Frasher – CF Cardwell – 2B Serrano – P Ellison

Lonzo was hitting .169 after a fruitless return from the DL on Monday, but raked a 2-run homer following a Kozak single to begin the Tuesday affair, which filled my tummy with goody goodness and raised his average to, well, .179 … The strafing of Ellison continued with a Starr double to center, and productive outs to bring him around on Corral’s sac fly to right for a 3-0 score after the top 1st. More chances to score came afterwards; Kozak nearly hit a homer to left in the second inning with two outs and Fowler on base, but the ball was caught at the fence by Alf Mendez, and Kozak came up with three on and two outs in the fourth and then popped out to Serrano, who in between had hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd and had been doubled home by Marco Asencio to cut into the Raccoons’ lead. The rest of that lead Fox would blow in the sixth inning. A 1-out walk to Mike Brann, a Metz single on a 1-2 pitch, a wild pitch, Frasher’s RBI groundout and a booming RBI double off the wall in left crashed by Chad Cardwell evened the score for the Condors before Serrano flew out to Kozak in deep center to end the miserable inning.

The Raccoons kept hitting the ball hard, but too often found the outfielders. They ripped four sharp balls off Ellison to begin the seventh inning. White – batting for Fox – and Kozak dished singles, but Lonzo and Starr flew out to Mendez, and Monck struck out to leave the runners on base. The Raccoons kept being bitten by tough luck in those later innings just like that, while Matt Walters gave up three straight 2-out singles to the 6-7-8 batters to allow the Condors to claim a 4-3 lead in the bottom 8th. Left-hander Joe Cash attempted the save in the ninth inning. Arellano grounded out, but Malik Crumble pinch-hit and struck a game-tying homer to center! This helped send the game to extras; a Lonzo single with two outs went unused, and Pohlmann retired Tijuana in order in the bottom 9th. In extras, Cash continued and hit Jose Corral with one out in the tenth inning. Campos grounder advanced him to second base, and Corral scored on Fowler’s 2-out single into right to break the 4-4 tie. Arellano grounded out, but then guided Carlisle to a 1-2-3 tenth inning to grab the game and put it into the W column. 5-4 Raccoons. Kozak 2-5; Lavorano 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 2-5, 2B; Fowler 2-5, RBI; White (PH) 1-1; Crumble (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Game 3
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – LF Crumble – 3B Fowler – C Arellano – P Bollinger
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – C Brann – 1B Metz – SS C. Ramsey – 3B Frasher – 2B Serrano – CF Cardwell – P M. Clemente

The Raccoons’ offense remained mostly mute in the rubber game, as the Condors took a brisk 2-0 lead in the first inning against a wobbly Bollinger and then appeared to be cruising. Asencio singled, Brann walked, and a Metz single and Ramsey’s sac fly got in the two runners for the Condors.

The Coons didn’t mount an actual threat until the sixth inning when Lonzo and Starr clipped 1-out singles and went to the corners as the tying runs. Rich Monck, in a bit of a slump at this stage, popped out to short, but Corral singled in a run with two outs, dropping a base hit into shallow right. Clemente plunked Crumble with an 0-2 pitch to load the bases, but Fowler calmly flew out to Cardwell to leave them that way. In turn, Bollinger offered a leadoff walk to Brann, then singles to Metz and Ramsey to begin the bottom 6th. He was yanked after walking in a run against Frasher. The good news was that Murdock would get out of the inning on three strikeouts. The bad news was that the last K didn’t come until Mendez in the #2 spot, and by then the Condors had a 4-spot on the board as Murdock walked in another run against Serrano and allowed a 2-out, 2-run single to Asencio.

Portland frittered away another two runners in the seventh, then put in Daniel Benitez for garbage relief. Garbage he was indeed, getting roughed up for five hits and three runs in the last two offensive innings by the Condors. The Raccoons disappeared from the game silently. 9-1 Condors. Lavorano 2-4; Oley (PH) 1-1, BB, 2B;

I don’t think we’re gonna find a happy spot with Bollinger any time soon…

Raccoons (32-20) @ Crusaders (29-23) – June 1-3, 2063

The Crusaders had a +59 run differential (Coons: +2…) while scoring the second-most runs and allowing the fifth-fewest runs in the CL. They were tops in batting average and OBP, and had the second-most homers. We had … we had … uh. Tied our shoes correctly, for the most part, recently? We were down 4-2 in the season series against New York, and they were rising from a bad start to the season, spending much of April in last place in the North (whenever it hadn’t been held by the Coons). The Raccoons came in after a day off, while the Crusaders had played in the only CL game on Thursday, beating the Knights 8-1.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (3-5, 4.01 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (8-2, 2.81 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. Nate Mickler (3-3, 4.75 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-3, 2.61 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (3-5, 4.87 ERA)

We’d be getting three right-handers, perpetual Seiter and the two weak links in the Crusaders’ rotation. Maybe that would help staving off a sweep… Mickler was spotting the injured Jeff Kozloski, while with Aubrey Austin there was also one of the teeth from the lineup on the DL.

Game 1
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B White – C Arellano – P Elling
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 3B V. Velez – RF Zeiher – C McLaren – 2B Onelas – LF Cline – CF J. Alvarez – 1B R. Wright – P Seiter

Elling remained a source of frustration, walking Omar Sanchez and Sean Zeiher in the first inning before giving up an RBI double to Marcos Onelas with two outs, and somehow getting the final out on a fly to center by Jake Cline. The paid-like-an-ace Elling then had another 3-0 count against Jesus Alvarez to begin the bottom 2nd, but Alvarez popped out there and the Crusaders went in order. Seiter instead put White (single) and Arellano (nicked) on base to begin the top 3rd and Elling bunted them into scoring position before Kozak fanned. However, Seiter’s wild pitch to Lonzo tied the game, and Lonzo gave Portland a 2-1 lead with a single to center! Starr grounded out to end the inning, while Elling, the fool, had nothing better to do than offer another leadoff walk to Omar Sanchez and his 16 steals on the season, then tip-claw around him for the next three batters before stranding him on second base.

Back-to-back doubles by Monck and Crumble extended the lead to 3-1 at the start of the fourth inning, with two groundouts by Corral and White just good enough to get Crumble home as well for the fourth run. Arellano hit a wallbanger double, but was stranded by Elling, however, Joel Starr’s solo jack in the fifth would tack on a run for the Coons against a strangely slapable Seiter.

Seiter was gone after the fifth, and Elling only lasted six, finishing oddly strong with three strikeouts to the Crusaders’ 3-4-5 batters after a throwing error by Rich Monck had put Vic Velez on base to begin the bottom of the sixth. The runner didn’t score, and the Raccoons remained on top 5-1. The bullpen got involved in the seventh and almost exploded the whole ******* ballgame. Pohlmann put runners on the corners with a pair of singles allowed to Alvarez and PH Alex Romero. McDaniel came on and nicked Sanchez to load the bases with two outs, then walked in a run against Velez, which was not helpful. Mike Seidman, right-handed batter, would go into the box in place of Zeiher, left-handed batter, with the tying runs all on base and the Raccoons scrambled for Murdock, who ran a full count, and then got him to fly out to Crumble near the warning track. And then Murdock didn’t ******* retire anybody to begin the bottom 8th…! Walk to Matt McLaren, Onelas single, Cline single, and a bases-loaded walk to Alvarez. (buries face in paws) Walters replaced him, ran a full count against Tristan Waker, who grounded to short, and Lonzo threw the ball past White for an error rather than a double play. Aaron Walker snickered as he smashed a pinch-hit grand slam after that. Walters continued to get beaten to pulp with Sanchez and McLaren doubles, an Onelas single, and then was yanked for Benitez, and that little twat walked the bags full, then gave up two more runs on Alvarez and Waker singles before the ******* inning finally ended against Walker, who flew out. All in all, it was a 9-spot (five earned), and I was sulking. 11-5 Crusaders. Campos (PH) 1-1;

What a pile of useless little *****.

Game 2
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B White – C Arellano – P Riddle
NYC: CF J. Alvarez – RF A. Romero – SS O. Sanchez – LF Cline – 2B Onelas – 3B V. Velez – C Waker – 1B Callaia – P Mickler

Riddle got spanked around for four singles and two runs in the first inning, so there went any hope for a decent outing. While the Coons had a bit of a 2-out rally in the second inning with a Corral single, White walking, and Arellano hitting an RBI double, Riddle struck out to end that. Two more outs were made to begin the third inning by Kozak and Lonzo before Starr singled to center and then Monck emptied a fastball into the rightfield bleachers to flip the score to 3-2 Portland – although Riddle would then need two pitches to Jesus Alvarez in the bottom 3rd to give up a game-tying homer himself…

It didn’t get any better for Raccoons pitching. The Crusaders loaded them up in the bottom 4th as Onelas and Gaudencio Callaia hit singles up the middle around a walk drawn by Velez. The only saving grace was Mickler hitting a comebacker to Riddle that was taken for a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning. The Coons left a runner in scoring position in the fourth and fifth innings, then had leadoff hits from White and Arellano in the sixth. Riddle bunted them to second and third, and Kozak singled to center to give the team a 4-3 lead before Alvarez threw out Arellano, who barreled through the stop sign at third base and was out by a mile. Lonzo was hit by a pitch before Starr grounded out to strand two more runners.

Riddle remained useless gave up a 1-out walk to Onelas, then singles to Velez and Waker in the bottom 6th to blow that lead, too before being disposed of. Even more useless: Isaac McDaniel, who ****** the bags full with a walk to Callaia, then walked Zeiher with the bases already loaded to force in the go-ahead run for New York. Alvarez then found a double play to hit into. McDaniel, like a real piece of ****, offered leadoff walks to Romero and Sanchez in the seventh, too, and had to be shoveled out of his own mess by Carrillo, who then singled in the eighth ahead of Lonzo’s 2-out single and a walk drawn by Starr, all against right-hander Kody Mello, who got Monck to 0-2 … and then nailed him to tie the game at five.

If anything, both teams should be excluded from playoff consideration at this point.

Crumble grounded out (of course) to leave the bases loaded. Closer Jason Rhodes got the ball in the ninth, gave up a leadoff single to Corral, and then saw White unable to get a bunt down … and then gave up a 2-strike single to center. Arellano struck out and Fowler grounded to Ryan Wright – an injury replacement for Onelas at second base – for a double play that wasn’t turned when Wright flicked the ball past Omar Sanchez, and instead the bases were loaded. Instead, Kozak hit into that double play we were so desperately seeking. Worse yet, the Crusaders didn’t score against Pohlmann in the bottom 9th and this misery continued for everyone to see until Wright launched a walkoff homer to right in the tenth inning… 6-5 Crusaders. Lavorano 2-5; Monck 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Crumble 2-5; Corral 2-4; White 2-4, BB; Arellano 2-4, 2B RBI;

The miserable ***** put out 15 hits and still couldn’t get in front of the ******* Crusaders, with 14 runners left on base (New York: eight).

Roster move prior to the Sunday game, as Ben Morris also rejoined from a rehab assignment and took the spot of Todd Oley (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI).

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – LF Campos – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Alba
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – CF A. Romero – 1B McLaughlin – C McLaren – 2B Cline – RF Zeiher – 3B R. Wright – LF Callaia – P E. Lee

Another day, another beating. Alba gave up two singles in the first inning, still stepped around that, but then inexplicably walked Zeiher and Wright to begin the bottom 2nd before getting loudly bombed by Gaudencio Callaia for a 3-spot. To add insult to injury, he allowed a single to Lee, who scored on a 2-out single to center by Jared McLaughlin to make it 4-0. That was the last inning Alba finished before getting torn another wholly new tush hole in the third inning. Cline doubled and Zeiher homered, and then Wright doubled and Lee (…) hit an RBI triple, and that was it. The ball went to Benitez, who served a single to Sanchez, then a 2-run homer to Alex Romero. That made it ten-zip, and my face was wet.

Rich Monck briefly interrupted the evisceration with a 2-run homer in the fourth inning, as if anyone still cared. Actually, Lee did, because Lee soon suffered the infernal shame of getting spotted a 10-run lead and not qualifying for the W when he was knocked out in the fifth inning after giving up a bases-clearing double to Monck after somehow fudging the bags full with a team that tried its darndest to roll into a ball and somehow hush on the bus to the airport unseen. Cory Leonard replaced Lee, gave up an RBI double to Corral, then a homer to Marco Campos, at which point we had a 10-8 game going.

Garbage relief by Benitez only got the team through five innings before Benitez was put on a bus to a completely different airport. Walters allowed a homer to Cline in the sixth, which gave the Crusaders a 3-run lead again. Top 7th, Kevin Hitchcock appeared for New York, but loaded the bases with straight singles to the 4-5-6 batters immediately. Jon Bean cluelessly rumbled into a run-scoring, 4-6-3 double play, but Lawson chipped a 2-out RBI single to narrow the score to 11-10. Crumble grounded out batting for Walters.

Bottom 7th, and the Crusaders pulled another run back with back-to-back singles by Romero and McLaughlin against Carrillo. The latter single was to right and saw Romero dash to third base. Corral’s throw was way off the line and everything, and allowed Romero to score, 12-10. The Coons made *that* run back up in the eighth with Lonzo singling and stealing second against Alex Flores, and scoring on Monck’s 2-out RBI single, but Corral made the last out there with a grounder. New York finally shut their pie holes in their half-inning, and the Raccoons were up against Rhodes, who had pitched two innings on Saturday, albeit bringing up the bottom of the order, although Campos led off striking a double to right. Fowler batted for Bean and grounded out. Lawson flew out to Zeiher in right. Jim White batted for the pitcher in the #9 hole with the team down to their last out. He grounded out to Wright. 12-11 Crusaders. Lavorano 2-5, 2B; Monck 4-5, HR, 2B, 6 RBI; Corral 2-5, 2B, RBI; Campos 4-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

**** my whiskers.

First career home run of Marco Campos in 141 at-bats.

In other news

May 28 – The Rebels beat the Pacifics, 3-0 in 12 innings. L.A. amounts to just four hits in a dozen frames.
May 30 – The Scorpions put an 8-spot on the Miners in the second inning and yet manage to lose the game, 12-11. Miners catcher Nick Dingman (.308, 15 HR, 42 RBI) has a homer, a double, and 5 RBI in the rally.
June 1 – Indy CF Eddy Ramirez (.211 2 HR, 9 RBI) hits a longball to beat the Titans, 1-0. Both teams have only two hits apiece in the game.
June 1 – The Loggers beat the Canadiens, 3-2 in 14 innings.
June 2 – Dallas picks up SP Sean Guice (0-4, 5.33 ERA) from the Scorpions for #149 prospect SP Raul Salas.
June 2 – Aces and Bayhawks play 17 innings before Vegas pulls in front for a 4-1 win.

FL Player of the Week: SAC SS/3B Zach Suggs (.277, 9 HR, 33 RBI), hitting .476 (10-21) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC OF Sean Zeiher (.270, 7 HR, 46 RBI), batting .421 (8-19) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.358, 11 HR, 35 RBI), hitting .371 with 8 HR, 23 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: IND 1B Danny Starwalt (.247, 12 HR, 35 RBI), mashing .276 with 7 HR, 17 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (6-1, 2.44 ERA), hurling for a 5-0 record with 1.24 ERA, 41 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: TIJ SP Marco Clemente (7-1, 2.67 ERA), going 4-0 in 6 games, with a 2.25 ERA, 28 K
FL Rookie of the Month: SAL LF/CF Paul Adams (.236, 3 HR, 7 RBI), poking .228 with 1 HR, 4 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA 3B Rick Healey (.272, 4 HR, 27 RBI), hitting .248 with 2 HR, 13 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Rich Monck had 9 RBI this week, all in the last two games, and the Raccoons lost both of them. No, he was not a threat to win Player of the Week after going 1-for-13 in Tijuana.

Lonzo returns and the team immediately goes into a 1-5 tailspin. I feel like that will give me a good old butt chewing by Cristiano Carmona once we’re back in Portland…

He batted .333 this week though!

I have a hard time figuring out whether the pitching half or the hitting half of the roster pissed me off more this week. Why not pack ALL of them into a bag and throw them into the Willamette!? The group that sinks last is innocent!

Cyclones GM Chris Abernathy, who was kind enough to insist the Raccoons take Rich Monck off the sinking riverboat, was fired on Wednesday along with the rest of the management group with that team at 14-38 and absolutely buried in the standings.

Homestand coming against the Loggers and Gold Sox.

Fun Fact: Almost half the team’s games are 1-run games, and they have a .680 record in them (17-8).

Doesn’t include this week, though. I wonder how they’re even that good considering that they constantly blow up whenever somebody in a brown cap is on the hill…

[Westheim]

2063 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons had just one pick inside the first 70 for the upcoming draft – it was #12 to be precise – after signing away their second-round pick with Josh Elling and having once more no compensation picks for shedding mostly chaff.

Which didn’t mean we wouldn’t go through the motions and put together a shortlist with 126 players for the occasion – of which somehow like 15 were catchers this year, and then again only one that wasn’t on there merely for late-round considerations. It seemed to be a bit of a position player draft overall, with few overwhelmingly inspiring starting pitchers in the mix, although there were a few on the venerable hotlist (*high schoolers):

SP Alan Fullen (13/12/15) *
SP Joe Whitley (12/16/9) *
SP Eric Siebert (12/12/13) *

CL Allan Bergerud (17/14/12)
CL Mike Martin (17/11/10)

C Justin Hart (11/12/10) – BNN #8

INF John Schmidt (17/2/16)
3B/2B Morgan Jones (14/5/8) *
3B/2B David MacFarlane (9/11/13)

LF/RF Ian Streng (10/13/13)
OF Bill Davidson (9/15/12) – BNN #4
OF Juan Licona (10/12/15) * – BNN #3

There was very little overlap with the BNN top 10 this year, partly because they were quite infatuated with a bunch of two-pitch starting pitchers, and we weren’t gonna pick those with the first-round pick under most circumstances.

All the position players listed were also defensively adept to at least some degree – and Schmidt looked like a Gold Glove machine at any spot in the infield – with the exception of Streng, who needed to be hidden in leftfield with an invisibility cloak. There were a few more power prodigies out there with sketchy contact ability, like LF/RF Brian Terrell, who also had the defense of a guy tying his glove to his head and trying to make catches with his cap.

We’d only get one selection from this list and then it would take a long while to get another pick in the third round. A starting pitcher would be nice. We already took a closer with our first-round pick last year (and you might hear reasonably soon of Jesse Dover, who was a bit of a dumb ****, but had a 2.18 ERA in AAA), but we considered sneaking Hart with the #12 pick. He was going to turn 21 later this year, would probably debut at Ham Lake, was a switch-hitter, and while he was nothing special behind the dish and had average catcher mobility (read: none), it looked like he might actually be able to move into a regular role by something like 2065. Until then the Coons would patch it up with Arellano, pretending nothing was wrong.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-23) vs. Loggers (27-28) – June 4-7, 2063

The Raccoons welcomed the league’s #3 offense (raises eyebrow) and fourth-most generous pitching staff for a 4-game series to start their new weeklong homestand. We had a 2-1 edge against the Loggers so far, but our struggles against them in recent times were well documented. Corey Garmon was the only notable DL occupant for Milwaukee.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (4-2, 2.90 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (5-2, 3.86 ERA)
John Bollinger (1-3, 4.62 ERA) vs. Vincent Hernandez (4-3, 3.59 ERA)
Josh Elling (3-5, 3.80 ERA) vs. Oliver Graham (3-3, 3.00 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-1, 3.39 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (1-1, 4.70 ERA)

The Loggers would bring up a pair of southpaws for the first two games of the series.

Game 1
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 2B Milian – 3B C. Sullivan – P T. Espinosa
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 2B White – C Arellano – RF Campos – P Fox

Rich Monck kept peppering homers now, hitting a 2-piece to right in the first inning after Jack Kozak had led off the inning with a single. Joel Starr’s solo shot in the same inning gave Fox a 3-0 lead, which he immediately endangered by walking Fidel Carrera and Chris Sullivan around a Jonathan Merrill single in the second inning, with all the runners left stranded once Espinosa lined out to Lonzo at short. Instead, Marco Campos’ double and Kozak’s RBI single in the bottom 2nd extended the score further to 4-0. Fox nevertheless remained all over the place, offered another walk in the third inning and was finally tagged for two runs in the fourth by giving up hits to Merrill, David Milian, and Sullivan on three consecutive pitches to begin the top 4th. Sullivan drove in Merrill, and Milian scored on Scott Franks’ sac fly to left, 4-2. And that was before the weather started acting up.

Fox barely got around a Carrera double in the fifth inning after a 30-minute rain delay. That was his final inning in a completely messed up start. The bullpen then very reliably blew the rest of the lead in the seventh. Matt Walters had a nice enough sixth inning against the bottom of the order, then allowed leadoff singles to Franks and Cesar Ramirez to park the tying runs on the corners. Murdock did nothing to better the situation, gave up two more hits to the middle of the order, and with that, the game was tied at four.

The offense didn’t look like they could be arsed going forwards, but just in case McDaniel in the eighth and Carlisle in the ninth held the game tied. Franks hit a single off the latter in the ninth, but was caught stealing by Arellano, although Franks had stolen bags against both Fox and Murdock earlier in the game. Carlisle pitched two innings including the tenth when the game dragged itself to those lengths, but he was matched by southpaw Dave Burnett and the game reached a point where we were running out of arms once more. For the 11th inning, Pohlmann entered in a second double switch for the team, batting fourth while Ben Morris was into the game in the #6 hole, which was due up second in the bottom of the inning. Pohlmann retired Milwaukee in order in the top 11th before Starr flew out against Brad Walker, but the right-hander then gave up a triple over the head of Dave Wright – not a natural born centerfielder – to put Morris on third base with the winning run and one out in the bottom 11th. Arellano was walked intentionally to set up a double play with Campos, which was a bold proposition that became hypothetical when Campos actually did hit a comebacker to Walker, the pitcher just threw it wildly past Carrera at second base to allow Morris to dazzle home to end the game. 5-4 Coons. Kozak 2-5, RBI; Morris 1-1, 3B; Campos 2-4, 2B, RBI; Carlisle 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

After this newest mess of a game and with John Messinger coming up, the Raccoons badly needed fresh blood in the pen. Daniel Benitez (0-0, 9.00 ERA) was sent to AAA and another failed starter, Malik Padgitt, was brought up as garbage option should Bollinger get beaten up again. In that case, they’d then probably return to St. Petersburg as a duo on Wednesday…

Game 2
MIL: LF Franks – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – RF D. Wright – 3B C. Sullivan – 2B Milian – P V. Hernandez
POR: 1B Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 2B White – LF Crumble – CF Morris – C Arellano – RF Campos – P Bollinger

Messinger was pinata’ed for three runs in the first inning, walking Franks to get going before allowing three singles to Ramirez, Carrera and Merrill, the latter two getting RBI’s, while plating another run with a wild pitch. Milian and Franks whacked more singles for another run in the second inning, and Bollinger was kicked from the game and off the roster after walking the bags full in the third with one out. Padgitt allowed a sac fly to Milian, 5-0, and got Hernandez out to end the inning, then went ahead and hit a single in the bottom 3rd. Kozak drew a walk, Lonzo grounded out, and Monck singled in the pair of runners to at least do *something* on offense.

On the hill, Padgitt was no less awful than Bollinger and wound up getting nine outs before departing in the sixth inning in utter disgrace as well. He had allowed an unearned run – Morris dropped a fly – in the fourth inning, but in the sixth walked and drilled the bags full, including plonking Wright out of the game in favor of Phil Reder before walking in a run against Chris Sullivan. Carrillo allowed a 2-run single to Milian before getting out of that bloody inning, and by then the Loggers held a 9-2 lead, and the Raccoons still had to find nine outs from a completely flayed pen. Carrillo got the seventh dealt with and Walters, despite being out the fourth time in five days, had a 1-2-3 inning left in his diminished arm as well. In between, the Coons had scored a run in the seventh on singles by Arellano and Corral, Kozak bringing home the catcher with a groundout, and Rich Monck hit another home run in the bottom 8th to reduce the gap to 9-4 – not that I was hopeful or anything. I was busy going through the AAA roster to find something, anything with three outs in the paw. Jon Bean made another pitching appearance in the ninth inning. Every Logger he faced put the first pitch into play, but they were held to a Ramirez single and didn’t score. Randy Birnbaum got the ball in the bottom 9th. Bean grounded out, but he walked Corral. Starr and Fowler batted for the 1-2 people, with the latter hitting a 2-out single to left. Monck then thrashed another offering for a 3-run homer, prompting another pitching change, but White grounded out against Brad Walker and that was the ballgame. 9-7 Loggers. Fowler (PH) 1-1; Monck 3-5, 2 HR, 6 RBI; White 2-4, BB; Corral (PH) 1-1, BB;

Imagine what poor Rich Monck could do on a good team! Well, there were news on that, but we’ll talk about that in the bottom blurb.

Offed the roster unceremoniously were John Bollinger (1-4, 5.26 ERA) and Malik Padgitt (0-0, 5.40 ERA), to be replaced with two relievers just to get a breather before we’d need that fifth starting spot again on Sunday. Rich Read and Hachiro Yokoyama returned from the Alley Cats.

Lonzo had a day off on Wednesday.

Game 3
MIL: LF Franks – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – CF Merrill – RF Reder – 3B C. Sullivan – C Jack – 2B Milian – P O. Graham
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – RF Corral – 2B White – 3B Fowler – C Lawson – P Elling

Elling tried to go against the trend in the rotation and struck out four Loggers while refusing to allow any of them on base the first time through the order. Franks singled to begin the fourth, but was doubled up 4-6-3 style by Ramirez. By then the Raccoons had taken a 1-0 lead on a Morris homer in the bottom 3rd, but had only two hits themselves in the early going.

Of course it couldn’t remain a nicely pitched game. Jonathan Merrill hit a leadoff single to left in the fifth, then scored on Phil Reder’s triple into the corner. A sac fly by J.P. Jack gave Milwaukee a 2-1 lead. Milian hit another single before Graham grounded out to end the inning. Elling then faced another four batters in the sixth inning… and retired none of them. One run was home, the bags were full with nobody out, I tried to send his contract through the shredder, but Maud was fighting me hard over that, and the Raccoons brought in McDaniel into a situation where the last thing we needed was a serial walker. Reder whiffed and Sullivan hit into a double play to end the inning without more Loggers runs, though. The Coons were not getting ANYTHING off Graham, who nursed a 2-hitter through seven, then went with Yokoyama hoping for a 6-out appearance to finish the game. The Japanese left-hander got two outs, gave up three runs on three hits, two walks, and a hit batter, and then left a teeming mess for Rich Read, who saw Tyler Gilliam ground out to short on the first pitch he threw to end the ******* inning.

At this point we just wanted the game over with. Graham went eight with a 6-1 lead before releasing the pillow off the Coons’ snouts, and Read had a neat enough ninth inning to at least not provoke us into using any other pitchers that badly needed a day off. The Loggers sent Matt Pickel into the bottom 9th with a 5-run lead, with Crumble pinch-hitting and flying out before Starr and Monck suddenly bashed back-to-back bombs to get to 6-3. Brad Walker then came on for Pickel making his third appearance of the series in as many days. Corral singled off him. Arellano batted for Read, grounded to third, and Sullivan threw the ball away for an error, bringing Fowler to the plate as the tying run. Walker walked him on four pitches. And then the whole thing turned into nothing as Lonzo popped out in Lawson’s spot and Bean grounded out to second… 6-3 Loggers. Corral 2-3, BB; McDaniel 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Yokoyama (1-0, 6.75 ERA) got the axe right away, since we were done messing around, yet somehow ended up with Paul Barton, now wearing #57 rather than #49 that had gone to Carlisle, on the roster again…

And no, your eyes were not betraying you. Lonzo was back in the lineup on Thursday – but batting SEVENTH.

SEVENTH.

Game 4
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 2B Gilliam – 3B C. Sullivan – P Pizzichini
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – 2B White – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Riddle

Ramirez and Robles reached base rather rapidly in the first inning before Carrera dumped a 2-run triple into the depths of centerfield and another game was going its merry way against the Critters. Riddle at least popped out Guitreau and saw Merrill fly out to keep that extra runner on base. The Coons replied with a Corral homer in the bottom 2nd, 2-1, then got White on base on an error. Declawed Lonzo forced him out, but instead stole second base, #736 of his career and the second since coming off the DL. Arellano’s deep fly to left was caught at the fence by Franks to leave him on base.

Franks had not attempted any steals in the last two days, but after a leadoff single in the third inning and two outs later went and scooped his 21st of the year with Carrera at the plate. He then tried to make it a double, but was thrown out at third by Arellano to end the inning. Riddle led off the bottom 3rd with a single to right, and more singles by Morris and Starr loaded the bass for Rich Monck, which was a dangerous proposition at this stage. He spanked a grounder up the middle, though, which Carrera intercepted, but the Loggers only got the out at second base, and the tying run scored. This was Monck’s 50th RBI of the year in 58 games. Corral fell to 1-2 before stretching a fly out of Ramirez’ range in right for an RBI double, giving Portland a 3-2 lead, but White’s pop to Pizzichini himself ended the inning. The lead was extended in the fifth inning. Pizzichini got two outs before allowing a gap triple to Starr, then hung a breaking ball to Rich, the Destroyer, and was down 5-2 after a 396-foot blast to left. That was Monck’s FIFTH homer in the series…!! (enthusiastically high-fives with Slappy)

Refreshingly, Tyler Riddle gave the Raccoons seven innings of 5-hit, 2-run ball before being hit for to begin the bottom 7th. Matt Walters got three groundouts off left-handed batters in the eighth inning before the 5-2 lead went to Carlisle in the ninth inning. Carrera hit a double to left with one out when Crumble slid and missed the ball instead of playing it safe for a single. Guitreau whiffed for the second out before PH Jake Jackson got nailed, which promoted the tying run to the dish in PH David Milian, batting .381 from whichever side he pleased. He grounded out to Fowler, defensive replacement at short. 5-2 Coons. Starr 2-3, 3B; Corral 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (5-1) and 1-2;

Finally a good start…!!

Raccoons (34-25) vs. Gold Sox (34-24) – June 8-10, 2063

The second-place Gold Sox were trying to stay in touch with the Stars, who were 4 1/2 games ahead of them. The Coons also had lost first place to the Indians, trailing by half a game. Denver ranked fourth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed with just a +9 run differential, which still beat the Critters’ -7 mark. The key was to get through their very good rotation and then run roughshot on the bullpen, which had piled up a 5.33 ERA so far, worst even in the Federal League. The Raccoons had not won a series from the Gold Sox in *15* years, including six two-games-to-one interleague series losses and one 2051 World Series we don’t wanna talk about much anymore here.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (5-4, 3.45 ERA) vs. Ben Peterson (2-4, 4.23 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-2, 2.96 ERA) vs. Matt Asplund (7-3, 3.89 ERA)
TBD vs. Neil Mongillo (6-3, 3.86 ERA)

Officially, Sunday was given as TBD, but I had an idea already and a prospect in AAA that was lined up exactly with that spot. Meanwhile, the Gold Sox would bring up two more southpaws in Peterson and Asplund. They had a total of three in their rotation.

Game 1
DEN: CF Lauterbach – LF J.D. Johnson – 1B Joyner – C Goodwin – 2B Seul – SS L. Palacios – RF Everingham – 3B Clover – P B. Peterson
POR: CF Morris – 1B Kozak – 3B Monck – 2B White – LF Crumble – RF Campos – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Alba

Alba couldn’t keep Chris Lauterbach off base; the leadoff man hit a single and was stranded in the first inning, but doubled and scored on J.D. Johnson’s single in the third inning, which marked the game’s first run. Alba then failed to get a bunt down after Lonzo and Arellano reached base to begin the bottom 3rd, striking out before Morris’ and Kozak’s flies ended the inning. Had he gotten Lonzo to third base, he would have easily scored on Morris’ fly to deep center. Woulda coulda shoulda.

In real terms Monck grounded out to begin the fourth, but White’s single and Crumble’s homer to left flipped the score to 2-1 Critters. Morris and Kozak hit 2-out singles in the fifth, but Monck struck out. The Sox hit back-to-back 1-out singles off Alba in the top 6th, but Bill Joyner was thrown out at third base on Curt Goodwin’s single to right that Campos played very well and lasered the slow runner out at the far corner. Je-ju Seul’s fly to center ended that inning.

Alba was cruising – and messing up another bunt opportunity along the way – into the eighth inning when Lauterbach singled to center with one out and Morris had the ball hit off his chest and bounce away for an error and an extra base. Johnson’s groundout moved the tying run to third, and the Coons twitched and sent McDaniel against the left-handed Joyner. The Gold Sox countered with righty-hitting Eric Whitlow, who hit a clean single to left to tie the game at two… Goodwin would strike out, but by then it was too late. The Sox then thought it smart to send in Duarte Damasceno, former Critter, into the bottom 8th with his 6+ ERA. Monck got nothing to whack and drew a leadoff walk. White flew out, but Crumble got a ball between Lauterbach and Johnson for a double, although Monck had to be stopped at third base. Jose Corral batted for Campos and gave the Critters the lead again with a single dished through the hole on the right side; Crumble was held at third against the arm of Andy Everingham – the outfielder’s foremost and only asset. Lonzo brought Crumble home with a groundout to third baseman Chase Clover. Joel Starr batted for Arellano and based a 2-run homer to get the score out of save range…! This spared Carlisle another outing and instead brought on Rich Read for the ninth inning. He allowed a single to Luis Palacios, but retired the Gold Sox before the save was back on. 6-2 Raccoons. Crumble 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1, RBI; Arellano 2-3; Starr (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Alba 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Game 2
DEN: CF Lauterbach – LF J.D. Johnson – 1B Joyner – C Goodwin – RF Whitlow – 3B Clover – 2B Seul – SS L. Palacios – P Asplund
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – 2B White – LF Crumble – C Lawson – P Fox

Fox hit a batter (Johnson) and threw a wild pitch in the first inning, and somehow wasn’t punished. And that was against the lefty top of the order… The Coons better get something on the board and did so on Crumble’s RBI double in the bottom 2nd, which plated Corral and sent Jim White to third base. Lawson’s groundout made it 2-0 and Fox whiffed before going back to the hill. He allowed 1-out singles to Asplund (…) and Lauterbach in the top 3rd before Johnson’s grounder to short offered a ticket out of the inning, but White was slow on the transfer, then was taken out rather violently by Lauterbach, who was one of two outs on the play; the other being White, who limped off the field with Luis Silva, while I was plotting revenge. For now, Fowler would enter the game at third base with Monck going to second. Joyner’s fly to left ended the inning without Denver scoring more than a few shattered bones.

Lonzo singled and stole second in the bottom 3rd, but Starr and Monck had their flies to center caught by Lauterbach, the evil fiend, to keep him on base. Monck narrowly missed a homer to right when he flew out to Whitlow to begin the bottom 6th. The score remained unchanged with the middle innings being rather calm. Fox allowed just two singles in those, including a Goodwin single to begin the fourth that immediately led to a Whitlow 6-4-3 double play. Fox’ day still went south in the seventh with Clover’s double to left and scratch singles for Seul and Palacios. One run was home before Asplund bunted the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. Here we would have been tempted to have Fox face Lauterbach – the whole lefty-for-lefty phobia – but the Sox pinch-hit the switch-hitter Everingham for the seemingly unretireable Lauterbach, and he hit left-handed pitchers (if anything), so the Raccoons moved to Murdock, who got him out to short.

Bottom 7th, and Crumble opened with a single against Asplund. Lawson grounded out, working his way to the .200 mark from above, before Kozak batted for Murdock and drew a walk. Asplund still remained in the game and gave up a single over the head of Seul to Morris. Crumble had no intention of stopping from second base and scored, 3-1, but Lonzo and Starr flew out and that was as good as it got. McDaniel and Carrillo pieced the eighth together; the latter gave up a double to Goodwin with two outs that led nowhere for the Sox, except that Goodwin tore out a leg and left the game for backup catcher Zachery Norwood to take over. Carlisle retired the side in order in the ninth to break the spell against the Sox. 3-1 Furballs! Crumble 3-3, 2 2B, RBI; Fox 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-2);

The Sox announced that Goodwin (.261, 9 HR, 40 RBI) would be out for a while with a hip strain, but the Coons had no news on White by Sunday.

Rich Read (0-0, 7.71 ERA) was optioned back to AAA to bring on a starter for Sunday – and it was the major league debut of 23-year-old #95 prospect Jeff Applegate, who had a 5-4 record and 3.21 ERA in St. Petersburg. Applegate had been the principal return for Tipsy Bobby and Nick Robinson AND Angel Perez to the Capitals last July. The young lefty had a 5-pitch mix with a 93mph heater and a curve and fork as his best options. His control was decent for a southpaw of his development stage. He also had earned himself the nickname “Punk” at this early stage of his career, so that was that.

Game 3
DEN: CF Lauterbach – 2B Seul – 1B Joyner – RF Whitlow – LF J.D. Johnson – C Norwood – 3B Clover – SS L. Palacios – P Mongillo
POR: CF Kozak – RF Campos – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – 2B Bean – P Applegate

Applegate walked Joyner and threw a wild pitch in the first inning, but didn’t allow a run and might yet find himself on a career trajectory like Chance Fox – mostly competent, but regularly annoying. He also walked Clover in the second inning before getting his first K against Palacios to end the inning. Singles by Crumble, Starr, and Arellano then also gave him his first 1-0 lead in the same inning. Bean and him both grounded out to prevent more runs from scoring. Lauterbach walked in the third inning and was left on base, and the Sox finally got a hit off him with a Whitlow single in the fourth, but he was doubled off and the Sox remained off the board. Mongillo left the game in the same inning with an apparent injury.

Denver remained 1-0 behind through the middle innings, not getting another knock, although Lauterbach drew another walk in the sixth, only to be stranded in scoring position. Clover singled with two outs in the seventh, but Palacios found Lonzo with a grounder to end the inning. That was it for the debutant, who was hit for in the bottom 7th with an insurance run (Arellano) on second and one out against ex-Coons southpaw Justin Rocco, who grounded out Morris and Kozak to keep the score at 1-0.

Unfortunately, there was no fairytale ending to the debut – Matt Walters was taken deep by Lauterbach in the eighth, tying the score, and that took the W away from Applegate obviously. It went to Pohlmann in the bottom 8th; the righty had finished the top 8th after Walters bungled the lead, then saw Monck double off Rocco and Starr go well yard to right for a 3-1 lead. The Coons stayed with Pohlmann, who retired the Gold Sox in order to complete the sweep in the ninth inning. 3-1 Critters! Kozak 2-4, 2B; Crumble 2-4; Starr 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Arellano 2-3, RBI; Applegate 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K;

In other news

June 4 – Blue Sox OF/1B Tony Roman (.218, 3 HR, 10 RBI) could miss the rest of the month after spraining his ankle in a game against the Buffos.
June 4 – The Cyclones win a game – yay! – even though it takes them 17 innings to put the Capitals down 2-1.
June 5 – CIN INF Jorge Munoz (.177, 0 HR, 8 RBI) was going to miss at least three weeks with a strained hamstring.
June 5 – The Warriors beat the Scorpions, 4-3 in 17 innings. From the 8th to the 16th innings, the two teams played an entire regulation game without scoring.
June 5 – PIT OF/1B Kelly Konecny (.308, 0 HR, 10 RBI) hits a seventh-inning double for the only Miners hit in a 3-0 loss to the Rebels’ Jeff Crowley (3-4, 4.10 ERA) and Mike Gunter (3-0, 0.75 ERA, 7 SV).
June 6 – Las Vegas beats the Falcons, 3-0, but takes 12 innings to do so.
June 7 – The Crusaders trade 1B Jared McLaughlin (.248, 7 HR, 14 RBI) to the Scorpions for veteran outfielder Dan Martin (.143, 0 HR, 3 RBI).
June 9 – Dallas OF Chad Pritchett (.300, 6 HR, 30 RBI) was down with an oblique strain. The Stars would have to make do without him for a month.
June 10 – OF/1B Kelly Konecny (.307, 0 HR, 12 RBI) is traded from the Miners to the Cyclones in exchange for OF Manny Sauceda (.239, 1 HR, 13 RBI).
June 10 – The Thunder take ten innings to walk off against the Wolves, 1-0, when OCT LF/RF Randy Hummel (.281, 2 HR, 15 RBI) singles home Omar Lira (.248, 4 HR, 22 RBI) with the game’s only run.

FL Player of the Week: PIT INF Nick Nye (.297, 7 HR, 28 RBI), hitting .517 (15-29) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL SS/2B Fidel Carrera (.288, 11 HR, 41 RBI), poking .500 (14-28) with 1 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Jeff Applegate was Player of the Game on Sunday. When asked about whether he expected the honor by NWSN’s designated sideline tool, his reply was “Damn right I did”. You better go 17-5 for a season with that attitude.

Rich Monck raped the Loggers for five homers while batting “only” 6-for-18 in that series, then followed that up with a 1-for-10 showing against the Gold Sox, which means he dropped six points of batting average in a week in which he drove in a dozen runs (all against Milwaukee). The barrage put him tops in home runs (16) in the CL, three ahead of the competition. The ABL lead is 17 by the Miners’ Nick Dingman, while his 52 RBI are second only to Armando Montoya’s 56 in the whole league.

Speaking of Monck, the Raccoons had great news this week that was not related to the on-field product directly, announcing that Rich Monck had signed a 4-year, $20M extension that would buy out his last two arbitration years and then two years of free agency. Overall he was now locked up for his age 27-30 seasons in the brown shirt. While we were paying double for him in those arbitration years, $5M might be a bargain in the last two years of this deal.

Huzzah!

The Coons are back out East next week with three games in Richmond and three in Indy on the way home.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons tied the all-time score against the Gold Sox with this week’s sweep.

It’s now 63-63 in regular season games, which means there are only two FL teams against which the Coons have an all-time losing record: the Stars (68-70) and the Warriors (54-57). Neither of them are on our schedule this year – the last interleague week in August sees us play the Wolves and Miners.

[Westheim]

The Coons’ week began with moving Jim White to the DL due to a case of back soreness, which for 34-year-old infielders could turn into a real problem. We brought back Victor Morales and Rich Monck would now see most of his playing time at second base.

Raccoons (37-25) @ Rebels (31-31) – June 11-13, 2063

There was a whole lot of average about the Rebels’ rankings; seventh in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed. Middling rotation, average in homers, stolen bases etc.; the only exception was a stingy defense that was ranked second in the Federal League. The Coons had half a Gold Sox trauma against the Rebels, having failed to win an interleague series against them in almost a decade, last sweeping them in 2054. Since then we had lost three series, most recently two games to one in ’61.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (3-6, 3.91 ERA) vs. Goffredo Merlin (6-6, 3.99 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (5-1, 3.32 ERA) vs. Luis Olvera (7-3, 3.39 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-4, 3.35 ERA) vs. Dan Garicia (2-5, 3.34 ERA)

The Rebels would rock up a full set of right-handed pitchers. After the series would be an off day, and then three games in Indy on the weekend, plus the draft on Friday in New York.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Elling
RIC: C J. Aguilar – 1B Cofield – SS J. Turner – LF Vaughn – 2B R. Cox – CF Griffith – RF Goll – 3B D. Espinosa – P Merlin

Victor Morales returned with a go-ahead RBI groundout in the second inning after Monck and Corral had hit an infield single (!) and a double to center, respectively, to park themselves in scoring position. Lonzo also hit an RBI groundout, and the Coons were up 2-0 behind Elling, and were now just waiting for him to bobble it like he bobbled everything at roughly $220k a bobble. Almost on cue, he walked two batters the first time through the order. Jason Turner was excusable, but Merlin was not; at least he got a comebacker from the latter’s battery mate Justin Aguilar and turned that into a 1-6-3 double play. The Rebs didn’t get a hit until Robby Cox slapped a double to left leading off the bottom 5th, and Wade Griffith added a shy single immediately after. Vince Goll whiffed, Griffith was caught stealing, but Danny Espinosa found another single to get at least one run home in the inning before Merlin popped out. In the sixth, the Coons overcame an Aguilar single to right and a throwing error by Morales – what was going on?? – to somehow strand runners on the corners in the skinny 2-1 game.

The Raccoons’ offense was at the dinner table, presumably, because they remained stuck on three hits and their two early RBI groundouts while Elling gave up a leadoff double to Aguilar and walked PH Tristan Michaux to begin the bottom 8th. Turner struck out before we went to Walters for the left-handed Nick Vaughn. The Rebs had other ideas and sent Ramon Lopez, a right-handed singles slapper, that slapped into a double … play, 6-4-3, to kill that inning. Cox hit a long fly to left that challenged Kozak, but he made the catch, to begin the bottom 9th against Carlisle, who then struck out Griffith and Goll to squeeze the game into the W column. 2-1 Blighters. Corral 2-3, 2B; Elling 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (4-6);

Corral’s two hits and Monck’s single were the only offense produced aside from a walk drawn by Starr. Jesus Christ at an office party, why could they sometimes not even hold the bats right side up??

They had a hole day to figure out the issues, because persistent rain precluded an attempt to play on Tuesday, and we got a double header scheduled for Wednesday instead. Oh well, maybe we’d finally use Paul Barton who had been on the roster for almost a full week by now without seeing action.

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – C Arellano – P Riddle
RIC: C R. Lopez – RF Ellwood – SS J. Turner – 2B R. Cox – LF Vaughn – 1B Cofield – CF Goll – 3B J. Ochoa – P Olvera

Riddle got flattened for three runs right away in the bottom 1st as Ramon Lopez, Bobby Ellwood, and Robby Cox all hit good hard singles. He walked Vaughn, balked in a second run – one had scored on Cox’ single – and allowed another one to score on Cofield’s sac fly before Goll struck out. That looked like a pretty solid lead once the Coons went hitless the first time through, finding two walks and a double play to hit into. Kozak hit a single in the fourth, was doubled up by Starr, and Monck hit another single to center, but Corral whiffed.

…which apart from one Cox single already described the extent of the offense for either team all the way to the stretch, where the Rebs were still up a comfy 3-0. The Coons wrung out Riddle for 107 pitches and seven complete innings, while Olvera just kept trudging along, and was on only 85 pitches with a 2-hitter through eight innings after retiring the 6-7-8 in order in the top 8th. He started the ninth with a groundout from Jon Bean, then hung one to Morris that was walloped over the fence and came as quite a surprise. The Rebels scrambled for closer Mike Gunter, who struck out Kozak, but allowed a 2-out single to Starr. Monck popped out to third base to end the game. 3-1 Rebels.

Dismal, but at least done in 2:16…

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Alba
RIC: RF Ellwood – 1B Cofield – SS J. Turner – LF Vaughn – 2B R. Cox – CF Goll – 3B J. Ochoa – C J. Aguilar – P Garicia

Both starters struck out five batters the first time through the order, and both allowed one base hit, a single. For Richmond, that single was Cox’, and he was doubled up by Goll immediately afterwards, while Alba (!) hit the single for Portland with two outs in the third and was then stranded by Ben Morris’ grounding out to first base.

While I was still wondering what the **** was going on now, Malik Crumble socked a leadoff triple to center in the fourth inning which almost looked like a chance to ******* score. Garicia lost Starr to a walk in a full count, and Monck hit a poor grounder to first base, which wasn’t gonna get a run home until it somehow got through Dylan Cofield’s O-shaped legs for an error. Now Crumble scored, and the Coons still had two on with nobody out. Corral then fired an RBI single to center, and a walk to Lonzo loaded the bases with nobody out. Jon Bean stunned with a 2-run single to center, and Lawson’s walk refilled the bases before Garicia actually struck out the offensive troublemaker – batting .387 even after the K – Alba. However, Ben Morris drove in two more runs with a double to left, and the Rebels pulled the plug on Garicia at that point. Righty Justin Cullum replaced him, but allowed another two runs to score on a hit to center. Starr and Monck then made the last two outs after a breathtaking 8-spot (seven earned) on Garicia.

Alba went on to hit a single off Cullum in the sixth inning. With two outs, Crumble walked and Starr singled home his pitcher to extend the lead to 9-0, but Monck grounded out. On the hill, Alba maintained a stranglehold on the Rebs’ bats and ran up ten strikeouts with a K on Cox in the bottom 7th. His pitch count reached 100 through seven innings, though, and he would not be sent for a complete-game shutout at this stage. Morris, Starr, and Monck were removed from the game after the top 8th (in which Crumble and Starr put a run together with a pair of doubles), while Alba went to the hill once more, struck out Aguilar, then was lifted for McDaniel, who had nothing better to do than to put two lefty batters on base. Pohlmann had to clean up behind the southpaw, while Barton finally was used in the bottom 9th. His very first pitch of the season was romped 420 feet by Vaughn before the Rebs were kind enough to make three outs against him anyway. 10-1 Raccoons. Crumble 3-4, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Corral 3-5, RBI; Bean 3-5, 2 RBI; Alba 7.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K, W (6-4) and 2-4;

Raccoons (39-26) @ Indians (36-30) – June 15-17, 2063

The Indians were second to the Coons in the North at this stage and out of reach to sweep us outta first place on this weekend. They were probably banking on their +43 run differential being more substantial than ours, which was at least positive (barely) at this stage. They were second in scoring runs, but the pitching was rather average as far as the rotation was concerned and the bullpen was rather flammable. The Raccoons were up on them this year, 3-1. With Matt Martin and Edwin Ortiz, they had two infielders on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (5-2, 2.79 ERA) vs. Kelly Whitney (3-6, 5.23 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (11-1, 1.63 ERA)
Josh Elling (4-6, 3.68 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (5-2, 3.03 ERA)

DeWitt was the only southpaw coming up here, and quite scary by the numbers, whiffing 11 batters per nine innings. He was undefeated since losing to the Titans on Opening Day, having claimed 11 wins from 13 games. Notably, though, one of his two no-decisions had come against the Raccoons in May (although that was the game Indy ended up winning after all).

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Fox
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B McConnell – C A. Gomez – 1B Starwalt – LF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – RF Abel – SS Cirelli – P Whitney

At least I was a time zone away and didn’t see how quickly the series opener exploded… in person. Chance Fox was behind every batter in the first inning, but only allowed a single to Alex Gomez. In the second, he struck out Brass before Eddy Ramirez reached on ANOTHER ERROR by Morales. Kevin Abel singled, but Eric Cirelli flew out and things looked liked we’d dodge one, but we ******* didn’t. Whitney bashed a 2-run double into the right-center gap with the first pitch he saw, and Fox allowed an RBI single to Matt Kilday, drilled and injured Blake McConnell out of the game – he was replaced with Bryan Johnston – and then allowed on the very next pitch a 2-run triple to Gomez before Danny Starwalt whiffed. Five runs, all with two outs, all unearned, and the problem spots were easily identified.

Not that it got easier after that. Ramirez and Abel singles and a Monck error (for variety!) loaded the bases in the bottom 3rd before Fox balked home another unearned run with Whitney batting. The opposing pitcher whiffed this time and Kilday popped out to Lonzo, so it was 6-0 Indians after three, and Fox’ bloody ERA was still going down. All the while the Coons didn’t have a base hit until the fifth, where Whitney plunked *our* third baseman surely not in retaliation or anything, and the Lonzo briefly stopped being comatose and hit a double to left. Arellano’s sac fly brought in a run, but Crumble’s pinch-hit groundout did not, and Morris also left Lonzo in scoring position. Starr hit a solo jack in the sixth to narrow the score to 6-2, but after that Whitney was bidding to go the distance and would get to two outs in the ninth inning with that. Monck had led off the ninth with a double before Corral and Morales made meek outs. Lonzo knocked out the Indians hurler with an RBI single to left, and instead the game ended with Cody Kleidon striking out Arellano. 6-3 Indians. Lavorano 2-4, 2B, RBI; Barton 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

The abject horror. Combining his AAA and ABL stats, Victor Morales now had TWENTY errors in 475 innings at the hot corner. This was not a sustainable rate, I’d claim, because if he kept doing that I’d not leave him enough oxygen with my bare paws on his fuzzy neck to sustain himself any longer.

The Indians sent McConnell to the DL with a bruised wrist after the game, opening a hole for 35-year-old ex-Coons quad-A infielder Dave Blackshire to sneak through.

I still didn’t get to see the Critters play in front of me on Saturday thanks to bad weather throughout the day, and instead we got another double header scheduled for Sunday. At this point we moved Elling to the first game rather than the rookie Applegate, who got the second game with the leftover pitching. If we got that far – the weather on Sunday was still dreary looking…

Game 2
POR: CF Kozak – LF Crumble – 2B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – RF Campos – P Elling
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B Blackshire – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – LF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – RF Lovins – SS Cirelli – P DeWitt

The early innings saw DeWitt hit Morales and Lonzo with pitches back-to-back in the second, but Campos fly to left was run down by Brass, while Elling twice walked a batter and then got a double play turned, 5-4-3 style in the second inning on Eddy Ramirez, to bugger outta there. Neither pitcher allowed a base hit through three innings.

Then the weather came and brought a 50-minute rain delay in the fourth inning. The break did not rejuvenate the Raccoons’ offense, which remained hitless through five, while Starwalt in the fourth and Lovins in the fifth found singles against Elling, but didn’t get around to score. A throwing error by Rich Monck put Kilday on second base to begin the bottom 6th, which was not ideal. Blackshire grounded out, moving the runner to third base, and Starwalt walked in a full count before Vinny Atencio hit a grounder at Lonzo for another double play, ending the inning.

The Raccoons were still hitless and kept making quick outs throughout the sixth, seventh, and eighth, which after the rain delay was a great help to the indefatigable DeWitt, who spent 86 pitches through eight no-hit innings. Elling was done after seven innings and 101 pitches, but Walters retired the 8-9-1 batters in order in the bottom 8th. Ben Morris batted in his spot to begin the ninth against DeWitt and whiffed, but DeWitt then lost Kozak in a full count that put him up at 99 pitches – more so, Jack Kozak was the first Raccoon to reach base in the bloody game without getting bruised with a fastball. To the cheers of the crowd, however, Malik Crumbled into a 6-4-3 double play after that, and now the Indians needed a run in the bottom 9th to complete the no-hitter. James Murdock got the ball, facing the 2-3-4 batters. Blackshire and Starwalt walked in full counts, which was a GREAT start. Atencio popped out, and Brassfield poked a shy single that wasn’t good enough to score Blackshire from second base. Bryan Johnston pinch-hit for Ramirez, lining up a string of lefty bats, so the Coons went to McDaniel, who secured a pop in foul ground to Arellano. Alex Gomez batted for Lovins, bringing up a righty stick with three on and two outs. The count ran full, McDaniel brought the high heat – and Gomez swung through it. No walkoff, no no-no, instead extras!

At which point the Indians and DeWitt in particular cranked the depression up to a solid 12/10 when he retired the bloody Critters’ 3-4-5 batters in order with a grounder and two sad-sack pops in the TENTH inning. McDaniel walked Cirelli to begin the hot half for the home hopefuls, but DeWitt messed up the bunt, got the runner forced out, and then Kilday blundered into a double play, 6-4-3. And DeWitt yet came out AGAIN to pitch in the 11th. He threw one pitch, Morales singled to center, and the Indians yoinked him at once after 113 pitches. Kleidon shut down the “rally” and went through the 12th with the Coons on Carrillo, who singled in the 12th and was then ignored, and by now serious pitching concerns for the second leg of the double header – unless the rain that was setting in again had a say about *that*. Starr led off the 13th with a single against Melvin Guerra, but was stranded, while Carrillo saw Kilday reach on a bloop single to left to begin the Indy half of the inning. Blackshire grounded out, advancing the runner, and then Starwalt singled firmly to right. The Indians sent Kilday – surely a fast runner! – around from second base, but Marco Campos hammered him out at the plate and the ******* game yet continued!! Atencio’s groundout sent everybody to the 14th as wet as they were. There, Paul Barton bottled it in due time, allowing a leadoff double to Brassfield, who advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Johnston’s single through the right side. 1-0 Indians. Elling 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K; Carrillo 3.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K and 1-1;

(looks unhappy)

The Raccoons had made no preparations for backup pitchers to stand by in case of trouble, so we had to soldier through the second game with Applegate, Pohlmann, Carlisle, Barton (who threw 12 pitches for the L and who nobody cared for anyway) and a fresh roll of duct tape.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – C Lawson – P Applegate
IND: 2B Kilday – RF B. Johnston – C A. Gomez – 1B Starwalt – LF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – 3B Blackshire – SS Cirelli – P Carreno

The Raccoons found a hit in the first inning when Kozak singled – yay! – and also a double play sponsored by Starr – boo – and then Morales found another one of those in the second inning. At least Applegate appeared stingy out of the gates and got quickly through the opening innings for two singles and 27 pitches in three frames.

Kozak stirred again with a 1-out double to left in the fourth inning. Starr made a poor out, but Rich Monck socked his first homer past smothering the Loggers last week, and #17 on the year, to give the Coons a 2-0 lead! Better yet, Morales and Fowler went to the corners with a pair of leadoff singles in the fifth, then waited out the battery being of no use at all before Morales jogged home on Ben Morris’ 2-out single to center. Kozak hit a fly to deep center, but couldn’t beat Eddy Ramirez’ range and left a pair on base.

Bottom 5th, and trouble on the horizon. Ramirez led off with a single to left, and Blackshire reached when Morris dropped his fly for an error. Cirelli hit another shy single to load them up with Indians and nobody out, but Carreno thumped a comebacker on the bounce to Applegate, who never hesitated, went home, and the Coons turned a 1-6-3 double play before Kilday ended the inning with another comebacker to Applegate…! The Indians finally scored in the sixth on Eddy Ramirez’ 2-out RBI single, which brought in Johnston and the latter’s leadoff single and reduced the gap to 3-1. Applegate continued into the eighth, but there walked Johnston leading off and then Starwalt with one out, which put the tying runs on base. Pohlmann and Crumble were double-switched into the game, with Crumble in left and Kozak to first (Starr was done), and the Indians answered with Lovins to bat for Brassfield. Those three then produced a high and long, but not long enough fly to Crumble that moved Johnston up to third base. Atencio then batted for Ramirez, Pohlmann threw a wild pitch to plate Johnston, and then gave up a game-breaking homer to left. (bangs head against nearest post)

Top 9th, Kleidon working overtime, and after Morales grounded out the Raccoons emptied their bench of righty bats. Campos singled. Lonzo singled. Campos went to third on that one, and outfielder Steve Thompson threw the ball away. Campos quickly turned the corner and went home, scoring the tying run SOMEHOW while Lonzo chucked it up to second base. Crumble was walked intentionally, Morris was walked unintentionally, and Kozak’s grounder to third saw Blackshire throw out Lonzo at the plate to keep the ******* game tied. Arellano batted for Pohlmann with three on and two outs, and flew the **** out to Thompson in center. The Raccoons then brought Barton as a white flag, but the Indians went in order and we went to extra innings for the second time on the day. Barton pitched two scoreless in the #7 spot before Bean batted for him leading off the 11th, which emptied the bench, and only Carlisle was visible in the Coons’ pen. Facing Melvin Guerra – also out for the second time on Sunday – Bean hit a single up the middle, then was hit by Lonzo’s batted ball halfway between first and second. Lonzo went for second in a rather obvious move, had it stolen, and Cirelli couldn’t reach Gomez’ throw and Lonzo eluded to third base with one out, then scored on Crumble’s sac fly to right. Morris hit another single but Kozak whiffed, and then it was Carlisle and an absolute lack of a plan for how to continue if he allowed precisely one run in the bottom 11th. He walked Lovins, which was such a great start. Lovins was bunted to second by Thompson. Then Blackshire was plunked. Jesus Christ in a convenience store! FINISH THE ********** GAME!!! Cirelli hit a mighty fly to left, but that came down with Crumble on the edge of the warning track for the second out. Kevin Abel batted for the pitcher there, hit a grounder to third base, and there was Morales, who …

I swear it happened at real speed, but I saw Morales throw that ball in slow motion, at perhaps 1/10 speed to first base. Kozak had his hindpaw on the base. He reached. His big black googly eyes widened. Panic. Terror. He reached harder. He fell off the base, and still couldn’t catch the ball. Error. Two bases. Tying run scored. Winning run at third. Terror. Horror. Morales biting his glove. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t hear. I had pretty solid PTSD. Kilday flew out to Morris. The game continued with blatant disregard for this poor old GM only being able to see in black and white anymore.

Top 12th, 1-out singles put Monck and Corral on the corners against Jarod Morris, starter by trade. Speaking of starters, Angel Alba had made his way out to the pen between innings, but right now it was Matt Walters stretching out there. For now it was bloody Vic Morales batting with runners on the corners, and his ******* tush halfway on the overland bus to St. Petersburg, hitting a fly to right-center. Johnston ran it down, but for the second straight extra inning the Coons took the lead on a sac fly. There was nobody on the bench, so Carlisle batted for himself and whiffed, then gave that ending-the-game **** another go in the bottom 12th against the 2-3-4 batters. Johnston walked. Singles by Gomez and Starwalt hit singles to fill ‘em up. I tried to scream, but my snout wouldn’t open. Lovins’ grounder to second tied the game, and the Coons couldn’t turn two either, but Thompson popped out with runners on the corners for the second out. Blackshire flew out to Morris and the band played yet on.

The Raccoons were in rabid mode now. Lonzo grounded out, but Crumble singled off Morris in the 13th and swiftly stole second. The Indians walked Morris intentionally, but the Raccoons shrugged and sent the runners on a double steal, with Gomez’ throw to third nowhere near beating Crumble. After Kozak got directions to first base, Arellano looked like a good bet for a double play, but he had already caught 18 ******* innings on the day and wanted to go the **** home, so he strung a bases-clearing double into the leftfield corner. Indy walked Monck with intent, then brought left-hander Bob West, who got a double play from Corral. Matt Walters then got the ball for the bottom 13th, also pitching for the second time on the day. Cirelli grounded out to Lonzo, but West singled up the middle. I wanted to bury my face in my paws, but I still couldn’t move. Kilday grounded out, moving West to second, but Johnston’s grounder to first ended the game. 9-6 Blighters. Morris 2-5, 2 BB, RBI; Kozak 2-6, BB, 2B; Monck 4-6, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Morales 2-5, RBI; Campos (PH) 1-1; Bean (PH) 1-1; Lavorano (PH) 2-3; Crumble 1-1, BB, RBI; Barton 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

June 12 – The Titans flip outfielder Ted Lloyd (.265, 4 HR, 14 RBI) to the Buffaloes for 2B/SS Ken Sowell (.202, 4 HR, 12 RBI) and #60 prospect CL Bryan Abbey.
June 14 – A broken foot will keep NAS C David Johnson (.330, 12 HR, 36 RBI) on the sidelines for at least a month.
June 15 – The Aces put six runs on the Thunder in the tenth inning for a 10-4 win after both teams scored their regulation runs in 2’s.
June 17 – Falcons SP Mark Jacobs (3-7, 4.06 ERA) shuts out the Knights on two hits in a 6-0 game.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.320, 4 HR, 40 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.288, 17 HR, 49 RBI), thrashing .462 (12-26) with 4 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

(Chad comes in wearing the mascot costume, holding a set of cards, the first of which reads “The boss is having a lie-down”, which he discards after swinging the hips from side to side a few times; the second card reads “Maybe I’ll get a chance to pitch on Monday!”, which he shows, then covers the mascot mouth with a paw, giggling; he then drops that and shows the last card stating “tickets still available for Monday against the Canadiens!”, then tosses that too, spins around, cranks up the hip swings and starts making the tail spin in a vertical circle much to Maud’s embarrassment)

Fun Fact: Dave Blackshire did backup infield duties for the Buffaloes for five seasons after being wrapped up in the Kennedy Adkins trade in ’54.

After doing that duty from 2055 to 2059 he was out of the majors until he resurfaced as injury backup with Indy last year. Somehow he’s won three rings with three teams: the 2054 Coons, 2059 Buffos, and 2062 Arrowheads;

The thing that he showed in Portland, where he was always a bit close to batting league average but never quite really, and it was a bit annoying continued merrily ever after. A career .235/.343/.319 batter, Blackshire had an 86 OPS+ for his career, and his single best season value of any body of work was a 103 with the 2053 Coons in just 46 games.

Defensively he might still be worth considering over Morales at third base though…

[Westheim]

2063 AMATEUR DRAFT

The Raccoons were in Indianapolis on Friday, beginning a 3-game set with the Indians, but draft duties compelled me to travel to New York and League HQ instead, because there was a #12 pick that had to be peppered away – and then nothing for a good long while after spending a second-round pick and $35M on whatever Josh Elling was doing at this stage.

As a kind reminder, this was our annual hotlist (*high schoolers):

SP Alan Fullen (13/12/15) *
SP Joe Whitley (12/16/9) *
SP Eric Siebert (12/12/13) *

CL Allan Bergerud (17/14/12)
CL Mike Martin (17/11/10)

C Justin Hart (11/12/10) – BNN #8

INF John Schmidt (17/2/16)
3B/2B Morgan Jones (14/5/8) *
3B/2B David MacFarlane (9/11/13)

LF/RF Ian Streng (10/13/13)
OF Bill Davidson (9/15/12) – BNN #4
OF Juan Licona (10/12/15) * – BNN #3

The first overall pick turned out to be John Schmidt, getting drafted by the Falcons followed by … well, not a hotlist player, but SP Zach Haluska by the Pacifics at #2. The Wolves then took Bill Davidson, followed by Justin Hart going #4 to the Knights, and then another non-hotlist player, outfielder Melvin Avila, to the Cyclones. Alan Fullen went sixth overall to the Loggers. After that it was Juan Licona to the Rebs, Joe Whitley to the Caps, and outfielder Adam Campbell to the Warriors. Ian Streng (Baybirds) completed the top 10. The Raccoons had five hotlist players to pick from: Siebert, Bergerud, Martin, Jones, and MacFarlane.

We had already mentally distanced ourselves from the idea of taking a closer again in the first round, and then naturally gravitated to the only remaining starting pitcher. There was nothing to outright not like about Siebert, and he was taken with the #12 pick.

After that, Allan Bergerud went #14 to the Buffos, immediately followed by the damn Elks taking Mike Martin. The Condors grabbed David MacFarlane with the #17 pick. That left only Morgan Jones, who plunged a long way down the draft board, but not all the way to the Raccoons in the middle of the third round. The damn Elks took him with the #53 pick in the second round.

This year, our shortlist only lasted us through our 12th round selection and we had to wing it in the final round. This would normally be Funny Names Time, but even there the selection just wasn’t there. Sad times. We ended up gifting a year of meal money – because I couldn’t see the guy lasting more than 12 months – to some sad sack that wasn’t gonna tick the box to play ball professionally otherwise, ever. And I would insist that Steve from Accounting would file that meal money as a charitable donation!

+++

2063 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#12) – SP Eric Siebert, 18, from Royal Oak, MI – right-handed groundballer with a splitter/forkball mix promising to be a control guy even though high strikeout totals were unlikely going forwards with him throwing 92mph at this point
Round 3 (#74) – SP Vinny Morales, 22, from Jackson Township, NJ – right-hander throwing 93 with a curve, fork, and changeup mix; sometimes came a bit too straight and was taken a bit too deep by the opposition, but the pitch mix did look promising overall
Round 4 (#98) – OF/1B/3B Jamie Colter, 21, from New York, NY – very versatile with five positions played, even though he was best kept in left or first due to range and arm strength not being top notch; also didn’t have much speed to go with an otherwise balanced batting profile
Round 5 (#122) – RF/LF Steve Washington, 18, from Clarksville, TN – switch-hitting power threat with a good defensive profile and speed; how does that package fall to the fifth round? Basically by being a living strikeout.
Round 6 (#146) – SP Cameron Bridges, 19, from Wakefield-Peacedale, RI – right-handed Rhode Islander with a curveball of dreams, but apart from that he was throwing only 89, lacked a serviceable third pitch, and hung it too often overall
Round 7 (#170) – 2B/1B Mike Julian, 17, from Warrensburg, MO – throws like a girl, but that might not matter if he can morph into a singles-slapping, walking, base stealing terror at second base
Round 8 (#194) – C/1B Jonathan Nelson, 18, from Chicago, IL – another pick being made on a vague power promise with nothing else standing out in an otherwise mediocre hitting and defensive profile
Round 9 (#218) – C Sergio Cerezo, 17, from Ft. Valley, GA – plenty of red flags with this kid, most of them related to disciplinary action by his own high school for various prank-related outrages; if he wasn’t a knucklehead, he actually showed some signs of hitting talent
Round 10 (#242) – SS Frank Bond, 19, from Chatham-Kent, Canada – describing him as a light-hitting shortstop was asking a lot of heavy lifting of the term “light-hitting”; essentially he couldn’t hit a lick, and we were drafting him to turn him into a righty reliever with an interesting curveball
Round 11 (#266) – SP Barrett Krumland, 18, from El Monte, CA – left-handed (hey, hey!) curveball with a heavy flyball tendency, and throwing only 87; we had sure taken less hopeless cases with the Nick Brown Memorial pick…
Round 12 (#290) – 3B/LF Casey Pederson, 21, from Tigard, OR – good boy living like ten miles from Raccoons Ballpark described as a very hard worker that unfortunately lacked much talent except for the ability to pick it at the hot corner
Round 13 (#314) – INF Justin Lewis, 22, from Bellerose Terrace, NY – some infield versatility but a dire hitting profile

All new picks were assigned to single-A Aumsville.

+++

We also emptied the system of a few other players that were now or already had been surplus to requirements. Notable dismissals included…

For pitchers we parted with 29-year-old relievers Corey Barrett and Adam Harris from the AAA roster. Both had been in the majors with the Raccoons (and Barrett with the Condors before that), but their ABL ERA’s with Portland were 6.35 and 5.61 respectively, and we had other options at this point. Also gone were Justin Clark (2058, 5th round), stuck in Ham Lake for the last four years and still not having any command or clue; Bobby Meagher (2058, 8th round), who was pretty much copy/paste except for five games in AAA at one point; Danny Walls (2061, 9th round), who was walking more people every year; Mike Wind (2060, 9th round), who was already 24 and had no grasp of how to pitch in AA; Tristan Luter (2061, 8th round), who was labeled as dangerous to batters’ health for how wild he was; and the odd scouting discovery on top of that.

Position players excised included catcher Tom Johnson, a big mis-pick in the third round in 2060; SS Ben Henry (2057, 4th round), stuck in Ham Lake forever; and a pair of single-A infielders in Javier Banuelos and Julian Santana that had cost a grand total of $43k to sign in separate July IFA rounds;

[Westheim]

The Raccoons on Sunday started playing at 1:05 central time. They played a 4:38 first leg of the double header, not including a 50-minute rain delay, then had a 30-minute break between games, and then spent another 3:53 on the second leg of the double header. They then spent another hour getting showered, combed, and dressed at the ballpark, half an hour on the way to the airport where they demolished every trash can they could sniff out, then spent four hours on a red eye flight with a screaming baby on board to Portland, and disembarked there at 2:37am pacific time on Monday morning – and then still had to get home. Let’s just say training on Monday was cancelled and everybody only flocked to the park at 4pm for some light jogging a 7pm start against the Elks.

Full steak dinner, though.

Raccoons (40-28) vs. Canadiens (36-33) – June 18-20, 2063

The very tired Raccoons, fresh off a triple header’s worth of games, faced the damn Elks in Portland starting on Monday. Elk City was sixth in runs scored, fifth in runs allowed, and had played only nine innings worth of baseball on Sunday. The Coons led the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (5-2, 3.36 ERA) vs. Juan Mercado (4-6, 5.50 ERA)
Angel Alba (6-4, 3.09 ERA) vs. Eric Barnes (3-6, 4.16 ERA)
Chance Fox (5-3, 2.62 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (3-4, 4.94 ERA)

Mercado was the only left-hander coming up against Portland.

We obviously made a roster move. Mildly abused Paul Barton (0-1, 3.60 ERA) was returned to AAA for a fresh reliever… and… have you heard of J.J. Sensabaugh?

Game 1
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Lozada – LF Whetstine – CF D. Moreno – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P J. Mercado
POR: CF Kozak – RF M. Campos – 2B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – C Lawson – P Riddle

The Elks’ Alex Corpus, Jose Campos, and Roberto Lozada loaded the bases against Riddle in the first inning, but Riddle then struck out Chet Whetstine and Damian Moreno to escape the jam. Instead, the tired Coons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 1st on Starr and Morales singles and Lonzo hitting a sac fly to center. After Riddle pitched around a Kozak error in center when he dropped Alex Castillo’s fly to begin the third inning, the bottom 3rd saw another pair of Critters on the corners when Marco Campos and Rich Monck hit 1-out singles, but Crumble lined out to Steven Spalding, and Starr rolled over to Corpus to waste the opportunity.

Things remained tense around Riddle, who allowed loud hits to Spalding (single to right) and Mike Orphanos (double to left) with one down in the fourth. Mercado struck out and Lonzo handled a Castillo grounder for the third out to strand a pair of Elks in scoring position. His fifth was calm, while the Coons tacked on a run with Campos’ single and stolen base, plus a 2-out RBI single by Monck in the bottom 5th. Spalding and Orphanos continued to plonk singles off Riddle in the sixth, but they did so with two outs and Mercado struck out again. It was a bit of a nerve-wrecking game, but I was tired and for an inning or two in the middle there rolled into a ball, covered my eyes with my tail, and snored away.

The Critters managed to get seven innings of 8-hit ball out of Riddle, who didn’t allow a run, but threw 110 pitches, which was quite a lot for him. McDaniel struck out Whetstine and Moreno in the eighth before Murdock replaced him, allowed a single to Spalding, but then rung up Orphanos. The Coons began the bottom 8th with outs by Crumble and Starr against lefty Gabe Hill, but Morales singled and then Lonzo hit another single to shallow right-center, where three Elks converged, hoofed each other and Lozada and Castillo even locked antlers for a bit, and that confusion allowed both runners to reach scoring position. Arellano batted for a hitless Scott Lawson, dropped a 2-run single into the same spot, and Morris hit another single after pinch-hitting earlier for Riddle. Murdock was in the #1 spot and was allowed to make the final out; the Raccoons were keener on getting three more outs from *him* rather than bringing in another reliever. He accomplished that task by getting three outs – but not without allowing a single to Castillo and a 2-out homer to Jose Campos in the ninth inning. Lozada struck out to finish the game. 4-2 Raccoons. Campos 2-4; Monck 2-4, RBI; Morales 3-4; Arellano (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Morris (PH) 2-2; Riddle 7.0 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (6-2);

Overall, very well pitched game, and this would go quite some way to reset the pen for the last two games of the series ahead of our last pre-All Star Game day off on Thursday. After that it would be 17 straight games to the break.

Scott Lawson, though. He started nice enough, but right now he was hitting .176 with 5 RBI, and was on a 1-for-22 streak with 2 RBI. He was a Rule 5 pick, so the only way to get rid of him was to send him back to Stars, and there were another 93 games to play…

Game 2
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Richardson – LF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF D. Moreno – 3B Spalding – P E. Barnes
POR: CF Morris – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – LF Crumble – SS Fowler – C Arellano – P Alba

…and then Angel Alba ruined everything. Campos’ triple in the first only saw him stranded on third base with no support, but the Elks tore him an entirely new hole in the second inning. Whetstine opened with a double and scored after two sharp singles by Alex Maldonado and Moreno. Alba walked Spalding and allowed a sac fly to Barnes before serving up a 3-run blast to Castillo, and then still managed to give up another two hits before the inning finally ended. He allowed another hit in the third, then two hits to Castillo and Corpus to begin the fourth inning. The pair of singles married up with a bad throw to third base by Morris, which skipped by a tardy looking Morales (…), allowing Castillo to score from first base. The Coons pulled the plug there, yanking Alba for … Sensabaugh, who immediately gave up a single, a run-scoring wild pitch, and an RBI double to Jose Campos and Chris Richardson, respectively. That ran the score to 8-3 Elks, with the Coons’ “3” stemming from a mighty homer by Jose Corral in the bottom 3rd after Morales and Starr had gotten on base. Victor Morales singled home Marco Campos – who had come in with Sensabaugh in a double switch that ended Crumble’s day early – in the bottom of the fourth, 8-4. Both teams gained 25% interest on that score in the fifth; the Elks’ Jose Campos hit a 2-run homer off Sensabaugh, and Nick Fowler singled home Rich Monck and his leadoff double, but him and Corral were left on the corners by Arellano and Marco Campos.

So things did not look particularly close while nobody scored in the next two innings. Sensabaugh was relieved by Carrillo after three garbage innings, and Walters pitched in the eighth as his regular abuse continued. The Elks were still up 10-5 in the bottom 8th until Arellano homered off ex-Coons right-hander Mike Siwik, and then Campos and Morris went to the corners before a new righty, Mike Perez, came into the game, striking out Morales. Starr popped out, and a pair was left on base. Instead a Spalding home run off Pohlmann tacked on a run for Elk City in the ninth… 11-6 Canadiens. Morris 2-4; Morales 2-4, BB, RBI; Arellano 2-4, HR, RBI;

Game 3
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Lozada – LF Whetstine – CF D. Moreno – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P C. Torres
POR: CF Morris – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Fox

Victor Morales’ surprise solo homer gave the Raccoons a quick 1-0 lead in the rubber game, and the game remained rather quaint after that. Foxie Brown scattered three hits and a walk through five innings, but never really looked like a collapse was imminent, while the Critters did much of the same, hitting the odd single here and there, but struggled to reach third base. Fox then led off the bottom 5th with a single past Corpus and Morris doubled to center, putting all of a sudden a pair in scoring position for the 2-3-4 batters, who struck out, popped out, and popped out. I covered my face with a pillow and screamed.

Fox got around a 1-out single by Corpus in the sixth, while the Coons took to the corners with Corral and Lonzo singles until Arellano jammed into an inning-ending double play. Foxie allowed no more base runners to the Elks… while pitching through eight innings, whiffing nine. The rest of the hunchbacks failed to provide anything even remotely looking like a cushion; even when Starr reached base to begin the bottom 8th on an error by Castillo, Monck immediately hit into a double play. At least Carlisle was wise enough not to blow the skinny lead in the ninth, although Chris Richardson found a pinch-hit single with two outs against him. Whetstine then grounded out to Monck to finish the game. 1-0 Blighters. Morales 1-4, HR, RBI; Starr 2-4; Fox 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (6-3) and 1-3;

Raccoons (42-29) @ Knights (41-32) – June 22-24, 2063

Atlanta had won two of three from the Raccoons earlier in the season and now tried to win more games against the Furballs, who led the North by 3 1/2 games on Friday morning, while the Knights were 3 1/2 back in the South. Atlanta ranked sixth in runs scored and tenth in runs allowed though, with a -19 run differential, which was even more absurd than the Critters’ +6 mark. The Knights pen was highly explosive, their defense crummy, they had little power, but led the CL in stolen bases.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (4-6, 3.40 ERA) vs. Hironobu Hanzawa (4-4, 3.86 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-0, 1.88 ERA) vs. Jose Rosa (3-5, 5.16 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (6-2, 3.12 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (3-5, 3.44 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday! …unless the Knights were up to no good and used the off day on Thursday to shift starters around.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Elling
ATL: 2B Fumero – RF J. Evans – CF Oldfield – SS Gallo – C M. Nieto – LF J. Parker – 1B A. Vasquez – 3B A. Duncan – P Hanzawa

Elling’s awful season continued with Carlos Fumero’s double in the first, a wild pitch, and a 2-run homer by Jake Evans, all inside seven pitches. That score stood for a bit, even though Elling continued with a leadoff walk to Johnny Parker and another wild pitch in the next inning. The Raccoons wasted a bases loaded situation in the second inning when they got the 5-6-7 batters on base until Arellano hit into a double play to end the inning, and then barely scratched out a run on Monck and Crumble hits in the fourth inning. Elling then issued a leadoff walk on four pitches to Hanzawa for no good reason at all in the bottom 5th, and Fumero’s grounder was then thrown away by Arellano for two bases, putting a pair in scoring position with nobody out. Elling walked the bags full with Evans, then almost gave up a slam to Cory Oldfield, who’s high fly came down on the warning track for Corral to pick, holding him to a sac fly. J.P. Gallo’s K and Marco Nieto’s grounder to third base kept the Knights from doing more damage. Parker and Alex Vasquez then singled off Elling to begin the bottom 6th. Parker scored on Adam Duncan’s groundout for the fourth and last run off Elling (three earned) in this game.

Gallo tacked on a run with a homer against Pohlmann in the seventh, 5-1, and the Raccoons looked a lot like they’d trundle that one out without any more challenges to the Knights until the ninth inning broke and Corral and Bean hit soft singles off right-hander Anton Jesus, which prompted an appearance by Ben Lussier and his 4.50 ERA, which was bad for a closer but decent by his inexplicably prominent standards. Lonzo ripped an RBI double off him on the first pitch, and that brought up the tying run with nobody out. Arellano hit a deep fly, but it was caught by Oldfield, holding him to a sac fly, 5-3. Kozak slapped an RBI single in place of Walters, rushed to third base on Morris’ single to right on the very next pitch, and drew a bad throw by Evans that allowed Morris into second base with the go-ahead run. Morales’ fly to right-center was caught by Evans, but Kozak dazzled home to tie the game at five. Starr was walked intentionally before Lussier was yanked and Jordan Juarez installed, off whom Monck tapped a go-ahead RBI single to left. Corral popped out, and that brought on Carlisle rather unexpectedly with a 6-5 lead. Sal Andon and Carlos Fumero made outs on the infield, but Evans singled to center with two outs. Oldfield grounded out to Jon Bean, though, and that ended the game. 6-5 Coons. Crumble 2-3, RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1; Lavorano 3-4, RBI; Kozak (PH) 1-1, RBI;

I will never understand some GM’s fascination with Ben Lussier, who now had his ERA up to 5.15 after being charged with three runs in this meltdown.

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – C Lawson – P Applegate
ATL: 2B Baxley - C M. Nieto - RF J. Evans – CF Fumero – 3B A. Duncan – LF Oldfield – SS Swick – 1B A. Vasquez – P Rosa

Scott Lawson whacked his first career home run to give the Critters a 1-0 lead in the second inning. Before that, Starr and Monck had hit 2-out singles on the way to getting stranded in the first, and the team wasn’t doing anything much for a while after. Meanwhile, Applegate was not touched too roughly the first time through the Knights order, but the fourth inning saw the game derail; Jake Evans hit a leadoff single, but was doubled off by Fumero. Adam Duncan then reached on an error by Starr, who dropped a feed from Lawson. From there, Oldfield singled, Troy Swick walked, and Alex Vasquez singled home two runs before Applegate finally got the ex-Coon Rosa out. The Knights then hit three singles in the bottom 5th, but left the bases loaded when Oldfield grounded out in a full count.

The Raccoons finally distanced themselves from the part of impartial observers in the sixth inning. Morris singled, stole second, and Starr ripped a homer to right to flip the score back the Coons’ way, 3-2. Monck lined out hard to Swick, and Corral whiffed, ending the inning. Applegate then blew the lead in the seventh with a 2-base throwing error of his own that put Evans on base with two outs, and Fumero singled home the run. The game was now even at three, with all three runs against Applegate unearned (although not necessarily undeserved…).

Lonzo singled but got nowhere in the eighth inning, while Murdock allowed hits to Swick and the pinch-hitting Parker, the latter getting home the go-ahead run with two outs. The Knights’ way to cope with a lead was to bring Lussier right back, and he’d meet the all-lefty 3-4-5 batters. Starr singled, but was forced out by Monck, who reached second when Corral grounded out. Lussier actually pulled through this time, getting a grounder from Morales to third base to end the game. 4-3 Knights. Starr 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Lavorano (PH) 1-1; Applegate 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

Game 3
POR: CF Kozak – RF Campos – 2B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Riddle
ATL: LF Andon – C M. Nieto – RF J. Evans – CF Fumero – 3B A. Duncan – SS Gallo – 2B Baxley – 1B A. Vasquez – P Villegas

Riddle got on the snout immediately on Sunday, walking Nieto before giving up a pair of RBI doubles to Evans and Fumero. Adam Duncan also walked, but Gallo and Baxley then grounded out to strand a pair. Riddle struggled to put a clean inning together afterwards, allowing a single and a walk in the second inning, and a single and a wild pitch in the third inning.

By the fourth the Coons tied the game with the bottom of the order. Morales, Lonzo, and Arellano strung together three 2-out singles for a run in the second inning, and Lonzo singled home Starr with two outs in the fourth to get even. Once the score was level, Riddle finally stopped sucking and didn’t allow any Knights runners in the middle innings, but the Raccoons had a snooze all the way to the stretch as well. Riddle had to settle for a no-decision despite striking out Vasquez and Oldfield in the bottom 7th, because the Coons went to Pohlmann after that against the five right-handers atop the Knights lineup. Sal Andon was hit for with the left-handed Parker, but he popped out to second. Nieto reached on catcher’s interference to begin the bottom 8th, but Pohlmann struck out the next two and got Duncan to fly out to keep the scores level. They remained level on the Coons’ side, who got nothing off Anton Jesus and Jordan Juarez after seven innings by Villegas, but putting McDaniel into the bottom 9th quickly escalated into a Knights walkoff, beginning with a pinch-hit double to left by Willie Villafan. Justin Falzone’s single and a Lonzo error on a rushed play to try and get Villafan at home – he never even grabbed the bouncer he was aiming for – ended the game. 3-2 Knights. Starr 2-4, 2B; Lavorano 2-3, RBI;

After last week I’m just glad they didn’t lose in 14…

In other news

June 18 – Blue Sox closer Takenori Tanizaki (3-3, 2.38 ERA, 23 SV) might miss the rest of the season with a case of shoulder inflammation.
June 20 – The Buffaloes beat the Capitals, 1-0 in 10 innings. Topeka has only four hits in the game, two of them including the pinch-hit RBI double by LF/1B Andy Hudson (.273, 1 HR, 6 RBI) in the deciding top of the tenth.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.353, 21 HR, 61 RBI), bashing .320 (8-25) with 4 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT 1B Ian Stone (.293, 11 HR, 42 RBI), raking .522 (12-23) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Chance Fox briefly qualified for the ERA title this week and at that time was third in the CL behind Mike DeWitt (1.46) and Jason Brenize (1.64). One day, Foxie will grow up to be a formidable pitcher that doesn’t make his GM cry! – Cristiano, I know that he’s already 28, I was just … shut up!

To get Sensabaugh back on the 40-man roster, the Raccoons had to place catcher Joe Robertson on waivers this week, but the 26-year-old went unclaimed. Speaking of meh catchers, I wouldn’t claim that the homer on Saturday saved Lawson’s roster spot and Coons cap for the rest of the year, but kiddo bought himself another week or two of trying to get something together behind the dish. Due to the 17-game string without a day off we’re in now, he’ll surely get another three of four starts or so by the break.

New homestand coming up against the Thunder and Loggers, and then Portland Frequent Flyers will finish the pre-All Star Game schedule in New York and Boston in early July.

Fun Fact: 55 years ago today, Thunders rookie Alex Lindsey no-hit the Bayhawks in a 6-0 game.

Lindsey was a #296 pick in the 2000 draft, taken by the Buffos in the 11th round. He was signed and cut by three different organizations within 24 months of being drafted, then was signed off the trash heap by the Thunder in April 2003 and slowly rose through the minors before getting cooked for a 6.12 ERA in a few appearances in 2006. He didn’t play in the majors at all the following season before making 18 starts in 2008 going 11-4 with a 3.23 ERA. Despite that he then became a swingman making only the occasional start and was eventually claimed off waivers by the Buffaloes again in ’11, making 25 starts for them, but went 8-12 with a 5.32 ERA. He wound up as a starter in Boston the year after, posted another 5+ ERA, and from then on was mostly a garbage reliever, but lasted in the majors until 2022 at the age of 40.

Overall he appeared in 414 games (96 starts) with a 64-55 record, 4.43 ERA, nine saves, and 719 strikeouts in 1,062 innings.

Lindsey also had *four* different stints with the Buffos if you include his single-A time after getting drafted and released from 2000-01. He then pitched in the majors for them in 2011, from 2014 to 2016, and again in 2022.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (43-31) vs. Thunder (43-32) – June 25-27, 2063

Here were two teams that were at least 11 games over .500 and yet both ranked in the bottom three in runs scored in the league; the Coons were 10th, the Thunder were 11th. In turn, the Thunder allowed the fewest runs in the CL for a +38 run differential, while the Coons were still bumbling around at +5 and looked like frauds entirely. We were up two games to one in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (6-5, 3.64 ERA) vs. Phil Baker (8-2, 2.59 ERA)
Chance Fox (6-3, 2.33 ERA) vs. Jake Frensley (3-6, 5.33 ERA)
Josh Elling (4-6, 3.47 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (8-5, 2.37 ERA)

Only right-handers were coming up in this series.

Game 1
OCT: CF D. Garcia – 1B I. Stone – 2B D. Richardson – C Preston – SS Spehar – RF Meister – 3B Lira – LF B. Fish – P P. Baker
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Alba

Both teams lived right up to the hype about their offense and lined up zeroes on the board from the start. Victor Morales hit a 2-out triple but was stranded when Lonzo lined out, and that was about it for the early innings, while the Thunder got 1-out singles from Omar Lira and Bobby Fish in the fifth inning, got them bunted to second by the ex-Coon Baker, and then Danny Garcia struck out, which was the sixth K for Alba in the game against four singles. Alba then bunted badly to force out Arellano when his catcher reached base to begin the bottom 5th. Morris in turn forced out Alba with a grounder to short on which Ryan Spehar twisted his knee and had to leave the game, to be replaced by Mark Younce, but Morris stole second base and then dashed home on Kozak’s 2-out single to left-center for the first run of the game. Starr grounded out to end the inning.

Younce and Lira hit singles in the seventh, but Fish and Baker made poor outs and left them on base to end Alba’s last inning as it took him 106 pitches to get that far. Walters got two outs in the eighth and Murdock got one more, and Baker got through eight without giving up anything else of substance for the Thunder. Carlisle allowed a leadoff double to Steve Preston in the ninth inning, which made me queasy, but struck out Luis Miranda and Zach Meister before Lira grounded out easily. 1-0 Blighters. Morales 1-2, BB, 3B; Bean (PH) 1-1; Alba 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (7-5);

Color me whatever color stands for not surprised about any of this.

Spehar would be off to the DL and miss a month.

Game 2
OCT: C L. Miranda – 2B D. Richardson – 1B I. Stone – SS McNeal – 3B Younce – RF Meister – LF D. Garcia – CF B. Fish – P Frensley
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Fox

Fox had one of those other starts on Tuesday. He walked Richardson in the first, then struck out two, but drilled both Younce – already an injury replacement – and Garcia in the second before getting a 4-6-3 double play turned to end the inning. Younce tried to get his revenge with a double to left hit in the fourth inning, but was then let on base by Zach Meister and Garcia; Lonzo also hit a 1-out double in that inning, and fared no better when it came to scoring.

For all his wonkiness, Fox lined up five zeroes before the Raccoons accumulated on base to begin the bottom 5th. Ben Morris singled and stole second, but could only get to third base on a scratch single by Kozak. Starr walked on four pitches, and Monck came up with three on and nobody out. He swung at a 3-1 pitch and flew out to Garcia in deep left – about 30 feet short of a slam – but that at least got Morris home with a sac fly before Corral rumbled into a double play.

Could the Coons scratch out another 1-0 win? Nope. Fox got through six and two thirds innings of shutout ball before falling to three straight singles and the tying run, annoyingly started by a Frensley single, who was sent to second on a Miranda single, and scored on a Richardson single. Ian Stone grounded out to Monck to leave two on base. Fox wasn’t back for the eighth and had to settle for a no-decision while pinch-hits by Justin Savalli (who?), doubling off Carrillo, and Omar Lira, who singled off McDaniel with two outs, gave the Thunder a 2-1 lead. Marco Campos’ pinch-hit single and stolen base in the bottom 8th were good enough for him to get stranded at third base, and in the ninth the Coons were up against righty Dave Lister. Crumble, Fowler, and Morris produced three ******* groundouts and that was that. 2-1 Thunder. Campos (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

Bit of a lineup shuffle for the rubber game, not that there was a whole lot to be done with the roster right now…

Game 3
OCT: CF D. Garcia – 1B I. Stone – C Preston – RF R. Hummel – SS Lira – 3B McNeal – 2B Younce – LF B. Fish – P Aa. Harris
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – LF Crumble – RF Campos – 3B Fowler – C Lawson – P Elling

Right away, Elling fell over the five left-handed bats at the top of that order. He walked Garcia and Ian Stone to begin the game, got Preston on a grounder, but then allowed a 2-run double to Randy Hummel and walked Lira as well before Josh McNeal hit into a 5-4-3 double play. In other words – ballgame.

The Coons did nothing of higher value until at least putting runners on the corners in the fourth inning through 2-out singles by Crumble and Campos, then kept hitting to everybody’s surprise. Both Fowler and Lawson hit an RBI single past either side of Mark Younce, and that tied the game at two before Elling struck out. He would strike out four batters for six more outs from there, but then was done after six very busy innings, walking four and whiffing nine for over 100 pitches. He also was left with a no-decision, since the only “offense” the Coons produced in the fifth and sixth was Campos reaching on an error by Lira.

Matt Walters put up a scoreless seventh against the bottom half of the Thunder order, then was hit for with Kozak in the bottom 7th. Kozak hit a 1-out single off Harris, then made it to third base on a Morris double to left, presenting Lonzo with a great scoring opportunity with runners on second and third and one out. Lonzo plinked a loopy single over the head of Lira to bring in Kozak and took a 3-2 lead, but Morris had to freeze initially and then only made it to third base. Starr’s grounder to second forced out Lonzo, but the Thunder didn’t turn two and Morris scored there. Harris hit Monck, but Crumble couldn’t hit Harris and the inning ended with a fly to center. Up 4-2, Murdock then allowed a single to Luis Miranda in the #9 hole to begin the eighth inning before being immediately yoinked for McDaniel, who decimated the 1-2-3 batters accordingly and quickly enough to give us thoughts about him going for a 6-out save. He came back in the ninth, struck out Hummel, got Lira out to short, and faced Richardson, even though Richardson batted righty. Richardson flew out to left on the first pitch. 4-2 Coons. Crumble 2-4; Lawson 2-4, RBI; Kozak (PH) 1-2; McDaniel 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (1);

Raccoons (45-32) vs. Loggers (37-41) – June 28-July 1, 2063

The Loggers were scoring like heck – at least compared to the Critters – with the third-most runs put out in the CL, and with their fourth-worst pitching still managed a positive run differential of +5. The season series was at 4-3 Coons, but we had struggled mightily against the Loggers for a few years now. Their only meaningful injury was to Dave Wright.

Projected matchups:
Jeff Applegate (0-0, 1.27 ERA) vs. Larry Wilson (5-8, 3.86 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (6-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (5-4, 4.12 ERA)
Angel Alba (7-5, 3.40 ERA) vs. Vincent Hernandez (7-4, 3.61 ERA)
Chance Fox (6-3, 2.24 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (2-4, 5.45 ERA)

The middle two starters the Loggers had lined up here were left-handers, which prompted an off day to Lonzo on Thursday.

…and then everybody got a day off thanks to persistent rain. Yaaay, more double headers…!

We flipped Riddle into the first leg of the Friday double header, while cramming every available lefty bat into the lineup against Larry Wilson

Game 1
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – 3B D. Miller – CF Merrill – 2B C. Sullivan – P L. Wilson
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – RF Corral – 3B Fowler – 2B Bean – C Arellano – P Riddle

Scott Franks opened the Friday proceedings with a single, stole his way to third base, and scored on a wild pitch. Yay. The Raccoons produced three innings of nothingness while Riddle continued to pitch rather uncleanly, with a hit batter and a balk scattered into the next few innings before the Loggers’ 4-5-6 hitters all reached base to begin the fourth inning on a walk and two singles. Milwaukee produced two sac flies from having the bases loaded with nobody out to extend their lead to 3-0.

The Coons scored a run in the fifth inning on straight 2-out singles by Arellano, Riddle (!), and Morris, but Riddle also got himself tagged out in a rundown between second and third to fritter away a bigger inning. Riddle offered one more inning, but the Loggers squeezed him out for over 100 pitches in six innings, and that was gonna be that. Carrillo pitched a scoreless seventh. Wilson allowed a 2-out single to Jon Bean in the bottom 7th, then walked Arellano, which brought up Malik Crumble to bat for Carrillo with the tying runs on base. Wilson got to 1-2 before making a mistake and had a double crammed into the rightfield corner that allowed even Arellano to score from first base as the Critters tied the game up at three, and then they even went up 4-3 when Morris bounced a ball through between Dave Robles and Chris Sullivan for an RBI single. We had thought of finishing the last two innings with Sensabaugh, but now wisely reconsidered and got a clean eighth from Pohlmann instead. Bottom 8th, Randy Birnbaum walked Starr and Corral before giving up an RBI double to right to Fowler, then an RBI single to Bean before being yanked for Hector Estevez, who did him one better with a 2-run double served up to Arellano. Lonzo batted for Pohlmann, but popped out, and Morris made the last out, after which Murdock got the last three outs from the Loggers. 8-3 Raccoons. Morris 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Bean 2-4, RBI; Arellano 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Crumble (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Runs!!??

Game 2
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – 3B D. Miller – CF Merrill – C Jack – 2B Garmon – P T. Espinosa
POR: CF Morris – 1B Kozak – LF Crumble – 2B Monck – 3B Morales – RF Campos – SS Lavorano – C Lawson – P Applegate

Singles by Danny Miller and J.P. Jack gave the Loggers a 1-0 lead in the second inning against an as of yet undecided Jeff Applegate. The Raccoons went in order in the first but then got leadoff singles from Monck and Morales in the second inning. Monck went to third, drew a throw, and allowed Morales to alertly move up behind him. Campos’ soft RBI single and Lonzo’s sac fly to center brought in that pair, but Espinosa struck out the battery to get out of the inning.

The third was uneventful, while Fidel Carrera hit a single and was caught stealing in the fourth. Applegate held out in the fifth, but was taken deep to right by Cesar Ramirez in the sixth inning, and that got rid of the 2-1 lead. Tony Espinosa responded by nicking Morris to begin the home half of the sixth, but the Raccoons just didn’t know what to do with a free runner and Morris was first forced out, and then Crumble ended up stranded at second base. Applegate walked two in the seventh, then Guitreau in Ramirez’ spot to begin the eighth, but got a comebacker from Robles for a double play, then a Carrera fly to right to complete eight innings before being hit for with Corral in the bottom 8th, but Corral, Morris, and Kozak made outs in order to give him his fourth no-decision in four starts.

Somehow, the Coons went to Sensabaugh in the ninth. Jonathan Merrill hit a double with one gone, but was stranded with a grounder to third and a strikeout from Jack and Chris Sullivan, respectively. Sensabaugh got more work when the Raccoons’ 3-4-5 did absolutely nothing in the bottom 9th, and ended up going three shutout innings before being hit for to lead off the bottom 11th against Brad Walker, right-hander. Joel Starr drew a leadoff walk, then dashed to third base on a Morris single to right-center, all with nobody out. Kozak’s fly to center was caught by Merrill, but he had nothing to stop Starr from scoring. 3-2 Blighters. Morales 2-4; Applegate 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 2 K; Sensabaugh 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Somehow – anyhow – they keep on winning.

I don’t exactly know how they do it though.

Game 3
MIL: LF Franks – 1B C. Ramirez – C Guitreau – SS F. Carrera – 3B D. Miller – CF Merrill – RF Milian – 2B Garmon – P V. Hernandez
POR: CF Kozak – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – C Arellano – RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 2B Bean – P Alba

Franks got on base to begin the game, but was doubled up by Guitreau, while Carrera’s leadoff single saw him advance on a grounder, then getting caught stealing third base in the second inning. For Portland Kozak hit an infield single in the first, then was Crumbled up in a double play. A Carrera error put Morales on base to begin the bottom 2nd. Arellano popped out before Campos doubled to left, giving Lonzo a pair in scoring position. He popped out on a 1-2 pitch, but Jon Bean came through with a single to right and scored Morales’ unearned run. Alba was an easy third out.

Bottom 3rd, and the Raccoons had runners on second and third with nobody out, and even on merit. Hernandez walked Kozak, and Crumble doubled to center to make that happen. They scored on Starr’s sac fly to deep left and Morales’ groundout, respectively, and made it 3-0, but Milwaukee answered with leadoff hits for Franks and Ramirez in the fourth, although they only got one run on Carrera’s groundout before Miller whiffed to leave Ramirez on third. The Coons’ reply was a Campos double to left to begin the bottom 4th, and immediately Lonzo singled him home. Lonzo stole second, but was stranded by the next three batters, including Alba, who in turn gave up a 2-out run with an RBI single by the opposing pitcher in the fifth, Hernandez driving in Merrill. Crumble and Morales in turn got on base for the Coons, but were stranded, and the score remained 4-2 through five.

Both starters were pinch-hit for after six innings – although both were around 100 pitches – and neither team made something of that move. Walters got four outs for the Critters, while Murdock got only one before Carrera singled off him with two outs in the eighth. Kozak overran that ball for an error, and Lonzo threw away Miller’s grounder for two bases, a second error, and a run. Murdock walked Merrill, at which point the go-ahead run was on base and the Coons double-switched Carlisle and Fowler into the game, with Fowler replacing Morales at third base. Carlisle fanned up David Milian to end the slow bleed. Bottom 8th, Campos hit another double off Ricky Pippin with one out. Monck batted for Lonzo at that point, but the Loggers wanted no part of him and directed him to first base right away. Bean’s grounder was then knocked down but not played for an out by Carrera behind second base, loading them up for Fowler. A knock would have been great, but we settled for a sac fly to center, 5-3. Ben Morris took Kozak’s place then as well as his 11-game hitting streak and singled to center, plating Monck and extending his streak to 12 games. Crumble popped out and Carlisle came back with a 3-run lead. Garmon hit a leadoff single, but was doubled off by James Wilks, and the game ended with Franks flying out. 6-3 Coons. Morris (PH) 1-1, RBI; Crumble 2-5, 2B; Campos 3-4, 3 2B; Bean 2-4, RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1;

Game 4
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – 3B D. Miller – CF Merrill – 2B Garmon – P Pizzichini
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – RF Corral – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – 3B Morales – P Fox

The Coons heard “pizza” rather than Pizzichini and were then quite mopey when the assumed pizza didn’t show up at the first pitch. Fox scattered a bunch of singles early on, but didn’t allow a run, while the Raccoons had Arellano on base in the first, then picked off base, before Starr and Monck put out a pair of singles that might have amounted to something otherwise, but now they just were stranded on Corral’s groundout. Down to the bottom 4th, Pizza walked Monck before giving up a 1-out double to Corral. Three long at-bats later against K-rumble, Lonzo (who walked), and Morales, who flew out to Franks, the Coons left the bases loaded.

The next thing we saw off Lonzo was him making a tumbling grab on a Robles liner in the sixth inning on which he somehow twisted his knee. He came out of the game and was replaced by Fowler. Fox then did a Fox, drilled Carrera, walked Guitreau, and then reconsidered and struck out the next two batters to dally out of the inning… Bottom of the inning, Starr and Corral walked against Pizza, but he also got two miserly outs from the next two batters and nothing came of it.

Pinch-hitter Jim Fusselman and Cesar Ramirez hit singles off Fox in the seventh. Ramirez’ single was to right with two outs and Fusselman made a bid for third base, but was firmly denied and thrown out by Corral to keep the game scoreless at the stretch. The Loggers went to Hector Estevez in the bottom 7th, who gave up a leadoff single to Morales before Fox bunted the runner to second base. Morris was then walked intentionally when he still had to extend his hitting streak. A double steal attempted ended with Morales thrown out at third base. It was a bit of a panic move given Arellano standing at the plate in a FAT double play scenario. Funnily enough, Arellano then slapped a 2-out RBI double to right-center for the game’s first run, then was left on base by Starr’s fly to left.

Fox came back for the eighth, allowed a single to Robles and a homer to Carrera, and then departed again, angrily punching his own glove on the way off the field. Pohlmann struck out two on his way out of the inning, while Monck opened the bottom 8th with a single to center which Wilks overran for an error and the tying run going to second base. The Loggers went to lefty Francisco Leyba, the Coons answered with Kozak, but his grounder to short kept Monck pinned. Ricky Pippin then came on, but allowed an RBI single to center to Crumble, because sometimes matchups just make no sense. Crumble even advanced to second base on Wilks’ throw home, then scored on a Fowler single to left-center. Bean pinch-hit into a fielder’s choice, while Lawson batted for Pohlmann and found a 2-out single, which brought Morris back to the dish after all, but he grounded out and stranded a pair.

Maybe Carlisle and Monck could offer him respite, combining for a leadoff walk to Wilks, an error on Franks’ grounder, and Ramirez’ game-tying RBI single in the ninth inning before there was an out on the board. Carlisle then retired the next three on two strikeouts around a Carrera pop, but that didn’t give us the ******* lead back. Pippin was still messing around in the bottom 9th; Arellano grounded out but he walked Starr and Monck singled the winning run to third base. Kozak whiffed and Campos flew out to send the game to extras, where the game immediately went to ******* hell when Matt Walters offered a walk and then got bombed for three runs on three doubles by the Loggers. The Coons in the bottom 10th saw Fowler and Bean retired by Walker, then were out of bench players when Carrillo in the pitcher’s spot came up and had to send Angel Alba on the pretense that he’d do something with his .342 clip so far this season. He grounded out to Carrera. 6-3 Loggers. Arellano 2-5, 2B, RBI; Monck 3-4, BB; Lawson (PH) 1-1;

In other news

June 25 – CHA 3B Rick Healey (.288, 8 HR, 44 RBI) puts out five singles in regulation and an RBI double in overtime for six hits and two RBI in total in the Falcons’ 10-inning, 10-9 win against the Loggers.
June 25 – Shoulder inflammation ends the season of LAP SP Ivan Torres (7-2, 4.97 ERA).
June 25 – The Warriors’ SP Alex Dominguez (5-8, 4.80 ERA) is expected to miss a month with a strained hammy.
June 26 – Blue Sox SP Josh Rivera (8-2, 3.15 ERA) strikes out ten Gold Sox in a 2-hit shutout for a 6-0 win.
June 26 – NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.218, 3 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three weeks minimum with a broken foot.
June 27 – SFB RF/LF Juan Paez (.299, 5 HR, 24 RBI) might be out until the end of July after separating his shoulder.
June 28 – The Knights acquire UT Rafael Roldan (.265, 7 HR, 30 RBI) and a prospect from the Canadiens for SP Roger Pritchard (8-5, 2.78 ERA).
June 30 – VAN RF Chris Richardson (.202, 5 HR, 9 RBI) goes yard in the second inning to beat the Titans, 1-0.

FL Player of the Week: RIC INF/RF Robby Cox (.310, 13 HR, 54 RBI), batting .387 (12-31) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA INF John Schmidt (.328, 0 HR, 2 RBI), hitting .538 (14-26) with 1 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.355, 22 HR, 65 RBI), socking .350 with 11 HR, 30 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL SS/2B Fidel Carrera (.304, 17 HR, 65 RBI), churning .403 with 7 HR, 35 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS CL Justin Round (8-1, 2.45 ERA, 18 SV), going 5-1 with a 0.56 ERA, 7 SV, 12 K in 15 games
CL Pitcher of the Month: IND SP Mike DeWitt (12-2, 1.54 ERA), going 4-1 with 0.69 ERA, 38 K in six starts
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN OF J.D. Johnson (.252, 6 HR, 24 RBI), batting .253 with 4 HR, 12 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: ATL UT Carlos Fumero (.324, 1 HR, 29 RBI), clipping .373 with 1 HR, 16 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Bad news on Lonzo, who would miss two weeks at least with a knee contusion. Old men have old men pains, I guess.

That Schmidt kid? That’s the first overall pick from the draft. The Falcons sent the 21-year-old straight to the majors and so far he’s been clipping singles.

I wonder whether we ever saw two teams before that were at least ten games over .500, but in the bottom three in runs scored, and then did only the most miniscule pokes against each other. The entire Thunder series saw only ten runs scored – for both teams combined! At the end of it we were still 10th and 11th in runs scored, with the last-place Falcons almost on top of the two teams.

We need a spot starter on Tuesday, since I don’t feel like bringing back either Elling or Applegate on short rest. I don’t know how we’re gonna do it, although one option would be to throw away a game to the Titans by starting Sensabaugh and then flipping him back to AAA right after the game for fresh blood.

Four in Boston, three in New York, and then it’ll be the All Star Game.

The international free agent pool has also opened up on Sunday, so maybe we can fling some dosh at those players. We do not have signing restrictions in place this year.

Fun Fact: The Portland Softsticks did not hit a home run all week long.

That after Monck whacked five against the Loggers on his own last time ‘round.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons began the last week before the All Star Game by shoving Lonzo back to the DL with the bum knee, and called up 23-year-old Joe Gardner, who had been taken in the sixth round of the 2058 draft. He was hitting .329/.400/.380 in 37 games in AAA, which was probably more enthusiastic than he would hit in a full slate. He was a speedy switch-hitting singles slapper that could play all infield positions except for first base reasonably well, and would fill in as a backup for the next two weeks. Outfielder Jorge Moreno was placed on waivers to make room on the 40-man roster.

Raccoons (48-33) @ Titans (43-37) – July 2-5, 2063

The Coons would face the closest competition in the North right now, with the Titans sitting third in the division, and fourth in the CL in runs scored and runs allowed. They led the league in homers, the Coons hadn’t hit a homer in a blue moon, and Boston had no injuries. So far this year, the Raccoons had won two of three games against the Titans, with eight up to play in the next two weeks.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (4-6, 3.44 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (8-4, 1.62 ERA)
TBD vs. Grant MacKinnon (6-6, 3.84 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (6-2, 3.17 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (6-5, 4.67 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-0, 1.53 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (6-6, 3.84 ERA)

Only right-handers were coming up against the Raccoons here, who had no starter lined up for Tuesday after another double header played on Friday.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Elling
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Mendoza – RF Y. Valdez – SS Sowell – P Brenize

The Raccoons had another game without a hit the first time through the order, having to wait until a fourth-inning single by Joel Starr before breaking into the H column. The Titans also only had one hit through four frames, while Elling had walked three batters the first time through the order, then bailed out of a the second inning with a double play bunt by Brenize after the 7-8 batters, Yoslan Valdez and Ken Sowell, had drawn 1-out walks. The Coons’ 7-8 batters were on base with one out as well in the top 5th Bean walked and Lawson singled against Brenize. Elling bunted near the third base line, Brenize made a rush for it and went to third base for some reason, but was beaten by Bean and the bases were loaded for Ben Morris, who grounded to the right side. Willie de Leon intercepted the ball, got the pitcher out at second, but Morris legged out the double play, allowing Lawson to score with the game’s first run. Morris stole second base then, but was stranded when Kozak flew out to Valdez. In turn, the bottom 5th saw Sowell and Steve Humphries on the corners against Elling on nothing more than not one, but TWO errors by Rich Monck at short. The Titans failed to convert once de Leon flew out to Kozak in left to end the inning.

Portland extended the lead to 2-0 with two outs in the sixth when the youngsters Corral and Morales put out a double and RBI single, respectively, before Bean struck out to end the inning. Elling meanwhile put a very fine game together after the early struggles, and held the Titans to a de Leon single and the three walks through seven innings – but was also over 100 pitches by that point and would not return for the eighth. Brenize was, allowing nothing, and then Carrillo was for Portland, allowed a leadoff double to Humphries, but the Titans then made three unhelpful outs, including a long fly out to right by Jorge Arviso with two outs against McDaniel. While Brenize finished a nine-inning 4-hitter, the Raccoons went to Pohlmann in the bottom 9th after long outings for Carlisle on Saturday and Sunday. The Titans’ 5-6-7 went in order against the right-hander. 2-0 Critters. Elling 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-6);

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – C Arellano – SS Fowler – 2B Gardner – P Sensabaugh
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – 1B M. Rubin – RF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – C S. Moreno – SS Sowell – P MacKinnon

Throwaway game on Tuesday with J.J. Sensabaugh (1-0, 4.50 ERA) pitching. The Coons started the throwing away early as Morris hit a double to open the game and was stranded on second base. Joe Gardner made his debut and right away got a grounder from Humphries to work with in the bottom 1st, while the Titans took a 1-0 lead on a 2-out double by CL home run leader Eddie Marcotte and Manny Rubin’s RBI single. Corral and Arellano hit leadoff singles in the second inning, but Fowler found a double play and Gardner flew out to Marcotte in shallow center, but that part of the lineup managed to tie the game after all in the fourth inning when Arellano doubled to right and then scored from second on Fowler’s single, all with one out. MacKinnon misfielded a grounder from Gardner for an error. Sensabaugh bunted the pair into scoring position, and Morris hit a 2-out grounder over the second base bag that was intercepted by Ken Sowell, but he had no play, and the go-ahead run scored. Kozak hit a clean RBI single, 3-1, but Starr grounded out to Rubin to strand two.

The middle innings saw the Titans increasingly befuddled by Sensabaugh meatballing his way through the lineup for one reason or another. They made some good contact, but the Raccoons also made a bunch of strong defensive plays, especially Kozak in left. However, Sensabaugh overstayed his welcome in the seventh inning, allowed a single to de Leon, and then was taken very deep to right by Andy Lee for a game-tying bomb.

Joe Gardner hit a 1-out single in the eighth for his first major league hit; it came off reliever Tony Castellanos. Crumble batted for Sensabaugh and struck out, and Morris grounded out, so nothing came off the rook’s heroics. In turn, James Murdock continued his relentless mid-season melt, put runners on the corners with a Sowell double and a walk to Humphries in the bottom 8th before being replaced with Walters for de Leon with two outs. De Leon shrugged and socked a 3-piece to right, and that was the ballgame. 6-3 Titans. Morris 2-5, 2B, RBI; Kozak 2-5, RBI; Arellano 3-4, 2B; Sensabaugh 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K and 2-2;

Solid start here, solid start there, the Raccoons needed a new arm and Sensabaugh (1-0, 4.15 ERA) was optioned to AAA after the game. Daniel Benitez was the warm body addition.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 1B Starr – SS Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – LF Crumble – 2B Bean – P Riddle
BOS: RF A. Lee – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Mendoza – LF Y. Valdez – SS Sowell – P Glaude

The Titans took a rather depressing 2-0 lead in the second inning from two outs and nobody on when Riddle plunked Mendoza, walked Valdez, allowed an RBI single to Sowell, and then threw a wild pitch before doing the **** away with Glaude – and then on a 3-1 pitch and a pop to short. Riddle got another 2-out beating in the third inning, allowing singles to Marcotte and Arviso before leaving one up for Rubin to double off the wall and drive in the two runners.

The Coons’ middle of the order couldn’t hit their way out of a ******* cardboard box, but Malik Crumble hit a solo homer in the fifth to at least get the team on the bloody board, now down 4-1, but the Titans answered in the sixth with a Mendoza double and a Valdez homer to stomp out Riddle for the time being. Murdock got out of that inning, then walked Marcotte to begin the seventh and was taken deep by Arviso for the fourth 2-spot on the scoreboard. On to Benitez to mop up (maybe), and the Titans put Mendoza and Valdez on base, then got a 3-piece from Sowell. The Titans hit three homers in the game, while the Raccoons had all of two base hits. 11-1 Titans. Corral 1-2, BB; Crumble 1-2, BB, HR, RBI;

Daniel Benitez (0-0, 10.29 ERA) was disposed of right away again and sent back to St. Petersburg. The Raccoons almost brought up former #9 pick – a long time ago – Brett Cotton on his 25th birthday. Cotton was 3-11 with a 7.59 ERA in AAA, and while we needed *some* arm to get us to the break, we were not down that bad quite yet. Paul Barton got the call. Which was still a sign of being down bad.

For the last game in Boston, both Starr and Monck – in terrible black holes – were on the bench.

Game 4
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 1B Kozak – RF Corral – LF Crumble – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – 2B Gardner – P Applegate
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Mendoza – RF A. Lee – SS Sowell – P M. Bell

Morris drew a leadoff walk and was caught stealing, while Humphries drew a leadoff walk for Boston, did steal second base successfully, but was still left on base to end the first inning. The Titans did not get a base hit against Applegate in the early innings and neither team scored, but the Raccoons got a rare stir from the 3-4 spots in the fourth inning as Kozak singled and Corral doubled to right, putting a pair in scoring position with one out. Malik Crumbled on strikes, and Morales flew out to center to leave them right there. Top 5th, Fowler led off with a single to center, Gardner walked, and after a good bunt by Applegate, the Coons had another pair in scoring position with one out. Morris popped out to short. Arellano whiffed. No runs.

Boston’s first hit was a soft single by Andy Lee in the bottom 5th, and Lee was doubled up by Sowell’s grounder to short to end the inning, keeping the game scoreless. The Titans got a leadoff single from Bell in the sixth. Humphries forced out his pitcher, but de Leon doubled, and now the Titans had runners on second and third with one out – and Applegate, who had only one strikeout so far on the day, struck out Marcotte and Arviso back-to-back to extricate himself from that spot.

Both starters finished seven scoreless, but Bell departed after a 2-out walk to Kozak in the eighth. Tyler Gleason walked Corral after that, but Crumble grounded out to short and that was that. Applegate had thrown 108 pitches already and was not coming back, punching his fifth no-decision in five career starts. Carrillo held the line in the bottom 8th, while Nick Leigh held the Coons shut out through nine. Gardner singled in the ninth with two outs but Starr whiffed batting for Carrillo. McDaniel got the bottom 9th, got two outs, and then gave up a walkoff homer to left-handed .195 hitter Yoslan Valdez. 1-0 Titans. Applegate 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K;

Nothing good, Boston, yada yada.

The offense is MISERABLE.

Raccoons (49-36) @ Crusaders (46-40) – July 6-8, 2063

The Raccoons were up against the best offense in the CL while having no offense of their own. New York ranked fifth in runs allowed with a +69 run differential (Raccoons: +1). The Crusaders were routinely beating the Raccoons this year, holding a 7-2 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (8-5, 3.38 ERA) vs. Josh Barcellona (6-5, 3.49 ERA)
Chance Fox (6-3, 2.27 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (4-8, 4.39 ERA)
Josh Elling (5-6, 3.22 ERA) vs. Steve Stephens (2-1, 2.37 ERA)

The Crusaders had all righties up here, with two starters (Jeff Kozloski, Nate Mickler) on the DL along with Marcos Onelas and Dan Martin.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – SS Monck – RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Alba
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – CF A. Romero – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – C McLaren – 2B Cline – LF Menchaca – 3B V. Velez – P Barcellona

The Coons took a 1-0 lead (!) in the first (!) on doubles by Monck and Corral, but Jake Cline’s second-inning homer took that away from Alba pretty soon. Alba also had no stuff and didn’t get strikeouts against the Crusaders, while being liberal with balls. In the bottom 3rd the Crusaders almost got a lead without as much as a base hit as Alex Romero walked, Sean Zeiher reached on an error by Kozak, and then Matt McLaren also walked, the fourth free pass issued by Alba. Three on, one out, Cline flew out to Kozak in shallow left, not deep enough to send Romero, and Eddie Menchaca grounded out to Starr, and no one scored.

Joel Starr then briefly interrupted a *1-for-30* collapse and hit a double to left in the fourth inning before being driven in equally unlikely by Jon Bean with a 2-out single, which gave Portland a 2-1 lead. Alba answered with another walk and a long fly out in the bottom 4th, and that was already his final inning as he ran up 103 pitches in just FOUR icky frames. Pohlmann blew the lead with Zeiher and McLaren hits in the fifth to get the game tied, and in the sixth Walters entered with two outs and nobody on, allowed a deep triple to center to Omar Sanchez, then an RBI infield single to Alex Romero and the New Yorkers were up 3-2… Walters then fudged away two walks in the seventh, and Murdock allowed another run on a sac fly by Tristan Waker as the game slowly slipped away. Even higher spheres of uselessness were reached in the eighth inning, when Paul Barton entered, struck out Omar Sanchez, and then walked Romero, walked Aubrey Austin, walked Zeiher, walked McLaren, and walked Cline, then walked back to the dugout. Carrillo got a strikeout and a fly to center to prevent even more runs from scoring, but it was bad enough as it was.

Down 6-2, the Raccoons made two outs to begin the ninth with Crumble and Gardner pinch-hitting, but then got Starr and Bean to the corners with two outs, forcing out Josh Barcellona and his 6-hitter and brought Jason Rhodes into the game. The closer gave up an RBI double to Lawson, which brought up Marco Campos as the tying run, but he grounded out to first to end the game. 6-3 Crusaders. Bean 2-4, RBI;

12 walked issued, one walk drawn.

Steve Stephens stepped into the Saturday game where he’d pitch on short rest. Surely the Crusaders knew what they were doing…

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 2B Monck – 3B Morales – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – SS Fowler – RF Campos – P Fox
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – CF A. Romero – 1B Austin – 2B Cline – C McLaren – 3B V. Velez – RF A. Rodriguez – LF Menchaca – P S. Stephens

A HOMER!! A HOMER!! THE COONS HIT A ******* HOMER!!! Rich Monck – with Arellano on base – took Steve Stephens steeply to left for his 18th homer of the season in the first inning, his first in *24* days. Fox, who entered third in the CL in ERA, held up nicely for a few innings, but things went off kilter again in the fourth inning. Fox walked Cline with one out, but struck out McLaren and was almost out of the inning when Fowler threw away Vic Velez’ grounder for a 2-out error, and then Antonio Rodriguez punched a 2-out, 2-run single to tie the score. Those runs were unearned, which was cold comfort overall even though it kept Fox’ ERA crispy. Eddie Menchaca grounded out to end the fourth in a 2-2 tie.

Fowler tried to escape a post-game beating with a leadoff single in the fifth and advanced on a wild pitch, then a scratch single by Campos, which put runners on the corners with nobody out for Fox, who was obviously not getting pinch-hit for this early on. He whiffed, Morris whiffed, and Arellano got past Cline for an after-all RBI single, and Portland was back on top, 3-2. Monck fell to 0-2, but then chopped a bouncer up the middle and through between Sanchez and Cline, and Campos was easily scoring from second on that single. Morales’ grounder to Cline ended the inning, and Stephens was hit for in the bottom 5th. The Coons were back on the corners with nobody out the next inning as Crumble and Starr singled against lefty Pedro Mendoza. Fowler dropped another single, plating Crumble, in front of Romero, who was gonna lunge, and then pulled up at the last second and let the ball fall in. Campos walked, Fox whiffed, Morris also whiffed again, and then Arellano popped out, so the Coons didn’t score after having three on with nobody out.

Fox then got double-bombed with homers to right-center by Austin and McLaren in the bottom 6th to narrow the score to 5-4 again. Those counted on his ERA. He got two more outs from Mike Seidman and Sanchez, who struck out, but then walked Romero with two outs in the bottom 7th before being replaced with Murdock, who gave up a liner to Aubrey Austin, but that went right at Monck and a sure grab ended the inning.

The Coons had another chance against Alex Flores in the eighth inning when Starr drew a leadoff walk and Fowler doubled to center. Campos came through with a single to left, but while Starr scored, Menchaca threw out Fowler at the plate. So it was 6-4, with Campos up to second. Corral batted for Murdock and walked, and Morris singled to right to load the bags once more. Arellano got ahead 3-1 before poking and grounding out, which at least got another buffer run home before Monck whiffed. McDaniel got three straight outs in the eighth, while Carlisle in the ninth gave up a leadoff double to Rodriguez, and while Menchaca grounded out and Waker flew out, that got the run home. The run didn’t matter, though – Sanchez popping out on the infield mattered. 7-5 Raccoons. Arellano 2-5, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Fowler 3-4, 2B, RBI; Campos 3-3, BB, RBI;

Foxie Brown remained third in ERA in the CL, but didn’t get closer to the top 2 Brenize and DeWitt.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 3B Monck – RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Fowler – 2B Gardner – P Elling
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – RF A. Romero – 1B Austin – CF Zeiher – C McLaren – 2B Cline – LF Menchaca – 3B V. Velez – P E. Lee

Starr hit a double in the second that led nowhere, and Velez led off the third with a double to right for the Crusaders, but hurt himself and was replaced with Jorge Henriquez, who scored on a throwing error by Elling on Lee’s bunt and then Elling had to stretch to at least keep the pitcher on base, which he narrowly achieved, stranding Lee at third base with stingy outs against the 1-2-3 batters.

The fourth began with a Cline error to put Monck on base, but the Coons then made straight outs. That was about the last rising – “rising” – while Elling was pouring it out for 107 pitches and seven innings, holding the Crusaders to four hits and their unearned run, but Lee sawed off the 1-2-3 batters in the eighth to continue a 3-hit shutout. Pohlmann and McDaniel put together a scoreless eighth for Portland before the Crusaders sent Rhodes into the ninth after the 4-5-6 batters, but Jose Corral *clubbed* a leadoff triple to center to put the tying run on third base at once! Bean batted for a hitless Kozak and lobbed fly deep enough to left that it got Corral home from third base, which already counted as success with this team… Then Starr hit another triple to right. Fowler was walked with intent. Crumble and Morales were sent out to pinch-hit and both struck out in another breathtaking display of ineptitude. Walters got two outs in the bottom 9th before Cline and Menchaca hit singles, but Henriquez flew out to Corral near the line to send the game to extras.

Morris hit a leadoff single in the tenth, but was caught stealing, and that was that. Walters got two more outs and Barton got one, keeping the game going to the point where Alex Flores offered a leadoff walk to Corral in the 11th. He was forced out by Bean, who moved to second when Flores walked Starr, then dashed for home on a Fowler single to center. Zeiher’s throw was not nearly in time, and the tie was broken, although Starr did not get to third base, and then didn’t score on Crumble’s single. Campos batted for Barton with three on and one out and kept the line moving with an RBI single to right-center, 3-1, before Morris blundered into a double play. McLaren answered with a homer off Carlisle in the bottom 11th, but that came with nobody on base, and the Raccoons ached their way into the break with an overtime W. 3-2 Blighters. Starr 2-3, 2 BB, 3B, 2B; Fowler 2-4, BB, RBI; Campos (PH) 1-1, RBI; Elling 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

In other news

July 2 – The Capitals beat the Miners, 17-12, with more than half the day’s runs scored in the eighth inning, in which the Caps overturn a 7-6 deficit with an 11-run top of the eighth before conceding five runs in the bottom of the inning.
July 3 – The Bayhawks acquire SP Trevor Justesen (7-5, 3.48 ERA) from the Capitals for two prospects.
July 3 – The Condors’ SS Casey Ramsey (.314, 6 HR, 39 RBI) is expected to miss six weeks with a broken rib.
July 3 – LAP OF/1B Jesus Martinez (.271, 6 HR, 34 RBI) hits a 10th inning, walkoff grand slam to beat the Wolves, 9-5.
July 4 – RIC SP Luis Olvera (11-3, 2.91 ERA) could be out until the end of August with a torn meniscus.
July 4 – The Canadiens acquire SP Johnny Doolin (6-8, 4.77 ERA) from the Cyclones for a prospect.
July 5 – Buffos LF Juan del Toro (.263, 1 HR, 19 RBI) finds his 2,500th career hit in a 7-4 win against the Rebels’ SP Dan Garicia (3-7, 3.74 ERA) with a sixth-inning single.
July 5 – VAN 1B Jose Campos (.280, 15 HR, 64 RBI) decides the Canadiens’ game against the Indians with an eighth-inning home run for a 1-0 win.
July 6 – The Titans blow out the Indians, 17-6 with two separate 6-spots in the second and fourth innings.
July 6 – The Loggers rout the Canadiens, 14-0.
July 6 – The Stars beat the Gold Sox, 4-3 in 16 innings, on walkoff single by OF/1B Aidan Calhoun (.211, 0 HR, 2 RBI).
July 7 – Boston SP Jason Brenize (9-5, 1.53 ERA) strikes out 11 Indians in a 2-hit shutout of the Indians, claiming a 7-0 victory.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.368, 22 HR, 68 RBI), slapping .593 (16-27) with 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB OF Scott Laws (.353, 2 HR, 33 RBI), poking .414 (12-29) with 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Two All Stars for the Raccoons this year, with Rich Monck and Juan Carrillo of all people getting in there, while Foxie Brown was snuffed. It was the second consecutive nomination for Carrillo, but last year he had been an Indian, and Monck was there for the third straight time, but the first time as a CL player with his first two All Star Games coming on the FL side as a Cyclone.

The Coons dragged themselves to the All Star Game with a 1 1/2 game lead in the North after a shambolic showing in the week against the Northeast teams. Yeah, we got away with “only” a 3-4 record. More games with the Titans are coming on the other side of the stretch followed by a nearside road trip to Elk City and Vegas.

Can the Raccoons find any offense? We’re second from the bottom in runs scored in the CL, and just four runs ahead of the Falcons, who played one game less than us. Getting some oxygen into Monck and Starr would help for sure… at least Monck hit *a* homer finally, and Starr had a nice game on Sunday. What would a trade for offense even look like?

The Raccoons signed three players for just over $400k in the international window so far, with outfielder Jesus Guerrero taking $270k of that, but none of the players commanding seven figures really tickled us and perhaps the Raccoons would not even make any additional signings here.

Fun Fact: Eddie Marcotte, a #2 pick in 2056, has a .967 OPS for half a season.

He won the home run title with 33 dingers last season, and he’s already at 22 at the All Star Game this time round. Last year he hit a modest .243, but this year he’s up to .282 and reaching base at a .408 clip, up 51 points. His OPS is up 159 points, and he has already matched the 4.3 WAR he put together last season. That was without much in terms from defense where he graded as “passable” in centerfield at best and with age you’d probably move to hiding him in leftfield.

[Westheim]

All Star Game

The Continental League runs in circles around in the Federal League in an unusual 13-5 win. 37-year-old New Yorker Aubrey Austin goes 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI for MVP honors. Milwaukee’s Fidel Carrera and Indy’s Matt Kilday both drive in four runs.

For Portland, Rich Monck goes 2-for-5 with a solo home run off Washington’s Justin Round, while Juan Carrillo posts a scoreless fifth inning during the pitching procession.

Raccoons (51-37) vs. Titans (49-38) – July 12-15, 2063

The Titans were another three-of-four series away from taking the lead in the division and were on a 6-game winning streak. Overall they were now up 4-3 on the Raccoons for the year. They were top three in runs scored and runs allowed, and the Raccoons were making an honest bid for scoring the fewest runs in the league at this point. It was unlikely that three days off reset the offense.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (8-5, 3.34 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (4-6, 4.10 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-3, 2.30 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (7-5, 4.35 ERA)
Josh Elling (5-6, 3.03 ERA) vs. Grant MacKinnon (7-6, 3.40 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-0, 1.24 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (9-5, 1.53 ERA)

The Titans only had right-handed starters still.

Game 1
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – 1B Dorey – SS Sowell – P M. Bell
POR: CF Morris – RF Corral – 2B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – P Alba

Morris singled in the Coons’ first at-bat in four days, stole his 15th base, and came home on two shy singles by Monck and Crumble before Starr whiffed and Arellano grounded out to Willie de Leon. Not much happened after that for a while as Alba was *on* and the Titans had only one single and a walk against six strikeouts in the first four innings before the Raccoons loaded the bases in the bottom 4th, putting all their 6-7-8 batters on base with one down and Alba batting next. The shine was a bit off on Alba, who had scattered singles all over the place and was still batting .317 for the season after pushing an oddball .500 in April, but he hit a fly to right that was caught by Andy Lee, yet was deep enough to bring in battery mate Arellano with a sac fly, 2-0. Morris flew out to Steve Humphries on the next pitch to strand a pair. Bill Dorey walked and was doubled up by Ken Sowell in the fifth, and Humphries hit an infield single, but was stranded in the sixth against Alba, who then saw the lead enlarged by Joel Starr’s solo shot off Tony Castellanos in the bottom 6th – Bell had been hit for after just five innings. Arellano then singled and scored on Nick Fowler’s double to tack on another run.

Boston got to Alba in the seventh when he offered a leadoff walk to Jorge Arviso, Diego Mendoza doubled and Dorey went to considerably deep right for a sac fly, but Sowell grounded out to keep Mendoza on base. Alba completed eight strong innings on 111 pitches. Arviso took Carlisle deep for a solo home run in the ninth, but that was not enough to get back into the game for the Titans. 4-2 Raccoons. Monck 2-4; Arellano 2-4; Fowler 2-3, 2B, RBI; Alba 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (9-5);

Game 2
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Mendoza – RF A. Lee – SS Sowell – P Glaude
POR: CF Morris – RF Corral – SS Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 3B Morales – 2B Bean – P Fox

Fox hung one for Eddie Marcotte’s 23rd homer of the season, a solo shot to left in the first inning, a deficit that was made up with singles from Morris and Monck, plus a passed ball charged to Arviso in the same inning. Foxie Brown struck out five in the first three innings, but also got his pitch count to 49, which was far from ideal.

The Coons were on the corners again with Morris and Monck in the bottom 3rd, and again with one out. Morris this time had been nicked and had stolen second base, while Monck had a scratch single. Malik Crumble gave the Coons a 2-1 lead with his groundout behind second base, on which Monck moved to second, from where he scored on Starr’s single to left-center. Starr was left on, while the Titans got a double from Manny Rubin, an infield single from Mendoza, and a sac fly from Andy Lee in the top 4th before Sowell drew a walk in a full count. Glaude’s groundout ended the inning, but by then Fox had thrown another 26 pitches in the 3-2 game. He had a quick fifth, but then fell to a leadoff single by Arviso, a Rubin double, and a sac fly by Mendoza that tied the game. Andy Lee popped out in another endless full count, and Fox was removed after 103 pitches with the go-ahead run on second base and two outs. Murdock got a first-pitch pop to short from Sowell to end the inning.

Carrillo put in a scoreless inning before the Raccoons were on the corners again facing righty Roberto Navarro in the seventh. Corral walked, then reached on Monck’s single, all with nobody out. Crumble popped out, Starr walked, and Arellano looked primed to hit into a double play, but Navarro came up with a hanger, Arellano flicked his tail once, and then BOMBED the ball outta sight – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!

Raccoons pitching threatened to answer with a pitching meltdown as three relievers – Carrillo, Walters, Barton – each put a runner on base in the eighth inning, but Marcotte, Rubin, and Lee were all stranded and nobody scored when Sowell grounded out to short against Barton, against all odds. Bottom 8th, Marco Campos batted leading off in Barton’s spot, singled, stole second against Jason Posey, and then jogged home on Jack Kozak’s pinch-hit homer to right, which was the final fancily colored box in that night’s scorecard. 9-3 Raccoons. Kozak (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Monck 4-5, 2B; Starr 1-1, 3 BB, RBI; Arellano 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Campos (PH) 1-1;

No division lead for the Titans on Sunday night after that result! (high-paws it with Slappy)

Jim White started a rehab assignment in AAA on Saturday. Him and Lonzo were both expected to rejoin the team early next week.

Game 3
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – RF A. Lee – 3B D. Mendoza – SS Sowell – P MacKinnon
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – SS Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – 3B Morales – 2B Gardner – C Lawson – P Elling

Morris singled and stole second again in the first inning, and Rich Monck found the stands in right for his 19th homer of the year – 20 if you included the one in the All Star Game on Tuesday. Joel Starr narrowly missed a home run and had to settle for a wallbanger double, then scored on a right-center gap double by Jose Corral, 3-0. Joe Gardner got his first career RBI with a 2-out single to right, then was left on by Lawson. The Coons then loaded them up when the 2-3-4 batters all reached with two outs in the bottom 2nd, but they were also all left on base when Corral popped out in foul ground.

Elling briefly dipped his ERA under three before being getting taken deep by Sowell to begin the third inning, 4-1. Morales’ leadoff single in the bottom of the inning saw him forced out by Lawson a grounder for the second out – Gardner had flown out to center – before Elling was down 1-2 and hit a pop on the foul side of third base which Diego Mendoza dropped for an error. Elling then singled on the next pitch – only his second hit all year long – and then Morris added an RBI single to right-center that was surely upsetting for the Titans. It only got worse with Kozak’s 2-out, 2-run double. That was the end for MacKinnon; Andy Younge got a groundout from Monck to end the inning after three unearned runs. Elling then slithered into pointless-long-counts territory and also gave up a leadoff triple to Marcotte in the fourth that Arviso immediately converted into a run with a sac fly, 7-2. He did however pile up some strikeouts in the middle innings, too, except for that 2-out at-bat with Arviso in the sixth inning on which Arviso hit a fly to shallow center that Morris caught with a headlong dive, but jammed his non-glove paw under his body and left the game with a throbbing thumb in favor of Campos.

Elling completed seven innings, striking out 11 Titans. He had already gotten pats on the furry tush when Scott Lawson doubled in extra runners against Tony Castellanos in the bottom 7th, plating Morales and Gardner with a ball to the base of the leftfield wall. Crumble batted for Elling and singled Lawson to third base, and Campos brought him in with a sac fly to Lee, reaching double digits. That was also the last Critters run, but the Titans would put two more runs on the board against Barton in the ninth inning. Barton put on a pair, left with two outs before things could pick up pace, but Pohlmann and Lawson put together a run-scoring passed ball and another Sowell RBI single before finally putting the game to bed. 10-4 Furballs. Morris 2-4, RBI; Kozak 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, 2B; Morales 2-4; Crumble (PH) 1-1; Elling 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (6-6) and 2-3;

Two roster moves were made after this game. Ben Morris (.256, 2 HR, 19 RBI) went back to the DL (big sigh!) and Paul Barton (1-1, 5.63 ERA) was once more disposed of to AAA.

We brought up Rich Read for the bullpen and Todd Oley to keep the bench coach company.

Game 4
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. de Leon – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Mendoza – RF A. Lee – SS Sowell – P Brenize
3POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – SS Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 3B Fowler – LF Crumble – 2B Bean – P Applegate

Kozak hit into the Coons’ first double play of the series (!!) in the first inning after Corral’s leadoff single looped behind Mendoza. Arviso’s leadoff single in the second also led to a double play that Rubin hit into, 6-4-3 style, and Marcotte got the same done in the fourth after de Leon’s leadoff single. Brenize also singled off Applegate, while the Raccoons were still employing mostly guesswork against the Titans’ ace. Andy Lee found *another* double play in the fifth after Mendoza reached base being brushed with a breaking ball. Brenize opened the sixth with *another* leadoff single off Applegate, who then blundered on Humphries’ comebacker, which he tried to turn for two, but in fact got nobody out with that ambitious play. De Leon hit a single to center, with the Titans trying to score with Brenize from second, but he was thrown out at the plate. The other runners moved up into scoring position. They finally got on the board with a sac fly to center hit by Marcotte. Arviso drew a 2-out walk, but Rubin flew out to Crumble to leave runners on the corners.

Come the bottom 6th, Brenize walked Corral with two outs and then nicked Kozak, but the Raccoons could not get a hit in that situation and Monck popped out to leave them on base. Pohlmann replaced Applegate with another two Titans on base in the seventh inning, but gave up 2-out singles to Humphries and de Leon to concede the runners left behind by Applegate. Brenize racked up ten strikeouts before giving up an eighth-inning run when Corral doubled home Crumble with two outs. Nick Leigh got the ball for the bottom 9th against the meat of the order. Monck grounded out, but Starr doubled to center, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Arellano and Fowler whiffed back-to-back for 13 total strikeouts for the Raccoons on Sunday. 3-1 Titans. Corral 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

July 11 – The Crusaders acquire reliever Travis Davis (1-2, 3.53 ERA, 2 SV) from the Bayhawks, along with cash, for two prospects.
July 12 – The Rebels acquire SP Cory Ritter (5-10, 3.88 ERA) from the Miners for three prospects including #71 INF/LF/RF Frank Lopez.
July 12 – The Thunder rally out of a 6-0 hole with a 7-run ninth inning for a 7-6 walkoff over the Falcons, with the cherry on top being C Steve Preston’s (.244, 7 HR, 42 RBI) walkoff grand slam.
July 14 – Rebs SS Jason Turner (.257, 10 HR, 46 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after a first-inning single in a 15-inning, 5-4 loss to the Buffaloes in which he adds only hitless at-bats afterwards.
July 15 – The Loggers acquire SP Alex Cruzado (6-7, 5.28 ERA) and cash from the Bayhawks for #101 prospect OF Jimmy Poe.

FL Player of the Week: DAL RF/LF Roberto Almanza (.331, 1 HR, 44 RBI), hitting .556 (10-18) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR INF Rich Monck (.288, 19 HR, 63 RBI), hitting .500 (11-22) with 2 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Monck’s heroics include his All Star Game performance, so he actually hit over .500 (9-17) with the Critters this week.

Jeff Applegate finally got a decision by running into Jason Brenize and being rather mediocre on Sunday, so it was not exactly the kind of decision that we were looking for… Brenize now had a 1.51 ERA, which was kinda mental… as was his 10-5 record to go with it.

Morris won’t be back until August with a torn thumb ligament. Can’t be a bad tear though if Luis Silva expects him to be back in three weeks. That means he’ll probably be back on the DL in six weeks. What a rotten couple of seasons he’s been having. He missed 46 games last year due to injuries, and this year he’s already missed 36 games and will likely add another 20 for this ****.

I still don’t know which part of the roster to tinker with to get any effect out of it. Relief looks like an option, but we also get little production from our middle infielders outside of Monck. Then again, Lonzo and White will return early next week, so a trade will only jam the roster. I don’t know. I’m clueless.

The Raccoons will be on the road next week, playing gigs in Elk City and Vegas.

Fun Fact: His lack of wins might cost Jason Brenize the triple crown this year.

Guy’s leading in ERA (by 14 points over Mike DeWitt) and in strikeouts (by 14 K over Mike DeWitt), but he’s three wins behind a gaggle of pitchers (including Mike DeWitt) in the victory category.

Last year Brenize topped everybody by four wins, 57 points of ERA, and 40 strikeouts. DeWitt finished second in that last category.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (54-38) @ Canadiens (44-49) – July 16-18, 2063

The Critters’ first stop on their weeklong road trip was Elk City, where the resident ballclub ranked eighth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed in the CL. They were almost mediocre throughout except for a sturdy bullpen and ranking second in homers. We were up 6-3 on them for the year.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (6-3, 3.50 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (4-6, 4.31 ERA)
Angel Alba (9-5, 3.19 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (4-8, 4.09 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-3, 2.44 ERA) vs. Roger Pritchard (9-6, 2.43 ERA)

First post-All Star Game left-hander would be Roger Pritchard on Wednesday.

The Coons activated both Lonzo and Jim White from the DL and a rehab assignment, respectively, and Victor Morales (.242, 2 HR, 18 RBI) and Joe Gardner (.267, 0 HR, 1 RBI) got sent back to AAA.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 2B White – SS Lavorano – LF Crumble – P Riddle
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Cardenas – LF Lozada – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P C. Torres

The Elks took a 1-0 lead in the second on a homer to left by Chad Cardenas, while the Raccoons scattered four singles and two walks, and had nothing to show for it except Malik Crumbling into a double play and leaving five on base otherwise in the first three innings, and after five innings we were at seven hits for no runs, including Corral’s leadoff double in the top 5th. The Elks had two hits through five, and Roberto Lozada getting plunked by Riddle in the fifth.

The Raccoons finally got on the bloody board in the sixth when Arellano hit another leadoff double and then Jim White, fresh from St. Pete, uncorked a 2-run homer to left-center to flip the score to 2-1 Portland. Lonzo singled and Crumble was nicked after that, with Riddle bunting them into scoring position for the first out. The Elks chose not to go after Corral and walked him intentionally, after which Kozak struck out. Rich Monck however turned on a breaking ball and bashed it over the wall in rightfield – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!

That one seemed to suck the air out of the Elks, who went down in order in the next couple of innings, while the Raccoons came up against 2051 Critter Juan Mercado in the eighth inning. He walked Kozak and Starr before giving up an RBI single to Arellano, then nicked White to load them up with two outs. Lonzo grounded to the left side; Alex Corpus intercepted the ball with a dive, but had no play, and another run scored as all the runners advanced 90 feet. Crumble grounded out to leave the bags full. Riddle went into the ninth inning before he allowed a single to Jose Campos and – regrettably – another homer to Cardenas, after which Rich Read got the baseball. He collected the last two outs required. 8-3 Raccoons. Corral 2-5, BB, 2B; Monck 4-6, HR, 4 RBI; Arellano 2-5, 2B, RBI; White 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Lavorano 4-5, RBI; Crumble 2-4; Riddle 8.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (7-3);

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – 2B White – CF M. Campos – LF Crumble – P Alba
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – LF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF D. Moreno – RF Lozada – 3B Spalding – P Nielsen

Tuesday saw the Critters strike first with Corral’s leadoff single and a 2-out RBI knock by Joel Starr for one run in the first. However, the Elks matched them to a every dot on every letter I, as Alex Castllo and Chad Whetstine hit singles for a game-tying run in the bottom of the inning. Nielsen then failed the bases full with walks and a hit Marco Campos in the top 2nd, bringing up Alba with nobody out. The pitcher struck out, but Jose Corral drove in a pair with a single to right-center while the remaining runners were left stranded by Lonzo (pop) and Monck (groundout). A leadoff walk to Starr and Arellano and White singles then loaded the bases *again* with nobody out in the third inning. This time the Coons got one run on a wild pitch before bumbling into a 9-2 double play on Marco Campos’ fly to Lozada. Crumble was walked intentionally and Alba had obviously run out of base knocks for the year in May and whiffed.

Alba was far from perfect, too, and put Castillo and Jose Campos on base in the bottom 3rd. Chad Whetstine’s 2-out double to right-center was going to score a run, but Campos also tried to come home from first base and was very much thrown out by Corral now, which ended the inning with a 4-2 score. That lead was taken to the sixth inning with notably less offense from the Coons’ side in those middle innings before being fudged to all hell and back in a real team effort in the bottom 6th, which Jose Campos opened with a triple to center. Whetstine’s unproductive groundout prevented him from scoring, but he sure came home when Crumble dropped Alex Maldonado’s fly for an error, 4-3. Alba then drilled Damian Moreno before he gave up a pair of 2-strike RBI singles to Lozada and Steven Spalding, which swung the score around as well as the bullpen door open. Chris Richardson hit into an inning-ending double play against McDaniel.

Meanwhile, an error had given the Elks the lead, and an error took it away again in the seventh inning. Monck reached on a 2-base throwing error by Corpus, and then scored on Arellano’s 2-out double into the left-center gap against lefty Gabe Hill. Jim White ran a 3-1 count, but then lined out hard to Castillo to keep the score even at five, but Hill served up a tie-breaking homer to left to Malik Crumble in the eighth, 6-5.

The game continued in oh-boy fashion when Matt Walters invited Whetstine and Maldonado on base to begin the bottom 8th. Moreno struck out, while Lozada grounded to short. The Coons could not turn two because Maldonado sliced through Jim White, who fell on his shoulder and then required consultation from Luis Silva, and eventually left the game with him, replaced by Jon Bean. Murdock replaced Walters, allowed a single to PH Chad Cardenas to tie the game, another pinch-hit single to Kenny Graves that loaded the bases, and then walked in the winning run for the Elks before Corpus grounded out to Starr to leave three on. 7-6 Canadiens. Corral 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Arellano 3-4, 2B, RBI; Crumble 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI;

Say, Steve from Accounting, is there any way to get out of that $1.2M contract with Murdock for 2064? – Can you make it look like an accident, though?

Funnily enough the Crusaders called about acquiring Murdock and a prospect on Wednesday. Problem was that they were wishing to trauma-dump Tristan Waker, and I was not into that. Waker was washed as a catcher, and we already were dragging a catcher around that was only borderline useful. They were not willing to swap Murdock for even a triple-A infielder, and so they had to bugger off.

Also, Jim White, we hardly knew ya. Two days off the DL, he was right back on it with a separated shoulder. See ya in the middle of August or something like that. Hellllo, Joe Gardner.

Game 3
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – RF M. Campos – LF Crumble – 2B Gardner – P Fox
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Cardenas – LF Lozada – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P R. Pritchard

Both pitchers struck out four batters in the first three innings, but while Pritchard was perfect, Foxie Brown scattered a few runners and gave up a solo homer to Steven Spalding in the second to trail in the game. Pritchard turned away a total of 11 batters to start the game before Monck reached on a throwing error by Castillo that was worth two bases. Arellano immediately hit an RBI single, and another single by Starr and a walk issued to Marco Campos loaded the bases for Crumble, who strung a grass top skimmer up the middle for a 2-out, 2-run single, taking a 3-1 lead. The remaining runners then tried a double steal, Orphanos threw the ball away, and that allowed Campos to score before Joe Gardner grounded out. The Elks then also loaded the bases against a wobbly Foxie, with Cardenas, Lozada, and Spalding all reaching in the bottom 4th before Orphanos popped out and Pritchard grounded out to keep three aboard.

While Fox reached on an error by Whetstine to begin the top 5th and was soon joined on base by Kozak, Pritchard left the game with an injury and was replaced with Alex Diaz, a right-hander that fell 3-0 behind Monck with one out before Monck smashed into an inning-ending double play that kinda hurt me in the soul. In turn, the Elks had a Castillo homer, a Corpus single, and another homer by their Campos to tie the score at four at once in the bottom 5th. Fox ****** two more batters on base before being yanked, and Orphanos singled home the go-ahead run against Pohlmann before the inning was over, 5-4…….

The Raccoons would have Arellano and Marco Campos on the corners with one out in the sixth before the latter was caught stealing and the former left on base by Crumble. But Arellano was not done with the icky Elks quite yet. He came up in the eighth against righty Brian Doster, who had just put Monck on base with a 1-out single and *belted* a ball high into the leftfield stands for a score-flipping homer…!

The next traitor in line was then Carrillo, who came into the bottom 8th, walked Castillo, and then *drilled* the bases full with Chris Richardson and Cardenas. I mean, I hated the damn Elks like everybody on the team, but maybe don’t go about it like *that*! The Raccoons went to McDaniel with three on and one out, which would have been madness for most of the year (32.1 IP, 20 BB), but McDaniel struck out the switch-hitting Lozada and got Whetstine out with a grounder to first, preventing the damn Elks from scoring. Top 9th, left-hander Jeremy Garvey left the Raccoons some insurance when he gave up a pinch-hit single to Nick Fowler in the pitcher’s spot, retired Kozak, but then hung a ball to Lonzo that disappeared in the gap for an RBI triple, 7-5. Rich Monck went even more gangbusters on the volume and *chonked* his 21st homer halfway to Alaska. The Coons then left Carlisle in the pen and got the last three outs with Read in a 4-run game. 9-5 Furballs! Monck 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Arellano 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (56-39) @ Aces (35-59) – July 20-22, 2063

The Aces were bottoms in the South but had won their last three games against the Knights. Overall though they were in the bottom three in runs scored and runs being stuffed into them, with a -103 run differential. The Coons had swept them the first time around this year, allowing just four runs to the Aces in three games. Vegas was last in a bunch of individual statistics, including home runs and starters’ ERA, although they had also rotated starters a lot already this year.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (6-6, 3.01 ERA) vs. Adam Edge (4-5, 4.39 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-1, 1.67 ERA) vs. Steve Hunter (6-6, 3.77 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (7-3, 3.49 ERA) vs. Dan Graham (5-9, 4.92 ERA)

Both Hunter and Graham were left-handed while Edge was a 23-year-old uninteresting rookie that had made 40 relief appearances and just three starts so far, and walked everything with legs (5.9 BB/9).

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – CF Campos – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – SS Fowler – LF Crumble – 2B Bean – P Elling
LVA: LF Lorenzo – SS Veguilla – RF K. Hummel – 3B A. Alfaro – CF Jad. Wilson – 1B D. Williams – 2B M. Roberts – C Wheat – P Edge

The Raccoons didn’t draw many walks (two in five innings) and didn’t hit Edge around either, while Elling at least matched the pace. Neither team scored on their three base hits in the first five innings, but both pitchers were near 70 pitches in making it that far. Campos hit a leadoff single in the sixth, but was caught stealing, and both teams lined up another zero. Funnily enough Edge would *draw* a walk from Elling in the seventh inning, but the Aces didn’t make anything out of that 2-out free pass either. Elling was then hit for to begin the eighth against Edge. Lonzo grabbed a stick, fell 1-2 behind, then fired a home run to left-center that ended the rook’s shutout at once. Edge then brushed Corral, who was forced out by Monck, then walked Starr with two outs and was yanked. Ubaldo Piteira struck out Arellano to leave the runners on. Murdock struck out two in the bottom 8th before walking Alex Alfaro, upon which Walters came on to retire Jaden Wilson on a groundout to Jon Bean. Carlisle got three straight outs in the ninth to put the game away. 1-0 Blighters. Starr 1-2, 2 BB; Bean 2-4; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Elling 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (7-6);

I love Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend!

November will be very hard on me.

Game 2
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – RF M. Campos – LF Crumble – 2B Gardner – P Applegate
LVA: 2B M. Roberts – SS Veguilla – RF K. Hummel – 1B D. Williams – CF Jad. Wilson – LF Marazzo – 3B Karch – C Wheat – P S. Hunter

Jeff Applegate’s first career win zoomed into the distance in the first inning on Saturday as he got pummeled for four hits and four runs, including a 2-run homer by Nate Marazzo in his first career at-bats. So much for career-firsts. Applegate *did* get a first in the second inning, his first career RBI. He came up as the tying run after Joe Gardner’s RBI double that plated Starr and moved Crumble to third base, and grounded out to get Crumble across home plate. Hunter then issued 2-out walks to Kozak and Lonzo to load the bases for Rich Monck, who grounded out meekly to end the inning. Applegate answered with two walks and a 2-out, 3-run homer served up to Ken Hummel in the bottom 2nd and was not seen after that.

Arellano and Campos drew more walks from Hunter and Crumble singled to load the bases with one out in the third inning. Gardner legged out an infield single to get a run home, 7-3, and Jose Corral pinch-hit for Applegate, seeing out a full-count walk to push home another run against Hunter, but Kozak then ****** into a double play to end the inning. Hunter was removed after four disastrous innings with Kris Robbins inheriting a 10-4 lead following another 3-run homer Ken Hummel thrashed off Rich Read in the bottom 4th. It got better though… for the Aces. After three shoddy innings by Read, who was reported as assigned to AAA before the game was even over, the Coons got a good one from Carrillo before Murdock got ****** even harder and served up a grand slam to Miguel Veguilla in the seventh. Rich Monck hit a 2-run homer off David Gaither in the eighth, not that it was gonna make a difference. Jon Bean was pitching in the bottom 8th, putting together another 1-2-3 inning for some wicked reason. 14-6 Aces. Lavorano 1-2, BB; Lawson (PH) 1-1; Crumble 3-5; Gardner 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Bean (PH) 1-2 and 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Oy.

Rich Read (0-0, 6.75 ERA) was replaced with …

Interlude: Trade

That night, the Raccoons acquired MR Jimmy Dingman (2-0, 2.57 ERA) from the Blue Sox for merely Malik Padgitt (1-0, 5.40 ERA). Dingman, 31, was a steady right-hander that had been nicknamed “Jimmy Dingerman” at one point, but had not allowed a homer so far this year in 35 innings. Note how I’m teasing the baseball gods here. He also wasn’t particularly flashy with just 5.7 K/9, btu the good news was that if he annoyed us he’d be gone after the season.

Raccoons (56-39) @ Aces (35-59) – July 20-22, 2063

Game 3
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 2B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – RF Campos – 3B Fowler – C Lawson – P Riddle
LVA: LF Lorenzo – 2B M. Roberts – RF K. Hummel – 1B D. Williams – CF Jad. Wilson – 3B A. Alfaro – SS Karch – C Wheat – P D. Graham

The rubber game saw the Raccoons go up 1-0 in the second on Crumble’s leadoff double and Fowler’s 2-out RBI single. Riddle wobbled however, and had pairs on base in the second and third innings before the Raccoons tacked on a run on straight 2-out singles by the 6-7-8 batters in the fourth inning. However, Dustin Williams socked a leadoff double to center against Riddle and scored on two groundouts to claw the run back for the Las Vegans in the same inning. Riddle looked like another ghastly box score entry in the making for sure, so tacking on more runs was advised. Kozak opened the fifth with a ground-rule double to right and scored on Monck’s 1-out single to left-center. The throw home allowed Monck to scoot into second base, but he was stranded right there by Crumble’s grounder and Starr’s fly out before Riddle annoyed the crap out of me even harder with a leadoff walk to Tom Wheat. However, Graham’s bunt was bad and Starr pounced on it to get a force out at second base, and Graham was then stranded at first base.

Riddle then had a good sixth before a goofy seventh in which he allowed singles to Sean Karch and – worse – to Graham with two outs. The Coons went to Pohlmann against the switch-hitter Victor Lorenzo, but the Aces answered with Veguilla, and he swatted another huge homer to flip the score to Vegas, 4-3. Monck singled off Graham to begin the eighth inning but was doubled off by Starr as the Coons didn’t score again facing Graham. The ninth dawned with Curt Crater on the hill for Vegas. The right-hander got Campos on a grounder, but walked Fowler with one out. Oley batted for Lawson and whiffed, and Corral batted for Pohlmann and grounded out. 4-3 Aces. Monck 2-4, RBI; Fowler 2-3, BB, RBI;

In other news

July 17 – New York’s Omar Sanchez (.288, 0 HR, 24 RBI) has the only two hits against BOS SP Mike Bell (5-7, 3.85 ERA) and three relievers as the Crusaders drop a tight game, 2-0.
July 17 – The Scorpions beat the Pacifics, 7-5, in a value offering of a baseball game that goes 18 innings. SAC SS/3B Zach Suggs (.272, 15 HR, 52 RBI) manages to go 0-for-8 across five-and-a-half hours.
July 20 – The hitting streak of Rebs SS Jason Turner (.270, 12 HR, 54 RBI) reaches 25 games with a 3-hit, 2-homer, 4-RBI game in an 8-6 loss to the Warriors.
July 22 – The Knights stomp out the Loggers, 17-4, somehow doing so without any Atlanta player exceeding three hits, three RBI, or three runs scored in the game.
July 22 – IND CF/RF Eddy Ramirez (.218, 5 HR, 22 RBI) has four hits with a homer, two doubles, and drives in five runs in a 19-4 rout of the Bayhawks.
July 22 – The Stars suffocate the Blue Sox instantly with an 11-run first inning before managing the 13-5 final result to the end.

FL Player of the Week: SAC RF Will Buras (.316, 12 HR, 53 RBI), batting .571 (16-28) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN 3B/SS Steven Spalding (.281, 12 HR, 35 RBI), hitting .500 (10-20) with 1 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Considering we played two last-place teams this week, this was a **** road trip. 3-3 in terms of games, 33-33 in terms of runs scored. So even when the Raccoons score 5.5 runs a game, they still somehow manage to **** it all up. The bullpen needs even more work, although we already called the Salvation Army, and they’re not gonna take Murdock as a charitable donation to help the poor and miserable.

Rich Monck has crept up on Eddie Marcotte (24 HR) again in the CL homer race. Nobody’s near the Miners’ Nick Ding(er)man with 29 bombs to his credit. And he’s a catcher…!

We go home now to play the Bayhawks and Condors for six games next week. Thursday is another day off, but after that we will play 20 straight games without another day off.

Fun Fact: 29 years ago today, the Aces’ Nick Danieley no-hit the Canadiens.

For a #1 pick (by the Buffos in 2022), Danieley had a rather mixed career. He never won any major awards besides two Pitcher of the Month accolades, and the only thing he ever led a league in was in walks in ’33. Ick.

The stars aligned on that day though as he held the Elks – for whom he’d pitch two years later – hitless when otherwise nothing went well in his age 34 season, which he finished 6-11 with a 4.85 ERA, missing 11 starts due to injury. At that point in his career he was already three years removed from his final winning record, 16-7 with a 3.31 ERA with the Buffaloes in ’31. After ten years with Topeka, Danieley then changed teams every year for six more seasons, with two stints with the Cyclones and Wolves. The seasons with the Aces and the Elks were his only CL stints.

For his career, he went 177-165 with a 4.10 ERA in 441 games (426 starts). He struck out 2,223 batters in 2,933 innings.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (57-41) vs. Bayhawks (44-54) – July 23-25, 2063

The Bayhawks had lost four straight games, but the Raccoons could barely break .500 against last-place teams, so this one could still go either way. Scoring runs was not the Bayhawks’ problem, but their third-place ranking in offense was wholly undone by a flammable rotation and mediocre defense, conceding the second-most runs in the CL. They had a -34 run differential, with the Raccoons at +13. San Francisco led the season series, 2-1.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (9-5, 3.27 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-3, 2.77 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (13-8, 3.69 ERA)
Josh Elling (7-6, 2.85 ERA) vs. Mike Chartrand (5-10, 3.94 ERA)

Paul Egley was making his first career start. He had so far only appeared in four games in relief. He was about two weeks short of turning 23 and had been taken #8 in the 2063 draft. All three starters were right-handed.

Game 1
SFB: CF Blackham – RF Laws – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – C L. Marquez – 1B A. Rios – SS Barre – P Egley
POR: RF Corral – CF Campos – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – 2B Gardner – C Lawson – P Alba

Neither team managed more than one base hit in three innings on Monday, with the Raccoons stuffing the bases with a Monck single and two walks to Starr and Crumble in the bottom 1st before Lonzo grounded out. In the third inning, Corral drew a walk, stole second base, and scored after a Campos groundout and Monck’s sac fly to get Portland ahead, 1-0. San Fran got David Blackham on base with a single to begin the game, but Alba then retired 11 straight batters, whiffing five, before Armando Montoya flicked another single in the fourth, but was immediately stranded with Dan Sandoval’s pop to Joel Starr. However, Lorenzo Marquez socked a game-tying homer in the fifth inning to get the teams even. Alba tried to take out his anger with a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, but was doubled up by Corral. Campos also singled, stole second base, and then Monck’s fly to deep left was caught on the warning track by Grant Anker, ending the inning.

San Francisco was up 2-1 in the sixth then. Alba offered a leadoff walk to Blackham. Scott Laws singled him to third base, and Anker got the go-ahead run home with a grounder before Montoya struck out and Sandoval grounded out. The Raccoons answered, though, and in the same inning. Starr doubled to right leading off, advanced on Crumble’s groundout to Montoya, and then Lonzo legged out an infield single and Starr scored.

Tied at two, Alba retired the Baybirds in order in the seventh, while Egley put Corral and Monck on the corner with singles by the time there was one out in the inning, then walked Starr, his fifth free pass offered in the game. Jon Bean batted for Crumble, grounded to the right side in a full count, and the Bayhawks couldn’t turn two; they only got Starr at second base, and the go-ahead run scored. Lonzo scratched another RBI single on the infield to knock out Egley. Mike Rocheford got Gardner out to strand a pair on the corners. Alba came back for the eighth, but gave up a leadoff single to catcher Bryan Bogdan in the #9 hole and was lifted for McDaniel with the lefty-leaning top of the order. Blackham immediately hit into a double play, and Laws also grounded out. Carlisle got the ninth and again gave up a run, which was concerning, on a homer by Montoya, but thankfully he got the last outs before the Bayhawks could really crank up the pain. 4-3 Critters. Monck 2-3, RBI; Starr 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Lavorano 3-4, 2 RBI; Alba 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (10-5) and 1-3;

Game 2
SFB: CF Blackham – 3B A. Rios – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – RF Laws – C Bogdan – 1B D. Sandoval – SS Barre – P Chalmers
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – 2B Bean – P Fox

The Raccoons again went up 1-0 in the bottom 3rd, Monck doubling home Corral with two outs in the inning. He then tried to score on Starr’s single to right, but was thrown out at the plate by Scott Laws. Meanwhile, Fox spent just 20 pitches on nine outs, while still giving up two hits, then surrendered an Anker single and Montoya double, both in full counts, for 16 pitches to begin the top 4th. I saw a meltdown coming and unscrewed the Capt’n Coma, but Fox popped out Laws on the infield, Bogdan to shallow right, and got a groundout from Sandoval to strand those runners in scoring position! Tristan Barre hit another double to begin the fifth, but was also stranded in scoring position on three unproductive outs. And Fox didn’t even whiff them – he had only one K through five innings. It was all a bit too neat and untidy, and so an infield single by Montoya, a 2-out single to left by Bogdan, and then a 2-out, 3-run homer to right by Sandoval *had* to flip the score to 3-1 Bayhawks in the sixth…

The Coons hit into double plays in the fifth and sixth innings, then had Arellano smack a leadoff double in the seventh. The next three batters struck out, grounded out, and grounded out, and so Arellano was left on third base. Both pitchers were active in the eighth inning; Fox got three outs and then was hit for with Nick Fowler for no good result to begin the bottom 8th against Chalmers, who also got Corral before giving up hits to Kozak and Monck to take the corners. Brad Fales replaced Chalmers, but gave up an RBI single to Starr. The Coons then pulled their secret weapon out of the sleeve and sent Todd Oley to bat for Arellano against the right-hander. The Bayhawks failed to respond and blew their 3-2 lead on another RBI single up the middle. Crumble flew out to center, parking a pair on base permanently.

Carrillo went 1-2-3 through the top of the ninth, although Dan Sandoval came mighty close to a homer to leftfield leading off the inning. Fales returned for the bottom 9th against the 7-8-9 batters, which included Scott Lawson in the third spot there. He struck out the side, and the game went to extras, which began with Pat Fowler’s leadoff triple to center, from which Matt Walters did not really recover. Antonio Rios singled home the run, and the Bayhawks eventually stranded a pair before handing the ball off to volatile ex-Coons Steve Watson. Corral led off with a single before Watson struck out two, then walked Starr on four pitches. Marco Campos batted for Walters in the #5 slot, and also struck out… 4-3 Bayhawks. Corral 2-5; Kozak 2-4, BB, 2B; Monck 2-5, 2B, RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, RBI; Oley (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 3
SFB: RF Laws – CF Navarre – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – C L. Marquez – 1B A. Rios – SS Barre – P Chartrand
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – 3B N. Fowler – P Elling

Again, the Critters scored first on Crumble’s leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd after both teams had already tallied five runners left on base, combined. Lonzo then singled and Fowler doubled, putting a pair in scoring position, and both scored when Elling lobbed a ball over the shortstop Barre and into leftfield. Grant Anker made a lunge for the ball, missed it by quite a bit, and it then bounced behind him for a single, error, and two runs, adding up to a 3-0 lead. Rich Monck’s single to center made it 4-0 with two outs before Starr grounded out to short. Next inning, the 6-7-8 batters loaded the bases with a hit and two walks, but Elling hit into an inning-ending double play.

Elling struggled with control a bit, but in the fifth the Bayhawks made it onto the board without a free pass, getting singles from their battery to begin the inning and one out, respectively, before Scott Laws’ sac fly to left-center shortened the score to 4-1. Nate Navarre – the #9 pick two years ago and making his ABL debut – grounded out to short. Montoya drew a walk in the sixth, but was doubled up, 6-3 style, on a grounder to Lonzo just shy of the second base bag. A Monck error then put Marquez on base to start the seventh. Rios hit a single before Barre grounded out to advance the runners. PH Jose Escalera whiffed, offering an exit from the inning, and Laws also swinging and missing for strike three got Elling through seven innings for just one run allowed. He retired the 2-3-4 batters in order in the eighth as well, but that would be all. The save was taken off however against Rocheford in the bottom 8th; he allowed a leadoff single to Crumble, who stole second. Lonzo flew out to center, moving Crumble to third base, and Nick Fowler singled to center to get the runner home. A passed ball and a walk to Joe Gardner led to another pitching change to lefty Amari Walker. Campos batted for Corral and got plunked, loading the bases with one gone. Kozak’s strikeout and Monck’s groundout killed the effort, however. The ninth inning then saw the Raccoons debut of Jimmy Dingman, who had been acquired on the weekend. He struck out Sandoval and Marquez, walked Rios with two outs, but then got Barre to ground out. 5-1 Raccoons. Monck 3-5, RBI; Crumble 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Fowler 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Elling 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (8-6) and 1-3, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (59-42) vs. Condors (59-42) – July 27-29, 2063

The season series with the Condors was even at three to begin the weekend set (and the Coons had not lost the season series to Tijuana in 10 years!). After a string of games against meager competition, we were now up against the CL South leaders. They were seventh in runs scored, but second in runs allowed with a very tough rotation. They struggled with getting on base and had not a whole lot of speed on the bases. They had also just put Casey Ramsey and his .314 stick on the DL, where he’d spend a month. Ramsey had by far the highest batting average on the team.

Projected matchups:
Jeff Applegate (0-2, 3.00 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (14-3, 2.76 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (7-3, 3.52 ERA) vs. Vince Ellison (8-5, 2.76 ERA)
Angel Alba (10-5, 3.23 ERA) vs. Dan Beare (2-1, 3.38 ERA)

More right-handers. Also more waiting for Applegate’s first career W.

Game 1
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – 3B Frasher – C Brann – 1B Metz – 2B Serrano – CF Cardwell – SS N. Cross – P M. Clemente
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – SS Lavorano – CF Oley – 2B Gardner – P Applegate

Fourth game of the week, and for the fourth time the Raccoons struck first, this time with a first-inning, 2-run homer by Joel Starr after Corral originally doubled his way on base and was waiting for a helping paw. Tijuana’s Mike Brann answered with a solo jack off Applegate in the second, while the bottom 3rd began with a walk issued to Corral, who then sped to third base on a Kozak single to right. Monck whiffed, but Starr found a hole on the infield to shove an RBI single through, 3-1, before poor outs by Arellano and Lonzo ended the inning.

The next few innings were treacherously calm before the Condors suddenly slapped Applegate around for a Franklin Serrano single and then a long RBI double to center by Chad Cardwell. At least the rookie got Nigel Cross to strike out, and kept a 3-2 lead going. Clemente then hit a leadoff single in the seventh, was forced out by Marco Asencio, and then Alf Mendez hit into a double play with a comebacker to Applegate, which was also the latter’s last action in the game, given that he was up second in the bottom 7th in a squeezer of a game. Crumble batted for him, but the Coons went in order against Clemente. Oley robbed Brann of extra bases with a dash into the gap in the eighth, which Pohlmann pitched, and then Carlisle entered the ninth with no cushion. He had given up a run (exactly) in five of his last six (!) outings. He did not give up a run (exactly) this time around. He gave up FOUR. He nailed Elmer Maldonado and Cross, allowed two runs to ex-Coon Tim Fuller on a pinch-hit double, and then was taken deep by Alf Mendez. (bites into clenched fist) 6-3 Condors. Starr 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Applegate 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K;

No ******* win for Applegate – again.

Game 2
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Alf. Mendez – 3B Frasher – C Brann – 1B Metz – 2B Serrano – CF Cardwell – SS N. Cross – P Ellison
POR: RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Crumble – 2B Bean – CF Campos – P Riddle

Corral and Lonzo reached to begin the bottom 1st and were then dismally stranded, before the 6-7-8 batters all reached base in the second inning with nobody out, although that already included Eric Frasher’s throwing error on Campos’ grounder to third base. Riddle batted with three on and nobody out and managed a sac fly to center, which made it 5-for-5 for the Raccoons scoring first this week. A soft single by Corral loaded the bases again, but Lonzo popped out poorly. Monck’s 2-out single scored Jon Bean, but Chad Cardwell rushed down Starr’s fly to end the inning.

Riddle looked sturdy in the early innings, and then the Raccoons tacked on when Jose Corral singled home Campos in the fourth inning. Corral was forced out by Lonzo, who stole second, but was then stranded by Monck, keeping it a 3-0 game. Joel Starr hit a leadoff double in the bottom 5th. Arellano flew out, and then Crumble was walked intentionally to get to Jon Bean, who I did not hold in any regard, but who was hitting .292 and was coming from Ellison’s weak side. The Condors got what they deserved, and Bean thrashed a ball into the right-center gap, all the way to the wall, and legged out a 2-run triple, then scored on Campos’ sac fly to double the score to 6-0. Riddle worked into the eighth inning with the shutout before he ran out of juice thanks to a bunch of long at-bats in the second half of his outing. Asencio knocked him out with a 2-out single in the eighth, only the Condors’ fourth hit in the game, and Murdock entered in a double switch with Kozak and got Mendez out. He also retired Frasher and Brann in the ninth before giving in to the urge to blow the shutout with a homer served up to Andy Metz… 6-1 Raccoons. Corral 2-3, BB, RBI; Lavorano 2-4; Bean 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (8-3);

Alright! Some fine pitching here this week (minus the closing issues)!

Angel Alba now had to win on Sunday to keep our string of domination against Tijuana going. He would not face Dan Beare, but another right-hander in Edgar Mauricio (10-4, 2.75 ERA).

Game 3
TIJ: RF Asencio – CF Cardwell – C Brann – 1B Metz – 3B Frasher – 2B Serrano – LF E. Maldonado – SS N. Cross – P E. Mauricio
POR: RF Corral – CF Campos – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – 3B Fowler – SS Gardner – C Lawson – P Alba

The Raccoons couldn’t put anything together in the early innings even when Mauricio brushed Alba with a pitch to begin the bottom 3rd and Corral then legged out an infield single. Campos whiffed and Monck hit into a double play to kill that particular effort, while Alba also retired the first 11 batters in the game. He didn’t get the 12th one, though, as Brann socked another homer. In the fifth, Maldonado and Cross hit 1-out singles, were bunted into scoring position by Mauricio, and then both scored on a single to right-center by Asencio, which put the Condors up 3-0. Cardwell then struck out.

It didn’t get any better from there, either. Metz homered in the sixth to extend the Condors’ lead to 4-0, and Franklin Serrano reached on an error by Crumble with two outs in the inning, which was the end for Alba. Walters got the ball, struck out Maldonado to end the sixth, and got another three outs in the seventh. Brann then added another homer off Ding(er)man in the eighth inning. Meanwhile the Raccoons had four hits through eight innings and Mauricio looked to be cruising to a shutout until Monck led off the bottom 9th with a single to right-center, and Starr doubled to center, putting a pair in scoring position with nobody out. Crumble then ran into a 3-run homer, which ended Mauricio’s time in the sandbox. Closer Jose Lugo replaced him against Fowler, but issued a walk in a full count, which brought up the tying run… and McDaniel in the #7 hole. He was hit for with Kozak, who whiffed, as did Lawson. Lonzo had earlier entered the #9 hole in a double switch, but also ended the game with a fly to Elmer Maldonado. 5-3 Condors. Monck 2-4; Fowler 2-3, BB;

In other news

July 24 – The hitting streak of Rebels SS Jason Turner (.267, 12 HR, 55 RBI) ends at 27 games after a hitless day in a 9-0 win against the Scorpions.
July 24 – The Thunder acquire OF J.D. Johnson (.257, 7 HR, 31 RBI) from the Gold Sox in exchange for two prospects.
July 27 – SAC SS/3B Zach Suggs (.268, 16 HR, 56 RBI) slaps his 2,500th career hit in a 4-1 win against the Miners in style, a solo home run against SP Andres Lopez (6-11, 5.84 ERA). The 37-year-old Suggs was a 10-time All Star and 7-time Platinum Stick winner with a career .300/.368/.467 slash line, 331 homers, and 1,368 RBI.
July 28 – The Thunder beat the Loggers, 2-1. The Loggers’ run comes on a home run by RF Dave Wright (.227, 2 HR, 21 RBI), while the Thunder only collect a single by INF Daniel Richardson (.256, 5 HR, 26 RBI) – and that is not even relevant in their two runs, which score in the fourth inning on two walks, two hit batters, and a sac fly.
July 29 – Boston acquires INF Nick Nye (.299, 13 HR, 46 RBI) from the Thunder in a trade that leaves the Thunder with five prospects. Four of them are ranked: #38 CL Fernando Bustos, #49 George Christensen, #90 Steven Fenstermacher, and #158 OF Jose Ortiz;
July 29 – The Thunder also send outfielder Randy Hummel (.295, 3 HR, 27 RBI) to the Miners in exchange for OF Carlos Mata (.286, 4 HR, 31 RBI).
July 29 – Dallas INF Adam Yocum (.400, 0 HR, 4 RBI), who spent most of the year in AAA, has a 20-game hitting streak pieced together with a first-inning single in a 4-2 loss to the Capitals.
July 29 – Warriors 3B/SS Ben Wilken (.256, 11 HR, 61 RBI) takes down the Buffaloes, 1-0, with a home run.

FL Player of the Week: RIC INF/RF Robby Cox (.322, 14 HR, 68 RBI), batting .591 (13-22) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB 2B/LF Armando Montoya (.284, 22 HR, 91 RBI), hitting .400 (10-25) with 3 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Another 3-3 week, and the shards of our string of season series triumphs against the Condors on the floor, and the trade deadline is only two days away, and we just can’t seem to make up our mind what we actually want to do. More offense? Sure! More pitching? Absolutely! A functioning closer? Would be helpful! How about more donuts for everyone?? HELL YES!!

In any case, the phone is ringing, so maybe … yes, Maud? – The Gold Sox called while I cried? – And the Crusaders called while I screamed? – The Indians while I wept? – No that’s the dry cleaners, that’s actually important, I’ll hop over there real quick…

Ben Morris will come off the DL to begin the new week, but how long until he’s back on it? Jim White will be out for another week, though. And last time he came off the DL, it took him all of two days to return there.

It’s not like younger players solve all these problems with nagging injuries, though. See, Ben Morris.

We play the Knights and Indians next week.

Fun Fact: Atlanta’s Ben Lussier (1-3, 4.59 ERA, 32 SV) has the most saves in the entire league.

And I need to re-evaluate all my ******* life choices!

[Westheim]

This week was played in starts and fits over three days. It’s not very coherent anymore. I’ll try and do better.

+++

Raccoons (60-44) @ Knights (55-51) – July 30-August 1, 2063

The Raccoons were still busy trying to spin the Wheel of Deals ahead of the deadline, while coming up against the third-place Knights, who were scoring the sixth-most runs in the CL, but were allowing the third-most, and had a rather dim -49 run differential. They had by far the worst bullpen in the league with a 5.43 ERA on the relief corps. Somehow, though, they were up 4-2 against the Raccoons. They also had a bunch of pitchers on the DL, including Jose Villegas, Blake Sparks, and reliever Tim Webb, plus outfielder Cory Oldfield.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (7-3, 2.81 ERA) vs. Chad Shultz (3-4, 5.32 ERA)
Josh Elling (8-6, 2.75 ERA) vs. Hironobu Hanzawa (7-6, 3.58 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (0-2, 2.94 ERA) vs. Justin DeJarnatt (0-1, 10.80 ERA)

The southpaw DeJarnatt would make his second career start at 27 years old.

The Raccoons plucked Ben Morris from the DL and returned Todd Oley (.308, 0 HR, 2 RBI) back to AAA.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – C Arellano – SS Lavorano – 3B Fowler – P Fox
ATL: CF Fumero – 1B Ovalle – RF J. Evans – LF K. Fisher – 3B Gallo – C Villafan – SS Swick – 2B Roldan – P Shultz

Carlos Fumero hit a triple to center as the first guy up against Fox on Monday and scored right away on a sac fly by Pedro Ovalle, a rookie 23 years old and in his 23rd career game. That seemed to be it for a while, because the Raccoons needed six innings to hit three singles, and Foxie Brown hit *two* of them. He scored on the latter one in the sixth inning, but even to get him home on a Kozak sac fly required an intermittent balk by Shultz. That briefly tied the game at one, but Fumero legged out an infield single to begin the bottom 6th, stole second base, and came around to score after Jake Evans’ 1-out single and a grounder by Kyle Fisher on which the Coons failed to turn two, allowing Fumero to score from third base. Fox allowed just five hits in seven innings, but remained on the short end of the stick until he was hit for with Malik Crumble, who doubled to center with one out in the top 8th. He was stranded when Morris lined out to first and Kozak flew out to right. Pohlmann pitched a scoreless inning before Jordan Juarez, a righty with a 4.53 ERA, came up against the 3-4-5 batters in the Coons lineup in the ninth inning. Monck and Starr flew out before Jose Corral was issued a 2-out walk. Arellano grounded out to the shortstop Troy Swick to end the game. 2-1 Knights. Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (7-4) and 2-2; Crumble (PH) 1-1, 2B;

No new player materialized at the deadline. Other teams remained eager to ship us a catcher even when Arellano had a 100 OPS+ over 82 games, and somehow everybody was keen of a piece of Angel Alba, and the rotation was the only bloody thing on this team that was clicking. That aside I was out of guesses as to how a lineup with this amount of theoretically capable players was able to produce this little offense to begin with.

Even a modest improvement of the infield situation, f.e. with the damn Elks’ (gnashes teeth) Alex Corpus or the Blue Sox’ Nick Kelly was not in the cards, since everybody seemed to see themselves entitled to slice of Alba.

Oh well then.

Maybe next year.

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – C Arellano – SS Lavorano – 2B Bean – P Elling
ATL: 3B Fumero – RF J. Evans – 1B Ovalle – SS Gallo – C M. Nieto – LF J. Parker – CF Andon – 2B Roldan – P Hanzawa

The Knights put a pair in scoring position with nobody out in the second inning when Elling walked J.P. Gallo and allowed a double to Marco Nieto, but then struck out Johnny Parker, popped out Sal Andon, and after an intentional walk to Rafael Roldan, who was a bad matchup for him, Elling got another pop on the infield from Hanzawa to leave the bases loaded. Nobody scored through three innings, with only a Corral single and Elling reaching on a Gallo error on the ledger for the Critters, but in the fourth inning the Coons got straight singles from Starr, Corral, and Arellano with one out. Starr was thrown out at home by Parker when he tried to make it around from second on Arellano’s single to left, but the trailing runners advanced and Corral scored when Gallo also bungled Lonzo’s grounder for another error. The unearned run was all we got though with a poor groundout for Jon Bean ending the inning. The Knights would tie the game in the fifth; Roldan hit a leadoff single up the middle, and Jake Evans’ 2-out triple knotted the score at one. Ovalle popped out to second to keep it tied.

The Raccoons remained inept, and the Knights eventually broke up Elling in the sixth inning. Another leadoff walk to Gallo was already annoying, but from there they kept whacking him. Nieto doubled for the third time in the game, and Parker singled home both runners. He reached second on Andon’s grounder, Roldan walked, and Alex Vasquez singled home another run in place of Hanzawa, who had struck out eight Critters in six innings. Jimmy Dingman allowed another run on Fumero’s sac fly before ending the inning, and the Raccoons were now down four runs, in order words: plenty. James Murdock tried to add on for Atlanta by shoveling the bases full in the bottom 7th before Corral chased down a Roldan fly that left the bases loaded. Justin Falzone homered off Murdock to begin the eighth, and Fumero flew out to Morris on a sliding catch, but Morris then also left the game with Luis Silva again. (topples over table with the flick of a tail) The Coons failed to do anything worth waffling about after their unearned run. 6-1 Knights. Corral 2-4;

Luis Silva opined that Ben Morris had a sore wrist that would hamper him for the next two weeks. It was his third DL trip this year (same as last year) and the second this ******* month. He had batted all of 0-for-8 with no walks and three strikeouts since coming off the DL on Monday.

Nope, there was no point in spilling any more beans trying to fix this ****. The trade deadline passed without any more moves made. Well, except for Todd Oley being recalled from St. Pete again…

Game 3
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – CF Kozak – 2B Gardner – P Applegate
ATL: CF Fumero – C M. Nieto – RF J. Evans – SS Andon – LF K. Fisher – 3B Gallo – 1B Ovalle – 2B Swick – P DeJarnatt

The Coons showed up to the ballpark on Wednesday even though a glass of appy juice had a better chance of grabbing a W than Jeff Applegate. Doubles by Fumero – who left the game with an injury right away and was replaced with Parker – and Andon put Atlanta up 1-0 right in the first inning, even though the Raccoons tied it up in the second. Joe Gardner singled in the tying run with two outs after DeJarnatt had walked Arellano and Crumble.

The game trundled along for a bit after that until Applegate tried to lay an egg in the bottom 4th. Kyle Fisher swatted a leadoff double for Atlanta before Applegate walked the bags full with Gallo, Ovalle, and nobody out. Appygate struck out Troy Swick before allowing a run on DeJarnatt’s groundout, but at least Parker lined out right to Gardner.

Once more, the Raccoons found a response tucked away somewhere in their lunchboxes. Applegate actually hit his first career knock with a 1-out single in the fifth, and Campos doubled to center to put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Lonzo’s single to right-center plated both, stole second, but was stranded by Monck and Arellano to keep the score at 3-2. Applegate was done after six messy innings, but was at least ahead for once, and the Knights kept DeJarnatt going into the seventh where he got bopped by Campos and Lonzo for a pair of doubles and another run, then saw Monck reach base on catcher’s interference, but Arellano hit into an inning-ending double play. Would Applegate be able to keep the 4-2 win? Carrillo got a scoreless seventh on the board, but then allowed a leadoff single to Fisher in the eighth. Walters replaced him and got three outs on three pitches, which was a success, but didn’t instill confidence. The Coons tacked on a run in the ninth with a Campos double, a wild pitch, and Monck’s sac fly to center, which gave Carlisle a 5-2 lead to try and bobble. Parker hit a 1-out double, and Carlisle hit Evans with two outs, which put runners on the corners. Alex Vasquez pinch-hit as the tying run, but grounded out to short. 5-2 Raccoons. Campos 3-5, 2 2B; Lavorano 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1; Starr 2-5;

First career W for Applegate in 87 start attempts, but he walked four in six innings, and it was easily one of his weaker starts.

Raccoons (61-46) vs. Indians (54-54) – August 2-5, 2063

The title defense wasn’t going that well for the Indians, who were stuck at .500 and mired in mediocrity in most aspects with the fifth-most runs scored and sixth-most runs allowed among the 12 Continental League teams. The only things were they weren’t somehow hugging the middle in terms of major stats were stolen bases (2nd) and bullpen ERA and defense (10th each). Infielder Eric Cirelli was the only notable DL occupant for them, and the Raccoons were up 4-3 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (8-3, 3.32 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (8-5, 3.55 ERA)
Angel Alba (10-6, 3.36 ERA) vs. Jarod Morris (3-6, 5.75 ERA)
Chance Fox (7-4, 2.80 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (13-6, 2.05 ERA)
Josh Elling (8-7, 2.96 ERA) vs. Kelly Whitney (7-11, 4.27 ERA)

DeWitt was the only lefty pitcher in that list.

Game 1
IND: 2B Kilday – LF B. Johnston – 1B Starwalt – C A. Gomez – RF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – 3B Blackshire – SS Lujan – P Carreno
POR: RF Corral – LF Crumble – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – CF Campos – SS Lavorano – 2B Gardner – C Lawson – P Riddle

Jose Corral opened the homestand with a first-inning jack to right that put Riddle up 1-0 after a scoreless top 1st in which he walked Danny Starwalt. Dave Blackshire and Guillermo Lujan hit 2-out singles in the second, but Carreno struck out to let Riddle escape; however, Matt Kilday and Starwalt were back at the corners in the third, and with just one out. Alex Gomez lined out to Lonzo, but Brass – the third ex-Coon in that Indians lineup besides Carreno and Blackshire – drove in the tying run with a single to left. Eddy Ramirez whiffed to leave two aboard. Malik Crumble responded with a 1-out triple into the left-center gap in the same inning and scored on Monck’s groundout to give the Coons a new 2-1 lead. The Indians kept crowding Riddle, though; they put another man on base in the fourth, and another pair in scoring position with Bryan Johnston and Starwalt, but Gomez and Brassfield made ineffective outs to end that inning. However, those last four at-bats were all eeeeeendless and Riddle was over 100 pitches now and done for the day after just five innings. The Indians left another pair in scoring position against Dingman in the sixth inning. Ramirez walked and Lujan was hit by a pitch, but Carreno’s bunt and Kilday’s fly to Crumble in left kept them on base. Pohlmann and McDaniel kept piecing things together from there, while the Raccoons were still sitting on four base hits and showed the utmost reluctance to add on. Another Portland threat did not develop until the eighth inning, still against Carreno, but Fowler and Corral singles only led to easy fly outs for Crumble and Monck and no insurance run. McDaniel, who had gotten the final out in the eighth inning, then remained on the hill for the ninth since the 9-1-2 batters were up, and with Mike Weber batting for Carreno at this point, they all appeared to be left-handed hitters. Weber struck out, but Kilday singled to put the tying run on base. Johnston popped out, after which the Raccoons went to Carlisle for Starwalt, who was batting .227 with 19 homers, but struck out to finish off the game. 2-1 Blighters. Corral 2-4, HR, RBI; Fowler 1-1;

Another game like that, and we’re back to a flat four runs per game for the season…

OFFENSE, BOYS!!!

Lonzo had a scheduled day off on Friday, with Monck penciled in to sit down on Saturday against DeWitt. And then there were still another 11 straight games to be played after that.

Game 2
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B Blackshire – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – LF Lovins – SS Lujan – P Jar. Morris
POR: RF Corral – C Arellano – SS Monck – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – CF Oley – 3B Fowler – 2B Bean – P Alba

The Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the first again, this time with Corral singling and scoring on Monck’s double over the head of Ramirez in center. After that, poor outs were made, and the Coons handed responsibility to Alba who retired the first eight batters he faced before allowing a single to Morris, nailing Kilday, blowing the lead on a Blackshire RBI single, and then for good measure giving up a 2-run double to Starwalt in quite the meltdown. Vinny Atencio finally grounded out to end the dismal 3-run inning. Brass and Chris Lovins hit more singles in the fourth, but were left on by the 8-9 batters. Kilday drew a leadoff walk (…) in the fifth and scored on two groundouts and a wild pitch, 4-1, and in total the Indians rapped off seven hits and four runs in between base hits for the Critters, who didn’t follow up Monck’s RBI double from the first inning until Nick Fowler chipped a 1-out single to left in the bottom 5th. Fowler didn’t even advance to scoring position after that.

Alba was done after six shoddy innings and replaced with Murdock, who wobbled through the seventh before Jarod Morris walked the bases full with the 5-6-7 batters and one out in the bottom 7th. Jon Bean hit a ball that fell into left-center for a 2-run double, and suddenly the Raccoons looked up again with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Lonzo pinch-hit and got Fowler home with a sac fly to right, which knotted the score at four, but Corral flew out to Ramirez and left Bean on base. Melvin Guerra started the Critters off with two walks in the bottom 8th, but Starr hit into a double play and Kozak flew out to fritter that chance away.

Matt Walters meanwhile got four outs in the eighth and to begin the ninth inning before handing the ball to Pohlmann for Blackshire, who doubled, but was then left on base on groundouts by Starwalt and Atencio that Pohlmann collected, keeping the game tied and giving the 6-7-8 batters a walkoff chance – except that Guerra retired them in order and the game went to extras. Corral hit a double in the 10th against Guerra, but Cody Kleidon then starved him on base by getting outs from Arellano and Monck. Pohlmann got eight outs through the end of the 11th before his spot came up after the southpaw Kleidon’s leadoff walk to Starr in the bottom 11th. Crumble batted for him, but hit into a fielder’s choice. Oddly, Oley then doubled to right to move Crumble and the winning run to third base. The Coons threw in their last couple of chips and sent Scott Lawson to bat for Fowler against the southpaw, but the Indians walked him intentionally, and there were not enough infielders left – only Gardner remained on the bench – to also bat for Bean now. Bean flew out to Brass in shallow right, and Crumble had to hold. Campos did the same in the #9 hole, which allowed Crumble and the others to retreat to the dugout.

Brass hit into a double play in the 12th after Starwalt had hit a leadoff single against Dingman, which ended that inning, and in the 13th Guillermo Lujan drew a 2-out walk before being caught stealing. Neither team had any bench pieces left at this point, so when Starr hit a leadoff single against another ex-Coon, Justin DeRose in garbage relief, in the bottom 13th, was forced out by Joe Gardner, who stole second, and Oley did nothing of value, it brought up Dingman with two outs and the winning run at second base, and no real options left. Dingman grounded out, the band played on, and Dingman put up a third zero on the scoreboard in the 14th. Bean grounded out against DeRose to begin the home half of the 14th, but Campos was nicked onto base, then stole second. DeRose walked Corral, but Arellano hit into a double play… Instead a tiring Dingman gave up a 2-out double to Brass… and an RBI single to DeRose in the 15th inning, at which point I got up, and with Cristiano, Slappy, and Maud still sitting in the office flicked off the TV, killed the lights, and went home without saying a word as I left them sitting and blinking in the darkness. DeRose retired the big bats to begin the bottom 15th, then gave up 2-out singles to Gardner and Oley… which brought up the pitcher’s spot, and that was that. Chance Fox pinch-hit and popped out. 5-4 Indians. Corral 2-6, BB, 2B; Oley 2-6, BB, 2B; Pohlmann 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Dingman 4.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, L (2-1);

Back to the drawing board.

Game 3
IND: 3B Blackshire – 2B M. Weber – 1B Starwalt – C A. Gomez – RF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – LF Abel – SS Lujan – P DeWitt
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – C Arellano – LF Crumble – CF Kozak – 3B Fowler – 2B Gardner – P Fox

Oddly enough, the same Raccoon began and ended consecutive games at home now as Chance Fox surrendered a single to Dave Blackshire to get Saturday’s game underway. Gardner started a double play on Weber’s grounder, though, yet three more singles by Gomez, Ramirez, and Lujan gave the Indians the first run of the game in the second, which might just about be enough to lose the game against DeWitt… The Raccoons had ONE hit in four innings, a Lonzo single, and he was caught stealing after the fact, and I didn’t know whether I should even bother with drinking anymore or whether it was more prudent to walk into an open manhole to make the pain end.

But the pain didn’t end; Starwalt drew a walk and scored on Alex Gomez’ double in the fifth inning, 2-0, and Fox was done after six drawn-out innings that cost him over 100 pitches. Which was still better than Murdock, who stumbled into the seventh inning and got whacked around for four hits, a walk, and four runs by the Indians. The Coons didn’t give a **** anymore at that point and sent him back out for another inning… and another run. DeWitt went eight innings of 2-hit ball, and Melvin Guerra finished the deal quickly. 7-0 Indians.

Rancid.

At this point, the Raccoons had enough of Murdock, who, yeah, bad BABIP, but he was bad all around, and it was enough. James Murdock (1-4, 6.35 ERA, 1 SV) found himself on waivers on Saturday night. John Nesbitt would try to fill the gaping hole in our hearts.

Game 4
IND: 2B Kilday – LF B. Johnston – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF Brassfield – 3B Blackshire – CF S. Thompson – SS Lujan – P Whitney
POR: RF Corral – C Arellano – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – 3B Fowler – CF Campos – P Elling

Elling tried to become the next pitcher to be shown the ******* door when he ****** up four runs to the Indians in the second on Sunday. There were four singles, a walk, and two hit batters in the inning, and I marked another L in the pocket schedule. The bases were like constantly loaded in that inning, and he managed to recreate those shenanigans in the fourth with a leadoff single by Bryan Johnston, hitting Starwalt (!), and walking Atencio on four pitches before offering a bases-loaded walk to Brass and giving up another run on Blackshire’s sac fly before walking Thompson. Then he was yanked. Carrillo got a groundout from Lujan to strand the bases loaded, then pitched another inning, while in between Lonzo doubled in a pair of batters that Whitney had walked in the bottom 4th, shortening the score to 6-2, as if that was gonna ******* lead somewhere pretty…!!

Later on we asked Matt Walters for two innings, which worked as well as imaginable. He got a clean sixth on the board, but the seventh gave the Indians a run on Lujan and Johnston hits, and four runs after Starwalt and Atencio homers. Nesbitt collected four outs from there, and Carlisle had to pitch a forsaken ninth inning, allowing three more singles but no runs to the stomping Arrowheads. Whitney pitched a complete-game 6-hitter, although not without allowing a 2-run homer to Fowler in the ninth inning. But by then most of the crowd had dispersed. 10-4 Indians. Crumble 1-2, 2 BB; Lavorano 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

July 30 – The Wolves trade Brazilian 1B Belchior Fresco (.253, 8 HR, 41 RBI) to the Rebels in exchange for four prospects. The headline of the deal is #7 prospect CL Marc Timmons.
July 30 – The Aces send SP Justin Reif (6-8, 5.11 ERA) to the Miners for infielder Tony Villarreal (.250, 1 HR, 4 RBI).
July 30 – The Buffaloes beat the Wolves, 5-4 in 16 innings.
August 1 – The Rebels end the 22-game hitting streak of Dallas’ Adam Yocum (.349, 0 HR, 6 RBI), who goes 0-for-4 in a 5-4 Stars loss.
August 2 – BOS 1B Manny Rubin (.242, 19 HR, 57 RBI) goes 5-for-5 with two homers and four RBI in a 16-5 rout of the Loggers. In total, the Titans hit five homers in the game, including #30 on the year for LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.279, 30 HR, 74 RBI).
August 3 – The Crusaders drop a 5-1 game to the Canadiens, with VAN SP Roger Pritchard (11-6, 2.19 ERA) and MR Alex Diaz (2-1, 2.11 ERA) allowing no hits except for a seventh-inning RBI double to NYC 1B/RF/LF Aubrey Austin (.265, 6 HR, 44 RBI).
August 3 – A first-inning homer by RIC SS Jason Turner (.270, 15 HR, 61 RBI) is enough to beat the Capitals, 1-0.
August 3 – The Stars smash up the Scorpions, 16-2, with a pair of 7-spots in the first two innings really testing the mantra that you can’t win a game by the second inning.
August 4 – SAC SS/3B Zach Suggs (.274, 18 HR, 59 RBI) would miss a month with a broken foot.
August 4 – The Pacifics beat the Gold Sox, 12-5 in ten innings.
August 5 – Knights UT Carlos Fumero (.315, 1 HR, 41 RBI) could miss the rest of the year with a strained MCL.
August 5 – SFW 1B Miguel Medina (.256, 7 HR, 37 RBI) singles in the first inning of the Warriors’ 3-0 loss to the Wolves, but the Warriors to not get another base hit against SAL SP Ian Lowry (6-6, 4.18 ERA) and CL Cruz Madrid (1-5, 3.86 ERA, 18 SV).

FL Player of the Week: LAP 3B Steve Dilly (.249, 15 HR, 62 RBI), batting .538 (14-26) with 4 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ 3B/RF Eric Frasher (.256, 17 HR, 65 RBI), hitting .458 (11-24) with 4 HR, 12 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: TOP 2B/SS Oscar Aredondo (.281, 9 HR, 47 RBI), batting .343 with 6 HR, 24 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.313, 4 HR, 37 RBI), clipping .356 with 1 HR, 16 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Alex Quevedo (12-4, 2.15 ERA), going 4-1 with a 1.47 ERA, 45 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: MIL SP Tony Espinosa (10-5, 3.43 ERA), posting a 5-1 mark with 2.20 ERA, 37 K
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT 3B/SS Brian Robinson (.291, 3 HR, 26 RBI), hitting .311 with 2 HR, 14 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: ATL UT Carlos Fumero (.314, 1 HR, 41 RBI), hitting .282 with 12 RBI

Complaints and stuff

What a hopeless bunch.

Ben Morris’ sixth DL stint in two years makes me reconsider his status as centerfielder of the present. Can’t work with that attendance record! He’s more brittle than Cookie Carmona, for crying out loud! (looks at Cristiano Carmona in his wheelchair) Family history? (Cristiano’s eyes narrow)

The Titans have a decent chance to sweep their way to the top of the CL North in a four-game set starting on Monday. I don’t see us putting a win together except another one of those 1-0 wheezers. Maybe an extra roll of duct tape can keep Appygate together. After that it will be a short weekend trip to the Wolves, and then we’re home for another three days against the Miners to end this long string of games.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have a +1 run differential while being 13 games over .500 again.

(buries face in paws, sulking)