Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (38-37) @ Bayhawks (23-52) – June 27-29, 2067

The Bayhawks were having an unforgettable season in the worst way, sitting second from the bottom in runs scored and absolute bottoms in runs allowed, giving away almost SIX runs per game. They had a -147 run differential, ranked in the bottom three in all major stats except team homers (5th), and even the Raccoons had swept them in the first series between these two teams this year. Juan Sanchez and Adan Yniguez were on the DL, getting a temporary reprieve from having to partake in the slaughter in person.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (4-6, 3.92 ERA) vs. Adam Gardner (3-8, 4.39 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (5-5, 4.27 ERA) vs. Vince Vandiver (1-8, 5.48 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (7-5, 3.23 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (3-8, 5.16 ERA)

They looked treacherously beatable. Never underestimate the Raccoons’ ability to lay a clutch of eggs against a last-place team! Gardner was the only southpaw opposition we expected to face in the series.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C R. Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Tallent – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan
SFB: RF J. Paez – 1B Navarre – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Goodwin – CF J. Ward – SS Bruce – 3B K. Ball – P Gardner

Wilson walked and Novelo singled to begin the game, but were then left on base, and Gardner went on to retire nine in a row before Ramon Lopez tried again with a leadoff single in the fourth, at which point the Baybirds were hitless against Tony Gaytan, who had walked Curt Goodwin and had otherwise retired everybody, four on strikes, in the first three innings. Gardner, however, got another set of three straight outs from the 4-5-6 batters, and the Raccoons didn’t score. Gaytan hit a 2-out single in the fifth that led nowhere nice, and in turn allowed a single to Jake Ward in the Baybirds’ go at the fifth inning. Ward stole second base, but was left there by Ryan Bruce and Keith Ball.

Gardner began the sixth inning by allowing a double to right to Novelo. Lopez was walked intentionally and Monck flew out to left, but Joel Starr then got hold of a breaking ball and crunched it some 410 feet to left-center for a 3-run homer, his tenth of the season. Marquise Early flew out after that, but with two outs Gardner nailed Tallent, who stole second out of spite, walked Roberts, and then saw Gaytan reach base when Bruce fumbled his entry-level grounder to short for an error. Clearly fazed, Gardner then walked in an unearned run against Jaden Wilson before Bruce redeemed himself with a jumping and perfectly timed catch on a Novelo liner that ended the inning. Gardner continued into the next inning, but another leadoff double by Lopez, Starr walking, and Early’s RBI single knocked him out of a 5-0 game. The inning escalated into the second straight 4-spot with a soft Tallent single to load the bases, Roberts’ RBI groundout, and then a 2-out, 2-run single up the middle poked by Gaytan. Wilson struck out against Roberto Mendez to make it stretch time. Early added two more with a wallbanger double to score Lopez and Starr in the eighth, getting the Coons into double digits, while Gaytan tried to complete the shutout, but was on 89 pitches through seven, and then played himself out of it with two walks issued to PH John Parrish and Nate Navarre in the eighth inning. He finished that frame, but at 110 pitches was not coming back anymore and was hit for with Jose Corral in the ninth, where Portland loaded the bases with nobody out against Dario Luna, who nailed Matas, gave up a double to Corral, and walked Wilson. Novelo doubled home two, and Jake Flowe pinch-hit for a sac fly, while Rich Monck continued to post an 0-for-6 with a groundout to first. 13-0 Furballs! Novelo 4-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Lopez 2-4, BB, 2B; Starr 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Early 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1, 2B; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (5-6) and 2-4, 2 RBI;

Great, now we used up all our runs for the series in game one!

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – 2B Bonner – P Nakayama
SFB: RF J. Paez – 1B Navarre – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Goodwin – CF J. Ward – SS Bruce – 3B K. Ball – P Vandiver

Nakayama had another first inning from hell, allowing singles to Paez and Navarre, a walk to Ian Streng, and another single to Armando Montoya before getting anybody out. Montoya drove in the first run, Goodwin added a second run with a sac fly to Wilson, but Jake Ward then hit into a double play to end the effort. The Raccoons’ attempt at an answer in the top 2nd involved straight singles from the 5-6-7 batters to load the bases with nobody out before Ryan Bonner floated a ball to shallow right, where Montoya and Paez failed to communicate and had the ball drop in between them for an RBI single. Nakayama got himself even with a sac fly to Ward, and Wilson’s RBI double to left gave him the lead – and then Novelo blasted a 3-run homer, 6-2!

Rich Monck finally joined the hit parade with doubles in his next two at-bats, but both times he was the only Critter to reach base in the inning and was left on base. While Vandiver was hit for as early as the bottom 2nd after giving up that 6-spot, Nakayama was eyed anxiously as he appeared easily hittable and the Baybirds lineup looked like a rally was absolutely possible. When Juan Paez opened the bottom 5th with a sharp single past Monck, the bullpen began to do stretches, but Nakayama struck out the next two before Paez got himself caught stealing to get through five on 61 pitches.

Jose Corral’s homer drought ended in the sixth against Austin LaRosa, who gave up a 2-out, 3-run bomb to him with Bonner and Wilson on base. San Francisco got a run back in that inning with a leadoff triple into the gap by Armando Montoya. Goodwin whiffed, but Ward brought in the runner with a sac fly to Wilson. Nakayama would go seven, hitting Keith Ball in his final frame, but that runner remained on base. The Raccoons then had the bases loaded again in the eighth, and again with nobody out, as Bonner and Matas hit soft singles and Danny Zepeda then walked Wilson. The Coons only got one run this time, though, as Novelo struck out and Corral hit a sac fly. Monck reached on an error by Navarre, but Starr flew out. Holzmeister and McMahan put the game away for Portland. 10-3 Furballs! Wilson 2-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Novelo 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Corral 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Monck 2-5, 2 2B; Bonner 3-5, RBI; Matas (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C R. Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Musgrave
SFB: RF J. Paez – 1B Navarre – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Goodwin – CF J. Ward – SS Bruce – 3B K. Ball – P Egley

Could the Raccoons complete the sweep with another double-digit runs game? Early signs were not promising as it took until the third inning for the Raccoons to put their first run together (but then again we hadn’t scored until the sixth on Monday) when Bonner singled, was moved to second by Musgrave, and then scored on another Wilson single. That lead, however, didn’t last; while Musgrave allowed just one hit the first time through, he lost Ian Streng on balls with one down in the bottom 4th and then was taken deep to right by Armando Montoya, which gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead.

Top 5th, and Musgrave led off with a shy single. Wilson singled as well, moving the tying run to second base, and Ball muffed Lopez’ grounder to third for an error and the bases were loaded again with nobody out for like the umpteenth time in the series. The Coons barely got the tying run on Corral’s groundout before Monck popped out, Starr walked, and Dowsey whiffed, leaving three aboard… The next inning began with Novelo and Bonner singles, who were at the corners for Musgrave, who struck out, but Wilson drove home the 3-2 for the second straight day, this time with a single to center, but the Coons again left a pair on base after that before Monck led off the seventh with a homer to right, tying Corral again for the team lead with 16 bombs apiece.

And then came the proverbial clutch of eggs. Out-hitting the Baybirds 11-3 at the stretch, Musgrave then allowed a 2-out single to left Bruce, while Ball legged out an infield single. Musgrave went on to nail Parrish to fill the bases – and then Paez with the bases loaded, too, which narrowed the score to 4-3. The Raccoons brought Josh C and Early in a double switch for Dowsey. The right-hander got Nate Navarre to 0-2, but then gave up a 2-run single through the right side away to flip the score back to San Francisco. Ian Streng then struck out, but at this point Carrington could also kindly stick the strikeout up his furry tush… He put two more runners on base in the eighth, was clumsily dug out by Evan Alvey, while the Coons brought up the 2-3-4 batters against righty Roland Wiser, who had a 5.34 ERA and more walks than strikeouts, in the ninth. Lopez poked an 0-2 pitch into shallow center for a leadoff single and Corral hit an infield roller that nobody got to in time, putting another runner on base. Monck knocked Wiser’s first pitch right back to the hurler, though, and Wiser spun and fired to seco- wide! Error! Bases loaded, and still nobody out in the ninth! …and before the Raccoons could croak with three pops on the infield to lose, Wiser went from 2-2 to a full count on Joel Starr by completely throwing a ball over the catcher, over the umpire, and well up into the netting behind home plate. Lopez scored on the WILD pitch, tying the game at five, while Starr cranked a deep fly to center on the next pitch. It was caught by Ward, but at this point all we *really* wanted was for Corral to score on the sac fly, 6-5! Wiser threw another wild pitch, but the extra runner remained on third base on poor outs by Flowe and Novelo before Jesse Dover got the ball. Paez and Navarre grounded out, but David Blackham hit a 2-out single to left to get Montoya back to the dish. He hit a ball on the ground, though, to second base, and Novelo zoomed over and made the pick and stepped on the bag to complete the sweep. 6-5 Coons! Wilson 3-5, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5, HR, RBI; Novelo 2-5; Bonner 2-4;

Sweep!

Raccoons (41-37) @ Loggers (51-28) – June 30-July 3, 2067

Compared to the Bayhawks, the Loggers were hardly the same species. They ranked first in runs scored in the CL, with 444 runs from just 79 games (5.6 per game) and a solid sixth place in runs allowed for a +99 run differential (Coons: +20). They had already swept the Raccoons once this month and were up 6-2 for the year, so I was a bit cautions about expectations for this series. “Pizza” Pizzichini and Phil Reder were on the DL for them.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (5-4, 2.72 ERA) vs. Aiden Shaw (6-2, 3.54 ERA)
Chance Fox (0-0, 3.09 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (9-2, 3.70 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-6, 3.59 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (4-3, 3.18 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (6-5, 4.24 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (8-5, 4.41 ERA)

Only right-handed pitching coming up here (although they had plenty of lefty relievers for flavor). The Raccoons would give Fox a Chance in Rios’ spot in the rotation, although, to be honest, neither of them had been anywhere close to good in the last few weeks.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – 2B Roberts – P Walla
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – 3B Reber – C Lulich – LF Ma. Gilmore – P A. Shaw

Both teams rocked up with six left-handed hitters for this game, and neither scored a run on their lone single the first time through the batting order against right-handed starters, so that strategy was totally checking out. The Raccoons were the first team to actually make a bid for home plate in the fourth inning when Corral walked, Monck softly singled, and with two outs Dowsey singled to right, but Carlos Dominguez threw out his fellow rightfielder at the plate to end the inning. Depressingly, Dominguez followed up those heroics with a 1-out RBI single after Jonathan Merrill and Cesar Ramirez had reached base with a single and a walk to begin the bottom 4th, and Kyle Reber’s RBI single and Ian Lulich groundout extended the Loggers led to 3-0 immediately. That remained the score through five before Wilson hit a leadoff single in the sixth and was brought in on Monck’s 2-out RBI single, 3-1. Walla began the bottom 6th by getting Ramirez to fly out to center before Fidel Carrera hit a fly ball over the rightfield line. Corral rushed for the line, made the catch on the run, and then went half running, half sliding, and at full steam into the menacing looking sidewall, then collapsed into a heap of parts in foul territory, which Luis Silva then collected. He was replaced with Randy Tallent, who fittingly came to the plate with two outs after the Raccoons had made up a run on hits by Roberts, Wilson, and Novelo in the top 7th and had runners on the corners. Shaw carved him up on strikes, he would go eight innings compared to Fox’ seven-and-a-third, McMahan getting two more outs for Portland before the 3-2 lead went to Vincent Hernandez in the ninth inning, and he made short work of Bonner, Lopez, and Matas at the bottom of the order. 3-2 Loggers. Wilson 2-4; Monck 2-4, RBI; Flowe 2-3, 2B;

I was not exactly hot on a conversation with Luis Silva at this point, but I heard he went around several DIY stores in Milwaukee on Friday morning, so the Corral news would probably not be good. There were no news by game time on Friday, though, so the Coons played four paws short. Furthermore, Pablo Novelo had a day off, and Jaden Wilson was going to have a day off either on Saturday or Sunday.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – 1B Starr – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Matas – SS Tallent – 2B Roberts – P Fox
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – LF Ma. Gilmore – P Waldron

Ramon Lopez found Wilson on base and a spot behind the rightfield wall to deposit a baseball into for a quick 2-0 lead on Friday, but Chance Fox issued FOUR walks in the first inning and surrendered two runs to the Loggers right away, who didn’t even get a base hit in the inning. They would soon get a few, though, as Waldron singled and Tim Goss doubled to give them a 3-2 lead in the second inning. Fox was goddamn awful in absolutely every aspect and issued five walks and four hits in five innings, living on borrowed time and a bunch of good defensive plays, and that even without anybody else slamming into a wall somewhere.

Rios replaced Fox after five, preferably to pitch the rest of the game, and struck out the 9-1-2 batters in order in the bottom 6th before the Coons took Fox off the hook with three singles by Tallent, Early, and Wilson in the seventh inning. Starr struck out, but with two down Ramon Lopez socked a 2-run double to left to give the Coons a 5-3 lead and chase Waldron. Monck clubbed a hard RBI single to center against lefty Tony Espinosa, 6-3, but a K to Dowsey ended the 4-run rally.

Rios completed three innings, the last of which ran very long after two walks issued to the Loggers, but Goss then hit into a double play to get him outta there with the 6-3 score still standing. Wilson and Lopez hits against Angelo Ramirez tacked on a run in the ninth and the Coons went to Carrington against the lefty barrage starting with Merrill in the bottom 9th. He got them in order, although Dominguez got within seven feet of a homer to left. 7-3 Raccoons. Wilson 3-5, RBI; Lopez 4-5, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Roberts 2-4; Rios 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (8-6);

Yup, Chance Fox is washed…

What a sad day for Portland baseball…..

Game 3
POR: SS Novelo – 1B Starr – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – CF Matas – RF Tallent – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – LF Ma. Gilmore – P J. Lugo

Gaytan didn’t do well either, getting slapped around for five singles by the Loggers the first time through. They held themselves to one run and two double plays, but it didn’t look great for longevity and Evan Alvey was encouraged to end his second dinner early. The Raccoons had not a lot going on early on, and when Starr and Lopez reached base to begin the fourth, Monck whiffed and Dowsey hit into a double play to get rid of that chance. In turn, Gaytan walked Dominguez with one out and on four pitches before giving up a double to Kyle Reber and a 2-run single to Tommy Guitreau. Merrill walked, but was doubled off by Ramirez in the fifth.

The Raccoons dragged Gaytan into the seventh inning, where he nicked Guitreau beginning the bottom 7th. Matt Gilmore and Jose Lugo made weak outs, with Guitreau reaching second, but with the lineup flipping back to the top of the order and five lefty sticks, Alvey came into the game in the #7 slot, the last one cleared before the stretch, Dowsey going to right and Early entering in leftfield batting ninth. For all that effort, Alvey then surrendered Gaytan’s fourth run on the first pitch, which Goss knelled to right for an RBI single. He would retire the next four, and the Raccoons never got unclenched against Jose Lugo, who pitched a 5-hit shutout on 99 pitches. 4-0 Loggers. Lopez 3-4, 2B;

Well, that was another game that was not good on any level.

Also not good: a torn ligament in Jose Corral’s thumb. However, Luis Silva thinks he’s got it stapled back together pretty good and he might be able to return at the end of July! For now, he was off to the DL, though, and he probably wouldn’t get to 39 homers this season now. Jamie Colter was recalled from St. Pete.

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – RF Colter – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – LF Ma. Gilmore – P Crist

Colter hit a single his first time up on Sunday, but was left on base, and when he came up again in the fourth inning of a scoreless game that had already seen three double plays being hit into (one by Jake Flowe), he found that there were two outs, and Monck and Dowsey singles and a walk drawn by Flowe had loaded the bases for Portland. He hit a fly to deep left … but it was caught out there by Gilmore. Nakayama then allowed a single to Reber and got a 6-4-3 from Guitreau to end the inning, which was the Loggers’ third double play in the game in just four innings. They finally broke through though in the fifth with a leadoff walk drawn by Gilmore, and then Crist just swinging away and hitting a single. Merrill and Ramirez added RBI singles to give them a 2-0 lead before Carrera struck out and Dominguez grounded out to short, leaving a pair on the corners.

Top 6th, and the Raccoons again made two outs before Monck reached on an error. Dowsey walked, and Flowe singled, and here was Colter again with the bases loaded and two down. This time he hit a ball to right – and it was a screamer that went into the corner and then bounced away from Dominguez, and all runners scored on a score-flipping, bases-clearing double!

Nakayama collected four more outs before the lineup flipped over again and the Raccoons opted for a left-hander, this time McMahan with a skinny 3-2 lead, who got two outs to complete the seventh inning from Goss and Merrill. Monck and Dowsey then got on base together again in the eighth, but Flowe popped out. Colter instead drew a 1-out walk to fill the sacks. Ramon Lopez batted for brutally useless Mike Roberts, grounded to short, but the Loggers failed to complete the 6-4-3 double play and the Coons scratched out an insurance run before McMahan batted for himself, whiffed, and went back out with a 4-2 lead and completed a 1-2-3 eighth in seven pitches. The Coons were silent in the ninth, but at least they could now send Dover against right-handed batters Reber and Guitreau. Reber then promptly homered to left, 4-3, and Dave Wright batted for Guitreau, but grounded out. Dover lost Gilmore on balls before Ian Lulich few out to Dowsey in left, but the lineup flipped over. There was a mound conference for some counseling before Dover faced Goss and ran a full count. The game ended with a swing and a miss, and the Raccoons got out with a split. 4-3 Critters. Monck 2-4; Dowsey 2-2, 2 BB; Colter 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Nakayama 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (7-5); McMahan 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

June 28 – Knights catcher Justin Hart (.283, 2 HR, 35 RBI) puts together a 20-game hitting streak with two knocks – including the walkoff RBI single! – in a 6-5 win in ten innings against the Canadiens.
June 28 – Warriors OF Danny Perez (.294, 9 HR, 46 RBI) goes yard to plate the only two runs in a 2-0 win against the Cyclones.
June 29 – The Thunder bring OF Johnny Parker (.307, 8 HR, 33 RBI) back in a trade with the Buffaloes, who receive a prospect.
June 29 – The 20-game hitting streak of ATL C Justin Hart (.280, 2 HR, 35 RBI) ends in a 3-0 win against Vancouver with an 0-for-3 showing.
July 1 – DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.308, 19 HR, 70 RBI) might miss most of July with a broken foot.
July 1 – The season of Boston LF/RF Andy Lee (.199, 4 HR, 19 RBI) ends with a broken kneecap.
July 1 – The Canadiens beat the Indians, 5-3, in no fewer than 14 innings.
July 2 – The Canadiens up the fun by seven with a 2-1 win in *21* innings against the Indians, who get only nine base hits in all that time, two of them by SP Justin Esch (2-2, 1.93 ERA, 1 SV). VAN C Steve Varner (.286, 4 HR, 32 RBI) almost outdoes all Indians position player with a 5-for-8 day, including the RBI single for the winning run in the top of the 21st inning.
July 3 – The Buffaloes lose INF/LF Alex Rodriguez (.247, 5 HR, 29 RBI) for the rest of the month. The 30-year-old was down with an oblique strain.
July 3 – The Condors trade LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield (.283, 3 HR, 24 RBI) back to the Indians for outfielder Elmer Maldonado of (.286, 5 HR, 36 RBI), #56 prospect CL David Carlson, and $790k in cash.

FL Player of the Week: LAP C Matt Warner (.341, 4 HR, 26 RBI), batting .545 (12-22) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL OF Jake Evans (.280, 14 HR, 55 RBI), socking .448 (13-29) with 2 HR, 11 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: CIN OF Melvin Avila (.329, 4 HR, 33 RBI), batting .390 with 3 HR, 17 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC C David Johnson (.306, 12 HR, 49 RBI), raking .422 with 9 HR, 22 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: NAS SP Edwin Moreno (9-5, 2.03 ERA), hurling for a 5-1 record with 1.63 ERA, 33 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS CL Cody Kleidon (5-1, 3.51 ERA, 24 SV), going 5-0 with 7 SV and a 0.67 ERA, 12 K in 13 games
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN 1B Juan Gutierrez (.282, 3 HR, 20 RBI), poking .294 with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN INF Roberto Barraza (.277, 1 HR, 30 RBI), hitting .290 with 15 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Chance Fox is so done. We will try to keep him in the garbage relief role for the rest of the year and then quietly let him go into free agency and before long retirement…

Funnily enough, J.J. Sensabaugh is still around in AAA. They are the last two Critters pitchers going back to the 2050s with the team, although Joel Starr on the batting side has been around since 2058 and thanks to his contract will still be around in 2069.

It is July, which means the window to sign international free agents is open now. The Raccoons had strict signing limitations last year due to overdoing it in ’65, which means that this year we can go blow on teenage boys from the Caribbean again. Except that the pool was *really* uninspiring this year. The Raccoons might as well have had signing limitations, because we struggled to find any youngster there worth throwing six figures at.

Fun Fact: The Canadiens and Indians played just nine innings on Sunday.

Elks won 4-2. And I don’t think anybody was particularly mad about getting to go home on time.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (43-39) vs. Indians (32-50) – July 4-7, 2067

After flattening a last-place team last week, the Raccoons would get eight games against a last-place team across the next two weeks, as the four-and-four part of the schedule with the Indians had arrived. The first four games were in Portland, and the Coons were trying to take command of a season series tied at two against a team ranking 11th in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed in the CL. Miguel Falcon was the only notable injury on the Indians.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (7-5, 3.46 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (3-8, 3.61 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-5, 2.79 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (8-5, 3.30 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (8-6, 4.12 ERA) vs. Ignazio Flores (6-9, 4.78 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-7, 3.71 ERA) vs. Justin Esch (2-2, 1.93 ERA)

DeWitt and Flores were both left-handers, and DeWitt led the CL in strikeouts while being stuck on a last-place team. Jake Flowe and Ramon Lopez would split the starts behind the dish for this series, and then we’d probably hand Flowe back to AAA. The spitting plan was put in place even before the opener was rained out and we got a double header installed for Tuesday.

The Coons kept their pitchers in order, but the Indians moved DeWitt up to the opener on Tuesday. The skies were still cloudy and I wasn’t trusting the weather further than I could throw Igor, the tiniest and nastiest of the baseball gods, which wasn’t very far at all.

Game 1
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Brassfield – 2B W. Martinez – P DeWitt
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Offense in the first three innings consisted solely of both Jaden Wilson and Wil Mejia to hit a single, steal second base, and then be left to wither there by their respective teams. Musgrave wasn’t able to keep it on the ground, though, but the Indians weren’t quite squaring him up either. Matt Rogers hit a single and stole second in the fourth inning, and Wil Martinez singled with two gone in the fifth, but those runners were also stranded. The real problem started with a leadoff walk to Matt Martin in the sixth. John Baxley’s grounder moved up the runner, and Rogers then singled cleanly to center to get the game’s first run home. The Coons were still stuck on that Wilson single to start the game, and a Novelo single with two down in the sixth made it all of two total bases against DeWitt, but before he could cruise to a shutout, the clouds opened and gave everybody a good dousing just as Musgrave finished the seventh inning.

Both starters were gone after an 88-minute rain delay. Yamauchi was then ineffective in the eighth, walking two, and McMahan was no help either, giving up an RBI double to Wil Mejia, who also hurt himself on the play and limped off in favor of Eddie Menchaca. The next batter, Tony Torres, popped out to Monck to strand a pair in scoring position. The Coons never got a third base hit; Ramon Lopez drew a 1-out walk from John Nesbitt in the bottom 9th, but Monck then gave his former teammate a save with a game-ending double play grounder. 2-0 Indians. Musgrave 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (7-6);

Wil Mejia was day-to-day with a bruised wrist and remained on Indy’s roster.

Game 2
IND: CF Ma. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B Ma. Rogers – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – SS Baxley – C J. Edwards – 2B W. Martinez – P V. Perez
POR: CF Matas – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Walla

The second game did not start until midnight Eastern time, but why not give it a whiff and regret it later? Menchaca singled and a pair of doubles by Rogers and Torres gave Indy a 2-0 lead again right away. Walla surrendered another messy run in the second inning on two singles and a wild pitch, but the 3-0 hole was filled in by Jamie Colter’s homer to right in the bottom 2nd, plating Dowsey and Flowe, who had reached on a single and a walk, respectively. Walla remained an absolute mess, though, issued another walk and a single in the third inning, and a four-pitch walk to Perez to begin the top of the fourth, although none of those runnrs came around to score. However, the Raccoons yanked Walla after 64 pitches and four innings, partly because of the AWFUL performance (10 runners, no strikeouts), and partly because he was still at a point where he’d be able to go on short rest on Saturday, while Musgrave had thrown just over 100 pitches. Jaden Wilson batted for him with Flowe and a leadoff double situated at third base with two outs, but was drilled by Perez and was narrowly nudged to first base by the home plate umpire instead of taking Perez’ head off, and Matas then struck out.

Wilson remained in the game, batting ninth, and Evan Alvey was inserted as the long reliever in the #1 spot. He proved no less awful than Walla, allowing three hits for two runs in the fifth, when Mejia singled, Baxely tripled, and John Edwards hit another single, and three more singles for another run in the sixth, Rogers grabbing an RBI for driving in Martin. Alvey finally got rid of the 6-7-8 batters in the seventh, and then was hit for with Roberts, who singled to add to Wilson on the bases in the bottom 7th, but Nick Robinson then got a double play grounder from Novelo that ended the inning. Matt Martin and Joel Starr exchanged solo homers in the eighth that didn’t budge the score much, and after the Starr shot to right the Raccoons disappeared without setting another paw on base. 7-4 Indians. Roberts (PH) 1-1;

That’s not exactly how I imagined the series to commence.

And it’s way past my bedtime!!

Game 3
IND: 3B Baxley – LF Menchaca – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 2B W. Mejia – RF Brassfield – CF T. Torres – SS S. Dixon – P I. Flores
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – 2B Bonner – P Rios

Rios was back to starting after Chance Fox’ dismal start in this spot the last time around. He scattered a few runners early, but the Coons would score first for a change. They stranded a pair in the second, but Wilson and Novelo reached base in the bottom 3rd, pulled off a double steal, and while Ramon Lopez lined out to third base, Monck dropped a single into right-center that plated both runners with two outs. Early also hit a single, but Starr struck out. Lopez would get an RBI his next time up, socking an RBI triple into the gap to plate Novelo, and then scored on Monck’s groundout to second that extended the score to 4-0 through five. The Indians had three hits against Rios so far, including a Baxley double in the fifth.

Indy alternated homers and strikeouts in the sixth against Rios, Alex Gomez and good old Trent Brassfield making up two runs with their shots over the wall in left. Bottom 6th, Tallent singled to right and stole second, but also hurt himself as he collided with Wil Mejia at the base and left the game in favor of Dowsey, who was then thrown out at the plate by Torres on Bonner’s single to center…

Rios departed after a leadoff walk to Sam Dixon in the seventh, and Carrington collected a double play grounder from Matt Martin to clean up behind him. He finished the inning, and McMahan got four outs after that, leaving just two to be collected by Jesse Dover… which he did, but not without giving up a run on Brass and Dixon doubles before John Bentley grounded out to Bonner to end the game. 4-3 Coons. Novelo 2-3, BB; Monck 2-4, 3 RBI; Rios 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (9-6);

There was no diagnosis on Randy Tallent as of Thursday at noon, so the Raccoons played one stick short again.

Game 4
IND: CF Ma. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – SS Baxley – 2B W. Martinez – P Esch
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan

Wilson got on base with a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, and Novelo’s attempt at a double play grounder ended up with Baxley bungling the baseball for an error. No worries though, Joel Starr was to the rescue with a 4-6-3 double play grounder; however, after that Monck and Dowsey doubles drove in two early runs for the Critters. Monck and Dowsey hit a pair of singles with two outs in the third, but Flowe grounded out to second to leave them on base and deny more support to Gaytan, who looked like he could need every bit of it and was already expanding his pitch count. The Indians didn’t really reach base in the first four innings, getting just one hit while Gaytan struck out five, but a Mejia double and a Baxley RBI single in the fifth were enough to cut the Coons’ lead in half. He was on 72 pitches through five, threw another 17 in the sixth, but then got some tack-on runs with a 2-run homer from Jake Flowe, his first this year and the third of his career. Gaytan put down the 5-6-7 batters with two strikeouts in the seventh, but that put him over 100 pitches and he would not return afterwards. Yamauchi kept the Indians away in the eighth, and Rich Monck led off the home half of that inning with a jack to right, going unretired by Justin Esch in this game. Chance Fox then got the last three outs on just six pitches, which also meant he wasn’t fooling anybody. 5-1 Critters. Monck 4-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Dowsey 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bonner 2-4; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (6-7);

Rich Monck tied for the lead in bombs in the CL again, drawing even with Danny Starwalt, the former Indian, with 17 home runs as of Thursday night.

Raccoons (45-41) vs. Canadiens (42-42) – July 8-10, 2067

Portland was ahead 5-3 in the season series against the stinking Elks, which I hoped they’d build on during this final weekend before the All Star Game. The Elks ranked fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, with a -15 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (7-5, 4.15 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (8-5, 2.64 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-5, 2.93 ERA) vs. Martyn Polaco (3-3, 5.28 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (7-6, 3.32 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (8-7, 4.12 ERA)

One more southpaw before the break, which was Polaco.

Randy Tallent was diagnosed with a mild lat strain. He was out for the weekend, but Luis Silva claimed he’d be as good as new by the Thursday after the break.

Game 1
VAN: LF D. Moore – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – 3B R. Cordero – SS Barraza – P Rath
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – LF Early – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama

Nakayama continued to be ******* awful especially in the early innings, giving up six hits for four runs AND breaking Dan Moore’s thumb with a pitch in just two innings. He had already hit Roberto Lozada in the first inning before singles by Rick Atkins and Chad Whetstine got the runner home, but then gave up three in the top 2nd on singles by Rico Cordero and Roberto Barraza, and after Rath bunted into a double play and he mangled Moore’s hoof, leading to his replacement by Nick Vaughn, still managed to cough up three runs on an RBI single by Matt Kilday, and Lozada’s 2-run double, before Rick Atkins flew out to right. The third brought not a lot of horror, but the fourth sure did. Rath led off with a single, the bags filled with more singles by Vaughn and Kilday, Lozada hit a sac fly, Atkns filled the bags again with a single, and then Nakayama walked in a run against Chad Whetstine and was yanked. Carrington allowed a sac fly to Steve Varner on his way to end the ******* inning, 7-0, after ELEVEN hits allowed by Nakayama.

Wickedly, Ray Rath would not get the W. He allowed just two hits through four innings, but a Dowsey double to open the bottom 5th was the first step for a 5-run rally by the Critters in the bottom 5th, as Novelo singled, Early hit a sac fly, Roberts singled, Alvey in garbage relief was used to bunt the runners over, and then Wilson singled home two, stole second base, scored on a Lopez double, Starr singled, Monck singled home a run, and then Dallas Samson replaced Rath and got Dowsey to pop out to second on a single pitch, leaving the tying runs on base.

Samson kept it quiet in the sixth, and Alvey still batted for himself, grounding out, to begin the seventh inning, but the 1-2-3 then all flicked singles to load the bases for Monck – but Monck knocked it into a 4-6-3 double play and the Raccoons remained behind by two. Alvey only got two outs in the eighth inning, then put Kilday and Lozada on the corners and was replaced by Dover in a double switch – Monck left the game! – before Atkins popped out to Starr in foul ground to keep the tack-on runners stranded. Bottom 8th, Paul Wolk walked Dowsey, bringing the tying run back to the dish, but the Coons made two poor outs, Roberts walked, and then Bonner popped out foul. The Elks instead tacked on two unearned runs on Dover, as the ninth inning began with Whetstine fly to right that Dowsey dropped for an error, and the damn Elks then piled up a few 2-out hits on Dover to zoom away. Dowsey then also made the final out, flying out to right with Wilson and Colter on base in the bottom 9th against Jon McGinley… 9-5 Canadiens. Wilson 4-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Lopez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Starr 2-5; Colter (PH) 1-1; Dowsey 2-4, BB, 2B; Alvey 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 2
VAN: LF Chenette – 3B R. Cordero – RF Lozada – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – 2B Y. Valdez – CF S. Thompson – SS Barraza – P Polaco
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Dowsey – 2B Bonner – P Walla

The Raccoons expected to get at least five innings from Walla on three days’ rest, and he at least seemed to be sharp, striking out SIX in the first three innings for a single and a drilled and angry Chad Whetstine. Him and Varner hit a pair of soft singles in the fourth, but Yoslan Valdez – who looked oddly misplaced outside the Titans outfield – hit into an inning-ending double play.

Both teams had three hits through five innings, of which one of the Portland hits was a Walla single, and the game was still scoreless by then. Walla had thrown 63 pitches so far and was sent back out for the sixth, but that would be his final inning. He got around a leadoff single by Tyler Chenette and struck out two more for a total of nine across six shutout innings, but the Coons’ 2-3-4 disappeared in order in the bottom 6th and he once again was not rewarded for his efforts. Fox came in for him, allowed four hits and was raked for three runs in the seventh inning; two runs scored on a Polaco single, I started to drink my senses away after that, and then Yamauchi waved in one of the leftover runners.

The Coons were still shut out after seven. Bonner hit a leadoff single off Polaco in the eighth, then was forced out by the pinch-hitting Carlos Matas. Jaden Wilson however ran into one and cranked a 2-run homer, narrowing the gap to a single run. Novelo flew out, Lopez singled, but Monck grounded out to short to end the eighth. The Coons’ comeback bid survived a ninth inning appearance by Jason Holzmeister, but then they went in order against McGinley, of all people, in their half of the ninth anyway… 3-2 Canadiens. Bonner 1-2, BB; Walla 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K;

(grumbles!)

Game 3
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – LF Chenette – C Orphanos – SS Barraza – P Wittman
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Flowe – RF Colter – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Musgrave not only stumbled out of the gate on Sunday, but ran into the gate and full blow, and took the entire fence down with two leadoff walks, a 3-ball count on Lozada, who then popped out, and Atkins’ RBI single, before the pitching coach already hustled out there for some emergency counseling. He Elks made two quick outs after that, and the Raccoons got a Novelo single and Monck’s 18th homer of the year to flip the score, 2-1, in the bottom 1st. Monck was going to the All Star Game again this year – and he showed why! The lead would disappear, however, as Musgrave issued another four-pitch walk to Carlos Castro in the top 3rd, and Castro stole second and scored on two groundouts to tie the game at two.

A new attempt at winning a game was made in the bottom 3rd when Starr found Wilson and Novelo on the corners and hit a sac fly to left, 3-2. Atkins robbed Monck with a sliding catch in centerfield, and Novelo was left on base. Wickedly, though, Musgrave would drive a double into the leftfield corner in the fourth inning, plating Mike Roberts from first base with two outs, and then scored himself on a Wilson single, which extended the Portland lead to 5-2. Sluggin’ Musgrave would return to the dish in the bottom 6th after a leadoff double by Flowe, a soft Colter single, and a walk issued by Dallas Samson to Roberts, batting with three on and nobody out. The right-handed Samson fell to 2-0 against Musgrave, and Musgrave then rose to 2-2 on the day and 6-2 on the scoreboard with an RBI single over the head of Barraza. Wilson added a run on a fielder’s choice, Novelo strung an RBI double to left, and Samson was yanked for Phil Baker, who walked the bags full again in a full count against Starr. Rich Monck fell to 1-2, but pushed an RBI single through the right side, and the Coons reached double digits with Dowsey legging out the return throw on a 4-6-3 attempt, getting an RBI for another fielder’s choice. Flowe flew out to Chenette, ending the 5-run inning.

Chance Fox was awful for a second straight day, walking two and giving up a 2-run homer to Castro in between in the eighth inning after Musgrave had gone seven. Chenette clonking a Monck fly for a 2-base error returned one run to the Coons in unearned fashion as Novelo scored on that 2-out play in the bottom 8th, and then Dover slammed the door shut on this half of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. 11-4 Furballs. Wilson 2-4, 2 RBI; Novelo 4-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Monck 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Flowe 2-4; Colter 2-4, 2B; Musgrave 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (8-6) and 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

July 4 – The Miners re-acquire SP Austin Cross (6-8, 4.25 ERA) from the Scorpions for two prospects.
July 4 – MIL C Tommy Guitreau (.234, 10 HR, 44 RBI) drives in five runs and is a triple shy of the cycle in a 15-6 rout of the Titans. Teammate 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.303, 10 HR, 56 RBI) misses the cycle by the double and drives in three runs in the game.
July 6 – Calamity in Boston, were ace SP Jason Brenize (14-4, 2.39 ERA) hits the DL with chronic back soreness and is not expected back before August.
July 7 – The Loggers and Titans both blow 2-run leads in the ninth inning before the Loggers walk off for an 8-6 win with a 3-run walkoff homer by MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.366, 14 HR, 78 RBI).
July 7 – The Warriors win 2-0 in ten innings against the Scorpions. For the second time in ten days, SFW OF Danny Perez (.296, 12 HR, 57 RBI) hits a 2-run homer for all the runs in a game.
July 9 – Falcons INF Diego Mendoza (.288, 8 HR, 27 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after a single in a 7-1 win against the Aces.
July 9 – The Loggers trade SP Nick Waldron (9-4, 4.24 ERA) to the Crusaders for an unranked prospect. Rumor has it that the trade is not related to on-field performance and that the Loggers had to get Waldron out of town yesterday for other reasons.
July 9 – The Capitals beat the Buffaloes, 17-6, while scoring in only three different innings. The Caps get eight runs in the fourth, five in the fifth, and four in the ninth. No player on the team has more than three hits, three RBI, or two runs scored.
July 10 – Nashville acquires OF/1B Cody Padgett (.279, 4 HR, 29 RBI) from the Falcons, along with #75 prospect CL Benjamin Earle, and cash, all for the services of MR Carlos Gomez (5-1, 2.30 ERA).

FL Player of the Week: SFW OF/2B Jesus Alvarez (.291, 6 HR, 38 RBI), hitting .500 (9-18) with 3 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ RF/LF Matt Ewig (.287, 11 HR, 50 RBI), poking .542 (13-24) with 1 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Two All Stars for the Raccoons this year, as Rich Monck was voted into the field and then Ricky McMahan somehow also managed to get the call. This was the fourth All Star Game for Monck, and the first since 2063, and the first overall nomination for McMahan. Danny Starwalt did not go yard all week, so Monck was the sole leader of the CL home run table with 18 bombs at the break. Yes, Tony Roman of the Blue Sox was sneering about that tally, leading the entire league with 24 bombs.

Five winning teams in the division at the All Star break – and we’re even one of them! Huzzah!

The Raccoons spent $66k on two infielders in the July IFA pool this week, and that’s probably gonna be it for the year.

We will play four in Indy on the tail end of the All Star Game. The series will be part of a 10-game road trip with further gigs in Boston and Oklahoma City.

Fun Fact: Six-time Pitcher of the Year Jason Brenize, age 30, was on the DL for the first time.

Barely 30 years old and already dealing with the old-people injuries!

Sic transit gloria mundi!

[Westheim]

All Star Game

The Federal League prevails over the Continental League, 4-3, and never trails thanks to early runs against Boston’s Mike Bell, who takes the L for allowing two runs in the second inning on a home run by Richmond’s Darby Laybolt, who wins MVP honors.

Rich Monck pinch-hits and grounds out, while Ricky McMahan retires the only batter he faces in the game.

Raccoons (46-43) @ Indians (37-52) – July 14-17, 2067

The Coons would get another poke at the Indians on the long weekend, now with the season series tied at four. Indy was still bottoms in runs scored, and now eighth in runs allowed. Jose Corral was the only player on the DL for either team.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (6-7, 3.55 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (4-8, 3.58 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-5, 2.78 ERA) vs. Ignazio Flores (6-10, 4.85 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (8-6, 3.28 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (6-8, 5.58 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (7-6, 4.61 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (10-5, 2.97 ERA)

Flores and DeWitt were left-handers.

The Coons exchanged catchers again over the break, sending Jake Flowe back to AAA for Justin Aguilar.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Brassfield – 2B W. Martinez – P V. Perez

The Coons began the post-ASG schedule with three straight singles to load the bases. Monck popped out, but Dowsey singled in two runs before Novelo grounded into two outs for the price of one. We had the bags full again to begin the second inning when Perez walked Colter, Bonner singled, and Gaytan’s bunt was taken to third base by Perez, but not in time to get Colter – or anybody else – out. Only one run would score from this three-on, nobody-out situation on Wilson’s sac fly before Lopez and Starr made meek outs. The 3-0 lead then began to be whittled away with Wil Mejia’s solo homer in the second, and three straight Indy singles to begin the third inning, but they then also got only one run on a groundout hit by Mejia. The Raccoons wasted walks to Bonner and Wilson in the fourth, and nobody would score in the middle innings at all, the Indians also stranding a runner each in the fourth and fifth innings.

Jimmy Dingman held off the Raccoons in the seventh, while the Indians then sent Malcolm Spicer to bat in the bottom 7th and he legged out an infield single. Matt Martin struck out, and Gaytan drilled John Baxley before getting yanked. When Spicer embarked to steal third base against McMahan, Lopez threw the ball away, allowing Spicer to turn third base and score the tying run. Baxley went to third base, then scored when Matt Rogers hit a sac fly to Jaden Wilson. Alex Gomez struck out, but Indy was now on top, 4-3.

The Raccoons got a free runner in scoring position to begin the eighth inning against lefty Matt Stephens when Wil Martinez threw away Monck’s grounder for two bases. The Coons were too useless to open the gift, stranding Monck at third base between Dowsey’s groundout, Novelo’s pop to third base, and Colter’s groundout against three different relievers. Mike Roberts drew a walk in the ninth against Jorge Flores, but then was caught stealing to remove the tying run off the base paths again, and the Coons never got another shot. 4-3 Indians. Lopez 2-4;

Even with this game, Malcolm Spicer has only four stolen bases on the season. He’s basically rotting on the bench, and for a while sat around in AAA. He has started only three ABL games this year.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – 2B Bonner – P Walla
IND: CF Ma. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – SS Baxley – 2B W. Martinez – P I. Flores

Nick Walla had the best ERA and the fewest wins on the Coons’ starting rotation, and early signs were that if anything about that was going to change, it was the former. Wil Mejia got him, too, for a homer in the second inning, but this one came with Alex Gomez on base for a 2-0 Indy lead…

The Raccoons disappeared quietly the first time through, but Ramon Lopez hit a homer to left in the fourth to get the team on the board. That was all the support that Walla would get in seven innings of poking from the Raccoons, while no defense the Critters were similarly unhelpful. When Walla offered a leadoff walk to Tony Torres in the bottom 7th and allowed a single to Baxley, Novelo would next **** on a double play grounder by Wil Martinez, and the bases were loaded with nobody out. Flores’ groundout and Martin’s sac fly each brought in a run before Walla was yanked and Alvey got a pop on the infield from Eddie Menchaca to end the dismal inning. Matt Rogers then drew a leadoff walk from Alvey in the eighth, advanced on not one, but TWO wild pitches, and scored on a sac fly. Ignazio Flores finished a complete-game 4-hitter on 111 pitches, whiffing five. 5-1 Indians. Lopez 2-4, HR, RBI;

Yikes.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Colter – 2B Bonner – P Musgrave
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Brassfield – 2B W. Martinez – P Glaude

The Arrowheads scattered three runners in the first two innings against Musgrave, who then singled to begin the top 3rd for the Raccoons. Wilson’s single to right was then bobbled by Torres, and both runners gained an extra base, arriving in scoring position with nobody out. The 2-3 batters each got an RBI, Lopez on a groundout and Starr with a single to center. Dowsey hit another single with two outs in the inning, but Novelo’s pop to first left them on base. Matt Martin hit a bloop single to begin the bottom 3rd, but was caught stealing, and the Raccoons got Colter and Bonner on base to begin the fourth, but Musgrave failed himself to 0-2 trying to bunt. The Raccoons sent the runners on the 0-2, gloriously running into a 2-5 double play on the swinging strikeout and Colter getting thrown out at third base – although that didn’t stop Will Glaude from walking the bags full and giving up another RBI single to Joel Starr. Monck’s groundout to Martinez ended the inning and left another three runners on base in a 3-0 game.

Mejia and Colter hit into double plays to kill offense in the following two half-innings, before the Coons blew another 3-0 lead with rank stupidity involved. Trent Brassfield opened the bottom 5th with another single, stole second, and then scored on a Martinez single. Dowsey threw home for no good reason at all, allowing Martinez into second base. He was bunted to third base then, but then Musgrave hung a brain fart to Martin, who bombed it for a game-tying 2-run homer to left anyway.

Musgrave and Colter participated in the 3-3 game until the stretch, but left for different reasons. Musgrave had thrown nearly 100 pitches, and Colter was barking when he was called out on strikes to end the top 7th and was shown the door by the umpire. He was replaced by Marquise Early in left, Dowsey moving over to right, while McMahan took the ball. Martin got on against McMahan, but was caught stealing again, and Josh C had a scoreless eighth. When the Raccoons failed to score or even be relevant in the ninth inning, the Raccoons sent Chance Fox after the Indians in the bottom 9th. He drilled Mejia, allowed a single to Jose Hilario, Brass bunted the runners over, but Fox just walked Sam Dixon to fill them up … and then DRILLED John Edwards to end the game. 4-3 Indians. Starr 3-5, 2 RBI; Dowsey 3-4;

Offense – dead
Pitching – dead
Spirit – dead

Although… (unscrews a fun-sized bottle of Capt’n Coma) … some spirit stays always with you!

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Bonner – SS Novelo – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Dowsey – C Aguilar – RF Tallent – P Nakayama
IND: CF Ma. Martin – SS Baxley – 1B Ma. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – LF Spicer – 2B W. Martinez – P DeWitt

The Coons had Marquise Early picked off first base in the second inning, but still managed to cobble a run together with a Tallent double and Nakayama’s RBI single in the third. The lead didn’t last long; the Coons didn’t make anything out of Rich Monck’s 1-out double in the fourth, but Matt Rogers went yard to right to tie the game at one. Apart from that, offense was scant through five, with those couple of sentences already dealing with more than half of the six combined hits the two teams tallied through there.

DeWitt, the CL strikeout leader was whiffing plenty of Raccoons, seven through six, while Nakayama had just one strikeout through six and lived off his defense, which was a bold strategy as we had seen the last couple of days. Top 7th, Dowsey and Aguilar opened the inning with soft singles before Tallent flew out to the warning track in left. Dowsey jiggered up to third base with the go-ahead run, at which point Joel Starr batted for Nakayama and belted a ball over Matt Martin for an RBI double, and a 2-1 lead! Easy fly outs by Wilson and Bonner then stranded the runners in scoring position…

The Coons then surprised everybody with Gabriel Rios in relief; Monday was off, so we didn’t need a fifth starter unless we really wanted to, and we’d rather have Rios go *here* as we had already gotten plenty of use out of our left-handed relievers in this series. Rios had a scoreless seventh before Rich Monck tacked on a run with a homer to centerfield. Rios got another inning down, but walked a guy in each of the two innings before Jesse Dover got the ball in the bottom 9th. John Edwards, Rogers, and Gomez were retired on three straight grounders for the Coons’ early win in the series. 3-1 Coons. Monck 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Colter (PH) 1-1; Starr (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Nakayama 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (8-6) and 1-2, RBI; Rios 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

In other news

July 12 – The Aces acquire left-hander Nick Robinson (1-2, 4.43 ERA, 1 SV) from the Indians in exchange for two prospects.
July 13 – More pitchers into the desert, as the Aces bring in SAL SP Josh Jackson (3-9, 5.55 ERA) for another two prospects.
July 14 – The Canadiens overcome the Crusaders for a 9-6 win with a 6-run rally in the ninth inning.
July 15 – The Warriors acquire INF Franklin Serrano (.296, 4 HR, 23 RBI) from the Pacifics, along with a prospect, for sending OF/2B Jesus Alvarez (.294, 6 HR, 38 RBI) to Los Angeles.
July 17 – The Falcons’ INF Diego Mendoza (.308, 9 HR, 31 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 25 games with a late single in an 11-inning, 2-1 loss to the Condors.
July 17 – The Rebels beat the Capitals, 1-0, on a home run by OF Willie Ospina (.278, 10 HR, 39 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: WAS 1B Alex Mendez (.350, 3 HR, 23 RBI), batting .667 (8-12) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC C David Johnson (.304, 14 HR, 59 RBI), shooting .526 (10-19) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Pretty dim series against the worst team in the division. I couldn’t tell you a single name that did well this week, unless you go so low that you get joy out of a single 1-2-3 appearance, in which case Dover and Josh C are your guys. Yamauchi didn’t pitch at all, so at least he didn’t annoy the crap out of me.

We’re off on Monday. Rios pitched in relief in the series finale, so he won’t get a start until Saturday next week after everybody else has taken another turn against the Titans and Thunder, both on the road.

After this it is just one more week to the trade deadline. We already dangled the odd player, but there’s little to no interest. Meanwhile, with Rich Monck chasing a home run crown, the Agitator is banging the drum for him to get a contract extension.

Fun Fact: Jose Corral is still tied for third in homers in the CL!

He’s also still going to be on the DL for another week and who knows whether he can use a couple of rehab games before rejoining the team after that.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (47-46) @ Titans (58-34) – July 19-21, 2067

The Titans were only up 5-4 on the Raccoons this year, but I felt like they had kicked things into gear now and were soon going to dispatch of the Loggers. Why not start running away in this midweek series? Boston ranked fifth in runs scored, but allowed the fewest runs overall, barely 3.7 per game in fact. They did struggle for some pitching, though, with both Jason Brenize and Bryce Wallace on the DL out of that sterling rotation, and they were also without Josh Carlisle and Andy Lee.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (6-8, 3.51 ERA) vs. Tony Castellanos (3-3, 2.37 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-6, 2.85 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (8-8, 3.85 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (8-6, 3.34 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (2-7, 5.97 ERA)

Riddle was the only left-hander there.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – LF Matas – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – RF Kaniewski – SS Onelas – 3B Portillo – P Castellanos

The Raccoons got the early paw up against the Titans with a 2-run first inning, Rich Monck singling home Lopez (single to left) and Starr (double to right) before Dowsey and Novelo filled the bases behind him and before both Matas and Bonner struck out to leave the bases loaded. The Titans made loud contact twice in the bottom 1st but went down in order against Gaytan, who then singled to center to begin the top 2nd. Jaden Wilson also singled, Castellanos threw a wild pitch, and Lopez knocked a 2-run double to center. The Coons were turning the spot starter Castellanos into mincemeat in record time as Starr lined out, but Monck dropped a soft single into shallow right, putting runners on the corners, before a Dowsey double in the right-center gap extended the score to 6-0. Novelo’s RBI single knocked out the Boston starter, and Gaytan had a fat lead to work with now. He got six outs in a row to begin his start, then hit another single in the top 3rd, but was left stranded against Sansao Tyson, another former Critters lefty (they were EVERYWHERE!!), and allowed a leadoff hit to Marcos Onelas in the bottom 3rd, but Miguel Portillo then hit into a double play to Novelo.

Gaytan needed only 30 pitches through four innings and only got one strikeout accordingly, then had a bit of a busier fifth, as John Kaniewski singled and he lost Onelas on balls, all with two outs. Portillo grounded out to Monck, though, and the Titans remained off the board. The counts were getting a bit longer after that, but the Titans were still getting 2-hit through seven. In between the Raccoons had continued to get the odd hit, but didn’t score from the third through the seventh inning until Joe Starr hit his third double of the game against Josh Atkins, and Rich Monck then cranked home run #20 for the season, 9-0. Gaytan remained in *great* shape, throwing 84 pitches through eight innings, and obviously batted for himself in the ninth, whiffing against Atkins, who was in there to take out the trash for Boston. After that, Wilson and Aguilar found base hits. The Coons emptied the bench, sending Marquise Early to bat for Starr with runners on the corners; his groundout brought in the tenth run of the game. Roberts then flew out in Monck’s spot before Gaytan was sent back to the hill, starting with Willie Acosta pinch-hitting in the #9 hole. He struck him out, then got a groundout from Steve Humphries to Bonner. Only Bill Joyner remained for a stellar shutout – and Joyner punked one over the wall for a homer. My snout tasted like ashes. Eddie Marcotte grounded out. 10-1 Furballs! Lopez 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Aguilar (PH) 1-1; Starr 3-5, 2 3B; Monck 3-5, HR, 4 RBI; Dowsey 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-4, BB, RBI; Gaytan 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (7-8) and 2-5;

Ack! So close!!

This was Gaytan’s fourth complete game of the year, and the third in which he allowed only one run, and the second of those that he actually won; he had lost a 1-0 game to the Crusaders in May.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Starr – RF Tallent – 2B Roberts – P Walla
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – RF Kaniewski – SS Onelas – 3B Portillo – P Riddle

The Raccoons burst out for three runs in the first inning again, this time opening with a gap triple by Jaden Wilson, who scored on Novelo’s sac fly to Humphries. Lopez and Monck got on, and Early’s double and Starr’s groundout scored them, one after the other, before the inning fizzled out. Roberts drew a leadoff walk in the second, and Walla’s bunt was bungled for an error by Portillo. Novelo singled home a run, but Wilson and Monck struck out in the inning, Early leaving the bases loaded with Walla, Novelo, and Lopez, who drew a 1-out walk, with a fly to Kaniewski. While the Raccoons were up 4-0, the Titans only reached base by getting nicked (Joyner) the first time through. Humphries and Jeremy White had 2-out hits in the third and fourth innings, respectively, but remained on base.

The Coons then crowded Riddle out of the game in the fifth, and Josh Atkins then helped to fill the bases with Starr, Tallent, and Roberts before allowing a 2-run single to Walla, 6-0. Wilson’s infield single reloaded the bases. From here, one run scored on a wild pitch, another on a Novelo single to left, and another one when Lopez grounded to Portillo, who had to come in, and then pulled Joyner off the bag with a bad throw for another error. Southpaw Pedro Mendoza then restored order against the 4-5-6 batters, but the Titans were now underwater by nine runs, and Walla appeared to be just fine, even though he threw 72 pitches through five.

Then suddenly Walla wasn’t fine. Joyner got on in the sixth and he was taken well deep by Eddie Marcotte, who hit his 14th homer of the season. He then walked Jorge Arviso and Jeremy White on nine total pitches, allowed an RBI single to Kaniewski, and the Raccoons were scrambling to get the bullpen up, because there had been no indication that the guys would be needed any time soon. In fact, Onelas and Portillo made the last two outs of the inning before anybody got sufficiently warm, but Walla was then gone after six innings that suddenly turned sour, having thrown exactly 100 pitches. The Coons made it double digits in the seventh, getting singles by Novelo, Lopez, and Early off lefty Jesse Cruise for a run, but Holzmeister gave it back with 2-out hits by Joyner and Marcotte in the bottom 7th, 10-4. Josh C also allowed a run in his eighth, getting doubled off by White and Onelas, and almost giving up another double to Humphries with two outs after having walked Acosta in the #9 spot. Things then got actually dicey in the bottom 9th when the Raccoons brought in Chance Fox, who faced three and walked two, then was yanked for Dover, who got a potential game-ending grounder to Randy Tallent at short, but Tallent fudged it, and the bags were full. White then popped out and Kaniewski grounded out to leave the bases loaded. 10-5 Raccoons. Wilson 2-6, 3B; Novelo 3-4, 3 RBI; Lopez 3-4, BB, RBI; Monck 2-5; Early 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Roberts 2-4, BB, 2B;

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Colter – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave
BOS: LF S. Humphries – RF Joe Washington – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – 1B Joyner – SS Onelas – 3B Portillo – P R. Montoya

Ironically the worst starter by ERA in the selection offered by the Titans in this series was the only one to put up a zero in the first inning. Instead, Musgrave ran into a 5-run second inning as the Titans woke up for an Arviso double and an inside-the-park home run by Jeremy White, and then Musgrave inexplicably walked Montoya with two outs, Humphries got on base, and Joe Washington cranked a 3-run, outside-the-park home run…

Montoya in celebration struck out the side in the third and then went into cruise mode, while the Raccoons saw Musgrave struggle into the fifth inning, where he gave up a walk to Humphries, and a 2-run homer to Marcotte before an ungraceful departure. Alvey replaced with him two outs and nobody on, gave up an Arviso double, a White single, and a run, and then finally got Joyner out on a grounder to Monck, but the score was now eight-zip.

On the plus side, Alvey would finish the game in mop-up fashion for the Raccoons, allowing just one more hit in three further innings, while Montoya had a bit of a recovery with eight shutout innings, but then ran out of stamina, which had always been his weak point, and now in the twilight of his career prevented him from getting far beyond 80 pitches. Ramon Lopez promptly hit a leadoff triple against Jose Gomez in the top 9th. Starr and Monck hit singles, the former getting an RBI, as did Novelo after two productive outs, but that was as far as that rally went. 8-2 Titans. Lopez 2-4, 3B; Monck 2-4; Dowsey 3-4;

Raccoons (49-47) @ Thunder (53-43) – July 22-24, 2067

The Thunder led the CL South despite being only eighth in runs scored and second in runs allowed. They had a +45 run differential (Coons: +26). They were near the bottom in home runs, but had the strongest bullpen and a very good defense. The Raccoons had won two out of three games in the first series these two teams played against each other this year.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (8-6, 4.45 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (6-4, 5.68 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-6, 3.97 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (3-4, 4.00 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (7-8, 3.33 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (10-6, 2.83 ERA)

Looking like a Southpaw Sunday!

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – RF Colter – 2B Tallent – P Nakayama
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – LF J. Parker – RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – 3B R. Vargas – P J. Ortega

Nakayama’s struggles just didn’t want to end, and he gave up singles to Coby Thore and Jose Palominos in the bottom 1st before another RBI knock by Ian Stone and Johnny Parker’s RBI groundout put him in a 2-0 hole. Soon enough that felt like a 7-0 score because the Raccoons didn’t amount to much of anything against Ortega, and didn’t reach third base at all in the first five innings, while Nakayama allowed another unearned run on his own error in the fourth inning while otherwise lingering and relying on his defense. Nakayama also did not get a single strikeout while walking three across 5.2 innings before being replaced with Yamauchi in the bottom 6th. Daniel Richardson had drawn a walk and was on second base, and the lineup had flipped over to Thore, who grounded out to end the inning. Yamauchi went on to put Martin Bohannon on base to begin the sixth, and that run was surrendered by Chance Fox on a wild pitch and a single by Ian Stone…

Top 8th, and singles by Wilson and Monck off Josh Elling, a walk by Tetsu Kurihara to Dowsey, loaded the bases, and the Thunder thought they should maybe try somebody not formerly of the Raccoons with three on and two outs. Willie Campos, left-hander came in to face Justin Aguilar, who was hit for with Marquise Early, who struck out. Chance Fox held the Thunder away in the eighth, and Tallent hit another single in the ninth, but the Raccoons never crossed home plate as five pitchers pooled together for a 9-hit shutout on the Thunder’s side. 4-0 Thunder. Wilson 2-5; Dowsey 2-3, BB; Tallent 2-3, BB;

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – RF Tallent – P Rios
OCT: RF Almanza – C Bohannon – CF Thore – SS Palominos – 2B Archuleta – 3B D. Richardson – 1B I. Stone – LF Franks – P Aa. Harris

This was only Rios’ second start in four weeks, and he immediately **** the bed. He ran 3-ball counts against the first five Thunder he faced, striking out Almanza before issuing four straight walks. Richardson struck out again, but Ian Stone drew another bases-loaded walk for a 2-0 Thunder lead in the first, before Scott Franks lined out to Novelo to leave three men on. That was 38 pitches for NOTHING. Funnily enough Harris responded with walks to Dowsey and Novelo to begin the top 2nd, and Bonner singled the bags full. Tallent hit an RBI single past Jose Palominos, Rios struck out, and Wilson strung a 2-run single to left-center to flip the score to 3-2 Portland. Lopez then crashed into a double play, ending the inning.

Rios was being watched very closely in the following innings, but pitched to mostly short counts and soft contact as the Thunder were now eager to hit him and knock him over for some reason. The next walk he was involved in was one he drew himself from Harris with one gone in the fourth inning. Wilson singled him to third base, but was caught stealing, and Lopez flew out to right, leaving Rios stranded at third base. Rios did not issue another walk until Palominos got one with two outs in the bottom 5th. He remained on base when Ramon Archuleta grounded out, and that was all for Rios.

His lead was extended in the top 6th when Daniel Richardson’s throwing error put Novelo on second base with nobody out. Bonner popped out, but Tallent socked an RBI double off Kurihara, 4-2. Colter batted for Rios, but him and Wilson left Tallent on base. The Coons then pieced outs together until the bottom 8th came around, and Yamauchi, left over from the seventh, allowed a single to Palominos and a game-tying homer to Archuleta, all even at four. Erik Swain then kept the game tied in the top of the ninth, in which Tallent got on base and was caught stealing. The Thunder brought the winning run all the way to third base as Almanza walked and Palominos singled against Josh C in the bottom 9th, but then Archuleta popped out to Ryan Bonner and the game went to extras. The Thunder stuck to Swain in the tenth, but he gave up a run on a leadoff single by Starr and a 2-out Dowsey double! Jesse Dover had not pitched all week and then came in against three left-handed batters in the bottom 10th. Johnny Parker grounded out hard to Starr, but Ian Stone and Nick Fowler both struck out to end the game. 5-4 Coons. Wilson 2-5, 2 RBI; Starr 3-5, 3B; Tallent 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Squeaky win that I didn’t really see coming, and the Raccoons also only had Holzmeister left in the bullpen there…!

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Early – 1B Dowsey – 2B Bonner – RF Tallent – P Gaytan
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – LF J. Parker – RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – 3B N. Fowler – P D. Baca

Wilson singled and stole a base, but was ignored by the 2-3-4 batters in the top 1st. Tony Gaytan had gotten within the last out of a shutout on Tuesday, and on Sunday came within his own jittery throwing error on Coby Thore’s comebacker of getting the first out. He threw it away for two bases, then gave up singles to Bohannon and Stone, and Parker’s well-placed groundout meant that the Thunder scored two unearned runs in the inning. Gaytan then shut down the Thunder in the next three innings while waiting for the cavalry to arrive in his support. It took five innings for the Coons to mount anything against Danny Baca, who allowed one hit in four frames, but then had his lead evaporated by a Bonner double and a homer by Randy Tallent in the fifth…!

Unfortunately, as soon as the game was even, the Thunder unevened it again by running and stomping all over Gaytan in the bottom 5th. Richardson drew a leadoff walk, Fowler singled, Thore raked a 2-run double, and then scored after a wild pitch, two walks to Bohannon (who was caught stealing) and Palominos, and a Stone single with two outs. Gaytan finished the inning, but left the game moping about having given the Thunder a 5-2 lead.

Rich Monck socked a 2-run homer to center that had impressive length to shorten the score to 5-4 again in the sixth. Dowsey moved from first base to leftfield in the bottom 6th when Holzmeister and Starr entered the game in a double switch, then came close to a game-tying homer leading off the seventh, but the ball was caught on the warning track by Almanza. Baca lasted seven and a third, his final out being a long fly to left by Starr. Holzmeister got seven outs for the Critters, followed by one out from two batters by McMahan. When Parker hit a 2-out single in the bottom 8th, Dover and Matas entered in another double switch, ending Jaden Wilson’s afternoon. Dover got a grounder from PH J.D. Johnson to end the inning. The Thunder then sent Swain, who had pitched two innings for the L on Saturday, and who allowed a leadoff single to Lopez before Fowler fumbled Monck’s grounder for an error. Matas struck out and Dowsey smacked into a double play to end the game. 5-4 Thunder. Holzmeister 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

July 20 – Aces INF/RF Vic Morales (.341, 6 HR, 59 RBI) puts up a 20-game hitting streak with a single in a 6-1 loss against the Bayhawks.
July 20 – Indy sends SP Ignazio Flores (7-10, 4.55 ERA) to the Aces for a prospect.
July 20 – The Loggers acquire MR Aiden Shaw (8-4, 3.83 ERA) from the Crusaders, parting with #81 prospect RF/LF/1B Mike Eggert.
July 21 – LAP SP Melvin Lebron (9-7, 4.40 ERA) fires a 3-hit shutout to beat the Stars, 5-0.
July 21 – Loggers catcher Tommy Guitreau (.265, 13 HR, 56 RBI) objects to having to bat eighth with two homers and six RBI in a 15-4 rout of the Canadiens.
July 21 – Due to a separated shoulder, the Cyclones would be without OF Melvin Avila (.334, 5 HR, 37 RBI) for at least three weeks.
July 21 – Salem INF/CF John Katzman (.276, 3 HR, 38 RBI) will miss a month with elbow tendinitis.
July 21 – The Capitals send SP Joe Chalmers (8-9, 4.16 ERA) to the Pacifics in exchange for outfielder Alex Romero (.295, 5 HR, 17 RBI).

July 22 – DAL CL Roberto Ramirez (2-4, 4.33 ERA, 30 SV) saves his 400th career game in a 5-2 win against the Cyclones.
July 22 – The Loggers kill the 28-game hitting streak of the Falcons’ Diego Mendoza (.310, 9 HR, 33 RBI) in a 5-2 Milwaukee win. Mendoza goes 0-for-4.
July 22 – The 20-game hitting streak of the Aces’ Vic Morales (.338, 6 HR, 59 RBI) dies in exactly the same circumstances as he goes 0-for-4 in a 5-2 loss to the Titans.
July 22 – The Pacifics beat the Blue Sox, 8-5 in 14 innings. Only one of the five Blue Sox runs is earned against L.A. starter Joe Chalmers (8-9, 3.90 ERA) in his first Pacifics outing.

July 23 – The Falcons out-slog the Loggers, 15-13, in a wicked game in which both teams only fail to score in two half-innings each and that goes back and forth until the Falcons take command with a 6-run seventh. Falcons OF Sal Gil (.247, 2 HR, 15 RBI) is the only player to drive in four runs in the game with two singles and a home run.
July 23 – The Dallas Stars walk off, 2-1 in ten innings, against the Cyclones when Cincy catcher Josh Heath (.266, 0 HR, 16 RBI) attempts to pick Xavier Reyes (.361, 1 HR, 40 RBI) off first base, but throws the ball away, and Andy Yocum (.340, 1 HR, 47 RBI) scores from third base with the winning run instead.
July 24 – The Capitals beat the Gold Sox, 3-2 in 14 innings. WAS OF Brent Campbell (.246, 3 HR, 30 RBI) is responsible for the walkoff single.

FL Player of the Week: RIC LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.348, 14 HR, 44 RBI), socking .364 (8-22) with 5 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA SS/3B Trent Taylor (.298, 9 HR, 39 RBI), poking .583 () with 1 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Trent Brassfield hit a walkoff homer for the Indians on Monday against the Crusaders. Should have brought him back when we had a chance…! (considers) Actually, we have a Chance, but I don’t think the Indians are interested.

Jose Corral didn’t make it off the DL in time for the series finale here, but he was expected to be back early in the next homestand. We would, starting on Tuesday, host the Falcons and Condors for the occasion. The Condors had tied us for team homers this week, 82 on each team.

That would also mark the end of the month. The Coons were nowhere right now, not really trying to go either up or down with trades. But we would listen to offers, although so far nobody approached us with any trade suggestions.

Fun Fact: Roberto Ramirez (3-4, 4.17 ERA, 30 SV) is the active leader in career saves.

He was tied with David Hardaway with 400 saves on a 73-78 record and 3.69 ERA. He had struck out 679 batters in 989 innings. Whether the 37-year-old Ramirez had enough juice left to challenge for 500 saves remained to be seen – only eight pitchers in league history had collected 500+ saves, with six more having sputtered to a stop anywhere between 489 and 499.

Ramirez had mostly been the regular closer in his 14-year career, outside of his debut season with the Buffos, and then a few years in between in L.A.

This was his second Dallas stint, and his fourth season there in total. In his career he had been an All Star twice, in 2062 and 2065, but had never led the league in saves – but he was tying for the FL lead currently. The next-closest pitcher in career saves was 53rd-place Justin Round with 348, but he was also already 35.

[Westheim]

Upon the recommendation of Luis Silva, the Raccoons sent Jose Corral to AAA for a rehab assignment on Monday. He was expected to only be there for two or three games and then rejoin the roster.

There was another roster move to begin the week as Jamie Colter (.247, 2 HR, 10 RBI) was sent to AAA and we brought back the switch-hitting infielder Carlos Gutierrez, who was batting .319/.398/.439 in St. Petersburg.

Raccoons (50-49) vs. Falcons (47-52) – July 26-28, 2067

The Falcons were seventh in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed. They were not really going anywhere, except fast on the base paths, with the second-most stolen bases in the CL. They had the best defense, but they could not hit a home run for their lives, being bottoms in the league in the power department. We had won two of three games from the Falcons earlier this season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (6-6, 2.93 ERA) vs. Tony Lira (7-5, 4.81 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (8-7, 3.71 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (7-6, 3.21 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (8-7, 4.39 ERA) vs. Tom Kies (6-6, 3.01 ERA)

We were expecting a southpaw in Kies in the Thursday series finale.

Game 1
CHA: 1B Meza – 3B Fountain – 2B D. Mendoza – C O. Matos – SS Tr. Taylor – RF S. Gil – LF Consuegra – CF Asencio – P T. Lira
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – LF Matas – P Walla

Walla struck out five Falcons the first time through in the Tuesday opener, but found time to allow a run with two outs in the top 2nd with a walk to Sal Gil and Jose Consuegra’s double off the wall that plated the runner from first. The Raccoons came back an inning later, though; after Lopez and Novelo both hit into double plays in the first two innings, Carlos Gutierrez opened the third with another single. Two meek outs were made before Jaden Wilson hit an RBI single to tie the game. He then stole second, Lopez walked, and Joel Starr uncorked a 3-run homer. The Falcons stared in awe at something they had never seen before, and Portland was up 4-1.

Walla walked ex-Titan Diego Mendoza, but got a double play grounder from Oscar Matos to begin the fourth, but Sal Gil got him for a solo homer (!!) to right in the fifth, 4-2. Walla did not get another strikeout until the sixth – his 100th of the season – but valiantly held on until the Raccoons scratched out a couple more runs in the seventh with a single from Matas, who stole second, and Wilson’s 1-out RBI double, which knocked out Lira, and then a pair of singles with two outs by Starr and Monck off Orazio Cecere, extending the lead to 6-2. Dowsey then flew out to Consuegra and the warning track to end the inning. Walla lasted eight innings, getting around an error by Gutierrez and holding the Falcons to four hits overall, and then Pablo Novelo socked a homer to left off Cecere to begin the bottom 8th. We were then bold enough to give a 5-run lead to Holzmeister, and he actually came through for only the cost of a single in the ninth inning! 7-2 Raccoons. Wilson 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Gutierrez 2-4; Bonner (PH) 1-1; Walla 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (7-6);

Game 2
CHA: 1B Meza – LF Laws – 2B D. Mendoza – C O. Matos – SS Tr. Taylor – RF S. Gil – 3B Fountain – CF Asencio – P E. Mauricio
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – LF Matas – P Musgrave

The Falcons scored first again with a Mike Meza single and Matos’ double to left in the first inning, while the Raccoons didn’t do much of anything for two innings, then stranded runners on the corners in the next two. Matas singled and Lopez reached on an error in the third inning, but Starr grounded out to short, and an inning later Monck led off with a double, Dowsey drew a walk in a full count, and that’s where things grinded to a stop. The 9-1-2 then went in order in the fifth, and the Raccoons were getting 2-hit through five innings.

Starr started another valiant effort to get something on the board with a leadoff double smacked to left to begin the bottom 6th, which put the tying run in scoring position; while Musgrave leaked a few hits early on, he was nevertheless feeding balls to the infielders and got two double plays as well. Monck bashed a ball to center, but it was caught by Mario Asencio, although Starr went to third base on the play, then scored on Dowsey’s groundout, at least tying the game at one.

Musgrave then got stuck in the seventh, walking Elijah Fountain and nicking Asencio. Mauricio remained around to bunt before Consuegra batted for Meza with two outs. The Coons sent McMahan in a double switch that moved Gutierrez to short, the pitcher went in the #6 hole, and Novelo sat down, with Bonner in at second – and then McMahan walked the pinch-hitter to fill the bases. Scott Laws, switch-hitter, then popped out to Gutierrez to strand all the runners. Bottom 7th, and Gutierrez and Matas poked singles to begin that inning, only for Bonner to hit into a 6-4-3 double play. While I was still fretting over that and arguing with Slappy whether we should reinstitute whippings at the ballpark, Jaden Wilson then hit a 2-run homer, so maybe things would be fine regardless.

Diego Mendoza and Sal Gil then pulled a run back with hits off Josh C in the eighth inning, 3-2, and the bottom 8th was fruitless, but Jesse Dover came in and struck out Asencio, and struck out Omar Lira, and struck … no, walked Jake Cline, and walked Scott Laws. Stop it!! Mendoza then grounded out to Gutierrez, but good grief…! 3-2 Critters. Starr 2-4, 2 2B; Matas 2-3; Musgrave 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K;

Interlude: Trade

The Raccoons struck a deal with the Scorpions on Thursday, acquiring RF/LF/1B David Milian (.301, 3 HR, 45 RBI), who had been on the Loggers for many years, in exchange for infielder Mike Roberts (.170, 1 HR, 11 RBI), who had sucked enough for my tastes.

Milian was 34 and past defending well, although he could still throw the baseball. We saw him more as a pinch-hitter with class and occasional spot for Corral against southpaw starters – like on Thursday!

At the same time Jose Corral rejoined from his rehab assignment. Marquise Early (.210, 3 HR, 24 RBI) was sent back to AAA to make room for him.

Raccoons (50-49) vs. Falcons (47-52) – July 26-28, 2067

Game 3
CHA: 1B Meza – LF Laws – 2B D. Mendoza – C O. Matos – SS Tr. Taylor – RF S. Gil – 3B Fountain – CF Asencio – P Kies
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – RF Milian – 1B Starr – 2B Bonner – LF Tallent – P Nakayama

Both sides got only a single base hit in the first three innings, Bonner doubling for Portland before getting left on base in the third inning. The Falcons however did score first again when Nakayama once more forgot how to pitch in the fourth inning and allowed a single to Matos, dropped a feed from Starr at first base that put Gil on base, and then walked both the 7-8 batters with two outs to push home a run. Kies was then kind enough to pop out to Tallent in left. Mendoza and Matos hit 2-out singles in the fifth but were left on base when Trent Taylor swung big and missed even bigger for strike three.

Joel Starr went deep to left to tie the game at one then, but Nakayama allowed a leadoff single to Gil in the sixth. The runner stole second, then scored on productive outs from the pesky 7-8 pair, and the Falcons were ahead again. Nakayama, on 100 pitches, was then also hit for to begin the bottom 6th. Matas was rather useless and made an out, but Pablo Novelo homered the game tied for the second consecutive inning.

Rain then moved in and there was a 35-minute rain delay. Eventually, Evan Alvey emerged from the pen and had a 1-2-3 seventh against the 1-2-3 Falcons, after which Rich Monck cranked a go-ahead homer off Kies. Alvey got one more out and Yamauchi got two in the eighth. Yamauchi was hit for with Corral, who singled on his return to the team, as did Wilson, but the Raccoons failed to scratch out another run against lefty Jason Stine. McMahan then got the ball for the ninth against the 7-8-9 batters, none of whom were right-handed hitters, although Fountain was a switch-hitter. Fountain grounded out to Monck. PH Chad Cardwell struck out. Omar Lira singled up the middle, and Wilson fudged the pickup and gave the tying run an extra 90 feet into second base with two gone. The Coons went to Josh C against the right-handed Jake Cline in the #1 spot, but Charlotte sent Consuegra instead, and when he walked in a full count, another lefty batter, Danny Ayon, batting for the pitcher Stine. He struck out to complete the sweep. 3-2 Critters. Starr 2-3, HR, RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1;

And that was also the season series taken, and they would probably be stingy with the media and complain about this newfangled dishonorable homer-hitting and that real gentlemen played small ball, or some crap.

Raccoons (53-49) vs. Condors (45-55) – July 29-31, 2067

The month would finish – and the trade deadline would approach – with the series against the Condors, whom the Raccoons had beaten four out of six games so far this season. They were fifth in the South, had the worst batting average, and were eighth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed. They had power, but no speed, and plenty of injuries, five players in total, including a few you had actually heard of, like Ryans Singletary and Spehar.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (9-6, 3.95 ERA) vs. Brett Bebout (8-4, 3.01 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (7-9, 3.41 ERA) vs. Miguel Lopez (0-0)
Nick Walla (7-6, 2.89 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (5-9, 4.22 ERA)

We only saw right-handers coming here, including the Singletary replacement Miguel Lopez, a 27-year-old with a 5-12 record and 5.27 ERA in AAA, who had made 11 relief appearances in the majors, but never had gotten a starting assignment.

Game 1
TIJ: C Brann – SS M. Moreno – 2B Nye – CF Pinault – RF Ewig – 1B D. Cline – LF LeVan – 3B T. Wyatt – P Bebout
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – C Aguilar – P Rios

Rios had another troubled start, giving up hits to Mike Brann and Mario Moreno in the first inning before Nick Nye popped out and both Mike Pinault and Matt Ewig struck out in full counts, but here we were already at a major problem: three-ball counts. And before long, Rios walked the bags full with the 6-7-8 batters to start the top 2nd. Bebout struck out, Brann hit a comebacker for an out at home, but Moreno edged out a 2-out walk and pushed in the game’s first run before Nye grounded out to Monck to leave three aboard. Pinault, David Cline, and Tim Wyatt added two runs with three sharp hits in the third inning, Brann homered leading off the fourth, and Nye and Ewig were in scoring position with a 1-out single and a 2-out double, respectively in the same inning, when Rios – on a stunning 104 pitches – was axed. Garbage game – bring in Chance Fox. At least he got Cline to ground out to Bonner and strand the remaining runners in the icky 4-0 game. The Coons had brought up only one runner over the minimum in the first three innings, but Rich Monck put them on the board with a solo homer in the bottom 4th.

Fox would give the Raccoons ten outs and get them to the stretch, then was hit for when Bonner and Aguilar got on base with two outs in the bottom 7th. David Milian popped out on a 3-1 pitch to end the inning. Bebout scored a run in the eighth, hitting the first of three singles off Yamauchi, and the Raccoons’ late rally attempts against Bebout were limited to a leadoff single by Monck in the ninth. He was forced out by Dowsey, and Novelo hit into a game-ending double play. 5-1 Condors. Monck 2-4, HR, RBI; Aguilar 2-3, 2B; Fox 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Bebout pitched a complete-game 5-hitter.

Nobody hit much on Saturday, with a rainstorm whipping the area all afternoon and evening. A double header was scheduled for Sunday. This put Gaytan up against the veteran Clemente instead of the 27-year-old that had been beaten up in AAA all year. The weather was still fishy on Sunday, and I was not 100% convinced we’d get both games in yet, so the lineup for the opener was very much the standard offerings we had.

Game 2
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – C Brann – 2B Nye – 3B T. Wyatt – 1B A. Metz – SS M. Moreno – P M. Clemente
POR: CF Wilson – C R. Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Gaytan

…at least until Dowsey got hit in the arm with the bases loaded and two outs in the first inning, which pushed in Wilson with the first run of the game, and also led to a lengthy consultation with Luis Silva on the first base line, after which Dowsey left the game and was replaced with Matas. Novelo then flew out to right to strand three Critters, and then Nick Nye homered to left to tie the ballgame. Gaytan then struggled mightily and loaded he bases with Tim Wyatt’s double and two walks to Andy Metz and Phil LeVan before Matt Ewig bounced out to Starr to leave them on base. The game devolved into a constant counseling session for Gaytan, who was both erratic and easily hittable at the same time, which was no mean feat. He managed to wobble along for five innings before getting brutalized with a LeVan homer to break the tie, and then ****** the bags full again, only for Andy Metz to crank a 2-out, bases-clearing double to make it 5-1 Condors. After Corral plated Ramon Lopez for a consolation run in the bottom 5th, Gaytan was sent back out there in what clearly amounted to animal cruelty, but got through the sixth inning for a walk, a strikeout, and no further runs scored, although there had been plenty of those already.

Holzmeister would pitch two innings for Portland after Gaytan was mercifully put to sleep, giving up a solo homer to Metz that extended the Condors’ lead to four, and Carrington allowed another run in a completely outta-whack ninth where he drilled Ewig and walked Brann before giving up an RBI knock to Nye. Like Bebout on Friday, Clemente pitched a complete game, this one for six base hits. 7-2 Condors. Corral 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;

The Raccoons were then a guy short for the second game since Dowsey was still in pain and no longer available.

No replacements had been brought to Portland either to be on standby.

Game 3
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B D. Cline – 2B Nye – 3B T. Wyatt – C J. Medrano – SS M. Moreno – P Mi. Lopez
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – LF Milian – 1B Starr – 2B Bonner – C Aguilar – P Walla

Walla again struck out five the first time through the order, walking Ewig, but getting a double play grounder from Pinault. The Raccoons had four hits in the first three innings, and puzzled a run together from Aguilar’s leadoff single and Novelo’s 2-out single in the third inning. Walla briefly looked in trouble after a leadoff double in the left-center gap that LeVan hit and then falling behind to Ewig, but he got a pop on the infield from the #2 batter, a grounder from Pinault, and struck out Decline to end the threat in scoring position – and then Starr hit a homer to right in the bottom 4th, doubling the lead to 2-0. However, Nick Nye, seemingly holding some grudges against his former team, answered with a solo homer of his own his next time up in the fifth…

Walla continued to put LeVan on base to begin innings, nicking him in the sixth, and this time a groundout, a stolen base, and Pinault’s soft single got him around to score and tie the game. Lopez, quick to imitate the more experienced pitcher, then hit Milian with a pitch in the bottom 6th as if we had infinite leftfielders, and Starr singled to left to keep the line moving, all with one out. Bonner strung a shot past Wyatt then, and up the line for an RBI double, reclaiming the lead for Walla. An intentional walk to Aguilar and Walla’s 4-6-3 grounder then ended the inning… and THEN he walked Wyatt to begin the seventh. A stolen base also led to that run scoring with Jairo Medrano’s deep fly to left and Mario Moreno’s groundout for productive outs. Walla finished the inning, but after 101 pitches, some good, many messy, had to settle for yet another no-decision. The Coons picked four outs from McMahan before entering Dover in the #5 spot in a double switch in which Matas took over leftfield duties. Dover walked Wyatt, but kept him on base, while SOMEHOW Miguel Lopez in his starting debut at the age of twenty-*******-seven was still going in the bottom of the ninth!! Bonner led off and singled, then was caught stealing. Lopez was yanked after drilling Aguilar to put the winning run on base again, and replaced with lefty Joe Cash, who sorted out Matas and Wilson to send the game to overtime.

Dover handled an uneventful tenth before another double switch entered Alvey in Corral’s spot, and Randy Tallent took over rightfield. Starr hit a 1-out double off Matt Nelson in the bottom 11th, but an intentional walk to Bonner, and Aguilar’s double play grounder kept the game going. Next thing Matt Nelson did was to double in the tie-breaking run in the 12th against Alvey after he had put Medrano and Moreno on base… Manny Rodriguez struck out and Elmer Maldonado (waves hi!) flew out to center to keep a pair in scoring position, and the Raccoons disappeared in order in their half of the inning… 4-3 Condors. Novelo 3-6, 2B, RBI; Starr 4-5, HR, RBI; Bonner 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Walla 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9 K;

In other news

July 26 – The Gold Sox acquire INF Alex Gonzilez (.252, 8 HR, 48 RBI) from the Scorpions for SP Rob Wilkinson (5-5, 3.20 ERA). To sweeten the deal, Denver also receives a prospect.
July 26 – The Capitals beat the Scorpions, 8-5, in a 15-inning marathon in which both teams score a single run in the tenth inning, but nothing in the next four.
July 27 – The Warriors acquire SP Luis Olvera (7-7, 2.78 ERA) from the Rebels for two prospects, including #134 SP Matthew Stratford.
July 27 – San Francisco sends MR Josh Doyle (1-2, 4.58 ERA, 1 SV) to the Aces for infielder Oscar Aredondo (.289, 2 HR, 20 RBI).
July 27 – Dallas trades for OF/1B Victor David Morales (.258, 6 HR, 43 RBI) with the Knights. Atlanta receives 3B Jon Schomer (.297, 11 HR, 53 RBI) and a prospect.
July 29 – The Knights pick up RF Juan Paez (.338, 0 HR, 20 RBI) from the Bayhawks in exchange for four prospects – non ranked.
July 29 – Charlotte deals SP Tom Kies (6-7, 3.05 ERA) to Washington or two prospects, including #93 SP Jack Moses.
July 29 – The Warriors acquire another pitcher, Salem’s SP Adam McDonald (10-5, 3.33 ERA) for two prospects. The deal includes #138 prospect CL Alex Nunez.
July 30 – Cincy RF/LF Roberto Soto (.274, 12 HR, 59 RBI) drives in six runs on three doubles as the Cyclones beat up the Scorpions, 11-1.
July 30 – The Falcons trade catcher Danny Ayon (.254, 0 HR, 11 RBI) to the Buffaloes for LF/RF Tony Lopez (.248, 8 HR, 38 RBI) and a prospect.

FL Player of the Week: RIC OF Willie Ospina (.281, 10 HR, 43 RBI), hitting .462 (12-26) with 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL OF Jonathan Merrill (.387, 3 HR 60 RBI), batting .517 (15-29) with 1 HR, 7 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: NAS OF Tony Roman (.237, 31 HR, 75 RBI), smashing .290 with 9 HR, 22 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC LF/RF Kazuhide Takeuchi (.273, 15 HR, 77 RBI), rapping .344 with 8 HR, 36 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SAC SP Jay Williams (7-11, 4.30 ERA), going 5-1 with a 3.27 ERA, 19 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: VAN SP Ken Nielsen (13-5, 3.09 ERA), throwing for a 4-0 mark with 2.32 ERA, 19 K
FL Rookie of the Month: LAP INF Ron Laux (.321, 1 HR, 16 RBI), all of it this month
CL Rookie of the Month: LVA RF/LF Alfredo Rosado (.303, 4 HR, 23 RBI), poking .357 with 3 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons made the one rather pointless trade and other than that stayed put. Nobody ever inquired about any of our players, and I wasn’t gonna force them onto other teams. We also would not have traded up at this stage, but dealing a piece for a prospect would not have been out of the question.

Rich Monck ended the week on a 14-game hitting streak. And David Milian is 0-for-10 since joining the team.

Brilliant.

This year’s third-round pick Dave Tenorio went 1-3 with a 4.36 ERA in six starts in Aumsville before he was found to have bone chips on the loose in his elbow, so he was off to have surgery.

Since we’re on prospects already, how are our recent hard-earned top 5 picks doing? Jack Hamel, the #5 pick in 2066, was promoted to Ham Lake in June and is hitting .248/.327/.406 in 38 games, with just one homer. He is just 20, he still has some time to fill out. Jimmy Wharton, this year’s #4, who started with the Panthers right away, is 2-3 with a 3.03 ERA. He’s got 50 strikeouts in 65 innings, but also 35 walks… Reviewers rave about him though, we might have found a true gem here.

The next grueling road trip is right around the corner. We’re in fact already late to get to the airport. Our furry tushes are required in Atlanta in 21 hours, and I haven’t even packed my snacks yet. After Atlanta there’s still not gonna be an off day until after we’ve played the Crusaders and Indians, and then a fourth road series in Dallas framed by off days. We’ll only play at home again on the 16th against the Caps.

Fun Fact: Getting swept by the Condors kept the string of 5-4 season series wins alternating between the two teams alive that’s been going on since ’62.

Yay?

Other than that, the Raccoons have won the season series, by exactly a 5-4 record, each EVEN year going back to 2056. In 2054 we won every game from them, and before that had another pair of 5-4 even years going back to 2050. The last time we lost the season series to Tijuana in an EVEN year was 2044.

[Westheim]

When the Coons embarked on a 4-city road trip on Sunday night, they took Justin Dowsey with him. Luis Silva eventually opined that he had only a bruised wrist and would be day-to-day for another couple of days, but all was gonna be fine. He was not going to be in the lineup at least on Monday, though.

Raccoons (53-52) @ Knights (54-50) – August 1-3, 2067

Station one on the road trip was Atlanta, where the Knights and the Raccoons had a 3-3 season series to sort out. The Knights had lost four in a row, so both teams had gotten swept on the weekend. They ranked fourth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, with the rotation struggling especially. Outfielder Jake Evans was the only DL occupant for the Knights.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (8-7, 3.60 ERA) vs. Vince Ellison (9-8, 4.31 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (8-7, 4.25 ERA) vs. Ivan Rodriguez (0-0, 4.34 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-7, 4.15 ERA) vs. Luis Briseno (7-11, 4.44 ERA)

Only right-handers on offer from those Knights.

In fact, nobody was in the lineup on Monday, since the opener of the series was rained out and a double header scheduled for Tuesday, making future starting assignments increasingly harder to schedule for the Raccoons, who had not played exactly one game on any day since Friday, and wouldn’t to so again until Wednesday, presumably. Still no Dowsey in the first game on Tuesday, though.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – LF Matas – P Musgrave
ATL: CF Fumero – C Hart – LF J. Acuna – RF S. Giles – 2B J. Munoz – 1B J. Paez – 3B Schomer – SS C. Ramsey – P Ellison

When baseball was finally being played on Tuesday, Ramon Lopez’ homer to left in the first inning gave Portland a quick 1-0 lead. Musgrave got two outs to begin the bottom 1st, then walked the bags full with Javier Acuna, Steve Giles, and Jorge Munoz before Juan Paez grounded out to Monck. Musgrave went on to have a 7-pitch second inning, followed by 24 more in the third inning – despite the Knights not getting on base in either one. The Raccoons were not exactly pushing for more offense until the fifth inning, not having even another base hit until Joel Starr singled in the fifth. He advanced on Novelo’s groundout before Carlos Gutierrez walked and Carlos Matas hit an RBI single to right-center. The Carloses moved into scoring position on a rather late throw home, allowing Musgrave to stretch his own lead to 3-0 with a sac fly to center. Wilson then walked, there was a double steal, but Lopez hit into the final out, and the two runs were then taken away again by the Knights in the same inning with always-on-the-trading-block Casey Ramsey singling to left, a walk being issued to Carlos Fumero, and an RBI double for Justin Hart and a sac fly for Acuna. Musgrave hit Giles with two outs, but Munoz grounded out, leaving two on.

Rich Monck extended his hitting streak to 15 games in the sixth with a single to left, soon followed by more hits by Starr, who singled, and Novelo, who based an RBI double to right, 4-2. One Carlos was then walked intentionally, and the other Carlos hit another sac fly. Musgrave struck out, then gave up another run on a walk to Schomer and a Ramsey double in the bottom 6th.

Ex-Coon Angel Alba was in for relief in the seventh, putting the 1-2-3 on base with two hits and a *hit* Jose Corral, who we had just pried back from the DL. Monck laid off the junk to draw a walk and force in a run, but the next three batters struck out, popped out, and struck out. We managed to drag Musgrave through seven innings with a 6-3 lead, and then got to use the reliable right-handed part of the pen. Both Carrington in the eighth and Dover in the ninth put a guy on base, but the Knights didn’t get either of them around to score in those late innings. 6-3 Raccoons. Lopez 2-5, HR, RBI; Starr 2-3, BB, 2B; Musgrave 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (9-7);

The Knights’ starter for game two, Ivan Rodriguez, had made 21 relief appearances so far this year, but had been a regular starter with the Falcons for most of the decade.

Game 2
POR: CF Matas – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Milian – 2B Bonner – C Aguilar – LF Tallent – P Nakayama
ATL: CF Fumero – 3B Schomer – LF J. Acuna – RF S. Giles – 2B J. Munoz – 1B J. Paez – C McLaren – SS C. Ramsey – P I. Rodriguez

Matas in the leadoff spot was a bit of an “aw shucks!” assignment, but he hit a leadoff triple in the third inning and then scored the game’s first run on a Novelo single to center. Starr singled, Monck had singled his first time around, but this time forced out Starr with a grounder to Ramsey; however, David Milian finally got a hit with his new team, dropping an RBI single into left. Bonner (double) and Aguilar (groundout) both added on runs, while Tallent (intentionally) and Nakayama (unintentionally) walked with two outs to re-fill the bases. Matas then struck out to complete the inning that he started, but now with the Coons up 4-0. Through five frames, this was the only half-inning in which runs were scored, while the Raccoons had ten hits against the Knights’ three.

Come the sixth, the Raccoons were up against Bob West, who had been released by the Brownshirts in June and had joined the Knights after two weeks of strife. He would walk three Raccoons, but somehow still managed two scoreless innings. Nakayama out-did him by five-and-two-thirds, maintaining a 3-hitter until the pitch count turned sour on him and he was replaced with Yamauchi amid a defensive shuffle on three of the four corners that gave Rich Monck the rest of the day off. Yamauchi got Fumero to fly out to Milian in left to complete the bottom 8th, and between him and Alvey the 3-hit shutout was completed without hiccups. 4-0 Raccoons. Matas 2-5, 3B, 2B; Novelo 3-5, RBI; Starr 2-3, 2 BB; Bonner 2-5, 2B, RBI; Nakayama 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (9-7);

Even better news than a swept double-header: on Wednesday Justin Dowsey was finally back in the lineup!

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Rios
ATL: CF Fumero – C Hart – 1B M. Medina – LF J. Acuna – 2B J. Munoz – RF J. Paez – 3B Schomer – SS C. Ramsey – P Briseno

Fumero, Acuna, and Munoz filled the bases in the bottom 1st before Juan Paez grounded out calmly to short to leave them all stranded, and that was not the last time the bags were filled with Knights against an erratic Rios, who issued a hit and two walks to Acuna, Munoz, and Paez to fill ‘em up with nobody out in the bottom 4th. In between, though, Dowsey had been hit in his first at-bat back in the lineup in a second inning in which Starr and Gutierrez hit singles, the latter plating the former for the game’s first run, and in the fourth Dowsey singled and scored on a Novelo triple. That 2-0 lead was then in danger in that bottom of the fourth inning, and the Knights made it quick. Jon Schomer shrugged at the garbage that Rios tossed up there and drew a bases-loaded walk, before Ramsey raked a bases-clearing double into the right-center gap, which made it 4-2 Knights. Rios sucked a while longer, giving up another walk to Fumero and an RBI hit to Hart, and then was yanked down 5-2 after 3.1 ****** innings. Holzmeister then came in and surrendered his leftover runners on a pair of 2-out hits by Acuna and Munoz, burying the Raccoons five runs down after a 7-run fourth…

The score didn’t budge from there while Briseno kept clicking off innings and the Coons went through another full inning of Holzmeister, and gave the sixth to Yamauchi. Evan Alvey then got the ball to somehow get the game over with, partly because the Raccoons needed a spot starter on Thursday, and for better or worse would have to use Chance Fox for that. Alvey had a quick seventh, but got beaten around a bit for an extra run in the eighth inning, doing it all against almost exclusively right-handed opposition (which was another reason not to bother Chance Fox with putting pants on). 8-2 Knights. Gutierrez 2-3, BB, RBI;

The Knights also killed Rich Monck’s 16-game hitting streak as they brushed us out the door.

Raccoons (55-53) @ Crusaders (56-51) – August 4-7, 2067

New York was certainly not where they aspired to be in a transitional season. Fourth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed with a +38 run differential, things just didn’t add up for them this year. They were up 5-2 on the Raccoons, but besides defense were not excelling in any area and were mostly waiting for better days. Paul Labonte was the only injury on the major league team.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (0-2, 4.03 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (10-4, 3.36 ERA)
Nick Walla (7-6, 2.94 ERA) vs. Jarod Nesbit (5-3, 3.25 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (7-10, 3.59 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (8-9, 4.28 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-7, 3.61 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (7-4, 3.49 ERA)

The only people happy about a spot start by Chance Fox against the Crusaders were probably Chance Fox’ mom, lovingly known as “Mrs. Fox”, and, in all likelihood, the Crusaders.

New York brought up only right-handed pitchers, including a spot starter in Nesbit on Friday. Nesbit had made nine starts earlier this year in June and July, but his last four out of 32 total appearances had all been out of the pen.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Fox
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B Frasher – SS Masterson – P Jer. Washington

On the bright paw, Chance Fox hit an RBI single in the fifth inning for the first Coons run of the ballgame. And, hey, he made it to the fifth inning! But no, it was not pretty, and our assessment that he was washed didn’t really change in the process of some really hard to watch six innings that he put up in this Thursday opener. He was constantly behind in the count and issued four walks against just one strikeout through the first five innings, allowing one of those singles to David Johnson before he got taken deep to left by reigning CL Player of the Week Kazuhide Takeuchi in the bottom 3rd. It was still 2-1 New York when Fox – on 82 pitches – was sent back out against the bottom half of the order in the sixth, but walked the leadoff man Jose Ambriz before getting two groundouts from far behind in the count from Eric Frasher and Scott Masterson. Jerry Washington then hit a solid fly to left and sent Dowsey back a bit, but it was caught for the third out of the inning. The Coons had just two hits through six innings – so Fox was half the offense – and it didn’t get much better from there. Lopez drew a walk and stole second in the eighth inning, but was left stranded. McMahan and Carrington held the score at 2-1 through the end of eight, while Washington was replaced with Dave Hyman for the ninth inning, which Monck led off with a grounder to third base. Starr drew a walk, which was good as it got before two pops ended the game. 2-1 Crusaders. Gutierrez 1-2, BB;

Fox’ ERA actually went down, but he was now even for walks and strikeouts, 31 apiece through 44 innings of “can we make him wear a paper bag over his head in the team photo?” duty this year…

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Walla
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B T. Villarreal – SS Masterson – P Nesbit

Nesbit had even more walks (47) than strikeouts (44) this season, so there was some hope for offense from the Raccoons, who got Wilson on with a single to begin the game and saw Lopez and Starr draw first-inning walks, but who also had Monck and Dowsey line out to infielders to ultimately keep the bases loaded in the inning. In turn, Nick Walla had a first inning from hell with four full counts, an Omar Sanchez single, Danny Starwalt reaching on a Bonner error, a 2-out hit-by-pitch to Takeuchi, and then finally two (unearned) runs driven in by Jose Ambriz. Lopez was charged a passed ball to move both remaining runners into scoring position, but Tony Villarreal flew out to right to strand them there – all in all Walla threw 32 pitches. He singled in the top 2nd, but was left on, and was still behind almost everybody and their mother until the third inning, when something suddenly clicked and he began to get a few strikeouts. His pitch count was in the toilet by then, while the Coons managed to get four hits and four walks in four innings against Nesbit, and then scored a flat zero runs from that…

Walla was done after five icky innings, throwing 99 pitches despite SOMEHOW not walking anybody, and then his replacement Holzmeister was blown up for three screaming hits and two runs in the sixth, which he didn’t finish; nor did Scott Masterson, who tore out a leg from rioting too hard over Holzmeister along with his team, hitting an RBI double before leaving with calf soreness; Juan Ojeda replaced him, while McMahan had to relieve Holzmeister. Him and Dover would get the last seven outs together on the losing end while the Crusaders needed just Nesbit and five innings of Aiden Shaw for a combined shutout. 4-0 Crusaders. Wilson 3-5; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons had eight singles and six walks, but hit into three double plays and stranded a dozen runners to klutz this game away and like Walla himself fall to .500 … Since Walla didn’t allow an earned run in his five mucky innings, though, he did get up to third place in the CL in ERA, behind Boston’s Brenize and Bell, albeit 36 points behind Brenize.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – 2B Tallent – P Gaytan
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B Frasher – SS Masterson – P E. Lee

Sore calf or not, Masterson was sent back out there by the Crusaders on Saturday, drawing a walk his first time up after Ambriz hit a 2-out double in the bottom 2nd. They were left on base by Lee, who nevertheless was already ahead 1-0 after the Crusaders had wasted no time to begin the game with a Bryant Box double to center and Sanchez’ RBI single off Gaytan. Box hit another double in the fifth after Gaytan inexplicably walked the opposing pitcher Lee, who then got thrown out at the plate in a 7-2 double play when Omar Sanchez flew out to Dowsey, ending the bottom 5th. In between, nothing of note had happened – unless you were into Lee seeing 15 Raccoons up and sitting 15 Raccoons down through five innings.

Justin Aguilar singled up the middle to lead off the sixth, so there went the perfecto, but then got immediately doubled up when Tallent grounded out to the one-and-a-half-legged Masterson, so there went all my hope. Masterson then clanked a pop by Gaytan for an error, Wilson singled, but Novelo popped out to Sanchez, and he managed to hold on. Gaytan managed to go seven innings despite giving up six hits and five walks – getting three double plays turned by an attentive defense helped with that for sure – but the Coons were still down by a skinny run after Yamauchi handled the eighth and were looking at Hyman again, this time with Novelo up. He grounded out to Eric Frasher, but Corral singled through the hole on the right to put the tying run on base for Monck, who had suddenly gone down the drain with the rest of the team, hitting 2-for-20 in his last five games. He singled sharply past Masterson here, though, and the line kept moving to Starr, who struck out, and to Dowsey, who … struck out. 1-0 Crusaders.

Blech.

In case you wondered, after three days in New York, the last Raccoons position player to drive in a run for the team in any circumstance had been Pablo Novelo in the fourth inning of getaway day in Atlanta.

Monck, Dowsey, and Corral all got a day off to sort out their thoughts on Sunday. If we were gonna get swept, we might as well get swept with the spares holding their bones into the danger zone.

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 1B Starr – RF Milian – 3B Gutierrez – LF Matas – 2B Tallent – P Musgrave
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B Frasher – SS Masterson – P Carreno

Chance Fox surrendered “most recent Critter to drive in a run” in the first inning when Wilson led off with a double, Novelo grounded out, and Lopez hit a sac fly to left-center. Moreover, Starr doubled to left and scored on Milian’s RBI single. Gutierrez added another single, but Matas’ K ended the inning. New York then loaded the bases immediately with one out in the bottom 1st on a Sanchez hit, a walk to Starwalt, and an assist from Gutierrez who bungled a Johnson grounder, but Takeuchi then hit into a double play to Novelo, and nobody scored for them. Portland added another pair in the second on Tallent and Novelo doubles and another RBI single for Lopez, while Eric Frasher’s solo homer in the bottom 2nd shortened the score to 4-1 again. His next time up, with two gone in the bottom 4th, Frasher tripled into the leftfield corner to drive in David Johnson, who had gotten on base to begin the frame against Musgrave, which meant that Frasher had all the technical parts of the cycle ticked off. Masterson lined out to Tallent to keep him on base, though, now in a 4-2 game. But the Critters frittered away a Milian double in the fifth, then saw Musgrave walk PH Jared McLaughlin before getting taken out of the box by Bryant Park, or something like that. That one tied the score at four.

New York led 5-4 after Johnson’s 2-out homer off Musgrave, who was then disposed off after five ****** innings. Holzmeister did put up a scoreless sixth before Matas and Tallent knocked 2-out hits off Ben Peterson to tie the game in the seventh inning… but briefly; Evan Alvey soon found a way to get slapped around by Box and Starwalt for the go-ahead run in the bottom of the same inning, 6-5, and before long the Raccoons were choked to death by Hyman again to complete an utterly dismal four-game sweep. 6-5 Crusaders. Novelo 2-5, 2B, RBI; Lopez 2-4, 2 RBI; Milian 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Tallent 2-3, BB, 2 2B, RBI;

You lot got 13 hits – including EIGHT doubles! – off the Crusaders and couldn’t find a way to squeeze in front of them??

Frasher meanwhile got two more hits after the homer and triple, but both were singles and he was denied the cycle on the lack of a double, ironically.

In other news

August 2 – The Aces beat the Crusaders, 2-1 in 12 innings, while putting out nine base hits. Vegas RF/CF Aaron Warner (.248, 0 HR, 13 RBI) hogs five of those hits, all singles, leaving only four for his teammates, but uses the fifth single to put himself on base to score the winning run on a walkoff single by Vic Lorenzo (.360, 4 HR, 70 RBI).
August 3 – Gold Sox OF Chris Tuck (.291, 7 HR, 39 RBI) could miss most of the month after suffering an oblique strain.
August 4 – Cincinnati gets beaten 1-0 by the Buffaloes on a home run by TOP 1B Alex de los Santos (.238, 10 HR, 53 RBI).
August 5 – Condors outfielder Mike Pinault (.257, 9 HR, 36 RBI) is found to have a small tear in his labrum that he will try to rehab in order to get back to baseball this season. He will miss at least a month in any case.
August 6 – Loggers 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.304, 16 HR, 86 RBI) reaches a 20-game hitting streak with a last-ditch, ninth-inning RBI single in a 4-1 win against the Indians.
August 7 – ATL SP Adam Lunn (8-7, 4.48 ERA) is done for the season after suffering a torn back muscle.
August 7 – Milwaukee 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.359, 18 HR, 92 RBI) is going to miss at least a week with a foot contusion.

FL Player of the Week: DEN OF Matt Little (.249, 14 HR, 46 RBI), batting .474 (9-19) with 3 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.376, 12 HR, 69 RBI), bashing .500 (11-22) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Quite effortlessly, the team has found a new 5-game losing streak to buckle under. Of course, not scoring a lick is always a great starter. In those last five games the Raccoons have put up just eight runs.

All three of the regulars that got the day off on Sunday (Monck, Dowsey, Corral) were sent to pinch-hit in the course of the game, and all three of them were turned away. Remember we didn’t face a lefty starter all week long, and the whole group there still managed to work their way into a collective slump.

The team will still keep their shambles to the road next week, guesting at Indy and Dallas on the road back out west, including an off day on Thursday.

Fun Fact: Chance Fox had his 30th career RBI on Thursday.

We’ll just call that the highlight of the recent and very active 5-game losing streak.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (55-57) @ Indians (46-66) – August 8-10, 2067

The Indians were still clearly in the rear in the CL North, but they were already 7-5 ahead in the season series against the Raccoons, and the Raccoons crawled in having lost five straight games with the offense having gone absent without leave. Overall the Indians were scoring the fewest runs in the league, but the Raccoons had sucked their way down to tenth in runs scored once again.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (9-7, 4.00 ERA) vs. Justin Esch (4-4, 2.45 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-8, 4.36 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (4-10, 4.20 ERA)
Nick Walla (7-7, 2.84 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (7-11, 5.03 ERA)

We would not see the sole southpaw and ace on staff, Mike DeWitt (11-9, 2.97 ERA), in this series.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – C Lopez – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 2B Gutierrez – P Nakayama
IND: CF Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – C A. Gomez – 1B Ma. Rogers – 3B P. Weber – LF Brassfield – SS Baxley – 2B Falcon – P Esch

The game began with a Jaden Wilson double to right-center. Novelo reached on an error by John Baxley, then was doubled up on Starr’s grounder to short, but Wilson scored the unearned run. Lopez singled to begin the second, but was doubled up on a Corral grounder, and there was already a certain pattern developing there. Matt Martin and Tony Torres reached base for Indy in the bottom 1st, but Nakayama then struck out Alex Gomez, Matt Rogers, and Paul Weber in order to keep them on base.

Corral hit into another double play in the fourth, and Dowsey and Gutierrez reached base to begin the top of the fifth and were bunted into scoring position, but now Esch was instructed to walk Wilson intentionally to fill the bases, then struck out both Novelo and Starr to end that inning. The score remained 1-0 through six innings, Nakayama holding the Indians to Matt Martin’s single to begin the bottom 1st and two walks, but it also started to drizzle at the end of the sixth inning. Dowsey and Gutierrez got on base with leadoff singles in the seventh, and Nakayama dutifully bunted them into scoring position again. Wilson was walked intentionally, and I wondered whether I was trapped in a time loop, but this time the tarp came onto the field before Novelo could do something stupid, although the rain delay was brief and play soon resumed with Novelo hitting into the Raccoons’ fourth 6-4-3 double play of the night. The Raccoons had the bases loaded again in the eighth against Danny Nava, as Ramon Lopez was hit with a pitch with two outs, Corral singled, and Dowsey was ALSO hit by a pitch. Scoring in that situation would be rude though, so Gutierrez grounded out to Matt Rogers, uselessly.

Nakayama went eight innings on a 100-pitch 1-hitter before Milian batted for him to begin the ninth, singled, and then was doubled off on Wilson’s grounder to short, which made it FIVE double plays. Obviously, McMahan then blew the lead in the bottom 9th, allowing a walk to Alex Gomez, hitting Rogers, and conceding the game-tying single to Paul Weber. ********. John Edwards popped out and Malcolm Spicer grounded out to Starr to send a stupid ballgame to stupid overtime. The Coons got nothing off Jimmy Dingman in the tenth, but a Dowsey double to open the 11th was interesting. He advanced on Gutierrez’ groundout before Ryan Bonner batted for Yamauchi, who had thrown a scoreless bottom 10th. Bonner singled through Weber to break the tie, then was caught stealing, but Jesse Dover at least made the skinny lead stand up in the Indians’ chance at looking useless just before 11 at night. 2-1 Blighters. Lopez 2-4; Dowsey 3-3, BB, 2B; Gutierrez 2-5; Milian (PH) 1-1; Bonner (PH) 1-1, RBI; Nakayama 8.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K;

Worse than glue, but at least they snapped the L5 before I could get *really* angry…

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – RF Corral – 2B Gutierrez – P Rios
IND: CF Ma. Martin – LF Brassfield – 1B M. White – C A. Gomez – RF T. Torres – 3B P. Weber – 2B Baxley – SS S. Dixon – P V. Perez

Rios was constantly behind in the count, Jose Corral made a clumsy error in the first inning, then hit a 2-out double with Dowsey on first base in the second inning, but Dowsey was thrown out at the plate by Torres, and the Raccoons didn’t score; and overall we were putting up another lousy display of how not to play baseball. Rios, while blundering boldly onwards, eventually walked Torres and gave up a huge homer to Paul Weber to fall 2-0 behind in the fourth inning. Control never got any better for him into the sixth inning, where the Indians finally took him apart when he walked good old Trent Brassfield and Gomez inside the first three batters of the inning. Torres struck a 1-out, 2-run double, 4-0, and Rios was yanked when Baxley drew another walk with two outs. Carrington replaced him and got a groundout from Sam Dixon to stop the bleeding, then added a scoreless seventh, but it didn’t really matter with the Raccoons doing zilch against Perez. By the time of the seventh-inning stretch, they had ONE hit in addition to that cursed Corral double, and that was the single that put Dowsey on base in the first place, all the way back in the second inning.

Corral singled in the eighth inning and Matas added a single batting for Josh C with two outs. Perez then lost Wilson on balls and suddenly Novelo came to the plate as the tying run, but never got anything to hit and drew a four-pitch walks as Perez came off his hinges. Danny Nava replaced him after the bases-loaded walk, Joel Starr flew out to center, and that was that. The bottom 8th went to Chance Fox when the Raccoons remained behind by a bunch. He started with strikeouts against Mike White and Alex Gomez, then filled the bags with two singles and a walk to Baxley. Sam Dixon ran a full count, but then grounded out to Monck, and Indy didn’t tack on. In turn, John Nesbitt got a save against his old team… 4-1 Indians. Corral 2-3, 2B; Matas (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – RF Corral – 2B Bonner – P Walla
IND: CF Ma. Martin – RF T. Torres – 1B Ma. Rogers – 3B P. Weber – LF Brassfield – SS Baxley – C J. Edwards – 2B Falcon – P Glaude

The Raccoons went up early with straight 2-out singles from the 3-4-5 batters in the first inning before Lopez ground out to Weber to keep Monck and Dowsey, who got the RBI, stranded. Ryan Bonner hit a single in the second inning, stole second, and scored on Wilson’s 2-out single before Wilson was caught stealing as Edwards denied him his 30th bag taken of the season. In the third, Monck and Dowsey hit 2-out singles only to get stranded by Ramon Lopez again, but at least Walla began the game with two strikeouts and then kept retiring the Indians in order all the way through the lineup in the first three innings, albeit without further whiffings.

Nick Walla retired a dozen Indians in a row before Paul Weber singled to center to begin the fifth inning, but didn’t get off first base. Still no more strikeouts for Walla, though, who kept feeding it to the defense pretty reliably. This eventually had to become a problem, and it did so in the bottom 6th, which Miguel Falcon opened with a double. Walla then had several batters at two strikes, including Martin, who walked, and Rogers, who bashed a game-tying, 2-run double, but couldn’t put either one away, and that reset everybody to square one.

Ironically, Walla then singled up the middle to begin the seventh inning. Although Wilson forced him out, that at least put a runner on base that could score from second on a Starr single to center, which did happen, and which gave the Raccoons a new 3-2 lead. Monck and Dowsey then added singles against Jimmy Dingman, the latter driving in another run, but Lopez saw another righty, Jorge Flores, and grounded out to short to end the inning. Walla then returned and got slapped around for three straight singles in the bottom 7th, plating a run, and Carrington plated the tying run with a wild pitch as the Coons pissed another lead away in baffling manner, and Walla was again left with a no-decision, this one however of his own ******* making.

Corral and Bonner led off the eighth by getting on base, but Milian hit into a double play to derail the effort. Wilson walked, and Novelo grounded out, leaving runners on the corners. Alvey and Holzmeister held the fort in the bottom 8th before Starr singled on the first pitch of Takenori Tanizaki in the ninth inning. He was run for with Carlos Matas, but the move proved superfluous when Rich Monck craned a 2-run homer to right against his former teammate. Juan Pera then replaced Tanizaki, a quad-A right-hander of 29 years of age with ghastly stats that a good team might extend the lead against. The Coons struck out twice before Corral and Gutierrez went to the corners with hits, and then Randy Tallent popped out to keep them on the corners. Jesse Dover then tried to **** that 6-4 game up; he allowed a leadoff single to Baxley in the bottom 9th before Edwards forced the runner out. Jose Hilario struck out, but Gomez singled in the #9 spot and Martin walked… and so did Torres, pushing home a run. Rogers hit a fly to right-center, but Corral tracked it down to end the bloody ballgame. 6-5 Coons. Starr 3-4, BB, RBI; Monck 4-4, HR, 2 RBI; Dowsey 3-5, 2 RBI; Corral 3-4, 2B; Bonner 2-4; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1;

Rich Monck home runs were not exactly frequent at this point, but somehow he now led the league by five clonkers. He had 24 homers, and nobody else in the CL had more than 19 (Starwalt). Monck would at this stage tie for second in the FL with Pittsburgh’s Nick Ding(er)man, but the Blue Sock Tony Roman had TEN more homers than anybody else in the entire league.

TEN.

Imagine that guy playing in Dallas 81 games a year…

Raccoons (57-58) @ Stars (67-45) – August 12-14, 2067

We came to visit the #1 offense in the Federal League – just over 5.2 runs per game – but the Stars were also allowing the fourth-most runs in the FL, and they had “only” a +84 run differential (Portland: +12). They somehow also led the league in OBP and stolen bases, but not home runs. Defensive was “mid”, and the pen was actively in trouble. The Coons had lost the last three series against Dallas, including getting swept last year, and I had no hopes for this series. This was gonna be a beating of epic proportions. The only hope was that the Stars had played 13 innings in Denver on Thursday and perhaps arrived a tad tired from scoring 14 runs over five hours of baseball.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (7-11, 3.48 ERA) vs. Alex Quevedo (10-7, 3.93 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-7, 3.79 ERA) vs. Ray Walker (4-1, 3.28 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (9-7, 3.77 ERA) vs. Ian Peters (11-5, 3.90 ERA)

Again, nothing but right-handers. “Crabman” Walker had missed much of the season with injuries; this was only to be his eighth start of ’67.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – RF Corral – 2B Gutierrez – P Gaytan
DAL: RF V.D. Morales – 3B X. Reyes – 2B Yocum – CF Wharton – LF Pritchett – SS Robichaud – 1B Fresco – C Bothe – P Quevedo

Victor David Morales homered off Gaytan to begin the bottom 1st, with the bases filling up for a hit Xavier Reyes, an Andy Yocum hit, and a walk to Tyler Wharton, who was on “only” 20 homers thanks to some injury issues of his own. Chad Pritchett popped out to Bonner, Jared Robichaud hit a sac fly for a 2-0 Dallas lead, and Belchior Fresco flew out to Corral, but to say that Gaytan was comfortable in the shoebox would have been an overstatement. He walked Jason Bothe and Morales in the second inning, and Robichaud in the third before finally getting a K on Fresco to end that inning. The Coons were very silent in the first few innings, but Monck doubled off the wall in right in the fourth before being brought in with a 2-out single by Lopez. However, the Stars shrugged that off as a temporary setback. Gaytan was still off, walked Morales and allowed hits to Reyes and Wharton in the bottom 4th, and allowed two more runs. He then left after just four ******* awful innings, having tossed up *102* pitches for NOTHING.

Evan Alvey pitched two innings, getting beaten around for another two runs in the latter, the bottom 6th. Holzmeister was taken deep for a homer by Jason Bothe in the seventh inning, and Yamauchi didn’t get off scoff-free either in the eighth, issuing a leadoff walk to Morales, who was driven in by Yocum for another tack-on run. The Raccoons never even got close to another run and were soundly beaten in the opener. 8-1 Stars.

Boys, I don’t claim to know everything, and I couldn’t throw a strike for my life, but maybe it’s not the smartest approach to issue SEVEN walks in this ******* ballpark!!

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Milian – 2B Gutierrez – P Musgrave
DAL: RF V.D. Morales – 3B X. Reyes – 2B Yocum – CF Wharton – SS Maudlin – LF Pritchett – 1B T. Pritchard – C Bothe – P R. Walker

Morales opened another first inning with a homer, and Musgrave looked even worse than Gaytan the day before. He walked Reyes, gave up an RBI double to Wharton, who stole third base and then scored on Jeff Maudlin’s single for a really fast 3-0 hole. At that point it was already clear that Musgrave had to wear it because Chance Fox was not going to live if sent out against this heavily right-handed lineup. The Stars then sabotaged themselves quite a bit in the following innings, hitting into a pair of double plays, and Pritchett was caught stealing to help Musgrave along. “Crabman” Walker scattered three singles early without allowing a run, then piled up strikeouts for a bit to keep the Raccoons in their place, while Musgrave wobbled into the bottom 6th where he met with obliteration. Wharton led off with a single to left-center, and Maudlin and Pritchard both socked RBI doubles up the leftfield line. Bothe grounded out, and maybe Musgrave could at least complete the inn- … no, Walker singled to center, 6-0, and that was curtains for Musgrave. Useless Jason Holzmeister threw a wild pitch and allowed another RBI double to left to Morales before Reyes grounded out to Starr in a 7-0 game.

Walker allowed a homer to Ramon Lopez in the seventh inning, but that made only a tiny dent in the huge Dallas lead, and then the Stars waffled Holzmeister for another two runs in the bottom 7th anyway. Dover was the first Raccoons pitcher to not allow a run in the series with a scoreless eighth, and that sounded better than it was because he fudged a runner on base with his own error, and then conceded a pair of 2-out singles before striking out Pritchett with the bases loaded. 9-1 Stars. Lopez 2-4, HR, RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Blech.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 2B Bonner – RF Corral – SS Gutierrez – P Nakayama
DAL: RF V.D. Morales – 3B X. Reyes – 2B Yocum – CF Wharton – SS Maudlin – LF Pritchett – 1B T. Pritchard – C D’Alessandro – P Peters

Nakayama filled the bases with Morales and Reyes singling and a walk to Maudlin with two outs, but Pritchett popped out to Bonner, and the Raccoons were not sawed in half right in the first inning on Sunday…! Oh well, then we’ll just go down 2-0 in the second! And the runs were unearned, because Lopez now threw away Peters’ bunt following Chris D’Alessandro’s 1-out single, putting a pair in scoring position. The runners scored on Morales’ sac fly to left, and a Reyes single following a wild pitch that moved the pitcher Peters to third base…

The Coons had a double play in the first, Lopez going 5-4-3 after a leadoff walk drawn by Jaden Wilson, while Corral and Gutierrez then led off the top 3rd with singles through the holes on the infield and were bunted into scoring position as the tying runs by Nakayama. Wilson drove in the runs with a single to left-center, then was caught stealing, still short of 30 stolen bases.

Peters then had a hand into getting a new lead in the fourth inning when he hit another single off the very hittable Nakayama. Reyes and Yocum hit more singles, the latter getting the go-ahead RBI, but Wharton flew out to Corral in deep right to end the inning. The bottom 5th began with a walk to Maudlin, and then Monck threw away a Pritchett grounder for two bases. There was obviously no recovery from there, but Tommy Pritchard socking a 2-run double into the leftfield corner was maybe a bit sooner to surrender the runs than we had hoped for after a mound conference…

Down 5-2, Lopez singled to left to begin the sixth inning, but was doubled up by Starr’s grounder to short. Rich Monck then hit one over the fence, which felt pointless, 5-3. Nakayama returned for the bottom 6th, gave up singles to Reyes, Yocum, and Maudlin, and then was rightfully purged and sent back to Japan after another 5.1 ****** innings. Carrington struck out Pritchett and got Pritchard to fly out to Dowsey, stranding all the runners, and keeping the earned damage on Nakayama to two runs in the 5-3 game. Peters was still batting in the seventh inning, hitting the first of three singles off Yamauchi and scoring another run. The right-hander hung around and got beaten even harder in the eighth, giving up (finally) a homer to Wharton and a single to Maudlin and an RBI double to Pritchard before the Raccoons went to Gabriel Rios – Monday being off – to get the last two ******* outs in the ******* series. Peters went eight-and-a-third before Starr and Monck singles and a walk to Aguilar batting in Bonner’s spot loaded the bases. Roberto Ramirez replaced him, and got his 35th save of the year on Corral’s 4-6-3 double play grounder and just two pitches. 8-3 Stars. Monck 2-4, HR, RBI;

In other news

August 8 – The Titans snap the 21-game hitting streak of MIL 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.301, 16 HR, 86 RBI), but lose to the Loggers, 5-3.
August 9 – A home run by VAN RF/LF Roberto Lozada (.311, 14 HR, 75 RBI) in the top of the first inning is all the scoring that occurs in a 1-0 win against the Crusaders.
August 9 – Similarly, CIN RF/LF Roberto Soto (.265, 14 HR, 65 RBI) goes yard in the top of the first to beat the Miners, 1-0, on the same day.
August 10 – From a 3-3 tie through regulation, the Wolves score three runs in the top of the tenth inning, but the Pacifics answer with four and celebrate a stunning 7-6 walkoff win.
August 11 – WAS SS/2B Tyler Gilliam (.284, 7 HR, 67 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 14-2 rout against the Rebels, driving in six runs on four hits with a bases-clearing triple and a 3-run homer.
August 11 – The Stars slog it out for a 14-12 win in 13 innings against the Gold Sox, including a 7-run rally in the seventh inning to erase a big deficit. Both teams scored a run in the 12th inning. DAL INF Andy Yocum (.351, 2 HR, 58 RBI) drives in four runs, most of all participants, on a home run and two singles.
August 13 – The Knights blast away the Miners in a 12-run second inning, although Pittsburgh keeps scratching and eventually loses only by a score of 13-9.
August 14 – The Scorpions walk off on the Canadiens, 4-3 in the ninth inning, in true fashion: 3B/SS Ben Wilken (.279, 1 HR, 19 RBI), RF Will Buras (.263, 1 HR, 5 RBI), C Greg Solomon (.227, 2 HR, 15 RBI), and INF Alex Castillo (.232, 5 HR, 38 RBI) all draw walks off Vancouver’s Paul Wolk (2-6, 4.75 ERA, 2 SV) to bring the winning run across home plate.

FL Player of the Week: RIC OF Willie Ospina (.289, 12 HR, 59 RBI), batting .524 (11-21) with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL C Justin Hart (.301, 6 HR, 64 RBI), socking .538 (14-26) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I didn’t expect much from the trip to Dallas, and yet I was still hurting when we left there. What a garbage series. Pitching ****, offense ****, defense ****. And all the walks!! At least challenge them, you *****!!!!

The only people I will exclude from getting yelled at in this case would be Dover, Josh C (who both were scoreless in their only outing), McMahan (who didn’t get used thanks to the suffocatingly right-handed lineup), and Chance Fox (who we didn’t even let put pants on). Everybody else can consider themselves getting a death stare.

The Coons are sliding away from .500 and threaten to post their first 3-year stretch of losing records since 2030-32.

Monday is off (and Rios was used pointlessly in the eighth on Sunday), and the Raccoons will then have a 6-game homestand against the Caps and Loggers. At least the competition will be reasonably friendly and not particularly aggravating. No ELKS. No CRUSADERS.

Fun Fact: Tyler Gilliam’s cycle on Thursday is only the second in Capitals franchise history.

Kenny Elder hit for a cycle against Sacramento in 2043.

The only other team with only two cycles are the Indians.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (57-61) vs. Capitals (54-64) – August 16-18, 2067

Two fifth-place teams with little to play for in the middle of August would play three games in the final interleague competition of the season. Washington was third in runs scored, but second-worst when it came to pitching in the FL, and their rotation and pen were both in the bottom three in ERA over there. Defense was predictably bad, and offensively they didn’t excel in any particular category. His was the first meeting between these two teams since 2063, when the Raccoons won two of three games from the Capitals.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (7-7, 2.95 ERA) vs. Joe Hoke (6-10, 5.20 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (7-12, 3.63 ERA) vs. Bobby MacDonald (4-11, 4.20 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-9, 4.43 ERA) vs. Danny Ortiz (6-8, 4.15 ERA)

The dearth of southpaws continued – unless the Caps would skip Tom Kies (9-7, 2.92 ERA) into this series, which was possible with the Monday off day.

Rios, who had made a pointless relief outing on Sunday, was skipped to the end of this series, but not for a full run through the rotation.

Game 1
WAS: LF Jose Alvarez – 1B A. Curiel – C Willhite – 2B Ang. Flores – RF A. Romero – CF D. Lewis – 3B A. Mendez – SS Gilliam – P Hoke
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 2B Tallent – P Walla

Hoke pitched for only five outs before he was forced to leave the game with an injury, bringing that icky Capitals pen into play; however, at the time they were up 1-0 thanks to Angelo Flores singling on an 0-2 pitch to begin the top 2nd, Walla walking Alex Romero, and Alex Mendez finding an RBI double in center. Romero tried to score on that play as well, but was thrown out by Jaden Wilson at the plate, and Mendez was left stranded. The Coons were poking indifferently in the early going until Ramon Lopez struck a leadoff homer to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth, which was the only run reliever Kevin Butte allowed in 2.1 innings.

The Coons would strand runners on the corners then in the fifth, when Tallent and Walla lobbed 2-out singles for nothing, and the sixth, when Lopez got on and stole a base, got to third base somehow, Dowsey drew a walk, but Novelo flew out and the runners remained on, so Walla – who had won only TWO of his last *15* starts, and not for a lack of trying – remained stuck in a 1-1 tie. He would pitch eight innings of 4-hit ball on 101 pitches, and then got his hopes up when Jaden Wilson hit a ball off the wall in centerfield for a leadoff triple in the bottom 8th. Ramon Lopez dropped in a single to get the go-ahead run across and make Walla eligible for the win, stole second again, Starr walked, and then two long fly ball outs by Monck and Dowsey were enough to get Lopez around to score for an extra run. Novelo grounded out, and now the Coons just had to get three outs without blowing a 2-run lead. McMahan got the ball due to the opposition on paw, but allowed 2-out singles to Angelo Flores and PH Danny Miller before walking another pinch-hitter, Jonathan Gutierrez, and was yanked. Josh C was brought in against Alex Mendez, a switch-hitter that was eating lefties especially, and got a fly to center that Wilson pulled down. 3-1 Blighters. Wilson 2-3, BB, 3B; Lopez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Walla 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (8-7) and 1-3;

Why Josh Carrington rather than Jesse Dover in a situation where the pot is about to boil over?

Vibes. Josh C *felt* more steady recently.

Hey, it worked, stop yelling at your TV!

Game 2
WAS: LF Jose Alvarez – 1B A. Curiel – C Willhite – 2B Ang. Flores – RF A. Romero – CF D. Lewis – 3B A. Mendez – SS Gilliam – P MacDonald
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 2B C. Gutierrez – P Gaytan

Gaytan walked Chris Willhite and apart from that struck out three and fed lots of grounders to Carlos Gutierrez the first time through the order. Neither team had a base hit the first time through, with Novelo reaching on an error by Tyler Gilliam for the only Brownshirt on base. Wilson then singled with two outs in the bottom 3rd, but was left on by Lopez. Long counts were an issue for Gaytan; although the Caps remained hitless through five and had no other base runners, he needed 73 pitches to get through five innings, which was genuinely hard to reason with. Jose Alvarez, former Crusader, drew a 2-out walk in the sixth, which didn’t help with that pitch count, either. Monck narrowly missed a homer, flying out to Alvarez right on the warning track after a 2-out walk to Starr in the bottom 6th, in a game that was otherwise rather starved for offense.

Angelo Flores broke up the no-hitter after 6.1 innings – or 97 pitches – with a single over the second base bag that Novelo dove for and contained, but had no play on anymore. Gaytan got the next two outs, but with the bid gone and his pitch count at a staggering 107 by the end of the inning, he was not brought back for the eighth inning, and had to settle for a no-decision, since the Coons were not getting anything done this time. The Raccoons then got two outs from Yamauchi before Jonathan Gutierrez left-handedly pinch-hit for MacDonald. Evan Alvey got the ball, but gave up a single, and then Danny Miller drove a pinch-hit RBI double to break the scoreless tie. Armando Curel grounded out to short to end the inning. Alvey completed nine innings, while the Raccoons got a Milian single in the bottom 8th, but Wilson forced him out and then was caught stealing as his 30th stolen base remained a theory, and Jason Rhodes got outs from Lopez and Starr in the bottom 9th before Monck singled. Dowsey grounded to Flores, who threw a skipper to first that Bryan Johnston couldn’t contain, and the two-base error put the tying and winning runs in scoring position. Bonner batted for the foundering Novelo, but flew out to left on the second pitch. 1-0 Capitals. Milian 1-1; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K;

Welp. And now the Raccoons did actually come up against the left-hander Kies in the rubber game on Thursday.

Game 3
WAS: CF D. Lewis – 3B D. Miller – 2B Ang. Flores – SS Gilliam – C Willhite – RF B. Campbell – 1B A. Mendez – LF A. Romero – P Kies
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Bonner – RF Milian – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – C Aguilar – LF Tallent – P Rios

Scoring remained much of a chore for the Raccoons on Thursday. They had nothing major going on in the first two innings, then got a leadoff double in the third from Tallent and another one in the fourth from Milian – and couldn’t score either one in a sea of pathetic outs. Rios was holding up at least that far, but then brain-farted out of the game in the fifth inning, allowing leadoff hits to the Alexes in the 7-8 spots, then mishandled Kies’ bunt to fill the bases with nobody out. He walked in a run against Don Lewis, the first run of the game, then surrendered another run on Miller’s double play grounder. Angelo Flores then lined out to Bonner to end the miserable inning. Brent Campbell’s single and Alex Mendez’ homer with two outs in the sixth doubled the score to 4-0 Capitals, and that was all for Rios in the game.

Danny Miller homered off Holzmeister with two outs in the seventh, which tacked on another run, while the Raccoons remained off the board until the Caps foolishly hit for Kies with three on and two outs in the top 8th after Holzmeister and Chance Fox had conspired to fool the bags full. Jonathan Gutierrez grounded out in Kies’ spot, stranding three, and then Carlos Gutierrez socked a leadoff homer off right-hander Jose Salazar in the bottom 8th. Wilson singled and Bonner reached on an error by Flores to create more of a mess before Willie Mendoza came on and got outs from Milian and Starr, but then allowed a 2-out RBI single to Monck, 5-2. Ramon Lopez then batted for Fox in the #6 spot deserted by Novelo earlier, drew a walk, but Aguilar grounded out against yet another reliever, Josh Johnson, to strand the tying runs. Josh “Vibes” Carrington then surrendered a run in the ninth on a pair of hits… 6-2 Capitals. Milian 2-4, 2B;

Raccoons (58-63) vs. Loggers (79-43) – August 19-21, 2067

The Loggers, huh? They came in leading the division by three games over Boston and everybody else pretty much beaten and done for the year. Milwaukee led the season series, 8-4, and they needed more wins from the Raccoons to keep staying ahead. This team still led the CL in runs scored with a mind-numbing six runs per game (rounded DOWN), and that was enough to survive rather middling pitching with a +189 run differential. They were at or near the top in every major offensive category, except for stolen bases, and they were also pretty bad on defense, ranking 11th with the gloves in the CL. Pitcher “Pizza” Pizzichini was still on the DL and not expected to be back before October, but everybody else was available and ready for mischief, as the Coons’ pitching would surely soon find out.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (9-8, 4.07 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (11-7, 3.73 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (9-8, 3.76 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (8-3, 4.07 ERA)
Nick Walla (8-7, 2.86 ERA) vs. Ryan Ward (2-0, 4.07 ERA)

Espinosa was the only southpaw they had in the rotation, while Ward was a 26-year-old rookie having the time of his life, and 8.1 walks per nine innings pitched.

Game 1
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – LF M. Alaniz – C Guitreau – P Crist
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 2B C. Gutierrez – P Musgrave

There was a threat of rain, so the Loggers were not wasting any time and when Jonathan Merrill got brushed by a pitch, Carlos Dominguez singled and Cesar Ramirez knelled a 2-run double for a quick first-inning lead right away. Fidel Carrera grounded out and Kyle Reber whiffed, keeping at least Ramirez on base. The first five batters in that lineup were all left-handed, but it sure didn’t help that Musgrave was ******* up each and every chance he got in this game. Mario Alaniz singled and Tommy Guitreau walked to begin the top 2nd, and then Musgrave threw away Crist’s bunt for two bases and a run. Tim Goss and Merrill got the other runners home to extend the score to 5-0. Musgrave then allowed nothing but singles to the four RIGHT-handed batters in the third inning and was removed – not that Evan Alvey could get ******* anybody out. I closed my eyes when the score was at 10-0 with a 5-run third inning.

Alvey was gonna be in the game until his stupid arm would come off, hit a double in the bottom 3rd, but of course that wasn’t gonna help the Coons score a run. It took a Wilson triple in the fifth and a sac fly hit by Lopez to get a run across at all. Starr and Monck then hit 2-out singles, but Dowsey struck out and that was that. Alvey’s stupid arm then came off after 64 pitches and just 3.2 innings. Tim Goss hurt himself on a 2-run double that extended the score to 12-1, and Chance Fox would be fed to the guns next. Merrill lined out to Starr to end the inning, after which Novelo and Gutierrez went to the corners in the bottom 6th for Fox to hit an RBI single, 12-2. Wilson hit another RBI single, and that knocked out Crist, but Jose Soto then got rid of Lopez and Starr quickly to end the inning. Fox then walked four and gave up as many runs in the seventh, and Carlos Dominguez then hit a solo homer off Fox in the eighth. The Capt’n Coma wasn’t nearly strong enough for this ****……..

Novelo pitched in the ninth, which was that, and at least kept the Loggers under thrice their runs/game for the entire season (bitter look), while the Raccoons in the last few innings just lied down and took it. 17-3 Loggers. Wilson 2-4, 3B, RBI;

The Coons were now bottoms in runs scored again.

And at this rate would soon be bottoms in runs allowed, too.

And it was Nakayama next….

Game 2
MIL: 2B C. Brantly – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – LF M. Alaniz – C Guitreau – P T. Espinosa
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Bonner – C Lopez – 1B Dowsey – RF Millian – SS Novelo – LF Matas – 3B Tallent – P Nakayama

The good news was that only four fifths of the top-of-the-order death squad were in the lineup on Saturday, although Nakayama’s first pitch to Chance Brantly sent Matas racing back to the wall to make a leaping catch at the fence. The Coons had the bases loaded in the bottom 1st as the 2-3-4 batters reached on a walk to Bonner, Lopez getting nicked, and a shy Dowsey single. Milian popped out against his longtime team, but Pablo Novelo cranked a bases-clearing double to right-center for a 3-0 lead! And then Matas popped out, because why would you want to keep going??

Of course there was no trusting Nakayama, even when he was reasonably competent the first time through. Merrill led off the fourth inning, though, and the 2-3-4 effortlessly snapped three singles off Nakayama. Ramirez drove in a run, and Carrera hit a sac fly to narrow the score to 3-2 before Reber and Mario Alaniz made the last two outs and kept the tying run on base.

Tallent’s leadoff double and a pair of fly outs by Nakayama and Bonner – around a walk drawn by Wilson – secured a tack-on run on the sac fly in the bottom 5th, 4-2, and conveniently Dominguez hit a leadoff single for Milwaukee in the sixth, but then the Loggers made three quick outs to keep him on base. The bags were full in the bottom 6th with a 1-out single by Milian and then a pair of walks to Novelo and Matas, bringing up Tallent with the dishes laden. I was begging the super utility for some tack-on runs with my big black googly eyes, but it didn’t get better than a sac fly, and Nakayama made the third out against reliever Jordan Verner as Espinosa was chased.

Nakayama held out for seven, allowing eight hits, before McMahan came on for the 3-4-5 batters in the eighth. Ramirez singled and Dover replaced him with two outs, along with Starr, who replaced Dowsey at first base in a double switch, then struck out Dave Wright to end the eighth inning. The Coons didn’t tack on, and Dover got two outs in the ninth before Rafael Murcia took him deep to right-center; however, Brantly then struck out to end the game. 5-3 Coons. Tallent 1-2, 2B, RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (10-8);

We decided to try that thing with the five left-handed batters atop the lineup on Sunday, even though I thought it was phony and bad style. Goss was still missing on Sunday, so the Loggers had the saner lineup with just four left-handed bats in order.

Game 3
MIL: 2B C. Brantly – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – LF M. Alaniz – C Guitreau – P R. Ward
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 2B Gutierrez – SS Novelo – C Aguilar – P Walla

Dowsey drummed a 3-run homer in the first inning after Wilson and Starr reached base and Monck didn’t quite manage to hit into a double play with a sharp spanker at Kyle Reber, who could only take it for a 5-U on the lead runner Wilson. Gutierrez doubled, but was left on base by Novelo, and Guitreau pulled two runs back in the second with a homer of his own after Walla began the inning by walking Carrera, falling 3-0 behind Reber, Reber hitting into a double play, and then Alaniz slashed a single. It didn’t get any better from here, as Brantly and Merrill opened the third inning with singles and then Cesar Ramirez raked a 3-run homer to flip the score, and Walla kept getting whacked for another three hits and a run driven in by Guitreau with two outs before Ward struck out to end the ******* inning, 6-3.

Battered, Walla dragged himself through the middle innings until he was finally yanked with a walk to Brantly with two outs in the sixth; the score was still 6-3 at that time. McMahan came on in a double switch, ****** the bags full by walking Merrill and hitting Dominguez, got yelled at on the mound, and then Ramirez popped out to strand three runners. McMahan also walked Carrera to begin the seventh before being stuffed into the nearest garbage bin.

Ward never had a strikeout in six wonky innings, walking four, but that was enough to hold the 6-3 lead. Joel Starr hit a home run off Nick Walters with one out in the seventh to narrow the score to 6-4, while Holzmeister – of all people – somehow pitched six outs for the Coons in the seventh and eighth. The bottom 8th began with Gutierrez and Novelo singles to put the tying runs on the corners, although Gutierrez hurt himself contorting himself around a tag attempt by Rafael Murcia at third base and left the game with an injury. Bonner would run for him, while Angelo Ramirez filled the bases by drilling Justin Aguilar. Then Matas struck out. And Wilson struck out. Oh come on!!! Corral fell behind against Ramirez, but then hit a ball to deep center. Merrill wasn’t going to get there, and the Raccoons would tie the game on a double!! Aguilar fell down rounding third base and had to crawl back to the base, and the inning ended when Starr popped out to Ramirez.

Carrington was then sent out against the armed-to-the-teeth part of the lineup starting with Merrill. I wouldn’t say he fooled them, as the 2-3-4 all whacked away at the first pitch, but Merrill flew out to left and the other two grounded out to Bonner at second base to sort themselves out as fast as possible. However, Monck and Milian, and Bonner went down in order in the bottom 9th, and the game went to extras. Yamauchi had one scoreless inning in him, but not two, and Guitreau’s single and another Murcia homer – he had only four on the season now… – gave the Loggers an 8-6 lead in the 11th inning. Steve Slye then made short work of the Raccoons in the bottom 11th to take the series for Milwaukee. 8-6 Loggers. Starr 2-5, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Gutierrez 2-3, BB, 2B; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

August 17 – There are no fewer than three 1-0 games played on Wednesday. The Capitals beat the Raccoons in Portland by this score, as do the Canadiens, claiming a 1-0 win at home against the Buffaloes. The Falcons have to play ten innings before they put a 1-0 walkoff together against the Scorpions.
August 19 – Nashville SP Ken McDonald (13-8, 4.26 ERA) 3-hits the Cyclones to squeeze out a 1-0 shutout.
August 19 – WAS SP Joe Hoke (6-10, 5.12 ERA) was expected to be out for a full year with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.

FL Player of the Week: LAP 1B Alejandro Olivares (.277, 6 HR, 61 RBI), batting .355 (11-31) with 1 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.368, 20 HR, 103 RBI), raking .462 (12-26) with 1 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Even though it felt like Cesar Ramirez had 12 hits against the Coons alone, he actually had only five – but drove in seven runs with a homer, a double, and three singles. He went 7-for-13 against the Miners, but had only one RBI. Baseball is a wicked thing and makes no sense, and we’re foolish for wasting so much time and effort on it.

Just when it looked like Carlos Gutierrez might sneak regular playing time at second base for the rest of the year he suffered an abdominal strain and would hit the DL for the next 15 days. He should be able to return soon after that minimum assignment to the DL, but the Raccoons were back to fudging around with Bonners and Tallents, and none of them were particularly bonne, or had tallent.

After this tremendous waffling by the Loggers (28 runs in three games…) we would get to go to Boston right away to get even more on the snout up there, and probably not score any runs at the same time. The remaining games for the month would then be against the Baybirds and Thunder.

Fun Fact: The Loggers won the season series from the Coons for three straight years with their W on Sunday.

It was the first time they had done so since taking the series for four straight years from 2039 through 2042, which was the most they had ever managed, tied with 1997 through 2000.

Now, granted, the Raccoons didn’t WIN the season series from the Loggers – who were on the up for most the period – during the entire Decade of Darkness, but snuck in 9-9 years in ’01 and ’04 and that was enough to prevent a longer streak of losing against the Loggers.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-65) @ Titans (76-47) – August 22-24, 2067

The Titans were four games behind the Loggers and performance against the Raccoons played a part in that, as Boston was only 6-6 when playing the Critters this year. Their pitching led the league, but the offense was only average, with a +106 run differential. They had also just buried closer Cody Kleidon for the season with a partially torn labrum; he joined Bryce Wallace, Josh Carlisle, and Andy Lee on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (7-12, 3.46 ERA) vs. Matt Taylor (8-6, 3.96 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-10, 4.51 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (5-8, 4.49 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-9, 4.49 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (14-5, 3.05 ERA)

No southpaw and no Brenize, as both him and Tyler Riddle had pitched the two most recent games for Boston.

The Coons arrived without Carlos Gutierrez, who had been put on the DL for an abdominal strain. The callup went out to Gary Gates to make his major league debut. He had a .350 OBP in St. Petersburg and otherwise had a singles bat. He could play third base and the middle infield positions rather well. He was 24, and had arrived from Denver along with Tommy Branch in December of 2065 when the Raccoons had disposed of a host of unwanted pitching.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan
BOS: LF S. Humphries – RF Joe Washington – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – 1B Joyner – SS Onelas – 3B I. Berrios – P Ma. Taylor

Jaden Wilson finally stole his 30th base after weeks of trying, taking second base after opening the game with a single to right-center. He came around to score on groundouts by Lopez and Corral, but Steve Humphries and Jorge Arviso singles would be enough for Boston to tie the game right back in the bottom 1st. The Raccoons reclaimed the lead on straight singles by the 3-4-5-6 batters in the third inning as both Starr and Dowsey drove in a run, and Taylor was flogged for two more runs in the fourth inning as Wilson singled, Ramon Lopez struck a triple into the rightfield corner, and then scored on a single by Jose Corral, 5-1. The Titans would let him pitch into the fifth inning, but when Tony Gaytan doubled home Ryan Bonner with two outs to make it 6-1, they had seen enough and yanked him.

And Gaytan wasn’t pitching a *great* game… the Titans were readily able to make contact early in counts, and when the counts ran longer in the early innings, they usually went in their favor – not that they were able to beat the defense much, and they got only one walk in the first four innings. Gaytan did commit a brain cramp in the bottom 5th though, allowing a single to reliever and former Critter Sansao Tyson, Corral flubbed the pickup in shallow right, and Joe Washington would drive Tyson in from second base with two outs…

Doubles by Corral and Starr reclaimed that run in the sixth, 7-2, but Gaytan offered leadoff walks in both the sixth and seventh innings. Nothing happened the first time round, but in the latter instance the free runner Ivan Berrios was soon joined when Tony Rodriquez knocked out a base hit, and with one out Joe Washington cranked a 3-run homer to right, and suddenly we had a ballgame again at 7-5. Gaytan struck out the right-handed Eddie Marcotte before being ushered away, and we then got three outs from Evan Alvey.

At that late stage, Gary Gates made his ABL debut as a defensive replacement for Rich Monck, coming into the game with Jesse Dover, who was asked for a 4-out save, but right away got himself taken deep by Marcos Onelas on an 0-2 pitch to erase the last bit of cushion. Berrios whiffed to end the inning, the Coons wasted a leadoff walk to Joel Starr in the ninth inning, but Dover then managed to finish the game. He retired Willie Acosta and Steve Humphries on grounders to begin the ninth, then pitched with care to Joe Washington, walking him. The game ended with Marcotte, a right-handed batter, whom Dover sliced up for a game-ending strikeout. 7-6 Raccoons. Wilson 2-4, BB; Corral 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5; Starr 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Gates did not come to bat in the ninth inning, but he would start the middle game on second base on Tuesday.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gates – LF Matas – P Rios
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – 2B Jer. White – 3B I. Berrios – C L. Marquez – RF Kaniewski – SS Onelas – P R. Montoya

Rios held the Titans hitless the first time through, but Eddie Marcotte’s triple over the head of Wilson and a groundout by Jeremy White would not only give them a hit, but also the game’s first run in the fourth inning. By then the Coons had scattered three singles and had yet to put a paw on third base. Novelo had hit into a double play in the second inning, but then opened the fifth with a single – only to get doubled off himself by Gary Gates. How’d’ya like them apples??

Onelas and Humphries doubles gave Boston another run in the bottom 5th, 2-0, and they now had four hits, all for extra bases (Berrios had hit a 2-out double in the fourth before being stranded). They got another run in the sixth as Rios threatened to come unglued: Marcotte led off with a single, White walked and was forced out on Berrios’ grounder, and then Lorenzo Marquez hit an RBI single to make it 3-0. The bags filled with another four-pitch walk to John Kaniewski before Onelas hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

The Raccoons tried to answer with leadoff singles by Corral and Monck, both in 1-2 counts, against Montoya in the seventh inning. Starr and Novelo then both flew out harmlessly, bringing up Gates. The debutant not only got his first hit, but also his first RBI with a clean single to left-center that sent Corral home from second base, and Matas added another RBI single to get back to 3-2 before David Milian pinch-hit and grounded out to Bill Joyner, stranding a pair. Holzmeister got the ball in the bottom 7th, which turned out not to be the smartest move, as he immediately gave up a walk, a single, and ultimately a sac fly to Marcotte. White then grounded out, leaving an extra runner on base. Top 8th, Wilson reached on an error by Joyner, but was doubled up on a Lopez grounder to short. The Titans would send Tyler Gleason to get the save in the ninth inning. The left-hander put Starr on base with a 1-out single, but Novelo then involved himself in his third double play of the game, this a 6-4-3 that ended it. 4-2 Titans. Corral 2-4; Monck 2-4; Starr 2-4;

The Raccoons had nine hits in this game, all singles. The Titans had seven hits, the majority for extra bases…

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Dowsey – 3B Monck – RF Milian – SS Novelo – 2B Gates – LF Matas – P Musgrave
BOS: LF S. Humphries – RF Joe Washington – CF Marcotte – 2B Jer. White – 1B Joyner – SS Onelas – C L. Marquez – 3B I. Berrios – P M. Bell

Boston began batting with a homer by Humphries over the leftfield wall against Musgrave in the rubber game, and that wasn’t the last blast off the veteran right-hander, who was taken quite well deep by Jeremy White for two runs with two gone in the bottom 3rd, Joe Washington being on base as well. That made it a 3-0 hole for the Coons against Bell, who faced the minimum in the first three innings – although Matas singled and was caught stealing, so there was no bid going – and then retired another four batters before a 1-out single to left by David Milian in the fifth inning. Novelo singled to center and Gates reached on an error by Onelas to fill the bases. Carlos Matas whiffed bigly, upon which Joel Starr batted for Musgrave, who was getting whacked anyway, and … also struck out.

Chance Fox then came in and pitched two garbage innings, getting smacked around for three more runs even as the Raccoons put up a 2-run sixth of their own with a Wilson single, Lopez triple, and Dowsey double – all with nobody out – before the 4-5-6 batters collectively croaked and left Dowsey on base. Bell went eight innings and struck out as many while holding the 6-2 lead rather well after the brief hiccup in the middle innings. Tony Castellanos got the ball for the ninth, but allowed a walk to Milian and a single to PH Justin Aguilar with one out and was replaced with Gleason, who saw Gates string a ball into the leftfield corner for a 2-run triple, suddenly putting the tying run in the batter’s box. Matas popped out, however, and the Coons were down to Randy Tallent for pinch-hitting purposes (Corral having been used one turn earlier) and he flew out to Humphries to end the game. 6-4 Titans. Aguilar (PH) 1-1;

We were off on Thursday and traveling back to Portland.

Raccoons (60-67) vs. Bayhawks (42-83) – August 26-28, 2067

The horrendous Bayhawks were so horrendous, they had yet to win a game against the Raccoons this year. Tenth in runs scored, bottoms in runs allowed, and with a -208 run differential, they were the unchallenged runts of the litter in the Continental League these days. There was hardly a stat in which they were not reaching for the bottom of the barrel, the exception being home runs, in which they ranked fifth in the CL. This was the final series between these two teams.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (10-8, 3.71 ERA) vs. Juan Sanchez (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Nick Walla (8-7, 3.09 ERA) vs. Adam Gardner (8-12, 4.48 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (8-12, 3.60 ERA) vs. Vince Vandiver (3-13, 6.44 ERA)

Sanchez had been with the Critters last year. Him getting hurt two innings into his first start of the year had signalled the horns for a collapse for the team – although they were surely enough culprits to be found besides him. Gardner and Sanchez were left-handed; Sanchez had also just rejoined from a rehab assignment, so there was plenty of wiggle room to get other starters involved, f.e. right-hander Paul Egley (5-15, 5.42 ERA).

Game 1
SFB: RF J. Ward – SS O. Aredondo – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Goodwin – 1B Navarre – CF Parrish – 3B K. Ball – P Ju. Sanchez
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 3B Monck – RF Milian – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gates – LF Tallent – P Nakayama

Nakayama issued walks to Jake Ward and Armando Montoya (his poor soul!) in the first inning, but wiggled around that with Curt Goodwin’s infield pop, and then had a better grasp on what was on offer from the second inning onwards, also pitching with a lead. The Coons made two outs to begin the game, but the 3-4-5 then loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom 1st and then Novelo drove in two runs before Sanchez rung up Gates. Milian would single home Ramon Lopez in the third inning, which also saw Portland loading the bags when Starr and Novelo reached as well, but Gates hit into an inning-ending double play. Milian then brought in Lopez again in the fifth inning, extending the lead to 4-0 with an RBI groundout after Sanchez nicked Lopez and he went to third base on a Monck single over Montoya’s head. Monck was left on base, but it was 4-0 through five innings.

Nakayama had yet to allow a base hit, but was also on 66 pitches through five. The Bayhawks surrendered easily in the sixth, but Goodwin dropped an uncatchable single into no man’s land with two outs in the seventh inning, and the bid was gone, seven outs shy of completion. Nate Navarre then made an easy third out. The Coons tacked on a run in the bottom 7th as Wilson tripled to center to begin the inning. Lopez popped out, but Monck hit a sac fly to John Parrish, 5-0, although Parrish exacted revenge with a leadoff jack to right in the top 8th, taking the shutout away, too. Nakayama would be done after eight innings and 99 pitches, and Holzmeister 1-2-3’ed the Baybirds on six pitches to put the game away for good. 5-1 Raccoons. Monck 3-3, RBI; Starr 2-4; Novelo 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Nakayama 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (11-8);

Game 2
SFB: RF J. Ward – SS O. Aredondo – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Goodwin – 1B Navarre – CF Blackham – 3B K. Ball – P A. Gardner
POR: C Lopez – 1B Starr – RF Milian – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – LF Tallent – 2B Bonner – CF Matas – P Walla

Oscar Aredondo took Walla deep as the second batter of Saturday’s ballgame, so there went the shutout and all the pretending followed when Nate Navarre got on base with an infield single in the second inning. He stole second, and Keith Ball drove him in with a 2-out double. Worse yet, Adam Gardner’s single to center made it 3-0. An already disoriented Walla was then visibly shaken once he broke Armando Montoya’s old man wrist with a fastball, the veteran screaming as he flung the bat away and made a bee line for the clubhouse. Curt Enos replaced him. Enos stole second, scored on Goodwin’s single, and then Navarre cranked a 2-run homer, 6-0. So much for winning out the season series.

The Coons had no rally in them for a very long time. We had three hits through five innings, and managed to hit into double plays with Bonner and Monck at different times. Yamauchi and Alvey followed Walla, who was yanked after 3.1 ****** innings, and got the game through six without allowing even more damage before the bottom 6th opened with a Matas single. Jaden Wilson batted for Alvey and doubled, but with runners on second and third and nobody out we sure found ways to croak; Lopez whiffed, Starr hit an RBI single to left, but Wilson was thrown out at the plate trying to steal as well, and then Milian grounded out, and it was still 6-1 after six innings. Rich Monck homered to lead off the seventh, but that merely got the team into slam range, and for the rest of the inning only got Bonner on when Keith Ball threw his grounder away. After that it was time for the very lowly rated show of “Close Your Eyes with Chance Fox”! He walked two in a gruesome eighth inning, then somehow managed to escape his own mess when the Baybirds didn’t bother batting for Gardner with two outs, and Gardner looked at a pitiful 3-2 strike called barely brushing the corner of the zone.

And YET … Milian batted as the tying run in the bottom 8th, with nobody out, after Gates, who entered in a double switch with Fox, and Lopez had singled, and Starr drew a walk, the first one issued by Gardner. Milian, a rather unsuccessful July trade addition, dropped his Coons batting average back to .226 (75 points under his Stingers clip) with a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play grounder, but Monck hit a 2-out RBI single past Aredondo. He was stranded on Novelo’s pop to first.

Bottom 9th, and Roland Wiser got the ball for a save opportunity. The Coons sent Corral and Dowsey to bat for Tallent and Fox, and both singled, bringing the winning run to the plate with nobody out – but the bench was down to Justin Aguilar. Matas’ sharp grounder was almost taken for two outs, but Matas beat out the relay throw on the 5-4-3 attempt, giving Corners runners at the gates. He, too, narrowly legged out the return throw on a double play attempt after grounding to short, and Corral scored from third base. Lopez’ fly out to David Blackham ended the game. 6-5 Bayhawks. Starr 2-3, BB, RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1; Dowsey (PH) 1-1; Wilson (PH) 1-1; Gates 1-2, RBI;

This was perhaps the worst we had seen Walla in a long time.

The season of Armando Montoya (.269, 17 HR, 71 RBI) was over after Walla crunched his wrist real good with that heater.

Paul Egley then was put up for the Sunday start.

Game 3
SFB: CF Parrish – 2B O. Aredondo – LF Streng – RF J. Ward – C Goodwin – 1B McEwan – SS Yniguez – 3B K. Ball – P Egley
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Gates – C Aguilar – P Gaytan

Parrish, Aredondo, and Ward all hit incredibly hard balls against Gaytan in the first inning, but only Parrish got a double to fall in and then was left on third base after some good outs were made by Corral and Wilson in the depths of the outfield. Rich Monck opened the scoring with a leadoff jack to right in the bottom 2nd, but just like Walla on Saturday, Gaytan looked well off. Jim McEwan hit a single in the second and was left on, and Ball and Parrish went to the corners with a walk and a single in the third inning, but were also stranded when suddenly more poor outs were made.

Then suddenly, the Bayhawks made very quick outs for the next couple of innings, which coupled with Portland’s inability to tack on meant the score remained 1-0. Gaytan then lost Aredondo to a leadoff walk in the sixth, but Ian Streng grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. Jake Ward also walked, stole second … and was left on when Goodwin fanned. However, it was too good to be true. McEwan whiffed to begin the seventh, but then Adan Yniguez singled. Ball struck out, but Egley (!) singled, Parrish tied the game with a single, and Navarre singled home two more. Gaytan was yanked, everybody was sad, and then Navarre was caught stealing with Josh C on the hill, ending the bloody inning.

Bottom 7th, a Dowsey double, a Corral single, and the tying runs were on the corners with nobody out against Egley. Gates hit a roller next to the mound that Egley greedily pounced on and threw well past Curt Enos at second base, getting not two outs, not one, but none, and a run scored. Aguilar then reached on a Blackham error, and the bags were loaded with nobody out. Carrington was hit for with Milian after throwing a single pitch, and the huge disappointment kept getting disappointinglier with a grounder to first or a force out at the plate, and Wilson then ****** into a 4-6-3 double play, keeping Egley 3-2 ahead. Egley added another inning, but Wiser was out for the ninth in the 3-2 game, with Dowsey up first against the right-hander. Both him and Corral flew out easily to Parrish before Matas batted for Gates and hit a double to right-center. The game ended with Aguilar grounding out instead. 3-2 Bayhawks. Matas (PH) 1-1;

Useless.

One of those instances where you then end up with Ramon Lopez left in the on-deck circle…

In other news

August 24 – The Loggers flatten the Canadiens, 16-3 in a 20-hit barrage. Honors are spread out in the lineup, but MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.379, 16 HR, 80 RBI) is a triple away from the cycle on three hits and drives in four runs.
August 26 – Crusaders outfielder Bryant Box (.297, 2 HR, 32 RBI) would miss three weeks with a badly lacerated hand, suffered when he got it caught in someone else’s cleats on the base paths.
August 27 – The Loggers get some of their own medicine in a 16-6 defeat against the Thunder. Oklahoma INF Daniel Richardson (.292, 3 HR, 42 RBI) has three doubles and three RBI in the game.

FL Player of the Week: NAS CF/RF/1B Fernando Aracena (.325, 2 HR, 43 RBI), clipping .542 (13-24) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT 2B/SS Jose Palominos (.288, 14 HR, 81 RBI), driving .481 (13-27) with 2 HR, 12 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Cruddy week! Losing a series to the Bayhawks should normally void all contracts on the team and leave them to look for waiting jobs!!

Not that it really matters. We’re probably gonna have a protected first-round pick again anyway. Right now we’re in line for a #6 pick, which is surprisingly good for being still at .469; but there’s plenty of teams between us and right-around-.500, so I don’t put it past these klutzes to plonk down a .600 September and end up with a #14 pick again…

Meanwhile, the teams that *are* worse than us in terms of games won and lost are mostly VERY FAR behind us. Only four games ahead of the Arrowheads for last in the North now, though…

Rich Monck hit two homers in the two Baybirds losses and is now at 27, third-best in the league, but tops in the CL, and five ahead of Ian Stone of Oklahoma.

Speaking of Oklahoma, they’re in to complete the month of August, starting on Monday. We will be off and travelling on the first of September, and then play seven games on the road against the Crusaders and damn Elks. We have only four road series left this year – two of them in Elk City, somehow.

Fun Fact: Since Wednesday night, the Loggers offense is on pace for 997 or 998 runs for the full season.

At that point they had played four straight series with at least one game in which they scored 10+ runs, and five of seven on the month; only the Titans had resisted (while getting swept), along with the Condors (who scratched out one win on August 1).

July 31 and August 1 were also the most-recent consecutive losses for the Loggers (the former against the Aces) until they were handed back-to-back beatings by the Thunder on Saturday and Sunday. Well, they still scored 18 runs in that 3-game set, but they were thrashed for 34…

[DD Martin]

Man what happened to this team? They were humming along in early June (12th) with a 35-28 record. No they were not going to win the CL North, but they looked like they had righted the ship and would have a solid upper 80’s win total. They were in 3rd and 8 games clear of the damn Elks.

Since then they have gone 26-41 fallen to 5th and look guaranteed to finish sub 500 again. They now trail the stinking Elks by 4 games and are buried in 5th place. What the hell happened?

I know draft pick position is something to think about but then you also have that idiot owner who will likely lower the budget even further. So picking closer to the middle with perhaps a stable budget or 6th with perhaps another $2 million slashed. Which is the better situation?

[Westheim]

Man, and you haven't seen the Thunder series I played this morning yet.

+++

For a while the offense hummed, and then it stopped.

Also, the rotation went progressively more sour over the year. The only one that got better over the year is Nakayama.

I don't have any magic beans, unfortunately. We have a bunch of "surely he'll be good" infielders in AAA (and they never are). Much of what we do going forward will be decided by the singular fork in the road of Rich Monck being a type A free agent or not after this season. If yes, I want to cash the draft picks. If not, we might actually still resign him.

It's not like AAA is full of guys raising two paws and begging to be brought up. I actually already put in the Fun Fact for the upcoming week (come back in an hour or two), and you'll be shocked to learn how many (few) players we used this season. There were no applicants, with perhaps the exception of Jake Flowe.

Yeah, no, it's not gonna get good overnight.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (61-69) vs. Thunder (73-57) – August 29-31, 2067

I wasn’t keen on playing the team that had just bombed the Loggers, but here they were, entering the arena tied at three for the season series with the miserly Raccoons, who were mid-rush for a losing record after all. Oklahoma City ranked third in runs scored and runs allowed. They had the best pen in the league, and the second-highest OBP as a team. For injuries they had just shed starter Jeff Kozloski, and outfielder Vince Goll was also on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (9-11, 4.51 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (10-4, 5.29 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-10, 4.55 ERA) vs. Josh Elling (9-4, 3.67 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (11-8, 3.58 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (14-7, 2.95 ERA)

We spotted a southpaw on getaway day here.

Game 1
OCT: RF Almanza – C Bohannon – CF Thore – SS Palominos – 2B Archuleta – 3B D. Richardson – 1B I. Stone – LF Franks – P J. Ortega
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Rios

The Raccoons scored first on Monday night, as Rich Monck brought in Jaden Wilson with a sac fly to left. Starr, Dowsey, and Corral all hit singles in the inning, but Novelo lined out to Scott Franks in leftfield to leave those three stranded on base. Rios then got rid of the lead right away, giving up singles to Ramon Archuleta and Daniel Richardson in the top 2nd, with the tying run coming in on Franks’ fielder’s choice grounder; and in the third inning the Thunder got free runners with a walk to Martin Bohannon, Coby Thore got nicked, and Jose Palominos and Richardson brought in a run each with singles before Ian Stone hit into an inning-ending double play. Dowsey also hit into a double play after Starr and Monck began the bottom 3rd with singles to right. Corral’s 2-out double then plated only Starr, 3-2, and Novelo grounded out again to leave him in scoring position.

Rios kept being useless, walking Franks to lead off the fourth inning. The runner stole second, was bunted to third, and scored when Roberto Almanza hit a sac fly to right-center, and then Bohannon drew another walk. He was left on, but Palominos and Stone hits eventually led to Rios’ removal after just 4.2 innings and over 100 pitches. Alvey got a fly out from Franks to Wilson to end the inning. While Alvey then made a run at efficient long relief, the Raccoons were not a big factor on the bases until Bonner got on to begin the bottom 7th. Alvey bunted him to second base and after Wilson grounded out and Lopez walked, he would score on Starr’s 2-out double to narrow the score to 4-3 again, but Starr was then left stranded in scoring position – along with Ramon Lopez. Stone singled off Alvey in the top 8th; the left-hander got two outs in the inning for three full innings on the ledger, and Jesse Dover entered when the lineup flipped over again, was met with lefty pinch-hitter J.D. Johnson instead of Almanza, but struck him out anyway to strand Stone at second base. Dover also put the Thunder away in order in the ninth inning after Ortega had done the same to the Brownshirts in the bottom 8th, and Erik Swain then appeared for the save chance. Aguilar, Matas, and Wilson went down in order all the same. 4-3 Thunder. Starr 3-4, 2B RBI; Corral 2-4, 2B, RBI; Alvey 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 2
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – 2B D. Richardson – RF Almanza – LF J.D. Johnson – 3B N. Fowler – P Elling
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – SS Novelo – 2B Gates – P Musgrave

The middle game went off the rails immediately when Musgrave allowed a leadoff single to Coby Thore, then kept shaking out his arm and was collected by Luis Silva without much further ado. The Coons then went to Holzmeister, who was immediately run over, also supported kindly by Novelo misfielding Bohannon’s grounder for an error. Palominos and Almanza knocked base hits and three runs scored in the inning in total. After this, the Raccoons – having used Alvey in garbage relief the day before – had to go to Chance Fox and pretty much abandon the idea of winning the season series against the Thunder for the first time in four years. Fox immediately gave up a run in the second inning, but at least ticked the box of covering innings – he would pitch the Raccoons all the way through the sixth inning, albeit for the cost of another 3-spot in the fifth inning, all runs scoring on a mighty Ian Stone homer. On the “plus” side, the Raccoons’ offense was entirely dead against former Critter Josh Elling and was putting up just three weak hits through five innings anyway, so what was the difference between trailing 4-0 and 7-0?

David Milian batted for Fox to begin the bottom 6th and reached on an infield single. Wilson also singled, Lopez flew out, and Starr walked to fill the bases. Elling also lost Monck on balls, forcing in the Coons’ first run of the game, but Dowsey whiffed and Corral grounded out to Richardson to leave the bags stacked. Palominos and Richardson doubles off Josh C then pulled that run back right away in the seventh inning, and McMahan allowed another run in the eighth with a leadoff walk to Nick Fowler, and Elling’s bunt dying under a pile of Critters without anybody making a play, which gave them two on and nobody out. Fowler would then score on two productive outs, while Elling was stranded. McMahan would retire Stone to begin the ninth, then turned the ball over to Novelo, who walked Richardson, allowed a 2-out single to J.D. Johnson, but then struck out Fowler for an end to the inning and eternal shame on Fowler. Ramon Lopez hit a sac fly in the dying moments of the Coons flailing away, not that it made a noticeable dent in the final score. 9-2 Thunder. Wilson 3-4; Dowsey 2-3, 2B; Milian (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons placed Ryan Musgrave on the DL with shoulder soreness, although he was expected to return for some more action in September. Juan Soriano was recalled from AAA a day early.

Game 3
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – 2B D. Richardson – LF J. Parker – RF Almanza – 3B R. Vargas – P D. Baca
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – RF Corral – LF Tallent – 2B Bonner – 3B Gates – P Nakayama

It only got worse on Wednesday, when rain entered the equation and messed up Nakayama right in the second inning with an hourlong delay. When play resumed, the Thunder swiftly rounded him up for three runs in the same inning, and the top 3rd saw a walk to Stone, Richardson doubling to right-center, but Corral throwing out Stone at the plate, and then Johnny Parker’s RBI single still got a run home with two outs to extend the score to 4-0.

While the Raccoons had great issues getting Nakayama pressed through even five innings, the Thunder’s Danny Baca seemed unfazed by any of this and was no-hitting the Raccoons until Coby Thore dove for, but only trapped a Gary Gates floater to shallow center with two outs in the bottom 5th. Milian batted for Nakayama and singled, putting a second Critter on base, but Wilson then grounded out easily. Gates then threw away Richardson’s grounder to begin the sixth inning for a 2-base error, pulling out the rug right from under Manabu Yamauchi, who went on to allow hits to Almanza and Baca (…) and two unearned runs to extend the Thunder lead to 6-0. For comparison, Ricardo Vargas also threw away Lopez’ grounder to lead off the bottom 6th for two bases, after which the Raccoons made two pitiful outs before Corral socked an RBI double to right and tore out his leg somewhere between first and second base… He left the game for Matas to pinch-run and then play leftfield, and Tallent went to right after whiffing to end the inning.

Baca was replaced after six innings with right-hander Bill Hernandez, who walked Gates and the pinch-hitting Monck in the Coons’ half of the seventh, not that anything came of that. Alvey was tossed into the eighth and was beaten around for another run, and Joel Starr’s 2-run homer after Novelo reached on an error in the bottom 8th looked a bit like window dressing; however, against new pitcher Tetsu Kurihara, Dowsey then batted for Tallent and singled, Bonner slashed an RBI triple, and then scored on Gates’ groundout, and suddenly the score was just 7-5. McMahan held the Thunder right there in the ninth after Aguilar flew out to center, but then we were looking at Swain again… Wilson singled to right to begin the bottom 9th, only to be swiftly doubled off by Ramon Lopez grounding to Vargas. Novelo’s groundout completed the sweep. 7-5 Thunder. Milian (PH) 1-1;

After this experience, September arrived and rosters expanded. The Raccoons felt obligated to pad out the roster a bit, even though I didn’t dare expect heroics from any Alley Cats at this point.

First off, Jake Flowe was not brought up with the roster expansion since we preferred him to finish the AAA season, then take the lion’s share of the at-bats here in the last two weeks or so of the year – unless the Alley Cats actually made the playoffs – four teams in that division were under a blanket just three games wide, and the Alley Cats were part of that.

We added three pitchers, all right-handers. Cody Childress and Matt Schmieder had been up in Portland last year already, but right-hander and 2063 sixth-rounder Cameron Bridges would make his ABL debut. Childress would spot Musgrave in the rotation for the moment. In the absence of Flowe, Tony Spink would be the third catcher / warm body. Marquise Early and Leon Arantes were recalled as additional bats off the bench.

Jose Corral remained undiagnosed on the roster by Friday.

Raccoons (61-72) @ Crusaders (67-66) – September 2-4, 2067

The Crusaders owned our pelts this year (again), winning nine of eleven games played against the Critters. They were seventh in runs scored, fifth in runs allowed, and barely at the .500 mark. Well, it was enough for *us*…! Regulars Bryant Box and Eric Frasher were on the DL for them.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (8-8, 3.35 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (10-12, 4.22 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (8-13, 3.62 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (8-5, 3.89 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-12, 4.63 ERA) vs. Jarod Nesbit (6-6, 3.62 ERA)

Both teams had been off on Thursday, so changes were possible for New York. In any case, we did not expect a southpaw starter here.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – LF Early – 2B Bonner – P Walla
NYC: 3B Aoki – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – CF Duhon – 2B T. Cummings – SS Masterson – P E. Lee

Ex-Coon Yukio Aoki, Chris Duhon, and Terry Cummings were all September call-ups age 26+ and none of them would tick any box of the description of a hot prospect. That didn’t mean that Aoki, age 30, couldn’t hit a single off Walla, steal second, and score on Jose Ambriz’ double in the third inning, followed by an RBI single for Danny Starwalt. It was the third inning of three in which Walla allowed a double, but these were the first runs of the game, while Lee held the Raccoons away from any bases the first time through the order. Jaden Wilson hit a single in the fourth inning, which, y’know, yaaay, but that was about it, and instead Starwalt socked a solo homer off Walla in the fifth, and Scott Masterson bashed a 2-run homer in the sixth, sending Walla packing with a 5-0 hole in his head.

The real surprise was perhaps that the Raccoons *did* get the tying run to the plate in the seventh inning on the strength of Starr walking, then scoring on Monck and Early singles. Ryan Bonner reached on an error by Masterson, but Matas batted with three on and two outs and struck out. Yamauchi pitched in the bottom 7th, was betrayed by Novelo, who put Starwalt on base with a 1-out error, and then was taken very deep to center by David Johnson, who knocked his 24th home run of the year as he chased Rich Monck for the CL lead. Cameron Bridges’ major league debut in the eighth inning came against the bottom of the lineup and resulted in New York going down 1-2-3 for the first time in the ******* game. 7-1 Crusaders. Starr 1-2, 2 BB; Arantes (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Milian – SS Novelo – 2B Gates – P Gaytan
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – RF Takeuchi – CF Duhon – 3B Aoki – C Reyna – SS Masterson – P Nesbit

Wilson singled, stole second, and scored on a Lopez single to begin Saturday’s game, and Starr hit another single, but Monck then found a double play to rumble into and Dowsey also grounded out. Gaytan gave the lead back right away, nailing Jose Ambriz with his second pitch of the game; Starwalt then doubled and Takeuchi walked before the Raccoons couldn’t turn two on Chris Duhon’s grounder to short and the lead runner Ambriz scored. Aoki then grounded out to leave two on. Duhon also drove in Sanchez and Ambriz in the third inning against a young Coons right-hander that had seemingly run out of stuff in July and in luck even earlier. There was nobody here that coulda dug him out of any size of hole, and the Raccoons expertly managed to **** away the few runners that had with double plays; Novelo hit into one in the fourth, and Starr into another in the sixth. Novelo came back to the plate with Milian on base in the seventh and one out … and hit into ANOTHER double play – at which point the Raccoons had hit into more ******* double plays than the Crusaders had gotten base hits off Gaytan, at least until Victor Reyna lobbed a soft single in the seventh to tie the two tallies at four each.

Top 8th, and Gary Gates led off with a double to center. Tough to double that one up, but still possible! Marquise Early batted for Gaytan and singled to left-center, scoring Gates to narrow the score to 3-2. Wilson grounded to short for a fielder’s choice, and then Lopez doubled to right, putting a pair in scoring position for Starr, who flipped the score with a single up the middle, heyyy…!! Nesbit walked Monck, then was disposed of in favor of left-hander Adam Rinaudo. The Coons answered with Tallent batting for a hitless Dowsey and were rewarded with an RBI single to left-center. Milian got another RBI single off right-hander Aiden Shaw, 6-3, before Novelo and Gates made the last two outs of the inning. Josh C then got the ball for the bottom 8th, struggled, allowed three singles, one of whom – Starwalt’s – would disappear on a baserunning blunder, but was stuck with runners on the corners and two outs. McMahan replaced him and struck out Aoki to end the inning. Top 9th, Early singled to get going, then was doubled up by Wilson (…), and Jesse Dover had issues in the bottom of the ninth and walked two batters, but also got a 5-4-3 double play turned to end the losing streak. 6-3 Coons. Lopez 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Starr 2-5, 2 RBI; Tallent (PH) 1-1, RBI; Milian 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Early (PH) 2-2, RBI; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (9-13);

By Sunday we finally moved Jose Corral to the DL with a groin strain. It was apparently a pretty bad strain and Luis Silva opined that it was going to be season-ending.

Swell.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – LF Early – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Milian – C Aguilar – 2B Gates – SS Arantes – P Rios
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – CF Takeuchi – SS Masterson – RF Villarreal – 3B Aoki – P Carreno

Few did much and many did little in this Sunday rubber game between teams that had no business playing anymore in September. Both teams would manage three soft hits and some assorted stupidity (like Wilson walking and being caught stealing right to begin the game) for zero runs through five innings, although both pitchers were behind in the count a lot and were visually begging for a beating. The Raccoons declined to score when Milian hit a 1-out double in the sixth inning, and the Crusaders would get Ambriz on base on balls, and then to third base on a stolen base attempt and Aguilar’s throwing error, but then still left him there in the following half-inning.

Rios was done after six and two thirds innings, thanks to allowing a 1-out single to PH Oscar Rivera, then a 2-out walk to Omar Sanchez in the bottom 7th. Omar Vera pinch-ran for Rivera at that point, but he was left on base along with Sanchez when Ambriz flew out to right against Josh C, leaving the game scoreless. Former starter Ben Peterson had the ball in the eighth, walked Early, allowed a single to Starr, and walked Milian with one out after Monck grounded out. Novelo batted for Aguilar and struck out. And then Ramon Lopez batted for Gates … and struck out. (double facepaws!)

The Coons remained shut out through nine innings, the Crusaders daring to bother closer Dave Hyman in the ninth inning. Arantes drew a walk and stole second, but that go-ahead run was left to rot away on second base as well. Yamauchi then put two pinch-hitters on base in the bottom 9th before getting a comebacker for an inning-ending and misery-extending 1-6-3 double play from another, Reyna.

Ed Nadeau handled the tenth for New York and allowed a leadoff single to Starr, but Monck forced him out and the Coons never got that runner off first base. Yamauchi pitched a second inning to keep the game going. Nadeau then offered another leadoff walk to Lopez in the 11th inning. Lopez went on a 1-1 pitch to Arantes, which the batter shoved through the right side for a singled, and with Lopez running to third base, the Raccoons now had them on the corners with nobody out. Randy Tallent batted for Yamauchi and walked the bags full, and I hung my fuzzy ears as Wilson popped out, Early struck out, and Starr popped out and nobody ****** SCORED AGAIN!! By then there was no point in extending the game any further and Matt Schmieder got the ball for the bottom 11th but the Crusaders went in order.

Nadeau and Schmieder kept going through 13 innings. Rich Monck tried to break up the collective coma with a fly ball for 390 feet, but hit it to the 410’ part of the ballpark and had it caught by Kazuhide Takeuchi, and apart from that it was all very sad. Bonner batted for Schmieder to begin the 14th inning and singled, chasing Nadeau as well for Mike Hall, who then retired the next three Critters rather briskly. The ball then went to Chance Fox in a desperate attempt to break out from this sullen ballgame. Takeuchi promptly doubled to left and Terry Cummings legged out an infield single, putting the Crusaders on the corners with nobody out in the bottom 14th. Their fans got up, ready for a tired celebration, but Natsu Nakamura spanked a bouncer back to Fox, who turned a 1-6-3 double play, Takeuchi having to hold at third base. Jarod Nesbit – Saturday’s starter! – was now playing third base and batting eighth, and grounded out to short. The Crusaders fans went home instead.

Hall walked Ramon Lopez in the 15th, only for Arantes to poke into an inning-ending double play, while the Crusaders were out of sticks entirely and Hall struck out against Fox to begin the bottom 15th. Sanchez walked, but failed to deploy the speed, and Ambriz flew out to right before Fox struck out (!) Starwalt (!!). Fox walked Cummings with two outs in the bottom 16th, but the runner got himself stealing. Rich Monck fell to 0-for-8 in the 17th, reaching when Cummings dropped his 1-out pop to short. He, too, was then running when Milian hit a single to right, and runners were on the corners again. Hall struck out Novelo, and Lopez grounded out to Nesbit. Blech! Fox meanwhile walked Nesbit and plunked Sanchez to put two on with two outs in the bottom 17th, but then Ambriz grounded out to Arantes.

Top 18th, Arantes led off with a single against Manny Gutierrez. Tallent’s groundout advanced him, and then Wilson singled to right. Arantes was sent for home plate, arrived along with the throw of Nakamura and slid awkwardly into David Johnson’s knee. Johnson lost the ball, Arantes was called safe, and then had to be helped off the field with an apparent injury. Tony Spink pinch-hit and struck out and Starr grounded out before the 1-0 lead went to Jesse Dover. Matas took leftfield and Tallent went to second base, and our bench was now also empty. Dover walked Starwalt to begin the bottom 18th, while Johnson easily flew out to Milian in right. Takeuchi hit a comebacker, but Dover only got the lead runner at second base. He then struck out Cummings. 1-0 Blighters. Early 2-6, 2B; Bonner (PH) 1-1; Milian 2-6, 2 BB, 2B; Arantes 2-6, BB; Rios 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K; Yamauchi 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Schmieder 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K; Fox 4.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-3);

In other news

August 29 – The Thunder’s starter Jeff Kozloski (11-10, 4.12 ERA) was going to miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum.
August 31 – Thunder CL Erik Swain (1-4, 1.94 ERA, 32 SV) nails down his 300th career save in a 7-5 game against the Raccoons. Swain, 30, is a 2-time CL Reliever of the Year, who led the league in saves with the Canadiens in 2062. For his career, he is 45-44 with a 3.06 ERA and has struck out 678 batters in 617 innings across nine seasons.
August 31 – TOP SP Justin Kent (15-6, 2.92 ERA) 1-hits the Warriors for a 5-0 shutout. SFW OF Danny Perez (.291, 18 HR, 83 RBI) spoils Kent’s no-hit bid with an eighth-inning single.
September 4 – MIL SP Matt Crist (14-7, 3.67 ERA) 3-hits the Indians and strikes out eight batters in a 7-0 shutout.
September 4 – OCT C Martin Bohannon (.292, 12 HR, 60 RBI) has three hits, including two homers, and drives in seven runs in a 15-6 beating of the Knights.
September 4 – A ninth-inning walkoff home run by SFW 1B/RF/CF Jared Allen (.275, 10 HR, 47 RBI) is the only scoring in a 1-0 win against the Stars.

FL Player of the Week: SAC RF/1B Alex Gutierrez (.283, 1 HR, 20 RBI), batting .591 (13-22) with 2 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.261, 18 HR, 74 RBI); bashing .429 (12-28) with 2 HR, 5 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.306, 25 HR, 98 RBI), batting .333 with 5 HR, 24 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.377, 17 HR, 86 RBI), bashing .408 with 7 HR, 21 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Ray Walker (8-1, 2.44 ERA), going a perfect 6-0 with 1.77 ERA, 44 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Angel Alba (9-3, 4.11 ERA, 2 SV), going 6-0 on swingman duty, with a 2.68 ERA, 28 K, and 37 IP
FL Rookie of the Month: WAS C Chris Willhite (.239, 11 HR, 34 RBI), clipping .272 with 3 HR, 10 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL OF Mario Alaniz (.299, 9 HR, 67 RBI), batting .393 with 4 HR, 24 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Good on Angel Alba!

49 players competed in Sunday’s stupid game, only one of which scored and was harmed. Like Jose Corral, Leon Arantes suffered a likely season-ending groin strain in scoring that measly late run to get the Raccoons outta town in New York.

Those heroics notwithstanding, a Loggers win on Sunday served to eliminate us from mathematical contention for the playoffs. Bugger!

What else is there to complain about…? Oh yes, two trips to Elk City left on the schedule. The first one was NOW for four games starting on Monday. We’d then be home to host the Indians and Crusaders for a 7-game homestand.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons used just 33 players until August 31.

Last year the team (for the whole season) used 29 pitchers alone, along with 24 position players for 53 total players. The number of pitchers this season? Just *14*! The dozen that finished August on the roster, plus Bob West, who was released after 25 outings, and Juan Soriano, who made a singular appearance at the start of the season before being recalled this week.

No J.J. Sensabaugh either, although he sure kept brushing up his fur to look pretty in AAA…!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (63-73) @ Canadiens (67-68) – September 5-8, 2067

Four games in Elk City were never anything to look forward to, and since I wasn’t allowed to go there anywhere, I elected to roll up on the couch at home and hold on to Honeypaws, and quiver. The damn Elks had overtaken the Raccoons and were second to only the Loggers in runs scored in the CL (!), while also giving up the second-most runs for a -33 run differential. We were up 6-5 in the season series against the filthy antler beasts.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (11-9, 3.69 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (9-16, 5.73 ERA)
Cody Childress (0-0) vs. Ken Nielsen (14-7, 3.77 ERA)
Nick Walla (8-9, 3.50 ERA) vs. Nate Freeman (7-11, 4.91 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (9-13, 3.63 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (11-8, 3.31 ERA)

Only right-handers for Elk City. Also no Chad Whetstine and Matt Kilday, the infield regulars both being on the DL.

Speaking of DL, the Raccoons placed Leon Arantes there with his season-ending groin strain while activating Carlos Gutierrez. The Coons had also ruined baseball for everybody with 18 innings of 1-0 ball in Boston on Sunday, but because there had been a couple of long man heroes (Fox! …also Schmieder) the bullpen was still relatively fine and no additional pitchers were brought up. However, Jaden Wilson, Rich Monck, Joel Starr, and David Milian had played all 18 innings on Sunday, and the Raccoons would give three of them a rest. Starr could sit in his lawn chair at first base a while longer.

Game 1
POR: SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – 1B Starr – RF Dowsey – LF Early – CF Matas – 3B Gates – C Spink – P Nakayama
VAN: 3B C. Castro – SS Barraza – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – C Varner – LF D. Moore – 1B R. Cordero – 2B Stovall – P Wittman

The Elks took a first-inning lead on a solo home run by Roberto Lozada, while the Raccoons managed to hit into a double play in each of the first three innings to begin the game. Starr, Early, and Spink were the culprits, and allowed Wittman to face the minimum the first time through. They improved in the fourth inning by only getting on base with two outs, and only got Starr on base through an error by Carlos Castro, and then Dowsey made sure to ground out right away, lest something happens to the poor scoreboard. The Raccoons had nothing in the fifth, struck out in order in the sixth, and then were down for two outs and nobody on when Dowsey hit a single in the seventh, only to also be swiftly stranded, which meant that the Coons made it to the stretch without ever touching second base. On the plus side there was little more than Nakayama being a good soldier and clicking innings while scattering singles after the Lozada homer. Nakayama went eight, allowing a leadoff walk to Lozada in the last inning he pitched, which along with Rick Atkins’ single and Dan Moore’s well-placed groundout allowed the damn Elks to score a second run, but the Coons disappeared in order against Jon McGinley in the ninth anyway. 2-0 Canadiens. Dowsey 2-3; Nakayama 8.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (11-10);

I’ve seen half deer stuck to highways that looked less dead than this offense. ONE run in the last 28 batting innings. TWO innings in which they scored anything at all out of the last *35*!!

Next, the fourth career start of Cody Childress, who went 0-1 with a rather sober 9.00 ERA last season in the preceding three.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – LF Early – P Childress
VAN: 3B C. Castro – SS Barraza – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – C Varner – LF D. Moore – 1B R. Cordero – 2B Stovall – P Nielsen

Both teams hit into a double play in the first inning, but while Ramon Lopez took off a leadoff walk to Jaden Wilson, the damn Elks had already plated their leadoff walk to Carlos Castro on Lozada’s RBI single when Rick Atkins hit into the inning-ending double play. The Coons would actually tie that game up right away when Marquise Early singled home Carlos Gutierrez in the second inning with two outs, but from there it went real south, real quick for Childress, who for the rest of his brief outing was busy shoveling basically the entire bottom of the Elks order on base and then bleed runs in the most stupid ways, doing it TWICE for 3-spots in the second and fourth innings. He hit a batter in both innings. He balked in a run in the second inning. He also gave up at least three hits in each of those two innings, after which he was pinch-hit for in the top 5th. Early and Milian led off with singles there, Lopez hit an RBI single, as did Starr, but Monck then fanned and Dowsey grounded out, and the Coons remained behind by a slam, after which Juan Soriano ALSO put most of the bottom of the order on base in stupid ways, beginning with Dowsey diving for a Dan Moore looper, missing it, and playing a single into a triple. Nevertheless, the Elks didn’t score against Soriano despite Rico Cordero’s infield single, on which Moore stayed put, and a 2-out walk to Castro, with Barraza popping out to short to end the inning against Soriano.

But the Coons’ bottom of the order was also bothering the Elks. Nielsen put Gutierrez and Early on the corners with one out in the sixth, then gave up another run, 7-4, on Ryan Bonner’s sac fly. Lopez and Monck then were on the corners with another pair of hits in the seventh inning, also with one out, and by now the tying run was in the box. He hit a fly to deep center off starter/reliever/whatever Martyn Polaco, but had it caught by Atkins, also having to settle for a sac fly, 7-5. For Portland, Holzmeister, Alvey, and Bridges held the Elks to what they had beaten out of Childress, which meant McGinley was out for a 2-run save in the ninth inning, the Coons batting from the top of the order. Wilson singled to right, and then Lopez reached on a bobble by Corey Stovall for an error, so the tying runs were out there. The left-handed McGinley then struck out both Starr and Monck before we blinked and sent Tallent to bat for Dowsey … but he grounded out to short. 7-5 Canadiens. Wilson 2-5; Lopez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Starr 2-5, RBI; Early 3-4, RBI; Milian (PH) 1-1;

Matt Kilday returned from the DL on Wednesday for the damn Elks.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – LF Early – P Walla
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – LF D. Moore – 1B R. Cordero – C Orphanos – SS Barraza – P N. Freeman

The Raccoons kept hitting into double plays in the first inning, Starr wiping Lopez off the base paths with a 6-4-3 to begin the Wednesday game. Also for the third time in this series, Elk City took a 1-0 lead in the first thanks to Walla pitching behind everybody, allowing singles to Castro (who was forced out by Kilday), and Lozada, then walked Rick Atkins in a full count. Dan Moore hit a deep sac fly, and Cordero popped out to Wilson in shallow center to strand a pair. Somehow the second inning was worse, despite Mike Orphanos and Roberto Barraza making easy outs to begin it. Walla then nicked Freeman and Castro reached when Carlos Gutierrez dropped his easy pop on the dirt, before Walla somehow found his first K to get rid of Kilday and the inning. Walla’s pitch economy was terrible, even though the results began to even out a bit from here, him allowing four hits against four strikeouts through five innings, while still trailing by that lone run. Freeman was 2-hitting the Coons on 57 pitches through five, but who didn’t?

Walla was done after a sixth inning with three full counts, and left trailing 1-0, because when didn’t he? He was then taken off the hook by the ELKS, as Freeman nailed Lopez to begin the top 7th. Starr and Monck hit grounders that moved the runner along, but so did Dowsey, grounding one over to Kilday – except that Kilday fudged the play, and this error allowed the tying run to score from NOTHING. And then Novelo whiffed. McMahan then couldn’t get through the top three in the bottom 7th, putting Kilday and Lozada on base. Carrington had to dig him out, getting a grounder to Monck from Atkins and another grounder to Gutierrez from Dan Moore to strand the pair in scoring position.

Freeman issued his first walk with one out in the eighth, putting Early on base. Matas batted for Josh C and hit a double to left, so now the Raccoons had that pair in scoring position with one out. They remained right there, looking pretty, while both Wilson and Lopez ******* struck out to end the inning. Singles by Cordero and Orphanos off Yamauchi and Antonio Ramirez (who?) hitting a sac fly off Evan Alvey then gave the Elks the lead back in the bottom 8th, and when Starr reached base on an uncaught third strike against Paul Wolk in the ninth inning, Monck whiffed and Dowsey sledgehammered the entire team straight into a double play. 2-1 Canadiens. Matas (PH) 1-1, 2B;

(looks like the team can stay where the glaciers grow for all he cares)

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – 2B Gutierrez – LF Matas – SS Gates – P Gaytan
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – C Varner – 1B R. Cordero – LF Chenette – SS Barraza – P Rath

Upset on Thursday! The Coons scored first! Wilson walked, Lopez doubled to right, and then Starr hit a sac fly to Tyler Chenette! Lopez was of course stranded on second base then, because greed does not becometh you. Chenette then was the first batter that Gaytan retired – Castro retired himself by being caught stealing after drawing a leadoff walk – in a horrendous bottom 1st, in which Gaytan allowed five hits and two walks and was bombed for three runs by the ******* Elks. Castro was then back on base in the second, this time stole second successfully, and then scored on a Lozada homer to extend the Elks’ lead to 5-1 on a completely useless Tony Gaytan, who never stopped looking icky in five wretched innings before being put in a box and shipped back to the Dominican Republic.

The Raccoons were silent again, having four hits for that early run through five innings against Rath, and those numbers didn’t change through seven, after which Rath was replaced with Josh Meighan. The Coons got through seven with a scoreless inning each from Fox and Schmieder, both recovered from deep overtime duty against the Titans on Sunday. Jesse Dover needed work and did a scoreless eighth, issuing a walk to Castro. No ninth-inning opportunities came forward anyway as the Coons went down in blighted fashion against Polaco in the ninth inning. 5-1 Canadiens. Lopez 2-4, 2B;

(buries face deep in paws)

Raccoons (63-77) vs. Indians (61-79) – September 9-11, 2067

The chances to get into last place with another sweep here were EXCELLENT in the final series against the Indians, who led the season series 8-7. They were tied for second-worst in runs scored in the CL (but the Coons were by now comfortably bottoms again), and fourth in runs allowed with a -57 run differential (Coons: -47). I wouldn’t be mad if the season ended yesterday.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (9-12, 4.40 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (14-9, 2.99 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (11-10, 3.62 ERA) vs. Juan Pera (1-1, 6.35 ERA)
Cody Childress (0-1, 15.75 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (6-13, 4.36 ERA)

DeWitt was the only southpaw we’d meet this week, while Perez and Will Glaude (9-13, 4.41 ERA) had both pitched in a double header on Wednesday and would have to go on short rest. It remained to be seen whether the Indians would bring in a spot starter.

Making things more complicated was a rainout on Friday, which gave us a double header on Saturday. The Raccoons then changed assignments, with Nakayama going first against DeWitt.

Game 1
IND: RF T. Torres – 2B W. Mejia – CF Ma. Martin – C A. Gomez – LF Brassfield – 3B Baxley – 1B Spicer – SS S. Dixon – P DeWitt
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Aguilar – RF Tallent – 2B Bonner – 3B Gates – P Nakayama

Pablo Novelo put the Raccoons in front with a solo homer in the first inning, but like in their attempt on Thursday they got too cute and then right away blew the lead and got behind in the following half-inning. Early dropped a fly by Trent Brassfield to put the tying run on base, and Nakayama then had a garbage pitch obliterated by John Baxley to flip the score.

DeWitt walked the bags full with the 9-1-2 batters and one out in the bottom 3rd, but Starr and Early then both struck out to piss another chance away. In turn, Nakayama allowed a leadoff single to Matt Martin in the fourth, walked Alex Gomez, threw a wild pitch, and walked Brass to fill the bases with nobody out. Baxley popped out to shallow left now before Malcolm Spicer of all people hit a 2-run single to extend the Indians’ lead to 4-1. Sam Dixon and DeWitt ended the inning with poor outs then, but Nakayama just kept getting stuck and was removed with two outs in the sixth inning for Alvey to see after the 4-1 game. DeWitt 1-hit the Coons through five, albeit on 81 pitches, before Novelo hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th and after Starr whiffed was doubled up by Early. In turn, Alvey put Sam Dixon on base and gave up back-to-back bombs to left-handed batters Tony Torres and Wil Mejia…

Up 7-1, the Indians’ Joe Napier then actually managed to play the Coons back into the game. Leadoff walks to Aguilar and Tallent to begin the bottom 7th were followed by a Bonner RBI double. A Gates grounder was bungled for an error and another run by Dixon, and Dowsey, who had just entered in a double switch, hit an RBI single, then was involved in a baserunning blunder for a stupid first out on Jaden Wilson’s RBI single, 7-5. Novelo then lined out to Baxley against Jimmy Dingman, and Starr struck out. All of this was then followed by Cameron Bridges being roughed up for two runs in the eighth. Spicer walked and stole second, then scored on a Dixon single. Tony Torres would double home the second run with two outs. Those were also the final two runs in the ballgame. 9-5 Indians. Novelo 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Matt Schmieder also felt discomfort after the game, pitching for two outs, but there was no time to look at him right now, since another contest was coming right up.

Game 2
IND: 2B Falcon – 1B Brassfield – CF Ma. Martin – 3B W. Mejia – RF T. Torres – C J. Edwards – LF Barber – SS Baxley – P Pera
POR: CF Matas – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Milian – 2B Gutierrez – SS Gates – P Rios

Singles by Miguel Falcon and Matt Martin were enough to get a 1-0 lead off Rios in the first inning, while for Portland, Ramon Lopez hit a ball over the fence in the bottom 1st… but over the spare bit of fence to the left side of the left foul pole, and he had to go back into the box and then popped out. The bags were full in the bottom 2nd, and with nobody out, after Dowsey walked, Milian singled, and Gutierrez reached on an error by Falcon to begin that inning. Gates popped out, Rios flew out to a shallow playing Martin in shallower center, and Matas fanned badly to keep everybody stranded, and I made a particularly pathetic whining noise in my corner of the trusty brown couch in the office that actually made Maud look up from her knittery for a change.

…and it wasn’t that Rios pitched badly, but he also had no stuff to talk much about, whiffing only two batters in six innings before Juan Pera finally ran into a stray homer hit by Dowsey to the whole shebang up at one in the bottom 6th. Rios immediately resorted to try and dig himself another shallow grave in the seventh, allowing a leadoff single to Jonathon Barber, who gained second base on an errant pickoff throw by Rios, and then third base when Pera’s bunt glanced off Starr’s glove for a second error in the inning. Very unearned runners were on the corners with one out for Falcon, who grounded to short for a not very deserved 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.

Gutierrez and Gates then went to the corners with leadoff hits against Pera in the bottom 7th. Aguilar batted for Rios, but grounded out poorly, with Gutierrez having to hold at third base while Gates moved up to second. Jaden Wilson batted for Matas, but was walked intentionally to fill the bags. Lopez hit a go-ahead sac fly, which was as enthusiastic as it got before Starr grounded out to Brass at first base to leave two on.

Josh C got the ball for the top 8th and got Brass and Martin out before McMahan replaced him for the left-handed bits behind them, giving up a single to Wil Mejia and a game-tying double to Alex Gomez, pinch-hitting, before John Edwards popped out on a 3-1 pitch. At this point I was struggling to facepaw any harder than I was already doing and we had somehow run out of One-Eyed Jack’s. No, the Capt’n Coma wasn’t doing ANYTHING at this point. Pera glitched Milian and Gutierrez on base with two outs in the bottom 8th before Gates popped out to second base, and that was that. McMahan and Dover held the Indians in the 2-2 tie in the ninth inning then while Danny Nava got the baseball from the Indians. Nava, with one out, walked Wilson on four pitches and balked him to second base, but Lopez and Starr then croaked on consecutive pitches and sent another ******* depressing game to extra innings.

And when extra innings ended quickly, it was even MORE depressing. Jesse Dover remained in there, and was just beaten to pulp. Martin hit a 1-out double, scored on a Mejia single, and the Indians kept singling merrily along until Baxley hit a 3-run homer, giving them a 5-run inning. 7-2 Indians. Milian 2-4; Gates 2-4; Rios 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K;

I then sat motionless on the couch for 14 hours while Maud checked with a little mirror under my pokey black nose whether I still breathed when she came back in on Sunday morning. She was trying her best, which couldn’t be said about the chumps on the big league roster.

Will Glaude got the short-rest call from the Arrowheads. No concerns about pitching availability after the double header from us – after Childress would be done blowing up the game for an 0-7 week, we had ample of Foxes left to Chance it to the end.

Game 3
IND: RF T. Torres – 2B W. Mejia – CF Ma. Martin – C A. Gomez – 1B Bentley – LF Brassfield – 3B Baxley – SS S. Dixon – P Glaude
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Milian – SS Novelo – 2B Tallent – P Childress

Childress began the game with a walk to Torres before he got a K on Mejia, but then allowed a pair of singles and another walk before Brass hit a sac fly with the bases loaded. Baxley grounded out, Indy up 2-0, so that ERA was not coming down any time soon.

Randy Tallent sprained his knee on a 1-out double in the bottom of the third inning and was replaced with Bonner, who went to third base when Childress reached base on an uncaught third strike fumbled by Alex Gomez. Glaude rung up Wilson for the second out, and Lopez for the third – but in between had inadvertently plated the pinch-runner with a wild pitch, 2-1. The Raccoons flipped the score the inning after, on a Monck single and David Milian’s first Coons homer to right, and Novelo nearly hit another one, but that one was picked off the fence by Torres to end the inning.

The Arrowheads flipped the score right back in the fifth because Childress was **** and useless. Mejia and Martin tied it up with a pair of doubles, Gomez reached on a Novelo error, and then Childress fell 2-0 to John Bentley before plating the go-ahead run with a wild pitch. He then gave up a 2-run homer to the ex-Coon, bumbling along at a .150 clip, and was yanked from the ballgame. Soriano was used to end the inning, and Chance Fox got ready for more garbage relief, although the Indians then put the tying runs on base in the bottom 5th through a pinch-hit, 1-out single by Early and Glaude walking the bags full right after that for Starr, who didn’t wait around and belted the first pitch he got for a game-tying, bases-clearing double to left-center, and that was the end for Glaude. Right-hander Jorge Flores then allowed a shy single to Monck, walked Dowsey, the bags were full again, and then the Indians couldn’t turn two on Milian’s grounder to Mejia, and Starr scored with the go-ahead run – which gave both teams a 4-spot in this endless fifth inning. Novelo whiffed.

The Coons then brought in Yamauchi, who had started to warm up hurriedly instead of Fox after Starr had explored the gap for three runs, and Starr struck again in the bottom 6th after Flores had walked Bonner (who stole second), Wilson (who died trying), and Lopez in the inning. Starr flicked an RBI single over Baxley to extend the lead to 8-6, but Monck rapidly lined out to Bentley to end the inning. The Indians then got two walks and a double play to not score against Carrington in the seventh. Josh C got another out from Brass to begin the eighth before the Coons sent Fox against the bottom of the order, hoping to be able to use McMahan against the left-handers at the top of the lineup in the ninth. Fox saw Baxley reach on an infield single, NAILED Dixon, and then somehow got a double play grounder to end the bloody inning from Miguel Falcon. McMahan then indeed retired the 1-2-3 batters in order in the ninth inning. 8-6 Coons. Starr 2-4, 2B, 4 RBI; Monck 3-4; Milian 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Tallent 1-1, 2B; Early (PH) 1-1;

In other news

September 6 – OCT SP Danny Baca (16-7, 2.76 ERA) and CL Erik Swain (1-4, 1.88 ERA, 34 SV) pitch a combined 1-hitter in a 1-0 win against the Bayhawks, who only get a single from 39-year-old September call-up Dave Blackshire (.375, 0 HR, 2 RBI).
September 7 – Denver’s 2B/SS Carlos Cervantez (.286, 5 HR, 45 RBI) goes 5-for-5 with two singles, two doubles, and a walkoff triple in the tenth inning, and three total RBI’s, in a 5-4 win against the Pacifics.
September 10 – Dallas LF/RF Chad Pritchett (.285, 8 HR, 49 RBI) hits for the cycle in an 11-4 takedown of the Gold Sox despite opening his day with a walk. In the end he drive in four runs while going 4-for-4.
September 10 – NAS SP Ken McDonald (14-11, 4.22 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout to beat the Buffaloes, 4-0.

FL Player of the Week: DEN OF Chris Tuck (.310, 10 HR, 57 RBI), hitting .500 (10-20) with 3 HR, 12 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN RF/LF Roberto Lozada (.329, 19 HR, 106 RBI), bashing .571 (16-28) with 2 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

No, I can’t wait for the season to end either. That’s what a good old 11-30 quarter-season will do to you.

Injuries mounting a bit here towards the end. Super utility Randy Tallent would miss two weeks of the last three with the knee sprain, and he’d shuffle off to the DL. No news on Schmieder yet, but it was a busy 36 hours.

If this continues we might have to add more players from AAA before that season concludes on Saturday. And it is likely to conclude mathematically before that for the Alley Cats, who lost four straight this week to fall to three games behind Baton Rouge.

The awful Raccoons had another 7-game slate to be broken over their numb skulls next week, playing four at home against the Crusaders before three on the road in Charlotte.

Fun Fact: Dallas’ Chad Pritchett hit for his second career cycle on Saturday, 13 years after the first one, which makes him the player with the two cycles hit furthest apart.

13 years and 100 days apart to be precise. It takes the flowers off the previous record holder Leo Villacorta, who hit a pair of cycles 11 years and 219 days apart.

Dallas was also the team for which Leo Villacorta hit his first cycle, against Sacramento, in 2042, before getting another one for the Knights in 2054 against the Crusaders.

Honorable mentions for Bruce Boyle, who hit a cycle in 1992 for the Condors against the Knights, and in 2003, still with the Condors but against the Loggers, 10 years and 277 days apart.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (64-79) vs. Crusaders (71-71) – September 12-15, 2067

The Crusaders were in town to mop up the remains of the season series they had already won, 10-4. The rest of their season had been a disappointment for sure, being 20 games behind the Loggers and all. They were around average in many categories, although the rotation ranked third in terms of ERA, and they had a +27 run differential. Eric Frasher was the only DL occupant for New York.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (8-9, 3.43 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (12-6, 2.76 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (9-14, 3.78 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (12-12, 4.04 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (11-11, 3.66 ERA) vs. Jarod Nesbit (6-8, 4.11 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-12, 4.25 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (8-5, 3.93 ERA)

Another set of only right-handed starters. We still had to talk about injuries, though. Randy Tallent went to the DL on Monday with a knee sprain and would probably miss two of the last three weeks. Matt Schmieder remained on the roster, day-to-day with a calf strain that would keep him away from anything but 17th innings for at least a few days. And the Raccoons were another arm short with Jason Holzmeister out with a sinus infection, which would also take at least a few days to sort out. The Coons would pad out that pen with the addition of Paul Barton, who was almost 32 years old, surplus to requirements in general, and not particularly useful to even the Alley Cats.

Game 1
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B Aoki – SS O. Vera – P Jer. Washington
POR: CF Wilson – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Milian – 2B Gutierrez – SS Novelo – P Walla

New York went up 1-0 with an unearned run chiefly to be blamed on Novelo’s 2-base throwing error that put the speedy Omar Sanchez into scoring position, from where David Johnson plated him with a 2-out single to center, so the Raccoons, barely scratching .250 for their last 41 games, were once again a-trailing. Dowsey did something about that, dingering to right in the second inning to tie the game at one; and Ramon Lopez also went yard an inning later to give Walla a 2-1 lead that he’d surely find a way to fritter away before long.

The Coons actually extended their lead to 3-1 in the fourth inning when Dowsey got nicked and scored on a 2-out triple to center hit by Carlos Gutierrez, but Gutierrez was stranded and then Walla as expected laid another egg against the bottom of the order in the top 5th, allowing a leadoff double to ex-Coon Yukio Aoki, and then nicked Omar Vera. Washington struck out bunting, but a walk to Bryant Box filled the bases, and a single by Omar Sanchez and a passed ball on Lopez tied the game at three before Danny Starwalt and Johnson somehow made outs to keep another pair of runners in scoring position, popping out and flying out to left, respectively.

But Rich Monck got the lead back in unearned fashion in the bottom 5th, Wilson reaching on an error to begin the frame before stealing his 34th base of the year. Starr walked with one out, and Monck then singled to center to get Wilson in to score, 4-3. Dowsey grounded out to second, advancing the runners, but David Milian, much maligned originally, but now actually hitting, cashed the longtime Critters from scoring position with a 2-out single to right-center. That was the end of Washington, who was replaced with lefty Ed Nadeau, who got Gutierrez out to end the 3-spot.

Walla continued – only one of the three runs on him was earned – and got an inning-ending pickoff on Aoki in the sixth inning, and he would complete seven innings to reach the stretch. By then the Crusaders had lost Nadeau to an apparent injury, while the Raccoons used Yamauchi to hold the 6-3 lead in the eighth and then actually went to Evan Alvey in the ninth, where New York had four left-handed bats lined up starting with Kazuhide Takeuchi, who was also the first of three straight Japanese players there, Natsu Nakamura having replaced Jose Ambriz earlier; and McMahan had pitched two days in a row and was not going to be bothered. Alvey allowed a 1-out double to Nakamura, but got the other two Japanese sticks and also Omar Vera, who grounded out to Monck to end the game. 6-3 Raccoons. Walla 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (9-9);

Tuesday’s game was then rained out and we got another double header stuffed down our throats, when we had really played enough of those this year…

Gaytan remained the lead starter for the Wednesday double-header, never mind that the weather was still icky.

Game 2
NYC: CF Box – 3B Aoki – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 2B T. Cummings – SS Masterson – P E. Lee
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Milian – LF Early – SS Novelo – P Gaytan

Monck singled home Wilson, who stole another base, once more in the bottom 1st to give Gaytan the early 1-0 lead, but it was blown well immediately with a leadoff walk to Takeuchi and an Ambriz homer in the second… Terry Cummings and Scott Masterson also reached base, and Bryant Box singled home Cummings, 3-1, before Box was caught stealing and Aoki lined out to Monck to end the bloody inning. Bottom 3rd, Wilson was on base again and scored on another Gutierrez triple, this one into the leftfield corner, which put the tying run just 90 feet away with nobody out. Lopez whiffed, but Monck hit another dutiful RBI single to tie the score at three. Starr grounded out, Milian walked, and Early was robbed in the gap by Box to end the inning.

Gaytan lasted only five innings in the 3-3 tie, walking four and whiffing six in an outing that sure had its ups and downs. Another up came in the bottom 5th, and with that I mean a pitch up and in to Rich Monck from Lee that struck him in the wrist. He immediately dropped the bat, squealing, and ran off to the dugout, as if Luis Silva could do anything *now*. Monck left the game, and Silva soon reported that the wrist was broken and his season (and Coons career?) were over. Gary Gates ran for him and then filled in at third base, but was left on base after Starr reached on an error by Masterson and Milian hit into an inning-ending double play.

Soriano got the ball for the sixth, allowed a soft single to Ambriz leading off, and hurt himself reaching for the ball as it got past him, hobbling off with another leg injury. As the pile of bodies got higher, the Raccoons sent Barton into the game for his season debut. He got the 7-8-9 batters out, and with that we were looking at long relief from Chance Fox, who walked Omar Sanchez in Aoki’s spot with one out in the seventh, but then got Starwalt and Johnson out. Portland’s half of the seventh on this sullen late afternoon saw Gutierrez club a 1-out double off Lee, and Lopez walked before being forced out on Gates’ grounder to short. Starr walked, filling the bases for Milian, who was rung up by Ben Peterson, replacing Lee. Fox went into the ninth in the 3-3 tie before walking Alex Silverio and Sanchez and being replaced before those right-handed sluggers could get another shot at him. Dover came in, allowed a sharp single to Starwalt – so sharp the runners could not get an extra base with Wilson all over the ball – and then got a double play grounder, 6-4-3 from Johnson, keeping the game tied.

Bottom 9th, the Coons got another double with one out from Gutierrez, this one to left and off Dave Hyman. New York walked Lopez intentionally to get to Gates, while the Coons thought, screw you, and sent the runners for a successful double steal on the first pitch. THEN Dowsey batted for Gates and was immediately walked to fill the bases for Starr, who struck out, and Milian, who popped out foul. (slams fist on the table!) The first game of a ******* double-header thus went to extras, where Dover was upended by the left-handed Japanese Connection, allowing a single to Takeuchi and a 2-out, pinch-hit homer to Nakamura. Marquise Early led off with a single in the bottom 10th against Hyman, and Novelo was ahead 3-0 when he hit into a double play, the ******* *****. Tony Spink flew out in Dover’s spot to end the game. 5-3 Crusaders. Wilson 3-5; Gutierrez 3-5, 3B, 2 2B, RBI; Monck 2-2, 2 RBI; Early 2-5; Fox 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K;

The word on Soriano was “calf strain” and that he would be day-to-day, but Monck was in a black cast before the second game was due to start, and sat by his locker dejectedly.

I was hiding under the pillows on the brown couch altogether.

The Raccoons were down to 27 full sets of paws for the night game, including just 13 position players (with the third catcher in there).

Game 3
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B Aoki – C Reyna – SS T. Cummings – P Nesbit
POR: SS Gutierrez – 2B Bonner – 1B Starr – RF Dowsey – LF Early – CF Matas – C Aguilar – 3B Gates – P Nakayama

Nakayama DRILLED Starwalt in the first inning, which didn’t look like a coincidence at all, but the Crusaders didn’t score on the occasion. They did get four singles and two runs in the second inning, though, as Ambriz and Aoki led off the inning with singles, and then Nesbit (…) and Box each brought in a run with a 2-out knock. Nakayama then feigned competence for three innings, while Nesbit was 2-hitting the Coons through five innings, but then didn’t retire any of the first FIVE batters he faced in the sixth, going single, walk, single, walk, single, with two runs in and nobody out, before striking out Nesbit and then disappeared into the tunnel, getting yanked in favor of McMahan. The left-hander allowed a 2-run single to Box, an infield RBI single to Sanchez, and then a 3-run homer to Starwalt as the Crusaders escalated for an 8-spot, 10-0.

Down 10-0, the 1-2-3 batters reached base with nobody out in the bottom 6th, as if anyone cared anymore. They also didn’t ******* score, as Dowsey’s comebacker was taken for an out at home by Nesbit, Early popped out to first, and Matas flew out to left. Cameron Bridges got the ball, hopefully for the balance of the game, in the seventh, but immediately gave up a single to Victor Reyna and then the first career home run of Terry Cummings. By then, rain was taking hold and we had a rain delay of 20 minutes in the bottom 7th. Somehow the umps thought though that there was more pain to be had from this 12-0 blowout, and play resumed.

Nesbit didn’t buckle until the bottom 8th, where Starr and Dowsey began with groundouts, but then Early drew a 2-out walk, Ramon Lopez singled in place of Bridges, and Aguilar hit an RBI double. A walk to Gates ended Nesbit’s night, but replacement Aiden Shaw then gave up a grand slam to center to Jaden Wilson in the #9 hole. Yes, no all-caps screaming for a slam when you’re down by double digits when it’s hit. Silverio answered with a homer off the returning Schmieder in the ninth inning, and the Coons somehow managed to end the game by getting Bonner and Dowsey on base in the ninth and Marquise Early then lining into a 3-U double play. 13-5 Crusaders. Gutierrez 2-5; Bonner 2-5; Lopez (PH) 1-1; Gates 1-2, 2 BB; Wilson 1-2, HR, 4 RBI;

The Raccoons called up an extra warm body in Jamie Colter – even though the Alley Cats with two games to go were not actually eliminated yet.

Game 4
NYC: CF Box – 2B O. Sanchez – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – LF Ambriz – 3B Aoki – SS Masterson – P Carreno
POR: CF Wilson – SS Gutierrez – C Lopez – 1B Dowsey – RF Milian – LF Matas – 3B Gates – 2B Bonner – P Rios

While David Johnson took Rios deep to left for a 1-0 score in the second inning, Rios singled with two outs in the bottom 3rd to prevent Carreno from seeing the minimum the first time through against his long-ago team. Wilson left him on base, but Gutierrez and Lopez began the bottom 4th with soft singles to put on a threat, at least until Dowsey crashed into a double play and Milian rolled over to leave the tying run at third base…

New York didn’t tack on a second run until the sixth, the second straight frame in which they got a single and walk out of Rios. Takeuchi brought in Sanchez with a sac fly to double the score to 2-0. Bottom 6th, Wilson doubled and Gutierrez singled with one out to put the tying runs on the corners. The Crusaders failed to turn two on Lopez’ grounder to short, so Wilson scored, but Dowsey then also grounded out to leave at least the tying run stranded. Rios went seven innings on 100 pitches exactly, holding on to the 2-1 score, and after Milian and Matas reached to begin the bottom 7th, Gates popped out and Bonner bombed with another double play grounder to kill the inning…

Yamauchi and Alvey would go on and hold the score through the last two innings of regulation, while Carreno went eight innings of 7-hit ball before Hyman replaced him again. Dowsey got on base with a 1-out walk and was run for with Early, but the runner never made it off first base as Milian lined out to Tony Villarreal at third base, and Starr batted for Matas, but also grounded out. 2-1 Crusaders. Gutierrez 2-4;

By Thursday night, the Loggers were 7 1/2 games up in the North, not looking brilliant against the Indians, but at least they didn’t pull a Titans move and suffered three walkoff losses in a four-game set in Elk City.

Raccoons (65-82) @ Falcons (73-73) – September 16-18, 2067

Putting pants on was hard at this point of the season and I didn’t join the team in Charlotte. I felt more like lying down and waiting for the end. We had already taken the season series from the Falcons, 5-1, and they were second in the South, but 11 games out and needn’t bother anymore. Their #8 offense and #3 pitching had proven to be not nearly enough to tackle the Thunder.

Projected matchups:
Cody Childress (0-1, 12.96 ERA) vs. Jason Morea (2-4, 4.54 ERA)
Nick Walla (9-9, 3.35 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (10-11, 3.00 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-11, 4.61 ERA) vs. Tony Lira (13-7, 3.82 ERA)

More right-handers!

Childress got another start there, because maybe the third time was the charm, even though Ryan Musgrave came off the DL for this series, and we also regained Holzmeister and Soriano for the weekend. The Alley Cats were still alive on Friday ahead of the regular season finale – but there were FOUR teams that were trying to have a tie for their division at that point. We could use another infielder, but no more moves were made at this point.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – C R. Lopez – 1B Dowsey – RF Milian – LF Matas – 3B Gates – SS Novelo – P Childress
CHA: 2B Schmidt – SS Tr. Taylor – C O. Matos – LF T. Lopez – 3B D. Mendoza – CF Fountain – 1B Meza – RF Asencio – P Morea

Childress retired the first six before giving up a single to Mike Meza, who remained on base in the third inning, which was surely a trend upwards from his previous outings. The Raccoons also started slow before taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Lopez and Dowsey reached base to begin the inning and then at least one run was brought in on straight groundouts by Milian, Matas, and Gates… Childress got around a leadoff walk to Trent Taylor, even though the runner stole second base in the bottom 4th, and walked Meza and threw a wild pitch in the fifth, but then recovered with strikeouts to Mario Asencio and the pitcher. When Taylor hit a 1-out double to left in the sixth inning, Childress struck out Oscar Matos and then got a pop to short from Tony Lopez.

Gates was nicked to begin the seventh, then took off to steal his first base. When the bouncing ball got away from John Schmidt, Gates scampered on to third base with nobody out. The run came home when Diego Mendoza bungled Novelo’s grounder for another error, 2-0. Childress bunted the runner to second, and Novelo was thrown out at the plate by Asencio on a Wilson single to right. Gutierrez’ pop to second stranded Wilson, while Childress gave up a wallbanger leadoff double to Mendoza and then lost Elijah Fountain on straight balls before being replaced with Alvey. It didn’t end well. PH Jose Consuegra’s grounder advanced the runners, and Matas then overran Chad Cardwell’s single to left, allowing both runners to score and tie the game. John Schmidt’s 2-out RBI single gave the Falcons a 3-2 lead. The bullpen kept melting in the eighth, allowing another two runs between Matos’ leadoff double off Alvey, two walks issued by Josh C, and a 2-run single with two outs by Dave Robles. Jeff Dutcher flew out to leave two on base. 5-2 Falcons. Wilson 2-4; Lopez 1-2, BB;

You might be Dutch, but Jeff is Dutcher.

I’m sorry, I got nothing left. I’m but a husk.

The Alley Cats lost their last game to the Toledo Discoverers, ending their season. The Raccoons reacted swiftly and brought up another FOUR players. Jake Flowe moved up to the majors (hopefully to stay) after ending his AAA season batting .287 with ten homers in 104 games, and infielders Manny Arredondo and Jacob Davis were brought up to bolster the numbers on the diamond. Arredondo had been up last year, but Davis would make his debut, a 25-year-old fifth-rounder from 2064 that had batted .279 with five homers in half a season with St. Pete. One more pitcher was added in left-hander Sean Thomas, who had already been up last year as well.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Thomas and Davis, Tony Spink was waived and DFA’ed after batting 0-for-5 in four games, and Leon Arantes was moved to the 60-day DL. Manny Arredondo wore #55 after having #50 since taken by Milian last year.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – C R. Lopez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – RF Colter – 3B Gates – SS Novelo – P Walla
CHA: 2B Schmidt – SS Tr. Taylor – C O. Matos – 1B D. Robles – LF T. Lopez – 3B D. Mendoza – CF Fountain – RF Asencio – P E. Mauricio

The Coons had runners on second and third with one out in both of the first two innings, once with Wilson walking and Lopez doubling, and then with Colter walking and Novelo doubling. Both times no further hits followed; Dowsey got in a run with a groundout in the first inning, but Walla whiffed, and neither Starr nor Wilson did anything nice between those two innings. In the top 3rd, Gutierrez grounded out, but then Lopez and Dowsey hit singles. Lopez went to third base and drew a wild throw from Asencio, which then allowed him to score and Dowsey to boogie into second base while Diego Mendoza recovered the ball. Dowsey was left on regardless, though.

Portland then finally put up a bigger inning in the fourth after Gutierrez hit a 2-out single to plate Novelo from second base, and then Ramon Lopez’ tenth homer extended Walla’s lead to 5-0. Dowsey singled again, but Starr popped out to end the inning. Walla meanwhile had a pretty good game going before suddenly lightning flashed after he had logged 3.1 innings, and play went into a weather delay for over 40 minutes. Walla returned on the other end, and appeared to still be sharp, continuing with a 2-hitter through five innings on just 50 pitches, but now the stuff seemed to be gone.

Next to be gone was Lopez, who hit a double in the sixth, but twisted his knee sliding into second base and was collected by a stoic Luis Silva. Arredondo made his season debut as pinch-runner, but was left on base when Dowsey grounded out. Since Flowe arrived having caught several games in a row, Justin Aguilar then rook over behind the dish. The sixth inning was also the last for Walla, who was giving up loud noises and was held together only by the defense, including a long Taylor fly out to Wilson in center, and a HARD grounder on a 3-0 pitch by Matos to Gutierrez that ended the inning. Milian batted for him with Colter and Gates on the corners and two outs, but grounded out to Taylor at short…

Soriano issued two leadoff walks in the bottom 7th, a mess that was then left for McMahan to sort out against the bottom of the order, while the Coons after an Aguilar double and Dowsey walking with two outs left another pair stranded when Starr popped out to Mendoza in foul ground to end the top 8th. Bridges pitched the last two innings, but not without blowing the shutout with two outs to go when he was taken deep by Dave Robles. 5-1 Raccoons. Gutierrez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Lopez 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Aguilar (PH) 1-1, 2B; Dowsey 2-4, BB, RBI; Novelo 3-5, 2 2B; Walla 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (10-9);

(deep sigh)

Ramon Lopez was off to the DL for the rest of the year with knee tendinitis. That made for another expensive free agent that had his season end early, batting .256 with ten homers and 57 RBI. The RBI tally actually tied him for second on a team that had a hard time getting runs home and was bottoms in offense.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – RF Milian – C Flowe – SS Arredondo – 3B Davis – P Musgrave
CHA: 2B Schmidt – SS Tr. Taylor – C O. Matos – 1B D. Robles – LF T. Lopez – 3B D. Mendoza – CF Fountain – RF Asencio – P T. Lira

While I was still wondering what this lineup had become, Ryan Musgrave effortlessly gave up two runs on three sharp hits in the bottom 2nd to blow an unearned 1-0 lead the Coons had gotten from Starr reaching on a throwing error by John Schmidt in the top 2nd and scoring on Milian’s groundout and Flowe’s sac fly to center. The Falcons kept teeing off of Musgrave, who fooled nobody, but hit into a double play in the third base and ended the fourth on a baserunning blunder by Elijah Fountain, who tried to go first-to-third on Milian on Asencio’s 2-out single to right, but was well thrown out to end the inning.

Jacob Davis, making his ABL debut, grounded out in his first at-bat, but doubled to left in the fifth inning for his first mantelpiece item in the Bigs. He was also stranded on base, because he was already a valued member of the team. Musgrave kept giving up rockets, with hits for Lira leading off the bottom 5th, but being forced out by Schmidt, and then Matos dishing a 2-out RBI single. The Coons had seen enough and went to Holzmeister, who walked Robles, but then had Tony Lopez ground out to end the inning. Holzmeister got another out in the sixth, followed by two outs from Sean Thomas, who made his season debut, and then walked Lira to begin the seventh inning. Schmieder replaced him and got three easy outs from the Falcons.

Lira, besides being an offensive terror, was still pitching a 2-hitter entering the eighth, having given up the two hits to the 7-8 batters, both of whom had gotten the first hit of their season. They led off in the eighth; Arredondo struck out, but Davis singled to center, at which point we remembered that – hey! – with a runner on base, we have the tying run at the plate! Matas flew out to center, Wilson drew a 2-out walk, but Gutierrez popped out foul to Mendoza, and that was that inning… We then shooed Jesse Dover off his lazy tush to do something in the bottom 8th. He got two outs, and got ****** up for three runs on four hits and a walk before being replaced with Carrington, who gave up more RBI singles to Taylor and Matos before Robles finally grounded the **** out, and now it was a beating, even when Starr and Milian hit a pair of RBI doubles against Orazio Cecere in the ninth inning. Jason Stine soon put an end to those shenanigans. 8-3 Falcons. Davis 2-4, 2B;

In other news

September 16 – The Stars clinch the FL West with a 6-0 win against the Buffaloes, 17 games up on the opposition.
September 18 – A single by 1B Alex Mendez (.346, 8 HR, 56 RBI) is all that spares the Capitals from getting no-hit in a 4-1 loss against the Scorpions, who have SP Jay Williams (11-14, 4.29 ERA) and CL Tony Torres (3-6, 3.46 ERA, 32 SV) combine for the effort.

FL Player of the Week: SFW OF Danny Perez (.306, 23 HR, 100 RBI), raking .552 (16-29) with 4 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.310, 26 HR, 124 RBI), pushing .476 (10-21) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Useless. They’re all useless.

13-35 now for their last 48 games, which is technically an improvement with a 2-5 week. I can barely contain the excitement.

As the injuries continue to pile up now, the Raccoons had no interest to add Andrew Farlow as a third catcher, the 20-year-old having just moved to AAA a month-and-a-half ago, and Tony Spink was on waivers right now, and maybe we’d just finish the year with two catchers… Works in May, why wouldn’t it work in September…

Rich Monck hit his 27th and final homer of the season on August 28 before going on a drought, and before having his wrist broken by the ******* **** Erik Lee. He finished the year with a .293 average, 27 homers, and 88 RBI. This was his fifth season in Portland, and the last on his contract.

Quo vadis, Rich Monck? Quo vadis, Ramon Lopez? Quo vadis, Raccoons?

Monday was a day off, and then we’d have our final homestand of the season, nine games with the Aces, Titans, and Loggers, who may or may not have clinched the division by then. We’d play three in Elk City at the tail end of the year, so I will spend the final four weeks of the season exclusively curled up on Portland couches.

Fun Fact: Suddenly, we’re up to 41 players used this season.

Including some I could have done without.

[DD Martin]

Sadly the way the club is going it seems like #5 pick in the draft is a lock with a solid shot at #4.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Sadly the way the club is going it seems like #5 pick in the draft is a lock with a solid shot at #4.

(rummages around in bag of chips, whiskers hanging, and staring absent-mindedly into the distance)

+++

The Chumps were off on Monday, but Fidel Carrera played and hit his 27th homer to die the disabled Rich Monck for the CL home run lead.

Oh what coulda been…

Raccoons (66-84) vs. Aces (74-75) – September 20-22, 2067

In to open the final homestand were the Aces, who had a 4-2 lead in the season series and were thus virtually guaranteed to bag it despite their league-worst bullpen and average offense and -40 run differential. Because have you *seen* us play recently?? They were still down a few starters on the DL, including Dan Garicia and Matthew May. Infielder Koji Hatakeyama was also not present, but have you *seen* our lineup recently??

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (9-14, 3.82 ERA) vs. Tim Henderson (8-11, 4.65 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (11-12, 3.89 ERA) vs. Josh Jackson (7-15, 5.13 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (9-13, 4.17 ERA) vs. Preston Young (12-9, 3.90 ERA)

Those three were right-handers, but with the off day on Monday the Aces had the opportunity to bring southpaw Ignazio Flores (12-13, 3.84 ERA) into he series.

Game 1
LVA: SS Marazzo – RF Rosado – LF Lorenzo – C Haynes – 3B Vic. Morales – 1B L. Jimenez – CF Caceres – 2B D. Sanchez – P T. Henderson
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – RF Colter – C Flowe – SS Novelo – 3B J. Davis – P Gaytan

Gaytan disappeared in the nearest hole right away in the first inning, allowing a leadoff single on an 0-2 pitch to Nate Marazzo, followed by a walk to Alfredo Rosado, and then by another FOUR straight singles and a sac fly for four total runs. The real surprise was that the Coons answered with a pair as Gutierrez walked, stole second base, and a Dowsey double and a Starr single each brought in a run in the bottom 1st, and from there through the end of the fifth inning there was only one more base hit to be counted between the two teams, a Jamie Colter single in the fourth inning that of course went up in flames once Pablo Novelo hit into another double play.

Gaytan went in the bin after the sixth, offering a leadoff walk to Chris Haynes, a wild pitch, an RBI single to ex-Coon Vic Morales, and then ANOTHER wild pitch, but Morales remained on base in the now 5-2 game. Portland gave up another run in the seventh between dispiriting tossery by Barton, Thomas, and Yamauchi, then got Flowe on base with a walk. Novelo forced him out, Jacob Davis singled, and Milian hit for Yamauchi and straight into an inning-ending double play. Cameron Bridges offered two scoreless innings at the end, but the Coons disappeared meekly into the night on only four base hits. 6-2 Aces. Colter 1-2, BB; Bridges 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
LVA: CF A. Warner – SS Marazzo – LF Lorenzo – C Haynes – 3B Vic. Morales – 1B L. Jimenez – RF Caceres – 2B D. Sanchez – P Jo. Jackson
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – RF Matas – SS Novelo – 3B Arredondo – C Aguilar – P Nakayama

The Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 1st on Wednesday as Gutierrez drew another walk and then Dowsey and Starr filled the bags with singles. Carlos Matas then bounced the first pitch to Vic Morales, who spun a 5-4-3 doub- no! The umpire called Matas safe! It was a real bang-bang play, but the Coons got a break and a 1-0 lead, so what am I gonna complain about from under my pillow fortress?? Novelo of course flew out to Aaron Warner, uselessly, ending the inning for good.

Bottom 2nd, and the bases were loaded again, this time on Aguilar’s single, Nakayama’s bunt being misfielded by Jackson, and a walk drawn by Jaden Wilson, all with one out. Carlos Gutierrez grounded out to Danny Sanchez, which brought in another run, and another Dowsey double over the head of Warner brought in two! Starr grounded out, and it was 4-0 after two innings. We were then waiting or Nakayama to step on a rake, which he reliably did in the fourth inning, putting Nate Marazzo and the CL stolen base leader Victor Lorenzo on base. He got around Haynes, but then was conquered for a 3-run homer by Vic Morales. Jorge Caceres hit a 2-out double in the inning, but Sanchez’ groundout to Starr left the tying run on base. Starr then also tried to answer the blast with a solo home run of his own in the bottom 5th, 5-3, but the Coons then got a leadoff triple from Novelo in the sixth and managed to pop out twice and have Nakayama ground out to short to keep that extra run on base, somehow.

Leaving Nakayama in then immediately backfired even harder when he gave up straight doubles to the 7-8 batters to begin the seventh inning. Alex Alfaro popped out, but Alfredo Rosado singled to put the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners with one out. McMahan came in to face PH Mike Davis, who hit an RBI single anyway and sent Rosado to third base, from where Vic Lorenzo plated him with a sac fly. Soriano replaced McMahan, tried to give up a homer to Haynes, but Dowsey made the pick at the fence to end the ******* inning.

Bottom 7th, and Randy Birnbaum loaded the bases with a Wilson single and walks to Gutierrez and Dowsey – and nobody out. The Aces left him in even as he obviously had nothing, and Starr tied the game with a sac fly, and Matas gave the Coons the lead back with an RBI single. Birnbaum STILL remained in, throwing a wild pitch before Novelo was walked intentionally, and another wild pitch that scored Dowsey before Manny Arredondo hit an RBI single, and only in a 9-6 game he was then replaced with Gabe Molina, who gave up another RBI single to Justin Aguilar before the inning fizzled out with Early grounding out, Wilson walking, and Gutierrez grounding out to leave the bases loaded. Dover was then put into the eighth inning in an attempt to get him pieced back together after a string of bad outings. He gave up two singles, but no runs, and let’s just not talk about how loud those hits were… Chance Fox then got the ball for the ninth and gave up singles to left-handed batters Rosado and Mike Boyce. Lorenzo grounded out, and then Josh C replaced Fox with runners in scoring position and one out. He ended the game with a Haynes sac fly and Morales flying out to Wilson. 10-7 Aces. Starr 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Arredondo 2-4, 2B, RBI; Aguilar 2-4, RBI;

Flores was indeed up on Wednesday in a duel of left-handers.

Game 3
LVA: CF Marazzo – RF Rosado – LF Lorenzo – C Haynes – 3B Vic. Morales – 1B L. Jimenez – SS D. Sanchez – 2B Medford – P I. Flores
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Dowsey – LF Early – 1B Starr – C Aguilar – 2B Bonner – 3B Gates – P Rios

Dowsey went deep to right in the first inning for a 1-0 lead in this rubber game before both teams would put the 8-9-1 batters on base with two outs in the second inning. Only the Coons scored, getting three straight single and an RBI from Wilson, bringing in Gary Gates, while two of the Aces batters reached on walks issued by Rios and all three were stranded, yay. Rios wasn’t making it far into the game. He was constantly behind in the count to the Aces, and issued five walks in as many innings, and needed 105 pitches to make it that far. Somehow, the Aces didn’t score against him, and the score was still 2-0.

Holzmeister held the line in the sixth before the Coons put out three runs in the bottom 6th, starting with a Starr homer. Aguilar singled, but was forced out by Bonner, who then stole second base and scored on a 2-base throwing error by Danny Sanchez. Flores balked Gates to third base, and he scored on a sac fly by PH Jacob Davis, who got his first career RBI by extending the score to 5-0. The Aces came back with two runs against Yamauchi and Soriano in the seventh, who gave up a walk and three singles between them, and Soriano ****** another run with Medford’s leadoff double, a wild pitch, and Marazzo’s sac fly in the eighth, getting the Aces back to 5-3. McMahan then came in to face Rosado, struck him out, and held the fort for the last three outs in the ninth as well for a save. 5-3 Coons. Wilson 2-4, RBI; Early 2-4; Starr 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Raccoons (68-85) vs. Titans (91-61) – September 23-25, 2067

Seven-and-a-half games behind the Loggers, the Titans were on the brink of getting eliminated from October considerations on the weekend, and they had not done all that well against the Raccoons to begin with, leading the season series only 8-7. They needed the wins, bringing the best pitching in the league and the #6 offense. They had a +135 run differential. What they also had was a long list of injuries, with Bryce Wallace, Cody Kleidon, Andy Lee, Ivan Berrios, and several replacements all on the DL. But tell me about that…

Projected matchups:
Cody Childress (0-1, 8.79 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (14-11, 3.72 ERA)
Nick Walla (10-9, 3.25 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (9-9, 3.76 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-12, 4.64 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (18-6, 3.08 ERA)

The opener would see the Coons face off against their second consecutive left-handed opponent, but the rest of the Titans starters were right-handers.

Game 1
BOS: SS I. Diaz – LF S. Humphries – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 2B Onelas – 3B C. Pena – P Riddle
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Milian – C Aguilar – 2B Bonner – 3B Gates – P Childress

While scheduled beatings for Cody Childress did not resume, like Rios on Thursday he was all over the ******* place, and ducked out of the first inning when Eddie Marcotte ran his team out of the inning with a blunder on the basepaths, trying to go first-to-third on Jorge Arviso’s 2-out single to right, but was thrown out by Milian, who also scored the game’s first run in the bottom 2nd, doubling to center before being brought in on Ryan Bonner’s triple to right. That came with two outs, but not with a clutch hitter behind him, and Gary Gates just rolled over to Marcos Onelas to leave Bonner at third base.

The skies became increasingly gray in the middle innings and rain began to fall in the sixth inning, and the Titans tied up the game just in time before they could suffer a stupid rain-shortened loss to the Raccoons when Israel Diaz and Marcotte pooled together for two hits and a run in the top 6th. That was also the end for Childress, who had thrown 92 pitches to go five-and-a-third. Alvey came in to face left-handed bats, the first of which, Arviso, flew out to deep center. With two outs then, Bill Joyner singled, and Joe Washington banged a 3-run homer. Diaz tripled Alvey from the game in the seventh, but scored on a sac fly that Steve Humphries hit off Cameron Bridges, 5-1. Chance Fox pitched the last two innings without complaints, while the Coons hit into double plays with Gates and Novelo in both the seventh and eighth innings. Jake Flowe homered off Josh Carlisle in the bottom 9th, prompting an appearance from Tyler Gleason, who issued a 1-out walk to Bonner, and then Davis batted for Gates … and hit into another double play. 5-2 Titans. Wilson 3-4; Milian 2-4, 2B; Flowe (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Bonner 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Fox 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

The Loggers beat the Elks, 3-2, and thus stayed 7 1/2 in front. Mathematical elimination was still in the cards for the Titans as early as Saturday.

Game 2
BOS: SS I. Diaz – LF S. Humphries – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 3B C. Pena – P R. Montoya
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – RF Milian – C Flowe – 3B Colter – SS Arredondo – P Walla

Walla was very much hit around on Saturday, giving up two deep fly outs in the first, then three singles for a run in the second inning, followed by a Humphries single, a Marcotte double, and a 3-run homer by Jorge Arviso in the third, 4-0. He went on to issue lengthy full-count, 2-out walks to Joe Washington and Cesar Pena in that inning, and was then yanked after Montoya popped out, having thrown already over 80 pitches. Given how Montoya retired the Critters in order the first time through and Gary Gates batted for Walla, he never even held a stick. Game in the bin, the ball then went to Barton, who managed to give up another four runs in the fourth inning instead of actually gaining some ground on the scoreboard, allowing a 2-run homer to Marcotte and a 2-run double to Washington for the markers. Thankfully we were far from running out of tossers, and Schmieder then actually put three innings on the board, giving up one run to the Titans in the process. In between, Starr at one point doubled in a run and Gutierrez hit a solo homer off Montoya, not that it made a major dent on the scoreboard; as a whole the Coons had just four base hits in six innings. Starr then singled to begin the seventh. Novelo batted for Schmieder in the #5 spot, but hit into a fielder’s choice, and Flowe then hit a double, but the runners were left in scoring position on account of Colter grounding out to first, and Arredondo lining out to Cesar Pena at third… Sean Thomas in the eighth walked the bags full and gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to John Kaniewski, while the Coons opened the bottom 8th with straight singles by Matas, Wilson, and Gutierrez against Carlisle. Dowsey fanned, but Starr held off long enough to draw a bases-loaded walk, as did the pnch-hitting Marquise Early. Flowe then struck out and Colter grounded out to second to leave the bases loaded in a 7-run game. That remained the distance in the ninth inning, neither Dover nor Carlisle giving up any more runs. 11-4 Titans. Wilson 3-5, 2B; Gutierrez 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Starr 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Early (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Matas 2-3;

The Loggers lost, so the Titans could stay relevant just by completing the sweep.

Game 3
BOS: SS I. Diaz – LF S. Humphries – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 2B Jer. White – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – 3B C. Pena – P M. Bell
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – RF Dowsey – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – SS Novelo – 3B Arredondo – P Musgrave

As Diaz walked and scored on an Arviso single with two outs in the first inning, the Titans got another early lead on the Portland Forgettables. Especially forgettable by now was the rotation, as the Raccoons got the fourth straight turd start from Musgrave, who already threw over 20 pitches in the first inning and broke into the 90s on his pitch count in the fourth, doing so in absolute style, too. While an Arredondo error put Jeremy White on base to begin with in that inning, it was then Musgrave to give up a 2-out RBI double and – dios mio! – a 2-run homer to the ******* opposing pitcher, 4-0. He would finish that bloody inning, and then be yanked, like all the others were: early.

Speaking of Early, Marquise blundered into a double play in the bottom 4th to erase a Starr single, and apart from that I had little reason to not frown either, as Starr’s hit had only been the second base knock for the Raccoons in this game as we were TOTALLY getting swept by Bell, the old slugging monster.

The Coons were STILL on two hits after Holzmeister filed two decent innings, Josh C went out for an inning, and then Sean Thomas gave up a double to Joyner and a 2-run homer to Washington in the eighth. Bell made the bottom of the order disappear effortlessly in the eighth inning, then returned for the ninth still fresh and on 90 pitches. Wilson grounded out on #91, but Gutierrez singled to center on #92, the first actual flick of the tail and brownshirted runner on base in five innings. Dowsey then banged a homer, as if anyone was still there to watch it. Colter hit a pinch-hit double with two outs, but was left on base when Flowe popped out. 6-2 Titans. Starr 2-4; Colter (PH) 1-1, 2B; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

In other news

September 20 – Blow for Dallas, as the Stars lose SP Ray “Crabman” Walker (9-3, 2.53 ERA), who was already held to 15 starts this season, for the rest of the year due to a case of forearm tendinitis.
September 22 – The season of Pacifics closer Ryan De Jong (8-3, 3.13 ERA, 14 SV) ends with bone chips being removed from his elbow. He is expected to be ready for Opening Day in 2068.
September 23 – SAL SP Ian Lowry (4-4, 2.67 ERA) walks five, but carries a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Sacramento, before giving up a 1-out single to infielder Mike Roberts (.174, 1 HR, 26 RBI), of all people. SAL MR Jesse Connors (2-4, 5.26 ERA, 1 SV) finished the combined 1-hitter for a 4-0 Wolves win after that.
September 23 – The Thunder win the CL South with an 8-4 win against the Condors.
September 24 – Blue Sox SP Ken McDonald (15-11, 4.35 ERA) is expected to miss nine months with radial nerve compression.
September 24 – Rebels swingman Jay Perrin (9-7, 3.65 ERA) needs to have bone chips removed from his elbow and will be questionable for Opening Day in 2068.

FL Player of the Week: CIN OF Melvin Avila (.319, 14 HR, 64 RBI), batting .450 (9-20) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL OF Jonathan Merrill (.364, 4 HR, 77 RBI), clipping .542 (13-24) with 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

That #3 pick was receding into the distance, partially because of the Buffos, but we were tied for last with the Indians again on Sunday night, and the Stingers were only a game and a half behind, which sounded trivial to suck up for the Coons in this final week of the season.

There had been the vague hope that Jose Corral might return for some more games in the last week of the season but he suffered a setback to his groin strain this week and was thus written off for the year. Only Randy Tallent was gonna come back on Monday now. Yaaay.

Loggers, Elks next week. Since the Loggers won on Sunday, they had a magic number of one for the division title.

Someone please kill me.

Fun Fact: Fun? Fun was traded to the Blue Sox years ago.

-.-

[Westheim]

Raccoons (68-88) vs. Loggers (101-55) – September 26-28, 2067

The Loggers…! The Loggers…! The Loggers were probably gonna clinch the division on Monday, because they were still scoring just over SIX runs per game, and maybe, if the Coons pitched rancidly enough, then the 1,000 runs were still possible. They were 56 short with six games to go. The pitching was average, but they looked like they’d just slug their way to the title. They were surely already in possession of the season series, 10-5.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (9-15, 3.94 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (14-9, 4.17 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (11-12, 4.05 ERA) vs. Ryan Ward (4-3, 3.98 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (10-13, 4.04 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (13-4, 3.88 ERA)

Espinosa was likely to be the final left-handed starter the Raccoons would see this year, although there was the possibility to come against the Elks’ Jose Villegas (3-6, 5.13 ERA) on the weekend.

Game 1
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – LF Reder – C Guitreau – P Crist
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – RF Dowsey – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – SS Novelo – 3B Davis – P Gaytan

The Loggers sat on Gaytan’s face right from the start, with Jonathan Merrill singling to left and Carlos Dominguez knocking a homer for a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Gaytan struggled throughout this likely final outing of the year, especially with the all-lefty top five batters in that lineup, but also with the bottom of the order, which went down silently the first time he went through the lineup, but knocked a double with Kyle Reber and another 2-run homer off the stick of Tommy Guitreau in the fourth inning, extending their lead to 4-0, and Cesar Ramirez chimed in with a solo home run in the fifth, and another solo homer by Guitreau in the sixth inning. So the Loggers through six innings had four homers and a 6-0 lead, and the Raccoons had … a Novelo single. Evan Alvey, replacing Gaytan after five and two thirds, couldn’t contain the Loggers’ top half of the lineup either, giving up a double to Dominguez in the seventh, and the run on productive outs by Ramirez and Fidel Carrera, who got a sac fly.

A Dowsey double in the bottom 7th led nowhere, but Crist ran out of steam in the eighth and allowed a run on singles by PH Carlos Matas, Jacob Davis, and Jaden Wilson, and was then removed with five outs to go. Nick Walters immediately collected an inning-ending double play from Carlos Gutierrez then. Milian tripled batting for Dowsey to begin the bottom 9th against Walters, who then nicked Joel Starr, and allowed another run on Marquise Early’s groundout to Jose Ahumada at second base. Against the odds, the Raccoons would manage to get the Loggers closer into the game with more singles with two outs by Matas, who plated Starr, and Davis, at which point the game was in save range. Justin Aguilar batted for Arredondo and kept the line moving with a single to center, scoring Matas, except that Davis then gigglingly cut off his own parachute and ran into a stupid final out at third base. 7-4 Loggers. Milian (PH) 1-1, 3B; Matas 2-2, RBI; Davis 2-4; Aguilar (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Loggers were just glad that it was over and they were able to clinch the CL North for the first time in *26* years.

Game 2
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – LF Alaniz – C Guitreau – P Ry. Ward
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – RF Dowsey – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – SS Novelo – 3B Colter – P Nakayama

Nakayama held up in the early innings despite Gutierrez dropping a pop fly behind him for an error and Guitreau thus getting to third base with one out in the third inning, but Nakayama got another pop from Merrill that was actually caught, and then Dominguez grounded out. The Raccoons had stranded Dowsey and Starr on a pair of 2-out walks in the first inning, then got Nakayama on with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd. Gutierrez got hit and Dowsey walked with one out, filling the bases for Joel Starr, who was two shy of 20 homers, but didn’t get much to hit and had to contend himself with laying off the garbage to draw a full-count walk and force in the game’s first run. Early then poked into a 4-6-3 double play to kill the inning.

Nakayama was well until he wasn’t, which happened in the fifth inning. Mario Alaniz’ leadoff double and a walk issued to Guitreau put plenty on base, Ward bunted the runners onwards, and base knocks by Tim Goss and Merrill drove in three total runs for the Loggers to take another lead. The Raccoons would get six innings out of Nakayama on 107 pitches, and McMahan had a scoreless inning against the top of the order after that, but the offense was failing merrily along and wasted leadoff doubles by Dowsey in the sixth and Novelo in the seventh with nothing but pathetic outs after that and both runners being stranded at third base in their respective innings in a ******* 3-1 game.

Dowsey and Starr reached again in tandem in the bottom 8th against Nick Walters, who was then replaced by Angelo Ramirez with one out. David Milian batted for Early against the right-hander and drew another walk to fill the bags, and then Jake Flowe very reliably hit into a double play to again score ******* nobody. Yamauchi pitched the last two innings for Portland, holding the Loggers within reach, but Vincent Hernandez again turned them away in the ninth inning. 3-1 Loggers. Dowsey 2-2, 2 BB, 2B; Starr 0-1, 3 BB; Yamauchi 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – LF Alaniz – C Guitreau – P T. Espinosa
POR: CF Tallent – 2B Bonner – 1B Starr – RF Milian – LF Early – C Aguilar – SS Novelo – 3B Gates – P Rios

Tim Goss opened the game with a triple over the head of Tallent in centerfield and scored on a Merrill sac fly before the Loggers filled the bags again – also on a Novelo error – but didn’t score once Alaniz grounded out to Ryan Bonner to end the inning. Tallent then led off the bottom 1st with a single, three straight of which loaded the bags for Milian, but he blundered into a run-scoring double play and Early struck out, so the game was tied at one after the first frame.

Rios was then exploded in the third inning, putting the last two of those lefty hitters, Ramirez and Carrera, on base, then got taken apart with an RBI single by Kyle Reber and a 3-run homer by Mario Alaniz. Guitreau then flew out to Milian, who hurt himself on the play and was replaced with Jamie Colter. Rios would soldier on for another three-and-a-third innings, giving up another run driven in by Merrill on the way, while the Raccoons weren’t doing anything anyway. Rios departed after a walk to Carrera in the seventh, after which Juan Soriano balked and walked the bases full with two outs and was yanked even with Espinosa going back into the batter’s box. Alvey came in with Wilson in a double switch and struck out Espinosa. The Coons’ pen ached through the rest of regulation with Alvey, Bridges, and Sean Thomas, while the offense was held to seven hits and one run by Espinosa, who went for 22 outs, and then Angelo Ramirez and Steve Slye at the end. 6-1 Loggers.

The last-place Coons would travel to Elk City without their GM and also without David Milian, who finished his season with an oblique strain.

Not that the services of Milian were strictly required to finish finishing last in the division…

Raccoons (68-91) @ Canadiens (83-76) – September 30-October 2, 2067

The Elks were trying to finish third ahead of the Crusaders and had the second-most runs scored AND second-most runs allowed for a -19 run differential in the Continental League. Their rotation and pen were both in the bottom three in ERA, as was their defense rating, but nothing could make these Coons score runs. NOTHING. The Elks were up 9-6 in the season series. Should the Raccoons get swept, they would even stay below their 2066 win total of 69 victories.

Projected matchups:
Cody Childress (0-2, 7.32 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (12-10, 3.64 ERA)
Nick Walla (10-10, 3.38 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (18-7, 3.45 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (9-13, 4.58 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (10-18, 5.65 ERA)

Villegas (3-6, 4.86 ERA) had pitched on Thursday, the Coons’ day off, so we would only get righty pitchers in this series.

I was not 100% certain yet whether we wouldn’t snap and give that final start to somebody else given the state of disarray that Musgrave was in. Gaytan and Nakayama could go on regular or longer rest on Sunday, and then there was the option to give Alvey the start on the way out the door, or more lunatic options around starting the corpse of Chance Fox, who would only get obliterated, or two-and-a-half-pitches right-handers Cameron Bridges and Jason Holzmeister, although only Bridges had reasonable stamina. Then again, reason had died along with joy about eight weeks and the current 15-42 string ago.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – RF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Flowe – LF Matas – 3B Arredondo – P Childress
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – C Varner – LF Chenette – CF D. Moore – RF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – SS Barraza – P Rath

Maybe the least defensible option was giving a ball to Childress to begin with, as he was right away overturned for two runs in the bottom 1st, walking Matt Kilday and giving up singles to Steve Varner and Tyler Chenette, the latter of which Matas bungled defending in leftfield for an extra base, the first run, and probably the second run altogether, which scored on Dan Moore’s scratch single. The Elks continued to litter the bases with their droppings after that, but didn’t score in the second and third innings before the Raccoons’ 2-3-4 batters loaded the bases to begin the fourth inning; Gutierrez walked, and then Dowsey and Starr hit soft singles. Novelo’s sac fly to center and Flowe’s RBI single would tie the game, while another Matas single filled the bases again. Arredondo popped out, and the inning ended with Childress, who hit a 2-run double to left, but then saw Matas getting thrown out at the plate, trying to clear the bases, by Tyler Chenette, so the score was 4-2 in the middle of the fourth. Childress then celebrated by nicking Chad Whetstine leading off the Elks’ half of the fourth, but somehow escaped just punishment.

Top 5th, and Josh Meighan replaced Rath, then walked Wilson and nailed Gutierrez before giving up a 2-run double to Joel Starr. Novelo’s single put runners on the corners and Flowe’s sac fly ran the score to 7-2, and Robbie Lingard had to replace Meighan, loaded the bases, but then struck out Childress to get outta there. He would get through six innings, giving up a solo jack to Chenette in the fifth and departing after a leadoff walk to Rico Cordero in the #9 spot in the bottom 7th. The Coons were up 8-3, when Arredondo drove in a run with two outs and then ended the inning by being caught stealing. Chance Fox appeared, retired ******* nobody on two walks, two hits, and three runs across, and Childress’ first career win got exploded very neatly when Josh Carrington then kept ******* around and gave up a 2-out, 3-run homer to Whetstine in the inning, which put the Elks on top, 9-8…

Holzmeister allowed two singles and saw both runners (Kilday, Carlos Castro) get caught stealing in the bottom 8th, but Jon McGinley axed the Coons’ 3-4-5 in order in the ninth and that was another loss booked. 9-8 Canadiens. Dowsey 2-5; Starr 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Flowe 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Matas 3-4, 2B;

******* horrible.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Gutierrez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Flowe – RF Tallent – 3B Gates – P Walla
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – LF Chenette – 1B R. Cordero – CF D. Moore – C Orphanos – SS Barraza – P Nielsen

Walla needed three innings to pitch 200 on the year, and was denied by tweaking his ankle on a pitch to Nielsen that was hit for a sac fly and the game’s first run in the bottom 2nd. Walla only got five outs and allowed four singles, two of them flukes by Kilday and Lozada in the first inning, but Dan Moore and Roberto Barraza had more solid hits off him in the second to go to the corners. Sean Thomas was brought in as injury replacement for Walla, popped out Castro to end the inning, then struck out batting in the third inning before Jaden Wilson tied the game with a homer, at least taking Walla off a stupid hook, although Thomas willingly hung himself on there in the bottom 3rd when he gave up the first two of three straight singles that Lozada, Chenette, and Cordero hit off him and Yamauchi, the latter conceding the go-ahead run before Moore hit into an inning-ending double play.

Bridges got the ball for long relief in the fourth, which removed most of the more outlandish options for Closing Day from consideration. He gave up three hits and two runs right away in his first frame, but then put up a zero before Nielsen walked Gutierrez in the sixth and conceded that run on Dowsey and Novelo singles, but then got Flowe out to strand the tying runs. Nielsen continued into the seventh before allowing a pinch-hit double to Arredondo (batting for Bridges) and an RBI single to Wilson, narrowing the score to 4-3 with two outs. Paul Wolk entered, walked Gutierrez, but then struck out Dowsey. McMahan and Holzmeister then filled in the next two innings, keeping the score close, but the Raccoons didn’t land any punches against a parade of relievers in the eighth inning. Josh Meighan then was in for the ninth, which was led off by Matas, batting for Gary Gates against the right-hander, and getting hit on a 3-0 pitch. Colter batted for Holzmeister and singled, and then Wilson’s RBI double to left tied the game and put a pair in scoring position with nobody out. Meighan gave up a 2-run triple to Gutierrez and was exited after that. Brian Brillhart got a poor groundout from Dowsey, then nicked Starr. Novelo’s grounder was bungled for a run-scoring error, 7-4, by Castro. Flowe popped out for the second out before Justin Aguilar batted for Tallent and bashed his first homer of the season and probably his only Coons homer ever with a 3-run shot to left-center! That was the final knock in the game, as Matt Schmieder then 1-2-3’ed the damn Elks. 10-4 Coons. Wilson 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Gutierrez 1-2, 3 BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Flowe 3-5, 2B; Aguilar (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Arredondo (PH) 1-1, 2B; Colter (PH) 1-1;

Heyyy, we won another ballgame …!

I have forgotten how to react to wins.

Justin Wittman pitched in the eighth inning for the Elks on Saturday, so he was also out of the question to start the season finale, which instead went to Nate Freeman (8-13, 4.90 ERA), also a right-handed pitcher.

Game 3
POR: CF Matas – 2B Gutierrez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – C Flowe – RF Colter – SS Arredondo – 3B Davis – P Musgrave
VAN: CF D. Moore – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B R. Cordero – 3B K. Graves – LF Atkins – SS Barraza – P N. Freeman

With a grim weather forecast, teams were on a timer on Sunday, and Musgrave wasn’t particularly sharp and gave up liners, including two for a Barraza double and Moore’s RBI single in the bottom 3rd that marked the first marker on the scoreboard. Musgrave hit Steve Varner, who was doubled off by Cordero, in the fourth, then allowed 2-out singles to Barraza and Freeman in the fifth inning before striking out Moore.

Rain started to fall right at the start of the sixth inning, with the Coons on one miserable base hit through five innings, but Musgrave, Matas, and Gutierrez poked straight 1-out singles to tie the ballgame. Yes! That’s what we want – a 2-hour rain delay!! A rain delay was indeed called right after that, but lasted under half an hour, after which Dowsey singled to give Portland a 2-1 lead. Starr grounded out, but Flowe then knocked a 2-out, 2-run double and scored on a Colter single to run up the score. Brillhart replaced Freeman and got Arredondo to ground out, ending the inning.

Musgrave pitched into the bottom 7th, giving up a homer to Rico Cordero and allowing more screamers to Atkins and Whetstine for another run that reduced the lead to 5-3. He was yanked for Josh C, who **** on the box score with a four-pitch walk to Dan Moore and then a game-tying triple into the rightfield corner by Kilday, who was stranded in the 5-5 game when Lozada hacked out.

Wittman was pitching in the eighth again, but allowed a single to Dowsey, a walk to Starr, and an RBI single to Colter for a new 6-5 lead before Arredondo lined out to Rick Atkins to leave runners on the corners. The Elks also left Cordero and Kenny Graves on the corners against Josh C and Alvey in that inning, Barraza whiffing against the southpaw to end the inning. The Elks then sent McGinley into the ninth and the Coons finally stuffed him some after two years of utterly failing against him, as Davis singled and Bonner pinch-hit and walked before Gutierrez shot a 2-run double over Moore in centerfield to extend the lead to 8-5. Paul Wolk would then get the remaining outs, and Jesse Dover got a 3-run lead to give him a chance to end the season on something other than explosions. Castro and Moore made outs before Kilday hit a 2-out single, but Lozada grounded out to Gutierrez, and that was the ballgame and the season. 8-5 Coons. Gutierrez 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Dowsey 2-5, RBI; Colter 2-4, 2 RBI;

In other news

September 28 – The Falcons’ SP Edgar Mauricio (11-13, 3.12 ERA) throws a 1-hit shutout for a 1-0 win against the Thunder, who only get a sixth-inning single from OF/2B Scott Franks (.270, 0 HR, 23 RBI) in this game.
October 2 – PIT SP Adam Molloy (12-8, 4.00 ERA) and three relievers pitch a combined 1-hitter against the Blue Sox for a 1-0 win. NAS INF Tony Gaines (.288, 7 HR, 83 RBI) hits a single for all the Sox offense, and they fall half a game behind the Rebels with this result and have to helplessly watch the Rebs play an after-Closing Day Monday makeup game against the last-place Buffaloes for the division.
October 3 – The Buffos refuse to lie down and beat the Rebels, 5-1, with SP Antonio Santelices (11-11, 3.90 ERA) bringing a 3-hitter into the ninth inning before leaving the game with an abdominal strain. This sets up a tie-breaker on *Tuesday*.
October 4 – The Rebels overcome an early deficit to beat the Blue Sox, 4-3, and clinch the division a couple days late. RIC SP Bobby Marceau (15-8, 3.54 ERA) pitches eight innings for only one earned run and the W.

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF/1B Victor David Morales (.330, 12 HR, 35 RBI), hitting .396 with 7 HR, 22 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: IND CF/LF/1B/3B Matt Martin (.265, 15 HR, 66 RBI), hitting .402 with 7 HR, 21 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: CIN SP Blake Anderson (10-8, 3.40 ERA), going 5-0 in six starts, with a 1.69 ERA, 27 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: OCT CL Erik Swain (2-5, 1.69 ERA, 44 SV), being 1-1 with a 0.63 ERA, 12 SV, 23 K in 15 games
FL Rookie of the Month: LAP LF/RF John Miller (.305, 7 HR, 42 RBI), batting .347 with 1 HR, 10 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: LVA RF/LF Alfredo Rosado (.308, 11 HR, 49 RBI), hitting .333 with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Rich Monck came up one damn homer short of at least sharing in a home run crown, as the CL leaders topped out at 28. (sour look)

The final tally for our spectacular fall from the lofty heights of 53-49 turned out to be 17-43 over the last 60 games, which is two months and small change of .283 ball.

Nobody won a triple crown this year, which with Jason Brenize and those Stars pitchers around has become something worth noting. DeWitt of Indy ended up in last place, but led the CL soundly in strikeouts, and the Dallas pack – of course “Crabman” Walker was dismembered by injuries this year – didn’t claim ANY category in the FL.

If anybody else’s gotta celebrate on our field, at least let it be the Loggers. Obviously the Loggers are the team we dislike the least in the division.

Also nods to the Rebs for their late-late clincher and their first playoffs since 2049.

For the Coons, who won 70 games this year, and 70 games on average over the last three years, we’re just glad it’s over.

Fun Fact: For all the pain involved, the Raccoons only get a #6 pick for the next draft.

Rats.

[DD Martin]

Bring in the off-season quick! Those last 2 wins cost the club the #5 pick, drats and double drats! At least the Rac’s won more games than last season, but those last 10 weeks of the season were brutal.

[Westheim]

2067 ABL PLAYOFFS

Once more the playoff field of four teams was set and there had been a mild surprise here on there.

Not least of which for certain were the 105-57 Loggers entering the postseason with the best record in baseball and the absurd number of 976 runs scored. Even average pitching was easily carried by that. They led the CL in most offensive categories, but were bad at stealing bases. Their defense also ranked second from the bottom, but there are certain liberties a 6.0 R/G offense will allow for. They still put up a +251 run differential. Almost the entire lineup was .300 hitters, with the best pieces being in no particular order Jonathan Merrill (.366, 4 HR, 82 RBI), Carlos Dominguez (.372, 19 HR, 99 RBI), Cesar Ramirez (.354, 26 HR, 134 RBI), Fidel Carrera (.307, 27 HR, 128 RBI), and Tommy Guitreau (.249, 24 HR, 99 RBI). The pitching was unremarkable outside of closer Vincent Hernandez (9-1, 1.42 ERA, 42 SV), a left-hander. The best guys in the rotation were Jose Lugo (13-5, 3.35 ERA) and Tony Espinosa (14-4, 3.73 ERA). The lineup tilted heavily to the left side, but Espinosa was the only southpaw starter.

Opposing them were the 96-66 Thunder, who had come in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed with a much more modest +117 run differential, enough to win the CL South by double digits. They had a single qualifying .300 hitter, Roberto Almanza (.302, 1 HR, 53 RBI), although Martin Bohannon (.299, 15 HR, 75 RBI) and Ian Stone (.299, 28 HR, 138 RBI) had just missed out – and Stone had a share of the home run crown in the CL. Jose Palominos (.282, 16 HR, 95 RBI) also offered slugging, although overall they were only tenth in home runs. They instead had a fine defense and the best bullpen by ERA, with closer Erik Swain (2-5, 1.64 ERA, 44 SV) not having to hide from a comparison with Hernandez. Danny Baca (18-8, 2.81 ERA) was the ace on the staff, but a season-ending injury to Jeff Kozloski meant that the back end of the rotation looked a bit flimsy and vulnerable to the Loggers’ relentless assault, especially given that Baca was the only southpaw there.

The best record in the FL was held again by the 103-59 Stars, who had won their division by the usual miles and miles, and had posted the top mark for runs scored in the Federal League while playing in a shoebox once again. They were only fourth in home runs, but had stolen 202 bases, which was an outlandish total. Like the Loggers, the pitching was best described as “adequate”, ranking fifth in runs allowed (+183 run differential), with the pen sixth in ERA and defense eighth in the league. Xavier Reyes (.359, 2 HR, 67 RBI) and Andy Yocum (.368, 2 HR, 95 RBI) offered persistent fodder for relentless slugging monster Tyler Wharton (.308, 33 HR, 126 RBI), with three more players hitting double digit homers, though none more than Jason Bothe (.248, 15 HR, 78 RBI). The rotation of course had a “Crabman” Walker-sized hole as he had lost more than half of the season and the playoffs to injury. Alex Quevedo (16-7, 3.39 ERA) and Ian Peters (17-7, 3.62 ERA) were coping as much as they could. The lineup was very much right-handed top to bottom besides the switch-hitting Victor David Morales (.287, 18 HR, 80 RBI), and Alan Deakin (12-9, 4.32 ERA) was the only left-handed starter.

The 91-72 Rebels had only made it to the postseason in double overtime after a tie-breaker with the Blue Sox and were thus quite exhausted compared to the rested Stars. They brought the #2 offense and #6 pitching to the fray with a +67 run differential. They had actually led the FL in home runs, although it was a group effort with five guys having 17+ home runs on the team, but none more than Darby Laybolt (.339, 23 HR, 92 RBI), followed by Jason Turner (.251, 22 HR, 80 RBI). It was a very dense lineup from top to bottom, and offered a mix of left-handed and right-handed sticks. The rotation had to do without reliable Jay Perrin, who was out until next year, and Pedro Acebedo (17-10, 3.47 ERA) and Bobby Marceau (15-8, 3.54 ERA) would be trying to hold everything together. There were no standouts in the bullpen, although closer Allen Tinsley (6-6, 4.09 ERA, 43 SV) had sure put a fine season together despite the ERA.

+++

The Thunder continued to pile up playoff appearances without offering many rings, as this was their 28th time of October baseball. Both them and the Stars, who were in the playoffs for the 19th time, had won their division for six straight seasons at this point. By stark contrast, this was the ninth playoff appearance of the Rebels and the first in 18 years; and the Loggers were in the playoffs for only the sixth time and the first time in 26 years.

The Stars were tied for fourth all-time with six championships. The Thunder had three rings, same as the Rebels in noticeably fewer tries. The Loggers had two titles to their names, and were the only team in the field to win the title on their most recent playoff appearance.

Funny though how these things worked, the Loggers had actually been the team that the Thunder had eliminated in the CLCS on their way to their World Series championships in 1994 and 2000, the only time the teams had met in the CLCS. The Stars and Rebels had never met in the FLCS before.

Potential repeats of World Series pairings were limited to the Stars and Thunder, who had met two years ago in 2065 with the better end for Dallas. Neither the Rebels nor the Loggers had ever met with either of the two options from the other league.

+++

2067 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

RIC @ DAL … 3-4 … (Stars lead 1-0) … RIC Darby Laybolt 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DAL Jeff Maudlin 3-4, BB, 3B, RBI;

RIC @ DAL … 6-2 … (series tied 1-1) … RIC Willie Ospina 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; DAL Jeff Maudlin 3-4; DAL Jason Bothe 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;
OCT @ MIL … 5-2 … (Thunder lead 1-0) … OCT Ian Stone 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; OCT Johnny Parker 2-4, BB, 2 RBI;

OCT @ MIL … 11-4 … (Thunder lead 2-0) … OCT Daniel Richardson 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; OCT Johnny Parker 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; OCT Roberto Almanza 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; OCT Ricardo Vargas 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; MIL Cesar Ramirez 2-3, 2B, RBI;

Grizzled veteran Ben Seiter (1-0, 4.00 ERA) pitches a complete-game win for the Thunder, carrying a 2-hit shutout into the bottom of the ninth inning before getting bombed, but refuses to give up the ball anyway and finishes the game; the cushion was sure big enough.

DAL @ RIC … 6-7 (11) … (Rebels lead 2-1) … DAL Victor David Morales 2-5, BB, 3 RBI; DAL Tyler Wharton 3-6, RBI; DAL Chad Pritchett 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; RIC John Vaillancourt 4-5, HR, 2 2B, 4 RBI;

A see-saw battle Game 3 is decided with a walkoff double by Rebs outfielder Jeremy Jenkins (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI).

DAL @ RIC … 4-5 (10) … (Rebels lead 3-1) … DAL Jeff Maudlin 2-5, 3B, RBI; RIC Cory Oldfield 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; RIC Jerry Morejon 3-5; RIC Sergio Rubio 3-5; RIC Jeremy Jenkins 2-3, RBI;
MIL @ OCT … 8-9 … (Thunder lead 3-0) … MIL Carlos Dominguez 4-5, 2 2B, RBI; MIL Cesar Ramirez 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; MIL Dave Wright (PH) 1-1, RBI; MIL Mario Alaniz 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; OCT Martin Bohannon 3-5; OCT Jose Palominos 3-4, HR, 5 RBI;

For the second straight day, Jeremy Jenkins (.313, 0 HR, 2 RBI) lands an extra-inning walkoff hit, this time a single to score Tristan Michaux.

Meanwhile the Loggers out-hit the Thunder, 16-11, and scatter 13 runners on the bases while the Thunder surgically extract just enough runs to take a commanding 3-0 series lead.

DAL @ RIC … 5-2 … (Rebels lead 3-2) … DAL Belchior Fresco 4-4, HR, 2B, RBI; RIC Sergi Rubio 3-4;
MIL @ OCT … 8-1 … (Thunder lead 3-1) … MIL Carlos Dominguez 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; MIL Mario Alaniz 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; MIL Tommy Guitreau (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Thunder lead 1-0 going into the seventh before Josh Elling (0-1, 2.70 ERA) and the bullpen suffer the type of pitching explosions that got the Loggers into the playoffs in the first place.

MIL @ OCT … 4-12 … (Thunder win 4-1) … MIL Cesar Ramirez 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; OCT Ian Stone 3-4, HR, RBI; OCT Daniel Richardson 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; OCT Ricardo Vargas 2-4, HR, 4 RBI;

Danny Baca (2-0, 3.38 ERA) pitches a complete-game 7-hitter for the pennant.

RIC @ DAL … 4-3 (11) … (Rebels win 4-2) … RIC Matt Ford 2-3, 2 RBI; RIC Brad Walker 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; DAL Tommy Pritchard (PH) 1-1, RBI; DAL Ian Peters 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K;

Pritchard’s pinch-hit RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth sends the game to extra innings and staves off elimination for two more innings for the Stars, who fall to Jason Turner (.286, 0 HR, 2 RBI) being hit by Roberto Ramirez (0-2, 5.68 ERA, 1 SV) and then tripled across home plate by Jerry Morejon (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI) in the 11th inning for the Rebs’ third extra-inning win of the FLCS, along with seven stingy outs provided by 38-year-old veteran Brad Walker (1-0, 2.45 ERA).

+++

2067 WORLD SERIES

Thus, a brand new World Series matchup was born between the Rebels and Thunder, who had home field advantage and after beating the Loggers specifically again rode a high into the World Series with chants of “’94! 2000!”.

As such the teams with the more balanced lineups and with one southpaw starter each had prevailed. It was thus hard to make out a favorite between these two teams, but the Rebels had overturned the Stars while being less rested, and now came up against the Thunder on less rest, so maybe that was the cue for the series.

Thunder outfielder Coby Thore had suffered a mild hamstring strain in Game 4 against the Loggers, but was listed as day-to-day and was still on the roster for the World Series. The Rebels had lost outfielder Juan Licona in Game 1 to a strained rib cage muscle.

One thing was for certain: one team would win their fourth World Series title in the next nine days.

+++

RIC @ OCT … 7-4 … (Rebels lead 1-0) … RIC Bobby Marceau 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0) and 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

RIC @ OCT … 4-9 … (series tied 1-1) … OCT Jose Palominos 2-3, BB, RBI; OCT J.D. Johnson (PH) 1-1, RBI; OCT Ian Stone 2-5, 3 RBI;

OCT @ RIC … 1-2 … (Rebels lead 2-1) … OCT Martin Bohannon 4-5; OCT Jose Palominos 2-5, 2B, RBI; OCT Danny Baca 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, L (2-1); RIC Willie Ospina 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

The Thunder out-hit the Rebels, 11-6, but can’t stick the landing and leave 14 runners on base.

OCT @ RIC … 7-2 … (series tied 2-2) … OCT Martin Bohannon 2-4, RBI; OCT Johnny Parker 2-5, 2 RBI; OCT Daniel Richardson 2-4, 2 RBI; OCT Ben Seiter 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-1); RIC Matt Ford 3-4, 2B;

OCT @ RIC … 4-1 … (Thunder lead 3-2) … OCT Johnny Parker 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; OCT Roberto Almanza 2-4, 2B, RBI; OCT Josh Elling 8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-1); RIC Bobby Marceau 7.1 PI, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (1-1);

RIC @ OCT … 5-6 (10) … (Thunder win 4-2) … RIC Jeremy Jenkins 2-4, BB; OCT Martin Bohannon 2-5, RBI; OCT Jose Palominos 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; OCT Daniel Richardson 3-4, BB, 2B; OCT Ian Stone 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; OCT J.D. Johnson (PH) 1-1, RBI; OCT Erik Swain 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

The Rebels put five runs on Oklahoma’s Jose Ortega (1-0, 6.89 ERA) early on and then appear to be in control with left-hander Sean Ranney (0-1, 4.68 ERA), who pitches seven innings of 3-run ball. However, four different relievers throw the tying runs on the board in the eighth inning, and Allen Tinsley (1-1, 2.57 ERA, 2 SV) suffers an unearned walkoff to bring down the curtains in the 10th inning, where Ramon Archuleta (.286, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and Daniel Richardson (.372, 1 HR, 6 RBI) lead off with singles before Tinsley himself bungles a tailor-made double play comebacker from Ian Stone (.295, 1 HR, 9 RBI) to load the bases with nobody out. After a poor out by Travis Anderson (.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI), Ricardo Vargas (.393, 1 HR, 7 RBI) brings the curtains down on the season with a deep, pinch-hit sac fly to left.

+++

2067 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Oklahoma City Thunder
(4th title)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Bring in the off-season quick! Those last 2 wins cost the club the #5 pick, drats and double drats! At least the Rac’s won more games than last season, but those last 10 weeks of the season were brutal.

You sound like you think things are gonna get better. Please curb your enthusiasm.

+++

While I wasn’t happy with how last season developed, the bad news were that Adam Valdes was not happy either. Despite a strong … “strong” … first half of the season bolstering the coffers since people didn’t stop coming to the games until September, leading to a nice profit for the owner, the Raccoons had their budget slashed yet further by another million bucks and down to $56M. By now we were tied for 16th with the Falcons and Miners for budget size, and only one million ahead of the bottom five, with the Warriors, Loggers, and Bayhawks tying for 19th at $55M.

Top 5: Thunder ($97M), Titans ($97M), Stars ($90M), Knights ($89M), Crusaders ($83M)
Bottom 5: Warriors/Loggers/Bayhawks ($55M), Indians ($53M), Aces ($45M), Wolves ($42M)

The top 5 had not changed composition, just order, since 2065, with the Thunder zooming into a tie for the biggest budget on the wave of their championship win.

The only CL North team not mentioned yet were the damn Elks at $59M, tying the Cyclones for 12th.

The median budget went thus up $1M to $59M, while the average budget surged a hefty $2.63M to $65.58M.

+++

Administratively, the offseason started by Paul Barton going on waivers and being designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Leon Arantes, who had to be taken off the 60-day DL.

The Coons also cleaned house elsewhere. New hitting coach, new head scout, new everything! Except for Honeypaws, everybody was available for getting rolled out the door now! (Cristiano Carmona gulps audibly in his wheelchair)

The biggest question though was whether the Raccoons would get juicy compensation for a potential loss of free agents Rich Monck and Ramon Lopez, because this would influence the whole offseason approach – and the answer was yes. Rich Monck was listed as a type A free agent, and Lopez was a type B. They would thus both be turned out the door to grab extra draft picks that we would certainly use responsibly…

We had another four free agents, none of which would be brought back in spectacularly useless Justin Aguilar, left-handers Evan Alvey and Chance Fox, whose body was so done with baseball that it wasn’t funny anymore, and July acquisition David Milian, who was 34, meager on D, and no spot on the roster on a team that wasn’t shy about having a lot of mediocre young corner outfielders. All in all, we would delete about $14M of salary off the roster, of which Monck had made $5M, Lopez $4M, and then another $4.8M-ish for the remaining four, of which Aguilar and Alvey had been most expensive.

So that group was swiftly dealt with, but we also had seven salary arbitration cases to deal with. Four of them were pitchers, and we had *just* put Paul Barton on waivers, which told you all about how we’d handle that super-2 case, with a big NOPE. Nick Walla was a cornerstone to the rotation and we’d try to nail him down for a while. Dover and McMahan I imagined as backend relievers going forwards, but we had abysmal team chemistry issues and Dover, Nakayama, and Carrington were among the worst offenders for ***** on the team. But that didn’t mean we’d broom Dover out the door, since he had value regardless of his toxicity.

The main headline for batters on the arbitration list was Justin Dowsey, who had hit well enough not to draw ire in his first year over from Indy. Yaaay. Pablo Novelo was not hitting a lick and survived only on defense at shortstop. Offensive upgrades there would be trivial to find given his .593 OPS. Still – no reason to axe him outright now. And then there was super utility Randy Tallent, who had already hung around for four seasons and was reliably getting his 200+ at-bats every year. After two year of almost league average (93 and 94 OPS+ anyway) bating, he had croaked for a .603 OPS and 69 OPS+ in ’67. About to turn 31 he already began to show signs of diminishing range, so the Coons had to be careful here; however, there was no harm in extending him at the cheap rate he was gonna go at.

Assuming Monck and the others would go away as planned, and ignoring Walla, Dowsey, and others that had yet made the minimum in 2067, the Raccoons had only five guaranteed contracts to be carried forward into 2068. Jaden Wilson had another two years at $4.5M each and would be the top earner on the roster at this stage. Shoma Nakayama had two more guaranteed years at $3.6M, but then would still be under team control for 2070, having signed a 5-year contract out of Japan. Joel Starr had one more guaranteed year at $3.3M and another one as a team option in ’69. Jose Corral would make $2.1M in ’68 and then had three years at $3.2M each lined up for $11.7M in total – the biggest future commitment on the roster. And Ryan Musgrave had one year of $1.8M left. That was it. Everybody else was no further towards a paycheck than being listed on the salary arbitration schedule.

The Coons’ 2067 rotation o Walla, Gaytan, Nakayama, Musgrave, and Rios (rough order, not set in stone) was thus scheduled to remain intact at this point. In the pen we expected to have Dover, McMahan, and Carrington at the back end without having named a formal closer for some years now, and then a bunch of right-handers of varying usefulness mushing up the middle innings: Holzmeister, Yamauchi, Soriano, Schmieder…? Bridges…?? Sean Thomas and Cody Childress were useless, but on the extended roster for now.

Jake Flowe was the ONLY catcher on the projected 40-man roster post-free agency deadline. On the infield the Raccoons figured to have Joel Starr at first and probably Novelo at short, and then there was a huge pile of faces besides them. Carlos Gutierrez was the interesting one. The switch-hitter was a very good defensive second baseman and usable on the left side of the infield, but had only limited arm strength. However, after mediocre service in May he had come back to his .366 in August… and then .205 in September. It was hard to know what we actually had there, but he would only be 24 years old on Opening Day and surely figured into the considerations for ’68 now. I was not particularly high on any of the remaining candidates Arantes, Bonner, Davis, Gates, and Arredondo, who with the exception of Bonner and Davis had all hit wildly below league average, Bonner had still hit below league average and was a ****** defender even at second base, and Davis had only played in eight games, so that .353 clip was worthless, too.

In the outfield Dowsey, Wilson, and Corral were pretty much set. They were all lefty hitters, which was bad news for fellow left-handed hitters Matas and Colter. In fact, this composition of starting outfielders was the main reason why Marquise Early and Randy Tallent were being considered for roster spots at all going forwards.

At this stage we should have a look at the Alley Cats, who didn’t hold any promising pitchers at this stage, and for batters the excitement was limited to Brian Hills and an outfielder named Benito Otal, who were the only players with an AAA OPS+ of above 100, and only barely. Otal, 23, lacked a big arm and was more of the squirrely variety with speed and no power. And he hit left-handed, what else was new…

For youngsters, #3 prospect A.J. Taylor had hit nothing at either Ham Lake or (in September) St. Petersburg. 2066 #5 pick Jack Hamel had sucked his way down to .200 by the end of the AA season. We had yes on this year’s #4 pick Jimmy Wharton and on Val Centeno as interesting starting prospects in Ham Lake, but they were both just 20 years old and well away from the majors.

And the Raccoons as a whole were well away from .500 …