Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

2072 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2071 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Nick Walla, 31, B:R, T:R (14-9, 2.94 ERA | 81-82, 3.45 ERA) – Walla has five good pitches, but seems to be losing some velocity, which is mildly terrifying. He came close to ERA titles in 2068 and 2071 but both times faded late. Never had a real wipeout pitch in his arsenal, but has had good control for many years now.
SP Aldomiro Campion *, 29, B:L, T:R (14-13, 3.52 ERA | 34-34, 3.62 ERA) – acquired from the Miners, the late bloomer has had some fine seasons despite having only slightly more career starts than the significantly younger Jimmy Wharton. Quite the curveball to distract from a rather pedestrian 91mph fastball. Second Brazilian to suit up for the Raccoons after Daniel Bullock.
SP Jimmy Wharton, 25, B:L, T:L (15-9, 3.44 ERA | 32-26, 4.01 ERA) – the former #4 pick has fully arrived after two-and-a-half years in Portland, although he’s much like Walla with good control and without a pitch to erase batters in two-strike counts. Maybe he can challenge for an ERA title soon, too?
SP Tony Gaytan, 28, B:R, T:R (11-12, 3.76 ERA | 54-77, 4.04 ERA) – “Bombs Away!” Gaytan stayed away from his career-high of 36 homers in the last two seasons, but the strikeouts have also come down. At least he’s usually doing a good job with eating innings… Some research might be required, but Gaytan might be the only Raccoons starter ever to pitch six seasons with the team and post a losing record in every single one of them.
SP Vinny Morales, 30, B:S, T:R (9-4, 4.17 ERA | 37-35, 3.89 ERA) – returned from the list of busted prospects as a midseason replacement in 2068 and suddenly managed to pitch competently at the major league level, even though his strikeouts were rather few and far between. Decent control, but tends to give up dingers and doesn’t have a lot of stamina. Hardly ever produces excitement, but did get his first career shutout in 123 starts last season.

MR Todd Sullivan, 25, B:R, T:R (2-3, 3.38 ERA | 5-3, 2.83 ERA) – young right-hander with three good pitches (but short stamina) that had his career ruined with a July trade to the Coons when the Stars took on Jerry Morejon and Carlos Fumero last season. Got demoted to AAA for a while last year and wouldn’t have made the roster if the Raccoons hadn’t traded some relievers for Phil LeVan late in the offseason.
MR Ron Rismiller, 24, B:R, T:R (3-1, 4.35 ERA, 1 SV | 3-1, 4.35 ERA, 1 SV) – the Raccoons took him as Rule 5 pick last year while he was recovering from a torn labrum and missed the first months of the season. Offered no reasons to return him to the Pacifics after being activated, even though there are a few command kinks that could be worked out. Blasts it 98 and has a slicing curveball.
SP/MR Gabriel Rios, 30, B:L, T:L (4-11, 4.16 ERA | 30-34, 3.74 ERA, 4 SV) – despite having three very good pitches and a crappy changeup, Rios washed out of the rotation again halfway through last season and is back to being a sharp bullpen asset; there are worse names to be called, but he’s fairly expensive now for a sharp bullpen asset.
MR Cameron Jackson, 26, B:R, T:R (2-1, 3.45 ERA | 4-4, 3.17 ERA, 1 SV) – fine right-hander with a vicious curveball that we acquired from the Thunder last July.
SU Jason Holzmeister, 27, B:S, T:R (4-3, 2.56 ERA | 13-9, 3.26 ERA) – somehow we’re taking a guy as a setup pitcher that last year had written about him. “not sure why we keep going back to this former Rule 5 pick that can only hold onto a job when the only other options are to shoot him in the knee or send him back to the Falcons”; maybe it’s the 10.2 K/9 he suddenly unfurled last season, which had not been in his career trajectory up to that point.
SU Ricky McMahan, 30, B:L, T:L (7-1, 2.79 ERA, 3 SV | 25-17, 3.34 ERA, 14 SV) – steady work from this left-hander who shook off his awful control issues a few years ago and is now usually not a reason for concern and got a new 3-year contract to hang around a bit longer.
CL Pedro Valentin, 32, B:S, T:R (6-4, 3.20 ERA, 30 SV | 32-23, 2.68 ERA, 170 SV) – one-time CL leader in saves that goes into his fifth season as the Critters ninth-inning door slammer, although the door slammed in his face more than once last year in wicked meltdowns. He brings a GORGEOUS curveball and a 96mph heater.

C Gabe Rivas, 28, B:L, T:R (.293, 4 HR, 47 RBI | .291, 17 HR, 123 RBI) – was acquired from the Warriors before the 2071 season; fine defensive catcher with only token exposure to the major leagues in ’70 after two full campaigns as a backup catcher. Doesn’t walk or hit for power, so even hitting .300 might not be enough to get to a 100 OPS+ for him (95 in ’71).
C Sam Brown, 26, B:L, T:R (.267, 1 HR, 28 RBI | .250, 1 HR, 41 RBI) – not terrible for a backup, and drawing quite a few walks, although his lack of speed means there’s nothing to do with that since you can’t just bat him at the top of the lineup like that. Gave Rivas a run for his money at times last year, and he is cordially invited to keep doing that.

1B Josh Woodley, 24, B:L, T:L (,247, 5 HR, 23 RBI | .247, 5 HR, 23 RBI) – to be honest, for being just 23 and never having played in AAA before, this Rule 5 pick didn’t do that badly last year. Getting only 166 at-bats behind Alejandro Olivares he never got into much of a stride despite an early highlight of a walkoff home run on Opening Day, and didn’t hit that many afterwards. Figures to have an edge over Danny Huckaby right now, but there’s no reason why we wouldn’t reverse that decision at a later point.
2B/SS/3B Adam Yocum, 31, B:R, T:R (.325, 2 HR, 71 RBI | .327, 11 HR, 600 RBI) – the elite singles slapper and OBP personality was a real force at the top of the lineup, stirring for 40 stolen bases and 4.8 WAR and missed just one game by manager’s decision to rest people in September. Quite an energetic duo at the top with Humphries (although they were a combined 66 years old already).
2B/3B/SS/CF John Katzman, 27, B:R, T:R (.304, 17 HR, 65 RBI | .290, 79 HR, 465 RBI) – Katz had a hot first half of 2071, but then got hurt and slumped towards the end of the year, and was invisible in the ill-fated CLCS against the Aces. Nevertheless he’s still signed for four years on a rather team-friendly contract, although it looks like he’s stuck at his worst position going forwards.
3B/2B/SS/LF Edgar Gonzales *, 28, B:R, T:R (.286, 9 HR, 46 RBI | .276, 51 HR, 385 RBI) – the only notable free agent signing of the offseason brings in more variety on the infield and more speed on the basepaths, although he’s rarely hit much above league average. The Raccoons hope for some stability at third base from the 4-year contract given to him.
2B/SS/3B Brian McFarland, 23, B:R, T:R (.241, 0 HR, 11 RBI | .241, 0 HR, 11 RBI) – very fine defensive middle infielder that didn’t hit anything across 166 at-bats, but the funds for upgrades just aren’t there for this team.
RF/3B/CF/2B/SS Nick Luebbert, 27, B:S, T:R (.182, 2 HR, 17 RBI | .182, 2 HR, 17 RBI) – the third and least impressive of the three Rule 5ers the cat dragged in during the winter of 2070-71, Luebbert never hit much and was a -0.3 WAR player, but he’s also a super utility that can plug many holes that might open during a game. That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t like to find an upgrade...

LF/RF Steve Humphries, 35, B:R, T:R (.260, 15 HR, 70 RBI | .275, 93 HR, 598 RBI) – after the Raccoons shoveled $36M into the oven to sign the former Titans outfielder as free agent, for which the 5-time Gold Glover rewarded them with countless injuries and missing 110 games in total in his first year in 2070, Humph managed to stay on the field in ’71 and drew a staggering 146 walks and scored 108 runs. Now we hope he can keep his body together for a few more seasons, because he’s still signed through his age 37 season…
LF/RF/CF Jack Hamel, 24, B:R, T:R (.296, 7 HR, 22 RBI | .274, 7 HR, 22 RBI) – between this former #5 pick’s 2069 cup of coffee and his half-season induced as injury replacement in 2071 was a banishment as far from the majors as Ham Lake, and quite a few temptations to waive him off the 40-man roster. Hit fairly well in the 179 at-bats he had last year, and now only has Tyler Wharton’s shoes to fill, although Phil LeVan would also get regular starts in centerfield.
LF/RF/CF Phil LeVan *, 30, B:L, T:L (.260, 9 HR, 62 RBI | .266, 50 HR, 302 RBI) – acquired from the Blue Sox, this terrific base stealer can expect semi-regular starts in centerfield, and might take Hamel’s job away entirely, depending on how fortunes develop. Not much going on in terms of extra-base hits, but he’s one of the guys that can make extra bases out of a single by stealing second.
RF/1B/LF Victor David Morales *, 32, B:S, T:R (.271, 18 HR, 80 RBI | .271, 94 HR, 428 RBI) – defensively challenged starting rightfielder, Morales can out-hit his limitations in glove use with the stick, and he still steals bases at a decent rate. Hit 18 homers three times in the last five seasons, encompassing most of his career as he was a late bloomer that only became a regular at age 26.
LF/RF George van Otterdijk, 27, B:R, T:R (.273, 8 HR, 36 RBI | .268, 27 HR, 122 RBI) – here’s a secret: we still don’t really know what to do with this Dutch Antillean corner outfielder, who plays shoddy defense, doesn’t hit a lot, and frankly doesn’t even smell… well… he smells a bit like a wet otter would smell.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Val Centeno, 25, B:S, T:R (4-2, 4.79 ERA | 6-9, 6.00 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; there were really high hopes for this right-hander signed as July IFA from Venezuela, but a thrashed elbow in ’69 led to 12 months on the shelf, and when he came back in 2070 he was bluntly garbage – even in AAA. 2071 was not that tragic… but still tragic.
SP Jaquan Riggs, 22, B:R, T:R (0-0, 4.85 ERA | 0-0, 4.85 ERA) – optioned to AAA; supplemental-rounder with four pitches and control issues that made two spot starts last season, including on Closing Day.
MR Noah Newhard, 23, B:R, T:R (1-1, 5.40 ERA | 1-1, 5.40 ERA) – optioned to AAA; another supplemental-rounder that made a few cup-of-coffee appearances last season and was mostly awful (11 BB in 11.2 IP), but he can fire it at 100mph, so he’s not going in the bin yet.
C/1B Tony Spink, 32, B:R, T:R (.231, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .171, 1 HR, 6 RBI) – optioned to AAA; scrappy catcher not shining in any capacity that served as third backstop last September.
1B Danny Huckaby, 23, B:L, T:L (.278, 2 HR, 5 RBI | .222, 2 HR, 9 RBI) – optioned to AAA; only got a September call-up in a crowded first-base battle. It looks like Woodley has an edge in power and defense over him, so Huckaby was sent to AAA to trim the roster.
LF/RF/CF/SS/2B Jesus Morentin, 25, B:R, T:R (.196, 0 HR, 10 RBI | .196, 0 HR, 10 RBI) – optioned to AAA; strong defensive outfielder with some options as backup infielder, who unfortunately didn’t hit a lick in several call-ups in 2071.
LF/CF Jesus Guerrero, 25, B:R, T:R (.294, 2 HR, 10 RBI | .253, 3 HR, 15 RBI) – optioned to AAA; might have won a job as fifth outfielder until we swung the late trade for Phil LeVan, although it’s hard to read anything into what he can do over a full season given his terrible 2070 cameo, his fine 2071 appearances, and the rather mediocre scouting report.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or reported to the authorities this offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – CF Hamel (LeVan) – 1B Woodley – P
(Vs. LHP: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – P)

The era of righty-leaning lineups continues in Portland, although some pains were suffered to at least get a balanced bench together. Due to the nature of our catchers, there’s always at least one lefty bat on the bench, although maybe don’t use it in the sixth inning. The lineups *look* a bit softer than last season, but Tyler Wharton didn’t hit that much after all in the cleanup spot.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

Why even look at the offseason WAR gains? Last year the Raccoons were ranked 21st in the category, shedding 5.1 WAR, but then ended up gaining *19* games in the standings.

This year we’re on the other end of the table, gaining +4.1 WAR, ranking fifth overall, so say hello to another 74-88 season? The Raccoons only added four players to the major league roster, and only one free agent in Edgar Gonzales (+2.8), while losing over 5 WAR on departed free agents, most of that for Alejandro Olivares (-3.1). The three trades all brought in some points: Aldomiro Campion was worth +2.5, V.D. Morales still +2.3, and LeVan at least 1.6;

Top 5: Titans (+11.1), Buffaloes (+6.8), Knights (+6.2), Canadiens (+4.2), Raccoons (+4.1)
Bottom 5: Crusaders (-3.8), Wolves (-4.8), Stars (-5.1), Loggers (-8.6), Aces (-8.7)

The only missing CL North team were the Indians, who ranked 13th with -0.7 WAR.

PREDICTION TIME:

The Coons went 92-70, 19 games up from 2070, after I predicted 90 losses. They won the division by ten games (also thanks to the Titans’ impressive collapse), and I hadn’t been a believer.

Am I believing now? Sorta. We got better in some regards, but the budget crisis hampered efforts to make even bigger improvements, like f.e. finding an upgrade over Vinny Morales. Managing to trade for Campion is already a major victory.

If the key players can stay off the DL (which has been an issue these last few seasons), then the team should compete for the division again. Humph might be a bigger factor in there than most leadoff men, given that he was on base *all the time* last year, instead of missing 2/3 of the season. The Titans and Elks (!) have geared up in many departments, although Boston also shed some longtime assets like Eddie Marcotte. There will be competition for sure and you’ll have to win at least 90 games to be in the race. This team is surely able to win about 94 games – but a 2070 cavalcade of injuries could derail it all.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Last season the Raccoons had a spectacular array of high-ranking prospects with no fewer than *17* ranked prospects, even though most of them were in the low minors or even the international complex at the time. The only prospect removed from that list through service time limitations ended up being #62 Ron Rismiller, who had to be on the major league roster as Rule 5er, so that one was a given anyway. The other 16 ranked prospects all stayed in the organization even through this offseason… but that was also due to the fact that the team couldn’t *afford* to trade free assets for ones that cost money.

Four other prospects dropped out of the top 200 on performance, the former #82 Isaac Bishop, #150 Ramon Mata, #163 Phil Christensen, and #195 Roberto Pena.

Now the amazing part: the Raccoons had EVEN MORE RANKED PROSPECTS this year! Up to 18 ranked boys, and still first in the farm rankings!

7th (-1) – AA CL Dan McPartland, 20 – 2070 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
13th (new) – AA SP Andrew Speed, 23 – 2071 first-round pick by Raccoons
19th (new) – AA UT Ronaldo Rivera, 22 – 2071 November IFA signing by Raccoons
23rd (+2) – AAA INF Omar Vigil, 21 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons
27th (+103) – AAA CL Noah Newhard, 23 – 2068 supplemental round pick by Raccoons
35th (+80) – AAA SP Crispino D’Urso, 22 – 2065 July IFA signing by Raccoons
38th (+7) – A SP Jose Espino, 18 – 2070 July IFA signing by Raccoons
41st (-7) – AA SP Jalen McCorkle, 22 – 2070 first-round pick by Raccoons
44th (new) – A SP Alex Betancourt, 19 – 2069 July IFA signing by Raccoons

53rd (+56) – AA SP Roberto Martinez, 19 – 2068 July IFA signing by Raccoons
57th (-16) – AA SP Tony Trinidad, 19 – 2068 July IFA signing by Raccoons
89th (new) – A C Ricardo Moreno, 18 – 2070 July IFA signing by Raccoons
94th (-70) – A SS/3B Danny Reyes, 20 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons

118th (-10) – AA INF/LF/CF Rob Robinson, 21 – 2069 fourth-round pick by Raccoons
121st (new) – A SP Eddie Moreno, 20 – 2068 scouting discovery by Raccoons
136th (new) – A OF Scott Singleton, 20 – 2068 July IFA signing by Raccoons
140th (-64) – AA MR Phil Beck, 21 – 2069 supplemental round pick by Stars, acquired with Todd Sullivan, Roberto Pena for Carlos Fumero and Jerry Morejon by Raccoons
152nd (-72) – AA 2B/SS Ismael Tenorio, 21 – 2067 scouting discovery by Raccoons

Such riches! And no clue how to turn it into the fumble of the century yet!

Our top 50 prospects went up from six to NINE, and the top 100 prospects from ten to *thirteen*. A pair of deranked prospects, Ramon Mata and Roberto Pena, AAA infielders that might come into play soon in Portland, completed the franchise top 20.

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

#1 (+6) – SFB A INF Chris Sandidge, 21
#2 (+1) – SAL ML OF/1B Nelson Aguilar, 21
#3 (-2) – TOP AAA CL Brent Shaw, 21
#4 (+13) – IND AAA CL Matt Dore, 22
#5 (new) – TOP AAA SP Bob Taylor, 22

#6 (new) – CHA AA SP Dave Pokorski, 23
#7 (-1) – POR AA CL Dan McPartland, 20
#8 (-3) – MIL AA LF Josh Field, 20
#9 (+9) – DEN AAA 1B Clement Bussotti, 24
#10 (+39) – TIJ A SP/CL Jorge Galindo, 20

Bob Taylor had been the #2 pick in the 2071 amateur draft, with Dave Pokorski six spots behind in #8.

Five top 10 prospects from last year were no longer in that elusive club accordingly.

Last year’s #4, Thunder RF/CF/INF Jay Moore, played 66 games in the majors, hitting just .225 with four homers and accordingly was sent back to AAA Anaheim to start the season…! Similarly, #8 DEN 1B Jon Marrero played in 45 games with the Gold Sox, batted .235 with five homers, and now was back to start the season with AAA Chula Vista. They were of course no longer eligible.

Blue Sox SS Dan Mammen, the former #10 prospect, also made his major league debut despite starting the season in AA, but hit nothing (.122 with one homer) in 26 games and was also sent back to AAA Unity now. However, he had only been on the roster for 36 days, and thus was still showing up five spots down as the #15 prospect.

A deep plunge was suffered by the 2070 #1 draft pick and 2071 #2 prospect, Buffos SP Andy Knight, who tumbled down several staircases to #69 in the rankings after a mediocre single-A season and not getting promoted to AA for the new season either. Finally, the old #9 DAL INF Carlos Saldana moved up to AAA for this season, but at age 24 sagged 21 spots to #30.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Crusaders (0-0) – April 4-6, 2072

The Raccoons would spend the first week of the new season on the East Coast before getting a 2-game homestand in moist and cold Portland. First up were the Crusaders in a 3-game series on Monday. New York had been through a couple of forgettable seasons and the Coons had pounced on them for 13 wins in 18 games last season. If I had my will, we’d do that again this year!

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (0-0) vs. Dennis Marck (0-0)
Aldomiro Campion (0-0) vs. Paul Egley (0-0)
Jimmy Wharton (0-0) vs. Nate Freeman (0-0)

The Crusaders would only show us right-handers here, but as we saw in the season-opening post, the margins between our lineup variants were small.

I had a hard time deciding between who’d come second behind Walla and ultimately we went for Campion for bullpen reasons: both Campion and Tony Gaytan had very high stamina and might pitch the most innings, so by keeping them apart (Gaytan was the #4), we might maximize bullpen savings. And on a team with no budget, savings were always appreciated. (spends $175 on seven hot dogs as snack for the first couple of innings)

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – P Walla
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – RF Spicer – 2B McNulty – 1B Ledesma – LF Griffin – SS Joe King – C Marty – CF DuKate – P Marck

The Raccoons went down in order in the first inning, but Nick Walla was tagged for two runs early as Chris McNulty singled and Raul Ledesma homered to left in the first inning. Tony Griffin hit another single before Joe King ended the inning with a pop. The Coons’ new arrivals Victor David Morales and Edgar Gonzales hit singles in the second, but Jack Hamel and Josh Woodley both struck out to end the inning.

Walla struggled and labored and didn’t find any meaningful stuff in this opening game, and then it started to drizzle on top of everything else. Walla drew a walk off Marck, but Marck singled off Walla the first time they faced each other, but neither on-base appearance by the pitchers led to a run. The Coons’ first stolen base of the year went to Jack Hamel in the fifth as he hit a leadoff single and then stole second. He scored when Woodley singled up the middle, and that cut the deficit in half. Walla failed to get the bunt down and struck out, which eventually cost the tying run after Steve Humphries forced out Woodley and then only reached third base on a Adam Yocum hit. John Katzman flew out to Tony Griffin in deep left to end the inning.

90 pitches and not a lot of great pitches ended Walla’s Opening Day start after six innings once Woodley led off the seventh inning with a double to left, putting the tying run in scoring position against reliever Josh Jackson. Phil LeVan pinch-hit and grounded out, but advanced the runner to third base, and Humph tied the game with a sac fly to center. Yocum ripped another double to right, but Katz flew out again to end the inning.

Bottom 7th, and Ron Rismiller came in, getting an out from PH Kyle Reber before Willie Ospina singled. Gabriel Rios replaced Rismiller, walked PH Jonathan Merrill, and then had PH Josh Roza at 1-2 before giving up a grounder to second. Merrill broke up the double play by clobbering Katz, and Katz left the game with an apparent injury right after that, replaced by Brian McFarland. Roza stole second, but Rios walked Chris McNulty anyway, and then, with three on and two gone, was replaced with Cam Jackson, who gave up a sharp liner to Raul Ledesma that struck him in the shoulder before caroming high over the infielders and into no man’s land in shallow left-center, allowing two runs to score. Jackson was on the ground, whimpering, and was collected by Luis Silva while I was in the stands, turning whiter than a freshly washed bedsheet. Todd Sullivan became the FOURTH reliever of the inning and got a grounder to short from Tony Griffin to end the bloody, bloody inning. The Raccoons then rather limply tumbled towards an Opening Day loss. 4-2 Crusaders. Yocum 2-4, 2 2B; V.D. Morales 2-4; Rivas 2-4; Woodley 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Cam Jackson had a cracked shoulder blade from taking a missile off his shoulder (not the throwing side, at least…) and would miss at least one month. He was moved to the DL and replaced with Noah Newhard. No clue what’s wrong with Katz now, so he was still on the roster on Day TWO of the new season.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – SS McFarland – P Campion
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – C Marty – 2B McNulty – 1B Ledesma – LF Griffin – SS Joe King – RF Ospina – CF DuKate – P Egley

Yocum singled, Rivas doubled, and Egley balked in a run to give the Raccoons their first lead of the season in the first inning on Tuesday. Morales added an RBI single, but was caught stealing and the inning fizzled out from there. McNulty hit a home run off Aldo to cut the 2-0 lead in half right away. For the next three innings, neither team then hit much at all and mostly just went back and forth between the batter’s box and the dugout, but the Raccoons tacked on a run in the fifth inning on back-to-back 2-out doubles by Humph and Yocum, 3-1. Aldo allowed just a pair of hits through five innings, but also issued a pair of walks in the fifth inning and had to labor his way around those runners.

The sixth was uneventful, and Aldo reached base by dropping a roller that stopped dead *on* the third base line for an infield single. Humph also got on, but Yocum hit into a double play to end the inning. Things then collapsed after the stretch with a leadoff single for Griffin, who scored on Joe King’s double to right-center, 3-2. Ospina and Brad DuKate also reached base on a single and walk and the Crusaders had three on and nobody out. Aldo struck out Egley, then was replaced with Ricky McMahan when Merrill pinch-hit for Miguel Lacatelli. He got the batter to 2-2, and then gave up a 2-run single through the left side as the Crusaders flipped the score. Marty and McNulty made outs, but the damage was done. Down 4-3, Gabe Rivas led off the eighth inning with a single against Egley, but the Raccoons then made three poor outs in a row. Newhard retired the 4-5-6 batters from New York in order in the bottom 8th, and the Raccoons sent the bottom of their lineup against right-hander Leo Garcia, who had already saved the opener, in the ninth inning. LeVan fanned, Sam Brown pinch-hit and grounded out to short, and then Hamel pinch-hit and kept the game alive with a double to left. A K to Humph ended the game with the tying run in scoring position. 4-3 Crusaders. Humphries 3-5, 2B; Yocum 2-4, 2B, RBI; Rivas 2-4, 2B; Woodley 2-4; Hamel (PH) 1-1, 2B;

No news on Katz still. Or when we might win a game.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Wharton
NYC: C Marty – SS Joe King – 2B McNulty – 1B Ledesma – LF Griffin – RF Spicer – 3B Reber – CF DuKate – P N. Freeman

The Coons started another game with a 2-spot as Humph and Yocum did a good job and reached base to begin the game before a pair of groundouts got home Humph and a Woodley single plated Yocum. Gonzales hit another single into center, but Brown grounded out. Jimmy gave a run right back on a King single and McNulty RBI double, but kept the tying run on base at least… Yocum drove in McFarland, who drew a leadoff walk, to make it 3-1 in the second inning. Woodley singled in the third, but got doubled up by Gonzales, while the Coons couldn’t turn the double play on King after a Marty single to lead off the bottom 3rd, and that led to a 2-out run on a Ledesma double in the same inning. The Crusaders left the tying run on once more, though.

Jimmy doubled to right in the fourth inning, but with two gone and nobody on, and Humph reached only on an error by King. Yocum grounded out to McNulty to keep them on the corners, before Hamel and Morales put their furry tushes in scoring position to begin the fifth inning, cracking a single and double, respectively, off Freeman. Nobody scored while Woodley whiffed and Gonzales fanned. Brown drew a walk in a full count, and McFarland flew out to right to end the inning with the bases still loaded.

Wharton was much sharper in the middle innings, allowing only one runner to the Crusaders while getting up to seven strikeouts through six innings, but without exploding the pitch count, which was at 75. The Crusaders’ 7-8-9 batters disappeared on ten pitches in the seventh, but it all came crashing down AGAIN in the eighth when Marty and Merrill bashed doubles to right against Jimmyboy and tied the game that way. Holzmeister made his first appearance of the season and got a pair of stingy outs from McNulty, who grounded out to short, and Ledesma, who popped out, all of which kept the go-ahead runner at second base, before giving up a homer to Tony Griffin. 5-3 Crusaders. Yocum 2-5, RBI; Woodley 3-5, RBI;

Raccoons (0-3) @ Knights (2-1) – April 8-10, 2072

The Knights had taken two of three games from the Condors to start the new season, while the Coons so far had no wins, no homers, and no ******* luck. More on that in a second. Atlanta had only allowed four runs in three games, but had also only batted .188 and scored just nine runs. Early days, though. Only the Raccoons were already in the toilet, although Knights starter Rob Wilkinson was still on the DL after Tommy John surgery, and Tomas Guangorena was day-to-day with a mild calf strain. The Raccoons had gone 5-4 against the Knights last season.

Projected matchups:
Jaquan Riggs (0-0) vs. Scott Triebwasser (0-0)
Tony Gaytan (0-0) vs. Justin Kent (0-0)
Vinny Morales (0-0) vs. Adam Lunn (1-0, 1.13 ERA)

Kent would be our first southpaw to face this season.

But – Hold on. Wait a minute! What’s Jaquan Riggs doing starting the FOURTH game of the season, and where’s Nick Walla??

Well, apparently Nick Walla found it prudent to hit a roadside bar on our day off and arm wrestle some truckers, and ended up with a sore wing after that. He’d miss his start against the Knights. The Coons yoinked Jaquan Riggs to start the opener instead to utilize the roster spot opening by Katz’s disablement for torn thumb ligaments (almost cries), which would keep him out of action until late May at least.

We haven’t won a game yet. No wins. No homers. Three injuries. Depression.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Riggs
ATL: CF J. Soto – 1B DiPrimio – RF D. Mendoza – LF Marcotte – C Hart – 2B Ehlers – 3B J. Munoz – SS Guangorena – P Triebwasser

The Coons again scored first as Yocum doubled and was singled home by Morales in the first inning, but the Knights made it up right away with straight, sharp hits by Kris DiPimio, David Mendoza, and Eddie Marcotte, the longtime Titan, off the surprise assignment Jaquan Riggs, who became an even bigger upset once he followed McFarland and a 2-out walk into the batter’s box and smashed a 2-run homer to left in the second inning.

Like, what?

Marcotte made an error to give the Coons an additional run in the third inning, dropping Hamel’s fly with Rivas and Woodley on the corners after a pair of singles off Triebwasser. Edgar Gonzales left the remaining runners on base, and Triebwasser then drew a walk off Riggs in the bottom 3rd and scored on more sharp base knocks, 4-2. Humph homered to center in the fourth, 5-2, but Riggs tried to lose the game by walking Joel Ehlers and Jorge Munoz to begin the bottom 4th, until the limp Guangorena hit into a double play. Xavier Contreras then grounded out in the pitcher’s spot. But if you succeed at once, try again! Riggs walked Jorge Soto and DiPrimio to begin the bottom 5th, then gave up a game-tying homer to David Mendoza – all even at five!

Riggs was hit for in the sixth inning for no good results, and the Knights took a 6-5 lead against Newhard in the bottom 6th as he gave up nothing but rockets and surrendered a run on a Guangorena double and Santiago Valdez’ pinch-hit RBI single. Rios held the score there in the seventh before the Raccoons got Morales on base in the eighth inning. With two outs, Nick Luebbert batted for a 2-for-15 Gonzales and rolled a single through the right side to score Morales and the tying run from second base, but was left on by McFarland. Sullivan held the game tied in the bottom 8th, while the Coons’ offense in the ninth didn’t reach beyond a 2-out single by Yocum and leaving him at first base. Soto led off the bottom 9th with a single off Holzmeister, then stole second base, but the next three Knights made outs and sent the game to extras, although Hamel had to run quite a ways to catch Mendoza’s fly ball.

Victor David Morales then smashed his first Coons homer off Alex Dominguez leading off the tenth inning, breaking the tie again. Woodley walked, Hamel reached on an error by Guangorena, and then the bottom of the order croaked big time as Luebbert, McFarland, and Brown didn’t even get anybody to third base, let alone plate a tack-on run. Pedro Valentin then made his first appearance of the season; Justin Hart, Dan Eggert, Jorge Munoz disappeared in order, and the Coons got into that dreaded W column…! 7-6 Critters. Yocum 2-5, 2B; Rivas 2-5, 2B; V.D. Morales 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Luebbert (PH) 1-2, RBI;

Pedro Valentin got the first save of the year aaaand then spent the rest of the night in Luis Silva’s office.

By Saturday, he was on the DL with a vague, hand-wavey “paw soreness”? Truth be told, we didn’t quite know what it was yet, and we were running out of bodies, four games into the season. So Valentin to the DL, Riggs back to AAA, and we called up Justin Tarasewicz, a former third-rounder we had signed as minor league free agent a while ago. He was 25 and nothing special for sure. The arm was still on, though. Furthermore, Katz’ spot got taken by no-longer-ranked prospect Ramon Mata.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – 1B V.D. Morales – RF Hamel – CF LeVan – SS McFarland – 3B Luebbert – P Gaytan
ATL: CF J. Soto – 1B DiPrimio – RF D. Mendoza – LF Marcotte – C Hart – 2B Ehlers – 3B J. Munoz – SS Guangorena – P Kent

The Coons disappeared in order the first time through the lineup, but the Knights did anything but, piling up three hits and three walks, plus a hit batter, against Gaytan. Soto and Marcotte singles gave them a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and they loaded the bases in the third inning before Jorge Munoz flew out to Hamel in rightfield to end the inning. Gaytan tossed *71* pitches in those three innings. Yocum and Morales came up with singles in the fourth inning, but Hamel grounded out to leave them stranded. Gaytan pitched another two innings for just one more runner, but that was enough to put him at 98 pitches and he was hit for to begin the sixth inning against Kent, who had five strikeouts for just two hits on his ledger.

Tarasewicz then made his ABL debut in the bottom 6th and walked the first two Knights he faced, Joel Ehers and Jorge Munoz. Guangorena popped out, Kent bunted, Soto hit an RBI single, 2-0, and then DiPrimio grounded out to Luebbert to leave a pair on base. On offense, it didn’t get better, only dumber. Gabe Rivas hit a leadoff double in the seventh inning, got to third base on Morales’ out, and then made for home when Jack Hamel hit a liner to center. Only problem was that Soto caught that ball and then doubled Rivas off third base with a quick throw to Munoz while Rivas stood 20 feet from home plate.

So we tumbled towards the ninth inning, still down just 2-0, and once there, Woodley drew a leadoff walk off Alex Dominguez, batting for the pitcher in the #9 spot. Humph flew out to center, Dominguez advanced Woodley with a wild pitch, and then Yocum drew another walk, so the tying runs were on base. Rivas, who had already stupidly ended the seventh inning, also stupidly ended the ninth by hitting into a 3-6-3 double play. 2-0 Knights.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF LeVan – C Brown – 3B Gonzales – SS Mata – P Vin. Morales
ATL: CF J. Soto – 1B DiPrimio – RF D. Mendoza – LF Marcotte – C Hart – 2B Ehlers – 3B J. Munoz – SS Guangorena – P Lunn

For the second day in a row the Raccoons didn’t reach the first time through the order, and the Knights instead took a 2-0 lead in a messed-up second inning that began with Hart and Ehlers singles that put them on the corners, and then Munoz hit a sac fly to V.D., whose throw skipped past everybody and straight through the infield for an error, gave Ehlers second base, from where he stole third, and then scored on Guangorena’s groundout.

For the second day in a row the first Coons runner was Yocum with a single in the fourth inning. Nobody got added to that, he only advanced on an errant pickoff attempt, and was stranded at second as Woodley whiffed and V.D. flew out easily. In turn, Hart singled and Ehlers homered off Vinny Morales, extending the Knights’ lead to 4-0. Top 5th, and LeVan’s fly to center was dropped by Soto for a 2-base error to begin the inning. Sam Brown knocked a solid RBI single to left, 4-1, but the bottom of the order disappeared without a trace then, and Vinny Morales disappeared after five terrible innings and a 45-minute rain delay.

Humph walked and got doubled up by Yocum in the sixth, after which Woodley reached on Ehlers’ error and was stranded by V.D.; and LeVan led off the seventh with a single, but got doubled up by Brown’s grounder to short. After Vinny’s departure, Newhard and Rios pitched scoreless relief, but the Raccoons’ offense couldn’t open a bag of chips, let alone score a run, although by the time Munoz bobbled a Yocum grounder to begin the ninth inning in the 4-1 game, the Knights had already made FOUR errors. Woodley then immediately hit into a double play. Hamel pinch-hit and grounded out to end the game. 4-1 Knights. Newhard 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Raccoons (1-5) vs. Condors (2-4) – April 11-13, 2072

It had only been a week, but the Raccoons already looked battered and had chunks of fur missing by the time they arrived home to play the Condors on Monday. Tijuana had actually scored the very fewest runs (11!!) to begin the season, although the Raccoons were not that far ahead with just 16 pathetic markers on the board so far. The Condors had otherwise been largely average, but at least they didn’t have half the team on the DL already. The Coons had gone 7-2 against them in ’71.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Bryan Farris (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Aldomiro Campion (0-1, 5.68 ERA) vs. Juan Ybarra (0-0, 1.80 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (0-1, 5.14 ERA) vs. Gary Peoples (0-0, 7.20 ERA)

Farris was the Condors’ only lefty starter.

Game 1
TIJ: CF Pothier – 2B E. Campos – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – 3B Forrest – RF Rafferty – SS D. Campbell – P Farris
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Mata – P Walla

Walla claimed to be good after very much losing his arm wrestling encounter with a Western Star driver, but walked the leadoff man Matt Pothier, allowed a single to David Cline, and conceded a first-inning run on Josh Rugar’s sac fly. Bottom 1st, Humph singled and Hamel doubled, putting a pair in scoring position with one out, but Morales fanned and van Otterdijk grounded out, and nobody scored once more. The second inning was almost as depressing on offense, and Humph punched a K to begin the bottom 3rd, but then Yocum and Hamel drew a pair of 1-out walks from Farris. A double steal forced the issue a bit, and then Morales’ groundout tied the game, and van Otterdijk’s double to right gave Portland a 2-1 lead. Gonzales then grounded out to end the inning.

Since the offense had done good by accident, the Coons had to **** it up on defense after that. Walla got around a Mata error in the fourth against the bottom of the order, but Pothier led off the fifth with a single, stole second, and then Eddie Campos’ grounder was botched by Gonzales to put a pair on the corners on another error. Walla then melted down in sympathy with the rest of the miserable team and gave up RBI knocks to Rugar and Robert Alvarez to find himself 3-2 behind again.

Bottom 5th, and it got worse yet. Humph and Yocum led off with a pair of singles, but Humph also limped into third base and right away made for the dugout, knowing that he was injured. Luis Silva was sneaking around him in foul ground and there was some commotion because the Condors claimed that he had not waited for the safe sign by the umpire before limping away and Adam Forrest had tagged him with the ball off the base, but I was mainly concerned sneaking towards the cupboard with the blunderbuss without Maud noticing. LeVan pinch-ran for Humphries, Jack Hamel hit a 3-run homer for a 5-3 lead, but I felt like dying was a quicker way to end the season than playing another 155 games in a minefield.

Walla only pitched 5.2 innings, being undone by Mata ******* up Pothier’s 2-out grounder in the sixth and then walking Campos on straight balls. Rios replaced him and struck out Cline to get out of the sixth. The Coons then got four outs from Rismiller before double-switching in McMahan and Woodley as V.D. Morales left the game. McMahan got the last two outs in the eighth from Brian Robinson and Pothier, but Campos legged out an infield single to begin the ninth. Cline struck out, but the Raccoons then went to Holzmeister against the righty hitters coming up. He struck out Rugar, and then Alvarez grounded out. 5-3 Critters. Humphries 2-3; Hamel 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

Humph hit the DL with an intercostal strain, costing him at least four weeks, and we called up Jesus Guerrero.

We were also ******* DEAD with 155 games to play.

Game 2
TIJ: CF Pothier – 2B E. Campos – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – 3B Forrest – RF Rafferty – SS D. Campbell – P Ybarra
POR: 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – LF Hamel – CF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Campion

Aldo struck out SIX the first time through the Condors’ lineup… but also found time to give up a run on a Campos double and Cline’s RBI single in the first inning. It got so much worse in the third inning with Pothier’s 1-out triple, and then the 2-3-4 batters went RBI single, RBI double, single to batter the score to 4-0. Nothing got better from there; Aldo got only one strikeout the second time through (against Ybarra), and it was the last strikeout he got. He shoveled the bags full again in the fifth inning, and then conceded two more runs on 1-out double by Robert Alvarez, then was yanked. Dusty Rafferty would drive in the remaining runners to put eight on Aldo in 4.1 ****** up innings, drilling a 2-out screamer off Todd Sullivan.

The less said about the rest of the game, the better. Rivas doubled home a meaningless run in the sixth inning on just the team’s third hit of the night, and the Condors fumbled another unearned run to the Coons in the seventh inning, but made up those with two runs off Holzmeister in the eighth inning. The Coons only amounted to six hits the entire game, half of them by Rivas. 10-2 Condors. Rivas 3-4, 2B, RBI; Tarasewicz 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

We’re so dead. (knots a rope, only to have it taken away by Maud)

Game 3
TIJ: CF Pothier – SS E. Campos – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – C R. Alvarez – 2B Schreiber – 3B D. Campbell – RF Rafferty – P Peoples
POR: 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – LF Hamel – CF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Wharton

Robert Alvarez had a nice day to end the series, and was of course not on our team. Jimmy Wharton was easily hittable and nobody was better than the Condors in picking up a waft of a dying animal, so they were soon all over him and picking away at the exposed bits of meat on Jimmy’s tush. Pothier singled and was caught stealing in the first, but the Condors hit a pair of singles in the second… and stranded those. However, come the third, Pothier hit another single, scored on Cline’s RBI single, and with two outs, Alvarez hit his first homer of the game. “First”, because there was a second homer when he was up in the sixth inning, then with nobody on base, and extending the score to 4-0. And no, the Raccoons, outside of a pair of 2-out singles by McFarland the first two trips through the lineup, were not doing anything worth the oxygen to talk about.

Third time through, Hamel singled with two gone in the sixth and Morales drew a walk, but Rivas then floated out easily to Rafferty in right. LeVan dropped a fly ball by Peoples in the seventh, which was such a nice change of pace, not only to suck on offense and pitching, but also with the ******* leather, exactly what we’d hope for from an .053 batter. Jimmy pitched seven forgettable outings (unless you’re Robert Alvarez’ mom or aunt), and Newhard and McMahan filled out the back innings.

The Coons didn’t touch third base until the bottom of the ninth inning, and then only on an error by Cline, but that one was already loading the bases. Going back, Guerrero batted for Rivas against lefty Chris Thompson, but grounded out. Luebbert then singled in LeVan’s place, Gonzales drew a walk, and then it was McFarland to reach on the Cline error, which also brought somehow and completely without merit the tying run to bat. Sam Brown pinch-hit against the left, but ripped a double to right that brought in two runs and the tying runs were in scoring position with one gone. Right-hander Tyler Reed replaced Thompson, gave up the third run on Yocum’s groundout, and then lost Woodley on balls in a full count. And after all of that… Hamel struck out. 4-3 Condors. Luebbert (PH) 1-1; McFarland 2-4; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1; Brown (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

April 4 – The Wolves riot all over the Stars on Opening Day, giving them a 15-4 thrashing.
April 4 – The Pacifics score seven runs in the second inning and then hardly stop adding in a 16-5 Opening Day beating of the Scorpions.
April 5 – NAS LF/1B/RF Tony Roman (.250, 0 HR, 0 RBI) hits a single off PIT SP Brian Jones (0-0, 0.00 ERA) in a 13-inning, 4-2 loss to the Miners, marking the 2,000th base hit of his career – all 17 seasons of which have been spent with the Blue Sox. A three-time FL home run king, Roman has batted .252 with 383 HR and 1,200 RBI in his career.
April 5 – Boston reliever Elijah LaBat is moved to the DL after suffering an elbow strain during a pre-Opening Day round of golf.
April 5 – The Cyclones take 16 innings to beat the Rebels, 4-3.
April 10 – PIT SP Brian Jones (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 2-hits the Pacifics with seven strikeouts in a 7-0 shutout.
April 13 – The Rebels acquire RF/2B/LF Tim Goss (.179, 1 HR, 4 RBI) from the Capitals for SP Pedro Acebedo (0-1, 7.15 ERA).

Player of the Week (FL): LAP OF Mike Hulett (.520, 2 HR, 9 RBI)
Player of the Week (CL): IND 1B Matt Rogers (.308, 3 HR, 13 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

(dead-eyed stare)

Oh well. Maybe next year.

Adam Yocum has only 13 hits, but still all his limbs on, which is not a given on this team. He’s stretched them perfectly to cover all nine games played this year. He also hit in the last ten games of the 2071 season that he was in (playoffs excluded), and so had an active 19-game hitting streak across seasons.

And yet all I wanted was to ride down the Willamette and Columbia in a wooden barrel.

Val Centeno cleared waivers, which I found surprising, but then again… we’ve seen him toss. He got sent back to St. Petersburg.

The rest of the homestand would consist of losing oddly to the Indians, getting blown out by the Loggers, and I’m sure we’d find a way to roll over against the Falcons, the only team that fell harder on the face out of the gates with a 2-8 start.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons started the season with 7,997 regular season wins.

And they’d surely get to 8,000 in the first three series, right?

Right?

(mopes)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (2-7) vs. Indians (4-5) – April 15-17, 2072

The Indians had lost four games in a row, not that I had much sympathy. They had also won the season series against Portland three years in a row, 10-8 in 2071, so **** them. Critters need wins! Indy had started fourth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. Matt Rogers (.278, 4 HR, 15 RBI) already had four homers, and the rest of the team had one (Brian Layell).

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (0-1, 1.80 ERA) vs. Pablo Apodaca (0-1, 5.73 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Jorge Flores (1-0, 1.50 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-0, 3.09 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (1-1, 1.32 ERA)

Apodaca was a left-hander, and so was Mike DeWitt (1-1, 5.68 ERA), whom the Indians could skip into the series thanks to the common off day on the Thursday before this series.

On the Portland side, at least nobody tore out another limb in the roughly 51 hours between their previous game and the opener of this one.

Game 1
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – 2B W. Richmond – LF T. Torres – C Sciutto – RF Layell – P Apodaca
POR: 2B Yocum – 3B Gonzales – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – LF Guerrero – C Brown – SS Mata – P Gaytan

The Raccoons, having a .071 hitter bat second, scored first when that .071 hitter doubled to right-center in the first inning, and Jack Hamel then drove Gonzales in with a single. The Indians had also had a pair of hits (singles) from their 2-3 hitters Fernando Valadez and Jose Hilario in the top of the first inning, but Gaytan had struck out three batters otherwise. Meanwhile, Hamel was forced out on a V.D. Morales grounder, and Morales was then caught stealing to end the first inning. Another out was made on the bases in the bottom 2nd, which began with the Otter getting brushed by a pitch, Guerrero walking, and after Brown struck out, Ramon Mata got his first big-league hit with a single to left. Van Otterdijk tried to score from second, but was thrown out at the plate by Tony Torres, and the Raccoons didn’t score in the inning. Instead, Gaytan nicked Matt Martin to begin the third inning, and Matt Rogers drove him in with a 2-out double to tie the game in the third inning. The Coons immediately got the lead back with a bushel of singles in the bottom 3rd by Yocum, Gonzales, and Morales, who made it 2-1 with a single to left-center – but van Otterdijk then hit into a 9-2 double play as the Raccoons made the THIRD out on the bases and the second at home to end the inning on what turned out not to be a sac fly at all.

For a bit in the fourth and fifth innings, Gaytan gave up louder contact and I feared the homers coming, but the outfielders prevented the Indians from even getting doubles, and at the same time he then upped his strikeouts to eight by the end of six innings, and with a manageable pitch count. The sixth also saw the Coons’ fourth out on the base paths when Guerrero was caught stealing after drawing another walk. Gaytan struck out the 8-9-1 batters to get to the stretch and 11 K in total, while Apodaca topped out at six whiffings and got knocked out on Sam Brown’s leadoff single to right in the bottom 7th. Ryan Croft then sawed off the Coons’ 8-9-1 batters to keep that extra run on base. Gaytan struck out Valadez to begin the eighth and then got fly outs from Hilario and Rogers to complete the inning. And now what? The lead was skinny and our closer was on the DL…!

Gaytan was also on 104 pitches, and Walter Richmond and Tony Torres (as well as Brian Layell) were lefty hitters, so the Raccoons went for Ricky McMahan when the offense failed to get even one insurance run in the bottom 8th. Immediately, the Indians emptied their bench and McMahan blew the game by allowing doubles to PH Andy Morris and Aaron Sciutto, the pair of catchers. Former Critter Josh C(arrington) then got the bottom 9th, Guerrero flew out to left, but then he walked Brown and Mata. LeVan ran for Brown carrying the winning run, and Woodley batted for the pitcher, but grounded out, and Yocum lifted a fly to Hilario that got nobody home and sent the game to extras, then with Gabe Rivas behind the dish. Rismiller gave up a homer to Hilario in the top of the tenth inning, and Carrington retired the 2-3-4 batters in order to end the game… 3-2 Indians. Gonzales 3-5, 2B; Mata 2-3, BB; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K;

Bitter.

Adam Yocum’s single got him to a 20-game hitting streak, not that anybody around here cared right now.

Game 2
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – 2B W. Richmond – LF T. Torres – C Sciutto – RF Layell – P V. Perez
POR: 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – LF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – SS McFarland – P Vin. Morales

Not for the first or second time this year, the Raccoons’ first ten batters in the game were retired before Josh Woodley hit a double and was left on base in the fourth inning. By that time the Indians were up 2-0 because the Indians were not quite as shy around getting on base and hitting against Vinny Morales. Rogers singled and scored on a Torres double in the second inning, and in the third the Indians had runners on the corners when Richmond legged out a 2-out infield single to get Matt Martin home with another run. Hilario continued to cash in with a 2-run homer after Morales walked Valadez to begin the fifth inning, doubling the score. Rogers singled and got forced out by Richmond, who stole second and came in to score on Sciutto’s 2-out RBI double to left, and that one also knocked out a rather useless Vinny Morales. Newhard came in and struck out Layell, the only batter he faced in the game, since his spot came up to bat unexpectedly in the bottom 5th as Gonzales legged out an infield single, LeVan walked, and McFarland hit an RBI single, all with one out. Van Otterdijk pinch-hit and was drilled to load the bases for a hitless Yocum, who turned an 0-2 pitch around with a soft liner near the leftfield line that dinked in for a 2-run single, 5-3. Woodley popped out foul to Martin, but with two gone, Hamel hit an RBI single to left-center. V.D. hit another one of those, tying the score at five and sending Perez to the showers at the same time. Justin Esch then got Rivas to ground out to short, ending the inning with the game even at five and the rest being up to the pens.

Sullivan and Rios each pitched a scoreless inning before Yocum began the bottom 7th with a groundout against the still pitching Esch, a former starter. The righty walked Woodley to put the go-ahead run on base, Hamel singled to move him to second, and then V.D. hit another single to left-center. The Coons, desperate for runs, sent Woodley for the plate and he scored on Hilario’s throw being off line, giving Portland a 6-5 lead. The trailing runners got into scoring position, where they were left on Rivas’ pop to short and Gonzales’ grounder to short…

Rios got around a leadoff single hit by Layell in the eighth inning and struck out a pair to choke out the Indians’ attempt at a comeback in the inning, but then still needed somebody to give the ninth inning another hack. Maybe an insurance run, hmm? Boys? McFarland hit a 1-out single off Felix Morales (so many Moraleses) in the bottom 8th and Guerrero batted for Rios, reaching on an error by Martin. Yocum fanned, Woodley flew out to Hilario like everybody else, and the Coons left another pair on base, then watched Holzmeister taking a big lead to blow this save. Hilario legged out an infield single right away, but he struck out PH Guillermo Lujan. Richmond got a walk to advance the tying run into scoring position. Rafael Valencia’s grounder to Yocum was good for only an out at second base, and the tying run got to third. Sciutto then popped up the 1-0 pitch behind home plate, Rivas jumped up and tossed his mask halfway to the dugout, meandered around beneath the ball, and then almost dropped it when it finally came down, but hung on as he belly-flopped, which ended the game. 6-5 Raccoons. Hamel 2-4, RBI; V.D. Morales 2-4, 2 RBI; McFarland 2-4, RBI; Rios 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – 2B W. Richmond – LF T. Torres – C Sciutto – RF Layell – P DeWitt
POR: 2B Yocum – 3B Gonzales – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – C Rivas – LF Guerrero – SS Luebbert – P Walla

Boys, here’s a wild idea, but hear me out – how about back-to-back wins? Martin and Rogers singles for a first-inning run off Walla were rather counter-indicative, but the Raccoons had a 2-out rally in the bottom half of the inning as Hamel doubled to left, scored on a Morales single to center, and then George van Otterdijk lifted the Coons first homer of the week (depressed noises) to give the brown team a 3-1 lead. Tony Torres answered with a leadoff homer off Walla, who then struck out the 7-8-9 batters in the second inning, and then retired the Indians cleanly once through the lineup top to bottom across the next three innings – but the same feat was achieved by DeWitt, and no ground was gained by the end of the fifth.

Hilario broke the runners’ drought with a 2-out double in the sixth inning, but was left on base by Rogers. Torres hit a single to left in the seventh, but got doubled up when Scuitto grounded precisely to Nick Luebbert for a 6-4-3 to end the inning.

The Raccoons were very silent for very long, but Jesus Guerrero got his first hit of the season after starting 0-for-7 – and it was a 2-out solo homer to left in the bottom 7th that gave the Raccoons at least an insurance run, 4-2. Luebbert reached on an error then, but Woodley pinch-hit and flew out to Valencia in left to end the inning. Sullivan replaced Walla on the hill and got two outs from Lujan (an injury replacement for Layell) and Valencia before walking Martin. The Raccoons made another attempt at a McMahan save, this one for four outs, and he got Valadez to pop out to Yocum to end the inning. Yocum and Gonzales then began the bottom 8th with singles and taking to the corners against righty Jason Rhodes. LeVan batted for Hamel, but had to settle for a sac fly. Gonzales then took off for second with Morales batting, Sciutto threw the ball away and allowed Gonzales to third base, and that allowed Morales to hit another sac fly to right.

Then came the ninth and more drama. Hilario legged out another ******* infield single. Rogers singled past Luebbert, and Richmond singled to right, sending Hilario around to score. The tying run was now in the box in a 6-3 game, and as Morris pinch-hit for Torres, the Coons went to Holzmeister again. He struck out one catcher, but allowed an RBI single to the next, then walked Lujan to stuff the bases with just one out. Valencia struck out, sending it back to the top of the lineup and Martin, who hit a liner to the left side – and Gonzales dove for it and snagged it, and the Coons escaped with a W…! 6-4 Critters. Yocum 2-4; Walla 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (2-0);

Raccoons (4-8) vs. Loggers (8-4) – April 19-21, 2072

Nobody on this team was in the mood to play the Loggers. They always harmed us so meanly. To begin the year, the Loggers were second in runs scored in the CL, and were uncharacteristically average in runs allowed for a +16 run differential. Cesar Ramirez had already gone on the DL, and a few pieces of that lineup like John Parrish had left, but there were still enough pieces in that chainsaw to slice any Raccoons pitcher apart. Milwaukee had won the season series, 10-8 last year, and the Raccoons had not taken that trophy since *2064*.

Projected matchups:
Aldomiro Campion (0-2, 10.13 ERA) vs. Kevin Bennett (0-1, 1.13 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (0-2, 5.14 ERA) vs. Julio Robles (0-1, 10.29 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (0-1, 1.38 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (2-1, 4.91 ERA)

Bennett was left-handed, as would be Ayahito Ochi (1-1, 4.85 ERA), who had pitched with Crist in a double-header on Saturday. Either one could pick up the ball on Thursday.

Game 1
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 1B Metcalf – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – LF Frank – 3B Sowards – CF S. McLaughlin – P Bennett
POR: 2B Yocum – 3B Gonzales – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – SS McFarland – C Brown – P Campion

The Loggers got leadoff singles from Sean Van Leeuwen and Manuel Rodriguez in the first two innings, but also had Travis Metcalf and Ken Frank hit into a pair of double plays, and instead the Raccoons scored the first run in the bottom 3rd when Aldo *tripled* with one out, and Yocum celebrated by popping out on the infield. Gonzales then slapped a 2-out RBI single to center, his first RBI for Portland after merely 12 games and small change. Hamel also got on base, but Morales then flew out. Carlos Dominguez came mighty close to a game-tying homer in the fourth, Hamel picking that missile off the top of the fence, but the Otter actually mashed a leadoff jack in the home half of the inning, and also became the first Critter with multiple homers after merely 12 games and small change.

Aldo struck out five, the last being Ken Frank to begin the fifth inning before the coaches and trainers and concerned parents poured out of the Raccoons’ dugout and surrounded him on the mound. Slappy, I’m gonna feint. – Sure enough, Aldo left the game accompanied by Luis Silva after 4.1 shutout innings, and I feinted.

By the time Maud revived me with the smell of muffins under my pokey black nose, he score was 5-0 after an outburst of base hits in the bottom 5th, and Gonzales (one) and Hamel (two) driving in the additional runs; and in the bottom 6th the Coons had the bases loaded with nobody out as Mata walked, Yocum singled (23-game hitting streak), and Gonzales got another walk from Javy Carpio. Hamel got another run home with a fielder’s choice grounder that left Gonzales out at second, and Morales shot a 2-run double to right. New reliever Danny Mendoza nicked the Otter, but Woodley hit into a double play. Rismiller had already pitched the sixth, but then got whacked in the seventh as Carlos Dominguez doubled and Manuel Rodriguez homered. Jesse Sowards hit another 2-out double, and Sean McLaughlin’s grounder was thrown away by Gonzales for a run-scoring error. Rios and Guerrero replaced Rismiller and Woodley in the second double switch of the game, and Rios ended the inning with a K on PH Eric Frasher, Portland still up 8-3. But Rios shoveled his own hole with a hit and two walks in the eighth inning, and Newhard replaced him with Metcalf, Dominguez, and Fidel Carrera on base and two outs in what was technically a save situation. He struck out Ken Frank to bugger out of the jam there, and got another K on Sowards to begin the ninth. McLaughlin singled, but got forced out at second by Michael Kiger’s grounder. Hamel then ran down a Van Leeuwen drive to end the game. 8-3 Critters. Gonzales 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Hamel 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; van Otterdijk 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Mata (PH) 1-2, BB; Campion 4.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K and 1-1, 3B;

Justin Tarasewicz got the win for pitching the first two outs in relief while I blacked out.

I reserved the right on another blackout once Luis Silva would present the injury report on Aldo, which did not happen before the Wednesday game ... which never took place due to persistent rain on Wednesday, and a double-header was instead scheduled for Thursday.

I blacked out before either game could be played though, as Luis Silva relayed the news to me that Aldo had a partially torn UCL and was headed for Tommy John surg- (noisily falls into the bobblehead display, sending little helmets spraying through the office)

The Coons called up Cuban left-hander David Delgado, 25, from AAA, who had arrived in the U.S. three years ago, as extra arm for the double-header, but they’d need a new fifth starter by Sunday. I had something on my mind there.

Game 2
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 1B Metcalf – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – LF Frank – 2B F. Carrera – 3B Sowards – CF S. McLaughlin – P Ochi
POR: 2B Yocum – 3B Gonzales – LF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – CF Guerrero – SS McFarland – C Brown – P Wharton

Dominguez took Jimmy deep for a 1-0 Loggers lead in the first inning, while the Raccoons put Gonzales and Hamel on base but couldn’t get them around. Guerrero singled his way on base in the bottom 2nd before being caught stealing, which cost the Raccoons, since McFarland and Brown continued the inning with a pair of doubles, which tied the game, but could have been a lead already. The Coons had to wait for Yocum’s streak-extending single to center to take a 2-1 lead, and he was left on as Gonzales grounded out.

Van Leeuwen hit a leadoff single to right in the third, but got doubled up by Metcalf, and Rodriguez got another leadoff single to left in the fourth, but was left stranded at second base by the Loggers, and it helped that Jimmyboy cranked up the stuff and struck out seven Loggers through five innings. The Loggers got back on base in the sixth as Rodriguez drew a 2-out walk and Ken Frank singled to left. Wharton threw a wild pitch, moving the runners into scoring position, but then buggered out with his eighth K on Carrera. He still got the bottom of the order and threw 112 pitches in total to get through seven innings, striking out nine in total, and nursing the skinny 2-1 lead to the stretch.

There was little in terms of Raccoons offense in the middle innings, and in the seventh Yocum only singled and stole second with two outs on the board and was left on by Gonzales. McMahan retired the 1-2-3 batters in order in the eighth, but the attempt to score an insurance run didn’t survive Hamel’s single and Morales’ 6-4-3 grounder in the bottom of the inning. Holzmeister got the ninth and had Rodriguez at 0-2 before giving up a single, but Sam Brown picked Rodriguez and the tying run off first base on the first pitch to Frank! Ken Frank grounded out, and the game ended with K-arrera punching a golden sombrero. 2-1 Blighters. Brown 2-3, 2B, RBI; Wharton 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (1-2);

Game 3
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 1B Metcalf – RF C. Dominguez – 2B F. Carrera – LF Frank – 3B Sowards – C Pavlacka – CF S. McLaughlin – P Ju. Robles
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – LF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – SS Mata – P Gaytan

Gaytan began the game with a K on Van Leeuwen, then gave up a double to Metcalf, and a homer to Carlos Dominguez. And a homer to Carrera. And another homer to Frank! There was an early mound conference to try and bend him back into shape, which only worked partially as he also put David Pavlacka and McLaughlin on base, the latter by SMACKING him with a fastball, and then somehow got out of the inning on Robles’ groundout. The AAA brigade in the pen was warming up as early as the bottom 1st (there were plenty of them to pick from), while Yocum and Hamel hit singles in the bottom 1st, but were left on base.

Gaytan ended up going 3.2 innings, allowing another solo homer to Carrera in the third inning, and a 2-out triple to Metcalf in the fourth that was the end of the road for him. David Delgado made his ABL debut and got Dominguez to ground out and strand the runner, but then cluelessly filled the bases with a hit, walk, and drilled batter, and gave up an RBI single to McLaughlin before striking out Robles and getting Van Leeuwen to fly out and leave three on. Van Otterdijk batted for Delgado in the bottom 5th and raked a pinch-hit homer, which made it all of 6-1. That was still the score after Rios pitched the sixth and the Coons did nothing, after which the Critters double-switched in Guerrero and Tarasewicz (congratulations, you go back to St. Pete after this game) and hoped for multiple innings while Morales was out of the game to make room for the pitcher in the #4 hole. Tarasewicz gave up a homer to Pavlacka as Czech prevailed over Polish in a duel of Eastern European names, and then a triple to ROBLES, who scored on a Van Leeuwen single to tack on. Josh Woodley homered for Portland with nobody on in the bottom 7th, which mattered nothing and bothered nobody (maybe Robles’ mom). Robles gave up another 2-run homer to Rivas in the bottom 8th after Yocum had tripled, but that only got the Coons in slam range, but instead of the Coons loading the bases, the Loggers did in the ninth as Noah Newhard shoveled himself a shallow gave with three on and one out. Sullivan replaced him and got a double play grounder, 4-6-3, from Dominguez to end the inning. Luebbert batted for Gonzales to begin the bottom 9th against Omar Vences and grounded out, but LeVan hit a homer to right. Brown and Guerrero then made the last two outs. 8-5 Loggers. Yocum 2-4, 3B; LeVan 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Blech.

Roster moves. Tarasewicz (1-0, 5.06 ERA) and Delgado (0-0, 6.75 ERA) got sent back to St. Petersburg and two new pitchers were called up – for two more ABL debuts. One was the ham-and-egger Juan Vega, who got the odd call-up every year and then passed seamlessly through waivers again, and who was only going to be here for a day before Pedro Valentin could come off the DL on Saturday. The other was the new fifth starter – welcome “Crispy Bear”.

The Raccoons had signed the #35 prospect Crispino D’Urso for $590k in the 2065 July IFA period, and had sent him to Aumsville a year later just after he had turned 17. It was perhaps too early, because he had a good struggle for his first three pro seasons, posting 5+ ERA’s in Aumsville every year, but from ’69 on he had steadily risen up the minors and last year had split the year between Ham Lake and St. Pete, with 19 starts for the AAA outfit, going 7-9 with a 3.93 ERA. He had a 1.50 ERA after two starts this season. The 22-year-old righty from Venezuela had six pitches, a lot of it inducing grounders, but his main weapon, a 98mph cut fastball tended to get sent. He was by no means a finished product – but the Raccoons only wanted to go back to Val Centeno if D’Urso made them.

Raccoons (6-9) vs. Falcons (4-12) – April 22-24, 2072

The Falcons were off to a wretched start, scoring just 2.6 runs per game and giving up an easy 4.7 R/G for a -33 run differential from just 16 games. They were in last place in the South, while the Coons had actually scratched their way into fifth place, half a game up on the damn Elks. The Falcons were bottoms in most offensive stats, like having just *two* home runs on the team. The pitching was cruddy. They had taken the season series last year, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Vinny Morales (0-1, 8.38 ERA) vs. Ian Lowry (0-1, 5.28 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-0, 2.89 ERA) vs. Jack Moses (0-1, 3.86 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (0-0) vs. Joe Allen (0-3, 8.03 ERA)

Allen made for a Southpaw Sunday. Unless the Falcons skipped him for righty “Rated-R” Rautenstrauch (1-1, 4.08 ERA).

Game 1
CHA: SS J. Brown – 3B A. Rodriguez – CF L. Collins – LF Bakker – RF Mullen – C C. Mora – 1B B. McLaughlin – 2B Houkes – P Lowry
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – SS Mata – 3B Luebbert – P Vin. Morales

Vinny looked like that ERA wasn’t gonna come down any time soon as he put Josh Brown and Alex Rodriguez on base to begin the game. Landon Collins hit into a double play, but Matt Bakker made it 1-0 with a firm single to center before Eddie Mullen flew out to deep right. The ex-Coon Lowry walked three of the first six Critters, of whom Yocum and Hamel were stranded in the first inning, and Woodley got forced out by Mata. Luebbert popped out, but Vinny singled, putting runners on the corners with two down, and Yocum extended his hitting streak to 26 with a game-tying RBI single to left. Rivas also got on, but Hamel stranded a full set of runners by popping out foul behind home plate to Carlos Mora.

Lowry looked like he was ready to get blown off the mound, walking Woodley again in the third and giving up another single to Vinny in the fourth, but the Coons couldn’t get a proper inning together. Instead the Falcons got a new lead in the sixth inning, as Brown led off with a double, Rodriguez advanced him by flying out to deep center, and Collins ended up walking, before Bakker clapped another RBI single. That one knocked out Vinny, and Sullivan got out of the inning as Collins got himself caught stealing third base and Mullen grounded out. Woodley singled sharply to begin the bottom 6th and the Falcons yanked Lowry immediately. Ignacio Gentili popped out Mata, but Luebbert doubled to right, putting a pair in scoring position. LeVan pinch-hit and uselessly flew out to Mullen in shallow right, but Yocum strung a shot to right for a 2-out, 2-run, score-flipping single…! Rivas also singled, but Hamel fanned to end the inning.

Up 3-2, the Coons sent Holzmeister, who allowed a leadoff single to Mora and then was bombarded with lefty- and switch-hitting pinch-hitters, but retired three in a row and stranded the tying run on second base while at it; but then he put Brown on base with a leadoff walk in the eighth. Rodriguez grounded out before the ball went to Rios, who rung up Collins and PH Andy Johnson. The Coons’ own leadoff base runner, Mata, did not lead to a run in the bottom 8th, and so Rismiller got the ball for a save opportunity in the ninth inning. Mullen walking meant that the tying run reached base immediately again, and then advanced on Mora’s groundout. Rismiller walked Brady Terrell, then struck out Mike Kline – and then the Falcons ended up with pitcher Edgar Mauricio batting because they had blown through their entire bench already. Rismiller rung him up to waddle away with a W. 3-2 Blighters. Yocum 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Rivas 2-4; Woodley 1-2, 2 BB;

Juan Vega went on waivers without pitching as Pedro Valentin came off the DL.

Game 2
CHA: SS J. Brown – 3B A. Rodriguez – CF L. Collins – LF Bakker – RF Mullen – 1B Terrell – C C. Mora – 2B D. Cox – P Moses
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – SS McFarland – P Walla

Brown shanked a triple to begin the game and scored after Walla walked Rodriguez and got a double-play grounder from Collins, but the Coons couldn’t turn Yocum’s leadoff single into a run in the bottom 1st. Terrell singled and got doubled up by Mora in the second, but Moses socked a double in the third inning, advanced on a wild pitch (…) and scored on a groundout by Brown *after* Woodley had dropped a foul pop by Brown that should have been the second out – a real team effort going on here to drop a game to a woefully last-place team!

It got so much worse. Edgar Gonzales had a special fourth inning, making an error behind Walla that cost extra pitches, and then crashed into a double play to erase Woodley getting on base as the leadoff batter for the third time in the series. Moses then singled off Walla again, for which it was hard to find excuses, and more hits by Brown and Collins got him around to score, 3-0, before Bakker grounded out sharply to Yocum to keep two on base.

Bottom 5th, and the Coons put their 7-8 batters on the corners after a pair of leadoff singles… and then also replaced LeVan with Hamel to pinch-run after he slammed his knee awkwardly into the edge of third base and hobbled off with a knee sprain. Walla got home the first run for Team Brown – by hitting into a double play, also killing the inning at the same time. Walla was done after six, and Sullivan and McMahan fudged another run onto the board for the Falcons in the seventh.

Somehow the tying run batted with nobody out in the bottom 7th of the 4-1 game when Gonzales and Hamel reached against Moses. McFarland and Guerrero both USELESSLY popped out before Yocum hit a 2-out RBI single. Moses got Rivas to 0-2 before giving up another RBI single, but Morales flew out to center to strand the tying and go-ahead runs. McMahan had a scoreless eighth while Luebbert batted for him and drew a walk and then was generally ignored. Valentin pitched the ninth in a losing effort because he was fresh and the stupid team wasn’t gonna come back anyway. Orazio Cecere got the ball for the bottom 9th. Sam Brown and Guerrero made quick outs, but Yocum singled. Rivas also singled to center, and now we needed a knock from Morales, who was at 0-for-14 in his last four games, but the only bench piece left was Ramon Mata, so it wasn’t like it was gonna get better. Morales ended the game – but not as you’d imagine, as he drove a ball into the right-center gap that Collins and Mullen converged on, but neither reached. The ball fell in, rushed to the wall, and Yocum scored the tying run, while Rivas was chugging around third base as the throw came to the infield, but skipped past Josh Brown and then died in no man’s land, allowing Rivas to slide in safely on Morales’ walkoff triple…!! 5-4 Blighters. Yocum 4-5, RBI; Rivas 4-5, RBI;

LeVan was off to the DL in the meantime, where he was in good company, and got replaced on the roster with Jesus Morentin.

Game 3
CHA: SS J. Brown – 3B A. Rodriguez – CF L. Collins – LF Bakker – RF Mullen – 1B Terrell – C A. Johnson – 2B D. Cox – P Joe Allen
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – LF Morentin – SS McFarland – P D’Urso

Crispy Bear began his career with a soft fly to the Otter, a grounder to short, an then K’ed Collins for a 1-2-3 first inning. His first runner came on a throwing error by Yocum in the second, but that runner, Terrell, remained on base, and instead Morales gave the Coons the lead with a leadoff homer to left in the bottom 2nd.

D’Urso had five strikeouts by the end of the third inning, and the Falcons didn’t reach base safely until Terrell singled to right in the fifth inning, only to be immediately doubled off by Johnson. Any tack-on runs? Morentin hit a single in the fifth inning, but never made it past first base, and apart from that the Raccoons did not make it onto the bases. The sixth inning saw Crispy Bear retire the 8-9-1 batters in good order. Dustin Cox hit a long fly to center in the sixth, but that was run down by Hamel. At that point the first drops were coming down, and during the inning break a tremendous wind started to whip the stadium and the rain quickly picked up its game, too. D’Urso batted and flew out to left, and Yocum got in the box, but was then shooed back to the dugout, as it started to *pour* down and the grounds crew struggled to put the tarp on the field. The game spent two hours in a rain delay, at which point it was still storming outside, and the umpires, who like the Falcons had places to be on Monday, called the game, giving Crispy Bear a cheap 1-hit shutout on debut….!! 1-0 Blighters. V.D. Morales 1-2, HR, RBI; D’Urso 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

In other news

April 15 – MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.300, 1 HR, 2 RBI) was going to miss the rest of the month at least with an intercostal strain.
April 16 – The Wolves beat the Pacifics, 1-0, as SAL SP Luis Chavez (1-2, 7.53 ERA) and CL Aaron Bell (0-0, 1.50 ERA, 4 SV) pitch a combined 1-hitter. Only LAP 1B Juan Gutierrez (.313, 0 HR, 8 RBI) finds a single in his bat in this game.
April 17 – The Gold Sox beat the Scorpions, 1-0 in ten innings. Rookie 3B/RF/1B David Reed (2-for-3, 0 HR, 2 RBI) brings in the only run with a sac fly for only his second career RBI.
April 18 – The Titans employ a 10-run fifth inning to clobber their way past the Canadiens in a 13-7 win. The Titans score as many runs in this game than all teams in the other three games of the day combined.
April 19 – PIT CF Tyler Wharton (.326, 1 HR, 10 RBI) has suffered a career-ending concussion after colliding with the outfield wall in the first inning of a 6-4 win against the Capitals on Sunday.
April 19 – DAL CL Jon Dominguez (0-0, 6.00 ERA, 5 SV) gets his 400th career save in a 7-5 win against the Pacifics. The 36-year-old Dominguez was in his second stint with Dallas and had by now saved games for six different teams. For his career he was 62-75 with a 3.24 ERA and 927 K in 1,036 innings across 996 games.
April 20 – PIT SP Brian Jones (2-1, 0.55 ERA) fires a 2-hit shutout to beat the Cyclones, 3-0.
April 21 – VAN 2B/SS Jose Palominos (.242, 4 HR, 15 RBI) was expected to miss a month with back spasms.
April 22 – Pittsburgh SP Tom Kies (1-2, 4.96 ERA) and CL Javier Arocho (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 SV) combine for a 1-hit shutout of the Scorpions and a 5-0 win. Kies goes 8.2 innings before running out of steam and walking the bases full. Arocho gets SAC LF/RF Wade Griffith (.074, 1 HR, 2 RBI) out to end the game.
April 23 – Capitals SP Kevin Butte (4-0, 1.42 ERA) 1-hits the Wolves in an 11-0 rout, and the only Salem hit is a single chipped in by an otherwise incinerated SP Bill Logalbo (1-2, 10.26 ERA).
April 23 – Warriors outfielder Steve Millen (.295, 3 HR, 12 RBI) drives in five runs on two homers across a double-header sweep (5-2, 7-5) of the Blue Sox, then hits the DL with elbow tendinitis for the next three weeks.
April 24 – ATL LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.286, 2 HR, 8 RBI) cranks his 300th career homer and drives in a pair – against his forever team, the Titans, who lose 7-0.
April 24 – The Rebels beat the Gold Sox, 5-0 in ten innings.

Player of the Week 2 (FL): SAC C Martin Bohannon (.457, 1 HR, 8 RBI), batting .524 (11-21) with 1 HR, 5 RBI
Player of the Week 2 (CL): NYC 1B/LF/RF Raul Ledesma (.392, 2 HR, 13 RBI), clipping .481 (13-27) with 1 HR, 8 RBI

Player of the Week 3 (FL): LAP LF/RF John Miller (.386, 5 HR, 21 RBI), hitting .417 (10-24) with 3 HR, 10 RBI
Player of the Week 3 (CL): ATL OF David Mendoza (.278, 5 HR, 14 RBI), socking .364 (8-22) with 4 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Maud, we’re not answering the Miners’ phone calls. – No, Maud. No backsies. – Send a card.

D’Urso’s budget 1-hitter on Sunday also killed Yocum’s hitting streak at 27 games since he only got to the plate twice and made outs both times. Blame the weather. He didn’t look like he was keen on signing an extension with a bad weather team.

Maud suggested finding a nickname for V.D. Morales. Maybe one that doesn’t suggest that he has an STD.

The Raccoons eventually *did* win a third game on the season (took only 11 attempts), and the 8,000th regular season W ended up going to Gabriel Rios for two innings in relief after Vinny Morales’ early dismissal against the Indians last Saturday.

Since we merrily keep spinning the injury wheel, who knows what will happen this season? It’s just three weeks into the season, and the team has already used 33 players (not including Juan Vega, who was on the roster for a day without pitching), 17 of them pitchers. If they keep dropping like flies we might have 2068 #6 pick Kyle Markovich roaming the outfield before long.

Long road trip coming up after a day off on Monday. We get to see our friends in Vegas (yaaay…), the Crusaders, the damn Elks, and the Buffos over the next two weeks on the road.

Fun Fact: Tyler Wharton is gonna make the Hall of Fame with 127% of the votes.

Wharton piled up 101.6 WAR in a 16-year career before banging his noggin’ into an unsatisfyingly padded part of the outfield wall in Washington. He won SEVEN Player of the Year awards (all with Dallas, in case you’re wondering), TEN Gold Gloves in centerfield, more All Star nods and Platinum Sticks as I have claws to count them with, and won two rings with the Stars in 2064-65.

His Portland stint was comparatively pedestrian despite him hitting .298 with 64 homers and 228 RBI across three seasons. For his entire career, he tortured pitchers by hitting .323/.399/.529 with 2,350 hits, 340 homers, 1,371 RBI, and 242 stolen bases.

Wharton won five batting titles, seven times led the FL in slugging, twice in homers, four times in RBI, and four times in hits. He was worth double-digit WAR four times in his career, with a career-high of +12.6 in ’62, when he batted .373 with 36 homers and 131 RBI. In 2065 and 2068 he won the hitting triple crown in the FL.

And now he’s gone, but we still have Ald– … oh.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-9) @ Aces (9-10) – April 26-28, 2072

The CLCS seemed like a while ago for the defending ABL champions, and the Raccoons, too. Vegas had started right around league average in runs scored and runs allowed, having a +4 run differential. The team was near the bottom in home runs, but led the league in stolen bases (we had noticed in October…), and apart from that seemed to be far away from any major strength. No injuries, at least. (whiny noises) … The Aces had beaten the Raccoons five outta nine… or nine out of fifteen if you cared to include the Coons’ first postseason trip in ten years in 2071.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (1-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. Danny Ryba (1-1, 4.87 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (0-2, 3.78 ERA) vs. Alex Duarte (1-3, 2.77 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-1, 6.60 ERA) vs. Luis Ortiz (3-0, 2.25 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up against the Raccoons here.

Game 1
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – SS Luebbert – P Wharton
LVA: LF Jim. Williams – RF A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – 1B McGrew – 2B Jer. Hawkins – P Ryba

Yocum began the game with a walk and being doubled up by Rivas, but van Otterdijk socked a homer to begin the second inning, his fourth of the year, and not bad for a fourth outfielder leading his team… The Raccoons also got Woodley on base with a double to right, although two poor outs and an intentional walk to Luebbert later he was still at second base, but Jimmy Williams then dropped Wharton’s fly to left for a 2-out error, allowing a run to score. Yocum drew another walk, but Rivas grounded out to Jeremiah Hawkins to end the inning.

Jimmyboy had his struggles, giving up a double to Josh Phelps at the start of the second inning, although a bunch of long counts later he managed to strand Phelps at third base without conceding the run. He did, however, concede the seventh homer of the year of Chris Haynes, leading off the bottom 4th, and Phelps then made it back-to-back to tie the score. Koji Hatakeyama and Matt Rodewald both drew walks, leading to a mound conference, and Wharton then retired the bottom of the order without giving up a run, but his pitch count was now shot. At least, due to Sunday’s rain-shortened game and Monday having been off, the bullpen was well rested…

Top 5th, Yocum single, Rivas single, Morales walk, and the bags were stacked with nobody out. Van Otterdijk fanned, but Woodley struck out another double to right, and this one cleared the bases for a 5-2 lead, although Woodley was then left on base. Williams hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, and Haynes raked a double this time around. Phelps’ RBI single brought up Hatakeyama with runners on the corners and one out, but he hit into a 7-2 double play on a fly out to the Otter, who managed to throw out Haynes at home to keep the score at 5-3. Nick Luebbert then knocked out Ryba with a leadoff jack in the sixth, but Jimmy managed another inning despite the pen being at the ready in the bottom 6th. Hawkins reached with two outs on a knock, but left-handed batter Alfredo Rosado then pinch-hit in the #9 spot and thus Jimmy was kept around and struck out Rosado to strand his own runner.

Another inning, another leadoff homer, as Hamel took Cam Bridges deep in the eighth to extend the lead to slam size. This was just as well given that Holzmeister worked his way into a spot of bother in the same inning, as Phelps singled, Luke McGrew got a 2-out walk, and then Hawkins’ RBI single brought the tying run to the dish. McMahan came out to face PH Kazuhide Takeuchi, struck him out, but then left in favor of Pedro Valentin with a 3-run lead when the Coons didn’t tack on in the top of the ninth. Jimmy Williams hit a leadoff double and scored on Adam Jones’ and Chris Haynes’ outs, but Phelps grounded out to end the game. 7-5 Raccoons. Woodley 2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI;

Game 2
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – SS Luebbert – P Gaytan
LVA: 2B Jim. Williams – RF A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – 1B McGrew – LF Takeuchi – P A. Duarte

Jimmy Williams legged out an infield single and Haynes casually thumped another homer to give the Aces a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom 1st before Phelps and Hatakeyama also bashed sharp singles off a quite unimpressive Tony Gaytan. Hatakeyama got himself caught stealing and Rodewald hacked over a pitch in the dirt for strike three, stranding Phelps at third base. Duarte was the exact opposite – while Gaytan allowed eight hits (and somehow not another run) through five loud innings, Duarte walked a pair (including Gaytan, somehow), but didn’t concede a base hit in the first five innings, and only van Otterdijk threatened with a fly out to the warning track that ended up with Adam Jones.

Nobody reached in the sixth, and Duarte got Rivas and Morales to begin the seventh inning, but then the Otter hit one the other way and that got past Takeuchi for a 2-out double, breaking up the no-hitter. Woodley’s pop to short at least maintained the shutout for the Aces righty. Gaytan got to 6.2 innings before Jones and Haynes unpacked a pair of hits to go to the corners. Todd Sullivan came in, was useless, walked Phelps, and gave up a pair of runs on a Hatakeyama single to center. Rodewald then lined out to Edgar Gonzales. McFarland knocked a pinch-hit triple with two outs, nobody on, and without scoring in the eighth, and Duarte took his shutout into the ninth inning. Yocum hit a leadoff single, stole second, and then scored on a single hit by Brown in Morales’ place. Adam Molloy came in and got a double play grounder from van Otterdijk to end the game. 4-1 Aces. Brown (PH) 1-1, RBI; McFarland (PH) 1-1, 3B;

Todd Sullivan (1-0, 1.35 ERA) then lost his roster spot as Cam Jackson came off the DL, and Noah Newhard remained on the roster.

Game 3
POR: 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Vin. Morales
LVA: 2B Jim. Williams – RF A. Jones – C Haynes – CF Phelps – SS Hatakeyama – 3B Rodewald – 1B McGrew – LF A. Rosado – P A. Duarte

A leadoff homer by Yocum meant that he now had as many dingers in his third Coons season as he had collected in his nine seasons with the Stars and Warriors before that. Oh, and we led 1-0 early, which was nice. Not so nice was that Vinny Morales got ZERO outs before turning that lead into a deficit, as Williams reached on a drag bunt, Jones singled like a man, they did the double steal and scored on Haynes’ single, and then Phelps romped a 2-run homer. Boom – four runs, still nobody out. McGrew singled and got caught stealing to end the inning, and Edgar Gonzales hit his first Coons homer to shorten the score to 4-2 to begin the second inning. It wasn’t exactly the start to a big rally, and we also still had Morales pitching, and he pitched like turds. The Aces stranded two in the second, one in the third, and then had Ortiz single home McGrew, who had drawn a leadoff walk in the bottom 4th, to make it a 5-2 game. Ortiz ran into an out at third base on Jones’ single to help Morales out of the inning, but it was hard to watch in general… Guerrero batted for him in the fifth, singled, and was left on base. That was also hard to watch.

V.D. Morales hit a leadoff single in the sixth that was followed by a pair of running catches Josh Phelps made on drives by van Otterdijk and Woodley, as the Raccoons progressively got nowhere. In relief, the Coons employed Jackson, McMahan, Rismiller, and Rios, who got increasingly worse as they went along. Jackson got four outs for no runners. McMahan got three outs and scattered a couple of bodies around. Rismiller got out of the seventh, then put runners on the corners to begin the bottom 8th. And Rios imploded entirely and watched four Aces runners score in the bottom 8th. McFarland drove in a meaningless run in the ninth. 9-3 Aces. Yocum 2-4, HR, RBI; Morentin (PH) 1-1; Rivas (PH) 1-1; Guerrero (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (10-11) @ Crusaders (15-7) – April 29-May 1, 2072

Our reward was to go back to where the season had started so rancidly to play the Crusaders, who had started the season 11-1, but had since lost six of ten. New York had the #4 offense and the best pitching, sparkling in the rotation especially. Their five starters had a combined 2.72 ERA. Can we just stay home?

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (2-0, 2.92 ERA) vs. Nick Ellis (4-0, 1.11 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Russell Anderson (2-0, 1.86 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (2-2, 4.00 ERA) vs. Dennis Marck (2-1, 2.73 ERA)

Anderson was the only southpaw in the rotation. The Crusaders had been off on Thursday, so they could shift starters around.

Not that it mattered. The Coons entered the series with seven of the 13 position players on the roster having a zero or negative WAR on the year.

Game 1
POR: 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Walla
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – C Marty – 2B McNulty – 1B Ledesma – LF Griffin – RF Ospina – SS Reber – CF DuKate – P Ellis

Walla had a good first two innings with a pair of strikeouts, then bunted Brown and McFarland onwards after the 7-8 pair clipped a pair of singles to begin the third inning. Yocum’s groundout and Hamel’s single each brought in a run, and Hamel stole second before being driven in by Morales for a 3-0 lead. The Otter then flew out to end the inning. Kyle Reber greeted Walla with a double to left, but remained stranded thanks to a K on Brad DuKate, Ellis’ pop to shallow left, and then Miguel Lacatelli’s groundout to Woodley; however, Ryan Marty got Walla for a homer leading off the fourth. The game got a bit away from Walla in the middle innings. The strikeouts faded, the counts got longer, and he had four full counts between the fifth and sixth innings, although none of the four batters reached base.

The offense was also absent in the middle innings; the 7-8 batters reached base again in the fourth, but with two already gone and Walla then whiffing. The brown-hatted Nick got three pop outs in the seventh, then nicked Kyle Reber to begin the eighth, bringing up the tying run and McMahan from the pen. DuKate popped out and the purple-hatted Nick bunted, and then the Coons went to Valentin and Morentin, entering in a double-switch that removed Morales, so we wouldn’t get in our own way in a potential big ninth inning…! (suffering smile and shrug) In any case, Valentin got a K on Lacatelli, getting the eighth over with. Soft hits by the Otter and Gonzales put a pair on the corners with one out in the ninth, Sam Brown hit a sharp RBI single to get a run home, and after McFarland flew out, Morentin indeed came up in the #9 spot, and fanned. Valentin got the first two Crusaders in the ninth before being taken deep on a 2-2 pitch by Raul Ledesma, but then retired Tony Griffin to end the game. 4-2 Critters. Brown 2-3, BB, RBI; McFarland 2-4; Walla 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-0);

Game 2
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF Guerrero – 3B Gonzales – LF Morentin – SS Mata – P D’Urso
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – SS Joe King – 2B McNulty – 1B Ledesma – LF Griffin – RF Ospina – C Marty – CF DuKate – P Marck

The Crusaders got double the hits that Crispy Bear had given up in his debut in just the first inning as Lacatelli singled and Chris McNulty cashed him with an RBI double for the first run of the game. A homer by Jesus Guerrero tied the game pretty quickly, and Gonzales and Morentin hit a pair of singles right after that – all three hits on 2-2 pitches – but Gonzales ran into an out at third base on the Morentin single and the inning then ended with Mata. Yocum was also thrown out at home by Tony Griffin to end the third inning, being denied to score from first base on a Morales single.

Instead, the Crusaders scored. Griffin and DuKate produced a run with hits in the fourth inning, and McNulty got on and Ledesma whacked a 2-run homer in the fifth, all with two outs. Marty got on base with a leadoff single in the sixth, got forced out by DuKate, and Marck’s bunt was the last action for Crispy Bear, who then had the runner stranded by Newhard. The technically-still-a-rookie got four outs, but all for naught, since the Raccoons couldn’t get the sticks up anymore. The Coons frittered a pair of walks away in the eighth and Guerrero drew a leadoff walk in the ninth, but then Gonzales, Morentin, and van Otterdijk made three straight outs. 4-1 Crusaders. Yocum 2-3, BB; Guerrero 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Gonzales 2-4;

No Russell Anderson, as the Crusaders preferred to send another right-hander to squeeze the Raccoons out of town, Nate Freeman (0-1, 2.81 ERA).

Game 3
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – LF Guerrero – SS McFarland – 3B Luebbert – P Wharton
NYC: C Marty – SS Wildman – 2B McNulty – 1B Ledesma – LF Griffin – 3B Joe King – RF Spicer – CF DuKate – P N. Freeman

Josh Woodley homered with Morales on base for a 2-0 lead in the first inning, and Hamel added a single and being caught stealing. Jimmyboy responded by getting two outs and then walking and plunking the bags full with the 3-4-5 batters before ringing up Joe King, which was not exactly the most efficient way to get three outs at a time. Jimmy tried to make amends with a 2-out RBI single in the second inning, bringing home an unearned run as Guerrero had reached on an error and had stolen second base. Yocum hit another single, but Rivas’ groundout left a pair on base – and then Freeman returned the favor and singled home Malcolm Spicer, the former Critter having singled and also stolen second base against Jimmy; 3-1 after two in a game the Coons kinda needed for confidence.

Morales and Guerrero put a pair of singles together for a third-inning run, and then Guerrero was caught stealing by Marty. The Crusaders put a runner on base in each of the next bunch of innings, although sometimes they also bowled him off themselves, like when DuKate wrapped up Spicer in a double play in the fourth inning. The Coons scattered the odd single, like a pair of 2-out knocks by the 7-8 batters that got left on base when Freeman whiffed Jimmyboy. Griffin then socked a homer to lead off the bottom 6th, narrowing the score to 4-2, but Jimmy retired the next three batters.

The Crusaders got the tying run to the plate in the bottom 7th with one out when an inside breaking ball by Jimmy lightly tickled a button on Ryan Marty’s uniform, and Jimmy also didn’t turn two on a comebacker by Bobby Wildman, as only Marty was out at second base. The Raccoons at that point went to the pen and Holzmeister got McNulty on a fly to right to end the inning. Freeman was knocked out after 7.1 innings when Hamel and Guerrero took the corners on a pair of singles. Danny Ortiz replaced him, and the Coons snapped their only lefty stick on the bench, Sam Brown, to pinch-hit … and got a sac fly to center for it, and a 5-2 lead! Luebbert grounded out, and Mata would play short going forwards, handling Ledesma’s grounder in the bottom 8th before Holzmeister struck out Griffin and King. Valentin then got the Crusaders in order in the ninth to take the series. 5-2 Raccoons. V.D. Morales 3-5; Hamel 2-4; Guerrero 2-4, RBI; Wharton 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (3-2) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

April 26 – Not only does PIT SP Brian Jones (3-1, 0.43 ERA) twirl another 3-hit shutout against the Warriors, the Miners also take the Sioux Falls pitching apart in a 15-0 rout. PIT OF Anthony Schneider (.239, 4 HR, 14 RBI) leads the attack with three hits, two home runs, and five RBI.
April 26 – IND SP Pablo Apodaca (2-1, 2.91 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Condors in a 3-0 Indy win.
April 28 – The Knights beat the Loggers, 7-0, and score all their runs in a 7-run seventh.
April 30 – Rebs SP Jayden Beck (3-1, 2.78 ERA) needs to have bone chips removed from his elbow, which will cost him four months of this season.
April 30 – Sioux Falls beats Denver, 1-0 in eleven innings. SFW SS Jason Turner (.233, 0 HR, 3 RBI) drives in the golden run with a 2-out single in the top of the 11th.

Player of the Week (FL): PIT SP Brian Jones (4-1, 0.72 ERA), going 2-0 with a 1.06 ERA and 23 K in 17 innings
Player of the Week (CL): LVA OF Josh Phelps (.247, 2 HR, 12 RBI), slapping .571 (12-21) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: LAP LF/RF John Miller (.341, 5 HR, 22 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL C Manuel Rodriguez (.403, 7 HR, 18 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT SP Brian Jones (3-1, 0.43 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: ATL SP Adam Lunn (4-0, 1.50 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: NAS OF Danny Woodley (.319, 1 HR, 6 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: TIJ OF/1B Matt Pothier (.286, 0 HR, 5 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

So-so week. I hated losing another series to the Aces. At least we got a couple of wins off the Crusaders.

And nobody broke their little neck this week, which was a major improvement over the first weeks of the season!

Cincy dangled outfielder Adam Seybert this week, who hit .326 with 42 extra-base hits (not much home run power, though) last year. The 25-year-old was still affordable, but they wanted all the prospects, and we couldn’t spend any more money. Adding Seybert would have put us over budget again. We politely declined and two days later he had a 5-hit game against the Rebs (all singles, though).

Vinny Morales should be aware that there are candidates in AAA that could make a run for his spot at the end of the rotation, even though they had all gotten on the face before in the majors. Not even talking about Riggs, who had an 8+ ERA in St. Petersburg, but Val Centeno sat at 2.86, and Steve George at *0.61*.

Elk City and Topeka next week, including our games in the icy hell of Cocytus.

Fun Fact: On this day in 1991, Indy’s Victor Cornett hit three home runs against the Canadiens, but the Indians lost the game.

The 9-7 defeat marked the first time in league history that a team lost a game in which one of their players hit three home runs. This has since happened nine times, the most recent one still being the Bryce Toohey 3-homer game in which the Raccoons lost 10-7 to the Crusaders. This was already 27 years ago.

Cornett, who was the #7 pick in the 1982 draft, had an 8-year career with the Gold Sox and Indians from 1987 to 1994, mostly as catcher, but occasionally playing first base. He won a Gold Glove in 1991 and once was an All Star, but he never was much of a hitter, despite crashing 27 homers one time. His last two seasons he struggled mightily to hit anything, posting OPS values barely over .500;

Overall he batted .268 with 97 homers and 512 RBI in 867 career games.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-12) @ Canadiens (12-13) – May 2-5, 2072

The Elks had scored the most runs in the CL so far (confused look), but had given up almost as many and were just under .500 on a +3 run differential. Their defense was the very worst in the league, and both rotation and bullpen were in the bottom three by ERA. These teams tied for second place with 19 dingers each. The Raccoons had won the season series last year, 13-5. The Elks had added quite a few players this winter, including Jose Palominos, but he had already gone on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (0-3, 4.24 ERA) vs. Jay Williams (4-1, 3.60 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-2, 7.58 ERA) vs. Guido Branco (1-3, 4.94 ERA)
Nick Walla (3-0, 2.56 ERA) vs. Dan Speake (1-1, 6.45 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (1-1, 3.09 ERA) vs. B.J. Butrico (3-2, 7.45 ERA)

The Elks only carried right-handed starting pitchers.

Game 1
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – LF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Gaytan
VAN: SS Barraza – 2B Ratliff – LF Dille – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – 1B Eaves – C Ma. Lopez – 3B Terrazas – P Jay Williams

It was frosty cold in Elk City, and soon enough in my heart back in Portland as well when the damn Elks unloaded for three doubles by Roberto Barraza, John Bustillos, and Dan Moore, and another RBI single by Tyler Eaves right in the first inning to take a 3-0 lead against a really, really, REALLY useless looking Tony Gaytan.

Jay Williams wouldn’t get the W, and not for anything the Raccoons’ offense did; he left after three innings with an apparent injury, and the bullpen got involved on the right side of the box score. Initially undeterred, the Elks got an inning from Juan Rosado, but lifted him for a pinch-hitter with two outs in the bottom 4th, and Ben Craig drove in Juan Terrazas to tack on a fourth run against Gaytan. The Coons’ starter was sent packing after five, and a 2-run homer by Bustillos that extended the score to 6-0. Guerrero pinch-hit for him and singled in the top 6th, Yocum also singled, and Rivas hit into a double play to keep the team very much down. Bottom 6th, Cam Jackson got the ball and walked the leadoff batters, 7-8 pair Mario Lopez and Terrazas, and gave up a bases-filling 1-out single to Barraza. Yanked, he was replaced by Gabriel Rios, who struck out Andy Ratliff and then fell 3-1 behind Kevin Dille, before the left-handed batter grounded out to Yocum.

The Raccoons didn’t get on the board until the final inning, facing lefty Paul Wolk. Yocum opened with a single and Rivas, having done enough damage to exclusively his own team in the game, was hit for by Nick Luebbert, who sluebbered a homer to left. John Steele replaced the southpaw, was taken deep by V.D. Morales, and then Danny Nava, ex-Coon, took over. Woodley singled, Brown batted for the pitcher Newhard and singled, and then the Otter hit an RBI double to right, and suddenly the tying runs were in scoring position with nobody out…! Gonzales promptly grounded out, scoring a run, and there were still two outs to play with. Nava lost McFarland to ball four in a full count, had Morentin at 1-2 in the #9 hole before giving up an infield roller that became an infield single, and now the bases were loaded for Yocum – and he also fell to 1-2, but then shoved a grounder past Barraza at short! The Otter scored to tie the game, and McFarland was sent around from second and scored ahead of Dille’s throw to home plate to give Portland the lead after a MASSIVE meltdown for the damn Elks!! Jason Stine was the FOURTH Elks tosser of the inning, struck out Luebbert, and then gave up a 3-run homer to Morales, his second of the inning…!! The Elks fans now began to boo and harass their own team. Woodley hit another single before Brown made the last out of the TEN-run inning with a K. Rismiller got the ball for the bottom 9th, gave up a hit to Bustillos, but put the lid on before it got dicey. 10-6 Furballs!!! Yocum 4-5, 2 RBI; Luebbert (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales 2-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Woodley 2-5; Brown (PH) 1-2; van Otterdijk 2-4, 2B, RBI; Guerrero (PH) 1-1;

(snickers all the way to bed)

Game 2
POR: 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – LF van Otterdijk – C Brown – 3B Gonzales – SS Mata – P Vin. Morales
VAN: SS Barraza – 2B Ratliff – LF Dille – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – 1B Eaves – C Ma. Lopez – 3B Terrazas – P Branco

A pair of extra-base knocks by Hamel and Woodley put the Coons on top in the first, 1-0, but the Elks got singles to center from Barraza and Ratliff to start the bottom 1st against a listless Vinny Morales and scored the tying run on productive outs, but left Ratliff at second base. The top *three* in the lineup all hit singles to begin the third inning, but we got off relatively lightly on Bustillos’ sac fly and then two poor outs by Dan Moore and Tyler Eaves. Mata and Yocum got singles in the fifth inning to tie that one back up at two runs a-side, and in between the Raccoons had done a big ol’ nothing. Dan Moore drove home two more runs for the damn Elks in the bottom 5th, plating Ratliff and Dille, who had piled more singles onto Vinny Morales.

Morales pitched six innings, but they were six dreadful innings, before McMahan added four and Jackson two outs of scoreless relief, but the Raccoons were on the short end of the score into the ninth again thanks to a severe lack of hitting, but the Otter’s leadoff single past Barraza off John Steele put the tying run in the box again. Steele struck out Gonzales, and Mata flew out to right. Rivas batted for the pitcher, but made the final out to second base. 4-2 Canadiens. V.D. Morales 2-4;

Sucky game, but at least Humph started a rehab assignment in AAA on Wednesday, and maybe we could get him back before the end of the week.

Game 3
POR: 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – LF Morentin – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Walla
VAN: SS Barraza – 2B Ratliff – LF Dille – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – 1B Eaves – C Ma. Lopez – 3B Terrazas – P Speake

The Coons rushed for a 4-0 lead before Walla got to touch the baseball, getting Hamel and Morales on base before scoring two pairs on a Woodley double, then a Morentin homer – the first of his career. Walla then began to throw zeroes on the board – as you’d hope for – but not too cleanly. The Elks had a runner on base in each of the first three innings, although Eaves in the second inning reached on a Gonzales error. In the fourth, Dille and Bustillos hit a pair of leadoff singles to create a bit of a jam, but a fly to center by Moore, a K on Eaves, and Mario Lopez’ grounder to short prevented them from scoring as well.

The Coons had stopped hitting altogether by now, and the Elks did not reach base in the fifth and sixth innings, but then got a run on a pair of singles by Moore and Lopez in the bottom 7th, reducing the lead to 4-1. Barraza hit another leadoff single in the eighth, and that knocked out Walla, with Rios coming in to face the left-handed 2-3-4 array. Two pops and a grounder, all to Yocum, stranded the runner at first. On the other paw, and still in a 4-1 game, the Raccoons barely partaking in the top halves of innings after the first, Pedro Valentin came in and gave up a single to Moore and a homer to Eaves in the bottom 9th, and suddenly this was an uncomfortably close 4-3 game. Valentin, mad at himself, then blasted away Lopez and Terrazas, and Ben Craig flew out easily to Morales, but good grief… 4-3 Raccoons. Hamel 2-4; Morentin 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzales 2-4; Walla 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (4-0);

Game 4
POR: 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – LF Morentin – C Brown – 3B Gonzales – SS Luebbert – P D’Urso
VAN: SS Barraza – 2B Ratliff – LF Dille – RF Bustillos – CF D. Moore – 1B Eaves – C Ma. Lopez – 3B Terrazas – P Butrico

Hamel homered in the first for a quick 1-0 lead, and Gonzales and Luebbert took the corners on 1-out hits in the second inning, but then had D’Urso hit into a double play. Crispy Bear at least got six straight outs to begin his day, and then a bigger lead in the third inning, which began with a pair of outs, but then Morales hit a sharp single to right, Butrico walked the bags full with Woodley and Morentin, and Sam Brown then shanked another sharp liner to right-center for a 2-run single and a 3-0 lead. There was then a wild pitch, a full count and a walk to Edgar Gonzales, but Luebbert grounded out to Ratliff to end the inning. Crispy Bear was perfect the first time through the Elks order, with only one strikeout though, then hit a double to left for the first base hit of his career, but was left on base by the 1-2-3 batters.

After nobody reached in the first three innings, everybody reached base for the Elks in the fourth, beginning with a Barraza single to left. Ratliff whiffed, but Barraza stealing second, a wild pitch and a walk to Dille added traffic. Bustillos got the Elks on the board with a sac fly, and Moore’s and Eaves’ 2-out singles plated another run before Lopez popped out to leave the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Top 5th, Morentin singled, Brown drew the sixth walk from Butrico, and a groundout by Gonzales led to another intentional walk to Luebbert with one down. Crispy Bear then put the 0-1 pitch into play, but right at the shortstop for an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Hamel tripled in the sixth, having all the hard parts of the cycle down, but not that much time left; for the moment, Morales plated him on a groundout for a 4-2 score. D’Urso then took that into the eighth inning, but walked the leadoff man John Sargent in the #9 hole. Barraza popped out, and then it was lefty time with five outs to go. McMahan got two of them when Ratliff grounded to Yocum for a 4-6-3 double play. The Raccoons did nothing of value in the ninth, and while Valentin was up, the Raccoons sent McMahan back out for the ninth since Dille and Bustillos were still lingering along with their natural musk. Both grounded out, and the Coons tried to end it with the lefty, but Moore singled. Right-hander John Vaillancourt then pinch-hit for the pitcher in the #6 spot and here came Valentin, punching a cheap save with a strikeout. 4-2 Coons. Hamel 2-4, BB, HR, 3B, RBI; Woodley 2-3, 2 BB; Morentin 2-4, BB; Luebbert 1-2, 2 BB; D’Urso 7.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (2-1) and 1-4, 2B;

Raccoons (15-13) @ Buffaloes (10-17) – May 6-8, 2072

The Coons closed out the loooong road trip by visiting the last-place Buffos, who sat tenth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed in the Federal League. The rotation was decent, but the pen had an ERA over ive, undoing much of the good work done before them. They had little power in addition to only hitting .241 as a team. The only injury was pitcher Aaron Ledbetter. These teams had met in both of the last two seasons, and both times Portland had only gotten one win in the series.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (3-2, 3.74 ERA) vs. Ignazio Flores (2-1, 2.57 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (0-3, 5.40 ERA) vs. Alfredo Picun (1-3, 3.95 ERA)
Vinny Morales (0-3, 7.20 ERA) vs. T.J. Herbert (0-5, 3.77 ERA)

Flores was the only lefty starter we’d get this week.

Game 1
POR: 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – LF Guerrero – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Wharton
TOP: 2B Jer. White – CF J. Velazquez – RF Pinault – 3B Hood – C R. Perez – SS M. Young – LF Banuelos – P I. Flores – 1B Ferrari

Batting the pitcher eighth and the first baseman ninth merited a 10-run drumming, but the Raccoons did nothing in the first, and Jimmy gave up a single to Jeremy White, balked, and gave up quick runs on Javier Velazquez and Roland Hood knocks, then walked Ruben Perez and saw Matt Young reach on an error by Gonzales before Jose Banuelos popped out to short – and the pitcher batting EIGHTH made the easy third out with the bases loaded. Everybody on the visiting brown team needed a little while to rally from that, and at least the next few innings from Jimmy were a little less frightful. The Coons entered the fourth inning still trailing 2-0, then got Hamel on base with a leadoff single. Morales flew out, and the Otter reached on an error by White. Jesus Guerrero ran into a fast fatball and BELTED a 3-run homer to flip the score…! The bottom of the inning saw Matt Young draw a leadoff walk, then steal second. Banuelos singled to right, Young went home, but van Otterdijk struck the tying run down at the plate with a strong throw, and subsequently Banuelos was stranded at second base after a bunt and a groundout. In turn, Banuelos then threw out McFarland at the plate to end the top 5th, the Coons having gotten him and Yocum on base with a pair of free passes, and into scoring position on a double steal. We didn’t score there, either.

An orgy of outs followed until Banuelos hit a leadoff double in the bottom 7th, putting the tying run back into scoring position. Flores bunted him to third, and Jimmy rung up Ferrari, but then was replaced with Holzmeister, who hadn’t pitched at all in Elk City. He entered in a double switch, Luebbert replacing Gonzales at third base, and nearly gave up a score-flipping 2-out homer to the .194 hitter White, but the Otter made the catch on the dirt after hustling back.

Luebbert led off the eighth with a soft single. Yocum lined out to center, but Hamel and Morales dumped more singles off Flores, and Luebbert made for home from second. Velazquez fired home, and would have had him on distance if his aim had been true, but he pulled Ruben Perez off the plate, and Luebbert slid in safe, 4-2. The trailing runners advanced, the Otter was walked intentionally, Guerrero fanned, and Ramon Mata pinch-hit for a hitless Rivas against the lefty Flores… and got his first career RBI’s with a 2-out single to left! That knocked out both Flores and Holzmeister, as Sam Brown pinch-hit for the righty against right-hander Jaden Kelly, hit a fly to left that Banuelos dropped for two bases and an unearned run, but Banuelos then actually caught McFarland’s fly to left. Down five, the Buffos suffered injury to insult when Velazquez hurt himself running the bases in the bottom 8th against Newhard, and had to be replaced with Tyler Chenette. 7-2 Raccoons. Hamel 2-5; Mata (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

Despite the two runs, Ramon Mata (.222, 0 HR, 2 RBI) was sent back to AAA after this game to get Steve Humphries back on the roster after three games in AAA rehab for the veteran leftfielder. Morentin remained on the roster since he could play some backup infield, but technically we now carried six outfielders.

Yocum got a day off on Saturday after a pair of oh-fers.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – 2B Luebbert – SS McFarland – P Gaytan
TOP: SS M. Young – RF Banuels – CF Pinault – 1B Ferrari – 2B Jer. White – C R. Perez – LF Chenette – 3B Gallo – P Picun

Humph returned with a single, then right away scored on Hamel’s homer to left for an instant 2-0 lead. Morales walked, Picun balked, Woodley singled, and Gonzales hit an RBI double. Sam Brown finally made an out with a grounder to first, not bringing in a run, but Luebbert hit a sac fly, 4-0, and McFarland was pitched to and did not make it a bad move, flying out easily to Banuelos in right.

Gaytan gave up a couple of long fly balls as well as a few walks in the early innings, but no runs; however, he drilled Pinault in the bottom 4th and then was taken quite deep by Jeremy White to cut the lead in half. The Raccoons responded by … stranding pairs of runners in the next two innings, including Hamel and his leadoff double in the top 5th… Morales and Woodley got singles to begin the seventh inning, but Gonzales and Brown made meek outs. Luebbert was walked intentionally by the Buffos for some odd reason, and we sent the Otter to bat for McFarland with three on and two gone… but he popped out behind home plate.

All of this was building towards a late collapse, and Gaytan promptly gave up a leadoff double to Ruben Perez in the bottom of the seventh. Chenette and former Critters third baseman J.P. Gallo made soft outs, though, and the runner was still at second base. Outfielder Felix Casares then made his season debut as switch-poking pinch-hitter. Cam Jackson replaced Gaytan, got the K, and the Raccoons maintained their 4-2 lead.

For the moment; Rios came in for the eighth, put Young and Banuelos on base immediately, the Coons couldn’t turn two on Pinault’s grounder to short, where Morentin was now playing and wasn’t quick enough to spin it for a pair, and so the inning continued after a K to Ferrari. Holzmeister came in for White, got him to 1-2, gave up a rocket to left-center, but Hamel managed to throw himself into that missile and made the catch to end that inning, too, leaving the tying runs on the corners.

The Raccoons scratched out another insurance run in the ninth inning, which Morales led off with a single, stole second, and then came in on Gonzales’ 1-out double to left, giving a 5-2 lead to Valentin after the 6-7 batters made unhelpful outs. Valentin then gave up another homer in the inning, a 2-out solo shot by Gallo, to make us wonder whether his expiring contract wasn’t a blessing after all. He retired the other three Buffos he faced. 5-3 Raccoons. Humphries 2-4, BB, 2B; Hamel 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales 2-3, 2 BB; Woodley 2-5; Gonzales 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

Y’know what? This victory launched the Raccoons into first place in the North. We had started the week 3 1/2 games behind the Crusaders, who were now playing like the Critters had played to begin the year: woefully!

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P Vin. Morales
TOP: SS M. Young – RF Banuelos – LF A. Barnes – CF Pinault – 1B Ferrari – 2B Jer. White – C Cohen – 3B Hood – P Herbert

Sunday’s starters were a total of 0-8 on the season. Young reached on an error by Vinny, who struck out a pair before Young got himself caught stealing to end the bottom 1st. The only base hit the first time through (for either team) was a Ferrari single in the second inning. The Coons failed to convert McFarland getting plunked to begin the third inning, and then Hamel got hit to begin the fourth! Morales grounded out and Woodley at least found the H column with a scratch single, putting runners on the corners with one out in the scoreless affair. Gonzales’ long sac fly broke the ice, but Rivas fanned to leave Woodley on base. Vinny Morales then exploded *immediately*, giving up a double to Banuelos, a homer to Alex Barnes, two more singles in the inning, but Hamel held the Buffos from scoring even more runs, rushing down Roland Hood’s 2-out drive for the third out of the inning.

While Herbert piled up nine strikeouts in six innings and just allowed that Woodley single, Morales kept scattering runners everywhere and was yanked with nobody out in the bottom 6th after Barnes singled (and was run for with Luis Vazquez), Pinault walked, and McFarland fudged Ferrari’s grounder for an error. Jeremy White POUNDED a grand slam off Rismiller to put the game away.

Or did he? Down by five, the Coons got Gonzales and McFarland to the corners for one out in the seventh. Van Otterdijk batted for the pitcher and shunted an RBI double to center, 6-2 and two in scoring position. Humph fanned and Yocum’s drive was rushed down by Tyler Chenette, now playing leftfield, and the runners remained on base. Scoreless relief from McMahan and Newhard was valiant enough, but the game was too far gone. Rivas and McFarland made easy outs to begin the ninth inning against Josh Morris, and Morentin pinch-hit and grounded out to third ba- … nope, Ferrari dropped the throw. Error, and the game continued. Humph walked, and the Buffos sent closer Alvaro Garza. Yocum flew out to center, and now the inning was *really* over. 6-2 Buffaloes. Woodley 2-4; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 2 – Knights outfielder David Mendoza (.303, 5 HR, 19 RBI) was expected to miss three months minimum after tearing his labrum.
May 5 – Trade between World Series foes: the Miners acquire LF/RF Alfredo Rosado (.375, 1 HR, 7 RBI) from the Aces, along with #195 prospect SS Ramon Fernandez, for SP Harrison Bucci (4-0, 2.31 ERA).
May 5 – Knights OF/2B Joel Ehlers (.242, 2 HR, 10 RBI) suffers a concussion in an on-base collision and is expected to miss at least three weeks.
May 5 – The Crusaders beat the Loggers, 5-3 in 14 innings. NYC SS Bobby Wildman (.200, 1 HR, 2 RBI) hits his first career home run, but otherwise goes 0-for-6.
May 5 – Sacramento beats the Stars, 6-5 in 14 innings.
May 6 – Hardly any of 18 pitches used gets off scot-free in the Warriors’ 17-16 victory over the Canadiens, which takes 13 innings to complete, in which no hurler goes further than 3.1 innings, and in which the lead changes hands six times. VAN RF/LF John Bustillos (.336, 5 HR, 19 RBI) has five hits, a triple shy of the cycle, and drives in four runs for the best individual offensive performance.
May 7 – Miners SP Alex Perez (3-1, 3.31 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders in a 4-0 shutout.
May 7 – The Knights dismember the Wolves by a score of *23-1*, scoring 14 runs in the eighth inning alone. Every Knight in the starting lineup reaches base safely at least twice and scores at least one run. All but the 8-9 batters get RBI’s. SAL MR Tomas Restrepo (0-0, 10.57 ERA) gives up six runs without retiring anybody.
May 8 – Rebs LF/CF Juan Licona (.291, 6 HR, 11 RBI) might miss the rest of the month with an intercostal strain.

Player of the Week (FL): SAC SP Bobby O’Connor (4-2, 2.25 ERA), hurling for a 2-0 mark and 15 scoreless innings
Player of the Week (CL): ATL RF/LF Tom Troxel (.341, 5 HR, 13 RBI), drilling .407 (11-27) with 5 HR, 12 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Our surprise appearance in first place on Saturday didn’t survive another Vinny Morales appearance, and by now the question beckoned whether his 129th ABL start was indeed his last. He couldn’t get anybody out this year, and he had a 1.83 WHIP, which was outlandish.

In scheduling terms, the Raccoons had the next three Mondays off, so we needed that spot next week. I didn’t like Centeno’s K/BB numbers too much, so it seemed like Steve George would make a comeback rising from the dead in AAA, much like Vinny had made in ’68 two years after a craptastic first ten games in ’66. George had posted a 5.84 ERA in 16 relief appearances for the 2070 Raccoons, and last year had only been brought up for a single inning (scoreless, at least). He’d turn 26 in June, his arsenal was nothing to write home about, he had a flyball tendency (5 HR in 24.2 innings in ’70), but it was worth the attempt. Vinny was out of options, by the way.

Gaytan at least won a game… let’s dismember our rotation one guy at a time, shall we?

Getting Humph back should help a bit, although Yocum hasn’t landed a hit in four straight games (including a dry PH appearance on Saturday). I’m sure it’s gonna be fiiiiiine.

After this rough road trip we get to spend two straight weeks at home, facing the Stingers, Loggers, Titans, and Thunder in that order.

Fun Fact: While the Raccoons had gone 15-6 after a 2-8 start, the Crusaders tried to go the other way round.

The Crusaders had started the season *13-1*, before losing three straight, and then another eight outta nine from April into May, the only victory in that stretch being the middle game of the Raccoons series from the 29th to May 1. This week they went 2-5, and they had lost four series in a row for a 5-13 record since their start in sixth gear.

[Westheim]

I couldn’t even read the pocket schedule correctly after last week – the Loggers series this week was on the road – there’s no 2-week homestand.

And somehow I’m still employed!

+++

Raccoons (17-14) vs. Scorpions (13-18) – May 10-12, 2072

For the third straight series, the Raccoons faced a last-place team, now from the FL West. The Stingers ranked tenth in offense and ninth in pitching in the FL, and were bottoms in home runs. They had speed though and a good defense, and got on base at a rate much better than the one at which they were converting runners into actual runs. They had also placed three regulars from the lineup on the DL already, all formerly from the CL: Justin Savalli, Wade Griffith, and John Schmidt all being out. These teams met for the fourth straight season. The Raccoons had won the series last year, two games to one.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (4-0, 2.33 ERA) vs. Taka Suyama (1-2, 4.83 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (2-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. Kevin Schure (2-1, 3.41 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (4-2, 3.57 ERA) vs. Ryan Mann (1-2, 4.89 ERA)

More right-handers coming here, although there was the option to skip southpaw Chris Lubbers (0-1, 3.60 ERA) into the series thanks to the common off day on Monday.

Game 1
SAC: RF D. Johnson – C Bohannon – LF Streng – 3B Healey – 1B T. Rivera – 2B Philpot – SS Vidrio – CF Jurado – P Suyama
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Walla

Walla started getting mostly pops and strikeouts, but by the third inning worked his way into a jam, beginning with a leadoff walk to Ricky Jurado. He nicked Dan Johnson, then walked Ian Streng on four pitches with two outs after Martin Bohannon had popped out, and then had Rick Healey drop in a first-pitch single behind Yocum to bring in two runs. Tony River then popped out, but Ryan Philpot led off the fourth with a triple and scored on Emilio Vidrio’s groundout, 3-0. They doubled that in the fifth inning on a 3-run homer by Healey, after Johnson had led off with a double and Bohannon had drawn another walk. Walla was lifted after the inning and would log his first L of the season in style. The Raccoons had only four hits in seven innings off Japanese “rookie” Taka Suyama, and put a runner on third base only once when Humph and Yocum hit back-to-back singles with two down in the bottom 3rd, but Hamel hacked himself out to end the inning. It wasn’t like it got any better against the bullpen. Holzmeister allowed another run on a ninth-inning homer by Dan Johnson, and the Coons entered the bottom 9th trailing by seven runs. Right-hander Jeff Tolliver walked Yocum, Hamel singled, and Morales got another walk off the righty to load the bases with nobody out, but that still meant the tying run was somewhere on I-5. Tolliver walked in a run against Woodley, and plated another with a wild pitch, but got outs from Gonzales and Brown before being lifted for right-hander Oliver Graham. Gabe Rivas batted for McFarland and hit an RBI single to right, prompting another move to closer Gustavo Vega. Jesus Morentin batted for the pitcher McMahan and singled to right, bringing in Woodley’s run, and now the tying run was at the plate… but Humphries grounded out. 7-4 Scorpions. Hamel 2-4, 2B; Rivas (PH) 1-1, RBI; Morentin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Rismiller 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

At least Yocum got his first hit in five days…

Jesus Morentin (.409, 1 HR, 3 RBI) got returned to AAA after this game as Phil LeVan came off the DL.

Game 2
SAC: SS Vidrio – C Bohannon – LF Streng – 3B Healey – 1B T. Rivera – 2B Philpot – RF A. Warner – CF Jurado – P Schure
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P D’Urso

Crispy Bear had a 1-2-3 first like Walla on Tuesday, and like Walla on Tuesday he then started to give up runs. Healey doubled and Philpot took him deep to left in the second for a 2-0 Stingers score, but Schure was very wild and issued three walks the first time through, including to Gonzales and Brown to begin the bottom 2nd. McFarland hit an RBI single to left-center, 2-1, and Crispy Bear bunted the runners into scoring position from there. Humph’s groundout to second tied the game, and Yocum’s single past Philpot brought in McFarland and gave the Raccoons a 3-2 lead. Hamel hit another single, but Morales grounded out to end that inning.

Emilio Vidrio hit a single and was caught stealing in the third inning, while Woodley reached base and was doubled up by Gonzales. In the fourth, Sacramento stole three bases off D’Urso and Brown, as Rick Healey drew a 1-out walk and stole second. Rivera struck out, but Philpot and Aaron Warner got him home with a pair of singles, then did the double steal, and D’Urso walked Jurado, but then struck out Schure to bugger out of the bases-loaded jam. Schure also walked Humph and Yocum with a pair gone in the bottom 4th, but Hamel couldn’t get them home and flew out to Streng instead.

While Crispy Bear already had a bad pitch count through five, Schure managed to walk the bags full in the bottom 5th for NINE walks in the game, but that brought McFarland to the plate with one out. He of course poked before getting into a good count, but managed to drop a 2-run single into right-center to give the Raccoons a new 5-3 lead. That was the end for the miserable Schure, replaced with lefty Jimmy Cockrum. He got D’Urso on a pop and Humphries on strikes.

Crispy Bear went back out for the sixth, gave up a leadoff single on 0-2 to Healey, struck out Rivera, then picked Healey off first base. He ended his day by K’ing Philpot. Rios took over in a double switch (LeVan came in to play right, and Morales moved to first, ending Woodley’s day) and got four outs before Newhard replaced him, allowed a single to Bohannon, but then got a double-play grounder from Streng, 4-6-3. Bottom 8th, and LeVan got a leadoff walk from Robbie Hernandez. Humph singled, Yocum walked, and we again had three on with nobody out. Hernandez was not able to solve this issue and walked in not one but *two* runs against Hamel and Morales, then got yanked for Oliver Graham again. Guerrero pinch-hit for a sac fly, but Graham retired three in a row to stop shenanigans. The Raccoons still used Valentin in the ninth, and watched him give up a triple to Rivera and a sac fly to Philpot… 8-4 Raccoons. Humphries 2-4, BB, RBI; McFarland 2-4, 3 RBI;

The Raccoons had six singles and *13* walks in this game.

Game 3
SAC: 2B Philpot – C Bohannon – LF Streng – 3B Healey – RF T. Rivera – 1B F. Contreras – CF Jurado – SS Vidrio – P Mann
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS Luebbert – P Wharton

After that ghastly pitching performance, Mann began his start on Thursday by walking Humph and Yocum, who did a double steal. Hamel’s groundout and Morales’ single each brought in a run, but V.D. was left on first base. Jimmyboy then walked a pair in the second inning, but didn’t allow them to score. He bunted Rivas and Luebbert into scoring position once they hit singles to start the bottom 2nd, and again a groundout and a single got the runners home one-by-one, this time from the 1-2 batters. Yocum then stole another base and scored on a Hamel single to center, 5-0. Morales and Woodley piled on more singles to score Hamel, but Morales was thrown out at the plate to end the inning on Edgar Gonzales’ single to right.

Up 6-0, the Coons mainly wanted length from Jimmyboy, who had already tossed 36 pitches in the first two frames, and allowed 18 more to pile on top of that in the third, and also two runs as Philpot singled, Bohannon tripled, and Streng got the second run home on a groundout to second. Rivera reached on a Luebbert error to begin the fourth, but got caught stealing. His pitch count kept ballooning at that rate, reaching *90* after just five innings of 3-hit ball. Portland got a leadoff triple from Gonzales in the bottom 5th and extended the lead again to 7-2 on Rivas’ groundout, but Jimmy shoveled Rivera and Fernando Contreras onto the corners through 1-out singles in the sixth, but then started a 1-6-3 double play on Jurado at least. Vidrio singled and was forced out by Warner, and that was it for Jimmyboy, 117 pitches in 6.1 innings. Holzmeister stranded the runner by getting a pop and a K, but gave up a homer to Streng in the eighth. Guerrero, Hamel, and V.D. Morales reclaimed the run with singles off Cockrum in the bottom 8th, and then Vinny Morales was sent out to pitch the ninth inning…! He gave up doubles to Jurado and Vidrio, walked Johnson, and was yanked for the closer. Philpot hit a comebacker that Valentin took to second for the only out on the play. Bohannon got rung up, and Streng hit a fly to left, where Jesus Guerrero had remained in the game and made a sliding catch to end it. 8-4 Raccoons. Hamel 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales 4-5, 2 RBI; Woodley 2-5, RBI; Gonzales 2-4, 3B; Rivas 2-4, RBI; Guerrero (PH) 1-1; Wharton 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (5-2);

Unfortunately, by now, Steve George had already made another start in AAA and had his ERA shoot up all the way to 1.06; he’d be up here next week, but the Coons had to improvise against the Loggers now. Jesus Guerrero (.303, 3 HR, 7 RBI) was optioned to St. Petersburg to bring up Val Centeno for a spot start on *Friday*, after which he’d immediately be returned to St. Petersburg for a replacement *infielder*.

Roster building can be hard sometimes. (stuffs a few muffins into his gob to gain the strength to endure it all)

Raccoons (19-15) @ Loggers (19-15) – May 13-15, 2072

The Loggers by now ranked first in offense once more, and ninth in runs allowed, but had a +22 run differential (Coons: zilch). The teams were half a game behind the Indians for second place in the division. The Coons had a 2-1 lead in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Val Centeno (0-0) vs. Ayahito Ochi (2-2, 4.19 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-3, 4.89 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (3-3, 4.35 ERA)
Nick Walla (4-1, 3.30 ERA) vs. Colt Long (5-1, 3.61 ERA)

Ochi and Long were two of the Loggers’ three lefty starters.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Centeno
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 3B Sowards – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 1B C. Ramirez – LF Frank – 2B F. Carrera – CF S. McLaughlin – P Ochi

Single, walk, single and the bases were loaded to begin the game. An Otter sac fly brought in the only run while Morales and Gonzales popped out. Sean Van Leeuwen and Jesse Sowards then right away snapped singles off Centeno and I got mentally ready to burn the entire bullpen for 8.2 innings, but the Loggers’ kill squad in the 3-4-5 spots all made poor outs and scored nobody. Centeno next forced out Brown on a bad bunt in the second inning, but then scored himself after Humph walked and Yocum singled to right-center. The trailing runners advanced on the throw to the plate, then were driven in by Hamel singling to left. Ochi’s wild 1-0 to Morales advanced the runner, who then scored on Morales’ single to center. The inning only ended with the Otter grounding out, Portland up 5-0.

There was just this … Centeno-shaped problem and the fact that there’d be eight more innings to pitch for a W. And Centeno wasn’t gonna pitch most of them, because the Loggers already thrashed him relentlessly for five singles and three runs in the bottom 2nd. Ochi was lifted first after 2.2 innings, having given up a double to Gonzales, a walk to McFarland, and an RBI single to Humph in the third inning. Danny Mendoza then got Yocum to ground out. Ken Frank responded with a leadoff double and scored on two productive outs, 6-4, and Centeno shoveled the bags full with the Loggers’ 3-4-5 batters and two outs in the fourth inning, then got Frank to ground out to short to somehow get out of the inning. The Coons tried their best to score more and harder and bigger numbers, Sam Brown bashing a leadoff double to center in the top 5th, and then McFarland raked a triple over the head of Sean McLaughlin in center. Centeno struck out, but Humph banged an RBI double, 8-4, before being left on with groundouts to third base from Yocum and Hamel. Centeno managed to retire the 7-8-9 batters in order, completing five innings, barely, on 98 pitches, and was then quietly removed somewhere where he couldn’t harm our season.

Top 6th, and Morales doubled, the Otter doubled, and Gonzales raked a home run to left for an 11-4 lead. Brown also got on against briefly-a-Coon Javy Carpio, but was doubled off by McFarland. The Loggers came right back with two runs off Rios, who allowed a 1-out double to Sowards, walked the bags full, and then had two runs waved home by Holzmeister. The Loggers left the bags loaded there, and the Coons, up by five and feeling like nothing, then went to Vinny Morales again. He gave up hardly anything but rockets, a couple of which van Otterdijk and Hamel shagged, and Van Leeuwen and Sowards bashed hits to go the corners in the bottom 7th, but Dominguez and Rodriguez popped out to leave them on. He gave up a leadoff homer to Cesar Ramirez in the bottom 8th, 11-7, but then got three outs, including a K even, although you got the feeling that the Coons didn’t care about his arm anymore for leaving him in there. Cam Jackson got the ball for the ninth and struck out the side… if you didn’t harp no about the double that Van Leeuwen strung and the homer that Dominguez blasted. 11-9 Critters. Humphries 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Hamel 2-6, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Gonzales 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 3-5, 2B; Woodley (PH) 1-1;

Centeno (1-0, 7.20 ERA) was right off the roster again

This rather pyrrhic victory regained first place for the Critters.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – SS McFarland – P Gaytan
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 3B Sowards – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 1B C. Ramirez – LF Frank – 2B F. Carrera – CF S. McLaughlin – P Crist

The Loggers batted through the order against Gaytan in the first inning as things continued to fall apart on the pitching side of the roster, scoring three runs on Sowards’ and Dominguez’ doubles, then a 2-run homer by Rodriguez (his 12th of the year…!), then got three more singles off Gaytan before Crist struck out to leave the bases loaded. Gaytan got little better after that, and the contact remained loud and constant. The Coons meanwhile wasted a Gonzales triple in the second inning for no gains, but by the fourth inning loaded the bass with Morales, Rivas, and Gonzales on a hit and two walks, rpresenting the tying runs, and bringing up the .138 hitter LeVan with one out. He hit a terrible roller in front of the plate, but Rodriguez stumbled out from behind the plate and Crist was too slow to get to it, and now the plate was unguarded to allow Morales across, and somehow a potential inning-killing double play turned into an RBI infield single. McFarland hit a sac fly to left, and then Gaytan snapped a 2-out RBI single to take himself off the hook! Humph punched a K to end the inning, but the thing was that the Coons still had to work with Gaytan on the hill… Crist returned the favor by hitting a 1-out single off Gaytan in the bottom 4th, then was forced out by Van Leeuwen, who easily scored on a Sowards double to left. Dominguez then pounded another homer. Gaytan ended up dismissed for six runs in four innings.

Rismiller pitched the next two innings, scorelessly and proving that it could be done against the Loggers, but then they hung two more runs on Newhard, and on ANOTHER homer by Manuel Rodriguez, who now had 13 bombs just 35 games into the season. McMahan also got booked for a pair in the eighth, walking Van Leeuwen, giving up an RBI double to Sowards, and then another RBI knock to Rodriguez. The Raccoons never did anything of value against Loggers pitching after the fourth inning. 10-3 Loggers. V.D. Morales 2-4; Gonzales 1-2, BB, 3B; LeVan 2-4, RBI; Hamel (PH) 1-1; Rismiller 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Again, the Raccoons only stuck in first place for a day.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P Walla
MIL: SS Van Leeuwen – 3B Sowards – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 1B C. Ramirez – LF Frank – 2B F. Carrera – CF S. McLaughlin – P C. Long

The Coons got two singles to begin the first and then choked in the middle of the order, scoring nothing, and the Loggers got THREE hits to begin the game against Walla, but hit into a double play for their only run with Rodriguez, and Ramirez left the last runner on base. The Coons’ battery then hit a pair of singles in the second, and was also stranded.

The Coons got even in the fourth… but it was an unearned run… and to be honest the Loggers did all the work in getting van Otterdijk on base and around the bases, beginning with a 2-base throwing error by Fidel Carrera and ending with a game-tying wild pitch. Walla meanwhile was entirely at the mercy of the Loggers, striking out precisely nobody. Worse, after Carrera hit a 1-out double in the bottom 5th and advanced on McLaughlin’s groundout, Walla walked Long with two outs. Van Leeuwen then singled up the middle to give Team Green a new lead, 2-1, but Long was caught in a rundown to end the inning.

That score extended to 3-1 on a Sowards single, Dominguez double, and Rodriguez’ run-scoring groundout in the bottom 6th. Ramirez hit a long fly out that moved Dominguez to third base, but Frank then struck out to end the inning, the first K for Walla in a wretched start. Top 7th, and the 1-2 batters got on base again for the Raccoons to start off that one. Hamel struck out – #8 for Long – before Morales grounded to short to end the – … no, Van Leeuwen bobbled the ball and the bases were now loaded after the error. Van Otterdijk tied the game at once with a 2-run single to left-center, and knocked out Long at the same time. Nick Robinson then removed Gonzales and Rivas without issue, stranding a pair on base.

Walla got three groundouts, most of them sharp, from the Loggers in the bottom 7th, then was hit for with Mata in the eighth, which got the team nowhere as Nick Robinson got two outs to begin the inning there. And then he got taken deep to left by Humphries. Rios got the ball for the bottom 8th with the 4-3 lead, and got through the Loggers allowing only a pinch-hit single to Eric Frasher, but no bazillion of runs. Omar Vences kept the Critters quiet in the ninth, and then Valentin came on. The Loggers hit two groundouts before Carrera fanned in a full count, and somehow the battered Critters got outta town with a series win. 4-3 Raccoons. Humphries 3-5, HR, RBI;

In other news

May 11 – VAN SP B.J. Butrico (4-3, 5.65 ERA) fires a 2-hit shutout to beat the Rebels, 4-0.
May 11 – Washington closer John Faughnan (2-2, 4.32 ERA, 8 SV) has his flexor tendon snap on him and will miss at least 12 months.
May 13 – The Titans acquire catcher Ruben Perez (.250, 2 HR, 7 RBI) from the Buffaloes for two prospects.
May 13 – Cincy loses 1B Mike White (.318, 4 HR, 19 RBI) for a month due to a torn thumb ligament.
May 14 – The Crusaders send 2B Chris McNulty (.248, 3 HR, 15 RBI) to Denver and receive RF/LF Justin Donaldson (.207, 0 HR, 4 RBI), a prospect, and cash.
May 14 – Shoulder inflammation sends OCT RF Austin Gordon (.296, 5 HR, 19 RBI) to the DL for a month.
May 15 – DAL INF/CF Antonio Mendez (.302, 0 HR, 17 RBI) breaks his kneecap and is out for the season.
May 15 – A broken ankle could put Rebels OF Mario Alaniz (.227, 0 HR, 6 RBI) on the shelf until September.
May 15 – The Buffaloes beat the Rebels, 7-6 in 14 innings, after both teams scored a run in the ninth, both scored two runs in the 11th, and the Buffos finally break through in the 14th inning. TOP LF/RF Jose Banuelos (.305, 5 HR, 12 RBI) goes 4-for-5 with three walks and an RBI.

Player of the Week (FL): WAS INF Javier Vasquez (.325, 2 HR, 14 RBI), batting .600 (9-15) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.368, 7 HR, 28 RBI), cranking .583 (14-24) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

That Sunday game is the type of game we’d usually manage to lose. The defense was all that kept Walla in one piece, but that was already infinitely better than the two days before (19 runs allowed across the first two bludgeonings), and somehow we weaseled away with that one. If the team can win games like *that*, then maybe we can compete for something anyway. Never mind that second-worst rotation ERA in the CL (almost five!).

Offensively it’s not much better (eighth in runs scored), and by now we were at a -4 run differential while sitting half a game out.

Ham Lake 1B Justin DiMartino batted .319 before ripping his achilles tendon this week, and he might be out for the season.

On the flip side, Katz should go on rehab next weekend and then maybe rejoin us when the team would get on the road after playing the Titans and Thunder at home next week. It would be an I-5 road trip after that, going to San Fran and Tijuana.

I know that I-5 doesn’t go anywhere near San Francisco, Cristiano, but you have to drive pretty far on it to get there! – It’s not like you’re ever gonna find out with *your* set o’ wheels!

Fun Fact: The Raccoons are 8-3 in games decided by one run.

…and 2-5 in games decided by five runs or more.

[Westheim]

2072 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The draft pool had just been put out by the league and the Raccoons had already done their homework in sorting through the young men on offer for selection a month from now. 128 players had been shortlisted from the draft pool, including one two-way player that gave me mixed flashbacks to Kyle Brobeck (more in a second) and was listed as both pitcher and position player. Overall we had 68 pitchers listed and 61 position players, making this the THIRD straight year where we were attracted to more tossers than pokers. It wasn’t just numbers – as you’ll see with the hotlist below, I was thoroughly unamused by the “peaks” in that position player category, either. To be fair though… even on the pitching side there were not the splendid riches of the last couple of years with outlandish stuff; it was a fairly mediocre draft pool overall…

And here is that hotlist of a dozen-or-so players that made me salivate that usually only Maud’s muffins can (all of them were in college!):

SP Greg Hall (12/12/13) – BNN #3
SP Steve Jovine (11/13/12)
SP John Hughey (12/12/10) – BNN #1
SP Bryce Schaad (11/13/12) – BNN #9

CL Juan Gallegos (16/12/10)
CL Aaron Palmer (16/15/10)

INF Bubba Wilt (12/11/10) – BNN #5
INF Kevin Finney (15/3/9) – BNN #2
3B/SP Josh Kruse (7/10/11 | 12/11/6)

First, if you get that selection when you tried to buy a dozen eggs, you’d complain, too. And second: NO outfielders. THAT bad.

Josh Kruse was that Kyle Brobeck copy. Brobeck (a #8 pick by the Condors in ’48) had been part of the 2054 championship Raccoons (the most recent ones…), and had never been a great pitcher at all, mostly acting as a swingman and reaching 162 innings only once in his career. His control was pretty bad, the stuff not great either, but he could hit quite well – he just couldn’t defend his own tail rings. We tried to smuggle him in at third base, with usually terrifying results, but for some years, the batting made it almost worth it; in the four seasons where he got 150+ PA from 2054 through 2058, he hit for a 117+ OPS+ four times, and in 2057, despite horrendous D, put +2.7 WAR together while batting .289 with ten homers, while pitching 28 times (13 starts) for a 5.09 ERA. It was a whole mess, and once the Raccoons ended the experiment he only got a couple of cups of coffee with the Gold Sox and Wolves before retiring at 33. For his career, Brobeck pitched to a 53-56 record, 4.61 ERA, and four saves, and almost as many walks (521) as strkeouts (558) in 957 innings. As a batter he went .290/.342/.416 for 425 hits, 31 homers, and 206 RBI in just over 1,600 PA.

And that was the type of player Kruse was. Interestingly, while he was entered as a position player in the draft pool, Semchez thought more of him as a pitcher, but the OSA report card gave him a 9/11/12 potential for hitting. He’d be a very good defender at third base, and he might even be able to play the middle infield or on the outfield corners. This made it all very intriguing, but was that package worth the #21 pick that the Coons held? (looks at the rest of the misery again) Well……

How about the #42 pick (our compensation pick for Alejandro Olivares)?

Finney was an intriguing option, since he was already 23, a very good infielder around the diamond (although he had no experience at third base), and was a nearly major league-ready contact bat with some speed, but not a lot in terms of power. It was pretty much what the Raccoons were looking for to bolster the middle infield – and probably half the 20 teams that would pick ahead of the Critters, too.

There were a couple of not so exciting Japanese-born players that had grown up in the US in the pool, and also Jovine, who had been born in Venezuela to American parents and had lived there for ten years before his family moved back to the US, but held dual citizenship and wanted to be listed as Venezuelan as he was about to turn professional because he found it more “exotic”. Very professional!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (21-16) vs. Titans (16-20) – May 17-19, 2072

Due to an Indians loss on Monday, the Raccoons started this midweek series on Tuesday tied for the lead in the North, and we felt very proud of getting there while sitting on our tushes and nomming snacks all Monday long. Boston ranked bottoms in the division, having lost four games in a row but also only four-and-a-half games back of first place. They had the best pen and worst rotation going by ERA, and ranked third from the bottom in runs scored. They had already disabled three relievers as well as infielder Danny Miller. Last year, these teams split the 18 annual games fairly down the middle.

Projected matchups:
Crispino D’Urso (3-1, 3.24 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (1-4, 5.52 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (5-2, 3.47 ERA) vs. Jesse Cruise (2-1, 6.50 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-4, 5.77 ERA) vs. Angel Suarez (4-2, 3.96 ERA)

Cruise was the only left-hander in that battered rotation.

Game 1
BOS: 2B Fumero – 3B M. Roberts – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – CF B. Davidson – C R. Perez – LF Parrish – SS Kovach – P E. Lee
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS Luebbert – P D’Urso

Lee walked Humph and Morales in the first inning, but no hits came about and they were left on base, but they came in the second inning, in which Rivas and Gonzales snapped singles, even though the 8-9 hitters then did little to nothing. Lee lost Humph on balls with two outs, loading the bags, and then Yocum unloaded them with a screamer into the leftfield corner for a 3-run double! Morales drove in Yocum with a double to right, and that gave Crispy Bear a 4-0 lead. That also didn’t increase any time soon since the Raccoons then took a liking to getting caught stealing like Hamel in the third and Humph in the fourth. Crispy was unfazed and held the Titans to just two singles in the first innings… and then four hits and three runs in the fifth inning. Ruben Perez, Josh Kovach, and former Coons super utility Carlos Fumero all hit singles, and Mike Roberts hit a painful 2-out, 2-run double to center to get the score narrowed down to 4-3. Hector Moreno grounded out to end the inning.

Yocum singled and did steal second base to begin the bottom 5th, and that was required to get a run onto the board on groundouts by Morales and Woodley; although Crispy Bear gave that right back in the sixth inning, nailing Manuel Garcia with a 2-2 pitch to begin the inning, and then conceded that on more singles by Bill Davidson and Kovach.

A 45-minute rain delay later, Holzmeister walked the bags full before Rismiller saved the 5-4 lead for the time being with a K to Davidson and Perez kindly flying out to Hamel to end the inning. Yocum was on base again in the seventh, but didn’t get a steal off, nor gained a base in any other way against lefty Travis Davis. Top 8th, and now Rismiller tried to walk the bags full, but was stopped after 1-out free passes to Kovach and PH Javier Acuna. Cam Jackson replaced him, got a groundout from Fumero and then another inning-ending fly to Hamel from Roberts, stranding the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Blowing the lead, forcefully, would be left to Pedro Valentin, who got whacked right out of the gate in the ninth inning. Moreno and Garcia singled, Davidson tied the game with a double, and while Perez fanned, Parrish hit another single, and Kovach and John Baxley also got on base … all in all four runs scored, and the Titans sent in Jerry Washington with an 8-5 lead. The Coons had the #8 hitter up to begin the inning and sent out the pinch-hitters, and LeVan and Brown both hit singles, so the tying run was at the dish with nobody out. Humph hit an RBI single to left to keep the line moving, and Yocum’s groundout at least advanced the tying runs into scoring position for Morales. Tying the game he did, BANGING a double into the right-center gap and now we were all even at eight! Woodley had been hit for with van Otterdijk the last time through, but the Titans walked him intentionally, changed to right-hander Jesse Dover, and dragged everybody into extras through groundouts by Hamel and Rivas.

The two groundout hitters got replaced with Mata playing short and Rios as pitcher in the tenth inning, emptying the bench and getting close to exhausting the pen on the first day after an off day. Rios struck out the side in the tenth inning and the Coons did nothing from Edgar Gonzales’ leadoff single. Rios continued to pitch… and then his spot came up in the bottom 11th with Morales (single) and Mata (forcing out the Otter and his walk) on the corners and one out. But the bench was empty – there was nobody to pinch-hit. And you know what? **** pinch-hitters! Jorge Garza had Rios at 2-2, and then gave up a walkoff single through the right side…! 9-8 Critters. Humphries 1-2, 4 BB, RBI; Yocum 2-5, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; V.D. Morales 3-5, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Hamel 2-5; Gonzales 2-5; Brown (PH) 1-2; Rios 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0) and 1-1, RBI;

Getting closer to reconsidering Pedro Valentin’s closer status. It’s *not* BABIP.

Game 2
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – CF B. Davidson – C R. Perez – 3B M. Roberts – SS Kovach – P Cruise
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS Mata – P Wharton

Humph doubled and was left on base in the first inning, but the Raccoons unloaded a whole pile of singles starting with the leadoff Otter in the second inning. The 7-8-9 batters all clipped more singles and everybody kept going station-to-station. Humph then hit a 2-run double, Yocum a sac fly, and Jimmyboy, who had allowed a hit and gotten a double play in the first inning, had the same 4-0 lead that Crispy Bear had ruined the day before. Mike Roberts got on base with an infield single in the third inning, but got forced out and the Titans didn’t score. Instead, the Raccoons got Morales to draw a leadoff walk in the bottom 3rd, and Otter and Rivas singles drove him in, 5-0. Mata knocked out Cruise with an RBI single to left-center, and the remaining runners were left on as Jimmy K’ed and Humph grounded out.

Juan Dominguez then pitched 3.1 innings of long relief for the Titans, allowing little to the Raccoons, but Jimmy was also largely unbothered by the Titans, going seven innings and allowing only one run when Fumero and Moreno happened to put two hits together in the sixth inning. Jimmy gave up just five hits overall in the start, but wasn’t very efficient and topped out at 108 pitches for seven innings. The Coons then hoped for two innings from Newhard to end the game, but got one out and a 3-run homer by Manuel Garcia instead. Holzmeister came in, gave up a hit to Davidson into right, and then a Ruben Perez homer. And now the game was tied. McMahan held the game tied in the ninth inning, while Boston sent Cody Kleidon into the bottom of the ninth. Hamel struck out, but Morales singled up the middle with one out. He advanced on the Otter’s groundout, then on a wild pitch. Gonzales hit a grounder to second, Fumero missed it, and the Coons waggled off in silly fashion for the second day in a row. 7-6 Raccoons. Humphries 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; van Otterdijk 2-5; Rivas 3-4, RBI; Mata 2-4, 2B, RBI; McFarland 1-1; Wharton 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K and 1-3, RBI;

Game 3
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – C R. Perez – 3B M. Roberts – CF Parrish – SS Kovach – P A. Suarez
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Mata – P Gaytan

There was no 4-0 lead in the second on Thursday, which left me moping a bit, considering Gaytan was likely gonna need it, although the Titans again saved the hitting for later in the game and made mostly tame outs in the early going. The Raccoons only put one over the minimum on base the first time through before Humph and Yocum hit 2-out singles in the bottom 3rd. Morales drew a walk from Suarez, and then Woodley turned a 1-2 pitch around and singled to center, driving in a pair for the first runs of the game. LeVan grounded out to end the inning, but Suarez put the 7-8 batters on base in the bottom 4th. Gaytan bunted badly and got Brown forced out at third base, but Humph hit an RBI single anyway, plating Ramon Mata from second to make it 3-0. Yocum popped out right above home plate to leave runners on the corners.

All looked good through five, although Gaytan only had two strikeouts and the Titans seemed to be making better contact. When Suarez led off the sixth with a single to right, I audibly gulped because I saw things coming. Fumero forced out the pitcher, then stole second. Vic Lorenzo drew a 1-out walk. Moreno’s groundout advanced the runners, and then Garcia socked a 3-run homer to le– … oops, sorry, force of habit, it actually ended up with Humph. But nobody would have been surprised, right?

The problem was that there was nobody in that pen that you could trust, either. When Perez hit a leadoff single in the seventh, and Mata fudged another runner on base with a bad throw on Roberts’ grounder to short, we did not move to the pen until after Kovach drove in a 1-out run and Acuna walked to fill the bases. Rismiller got a grounder to short from Fumero, but the Coons couldn’t turn two and a second run scored. Lorenzo’s pop to first left the Coons narrowly on top, 3-2 at the stretch. With Dover pitching in the bottom 7th, Humph got a leadoff walk and then stole second easily. Yocum singled him in, getting an insurance run back. Rismiller then was kind enough to pitch the eighth without chainsawing his own snout off yet again, but the Coons missed getting more insurance in the bottom 8th as Dover walked another pair of Critters, but nobody could find a base hit to get them home. With the left-hander John Parrish leading off the ninth, the Raccoons then turned to McMahan. He got a pop, then two quick groundouts to Mata to complete the sweep. 4-2 Coons. Humphries 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Yocum 2-4, RBI; Mata 2-4; Rismiller 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (24-16) vs. Thunder (19-22) – May 20-22, 2072

The Thunder had lost THIRTEEN games in a row after an impressive 19-9 start to the season. They had last won a game on May 4 against the Falcons. Eight of their 13 consecutive losses had been by one or two runs, and four others by seven or more. They combined average offense with little power but decent speed with the worst pitching in the league (Coons rotation: hold my fizzy drink), had a -47 run differential at the first quarter post, notable injuries with Carlos Gutierrez and Austin Gordon, and yet I was entirely convinced the Raccoons would be able to come up with the wooden spoon in this series regardless. Last year, we had taken six out of nine games in this series.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (5-1, 3.38 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (1-1, 4.41 ERA)
Steve George (0-0) vs. Ray Rath (4-3, 3.99 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (3-1, 3.77 ERA) vs. Harrison Hunt (4-2, 3.48 ERA)

Noah Newhard (1-0, 3.45 ERA, 1 SV) was optioned to make room for Steve George on the roster, and he had his 4.6 BB/9 to blame for the most part. George had a 1.45 ERA in seven AAA starts this year; the 25-year-old was two years removed from 24.2 innings of 5-homer ball in the majors. He was up against the Thunder’s only right-handed starter amongst four southpaws.

Game 1
OCT: CF J. Reyes – RF J. Evans – 1B I. Stone – C O. Matos – LF Talavera – 2B A. Flores – 3B O. Vera – SS Robichaud – P D. Baca
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Walla

Nick Walla logged no strikeouts and allowed a single in every one of the first three innings, which didn’t look great, but at least the defense was on guard for him. Offensively, the Raccoons had a Gonzales single in the second, and then walked the bags full between McFarland, who stole second, Humph, and Yocum, bringing Hamel to the dish with one out in the bottom 3rd. His K and Morales’ groundout to Omar Vera left everybody stranded…

The hit-per-inning thing continued for Walla, and in the fourth and sixth, those hits were Ian Stone doubles. He was left on both times, but it was close in the sixth especially as Walla struck out Oscar Matos for the second out, but then lost Victor Talavera on balls. Angelo Flores eagerly went hacking though and the inning ended on another K. In the seventh, the hit allowed was a 2-out infield single to Baca, who was shutting out the Coons on two hits through six innings, and then PH Coby Thore drew a walk in the #1 spot, but Jake Evans popped out to let Walla off the hook again. The Thunder finally went down in order in the eighth inning, and Walla also reached over 100 pitches at that point, 110 after a full count to Talavera actually, and would not come back after this. Could we please get a run home, boys? Hamel hit a leadoff single alright in the bottom 8th, but Thore made a sliding catch on a looper hit by Morales. Brad Fails then replaced Baca, but walked the Otter. Woodley pinch-hit for Gonzales and flew out to left, and Brown bounced out to first to keep the game ******* scoreless.

Rios overcame Angelo Flores and a right-handed bench assault in the ninth inning to keep the scoreboard still empty. Luis Ramirez, right-hander, entered for the bottom 9th and gave up a leadoff double to McFarland to left. Now, we had inserted Rios in the #5 spot, with Morales to right, Woodley at first, and Luebbert taking over third base and batting ninth, which wasn’t the best choice here, but how much damage to our chances could he do before Humph and Yocum would get a shot? He singled to center, McFarland had to get out of the way of the ball actually, and that slowed him down and stopped him at third base. Humph struck out (groan!!), but Yocum hit the Coons’ third walkoff of the week with a single to left…! 1-0 Blighters. Gonzales 2-3; Luebbert 1-1; Walla 8.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K;

To be honest, I expected less from them against a team coming in on an L13 run.

Game 2
OCT: CF J. Reyes – 2B C. Gutierrez – 1B I. Stone – LF Talavera – 3B A. Flores – RF J. Evans – C A. Rivera – SS O. Vera – P Rath
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS Mata – P George

Six Raccoons reached base the first time through, but Yocum doubled up Humph before LeVan left Morales and Woodley on base, and then the 6-7-8 batters got on against Rath to begin the bottom 2nd. Mata singled home Gonzales, and George put a bunt down. Humph made it 2-0 by hitting a sac fly to Jon Reyes in center, but Yocum’s fly to Victor Talavera ended the inning.

On the mound, George retired eight in a row before Rath hit a single (shrugs!), and Stone and Talavera reached in the fourth, but overall the Thunder appeared relatively harmless. George also hit a double in the fourth with Rivas on first and two outs, but Evans threw Rivas out at home plate. Instead, LeVan drove in two runs with a 2-out single in the fifth after Rath walked Morales and Woodley, and then also added some length with a wild pitch.

George got around a Stone double in the sixth inning and the Coons just let him continue to pitch until he found trouble… which turned out to be the eighth inning with Omar Vera and Carlos Gutierrez, fresh from the DL, singling and going to the corners with one out. McMahan had already been up and popped out Stone to short to dispel the threat. Cam Jackson then got the 4-0 lead for the ninth inning. Talavera flew out to left and Flores grounded out, but Jake Evans found a double off the wall in left. And Cam found a K against .140 hitter Arturo Rivera. 4-0 Raccoons. Brown (PH) 1-1; Rivas 2-3; George 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, 2B;

Still tied with the Indians, who hadn’t missed a beat after losing on Monday.

Game 3
OCT: RF J. Evans – 2B C. Gutierrez – 1B I. Stone – C O. Matos – LF Talavera – 3B A. Flores – CF Thore – SS J. Moore – P Hunt
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P D’Urso

D’Urso got half of his first six outs on K’s and half on infield pops, which was one way to do it, and in between a 1-0 lead from Humph singling and Hamel doubling him home in the bottom 1st. The Raccoons didn’t get another hit through five innings, while Gutierrez had a single for the Thunder, but that was it through five for offense, as Crispy Bear got around a leadoff walk to Jay Moore in the third inning, but then ran into issues in the sixth again after Hunt popped out to start off. Jake Evans drew a 4-pitch walk and was run for with Eduardo Zambrano, but Gutierrez got the runner forced out on a comebacker to Crispy Bear. Stone held out for a 2-out walk in a full count though, and now it was getting dicey with the switch-hitting Oscar Matos… but after a mound conference D’Urso grounded him out to second on the very next pitch, and the inning ended.

Coby Thore got hit, but also didn’t score in the seventh inning, as the teams tallied all of three base hits by the stretch and the Raccoons still led 1-0. Crispy would be done after 99 pitches, though. The skinny lead went to Rios in the eighth, who struck out Hunt and Zambrano before Gutierrez singled, and the Thunder – desperate to score – batted the right-handed Rich Cabrera for Ian Stone, pretty much the only serious threat for a run they had so far had in this 3-game set. Cabrera lifted an easy one to left for Humph against Cam Jackson to end the inning. Gonzales and McFarland hit singles in the bottom 8th, but in between Brown hit into a double play and no run materialized, and now what? Not wanting to blow the 6-0 week by going to some face when they had a well-rested “closer”, the Raccoons sent in Valentin and his 7.71 ERA, five days removed from a blowout on Tuesday. He struck out two in a clean 1-2-3 inning to complete the runless sweep of the Thunder! 1-0 Furballs! D’Urso 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (4-1);

In other news

May 16 – MIL SP Kevin Bennett (2-4, 3.13 ERA) and CL Omar Vences (3-0, 2.55 ERA, 5 SV) pitch a combined 1-hitter to beat the Indians, 3-0. Indy 1B Matt Rogers (.255, 4 HR, 33 RBI) has a single to break up the no-hitter.
May 16 – All runs are scored in the ninth inning in the Stars’ 2-1 victory against the Gold Sox.
May 17 – The Aces out-hit the Thunder, 20-7, and accordingly edge out a narrow 5-4 victory in the tenth inning.
May 18 – Vegas’ SP Alex Duarte (4-5, 2.59 ERA) 1-hits the Thunder while the rest of the team fires on all cylinders for an 11-0 shutout. OCT RF/INF/CF Jay Moore (.125, 0 HR, 0 RBI) breaks up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the ninth inning.
May 19 – Sacramento beats the Wolves, 1-0 in ten innings. SAC LF Ian Streng (.295, 4 HR, 20 RBI) hits the walkoff single.
May 20 – NAS INF Jordan Sellman (.285, 5 HR, 21 RBI) goes yard, but the Blue Sox as a whole are 1-hit by L.A. SP Sergio Davila (5-1, 3.16 ERA) and CL David Wright (0-1, 2.40 ERA, 11 SV) in a 2-1 Pacifics win.
May 22 – The season of SAL 2B/SS Ken Blackwell (.354, 0 HR, 4 RBI) ends with a broken elbow.

Player of the Week (FL): SAL UT Tyrese Armstrong (.309, 4 HR, 32 RBI), batting .531 (17-32) with 1 HR, 11 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): LVA C/1B Chris Haynes (.354, 12 HR, 40 RBI), slapping .500 (11-22) with 1 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Thunder are L16 and didn’t score a run for their stay in Portland. I’m all Critters-first, but you can’t help but feel a little bad for that team. 19-9 to 19-25.

Indy lost on Sunday after a 5-game winning streak, so the Raccoons ended the week with sole possession of first place. Despite a closer with a 7.11 ERA!

Vinny Morales didn’t pitch this week and you wonder whether there’s much of a future for him with the team now. To be honest, with Crispy Bear going like that, I don’t see the need for him to hang around currently.

Katz started a rehab assignment on Friday, and might be back on Tuesday to begin the next series on a road trip to San Fran and Tijuana.

Fun Fact: 22 years ago today, the Coons’ Victor Salcido pitched the first of his two no-hitters.

Salcido beat the Falcons, 3-0, for that one, and followed it up with a no-hitter in a 1-0 win against the Crusaders the year after that. The righty was 25 at that point and looked like a star in the making, despite control issues…

…and then had an injury-addled 2052, where he never got out of the gates well, missed time with a rotator cuff strain, and even got bounced from the rotation. A year later we traded him to the Miners and from there it was constant back issues and finally a torn labrum. He then pitched very mediocre until 2060 – usually barely getting more strikeouts than walks – for the Miners, Warriors, and Blue Sox and retired at 119-121 with a 3.94 ERA and 1,483 K in 2,017 innings.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-16) @ Bayhawks (18-25) – May 24-26, 2072

The South saw the Bayhawks in fourth place on Tuesday morning, but the situation looked rather dim in terms of runs scored with a -37 run differential on the second-worst offense and average pitching. The pen was especially horrible, and they had a .311 team OBP, also second-worst in the league, but once they got on, they led the league with 43 stolen bases. The Raccoons had won the season series against the Baybirds for TEN straight seasons, 6-3 in 2071.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (5-2, 3.19 ERA) vs. Brad Yoxall (3-0, 2.92 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (2-4, 5.16 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (2-4, 6.08 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-1, 2.91 ERA) vs. Eric Stengel (3-5, 5.47 ERA)

Stengel was a left-handed pitcher. Katz was expected to return early this week, but had only gotten into three actual games in AAA so far, and we wanted to give him one more; he’d be back up on Wednesday instead.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – SS McFarland – P Wharton
SFB: 2B M. Flores – SS Bruce – CF Redding – RF J. Ward – LF Haus – 1B Bevilacqua – C H. Valdez – 3B K. Ball – P Yoxall

The Raccoons gave up their first run since *Thursday* in the second inning when Wharton hit Brett Haus and walked Keith Bevilacqua, and while Haus was caught stealing third base, Hugo Valdez still hit an RBI single to left-center to score Bevilacqua from second base. By then the Raccoons had already wasted a leadoff walk drawn by Humph in the first, when we hit into two forces at second before Woodley singled and Rivas grounded out, and a LeVan double in the second. Humph, Morales, and Woodley on an error then all loaded the bags in the third inning with one out, and Rivas slapped one just over Mario Flores’ glove for an RBI single to tie the game back up. Gonzales lined out to Ryan Redding then, but LeVan cashed big runs with a 2-out, 3-run triple to left! Yoxall then even walked the bags full with the 8-9 batters, but Humph flew out to Haus in leftfield.

Neither pitcher turned out to have a good day, though, as the Bayhawks came back in the bottom 4th, slapping Jimmy for four bas hits, beginning with a leadoff double by Redding. Jake Ward struck out, but the next three batters all singled. Haus and Valdez got RBI’s, but Haus also crucially was tagged out trying to go first-to-third on Bevilacqua’s base hit, and that cost the Baybirds the tying run as they remained 4-3 behind on Keith Ball’s groundout. Jimmy lumbered on with the 4-3 lead, nursing it through six innings, but that took him over 100 pitches already as the middle innings were extraordinarily chewy for him.

Josh Woodley’s homer to left-center extended the lead to 5-3 in the top 7th, but fellow first-sacker Lodewijk Bras matched the feat against McMahan in the bottom 7th, reducing the lead to one run again. Rismiller finished the bottom 7th in place of McMahan, then accidentally reached on a perfectly laid bunt in the top 8th when he was only supposed to move McFarland to second base for the second out. This lead to a 2-out RBI single for Yocum for a new insurance run, and then Rismiller, Rios, and Valentin would put the last six outs together without any more Bayhawks batters reaching base. 6-4 Raccoons. Woodley 2-5, HR, RBI; LeVan 2-4, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI; McFarland 2-3, BB;

Eight in a row – and now Katz came back and took the roster spot of Ramon Mata.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – CF Hamel – C Brown – 3B Gonzales – P Gaytan
SFB: 2B M. Flores – SS Bruce – CF Redding – RF J. Ward – LF Haus – C H. Valdez – 1B Bevilacqua – 3B K. Ball – P Waldron

Katz returned and hit a 2-out single for his first hit of the season, then scored once Morales walked and Woodley singled him home, but the other two were left stranded in the first inning as Hack Jamel popped out. Sam Brown and Edgar Gonzales hits and a Humph sac fly made it 2-0 in the second, but the way Gaytan was getting hit you were kinda hoping for more runs going forwards, maybe a crooked number. Gaytan was all over the place, scattered three hits in the first two innings, then struck out Flores and Ryan Bruce to begin the bottom 3rd, only to give up a homer to Redding, 2-1, and then two more singles before Valdez flew out to Humph near the warning track…

The Raccoons got another sac fly from Woodley in the fifth inning after Yocum and Morales had gotten on base, but the big knock didn’t want to come together, although Katz hit a loud lineout to Haus. The lead went bust in the same inning when Gaytan gave up nothing but rockets, a single to Bruce, a triple to Redding, and a sac fly to Ward, getting the teams even at three before Haus popped out to Yocum. After expending 92 pitches for nothing but fireworks, Gaytan was hit for with van Otterdijk in the sixth inning.

Cam Jackson survived the sixth by getting a double-play bunt from Waldron after allowing the 7-8 batters on base, and instead the Raccoons took the lead again an inning later. Yocum doubled, Katz, all of 1-for-7 this year, was walked intentionally, and V.D. popped out, but Woodley came through with a 2-out single to right, bringing Yocum home from second base. Again, the Coons didn’t build on having a pair on base beyond a “1” on the board, and Hamel grounded out easily to short. Jackson allowed another two base runners, the Ryans Bruce and Redding, who both hit a single in the bottom 7th, and BOTH were caught trying to steal second base by Brown. Holzmeister then got three outs from the 4-5-6 batters in the eighth, and Valentin would be sent out against the 7-8 Keiths and whatever the Baybirds would find at the back of the bench in the bottom 9th. Bevilacqua grounded out, but Ball bashed a double, tearing out a leg in the process. Willie Castillo ran for him and scored on Tony Solares’ pinch-hit single, and Solares stole his way to third base as Valentin fell asleep on the hill. The Bayhawks then walked off on a squeeze play on Flores’ bunt. 5-4 Bayhawks. Yocum 2-5, 2B; Woodley 2-3, BB, 3 RBI; Brown 3-4; Jackson 2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

(listless stare)

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – 1B V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – P Walla
SFB: 2B M. Flores – SS Bruce – CF Redding – RF J. Ward – LF Haus – C H. Valdez – 1B Bevilacqua – 3B Efird – P Stengel

The Coons took the lead in the second on Walla’s 2-out RBI single through the left side, and it was unearned, since the entire inning had begun with Hamel reaching on a throwing error by Bruce. Gonzales walked, as did Humph to load the bases after the Walla hit, and then Stengel clipped Yocum with a pitch to force in another run. Katz fell to 1-2, but then shanked a ball through the right side on a bounce, and drove in his first two runs of the season, and a balk and an RBI single by Morales later, the inning ended after five unearned runs when Hamel flew out to center.

My dearest wish would have been for Walla to run with that lead, but he didn’t. The Bayhawks plonked him nearly to death over the next five innings, slapping a total of eleven hits against him, nine singles and two doubles. Three singles in the second scored a run, and a pair of doubles in the fifth cost two more runs, and now it was a ballgame again at 5-3. Flores legged out a 2-out roller for an infield single for the 11th and final hit off Walla, who was then relieved by Rismiller, who walked Bruce, but then got Redding to pop out and close an ugly book (although: 6 K and no walks) on Walla.

The lead went bust for good after the stretch as Jake Ward hit a single off Rismiller and then Haus homered off McMahan, who tried to get into the useless club with Pedro Valentin and Vinny Morales… and Holzmeister, who appeared after McMahan had gotten the first out in the bottom of the eighth, and then immediately wed a triple to Flores, nailed Bruce with a 1-2 pitch, and gave up sharp hits to Redding and Haus, a wild pitch, and three runs in total. Billy Thompson retired the Raccoons, who were miles away from any sort of earned run the entire game, in order in the ninth. 8-5 Bayhawks. V.D. Morales 2-4, RBI;

Raccoons (28-18) @ Condors (19-29) – May 27-29, 2072

The Condors sat fifth in the South, already a dozen games out of first place. They had the CL’s worst offense (hold our pitching staff’s sugar drinks), and gave up the third-most runs for a -53 run differential. The Raccoons had lost two of three games so far against them. Legend pitcher Jason Brenize, closer Chris Thompson, and infielder Adam Forrest were on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Steve George (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Bryan Farris (4-4, 3.53 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (4-1, 3.08 ERA) vs. Julio Villalobos (3-4, 3.86 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-2, 3.32 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (0-2, 4.88 ERA)

Torres and Joe Whitley (3-3, 4.03 ERA) had both pitched in a double-header on Tuesday, so the Condors could send in either one. Farris was the only left-handed starter they had.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – 1B V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – P George
TIJ: CF Pothier – LF E. Campos – 1B D. Cline – SS Rugar – C R. Alvarez – RF Rafferty – 3B D. Campbell – 2B Matthews – P Farris

Yocum singled and Katz homered, his first of the year, and the Raccoons had another early lead in the Friday opener. Steve George struck out a pair in the first inning, then bunted into a 1-5-3 double play in the second inning, which surely took the momentum out of Brown and Gonzales reaching base. George got five strikeouts in total the first time through while issuing a walk to Josh Rugar, and Matt Pothier legged out an infield single with two gone in the third inning, but was left on base, too.

Top 4th, and the Critters started with Otter and Gonzales hits before Brown walked and presented George with three on and nobody out. George poked and hit a grounder near short, but Rugar missed it narrowly as he dove for it, and George upped the score to 3-0 with an RBI single to left. Humph hit a sac fly and Yocum refilled the bases with a scratch single. Another sac fly by Katz and V.D. walking extended the inning further, but Hamel whiffed in a full count to strand a full set of runners in the 5-0 game. The Condors then got two back on a Robert Alvarez home run to left in the same inning, going yard after a leadoff walk to David Cline; a homer bombed by Rugar then further reduced the score to 5-3 in the sixth inning.

Katz tried to correct as things were heading in the direction of back-to-back games with blown 5-0 leads and hit another solo jack himself in the top 7th. Morales and Hamel slapped Juan Arguelles for singles and went to the corners with nobody out, and LeVan batted for van Otterdijk against the right-hander, but only hit a sac fly to left. Hamel was then caught stealing and the inning died quietly. George pitched into the bottom 7th with the 7-3 lead, but put Kevin Matthews and Matt Pothier on base and was yanked when the Condors arrived at the pitcher-bearing #2 spot with two outs and sent Jose Corral, batting all of .080. Rios would face the longtime Critter, and punched him out on three pitches to end the inning. Brown got on to begin the eighth then, but was forced out by Luebbert, who had entered with Rios in a double switch, but Luebbert then stole second and then managed to score from second base on Yocum’s 2-out single, 8-3. Rios then gave up a leadoff double to Cline in the bottom 8th and the Raccoons went to Vinny Morales for the first time in two weeks. He struck out two, then gave up the inherited runner on Dusty Rafferty’s single to left, but then got David Campbell out. The Condors did not amount to a major rally in the bottom 9th, either, and so Vinny actually finished the game. 8-4 Critters. Yocum 3-5, RBI; Katzman 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; V.D. Morales 2-3, 2 BB; Vin. Morales 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – P D’Urso
TIJ: CF Pothier – LF E. Campos – 1B D. Cline – SS Rugar – C R. Alvarez – RF Rafferty – 3B D. Campbell – 2B Matthews – P Villalobos

The Raccoons were once again infuriating at the plate against Villalobos, who had almost as many walks as strikeouts coming in, but the brown team got hardly on base at all the first time through – Gonzales hit a single and was stranded – and then missed big chances in the fourth and fifth innings, as Yocum walked and Katz doubled to begin the former, before the 4-5-6 made horrendous outs, and then another leadoff double by Gonzales led absolutely nowhere in the latter. Crispy Bear was throwing a 1-hitter through five innings, only giving up a single to Robert Alvarez, who was immediately doubled up by Rafferty, in the second inning.

2-out singles by Woodley and Rivas put runners on the corners in the sixth, but now Gonzales stopped hitting and flew out easily to Pothier instead. Crispy Bear in turn allowed 1-out walks to the 1-2 batters Pothier and Eddie Campos in the bottom 6th, and the pair did the double steal on him. He then struck out Cline and Rugar … but by then the game’s first run had scored on a passed ball charged to Rivas. (noisily facepaws)

Humph and Yocum reached with two outs in the seventh, knocking out Villalobos, but then Katz flew out to right, and instead back-to-back doubles by Campbell and Matthews gave the Condors another run off Crispy Bear in that inning. Plainly a forsaken game, and Cline rubbed it in with another RBI double off Cam Jackson in the eighth inning. McFarland hit a pinch-hit single in the ninth and was doubled up by Humph to end the ******* game. 3-0 Condors. Gonzales 2-4, 2B; McFarland (PH) 1-1; D’Urso 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, L (4-2);

Arf.

Humph got a day off on Sunday.

Game 3
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – LF van Otterdijk – CF LeVan – P Wharton
TIJ: CF Pothier – 2B E. Campos – 1B D. Cline – LF Rugar – RF Rafferty – SS D. Campbell – C Castaneda – 3B Matthews – P C. Torres

Yocum singled and stole second, then continued to advance on Rivas and Katz singles, all to leftfield, to score. Torres walked Morales to fill the bases and had yet to get anybody out, then walked Woodley on four straight balls. Gonzales popped out in a full count, but the Otter lobbed another single to left to drive in Katz. The inning then ended with LeVan and Morales rumbling into a 7-2 double play… But the horror inning for Portland was not that far behind. Jimmyboy got around a pair of runners across the first two innings, of whom Campos disposed of himself by being caught stealing in the first, but the bottom 3rd began with Matthews doubling to center, and it rapidly derailed from there, thanks to Yocum throwing away Torres’ bunt for a 2-base error to plate a run, and Jimmy helped NOTHING by walking the bags full. There was still nobody out, but Cline hit an RBI single, and so did Rugar, tying the game at three. Rafferty hit into a run-scoring fielder’s choice, 4-3, and Campbell found Katz for a double play to end the miserable charade. Three runs were earned, and all deserved; and the fourth inning saw ****** pitching and ******** defense barf another two runs on the board. Wharton gave up a double to the opposing pitcher, Morales dropped a fly ball for a 2-base, run-scoring error, and then Cline had another RBI single to give the Condors a 6-3 lead.

Wharton was gone after four ***** innings, and Torres somehow survived five innings, issuing six walks, including a pair of free passes in the fifth that didn’t inspire the Raccoons to greatness exactly. Somehow the 7-8 batters then got on with one gone against righty Case Hayden in the ninth inning. Humph popped out as the tying run, and Yocum grounded out, uselessly. Rivas and Katz then slapped hits through different holes on the infield to put runners on the corners and bring the tying run to the plate again, now with nobody out in the seventh. The Condors sent righty J.P. Knox, who gave up two long flies to right, none of which went out, or even fell the **** in. Morales hit a sac fly, and apart from that the team looked like the sad sacks they were. The Condors then effortlessly pulled that run back when McMahan walked Cline on four pitches and Rugar raked an RBI triple off Jackson in the bottom of the seventh. Jackson then walked the ******* bags full before getting the third out. LeVan singled to begin the eighth, but Hamel flew out to deep right again, and Yocum banged into a double play. Holzmeister fooled another run on the board in the bottom 8th, and the Raccoons taunted again in the ninth inning, down by four, with a 1-out Katz single and Woodley walking on the team’s last out, but Sam Brown then reliably grounded out. 8-4 Condors. Rivas 2-5, 2B; Katzman 3-4, BB, RBI; Woodley 0-1, 4 BB, RBI; LeVan 2-4;

In other news

May 23 – The Aces trade CL Adam Molloy (2-1, 1.73 ERA, 9 SV) and a prospect to the Capitals for RF/LF/1B Jay Lawyer (.286, 0 HR, 5 RBI).
May 23 – Richmond picks up SP Stewart Doubleday (1-7, 3.28 ERA) for a pair of prospects sent to Dallas.
May 24 – The Thunder end their 16-game losing streak by beating the Crusaders, 6-1.
May 25 – The Loggers expected to be without INF Sean Van Leeuwen (.286, 2 HR, 20 RBI) for the next month as the 26-year-old was down with shoulder soreness.
May 26 – TOP RF/LF Felix Casares (.214, 1 HR, 4 RBI) upends the Warriors with a 2-out, come-from-behind, unearned, walkoff grand slam off SFW CL Erik Swain (0-1, 2.08 ERA, 12 SV) in the ninth inning, giving the Buffaloes a 4-2 victory.
May 26 – Ruptured finger tendons might spell season over for Blue Sox SP Jarrod Annear (3-2, 3.14 ERA).
May 28 – DAL C Steve Varner (.301, 8 HR, 35 RBI) hits two home runs and drives in four, leading the charge as the Stars put down the Blue Sox, 15-4, with six home runs for the Stars in total.
May 28 – L.A. SP Cory Ritter (4-4, 5.36 ERA) is done for the year as he has bone chips removed from his elbow.
May 28 – The Knights suffer a heavy beating by the Crusaders, 14-1, and all New York runs score by the fourth inning.
May 29 – With a broken finger, VAN INF/LF/RF Juan Terrazas (.260, 2 HR, 13 RBI) is expected to be out until the All Star Game.

Player of the Week (FL): DAL 3B Jon Schomer (.295, 3 HR, 26 RBI), batting .464 (13-28) with 3 HR, 12 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): OCT OF/1B/2B Jon Reyes (.343, 0 HR, 24 RBI), stinging .556 (15-27) with 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Feckless hitting, spineless pitching, and headless defense easily can make for a 2-4 week against nominally trivial opposition.

The Coons scored 27 runs this week, six each in the first and second, and four more each in the third and fourth. In the second half of the game, they were almost entirely invisible and blew almost every lead they had with ease. The rotation was crap, the fielding was ghastly, and the offense was INFURIATING, as usual.

The team has only a +1 run differential after almost two months, which tells me they’re not gonna make it.

We will look silly at home next week, hosting the Falcons and Crusaders.

Fun Fact: No team in the North has a negative run differential.

The Indians are at +25, the Crusaders at +23. The Loggers barely out-hit their tossers, +18. The damn Elks are last with a +9 RD, and the Titans are even for runs scored and runs allowed.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (29-20) vs. Falcons (16-33) – May 30-June 1, 2072

After dropping two series against most marginal CL South teams, they got to play yet another most marginal CL South team. The Falcons had the absolute worst record in the league, scored the fewest runs in the CL, and had mediocre pitching. They did not get anywhere near the top third of the league in any meaningful team stat, and they had three regulars on the DL as Carlos Mora, Dustin Cox, and Alex Rodriguez were all injured and out. If the Raccoons, who had swept the first series of the season against the Falcons, couldn’t get back on the horse in this series, they probably never would.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (2-4, 5.19 ERA) vs. Ian Lowry (2-3, 5.47 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-1, 3.08 ERA) vs. Joe Allen (3-5, 3.91 ERA)
Steve George (2-0, 1.88 ERA) vs. Randy Rautenstrauch (3-5, 5.55 ERA)

Allen would face the Raccoons left-handedly in this series.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Houkes – 3B Bazua – CF L. Collins – LF Bakker – 1B Terrell – SS J. Brown – RF R. West – C A. Johnson – P Lowry
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – C S. Brown – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – P Gaytan

Only Rodger Houkes (.268, 1 HR, 14 RBI) and Matt Bakker (.288, 1 HR, 24 RBI) were batting over .245 in that lineup, and nobody had power worth talking about, which didn’t mean Tony Gaytan wouldn’t find ways to los this game. Brady Terrell drew a walk in the second inning and got forced out on a grounder by Josh Brown before Gaytan smacked the funny part of Ryan West’s elbow to get him removed from the game for Ron Wilmes (who *are* these people??). Andy Johnson made him pay for that by hitting an RBI single, plating the first run of the game, but ex-Coon Lowry struck out to leave two stranded. Sam Brown hit into a double play after Woodley walked in the bottom 2nd, then threw away the ball on Houkes’ stolen base attempt after his leadoff single in the top 3rd. Raul Bazua popped out to second, but Landon Collins dropped a single behind Katz to get the runner home from third base. Johnson made it 3-0 with a fourth-inning, 2-out RBI double that plated Wilmes. The Coons? Yocum had left LeVan and Humph in scoring position grounding out in the bottom 3rd, and the bottom 4th began with Katz and V.D. in scoring position after a leadoff walk and a double to right. One run scored on a wild pitch by Lowry, who had no strikeouts so far, but a fourth walk once he put Woodley on base, and then gave up an RBI single to Sam Brown. Gonzales then grounded to Houkes for a fielder’s choice at second and LeVan lined out to Houkes, but Gaytan took himself off the hook with a 2-out RBI single to left, tying the game at three. Humph popped out foul to end the inning.

Gaytan then held the 3-3 tie to the stretch, and while the Raccoons had at least one solid chance to take the lead after Katz hit a double to left in the fifth inning, they didn’t get ahead. The #9 spot led off the bottom 7th and Gaytan was hit for with Jack Hamel, who singled to left off righty Victor Cabrera, who also lugged around a 5+ ERA. Hamel dashed to third base on Humph’s single to left-center, and a walk to Yocum loaded the bases with nobody out. Oops! Katz promptly hit a grounder to third and Bazua got the out at the plate on Hamel, but V.D. heroically hit a sac fly to get the Coons into the lead. Woodley whiffed…

Rismiller’s two outs and one more from Rios in the eighth maintained the 4-3 lead before it was added to in the bottom of the inning. Brown and LeVan got on, and Hamel, who had remained in rightfield over Morales, hit an RBI single to left to extend the lead to 5-3. Bakker’s attempt at the plate allowed the trailing runners to advance into scoring position, then to score on Bazua’s capital throwing error on Humph’s grounder. Katz slapped a 2-out RBI double off Edgar Mauricio before Rios batted himself and struck out, but then finished a 4-out save in a 5-run win. 8-3 Raccoons. Katzman 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; LeVan 2-4; Hamel (PH) 2-2, RBI;

Game 2
CHA: 2B Houkes – 3B Bazua – CF L. Collins – LF Bakker – 1B Terrell – SS J. Brown – RF Wilmes – C A. Johnson – P Joe Allen
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – 1B V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – P Walla

Jack Hamel put the Coons up 2-0 with a first-inning, 2-out, 2-run double, collecting Yocum and Morales from the corners, but Walla immediately came back with a ghastly second inning and allowed three hits himself to score a 2-out run on Johnson’s single, then walked the opposing pitcher to load the bases. Somehow Houkes struck out to leave the bases loaded… Allen then returned the favor by walking Walla with one out in the bottom 2nd and Edgar Gonzales at second base. Humph flew out to right, but Yocum shot an RBI single up the middle to actually capitalize on that faux pas. Katz then gave a ball a ride to deep center, but couldn’t beat Landon Collins’ range, ending the inning. Allen then shoveled the bags full in the third inning, bringing Walla up with Morales, Gonzales, and Rivas all blinking at him with their big black googly eyes and two outs, but the grounder to short ended the inning; however, Katz gave the team some breathing room with a 2-run homer after Yocum had tripled to center in the fourth, extending the lead to 5-1.

Walla was confusing, running three long counts and walking Wilmes when he faced the bottom of the order in the fourth, then got three pops on the infield on six pitches in the fifth inning. At least an Otter homer in the bottom 5th kept adding, and Walla then hit a 2-out triple (with nobody on base) in the same inning. Humph walked, but Yocum flew out. Gonzales doubled home Morales with two outs in the sixth to further extend the lead to 7-1.

Bakker singled but got picked off first base by Walla in the sixth, but Walla then didn’t allow anybody on base in quick seventh and eighth innings, then batted for himself again after the Raccoons had already added more runs; Yocum had hit a homer to right in the seventh, and an Otter triple, a walk to Gonzales, and a Rivas RBI single had added another run against a brightly burning Falcons bullpen in the eighth when Walla batted for himself with two down, but grounded out to short. He struck out Bakker to begin the ninth, but then was taken deep by Brady Terrell and the Raccoons pulled the plug there. Vinny Morales struck out the last two Falcons to end the game. 9-2 Furballs. Yocum 3-4, BB, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales 2-4, BB; van Otterdijk 2-4, HR, 3B, RBI; Gonzales 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Walla 8.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (6-1) and 1-4, 3B;

Game 3
CHA: 2B Houkes – 3B Bazua – CF L. Collins – LF Bakker – RF E. Mullen – 1B Terrell – SS Wilmes – C A. Johnson – P Rautenstrauch
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 1B Woodley – 3B Luebbert – CF LeVan – P George

Brady Terrell gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead in the second in the worst way, hitting into a double play with Bakker and Eddie Mullen on the corners, while the Raccoons put five people on base in the first two innings on two hits and three walks and couldn’t score ******* any of them. That changed in the third inning, which Katz started to make interesting with a 1-out double to left. Morales got another walk from Rated-R Rautenstrauch, and Rivas finally hit an RBI single. Woodley and Luebbert made poor outs though, and the remaining runners remained on base in a tied game. Seven in three innings.

Rated-R walked LeVan and Humph in the fourth, and Woodley in the fifth after a leadoff double by Morales. ALL OF THESE runners were also stranded, making eleven in five innings. It was also as far as the Falcons dared to use Rautenstrauch.

George pitched to the stretch holding a 1-1 tie that should be another lopsided score in favor of the home team, which didn’t reach in the sixth inning, and then drew THREE walks and saw a passed ball charged to Johnson … AND STILL DIDN’T ******* SCORE in the seventh inning. Rivas hit into a double play after Morales’ leadoff walk, and Woodley and Luebbert were left in scoring position when LeVan grounded out to first against Cabrera. Holzmeister and Valentin kept the game tied in the last innings of regulations, while Yocum hit a single in the bottom 8th… and was stranded. The Raccoons then faced Orazio Cecere in the bottom 9th, beginning with Morales, who struck out, and then drew a pair of walks. Sam Brown batted for Luebbert, but flew out to left, and when LeVan hit a 2-out single to center, Rivas was sent home from second base without regards to whether he’d make it – he made it, and the game mercifully ended. 2-1 Blighters. Katzman 2-5, 2B; Rivas 2-4, BB, RBI; Woodley 0-1, 4 BB; George 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K;

The team drew a dozen walks and stranded almost as many runners (11). **** walks, give me homers.

Raccoons (32-20) vs. Crusaders (30-24) – June 3-5, 2072

The Crusaders were in third place, three games behind the Critters to begin this series. They had average runs scored, but were allowing the fewest runs in the CL, and I was already getting headaches. They had the lowest team OBP in the league at just .298, and somehow made it up with homers, speed, and dumb luck. The mix had worked for them so far, with a 4-2 New York lead in the season series. Dennis Marck and Justin Donaldson were on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Crispino D’Urso (4-2, 2.80 ERA) vs. Nate Freeman (4-3, 2.26 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-3, 3.53 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (5-5, 4.44 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-4, 5.02 ERA) vs. Danny Ortiz (1-1, 3.19 ERA)

Only right-handed pitchers coming up in this series… unless they’d skip southpaw Russell Anderson (3-4, 3.72 ERA) into the Sunday game. Both teams had been off on Thursday.

Game 1
NYC: 2B Way – C Stephens – LF Griffin – 1B Ledesma – RF Ospina – 3B Joe King – SS Reber – CF DuKate – P N. Freeman
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – P D’Urso

The Crusaders didn’t have any trouble getting on base against Crispy Bear, whom they finished off inside three innings. Roy Stephens walked after a 10-pitch battle an Raul Ledesma homered for a 2-0 lead in the first; Joe King singled, advanced on V.D.’s error, Kyle Reber walked, Brad DuKate doubled, and two runs scored in the second; and Willie Ospina hit another home run in the third inning, 5-0. LeVan batted for Crispy Bear for no gains in the bottom 3rd, and Vinny Morales got the ball after that. The best thing about the game was that Vinny pitched five innings of 3-hit ball in garbage relief, even when one of the hits was a solo homer by Tony Griffin. Since the Raccoons made absolutely no move that could even charitably be interpreted as rallying – they were being handed a 4-hit shutout by Nate Freeman when Vinny was hit for with McFarland to begin the bottom of the eighth, that Griffin homer looked like window dressing. And then McFarland grounded out and the 1-2-3 batters filled the bases with singles. But fret not – the Griffin homer still didn’t matter. Morales grounded sharply to rookie Joe Way at second base, and a 4-6-3 double play got the Crusaders out of the inning. 6-0 Crusaders. Yocum 2-4; Woodley 2-4; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1; Vin. Morales 5.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

The damn Elks’ Ben Craig (.226, 2 HR, 10 RBI) hit a homer for a 1-0 victory against the Indians to keep the Raccoons’ 1-game lead atop the CL North intact on this Friday.

Game 2
NYC: 3B Lacatelli – 2B Joe King – LF Griffin – 1B Ledesma – C Marty – SS Way – RF Roza – CF DuKate – P Egley
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – P Wharton

Miguel Lacatelli drew a four-pitch walk from Jimmyboy and then was picked off first base right away to begin the Saturday game. He struck out the next two, then issued another four-pitch walk to begin the second inning against Raul Ledesma. That runner went nowhere, but in the third the Crusaders began with a pair of strikeouts from the 8-9 batters before Lacatelli and King singled and Tony Griffin raked a 2-run triple to give New York the lead. By then the Critters had already been caught stealing (Katz) and hit into a double play (Hamel) to bring up the minimum despite a pair of singles in the first two innings.

Katz tried to hit into another double play in the fourth inning after Yocum hit a leadoff single, but the young shortstop misfired and King couldn’t catch the feed, adding a second runner on the error instead. Morales flew out to Griffin, but Rivas hit an RBI single through the left side. Hamel K’ed and Woodley grounded out to keep the tying and go-ahead runs on base.

Instead, Jimmyboy got taken apart by the top of the order again, allowing a single to Lacatelli, who stole second, and an RBI double to Griffin, a single to Ledesma, and a 2-run double with two long gone to Ryan Marty, plunging into a 5-1 hole. Yocum singled home Gonzales from second base in the bottom 5th, after the third-sacker had hit a leadoff single and Humph had walked, bringing up Katz as the tying run with one out, but both him and V.D. made god-awful outs in front of Marty’s nose, first on a hammer into the ground that Marty took to second base for a fielder’s choice, and then on a pop right over the plate, stranding another pair.

Jimmy was done after six shudderworthy innings and Holzmeister held the Crusaders to their 5-2 lead in the seventh inning, in which the Coons brought Katz to the plate as the tying run *again*, this time with the Otter having been drilled by Egley and on third base, and Yocum on first, and also two outs. Egley’s first pitch to Katz almost took off one of his legs, forcing evasive action, but at least the wild pitch scored the Otter from third, 5-3. And then he lined out to King…

Rismiller and Rios held the Crusaders at two runs’ reach, even though a Hamel single off Egley in the bottom 8th led nowhere nice, either. Leo Garcia pitched or New York in the ninth and gave up a leadoff single to Gonzales, so the tying run was back at the plate. LeVan pinch-hit for Rios, but hit into a fielder’s choice, the slumping Humph fanned, and Yocum flew out to center. 5-3 Crusaders. Yocum 3-5, RBI; Rivas 2-4, RBI; Gonzales 3-4, RBI;

This team is atrocious on offense. Third straight game where they either get NOBODY on, or EVERYBODY without scoring either way.

Humph was in a 3-for-31 funk and looked like a day off couldn’t do any additional harm.

Game 3
NYC: C Stephens – 3B Lacatelli – LF Griffin – 1B Ledesma – SS Wildman – RF Ospina – 2B Reber – CF DuKate – P D. Ortiz
POR: 2B Yocum – C Rivas – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – LF LeVan – 3B Luebbert – P Gaytan

Sunday saw neither team get a hit the first time through. Gaytan was perfect with four strikeouts, while Woodley drew a walk in the bottom 2nd, and that was that. Gaytan ran to 12 up, 12 down in the fourth before Katz snapped a 1-out single and Hamel legged out an infield single in the bottom of the inning, but Woodley fanned.

Gaytan retired the first 16 batters he faced before Brad DuKate doubled to right in the sixth inning, and of course then also scored on a single hit by Roy Stephens with two gone, because the Raccoons couldn’t have any nice things. Ortiz responded with a leadoff walk to Yocum in the bottom 6th, but Rivas popped out and Katz smacked into a 5-4-3 double play. The Crusaders got two more hits off Gaytan, and also another run as the 3-4-5 batters all reached base, also adding a walk, in the seventh, and the game seemed about over, but after Morales and Hamel made meek outs to begin the bottom 7th against Ortiz, Woodley hit a double, LeVan walked, and Luebbert slipped an RBI single through the infield. The trailing runners advanced into scoring position on a throw to the plate, and the Otter batted for Gaytan and hit a sharp grounder to left. Robert Ortiz at short dove for it, knocked it down – and had no play, the infield single tying the game. Yocum whiffed to depressingly end the inning.

McMahan struck out Stephens for his only batter of the series to begin the eighth and Jackson got two more outs to keep the game tied until Katz untied it with a solo jack in the bottom of the eighth inning. Pedro Valentin then struck out the 4-5-6 batters as a group in the ninth inning to salvage one game from this set and maintain sole possession of first place on Sunday night. 3-2 Blighters. Katzman 2-4, HR, RBI; van Otterdijk (PH) 1-1, RBI; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K;

In other news

May 30 – The season of DAL SP Bobby Marceau (1-5, 5.96 ERA) ends with surgery for a torn labrum.
May 30 – The Loggers dismember Thunder pitching in a 17-2 rout. MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.356, 7 HR, 39 RBI) goes unretired with four hits, a double, two walks, and three RBI.
May 31 – VAN RF/LF John Bustillos (.340, 7 HR, 36 RBI) will watch the rest of the season from the sidelines with a broken elbow.
June 3 – DAL SP Steven Fenstermacher (3-7, 5.71 ERA) is being shut down to have surgery on a ruptured disc and will miss the rest of the season.
June 4 – Dallas loses another starting pitcher, the just-acquired Stewart Doubleday (2-7, 3.16 ERA), who made only two starts for the team before suffering radial nerve compression to end his season.
June 4 – ATL 1B Kris DiPrimio (.300, 7 HR, 29 RBI) ands his 2,000th career hit in a 4-3 win against the Condors, a solo home run off TIJ SP Carlos Torres (1-2, 4.86 ERA). DiPrimio also hits a single and scores the winning run in a come-from-behind rally for the walkoff in the ninth inning.
June 5 – L.A. beats Sacramento in a 16-10 scorefest that does not include a single home run, but 37 total hits and a dozen walks. LAP OF Mike Hulett (.288, 5 HR, 26 RBI) drives in the most runs of any player (four) while going 3-for-6 and missing that cycle by the home run.

Player of the Week (FL): SFW OF Jordan Lopez (.276, 8 HR, 25 RBI), bashing .435 (10-23) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.361, 7 HR, 42 RBI), clipping .524 (11-21) with 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL C Steve Varner (.311, 8 HR, 35 RBI), hitting .387 with 5 HR, 20 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: LVA C/1B Chris Haynes (.361, 14 HR, 44 RBI), raking .398 with 6 HR, 21 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT SP Brian Jones (8-1, 1.40 ERA), going unbeaten 5-0 with a 2.36 ERA, 60 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: VAN SP Jay Williams (8-1, 1.99 ERA), hurling for a 4-0 record with 0.71 ERA, 30 K
FL Rookie of the Month: WAS INF Javier Vasquez (.325, 2 HR, 14 RBI), batting .432 with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL LF/RF Ken Frank (.261, 6 HR, 18 RBI), ripping .308 with 3 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

We have already lost more games this year (6) to the Crusaders than last year (5).

Also the usual grumbles about the offense. I wonder what we can trade for and hope that it can hit. There’s not a lot of hope in AAA right now, as Danny Huckaby is hitting .239 with two miserable homers. The best hitter down there might be Dave Falquez right now (never mind that he’s a 26-year-old who has yet to don a major league hat), hitting .312 with four homers, but he also has no position to play up here as a corner outfielder with terrible range. He’s not gonna make it as a first baseman either, although we had yet to *really* try that?

Yeah, slugging catchers or first basemen looked like attractive trade targets.

We had just begun a string of 20 games with no off days. The next four games would be a tense set against the Indians at their place. We’d then be home to play the Stars, then have another East Coast trip visiting the Blue Sox, Titans, and Loggers.

Fun Fact: Kris DiPrimio is always thought of a as power hitter, but only led a league in doubles, not homers.

That was in 2066, with the Blue Sox, when he hit 45 doubles and 19 homers. He hit as many as 25 dingers in a season, but has slowed down considerably in his mid-30s. He’s still a .300 hitter though, including for his career. The 2061 FL Rookie of the Year had so far played with the Rebs, Blue Sox, and Knights, taking three Platinum Sticks at first base, and piling up 2,001 hits at a .302/.378/.444 slash and with 184 homers and 853 RBI.

[DD Martin]

How’s that big FA Tyler Wharton from 4 seasons ago doing after you traded him? He never should have left Dallas and than bandbox they play in.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

How’s that big FA Tyler Wharton from 4 seasons ago doing after you traded him? He never should have left Dallas and than bandbox they play in.

I guess you missed the part where he suffered a career-ending concussion on April 19, so ... not doing very good at all...

[DD Martin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I guess you missed the part where he suffered a career-ending concussion on April 19, so ... not doing very good at all...

Wow how did I miss that!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-22) @ Indians (32-23) – June 6-9, 2072

The Raccoons brought a tender 1-game lead to Indy (stemming wholly from our 2-1 lead in the season series), and so needed to split the 4-game series to not lose it to the Indians. Indy ranked fifth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed for a +27 run differential (Coons: +7). Andy Sciutto and Nate Marazzo were out injured, and the team wasn’t ranking in the top OR bottom three in any major category.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (6-1, 2.97 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (4-6, 4.68 ERA)
Steve George (2-0, 1.69 ERA) vs. Jorge Flores (4-2, 3.68 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (4-3, 3.56 ERA) vs. Pablo Apodaca (3-7, 3.59 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-4, 3.88 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (6-2, 4.08 ERA)

Left, right, left, right – the Indians would send a different-handed starter every day in this series.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – 1B V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – P Walla
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – 2B W. Richmond – LF T. Torres – C A. Morris – RF Layell – P DeWitt

Humph doubled and scored after a Yocum groundout and Katz’ sac fly in the first inning, while Matt Martin legged out an infield single to begin the bottom 1st, then legged out his own leg on the base paths. Batting just .200 even with the single, he’d head for the DL after the game with a mild hamstring strain, and was replaced in the game by Cesar Pena. Even without Martin, the Indy lineup was very much leaning left-handed, and Walla had his troubles with long counts and plenty of base runners. The Indians tied the game in the bottom 3rd after getting leadoff singles from both Brian Layell and DeWitt, then two productive outs if nothing else. They loaded the bases in the fourth inning, including an intentional walk to Layell with two outs, so that Walla could strike out the pitcher to bugger out of the inning. While the Coons had only three hits through five innings, Walla tumbled through five on a lofty 83 pitches, and then had to stagger around an infield single by Walter Richmond to begin the bottom 6th. Tony Torres forced out the faster runner and then remained on base, but Guillermo Lujan batted for the pitcher and hit another single to begin the seventh. Walla got a groundout from Pena, then was removed in a double-switch along with Edgar Gonzales for Gabriel Rios and Nick Luebbert. Fernando Valadez lined out to left and Jose Hilario grounded out sharply to Luebbert to keep Walla’s run on base and give him a no-decision.

When right-handed catcher J.P. Jack batted for Matt Rogers to begin the bottom 8th, the Raccoons went to Holzmeister, and soon regretted it. Holzmeister walked the pinch-hitter, allowed a single to Richmond, threw not one, but *two* wild pitches, giving Indy the lead, and then walked Torres, too. Cam Jackson inherited a collapsing baseball game, saw Torres steal second while ringing up Andy Morris, then walked Layell, had Richmond score on a passed ball, Torres score on PH Scott Franks’ single, and when Franks was caught stealing, walked Pena. He, too, was yanked, and Rismiller got the third out of the inning on Valadez’ fly out to right.

The Coons entered the ninth inning trailing 4-1, then faced ex-Coon Josh C(arrington). Katz drew a leadoff walk, but Morales and Hamel made poor outs. LeVan batted for the Otter and raked a 2-out triple, then scored on Woodley’s pinch-hit RBI single. Brown singled to right, and Gabe Rivas batted for Luebbert… and struck out. 4-3 Indians. LeVan (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; Woodley (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 3-4;

Jason Holzmeister (1-2, 7.11 ERA, 4 SV) found himself and his 6.2 BB/9 on waivers after this game. Noah Newhard returned from AAA as replacement.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – SS Katzman – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 1B Woodley – 3B Gonzales – CF LeVan – P George
IND: 2B W. Richmond – C A. Morris – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – SS Valadez – LF T. Torres – RF Layell – 3B C. Pena – P Jo. Flores

The Indians continued to plonk an annoying amount of singles, including Hilario reaching on an infield single in the first inning. They scored a 3-spot on George in the second inning, as Valadez walked, and Torres, Pena, and Richmond all snapped singles. Pena drove in Valadez with the go-ahead run, and Richmond tacked on two more with two gone. Morris grounded out to end the bottom 2nd, and the Raccoons then got a first-pitch double from Gonzales to begin the third inning. He advanced on a wild pitch and scored on LeVan’s single to right. George’s bunted was misfielded by Flores to put him on base, too, and the runners advanced on Humph’s groundout after nine pitches and a full count against Flores, who then walked Yocum in another full count. Bases full, one out, Katz grounded to third base, but Pena only got the out at second, the defense being too slow to turn the double play, and another run scored, but Morales flew out to Layell to leave the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners.

LeVan hit another single to begin the fifth, then stole second inning. He got to third on George’s groundout, and Flores walked Humph. Come on, boys. Get that tying run home! Yocum grounded one over to Richmond then, but again the Indians infield couldn’t turn the double play, and conceded the tying run to score – barely. Yocum stole second and Katz hit an infield single with two down, but Morales again stranded runners on the corners with another fly out to Layell. George held the tie at this point, while Woodley put the go-ahead run in scoring position again by doubling to left in the sixth inning… and then he left the game with visible discomfort. Morales moved in to play first base, while the Otter took over rightfield and pinch-ran, but was left on base by Gonzales and George (LeVan being intentionally walked). The Raccoons FINALLY managed to take the lead in the seventh on a solo homer by Katz, 4-3…!

Steve George then had the leadoff man on base in both the seventh (Torres) and eighth (Richmond) innings. Three straight outs stranded Torres, while George was lifted for McMahan after Morris and Hilario made productive outs to shift the tying run to third base. The Indians countered with Alex Gomez to pinch-hit, and a sharp single to center fell in and tied the ******* ballgame.

On to the ninth, and McFarland led off the ninth, having entered in another Gonzales-removing double-switch along with McMahan in the prior half-inning. He dished a liner into the right-center gap, all the way to the wall, and rushed to third base on a leadoff triple against lefty Ryan Croft! The Raccoons then spectacularly didn’t score despite getting nothing but good counts against Croft, who walked Humph, popped out Yocum, got Katz to ground out to third to pin the runner, and then Morales continued to not get anybody – dead or alive – across home plate and flew out to Torres. The Indians were then just as bad in the bottom 9th, getting leadoff singles from Torres (run for by Lujan) and Layell against Newhard… and stranded them in scoring postion.

Vinny Morales got the ball in extra innings to play until the bitter end, probably, even though when Katz left the game with another injury on Scott Masterson’s groundout ending the bottom 10th, that was bitter, but not the end. Luebbert replaced him for the remainder of the game. Before long, we were in the 13th, and Jack Hamel hacked a 1-out double off Justin Esch from the #7 spot (Vinny had led off the inning grounding out). LeVan was walked intentionally, and the Raccoons were not played like that and sent them for the double steal, which somehow surprised the Indians battery of Esch and Morris. With runners in scoring position, McFarland fell to 0-2, then shanked a ball through makeshift first baseman Alex Gomez, 37-year-old catcher, for a double and to score both runners. Humph singled, McFarland scored on Yocum’s groundout, and Luebbert flew out. Valentin then got the ball for bottom of the inning, along with the 3-run lead. Hilario singled on a 1-2 pitch, but the next three batters all struck out to end the game. 7-4 Raccoons. Katzman 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzales 2-4, 2B; LeVan 2-4, 2 BB, RBI; McFarland 2-3, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Vin. Morales 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-4);

Vinny and Valentin both struck out three. The three pitchers used in regulation had only three strikeouts between them (one for George and two for Newhard).

Injury report: Josh Woodley had a mild hammy tweak that would keep him out of a couple of games, but wouldn’t send him to the DL.

And after 13 games of furiously raking .333 with five homers, Katz was back to the DL with a biceps strain and probably wouldn’t come back before the All Star Game.

(buries face in paws)

Excellent defensive INF Omar Vigil, who had just turned 22 and had batted .270 for the Alley Cats, was called up for his major league debut. He was understandably beaming about the occasion, but I snarled at him in the clubhouse on Wednesday, because he wasn’t Katz, and I wanted Katz at short.

**** my life…..

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P D’Urso
IND: 2B W. Richmond – C A. Morris – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – SS Valadez – LF T. Torres – RF Layell – 3B C. Pena – P Apodaca

Brian Layell and Gabe Rivas hit home runs the first time through, but unfortunately Rivas’ was a solo deed and Layell’s followed a single hit by Valadez off Crispy Bear, and the Indians had a 2-1 lead after three innings. But Apodaca was struggling with command and walked Hamel on four pitches in the fourth inning, and while V.D. Morales remained upsettingly useless and grounded out, the Otter knelled a game-tying, 2-out RBI double into the left-center gap to get the Coons even again. Gonzales whiffed, and then Crispy Bear was behind EVERY one of numerous batters in the bottom of the same inning. Rogers got a leadoff walk in a full count, Valadez singled in a full count, and Torres brought in the go-ahead run with a groundout in a full count. Layell then walked on four pitches. Bases loaded, Pena singled to right on 2-0, but Torres was thrown out at the plate by the Otter, and Apodaca grounded out to keep the score at 4-2.

After two more full counts, a hit batter (Morris), and an RBI triple by Rogers, D’Urso departed after five ghastly innings. Rismiller gave up another run in the sixth, and the Coons trailed by a slam. Humph and Morales hit singles in the top 6th, but were left on base, and both were on base again in the eighth inning, but then with Hamel in between them, bringing up the Otter with two gone. Ryan Croft came in for this occasion, but gave up an RBI single, and then was replaced with Esch. LeVan batted for Gonzales, who seemed to be signed part-time since he left every game after seven innings now, but grounded out.

Cam Jackson held the game close and the Raccoons had the tying run back at the dish in no time in the ninth inning thanks to Josh C walking both Rivas and McFarland. Luebbert was in the #9 hole already and hit into a fielder’s choice, and Humph popped out. Yocum fanned to end the game. 6-3 Indians. Van Otterdijk 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

V.D. got dropped in the lineup on Thursday, and Vigil made his ABL debut after not getting into this sad-sack loss.

Game 4
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Rivas – RF Hamel – CF LeVan – 1B V.D. Morales – 3B Gonzales – SS Vigil – P Wharton
IND: LF W. Richmond – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – C A. Morris – 1B Ma. Rogers – RF T. Torres – 2B Masterson – 3B C. Pena – P V. Perez

Humph and Yocum got on base to begin the fourth game of the series, but Rivas hit into a double play and Hamel whiffed to prevent an early offensive success. Rivas and Hamel were just as useless with Humph and Yocum on the corners and one out in the third inning, popping out in the shallow outfield the both of them, and in between Gonzales had struck a triple with two out, nobody on, an with no help from the debutant behind him. That made already five left on base in three innings. The Indians left nobody on base the first time through against Jimmyboy, who allowed a single to Rogers, who got caught stealing in the second inning.

Gonzales hit into a double play in the fourth after Morales walked to finally leave clean and tidy bases behind, and Vigil got drilled by Perez to begin the fifth, which probably wasn’t how little Omar had dreamed up his ABL debut as a kid in the Dominican Republic. He was left on base after a bunt and two more pops.

The Indians then had enough of this stupid team and took a 1-0 lead on Andy Morris’ homer to left in the bottom 5th, then beat Jimmy Wharton’s skull in for five more in the sixth inning. There was no bad luck or subtlety about it. Valadez tripled, Hilario walked, Morris bashed a 2-run double, and once two were out, Torres homers, and Masterson, Pena, and Perez all reached base, Perez driving in the sixth run with a first-pitch single. Rios then struck out Richmond to end the ******* inning. The Raccoons’ token run came late and on the first ABL hit of Omar Vigil, singling home Morales for no greater good. 6-1 Indians. Humphries 2-3, BB;

Raccoons (34-25) vs. Stars (33-27) – June 10-12, 2072

Dallas had the highest batting average and the best offense in the Federal League, but we’d get them out of their shoebox and have them murder us in Portland instead. They also allowed the second-most runs but had a +14 run differential at least. Their rotation was the worst in the sport by ERA, but they’d get three easy games here – at least the remains of it, as Stewart Doubleday, Steven Fenstermacher, and Bobby Marceau were all out for the season and so the rotation contained a lot of replacement flitter. Antonio Mendez, infielder, was ALSO out for the season. The last meeting in 2071, the Coons had won two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (3-3, 4.76 ERA) vs. Adam Johnson (3-0, 2.57 ERA)
Nick Walla (6-1, 2.85 ERA) vs. Ian Peters (1-4, 5.68 ERA)
Steve George (2-0, 2.48 ERA) vs. Cody Childress (1-1, 11.57 ERA)

Three right-handed starters, including the former Critter Childress, who still looked out of his depth in the majors.

Game 1
DAL: RF Jad. Wilson – LF M. Little – CF Stockton – C Varner – SS Hills – 3B Schomer – 1B Bursley – 2B Corpus – P A. Johnson
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – RF Hamel – C Brown – 1B V.D. Morales – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P Gaytan

Dallas’ Dallas Stockton and Steve Varner did damage inside the park with a pair of 2-out doubles off Gaytan to give the visitors a quick 1-0 lead in the opener, but the Raccoons tied it up on straight hits by the 2-3-4 batters in the bottom of the inning. Brown lined out, but Morales walked. Gonzales then singled to center to get LeVan home with the go-ahead run, but Hamel was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.

Even with a 2-1 lead, the Raccoons found ways to look like idiots. Gaytan bunted into a force play in the second inning, and Brown smacked a grounder into a double play in the third, all while I was waiting for that #1 offense to show up. But Dallas looked out of sorts, and didn’t get another hit until Alex Corpus legged out an infield single in the fifth inning and was left on base. Another former Raccoon, Brian Hills hit a leadoff double in the seventh inning, but strikeouts to Jon Schomer and Josh Bursley, and Corpus being held to an infield single by Gonzales held him at third base, and then Johnson popped out to end the inning.

So the Critters staggered on, having Morales caught stealing in the sixth before McFarland had a 2-out hit and was left on base. Humph reached on a soft single to begin the bottom 7th, but couldn’t get a steal off. Yocum’s grounder got him to second… and then TWO wild pitches by Johnson got him home with the insurance run. Johnson then walked LeVan, but Hamel hit into a double play…

The insurance then disappeared when Matt Little homered off Gaytan in the eighth inning, reducing the score to 3-2, although Gaytan then survived more deep fly balls by Stockton and Varner to get out of the inning. Bottom 8th, Alex Quevedo pitched for Dallas and shoveled the bags full with the 5-6-7 batters and nobody out. McFarland snapped an RBI single to center, 4-2, before Rivas pinch-hit into a force at the plate and Humphries flew out to right. Gonzales tagged, went, and was thrown out by twice-a-Coon Jaden Wilson. Valentin then struck out the side in order. 4-2 Raccoons. Humphries 2-5; Yocum 2-4, 2B; V.D. Morales 2-2, 2 BB; Gonzales 2-4, RBI; McFarland 3-4, 2B, RBI; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (4-4);

Woodley was back in the lineup and V.D. got a day off on Saturday, as did Yocum.

Game 2
DAL: RF Da. Wright – 1B M. Medina – CF Stockton – C Varner – SS Hills – 3B Schomer – LF Jad. Wilson – 2B Corpus – P Peters
POR: LF Humphries – CF LeVan – RF Hamel – 1B Woodley – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – 2B Vigil – P Walla

Dallas’ Dallas Stockton singled and was caught stealing in the first inning before the Raccoons scored a run without making an out as Humph got on base by having a breaking ball by Peters tickle his uniform buttons, LeVan reached on an infield single, and then Hamel hit an RBI single to center. Woodley punched a 2-run double to right, then was left stranded. Vigil walking, LeVan’s RBI single, and a 2-run homer by Hamel doubled the lead in the second inning, and Peters then loaded the bases with the 4-5-6 batters before McFarland popped out to end the inning.

Peters was hit for at the first opportunity, while Walla should have a nice day out now with a 6-0 lead, but gave up two singles in the third inning, and then nicked Schomer to begin the fifth. Corpus hit a 1-out single, and Walla almost gave up a pinch-hit 3-run homer to Steve Jordan, who had his fly to right caught at the fence by Hamel. And then he gave up an *actual* 3-run homer with two down to the former Logger Dave Wright… In the sixth a Woodley error put Stockton on base and Schomer legged out an infield single to bring the tying run to the dish, but Wilson’s pop to shallow center had so much hangtime that LeVan almost looked bored waiting for it to come down. Walla would pitch to the stretch for 106 pitches, striking out eight, half of them in the last two innings he pitched. McMahan had a decent eighth, while the Critters got pinch-hit singles from Morales and Yocum in the bottom 8th, but ultimately left the bases loaded against righty Erik Bithell, and then sent Valentin out. He struck out the side again, although Josh Bursley hit a double from the #9 hole with two outs. 6-3 Raccoons. LeVan 2-5, RBI; Hamel 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Yocum (PH) 1-1; Woodley 2-2, 3 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales (PH) 1-1; Walla 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (7-1);

An Indians loss on Saturday got the Raccoons back into a tie for first place, with the Crusaders just half a game behind.

Humph and Gonzales got Sunday off.

Game 3
DAL: RF Da. Wright – LF M. Little – CF Stockton – SS Hills – 3B Schomer – C Preston – 1B S. Jordan – 2B Corpus – P Childress
POR: 2B Yocum – LF LeVan – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – SS McFarland – C Brown – 3B Luebbert – P George

The weather virtually promised to be an issue on Sunday, so taking the lead early was definitely advisable. Only Morales reached base against Childress the first time through, though, which was for sure disappointing and annoying. George scattered three runners in the early innings, but neither side had more than one base hit until the Coons’ 2-3-4 batters opened the fourth inning with straight singles and LeVan aggressively scored from second on Woodley’s single to left-center. Morales then popped out, McFarland flew out to center, and Brown attempted to ground out, but Hills made an error and loaded the bases instead for the .200 hitter Luebbert, who then lined out to Hills. Wright doubled with two gone in the fifth, but was left on base by Little. Stockton reached on an error by Woodley in the sixth inning, but Hills popped out and Schomer found Yocum for a 4-6-3 double play.

George lasted 6.1 innings and didn’t yet get wet, but then was replaced in a double-switch along with McFarland as Rios and Vigil took over. The former got two quick outs to end the seventh inning, and the latter hit into a double play to erase Brown’s leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. Newhard and McMahan split duties in the eighth inning, with the skies darkening. LeVan hit a single in the bottom 8th, then got forced out by Hamel, who was trying to get a steal off just when lightning struck and thunder rumbled and the game went into a rain delay real quick – and never resumed as the storm whipped the ballpark for several hours before the game was called and the Coons got a cheap end to a sweep. 1-0 Blighters! LeVan 2-4; George 6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (3-0);

In other news

June 8 – NYC SP Russell Anderson (4-4, 3.22 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout to beat the Titans, 4-0.
June 8 – Knights LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.255, 10 HR, 36 RBI) could be out until the All Star Game after breaking his thumb.
June 9 – BOS SP Bryce Wallace (1-6, 5.65 ERA) pitches 7.2 no-hit innings against the Crusaders before allowing singles to NYC INF Kyle Reber (.252, 1 HR, 13 RBI) and OF Brad DuKate (.240, 3 HR, 18 RBI), then two walks to force in the only run in a 1-0 New York victory.
June 10 – The Blue Sox beat the Condors, 4-0 on four solo homers. 37-year-old NAS LF/1B/RF Tony Roman (.215, 5 HR, 19 RBI) hits two of them.
June 11 – DEN LF/RF/1B Miguel Sandoval (.303, 10 HR, 36 RBI) bashes five hits, misses the cycle by the triple, and drives in a run in a 6-2 win against the Indians.
June 11 – Tijuana OF/SS Josh Rugar (.276, 8 HR, 34 RBI) hits a homer in the eighth inning to beat the Blue Sox, 1-0.
June 12 – SFB SP Liberio Ivo (4-3, 2.34 ERA) twirls a 1-hitter and strikes out nine Miners to beat Pittsburgh, 7-0. Miners OF Anthony Schneider (.287, 8 HR, 32 RBI) has the lone single for the visiting team.
June 12 – LAP SP Melvin Lebron (7-5, 4.03 ERA) pitches a complete-game 7-hitter to beat the Knights, 14-2, and drives in four runs himself on the occasion, snapping three hits, including a grand slam off reliever Tim Cropp (0-0, 4.95 ERA).

Player of the Week (FL): LAP OF Mike Hulett (.307, 6 HR, 39 RBI), clipping .464 (13-28) with 1 HR, 13 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): LVA OF Roy Ben (.700, 2 HR, 7 RBI), making his season debut this week, 7-for-10

Complaints and stuff

Bring a blanket when you talk about the top half of the CL North, because the Critters, Arrowheads, and Crusaders will all comfortably fit under one. Just half a game separating these teams right now.

Jason Holzmeister passed through waivers unclaimed and was assigned to AAA. When nobody wants to take a pounce on you after 227 major league outings and a superficially decent 3.57 ERA, there are usually reasons. Four homers and 13 walks in 19 innings this year are already 17 reasons. And Slappy says it’s quite hard to get 11-letter names on the back of a uniform. He must know, given that his full name is Slapendious.

Speaking of minor league pitchers, last year’s #7 draft pick, SP Andrew Speed, ruptured finger tendons this week and would miss the rest of the season after just having been promoted to St. Petersburg in May. I am very dis-May-ed.

Blue Sox, Titans, Loggers on the upcoming road trip, with a detour through New York for Semchez and myself as we’ll head there for the draft taking place on Wednesday.

Fun Fact: Three years ago, Liberio Ivo led the CL with 21 losses.

Ivo is a weird one; the 32-year-old righty is Venezuelan, but was drafted by the Blue Sox at #18 in 2062 since his all-you-can-eat shrimp restaurant influencer parents (quite a mouthful, even before you watch their online channels), had moved to Florida when he was little, and so he had to go the draft route as a U.S.-based student.

He only became a full-time starter with the Sox in his age 28 season and posted a 4.63 ERA, then got traded to San Fran that winter. The first year was horrible, but since 2070 he has somehow caught himself and is beginning to actually win games. Last year he went 13-9 with a 3.25 ERA. For his career, he was 52-65 with a 3.96 ERA and three saves, but only 577 K in 972 innings.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-25) @ Blue Sox (21-39) – June 13-15, 2072

The Sox had the worst record in the league, the second-worst offense in the FL, and the third-worst pitching in the FL. They had a -69 run differential, which was not so nice. It was hard finding anything nice to say about the roster at all, and then there were also injuries taking out three pitchers including starter Jarrod Annear, ex-Coon George Kehoe, and reliever Aaron Heelan; and also catcher Ryan Rogers. At the last meeting in 2069, the Raccoons had won two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Crispino D’Urso (4-4, 4.08 ERA) vs. Austin Cross (3-5, 4.38 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-5, 4.30 ERA) vs. Edgar Gutierrez (0-6, 6.53 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (4-4, 4.48 ERA) vs. Justin Taylor (5-4, 4.15 ERA)

This was three right-handers, including former Critter Edgar Gutierrez not doing well at all as replacement starting pitcher.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B J. Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – P D’Urso
NAS: 2B Custer – SS Sellman – LF Roman – 1B M. Ford – RF D. Schmidt – 3B A. Ochoa – C Pagan – CF G. Warner – P Cross

Both teams were held to three singles in the first five innings, and the Raccoons hit into a pair of double plays to self-torpedo themselves, while Crispy Bear had the leadoff man on base three times in the first four innings. He got around Rob Custer in the first, as he was doubled off as well, and Matt Ford in the second inning, but a leadoff walk to Tony Roman in the bottom 4th pretty quickly led to a 1-0 Blue Sox lead when Alfredo Ochoa drove in the runner with a 2-out single. Hamel doubled in the sixth for no gains, while D’Urso nailed Jordan Sellman and walked Roman to begin the bottom of the same inning. Ford flew out to Hamel, and Dustin Schmidt spanked a bouncer into a 3-6-1 double play to get out of that stupid inning.

When the Raccoons’ 6-7-8 batters piled onto the bases by means of three 1-out singles in the seventh, the Coons sent van Otterdijk to pinch-hit, but he crashed into a 6-4-3 double play. Former Raccoon Kody Mello then had the ball in the eighth. Humph drew a leadoff walk and stole second base to move the tying run into scoring position again, but Yocum popped out. Hamel singled to left-center, Humph wasn’t in the mood to get stranded at third base and dashed for home plate instead, sliding in safely because Roberto Soto’s throw from leftfield hit him in the back instead of getting through to catcher Pete Gillin. Hamel dazzled to second on the play, then to third on Woodley’s bloop single. New reliever Vince Murray conceded the go-ahead run on a sac fly to V.D.; and yet another former Critters reliever, Brian Doster, then got Rivas to ground out and end the inning. Rismiller held the line with a 1-2-3 bottom 8th, and for the third straight outing, all of Valentin’s outs came by the strikeout, and the Blue Sox went down in order in the ninth inning. 2-1 Blighters. Hamel 2-4, 2B, RBI; V.D. Morales 2-3, 2 2B, RBI; D’Urso 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K;

Four straight wins. A bit more offense would be nice, though…….

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B J. Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – C Rivas – 3B Gonzales – SS Vigil – P Wharton
NAS: 2B Custer – CF D. Woodley – RF M. Ford – SS Sellman – 1B Roman – 3B A. Ochoa – LF Peck – P E. Gutierrez – C Gillin

Humph took a walk, stole second, and scored on Josh Woodley’s 2-out double in the first inning, giving the Raccoons a super early lead of … well, one run. Jimmyboy then retired the first seven batters he faced, although Tony Roman nearly hit a homer, and the former Raccoons PITCHER Edgar Gutierrez, batting EIGHTH, then ACTUALLY hit a homer. This tied the game in the bottom 3rd. (gnashes teeth)

The Raccoons failed to convert a leadoff single by V.D. and an error in left by Matt Peck that added Rivas to the bases into anything other than another inning-ending double play that Vigil mashed into in the fourth, and the Coons wasted Yocum and LeVan singles with two down in the fifth inning. Alfredo Ochoa hit an infield single to begin the bottom 5th and got doubled up by Peck, and Gillin and Custer hit TWO infield singles to start the sixth, but the 2-3-4 batters made nothing but pointless outs and didn’t advance them an inch.

Jimmy struck out the side in the seventh, getting him to nine strikeouts in a game that otherwise lived mostly off failure and was still tied at one. Jimmy also struck out PH Carlos Cervantez in the bottom 8th to get to double-digit whiffings, but still wasn’t in line for a W, and after 102 innings also wouldn’t be back for the ninth inning. Gonzales drew a 1-out walk in the ninth and Hamel batted for Vigil so we could maybe get something other than a double play, and hit into a double play. Newhard sent the game to extras, as if I needed to see more of THIS.

Thankfully Humph broke the tie with a homer off right-hander Jose Gomez in the top of the tenth inning so there was hope for a quick end to the misery. Yocum singled, but got forced out by LeVan, who stole second, and then was left on base when Gomez rung up Josh Woodley. Since Valentin had pitched three of the last four days, the Raccoons sent Rios into the bottom 10th, also inspired by lefty-hitting Tony Roman being the first man up. He grounded out to first, and Ochoa flew out, but then Gordie Warner and Dustin Schmidt snapped 2-out singles. The Coons blinked, sent Rismiller against Gillin, who was of course hit for with outfielder Roberto Soto – and he flew out to Humph to end the game. 2-1 Blighters. Humphries 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Yocum 2-4, BB; LeVan 2-5; Wharton 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K;

I can’t make up my mind whether they’re ready for the glue factory or whether they’re already coming back from there. Most uninspiring 5-game winning streak ever!

Also still tied with Indy.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B J. Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – SS McFarland – C Brown – 3B Luebbert – P Gaytan
NAS: C Pagan – SS Sellman – LF Roman – 1B M. Ford – 3B A. Ochoa – 2B G. Warner – RF R. Soto – CF D. Woodley – P J. Taylor

If the Coons wanted to win on Wednesday they’d need more than two paltry runs, since Gaytan already gave up that many in the second inning for nailing Warner and giving up a whole bunch of singles to Soto, Danny Woodley, and the ******* pitcher, the 8-9 batters getting RBI’s to overturn Sam Brown’s RBI double to score Morales from the top of the inning. Vinny Pagan struck out to keep a pair of Sox stranded.

Roman, although 37 years old, robbed Humph with a headlong dive to begin the third inning, but the Raccoons got the tying run across through defensive deficiencies elsewhere after LeVan hit a 2-out double to right and Warner threw away Josh Woodley’s grounder for a 2-base error. V.D. drove in Woodley with a single to right-center, taking a new (and unearned) 3-2 lead, but McFarland grounded out, and then Gaytan began to threaten to give up home runs, with Jordan Sellman flying right to fence in the bottom 3rd, but being caught by Humphries. Ochoa got it over the wall leading off the bottom 4th to tie the game, and the Sox took a 4-3 lead in the inning, spanking more screamers with Warner (double) and the ******* pitcher (RBI single) yet again…!

That lead didn’t hold, either. After a relatively calm fifth inning, and after Josh Woodley flew out to Danny Woodley to start the sixth, McFarland buried a 2-out triple in the gap and then scored on Sam Brown’s roller through the right side for an RBI single. All even at four, Luebbert singled to right as well, and the Otter batted for Gaytan, but as usual grounded out to short.

The Coons turned to long man Vinny Morales, who got immediately raked for four runs in the bottom 6th to give the game away. Warner flew out on the first pitch, but Soto walked on TEN, and then Woodley singled, Justin ******* Taylor singled for the third time in the game AND LeVan overran the ball for an error, and Pagan and Roman added yet more singles to beat Morales’ numb skull in. The Sox would add another two unearned runs against McMahan in the eighth inning; Yocum started the entire inning with an error, but McMahan also got beaten around for three hits… 10-4 Blue Sox. Brown 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

When Sam Brown is the best guy on the team, you got problems.

Raccoons (39-26) @ Titans (29-34) – June 16-19, 2072

The Raccoons had to play four games in Boston next, where the resident Titans had lost four in a row and all three games previously played against Portland this year. They ranked second from the bottom in runs scored and had the worst rotation with a 5.01 combined ERA.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (7-1, 2.93 ERA) vs. Angel Suarez (5-4, 5.12 ERA)
Steve George (3-0, 2.04 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (5-4, 3.38 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (4-4, 3.81 ERA) vs. Erik Lee (3-6, 4.58 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (6-5, 4.00 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (1-7, 6.66 ERA)

The Raccoons would stalk their way around the only left-handed starter the Titans had, Jesse Cruise (5-2, 6.15 ERA), who had pitched on Draft Day.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Vigil – P Walla
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – CF B. Davidson – 3B D. Miller – C R. Perez – SS M. Roberts – P A. Suarez

Carlos Fumero was laboring on a sore rib cage muscle and was day-to-day, and his limited agility cost the Titans a run in the first inning as Hamel grounded to short after the 2-3-4 batters had filled the bases with two walks and a single, and Fumero just couldn’t turn quick enough after being fed by Mike Roberts, allowing Hamel to leg out the return throw. Gonzales then struck out to leave a pair on the corners. The Titans turned it around super quickly, though, bashing Walla for three runs in the bottom 1st. Vic Lorenzo singled, and with two outs Manuel Garcia drew a walk in a full count before Bill Davidson and Danny Miller struck back-to-back doubles to drive in two and one run(s), respectively. Ruben Perez then flew out to Morales. Walla wasn’t really fooling anybody in this start, as the Titans usually put the ball in play rather briskly. Despite the damaging first inning, Walla threw only 44 pitches in four innings, K’ing two Titans, and allowing another wallbanger double to Miller in the fourth inning. The Raccoons also didn’t really rally any time soon, but in the fifth got Humph and Woodley to the corners as the tying runs with one out thanks to a pair of singles, but a Morales sac fly was as good as it was gonna get for the time being.

Lorenzo singled but was left on in the bottom 5th, but Walla got pummeled some more in his sixth and final frame of the game. Garcia led off with a sharp single, and he nailed Davidson. Miller doubled in a run, and Perez plated another with a groundout, 5-2. Roberts and PH Javier Acuna both struck out, but that was it for Walla in a forgettable (hopefully) outing. McFarland singled off former Raccoon Jesse Dover leading off the seventh in Walla’s spot, and more singles by Humph and Yocum loaded the bases with nobody out. Oh, if only we had some power in this bloody lineup…! For the time being, Dover walked Woodley with the bases loaded to force in a run, 5-3, but Morales popped out to third, and Hamel’s fly to left was caught by Lorenzo to hold him to a sac fly, 5-4. Yocum also had to be held at third base on Gonzales’ scratch single off the next former Raccoon, Tetsu Kurihara, with two outs, and Brown flew out to Lorenzo to leave the bases loaded. Humph walked and got doubled up by Yocum in the eighth to torpedo another attempt to take Walla off the hook, and then the middle of the order was up against Jerry Washington in the ninth inning. Woodley singled through the right side to put the tying run on base, then was run for by Luebbert, but the 4-5-6 batters made too pathetic outs to get the tying run around to score… 5-4 Titans. Humphries 2-4, BB; Woodley 4-4, BB, RBI; McFarland (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS Vigil – P George
BOS: 2B Fumero – C R. Perez – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – CF B. Davidson – 3B D. Miller – LF Parrish – SS M. Roberts – P M. Bell

Humph and Yocum continued to *try*, but there was no reasoning with this team, and after they reached base on a walk and single to begin the game, Woodley smashed into a double play and Morales flew out easily to right. George then quickly became the second consecutive Coons right-hander to face this overwhelmingly right-handed Boston lineup and just struggled endlessly (only John Parrish batted lefty in this starting nine), giving up an 0-2 single to Fumero to begin the bottom 1st, saw him advance on a passed ball, and then of course gave up a 2-out RBI single to Garcia to fall behind right away. Miller bashed another double in the bottom 2nd, but had no support from the 7-8-9 batters and remained on base. Fumero then hit an infield single in the bottom 3rd, stole second, reached third on Rivas’ throwing error, and scored on Perez’ groundout.

George fooled the bases full in the fourth inning before Bell hit into an inning-ending double play. The Raccoons, who had seen Woodley hit a double to center and get thrown out at third base in the top 4th, then scratched out a pitiful run on Gonzales and Vigil singles in the fifth inning, but Garcia immediately came back with a 2-run homer off George in the bottom of the frame. George put Miller and Roberts on base in full counts in the bottom 6th and was yanked after Bell struck out trying to bunt for the second out. Jackson got Fumero out on a grounder to second, and the Raccoons then loaded the bags with the tying runs, the 4-5-6 batters, and nobody out in the seventh. Rivas crashed into a double play, and Vigil grounded out for one sullen run, and a 4-2 deficit at the stretch. Rios and Newhard melted down for another two runs in the eighth, including a Davidson homer off the lefty, and the Coons looked pretty clueless as they tumbled towards another loss. 6-2 Titans. Yocum 2-4; Woodley 2-4, 2B;

This offense.

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B Woodley – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P D’Urso
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – RF M. Garcia – 3B D. Miller – C R. Perez – CF Parrish – SS M. Roberts – P E. Lee

Saturday started like Friday, as Humph walked, Yocum singled, and then the next dolt hit into a double play; however, Woodley got a grounder through the right side for an RBI single, so the Raccoons at least briefly held a 1-0 lead before Crispy Bear went out and got battered again. Fumero drew a walk and got to third on Lorenzo’s single to center, then scored on a wild pitch. Another walk to Hector Moreno, a wild pitch, and a groundout gave Boston the 2-1 lead, but somehow Moreno was then left on base. The Coons got even again in the top 2nd on pretty much a Rivas single and nothing else. He advanced on a wild pitch and a balk by Lee, and then scored when McFarland grounded out…

Boston got the lead back in the bottom 2nd when Gonzales threw Lee’s bunt away for two bases, maneuvering Mike Roberts to third base after he had drawn another walk, and Fumero’s groundout plated him. Lorenzo struck out to leave the pitcher at third base, but Lee also walked Humph to begin the third inning and Yocum singled to right. Humph went to third base, Garcia unleashed a terrible throw that went past everybody, and Humph went home to score and tie the game again, with Yocum into second base. LeVan smashed an RBI double into the right-center gap, 4-3, Woodley singled, the Otter lined out to Lee, but Gonzales’ groundout got LeVan home from third. Rivas also grounded out, and the 5-3 score then persisted through five innings and a 30-minute rain delay, and D’Urso shuffling another four runners on base, none of whom scored, before being quietly ushered away after 96 messy pitches.

Hamel batted for D’Urso and doubled home McFarland with two down in the top 6th, extending the lead to 6-3, which then went to Vinny Morales, who was all over the ******* place and put Roberts and Davidson into scoring position with screamers for hits, but then struck out Fumero to end the bottom 6th. The Coons thankfully saw the need to tack on; LeVan opened the seventh by singling off lefty Travis Davis, then stole second. Woodley walked, and the Otter hit an RBI single to center. Gonzales’ soft single loaded the bases, but Rivas popped out. McFarland hit into a fielder’s choice at second base, bringing in another run, and Vinny took a K to leave them on the corners, but now with a 5-run lead we wanted more innings out of him. So of course 2-out singles by Garcia and Perez and his own stupid error to also put Miller on base in the bottom 7th loaded them up for Parrish. We sent McMahan, who saw the need to give up two runs on a single to the lefty hitter, then struck out Roberts instead, as the team continued to be infuriating in almost every aspect. Rismiller held the score in the eighth, and Valentin struck out Garcia to begin the bottom 9th, but then things… well, Miller hit a long fly to center that LeVan caught, but Perez bashed a double and Parrish blasted a homer to continue making Valentin’s ERA look like a car crash. He then walked Roberts, but Acuna finally grounded out. 8-7 Coons. Yocum 3-5; LeVan 2-5, 2B, RBI; Woodley 3-4, BB, RBI; Gonzales 2-5, RBI; Hamel (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Humph got a day off on Sunday to keep his 35-year-old body in one piece. Our next off day was on Thursday.

Game 4
POR: 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – LF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Wharton
BOS: 2B Fumero – LF Lorenzo – 1B H. Moreno – CF B. Davidson – 3B D. Miller – RF Parrish – C J. Gutierrez – SS M. Roberts – P B. Wallace

Somehow Jimmy struggled the least against the heavily right-handed lineup (although Jonathan Gutierrez and Bryce Wallace both added to the lefty sticks in this series finale) and struck out five Titans through three innings, giving up a hit in the process. The Raccoons had only drawn two walks, one by Wharton, so far, though, so the game was still scoreless. But of course, the Coons went down in order in the fourth inning, while Jimmy gave up singles to Lorenzo and Moreno, walked Davidson, and suddenly had three on and nobody out. Miller popped out to Morales in shallow right, but Parrish drove in two runs with a hit to left before Jimmy regained control and got Gutierrez and Roberts out. And now his pitch count was shot.

The Coons got on the board on a 2-out walk to McFarland, and another E9 when Jimmyboy singled to right, McFarland bid for third base, and Parrish threw the ball away this time around, allowing the sneaky shortstop to score, 2-1. Wallace then walked the bags full, and then still walked Woodley with the bases loaded, forcing home Jimmy Wharton to tie the game. V.D. cracked a liner to right for a 2-out, 2-run single and a 4-2 lead, but the Otter’s high fly to left hung too long and got caught by Lorenzo.

Kurihara replaced Wallace after he was pinch-hit for and walked Yocum to begin his second inning of work in the seventh. Yocum stole second and reached third on a bad throw by Gutierrez, and Kurihara also walked LeVan. Woodley’s grounder to third only advanced the back runner, Morales’ groundout advanced NOBODY, and the Otter flew out to right, scoring NOBODY. Oh, and it also began to rain at this point, and during the stretch the intensity picked up. Jimmy got Gutierrez on a pop to shallow left to begin the bottom 7th, but then the game went into a rain delay that lasted an hour, and so Jimmyboy was obviously gone. Newhard replaced him when play resumed, gave up a pinch-hit double to John Baxley, but also struck out two batters to complete the seventh inning.

The Coons then somehow scored runs just by letting the Titans throw balls away in the eighth inning, getting three additional, doubly-unearned markers on little more than throwing errors by Roberts and Perez, and hits by Humph and LeVan, while the Titans lost Danny Miller to injury. Rismiller got only two outs in the eighth before Rios had to dispose of his accumulated runners, and the left-hander then got the last four outs in the game. 7-2 Raccoons. V.D. Morales 2-5, 2 RBI; Humphries (PH) 1-1, 2B; Wharton 6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (7-5) and 1-2, BB;

The Titans made four errors, and walked seven Critters, while we got only six hits.

In other news

June 13 – San Francisco eventually prevails in Salem, 7-6 in 15 innings.
June 14 – Sacramento shoots down Boston, 21-3, scoring eight in the second and seven in the fourth for a quick start to the game. Five runs are driven in by each of leadoff man 2B/SS Ryan Philpot (.267, 5 HR, 22 RBI) and 3B Rick Healey (.290, 8 HR, 42 RBI), both of whom hit a grand slam, and Healey even hits two home runs in the game.
June 14 – SAL 1B Jeremy McDermott (.305, 12 HR, 50 RBI) will miss three weeks at least due to knee inflammation.
June 18 – LAP SP Chris Redmond (4-7, 4.66 ERA) 3-hits the Warriors in a 6-0 shutout.
June 18 – The Aces beat the Thunder, 11-4 in 12 innings, after Oklahoma kinda runs out of pitching in the top of the 12th.
June 19 – Sacramento acquires Salem’s SP Bill Logalbo (4-6, 4.64 ERA) for 23-year-old SP/MR Jeff Tolliver (1-7, 8.31 ERA), who was a top 50 prospect for four years before losing eligibility this season. Tolliver has been plagued by a .409 BABIP in the majors this year.

Player of the Week (FL): RIC OF Juan Licona (.285, 10 HR, 26 RBI), clubbing .500 (11-22) with 3 HR, 11 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): SFB OF/1B Ryan Redding (.271, 10 HR, 40 RBI), hitting .480 (12-25) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I think the best stat to describe the offense is a combination of Humph, Yocum, and Woodley all hovering around .390 BABIPs, and never scoring because the teams’ power department tops out at five homers, the team lead being shared between all of a backup outfielder, a busted #5 pick, and a medically infirm slugger that’s played all of 13 games so far this season.

No, there’s no budget to acquire a slugger before the deadline. At least not one that costs actual money. We can only pay with prospects and regret it later, like three games’ worth of Raúl Castillo for the entire Hall of Fame career of Dennis Fried. Throwback to 1990, if I may.

Crispy Bear looks underdone and George doesn’t get strikeouts. Both are appearing superficially competent, but what if I told you that George had a .238 BABIP and that Crispy Bear’s BABIP was even LOWER …?

Meanwhile, and for science, Pedro Valentin was trying to have both a 10+ K/BB *and* 10+ ERA. He might succeed if he keeps going like that…

The Raccoons had three games in Milwaukee on the way home, then a day off – the last off day before the All Star Game. We’d then play six at home against the Knights and Thunder.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons played only one series against a winning team in their 20-8 May, and so far only three in June.

We went 2-1 against the Loggers in May.

This month we went 5-5 against the Crusaders, Indians, and Stars, scoring just 3.1 runs per game.

The Knights with their #2 offense and pitching should be a bit of a rude awakening and show us where we really stand in this league… we’ll play a winning team or the fiendish Elks, which never goes well, for 21 of the next 24 games.

[Westheim]

2072 AMATEUR DRAFT

While the Raccoons got their heads done in by the Blue Sox in their final game in Nashville, me and Oscar Semchez were busy ruining the future of the franchise at the annual amateur draft in New York on Wednesday.

I had already complained at length about the dire lack of exciting hitting talent in the pool last month; the Raccoons were virtually guaranteed to not get anything exciting with their #21 pick. We also had a supplemental round pick for the loss of Alejandro Olivares.

128 players had been shortlisted from the draft pool, including that Kyle Brobeck imitation Josh Kruse. Overall we had 68 pitchers listed and 61 position players, making this the THIRD straight year where we were attracted to more tossers than pokers. Just as a refresher, here was the traditional hotlist of a dozen-or-so players that looked least hopeless, all of whom were already in college this year:

SP Greg Hall (12/12/13) – BNN #3
SP Steve Jovine (11/13/12)
SP John Hughey (12/12/10) – BNN #1
SP Bryce Schaad (11/13/12) – BNN #9

CL Juan Gallegos (16/12/10)
CL Aaron Palmer (16/15/10)

INF Bubba Wilt (12/11/10) – BNN #5
INF Kevin Finney (15/3/9) – BNN #2
3B/SP Josh Kruse (7/10/11 | 12/11/6)

We didn’t really have any favorites here, because it was entirely likely that only the closers would fall to us at #21.

And the first pick (by the Blue Sox) this year was … not on the hotlist! Okay, that hadn’t happened in a while, but the Sox selected SP Mike Keller with their #1 choice. John Hughey was taken by the Elks at #2, followed by another non-hotlist player, outfielder Greg Gann, going #3 to the Wolves. This continued with two more outfielders going, Isaiah Powell to the Thunder and Tim Doss (who was not even on the shortlist!!) to the Stingers, before #6 was the *second* hotlist selection of the draft, the Falcons taking Steve Jovine. Okay, maybe *we* are off here? (looks at Semchez, who looks just as confused as Honeypaws)

Non-shortlist (!) outfielder Rodolfo Cabrera (Caps) and pitcher Steve Moore (Buffos) followed before the hotlist got some more use, Bryce Schaad and Bubba Wilt filling out the top 10, taken by the Gold Sox and Rebs, respectively. From there, the Knights took Kevin Finney at #13, the Indians picked Greg Hall at #16, and at that point we were down to the closers and Brobeck II. And we’d not even have that much choice: the Elks drafted Juan Gallegos with the #18 pick, and by the #21 pick there was only the closer Aaron Palmer and the two-way Kruse left over. And drafting closers in the first round was daft, but Palmer looked like a future lights-out lefty at least, and Kruse… didn’t. But don’t you worry – Kruse still wasn’t taken by the time our supplemental round selection came around, and of course we hadn’t smartened up by then, either.

+++

2072 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#21) – CL Aaron Palmer, 20, from Baltimore, MD – left-handed groundballer with a toxic slider that has only control issues to iron out.
Supp. Round (#42) – SP/3B Josh Kruse, 20, from New York, NY – two-way player dabbling with six different pitches, and some of them he could even throw for strikes. Had some power, too, but sometimes struggled to make contact at all. Yes we were totally trying to burn that pick for some ill-advised Kyle Brobeck nostalgia (and Kyle Brobeck wasn’t that great to begin with)…
Round 2 (#70) – LF/RF Kevin Hale, 21, from Santa Monica, CA – looks like a rather broadly talented corner outfielder, not especially excelling in any category, but solid-to-good for all the tools you might look for, including potential double-digit home run power.
Round 3 (#94) – SS Andy Close, 21, from Jacksonville, FL – left-handed hitting shortstop with some power and good speed that might actually have more power than glove; a move to second base might be possible and/or advised
Round 4 (#118) – SP Dean Trotter, 19, from Boone, NC – right-hander with six pitches, none of them particularly refined, but a lot of enthusiasm and a good projection
Round 5 (#142) – C/1B Hunter Pace, 18, from Carlstadt, NJ – Semchez sees a solid defensive catcher with the ability to hit for both average and power, and speed on the base paths, but OSA absolutely doesn’t agree
Round 6 (#166) – SP Bill Zych, 18, from Caribou, ME – last in the alphabet, last village in Maine before civilization officially ends, and a very fine curveball on this left-hander; whether he’d find a third pitch nobody was so sure about
Round 7 (#190) – CL Steve Whipple, 20, from Heber-Overgaard, AZ – right-hander with a 92mph fastball and a spiffy curve
Round 8 (#214) – INF Adam Collins, 18, from Chesapeake, VA – great defensive versatility, some speed, and sometimes he even manages to hit a little
Round 9 (#238) – INF/RF/LF Brett Pierce, 18, from Sloatsburg, NY – make it double with another one like that, and this one even dabbled with the corner outfield positions
Round 10 (#262) – CL Frank Bowers, 22, from Brenham, TX – fastball at 90mph, and a slider, and also a great resentment towards physical exercise were the top bullet points on this right-hander
Round 11 (#286) – SP Nick Valentine, 18, from Columbia, SC – throwing all of 86mph, but there really weren’t many left-handers left for our leftover lefties spot here
Round 12 (#310) – SP Dave Berrett, 18, from Stockton, CA – another guy throwing all of 86mph; it’s almost like outlawing snowball fights in Cali in ’43 had a detrimental effect on kids’ arm strength
Round 13 (#334) – INF/LF Bill Denton, 19, from California City, CA – good defender that can’t hit a lick and doesn’t seem to be too bothered about it

+++

Aaron Palmer, despite only being 20 years old, was immediately assigned to AA Ham Lake. The others got sent to Aumsville.

There were not as many departures from the system as usual as we had quite a few injuries in the minors as well right now, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t purge the odd former high-ranking pick.

For pitchers, we released Tom Allen (2068, 11th round), Logan Kerschen (2070, 11th round), Derrick Wilson (2071, 12th round); position players included 2B/SS Bobby Hutchinson (2071, 10th round) and – this was the big one – Benito Otal.

The 28-year-old Otal had been a $22k July IFA signing in 2062 and had spent considerable time in the majors across the last four seasons, but after a strong quarter-season’s worth of batting .287 in 2068 never did anything remotely in that realm and last year hit just .152 in 19 games, and he wasn’t doing any better than that in AAA this year. In 323 major league games, he had batted .262/.299/.348 with 249 hits, 11 homers, and 99 RBI. He also stole 44 bases.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (41-28) @ Loggers (35-34) – June 20-22, 2072

The Raccoons were due another slaughtering by the Loggers and headed to Milwaukee for a 3-game set. Yes we led the season series right now, 4-2, but when does it ever last? The Loggers had the best offense in the CL once more, and they still couldn’t put a pitching staff together that could extinguish a candle, let alone a major league lineup. They had a +23 run differential at least (Raccoons: +4). At least we got the Loggers without their leadoff man Sean Van Leeuwen, who was on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (4-4, 4.66 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (9-4, 3.94 ERA)
Nick Walla (7-2, 3.23 ERA) vs. Julio Robles (3-5, 5.91 ERA)
Steve George (3-1, 2.63 ERA) vs. Colt Long (7-2, 3.53 ERA)

They had three left-handed starters in Loggerland, but we’d only see one in the series finale on Wednesday.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – CF LeVan – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – 3B Gonzales – SS McFarland – C Rivas – 2B Vigil – P Gaytan
MIL: 1B C. Ramirez – 3B Sowards – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – LF Frank – SS Vic. Morales – CF Grass – P Crist

The Raccoons scored a couple runs early, but left even more runners on base; Humph doubled to begin the game and scored on Woodley’s sac fly, and in the third inning Vigil, Humph, and LeVan all hit singles to get another run across before Woodley walked to fill the bases with one out. V.D. struck out and Gonzales grounded out to leave the bases loaded, and in turn Manuel Rodriguez doubled home Cesar Ramirez with a run in the bottom 3rd, in which Gaytan allowed a walk to Ramirez and then two base hits. Fidel Carrera drove a ball into the right-center gap with Carlos Dominguez and Rodriguez in scoring position, but V.D. managed to rush that one down to end the inning. Gaytan went on to hit into a double play after Rivas and Vigil got on base with singles in the fourth inning, and in the fifth pitched a 5-pitch inning to the Loggers… never mind the three long fly ball outs, one to each outfielder. While the team scattered ten hits for only two runs in six innings, Gaytan finally gave up a game-tying homer to Ken Frank in the bottom 6th, and then was hit for to begin the seventh.

Gabriel Rios had a scoreless seventh for Portland before we ran into former Critter Justin Cullum in the top of the eighth. He walked V.D. Morales and McFarland, Rivas hit into a fielder’s choice to put bodies on the corners, and Omar Vigil in his 20th major-league at-bat snapped a 2-out RBI single into leftfield to take a new lead for Portland before the Otter batted for Rios, but grounded out at 3-1. The 3-2 lead went to Jackson in the bottom 8th, who had nothing better to do than to *blow* it, going to three balls on every batter, and ball four on Carrera and Frank for 1-out walks. Ex-Coon Victor Hugo Morales then bashed an RBI double to left, tying the game, and McMahan drilled Adam Grass to load the bases upon replacing Jackson, but then got a double play grounder from David Pavlacka, ending the inning in a 3-3 tie. The Raccoons then didn’t get past a LeVan single in the ninth inning, but McMahan gave up a walkoff homer to Cesar Ramirez in the ninth… 4-3 Loggers. Humphries 2-5, 2B; LeVan 4-5, 2B, RBI; Gonzales 2-4; Rivas 2-4; Vigil 3-4, RBI;

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – RF V.D. Morales – 1B Woodley – SS McFarland – C Rivas – 3B Vigil – P Walla
MIL: 1B C. Ramirez – 3B Sowards – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – LF Frank – SS Vic. Morales – CF Grass – P Ju. Robles

Walla began pitching with a 2-0 lead as the Raccoons opened the game with three straight singles to load the bases, then scored runs on Morales’ groundout and Woodley hitting a sac fly to center. McFarland grounded out to leave LeVan on base. The lead didn’t last, because no lead against these Loggers ever does, and Carlos Dominguez drove in both runs to tie the game, first on a solo homer in the first inning, and then with a sac fly in the third inning after Ramirez and Sowards occupied the corners. The Coons hit into double plays in the second (Vigil) and third (Yocum) innings, then hit *a double* through Woodley in the fourth inning and actually got him home when Rivas lobbed a 2-out single over the head of Vic Morales for a 3-2 lead. That, too, appeared transient after Vic Morales’ leadoff single off Walla in the bottom 4th, and then Grass drew a walk, but Robles bunted a ball back to Walla hard, and Walla started a 1-5-3 double play. He walked Ramirez in a full count then, as the Loggers continued to be rather unimpressed by his offerings, but at least Jesse Sowards rolled over to first and the inning ended.

Top 5th, and Humph doubled and was thrown out at home by Frank on Yocum’s single to left, which didn’t help one bit, but Walla *ached* through six innings on 107 pitches while keeping the skinny 3-2 lead alive. McMahan did little better in the seventh, conceding a leadoff single to Ramirez and walking Rodriguez with two outs. He remained in to face PH Eric Frasher, who singled to left, and Ramirez turned for home, but Humph got his revenge and threw him out at the plate to end this inning. Newhard had a very refreshing 1-2-3 eighth, setting the game up for Pedro Valentin and all assorted drama. Robles went nine innings against the Coons, who emptied the bench against him in the top 9th for two base runners, Gonzales and Brown, and then van Otterdijk struck out to leave them on the corners. Valentin then came in, gave up a single to Pavlacka in the #9 hole, another single to Ramirez, and after Sean McLaughlin grounded out and advanced the runners, a 2-run walkoff single to right to Dominguez. 4-3 Loggers. Humphries 2-3, BB, 2B; Yocum 2-4; Rivas 3-4, RBI; Hamel (PH) 1-1;

(takes a bite out of a game program)

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – C Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P George
MIL: 1B C. Ramirez – 3B Sowards – RF C. Dominguez – C M. Rodriguez – 2B F. Carrera – LF Frank – SS Vic. Morales – CF Grass – P C. Long

Steve George’s happy-go-lucky charm (as opposed to stuff) got him ******* nowhere in the series finale. First of all, there was no lead to blow, although Humph was on base again to begin the first inning; second, the Loggers made some hard outs in the first two innings, then took him apart for a 4-run third inning, socking four hits capped by a Rodriguez homer. The next inning then began with Vic Morales hitting a pop behind Yocum that the defender dropped for an error. George faced four more and gave up hits to all of them as Grass doubled, Long and Ramirez both hit ******* infield singles, and Sowards cranked a double, putting three more runs on the board between all of that. Vinny Morales replaced him and ballooned the meltdown into a 6-run inning with a sac fly, a walk, another double, and I just wanted to melt into the ground at that point. And this was basically the whole ballgame. Garbage man Morales and Rismiller covered the four remaining innings without giving up more runs than were already on the board (and there were plenty), and the Raccoons were completely hopeless at the plate and held to five hits, and only scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning in which Long walked and balked and drilled and threw wild pitches and was all over the ******* place, but the Loggers completed the sweep with an exclamation mark. 10-2 Loggers. Humphries 2-4, 2B, RBI; Rismiller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Raccoons (41-31) vs. Knights (42-30) – June 24-26, 2072

Hey, you know what? Let’s face another top-rated offense! The Knights were *second* in runs scored in the league, and actually had the pitching to match, putting up a +74 run differential, merely 80 runs better than the lousy -6 Coons on almost the same record. The Knights had no speed and a flimsy pen, but we’d never get to that. They hit homers, and they hit homers with guys on base. They had a 2-1 edge in the season series, well on pace to win the season series in Portland this weekend, despite being without outfielders David Mendoza and Eddie Marcotte.

Projected matchups:
Crispino D’Urso (5-4, 3.80 ERA) vs. Andy Canada (6-5, 2.71 ERA)
Jimmy Wharton (7-5, 3.91 ERA) vs. Brett Bebout (7-2, 3.60 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (4-4, 4.54 ERA) vs. Scott Triebwasser (7-6, 5.24 ERA)

Only right-handers in that rotation.

Game 1
ATL: SS Guangorena – 1B DiPrimio – CF J. Soto – C Hart – 2B Ehlers – RF Troxel – 3B J. Munoz – LF X. Contreras – P Canada
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF LeVan – 1B Woodley – RF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P D’Urso

With rain on the way in, Crispy Bear wasted as much time as possible and allowed leadoff singles to Tomas Guangorena in the first and Justin Hart in the second inning, and walked the bags full in the latter inning, but got double play grounders from Kris DiPrimio and Xavier Contreras and allowed no runs. Instead the Raccoons put out three hits between Woodley, Gonzales, and McFarland in the bottom 2nd to get a run home before Crispy struck out. Tom Troxel hurt himself on a throw in that inning and was replaced with Santiago Valdez. Guangorena then hit another single and was doubled up by DiPrimio *again* in the third, but the Raccoons tacked on three runs in the bottom of the third. Humph got on base and stole second, and Yocum and Woodley smacked RBI doubles, and Hamel an RBI single, to get to 4-0 in the bottom 3rd.

Crispy Bear then didn’t get a double play in the fourth inning, and instead got whacked around for three runs of his own. Jorge Soto smacked a double and Joel Ehlers, Valdez, and Contreras added singles. Hamel chipped in a throwing error for good measure. Guangorena led off the fifth inning by walking… and was doubled up by DiPrimio grounding another one to short AGAIN, third time in the contest, with room for more! Valdez hit into a double play after Ehlers singled, and that made for FIVE double plays in six innings against D’Urso…! No double play in the seventh as Cam Jackson struck out the 7-8-9 batters in order. Guangorena was also done doing all the work to get on base, so made an out to begin the eighth against Rismiller, so now DiPrimio singled and was left on base himself. Bottom 8th, Yocum got on base, but was then forced out by LeVan, who stole second. Woodley knocked an RBI double for an insurance run, Hamel found another single to put them on the corners, and then Gonzales hit into… yes, a 6-4-3 double play. Against reason, the Raccoons sent Valentin into the ninth inning with a 2-run lead, and against the odds he got the save despite putting two Knights on base and NOT getting a double play. 5-3 Raccoons. Woodley 3-4, 3 2B, 2 RBI; Hamel 2-4, RBI;

Game 2
ATL: CF J. Soto – SS Guangorena – C Hart – 1B DiPrimio – 2B Ehlers – RF Troxel – 3B J. Munoz – LF S. Valdez – P Bebout
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF Hamel – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Luebbert – P Wharton

Jimmyboy gave up a leadoff double to Jorge Soto on Saturday but then struck out a pair to get out of the first inning without allowing a run. Instead, the Coons scored early again; Humph opened the bottom 1st with a walk, and while Yocum lined out, Woodley and V.D. smacked a pair of RBI doubles for a 2-0 lead. Joel Ehlers’ leadoff jack narrowed that down to 2-1 in the top 2nd, but the Raccoons found Brown and Luebbert singles to begin the bottom of the inning. Jimmy bunted, Bebout plated a run on a wild pitch, and Humph singled through the left side to make it 4-1. A pair of singles narrowly by Ehlers by both Yocum and Woodley then loaded the bases with one out for Morales, who put a 2-1 pitch into play, a horrible roller near the mound, but just past Bebout for an RBI infield single! A K to Hamel and Gonzales’ grounder to short then ended the inning.

Jimmy had a few quick innings then, while Bebout was gone after three frames. Harry Facteau loaded the bases with the 2-3-4 batters in the bottom 4th, but only gave up one run on Hamel’s sac fly, 6-1. In turn, Jimmy turned sour between innings, walked the bags full in the top of the fifth, and gave up a pair on a 2-out single by highly frustrated Tomas Guangorena, 6-3. Hart then grounded out to Woodley as the tying run in a completely messed up game.

Bottom 6th, and the 2-3-4 batters were on base again facing Tim Cropp, who gave up a leadoff double to Yocum and then walked the bags full behind him. Hamel fanned in a full count, Gonzales popped out, but Sam Brown finally got a run in by drawing a walk. Luebbert also crapped out against Cropp, whiffing in a full count as well and leaving another three runners on base. Jimmyboy went 6.1 innings before walking Jorge Munoz and being lifted; Newhard then kept the runner on base. Omar Vigil pinch-hit for Newhard to begin the bottom 7th and dished a double into the right-center gap. Humph walked, and then another three ****** outs were made instead of getting at least one run home as the 2-3-4 went pop, K, pop against lefty Justin Kent.

The Raccoons then asked Vinny Morales for the last six outs with a 4-run lead. He got five, then conceded singles to Munoz and Valdez. When the Knights sent left-hander Grant Anker to pinch-hit, we answered with Rios, and he got a cheap save with a punchout. 7-3 Raccoons. Yocum 3-5, 2B; Woodley 4-5, 2B, RBI; V.D. Morales 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; LeVan (PH) 1-1; Vigil (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Game 3
ATL: SS Guangorena – 1B DiPrimio – CF J. Soto – C Hart – 2B Ehlers – RF Troxel – 3B J. Munoz – LF Anker – P Triebwasser
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Vigil – P Gaytan

Gaytan’s best friend on defense on Sunday was LeVan, who made a strong catch in each of the first three innings, which was one way of saying that the ball was travelling off Gaytan once more. But the Knights didn’t get any runs early on, and they also didn’t get a run when they loaded the bases in the fourth inning, including an intentional walk to Grant Anker to get an inning-ending whiff on the pitcher Triebwasser. The Coons were also not doing anything on offense. Yocum got on base in the first, but was doubled up by Woodley, and that was it for a while.

Both teams had only three hits through five innings, but Joel Ehlers then finally got one outta here with a homer to left in the sixth, giving Atlanta a 1-0 lead. Gaytan continued into the seventh inning, putting DiPrimio and Soto on base with two outs and then leaving for Rismiller. Justin Hart grounded out to bring on the stretch. Triebwasser also left in the seventh, but due to injury.

Rismiller and McMahan both issued a walk in the eighth inning before Dan Eggert hit into another double play and the Knights failed to tack on. The game remained close with Noah Newhard’s 1-2-3 inning against the 1-2-3 in the Knights’ lineup. The top of the order was also up for the Raccoons in the ninth inning, facing Ricardo Montoya, 42-year-old perpetual pitcher. Humph ran a full count and then walked on a ball outside, while Yocum singled to left, so the winning run was on base with nobody out. Woodley singled through the right side, but Humph and the tying run were held at third base against rightfielder Jorge Caceres’ tremendous arm. So, here we were! Three on, nobody out, and even two needed! And Montoya walked in the tying run in another full count against Morales…! Only one more base was needed, and LeVan made it quick and painless with a single through the right side. It’s a walkoff…! 2-1 Blighters. Yocum 3-4; Woodley 2-4; LeVan 2-4, RBI; Gaytan 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K;

In other news

June 21 – DAL 1B Miguel Medina (.273, 5 HR, 23 RBI) has a day at age 41, punching a home run, two doubles, a single, and gets three RBI in a 17-9 shootout win against the Pacifics.
June 21 – Condors OF/1B Matt Pothier (.232, 1 HR, 18 RBI) might miss the rest of the season due to a concussion.
June 24 – A 14-inning game between the Warriors and Cyclones ends 7-4 in the former’s favor on a 3-run walkoff homer by SFW OF Jordan Lopez (.283, 12 HR, 40 RBI), who has three hits, two home runs, and four RBI in total in the game.
June 24 – Condors right-hander Tyler Reed (3-3, 3.93 ERA, 7 SV) is out for the season due to a stretched elbow ligament.
June 25 – The Capitals score in only two innings, but an 11-run third does the trick to beat the Scorpions, 13-7.
June 26 – Cincy acquires INF/LF Carlos Gutierrez (.311, 1 HR, 31 RBI) from the Thunder for two prospects.

Player of the Week (FL): DAL 3B Jon Schomer (.297, 8 HR, 47 RBI), batting .444 (12-27) with 3 HR, 12 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.326, 19 HR, 39 RBI), crunching .556 (15-27) with 5 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The home team won all of our games this week, which made for a 3-3 effort and some long faces. The rest of the division didn’t necessarily do any better.

I can’t wait for this Loggers lineup to turn old and gray and pass out of the league. I am very, very sick of that lineup. (clonks a bucket with some dubious liquid content onto the table)

Three more home games against the Thunder are next, and then we’ll have an 8-game road trip leading to Indy and Elk City. 14 more games with no off day to the All Star Game.

Fun Fact: Edgar Gonzales is second in All Star voting at third base.

He has an 81 OPS+.

Of all the things that are hard to explain, like how we’re 13 games over .500 with a +1 run differential, and how we’re 13 games over .500 without any player with more than five home runs on the year when Cesar Ramirez hit five home runs THIS WEEK, and how we didn’t hit a single homer all week … and not even all week – the last Raccoon to hit a home run was Humphries in the 10th inning in the middle game in Nashville.

That was TWELVE DAYS AGO.

I do not understand this game anymore.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (44-31) vs. Thunder (29-45) – June 27-29, 2072

The Thunder, who had finished last in the South last year for the first time in decades, had started 16-8 in April, but since then had piled up a wretched 13-37 run to plunge into the basement again, just narrowly ahead of the Falcons. They ranked seventh in runs scored, but very much bottoms in runs allowed, 5.7 per game, and had a -103 run differential. The Raccoons had swept them in the first meeting of the season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (7-2, 3.21 ERA) vs. Chris Hale (3-8, 5.82 ERA)
Steve George (3-2, 4.09 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (4-5, 3.98 ERA)
Crispino D’Urso (6-4, 3.86 ERA) vs. Harrison Hunt (5-6, 3.43 ERA)

The Thunder had four left-handed starters assembled, but we’d get the only exception, righty Ray Rath.

Game 1
OCT: CF J. Reyes – SS Maciel – 1B I. Stone – RF A. Gordon – C O. Matos – LF Talavera – 2B Patton – 3B Mabe – P Hale
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B V.D. Morales – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS Vigil – P Walla

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!! – the first hit of the ballgame was a four-piece dinger by Edgar Gonzales with two outs in the bottom 1st, coming after Chris Hale had walked the bags full with Humph, Yocum, and the Otter! That was certainly one way to end a homer drought, but the Coons weren’t done, as Gabe Rivas walked and Omar Vigil doubled, and then Nick Walla smashed a 3-run homer over the wall in leftfield! That was the end for Chris Hale: just two thirds of an inning, seven runs, all earned. Ramon Carreno took over against one of his many old teams, and allowed another run in the second inning after a leadoff double by Yocum and Hamel’s RBI knock that made it 8-0. That was the only run the Coons got off Carreno in 3.1 innings, while Walla was not dominant, and not especially efficient either and didn’t get anywhere near a complete game, but kept the Thunder to a reasonable amount of offense. Mike Mabe and Jon Reyes put two hits together or a third-inning run. Ian Stone mashed his 11th homer of the season in the sixth, but it was a solo job (and still no Coon had more than five on the year). The Raccoons reclaimed that run in the bottom 6th on hits by Hamel and V.D.; and in the eighth inning the Otter would also chip in a 2-out, 2-run double to drive in Humph and V.D. against lefty Randy Nichols. Walla was at 79 pitches through six innings, but then had two quick frames after that and entered the ninth inning having already thrown 103 offerings. Victor Talavera grounded out to Luebbert, giving Yocum a spell by taking over second base, on the first pitch in the ninth, but Shawn Patton singled and the Raccoons then pulled the plug and sent Jackson, who got the game over with. 11-2 Furballs! Yocum 2-3, BB, 2B; Gonzales 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Rivas 2-4, 2B; Walla 8.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (8-2) and 1-4, HR, 3 RBI;

The Raccoons had 11 hits in the game – but every guy in the lineup had at least one.

This was also the first career home run for Walla in 518 at-bats.

Game 2
OCT: CF J. Reyes – SS Maciel – 1B I. Stone – RF A. Gordon – 2B Ang. Flores – LF Talavera – C A. Rivera – 3B Mabe – P Rath
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P George

George was all over the place right out of the gates on Tuesday. He walked Juan Maciel in the first, then was 3-0 before Stone poked and grounded out, which helped him out of the inning, but he then began the second with a walk to Angelo Flores, then nailed Talavera. He got a grounder to short from Arturo Rivera, but McFarland ****** that one for an error, and the bases were loaded with nobody out. George struck out Mabe and the pitcher Rath, but then gave up a 2-out single to right to Reyes, and Morales fired an awkward throw to the infield from there, then – after Maciel grounded out to short to end the inning – did not appear in the box to begin the bottom 2nd as he was replaced by Jack Hamel. He grounded out, but LeVan and Gonzales hit singles, and a run scored when Flores made an error on McFarland’s 2-out grounder. George grounded out for good, so three runs scored in the second inning – all unearned after errors by middle infielders.

George was torn a new bum hole by the Thunder in the third inning, allowing three runs (earned) on four sharp hits, and put Stone and Austin Gordon on the corners with yet more 2-out hits in the fourth inning before being yanked. Flores grounded out to third against Newhard to end the top 4th with a 5-1 score. Bottom 4th, LeVan led off with a triple to center, and Gonzales smacked his second homer in as many days to cut the gap in half. Vigil and Humph hit 2-out singles in the inning, but Yocum popped out to second to end the inning, and the Coons then inserted Vinny Morales for long relief – except that that plan got torpedoed by a 55-minute rain delay after he had pitched one inning. That delay occurred while the Coons had Hamel and LeVan on the corners with one out in the bottom 5th. Rath did not return after the interruption and lefty Randy Nichols’ first pitch after the game resumed was wild and scored Hamel, 5-4. Gonzales lined out, but Rivas tied the game with a double to left. McFarland hit a scratch single, and the Otter batted for Vinny in a bid to gain the lead, but grounded out to end the inning.

So five innings into a soaking wet 5-5 game, the Raccoons had burned their starter, one middle reliever, the long man, and 60% of the bench. Thankfully Walla’s long outing on Monday left plenty of pen available, including Gabriel Rios, another famously failed starter on the roster that could get length. He got five outs in order – then had Luis Silva jump out of the dugout and remove him from the game. With a sigh, I very calmly unscrewed a fresh bottle of Capt’n Coma. Jackson then got four outs after that, keeping the game tied. LeVan had singled his way on base in the bottom 7th, but had been caught stealing. Sam Brown pinch-hit for Jackson with two out and nobody on in the bottom 8th, got drilled, but then left on base by Humph, who flew out to left. Valentin then held the game tied in the ninth, while the Thunder brought in Brad Fails. Yocum led off with a single to center, asked for a double, but got trouble and thrown out at second by Jon Reyes. Woodley walked, but Fales then struck out two and sent the game to extras. Valentin had a 1-2-3 tenth, and McFarland had a 2-out double (actually) against Fales in the bottom of the inning, at which point we used our last body on the bench, Luebbert, who walked. Talavera ran down a Humph fly to left, and the game continued with Rismiller pitching (and only McMahan left). He gave up a leadoff single to Rivera, who got run for by Eduardo Zambrano to no avail as the Coons’ righty rizzed two of the next three batters, and the Thunder then had to send Oscar Matos in to catch afterwards, emptying their bench as well. He oversaw the end of the game as Yocum singled off Luis Ramirez, advanced on Woodley’s groundout, and then scored from second on Hamel’s single to right-center. 6-5 Critters. Yocum 3-6; Hamel 2-6, RBI; LeVan 4-5, 3B; Gonzales 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; McFarland 2-5, 2B, RBI; Vigil (PH) 1-1; Valentin 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

V.D. had a sore wrist and would be day-to-day for a couple of days at least. No news were available on Rios on Wednesday, and with no off day coming anytime soon, the Raccoons made a roster move and sent Omar Vigil (.258, 0 HR, 3 RBI) back to St. Petersburg to bring up a spare arm in lefty David Delgado, the only rested option on the 40-man roster in AAA, and chose to go with a 3 1/2 man bench for the series finale rather than risk run out of pitching behind Crispy Bear. Delgado had made one appearance earlier this year for a 6.75 ERA.

Game 3
OCT: CF J. Reyes – SS Maciel – 1B I. Stone – RF A. Gordon – 2B Ang. Flores – C A. Rivera – LF J. Evans – 3B Mabe – P Hunt
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P D’Urso

Gordon and Rivera reached against D’Urso in the second inning, but he got a couple of groundouts to strand those runners, and instead the Raccoons scored first in the series finale; Rivas drew a leadoff walk, even though he was then forced out on a bad bunt by the pitcher. Humph also walked, and Yocum, who had hit into a double play when Humph had reached base to begin the bottom 1st, then stuck a 2-out triple into the rightfield corner. Hamel then flew out.

Crispy Bear allowed just two hits and two walks in the first five innings, but back-to-back singles to Reyes and Maciel to put the tying runs on the corners with nobody out in the sixth, and that was before Maciel stole second. Stone lined out to first, which actually gave some room for hope that the Coons could maintain the lead, and Gordon struck out. McFarland contained Flores’ hard bouncer and played it to first in time to extricate Crispy Bear from second-and-third, nobody out, without conceding any run. Woodley doubled the lead to 4-0 with a 2-run homer to left in the bottom 6th, going deep after a Hamel single.

Crispy went 7.2 innings on 108 pitches, all in shutout fashion. The Coons then double-switched in Luebbert at third along with the spare Delgado against the left-handed Stone, who fanned to end the eighth, and Gordon, who homered off the rookie to set up a save situation to begin the ninth. Since Valentin had pitched two innings the day before and Jackson had been engaged in both of the last two games, Rismiller got the ball for that one. He gave up a 1-out double to Rivera, but otherwise completed the sweep against the dead-eyed Thunder. 4-1 Raccoons. Humphries 1-2, 2 BB; Luebbert (PH) 1-1; D’Urso 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (7-4);

The Crusaders had lost two and the Indians had lost one game in their midweek series, so the Raccoons traveled to Indy as division leaders by half a game. All three teams had a real chance to lead the division by Sunday night.

Raccoons (47-31) @ Indians (46-31) – June 30-July 3, 2072

Indy led the season series, 4-3, and would try to make their #5 offense and #3 pitching work against the Raccoons. They had a +45 run differential (Portland: +14). The rotation was better than the bullpen, but there were no real weaknesses about this team, and not even any injuries, while the Raccoons arrived still with a 23 1/2-man roster.

Projected matchups:
Jimmy Wharton (8-5, 3.94 ERA) vs. Pablo Apodaca (5-7, 3.79 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (4-4, 4.30 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (9-3, 3.53 ERA)
Nick Walla (8-2, 3.13 ERA) vs. Willie Castellanos (8-4, 3.82 ERA)
Steve George (3-2, 4.34 ERA) vs. Jorge Flores (6-2, 3.27 ERA)

Apodaca was the third southpaw of the week for the Raccoons, but also the last one.

Game 1
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – CF Hamel – 1B Woodley – RF van Otterdijk – 3B Gonzales – C Rivas – SS McFarland – P Wharton
IND: 2B W. Richmond – LF Marazzo – CF Hilario – 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – C A. Morris – RF T. Torres – 1B Ma. Rogers – P Apodaca

Why Matt Rogers and his 13 homers were batting eighth was best answered by the Indians, while the Coons got a double from Humph to begin the game and then produced nothing in the next three plate appearances to waste that runner. Nate Marazzo took Jimmyboy deep to left for a 1-0 Indy lead in the bottom 1st instead, but the Coons unpacked five hits to barely score two 2-out runs in the second to flip the score around. The Otter led off with a single, but was doubled up by Gonzales and his grounder to Walter Richmond. Three straight singles by the 7-8-9 batters then tied the game, and Humph hit an RBI double, but Yocum grounded out to short, leaving a pair in scoring position. Jimmy then walked Andy Morris, allowed a double to Tony Torres, blew the 2-1 lead on Rogers’ RBI groundout, and was down 3-2 after Apodaca hit a 2-out RBI single…..

Jimmy got no strikeouts through five innings, while Apodaca whiffed six, and got around the two walks to Hamel and Woodley he issued in the fifth inning and maintained the 3-2 lead, but the sixth began with a Gonzales single and Brown doubling to left-center, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. McFarland was walked intentionally here to bring up Jimmy with the bases loaded and nobody out. He struck out, but that was as far as the Indians got with their fiendish plan. Apodaca tied the game himself with a wild pitch, walked Humph, and then gave up a 2-run single to right to Yocum and was yanked. Yocum stole second, but Justin Esch struck out Hamel and got Woodley to turn it over to second base to end the inning.

The 5-3 lead survived Jimmyboy walking Jose Hilario and allowing a single to Fernando Valadez in the bottom 6th, and saw off Torres and Rogers, lefty hitters, in the bottom 7th, all without getting a K in the game, then was relieved after 101 pitches. Newhard and LeVan entered in a double switch that also ended the Otter’s day, got an out from PH Alex Gomez, and then Humph homered to extend the lead to 6-3 in the top of the eighth. Luebbert pinch-hit for Woodley and walked in the ninth, and V.D. pinch-hit for Newhard and singled, but then got doubled up by Gonzales. Brown’s groundout kept the runner at third and Valentin got the save chance, but the pinch-hitters remained in the game, taking to the corners, as V.D. notably stayed in at first base.

Oh, going back to the first question of why Matt Rogers and his 13 homers were batting eighth – that was so he could hit a 3-run homer off Valentin after our bum of a closer walked Valadez and Torres in the bottom 9th. The game went to extras from there, tied at six, and with the Coons out-hitting the Arrowheads, 12-4, for ***** sake. Vinny Morales got the ball, had a clean tenth, but got no offensive support, and then nailed Valadez, walked Torres, and gave up a walkoff single to ******* Matt Rogers in the bottom of the 11th inning. 7-6 Indians. Humphries 3-5, BB, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; V.D. Morales (PH) 1-2; Brown 3-5, 2B;

After 160 conversions and 27 times of ******** the bed in the brown hat, this was Valentin’s and his 6.75 ERA’s last blown save. The Raccoons went to closing by committee from here … unless they could find a free closer to trade for in the next 31 days.

Rios’ injury report came back as “back tightness”, and the old man (30) would be day-to-day for the rest of this extremely critical series.

Game 2
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – CF LeVan – RF Hamel – C Rivas – SS McFarland – 3B Luebbert – P Gaytan
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – 2B W. Richmond – RF T. Torres – C A. Morris – LF Marazzo – P V. Perez

Gaytan pitched positively infuriating, and allowing a leadoff double to Matt Martin in the bottom 1st and then somehow stranding the runner despite a 2-out walk to Rogers was already included in the “positive” part there. To begin the bottom 2nd he’d drill Tony Torres with a 1-2 pitch, then walked Marazzo after Morris popped out. Marazzo got himself caught stealing on an 0-2 ball to Perez, who then turned that count around to draw a 2-out walk … but Martin grounded out to short and the Indians ultimately left them on the corners again. Torres then doubled and Marazzo homered in the fourth inning to give the Indians a 2-0 lead after all. Martin and Hilario both singled and individually stole second base in the fifth inning, and Martin scored on Hilario’s knock to extend that lead to 3-0 against entirely hapless Raccoons.

The Coons did not make a stir until the seventh inning when LeVan led off with a single and Hamel hit a long fly to right that ended up with Torres at the fence. Rivas singled, but then was forced out on McFarland’s fielder’s choice grounder. Luebbert, of all people, then hit an RBI double to right, but with the tying runs in scoring position, two gone, and V.D. Morales pinch-hitting, the Indians sent the lefty Ryan Croft, who rung up Morales to quell the uprising. Jackson got two outs and Delgado got four despite being behind in almost every count after that, but the Raccoons went down meekly in the last innings and the heroics were all for naught. 3-1 Indians. LeVan 2-4; Rivas 2-4; Luebbert 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

Delgado (0-0, 6.00 ERA) was sent back to St. Pete after this game and we brought back Ramon Mata for a change. V.D. was back in the lineup on Saturday at least…

Game 3
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS McFarland – P Walla
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – RF T. Torres – C A. Morris – 2B C. Pena – LF Marazzo – P W. Castellanos

Walla struck out the first three batters he faced, but then nobody else for a while, whilst the Raccoons had only one hit the first time through, but that was a Gonzales homer that tied him for the pathetic team lead of five, and gave the Raccoons a 1-0 lead. The second time through the brown team also got only one hit, a Gonzales single, but Walla scattered only three singles to carry the 1-0 score through five innings, ending the bottom 5th with a K to Castellanos, his first since getting Martin and Valadez in the first inning. Woodley hit a leadoff double in the sixth to prove that somebody other than Edgar Gonzales was still carrying a stick… and then was stranded at second base.

The whole thing blew up in the bottom 6th; Valadez and Hilario hit 1-out singles, and then Rogers’ fly to center wasn’t reached in time by LeVan and fell for an RBI double. Torres’ single and a fielding error by Humph cost two more runs. Walla drew a walk in the seventh against Croft and was driven in by Yocum with a 2-out single (Yocum was then caught stealing to end the inning), but ended up giving up a leadoff triple to Marazzo and surrendered the run on a groundout by J.P. Jack, departing the game down 4-2. McMahan finished the inning, and Woodley led off the eighth with a single. Morales’ long fly to center was caught by Hilario, but LeVan singled to right to put the tying run on base. Justin Esch came in, got a fielder’s choice grounder from Gonzales, but gave up an RBI single to Brown through the left side, 4-3. Hamel batting for a hit- and hopeless McFarland took Walla off the hook, as he snapped a single into shallow center to tie the game. The Otter batted for McMahan, but flew out to Torres in right, leaving two on.

Torres hit a double off Newhard in the bottom 8th, but got no support and was left at second base. Humph flew out against Josh C(arrington) to begin the ninth, but the righty then walked Yocum, who stole second successfully this time, and then also Woodley. Yocum then gunned for third base to force the issue – but was thrown out by Jack. The game went to extras after a scoreless inning by Rismiller. LeVan singled off Josh C in the tenth… and then was caught stealing.

A bit of futile poking later, Vinny Morales got the ball for the bottom 11th and faced reliever Jason Rhodes in the #7 hole to begin the inning, as the Indians were out of bench players (the Coons still had Luebbert). Rhodes singled, because of course he did, then was forced out at second on Richmond’s comebacker to Vinny. Richmond stole second (…), then got to third on Jack’s groundout. Matt Martin ended the game with a walkoff knock into the rightfield corner. 5-4 Indians. Woodley 2-4, BB, 2B; LeVan 2-4, BB; Gonzales 2-5, HR, RBI; Hamel (PH) 1-1, RBI; Rismiller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Lotsa innings, little return.

Game 4
POR: LF Humphries – 2B Yocum – 1B Woodley – RF V.D. Morales – CF LeVan – 3B Gonzales – C Brown – SS Luebbert – P George
IND: 3B Ma. Martin – SS Valadez – CF Hilario – 1B Ma. Rogers – RF T. Torres – C A. Morris – 2B C. Pena – LF Marazzo – P Jo. Flores

Humph played in the game for a minute, enough to hit a triple and sprain an ankle on an awkward slide, then hobbled off with Luis Silva and was replaced with van Otterdijk. Yocum popped out, Woodley walked, and Morales got the blood-stained run home with fielder’s choice grounder, barely. The Otter went deep to left the first time he came to bat in the third inning, which was his sixth and set a new team high – what a milestone to have after EIGHTY-TWO GAMES. And Steve George then ****** the 2-0 lead away in the same inning, starting with a leadoff double by the opposing ******* pitcher. Martin grounded out to short, but Valadez and Hilario smashed RBI hits to tie the game before Hilario also hurt himself running the bases and was replaced with Rafael Valencia. The former Critter had a busy fifth, dropping a George fly ball for an error, but that didn’t lead to a run, and then hit a single off George in the bottom of the fifth, but that didn’t lead to a run either, somehow.

The game continued with V.D. and Morris having bids for the fence in left in the sixth inning, but both had their drives caught at the wall by the other team’s leftfielder. Gonzales hit a single that didn’t lead anywhere nice in the seventh, and George somehow got through that many innings before being pinch-hit to begin the eighth against Flores. Hamel grounded to short, but Valadez’ bobble allowed him to reach on an error. He advanced on the Otter’s groundout, then hustled home from second on Yocum’s single to right-center, and the Raccoons had a new 3-2 lead. Woodley singled, but V.D. flew out to left. LeVan found the space between Valencia and Marazzo, though, and dropped in an RBI double with two outs. The inning ended with Flores K’ing Gonzales.

Up 4-2, the Raccoons used Valentin for ONE out from Valencia in the bottom 8th, then sent Rios and his back complaint against the 4-5 batters, resulting in Rogers singling, but Torres punched out. Jackson then came in for a 4-out save, hopefully, and got Morris to ground out to get out of the inning for a start. The Raccoons found 2-out singles with Hamel and the Otter in the ninth inning, but Yocum couldn’t get the runners home for some insurance, and so it was on Jackson to figure the rest of this game out against the bottom of the order. He rung up Pena and Marazzo, then allowed a single to Jack, then walked Martin, and then left the game as the Raccoons wanted McMahan against the left-handed Valadez – and a pop to first from the shortstop won them a singular game in this series. 4-2 Coons. Humphries 1-1, 3B; van Otterdijk 2-4, HR, RBI; George 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (4-2);

In other news

June 27 – The Knights beat the Canadiens, 9-8 in 13 innings, after both teams score a run in the 12th, and the Canadiens score another run in the top of the 13th that gets answered, double, by the Knights. VAN INF Roberto Barraza (.273, 1 HR, 32 RBI) clips five singles and drives in two runs for the best day by any player in the game.
June 28 – VAN INF Roberto Barraza (.284, 1 HR, 33 RBI) puts out five hits for the second straight day, including three doubles, in a 16-6 takedown of the Knights.
June 28 – IND OF Jose Hilario (.286, 6 HR, 49 RBI) has five hits, including a homer and two RBI, to beat the Falcons, 12-6.
June 28 – The Capitals send LF/RF/1B Mike Meyer (.247, 6 HR, 31 RBI) to the Miners in exchange for veteran INF/RF/CF Jeff Maudlin (.238, 2 HR, 25 RBI) and #195 prospect SS Ramon Fernandez.
July 1 – Warriors 3B/RF/2B Matt Roller (.243, 6 HR, 30 RBI) drives in six runs on two hits, including a slam, in a 13-2 rout of the Stars.
July 2 – Dallas RF Dave Wright (.343, 11 HR, 44 RBI) could miss three weeks with shoulder soreness.

Player of the Week (FL): SFW OF Jordan Lopez (.300, 14 HR, 45 RBI), shooting .483 (14-29) with 2 HR, 5 RBI
Player of the Week (CL): VAN INF Roberto Barraza (.290, 1 HR, 33 RBI), spraying .586 (17-29) with 3 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SAC 3B Rick Healey (.296, 9 HR, 51 RBI), bashing .375 with 6 HR, 30 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.326, 19 HR, 40 RBI), smashing .387 with 9 HR, 16 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SAL SP Jimmy Nelson (11-2, 2.03 ERA), going 4-0 with a 1.90 ERA, 32 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: IND CL Josh Carrington (4-2, 4.71 ERA, 19 SV), pitching for a 3-2 mark, 3.45 ERA, 8 SV, and 13 K
FL Rookie of the Month: RIC 1B/RF Ryan Gasparik (.266, 6 HR, 22 RBI), batting .309 with 4 HR, 15 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL LF/RF Ken Frank (.272, 11 HR, 37 RBI), poking .295 with 5 HR, 19 RBI

Complaints and stuff

This team.

So Humph will go back to the DL with the sprained ankle, which is gonna cost him at least three weeks. Never mind that the middle of the order isn’t great anyway, but now the top of the order is also done in again.

More playing time for team slugger George van Otterdijk, leading this outfit with SIX homers as we’re now officially into the second half of the season.

So. That’s that. No leadoff man, no closer, no power. Katz might start rehab once more next week, so maybe we can get six more games outta him at some point before he suffers another dislimberment…!

The July IFA pool opened and the Raccoons have already signed a Mexican right-hander, Danny Raya, for $65k, but the one player we’re really after is a 16-year-old Venezuelan shortstop, Felipe Salinas. He looks like he can bat for both average and power, and is above-average for speed and defense, although he might do better at second base since the throwing arm was not the greatest. Since he was 6’1’’ a move to first base was not completely unreasonable. The asking price had started at $1M, which was already over the soft cap, and was already pretty close to our budget space.

Four games in Elk City, which will be horrible, and then the Raccoons will be at home for 17 straight days across the All Star Game, hosting the Crusaders, Elks, Loggers, and Aces for a total of 13 games.

Fun Fact: Ramon Carreno, a $24k signing in the 2051 July IFA period, has pitched for seven different teams in a 16-year career.

The first two those were as a rather successless Raccoons starter, going 13-24 with a 4.79 ERA across the 2057-2059 seasons before being included in a package to L.A. that brought in catcher Angel Perez and Jack Kozak at the mystery position. He went through a few lean seasons and AAA stints with L.A. before being sent to Indy, where he was a fairly competent starter in the mid-60s, although he led the CL in homers allowed twice and then had a horrendous 4-21 season with a 4.59 ERA in ’65. H also pitched for the Crusaders and Loggers (twice).

For his career, he was 124-154 with a 4.16 ERA and three saves in a career spanning 491 games, 383 starts, 2,461 innings, and 1,376 strikeouts. That might be the end of it, given that after the Thunder series, he was found out to be pitching with a tear in his rotator cuff and was headed for surgery. The 37-year-old would be out for 12 months, and whether he’d come back was questionable.