Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-17) vs. Cyclones (14-17) – May 11-13, 2060

The homestand opened facing the #1 offense in the Federal League, along with the #4 pitching staff. Somehow that added up to a +36 run differential and sitting three games under .500 for the Cyclones, who looked just as confused as I was. This series had last been played two years ago. The Raccoons had lost the last two meetings with the Cyclones, both times two games to one. Regular third baseman Matt Ruskin was out on the DL for Cincy.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (3-2, 3.26 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (2-2, 3.58 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (2-0, 2.27 ERA) vs. Luis Palacios (1-2, 2.84 ERA)
Zach Stewart (2-3, 4.93 ERA) vs. Cameron Parks (3-3, 3.83 ERA)

Palacios was the only southpaw we’d face in this series, in the middle game on Wednesday. After a day off on Monday, we’d play the 13 games on this homestand without another day off, so everybody could expect at least one day off in the course of it all.

Game 1
CIN: 3B A. Duncan – 2B J. Sanchez – SS Monck – RF MacDonnell – 1B Saulsberry – C Fink – LF Puckeridge – CF M. Cooke – P Chalmers
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Suriel – P DeRose

The Cyclones had four hits before the Raccoons had any, but scattered them across three innings and didn’t get close to scoring. Alan Puckeridge received a warm welcome back in Portland (Manny Cooke less so), and grounded out with Brycen Fink on base in the second inning to help the Cyclones not score any early runs. Instead, DeRose and Joey Christopher hit back-to-back doubles in the third inning to give the Raccoons a 1-0 lead. Cooke got a single for Cincy in the fifth, but was doubled up by Chalmers on a bad bunt. Jordan Sanchez’ loud leadoff double in the sixth looked like trouble, especially with five straight left-handed batters coming up after that against DeRose, but Rich Monck popped out, John MacDonnell walked, Marquise Saulsberry flew out to Christopher, and Fink flew out to Caswell to again prevent the Cyclones from scoring. The bottom of the order made three loud outs against DeRose in the seventh, with Pucks sending a ball flying all the way to the warning track, but Christopher got there to make a catch. The Cyclones continued to make loud outs in the eighth while the Coons’ skinny 1-0 lead feared for its life. Adam Duncan hit a deep fly out, and then DeRose’s day ended on a 2-out single to center hit by Rich Monck. The Raccoons went to Ricky Herrera, who was met by righty PH Jerry Morales, who worked a walk. Marcos Onelas was another right-handed pinch-hitter, but now we went to Ryan Sullivan. Onelas hit a fly to deep right, but this one also came down with Christopher on the warning track and ended the inning. The Raccoons’ pinch-hitters helped them to load the bases in the bottom 8th, with nobody out, as Nick Fowler doubled for Suriel, Joe Agee drew a walk, and then Christopher’s single to left filled them up against first Chalmers, then Ernesto Rios. Lonzo dinked a 3-2 pitch into shallow left for an RBI single, but Cas’ grounder to third base was tailor-made for a 5-2-3 double play. Nick Nye came through with an RBI single to center, though, before Starr flew out to Pucks. Matt Walters struck out the first two batters he faced in the ninth, Cooke hit a single (!?), but Jose Garza then struck out to end the opener. 3-0 Raccoons. Christopher 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Lavorano 2-4, RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1, 2B; DeRose 7.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (4-2) and 1-2, 2B;

And then, no Palacios on Wednesday. Cameron Parks was moved up into the middle game.

Game 2
CIN: 3B A. Duncan – LF J. Garza – 2B Onelas – RF MacDonnell – C J. Morales – 1B Saulsberry – CF M. Cooke – SS J. Sanchez – P Parks
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Gonzales – P Riddle

Cincy found the scoreboard first on Wednesday, loading the bases with singles from MacDonnell and Morales, and a walk drawn by Saulsberry, in the top of the second inning before being held to one run on Manny Cooke’s sac fly. Riddle didn’t show much finesse and didn’t miss many bats in this start, and relied on the defense to make things right for him. While that mostly worked out, give or take a fifth-inning run scored by the Cyclones through singles by Jordan Sanchez and Adam Duncan, the other side of the box score with the Raccoons’ offensive heroics was just an absolute wasteland. Through five innings we had one pitiful base hit, an Angel Perez single, and one walk drawn by Starr, and hadn’t been remotely close to scoring a run.

Joe-Chris drew a walk with one down in the bottom 6th, and Lonzo quickly followed up with a single, so the tying runs were at least on base for once. Cas and Nye both popped out to a middle infielder, though, to ensure the tying runs remained on base. In turn, Riddle was torn to nothing but shreds in the seventh inning, facing four batters and giving up four increasingly loud base hits, starting with a Saulsberry single. Cooke (!) and Sanchez bashed RBI doubles, and even the pitcher chimed in with an RBI single by Parks that whizzed up the middle. The response by the Raccoons was … non-existent. They laid down and took it, and didn’t reach base again in the last three innings… 5-0 Cyclones.

Cameron Parks finished the game with a 2-hit shutout, which was very nice for Cameron Parks.

Noah Caswell meanwhile was 2-for-36 in his last 11 games and got a day off rather early in this string of games… This was despite no left-hander showing up; the Cyclones instead went with right-hander Bob Ruggiero (2-3, 2.91 ERA).

Game 3
CIN: 3B A. Duncan – LF J. Garza – 2B Onelas – RF MacDonnell – C J. Morales – 1B Saulsberry – CF M. Cooke – SS Wartella – P Ruggiero
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Maresh – CF Caballero – 3B Fowler – P Stewart

More of the same in the rubber game. The Raccoons couldn’t get a bloody thing going early on, while the Cyclones scored a run in the second on Saulsberry’s double and a Matt Wartella single, then another run in the next inning, which was unearned thanks to a throwing error by Nick Fowler that put Garza on second base, from where he swiftly scored on Onelas’ single to center. The Raccoons bled singles left and right, and didn’t reach base safely even once the first time through the order themselves. This did not include Joe-Chris getting nailed to put him on in the bottom 1st. He was duly stranded. Nick Nye reached base on an error in the fourth inning, but was stranded by Brassfield, and the Raccoons remained hitless until Lonzo dropped a double into right-center in the sixth inning and was also strictly stranded as quickly as feasible.

Stewart lasted only six laborious innings of 7-hit, 2-run ball on 101 pitches, lacking stuff and barely getting as much defense as he needed to not get wiped out early. Bravo held the Cyclones close in the seventh, giving up only a 1-out single to Duncan. Brassfield then dropped a single into leftfield to begin the bottom 7th, and was moved into scoring position when Maresh drew a walk behind him in a full count. Caballero struck out, but Nick Fowler dropped a ball into shallow right that MacDonnell dove for, missed, and then had to chase backwards while the Raccoons scored a run (hh!!) and moved a pair of runners into scoring position on the single and error. Angel Perez batted for Bravo, popped out uselessly, and then Christopher drew a walk, which in itself wasn’t very helpful with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Lonzo batted with nowhere to put ‘em and two outs, but flew out rather easily to MacDonnell…

The very next pitch thrown by Ruggiero then became a game-tying homer hit by Joel Starr in the bottom 8th, but he of course batted with nobody on base. Ricky Herrera had at least put together a 1-2-3 eighth to keep the Cyclones within reach. Maybe Ricky Herrera’s black devil magic was doing something here, because not only did the Raccoons get Brass on base with a 1-out single, but Adam Duncan also threw away Maresh’s grounder for two bases, putting another pair in scoring position. Oscar Caballero had the best shot to get the go-ahead run home, but his fly to Chris Anzo in shallow left wasn’t getting anything done. That left Nick Fowler, who faced Ernesto Rios, and shoved the first ball through the right side for a 2-out, 2-run single. Offense…! Wheee…! Caswell then batted for Ricky Herrera, on his way to sneaking another W, and suddenly bopped a 2-run homer to right. That was it for the 5-run inning; Ryan Sullivan held the Cyclones short in the ninth to take the series. 6-2 Critters. Brassfield 2-4; Fowler 2-3, BB, 3 RBI; Caswell (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

Ricky Herrera was now up to 3-0, and DeRose was the only starter on the roster with more wins (four).

Raccoons (17-18) vs. Titans (18-15) – May 14-16, 2060

From the #1 offense in the FL (which didn’t score *that* many runs against the Raccoons) to the bottom-ranked offense in the CL, with the Titans scoring under 3.6 runs per game. Now, they were also allowing the fewest runs – with a -1 run differential – so the Raccoons, a whopping 11th in runs scored in the CL, might have more scoring issues here. Boston, without Matt Gilmore and with an ailing Manny Rubin on the roster, led the season series, 2-1.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (3-3, 6.07 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (3-2, 3.00 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-5, 4.03 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (3-2, 2.44 ERA)
Justin DeRose (4-2, 2.61 ERA) vs. Jayden Craddock (4-2, 2.87 ERA)

Only righty opposition scheduled here.

Game 1
BOS: CF Marcotte – SS J. Watson – 1B Leitch – RF Lloyd – LF Y. Valdez – C Burkart – 3B Elkins – 2B W. de Leon – P Brenize
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 1B Agee – 3B Suriel – P Fox

Chance Fox sucked, and there was no way to talk it nice. Jonathan Watson and Alan Leitch reached before Ted Lloyd socked a 3-run homer in the first inning, and he nailed Jon Elkins and Eddie Marcotte before walking Watson and giving up two more runs on a Leitch single in the second. He didn’t get out of the third inning at all; Bruce Burkart doubled, Willie de Leon singled him home, 6-0, and a walk to Brenize did his head in for good. Alex Rios walked Marcotte before whiffing Watson and getting outta there. Rios and Harris were then put in the crusher in the fourth inning, giving up four more runs between them. Adam Harris was then burned in the middle innings and put on the very next bus going down I-5, while Ruben Mendez started the seventh inning by nicking PH Jim Auld, and went to allowing three RBI knocks facing Leith, Lloyd, and Valdez from there. The rout was not complete, though, until Bruce Burkart hit a 2-out, 2-run homer off Bravo in the ninth inning.

For bright sides, Armando Suriel got his first major league hit with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, which told you a thing or two about how well the offense was going once again. And, oh yeah, he was also stranded. It was one of five hits the Raccoons cobbled together in this game, three of them coming in the last inning, which Trent Brassfield “crowned” (?) with a 2-out, 3-run homer off ex-Coon Mike Lane that I wished he would have saved for tomorrow. 15-3 Titans. Fowler (PH) 1-1; Brassfield 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Suriel 1-2, BB;

Good news for Boston: they were no longer bottoms in runs scored.

“Peppers” Harris (0-0, 1.80 ERA) threw 36 pitches before being demoted again. He took Joe Agee (0-for-5, nada, nada) right with him. Jack Kozak returned, having batted 10-24 with two homers in just six games in St. Petersburg, and Bobby Sneeze was brought up just to soak up some innings. He had a 1.42 ERA in St. Pete.

Game 2
BOS: CF Marcotte – 2B J. Watson – C Arviso – 1B Abecassis – LF Y. Valdez – RF Lloyd – 3B W. de Leon – SS Leitch – P Musgrave
POR: RF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – LF Kozak – 3B Suriel – P B. Herrera

The relentless Titans offense (cough! cough!) put a 3-spot on Bobby Herrera right in the first inning, starting with a Watson double and a walk drawn by Jorge Arviso. Alex Abecassis’ RBI double, Yoslan Valdez’ RBI groundout, and Ted Lloyd’s RBI single then brought in the three runs in order before Willie de Leon struck out. But don’t you worry, it got well worse, and fast, from there, as Trent Brassfield began the bottom 1st with a single to left, then broke a finger sliding into second on a confused hit-and-run with Lonzo in which he was nevertheless forced out thanks to the spanker at Leitch that Lonzo had hit. Brass was out of the game (and for a while) and was replaced with Caballero. Lonzo was then caught stealing.

Starr then opened the second inning with a single to center, but was doubled up by Perez. Suriel and Caballero hit singles to go to the corners in the third inning, but Lonzo hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Starr drew a 2-out walk in the bottom 4th, then tried to go to third base on a Perez single to left-center, but was thrown out by Marcotte.

While all that **** was going on, Bobby Herrera pitched five halfway decent innings after the baffling first, giving up one more run along the way when Lloyd doubled home Valdez, but apart from that the Titans contained themselves, for it was reasonable for them to believe that they had all the offense they’d ever need. The Titans added a run in the seventh inning on Bobby Sneeze (gesundheit!), who couldn’t get through the inning and put Marcotte and Watson on base with two outs, Ricky Herrera, who gave up the RBI single to Arviso, but also Kozak, who dropped an Arviso pop in foul ground that could have, should have ended the inning. At that point the Raccoons were still looking for ways to get on the scoreboard that didn’t involve bribery of or outright violence against officials. They did so in the bottom 8th, when Cas drove home Lonzo for a pity run, and Joel Starr hit a home run off Josh Carlisle in the ninth inning, but the Raccoons managed to fall well short. 5-2 Titans. Brassfield 1-1; Caballero 3-3; Caswell 2-3, RBI; Starr 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Christopher (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Funny part: we actually, somehow, out-hit the Titans, 13-8. I can’t even… explain… hoooow…

With a broken claw in a ghastly-looking splint for at least a month, Trent Brassfield went on the DL and took the team-leading 146 OPS+ (among regulars) with him. With rehab, he wasn’t expected back before July.

Ben Morris was batting .312/.400/.464 in 30 games with the Alley Cats and was brought up. There was for sure a spot in leftfield which he could have fights over with Kozak and Caballero now…

Game 3
BOS: CF Marcotte – 2B J. Watson – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – LF Y. Valdez – RF Lloyd – 3B W. de Leon – SS Leitch – P Craddock
POR: RF Christopher – SS Fowler – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – C Perez – LF Morris – 3B Gonzales – P DeRose

Jonathan Watson struck out twice … in the first inning. Which already told you a bit of a spoiler as to who completed a series sweep on Sunday, as the Titans, despite starting with two strikeouts against DeRose, still managed to ravage him for a 5-spot by putting eight straight men on base. Arviso single, Rubin double, Valdez single, Lloyd reached on an error (which would be the only thing that kept DeRose’s ERA somewhat nice) by Gonzales, de Leon singled, Leitch walked, CRADDOCK SINGLED, and Marcotte drew another walk before Watson left the ******* bases loaded.

To anybody’s surprise, the Raccoons got three 2-out hits from Starr (single), Nye (double), and Cas (2-run single) to make up *some* of the damage in the bottom 1st, but only for the Raccoons to fudge it all up even harder in the top 2nd. Rubin and Valdez had 1-out knocks against DeRose and were in scoring position when Fowler fumbled Lloyd’s grounder for another error. One run scored there, and an extra run on de Leon’s grounder to Nye. Leitch grounded out to strand a guy in the … (sigh) … 7-2 game. Morris and Gonzales hit leadoff singles to begin the bottom 2nd. DeRose, who could not be disposed of this early and still somehow finish the game with pitchers alive and having arms attached, bunted the runners into scoring position, Christopher whiffed, but Nick Fowler pushed another 2-out, 2-run single to right to narrow the score to 7-4.

But nothing helped, and DeRose was bludgeoned out of the game after all in the fourth inning on four more base hits by Arviso and Rubin with leadoff singles, and after Valdez’ groundout a 2-run single by Lloyd and an RBI double off the wall mashed by de Leon. That made it… well, a whole lotta runs on the board, and in all the wrong places. The Raccoons burned Ruben Mendez for two innings and small change, then went to Bobby Sneeze in the seventh inning again. Sneeze (gesundheit!) was immediately lit up with Alan Leitch’s leadoff jack wrapped around the pole in leftfield, 11-4 or something, then failed the bags full after that and allowed two more runs to score on a Rubin single. Sneeze pitched the eighth as well, until he was blue in the face, and Alex Rios added a scoreless ninth. So did Mike Lane for Boston after eight by Craddock. 13-4 Titans. Fowler 2-4, 2 RBI; Gonzales 2-3, BB; Mendez 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

In other news

May 11 – The Bayhawks might be without LF Grant Anker (.278, 5 HR, 15 RBI) for two months after the 23-year-old suffered an oblique strain.
May 12 – WAS 2B Joo-chan Lee (.270, 0 HR, 13 RBI) will miss three weeks with a back strain.
May 15 – Blue Sox catcher David Johnson (.323, 6 HR, 26 RBI) will be sorely missed by the Nashville ballclub for at least a month after suffering a broken thumb.
May 15 – SAC RF/CF Will Buras (.315, 7 HR, 21 RBI) leads off the first inning for Sacramento with a home run, and that bomb will stand up for a 1-0 win against the Warriors.

FL Player of the Week: TOP LF/RF Dan Martin (.317, 6 HR, 26 RBI), batting .588 (10-17) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA INF Miguel Veguilla (.283, 3 HR, 10 RBI), hitting .500 (14-28) with 1 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

-44. Our run differential after 38 games is … -44. (confused paw movements)

Chance Fox narrowly avoided deletion this week because I am such a generous and charitable person. We have to support the weak and feeble-minded in society after all. Not gonna suffer another 2.2 IP, 6 ER outing from him, though…

Then again, if we deleted every pitcher that sucked, we’d be left with Matt Walters… and … uh…

I wonder what’s Preston Pinkerton is up to.

Could get much worse next week when he play the damn Elks for four and the Aces for another three games.

Fun Fact: The Titans have scored 42 of their 150 runs scored this year – 28% – against the Raccoons.

In case you weren’t sure, they didn’t play 28% of their GAMES against the Raccoons this year. It’s closer to 18%.

It’s not quite 18%, though.

It’s 16.67%.

(calmly unscrews bottle of Capt’n Coma)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-21) vs. Canadiens (13-25) – May 17-20, 2060

The Pacific Northwest was (including the Wolves) a combined 45-66 to begin this season, so things could have gone better up here. Maybe the water was to clean. Maybe Nick Valdes could do something about this. Players weren’t getting all their metals and chemicals they needed. Anyway. The damn Elks were bottoms in the division, but the Raccoons were collapsing fast. This was the worst offense facing the worst pitching, with the Elks also bottom four in runs scored with a -57 run differential (Coons: -44). The Raccoons had not lost a season series against the Elks in six years and had won the last four, including a 12-6 campaign last year.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (2-1, 2.90 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (1-6, 5.53 ERA)
Zach Stewart (2-3, 4.43 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (4-1, 2.67 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-4, 7.24 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (2-5, 5.22 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-6, 4.26 ERA) vs. Larry Broad (1-4, 5.82 ERA)

Overy was the only left-hander in this set. Meanwhile the Elks had four players on the DL that I had never even heard off, which didn’t quite offset the giant hemorrhaging wound that the Trent Brassfield injury had torn into the Raccoons lineup.

As expected, there was also a roster move, with Bobby Sneeze (0-0, 10.13 ERA) sent back to AAA to begin the week to make room for fresh fodder for the giant fuming machine out behind the fence in centerfielder that kept grinding our pitchers to dust. So here was Brad Loveless back with his own ERA hugging 10 as closely as possible.

Game 1
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 2B Whittington – 1B J. Campos – RF D. Moreno – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – 3B C. Sullivan – CF B. Needham – P Overy
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – CF Caballero – LF Kozak – 3B Gonzales – P Riddle

Tyler Riddle did two things really well in the first four innings of the series opener: giving up singles precisely over the second-base bag, three in total, and then either having Mark Younce caught stealing third base or just striking the Elks out until order was restored, whiffing six in total in four innings. At which point Angel Perez hit a 2-run homer with Starr on base in the bottom 4th for the first actual runs in the game. Angel Perez wasn’t done murdering Andy Overy yet, though; after Riddle got three groundouts in the fifth inning, the Raccoons went back to work. Joe-Chris and Lonzo hit 1-out singles in the bottom 5th, and Nick Nye plated a run with a groundout. Joel Starr drew a 2-out walk, and then Perez deposited another souvenir in the stands, now for a 3-piece that extended the score to 6-0 and sent Overy to the showers. Riddle completed seven innings on exactly 100 pitches, giving up an unearned run in the last frame he pitched. Damian Moreno singled to center while Younce reached base when his slow roller near the first base line was picked by Perez and thrown into Moreno’s back, from where it glanced into foul territory for a 2-base error. That came with nobody out; Riddle got a K from Alex Maldonado, but gave up a sac fly to Chris Sullivan. Bobby Needham grounded out to Starr to end the inning. Perez would get another good knock on a pitch by Matt McDonald in the eighth inning, but flew out to Danny Garcia in deep left on that, being denied a third homer. Meanwhile, Alex Rios, Brad Loveless, and Reynaldo Bravo put six outs together without allowing a run, although an Elk reached in each of the last two innings. 6-1 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-4, 2B; Perez 2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Riddle 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (3-1);

Game 2
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 2B Whittington – 1B J. Campos – RF D. Moreno – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – 3B Triplett – CF B. Needham – P Brink
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Maresh – LF Morris – 3B Suriel – P Stewart

Zach Stewart was perfect the first time through, including six strikeouts, which sure looked impressive. He also caught a liner off Bobby Needham’s bat that tried to decapitate him, so all was well besides a need for fresh pants. Well, give or take some actual Raccoons offense; the Critters had no base hits the first time through, either, and in fact it would be Alex Maldonado with a 2-out single in the fifth to not only kill Stewart’s 14-up, 14-down, but also put the first base hit into the box score at all.

Ben Morris had reached on an error in the bottom 3rd, but had been left on base after stealing second. In the bottom 5th, the Coons’ first-sacker Starr-ted at second base thanks to a 2-base throwing error by Jose Campos. He advanced on Maresh’s groundout, while Morris walked. The go-ahead run then scored on a wild pitch. Whatever works! Suriel grounded out, and then Zach Stewart got the first base knock for the Raccoons, a 2-out RBI double to right, then scored on Christopher’s own RBI double to right-center. Lonzo grounded out, but we were now up 3-0. This was extended to 4-0 on a solo jack by Nick Nye in the bottom 6th.

Stewart struck out the side in the sixth then, reaching 11 K for the game, then made it a dozen with a K on Thomas Whittington to begin the seventh inning. With two outs, though, Damian Moreno drew a walk and Mark Younce singled to left before Maldonado ran a full count – but struck out. Only here did Stewart’s pitch economy derail, because up until here he had been on pace for a shutout despite all the strikeouts. He still batted for himself in the bottom 7th, hitting a leadoff single, then scored on back-to-back 2-out doubles by Cas and Nye. New reliever Carlos Torres then got bombed to right by Starr, doubling the score to 8-0 in the inning. Stewart returned for the eighth then, but got no more strikeouts. He walked Doug Triplett, but got a double play from Chris Sullivan and finished the inning, but was then on 108 pitches, which was well enough for him. Danny Garcia hit a leadoff double against Ruben Mendez in the ninth, but Mendez then struck out the next three batters for a total of 16 Elks gone down in flames in this game. 8-0 Furballs! Nye 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Stewart 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 13 K, W (3-3) and 2-3, 2B, RBI;

Game 3
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 2B Whittington – 1B J. Campos – RF D. Moreno – SS Younce – C A. Maldonado – 3B Triplett – CF B. Needham – P A. Jesus
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – LF Morris – 3B Suriel – P Fox

The Raccoons didn’t need a shutout from Foxie Brown on Wednesday, but they needed *something*. It could not get any worse than it already was, which with a 7.24 ERA was not a particularly high bar to fall over. The baseball gods had already made up their mind, though. The game began with an infield single by Garcia to Lonzo, then another infield single by Whittington that Nye knocked down but could not play for anything. The first mound conference was called nine pitches into the game, but it at least worked. Campos whiffed, Moreno grounded out, and Younce flew out to Christopher to end the inning. The Coons then went up 1-0 in the bottom 1st on a walk drawn by Christopher, who stole his 10th base, tying Lonzo for the team lead, and scored on Nye’s 2-out single. Christopher reached base and scored his next time up as well, getting an infield single of his own with one out in the bottom 3rd. He advanced on Lonzo’s groundout, then scored easily anyway when Noah Caswell hit a bomb over the fence in right-center, 3-0.

Fox held the Elks scoreless until the fifth, when a throwing error by Lonzo undermined his efforts. It put Doug Triplett on second base with nobody out, and Needham singled to right immediately afterwards. Triplett came in to score, but at least the Raccoons trapped Needham in a rundown between first and second when he tried to gain the extra base and slapped him out. Cas answered that (unearned) run with a solo jack to right in the bottom of the same inning, restoring a 3-run lead. Foxie Brown’s counts ran long by the sixth inning, but the Elks didn’t get any better contact than before. He struck out two in full counts in the sixth, while Maldonado reached on a 1-out single in the seventh inning before being doubled off, 6-4-3, by Triplett on Fox’ 100th pitch, which would be enough reclamation of respect for this day. Jesus was still going in the bottom 7th, filling the bags with a 1-out single Nick Fowler hit in Fox’ place, then two walks to the 1-2 pair. Like Perez on Monday, Cas made a serious bid for a third homer, but hit it entirely to the wrong part of the ballpark. Needham tracked down his long fly, but it was good enough for a sac fly at least. Christopher moved to third base, Lonzo stole second after that, but Nye’s fly to deep right was caught by Moreno and the inning ended. Portland tacked on a run in the eighth on a pinch-hit, run-scoring double play grounder by Chris Maresh, which wasn’t the stuff that ballads were written about, but at least stretched the score some more before Jose Campos’ homer off Ryan Sullivan in the ninth inning, which in the end remained inconsequential. 6-2 Raccoons! Christopher 1-2, 2 BB; Caswell 2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Nye 2-4, RBI; Kozak (PH) 1-1; Fowler (PH) 1-1, 2B; Fox 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (4-4);

Can we have a sweep and get back to .500 …? If we can overcome Chance Fox, we can surely overcome whichever black devil curse befell Bobby Herrera…!

Game 4
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Younce – RF D. Moreno – 1B J. Campos – 3B Whittington – CF B. Needham – C F. Chavez – 2B Roldan – P Broad
POR: RF Christopher – SS Fowler – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – LF Kozak – 3B Suriel – P B. Herrera

The Elks *really* crammed that lineup with left-handers, and only Younce and Campos would bat right-handed against Herrera, but they held themselves to a single in each of their first two innings batting and didn’t score. The Raccoons did, with the help of their pair of first basemen, in the bottom 2nd, as Starr doubled off the wall in right, and then scored on Kozak’s 2-out single. The Elks continued their one-runner-per-inning thing; Younce drew a walk in the third, and Whittington got an infield single in the fourth, but so far they didn’t even reach third base. The string only ended when the 8-9-1 batters struck out in order in the fifth.

Some tack-on offense would be nice, but Broad didn’t give up a lot either; in fact, both pitchers surrendered only three base hits in the first five innings of the game, although Tipsy Bobby struck out eight Elks against three Critters for Broad. No strikeouts in the sixth for Herrera, but three groundouts would do. The seventh began with a K to Whittington, but Fernando Chavez singled with two outs after running a long count, and now Herrera was on 108 pitches while the damn Elks hit one lefty batter for another as Chris Sullivan pinch-hit for Ruben Roldan. If they could remove one lefty stick for another, we could sure switch one Herrera for another! Ricky Herrera secured a fly to Christopher and the inning was over.

Unsatisfyingly, Ricky H. then gave up a leadoff single to Larry Broad in the eighth inning. Garcia flew out easily, but the Coons moved to Ryan Sullivan, who successfully frittered the narrow lead away with Angel Perez. Younce hit a single, the two runners advanced into scoring position on Moreno’s groundout, and then the tying run scored on a … passed ball. (facepaws!) Campos wound up striking out, but that didn’t give us the lead back. But who could? Lonzo! Armando Suriel, who was nearly invisible otherwise, began the bottom 8th with a single against Broad, then advanced on a wild pitch as Lonzo was hitting for Sullivan. Lonzo lobbed a single over Chris Sullivan at short, and Suriel read it well and dashed for home with the go-ahead run, 2-1. Lonzo stole second, Christopher walked anyway, and while Fowler grounded out for the first retirement of the inning, Cas found the space between Needham and Moreno in rightfield for a 2-run double…! Nye flew out to left, but Younce threw away a grounder by Caballero, hitting for Starr, to plate Cas anyway and take off the save opportunity for Matt Walters. An error by Broad, who somehow only now reached 100 pitches, also put on Perez, Kozak loaded the bases with a four-pitch walk drawn, but Suriel struck out and the inning ended. Brad Loveless put the Elks away in the ninth, allowing only a single to Chavez. 5-1 Raccoons! Kozak 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, RBI; B. Herrera 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K;

(high-fives with Slappy)

Raccoons (21-21) vs. Aces (17-22) – May 21-23, 2060

Here was a middling team then to finish the homestand. The Aces were eighth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed (still beating the Coons, though), and their rotation was the second-worst in the league with an ERA near five. They hit homers pretty well, but didn’t have much in terms of OBP and speed. They also had starter Ray Benner, closer Alex Flores, and outfielder Scott Laws all holed up on the DL for the long run. Last year’s season series had gone to Vegas, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (4-3, 3.48 ERA) vs. Kris Robbins (1-3, 4.31 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (3-1, 2.54 ERA) vs. Steve Hunter (5-0, 1.96 ERA)
Zach Stewart (3-3, 3.70 ERA) vs. Andres Flores (0-4, 6.31 ERA)

Hunter was the only left-hander in their rotation. They had been off on Thursday, so they had room to skip the mildly horrendous Flores for Bobby Shenk (2-3, 4.17 ERA).

Game 1
LVA: 2B J. White – SS Veguilla – 3B A. Alfaro – LF K. Hummel – 1B Andersen – C Burgio – CF Manley – RF Plancarte – P Robbins
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C Perez – 1B Starr – 2B Gonzales – LF Morris – 3B Suriel – P DeRose

Portland took the early lead with a leadoff double by Joe-Chris and productive outs by Lonzo on the ground, and Cas with a sac fly to centerfielder Matt Manley, but the Aces answered two innings later with a leadoff single by Julio Plancarte, who was bunted to second base and then scored on veteran Jim White’s single to left-center. Miguel Veguilla doubled off White to end that inning.

The Raccoons’ bottom four in the order had a total of zero RBI going into this game, although David Gonzales shook off the goose egg with a sac fly of his own in the bottom 4th, following up on Perez’ leadoff walk and a Starr double to right with his own fly to deep right that Plancarte caught on the edge of the warning track, but which was still plenty deep enough to get Angel Perez home from third base. The rest of the bottom of the order there vanished into thin air though; Suriel was walked intentionally and didn’t have much choice, but Morris and DeRose both whiffed. Gonzales hit a solo jack his next time up to extend the lead to 3-1, which was his third career home run and the first as a Critter. This time Morris on a walk and Suriel an infield single got on base behind Gonzales, but DeRose hit into an inning-ending double play. DeRose was then nearly lifted after a 1-out walk to Jeff Andersen in the seventh inning, with three left-handed sticks behind the first baseman, but DeRose hadn’t given up hard contact in a long time, and the Raccoons rolled the dice – successfully, as two weak groundouts from Casey Burgio and Manley ended the inning. White had another knock in the eighth, but that was with two outs and Veguilla floated out quite easily to Christopher.

The Raccoons tried to tack on and shot themselves in the hindpaw at the same time in the bottom 8th after Joel Starr opened with a infield single against Jose Cintora. Gonzales flew out to center, and then Nick Nye batted for Morris, striking a double to left-center, and straining an abdominal muscle on a highly awkward slide into second base. Caballero pinch-ran for him, but Suriel and Maresh made poor outs and the pair of runners was stranded in scoring position. At least Matt Walters, rarely used in recent times, showed no obvious signs of rust and retired the Aces in order… 3-1 Raccoons. Starr 2-3, BB, 2B; Nye (PH) 1-1, 2B; Suriel 2-3, BB; DeRose 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (5-3);

Nick Nye was day-to-day at least for the rest of the weekend and would probably not be used anymore in this series. And on his day off…! The good news, there was hope that he’d be back to 100% early next week…

Lineup getting a bit thinner here…

Game 2
LVA: CF Chairez – SS Veguilla – LF K. Hummel – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B Andersen – 2B J. White – C Mathews – RF Plancarte – P S. Hunter
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C Perez – LF Caballero – 1B Kozak – 2B Gonzales – 3B Suriel – P Riddle

Tyler Riddle struck out three batters in the first inning… after Andy Chairez and Miguel Veguilla singled to left and Ken Hummel struck a 3-run homer without an out no the board. It didn’t get much better for Riddle, who easily clocked in the worst start for a Critter this week no later than Hummel’s second homer, a 2-piece collecting only Veguilla, in the third inning. In between the Raccoons had loaded the bases with two gone in the bottom 1st, and Jack Kozak singled home Lonzo and Perez, but after that resorted more to collecting runners rather than scoring them. Pairs were on base for Portland in the second and third innings, and stranded, and then the team entered a lull and didn’t threaten again until the seventh. There, Lonzo and Perez hit singles, but Caballero struck out to end the inning. Raccoons relief was scoreless after Riddle was gone after six innings of 5-hit, 5-run ball (grumble grumble), but the Raccoons could not put anything together against Hunter, who went seven and remained unbeaten, and three relievers, the last of them being former Raccoons left-hander Geoff Sather, who retired the 1-2-3 batters in five pitches. 5-2 Aces. Lavorano 2-5; Perez 2-4; Kozak 1-2, BB, 2 RBI;

Game 3
LVA: CF Chairez – SS Veguilla – LF K. Hummel – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B Andersen – 2B J. White – C Mathews – RF Plancarte – P Shenk
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Starr – LF Caballero – C Maresh – 2B Gonzales – 3B Suriel – P Stewart

The bottom 1st was busy, as Joey Christopher struck out, but Kyle Mathews lost the ball temporarily, then had to throw around a running Christopher, who was called out at first on a disputed bang-bang play that almost saw the rightfielder ejected before the first base coach shoved him into the dugout. Lonzo was then drilled with a fastball, limped to first base, then stole second out spite. That ball, too, got away from the second baseman Jim White, and Lonzo scampered to third base, scoring from there on another Cas sac fly. That was the only early run; Stewart was not as sharp as he had been on Tuesday and the strikeouts weren’t there, but the Aces still struggled to make contact. Stewart offered two walks and a hit batter in the first five innings, but Vegas found two double plays to keep the traffic to a minimum.

The Coons tacked on in the bottom 5th when Gonzales hit a scratch single to get going but did not advance on Suriel’s pop. Stewart got him to second with a bunt, and Christopher got him home with an outfielder-splitting double in left-center, 2-0. Lonzo cashed Joe-Chris with a single near the leftfield line, 3-0, then stole his 14th base of the year, but Cas flew out to right-center and he was stranded. On the other side of the box score, Andy Chairez singled with two outs in the sixth to take off the no-hitter, although Stewart was already near 80 pitches and not only two thirds of the way through at that point. But Veguilla made a kind out after that, and Stewart had a quick seventh, continuing into the eighth inning after being nicked by Justin Rocco in the bottom 7th. Stewart walked White in the top 8th, then got a double play from Mathews. Plancarte appeared to ground out to Gonzales, but then reached on Gonzales’ throwing error. With a right-handed bat, Gustavo Larrea, now appearing in the batter’s box, the Raccoons went to Ryan Sullivan, who got an easy grounder to short to end the inning. When the Raccoons didn’t find additional offense in the bottom 8th and it remained a 3-run game, the Coons stuck to Sullivan nonetheless against the right-handed top of the lineup. Chairez reached on a drag bunt single, but Sullivan got two poor outs before running into Alex Alfaro, a righty-munching switch-hitter with a .297 bat and 10 homers on the year. Walters came in here, and got the last out and a save rather cheaply with a fly to center. 3-0 Raccoons. Caswell 0-1, BB, RBI; Gonzales 2-4; Stewart 7.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (4-3);

In other news

May 18 – Buffos right-hander SP Josh Barcellona (5-2, 3.08 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout in a 13-0 rout of the Miners.
May 18 – The Blue Sox send 1B Andy Metz (.313, 5 HR, 21 RBI) to the Thunder for AAA 2B/SS Nick Kelly, who batted .243 with 3 HR, 42 RBI in 94 games with the Thunder last year, and #135 prospect SS/2B Mark McCarty.
May 19 – Warriors SP Ricardo Montoya (6-0, 0.34 ERA), who had allowed two runs in 53.1 innings to begin the season, while striking out 70 batters against seven walks, will miss the rest of the season to rehab a partially torn UCL.
May 19 – Falcons SP Neil Mongillo (4-2, 2.39 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout against the Knights for a 5-0 win.
May 20 – The Warriors send 36-year-old 3B Steve Dilly, who had a single at-bat so far this year, to the Pacifics for INF William McColgin (.305, 3 HR, 11 RBI) and a prospect.
May 22 – Both the Falcons and Indians score runs in the 10th and 12th innings, but the Indians walk off after the Falcons sleep in the top of the 14th inning and a home run by IND INF Matt Kilday (.317, 1 HR, 19 RBI) ends the game as a 14-inning, 8-7 Indians win.
May 23 – The Scorpions snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the 17th inning against the Cyclones after having taken a 5-4 lead in the top of the inning when SAC MR Eric Reese (1-2, 2.41 ERA, 1 SV) serves up a 3-run walkoff home run to CIN LF/1B/RF Alan Puckeridge (.313, 1 HR, 10 RBI). Cincy wins, 7-5.

FL Player of the Week: WAS INF Angelo Flores (.304, 2 HR, 21 RBI), clipping .452 (14-31) with 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB INF/LF Xavier Reyes (.363, 2 HR, 15 RBI), slapping .484 (15-31) with 2 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I could try and lie, but it is true: if the Raccoons had consecutive 10-game losing streaks only interrupted by sweeping four games from the damn Elks with a 25-4 wipeout run total, I’d still be merry.

I hope the boys don’t take this as encouragement to conduct an experiment…

It was a magnificent sweep though, especially after getting absolutely demolished by the Titans on the prior weekend. Of the four runs the Raccoons conceded, three were unearned; only the homer Ryan Sullivan allowed to Jose Campos counted in the ERA column. The four starters each went at least 6.2 innings, walked four batters and struck out 37!

The third base situation remains unresolved, with Armando Suriel also not exactly looking like The Thing. With Brass out for a while, the Raccoons are sniffing around a few options for an early trade to thicken the lineup again, but there’s nothing concrete on the table yet.

Monday will be off, and then it’s a quick road trip to the Thunder and Condors before we’ll have *another* 2-week homestand. Remember this stretch when you wonder in August where the Critters have disappeared to… 28 games in August, 19 on the road.

Fun Fact: Lonzo gained seven bases on the career lead in stolen bases among active players in the last five+ weeks.

When we last looked at the leaderboard, Lonzo was 36 behind Alex Vasquez, but it’s now down to 29. Vasquez is rotting like the rest of the Miners, with just six stolen bases on the year up to this point. That’s still more than all the other actives in the career top dozen, except for Omar Sanchez, who has nine bags taken so far this year, so Lonzo’s 14 lead this group quite easily at this point.

1st – Pablo Sanchez (HOF) – 721
2nd – Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino (HOF) – 708
3rd – Guillermo Obando (HOF) – 686
4th – Alberto “Berto” Ramos (HOF) – 677
5th – Alex Vasquez (active) – 620
6th – Lorenzo Lavorano (active) – 591
7th – Rich de Luna – 570
8th – Omar Sanchez (active) – 503
9th – Omar Gonzalez (active) – 495
10th – Oscar Mendoza – 494
11th – Chris Navarro (active) – 493
12th – Danny Ceballos (active) – 492

[Westheim]

2060 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons had a 122-strong shortlist for this year’s adolescents auction, including – weirdly the first – a whopping five two-way players, which – weirdly the second – all were much more interesting in one way than the other, with one exception, Case Hayden, a – weirdly the third – catcher slash closer? Could he handle both ends of the battery in the ninth inning himself?

(confused head shake by “Banjo” Pigg, holding the paper with the hotlist)

Okay, before I sink any lower, here’s the hotlist with the dozen-or-so most promising talents that we’ve picked out (* high school player):

SP Jeff Applegate (14/12/11) – BNN #3
SP Gabriel Rios (13/13/9)* – BNN #5
SP Nate Nilson (11/14/12) – BNN #2
SP Melvin Lebron (11/13/019*

CL/C Case Hayden (14/16/11)
CL Joe Toth (18/13/9)

C Ryan Marty (20/17/10)* – BNN #7
C Steve Varner (14/10/8)*

INF Adam Yocum (17/1/7)*

OF Jonathan Merrill (14/5/10) – BNN #1
LF/RF/1B John Bentley (10/11/10)
OF Nate Marazzo (10/11/10) – BNN #8

I already asked “Banjo” whether he got anywhere near to the Capt’n Coma with his rating of Ryan Marty, who would be a generational talent if he can fulfill that level of promise. Maybe this was the right time to mention that the Raccoons had the #19 pick and were thus probably 17 to 18 picks below where they needed to be to get a slice of Marty come June. Andy Yocum looks like a little Lonzo, except that he might hit .300+ on a regular basis and be even more of a terror on opposing teams with more chances on base.

Hayden meanwhile had great ratings on either side of the roster divide, being right-handed in both cases. As a closer he offered a late-dropping sinker at 94mph, with complementary changeup and knuckle curve, although those two pitches were not that impressive. Groundballer for sure, though. His batting profile as catcher promised well above-average contact and power with a decent eye. No speed on the bases, but you don’t need speed if you whack ‘em 400 feet. His catcher ability was decent, with a surprising lack of vigor when throwing because it took him too long to get up out of the crouch. Weird one for sure, and I was not yet sure which way we’d twist him if we actually got a hold on him.

Finally, a shoutout to a right-hander that was not actually on the hotlist, but inside the top 20 pitchers we had shortlisted for the draft, 20-year-old Kevin Butte from Windsor, IL, a genuine knuckleballer that actually looked like he could make it to the majors. He topped out at 85mph with his knuckleball, and if that wasn’t slow enough he also offered a fork, change, and curve, going down into the low 70s with the soft stuff. For a knuckleballer, he had very good control – he was not first-round material, but if he was around in the second or third round… who knows.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-22) @ Thunder (21-24) – May 25-27, 2060

Monday was off and on Tuesday there was still nigh a Nick Nye anywhere near the Raccoons lineup as the team began a 3-game set in Oklahoma City. The Thunder were third in the South, fourth in offense, and bleeding the second-most runs in the CL. Their rotation and bullpen both had ERA’s in the 4.70s, which ranked in the bottom two in both categories, and worst in bullpen ERA. They were also in the bottom four in home runs and had the absolute fewest stolen bases in the league – out-stolen by Lonzo and matched by Joey Christopher with ten bags taken across the entire team, which had a corps of position players that was on average 31 years old. The infielders averaged almost 33 years of age, which also shed a light on their worst defense in the league. The Coons had won the season series last year, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (4-4, 5.95 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (4-3, 3.88 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-6, 3.77 ERA) vs. Jim Reynolds (1-2, 1.29 ERA)
Justin DeRose (5-3, 3.10 ERA) vs. Eric Barnes (0-5, 7.14 ERA)

Three right-handed pitchers here, but mind the off day.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Caballero – 2B Gonzales – 3B Suriel – P Fox
OCT: CF Martaranha – 3B Soberanes – 2B Woodrome – RF Whitlow – 1B Metz – LF Weant – C Dye – SS Gaxiola – P Ju. Juarez

Fox needed 45 pitches the first time through the Thunder order, which amounted to only six outs, with a throwing error of his own, and two walks amid a number of long counts running up the tally early, and that was before the Thunder actually got on the board against him in the bottom 3rd, when Ed Soberanes and Ian Woodrome hit 1-out singles. Eric Whitlow flew out, and Andy Metz’ grounder to third base should have ended the inning, but Suriel botched the play and Soberanes scored. Tim Weant then flew out to Joe-Chris in right. The Raccoons were hitless through three innings; Caswell hit a 1-out single to right in the fourth and 2-out walks to Starr and Caballero loaded the bases, but David Gonzales’ easy grounder to Woodrome was not going to bring in any runs any time soon. Gonzales then bungled another 2-out grounder that should have brought the curtain down on the bottom of the of the fourth inning, but instead put Bernaldin Martaranha on base along with Juarez and allowed Ed Soberanes to whacked an unearned 3-run homer. Fox was yanked after an equally awful bottom 5th in which he fell to 3-0 against Whitlow, who then flew out to right, listlessly walked Metz on four pitches, and then got a 1-0 double play grounder to Lonzo from Weant. That one was, for a nice change, not fudged for another error…

The Coons didn’t make the scoreboard until the seventh with an infield single by Caballero, a walk drawn by Gonzales, and then two fielder’s choices hit into by two pinch-hitters, Ben Morris and Nick Nye, which wasn’t enough with a slam-sized deficit, nor was Christopher’s groundout to Soberanes, who then hit a bomb off Reynaldo Bravo to re-establish slam range in the bottom 7th. Angel Perez then derailed a top 8th that began promising with Lonzo and Caswell singles against lefty Ryan Hogues, but a double play grounder was gained from new pitcher Jordan Juarez from the sluggish (not: slugging) catcher, and while Joel Starr managed an RBI single to plate Lonzo with two outs, the inning ended with Caballero. The ninth was similarly fruitless. 5-2 Thunder. Caswell 3-4, 2B; Starr 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Fowler 1-1;

That homer Bravo served up? The 300th of Ed Soberanes’ career. The 36-year-old was one of the many reasons while the Thunder infield played like a bunch of old men, but he could still whack ‘em with the young ‘uns.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C Perez – 1B Starr – 3B Fowler – LF Morris – 2B Gonzales – P B. Herrera
OCT: CF Martaranha – 2B Woodrome – RF C. Santiago – 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – C T. Anderson – LF Whitlow – SS Gaxiola – P J. Reynolds

This was only the third start of the year for Reynolds, who had otherwise appeared out of the bullpen. He allowed three singles in the first inning; Christopher was caught stealing, but Lonzo didn’t get a good jump, however, he was singled home by Perez with two outs for an early 1-0 lead. Starr popped out to short. The Thunder were on the corners immediately in the bottom 1st as Tipsy Bobby nailed Martaranha with his very first pitch of the game, then allowed a full-count single to Woodrome. However, he handled Cesar Santiago’s comebacker perfectly for a 1-6-3 double play and then got Metz flown out to center to strand even the leadoff man at third base.

Offense then mostly died for a few innings. The Raccoons had only one more hit through five innings, while the Thunder got leadoff singles from Woodrome in the fourth and Travis Anderson in the fifth, but both times then struck out a couple of times and didn’t even get the runners into scoring position. The Raccoons had their 1-2 pair on base to begin the sixth inning with Joe-Chris’ double to left and a walk drawn by Lonzo (!), but Cas’ sharp grounder to right was intercepted by a diving Woodrome and turned into an out at first in a bang-bang play. Perez retained ownership of 100% of RBI’s in this game with a sac fly, especially with Starr whiffing to end the inning. The Thunder pulled the run back though in the bottom 6th, where Herrera suddenly walked a pair after being rather sturdy for the previous hour, and while Santiago hit into a double play, Andy Metz singled home Martaranha to get to 2-1. Soberanes also singled, but Anderson grounded out to Starr to end the inning.

Top 7th, and Nick Fowler led off with a single to center that bounced off MArtaranha’s chest for an error and an extra base. Ben Morris pounced (as unlikely as that sounded) with a swift RBI single, 3-1. Gonzales hit another single to right before Nick Nye batted for Bobby Herrera, but popped out over home plate. Christopher broke through, though, with a 2-run double to right-center. Lonzo flew out to center, but Cas dropped an RBI single into left for the final mark in a 4-run inning that extended the lead to 6-1. Gonzales drove home Starr with a 2-out hit in the eighth for a tack-on run, and it was not too exuberant to keep scoring because Ricky Herrera put a pair on base in the bottom 8th while getting two outs each in the seventh and eighth before Ryan Sullivan failed his runners across with a balk and a 2-out double knocked by Soberanes (who else?), which got us down to 7-3 again before the inning ended with Anderson, like most innings seemed to. The Coons couldn’t tack on despite another Christopher hit to begin the ninth, but at least Sullivan stopped brittling in the bottom of the inning and got the last three outs… 7-3 Raccoons. Christopher 4-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Fowler 2-4; Gonzales 2-4, RBI; B. Herrera 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-6);

Finally pried off the stretcher on Thursday: Nick Nye, which moved Gonzales to third base, but we didn’t seem to be able to get last year’s Rule 5 pick out of the lineup right now…

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Maresh – LF Morris – 3B Gonzales – P DeRose
OCT: CF Martaranha – 2B Woodrome – RF C. Santiago – 1B Metz – 3B Soberanes – LF D. Guzman – C T. Anderson – SS Gaxiola – P Barnes

DeRose threw 36 pitches and gave up three hits in three innings, of which Martaranha’s single ended up doubled off the bases on Woodrome’s grounder to Nye, Guzman was caught stealing after a 2-out single in the bottom 2nd, and Robby Gaxiola hit a solo jack for the first marker on the board in the third inning. And then it pretty soon started to rain for a 50-minute rain delay in the top of the fourth. The Raccoons, although it took a while, would tie the game in that inning when Ben Morris singled home Caswell with two outs, and DeRose returned after the prolonged interruption, and at least wasn’t immediately trashed by the Thunder offense. He was good for the fourth and fifth, but the counts ran long in the sixth inning. Woodrome singled, Santiago reached on an error, all with two outs, but Nye then turned the third out on Metz’ grounder and DeRose held the 1-1 tie, but was removed after 85 pitches at that point because he had lost command, owing to the long intermission.

The Coons’ wins leader (!?) had to settle for a no-decision because the Raccoons didn’t reach base in the top 7th other than Gonzales getting on base on Woodrome’s 2-out error. Caballero flew out to left in the #9 spot to end the inning. Rios held the score in the bottom 7th, but the Raccoons then sent four relievers into the bottom 8th, which is already the first red flag. Loveless retired nobody, allowing a single to Gaxiola and nicking PH Eric Whitlow. Ruben Mendez faced PH Juan Ojeda, last year a Critter, and got him to pop out. Ricky Herrera then walked the bags full and gave up an RBI single to Santiago before being yoinked for Sullivan, who found a way out of the inning with the bags stacked without total obliteration, with a force at home on a Metz grounder and Soberanes’ groundout. The Raccoons had also no answer to Jerry Washington in the ninth inning. Ben Morris got on base with two outs, but Fowler lined out to short in Gonzales’ place. 2-1 Thunder. Morris 2-3, BB, RBI; DeRose 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K;

(blows)

Raccoons (24-24) @ Condors (27-19) – May 28-30, 2060

The Condors led the South, which hadn’t happened at a meaningful point of the season in a while (their last first-division finish was in 2049!), and did so with the #7 offense and the third-best pitching in the league, especially a strong bullpen. There was a lot of average to their output in the offensive categories, but the defense also shone for them so far this year. The Raccoons had lost two of three against them in April.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (3-2, 3.02 ERA) vs. Aaron Sloan (3-3, 4.87 ERA)
Zach Stewart (4-3, 3.20 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (5-4, 2.93 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-5, 5.28 ERA) vs. Miguel Batista (8-1, 3.26 ERA)

Sloan was the only southpaw we would encounter this week.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – CF Caswell – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – 3B Gonzales – P Riddle
TIJ: LF A. Mendez – 2B Palmieri – SS C. Ramsey – C Samuel – 1B Sturgeon – 3B Frasher – RF Alade – CF B. Fish – P Sloan

The first inning was uneventful except that Bob Palmieri, who was listed as day-to-day to begin play, left the game pretty much as soon as it began and was replaced with Luis Chapa. The Coons had no hits the first time through the order, but Kozak and Gonzales drew walks to begin the third inning before being bunted into scoring position by whom? Tyler Riddle of course. There was no easy answer to the question who should drive them home, though, and both Christopher and Lonzo fanned. Nobody scored… Nor did Jason Sturgeon, who doubled in the bottom 2nd, but then was thrown out at home by Caswell on Jon Alade’s single to center.

Nick Nye got the first base hit for the Critters, a single to center in the fourth inning. Cas popped out, but Perez beat Bobby Fish in center for a double, so the Raccoons were right where they had croaked in the previous inning: runners on second and third and one out. Joel Starr worked a walk, which filled the bases, but also left the batting to the lint at the bottom of the order. True to reputation, Jack Kozak popped out and David Gonzales… whiffed. It took a Riddle single to begin the fifth and Nye’s 2-out double to get a ******* run on the board…

The sixth was uneventful, but the Raccoons despite little countable on the board had at least chewed up Sloan for nearly 100 pitches and were in that vaunted bullpen by the seventh inning. Of course they immediately put Gonzales and Christopher on the corners in the top 7th against lefty Jesus Chacon, and Lonzo barely stayed out of the double play on a grounder to Casey Ramsey to get a second run across the board. He stole second base, but was stranded.

Riddle threw 112 pitches for 7.2 shutout innings, then yielded for Bravo, who nailed Ramsey and allowed a single to Nick Samuel before getting chased off the mound. Walters, who had not pitched in Oklahoma, entered in a double switch with Morris, who replaced Kozak in left, got Sturgeon to 0-2 before allowing an RBI single, and then walked Eric Frasher. Gabriel Brown was kind enough to strike out, ******* finally, and leave the bases loaded.

Insurance was on the way, though, as Brett Lillis jr. struggled once more against his old team in the top 9th. Gonzales hit a leadoff single and Christopher was nicked with one gone. Lonzo’s groundout moved the pair into scoring position, which had not been a winning proposition for the Raccoons so far in this game, but now Nick Nye knocked one to left-center, past Alf Mendez, and cashed a 2-out, 2-run double. Righty Justin Cullum replaced Lillis and got Cas out on one pitch, but Matt Walters had the ninth inning under control. 4-1 Critters. Nye 3-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Gonzales 2-3, BB; Riddle 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (4-2) and 1-1;

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – LF Morris – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – SS Fowler – 3B Gonzales – P Stewart
TIJ: LF A. Mendez – RF S. Moore – SS C. Ramsey – C Samuel – 1B Sturgeon – 3B Frasher – 2B L. Chapa – CF B. Fish – P M. Clemente

Alf Mendez doubled and scored on Scott Moore’s single to begin the bottom 1st, but when the Raccoons tried that with Nye’s double and Starr’s single to center in the second inning, Bobby Fish threw out Nye at the plate and the team didn’t find a way to get Starr home either, but the combo worked better in the fourth inning. Nye singled, Starr homered to left, and that was two runs on the board. Also a tied game, since Stewart had taken it upon himself to give up a leadoff single to Clemente to begin the previous half-inning, and then, lacking stuff rather obviously, surrendered that run on a 2-out single by Ramsey. Bottom 4th, Sturgeon, Frasher, and Luis Chapa loaded the bags with two hits, a walk, and no outs, which was a bit concerning. Stewart was talked to in a mound conference that took an umpire to break up, and then Fish popped out, Clemente lined out to Starr, and Mendez flew out to center. Maybe the Raccoons were contagious?

Ramsey made an error to put Fowler on base to begin the top of the fifth inning. Gonzales hit a scratch single, and Christopher also eked out a soft single to shallow left with one out… but Stewart had popped out trying to bunt and the runners hadn’t been advanced, so nobody scored – the bags were loaded with one down for Ben Morris, who hit a fly to Fish in center that was just good enough to get Fowler home with a sac fly for a 3-2 lead before Caswell grounded out to strand a pair.

Stewart remained terrible, though. He got three groundouts in the fifth, but had long counts and a walk in the sixth inning. The seventh was even worse, as he started with two walks, then got yanked. Rios gave up an RBI double to PH Gabe Brown, and another run scored on Ramsey’s grounder. This flipped the score to 4-3 Condors, but Samuel and Sturgeon made two more outs to keep Brown on base. The Raccoons’ 2-3-4 disappeared in order in the eighth inning, and Ricky Herrera allowed two hits, but no further runs, to the Condors before Lillis jr. came back into another ninth inning. He was met with leadoff singles by Starr and Perez before Lonzo batted for Fowler against the southpaw, and drilled a sharp bouncer threw a diving Frasher at the hot corner for an RBI double in left…! Perez was held at third base, and the Raccoons had second and third with nobody out, which I felt I had already seen before. And now what? Gonzales and the pitcher’s spot (with Ricky Herrera, hint, hint) were up next. Gonzales was originally advertised as the against-lefty part of that unholy double-switch-hitter platoon at third base, so he batted for himself, which was truly fuzzy logic. His piss poor grounder kept the runners pinned, and left me pissed. Oscar Caballero batted for Herrera, was walked intentionally, and then Kozak came out for Christopher, who was not having a great day. Nor was Lillis, who couldn’t get Kozak to bite and walked him on five pitches, pushing home the go-ahead run with Perez, 5-4. Morris would have been hit for with Maresh, but the Condors brought right-hander Pat Fortune, and so Morris stayed in the game, popped out, and Cas grounded out, and we left the damn bases full. Thankfully Matt Walters was a thing. He struck out Jon Alade in the #2 hole, got a grounder from Ramsey to Lonzo at short, and then also rung up Samuel in a 1-2-3 ninth. 5-4 Critters. Kozak (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Nye 2-4, 2B; Starr 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Ricky Herrera, 4-0. Just saying. He’s wicked. He’s a force that’s hard to harness.

The Condors meanwhile announced the Bob Palmieri (.283, 0 HR, 14 RBI) was expected to miss the rest of the season with a concussion, and in a half-sentence at half-volume that he probably shouldn’t have gone on the field on Friday to begin with.

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Fowler – LF Caballero – P Fox
TIJ: LF A. Mendez – RF S. Moore – SS C. Ramsey – C Samuel – 1B Sturgeon – 3B Frasher – CF B. Fish – 2B N. Cross – P M. Batista

Chance Fox batted before he pitched, and struck out to end a 6-hit, 4-run first inning for the Raccoons against the CL leader in wins. Joe-Chris and Lonzo got on base initially, but then two outs were made before straight 2-out knocks by Starr, who doubled home two, and singles by Perez (RBI), Fowler, and Caballero (RBI). The Raccoons stranded five more runners without scoring in the next two innings, as Christopher, Caswell, and Starr all got on and were left on by Perez, and Caballero and Christopher were stranded on the corners in the third inning. Batista threw 72 pitches to make it that far, while Foxie Brown retired eight out of nine the first time through and got his ERA into the fours.

Also into the fours was Batista, but only the fourth inning. Nye singled and stole a base, then was driven home by Angel Perez with a 2-out single, running the score to 5-0 before Batista was removed for Pat Fortune. Christopher was also into the fours by the fifth inning, getting his fourth hit, an infield single, with one out. Caballero went second-to-third on that, then scored on Lonzo’s soft single to center, which also sent Christopher to third base. Cas’ single added a run, but deep flies to left by Nye and Starr were caught to keep it a 7-0 game… at least until Alf Mendez hit a 2-out, 2-run homer off Fox in the bottom 5th after Bobby Fish had led off the inning with a bloop single. Brown had seven strikeouts through five, so he *was* having a pretty good game.

Until then. It ended pretty fast in the bottom 6th, which began with a Nye error, but then quickly devolved into two RBI doubles by Samuel and Sturgeon, a walk to Frasher, and Fox’ dismissal from a 7-4 game with the tying run in the box. Brad Loveless extricated the Raccoons from that sticky situation against the bottom of the order, retiring Fish, Nigel Cross, and Alade in order without conceding the runners.

Christopher drew a walk to begin the seventh, so the 6-hit game receded into the distance. He stole second, but was left on base by the 2-3-4 batters. In the eighth, Jesus Chacon walked the bags full before arriving at the pitcher’s spot with one out and getting lifted for another lefty, Joe Cash. He faced Chris Maresh, who struck out, and Christopher, who also struck out, and the bases were left full again. No help arrived in the ninth inning, either, and Matt Walters was back in for the third straight day (but Monday was off at least…) against the all-lefty bottom of the order with the 3-run lead. Fish grounded out, Cross whiffed, and Nye got another grounder from Jose Gutierrez to end the game. 7-4 Raccoons. Christopher 4-5, BB; Lavorano 2-6, RBI; Starr 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Perez 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Caballero 3-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 28 – Knights right-hander Cory Ellis (1-1, 3.40 ERA, 1 SV) shuts out the Crusaders on three hits in a 7-0 win.

FL Player of the Week: WAS 1B Jay Rogers (.285, 7 HR, 25 RBI), batting .400 (8-20) with 3 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL 1B Dave Robles (.317, 5 HR, 31 RBI), hitting .400 (10-25) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

10-3 in two weeks is a nice run, and maybe we will one day find out whether we want to be an above- or below-.500 team.

We end the month with a day off, and then have another 13-game homestand with the Knights, Loggers, Crusaders, and Scorpions.

Fun Fact: This is Ed Soberanes’ 10th season with the Thunder, and his first one was his best.

That year he batted .300 with 31 HR and 122 RBI, winning the homer and RBI titles in the CL as well as the Player of the Year award, but he wasn’t particularly close to the batting title. Over his career with the Miners and Thunder the right-handed Dominican ballpicker has also won a Gold Glove besides seven Platinum Sticks and 11 All Star nods (and don’t forget the 2053 World Series), but Chance Fox was in elementary school when that happened (2045).

The only other “led the league in X” for Soberanes was OBP in the FL in 48, but he’s been a consistent .300 hitter even at age 36, even though his power and speed has diminished. Yes, speed, he stole 40+ bases (with a career-best of 50) in each of his first six full seasons.

For his career, Soberanes is hitting .306/.396/.486 with 2,523 hits, 300 homers, 1,315 RBI, and 398 stolen bases.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-24) vs. Knights (23-28) – June 1-3, 2060

Atlanta was fifth in the South, but only six games back in a division without much spread. They sat eighth in both runs scored and runs allowed, however, and that made for a -21 run differential (Coons: -14). Remarkably they were second-worst in both home runs and stolen bases in the CL. Missing Enrique Ortiz and Juan del Toro was unlikely to help them and Josh Abercrombie was day-to-day with a balking back. We had won two of three games in the first series of the year.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (2-6, 3.55 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (2-5, 4.28 ERA)
Justin DeRose (5-3, 2.93 ERA) vs. Cory Ellis (1-1, 3.40 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-2, 2.69 ERA) vs. Joe Napier (4-1, 3.64 ERA)

Villegas was the only left-hander on offer for this series – but not on Tuesday, which after a sunny Monday that was scheduled off for both teams brought steady rain and no window to squeeze in a ballgame.

Thusly, double header on Wednesday and another ruined rotation. Yay!

Game 1
ATL: RF Ellwood – LF Abercrombie – C M. Nieto – 2B W. Acosta – 1B C. Rice – SS Sowell – CF K. Hawkins – 3B N. Fox – P Villegas
POR: 2B Nye – SS Lavorano – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – RF Caballero – 3B Gonzales – CF Morris – P B. Herrera

When play finally began on Wednesday, Bobby Herrera quickly failed the bags full with a leadoff single for Bobby Ellwood and walks issued to Abercrombie and Willie Acosta. An error by David Gonzales plated a run on Chris Rice’s grounder before Ken Sowell grounded into a double play, 6-4-3, but Angel Perez also hit into one of those in the bottom 1st to derail an effort that began nice enough with Nye and Lonzo singles, and nobody scored. Bobby Herrera then had his useless pelt ripped off his back in a 5-run third inning in which both ex-Coon Josh Abercrombie and ex-Elk Kyle Hawkins bashed 2-run homers, and I wasn’t entirely sure which of these was worse, and if any of those was worse than Marco Nieto hitting a single and advancing on both a wild pitch and a steal of third base before being brought in by Willie Acosta. Since this was a double header, Herrera kept getting run back out there until he filled up 100 pitches, which he did in the fifth, with one out and Nieto and Acosta on the corners for another walk and a single. Ruben Mendez replaced him, retired none of the next three batters for a walk to Sowell and two singles by Hawkins and Nick Fox, and the Knights stormed out to an 8-1 lead, the “1” stemming from Perez having singled home Nye in the bottom 3rd for no particular reason other than to be contrary. He wasn’t gonna hit one that mattered, though!

Joel Starr’s leadoff triple led to a run and a screaming Knights catcher rolling around the dirt in the bottom 6th. While Jack Kozak remained utterly useless and popped out, Oscar Caballero hit a ball deep enough to rightfield that Starr dared to come home. The throw and Starr arrived at the same time, and Nieto’s awkward reach into Starr’s path got his glove hand caught under Starr’s body as he slid across the plate, jarring the ball loose and leading to Nieto leaving the game with what looked like a paw squished good. Gabriel Mendez replaced him. Brad Loveless pitched three scoreless and pointless innings to finish out the game here, which would win him nothing more and nothing less than a trip to Florida. 8-2 Knights. Nye 2-5, 2B; Lavorano 2-4; Perez 2-4, RBI; Caswell (PH) 1-1; Suriel 2-3; Loveless 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

If there was some saving grace to this ****** game, then that we somehow used only two relievers while Bobby Herrera continued his quest for a new single-season record for losses by a Raccoons starter.

Gary Simmons, 21 in ’81.

Although Victor Merino also lost 19 games just a decade ago.

Game 2
ATL: CF J. Parker – LF Abercrombie – 2B W. Acosta – 1B C. Rice – SS Sowell – RF Ellwood – C G. Mendez – 3B N. Fox – P C. Ellis
POR: RF Christopher – SS Fowler – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Maresh – LF Morris – 3B Suriel – P DeRose

When DeRose was roughed up for three runs in the first inning in the nightcap I poured some rost remover into my Capt’n Coma, because why not have some fun while the baseball part of life was ****? DeRose even got two outs before getting on the snout, with a walk to Acosta, a Rice single, an RBI double to left by Sowell, and a 2-run single also to left by Bobby Ellwood, before Mendez grounded out to Nye at second base. Bottom 1st, and the Raccoons had the tying runs on base after a Fowler single, Caswell double, and a walk drawn by Nye, all with one out. The Coons got two runs on a Starr sac fly and a passed ball charged to Gabe Mendez, but left the tying run on third base, while the Knights immediately put the two runs back on the board in the worst of ways: a double by the pitcher, a 2-base throwing error by our catcher, and then just the odd 13-bouncer through the nearest hole with two outs, dribbled by Acosta, 5-2, and Chris Rice nearly hit a homer to right that Christopher had to rush to the warning track for to catch. And WORSE YET, Noah Caswell then hurt himself on a sliding/tumbling catch of a Sowell drive to left-center at the start of the third inning. Caballero replaced him, and I upped the rust remover to whatever was bubbling in that bottle of drain unclogger, which kept bubbling in the Capt’n Coma.

The only thing that saved DeRose from getting beaten with a block of soap in a sock after the game was that he calmed his fuzzy tits from there and allowed no more drama while pitching all the way to the stretch. Similarly, the Raccoons stunk up the joint on offense, too, even when Maresh and Morris managed to mingle in scoring position with one out in the bottom 6th, but Suriel struck out to keep them there. It took an appearance by Reynaldo Not-so-Bravo to add a run on a Sowell homer in the eighth inning. In the bottom of the eighth, Starr and Maresh reached base before anybody made an out, but Lonzo popped out, Suriel whiffed, and Kozak… whiffed. It was a great team effort!

Bottom 9th, and David Hardaway made an appearance for the Knights. He had an infinite ERA after having missed almost two years with shoulder *and* elbow woes, and having made just one big-league appearance after a monthlong rehab assignment, in which the Crusaders crushed him for five runs for nobody retired. He struck out Christopher, actually giving him a 135.00 ERA at that point, and then Fowler and Caballero hit singles. Nick Nye cranked a shot through Nick Fox at third base that went all the way to the corner in leftfield for a 2-run triple, and suddenly the tying run was at the plate. Starr singled to right on a 1-2 pitch, running Hardaway’s ERA to 216.00, after which he was disposed of. Maresh was the winning run, but was rung up by Hironobu Hanzawa. The pitcher’s spot was next, with Angel Perez batting with two outs for … huh, Ricky Herrera. Walkoff? No, groundout. 6-5 Knights. Fowler 4-5, 2B; Caswell 1-1, 2B; Starr 2-3, BB, 2 RBI;

Gah.

There were roster moves on Thursday, not involving Noah Caswell, who had not been run through the meat mincer yet and so Luis Silva didn’t have a diagnosis ready. Brad Loveless (1-2, 5.14 ERA) was sent to AAA, along with Armando Suriel (.205, 0 HR, 0 RBI), because we needed an outfielder even when there was none available on the 40-man roster. Cortez Chavez ended up on waivers and DFA’ed to make room for Todd Oley, hitting .335 with three homers for St. Pete, and .313 with one homer in 105 career games up in Portland. Don’t inquire about the BABIP, please.

Game 3
ATL: CF J. Parker – LF Abercrombie – C M. Nieto – 2B W. Acosta – SS Sowell – 1B C. Rice – RF Ellwood – 3B N. Fox – P Harman
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – C Perez – 3B Fowler – CF Oley – LF Kozak – P Riddle

Facing Vic Harman (6-2, 2.60 ERA) was Tyler Riddle, who was so nice to not explode on contact, faced the minimum the first time through, and struck out four without allowing a base hit, while the Raccoons scored an unearned run each in the second and third innings, both involving 2-base throwing errors by Nick Fox and Ken Sowell, respectively. Starr reached to begin the bottom 2nd and scored on two productive outs, while Sowell’s error came with two down in the third and Kozak on second base, as he fired Lonzo’s grounder away to wave Kozak home.

Johnny Parker drew a walk to begin the fourth inning, the first Knight to reach base against Riddle. He was forced out by Abercrombie, who in turn was doubled up by Nieto, who was playing with a generously taped hand. Chris Rice hit a 2-out single in the fifth to get the Knights into the H column, where they now actually tied the Raccoons in base hits – we only had a Christopher single from the bottom 1st, and he had been doubled up by Nye. Joe-Chris had another one in the bottom 5th, with two outs and driving home Todd Oley from second base, who had started the inning with a single lobbed over Acosta’s head.

Riddle held the Knights to two hits in eight innings, whiffing eight as well, but Harman was on 9 K through seven innings despite the multiple jagged knives in his back. He retired the 2-3-4 in order in the bottom 8th, but didn’t get another strikeout. The lead then went to Matt Walters, who had gotten three days off after pitching for three straight days on the weekend. He allowed an infield single to Parker, but otherwise got two strikeouts and a lazy grounder to short from Nieto to salvage a game from this series. 3-0 Raccoons. Christopher 2-4, RBI; Fowler 1-2, RBI; Riddle 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (5-2);

Boy, did we need that Tyler Riddle start.

Raccoons (28-26) vs. Loggers (24-27) – June 4-6, 2060

The weird thing about the Loggers was their +17 run differential, which made them above-.500 pretenders. They had a top 3 offense, for crying out loud! Can we have some?? They were first in batting average, last in homers, and first in stolen bases, so that kinda team. We were up 4-2 in the season series, but still had no useful news on Noah Caswell as the series began, and no starter for Sunday. Great times.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (4-3, 3.47 ERA) vs. Roger Pritchard (4-3, 3.09 ERA)
Chance Fox (5-5, 5.29 ERA) vs. Larry Wilson (0-3, 4.81 ERA)
Angel Alba (0-0) vs. Jesus Aquino (3-4, 3.80 ERA)

We penciled in 23-year-old righty Angel Alba, who was 7-2 with a 2.53 ERA in St. Pete, for the Sunday game, which would be the #60 prospect’s (#3 in the system) major league debut. We were not sure who he’d face for the occasion because the Loggers had played their own double-header on Tuesday, but with the benefit of an off day on Thursday, so had no roster crunch. Pritchard was the only left-hander on staff. The alternative to Aquino was Ernesto Culver (6-5, 3.42 ERA).

Game 1
MIL: CF Franks – 3B Lange – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – C M. Chavez – LF Milian – SS D. Miller – 2B Serna – P Pritchard
POR: 2B Nye – SS Lavorano – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – CF Caballero – 3B Gonzales – RF Oley – P Stewart

Scott Franks had the first two Loggers hits, singles in the first and third innings. Both times Ralph Lange ended his on-base presence with grounders to short, first for a double play and then for just the third out of the inning. Lange also had a throwing error that put Oley on first to begin the bottom 3rd, after Gonzales had already committed a throwing error in the second inning, but the Loggers hadn’t scored on that either. Pritchard dinked Stewart in the leg, which upset the Raccoons’ bench, and Nye’s single loaded the bases, which upset me, because now it was three on and nobody out, and everything was gonna be horrible, although a slumping Lonzo briefly drew another breath with a clean RBI single to center and the game’s first run. Perez’ groundout and Starr’s sac fly got home additional runs before Kozak grounded out to end the inning for good. Kozak got another chance to do some damage in the bottom 5th with Nye and Perez on the corners and two outs, but drew a walk instead, delegating responsibility to Oscar Caballero, who hit a lazy fly to Perry Pigman on the first pitch he got and the inning ended.

The Loggers reached the base when Franks drew a leadoff walk in the sixth, stole two bases, and scored on Pigman’s single. Not that the in-between innings had been calm for Stewart, who had constant traffic on base, and usually to begin the inning. The bottom 6th saw a 1-out single to center for Oley, who stole second base again as Stewart, unable to get a bunt down, fanned on a 2-2 pitch. Nye walked, knocking out Pritchard, but Lonzo burned his replacement Jeremy Fetta with a screamer for a 2-out, 2-run double to left, 5-1. Perez’ fly to left ended the sixth inning.

Stewart went into the top 7th, got stuck, and left with the bases loaded after a single and a pair of 2-out walks. Ryan Sullivan replaced him and ****** it up, allowing a 2-run single to Lange on an 0-2 pitch that was dumped into right-center, and then another RBI single to the persistent pest Perry Pigman. Mark Reed flew out to left in a full count to end the inning with a skinny 5-4 lead left over. Ruben Mendez’ eighth was much less annoying with two strikeouts to Marcos Chavez and David Milian, and an easy grounder by Danny Miller to Nye. The Raccoons went just as quickly against Alex Diaz in the bottom 8th, then went back to Matt Walters. He struck out Fidel Carrera, got a grounder from Corey Garmon, and then allowed a 2-out knock to Franks, who went unretired in the game. Lange whiffed to end the game. 5-4 Raccoons. Nye 1-2, 2 BB; Lavorano 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Oley 2-4;

Saturday brought … no Noah news. I still saw him limping around the premises though, so perhaps it wasn’t *that* bad.

Slappy, thanks for reminding me that’s it’s always at least *that* bad.

Game 2
MIL: CF Franks – LF Garmon – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C M. Chavez – 3B Lange – 2B Serna – P L. Wilson
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – LF Caballero – C Maresh – CF Morris – P Fox

After a groundout by Joe-Chris the Raccoons had a string of batters reach base with one out in the bottom 1st on Saturday. Lonzo walked (!) and stole second, but Starr also walked. Nye singled in Lonzo with a ball into left near the line, and Fowler singled to load the bases. Wilson continued to struggle, walked in a run against Caballero, then actually retired Maresh on a groundout, but that scored another run. Ben Morris walked to refill the bags for Foxie Brown, who took a K to end the inning, but took the 3-0 lead back to the hill. He had a long second inning, walking Fidel Carrera before getting Chavez and Lange struck out in long counts to end the inning, while Carrera stole a base. To begin the bottom 2nd then, both Christopher and Lonzo reached base and then stole second, bringing up Starr with two in scoring position and nobody out. Wilson walked him in a full count, making for SIX walks and 51 pitches for three outs for the Milwaukee right-hander. The Nicks nicked him for three runs with a pair of base hits, Nye to left for two and Fowler to right-center for one run, although the 6-7-8 then disappeared ineffectively without getting in another run. Wilson was hit for in the next half-inning.

So, through two-and-a-half everything was dandy. Then it started to rain. After a 35-minute rain delay before the fourth inning, Fox went back out, but Pigman singled, Robles walked, Carrera singled, and while Marcos Chavez struck out, Ralph Lange got hold of a breaking ball and bashed a grand slam to left, axing the Coons’ lead down to 6-4. The Raccoons answered with the Nicks going to the corners with leadoff singles against Sansao Tyson in the bottom 4th, and Caballero then cleaning up with a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play…

Scott Franks was injured sliding into second base on a stolen base attempt in the fifth inning when Lonzo’s knee came down on his reaching wrist, which conveniently also kept him from touching the base and slapped him out, helping to drag Fox through five innings after the earlier battering. He came back for the sixth, but put another three runners on base, two of whom scored as Marty Serna singled home Chavez, and Lange scored on Matt Lock’s groundout against Sullivan, narrowing the lead down to one run. Nick Nye’s solo homer extended the Coons lead to 8-6 again in the bottom 6th, after which Sullivan allowed a leadoff single to Garmon in the top 7th before being kicked out of the game. Adam Harris struck out three batters, but not without seeing Robles reach on a Fowler error. The tying runs were stranded, though, then were right back on in the eighth with Bravo’s leadoff walk to Lange and a Serna single. Somehow the Loggers then made straight outs from Milian, James Wilks, and Garmon, and didn’t get the runners beyond second and first. Fowler drove in Christopher with two outs in the bottom 8th against Alex Diaz to push another Portland run across. The 3-run lead then went to Ricky Herrera – Matt Walters was not sent out for three straight for the second week in a row. The Loggers got a hit from Robles, but no runs, and the game ended with a golden sombrero for Marcos Chavez. 9-6 Critters. Nye 4-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Fowler 4-5, 2 RBI;

Hits by Nicks: 8
Hits by Anybody Else: 3 (Joe-Chris, Lonzo, Morris)

The top four each scored at least two runs (Nye scored three). The bottom four in the lineup went 1-for-15.

That was the least of our problems by Sunday, when Noah Caswell was no longer limping around, put in a brace and on crutches, and disappeared onto the DL for the balance of the season with torn ankle ligaments.

Game 3
MIL: RF Pigman – 2B Lange – SS F. Carrera – 1B D. Robles – C M. Reed – CF Wilks – LF Arcos – 3B Serna – P E. Culver
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – C Perez – CF Morris – LF Kozak – P Alba

Alba retired the side in order, with a K on Lange, in the first inning, then was spotted a 2-0 lead thanks to a leadoff walk drawn by Christopher, a Lonzo tripled to left-center, and a Starr sac fly. The Loggers got a walk from Mark Reed in the second, but didn’t get close to scoring. Instead, Kozak reached base against Ernesto Culver in the bottom 2nd and stole second base before Alba could bunt much. That took the bunt off, and Alba responded with a clean RBI single to left-center on his first time at-bat in the majors, making sure he’d go home with a bushel of commemorative baseballs from this one-off appearance. He also scored when Joey Christopher unloaded on a Culver fastball for a 400-footer, extending the lead to 5-0.

The Loggers got three singles from Serna, Lange, and Carrera in the third inning to get a run on the board, and when Alba actually bunted for the first time after Kozak’s infield single in the bottom 4th, he hit into a double play, so there were setbacks after the brisk beginning. Top 5th, a leadoff walk to PH Corey Garmon, a Pigman single, and a Carrera sac fly gave the Loggers another run, 5-2, and it was tough chewing for the debutee by this point, with 81 pitches needed to get through five innings.

Jeremy Fetta then maneuvered into a three-on, no-out situation with hits allowed to Lonzo and Starr, plus a walk to Nye, in the bottom 5th. But don’t you worry; the Raccoons didn’t do him no harm, as Fowler struck out and Perez found the shortstop for a double play. Fetta and Girolamo Pizzichini then walked the bags full with Critters in the sixth: Morris, Kozak, and Christopher were all aboard with one out and blinking at Lonzo to do something about them on the bases. Lonzo spanked a ball hard to the left side near the bag; Serna dove and knocked it down, then scrambled and fell on the base just ahead of Kozak for a strange 5-U second out while a run scored. Starr’s fly to deep left was caught by Roberto Arcos, who had nearly hit a homer to left himself the previous inning.

Alba went six and a third before giving up a triple to right to Milian and departing in a rare lefty-for-lefty exchange. “Peppers” Harris conceded the run on Pigman’s groundout, but the inning at least ended with the Coons still up by three. Harris got two more outs in the eighth while giving up a single. Rios then struck out Chavez to get out of the inning. That was the only out Rios got, since Portland didn’t add in the bottom 8th. Walters got the bottom of the order in the ninth inning. It didn’t go *that* well. Arcos singled, Serna doubled. Milian grounded out, but a run scored. Pigman was the tying run in the box, and struck out on a breaking ball tickling the corner. Pigman vividly disagreed, slammed his bat on the ground, and then was ejected. The sweep was completed with a K on Lange. 6-4 Coons. Christopher 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Lavorano 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Starr 2-3, RBI; Kozak 1-1, BB;

In other news

June 1 – The only runs in the Cyclones’ regulation 3-0 win against the Warriors score on a walkoff home run by 3B Matt Ruskin (.200, 1 HR, 4 RBI).
June 2 – Two singles, two doubles, and two errors by the Stars allow the Rebels to rally for five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and snatch up a 7-6 walkoff win.
June 3 – Scorpions OF/1B Israel Santiago (.359, 2 HR, 13 RBI) will miss six weeks with a thumb sprain.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF/RF John Kaniewski (.284, 15 HR, 51 RBI), bashing .522 (12-23) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB 2B/LF Armando Montoya (.279, 13 HR, 39 RBI), hitting .500 (12-24) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: WAS INF Angelo Flores (.327, 2 HR, 28 RBI), hitting .402 with 2 HR, 23 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: OCT INF Robby Gaxiola (.378, 5 HR, 24 RBI), batting .398 with 2 HR, 14 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SAC SP Preston Young (6-2, 3.39 ERA), going 5-0 in six games, with a 2.80 ERA, 23 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: NYC SP Ben Seiter (9-0, 2.36 ERA), a sharp 5-0 in six starts, with a 2.60 ERA, 39 K
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN OF/1B Natsu Nakamura (.306, 3 HR, 17 RBI), batting .294 with 3 HR, 11 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA 2B/SS/LF Takuro Yoshikawa (.304, 3 HR, 26 RBI), poking .326 with 2 HR, 16 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I was gonna complain a lot about the pitching again, but with Noah Caswell going on the DL for perhaps the rest of the season, none of that matters anymore. We’re not gonna recover from that. That also means that we’re not gonna tear out a limb for a new third baseman anymore, because Cas already tore one out and it got us nothing, and because we’re not gonna replace that offense anyway. So, the string to play out this year amounts to, from Sunday, 106 games.

(deep sigh!)

That also means Chance Fox can get clobbered as much as he wants, it’s not gonna make a difference. Angel Alba had a decent debut on Sunday, but he will not hang around for the moment and go back to the Alley Cats instead for a bit more seasoning. The Raccoons will finish the homestand with the Crusaders and Scorpions.

Fun Fact: Marcos Chavez did not enjoy his return to Portland.

1-for-10, 6 K. He’s only hitting .208 for the year, which has been a struggle against the .200 mark from the very start. He has no homers and just 8 RBI. Remember that is the guy that once hit 6 homers in a quarter-season and 13 homers in a full season with the Coons.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (31-26) vs. Crusaders (39-16) – June 7-10, 2060

I’d say this series could make or break our season, but with Cas and Brass down and the pitching not steady, and everything… (moves paws around) … The Crusaders were first in runs scored, second in runs allowed, and already had a +120 run differential, so perhaps a healthy Cas and Brass would not have made a meaningful difference anyway. New York was up 3-1 for the season series.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (2-7, 4.26 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (4-4, 3.48 ERA)
Justin DeRose (5-4, 3.03 ERA) vs. Seisaku Taki (5-2, 4.14 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (5-2, 2.41 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (10-0, 2.34 ERA)
Zach Stewart (5-3, 3.65 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (4-3, 4.71 ERA)

The Crusaders brought up four right-handers; they had Milt Cantrell and Medardo Regueir on the DL.

The Raccoons returned Angel Alba (1-0, 4.26 ERA) to the Alley Cats for .115 flailing third-sacker Tony Benitez for a lack of a better idea.

Game 1
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 1B Rosenstiel – LF Austin – C McLaren – RF Zeiher – CF Branch – 2B Spehar – 3B R. Wright – P Luera
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – C Perez – CF Morris – LF Kozak – P B. Herrera

Right away on Monday, a pitchers’ duel broke out between Tipsy Bobby and Luera. The Raccoons’ starter faced little issues through three innings, then gave up a triple to Aubrey Austin in the fourth that led to no runs, coming with one out and nobody on and leading to a K on Matt McLaren and Sean Zeiher flying out. Ryan Spehar drew a walk and Ryan Wright reached on an error by Nick Nye in the top 5th, but the Crusaders didn’t score here as well; Luera’s bunt was the second out, and Omar Sanchez went down on strikes. The Raccoons didn’t even manage to make this much noise through five innings, but Joey Christopher managed to lead off the bottom 6th with a double to left, and Lonzo reached on an error by Sanchez. Joel Starr struck out, but Nye hit a sac fly to right, which gave us a rather riotous run in a heretofore scoreless game. Herrera went seven innings, then was hit for with two outs and Angel Perez on second base in the bottom 7th. Oscar Caballero, who had prior stints with both these teams, hit an RBI single to right, and Christopher also singled against a suddenly fading Luera, who gave away a 2-out, 2-run triple to center to Lonzo to extend the lead to 4-0 before Starr flew out to center. Ricky Herrera held the Crusaders off base in the top of the eighth, but Addison Leonard gave up another run on balls nicked for hits by the Nicks in the home half of the inning. Zeiher and Tommy Branch would find the corners with two outs against Mendez in the top of the ninth, but Spehar struck out to end the game. 5-0 Critters. Christopher 2-4, 2B; Nye 1-2, BB, RBI; Fowler 2-4, RBI; Caballero (PH) 1-1, RBI; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-7);

Game 2
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 1B Rosenstiel – LF Austin – C McLaren – RF Zeiher – CF Branch – 2B Spehar – 3B Webler – P Taki
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – C Perez – LF Caballero – CF Oley – P DeRose

The Crusaders did score on Tuesday, and quick, with McLaren whacking a 2-piece to center in the first inning after DeRose had walked John Rosenstiel and had thrown a wild pitch. He proceeded by hitting Sean Zeiher with a breaking ball, which led to some glaring and hissing, but no major kerfuffles. The Raccoons made one run from three hits in the bottom 1st; Christopher singled, stole second, and was driven in by Starr’s single. Nye grounded out to advance Starr to second, and Fowler’s 2-out single to right motivated Starr to run through the stop sign at third base, after which he was duly thrown out at the plate by Sean Zeiher, putting an end to the first inning.

There was no throwing out of Sean Zeiher at home when he was up next to bat himself, for he hit a 2-run homer to right in the second inning, capping a 6-run effort for the Crusaders, all earned, against a completely off-kilter DeRose, whose engagement in the game ended after this disaster of an inning. He had already been taken deep earlier in the inning by John Webler, then had loaded the bases with a single and two walks before giving up a bases-clearing double to McLaren with two outs. Zeiher put the dagger in, but that didn’t mean the Crusaders stopped scoring. Bravo got four outs, but the Crusaders piled on Adam Harris in the fourth inning with a 3-run homer to left whacked by Tommy Branch, which put the score at 11-1. At this point, the Raccoons would much bemoan the lack of a real long man that could go four innings or something… In the event, Harris was made to pitch until his paws turned blue, which amounted to 50 pitches (not a lot…) and just 2.2 innings. Aubrey Austin doubled off him in the sixth, but was at least stranded when Ryan Sullivan got a groundout to end the inning. Sullivan did another inning, and then Alex Rios failed his way through the last two innings, throwing 50 pitches as well while giving up a run in the eighth before loading the bases in the ninth, but eloping. The Raccoons never rallied, not even remotely. Joel Starr once hit a leadoff double and was brought around to score on two productive outs, which was as much heroics as the boys could muster. 12-2 Crusaders. Starr 3-4, 2B, RBI;

DeRose ended up in bed with flu-like symptoms by Wednesday, probably having caught a cold from all the sharply hit balls whizzing by his fuzzy useless ears. The torched pen left by his non-performance (1.2 IP, 8 ER) left us to make more roster moves. Adam Harris (0-0, 3.60 ERA) was optioned to AAA, and Alex Rios (0-0, 4.76 ERA, 1 SV) with his 17 walks in 22 innings was put on waivers and DFA’ed. Elijah LaBat and Bobby Sneeze were collected for temporary garbage duty.

Game 3
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – LF Austin – CF Branch – RF Zeiher – C Goodwin – 1B Caban – 3B Webler – P Seiter
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – LF Caballero – C Maresh – 3B Gonzales – CF Oley – P Riddle

The undefeated Seiter had pitched an 8-hit shutout against the Raccoons in April, in a game that had also ended in an 11-0 rout. At least Riddle didn’t explode as soon as he was exposed to sunlight, and the Crusaders didn’t score early on, although they threatened. Critically, Seiter failed to get a bunt down in the third inning after leadoff singles by Armando Caban and Webler and struck out, leading to Omar Sanchez hitting into a double play to end the inning. Conversely, Tyler Riddle stuck a knife into Seiter’s thigh in the bottom 3rd after Gonzales had reached on Ryan Spehar’s error and Oley had singled to begin the inning; a defensive misplay had also allowed both runners into scoring position before Riddle singled up the middle and plated both runners for a 2-0 lead. After that, Joe-Chris whiffed and Lonzo hit into a 5-4-3 double play with vigor to kill the inning.

The middle innings were mostly uneventful, but Riddle kept the pitch count down nicely while clicking off Crusaders, but then ran into a spot of bother in the seventh inning with a 1-out walk to Branch and a Zeiher double to right. Curt Goodwin was kind enough to strike out though, and Caban grounded out to Lonzo to end the inning with the tying runs stranded in scoring position, and the pitch count still at 84. Oscar Caballero then hit a 1-out triple in the bottom 7th, and that actually led to a run …! Chris Maresh walked against Seiter, while Gonzales fanned. Todd Oley zinged a soft single over the head of Spehar, though, and that brought in Caballero for a 3-0 lead. Riddle then grounded out and went back to the hill, throwing eight more pitches in the eighth inning while getting torn to shreds with a wallbanger double by Webler, an RBI triple by Seiter, and an RBI single from Sanchez, before being yanked. The tying run scored on Ruben Mendez’ watch when Maresh peppered away a pickoff attempt of the basestealing Sanchez, and productive outs by McLaren and Aubrey Austin got him across to get the teams level at three.

Seiter remained undefeated thanks to a scoreless, runnerless bottom 8th, and because Elijah LaBat’s leadoff walk to Zeiher in the top 9th ended with the runner being caught stealing. The Coons were up against righty Jason Rhodes in the bottom 9th, but the 4-5-6 also went in order and sent the game to extras. LaBat walked Rosenstiel and Wright in the tenth inning, and Ryan Sullivan could not maintain order after coming in with two outs, giving up a 2-run double to Aubrey Austin. I sighed, and Rhodes retired another three straight to end the game. 5-3 Crusaders. Caballero 2-4, 3B; Oley 2-3, BB, RBI; Riddle 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K and 1-3, 2 RBI;

LaBat walked three for getting five outs and ramped his ERA over five as well. Is there anybody in this organization that is NOT useless??

(Lonzo looks up from his food bowl and the cheeks stop munching)

Game 4
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – LF Austin – CF Branch – RF Zeiher – C Goodwin – 1B Rosenstiel – 3B Webler – P J. Ortega
POR: 1B Starr – SS Fowler – 2B Nye – C Perez – LF Caballero – RF Oley – CF Morris – 3B Benitez – P Stewart

Zeiher drove in a run with the third soft single of the first inning against Stewart, who also walked Branch after Sanchez and Spehar had gotten on, and faced a big inning until Goodwin hit into a 6-4-3 double play to get him out of the inning. The deficit was overturned in the bottom 2nd on Perez’ leadoff jack at first, then back-to-back 2-out doubles by Morris and Benitez (!!) after Todd Oley had been on base and had been caught stealing… That didn’t fix the problem that Stewart seemed to not get anybody out. The third inning began with Spehar’s sharp single to left, then a walk to Austin. Branch and Zeiher then both hit hard liners to Caballero and Fowler, respectively, before Goodwin struck out in a full count. The bottom of the order was retired more easily in the fourth, but a leadoff walk to Omar Sanchez – who had not even attempted to steal a base in this series, but had 14 on the board for the year – led to a long fifth with several throws over, despite the Crusaders not getting the tying run off first base. Instead, Tony Benitez hit another double to lead off the bottom 5th. Stewart whiffed, Starr walked, and Fowler hit into a fielder’s choice, before Nick Nye finally got the run in with a single to left with two outs, 3-1. Perez then grounded out to Sanchez at short.

Stewart was on the clock in the sixth inning with his shoddy start to the game, but the Crusaders were retired in order and there was no reason to yoink him yet. Webler tried to foul out behind the plate to begin the seventh, but the ball was dropped by Perez to keep Webler at the plate; he grounded out eventually. Stewart went on to strike out Ortega, but then walked Sanchez and was removed with the right-handers coming up. Bravo struck out Spehar to end the inning.

Things kept getting stranger with Tony Benitez, who then began the bottom 7th with a jack to right – his first career homer in 297 at-bats! The Raccoons then boldly put Bobby Sneeze (gesundheit!) in for the eighth inning, getting a leadoff walk to Austin and a K to Branch before going to Ricky Herrera. Zeiher hit into a fielder’s choice, erasing Sneeze’s runner, so when Goodwin bashed a home run to left-center, the two runs were on Herrera. Ricky H. would get out of the inning and Walters didn’t allow anybody on base in the ninth, so the Raccoons somehow got out of this set with a split. 4-3 Critters. Benitez 3-3, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (33-28) vs. Scorpions (28-33) – June 11-13, 2060

The good news for Sacramento: they had the best bullpen in the FL by ERA! The problem was just that by the time it became engaged, the game had already been lost by the rotation, which had the second-worst ERA in the FL. They were ninth in runs scored, with a -5 run differential. Crucially, that offense was now also missing two key outfielders in Mario Ceballos and Israel Santiago. These teams last played in ’58, with the Stingers taking two out of three games.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (6-5, 5.76 ERA) vs. Tom Delaney (3-6, 4.81 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (3-7, 3.86 ERA) vs. Kyle Turay (6-4, 3.04 ERA)
Justin DeRose (5-5, 4.08 ERA) vs. A.C. Stebbins (2-7, 4.56 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday!

Game 1
SAC: RF Buras – SS C. Navarro – C Danis – LF T. Duncan – 3B Corrales – 1B M. Harmon – CF Roura – 2B R. Price – P Delaney
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – C Perez – LF Caballero – CF Morris – 3B Benitez – P Fox

The next roster move was probably gonna be Chance Fox, who gave up a (badly played by Ben Morris, but still…) 1-out triple to Chris Navarro in the top 1st, then singles to Nate Danis (for the RBI) and Tim Duncan, and then nailed Victor Corrales, who didn’t want to be a Raccoon two winters ago for reasons beyond me, then got yelled at to get his **** together. He struck out Mike Harmon and Dave Roura without allowing another run, and four in a row overall before Will Buras’ single to center in the top 2nd, but he was left on base by Navarro. Danis drew a leadoff walk in the third, though, and Tim Duncan reached on a throwing error by Benitez. Corrales then got revenge with a 3-run homer to right.

The Coons, after a sodden first run through the order, put up a 3-spot of their own in the bottom 4th, put together with a Nye double, a walk drawn by Perez, Caballero’s RBI single, and another walk squeezed out by Morris. Benitez then singled home two – all with two outs – before Fox grounded out and left runners on the corners. The score was tied at four in the bottom 5th; the leadoff pair got on base as Christopher walked and Lonzo singled. Starr’s sac fly got us even, Nye was walked intentionally in that spot, and the Raccoons did a double steal out of spite, leading to another sac fly for Angel Perez and a 5-4 lead. Rick Price made an error on Caballero’s 2-out grounder, but then handled Morris’ grounder to end the inning.

As soon as we had the lead, Chance Fox got the ball back, and things… “developed”. Leadoff single for Price in the sixth, then a full-count walk to PH Steve Wyatt. Buras’ grounder was butchered for an error by Starr, and the bags were full with nobody out. Fox was yanked, Mendez came in and allowed a fly to center to Navarro. Morris made the catch, Price made for home – and was thrown out! The remaining runners advanced, though, but a K to Danis took care of the threat.

The Coons pen then pieced together six outs between Sullivan, LaBat and Ricky Herrera without blowing the skinny lead, but the offense also failed to tack on, getting only one single in the three innings after taking the lead, and that wasn’t gonna add up to an insurance run. The ninth then saw Matt Walters give up a leadoff walk to Buras, who advanced on Navarro’s bunt, then an infield single to Danis that put the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners. Well, then with strikeouts? Walters fanned Duncan for the second out, and then Corrales, too…! 5-4 Raccoons. Nye 2-2, 2 BB, 2 2B;

This gave Chance Fox the team lead in wins with seven. He also had the highest ERA, and it wasn’t close…

Game 2
SAC: RF Buras – SS C. Navarro – C Danis – LF T. Duncan – 3B Corrales – 1B M. Harmon – 2B R. Price – CF Roura – P Turay
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B Nye – 3B Fowler – C Maresh – LF Kozak – CF Oley – P B. Herrera

Bobby Herrera retired the first six batters in order, then was slapped around for a team cycle in the third inning as Price tripled, Roura singled, Buras homered, and Navarro doubled before getting stranded, putting the Scorpions in the lead, 3-0. The Raccoons had yet to collect as much as a single, which they did on Kozak’s duck snort to shallow right in the bottom 3rd, and which led to Herrera bunting into a double play when it was his turn…

Portland scored two in the fourth on straight hits by the 2-3-4 batters. Lonzo and Nye both singled to left while in between Starr doubled to right-center, driving home Lonzo and then scoring from second on Nye’s ball, narrowing the score to 3-2. Herrera had another two clean innings, then another “what the…?” sixth as Duncan reached an error by Fowler, and Corrales and Harmon got soft singles, all with nobody out. Price’s sac fly brought in a run, but Roura hit into a fielder’s choice to Lonzo and Turay struck out in a full count, but that was all we got out of Tipsy Bobby, who left on a 4-2 hook, and that didn’t get better with the 2-3-4 batters now disappearing in order in the bottom 6th.

The bullpen didn’t make it any better, either. Bravo was taken deep by Tim Duncan in the eighth inning, 5-2, and Bobby Sneeze (gesundheit!) issued a leadoff walk to Roura in the ninth before Danny Mijangos reached on a brutal throwing error for two bases by Fowler. A passed ball charged to Maresh brought in one run, but Mijangos had to hold out through two weak outs before Danis powered a 2-run homer to put the game away for good. Ex-Coon Steve Watson fooled around in the bottom 9th and walked everything with legs and willing to listen before Ben Morris singled home two runs with two down, but that didn’t even get us close… 8-4 Scorpions. Morris (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

Game 3
SAC: 2B R. Price – SS C. Navarro – LF T. Duncan – 3B Corrales – 1B M. Harmon – RF Grewe – C Poindexter – CF Roura – P Stebbins
POR: 2B Nye – SS Lavorano – C Perez – 1B Starr – CF Caballero – LF Kozak – 3B Gonzales – RF Christopher – P DeRose

DeRose’s fuzzy ears were probably still ringing from Tuesday’s drubbing and mid-week illness, but he was well enough to take the start on Sunday and give up a first-inning solo piece to Tim Duncan. Nye tied it up with a solo home run to left of his own with two gone in the bottom 3rd, after which the Scorpions stung DeRose for three singles and another run in the fourth inning, but the Raccoons tied it up again on hits by Starr and Gonzales in the bottom 4th, and we were even at two. Starr would be on second base again with two outs in the bottom 6th for Gonzales, having been pushed there when Jack Kozak drew a 2-out walk, but this time Gonzales popped out to short and the briskly advancing game remained tied at two.

DeRose, who was on 62 pitches through six, then ran three full counts in the seventh inning. Mike Harmon and Bobby Grewe both struck out, and Manny Poindexter flew out to Christopher in deep right. But returning him for the eighth immediately backfired with walks to Roura and Wyatt on just nine pitches… Ryan Sullivan replaced him and couldn’t have been of less use if he’d been a living room lampshade. Price singled, Navarro brought in a run on a groundout, and Duncan singled home another run against him. Ricky Herrera replaced him and got five outs on ten pitches, starting with a double play grounder hit by Corrales, while in the ninth inning even finding the time to see Lonzo drop a Poindexter pop to put a 2-out runner on base.

Sacramento came up with right-hander Justin Round, who was over 10 K per nine innings against the opposition, but offered a leadoff walk to Oley, who batted in place of Kozak. This brought up the tying run as Fowler batted for Gonzales, but grounded out. Christopher singled to right, plating Oley from second, 4-3, and Benitez batted for Ricky Herrera, with the winning run now in the box. Benitez grounded out, moving the tying run to second base, but Nye flew out to Duncan in left and the game ended prematurely for Ricky Herrera to scratch another win… 4-3 Scorpions. Nye 2-5, HR, RBI; Starr 2-4;

In other news

June 8 – WAS SP Jon Reyes (6-4, 2.50 ERA) could be out until the All Star Game with back soreness.
June 8 – The Gold Sox trade C Jose Cantu (.285, 5 HR, 17 RBI) to the Bayhawks for SS/3B Jesus Nunez (.291, 4 HR, 21 RBI).
June 8 – The Blue Sox beat the Capitals, 18-14, with 15 runs being scored in the second inning alone. The Blue Sox put up two separate 8-spots in the second and sixth innings. NAS INF/RF Robby Cox (.305, 10 HR, 45 RBI) puts up three hits, two homers, and five RBI.
June 10 – The Stars take a hit with the news that OF Tyler Wharton (.264, 2 HR, 20 RBI) would miss two months with shoulder inflammation.
June 10 – Rebels 3B Bobby Anderson (.299, 6 HR, 28 RBI) was not expected to play again before late July, being plagued with back spasms, an old man injury at age 36.
June 10 – The Indians put CF/RF Steve Thompson (.283, 4 HR, 22 RBI) on the DL with a case of shoulder tendinitis. The 23-year-old is expected to miss two months.
June 12 – San Francisco adds SP Joe Chalmers (2-5, 4.16 ERA) from the Cyclones for two prospects. This includes the #13 prospect, SP Danny Tabares.
June 13 – The Knights’ SP Vic Harman (7-3, 2.34 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout and strikes out 11 Cyclones in a 10-0 shutout, despite the fact that the game’s very first batter, Cincy’s Marcos Onelas (.211, 2 HR, 14 RBI) hit a triple off Harman.
June 13 – NAS SP Levi Harre (4-1, 3.31 ERA) 3-hits the Condors while whiffing seven in a 7-0 shutout.
June 13 – Warriors 1B Miguel Medina (.312, 7 HR, 30 RBI) could miss a month with an intercostal strain.

FL Player of the Week: NAS C David Johnson (.353, 8 HR, 30 RBI), hitting .667 (8-12) with 2 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL SS/2B Fidel Carrera (.304, 8 HR, 36 RBI), hitting .478 (11-23) with 1 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons lost Alex Rios on waivers to the Aces this week. Rios went 4-0 with a 3.27 ERA and 1 SV in 99 games across five seasons, but had been walking almost seven batters per nine innings this year, and was making all the other problems worse that way.

Now, how can I lose the rest of the roster…

The Raccoons have Monday off. The team starts a road trip to Nashville and Elk City on Tuesday, which will also be the day of the draft in New York.

Fun Fact: The Coons would tie for the lead in the CL South.

But in our own division, we’re a proud 11 games out of the first place. Oh well. Maybe next year…