Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (35-37) @ Knights (35-40) – June 29-July 1, 2015

The Knights were fourth in the South, fourth in runs scored, and … 11th in runs allowed. There wasn’t much to their pitching, and they had the worst rotation with a flat 5 ERA. They also had a worse defense than the Raccoons by now, but they were good at hitting for power, but that was a factor of having Gil Rockwell aboard with his 22 home runs. We were 2-1 against them in ’15.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (8-2, 1.84 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (1-9, 7.77 ERA)
Hector Santos (3-4, 2.93 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (3-7, 4.18 ERA)
Chris Brown (0-1, 13.50 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (3-6, 4.70 ERA)

The Knights had an entirely right-handed rotation. We will miss their best guy, Shaun Yoder (6-1, 3.96 ERA).

Game 1
POR: CF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Toner
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 3B W. White – LF Rockwell – RF E. Wood – 2B Downing – SS Hibbard – C Rosa – 1B C. Morán – P F. Ramirez

It didn’t take long for Gil Rockwell to make his presence felt as he bombed Jonny Toner right in the first inning. Unfortunately, Wade White had singled earlier, and the Knights had a 2-0 lead. Things didn’t get better for him after that. Devin Hibbard hit a leadoff double in the second and scored on miserable Freddy Rosa’s single. Toner drilled César Morán with a 1-2 pitch. Ramirez’ bunt was bad and got Rosa forced at third base, but Marty Reyes lined a pitch past Murphy for an RBI double, running the score to 4-0. Rockwell came up with two on and two out and rammed another pitch to deep left, but this one fell down into Ron Richards’ glove on the warning track. This was not quite a 1-hitter performance from Portland’s newest favorite toy…

Said favorite toy made it through five innings only, allowing another run on the way in a real disaster of a start, in which the Knights made hard contact relentlessly all the time. The Coons in turn didn’t get a hit against the drab Ramirez until the fourth inning, and through six scored only one run while leaving two men on base in the fifth and sixth. Daniel “Dud” Dickerson appeared afterwards, hopefully for *long* relief, but former Raccoon Vic Flores quickly hit a pinch-hit 2-run homer off him to run the score to 7-1, and the Knights clobbered him for another run in the seventh. The Raccoons would have the bases loaded with one out in the eighth. Ramón Huertas had allowed a double to Nunley, then walked Richards and Reya. All the Raccoons would get was a Bednarski sac fly, hitting for Dickerson in Murphy’s spot where he had appeared in a double switch. 8-2 Knights. Margolis (PH) 1-1; Nunley 2-5, 2B; Reya 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – CF Johnson – P Santos
ATL: CF M. Reyes – C Bedinghaus – LF Rockwell – RF E. Wood – 2B Downing – SS Hibbard – 3B W. White – 1B T. Cardenas – P R. Jimenez

Santos didn’t blow up as soon as he had tied his shoes, which was already a plus over Monday. He also hit a leadoff single in the third inning, but got rolled up in Sambrano’s double play. Then McKnight hit a single, Nunley doubled, two in scoring position for … the middle of the order. And Luis Reya promptly whiffed. The Knights would get their own scoring chance in the bottom of the third when Tomas Cardenas doubled, Ramón Jimenez singled over a leaping McKnight, but they also rolled up and died when Santos struck out Reyes and Bill Bedinghaus flew out to Reya. Through five, nobody scored in any way, with four hits for Portland and two for Atlanta. McKnight led off the sixth with a single that dropped right in front of Rockwell, but the next three batters produced two soft grounders and a harmless Ron Richards fly to Marty Reyes, stranding McKnight at third base, and they also left D-Alex on third in the next inning. Nobody scored until the ninth inning. Reya had just flown out to Rockwell in deep left to open the inning when Bednarski appeared to hit for Richards to counter the left-hander Mike Tharp. Another fly to deep left, and this one went out! The first run in the game put Santos in line for a W, but it was all the team managed in this regard. Angel Casas would face the top of the order in the bottom of the ninth, which started with a Marty Reyes single up the middle and into center. Bedinghaus bounced sharply to third base, but Nunley made a wonderful play, swiped the ball, fired to second base, and started a wonderful double play. Then Rockwell struck out. 1-0 Raccoons! McKnight 2-4; Bednarski (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Santos 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K, W (4-4) and 1-3;

There was a change for game 3 as the Knights went to right-hander Dave Hogan (1-0, 3.20 ERA), who had been in their rotation all of last year, but this year saw use as a swingman. This was to be his second start against 19 relief appearances.

Game 3
POR: CF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – LF Ochoa – P C. Brown
ATL: SS Hibbard – C Bedinghaus – CF M. Reyes – LF Rockwell – 2B Downing – 3B W. White – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Mims – P Hogan

Chris Brown started the first inning with a walk to Hibbard, but the Coons managed to get him out of that. He walked Josh Downing, Wade White, AND Tomas Cardenas to start the second inning, and it would be quite a bit harder to get out of that mess. Kyle Mims hit an RBI single to left, his first hit of the year, but when Hogan grounded to third base, Nunley turned another double play, though White scored with the second run. Hibbard popped out, leaving the Knights 2-0 ahead, but Brown looked like crap. Things got much worse very soon. Brown walked Reyes in the third, his fifth walk of the game. Rockwell singled on a 1-2 pitch and then Downing romped a 3-run homer. The offensively inept Raccoons hadn’t a whole lot going, but had McKnight on first with two outs in the fourth inning when Ron Richards doubled to left. McKnight was sent … and thrown out at home. Brown’s suffering ended in the fifth after a 2-out walk to Cardenas, with Sugano getting Mims to end the inning, but the Knights had a 5-0 lead anyway.

Top 6th, Ochoa made an out to get going, but then Reya had a pinch-hit single. Sandy doubled, putting two in scoring position. The Coons got their first run when Hibbard bungled McKnight’s grounder for an error. Hogan rebounded by striking out Nunley and Richards, and that was that. Dickerson gave the sorry unearned run right back in the bottom of the same inning. Danny Ochoa hit his maiden homer in the top 7th, a 2-run job that just barely escaped over the fence in rightfield, but that still left the team down 6-3. Hogan kept going, but the Raccoons brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the eighth, when McKnight and Richards were on for Stan Murphy. And – like a magnet – he grounded out to short. 6-3 Knights. Sambrano 2-4, 2B; Richards 2-4, 2B; Reya (PH) 1-1;

Brown walked eight in this game. I like the other Brown much better, y’know.

Raccoons (36-39) @ Indians (40-38) – July 2-5, 2015

This 4-game set pitted the Raccoons against the Indians, whom they were 3-4 against so far this season. The Indians were eighth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed in the CL, with a -20 run differential that was normally not conducive to a winning record, but then again they were one really bad weekend away from - … ah, whom are we kidding, the Coons scored six runs in Atlanta, and they damn sure won’t start swinging against the Arrowheads, who have given them issues for years and years.

The Indians had just traded for the Loggers’ 3B Dan Jones (.233, 2 HR, 23 RBI) sending them two middling prospects.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-8, 5.23 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (4-8, 6.07 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-4, 3.02 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (4-7, 4.05 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-3, 2.16 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (5-7, 3.39 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-4, 2.70 ERA) vs. TBD

The Indians would open the set with the left-handed Lamb, and then two righties we were sure of. But they had played a double-header on Wednesday before we came in, and both Josh Hatfield (2-4, 4.58 ERA) and Dan Lambert (9-4, 2.92 ERA) had thrown 117 pitches and were probably not good candidates to go on short rest on Sunday. They had a few guys in the pen that would suit a starting assignment, foremost 23-year old righty Jason Clements (3-0, 5.11 ERA), whom Calderón was wondering why he wasn’t in their rotation in the first place. That ERA was a bit misleading, he actually had quite interesting stuff. He had appeared in the majors 36 times, all in relief.

Game 1
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Bergquist – SS McKnight – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – C Margolis – 3B Canning – LF Ochoa – P Conway
IND: SS M. Thompson – 3B D. Jones – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – CF J. Wilson – LF Baker – 2B Dawson – P Lamb

Kyle Lamb struggled out of the gate. Bergquist hit a single and he walked Bednarski and Murphy before Margolis came up and romped a pitch to deep center, and high, too, and … GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!

That sure was quick, and the Raccoons added a run in the second inning, but Conway was still being Conway, and the gates opened with a Lamb single in the bottom 3rd. Marc Thompson hit an RBI triple and scored on Dan Jones’ groundout, getting the Indians back to 5-2. He didn’t have a clean frame through the middle innings, but the defense kept getting him out of trouble. Offensively, Conway struck out to end the fifth and leave the bases loaded, and batted again in the seventh inning, again with two outs and this time runners on the corners. Jason Clements was pitching and ran a full count before Conway slapped a pitch over Jones and up the leftfield line for a 2-run double, 7-2! And then the ground opened. Bottom 7th, John Wilson hit a leadoff single, Conway walked Josh Baker, and Ryan Dawson hit an RBI double. Sugano replaced Conway, got a grounder from PH Ape Britton to first, where Murphy gave him a terrible feed and Sugano dropped it. Another run scored, 7-4, and the tying run was at the plate. Chris Mathis replaced Sugano to face the right-handers at the top of the order, struck out Thompson, struck out Jones, and struck out Santiago Guerra! Unfortunately Ron Thrasher wouldn’t have as much success in the eighth inning, and put two men on with two outs. Angel Casas was called on for another 4-out save, starting with Dawson, whom he struck out, but in the ninth he managed to work himself into the same mess and had two on with one out after singles by Thompson and Jones. He struck out Guerra, which brought up left-hander Nick Gilmor, who was batting .246 with seven homers. Casas tried so hard not to give him something to drive that he walked him, and faced Dave Padilla with the bases loaded. Padilla however rolled over to short, and McKnight ended the game. 7-4 Furballs. Bergquist 2-5; McKnight 2-5; Murphy 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Margolis 3-5, HR, 4 RBI; Canning 2-4;

Sandy would get a day off on Friday, with Nunley batting leadoff, because, well, who else is even reaching base?

Game 2
POR: 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Reya – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – CF Johnson – P N. Brown
IND: CF J. Wilson – LF Gilmor – RF M. Thompson – 1B S. Guerra – C Padilla – 3B D. Jones – SS Dawson – 2B Bowers – P Weise

The first three Indians all hit singles off Nick Brown, they were all sharp, and they scored a run in the first inning. The Raccoons didn’t do much at all through the first four innings, but in the fifth, D-Alex hit a 1-out single, followed by a Bergquist double off the wall in right. That put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but with Brandon Johnson and Brownie next in line. Actually, just Johnson, who was walked intentionally with his one career hit. Was that prudent? Brownie was a .225 career batter after all. Here, he struck out, and Nunley grounded out to first, and nobody scored.

Brownie, frustrated once more, struck out Jones, Dawson, and Tom Bowers in the bottom of the inning. The offense remained futile, and Brown’s day was ruined for good by Tom Weise in the bottom of the seventh. With Dan Jones on third base and two outs, Weise bounced a ball through between McKnight and Bergquist and into center, scoring the run and the Indians were up 2-0. There wasn’t even the slightest comeback attempt by the miserable Raccoons; when Ron Richards hit a 1-out single in the ninth of Weise, that was only their fifth hit on the day. The Indians were completely unfazed. There was Stan Murphy at the plate, why would you worry about your 2-run lead? Murphy grounded quickly to Jones, who started a double play to end the game. 2-0 Indians. Brown 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, L (10-5) and 1-2;

Game 3
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Margolis – 1B Ochoa – CF Johnson – P Toner
IND: SS M. Thompson – LF Britton – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – CF J. Wilson – 3B Mathews – 2B Dawson – P A. Mendez

Things kept going wrong for Jonny Toner. After the Raccoons went down without a whimper in the top of the first, Toner issued a leadoff walk to Thompson before Guerra and Gilmor hit singled, plating the first run. Nunley misplayed Padilla’s grounder into an error to load the bases. John Wilson bounced the first pitch back to Toner for a force out at home, and Mathews popped out to left, but over those 33 pitches, Jonny had looked like crap. The Coons also didn’t look like much at the plate once more, and had only one hit in the first three innings. Nunley then opened the fourth inning with a double to left, and Richards and Bednarski started to carve out Mendez with a pair of singles, with Bednarski chasing home Nunley to tie the game. There was still nobody out, but between Margolis, Ochoa, and Johnson, the Coons got two grounders and a strikeout and no runs to take a lead.

Toner got his first strikeout in the game in the fourth inning – nothing to rave about, it was Mendez – but opened the fifth with a single, and Sandy added another one. McKnight grounded out, moving the runners to scoring position. Nunley flew out to left, Richards grounded to the pitcher – nobody scored. Nobody ever scored. Except for the Indians. Padilla’s leadoff double in the sixth turned up the pressure again, Toner drilled Wilson, who had to leave the game, threw a wild pitch, and allowed both runners to score on sac flies. More pain in the eighth, as Thrasher was completely out of whack once more, issued two walks, a single, and a wild pitch as well as a run and had to be rescued by another member of the clown faction, Zack Entwistle. The Raccoons even got the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning. Down 4-1, Jarrod Morrison retired the first two Critters before Ochoa singled and Reya walked. D-Alex hit for Entwistle … and rolled to short. 4-1 Indians.

That’s consecutive chokes now, even while ignoring that the offense has been crap for … well, the entire year, and the year before that, and so on. In the last eight games in particular, the Raccoons managed to score more than three runs just twice.

Also, Toner managed to break John Wilson’s wrist, costing him at least a month. Oh I’m sure the Indians won’t pay back, he was merely batting .329 with eight dingers. It’s not like they rely on him to score anything.

Game 4
POR: CF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
IND: SS M. Thompson – CF Baker – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – LF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – 2B Dawson – P Hatfield

Santos spent 18 pitches for the first two batters, who both ended up reaching on a single and a walk, respectively. Guerra thankfully grounded into a double play, and Santos escaped unharmed, but also had thrown 30 pitches in a stinking first inning. The Furballs went down in order the first time through the order, with Hatfield needing just 25 pitches for THREE innings. Hatfield ended up retiring the first 15 little black noses in a row before Murphy by chance found the hole between Jones and Thompson with one of his ****ty grounders to the left side and it escaped for a single to start the sixth inning. And then, Santos couldn’t even get a ****ing bunt down and killed Murphy on the base paths!

Murphy then failed to get even remotely close to Josh Baker’s grounder that opened the bottom 6th and conceded that for a leadoff single. Up came Guerra, saw, and conquered Santos with a booming home run to right, 2-0 Indians just like that. The Critters got singles from McKnight and Richards in the seventh, plus an inning-ending double play from Bednarski, dropping his average under .220. Hatfield seemingly ran out of breath, however. The eighth saw him issue his first walk, another single, and a wild pitch, bringing up Reya in the #9 hole (replacing Wetnarski in a double switch that replaced Santos after six and two thirds) with one out and runners in scoring position, the tying runs no less. Reya walked, but Sandy flew out to right. Hatfield was still left in the game by the disinterested Indians management, issued bases-loaded walks to both McKnight and Nunley, and tied the game before Richards had to poke and fly out. Reya then stranded two with a grounder to short in the top 9th. The game went to extras, where the Coons were 0-9 this season, with 0-10 drawing closer when Entwistle allowed a first-pitch single to PH Joey Mathews to start the tenth. Marc Thompson bounced to the mound, Entwistle threw between McKnight’s legs and into centerfield for an error, and Sugano replaced him. Josh Baker bunted, Murphy couldn’t handle that and the bases were loaded. Sugano got consecutive grounders to first for forceful outs at home before Padilla evicted the Coons by dumping a blooper into shallow left. 3-2 Indians. Alexander 2-4; Santos 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K; Bruno 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

June 29 – VAN 1B Ray Gilbert (.325, 15 HR, 54 RBI) will miss a week with back spasms.
July 1 – Las Vegas utility player Arturo Perez (.303, 2 HR, 12 RBI) just had a 5-hit game last week, but now his season is over with a torn labrum that needs surgery.
July 3 – BOS 3B/1B Rob Holley (.241, 2 HR, 13 RBI) announces his retirement after surgery to repair his torn labrum went not as successful as everyone hoped for. Holley, 26, batted .235 with 4 HR and 27 RBI in his career.
July 3 – The Buffaloes beat the Blue Sox 1-0 in an 11-inning game. Nashville’s Lance Tinker surrenders a walkoff double to TOP C Pedro Salas (.248, 1 HR, 12 RBI).
July 4 – The Cyclones acquire SP Ted McKenzie (3-6, 4.63 ERA) from the Knights, sending them 38-year old 1B/2B Oliver Torres (.245, 0 HR, 4 RBI).
July 4 – DAL LF/RF Lionnel Perri (.258, 6 HR, 42 RBI) is down with a bad concussion and might not play again this year.
July 4 – 36-year old journeyman WAS 3B/SS Alex Rivas (.277, 6 HR, 32 RBI) hits a walkoff grand slam in the 13th inning to beat the Rebels, 8-4.
July 5 – LVA SP Juan Valdevez (10-4, 2.97 ERA) spins a 3-hitter against the Condors. The Aces rout them, 8-0.
July 5 – The Condors lose outfielder Ryan Feldmann (.282, 12 HR, 42 RBI) to a knee sprain. He won’t be back before the middle of August.
July 5 – The Stars not only come back from a 3-2 deficit in the eighth inning against the Pacifics, no, they spill out a dozen runs in the frame and claim a 14-5 victory.

Complaints and stuff

Ronnie McKnight went .263 with 6 HR and 17 RBI in June to win Rookie of the Month honors.

By the way, eight walks by a starting pitcher? Tied the franchise record for Chris Brown. He’s the fifth pitcher to “achieve” this for the Coons, and the second one named Brown. Yup, that other chump had a game like that in his rookie season in 2002, 20 years after the first three instances for the franchise. Logan Evans and Román Ocasio both did it in 1981, but the first to do it was Juan Berrios on June 14, 1980 against the Cyclones – the infamous 19-walks-in-nine-innings game. (… that sparked a 2-month hiatus for this little project here…)

It’s the international free agent signing season. It only started on Wednesday, but we have already swiped up a 16-year old Dominican infielder named Omar Casillas, who came us the princely sum of $11,000. So nothing to really write home about in the end. I am on one good right-handed pitcher, but it’s going to be expensive:

SP Manny Gomez - $342,000
SP Rico Gutierrez - $81,000
SS Ismael Pastor - $48,000
CF Domingas Russo - $15,000

That would be (with Casillas) $497k total, well over the cap of $383k. I’d like to stay under $402k, which will prevent any harsh penalties.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-42) vs. Canadiens (43-38) – July 6-9, 2015

And just like that we have already arrived at the pre-All Star game week, and the first set of the traditional four-and-four against an opponent. ‘bout bloody time. Our dance partner would be the eternally disgusting Canadiens, who had a 3-game winning streak coming in, a 3-game winning streak against the Critters in ’15, and were otherwise merely very average, ranking seventh in both runs allowed and runs scored in the CL, with a +3 run differential (Coons: -22). The Coons and Elks had gone up against another only once this year so far. The Raccoons were still winless, down 0-3.

Projected matchups:
Chris Brown (0-2, 11.42 ERA) vs. David Peterson (6-7, 7.13 ERA)
Bill Conway (3-8, 5.18 ERA) vs. Hunter Park (3-0, 4.06 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.99 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (7-4, 3.90 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-4, 2.28 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (11-5, 2.83 ERA)

Of the two left-handers the Elks had, we’d see only one (McMullen), missing Dave Butler (8-8, 3.64 ERA). The Elks had a few injuries, with closer Pedro Alvarado on the shelf just as well as 1B Ray Gilbert, whose bat (.325, 15 HR, 54 RBI) would be nothing I’d long for. While Alvarado was out until late in the year, there was a chance that Gilbert would be back by the time the series would resume in Vancouver ten days from here.

Game 1
VAN: C R. Hernandez – LF E. Garcia – CF Cameron – RF K. Evans – 3B Madison – 2B Lawrence – SS Irvin – 1B Mateo – P D. Peterson
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – CF Johnson – P C. Brown

Chris Brown retired the first five Canadiens, which momentarily dropped his monstrous ERA below double digits, before Jaylin Lawrence reached on a dying grounder that became an infield single. The Raccoons had just lost the game; Jeremiah Irvin singled convincingly, Jaime Mateo did so, too, 1-0, Peterson dumped a pitch into shallow center, 2-0, Raúl Hernandez doubled, 4-0, Brown walked Enrique Garcia, and Don Cameron reached on catcher’s interference. Once Brown lost Kurt Evans to a 4-pitch walk, shoving home the fifth run, and the fan base was booing and hissing, he was brought in. Chris Mathis retired Steve Madison on a grounder to end the second inning.

Mathis walked two in the third, but got through that, before Dud Dickerson took over in the fourth. The hope was for him to cover most of the remaining game, but he drilled Garcia, his first batter, and walked two in an inning that somehow went by in scoreless fashion thanks to a Kurt Evans double play grounder. In four innings, Dickerson would drill two, walk three, concede two runs, and be bailed out with double plays three times. The Raccoons had scored two runs somewhere along the way, both times including the benefits of a Luis Reya double. There was also the usual Murphy double play, and McKnight left runners in scoring position with a sorry pop in the bottom 7th, and they left runners on the corners in the eighth against an unfazed and unhurtable Peterson. Meanwhile, Angel Casas had to help with mop-up duty, pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, raising the mood only briefly before Ron Thrasher was flogged for two more runs in the ninth, having batters in 2-strike counts four times in a row and unable to remove any of them with a K. 9-2 Canadiens. Sambrano 2-4, BB; Reya 2-4, 2 2B;

… and we also need that new flavor they have brought out, Slappy. – Ya, “Capt’n Coma Beautiful Barbs”. You got that? – Great.

“Barbs” is of course for barbiturates.

That night still, Chris Brown (0-3, 13.94 ERA) was silently disposed of in a barely accessible landfill southeast of Portland. I tried hard to get him into the rotation, but … no.

Interlude: waiver claim

Our new pitcher arrived in Portland via waiver wire, and was already familiar to Raccoons fans. The Coons claimed 38-year old SP Kenichi Watanabe (4-6, 4.30 ERA) off waivers by the Warriors. His stats look Conway-ish, and the 4.93 ERA he put up in Portland in 2010, which ended up his last season here, was the worst since then. He had pitched for the Scorpions and Knights in between, fairly consistently posting an ERA in the high 3’s or low-to-middle 4’s, with merely a 1.3 K/BB.

He’s on a $438k deal that will be up after the season, and he can’t possibly be worse than Dickerson and Chris Brown…

Raccoons (37-42) vs. Canadiens (43-38) – July 6-9, 2015

Game 2
VAN: C R. Hernandez – LF E. Garcia – RF K. Evans – 3B Madison – SS Irvin – CF J. Medina – 2B Paull – 1B Mateo – P Park
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – C Margolis – 1B Murphy – CF Johnson – P Conway

Conway fell behind 1-0 in the first inning on an unearned run that was his own fault, dropping Murphy’s feed to put Raúl Hernandez on base to start the inning. A 4-pitch walk to Enrique Garcia didn’t help for sure, and two groundouts later the Elks were on the board. Conway was no impediment to the Elks’ ambitions to catch up with the Crusaders, and the Elks had a runner on base by the time they had made an out in every one of Conway’s innings. They scored an earned run in the third, and Conway turned two unearned runs that were initially blamed on a Luis Reya error in the fifth inning into earned runs when he continued to bleed singles after the runners had scored on Evans and Madison sac flies.

It was hard to be mad at Reya in a 4-0 deficit however, because he had the Coons’ only hit, a single, so that was that. The perfectly invisible Brandon Johnson had a double in the fifth inning, but was left on third by Sandy Sambrano. In the sixth, however, the Coons somehow managed to load the bases with two singles and a walk, putting Margolis in the prime spot with one out. He whiffed most feebly, with Murphy flying out softly to Kurt Evans only two pitches later. Nobody scored, of course. Conway arrived in the seventh inning, somehow, but only to walk Garcia and Evans before departing with nobody out. Marcos Bruno could not contain the meltdown, but rather accelerated it with a Steve Madison double before he drilled Cesar Tellez, who had replaced an injured Jeremiah Irvin. A wild pitch here and a grounder there, and just like that the Elks doubled their output from four runs to eight. The Raccoons rolled up and died silently. 8-0 Canadiens. Reya 1-2, 2 BB; Johnson 2-4, 2 2B;

Oh please, good Brownie, stop this terrible bleeding …!

Game 3
VAN: CF K. Evans – LF E. Garcia – C R. Hernandez – 2B Madison – 3B Paull – SS Irvin – RF Cameron – 1B Mateo – P R. Taylor
POR: 1B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – LF Reya – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – CF Johnson – RF Ochoa – P N. Brown

Irvin was back in despite back discomfort, and Johnson hit another double in the second inning, moving Reya to third with two outs, but then left with an injury himself. Three positions shifted right there as Sandy went to center, Ochoa to first, and Bednarski entered to man right. The Elks pitched to Ochoa with two men down, which led to a hard RBI single into right, the first run of the game, but when Brownie came up he ticketed Taylor’s first pitch into shallow center for another RBI single before Sandy flew out to Evans to keep it at 2-0 for the home team, which held an actual lead for the first time in this series. Not that Nick Brown would get anything out of it: he left in the third inning with a tight hamstring.

This threw an already disjointed and incapacitated bullpen (thanks to Chris Brown again) into an inevitable tailspin. After Sugano and Entwistle got two outs apiece, Chris Mathis was selected to pitch three innings (fifth through seventh) with a 2-0 lead, but came close to implosion in the fifth already and needed 19 pitches to get through owing to a bloop single by Eric Paull and an infield single by Irvin to start the inning. Cameron grounded out to Bergquist, Mateo grounded out to Ochoa at first, and Taylor flew out to left. Another dire spot came in the bottom 6th. Bednarski had accidentally singled, and Ochoa reached on Taylor’s error with two outs, which put Mathis into the box, still with a 2-0 lead. Hnnggh!! Plans change, and Ron Richards grabbed a bat although all I could think about how he would become Taylor’s 10th strikeout victim. Things went differently, though, with Taylor falling behind 2-0 before making a mistake over the heart of the plate, and Richards still could hit mistakes. He hit that particular mistake about 380 feet to right, blowing the score to 5-0.

Emboldened, we threw out Dickerson to get two outs, which he achieved without surrendering between one and sixteen runs. Thrasher then completed the seventh, but got struck in the eighth, issuing a walk and a single to Evans and Garcia, respectively. Bruno walked Hernandez with two outs, prompting another swift move to Angel Casas, who had to collect four outs with the bases loaded. This he achieved masterfully, striking out Madison to deny the Elks in the eighth, and retired them in order in the ninth. 5-0 Brownies. Johnson 1-1, 2B; Richards (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Brown 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K and 1-1, RBI; Mathis 2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (18);

Every reliever got a shot, and Sugano got the W.

We had injury dilemmas, however. There was diagnosis on Brandon Johnson so far, but Nick Brown’s hamstring issue was judged to be mild by the Druid, who made an effort to smear the affected leg with ketchup all night. Here was the dilemma: Brownie was probably out for about ten days. Disabling him would put him out until the 24th, and we had trouble to fill our rotation as it was, while just letting it be would probably allow him to face the Elks again in Vancouver next weekend, with the All Star game as cushion in between. But right now we could use the extra roster spot, with Sandy Sambrano our only remaining centerfielder, if only for two more days. Cookie Carmona could be activated on Saturday. How’s it, Sandy? Can you make it two days without straining your stripes?

Typically Raccoons, though. Some no-name hits three doubles in two days and promptly breaks his neck…

Game 4
VAN: SS Irvin – LF E. Garcia – RF K. Evans – 2B Lawrence – C Little – CF St. George – 3B Paull – 1B Mateo – P McMullen
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Bergquist – SS McKnight – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – C Margolis – 1B Murphy – 3B Canning – P Toner

This game started with an 0-2 shot to left center by Jeremiah Irvin which Ron Richards caught in mid-flight. For a while it seemed like this could become significant at some point, since the Elks didn’t get a hit through four innings, but Stephen St. George ended a budding bid with a solo jack to start the fifth inning. That was the first run of the game, with the Raccoons offense thoroughly harmless once again. It took them until the bottom of the sixth to get a serious opportunity, but this one was really serious. Sandy opened the frame with a single, and went to third on Bergquist’s double to left. Nobody out, Enrique Garcia tried to catch McKnight’s liner to shallow left on the fly, but missed it with his glove as it bounced just two feet ahead of him and then hit him in the forehead. By the time St. George hustled over, McKnight was at second base and the Coons had a 2-1 lead. The Elks now bypassed Bednarski (!!??) with an intentional walk, a nonsensical strategy that Ron Richards punished with an RBI single on a 1-2 pitch. Another intentional walk to Murphy (lol! – is that how the kids say it?) allowed Canning to bring in the fourth run with a sac fly.

Now, Toner had thrown a lot of pitches early on and was already at 103 pitches through six. He made the third out, then started the seventh inning on the mound. He got two before Eric Paull reached on a bloop single. That was enough, Bruno replaced Toner, but for the second day in a row failed to get his only batter, as Jaime Mateo doubled through Murphy, bringing up the the tying run in PH Don Cameron, with Thrasher replacing Bruno instantly. He lost the left-handed Cameron on four pitches, but then struck out the right-handed Irvin on three, which didn’t make much sense, but … well. It’s the Critters. The Elks didn’t get another runner until Paull singled to left off Angel with two outs in the ninth. Mateo, however, grounded out, ending the game and the series with a split. 4-1 Critters. Bergquist 2-3, BB, 2B; Richards 2-3, BB, RBI; Toner 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (9-4); Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Raccoons (39-44) @ Loggers (44-41) – July 10-12, 2015

The Loggers in some way were still the toast of the North although they had fallen to fourth place now. Their pitching was still completely and ridiculously bad, conceding 5.1 runs per game, last in the CL, and their fourth-place offense had a hard time keeping up. The season series was split evenly as of the start of this weekend set, 4-4.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (4-4, 2.70 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (9-6, 4.76 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (4-6, 4.30 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (5-6, 4.53 ERA)
Bill Conway (3-9, 5.33 ERA) vs. Carlos Michel (7-3, 3.45 ERA)

Looks like left-handers are going to bookmark this final series before the All Star game. Foreman will be the lone right-hander for the Loggers, who have some serious power in the middle of their order with Justin Dally (.333, 17 HR, 55 RBI) and Mike Rucker (.247, 25 HR, 76 RBI).

76 RBI!!

We had thoroughly worn out Thrasher and Casas (3.1 IP over three appearances each) in the Elks series, and neither was available for at least the opener of this set.

Game 1
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Reya – 1B Murphy – C Margolis – SS Canning – P Santos
MIL: CF Hodgers – LF Knowling – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – 3B Yu – C Leach – P C. Graham

In a first inning that took about forever, Santos walked two (Victor Hodgers, Dally) and allowed an RBI double to Victor Enriquez, throwing over 30 pitches – exactly what a little boy needs to grow up when his bullpen is close to collapsing completely. Before we could go there, however, the Coons put up a 4-spot in the second inning, which saw singles by Murphy and Margolis before Canning hit a 2-run triple to left center. Santos lined over Min-tae Yu for an RBI single, got forced by Sandy, but at least Sandy could score on Bergquist’s double off the wall in rightfield. The Loggers wouldn’t get much out of Graham overall. Bednarski doubled off him in the third and eventually scored, 5-1, and hit a leadoff jack in the fifth, 6-1, that knocked Graham out for good.

Offensively, things looked just as drab for the Loggers, who had squeezed Santos for 30+ pitches in the first, but then let him get through five on 69 total. Just as we noted this, Hodgers would work him for nine pitches to start the sixth, eventually doubling, and Mike Rucker crushed a massive homer, his 26th, with two outs, getting the Loggers back to 6-3. Like Toner the previous day, Santos lasted only six and two thirds. Oscar Sandoval was on first base when Andrew Cooper pinch-hit in the #9 slot, which potentially put five consecutive left-handed batters against him. Nope, Sugano time! The only available left-hander struck out Cooper, and the seventh was done with. Cooper whiffed in a 1-2 count, and Sugano would get Hodgers and Zach Knowling in the same counts in the eighth. Dally also fell to 1-2 before making contact, resulting in a groundout to third base, and he also retired Rucker first up in the ninth on a fly to center. Chris Mathis was chosen to get the final two outs, allowing a double to Enriquez to give the Loggers hope. Sandoval flew out to Bednarski before Murphy made a quick grab on Yu’s liner that seemed ticketed for the rightfield corner, but instead ended the game. 6-3 Furballs. Sambrano 2-5; Bednarski 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Reya 3-5; Canning 2-3, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (5-4) and 1-3, RBI; Sugano 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

After this game, Brandon Johnson (.273, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and Cookie traded places on the roster and DL. Cookie was activated after his 15 days were up, while Johnson was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and would be out for a month.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – P Watanabe
MIL: CF Hodgers – 3B Yu – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – LF A. Cooper – C Leach – P Foreman

Watanabe was supported by double plays in the first two innings and a Ron Richards homer for a 1-0 lead that was blown in a team effort in the bottom of the third. Foster Leach reached on a grisly throwing error by McKnight, putting him at second base with one out. Watanabe threw a wild pitch to Foreman (…) before Reya couldn’t get anything on his throw when Foreman flew to shallow right and Leach went to tag and made for home, scoring the tying run. The Coons countered with their own sac fly in the top 4th, Bergquist bringing home Richards, who had walked ahead of Murphy hitting a double to right. Watanabe did a very good job of tending to the 2-1 lead, with not even the left-handed first four batters in the Loggers order able to hurt him. Ironically it was right-hander Victor Enriquez to knock him out with a 2-out single in the bottom 7th. Lefty Zach Knowling hit for Sandoval, which prompted an appearance by Sugano, since I was not trusting our luck any longer. Sugano came on, struck out Knowling to end the seventh and Cooper to start the eighth, and then handed off to Zack Entwistle, who ended the inning on two more strikeouts. Given that the ninth would see the left-handed murderers at the top of the Loggers’ order, Thrasher got ready for the save opportunity even before Danny Ochoa’s pinch-hit homer off Greg Dodgson in the top 9th procured an insurance run. He was probably going to need it. While Hodgers grounded out calmly to Sandy at second base, Min-tae Yu (always a pest, on every team he’d been on) reached with a bloop single with the REALLY big guys coming up next. Justin Dally ran a full count before blasting a rocket to lef- OH, NUNLEY!! Fantastic grab!! And Yu had gone on contact, throw to first, AND HE IS – OUT!!! 3-1 Raccoons!! McKnight 2-5; Richards 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (5-6);

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – SS Canning – P Conway
MIL: 3B Yu – LF Knowling – RF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – CF A. Cooper – C Leach – P C. Michel

Cookie led off with a double after a sad 1-5 day on Saturday, advanced on a Rucker error and scored on Bednarski’s sac fly to right. The Coons would have the bases loaded in the third inning after a leadoff infield single by Cookie and 2-out walks issued to Bednarski and Murphy, but Bergquist bounced out harmlessly to Enriquez. Meanwhile, Conway was perfect the first time through the order.

That very much changed in the fourth. Yu led off with a single over Murphy into rightfield, and Conway then walked both Knowling and Dally to load the bases with nobody out. All runs scored on a 2-run double by Enriquez and Sandoval’s sac fly, giving the Loggers a much expected 3-1 lead, but the Raccoons had a swift chance for a comeback when Cookie, Sandy, and Nunley all hit singles to start the fifth, all going to centerfield, too. Nobody out, the very much painful to watch middle of the order came up against Carlos Michel, who struck out Bednarski in a 1-2 count, struck out Murphy in a full count, and ran another full count against Bergquist, who finally managed to gently stroke a pitch high and deep to left, and gone – GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

Michel was hit for in the bottom 5th, now down 5-3, but Conway made it pretty close with a) qualifying, and b) for a win. Yu hit a 1-out single, Knowling promptly doubled, and the tying runs were in scoring position for the nasty ones, with one out. Conway pitched to Dally, who flew to left for a sac fly, 5-4, and Rucker was then walked intentionally to get up Enriquez, who struck out in a full count to end the inning. Conway made it through the sixth much easier, and when the Loggers’ left-handers were due again by the seventh, Thrasher came in with the task to get five outs. He got three in the seventh before Ronnie McKnight’s pinch-hit 2-out RBI single added a little breather in the top of the eighth, then still had to face Dally and Rucker in the bottom of the eighth. Dally grounded out to first, but Rucker rammed a pitch to right center, then got greed for two, but found himself thrown out by Cookie Carmona. Phew! Mathis got the last out in the eighth and Angel Casas pitched an 8-pitch ninth to seal the sweep and drop the Loggers to .500. 6-4 Critters. Carmona 3-5, 2B; Bergquist 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; McKnight (PH) 1-1, RBI; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Y’know, I am almost a bit sorry for the Loggers. A bit. Tiny bit.

GO COONS!!

In other news

July 7 – The Crusaders lose 3B Miguel Salinas (.249, 10 HR, 35 RBI) for the season. The 27-year old switch-hitter has broken his hand.
July 7 – In a slugfest, the Pacifics and Wolves enter extra innings tied at eleven, but take until the bottom of the 14th to resolve the game in favor of the Pacifics, who win 12-11 on a sac fly by MR Ron Sakellaris that plates 3B/RF Clay Messer (.263, 0 HR, 6 RBI), who had hit a leadoff double.
July 9 – The Thunder muster only four hits in a 10-inning affair against the Knights, but beat them 4-1 on 3B Jesus Soto’s (.252, 4 HR, 32 RBI) 3-run walkoff homer. The Knights have seven hits.
July 10 – The Crusaders see their grip on the North crumbling and shake things up with a trade with the Miners, sending them 1B/2B Jesus Ramirez (.252, 5 HR, 16 RBI) and a pitching prospect for INF Shane Walter (.286, 3 HR, 33 RBI).
July 10 – The Miners also make a trade with the Falcons, adding SP John Key (4-6, 4.44 ERA) for #79 prospect 2B/SS Juan Estrada.
July 10 – In the middle of the eighth, the Gold Sox lead the Stars 10-3 in Dallas, but experience an epic collapse and lose 11-10 in the 10th inning on Casimiro Schoeppen’s (.302, 1 HR, 40 RBI) walkoff single.
July 11 – RIC OF Danny Flores (.304, 2 HR, 22 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after connecting for two singles in the Rebels’ 1-0 win over the Buffaloes.
July 11 – MR Valentim Innocentes (1-2, 4.70 ERA, 2 SV) is reacquired by the Titans from the Warriors, who receive 2B Dave Fletcher (.276, 2 HR, 12 RBI). The Titans also get a prospect in the trade, SP Brett Dill, who was ranked #77 in 2014, but was unranked in the 2015 edition of the prospect rankings.
July 12 – The Indians and Crusaders engage in a 16-inning marathon, which the Indians win 7-5. New York’s Amari Brissett (.304, 3 HR, 13 RBI) has five hits of his team’s 20. The Indians have 17.

Complaints and stuff

Five in a row, baby! If you ignore how this week started, this was a pretty pleasant week.

The Coons will send three players to the All Star Game, all pitchers. While I am a bit disgruntled over the snubbing of Ricardo Carmona, let’s commend Jonny Toner, Hector Santos, and Angel Casas for their selection. While this is the second nomination (and also second consecutive) for both Jonny and Santos, Angel makes his fifth appearance, and the first since 2011.

Now, who the hell will start the first game after the break? Watanabe? Looks pretty much like it, because I don’t want to start the golden horsies on one day’s rest even after 15 pitches or whatever, and Conway would be on short rest, and Brownie won’t be available anyway by then.

This is Brownie’s third minor annoying injury of the season. Looks like his 37-year old body is decaying.

By the way, nobody’s happy with Stan Murphy, but Adrian Quebell is even worse, batting .251 with four homers for the Pacifics. Well, he does have 39 RBI, miraculously.

Internationally, we signed Domingas Russo for $15k this Tuesday, Since the price on Manny Gomez was rising quickly, we dropped out of the Rico Gutierrez race, but remained in for Gomez and Ismael Pastor then, but by the weekend had also dropped Pastor to focus on Gomez, who was rumored to be picked up by the Elks, and the Elks must have nothing I desire!! The price for Gomez was up to $383k by Saturday, which was the soft cap for the 2015 signing period. We had already spent $26k on scum and were already in the penalty zone with our offer.

I have a question; if I have players on division rivals (not talking about the fourth-best right-handed reliever of an FL West team now) and just harmlessly drop “Amari Brissett” into the news section, do you guys know who he is? ‘Ah right, that centerfielder they don’t play in center because they’re playing the brittle catcher there and they still win all the time, these douchebags’? Basically I’m too lazy to click on the player profile all the time to pick out nitty details. :-P

[Westheim]

Beware, incomplete post; I played the relay set with the Elks yesterday and thought I'd get to the following full week in the evening, but was consumed whole by Civ and Stellaris. Now the latter week has had a lot of stuff happen (though really not all to the Coons), and the post is going to be a monster. Thus, here, ahead of time the Elks set, without the usual appendices at the bottom. Another post should follow in the next hour with standings and stats.

All Star Game

Jonny Toner was designated as the Continental League’s starter for the All Star Game, opposing LAP Brad Smith (6-5, 2.45 ERA). Jonny threw only one inning, which took him 28 pitches, but didn’t concede a run. The second inning, the Federal League All Stars jumped on OCT Bob King, scored three runs, and were away to a 6-3 victory. Hector Santos and Angel Casas both had scoreless innings in the defeat. Santos threw only nine pitches.

PIT SS Tom McWhorter (.298, 5 HR, 25 RBI), who missed most of the first half of the season due to injury, was crowned MVP of the game, knocking two triples and drawing a walk, scoring two runs.

Raccoons (42-44) @ Canadiens (45-43) – July 16-19, 2015

Last Tuesday, the Elks routed the Raccoons, 8-0, in Portland. Since then, the Raccoons had won five straight, while the Elks had lost five straight, including the first two games of their respective streaks against another. The Canadiens were still seventh in runs scored, but had dropped to eighth in runs allowed, and their run differential had turned sour, too, from +3 ten days ago (and up to +18 by Tuesday night…) down into -8 (Coons: -22).

This was the back leg of the traditional All Star-break four-and-four. The season series now stood at 5-2 in favor of the Canadiens.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (5-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (7-5, 3.86 ERA)
Hector Santos (5-4, 2.78 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (11-6, 2.98 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.92 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (8-9, 4.09 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-4, 2.23 ERA) vs. David Peterson (7-8, 7.04 ERA)

Now, the bit with Hector Santos throwing only nine pitches in the All Star Game will be key, because I will take that as an excuse to put him out there on two days’ rest, taking the Friday assignment after Watanabe, who will start the series on regular rest. We are not quite sure yet about Nick Brown, but he looks like a good fit for Saturday, with Jonny going on Sunday. Conway will be skipped in this series (we have Monday off). He makes me sad.

Looks like the two left-handers will be in the middle of the series for the Elks. Now, they don’t have an off day on Monday, so they don’t get a free skip for Peterson.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – P Watanabe
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – CF Cameron – 3B Madison – LF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – 2B Paull – P R. Taylor

Cookie came out of the break with a double and scored on Nunley’s double, who came through as Taylor struck out McKnight, Reya, and Richards. Watanabe issued a 4-pitch walk to Kurt Evans, who stole second base, advanced on Raúl Hernandez’ groundout, but Watanabe then – surprisingly, I will admit – struck out both Ray Gilbert (15 HR) and Don Cameron to get out of the first unharmed. He would not get out of the second unharmed, however. Steve Madison’s leadoff single to left turned into the tying run when Jeremiah Irvin beat Richards’ limited range for a game-tying RBI double. After that, it turned silent. Rod Taylor feasted on the tears of the Critters and struck out nine over seven innings, while Watanabe also maintained the tie, but finally ran out of juice in the bottom of the seventh. Kurt Evans hit a 2-out single, and Watanabe lost Hernandez to a not-even-close walk. With Gilbert strolling up, Entwistle came out, and got Gilbert to foul out on the first pitch to end the inning. The Critters got Cookie to third base in the top of the eighth, then ignored him as Taylor ended the inning with a blazing strikeout of Matt Nunley.

The game remained tied into the ninth inning. Orlando Valdez walked Reya to start the top 9th, but Richards found his way into a double play. That brought up Murphy, who countered the left-hander and CREAMED a pitch to left center – well outta here! That was his 250th major league homer. The game would finally end with stupid base running. Angel Casas sat down the first two Elks in the bottom 9th before Kurt Evans singled to left … and kept going. Luis Reya didn’t think so and comfortably threw him out at second base. 2-1 Raccoons! Nunley 2-4, RBI; Sambrano 1-1; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

Streaks at six, I lusted for more…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – C Margolis – LF Ochoa – SS Canning – P Santos
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – CF Cameron – LF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – 3B Paull – 2B Lawrence – P D. Butler

Butler got the Friday game as the Elks made a switch, walked three in the first inning, but not that it cost him a run… Santos struck out the first two, then put two on but wiggled out of that, and the game was scoreless early on. Ochoa stirred some in the #7 hole, knocking hits in both of his first two at-bats against Butler, including a 2-out double in the fourth inning that turned into nothing when Canning was intentionally walked and Santos struck out. Eric Paull clobbered into Walt Canning in the fifth inning to break up a double play, which worked real well, and also left Canning face down in the dirt. McKnight replaced him for obvious reasons.

Santos never got a run of support, and also never retired anybody in the sixth inning. Hernandez hit a leadoff single, Gilbert drove a mistake, and it was 2-0 Elks. With an elevated pitch count of 88, Santos was hauled in right away. It was already the eighth inning when the Coons mounted something like another cautious attempt to score a run (or hold your breath, more than one). Sandy and Nunley hit 1-out singles off Butler, bringing up the right-handed failed sluggers against the left-handed pitcher. The Elks didn’t see much reason to replace Butler, who struck out Bednarski and retired Murphy on a foul pop. While the Coons’ flame went out in the slightest wind, the Elks added another run against Mathis and Thrasher in the eighth inning to end their losing spell. 3-0 Canadiens. Sambrano 2-3, BB; Ochoa 2-4, 2B;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P N. Brown
VAN: CF K. Evans – SS Irvin – 1B Gilbert – 2B Madison – LF E. Garcia – C Little – RF St. George – 3B Mateo – P D. Peterson

Nick Brown had an inning from hell in the bottom 2nd. With runners on the corners, he had Jaime Mateo at the plate. Two down, Mateo hit a sharp RBI single to left in a 2-strike count, plating the first run of the game, before David Peterson ticketed a 2-2 pitch to center for another RBI single, giving the Elks a 2-0 lead. Amid a sea of futility, Ronnie McKnight ran into a solo homer in the top of the third, momentarily cutting into the deficit, but the lineup as a whole failed tremendously, and the Elks restored the 2-run gap by the bottom of the fifth inning when Evans and Irvin hit back-to-back 2-out doubles off Brownie.

Peterson allowed three singles to stack the sacks in the top of the sixth. Unfortunately, there were two bad news items to this. First, there were two out, and second, Dylan Alexander was up to bat. His .210 bat just wouldn’t cut it, and he flew out to Enrique Garcia rather easily. Brown lasted seven innings on 101 pitches, but struck out only three in an unconvincing start, and remained on the hook. The Raccoons offense was completely harmless, and the Elks added an insurance run in the bottom 8th when neither Entwistle nor Thrasher had anything, and more damage was only avoided when Danny Ochoa made a nifty grab at first base. Against right-hander Chris Spindler, the Raccoons had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning. D-Alex had singled, and Bergquist had been hit with a pitch, and it was Cookie up and LOADS of left-handers behind him. Cookie nursed an 0-for-4 day, which didn’t change when he drew a walk, but at least the go-ahead run came up in McKnight, and Spindler was now melting quickly, issuing a bases-loaded walk, bringing the score to 4-2. Spindler didn’t get it done, but Bill King didn’t either – another right-hander – as once Nunley had fouled out, Luis Reya bounced a 1-2 pitch through Mateo and into left for the tying runs to score. Ron Richards raked away at the first spherical thing that came his way, hit it square and drove a 370-footer to where rightfield was shortest. 3-run homer, and six runs in the inning!!

The game had yet to be won, however. Angel Casas had to be shooed away from his takeaway pizza to get his glove, cap … and pants. He retired Mateo to start the bottom 9th, but then walked Raúl Hernandez. Kurt Evans singled to center, and Jeremiah Irvin singled to right, which loaded the bases with the tying runs in a 7-4 game … and Ray Gilbert coming up! Gilbert drove a 1-1 pitch to right, Reya made the play, two outs, but Hernandez was going. Hernandez was SLOW. Reya fired home, and Hernandez didn’t even manage to slide well, and was tagged out by Alexander – ballgame! 7-4 Blighters! McKnight 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B; Reya 2-5, 2 RBI; Richards 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Toner
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – 3B Madison – LF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – CF St. George – 2B Lawrence – P McMullen

Perhaps the best either team had in the fold were going to beat in this Sunday game. The duel was on! Through four innings, either team had only one hit, while Toner had struck out six to McMullen’s five. The Coons’ hit had been Cookie’s to lead off the fourth, a single to center. He moved to third base on groundouts, but Bednarski struck out to keep him there. Irvin hit a single in the bottom 5th, but was also stranded.

The next Critter to get on was Cookie again (the only Critter to get on, actually), with a 2-out double in the sixth inning. Sandy Sambrano drew a full count walk, the first free pass by either pitcher in this game, but another full count to McKnight only resulted in a groundout to Jaylin Lawrence. The Elks would also put two on in their half of the sixth, annoyingly starting with a leadoff single that McMullen hit on the first pitch he saw from Jonny Toner, who then lost Hernandez to a walk before Gilbert continued to crank up the hurt on the Coons that had built up the last few years and romped an impressive 3-run homer for the first scoring in the game. Toner struck out the next four batters after that as a clear sign of anger, but despite an RBI double by Margolis that scored Nunley in the top 7th remained on the hook when he was hit for to lead off the eighth inning. Reya popped out and the Coons went down in order in the eighth. Orlando Valdez was out to close things in the ninth inning, retired McKnight on a liner to Lawrence, but didn’t retire Bednarski, who hit a line drive home run that zipped past about ten feet inside the left foul pole. The Coons were back to within a run, but Valdez lost Murphy to a walk. The Elks were REALLY missing their closer Pedro Alvarado! They were missing him even more once Matt Nunley crushed a 2-run shot to right center, flipping the score in the Coons’ favor at 4-3. Spindler replaced Valdez after the second homer, walked a pair, but Cookie’s drive to left center ended up with the defense, denying Angel Casas an insurance run. Angel hadn’t allowed an earned run since May (28th, to be precise) and was approaching a flat 1 ERA, but he had to get through the heart of the order here. Gilbert led off with a single to left, which was not a good sign, and Steve Madison put a 1-2 pitch at least into play, grounding it to Bergquist, but they only got the lead runner Gilbert. It brought up Enrique Garcia, who had worn out Brownie on Saturday, but now grounded right to Nunley, zip to second, zip to first, ballgame! 4-3 Furballs! Carmona 2-5, 2B; Nunley 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 K;

We’re back to .500! The Elks are down to .500! The Loggers are also at .500! It is … very mediocre.

In other news

July 16 – NAS 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.347, 9 HR, 68 RBI) knocks his 2,000th career base hit with a spectacular 4-for-4 display against the Capitals. Unfortunately, his team is largely absent in the game, and the Blue Sox lose 8-2. Esquivel reaches the milestone with a first inning single off Colin Baldwin.
July 16 – The Indians deal RF/CF Marc Thompson (.270, 5 HR, 22 RBI) to the Pacifics for 3B Felipe Flores (.120, 0 HR, 2 RBI in 25 AB) and #7 prospect LF/RF César Martinez.
July 18 – Five different Wolves hit home runs in an 11-3 thrashing of the Pacifics. Three of the dingers come in the Wolves’ 8-run third inning.
July 19 – A true marathon in Pittsburgh: Miners and Rebels take 21 innings to decide a 10-7 Rebels win. The Rebels initially made up a 7-1 deficit with a 6-run seventh, which was the last offense for 13 innings. Only Pittsburgh’s SS Tom McWhorter (.317, 8 HR, 33 RBI) manages to get four hits in, but the hitting streak of RIC OF Danny Flores (.300, 3 HR, 26 RBI) runs to 25 games with a seventh-inning single.
July 19 – OCT INF Emilio Farias (.272, 2 HR, 26 RBI) will miss time until late August with a sprained ankle.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (45-45) vs. Titans (37-56) – July 21-23, 2015

The Titans were this year’s Loggers, dwelling on the very bottom of the North with only 3.6 runs scored per game, which ranked them 11th in the CL, something which even their decent, league-average pitching couldn’t cure (hel-lo, early-2000s Raccoons). They had not had any success against the Raccoons so far, losing all but one of the nine games played in 2015.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (5-6, 3.83 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (7-1, 3.32 ERA)
Hector Santos (5-5, 2.81 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (6-7, 3.42 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.97 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (3-12, 4.70 ERA)

The media was up and down all the pages over the early success of 23-year old Dave Priest. Calderón shrugged, found his stuff most unimpressive and predicted a timely slide into mediocrity for him. After him will be another right-hander in Rutter, and left-handed Krom. The Coons have already played more games against left-handed starters this year than in all of 2013 and 2014.

Before this series began, the Raccoons also placed Walt Canning on the DL with a sprained ankle. We expect him to be out for about three weeks. Utility man Brock Hudman, 25, was added to the roster. He had batted .260 over 50 AB for the Critters in 2014, and was batting a dull .253 in AAA this year. He got the nod over Palmer Taylor, who was hitting .232, all singles, for the Alley Cats and was six years older.

The most games the Raccoons had ever won from the Titans had been 14 wins in 1996. The best result since then was a single 12-6 campaign in 2009.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – CF J. Silva – LF Thurman – 3B Stephenson – P Priest
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Watanabe

Only 12 pitches in, Watanabe had allowed singles to Mike Rivera and Steve Butler, plus an unsightly 3-run homer to Tim Robinson. Priest however allowed his first three runs even quicker in just eight pitches, spending half of them on a walk handed to Cookie Carmona before McKnight singled and Nunley drilled a 3-piece to left center. After the early onslaught, there was no more threat until the fourth, which saw the Titans with Jose Silva and Zachary Thurman on the corners with one out. When D-Alex threw out Thurman trying to steal second base on a high pitch to Joe Stephenson that ran the count to 3-0, the choice was easy: Stephenson got ball four without much fuss and Watanabe would go after Priest, who peskily singled in a 1-2 count and scored Silva from third base to give the Titans a 4-3 lead. Both teams failed to cash in on opportunities in the fifth inning then, as Robinson hit into an inning-ending double play on a 3-0 pitch, while the Coons loaded them up with two outs as Cookie and McKnight singled and Nunley drew a walk, but Reya popped out harmlessly to Mike Rivera at short.

The Titans ended Watanabe in the sixth inning on three soft singles that a better defense might have done something with, scoring two add-on runs, but Priest didn’t make it through the sixth inning for the Titans, though he was knocked out when an error by Steve Butler extended the inning. The error happened on a grounder that Danny Ochoa hit in place of Watanabe, moved Murphy to third, and placed the tying runs on the bases for Cookie with two outs – D-Alex had brought in Ron Richards on a groundout earlier. The Titans sent left-handed Bill Dean, and he got a grounder to short from Carmona to end the inning. The tying run reached again on an error in the bottom 7th, this time with Dean dropping a feed from Butler that put PH Bednarski on base in addition to Nunley, who had singled. Richards was allowed to bat against the left-hander, grounded to first, and Butler blew that one, too! In and out of the glove, to the ground, and the sad look – but the Raccoons had three on with one out for Stan Murphy, who hit a distraught Dean where it hurt and catapulted a 2-1 pitch to deep left – GRAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!!

The Coons tacked on a run in the bottom 8th (driven in by Nunley), before someone had to save a 3-run lead. We hadn’t announced it before, but Angel Casas was a bit sore after frequent service on the weekend (despite the off day on Monday) and when the Titans decided to send left-handed Sean McDermott to hit for reliever Matt Branch to start the ninth, that put three left-handers in the first four that would be due in the inning … and Sugano came out. While Gutierrez singled, Sugano struck out his three left-handers McDermott, Rivera, and Butler (the Goat of the Day) to end this one in style. 9-6 Furballs! McKnight 2-5; Nunley 3-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Bednarski (PH) 1-2; Murphy 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Hudman (PH) 1-1; Entwistle 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-3);

This was the first save for Manobu Sugano since 2013, and his seventh overall. He struck out the three lefties here and allowed a hit to the right-hander, which is exactly what he’s doing all the time. His splits are EXTREME. Left-handers hit .105 against him, and he strikes out 50% of them. Right-handers bat .360 with a .915 OPS and he walks three for every one strikeout. This is a stark contrast to Ron Thrasher, who is basically even against lefties and righties this year, though over his career he’s been better against left-handers, though by far not as pronounced as Sugano.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – CF X. Williams – 3B Stephenson – P Rutter
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Santos

Rivera doubled on Santos’ first pitch and was caught stealing by D-Alex on Santos’ second pitch. Like in game one of the series, the Coons early on would bring Reya up with two outs and the 1-2-3 batters all having reached ahead of him, here in the bottom of the third of a scoreless game. Reya had failed in the opener, but this time came through with a liner up the leftfield line that knocked in two before Richards grounded out to Gutierrez to end the inning. The Titans answered right away in the top 4th with a solo homer by Robinson, his tenth of the season, but Cookie Carmona countered in the bottom 4th with a 2-out, 2-run triple into the rightfield corner, putting Santos up 4-1. The Titans didn’t get much off Santos in the fifth and sixth, but by the seventh made hard contact, a sure sign of him running out of juice going on 85 pitches and beyond. Xavier Williams hit a double off the wall with two outs in the seventh, but Thurman made a ready third out with an easy fly to Carmona. Bottom 7th, the Titans’ centerfielder Williams was less sure-handed. When Nunley singled to center with McKnight on first, Williams bobbled the ball, giving the runners an extra base to get into scoring position with one out. Now, this was with one out, but Bill Dean was up again and trying to get a few more runs, we would now throw right-handers at Dean. Bednarski hit for Reya, but the Titans’ cold answer was to walk him onto the open base. Margolis hit for Richards, but grounded into a force at home. Murphy rolled one to short to end the inning.

Joe Stephenson’s leadoff single knocked Santos from the game in the eighth, and unfortunately Chris Mathis provided no relief whatsoever. He allowed a double to Ernest Clark, then a 2-run single to Rivera, putting a fast runner on base as the tying run with nobody out. Gutierrez grounded out before Sugano came on and allowed a liner to right to Butler. Thankfully, Bednarski got in the way of it. Swiftly on to the next pitcher, Marcos Bruno was assigned Robinson, who already had two bombs in the series, but struck out raking. Angel Casas then struck out the side in the ninth. 4-3 Coons! Carmona 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-4; Santos 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (6-5);

Angel Casas dropped his ERA to 0.99 with this appearance. He has not allowed a run since blowing a sace against the Bayhawks on May 28. His lowest season ERA was 1.04 in 2007, excluding 2013, when he didn’t allow any runs but only appeared in five games.

This game also claimed the season series against the Titans well early on July 22.

Game 3
BOS: CF J. Silva – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – SS Stephenson – 3B Rentz – P Krom
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – 3B Hudman – P N. Brown

Brownie entered the game a dozen short of 2,900 K. The impression before the start of the game was that he wouldn’t get there, and once he had faced a few batters, walked Gutierrez, thrown a wild pitch, and conceded the first run on a Robinson double, the impression was that he very definitely wouldn’t get there. However, after a groundout by Williams to start the second inning, starting with Joe Stephenson Brownie struck out six in a row until Robinson hit a 1-out single in the fourth. Rodrigo Lopez barely rolled another grounder past Murphy to put runners on the corners, but Williams hit into a double play to keep the score at 1-0 Titans. The Coons only reached scoring position for the first time in the bottom of the inning, Sandy walking and Murphy singling, but a strong play by Lopez on Bednarski’s liner ended the inning. By the fifth, Brownie’s control turned sour and he run plenty of 3-ball counts and was in trouble in the sixth, in which Hudman saved his bushy tail with a splendidly started double play on a sharp bouncer by Robinson. Bottom 6th, the Coons had their best chance yet to finally get on the board when Carmona beat Silva’s range for a leadoff triple to left center. None of the next three Raccoons would get the ball out of the infield, but the run scored anyway … on Robinson misfiling a Krom pitch and being charged with a passed ball. Oy, oy.

Brown made it through seven, but the Raccoons remained completely ineffective at the plate and left him with a no-decision in a 1-1 tied game. Top 9th, Entwistle’s first pitch was bombed to dead center by Butler, his 13th homer of the year. Entwistle and then Thrasher fudged around long enough to load the bases, which Thrasher then escaped in consecutive full counts that resulted in a K to Tommy Rentz before Zachary Thurman grounded out to Nunley at third base. Bottom 9th, Murphy made the first out against Valentim Innocentes, but Ron Richards hit a pinch-hit double to right. Margolis sent a floater to right that dinked in just barely, putting runners on the corners with a 2-1 deficit and one out. Reya hit for Bergquist in an effort to end it quickly, but he struck out. That left no reserves to hit for Hudman, who nevertheless blew up the Titans’ new-found lead with a hard single between Rentz and Rivera, tying the score at two and bringing up Nunley in the #9 hole with a chance to walk off. With Margolis on second base, it would take quite some hit, however. Nunley singled up the middle on 1-1, and with our splendid extra innings record in mind, Margolis was barked around third base by the coach there. Hudman, confused, ran past second base and the Titans tried to get him out, but failed to get him before he escaped to third base, and by then Margolis had scored. 3-2 Brownies!! Carmona 2-4, 3B; Richards (PH) 1-1, 2B; Margolis 2-4; Nunley (PH) 1-2, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K;

11-1 against the sorry Titans now this season. Is a 16-2 run like against the Loggers last year in the cards?

Raccoons (48-45) vs. Falcons (42-52) – July 24-26, 2015

The Falcons were dead-last in offense (even behind the lowly Titans), which completely negated their fourth-best ranked pitching and put them at the tail end of the South. They were 1-2 against Portland this season.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (9-4, 2.32 ERA) vs. Bobby Guerrero (1-1, 1.99 ERA)
Bill Conway (4-9, 5.37 ERA) vs. Antonio Quintero (3-8, 4.96 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (5-6, 4.12 ERA) vs. Max Shepherd (6-9, 4.16 ERA)

The Falcons had just picked up the Indians’ Tom Bowers (.292, 1 HR, 4 RBI) and a prospect, parting with SP Jorge Silva (8-9, 3.94 ERA). Silva’s turn would have been in the opener, so Bobby Guerrero will make a spot start. The 25-year old right-hander last started a game in his rookie season in 2013. All the opposing pitchers in this set are right-handed.

Game 1
CHA: 3B Pellot – CF Huibregtse – C Holliman – LF J. Jimenez – 1B Griffin – RF Mugan – 2B Best – SS Bowers – P Guerrero
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Toner

Toner struck out two in the first, reaching and crossing 150 K while the season was still in July, and the Coons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning after Cookie was brushed by Guerrero, moved up a groundout by Nunley and scored on McKnight’s double. With Jonny on his game and Guerrero selling his skin dearly, offense was at a premium. Actually, the Falcons had their first two men on in the top of the second after a single by Jose Jimenez and a walk issued to Daron Griffin, but Troy Mugan hit into a double play and Jonny escaped unharmed. Mugan was also the next Falcon to reach base, doing so on a drag bunt for a single in the fifth. For the Coons, all was well until the bottom 5th. D-Alex and Cookie hit singles to get to the corners, and Nunley brought home the catcher with a sac fly, 2-0. Next, Guerrero hit McKnight in the knee, and McKnight dropped like a rock. With a rapidly swelling joint he was out of the game and replaced by Bergquist (Sandy shifting to the other side of second base). Nothing came out of the extra runner offensively. Richards walked to load them up, but Murphy flew out to end the inning.

Alfonso Pellot and Steve Huibregtse went to the corners with singles in the top of the sixth and further angered the fan base when Ryan Holliman’s groundout scored Pellot and broke up the shutout. Bottom 7th, Nunley, Bergquist, and Richards all hit singles to load the bases for Murphy once again. Nah, Reya grabbed a bat. At least he managed a sac fly, which was all the Coons got, with the score now 3-1. Jonny opened the eighth with a K to Tom Bowers, his 10th on the day, and his pitch count was still in the 70s! The Coons would have their third sac fly of the day in the bottom 8th, D-Alex scampering home on Cookie’s fly to center. While that also gave them two outs against righty Mike Collins, they weren’t done. Nunley walked, and Bergquist singled. That brought up Ochoa, who had ended up at first base as defensive replacement, although his defense was not spectacular, once Murphy had been hit for. He fell 1-2 behind Collins before peppering a pitch to right center and to the track for an RBI double. Toner finished a 107-pitch complete game effortlessly. 5-1 Furballs! Richards 1-2, 2 BB; Ochoa 1-1, 2B, RBI; Toner 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K, W (10-4) and 1-3;

Jonnyyyyyyy!! I love this kid!!

Also, no Raccoon had more than one hit, but all but two of the 12 that appeared in the game did have one hit. Murphy and Reya were the only exceptions.

In bad news, Ronnie McKnight had suffered a knee contusion and would be out for a week. That was not bad enough to surrender him voluntarily for another week on the DL, so we would play short-handed for a week, but with Sandy and Hudman we had two all-rounders on the team that could fill every infield position in a pinch, so we should be fine. On a side note, also in this day Palmer Taylor went down with an oblique strain in AAA, so there was not even a sensible replacement left for McKnight should be disable him. Well… *technically* we still held the rights to Pat Whitehouse…

Game 2
CHA: 3B Pellot – CF Huibregtse – C Holliman – 1B Griffin – RF Mugan – 2B Best – LF Nieves – SS Hall – P Quintero
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

By the second inning, the Coons had the bases loaded following singles by Reya and Murphy, plus a walk issued to D-Alex. Bergquist batted with one out, hit a miserable floater that dropped right onto the rightfield line well out of reach for Troy Mugan and scored one run before Conway hit into a double play. Not that Conway could complain, having turned double plays in his favor in the half-inning before and the half-inning after this.

Nothing else big happened until the sixth inning – outside of Cookie inching off a base without making an instant out and swiping his 19th base in the fifth inning – when Quintero hit a leadoff double up the leftfield line, but also strained or tore or broke something turning first base and arrived at second base on all four limbs. Alfonso Pellot singled, putting runners on the corners with nobody out, and now that the door was open, Conway couldn’t close it anymore. Huibregtse singled to tie the game, and while Holliman bounced out, Daron Griffin lined a 3-run homer to give the Falcons a 4-1 lead. Trying to get a few outs with Dickerson resulted in another run in the eighth inning, and the offense appeared more or less dead until the bottom 9th. Mike Collins started the inning, but allowed a pinch-hit single to Bednarski and then walked Murphy. Left-hander Mauro Ortega replaced him, with Margolis hitting for D-Alex as a response. He walked, and the bags were full, the tying run was at the plate with nobody out. But the tying run was Bergquist, so… at least he hit a sac fly, although that didn’t further the Coons’ cause. Ortega however was completely off the roll now and walked Danny Ochoa on four pitches, restocking the bags for Cookie. But the Coons could not break through. Both Cookie and Sandy hit flies to center, Huibregtse grabbed them both, the former going for another sac fly, and the 6-game winning streak ended here. 5-3 Falcons. Reya 3-3; Bednarski (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
CHA: 3B Pellot – CF Huibregtse – C Holliman – LF J. Jimenez – 1B Griffin – RF Mugan – 2B Best – SS Hall – P Shepherd
POR: CF Carmona – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – RF Ochoa – SS Hudman – 2B Bergquist – P Watanabe

Watanabe allowed a run in the first on extra-base hits by Huibregtse and Jimenez, but only exploded in spectacular fashion in the second inning. With nobody on and two down, he walked Paul Hall, then allowed a single to Max Shepherd before drilling consecutive hitters. Holliman’s 2-run single ran the score to 4-0 before Jimenez’ liner was judged by Reya, who also checked his life insurance, and then sold out on a flying grab that kept the score from ballooning even further – in this inning. Marginal pitching initially didn’t appear to be offset by the deplorable offense, which saw Cookie Carmona as the first and second base runner for the Raccoons. The latter instance however found itself coupled with a Nunley single in the fourth inning, and Murphy walked to load them up with two outs. Ochoa hit a liner to center for a 2-run single, Shepherd helped out as well with a run-scoring wild pitch, and Hudman reached on an infield single, but Bergquist grounded out to Pellot to end the inning with a much-reduced 4-3 deficit.

Double plays killed much offense in the next few innings, one turned for Watanabe in his last inning, the fifth, and one for Thrasher in the seventh after he drilled Huibregtse. In between, Reya had erased Nunley’s leadoff walk with a grounder to short in the sixth. The bottom 7th saw the bases getting loaded as Hudman hit a single to left, Bednarski singled in a 3-0 count (…!), and Cookie’s bouncer went into Shepherd’s back pocket and was completely bunked by the hurler for an error. That brought up Margolis, 0-for-3 with a double play (though this was with two outs, so, yay). D-Alex hit for him, to counter Shepherd if nothing else, and popped out in miserable fashion. By the eighth, our bench was emptied when Sandy batted for Thrasher and drew a walk to represent the go-ahead run on base against lefty Felix Colón. Nunley had singled to start the inning, and we had one out for Ochoa, who found the shortstop on the first pitch for an inning-ending double play. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! The Falcons sent lefty Mauro Ortega to close the game, despite three right-handers coming up in the bottom 9th, and nobody to pinch-hit for them. Hudman flew out to right, Bergquist grounded out, and Bednarski flew out to center. 4-3 Falcons. Nunley 2-3; Hudman 2-4; Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

July 21 – The hitting streak of RIC OF Danny Flores (.296, 3 HR, 27 RBI) is over after a grisly 0-for-5 performance against the Blue Sox, who take the game as well, 3-2. Flores had hit in 25 consecutive games.
July 22 – The Miners trade for Vancouver’s swingman Hunter Park (5-1, 4.08 ERA, 1 SV), sending them an infield prospect, promising, though unranked, Chris Grooms.
July 22 – The Thunder and Bayhawks slug away at another in a 17-10 Thunder bonanza. OCT LF Earl Clark (.335, 4 HR, 28 RBI) strikes out twice and still manages to get in five hits, four singles and a double, in the game.
July 24 – Party in Denver, as DEN LF Victorino Sanchez (.372, 4 HR, 49 RBI) knocks his 3,500th career hit against the Capitals in a 6-4 Gold Sox loss. Sanchez, who is almost 37 and hits a 3-run homer off Alex Hurtado for the milestone, is the fourth player to reach 3,500 hits after Dale Wales (3,673), Cristo Ramirez (3,625), and Jeffery Brown (3,582), and is a 12-time All Star and 3-time Player of the Year (2000, 2002, 2005). He led his league in hits ten straight years from 2001 through 2011, and won nine batting titles during that time. Overall, he’s a .356/.449/.512 batter with 202 HR and 1,314 RBI.
July 24 – The Crusaders’ MR Paul Miller (1-1, 2.38 ERA) celebrates his 200th win in relief, pitching the last three innings to claim the win over the Bayhawks in a 14-inning, 5-4 affair. This is the first year for Miller, who turned 36 a day earlier, as a reliever. For his career he is 200-122 with a 3.70 ERA and 2,078 K. He was the 2006 World Series MVP with the Stars, the first of his three rings.
July 24 – 1B Tomas Cardenas (.258, 1 HR, 34 RBI) returns to the Thunder, being traded there for the Knights. Oklahoma acquires the 38-year old and a second-rate prospect for also 38-year old SP Ralph Ford (9-4, 2.48 ERA). Cardenas was with the Thunder from 2001 through 2011. Ford was already on the Knights before, too, pitching for them from 2007 to 2008.
July 24 – SAL SP Zach Hughes (9-7, 3.45 ERA) is out until next year with a torn labrum.
July 25 – The Gold Sox deal SP Brendan Teasdale (4-13, 4.92 ERA), the loser of Sanchez’ milestone game, to the Capitals(!) for a minor leaguer.
July 26 – The Crusaders pick up INF Eric Paull (.225, 2 HR, 13 RBI) from the Canadiens, sending them two prospects including #93 SP David Jimenez.

Complaints and stuff

I heard the 25th was a busy day for all the sports talk shows. So much achievement to dissect and talk disparagingly about. I don’t think anybody mentioned the Coons’ then 6-game winning streak and them having won 12 of 13. But okay, the part about Brenda is funny.

After the All Star Game, Manny Gomez’ asking price went over $420k, and frankly, I didn’t think he was worth that much, especially with shooting us out of the next signing period (at least for the good guys). Instead we re-entered the Ismael Pastor and Rico Gutierrez bidding. We ended up signing both, Pastor for $80k and Gutierrez for $112k, which gave us total expenditures of $218k for this period, and thus no penalties for next year.

Well, I have tried to work out deals to improve the failing power positions, but it’s quite impossible. Any trade for a slugger, would also have to get rid of one of our failing sluggers, and there are basically no prospects left to pay for the value difference. I don’t think we’ll get anything big done before the deadline, and that we will have the big exodus at the end of the year, retooling over the winter. As a reminder, the following players’ contracts will end after this season: Dickerson (THANK GOD!!!), Murphy, Bednarski, Conway, Reya, Richards, Bruno, Casas, Entwistle, Watanabe; listed in decreasing 2015 salary. There are four probably compensation-eligible players in there, maybe even five (but like I know the ABL the Coons will get screwed once again). If really all these players depart, it will free up over $12M in salary! We can basically sign ANY FOUR PLAYERS WE WANT in the offseason.

… unless the Prick jumps in and takes all the monies away of course.

I want to watch Jonny Toner’s innings a little bit (though there won’t be a chance to rest him in August), but he’s on pace for 273 strikeouts, which would all but blow the franchise record out of the water. Brownie owns eight of the top 10 seasons with a top mark of 248 K, with the other two instances held by Kel Yates. If he actually made it to 273 K, it would be a top 10 season:

ABL SINGLE SEASON STRIKEOUTS

1st – Chris York (2005) – 304
2nd – Juan Correa (1977) – 297
3rd – Rod Taylor (2009) – 291
4th – Martin Garcia (1999) – 280
t-5th – Tony Hamlyn (2002) – 277
t-5th – Chris York (2004) – 277
t-7th – Carlos Castro (2004) – 273
t-7th – Kelvin Yates (2005) – 273
9th – Rod Taylor (2014) – 272
10th – Tony Hamlyn (2010) – 270

Brownie’s franchise mark of 248 K is merely good enough for a t-40th place on the list, tied with a season by Rod Taylor and Martin Garcia. At least he has really good company – all three will be in the Hall of Fame eventually.

We have Monday off. After that it will be 21 games in 20 days from July 28 through August 16, with a very inconvenient double-header on August 3, next Monday. I have Dickerson tabbed for a start right now, although we might need three extra relievers then… The last four sets of that string of games are also all road games, so the batteries will go down a bit there…

+++

A few hilarious commercials I found over the last week, all with our favorite critters in them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX3jEWZyvSQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuLcHkfI3FQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8skzjsaJc8

Stuff like that just doesn’t air over here.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (49-47) vs. Bayhawks (54-45) – July 28-30, 2015

The Baybirds were in the thick of the playoff race, starting the week only one game back behind the Thunder in the CL South, but would get the Raccoons’ best three starters in this midweek set. Themselves they had a top three rotation that was weighed down by a crummy bullpen that ranked 11th in the CL. Overall they were fifth in runs scored and second in runs allowed, and they had won two of three from the Raccoons earlier in the season.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (6-5, 2.80 ERA) vs. Alex Maldonado (5-7, 3.79 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.88 ERA) vs. Joao Joo (9-4, 3.18 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (10-4, 2.23 ERA) vs. Randy Farley (3-1, 2.87 ERA)

Joao Joo, a 26-year old Venezuelan swingman, was the only left-hander we would get in the set. Joo had had merely marginal success in the rotation and in the pen in the last two-and-a-half years. He had never started against the Raccoons.

Ronnie McKnight was not expected to play in this set. The Bayhawks had SP Juan Garcia and outfielder Will McIntyre on the DL, but both had gone down early in the season and it hadn’t hurt them so far.

Game 1
SFB: 1B A. Young – RF J. Gusmán – LF Alston – CF D. Garcia – 3B J. Rodriguez – 2B A. Martinez – SS R. Miller – C A. Ramirez – P Maldonado
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – SS Hudman – P Santos

Three guys with 15+ homers in the first four in the lineup, including Adam Young (.347, 16 HR, 76 RBI) leading off – this was not a lineup to joke around with. Antonio Ramirez and Adam Young hit singles in the third inning, but a foul bunt for strike three by Alex Maldonado and a foul pop by Javier Gusmán killed off the Bayhawks in that inning. The Coons were up 1-0 then after doubles by Reya and Hudman in the second, and Sandy Sambrano hit a solo homer just inside the right foul pole in the third inning to run the lead to 2-0. Dave Garcia had a leadoff single in the fourth, Santos threw a wild pitch to get him to scoring position, but Garcia was then caught trying to steal third base, which erased that little problem. On the other side of the middle of the fourth inning the Coons would hit three singles off Maldonado, loading the bases with one out – but Santos coming to the plate. He struck out, and Alston caught Carmona’s fly to left, ending the inning. Adam Young was soon ready to harm the Raccoons for their shoddy RISP batting, tying the game in the fifth with a 2-run shot. Maldonado was on first base then, having forced out Ramirez with another poor bunt. The power division remained online, and Dave Garcia cracked a solo shot in the sixth inning to put the Birds ahead, 3-2. While the Raccoons were remarkably ineffective at the plate, the Bayhawks would also turn on Zack Entwistle in the ninth, getting him for two runs, including a Javy Rodriguez homer. The Raccoons would be down 5-2 against Micah Steele in the ninth inning, but wonderously put up a sudden threat. Danny Ochoa drew a walk with one out, and with two outs Cookie hit a single to right. Ochoa scored on a wild pitch (how can anyone employ Steele as a closer!?) and Sandy hit a double to plate Carmona, representing the tying run for Nunley, who struck out. 5-4 Bayhawks. Sambrano 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Reya 3-4; Hudman 2-3, 2B, RBI;

I don’t know what frustrates me more. Entwistle, or that we have already fulfilled our season allowance in slams and thus can out-hit any team we want (11-9 in this case) and still come up getting barfed on.

Joao Joo was removed from the middle game. The Bayhawks would send Jared D’Attilo (4-6, 4.14 ERA), another right-hander, instead.

Game 2
SFB: 1B A. Young – 2B A. Martinez – LF Alston – CF D. Garcia – SS Ingraham – 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Zackery – C A. Ramirez – P D’Attilo
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P N. Brown

Brownie was 5 K away from 2,900 as he entered this start – this was coincidentally also the career mark of Hall of Famer Arnold McCray. He got three the first time through, but had to work hard and ran a few 3-ball counts and also issued a walk. Nobody scored until the fourth inning, when the Raccoons had runners on the corners with one out. Matt Nunley had led off with a single, but had been forced by Richards. Although Richards had no speed, he was told to go with Murphy the next double play threat, and his grounder to second base eluded Zach Ingraham. Ron Richards reached third. Luis Reya hit a ball to slightly deep left, Ron Alston made the catch, the throw in was poor, the relay arrived at the same time as Richards, who knocked over Ramirez and scored. D-Alex made the poor out he was known for to end the inning, 1-0 Coons.

Big two-nine-hundred fell in the fifth. Brownie led off by whiffing the still shaken Ramirez, then also whiffed D’Attilo to reach the mark. He was still not exactly dominant. Ron Alston hit a hard 1-out single in the top of the sixth, but was caught up in a frankly stunning play by Murphy, who swiped a fast bouncer by Dave Garcia and turned it into a baffling double play. Brownie would hang another K, #2,902, on D’Attilo to complete the seventh inning, but had run three full counts in the inning and had ended up over 100 pitches. With the top of the order coming up in the eighth, Thrasher was called on; Young and Alston were left-handers. Those two whiffed, and in between Armando Martinez grounded out to Nunley.

It was still a 1-0 game. And D’Attilo was still in it as we got to the bottom of the eighth. Ochoa hit for Thrasher to lead off, and dished a single through the left side of the infield. Cookie wrestled a full count walk from D’Attilo, putting two on. Sandy struck out, but Nunley grounded to right and past Martinez. Ochoa was sent on the single and scored easily, 2-0. Since the throw from Rusty Zackery went home, both runners advanced and the Coons had them on second and third with one out. Ian Johnson, grizzled left-hander, replaced D’Attilo, which brought up Bednarski to hit for Richards. Johnson’s first pitch went through Ramirez’ legs and plated Cookie. Bednarski and Murphy – as expected – failed to get Nunley home from third, leaving things to Angel. Dave Garcia hit a leadoff single in that ninth inning, but Angel struck out the next two before Zackery grounded out to short. 3-0 Brownies!! Carmona 2-4; Nunley 3-4, RBI; Murphy 2-4; Ochoa (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (11-5);

Brownie! As we are on left-handers, here comes Joo.

Game 3
SFB: 1B A. Young – RF J. Gusmán – LF Alston – CF D. Garcia – 3B J. Rodriguez – SS Ingraham – 2B M. Robinson – C A. Ramirez – P Joo
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – SS Hudman – P Toner

The first three Critters reached in the first inning, with Cookie walking before Sambrano and Nunley singled, the latter plating Carmona for the first run. Two on, no outs, the middle of the order made sure it remained a 1-0 game. Bednarski, no more useful with the bat than a dead badger, also made life hard on Toner defensively, committing a grievous error in the third inning when he dropped Ramirez’ easy pop to put the leadoff man on. Toner starved that one at third base, but nevertheless surrendered the lead two innings later, when Ramirez had doubled through Nunley and was on third base with two outs, being waved in when Toner balked. So we had a 1-1 tie in the middle of the fifth, and the Raccoons had yet to put someone on base after Nunley’s first inning single. Toner would be the next runner himself, landing a leadoff walk from Joo. Cookie singled, but Sandy lined out to Rodriguez, Nunley grounded out, and Murphy went down glaring.

Jonny Toner was to lead off another inning in the seventh. He flailed away at the first thing he saw and launched a liner into the gap in left center. Alston and Garcia scampered after it while Toner dashed across the bases and slid into third base with a ****ing triple! Cookie was walked intentionally, and Sandy grounded to short. Ingraham looked back Toner, then threw out Sandy at first as Cookie moved up. Matt Nunley eventually walked onto the open base. The Bayhawks wouldn’t bother bring a right-handed pitcher for Smurfy and Wetnarski with the bases loaded and one out. Joo could take care of that. Oh, Maud – I might need your crossbow after the game.

Murphy popped up the second pitch he got – two outs. Bednarski took the first pitch and hit the ****tiest grounder to the right side – and Mike Robinson missed it! Over the glove, into rightfield, two runs scored! Margolis’ friendly groundout helped Joo out of the inning. Jonny finished eight with just over 100 pitches, and the ninth inning went to Thrasher with two left-handers scheduled up, starting with Javy Rodriguez, whom he walked. He also walked Ingraham, bringing the Birds to hit with the right-handed Zackery for the unlucky Robinson. Angel Casas made his appearance now. Zackery hit a grounder to first on the first pitch he saw, Murphy got the trailing runner at second base, keeping the tying run at first – smart play, I’ll give him that. Armando Martinez hit Antonio Ramirez, and pitch #3 by Angel Casas was grounded to Bergquist, to Hudman, to Murphy, game over. 3-1 Blighters. Reya (PH) 1-1, 2B; Toner 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (11-4) and 1-2, BB, 3B;

Gee, Ron, thanks for the help, by the way, go **** yourself.

Cookie has a 10-game hitting streak, including six 1’s in the hit column.

Raccoons (51-48) vs. Aces (49-53) – July 31-August 2, 2015

The Coons had already come back from a deficit against a CL South team this week, and here was another one, although they would have to sweep the Aces to make up their 2-4 record against them this year. They were third in runs scored, third in runs allowed, and hold on, something doesn’t mix here. The unluckiest team on earth had a +56 run differential, yet was four games under .500. Undoubtedly they were due a sweep of their own to close in on .500 again…

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (4-10, 5.37 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (10-6, 3.22 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (5-7, 4.25 ERA) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (11-5, 1.71 ERA)
Hector Santos (6-6, 2.85 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (5-6, 4.69 ERA)

Jonny Toner wouldn’t mind some damage being done to the middle of these three right-handers. He trails Wagoner by 46 points in the ERA race.

Game 1
LVA: SS Walsh – 2B Brantley – 3B B. Burke – 1B Bovane – C D. Rice – RF J. Flores – CF Kelsey – LF J. Garcia – P Valdevez
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

Rich Walsh’ leadoff jack was a warm reminder that Conway was pitching and it wouldn’t be pretty tonight. To much amazement, Nunley and McKnight came back with back-to-back shots in the bottom of the inning and the Coons took a 2-1 lead after one. Conway didn’t stay ahead for long. He hit Valdevez in the second inning, somehow got out of that, but in the third inning he allowed three hard hits and a Bergquist made an error to concede two runs to the Aces and hang himself onto the hook. He wasn’t there for long. Nunley took him off again with his second homer of the game in his second plate appearance, and in the bottom 4th Luis Reya hit another solo shot to take a 4-3 lead. Four homers, four runs, welcome to Portland.

Conway made it to the sixth inning with that lead, but not out of it. With two outs he allowed singles to Jaime Garcia AND Juan Valdevez, and with Walsh looming, it was on to Sugano. In a full count, Walsh swung at ball four, and the inning was over. The Coons tacked on a run with their fifth homer of the night, Murphy dishing one to left center, and after that Reya missed his second shot by less than 25 feet, settling for a double short of the track. He was left on of course, and then it was on Marcos Bruno to fail colossally. Not having appeared in the Bayhawks set, he was assumed ready to go, but wasn’t. Ron Brantley singled, Brent Burke singled, Raúl Bovane walked on four straight. And NOW three left-handers would come up with nobody out. Thrasher came in, sucked, and three batters later the game was tied, the bases were still loaded, now with one out. Chris Mathis walked in a run against Garcia, allowed a pinch-hit RBI single to Adam Flack, and the Coons saw how to score a bushel of runs without a homer. Just by pitching like ****. Dickerson gave up another run in the ninth. The Raccoons left two in scoring position in the last three innings. 8-5 Aces. Nunley 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Reya 3-4, HR, 3B, 2B, RBI;

So, Luis Reya missed the cycle by the single, and the Raccoons lost a game in which they homered five times. I … just … Maaauuud! Crossbow!!

Cookie had a hit somewhere, running his streak to 11 games.

Game 2
LVA: SS Walsh – 2B Brantley – 3B B. Burke – 1B Bovane – C D. Rice – RF J. Flores – CF Kelsey – LF J. Garcia – P Wagoner
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – RF Ochoa – C Alexander – P Watanabe

Ricardo Carmona basically only held still in the first inning as he reached on a wild throwing error by Ron Brantley and eventually scored on a wild pitch. After two it would be two a side, with a 2-run homer by John Kelsey and Danny Ochoa’s near 2-run homer that at least plated Sambrano from third base with a sac fly; Sandy had tripled just ahead of him. The Aces took a new lead on a throwing error by Alexander in the third inning, but that couldn’t mask that Watanabe was just getting slaughtered. The Aces had no problem to make hard contact all the time and had an extra-base hit in each of the first four innings. Also telling: despite allowing four runs over four innings, he only threw 46 pitches. Nobody was waiting around for him. On the other side of the box score, outside of Sambrano and Ochoa nobody was really hurting Wagoner, but those two continued to irritate him. In the fourth, Sandy doubled and Ochoa singled to score him and get the Coons back to 4-3.

Those Coons had an interest in keeping Watanabe in the game for as long as possible. Everybody except for Angel Casas had pitched out of the pen in the opener, and we had a difficult double-header coming up on Monday, with starts split between Brownie and Dickerson. The latter was the issue. And Watanabe was dazzling in how he wouldn’t have fooled a nine-year old girl scout just trying to sell cookies. In the sixth inning, he threw six pitches, resulting in two deep drives to right that Ochoa – playing deep – caught, and got one bouncer right into his glove to end the inning. Watanabe would go on, spending eight pitches in the seventh inning, and that included allowing a hit. Sandy continued to wear out Wagoner, getting his third hit in the bottom 6th, but Ochoa’s fly to center was not deep enough to beat Kelsey, and the Coons remained down 4-3. Watanabe meanwhile would knock himself out. With two on and one out, he received a nice double play bouncer from Danny Rice in the eighth, and threw it away. That loaded the bases, Sugano came in for Flores, but had to face right-handed pinch-hitter Bobby Diersing, who hit an RBI single before Sugano got a double play to get out of the inning. Bottom 9th, the Raccoons got the tying run to the plate against ex-Critter Manuel Reyes once Ochoa legged out an infield single to start the frame. That brought up a clueless Dylan Alexander, who was oh-for-this-week (almost), but beat Raúl Bovane’s reflexes with a quick one-hopper that made it over the first base bag just barely fair and became a double, putting the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out for PH Mike Bednarski, who ACTUALLY found leftfield for an RBI single. Unfortunately Cookie had already picked up his daily hit (12-game hitting streak), hit a 2-1 pitch high to Jaime Garcia in left, D-Alex was sent to go and found himself thrown out on a PERFECT throw by Garcia. Nunley grounded out meekly to end the game. 5-4 Aces. McKnight 3-4; Sambrano 3-4, 3B, 2B; Ochoa 2-3, 2 RBI; Bednarski (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Aces would use their off day on Thursday to jumble their rotation and we were to see Kevin Woodworth (2-6, 3.56 ERA) in the Sunday game. That ERA and that record – he’s due for some good luck, like the rest of that ****ing team.

Can we just put all the scum we got from them the last few years back on their bus when it leaves for the airport? Bednarski, Entwistle, Richards. I would keep Sambrano, but if it only works as a package deal, he goes.

Game 3
LVA: SS Walsh – CF Kelsey – 3B B. Burke – 1B Bovane – C D. Rice – RF J. Flores – 2B Beard – LF J. Garcia – P Woodworth
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 2B Sambrano – 1B Ochoa – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – P Santos

Santos had to work around two base runners in the first before Cookie extended his hitting streak to 13 games with an infield single to start the bottom of the inning. Nunley grounded out, moving him up, and he scored handily on McKnight’s single to right. Rusty Beard made a throwing error to put runners in scoring position on Richards’ grounder, and Woodworth walked Sandy, but struck out Ochoa and got an easy fly (…!) from Bednarski to keep the damage to a single run.

Bednarski would actually come through in the third. Having two outs and two on, he singled to center to score Ron Richards, which regained the lead for the Coons at 2-1, after Rich Walsh had momentarily tied the contest in the top 3rd with a solo homer. Alexander popped out reliably. The lead didn’t last. Santos walked a pair in the top 4th and Garcia drove in the tying run with a 2-out single. As an aside, Santos’ pitch count was over 70 through four innings… he would barely drag himself through six innings, but struck out ten, though in the interest of bullpen preparation for Monday, this was not how I would have scripted things. At least he got in line for a W once more. The bottom 6th saw a leadoff single by Bednarski before Murphy hit for Santos with one out. He singled to left center, bringing up an unretired Cookie Carmona, who improved to 4-4 with an RBI double up the leftfield line. Nunley and McKnight both made sorry fly outs to Kelsey in shallow center, stranding Murphy and Cookie and keeping the score at 3-2.

There were nine outs to collect. Bruno got three. Thrasher got two, striking out Walsh and Kelsey before Angel Casas came on for a scheduled 4-out save. Brent Burke hit a very deep drive to left – caught at the wall by Sandy Sambrano, who was moved there in the double-switch-and-shuffle that also brought in Angel. The Coons, who had left Carmona in scoring position THREE times in the game, stranded Dylan Alexander on third base in the bottom of the eighth when – the mind boggles! – Cookie made an out batting against right-hander Michael Sieben. So, no insurance for Angel, who still had the 4-5-6 batters coming up, including two left-handers, and the right-hander Bovane hit a leadoff double. Angel hadn’t allowed a run in 66 days, but he was in trouble now, and he didn’t find out. Rice grounded out, but Jesus Flores hit a double to right and the game was tied. The Aces stranded Flores, but now we faced the prospect of playing extras with the double header coming up. Great ****. EXCEPT … maybe the team could … y’know, crazy idea… walk off? The heart of the order was up in the bottom 9th, facing Sieben. Good joke.

And no, the end wouldn’t come quickly, and it wouldn’t come without major pain along the way. We put Chris Mathis in there to pitch for as much as he had, to preserve at least some relievers for Monday. That came to bite in the 11th when McKnight reached on a 2-out infield single and Mathis had to bat in the #4 hole, striking out. Bottom 12th, the Raccoons had the bases loaded with one out for Bergquist, who hit right into a double play. Mathis came up to bat again after another 2-out single by McKnight in the 13th, again making the final out. Brent Burke hit a leadoff single in the top 14th – the first base runner given up by Mathis in his FIFTH inning! Burke moved up on a groundout and a wild pitch to reach third base, but with his dying breath Mathis struck out Danny Rice and Jesus Flores to keep him there and keep the game tied. Mathis, over 50 pitches, was well done for more than just today. NOW GET A ****ING RUN, ***HOLES!! Nope. Ochoa walked against Andrew Wills, that was all. Reya and Alexander behind him failed. Sugano had to be put into the game, drilled Garcia and allowed an RBI double to PH Jesus Alvarez in the 15th. To further dull the mind, not only did Brock Hudman hit a double off Brian Morgan in Bergquist’s spot in the bottom 15th, no, Cookie found his fifth hit of the day, a single to right that scored Hudman. We were tied again, and Cookie was stranded in scoring position for the fourth time. Now we had to burn Entwistle, who managed to spend 30 pitches in the top 16th, walking a pair before getting humped for two hits and three runs by Flores and Flack. The Raccoons ended the game in style – Luis Reya hit into a double play to round up Ochoa. 7-4 Aces. Carmona 5-8, 2 2B, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-8, RBI; Reya 2-4; Murphy (PH) 1-1; Hudman (PH) 1-1, 2B; Mathis 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

And you ****ing ****s couldn’t have ****ing lost in nine!!!??

In other news

July 28 – TOP 1B Jimmy Roberts (.300, 11 HR, 45 RBI) connects for the cycle in a 6-3 win over the Stars. Roberts gets a hit in every one of his four plate appearances. The 58th cycle in ABL history is the second for the Buffaloes (Jerry Henry, 2004), and the fourth this season (NAS Bobby Eason, NAS Chris Macias, CHA Jose Jimenez). There have never been more than four cycles in an ABL season, and there are still two months left.
July 28 – The Titans are swiftly routed by the Thunder, 12-0.
July 30 – The Stars deal RF/LF/1B Ricky Platt (.322, 4 HR, 52 RBI) to the Blue Sox for MR Jorge Cortez (0-1, 7.43 ERA, 1 SV) and #29 prospect SP DeAndre “City” Bynum; Dallas also sends MR Jose Flores (0-2, 6.23 ERA) to the Canadiens for RF/CF Stephen St. George (.337, 1 HR, 12 RBI) and #93 prospect SP David Jimenez, whom the Canadiens had only acquired from the Crusaders last week.
July 30 – The lone run in the Warriors’ 1-0 win over the Cyclones scored on Pat Eaton’s groundout. The Cyclones actually out-hit the Warriors 8-3.

Complaints and stuff

Santos and Jonny and Brownie
And forty-eight hours of frownin’

That includes the bullpen and the offense, but I’m still working on it. But first I have to wrap my head around how we want to get through the double header with a COMPLETELY and UTTERLY shot bullpen. Thanks, Angel, have a beer over there in the black leather chair. Never mind the little plastic box with the blinking green light, the digital clock, and the blue and red cables. It’s nothing. It’s really nothing.

I hate this team… Monday will be the worst day of my life, and I’ve seen things here.

Completely not fun note: in fact, on Sunday, five games went to extras, but none went even remotely as deep as ours.

I like Dave Garcia. He is friggin’ TWENTY years old, and he’s already at 21 career homers and approaching 150 hits after debuting last year. He’s pretty much the Neil Reece type. Strong defense, good contact bat with strong power. And he’s 20!

Garcia looks like a star, and we have a potential star ourselves in center (though from a different mold) in Cookie Carmona. When he scored in the first inning on Sunday, it gave McKnight 50 RBI. He’s the first Furball to 50 RBI. He’s a friggin’ defensive shortstop, for ****’s sake. Yep. We’re gonna rebuild the team this winter. All the suckers shall go. I would have been looking for prospects now, but totally unbelievably nobody wanted a piece of any of the failing sluggers.

There is one trade I could have done that I didn’t do here in late July. I could have traded Stan Murphy, a constant source of RISP/DP frustration (but who wasn’t?), for the Rebels’ SP Adonis Foster (9-4, 3.75 ERA). Right-hander, 27, but more of the mediocre, Bill Conway type. It would have been *some* deal for a starter making the minimum, but Calderón and Ivan the Druid had concerns about his stamina, his changeup, his medical records, and the way he was eating his cereal, and the trade fell through.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS

1st – Tony Hamlyn – 3,931 (active)
2nd – Martin Garcia – 3,783
3rd – Woody Roberts – 3,313 (HOF)
4th – Aaron Anderson – 3,225 (HOF)
5th – Carlos Castro – 3,198 (HOF)
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,164
7th – Chris York – 3,103 (active)
8th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
9th – Nick Brown – 2,902 (active)
10th – Arnold McCray – 2,900 (HOF)
11th – Pancho Trevino – 2,860 (active)
12th – Bastyao Caixinha – 2,844 (HOF)
13th – Kisho Saito – 2,800 (HOF)
14th – Kelvin Yates – 2,773
15th – Robbie Campbell – 2,763
16th – Rod Taylor – 2,687 (active)

98 more to 3,000! He’s not what he was, but he might still be good to reach the mark of Roberts by the end of the 2017 season, assuming the option gets picked up for that season and he doesn’t collapse completely. 3,313 assumes a modest 160 K per year pace from here.

Chris York is still active, but he’s a wreck, failing to find the strike zone for the AAA Modesto Ravens. Tony Hamlyn is laboring on a barking shoulder. Old age ain’t kind to the 2000’s best.

[Westheim]

As we hit the road to see the Thunder, we were in a disastrous pitching situation. With the double header to start the series, and Dickerson involved as a starter, and the depressing 16-inning loss to the Aces on Sunday, we had to make a move and get pitching from St. Petersburg, and one arm wouldn’t do. Dickerson was starting, Sugano had pitched three days in a row, with exceedingly longer outings, and Mathis had pitched five futile innings on Sunday. This left only four relievers, and all of those had pitched on Sunday. Thrasher had pitched four of five days coming in. If you assumed Brownie to pitch his usual seven, and Dickerson to live through five, we were still two or three innings short of making it to Tuesday (except if we lost; losing the double header would ease so many pains – ironically).

No, we needed relievers. Not one, but TWO. Where the heck to make room on the roster!?

Well, I came up with stuff…

Raccoons (51-51) @ Thunder (55-46) – August 3-5, 2015

The Thunder had lost three in a row, just like us. Their offense was not clicking, ranking only eighth in the league with 4.2 runs per game, but they had the best pitching outright, leading the league in runs allowed with just 3.9 runs coming across per game. The Raccoons were actually t-2nd in that regard, but in the bottom three in offense. What else did the Thunder have? Oh, a swath of injuries, big and small. Besides the really big pains of not having Emilio Farias and Will Bailey in the lineup (which partially explained their offensive weakness), they were also down their #5 and #6 starting pitchers, Korean duct tape Myeong-keun Kim, and a few more guys. They would actually open the series with a relief pitcher on the mound. The Thunder held the edge in the season series, 3-2.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (0-6, 6.20 ERA) vs. Bryan Robbins (1-1, 4.01 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-5, 2.72 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (10-9, 3.37 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (11-4, 2.17 ERA) vs. Bob King (10-7, 2.67 ERA)
Bill Conway (4-10, 5.26 ERA) vs. Ed Michaels (8-9, 3.61 ERA)

Robbins, a swingman last year who would make his first start of this season, and Michaels are left-handers. Tobitt and King will pitch on short rest unless they can draw something out of a hat.

The double header opens the set, and against my usual way of working these things, the better pitcher would have the night cap, with Dickerson in the day game. No roster moves were made ahead of the first game, although we had Juan Gallegos and George Youngblood ready in Oklahoma after throwing them out of bed in Florida at four in the morning to take a charter flight to Atlanta and then the first flight west from there.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – C Margolis – 3B Hudman – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson
OCT: RF Reese – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF E. Clark – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – 1B T. Cardenas – C B. Harris – CF S. Young – P Robbins

Dickerson, who would only come out if his pitch count closed in on 120, no matter the score, wasted 30 pitches in the first inning right away, two hits, two walks, one run for the Thunder, and most counts were to his disadvantage. So that didn’t work out for a long outing, and of course we were talking about Dickerson. Ultimately, his outing lasted only three innings. Then he told the Druid that his back hurt and retired to his locker. The Raccoons, still down 1-0 and showing no intentions to attempt a comeback, were left trying to figure out how to make it through another five innings.

Zack Entwistle had nothing, quite obviously, and made it through two innings mainly for the Thunder hitting rockets right at the defense, plus two pop outs, and for good measure drew a walk in the fifth inning because we didn’t know any better anymore than to absolutely flat-out kill our pitchers. Another two innings came from Marcos Bruno, although he walked two in the bottom of the sixth. When Cookie hit a 1-out single in the top 8th, he not only became the go-ahead run behind Bergquist, but this was also only the Coons’ second hit in the game (the other being Margolis’ in the second). Now wait for them to score one and go to extras! (crazy laugh) Robbins threw a wild pitch, and when Sandy singled up the middle in a full count, two runs scored – the Coons had a 2-1 lead. And they were quite definitely running out of pitching. Mathis and Sugano were completely unavailable. Thrasher had pitched four out of five days, and Angel three out of five, but had thrown 24 (awful!!) pitches on Sunday. At least Thrasher had never thrown more than ten in any recent outing. He was going to warm up and came in for the bottom 8th. This could barely go well, and hardly didn’t. He would walk the bases loaded, threw a wild pitch in between, and then Sandy Sambrano almost overran Blair Harris’ pop to left that got the Coons out the inning – STILL ahead. It took him 30 pitches, and he had nothing left to give – the bottom 9th would be Angel’s. And if we’re skipping through the tops of innings here, rest assured, you ain’t missin’ anything. The bottom of the ninth saw Jalen Parks leading off in the #9 hole, and he grounded out to Bergquist. Casas then walked Tom Reese on four straight, and Armando Rodriguez singled to left. Earl Clark, batting .320 with only four homers and still the best all-around batter on the team that hadn’t dropped dead, struck out. That left things to Jesus Soto, who kept flailing and missing until he had struck out. 2-1 Blighters. Entwistle 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (3-1);

Talk about a Pyrrhic victory. Now we don’t have anybody left for Brownie’s start!

Except… we did.

Dud Dickerson was filed away onto the disabled list for some mild back discomfort that would only take a fraction of the 15 days’ minimum assignment to heal up with the right drugs – and that squelching noise you hear is the Druid turning a living frog into a soothing ointment – but it optioned a roster spot and was thus dandy. Also, Brock Hudman was optioned to AAA but didn’t actually go that far. In turn, George Youngblood and Juan Gallegos were added to the roster, and they would be our only bullpen for the night cap. Well, Jonny Toner and Hector Santos took seats in the pen, but we would not use them unless things got EXTREMELY DIRE.

Cookie, Sandy, and McKnight would be the only guys in the lineup for both games. They would get off days as soon as possible – especially Cookie who usually never sat for any reason, and only left games if one of his paws was dangling off oddly.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – LF Richards – 2B Sambrano – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – P N. Brown
OCT: RF Reese – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF E. Clark – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – 1B T. Pena – C B. Harris – CF S. Young – P Tobitt

Brownie fell behind 1-0 in the first when both Tom Reese and Earl Clark reached on balls that dropped into the shallow outfield for singles, and Reese in between stole a base in an attempt that saw Dylan Alexander throw the ball back to the net, somehow. The Coons didn’t trail for long, with Brownie opening the third with a single before being forced by Cookie’s grounder to short. Carmona however went to third on Nunley’s single to right, and scored on McKnight’s single to left. A passed ball charged to Blair Harris moved the runners into scoring position, but Reya and Richards put up a strikeout and a grounder to second, respectively, showing the usual sparkle.

Old foe Tobitt then took a turn south in the fourth inning. After a leadoff walk to Sandy Sambrano, Ochoa and Alexander found holes on the infield to hit singles through, the latter scoring Sandy. Nick Brown had runners on first and second with no outs, but with a 2-1 lead we could go a bit more aggro, and a HARD single to center loaded the bases for Cookie, who sadly struck out looking, and the Raccoons didn’t amount to more than a 3-1 lead after Nunley’s sac fly once McKnight’s drive to right was caught on the warning track. While Tobitt bowed out of one very closely here, he would have less luck in the sixth inning. First, Brownie was on base for the third time in three plate appearances, this time with a 1-out walk. Cookie floated one to center that Sean Young dropped, putting two on for Nunley, who crashed a breaking ball to slightly-to-right centerfield and it was just GONE. As was Tobitt. The Thunder, down 6-1, resorted to sending the endless gum with rhubarb flavor, Sergio Vega, in his second appearance of the season. His first had been scoreless, this one wouldn’t be: McKnight belted a shot right away, 7-1. Heck, even the completely skill-free Dylan Alexander managed to meet a meatball in the seventh, belching a 2-run homer out of rightfield and into the upper rows of the stands there. Vega was gone afterwards, with the barbarous slugger in the #9 hole meriting the appearance of a new pitcher, righty Julio Munoz, who finally managed to contain Nick “Knock-Knock” Brown. We don’t want to overlook however that for all his batting displays (he should bat second, really), Brownie ran into troubles on the mound in those mid-to-late innings. He had two on in the sixth and got a double play, same in the seventh. With a more vital pen he might have been out in the seventh already, but could you trust Youngblood and Gallegos with a lead bigger than the number of outs to collect? But then the Thunder further disintegrated for another three runs in the top of the eighth, with a 2-run triple by Ron Richards quite important to the effort, and with a 12-1 lead, you could stop being picky. Nick Brown returned to the bottom 8th on the shortest leash, but Cookie retired to the showers to spare him the last two innings (he had already gotten a hit to lead off the game). Brownie retired the side in order in the eighth, but would not get the ninth, having approached 110 pitches. In the top 9th, the Thunder kept disintegrating. D-Alex led off with a double, Murphy had a pinch-hit single, and Bergquist walked – three on, no outs. Robert Parsons walked in TWO runs against Nunley and McKnight before Reya hit a sac fly and Bednarski hit into a double play. George Youngblood completed destruction with three quick outs in the bottom 9th. 15-1 Brownies!!! Nunley 2-4, BB, HR, 5 RBI; McKnight 3-5, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Richards 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Ochoa 2-5; Alexander 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Murphy (PH) 1-1; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (12-5) and 2-3, BB;

Someone pinch me, I can’t believe this actually happened.

But – pitching-wise we’re far from being out of the woods. Thanks to game 1 in the set, the pen is still shot. Bruno, Entwistle, and Thrasher were all off limits for Tuesday. The extra relievers thus stayed on the roster as we hoped from a long outing from Jonny Toner to reset the pen, for the most part at least. Cookie played, because we still expected to see a left-hander on Wednesday and would give him that game off. Sandy was used to rest McKnight instead.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Toner
OCT: RF Reese – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF E. Clark – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – 1B T. Cardenas – C B. Harris – CF S. Young – P B. King

Cookie opened with a single, stole second, and made home on Sandy’s single, 1-0, textbook. Further offense was subtly undermined by double plays hit into in the first (Nunley) and second (Alexander) innings, but the Thunder weren’t showing their offensive abilities, either. They had a hit in the bottom 1st, Tom Reese singling on the first pitch Toner threw, but by the second pitch the bases were empty again, with Armando Rodriguez doubled up on a grounder to Sandy. The Thunder wouldn’t get another hit until the bottom 5th, with Erik Janes’ leadoff double threatening the Coons’ 2-0 lead. Tomas Cardenas struck out before Harris flew to right, with Janes caught far astray from his base after a terrible read. He ended up doubled off by Luis Reya’s accurate throw to second, ending the inning. Sean Young hit another leadoff double in the sixth, but after King’s bunt both Reese and Rodriguez struck out.

Top 7th: after singles by Richards and Murphy to start the inning, D-Alex did the Thunder a favor with his second 6-4-3 double play of the day. That left Richards on third for Bergquist, who was thankfully protected by the much better .240 batter in the #9 hole and was pitched to by the Thunder (just like they had pitched to D-Alex ahead of Brownie in the previous game). Bergquist hit a sharp single to left on the first pitch, and the lead was up to 3-0. King ended up going seven-plus and was removed after Carmona’s leadoff triple in the eighth. We will skip how he was left on third base and go to the bottom 8th, where Jonny Toner tried to get a 3-0 lead to the ninth, but Cardenas and Harris hit singles to start the inning. When Young’s grounder to the mound yielded only a force at second base, Toner looked in trouble – especially with what was left in the pen. If he could somehow get out of this inning, maybe we could patch the ninth with the reserves. He conceded one run on a grounder by PH Jose Rivera, but then struck out Reese. That was it for him, 114 pitches thrown. The Coons failed to tack on, and it was on Juan Gallegos, who started the bottom 9th with a 3-1 lead and a 7.20 ERA. Aaaand he walked Rodriguez. However, Earl Clark hit one right at Bergquist, and that was turned for two, but the third out would have to be Youngblood’s, who came in with the left-hander Jesus Soto stepping in. Aaaand … he walked him. The Thunder sent right-handed pinch-hitter Chris Delaney for Janes, but there was no right-hander we could currently hope to pry an out from. On 0-2, Delaney hit an infield single, and the next right-hander was coming right up, Tony Pena. How about, Chris “Five Frames” Mathis? He threw only one pitch that Pena hit high to right – but hardly for any length. Bednarski made a comfy last out there. 3-1 Raccoons! Carmona 2-4, 3B; Richards 2-4; Murphy 2-4, RBI; Toner 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (12-4);

Most guys felt better by Wednesday, but we kept the extra pitcher around for another day.

Game 4
POR: 3B Nunley – CF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Conway
OCT: RF Reese – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF E. Clark – C Parks – 3B J. Soto – SS Janes – 1B T. Cardenas – CF S. Young – P Michaels

The Coons’ lineup didn’t maintain shape for long, as Michaels struck Bednarski square in the paw in the first inning. Bednarski seemed to know right away that he was done and headed straight for the dugout and into the tunnel. Reya replaced him as the bases were ready to be left loaded on Richards’ easy fly to left. Then came Conway and basically didn’t retire anybody. The Thunder started with Reese walking, a RBI double by Rodriguez, another walk drawn by Clark, and worked their way through their order, but what really hurt was Bergquist borking Ed Michaels’ grounder that would have ended the inning. Instead, up 4-0, the Thunder had the bases loaded for the top of the order coming up again, and Conway only got out of the inning after 45 pitches when Reese grounded out in a full count. And how do you go about and not want to shoot them all the time?

Conway, who had been blown out of the park in his last game facing Ed Michaels as well, didn’t make it through three innings. The Thunder got a run in the second after Conway issued eight straight balls with two outs and nobody on, then allowed a first-pitch single to Janes, but in the bottom 3rd he got completely stuck. Youngblood replaced him with the bases loaded, two outs, and a 6-0 deficit, facing Soto. (Gallegos didn’t replace him because in the last Michaels/Conway rout Gallegos had allowed the second grand slam in the second inning – TO ****ING ED MICHAELS). Youngblood couldn’t end the inning without fudging up, either, and allowed a 2-run single on his first pitch before Janes bounced out. Youngblood bunted into a double play in the top of the fourth, which didn’t matter all that much since a) this game was lost and b) we wouldn’t take him to New York anyway. In the fifth, the Coons got two runs, which scored on an error and a balk, respectively, while once they had the bases loaded with one out, Margolis’ **** fly to right and Bergquist’s soft pop to third didn’t get anything done. The Thunder would get a run back in the bottom 5th as Sugano walked three, then drilled Young. They got pretty close to negating the rout from the Monday nightcap once they shat three runs over Juan Gallegos in the eighth inning … at least until they dragged Vega out of the bushes again for the ninth inning. D-Alex hit a leadoff jack, and generally people reached base, but the Coons made up only two runs total before leaving the bases loaded when Margolis struck out. 12-4 Thunder. Alexander (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Yikes. Well, we ended up handing back both replacement relievers after this game, princely because we had a new long reliever. Bill Conway (4-11, 5.75 ERA) was an endless annoyance, and out of the rotation.

Bednarski was out for a month with a broken thumb, which caused additional roster movement. Overall, we removed Bednarski (to the DL), Gallegos (to St. Pete), and Youngblood (waivers to get him to St. Pete) from the roster, and added Brock Hudman and Jimmy Fucito, who wasn’t doing much good at all in AAA, and was 27 and all, but I needed a right-handed bat quite badly.

That’s only two, and there’s a pitcher still missing. While I was debating about whether I would want Enrique Guzman up, who had a 4.40 ERA despite a .255 BABIP in AAA – typical of something Whitebread had dragged through the door – and then cry over it, I decided to go with by heart and declared Magnotta Time to have arrived. The first round pick in 2012 had been 4-11 with a 3.73 ERA in St. Pete, which was not entirely fair. The strikeouts were not there for him, at all, but he managed to fool guys quite a bit to get poor contact and grounders, so perhaps that would help him out. But: Magnotta had pitched on Wednesday, so would not make his debut until Monday in Elkland.

Raccoons (54-52) @ Crusaders (67-41) – August 6-9, 2015

The Crusaders were amazing and all, had won five straight, and were first in offense and still not remotely good as far as their pitching was concerned. But they continued to motor towards October despite the worst rotation in the league, thanks to being first in runs scored. The best pen in the league might have its perks, too. The Raccoons so far held a 4-3 edge over them in 2015.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (5-8, 4.29 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (6-6, 5.54 ERA)
Hector Santos (6-6, 2.86 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (11-4, 3.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-5, 2.63 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (9-5, 5.17 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (12-4, 2.12 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (7-7, 4.49 ERA)

Left-handers will oppose another on Saturday. All other starters in this series are right-handed.

Just as we came in, the Crusaders had been triple-whammied by injury news, all including outfielders, more or less. CF/RF Amari Brissett (.294, 3 HR, 19 RBI) had broken his elbow and was out until next year, and makeshift-centerfielder Jose Paraz (.327, 3 HR, 35 RBI) had to undergo Tommy John surgery for a partially torn UCL, but they had more importantly also lost RF Stanton “Clockwork” Martin (.300, 18 HR, 74 RBI), who could have a more fitting nickname in “Brittle”. He had crashed into a wall on Monday and had broken his shoulder blade. He was expected to return in late September.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Hudman – P Watanabe
NYC: CF A. Ruiz – C Lowe – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – 3B Walter – SS Paull – RF Ware – P Sabatino

Sitting out on Wednesday hadn’t slowed down Cookie a bit; he singled on Sabatino’s first pitch of the game, extending his hitting streak to 17. In a pseudo-pitching-duel, the Coons had two hits and two double plays the first time through, and the Crusaders laid down in disinterest as soon as Abe Ruiz singled in his first at-bat of the year. It was Watanabe to create excitement in all the wrong ways in the bottom 5th. The Crusaders had Shane Walter on second base after a single to right, and two outs. Stephen Ware, a left-handed batter, was walked intentionally to get to Sabatino, only for Watanabe to throw a wild pitch. Sabatino had actually singled in his first at-bat of the game, but now struck out, causing me to glue Watanabe’s paycheck back together.

Francisco Caraballo’s often shoddy defense would then cost the Crusaders in the sixth. His error allowed Cookie on base with one out, and Nunley soon added himself to the runner category after reaching on an infield single. Cookie then took off with Nunley following in his slipstream and Drew Lowe didn’t get either one. Both then scored on McKnight’s liner to right, the first runs of the game. Watanabe didn’t get out of the seventh. Shane Walter erased his leadoff walk to Caraballo with a sharp bouncer that Hudman took for two, but Watanabe then also walked Eric Paull and seemed to have lost it at 95 pitches. Thrasher and Sandy appeared in a double switch. While Thrasher got out of the inning, Sandy hit a leadoff double in the eighth and scored on Cookie’s following double. Nunley walked, but the 3-4-5 batters made 1-2-3 outs. Angel Casas appeared in the ninth inning to save the 3-0 game, and he faced the 3-4-5 section. He walked Martin Ortíz, threw two wild pitches, and walked B.J. Manfull. When the pitching coach inquired whether he was alright he seemed to be puzzled what could have incited that stupid question. When Caraballo bounced a ball back to Casas, he threw it wildly to centerfield, which was about the point where I started to see blue spots. One run scored, and Walter then bunted over the tying runs. Paull singled to left, Manfull scored, Caraballo was sent, Ochoa with the throw, McKnight with the relay – OUT at home! Paull went to second as the Crusaders pulled a Keith Ayers, but Angel was not out of the woods yet, having to face Ware, a .182 batter. That count ran full, Ware grounded sharply to right, but Sandy Sambrano was in the way and made the play. 3-2 Critters. Carmona 2-4, 2B, RBI; Sambrano 1-1, 2B; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K, W (6-8) and 1-2;

Angel, I have a very simple question. WHY, THE ****, WHY???

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – LF Ochoa – C Margolis – P Santos
NYC: 2B Caraballo – CF Ware – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – SS Paull – 3B Walter – C Durango – RF P. Brown – P J. Martin

If it wasn’t for the melodic name of Mr. Barnabas Jupiter Manfull, you could actually wonder whether these were actually the Crusaders…

In another offensively hopeless early game, Santos imitated Watanabe from the previous night when he wild-pitched runners into scoring position in the fourth inning. However, for him there were still TWO outs to collect. Other than Watanabe he knew how to blaze guys, however, rolled up Paull for a K and then had McKnight catch a soft line by Shane Walter to end the inning in a scoreless game. Both pitchers were on the opposition’s neck: through six either nursed a 2-hitter, but Manfull hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th. Paull grounded out to first, Walter flew out harmlessly to left, but Durango unleashed lightning to center. Cookie hustling back, jumping at the wall – he had it! it was the end for Santos though, having run out of pitches. Sandy hit a leadoff single in the eighth, but was caught in Margolis’ double play to end the frame, giving Santos a thankless no-decision. Bruno replaced him for the eighth, and failed. He issued a leadoff walk to Jorge Ortega, who ended up caught stealing, but with two outs still allowed a hit to Caraballo and walked Ware. Sugano had to come in, allowed a bases-loading single to Martin Ortíz on a 1-2 pitch, before the made-fun-of Manfull tried to choke the Coons once and for all with a hard liner to right – RIGHT AT SANDY AND HE CAUGHT IT!!

In the top 9th it was Salvadaro Soure. Ron Richards (having appeared along with Sugano, with Ochoa out of the game) led off and grounded out, and it wasn’t until here that Cookie Carmona got a streak-extending hit with a single to left. He stole second base, which prompted the Crusaders to walk Nunley intentionally. McKnight grounded out, Reya struck out. Nobody scored. Entwistle got throught the bottom 9th thanks to a double play, and when Sandy drew a 1-out walk from Soure in the top 10th was asked to bunt. Bunting he did, and Eduardo Durango threw over Manfull to give the hopeless Coons runners on second and third with one out. D-Alex hit for Margolis to counter Soure, but walked, which was not helpful at all as it set up a double play for Richards, who came up with a rocket hit to right center, rising, rising, up, up – GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!! Mathis quickly shut down the Crusaders in the bottom of the inning to end the game. 4-0 Raccoons. Richards 1-2, HR, 4 RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K;

By now, our bullpen was finally completely rested again and there was nobody that was flat-out unavailable for the Brownie start on Saturday. Now watch something else go colossally wrong and he stubs his big toe on the top step of the dugout before the first inning.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Fucito – C Margolis – 2B Hudman – P N. Brown
NYC: 3B J. Ortega – RF P. Brown – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – C Durango – SS Walter – CF A. Ruiz – P F. Cruz

Three runs were on the board by the time Fernando Cruz got an out; Cookie had hit a single right away, and Sandy’s single and Nunley’s walk had filled them up. Murphy had plated two with a double to left, while Richards plated a run with a groundout. Fucito walked, but he was the last Coon to reach in the inning. The Coons lost one or more runs in the second inning when they greedily sent Cookie from second base on a Nunley single to right. Phil Brown threw him out at home, and they only scored one additional run on another Murphy liner to left that plated Sandy for an RBI single. Up 4-0, Nick Brown allowed only one hit through three innings, but also struck out nobody and the Crusaders had made good contact a few times. They made more contact in the fourth inning. Manfull hit a sharp single to right, and Caraballo walked, putting two on with one out. Durango was absolutely robbed of a base knock by Fucito who snagged his liner off the top of the grass, but Brownie still allowed a run on Shane Walter’s single before Abe Ruiz grounded out to Hudman, leaving the Coons ahead 4-1.

The opposing pitcher led off the bottom 5th. Brownie had Cruz at 1-2, then hit him. No, there was something off here. The Crusaders wouldn’t score in the inning, playing very-small ball when Ortega bunted over Cruz, who was not even a good runner. Phil Brown grounded out to short, and Fucito robbed Ortíz as well, who flew towards right center, fairly deep. Brownie didn’t get a strikeout until after Caraballo’s 1-out double in the bottom 6th, but then whiffed Durango and Walter back-to-back. Ruiz also struck out to start the bottom 7th, an inning that ended with another drive to right shagged by Fucito, this time to Ortega’s detriment. While the line didn’t look that bad, everybody including Nick Brown were glad that this start was over with. The game wasn’t, however. First, Luis Reya hit for Brownie with two on and two out in the top 8th, and was erased coldly by Helio Maggessi. Marcos Bruno was then assigned one batter, Phil Brown, to start the eighth. He struck him out quickly, Brown disagreed loudly, and was tossed. Bill Miller replaced him. Thrasher ended that inning, and would probably also pitch the ninth with two more lefties coming up there. Before we got there, however, Cookie and Sandy had back-to-back hits for the third time in the game to start the ninth inning. Nobody scored, since everybody saw the double steal coming and Cookie was dead out at third base. Nunley and Murphy did their best to kill the inning for good after that. Thrasher didn’t get through the ninth, allowing a single to Durango, but Angel got Ruíz to end the game. 4-1 Brownies! Carmona 3-5; Sambrano 3-5; Murphy 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Richards 2-4, RBI; Hudman 2-4; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (13-5);

With this game, shoddy as it was, Nick Brown re-entered the top 3 in ERA in the Continental League. He also holds the lead in wins, tied with Indy’s Dan Lambert. Dan Who? Right.

Wait a minute. We took the first three in Oklahoma, then were slaughtered in game four. Now we’ve taken the first three in New York, and … nah, what’s gonna go wrong with Jonny Toner?

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Toner
NYC: 2B Caraballo – CF Ware – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – C Lowe – SS Paull – RF B. Miller – 3B Walter – P Trevino

Cookie walked to start the game before getting swept up in Nunley’s double play. Toner also walked the first man he saw in the bottom 1st. And the second. And Ortíz singled in a 3-2 count. What is it now, Jonny…? The Crusaders got only one run on Manfull’s sac fly and Drew Lowe’s double play, but that was not the Jonny Toner we knew. The deficit was temporary thanks to a Reya double and Murphy’s 10th homer of the season in the second inning, which gave Toner a 2-1 lead, but with his first pitch in the bottom 2nd he smacked Eric Paull quite good. The Crusaders didn’t score, and neither did they score when Toner hit Ortíz in the third… Drew Lowe would tie the score with a real moonshot leading off the fourth, though.

What to do? Jonny claimed no physical ailments, so he remained in the game for now, which was now tied at two. Ron Richards was hit by Trevino in the top 6th, which certainly was just a funny accident (and who could grumble with the Crusaders, who had lost half their good batters to injury and Toner was now working on reducing the rest to rubble?), and the Coons didn’t score here, either. Jonny somehow made it through six and was hit for to start the seventh despite being 2-for-2 so far, but the Coons went down 1-2-3 in the inning, leaving him without a decision. Instead, Sugano came apart and allowed a run in the eighth, starting with a walk to Phil Brown and then an Ortíz double. Soure got another swing at things in the ninth, but walked Sandy on four pitches to put the tying run on base. D-Alex tried to bunt, almost hit himself in the black poky nose with a ball, and eventually struck out. Bergquist grounded sharply to short, but Jorge Ortega had a slight bobble, which cost the Crusaders the double play, which was GOOD, because we had an 0-for-3 batter coming up that needed a hit direly. Cookie met the 1-1 pitch and drove it up the rightfield line – IN! – and it went to the wall. Bergquist ignited the afterburners and scored from first, while Cookie slid in with a streak-extending, loss-avoiding RBI double!! COOKIIIIIEEE!!! Nunley left him on, though, and when Chris Mathis got three outs on four pitches in the bottom 9th we went to extras again.

In the top 10th, Reya hit a 1-out single. Mathis was next and bunted him to second base to have Murphy do something. Soure was still pitching, and got a tricky bouncer from Murphy that hit him on the foot and before he could make a play the Critters had runners on the corners for Sandy … who struck out. By the bottom 12th the Raccoons arrived at new long man Bill Conway, which was probably going to be the end of things, but at least he managed to get through the 8-9-1 batters, which included reliever Helio Maggessi as the Crusaders were out of bench players. As the Raccoons remained completely irrelevant in extra innings against high-octane relievers like Maggessi, Conway was nearing extinction the following inning. Abe Ruiz made the first out, but Ortíz doubled. Manfull grounded out, moving the winning run to third base, and here we walked the dangerous lefty Durango to bring up right-hander Juan Diaz, batting .111 (3-for-27). Conway ran a full count, then struck him out, and continued to wiggle through trouble afterwards. Abe Ruiz hit a 1-out double in the 15th – and the big guys stranded him at third base. The Raccoons had been completely irrelevant until here, outside of two Matt Nunley singles. The 16th inning opened with a D-Alex double off Alex Ramirez. Bergquist flew out to center, but Cookie singled to left, moving the slow Alexander to third base. Nunley came up and at 2-2 hit a sorry snort to center that nevertheless dinked onto the grass in front of Ruiz and broke the tie that had lasted for two hours. McKnight grounded out (going to 0-8) before Margolis hit for Conway against left-hander Ken McKenzie, who had just come in to get McKnight. Margolis remained mired in a black hole and struck out, leaving Angel without a cushion. He didn’t fuzz around for long. K to Durango, K to Diaz, and Bill Miller grounded out. 4-3 Blighters. Nunley 3-7, BB, RBI; Murphy 4-6, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Mathis 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Conway 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-11);

Who needs a rested pen? **** rested pens. Monday on the roster: Steve from Accounting.

The Raccoons struck out only three times in eight innings against Trevino (Brownie likes this!), but the pen hung 12 K on them in another eight innings.

In other news

August 4 – LAP SP Brad Smith (8-7, 2.52 ERA) will miss at least one start with elbow inflammation.
August 5 – The next casualty for the Pacifics is 3B Jens Carroll (.290, 8 HR, 59 RBI) who could be out until late September with a fractured thumb.
August 5 – The Knights will be without LF/CF Marty Reyes (.307, 11 HR, 51 RBI) for about two weeks. The 27-year old has come down with knee inflammation.
August 6 – TOP OF Bill Adams (.298, 15 HR, 60 RBI) has to seek treatment for a herniated disc and is out for the rest of this month.
August 6 – Indians and Titans play a 19-inning game that ends on a single by Nick Gilmor (.245, 11 HR, 38 RBI), giving the Indians a 3-2 win. August 7 – LAP SP Brad Smith (8-7, 2.52 ERA) aggravated his elbow injury working out and will miss at least one additional start.
August 7 – DEN LF Victorino Sanchez (.375, 4 HR, 54 RBI) will have his chase after the career hits crown delayed by a strained hamstring, which could cost him most of the remaining season.
August 8 – No-hitter! After losing 33 games between 2013 and 2014, CHA SP Steve Kreider (11-9, 3.90 ERA) has things turned around and displayed his pitching prowess on Saturday with a sparkling display against the Bayhawks. Kreider yielded two walks and no hits to no-hit the Bayhawks in a 1-0 shutout, the lone run batted in by Steve Huibregtse (.245, 3 HR, 32 RBI). The 33rd no-hitter in ABL history is the second for the Falcons, and both have been 1-0 no-hitters. Brian Patrick’s no-no in 2013 had been the most recent 1-0 no-hitter, but PIT Fred Dugo no-hit the Cyclones last year in the most recent incident of a no-hitter.

Complaints and stuff

I had my money on rather Stephen Hawking being able to walk again, but the Coons won a ****ing extra-inning game in 2015. Isn’t life wonderful??

In the last ten no-hitters, the winning team scored more than three runs only thrice. The highest-scoring game was Alex Lindsey’s no-hitter in 2008, a 6-0 win of the Thunder over the Bayhawks. The last no-hitter with a score higher than 6-0? Hah! Bob Joly’s no-hitter against the Crusaders! 8-0.

Bob Joly!

Okay, now for real, here, under us sisters of the sorority. I mean, this is confidential, right. Don’t blab. The *actual* plan going into Monday was as follows: start Dickerson, wait for the inevitable (though not THAT inevitable), and then waive and DFA him after the game. That was the plan. But since he left with an injury, the league would not allow DFA’ing him and the only way to get him off the roster was to put him on the DL. Would he have been added back to the roster after his waiver window? – (silence; except for an owl calling in the distance)

Another option would have been to hand Ochoa back to AAA temporarily. [Since the AI does not respect the 10-day assignment rule, I don’t give a blip either]

With a 5-2 week, we can reach 3,200 regular season wins next week.

This week Tomas Castro was on the waiver wire. He’s bounced around a fair bit the last few years since being booted out of here, and this year batted .321 in limited action for the Stars before hitting the wire.

I wanted to be in bed an hour ago. -.-

As Jeff Gordon aficionado I dig that Jeff Magnotta picked #24. Now watch the Elks rubble him to dust on Monday.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (58-52) @ Canadiens (58-53) – August 10-13, 2015

The Pacifics Northwest Battle To The Death kept raging, with the Raccoons entering Vancouver trailing 5-6 in the season series, which probably (hopefully) wouldn’t be settled until September. The Elks ranked seventh in both runs scored and runs allowed, were still closer-less, and had also lost infielder Steve Madison (.295, 3 HR, 59 RBI) to the DL since we last had faced them in July.

Projected matchups:
Jeff Magnotta (0-0) vs. Samuel McMullen (12-8, 3.22 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-8, 4.07 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (10-5, 3.10 ERA)
Hector Santos (6-6, 2.72 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (11-10, 3.60 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-5, 2.56 ERA) vs. Jose Flores (1-3, 6.48 ERA)

Unless the Elks find some right-hander to replace the swingman Flores, we are looking at three left-handed starters in this series, all except Rod Taylor.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Fucito – C Margolis – 2B Hudman – P Magnotta
VAN: CF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – LF Cameron – 1B Gilbert – RF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – 2B Lawrence – 3B Mateo – P McMullen

It would be left to find out whether it was a good sign that Jeff Magnotta made it through the first inning on four pitches. The Elks seemed to make contact quite readily against the fluffy debutee. The Elks had their first two men on in the bottom 2nd as Ray Gilbert walked and Enrique Garcia hit a single (running his own hitting streak to 17 games; Cookie had already reached 21 to start the game). Around two groundouts, an intentional walk to Jaime Mateo, and another groundout by McMullen, Magnotta managed to wiggle out of the jam. He had no strikeouts and it was obvious that he was tossing on borrowed time, which soon enough ran out. The bottom 3rd saw Raúl Hernandez and Dan Cameron with sharp hits to reach base, and a 3-run homer by Ray Gilbert (22 HR, 77 RBI, things to be envious of) and a solo shot by Jeremiah Irvin put the Elks up 4-0 against a Raccoons team that had managed a single (Cookie), a walk, and two double plays so far. They wouldn’t get another hit until Brock Hudman doubled with two outs in the fifth, which led to nothing at all, and Ray Gilbert hit another homer off Magnotta, who ended up with five earned runs in 4.2 innings in a pathetic debut – which I had seen coming, but we had run out of a sufficient number of reliable starters a long time ago. The Raccoons suffered a high-gear bullpen breakdown in the sixth inning, with Sugano and Entwistle combining for four runs, and offensively only managed another double play and a sac fly the rest of the way. Sam McMullen pitched a complete-game 6-hitter. 10-1 Canadiens. Alexander (PH) 1-1;

Said sac fly was hit by Ron Richards with the bases loaded when it was still a 5-0 game. If I’m having anything to say about it – but it’s hard to enforce these things from Portland before I’ll be back with the team in Sacramento – he can shove his ****ing sac fly up his hairy hole.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – LF Ochoa – C Alexander – P Watanabe
VAN: CF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – LF Cameron – 1B Gilbert – RF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – 2B Lawrence – 3B Mateo – P R. Taylor

Cookie again singled to start the contest, but this time was caught stealing when Nunley fell asleep in a hit-and-run, struck out, and McKnight did likewise. Initially, Watanabe would fall behind in the first inning as Ray Gilbert kept trampling all young Raccoons fans’ dreams with an RBI double in the first inning, but the Coons came back quickly. Luis Reya hit a leadoff jack in the second, and gave his team a lead with an RBI groundout in the third, that last one plating Cookie, who again scored in the fifth after a 1-out double when Nunley came up with a single, giving Watanabe a 3-1 advantage. Watanabe lost Jeremiah Irvin to a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, but managed to starve him on third base when consecutive full counts resulted in a sharp line out by Jaime Mateo to Sandy Sambrano, and a K hung on Rod Taylor (who already had whiffed nine through five innings). But Taylor was also bleeding runs; Sandy hit a single in the sixth and Danny Ochoa crashed a fastball for a 2-run homer to left center, running the score to 5-1. Taylor ended up whiffing 11 over 7.1 innings, but his time expired when Sandy bunted over Reya and Murphy in the eighth inning. Frank Yeager came on and extinguished Ochoa and Alexander, but the Coons still held a 4-run lead. Not for much longer, though. Watanabe drilled Jaime Mateo to start the bottom 8th, then allowed an RBI double to Morgan Little, hitting for Yeager. Ron Thrasher came on, conceded the run on a single by Kurt Evans, then struck out two. For Gilbert, we wanted a right-hander. Chris Mathis got a grounder to Nunley, who borked it completely, and now the go-ahead run came up after the error. Enrique Garcia singled sharply, Evans scored, 5-4. Mathis threw a wild 2-2 pitch to Irvin, then conceded a single and two runs on the next pitch before Lawrence struck out to end the nightmare inning. The Coons went down quickly in the ninth. 6-5 Canadiens. Carmona 3-5, 2B; Nunley 2-5, RBI; Reya 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

If I were up there right now, I’d kill them all with a pencil. A blunt pencil, written down to a stub. It would take a long time, but I had a lot of anger in me.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Hudman – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – LF Fucito – P Santos
VAN: 2B Lawrence – C R. Hernandez – LF Cameron – 1B Gilbert – RF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – CF J. Medina – 3B Mateo – P D. Butler

For the third time in the series, the Raccoons sent only three batters in the first inning. This time Hudman singled and was doubled up by Nunley. Soon enough, a pitching duel broke out, with neither team putting up any threat through three innings, and then both would create irritating chances for the opposition in the fourth, which were properly squandered. Butler created his mess himself with a throwing error that put Murphy on second base, but the Coons readily lied down and did nothing. Santos opened the bottom 4th by hitting Raúl Hernandez, then allowed a single to Don Cameron, but the Elks never moved the lead runner further than second base, starting with Gilbert, who popped out easily. Santos in particular got a lot of pops that went more or less right to some Critter for an easy out, and it wasn’t until the seventh that the next scoring opportunity presented itself for either team, and it was for the Coons, and it was again on a grisly throwing error, this time by Raúl Hernandez, *again* putting Murphy on second base, and this time with nobody out. Reya struck out, Margolis grounded out, Bergquist struck out (giving Butler eight for the day). Cookie, hitless, reached on an error in the eighth, moving Santos, who had singled, to second base. Hudman hit squarely into a double play to end the inning. Hector Santos wound up with an extremely sour no-decision, crossing 100 pitches after 8.1 innings. Sugano replaced him, but gave up a hard double to Cameron right away. Gilbert was walked intentionally before Garcia popped out. Cesar Tellez was up with two outs, singled softly to right, and Cameron scored easily. 1-0 Canadiens. Santos 8.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K and 2-3;

Cookie’s hitting streak ended at 22 games in a wholly shameful display by the completely inept Raccoons, who struck out 11 times once again.

Thursday morning, hitting coach John Hyde learned at breakfast that he was not required to travel to Sacramento with a team that ranked in the bottom half in every slash category, was 10th in runs scored, and only fifth in home runs after all the money that had been poured at assumed good-to-great hitters. Hyde had been hired prior to last season.

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Hudman – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – LF Sambrano – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P N. Brown
VAN: CF K. Evans – 3B Mateo – 1B Gilbert – RF J. Medina – SS Irvin – LF Cameron – C Little – 2B Lawrence – P J. Flores

Three outs in three for the fourth time in the top 1st as Cookie singled and got entangled in Brock Hudman’s double play. In a stark contrast, the Elks scored three runs in their first three hitters with Kurt Evans hitting a leadoff triple, scoring on Mateo’s single, and Gilbert then hit a 2-run homer. Nick B. from Hawaii got to see no sunshine in this game, as the Elks continued to whack away, drew a walk and had two more hits for two more runs in a 5-run first that sealed the sweep alright, as well as the season series, their first taken since 2008.

To manifest their total domination over the hapless hairballs, they would crunch them for another 5-run inning a while later. The bottom 4th started with a Flores single, which was bad news already, and Evans soon hit another triple to score Flores and move the score to 6-0. Nick Brown would issue a walk to Mateo and surrender two more hard liners into either corner before being yanked, down 9-0, with a man on second that Bill Conway promptly waved in to score. Conway ended up allowing six hits total and two runs of his own in 2.1 innings of work, and when Ronnie McKnight hit a 3-run homer in the sixth inning, there wasn’t as much as a blip in the disgusting Elks fans’ exhilarated reveling. I didn’t bother watching the telecast to the end and went to bed early. 12-4 Canadiens. Carmona 2-4; Reya 2-4; Richards (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

There were changes on the way to Sacramento, as Jimmy Fucito (0-for-12, 1 BB, 6 K) was dumped back to St. Petersburg. Walt Canning was activated from the DL. I didn’t talk to any of the suckers upon meeting them in Sacramento and just gave them frosty stares.

Raccoons (58-56) @ Scorpions (62-54) – August 14-16, 2015

The Scorpions still had a good chance to win the West, only 3.5 games off the leader. They had also won four straight, which contrasted markedly with what the Raccoons had done midweek. They were second in runs scored in the FL, which boded badly for our partially incompetent pitching, and they were also a good fourth in runs allowed in their league, which boded extremely terribly for our completely retarded hitting. We had last played them in 2013, resulting in a sweep for the Raccoons. We had in fact swept them five out of the last six meetings, losing only one series for a 16-2 total record since 2006, making up for bad results in earlier decades and giving us a total .556 average against them.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (12-4, 2.15 ERA) vs. Noah Bricker (10-5, 3.44 ERA)
Jeff Magnotta (0-1, 9.64 ERA) vs. Sam Kramer (2-1, 2.92 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-8, 4.06 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (4-5, 5.10 ERA)

Three right-handers; Kramer, 25, and Riley, 26, are still considered rookies after cups of coffee before 2015. Bricker was high on our draft list in 2008 but went second overall to the Scorpions. I remember well for his bloody nickname, “Bloody”. He is 41-33 with a 3.87 ERA and 1 SV in his career, debuting as a swingman in 2012 before moving into the rotation for good in ’13.

Ignoring the struggles in his last start for the sake of my last bit of sanity, I was glad to have the right guy up to start this series and stop the bleeding.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Sambrano – C Alexander – 2B Hudman – P Toner
SAC: RF P. Sanchez – C Gibson – 3B LaCombe – CF Meade – LF Tovar – 1B T. Ramos – 2B I. Reed – SS Sauceda – P Bricker

The Coons went in effective fashion in the top 1st like they did in every game this week, but at least they took a friggin’ lead for the first time since Tuesday in the second inning when Ron Richards ran into a solo homer. The top of the third saw Hudman lead off with a single, and Rodney Gibson trying to get him at second base on Toner’s bunt, but his throw was late and high and everybody was safe. Cookie then snuck a ball through between Isiah Reed and Gabriel Sauceda for a single to load the bases with nobody out. Two runs would score on an RBI single by Matt Nunley and a sac fly by Reya. Jonny didn’t give the Scorpions much to be excited about in the early innings, then led off the fifth with a single to right. Toner went on to swipe second base, his first career steal, Cookie singled to move him to third and then also stole second base, but only one run scored on a sac fly for a team that couldn’t get a ****ing hit with guys in scoring position.

The Scorpions cut into the 4-0 lead in the bottom 5th when Tony Ramos hit a 1-out double and scored on Sauceda’s bloop single to shallow left center, and suddenly the hammer came down in the sixth. Toner hit Rodney Gibson, Ray Meade doubled off the wall in left to score him, and Jorge Tovar also reached with a single. With two more lefties coming up and Toner on 93 pitches after laboring hard for the last five outs, Sugano came into the game and struck out Ramos, maintaining a 4-2 advantage. The Scorpions kept creeping closer in the eighth. Pablo Sanchez tripled off Entwistle and scored on Gibson’s sac fly, and when Thrasher replaced Entwistle, he hit Jason LaCombe with a 2-2 pitch. Meade however grounded right to McKnight for an inning-ending double play, still leaving the Coons hanging on to a 4-3 lead. With three lefties up for the bottom 9th, Thasher remained in the game and ended it, but never struck out anybody. 4-3 Coons. Carmona 2-4; Nunley 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (4);

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – LF Ochoa – C Alexander – P Magnotta
SAC: RF P. Sanchez – C Gibson – 3B LaCombe – CF Meade – 2B Luna – LF Tovar – 1B T. Ramos – SS Sauceda – P Kramer

The Coons sent a whopping five to the plate in the first inning and took a 1-0 lead as Cookie tripled and scored on McKnight’s sac fly. Reya walked, but nothing came out of that anymore. Magnotta handled his first big league lead quite poorly, but also got no help from the insidious defense. Sanchez singled, Gibson reached on McKnight’s error, and LaCombe also singled. Meade’s fly to center was deep enough to score Sanchez and tie the game. The run was unearned, and Magnotta exited the inning on two groundouts, but the sparkle was wearing off real quick on this kid. Sauceda finally became his first strikeout victim after six innings without one in the bottom 2nd. The Scorpions would make errors in the second and third innings which the Raccoons neglected to exploit, stranding a total of four runners between the two frames, and the Scorpions took a 2-1 lead in the bottom 3rd by making consistent good contact.

Top 4th, D-Alex led off with a single. Before Magnotta could bunt, Kramer threw a wild pitch, but then struck out Magnotta. Cookie grounded out, moving D-Alex to third, from where he scored on Nunley’s double, tying the game at two. Sanchez had tremendous range in rightfield, but couldn’t get to McKnight’s drive to right center, which became the second of consecutive RBI doubles, putting the Coons ahead 3-2. Reya also hit a ball hard to deep center, but Ray Meade caught that one. Bottom 5th, Magnotta walked Gibson with one out, which in itself was not terrible yet. Things did get terrible, however, when Nunley made his 13th error of the season to put Meade on with two outs, and then Magnotta decided it was a good time to throw a wild pitch. Now at 2-1 against Ricky Luna, he lost him to a walk to load the bases, and then allowed a real hard drive to right to Jorge Tovar. Reya made it to the warning track just in time to make the catch and defuse a bases-loaded mess.

Truth be told, neither pitcher was any good, but the Coons looked ready to finally overthrow Kramer on the mound in the sixth. D-Alex hit a leadoff jack, his eighth of the year, to run the score to 4-2, and then Cookie singled with one out and stole second base. The Scorpions set up a double play by walking Nunley intentionally, but we had none of that. The runners went again, Gibson (with a really weak arm) couldn’t even get Nunley at second base, and now runners were in scoring position just in time for McKnight to single and plate Cookie, 5-2. Nunley would score on Meade’s errant throw on what would be a sac fly for Reya, 6-2. Magnotta was on 76 pitches after five; c’mon Jeffie! Give us one more good inning and we’ll chalk it off as a success! He walked Ramos to start the sixth, but then exited after consecutive sharp grounders to Nunley for a double play and then a common 5-3 putout to end the inning, and Nunley would continue to work hard on erasing his earlier error, hitting a 2-out, 2-run double off Dave Walk in the top 7th, getting the Coons to 8-2, far enough ahead to try and pitch Bill Conway for an inning. That worked well enough, and yet we still arrived at Angel Casas in the eighth inning when Bruno and Mathis walked four total, and Angel also allowed a bases-clearing double to Pablo Sanchez before striking out Gibson to end another mess, and couldn’t help himself but allow a real bomb to Ray Meade in the ninth. It was just about enough to hang on to the win. 8-7 Blighters. Carmona 2-5, BB, 3B; Nunley 3-5, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; McKnight 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Alexander 3-5, HR, RBI; Richards (PH) 1-1; Bergquist 1-1; Magnotta 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, W (1-1);

There were six errors in total in the game, but only Magnotta was charged with an unearned run. Somehow the Scorpions made four errors and never paid for any of them.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Watanabe
SAC: RF P. Sanchez – C Gibson – 3B LaCombe – CF Meade – 2B Luna – LF Tovar – 1B T. Ramos – SS Sauceda – P Riley

While the Coons made their sixth 3-man approach in the first inning in this rotten week, the Scorpions collected three scratch hits in a row off Watanabe. Gibson reached with an infield single that Sambrano only knocked down but couldn’t play. LaCombe singled right through Murphy, and Meade blooped a floater just in front of Richards. One run scored in the inning, and the Scorpions added two in the second on a Sanchez homer. The Raccoons had their first two on in the third, but flunked out, before producing loaded bases with nobody out in the fourth, with Sambrano up next in line. His floater to left was intercepted by Tovar, and D-Alex hit into a double play. By contrast, nothing went right for Watanabe, who allowed another three singles and a run in the bottom 4th, with LaCombe singling to left (and right in front of Richards…) to run the score to 4-0. General lack of skill at the plate was coupled with ill-timed base-running in the sixth when Reya doubled, but was thrown out at third base trying to get a triple.

Watanabe was knocked out by a leadoff single in the bottom 6th … by Riley. Thrasher was no help, walking two while getting only one out, and Mathis came in to face Meade, and got two outs on one pitch when Meade grounded hard, but right to McKnight. The Coons had Sandy Sambrano cut down at home on Ochoa’s pinch-hit single in the seventh. The rotten game saw Josh Riley go to the ninth inning with an 8-hit shutout (these things apparently did exist), which started with Murphy, who hit a single to left. Richards walked, which knocked out Riley, and Jose Ramos came on, a right-hander with more walks than strikeouts (33/31 over 51.1 IP) and he started off by walking Sandy on four straight, bringing up the tying run. Maybe the Coons could - … D-Alex grounded out to Ricky Luna, who only had the out at first base to get, and a run scored. Margolis hit for Conway and walked as well, and now we had lefties coming up! However, with Cookie’s groundout to Luna, which scored another run, we ran out of outs. Nunley flew to center, Meade had it, and it was over. 4-2 Scorpions. Murphy 3-4; Richards 2-3, BB; Ochoa (PH) 1-1;

In other news

August 11 – The Knights trail the Thunder 7-4 in the eighth inning, but put up an 8-run inning to take a 12-7 win. 21-year old ATL OF Jim Walrath hits his first career home run in the comeback.
August 13 – The Scorpions and Gold Sox go to extra innings in a scoreless game, but the Scorpions score five runs in the 10th to take a 5-0 win.
August 14 – LAP SP Ernest Green (14-8, 2.79 ERA) befuddles the Loggers, striking out 10 in a 1-hit shutout that the Pacifics win, 4-0. The Loggers’ lone hit is Justin Dally’s seventh-inning single.
August 16 – Two rare hitting performances are put up in the Titans-Stars game in Dallas, a real hitting bonanza that the Stars win 13-12. BOS 1B Steve Butler (.300, 17 HR, 73 RBI) hits for the cycle and drives in four while batting 5-for-6, the 59th cycle in ABL history, the fifth this season (the first that has ever happened), and the first time that consecutive cycles were hit against the same team since ATL Jason Clark and POR Victor Flores hit cycles against the Thunder in 2006 and 2007. Also, DAL OF/1B Hugo Mendoza (.321, 18 HR, 74 RBI) misses the cycle by the triple, but hits a homer, two doubles, and three singles, plating three in the 52nd 6-hit performance in league history. For the Titans, it is the fourth cycle, while the Stars now have four 6-hit outings.

Complaints and stuff

Well, this week sucked. We can reach 3,200 with a .500 week now. Or maybe I can reach madness with a 1-5 week. We’ll face the Capitals and Indians, so place your bets.

I checked in on Jimmy Oatmeal this week. All of a sudden he’s almost batting .300 with 11 homers and 47 RBI. He batted barely over .200 last season. He also won Player of the Week honors, batting .400 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. While some get good at 27, and he is 27, I will be watching this one skeptically.

Brandon Johnson, who had been here briefly earlier before moving on the DL, also came back healthy this week but was assigned right to the Alley Cats.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (60-57) vs. Capitals (53-64) – August 18-20, 2015

In the bottom four in both runs scored and runs allowed, the Capitals really weren’t a good team. While they did excel in hitting home runs, they rarely had runners on base to take an advantage out of that, and they were bottom in stolen bases. The Raccoons hadn’t won a series against Washington since 2006, dropping the three contests played since then, each time losing two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (6-6, 2.58 ERA) vs. Alex Hurtado (6-9, 5.15 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-6, 3.11 ERA) vs. Brendan Teasdale (7-13, 4.13 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-4, 2.19 ERA) vs. Wade Davis (8-10, 4.90 ERA)

Brenda! That will be fun! We will miss the other former Raccoon, their only left-hander not on the DL, Colin Baldwin (8-11, 4.45 ERA). They also had Cássio Boda (8-5, 3.35 ERA), but had inexplicably designated him for assignment. Team in trouble? Probably.

These were not the only ex-Coons on the roster. They also had Yoshi Nomura (.316, 5 HR, 54 RBI) and John Alexander (.271, 12 HR, 67 RBI).

Well, at least the above was their disposition on Tuesday morning. When game time came, Hurtado was scratched, and Brenda moved up to the opener on short rest.

Game 1
WAS: RF Sarabia – 2B Nomura – C J. Flores – LF Munn – 1B Hayashi – CF J. Alexander – 3B Rivas – SS Orellana – P Teasdale
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – 2B Sambrano – C D: Alexander – P Santos

John Alexander wore out his welcome quick enough with a solo homer in the second inning which negated the run the Raccoons had scratched out in the bottom 1st when singles by Cookie and Nunley had merely been followed by a McKnight sac fly. That was it for offense, which was a real shame given it BRENDA pitching for the Capitals. Santos struck out nine through five innings and was still in fairly decent shape then, but when Victor Sarabia and Yoshi hit singles to start the sixth inning this led to a long and protracted battle that saw the runners stranded, but also left Santos gassed with almost 100 pitches. Could he get a run and chance at a rare win? Yup, although nobody was more puzzled than me. Nunley and McKnight opened the bottom 6th with a pair of doubles to take a swift lead, and Teasdale entered meltdown mode with consecutive walks to Reya and Murphy. Ron Richards hit an entirely predictable pathetic grounder back to the mound, but Teasdale and Jose Flores got into each other’s underwear trying to field it and somehow all hands were safe on an RBI single that hardly made it 30 feet. Sandy’s hard 2-run single to right was the death knell for Teasdale, who was replaced after an intentional walk to D-Alex, which reloaded the bases with nobody out in the 5-1 game. Walt Canning hit for Santos and hit another RBI infield single off Cole Pierson, but that was it, as the 1-2-3 batters made the 1-2-3 outs. Canning would remain in the game, replacing Nunley at third. Danny Ochoa would pinch-hit in the #2 spot in the bottom 8th and drive in another run against right-hander Calvin Morris, plating Cookie Carmona, who had just taken his 29th bag of the year, with a single to left. 7-1 Coons. Carmona 2-5; Nunley 2-4, 2B; Ochoa (PH) 1-1, RBI; Murphy 2-3, BB; Sambrano 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Canning (PH) 1-2, RBI; Santos 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (7-6) and 1-2;

When J-Alex homered in the second, the home crowd applauded politely. When he struck out to end the game with Toki Hayashi, the long-time Titan, on second base against Entwistle, the crowd was delighted and cheered Entwistle with high energy.

There was also a personnel decision to make after this game, as Daniel Dickerson had to be activated from the DL. Some problems won’t go away on their own. Since Jeff Magnotta had been poor as heck in his debut, he was sent back to AAA for the rest of the month, and we would give Conway a few more starts (albeit reluctantly!), with Dickerson slotting back into long relief. I know I could just release Dud Dickerson, but he was a pretty fine pitcher in his hey-day and I just can’t get me to do it, which is odd, since I am not really renowned for my warm heart.

Hurtado came back for game 2 of the set. We learned that he had apparently jammed his hand in the fridge on Tuesday morning, which sounded a lot like an injury a Raccoon would suffer.

Game 2
WAS: CF Sarabia – 1B J. Gutierrez – C J. Flores – RF Hayashi – 2B Nomura – LF Munn – 3B Rivas – SS Orellana – P Hurtado
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – 2B Sambrano – C D: Alexander – P N. Brown

Brownie, anything better than last time out will be swell – my way of motivating people. He would retire the first eight before issuing a puzzling 4-pitch walk to Hurtado, but Sarabia grounded out after that. Meanwhile, in a bit of a flashback to Tuesday, the Raccoons had scored a run in the first on singles by Cookie and Nunley, McKnight getting Cookie in with a productive out, and then it was just over … again. I can’t wait for all the suckers to go away…

Brownie retired the first two in the fourth inning before walking Toki Hayashi. A 1-2 pitch bored in on Yoshi, with the crowd not knowing how to react, and then Danny Munn singled. Bases loaded, ship sinking. The pitching coach checked on Brownie, which he didn’t like at all, but Alex Rivas’ single to center tied the game anyway before Salvador Orellana flew out to Cookie. 1-1 became 2-2 in short order as both pitchers conceded runs with or after a wild pitch, in Brownie’s case a wild one to Munn after Yoshi had hit a 2-out triple in the top 6th – again leaving the crowd without a clear message to send. Nick Brown was left without a decision after being hit for in the bottom 7th to no great effect. Ochoa struck out with Sandy on first, and Cookie couldn’t get a hit, either. Mathis and Thrasher kept the game tied into the bottom 9th, where the Critters faced Juan Jimenez, a left-hander. Bergquist batted for the appalling Richards in the appalling middle of the order, and drew a leadoff walk. Sandy bunted him to second, but Margolis and Hudman failed at pinch-hitting, left Bergquist at third, and we went to extras. Angel Casas allowed three hits to start the top 10th, and while the Capitals had a run thrown out at home by Reya, Juan Gutierrez drove in J-Alex with a single. For the Coons in the bottom of the inning, 1-2-3 went 1-2-3 against Jimenez. 3-2 Capitals. Nunley 2-5; Murphy 2-3, BB; Sambrano 2-3, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K;

Too bad. I had hoped to make up some of that 2-11 extra-inning record by the end of the season.

Still another 43 games? Does that have to be? – Maud says yes.

Game 3
WAS: RF Sarabia – 2B Nomura – C J. Flores – LF Munn – 1B Hayashi – CF J. Alexander – 3B Rivas – SS Orellana – P W. Davis
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – SS McKnight – LF Ochoa – C Margolis – P Toner

The Capitals had their leadoff man on in the first two innings, but failed to score him both times, before Wade Davis hit a 1-out single in the top of the third. Sarabia also singled, and while Yoshi struck out, Jose Flores reached on a clumsy error by Nunley to fill the bags for Danny Munn, batting .249 with 19 homers. Jonny walked him on four straight before sneezing out Hayashi, but what an aggravating run that was again… A Murphy error created a long fourth inning in which the Capitals stranded a pair, but the extra effort ran Jonny over 80 pitches in just four innings.

The Coons had their first scoring opportunity in the bottom 4th. Nunley hit a leadoff single, followed by Richards doubling through Hayashi, which put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position for Murphy, who had **** to make up. He grounded to short AS HE ALWAYS DID with Orellana picking the sure out at first and conceding the tying run. McKnight then came through with an RBI double, giving Jonny the lead, 2-1. The Capitals would walk Margolis intentionally with two outs and McKnight on third base, despite Toner having the vastly better slash line by now, but here he popped out to second. But not only could Jonny not hold on to the lead, he also would not finish the fifth inning. After a walk to Yoshi he threw a wild pitch, and conceded the run on Hayashi’s sharp single to center. J-Alex singled and Rivas walked with two outs, and with the bags full and over 110 pitches he was done. Sugano came in to face the switch-hitter Orellana, who was weaker from the right side, and got a relieving grounder to short to end this ****ed up inning. The Coons left runners in scoring position in the fifth (Murphy leaving two with an F7) and sixth (Reya stranding McKnight at second), and after that had to put in Dickerson in vain hope for two innings without botching the 2-2 tie. This was never going to work outside of the dream world. The Capitals burned him for three runs in the seventh while getting their lead runner put out on a poor bunt by John Alexander, and got two more off Entwistle in the last few innings. With two on, the game ended when D-Alex flew out to J-Alex, a fitting end to the misery and madness. 7-2 Capitals. Nunley 2-4; Richards 3-4, 2B; McKnight 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Ochoa 2-4;

Yoshi went 3-for-10 in the set, but also drew three walks. John Alexander was 4-for-9 with a walk. And Danny Margolis has not had a multi-hit game since July 23, shedding 37 points of batting average in the process. He’s in a 3-for-39 rut.

Raccoons (61-59) @ Indians (64-57) – August 21-23, 2015

Facing the Indians hadn’t been fun for a while, and this year the Raccoons were a meager 4-7 against them. They were in the bottom three in offense, but pitched really well, allowing the third-least runs in the CL. However, their run differential of -26 seemed not quite fitting for a team still making a bet for the playoffs, although they were ten games out by now. Heck, the miserable Raccoons had a better run differential than the Indians at -18.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (5-11, 5.51 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (9-7, 3.51 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-9, 4.17 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (8-9, 3.27 ERA)
Hector Santos (7-6, 2.54 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (6-11, 5.85 ERA)

The only left-hander for us this week will be Lamb on Sunday. Does it only seem like it or do we ALWAYS face Tom Weise?

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – P Conway
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – RF Gilmor – 1B S. Guerra – C Padilla – LF J. Baker – 3B D. Jones – 2B Mathews – P Weise

Sandy reached on an uncaught third strike before being caught stealing in the first inning, while Conway retired the first two before Nick Gilmor tripled, which immediately snowballed into the Indians batting around and scoring three runs before Weise left the bases loaded when he lined out hard to Nunley. The Coons would make up two in the second on straight base hits by McKnight, Reya, and Ochoa, who doubled. But Conway would never have a clean inning, much less a scoreless one. The Indians tagged him for single runs in the second, third, and fourth, and he didn’t finish the latter one, having to be dug out by Mathis with two outs and two on. That inning had also started to slip with two outs and nobody on. Conway sucked capitally, and lost the game more or less on his own.

Dickerson was in after that, but faced only two batters before leaving with some ailment of some sort. The Raccoons were left to stick together Bruno and Thrasher for outings of more than three outs, with the latter being charged with a run on a bloop single by Joey Mathews, who stole second base, and another bloop single by Raul Matias that scored Mathews. The Raccoons, despite running a lineup without a right-handed batter, could not get to Weise at all, and were held to a solo homer by Dylan Alexander in the seventh inning before heading to the ninth down 7-3. They had two down before Joel Davis hit D-Alex with a pitch. Stan Murphy hit for Thrasher and singled to left, knocking out Davis and bringing on Jarrod Morrison, their closer. Cookie came through with a 2-run double into the rightfield corner, but Sandy Sambrano grounded out to end the game. 7-5 Indians. Carmona 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4; Murphy (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Pfffff. Oddly, while still a game over .500, we have dropped into fifth place on our own now. Behind the Loggers, yay.

The Dickerson problem solved itself overnight. The Druid diagnosed him with shoulder inflammation and he would not pitch again for the Raccoons.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Watanabe
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – RF Gilmor – 1B S. Guerra – C Padilla – LF J. Baker – 3B D. Jones – 2B Mathews – P A. Mendez

The Indians didn’t take long to take the lead again. Watanabe issued a walk to John Wilson to start his night, and Nick Gilmor swiftly doubled him in to score. The Coons had Bergquist on first in the third inning, and Watanabe batting with one out. At 1-2, the go sign was given to Bergquist, Watanabe lined to the left side, but Dan Jones caught a) the ball, and b) Bergquist 60 feet off first. Fittingly, the Indians started the bottom 3rd with two line drives to either side that fell in, and after a walk to Gilmor had the bases loaded with nobody down. Santiago Guerra grounded to third, where Nunley’s only play was at first base, and a run scored. The Indians then left the score at 2-0 as Dave Padilla popped out to McKnight, who also played Josh Baker’s grounder for the third out. The Raccoons would have the bases loaded on their own, with one out in the fourth inning. Cookie led off with a single, stole second and made it to third on Padilla’s errant throw. Nunley and Richards walked to give Luis Reya a chance to do some damage to something else than my will to live, but grounded to Guerra, who zipped to second to get Richards, but the return throw was not quite in time, and at least one run scored before Murphy popped out. The Coons only had their third hit in the sixth inning when Nunley hit a blooper into center for a single and stole second base more or less by accident, but was stranded there by McKnight and Richards. That was it for the Coons, not just for their ineptitude, but for the fact that the skies had been gray for a while, it had started to drizzle in the bottom 5th, and it started to pour in the bottom of the sixth, with the game called an hour later. 2-1 Indians. Watanabe 5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, L (6-10);

Too bad. I had been looking forward do have three on with nobody out in the ninth and Richards, Reya, and Murphy foul out three times in a row.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – SS Hudman – 3B Canning – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – RF Gilmor – 1B S. Guerra – C Padilla – LF J. Baker – 3B D. Jones – 2B Mathews – P Lamb

The Coons had two on in the first, didn’t score, the Coons had two on in the second, didn’t score, and the Arrowheads were really doing a good job at choking them and robbing me of the last bit of energy. Santos kept the Indians hitless through three, sort of, if you were willing to ignore the two batters he drilled with a ball, but nobody scored through three. The Raccoons would have three hits after five innings, two by Margolis, while the Indians had none through four before Santos walked Joey Mathews with one out in the bottom 5th, and John Wilson not only broke up a developing no-hit bid, but also scored the run with an RBI double.

Can anybody here give that ****ing poor little **** a little ****ing bit of run support!!?? A leadoff walk in the sixth was a nice start to get things going, but after Murphy reached, Reya struck out, Hudman got him forced, and Canning was blazed by Lamb, who had about 1.5 walks for every strikeout this season. Instead, Santos got torn up for four line drive hits and two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Unloved Santos went seven innings for a miserable team and picked up another unnecessary loss. 3-0 Indians. Margolis 3-4;

In other news

August 17 – DEN SP Willis Sanguino (18-4, 3.11 ERA) pitches a 2-hit shutout against the Falcons. The Gold Sox win 3-0.
August 17 – The Indians will be without 2B Jong-beom Kym (.267, 8 HR, 27 RBI) for the next month after the 31-year old has sprained his ankle.
August 19 – The Aces take a nasty hit in their playoff bid as they lose INF Brent Burke (.309, 10 HR, 51 RBI) for a month to a sprained ankle.
August 20 – 39-year old RIC 3B/1B Jon Merritt (.268, 0 HR, 5 RBI) logs his 2,000th career hit in a 2-hit performance with a fifth-inning RBI single off Indy’s Dan Lambert. The Rebels win 5-3. Merritt spent most of his career with the Buffaloes and later the Raccoons and is a career .268/.380/.375 batter with 60 HR and 787 RBI.
August 20 – The Pacifics beat the Bayhawks, 1-0, on a solo home run by Jonny Gartner (.302, 5 HR, 43 RBI).
August 21 – SAC SP William Kay (11-8, 3.53 ERA) is out for the year with shoulder inflammation.
August 21 – Frequently ailing DAL 3B/2B Hector Garcia (.291, 6 HR, 40 RBI) will have to sit out another three to four weeks with a strained hamstring.
August 21 – Canadiens and Crusaders have at it for 16 innings. They go into overtime tied at one, and both score three runs in the 13th inning before the Canadiens score two in the top 16th and outlast the Crusaders’ 1-run onslaught in the bottom 16th to win, 6-5.
August 22 – At 39 years old, LAP 1B/3B Dennis Berman (.299, 15 HR, 73 RBI) reaches a major milestone with his 3,000th career hit in a 13-5 win over the Stars, in which the Pacifics score all their 13 runs in the fifth inning, and Berman also gets his hit there, an RBI single off John Watson. Berman is a career .284/.366/.446 batter with 315 HR and 1,501 RBI. He is a 4-time Platinum Stick winner, but never won a World Series, playing for the Cyclones most of his career before they won their most recent title, and for the Stars after their most recent title.

Complaints and stuff

What is it with ankles these days!? Why don’t just amputate all players’ feet and replace them with those spring blades they show off in the Paralympics? Nope, sorry, we can’t afford that.

Also replace arms. I can’t imagine a calculator controlling a third-rate batting cage pitching machine could be much worse than some of our human pitchers. Not that the offense is any good. We are at 3.7 runs per game in August, but over the last 19 games we’re actually down to just 3.2 runs per game. No wonder I keep running out of booze. And pills. Especially pills. People say that pills and booze don’t mix, but that’s not true. The secret is in shaking, not stirring.

Almost ten million bucks well spent: 48 G, 38 GS, 8-16, 223.1 IP, 4.96 ERA … at least it is over now.

Magnotta was back on the roster to take back the spot hurriedly vacated by Dud Dickerson and would take the spot of Conway again. Not that Magnotta was the solution to anything. He had pitched in a game in AAA on Thursday, and had allowed four runs in a no-decision.

I was looking at upcoming free agents, and I find it hard to find a David Brewer type to drool over.

Down in AAA, third lefty George Youngblood tore his flexor tendon and is out for a year.

Also, it’s still August, and three season series against the CL North opposition are already decided. We got rolled by the Elks and the Indians, and took out the Titans. We have good shots against the Loggers (7-4) and Crusaders (8-3!!??). The Titans and Knights will be up next week in a week-long homestand.

[Questdog]

What has Quinn dine since leaving the Raccoons?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

What has Quinn dine since leaving the Raccoons?

I think you mean Quebell, because Bobby Quinn is long gone. Quebell is batting .267/.348/.373 as the Pacifics' first base regular, with 7 HR and 65 RBI. The OPS works out as the worst for him since his first full season in 2006, mainly because he hit less home runs than that only once, in 2007. His career slash is .288/.366/.432;

Compare that to Murphy, who, including this update, is a career .288/.373/.458 batter, with 100 more homers, and is putting up his worst qualifying season ever. His 2015 slash is as of August 30 merely eight points higher than Quebell's. Given that we threw three prospects with at least some upside into the deal, this one has to go down as a net loss even now.

+++

Raccoons (61-62) vs. Titans (45-80) – August 25-27, 2015

At 11-1 in our favor, the season series with the Titans was more than just bagged. These Titans were really, really bad, ranking ninth in runs scored, but dead last in runs allowed, with them conceding close to 4.8 runs per game. Their rotation was more rotten than their bullpen, but neither provided much excitement.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-6, 3.08 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (5-14, 4.53 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-4, 2.18 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (5-8, 5.14 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-10, 4.14 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (7-4, 4.48 ERA)

Southpaws will oppose another in the Tuesday opener, before the Titans will fling two right-handers at us. The order of Lee and Priest could flip just as well; both pitched in a double header on Friday in which the Loggers swept the Titans.

Game 1
BOS: CF J. Silva – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – CF X. Williams – SS Rentz – 3B Stephenson – P Krom
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – RF Richards – SS Hudman – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P N. Brown

Pitching in full counts all the time was not necessarily the key to a long and productive outing, but Brownie had six full counts in the first three innings. While the Titans were held to a single, a walk, and no runs, he had already reached 50 pitches. His pace would hardly improve after that, but he held the Titans off the board through five, and had a lead by then. The first five Coons in the bottom 4th would all reach base after a grand total of one earned base runner in the three innings before that. Sandy hit an infield single before Nunley walked, and he would score on Murphy’s single to left. That one was crisp, but how Jose Gutierrez could miss Richards’ sorry roller to right will probably remain his secret. That single loaded the bases with nobody out in a 1-0 game, a traditional fail spot for the team. Brock Hudman’s sorry blooper to center actually fell in front of Jose Silva for an RBI single, but after that Margolis hit into a run-scoring double play and the Titans escaped after waving Bergquist by and whiffing Brown, conceding “only” three runs.

Brownie remained ineffective, but the Titans didn’t make it onto the board until the sixth when they chained together a single, a walk, and then another single by Rodrigo Lopez to score a run and get the score to 3-1. We were close to replacing him before the seventh, which had the 7-8-9 batters up, but Brown insisted that he still had things under control. He struck out Tommy Rentz before Joe Stephenson grounded out easily to Hudman, and Johnny Krom was retired on a high pop to shallow right. While the Raccoons offense was trapped in Slumberland, Mathis retired Silva with a K and Gutierrez with a grounder before Ron Thrasher got the dangerous (18 HR, 78 RBI) Steve Butler. Angel Casas was tasked with protection of the 3-1 lead in the ninth, like Mathis opened the inning with a K and retired the Titans in order. 3-1 Brownies! Richards 2-3; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-6);

Teams combined for ten hits, with the Raccoons even having the upper hand at 6-4. It’s not that the pitching was any good. There were 13 K combined. It was just poor contact, poor contact, poor contact, for nine innings. Even the Coons’ fourth started with an infield single and a walk, and Richards’ single is at least one out in 99% of all cases.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF J. Silva – 3B Stephenson – P C.K. Lee
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Toner

The Titans blew out a visibly tired Jonny Toner early in the game, with one run in the second inning that scored after a walk to Rodrigo Lopez and a double by Xavier Williams, and then four in the third inning, of which however three were unearned, and the Titans got going on a bloop double by Chae-ku Lee in the first place. Mike Rivera grounded to Sandy quite harmlessly, but Sambrano nevertheless dropped the ball mid-throw, and that was the error that really got the Titans going, but Lopez also hit a 2-out, 2-run homer. Lee became Toner’s 200th strikeout of the season later in the top of the fourth, but down 5-0 there was nothing to celebrate here. The thing that continued to be properly showcased right when everybody had already had more than their filling was absolutely decrepit offensive dumb****ery. The Coons had Richards draw a walk and Reya hit a double in the bottom of the fourth. Most teams might actually be able to clamber back into the game with runners in scoring position and one out, but Murphy whiffed in embarrassing fashion, and Sambrano, who had **** to make up, slammed a ball into the ground right in front of home plate, which was a more than just convenient third out for Tim Robinson before Richards made it further than 25 feet down the line.

Toner came out after plating Rivera with a wild pitch, tossing only 4 2/3 miserable innings. In a bitter twist, Bill Conway would retire ten of the eleven batters he faced, but the Raccoons remained invisible through seven innings, only managing a really tasteful inning-ending strike-em-out-throw-em-out along the way. In the bottom 8th, however, with Lee well past his due date, the 1-2-3 batters in the order all managed singles, which got them on the board and left two on for Ron Richards, who belched a huge homer to right center to suddenly make it a game again. Alas, Sambrano, Alexander, and Canning saw no land against Valentim Innocentes in the ninth and the Raccoons then went down quietly. 6-4 Titans. McKnight 2-4, RBI; Reya 2-4, 2B; Conway 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Looks like I killed Jonny over the year. Whoops.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF J. Silva – 3B Stephenson – P Priest
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 2B Sambrano – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – P Watanabe

Rivera opened the game with a triple but ended up left on when Gutierrez grounded to Watanabe, Butler grounded sharply to Murphy, and Robinson struck out. Xavier Williams however would indeed score after his own triple in the second inning, negating a run the Coons had scored on three straight 2-out singles in the first inning. The Furballs had another wealth of singles in the second inning, slowly poking Priest to death. Ochoa and Alexander opened with singles, Watanabe bunted, and while the first run scored on a wild pitch then, Cookie, Nunley, and McKnight hit three more singles to put up a total of three runs in the inning and taking a 4-1 lead on eight singles. The lead was not to be forever. While Watanabe was fairly good through four innings, the Titans raked him in the fifth. Williams homered, and after that they came up with three more hits as Silva and Stephenson singled, and Zachary Thurman hit a pinch-hit RBI double. In all, they scored three in the inning and tied the score at four.

The Coons took another lead in the bottom 5th. With two outs, Sambrano hit a bloop double up the rightfield line, then scored on Ochoa’s single to center. Watanabe however was hammered out of the top of the sixth, with three hard hits tying the game once more and he was gone after Silva’s 2-out RBI double. Entwistle retired Stephenson on a grounder to McKnight to end the inning and preserve a 5-5 tie. The Critters would take the lead for the fourth time in the bottom 7th. Toshiro Uenohara allowed a leadoff single to McKnight, who was almost doubled off when Richards lined out to right on a hit-and-run, but remained in the game, then scored easily on Luis Reya’s double to center, which saw Silva fall down trying to make a flying grab going back, and scrambling back up cost precious seconds, which allowed McKnight to score from first, 6-5. Sambrano popped up, but Brock Hudman came through with a pinch-hit single to right center that scored Reya, 7-5.

Sugano was supposed to retire Steve Butler at the start of the eighth inning, but allowed a single to left. Mathis conceded the tying runner on a floating single to right by Tim Robinson, who was then doubled off when Rodrigo Lopez lined out to Hudman at the keystone (Sambrano had moved to left with Richards banished for defense). And then Mathis walked Williams, and when Silva grounded to short, Murphy dropped McKnight’s throw. The ****ing sucker. Bases loaded, two outs in a 7-5 game, and left-hander Sean McDermott pinch-hitting for Stephenson. Ron Thrasher entered the fray, threw two pitches and allowed a grand slam that hurt really bad. It was McDermott’s first homer of the season, too. Murphy led off the bottom 8th in the #9 hole and was rigorously booed by the home crowd even before flying out poorly to left. The top three in the order then all hit singles, with McKnight driving home Cookie, which put the go-ahead run on first base, with the tying run on second base. Margolis hit for Thrasher against lefty Bill Dean, but the Titans went right to righty Richardo Rocha, who got him to hit right into a double play. Marcos Bruno was then burned in the top of the ninth, allowing a leadoff triple to Rivera (…), drilling Gutierrez, and surrendering both runs on a 2-run double by Butler. Against Innocentes in the bottom 9th, the Raccoons had the ****ing tying run at the plate with one out after a Sambrano single and a Hudman double. When D-Alex walked onto the open base, the pressure increased, but – oy – there was Murphy. He flew out gingerly to center, with the fan base getting really mad by now. Cookie found a hole on the right when down to two strikes and plated two with a single, put the Coons were still a run short, the tying run was snail-paced Alexander at second, and we couldn’t run for him. Nunley was drilled with a 1-2 pitch, solving the distance problem, and McKnight came up, having four hits already in the game. He hit at the first pitch, a blooper to right center, and that was going to be in! Alexander scored, Cookie around third, the throw by Lopez to the plate and – OUT!! NOOOOO!!!!

Extras, which was not good news ‘round here. The Coons found themselves trailing again instantly after a leadoff jack by Xavier Williams, who now was on 11 bases for three hits. The Coons went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning against lefty Juan Sanchez. 12-11 Titans. Carmona 3-6, 3 RBI; Nunley 2-5; McKnight 5-6, 3 RBI; Reya 2-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Sambrano 2-6, 2B; Ochoa 2-2, BB, RBI; Hudman (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI; Entwistle 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

We out-hit the Titans 21-14, but had only 24 TB to their 32 TB. Plus, the errors. Plus, why…?

Raccoons (62-64) vs. Knights (63-63) – August 28-30, 2015

The season series was even at three, so this was for the gold – at least as far as the Knights were concerned. Four games out in the South, they still had good chances. As good chances as you could have with the worst rotation by ERA and a middling bullpen, which put them in the bottom three in runs allowed. They were fifth in offense, though, but their run differential was an unsightly -19.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (7-7, 2.59 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (7-2, 4.25 ERA)
Jeff Magnotta (1-1, 5.06 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (10-4, 2.56 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-6, 3.01 ERA) vs. Shaun Yoder (10-4, 3.65 ERA)

Ford might be the only left-hander for us in this series. The Knights had used them out of the pen since acquiring him from the Thunder, but he is supposed to start this weekend against his old team.

Game 1
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B O. Torres – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – SS Hibbard – 3B Fraijo – C R. Speed – P Hogan
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Santos

The bottom 1st saw Cookie and Nunley make two quick outs, but then the Raccoons suddenly batted through the order and scored four runs. McKnight hit a triple, scored on Richards’ single, Reya doubled in Richards, Murphy singled home Reya, Sandy walked, and D-Alex hit an RBI double before Santos lined out to center. Santos had struck out the side in the first and retired the Knights in order on five strikeouts the first time through. They only got on base in the fifth inning, and then Josh Downing reached on a terrible throwing error by Matt Nunley. Santos stranded Downing when Devin Hibbard grounded out and he hung a K on Antonio Friajo. In the bottom of the same inning, the Raccoons threw up their second 4-spot of the game, this time scoring all runs on homers. McKnight hit one to start the inning, and after Richards and Murphy had reached on singles, Sandy Sambrano drove a ball that vanished just over the wall and just inside the right foul pole for a 3-run shot. That was the end for Hogan, who was replaced by Dave Hughes for long relief. Hughes broke up Santos’ no-hit bid with a 1-out single in the sixth and in a hurry the Knights were all over him. Oliver Torres singled, and then Gil Rockwell reached 100 RBI with a 2-run double right past Nunley (with the Coons’ team lead sitting at 70 RBI), and Jimmy Raupp upped the ante with a 2-run homer. Suddenly it was 8-4, and Santos got stuck in the seventh inning, leaving with two outs after walking Fraijo. He had struck ten, but was soon booked for a fifth run once the ****ing **** Entwistle got a ball into his paw. He allowed straight 2-hit singles to Vic Flores, Marty Reyes, and Oliver Torres, which got the Knights back to 8-6 with two on and Rockwell (34 HR…) coming up. Mathis took over, allowed another RBI single in an 0-2 count, and it was 8-7 once Raupp grounded out to end the inning.

The crowd (which was getting smaller every day now) was up in arms and was bitching from the seats – well, they had a point. Stanley Murphy’s leadoff jack off Fernando Hernandez jr. did little to please them, especially since the relief was only brief. Mathis put runners on the corners in the top of the eighth, then left Sugano to deal with it. Ken Potter pinch-hit with two outs in the top 8th. Potter was a switch-hitter, but better from the left. Sugano forced him to go to his weak side, but at the same time this was Sugano’s very weak side. Potter hit an 0-1 pitch really hard to third base, but Nunley did manage to contain it and end the inning. Bottom 8th, the Coons opened with a Nunley single to center and a McKnight double to left against right-hander Clyde Henderson. Here came the middle of the order. Richards walked, Reya fouled out. It didn’t look like the Coons would score with Murphy up, who predictably grounded to short … except that Devin Hibbard missed the ball and it rolled into left for an RBI single. D-Alex would drive in two more with a 2-out single. Bill Conway came in and plain failed. He walked two and drilled one, leaving this to Angel Casas with the bases loaded and one out. Downing ran a full count before striking out, while Hibbard hit at the first pitch he saw and rammed it to center. Cookie made a flying solo to catch that one and managed to avoid smashing his skull into the fence by a few inches only. 12-7 Blighters. Nunley 2-5; McKnight 3-5, HR, 3B, RBI; Richards 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Murphy 4-5, HR, 3 RBI; Alexander 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI;

Rest assured that I will trade Entwistle for a half-eaten bag of potato chips this winter. I hate that ****.

Of note shall be that the Coons scored 23 runs over the last few games and still came close to losing twice. It’s a madhouse, frankly.

Game 2
ATL: CF M. Reyes – 1B O. Torres – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – SS Hibbard – 3B Fraijo – C R. Speed – P Ford
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Richards – 2B Hudman – 3B Canning – C Margolis – P Magnotta

Remarkably, after Marty Reyes (.320, 12 HR, 58 RBI) ran a hitting streak to 19 games with a leadoff single, Magnotta managed to strike out Rockwell, which ran his K/BB to a grisly .25 … While that inning was scoreless, the bottom 1st saw Murphy desperately trying to win back some hearts with a 2-run homer to right. While Magnotta made it through five with the lead alive, the Knights upped the threat a bit every inning. They had another man on in the second, they had two on in the third, and they had two hits and a walk to score a run in the fourth. Richards made a pretty good play in the fifth to retire Raupp and strand the tying run at second base, but it was still 2-1 Coons after five. The sling was certainly getting tighter. The top 6th saw the Knights get their first two, Downing and Hibbard, on with singles. Fraijo flew out to deep center, moving Downing to third. Richard Speed was a career backup catcher batting .309 in limited exposure and right-handed, so the pitching coach felt Magnotta’s pulse, and the kid was confident that he could find his way out of there. Nope, he couldn’t. Speed walked, the bags were full, and Thrasher came on to face Ford with one out. The hope was for a K, but Ford actually hit the 1-2 pitch to shallow center. Carmona came on and made the catch, then unloaded for home, where Downing was headed. Margolis and Downing clashed, Margolis held on to the ball, and Downing was called OUT!

Some add-on offense would be nice, but the team sent clear signals that they were done for the day with that, and Thrasher created the next mess right in the top of the seventh with a leadoff walk to Reyes. Torres bunted, after which Bruno walked Rockwell. Raupp hit hard to third, but Canning started the double play to get the Coons outta there. Meanwhile I was aging a decade per inning. Bottom 8th, Bergquist hit for Bruno with one out and singled to left. A luckless Cookie had his second liner of the day caught by Rockwell, after which Sandy Sambrano also lined to left, but Rockwell damn sure wasn’t gonna get that one any time soon. The wall went to the corner, Bergquist was flying around to score, and Sandy slid in with a triple. WHOAH, OFFENSE!! Ford, still alive, struck out McKnight to end the inning, but was due a sour loss unless the Knights could break through Angel Casas this time. Ken Potter and Marty Reyes both found themselves in 3-ball counts before flying out to Reya, who had replaced Richards for defense in right. Torres then grounded out to Murphy. 3-1 Coons. McKnight 2-4, 2 2B; Murphy 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – LF Rockwell – RF Raupp – 1B O. Torres – 2B Downing – C Rosa – 3B Fraijo – P Yoder
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P N. Brown

Watching Nick Brown in this one was somewhere between odd and hard. The general ineffectiveness he had shown on Tuesday had gotten worse and he needed 47 pitches through the order once, which turned out to be two innings, including a leadoff walk in both, then three K in the first, but a Downing double and a Freddy Rosa sac fly in the second. After a clean third inning, he struck Jimmy Raupp bloody hard to start the fourth. Raupp, while shaken, was not easily defeated, stayed in the game, and scored after a wild pitch and a Downing single. The Critters were soul-searching for the first few innings, then loaded the bases on a few soft singles in the bottom 4th. D-Alex and Brown struck out in succession to leave the full complement of runners stranded. Brownie lasted six innings in this odd game, but struck out ten, including the side in the sixth (give or take a 2-out single by Torres), of those Raupp and Downing in full counts, and before that Rockwell for the third time in the game. When Hudman hit for Brownie in the bottom 6th, there were two outs, and Sandy Sambrano was the tying run on third base, having tripled again after Ron Richards had whacked a leadoff jack. Hudman however flew out softly to center, and the Coons remained 2-1 behind.

While Brown’s fate seemed sealed when Bill Conway got the ball for the seventh, it actually wasn’t until the eighth and Conway being removed after a 1-out walk that the game was thrown out of whack for good. Ron Thrasher was no good at all, allowed a single to Torres, a sac fly to Downing, and then a 2-run homer to Freddy ****ing Rosa. The Raccoons managed to escape into the night without much drama after that. 5-1 Knights. Sambrano 2-4, 3B; Brown 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, L (14-7);

Gil Rockwell hit for a golden sombrero in this game, which turned out to be surprisingly little consolation.

In other news

August 24 – CIN C Jayden Jolley (.258, 13 HR, 54 RBI) has broken his thumb and will miss a month, or maybe the rest of the season.
August 24 – OCT SP Bob King (12-9, 2.87 ERA) humbles the Bayhawks, who put up only three hits in a 9-0 Thunder rout. To add injury to insult, it’s definitely season over for SFB LF/RF Ron Alston (.339, 21 HR, 69 RBI), who has fractured a finger in the contest.
August 26 – ATL OF John Kelsey (.320, 9 HR, 58 RBI) is done for the year with a broken elbow.
August 28 – DEN SP Willis Sanguino (20-4, 2.97 ERA) reaches 20 wins in style, firing a 3-hit shutout in a 1-0 win over the Buffaloes.
August 29 – NYC 1B B.J. Manfull (.286, 17 HR, 80 RBI) collects five hits in the Crusaders’ 17-3 thrashing of the Falcons. He misses the cycle by the triple and drives in five with a homer, a double, and three singles.
August 30 – The Aces’ 38-year old LF/RF Jesus Flores (.273, 4 HR, 21 RBI) gets two base knocks in the Aces’ 5-2 win over the Titans, reaching 2,000 career hits. A fourth inning single off Johnny Krom gets the job done. Flores is a career .273 batter with 155 HR and 968 RBI who won World Series rings with the Falcons in 2005 and the Crusaders in 2013.
August 30 – The Loggers could be without RF/LF Justin Dally (.322, 26 HR, 81 RBI) for the rest of the season. The 27-year old left-hander has sprained an ankle.

Complaints and stuff

Those sprained ankles – the bane of society. I outlined my concept to treat the malaise already last week. The maestro won’t repeat himself.

I consider skipping Jonny Toner once in early September, because he’s been really crap the last few weeks. It won’t work on Monday, however, which will be his turn, and rosters won’t expand until Tuesday. I will also send DOWN Magnotta on September 1 to keep him in AAA until that season finishes, which should cut down on his service time and innings enough to allow him to get a full rookie campaign in in 2016. Hey, it worked for Nunley in ’14. The spare starts might go to Conway and some scum. Maybe Enrique Guzman will get a start, a 25-year old Dominican non-prospect right-hander that was once dragged in by Whitebread. I am not deterred by his 5.13 ERA in St. Pete. Why would I be? The alternative could be Chris Brown, and I don’t think everybody needs to go back there.

Bednarski should come off the DL in the first days of September, giving us that useless right-handed outfield back we’re so dearly missing. Other than that I won’t go too crazy, because we just don’t have any fancy prospects. Brandon Johnson will be back (non-prospect at 26), but I could fill an entire infield with AAA players batting under .200 in St. Pete. By the way, none of our minor league teams is even close to .500, and while we have some decent pitching, we just have NO offense anywhere. It’s a persistent curse.

And regular season franchise win #3,200 goes to … the rookie! Magnotta’s five-and-a-third on Saturday were good enough for the 3,200th for the Coons outside of October.

I said a bit ago that we needed this and so many wins to get to 3,200 for the regular season … which was wrong, since I managed to delete the Knights’ record from my all time table and had the Bayhawks in twice, so we were a game off the entire time. We would have need 6-1 two weeks ago, or 4-2 last week, or maybe stink a bit less overall… and I know that I suck, no need to point it out.

Also I can’t find the list right now that I made a couple o’ hundred ago of all the guys who picked up 100’s. I don’t know, I’m getting old.

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I think you mean Quebell, because Bobby Quinn is long gone. Quebell is batting .267/.348/.373 as the Pacifics' first base regular, with 7 HR and 65 RBI. The OPS works out as the worst for him since his first full season in 2006, mainly because he hit less home runs than that only once, in 2007. His career slash is .288/.366/.432;

Compare that to Murphy, who, including this update, is a career .288/.373/.458 batter, with 100 more homers, and is putting up his worst qualifying season ever. His 2015 slash is as of August 30 merely eight points higher than Quebell's. Given that we threw three prospects with at least some upside into the deal, this one has to go down as a net loss even now.

Adrian! I knew he had one of my kids' names and I forgot the right one.... Yeah, I did not want to see him go, but I don't think the trade affected the current season much one way or the other..... The prospects, of course, may be regretted later or not....

[Westheim]

MILESTONE FRANCHISE WINS

Exact dates before 1993 are mostly unavailable because Chad spilled his cocoa over the notes, rendering them illegible, and I can’t reconstruct happenings otherwise.

#100 – (June 1978) – No clue at all. Kevin Hatfield saved a 2-1 win against the Loggers.
#200 – (May 2, 1980) – One of relievers Bill Craig (unlikely), Tony Lopez, Paul Cooper. A 6-5 walkoff falls into the Raccoons’ paws when Ralph Nixon is hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom 11th in a game against the Crusaders.
#300 – (August 1981) – Carlos Morán is torn up by the Loggers who lead 6-0 in the fourth inning, but the Loggers suffer a 6-run implosion, capped by a Daniel Hall grand slam in the bottom 7th before Mark Dawson walks off the Raccoons with a ninth inning RBI double, handing the win to Wally Gaston.
#400 – (April 1983) – In his debut for the Raccoons, free agent acquisition Shayne Nealon does not allow a run over six innings while the Raccoons won 6-0, with two RBI’s apiece by Matt Workman and Mark Dawson, and Jason Short walks three times.
#500 – (April 1984) – Jerry Ackerman went seven innings in a 2-2 tie in Vancouver when Cameron Green provided the margin of victory in the 3-2 win with a solo home run in the top of the eighth; Ackerman won only two games the entire season, and only 33 in his career;
#600 – (May 1985) – With Logan Evans departed after six innings, Victor Castillo and Eddie Gonzalez slap back-to-back RBI doubles off the Indians’ Alex Miranda in the eighth inning, with long-time reliever Wally Gaston earning the win for the Raccoons.
#700 – (June 1986) – Miranda and the Indians again: Odwin Garza’s major league career had few highlights, but his RBI triple was the first blow against Alex Miranda in a 5-run second inning for the Raccoons. Vicente Ruiz gives up all the Indians’ runs in an 8-3 Raccoons win.
#800 – (July/August 1987) – Kisho Saito cruises for five innings before getting roughed up, but by then the Raccoons had already scored eight runs including big home runs by Daniel Hall and Tetsu Osanai in a 10-4 win over the Aces.
#900 – (August 1988) – The Raccoons are out-hit 11-7, commit three errors, but the Canadiens leave 16 runners stranded in a 5-2 Raccoons win. Jerry Ackerman is chased trailing 2-1 in the top 6th, but a 2-run homer by Tetsu Osanai flips the score in the bottom of the same inning and gives the win to Emerson MacDonald.
#1,000 – (September 1989) – Right-hander Jason Turner has trouble all day, but somehow keeps the Loggers from scoring in a 4-0 victory in Portland, with Tetsu Osanai and Bobby Quinn driving in runs;
#1,100 – (April 1991) – David Brewer ruins Jason Turner’s day with two hits and 3 RBI that keep the game tied into the ninth inning in Vancouver before Neil Reece smashes a grand slam off pitcher Alejandro Lopez that hands the 7-3 win to reliever Roberto Carrillo.
#1,200 – (April 1992) – Raimundo Beato holds down the Falcons for five innings with a 5-0 lead before getting torn to shreds in the sixth inning. The Raccoons still hold on to win 6-4.
#1,300 – (May 1, 1993) – Boston’s Santiago Perez gives up four runs in the middle innings while Miguel Lopez goes seven shutout innings before being routed out of the eighth, but the pen holds the Titans to two runs in a 4-2 win.
#1,400 – (May 18, 1994) – After two blowout losses in the first two games in the series, the Raccoons hold the Titans tied long enough to force an extra inning escapade that is favorably resolved when Grant West’s two scoreless innings coincide with an errant pickoff throw giving Alejandro Lopez an extra base in the bottom 12th. Matt Duncan scores Lopez with a single, and the Raccoons walk off with a 6-5 victory.
#1,500 – (June 9, 1995) – All is well for Scott Wade in a matchup with the Scorpions’ young phenom Steve Rogers in this series opener, at least through eight innings. His shutout blows up in a hurry in the ninth inning, and besides Wade, Grant West, Daniel Miller, and Tony Vela are all tagged with runs as the Scorpions score a half dozen in the inning only to fall short, 7-6 Raccoons.
#1,600 – (June 23, 1996) – Somehow the Raccoons managed to work a 4-game losing streak into their 108-win campaign in 1996, and it ended with a 12-3 crushing of the Thunder (never mind the 14-2 crushing to the Raccoons in the series opener). Jose Rivera barely manages to go five innings and is hit for in the sixth, with the go-ahead run scoring just in time on a Vern Kinnear sac fly to net him the W.
#1,700 – (July 24, 1997) – Also known as Miguel Lopez’ near-no-hitter, the left-hander whiffs eight in a complete game 1-hitter that is only soiled by the Crusaders’ Armando Diéguez’ home run with one out in the eighth inning. The Raccoons win 5-1.
#1,800 – (September 18, 1998) – With the Raccoons and Knights, two desperate teams were playing out the stretch for a very long time: no scoring in the 11th inning. When Neil Reece draws a pinch-hit bases-loaded walk off the Knights’ Yosuke Memoto, 1-0, the win falls into the lap of Gabriel De La Rosa, who had pitched two innings, whiffing four.
#1,900 – (May 30, 2000) – While Randy Farley plates the winning run himself on a groundout that brings home Daniel Richardson, most of the damage in a 4-2 win over the Aces, also ending a 5-game losing streak, is done with home runs by Conceicao Guerin and Clyde Brady.
#2,000 – (August 26, 2001) – Ralph Ford pitched seven innings of 3-run ball on the final day of a dreadful homestand, as the Coons squeezed out a 4-3 win over the Aces, the winning run scoring in dramatic fashion on a Conceicao Guerin liner to center that Dick Bell appeared to catch before it bounced in, but the umpires called it a trapped ball regardless, allowing Brent McLaughlin to score the winning run;
#2,100 – (May 3, 2003) – Although Felipe Garcia gives up all four runs the Canadiens plate in this game, and actually trails 4-1 after six innings, but two Jerry Dobson errors and an Al Martin home run in the bottom 6th pull out the game as the Raccoons win this one 6-4.
#2,200 – (June 6, 2004) – A 7-4 win in a Sunday rubber game against the Crusaders only briefly interrupts the Raccoons’ general mid-season collapse. The Raccoons chase NY’s Kelly Fairchild early while Ralph Ford holds off his own demise long enough to net the win.
#2,300 – (September 3, 2005) – Brad Sheehan’s RBI double is the lone tally in the early September game against the Indians, which gives the win to Ralph Ford, who pitches seven scoreless innings.
#2,400 – (April 22, 2007) – Two roughed up starters and a lot of mid-game madness produce a clogged scoreboard in a Sunday game with the Knights. Raúl Fuentes is chased early, but the Raccoons rally from a 6-1 deficit and score ten unanswered runs to get away with an 11-6 win that is credited to Lawrence Rockburn, who pitches two innings in relief.
#2,500 – (May 2, 2008) – Ten strikeouts and one run allowed in seven innings isn’t enough for Kelvin Yates to win the big milestone, since he only got one small ball run in support. Lawrence Rockburn picks up the 2-1 win over the Loggers in relief when Nelson Chavez plates Matt Pruitt with a PH single.
#2,600 – (May 13, 2009) – Javier Cruz is struggling badly in an interleague game against the Stars, walking five in 5.1 innings. However, some early extra base magic with a Jose Correa triple and home runs by Adrian Quebell and Luke Black scratch out enough runs, combined with good defense and poor RISP hitting by the Stars, for the Raccoons to win 4-2.
#2,700 – (May 13, 2010) – Exactly one year after Cruz locked down #2,600, it was on Nick Brown to notch the next 100 on the road. Not only did he strike out seven and allowed only four hits and one unearned run against the Stars, no, he also had two base hits and an RBI for full participatory credits in the Coons’ 5-2 win over Dallas. This would also be the last of eight consecutive starts he won from Opening Day on that year.
#2,800 – (May 24, 2011) – The final line didn’t exactly tell much about how the Bayhawks whacked Jong-hoo Umberger from left to right in this game, being consistently robbed of their hard-hit balls by the Raccoons defense. Umberger made it into the eighth inning and allowed a lone run in the 3-1 Raccoons win.
#2,900 – (June 15, 2012) – Struggling offensively, the Raccoons required a ninth-inning home run by Jason Seeley off Indy’s Helio Maggessi to put this one into the W column on Draft Day. The 2-1 win went to Pat Slayton, pitching in relief.
#3,000 – (July 7, 2013) – On the last day before the All Star break, Hector Santos overcomes Melvin Dunn’s second-inning homer to eventually grab the W on seven innings of 3-hit ball against the Titans, with the Raccoons producing just enough to squeeze out another 2-1 win.
#3,100 – (August 10, 2014) – Again, Nick Brown does it all: not only does he hold the Indians to four hits and a single run over eight innings, no, he also strikes out nine and hits a bases-clearing double to procure his own 4-1 victory, and the 3,100th for the Coons.
#3,200 – (August 29, 2015) – It was only the third career start for Jeff Magnotta, and he lasted only five and a third innings, and left the game with the bases loaded in the sixth, but Ron Thrasher somehow managed to get out of the mess and protect a 2-1 lead. The Raccoons would eventually beat the Knights, 3-1.

+++

Ralph Ford holds the record for milestone wins with three. Only four other pitchers have picked up pairs, including two full time relievers: Nick Brown, Wally Gaston, Miguel Lopez, and Law Rockburn.

The list of players with one milestone win is long: Jerry Ackerman, Raimundo Beato, Roberto Carrillo, Javier Cruz, Gabriel De La Rosa, Randy Farley, Felipe Garcia, Emerson MacDonald, Shayne Nealon, Jose Rivera, Vicente Ruíz, Kisho Saito, Hector Santos, Pat Slayton, Jason Turner, Jong-hoo Umberger, Scott Wade, aaaaand Grant West;

+++

Took me a bit to search for this, but well, that’s what the time spent in the office is for, right?

Unless something else I plan to do goes galactically wrong, this is all for today, but there should be full updates on Thursday and Friday.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (64-65) @ Falcons (57-72) – August 31-September 2, 2015

We were about to hit September, with this most moist season finally turning third base and heading for a merciless conclusion. The Falcons had issues, too, ranking bottom of the CL in offense, while they were merely average in runs allowed. The season series was open for grabs at 3-3 right now.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (13-5, 2.28 ERA) vs. Max Shepherd (10-10, 4.09 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-10, 4.28 ERA) vs. Roberto Ramirez (0-4, 5.64 ERA)
Hector Santos (8-7, 2.75 ERA) vs. Dave Beebe (2-2, 3.72 ERA)

With regulars Steve Kreider and Antonio Quintero on the DL, the Falcons had to resort to scraps to fill out their completely right-handed rotation, and we’d get two in this midweek set. Although Beebe was on my radar once, he can’t help anybody, running a 6-11 record and 5.18 ERA for his career, encompassing 18 starts and 53 relief stints, all for the Falcons.

We had an off day on Thursday, which conveniently fell between Santos and Brownie. However, we would still need a starter by Saturday, since I wanted to give Jonny Toner, who looked nothing but tired and gassed, a little break and skip him against the Crusaders on the weekend. I have honestly no clue whom to burden with that. Might as well be Conway.

For now, Jeff Magnotta was sent back to St. Petersburg to be recalled after the end of the minor league season only, to preserve his rookie status for 2016, just in case, you know. We called up Juan Gallegos as extra reliever as this series got underway.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P Toner
CHA: CF Huibregtse – 2B Best – C Holliman – LF J. Jimenez – 1B Griffin – RF Mugan – 3B Pellot – SS P. Hall – P Shepherd

In his last four starts combined, Jonny had only lasted 21 innings, shedding eight earned runs (3.43 ERA) and running a 1-1 record. Things didn’t get easier with a 1-hour rain delay that struck as soon as the first inning was over, but afterwards at least the Raccoons gave him some love with a 3-run second inning. Truth be told, Toner’s 1-out walk drawn from Shepherd that loaded the bases was probably the key to the inning. It moved up Ochoa to third base with the lead run, from where he scored on a balk during Carmona’s at-bat, which ended with an RBI groundout – without the Toner walk, the Coons would have expired with zero runs right there. Nunley doubled home Toner for the third run. Neither team then threatened much until the fifth when the Critters had them on the corners after singles by McKnight and Richards, with Murphy batting with one out. He hit his usual pop, but it actually fell into shallow left, scoring McKnight and running the score to 4-0. Talk about blind hens…

Jonny made it through five quite easily, allowing four singles, but striking out only three. He framed a Steve Best double with two strikeouts in the bottom 6th and exited on Juan Jimenez’ pop to first. He got only one more out before Troy Mugan tripled in the bottom 7th, ending his day. While Sugano came in and struck out his only batter Alfonso Pellot, Juan Gallegos allowed an RBI single to Paul Hall. Thrasher replaced him swiftly, but allowed singles to Aaron Case and Steve Huibregtse, with Case making the third out at third base on the latter, and half the 4-0 lead needlessly wasted. This was a bad thing since the Raccoons found it routinely hard to tack on anything or even hold on to anything, but an Ochoa single and a Sambrano bloop double put runners in scoring position with nobody out in the eighth against right-hander Rafael De Jesus. Unexpectedly, the Falcons fell apart. They walked D-Alex intentionally, with Bergquist already in the #9 slot (Richards having been removed for defense). Bergquist beat Pellot with a sharp bouncer for a 2-run double, and Cookie added an RBI single before Bergquist scored on Nunley’s sac fly to right. Canning popped out, batting for McKnight, and with more lefties coming in the bottom 8th, Thrasher batted for himself and singled. Murphy, who by now had two bloop hits and two poor outs, made the third poor out on a lousy grounder to Pellot, also the third out in the inning, yet this game was in the bag. 8-2 Raccoons. Carmona 3-5, 2 RBI; Murphy 2-5, RBI; Ochoa 2-5; Sambrano 3-5, 2B; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Bergquist 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (14-5) and 0-1, 2 BB; Entwistle 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

After this, it was roster expansion time. One expansion player joined from the DL, as we regained the services of Mike Bednarski. Yay. We added outfielders Brandon Johnson and Jason Seeley, the latter hitting for an .800 OPS in AAA, plus long-time fifth-wheel catcher Tom McNeela with his 220 career plate appearances since 2009. Between three miserable catchers in AAA, he was the least unpalatable. Two more pitchers were added at this point: Josh Gibson was added for some more less important innings, plus left-hander Francisquo Bocanegra, who had started in AAA for the entire year despite having been a reliever in the lower minors. He had a 3.11 ERA, but there was little reason to be excited, for he was already 26, and this was his fifth at-least-partial season in AAA. He had been a trash heap signing at one point. He was, however, a left-hander, and the best option we had for a third lefty with George Youngblood having blown out his elbow. Bocanegra could perhaps also get Toner’s start on Saturday…

As a surprise, the Falcons activated Steve Kreider (11-9, 3.89 ERA) from the DL on September 1, and threw him right into this game.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Reya – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – 2B Hudman – C Alexander – P Watanabe
CHA: 1B Goldstein – 2B Best – C Holliman – LF J. Jimenez – RF Mugan – 3B Moran – CF Pearcy – SS P. Hall – P Kreider

While Ochoa’s solo home run in the second inning initially put the Raccoons ahead, a really bad defensive day for Brock Hudman put the Raccoons in a really dark hole right afterwards. Kenichi Watanabe failed to retire any of the first five Falcons in the bottom 2nd, mainly because three grounders made it past Hudman in every way imaginable. Thankfully callup Tyler Goldstein hit into a double play to mop up Kreider, who had just driven in two, and Watanabe managed to get out of the mud down merely 4-1. An unnerved Watanabe walked two in the third inning and was gone after five, without allowing another run. The Coons scored a run on McKnight’s sac fly in the third, but were still trailing by two.

At least they were going in the right direction. Murphy led off the sixth with a leadoff jack, 4-3, and all of a sudden things would not look so dark. Ochoa singled, Hudman singled. D-Alex grounded to Steve Best, but flung wildly to Goldstein, who kept the ball close, but all hands were safe and Ochoa scored the tying run on the error. However, Ron Richards hit for Watanabe, straight into a double play, and the inning ended with the game tied once Cookie rolled out to Best. They continued to miss the big spots in this game, stranding the go-ahead runs in scoring position in both the eighth and ninth innings, while Bruno, Sugano, Mathis, and Conway nursed the game to extra innings. Those started with Falcons lefty Félix Colón issuing consecutive walks to Murphy and Ochoa with nobody out in the top 10th. Then, Hudman flew out to left, and that would be the highlight of the inning, with strikeouts by Bednarski and Sambrano following. Conway would also walk two in the 10th, but he fell to Mathew Roberts’ sac fly. 5-4 Falcons. Nunley 3-4, BB; Ochoa 3-4, BB, HR, RBI;

If I can’t find qualified RISP hitters soon, I will retire to my garden and tend to my ****ing roses!

I mean, I have neither a garden nor roses, but I ****ing mean it!!

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – CF Johnson – C McNeela – P Santos
CHA: CF Huibregtse – 2B Best – LF J. Jimenez – RF Mugan – 3B Moran – 1B Goldstein – C Case – SS P. Hall – P Beebe

The next pitcher in trouble would be Santos, but it was all his own fault. He hit Huibregtse with a 1-2 pitch, and things went downhill rather quickly. Jose Jimenez hit a real hard single, and Troy Mugan an even harder 3-run homer to put the Coons in their place really early on. After the early onslaught, Santos would have a 3-pitch inning in the second, and otherwise had his outing cut short by the weather, that forced a 45-minute delay after the third inning … a point at which the Coons were hitless against the scrap Beebe. While Nunley did hit a single in the fourth, it was their only hit as long as Santos was listed on the scoreboard, being replaced to start the bottom of the sixth … and rarely had a 3-0 gap been so huge. There was nothing to be gained by sending Juan Gallegos to pitch, who walked leadoff man Jimenez and conceded the run on Goldstein’s single, 4-0. Despite Murphy hitting into a double play after Richards’ leadoff walk in the top 7th, the Critters would outrageously score a run in the inning thanks to Sandy singling, swiping, and scoring on Brandon Johnson’s single, who got his first career RBI. The misery continued in the eighth. Danny Margolis reached on an infield single to start the inning. Cookie, struggling like all hell, hit into a force, then was picked off first base for another lowlight. When Bednarski batted for McKnight to start the ninth against left-hander Mauro Ortega and drew a walk, hopes were once more raised slightly, since the tying run became visible in the on-deck circle… at least until Richards hit into a double play. 4-1 Falcons. Margolis 1-1;

I don’t quite know what fun actually is, but this **** ain’t it.

Raccoons (65-67) @ Crusaders (83-50) – September 4-6, 2015

Oh well, the 2015 CL North champs were first in offense, fifth in pitching (still with a bottom 3 rotation, which I dearly hoped would break their ****ing neck in the playoffs), and for reasons baffling had so far won only three of 11 games this year against the Coons. Must be something in the water.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (14-7, 3.01 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (13-6, 4.66 ERA)
Francisquo Bocanegra (0-0) vs. Pancho Trevino (8-8, 4.52 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-10, 4.38 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (9-7, 4.93 ERA)

Left-right-right here. Last time through, the injured A.J. Bartels’ spot was taken by right-handed reliever Hwa-pyung Choe (3-0, 1.59 ERA), another righty, but they had time to skip his turn, which would be Saturday. We will in any case miss their best starter, Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (14-5, 3.26 ERA). Besides Bartels, they also had Miguel Salinas, Amari Brissett, and Jose Paraz on the DL, and Stanton Martin was on a rehab assignment in AAA, so we were to face a pretty weakened lineup again – just like in August, when we swept them for four just before taking our most recent and still continuing nosedive.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – SS McKnight – RF Bednarski – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P N. Brown
NYC: 3B J. Ortega – SS Paull – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – RF P. Brown – C Durango – CF A. Ruiz – P F. Cruz

The Raccoons started out with a run in the first on three singles by Cookie, Murphy, and McKnight, before handing over to Brownie, who continued to run full counts like there was prize money for it. However, the Crusaders had only one hit in three innings, and that was Jorge Ortega right leading off in the bottom 1st, a grounder that McKnight probably should have been able to play. The top 4th saw Murphy open with a deep drive to center, but that one was played on the track by Abe Ruiz, who however couldn’t get to the next drive by McKnight, who made it onto the track and took a wicked bounce off the wall for a 1-out triple. Bednarski just barely managed to get him in with a grounder to third, that pulled Ortega far enough away from the bag for a quick runner to score; McKnight just barely made it, 2-0. Brown issued a leadoff walk to B.J. Manfull in the bottom 4th before Margolis was booked for a passed ball, but a pair of pops and a K to Eduardo Durango kept the Crusaders off the board.

In the sixth, the score was the same, and the Crusaders employed a peculiar strategy once Sandy Sambrano was at second base with one out. They walked Murphy intentionally to get to McKnight, which didn’t sound good even on paper, even with a southpaw hurling. In the event McKnight hit into a force at second base, but I would have loved for him to do actual damage, which was never done in the inning, with the useless Bednarski grounding out to short. Well, at least his glove was useful: the bottom 6th saw Eric Paull reach with a leadoff single to left, before Martin Ortíz gave a ball a ride to right. That one wasn’t gonna go, but would at least give the Crusaders runners in scoring position – at least until Bednarski leapt catlike at the wall and picked it off the top of the fence. Paull starved at first, and the Coons remained up 2-0. After 103 pitches, Brownie left after seven shutout innings, with the Coons adding a run in the eighth when Murphy singled home Sandy. And then Mathis made a mess. Bottom 8th, singles by Frederic Roche and Jorge Ortega pulled up the tying run with nobody out. Then, Paull hit a sharp bouncer right back to Mathis, who went to second, and McKnight zinged to first in time, with Roche still standing at third base! Sugano retired Martin Ortíz to get out of the inning, then struck out Manfull to start the ninth. Angel whiffed Francisco Caraballo before walking Phil Brown. Durango hit a ringing RBI double to right to break up the shutout. ANGEL!! Behave yourself!! Drew Lowe grounded out to first. 3-1 Brownies! Sambrano 2-4; Murphy 2-3, BB; McKnight 2-4, 3B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (15-7);

This was Nick Brown’s 198th career win. For the curious, he ranks 36th all time, wedged between familiar former foes Jorge Chapa (199) and Anibal Sandoval (197).

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 2B Sambrano – 1B Ochoa – C Alexander – P Bocanegra
NYC: 3B J. Ortega – SS Paull – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – RF P. Brown – C Durango – CF A. Ruiz – P Trevino

The first three batters that Bocanegra faced in the Bigs all hit hard base knocks. Ortega and Paull hit singles to left, and Ortíz hit an RBI double to right. He would also walk Caraballo and concede two runs, with Ortíz being thrown out at home by Luis Reya on Brown’s fly to right to end the inning. The Coons would have the bases loaded in the top 2nd after a Caraballo error and two walks, but unfortunately then brought up D-Alex with one out and never scored. He struck out, and Bocanegra rolled out to short. The Crusaders’ hurt machine churned out another run in the bottom of the second, but while they kept having some runner or runners on in some capacity in every one of the next four innings, they didn’t get another run pushed across against Bocanegra, who went six in his debut, allowing six hits and three walks and whiffing none; did bunt into a force, though.

Meanwhile the Raccoons, down 3-0 early, took the opportunity and stabbed Nick Brown in the back, whiffing rabidly against Trevino, who was on Brownie’s socks in career strikeouts. Through six innings, they had an infield single by Sambrano, two walks, and seven strikeouts. In the top 7th, D-Alex got their second hit, another infield single, to bring Seeley up to hit for Bocanegra. His liner to shallow center was the first proper hit for the Furballs. Trevino then walked Cookie, loading the sacks for Matt Nunley, who ran a full count before forcing home a run with another walk. That was it for Trevino, who was replaced by righty Alex Ramirez, a curious choice with the left-handed heart of the order coming up. Alas, McKnight grounded out harmlessly, and the inning just ended. The eighth saw a leadoff single by Richards, a double play by Reya, and Bruno allowing a run after balking Caraballo into scoring position for Durango. 4-1 Crusaders. Alexander 1-2, BB; Seeley (PH) 1-2;

Cookie’s hole gets bigger. He’s now 5-for-33 in his last eight games. The Coons as a whole have scored nine runs in the last four games.

Bartels (6-10, 4.98 ERA) came off the DL for the Sunday rubber game, and the Crusaders also brought back Stanton Martin from his rehab assignment. Both him and Ortíz were tied with 18 homers for the team lead, which was a bit sub-standard. (They’re gettin’ old, they’re gettin’ old!!)

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – 2B Hudman – C Alexander – P Watanabe
NYC: 1B Manfull – C Lowe – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – 3B Walter – SS Paull – CF Hedglin – P Bartels

Watanabe found another instant hole to vanish in, issuing a leadoff walk to Manfull before he got bombed by Drew Lowe for a quick 2-0 deficit. Brock Hudman hit his first home run in the top of the second, but that one came with nobody on base. While the Raccoons were hopeless at the plate, they were not much better in the field. Hudman had another poor day with the glove, and the Crusaders took advantage of him in the bottom 4th. Shane Walter led off with a single past him, then Eric Paull hit a single right through him. When Nick Hedglin also hit a grounder to him, he only got one out at second base, and Watanabe had to ultimately conceded another run to fall 3-1 behind. The Martin Brothers bowled Watanabe over for good in the fifth. Stanton Martin led off with a single, Ortíz tripled, then scored on Caraballo’s groundout. Watanabe didn’t get out of the inning and was replaced by Sugano on a 5-1 hook with Shane Walter at first and two outs. Sugano struck out Hedglin to end the inning and also pitched a quick sixth, but what did we even keep pitching for? The offense was utter bull****.

In the seventh, the bases were loaded for the miserable Stripetails. Bartels had walked Murphy, Ochoa had doubled, and Reya had walked in place of Hudman. There was one out and Dylan Alexander batting, not a great mix in the first place, but the Crusaders wouldn’t go to a left-hander, either. Maybe some magic could be found here after – … or maybe ****ing Dylan Alexander would end the inning with an 0-1 grounder to short, to second, to first. The Crusaders kept finding hits, however, with Ortíz, Walter, and Paull hitting singles off Chris Mathis to plate an extra run in the bottom 7th, and another run scored off the disgusting Gallegos in the eighth after he allowed a leadoff single to Bartels on an 0-2 pitch. 7-1 Crusaders. Hudman 1-2, HR, RBI; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

September 3 – Despite being out-hit 13-5 by the Scorpions, the Warriors manage to steal a 10-inning, 2-1 win from them. The Scorpions are undone by a leadoff walk to Kevin Bond, who scores on Logan Taylor’s (.250, 1 HR, 7 RBI in 40 AB) double in the 10th.
September 4 – LAP LF/CF Jimmy Roberts (.311, 15 HR, 59 RBI) could be out for the season with a quad strain.
September 6 – A nasty blow is dealt to the Warriors, who lose SP Bartolo Ortíz (16-3, 2.53 ERA) to elbow ligament damage. Ortíz might even miss most of the next season.

Complaints and stuff

Show me more misery than this, and I’ll show you a $100 bill.

The race to finish bottom in runs scored in the CL is still very much on, with the Coons only four runs ahead of the Indians. The Falcons have already breezed past us.

I’d like to give Jonny more than just three extra days of rest, but I don’t know where to get another starter. Chris Brown? (laughs manically) Sad enough, Chris Brown is the 500th Raccoon ever. The game better support more than 1,000 players in the batting register by the time I get there!

Maybe Conway will take the Tuesday start, and we will move Jonny behind Brownie again. Something like that could work.

We have only one more off day, but for now are only three games into a 20-day stint without a breather. Next week it’s the start to our penultimate homestand that will see the Loggers, Elks, and Crusaders in town.

Could Danny Ochoa be a worthwhile 2016 Raccoon? His scouting report says no, but the scouting reports and all hinted at good production from Richards, Murphy, Bednarski, and Alexander, too. Three of those will be gone a month from now, but we’re stuck with another morbidly inept catcher with a luxury contract once more. Alexander has $3.1M guaranteed between 2016 and 2017, with a $1.8M team option in ’18. Ha-hah. So he has $3.1M guaranteed.

Our total guaranteed contracts for 2016 are still only $6.1M, including Brownie, Sandy, Santos, and Thrasher. Those are all with money promised to them that are not under team control and I am very hesitant to extend anybody of the free agents.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (66-69) vs. Loggers (68-68) – September 7-10, 2015

The Loggers were still hanging on to a .500 record, but they weren’t handling the Raccoons too well, so far trailing in the season series, 7-4. Their crummy pitching, which had them concede the second-most runs in the Continental League, was just barely balanced by their seventh-place offense.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (8-8, 2.82 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (3-4, 5.02 ERA)
Bill Conway (5-13, 5.62 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (8-10, 4.24 ERA)
Nick Brown (15-7, 2.89 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (9-11, 3.88 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (14-5, 2.25 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (13-11, 4.54 ERA)

Graham will be the only left-hander for the Loggers in this series. They were also still without one of their most productive batters, Justin Dally (.322, 26 HR, 81 RBI). Meanwhile, Victor Hodgers was pretty close to a new single season steals mark, coming into the set with 52 sacks taken.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Yu – CF Enriquez – 1B M. Rucker – SS O. Sandoval – C Leach – LF LeMoine – 2B J. Thompson – P Cope
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – CF Johnson – P Santos

Stan Murphy hit into a double play at the first opportunity back home, knocking into a 5-4-3 to end the bottom 1st with a 1-0 lead after straight singles from Nunley, McKnight, and Richards. It didn’t take long for the Loggers to equalize. They hit some nice line drives off Santos at times, and in the top of the third one of those liners beat Brandon Johnson, who gave Cookie Carmona a spell in the middle of a rotten slump, for a 2-out RBI double by Victor Hodgers, who plated Chris LeMoine, the Loggers’ first runner of the day. While the Raccoons displayed more of the dismal, inept baseball they had shown all of last week and for most of the last four weeks, the Loggers at least had Hodgers going. He hit another double his next time up, this one with one out and nobody on in the sixth, but Santos reached back and eliminated both Min-tae Yu and Victor Enriquez on strikeouts. The Coons had stranded a pair in the bottom 5th when McKnight had grounded out, but in the bottom 6th they had two on to start the inning after singles by Richards and Murphy. Reya hit straight into a double play, and D-Alex grounded out to Mike Rucker at first. Santos struck out ten over seven strong innings, but couldn’t get no ****ing love and was left with a no-decision. As soon as Santos was out of the game, the Loggers blew the doors off the bullpen. Bruno got two outs in the eighth before Hodgers singled and stole second (#53), then walked Yu. Enriquez singled to score Hodgers with the go-ahead run, and when Sugano came in to face Rucker, he allowed an enormous 3-run homer to erase every memory of the Coons in the city. Josh Gibson allowed another run in the ninth, on a 2-out single by pinch-hitter Brian Almond. 6-1 Loggers. Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B; Richards 2-4, RBI; Murphy 3-4, 2B; Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K;

Funny thing is, we out-hit the Loggers 9-8 in this one. They left two on base. The Dumpster Rats left ten. Mike Rucker now has 34 homers and 110 RBI. If I pool the top two Raccoons together, we can barely top him.

If Santos demands to be traded this winter, I would fully understand it. I wouldn’t arrange for a trade, but I would fully understand the desire.

Game 2
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Yu – CF Enriquez – 1B M. Rucker – C Leach – SS Kingsley – LF Knowling – 2B J. Thompson – P Foreman
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – LF Ochoa – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C McNeela – P Conway

In sensational news, the Raccoons had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom 1st and ****ing Stan Murphy actually got a ****ing ball hit to somewhere where it did damage. Beating Yu’s range with a grounder to the left side, he scored the first two runs of the game. The Loggers did not get a hit off Conway the first time through, but a throwing error by McKnight put Jim Thompson in scoring position in the third inning. While Foreman struck out against Conway, Hodgers continued to undress the Raccoons with an RBI triple to left center, but was himself stranded when Yu grounded out to Sambrano to forfeit the chance to tie the game.

Conway did pretty well for himself for five innings, allowing no other hits, or even base runners, while the Critters added a run along the way on some small ball and a lucky bloop by Murphy. The sixth inning, however, Conway shoveled himself another grave with crummy pitching, issuing a leadoff walk to pitcher Michael Foreman. Hodgers quickly singled, putting the tying runs on base. Min-tae Yu – always a pest to the Coons – then took them off the bases with another hard 3-run homer to right. That one gave the Loggers a 4-3 lead, despite being out-hit again, 7-3. It also started to rain right around this time. Foreman walked Murphy in the bottom 6th to put the tying run back on base, but before much could be dissolved, a rain delay was called. While it wouldn’t be alien to this team to lose under such circumstances, the rain delay ultimately provided a good excuse to also hit for Conway, whose turn was up with two outs and Murphy still on first base once the rain let up after half an hour. Luis Reya hit for him, Foreman was still pitching, but his first pitch post-delay was promptly converted into a bleachers rocket by Reya, who flipped the score back with a 2-run homer!

That lead didn’t hold. First, Chris Mathis pitched like a dork and allowed singles to Zach Knowling and Chris Harris to start the seventh inning. Second, when Ron Thrasher appeared to face the left-handers Hodgers and Yu with the runners in scoring position and one out, the Loggers were not beyond hitting for their most dangerous guy. Third, when Oscar Sandoval did actually hit for Hodgers, he cracked a 3-run homer to left for the third power flip in as many half-innings. And that lead didn’t last either, not even to the eighth. While Greg Dodson was a curious pick to pitch to left-handers with a 7-5 lead, the Coons were not to complain. Nunley singled, Richards doubled, and they scored on Ochoa’s groundout and another actual clutch single by Murphy, tying the score at seven. Bottom 8th, the first three Critters (Johnson, Hudman, Cookie) hit singles off Troy Charters to load the bases with nobody out. The team of course failed to manage more than a sac fly by McKnight, and this came to bite them in the furry bottoms when Sandoval homered off Casas with two outs in the ninth to tie the game again. On the bottom of the tenth, where Brock Hudman led off with a double off Kevin Cummings, the Loggers’ left-handed closer, whose very next action was a balk to move Hudman, the winning run, to third base. If any of the 1-2-3 batters could be so kind? Let’s see. Cookie lined to center, but into an out, and Hudman shied back against the hustling Enriquez’ arm. Nunley was walked intentionally, and McKnight struck out. Bednarski hit for Casas, was also down two strikes, then lined to right, over the miserable Sandoval, and into right, to walk off the Coons. 9-8 Blighters. Carmona 3-6; Richards 3-5, 2 2B; Bednarski (PH) 1-1, RBI; Murphy 3-4, BB, 3 RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-2; Reya (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Hudman 2-2, 2B;

We merely out-hit the Loggers 17-9 in this one, so doubtlessly it deserved to be such a nail biter.

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Yu – CF Enriquez – 1B M. Rucker – SS O. Sandoval – LF Knowling – C Leach – 2B J. Valdez – P McDonald
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – P N. Brown

Nope, Brownie, vying for his 199th win, couldn’t contain Hodgers, either. Hodgers singled on the first pitch, stole his 54th base before the second pitch, and eventually scored on a Matt Nunley error. The Coons wasted Cookie’s leadoff double in the first inning, then didn’t matter until the fifth. Through five, Brownie was still pitching a 2-hitter, albeit with an already elevated pitch count after another number of full counts, three alone in the second inning. When Danny Ochoa hit a leadoff single in the fifth and advanced on a wild pitch, the Coons were back where they had been after the Cookie double, albeit with even less of an offense appearing behind their runner. Bergquist, Alexander, and Brown were batting a combined .205 … and neither reached base, or moved Ochoa along. The Loggers had two hits off Brown in the seventh, including an infield single that was blamed on Murphy by default, but stranded runners on the corners when PH Corey Martin whiffed and McDonald was not hit for and popped out. Brown managed to get through eight at just over 100 pitches, and was still 1-0 behind when Sandy batted for him with one out in the bottom of the inning. Sandy doubled to put the tying run on second base, and McDonald was still allowed to continue by the Loggers. He fell 3-1 behind Cookie, who didn’t like to walk if there were other ways to have fun – like hitting a real rocket to deep center and well past Victor Enriquez! Sambrano scored easily, and Cookie walked into third base! The Loggers refused to pitch to Nunley with the go-ahead run on third base again, but McKnight managed a sac fly to left to give Brownie a posthumous lead. Angel issued a leadoff walk to pinch-hitter Chris Harris in the ninth, but the Loggers fed grounders to the infielders long enough to lose after that. 2-1 Brownies!! Carmona 2-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-3, RBI; Sambrano (PH) 1-1, 2B; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (16-7);

I love Brownie. I don’t know what I’ll do once he retires. But crying will probably be involved.

Game 4
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – CF Enriquez – 1B M. Rucker – SS O. Sandoval – 3B Yu – C Leach – 2B J. Thompson – P C. Graham
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 3B Hudman – SS Canning – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Jonny entered the game on nine days’ rest after showing actual signs of fatigue throughout August. He had a quick 9-pitch first inning with a K to Enriquez before the first four Raccoons all singled off Graham in the bottom 1st. Since Hudman, Canning, and Margolis then made outs at a frenzied pace, only two runs scored, but at least the Coons had the lead again. Toner walked Mike Rucker in the second inning, but otherwise kept the Loggers off the bases until the annoying Min-tae Yu hit a single to center with one out in the fifth inning. Foster Leach quickly added another single, shifting Yu to third, but when Jim Thompson flew out to right, Bednarski gunned down Yu at home to end the inning. The Raccoons added runs in the middle innings; one in the fourth on a few singles and Margolis being driven home by Sambrano, and one in the sixth on a Bergquist homer that ran the score to 4-0. Jonny struck out five in a row after the 9-2 double play to end the fifth, then allowed a 2-out double to Sandoval and walked Yu in the seventh. Leach grounded out to Bergquist, but Toner’s pitch count had reached 96, and we probably wouldn’t burn him for 120 right away again. He struck out Thompson and PH Tim Pace in the eighth, but at 104 pitches, his recent stuttering, and three left-handers in the top 4 of the Loggers order, we moved to Sugano, who struck out Hodgers, and the Loggers expired quietly in the ninth inning, too. 4-0 Furballs. Carmona 2-4, BB; Sambrano 2-3, BB, RBI; Bednarski 2-4, RBI; Bergquist 2-4, HR, RBI; Toner 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K, W (15-5) and 1-3;

With this win, we jumped past the Loggers into fourth place for at least one day, and we’re actually only three games behind the second-place Elks, who come in over the weekend.

Raccoons (69-70) vs. Canadiens (72-67) – September 11-13, 2015

In second place and 16 games behind the inevitable Crusaders, the Elks had as much to play for as the Coons, something that everybody loved dearly in the North … second place. They were fifth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed, with a modest +31 run differential (Coons: -26). To everybody’s dismay, they had already taken the season series, 10-5.

Projected matchups:
Francisquo Bocanegra (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. William Raven (5-3, 4.65 ERA)
Hector Santos (8-8, 2.77 ERA) vs. Jose Flores (2-5, 5.85 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-11, 4.53 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (12-6, 2.92 ERA)

Right-left-right here, although due to a double header they played on Tuesday we could theoretically also get left-hander Sam McMullen (15-10, 3.08 ERA) on Sunday. Either way, it was not a favorable matchup.

Game 1
VAN: CF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – RF J. Medina – SS Madison – LF E. Garcia – 3B Mateo – 2B Lawrence – P Raven
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – P Bocanegra

While Bocanegra got his first major league strikeout when he whiffed Raúl Hernandez in the first inning, the joy over that was quickly dispersed all over the park when the most despicable Ray Gilbert wonked a 2-run homer off him. The Elks would have runners on the corners in the next inning when Ron Richards unleashed a horrendous throw to third base that went nowhere near Nunley and allowed the Elks to score two extra runs eventually. They had two more on in the third inning, which got stranded when Enrique Garcia and Jaime Mateo popped up consecutively. Garcia hit a 2-run homer off Josh Gibson in the sixth to run the score to 6-0. Gibson had replaced the unlucky Bocanegra after four and a third innings, and the Raccoons offense had managed to send up two more than the minimum so far. Those two had been stranded in the fourth when Murphy had fouled out. The Critters would actually manage to get onto the board in the bottom 6th when Cookie doubled and Nunley homered, but as usual this year against the Stinkdeers it was just not enough. To make things much worse, Cookie Carmona hurt himself on a diving play in the seventh inning as he tried to save the miserable Juan Gallegos a run. While he did keep the run on base, he popped some thing or other. Sandy Sambrano replaced him in center, and also hit a 1-out single in the bottom 8th that got the Coons moving. Nunley reached on a bloop single and then McKnight rammed a 365-footer to very-much-left to all of a sudden get the Critters back to within a run of the damned Elks. Bednarski hit for Richards against the left-hander Luis Beltran (ex-Coon, too), but Murphy hit into a double play against David Peterson after that. The Coons got the tying run back on base only with two outs in the ninth, when Hudman singled off Orlando Valdez. Luis Reya’s following liner to right was intercepted by Juan Medina, ending the game. 6-5 Canadiens. Carmona 2-3, 2B; Sambrano 1-1; Nunley 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Hudman (PH) 1-1;

…aaaaand back to fifth. And just when I wanted to say that Cookie still had a shot at 200 hits for the year…

The Druid was sent to work on this one. Saturday morning he appeared at the park with a cart laden with about 500 eggs. Nobody dared to ask.

Game 2
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – SS Madison – CF J. Medina – LF E. Garcia – 3B Mateo – 2B Lawrence – P J. Flores
POR: LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – 2B Hudman – C Margolis – CF Johnson – P Santos

In another episode of the Twilight Zone, Hector Santos struck out Ray Gilbert in the first inning … which was the only out he recorded the first time through, and not only that, but ALL other Elks hit singles. Kurt Evans finally popped out for the second out and Raúl Hernandez struck out, but the Elks had scored five runs just like that. The fans were already angry … and so was I. While the Raccoons were rather tame in the early innings and didn’t make their presence felt until Murphy lucked into a solo homer in the fourth, Santos allowed a leadoff single to Gilbert in the top of the second inning. Gilbert was left stranded, and Santos allowed only one more hit in the next three innings, but still left on a really nasty hook after five, down 5-1, as Walt Canning batted for him to start the bottom 5th and singled. Sandy singled as well, sending Canning to third, from where he scored on Nunley’s fly out to left, a sacrifice to get the Coons to 5-2. With that, McKnight’s single to center and Murphy drawing a 4-pitch walk from Flores, the tying runs were aboard with one out, but Bednarski and Hudman both grounded out to Jaylin Lawrence, bringing only one more run home. Soon enough, Zack Entwistle was stomped for two runs in the top of the seventh, moving the Raccoons back to four runs down, 7-3. They didn’t show any offensive threat in the seventh or eighth, then faced Bill King, a right-hander in his second inning, for the bottom 9th. Maybe there was an opening right here! Nope. Johnson flew out to left, Richards struck out, and Sambrano flew out to right. 7-3 Canadiens. McKnight 2-4; Canning (PH) 1-1;

Guys, you know that I hate losing to these … “things” from up north, right? Maybe I should remind you just how much I hate them. (whips away at Brandon Johnson)

Also on this day, Stanton Martin of the Crusaders got into a fight with Titans rookie pitcher Ryan Beran. Both were suspended for two games, putting Martin in front of the TV for Monday’s opener in Portland.

Game 3
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – SS Madison – CF J. Medina – LF E. Garcia – 3B Mateo – 2B Lawrence – P McMullen
POR: LF Sambrano – 3B Hudman – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Sambrano – CF Johnson – P Watanabe

Another game, another early deficit. After retiring the first four Elks, Watanabe allowed a 1-out single to Juan Medina in the second inning. When Enrique Garcia bounced back to him, Watanabe tried to get a double play, didn’t get anybody, and next the runners pulled off a double steal and scored on Jaime Mateo’s double to right, 2-0 Elks. The Raccoons reached scoring position for the first time in the fourth inning (yay…), when Brock Hudman hit a leadoff single and stole second base. McKnight’s groundout advanced him to third base, where he stranded by Murphy, who fouled out, and Bednarski, who lined out precisely to Kurt Evans in right. Watanabe was then singled to death in the top of the fifth, allowing two more runs to trail 4-0 and was removed afterwards after throwing just over 100 pitches over five miserable frames.

Talking about miserable, the entire team qualified for the term. McMullen was far from a bad pitcher, but he had it real easy with the Raccoons lineup, which hardly managed to produce any threat at all, and sat down silently for five innings, taxing him for just over 60 pitches. And amazingly, consistently threatened to get much worse. Conway was in for the sixth, issued 2-out walks to Evans and Hernandez, then surrendered a rocket to right to Gilbert, which Bednarski somehow threw himself into the way of and defused it before two more runs could appear on the board. They then actually did get those two runs off Conway in the seventh with leadoff doubles by Steve Madison and Juan Medina, and another single by Jaylin Lawrence, going up 6-0. Finally in the bottom 8th, movement! Jason Bergquist hit a leadoff triple off McMullen, and even though the odds were long, come on, boys, let’s make them sweat a bit! Johnson hit an RBI single, Sambrano hit a 1-out single, and Hudman hit a ****ing deuce. The Raccoons failed to score another run even when Lawrence committed a throwing error that put McKnight on second base to start the bottom of the ninth… 6-1 Canadiens. Johnson 2-3, RBI;

I fear we have to chalk up Josh Gibson’s two innings of scoreless relief despite three walks issued as this weekend’s success story and await for the Crusaders to maul us further.

We were also mathematically eliminated with this loss.

In other news

September 7 – The Aces out-hit the Thunder 10-4, and still lose 3-1 thanks to a nightmare fourth inning for Nehemiah Jones (7-10, 5.02 ERA), who allows three walks and two hits to give the Thunder all their runs.
September 12 – Topeka’s Luis Guerrero (11-12, 4.46 ERA) 3-hits the Cyclones, his former team until a mid-season trade when he had an 8.74 ERA and 1-9 record, in a 3-0 shutout. He’s been 10-3 with a 2.28 ERA since the deal.
September 13 – Buffaloes and Cyclones combine for only five total hits in a game that the Buffaloes take, 2-0, on Bill Adams’ (.296, 16 HR, 67 RBI) 2-run homer in the first inning.

Complaints and stuff

(a little chick runs across the desk, chirping) Well… Go away. Kssshh!! –

Well, stuff is melting down here as the season is in its final month. Reya is unhappy and wants to start every day. Entwistle is unhappy and thinks he’s the closer. Conway is unhappy because he was demoted to the swingman role and wants to start regularly again. Richards is unhappy because he has not received an extension yet.

Does anybody care that I am unhappy and hate all you ****s?

The single season stolen base record is 60 by Javy Rodriguez in 2006. Not only is Victor Hodgers after it, but Danny Flores over in the Federal League as well. Neither of the two challengers stole a base on the weekend, and Hodgers remains at 54, while Flores is at 52 (tied with Cookie’s mark from last year for 8th all time).

In terms of long-forgotten grabs into a pile of poo, Bradley Heathershaw hit a walkoff single for the Thunder this week, beating the Aces in 11 on Tuesday. Heathershaw, who is 38 and has a winner’s name, if you remember, is a September call-up for the Thunder, his first major league action since 2012 with Pittsburgh. He was with us briefly in 2010, batting .120, failing to complement Jon Merritt, who was then a new signing in Coon City, in the slightest.

The minor league seasons end by next Friday. No playoff action for any of our farm teams, and that’s something that was clear in August. So, by the 19th we might bring up a few more guys, including Magnotta for sure.

Lastly, as we’re on things that are just plain broke, why is the office full of little peeping chicks? MEENAAAAAAAA!!!

[Westheim]

In good news, Cookie Carmona was diagnosed with an ankle sprain of the milder sort. He would play again in 2015, although probably not before the final ten days of the season. We did not pack him on the DL, because it was September, and might cost him a couple of extra days.

Now what were those damn eggs for??

Raccoons (69-73) vs. Crusaders (91-51) – September 14-17, 2015

The Crusaders were showing the North the finger, storming away with the division once more. They had won their last eight straight games as they came in, they were first in offense, and second in runs allowed, with even their crummy rotation coming around recently. The Raccoons were one win away of taking the season series and really rub it in on them, I hope.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (16-7, 2.76 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (13-7, 4.61 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-5, 2.16 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (9-7, 4.89 ERA)
Francisquo Bocanegra (0-2, 6.10 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (10-8, 4.40 ERA)
Hector Santos (8-9, 2.93 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (8-10, 4.57 ERA)

We will miss Jaylen “Midnight” Martin (16-5, 3.12 ERA) yet again. The Crusaders will open the set with a left-hander, which the Raccoons will do, too, with the difference being that our guy is going for his 200th big league win. Brownie had also faced the Crusaders four times this year, and had beaten them … four times!

Also missing from the opener: Stanton Martin, who got a 2-game suspension on Saturday.

Game 1
NYC: 2B Caraballo – 3B J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – RF P. Brown – SS Paull – C Durango – 1B Roche – CF A. Ruiz – P F. Cruz
POR: CF Sambrano – SS Hudman – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – P N. Brown

Brownie retired the first eight before Fernando Cruz hit a bloop single. Francisco Caraballo was quick to mash his 16th home run of the season, and the Crusaders held the edge. While the Coons stranded pairs on the bases in the second inning (when Brown moved Margolis to third with a single, but Sandy failed) and also in the fourth (when Brown failed himself), and were generally not a pleasure to watch as the fans were keen to point out. The Crusaders went up 3-0 in the sixth inning on Phil Brown’s RBI triple, but the Raccoons brought up the tying runs in the bottom of the inning after singles by Bednarski and Margolis that sandwiched a walk that Bergquist had drawn. Of course this, with one out, brought up Brownie’s spot. And we sent him to bat with the best option on the bench right now being Walt Canning. **** Canning, take a stick, Brownie! He rolled one over to Frederic Roche at first base, one run scored, and that was all once Sambrano was done flying out softly to Martin Ortíz. In the seventh the Critters had Hudman on with a leadoff single, then tumbled into a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Nunley, and Murphy grounded out to short, which would have ended the inning one way or another. Hissing from the ranks, by the way. While Brownie worked his way into and out of trouble in the eighth inning, loading the bases after drumming Ortíz and walking Eric Paull with two outs before getting a nice exit grounder to Bergquist from Eduardo Durango, the Raccoons got one last chance to make him a winner in the bottom 8th. Richards flew out to deep right to start the inning, but Bednarski singled to center. Bergquist rolled a really poor one up the third base line, but it was so poor that neither purple-hatted guy on the field had a play. The go-ahead run appeared in Margolis, whom Cruz so far had not retired in the game, rendering him 3-for-3. A shot to center, in there, 4-for-4, and the bases are loaded! With Helio Maggessi, a right-hander, making an appearance on the mound now, the Raccoons called on Luis Reya to put things right. Or to roll another one over to short, for a run to score, but a precious out to waste. McKnight hit for an 0-4 Sambrano, and grounded out. Roche then tripled off Bruno in the ninth and scored on a balk. Fans were unhappy. 4-2 Crusaders. Bednarski 3-4; Margolis 4-4, 2B;

The ****ing Raccoons out-hit the Crusaders 12-6, but stranded 11, while the Crusaders hit four of their hits for extra bases, meaning they actually out-TB’ed the Raccoons 14-13, which is a pattern that I have seen before somewhere.

Can it be over soon, PLEASE??

Game 2
NYC: 2B Caraballo – 3B Walter – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – SS Paull – C Durango – CF Hedglin – P Sabatino
POR: 2B Hudman – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – C Alexander – CF Johnson – P Toner

Ron Richards missed a homer to left on Sabatino’s 2-0 pitch by mere inches as it curved foul past the pole out there. The Coons had two on in the bottom 1st of a scoreless game, and Richards had to reload. He clobbered the 2-1 a bunch as well, this one right, and this one indeed outta here, putting the Raccoons 3-0 on top. Things hardly got better for Sabatino afterwards. The Coons would have the bases loaded with nobody out in the second inning after which McKnight and Richards didn’t come up with more than sacrifice flies, and he was hit for after four innings of 11-hit, 5-run ball. By then, Hudman had cost Jonny Toner an unearned run, allowing Nick Hedglin to score from third after a leadoff single when he mishandled Shane Walter’s grounder for an error. Hedglin’s hit was the Crusaders’ only base knock through five against eight strikeouts, and knocked onto ten strikeouts in the game before they got another base runner. Stanton Martin whiffed to start the top 7th. By then the Raccoons had already put three runs on Kevin Wanless in the bottom 6th, starting with a Nunley double and some aggressive running on McKnight’s and Seeley’s (who hit for Murphy) singles. Richards walked in between and they ran the score to 8-1 while Brownie was probably compiling a death list by now. Meanwhile Jonny had the Crusaders in his paw, until he didn’t, which came very sudden and mildly shocking. The eighth opened with another Hedglin single, but was quickly built on with an RBI double by Roche that beat Johnson in center, and an RBI single by Caraballo to left past Canning, who had replaced Nunley to give the regular a spell. A somewhat disturbed Jonny was hauled in, Sugano replaced him, got Shane Walter on an easy fly, then surrendered a single to Martin Ortíz. That brought up Stanton Martin, who was a right-hander, and Sugano sucked against right-handers, but behind him was still B.J. Manfull… Martin grounded to short for a surprisingly pain-free resolution of the inning, 6-4-3, and the Crusaders accepted defeat after that. 8-3 Raccoons. Hudman 2-5; Nunley 3-4, 2 2B; McKnight 2-4, 2 RBI; Richards 2-2, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Bednarski 1-1; Seeley (PH) 1-1, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (16-5) and 1-4; Sugano 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

If the tying run is closer than in the hole in that eighth inning, does Sugano still pitch to Martin? Hell no!

Despite the loss, the Crusaders eliminated the Indians after their own loss, which left only the Elks in nominal contention for the division. They were 15 games out after all. The Crusaders can still take the division on our lawn if the Elks just fail hard enough against the Loggers, and I don’t want that to happen. So, boys, keep up the Tuesday spirit.

Game 3
NYC: 2B Caraballo – 3B J. Ortega – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – SS Paull – C Durango – CF A. Ruiz – P Trevino
POR: 2B Hudman – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – C Alexander – CF Johnson – P Bocanegra

The Crusaders battered Bocanegra in the first inning, much like they had had their guy battered early on in the previous game. Jorge Ortega singled, stole second, Martin Ortíz drove him with a single, scored himself on Stanton Martin’s double, and Eric Paull hit another RBI single. Nunley doubled in Hudman in the bottom of the inning, but the Crusaders just kept ploughing away at Bocanegra, who appeared more than just hapless and was beaten for another 3-run inning in the second. Ironically, Bocanegra hit an RBI double in the bottom of the inning… His suffering would end after Manfull’s leadoff single in the fifth, the tenth hit off Bocanegra on this day. Then, the Coons were down 6-3 – D-Alex had hit an RBI single in the fourth. When the Crusaders in this inning were done with Bill Conway, who followed Bocanegra, they were up 7-3, and Nunley had saved at least one run with a heroic flying grab. Conway also bunted into a force in the bottom of the sixth, generally not helping a comeback effort at all. The Raccoons would not get anything done anymore in the game. They would have two more leadoff singles. They would waste both. 8-3 Crusaders. Murphy 2-4, 2B; Alexander 2-4, RBI; Entwistle 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 4
NYC: 2B Caraballo – C Lowe – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – SS Paull – 3B Walter – CF Hedglin – P Bartels
POR: CF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – 2B Hudman – P Santos

The Crusaders also got to Santos in the first inning, with the Martin Brothers hitting a double and single to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead. The Coons came back in the bottom 2nd, however, when Richards and Murphy pulled the same stunt to get the Critters even, and then ahead when D-Alex plated Murphy from second base with a single. The game was tight for a while, with Santos hanging onto the 2-1 lead with his bare claws. The Crusaders always seemed to have somebody on base, and if it was a Bartels single that almost unwound him in the fifth inning. Santos himself struck out to start the bottom 5th, after which Sambrano was plunked and went to first base. He took off on the first pitch to Nunley, the Crusaders had kind of waited for that, but Drew Lowe’s throw to second was way too high and went into centerfield, moving Sandy to third with one out. Nunley then grounded out poorly to second base, which left Sandy stuck on third base, and McKnight also grounded over to Caraballo, but this one was deeper to the right side and Caraballo couldn’t get it out of his glove the first time, missing the throw over – McKnight was safe, Sambrano scored, 3-1. Richards and Murphy extended the inning with singles, the latter scoring McKnight, and then Reya ended Bartels’ outing with a massive 3-run homer to right, 7-1. While Richards would expand the lead with a solo homer in the seventh inning, Santos did a wonderful job of tending to the looming W here, going seven and two thirds on 101 pitches. The bottom 8th saw Randy McMullen pitch for the Crusaders. He walked the bases full before Richards appeared with two outs, but grounded out to the mound. The Crusaders managed to put a dent into our pen in the ninth, however. Thrasher allowed a leadoff single to Manfull in the ninth, Bruno conceded a double to Paull, and then both runs on productive outs, before this was the third straight 8-3 game in the series. 8-3 Coons. Richards 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Murphy 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Reya 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Alexander 2-4, RBI; Santos 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (9-9);

Raccoons (71-75) @ Bayhawks (72-74) – September 18-20, 2015

The Birds saw it slipping away in the South, five games out in fourth place. They ranked about average in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a +10 run differential. We were 3-3 against them in 2015, which was already an upgrade over 2014’s shabby 2-7 campaign.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (6-12, 4.61 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (12-5, 4.28 ERA)
Nick Brown (16-8, 2.78 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (7-8, 3.64 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (16-5, 2.17 ERA) vs. Randy Farley (6-5, 3.69 ERA)

Three right-handers in this set. Brownie will have to go for his 200th win in the Birds’ nest.

Game 1
POR: CF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – P Watanabe
SFB: LF J. Gusmán – 2B A. Martinez – 1B A. Young – RF Almanza – CF D. Garcia – 3B J. Rodriguez – SS Ingraham – C Lefebure – P Caro

Sandy opened the game with a single, and then Nunley hit a real hard home run to put the Coons up 2-0 instantly. Watanabe went about the early lead as responsibly as he could, issuing a 4-pitch walk to Javier Gusmán before Armando Martinez shot a really hard single to left, moving Gusmán to third. The Birds were eventually held to just one run, but the Raccoons might want to reconsider their starting rotation for 2016. Watanabe proved useful in many ways when it came to blow a lead, bunting so badly in the second inning that he got Dylan Alexander forced out at third base, then in the bottom 3rd allowed three 2-out base hits to the Baybirds’ 2-3-4 batters to get the game tied.

The Bayhawks had two on in the bottom 4th, then hit into a double play on Zach Ingraham’s very sharp bouncer that left a burn mark in Matt Nunley’s glove. Nunley barely managed to swipe that one. The top 5th saw the Coons have two on, and Murphy hit into a double play. Reya and Bergquist had singles in the top of the sixth before Watanabe’s spot came up with one out. Oh the **** yes were we going to hit for him. Ochoa hit for him, sharply to short, double play. Top 7th, next chance to somehow **** up. Sandy drew a leadoff walk, but couldn’t get a jump to steal second. He did make it to third base on McKnight’s 1-out single. Up came Richards, and he was perhaps the one of our assumed sluggers that had not hit into double plays year-round. He had also hit two bombs already this week – and hit a third one, a very relieving 3-run homer to right, no doubt about that one, and the Coons were up 5-2. The bullpen tended to this one nicely; Mathis, Sugano, and Entwistle got the 5-2 advantage to the ninth inning, which was to be Angel Casas’. Angel had not appeared at all in the Crusaders series, and now made a right mess. After getting Javy Rodriguez, he allowed a single to Zach Ingraham, walked Michael Lefebure, and allowed an RBI single to Will McIntyre. Reya’s throw to home allowed the tying runs to reach scoring position. He fell behind Gusmán 2-0 before Gusmán hit a blooper to right, nobody was going to get it, and the Bayhawks tied the score. Armando Martinez whiffed, Adam Young fouled out, and somehow we had managed to convert a 5-2 lead into extra innings.

Amazingly, after Casas had failed with flying colors, Gibson and Conway pitched scoreless innings, while Bednarski hit into another grinding double play in the 12th inning. The fail continued until the 15th. Bednarski and Alexander hit singles to put two on for Bergquist with one out. Ian Johnson, southpaw, was pitching, the 1-1 was pretty fat, and Bergquist lined it pretty hard to the right side. Adam Young jumped and swiped, but missed it, and the Coons took the lead on an RBI single. On the throw home the runners moved into scoring position, but they were left there when Canning popped out and Sambrano grounded out. Ron Thrasher was still left over and was now tasked with protection of a 6-5 lead. He struck out Rusty Zackery before Armando Martinez doubled to right. Oh come on. Ryan Miller (yeah, that one) pinch-hit and grounded out to third, leaving things to Chris Almanza. Thrasher had him at 2-2, threw a wild pitch, and moved the tying run to third base. Almanza struck out on the next pitch. 6-5 Blighters. McKnight 4-5, 2 BB; Richards 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Bergquist 3-7, 2B, RBI; Mathis 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Conway 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Mathis would have had the W if Angel hadn’t ****ed up.

The Crusaders clinched the North on this day. Shall they have a painful exit in the CLCS.

Game 2
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – C Margolis – CF Seeley – P N. Brown
SFB: 2B A. Martinez – LF J. Gusmán – CF D. Garcia – RF Almanza – 1B A. Young – 3B J. Rodriguez – SS R. Miller – C A. Ramirez – P Beauchamp

Brownie drilled Martinez with his first pitch of the game, so that was a great start. The Critters would take a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Margolis hit a leadoff homer to left. The lead was not to last. Martinez and Gusmán hit back-to-back doubles with one out, and Dave Garcia would have hit another one if Ochoa hadn’t made a flying grab near the track. Almanza grounded out to strand Gusmán at third base. After a quiet fourth, Ochoa and Margolis opened the fifth with soft singles that just barely made it past infielders. In contrast to that, Seeley unleashed a rocket to deep right, Almanza hustled after it reaching, yet missed it – and then he fell down. The ball went to the corner, and by the time Almanza had dug it out, Seeley was safe with a 2-run triple. That run, however, was not to score. Brownie struck out, and when Sambrano flew out to Almanza, he gunned down Seeley at home. Brownie ran into more trouble against the 1-2 guys, who both hit singles with two outs in the bottom 5th – Martinez a hard one, Gusmán one of the infield sort – but Garcia with his 21 homers this year grounded out to Sambrano. And the Birds were not sitting down just like that, especially when getting help from Stan Murphy, who fed a poor throw to Brown on Javy Rodriguez’ grounder in the bottom of the sixth, Brownie didn’t come up with it, and Rodriguez was safe on the error, then stole second base. Miller, however, popped out to short, keeping the Birds behind 3-1.

Top 7th, Murphy drew a leadoff walk. When Beauchamp threw a wild one to Ochoa, the Birds walked him intentionally to get to Margolis, who promptly fouled out. Seeley however came through again, hitting a soft looper that fell uncatchable into shallow right center. Murphy read it well – so at least the eyes were working – and scored handily, 4-1. Brownie was kept around to bunt, missed twice, then swung and bounced to Beauchamp, who got Seeley at second and left runners on the corners for a struggling Sandy Sambrano, for whom Luis Reya batted and hit the first pitch hard to right. In a similar play to Seeley’s 2-run triple, Almanza barely missed the liner, this time stayed on the feet, but still couldn’t help but concede the 2-out, 2-run double. Brown got two quick outs from Antonio Ramirez and Will McIntyre before the top of the order was up again. Martinez singled hard to left, but Gusmán was a left-hander, so Brownie stayed in to see Gusmán as his last batter. He was 1-2 ahead before Gusmán knocked the ball into play, but grounded out to Brock Hudman, who had replaced Sambrano at second base.

Well, now. Can you little ****s go through two innings without blowing a 5-run lead? Entwistle got Garcia and Almanza on grounders before we flipped to Sugano, who would face Young and Rodriguez. The former singled, the latter grounded out, the eighth was over with. The Coons even added on to their lead in the top 9th, tearing up Ricardo Munoz. At first, they only had Ochoa on to start the inning. He was at second with Seeley at the plate and one out, but moved up on a wild pitch. When Seeley flew out to left, that allowed him to score for a sac fly. But that was not all: Bednarski and Reya then hit back-to-back homers to further expand the lead! Marcos Bruno came into the game, threw only two pitches, the last of which Ryan Miller used to homer on, then left with some ailment. That put Josh Gibson into the contest. Oh, it’s fine, we’re up by seven! He got one out from Ramirez, then conceded a hit to Jasper Holt, walked Martinez, and surrendered a 3-run homer to Gusmán. FOR ****’S SAKE!!! Mathis was thrown into the fray. Dave Garcia made an out on the warning track, Reya catching a drive right at the fence, before Almanza flew to shallow right, and Bednarski made a sliding catch to end the game. 9-5 Brownies!!!!! Reya (PH) 2-2, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Nunley 2-5; Ochoa 1-2, 2 BB; Margolis 2-4, HR, RBI; Seeley 2-3, 3B, 4 RBI; Bednarski 1-1, HR, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (17-8);

Let’s not get into how we needed five relievers for six outs… Today is National Brownie Celebration Day!! Wheeeee!!

Game 3
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – CF Johnson – C Alexander – P Toner
SFB: LF J. Gusmán – 2B A. Martinez – 1B A. Young – RF Almanza – CF D. Garcia – 3B J. Rodriguez – SS Ingraham – C A. Ramirez – P Farley

Farley, 41, 217 career wins – still having something going for him. And he had a 2-0 lead after the first. While he stranded two Coons aboard when Murphy grounded out to third base, Dave Garcia came through with a 2-out, 2-run single that Nunley couldn’t get to. McKnight hit into a double play in the third, Murphy hit into one in the fourth – a real hitting clinic was going on, while Toner struck out five in the first three innings and still trailed. Sometimes it takes a pitcher to get some offense. Admittedly, the fifth inning got underway for the Critters with D-Alex’ 1-out double, but Toner then split Gusmán and Garcia with a liner and made it rather comfortably to third base with an RBI triple! After Sandy walked, Nunley hit a crisp single to tie the game at two and put runners on first and second, but McKnight flew out to left. Richards walked the bases full, bringing up Mur- MERCY, a shot to right, RBI single!! Farley was melting by now and walked in a run facing Reya before Johnson eagerly popped out to shallow left, but Toner now had a 4-2 lead. Randy Farley made it through six with as many walks, while Toner didn’t walk anybody until Martinez drew one to start the bottom 6th. Young hit into a double play right away, not getting to add to his 107 RBI. Through the middle innings, Toner fed grounders to the infielders with high frequency, before striking out the side in the eighth. His pitch count was rather low around 90, and he batted for himself in the ninth, leading off – but how many .284/.385/.358 batters did we have exactly? Toner grounded out, Sandy got on, but Nunley hit into a double play. Bottom 9th, Jonny back out there with a 4-2 lead; on three pitches, Martinez and Young made two fast outs on easy flies to left. Almanza was up for lasts, grounded to third, Nunley to first – out. 4-2 Raccoons! Richards 1-2, 2 BB; Toner 9.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (17-5) and 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI;

Jonnyyyyy! I love this kid! Also, old man Farley lasted eight innings without imploding completely, which is also a very respectable result.

In other news

September 17 – Out with a broken kneecap, DEN CF Roberto Pena (.278, 6 HR, 69 RBI) is expected to miss next Opening Day and maybe up to two months of the 2016 season.
September 18 – A whopping three games in the Continental League end with 1-0 scores. The Knights hold off the Crusaders on Gil Rockwell’s 42nd homer of the year, the Falcons beat the Indians, and the Condors beat the Loggers in 13 innings on Ezra Branch’s bases-loaded single.
September 19 – NAS SP Alfredo Collazo (11-14, 4.61 ERA) is out with a partial tear in his UCL. He will not have Tommy John surgery, but should still miss Opening Day.
September 19 – The Stars will have to make do without OF/1B Hugo Mendoza (.333, 24 HR, 102 RBI) for the rest of the season. The 24-year old has torn a meniscus.
September 20 – The Warriors’ LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.324, 16 HR, 93 RBI) collects one hit in the Warriors’ 4-3 loss to the Cyclones to run a hitting streak to 20 games.

Complaints and stuff

Brooooooooow-(gasps)-niiiiiiiiieeee!!!!

Next, get those 39 K in for 3,000 total. Preferably before Jonny Toner overtakes him. Jonny jumped 500 this week and sits at 517 now. At 24, Brownie was still under 300.

So far, no medical news on Bruno, by the way, and I am scared to find out what the Druid will come with to diagnose him. We left Maud and Slappy in Portland to get rid of hundreds of chicks. So in fact we left MAUD alone in Portland to get rid of –

True fact: Brownie has always been a well-above-average batter, and was a base stealer in his younger years, but has only one career triple (Toner has two this year), and has never hit a home run (Toner hit one in ’14).

Odd note: since the start of the dynasty, I have just numbered screenshots in ascending order. The shot for Brownie’s news story is named Raccoons1977 – the ABL started play in 1977. Full circle, baby, full circle!!

[Questdog]

Congratulations to Mr. Brown!

That Toner kid CAN hit and WALK, too! Maybe he could catch on his days off the mound?

[blazertaz13]

I beginning to think someone needs to scare the Crusaders into some bad trades and......

Just let me know and I will have some friends go visit the front office and the owners. Getting tired of them always running away from the rest of the division.

[Trebro]

Very happy for Brown and the team and you.

If you can't win a Championship, at least may good things happen like this!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (74-75) @ Condors (79-70) – September 21-23, 2015

What, the Condors were playoff bound? Well, they were hopeful, at least, for their first playoff appearance since 1998(!) and their first winning record since 2002(!!), and only half a game out. The Coons had eliminated one of their competitors, the Bayhawks, on the weekend, but how would they fare against the third-best offense and average pitching in this midweek set, their last against the CL South in this season? The season series was tied at three coming in.

Projected matchups:
Jeff Magnotta (2-1, 3.94 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (3-4, 2.90 ERA)
Hector Santos (9-9, 2.86 ERA) vs. Frank Guggenheim (3-11, 5.53 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (6-12, 4.58 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (17-7, 3.42 ERA)

Looks like three right-handers in this set.

We added Jeff Magnotta to the roster on Monday, as expected, and also two other players. One was 2010 fifth-rounder Keith Chisholm, a corner outfielder who had only batted .260 with nine homers in 137 AAA games this season, and he was left-handed as well. He had batted .333 over 24 AB with the 2014 Coons, homering twice. Give him a few at-bats, it probably won’t be anything likeable anyway. The other was right-hander Marco Gomez, who was 28, technically still a rookie, but during cups of coffee in each season since 2012 had accumulated an 0-3 record with a 10.80 ERA. He had pitched to an ERA just over four in 24 games in relief for the Alley Cats. Gomez wouldn’t have been called up if not for the injury to Marcos Bruno on Saturday.

Magnotta took Bocanegra’s spot in the rotation, giving us a third left-hander out of the pen.

Game 1
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – LF Ochoa – CF Johnson – C Alexander – P Magnotta
TIJ: 3B Dasher – SS Eroh – RF Branch – CF Feldmann – C Roland – 1B M. Herrera – LF W. Newman – 2B Lafon – P M. Rojas

“Doom” Rojas had only made nine starts so far around a torn labrum suffered on April 24, and the Raccoons had three hits and two walks off him in the first inning, but he also struck out three, including Dylan Alexander with the bases loaded to end the inning, conceding only two runs. Equipped with a 2-run lead, Magnotta almost took Ezra Branch’s head off with ball four in the bottom 1st, got out of that, then allowed a 2-out double to Will Newman in the bottom 2nd. Walking Roland Lafon intentionally brought up Rojas, who of course as these things usually go hit a game-tying double into the leftfield corner. Craig Dasher walked, and Ron Eroh’s sharp grounder hit off McKnight’s glove and went into leftfield. Rojas scored, 3-2 Condors. Just when the Condors had Magnotta, naked and whining for mercy, at his throat, Branch fouled out and the inning finally ended. Brandon Johnson tied the game with a 2-out single in the top 3rd, but the Condors easily got two runs off Magnotta in the bottom of the inning, being issued three walks, and none of them closely contested, in addition to a single by Mike Herrera. Magnotta would be excused from further participation after walking Branch in the fourth inning, which gave him seven walks and one strikeout in 3.1 innings. Conway replaced him, allowed the run to score, and all the little Mexican kids were delighted that the circus was in town. By sharp contrast, Rojas struck out ten over seven innings and never made the impression that he would allow the Critters to get even close to a comeback, neither did the Condors’ pen. Marco Gomez struck out four in two innings in his 2015 debut, but also allowed a magic 2-run rocket by Herrera, his fifth homer of the season. 8-3 Condors. Sambrano 2-5; Richards 2-4, 2B, RBI; Johnson 2-4, 2 RBI;

Ochoa hit for a golden sombrero. Also, Magnotta was sent into the holidays after this cluster**** of a game. He ended his 2015 campaign with 19 walks in 19.1 innings, against five strikeouts, and a 6.05 ERA. Conway would take the last two turns of this spot and then the curtain would finally fall on this rotten year.

Game 2
POR: 1B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – RF Reya – 2B Hudman – CF Johnson – C McNeela – P Santos
TIJ: 3B Dasher – SS Eroh – RF Branch – LF Eichelkraut – CF Feldmann – C Roland – 1B M. Herrera – 2B Lafon – P Guggenheim

The Coons got a quick run on Sandy’s leadoff triple and Nunley’s sac fly to deep center in the first inning. While the Condors had runners on the corners, including Jimmy Oatmeal as the leading man, in the bottom 2nd, wonderously things didn’t get out of hand immediately, but then again we had a qualified pitcher on the mound. Even the miserable Tom McNeela managed to reach base with a leadoff single in the third inning, but Santos promptly popped up a bunt and was too easy an out to not bite into a fist. That feeling would continue as the Coons did nothing but fail hard, including Johnson getting picked off first base to end the fifth inning, and then Mike Herrera hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 5th and scored when Lafon bounced a ball through Hudman’s tumbling body for a single. 1-1, and the Coons just couldn’t hit the pathetic Guggenheim. When they had two on in the sixth – Nunley hitting a bloop 2-out single and McKnight walking – Ron Richards grounded out all too easily to second base to end the inning. There were two on again with two outs in the seventh and Santos’ spot coming up. D-Alex hit for him, and flew out to right, automatically spelling doom for the unsound Raccoons bullpen. The Condors had ****ing Entwistle beat on three singles to start the bottom of the seventh, Ryan Feldmann, Cory Roland, and Herrera, scoring one run, and another run scored when Nunley shoved Craig Dasher’s grounder into his own nose for an error. That created a deficit that was absolutely impossible to overcome – two whole runs! The Raccoons had a 2-out single by Bednarski in the ninth inning, after which Stan Murphy hit for McNeela … and struck out. 3-1 Condors. Bednarski (PH) 1-1; Santos 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;

Before the last game of the set we found out that Marcos Bruno had a mild oblique strain. He was perhaps not even done for the season, so we didn’t dispose of him onto the DL just yet. We will close the season at home, so maybe he can come in from that pen one more time.

For now, Cookie was deemed good enough to play – what a relief! (bumps Sambrano from the leadoff spot) GET OUTTA HERE!!!

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – CF Seeley – P Watanabe
TIJ: 3B Dasher – 1B M. Herrera – RF Branch – LF Eichelkraut – CF Feldmann – C Roland – SS Valles – 2B Lafon – P Boyer

Cookie was clunked on the very first pitch Zach Boyer threw, and looked quite unhappy, but trotted to first after some initial glaring and was not seriously hurt. Cookie would take his 32nd base of the year mostly out of spite while Nunley and McKnight made quick outs, after which the Coons suddenly turned up the volume and dealt serious damage to both Zach Boyer’s ERA and his feelings. Richards doubled, plating Cookie from second, and Murphy walked, but after that Bergquist and Alexander both hit doubles and ran the score to 4-0 before Seeley flew out to end the frame. That lead was incredibly short-lived, though, because Watanabe basically stunk up the entirety of the premises, single-handedly. Okay, he had help from McKnight, who unleashed a monstrously terrible throw on Feldmann’s grounder in the bottom 2nd. That moved Oatmeal, who had singled, to third base and gave the Condors runners in scoring position with nobody out. But instead of buckling down now, Watanabe went into accelerated implosion mode. After Roland hit a sac fly, the next FIVE batters all either singled or walked, tying the score and leaving the bases stacked for Ezra Branch, who flew out to Seeley. Woo-hoo, the second out! Boyer tagged from third, and Seeley threw home sharply. Woo-hoo, the third out! The miracles of the Lord are wonder-breathtaking-ful!

In a tied game, Jimmy Oatmeal led off another inning, the bottom 3rd, with a single. This time McKnight wouldn’t **** up Feldmann’s grounder, and got a double play, helping Watanabe out of the inning. The Coons rose again in the fifth. Richards walked, bringing up Murphy with one out. His fly to left center beat Jimmy Oatmeal, and the Coons had runners on second and third with one out… for Bergquist. His liner to left was hauled in by Oatmeal, Richards went, the throw was a tad late, and the Coons had a 5-4 lead. The Condors had Watanabe on the ropes in the bottom 6th, Roland on third and Melvin Valles on first with two outs and Lafon batting, when Valles suddenly took off and was thrown out handily by D-Alex, ending that frame. Watanabe’s last act ended up being a leadoff walk to Lafon in the bottom 7th then, but Mathis sat down the Condors in three 2-pitch at-bats upon replacing Watanabe. Top 8th, Murphy’s single and Bergquist’s double gave the Critters runners in scoring position with no outs against right-hander Jose Sanchez. Three left-handers, D-Alex, Reya, and Ochoa, sucked hard enough to only plate one run on a Reya sac fly, missing a big chance to put the game far away from the Condors, and instead leaving it be at 6-4. Sugano walked Branch, his only man, to start the home half of the eighth, but Entwistle actually managed to get three outs without ****ing up before Angel Casas struck out three against a 1-out single by Roland Lafon in the bottom 9th. 6-4 Coons. Murphy 2-3, BB, 2B; Bergquist 2-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Taking two of three was good enough for the Condors to take the lead from the Thunder in the South. We also denied Zach Boyer to dump Brownie out of the tie for the lead in wins in the CL. And: Brownie starts the next series on Friday.

Meanwhile the Critters sat on the #11 pick in the 2016 draft at this point. While losing records suck, I expect to not care about type A free agents and forfeiting draft picks this winter – since we can expect to have a substantial amount of money.

Raccoons (75-77) @ Titans (60-93) – September 25-27, 2015

The Titans were unexpectedly miserable; foremost it was their rotation which was just a continuous traffic accident, and not of the mild sort on the parking lot at the grocery store. Nope, fully-loaded-Graywolf-Bus-sliced-in-half-by-combine-harvester-kind-of stuff! Their second-worst offense didn’t help things. Bottom line was a grisly -131 run differential that was enough to put any team at any point on the brink of 100 losses. They had 12 of those against the Coons in 15 games this season. This was also our last road series of 2015.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (17-8, 2.73 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (7-7, 4.74 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (17-5, 2.16 ERA) vs. Johnny Krom (7-17, 4.47 ERA)
Bill Conway (5-13, 5.41 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (6-9, 5.49 ERA)

Krom is a southpaw, the others are right-handed. Brownie is 39 K short of 3,000, which probably means that you can stop making plans for a celebration in 2015 (especially with only two starts left for him), and we will have to talk about Jonny Toner as well, who was well in position to rip the franchise single-season strikeout mark from Brownie, entering with 239 on the year. Brownie struck out 248 in 2012.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Reya – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P N. Brown
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – CF J. Silva – LF Thurman – 3B Rentz – P Priest

The weather forecast was grim for this one, so let’s score a few early and then make it through five, boys! That Richards and Murphy struck out once Nunley and McKnight reached on an infield single and Jose Gutierrez’ clumsy transfer for his 11th error, respectively, was thus not in the cards. Also not in the cards was an early departure from Brownie, but he tried to beat out Steve Butler’s feed back to first base in the top of the second inning, failed in that, and also seemed to hurt himself in the process. He came back for the bottom 2nd, struck out Tim Robinson, but then walked Rodrigo Lopez before waving for the trainer – and he came out. His fourth early exit of the season, and Zack Entwistle had nothing better to do than to wave Lopez in on Zachary Thurman’s 2-out double. At least Cookie tried to make things up with a leadoff triple in the third inning, and scored on Nunley’s single – taking Brown off the hook – but then Nunley was hurt right on the next play when McKnight grounded to Gutierrez. Nunley couldn’t make up his mind about bowling over Mike Rivera, slid oddly around second base, and then held his leg. What a fun game!

While it started to rain – tears of joy by the baseball gods, I assume – Entwistle was burned up by the Titans in the bottom 3rd. He retired the left-handed Rivera and Butler, but Gutierrez, Robinson, and Lopez, all right-handers, all hit hard line drives for base hits. One run was in and two were on base with two outs when Carmona managed to intercept a howling drive by Jose Silva off Josh Gibson. While the shallow end of the bullpen pitched in a game that was not that shallow at all at this point, the Raccoons scored only one run from having the bases loaded in the top 5th. The next inning, down 3-2, they had D-Alex on with a leadoff single. Marco Gomez, who had already gotten five outs, bunted him over, and Cookie followed with a single that shifted Alexander to third. Then Walt Canning found his way into a double play. Richards, Ochoa, and Reya then failed to score McKnight after a leadoff double in the eighth. The Titans failed to topple Gomez or any other sucker the Coons threw at them, but their offense just sucked the air out of the park. Then, the ninth, facing Valentim Innocentes. Sandy Sambrano led off with a double to right! The tying run in scoring position, D-Alex flew out to center. Bednarski walked uselessly, only to get forced on Carmona’s grounder. Canning then flew out to right. 3-2 Titans. Carmona 3-5, 3B; Nunley 2-2, RBI; Gomez 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Well, Matt Nunley is done for the year with a strained hamstring, finishing at .324 with 12 HR and 66 RBI. Not so sure about Nick Brown right now, and we might not know for another day, but the Druid went shopping for tools at Best Sell on Saturday morning…

Although he had a terrible AAA season (.227/.357/.281 over 74 games), 31-year old Palmer Taylor was called up as replacement for Nunley. He was on the 40-man roster anyway, so we didn’t have to spend a dime.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Sambrano – SS McKnight – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – P Toner
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF J. Silva – C Porter – 3B Rentz – P Krom

After Cookie singled, Sandy walked, both pulled off a double steal … the Coons barely scored one run on Murphy’s groundout in the first inning. While Bednarski crashed a no-doubt home run to lead off the second inning and gave Toner a 2-0 lead, him and Margolis both drew walks in the inning only to be left stranded by fly outs by Carmona and Sambrano. It was doubtlessly a curse. The Titans would of course get their runners in as soon as they got a chance, which oddly enough started with Johnny Krom’s single in the bottom 3rd. Rivera doubled past Bednarski, leaving runners on second and third with one out, and Gutierrez poked a ball into shallow right to score them both. While Jonny struggled to remove batters with two strikes in this start, the Titans did a nice job of hitting the balls where there were no qualified fielders. A leadoff double past the untrained-at-third Sambrano, hit by Lopez in the bottom 4th created another tense inning and Toner just barely made it out without trailing. The Coons then actually worked their way into another scoring opportunity in my lifetime: top 6th, Murphy and Richards started the inning with singles to center, nothing fancy, to go to the corners with nobody out. Bednarski grounded out, leaving Murphy pinned at third and moved Richards to second. Bergquist popped out. Margolis was walked intentionally, and while Toner actually got the ball out of the infield, his fly was easily caught by Lopez, leaving three men stranded. Bottom 6th, Gutierrez hit a leadoff double and scored on a groundout and a flyout. For ****’s sake…

Top 7th, Krom was still in there despite fooling few – disregard the RISP futility – and Cookie hit a liner up the rightfield line. It found its way to the corner, fooled Lopez a bit, and Cookie made it safely to third base with a leadoff triple. GET HIM THE **** IN, YOU ****ING ****S!!! Sambrano struck out, McKnight struck out, and Murphy flew out to Lopez, after which I decided to not witness the last four half-innings and instead break into the booze storage of the Titans’ luxury catering.

By the time event security was done with me, the game was still raging in the 11th inning. Apparently I had missed Keith Chisholm’s pinch-hit RBI single that gave Jonny a no-decision in the eighth, as well as Richards’ double play grounder to end the ninth, and Mathis bunting into a double play in the tenth. Now I came back to my suite, slightly worse for wear and a little bit –hggs! – inebriated to find southpaw Juan Sanchez down 4-3 and drilling Richards to load the bases for Bednarski with two outs. Bednarski, always the ****head, flew out to left, and it was on Angel with no cushion to even the series. He walked Jose Silva with no outs, Tommy Rentz with one out, and then Zachary Thurman belched a pinch-hit, 3-run home run over the leftfield fence to end this particular charade. 6-4 Titans. Carmona 3-6, 3B; Murphy 2-4, 2 BB, RBI; Richards 2-5; Bednarski 2-6, HR, RBI; Chisholm (PH) 1-1, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K;

Toner’s odd start leaves him 242 K, six off the single-season franchise record. He has one more start next week. But for now –

Everybody exhale! Sunday morning, the Druid announced that he made a few successful test drills into Brownie’s thigh and that the hamstring was only sore and not strained like Nunley’s – Nick Brown will have another start at home to finish the season, we just don’t know when right now. Maybe not before the drill holes stop bleeding.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – LF Ochoa – 3B Canning – P Conway
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF J. Silva – 3B Rentz – P C.K. Lee

As a security guard breathed down my neck, I watched Chae-ku Lee retire the first nine Raccoons in the game. Conway at least remained unscored upon, and so was in line for a W when Cookie reached on an infield single in the fourth and scored on Sandy’s double. Richards’ 1-out single scored Sandy and the Coons were up 2-0. Steve Butler opened the bottom 4th with a booming double to center, but was mysteriously left stranded although Conway gave up consistent hard contact by now – all right at people. Top 5th, Ochoa happened into a single to open the inning and slightly liven up a 2-for-24 dredge before Canning was hit. Conway however couldn’t even bunt straight, and struck out after bunting foul thrice. Lee, who didn’t have 100 K on the season, struck out Carmona and Sambrano to end the inning. Top 6th, again the same situation of runners on first and second with nobody out after singles by McKnight and Richards. Lee walked Murphy on four straight, filling all the dishes with Critters for D-Alex… who bounced back to the pitcher for an out at home. Ochoa flew out to center, just barely scoring Richards from third base, and then Canning struck out. “Appalling” was not really descriptive of this case.

After a lull in sucking in the seventh (they just went down 1-2-3), the Coons had runners on first and second and nobody out AGAIN in the eighth inning. McKnight walking and Richards singling knocked out Lee and right-hander Jeff Lyon appeared for Murphy, who fell down 0-2 before hitting a soft floater to left that cruelly dinked in just ahead of the onrushing Joe Stephenson and scored McKnight from second, 4-0, and that with Conway still tossing. D-Alex then hit into a double play and Ochoa whiffed to end the inning. Then we left Conway in past his due date, which was precisely Stephenson’s leadoff single in the bottom 8th. While Rivera forced him with a grounder, Conway was not removed until Gutierrez singled. With Butler up, Sugano came in, but Butler singled off him just as well. With Mathis burned, the tying run was at the plate in Tim Robinson, 21 homers on the season. If I could, I’d bet on him to wonk one … thankfully I couldn’t bet, because he grounded to McKnight, who turned a double play to end the inning. So that’s what it feels when the other team pulls stuff like that!

It was still 4-0 for the bottom 9th. Since our other right-handed options against three right-handed batters were the three G’s (Gonorrhea, Gout, and Gingivitis … or Gallegos, Gibson, Gomez), we turned to last night’s hero, Angel Casas. He would wisely refrain from making another mess… 4-0 Blighters. Richards 3-4, RBI; Conway 7.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-13);

Let it be known that Conway’s line is way prettier than his actual pitching, which was at times ... scary at least and irresponsible at best.

In other news

September 22 – The hitting streak of SFW LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.324, 18 HR, 98 RBI) is over; the 32-year old went hitless in a 5-3 Warriors win over the Buffaloes after successfully connecting in 21 straight games.
September 23 – The Miners celebrate a 10-run ninth inning to conclusively move their game in Los Angeles away from the Pacifics, who take a nasty 17-5 loss.
September 25 – Things go from sad to worse than that for Sioux Falls’ Jose Morales (.325, 18 HR, 99 RBI), who will miss at least two weeks with a knee sprain.
September 25 – The Indians beat the Canadiens 1-0 on OF John Wilson’s (.305, 13 HR, 51 RBI) home run.
September 26 – Stars backstop Casimiro Schoeppen (.314, 5 HR, 79 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after a single in the Stars’ 8-2 win over the Scorpions.
September 26 – The Miners beat the Buffaloes 4-3 despite being out-hit 13-2. Both their hits are home runs, a 3-run home run by Jim Webb (.284, 9 HR, 26 RBI) in the eighth inning, and a solo home run by Lowell Genge (.260, 1 HR, 12 RBI) in the 10th. They strand one runner all day, while Topeka leaves 11.
September 27 – That didn’t take long: the Scorpions kill off DAL C Casimiro Schoeppen’s (.313, 5 HR, 79 RBI) hitting streak in the Sunday game, also shutting out the Stars, 4-0, on a single hit by Jesus Amador.

Complaints and stuff

This week was no fun. It was actually slightly atrocious.

If this ****ing team had helped Jonny Toner just a little ****ing bit on Saturday, he would have had a splendid chance for the pitching triple crown. He leads well in ERA, by 10 K over Rod Taylor in strikeouts, and is tied with a number of pitchers in wins, including Brownie as well as “Midnight” Martin, Sam McMullen, and Zach Boyer. All non-Raccoons figure to get two more starts, on Monday and Saturday or Sunday. Jonny won’t.

I am on-and-off considering an offer to Ron Richards again. I know I said that all the scum will go away after the year, but that was during a time when Danny Ochoa was quite productive in his semi-regular appearances. By now, he’s a potato, and slightly moldy. Richards has at least hit 20-some homers now. But he still can’t get through when it really counts. Then again, it’s not like the free agent class for batters will be exceptionally rich, more the opposite. More opportunities to sign pitching than hitting, and we need hitting so badly. Part of it is the burnt-out farm. There’s nothing to get down there, and that’s not just for next year, but … well, there’s NOTHING down there. The odd pitcher, but NO hitters. I can’t draft hitters for my ****ing life, it’s really disgusting.

I drafted Sharpie (who was good, but not great), Yoshi (who’s borderline great), then happened into Nunley in the fourth round, and he still has to follow up this season with another one like that before he can be considered legit. That’s about it for the last 15 years.

Gah.

[Questdog]

You know, it is not the 22 games behind the Yank-, I mean Crusaders, that gets my goat so much, but the 8 games behind those moose defilers.......

In my Beaver thread, in the season just finished, my Short A team, the Hillsboro Hops, which plays in a suburb of Portland, beat the Vancouver Canadians in the Northwest League Championship, 2 games to 1. And I loved it and hooted and hollered mean things at those poor 20 year old boys who could not fathom why I hated them so much......