[Westheim]

September 1 marked the start of Loggers series, and as well the major league debut of the Raccoons’ first ever draft pick, Daniel Hall. He came to bat in the bottom 6th, pinch hitting for an 0-3 Jose Flores, with two outs and runners on the corners and slapped a liner to right center for an RBI single. He also scored a run on a 2-run double by Pedro Sánz in the 4-run bottom 6th. Hall finished the game in leftfield, grounding into a fielder’s choice and getting a flyball. The Raccoons won 5-1. The start of a great career? Oh, we do hope so.

It was not a great series in either way. The Loggers were struggling just as much as the Raccoons to score runs, but we couldn’t chew them up. Game 2 was a 3-2 12th inning loss with no offense once again. I tried something new for game 3 and put Daniel Hall in the lineup for the struggling Flores. The latter had batted .275 early in the season, then got injured. Since then he had plummeted to .248. His defense was great, but Hall was not known for dropping pop ups either. We’ll see. For now, Hall would bat second behind Pickett. Juan Berrios pitched in the third game and left injured in the fifth. Raccoons won 5-2.

Berrios would miss the rest of the season with ulnar nerve irritation, which was another blow. No I had to find another terrible guy to start along with Ned Ray. That was a problem that could wait another few days to be solved, since the #3 spot wouldn’t come up again until after the Titans series and an off day. Maybe Tony Lopez could be an option here. There was nobody in AAA suited for this.

Next, Titans. Talking about Ned Ray, that straggler gave up back-to-back home runs to start game 1. Daniel Hall blasted his first long ball to tie it 2-2 in the bottom 3rd. In total, Ray gave up three homers, Gaston another one, and the Raccoons were downed 6-2. The Raccoons failed to mount any meaningful offense the next day and went down 2-0, followed by a 7-1 defeat for a sweep the next day. This was no surprise. Powell pitched and was his usual self.

This gave the Raccoons 81 losses at 58-81. What a nightmare after starting 7-0 into the season, and 15-9 in April. It’s been horrible. It will only get more horrible. With Berrios and Evans out for the last three weeks of the season, Tony Lopez moved to the rotation. This could not end well.

Lopez first took the mound to open a series against the Canadiens. He struggled with command going for more than two or three innings and walked four, but thanks to a few double plays only two runs got across. He got a no decision in the 6-3 Raccoons win as we scored four in the top 8th. We also lost Bill Baker to an abdominal muscle strain for one week. The Raccoons had 14 hits the next day, but were only able to score three runs of them, which was just barely enough to squeeze through the game to a 3-2 victory. There was no happy end to the season, though. The Canadiens hit three home runs (two off Romero) in a 7-0 shutout of the Raccoons. This gave us a 8-10 record for the season against Vancouver.

Wyatt Johnston signed his $1.125M contract. That money will better be converted to some runs, grandpa. He delivered instantly in the first Loggers game, shooting for two on a long ball. The Raccoons squeezed through to win 4-3. It was Powell’s first W since early July, more than two months ago!! Tony Lopez was making another start to fill up the rotation in game 2 and was rapped for a 7-2 loss.

Game 3 was one of those where you just want to kill yourself. At 1-1 the Raccoons faced elimination in the bottom 9th with runners on the corners and nobody out. Johnston and Lawson made a ground ball into an out at the plate and the Raccoons wiggled out of it. The Loggers loaded the bases in the 10th and couldn’t score with one out. Daniel Hall launched one to make it 3-1, then Hatfield blew the 2-run save. 3-3, on to the 12th. There, Alberto Madrid came up for his first majors at bat and singled in the winning run for the Loggers off Hatfield. I hate this team… Romero had a shutout going but made it explode big time in the last Loggers game of the year. The Raccoons won 8-3.

The last series on this road trip was against the Bayhawks, one of the Raccoons’ biggest nemesis. Back 13 games in the CL South, the pennant winners from last year weren’t eliminated mathematically, but realistically they were. The Raccoons were still trying to finish out of last place, currently 1 ½ games behind Milwaukee.

Game 1 saw Wally Gaston as the hero. Powell started, surrendered four runs in two innings, then wiggled through to the sixth. The Raccoons had tied it by then, but the game went to extra innings. Gaston pitched from the 10th inning on and had the Bayhawks in deadlock, but the Raccoons didn’t score. Then came the 13th innings and Gaston led off with a blooper to right, his first hit of the season (only Hatfield remained in the pen by then). A walk to Maloney and a single by Hall loaded the bags. Sánz struck out with one out. Then Costa was walked and a run forced in. Sullivan turned up and grand slammed the bases empty. Gaston pitched a fourth inning in the 9-4 win. They continued the next day with a 4-3 win, but the grief was more about Hatfield, who failed to close it. Coming in with a 2-run lead, he surrendered a lead off homer, then ended up with runners on first and second and two outs. With a lefty coming up, I didn’t trust him and sent in Bill Baker, who was just back from his injury. Baker struck out Michael Bolton to earn the save. Tony Lopez had gone eight innings to give the aching bullpen a bit of rest. The Raccoons failed to complete the sweep with a 4-3 loss in the last game. Sullivan was responsible for two unearned runs in the seventh, but he provided the only offense as well with a 3-run homer.

In other news:
September 7 – A shoulder injury will sideline Cincinnati’s Jeremiah Carrell for three weeks, possibly already spelling doom to the defending champions in regards to the playoff race in the FL East, where they trail the Rebels by six.
September 13 – Should the Falcons make the playoffs, they will go there without their ace Joe Ellis (23-9 in 1978), who hurt his shoulder and would take at least two months to heal.
September 16 – Warriors RF Mitsuharu Yamada lacks only a triple for the cycle in a 10-3 win over the Miners.

Two weeks remaining, Warriors almost through. The Raccoons have four series left against the Falcons and Indians at home, then a trip to New York, and then the finale at home against the Titans. That makes nine games against teams trying to make the playoffs. I can’t help but feel sure that we’ll be last on October 2.