[Westheim]

Six series (20 games) to go in this (yet again) horrible season. No improvement again. Sigh.

Raccoons (58-84) @ Loggers (62-81)

Game 1 paired Gary Simmons and Bill Warren, who had 30 losses between them. That number jumped to 31, and of course Simmons lost it on one run in the third, and a 3-run bomb by C Mike Gamble in the fourth. The Raccoons were terrible at the plate and lost 4-1 despite big chances in the second and third inning.

Cameron Green was hit by a pitch on the ankle and was DTD for a day or two with a nasty bruise. Edgardo Gonzalez subbed for him at third base.

Christopher Powell was up for game 2, now with the league’s good Gary Simmons in for the Loggers. The Raccoons gave Powell a 3-0 lead in the top 4th, but Edgardo Gonzalez made a terrible throwing error in the bottom 5th that plated two runs. Powell pitched seven and left with a 5-3 lead, which still stood entering the bottom 9th. Grant West struck out two and loaded the bases, before Alex Garcia drilled a liner to left – right into Daniel Hall’s glove. Game over, 5-3 Raccoons. Hall and Nixon both were 3-5, while Ben Simon was 1-3 with a walk and 3 RBI.

Game 3 was also a 5-3 win on questionable relief pitching. Hall was 3-5 again with an RBI, and Matt Workman socked a homer off Jamel Teissier, who worked in the top 9th in a non-save situation. For game 4, Workman got a day of rest (for Johnston) and Dawson moved to third for Green. Troy Scott played in right. Also, Ben Cox got a last chance with a start in CF, his relief and pinch hitting appearances had not impressed me at all so far since he had been called up.

The result was zero offense and the Raccoons went down 5-1. Cox had three hits, but his defense was less amazing.

Raccoons (60-86) @ Bayhawks (82-64)

For a long time, game 1 was tied up at 2-2. One run got across against Ívan Díaz in the bottom 8th and the Raccoons looked like they were going to lose, but then jumped on closer Ed King in the ninth and scored four runs en route to a 6-3 win. Troy Scott 3-4, RBI; Wyatt Johnston 3-5, 2 RBI. It was September 18, and the first time this month, the Raccoons scored more than five runs in a game. Still, they were 9-7 in September.

Ben Cox led off game 2 with a home run to right, just by the foul pole. But although Gary Simmons struck out the side in the bottom 1st, three hits got through in between and the game was tied again. The Raccoons scored in the fifth, and Gaston entered in the seventh and I tried to get him to cover the remaining 2.1 innings, but the Bayhawks led off the bottom 9th with a double by pinch hitter Harlan Quick and a triple by Manuel Flores. With the winning run on third and the game tied, Gaston then retired the next three batters and the game went to extra innings, where the Raccoons never scored. Ívan Díaz walked the first two batters in the bottom 14th and although he was yanked for Cunningham, who got a double play, the Bayhawks walked off on a single to right by Michael Bolton.

Game 3. Powell trailed 2-1 entering the sixth. While the Raccoons were completely ineffective at the plate, Powell surrendered five straight hits to start the sixth, including two long balls. It was just awful and continued like that until the end. Bayhawks won 9-4.

Two wins to avoid 100 losses. Although that really was not our aim for this season. To match our result from last year, 69-93, we’d have to win eight of the last 13 games. Impossible.

Raccoons (61-88) vs. Falcons (70-79)

The Falcons were average throughout this season, although their record didn’t really show it.

Logan Evans was all but average in game 1. He was at his worst. Going 5.1 innings, he walked eight, tying a Raccoons record. Still, somehow the Falcons scored only two runs off him. The Raccoons managed a grand total of one hit (Dawson) and one walk (Hall) and lost 4-0.

The Raccoons lost game 2 by a score of 4-2, when Bocci flew out to right with the bags loaded to end the game.

Ralph Nixon then took care and got the team an early 2-0 lead with a long ball in the bottom 1st of the last game. But it was not enough. Starting with Carlos Moran the Raccoons pitching staff surrendered 17 hits in the game and lost it, 9-4.

Raccoons (61-91) vs. Indians (92-60)

A 2-run double by Dawson and a 2-run homer by Simon got the Raccoons up 4-0 in the first to start the 3-game series against the fresh back-to-back division winners. Coupled with a very fine pitching performance by Christopher Powell (7.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H) this was enough for a 6-1 win that ended a 5-game losing streak.

For the third game in a row the Raccoons then started the scoring early in game 2, this time with a 2-run double off the wall by Dawson that added to a 3-run bottom 1st. They made it 5-0 in the third, and even more amazing they did it off Miguel Sanchez, one of the league’s prime pitchers. Meanwhile Logan Evans (he of eight walks in his last game) no-hit the Indians into the fifth, where Greg Douglas doubled up the middle with two down. That was already all the scoring. Evans pitched into the eighth with two hits and a walk against him – what a considerable improvement over his Falcons game. This was Evans’ 13th win of the season. He had one more start to match Jorge Romero’s 1978 high water mark of 14 wins for the Raccoons. (Christopher Powell stood at 12 and would have two more starts with the season finale, so he had a shot as well)

After two good games, Jorge Romero came out to be whacked. He threw three wild pitches in the first inning, where the Indians plated three. His performance was frighteningly bad and after three innings he left with an undiagnosed injury. Another problem with the labrum? Time to fear the worst, maybe even panic. The Raccoons lost the game 5-2, while out-hitting the Indians 8-5. Bocci once flew out with the bags full to end an inning, but there were countless no-offense instances again in this game. No clutch-hitting, to be more exact. Wyatt Johnston hit a home run. In addition to the three wild pitches by Romero (and one by Tony Lopez) the Raccoons made three errors, the last of which (by Green) plated two in the top 9th.

In other news:
September 15 – Scorpions LF Larry Marshall is obviously back to full health by now. In the 9-5 win over the Wolves Marshall went 5-5 and bashed two home runs for 5 RBI.
September 17 – The Pittsburgh Miners beat the Nashville Blue Sox 8-0, paced by a 5-hit performance by Davis Rigsby. This result assures the Miners that they will not finish last in the FL East for the first time since 1977.
September 18 – Victor Soto, 29, long time pitcher for the Salem Wolves, announces his retirement after another setback from a partially torn labrum. Soto was 56-61 with an 3.84 ERA in 148 games, all starts and all for the Wolves.
September 19 – CF Carson O’Brien shoots a home run to center to lead off the bottom 9th for the Condors against the visiting Milwaukee team, walking off his team with a 2-1 win. The win assures the Condors to finish out of last place for the first time ever.
September 21 – The Condors beat the Canadiens 2-1, while the Indians shut out the Bayhaws, 1-0. This logs in the Indians as the first team in the playoffs, winning the CL North in back-to-back years.

Only seven games left, four in New York, and three against Boston, then another cruel and cold season is in the books. Looking forward to those Federal League division races more than to my own team’s last games.

As it seems, the Raccoons will be the only of those 3-in-a-row last place teams to repeat. Four years bottom. It hurts. You have no idea how it hurts. Anybody willing to make some chicken soup for my soul?