[Westheim]

Raccoons (80-55) vs. Titans (64-74) – September 8-10, 2014

The Titans were well on their way to a losing record, despite having a firm grab of the Raccoons all year long, beating them 8-4 in the first 12 games. Right now they were ice cold, however, with a 5-game losing streak. Their offense ranked them seventh, their pitching was sixth, with only a -10 run differential, but bad luck had been a thing for them.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (7-7, 4.18 ERA) vs. Chae-ku Lee (6-1, 2.78 ERA)
Gary Dupes (1-0, 5.06 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (7-9, 3.78 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-6, 2.89 ERA) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (7-9, 3.56 ERA)

Three right-handers. Game three will be a rematch from Opening Day.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B T. Ramos – C Suda – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – 3B Rentz – CF Thurman – P C.K. Lee
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – C Alexander – RF Seeley – 2B Bergquist – SS Canning – P Dickerson

Nobody in the Titans’ lineup had even 10 home runs, and only one player each had 60 RBI (Tony Ramos) or was batting over .300 (Jose Gutierrez). Mike Rivera was nine bases short of Ricardo Carmona for the stolen base title in the CL. Somehow, the Coons kept losing games to them, but at least in the series opener on this Monday that was pleasantly warm at 68 degrees in Portland and didn’t really evoke a feeling that winter was coming they pounced on Chae-ku Lee and bounced him after four innings. Lee allowed homers to D-Alex (a solo job in the second) and Richards (a 2-run shot in the third that came after Nunley’s 30th double this year), and was charged with five runs total. Dickerson threw five scoreless before everything went wrong at once, Canning missed a very playable grounder by Jose Gutierrez into a leadoff single in the top 6th, Tony Ramos added a bloop single, and “Quasimodo” Suda rung Dickerson’s bell with an RBI double to deep left. Xavier Williams plated two with a single and suddenly this was a ballgame again, a 5-3 ballgame to be precise.

After Canning’s leadoff single off Ricardo Rocha in the bottom 6th, Fucito hit for Dickerson, but lined out to Rivera. Cookie singled, and Nunley walked, however, bringing up Stan Murphy with the bases loaded, which with one out was a perfect recipe for disappointment. And Murphy didn’t disappoint, trudging back to the dugout with a very disappointing strikeout. As did Richards. The ****ing trades I do…

Onwards with misery, George Youngblood faced two batters to start the seventh, walking Marcos Baez and giving a single to Rivera. Zack Entwistle replaced him, got a bunt from Gutierrez and threw to third base, and well too late to get the speedy Baez, or then anybody. Bases loaded, nobody out, which the Titans’ own ragdoll lineup converted into a run-scoring double play by Ramos (better than Murphy, still) and a ****ty pop to short by Suda. Entwistle issued a leadoff walk to Rodrigo Lopez in the eighth inning which Thrasher had to wipe away somehow, but at least we were spared another Angel explosion and he sat down the Titans 1-2-3 in the ninth. 5-4 Coons. Carmona 3-5; Richards 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Alexander 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

His three hits bumped Cookie Carmona’s average up to .348 and into the lead in the batting race by a single point compared to Martin Ortíz.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B T. Ramos – C Suda – 3B Holley – LF X. Williams – RF R. Turner – CF Thurman – P Rutter
POR: CF Carmona – SS Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 1B Merritt – 2B Bergquist – P Dupes

Gary Dupes was wildly not a worthy replacement for Jonny Toner, despite starting the game with three shutout innings. Suda and Rob Holley hit 1-out singles in the fourth inning that Dupes made so much worse with eight straight balls to the left-handers Williams and Ray Turner. Thurman drove in a pair before a K to Rutter and Rivera’s groundout at least kept the damage to three runs. The Coons were meanwhile content with sending up the bare minimum of batters through four innings, with three walks drawn, all dissolved in some form of double play. Cookie walked and was doubled off twice, first on a Sambrano grounder, and then when Sandy fell asleep on a hit-and-run. Alexander ended the no-hit bid with a 2-out double in the fifth, but that was still not enough to make an impression on Ian Rutter. Dupes didn’t make it through six, again walking Xavier Williams and allowing a single to Turner. Sugano kept the damage to one run. But the Titans could be happy with what they had, because it was easily enough to end their 6-game losing spell. The Raccoons amounted to only one more hit, a Ron Richards single, before quietly dissipating on a cold Tuesday – winter in fact was coming. 4-0 Titans.

Danny Margolis joined the roster off the DL after this horrible game.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B T. Ramos – C Suda – 3B Holley – RF R. Lopez – LF X. Williams – CF Thurman – P Uenohara
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – C Alexander – RF Fucito – SS Taylor – P Brown

Nick Brown hadn’t lost in seven starts, but couldn’t remove people in 2-strike counts for his dear life. His stuff was lacking so badly that Kel Yates, watching from some place called Drummondville, felt pretty good about keeping his 12th place in career strikeouts over the weekend – and Brown was only three K short!

Suda doubled in one of those 2-strike counts to open the second inning and easily scored on another 2-strike single by Rodrigo Lopez. There wasn’t that much hard contact off Brown outside the Suda double, but the lack of bite was overly depressing. Offensively, the Raccoons resembled a handful of hollow nuts that only got into scoring position on a walk and a bloop in the fifth and scored on Palmer Taylor’s sac fly to tie the score at one. Brown struck out Gutierrez in a full count to start the sixth inning to finally move into the tie for 12th place. Bottom 6th, Cookie opened with a single and swooped second without bothering about Sandy, who eventually reached on a Ramos error, a glitched pickup that allowed runners onto the corners with nobody out. Nunley struck out, but the only mid-season addition that didn’t deserve outright dissolution in acid, Ron Richards, wonked a 3-run homer to give Brownie a 4-1 lead. He managed to go another inning, whiffing Williams and Randy Porter in the process, but was hit for with Jon Merritt in the bottom 7th. Merritt lined out to second base in a recent string of hard luck just going on, and when Cookie walked and tried to take another bag, Suda threw him out. Sugano pitched a quick eighth before Sakellaris was assigned the save opportunity in the ninth inning, still up by three and with three right-handers up starting with Suda. Angel had been out more than half the days since last Monday and would get another day of rest with the semi-double-header on Friday. Sakellaris made two outs in six pitches before Lopez singled his way on and he walked Williams. Zachary Thurman struck out, however, and the series went to the Coons. 4-1 Brownies! Alexander 2-2; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (13-6);

Raccoons (82-56) @ Loggers (51-87) – September 12-14, 2014

The miserable Loggers, ninth in runs scored and well last in runs allowed, were 1-13 against the Raccoons in 2014. This was the last set, which I was regretting. They had also placed some of their best batters on the DL by now, with Mike Rucker, Justin Dally, and Dan Jones all unavailable. What was left to put in the lineup looked a bit like the leftovers of a flea market discarded roadside.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (10-4, 2.26 ERA) vs. Brian Patrick (10-13, 5.75 ERA) *
Hector Santos (14-7, 2.70 ERA) vs. TBD
Daniel Dickerson (8-7, 4.19 ERA) vs. Bruce Morrison (5-18, 4.78 ERA)
Gary Dupes (1-1, 5.73 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (3-20, 6.92 ERA)

The series opens with a continuation of a game that was suspended in July after six scoreless innings. Bill Conway has a no-hitter going that he is going to pick up. It’s still unclear how they will sort their rotation the rest of the way and whether they send guys on short rest or pick a spot starter. Any which way, it’s unlikely they can find a left-hander to throw at us.

When the suspended game actually was restarted, the Loggers gave away a glance at a troubled franchise as they sent Bruce Morrison to resume his effort from back then, despite having to pitch on three days’ rest.

The Raccoons’ 13-1 record against the Loggers means that they can top their franchise best of 15 wins against a CL North opponent, achieved against the … 2012 Crusaders. Yes, actually.

Game 1 (resumed game from July; * indicates replacement)
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS Howell – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – LF Richards – 1B Merritt* - C Alexander – CF Seeley – P Conway
MIL: 2B J.J. Rodriguez – LF Knowling – CF Enriquez* – 1B Roncero* – 3B Kingsley* – SS O. Sandoval – RF(CF) Hodgers – C O. Castillo – P B. Morrison

Play resumed with the top of the seventh inning with singles by D-Alex and Seeley. In other circumstances someone would have hit perhaps for Conway, but not now. He popped up a terrible bunt that killed off the offense swiftly before Sandy grounded to second to end the inning. Just as quickly as any offense, the no-hitter evaporated with a 2-out bloop single by Eric Kingsley in the bottom of the inning. Richards opened the top 9th with a single to right, the perfect excuse to insert Cookie Carmona as pinch-runner (Carmona had missed the original contest with a nagging back injury). Cookie stole second right away, and even took third base on Orlando Castillo’s throwing error that ended up with Victor Enriquez. Merritt rolled a single through Kingsley to score him. Conway came up with two outs and we deemed him fresh and good enough to save his own **** against the Loggers’ lineup that was as impressive as that of a community college’s softball team. Bad idea. Zach Knowling hit a leadoff triple in the bottom of the inning, and Conway wasn’t going to save that one. The run scored, we had extra innings. A new lead was on the board quickly, though. Sandy hit a leadoff double in the 10th, facing Jose Ramos, and scored on Rob Howell’s single to right center. This time, Angel Casas got the ball for the save – and Nick Gilmor hit a leadoff triple. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! The maniacal screams from the suite – clearly audible in a scarcely visited park on a Friday afternoon – scared Angel enough to get his **** together: the next three batters all struck out. 2-1 Coons. Bednarski 2-5; Carmona 1-1; Merritt 1-2, RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – C McNeela – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
MIL: SS O. Sandoval – C Leach – LF Knowling – CF Enriquez – 2B Roncero – RF Gilmor – 1B Pace – 3B D. Jennings – P Patrick

While the still-not-fixed middle of the order for the Raccoon neglected to do anything with Cookie and Sandy on base and nobody out in the third inning, the Loggers took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the frame when Brian Patrick hit a lucky double and then scored on Foster Leach’s ****ty bloop that fell between Bednarski and Bergquist. Bednarski was certainly guilty of many things, but at least he loved to pounce on a team that was lying comatose on the ground. When it was his time to bat again in the fourth inning, he romped a 3-run homer that ran the Coons’ lead to 7-1. How come? Well, Taylor had hit a 1-out double, before the Loggers went error, walk, and error on the Coons’ 8-9-1 batters. Sandy had a hit, Nunley got on, and then came Bednarski’s shot with two outs.

What should have been an ample lead for Santos to cruise home on was in the gravest danger even in the fourth inning. The Loggers ran four straight 1-out hits off him, as Victor Enriquez, Silvestro Roncero, Nick Gilmor, and Tim Pace tightened the noose – except that while Enriquez scored on Gilmor’s hit, Roncero was thrown out at home on Pace’s single, and the Loggers fudged themselves out of the inning, despite another hit, to only score two on five base knocks, and those two, plus change, were shaken out of Troy Charters right away in the top 5th. Bergquist hit a 2-run homer, and Nunley contributed an RBI double that chased home Sandy Sambrano, who, five innings in, sat on four base hits. But Sandy didn’t get another hit, and Santos was knocked around sufficiently hard that he almost would have been yanked in the fifth inning, in which the Loggers scored another two runs. He got the third out there on a difficult play made well by the otherwise not very defensively adept Richards, and lived through six to tell his horror story. The bullpen was wonky here and there, but the Loggers never crossed home plate again. The Coons added a late run driven in by Taylor. 11-5 Raccoons. Sambrano 4-5, 2 RBI; Nunley 3-5, 2B, RBI; Taylor 3-5, 2B, RBI; Seeley 1-2, 2B;

Cookie was replaced in a double switch mid-game, which seems odd, but he’s playing every day and we have enough legs around here.

We actually added four more for Saturday, as with the conclusion of the minor league season we called up Brock Hudman.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – 1B Murphy – LF Richards – RF Bednarski – SS Howell – C Margolis – P Dickerson
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Leach – LF Knowling – 2B Roncero – 1B C. Martin – SS O. Sandoval – CF Gilmor – 3B J.J. Rodriguez – P Euteneuer

Cookie doubled and scored on two groundouts in the first inning, letting the Loggers stare into the abyss of a 16th loss at the hands of the Raccoons, which had never happened to any team before.

Top 3rd, Margolis walked to get going. Dickerson bunted him over, and then Cookie singled, putting runners on the corners with one out. Cookie then took off on his own and swiped his 48th bag of the season, but it was for nothing as Sandy and Nunley both struck out against the negligible Euteneuer. As punishment, Victor Hodgers singled home J.J. Rodriguez with two outs in the bottom of the inning, tying the score. But there was still, for the Loggers, the Euteneuer problem. He gently touched Murphy with a pitch to start the fourth before walking Richards on four pitches. Bednarski singled to left, loading them up with no outs. Rob Howell, who had been nothing but useless since coming back, hit a ball hard to third base, where Rodriguez touched the bag and then got Howell at first for a run-scoring double play. Margolis was walked intentionally and the Loggers brought up Dickerson, one strike, two strikes, -clank- and a liner to left for an RBI single. But all offensive heroics weren’t good enough for Dickerson, who opened the bottom 4th with singles to Knowing and Roncero before walking Corey Martin and Sandoval. Nick Gilmor’s 2-run double to right flipped the score in favor of the Loggers, 4-3, and also flipped Dickerson from the mound. Entwistle came in and struck out Rodriguez and Euteneuer to put an end to things … - except that those were only two outs. Hodgers hit a gapper to right center, nobody had a chance to get there and it fell for a 2-run double, as the Loggers hung a 5-spot on Dickerson, and six runs in total.

When D-Alex hit for Youngblood in the top 6th, he represented the tying run with one out. Bednarski had walked, and Margolis had singled. Euteneuer remained in the game, but walked D-Alex in a full count, his fifth free pass on the day. Cookie grounded to Roncero at second base, but at least legged out Sandoval’s return throw to stay out of a double play, instead being credited with an RBI groundout. Sandy – in a struggle now – popped out. Nick Gilmor hit his second leadoff triple of the series in the bottom of the same inning, and this time he scored, extending their lead to 7-4. This was off Chris Mathis.

The tying run was up AGAIN in the top 7th, and with nobody out. Nunley singled, Murphy walked, Euteneuer was still allowed to continue. Richards fouled out, but the Loggers had it comin’. Euteneuer missed generously twice against Bednarski, then had to come in, and came in right where the music played: long shot, big shot, deep left, gone, and a brand-new ballgame! The Coons’ pen wobbled a bit in the bottom 7th before Thrasher restored order, and we went tied into the ninth. Jose Ramos walked Murphy to get going, prompting a PR appearance from Walt Canning. Richards struck out, but Bednarski singled, with Canning stopping at second base. Seeley hit for Howell, falling to two strikes quickly before hitting a liner up the rightfield line. Victor Hodgers was zooming over, but the ball dropped just in time, bounced fair by at best one foot, and made for the corner! Canning was in, but Bednarski had had to wait for the ball to drop and could only reach third base on the double. Margolis was next, with runners on second and third, and was so far unretired on the day. This did not change: Margolis lined pitch to left center for a 2-run single, as the Coons reached double digits for the second time in as many games. Leadoff man Leach reached in the bottom 9th against Casas on a full count walk, but that was as much as Angel would give them. 10-7 Raccoons. Carmona 2-6, 2B, RBI; Bednarski 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Margolis 3-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-3);

Sweet sixteen! Also, fourteen straight against Milwaukee. They haven’t beaten us since May 7 in a spot start by Pat Slayton. The loss then was Thrasher’s, however. The winning runs then were driven in by … Gabriel Caro. That’s a pitcher.

Poor Loggers…

They’re morons, though. For Sunday, they went back to Bruce Morrison (5-18, 4.74 ERA), who threw 29 pitches on Friday, then on three days’ rest.

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 2B Hudman – P Dupes
MIL: RF Hodgers – C Leach – CF Enriquez – 2B Roncero – 1B C. Martin – SS O. Sandoval – LF Alires – 3B J.J. Rodriguez – P B. Morrison

Making it seventeen would be hard for the Raccoons. Dupes had nothing at all, walked Roncero and Martin to start the second inning, then immediately gave up a moonshot to Oscar Sandoval that put the Loggers 3-0 ahead. Dupes was also the only Raccoon with a hit the first time through the order, flipping a 2-out single in the third. Cookie also singled, but Nunley fouled out to leave them on. The pitching just wouldn’t get better for Dupes, who allowed another run in the bottom 3rd when the first two Loggers reached, and even a double play couldn’t bail him out, the run scoring on a passed ball. Dupes faced three batters in the fifth inning, retired absolutely nobody with Leach walking ahead of back-to-back doubles by Enriquez and Roncero, and was replaced by Constantino, who didn’t do anything tangible to stop a rout in progress when he allowed an RBI single to Corey Martin right away. That made it 7-0 Loggers. The Coons had to console themselves with Cookie’s 200th hit of the season, a leadoff single in the sixth, which Nunley dissolved with a double play. The Coons also had Bednarski and D-Alex in scoring position to start the seventh inning, and still didn’t score. The Loggers in turn touched up Sakellaris for two runs in the bottom 7th, knocking three straight hits at the start of the frame. They enjoyed the one that ended their 14-game, 4-month drought against the Raccoons, I guess. Sakellaris was charged with another run after a leadoff walk in the eighth, which Thrasher allowed to score. Morrison was cruising to a shutout until he ran out of steam in the ninth inning and walked Sandy Sambrano in a long at-bat with two outs. Kevin Cummings replaced him, blasted away Brock Hudman, and the Loggers had their consolation game. 10-0 Loggers. Carmona 2-4; Richards 1-2, 2 BB; Bednarski 2-4, 2B;

I don’t think we’ll see much of Gary Dupes the rest of the season.

In other news

September 8 – WAS RF Victor Sarabia (.324, 10 HR, 46 RBI) has been diagnosed with a torn labrum. In addition to the rest of the 2014 season he could also miss a significant portion of the 2015 season.
September 9 – SFB 3B Javier Rodriguez (.303, 5 HR, 67 RBI) has suffered an intercostal strain and could miss most of the remaining regular season. The Bayhawks think that he would be available for the playoffs, however.
September 9 – Richmond’s Shaun Babineau (3-7, 4.57 ERA) and Ray Kelley throw a combined 1-hitter against the Blue Sox. The Rebels win 4-0, the only hit conceded to the Blue Sox being Chris Kendall’s leadoff single in the seventh inning.
September 12 – Tijuana’s Manuel “Doom” Rojas (12-8, 4.12 ERA) 3-hits the Falcons in a 6-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Last Coon to win the batting title? David Brewer, 1995, his first Critters season. Back then when you got an players entire peak years for $9M. Today you get perhaps 350 innings, if we’re lucky, from Dickerson, and they’ve not been good, either.

Carmona and Ortíz are currently tied in the race. Thankfully home runs are not an official tie-breaker. Cookie is far and away of Mike Rivera (back 10 SB) and third-place TIJ Craig Dasher (18) in swiped bags.

Still in first in ERA is Bill Conway, who otherwise had not a good game. But he’s a third of a run ahead of Jonny Toner in the CL race, and leads all of the majors by almost .2 runs. Toner will not miss another start; he should be able to slide in behind Santos next week, which would give him the Thursday game. CHA Jorge Silva’s run ended this week, as both the Thunder and Condors hung four runs apiece on him. The eight runs total was the sum of what he conceded from July 25 to September 3!

Pitching prospect Jeff Magnotta, our 2012 top pick, was moved up to AAA to take the spot of Dupes for the last two weeks of the minor league season, but came out of his first start with a hurting elbow. Turns out it is “only” elbow tendinitis, but around the front office we were scared for a few days.

In injury news that didn’t make the front page, Warriors MR Dan Nordahl (4-3, 1.93 ERA, 2 SV) has been diagnosed with a stretched elbow ligament that might take up to a year to fix.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUTS

1st – Tony Hamlyn – 3,837 (active)
2nd – Martin Garcia – 3,783
3rd – Woody Roberts – 3,313 (HOF)
4th – Aaron Anderson – 3,225
5th – Carlos Castro – 3,198 (HOF)
6th – Javier Cruz – 3,164
7th – Chris York – 3,103 (active)
8th – Carlos Asquabal – 2,995 (HOF)
9th – Arnold McCray – 2,900 (HOF)
10th – Bastyao Caixinha – 2,844 (HOF)
11th – Kisho Saito – 2,800 (HOF)
12th – Nick Brown – 2,775 (active)
13th – Kelvin Yates – 2,773 (active)
14th – Robbie Campbell – 2,763
15th – Pancho Trevino – 2,732 (active)

Finally, where do Cookie’s 48 stolen bases this year rank in terms of single season loot? Years ago, Yoshi Yamada, who was the starting shortstop that year mostly for comedic value, stole 54 bases and then tied for third place with Andres Serna, behind Andres Serna (55) and Moromao Hino (58). Since then, Javy Rodriguez has stolen 60 bases in the 2006 campaign. Cookie is probably too far off to challenge that, given that there’s only 20 games left. Right now, he’s tied for 15th, but only two more bags would already give him a tie for 10th, also with another Serna season.