[Westheim]

Raccoons (5-6) @ Indians (10-3) – April 19-21, 2016

How exactly the Indians were the only winning team in the North right now was anybody’s guess, but I was quite sure that it wouldn’t last, one way or another. While the Raccoons were last in runs scored (…) and second in runs allowed, but with zero run differential, the Indians were t-2nd in runs scored, and actually were the only team with less runs allowed than the Critters. How exactly this had happened … oh well. The Coons had already been hopeless against the Indians in 2015, being pelted to a 5-13 rhythm, so there was probably not a lot of hope for this set, either.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-1, 2.25 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (1-1, 5.68 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Jason Clements (1-1, 1.69 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (2-0, 2.53 ERA)

Again three right-handers! And we will not get a southpaw on the weekend either – the Knights don’t have any.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B A. Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Brown
IND: CF J. Wilson – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 1B S. Guerra – 2B Tolwith – SS Mathews – LF D. Young – 3B Dawson – P Riley

The Critters took a lead in the oddest way they knew in the top of the second, when Adam Young scored on Ron Richards’ triple into the rightfield corner. The lead didn’t hold up, since Joey Mathews hit an RBI double past Carmona’s reach in the bottom of the inning, chasing home the always annoying Aaron Tolwith, Nick Brown’s special friend when he was with the Loggers* and who had singled earlier. The Indians led the league in offense, and were keen on defending that spot, while the Raccoons would soon again show the ****ty defense that had put them at the bottom of that table in the first half of the last season. The Indians in the bottom 3rd got going on an infield single by John Wilson with one out that I was blaming on Howard Jones. Nick Gilmor then hit a double that was close to a bloop and on which DeWeese and Carmona looked another off. Wilson scored. Brownie, already knowing he had lost about an inning ago, hit Dave Padilla, and Santiago Guerra singled to load the bases. Tolwith hit into a force play at home plate, but Joey Mathews plated another two runs with a liner into the leftfield corner before the Raccoons threw out Tolwith at third base. That put the Raccoons down 4-1, and given their previous track record this season, the damage was certainly fatal. The only Critter to reach base in the middle innings was Adam Young, once on a walk, and once with a homer. That was of course a solo shot and still left Brown trailing, 4-2 after six. Brown held out seven and a third innings, while the previously battered Riley went eight. The Raccoons managed only one more base runner, Howard Jones with a single, before silently expiring. 4-2 Indians. Young 2-3, BB, HR, RBI;

Brown and Tolwith were ejected and suspended a number of years ago for inciting a brawl.

Elsewhere, the Crusaders/Loggers game was rained out. The Crusaders have now played one game in the last four days.

The Indians skipped Clements and sent Mendez into the Wednesday game.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B A. Young – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Medina – 2B Jones – C Baca – P Santos
IND: LF J. Baker – CF J. Wilson – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 2B Mathews – SS Dawson – 3B Tolwith – P A. Mendez

Both teams had 1-out doubles in the first inning, but only the Indians used a groundout by Nick Gilmor to score a run. In all fairness, Santos had started his day with drilling Josh Baker, which was not helping his cause much. It was an odd game for Santos, who allowed sufficiently hard contact to be scared rather frequently, including all three batters in the bottom 2nd, Mathews, Ryan Dawson, and Tolwith, but the Indians always seemed to find an out, and Santiago Guerra’s first-inning double remained their only hit through five innings. The Coons had two hits by then, and zero runs, having stranded pairs of runners twice via the strikeout; Nunley in the first, and DeWeese in the third. The Arrowheads didn’t get another hit until the sixth, but then got back-to-back 1-out singles from Baker and Wilson and scored another run on Guerra’s fly out (like one run wasn’t enough…).

Padilla, Mathews, and Dawson would open the bottom 7th with singles off Santos, all of them more or less soft and barely getting past the infield dirt, of ****ing course, and while Apasyu Britton hit into a double play, that still scored another run. Up 3-0, the Indians forewent hitting for “Ant” Mendez, who flew out to DeWeese. What could possibly happen with six outs left? Danny Ochoa opened the inning, batting for Santos, and singled to right center before quickly getting forced out by Carmona. Cookie went on to steal second base, then scored on McKnight’s double to left. Suddenly, the tying run was up! Adam Young cranked an 0-1 pitch into right, a single, and suddenly the go-ahead run appeared in R.J. DeWeese, and still no movement to collect Mendez from the home team. DeWeese hit a looper up the rightfield line for an RBI single, 3-2, before Nunley bounced back to Mendez, who got only DeWeese at second base, with runners on the corners for Sandy Sambrano and two outs. Still no relief in sight, and Sambrano rolled a ball right into Mendez’ glove to end the inning. The hardest harvest was instantly given back to the Indians by Kevin Beaver, who allowed a double and hit a guy, and Seung-mo Chun, who was quite simply no help and allowed another two hard-banged hits, and the Raccoons lost another reason for why there was a huge market for antidepressants. 5-2 Indians. McKnight 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Young 3-4; Ochoa (PH) 1-2;

The only reason we’re currently not last in the North is that we haven’t lost a sufficient number of games due to three off days and the dreaded and famous New York monsoon season. And I thought Portland was bad!

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B A. Young – LF DeWeese – 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Richards – C Baca – P Abe
IND: LF J. Baker – CF J. Wilson – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – SS Matias – 2B Mathews – 3B Tolwith – P Clements

Abe, who had struck out 15 in his second and most recent ABL start, was not quite up to speed this time. While Jason Clements had three strikeouts in 16 innings pitched this season and effortlessly axed down two of the Raccoons’ first three batters of the game, Abe issued three hits and three walks in the bottom 1st and was blown up for five runs, and the jury was still out on whether the bases-loaded walk to Raul Matias or the 2-out, bases-clearing triple by Aaron Tolwith was the most gut-wrenching event of the inning. Abe would only last 3.2 innings before being yanked with a runner on second base. Sugano was brought on to face Josh Baker, whom he struck out. Nunley walked to start the top 5th, was doubled up by Richards, and then Alonso Baca singled, which at this point was a big annoyance, since the Raccoons would have liked to keep Sugano around for a few more batters. As it was, Ochoa grabbed a stick, and also singled, sending Baca to third. Cookie then singled, which scored an actual, living run for the Horrorcoons, and McKnight found their fourth consecutive 2-out single in the inning, plating another run and getting the score to 5-2 before Young struck out.

The Arrowheads were close to having their way with Chris Munroe then, who allowed a leadoff double to Wilson in the bottom 5th and walked Gilmor with one out after Carmona had almost shed a few limbs on a flying grab on Guerra’s drive to left center. Munroe fell 3-0 behind Padilla before the catcher grounded to short and into an inning-ending double play on the fourth pitch. Everybody had to endure a 1-hour rain delay after the sixth inning, which was not going to do much but delay the inevitable. Although: the top of the eighth saw Cookie reach on an error by Baker, who dropped his fly, and then reach third base on McKnight’s single. Technically, the Raccoons now had the tying run at home plate, nobody out, and the middle of the order was due to bat. Adam Young’s RBI groundout would be their utmost effort, however, and they ended up swept once again… They made it tense though. Nunley drew a leadoff walk from Joel Davis in the top 9th, bringing up Richards as the tying run, only for him to strike out. Medina hit for Baca and singled before Margolis hit for John Korb and walloped a pitch to center that ended up with the Gold Glover Wilson. Tying runs on the corners with two out, and Cookie singled to left! One run scored, 5-4, and runners on first and second for McKnight. His single to right loaded the bases, but Medina hadn’t gotten a quick jump on the wet infield, and had to hold at third. Bases loaded for an 0-for-4 Adam Young, who fell to two strikes before shoveling a ball into play, a high pop to short that buried the team for good. 5-4 Indians. Carmona 3-5, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-5, RBI; Medina (PH) 1-1; Ochoa (PH) 1-1; Munroe 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K; Korb 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (5-9) vs. Knights (8-7) – April 22-24, 2016

Late April, and the home crowds were already getting thin. Right now the Raccoons most closely resembled a documentary TV play on Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”. They scored even LESS runs than in 2015 – only the most evil and most ugly bickering and snickering of the baseball gods probably knew how and why. We didn’t have much time for analysis after coming home late on Wednesday night, with the Knights already waiting for us the next evening. They ranked first in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed. Their bullpen was especially flammable with a 5.63 ERA, but whether the Raccoons would ever get to see it was an entirely different thing. We had beaten the Knights for the last three years, including a 5-4 campaign in ’15.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-3, 4.42 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (1-2, 4.95 ERA)
A.J. Bartels (1-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (1-1, 1.06 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (2-1, 3.60 ERA)

Like I said, no lefties to be found in that rotation. We still haven’t faced one in ’16.

The Knights had picked up veteran LF/RF Lionnel Perri (.143, 0 HR, 0 RBI), age 39, from the Stars to the Knights for 3B/2B/LF Antonio Fraijo (.400, 0 HR, 3 RBI) and #71 prospect 3B Adrian Alvarez earlier this week.

Game 1
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – 1B Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – LF Perri – 3B W. White – C Luna – P Hogan
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – 3B Jones – RF Richards – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – P Toner

Winless Jonny was a far cry from 2015 so far, although this was mostly in results and not in the raw numbers like walks and strikeouts, and early on he already came close to getting bitten by circumstances again, as Howard Jones, playing at the hot corner to give the spectacularly slumping Matt Nunley some time to think about his actions, missed Devin Hibbard’s playable grounder in the first inning, and made an error on Josh Downing’s roller in the second inning to create a mess for Jonny both times. The Knights didn’t score, and then it was the Coons’ chance to break out in the bottom 2nd after 1-out singles by Jones and Richards and Hogan walking Bergquist to fill the bags for Margolis, who still had a stake in the team home run lead despite batting .148. To be precise, he only had one hit that was not a homer and that didn’t change with his grounder to Hogan, who killed off Howard Jones at home plate. Jonny struck out to end the inning. With that, the game transformed into a quick procession of batters coming out of the dugout with a grim look and retreating to it with a sad face, at least until Hibbard’s leadoff double over DeWeese in the sixth inning. At least Jonny had Gil Rockwell under control, who had four dingers so far, but usually struck out in this game, and the Knights made three outs in succession to starve Hibbard at third base, the game remaining scoreless.

Bottom 6th, and movement: Adam Young led off with a double to left! The Knights tried to be sneaky and walked DeWeese intentionally to get into the swamp of Howard Jones, who was batting .200, and the swath of batters that followed him that batted (way) less. However, Hogan unintentionally lost Jones in a full count, and now the bases were loaded with nobody out. SCORE. SOME. ****ING. RUNS. That was not me – that was a sign out in the bleachers in rightfield. But Richards struck out in another full count before Bergquist grounded hard to the second base bag. Hibbard came over, collected the ball and stepped on second base to force Howard, who never slid and was more like flying in, one leg high with spikes extended, to break up the double play – and it worked. Hibbard ducked out of the way, Bergquist legged out his potential game-killer, and Young scored with the first run of the game. Then Margolis struck out. Jonny Toner was thoroughly sick of the misery surrounding him; he hit a ****ing leadoff jack in the bottom 7th, extending his lead to 2-0. Hogan was melting away now; he walked McKnight with one out, then allowed an RBI triple to Young. The Coons were up 3-0, and the Knights struggled to get anything going against Toner, who entered the ninth inning on 101 pitches. Gil Rockwell walked in the inning, but the Knights couldn’t get another hit and went down. 3-0 Raccoons. Young 3-4, 3B, 2B, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1, 2B; Toner 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-3) and 1-4, HR, RBI;

Eighth career shutout for Jonny Toner, who is of course remembered for having five in his first full season in 2014. Meanwhile the Raccoons keep dangling just one run ahead of 12th place in offense…

Game 2
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – 1B Rockwell – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – LF Perri – 3B W. White – C Luna – P Quirion
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Sambrano – RF Ochoa – C Baca – P Bartels

It was close to freezing in Portland on this Saturday evening, and Cookie Carmona took care to make the crowd just that little bit warmer with a leadoff triple in the bottom 1st, soon scoring on McKnight’s sac fly for the first run of the game. That was before Bartels imploded, however. Lionnel Perri opened the second inning with a single. Wade White made an out to left, but Perri – 39 years old – stole second base. Ruben Luna doubled him in to tie the game, and then Bartels walked the pitcher, allowed an RBI single to Reyes that moved Quirion to third base, then balked him in. Hibbard plated Bartels, and the Raccoons were down 4-1, which was never a good spot to be in for a team wholly inept at the plate.

And on the mound. Bartels got spanked around for three and a third, including another balk, and nine hits total before Gil Rockwell hit a gargantuan 2-run homer to splatter tiny bits of Bartels all over the park. The Knights were up 7-1, and Bartels was banished to the showers where Todd von Lindenthal watched carefully that he didn’t use more soap than he was worth himself. While quite lowly valued himself, Chris Munroe would pitch another ten outs in long relief – while the offensive department literally did nothing – and only departed after a 2-out single by Perri in the seventh. With two left-handers coming up, Sugano was called on, allowed a single to White and a galactic 3-run bomb to Luna, who was even now just batting .175 … A substantial portion of the already sparse crowd was heading for the exits when Ochoa hit a 2-out, 2-run single in the bottom of the inning. Baca somehow stumbled onto base, Richards hit for Sugano and singled, and then Cookie unleashed a 2-run double before being thrown out at third base to end the inning. Somehow, something had sparked. Bottom 8th, Young and DeWeese hit singles before Nunley cracked a 3-run homer to right. Suddenly the Raccoons were back in a 10-8 game! Jim Cushing retired Sambrano and Ochoa to end the inning, but when Howard Jones hit for Baca and walked against lefty Mike Tharp to start the bottom 9th, the tying run came up with Danny Margolis pinch-hitting for John Korb. He flew out to center, and the Raccoons had just reached their high water mark. Cookie got Jones forced with a grounder to Josh Downing, and McKnight struck out to end the game. 10-8 Knights. Carmona 2-5, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4; Nunley 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Ochoa 2-4, 2 RBI; Richards (PH) 1-1; Munroe 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

This team…

Sunday will see Nick Brown with the first realistic chance to reach 3,000 strikeouts. Well, IF he can match the CL record for strikeouts in a single game with 16. Also, he can catch HOF Carlos Asquabal for eighth all-time if he whiffs 11.

Game 3
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – 1B Rockwell – RF Raupp – LF Perri – 2B Downing – C Luna – 3B W. White – P F. Ramirez
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF Sambrano – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Brown

The Critters struck first, sorta. Actually Sandy reached with a leadoff walk in the bottom 2nd, stole second base on a bounced throw by Luna, and then came home when Downing capitally threw away Richards’ grounder. Ron Richards went to second base on the 2-base error, but Jones and Margolis both failed in their bids to not look shabby at the plate. Nick Brown came up with two outs and beat Gil Rockwell with a hard bouncer for a single to right, giving himself a 2-0 lead. On the mound he was perfect the first time through the order, though with only one strikeout (Downing). Marty Reyes seemed to take him deep to start the top of the fourth, but somehow the ball not only didn’t go out of left center, but Cookie also made a catch at the fence. Reyes had hit it too high and just not far enough. The Knights remained off base and the inning ended with a K to Rockwell. The first Knight on base would actually be Downing in the fifth, who took an 0-2 pitch in the hand, but survived AND stayed in the game. Just when people started double-checking the scoreboard, it would actually be Felipe Ramirez, Brown’s opposing pitcher, who got the Knights into the H column with a line drive single to center with one out in the sixth inning. That still didn’t lead to something substantial, but all bids were off the table for Brownie through six unless with 75 pitches he’d find room for seven more strikeouts to match Asquabal.

Some insurance runs would be nice. Bottom 6th, Ramirez walked Richards with two outs and was yanked. His replacement, Adam Harper, right-handed, walked Howard Jones on four pitches, but all that did was bring up fearsome .121 batter Danny Margolis, who for a different team would be cleaning toilets, but STILL had a stake in the team home run lead. I hated batting for my catcher in the sixth, however, so he was allowed to **** up, grounding out to short successfully. Brownie maintained a shutout with a brittle 2-0 lead through seven, and flew out to center to start the bottom half of the inning. Cookie then ran a 3-0 count against Harper before ripping, and – lo and behold – whacked the ball outta rightfield! Cookie’s first homer since 2014 put the Raccoons up 3-0. McKnight belched another one, 4-0!

The joy proved short-lived. Brown walked Perri to start the eighth, which got the bullpen’s attention. Then Downing doubled, scoring Perri, 4-1. There were two left-handers up, and neither missed a pitch. Luna grounded out, but White was hit. The Knights sent Javier Gusmán to pinch-hit, another left-hander, and Brown faced him as well. Gusmán grounded to second, but Jones only got White at second base as a run scored. Mathis replaced Brownie now, got Reyes to ground out to Nunley, and at least they were out of the inning. And maybe they could rebound! Even if it was just Devin Hibbard’s throwing error that put Sandy on second base to start the bottom 8th. Bergquist hit for Richards against southpaw Quinn McCarthy, flew out to right, but Sandy moved to third base. Jones walked, Margolis lined out to short, and then I didn’t know better than to send DeWeese to pinch-hit, still against McCarthy. DeWeese met the first pitch, mashed it to center, and had an RBI single! Cookie walked to load the bags and still McCarthy was in to face McKnight, who bounced to Downing, close play at first, but out. Ron Thrasher issued a walk in the ninth, but made it out of there. 5-2 Brownies! Carmona 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Richards 1-2, BB; DeWeese (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 7.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (2-2) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

April 18 – Gold Sox and Warriors enter the 10th inning tied at five in Sioux Falls, but the Warriors get blasted out of the water by eight runs in the top of the 10th and lose 13-5.
April 19 – TOP LF/RF Bill Adams (.400, 2 HR, 8 RBI), who has an active 25-game hitting streak going, will miss four weeks with a strained groin muscle.
April 19 – The hitting streak of L.A.’s Jimmy Roberts (.431, 4 HR, 16 RBI) ends with a hitless appearance in the Pacifics’ 5-3 win over the Scorpions. Roberts had been hitting in 22 consecutive games.
April 20 – CIN SP Bruce Morrison (2-1, 5.12 ERA) is sharp against the Capitals with a 6-hit shutout, while the Washington pitchers weren’t quite, as the Capitals are blown out 17-0, including a completely crippling 11-run fourth inning.
April 20 – The Bayhawks rout the Falcons, 13-1, with the help of a 10-run seventh inning.
April 22 – The Scorpions will be without 2B Ricky Luna (.292, 1 HR, 3 RBI) for six weeks. The 26-year old has torn a meniscus.
April 22 – The Blue Sox pump out 20 hits in a 9-4 defeat of the Stars. Chris Macias (.284, 3 HR, 14 RBI) has four hits and drives in five.

Complaints and stuff

The Agitator spit some poison this week, calling the Raccoons too dumb to even play “hide and seek” – the offense had the hiding part down, but they weren’t seeking anything!

Casually checking in on Jeff Magnotta… who has more walks than strikeouts in AAA. (sigh!)

Fun fact: who leads all active pitchers with 3,769.1 innings pitched? Randy Farley!

Ralph Ford is fourth in that list behind Pancho Trevino and permanently inactive Chris York. Nick Brown would be seventh with 2,903.1 innings (with 2,989 K) on that left wing, ranking after Paul Miller and Juichi Fujita.