[Westheim]

Raccoons (16-19) vs. Loggers (13-24) – May 16-19, 2016

This was our first series against the Loggers in 2016, and it would be for four games. They had lost seven straight games (much opposing the Raccoons’ 5-game winning streak), allowing the most runs (5.9 per game!), which was an amount of raging failure on the mound that even the third-best offense in the league couldn’t possibly pick the slack up for. After beating them up 16-2 two seasons ago, the Raccoons had merely won 11 of 18 from them in 2015, so there was some pace to gain on what had last week rapidly become the worst team in the Continental League (by record).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (3-4, 3.00 ERA) vs. Joey Van Buskirk (0-0, 3.27 ERA)
Hector Santos (3-1, 1.51 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (0-2, 4.72 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (2-2, 3.47 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (2-2, 4.35 ERA)
Chris Munroe (1-1, 2.20 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (2-6, 6.20 ERA)

Only right-handed starting pitchers for the Loggers, and they only have one reliever.

Odd things happenin’: the Loggers ranked 6th/5th/4th in team slashing in the CL, but had the third-most runs. The Critters ranked 7th/6th/7th and had the least runs. Also, with the streaks going on, Van Buskirk will DEFINITELY fire a shutout in a 13-0 blowout over Brownie’s soon-to-be-dead corpse.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – LF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – CF Cooper – C Griffen – 3B I. Reed – P Van Buskirk
POR: CF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Brown

Two walks and a McKnight single loaded the bases with no outs right in the first inning for the Critters, and at first it looked like the precious middle of the order would only have salad rather than take in some steak. Adam Young flew out to shallow center in a way that kept everybody pinned, and when DeWeese flew out to right, that also only got Sambrano home. However, power came from an unlikely source, and Ron Richards smashed a fastball outta rightfield for a 3-run homer, giving Brown a quick 4-0 lead. For Van Buskirk, the bleeding would never really stop and he allowed single runs in the next two innings before being removed from the game before Brownie ever gave up a hit. Tom Nelson was in for the bottom 4th, but allowed a run before he retired anybody. McKnight reached, Nunley reached, and Young singled home McKnight, 7-0. That was all in the inning because DeWeese flew out again and Richards hit into a good ol’ double play, and the top 5th started with an infield single for Victor Enriquez, the first Logger to reach on his own merit in the game (Brown had drilled Rob Howell in the first inning), and he was soon brought around to score on two more singles.

Tony Harrell did the impossible and pitched a scoreless inning for the Loggers in the bottom 5th, but the Coons would be all over him in the sixth, as McKnight, Nunley, and Young again opened a frame by reaching base as a group, all with singles, plating McKnight and putting runners on the corners for DeWeese, who was 0-for-2 and angry, and utterly exploded a 3-1 fastball for a massive 410+ footer to right center, blowing the score to 11-1! One more run would be scored in the eighth inning after an Ochoa triple and a Margolis single. Brownie was also done after eight, throwing almost 110 pitches, and Juan Gallegos was tasked with tending to an 11-run lead. No Logger reached base on his watch. 12-1 Brownies!! McKnight 4-5, RBI; Nunley 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Young 2-3, BB, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1, 3B; Margolis 2-5, 2 RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (4-4) and 2-4;

Yikes, offense! Still last in runs scored, though. Our previous season high in terms of runs in a game had been eight, achieved twice overall and once in a loss.

Game 2
MIL: C T. Delgado – SS Howell – LF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – CF LeMoine – RF Cooper – 3B I. Reed – P Foreman
POR: CF Sambrano – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B Jones – C Margolis – P Santos

After last night’s blowout, the Loggers scored in the first inning against the CL ERA leader Santos, although the run was unearned after Nunley airmailed Justin Dally’s grounder for a 2-base error that allowed Tony Delgado to score unimpeded from second base after a leadoff double. An unearned run in the bottom 1st then tied the game. Andrew Cooper botched the pickup on R.J. DeWeese’s single to right, allowing McKnight to scamper home rather than stop at third base after hitting a double himself. Another error on Michael Foreman loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd. He had thrown wildly past Isiah Reed when fielding Santos’ bunt with Richards and Margolis on base, which admittedly added up to zero speed, but that throw was still horrendous. Bases loaded with one out for Sandy, who was eager to do damage after another so-so start to this season, was close to striking out, but was then smacked by Foreman, which shoved home Ron Richards with the go-ahead run, 2-1. Three more runs would score in the inning on a groundout by McKnight, a single by Nunley, and finally a wild pitch before Young popped out over home plate to end the inning, with the Coons ahead 5-1. The bases were loaded yet again in the bottom 3rd after a walk to Richards and two singles by Jones and Margolis, but with one out it was Santos to bat. He was a career .177 batter that had started this season 0-for-18, so there was not much to expect. He struck out, and Sambrano followed him, head down low back to the dugout.

The Loggers had yet to concede defeat, however, and weren’t going to for a while. They had the game tied before Santos could count his strikeouts, plating two in the fourth on a walk to Justin Dally and an Enriquez triple with subsequent sac fly by Chris LeMoine, and scored two more in the fifth to get even at five, with Dally hitting a 2-out, 2-run double to tie the game. Foreman was already out of the game, which could only be good for Milwaukee, but Santos was still in, at least until LeMoine hit a 1-out double in the sixth. Kevin Beaver came in to replace Santos and **** up as hard as he could, allowing the run to score on two more singles. Isiah Reed brought home the go-ahead run, 6-5, and in the seventh the Loggers continued to mount the pressure. Seung-mo Chun put on Mike Rucker with a 2-out double, then walked Enriquez. With three lefties next, Sugano came out, but the Loggers drew a right-handed pinch-hitter in Oscar Sandoval, whom Sugano nevertheless whiffed to end the inning and strand two. In the bottom of the inning, Toby Wood was in his second frame of the game, and generously missed the strike zone most of the time. Young hit a leadoff single, and DeWeese walked. Ron Richards got two balls before Wood was forced to come into the zone a bit, but came in really fat, and Richards doubled into the rightfield corner to plate both runners and flip the score in favor of the home team. Jones walked and Margolis grounded out to put runners in scoring position with one out, but both Medina and Sambrano failed and left them on base. The top 8th started with a 4-pitch walk that Chris Mathis issued to Andrew Cooper, but luckily Reed hit into a double play. A McKnight double to lead off the bottom of the inning didn’t lead to a run because when him and Young were on the corners, DeWeese struck out and then Young was picked off by Dave Walk. The top 9th saw Ron Thrasher in his element, walking both Delgado and Howell to start the inning before getting to the left-handed meat of the order. Dally struck out, Rucker struck out, only two days of harm left in form of the right-handed batting Victor Enriquez, who was the first to put a ball in play in the inning, doing so on the first pitch, which he rolled over gently to McKnight for the last out. 7-6 Critters. McKnight 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Young 3-5, RBI; Richards 3-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Ron Thrasher now has 13 walks in not even 10 innings. I feel like we should look for a closer somewhere. Maybe under my bed, there’s all kinds of chunk under there, and I am fairly confident I can find SOMETHING that will result in less walks than that.

Still, seven in a row is seven in a row.

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Howell – LF Dally – 1B M. Rucker – 2B Enriquez – CF LeMoine – C T. Delgado – 3B I. Reed – P Cope
POR: 2B Jones – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Ochoa – CF Medina – C McNeela – P Abe

The Loggers took another lead in the first on a Mike Rucker moonshot, his ninth homer of the year, that also plated Victor Hodgers, who had hit a leadoff double off the wall in left. Justin Dally would join his team mate in his next attempt and also vomited a 2-run homer over the rightfield wall in the third inning, that one also collecting Hodgers, who this time had reached on a walk. Brian Cope sat down the first ten Raccoons that dared to show up against a mediocre right-handed pitcher before McKnight singled. He stole second base, which turned out not to be necessary since Matt Nunley went deep to center, cutting the Loggers’ lead in half, now at 4-2. While Abe negotiated his way through seven innings – somehow – the Raccoons were not seeing the ready victims of the last few days on the mound. Cope went six and was largely unharmed, with DeWeese striking out as the tying run in that inning, and Ron Richards struck out as the tying run to end the seventh against Robby Delikat. The eighth inning saw Delikat walk McKnight with one out, which prompted the Loggers to move on to Tom Nelson, who had already been handed a card by the Coons’ offense in this series. Here, however, Nunley played the Coons out of the inning on one pitch, hitting into a double play to Rob Howell. Closer Troy Charters was lucky to get the first out in the bottom 9th when Enriquez had to leap to snag Adam Young’s liner, but then got DeWeese easily on a foul pop before walking a so far horrendously ineffective Ochoa. That brought up Medina, who hit a 1-0 pitch hard to left, but right to Dally, and the game and the Raccoons’ winning streak were over. 4-2 Loggers. Medina 2-4;

Over night then, the Loggers blew up their lineup with a trade with the Knights. They shipped Justin Dally (.253, 7 HR, 25 RBI) down to Atlanta, and received a package of five prospects in return, including THREE top 100 prospects: #15 C Adam Redmond, #77 CL Gary Ledford, and #95 1B Pat Turner!

Game 4
MIL: RF Hodgers – CF Cooper – 1B Rucker – LF LeMoine – C T. Delgado – 2B Enriquez – SS O. Sandoval – 3B I. Reed – P McDonald
POR: CF Medina – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF Ochoa – RF Richards – 2B Bergquist – C Margolis – P Munroe

The Coons could have had a nice change of pace after Medina reached on a single to center and McKnight got on with an infield single in the bottom 1st, but then never moved them to even third base as the middle of the order collectively flunked out, which came just before Munroe flunked out, too. LeMoine opened the top 2nd with a single to center, he then walked Delgado, and the gates opened from there, with two runs across in the inning. Margolis in the second and Ochoa in the fourth hit into double plays, and before that Jason Bergquist certainly tried to but Enriquez was not enough of a defender to turn it. He did have the occasional power burst, though and homered off Munroe with two outs in the sixth, putting the Loggers 3-0 ahead. This was the first of three really hard blasts off Munroe in a row. Sandoval doubled to right center after that, and then Isiah Reed homered, which sucked all the air out of the attending fans. Nunley had McKnight on first base after a 1-out walk in the bottom of the sixth, and hit into the team’s third double play of the day as they couldn’t even dream of holding a candle to the usually dismal McDonald, who turned the fourth double play himself in the bottom 7th after allowing a 1-out single to Ochoa and walking Richards, but the equally dismal Bergquist fed him the perfect exit ticket. Someone like McDonald ought to have a ‘best before’ date, but the Raccoons blatantly missed even that, putting two on in the bottom 8th when he was already at 110 pitches, but McKnight and Nunley made poor outs to waste even that tiniest of chances. McDonald finished a 5-hit shutout by getting Young, Ochoa, and DeWeese all to fly out more or less easily to Chris LeMoine in the ninth inning. 5-0 Loggers. Stubbs (PH) 1-1; Korb 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

This was the first career hit for Matt Stubbs, who did not get a start while up here because we never faced a left-handed batter, and whose days were now numbered, not just for batting .100 in his brief stint, but because …

Waiver claim

… the Crusaders had an embarrassment of riches over there on their decadent East Coast, and they didn’t know where to put all the personnel, and so it happened that INF Shane Walter (.322, 1 HR, 8 RBI) found himself on waivers in the middle of the week. 26-years old, batting left-handed, and usable all over the infield with a secure and steady glove, he was a career .276 batter. Power was not his game, but he had hit 31 doubles between Pittsburgh and New York last season.

The Raccoons were awarded his minimum contract on Friday. He will be under team control through the end of 2018 at least. To make room on the 25-man roster, Matt Stubbs was sent back to St. Petersburg.

Since we don’t get much production between our three potential second basemen, and Sandy Sambrano is needed in centerfield right now regularly anyway, Walter will be on Howard Jones’ throat for the moment. We hope to have Cookie Carmona back within ten days, which is the time window to clear a roster spot one way or the other. The ideal scenario would be to flick Jason Bergquist for a relief pitcher that doesn’t kill us, although that could be hard…

Raccoons (18-21) vs. Condors (22-18) – May 20-22, 2016

Tijuana was trying to get back to the playoffs and they were at least in second place right now with a balanced team that ranked third in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. They could certainly use bullpen help, as their pen was bleeding for a 4.63 ERA. This was the first meeting between these two teams in 2016, but the Condors had won the last two season contests, with the Coons lying down 4-5 in 2015.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (3-5, 3.44 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (5-1, 2.81 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-4, 2.76 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (3-4, 3.76 ERA)
Hector Santos (3-1, 2.21 ERA) vs. Michael Colvard (2-3, 5.20 ERA)

Jonny Toner is somewhat mild-mannered compared to me, but I’m sure he would agree with me wanting to shove a baseball down ****ing Zach Boyer’s throat so hard …! Make that another one shoved up his arse. I have a bad feeling about this opener. Again, no southpaws to be seen.

From the category “I can’t believe that I’m not crying yet”: Jimmy Oatmeal ties for the CL lead in homers with 13.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Dasher – 1B Gershkovich – RF Branch – LF Eichelkraut – C Vargas – CF Feldmann – 2B Lafon – 3B D. Jones – P Boyer
POR: SS McKnight – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – CF Sambrano – RF Richards – C McNeela – P Toner

Jonny had some wild tendencies early on, drilling Jose Vargas and moving him to second base with a wild pitch in the second inning, but the Condors did not get a hit and struck out five times the first time through the order. While the first hit for the Raccoons came in the third inning, a McKnight single, the Condors had to wait until the fifth inning when Vargas got his revenge and hit a leadoff single to right. Neither scored, and we had a really good pitching duel on our hands. Ron Richards had a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, but ended up left on third base, while Jonny reached 10 K after sniffing out Craig Dasher for the second out in the top 6th (Boyer sat on only 2 K, but he was a control pitcher anyway), then watched in horror as Mike Gershkovich lashed a 2-2 pitch to deep right center, where Sandy Sambrano appeared out of nowhere and stole a double. It would be Matt Nunley to put some salt into the soup in the bottom of the sixth inning, homering to right center to give those guys something to pitch for. Jimmy Oatmeal’s weak grounder to third was the only contact made by the Condors in the seventh as both Ezra Branch and Vargas struck out, giving Jonny a dozen. He would not get another one, opening the eighth with a pitch that hit Ryan Feldmann. While that was not the end in itself, with Roland Lafon hitting into a pretty clear double play, Dan Jones then belched a 2-1 pitch to deep center and outta here, tying the score at one. Toner even walked a confused Boyer before Dasher grounded out to third base.

Top 9th, Ron Thrasher was in the game and – shock! – issued a leadoff walk to Gershkovich, who was run for by the rather awesomely named Gordie Polifka. When DeWeese spoiled a drive by Branch to left, Polifka tagged and tried to reach second base, but found himself thrown out by DeWeese to his own manager’s visible abhorrment. Oatmeal struck out. The Coons couldn’t get anything done against Boyer, who went into the tenth inning, but was replaced by Entwistle after a pinch-hit single by Ochoa. McKnight grounded out, ending the inning. Chun pitched a scoreless top 11th before Entwistle walked Nunley with one out in the bottom of the inning. Bergquist came out to run for him, didn’t get a jump, but reached second base anyway when Entwistle walked Young on four pitches. The Coons walked off when Lafon missed a roller up the middle by DeWeese by mere inches and Bergquist dashed home on the throw. 2-1 Raccoons! Ochoa (PH) 1-1; Toner 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K; Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

The teams combined for EIGHT hits in 11 innings, a testament to the elite starting pitching at work here.

Game 2
TIJ: SS Dasher – 1B Gershkovich – CF Feldmann – RF Branch – C Vargas – 2B Lafon – LF Eroh – 3B D. Jones – P Rojas
POR: CF Medina – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Richards – 2B H. Jones – C Margolis – P Brown

The Condors got going really early in spelling out their starter’s nickname for Brownie, which was “Doom”. While Portland’s own struck out Dasher to start the game, Mike Gershkovich launched a homer to left rather quickly. The battery of Brown and Margolis, paired quite frequently so far this season, was not up to par, conceding a stolen base in both of the first two innings, with the latter leading to the Condors’ second run, Roland Lafon scoring from second base on Dan Jones’ single. While his day job on the mound didn’t go as planned, but at least yielded no more runs through five innings, Brownie also had to be his own best friend with the bat, as the Coons managed two double plays in their first four innings, including one where Brown was rolled up by Medina after hitting a 1-out single in the third inning. Brownie came to bat in the fifth inning with the tying runs on the corners and two outs, and hit another single to center to at least get the suckers onto the board, now down 2-1. Medina didn’t explicitly try to help, grounding to Lafon, but Lafon blew the ball and loaded the bases with the error. Shane Walter, 2-for-2 after going hitless in his Coons debut, flew out to Feldmann to strand three. Somewhat dejected for being peed on by his own team, Brown allowed singles to the first two guys up in the top 6th, but Walter made up for at least a bit of the frustration by starting a nifty double play on the hot corner that bailed Brown out of the inning. He did not allow another run while going seven innings on 99 pitches, and was hit for by Ochoa in the bottom 7th with Nunley on second after a 1-out, pinch-hit double. While Ochoa grounded out, at least Medina hit a single to center to tie the game and take Brown off an undeserved hook.

It would be Chris Mathis to get in line for the W when Ron Richards’ 2-out double chased home Adam Young in the bottom of the eighth. However, now the predicament: Ron Thrasher had pitched two innings the previous day (to no great benefit), and they had been long innings. He was out of the question. With right-handed bats up, and not trusting the struggling Mathis with a second inning, we turned to Seung-mo Chun, who had yet to allow an earned run. He promptly allowed a leadoff single to Jose Vargas. Two grounders later, Craig Abraham walked in a full count, bringing up right-hander Alfonso Gonzales to hit for “Doom” Rojas, and we *really* had no other options, and the Condors weren’t big enough idiots to send a left-handed bat with Sugano looming in the pen. Gonzales rolled the 2-1 pitch slowly to third base, Walter hustled in and made a bare-handed blind pick before throwing to first on the run – precisely into Young’s glove and barely in time! 3-2 Critters! Walter 2-4, 2B; Nunley (PH) 1-1, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K and 2-2, RBI;

With this win we ditched the Titans and made it all the way up to fourth place. Whooo, on the move, baby! Never mind that after opening the week with 19 runs in the first two games with the Loggers, we had now once more scored only seven runs from our last four games. We had been 11th in runs scored after the Tuesday game. That was over again.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Dasher – 2B Lafon – RF Branch – LF Eichelkraut – CF Feldmann – 1B M. Herrera – C Gonzales – 3B D. Jones – P Colvard
POR: CF Medina – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – LF DeWeese – RF Ochoa – 2B Sambrano – C McNeela – P Santos

Santos’ first pitch pretty much deflowered Craig Dasher, and we were off to the races again. While Dasher crawled to first base in obvious pain, the grimaces in the Condors’ dugout were dark, and they soon went to work on Santos. Lafon doubled, putting runners in scoring position (although Dasher was blue in the face) before Santos struck out Branch at 2-2, Oatmeal at 2-2, and was 2-2 on Ryan Feldmann before losing him to a 2-run double to deep right. Feldmann also scored when Mike Herrera singled to left, giving the Condors a speedy 3-0 lead and Santos probably the loss already. He had quite definitely achieved a loss by the second inning, allowing a leadoff single to the pesky Jones, and then had a brain fart on Colvard’s bunt, taking it to second base while having no chance against Jones. The Condors had two on until they had none on, Lafon emptying the sacks with his first homer of the year, a 3-run shot to left, 6-0 Scavengers. Santos would linger into the fifth inning until removed with one out and Ezra Branch on first base after a single. John Korb came on and before he and McNeela were on the same page, Branch took off. McNeela fired a throw to center, moving Branch to third base, but he was left stranded after a foul pop by Feldmann and a K that Korb hang on Herrera. The Raccoons, however, had so far amounted to one hit against Colvard and were not in a position to given the home crowd even the faintest hope of a comeback. They wouldn’t get onto the board until the sixth inning when DeWeese singled home Shane Walter, and that was already with two outs, and it wasn’t until the eighth that the Coons managed to get the tying run to put on his pants. Young had hit an already soft 2-out single against the increasingly annoying Colvard, and then DeWeese reached on an infield single. Down 6-1, Ochoa batted, but was sat down with a howling strikeout. The Condors got a run off Beaver in the ninth, but hardly anybody was left to witness the act. 7-1 Condors. Young 2-4; DeWeese 2-4, RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1; Gallegos 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

May 16 – The Bayhawks pitch a combined 1-hitter against the Knights, winning 6-0, despite losing their battery of Joao Joo (6-1, 1.87 ERA) and Pat Eaton (.265, 0 HR, 4 RBI) to injury in the first few innings. ATL INF/RF Edwin Gutierrez (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI) has the Knights’ sole hit, only his third hit of the season, off Anthony Bryant (1-0, 1.54 ERA) who pitches 5 1/3 innings in relief for the win.
May 16 – IND SP Dan Lambert (3-2, 2.20 ERA) will be out until early June with a sprained elbow.
May 19 – A torn triceps will put RIC SP Chris Domingue (6-1, 3.97 ERA) out of action for up to three months.
May 19 – The Titans acquire CF/1B Jasper Holt (.148, 0 HR, 1 RBI) from the Bayhawks for SP/MR Chae-ku Lee (2-1, 4.63 ERA) and a prospect.
May 21 – The Bayhawks could be without SP Gabriel Caro (5-0, 3.65 ERA) for most of the remainder of the season. The 32-year old is nursing chronic shoulder soreness and could be out until September.
May 21 – Cyclones and Stars play a wicked game in Dallas. The hosting Stars blow a 5-3 lead in the ninth with three runs scored by the Cyclones, who can’t close the affair either, and the Stars force extra innings on a home run by Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza (.436, 11 HR, 43 RBI). The Cyclones will break out for five runs in the 12th inning, and then almost blow that lead as well, with the Stars scoring three runs before Stephen St. George grounds out with the tying runs in scoring position to end the game.
May 21 – In Sacramento, the Scorpions blow an 11-10 lead in the ninth against the Miners, and both teams score twice in the 11th before the Scorpions walk off in 12 innings, 14-13. A dazzling 11 home runs are hit in this game, five by the Miners and six by the Scorpions, and no single player hits two!

Complaints and stuff

Maddening number of the week: Danny Margolis has started 20 games this season, has appeared in 28, and has 79 plate appearances. Somehow, he’s managed to hit into 11 double plays. That’s Quebell to the Murphieth power.

We damn hard need a catcher or at least Baca back (magic eight ball says “ask again later”), and also some relief to bolster the seventh/eighth inning. We also need some goddamn ****ing runs to be scored at times, for ****’s sake!! The team isn’t even bad in getting on base, they are into the upper half in getting on base. But they’re just stickin’ there. Or Margolis comes up and hits into a quadruple-play: 6-4-3, and up the first base line a pretzel vendor faints in horror, misses a step and falls onto a kid with glasses. They are certainly quite the test for an unprepared eyewitness.

They have now scored eight runs in their last five games (combined, in case you’re wondering), and even though this **** has been going on for seven weeks, this is clearly the worst they’ve fared so far. Previous low was 11 runs in the five games from April 17-22, which started with the double-header that wasn’t one against the Crusaders and at the tail end saw a 4-game losing spree ended by Jonny Toner’s shutout against the Knights.

For as long as Nick Brown’s career has lasted, only one Raccoons outfit was as bad in terms of runs scored: the 2005 team managed 3.4 runs per game. This one sits at the same depressing mark. 2005 was the year that Yoshi Yamada almost broke the single season stolen base record, while batting for a .496 OPS.

In a bizarre occurrence, former Raccoons incited a brawl on Tuesday, as the Rebels’ Luis Reya (.297, 2 HR, 12 RBI) went after the Cyclones’ Graham Wasserman (1-2, 2.51 ERA), which turned into something close to the Battle of Chancellorsville. Both were suspended for a week by the league to think about their evil actions.

Randy Farley was on waivers by the Baybirds this week. At 42, he’s finally done. He can’t find the strike zone anymore. In 16 innings he had walked 14 batters and pitched to a 6.19 ERA.