[Westheim]

As we are off-sync due to the draft being on Thursday, this is a Friday-through-Thursday update (with Thursday being off for the Furballs). I used to do four series an evening easily, but then I didn’t write as many novels as now, so I can’t restore the usual cycle until the weekend.

Raccoons (40-27) @ Indians (44-22) – June 16-18, 2017

The Indians were quite good, and that was an understatement. Although I was yet not certain how they had gotten to second place in runs scored and being tied for first in runs allowed (with the Critters), the resulting +99 run differential certainly made them appear legit in the middle of June. Their rotation was the best in the league, while their pen was second-best, and they also led the league in batting average. Despite this, so far the Raccoons had the leg up in the season series, having taken three of four games in the first meeting between the teams.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (6-6, 2.94 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (10-3, 1.81 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (5-6, 3.64 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (8-5, 2.79 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-2, 1.46 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (7-4, 3.76 ERA)

This is three right-handers, although they had an off day and could skip Riley in favor of the southpaw Tristan Broun (10-2, 3.16 ERA) on Sunday.

Since Nick Brown had yet to make his rehab start in St. Petersburg and wouldn’t be ready for a turnaround on Monday, we’d see another glimpse of Damani Knight then.

Ronnie McKnight enters with a 10-game hitting streak.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – RF Ochoa – 1B A. Young – P Abe
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – LF Genge – 2B Kym – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 1B S. Madison – P A. Mendez

Despite only an infield single allowed to Shane Walter in the first three batters, “Ant” Mendez caught some unexpected flak in the first inning, allowing three straight 2-out singles to the 4-5-6 batters, amounting to two runs for the Critters. A good start to the series for sure, but unfortunately Abe created a lot of nervousness around our dugout thanks to allowing a lot of base runners. The Indians appeared to have him in the bottom 3rd when Mendez lined sharply past Young and was followed by John Wilson, putting the tying runs on with one out, but Abe got out by retiring Raul Matias and Lowell Genge. In the bottom of the fourth, Jong-beom Kym and Nick Gilmor led off with singles, and Steve Madison loaded the bases with another single to right with two outs, but that brought up Mendez again, and this time he struck out. After the early pair of runs, the Raccoons had fallen a bit silent, landing only one base hit in the next three innings, but to start the fifth they suddenly hit liners all over the place. Cookie opened with a double to deep left and scored on line drive singles by Walter and Nunley, 3-0. DeWeese loaded them up with a grounder into centerfield, and no outs! The Indians only got the out at second base when McKnight grounded to Matias, allowing another run to score, but Mendez then escaped whiffing Margolis and getting some support from Genge in retiring Ochoa, who sent a fly to fairly, but not dangerously deep left. Leadoff singles for the Indians in the bottom 6th and 7th were both times erased with double plays, and Abe ended up arriving in the ninth inning unscathed and having thrown exactly 100 pitches through eight. Kym led off the inning, had two leadoff singles in the game, and landed his third one, a soft loop into right center for another single. While Gilmor got him forced with a grounder, Dave Padilla singled quite determinedly to left, and that was the end for Abe, with the tying run appearing in the on-deck circle. Alex Ramirez was called on, and casually filled the bases with another single hit by Joey Mathews. Bartolo Román hit for Madison, but struck out, and then unheralded Josh Malone hit in the pitcher’s spot. His first-pitch grounder went right to Young for the final out. 4-0 Raccoons. Walter 2-5; DeWeese 2-5, RBI; Abe 8.1 IP, 9 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (7-6) and 1-4;

McKnight has an 11-game hitting streak, the Coons have a 7-game winning streak, and we also should mention the 13-game hitting streak for Jong-beom Kym, although we were actively trying to end it.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Petracek – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – 1B A. Young – P B. Morrison
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – LF Genge – 2B Kym – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 1B S. Madison – P Lambert

Again the Critters scored early; Cookie opened the game with a bloop double to right, and after an infield single for Petracek they were on the corners. Nunley plated Cookie with a sac fly, although it would take three more batters to get McKnight home, who hit a 2-out RBI single to score Petracek for an early 2-0 edge, although that 2-0 edge soon enough didn’t look like it could save Morrison from his follies. The Indians had the bases loaded as early as the second inning, though a Petracek error was instrumental in one of the runners reaching. With the bags full and one out, Madison struck out in a full count before Lambert bounced out to his opposite, Morrison. The Arrowheads weren’t denied much longer, though. John Wilson hit a leadoff double to left in the bottom 3rd, and with Morrison’s general lack of stuff it was not possible to keep him on. Genge plated him with a groundout, 2-1.

The Raccoons would have the bases loaded with nobody out in the fourth after leadoff singles by Denny and McKnight, and Waggoner drawing a walk. Young, the sucker, struck out, and Morrison hit into a double play to score nobody. It was little consolation that Steve Madison also hit into an inning-ending double play (with two runners on base) in the bottom 4th, and that the home team left the bases loaded again in the bottom 5th. They had loaded the bases in the first place with zero hits, Morrison walking Wilson and Kym and plunking Matias in between. Gilmor flew out to DeWeese to end the inning. After a clean sixth we felt like we had tempted fate enough. Ochoa hit for Morrison in the top 7th, grounded out, and while Cookie hit a 2-out double afterwards, Lambert whiffed Petracek to make the point moot. But the 2-1 lead survived a seventh inning by Chun in which his second pitch resulted in a Wilson single, although he would start a double play on Matias, and Thrasher in the eighth. Unfortunately there was no tack-on offense as the Coons failed to reach the outfield in the last few innings, and Ramirez arrived in the bottom 9th pitching with a 2-1 lead on the third straight day. Padilla grounded out to McKnight, Mathews popped out to Waggoner, and Román grounded out – again – to McKnight. 2-1 Critters. Carmona 2-4, 2 2B; McKnight 2-4, RBI;

Kym’s streak ended, but McKnight’s lives on at 12 games.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – RF Petracek – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – 1B A. Young – P Toner
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – LF Genge – 2B Kym – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 1B S. Madison – P Broun

We indeed got to see the left-hander Tristan Broun, giving the Raccoons a decidedly tougher challenge, and the top of the order went down without much wailing in the first inning rather than scoring a 2-spot. But they would load the bases in the second inning. In between 1-out walks drawn by Denny and Bergquist, McKnight extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Unfortunately, Adam Young came up, which was a very limiting factor in any attempt to score runs. To anybody’s surprise he hit a liner to right center for an RBI single, and Jonny plated another run with a sac fly, so the Coons led 2-0 after all. Mind, they didn’t lead 2-0 for long. Gilmor singled, Jonny threw a wild pitch, and two carefully placed outs brought the run home for the Indians in the bottom 2nd. And Jonny was completely hittable here. His only K the first time through the order was to the opposing pitcher, and the bottom 3rd opened with a Wilson single, then a Matias double off the leftfield fence. Wilson was sent home, but thrown out by DeWeese. Matias remained at second, but was stranded when Kym struck out. Right there, it began to rain.

Toner had runners on the corners in the bottom 4th when the tarp covered the field, but the interruption lasted only about 15 minutes. When play resumed, Jonny struck out Mathews, but then walked Madison. Broun struck out for the second out, but that brought up Wilson, who had a hot hand against these Furballs and hit a 1-1 pitch HARD to left. Deep, deep, DeWeese dashing out there, reaching up – and he brought it in!! Woofff!! That almost would have been ugly. No, to be honest, Toner was pitching ugly, and not in the usual Toner ways, and the Indians finally tied the score on Mathias’ leadoff jack in the bottom 5th. While Jonny was totally done after six completely messy innings in which he allowed eight hits and walked three against seven strikeouts, the Coons still sat on two measly hits against Broun. While Toner was left with a no-decision, the bullpen almost gave out in the bottom 7th. The Arrowheads had two hits against Mathis, and when Reed replaced him with two outs he walked Padilla to fill the bases. Mathews grounded out to Bergquist, leaving the bases loaded for the twentieth time in the series. Jayden Reed made a desperate bid for the loss, allowing a leadoff single in pinch-hit fashion to Román in the bottom 8th. Kevin Beaver replaced him and failed even harder, allowing a 2-run homer to John Wilson. In a twist of irony, DeWeese would land the first base hit for the smelling team since Young’s single in the second inning off closer Jarrod Morrison in the top of the ninth when he hit a leadoff triple to right center. Yeah, sure, that was helpful now… Actually, Denny singled to score him, although McKnight’s flyout and Nunley’s groundout only moved him to second base. The usually useless Young appeared and singled to right, and Denny flung the paws as quick as he could to score from second base, re-knotting the score! The relief was temporary, though. John Korb found it exceedingly hard to retire anybody, and the Indians walked off after three singles in the bottom 9th. 5-4 Indians. Denny 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Young 2-4, 2 RBI;

We were out-hit 15-5. A win, though nice, would have been a bit too much to ask for.

Raccoons (42-28) vs. Titans (25-42) – June 19-21, 2017

The rotting Titans didn’t have much to be excited about. They were 19 games out in the middle of June, and were glaring at the worst pitching in the Continental League. Their crew was allowing almost 5.5 runs per game, and the offense was middle-of-the-pack and unable to untangle the mess. While the Raccoons didn’t have much of a reputation for offense and just had their 8-game winning streak snapped with lousy hitting, they might find an opening. They had so far beaten the Titans around, 5-1 in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (1-2, 6.19 ERA) vs. Ted Scott (3-6, 6.51 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-3, 3.61 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (3-5, 3.88 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (7-6, 2.69 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (4-6, 3.29 ERA)

Okay, so we get their two good guys, which is unfortunate. All starters are right-handed, and this time they don’t even have a southpaw starter to mix into their offerings.

The Titans had traded their second baseman Jose Gutierrez (.336, 2 HR, 31 RBI) already on Sunday, receiving two prospects from the Blue Sox, so they were already in the process of breaking up the crew.

Game 1
BOS: LF Mascorro – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 3B T. Thomas – SS J. Stephenson – RF Mata – CF Blake – P Scott
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Petracek – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Knight

While Shane Walter’s 2-run shot gave him an early lead and the Titans had no hits the first time through the order, Knight still didn’t look major-league caliber and the second time through the order quickly became a nightmare. Robert Mascorro drew a leadoff walk and Mike Rivera got hit. Tim Robinson hit an RBI single with one out and a walk to Tom Thomas loaded the bases. Joe Stephenson’s looper was too soft to be caught by Cookie and became a game-tying single, and Alex Mata’s sac fly gave the Titans a 3-2 lead. The Raccoons had no immediate answer against a similarly vulnerable pitcher, despite a Cookie triple somewhere in the middle innings…

The bottom 6th – the score still being 3-2 and Knight somehow still alive despite having zero strikeouts and no influential friends – began with a blooper by Walter that fell in and somehow eluded Mata long enough for a double, putting the tying run in scoring position. While a base hit would have been nice, the Raccoons at least got him home, although it took two deep fly outs to centerfielder Jonathan Blake for DeWeese and Nunley to achieve the feat. McKnight singled, then stole second base. When Denny singled, he had a bad first step and couldn’t make an attempt for home. Waggoner walking loaded the bases and ended Knight’s day, with Young hitting for him, although I had a feeling that his clutch hits for the year (and ’18) were depleted now. Indeed, he struck out on three pitches. Thrasher came out in the 3-3 game and completely ****ed up. Jasper Holt hit a pinch-hit triple, Rivera singled him home, and Petracek’s error allowed Steve Butler to reach base. The Titans managed to blow the chance to seal the deal with rank stupidity. That Tim Robinson popped out against Seung-mo Chun was unlucky, but that Rivera then got caught stealing third base by Denny was absolutely appalling from a baseball standpoint, though I found it quite the delight.

Petracek’s homer off Ted Scott tied the game again in the bottom 7th, and Chun somehow – we weren’t sure quite how – survived two walks in the eighth inning. The Critters coughed the go-ahead run across home plate in the bottom 8th when Nunley opened with a single and was bunted over by McKnight, then when Denny singled to center ran with total disregard for personal safety and slid right into Tim Robinson’s underpants, but was called safe, which didn’t get us anywhere since Alex Ramirez blew the save with a triple hit by Rivera, the ****er, and Steve Butler plating him with a grounder to short in the top 9th. Bottom 9th, somehow Ted Scott was still pitching, Ochoa failed to meet any ball, but Cookie then hit a 1-out single to center and took off and swiped second base. Petracek walked, and then they both took off and swiped two bases in one go. The winning run was 90 feet away for Shane Walter, and no reasonable double play was possible – except that he now got the finger and four free balls. Bases loaded for DeWeese and any decent fly would do; so he grounded to first, and Butler hammered out Cookie at home. Nunley grounded out to short. Extra innings. McKnight hit a leadoff single in the 10th, but was washed up in Waggoner’s second double play in the game, and the bottom 11th started with another K by Ochoa and Cookie grounding out. Petracek hit a bloop single to center. Walter then hit a fly to right that kept tailing away from Ezra Branch and fell in, and went into the corner. Petracek was always gonna score on this one unless he’d fall down and break both legs, and the Coons walked off. 6-5 Raccoons. Carmona 3-6, 3B; Petracek 2-5, BB, HR, RBI; Walter 3-5, BB, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI; McKnight 3-4; Denny 2-5, RBI; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K; Beaver 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (4-0);

Maybe Shane Walter is not that misplaced in the #3 hole.

Also, this time we had the 15 hits and took our mighty time with making any of them count.

Batting .217, Danny Ochoa was sent to St. Petersburg after the game. He was replaced by Matt Stubbs, who also was not much of a defender or batter, but at least was right-handed and would offer a few opportunities. Stubbs hadn’t been on the 40-man roster anymore after hitting .200 in 45 AB with the Coons in 2016.

Game 2
BOS: SS R. Vasquez – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 3B T. Thomas – LF Mascorro – RF Mata – CF Blake – P J. Fuentes
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – RF Johnson – P Santos

Running 3-1 counts to the first two batters didn’t end well for Santos, who walked Robby Vasquez and allowed a single to Rivera, and then allowed the first run of the game to Butler on a sac fly. After that, the Coons missed a run in the bottom 1st when Nunley got picked off first before Walter and DeWeese added their singles to his and McKnight’s fly to deep right ended up being the final out rather than a sac fly. The Raccoons would see Young kill the second inning with a double play right after Denny singled, and in the third it was Denny to ground to short and leave the bases loaded. They had six hits before the Titans had their second, and still kept trailing 1-0. Vasquez, whom Santos failed to retire even once, had their second hit, a leadoff single in the top 6th, but was left in scoring position. In the bottom 6th the Raccoons had Denny on first base after a single and two outs when Alex Mata’s grievous misplay on Brandon Johnson’s liner donated them a double and Denny exploited the freshly dismembered Titans defense to score from first base – no small feat for a catcher. There, finally, was the tying run.

Santos threw exactly 100 pitches through seven innings, which was enough for him, and never saw a lead, but saw another two hits (10 total then) go to waste in the bottom 7th. Cookie and Walter had them, and then DeWeese and McKnight struck out. Thrasher was out for the eighth, but the Titans sent Jasper Holt to pinch-hit for Fuentes, and Holt hit ANOTHER extra base hit off Thrasher, this time a double. He moved up on a grounder, but Thrasher held up this time, striking out Rivera and Butler to remain in the 1-1 tie. Bottom 8th, reliever Bill Dean, a southpaw, walked Jason Bergquist in the pointless Young’s spot. Johnson singled to left center, putting two on as Petracek hit for Thrasher with one out. Dean struggled with control and Petracek ran a 3-1 count before rolling into a double play. ****ing Elk. It didn’t get better in the bottom 9th against another left-hander in Matt Branch. Cookie raced out an infield single to get going, then was stranded at third after two groundouts and DeWeese whiffin’, meaning more extra innings. Jayden Reed, who had tumbled through the ninth, sucked himself into the loss with a leadoff walk to Holt. While he struck out Stephenson, his pitching left things to be desired, as was Petracek’s fielding at first base. The ****ing Elk made another error when Butler hit a grounder there against Mathis, putting runners on the corners, one pitch before Tim Robinson unloaded a tremendous bomb to leftfield. Needless to say that the Raccoons had no answer to that. 4-1 Titans. Carmona 3-5; Nunley 2-5; Walter 2-5; Johnson 3-4, 2B, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

Out-hit the Titans 12-5. But leaving 13 on base occasionally comes back to bite you in the hairy ass, I heard. McKnight went 0-for-4 and ended his 14-game hitting streak, too.

Game 3
BOS: SS R. Vasquez – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – LF Mascorro – 3B J. Stephenson – CF Blake – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – 1B Young – LF Johnson – P Abe

Three singles loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd before Brandon Johnson’s grounder to Stephenson was right in the sweet zone for an inning-ending double play, except that Stephenson’s throw to second was wild and the best Rivera could do was to knock it down and prevent it from vanishing in the gap. All hands were safe and the first run of the game was home. Abe struck out, but Cookie coaxed a bases-loaded walk from Boyer to shove in the second run before Nunley grounded out. 2-0 was reduced to 2-1 with ghastly ineptness in the top 3rd. Blake drew a 1-out walk before Denny threw away Boyer’s bunt and put the tying runs in scoring position. Abe then threw a wild pitch to score Blake, but the Titans left him off the hook with a grounder right into his lowered glove by Vasquez and an easy fly to right by Rivera. The Titans didn’t land an actual hit in the first four innings, but then romped Abe for four hits and two runs in the fifth, starting with a leadoff double by Mascorro.

And what did the Raccoons do? More errors! Nunley threw away Stephenson’s 2-out grounder in the sixth inning, putting two in scoring position. Blake was walked intentionally to get Abe to strike out Boyer, but offensively they were completely gone. Vasquez hit a leadoff triple in the seventh, swiftly adding a run for the Titans, 4-2, on Rivera’s grounder to second. The miserable Critters hadn’t hit a ball out of the infield in approximately 18 years when Cookie opened the bottom 8th with a leadoff triple off Boyer. The tying run came up, which didn’t mean squid with this team, which had close to zero home runs in recent memory. Nunley’s grounder to Rivera scored Cookie, but otherwise didn’t advance the team one ****ing inch as they still trailed 4-3 and suffered another two groundouts in short order. The ****ing run didn’t get them anywhere, especially with Steve Butler taking it right back with a 2-out double in the top 9th that scored the disgusting Rivera, who had swiped his 19th base of the year against Denny and Korb largely unimpeded and scored leisurely on the double. Denny, Waggoner, and DeWeese were effortlessly wiped away by Matt Branch in the bottom 9th anyway. 5-3 Titans.

In other news

June 16 – BOS SP Zach Boyer (4-6, 3.29 ERA) 2-hits the Crusaders in a 4-0 Titans win.
June 17 – The Pacifics lose SP Ernest Green (7-4, 4.04 ERA) for the season. The 32-year old southpaw has been diagnosed with bone chips in his elbow and needs them removed instantly.
June 17 – WAS C Jose Flores (.263, 12 HR, 51 RBI) will miss about a month with a broken thumb.
June 18 – The Loggers part with 1B Mike Rucker (.323, 18 HR, 61 RBI), sending him to the Knights and receive 1B David Betancourt (.305, 6 HR, 26 RBI) and #67 prospect C Jack Stickley.
June 18 – The same afternoon, the Loggers walk off in the 11th inning against the Canadiens, 5-4, on Scott Hanson’s wild pitch. The same thing happens to the Gold Sox in their game against the Wolves, which they win 2-1 in 13 innings on Harley Molski’s wild pitch.
June 20 – A quad strain sends DEN SS/2B Piet Oosterom (.242, 0 HR, 26 RBI) to the DL for the next month.
June 22 – CIN SP Jimmy Boswell (5-8, 7.15 ERA), only recently acquired from the Stars, seems to enjoy the change of scenery. He shines with a 3-hit shutout of the Capitals, which the Cyclones win 5-0.

Complaints and stuff

Manobu Sugano had just a few weeks ago been dealt from the Elks to the Crusaders, and had thrown for a 1.95 ERA and no record in 22 games this year, but now he’s out for up to a year with a stretched elbow ligament. Which is a shame. I kinda liked him for a while.

We had one trade offer this week, the Miners offering Ron Funderburk for Jason Bergquist and John Waker. First, we have no use for a funky-named right-handed reliever. Second, Bergquist is fine, but while Waker has more walks than strikeouts in Aumsville, I’m not selling him for an apple and an egg just yet. People must be thinking I’m stupid. Well, okay, I made Dennis Fried wear an angry sock on his Hall of Fame plate for NOTHING, but … eh … what was I gonna …? Um. Uh, shiny foil with chocolate inside!

(noms)

(mumbling with the mouth full) Re the Rucker trade, the Loggers deserve their permanent misery. That is a pathetic trade. That is just … pathetic.

Also pathetic: the Raccoons. But you already know that. The puny offense is … pathetic. I don’t know. Running out of adjectives. Also souring on Petracek, on offense and defense, but you know the saying; an Elk may change his coat, but never his hooves! But in all honesty one can only hope that Cookie Carmona gets outta here before he permanently loses limbs to random injuries because his would be the next top level career entirely wasted to an undeserving franchise, which gets us swiftly to the Good News Department with this most stunning development:

Nick Brown threw 11 pitches in his rehab start with the Alley Cats, then left the game with a strained abdominal muscle. We might try to get him back on his paws by August, or we might not. It is a borked situation, really.

I need to open a fresh jar of tears now, because mine are empty.