[Westheim]

Raccoons (70-49) vs. Capitals (48-70) – August 14-16, 2017

There wasn’t all that much that was working for the Capitals, who ran a -122 run differential thanks to allowing the most runs and almost scoring the least. Their rotation was already bad with a 4.82 ERA, but their bullpen was even worse than that, clocking in at .4 runs more. They also had a few injuries to regulars which didn’t make them any better. The Raccoons had some work to do here. They had not won a series against Washington since *2006*, dropping two out of three four times since then.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (14-9, 3.09 ERA) vs. Danny Gonzalez (6-13, 5.50 ERA)
Hector Santos (8-4, 2.91 ERA) vs. Brendan Teasdale (4-13, 5.77 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-5, 1.71 ERA) vs. Cole Pierson (12-11, 3.90 ERA)

Everybody knows Brenda, though she wasn’t the only ex-Coon on the staff. They also had Shunyo Yano, a.k.a. the price that bought Jonny Toner. Also on the roster, Matt Pruitt’s cousin Jonathan. We would face one left-handed pitcher here, which was Pierson.

The Capitals’ injuries included regular second baseman Danny Zigay, batting a modest .259 with five homers. That one might ring a bell for some. Zigay was an 11th-round pick by the Raccoons, but traded to the Capitals ten years ago, along with Adam Riddle, to acquire the services of Juan Barrón. They never got much use out of Riddle, and Zigay is a career .245 batter, but at least here’s another late-rounder that made it, and sometimes I feel like more late-rounders than first-rounders make the cut in our draft classes.

Game 1
WAS: LF Newman – 3B Dawson – 1B McNeal – C J. Flores – SS Orellana – LF J. Pruitt – RF Stone – 2B J. Peterson – P D. Gonzalez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Margolis – P Abe

While Shane Walter managed to get thrown out on third base after a first-inning double, Abe allowed a leadoff double to Danny Gonzalez in the third, and the Capitals didn’t wait around, cashing in their pitcher with another double by Ryan Dawson. Abe would also have a base hit in the bottom 3rd, a 1-out single that followed on Young’s leadoff single to right. Cookie grounded out and Walter fouled out to let that one slide, but at least Abe struck out Gonzalez to end the top 4th with runners in scoring position. Mendoza’s leadoff double in the bottom of the inning represented a splendid chance to get even with the Capitals again, but Nunley’s walk was all that came about before McKnight hit into an inning-ending double play, the Coons’ second on the day – Nunley had hit into the other back in the second inning.

So far, the Raccoons had showed a lot of misery against the 26-year old Gonzalez, who had been the punching ball of the FL East all season long. He had allowed 14 homers so far, and the Raccoons hadn’t even come close to the warning track through five innings, nipping around for four hits (and only three that saw the batter stay safe at any base…). Cookie opened the bottom 6th – and let Cookie do as Cookie does – ripped a rare shot to right center that was definitely outta here. Tied ballgame! Gonzalez was just opening up, however. Mendoza reached with a double (almost getting thrown out himself), and then DeWeese romped a homer to right, just ahead of Nunley’s thump to right center. Four hits, three bombs, the Coons suddenly had upended Gonzalez and were now ahead 4-1. Abe’s pitch count was already advanced, but he completed an 8-pitch seventh inning when Dawson fouled on, despite Will Newman hitting a single to left. Chun pitched the eighth before the chance to add on to the lead in the bottom 8th sprung from a bad throwing error by Andy McNeal that put Walter on second base to start the inning. Pat Collins, a right-hander, was told to walk Mendoza intentionally, which worked to some degree, with DeWeese rolling into a boring 6-4-3 double play, but then Nunley’s bouncer escaped between Dawson and Salvador Orellana and plated Walter from third base. With the game out of save range and two left-handed bats up to start the ninth inning in Jonathan Pruitt and Jason Stone, Nick Lester got the assignment (Thrasher would have without the add-on run since he was rested and Mathis, our new shot at a closer, wasn’t) and retired the 6-7-8 batters in order. 5-1 Coons. Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Nunley 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (15-9) and 1-2;

Matt Nunley had a 10-game hitting streak now.

Game 2
WAS: LF Newman – 3B Dawson – 1B McNeal – RF Munn – SS Orellana – CF J. Pruitt – C Mancuso – 2B J. Peterson – P Teasdale
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Santos

Nunley’s streak ran to 11 with a second-inning homer that represented the first run of the game. The home crowd had never cherished Brenda a lot, and when she struck out Cookie to open the game there was a little hissing in some of the more rowdy corners, but when he drilled Hector Santos with an 0-2 pitch and two outs in the bottom 2nd, the crowd got livid and demanded punishment. Cookie delivered with a single to left that plated Ronnie McKnight from second base, but Walter grounded out. The 2-0 lead wasn’t entirely comfortable thanks to Santos struggling a bit with left-handers in this start, and the Capitals lineup had four of them, including Jonny Pruitt, who almost homered in the fourth inning. Waggoner picked that one off the fence.

Walter popped out to end the bottom 4th with Santos and Cookie on base, the exact same situation from the second inning, and he left Cookie on second base in the sixth inning. In between, Nunley had lengthened the score with an RBI single in the fifth, plating Mendoza, who had singled and advanced on a groundout by DeWeese. Santos found the good stuff in the middle innings and lined up a few strikeouts there, but that didn’t last into the seventh. Danny Munn homered on his first offering of the seventh, cutting the lead back to 3-1, and the Capitals hit two more fly balls to the deeper outfield regions in the inning, but those were caught by DeWeese and Cookie. Mendoza pulled back the run with his own leadoff jack off Brenda in the bottom of the inning, and Santos had a quick eighth to end his outing thanks to two pops hit by the Capitals. No insurance run came forward this time, and Chris Mathis was sent out to close the 4-1 game. He allowed a leadoff single to Dawson, walked McNeal, and that was all that we could tolerate to see. Ron Thrasher replaced him instantly, with the Capitals pinch-hitting right-hander Ryan Crissinger for the left-handed Munn. Crissinger hit Thrasher’s first pitch to short for a deuce, and Salvador Orellana struck out to end the contest. 4-1 Coons. Carmona 3-4, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Nunley 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Santos 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (9-4) and 1-2;

Game 3
WAS: LF Newman – 3B Dawson – 1B McNeal – C J. Flores – SS Orellana – CF J. Pruitt – RF Stone – 2B J. Peterson – P Pierson
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – RF Petracek – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Jonny was in danger of not even holding the triple crown position on his own team anymore, so he needed a W badly right now, trailing Indy’s “Ant” Mendez by one victory at the start of play. He started the game as a right massacre, striking out seven in the first three innings, but it took him 57 pitches (including a walk to McNeal) and the Coons went down in order for three innings themselves. He reached 10 K by striking out Jason Stone in the fifth, but also rumbled over 80 pitches in the same frame, while Pierson was still facing the minimum (though it was not a perfect game; in the second, Denny had singled and had been doubled up when DeWeese lined out to Josh Peterson). Denny would reach again in the bottom 5th, this time on a Dawson error, and again was washed up in a double play, this time Petracek’s. The team refused cooperation and Jonny ran out of gas in the seventh inning. Jose Flores homered, the first score in the contest, and while he got through with a K to the pinch-hitting Munn, which gave him a dozen, he was also hung up for the loss rather than the win now. The top of the order went down without the slightest squeal in the bottom 7th, consigning Toner to his fate.

Mike Denny was the Raccoons’ third base runner when he reached for the third time leading off the bottom 8th, snipping a soft liner into shallow left for a single. DeWeese popped out to second, Petracek flew out to left, and McKnight flew out to center, with no panic resulting among Capitals outfielders. The coffin was nailed shut in the top 9th, when Reed (who had pitched the eighth) faced one batter and allowed a single, Lester faced one batter that he walked, and then Alex Ramirez’ first pitch was wild before he allowed a killing 3-run homer to Orellana. Pierson finished a 3-hit shutout despite allowing a single to Bergquist in the ninth. 4-0 Capitals. Denny 2-3; Toner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, L (15-6);

This was also Lester’s (14.21 ERA) ticket outta here. He would be replaced by Ryan Nielson from AAA. The 25-year old was a terrible starter for the Alley Cats, but maybe he could do semi-decently in relief for the Coons. The other option was Randy McMullen, who was raving horrible. Nielson had been our second-round pick in the 2014 draft.

However, since Nielson had started the same day that this sorry loss occurred, he would not be available for duty until around Sunday – it had been a brief and sad start – so Lester would hang around to annoy us a few more days.

Despite the loss on Wednesday, we pulled (virtually) even with the Indians by Thursday, which was our off day. They had had Monday off, then won their opener from the Rebels before losing the next two. They had the bottom-grazing Titans in for three games on the weekend.

Raccoons (72-50) @ Loggers (55-66) – August 18-20, 2017

The Loggers were fighting over fourth place with the Elks and I was wishing them the best of luck outside of our own games against them. They were a bit peculiar in some aspects. While they had the second-lowest batting average of all teams in the Continental League, they ranked fifth in runs scored, and they ranked t-6th in runs allowed, despite a worse ranking by ERA by both their starters (7th) and relievers (10th). They had hit for some power, but had traded Mike Rucker since, and Chris LeMoine was the only remaining serious threat in their lineup, coming in with 21 dingers. The Coons were 7-5 against them in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-2, 4.62 ERA) vs. Luis Guerrero (7-10, 4.16 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (8-12, 4.09 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (4-2, 5.91 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (15-9, 3.02 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (9-11, 4.05 ERA)

The Loggers had a wealth of injuries, including SP Michael Foreman (3-12, 4.11 ERA) and centerfielder Andrew Cooper (.228, 8 HR, 32 RBI), and also 3B/1B Ruben Landeros (.222, 1 HR, 13 RBI), who was not on the DL, but unavailable with back spasms, and who had been Brownie’s 3,100th strikeout, and ostensibly the last ‘100’ he’d knock off in his career.

Handedness of starting pitchers would match for all games in the series.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – RF Waggoner – 2B Bergquist – P Brown
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – 1B J. Ortíz – C O. Castillo – 3B I. Reed – 2B Betancourt – CF Gore – SS Konrath – P L. Guerrero

Brownie worked the infield defense real hard, allowing two hits and a walk in the first three innings, but no runs thanks to two double plays turned for him. No ball ever left the infield for an out. Meanwhile, the Raccoons’ offense was flunking out for the second game in a row, again facing a most mediocre southpaw in Luis Guerrero, who allowed two singles and struck out five through the first three innings. He hit Mendoza with a pitch in the fourth, and McKnight would add a single. A wild pitch moved the runners into scoring position, but Margolis struck out, and Waggoner rolled poorly past the mound to second base, where David Betancourt was positioned, who was REALLY a first baseman and couldn’t make the play. Waggoner got an infield single and an RBI as Mendoza scored with the first run of the game. Bergquist grounded out to Isiah Reed, leaving us at 1-0, and Zach Knowling opened the bottom 4th with a hard single to right, the first sound contact made by any Logger against Brownie. Juan Ortíz rolled into a double play to Nunley, so the D game worked fantastically. Brown opened the top 5th with a single of his own, only for Cookie to strike out and for Petracek to hit into another double play…

While Nunley was a bit blue in the face for the constant workout he got in this game, the home crowd roared when Brownie struck out Brad Gore to end the fifth inning, his first K in the game, and there hadn’t been many 2-strike counts at all. By contrast, Guerrero struck out the middle of the order IN order in the top 6th, giving him ten for the day. The Coons kept falling, while the Loggers wondered how to hit those 88mph slowballs that Brown tossed them, but they eventually ran into one. While Brown struck out three consecutive batters between the sixth and seventh inning, he then walked Juan Ortíz with one out in the bottom 7th. Orlando Castillo banged a drive to right, Waggoner ran after it in vain – it was outta here, and the Raccoons trailed 2-1, completely inept to hit the left-hander on the mound, who had 12 strikeouts so far.

Cookie batted to open the eighth and sent a liner to left that fell into nobody’s particular work zone for a single. Guerrero threw a wild pitch before losing Petracek to a walk, his first on the day. Come on, boys, he’s breaking up! Nunley fell to 1-2, then knocked a ball to left center where it split Knowing and Gore for an RBI double, knotting the score! Mendoza was walked intentionally to load them up for McKnight, who hit a fly to right that was caught easily by Victor Hodgers, but was at least deep enough for Petracek to come home with the go-ahead run. Margolis struck out, Denny batted for Waggoner and walked, and Bergquist flew out to Gore in center rather than executing Guerrero, who finished the inning, for being such an annoyance. The Coons also lost an insurance run in the ninth. Cookie singled with one out, but was thrown out at second on a hit-and-run in which Petracek missed his part. He THEN singled, and Nunley doubled, but Mendoza left them on second and third with a flyout to Knowling. Ron Thrasher had already pitched the eighth, and with three left-handed bats coming up in the ninth, remained in the game. He struck out Hodgers before Knowling singled to center. Ortíz flew out easily, bringing up Castillo, who had homered off one southpaw already today. Nah, Ronny’s got the stuff! Castillo hit the 1-1 to left, high, deep aaaaaand … gone. 4-3 Loggers. Carmona 3-5; Nunley 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K and 1-3;

Sad.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Morrison
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – CF LeMoine – 1B J. Ortíz – 3B I. Reed – C O. Castillo – SS Konrath – 2B Aponte – P Carter

We could deduce well that Morrison wouldn’t be able to handle the lineup at hand, which was fronted by five left-handed bats, and held only two right-handed batters, including the pitcher. While the Raccoons even had a lead early on after a 2-run homer by McKnight, Morrison imploded completely thanks to no clue how to pitch and ****ty control to boot. He was up 2-1 in the bottom 4th with the bases already loaded and one out, when the Loggers unleashed a horrible cascade of runs. Morrison lost Guillermo Aponte to a walk, which forced in a run and was Morrison’s fifth free pass in the game. Ron Carter, a right-handed batter, and a ****ing pitcher at that, hit a sharp RBI single to left, and Hodgers opened up the ground with a bases-clearing triple. Knowling’s single knocked out Morrison in a 7-2 game, and the Raccoons gave up right there. Nick Lester was brought into the game with the hope of pitching long relief, despite his spot due to lead off the fifth inning at the plate. LeMoine singled hard to center right away, sending Knowling to third, but then LeMoine was caught stealing by Denny before Ortíz hacked himself out. Lester’s outing was a complete disaster. Cameron Konrath hit a 2-shot off him in the bottom 5th, and he also was not above walking the opposing pitcher en route to allowing another run. With the Loggers in double digits, the Coons SOMEHOW loaded the bases in the top 6th, when the #9 spot came up with two out. **** Lester. Waggoner hit, singled, 10-3, and Cookie forced in a run with a walk, 10-4, all the ****ty cosmetics-bang-bang, and when the Critters tagged Felix Colón for two runs in the eighth inning, it still didn’t matter. 10-6 Loggers. Nunley 2-5, 2B; Denny 2-4; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Waggoner (PH) 1-1, RBI; Korb 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Despite soaking three runs, the ERA of Nick Lester didn’t get noticeably worse, growing mildly to 14.63 as he was sent to St. Petersburg again, having walked nine against three strikeouts in eight innings. As Ryan Nielson was called up, Kevin Beaver moved to the 60-day DL since the 40-man roster was full.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Abe
MIL: SS Konrath – LF Knowling – CF LeMoine – 3B I. Reed – C O. Castillo – 1B Landeros – RF Gore – 2B Betancourt – P McDonald

Cookie scored on Mendoza’s groundout after hitting a leadoff double, which was dandy and fine, if Tadasu Abe could be a bit less **** than what we had seen the previous day. Konrath hit a leadoff double off the rightfield fence in the bottom 1st, so tentatively this was a NO on Abe, but Konrath also pulled a Walter and got himself thrown out by Mendoza’s mighty arm at third base before the next guy could grab a stick. Betancourt however would actually land his leadoff triple in the bottom of the third, and Abe was not going to get out of that one without allowing the run to score, and the game was tied after three after McDonald scored Betancourt with a grounder to short, and with the Coons adding only a soft DeWeese single to their hit total through four innings, and Abe walking two that just barely ended up stranded in the bottom 4th, the Loggers were so close to a sweep of the Coons that they could chop their axes into it.

Abe bunted into a double play in the fifth, and the Coons only got on base with two outs in the sixth. Mendoza singled, DeWeese walked, and that pulled up the warmest bat in the stable right now, Matt Nunley. He found the path through between two mediocre middle infielders for an RBI single, putting the Coons up 2-1, but McKnight’s drive to left was spoiled by Knowling to end the inning. Top 7th, Denny led off with a walk and Young singled, and this time Abe got the bunt down, moving them into scoring position. We would love nothing more than a rousing extra-baser from Senor Carmona, but his fly to center was easy takings for Chris LeMoine. At least Mike Denny tagged and scored, 3-1. A struggling Walter struck out, which was unfortunate since the Cat of a Thousand Disguises, Hugo Mendoza, had saved his 30th homer of the year for his next at-bat, which now came leading off the eighth, 4-1. Abe was knocked out by Juan Ortíz’ pinch-hit leadoff single in the bottom 8th. Thrasher came in with the switch-hitter Konrath being followed by three left-handed swingers, walked Konrath to give me a mild stroke, but then struck out the next two before sending a Reed grounder Young’s way to end the inning. Mathis got another real shot at real closing in the bottom of the ninth with the maximum cushion allowance, facing Friday’s killjoy Castillo and another right-hander in Landeros before the left-hander Gore. Castillo doubled right away to gain more spots on the list of players I detested, but Landeros flew out to Cookie in shallow center. Gore was batting .195 and drew a walk, with certified threat Victor Hodgers, also a left-hander, pinch-hitting for Betancourt. Hodgers was mostly a base stealer, but also had eight homers this season, but I really had nobody to go to with Thrasher used and this not being the spot to unveil a debutee in Nielson. When Mathis walked Hodgers, raging desperation called for Jayden Reed, a.k.a. Somebody Else, to be washed out of the bullpen. He had saved 19 games for a terrible Titans team last year, he had as good a shot of making it out of this jam as anybody. Randy Porter was pinch-hitting, a right-handed backup catcher with a .211 clip and no homers. Porter grounded the first pitch sharply to the left side, where Nunley lunged and knocked it down. Springing up like a cat, he grabbed the ball and flung it blindly to second base, out there, Walter to first, Porter REALLY SLOW AND OUT AT FIRST!! 4-1 Blighters! Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Young 2-4; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (16-9); Reed 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (2);

In other news

August 14 – The Indians lose SP Felipe Ramirez (6-8, 3.44 ERA) for the season. The 33-year old right-hander has a fracture in his elbow that needs surgery.
August 15 – RIC INF Ricky Avila (.219, 1 HR, 37 RBI) is out of action for a month with a shoulder strain.
August 16 – The Stars lose 4-0 to the Falcons, not scoring a run despite 13 base hits of their own.
August 17 – A strained hamstring ends the season of PIT CL Matt Collins (2-1, 1.76 ERA, 34 SV).
August 18 – Renowned veteran RIC RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.258, 13 HR, 58 RBI) gets his 3,000th career base hit with two knocks in a 10-5 win over the Cyclones, the first game of a double-header. The 40-year old Bailey singles off Gavin French in the second inning to reach the fabled milestone. Playing almost his entire career in the Federal League, and mostly on the team he opposed, the Cyclones, Bailey is a 5-time Player of the Year (2001, 2006-7, 2009-10) and 7-time All Star, and led the FL in OPS four times and in slugging thrice. He also hit double-digit home runs for 16 consecutive seasons, giving him 375 for his career along with 1,171 RBI and a .316 batting average. He won a World Series ring in 2010 with the Cyclones and is considered a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer.
August 18 – Overall, the Federal League plays a whopping nine games on this Friday, with three double-headers being contested.
August 18 – The Crusaders beat the Canadiens, 1-0, on Miguel Salinas’ (.257, 9 HR, 43 RBI) home run.
August 19 – SFW 1B Stanley Murphy (.274, 13 HR, 64 RBI) is out of action until late September with a sprained elbow.
August 20 – RIC 1B Alberto Rodriguez (.335, 13 HR, 85 RBI) reaches a 20-game hitting streak in style, knocking five hits (three singles and two doubles) in a 10-8 Rebels win over the Cyclones.
August 20 – The Canadiens forcefully break a 7-7 tie in the 13th inning, unloading half a dozen runs on the Crusaders to take a 13-7 win.

Complaints and stuff

Jonny’s bitter loss on Wednesday was his third this year in which his own team didn’t score a single run. The other two came both against the Falcons, but against undecorated right-handers (Bobby Guerrero and Denzel Durr) rather than undecorated left-handers.

Nick Brown wants a contract extension. When I look at his most recent scouting report compiled during his rehab in St. Petersburg, I have to squeeze out a tear. The 39-year old Brownie can hardly throw a ball, what would the 40-year old Brownie do?

Talking about Brownie, if it hadn’t been for either of the Castillo homers on Friday, the Raccoons would have taken a distinct lead over the Indians then. And if Morrison wasn’t such a dud, they wouldn’t have dropped out of the virtual tie. Oh well.

Yoshi Nomura was the FL Player of the Week, batting .581 (18-for-31) with 1 HR and 5 RBI for the Cyclones. He is at .364 for the year, one point behind Sacramento’s Jason LaCombe in the batting title race in the FL. Third is Jose “Dingus” Morales. The top three in the CL also hold two ex-Coons, Adrian Quebell leading Ron Alston.

Quebell!!

We could now marvel over how Jonny Toner doesn’t even hold the triple crown on his own team anymore, but I am dangerously low on liquor and it’s late already. Let’s just combine all the events of the week into the undisputable statement that the team we saw at work for six games this week was not one of championship caliber. Monday will be off, then it will be 13 straight games with the Titans and Aces up next week. That string will end with a 4-game set at home against the Indians from late August to early September.