[Westheim]

Final homestand! Six games with Atlanta and Boston before it’s off to the road for the final week of the season. The team will finish in Vancouver, which makes it doubly important to not waste any ground on the Indians and to try and seal the deal perhaps before we cross the border.

Raccoons (88-62) vs. Knights (79-70) – September 18-20, 2017

The Knights were the last South team on our plate for the year (excluding a potential meeting with the Bayhawks for now) and had just recently been eliminated from playoff contention. The season series was even at three (with the Raccoons having taken the season series every year since 2013), and the Raccoons’ recently struggling pitching would have to get the best possible result from the most potent offense in the league. Their own pitching was rotten to the core, with the fourth-most runs conceded by them amongst all CL teams.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (16-9, 2.03 ERA) vs. Drew King (6-12, 4.88 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-2, 4.32 ERA) vs. Joey Hopkins (14-12, 4.80 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (20-9, 2.92 ERA) vs. J.J. Wirth (5-8, 5.05 ERA)

Good news, those are three right-handed pitchers, and we are missing the strong part of their rotation. Gotta make it count, boys! Gotta make it count…

Game 1
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – 1B M. Rucker – LF Rockwell – C Luna – 2B Downing – RF Perri – 3B W. White – P D. King
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Toner

The Coons got two runs in the first inning as Cookie walked and stole second base before Walter, Mendoza, and Nunley all got singles to right or right center. There was no peace of mind to be had with Jonny Toner right now, however, as the Knights had the bases loaded right in the next inning after a single by Ruben Luna (who got forced by Josh Downing), Lionnel Perri reaching on a Nunley error – it was a difficult play though – and Wade White walking with a merrily full count. Toner ran a full count to King with two outs, but the pitcher panicked and whiffed to strand all those precious runners. Toner forced Adam Young, who had drawn a leadoff walk, with a poor bunt in the bottom 2nd, but then ended up scoring after a Cookie single and Mendoza’s sac fly. Up 3-0, he held the Knights off the board for long enough to dip the ERA below two again, which happened when White flew out to Mendoza (pretty deep, but pretty out) to open the fifth. His pitch count however exploded completely and while he finished six innings with 10 K, he also was already over 100 pitches, and that with the fiery bullpen of ours… Our offense had a bit of a dry spell in the middle innings, and when McKnight extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a 2-out single in the bottom 6th, that was their first base runner since the third against King. Jonny delivered the seventh, struck out two more for a dozen total, but was positively gassed afterwards. King remained in the game in the bottom 7th (still under 90 pitches), but allowed a bloop single to Young to start the frame. Brandon Johnson hit for Toner, hit an infield single, and then Cookie came up and romped a ball to deep center that went past Marty Reyes for a 2-run triple! Walter singled him in, which put the Coons ahead 6-0, and led us to get cocky and send Nick Lester after Wade White to begin the top of the eighth, and when White grounded out, Lester also got to see switch-hitting pinch-hitter Jeffrey Walrath, whom he K’ed. Korb took over from there and would finish the game without allowing a base runner, while the Raccoons scored two more runs in the bottom 8th, which started with a McKnight double. 8-0 Furballs! Carmona 3-4, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Walter 2-4, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2B; Young 2-3, BB, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-2; Toner 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 12 K, W (17-9); Korb 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Korb whiffed Gil Rockwell to end the game, which gave the slugger a golden sombrero. Indy eeked out Las Vegas, 4-3, which kept the gap at 2 1/2 games.

Game 2
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – LF Rockwell – 1B M. Rucker – RF Raupp – C Luna – 2B Downing – 3B W. White – P Hopkins
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Brown

Brownie whiffed Marty Reyes to start the game to reach 3,150 K for his career, but was burned by Rockwell in the same inning. Rockwell bombed a 2-1 pitch to dead center to put the Knights up 1-0, and Jimmy Raupp hit a leadoff double in the second inning. While Raupp hurt himself in the process, the Knights continued to make hard contact against Brownie and easily got Raupp’s replacement Andrew Sauter around to score on a Downing double up the leftfield line. Brown’s strikes never got less in the game. He walked a pair in the third before getting a double play for a big sigh of relief, but in the fifth allowed hard doubles up either line to the pitcher Hopkins and Reyes, back-to-back, with him having Reyes at 0-2 before throwing a wild pitch and conceding the double at 2-2. That put the Knights 3-0 ahead, and Joey Hopkins so far was 1-hitting the Raccoons. Nunley reached on an error by Devin Hibbard in the bottom 5th, but that only set up Mike Denny for an inning-ending double play later.

Brown ended up knocked out in the sixth after conceding three consecutive hard singles with one out to Mike Rucker, Sauter, and Luna – all left-handed batters. All runs scored against the idiot Alex Ramirez, who got paid fabulously for allowing 2-out RBI doubles to opposing pitchers. Hopkins’ second two-bagger of the day put the Knights 6-0 ahead, and the game had to be written off at that point, and this was the season of scoreboard watching, and the Indians’ Josh Riley had already done the grisly work to the Aces, with the Indians beating them 5-1, so our lead was due to shrink with this awful affair. DeWeese hit a single in the seventh, and the Raccoons didn’t get another runner until Mendoza walked in the ninth. Hopkins ended up with a 2-shutout to even the series. 6-0 Knights.

McKnight’s hitting streak was one of many casualties in this game.

Game 3
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – 1B M. Rucker – LF Rockwell – C Luna – RF Mims – 2B Downing – 3B W. White – P Wirth
POR: CF Carmona – RF Johnson – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 2B Petracek – C Margolis – P Abe

Like Toner on Monday, Tadasu Abe loaded the bases in the second inning with a leadoff double by Rockwell and then two walks before J.J. Wirth popped out on the first pitch to leave the three runners on base. Unlike Monday, there was no lead for Abe early on, and he wouldn’t get one so soon. Instead, Ruben Luna homered to center in the fourth inning, and the Knights kept swinging away. Kyle Mims hit a single, stole second base, and eventually scored on White’s infield single to give the Knights a 2-0 lead. By that time, the Indians had completed a sweep of the Aces, so I was absolutely melting down in my office, clawing against the window and weeping. But the Coons loaded the bases in the very same inning, putting DeWeese on as Wirth hit him with a pitch. Nunley singled, but was removed when McKnight grounded to short for a fielder’s choice. Petracek’s walk filled the bases anyway, after which Margolis sent a drive to center with two outs. Reyes missed it, the ball fell in and made it to the warning track, and two runs scored before Abe came up. Abe had walked his first time against Wirth, which wouldn’t help here, and he thus hacked, meeting the first pitch and sending a floater to right that dropped into the grass in front of the onrushing Mims. Petracek scored, 3-2, but Cookie popped out to strand runners on the corners.

Wirth was a bit out of luck afterwards. Johnson led off with a single in the fifth and scored when Mendoza doubled to left in a hit-and-run. DeWeese and Nunley both hit singles, and when McKnight ripped a 0-0 pitch and buried it in the rightfield stands, the park absolutely erupted. The 3-run shot put the Raccoons ahead 8-2, ended Wirth’s game. Not that Abe had a great start. The Knights wrung a run from him in the sixth and Lionnel Perri hit a leadoff jack when he pinch-hit for reliever Adam Harper in the top 7th. Abe got only one more out before Hibbard singled and he was replaced by Thrasher, who only created more mess. Rucker singled, he walked Rockwell, and only got one out before Mims hit an RBI single. Reed bumped Thrasher and whiffed Downing to strand three in an 8-5 game. McKnight continued his hot streak (though de-hitting-streaked) and whacked a jack to start the bottom 7th, and the Raccoons scratched out another run when Margolis reached, was bunted over by Reed, and scored on Cookie’s single to right, 10-5. That still didn’t put the game to rest. Reed had two on in the eighth, but got out of that, yet when Will West appeared in the ninth he walked Rockwell and was then bombed by Luna, which put the Knights three back. Shrugging, we went to Chris Mathis, because we were officially out of ideas. Walrath lined out to Johnson in rightfield, but Downing homered. Lead down to two. White made an out before Sauter singled hard to center, and Reyes singled hard to center. The go-ahead run came up in Hibbard, who grounded hard up the middle. McKnight got paws on it and took the ball to second base in time to end the game. 10-8 Coons. Johnson 2-5; Mendoza 2-5, 2B, RBI; Nunley 3-5, RBI; McKnight 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI;

Oh man. Why, oh why, did our complete bullpen have to dissolve into something ugly in September?

Raccoons (90-63) vs. Titans (60-92) – September 22-24, 2017

The Titans were absolutely horrendous, and the Coons had already claimed the season series at 10-5, yet while we were only going to play the three teams with assured losing records from here on out in the CL North, any of those was a potential spoiler team and had already drew us a nose at some point this season. F.e. the Titans had taken a series from the Coons in June, including a game in which the Raccoons out-hit the Titans 12-5, but lost 4-1 to Jose Fuentes, leaving 13 men on base while hitting into two double plays. The Titans were 11th in runs allowed in the league, but if there was any proof needed that they could let the Critters stumble, I was totally convinced that this would become a nasty series by their number of runs scored, that ranked them seventh in the Continental League: 666.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (12-5, 2.57 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (5-15, 4.85 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (17-9, 1.97 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (13-10, 2.86 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-3, 4.59 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (7-18, 5.83 ERA)

Three more right-handers, and no southpaws to be seen anywhere for the Titans.

I am nervous.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 2B Holt – LF C. Newman – SS J. Stephenson – P J. Fuentes
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Santos

Both teams had only one runner the first time through, and the Coons even required Jasper Holt to make an error to put Walter on base in the first. Both also hit into a double play, with Holt doing the honors for the Titans. The Titans would break the scoring drought in the fourth. Alex Mata led off with a single before Steve Butler hit a 1-out homer to give them a 2-0 lead. With everybody around him failing to get anything done against Fuentes, Santos hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, which cut the gap in half, but when Cookie walked afterwards, he was simply ignored. Bottom 6th, maybe Fuentes’ control was going away? He walked DeWeese and Nunley to start the inning, which put the go-ahead run on base for a hot McKnight, who grounded to Holt for the first out, but the runners moved into scoring position for Denny, who struck out, which removed the bat from Young. Intentional walk was called, after which Fuentes was banished and reliever Jeff Lyon, a right-hander appeared.

The scoreboard showed the Indians and Elks tied in the fifth north of the border. We had to get this moving. Given that Santos had taken over 500 plate appearances for his first homer and was not a great hitter otherwise, his day ended thanks to Denny (who had nothing but double plays and strikeouts on his ledger in this game) whiffing. Johnson hit for him, but flew to Chaz Newman. Cookie would hit a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, but Walter missed on a hit-and-run and since everybody knew that Cookie was gonna go in this situation, Tim Robinson was up like a shot and murdered him at second base. Walter flew to right on the next pitch, Ezra Branch dropped the ball, and this was just going in the worst possible way. Mendoza walked, but DeWeese and Nunley grounded out to leave runners on second and third in a 2-1 deficit for the second consecutive inning. The Indians were by now piling it on the Elks, who could never be of any help, it seemed, and the Raccoons were in dire straits. The Coons were still down 2-1 in the bottom 9th against odd closer Harry Merwin (really a last place team’s closer…). Petracek struck out, Cookie grounded out, and Walter lined out to Newman in left. 2-1 Titans. Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Both teams only had four hits apiece. It was a desperately hopeless hitting display from the best suit we had against atrocious non-pitching.

The Indians beat the Elks 6-3 on the strength of a 4-run sixth inning. That reduced the Raccoons’ lead to half a game, and was also sending me into all-out panic mode.

The Titans sent Jonathan Ryan into the middle game, who was 3-1 with a 2.51 ERA in the majors this year. He had however spent most of the year at AAA Toledo, going 5-14 with a 4.20 ERA there.

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 2B Holt – LF Blake – SS J. Stephenson – P Ryan
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Margolis – RF Ochoa – P Toner

Like on Monday, Toner struggled in the second inning. A walk and a single sent runners to the corners, but the pitcher came up with two outs and all would … have been well if Jonathan Ryan hadn’t snipped an 0-2 pitch over McKnight and into leftfield. The Titans grabbed a 1-0 lead right there. By the third inning, Cookie had been on both ends of a double play for the Raccoons in their quest to never make the playoffs again in my lifetime (which couldn’t be long at the rate they were failing at), and in the fourth the Titans had them on the corners for Ryan with two outs AGAIN. This time, he grounded out, but Toner was a far cry removed from his Monday performance. The Titans reached base seemingly all the time. Nunley hit into a double play to end the bottom 4th with Mendoza and DeWeese on base, the Coons’ third double play in the game.

Only three hits and a walk fell out of Ryan through six innings and the Coons remained 1-0 behind. Toner was over 100 pitches through seven, improvising with only half his repertoire working as intended. Mendoza had been the guy to draw the walk off Ryan and drew another one to lead off the bottom 7th, which gave the Coons the tying run on base once more. Mendoza tried to get into a position to steal, but before he could take off, DeWeese was plunked (the 12th time this season) and Mendoza advanced anyway. The scoreboard showed the Elks up by a single run on the Indians. Nunley stepped in and flew out to Jonathan Blake in left. McKnight grounded to Holt for a potential double play, but DeWeese took out Joe Stephenson to keep the Coons in business. With two out and runners on the corners, Adam Young batted for Danny Margolis. His grounder up the middle escaped to centerfield to tie the game, but Ochoa lined out to short to strand a pair. Thrasher replaced Toner for the eighth with Butler and Branch, up first and third, being left-handed batters. In a nerve-wrecking inning, he walked two before finally striking out pinch-hitter Jose Duran to end the inning.

Bottom 8th. Johnson hit for Thrasher, but popped out above home plate. Cookie worked a walk from Ryan, but Walter struck out without Cookie getting a good jump. That brought up Mendoza. Cookie swiped second base on the 0-1, which was a strike, but being down 0-2 didn’t rob the Tiger of his stripes. The next pitch Ryan threw was blistered to center. Mata ran after it, but he could have saved the energy. That one was OUTTA HERE!!!!! HEAR THE TIGER ROAR!!! While DeWeese followed with a double, nothing came of that anymore, and while the Raccoons were up 3-1, and the Indians were staging a comeback in the top of their ninth inning, there was still the technicality for somebody to close the Coons’ own 3-1 game. Mathis came out, facing Stephenson to start the ninth. The shortstop flew out real hard to right, before Armando Galan grounded out to Walter. Mata walked, pulling up the tying run in Tom Thomas, who grounded to the left side, where Nunley made the play to end the game and even the series. 3-1 Critters. Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Young (PH) 1-1, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K and 1-2;

The Indians didn’t progress past Roberto Flores’ homer off Pedro Alvarado up in Vancouver and lost, 3-2, which gave the Coons the game back they had accidentally eaten on Friday. 1 1/2 up again and thus safe for the weekend, whatever that meant.

Game 3
BOS: RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 2B Holt – CF C. Newman – LF Mata – SS J. Stephenson – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Brown

Cookie singled and was caught stealing in the first inning, then was retired by a flying Ezra Branch to end the second inning. In between the Coons scored a pair in the bottom 2nd, which started with DeWeese and Nunley getting onto the corners and scoring on McKnight’s groundout and Denny’s double to deep right. While Nick Brown was everything but amazing on the mound, he got the ball to find the fielders again, something that had not worked AT ALL on Tuesday. The Titans had two hits through four innings, while Brown was batting with Denny and Young on second and first and one out in the bottom 4th. He was asked to swing, hit a ball hard to right, but Steve Butler made the play. The runners moved up, and when Cookie grounded through between Holt and Butler, Denny scored, 3-0. The Titans tried to get Cookie picked off by Robinson on the first pitch to Shane Walter, but Cookie dove back, and then took off on the second pitch. This time he was safe, but Walter grounded out to Butler to end the inning. Top 5th, Mata and Stephenson hit hard 1-out singles past either flank of McKnight. They embarked on a double steal with Boyer at the plate, but Denny killed off Mata at third; two outs. Then Boyer singled softly to center, the umpteenth pitcher to get a 2-out, run-scoring hit against Raccoons pitching this week, and the Titans were now only 3-1 back. Branch grounded out, giving Brownie time to breath before issuing a leadoff walk to Tom Thomas in the sixth. Butler hit into a double play at 2-0, Brownie got out of that, and then even started the seventh inning with a K to Jasper Holt. He got two outs before Mata singled, and then Stephenson lined to center. Cookie tried to get it, didn’t, and Stephenson cruised into second base with an RBI double when the ball got almost to the track before Cookie could reel it in.

So, Brownie was gone after seven innings, still clinging to a 3-2 lead. With the Arrowheads leading the Elks soundly after six, a bit more offense would be nice, but the Raccoons only got Walter on base in the bottom 7th, and he was left on first after a walk issued by Boyer. Thrasher was called upon for the eighth, with Branch and Butler coming up again, and he dealt a 1-2-3 inning against the 1-2-3 batters, whiffin’ Thomas and Butler. Boyer kept the Coons off the bases in the bottom 8th, which got us back to Mathis for the top of the ninth, facing Robinson (who had 17 homers), the generally unlucky Holt, and Chaz Newman in the inning, unless the Titans would send left-handed pinch-hitters. The Indians were up by five, so the Raccoons couldn’t afford another stumble. Robinson opened with a double on a 3-1 pitch before the Titans sent switch-hitter Galan, who struck out. Xavier Williams pinch-hit next, a left-hander, ahead of Mata, also a left-hander. What are we gonna do? Go to Nick Lester? What a tremendous spot to be in… Mathis got Williams to pop out to Nunley before Mata missed a 2-1 pitch right down Broadway. He struck out on the next pitch. 3-2 Brownies. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2B; Denny 2-4, 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (8-3) and 1-3;

Josh Riley spun a 4-hit shutout to keep the Indians 1 1/2 games back. The Indians won 5-0.

In other news

September 18 – Gold Sox and Capitals play 15 innings before the Gold Sox finally walk off, 6-5.
September 19 – The Condors have a 1-0 walkoff win in ten innings against the Titans when Harry Merwin throws wildly past first base on a pickoff attempt on Simon Morbidelli that allows Josh Rawlings to scamper home after his leadoff triple.
September 19 – An 11-run sixth inning powers the Crusaders in an 18-7 shootout against the Thunder. NYC OF Marcos Mercado (.500, 0 HR, 4 RBI) only enters the game in a double switch for rocked starter Colin Sabatino, but ends up with three hits and three RBI.
September 20 – NYC SP Bob King (16-11, 4.08 ERA) 3-hits the Condors in a 3-0 shutout.
September 23 – The Gold Sox rout the Scorpions in a 16-7 game and plate seven runs in the fifth inning alone. RF/CF/INF Rich Arrieta (.324, 1 HR, 26 RBI) drives in five for Denver.

Complaints and stuff

Ruben Luna was the 1,000th career strikeout of Jonny Toner on Monday, and the sixth in that game in the fourth inning. That’s not the only thing that he achieved. He not only moved into the top 10 for most strikeouts in a single season this week, but all the way up to fourth place!

ABL SINGLE SEASON STRIKEOUTS
1st – Chris York (2005) – 304
2nd – Juan Correa (1977) – 297
3rd – Rod Taylor (2009) – 291
4th – Jonathan Toner (2017) – 281
5th – Martin Garcia (1999) – 280
t-6th – Tony Hamlyn (2002) – 277
t-6th – Chris York (2004) – 277
t-8th – Kelvin Yates (2005) – 273
t-8th – Carlos Castro (2004) – 273
10th – Rod Taylor (2014) – 272

Toner will normally have only one more start in the regular season, but if we had to play a game 163…….

Cookie made it over the 502 PA mark on Sunday. With Adrian Quebell not hitting anything anymore, and little Ricardo over here growing his lead in the race to 24 points, the batting title is almost certainly his!

Our division race is the only one that keeps on raging. In the Federal League, both the Rebels and Scorpions have their magic numbers down to one and it’s basically over. The Scorpions have made the playoffs six times before and won two championships, but haven’t been in October since 1998. The Rebels have made the playoffs only twice; they won the FL East in 1978, and then again in 1996. 1996 you say? Yup, they beat the Coons in the World Series in six games that year.

And after that it was darkness eternal for Coon City.