[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-9) vs. Bayhawks (14-5) – April 23-25, 2018

Those guys. They had – as their record hinted at subtly – stormed out of the gate, scoring the most runs in the league and allowing the least, a decent recipe for success that one of these days the Raccoons (7th in runs scored, t-4h in runs allowed) might wanna look into.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (0-2, 5.68 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (1-0, 4.09 ERA)
Nick Brown (0-2, 6.19 ERA) vs. Joao Joo (1-3, 2.86 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (4-0, 2.54 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (1-1, 3.51 ERA)

These are their three worst starters by ERA, and Joo is their only left-handed starter. Their lineup is loaded with left-handed bats, and I have yet to figure out whether that is more better for Brownie than it is worse for Mendoza. Besides Jackson, who had helped kill the Raccoons in the 2017 CLCS, they were also missing Chris Almanza from their lineup. The 28-year old had swatted four homers in ten games, but was limping around on crutches with an ankle sprain.

The last two season series had both been won by the Bayhawks, 5-4 in their favor each time. We are not going to talk any more about that CLCS.

Game 1
SFB: RF McIntyre – 2B Ingraham – C D. Alexander – CF D. Garcia – SS Claros – 3B J. Rodriguez – LF Matthews – 1B J. Pruitt – P Caro
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – C Denny – P R. Mendoza

It took one out for the Bayhawks to load the bases; Zach Ingraham singled between McKnight and Nunley, D-Alex hit a blooper to left for another single, and DeWeese dropped Dave Garcia’s soft fly. By a miracle and nothing less, Mendoza escaped on consecutive pops by Raul Carlos and Javy Rodriguez. The Raccoons would actually strike first, with Shane Walter – hot to say the least – doubling to center in the bottom 1st and then swiftly coming home on the Tiger’s fifth homer of the season, a real rocket to right. The Coons doubled the score to 4-0 in the second when Denny reached on a Rodriguez error, Ricky Mendoza made it onto the base paths on a misplayed bunt blamed to Caro, and after Cookie’s groundout Shane Walter ripped a 2-out double to the rightfield corner to chase them home.

Too bad that Ricky Mendoza was that kid with matches that would sooner or later burn the house down. In the top of the fourth, the Bayhawks pushed a run across after Garcia’s double, a walk drawn by Jeffrey Matthews, and Jonathan Pruitt’s (Matt’s cousin) single. With two out, the pitcher Caro appeared as the tying run and drove a ball to deep, deep left, oh my **** that’s deep, oh for crying out loud DeWeese caught it right against the wall. The Birds would have Will McIntyre on to start the fifth after getting struck by a Mendoza pitch, and then Mendoza walked Ingraham. D-Alex’ double play bailed him out of that for the most part. But just as the game was threatening to flip, the Raccoons found a 3-spot in the bottom of the fifth. DeWeese drove in a pair with a double, including the Tiger, who had been hit by a pitch (not quite as ferociously as McIntyre, though), and scored on Nunley’s single, which made it a 7-1 contest. A Hugo Mendoza error cost Ricky Mendoza an initially unearned run in the sixth that turned into an earned one after a 2-out single, and rain chased him in the seventh, but the 7-2 game continued even after a rain delay exceeding one hour. And although that happened, and the Raccoons stranded two men in both the bottom 7th and 8th after the delay, AND tried to squeeze two innings from Chet Cummings, the runt of the litter, the Bayhawks failed to mount a comeback, or even a run. Defense had something to do with it, though: Cookie spoiled two extra-base hits in the ninth. 7-2 Raccoons! Walter 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; H. Mendoza 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4, RBI; R. Mendoza 7.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-2) and 1-2; Cummings 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

McKnight extended his hitting streak to 13 games. With the left-hander Joo up, he would have gotten a day off to cram all the non-left-handed batters into the lineup that we could, but opposing Joo was Brownie, and Brownie needed every bit of defense to improve his chances of not getting rocked. Mathews was perhaps a passable shortstop, but was it going to be enough?

Game 2
SFB: RF McIntyre – 2B Ingraham – CF D. Garcia – 3B Claros – SS R. Miller – C G. Brown – 1B J. Rodriguez – LF J. Pruitt – P Joo
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – LF Jackson – RF H. Mendoza – 1B Mathews – SS McKnight – 2B Prince – C Margolis – P N. Brown

Ingraham’s double and Claros’ single scored a Baybirds run in the first inning, and there was no way that defense could prevent that one from scoring, so there was that, but the Coons flipped the score in the bottom of the same inning. Walter continued to blaze any pitching he could find, hitting a 1-out single to left center before Eddie Jackson doubled past Dave Garcia to put two in scoring position. The Tiger struck out on a pitch in the dirt, but Joey Mathews’ well-placed bouncer eluded the guys on the left side of the infield for a 2-run single. Defense deserted Brownie at several points in the early innings, as Cookie dropped a fly by Joao Joo to start the third inning, and after McIntyre hit into a welcome double play, Ingraham reached with an infield single on the eighth pitch of a tense at-bat, Mathews not being able to dig the ball out of the dirt in time. But the Birds didn’t convert those opportunities, with the Raccoons being presented with a chance in the bottom 4th, with two singles and a walk offering a 1-out slam chance to … Danny Margolis. Well, it could be worse. There’s Brownie behind him (zip career homers). While Margolis didn’t hit that slam, he came pretty darn close, driving a 1-1 pitch to deep right and well past McIntyre. The ball bounced about 15 feet from the warning track and near the dirt, and the bases cleared on a 3-run double.

By the sixth inning, the Birds were hitting the ball really well. They hit three deep drives in the inning. After Garcia doubled, Cookie took the other two to end the frame and keep the 5-1 lead in one piece, but Brownie was a mere shadow by now, although he did hang the Goat of the Week award onto John Hudson, whiffing him in the fifth inning, but he would make it through seven innings despite Gary Brown opening his final inning with a leadoff double. Okay, two southpaws next, and it was never Coons philosophy to replace a lefty with a lefty. Rodriguez popped out, and Jonathan Pruitt flew to shallow center, with Gary Brown caught far off the base, completely misjudging the ball! Cookie caught the fly, then fired to Prince for the double play. After Brownie’s sufficiently lucky seven innings and McKnight’s RBI double in the bottom 7th to extend the lead to five runs, the bullpen delivered the mandatory near-explosion in the top of the eighth. I guess it’s in the league statutes somewhere that you can’t have a calm game even once, but Seung-mo Chun put two on with two outs in the inning, and when Thrasher came in to see after Claros, he walked him. The right-handed ex-Coon Ryan Miller had never done anything but sucking, so Thrasher remained in and Miller popped out on an 0-2 pitch, stranding a full set of runners. The Coons ended up adding a run on a wild pitch before Wade Davis had a relieving 1-2-3 ninth. 7-1 Brownies! Walter 2-5; Jackson 2-5, 2B; Mathews 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Prince 1-2, BB; Margolis 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-2);

Browniiiiiee!!

Hitting streaks are up to 14 (McKnight) and 11 (Mendoza) games, the longest current streaks in the majors.

Game 3
SFB: LF Matthews – 2B Ingraham – C D. Alexander – CF D. Garcia – SS Claros – 3B J. Rodriguez – RF Sarabia – 1B J. Pruitt – P Beauchamp
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – C Denny – P Toner

After Garcia and DeWeese exchanged solo home runs in the second inning, Jonny Toner hit a 1-out single up the middle in the third. Just for giggles he took off on the first pitch to Cookie and swiped second base successfully, but Cookie extended his futility in the series with a groundout to Jonathan Pruitt. Now at third, Jonny Toner still scored when Walter, continuing to bat .400+, singled to left center with two outs, and the Coons took a 2-1 lead that Toner blew instantly. He brushed D-Alex ever so slightly to start the fourth inning, then rammed an 0-2 pitch into Rodriguez real hard with two outs. Rodriguez lived to see Victor Sarabia single past Walter, and D-Alex scored from second base on the roller that was not kind enough to get into Mendoza’s general vicinity.

The middle innings passed uneventfully after that, but Jonny walked Rodriguez to start the seventh inning. More left-handers were to come where that one came from, but he struck out Sarabia at least. The count on Pruitt ran full, and Rodriguez was in motion when Pruitt lined to the right side. This time, Walter was there, caught the liner, and easily doubled off Rodriguez to end the inning. McKnight’s and Mendoza’s hitting streaks were still looking for extension, and at least the shortstop came up with a hit to start the bottom of the seventh, singling to center. DeWeese was delighted to still see the right-hander Beauchamp, whom he had already hurt once, and when he hurt him the second time with his second longshot to rightfield, Jonny Toner was in line for a W at 4-2, and so far he had claimed W’s in all his starts in 2018. Mike Denny also homered off Beauchamp with two outs, 5-2, and Toner was hit for in favor of Brandon Johnson after having thrown 99 pitches so far. Johnson rolled out (1-for-17 now), and Chris Mathis was in the game for the eighth, retiring the Birds in order. The bottom 8th brought the left-hander Mike Stank to oppose the top of the order. Cookie and Walter singled anyway, and a Sarabia error on failing to pick up Walter’s grounder sent both to scoring position for the Tiger, who was still looking for a hit – but was intentionally walked, which roused some hair with the crowd. With three on and no outs, McKnight struck out, Jackson hit for DeWeese and popped out to second, and Mathews batted for Nunley and struck out, all against Stank. Ramirez walked Dave Garcia in the ninth, but managed to not draw my wrath. 5-2 Coons. Walter 2-4, RBI; DeWeese 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (5-0) and 1-2;

That, I will admit, was a lot of fun.

Hitting streaks: McKnight has 15 games down, Cookie and Walter have ten apiece. Cookie has five hits in the last five games.

Raccoons (12-9) @ Titans (14-8) – April 27-29, 2018

The Titans came from last place and 100 losses to challenge for the lead in the North, at least in April. Looking at the roster left me unsure as to whether that was sustainable, and the numbers hinted at some luck at least. They were fourth in runs scored, but only seventh in runs allowed, and they were pretty lop-sided when it came to 1-run games, having lost only one of those, and they were also undefeated at home so far. The Coons had taken two of three from them at the start of the season.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (1-2, 2.25 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (2-1, 3.00 ERA)
Hector Santos (1-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. Rick Ling (3-1, 3.38 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (1-2, 4.85 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (1-3, 6.75 ERA)

Rick Ling is their resident southpaw. The 23-year old rookie is off to a decent start, although there are a few numbers I don’t dig, like the ten walks being opposed by only 13 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. That ratio as even better than what he did in AAA last season, walking 90 against 106 K in 192.1 innings.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Denny – P Abe
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Blake – SS Vasquez – LF Gaines – 2B M. Rivera – P Priest

After Cookie grounded out and Priest walked the bases full, DeWeese’s K and Nunley’s slow pop to right ended the first inning in disappointing fashion. The Raccoons would then go on and stranded pairs of runners in EACH of the next FOUR innings, and never scored while doing so. While untimely strikeouts had something to do with it, a certain share of the blame lay with Abe, who failed to bunt not once, but twice, and both times that extra base would have been tremendous to the team effort! His only blessing was that he held the Titans to two hits and shut out during those five miserable innings. Abe, Cookie, and Walter made three straight outs in the sixth inning for a change, just before Alex Mata’s leadoff jack put the Titans over the hump in the bottom of the inning.

The Titans made the grave mistake to remove Priest after a 2-out double by R.J. DeWeese in the top of the seventh inning. Priest trotted to the dugout, with those 42 rabbits’ paws all dangling from his belt, and when Brett Dill came in to face Nunley he conceded the tying run on a single to right, blowing Priest’s shot at the win. The Raccoons managed to fabricate a runner in scoring position through shear idiocy in the bottom 7th. Walter completely missed Mathews’ feat on PH Xavier Williams’ grounder, putting Williams on first with two outs, and then Denny tried to pick him off and threw the ball to rightfield. Williams at second with two outs, with lifelong annoyance Mike Rivera batting? Holy – why!? Thankfully, Abe had some left and whiffed him in a full count… When Dill walked Denny to start the top of the eighth, Petracek ran for him, while Jackson batted for Abe, but Eddie’s first pitch was a fly to center that helped nobody, and then Cookie managed to further soil his stat line with a perfect 6-4-3 double play grounder. The go-ahead run reached on a leadoff walk again in the ninth, and again there was not enough offense behind Shane Walter to take the lead. Mathis and Thrasher held the Titans away to get the game to extras. There, Matt Nunley hit a leadoff single off Harry Merwin in the 10th to represent a nominal threat, but Mathews and Margolis made poor outs, and Brandon Johnson’s grounder to short should have ended the inning, but Robby Vasquez threw it away. That brought up Cookie, who had his issues this April, but found the gap between Alex Mata in center and Carlos Cazares in right. While Cazares was to the ball quickly and Cookie retreated to first for a single, Nunley scored from second base to break the tie. Walter struck out to end the inning and his hitting streak unless Alex Ramirez would allow exactly one run. A leadoff walk to Williams was a thoroughly bad start, but he recovered by getting Rivera to pop out to second, and then whiffed Jose Avila and Alex Mata. 2-1 Raccoons! Carmona 2-6, RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B; Nunley 2-5, RBI; Denny 1-2, 2 BB; Abe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

Can one have a duller name than Brett Dill? I guess Brett Dull would technically be duller.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – LF Jackson – RF H. Mendoza – 1B Mathews – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – C Denny – P Santos
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Blake – SS Vasquez – LF X. Williams – 2B M. Rivera – P Ling

Sad offense continued early on in the middle game. Cookie led off with a single for a 12-game hitting streak, but never got off first thanks to no hitting behind him and also no good jumps against Ling, as the little red-haired bugger had an eye on him. When the Coons made it to the corners in the second, Denny whiffed for the second out, and Ling feasted on Santos’ sweat to escape the inning. Santos faced seven left-handed batters, but didn’t seem to be bothered for the first three innings, but then walked Tom Thomas (the right-hander, ironically) and Steve Butler to start the inning. That gave him three walks in the game after two walks in his 25 innings earlier this season, but more importantly he worked his way outta there with a K, a pop, and a kind fly to Cookie! Thomas never got off second base. The Coons would eventually score first; the run was plated with two outs in the fifth, Mike Denny after his leadoff single scampering home on McKnight’s streak-extending double to deep right. Jackson grounded out to leave Ronnie on base, but the sixth started with Mendoza and Mathews both hitting singles off Ling, but the rookie was not done yet. He struck out Nunley, then got Prince to pop out. Mike Denny took a ball before Ling threw a wild pitch, which was actually very bad, because it took the bat away from Denny, who was swiftly put on the open base to draw up Santos with two outs again. But Ling missed twice low, then had to come up to not risk a walk to the opposing pitcher, and when Santos jabbed the 2-0 into play, the resulting grounder eluded Steve Butler, who manned first base like the Rock of Gibraltar, and the lucky single scored two for a 3-0 lead! Kudos to Ling, who remained in the game despite walking Cookie to restock the bags, because he actually would have made it out of there for a semi-decent result, if Mike Rivera hadn’t spiked the throw on McKnight’s grounder. Butler couldn’t morph his body around that rouge bouncer either, and two more runs scored as the ball almost took out the Titans’ pitching coach in the dugout.

The Coons looked really smart now with a 5-0 lead, but Hector Santos suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be a flyball pitcher. A flyball pitcher he became. Butler hit a 2-out double in the bottom 6th and Jonathan Blake homered right afterwards, and in the seventh Santos was thumped even by Mike Rivera, who hit a solo shot to bring the Titans back to 5-3. Luckily, this was where the Raccoons threw them the STOP sign. Wade Davis came in to replace Santos, retired Tim Robinson and Alex Mata, and when Thrasher and Ramirez followed on after that, they did not allow any base runners, either. 5-3 Raccoons. Mathews 2-3, 2 BB; Walter (PH) 1-1;

Note: Rick Ling (6’5’’) ain’t that little, but he sure is red-haired.

Another note: Mike Rivera has four home runs now in almost precisely 4,000 at-bats. Only Santos can give up dingers to that guy…*

Third note: the Raccoons took first place in the division after winning five straight games. They jumped the Titans with this game, and also zipped past the Indians, who were winless this week, but their Saturday game in Milwaukee had been rained out. These two teams had a double header on Sunday.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
BOS: CF Mata – C Galan – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Blake – LF J. Avila – SS Vasquez – 2B M. Rivera – P Boyer

Boyer got whipped around a bit in the first inning, allowing three singles and two walks, but the only permanent damage came from DeWeese’s 2-out, 2-run single. While Nunley and Jackson got one, Denny feebly struck out to strand three, which was a bit of a theme in this series. While both pitchers’ pitch count would escalate quickly, runs would be hard to come by. In fact, while the two starters combined for 175 pitches, roughly evenly split, in five innings, the two runs from the top 1st were the only ones on the board, and the Titans were excruciatingly lucky that they didn’t even score upon Jose Avila’s leadoff triple in the bottom 5th. Mendoza walked Vasquez, then got a pop from Rivera, a bunt from Boyer, and DeWeese caught up with Mata’s fly to left to end the inning. After a quick sixth for both (although Ricky Mendoza hit Tom Thomas with a pitch), Denny made the first out in the seventh before we let Mendoza hit for himself and he promptly doubled. Yet, there was no joy to be had with Cookie right now, who still lacked his daily single and even struck out weakly here. Walter singled, sending Mendoza to third, and that brought up the other Mendoza with two outs, who was soul-searching in this series, but lined past Butler and up the rightfield line, just barely fair, for a 2-run double to run the score to 4-0.

Mendoza’s day on the mound was over after a leadoff walk to Avila in the bottom 7th. Jason Kaiser came out of the moist den that the Titans called visitors’ bullpen, and allowed the Titans’ first run of the game on his watch, conceding a single to Vasquez in the first place. Rivera bunted the runners into scoring position, but when Adam Albrecht pinch-hit for Boyer, his fly to right was never a threat to do major damage. Sure, Avila scored on the sac fly, but after Mata struck out, the Titans were still three runs short, four once Eddie Jackson homered off Brett Dill (…) in the eighth. The Titans kept nibbling and remained in the picture thanks to Kaiser walking Armando Galan at the start of the bottom 8th. Wade Davis replaced him, but allowed a double to Tom Thomas, then had to face three southpaws because Ron Thrasher had worked a lot this week and we wanted to stay away from him if at all possible. Steve Butler hit a sac fly, 5-2, Blake grounded out, and Avila hit a soft line that McKnight snagged effortlessly to end the inning. Since Alex Ramirez had been out three of the last four days (or in all of the last three games), Chris Mathis was tasked with the bottom of the order in the bottom of the ninth. He struck out Vasquez, but Rivera’s floater to left made it to the grass before DeWeese could get to it. Tim Robinson pinch-hit for Dill in the #9 hole, and at 1-2 grounded sharply to the left side. McKnight had no problems with that, zipped it to Walter, and on to Mendoza for a game-ending double play! 5-2 Critters! H. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Jackson 2-4, HR, RBI; R. Mendoza 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (2-2) and 1-3, 2B;

Bad news #1: All relevant hitting streaks ended with this game as both Cookie and Ronnie went hitless.

Bad news #2: the Indians swept the double-header with the Loggers, putting both teams dead even at the top of the North.

In other news

April 25 – The visiting Knights pile 15 runs onto the Crusaders in just four innings, including 11 in the fourth, before the home team can even plate one. The Knights coast from there, casually winning 17-5.
April 27 – The Aces not only blow their 9-3 lead in the eighth inning over the Knights – they BLOW it. The Knights pile nine runs on them to come from behind and roar past them to a 12-9 victory.
April 28 – While the Knights thump the Aces, 11-0, the mood is still dark after ATL 1B Mike Rucker (.182, 2 HR, 8 RBI) is revealed to be out for the entire month of May with a broken wrist.
April 28 – The Gold Sox rout the Wolves, 13-1, on the strength of only 12 hits. Wolves pitching gives up eight walks to bolster the numbers for the Gold Sox.

Complaints and stuff

Swept the week! That helped me over the muddy start to the season for sure! They also scored five or more runs five times, which always helps with above-average pitching, and oddly the bullpen is first in ERA right now in the Continental League, while the rotation is middling. Well, there’s middling and there’s middling. Jonny can certainly do better than 2.55, but we also have the two question marks at the back of the rotation that delivered three decent-to-good games this week and went 3-0 between them.

By the way, no meeting with the Indians for another good while. They aren’t on our plate until a 4-game set starting on May 14. Next week it will be the Loggers and Stars on the road as we work our way back home. The Stars’ pitching is completely ablaze and I’d like to see how that works out for a few of our stragglers.

Then there’s DeWeese, who’s silently hitting .319, which is so far out of the ordinary that a HUGE slump is looming at some point in the season. He was also Player of the Week, batting .471 (8-for-17) with 2 HR and 7 RBI. For Rich Jackass DeWeese, .319 is merely 46 points over the best average he ever had in a qualifying season, .273 (with 30 HR and 89 RBI) in 2012 when the Miners traded him to the Cyclones halfway through the year. He batted .292 with the Cyclones after the trade, still mighty short of .319…

*Also: Dan Lambert, Ray Taylor, and Jaquan Wagoner;

Jason Bergquist signed a $213k deal with the Pacifics this week after refusing our offer for a minor league contract.

I completely missed this one earlier: when Jonny Toner beat the Elks in Vancouver two weeks ago, he claimed the 3,400th regular season win for the franchise.

Mr. Nick Brown (who is rumored to seek another extension) took career win #224, and I mention that despite the not-very-milestone number because at his age you never know when it’s the last one. For everybody, there comes the day where the sun stops rising every day…