[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-9) @ Loggers (9-15) – April 30-May 2, 2018

The Loggers were last in runs scored in the Continental League thanks to a real pauper’s lineup, and their pitching was at best average, although their rotation currently enjoyed a better ERA than the Raccoons’. Nevertheless, their sixth-most runs allowed was never going to turn them even into a midpack team given the gruesome offense that scored barely 3.3 runs a game. This was going to be the first meeting of the season between the two teams involved. The Raccoons had won the season series for four years in a row (and nine of the last eleven), but only by a 10-8 total tally in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-2, 4.70 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (4-1, 1.69 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-0, 2.55 ERA) vs. J.J. Wirth (1-2, 2.66 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (1-2, 2.03 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (0-2, 4.22 ERA)

While the Loggers employed only right-handed starters on their 25-man roster right now, they still had G.G. Williams (1-1, 5.14 ERA) on the DL, and he was eligible to be activated by Wednesday for the last game of the set. Also on the DL: Victor Hodgers, the base-stealing terror outfielder, and thank goodness for that.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Brown
MIL: 2B Betancourt – SS Burns – RF Gore – LF LeMoine – C O. Castillo – 3B Velez – CF Coleman – 1B McDermott – P Foreman

Foreman had almost nine K per nine innings, so he was not a pushover my any stretch in the early going, and struck out a pair in the first inning, which saw Cookie reach second base when Ian Coleman mishandled his single, although the Loggers’ centerfielder would redeem himself, throwing out Carmona at home when Mendoza also singled to center. There was an early rain delay in the second inning that didn’t affect Brownie too badly – he had a hard time getting people out regardless, and that even without the defense intentionally sabotaging him. Foreman hit a 1-out double in the bottom of the third inning, and David Betancourt coaxed a walk from Mr. Brown. Kyle Burns grounded to Tim Prince, who picked the ball, then dropped it when he tried to take it from the glove. No double play, instead bases loaded for the heart of the order. While Brad Gore popped out, Chris LeMoine and Orlando Castillo both hit hard singles to left, which plated a total of three unearned runs.

The Raccoons had the bases loaded after that right in the next inning. Walter flew out to start the frame, but then the Tiger doubled, McKnight singled, and DeWeese walked to over a full platter for Matt Nunley, who was still mired in a slump and OPS’ing under .600; he grounded out to first, where Sean McDermott only had the play on Nunley himself, after which Denny hopelessly struck out. He was giving DeWeese a real run for the team strikeout crown, and not in a good way. A misplay by Alberto Velez gave the Coons another chance in the fifth. Tim Prince had led off the inning with a single, and Velez tried to get him at second on Brown’s perfectly decent bunt. He didn’t – and the tying runs were on base. That’s where they remained, too, with the top three in the order making three top pathetic outs. Cookie grounded to short, barely staying out of the double play and leaving runners on the corners, and then Walter and Mendoza both popped out over the infield. Back to Mike Denny, who was not really a contributor at the plate, but spared Brownie a run by the weight of his body in the bottom 5th, in which David Betancourt tried to steal home with two outs and LeMoine batting. Now, LeMoine was the sole worthwhile player in the lineup, and although he had struck out once against Brownie in the game, a dinger was likelier than another K. The inning ended with Betancourt pinned under Denny and still short of home plate, and LeMoine an unhappy camper in the box. Brownie held up through seven, not allowing an earned run and striking out a frustrated LeMoine, who was probably longing for a trade, but hacked himself out in the sixth. The Coons got two hits off two different relievers to start the top 8th, with Cookie and Walter on base for Hugo Mendoza when southpaw Carlos Michel (0-1, 4.91 ERA) appeared. The former starter was walk-prone, but we needed a rip. Right now the Coons got neither, but Mendoza singled to left. However, not even Cookie was being sent on the arm of LeMoine that unleashed raw lightning. McKnight struck out, with Jackson hitting for DeWeese, which prompted an appearance of righty Julio San Pedro, who had Jackson at 1-2, then threw a wild pitch that got the Coons to 3-2, and took away the double play. It was the Raccoons’ last botched chance before going down in order to Troy McCaskill in the ninth inning. 3-2 Loggers. Carmona 2-4; Mendoza 3-4, 2B; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (1-3);

If the miserable sucker Prince doesn’t make that ****ing error, the Raccoons actually win this ****ing game. I know somebody whose stock is in free fall… That is true even if we disregard for the moment that even as things were, they still out-hit the Loggers clearly, 9-4.

Not that I’d know anybody to take his spot on the roster…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 2B Mathews – C Margolis – P Toner
MIL: SS Burns – 3B Velez – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – RF Gore – C O. Castillo – 2B I. Reed – 1B McDermott – P Wirth

J.J. Wirth faced only two batters before leaving the game with an injury, forcing the Loggers into a bullpen game. Nevertheless, the Raccoons did absolutely nothing against Allen Harris until the fifth inning, with the Loggers pulling a 1-0 lead against Toner, who walked a pair in the second inning and the Loggers had a few productive outs there. Nunley opened the fifth with a double to center, the closest the Raccoons had so far come to a run. He also ended the inning on second base, with Mathews popping out and Margolis and Toner both flying out to LeMoine. Harris continued to pitch a bear of a game until he got forced out with one out in the sixth. Walter had doubled and Mendoza drew a walk in a full count, but the Raccoons still had to touch third base for the day. While McKnight’s grounder to first off San Pedro achieved that, it brought up DeWeese with two outs, and while he didn’t strike out, he also found his way into Sean McDermott’s glove. The Loggers were way closer to a second run than Jonny Toner was to extend his winning streak, and generated a threat in the bottom 7th merely by ill communication. With Isiah Reed on first and two outs, McDermott hit a floater to shallow center that fell in once Mathews and Cookie shooed another off. Toner struck out Coleman in the #9 hole, but the winning streak required two runs to score in the top of the eighth. Cookie was the only guy who reached base, and Mendoza struck out against Michel to end the inning. Top 9th, still down 1-0 for ****’s sake, and McCaskill back in the game. McKnight led off with a single, but then came two easy outs and the tying run was still on first. Mathews rolled a pitch between the infielders on the right for a single, and then Jackson – batting for Margolis – hit an infield single that filled the bases. Petracek (batting .133) grabbed a bat in place of Chris Mathis. Before he could even attempt to strike out, McCaskill’s first pitch was wild, McKnight came home, and the game was tied. Petracek ended up walking, Cookie came up, but he lined out to Velez at third base…

The Loggers left two on against Thrasher in the ninth, then stranded the winning run on second as well in the 10th inning against Wade Davis. But they had too many rookies stirring by now. Max Giese made an error to put Mathews on base with one out in the 11th, the second inning of rookie Jason Sherman in his second career outing. Denny was next, having entered after Margolis had been hit for. The living strikeout got a fat pitch down the middle and didn’t miss it, belching it over the leftfield fence for a 390-footer. Cookie reached base with a 2-out single, but was stranded, turning the 3-1 lead over to Alex Ramirez, who allowed a single to Brad Gore to start the bottom 11th before blowing the lead on a pinch-hit, 2-run homer by the last bench piece the Loggers had, Brad Tesch. The game went on with no reserves left, and Sherman still on the mound in the 12th. The Tiger opened with a liner into the left center gap that he legged out for a triple, then was stranded as McKnight grounded out to first, DeWeese struck out (of course he did), and Nunley grounded back to the mound. Ramirez put two on in the bottom 12th before somehow escaping on a double play, but he had to bat leading off the 13th, which was not going to end well in any shape or form. Chet Cummings pitched in the bottom 13th and managed to load the bases with just one out after singles by Orlando Castillo and Betancourt, a wild pitch, and a walk to Tesch, the donkey’s ass. Starting pitcher Ian Prevost had pitched the top 13th, now batted, and sent a fly to center that Cookie caught, but he didn’t catch Castillo racing home. 4-3 Loggers. Walter 2-6, 2 2B; McKnight 2-6; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Denny 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K;

So let’s review this. The Loggers used nine pitchers, all of them crummy, and you couldn’t beat them? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ****S???

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 1B Petracek – P Abe
MIL: SS Burns – 2B Betancourt – LF LeMoine – RF Gore – C O. Castillo – CF Coleman – 3B I. Reed – 1B McDermott – P McDonald

So the very best thing the Loggers could up with in terms of a starter for the Wednesday game turned out to be Jason McDonald (1-1, 4.09 ERA), who was starting on two day’s rest after having been assigned one game of the Loggers’ double header on Sunday. This was with G.G. Williams on the roster and Ian Prevost not having over-exerted himself in a quick 13th inning the previous night.

McDonald allowed two runs in the first inning as Cookie and Mendoza both reached base, pulled off a double steal, and then came home on a sac fly by McKnight and Jackson’s single, respectively. LeMoine spared McDonald more runs in the second inning when Mendoza drove a ball to deep left with two outs and the bases loaded and LeMoine sold out, making a soaring grab near the warning track. While the Coons napped after that, Abe retired the first dozen Loggers without problems, but then Brad Gore opened the fifth with a clean single to center. Castillo singled to left, Coleman grounded out to advance the runners. Reed’s fly to right was caught by Mendoza, but Gore scored on the sac fly, after which McDermott was walked intentionally onto the open base. And then Abe with two outs lost McDonald to another walk… That one, while totally inexplicable, filled the bases for Kyle Burns, who forced Mendoza into a good hustle to snag his pop to shallow right. Although I could certainly see the inning unravel for six runs in front of my eyes, it didn’t happen, and the Critters hung onto a 2-1 lead. At that score the game continued to dimple along with neither team doing much for the next three innings, with Abe going eight full innings of 3-hit ball. Well, the Coons still did nothing (really, NOTHING) in the ninth, and the 2-1 game then ended up with Thrasher, because the left-handed core was up in the bottom 9th and Ramirez had ****ed up across two innings the previous night, while Thrasher had thrown only one inning. He ran 3-ball counts on everybody! LeMoine struck out in a full count, but Gore walked. Castillo popped out on a 3-2 pitch, with Velez, a switch-hitter, coming on for Coleman. That count didn’t go to three balls, because Velez ended up completely fooled on a 2-2 lampoon that hit the dirt despite starting up in the zone. Velez swung through it, and the Coons salvaged one game from a HORRENDOUS series. 2-1 Blighters. McKnight 2-3, RBI; Abe 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (2-2);

Raccoons (16-11) @ Stars (13-15) – May 4-6, 2018

Eighth in offense and ninth in pitching, the Stars weren’t quite looking like a contender. Their rotation was decent, but their pen was the second-worst in the league with a tremendous 5.74 ERA. Neither power, nor speed was among their strong suits and they also had a number of injuries to their lineup, further weakening them. Mike Gershkovich and Zach Knowling were amongst those on the DL for them. These teams hadn’t met in three years. The most recent series in 2014 had been swept by the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (2-1, 3.73 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (3-3, 2.74 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (2-2, 4.22 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (2-3, 3.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-3, 3.60 ERA) vs. Chris Domingue (0-3, 6.06 ERA)

We avoid their left-hander, Andy Hackney (2-0, 4.66 ERA), who pitched on Wednesday.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 2B Prince – P Santos
DAL: CF R. Lopez – 3B J. Pena – RF Dally – SS St. George – 2B H. Garcia – C Schoeppen – LF Fraijo – 1B Contino – P Benjamin

The Coons didn’t get a hit until Santos singled with one out in the third, but after Cookie flew out to Justin Dally, who batted .383 with five homers, things got moving. Walter singled, Mendoza singled and plated Santos, and then McKnight went past the reach of Rodrigo Lopez in left center for a 2-run double for an early 3-0 lead. The Stars had a swift answer, drawing two walks off Santos in the bottom 3rd (which was always newsworthy, two walks by Santos in one inning), and Juan Pena hit a 2-out single to bring up the raker Dally as the go-ahead run. He sure raked, but he didn’t make contact and struck out, keeping the Coons 3-1 ahead. While the Raccoons didn’t take place in the middle innings, Santos had another two runners on base in the fourth, wiggled out of there, and the sixth started with a Dally drive to deep left. DeWeese, who had already ended the fourth with a strong grab on a liner, went back to catch the ball on the warning track, but the Stars still got a run in the inning on Stephen St. George’s single and Hector Garcia’s RBI double. Too bad for the Stars, Garcia hurt himself rounding first base and had to be replaced by fringe player Johnny Albert. After Casimiro Schoeppen’s deep fly out to right on which Mendoza had to hustle, the Raccoons maintained a 3-2 lead, but some offense would be nice. The Coons started the seventh inning with singles by Joey Mathews (who hit for Santos) and Cookie Carmona, but then failed to gain even another 90 feet as Walter, Mendoza, and McKnight all made poor outs. Wade Davis pitched a clean bottom of the inning, but then walked Pena to start the eighth. That pulled up Dally again; Kaiser came out to match him, but still allowed a single. Up by a run, two on, nobody out, Chris Mathis had to try and throw an anchor, but instead balked in an 0-2 count to St. George, with the Stars easily tying the game on a groundout. Ex-Logger Troy Charters was on it in the top of the ninth in a tied game, where we had arrived after two consecutive pops that kept Dally stranded at third base. Charters retired Prince to start the inning before conceding a double to Eddie Jackson. However, Cookie couldn’t do anything right by now and fouled out on a 3-1 pitch… (his single had been on a 3-0 pitch). Jackson was stranded, and when Chun made it through a scoreless inning, we had another extra inning affair on our paws. The Coons just couldn’t buy a hit, but the Stars got a 1-out single off Chun in the bottom 10th through Dally, who was run for by Ruben Chacon, who immediately took second base, advanced on St. George’s single, and the Stars walked off on Albert’s sac fly. 4-3 Stars. Walter 2-5; McKnight 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1; Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Cookie, honey, you’re trying too hard. Do you need a day off? No? Just let the hits flow out naturally. Please, I’m begging you, the team needs you to get on base any ****ing way.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Denny – P R. Mendoza
DAL: LF Chacon – CF R. Lopez – RF Dally – SS St. George – C Schoeppen – 3B Fraijo – 2B R. Mendez – 1B Contino – P Funderburk

The Raccoons got two fluke runs in the first inning. Cookie led off walking, and things could have gone badly when the Tiger grounded to short. St. George bungled the ball, however, and there were two on for when McKnight hit a blooper to left that escaped Chacon for a double, plating Cookie, while Mendoza came home on DeWeese’s sac fly to right. The Coons didn’t do any better in any regard, however, with Ricky Mendoza drilling Chacon to start his day, and then allowed a hard single to Rodrigo Lopez, which Jackson overran for an extra base. Runners on second and third, no outs, Dally struck out, sending a mumble through the park, but St. George got at least one run home with a sac fly before Schoeppen fouled out. Both pitchers were crowded badly in the second inning. Mendoza escaped thanks to the defense, but Funderburk allowed two more runs on 2-out singles by Walter and the Tiger, then conceded a leadoff jack to DeWeese in the third that put the Coons 5-1 ahead. That didn’t last long: Ricky Mendoza hit Lopez to start the bottom 3rd, and Dally pilfered the next pitch for a rocket to right that was well outta here and cut the lead in half, to 5-3. That wasn’t all: St. George singled, and Antonio Fraijo hit a howling double to deep right and into the corner to plate him, 5-4. John Contino stranded Fraijo on third as the tying run when he popped out to end the inning.

Cookie was on base in the top 4th, stole second, then was caught stealing at third, and Ricky Mendoza was rolled up for good in the bottom of the inning. He walked Lopez to get the Stars going, then allowed hard shots to left to Dally for a double and St. George for a single. Both plated the guy ahead of them and the Stars were ahead 6-5. Mendoza would not get his well deserved loss, for McKnight homered in the fifth off the equally miserable Ron Funderburk to tie the game again at six. Thank goodness for the Stars we had more completely inept pitching where Mendoza came from. Chet Cummings drilled Fraijo to start the bottom 5th, then quickly allowed a walk to Contino and an RBI double to Albert. With Cummings yanked, Wade Davis only made things worse, and the Stars emerged with a 9-6 lead from the inning.

Top 6th, Nunley, Denny, and Cookie all hit singles off Brent Beene, which put the tying runs on base with one out. Shane Walter rammed a bases-clearing double off the rightfield fence to make the Coons level again with the home team, but with the go-ahead run on second base, Tiger and McKnight failed to make proper contact against right-hander Ron Bartlatt, and the chance was wasted. Davis put runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning, Mathis appeared, managed to NOT ****ING BALK, and retired John Contino on a grounder to Walter, who had moved to short after two double switches to remove inept pitchers, which was an unusual move for the Raccoons, to see McKnight removed from the game. The seventh was the first inning in the game where actually nobody scored, and the eighth saw Kevin Cummings, a southpaw, issue a leadoff walk to Denny. We were running out of bench players, but Brandon Johnson batting in the #9 hole was no offensive relief, grounding to second base to get Denny forced. Cookie then singled to right and sent Johnson to third, runners on the corners with one out for Walter. Shane Walter took Cummings’ first pitch over Contino for a tie-breaking RBI single, and Cookie went to third. Then the Tiger hit into a double play. I had heartaches. Thrasher got the bottom 8th, allowed a 2-out double to Schoeppen, but struck out Frajio to complete his assignment. The ninth went to Ramirez, who had explicit instructions to not blow the tender lead or he would not even have to head for the team bus back to the hotel. He didn’t blow the lead – the 7-8-9 batters went down 1-2-3 for the Stars. 10-9 Furballs. Carmona 3-4, BB; Walter 3-5, 2B, 5 RBI; McKnight 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Denny 1-2, 2 BB;

(exhales) That was not a pleasant game.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Mathews – C Margolis – 2B Prince – P Brown
DAL: CF Chacon – 3B J. Pena – SS St. George – RF Dally – C Schoeppen – LF R. Lopez – 2B Albert – 1B Contino – P Domingue

Brownie got ruffled for three hits, a walk, and two runs in the bottom of the first inning, with the Stars making consistent, hard contact. In the bottom 2nd, they scored two more runs, and the 1-2-3 batters rocked Brownie for base hits on three consecutive pitches. Dally struck out to end the inning, but it was a most pyrrhic victory… The Furballs had no hits in the first two innings, but then got Prince, Brown, and Cookie all on base with nobody out in the third inning. When Shane Walter grounded into a double play, I died inside, and the Raccoons exited the inning with only one run scored once Mendoza grounded out to the pitcher. The run didn’t even matter because Brownie allowed a 2-out RBI single to Domingue right in the bottom of the inning. 55 pitches through three innings – and none of them good. He eventually ended up with 10 hits and two walks allowed in 4.1 innings before having to be dug out of another mess by Seung-mo Chun.

Down 5-1 after five innings with only two hits in the bank, the Raccoons looked as dead as usual against a pitcher with a 6+ ERA. Meanwhile, for the second day in a row, the Raccoons’ bullpen tumbled from mess to mess, but this time they didn’t allow a run while doing so, despite Jason Kaiser walking people and Chet Cummings hitting people and what not all. However, the offense was completely silent. Brownie stuck to the loss, because the Coons didn’t score another run until they were down to their last out. Matt Nunley’s pinch-hit homer was hopefully a step in the right direction for him personally, but it came too late to make any difference. 5-2 Stars. H. Mendoza 2-4; Nunley (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Sad week.

In other news

May 1 – The Cyclones tie the Blue Sox in the ninth inning, and the resulting tie is not resolved until the 16th inning when the Cyclones walk off, 6-5, on a home run by LF/RF Jason Seeley (.290, 3 HR, 7 RBI).
May 4 – LAP CL Arturo Lopez (0-0, 0.64 ERA, 8 SV) will be shut down for two weeks with elbow inflammation.
May 4 – Sacramento routs Boston, 15-2. Every starting position player for the Scorpions has at least one base hit and either an RBI or a run scored.
May 5 – MIL SP J.J. Wirth (1-2, 2.61 ERA) needs surgery to clear some major bone chips from his elbow. It looks like his season is over.
May 6 – The Blue Sox will be without 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.281, 3 HR, 20 RBI) for about the rest of the month. The 37-year old has strained a hammy and will miss about three weeks.
May 6 – The Capitals pile a pair of 6-spot in the seventh and eighth innings on the Indians to rout them late, 14-5.
May 6 – The Wolves’ game against the Falcons ends 1-0 in ten innings on a walkoff homer by RF/LF Rick Farmer (.300, 1 HR, 4 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Don’t ask me what went wrong in Milwaukee, I know exactly as much as you do. I only have my usual conspiracy theory involving the baseball gods, and nobody’s buyin’ that. Would have been cool to continue to have Jonny on a streak winning all games, but they couldn’t even score two runs when the Loggers had to go to their pen in the first inning. That one sure hurts, almost a week later!!

Of course nothing got better in Dallas. And the road trip started so well! Also, this was our first series loss to Dallas since 2004.

In more tremendous news, Jeff Magnotta was demoted to AA this week after running a 7+ ERA in April in AAA. Yeah, we might want to erase him from the happy prospect list. Do we have an actual list? I don’t know. I’d ask Gabriel Martinez, if he’d actually talk to me. He just glares at me, then makes a phone call in Spanish, and never stops glaring during that.

I might go on and dump Prince, who is terrible, and bring up 1B Russ Greenwald from AAA, who’s rapping out extra-base hits. He was our second-rounder in 2013, but was released in June of 2016. The Gold Sox ran him for a year, then released him a year and a day after he had been released by the Coons. We signed him to a minor league deal in early April, and since then he’s batted .263 with ten extra-base hits in 16 games. He’s a left-hander, so there’s that, but like I said, Prince is terrible, and his presence saddens me. He also does have options.

By the way, that Brandon Johnson guy is the same Brandon Johnson that batted .338 in 139 AB last season. He is getting evened out, I guess. We might consider Alex Duarte for a promotion, although the question would be where to play him. It’s not like space is infinite. Although, if we dump both Johnson and Prince, we could get Duarte into center, Cookie to right, and Mendoza to first. That almost sounds like a plan. Even Johnson has an option – not that we care that hard right now.