[Westheim]

Raccoons (63-41) @ Falcons (35-71) – July 30-August 1, 2018

The absolutely horrendous Falcons were last in runs allowed and third from the bottom in runs scored, giving them an outrageous -170 run differential before July was even over. We should be cautious though given that we’ve lost three in a row and have only played 3-3 against them so far in 2018…

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (4-6, 4.71 ERA) vs. Kevin Clayton (5-13, 4.97 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-3, 2.40 ERA) vs. Alex Vallejo (5-13, 6.05 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (10-10, 3.62 ERA) vs. Sean Balzer (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

That Balzer kid had been the #2 overall pick in 2015, and was a 23-year old right-hander that had made his major league debut in 2017 already, but had been promoted back to the big league rotation after the Falcons had traded Guerrero to us. He would oppose Balzer in the Wednesday game, his second start for the Raccoons and after having drawn a no-decision in his first outing. All their starters to oppose us in this series were right-handed.

The Raccoons have another 17 straight games before arriving at another off day. I don’t know quite how this will ultimately shake out, but everybody might get two days off in this string, especially the brittle faction. Yeah, looking at you Cookie! You’re always making a mess and crumble all over the floor. (works carpet with a hand-held vacuum cleaner) Go eat your muffin outside, for crying out loud!

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Dahlke – P Knight
CHA: SS Good – LF Huibregtse – CF Feldmann – 1B Quebell – RF Pearcy – 2B J. Estrada – C Vanderzee – 3B R. Martinez – P Clayton

While Clayton walked Cookie at the start of the game, but then struck out six on his way the first time through the order after that, Damani Knight spilled two singles in the first inning, but sure as heck got a double play grounder from Adrian Quebell, because some things never change. Knight would not make it out of the third inning, thoroughly ravaged by the Falcons, who opened with a Ricardo Martinez double to left. After a bunt by the pitcher, Knight walked Matt Good, who stole second base and made it to third with Martinez scoring when Mike Denny unleashed a throw into centerfield. Knight walked the bases full, then allowed three consecutive doubles to Quebell (so some things eventually DO change), Erik Pearcy and Juan Estrada. Jason Kaiser replaced Knight, allowed another RBI double to Matt Vanderzee, which made for four straight doubles, five in the inning, and seven runs on the board, a single to Martinez and finally Clayton came up and hit into a double play, which loaded him with all three outs in the inning.

The Coons entered the fourth inning without as much of a base hit while trailing by seven runs. Clayton walked Shane Walter to start the inning before Nunley grounded to right where Juan Estrada made a full-length dive to stop the ball and took his precious time to get it out of his glove – too late, Nunley was safe with an infield single. Mendoza singled, loaded them up for Alex Duarte, who tried to break the slump with a long shot to right, and outta here. GRAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!! Before long, the bases were loaded again. Denny had a hit, Dahlke walked, Jason Kaiser was retained to bunt, but Clayton messed up trying to get Denny at third base and got nobody. Just now, with a great situation and the top of the order up, Clayton rediscovered his pitching skills and struck out Cookie and Walter back-to-back to end the inning, reaching 9 K on the day. Kaiser threw 2.2 innings before issuing a leadoff walk to Vanderzee in the sixth inning. Schroeder replaced him, but while Vanderzee ended forced on a poor bunt in the inning, Schroeder still conceded the run on two singles, putting the Falcons 8-4 ahead. The Raccoons faced Jose Cappelletti, who was really struggling with the walks, in the seventh inning, but ended up loading the bases on three singles after an initial foul pop by Joey Mathews, who had replaced Dahlke in a double switch. Mendoza was the tying run in the box with one out. His last home runs had come on July 4, so the Falcons had nothing to worry about. Cappelletti lost him to a walk, but Duarte grounded his 1-0 pitch into a double play, leaving the Coons with one run and back down by three, where they remained silently in the last two frames. 8-5 Falcons. Nunley 2-4; Kaiser 2.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

Are you really going to lose the season series to a .330 team? Really?

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Petracek – P Toner
CHA: SS Good – 2B B. Reyes – C Holliman – CF Feldmann – 1B Quebell – RF Pearcy – LF Huibregtse – 3B R. Martinez – P Vallejo

In major news, Hugo Mendoza DID manage to hit another home run in July, knocking a 2-piece in the first inning that collected Walter, who had walked. Walking people was not alien to Vallejo, who had more walks than strikeouts, and also threw a wild pitch to move Walter to second base even before the home run. Mendoza even hit another one his next time up, belting a solo shot to center that put the Coons up 4-0. They had already scored a run in the inning after Cookie had tripled and come home on Walter’s sac fly. By contrast, the Falcons’ Bob Reyes had tripled in the bottom 1st, but had been left stranded when Toner double-whiffed the double-Ryans in the heart of the order. Vallejo got some kind of Damani Knight treatment, although rather than allowing seven runs in 2.1 innings, he allowed six in five innings eventually, with two more home runs hit off him by DeWeese and Denny going yard back-to-back in the fourth inning, staking Toner to a 6-0 lead. The Coons put up another 2-spot in the sixth inning, their fourth on the day. Toner singled with two outs and only Petracek on first base after forcing Denny, and then Cookie walked to fill them up. Walter hit a 2-out, 2-run single off Cappelletti to lengthen the score to 8-0. The inning ended with Quebell’s nifty play on Nunley’s quick bouncer. Jonny was shutting out the Falcons on two hits through five innings, but was already over 70 pitches again, having an especially wasteful bottom of the fourth in which he pitched in four 3-ball counts. He wasn’t going to get through this game safe for divine intervention – and that happened. The Raccoons were batting against Cappelletti in the top of the eighth when Cookie hit a single after Toner had made the second out. Walter doubled into the gap in right center, plating Cookie for a 9-0 score, and then Matt Nunley broke up an 0-for-4 doldrum with a huge swing and the team’s fifth dinger in the game, a huge shot to left. Just as the ball broke the plane over the fence, a colossal thunder sound cracked right over the park – a summer storm had quietly crept up on the city. It immediately started to rain and poured within a minute. The groundscrew scampered to get the tarp onto the field, but for nought. The rest of the game was drowned out and Toner wound up with a shutout on merits of ill weather. 11-0 Furballs. Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B; Walter 3-3, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; H. Mendoza 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Duarte 2-3, BB; Denny 2-4, HR, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (16-3) and 1-4;

Can you believe? This was the first complete game for ANY Raccoons starter this season, although it would never have been one if not for the weather!

The game did move Toner into the top 3 in ERA though, trailing IND Tristan Broun by 18 points and MIL Michael Foreman by nine. The Raccoons would face both of these pitchers in the two series coming after business would be finished in Charlotte, hopefully with a W to stave off the shame of dropping the season series to them.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Mathews – P Guerrero
CHA: SS Good – 2B B. Reyes – C Holliman – 1B Fowlkes – RF Pearcy – LF Huibregtse – CF Je. Stephenson – 3B R. Martinez – P Balzer

Balzer had walked seven batters in five and a third innings in his season debut. While he issued a free pass in each of the first two innings, the first damage of the game was done to Bobby Guerrero, who allowed the leadoff man Erik Pearcy on base to start the bottom 2nd and with two outs got blasted by Ricardo Martinez for a homer to left. After Cookie struck out to open the third inning, Walter got hit by Balzer, and the Coons loaded the bases on an error and a walk, bringing up Duarte with one out. His fly to right was initially reminiscent of his slam on Monday, but was caught by Pearcy, deep enough to allow Walter to scamper home from third base, though. Nunley scored on DeWeese’s hard single up the middle and into center, tying the score, after which Balzer kept messing up, walking Denny to load the bases with two down, and then walking Mathews with the bases already full. Mendoza came home with the go-ahead run, with Guerrero flailing out to end the inning. The bags were full again with two outs in the top 4th, with Balzer walking a pair this time, but pulling up DeWeese, The Great Deflater. He flew out to right. The Falcons tied the game in the bottom of the inning an two simple singles by Pearcy, who stole second base unopposed by Denny, and Jeremy Stephenson, leaving the score flat at three after four.

Suddenly, offense stopped. After Mathews’ 1-out single in the top of the fifth, the Falcons had seen enough of Balzer, who was replaced by Jimmy Van Meter, who sawed the Coons right off. The Falcons had two men on in the bottom 5th against Guerrero, but let him off the hook, and Guerrero wound up pitching seven innings on 100 pitches before his spot to bat was due to lead off the eighth inning against new reliever Johnny Watson, a left-hander. Dahlke hit for him, knocked the second pitch to left and that ball just kept rolling into the corner after narrowly avoiding a hustling Huibregtse’s glove. Dahlke slid in with a leadoff triple, with the Critters intentionally walking an 0-for-4 Cookie to set up a double play. It didn’t work. Walter hit a ball to center where it was caught by Stephenson, but was deep enough to score Dahlke for the 4-3 lead. Nunley then hit a blooper into shallow right with Cookie going aggro to third base, but had to hold when Mendoza grounded out. Duarte walked, with Jackson batting for DeWeese with the bags full and two down. Watson and Jackson battled for seven pitches in a full count before Jackson knocked a hard grounder to left, and the left side of the infield was the porous one with Ricardo Martinez holding onto third base so as to not fall over. The ball got through, two runs scored, and after Mathis pitched a scoreless eighth despite allowing two hits, the Raccoons put two more runs on a crumbling Falcons pen in the ninth, finally taking the season series. 8-3 Coons. Walter 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5, RBI; DeWeese 2-4, RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-2, 2 RBI; Mathews 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Dahlke (PH) 1-1; Hudman (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (65-42) vs. Indians (50-58) – August 2-5, 2018

How exactly were the Indians in last place in the North? They were eight games under .500, yet only four runs under .500, having plated 432 runs (9th in CL) against 436 runs allowed (5th). Their starters and relievers were both a bit better than average. They had one of the strongest defenses in the Continental League… this was really not a last place team! The Raccoons, who held a 5-2 lead in the season series, better watch out!

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (8-7, 4.77 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (9-7, 2.11 ERA)
Hector Santos (10-5, 2.73 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (1-0, 4.39 ERA)
Damani Knight (4-7, 5.42 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (9-7, 3.60 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (16-3, 2.29 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (4-9, 5.76 ERA)

The Indians had put Alejandro “Ant” Mendez (8-11, 3.26 ERA) on the DL with a mild oblique strain at the start of this week, moving Kyle Lamb, a regular starter in prior years, back to the rotation to fill in while Mendez was down. This gave the Indians two left-handers back-to-back at the start of this 4-game weekend set, which for us was not a desirable spot. DeWeese would make neither start, that much was clear. We would also cycle out most of our remaining left-handers for one game or the other while we were at it.

Game 1
IND: 1B O. Torres – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – 3B Suda – C Mancuso – 2B Eason – P Broun
POR: LF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B H. Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Walter – C Margolis – SS Dahlke – 2B Petracek – P R. Mendoza

We already knew that scoring would be kinda hard against Broun, but Ricky Mendoza proved to be absolutely no help at all in trying to maintain a 9 1/2 game lead, allowing three home runs in three innings and four runs total. July’s CL Rookie of the Month took him deep first as Danny Morales homered in the first inning, followed by a Lowell Genge triple and Nick Gilmor’s sac fly. G&G went deep back-to-back in the third. The Critters had only one hit by Margolis to show for after two innings, but Petracek got a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, stole second base, and came home on Duarte’s 2-out single to get back to 4-1. Jackson’s leadoff double again put the team in a good spot, although it took an error by Raul Matias on Margolis’ grounder to short to plate him, 4-2, the run being unearned. With one out and a runner on first, Tom Dahlke romped his first Raccoons home run to left, tying the score at four after four. In a twist, Broun would face only one more batter afterwards, retiring Cookie on a pop to shallow left before he kept rotating his shoulder on the mound, which sent the Indians’ trainer and pitching coach out there. They hauled him in right away, dipping Indy into their pen in the fifth of the tied game. Left-hander Pat Kling came into the game, and immediately put on Duarte with a double to left. Mendoza singled on a bloop, putting Critters onto the corners for Jackson, who doubled to center to break the tie. Duarte scored, Mendoza was sent and thrown out, and Jackson was stranded on second base when Walter popped out, leaving it at 5-4, and the team wrung another run from Kling in the sixth before Cookie stranded a pair when he fouled out, extending a hitless streak to 11 at-bats.

Mendoza had been hit for in the inning, with Mathews producing the run-scoring groundout that moved the score to 6-4. Wade Davis struck out Bobby Eason to start the seventh, his only batter before left-hander Danny Young pinch-hit for Kling and put four left-handed bats in a string of five batters. With a 2-run lead, this was a case for Ron Thrasher. He got four of them before Nick Gilmor hit a 2-out single to left in the eighth. With the lead still at 6-4, we didn’t bother with middlemen any longer, and Alex Ramirez was right out there to earn his lunch money, retiring Matias on a grounder to third before also sitting down the Indians in order in the ninth. 6-4 Furballs! Duarte 2-4, 2B, RBI; Jackson 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Margolis 2-4, 2B, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Ramirez 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (26);

Shane Walter has a 12-game hitting streak, which he will nurse on the bench in the second game, getting the day off with Nunley back on the hot corner. This was the first game all year in which Nunley did not appear, leaving only Cookie Carmona (!) to appear in all games, but Cookie also got the next game off.

Three of the runs on Broun were earned, dropping him (2.23 ERA) right between Foreman (2.17) and Toner (2.29) into second place in the ERA race. The injury turned out to not be too serious, a mild case of shoulder soreness. He might miss one start, two if the Indians decided to put him on the DL. A season-ending injury would have eliminated him from ERA title considerations since he only had 149 innings pitched on the year.

Game 2
IND: C Garner – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – 3B Suda – 1B Eaton – 2B D. Ortega – P Lamb
POR: CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – LF H. Mendoza – C Denny – 2B Mathews – SS Dahlke – 1B Petracek – P Santos

Hector Santos was perfect the first time through the Arrowheads’ lineup, whiffing a pair, but Lamb wasn’t that far off, facing only one over the minimum. But while Santos remained on track in the fourth, in the bottom of the inning Lamb loaded the bases on a single and two walks with nobody out and Denny appearing in the box. He hit a fly to right, not too deep, which Gilmor caught, then threw out Nunley trying to score. Mathews walked to reload the bases, but Dahlke popped out on a 3-1 pitch to end the inning. Gilmor then singled on the first pitch in the fifth inning, a clean line shot to center, Santos walked Matias on four pitches, and this ship went down quicker than the Titanic. After “Quasimodo” Suda popped out to shallow center, Santos was set alight by Pat Eaton’s RBI double, a run-scoring wild pitch he had himself to blame for, and then a 2-out RBI single by Lamb before Randy Garner’s K ended the inning. Santos didn’t even make it through another inning, getting whipped for another three hits and two runs while getting only one out. Chun replaced him to face Suda, who flew out to center in a full count, then struck out Eaton, but the damage had been done and was staggering; perfect in four innings, then charged five runs on six hits in 1.1 innings. The Coons were then left to mostly empty their entire pen despite Chun getting five outs on 15 pitches and only six outs left to get in a horrendous losing cause, in which the Raccoons had collected a meaningless run somewhere, but nowhere in particular, while Hugo Mendoza had unleashed pathetic groundouts with two on and two outs two times in the game. That was before we ran out of the budget arms, with Matt Schroeder being charged three runs in a horrendous top of the ninth, with some damage kindly waved around by Chris Mathis. The Raccoons ended up wiped, landing only five hits in total. 8-1 Indians. Jackson 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Five hits, and three by the semi-regular Jackson. DeWeese pinch-hit and whiffed in the ninth. Walter did not appear, the 12-game hitting streak still in one piece.

Game 3
IND: 1B O. Torres – CF D. Morales – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – 3B Suda – C Garner – LF C. Martinez – 2B Nelson – P Lambert
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Mathews – P Knight

The Coons got a run in the first inning on singles by Cookie and Nunley, but Cesar Martinez’ homer tied the game in the second – the first home run in the 23-year old’s career – and it didn’t take long for Knight’s inept pitching to leave him overtaken. He walked Oliver Torres to lead off the third, Morales singled, and Gilmor walked to give the Arrowheads the bases loaded with no outs. By some kind of miracle, the Indians scored only one run on Matias’ sac fly that Cookie caught headlong and ignoring all warnings to not break his neck, but he remained in one piece despite hitting the ground hard and getting one paw caught under his body. Suda flew out to left, and when Garner walked, Martinez grounded sharply to short, but Walter was on top of the play and got the final out. Down 2-1, when Denny and Mathews hit 2-out singles in the bottom 4th the temptation to yank Knight and piece the rest of the game together with the pen was definitely there, but we also had another 11 games to play after that and the pen had already had a hard night on Friday. Damani hit for himself, grounded to short, and two men were stranded.

Bottom 5th, Cookie led off with a single to center and took second base by force, his 29th base of the season. Walter’s groundout moved him to third, but Nunley flew out to shallow right and we had seen enough of Gilmor’s arm in this series, thank you. That left things to Mendoza. The chronic loser grounded to short, Matias with the throw to first – oh, the throw was poor, short-hopped Torres, and went off his glove and into the air. Mendoza was safe, Cookie was safe, the game was tied on Matias’ error, 2-2. The Indians had the tying run on third base with two outs in the top 6th and also didn’t hit for Lambert, whom Knight struck out to end the inning. After a scoreless seventh, Seung-mo Chun was in the game for the eighth inning. Matias hit a leadoff single before Suda chugged a homer to right, putting the Indians up 4-2 and the Raccoons into Calamity Valley yet once again. I couldn’t tell for sure whether they even tried, but the result was pathetic. After going down, they would not put another runner on base at all. 4-2 Indians. Carmona 2-4; Nunley 2-4, RBI;

Shane Walter’s hitting streak ended, just like my will to live. Hugo Mendoza was not in the lineup on Sunday. Call it rest, or call it that I hate his ****ing loser’s face, he was not in there. I hate that scumbag, worst trade ever. EVER!

Game 4
IND: 1B O. Torres – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – SS Matias – 3B Suda – C Garner – RF C. Martinez – 2B Nelson – P F. Ramirez
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 1B Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – LF DeWeese – SS Dahlke – 2B Hudman – P Toner

The first loud thud of that game was again off Suda’s bat, but Cookie caught up with that drive on the warning track. Nope, it was the Critters to take an early lead on power as DeWeese and Dahlke smoked back-to-back solo shots in the bottom of the second inning to give Jonny a 2-0 lead. Walter did his best to start a new hitting streak, lining a double into the right centerfield gap in the third inning, but left the game right afterwards after having felt a tweak during the swing. Petracek replaced him since I couldn’t stand Mendoza’s loser face anymore. Nunley grounded out to end the inning. Jonny Toner meanwhile had reached 200 K for the season after blasting away the side in the third inning, ending with Oliver Torres, and had allowed only a walk to Lowell Genge so far. His no-hit bid ended with Randy Garner’s 1-out single in the fifth inning, and now it was paramount to not pull a Santos here and get routed in a hurry. The Raccoons led 3-0 at this point, scoring another run when they loaded the bases with no outs on a wild Ramirez again in the bottom 4th, but didn’t get any further than Brock Hudman’s sac fly to center. Cesar Martinez reached on an infield single to bring up the tying run, but Aaron Nelson’s groundout to Hudman and the eighth K of the day hung on Ramirez ended the inning before it could hurt. Danny Morales’ 1-out single in the sixth brought up Genge, who hit a forceful double to right that scored the runner, then stole third base. Toner reached back and struck out Matias and Suda, but suddenly looked really hittable… Good thing DeWeese hit a leadoff jack in the bottom of the inning, restoring the 3-run gap with a 4-1 score. The Indians had the tying run up after Nelson and Danny Young hit singles with two outs in the seventh, but Torres struck out, Toner’s 11th on the day, but it also put him over 100 pitches. But with the last two contests having been real diarrhea contests we at least had Thrasher and Ramirez rested and ready, and Thrasher was throwing in the pen as Toner came back out for the eighth inning, entering on 101 pitches. Danny Morales led off, a right-hander, and Genge was the only lefty currently visible, but they still had Nick Gilmor ready to spring off the bench as second left-handed bat. Thrasher’s services were not required as Toner blitzed the Indians on eight pitches, including strikeouts to Genge and Matias. He was not going to be back for the ninth, however; this was Ramirez’ job, facing the 5-6-7 batters with a 3-run lead. Suda struck out, but Duarte lost his cap and almost a few teeth making a wild tumbling catch on Randy Garner’s drive in the gap in right center. He held on to the ball as well as all integral body parts and was alive and well to witness Ramirez’ whiff on Cesar Martinez that salvaged a split in the series. 4-1 Raccoons. Walter 1-2, 2B; H. Mendoza (PH) 1-1; DeWeese 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Dahlke 2-4, HR, RBI; Toner 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 13 K, W (17-3);

In other news

July 30 – The Loggers trade AAA MR Tony Harrell to the Cyclones for #94 prospect SP James Silmon.
July 30 – The Pacifics will be without SP Bruce Mark (9-8, 4.54 ERA) for a month after the 33-year old right-hander has suffered a strained biceps.
July 30 – Crusaders and Thunder both score 13 hits in their Monday game in Oklahoma City, but the Thunder also make four errors on the way to a gruesome 13-4 defeat. Eight of the 13 runs on them are unearned. For the Crusaders, 3B Jens Carroll (.292, 2 HR, 29 RBI) has two hits and drives in five.
July 30 – The Buffaloes get skinned by the Scorpions in a 13-1 rout in which six of the Scorpions’ starters have multi-hit games.
July 31 – DEN SS Piet Oosterom (.243, 2 HR, 20 RBI) will also miss a month while suffering from shoulder inflammation.
July 31 – The Scorpions enter the bottom of the ninth with a 4-0 lead over the Buffaloes, then go on to blow it. The Buffaloes walk off on two singles, a double, a walk, and another pair of doubles, the final knock for the 5-4 walkoff delivered by 32-year old 1B Rafael Moreno (.333, 0 HR, 4 RBI in 12 AB), who has just over 700 career bat-bats, and only 140 of those in the last six years.
August 1 – VAN CL Pedro Alvarado (3-3, 1.52 ERA, 16 SV) saves a 2-0 win for the Canadiens for his 600th career save. The 39-year old has spent his entire career with the Vancouver team, gobbling up an 88-79 record with a 2.39 ERA and 1,708 strikeouts. He has been a Reliever of the Year four times and Pitcher of the Year once in 2005.
August 1 – IND SP Josh Riley (7-6, 3.87 ERA) flings a 3-hit shutout at the Knights, who go down 5-0.
August 1 – All runs in the Capitals’ 2-1 win over the Gold Sox are scored in the 10th inning.
August 3 – The Thunder get smashed by the Bayhawks in a 14-2 blowout.
August 4 – Richmond’s SP Josh Knupp (10-7, 3.41 ERA) shines against the Buffaloes, shutting them out on two hits in an 8-0 win.
August 5 – LAP C Errol Spears (.285, 8 HR, 51 RBI) has pieced a 20-game hitting streak together with one hit in the Pacifics’ 6-4 win over the Stars.

Complaints and stuff

Not only did Jonny Toner pitch the team’s first complete game (and shutout) of the year in that rain-shortened game in Charlotte on July 31, nope, he also picked up the Pitcher of the Month award right afterwards. He went 4-0 with an 0.77 ERA in July, striking out 53 in 35 innings. That is no typo.

There was just no way to unearth another proper bat at the deadline. If at least half the lineup would do anything, it wouldn’t be all that bad, because honestly we haven’t had an all-out decent lineup the entire year.

Shane Walter will miss a week with a lat strain, which is double-bad. First, he’s out and the most active bat is on the shelf. Second, he’s the most productive bat, so we can’t DL him and have to play a man short for the next week. I hate that. The only thing worse than playing a man short is having all the players’ wives unsupervised in one room, gossiping.

At least the teams we’ll get until the next off day rolls around the corner don’t have good records; the Loggers (55-55) are actually the best of the bunch as the following interleague bonanza puts us up against the Gold Sox and the Miners.