[Westheim]

Raccoons (72-46) vs. Miners (51-67) – August 13-15, 2018

The Coons had swept the Miners in the last two meetings between the teams, in 2014 and 2017. The Coons also had the best all-time record against the Miners, a crisp .711 (32-13) winning percentage that was probably not sustainable until the heat death of the universe, but I would like myself a winning streak here. The Miners were pretty crummy, ranking in the bottom three in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a -88 run differential. They had the lowest batting average and the worst defense in the Federal League, which was not really a dress for success…

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (10-6, 2.87 ERA) vs. John Key (5-11, 4.86 ERA)
Damani Knight (4-7, 5.29 ERA) vs. Tim Dunn (9-9, 4.80 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (18-3, 2.16 ERA) vs. Ed Michaels (5-11, 5.23 ERA)

After the right-hander Key it would be back-to-back southpaws for us with the constantly red-faced Tim Dunn, who really looked like he had a serious medical condition but claimed to have no such thing, and then ex-Thunder Ed Michaels. That is not all; if we’d stick around we would also have a chance for a third left-handed starter out of their rotation, Cody Zimmerman (12-8, 4.44 ERA).

Game 1
PIT: 2B T. Stewart – C R. Hernandez – RF D. Carter – SS McWhorter – 3B Chappelle – LF Enriquez – CF A. Ruiz – 1B H. Jones – P Key
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 2B Dahlke – P Santos

Through five innings, Santos was facing the minimum despite giving up a single each to Antonio Ruiz in the second inning, but Ruiz got caught stealing, and to Tom McWhorter in the fifth, but he was washed up in a double play that Victor Enriquez hit into. The Raccoons held a 1-0 lead, driven by Mendoza in the first inning with a single to center. Cookie scored with the unearned run, having reached on an error by Howard Jones (yes, that Howard Jones), and it remained the only run through five. Mendoza came up three times in that span with two men on, and the next two times made a poor out, and Denny came up three times with two men on base, and struck out every single ****ing time. Santos, who faced an all-right-handed lineup, maintained his minimum pace until issuing a walk to Dave Carter with two outs in the seventh inning. Carter was not going to be removed by his own mistake, and Santos had to pitch to McWhorter, who blasted the 2-2 offering from Santos over the leftfield fence, flipping the score in the Miners’ favor at 2-1. After being a miserable failure the entire game, Denny hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th. Petracek ran for him and was caught stealing, and thus vanished the Raccoons’ last base runner of the game. 2-1 Miners. Nunley 3-3, 2B; Dahlke 2-4; Santos 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, L (10-7);

What the heck!? Oh well, so much for the hitting streak.

Andy Bareford in his debut fit right in and went 0-for-3 with a walk, striking out twice.

Game 2
PIT: 2B T. Stewart – CF Holland – RF D. Carter – SS McWhorter – LF V. Sanchez – 3B Chappelle – C J. Ramirez – 1B H. Jones – P Dunn
POR: LF Carmona – SS Walter – RF Jackson – 1B H. Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – 2B Hudman – P Knight

Bareford had his first hard-hit ball in the second inning, sending a drive to right that, if not caught by Carter, would have scored Matt Nunley for the first run of the game. Instead, the Coons took a 1-0 lead in the third, with Walter starting from first on Eddie Jackson’s 2-out double to deep left. With the chronically unreliable Mendoza (who would pop out to short in due time) up, the third base coach made a fanatic windmill to wave Walter ‘round third base and he scored just barely ahead of McWhorter’s relay. Damani Knight pitched five scoreless, though we’d seen that before, and he really had to thank the defense. Only one inning was 1-2-3, the third, and in three of the other four the inning ended on a stellar play by a corner outfielder, including the second, which Cookie ended by catching a liner by Tim Dunn(!) going full steam ahead.

Damani would throw 105 pitches in seven shutout innings, which were aided by a double play turned by Walter and Hudman in the sixth that erased a leadoff walk, and then ended when Walter jumped higher than humans oughta jump to snag a liner by Tyler Stewart to end the seventh. While he pitched his heart out and was this close to getting his usual dire results, but was continuously bailed out by the defense, the same personnel did the absolute bare minimum on offense. Through seven innings, they logged three hits off Dunn, and one walk. Walter got a fourth hit with two outs in the eighth, a single to center, but Jackson worked no more wonders. Kaiser and Mathis had combined for the eighth, and Ramirez was in for the ninth, which started with Victorino Sanchez, the only ABL player ever to reach 4,000 base hits. Sanchez hit a 3-1 pitch up the middle, and Walter didn’t get to hit until he was well past the centerfield edge of the bag, but he still got a throw off that beat Sanchez. Ten years earlier, Sanchez would have been safe. Joe Chappelle (to center) and Jose Ramirez (to fairly deep right) flew out to end the game. 1-0 Blighters. Walter 2-3; Jackson 1-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Knight 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, W (5-7)

Damani wins a 1-0 game. Now I’ve seen everything. All the wonders in the world – I’m through with them.

Game 3
PIT: 2B T. Stewart – C R. Hernandez – SS McWhorter – LF V. Sanchez – CF Holland – RF A. Ruiz – 3B Correia – 1B H. Jones – P Michaels
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Walter – RF Jackson – 1B H. Mendoza – SS Mathews – C Denny – CF Bareford – 2B Dahlke – P Toner

Toner allowed a run in the first on doubles by Raúl Hernandez and Victorino Sanchez, but the Coons had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the inning. Joey Mathews lined to short, where McWhorter jumped and grabbed the ball, then dropped it, and then accidentally kicked it into the infield. A sad sight in general, the Coons got a run on the error and continued to have the bases full for Denny, who was the offense’s death on Monday, but in a full count singled to left for the go-ahead run to score. Bareford came up, lined to center, and two runs scored on the kid’s first major-league hit! The inning ended when Dahlke grounded sharply to Josh Correia at third base for a double play, but Michaels was just off the rolls and walked Toner on four pitches to start the bottom 2nd. Cookie, 0-for-9 in the series, tripled into the rightfield corner to move the score to 5-1, and Cookie scored on Jackson’s sac fly, 6-1 for Toner after two innings, which would normally mean that win number nineteen was a sure thing.

In the fourth, Sanchez reached with an infield single, which was news in itself, because Walter couldn’t get to his snail pace grounder. That was to lead off the inning, and then Toner walked Ross Holland, the former Elk. Antonio Ruiz came up and hit a blast to right that hit the top of the fence before bouncing back past Jackson for a 2-run triple, and suddenly things didn’t look that great. Toner got Correia on a grounder to first, but Howard Jones hit the ball to right for a sac fly, putting the score at 6-4. Chris Munroe appeared for long relief for the Miners, having a 2.04 ERA in 52.2 innings this season. He retired five in a row before any Coon reached, which turned out to be Denny with a double, but Bareford struck out to end the bottom 5th. Jonny was right at 100 pitches through five, so he was not going to be of much more use in this game, but he DID manage to grit the teeth and got through the sixth alright in what was still a pretty substandard start for him.

Wade Davis pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to creep the Critters closer to the curtains, after which Jackson led off with a double off Kyle Williams in the bottom of the inning. Hugo Mendoza was walked intentionally, with Joey Mathews’ single to center loading the bases. Here, Nunley hit for Denny, who had already hit into a double play in the game. Hitting into a double play he didn’t. Williams missed low twice, then had to elevate, and he elevated right into Nunley’s wheelhouse. Nunley pilfered a pitch high and deep to dead center, and was it gonna…? It was gonna…! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAMMM!!!!

Up 10-4, Davis started the eighth, but brushed McWhorter ever so slightly with his first pitch there. With two left-handed bats drawing up, we went back to Kaiser, who got a double play from Sanchez and struck out Holland. With a 6-run lead, we entrusted the ninth inning and the bottom of the order to Chet Cummings, recently recalled from the depths of AAA baseball. He got a foul pop from Ruiz, then loaded the bases with a Correia walk, a Jones double, and an Enriquez walk. Whoah, slow there! Chris Mathis to the rescue! He got two grounders to short. Mathews got Tyler Stewart at first on the first of those, but mishandled Hernandez’ for an error. Out with Mathis, in with Ramirez, who allowed a single to center to McWhorter, which brought the Miners to 10-7 and the tying run into the box in the veteran Sanchez. Ron Thrasher was broken out of the pen, and here was a first-pitch grounder to short, Mathews was on it, spiked the throw that hopped just in front of Mendoza, who swiped in agony – and had it. Just barely. 10-7 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, 2B, RBI; Mathews 2-4, RBI; Denny 2-3, 2B, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Bareford 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

When you need four pitchers to finish the ninth inning with a 6-run lead, something has gone gravely wrong. Oh right, we used Cummings. Oh my bad, I thought there was a NEW problem.

Raccoons (74-47) @ Canadiens (60-61) – August 17-19, 2018

The Canadiens were already playing out the string, trying to come up with a solution to their pitching problems. Their rotation was third-worst in the Continental League, and they allowed the third-most runs, which was perhaps the biggest problem for them, but then there was also a lame-duck offense that was scoring less than league average. With a -39 run differential it was a bit of an achievement for them to be right at .500; they were also one game under .500 in the season series with the Raccoons, who had a 6-5 advantage there, but this is Vancouver, were the wicked things happen.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (12-10, 3.31 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (2-2, 2.91 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (11-7, 4.47 ERA) vs. R.J. Lloyd (9-10, 5.13 ERA)
Hector Santos (10-7, 2.84 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (12-8, 3.57 ERA)

Among these three right-handed pitchers, Lloyd was the only one that did not provoke bad memories to burst out of the suppressed part of my brain.

Has Hector Santos ever gotten the run support he deserved? He has a career 3.16 ERA, and his record is 90-67. So, no.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 2B Mathews – P Guerrero
VAN: 3B C. Alexander – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – 1B J. Ramirez – LF Cameron – C Pace – SS Otis – P Spears

While DeWeese struck out to strand three runners in the first inning, and Denny struck out to strand a pair in the third, the Elks turned Guerrero into a pretzel by plating four runs on two hits in three innings. Three of the runs reached via the walk, of which Guerrero issued two in the bottom 1st before Jesus Ramirez hit a 2-run double, and another one in the third before Mario Rocha homered. Guerrero hit Spears with a 1-2 pitch in the fourth, but the worst offenders continued to be Denny and DeWeese, although Cookie contributed his share to the general misery of this particular Friday game when he hit a leadoff single in the top 5th, then was thrown out by the weak-armed Tim Pace when he tried to steal second base. The Coons put Walter and Mendoza on after that, with Denny snipping a grounder through between Chris Alexander and Matt Otis on the left side to plate Walter for the team’s first run of the game. DeWeese then made yet another poor out.

Guerrero faced four more batters in the bottom of the fifth inning, and retired none. Ezra Branch walked, Rocha and Ramirez both singled, and Don Cameron drew a bases-loaded walk. Wade Davis replaced him, but this one was heading for a blowout. Pace was down 0-2 in the first at-bat for Davis, then hit a sorry blooper to left center for a single. Rocha scored, Ramirez tried to, but was thrown out by DeWeese for the first out, finally, of the inning. Davis bailed out of the mess on back-to-back grounders to Mathews, but the Coons were down 6-1 (while out-hitting the Elks 7-5…) and were not radiating confidence. Cummings, now with a 5.24 ERA after Wednesday’s disaster, was back on the mound in the bottom 6th, and this time it didn’t really matter, we just wanted length. Top 7th, Walter led off with a single, and Nunley was hit by Spears, who then ran a 3-1 count to Mendoza, in which the wannabe-slugger popped out to third. That was Spears’ final at-bat, and if I hadn’t been banned from travel to Canada, it would also have been Mendoza’s final at-bat – EVER!!

Iemitsu Rin – long past his best-before date – appeared in relief and allowed an RBI double to Denny, an RBI groundout to DeWeese, and an RBI single to Bareford. If Mendoza hadn’t fudged up, the Raccoons might have done more good, but they eventually ran out of outs, Eddie Jackson hitting for Cummings with runners on the corners and popping out to short to end the inning with the Critters still down 6-4. Chun came in to pitch two innings with the team behind, but the top 8th saw the rally continue. Cookie led off with a single, stole second this time, and scored on Walter’s single off Scott Hanson, who then lost Nunley to a walk. Mendoza continued to **** up and grounded to short, getting Nunley forced, but after Denny worked a full-count walk, the bases were loaded for DeWeese, who was still in there after batting against the left-hander Rin the last time around, which was so out of the ordinary. One rip, R.J., one rip. He grounded up the middle, Jose Gutierrez cut off the ball deep behind second base, and SOMEHOW the Elks got the snoozing Denny at second base, but the tying run scored, leaving Bobby Guerrero undefeated as a Raccoon. Bareford popped out to short to strand men on the corners, and Chun got badly struck in the bottom 8th. He put Kurt Evans on with a leadoff single, but Manlio Varone grounded into a double play. Dave Padilla was the third pinch-hitter in the inning and singled to right, after which Chun walked Gutierrez. Enough! Bring Thrasher! Branch got thrashered in three pitches, and Thrasher also put the game into extra innings. The Coons had leadoff singles in both the ninth and tenth innings, never did anything with them, and then fell to the Elks in ten when Kaiser allowed a leadoff single to Evans in the bottom 10th, Varone forced him with a grounder, but then stole second and dashed home on Chris Groom’s walkoff liner to center that Bareford couldn’t get to. 7-6 Canadiens. Carmona 2-6; Walter 4-6, RBI; H. Mendoza 2-6; Denny 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Mathews 4-5; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Them: 10 hits. Us: 17 hits. Denny’s double was the only one that carried them past first base. While the Elks had only two extra-base hits, they refrained from stranding FIFTEEN base runners.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 2B Mathews – P R. Mendoza
VAN: 3B C. Alexander – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – LF Cameron – SS Otis – P Lloyd

The Raccoons had Cookie on third, Walter on second, nobody out, yet somehow managed to not score in the first inning. Nunley bounced to the pitcher, Mendoza walked when he was supposed to swing, and Denny and DeWeese struck out in tandem. Consolation was on the way, as Ricky Mendoza held the Elks at bay until the Coons broke out a 3-spot in the third inning. Cookie singled, stole, scored on Walter’s single. Nunley doubled, Mendoza hit for a sac fly to center, and Denny’s single moved Nunley to third, from where he scored when DeWeese rolled a ball slowly up the first base line and basically gave himself up in prominent position to prevent Ramirez from firing home, which was pretty close to interference, but was not ruled as such. Matt Otis hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 3rd, but was stranded when Lloyd grounded back to the mound, Alexander whiffed, and Gutierrez popped out easily to Bareford in center. The Elks went on to strand runners on the corners in the fourth after back-to-back 2-out singles by Padilla and Ramirez in the fourth. Mendoza was just the right kind of shaky, getting the big outs when it counted, at least until he didn’t, and that was in the fifth. First, the Coons scored two runs, one earned, in the top 5th when Nunley reached on an error and Mendoza and DeWeese both came up with RBI base hits, which was an oddity to begin with. In the bottom of the inning, nothing worked for Mendoza anymore, who put on Otis and Varone, and then allowed a 1-out, 2-run single right over the second base bag to Gutierrez. Rocha got on, and Padilla rammed a pitch off the leftfield fence. Gutierrez scored from second, Rocha tried to score from first, but DeWeese murdered him at home plate, ending the inning and keeping the score at 5-3.

After Mendoza got through the sixth inning alright and got a tack-on run on Denny’s solo shot to left in the seventh, he started the bottom 7th. Chris Grooms opened with a double, and Mendoza faced two more batters, with Alexander and Gutierrez both hitting deep flies to center. Bareford caught both, but Grooms scored on the latter sac fly. Kaiser replaced Mendoza for Ezra Branch and struck him out, keeping the lead at 6-4 after seven. That lead arrived at Mathis in the bottom 8th, who put the Elks away 1-2-3, then handed it over to Ramirez, who faced the bottom of the lineup. He had Cameron at two strikes before the leftfielder hit a sharp grounder to second, but Mathews handled it for the first out. Otis struck out in a full count before Kurt Evans pinch-hit and hit a ball to center. No trouble for Bareford, he had it, game over, series even. 6-4 Furballs. Carmona 3-5; Walter 3-5, 2B, RBI; Denny 2-4, HR, RBI;

Ricky Mendoza allowed ten hits and struck out only two, but somehow he pulled through for a W, his 12th on the season, and with that he is clearly #2 on the team. Who would have thought?

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Mathews – RF Petracek – P Santos
VAN: LF Cameron – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – 3B Grooms – SS Otis – P Bartels

Cookie singled, stole, scored, this time on Nunley’s groundout, but the Coons actually got another run when Mendoza singled, was running when Denny singled and reached third base, and from there scored on a wild pitch to give Santos more support in the first inning than in his entire start on Monday. Santos went on to have an odd second inning. He hit a 2-out single in the top of the inning, and reached second when Bartels tried to throw a ball right through Cookie’s ribcage, which knocked our favorite outfielder flat on his back, gasping for air. It took three minutes to put him back on his feet and drag him to first base, but he remained in the game. Walter made the third out, while in the bottom of the inning, Santos made an error that put Jesus Ramirez on base, then allowed a real bomb to Grooms, which knotted the score. Santos then allowed nothing but hard drives in the third. Gutierrez singled, Branch homered, and Cookie slammed into the ground on a leaping grab on Rocha’s drive and this time remained lying down until carted off on a stretcher. Bareford replaced him.

Santos was only a bit over 80 pitches through six, but that had been enough to allow about ten hard drives to all fields. The Elks hadn’t scored since the third, and the Raccoons’ most recent impression was a bloody smear in centerfield, as they continued to be down 4-2, with Hudman hitting for Santos starting the seventh against Bartels. He grounded out, which remained the Coons’ best effort in the seventh. After Cummings allowed a run in the bottom 7th, the Coons put Denny on with a 2-out single off left-hander Jose Flores, then another single by the pinch-hitting Eddie Jackson of the right-hander Robert Parsons, but Mathews floated harmlessly out to center. In turn, Cummings loaded the bases with sheer ineptness in the bottom 8th, and when Davis replaced him with two outs, he allowed a first-pitch, 2-run single to Don Cameron, the final note in a thoroughly sad symphony. 7-2 Canadiens. Carmona 1-1; H. Mendoza 2-4; Denny 2-4;

In other news

August 13 – ATL LF Marty Reyes (.273, 14 HR, 51 RBI) will miss the rest of August with a strained hamstring.
August 15 – TOP LF/RF Dan Brown (.238, 6 HR, 31 RBI) hits a solo home run for the lone run in the Aces’ 1-0 win over the Gold Sox.
August 16 – The Thunder get crushed by the Stars in a 15-1 thrashing, with DAL RF Stephen St. George (.266, 7 HR, 59 RBI) contributing three extra base hits and 5 RBI.
August 16 – In San Francisco, three Aces have 4-hit games in a 14-2 battering they hand to the Bayhawks, with C Bobby Diersing (.420, 3 HR, 20 RBI) and LF/RF/1B Matt Hamilton (.289, 22 HR, 80 RBI) also driving in four runs each.
August 17 – Milwaukee’s G.G. Williams (9-6, 3.14 ERA) stops the Crusaders on three hits in a 6-0 shutout.
August 18 – The Knights hit five home runs in a 15-10 slugfest against the Falcons. ATL 1B Josh Gotto (.389, 2 HR, 3 RBI) hits a pair, the first two of his career.
August 18 – The Rebels ride an 11-run sixth inning to romp the Cyclones, 14-2.
August 19 – PIT SS Tom McWhorter (.253, 16 HR, 64 RBI) will miss a week with a sore elbow.

Complaints and stuff

(points to the Cookie-bearing stretcher next to the brown couch he is sitting on) Well, we have a mild problem here. Cookie? – Cookie? – Can you hear me? … I don’t know whether you can hear it, but he is very barely wincing. – Mena! – Mena!! – Can you check the drip? You’re oily concoction doesn’t seem to go in, but he’s bleeding from the access!

Well, while we have this mess on our hands, we also have a 9-game lead in the North. Even without Cookie, it should be possible to hold on to that. With Cookie would be better, of course, but at any given time some things are, and some things aren’t. And I don’t think he’s batting too soon. Of course I blame Bareford. If he hit more than fits on the speedometer of a low-budget family van, we don’t move him out of the Sunday game and Cookie doesn’t play center. Then there was Santos trying to set a record for home runs allowed in an ABL game, which also contributed ghastily. And then- wait. Cookie? – Cookie? – Are you moaning? - … - Cookie? - … MENA, GET YOUR ****ING *** IN HERE!!!

The recent developments mean that Bareford can bat what he ****ing wants because we’re not really having any other centerfielders. There’s Petracek, but he’s batting the same and doesn’t offer the superior defense. Petracek is an adequate third-string backup that is now the second string. Eddie Jackson figures to get regular playing time now, so he’s happy at least.

I am not happy. And I am not okay.

I am so not okay.