[Westheim]

Raccoons (39-23) @ Buffaloes (33-27) – June 10-12, 2019

The Raccoons hadn’t won a game against the Buffaloes since 2014, having gotten swept in both 2015 and 2018. While the Buffaloes tied for the lead in the FL East, they were only playing .550 ball and had their share of problems, too. Here was yet another team that was struggling with scoring, as they ranked tenth in the Federal League in runs scored. They were living off their pitching, foremost the fifth-ranked rotation, with the third-fewest runs conceded in the league. Their house of cards was wonky, however: their run differential hinted at a substantial amount of luck so far in their first 60 games, because it was negative at -5.

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (4-3, 3.14 ERA) vs. Carlos Marron (4-4, 3.67 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (7-3, 2.99 ERA) vs. Mike Baker (3-3, 2.63 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (7-2, 2.48 ERA) vs. Jerry Moran (4-4, 4.61 ERA)

The Buffaloes only had right-handed starting pitchers, so there was that.

The Raccoons started the week with a roster change. Damani Knight (2-1, 5.60 ERA) was demoted back to St. Petersburg, with Tim Prince (.222, 3 HR, 26 RBI in AAA) joining the team for the Buffaloes series. Prince’s value had pretty much hit zero by now, as he couldn’t even hit AAA pitching. Knight in turn was not needed this week with an off day on Thursday, and it seemed like Bobby Guerrero had reeled himself in and would rejoin the team for the following week.

The addition of Prince was partially owed to the continued absence of Shane Walter, who figured to be out of action (officially: day-to-day) for the entire Buffaloes series, but might be back on the weekend. Hugo Mendoza was back in the lineup on Monday, however, so at least the bench had normal size again with the extra infielder carried.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 3B Petracek – 2B Prince – P Pierson
TOP: LF Madrid – 3B W. White – RF B. Adams – 2B Owen – 1B Traylor – CF Sanborn – SS Ingraham – C Jad. Wilson – P Marron

It looked like Carlos Marron would have a clean and quick first inning, striking out Cookie and Alex Duarte to open the game, but McKnight legged out a sorry grounder for an infield single and suddenly balls were flying all over the place. Mendoza hit an RBI double to center, DeWeese lined hard to right for an RBI single, and Margolis came darn close to an extra-base hit to center as well, but Todd Sanborn scratched that rocket out of the sky to end the inning. DeWeese would hit another 2-out RBI single, also scoring McKnight, his next time up in the third inning, running the score to 3-0. McKnight had singled and stolen second base, sneaking into second on the team in sacks taken with four. Pierson only allowed one hit in the first three inning, despite a Chris Owen single to start the bottom 3nd and Zack Traylor getting nailed with a fastball right afterwards. McKnight made two strong plays to keep the Buffaloes from scoring in that inning, but Owen came through with a solo homer in the fourth, cutting the lead back to 3-1. The Buffaloes found another run after Zack Ingraham’s leadoff double to left in the bottom 5th, with Ingraham, the former Bayhawk and professional coonskinner, moving up on Jaden Wilson’s groundout and scoring on a wild pitch. Pierson culled the lead for good when he was taken very, very deep by Traylor in the bottom of the sixth, and we had to start anew with the score even at three.

Pinch-hitting, Russ Greenwald rolled a 1-out single to right in the top of the seventh, trying to proof that he had a place on a major league roster. Cookie had another one of his dark days and popped out to shallow left to get to 0-for-4, but Duarte singled to right. McKnight grounded out to Owen, however, and the runners remained on base. Two were on again in the eighth, with left-hander Kevin Johnston losing Mendoza to a leadoff walk. Jackson batted for DeWeese, rolled a ball between the mound and third base, but Wade White (a former Knight) had no play and the go-ahead run moved to second with no outs. While Margolis advanced the go-ahead run, he did so with a double play, and Willie Madrid robbed Brian Petracek of extra bases with a flying grab in the gap in left center to end that inning. Wade White went well deep off Jason Kaiser to start the bottom 8th, hitting a tremendous bomb to right to give the Buffaloes their first lead, and Bill Adams hit a triple right away. Mathis couldn’t keep that run on base, either, and the Raccoons were down 5-3 all of a sudden, but got pinch-hit singles from Mathews and Denny to start the ninth inning. Trying to close for Topeka was Salvadaro Soure, who had fallen from grace abruptly and had a 10.44 ERA coming in. Cookie turned an 0-2 pitch around and singled to center, scoring Mathews from second base, but that was it in terms of glory. Duarte lined out to short, McKnight flew out to center, and Mendoza rolled one over to second base to end the game. 5-4 Buffaloes. McKnight 2-5; DeWeese 2-3, 2 RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1; Greenwald (PH) 1-1; Denny (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Mathews – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 2B Prince – P Toner
TOP: LF Madrid – 3B W. White – RF B. Adams – 2B Owen – CF Sanborn – 1B Traylor – SS Lawson – C J. Rodriguez – P Baker

Cookie led off with a single and stole second base, where he was left for dead in the first inning; not the start we had hoped for with Jonny on the mound, who had surrendered four runs (including unearned runs) in four of his last seven starts, which was SO out of the ordinary. In things we weren’t used to see and didn’t like to see, Toner struck out nobody among the first eight batters, but had the bases loaded with two outs and the pitcher batting in the bottom 2nd, allowing two singles and a walk, and the pitching coach went out to feel his pulse. Toner claimed to be alright, then allowed a soft fly to right center to Baker, on which Cookie had to ignite the afterburners to keep that bean from falling in. He made the grab, the inning was over, but there was some head-scratching going on in the dugout. Toner would not whiff anybody until the second coming of David Lawson at the plate, a K that ended the fourth inning, in which Toner had walked two. Owen had drawn a walk at the start of the inning, but Sanborn had grounded to short for a double play. Then Traylor walked with two outs. Toner still claimed that there was nothing wrong and blamed the mound for being at fault.

The game was still scoreless, and when Duarte walked and Prince singled to left to start the second inning, Toner was used to bunt for once. Moving the runners to scoring position successfully brought up the top of the order, where in a game of unfairness galore Cookie hit a rocket right into Mike Baker’s glove – and nobody was more confused than Baker when the missile hit that undesired target – but Joey Mathews rolled a grounder to left that missed both White’s and Lawson’s gloves by inches and became a 2-out, 2-run single, the first tallies in the game. The Coons didn’t seem inclined to do more and showed it, while Toner kept wobbling about. He walked Owen in the sixth, but got through, then in the seventh struck out Lawson and PH Lionnel Perri (42 years old!), but also allowed doubles to Jose Rodriguez with one out and Willie Madrid with two outs. Thrasher was sent in to protect what was now a 2-1 lead, with switch-hitter Ivan Ramirez, batting .130, hitting for Wade White. Thrasher K’ed him, closing Toner’s oddly-shaped line and ending the inning. The Coons put two on in the eighth with singles by Denny and Jackson (again hitting for DeWeese against a left-hander), and consequently left them on. Margolis had hit for Prince in that inning, making the third out with a fly to Adams in right. Roland Lafon took over the position for the bottom 8th, which saw Thrasher concede a single to Adams, a right-hander, before he got rid of Owen with a K and of Sanborn with a grounder to third. Mathews took the out at first, moving the tying run to second base. Chun replaced Thrasher against the righty Traylor, who hit a hard liner up the middle – but Lafon had sniffed that one coming and made a fantastic catch to hold the flimsy 2-1 lead together. The Coons got nothing in the ninth, leaving Ramirez with the lead against the bottom of the order, with recently-minted 2,000 hits club member Adrian Quebell (.263, 5 HR, 27 RBI) pinch-hitting to start the frame. Quebell rolled out to first (some things never change), but Ramirez walked Rodriguez to create undesired drama. Zach Ingraham flew out to center, and Mathews made the play on Willie Madrid’s grounder to third to end the game nevertheless. 2-1 Furballs. Mathews 2-5, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Prince 1-2, BB; Toner 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (8-3);

Well. Let’s hope that the only damage this game has done has been to Jonny’s K/9.

McKnight meanwhile has a 10-game hitting streak going.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Mathews – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 2B Lafon – P Abe
TOP: LF Madrid – 3B W. White – RF B. Adams – 2B Owen – CF Sanborn – 1B Traylor – SS Lawson – C J. Rodriguez – P Moran

Moran faced only one batter before hobbling off the field with what looked like a hamstring injury, with Cookie grounding out to Traylor as Moran’s only entry into the pitching log for this game, so the Buffaloes now had to pour out their bullpen, which was not among the best in the Buffaloes, and it wasn’t particularly close. Bobby Dean, southpaw by trade, was the first guy coming out of the pen with a 3.42 ERA and he loaded the bases before he retired anybody, conceding walks to Mathews and Mendoza, while McKnight singled to right to get his hitting streak to 11 games. Denny was about to foul out next to first base on the first pitch he saw, but Traylor dropped it. Denny hit a fly to center for a sac fly and the first run of the game on the next pitch before Dean plunked DeWeese with an 0-2 pitch to reload the bases, but Duarte struck out to end this long and grim first inning, only for Tadasu Abe to also allow two hits and a walk in the bottom 1st to give the lonely run right back. The mess continued in the bottom 2nd, with Traylor hitting a single before Abe with one out lost both Rodriguez and Quebell to walks, loading the bases. Madrid hit a relieving 6-4-3 ticket to McKnight, but back-to-back wonky starts by Toner and Abe made me deeply unhappy…

With on-and-off drizzle being also a thing in this game, Abe ended up with four walks and a bushel of full counts in five innings and was pinch-hit for in the sixth. The Coons had runners in scoring position and two outs against Ruslan Kolubidze, who was in his fourth inning and giving them fits. DeWeese and Lafon on base were half the runners he had allowed in 3.2 innings while whiffing five. Abe did not take the at-bat in a 1-1 tie, but Shane Walter grabbed a stick and stepped in. He hit Kolubidze’s first pitch up the middle, barely past Owen, and into centerfield for a 2-run single to give Abe a posthumous claim to the W and the Coons as a whole a 3-1 lead. Petracek ran for him right away to protect his noggin’, stole second base when Cookie missed on a hit-and-run call, but good ol’ Ricardo Carmona came through on the next pitch, singling to right center to score Petracek. Mathews singled, putting runners on the corners against left-hander Beau Barnaby, and McKnight grounded to Traylor for what would have been the third out if Barnaby hadn’t dropped Traylor’s feed. Cookie scored, 5-1, Mendoza hit a single to left to plate Mathews from second, 6-1, and Denny worked a walk to fill the sacks. To heck with it, DeWeese was allowed to bat against the southpaw, falling behind 1-2 before grounding up the middle. Owen cut it off, threw to first, ball in the dirt and glancing off Traylor’s glove, and Traylor had to scurry into foul ground to collect the ball.

Duarte would strike out to finally end the inning which left the Critters with a 6-spot and a 7-1 lead, with only three of those runs earned thanks to FOUR Buffaloes error in the game. The Raccoons had to find 12 outs in their bullpen, but this didn’t seem like a big issue this time around. Kaiser got two outs to start the sixth before Wade Davis took over for long relief duties. He got five outs before being chased by a rain delay approaching an hour in the eighth inning. Chun came in after that, and it wasn’t until him and the ninth inning that the Raccoons met resistance. Lawson hit a 1-out single, Rodriguez hit a bomb to left, but in the end, the Buffaloes had already done enough to lose this game. 7-3 Coons. Carmona 2-5, RBI; Mathews 2-4, BB, 2B; Walter (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Davis 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

The Crusaders got swept by the Capitals midweek, while the Elks lost two of three to the Gold Sox, which served to grow our lead in the North to four games, and the Indians moved into third place, 6 1/2 back.

Raccoons (41-24) @ Loggers (33-32) – June 14-16, 2019

For the Raccoons, the road continued to Milwaukee, where the Loggers had a winning record just barely, but were still in fifth place in the division. They were scoring runs like crazy, plating the second-most in the CL and 4.9 per game with the highest batting average of all teams, but their pitching was middling at best. The rotation ranked fifth, the pen ranked eighth, but overall it somehow worked out for a +15 run differential, so maybe the Loggers could be a bit more than only .500. Hopefully they would not discover their potential with the Coons in town… Portland led the season series, 3-1.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (7-3, 2.21 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (8-3, 3.32 ERA)
Cole Pierson (4-3, 3.23 ERA) vs. J.J. Wirth (6-3, 3.02 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-3, 2.88 ERA) vs. Ron Bartlatt (4-6, 3.66 ERA)

We will get three right-handers in this set, but they are the Loggers’ three good starters. We will miss Julio San Pedro (1-5, 5.51 ERA) and Troy McCaskill (3-6, 5.16 ERA). One word on Prevost; this is a 23-year old star in the making. Maybe not Martin Garcia caliber, but certainly a great pitcher. He has four good-to-great pitches, with a 95mph heater and a fantastic circle change the primary concerns of opponents, although the cutter and the curve serve their purposes. He keeps the ball on the ground, allowing only TWO home runs in 95 innings this season. Ryan Feldmann and Ezra Branch are the only hitters to conquer him for a four-baser this season.

Shane Walter had been nursed back to strength and was not seeing quadruple anymore. Just double, which is fine. Swipe at any of the balls, and if he hits half of his previous clip, he still wouldn’t be worse than Matt Nunley had been… Nunley was about ten days off to return from the DL.

The draft would fall on Saturday, cutting the series in half. As far as you can half three games.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 2B Prince – P Santos
MIL: 2B Stewart – CF Coleman – 1B Gore – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – RF Hodgers – SS Burns – C Wool – P Prevost

To call the top of the first inning a bit of a massacre would be an understatement. The Raccoons had three hits, including two doubles, against Prevost and scored two runs, but – with Shane Walter just back in the lineup – Mendoza pulled up lame after his RBI double and was replaced by Greenwald right away. The Loggers also took a hit, with Ian Coleman hurting himself catching Duarte’s fly that ended the inning. Judson Buddin replaced him. While the Raccoons continued to hit the ball hard even with Mendoza having vanished with the Druid in the tunnel to the clubhouse, and got another run on Greenwald’s sac fly scoring Walter, who had hit a leadoff double, in the top of the third, Santos had drilled Tyler Stewart to start his day, and wasn’t very sure-handed after that, either. While the Loggers remained empty-handed for two innings, Josh Wool drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 3rd, was bunted to second, and reached third base on Buddin’s infield single with two outs. Santos’ wild pitch scored the Loggers’ first run before Brad Gore could foul out to end the inning, and the Loggers got another run in the fourth with Chris LeMoine and Kyle Burns hitting doubles off Santos.

Both teams continued to hit a lot of flyballs to the deeper outfield regions. The Raccoons couldn’t make theirs fall in, while the Loggers were at least succeeding in knocking out Santos in the sixth inning. Hodgers’ 2-out double was followed by a line drive single to right by Burns. The ball was hit right in front of Cookie, which led the Loggers’ third base coach to have Hodgers throw the anchor at third base, so technically the Raccoons still had a 3-2 lead with two outs and runners on the corners as Jason Kaiser replaced Santos to pitch to Josh Wool, but Wool had no problems to hit a 2-1 pitch hard to right for a score-knotting RBI single. Prevost was sent to bat and struck out, leaving runners on the corners. The game didn’t remain tied for long; when Walter led off the seventh with a single, McKnight came up and jacked a homer to right center, putting the Critters on top 5-3 before Prevost struck out three in a row. Kaiser got through the seventh alright, but the eighth turned into issues for the Coons. Mathis allowed a single to Burns, but when Thrasher replaced him to get the third out from Wool, the catcher refused to go down and singled to center, putting the tying runs on the corners. With right-handed batter Ron Tadlock out to pinch-hit, Alex Ramirez was called on early to get a 4-out save in a really tough spot. He failed spectacularly, as usual, surrendering a smoking 2-run double into the leftfield corner to Tadlock, which tied the score again. The Raccoons had a sad ninth, with Walter singling and McKnight hitting into a double play right away, and it didn’t get better in the tenth. Boynton was in to pitch in the bottom 10th, with Andrew Cooper hitting a pinch-hit 1-out single. He took off and swiped second base, and actually made it to third on Denny’s throwing error. Josh Wool sent a fly to left that Cookie caught coming in, but his throw home was late as the Loggers walked off on the unearned run. 6-5 Loggers. Walter 4-5, 2 2B; McKnight 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Mendoza 1-1, 2B, RBI; Denny 2-5, RBI;

Well, that sucked.

While Ian Coleman, who had been batting .350, would miss four weeks with a fractured rib, the Druid had no news for me on Saturday morning. He explained that the spirits had been bothered a lot in the last few weeks and he could probably not channel them before Monday.

Whatever the **** that meant…

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Mathews – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 1B Greenwald – CF Duarte – P Pierson
MIL: 2B Stewart – SS Burns – RF Gore – CF LeMoine – 3B Velez – C Wool – LF Cooper – 1B Tadlock – P Wirth

The Raccoons took another 2-0 lead in the first inning, but this time the biggest casualty was J.J. Wirth’s pride, because both runs were unearned and the error was on him, throwing away Walter’s grounder with Mathews already on first base after a walk. The Critters plated them two despite McKnight getting Walter forced out with a grounder, with Denny and DeWeese driving 2-out base hits up either line for the runs. Through three innings, Pierson allowed two hits, but faced only one over the minimum with Kyle Burns having been caught stealing in the first. The Critters got Duarte on with one out in the fourth inning. Pierson bunted him to second, from where he scored when Cookie hit a liner to shallow center for a 2-out RBI single. Carmona stole second base, then scampered home when Mathews beat Cooper’s range for an extra-base hit to the warning track. Since Cooper failed trying to catch the ball while leaping and soaring through the sky like an eagle, then dumped himself onto the grass in front of the warning track, Mathews got away with an RBI triple. Walter hit a drive to center, but LeMoine caught that to keep the score at 4-0, although the Loggers chipped a run off that in the bottom of the inning with a Gore double and an RBI single by LeMoine. Like for Santos on Friday, it only got worse for Pierson, who was whacked for hard hits by Wool and Tadlock in the bottom 5th, and with the two in scoring position surrendered a first-pitch RBI single, a hard liner, to center to the opposing pitcher. Stewart hit into a fielder’s choice, Burns singled to move the tying run to third, but Walter contained Gore’s grounder to end the inning, now only with a 4-3 lead.

Wirth would also knock out Pierson the next time around. Pierson had retired six in a row to maintain a feeble grip on the 4-3 lead, but then allowed another hard single with two outs to the other team’s pitcher. Mathis replaced him and got Tyler Stewart to ground out, ending the seventh. Maybe an insurance run would be a good idea! The Coons sure got a good start in the eighth, with McKnight doubling to left to extend his hitting streak to 13 games after all, and Denny walked on four balls. When DeWeese hit a soft line inches over Stewart’s glove into rightfield for a single, the bases were loaded for Russ Greenwald, who was 0-for-3 and giving me bad vibes. The Loggers stuck with Wirth against the bottom of the order, so using Jackson in this spot was not a good idea (but for Duarte … maybe!). Greenwald grounded the first pitch to short, Burns hesitated not one nanosecond and threw home to kill off McKnight, the bases remained loaded, and Jackson indeed hit for the .211 batter Alex Duarte. Eddie used the patient approach, Wirth couldn’t find the zone, and a walk later the Coons had an insurance run. That was all however. Margolis flew out to shallow left batting for Mathis, and Cookie grounded out to Stewart. Bottom 8th, Wade Davis got one out from Burns before yielding right away for Thrasher, with the #3 through #7 batters now all left-handed, except for the switch-hitting Alberto Velez. Thrasher struck out Brad Gore, struck out Chris LeMoine, struck out Alberto Velez, struck out Josh Wool, stru-AAH!! ****ing Andrew Cooper spoiled it! He put a 2-2 pitch into play, to McKnight, no problem, game over. 5-3 Coons. Carmona 3-5, RBI; DeWeese 2-5, 2B, RBI; Jackson (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, SV (4);

I didn’t see this game in person; I was in New York for the draft, along with Gabriel Martinez, and proceedings started when Pierson was still pitching, though I took a look at the video pad thing Maud had given me and which had terribly small buttons and letters and all and I hated using it. I attracted negative attention when I squealed increasingly with every out that Thrasher got while the supplemental round picks were selected.

More on the draft in the next post below. We will of course complete the week in here first.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Mathews – 3B Walter – SS McKnight – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 1B Greenwald – CF Duarte – P Toner
MIL: 1B Pagan – 2B Stewart – RF Gore – CF LeMoine – 3B Velez – LF Hodgers – SS Tadlock – C Wool – P San Pedro

There was a shuffle in the Loggers rotation after all, with Julian San Pedro (1-5, 5.51 ERA) moving into this series for the Sunday game, opposing Jonny Toner. The Raccoons put a run on him in the first after a Cookie single and a Walter double, and with the 1-0 lead Jonny struck out four of the first six batters he faced, or in other words already beat his strikeout tally from his Tuesday start in Topeka, which was sure a relief. The Coons would have the bases loaded with nobody out in the third inning after Cookie walked, Mathews singled, both stole their way into scoring position, and Walter walked onto the open base. The yield from that three on, no out situation was as usual rather meager, with McKnight flying out to shallow right, Denny striking out, and if San Pedro had thrown even close to the zone to DeWeese, he surely would have gotten the blind slugger as well. Instead he walked him, forcing home a run, 2-0, but that was it, with Greenwald grounding out to Stewart.

All was fine in Tonerville for three innings, but the tough middle part of the order gave him hell in the fourth. Gore led off with a double to left, then scored on LeMoine’s single to right center. Toner threw a wild pitch, then walked Victor Hodgers onto the open base, and when he had two outs in addition to the two on and was 0-2 on Josh Wool, the pesky catcher snipped a soft single to center to tie the game before San Pedro struck out. After the first three innings that had been great, the middle innings were tough on Toner, and he needed 100 pitches to complete six. On the other side, San Pedro walked half a dozen, the last one being Mathews with one out in the seventh, also the last batter he faced before replaced by right-handed reliever Toby Wood, whose first pitch was hit through Antonio Pagan and up the rightfield line by Shane Walter for a double that moved the go-ahead runs into scoring position for McKnight, who – hitting streak already extended to 14 – struck out too easily. Mike Denny with two down hit a ball high and deep to center, LeMoine was racing after it and reaching, but couldn’t get it – this one was in for extra bases. Both runs scored, Denny cruised to second, and the Critters had a 4-2 lead! DeWeese hit a soft line into right center that almost made it past Brad Gore, but was still sufficient for an RBI double, 5-2. Greenwald walked and Jackson hit for Duarte, but struck out. Toner worked through the seventh inning without the Loggers reaching base, then went for the showers with the bullpen needing six outs with the 5-2 lead. Chun struck out Stewart to start the eighth before yielding to Kaiser, who got Gore on a fly to center and LeMoine with a strikeout. The Critters left McKnight on second base in the ninth, so Ramirez got the bottom of the ninth, bringing the Loggers instantly into the game with a hard leadoff single to right off Velez’ bat. Judson Buddin grounded to first, where Greenwald elected to nip the lead runner at second base. The return throw by McKnight was not in time, but it didn’t matter, because the Loggers didn’t get another man on. Ron Tadlock struck out, and Wool flew out to Cookie in center. 5-2 Raccoons! Walter 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-5; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (9-3);

In other news

June 11 – LAP RF/1B Will McIntyre’s (.327, 6 HR, 26 RBI) hitting streak ends at 21 games after he is held dry by the Knights in L.A.’s 6-1 win over Atlanta.
June 11 – The Crusaders’ 24-year old up-and-coming INF Tony Casillas (.252, 3 HR, 12 RBI) is out for the season with a broken kneecap.
June 11 – Also out for the season, potentially, is NAS SP Jimmy Lee (2-4, 3.84 ERA). The 27-year old right-hander has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation.
June 12 – The Aces will be without OF Armando Martinez (.315, 2 HR, 18 RBI) for a while. The 23-year old has sprained an ankle and will miss up to a month.
June 12 – Only four hits for the Wolves are easily outpaced by the Bayhawks’ 18 base knocks, helping them win an unchallenged 13-2 game.
June 13 – Knights rookie INF Tony Jimenez (.256, 1 HR, 17 RBI) is expected to miss at least a month with a fractured shoulder blade.
June 15 – The Pacifics’ 25-year old 3B Tony Duke (.355, 0 HR, 4 RBI in 31 AB) has himself a day; an injury replacement for Ross Irvin, Duke whacks five hits in the Pacifics’ 9-8 win over the Gold Sox, including a triple and two doubles, and drives in two runs. Duke’s triple wins the game, plating Jim Webb and Jose Flores in come-from-behind, walkoff fashion.
June 15 – The Canadiens score ten on the Crusaders in the bottom of the third, answering New York’s 4-run top of the third, and handily move away for a 13-7 win.
June 16 – The Wolves make up a 1-0 deficit in the ninth inning, then battle the Stars for eight more innings before scoring three runs in the 17th. The Stars’ comeback in the bottom of the inning only amounts to one run, leaving the Wolves with a 4-2 win on just seven hits, of which three came in the 17th inning.

Complaints and stuff

Alex Ramirez wants a new deal. I don’t want him even in the same sport as the Raccoons come 2020.

Hoping for news on Mendoza by Monday, because we need to make a few roster changes.