[Westheim]

Raccoons (40-58) vs. Condors (47-52) – July 25-27, 2023

The Condors came in with a 2-1 edge in the season series. They were ten games out, which was usually the point where you should just give up in July, but they had already gotten other hints, like sitting fifth in their division (like the Coons), or being stuck in the bottom three in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (5-7, 4.23 ERA) vs. Luis Flores (6-6, 3.45 ERA)
Travis Garrett (2-3, 3.54 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (6-11, 3.06 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (6-10, 4.23 ERA) vs. George Griffin (8-6, 3.90 ERA)

After Monday off again, Tuesday brought a left-handed matchup, and the pitchers’ handedness would also match in the last two games of the set, with four right-handers involved in those.

One Condors regular would be amiss from the lineup in this series, with centerfielder Matt Jamieson (.277, 4 HR, 31 RBI) out for the season with ruptured finger tendons. The Coons also still had a centerfielder (that hadn’t played centerfielder in a while) on the DL. Cookie was not expected back on the field before the weekend and I think we’d try another few warmup games in AAA then. That’s where he got hurt last time around…

Game 1
TIJ: SS B. Rojas – 1B Gershkovich – LF Larios – C Sanford – RF Boggs – CF Hatley – 3B Umpierre – 2B Lawson – P L. Flores
POR: CF Stevenson – 2B Spencer – 1B Walter – LF Newman – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – C Tovias – P Gutierrez

Both teams scratched out a run in the first three innings, with the Coons making a move first. Spencer’s double and Newman’s single got them on the board in the bottom 1st, but Mike Gershkovich’s homer would tie the score in the top of the third. Gutierrez overall was fooling nobody, hit a guy, and looked ripe for a beating. But the Condors didn’t quite get a hold of him, at least not beating style. They scored the go-ahead run in the fifth inning, with leadoff batter David Lawson and Bob Rojas both singling hard to center. Since Lawson had been bunted over by Flores, he scored from second base on Rojas’ single, but the Coons had a comeback opportunity in the bottom of the same inning. Omar Alfaro drew a leadoff walk, after which Flores drilled Tim Stalker outright. Regrettably, the Raccoons would pile up two strikeouts and no base hits after getting their first two batters on, and stranded them both. In turn, a Nunley error cost the Coons an unearned run in the sixth inning, driven in by Lawson with a single to center – again – with two down, and Nunley also continued to fail his way to the nearest paycheck in the bottom 6th with one down and runners on the corners, lining right into Flores’ mitten. Spencer (infield single) and Newman (single) remained put, wisely, after reaching with the crew’s first base hits since the opening inning. That brought up Omar Alfaro for a last chance effort, and maybe – MAYBE – he was slowly becoming accustomed to big league pitching. He belted one to flip the score, a 3-piece to left to set the Coons 4-3 ahead. THE AGE OF OMAR – FEEL IT! FEEL IT!!

Gutierrez had a hard scrabble through seven, allowing nine base hits, then was batted for in the bottom of the seventh with Tovias on second after a leadoff double. Raul Claros grounded out to short in his spot, which kept the runner pinned, and Stevenson won an intentional walk, after which both Spencer and Walter went down on strikes to Luis Flores… Vince D would hold on to the 4-3 edge in the eighth inning, after which we went to Brett Lillis, who struck out Andy McNeal in the ninth, then walked another pinch-hitter, Francisco Ordaz. Adrian Rojas pinch-hit for the other Rojas, grounded to Nunley, but the Coons only got the lead runner. That was their doom. Gershkovich was the first guy that Lillis faced that was not hitting for somebody else, and he creamed a 3-2 pitch for a 2-run homer to left, his second in the game, and 12th on the season. The Coons would nibble no Joel Davis, formerly of their own, who walked Tovias, and allowed a soft 2-out single to Stevenson, but Rey Umpierre would handle Jarod Spencer’s grounder and easily throw him out at first to end the game. 5-4 Condors. Spencer 2-5, 2B; Newman 3-4, RBI; Alfaro 1-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI;

Oh well, this was the first loss of the year for Lillis, his third blown save, and his last decision and blown save had occurred all the way back on May 10 against the Stars, where he had also allowed two runs in a 4-3 game, but back then the Critters had chewed up the ex-Coon to try and save it for Dallas, Quinn MacCarthy.

Game 2
TIJ: SS B. Rojas – 1B McNeal – C Sanford – LF Larios – RF Boggs – CF Hatley – 3B A. Rojas – 2B J. Estrada – P Menendez
POR: 2B Claros – LF Spencer – 1B Walter – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – CF Stevenson – SS Stalker – C Tovias – P Garrett

Garrett struck out the first pair, then got knocked around quickly. Adrian Rojas and Juan Estrada both hit hard run-scoring base hits to right with two outs in the bottom 2nd, first a single (to score Omar Larios), then a double. After he grounded out to begin the bottom 3rd, Garrett would get support from the top of the order. Claros and Spencer hit singles, but Walter flew out to Larios. Matt Nunley grounded to right, past a lunging Juan Estrada, for an RBI single, and then Alfaro came up again. Omar had batted with two on and two out in the first and had struck out, but he wouldn’t this time, instead mashing his second 3-piece of the series! This one was to right, it flipped the score again, and staked Garrett to a 4-2 lead. For the next few innings, both teams would put runners aboard only to strand them. A Tovias error created a tight spot for Garrett in the fifth, but he struck out Andy McNeal to get out of there. In the bottom 5th, Nunley drew a 2-out walk and Alfaro singled into left, but Stevenson struck out. Garrett cut down on the walks in this game, at least initially. He had one walk and eight strikeouts through six innings, but with one Scavenger down in the seventh lost Adrian Rojas in a full count, then ran a 3-0 count to Estrada, before the opposing second baseman grounded to short in that spot. Stalker couldn’t make the play quickly enough to turn two, and the Condors hit for Menendez here with Gershkovich, yesterday’s killjoy. Estrada stole second base off Tovias, whose CS% kept hovering around 20%, but Garrett lost Gershkovich on balls anyway, which also ended his game. Billy Brotman came in to face Bob Rojas with the tying runs aboard, but the Condors sent Ordaz to pinch-hit for him, a right-hander, and the beginning of the end for Lillis one game ago. Ordaz flew out to center, without panic, however, and the Coons remained 4-2 ahead, even after the bottom 7th despite them loading the bases. Tijuana’s Jeff Little conceded singles to Claros and Nunley, walked Alfaro, but Stevenson grounded out to leave them aboard. Brotman put the tying runs aboard in no time in the eighth, allowing a single to McNeal and walking Sanford. Larios popped out, after which the Critters went to Surginer, who relied on Stevenson to catch up with two flyballs to centerfield to get out of Brotman’s jam, but the Raccoons stranded a pair of their own in the bottom of the inning. Newman and Delgado pinch-hit against Little, landed a single and a walk, and were ignored by the top of the order. It was back to Lillis in the ninth, and this time he held the Condors off the bases completely. 4-2 Coons. Claros 2-5; Nunley 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Alfaro 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Newman (PH) 1-1; Garrett 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (3-3) and 1-3;

Game 3
TIJ: SS B. Rojas – 1B McNeal – C Sanford – LF Larios – RF Boggs – CF Hatley – 3B Umpierre – 2B J. Estrada – P Griffin
POR: 2B Claros – LF Spencer – 1B Walter – 3B Nunley – RF Alfaro – CF Stevenson – C Delgado – SS Bullock – P Chavez

After whacking out two and driving in six in the first two games of the set, Omar Alfaro hurt himself on a defensive play right in the first inning and had to be replaced by Zach Graves. The lull of the early innings in which neither team scored gave the Coons plenty of time to wonder why the hell the universe was hating them so hard, until there was the first score of the contest in the bottom of the fourth. With Nunley and Stevenson on base and two down, the Coons’ Tony Delgado and Daniel Bullock would hit grounders near the vicinity of the middle infielders, and neither of them could come up with the ball. Bob Rojas looked bad on Delgado’s RBI single to left, and Estrada looked worse on Bullock’s RBI single to right.

That was all in the first five innings, too, with the Condors only getting three hits off Chavez, all singles, and didn’t transpire into any major threat. The Coons at least put two men on in the bottom 6th, even though that already required an error by Umpierre to get the second man, Delgado, onto base in addition to Graves, who had singled, and then Daniel Bullock smacked hard into a double play anyway. To be fair to Chavez, who carried a 3-hitter through seven, he also had strong defensive support. Stevenson had one amazing catch in centerfield, and Spencer spoiled two potential extra-base hits. Chavez wouldn’t squeeze through eighth thanks to a leadoff single by Estrada. He faced Ordaz, playing center and batting ninth after a double switch, but on his grounder to third Nunley only managed to kill the lead runner. Kipple then replaced Chavez to face the left-handed top of the order. Bob Rojas singled off him, but Adrian Rojas popped out. Cory Dew replaced Kipple to face Sanford, a right-hander, who also popped out to end the inning. Bottom 8th, also traffic: Stevenson hit a 2-out double into the leftfield corner off Jeff Little, then scored on Delgado’s single to left center. Stalker batted for Bullock, walked, and the Coons sent Will Newman to bat for Dew, but to no avail, he grounded out to short. Since the Coons hadn’t moved out of save range at 3-0, and Lillis had suffered in a long successless outing on Tuesday, Vince D got the save opportunity and retired the side in order. Delgado 2-4, 2 RBI; Chavez 7.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (7-10);

If the Coons hadn’t brought up the #9 spot in the bottom 8th, Dew would have been in for four outs. Lillis was never on the plate for this one.

Raccoons (42-59) vs. Falcons (38-62) – July 28-30, 2023

The season series with the Falcons, one of five teams more rotten than the Coons, was tied at three, and we were still not clear at how they were even playing .380 ball. They were more games under .500 than runs under .500 with only a -12 run differential against them. They were just below league average in both runs scored and runs allowed. They had to be under the mother of all gypsy curses there…

Projected matchups:
Matt Huf (1-7, 4.83 ERA) vs. Jim Bryant (3-6, 4.03 ERA)
Chris McKendrick (3-5, 3.35 ERA) vs. Justin Fleming (5-8, 4.80 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (5-7, 4.14 ERA) vs. Kyle Anderson (10-10, 3.73 ERA)

Three right-handers! There was something new about the Falcons roster, though, as they had just picked up OF/1B Terry Kopp (.312, 10 HR, 56 RBI) from the Capitals in exchange for MR Johnny Watson (1-1, 5.28 ERA) and #73 prospect SP Reed Bates. Earlier this week they had already traded LF/RF Matt Owen (.301, 6 HR, 45 RBI) to the Titans in an exchange for INF Tony Casillas (.277, 5 HR, 23 RBI).

Game 1
CHA: 3B Good – 2B Casillas – 1B Fowlkes – RF Kopp – C T. Robinson – SS Read – LF J. Avila – CF LeMoine – P J. Bryant
POR: 2B Claros – LF Spencer – 1B Walter – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – CF Stevenson – SS Stalker – C Tovias – P Huf

The revamped Falcons order immediately went to work on Huf, who allowed a single to Casillas in the first before loading the bases with walks to Pat Fowlkes and Terry Kopp. Tim Robinson’s sac fly and Howard Read’s RBI single to left center plated two for the Falcons, while the Coons also got two on in the bottom of the inning, Claros and Spencer reaching on singles, but then had Walter fly out to left and Nunley ground hard enough to Casillas for the newly-minted Falcon to turn two.

Huf limped through the innings, hardly missing any bad impression he could make. Chris LeMoine, who had fallen from the top echelon in the last few years, hit a 2-out double in the fourth inning. That was not the issue. The issue was the hard single that Jim Bryant knocked into leftfield. Thankfully the single was hard and kept LeMoine from scoring, with Matt Good grounding out to strand a pair. The Coons had another thing going in the bottom 4th, with Walter and Nunley landing soft 1-out singles. Now, how’d they **** this one up? Not at all, in fact, as Zach Graves got a ball past LeMoine in the depths of centerfield for a 2-run triple, levelling the score. The Portland Portlies wouldn’t stop there. Stevenson singled to left, plating Graves and putting the team 3-2 ahead, and from there the bases quickly became loaded. Huf batted with three on and one out and hit a slow roller on the third base line that refused to go foul and Stevenson managed to dive past Bryant in front of home plate to score as all hands were safe on Huf’s infield single, his second RBI of the year. Claros hit an RBI single, 5-2, before Spencer smacked one to Read for a double play to end the inning with a 5-spot.

Huf responded to the 5-spot with a leadoff walk to Casillas in the top 5th, then struck out the next three batters. Those were the last outs he logged; Read hit a leadoff double to begin the sixth, Jose Avila drew the fifth walk off Huf, and with that we went to David Kipple.There was no relief to be gained from Kipple, though, as the rookie left-hander ran a 3-1 count to LeMoine, then served up a gopherball that was promptly hit all the way over the Rockies for a game-tying 3-spot, 5-5. But we weren’t the only team with a hard time finding relief in the sixth inning. Joel Trotter was a Falcons rookie right-hander, put Stalker aboard, then served up a bomb to Elias Tovias, breaking the tie and restoring the home team to a 7-5 lead.

The Coons had another lefty in trouble in the seventh. A single and a walk put Kopp and Robinson on against Brotman to start the inning, but then Read hit into a double play to short, and Avila grounded out to Claros, denying the Falcons a tally in the inning. Bottom 7th, Trotter was still in, but retired nobody before the bases were loaded on an error (by Good) and two singles. Graves batted the first pitch he saw past a diving Fowlkes for an RBI single, and another run scored on a Fowlkes error on Stevenson’s grounder. New pitcher George Barnett conceded a bases-clearing double to Tim Stalker, which put the Coons at 12-5 with two 5-spots, their biggest offensive game of the season! Barnett would get two out, then got two more on the board on Raul Claros’ homer, handing the Coons a 7-spot and a handy win. 14-5 Furballs! Claros 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Walter 3-4, BB; Nunley 2-4; Graves 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Stevenson 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Cowen 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Whoah, we’re now almost scoring 3.5 runs per game!

By the way, still no word on recently-awakened slugger Omar Alfaro… MENA!! MENA!!!! … No clue where he is. – Slappy says he sent him to gather ‘herbs’.

Great.

Game 2
CHA: SS Good – 3B Czachor – 1B Fowlkes – RF Kopp – C T. Robinson – LF McClenon – 2B Casillas – CF LeMoine – P Fleming
POR: 2B Claros – LF Spencer – 1B Walter – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – CF Stevenson – SS Stalker – C Tovias – P McKendrick

Starting with Good and Ryan Czachor, the Falcons slapped four singles off McKendrick in the opening inning, which quickly led to two runs on the board on our rookie du jour. McKendrick would not fool anybody in this start and the Falcons regularly made hard contact. The Falcons had seven hits off him by the third inning, and nine by the fifth. Corner infielders hit solo home runs for either team, Matt Nunley going deep in the bottom 2nd and Pat Fowlkes homering in the top 3rd, before the Falcons got doubles from Good and Fowlkes in the fifth to tack on another run in a 4-1 game. Stevenson went deep in the bottom 5th, but that was also a solo home run in what was now a 4-2 deficit in which the Coons had only one base hit that had not entitled the hitter to circle the bases…

McKendrick would not get through the sixth, and as was good custom for Raccoons pitchers by now got stuffed with a 2-out run by the opposing hurler. Fleming’s single to right center scored Joseph McClenon to restore a 3-run lead, and it was 6-2 by the seventh with Kevin Surginer getting bounced around for two hits and two walks, and it would have been worse if not for Terry Kopp’s double play grounder in between the four base runners. One day after their 14 runs the Raccoons would not get a fourth base hit until the bottom 7th, with Nunley leading off with a single to right. Nothing would come of that… It only got worse. Cory Dew was in to pitch the eighth, but sucked even worse than anybody before him. The Falcons 1-through-5 batters, after LeMoine and Fleming made outs, would all reach base against him on two hits, a walk, and finally not one, but TWO hit batters. Brotman replaced Dew, who’s ERA was skyrocketing like nothing we had seen before, and got McClenon to pop out, ending that dismal inning. The Coons would strafe a tiring Fleming for three runs in the bottom 8th, although two were unearned after a Good error. The Falcons seemingly tried to save some pen after the drubbing on Friday, and it certainly didn’t do Fleming any good, but Ryan Corkum would sit down the Coons in order in the bottom 9th. 8-5 Falcons. Nunley 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Stevenson 2-4, HR, RBI;

It took him four weeks and some ‘herbs’, but the Druid finally diagnosed Omar Alfaro (.254, 9 HR, 34 RBI) with a strained hamstring. Off to the DL with our future, and he’d probably miss most of August.

We’d add an extra reliever for two or three days – Mike Rehbock – until we’d bring back Cookie from rehab-rehab.

Game 3
CHA: SS Good – 3B Czachor – 1B Fowlkes – CF Kopp – 2B Casillas – C Roland – CF LeMoine – LF McClenon – P K. Anderson
POR: 2B Claros – LF Spencer – 1B Walter – 3B Nunley – CF Stevenson – RF Newman – SS Stalker – C Delgado – P Gutierrez

The Coons’ daily mess was Gutierrez on Sunday, and Rico ran four full counts in the first inning, including to all of the 1-2-3 batters, resulting in a K, groundout, and single. Kopp also singled, Gutierrez threw a wild one, and Casillas grounded out to Claros in a 3-2 count after that, stranding the runners and putting nothing on the board after some 30 pitches by Gutierrez… If nothing else, Gutierrez drove in the first run of the game, singling home Tim Stalker, who had also singled and stolen second base, in the bottom 3rd. Claros singled, Spencer erased him on a fielder’s choice, and with two outs Shane Walter’s soft line dropped in front of LeMoine in right center for an RBI single. Matt Nunley had landed his 100th hit of the season in his first at-bat of the day and got #101 with men on the corners, running a 2-out, 2-run double into the rightfield corner to extend the lead to 4-0. A walk and a single would even load the bases, but Stalker would fly out to right to end the inning after starting it, nine batters earlier.

The moment he had a lead, Gutierrez sawed off the Falcons in the fourth and fifth, but both Good and Fowlkes hit singles in the sixth inning. Gutierrez was at 104 pitches when he faced Terry Kopp with one out, who smacked the first pitch he got into Stalker’s glove to start a 6-4-3 double play stress-reliever, and that was also the last pitch for Gutierrez in the game. Top 7th, Cory Dew again got stuck, although Tim Stalker also had a hand in a jam with runners on the corners. He threw away Cory Roland’s grounder for a 2-base error, and Joseph McClenon also reached base. Brotman came on with two outs to face Jose Avila, pinch-hitting for Anderson, allowed an RBI single (unearned), and only ended the inning with a K to Good. The Raccoons were still up 4-1, despite being completely invisible in the middle innings. Vince D walked Czachor to begin the eighth before Newman handled Fowlkes’ fly for the first out. Czachor went in a full count to Kopp, who swung through strike three and Delgado threw out Czachor to end the inning. While the Coons’ offense managed to sleepwalk themselves through their last four batting innings, Brett Lillis held the lead together in the ninth, retiring Casillas, Roland, and LeMoine in order to grab the weekend series, the season series, and a winning week for the Critters. 4-1 Furballs. Spencer 2-4; Nunley 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 6.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (6-7) and 1-2, RBI;

In other news

July 25 – Nashville’s John Muller (.356, 4 HR, 17 RBI) elevates himself to a 20-game winning streak and loses it, all in a day, in the Blue Sox’ double header with the Warriors, which ends in a split overall for the teams as well.
July 25 – A home run by TOP C Jon Gilbert (.212, 3 HR, 10 RBI) lifts Nick Danieley (6-6, 3.24 ERA) and the rest of the Buffaloes to a 1-0 win over the Gold Sox.
July 26 – WAS 3B/SS Guillermo Obando (.279, 4 HR, 28 RBI) is going to miss two weeks with a strained quad.
July 27 – The Indians trade SP Mario Alva (6-10, 3.49 ERA) to the Scorpions for two prospects.
July 27 – SAL OF/1B/2B Raimondo Odescalchi (.254, 10 HR, 43 RBI) will be out for a month with a strained back muscle.
July 28 – The Gold Sox send SP Joao Joo (5-8, 3.76 ERA) to the Miners for RF/LF Max Erickson (.309, 3 HR, 9 RBI).
July 28 – Pacifics and Capitals play 17 innings before the Capitals break through in the top 17th with LF/RF Luis Leija (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI) driving home the deciding run for his first RBI of the season, giving Washington a 6-5 win.
July 29 – WAS SS Tom McWhorter (.280, 13 HR, 51 RBI) lands his 2,000th base hit in a 7-6 loss to the Pacifics, a ninth-inning home run off LAP MR Rob Owensby (2-2, 2.16 ERA) in the middle of a 4-run rally that just falls short of the goal. McWhorter, 35 years old and a 12-time All Star and twice named FL Player of the Year, has been with the Capitals since 2020. He spent the first 12 years of his career with the Miners. He’s a career .275 batter with 299 HR and 1,183 RBI.
July 29 – The Cyclones’ SP Victor Arevalo (7-8, 4.37 ERA) is traded to the Wolves for MR Alex Ramos (5-3, 4.39 ERA, 1 SV).
July 30 – Bad news for the Scorpions, with LF/RF Pablo Sanchez (.373, 7 HR, 52 RBI) going to miss three weeks with an oblique strain.
July 30 – The Scorpions are also active otherwise, stunningly trading franchise figurehead, outfielder Ray Meade (.267, 9 HR, 48 RBI) to the Rebels for 1B Jesus Ramirez, who was batting .286 in limited action as a 37-year-old veteran, and #18 prospect OF Eric Payne.

Complaints and stuff

Not much to say this week. It speaks to the perpetual numbing drama around this place that the second Omar Alfaro appeared to break out (five homers and a .395 batting average since July 7) he ripped up his leg. Poor Maud – just when she had his bobblehead for some forgettable September game worked out.

Cookie did not yet get hurt on rehab-rehab, but I’m not holding my breath.

And no, there is still nobody trying to trade for any of our personnel. There’s normally always the one young player that everybody would like to get from you … or at least an early-30s regular All Star. Not on this roster. I haven’t had an inquiry the entire month, and shopping personnel or trying to talk GM’s directly has reaped no fruit whatsoever.

A roster full of Clyde Bradys… worst offense… you’d think the rotation is pretty lackluster, but Huf aside right now all the starters have a sub-4 ERA, even if just barely. But the offense is a nightmare, a pile of .250 batters that don’t walk and have no power. Except Alfaro. Maybe. Who knows? Maybe we’ll never know. I’d like nothing more than a Royce Green type of player to rip up the league.

Fun Fact: Six years ago this week, on July 28, 2017, Tijuana’s Jimmy Eichelkraut hit three home runs in a 17-6 rout of the Crusaders, becoming the Condors’ third-ever player to hit three home runs in a game.

Of course Jimmy Oatmeal was the #3 pick by the Raccoons in the 2006 draft – we haven’t had a higher pick since. He never suited up for Portland, because his performance in the low minors was ghastly after the draft, and while named the #67 prospect prior to the 2008 season was a running gag well before getting close to the majors.

With the Coons in the hunt for real in ’08 and in need of offense, Jimmy Oatmeal found himself included in the package that included Daniel Sharp and Ryan Miller in the trade for the Indians’ Ron Alston. The gamble failed in the short term – the Coons wouldn’t make the playoffs until 2010 – and the Indians also would not hold on to Jimmy for very long, swapping him to Tijuana for Jimmy Sjogren before the end of ’08. His struggles in the minors were profound, he didn’t make his major league debut until age 24 – late for a #3 pick for sure! – and didn’t grab more than a token number of at-bats until 26 during the 2014 season, batting .209 with three homers in 151 AB. He would be a regular by ’15 and a starter by ’16, and would actually be a productive batter by 28. That year, 2016, was arguably his best season as he batted .285 with 31 homers and also stole 13 bases.

A 2-time All Star, Jimmy Oatmeal fell from the All Star level by ’20, batting .243 with 24 homers at age 32, but that was only a .706 OPS for him, a steep drop after five seasons over .800. It was also his last full season in the majors. He tore his labrum on May 17, 2021 after a slow start to the season, and retired before the end of the year, finishing with a .266/.349/.466 clip with 158 HR and 510 RBI in less than eight years of major league service.