[Westheim]

Raccoons (85-57) @ Indians (61-82) – September 11-14, 2028

The Indians had already been eliminated, but would merrily represent a stepping stone to disgracefully tumble over to stub our pointy black snouts in the dirt. Never mind that they were at the very bottom in runs scored in the Continental League and merely middling in terms of preventing the other team from scoring. The teams would play four, and the Coons were up 9-5 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Anderson (7-8, 4.90 ERA) vs. John McInerney (8-10, 2.88 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (11-7, 2.41 ERA) vs. David Saccoccio (10-11, 3.22 ERA)
Mark Roberts (15-4, 2.95 ERA) vs. Myles Mood (0-2, 3.98 ERA)
Dan Delgadillo (7-4, 4.41 ERA) vs. Mark Matthews (3-6, 3.57 ERA)

We’d first get southpaw McInerney, then three right-handers. We would continue to rotate the key players, leaving out Ramos, Mora, and Harenberg on the bench for the opener against McInerney – they were all left-handed batters.

The series would for the last time this year square off the pair of shortstops at the top of the stolen base leaderboard. Mario Pizano (44 SB) led Alberto Ramos by one as the series began.

As an aside, the Indians had an array of injured players on the DL, most notably having added Elliott Kennett (back) and Zachary Ryder (oblique) since we had last played against them.

Game 1
POR: SS Gerster – LF Morales – RF Gomez – 3B Hereford – 1B Correa – C Leal – 2B Spencer – CF Magallanes – P Anderson
IND: SS Pizano – C Dear – 1B Jon Gonzalez – CF Suhay – LF Plunkett – 2B E. Sosa – 3B Roesler – RF T. Johnson – P McInerney

While Pizano singled to lead off the bottom 1st and stole #45, our main concern remained Kyle Anderson, who got a good run on yet another terrible start. Pizano was one of six Indians to reach base in the opening inning; three singles, a double plating two off Ben Suhay’s bat, and two walks for good measure before somehow McInerney removed himself from the rally for the third out, but that was not until after three runs had scored. The Raccoons got a chance in the third inning, started by Magallanes’ soft leadoff single. McInerney threw away Anderson’s bunt to put runners in scoring position, and the Raccoons got a run on Butch Gerster’s single, then another one on Morales’ sac fly. Gomez walked, but Hereford struck out reaching and Jon Correa rolled over to Mike Roesler to end the inning, down 3-2, but somehow Anderson held up long enough to allow Danny Morales to tie the score with a solo homer in the fifth. In fact, suddenly Anderson was pitching really well – after the first-inning onslaught and including McInerney to end it, Kyle Anderson retired 13 Indians in a row before Ben Suhay led off the bottom 6th with a single to right. At that point he was the tying run; Rich Hereford had been driven in by Juan Magallanes with a 1-out, bases-loaded single in the top of the inning, which soon died when Anderson whiffed and Gerster flew out to the same Suhay. Mike Plunkett’s grounder advanced the runner, and then Elias Sosa singled to center to send Suhay around to … be thrown out by Magallanes. Anderson got out of that, pitched the seventh, too, and in fact for six of his seven innings projected well more calmness than the sterling end of the pen that appeared for the last two innings. Ricky Ohl walked a pair in the eighth, Josh Boles gave up singles to Todd Johnson and Mario Pizano in the ninth, but somehow the Critters pulled through, even getting an insurance solo homer by Butch Gerster in the ninth. 5-3 Raccoons. Gerster 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Morales 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Magallanes 2-4, RBI; Anderson 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, W (8-8);

The Titans were idle, so we stretched our paws to a 9 1/2 game lead, and cut the magic number to a round and wholesome ten.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – CF Mora – RF Gomez – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 2B Spencer – P Gutierrez
IND: 2B T. Johnson – C Dear – CF Suhay – 1B Jon Gonzalez – 3B E. Sosa – SS C. Castro – LF M. Cowan – RF Aleman – P Saccoccio

The Coons loaded the bags in the first with Ramos getting nailed, stealing second out of spite, making third on a wild pitch, and then they filled up behind him on Gomez’ infield single and Hereford drawing a walk. Harenberg struck out (…), but Tovias plated two with a single before Matt Nunley ended the inning with a foul pop to his significant other in the game, Elias Sosa. Portland added single runs in the next two innings, Ramos plating Spencer with a groundout in the second, followed by Hereford coming home on another Tovias single in the third, but the Indians stayed in touch with Jon Gonzalez’ unearned 2-run shot in the bottom 3rd; unearned because it came with two outs and with Matt Dear only on base for Rafael Gomez dropping his easy fly.

The middle innings were wholly uneventful, but through six Rico Gutierrez still had zero strikeouts, bringing the Raccoons close to consecutive 6+ innings starts by pitchers without any strikeouts between them… at least until Cesar Castro struck out to begin the bottom 7th. So did Mike Cowan. And then disaster swallowed Rico whole. Alex Aleman singled up the middle, the Indians unfurled back-to-back pinch-hit RBI doubles between Manny Sanchez and Mike Plunkett, and Rico required rescue from Jonathan Fleischer who got Matt Dear to ground out, thankfully, but the game was now tied at four … at least until Kevin Harenberg and Elias Tovias slapped back-to-back bombs off right-hander Brandon Smith in the eighth. The ninth saw Mora and Gomez reach base before the Indians decided to walk Harenberg intentionally with two outs and lefty Alex Morin going. Instead, they brought up Elias Tovias with 4 RBI on the day, and Tovias ran it to six with a double to right-center. The Indians probably got what they deserved in this one… 8-4 Coons. Gomez 2-5, 2B; Harenberg 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Tovias 4-5, HR, 2B, 6 RBI; Leal (PH) 1-1;

The Titans lost to the Crusaders, 5-2, moving the Coons back into double digits with a 10 1/2 game lead, and OUT of double digits with a magic number of eight!

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – CF Mora – RF Gomez – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – 2B G. Sanchez – P Roberts
IND: SS Pizano – C Dear – LF Plunkett – 1B Jon Gonzalez – 3B E. Sosa – CF M. Cowan – 2B Wagner – RF Aleman – P Mood

Through five innings, Myles Mood walked four and shed three singles, but notably also struck out seven Raccoons, most crucially Rafael Gomez with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth. Mark Roberts by contrast notched only three strikeouts through five, two of which were Mood, and got bombed twice to trail 3-0 on a Sosa solo shot in the second and a 2-piece by Alex Aleman in the fifth. Rich Hereford hit a leadoff jack in the sixth to get the Coons on the board and inch himself to within one of the 30-homer mark, and somehow this woke up the team. Kevin Harenberg flew out to deep center, but Tovias and Nunley hit back-to-back doubles to right and right-center, respectively, to put the tying run on second base with one out and to get the Indians into their bullpen. Manny Estrella (11 BB in 13.1 IP) replaced Mood, and the Raccoons replaced .087 batter German Sanchez with somebody worth the oxygen. Danny Morales came through with a pinch-hit single to left, which had Nunley hold at third base, but Mark Roberts hit a fly to center to bring in the run with a sacrifice, getting the brown team even. Estrella conceded a single to Ramos and walked Mora to fill them up, and here was Rafael Gomez with three on and two outs again. He fell to 1-2, then chopped a soft line into leftfield, near the line and far enough away from Plunkett to allow Ramos to score from second for a 2-run, go-ahead single. The Indians ditched the imploded Estrella for Jim Cushing, who allowed a single to Hereford, but no more runs when Harenberg popped out to strand three in a 5-3 game.

Jon Gonzalez ALMOST took it all away again. Matt Dear led off the bottom 6th with a single and was at second when it was Gonzo’s turn. Roberts had thrown a wild pitch in the at-bat, then slid from 1-2 to 3-2, and finally allowed a mighty big drive to deep left. It got too much air, though, and fell into Hereford’s mitten right at the fence, but this one had game-knotter written all over it. Meanwhile, the Coons left the bases loaded for the third straight inning in the seventh. Tovias had been drilled, Spencer singled, Ramos walked intentionally, and then Mora grounded out to Sosa. The Raccoons stuck to Roberts long enough for him to concede another run, Mike Cowan hitting a leadoff double and coming in on another wild pitch as the battery was not only not on the same page, but in different books. While Ricky Ohl held the dogs on the chain in the eighth, the Coons failed to get an insurance run in the ninth despite using TWO pinch-runners. The first, Gerster, was caught stealing when he ran for Tovias. The second, Jaden Booker, was merely stranded through normal ineptitude. It didn’t matter. Boles struck out Gonzalez and Sosa, then got Mike Cowan to fly out leisurely to Gomez. 5-4 Coons. Ramos 2-3, 2 BB; Gomez 2-5, 2 RBI; Hereford 2-5, HR, RBI; Morales (PH) 1-1;

The Titans beat the Crusaders today, but since we won our game, the magic number still got down to seven.

…and then weather happened, and the Thursday game was washed out. Since the teams had no common off day left and the ABL required all games to be played at SOME point, the game would be tacked onto the end of the schedule, so the Raccoons would play the Monday after the nominal season finale against the Titans. The Titans DID play and beat the Crusaders on Thursday, so they were now ten behind and the magic number was still seven.

Raccoons (88-57) @ Condors (86-60) – September 15-17, 2028

This shaped up to be the CLCS pairing for this season. The Coons led their division by ten, the Condors led a pair of teams by eight, and there were only two and a half weeks left. Even these two teams could not likely to enough harm to one another to still lose the playoffs, you’d be forgiven to think. But, well, games gotta be played! The Condors were the crass opposite to the Indians in how they led the CL in runs scored, and THEN added the best pitching in the league, too! Their rotation was first by ERA. Their pen was first by ERA. Little taste of what was to come! The season series was tied at three.

Projected matchups:
Dan Delgadillo (7-4, 4.41 ERA) vs. Joe Perry (15-7, 3.45 ERA)
Rin Nomura (15-5, 2.96 ERA) vs. Jeff Little (12-7, 3.41 ERA)
Dave Martinez (0-0) vs. Adam Potter (8-6, 3.22 ERA)

Two lefties, one righty. Meanwhile, the Raccoons added two more players with minor league seasons ending on the weekend. We brought up OF/1B Ryan Allan again, who finished the AAA season batting .314, and also would give 22-year-old Venezuelan righty Dave Martinez his debut on Sunday. Martinez had been a not-too-expensive July international free agent in 2022 and had pitched to a 12-6 record and 3.28 ERA in AAA this year. He would have had to be on the 40-man roster anyway by December 1 and we had the room now.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – LF Morales – CF Mora – 2B Hereford – RF Gomez – 1B Correa – 3B Gerster – C Rocha – P Delgadillo
TIJ: CF C. Murphy – SS C. Miller – 3B Sanks – 1B McGrath – RF O. Larios – C Zarate – LF Denzler – 2B Fitzsimmons – P Perry

Ramos singled, advanced on Morales’ groundout, and scored on a Mora single for an early 1-0 lead, but the Condors made up the run immediately as Chris Murphy (no shy student on 37 SB) led off with a walk, stole second, advanced on Chris Miller’s infield single, and eventually scored on a Shane Sanks groundout. Daniel Rocha threw out Miller in this inning, then Murphy in the third; the Condors had the leadoff man on in each of the early innings, but by the third did not have their starting pitcher anymore, Joe Perry having departed early with back tightness. They took the lead in the bottom 4th, Danny Zarate singling home Omar Larios, who had doubled into the gap between Mora and Morales, but that this happened with one out was little consolation. Tom Fitzsimmons reached with a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th… and also scored, driven in with a 2-out Miller single. Sanks also singled, but Kevin McGrath grounded out to Correa to end the inning, with the Condors up 3-1.

The tying runs were on right away in the sixth with Steve Gowan’s leadoff walk to Danny Morales, then a Mora single. Hereford came up with only one ribbie on the week, so he had to be hungry, but struck out in a full count. Gomez hit to short for a fielder’s choice against right-hander Markus Bates, prompting Harenberg to bat for Correa… only to make the third out with a soft line to Fitzsimmons. The Condors upped to 4-1 in the bottom of the inning, which Larios led off with a triple to left-center, then came home on a sac fly by Zarate. Delgadillo had allowed five of six leadoff men on base and was bopped right there; Kearney got the Coons out of the inning on two strikeouts.

Top 7th, the tying runs would be on against Bates. Rocha walked, Allan singled for Kearney, and Ramos also singled past Miller to put three on with one out for Leal, pinch-hitting for Danny Morales. He ran a full count, then laid off ball four to push home a run. Mora plated Allan with a groundout, but Hereford’s grounder was also intercepted by Miller and ended the inning, with Ramos and Leal stranded in scoring position in a 4-3 game. The Coons could not get over the hump, but the Condors got Kevin Surginer for an insurance run in the bottom 8th, a Zarate single to left and a Denzler double to left, both with two outs. Top 9th, righty Pat Selby facing the 8-9-1 spots. Spencer batted for Ramos and singled, while Allan was not hit for since he countered the pitcher… and doubled up the rightfield line. This put the tying runs in scoring position for Ramos, who nevertheless grounded out to first to be no help whatsoever. Matt Nunley batted for Surginer, fouled out, and Mora fell to 0-2 with my lip getting bite marks before he ripped a liner into the rightfield corner for the game-tying double! And credit to Omar Larios who tried to warp himself to the line, but just had no chance at all. Hereford flew out to center, though, and the Coons did not get a lead. As consolation, the Condors would leave Adam Braun, the winning run, in scoring position after a leadoff single off Fleischer, sending this one to overtime, which Rafael Gomez opened with a triple off Selby! Harenberg put Portland in front, doubling over centerfielder Juan Palbes, who was swiftly removed with the hurler in a double switch that brought on righty Sean Rigg, who restored order and ended the inning. Josh Boles then ended the Condors to keep the Coons undefeated in the week. 6-5 Critters. Ramos 3-6; Mora 3-5, 2B, 4 RBI; Rocha 1-2, BB, 2B; Spencer (PH) 1-1; Allan (PH) 2-3, 2B;

Boston beat San Fran, 6-4, keeping the magic number from dropping further than to six.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – LF Morales – RF Gomez – 3B Hereford – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – 2B Spencer – CF Magallanes – P Nomura
TIJ: CF C. Murphy – SS C. Miller – 1B McGrath – 3B Sanks – RF Braun – C Zarate – 2B F. Guzman – LF Hemminger – P Little

Had Ramos not been caught stealing after a leadoff single at the start of the game, the Coons might have scored more than one run in a 2-out rally. Gomez singled, Hereford walked, Harenberg hit an RBI single, and then Tovias grounded out. The Raccoons only amounted to a single walk for the next three innings while Nomura looked solid, but soon was broken open for a 3-run homer by Adam Braun in the bottom 4th. McGrath and Sanks scored on the shot, only Braun’s 10th on the season. Nomura struck out six in as many messy innings, continuing his recent rottenness, and also conceded another run in the bottom 6th, though that was unearned after a Hereford error that put Braun on base. Braun was eventually singled home by Frank Guzman, but in between stole second base, one of four runners that collectively robbed Tovias blind in this game, while Portland took until the same sixth inning to get their first hit since the opening frame, a Rafael Gomez single that led exactly nowhere.

Our next hit was a Ramos single with nobody out in the eighth that came off Lisuarte Paradela, the only batter he faced, moved Mora to second, and brought up the tying run with nobody out. Leal batted for Morales to face righty Josh Sharp, who threw a wild pitch, then got out of his predicament with only one run allowed on a Gomez groundout, ringing up Hereford to get the Condors out of the inning. Pat Selby would do the rest in the ninth. 4-2 Condors. Ramos 2-4; Gomez 2-3, BB, RBI;

For the first time this week, we played and yet the magic number remained the same. The Titans beat the Bayhawks once more, and were now within nine again. The Crusaders and Elks were level for third, and both had a chance of being eliminated on Sunday with a Coons win and their loss.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – P Martinez
TIJ: CF C. Murphy – SS C. Miller – 3B Sanks – 1B McGrath – RF O. Larios – C Zarate – LF Denzler – 2B Fitzsimmons – P Potter

This was for the season series, maybe for home field in the CLCS … so I was less than pleased when Abel Mora struck out in the top of the first, then got tossed after slamming down his bat in anger. Magallanes would replace him, while the inning was completed with a Hereford strikeout that stranded Spencer at second base. The next vibrant train wreck was Dave Martinez, who fooled absolutely nobody and surrendered two runs in the first on a Miller single, then back-to-back doubles by Sanks and McGrath. The nightmare continued with Tom Fitzsimmons’ leadoff double in the bottom 2nd, Martinez spiking an ill-advised throw to third base on Potter’s bunt for an error, and after Murphy’s groundout scored the former, another screaming double by Chris Miller plated the latter. Martinez walked Sanks, Miller stole third off the overwhelmed Tovias, and then scored on a McGrath groundout. 5-0 in the second! Martinez was sent back out for the third, only cut murdered further on back-to-back mighty doubles by Denzler and Fitzsimmons and was finally yanked for Steve Costilow in a 6-0 game after just 2.1 innings of absolute GARBAGE, the WORST we had EVER seen. (yells at the sobbing Martinez) YOU … SUCK!!

Speaking of sucking, the rest of the team was happy to chime in. They were never in the game at all. They had two hits through five, then a Magallanes single in the sixth that was met with strikeouts by Hereford and Harenberg to get over it. At least Steve Costilow pitched the finest game of his career (3.2 IP, 0 R) in a complete dumpster fire. Ramos stole his 46th in the eighth inning to get even with Mario Pizano half a continent away. He was stranded at second as the Raccoons steadfastly remained six short of a successful rally. The Coons celebrated with two unnecessary 2-out errors in the bottom 8th (Nunley, Tovias) that put Surginer in a redundant pickle. He got out by popping up Sanks, not that any of that mattered. Nor did Harenberg taking Sean Rigg deep in the ninth. 6-1 Condors. Costilow 3.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

In other news

September 11 – The Miners trash the Blue Sox with a 15-run third inning, enough to win handily, 18-2, with 1B Danny Santillano (.368, 19 HR, 93 RBI) landing four base hits for 3 RBI and SS Josh Peddle (.276, 3 HR, 22 RBI) driving in five runs on three base hits.
September 11 – DEN SP Tommy Weintraub (10-16, 3.73 ERA) is out for the season with a tear in his triceps.
September 12 – LVA SP Ed Hague (12-13, 4.60 ERA) squeezes the Falcons for a 3-hitter in a 1-0 shutout.
September 14 – PIT RF/LF Omar Alfaro (.270, 14 HR, 51 RBI) drives in five in a 12-0 rout of the Blue Sox.
September 16 – LAP OF Justin Fowler (.335, 14 HR, 69 RBI) will miss the remainder of the regular season to rest a knee contusion, but would probably be available come playoff time if the Pacifics could hold off the Warriors.

Complaints and stuff

Boston lost on Sunday, so the magic number will be five at the end of this week. BNN gives us a flat 100% to make the playoffs at this point. I am still having a watchful eye on the final weekend series…

Who was notably not called up again with minor league seasons (unsuccessfully) completed? George James.

And who was about the worst batter on staff this week? Rich Hereford would be that…! He batted 3-for-23 with *11* K. I sure hope he’s not getting into playoff form….. (shivers) … And yet, that was still not half as bad as The Dave Martinez Experience.

All other things are still more or less the same. Ramos is even with Pizano with 46 stolen bases, Rico still leads the ERA race by more than a quarter run; only Roberts has lost his lead in the strikeout race to Morgan Shepherd. However, depending on how things go from here, Mark Roberts *could* make an additional start compared to the Logger… especially with that tack-on game against Indy three Mondays from now, so everything is possible.

Fun Fact: Hall of Famer Martin Garcia holds the eight highest single-season strikeout totals for the Milwaukee Loggers – all in consecutive seasons.

Yup, starting with 232 K in both 1996 and 1997, up to 255 in 1998, 280 in 1999, and then slowly back down again. Five times he led the CL in strikeouts, including four times consecutively starting in ’98. In all of those four seasons he was also named Pitcher of the Year, also a pedigree he won five times in total.

I meant to include a Ramos profile last week but forgot. Stupid! Anyway, there are some wicked numbers on there, f.e. the BB/K ratio. He currently has 15 intentional walks, more than Hereford and Gomez combined! That is not a new development; he was also walked intentionally 14 times each in the last two seasons.