[Westheim]

Raccoons (58-84) @ Indians (80-62) – September 13-16, 2032

The Indians’ chance at the postseason was mostly academical at this point, and the Raccoons had little hope of getting rid of that red lantern again before the following season, so this was mostly a 4-game set for the season series, which so far was tied at seven, and had been taken by the Raccoons the year before. The Indians were fifth in runs scored, seventh in runs allowed, but continued to behoove their record with a mere +5 run differential. The Critters? A crisp - 161.

Projected matchups:
Dave Martinez (1-2, 3.86 ERA) vs. David Saccoccio (11-11, 4.12 ERA)
Travis Coffee (4-7, 5.09 ERA) vs. John McInerney (11-11, 4.48 ERA)
Steve Russell (2-1, 4.67 ERA) vs. Sal Bedoya (13-7, 3.35 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (10-13, 4.79 ERA) vs. Jim Kretzmann (6-6, 3.91 ERA)

One southpaw – McInerney – in this mix. Not that it mattered – the Raccoons were playing a low .400-ish against any sort of creature in any sort of place…

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – 2B Stalker – RF Wallace – 3B Perkins – 1B Howden – LF Hall – C James – P Martinez
IND: 1B Witte – C J. Herrera – CF Baron – RF Plunkett – 2B Schneller – LF Acor – SS DiGiacomo – 3B Conner – P Saccoccio

The Raccoons opened the series with a Ramos Special in the first inning as Berto walked, stole a bag, and then came around on the pinnacle of offensive credibility – two groundouts. That play repeated itself in similar fashion in the third inning when Ramos reached on a leadoff single, stole another base – this time third after Pinkerton walking had pushed him to second already – and scored on a Stalker groundout again. Wallace whiffed, Perkins walked, and Howden grounded over to Joe DiGiacomo at short, whose throw to first was quite wide and sailed past Oliver Witte for a run-scoring 2-base error. He got it on his next chance, Nate Hall’s grounder on the very next pitch. Stalker drove in Berto for the third time in the fourth inning, then with a soft 2-out single into center that actually scored both Ramos (double) and Martinez (single) to make it 5-0, and Dave Martinez had actually faced the minimum – on a Witte single and a Juan Herrera double play ball – the first time through. Though honestly, I was past that giving me happiness, or giddiness, or just some pure old relief. The only thing this team had yet to give me this season were the shingles.

Shingles were ordered and would certainly soon be delivered – Oliver Witte hit a leadoff triple in the bottom 4th before miraculously being stranded on base with a K to Herrera, John Baron’s liner to Howden, and Mike Plunkett being retired on a grounder in front of home plate. Top 5th, the Critters already had Perkins (double) and Howden (intentional walk??) on base with nobody gone when Nate Hall’s fly to left was flubbed by Dustin Acor. The gaffe loaded the bases for James, who axed Saccoccio with a 2-run double to right, 7-0, with righty Chris Vazquez replacing him. Martinez popped out (no blame for that), while Ramos snapped an RBI single and Pinkerton chipped in a sac fly. Stalker flew out to Acor, this time gripping firmly in a 9-0 game.

Martinez would last seven and concede a run in each of the last two of those innings while obviously becoming unglued at this stage. Witte and Baron landed hits for the run in the sixth, with Baron then caught stealing to end the frame. In the seventh, Plunkett opened with a single, Dan Schneller walked, Acor hit into a double play, but Martinez also lost DiGiacomo on balls to put them on the corners for Josh Conner, unremarkable .275 batter. He singled to center on a 1-2 pitch, plating Plunkett, with DiGiacomo thrown out at third base by Pinkerton to end this inning. With the Coons swapping out many of the mainstays, the pen held up, sort of. Hennessy and Derks collected the final six outs, with the latter striking out the side in the ninth after almost giving up a 3-piece to Plunkett with two outs in the eighth… 9-2 Coons! Ramos 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Stalker 1-5, 4 RBI; James 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Martinez 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-2) and 1-4;

Normally a 1-for-5 day is nothing to write home about, but if you’ve got four ribbies like Stalker, you had to have been doing SOMETHING right…

What is it, Martinez? Do I hear what? – No, I can’t hear Odilon’s dark angels jubilating thy name.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – 2B Stalker – 1B Zitzner – 3B Perkins – LF Hall – RF Rodriguez – C Ross – P Coffee
IND: 1B Witte – C J. Herrera – CF Baron – RF Plunkett – 2B Schneller – LF Acor – SS C. Castro – 3B de Luna – P McInerney

With two stolen bases on Monday, Ramos was now just two behind the CL leader Guillermo Obando (the ABL leader was Nashville’s Chance Bossert with a runaway 61), so people would be extra watchful with him on base, which happened right at the start of the Tuesday affair thanks to a catastrophic throwing error by Witte that went well over the hustling McInerney’s head and allowed Berto into second base, but he didn’t get a stolen base attempt off at all because Pinkerton plated him with a single two pitches later. Now it was about waiting for the cat to push that pot of Coffee over the edge of the table. Witte hit a leadoff double in the first, but was stranded on defense, and after Acor and Cesar Castro both drew 1-out walks in the second, Coffee gave up a sharp single to left to Edwin de Luna. Too sharp, it turned out; Acor was sent from second, but Nate Hall made a wonderful throw from left to cut him down at home plate, and McInerney was rung up to end the inning. A Stalker double and Perkins RBI single plated a second Portland run in the third inning, and John Baron hurt himself on the throw to home plate and had to be replaced with Brad Rolph, a 2024 fourth-rounder that had gotten some playing time in ’29 and since then had gotten steadily less playing time every year; he had one at-bat this season so far. His second came in the bottom 3rd with Witte on first, one out, and ended the inning in 4-6-3 fashion.

Rolph also popped out to end the fifth with Witte on first, but by then the game was tied. The cat had been patient in the early innings, but in the fourth poked a paw into the stale Coffee and then walked all over the glass table with the sticky paw, resulting in a Schneller walk and a game-tying Acor homer. The Critters took a 4-2 lead in the sixth in the most stupid fashion; Zitzner and Perkins made outs before Hall legged out an infield single on a ball that struck McInerney in the foot, hampering his pursuit of a play considerably. Rodriguez reached on a Castro error, and then Toby Ross dished a ball over Rolph’s head for a 2-out, 2-run double. Coffee struck out, then hung a fat one to Mike Plunkett to begin the bottom 6th, and that ball was *gone*, cutting the edge to 4-3. Castro and de Luna hit singles with two outs, but the trust in Coffee was sufficiently non-existent that even the left-handed poker McInerney, .115 this year, .136 career, was threat enough to call out a left-hander. Garavito replaced Coffee in the ultimate shaming and rung up the opposing pitcher, stranding two. Blowing the lead would be left to Jared Stone in the bottom 7th. 2-out single to Rolph, a Plunkett double, and then… a wild pitch. Tied game, Schneller flew out to right to keep it that way with the go-ahead run on third base. In a perfect world the Raccoons would have rekindled the offense, but nothing was happening in that regard. The bottom of the ninth saw Bryan Rabbitt in the game in an attempt to get the contest to extras. He generated three grounders, none for outs. Dan Brown hit a single up the middle that eluded the middle infielders Ramos and Cass, who almost took each other out, but not Brown. Witte bunted, but Rabbitt’s greedy throw to second was high and past 2005 Ugliest Baby Boy Sam Cass for an error. The runners executed a double steal on the dreamy Ross, and then Herrera grounded to Baldwin, who fired home… late. Brown scored and the Indians walked off. 5-4 Indians. Stalker 2-4, 2B; Baldwin 1-1;

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – 2B Stalker – RF Wallace – 3B Perkins – 1B Howden – LF Hall – C Thompson – P Russell
IND: SS Eisenberg – 1B Conner – RF Plunkett – CF Baron – 2B Schneller – LF Acor – C Kuhlmann – 3B de Luna – P Bedoya

Ramos was caught stealing in the first inning before Pinkerton singled, Stalker was hit by the pitch, and Perkins reached on Schneller’s error. That loaded the bags for Howden, who struck out, the dumb pig. But somehow the bottom of the first managed to be worse. Frank Eisenberg lined right at Wallace, who shrieked and dropped the ball for a 2-base error. Josh Conner hit an RBI double, then was moved around on two groundouts. With the inning about over, Schneller singled, and Acor grounded in front of home plate. Thompson threw to first – wildly, and well past Howden. The second 2-base error of the inning moved runners into scoring position. They scored on the third 2-base error of the inning, a wild and wicked throw by Justin Perkins on Morgan Kuhlmann’s ****ty roller. De Luna hit an RBI single, and Bedoya finally ended the misery with a groundout. 5-0 Indians, all runs unearned, and my blunderbuss was back home in Portland…!

Bottom 2nd, the bases were loaded on a 1-out walk to Conner, a Perkins error adding Plunkett, and another walk to Baron. And this was Perkins, who had played almost all year at third base, and had come into the game with only FIVE errors, or about as much as the Coons had currently in this game. The pitching coach kindly informed Steve Russell, getting a chance here because Jason Gurney was unbearable even to experienced sufferers, that everybody wanted to go home at some point and that he might want to consider getting some outs; hey, how about that concept of THROWING STRIKES?? Schneller singled home two on the very next pitch, 7-0, before Ramos fell on an Acor bouncer *and* home plate and somehow bounced back up to turn two to end the inning after all. Russell was yanked in the third after a 2-out single by Bedoya and a walk offered to Eisenberg, with seven runs already on the board. Oh yeah, all but one were unearned, but he sure had a paw in them! Nick Bates struck out Conner after a passed ball charged on Thompson had advanced the runners… Can anybody here stop ****ing up for five minutes now??

With the game in the bin, the Coons got a Ramos Special off for a run in the top 5th, and got another run on a Wallace double and essentially a 2-out wild pitch by Bedoya, which wasn’t going to save them, either. Preston Pinkerton pitched by the fifth, got four outs before putting runners on the corners in the bottom 6th, and was replaced with Anaya, who skillfully executed the surrender of a rocket drive for a 7-2 double play to end the inning. And then suddenly the game was a bit less in the bin. Come the seventh, Ramos singled, stole second, and then scored on Justin Marsingill’s pinch-hit homer, cutting the gap to three runs. It was also Marsingill’s first dinger as a Coon in 180 attempts. Howden hit a homer in the eighth, a solo job, making it 7-5 while simultaneously dashing further ahead for the team homer crown, now with a crisp… 12. The quickly rotating pen kept the Indians to the seven early ones, and the team had a real chance to make it all the way back in the ninth against righty closer Adam Rosenwald. Thompson popped out to shallow center to begin the inning, and that would turn out to be the farthest the team came to roaring all the way back. Rodriguez hit for Catella, and after that was Ramos – both struck out. 7-5 Indians. Pinkerton 1-2, RBI; Marsingill (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Wallace 2-4, 2B;

(grumbles about defense and their fat lard asses not moving)

Ramos had now reached 39 stolen bases, the leader’s mark on Tuesday morning, but Obando was at 40 already. Oh well, better than nothing to watch in September… For your kind information, Berto was the 4-time defending CL stolen base champ.

The Indians made a change and went with southpaw Chris Wickham (1-4, 5.44 ERA) instead for the Thursday game. This could have been a spot to rest Ramos, but a) what to rest him for? And b) we’d get a southpaw on the weekend and probably some more the following week. There was no point in going through those motions anymore.

Game 4
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – 2B Stalker – 1B Zitzner – 3B Perkins – LF Hall – RF Rodriguez – C Ross – P del Rio
IND: SS Eisenberg – C J. Herrera – CF Baron – RF Plunkett – 2B Schneller – LF Acor – 1B J. Dominguez – 3B Conner – P Wickham

Indy got on the board first with a drag bunt for a leadoff single by Frank Eisenberg, who would end up doubled in by John Baron, who in turn was caught stealing third base by Roby Toss, or something like that. The Arrowheads then bowed out of a few chances to sink del Rio quickly and efficiently, and in turn had the lead blown in the fourth by a 2-out Zitzner single and then a Justin Perkins dinger to dead center that put the Coons up 2-1. The comeback chance for the Indians wasn’t far around the corner – Plunkett on Schneller reached scoring position with one out in the bottom of the inning, but both Acor and Jesus Dominguez popped out over the infield to throw it away. Bottom 5th, Wickham singled, but Eisenberg hit into a double play. Bottom 6th, Herrera led off with a double, Baron walked, and Plunkett hit into the double play. It was almost too good to be true, but Schneller concluded the inning with a groundout, keeping Herrera on third base. The end for del Rio only came with a 2-out Conner single in the bottom 7th. No double play possible anymore, and he was on 98 pitches, AND the Indians sent ex-Logger Brad Gore to pinch-hit, which called for a lefty. Hennessy rang him up.

Ramos stole #40 in the eighth inning, but was stranded when Julio San Pedro rang up Pinkerton to end the inning. In turn Frank Eisenberg hit a leadoff jack off Stone in the bottom 8th and the lead was gone. The Indians loaded them up against Garavito in the bottom 9th; not knowing what else to do, we sent out Nick Bates with the bases loaded, two outs, and John Baron at the plate. Baron grounded out, and the game went to extras this time. Top 10th, the Coons got on Toby Ross on a 1-out double as well as Ramos with two gone when walked intentionally by Tim Thweatt. Howden hit for Pinkerton and struck out, the dumb pig. The next time up, Ross hit a leadoff single, still off Thweatt, to begin the 12th. Catella was supposed to bunt him to second, which worked, but Catella was also safe at first owing to a particularly well placed bunt that even the Gold Glover Eisenberg couldn’t handle. At this point, Marsingill ran for Ross, while Berto drew a walk that loaded the bases with nobody out. Pickings were slim though for the pitcher’s spot that came up now; Rabbitt had pitched two scoreless and now needed bailing out from one of Thompson, Baldwin, and Cass – all that was left on the bench. We went with Sam Cass, a .318 hitter in a ridiculously small sample size. He grounded to first, Dan Brown pounced and fired home to kill Marsingill, and the bags remained loaded with one out for Stalker, who lined out to Schneller at 0-2, and Zitzner, who grounded out to Schneller. Nobody scored… at least until Acor tripled home Schneller against Nick Derks in the 13th… 3-2 Indians. Zitzner 2-5, BB; Perkins 3-6, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Ross 3-5, 2B; Catella 1-1; Rabbitt 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (59-87) vs. Knights (74-71) – September 17-19, 2032

After the Indy ****show, the Raccoons had a prime chance to blast through their last two years’ loss total in the very next set at home, hosting the Knights. They were seventh in runs scored in the CL, and sixth in runs allowed, with a -9 run differential. Despite being in third place they were already eliminated, and they had also already bagged the season series against Portland, 5-1 through the first two sets. The Critters had gone 1-8 against Atlanta three times in ABL history, including last year.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (3-7, 4.60 ERA) vs. Chris Inderrieden (10-13, 4.69 ERA)
Dave Martinez (2-2, 3.60 ERA) vs. Mario Rosas (17-11, 3.01 ERA)
Travis Coffee (4-7, 5.07 ERA) vs. Justin Osterloh (8-4, 2.54 ERA)

Right, left, right. Loss, loss, loss.

Game 1
ATL: LF Inoa – C S. Garcia – RF Pincus – 1B Harenberg – 2B J. Johnson – SS Thomson – 3B Maneke – CF Seago – P Inderrieden
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – 2B Stalker – RF Wallace – 3B Perkins – 1B Howden – LF Hall – C Thompson – P Chavez

Perkins homered to give the Coons a lead for the second game in a row, this time a solo job in the second, and boy, homers were LOUD in a mostly empty park! Ramos was on with a double in the first, a single and a stolen base in the third, and picked up neither time. Speaking of homers being loud, the seven people and three doves that were not paid to be in Raccoons Ballpark at this point and were dispersed well in the stands got another one to scare the **** out of them in the fifth when Chris Maneke slammed a 2-piece off Chavez. Bernie had nursed a 1-hitter through four, but had allowed a leadoff single to John Johnson in the top 5th, and well, then hung one to Maneke, who hit his 17th dinger of the year. That was five more than any Coon had on the year, and Maneke was nowhere near the team lead for the Knights, held by ex-Coon Kevin Harenberg with 23. That almost became 24 at the beginning of the seventh inning, but he hit his 410-footer in the direction of the 418’ marker and Pinkerton got out there, too. The Furballs wouldn’t get another base knock through seven (and there were only seven total in the game by then), while the top 8th began with a Maneke single, a walk to Nate Seago, and then Bernie was basically in to receive the bunt and then get yanked. Inderrieden bunted into a 2-5-3 double play, which still got Chavez knocked out, but then only left-handed bat Rich Parker appearing to hit for Luis Inoa. Fernandez replaced Chavez and got the K to end the inning… though not until after another passed ball was charged to Thompson, moving Seago to third base. Instead, Chavez was taken off the hook in the bottom 8th thanks to Nate Hall’s leadoff triple slash near-homer to center – it hit the top of the fence, but didn’t go over – and Thompson’s sac fly. Not exactly overworked closer Chris Wise held the Knights short in the top 9th, setting up a walkoff chance for the middle of the order with Inderrieden still around and giving up a leadoff double to center facing Pinkerton. Tim Stalker hit a gapper that fell well away from Parker and ended the game with a walkoff double. 3-2 Coons! Ramos 2-4, 2B; Thompson 0-1, RBI; Chavez 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

That was the fifth win in relief for Chris Wise, tying him with Hennessy and Anaya for … third place on the team. And yes, the parked Gurney is second with six…

With the AAA season concluded – the Alley Cats went 73-71, 12 games out – the Coons added a few more players for the final two weeks and 15 games: Jonathan Fleischer, Juan Barzaga for the pen; 2028’s #20 pick Darren Brown to make one or two starts (he was on the 40-man anyway) after going 6-14 with a 4.68 ERA in AAA; and infielder Brendan Day as additional warm body for the middle infield spots.

Game 2
ATL: LF Inoa – C S. Garcia – RF Pincus – 1B Harenberg – 2B J. Johnson – SS Thomson – 3B Maneke – CF Seago – P Rosas
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – 2B Stalker – 3B Perkins – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – RF Rodriguez – C James – P Martinez

Dave Martinez’ day would not be long thanks to numerous long counts and four walks in the first three innings, but at the same time the Knights only got to him for a lone base hit early on and couldn’t get a run across. By contrast Rosas seemed to be able to breeze through the Coons’ lineup, needing only 36 pitches for the first three innings on two singles and two strikeouts. He allowed a 2-out single to Perkins in the bottom 4th, then ran into a full count himself to Zitzner before challenging him with a 94mph heater. Zitzner was up to it and walloped it over the fence in right, near the foul pole, to break a scoreless tie and give the Coons a 2-0 lead. That one visibly rocked the 17-game winner, who gave up singles to Wallace and Rodriguez right after the dinger, but was then let off the hook when Giovanni James grounded out to Harenberg.

Martinez got through five, but walked Roy Pincus to begin the sixth inning. With the left-handed slugger Harenberg up, his day was done after 95 mostly messy pitches. The Critters turned to Mauricio Garavito, who got the Coons out of the inning with an easy fly to left, a fielder’s choice off Johnson’s bat, and then Keith Thomson’s grounder to Stalker, and then continued in the seventh against the all-lefty bottom of the order, retiring Maneke and Seago before allowing a single to Rosas. But Luis Inoa was still another lefty bat – and struck out. On to the eighth, Stone retired Steve Garcia and Pincus in full counts before Harenberg bombed him to cut the gap in half. Worse yet, Johnson doubled to center, and now the left-handers were coming up again. The Coons threw in Hennessy, leading to a predictable but unavoidable move to PH John Elliott in place of Thomson. On the first pitch, he grounded out to Perkins, ending the inning. With the Raccoons entirely invisible ever since the James grounder that had ended their raucous 2-run fourth, it remained a 2-1 game in the ninth, and those left-handers were still up and even had considerable power – 32 homers between Chris Maneke and Nate Seago. Hennessy remained in the game – at least to ring up Maneke. Then Josh Soltis pinch-hit for Seago to get the platoon advantage, but his scouting report said he was meh, and we now stuck to Hennessy. Soltis flew out to right, but with two outs PH Rich Parker homered to left and the lead was blown again. Hennessy walked PH Ron Raynor, then was replaced with Fleischer, who began his newest recall with a wild pitch to Steve Garcia, who he went on to walk. Pincus ran a full count, but struck out, ending the miserable ninth. The game went to extras when the Coons couldn’t have been more polite to southpaw Roland Warner in the bottom 9th. The Coons left runners on the corners (Hall, Ramos) when Pinkerton fouled out in the bottom 10th, but Rabbitt served up a tie-breaking homer to Maneke in the 11th. Oh goodness. Bottom of the inning, right-hander Arturo Arellano out to face the 3-4-5 batters. Groundout, groundout, strikeout. 3-2 Knights. Perkins 2-5; Wallace 2-3; Garavito 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

(looks over to Cristiano Carmona in his wheelchair) Say, how’s your swing, Cristiano? How’s your leg work? – No? … Maud, how about you? – Maud!? – I think she went home just on time…

Game 3
ATL: LF Inoa – C S. Garcia – RF Pincus – 1B Harenberg – 2B J. Johnson – SS Thomson – 3B Maneke – CF Seago – P Osterloh
POR: SS Ramos – CF Pinkerton – RF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – 3B Perkins – LF Hall – 2B Cass – C James – P Coffee

A 30-minute rain delay 14 pitches into Coffee’s Sunday outing surely wasn’t going to ruin his start, I mean, how could he be any worse than this? He hung in there for a while before a rotten stretch with two outs in the fourth inning, where all in 2-strike counts Harenberg singled, Johnson was nicked, and Thomson hit an RBI single for the first run of the game. But, surprise, despite being 2-hit through three the Coons rose against Osterloh in the bottom 4th. Pinkerton hit a leadoff single, stole second, and was brought in on two singles by Zitzner and Perkins, both narrowly missing gloves. That tied the score and put some pressure on the Knights’ righty, who then gave up an RBI double in the gap to Nate Hall, putting Portland 2-1 ahead, but recovered with a comebacker by Cass, an intentional walk to James, and a K to strand them all against Coffee. Bottom 5th, Pinkerton doubled and Wallace walked intentionally. That made us grumpy enough to send them on a double steal on which Garcia fired high to third, with Maneke having to leap to contain the ball. The Knights swung with their favorite morningstar, walking Zitzner with intent. Travis was out at second on Perkins’ 1-out grounder, but Perkins legged out Thomson’s return throw to break up the double play, and Pinkerton scored a run. Hall grounded out, keeping it 3-1. Ramos was also walked intentionally in the sixth with Sam Cass on second base. Pinkerton grounded out against relief man Drew Johnson.

Coffee gave the Coons six and a third innings of 3-hit, 1-run ball, which was well more than I’d have dared to dream off. After that he was on 91 pitches and the lefty bottom of the order was up again. We sent for David Fernandez, who retired five in a row, sending the Critters clean through to the ninth…! Actually there was still the bottom of the eighth. Left-hander Mike Greene walked Hall and allowed a double to Cass to begin the inning. In a 3-1 game, runners on second and third were some juicy insurance runs for sure! So PH’s Tim Stalker and Wilson Rodriguez swiftly grounded out to Maneke at third, keeping the runners pinned, and Ramos was walked intentionally AGAIN. Greene, though, lost Pinkerton to a 2-out walk with the bases loaded, pushing home Hall at last. Toby Ross hit for Wallace, but flew out to right, so Wise would get the 3-run lead in the ninth. He almost ended the game on three strikeouts, but Harenberg put the 0-2 in play, a soft fly to Hall for an easy out – ballgame. 4-1 Coons. Pinkerton 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Cass 2-4, 2B; Coffee 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (5-7) and 1-2; Fernandez 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

September 13 – SAL SP Rin Nomura (12-7, 3.72 ERA) will miss the rest of this and maybe all of next season with elbow ligament damage.
September 14 – VAN OF Brian Wojnarowski (.253, 10 HR, 46 RBI) has his season end with a herniated disc.
September 14 – A scoreless game in San Francisco through regulation blossoms for five runs in the tenth inning. The Knights score four in the top half, mainly on a 3-run homer by RF/LF Roy Pincus (.269, 21 HR, 68 RBI), and make it hold up sufficiently well for a 10-inning, 4-1 win over the Bayhawks.
September 17 – A fourth-inning single by rookie SS/2B Oscar Aguirre (.174, 1 HR, 3 RBI) is all that separates the Falcons from being no-hit in a 4-0 defeat to the Crusaders, their 100th loss of the season. NYC SP Eddie Cannon (14-12, 3.17 ERA) and MR Billy Brotman (5-7, 3.75 ERA, 3 SV) combine foe the 1-hitter.
September 17 – The Aces erase the Indians with a 10-run seventh in an 11-1 win. LVA LF/RF Ruben Orozco (.335, 14 HR, 47 RBI) chips in a pinch-hit grand slam.
September 19 – The Pacifics secure the FL West two weeks early with a 4-1 win over the Rebels. It is their 15th division title, and their sixth in seven years.

Complaints and stuff

Ramos is now at 41 bags, one behind Obando for the CL lead. I think he can get him. Maybe if he can get on base without the intentional walk and being parked behind an immobile piece of furniture, he can win his fifth straight bags title.

And we do play the Crusaders next weekend in New York, after having been eviscerated by the 98-win Condors to begin the week. They will likely clinch the South at our place, which is not something I appreciate happening, but all they need is two wins even with the Baybirds not losing…

Darren Brown was added, but he won’t actually be able to make a start until Wednesday at least; he started the season finale for the Alley Cats on Friday. Brown was always the fourth guy mentioned whenever we rattled off our bright future with young starting pitching, you know, the Sabre / Chavez / del Rio faction that gets consistently bulldozed by opposing teams.

Worse than those three however are clearly Zitzner and Howden, who for a platoon where they face opposite-handed pitching the vast majority of the time are doing a pretty ghastly job. Howden is the worst offender, the dumb pig, with more than 90% of his PA coming against right-handed pitching, and even then he can’t break a .700 OPS. Zitzner has seen lefties and righties almost equally, and has only a mild advantage when it comes to average and OBP against southpaws, but all his power is against them; against left-handed pitching he is actually a worthwhile player with an .800 OPS. There is no reason to continue the platoon next season. Howden is gonna be drowned in the nearest river as soon as I get a hold of him, and then we’ll just have to deal with Zitzner’s act. Maybe his numbers are weighed down artificially by an absurdly black July, where he batted .130 and couldn’t have been of less use if he had been actually, naturally dead, and spread out next to first base with flies laying eggs into his eyeballs.

Fun Fact: The 1985 and 1986 Knights share the record for the worst running outfit in ABL history. Both teams managed to steal only 15 bases for the entire season.

In ’85, Tom Welch stole five, Tom McDonald nipped four, and Ralph Nixon – the pig snouted Raccoon from a few years before that – fell onto three bags in time at the noble age of 38. McDonald pushed himself to five the year after, while Welch fell off the radar with just one. Nixon had retired. Aaron Nolan and Sakutaro Ine stole three each, Jesus Luna stole two.

Hall of Famers mentioned here: none.

Oh, yeah, that 1985 team finished third in the South. The 1986 Knights won the pennant before falling to the Blue Sox in a sweep.