[Westheim]

More injury news – this time Jimmy Wallace, who had come out of the game on Sunday and had been diagnosed with a sore back. This would limit him to pinch-hitting for at least a couple of days, since the last thing he now needed, Dr. Chung advised, was craning his neck after long-gone homers served up by Bernie Chavez. Those last words were mine, not his.

Raccoons (65-59) vs. Crusaders (62-61) – August 23-25, 2033

Somehow, nobody knew quite how, the Crusaders were hanging in there. A -43 run differential, no better than eighth in the CL in either runs scored or allowed, and the second-worst rotation by ERA were all not exactly valid qualifiers for a postseason appearance, and yet they were only six games back at the start of play on Tuesday. The Coons held an 8-4 lead in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (4-11, 4.05 ERA) vs. Francisco Colmenarez (7-11, 3.44 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (11-7, 4.06 ERA) vs. Eddie Cannon (10-13, 4.49 ERA)
Mario Rosas (13-8, 2.24 ERA) vs. Jeremy Truett (12-7, 3.22 ERA)

That was a vapid guess for a three-man rotation. The Crusaders had played a double-header on Friday, and had been off on Monday. Sunday’s starter Gavin Lee (7-7, 3.98 ERA) was rumored to be moved to the pen. Between the three above and the other available selections Gilberto Rendon (12-8, 3.70 ERA) and Ramiro Benavides (7-10, 4.79 ERA) we could encounter absolutely everybody by Thursday. Colmenarez and Benavides were left-handed; the rest were southpaws.

Game 1
NYC: SS Schuler – 1B Cambra – 2B M. Hurtado – LF Balado – CF Reardon – 3B J. Zamora – RF Ryder – C Hurley – P Colmenarez
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Hawkins – 3B Zeltser – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – CF M. Fernandez – C Garcia – LF Camps – P Gutierrez

The Crusaders took the lead in the first on a Mario Hurtado walk and singles smacked by Jose Balado and Chris Reardon. Balado made the third out on the basepaths, though, keeping them to a single run in the inning. They shed Zachary Ryder in the next, removed as a precaution after Gutierrez had smacked him in the arm. Dan Brown, 38 and nominally past doing anything besides pinch-hitting, guessing a spot and giving it his best rip, replaced him in the field. The Coons countered with five hits and three runs in the bottom 2nd. Zitzner’s leadoff single and Jennings’ double to right set them up well, and runs scored on Manny Fernandez’ single, a Fernando Garcia sac fly, and – hear, hear! – a Gutierrez single with one out. The Crusaders, annoyingly, came back right away, their rally jumpstarted by Fernandez, who stupidly dropped Colmenarez’ fly to center to begin the top 3rd. The Crusaders were on that right away; Randy Schuler singled, Hurtado walked, and Balado dropped an RBI single with the bases loaded. With one out, Chris Reardon ran a full count, held a swing at the 3-2 pitch, but was rung up by the home plate umpire, which maybe was the lucky break to salvage the game. Jorge Zamora spanked an 0-2 pitch to the right side, Hawkins collected it, and the play was made to first base, keeping the Coons 3-2 ahead; the run was unearned. Ryan Hurley’s homer to left in the fourth, however, wasn’t quite.

The game didn’t remain tied for long, though; Hurtado’s leadoff triple in the fifth turned into a run on Balado’s grounder, and Gutierrez needed 101 pitches to even finish the inning. That was it for him, with Kyle Green pitching the sixth, and of course he walked Hurley leading off. That runner remained on, but we hoped the two in the bottom of the inning wouldn’t, which was while the hobbled Jimmy Wallace hit for Green with two outs and Jennings on second as well as Camps on first – the latter having reached on catcher’s interference. Wallace struck out, rendering our hopes dashed and smothered. The following inning, on the tail end of Victor Anaya surviving two singles being shaken out of him without surrendering a run, saw a better chance. Colmenarez walked Berto to begin the bottom 7th, and Ramos reached third base on Hawkins’ single to right. That was a great chance …! And they tried really hard to bork it, too. Zeltser grounded out to first, moving Hawkins over, but Ramos didn’t score. Zitzner fanned altogether. At this point, a double switch took out Cambra and Colmenarez, replaced by George Barnett on the mound and Keith Leonard at first base in a double switch. Barnett gave up a sharp bouncer to Billy Jennings, and it went right through the catcher at first base and up the line for a score-flipping 2-run single! Oh, you boys and your silly luck! The Coons stranded Camps and Vickers, who hit singles off Barnett in the eighth, but at least Chris Wise retired the Crusaders in order in the ninth inning to eek out a critical win. 5-4 Raccoons! Jennings 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Camps 2-2, BB; Vickers (PH) 1-1; Anaya 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (4-4);

Game 2
NYC: SS Schuler – 1B Cambra – 2B M. Hurtado – LF Balado – CF Reardon – C Leonard – 3B J. Zamora – RF Ryder – P E. Cannon
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – 2B Vickers – C Thompson – CF Catella – P Chavez

Another first inning, another first run, this time for Portland. Their day began with a triple buried in the right-center gap by Berto, who scored on Zeltser’s groundout. Zeltser would also connect for the second Coons run on the day with two outs in the bottom 3rd, hitting the second of two doubles in the inning, the first having come off Sean Catella’s bat! At this point, the recently much-beleaguered Bernie Chavez was unscored upon, but didn’t stitch a clean inning together until the fourth, when he retired the 5-6-7 batters in order. In the fifth he yielded a single to the opposing pitcher (…), but nothing worse came of that. Through five innings, Bernie had a 4-hit shutout, but had also tossed 75 pitches.

The Coons had four hits through five innings as well, all for extra bases except the last one, a fifth-inning single by Sean Catella, who judged he had a double, but Chris Reardon assured him that, no, he didn’t, and threw him out at second base. Balado singled in the sixth, but was caught stealing. Nevertheless, there was something in the air that one team or the other would put up a crooked number soon. It wasn’t the Coons, who couldn’t make anything out of Fernandez’ double and a walk issued to Jennings in the bottom 6th. Vickers grounded out to short for the third out. Chavez held on for another inning, but reached almost 100 pitches through seven and when his spot came up with nobody out and two men aboard in the bottom 7th, here came Wallace again; Thompson had reached on a bloop single, and Catella had made it on base when Schuler had fumbled a double play grounder… He fell to 1-2 before Cannon almost took off his legs with an errant fastball that also got by Leonard, and the runners advanced. That was great on paper, taking off the double play, but in the end didn’t matter, because Jimmy took the following hanging breaking pitch and peppered it 433 feet to straightaway centerfield for a 3-run homer! The Coons added a fourth run in the inning and a sixth in total when Gavin Lee, on three days’ rest, walked Ramos and Zeltser, Fernandez advanced them with a grounder, and Zitz hit a sac fly to center. Jennings whiffed, sending it to the pen. Garavito and Blair combined for the eighth inning, and Kyle Green finished the game without walking a batter. He nailed Keith Leonard instead. 6-0 Coons! Catella 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Wallace (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Chavez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (12-7);

Oh well – a win is a win is a win. It was the second for Bernie in August; he had two or more wins in every month this year. Actually, that was two in every month but May, when he had won four straight.

Manny Fernandez had a 12-game hitting streak now.

Things got dicey for Thursday. Not only was Wallace still laboring on that back problem, but Bob Zeltser was quarantined with a runny nose. The team voted on that – they didn’t want his slimes to drip into the barbecue in the dugout.

…on a Matt Nunley-supplied grill of course.

Game 3
NYC: SS Schuler – 1B Cambra – 2B M. Hurtado – LF Balado – CF Reardon – 3B J. Zamora – RF Ryder – C Hurley – P G. Rendon
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Hawkins – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – 2B Vickers – C Thompson – LF Camps – P Rosas

For the second time in the series, Zachary Ryder was replaced by Dan Brown in the second inning for reasons of injury. This time he appeared to hit his core or shoulder on dive that robbed Ramos of an RBI and led to the Coons stranding five in the first two innings. Vickers had struck out with the bases loaded to end the bottom 1st, an inning in which Manny Fernandez extended his hitting streak to 13 games and stole his 16th base, all to no avail. Rosas was 0-4 in five starts since his initial complete game win over the Falcons in his first outing with the coonskin cap after the trade with the Knights. Serious time for a turnaround, mister! Rather than that, though, the Crusaders took a 2-0 lead in the top 3rd, courtesy of Schuler and Cambra singles, a groundout, a passed ball, and a balk. – Dr. Chung? – I think my blood pressure has just risen! (has bright red ears)

The bottom 3rd saw a leadoff walk drawn by Fernandez, a Zitzner single, and Vickers undoing the whole ****ing thing with a 5-4-3 double play. One inning later we started out with Thompson and Camps reaching base, and not for the first time. In the second, Rosas had bunted into a force at third base. This time he bunted foul twice before Rendon glitched and balked the runners into scoring position in an 0-2 count. They probably both deserved a public flogging. Rosas struck out on the next actual pitch, but Berto flicked a soft line over Jorge Zamora for an RBI single. At last! Tom Hawkins hit a single to right that somebody other than Dan Brown might have caught. That one tied the game, and Manny Fernandez triple rammed off the fence in centerfield made it 4-2 Coons! The Rendon-xplosion continued with an RBI double by Travis Zitzner, he walked Jennings, and then Vickers hit into his second double play of the game – he had now come up with seven runners aboard and had generated five outs and zero runs.

And Rosas? Loaded the bases with nobody out in the top 5th. Schuler singled. Cambra singled. Hurtado walked. I was gnawing on a sturdy piece of wood in lieu of any player in reach. He remained no help, dead or alive, conceded two runs on grounders, and then had Jennings risk life and paws to spoil a Zamora drive and keep it a 5-4 game… Somehow Rendon and Rosas each dawled through another inning before Mark Holliday faced the Coons in the bottom 6th. He put Ramos on base, got a double play from Hawkins, then allowed a triple to Fernandez. The run scored on a wild pitch, and then Zitzner fired a homer to extend the score to 7-4. The Critters got two more outs from Rosas before he was wrapped in protective foil after 98 pitches. Anaya logged four outs through the middle of the eighth. The bottom of the inning started with Ramos reaching on an error and swiping second base. Hawkins singled. Fernandez grounded to Hurtado, who unleashed a bad throw trying to turn two and turned nobody. Ramos scored, and two remained on for Zitzner, who actually DID hit into that double play… the pitcher was in the #5 hole, so Fernando Garcia pinch-hit for Anaya against southpaw John Fees, who fell to 3-0, then surrendered a bomb to left-center. That made it a 6-run game, and while John Hennessy surrendered a 2-out RBI double to Schuler in the top of the ninth, this series ended in a sweep! 10-5 Raccoons! Hawkins 2-5, RBI; M. Fernandez 3-4, BB, 2 3B, 3 RBI; Zitzner 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Garcia (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Thompson 3-5;

I know I often say a win is a win is a win, but, seriously, Rosas? Seriously?

Raccoons (68-59) vs. Bayhawks (72-55) – August 26-28, 2033

To cap off a 5-4 homestand so far, the Bayhawks came to town. They had just lost first place in the South and were desperate for any sort of win, no matter how dirty they’d get it. They had lost seven of the last eight games they had played, and would grant no quarter to stumbling starting pitchers. They had the most potent offense in the Continental League, but the pitching was merely average. The rotation was solid, but the pen was an endless tire fire. Furthermore, the Coons had already taken the season series, 5-1 after six games.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (10-9, 3.53 ERA) vs. Steve Younts (12-6, 3.05 ERA)
Jason Gurney (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Matt Huf (11-7, 3.23 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (4-11, 4.10 ERA) vs. Rodolfo Cervantes (10-6, 3.14 ERA)

Only right-handers to expect here!

The Raccoons sent Rich Vickers packing to AAA to activate Tim Stalker from his rehab assignment. The rotten Thursday performance was not the reason – we just had no room on the roster otherwise. Vickers would come back in September.

Game 1
SFB: CF Cassell – 3B D. Myers – RF Levis – 1B Uliasz – 2B J. Cruz – LF Hawthorne – C Umanzor – SS A. Castillo – P Younts
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – 2B Stalker – C E. Thompson – LF Camps – P Sabre

The bottom 1st saw the Coons score a wicked run when Bob Zeltser walked, stole second, reached third on Eduardo Umanzor’s throwing error, and came home on a Fernandez sac fly. The Bayhawks countered with five runs in the second inning off Sabre – all unearned, which was little consolation. Tim Stalker started the meltdown with an error that put Jose Cruz on base. Cruz stole second while Umanzor, Alex Castillo, and Younts all whacked 2-out singles… and Ryan Cassell blasted a 3-run homer. Sabre was yanked after 2.1 innings of absolutely unwatchable baseball. He loaded the bases with a walk and two singles in the top 3rd, allowed a run on George Hawthorne’s grounder to second, and another run on an Umanzor single. Down 7-1, Garavito replaced him, got a double play grounder from Alex Castillo, but that game was more or less over…

Or maybe the tying run would come up in the fifth. That would be Jennings with two on and two out, trying to follow up on Zitzner’s 2-run single. Jennings had already plated a run the previous inning. But here, he struck out to end the fifth in a 7-4 score. Instead George Hawthorne homered on a 1-2 pitch by Kyle Green in the sixth. Justin Uliasz hit a long home run off David Fernandez in the seventh. Where had our pitching gone?? And yet, the team refused to go quietly, which deserved a point or two, even if the pitching and defense deserved minus ten. In the bottom 8th, Stalker, Thompson, and Camps all poked Jesus Blanco for base hits, Camps plating Stalker with his fourth hit of the day, 9-5. Marsingill hit for David Fernandez against new pitcher Matt Peterson, with Berto in the on-deck circle as the tying run. He lost that distinction when Marsingill popped out, then ground out to Dave Myers to strand a pair… Instead the Bayhawks beat four runs out of John Hennessy’s worthless pelt in the ninth inning and the Coons were thoroughly routed. 13-5 Bayhawks. Stalker 2-4; Camps 4-4, 2B, RBI;

Our pitching used to be the best in the CL this year, and somehow we still have the fewest runs allowed, but probably not for very much longer…

We sent Kyle Green, who was just unbearable, back to AAA after this game and called up Antonio Prieto, who would thus make his major league debut. The 23-year-old righty had been taken at #18 by the Thunder in the 2029 draft, and had been acquired in the Joe Vanatti trade in December of ’31. He had a 2.39 ERA in 51 games in St. Pete this season.

Game 2
SFB: 2B C. Cruz – 1B Levis – RF Suhay – SS A. Castillo – LF Hawthorne – 3B D. Myers – C Umanzor – CF Cassell – P Huf
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – 2B Stalker – C Garcia – P Gurney

Gurney allowed a Castillo single… and THREE walks in the first inning, taking over 30 pitches to get even three outs from the Baybirds. Dave Myers forced home a run when he walked; Umanzor struck out to strand three. Ramos drew a walk in the bottom 1st… but was picked off by Huf. I got out the thick red pen and marked a big fat L on my calendar on the 27th, then went to lie face down on the couch, my feet in Slappy’s lap. Ben Suhay homered to make it 2-0 in the top 3rd, but at least Gurney got a hit for the Coons with a 1-out single in the bottom of the inning. Ramos walked again, putting on the tying run. It didn’t help – both Zeltser and Wallace flew out to the damn Suhay. Three singles plated a run for the Baybirds in the fourth, 3-0, but the tying runs were on base with one down in the bottom of THAT inning. Zitzner, Jennings, Stalker all reached, Slappy reported dutifully between sips, even though I didn’t really want to know. Garcia popped up a 2-0 pitch in front of the first base dugout which Doug Levis flubbed for an error, which seemed to be one of those signs that indicated a comeback in the making, but instead he ended up striking out. Oh well, wasn’t it fun while it las- … and then stupid Jason Gurney slapped a 2-out, 2-run single to left…! Ramos flew out to Hawthorne to end the inning, and I have honestly tried to understand baseball for all my life, and yet I know nothing.

Gurney somehow got through six without completely imploding – a.k.a. going full Sabre – and was hit for in the bottom 6th with Zitzner and Garcia on base following walks. Juan Camps batted with two outs, and flew out to right. Portland stranded two more in the bottom 7th, Wallace and Fernandez reaching with two outs for Zitzner to fly out. (groans into pillow) … Instead San Francisco got a run off Ed Blair in the top 8th when both Castillo and Myers slugged doubles… and then another run when Garavito gave up a 2-out RBI single on an 0-2 pitch to lefty batter Ryan Cassell. Doom, doom, doom everywhere. 5-2 Bayhawks. Jennings 1-2, 2 BB;

Matt Huf walked EIGHT batters and the Raccoons couldn’t a) knock him over, and b) keep him from pitching EIGHT innings.

That one was definitely in the race for worst game of the year… and we had a few stinkers…

The hitting streak of Manny Fernandez also ended.

Game 3
SFB: 2B J. Cruz – 1B Levis – RF Suhay – SS A. Castillo – LF Hawthorne – 3B D. Myers – C Umanzor – CF Cassell – P Cervantes
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – 2B Stalker – C E. Thompson – P Gutierrez

It was my dearest wish that we’d salvage this last game, but again that was not a pitching matchup in our favor. The Coons scored first when Ramos hit a soft single and advanced on a wild pitch and two productive groundouts (at least that!), but the Bayhawks were definitely on the fence against Gutierrez. They had runners on the corners in the first two innings, but stranded them, once on Hawthorne’s eager 3-2 swing-and-miss, and then when Cruz fouled out. Bottom 2nd, Myers fumbled Zitzner’s roller to begin the inning. Jennings doubled, but Stalker whiffed and Thompson was walked intentionally to set up a juicy double play and forces all over for Rico Gutierrez, who inexplicably poked at a 3-1 pitch. The bouncer to right eluded Doug Levis, Zitzner scored, Jennings scored, Thompson hyper-enthusiastically “raced” for third base and was thrown out, but the Coons had a 3-0 lead after two innings, the second concluding with Berto’s fly out to center.

San Fran made up a run in the third solely on throwing errors by Thompson and Ramos, which was ONE way to ensure Gutierrez a .250 win percentage after this game. Bottom 3rd, Wallace and Fernandez socked their way on base, and Zitzner hit into a double play… (staggers for the nearest bottle o’ booze) … they were VERY HARD TO WATCH. It didn’t get better in the fourth when Ramos flew out to center to strand Jennings and Thompson, which was soon followed by straight doubles off the Bayhawks’ bats of Suhay, Castillo, and Hawthorne, to tie the game at three in the top of the fifth inning.

Bottom 5th, Zeltser and Wallace made deep fly outs, because nobody can hit one over the fence anymore, before Manny Fernandez doubled to left. Zitzner hit a bouncer to second base, and it was just a tiny bit too fast for Cruz to intercept it and get Zitzner at first for the third out. Instead, the ball went to centerfield for a 2-out RBI single and a new Coons lead. After Jennings legged out an infield single and Cervantes threw a wild pitch, Tim Stalker raked a 2-0 pitch down the line for a 2-run double! FINALLY!! FINALLY OFFENSE!! Yes…!! The Coons had Thompson intentionally walked and Gutierrez made the final out against Matt Peterson, but that was acceptable. As scary as it was, with our burned-out pen we needed a few more outs from Gutierrez, who faced the #8 hitter to begin the sixth. Cassell singled, stole second, but the Bayhawks didn’t hit for Peterson, who popped out, and Cruz grounded out. Five and two thirds for nine hits was enough for Gutierrez, and the Coons tabbed a righty, Anaya. He got Levis – 20 homers heavy after all – to ground out to short, ending the top 6th. Instead he walked Castillo in the seventh. Castillo stole second, scored on a Hawthorne single, Hawthorne was caught stealing, and this game was going like ****ing glue. Umanzor hit a leadoff double in the eighth off Anaya, who was also not nursing any intentions to stop pitching badly so soon… but Umanzor thought he had three bases rather than two, and Manny Fernandez’ laser throw and a swift relay by Berto slammed him out at third base. Whatever the **** works, boys!! David Fernandez then took over and crawled around a pinch-hit single by Mike Thompson to get out of the eighth. We stumbled into the ninth, handing the 6-4 lead to Chris Wise, who immediately served up a leadoff single to Levis. Suhay hacked himself out. Justin Uliasz hit for Castillo to get some more oomph to the plate, and oomph he delivered on the 1-2 pitch. A hard shot … right at Stalker! The six-time Gold Glover picked, lobbed to Ramos, watched the return throw to first, and then threw his fists up in delight when the double play to end the game was completed. 6-4 Critters. M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B; Jennings 3-3, 2 2B; Thompson 0-1, 3 BB;

In other news

August 23 – Richmond’s Ben “Nine Fingers” Freeman (.307, 7 HR, 34 RBI) is out for the season with a broken ankle.
August 27 – The season of LVA SP Chris Guyett (7-16, 4.54 ERA) comes to a merciful lend after the 34-year-old right-hander is placed on the DL with a torn flexor tendon that will cost him nine months.
August 28 – With runners on the corners and two outs in the bottom of the ninth of a scoreless game, CHA MR Tony Rivas (2-2, 2.40 ERA, 2 SV) tries to pick Indy’s SS Juan Benito (.304, 1 HR, 13 RBI) off first base, but throws the ball over the head of everybody involved, allowing Josh Conner (.196, 3 HR, 8 RBI) to score from third base, walking off the Indians in 1-0 fashion.
August 28 – The Wolves have one of everything, one hit, one run, and one error, in a 2-1 loss to the Rebels. Catcher Francis Chavez (.204, 6 HR, 25 RBI) hits a single for the only base hit against RIC SP Eric Peck (5-2, 4.08 ERA), who goes eight innings for the W.

Complaints and stuff

That Bayhawks series was tedious indeed… any more series like that and my hair will turn gray. (Cristiano Carmona silently presents him with a mirror) … (screams in horror)

We remain just two games out in the division. I’d say the next three series will decide the season, even though we play the Titans again at the end of the year. We have to be ahead of them first to have a chance. The next week sees a road trip to Charlotte, where we better top stumbling over those guys (1-5 this year), then four games in Elk City. The Titans will be in Portland the following week. Those three series are probably the decider.

Rosters also expand on Thursday, just in time for the 4-game weekend set in Elk City.

We matched last year’s win total on August 25, which says something about the size of our turnaround.

Fun Fact: The earliest a Raccoons team has ever eclipsed their previous year’s win total was in 2007, when they beat the Blue Sox on August 15 – the only time they bested last year’s mark in an interleague game.

And because this took Cristiano Carmona forever to compile, mainly because the data is kept in yellowed files in the cellar which isn’t suitable for wheelchair users (the stairs are narrow, winded, and don’t have a guard rail, for starters), here are ALL the dates (as far as they can be compiled with my terrible early-year accounting) on which the Raccoons exceeded their previous year’s win total:

1980 (69-93): won their 56th game on either August 27 or 28 with a 1-0 win over the Indians. Roman Ocasio starts and is horrible. The Coons only score in the ninth and Wally Gaston loads the bags before ringing up Jose Encarnación for the team’s only K on the day.
1982 (75-87): September 17, also the 17th win of the season for “Old Chris” Powell, a 3-2 win over the Bayhawks.
1983 (95-67): August 24 or 25; Charles Young (who??) spins a complete-game 4-hitter to complete a sweep of the Crusaders with a 5-1 win.
1985 (84-78): September 25. Win #80 comes as the third of four wins in a sweep of the Indians. Seven spiffy innings by Scott Wade and a 2-run homer by Ricardo Gonzalez give the team a 2-1 win.
1986 (87-75): October 3. David Jones gets the 5-4 win in relief against the Titans. Gustavo Flores knocks out five hits, Winston Thompson has four, and they still barely stitch a win together. The day after this, “Old Chris” Powell would spin his famous 4-hit shutout in his last ABL appearance.
1987 (91-71): September 29 sees little offense as the Coons squeeze out a 4-3 win over the Indians to break a tied for the division lead. “You Win Again” plays at the ballpark, but the Coons will ultimately lose the crown by a single game.
1989 (95-67): Antonio Cordero collects the 3-2 win in relief of Kisho Saito against the Bayhawks on August 30. Daniel Hall has one hit. Stephen Hall has two.

1991 (96-66): Jason Turner goes to 15-7 on August 31 in a 7-3 win over the Titans for win #87. It is the only win in a 4-game set in a dreadful August, but the Raccoons have a double-digit lead and won’t blow them.
1992 (99-63): Their 97th win on October 1, a 6-3 victory over the Indians, marks the first time they’ve made it that far. Scott Wade pitches seven innings for the win. Bobby Quinn has two hits and drives in three runs.
1995 (95-68): Once more it’s Scotty in a 5-2 win over the Titans on September 4, easily eclipsing last season’s 81-81 season.
1996 (108-54): Less than a year to go until an ugly fallout with him, Ben “O-Mo” O’Morrissey hits a walkoff single to beat the damn Elks 5-4 on September 7. He has 3 RBI in total in the game. At this point the Critters have the division about bagged.
1998 (79-83): The Collapse is eclipsed with win #69 on September 18, a 1-0 squeezer against Atlanta that Neil Reece finalizes with a bases-loaded walkoff walk in the 11th inning. This was also the 1,800th regular-season franchise win… and the first of the year against the even more terrible Knights.

2002 (73-89): Al Martin drives in three in a 5-4 win over New York on September 24 for the 72nd victory of another sad year. Many more will come.
2003 (76-86): Brownie fanned a dozen in 7 2/3 shutout innings to beat the Loggers on October 2. The Critters would win 5-0, again with Al Martin driving in three runs, on two hits with a dinger.
2004 (78-84): Brownie again – he wraps up his 20th win of the year in a 7-2 win over the damn Elks. He whiffs only six in seven innings of 5-hit, 1-run ball. Al Martin and Yoshi Nomura both plate two runs.
2006 (77-85): September 15 sees Ralph Ford go nine innings in San Francisco, allowing only one hit before getting the 2-1 win when the Coons score in the top of the 10th. Ex-Coon Pablo Fernandez lands a pinch-hit, 2-out RBI single for the only H on Ford’s ledger.
2007 (98-64): In the Coons’ first winning season in FOREVER, they sweep the Blue Sox ending August 15, with the third game being a 2-0 win that moves Kel Yates to 16-1. J.C. Crespo contributes half of the win with a pinch-hit homer.
2009 (98-64): The Crusaders have to bow, 3-2, on Ron Alston’s walkoff homer in the 11th off Iemitsu Rin, for the Critters’ 94th win on September 25 as Portland rallied to erase a late-season deficit. Of course this season ended with a makeup game on Monday, October 5, in which Keith Ayers was out at home in the 12th.

2012 (93-69): Keith Ayers’ pinch-hit, 2-run homer helps beat the Knights, 5-3, on September 19 for the 89th W of the year. Of course, THIS season would end at the stained hands of Ray ****ing Gilbert…
2014 (97-65): Ron Thrasher wins in relief in a 10-7 slugfest win over the Loggers on September 13. Mike Bednarski has three hits and three RBI. Danny Margolis has three hits, two walks, and two RBI.
2016 (86-76): Portland moves up to 79-70 on September 19 with a 6-5 scramble win over the Falcons. Tadasu Abe gets the win, John Korb gets the save (!?), and Matt Nunley and R.J. DeWeese both have three hits, a homer, and 2 RBI.
2017 (95-67): Matt Nunley ends a hitting streak of 15 games as Tadasu Abe outduels Brian Furst for a 2-0 win, his 20th W of the year, on September 15. Abe also provides half the offense with a home run.

2023 (73-89): Three hits each by Matt Nunley and Tim Stalker contribute to a 5-2 win over the Titans on September 26 for the 72nd win of the season.
2024 (78-84): Nobody does anything special in a 4-3 win over the Loggers on September 20. Jesus Chavez bids hard for his 16th loss of the season, but is bailed out by a slow, late rally.
2025 (88-74): Spanking Lance Legleiter shuts out the damn Elks on September 12, allowing only six hits in a 9-0 win. Elias Tovias also had a great game, hitting two homers and driving in five runs.
2026 (94-68): Rin Nomura beats the Bayhawks, 4-1, on September 21, going eight innings. Tim Stalker provides the difference with a 3-run homer off starter Allen Reed.
2028 (98-64): Jarod Spencer has three RBI and a homer in a 5-4 win over the Crusaders on September 22. Rin Nomura gets the win again, his 16th of the season as the Coons go to 93-59.

Thanks, Cristiano, that was very informative.

Why are you greasy all over?