[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! A lossless week! You must have been a good boy!

I was so naughty that I will have to try and avoid Maud when we get back to Portland... I may have accidentally dropped my peanut butter jelly sandwich on the good carpet in her office (of course, filthy side down) and framed Chad for it before leaving town in a hurry...

Originally Posted by Archelirion

I wouldn't worry too much about those batting numbers - the Aces have two guys challenging for batting honours in Stedham and Gustafson, and what does that get them? 6-19!!

Must be something to do with the hot Nevada air. Or, I suspect, a pitching roster so terrible even Gurney and 2033 Rico look compet- okay not Rico

Still unemployed btw...!

+++

Raccoons (14-11) @ Crusaders (8-16) – May 1-4, 2034

We had four with the Crusaders over in their borough of choice, which required leaving our own burrow for the first time in two weeks. Ugh, sunlight…! The Crusaders had dropped five in a row and were at the bottom of the CL North. They were not scoring runs at all and their offense looked pathetic throughout, and their pitching had merely been “eh”. They had allowed the fifth-fewest runs in the CL; not that it helped undo the tremendous damage done by a comatose offense scoring only 3.3 runs per game. The Raccoons had owned last year’s season series, waffling the **** out of New York 14 out of 18 times.

Projected matchups:
Gilberto Rendon (2-1, 3.69 ERA) vs. Eddie Cannon (0-3, 5.51 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (1-1, 2.45 ERA) vs. Joe Martin (0-3, 5.08 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (2-1, 4.18 ERA) vs. Mark Holliday (1-3, 3.28 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (3-0, 3.60 ERA) vs. Joe Hicks (2-2, 3.15 ERA)

In a rare occurrence, this was a series that saw neither team even carry a left-handed starter; not only that no left-handers would start a game … there weren’t any!

Now, get that 7-game winning streak up to eleven, boys!

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Scheffer – P Rendon
NYC: LF Tessmann – CF Reardon – 2B M. Hurtado – 1B Howden – 3B Czachor – C F. Garcia – SS J. Brown – RF Camps – P E. Cannon

There were so many ex-Coons and ex-Elks in that lineup that you had to be genuinely frightened, though. Fernando Garcia had even played for both teams and I was near-certain he’d hit seven homers in the series. To score first, though, were the Critters, who got a Philip Scheffer double to begin the third after two uneventful innings at the top of the contest. After Rendon fanned, the Coons got singles from the 1-2-3 batters, with Zeltser and Fernandez each grabbing an RBI. Zitzner struck out, but Wallace’s grounder was at least good enough to get an error out of Mario Hurtado that moved a third run across before Tim Stalker lined out to Ryan Czachor. Gilberto Rendon returned to his old place of employment to face the minimum after three innings (although Danny Tessmann singled and was caught stealing in the first inning), but also took a whopping *51* pitches to log nine outs. Worsening weather and a brief rain delay in the middle innings didn’t help build Rendon’s case to go deep into the game, but while he was around he was fairly successful, in fact let’s go into every batter that reached base for New York through six innings. Hurtado drew a 2-out walk in the fourth, stole second, then was stranded. And Tessmann hit a 2-out single in the sixth, and was again caught stealing by Philip Scheffer, who also made it two in another regard, hitting his second leadoff double of the game in the seventh, a line-hugger that got past Tessmann in left. Ramos singled to move him to third base, and with two outs Manny Fernandez found real estate behind erstwhile teammate Juan Camps for a 2-run double, running the Critters’ tally to five. Rendon was lifted after back-to-back 1-out singles by Mario Hurtado and Jarod Howden, the dumb pig, batting .277 with one homer. Ed Blair popped up Czachor, but sure as hell allowed an RBI single to Garcia – never mind that the catcher was hitting under .100 for the year. After Josh Brown walked, Juan Camps came up as the tying run, but struck out, stranding a full set. Portland went on to send Hugo Salgado and Alberto Ramos to the corners with nobody out in the ninth inning. The only run they got off lefty Bill Herrmann came on a Tom Hawkins-sponsored double play grounder. Fernando Garcia hit a single off David Fernandez in the bottom 9th, but that was all. 6-1 Furballs! Ramos 4-5; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Scheffer 2-4, 2 2B; Salgado (PH) 1-1; Rendon 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (3-1);

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – RF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – 2B Stalker – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Chavez
NYC: LF Tessmann – CF Reardon – 2B M. Hurtado – C Monge – 3B Czachor – SS Schuler – 1B J. Brown – RF Kok – P J. Martin

The J stood not for Jaylen, as evidenced by the back-to-back blasts hit by Fernandez and Travis Zitzner right in the first inning. Tim Stalker nearly added another one in the top of the second, but had to settle for a double. The 7-8 batters however were courteous enough to score him with a pair of grounders up the middle, extending the score line to 3-0, most of which dissipated when Bernie Chavez insisted on walking the veteran Czachor, who wouldn’t swing at any old fart of a pitch, and Josh Brown in the bottom 2nd, then gave up a wailing 2-out, 2-run double to Barend Kok. And while Bernie struck out nobody the first time through and only three by the time four innings were over, Joe Martin piled up NINE strikeouts in just four innings. For the Portland batters, it was homer-or-die, and after the first inning they did a damn lot of dying.

And while the Coons scratched out a run in the fifth in which Bernie Chavez doubled and scored on a Zeltser single, his pitching was just awful. Not only did he issue four walks in five innings, despite only four hits and two runs on his ledger he was *done* after five. Getting that not-so-far had taken him 102 pitches. Antonio Prieto seemed to do little better, issuing a leadoff walk to Czachor when the bottom 6th came around. The 37-year-old sure new bad pitches – but misjudged his rear wheel spin rate, and was caught stealing by Thompson. That inning amounted to nothing for New York, and Mauricio Garavito struck out Kok, Howden, the dumb pig, and Tessmann in order in the seventh. Anaya was in for the bottom 8th and here the problems began. The first three Crusaders he saw hit absolute crushers; Chris Reardon doubled to left, then scored on Hurtado’s pistol shot of a single. Danny Monge cracked another hard bouncer – right at Tim Stalker, who was also veteran enough to not take it in the throat, but rather turn two on it. Anaya had to assure the pitching coach three times that he knew what the **** he was doing, then got Czachor to ground out to Berto to end the eighth, but with the cushion gone. And when Chris Wise appeared for the ninth inning, the troubles kicked into fifth gear. Randy Schuler reached with a bloop single to begin the inning. Matt Jamieson grounded out, but Kok walked. Jarod Howden, the dumb pig, hit the game-tying single to center, and the Crusaders called the hit-and-run with PH Stephen Williams, batting with all of his .182 clip, appeared in the #1 hole. The liner dropped in centerfield in front of Manny Fernandez, and pinch-runner Juan Camps scored easily from second base. 5-4 Crusaders. Jennings (PH) 1-1;

Well, positive things can be learned from this game. For once, it’s not helpful to your cause if you strike out a ****ing FIFTEEN TIMES.

They also only walked once (Wallace); New York walked six times and whiffed only seven times.

Portland made a change not unrelated to the problem just described. Justin Marsingill had one at-bat in this game and struck out. He was batting .182 and we were not even actively using him; he had a whopping 22 at-bats at this point. He was sent to AAA, with Rich Vickers (.316 in St. Pete) brought up. Vickers had no spot in the lineup, but that was something we could sort out later. Or business for Dr. Chung would.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – RF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – 2B Stalker – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Sabre
NYC: LF Tessmann – CF Reardon – 2B M. Hurtado – C Monge – 1B Howden – 3B Czachor – SS Schuler – RF Camps – P Holliday

Alberto Ramos extended a hitting streak to 13 games at the top of the game, then was immediately doubled off by Bob Zeltser. But Berto was a clever boy and learned – next time around he hit a triple instead, so when Zelts would ground over to short he could score instead… and did! That tied the game at one in the third inning, negating a Mario Hurtado homer from the first frame. Hurtado walked his next time up, leading off the bottom 4th, and was doubled up by Howden, the dumb pig.

Neither team got the sticks up much; both teams would be stuck on three hits and one run through five innings, with the Crusaders failing to cash in Ryan Czachor’s leadoff double off the fence in the bottom 5th. Wallace landed a leadoff single in the seventh, which was enough to get me giddy because SOMETHING was happening. Stalker whiffed, and Reichardt grounded to short, and the inning would have been over if not for Schuler’s bad throw into Hurtado’s legs that led to nobody being retired at all. Instead all .167 of Elliott Thompson appeared to hit with runners on second and first and one out, and he lobbed an 0-2 pitch to right for a single. That filled the bags, and while the Raccoons did not desire to bat for Sabre, they had to, especially with the Crusaders sending Rin Nomura to replace Holliday. Nomura had been a Critter so long ago, he had actually been teammates with Jon Gonzalez, a first baseman of back then when we didn’t have to contend with dumb pig first basemen like Howden. He was also still a southpaw, so Rich Vickers was sent into the fray in the #9 hole. Three pitches, all for strikes, and then Ramos flew out to Reardon. Nobody scored.

Hennessy and Blair wobbled through a non-strike, wild-pitch laden bottom 7th that saw Jamieson stranded at third base, somehow, when Juan Camps hacked himself out – Ed Blair’s offerings certainly didn’t force him to. Garcia pinch-hit to begin the bottom 8th. Blair threw him three balls, and certainly didn’t force him to ground out to short, but Garcia did so anyway. Hurtado was smarter, drawing the leadoff walk on four pitches from Prieto in the bottom 9th. Monge doubled to right, and Josh Brown ended the game with a sac fly to Wallace. 2-1 Crusaders. Ramos 2-4, 3B; Sabre 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K;

…and then it all fell apart again…

Game 4
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – 3B Hawkins – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P del Rio
NYC: LF Tessmann – CF Reardon – 2B M. Hurtado – C Monge – 1B Howden – 3B Czachor – SS Schuler – RF Camps – P Hicks

Barely into May, Jimmy Wallace reached 10 RBI with a Ramos-plating double in the first inning. That came with two outs and also moved Tim Stalker to third base, but Hawkins grounded out to end the inning. The following inning, four Crusaders reached base against Ignacio del Rio, but they didn’t score a run. Howden, the dumb pig, hit a leadoff single; Czachor doubled him up before Schuler was nailed, Camps walked, and Hicks singled with two outs and two strikes on him (…!!!). Tessmann, batting .440 while constantly being on base, grounded out to Zitzner to keep the 1-0 lead intact.

The Critters then tacked on three (and could have had four o’ more) in the top of the third inning. Berto began it with a single to center, then stole his 10th base of the season. Stalker flew out poorly, and Fernandez walked, setting up two for Zitzner, who nevertheless got a ball over the dumb pig and up the rightfield line for an RBI double; it was here that Fernandez was sent around and thrown out at home plate by Camps. Wallace and Hawkins however romped 2-out hits to each drive in another run before Jennings rolled out to Hurtado in the 4-0 contest.

New York pulled one back in the fourth on Czachor and Schuler singles and Camps’ sac fly, to which Zitzner and Wallace replied with a soft dinker of a leadoff single and a LOUD double to center, respectively. Danny Monge lost Hicks’ 0-1 to Hawkins, allowing Zitzner to score. Hawkins popped out, but Jennings walked and Thompson snuck a single past Hurtado to plate Jimmy and knock out Hicks in a 6-1 game. del Rio then got Jennings killed at third base with a horrendous bunt, which cost a run on Ramos’ single to right when Stalker ended the inning with a grounder to Hurtado. Wallace tacked on a run in the sixth against righty Gabe McGill, though, plating Manny Fernandez with a sac fly, 7-1. With the same score we removed three regulars in the seventh-inning stretch, figuring that this was unlikely to blow up; Ramos, Fernandez, and Wallace were all subbed out. The guys in between produced another run in the eighth, with Zitzner doubling home Tim Stalker. Del Rio threw 114 pitches for eight full innings, which was also a success, and Hennessy did a quick ninth to get outta town. 8-1 Raccoons. Ramos 2-3, BB; Stalker 3-5; Zitzner 3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Wallace 3-3, 2 2B, 3 RBI; del Rio 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (4-0) and 1-4;

Raccoons (16-13) @ Rebels (13-15) – May 5-7, 2034

The Rebs had not been all-out bad so far, which was already a positive given their recent fortunes. But while their pitching was solid with the fourth-fewest runs surrendered in the Federal League, they were having trouble scoring. They also had the fourth-fewest runs on the board. Their batting average was the second-worst in the FL, and they were neither homering nor stealing bases well. Their defense was also among the worst in the FL. The Raccoons had dropped two out of three the last two times we had met, which had been in 2030 and 2031.

Projected matchups:
Pat Okrasinski (2-2, 4.20 ERA) vs. Kyle Dominy (4-2, 3.69 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (3-1, 3.32 ERA) vs. Bryce Sudar (2-1, 4.08 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (1-1, 2.64 ERA) vs. Josh Weeks (2-0, 3.91 ERA)

We would not see the southpaw until Sunday, which was not entirely to my liking, but we’d defer sitting the left-handed regulars entirely until then. The next off day was not until Thursday of next week and I didn’t want to keep running them out and into the ground until we’d see another southpaw, probably on Tuesday.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – RF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – 3B Zeltser – CF Reichardt – C Scheffer – P Okrasinski
RIC: SS Obando – 3B S. Sierra – 2B B. Freeman – RF Carr – LF Campisi – C Carbonell – 1B Madrid – CF Mntua – P Dominy

While the Coons were retired in order by Dominy the first time through, Brazilian Telma Mntua (those vowels seemed out of order for sure…) hit a sac fly to get Richmond in the lead in the bottom 2nd after Bernie Carbonell and Jose Madrid (not to be confused with the 1980s Jose Madrid) had gone to the corners with base hits. Portland first reached when Berto legged out an infield single in the fourth, stretching the hitting streak to 15 games. Stalker hit a clean single, Fernandez flew out, but Zitzner singled to left, loading the bases. Jimmy Wallace shot a grounder to right, Ben “Nine Fingers” Freeman dove, but didn’t get it (ten fingers might have helped), but nobody dared to advance more than one station on the RBI single against the executioner’s arm of Ryan Carr in rightfield. Zeltser whiffed and Reichardt popped out to strand three runners in a tied game. Portland instead grabbed the lead in the fifth; Scheffer hit a leadoff double, then scored on a Ramos single to center.

Things looked reasonably good despite the sluggish offense because Okrasinski just went into shutdown mode in the middle innings and eventually held on to a 3-hitter through seven innings, throwing 97 pitches. Garavito and Blair ganged up to hold the Rebels away in the eighth inning, with Guillermo Obando’s 2-out single being everything Richmond scratched together in the inning. We faced ex-Critter Jared Stone in the ninth and got absolutely nothing, putting a shaky Chris Wise (6.07 ERA??) up against the 3-4-5 batters, who were at least all right-handed batters and none of them had a great season so far; Carr was only batting .185 at this point. Wise did the honors in order to put that squeezer into the books. 2-1 Coons. Ramos 3-4, RBI; Wallace 2-4, RBI; Okrasinski 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-2);

That put us at 3-2 on the week. The Titans had been off on Thursday but lost on Friday, giving them a 2-2 week up until now, meaning that we were now closer than on Monday morning, with the gap down to two games.

Also, Berto’s on fire. 12 base hits on the week and counting!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – 3B Zeltser – RF Salgado – C Thompson – P Rendon
RIC: SS Obando – C Paiz – 2B B. Freeman – RF Carr – LF Campisi – 1B Rempfer – 3B S. Sierra – CF Mntua – P Sudar

The former Elk Sudar piled up a bunch of strikeouts early, but the Raccoons were able to scratch out a run in the second thanks to leadoff walks to Zitzner and Wallace, then two productive groundouts, and another one in the third when Fernandez tripled in Berto. The Rebels had their runners, too, f.e. two in the first inning right away, but couldn’t move them around. Sudar came unglued in the fifth then, with Ramos and Stalker reaching base on singles, scoring on a long Fernandez double in the right-center gap, and Zitzner also singled home Manny to extend the tally to 5-0 before Wallace chopped it to Freeman who made two full outs with less than two full sets of fingers on his hands.

All was well, at least until everything seemed like the Rebels would now go full Chancellorsville on Rendon in the bottom 5th. Obando hit a single and reached third base with two outs thanks to Thompson fumbling the ball on a stolen base attempt, then a wild pitch by Rendon, who ended up walking Cyril Campisi with two outs. Brent Rempfer dropped a ball in front of home plate with Rebs on the corners, and Thompson threw so badly to first base that Zitzner had to fall to his right to make a catch, and then the discussion was one whether he had kept his hindpaw on the bases. The Rebels insisted that he hadn’t and their mascot was angrily swinging his sabre on top of their dugout, but the Raccoons bickered back and the umpire shrugged and called Rempfer out. That ended the inning.

Rendon’s day was over soon as well. His exploding pitch count kept him from even finishing six innings. David Fernandez got one out, Victor Anaya got six, and somewhere along the way Zitzner hit a leadoff double and was plated via a Zeltser single, running the tally to six. Prieto and Hennessy split the ninth inning after Steve Sierra singled off the former. Hennessy rung up both Mntua and Danny Figueroa to end the game. 6-0 Coons! Ramos 2-5; M. Fernandez 2-5, 3B, 2B, 3 RBI; Zitzner 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Vickers (PH) 1-1; Anaya 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

That was a nice game! Apart from Rendon failing to go deep. He has gone past 6.1 innings only twice so far. But at least he’s 4-0 in his last five efforts.

There was a change of plan for Sunday. Berto was too damn hot to sit him now. Wallace and Fernandez were on the bench though.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Hawkins – RF Salgado – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – LF Jennings – 2B Vickers – C Scheffer – P Chavez
RIC: SS Obando – 3B S. Sierra – 2B B. Freeman – LF Campisi – 1B Rempfer – C Carbonell – RF Figueroa – CF Mntua – P Weeks

The Raccoons didn’t hit much until Bernie Chavez hit a double to left in the visitor’s half of the third inning. Nothing came of that, either, but at least both times had no runs for two hits after three innings. Reichardt, Jennings, Vickers then loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, scrabbling together two walks and a single along the way. A Scheffer double would come in handy at this point, but he grounded to the right side. However, “Nine Fingers” missed that one as well, and since everybody had been moving on contact, two runs scored to break the ice. Then Bernie hit into a double play… Scheffer came up again in the sixth with Jennings and Vickers on the corners and two out, but flew out to Danny Figueroa. In the bottom of the inning, Bernie was in slight trouble for the first time in at least an hour. Obando drew a 2-out walk, stole second, and then Sierra laced a liner to left. Good thing Jimmy Wallace had the day off – Billy Jennings made a sliding catch to end the inning. Wallace would have missed that one, would have torn up the grass, and broken his face on the seventh tumble for sure.

The Raccoons scratched and clawed their way through the game with their 2-0 lead. Bernie had a 2-hitter through seven, and in the eighth there was Scheffer again with two on and two outs, although to be fair the situation was after Vickers had reached on a Sierra error. He was on first base, Jennings – unretired – was on second. Josh Weeks walked him on five pitches, which got him up to 121 on the day. And then the weirdest scene broke out; there was Weeks, panting, and there was Chavez, stepping into the box only after looking back to his dugout five times to make sure he was really supposed to be there. Neither team blinked; they both refused to blink. Exhausted pitcher would toss to pitcher with three on and two outs in the top of the eighth… and Bernie popped out. Which would be FINE, as long as he finished the game or at least would not get chancellorsvilled. Willie Carbonell popped out. Figueroa was out on a comebacker. And then Mntua doubled in the gap, pulled something and had to be replaced with pinch-runner Ryan Carr, and Luigi Banfi, batting .111 with 3 RBI, hit for the gassed Weeks. He grounded out to Ramos on the 2-2, which put Bernie Chavez at 99 through eight, so unless the Critters would tack on he’d not get to finish the game with the top of the order drawing up. Top 9th, Berto led off with a single against righty Alex Aguilar. Manny batted for a hitless Hawkins, but popped out in a full count. Aguilar then tried to pick the runner off, threw the ball over Rempfer, and Ramos scurried up to second base. It didn’t help; Salgado and Zitzner both struck out. And thus it was Wise in the ninth against the 1-2-3 array. Obando grounded out to Berto. Sierra fanned. Freeman grounded out to Zeltser at third base. 2-0 Blighters. Ramos 2-5; Jennings 3-3, BB; Chavez 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-1) and 1-4, 2B;

In other news

May 3 – Not unheard of in 36-year-old players, chronic back soreness will keep 3B Andy Schmit (.143, 3 HR, 6 RBI) out of the Thunder lineup for at least three weeks.
May 4 – PIT 3B Omar Lastrade (.266, 3 HR, 19 RBI) is expected to miss a month after straining a groin muscle while running the basepaths.
May 5 – TIJ RF/LF/1B Willie Ojeda (.352, 4 HR, 14 RBI) drives in four runs on as many hits in a 13-5 drubbing of the Gold Sox.
May 5 – OCT INF/RF Ben Riffer (.300, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for the season with a ruptured medial collateral ligament.
May 6 – CHA LF/RF Andy Montes (.310, 1 HR, 11 RBI) collects five hits and four RBI in the Falcons’ 11-8 win over the Blue Sox.
May 6 – NAS SP Sean Fowler (2-2, 6.69 ERA) could be lost for the season with a partially torn labrum. The Blue Sox have yet to announce whether they feel relief over the development.

Complaints and stuff

Number One in the power rankings! That’s what a 17-6 run does for you.

Berto has a 17-game hitting streak; he only got a single in the seventh on Sunday, but somehow it worked out for him. Of course he hit another one in the ninth. He didn’t score either time, but that was one of those games where the only guy with an extra-base hit started the game in the #9 hole. Berto was also snubbed for Player of the Week honors. While he batted 16-for-30, he did so with only one extra base hit, and Willie Ojeda hit .500 with three homers and seven RBI for Tijuana.

No, the offense remains thoroughly not great overall despite a number of appeasing individual efforts. Berto’s up to .333 for example, Manny has 14 extra base hits, Zitzner has 16, and we have eight guys batting .286 or more (generously including Rich Vickers’ 2-for-6 mark). There’s hardly an outright sucker on the roster!

Elliott Thompson’s close though.

Next week: three at home with the Scorpions, then right back over the hills to Boston, which could be a really interesting series… We will be gone for two weeks that time, meandering through Milwaukee, Vegas, and Oklahoma before coming back to play the Baybirds.

Fun Fact: 24 years ago today, the Aces’ Ricardo Garcia hit for the cycle again in a 10-4 win over the Gold Sox.

That was Garcia’s second career cycle and also his last (nobody has ever connected for three). After him it took until Tim Stalker to find another ABL player to hit for multiple cycles.

Garcia’s career was cut short by a torn back muscle suffered while hitting .272 with 17 homers for the 2013 Titans when he was in his 10th season including a cup of coffee in ’04. He led the league in doubles once and made the 2010 All Star team. Overall he hit .269/.330/.455 with 126 HR and 627 RBI as well as 71 SB before retiring at age 31.