[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-24) vs. Indians (28-26) – June 6-8, 2034

Finally beating the Indians would be a good strategy for the Critters going forwards. We had taken three out of four in the first set of the year, but had lost the prior two season series. They were second from the bottom in runs scored but were tight with giving up runs themselves, and sported the best rotation by ERA, a crisp 2.94 mark that nevertheless saw the team just barely over .500 and with a -18 run differential that in itself hinted at problems…

Projected matchups:
Pat Okrasinski (5-3, 4.03 ERA) vs. Jose Lerma (7-2, 2.71 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (6-1, 2.52 ERA) vs. Victor Govea (2-4, 2.95 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (6-4, 4.08 ERA) vs. Andy Bressner (5-4, 2.89 ERA)

They’d be leading off with their only southpaw, “Cobra” Lerma.

Portland sent David Tinnin back to AAA with Philip Scheffer good to go after the common off day on Monday. That freed up the spot of the seventh reliever that we had played without on the weekend. Nominally Hennessy’s spot, we didn’t feel an urge for a third left-hander (which may have promoted Jason Gurney at least until Sunday, brrr) since the Indians’ batting corps was mostly right-handed. In fact, the only left-handed batter they carted to Portland was Tom Schorsch, and he was hitting .214; two southpaws in David Fernandez and Mauricio Garavito would already be plenty. We thus called up Darren Brown, but would not give him a start. I wanted to see him take on some major-league hitters, but not a full game’s worth of them. Maybe a 2-inning stint could be arranged somewhere. At this point his major-league totals involved a ghastly 7.06 ERA with an 0-4 record. He arrived on three days’ rest after his last start and thus would not be used on Tuesday anyway.

Game 1
IND: LF Acor – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – C J. Herrera – RF Plunkett – 1B Barber – 3B P. Green – SS Benito – P Lerma
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – RF Salgado – 1B Zitzner – LF Wallace – CF Reichardt – 3B Hawkins – C Scheffer – P Okrasinski

When Philip Scheffer popped out for the second retirement in the bottom of the fifth inning, a full-frontal pitching duel had been raging for barely more than 75 minutes. Both teams had dropped in a few singles, both had even gotten a 2-out double at some point – Hawkins for Portland in the bottom 2nd, Dustin Acor for Indy in the half-inning after that – but nobody had scored or even reached third base. Okrasinski was assumed to make the final out in the fifth to keep a clean scoreboard, but hit a dinker into shallow right for the Critters’ fifth base knock of the game. Up came Berto and took a ball into the leftfield corner, where a wicked bounce cost the adept Acor some valuable time in playing it. Berto had a double, and Okrasinski was waved around third base to score. The Indians tried to get him, couldn’t, the run counted, and Berto worked his way up to third base. Tim Stalker walked, but Hugo Salgado would make the final out of the inning, now in a 1-0 game.

Okrasinski held on to that, but expended all his energy in seven innings, totaling 108 pitches including a chewy seventh that began with a full-count walk to Juan Herrera, who never moved off first base while Okrasinski wore through Mike Plunkett, Matt Barber, and Pat Green. Lerma allowed a blooper to Tom Hawkins to begin the bottom 7th. Scheffer whiffed, the fifth K for the Cobra, but Rich Vickers, batting in the #9 hole instead of Okrasinski, didn’t. He crashed a fastball over the fence for a 2-run homer! Lerma, looking equal amounts shocked and annoyed, would continue to allow a single to Ramos before getting Stalker to hit into his second double play of the game, winning the veteran second baseman two innings on the bench in favor of keeping Vickers in the game. Ed Blair pitched from the #2 slot in the lineup and put Juan Benito and Acor on with singles, but crucially Lerma was not hit for and instead struck out bunting. The Indians could at least have had runners on the corners with a good bunt, and in any case no force at third base; instead Benito was only at second base, and when Dan Schneller spanked a bouncer right towards Tom Hawkins’ abdomen, Hawkins casually tapped the base and threw to first for a 5-3 double play to end the inning. Chris Wise in the ninth also insisted on inviting the tying run to the plate, packing two strikeouts in between a John Baron single and a clueless walk to Barber. Pat Green lined out to Ramos, ending the game before it could get really ugly. 3-0 Critters. Ramos 3-4, 2B, RBI; Hawkins 2-3, 2B; Vickers (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Okrasinski 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (6-3) and 1-2;

That affair took a crisp 2:26. I like wins under two and a half hours; usually means the other team didn’t do a lot of harm to our hurlers.

No Govea on Wednesday; the Indians went straight to Bressner, not that this led to a significant difference in the stinginess of the pitcher on offer.

Game 2
IND: LF Acor – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – RF Plunkett – 1B Barber – 3B P. Green – C Kuhlmann – SS Benito – P Bressner
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P del Rio

In a notable turnaround, del Rio was torched for double, single, RBI single, RBI single, all on loud line drives, within 18 pitches by the top four of the Indians’ lineup when play began on Wednesday. Barber hit into a double play and Green flew out to Manny Fernandez, but from the get-go this looked like possible Darren Brown trials by the middle innings. Del Rio wasn’t fooling anybody. While Ramos’ leadoff triple and Zeltser’s groundout in the bottom 1st put a run on the board for Portland, del Rio continued to fail on all accounts, allowing a 1-out single to Juan Benito in the top 2nd before throwing away Bressner’s bunt for two bases. Acor hit an RBI single, 3-1, before Schneller struck out flailing and Baron popped out, but I was blaming over-eagerness more than del Rio’s stuff at this point, the latter being obviously absent. He faced four batters with two strikes in the third inning and retired none of them with a third strike. Instead they walked (Plunkett, Morgan Kuhlmann, Benito) or flew out to center (Barber). With three on and two outs, Bressner hit a 2-out single to left, and that was the end for del Rio. Anaya replaced him and poured plenty of gasoline on the flames licking Raccoons Ballpark, with a gap double to Acor for two runs, and a wallbanger double served up to Schneller to make it 8-1 before Baron flew out to Fernandez, somehow.

And that was basically the game. Darren Brown came on for the fourth, with Plunkett drumming his first pitch for a double. The next one was wild, moving the runner to third. Barber ended up whiffing, but the run scored on a Pat Green grounder, 9-1, while I was busy making up lame excuses to Nick Valdes who would definitely send a threatening mail after this drubbing. Brown pitched two innings without being skinned, which had to count as progress after the early innings. Never mind that the Coons didn’t get another base hit after the Ramos triple until the bottom of the fifth. Nope, it was a rout and could not reasonably be called by any other name, despite the Arrowheads not scoring again after Brown waved Plunkett across in the fourth. Brown in the fifth, David Fernandez for two innings, Prieto, and Garavito lined up the most pointless five scoreless innings to finish a game. The Raccoons were 4-hit by Bressner, who pitched a complete game on 93 pitches. 9-1 Indians. Ramos 2-4, 3B; D. Fernandez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

That shambles appearance was the end for Victor Anaya (5.32 ERA), who was sent packing and dispatched to St. Petersburg. Carlos de la Cruz was recalled in his stead.

Game 3
IND: LF Acor – 2B Schneller – CF Baron – C J. Herrera – RF Plunkett – 1B Barber – 3B P. Green – SS Benito – P Govea
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P Rendon

The Raccoons showed great propensity to ground out to Dan Schneller in this game, doing so five times in the first three frames. Tim Stalker hit a 2-out double; nobody else did do anything much. Schneller also landed the Indians’ first knock, a leadoff single in the fourth. Rendon struck out Baron and Herrera, but Mike Plunkett doubled down the line in left, with the Indians not thinking twice about sending Schneller around against Jimmy Wallace, the duddest of fielders. The run easily scored, and another one followed soon on a Barber RBI single, putting Indy up 2-0. That remained the score through five with the Coons more or less effortlessly removed by Govea.

Bottom 6th, Ramos drew a leadoff walk on four pitches, which always seems like that big door-kicking gateway to offensive greatness. Bob Zeltser singled up the middle, narrowly missing Schneller’s glove, and Ramos went to third base, where he jammed his thumb on the slide and had to be removed from the game for X-rays, while I complained to Maud about blurry vision after this incident, and ignored Cristiano Carmona’s quip of whether that had anything to do with the Capt’n Coma bottle that had lost half its volume since the start of the game. Stalker moved to short and Vickers entered the game at second base, batting leadoff, but more importantly the Coons had the tying runs on the corners and nobody out quite yet. Wallace chucked an RBI single over Schneller’s head, 2-1, and Travis Zitzner tied the game with a full-count offering gently rolled through between Benito and Green. A Manny Fernandez single loaded the bases – still nobody out! As Govea imploded, all those runners scored; first on a 2-run double by Tim Stalker, giving Portland the lead to the roar of the crowd, after which Jennings popped out and Thompson walked. Rendon, with three on and one down, hit a sac fly to Acor. Vickers came to bat in the same inning he replaced the fallen Berto and cracked the game wide open with a 2-run triple! Reliever Arturo Arellano would walk Zeltser before Wallace grounded out to Schneller to leave two aboard, but a 7-run riot had washed away Govea and the Indians’ lead.

The Coons got another inning from Rendon, who then retired after 104 pitches in seven innings of 2-run ball. He had allowed only one hit outside the bedeviled fourth. Manny Fernandez created a run out of precious little in the bottom 7th, singling to center and stealing bases on consecutive pitches to Tim Stalker, who then hit a sac fly to plate him. Prieto and Blair kept the Indians away in the last two innings. 8-2 Coons. Ramos 0-1, 2 BB; Vickers 1-2, 3B, 2 RBI; M. Fernandez 2-4; Stalker 2-3, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Rendon 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (7-4);

Raccoons (35-25) vs. Capitals (36-25) – June 9-11, 2034

The Caps had won four in a row and hoped for more in Portland. They ranked third in runs scored, but lacked stingy pitching, and especially a bullpen to keep their ambitions together. They sat eighth in runs allowed in the Federal League, with the second-worst bullpen that clocked in at a 4.41 ERA. We last saw Washington in the 2030 season when we swept them, ending a string of four consecutive series losses to them.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (4-2, 2.41 ERA) vs. Johnny Nelson (3-6, 6.21 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (6-2, 3.38 ERA) vs. Michael Frank (8-3, 2.59 ERA)
Pat Okrasinski (6-3, 3.61 ERA) vs. Jimmy Souders (4-3, 5.13 ERA)

We were going to get their two troubled starters, too, plus the left-handed Frank, AND we got sort-of-good news from Dr. Chung who reported that Berto’s claw had not fallen out after all and that he was day-to-day for two or three days. The Raccoons would cope as good as possible and try to survive a few games without him in the leadoff spot.

Game 1
WAS: 2B E. Trevino – CF Adkins – LF Winborn – 3B Falzone – 1B Fowlkes – SS Crabb – C Came – RF Ferrero – P J. Nelson
POR: 3B Zeltser – SS Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – 2B Vickers – RF M. Fernandez – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Chavez

Bernie struck out three the first time through, including ex-Coon Noel Ferrero, but allowed a run on a 2-out rally in the first inning. Kelvin Winborn singled, moved up on a walk to Rich Falzone, and scored on Pat Fowlkes’ single. The Raccoons were initially very good at getting one Critter aboard each inning and leaving him at second base after some indifferent actions or others. The fourth inning then became Manny Fernandez’ – he held Chavez together in the top of the frame with a strong catch on a deep Ferrero drive that stranded two runners, then hit a game-tying RBI double to deep center himself to maneuver Jimmy Wallace around to score and also shoving Vickers to third base, all with one out. Nelson got to 0-2 on Adrian Reichardt, but his attempt at strike three with high heat became mere heat down the middle and Reichardt had been around too long to miss that one. He hit the ball 362 feet and over the fence in leftfield, giving Portland a 4-1 advantage!

In a noted quirk, Chavez threw three pitches for three outs in the fifth, then got drawn out for almost 30 the following inning. Kelvin Winborn opened with a homer to right, 4-2, and Falzone walked. That runner was on second base when Chris Came came into contact with a lousy breaking pitch that he knocked for a 2-out RBI single, and then Ferrero came near another base hit but was retired on a splendid play by Zeltser. Both pitchers ended up being lifted after six innings, with Jennings popping out in Chavez’ place to end the bottom 6th with Reichardt stranded on first base. Nelson’s spot led off the seventh and PH Jonathan Rivera appeared there. Ed Blair allowed the tying run on base with a single, and departed with Rivera on second and two outs to have Garavito face Winborn, a lefty batter. Washington countered with right-handed pinch-hitter Nando Maiello, who was a mere shadow of his long-gone greatness, batting .179 in limited action. Garavito walked him anyway, but at least got Falzone to roll over to Vickers to end the inning. Maiello then threw out Wallace trying to go first-to-third on Travis Zitzner’s 2-out single in the bottom 7th. The Coons then dragged de la Cruz out of the woodwork for the eighth inning in a 4-3 game, which sounded dicey, then got dicey with Pat Fowlkes’ leadoff single. Adam Crabb popped out, though, and then Came spanked a ball to Zitzner who started a 3-6 double play with Fowlkes tagged out at second base. Whatever works, boys! Whatever works! Nothing transpired in the bottom 8th at all, putting Wise on the mound with no cushion, an ERA still over four, and an ex-Coon leading off the ninth. Ferrero grounded out before Wise nailed PH Kevin Clark and Enrique Trevino reached on a bloop single that even Manny Fernandez rather than Wallace in leftfield couldn’t reach. Adkins popped out, leaving things to Maiello with two outs. He grounded a 1-2 pitch at Vickers, and that became the final out. 4-3 Coons. Stalker 2-4; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Reichardt 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

That was tight! But the reward was sweet; the Titans lost to the Gold Sox after already dropping three of four to the damn Elks. The Raccoons thus took over first place by half a game!

First place, baby!!

Game 2
WAS: SS Crabb – CF Adkins – C N. Evans – 3B Falzone – 1B Fowlkes – 2B Jon. Rivera – LF K. Clark – RF Ferrero – P Frank
POR: 3B Zeltser – SS Stalker – RF Salgado – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – LF M. Fernandez – 2B Vickers – C Scheffer – P Sabre

Sabre began the day behind each of the first four batters, resulting in a walk to Crabb, a Nate Evans single, and ultimately a Falzone sac fly for an early Caps lead. After some good yelling-at by the pitching coach, Sabre rung up Fowlkes to end the first inning. Portland didn’t do too much early on, safe for a Hugo Salgado single and him being caught stealing, but Scheffer drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 3rd to put the tying run on base. Sabre bunted him to second and he scored on Zeltser’s double in the right-center gap. Stalker singled home Zeltser to take the lead, then scored on a 2-out single by Zitzner to make it 3-1 after three innings, with Reichardt grounding out to Crabb to leave Zitz on base.

Portland immediately fell apart in the fourth. Sabre threw away Evans’ grounder for a 2-base error to begin the frame. Falzone singled him around immediately to cut the gap to 3-2, and then Fowlkes reached on an infield single that Vickers couldn’t dig out. Rivera hit into a 5-4-3 double play and Clark grounded out, but no lead appeared safe right now. Ferrero’s leadoff single in the fifth led the Caps nowhere in particular, but Sabre looked highly unconvincing. He retired Evans, Falzone, Fowlkes in order in the sixth, but had been behind in the count to all of them. Come the seventh, Rivera flew out to Salgado at the fence on a 1-2 pitch, Clark popped out, and Ferrero grounded out to Zeltser. That put Sabre at 105 pitches and out of the game, especially with his spot coming up in the bottom 7th. Wallace batted for him after Scheffer drew a leadoff walk from Michael Frank. Jimmy flew out on the first pitch before a passed ball charged to Evans moved Scheffer to second base….. and then a wild pitch was charged to Frank when the 1-2 went past Evans as well. Those two mistakes allowed Zeltser to get his catcher across with a sac fly to Travis Adkins, scoring a potentially crucial insurance run. Up 4-2, the ball went to Antonio Prieto for the eighth. Maiello flicked a leadoff single from the #9 hole, then stole second base. Crabb and Adkins both popped out, but the latter did so in shallow right, and Salgado had to make a tumbling grab. He tumbled bad enough to remain on the ground after lobbing the ball to Vickers, and after an inquiry by a visibly annoyed Dr. Chung, grumpy over these wimpy players and their constant aches and pains, Salgado was eventually removed from the game. Billy Jennings took over, reducing the Critters’ bench to Thompson, who had caught three days in a row, Hawkins, and the sore-pawed Ramos. Two pitches later, Evans also singled to center, putting the tying runs on the corners for Falzone. David Fernandez got the assignment – and got a grounder to Vickers for the third out. Portland would not get past a Reichardt single in their half of the eighth, putting Chris Wise against the 5-6-7 batters. He ran full counts against both Fowlkes and Clark and prevailed to strike out both of them. Since Rivera had popped out in between, the latter K ended the game. 4-2 Critters! Stalker 3-4, RBI; Salgado 2-4; Reichardt 2-4; Scheffer 0-1, 2 BB; Sabre 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (7-2);

Good news: the Titans lost and we were assured first place through the end of the weekend.

Bad news: Salgado had a broken rib and had to go on the DL for about six weeks. More roster moves! The Raccoons activated John Hennessy from the DL, sent Carlos de la Cruz back to AAA, and called up an outfielder instead.

On one hand, Bobby Houston’s .773 OPS in AAA asked for a promotion to the majors, but the 25-year-old would leave us with four left-handed outfielders (all but Reichardt) and Billy Jennings already saw little playing time, and Houston was out of options and could not be returned without offering him up on waivers. Ed Hooge still had an option, but was also left-handed, and was batting … uninspired. In the end, the nod went out to Sean Catella, the 29-year-old switch-hitting nothing player that bad teams were stuffed with. At least he was a super utility…

Game 3
WAS: 2B E. Trevino – SS Crabb – LF Winborn – C N. Evans – 1B Fowlkes – CF K. Clark – 3B Jon. Rivera – RF Maiello – P Souders
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Vickers – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P Okrasinski

Okrasinski registered three pop outs on the infield in the first inning… at least when he wasn’t serving up extra-base hits galore. Enrique Trevino hit a single, Kelvin Winborn homered, and Pat Fowlkes launched a double to the base of the fence and was stranded in a quick 2-0 lead-grabbing frame for Washington. At least the Coons got even in the bottom of the inning with a Zeltser single and a Zitzner homer to left. The Capitals put the next “2” on Okrasinski right away. Leadoff single Rivera, walk on four pitches to Maiello, a bunt, a groundout, and a 2-out single made it 4-2 in the second. He settled in a bit after that, but the pattern remained – he was either really good or really bad, with hardly anything in between.

The Furballs didn’t react to the new deficit until the fourth when Elliott Thompson hit a 2-out solo homer to cut the gap in half, and then Okrasinski dropped in a single. Berto, who had missed two games with the sore claw, walked, and Zeltser dropped an RBI single to tie the score at four before Wallace grounded out to short. But the fourth was the last inning Okrasinski finished, loading the bases with a single and two walks in the top 5th. Ed Blair was used with two outs to coax a fly to right from Rivera, stranding the runners and keeping the game tied. Blair got in line for a W when Manny Fernandez walked, stole second, and scored on Jennings’ 2-out single in the bottom of the inning, then gave up leadoff walks to Maiello (…!) and PH Rich Falzone to begin the sixth. Trevino flew out, Crabb hit into a double play to strand the tying run at third base, and I needed a glass of water, and with that I meant a bottle of booze. Come the seventh, John Hennessy couldn’t get ahead of anybody, either. Winborn singled, Evans homered, and that one flipped the score, 6-5 Washington.

Bottom 7th, Portland got back into a tie with a 2-out rally off Tommy Weintraub, a 39-year-old righty and former starter, as well as Federal League Pitcher of the Year, 11 seasons removed. After whiffing Wallace and Zitzner to suck more will to live out of me, he allowed straight singles to Manny, Vick, and Jennings to tie the score, then walked Thompson to fill the bases. That knocked out Darren Brown, who had gotten the last out in the top 7th and had been supposed to pitch longer, but with three on and two outs in a 6-6 game he was yanked without thinking. Reichardt batted for him, and grounded out to Crabb in a veteran move.

The Critters were now likely to lose this game on a lack of pitchers. Fernandez and Garavito remained and were somewhat rested. Prieto was available, too. Wise had saved two games in a row and would not be used in a tie unless all other bridges had been burned. So it was double-plus-ungood when Vickers fumbled Maiello’s 0-2 grounder for an error to begin the eighth behind Garavito. Chris Came hit in the #9 hole and poked another 0-2 for a grounder to short. Berto started a routine 6-4-3. Vickers held on for a change and also played Trevino’s grounder for the third out. Wallace singled with two outs in the bottom 8th, but Zitzner fanned, and Garavito resumed hurling. Jennings robbed Crabb in the gap to begin the ninth before Winborn belted a homer. Ironically, that had been the first left-handed batter to oppose Garavito in this outing… Garavito finished the inning, but the Raccoons now started down the barrel of ex-Coon Joe Moore (roughly as far removed as Weintraub’s Pitcher of the Year days) and his 1.76 ERA. But control had never been his strongest asset and he walked Manny Fernandez to begin the bottom 9th. His first pitch to Vickers was wild, moving the tying run to second base. Vickers struck out. Jennings grounded out, moving Manny to third base. Thompson came up as the last straw and hit a drive to center. Kevin Clark couldn’t get back fast enough, the ball dropped for a double, and defeat was staved off for the moment! Scheffer batted for Garavito as ANOTHER wild pitch advanced Thompson to third base. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back – at 2-1, Scheffer hit a grounder to right that dinked off the diving Fowlkes’ glove. Trevino secured it behind the first baseman, but there was no time to get it to first base – even against Scheffer – or to throw to home plate where Thompson slid across to seal a sweep of the Capitals! 8-7 Furballs!!! Zeltser 2-5, RBI; Wallace 2-5; M. Fernandez 2-3, 2 BB; Jennings 2-5, 2 RBI; Thompson 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Scheffer (PH) 1-1, RBI;

(sits there with mouth wide open, the hair somehow grayer and more disorderly than usual)

In other news

June 5 – It might be season over for SAL SP Jong-hoo Cho (6-2, 3.70 ERA), who has to undergo surgery to fix ruptured finger tendons.
June 5 – DEN SP Robbie Blair (4-7, 5.91 ERA) could be out for an entire year with a torn labrum.
June 8 – NYC 2B/SS Josh Brown (.289, 1 HR, 6 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 12-3 rout of the Loggers. The 29-year-old AAA veteran does so in style, completing the cycle in the ninth inning with a home run off MIL MR Mike Cockcroft (0-0, 5.40 ERA), Brown’s first major league home run in three years.
June 9 – CIN OF Ken Gibbs (.269, 2 HR, 15 RBI) could miss up to end of July with an oblique strain.
June 11 – In a spot start, Dallas left-hander Alexander Lewis (1-3, 1.80 ERA, 1 SV) 3-hits the Crusaders for a 1-0 Stars win.

Complaints and stuff

That was a 5-1 week where the largest margin of victory was with the Indians, the overall run total was 28-23, but I’m not one to complain. We’re in first place after all! (And in the power rankings, too!) And we have a 4-game winning streak! Now I just have to beat the crap out of del Rio and find some combination of bullpen with a pulse going forwards.

In terms of run differential, outscoring the opposition by .83 runs per game still sounds fine and we are actually doing much better over the course of the season. Even .83 runs per game, which works out to a +135 run differential over 162 games, sounds like plenty. It’s more than what two ring-winning Critters outfits have done (1993, 2028), and a third one (2026) beats the mark just barely. Right now, our run differential is +77, working out to +198 for the full season, better than even the fourth ring-collecting Furballs troupe (1992).

Cristiano says I am reading too much into this. Yeah, well, Cristiano; and your right wheel is squeaking again!

Next week we’ll hop down I-5 to L.A., then come back to host the Loggers on the weekend. The week after that brings a trip to Boston before a swift return out west to Tijuana. Kinda sketchy scheduling here…

Wednesday’s rout was the 500th loss we have taken against the Indians. They’re the fourth CL North team to whoop us that often. Only the Loggers (obviously?) are missing, and can’t reach the mark until next year at the very earliest, needing 23 wins against Portland to get to 500. The Titans (obviously?) have the most wins over Portland with 540, followed by the damn Elks (515)* and Crusaders (508).

Fun Fact: Josh Brown joins the vaunted Martin Brothers of New York’s greatest generation as the only players to have hit cycles for the Crusaders.

Stanton Martin did so in 2006, Martin Ortíz getting his in 2012. The latter came in a loss to the Indians, while the former collected his honors in a 10-5 win over the … Coons of course. That August 6, 2006 is still the most recent time another player has connected to all four kinds of base hits against the Critters.

Portland hitters have cycled five times since: Vic Flores, Adrian Quebell, Rich Hereford, and Tim Stalker (twice) have all joined in on the fun.

The Stanton Martin cycle also came three days before Jason Clark hit for the cycle in a 9-1 Knights win over the Thunder, which was the first reverse-natural cycle (going homer, triple, double, single) in ABL history. Those two cycles are tied for the closest-together that cycles have occurred with two days in between. In June 2015, also on the 6th and 9th, Blue Sox teammates Bobby Eason and Chris Macias each hit for the cycle against the Cyclones and Buffos, respectively.

The closest together cycles ever have occurred was in 1989, August 1 and 3. Again the Coons and Blue Sox were involved. Mark Dawson hit for the cycle in the former game, a 13-3 rout of the Knights. The Blue Sox beat out the Miners, 9-8, on Gabriel Cruz’ cycle two days later.

*And yet, I live.