[Westheim]

Raccoons (73-57) @ Falcons (58-71) – August 28-30, 2034

The Falcons couldn’t score runs, sitting second from the bottom in markers put on the board. Their pitching was middling, their defense was mediocre, and they couldn’t steal bases for their lives. They also had yet to win a game from the Raccoons in ’34, and the Raccoons had never gone 9-0 against a CL South team.

Projected matchups:
Ignacio del Rio (10-7, 3.61 ERA) vs. Chris Turner (1-7, 4.87 ERA)
Pat Okrasinski (12-7, 4.19 ERA) vs. Juan Vela (2-4, 3.63 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (8-5, 4.54 ERA) vs. Joe Feltman (1-3, 5.40 ERA)

All Falcons starters were 23 years old; all but Feltman were left-handed.

This was the last series entirely ahead of the roster expansion; we’d be in Milwaukee for four games starting on Thursday, the 31st.

Game 1
POR: SS Zeltser – RF Salgado – 2B Stalker – LF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – C Wall – 3B Marsingill – P del Rio
CHA: RF J. Aguilar – 1B Amundson – C Huichapa – CF Garbinski – 3B G. Ortiz – LF Trahan – SS Camacho – 2B Yi – P C. Turner

After a Salgado hit Turner walked three Raccoons, including Adrian Reichardt with three on and two outs to force in the first run of the game, and then Kurt Wall struck out. Charlotte made that up right away; Jerry Aguilar ran out an infield single, Ernesto Huichapa’s single to left was overran by Manny Fernandez for an error, and Josh Garbinski brought in the tying run with a groundout. Tim Stalker would shoot a homer for a 2-1 lead in the top 3rd, but del Rio continued to be bah and it wouldn’t get any better going forward either. Dave Trahan homered to tie the game in the fourth, and then Omar Camacho singled and In-chul Yi walked. The runners were bunted over, Jerry Aguilar fanned, and with two outs now the Coons had a good chance to escape a jam, but … well, they didn’t, not by a mile. Del Rio served up a 3-run bomb to light-hitting Erik Amundson, put on Huichapa with a single, and then conceded an RBI double to Garbinski, who was caught in a rundown between second and third, like it mattered anymore… del Rio was shanked down 6-2 after four, and that was another game in the bin. Zeltser and Stalker procured a run in the top 5th with a pair of doubles, but the cluster**** got more clustery in the bottom 5th with Antonio Prieto eviscerated. Greg Ortiz and Trahan reached right away, Omar Camacho hit a 2-run double, and after one out was somehow made, Stalker threw away Turner’s grounder for a 2-base, run-scoring error. That raised the score to 9-3, and while the Raccoons would scratch out three runs in the next few innings, with Reichardt landing a 2-out, 2-run single in the seventh before leaving the game with an injury in the eighth, Chris Wise was socked for another three runs (two earned) in the bottom 8th. Tim Stalker made another throwing error with Garbinski at third, two outs, and me not having anything properly to drink since they didn’t sell Capt’n Coma in the Carolinas… The ninth inning began with a weird rally, right-hander Tony Rivas drilling Tim Stalker with a pitch (not that that would preclude Stalker from getting the soap-in-sock treatment later…). Manny Fernandez walked, and Zitzner doubled home the pair, erasing 33% of a 6-run deficit. But at that point, the team had enough and wanted to hit the nearest burger joint for dinner. Jennings, Wall, and Sibley all grounded out to a middle infielder, stranding Zitzner as well. 12-8 Falcons. Zeltser 2-5, 2B; Salgado 2-5, 2B; Stalker 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Hennessy 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

…!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – RF Salgado – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – 2B Stalker – CF M. Fernandez – C Scheffer – P Okrasinski
CHA: SS O. Aguirre – LF Trahan – C Huichapa – 3B G. Ortiz – 1B R. Morales – RF Guevara – CF Hubbard – 2B Yi – P Vela

Okrasinski nailed Oscar Aguirre, the first man up, and I braced for the worst, and not for no good reason. While Trahan grounded into a double play, Huichapa was alert and brutalized a fastball for a first-inning solo homer. While the Raccoons were retired in order the first time through, Huichapa had another 2-out RBI hit, a single, the next time up, singling home Aguirre in the bottom 3rd. Greg Ortiz homered, 4-0, and Roberto Morales and Javier Guevara also reached base as all the life was sucked out of me. Brian Hubbard flew out to center, while the Coons didn’t reach base until the fourth – Zeltser making it thanks to Morales’ error – and didn’t get a base knock until another inning later. Fernandez singled after a Tim Stalker walk, parking them on the corners with one out. Vela’s pickoff to first base went through Morales, allowing the runners to move up and Stalker to score. Scheffer singled to center, plating Manny from second base, Okrasinski bunted him over, and Berto was nailed. Salgado singled, loading the sacks with two outs for Zeltser, who of course struck out…

Okrasinski was run out for another two innings, conceding another run on three more hits as the Coons continued to bleed against a team with terrible offense. Well, yeah, tell me about terrible offense… which also continued to diminish in weird ways. With Adrian Reichardt already rolled up in a litter next to the bench with Dr. Chung refusing to look at him until he stopped moaning, the Critters lost another position player to injury in the seventh inning. The frame began with base hits sending Fernandez and Scheffer to the corners. Kurt Wall batted for the pitcher as the tying run with nobody out and smacked a double to right-center to shorten the score to 5-3. He also pulled up lame and was removed from the game, Justin Marsingill pinch-running. Berto lined out to Trahan, but Salgado hit an RBI single, which knocked out Vela in a 5-4 game. Zeltser grounded out, bringing in the tying run anyway against Andy Cormier, and Jimmy Wallace pushed an RBI single to right, putting the Raccoons in front, 6-5, before Travis Zitzner could ruin it all, popping out on a 3-1 pitch. David Fernandez was brought out to pitch the bottom 7th and blew the lead as soon as he could, giving up a single to Trahan and a homer to Ortiz… Portland answered in the top 8th, slamming Carlos Rojo and John Rucker for five hits, mostly with two outs. After a Stalker single and Fernandez grounder that fed into a 4-6-3 double play, Scheffer, Jennings, and Berto rapped off straight singles to tie the game, and Salgado found a 2-run double in his bat. Now up 9-7, the Critters tried Nick Bates in relief, which resulted in a Garbinski single, a walk to Aguirre, and a long fly that Fernandez somehow got paws on off Trahan’s bat… Ed Blair got the mess in the ninth… and for a nice change retired the Falcons in order. 9-7 Raccoons… Salgado 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; M. Fernandez 2-5; Scheffer 3-4, RBI; Wall (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Jennings (PH) 1-1;

Bit of an injury logjam here. Adrian Reichardt was DL’ed by Wednesday with a strained hammy, but was expected to make a return before the end of September. His demise allowed for promotion of Elliott Thompson, begrudgingly, with Tony Morales not considered ready for prime time. Thompson had gotten hot over the prior week, now hitting for a .902 OPS in AAA.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – C Thompson – RF Jennings – P Rendon
CHA: SS O. Aguirre – LF Trahan – C Huichapa – CF Garbinski – 1B R. Morales – RF J. Guevara – SS Camacho – 2B Yi – P Feltman

Feltman had walked 19 batters in 30 innings, so patience was the – wait, the top 1st is already over?? Instead, Rendon walked Aguirre, who stole second, reached third on Thompson’s throwing error (…!!), and scored on Huichapa’s groundout. While the Critters made that run up mainly thanks to Fernandez’ quick hindpaws in the top 2nd, Rendon issued another leadoff walk to Morales in the bottom 2nd, and Javier Guevara doubled him in… 2-1 Falcons. Zeltser homered the game tied in the top 3rd, and an Aguirre double and Huichapa single gave Charlotte a new lead in the bottom of the very same inning…

That was it with see-saw – the drudge set in come the middle innings. Hardly anybody landed a base hit, nobody scored a run. Berto stole a base and made an error, both in the fifth inning. That was about it, and the Coons were still down 3-2 after six with Rendon done after 102 pitches, most of them sub-standard. Wise held the Falcons in reach in the seventh, and Stalker and Wallace hit singles to begin the eighth against Feltman. Fernandez grounded into a fielder’s choice, which wasn’t helping, and gave Zitzner runners on the corners. The invitation was not refused. Grounder to short, to second, to first, double play. **** you, Travis. **** … you… Huichapa homered off Garavito in the bottom 8th, three pinch-hitters couldn’t scratch southpaw Danny Burgess in the ninth, and the Coons lost the series. 4-2 Falcons. Sibley (PH) 1-1;

Well, whaddayagonna…….

Raccoons (74-59) @ Loggers (60-73) – August 31-September 3, 2034

…and only now we’d come up against our new nemesis, the Loggers, who held a 6-5 lead in the season series. They were also reaching for third place in the division, albeit 14 games behind us as the Indians had died and were being overtaken. They were ninth in runs scored, seventh in runs allowed, and they were in the top 3 in stolen bases and bottom 3 in homers. We can make them bolster the one and recover the other stat!

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (12-4, 2.51 ERA) vs. Alfredo Casique (14-9, 4.33 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (10-7, 3.72 ERA) vs. William Stockwell (4-4, 3.42 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (10-8, 3.85 ERA) vs. Cody Chamberlin (3-3, 3.27 ERA)
Pat Okrasinski (12-7, 4.32 ERA) vs. Paul Metzler (9-12, 4.00 ERA)

The only left-hander here was Stockwell. The Loggers were down two regulars from the lineup in Matt Lockert and Danny Valenzuela. The latter had gone down with a hammy this week, taking away the best bat by average (.305) for Milwaukee. The Coons still carried Wall’s corpse and thus still had a short bench to open the series.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – CF M. Fernandez – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – C Scheffer – P Chavez
MIL: CF Prestwood – 2B McWhirter – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – SS Garnier – 1B O. Huerta – RF D.J. Mendez – C Canas – P Casique

Portland plated two in the opening inning, with Ramos and Zeltser getting on, Wallace landing an RBI single, and Fernandez chipping in a sac fly for a quick start. And then they held a nap. The Loggers meanwhile was largely cancelled by Bernie for three innings before he had three singles get away for one run in the bottom 4th, Bill McWhirter being driven in by Omar Huerta. Josh Conner hit a double in the sixth, moved up on Steve Wilson’s groundout, but then was kept pinned when Maxime Garnier hit a comebacker to Bernie, who then got Omar Huerta to fly out to center, maintaining his slim 2-1 margin. Bernie even hit a single himself in the top 7th, but to no avail… Berto grounded out to end the inning. Bernie dragged himself through seven innings before he couldn’t go no further. Prieto and Hennessy combined for a clean eighth before Alex Banderas ran into some trouble for Milwaukee, with Scheffer and Sibley riding a pair of 2-out singles to emerge on the corners. What’s that? NAP TIME OVER?? Some two hours later, they were suddenly stretching their numb paws again. Ramos stretched them for two bases and as many RBI on a double into the corner. The save chance went away on Zeltser’s RBI double and Stalker’s RBI single, the latter off right-hander Tommy Iezzi. Wallace popped out after five straight 2-out base knocks, and the save chance nearly went back on when Nick Bates put the first two Loggers on base in the bottom 9th. Garnier and Huerta were not helped by D.J. Mendez’ double play grounder, though, and Rodrigo Canas’ RBI single was as much as they got out of Bates or anybody else. 6-2 Coons. Ramos 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Zeltser 3-5, 2B, RBI; Stalker 2-5, RBI; Sibley (PH) 1-1; Chavez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER; 2 BB, 5 K, W (13-4) and 1-3;

That ended a grim 15-13 August, and brought about roster expansion … while Dr. Chung couldn’t find anything with Kurt Wall that he wouldn’t classify under “being a sissy”, and Wall insisted he couldn’t put on his pants, and Maud called the league office and they said in no uncertain terms that, no, Kurt Wall could not take the field without pants … so we were sort of stuck there. Wall remained on the roster, but unavailable, yet we also didn’t call up another catcher at this point, although I liked a third catcher come September.

Instead we promoted this bushel of players: Chiyosaku Maruyama returned, as did Rich Vickers. 26-year-old RF Bobby Houston would make his major league debut, although I didn’t quite know why…

The pitching side was lengthened as well, with the promotion of two relievers, Victor Anaya and Carlos de la Cruz, as well as a starter… Darren Brown. The latter would take various starts that would normally go to either Rendon or Okrasinski in September, starting with Okrasinski’s turn on Sunday.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – RF Salgado – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – C Scheffer – CF Jennings – 3B Marsingill – P Sabre
MIL: CF Will Ojeda – 2B McWhirter – 1B Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – C Canas – SS O. Freeman – RF Prestwood – P Stockwell

Portland did nothing against Stockwell while Sabre was starting so-so, then slipped into another beating by the third inning. Tyler Prestwood opened with a double to left, was bunted over by the pitcher, and then Will Ojeda hit an RBI single to left, as did Bill McWhirter. Wallace overran the latter ball for a grim error that allowed Ojeda to score, and the Loggers tried to get McWhirter in on Jeremy Leftwich’s single, but Salgado threw out the runner at home plate, short-circuiting an inning just about to get really ugly. Conner lined out to Justin Marsingill to end the dismal bottom 3rd. Salgado hit a leadoff double in the fourth and never made it to third base as Stockwell walked one and whiffed three of the next four batters. He wasn’t the last Critter to find an extra-base hit; Stalker hit a double in the sixth and was stranded. Scheffer hit a leadoff double in the seventh, and then it went pop, grounder, grounder, back to the dugout from second base for Scheffer… it was still a 2-0 game in the ninth with Banderas back on the mound. Manny Fernandez hit for Zitzner and hit a leadoff single. Scheffer popped out, but Jennings singled. Zeltser batted for Marsingill with the tying runs aboard, but flew out to right. Last straws would be Sibley, batting for David Fernandez… and he flew out to Prestwood. 2-0 Loggers. Salgado 2-4, 2B; M. Fernandez (PH) 1-1; Marsingill 2-3;

Dr. Chung? What is with Kurt Wall? – Dr. Chung, this is taking too long! – What do you mean, whether I want to make contact with the security apparatus?

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – CF M. Fernandez – RF Houston – 1B Maruyama – C Thompson – P del Rio
MIL: CF Will Ojeda – 2B McWhirter – 1B Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – SS Garnier – C Canas – RF R. Rodriguez – P Chamberlin

Cody Chamberlin got waffled in the first inning; Berto walked, stole second, and scored on Zeltser’s single. Stalker flew out, Wallace had a double, Manny landed an RBI single, and in his major league debut Bobby Houston hit a sac fly to get to 3-0. Maruyama’s RBI double made it 4-0 before Thompson ended the inning with a weak grounder. Now enter del Rio… Ojeda double, Leftwich RBI single, Conner single, wild pitch, and a run-scoring groundout hit by Steve Wilson, and that was half the lead gone in an instant. He faced six batters for 15 pitches, all of them ****, in the bottom 1st.

Now, in good news, Chamberlin had another inning from hell in the fourth and was removed first. Thompson reached base, somehow, was forced out on a ****ty bunt by del Rio, but at least the awful tosser reached third base on a Ramos single AND drew a hopeless throw from Ramon Rodriguez in the latter’s first game of the season (after a cup of coffee in ’33), and Bob Zeltser doubled both of them in. Stalker got Zeltser around, 7-2. And del Rio? Immediately cocked up four singles and two runs in the bottom 5th, Rodriguez, Ojeda, McWHirter, and Leftwich all hitting a tick of him before Josh Conner hit into a 6-4-3 double play to get the **** outta there.

By the seventh, the Loggers’ pen imploded wholly and fully. Adam Brochu loaded the bases with nobody out before balking the first run in and conceded another one on Houston’s second sac fly. Maruyama got an RBI knock, and even del Rio landed another hit, an RBI double. Ramos hit an RBI single, and Zeltser also dropped in a ball for a single. Bobby Valencia, the third pitcher of the miserable inning, plated Berto with a wild pitch and walked Stalker before Wallace grounded out, ending a 6-run inning that would surely result in a W for the Critters… Then the bottom 7th… del Rio got two outs, put two on, and the Coons went to Fernandez, who walked a pair before Steve Wilson fanned to strand a full set in a 13-5 game. Top 8th, Luis Villoch walked the first two batters, then gave up an RBI single to Thompson. Vickers flew out and Berto lined out to Leftwich to end the inning, and after that many regulars came out of the game. No further runs were scored; Carlos de la Cruz pitched two scoreless to close out the game. 14-5 Critters! Ramos 2-5, BB, RBI; Zeltser 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Wallace 2-6, 2 2B; M. Fernandez 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Salgado 1-1; Houston 2-4, 2 RBI; Maruyama 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Thompson 2-5, RBI; de la Cruz 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Everybody in the lineup had at least one base hit, and everybody except for Tim Stalker had two. But Stalker walked twice, so he gets a pass.

Kurt Wall was diagnosed with back soreness after all. He would miss another few days, maybe up to the next weekend. We might have called up Tony Morales for a cup of coffee now … nah, that would have been crazy, especially since he does not have to be put on the 40-man roster this year. Tinnin would have gotten the call. But Morales left the Saturday game of the Alley Cats with an injury, so now we were down to just two healthy catchers per level in the organization and could not bring up another guy anyway.

Game 4
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – CF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – RF Jennings – 1B Zitzner – 2B Sibley – C Thompson – P Brown
MIL: CF Will Ojeda – C Canas – 1B Leftwich – LF S. Wilson – SS Garnier – 2B O. Freeman – 3B Meehan – RF R. Rodriguez – P Metzler

Darren Brown (0-0, 5.40 ERA) made his fifth ABL start in three seasons and would try to get that career ERA (6.84) down. In the bottom 1st he sandwiched Canas’ deep flyout between two K’s, so maybe it would all be alright! The Loggers didn’t murder him in the second inning, either, and he drew a walk off Metzler in the third. Ramos dropped a bloop single, and after Zeltser popped out, Manny Fernandez launched a drive to right and over the fence for a 3-run homer! The bleed, however, started immediately after. Rodriguez doubled, Metzler got his revenge with an RBI single, and Brown walked Ojeda before two nifty plays by the otherwise completely useless Ross Sibley kept the Loggers from doing further damage. Metzler *did* incur such damage, conceding straight singles to begin the fourth inning, and four such singles in total. Brown came up with one across and three aboard, hit a ball to Omar Freeman for a double play, but at least that scored Zitzner from third, putting Portland up 5-1. Ramos grounded out.

After a calm fifth, the bottom 6th unraveled thanks to Bob Zeltser dropping a Leftwich pop with one out. Steve Wilson singled, and the runners advanced on Maxime Garnier’s groundout. Omar Freeman got a ball over the second base bag for a 2-run single, cutting the lead back to two runs, and even though they were unearned on Brown, I was also sour on him. He did bat in the seventh, though, poking a 1-out single against Metzler. Berto doubled, and Metzler balked home his opponent with Zeltser at the plate. He then brought Ramos across with a wild pitch. Now *that* was a meltdown…! After completing a broken-hearted walk to Zeltser, Metzler was lifted for right-hander Rafael Zacarias, who found a way out of the inning. The seventh was also the last inning for Brown, but he retired the Loggers in order, whiffing two! Bates and Hennessy split the eighth, Zelts homered off Tommy Iezzi in the ninth, and then Victor Anaya got a chance to do good in the bottom 9th after being banished for the entire summer. He drilled Jamie Meehan with two outs, but that was the only Logger to reach base. 8-3 Furballs! Ramos 2-4, BB, 2B; Zeltser 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Wallace 2-5; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, BB;

In other news

August 28 – WAS SP/MR Joe West (4-1, 2.15 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves in an 8-0 shutout.
August 28 – DEN 1B Kumanosuke Henderson (.251, 17 HR, 84 RBI) might miss the rest of the season with a sprained ankle.
August 29 – For the second day in a row, a Cap shuts out the Wolves, with WAS SP Lorenzo Viamontes (10-9, 2.91 ERA) spinning a 2-hit shutout in another 8-0 slapping.
August 29 – In bad news for Washington, a sore elbow axes WAS SP Colt Willes (10-7, 2.77 ERA) from the remainder of the schedule.
August 31 – ATL OF/1B/2B Luis Inoa (.293, 5 HR, 49 RBI) finishes August with a 20-game hitting streak following two singles hit in a 10-7 loss to the Condors.
August 31 – In the Warriors’ 18-5 rout of the Scorpions, Mario Colon, Kevin Harenberg, and Dean Hill each drive in four runs. Harenberg (.294, 7 HR, 45 RBI) also leads the team – tied with Pedro Cisneros – with four base hits.
September 2 – SAC CF Mark Vermillion (.334, 12 HR, 64 RBI) is out for the season with shoulder tendinitis.
September 3 – The hitting streak of Atlanta’s Luis Inoa (.290, 6 HR, 50 RBI) ends at 22 games after he has to leave the field empty-handed in a 3-1 loss to the Condors.

Complaints and stuff

I thought the Raccoons could go 9-0 against a CL South team maybe once in my lifetime. ONCE. That isn’t too much asked, I think. But no such luck. Everybody turned up to play poop ball on Monday. At least they returned to beating the Loggers like a drum except for that one stupid game. That’s good, because we have the damn Elks in next week…

We are given a mere 4% chance to catch the Titans by BNN, to which my response was a disbelieving “that much?” …

Following his first major league win in a thoroughly solid performance on Sunday, Darren Brown is now a 1-4, 5.63 ERA pitcher. Not great. Room for improvement. But he’s now pitched his usual 10+ innings and has not yet walked 13 batters, so that’s a success, too!

Former fifth-round pick Barry Schuster was released this week. He had been demoted back to Aumsville, where he had hit under .150 afterwards, and we couldn’t drag along a 23-year-old middle infielder not doing **** on a team with 19-year-old middle infielders.

Fun Fact: Three Raccoons rank in the top 10 in triples in the Continental League.

That would be Berto with eight, tying for fifth place, and Manny and Tim Stalker, both tying for seventh with seven triples. Far and away is Willie Ojeda of the Condors with *15* triples. He is only one triple away from tying the 2031 Raccoons’ output as a whole…!

Berto led that team with five triples. Stalker and Matt Jamieson had two. Five other position players (Vanatti, Rodriguez, Hereford, Wallace, 2005 Ugliest Baby Boy Sam Cass) each had one… and two pitchers chipped in a triple, too, in Mark Roberts and Bernie Chavez.