[Westheim]

Raccoons (39-52) vs. Loggers (45-49) – July 17-19, 2035

The Raccoons limped back home, 3-9 in July and 6-14 for their last 20 and with eight defeats in their last nine games, after the Crusaders had reasonably pulled life support from the Critters’ season. Six runs, four earned, in four games was not the output expected of a major league team, let alone of a contending one. In came the Loggers, the first serving of four teams that would parade through Raccoons Ballpark, each in the hope of getting out with three wins – and none of them hysterical in their expectations. The Loggers were seventh in runs scored and were bleeding the most runs in the CL, but when had that ever been an invitation to this rump team? The Coons led the season series, 5-4, which was surely as transient as any sort of fleeting hope in here…

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (4-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Vinny Olguin (9-6, 3.75 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (7-7, 3.46 ERA) vs. Alfredo Casique (10-6, 4.17 ERA)
Colt Willes (8-7, 3.37 ERA) vs. Paul Metzler (3-10, 4.54 ERA)

All right-handers, although the common off day on Monday had originally see them skip the turn of southpaw William Stockwell (6-6, 5.13 ERA). It remained to be seen whether he would be allowed to dazzle a helpless lineup – even with the return of Justin Fowler after a month on the sidelines.

Game 1
MIL: CF Prestwood – 2B McWhirter – RF Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – 1B S. Ayala – SS Yoshioka – C Paiz – P Olguin
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Morales – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Sabre

Fowler returned with a sac fly for his 58th RBI of the season, bringing home Ramos, who had reached on catcher’s interference, with Wallace having doubled in between. The sac fly erased the 1-0 deficit Sabre had incurred in the top of the first inning, getting knocked around for three hard singles. Nothing about that was going to change – ever since coming off the DL Sabre had been indefensibly bad in every sense of the word, and Tyler Prestwood’s clean RBI single in the top 2nd gave the Loggers another lead, 2-1. It was the fifth hit off Sabre, plus a walk to Kenta Yoshioka earlier in the inning.

Sabre held of total destruction for just long enough to get a real chance at a lead – well, or at least the pretend-hope of one – in the bottom 4th. Fowler reached on an error by Edgar Paiz to begin the inning, and Morales and Zeltser filled the bases with singles, and still nobody out. All hope was of course on Tim Stalker, considering that after him came the waste of oxygen that was Chiyosaku Maruyama, batting even less than the Coons’ whack-a-mole pitcher. Ironically, Stalker popped out, while Maruyama’s ****ty bouncer went through between Josh Conner and Yoshioka, tying the game. Sabre then found it fit to hit into a double play to kill the inning.

He also somehow got through seven innings after that, with the Loggers reliably hitting their rockets at fielders in the three innings following his double play bouncer. He belatedly got into line for a W on a quite big Tim Stalker homer in the bottom 7th. That was not the only run in the inning – Maruyama dropped another super-soft single, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Berto’s single to left. Ramos stole his 30th base with two outs, then scored on a Wallace single, and then Justin Fowler picked up where he had left off and crunched a homer to left, concluding a 5-spot off poor ol’ Olguin that was the decider in the game. 7-2 Coons. Wallace 2-4, 2B, RBI; Zeltser 2-4; Stalker 2-4, HR, RBI; Maruyama 3-4, RBI; Sabre 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (5-3);

Steve Wilson suffered a core injury in a collision with Tim Stalker at second base in the ninth inning. He was whisked off to the DL by Wednesday.

Game 2
MIL: CF Prestwood – 2B McWhirter – RF Leftwich – 3B Conner – SS Garnier – 1B S. Ayala – LF K. Farmer – C Canas – P Stockwell
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Wall – RF Salgado – 1B Maruyama – 3B Marsingill – P Rendon

The Loggers put eight runners on base in the first three innings – and left all eight of them on. Three in the first, two in the second, three in the third, nobody scored. Well, at least not until Justin Marsingill unleashed a long homer to left-center in the bottom 3rd, prior to which Stockwell had retired seven of seven Critters. It wouldn’t be enough for Rendon to make a W out of it. Gilberto tossed 98 pitches for just 13 outs, departing with Conner and Maxime Garnier on base and one out in the top 5th. David Fernandez came on, got a fielder’s choice grounder from Salvador Ayala, then rung up Kymani Farmer to add another two to the Loggers’ LOB total.

The green team finally broke through in the sixth against Fernandez and Prieto, who yielded a total of three base hits. Bill McWhirter singled in Rodrigo Canas off Prieto, but him and Prestwood were stranded in scoring position when Leftwich fanned and Conner grounded out to third base. That left the Raccoons up 2-1, following a Maruyama homer (!!) in the bottom of the fifth. In turn the bottom 6th began with a Wallace single, a Fowler double, and those two being left stranded on Wall’s lineout, Salgado’s K, and Maruyama’s F8. Marsingill and Ramos were stranded in scoring position the following inning when neither Stalker nor Wallace could get a ball to at least somewhere convenient… Begged to make a comeback, the Loggers did their best. Andrew Barker singled, D.J. Mendez doubled off Chris Wise in the eighth… and then THEY were left there on McWhirter’s comebacker and Jeremy Leftwich’s pop to Stalker. When no insurance run came forth in the bottom 8th, Ed Blair was on his own against the 4-5-6 batters. Conner grounded out to third, Garnier grounded out to second, and Ayala banged a double off the fence. Yoshioka, a lefty batter, hit for Farmer, but the Coons stuck to Blair, a fatal mistake rewarded with a score-flipping homer to right, smashed on a stupid 2-1 pitch right down the middle. 3-2 Loggers. Fowler 2-4, 2B; Marsingill 2-2, BB, HR, RBI;

I blame the cooks in the clubhouse having left the door open. The smell of roasted pig quelled through the tunnel onto the playing field, and the Critters couldn’t help themselves but to make three quick outs as quick as possible. Quicker!

Oh well, it’s not like the season would have been salvaged by back-to-back wins for the first time since … uhm… at some point last month?

Game 3
MIL: 1B S. Ayala – 2B McWhirter – RF Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF D.J. Mendez – CF K. Farmer – SS Del Vecchio – C Paiz – P Casique
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Morales – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – 1B Maruyama – P Willes

What was more upsetting – the fact that Josh Conner hit a leadoff jack for the first run of the game in the second inning, or that he poked at a 3-0 pitch the next time around with Leftwich on first and nobody out, and hit into a double play? That was for the Loggers manager to answer; I was entirely served by the D.J. Mendez homer to right-center that followed and made it 2-0. At that point the Coons had stranded four already, and half of those had been unearned, too… Conner’s third appearance of the day was an inning-ending whiffer in the top 6th, and that was the 100th strikeout for Willes on the season. The Critters made the scoreboard in the bottom 6th, which began with a Fernandez single, and while the sluggers didn’t add much to the effort, Tony Morales at least walked to keep the line moving. Zelts hit an RBI single, Stalker singled to fill the bags, and maybe Maruyama could continue his good week and - … or maybe he’d fly out to Leftwich and leave three stranded.

Berto was the tying run after a seventh-inning single. He saw Fernandez fly out to center for the second retirement of the inning, then took off on the 0-1 to Jimmy Wallace. The park gasped – this was for #500! Edgar Paiz wasted no time gasping – his laser beam slammed Berto out to end the inning and delayed his 500th career steal to a later date. Willes pitched into the ninth, only to give up another homer to Leftwich leading off the inning. That was the sixth and final hit off Willes in the game, and three of them had left the damn park. Their share of crazy swings notwithstanding, this was not a feat the Raccoons would achieve on this day, not even once. Tim Stalker would hit a leadoff single off Alex Banderas in the bottom 9th. Maruyama whiffed. Rich Vickers hit into a double play. 3-1 Loggers. Zeltser 2-4, RBI; Stalker 3-4;

Slappy, get some new sweatpants without booze stains – you’re playing tomorrow. Cristiano – see the equipment guy with the squealy wheel – you’re … you can catch, I guess. And hit third.

Raccoons (40-54) vs. Falcons (35-59) – July 20-22, 2035

Hey, a team with a worse record! And they were even so bad they’d still have a worse record once they’d have swept us. They did hold a 2-1 edge in the season series. Charlotte had lost six in a row, though the Coons were close, scored the fewest runs in the league, and were still surrendering plenty. They had a -85 run differential. Ours? Somehow negative one!

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (6-9, 4.86 ERA) vs. Jesus Blanco (4-10, 5.13 ERA)
Josh Livingston (2-0, 2.15 ERA) vs. Mike Barnett (3-6, 3.93 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (5-3, 3.71 ERA) vs. Matt Moon (4-11, 3.85 ERA)

We would get a spot start from Livingston, who had never done such a thing in his major league career (but had 84 minor league starts). Who cares who loses each game in particular? It would delay picking a fifth starting pitcher for another week.

The Falcons would only send up right-handers. They had also just traded vaguely productive outfielder Andy Montes to the Rebs for prospects. Another key player, Greg Ortiz, was on the DL.

Game 1
CHA: 2B O. Aguirre – RF J. Aguilar – CF J. Reyna – C Huichapa – 3B Da – 1B Pulido – LF L. Herrera – SS Aparicio – P Blanco
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Morales – 3B Zeltser – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – P Chavez

Jerry Aguilar wiped away 224 homerless at-bats on the season with a quick 430-footer off Bernie Chavez in the first inning. Isn’t it nice when young people steadfastly pursue their dreams and finally succeed? But do they have to do it on our turf, again and again?? A Ramos double and Fowler’s RBI single would erase the deficit, but then the Critters poked pointlessly again. Berto was back on base with a single in the bottom 3rd. At 3-1, Manny Fernandez poked into a double play. This booze just wasn’t soothing the pain anymore…! – Maud! – Maud!! – Do we still have bleach??

The game remained tied at one through five innings. When Maruyama hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, Bernie bunted into a double play. At least he had eight strikeouts through five and wouldn’t allow another home run. Bottom 6th, Wallace dropped a double to left with one out. The Falcons walked Fowler with intent, trying to get Tony Morales up. The rookie had been entirely luckless during the Loggers series, and now grounded up the middle for what looked like a double play, except that it had drizzled earlier and the infield was sort of moist. Oscar Aguirre lost his footing and any play, and the Critters loaded the bases for Bob Zeltser, batting .252 with six homers. Zelts hit a clean RBI single up the middle, plating Wallace for a 2-1 lead. Vickers got a sac fly, and then everybody got a rain delay from a suddenly breaking storm cell that gave us an hour-long interruption that wiped out both starting pitchers. Tim Stalker pinch-hit for Bernie against southpaw Chris Turner after a walk to Maruyama, with three on and two gone. Stalker flew out to Jonathan Reyna… and on a 3-1 pitch. Seriously, if your thousand-year veterans don’t have no baseball smarts anymore, who’s gonna have some??

Dusty Kulp then blew the lead in the top 7th with another ****ing **** performance. Zhao-jun Da singled off him, and scored on a groundout and TWO wild pitches before Tony Aparicio hit a homer to left – the first career base hit for the 21-year-old replacement shortstop. The Falcons would not score again in regulation, but the Coons weren’t poised to do so, either. Bottom 9th, Victor Govea, the former starter and 2027 Rookie of the Year, retired Salgado and Barrios on grounders at the bottom of the pile before Berto slapped his fourth hit of the day, a single to center. Then he took off again – and swiped second base. His 500th stolen base – only the third player to reach the mark! And after a brief standing ovation and some applause, the game resumed: he was the winning run and there were outs in the inning after all. Manny Fernandez had not hit a baseball all week, but countered a stretched Govea, who had entered in the seventh. Govea walked him, then somehow got Wallace to ground out. Which meant only one thing – the Coons would lose in extras, like they ALWAYS did! But the Falcons didn’t break through against Chris Wise in the 10th, and ex-Coon Jonathan Fleischer would face Fowler to begin the bottom of the inning, so maybe a swift – nope, Fowler got only junk and eventually walked. Two groundouts moved him to third base, which was only helpful if Fleischer threw a wild pitch to PH Kurt Wall. He didn’t, throwing 98 right down the middle instead. Wall didn’t miss it, and belted a 392-footer over the leftfield fence. 5-3 Raccoons! Ramos 4-5, 2B; Wallace 2-5, 2B; Wall (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Maruyama 1-2, BB; Chavez 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K;

IT’S A WALKOFF!! (races around the table with arms raised and flailing) WALKOFF! WALKOFF! WALKOFF!! (stumbles over something and tumbles against the trusty brown couch)

Cristiano, if I didn’t know any better I would have guessed you stuck your leg out to make me trip! – Don’t give me that innocent look!

Game 2
CHA: 2B O. Aguirre – RF J. Aguilar – CF J. Reyna – C Huichapa – LF Trahan – 3B Da – 1B Pulido – SS Aparicio – P Barnett
POR: SS Ramos – C Wall – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – 3B Zeltser – RF Salgado – 2B Barrios – 1B Maruyama – P Livingston

Livingston was outta whack in his starting debut. Oscar Aguirre drew a walk to begin the game, then scored on singles by Reyna and Dave Trahan. Defense would help him out a bit better in the following innings while I anxiously waited for the first three on, no outs, no runs appearance of the Critters. Nothing much happened in the first two innings, but Maruyama reached base to begin the bottom 3rd with a soft single. He was bunted over, but Ramos flew out. Kurt Wall came through again with a game-tying single to center, and Wallace would also go to center… some 410 feet to center, actually, hitting a tie-breaking, 2-out, 2-run shot for a 3-1 lead.

Livingston held on to that a while longer, despite Bob Zeltser’s error that began the top 5th. The fumble put Aparicio on first base, but Wall caught him stealing on the first pitch to Barnett. Livingston then walked Aguirre with two outs, but Aguilar grounded out to Zeltser, who this time kept all his paws together. That didn’t mean there was not some stupid error in the following inning, at that time it was Wall, throwing away a grounder by Ernesto Huichapa, the otherwise silent current Rookie of the Year. This came with no outs, Reyna on first, and put the tying runs in scoring position, and Livingston’s confidence visibly dissipated through his pointy hairy ears. He did not retire another batter, instead throwing four more pitches for two RBI singles by Trahan and Da. Prieto replaced him, walked Aparicio to fill the bags, but struck out Jose Pulido, Barnett, and Aguirre to strand three Falcons in a 3-3 game. After that, neither team put anything together through eight. Garavito and Wise held the fort that far, and David Fernandez retired the Falcons in order in the top 9th, setting up Fowler again to lead of with a chance for a walkoff jack against left-hander Juan Vela. That didn’t happen – wildly not – and three extremely poor outs on the infield sent the game to extras.

And here the Coons were in a pickle. They had to pitch Fernandez to the right-handed middle of the order, because besides Kulp (who pitched two ****ty innings the day before) and Blair there was just nobody left in the pen. Huichapa and Trahan hit back-to-back 1-out doubles, and that was that… The bottom 10th pitted Jonathan Fleischer against the bottom of the order. Manny Fernandez hit for Barrios and grounded out. Maruyama flew out to right. Tony Morales batted for David Fernandez and walked, bringing up Berto, homerless in ’35, as the winning run. A groundout to first base ended the vain hope for back-to-back wins. 4-3 Falcons.

We managed all of five base hits. How they turned that into even three runs is beyond me.

I have a hunch we will not win the series…

Game 3
CHA: 2B O. Aguirre – RF J. Aguilar – CF J. Reyna – C Huichapa – LF Trahan – 3B Da – 1B Pulido – SS Aparicio – P Sparkes
POR: SS Ramos – RF M. Fernandez – LF Wallace – CF Fowler – C Morales – 3B Zeltser – 2B Stalker – 1B Salgado – P Sabre

The Falcons carted up their ace, Bryce Sparkes (11-7, 3.41 ERA), utilizing their midweek off day to skip Matt Moon. That was still a right-hander to flail against, so we didn’t really care… Sabre ran into a ghastly second inning that began with a Huichapa single to left and pretty soon devolved into some grade one meltdown. Da walked, Pulido got nailed, one run scored on a groundout, and another on a wild pitch before Sparkes graciously struck out to strand Pulido. The Raccoons had a bushel of singles the first time through, but also had Fowler in the first and Salgado in the second robbed in the gap by the spoiler Aguilar. Fowler’s fly ended the inning, Salgado’s at least plated Bob Zeltser for a sac fly. Sabre hit a 2-out single to move Tim Stalker to second base, but Berto flew out to Reyna, keeping Portland 2-1 behind…

Neither team scored anymore through five, and Charlotte didn’t even get another hit until Aguilar legged out a 1-out infield single in the sixth inning. Sabre folded immediately, serving up a booming homer to leftfield to Reyna, 4-1. Now, to anybody’s surprise, and just when I had the rope knotted sturdy, but still able to have the noose sliding, Bob Zeltser hit a counter-homer in the bottom of the inning, a 2-piece collecting Fowler with two outs. That didn’t mean we weren’t trailing anymore, but maybe the Falcons would make six errors in the next inning and… and maybe Oscar Aguirre would sink Sabre for good with a 2-out, 2-run triple into the corner behind Wallace in the top of the seventh.

Kulp came on, retired Aguilar, and then Sparkes gave the margin right back again in the bottom 7th, another 2-out, 2-run homer, this one by Manny Fernandez and hit to right. Berto was on base and collected, now in a 6-5 deficit. Wallace struck out, sending the game back to Kulp, who held the Falcons in check in the eighth. Bottom of the inning, Morales and Zeltser with 1-out singles… and Kurt Wall with a pinch-hit double play bouncer. But we hadn’t seen the last 2-spot yet. Top 9th, Ed Blair was on. To his and my horror, Ramos foundered a Pulido grounder with one out, and then Blair walked Tom Hawkins, ex-Coon and out for revenge. After Hubbard grounded out, moving up the runners, Aguirre put the dagger in with his second 2-out, 2-run hit of the game, a single to right that saw the Falcons zoom out by three. Aguilar struck out, but the Coons faced Vela again in the bottom 9th. Salgado singled. Vickers popped out. Berto hit into a fielder’s choice… Marsingill hit for Fernandez and grounded out. 8-5 Falcons. Zeltser 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Salgado 2-3, RBI;

We out-hit them a gentle 11-7 …

In other news

July 16 – BOS OF/2B Moises Avila (.261, 7 HR, 50 RBI) is lost for the season with a torn abdominal muscle.
July 16 – The Miners deal LF/CF/INF Jake Trawick (.277, 13 HR, 38 RBI) and a meager prospect to the Gold Sox for C Jeremiah Brooks (.290, 6 HR, 29 RBI).
July 17 – The Aces’ 1B/3B/OF Jesse Stedham (.276, 6 HR, 37 RBI) steps into the batter’s box five times in Vegas’ 15-6 rush of the Bayhawks, and never is credited with an official at-bat. Stedham walks four times and is nailed in his fifth attempt. He scores four runs and gets an RBI for his efforts.
July 18 – VAN 2B/OF Eric Morrow (.250, 1 HR, 15 RBI) hits a single for the only base hit the Canadiens amount to in a 2-1 loss to the Indians’ Josh Walsh (8-6, 2.68 ERA) and three relievers.
July 20 – SFW RF/LF/1B Tim Sheaffer (.287, 15 HR, 68 RBI) hits two home runs, has four hits, and plates five runs against the Blue Sox, while the Warriors make up an 8-4 deficit with a 10-run ninth inning, only to almost blow their own lead in the bottom 9th. The Blue Sox make up only four runs, however, and lose 14-12.
July 20 – The Titans lose another critical piece for the season, with SP Tony Chavez (8-7, 3.96 ERA) out with a torn rotator cuff.
July 21 – The Thunder lose both OF/1B Drew Olszewski (.274, 3 HR, 34 RBI) and MR Mike Cockcroft (3-3, 2.84 ERA) for the season. Olszewski is out in particularly worrisome manner, with a grim concussion.
July 21 – The Wolves acquire C Morgan Kuhlmann (.238, 8 HR, 39 RBI) and a prospect from the Cyclones, parting with SP Jong-hoo Cho (7-7, 3.87 ERA). Kuhlmann will be on his third major league team of the year, having started the season with Indy.
July 22 – ATL RF/LF Roy Pincus (.286, 12 HR, 43 RBI) lands four hits and drives in six runs as the Knights slap down the Crusaders, 13-6. Teammate 3B Chris Maneke (.287, 9 HR, 47 RBI) drives in five runs on two hits.
July 22 – TIJ 3B Shane Sanks (.289, 16 HR, 66 RBI) homers for the only score in the Condors’ 1-0 win over the Canadiens.
July 22 – SFW SP Tony Galligher (9-8, 3.06 ERA) hits the DL with a forearm strain. The Warriors claim he’ll be as good as new in four weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Alberto Ramos – what a steal! His 500th sack stolen was undoubtedly the highlight of the week, because, honestly, what else did we have? Two pathetic series lost to crummy teams.

I really don’t know what else to say anymore. It’s 100% back to the drawing board, sell everybody again, and then try to rebuild something out of a burnt-down farm. It took five years to build that farm last time, and we got zero playoff games out of harvesting all of it for failed trade acquisitions.

Everything’s fallen apart. Everything’s in tethers.

(hangs his head as he stands on the big window overlooking the baseball field, with the sun setting behind the leftfield stands)

Fun Fact: The Raccoons haven’t been shut out in 21 consecutive games!

But then again, they also have scored only one or two runs in nine of those games. Our 4.1 runs scored per game during the stretch is a bit of false flag, given there were two trouncings of the Titans (12 runs) and damn Elks (14 runs) included in that stretch.