[Westheim]

Originally Posted by StLee

The comeback is on!

Originally Posted by Bub13

The First Rule of Comeback is no talking about Comeback.

Well, well.

+++

Raccoons (67-51) vs. Blue Sox (62-56) – August 18-20, 2036

We played Nashville for the first time since ’34, when we had lost two of three games to them. Despite their mediocre record they were only one game behind in the FL East, so every game was crucial to them. The FL East of ’36 was really the CL North of ’35, with five teams under a blanket right now; only the Rebels were their usual 50-legged disaster. They ranked seventh in runs scored in the Federal League, but had allowed the very fewest runs. They were the FL’s best defensive team, while the starters ranked fourth in ERA, and the bullpen sat in third place. They also had no injuries to complain about.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (6-6, 3.79 ERA) vs. Kevin Stice (13-9, 3.48 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (9-8, 2.94 ERA) vs. Doug Clifford (9-11, 4.18 ERA)
Josh Livingston (1-1, 4.34 ERA) vs. Matt Hose (10-6, 2.98 ERA)

Right, left, right for the Blue Sox. And then there was Jim “Mastodon” Allen, who entered the series with 112 RBI in *August*.

Game 1
NAS: 3B Bossert – SS Bouldin – LF Ashley – 2B J. Allen – RF R. Sanchez – CF Talabera – 1B Vadillo – C Canody – P Stice
POR: 3B Downs – LF Hooge – RF M. Fernandez – C Morales – CF Maldonado – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – SS Nickas – P Sabre

The series got underway really well with Chance Bossert reaching on a Nickas error, stealing second uncontested, reaching third on Billy Bouldin’s infield single, and then Sean Ashley walked to fill the bases. Allen got his 113th RBI on a sac fly before Raul Sanchez popped out and Cesar Talabera whiffed. Sabre settled in with his tail a bit less on fire after that, but then there was also the Raccoons having one of those games where their first two base hits were by the same player, in this case Manny Fernandez having singles in the first and fourth innings. The latter one at least came with nobody out, and Tony Morales chipped one into center to follow up his deed. Kevin Stice threw a wild pitch to advanced the runners, then gave up a rocket to Jesus Maldonado into the leftfield corner for a score-flipping 2-run double. Vickers singled to put them on the corners, but Maldonado went home when Chiyosaku Maruyama flew out to Sanchez, and was cut down at the plate, preventing the Critters from scoring any more in the inning.

The Blue Sox were also very silent. Sabre never allowed another base hit other than the infield single Bouldin had hit right in the first inning, but then he also walked four and then still them Sox liked to poke at 2-0 and 3-1 pitches and then usually made a poor out. Somehow Sabre made it through seven with that sort of day that would look good in the box score at first until you examined how many strikes he threw – just 55 in 102 pitches. While the Coons got PH Preston Pinkerton on base with a single in the bottom 7th and Ed Hooge was only narrowly denied a 2-out extra-base hit off the wall by Sanchez, Casey Moore got Bossert and Bouldin out in the eighth before David Fernandez retired nobody. Sean Ashley singled, the “Mastodon” walked, and Mike Burgess pinch-hit for the left-handed Sanchez. Antonio Prieto was called upon – and got a grounder for the third out of the inning.

The house of cards then collapsed in the ninth inning with Yeom Soung on the mound against lefty pinch-hitter and ex-Coon Bob Zeltser, who was in his 10th game with the Sox after starting the year in Indy. Vickers couldn’t reach his grounder, which escaped for a single, and then Justin Ollis’ bunt was catastrophically thrown away by Tony Morales, placing the tying run at third, the go-ahead run at second, and even Soung looked rather unhappy now. Taylor Canody’s groundout and a pinch-hit single by Fabien Ugolino turned the game around, and the Coons were staring at Adam Rosenwald in the bottom of the ninth, bumped right up against their dinner reservations. Maruyama struck out. Triolo grounded out to short. Fowler flew out to left. 3-2 Blue Sox. M. Fernandez 2-4; Maldonado 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Pinkerton (PH) 1-1; Sabre 7.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 5 K;

That was not a result we needed right now…

Game 2
NAS: 3B Bossert – SS Bouldin – LF Ashley – 2B J. Allen – RF R. Sanchez – CF Talabera – 1B Vadillo – C Canody – P Clifford
POR: 3B Downs – LF Hooge – CF Fowler – RF M. Fernandez – C Wall – 1B Maruyama – SS Nickas – 2B Marsingill – P Chavez

Justin Fowler gave the team another first-inning, 2-run homer, this time bringing around Adam Downs’ leadoff walk, for a 2-0 lead. He also hit a 2-out single in the third inning with a runner on second, but that was Bernie Chavez, who had faced the minimum the first time through and had opened this inning with a single over Bossert’s glove. Bernie was parked at third base, bringing up Manny Fernandez with runners on the corners – and Clifford served up a 68mph hanger that was hit into the next county over where it seriously disrupted a post-hippie peace conference, jumping the score to 5-0. Maruyama hit a solo shot right after that, Kurt Wall singled, Nickas was nicked, and somehow Justin Marsingill grounded out to short to let the battered Clifford get out of the inning.

A Bouldin single and an Ashley double the gave Nashville a run in the fourth, because the first law of baseball is that under no circumstances can it ever be any fun for us. Bottom 5th, though, Fernandez and Maruyama reached against right-hander Victor Alvarez, who threw a wild pitch to advance them. One run scored on Wall’s single, another one on Nickas’ groundout, and the tally was up to 8-1 before Marsingill ended the inning with a fly to center. The following inning the team scored a run on a walk and three infield singles (!!) before Alvarez was yanked. Bobby LeMoine got Maruyama to pop out before conceding a bases-clearing double to Kurt Wall, exploding the tally to 12-1. Bernie Chavez was ticked for a run in the seventh, which didn’t really disturb the scoreboard anymore, then got two outs in the eighth before Ashley singled on his 108th pitch. Dusty Kulp was sent in to get the final four outs, which he did without another bullpen deployment being required to stop a 7-run rally in the ninth… 12-2 Raccoons! Hooge 2-5; Fowler 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; M. Fernandez 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Pinkerton 1-1; Maruyama 2-5, HR, RBI; Wall 3-5, 2B, 4 RBI; Chavez 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (10-8) and 1-4;

Usual question, boys – where was half of that, yesterday?

Adam Downs was sore after not getting all that much rest in this endless string of games; he was left out of the lineup on Wednesday.

Game 3
NAS: 3B Bossert – SS Bouldin – LF Ashley – 2B J. Allen – RF R. Sanchez – CF Talabera – 1B Vadillo – C Canody – P Hose
POR: RF M. Fernandez – 2B Vickers – LF Hooge – CF Fowler – C Morales – 1B Maldonado – 3B Marsingill – SS Triolo – P Livingston

Right from the start it seemed like the Sox would be able to hit the ball a quarter mile off Livingston with just the right angle. Ed Hooge made not one, but two sprawling catches in the first inning alone, and because being only bad at pitching wasn’t enough, Josh Livingston also had to fumble a double play grounder for an error in the second. Somehow the defense still kept him in one piece. Ricardo Vadillo would double home Raul Sanchez in the fourth eventually, because there were just some nooks and crannies in the ballpark that Hooge couldn’t get to, and the Raccoons were getting hosed, landing no base hits off the Blue Sox’ righty through three innings in this rubber game. Fowler hit a single in the bottom 4th, which led absolutely nowhere, but the Critters were on the corners in the following inning after a leadoff double by Marsingill (what!?) and following Bouldin’s gaffe on fielding Matt Triolo’s roller. That was already the third error the Blue Sox made in the game and the Raccoons had yet to pounce on any of them. Livingston then promptly floated a single to shallow center to tie the game, his first hit and RBI on the season (but he had only pitched 23 innings and change). Manny singled to stack the sacks, but Vickers’ drive to right was caught and he was held to a sac fly, which at least gave the Portlanders the lead, 2-1. Hooge grounded out, bringing up Fowler with runners in scoring position and two outs. Now, other teams had walked Fowler in this spot for the last two seasons, but the Blue Sox didn’t not wanting to see a left-hander come to bat with three on. Hose pitched to Fowler, Fowler shot a ball over the fence in rightfield, and the 3-run homer opened the tally to 5-1. Morales then somberly grounded out to Allen, because baseball. Four of the five runs were unearned.

Vadillo tripled home Sanchez (who had forced out Allen and his leadoff single) to narrow the score to 5-2 in the sixth, but Livingston kept batting for himself even in the seventh (on 88 pitches) and singling. He was on second base when Hooge flew to shallow left. Ashley had initially frozen and hustled late, then had to slide, and overslid the ball, which disappeared between his arm pit and glove as he contorted himself, then rolled out behind him. Hooge settled for a single, but Livingston had gone on contact and scored, 6-2. That brought up Fowler once more – and he put the game away, hitting a 416-foot blast off Hose to left-center, running the tally to 8-2. Livingston go through eight before breaking through 100 pitches, and the ninth went to Garavito, who plunked Canody and walked Mike Burgess, but somehow found a way through the traffic to end the game. 8-2 Raccoons! Fowler 3-3, BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Maldonado 2-4, 3B; Livingston 8.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (2-1) and 2-3, RBI;

Raccoons (69-52) @ Titans (70-51) – August 22-24, 2036

The Miners had swept the Titans during the week, setting up this tantalizingly close duel on the weekend, with the top two in the North separated by only one game anymore when the Titans had led by double digits mere weeks before. They had lost four in a row in total and were 8-11 in August after a 17-9 July. Their offense, which had already been last in batting average and homers and had seen them near the bottom of the league in runs scored, now had also shed Mark Walker and Willie Vega for injury reasons, and they had not found adequate replacements yet. Among non-disabled players at this point, Keith Spataro, the constant Coons scare, led the team with SIX homers. Antonio Gil was the only qualifying player with a batting average better than .235! While up 6-5 in the season series, they were crying out to get routed right here and now. They had scored only six runs against the Miners, and had managed more than three runs only FOUR times in August! There was never a better opportunity for the Raccoons to sweep their way to the top!

Projected matchups:
Jared Ottinger (5-4, 3.82 ERA) vs. Matt Brost (11-4, 3.29 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (6-6, 3.61 ERA) vs. Tony Chavez (12-9, 2.70 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (10-8, 2.91 ERA) vs. Rich Willett (12-10, 3.62 ERA)

Another set of right-left-right opposition.

Keen eyes might notice Gilberto Rendon (5-7, 4.87 ERA) having gone missing from the rotation. It was not due to performance issues (although he was reliably crummy) or because we were deliberately mean to him, but because he had come down with a case of the Sniffles, Dr. Chung thought it would last all weekend, and we didn’t want that around on the mound in such a crucial series. He was skipped to the end of the line here.

Game 1
POR: 3B Downs – LF Hooge – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – 1B Maldonado – C Morales – 2B Vickers – SS Nickas – P Ottinger
BOS: LF O. Mendoza – SS Gil – 2B Spataro – RF M. Avila – 1B J. Elder – C J. Young – 3B Schmit – CF Barnes – P Brost

Downs walked, Hooge doubled, and Fernandez hit a sac fly for a quick 1-0 lead, but then Fowler didn’t homer for a change and the inning dried out instead, and then Oscar Mendoza led off with a triple into the rightfield corner and Antonio Gil’s grounder was fudged by Steve Nickas for a score-tying error. Ottie at least kept that runner on base, and we’d try anew later…

The Coons took the lead again in the third inning on Manny’s groundout to Andy Schmit after Downs and Hooge had set up camp on the corners with one out. Fowler grounded out to short to limit them to a 2-1 edge, and unfortunately we also had a pitcher that was popular on ****ing Gobble but kept putting an excess of runners on base. The Titans had two or more base runners in each of the early innings, including Keith Spataro and Moises Avila on singles in the bottom 3rd. Jay Elder then hit a grounder to short and was out by half a stadium given his negative pace, 6-4-3, ending the inning. The fourth was calm, but Mendoza drew a 2-out walk in the fifth before Gil hit a deep drive to center on 3-2 that Fowler barely got glove on, and didn’t even break a leg doing so …! He even survived getting drilled by Brost to begin the sixth inning, but looked extremely unhappy and like he’d go out and tear his head off if he wasn’t hurting so much already. Maldonado walked to make it two aboard, Morales hit a grounder to short that meant it was two back to the dugout, and then Vickers flew out to Avila, and that was that… Ottinger then lost all command in the bottom of the inning. He nailed Jay Elder and walked Schmit and Chris Barnes to fill the bases. When left-handed Joe Payne and his .104 average pinch-hit for Brost, Ottie was gone as well. David Fernandez got a grounder to first base to end the inning with three Titans stranded in a 2-1 game.

Instead, Oscar Mendoza homered the game tied in the bottom 7th off Casey Moore, who was no longer sharp and reliable, I guess… Top 8th, the Coons were on the corners again facing Wyatt Hamill, who allowed 1-out singles to Fernandez and Fowler. The count on Maldonado ran full with Hamill missing one more time to walk the bases full. That brought up Morales’ spot, and with the way he was slumping, this was the spot to pinch-hit in, regardless of consequences. Preston Pinkerton batted, the Titans stuck to Hamill, the count ran full, and - … Pinkerton struck out. Vickers ran another full count… and popped out to Spataro. All Coons were sent back to the dugout. The Titans wasted a Schmit double off Garavito in the bottom 8th, and neither team reached base against Jermaine Campbell and Garavito, respectively, in the ninth, sending the game to extras. Campbell retired the 2-3-4 again in the 10th, with the Coons resorting to Chris Wise in the bottom of the inning. Spataro singled. Avila singled. Elder walked. Nobody out yet – until PH Juan Tanori struck out. Who were these people and why were they beating the Critters!!?? Beating them they did in fact – Wise walked Andy Schmit in a full count, pushing the winning run across home plate. 3-2 Titans. Downs 2-4, 2B; Hooge 2-5, 2B;

That wasn’t exactly where I wanted it, boys…

Game 2
POR: 3B Downs – 2B Vickers – CF Fowler – LF M. Fernandez – 1B Maruyama – RF Pinkerton – C Wall – SS Nickas – P Sabre
BOS: LF O. Mendoza – SS Gil – 2B Spataro – RF M. Avila – 1B J. Elder – C J. Young – 3B Schmit – CF Barnes – P T. Chavez

Adam Downs made the final out in the top of the first after the Critters had sent everybody else to the plate once. Downs opened the game with a jack to left, Vickers singled, and Fowler hit another jack to left, 3-0 in three batters. The next six made it another 3-0 with walks to Maruyama and Pinkerton, an RBI double by Kurt Wall, an RBI single for Steve Nickas, and finally a run-scoring wild pitch. Joe Payne again batted for the starting pitcher really early, this time in the bottom 2nd with Sabre drowning in three runners with two outs. This time Payne popped out behind home plate, but the result was much the same for Boston.

The Titans did get a run in the bottom 3rd, which Mendoza opened with a triple before scoring on Spataro’s sac fly, but I also didn’t like that Sabre kept putting them on base. In between he walked Antonio Gil, who was caught stealing, and Moises Avila hit a 2-out double right after the sac fly, but was stranded on some sort of nice defensive plays, of which there were many in this game, and too many to bother mentioning them all. Sabre also struck out absolutely nobody, not even reliever Alan Mays, in the first five innings, and didn’t look like he’d get much deeper than that. The offense had also gone to bed after the early onslaught, which wasn’t inherently fatal, because six were six, but Sabre was still ****. Sabre still struck out nobody through seven, only issued another walk, and that one was polished off on a 6-4-3 double play.

Top 8th, Pinkerton singled, Wall doubled, and with two outs and the knockout runs in scoring position, Ed Hooge would bat for Nickas against the right-hander Chris D’Angelo. After he hit an RBI single to right, giving Portland their first run in two hours and seven innings, the Coons sent Sabre to bat for himself – always greedy for more outs from the starting pitchers!! Sabre struck out Mendoza to begin the eighth (!), then walked Gil, and that was that. The Critters sent Prieto, who got out of the inning with K-pop, then ended the game on just four pitches in the ninth. In between, Rich Vickers took D’Angelo deep in the top 9th for a tack-on run. 8-1 Coons! Vickers 3-5, HR, RBI; Wall 2-3, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Hooge (PH) 1-1, RBI; Prieto 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Now, I know my boys! They’re gonna lose the rubber game, aren’t they?

2-1, aren’t they?

In 16, aren’t they??

Game 3
POR: 3B Downs – LF Hooge – RF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – 2B Vickers – C Morales – 1B Maruyama – SS Nickas – P B. Chavez
BOS: 3B Schmit – SS Gil – 2B Spataro – RF M. Avila – 1B J. Elder – C J. Young – LF I. Vega – CF Barnes – P Willett

Avila and Young singles put runners on the corners and Ivan Vega’s sac fly plated the first run of the game in the bottom 2nd, while the visitors had yet to set foot on base. While Maruyama hit a leadoff single in the top 3rd, nothing good happened afterwards, while the Titans got a leadoff single from their pitcher (…), and then two more to load the bases with nobody out in the inning. Spataro for once didn’t put the dagger in, but hit into a 6-4-3 double play, which scored a run, but it was the only one Boston got in the bottom 3rd after Nickas also shagged Avila’s soft liner.

Before long Avila got another shot, then with three on and one out in the fifth. Willett had hit ANOTHER leadoff single, and while Schmit had grounded out, a walk to Gil and a Spataro single had loaded the bases anyway. Rags to riches for Boston, while the Raccoons never got beyond one runner at a time and never seemed to know what to do precisely with that guy, either. Bernie Chavez got Avila to 0-2 before throwing a cucumber that was hit for 410 feet, blew open the game, and ended all hopes of tying the Titans at week’s end.

Rich Vickers drove in Fernandez with a 2-out single in the sixth, but it was way too little, and also way too late. Willett lasted eight innings without missing much of a beat, and the Raccoons arrived in the ninth still down by a pawful. Vickers hit a leadoff single off Austin Holt before Morales popped out. Maruyama then fed a grounder into a double play. 6-1 Titans. M. Fernandez 2-3, BB, 2B; Vickers 2-4, RBI;

Or like that!

In other news

August 18 – LAP 3B Manny Delgado (.201, 3 HR, 21 RBI) hits a fifth-inning homer to beat the Bayhawks, 1-0.
August 19 – SFW RF/LF Doug Stross (.284, 3 HR, 33 RBI) is out for a month with a torn thumb ligament.
August 19 – The Bayhawks pitch a combined 1-hitter with Ben Lipsky (8-5, 3.20 ERA) and Eric Fox (4-1, 2.27 ERA) against the Pacifics, who only get their hit in the eighth inning via an Elliott Kennett (.199, 2 HR, 18 RBI) double. San Francisco wins, 8-0.
August 19 – The Aces beat the Gold Sox, 5-2, on the walkoff grand slam 2B/OF Eric Morrow (.228, 7 HR, 48 RBI) hits off Denver’s Robby Ciampa (3-8, 4.99 ERA, 19 SV).
August 20 – LAP 3B Manny Delgado (.206, 4 HR, 22 RBI) hits a ninth-inning homer to beat the Bayhawks, 1-0, the second such occurrence in a series of weird-ass games. The Bayhawks out-hit L.A. 10-4 in this game.
August 21 – After just four games following his trade from the Blue Sox, IND MR Donovan mason (4-5, 3.08 ERA, 3 SV) is out with a torn UCL and might miss all of next season to recover from Tommy John surgery.

Complaints and stuff

The weekend’s bitter poison will last me a while. (screws cap back onto bulging bottle with a 19th century label featuring a skull and bones) That was however the textbook definition of how you lose 54 anyway, win 54 anyway, and the other 54 decide where you end up. Both Chavezes got blown out, so that’s 1-1 right there. The crucial game was actually the one on Friday, where they held out behind a terrible Ottie for longer than imagined, but then fumbled the lead and lost on a walkoff walk issued by Chris Wise…

So much bitter poison… (unscrews cap again and pours another few drops of a thick, greenish-black, oily concoction onto a spoon before shoving it into his snout) Mmmmmm.

Jimmy Wallace should return sooner rather than later; he’s hitting .250 in 11 games of rehab, and his stint runs out on the following Sunday. We may want to start figuring out a way to get him onto the roster. Realistically speaking, one between Maruyama and Maldonado must go.

…which doesn’t address the obvious problem with playing time. It’s not like we can do without any between Hooge, Fernandez, and Fowler, and they’re the only outfielders we have with no infield qualities… Wallace also only platoons with Fowler, who seems quite warm at the moment. He has six homers in nine games (eight starts) amongst 13 total hits.

Next week: Elks and Thunder on the road. The team won’t be home until September 5. We actually only have 15 home games left, but 23 on the road.

Fun Fact: 42 years ago today, Jim Thompson hits three home runs to help his Bayhawks beat the Falcons, 8-6.

Pedro Perez did the same deed three years later, and the Bayhawks haven’t had a 3-homer game since. Perez was a left-handed first baseman that narrowly missed out on a pension, playing just under ten years in the majors for San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Sacramento. He was the 1991 CL Rookie of the Year, hitting .335 with 13 homers in just 68 games, and would put up impressive numbers quite a few years after that, twice leading the CL in homers, but by age 30 his production declined sharply and he was out of the majors by age 34. For his career, Perez hit .276/.399/.451 with 158 HR and 703 RBI, not too bad for someone who only made it into 1,269 games.

Thompson came over from a trade with the Capitals really early in that 1994 season and would spend three years with the Baybirds. ’94 was also his only All Star season. A left-handed corner outfielder, he wasn’t known for his glove, but was a steady hitter, usually ending up around ten homers with a .270 average before a late-career decline. He never led the league in anything, but hung on for 13 seasons with five different teams (and being teammates again briefly with Perez on the Miners). He finished his career in 2001 at age 36, having compiled a .255/.356/.401 slash with 74 HR and 485 RBI. He played 1,273 games, four more than Perez.