[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-8) vs. Loggers (4-20) – May 4-6, 2048

The Loggers! Aye… where to start with them. Second from the bottom in runs scored, bottoms altogether in runs allowed, and a -50 run differential. No defense, little power, but some speed and fourth in stolen bases in the CL. Overall, however, they were scoring all of 3.3 runs per game and were giving up 5.4 runs, so that was not a healthy ratio to begin with. The Raccoons had walloped them last year, 14-4, and had won the season series four years straight.

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (2-0, 4.24 ERA) vs. Victor Padilla (0-3, 5.72 ERA)
Jeremy Baker (0-2, 4.56 ERA) vs. John Morrill (0-3, 8.61 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (1-3, 6.92 ERA) vs. Noah Hollis (0-3, 7.16 ERA)

If I look at their ERA’s, I am concerned that we might not score a run for three days straight, because isn’t that how it always goes against these pushovers? In any case, Padilla was the only southpaw we saw coming up here.

Game 1
MIL: CF B. Allen – 3B Napoles – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – RF Lovell – LF Reeves – 1B McIntyre – 2B R. Lopez – P V. Padilla
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Waters – RF Pellicano – LF Watt – C Gonzalez – P Okuda

The Loggers carted up three Rickies in the starting lineup (Payne, Espinoza, Lopez), and also three guys hitting better than .253, which did include the pitcher. Of course they batted through the order in the first inning then, with singles from Brent Allen and Payne, an RBI double by Espinoza, and a 3-run bomb smashed by Bill Reeves, to take a 4-0 lead on a rather hapless looking Okuda. The Coons would make up single runs in their first two innings of poking; Toohey singled home Adame in the first, and Matt Watt and Ruben Gonzalez drew leadoff walks in the second before being bunted over by Okuda, but an Adame sac fly to left was all the Critters would scratch out from there, and then Okuda rendered the effort moot by getting humped for another two runs in the third inning, giving up three screamers for yet more base hits. Portland answered with a Maldonado single, a Toohey RBI triple (!), and a Waters RBI single in the bottom 3rd, narrowing the score to 6-4, but Waters was then caught stealing to take the momentum out of the whole thing.

Okuda was hit for after four horrendous innings, with Manny Fernandez following up the leadoff walk that Gonzalez drew with a single to right. Adame singled to fill the bases, three on, no outs, which would surely not lead to more heartbreak. While I braced for the worst with Honeypaws in my clutch, Padilla walked in a run in a full count to Armando Herrera, then had Maldonado chip a ball to shallow center for a score-flipping 2-run single; we were now up 7-6…! Toohey walked against Padilla, who was then replaced with Bubba Poss. The righty reliever surrendered one run on Waters’ sac fly, then got a double play grounder from Pellicano to end the 4-run inning.

Bob Ibold pitched the fifth, followed by Hitchcock, who was pencilled in for two innings. Brent Allen doubled off him in the sixth, but tweaked his ankle, too, and was replaced with Erik Bush, who stole a prospective 2-out RBI double from Pellicano in the bottom 6th right away. Hitchcock pitched his two innings before the Raccoons stole an inning from the almost entirely right-handed Loggers lineup with Joy-shan Kuo against the bottom of the order in the eighth, the had another left-handed in or the ninth inning as Mike Lynn took the ball against the 2-3-4 batters. The Raccoons had not scored against the Loggers pen in the previous four innings, so it was still only a 2-run lead. Alfredo Napoles flew out easily to Watt in leftfield, while Payne made Watt run a bit for another “F7” on the scorecard. A strikeout to Espinoza ended the game. 8-6 Raccoons. Adame 3-4, RBI; Maldonado 2-5, 2 RBI; Toohey 2-3, 2 BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Waters 2-4, 2 RBI; Fernandez (PH) 1-1; Baskins (PH) 1-1; Gurney (PH) 1-1; Hitchcock 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
MIL: CF B. Allen – 3B Napoles – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – RF Lovell – LF Reeves – 1B Lowe – 2B R. Lopez – P Morrill
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – LF Fernandez – C Gonzalez – P Baker

The Coons took a 1-0 lead on another triple by the first baseman, but this time it was Gurney finding the corner in rightfield, then had the ball bounce a bit away from Pat Lovell to make it all the way to third base, chasing home Waters in the process in that bottom of the second. Manny singled home Gurney after that with his 2,100th base hit (while being five homers shy of 200 and two RBI away from 1,100). Manny then got a bit too hot in the head and was caught stealing second base.

Baker pitched four scoreless for two hits, then gave up a solo homer to Reeves in the fifth inning that cut the Coons’ lead in half. Payne hit a 2-out double in the sixth, but got no help from the next Ricky in line, remaining stranded on a pop to Gurney. Portland had five hits total through as many innings against Morrill, so not a whole lot since that second inning. Morrill leaked a walk to Maldonado in the bottom 6th, but struck out Toohey … only to run into Waters, who deposited a 82mph hanger over the fence in centerfield for his fourth homer of the year and a 4-1 lead. The Raccoons tacked on the inning after, in which Derek Baskins doubled when hitting for Baker, who had turned in seven fine innings, then scored on a capital throwing error by Alfredo Napoles that put Adame on second base. Watt singled for Herrera, but was doubled up by Maldonado to end the inning. Brent Allen hit a double without getting hurt even more against Preston Porter in the eighth, but was also stranded on third base. Pat Gurney didn’t strand anybody, since he didn’t bat with a runner on base in the bottom 8th, but hit a 2-out solo homer to right anyway. Jake Bonnie put the Loggers away 1-2-3 in thee ninth, whiffing two. 6-1 Raccoons. Watt (PH) 1-1; Waters 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Gurney 4-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Prow (PH) 1-1; Baskins (PH) 1-1, 2B; Baker 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (1-2);

Pat Gurney was a double shy of the cycle…!

Game 3
MIL: CF B. Allen – 1B Bush – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – LF Reeves – 3B Napoles – RF McIntyre – 2B R. Lopez – P Hollis
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – LF Fernandez – C Prow – P Wheatley

Wheatley entered with more walks than strikeouts after a wicked April, and gave up an infield single to Allen to begin the game, but then rung up Erik Bush and got a 3-U double play when Payne lined out to Gurney, with Allen caught off the bag and doubled off. Matt Waters would single home Alex Adame for a 1-0 lead in the bottom 1st, but then was also caught stealing, with Herrera on third base, to end the inning. Wheatley continued to litter the bases with runners shedding three hits and two walks (but against five strikeouts!) in four innings, with his pitch count already over 60. Still far from a great start; but at least Ricky Lopez, who opened the fifth with another infield single, was stranded when the Loggers continued with persistent poor contact. The Coons then extended their lead in the inning with kind assistance from Wheats himself; he hit a 1-out single up the middle ahead of back-to-back, 2-out RBI doubles slapped by Herrera and Maldo up either line. Toohey grounded out to short to bring about the end of five innings.

Espinoza would put the Loggers on the board with a solo homer in the sixth, but Kevin Prow pulled the run back with a 2-out RBI double in the bottom of the inning, driving home Gurney, 4-1. Wheats would go on to complete seven innings of 1-run ball on 104 pitches, which was not his brightest achievement by any definition, but surely an improvement over his rotten start to the year. Unfortunately, while he shed over a run off his ERA, the Coons also shed Alex Adame, who tweaked something on a defensive play in the seventh and had to be replaced with Al Martell, who took over second base, with Waters sliding to short. So while Wheats was on the mend, and Adame was new to hurting, the aches and pains of merely watching Mike Lynn continued for everybody as he entered the ninth to walk Napoles with one out, then allowed a soft single to Will McIntyre. A misplay by Bryce Toohey allowed both runners to reach scoring position, while the tying run was at the plate, although the Loggers had to settle for a sac fly by pinch-hitter Tony Sanchez. Allen popped out to complete a sweep. 4-2 Raccoons. Gurney 2-4; Pellicano (PH) 1-1; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-3) and 1-3;

While Alex Adame would join the team on the trip to Washington, he did so with a stupid little brace thing on his paw after Dr. Padilla diagnosed him with a sprained thumb on his throwing paw, which was sort of inconvenient, as it relegated him to the DL for the next three weeks or so.

The Raccoons brought up Josh Floyd, who was not hitting a lick in AAA, but we needed a middle infielder…

Raccoons (18-8) @ Capitals (12-16) – May 8-10, 2048

The Caps were fifth in the FL East. They ranked below average in most important categories, except for batting average (3rd) and bullpen ERA (4th), but were dead last in power and sat ninth overall in runs scored and eighth in runs allowed with a -4 run differential (Critters: +19). The Coons had played them the last two years in a row, and had won the last four matchups, always two games to one.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (3-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. Sean Fowler (1-2, 6.75 ERA)
Jake Jackson (1-0, 2.76 ERA) vs. Bruce Mark jr. (2-3, 3.09 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (2-0, 5.60 ERA) vs. Salvatore Calderon (2-1, 2.91 ERA)

All opposing pitchers in this set would be right-handers.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – 2B Gurney – C Gonzalez – RF Fernandez – P Merino
WAS: RF D. Diaz – SS Clevidence – 2B Strohm – LF Stipp – CF Besaw – C E. Thomas – 1B Lambright – 3B Bass – P S. Fowler

Danny Diaz was a switch-hitter, followed by eight right-handers, so I naturally feared for Merino’s ERA again. Indeed, the Caps took the lead in the first inning, with Doug Clevidence doubling to right and Pat Stipp slapping a single to left to go up 1-0. That remained the score into the fourth inning, which Armando Herrera began with a triple over the head of Joe Besaw in center, soon scoring on a Maldo single to tie the game at one. Toohey then found a double play to hit into.

The Raccoons then went up 2-1 on a Ruben Gonzalez homer in the fifth, but that joy was short-lived, since Merino finally faceplanted a brick wall in the bottom of that inning, which Ian Lambright began with a double to right. The Caps would get a walk, a balk, two more hits, and a wild pitch out of Merino that inning, scoring a messy three runs to take a 4-2 lead… Merino pitched another inning, but would be done after six, while the Raccoons tried to scramble back in the top 7th. Waters singled to begin the inning, then advanced on Gurney’s groundout. Gonzalez hit a single to left, with Waters waved around third base for home plate; he scored ahead of Pat Stipp’s throw, but also limped off with an injury, causing me visible anguish. While Manny hit a single off Fowler after that, Derek Baskins found an inning-ending double play when he batted for Merino… The Raccoons got spotless relief from Ibold and Moreno in the seventh and eighth, respectively, but didn’t score in their half of the eighth, then had Josh Floyd, who replaced Waters, lead off the ninth as the tying run against right-hander Leif Squires. He struck out. Gurney flew out to right, but Gonzalez singled to right. The game ended with Manny flying out to deep center, though… 4-3 Capitals. Maldonado 2-4, RBI; Waters 1-1, 2 BB; Gonzalez 3-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Here come the injuries! A tender hamstring would cost Waters at least one week and maybe two, and he was shipped off to the DL on advice of Dr. Padilla. So that was the whole starting middle infield gone in consecutive games!

The Raccoons readied themselves to play more Pat Gurney at second base in the next two weeks, and instead of 2B John Castner brought back 3B Ben Coen from AAA, which gave the option of giving Maldo a few games at first base. Coen had batted .207 with the Alley Cats this year, and Castner had hardly played at all.

Game 2
POR: RF Watt – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Gurney – C Gonzalez – SS Martell – LF Baskins – P Jackson
WAS: CF D. Diaz – SS Clevidence – 2B Strohm – RF Stipp – C E. Thomas – 3B Bass – LF McGuigan – 1B Zafra – P Mark jr.

The Coons jumped on Mark in the first inning, loading the bases right away with a Watt walk and two singles. Toohey was held to a sac fly in deep center, Gurney was nicked, and Gonzalez whiffed, but Al Martell shoved a 2-run single through the right side to go against the trend of always ******* choking with three aboard and nobody drowned (yet). Baskins’ groundout ended the inning. Jackson had a 1-2-3 first instead, but also ran a full count on every batter… Bruce Mark jr. was actually the first Capitals batter to reach base, doing so with a ground-rule double in the bottom 3rd. Jackson, stunned, walked Diaz, but then got a grounder to short from Clevidence to bail out.

The Coons tacked on in the fourth, when Chris Strohm mishandled Derek Baskins’ grounder for an error to begin the inning. Baskins then went base to base on a bunt and two singles by Watt and Herrera, extending the lead to 4-0. Maldo lined out, but Toohey walked to fill the bases, and then Mark also walked Gurney to force in another run. Gonzalez whiffed to end the inning. He would make it to 0-3 with 3 K before hitting a leadoff single to center in the seventh, still in a 5-0 game. He was picked off first base instead…

Jackson scattered five hits and two walks in seven innings, and also got a few double plays turned behind him. He struck out five in a very fine, if unspectacular start, while Mark rung up seven, but also walked six Critters. While the Raccoons’ offense did next to nothing against the Capitals pen, the same was also true the other way round. Hitchcock and Porter each allowed a hit in their respective innings after Jackson departed, and neither runner made it into scoring position alive – in Pat Stipp’s case literally, being thrown out by Gonzalez when he tried to steal his way there in a 5-run deficit. 5-0 Raccoons. Watt 2-2, 3 BB; Herrera 3-5, RBI; Toohey 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Jackson 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-0);

Sunday saw the Raccoons up against a 30-year-old rookie in Salvatore Calderon, a 30-year-old Cuban … uh… “ex-pat”.

Game 3
POR: CF Watt – 2B Gurney – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Fernandez – C Gonzalez – SS Martell – RF Pellicano – P Okuda
WAS: RF D. Diaz – SS Clevidence – LF Stipp – C E. Thomas – 1B Lambright – 2B O’Keefe – CF de la Torre – 3B Bass – P S. Calderon

The visibly struggling Okuda got the ball in the rubber game, walked the leadoff man in the first, allowed a leadoff single in the second, but twice eloped with a 6-4-3 double play. He was also involved in a double play in the third inning, then on a Gurney grounder (grumbles…), before pitching an almost clean bottom 3rd until Manny Fernandez soiled it by dropping Calderon’s fly to left. Diaz struck out to end the inning instead. Portland weather in Washington forced a brief rain delay in the fourth, but it took hardly 20 minutes for the rain to move on.

Chris O’Keefe walked and Alex de la Torre singled in the bottom 5th to put two on base, but Okuda got a third double play from Brian Bass, ending the inning and keeping the game scoreless through five. Top 6th, the Raccoons moved first; Toohey walked, then scored on 2-out singles by Gonzalez and Martell for a 1-0 advantage. Pellicano grounded out to O’Keefe, stranding a pair, but Okuda turned away the Caps in 1-2-3 fashion in both the sixth and seventh innings. With additional offense for the road team nowhere to be found, Okuda was chased by O’Keefe’s leadoff single in the bottom 8th. We brought Moreno, and the Capitals brought Joe Besaw to hit for de la Torre, and raking a 2-run homer on the first pitch. And that was the ballgame. 2-1 Capitals. Maldonado 2-4; Okuda 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K and 1-2, BB;

In other news

May 5 – Offense is at a premium in a 1-0 Indians win over the Canadiens. The Indians have two hits to the sole Canadiens single hit by Eddie Moreno (.259, 5 HR, 12 RBI), but even the run that beats VAN SP Hisami Furuya (0-4, 4.11 ERA) is unearned thanks to an error by his teammate Rick Price. IND OF/1B Bill Quinteros (.318, 4 HR, 20 RBI) singles home the golden run in the fourth inning.
May 5 – PIT CF Jayden Ward (.191, 2 HR, 9 RBI) brings in the only run in the Miners’ 1-0 win over the Buffaloes with a home run.
May 6 – Rebels 2B/SS T.J. Lujan (.278, 3 HR, 20 RBI) is a triple shy of the cycle in a 4-for-5 day with 4 RBI as the Rebels drub the Blue Sox, 13-6.
May 10 – VAN SP Hisami Furuya (1-4, 3.27 ERA) wins his first game of the season in style, 1-hitting the Buffaloes in a 5-0 Canadiens victory. Furuya strikes out six and yields only a seventh-inning single to Topeka’s J.P. Angeletti (.238, 4 HR, 17 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: SAC LF/RF Nate Culp (.319, 9 HR, 21 RBI), smothering .565 (13-23) with 5 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB C Sean Suggs (.347, 6 HR, 20 RBI), hitting .440 (11-25) with 2 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Promoting Josh Floyd for some bench duty with the Critters opened a spot in AAA for Lorenzo Lavorano, the #125 prospect overall and the #6 in our system, to swing his bum around the AAA circuit for a few weeks to get a taste. Lavorano had just turned 21 and it was still early for him, but Pat Degenhardt says that he was really about to turn himself into a hitter any second now. Well, his arrival in the majors might well coincide with the collapse of our current dynasty, would be nice to have shortstop covered when we ship Adame elsewhere.

Matt Waters’ demise on Friday removed the last Critter from contention that had played in every game this season. It was unseasonably early for that, I think… But all of our four starting infielders have already had at least a tweak this season, and the outfield is operating more on a rotational basis to begin with, so there’s that.

What else is weird in AAA? Matt Glodowski was a second-rounder in 2043. He is now 28 years old and hitting for an .848 OPS with the Alley Cats. But since he is a corner outfielder, we really have no spot for him. On the other paw, the Alley Cats need him, since nobody else on that team is doing ANYTHING right, and they started the season 9-15 with a pythagorean record worse than even that…

We will play the Gold Sox at home beginning on Monday, then make back out East to face the Titans on the weekend.

Fun Fact: The Federal League’s two leaders in saves are both right-handers named Josh that used to be Raccoons.

Josh Livingston leads with 14 saves for the first-place Miners, with the Rebels’ Josh Rella two behind in the SV column, with the team trailing by one more in the standings. While Rella, now 31, was at one point a smash hit (and a surprising one) for us and led the CL in saves in ’43, his numbers slipped in recent years and we traded him with Arturo Carreno and Ken Mills for Kevin Prow and Ed Crispin this winter.

Well, maybe Crispin will turn into something! Maybe…

Livingston meanwhile was a Raccoon so long ago and so briefly, you’d be excused from having forgotten all about it. Acquired from the Thunder when there was no more stitching up the cloth on the dinner table between us and Ignacio del Rio in the summer of ’35, Livingston was actually used as a starter in 19 of his 21 outings in the brown shirt between that season and the next. While he posted a 2.86 ERA in ’35, he was up to a 6.35 mark in ’36 and then disposed of in a 6-player deal with the Falcons in the 2036-37 offseason (the trade notably also brought in Bryce Sparkes and sent away Jimmy Wallace). He became a closer with the Falcons thereafter and led both leagues in saves later on, with the ’44 Knights and the ’46 Cyclones.

Between Rella (187) and Livingston (269) there were 456 at the top of the FL leaderboard thus, of which 175 had come with the Raccoons.