Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Originally Posted by Papi

You gotta get Brownie in for one more home game. Let him get that, "Walk off the mound to a standing ovation" moment. Make it happen, the fans demand it!

Last regular season home game before the playoffs.....he pitches a 2 hit shut-out....i might tear up lol

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Papi

You gotta get Brownie in for one more home game. Let him get that, "Walk off the mound to a standing ovation" moment. Make it happen, the fans demand it!

I thought he should start Game 7 against the Rebels.

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

Last regular season home game before the playoffs.....he pitches a 2 hit shut-out....i might tear up lol

And that shutout thing wouldn't be the first time something like that would have happened. Let's warp back to 1986!

Originally Posted by Westheim

Last chance for Chris Powell to post a winning record. He would have to overcome Kinji Kan for this, a 15-game winner with the Titans. He certainly tried hard, knocking in the go-ahead run with two down in the bottom 2nd. It was a fragile 1-0 lead, but Powell managed to hold the Titans off the board for the time being. In the bottom 5th, Weber and Hall got on with one out. Osanai grounded to the mound, but Kan misplayed it and didn’t get Hall at second. Weber scored on the error. Powell kept motoring, now with a 2-0 lead. After a tight sixth with close plays, he got three flyers in the seventh, of which only one to left was mildly scary – Hall got that one. Some insurance runs would have been nice, and Osanai doubled in Sanchez in the seventh, 3-0. Top 8th: Barry Miller flew out to center, Bob Arnold was K’ed by Powell, and Manny Mora flew out to left center. The Coons put Thompson on with two out in the bottom 8th, which brought up Powell. We want to see that SHO. He struck out. Now to R.A. Koontz.

First up will be Ryan Dickerson, who has caused the most trouble for Christopher Powell today. Dickerson two for three today, which is half the hits Powell has allowed so far. And he’s already down oh and one. Dickerson looks at strike two! […]

The fans on their feet, and once more chanting for Christopher Powell, who’s been the face of the rotation for almost a decade here in Portland. Full count to Ryan Dickerson.

Roller up to Winston Thompson, he has it, and Dickerson is out by a mile. One down in the top of the ninth.

Hjalmar Flygt steps in. Christopher Powell has appeared in three-hundred-forty-five games for the Raccoons, three-hundred-and-three starts. He’s working quickly here. Two and one to Flygt, the leftfielder. Another ball.

Powell has tossed nine shutouts in his career, none since nineteen-eighty-four. Flygt fouls off that pitch. Full count now.

And the sixth pitch is wide, Flygt is aboard. And now, Isto Grönholm will step in, feared home run slugger, and one for three today.

First pitch is a ball. Powell struggling with control now in the ninth. Raccoons lead three to zip.

Grönholm fouls off the second pitch.

Christopher Powell may not be back with the team next year. He has another year on his contract, but it is a very expensive team option, which most likely will not be taken up by the Raccoons, as we have heard in the last weeks.

Grönholm fouls that one off as well. One and two to Isto Grönholm. He is five for twenty-one against Powell lifetime, with one home run.

This could be Christopher Powell’s last batter in his long Raccoons career. If Grönholm gets on, we will look at Mashwanis, and Grant West, who’s warming up, will enter the game, presumably.

Grönholm is ready to face Powell. From the stretch to Grönholm, contact – a grounder up the left foul line, right to Mark Dawson. To Thompson – OUT! To Osanai – OUT AT FIRST!! The game is over, Christopher Powell has tossed a shutout in his final start for the Raccoons!! Everybody’s racing out to hug him!

Sanchez 2-4; Garza 2-4; Powell 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, W (5-4);

[Westheim]

Raccoons (80-56) vs. Titans (62-76) – September 3-5, 2018

The wretched Titans were not particular good at much of anything. They were second-to-last in runs scored and fourth-to-last in runs allowed. They did have a good bullpen, but it was not able to contain all the damage the rotation did to the team’s efforts. The Raccoons held an 8-4 advantage in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (13-8, 4.62 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (5-8, 5.05 ERA)
Hector Santos (11-8, 2.72 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (6-14, 5.17 ERA)
Damani Knight (5-9, 4.96 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (9-13, 3.65 ERA)

We would miss both Jonny Toner’s hardest challenger in the win column, as crazy as it sounded, Chris Klein (17-5, 2.62 ERA) as well as the Titans’ only southpaw in Rick Ling (9-13, 3.75 ERA) – with an asterisk. Zach Boyer, Wednesday’s starter, was laboring on a sore hamstring and it might be possible that he would not be able to take his start. Klein would be next in their rotation.

The Coons got Cookie off the DL to start the series, so maybe everything would be less horrendous now… Cookie and Alex Mata are almost even in the stolen base category, Cookie trailing Mata by one base for the CL lead.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – SS M. Rivera – LF J. Avila – 2B F. Reyes – P Priest
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Dahlke – CF Bareford – P R. Mendoza

Ricky Mendoza walked a pair and allowed a quick run in the top first on Tom Thomas’ double, but the Coons made up that early setback in the bottom 2nd that opened with a single by Hugo Mendoza, a Denny double, and then admittedly not a whole lot more. Dahlke’s sac fly was all the Coons got from the bottom of the order that didn’t taste like toxic waste dump, a vile odor that returned to our noses in the top 3rd. Alex Mata hit a leadoff double, scored when Denny threw away the ball on his stolen base attempt, and before long Steve Butler yanked a home run to right center. To put it simply, Ricky Mendoza sucked, as did the other Mendoza, nothing that was not expected, though. The pitcher Mendoza loaded the bases in the fourth when he drilled Alex Mata, and only got out of the inning when Walter turned a dizzying double play on Tom Thomas’ hard grounder, and was yanked in the fifth after Chris Almanza and Tim Robinson hit back-to-back 1-out singles, both to right and both hard. Jason Kaiser came in and surrendered one run on Mike Rivera’s sac fly, hanging four runs total on Mendoza. The other Mendoza would soon make himself even more unpopular. The Raccoons had scored an unearned run in the bottom of the third, which involved Cookie singling and stealing, which was virtually everything that worked for this offense. In the bottom 5th, down 4-2, Walter and Nunley hit back-to-back singled with one down, going to first and second. Hugo Mendoza came up, and would have ended the inning with a double play, if Frank Reyes hadn’t been slow turning it at second base. Runners remained on the corners with only Nunley forced out, and Mike Denny’s single to left plated a run after all, 4-3. DeWeese walked in a full count, loading them up for Tom Dahlke, who had a double on the day, but flew out softly to Almanza in right.

Bottom 6th, a throwing error by Tom Thomas put the offensively invisible Andy Bareford on second base with nobody out. This was the tying run; Danny Ochoa batted for Seung-mo Chun to counter Priest and hit a liner to left for a single, but Bareford only made it to third base, having to wait for the ball to get past the lunging Rivera. When Cookie hit a fly to fairly deep left, Jose Avila had no issues to catch it, but had no chance to get Bareford, whose run tied the game at four and was the second unearned counter for the Critters in the game. Walter then hit a single, sending Ochoa to third, and Nunley knew he had to get it done with Mr. Black Hole behind him. He cracked a liner to left, and that one was also in, plating the go-ahead run, 5-4! Mendoza hit – OBVIOUSLY – into a double play to end the inning; Reyes turned it this time. Schroeder in the seventh and Thrasher in the eighth both issued a walk, but the former also whiffed three and the latter added two more strikeouts to the Titans’ ledger, and the brittle lead was maintained. The Coons also played their cards not too well in those innings, getting two singles in each, and stranding all four runners. Alex Ramirez thus had no cushion and faced the top of the order. He struck out Jose Duran, whom the Titans had initially sent to face Thrasher, but who now had to look at Ramirez and struck out, got a grounder from Thomas and then a soft fly to center from Steve Butler to close the deal. 5-4 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Walter 3-5; Nunley 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; H. Mendoza 2-5; Denny 2-4, 2B, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – SS M. Rivera – LF C. Newman – 2B Lawson – P J. Fuentes
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Margolis – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – P Santos

The game started pretty much the same as Monday’s. Mata walked, stole second this time – while Margolis had him beat, Prince dropped the ball, the fool! – and then scored on Thomas’ base hit. Butler grounded to Prince, who nipped Thomas on second base but Walter’s return throw to first was too late. No worries, thought Santos, and picked off Butler. Almanza filled first base right away again with a single to left, then took off for second, Margolis’ throw was in time again, and this time ****ing Tim Prince held on to the ****ing ball, and the inning was over. Prince made a throwing error to start the top 2nd, placing Tim Robinson on second base, and eventually leading to Santos allowing two unearned runs on David Lawson’s 2-out double and Jose Fuentes’ 2-out single, although for the latter he had nobody to blame but himself. Santos would allow one more run in six muddled innings, a solo shot to center by Tom Thomas, which was remarkable because even with that shot Thomas still had a dinger per 125 at-bats on the season, and he hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark. Only against Santos…

By the time Santos was done, the Raccoons had but one hit, a single by Cookie in the third, that was all off a pitcher with a 5+ ERA. They didn’t get another hit until DeWeese hit a double to right center with two down in the seventh. Bareford then reached on Thomas’ error as the series continued to be everything but a defensive showcase. With a vague comeback chance in a 4-0 game, Eddie Jackson hit for the disgusting Prince and knocked a ball all the way to the base of the leftfield wall for a 2-run double. Fuentes was yanked in the instant, and Jose Diaz appeared, a left-hander with decent stats. Mike Denny batted for Nick Lester, who had spun a 1-2-3 seventh against the top of the order. He grounded out to third, ending the inning. While Nunley came close to a solo home run in the bottom 8th, but the ball dropped into Almanza’s glove on the track, Chet Cummings got four outs before putting two on in the top of the ninth. Chris Mathis cleaned up, but the Raccoons were still down by two and hadn’t done anything against Harry Merwin all season: four hits in five innings, and never made up a deficit against him. Hugo Mendoza led off, unleashed a harmless grounder to third, and was gone in a blink. Margolis singled to left, which made DeWeese actually dangerous, but too bad he knew it, too, and struck out. Mathews batted for Bareford and grounded a 3-2 pitch to David Lawson for an easy final out. 4-2 Titans. Jackson (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 3
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – LF J. Roberts – SS M. Rivera – 2B F. Reyes – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – RF Jackson – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Hudman – P Knight

Boyer went, but was the first Titans pitcher not to be greeted with a first-inning lead in the series. While the Raccoons continued to fail completely in keeping the basestealing terror that was Alex Mata off the dishes, and Damani Knight allowed a leadoff single to him, Nunley made an incredible play on a Thomas grounder to start a 5-4-3 double play at the Titans’ expense. Butler grounded out to end the top of the first, and instead the Coons took the early lead, using Plan A again: Cookie singles, Cookie steals, Cookie scores through some fortunate events, in this case a Walter single and Nunley sac fly, after which Walter was forced on another bull**** grounder to the pitcher by Dumbo Mendoza. Damani continued to face the minimum through four, throwing less than NINE pitches per inning, generating lots of well-placed grounders, at least until the Titans put their first two men on in the fifth inning. Almanza walked, Tim Robinson hit a blooper to shallow center, and suddenly they were on the corners in a 1-0 game. Jimmy Roberts struck out, setting up a double play exit, but only if Mike Rivera wouldn’t hit one to the outfield. He did hit one to the outfield, a floater up the leftfield line, but quite high and that allowed DeWeese to hustle over and catch it. Almanza was sent anyway and was hammered out at home by a ravenous throw by DeWeese, keeping the score at 1-0.

The score grew in the bottom 5th. Hudman hit a double and was on third base after Frank Reyes’ error on Knight’s grounder. Cookie flew out to shallow right for the second out, but Walter and Nunley came up with back-to-back RBI singles, both just slightly past an infielder. The Titans walked Mendoza on four pitches, which was good considering his inability to drive in anything, including a car into a garage. Jackson batted with the plates full, hit a 2-0 to deep right, but Almanza got there, keeping it at 3-0. Knight immediately tried to **** up, issued another leadoff walk to Reyes in the sixth, then threw away Boyer’s bunt in the worst way to put runners in scoring position with nobody out. Alex Mata reached AGAIN on an infield single when Hudman couldn’t decide where to throw the ball, Mata stole another base off Denny, and the Titans tied the game on Butler’s 2-run single.

Knight somehow made it through the seventh despite offering another leadoff walk to Roberts. The Coons hit Chris Thomson for him to start the bottom 7th, Thomson singled hard to center, and with one out Walter came up with a double to right, putting the go-ahead run on third base with one out, and really all the hopes were on Nunley here, because there was NO HOPE LEFT with Doorknob Mendoza. Nunley lined out to new second baseman Joe Stephenson, which was when the inning really ended, although it officially only ended when Mendoza grounded out to third base. The baseball gods had a good laugh about this, good enough for some tears of joy to flow and cause a short rain delay in the top of the eighth inning. Lester in the eighth and Mathis in the ninth held the Titans away, but the Coons only got a Thomson single in the bottom 9th after he had replaced the completely maddening Headless Tambourine Mendoza at first base. Nothing came out of that; Walter batted with two outs and was 4-for-4 in the game, but grounded out to Stephenson. Ramirez did a quick 1-2-3 in the tenth, but Thrasher had a laborious 11th inning, throwing 21 pitches and walking a pair, but he didn’t allow the Titans across home plate. Jason Kaiser in the 12th, however, did. 28-year old Miles Greene hit a leadoff single, pinch-hitting in his first plate appearance of the year, and with two outs, another seasoned bit piece, Kelvin Gaines, hit a bomb to left to break the tie and put the Titans over the top. 5-3 Titans. Walter 4-6, 2B, RBI; Thomson (PH) 2-3;

Oh my god, what a ****ing game. I barely managed to not vomit. Even if they make it to the CLCS without dissolving in the last three-and-a-half weeks, they won’t win anything once there.

Back to the drawing board in the winter, I guess.

Raccoons (81-58) @ Loggers (69-70) – September 7-9, 2018

The Loggers were in fifth place, but continued to be at .500 for the season, which was not shabby for a team that didn’t have a single dime to invest in actual help anywhere. They were sixth in runs scored, fifth in runs allowed, and had a +13 run differential. They also still had a chance to topple the Raccoons in the season series if they could sweep them (and it was anything but impossible), so far trailing 7-8 to Portland over the year.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (20-5, 2.46 ERA) vs. Brian Cope (7-6, 4.37 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (13-12, 3.58 ERA) vs. G.G. Williams (10-8, 3.76 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (13-8, 4.72 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (6-12, 3.04 ERA)

We’d get a left-hander on Saturday here. The Loggers had a substantial number of players on the DL at this point, including their best pitcher in Michael Foreman (10-6, 2.17 ERA) as well as a set of outfielders including Brad Gore and Andrew Cooper as well as struggling slugger Jimmy Raupp.

The Raccoons had another – their last – card to play to finally get the offense moving again as Alex Duarte came off the DL in time for this series. Having said that, DeWeese and Toenail Mendoza are a combined 112 at-bats without a home run.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Mathews – P Toner
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Burns – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – CF Coleman – 1B P. Turner – C O. Castillo – 2B Cazares – P Cope

With the Raccoons’ offense still in transit and doing little to nothing in the early innings, Jonny Toner was perfect through the first ten batters, striking out half of them, before the Loggers quickly pierced him for a run in the fourth on Kyle Burns’ single and Chris LeMoine’s double. Jonny walked a pair in the bottom 5th before a terrible bunt by Brian Cope knocked out the lead runner Orlando Castillo on third base and helped him escape the homemade mess. Cookie hit a double to open the sixth, which put the Raccoons on second base for the second time in the game, and the first time with less than two outs. WITH two outs, Cookie was still at second, and then Slipknot Mendoza drew a walk, his 78th on the season and leaving him with only three less walks than RBI’s. Duarte grounded out to Carlos Cazares, and that was that. Striking out the side in the bottom 7th put Toner at 11 K for the game, and at just over 80 pitches, and with him leading off the eighth inning… oh **** it, they’re gonna lose anyway. He grounded out to Cazares, after which Cookie drew a walk in a full count. He took off on the first pitch to Walter and claimed second base, and maybe, just maybe, we could get something better than a groundout to first from Walter. Nope. That’s what happened. Nunley batted with Cookie on third, slapped a grounder to the left side, and it barely zipped past Alberto Velez’ glove into leftfield. Cookie scored, tied ballgame. Cope got binned right away, with Luis Calderon appearing in the game, a right-hander with almost even K/BB values, which prompted the coward Mendoza to draw another walk in his general unhelpfulness. Duarte also walked, loading the bases, and bringing up DeWeese, who was rocking three strikeouts in three at-bats in the game, and filled his sombrero to the brim against Calderon. The bottom 8th was opened by Isiah Reed with a soft single to right. Elijah Scott laid down a terrible bunt, almost a soft line to short, but the leaping Toner missed it, and Walter was so confused that he committed a colossal throwing error that put runners on second and third with nobody out. Not even Toner was going to get out of that one; Victor Hodgers plated the go-ahead run with a sac fly before a strikeout and a groundout ended the inning. The Loggers brought Julio San Pedro into the top of the ninth with a 2-1 lead, which deserved a blown save with his 4.46 ERA and 41 walks in 70.2 innings, but the Coons would field the bottom of the order, and were generally just legally disabled and dependent. Jackson drew a walk batting for Denny to lead off, but after that it was a soft fly to center by Mathews, Thomson hitting into a fielder’s choice, and Cookie popping out in foul ground. 2-1 Loggers. Toner 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 12 K, L (20-6);

**** this team…

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – 1B H. Mendoza – SS Mathews – C Margolis – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – P Guerrero
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Burns – LF LeMoine – CF Coleman – C O. Castillo – 3B I. Reed – 1B E. Scott – 2B Krueger – P G.G. Williams

Any and all good things for this team started with Cookie singles these days. He hit one to start this game, Nunley homered, and it was 2-0 Coons in the first. They continued to bat with Jackson walking, Margolis and Bareford knocking 2-out singles to plate him, Prince walked, and it took a major effort by Chris LeMoine in left to catch up with a broken-bat blooper that Guerrero hit on a 2-2 pitch and that almost fell in for further damage. It remained 3-0 after the top of the first, but it didn’t remain 3-0 forever. Cookie struck out to open the second, which automatically rendered the Coons void for the next hour. Guerrero overcame two hits in the bottom 2nd, but didn’t overcome a bunt single that Victor Hodgers ran out at the start of the bottom of the third. Burns grounded out, but LeMoine clocked a pitch to deep right and outta here, cutting the gap to 3-2, and giving him 29 homers and 94 RBI on the year. No particular reason for me to mention this, but by the fifth inning Ducksnort Mendoza had three pathetic outs on his ledger, and had stranded two, and LeMoine had three RBI in his account, driving home Hodgers with an RBI single to tie the score.

Guerrero staved off taking the loss after a leadoff double by Isiah Reed in the bottom 6th, striking out the 7-8-9 batters in order to stay in the 3-3 tie before being hit for in the next inning. Jason Kaiser was less lucky in the bottom 7th, allowing a single to Burns and a pinch-hit RBI double to David Betancourt to fall behind the Loggers, 4-3, although he would be spared the loss. The Coons, after being absent fully and wholly for two hours, got Jackson on base with a leadoff single in the top 8th. Moosehead Mendoza got him forced with a grounder that Castillo played in front of the plate, but Jackson raised his leg in an attempt to take Burns’ face off to break up the double play. It was worth it; Mathews got on, and Margolis almost would have beaten Hodgers’ range with his fly to right center. Two down, Luis Calderon replaced Williams, with Shane Walter swiftly hitting for Bareford and knocking a liner to left for a game-tying RBI single. DeWeese batted for Tim Prince, whose existence was pointless, and roped a shot to right that went actually past Hodgers and into the corner. Mathews scored, Walter scored, DeWeese was caught between second and third, but the Coons were back in front! Kaiser got two more outs with his spot not coming up in the top of the eighth, Davis got one, and Ramirez when entering in the ninth allowed a pinch-hit single to leadoff batter Juan Ortíz, but then came back with two strikeouts in his three outs collected from the top of the order, ending the Coons’ 3-game spill against the bottom of the division. 6-4 Critters. Carmona 2-5; Walter (PH) 1-1, RBI; DeWeese (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Kaiser ended up with the W after the second 3-spot of the game, and Ramirez saved his 35th game of the year for a crisp 77% success rate…

No Makeshift Mendoza in the rubber game. Trying my luck with Petracek. He has more RBI since August 19 than Mendoza. YES THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Dahlke – 1B Petracek – C Prieto – P R. Mendoza
MIL: RF Hodgers – SS Burns – LF LeMoine – 3B Velez – CF Coleman – C O. Castillo – 1B Betancourt – 2B Krueger – P Prevost

The Raccoons put up another 3-spot in the first inning, and this one actually without involvement by Cookie, who struck out. The Loggers got two outs before Prevost walked both Walter and Nunley, then allowed an RBI double to DeWeese (again past Hodgers and into the rightfield corner) and a 2-run single to center to Tom Dahlke. Not that it was a comfortable 3-0 lead, because the Loggers were shoving runners into scoring position in every inning against Mendoza, who struck out Prevost with runners on the corners in the bottom 2nd to get out of the first real jam, but then allowed a leadoff jack to Hodgers in the third. LeMoine doubled to right, but was left on base when Velez K’ed and Ian Coleman grounded out. The Loggers got Gene Krueger into second base with a 2-out double in the fourth, but that only brought up Prevost again, and this time he grounded out to short. Hodgers led off another inning with an extra-base hit, a fifth-inning double, but Kyle Burns grounded out to Nunley. If Mendoza could get around LeMoi– and Hodgers takes off for third, and Denny throws him out! LeMoine popped out to end the inning, and no, we have not skipped past any Raccoons offense; they had no hits after the first inning until – … uhm…

But first more of the Loggers. Ian Coleman hit a 1-out single in the sixth, stole second against the unassuming debutee Prieto, and scored on Betancourt’s groundout after Castillo had singled him to third base. That reduced the Coons’ lead to a single run after six innings, once Krueger struck out. Thrasher entered for the ninth inning after Mendoza had been ineffectively pinch-hit for by Danny Ochoa in the top of that inning. The only man to reach against Thrasher did so on Petracek’s error, and in the top of the eighth the Raccoons got an actual ****ing hit, Shane Walter singling to right with nobody out off Carlos Michel, who had also walked Duarte to start the inning, and the centerfielder was now on second base for Matt Nunley, who hit into a double play on a 3-1 pitch. Jackson batted for DeWeese against the left-handed pitcher and struck out. Thrasher got a total of five outs before arriving at the right-handers in the bottom of the order. Mathis took over, conceded a double to Orlando Castillo, but wiggled out with a groundball he played himself to first base, still nursing that 3-run first from inning to inning. Petracek reached on an infield single in the top 9th, stole second base, then was stranded when Thomson fouled out and Margolis rolled out to Krueger. Ramirez was in the bottom 9th with no cushion, and the top of the order would come up within the inning. Right-handed batter Adam Redmond pinch-hit in the #8 hole and ripped a single to right. Brian Almond, left-handed, batted next and grounded out. Hodgers was probably the bigger threat than Burns here, not only because he countered Ramirez, but with one out and LeMoine looming large in the #3 hole, Ramirez had to go after him with the tying run in scoring position. Hodgers fouled out, which made Burns the final out of the game – or maybe not. He took the 1-2 pitch high and deep to center, Duarte couldn’t catch up with it, and the Loggers tied the game on the 2-run double. LeMoine was walked intentionally before Velez flew out to center. Ramirez would be removed from the game, and I rolled up a magazine and tried to get into the dugout to beat him to death with it.

Extra innings! Cookie led off the tenth with a single, stole second, then was left to rot at third base. The game ended quickly in the bottom of the inning. Nick Lester drilled PH Pat Turner, then allowed a homer on 1-0 to PH Max Giese. 5-3 Loggers. Walter 1-2, 3 BB; DeWeese 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Petracek 2-4; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Max Giese, 25, hit his third major-league home run. He’s a rookie. He was in his third organization before reaching AA. I wished somebody would choke Ramirez at the grocery store so we could cash insurance.

In other news

September 7 – The Knights lose LF Marty Reyes (.275, 15 HR, 56 RBI) for the year with a sprained ankle.
September 7 – SFW INF Jamie Wilson (.301, 11 HR, 66 RBI) has to sit out a week with a tender hamstring.
September 8 – TIJ OF Josh Rawlings (.254, 12 HR, 68 RBI) shatters his elbow while skateboarding in his driveway, quite definitely rendering him out for the season.

Complaints and stuff

It looks like the Crusaders will out-lose the Raccoons, but maybe the Indians can zip past them. There is a crucial 4-game set coming up, I hear, and with the most recent impressions of this completely soul-bleaching week behind us, yet freshly etched into our brains, maybe they will not make it to the CLCS to get swept after all.

What a ****ing team of losers.

Chris Klein beat the Titans on Thursday, so Toner’s lead in the W column keeps melting. He has lost three of his last four starts, and with any ****ing offense he shouldn’t have lost any, never allowing more than three runs. The ****ing ass team couldn’t overcome him tossing 29 innings with 11 runs allowed (10 earned, thanks Shane Walter), which comes out to a 3.10 ERA – admittedly not great, but then NOBODY on this team is anywhere even NEAR great right now.

How much exactly can I get in trades for DeWeese, Mendoza, and Ramirez?

[Westheim]

Raccoons (82-60) @ Indians (74-69) – September 10-13, 2018

The Raccoons were pretty much meh coming into this potentially pivotal series, having lost six of nine, including two of three to the Indians, who had since then won five in a row, and had taken ten of their last dozen. While you could consider an 8 1/2 game lead with three weeks to play rightfully roomy, it was much less so when the leading team was dudding around, the trailing team was scorching hot, and they met for four in the latter’s park. We still held an 8-6 lead in the season series over Indy, but much of that stuff was evaporating as I keep lamenting here.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (11-9, 2.73 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (4-1, 4.08 ERA)
Damani Knight (5-9, 4.81 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (14-7, 3.56 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (20-6, 2.41 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (10-11, 2.49 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (13-12, 3.61 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (12-7, 3.90 ERA)

One, Tristan Broun is one unlucky bastard. Two, that’s left-handers on Monday and Wednesday, and I don’t know whether we can cope with that. I’d like to bank on our starting pitching, since the Indians’ offense over the course of the season had scored even less runs, but I had no trust in the Critters making life hell for the fourth-best rotation in the CL.

Or even the tenth-best, if it really mattered.

But even taking ONE game in the series would probably we enough to keep the Indians away over the last 2 1/2 weeks. ONE game, boys, ONE game. Wow, the standards are sinking fast here…

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – SS Walter – RF Jackson – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – 2B Dahlke – CF Bareford – P Santos
IND: 1B O. Torres – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – SS Matias – RF C. Martinez – 3B Suda – C Garner – 2B Eason – P Lamb

While Santos was perfect the first time through the Arrowhead’s lineup, throwing just 27 pitches en route, the Raccoons got two runs in the top of the third when Bareford hit a leadoff single, was bunted to second, Cookie walked, and both embarked on a double steal. Randy Garner’s bad throw to third made the 41-year old “Quasimodo” Suda leap to prevent the ball from going up the leftfield line, but despite him containing that foul egg, Shane Walter’s single to centerfield still scored both runners. Jackson would then single before Mouthful Mendoza expertly hit into a double play. The ****tiest player in the lineup was 0-for-3 by the fifth inning, but the Coons had picked up an unearned run in the fourth and in the fifth inning had the bases loaded after Jackson walked, Nunley and Dahlke singled, and Bareford stepped into the box. In a full count he crashed a pitch up the rightfield line, far away from any defender and all the way to the wall for a bases-clearing double that ran the score to 6-0 for the Critters. Cookie would then get on base with a leadoff single in the sixth, extending a budding hitting streak to 11 games, but he didn’t really move on while Walter and Jackson made outs against reliever Tony Lino, who then faced Hugo Mendoza, whose fly to right cleared the fence by the barest margin to run the score to 8-0. Santos continued to face the minimum; while he allowed a leadoff single to Randy Garner in the bottom 6th after retiring the first 15 batters in a row, pinch-hitter Danny Young hit into a double play to end the inning, and the third time through the order turned out to be the third time the charm for Santos. The Indians got nobody on in the seventh, nobody on in the eighth, and nobody on in the ninth. Ex-Logger Ruben Landeros struck out to end the game. 8-0 Raccoons! Walter 2-5, 2 RBI; H. Mendoza 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-3, BB; Prince (PH) 1-1; Dahlke 2-5, 2B; Bareford 2-3, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Santos 9.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, W (12-9);

Screw Randy Garner! This was only the second career shutout in 244 games started for Santos, but we all know that his problem has to do with stamina rather than being crap. He previously spun a 2-hitter against the Thunder in 2015. In this 1-hitter he was extremely economical and needed only 88 pitches to seal the deal.

This was the first multi-RBI game for Mendoza since August 18. Of course it didn’t matter that he homered in the sixth.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 2B Hudman – P Knight
IND: C Garner – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – SS Matias – RF C. Martinez – 3B Suda – 1B Landeros – 2B Nelson – P Lambert

Roles were reversed for the second game in the series; while Dan Lambert was perfect the first time through the order on an economical 33 pitches, the Raccoons’ Damani Knight got flogged for six hits and a walk. Somehow that only amounted to two runs in the early going, and when the Indians had the bags full and two outs in the bottom 3rd they also had the unlucky occurrence to bring Ruben Landeros to the plate, and Knight struck him out on three pitches. Cookie walked to open the top of the fourth, but was thrown out trying to nip second base. While Lambert continued to turn the Raccoons away rather briskly, Knight didn’t get out of the fifth inning in the worst way, as usual for him. Lowell Genge hit a leadoff jack in the inning, running the Indians’ lead to 3-0. The inning continued with Cesar Martinez drawing a walk, and with two outs Landeros hit an RBI single to left. Aaron Nelson singled, and then Knight walked Lambert to fill the bases, which was good enough to get yelled at for four hours after the game. Wade Davis replaced him and got Garner to foul out behind home plate to dispel the threat for a major inning for the Indians. By the sixth, the Coons even got two singles off Lambert, but Hudman and Cookie were left on the corners in a 4-0 game, and the two got on again in the eighth inning, but were left in scoring position by Duarte, again. In between, Nunley had hit a drive to deep left with Mendoza on first base in the seventh, but could neither clear the fence nor Lowell Genge’s glove. Four Raccoons relievers spun 1-hit ball after Knight’s departure, to no avail, and neither did Lambert get credit for a shutout, running out of juice in the ninth inning. With Mendoza on first he did strike out Nunley for the second out, but that was due to Nunley fishing for ball three in the dirt. Jarrod Morrison retired DeWeese on a grounder to end the game. 4-0 Indians. Carmona 1-2, 2 BB; Hudman 2-3, 2B;

So the Critters routed the lefty and looked bleak against the righty. Here comes Broun, and I wouldn’t mind him getting saddled with four again.

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS Walter – C Denny – 3B Nunley – 2B Dahlke – LF DeWeese – 1B Petracek – P Toner
IND: 2B Kym – CF D. Morales – SS Matias – 3B Suda – 1B Eaton – LF D. Young – RF Gilmor – C Garner – P Broun

Garner threw out Cookie for the second time in the series, right in the first inning, after Cookie had extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a game-opening single to right center. Jonny Toner struck out the first four batters he faced in the game and five in total while being perfect the first time through the order – a common theme for the series – while the Coons failed to score on four early singles. Nobody reached base off Toner until Shane Walter’s throwing error put Danny Morales on first in the bottom of the fourth. Not completely unexpectedly, Suda cranked a 2-run homer to left with two outs, putting the Raccoons and Toner in particular into another sorrowful deficit they couldn’t clamber out of … I assume.

Toner though was a fan of DIY, once having assembled a kitchen cabinet that had held in place on the wall for six minutes before crashing into and breaking the sink in his apartment. When DeWeese opened the fifth with a double, the leftfielder’s first extra-base hit off a left-handed pitcher for the season, that created an opportunity for a comeback, even though Petracek fouled out. Toner fell to 1-2 before lining a pitch to right, and past all defenders into the corner. DeWeese scored and Toner raced into third base with a ****ing RBI triple, then scored the tying run on Cookie’s sac fly to center. Then he held the Indians in the tie, striking out two more for eight total in the bottom 5th, and the Coons snipped three singles off Broun to start the sixth inning, bringing up Dahlke with three on and nobody out. He hit the first pitch to left where it was caught by Danny Young, who did have a decent arm. Walter was sent anyway, carrying the go-ahead run, but Young’s throw arrived in time. Walter had none of that and smothered Garner, who lost the ball while flying backwards across home plate. Walter was safe, and the Critters were up 3-2. Petracek hit a 2-out RBI single, Toner hit an infield single to load the bases, but Cookie struck out swinging to keep it at 4-2. Denny’s throwing error brought up the tying run in the bottom of the inning, and with two down a Raul Matias single pulled up Suda. Toner, stellar so far, but visibly not cool, threw a wild pitch at 0-1, moving the tying runs into scoring position. Another strike, another ball, before Suda grounded up the middle, Walter cut it off and zinged to first for the third out.

Things unraveled for good for Broun in the seventh inning. Duarte hit a leadoff double, and when Walter’s groundout moved him to third, Denny was walked intentionally to get a matchup with a left-handed batter in Nunley, but Broun lost him on four pitches to load the bases. When right-hander Joel Davis replaced him, Mendoza batted for Dahlke, because a knockout blow right now would be swell. Mendoza hit a drive to deep left, but not past Young, though it was good for a sac fly. DeWeese struck out, stranding a pair. Toner moved into the eighth with the 5-2 lead, but allowed a leadoff single to Cesar Martinez. Jong-beom Kym grounded out to third base, moving up the runner. What so far was still not much of a drama became one when Danny Morales reached on a Nunley error, and Raul Matias floated a soft single to shallow center, scoring Martinez. Two on, one out became two in scoring position, one out when Denny lost a Toner pitch through his legs and was charged a passed ball. Toner battled down Suda for a strikeout in that spot, but when the Indians sent left-hander Oliver Torres to bat for Pat Eaton, his pitches (113 in total) were numbered. Ron Thrasher got the ball. And Ron Thrasher got a soft grounder to first base that Mendoza easily turned into the third out, then hit another sac fly in the top of the ninth. Thrasher remained in the game with two lefties starting the inning, and retired the Indians in order to end this nerve-wrecker. 6-3 Raccoons! Duarte 2-5, 2B; Walter 3-5, 2B; Denny 2-4, BB; Nunley 3-4, BB; Toner 7.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, W (21-6) and 2-3, 3B, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (7);

JONNYYYYYY!! Oooh, that was close.

But it was also a great game, with great pitching, and some morbid fielding, but Nunley has other nice qualities. He bakes a great apple pie, for example. Or so he claims. Nobody has ever grabbed a piece – it goes from the oven right into his certified pie hole.

There was a point to be made about resting the regulars at some point, but in fact all unrested regulars (Cookie, Walter, Nunley) at this point were left-handers, and we would not see a left-hander in Tijuana on the weekend, with the Condors’ sole southpaw Luis Flores (12-8, 3.39 ERA) facing the Knights on Thursday. With that, the most prudent plan would be to knock out the Indians with another W on Thursday, then spread the cushion time over the weekend.

Game 4
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – SS Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 2B Hudman – P Guerrero
IND: 1B O. Torres – CF D. Morales – LF Genge – RF C. Martinez – 3B Suda – 2B Kym – SS Eason – C Garner – P Riley

Being perfect through three innings kept alternating between the teams, with the Coons getting nobody on against Riley, but the Indians didn’t make anything from their three singles off Guerrero in the first three frames, and the game remained scoreless. Cookie then opened the fourth with a double to left, extending his hitting streak to 14 games, and scored on consecutive groundouts to put the Coons 1-0 ahead. Guerrero had runners on the corners when his turn to bat came up in the fifth. Riley had two outs and just had to nip the pitcher, but Guerrero, admittedly a terrible batter, lined an offering to left for a 2-out RBI single that scored Matt Nunley, 2-0. Riley kept crumbling; Duarte opened the sixth with a single and advanced on Walter’s groundout. Mendoza was walked intentionally, but Nunley singled to load the bases. However, DeWeese struck out, and Margolis’ drive to center was not enough to beat Morales out there. After Torres drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, but was swept up in Genge’s double play grounder, the Critters had the bases loaded again in the seventh, and again with one out. Hudman opened with a single before Guerrero was hit by Riley. Cookie flew out, but Duarte singled past Suda to load them up for Walter, who struck out, and Mendoza kept doing what he was always doing and was no help at all, grounding out to Kym. Of course the Masked Menaces got what they deserved: Kym hit a soft single with two outs in the bottom 7th, just before Bobby Eason took Guerrero yard to knot the score. Help was on its way in form of Matt Nunley’s leadoff jack in the eighth, coming off Joel Davis, staking Guerrero to another lead, and Mathis and Thrasher navigated through the bottom 8th safely despite Aaron Nelson’s leadoff single off the former, Tim Prince batted for Thrasher to start the ninth and walked, and when Danny Morales dropped Cookie’s pop in shallow left the Coons had two on and nobody out. Walter’s single through Suda plated an insurance run with one out. Mendoza readily made the second out, bringing up Nunley again, with the rubber-armed Davis still in the game. This would have been the spot to go to a southpaw at the very latest, the Indians didn’t, and Nunley blasted a 3-piece to center to put the game away for good. 7-2 Furballs! Duarte 2-4; Nunley 4-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Guerrero 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (14-12) and 1-2, RBI;

So, how’s the North looking now? The Indians dropped to fourth by losing three of four in the series, 10 1/2 games out. The Elks are third, a flat ten games out, and the Crusaders are ‘closest’ with a 9-game deficit. Starting to look a lot less gloomy and doomy.

Raccoons (85-61) @ Condors (81-65) – September 14-17, 2018

The Condors also had a winning streak, this one being four games, as the Raccoons came in for the last series of the year. So far we held a 4-2 lead over the team with the second-fewest runs allowed (to us of course) and the eighth-most runs scored in the Continental League. We were actually only five runs apart in terms of runs allowed, and the seventh-place Raccoons had 16 more runs scored than the Condors.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (13-8, 4.66 ERA) vs. Casey Hally (9-10, 3.64 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-9, 2.60 ERA) vs. Jorge Gine (11-11, 3.31 ERA)
Damani Knight (5-10, 4.93 ERA) vs. Jose Menendez (10-7, 3.32 ERA)

Damani only starts if Tadasu Abe doesn’t make it to St. Pete in time for their season finale on Friday. And as I pointed out earlier, no southpaw in this series. Both Abe and Brownie will be recalled to Portland by Saturday for the middle game, but I will say right away that Brownie’s rehab has yielded a double-digit ERA for him.

The Condors were still even with the Bayhawks for first place, but they had a few crippling injuries to work around, foremost their ace Andrew Gudeman (11-8, 2.48 ERA), but also 1B Mun-wah Tsung (.258, 14 HR, 51 RBI), who was laboring on an oblique strain and could be back any day, third-rate skateboarder Josh Rawlings (.254, 12 HR, 68 RBI), and a few more.

Game 1
POR: SS Walter – RF Duarte – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza
TIJ: SS Konrath – C J. Vargas – 1B Jaeger – LF Eichelkraut – RF Munn – 3B J. Soto – 2B Ritner – CF Jamieson – P Hally

The Condors made hard contact for seven straight batters to open the game, resulting in three base hits and no runs, because somehow the defense was able to contain the damage, and Hally hit into a double play that ended the bottom 2nd with runners on the corners and one out. The Coons had only one soft single in the first three innings, and when they opened the fourth with three rock-hard doubles off Hally, starting with Nunley and continuing with Mendoza(!!) and Denny for a blitz 2-0 lead, it came quite as the shock. Hally walked DeWeese, but then struck out the condensed misery at the bottom of the order, Bareford, Prince, and Mendoza all in a row. While Ricky Mendoza didn’t exactly help himself in that tough spot to bat in, he DID help himself on the mound, recovering significantly from the early battering he received (no runs allowed or not, the first two innings were gruesome!), and rallied in the middle innings to allow only two more base hits through six, while also whiffing half a dozen.

But never congratulate a ballplayer for a job well done. The bottom 7th opened with a double by Jesus Soto, and Matt Jamieson singled with one out, putting the tying runs on the corners. With the left-hander Tony Ruiz batting for Hally, Kaiser replaced Mendoza, but was no help in allowing a hard liner to right for an RBI single. Mathis replaced Kaiser instantly against another pinch-hitter, this time the right-handed Alfonso Gonzales, but conceded another RBI single to center before whiffing Jose Vargas and getting Kevin Jaeger to pop out. Thus we were tied at two through seven. But the Coons had broken Thursday’s 2-2 tie in the eighth, and they also broke this one. Kevin Woodworth allowed a leadoff single to Walter, walked Nunley, and conceded Walter’s run on Denny’s 2-out single up the middle. Another run scored on DeWeese’s RBI single to right, 4-2. While Mathis, Lester, and Davis puzzled a scoreless bottom of the eighth together, the Coons had runners on the corners with nobody out in the ninth after a Prince walk and Jackson single, but couldn’t figure out a way to score at least one run with the top of the order, bringing Ramirez into a 4-2 game in the bottom 9th, which started with Jamieson. The sophomore whiffed, but the Condors appeared in business when Craig Dasher tripled off Ramirez with one out. The tying run came up in rookie shortstop Jalen Swan, who grounded to third, where Nunley managed to both keep Dasher where the **** he was and to throw out Swan at first base. Vargas then flew out easily to end the game. 4-2 Coons. Denny 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1; R. Mendoza 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;

Abe did not make the rehab start and returned to the Coons cold and rusty. While Nick Brown didn’t return rusty, he certainly returned cold, having been tagged for a 10.80 ERA in AAA.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Duarte – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – SS Mathews – 2B Prince – P Santos
TIJ: SS Konrath – C J. Vargas – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Munn – 3B J. Soto – 2B Swan – CF Jamieson – P Gine

Five days after his 1-hitter, everybody in the first inning absolutely creamed the ball out of Santos’ paws. Vargas hit a double, and every outfielder made one stellar and absolutely hazardous play to keep the Condors off the board in the first. The Coons made five outs to Jimmy Oatmeal the first time through the lineup, and after that had nobody on with two outs in the top 3rd, then placed runners in scoring position with absolutely no contribution of their own as Cookie and Duarte both reached on errors and moved up on Gine’s balk. Nunley flew out to … Jimmy Oatmeal to not take advantage of the miserable situation Gine was in. How kind of him. In the fourth a Mike Denny triple went to waste when Gine struck out both DeWeese and Mathews, but the Condors also stranded a man on third base in the fifth inning to keep the game scoreless. Danny Munn had hit a leadoff double and was on third with two outs and Jamieson up. He was walked intentionally to get to Gine, who bounced the first pitch back to Santos for the third out in the inning. It was the last inning Santos got through; Cameron Konrath and Jose Vargas hit leadoff singles in the bottom 6th, and then Santos hit Jimmy Oatmeal with one out. With the left-handers Munn and Soto on the approach and the ballpark having a finite area, we turned to Jason Kaiser, who got a grounder to the right side on 1-1 from Munn, Prince to Mathews to Mendoza, and the game remained scoreless.

The game was still scoreless in the bottom 7th. PH Kevin Jaeger led off with a single to left against Matt Schroeder, who got an out after that before yielding with left-hander Salvador Trevino pinch-hitting for Jamieson. The bullpen door opened and Nick Brown rumpled out of there for his first relief appearance since 2006. He had Trevino at 1-2 before the 24-year old corner outfielder cracked a hard bouncer to right, hitting the runner for the second out. WHATEVER WORKS!! Alfonso Gonzales was the next pinch-hitter and grounded out to Nunley to end the inning. Brownie got two more outs in the bottom 8th before he arrived at Oatmeal with a man on first base. Chun came into the game to see after the right-handed slugger, who grounded out to third, and Chun also pitched a quick ninth to send a scoreless game to extra innings, which was great news for at least one player: Cookie was nursing an 0-for-4 and had a chance to extend his 14-game hitting streak if at least one Critter could get on base ahead of him in the 10th. No such thing happened and Wade Davis loaded the ****ing bases in the bottom 10th and with only one out, AND approaching the 3-4 batters. Tsung flew to shallow left, but DeWeese caught the ball on the run, keeping Robert Mascorro pinned at third base. Jimmy Oatmeal hit a 1-1 pitch to Prince for the third out, and Cookie led off the 11th, knocking a single to left off southpaw Mike Peterson. He stole second base – his 40th of the year and ending an 0-for-4 streak for the Coons as a whole in stealing bases ever since the double swipe on Monday – and moved up on Nunley’s single, scoring when Mendoza flew out to left for a sac fly. Ramirez walked Tony Ruiz in the bottom 11th, but got three groundballs for outs before the Condors could seriously worry me. 1-0 Furballs. Denny 2-5, 3B; Prince 2-4; Chun 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Wheezer, what a squeezer…

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – CF Bareford – SS Walter – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 2B Hudman – 3B Petracek – C Prieto – P Abe
TIJ: SS Konrath – C J. Vargas – 1B Tsung – LF Eichelkraut – RF Munn – 2B Sykes – 3B Swan – CF Jamieson – P Menendez

Tadasu Abe (2-3, 1.98 ERA) had last pitched on May 14, over four months ago, so we were not expecting a shutout right now. Both teams had two on and two out in the first inning. DeWeese grounded out to Harrison Sykes, but Abe struck out Munn as nobody scored. That was the closest either team came to scoring in the early going, and the Coons didn’t score at all while scattering four hits in the first five innings. Abe walked Vargas in the bottom 5th and with two outs faced Jimmy Oatmeal, who lined a ball into the rightfield corner for an RBI triple. While Cookie couldn’t prevent this one, at least Munn grounded out to keep Oatmeal on base, who then took away what looked like a leadoff double by Cookie right off the bat in the sixth with a great spurt into the gap. Bareford reached on an infield single, advanced on Walter’s groundout, and then there was another line drive to left by Mendoza, and this one went over Oatmeal and all the way to the wall for a game-tying RBI double. DeWeese grounded to Harrison Sykes, whose throw to first was completely wild and plated Mendoza with the go-ahead run, 2-1 Critters in the middle of the sixth. Abe went six perfectly good innings in his return from four months in summer hibernation, and Mathis held on to the lead in the seventh despite facing three switch-hitters and allowing a 2-out rocket to center by Vargas, which Bareford caught up with.

Cookie took to the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 16 games, blooping a single to shallow center to start the inning. Before he could stage a takeoff attempt, Bareford grounded back to the mound, and Menendez forced Cookie on second base, with the inning fizzling out quickly after that. The bottom 8th saw Ron Thrasher, and the unthinkable happened – he blew the lead. Tsung drew a leadoff walk in a full count, but Oatmeal singled hard to right. Tsung went aggro to third, Cookie’s throw was terrible and escaped Petracek to give the runners an extra base, which allowed Tsung to score and the go-ahead run was on second base now. Thrasher struck out Gonzales, got Sykes on a fly to center, and Dasher on a grounder to short, but he was visibly unhappy with himself as he stalked off the mound, screaming audible obscenities into his glove. The game ended up going to extras as well, with Nunley hitting for Prieto to start the 10th against right-hander Brian Gilbert and knocking a single to left. The Coons would play for one run only and used Chun, who had turned in a scoreless ninth, to bunt Nunley to second base. The Condors countered with an intentional walk to Cookie, pulling up Bareford, for whom Jackson hit, right into a double play. Tsung reached with an infield single against Chun with one out in the bottom 10th, but Chun struck out Oatmeal before yielding for Nick Lester, who had lots of left-handed batters to mess with now. Soto lined out to Mendoza to end the inning for now. After Tim Dunkin dispelled the Coons’ 3-4-5 batters in the top 11th, Mike Herrera’s leadoff double off Lester put the Coons into a serious predicament, but Lester rallied, got a key strikeout, and managed to starve Herrera on third base, extending the contest into the 12th, where Brock Hudman hit a leadoff single against southpaw Ethan Knight and made it to third on two groundouts. Tom Dahlke batted for Lester, but before he could do damage, the ball got away from Vargas and Hudman scored on the passed ball – and THEN Dahlke homered to left. Up 4-2, the Coons had to find solace from one between Matt Schroeder and Chet Cummings, since we weren’t going to use anybody three days in a row now that the games didn’t matter that badly, or Brownie back-to-back, which he was not used to. Between those two right-handers, it was Schroeder any day of the week. Vargas struck out, Tsung flew out to left, and Cookie risked major injury making a flying grab on Oatmeal’s drive, but ended the game rather than his career. 4-2 Coons! Carmona 2-5, BB; H. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1; Dahlke (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Abe 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

This was the first major league W for Nick Lester since 2016, and his second overall. Meanwhile, Edwin Prieto remains hitless in the Bigs.

In other news

September 11 – Denver loses C Pat Walston (.290, 12 HR, 57 RBI) to a torn abdominal muscle. He is out for the season.
September 11 – Also out for the season: Washington’s SP Elliott Rosner (3-7, 5.51 ERA). The rookie needs to have a tear in his labrum fixed.
September 11 – A ninth-inning home run by DAL 3B Miguel Salinas (.295, 18 HR, 74 RBI) is the sole scoring in the Stars’ 1-0 win over the Pacifics.
September 12 – TIJ SP Zach Hughes (14-10, 2.59 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout against the Knights, beating them 4-0.
September 13 – The Gold Sox crank out seven in the sixth inning and five in the ninth inning in a 17-6 stomping of the Warriors. DEN 1B Stanley Murphy (.304, 17 HR, 69 RBI) has three hits and knocks in six, drilling a grand slam off Ricardo Rocha in the ninth.
September 14 – The season of Nashville’s SP Jimmy Lee (13-7, 2.80 ERA) ends early with a strained hamstring.

Complaints and stuff

6-1 week back to the top of the power rankings. It was mostly pitching, of course, as we only scored 30 runs (4.3 R/G), but allowed only a scant 13 counters. All that gives us an 11-game lead with 13 to play, so maybe we will look into planning for the CLCS now, but we don’t want to go too overboard with emotions, because the baseball gods are easily angered.

Jonny Toner fortified his triple crown case on Wednesday with the 6-3 win, in which only one run was earned thanks to defensive misfortunes of Walter and Nunley. On the same day, by chance, his two sharpest competitors started against another, with ‘Midnight’ Martin (2nd in ERA) and the Crusaders beating Boston’s Chris Klein (2nd in Wins), 4-3. Only one of those runs was on Martin, who remained .05 behind Jonny in the ERA battle. While Klein is the last competitor in wins and is now three behind Jonny (everybody else is at least five behind and thus eliminated), the only other challenger in ERA that is left in the race is Tijuana’s Andrew Gudeman, then 12 points off Toner’s mark – BUT of course he is also done for the season, so he’s only a threat if Toner explodes. And, uh, Santos, a bit further back, but that’s unlikely and Maud has made preparations and restocked on tranquilizer darts for her crossbow, because marketing people dig nothing more than triple crown winner promotions.

No need to discuss strikeouts. Jonny strikes out 11.7 per nine innings. Nobody else is even in the same time zone.

The Titans were also the first game eliminated from the playoffs in the division, also on Wednesday.

I sure hope Nick Brown finds another strikeout somewhere. Right now we are in the awkward situation that his most recent career strikeout is a current Raccoon: Tom Dahlke.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (88-61) vs. Aces (81-68) – September 17-19, 2018

The Raccoons were 4-2 against the Aces in 2018. While the Aces had the highest batting average in the Continental League, they were only fifth in runs scored, and fourth in runs allowed with a middling pitching staff. They were two games off the lead in the CL South, much like the Raccoons were in the best scenario two games away from knotting up the division for the second consecutive year, which would be the first time they made back-to-back postseasons in 22 years…

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (5-10, 4.93 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (10-9, 4.57 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (21-6, 2.36 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (13-8, 3.01 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (14-12, 3.58 ERA) vs. Clark Johnson (10-10, 4.47 ERA)

Only right-handers for Las Vegas. We have gone to a 6-man rotation for the moment, because the playoff chase is as good as over and by continuing to employ the lackluster Damani, who has lost seven of his last eight decisions, we can chop off a start of one guy or another. The playoff rotation is more or less fixed. Toner, Santos, Abe (unless we spot major issues during the last two weeks), and Guerrero, although getting them into exactly this order might be a bit hard.

Despite the expanded roster, the Raccoons had played back-to-back extra-contests to end the last week and were a bit short in the pen, which didn’t mix well with Damani Knight on the mound…

Game 1
LVA: CF Hubbard – SS Burke – 1B M. Hamilton – 3B I. Alvarez – LF D. Brown – RF Erickson – 2B Hebberd – C D. Rice – P Quirion
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 2B Mathews – P Knight

After a scoreless first for Knight, Cookie extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a leadoff single lined into right, and Walter and Nunley would also single to load the bases with nobody out. Nobody scored, with Hugo Mendoza fouling out and Mike Denny hitting into a double play. Everybody had his own way of battling depression over Mendoza’s ongoing failures, for one it was booze, and for some others like Cookie it was unleashing a thundering throw on Bill Hebberd’s 2-out single to right, with the relay getting Dan Brown thrown out at home plate to end the inning. Knight danced on the edge of the volcano with leadoff walks in the third and fourth innings, only to receive a double play grounder both times, from Stephen Quirion and Matt Hamilton, respectively. The Coons would take the lead in the bottom 4th, when Mendoza drew a leadoff walk with obviously nobody on base, and was doubled in by DeWeese, but the lead didn’t live when Knight allowed two singles in the fifth and the tying run scored on Danny Rice’s sac fly. DeWeese’s RBI double was the only Coons hit after the first inning until Denny doubled in the sixth, but he ended up stranded on third base after DeWeese walked, was forced out when Duarte grounded into a fielder’s choice, and Mathews struck out.

Knight retired Brown on a fly to right to start the seventh, but was then removed with three left-handers coming up at the bottom of the order. Nick Lester came in, but the Aces went to their bench and sent rookie Matt Iannuzzi to hit for Max Erickson. Lester whiffed him and got Hebberd on a pop. The bottom 7th saw Cookie walk and Nunley single, putting them on the corners with two outs for Mendoza, which was not my favorite situation in the world, and Mendoza promptly flew out to Iannuzzi in center. With that much sucking bundled into one game, the Raccoons certainly could not complain about losing when the bottom dropped out of the bullpen in the eighth inning. Danny Rice hit a leadoff jack off Lester, and the collapse continued at a rapid pace. Lester hit Jimmy Hubbard, and when Wade Davis appeared he conceded four hits, including two doubles, as Brent Burke, Matt Hamilton, and Iannuzzi all drove in runs in a 5-spot for the Aces. The Raccoons got two more on base in the bottom 8th, left those too, and went down in order in the ninth. 6-1 Aces. Nunley 2-5; Thomson (PH) 1-1; Knight 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
LVA: LF D. Brown – SS Burke – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – CF Loya – C D. Rice – P N. Jones
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Petracek – CF Bareford – P Toner

Jonny was in trouble from the start, and not just because of the dark clouds that were moving over Portland. He issued a leadoff walk to Dan Brown in the first, and somehow had the defense wiggle out of that; same in the second, with a leadoff double hit by Izzy Alvarez, before DeWeese caught a scorched liner by Rich Walsh, Ricky Loya grounding out to Nunley, and then we put Rice on intentionally to get to the pitcher. Nem Jones grounded hard to the right side, but couldn’t beat Petracek, who got the third out. While that was going on, the Coons didn’t get a base knock the first time through against Jones. Petracek walked in the second, stole a base, but was left on when Bareford struck out, Nunley had been on with an error in the first, and when Cookie reached in the third, he legged out an uncaught third strike – his second strikeout in the game. Walter then finally broke into the H column with a double up the rightfield line, putting runners in scoring position with one out for Nunley, who fell 1-2 behind before cracking a liner over Brent Burke’s glove and into center, plating both runners for the first score in the game.

Rain eventually broke in the fifth inning. Toner got through the fifth to qualify for a W should the Coons hang on to their 2-0 lead, but Jones was replaced after 4.1 innings, retiring one batter after a 50-minute rain delay, but actually missed generously and was hauled in. Toner was replaced by Schroeder in the sixth, who walked Saverio Piepoli, but with Alvarez at the plate the Aces ended their inning running into a strike-em-out-throw-em-out. Denny, after nailing Piepoli, hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th, was forced out on DeWeese’s grounder to Walsh off the left-hander Alex Morin, but Petracek then fired a shot to deep left, past Dan Brown, for an RBI double, 3-0. Morin would go on to walk Tom Dahlke, who batted for Schroeder with two outs, bringing up Cookie, who was still looking for something to extend his hitting streak with, and did so with a 2-run triple to deep right center. Shane Walter popped up against Garrett Purifoy, who replaced Morin, to end the inning, but it was now 5-0. The Coons pen would then log eight straight outs against the Aces, but we had Cummings in the ninth for the second straight day. This time it counted, so he crumbled. Izzy Alvarez singled, Rich Walsh walked, and Ricky Loya hit a bomb to left center to bring the Aces back to 5-3. With one damned out left to get, the Coons had to go to the pen again. Ron Thrasher notched his eighth save by striking out the left-handed batter that came up next, Danny Rice. 5-3 Coons. Nunley 2-4, 2 RBI; Petracek 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Toner 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (22-6); Kaiser 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

This was Ricky Loya’s first career home run…

The Crusaders had won two games to start the week, so this W was the first instance of the magic number budging, dropping down to 2, so it could all be over now on Wednesday. Bobby Guerrero would get the ball.

Game 3
LVA: LF D. Brown – SS Burke – 1B M. Hamilton – RF Piepoli – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – CF Arrieta – C D. Rice – P C. Johnson
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF Thomson – 2B Hudman – C Prieto – P Guerrero

Cookie got his second outfield assist in the series, nipping Alvarez at third base when he tagged up on Rich Arrieta’s fly to right, ending the second inning. The next ball hit into play, actually went out of play rather quickly, with Hugo Mendoza hitting a leadoff jack straight as a line to right center, putting the Coons 1-0 on top. Edwin Prieto finally got his first career base hit, knocking a single to center to start the bottom 3rd, but his time on base was but brief, with Guerrero’s bunt pretty sub-standard and getting Prieto thrown out at second base. Guerrero worked around a leadoff double by Brent Burke in the fourth and a leadoff single by Clark Johnson, his opponent, in the sixth. Neither came around to score, with Guerrero both times getting key strikeouts. There was really not a whole lot of offense in the game. Those two hits were the only base knocks the Aces got off Guerrero in six innings, while the Coons had four hits in five innings, but got a 1-out single by Nunley in the bottom 6th, who moved up to second on Mendoza’s groundout. Alex Duarte shoved a single through on the right side, with Nunley scoring from second base, 2-0. Izzy Alvarez’ 1-out triple in the seventh spelled trouble, but for now Guerrero remained in and was neatly serviced when Rich Walsh bounced a ball back right to him for a comfortable second out, with Alvarez remaining on third base. Guerrero however lost Rich Arrieta to a full count walk, putting the tying runs on with Rice coming up again. Kaiser replaced Guerrero, threw one pitch for a grounder to first that ended the inning, and that was all he did in this game. DeWeese hit for him in the bottom of the inning to no great effect as the Coons went down 1-2-3, while Chris Mathis got the 2-0 lead in the eighth inning. He technically would have had a 1-2-3 eighth if he hadn’t dropped Mendoza’s feed to first on Brown’s 1-out grounder. Brown reached on Mathis’ error, and with two outs and Brown on second, lefty slugger Matt Hamilton was the tying run, having 27 homers in his account. Thrasher replaced Mathis and Hamilton grounded out to Hudman. Walter and Mendoza both hit solo shots in the bottom 8th, doubling the Coons’ lead to 4-0, which preempted Ramirez in the ninth and put Chun in there … at least until Chun allowed singles to Piepoli and Alvarez to start the ninth inning. Ramirez came in after all, now facing the left-handers at the bottom of the order, which was really not how we had imagined this to go. Ramirez got through, though, even when he allowed a liner fired to left by Walsh, which Thomson caught. Arrieta grounded to Hudman, who started a game-ending double play. 4-0 Coons! Walter 2-4, HR, RBI; H. Mendoza 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Duarte 2-4, RBI; Guerrero 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (15-12);

And that was it! The Crusaders lost the last game of their series against the Condors, putting only one run up against Casey Hally (10-10, 3.50 ERA) and four relievers in a 3-1 loss. The Raccoons were thus assured the division title!

Raccoons (90-62) vs. Crusaders (79-73) – September 21-23, 2018

It was all over, and the Crusaders at best could harm our ego now. They were second in runs scored, but their pitching had been wobbly and they had conceded more runs than the league average, never a good recipe for success. Their rotation was at least fifth by ERA, but their bullpen had holes the size of New York State and was in the bottom three in the league. The Raccoons held an 8-7 advantage in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Ricky Mendoza (13-8, 4.59 ERA) vs. Bob King (15-10, 3.35 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-9, 2.53 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (16-7, 2.47 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (2-3, 1.93 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (13-12, 3.79 ERA)

Again these are all right-handers. We also have to lose a word on the triple crown situation; Jonny pitched only five innings on Tuesday due to rain, but they were shutout innings. “Midnight” Martin was the only pitcher other than Santos who could still ruin the triple crown for Jonny, but he had allowed three runs in six innings against the Condors on Monday, dropping him 16 points behind Jonny by ERA. If the Coons could put two or three runs on him on Saturday, that would almost be enough to seal this deal. He had another start, Jonny would also get only one more start next week, and how much could go wrong there?

Game 1
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – 2B S. Valdez – RF Richards – C Roland – SS Paraz – CF Waggoner – P Bo. King
POR: SS Walter – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – P R. Mendoza

Bob King drilled Walter in the first and Denny in the second, but the only injury early on was Ricky Mendoza, who pulled a hammy in the third inning hustling after a grounder. He was removed from the game and we had to declare a bullpen day at the start of our final 10-game string. To heck with this game; Matt Schroeder came into the game and would pitch for as long as his arm would allow. Now, that grounder that Mendoza tried to play, but couldn’t ended up reaching, Jens Carroll with a leadoff infield single, and Schroeder loaded the bases immediately, throwing nothing but balls to Martin Ortíz and Ray Gilbert. Sergio Valdez struck out before Schroeder walked in the first run with a full count walk to Ron Richards. The Crusaders scored three more runs on a sac fly and William Waggoner’s 2-run single to center. Schroeder ended up yanked having pitched only one inning when he walked Carroll to start the fourth inning – five walks in one inning, strong performance!

Nick Brown came in to replace Schroeder, but nothing got better with that move. He hit Ortíz, Gilbert singled, and with the bases loaded the Crusaders scored another three runs, with Ron Richards plating two with a double to right, and Cory Roland bringing in one with a groundout, which put the Crusaders up 7-0. At least Brownie recovered after that terrible first inning and pitched two more in a long relief effort that was actually long, even if it was not much relief. The Coons scored two on R.J. DeWeese’s home run to right in the fourth inning, but still trailed 7-2 after six. Chet Cummings was the next guy ejected by the bullpen, and the Crusaders crunched him for two runs on four hits, and he needed Jason Kaiser to finish the seventh inning. The bottom 8th saw the Raccoons load the bases with two outs after hits by Walter and Mendoza, with Cookie batting for Denny and reaching on Gilbert’s error. Alex Duarte hit for reliever Chris Mathis in the #6 hole, but grounded out to Gilbert, who this time made the play. Danny Ochoa would hit an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, but that only made up for the run that Nick Lester had allowed in the top of the inning as the Coons were romped for double digits in the series opener. 10-3 Crusaders. Walter 2-4; Prince 2-4;

Since Jens Carroll scored, Ricky Mendoza took the loss. Mendoza’s pulled hamstring did not look too bad, and he might be able to come back before the end of the season.

Game 2
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – 2B S. Valdez – RF Richards – SS Paraz – C Lowe – CF Waggoner – P J. Martin
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 2B Mathews – CF Bareford – P Santos

First of all, we could stop watching Hector Santos’ ERA so that it would not interfere with Jonny Toner’s after the first inning. Santos struggled badly, walked two, allowed a single, and then finally a slam to Ron Richards that put the Coons into a 4-0 hole right away. The Coons pulled one run back in the bottom 1st with their usual recipe: Cookie single, Cookie steal, somehow scampering home, this time on Nunley’s single to left. Martin Ortíz hit a leadoff double to right to start the third inning, and Santos was further crumpled by ****ing Ray Gilbert’s homer to left, running the score to 6-1. Santos allowed only one more baserunner while going six innings, basically being extremely unlucky, because often seven runners in six innings would only amount to one run, but this time there were six. One run stood in the Coons’ line still when Santos was done after six, with the team managing only four hits against ‘Midnight’ Martin. Cookie led off the bottom 6th with another single, but was wound up in Walter’s double play grounder before he could even think about going to second. Rather than the Critters doing anything against Martin, the Crusaders got another run on two hits against Nick Lester in the eighth, and Martin got another two outs before Eddie Jackson’s pinch-hit 2-out single in the bottom 8th. The Crusaders hauled in Martin and sent Hwa-pyung Choe into the game, but Choe conceded the run on two singles hit by Cookie and Walter. While that didn’t matter sure as heck in this game, it could have triple crown implications after all! Nunley hit a single to center to plate Cookie, 7-3, but when Francisquo Bocanegra came out to face Mendoza, the forsaken slugger popped out to short on the second pitch, pretty much ending the game. 7-3 Crusaders. Carmona 3-4; Nunley 2-4, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-2;

We had ten hits, they had seven. They had three extra-base hits, we had a Margolis double that led nowhere. Thank goodness we wrapped up the division on Wednesday, else I’d be standing on a wonky stool now with a rope around my neck.

Game 3
NYC: 3B J. Carroll – LF M. Ortíz – 1B Gilbert – 2B S. Valdez – RF Richards – C Roland – SS Paraz – CF Waggoner – P Weise
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – CF Duarte – LF Thomson – 2B Prince – P Abe

The Crusaders had the bases loaded in the first again, when Gilbert and Valdez hit 2-out singles and Richards walked against the returning Tadasu Abe. Cory Roland lined a 2-1 pitch hard to right, but Cookie contained it before it could fall in. Trouble continued to find Abe, who again got the first two batters out in the second inning before Weise singled. In the blink of an eye the bases were loaded again, and ****ing Ray Gilbert and Sergio Valdez both hit hard singles to center, plating three runs total. Abe was positively crummy and made it only through five innings in his second start back, and the Raccoons’ offense was pretty much the same, managing only three hits off Weise in five innings. Nunley and Duarte hit doubles that went uncherished, and Walter hit a single in the fourth that was annulled when Mendoza hit into a double play. The Raccoons were flying headfirst into a sweep at the hands of the Crusaders, who almost made it 4-0 in the sixth when William Waggoner flew right to the wall against Matt Schroeder. In the same inning, Tim Prince left the game with an injury and would head to see the Druid. Meanwhile the offense remained awful; Eddie Jackson drew a leadoff walk in the #9 hole in the bottom 6th, but the Coons never got past first base in the inning, and when they did get onto the board in the seventh on Chris Thomson’s 2-out single plating Denny to make it 3-1, that run was unearned after a Jose Paraz error.

I had almost already accepted the sweep when Joey Mathews pinch-hit for Wade Davis to start the bottom 8th and socked a homer to right off Tom Weise. Now the gap was only one run and the top of the order came up. Cookie hit a single to center, putting the tying run on base. Walter popped out, but then came Nunley and whipped a harmless Weise fastball to deep right and OUTTA HERE!!!

… unnnnnn-fortunately, Cookie had been caught stealing one pitch earlier. Nunley’s homer tied the game rather than giving the Coons the lead. Alex Ramirez held the Crusaders at bay after Mendoza struck out, and the Coons would have a chance to walk off in regulation if they could find a run between Denny, Duarte, and Thomson. Weise was still in the game, having thrown only 93 pitches so far; he got two outs before he walked DeWeese hitting for Thomson, and then Dahlke singled to left, moving the winning run to second base. Danny Margolis was sent to bat for Ramirez, but grounded out to short, sending the game to extras. Valdez led off with a single off Mathis in the 10th, but Ron Richards hit into a double play. The top of the order could try to manufacture a run in the bottom 10th. Weise was STILL going, and retired the 1-2-3 guys 1-2-3. Waggoner singled off Mathis in the 11th, but Drew Lowe hit into the double play this time, with Colin Sabatino choking the Raccoons for two innings. By the 13th we had arrived at Ron Thrasher to see some left-handers, but the Crusaders still had some right-handed pinch-hitters. Pedro Cruz and Bartholomeu Pino both hit singles off Thrasher and both scored on Scott Hoge’s 2-out double to left. Scott who?? Adam Riddle got the 5-3 lead in the bottom 13th, facing the top of the order again after nobody got on base for three innings. Carmona, Walter, and Nunley needed four pitches to produce three groundouts. 5-3 Crusaders. Nunley 2-6, HR, RBI; Mathews (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Mathis 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

In other news

September 19 – Two home teams win by identical and rare 14-2 scores on Wednesday, with the Titans handling the Knights, and the Gold Sox beating the Miners by equal amounts.
September 21 – Journeyman LF/RF Shawn Blackburn’s (.500, 1 HR, 4 RBI) first hit of the year is a walkoff grand slam that puts the Knights past the Thunder, 11-7 in 11 innings.
September 22 – The Condors’ 1B Mun-wah Tsung (.258, 14 HR, 51 RBI) reaches 2,000 career hits with two base knocks in a 7-1 win over the Aces. Tsung, 36 and a career .275 batter with 255 HR and 1,040 RBI who was also the 2006 CL ROTY, hits a single off Stephen Quirion in the seventh inning to reach the mark.
September 23 – The FLCS gets set completely on Sunday, with both the Rebels (2-0 over the Capitals) and Pacifics punching their playoff tickets. The Pacifics beat the Warriors on their own turf, 8-6 in ten innings, to seal the FL West. This puts the two most recent FL pennant winners against another.
September 23 – The Cyclones completely dismantle Miners pitching in a 19-1 massacre. CIN OF Jason Seeley (.301, 7 HR, 33 RBI) has four hits, including a triple and a double, and plates three runs.

Complaints and stuff

Playoffs, baby!! Wheeee!!!

Of course the Raccoons will win zero games in the CLCS if the rotation keeps going like that and the offense has been **** for months, so the CLCS will be over after four games. Jonny could make it six, but only if he pitches two shutouts and hits a triple in both games. And that will still not be enough.

Blink and you miss it: Friday’s 10-3 loss was the first time THIS SEASON that the Raccoons allowed double-digit runs! We had allowed nine runs three times, twice to Federal League teams which I blame on a scout that has his most experience in assassinations, but never more than that until our bullpen day fell apart.

Of course, their shameful performance in the weekend set gave them the first season series loss (8-10) against New York in four years. That one stings in particular.

The pitching plan for next week was as follows: we’d go to Vancouver for four with the damned Elks at the start of the week, with Damani, Toner, Guerrero, and Ricky Mendoza scheduled to pitch in order. We will then have a series at home against Boston to finish the season. Santos and Abe will start the first two games, and then … hm, I don’t know, maybe we can find another start from some scrub.

Don’t gimme that look, Brownie, it was a joke.

Anyway, since Mendoza pulled his hamstring on Friday, which throws him out of the alignment, but we have a 6-man rotation, we can just let him slide back, because it looks like he will be able to come back before end of the season to make another start, we just don’t know when that will be.

Starter this, pitcher that, unless Jonny learns to triple, there will be precisely 11 games left for this team.

I will not go into Jose Paraz playing short for the Crusaders. They have enough money to pay somebody to explain their follies to them.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Quietly see Ron Thrasher having an incredible season....

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Questdog]

Congrats!

I am pretty sure I predicted a title; it may not have been this season, but I predicted one......

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

Quietly see Ron Thrasher having an incredible season....

Funny you say that after his ERA got doubled on Sunday.

Originally Posted by Questdog

Congrats!

I am pretty sure I predicted a title; it may not have been this season, but I predicted one......

I think you've predicting those since about '90 with view pauses in between.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (90-65) @ Canadiens (79-76) – September 24-27, 2018

The season series with the Elks was still up for grabs, being tied at 7-7 heading into this 4-game series. While the Elks were still trying to finish in the upper half of the North, the Raccoons’ goal was to a) make the horrible weekend a thing of the past and just forget it and wash it away, and b) don’t lose any key personnel to injury. The Elks were fifth in runs scored, ninth in runs allowed, with a negative run differential – but come on, who gives a **** now? Let’s just … let’s just try to avoid any broken wrists, legs, and necks for another seven days…

Please.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (5-10, 4.75 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (15-11, 3.89 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (22-6, 2.31 ERA) vs. Juan Ortega (11-12, 5.48 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (15-12, 3.46 ERA) vs. C.J. Fishel (11-12, 4.65 ERA)
Hector Santos (12-10, 2.72 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (4-6, 4.41 ERA)

Fishel will be the sole left-hander in the series. The Elks had some weather issues on the weekend and had played a double header on Sunday, throwing some things outta whack for them. Thursday’s starter might be Spears (on short rest) or they might find somebody else. They have three starters with an 11-12 record, R.J. Lloyd and his 5.17 ERA also joining the party.

All of our guys make their last start of the season, except if Ricky Mendoza can’t go on the weekend (but we think he will be able to go), then Damani Knight gets another trash can game with the Titans, because it doesn’t matter if he loses another game, or two, or twenty. He’s not in our plans, and never will be. He might not make the postseason roster, for what it’s worth.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 2B Mathews – P Knight
VAN: SS Otis – 3B D. Jones – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF Cameron – P Bartels

I could not help but call Damani Knight in the hotel after the Monday game and just yell into the phone that he sucked unbelievable amounts. I did this 17 times, well into the night. If I can’t sleep and can’t forget the Monday game, why should he be able to? The sucker handed the Raccoons their fourth consecutive loss in no time, conceding a run on two hits in the first, a homer to Jesus Ramirez, his 27th, in the second, and a 3-piece to Dave Padilla in the third. In the fifth inning he loaded the bases by walking leadoff man Matt Otis for the second time in the game, putting Ezra Branch on with his own stupid error, and then drilling Mario Rocha. One out, the Coons down 5-1 anyway, Wade Davis inherited the mess, got Padilla to pop out on the first pitch for the second out, but then surrendered a bases-clearing double to Jesus Ramirez, a left-hander after all, to put this game into rout territory at 8-1. Jose Gutierrez popped out to end the inning, but I couldn’t help but feel despaired. The baseball gods were at least kind enough to strangle the team before Game 3 this time.

The Coons loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth, getting singles from Bareford, Cookie, and Walter, who extended a hitting streak to 11 games, but never forgot their old ways. Nunley barely stayed out of the double play on his grounder to second, which scored Bareford, and Mendoza at 0-2 managed to lob a ball to center for a sac fly, but that still left the team down 8-3, and Denny struck out to end the inning. Bareford would hit an RBI single in the seventh, but that only made up for the run that Matt Schroeder had allowed in the bottom of the sixth, and Bareford would strike out to end a terrible game. 9-4 Canadiens. H. Mendoza 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Bareford (PH) 2-3, RBI;

Knight was charged with eight runs, five of those earned, although for dropping a perfectly good feed from Joey Mathews at first base he should not only be charged with all eight runs being earned, but with three surcharge runs for being a terrible baseball player, and a terrible human being.

I also told him that on the phone.

Side note: I am in terrible panic that Cookie will get hurt in the final week. With the game rightfully presumed lost, I removed him after five and left Bareford in center, with Duarte moving over to right, just so he couldn’t break his leg chasing after a homer. I am in terrible panic. I am in terrible panic.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Dahlke – CF Bareford – P Toner
VAN: SS Otis – 3B D. Jones – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF Cameron – P J. Ortega

When Jonny took the mound for the game, I hardly recognized him on TV. He had shaved off the goatee after arriving in Vancouver, and now sported only a thin mustache. I couldn’t tell whether that made him any more or less attractive, since he had never been a male model to begin with, but enough with the blabber, we’re here for some baseball!

Jonny struck out Otis and Branch in a 1-2-3 first inning, this put him at 281 K for the season and made him the only pitcher with two entries among the top 5 single seasons in strikeouts, but we had the eyes set on a bigger prize. The Elks certainly didn’t stand a chance against him in this start. He mowed them down with no mercy shown, striking out TEN in five innings, and allowed only two soft singles. Unfortunately, the Raccoons’ offense was no less pitiful and the game was scoreless through five. The closest they had come to scoring had been early on, putting two guys on with singles before Denny struck out in the first inning, and then in the second inning, when DeWeese had drawn a leadoff walk and they ran into a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Dahlke, BEFORE Andy Bareford hit a double to left. Toner flew out to right to end that inning, but hit a single in the fifth, only to be rolled up in Cookie’s double play grounder to Gutierrez.

There was finally scoring in the sixth; Nunley drew a 4-pitch walk with one out, and Mendoza clobbered a mistake to left center for a homer, his 22nd on the year, and the fourth in a week. Warming up? Nah, I was hesitant to give him credit for anything by now, and I had long learned to give up the stupid hoping for miracles, or even basic offensive decency. Initially it seemed like the sudden lead was unbecoming for Jonny’s utmost efforts, as he issued a walk and a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth, but he soon recovered from that and kept shutting out the Elks. The Coons had Cookie and Walter on base with leadoff singles in the top of the eighth. Cookie took off and stole third base, #43 this year, and Walter moved up when Padilla released the throw, giving the Coons runners on second and third and no outs. Nunley lined hard to center, but into the hustling Rocha’s glove, and Cookie retreated the bag, and Mendoza was walked intentionally. Denny was 0-3 with 3 strikeouts, and was not going to get a chance to fool around here. Jackson ran a full count in his place and walked, pushing home Cookie, and after that DeWeese missed a slam by less than three feet beneath the top of the rightfield fence, having to settle for a 2-run double that at least knocked out Ortega. Bareford would hit a sac fly to run the score to 6-0, and Jonny was back on the mound for the bottom 8th, making the final out in the top half of the inning. The Elks went down 1-2-3 and he was on 100 pitches with 13 K after eight, and would not yield the ball for the ninth. When Dan Jones and Ezra Branch hit 1-out singles in the inning, and Danny Margolis, who had replaced Denny behind the dish, walked out for a stroll, Toner already growled at him, and when the pitching coach approached from the dugout, Toner hissed him back to where he came from. Then he struck out Rocha. Dave Padilla was batting with the Elks down to their final out, knocked the first pitch hard to the left side and past Walter into leftfield for a single. DeWeese came hustling in and picked the ball on a convenient bounce while Dan Jones was turning third base and made for home. A laser beam of a throw to home plate, perfectly placed, Margolis threw himself into Jones, and JONES – WAS – OUT!!! 6-0 Raccoons!!! H. Mendoza 3-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Toner 9.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 14 K, W (23-6) and 1-4;

AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!

Unless ‘Midnight’ Martin pitches 22 shutout innings in his final start, the triple crown is Jonny’s!

For the third game, opposing Fishel, the Raccoons would rest as many of their left-handed regulars as they could possibly remove from the lineup. It can’t hurt sitting the guys once in ten days, and it’s a left-hander, so it makes sense in my head and here we go.

Drowned out in the ecstasy were the news that Tim Prince was put on the DL with a strained hamstring and was done for the year.

Game 3
POR: CF Duarte – 1B Mathews – RF Jackson – C Margolis – SS Dahlke – 2B Hudman – LF Bareford – 3B Petracek – P Guerrero
VAN: SS Otis – 3B D. Jones – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Padilla – 1B J. Ramirez – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF K. Evans – P Fishel

The superficially toothless Raccoons lineup not only saved Guerrero from an early deficit when Petracek nunleyed competently in his spot start and started a double play on Dave Padilla with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, nope, they also took a 2-0 lead in the second when Margolis, the old cleanup veteran, drew a leadoff walk and Tom Dahlke homered to left. The lead didn’t last, since Guerrero got scorched yet again in the bottom 2nd, allowing four hits for two runs to tie the score. After a 1-2-3 third from Guerrero, the Raccoons loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth; Dahlke had led off with a double to right, Hudman had singled, and Bareford had drawn a walk, bringing up Petracek, who hit an RBI single to left against his former team to not only give the Critters a 3-2 lead, but also to temporarily defeat his personal, mortal enemy, the .200 Mendoza line. Guerrero struck out, but the Coons got another run on Duarte’s groundout before Mathews flew out to Branch in right, leaving the score at 4-2. Again, Guerrero proved insufficient to hold the lead, but this time he exploded for four runs in the bottom 4th. Jose Gutierrez’ leadoff single was followed by Kurt Evans drawing a walk. While PH Don Cameron struck out, and Matt Otis grounded out, Guerrero then surrendered an RBI single to Chris Grooms, who had replaced an injured Dan Jones, and a 3-piece to Ezra Branch that bent around the inside of the left foul pole. Guerrero wasn’t done until after Padilla’s leadoff jack in the fifth ran the score to 7-4 for the disgusting Elks, after which the Raccoons had to rummage through their bullpen again, trying to find a dozen outs in a losing cause. Nick Lester was booked for three more runs, allowing three hits and two walks in 1+ innings of work, with Seung-mo Chun having to pick up the slack in the sixth, only to get murdered in the seventh. Kurt Evans walked, Mike Fellows singled, Matt Otis doubled, and then Brock Hudman threw away Grooms’ grounder for a 2-run, 2-base throwing error, which deepened the chasm to 13-4, with another man on second and no outs. Chet Cummings surrendered that run, too, as the Raccoons tumbled towards their worst loss of the season. 14-4 Canadiens. Duarte 3-5, 3B, RBI; Dahlke 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Cummings 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

This was the second game all year in which Matt Nunley didn’t appear.

If Chet Cummings is the best player in any given game… also, one week ago we hadn’t even allowed ten runs in a game this year. Things are now falling COMPLETELY apart. Whoever wins the South, and at this point there were still four teams with a mathematical – or in the Knights’ case academical – chance to make it, I heartily congratulate them to the pennant!

Game 4
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Dahlke – CF Bareford – P Santos
VAN: SS Otis – 3B C. Alexander – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Padilla – 2B J. Gutierrez – 1B Fellows – LF Cameron – P Spears

The Coons had to win this game to avoid a fourth straight defeat to the Elks in their season series, though it seemed like nobody had gotten the memo except Santos, who held the Elks to one hit the first time through their order, and also drove in the Raccoons’ only run with a 2-out RBI double past Fellows in the second inning. Bareford scored from first base on the ball rolling all the way into the corner. In the third, Mendoza hit a single that moved Walter to third and gave the Coons runners on the corners with one out, but then got caught snoozing and was picked off first.

Both teams scored one run in the fifth inning; Cookie opened with a double and scored on Walter’s single, but Mike Fellows homered off Santos in the bottom of the inning, moving the score to 2-1. The top 6th saw the Coons encroach on Spears in force, however, with straight 1-out singles by DeWeese, Dahlke, and Bareford, which plated a run and gave Cookie runners in scoring position with two outs once Santos bunted Dahlke and Bareford over. Cookie at 1-2 hit a terrible bloop to shallow center that saw three outfielders converge onto it, but neither reached there. The ball gigglingly fell in between them, plating two runs for a 5-1 score. Santos made it around a leadoff walk to Otis in the sixth inning and finished with seven very strong innings, allowing only three hits to the stinkin’ Elks. Kaiser and Mathis took care of the eighth and the 5-1 lead was handed to Wade Davis in the bottom 9th, with Thrasher and Ramirez both on yellow alert. Two singles to start the inning by Branch and Rocha moved us to red alert, and Ramirez came into the game, with right-handed bats coming up. The tying run was shoved back from the on-deck circle into the dugout when Dave Padilla hit into a run-scoring double play, and Gutierrez grounded out to end the game. 5-2 Critters. Carmona 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 2-4, BB, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (13-10) and 1-2, 2B, RBI;

That leaves us 9-9 over the season against the Stinkheads, which is barely bearable.

Raccoons (92-67) vs. Titans (71-88) – September 28-30, 2018

The Titans were nailed into last place and had hopefully nothing to play for anymore and wouldn’t aim for Shane Walter’s face with their spikes on any force play at second base. Their package had yielded the third-fewest runs in the CL, with semi-decent pitching, mainly from the pen, putting them sixth in runs allowed. The Coons were 9-6 against them for the year.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (2-3, 2.21 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (9-14, 3.61 ERA)
Ricky Mendoza (13-9, 4.59 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (19-7, 2.63 ERA)
Nick Brown (2-5, 4.47 ERA) vs. Rick Ling (11-15, 3.72 ERA)

Looks like handedness will match for all games in the series, with a lefty-lefty duel on Sunday. Not that anybody in Portland does particularly care for Rick Ling. This is going to be Brownie’s 492nd and we sure hope final major league start.

We don’t want to forget two more Raccoons fighting for titles. Shane Walter still has a paw in the batting title fight, but trailed SFB Dave Garcia by three points, and Cookie is even with Alex Mata with 43 steals for the year.

Game 1
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – LF J. Roberts – SS M. Rivera – C Galan – 2B Lawson – P Boyer
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 2B Mathews – P Abe

Abe walked two and allowed a 2-out RBI single to David Lawson to concede a run in the top 2nd, but the Coons flipped the score in the bottom of the inning, getting Duarte on with a single before with two outs Margolis tied the game with a double, then scored on Mathews’ single. The lead was short-lived with Abe continuing to struggle. He allowed singles to Tom Thomas and Steve Butler with one out in the third, walked Chris Almanza, then surrendered a hard base knock to Jimmy Roberts, who plated two with his single to left and put the Titans back in front, 3-2.

Abe went six, walked six, and whiffed six, but when he was done after 109 pitches, he was still on the hook for the loss, despite the Raccoons having tied the game in the fourth after Mendoza’s leadoff double and too deep flies that advanced the runner and Mendoza scoring on DeWeese’s sac fly, but Almanza had homered the Titans back in front in the fifth, 4-3. He would wind up in line for the W by the oddest events in the bottom 6th, as Margolis and Mathews remained unretired the third time through the lineup. Margolis singled to center with two outs, and then Mathews launched a homer to right center to flip the score once again, now 5-4 in Portland’s favor. This gave Joey Mathews two homers within a week after not having hit one since June. This lead also didn’t make it. Jason Kaiser – in his 80th appearance of the season – retired the top of the order in the seventh, but the vaunted setup men pooped out Abe’s third W of the year. Mathis walked Almanza, the only batter he faced, and when Thrasher came out to see after Roberts, Tim Robinson hit for him and homered to left, flipping the score for the umpteenth time. The Coons would bring up the top of the order against Harry Merwin, the unseeming right-hander, in the bottom of the ninth, still trailing by a run. The leadoff men Mata and Cookie were a combined 0-for-9 in the game and had never been on base, but maybe … Cookie would – and that’s a single to center on the first pitch! And now EVERYBODY knew that he was going to steal, or at least try to. Shane Walter came up, a grim 0-for-4 with his 13-game hitting streak about to go extinct, and on 199 hits for the season. Never a better chance than this one, Shane! Merwin however couldn’t find the zone and ended up walking Walter on four pitches, which made him the winning run, and if Matt Nunley weren’t such a ****ty bunter… Nunley swung and lined a 2-0 pitch to left for a single, but Cookie had to hold halfway because Chaz Newman came damn close to making a catch, and so the Coons did not tie it, but had the bags full with nobody out and Hugo Mendoza coming up. This was gonna hurt! Mendoza went fishing, missed once, missed twice, then didn’t miss and chipped a floater to left that fell in front of Newman for a single, but Walter was held at third base – tied ballgame, Alex Duarte coming up, and he also hit a drive to left, but Newman caught that. Walter was sent, the throw came home, but just too late – Walter was safe and the Coons walked off winners! 7-6 Raccoons. Nunley 3-5; H. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, RBI; Margolis 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Mathews 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

That is six blown leads in one game. You don’t see that every day. Thank god.

Cookie and Mata remained even since nobody ever attempted a steal, but Walter dropped to five points behind Garcia in the batting race. I am afraid only a major 4-for-4 day can save him now, and I am not sure whether we will not put up the right-handed bogus lineup again on Sunday.

With two to play, the Aces and Baybirds are even in the South after both claimed wins over the Knights and Condors, respectively, on Friday. The Condors are two back, and the Knights are eliminated. The Aces made the playoffs only once, in 1996. That was the year the Coons won 108 and didn’t stop winning in the CLCS.

Game 2
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – SS M. Rivera – LF X. Williams – 2B F. Reyes – P Klein
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Hudman – P R. Mendoza

Cookie drew a leadoff walk in the first but never got a chance to steal with Walter singling right away. The single sent Cookie to third, where he was left to rot while Nunley lined out to Frank Reyes, Mendoza struck out (…) and Duarte grounded out. But – Cookie came up with Denny and Hudman in scoring position in the second inning, two outs, and lined a double to right to plate both and give Ricky Mendoza a 2-0 lead! Still no opportunity to steal, Walter grounded out right away. After Mendoza made it around a leadoff walk to Reyes in the third, Duarte hustling in to catch Thomas’ floater in shallow center to end the inning with Reyes on third base, Duarte also romped up the score in the bottom of the inning. Nunley had singled, Mendoza had singled, and Duarte banged a 3-run homer to left center that started a spontaneous party in the stands at 5-0 in the bottom 3rd, but we actually made it to 6-0 before the inning was over, Mike Denny hitting a 1-out triple and scoring on Hudman’s grounder to short. The middle innings however were chaotic for Ricky Mendoza, to say the least, although the defense did their part. Walter made an error in the fourth, and DeWeese made an error in the fifth, both giving the Titans two on with two outs. Mike Rivera popped out to bail out Mendoza in the fourth, and in the fifth Cookie made a hustling play in deep right to retire Steve Butler to get the inning over with. A pinch-hit homer by Jose Durán was all that Mendoza allowed in the middle innings, despite drilling Mike Rivera in the sixth to put another base stealer on base.

Speaking of base stealers, Mata still hadn’t made it to first safely or otherwise in the series. Cookie got another opportunity if Walter could hold still for a second when his grounder to Reyes forced out Eddie Jackson, who had pinch-hit for Mendoza and singled, in the bottom 6th. Cookie went, Robinson juggled the ball, and Cookie was safe with #44! He would score on Nunley’s sac fly after Walter singled to right, 7-1. After that, Jackson remained in right, and Cookie showered and hoped that Nick Lester wouldn’t allow the lefty Mata in the top 7th. Nope, Mata struck out in a perfect seventh for the beleaguered Lester. The Coons piled five hits and three runs onto reliever Jeff Lyon in the bottom 7th to put this one into rout territory, at least until the Titans plated three runs off Chet Cummings in the top 8th. All runs were unearned since they scored with two outs and after the Titans had started to roll on a Nunley error, but I was still blaming Cummings for Xavier Williams’ colossal homer to right center that plated two with two outs. The Coons found an answer to that when Andy Bareford fired a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the inning, and Wade Davis retired the side in order in the ninth, including Mata, who dumped to 0-for-10 in the series. 11-4 Critters! Walter 3-5, 2 RBI; H. Mendoza 2-4, BB, 2B; Bareford (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Denny 3-5, 3B; Jackson (PH) 2-2, RBI; R. Mendoza 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (14-9) and 1-2, 2B;

Aces and Bayhawks both lost, which technically opened up the possibility for a 3-way tie in the South, if both would do so again. Meanwhile the Baybirds received SHOCKING news in that their 23-year old star outfielder Dave Garcia (.342, 35 HR, 101 RBI) would be out for the season with a sprained thumb. At the same time, this locked up the batting title for the hardly consolable Garcia, *unless* Shane Walter could power past him on the final day of the season. He only needs to make up three points of batting average for that. Garcia’s exact batting average is .34195; Walter could reach .34223 if he went 3-for-3. He was one of only three regulars in the lineup for Brownie’s (whispers) hopefully(!) last career start.

Game 3
BOS: LF Roberts – 3B T. Thomas – RF Almanza – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – SS Lawson – CF C. Newman – 2B F. Reyes – P Ling
POR: RF Duarte – 3B Walter – LF Jackson – C Denny – SS Dahlke – CF Bareford – 2B Hudman – 1B Petracek – P Brown

Neither base stealing champion wannabe was in the lineup as the Titans kept it light on lefties against Brownie, who was three months from turning 41. The park was stuffed to capacity* and grown men wept, not few of them in their 20s and 30s and having grown up with Brownie as staff ace, even before Brownie drilled Jimmy Roberts to start the game. Oh, quit your whining, Roberts! That was only 72! Roberts was caught stealing, but Tom Thomas’ single and Chris Almanza’s triple scored the first run of the game before Butler grounded out to first and Robinson flew out to center.

In a dramatic sight, Nick Brown struggled to hit 80 on the radar gun, which gave the Titans their share of issues, but their biggest problem was making outs on the base paths, and they made the third out at third base in the second inning, Newman getting thrown out by Duarte. But the crowd soon burst into cheers; while Roberts led off the third with a single to left, Tom Thomas popped out and then Almanza ran a full count before cutting through a 72mph curve – that’s a strikeout!! Hoorah!! After Butler grounded out, Brownie struck out Robinson to start the fourth, sending the crowd almost into delirium. There was however the slight issue of the Critters only nipping one hit off Rick Ling through three innings (and it wasn’t Walter’s, who was 0-for-2). Brown remained decent through five, and then was put in line for the W when Ling crumbled in the bottom 5th. Brock Hudman hit a leadoff double, the first real threat by the home team in the game. Petracek and Brown both flew out to center, but Alex Duarte singled to plate Hudman and tie the game. Walter singled (though his ship had sailed), and Eddie Jackson’s double to left put the Coons up 2-1. Denny grounded out, leaving runners on second and third. Brownie issued a leadoff walk to Thomas in the sixth, Almanza flew out to center, and then Butler hit into a double play, Hudman to Walter to Petracek. Take that, you fat pig! Hah!! Nobody’s gonna touch Brownie no more!!

Indeed, nobody would, because he had almost thrown 100 pitches through six innings and looked like he was gonna die any second now. He had prevailed, but the was going to be denied the win, because the bullpen collapsed instantly in the seventh inning. Wade Davis allowed a single to Lawson, then an infield single to PH Armando Galan. Thrasher appeared, but was no help in general. Rick Ling(!) hit a single(!) with two outs to load the bases, and Thrasher surrendered the tying run on a single to Durán, then walked Thomas to fall behind, 3-2. The general moaning and sobbing in the park was unbearable. I had to go down to the storage in the cellar and find that 1993 team photo to press against my chest, weeping.

Ling pitched six and two thirds before leaving with an injury, but the Coons couldn’t get a paw on base anymore in the inning. Chun pitched the eighth, holding the Titans a run away, before the Coons put Thomson (double) and Denny (plunked) on base against Desi Bowles with one out in the eighth. Hugo Mendoza hit for Dahlke, because if not now when ever, and was walked by new pitcher Eric Rasmussen, who didn’t face another batter. Another righty came out in Kanichiro Miura, who had walked 26 in 57.1 innings and who was a bold choice, but we also weren’t going to hit for Bareford now; we’d hit for Chun, who was in the #7 hole, with Cookie swinging in the on-deck circle. Bareford looked at a strike, looked at a ball, then lined a pitch hard up the leftfield line, over the leaping Tom Thomas and past Xavier Williams to the corner for a score-flipping 2-run double!! When Cookie batted for Chun, he was put onto the open base, but the Titans were now with the back to the wall and got burned by Petracek, who had again fallen below .200, but jumped over the mark again with a 2-run double to right, hit in a 3-1 count off Miura. Two more scored; Nunley hit a pinch-hit sac fly, and Duarte an RBI single to put SIX on the Titans in the bottom 8th, sending the park into ecstasy after all! 8-3 Raccoons!! Duarte 3-5, 2 RBI; Thomson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Dahlke 1-2, BB; Brown 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K;

(sits cowered into a corner in the basement, clutching the 1993 team photo) WHERE HAVE ALL MY DREAMS GONE TO??? BAAAAH-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAH….!!!

In other news

September 25 – The season of Pittsburgh star SS Tom McWhorter (.259, 20 HR, 75 RBI) ends early; the 30-year old has been diagnosed with a partially torn labrum.
September 25 – The Aces get smothered by the Bayhawks, 17-4. SFB OF Dave Garcia (.342, 35 HR, 100 RBI) has two homers in his three hits and drives in six.
September 30 – Bayhawks and Aces lose to the Condors and Knights for the second straight day, ending the CL South in a three-way tie and setting off tie-breakers between the Bayhawks, Aces, and Condors.
October 1 – In endless drama and 12 innings, the Bayhawks walk off with a 2-1 victory in the first tie-breaker game over the Condors with a home run by Ryan Miller (.260, 4 HR, 16 RBI) putting them over the hump. This gives the Bayhawks the right to play the #1 tie-breaker seed, the Las Vegas Aces.
October 2 – The Aces clinch the CL South with a 5-4 victory over the Bayhawks. Vegas’ Juan Valdevez (19-8, 2.80 ERA) pitches seven shutout innings before getting ruffled for four in the eighth inning, but the Aces prevail and hold on.
October 3 – The Warriors trade INF Raul Maldonado (.281, 2 HR, 64 RBI) to the Stars for RF Stephen St. George (.263, 9 HR, 68 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

The amount of triple crowns in ABL history is not exactly going to overwhelm you. There have only been three before Jonny’s. Tony Hamlyn won the only pitching triple crown in 2010, going 23-5 with a 2.00 ERA and 270 K. Both hitting triple crowns – ironically! – were achieved by Raccoons, although only one of those did so WHILE being a Raccoon: Tetsu Osanai’s .341, 31 HR, 121 RBI season in 1986 was the first ever ABL triple crown, and in 2016 a certain Hugo Mendoza hit .350 with 37 HR and 134 RBI to win the most recent triple crown. Yeah, I am sure not seeing much of that right now!!

Striking out 14 in that last start also allowed Jonny to match his 2017 output of 293 strikeouts. He now has 1,316 for his career, which fits nicely to this 27-year old’s 93-38 career record and 2.32 career ERA.

Here is one more fine stat. Jonny Toner claimed 23 of 53 wins of our Opening Day rotation. That’s almost half! What happened?? Oh yeah, Abe and Brownie got hurt. And Abe never got any help. Santos has never gotten any help in any season. His last ten starts in ’18, he has a 2.11 ERA with 65 K in 68 1/3 innings, and he went 3-4. That is sad.

Tom McWhorter is the Daniel Hall of shortstops. Guy can’t stay healthy! .855 OPS (though Hall finished with significantly less, but let’s wait for McWhorter to get old and **** before judging) and he has hardly ever played in more than about 120 games in a season.

Ron Thrasher has stopped being lights out at the ****tiest of times. Like I said, the CLCS will be brief, but it will not be painless.

*It actually wasn’t because OOTP is cold machine that knows no love.

+++

Now to the tie-breaker games in the South. I had no clue how to do things manually and the forums hold all kinds of different stuff how to do it, but the game only scheduled one game between Bayhawks and Condors for Monday, which I thought was awesome because the Aces had the worst combined head-to-head record (16-20) between the three teams and that would be an actual logical reason to pull from the ABL rulebook that doesn’t exist. But after Ryan Miller homered the Baybirds into first place and the game fired the news articles, the Baybirds had to play the Aces anyway. When the Aces won, it was just over, despite nothing having changed from the day before, as there was still a team up by half a game.

I don’t get it, but I think it’s still better than the teams spending October trading wins and losses…

[Westheim]

2018 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Las Vegas Aces (89-74)

Runs lift us up where we belong – I actually do believe that, and I am occasionally singing it when I think nobody’s listening in on me. This was the CLCS, the first back-to-back appearance for Portland since 1995-96, and they would hope to do better than in 2017, when they took two from the Bayhawks only to never win again. This was only the second playoff appearance ever for the Aces, who in the 42nd year of ABL baseball had yet to win a playoff game, having the unlucky distinction to have won the South in 1996, the year the Raccoons won 108 games and swept them out of the CLCS with little fuss being made and no ****s given.

The Aces had made the playoffs via multi-day tie-breaker games (which gave the Raccoons time to rest a bit), and under normal circumstances would have their hands full. While they had enjoyed the highest batting average in the CL, they had not quite put that batting average into a metric ton of runs, coming out fourth in runs scored in the CL. While they did have a few fearsome sluggers, foremost Matt Hamilton (.299, 30 HR, 107 RBI) and mid-season acquisition Saverio Piepoli (.278, 15 HR, 82 RBI), and had six double-digit home run hitters in total, they had not been able to piece it all together. Their record had also been weighed down by decent, but not stellar pitching. Outside of Juan Valdevez (19-8, 2.80 ERA), their rotation was merely average, and their bullpen was a chronic case for despair, which nobody pitching to an ERA better than three. The Aces would be additionally handicapped by having only right-handed starters against the Raccoons’ heavily left-handed-tilting lineup, and while the Raccoons would also not sport a left-handed starter, the Aces’ lineup was mostly balanced out.

Vegas would miss the services of outfielder Dan Brown and right-handers Jason Clements and Justin Guerin, who were on the DL. Brown was probably the biggest problem for them, since Clements, while employed as starter since last year, had not figured to make the postseason rotation anyway.

Despite all the money pumped into the lineup, the Raccoons had only come out seventh in runs scored, but could squeeze by on less most of the time, possessing the best defense, the best bullpen, and the second-best rotation in the CL, which all combined for the fewest runs allowed. Speaking of defense, they were missing a top-notch defensive middle infield in Ronnie McKnight and Tim Prince on the DL, although only the former had figured to be a starter in the postseason – or to even be on the postseason roster. The Coons had been fourth in runs scored, but only ninth in home runs and stolen bases, with both having been figured to be bigger strengths for them, yet they had hardly found somebody to take bags outside of league leader Ricardo Carmona (44 SB). Nobody had hit more than 22 home runs on the staff, and nobody had driven in 100 runs, but Shane Walter had finished second in the CL with his .338 batting average (ahead of third-place Carmona), so there was that. Their rotation held the vaunted and wanted triple crown winner Jonathan Toner, whose 23-6 record and 2.21 ERA with 2.93 K had all led the league by a sizeable margin.

Overall, the Raccoons should have an easy time – if the lineup would stay at least mildly warm. The Aces had to hope for major accidents with the Coons’ rotation, and that their own rotation, with noticeably worse ERA values across the board, would hold up.

Raccoons in five seems to be the general consensus.

+++

We have 29 players eligible for the playoff roster, the 25 that were on the roster on August 31 and the ABCD guys that came off the DL in September: Abe, Brownie, Cookie, and Duarte. Those four have all been placed on the playoff roster, to the detriment of Damani Knight, Chet Cummings, Chris Thomson, and Andy Bareford.

Now, the biggest question here was probably not about Abe, or Cookie(!), or Duarte, but about Nick Brown making the roster as third left-hander and eighth reliever (including Ricky Mendoza, who is not in the rotation for the CLCS at least, taking a step back to Jonny, Santos, Guerrero, and Abe) over any of the four who didn’t, and whether Brock Hudman should be dumped.

First, dumping Hudman would work given that we have a whopping five second basemen on the roster – basically all nominal infielders minus Matt Nunley – and those were fighting over two spots with Hugo Mendoza on first. But Bareford wouldn’t start, and carrying a defensive centerfielder to replace Duarte in late-game situations and at best pinch-run for somebody didn’t seem like a very smart roster investment to me. But heck, yeah, five second basemen – knocks myself out!

Brownie made the roster over f.e. Knight and Cummings because they were right-handers, even worse than him, and we had Mendoza for long relief aboard. Also, the Aces had a few left-handed bats in the lineup, and Ron Thrasher had gone cold right before the playoffs, so any little bit could potentially help.

Also, nostalgia.

And nostalgia ****ing kills.

Next, first pitch!

Posts will as usual be made in the proven 2-3-1-1 format, depending on how long the series goes.

[Westheim]

2018 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Las Vegas Aces (89-74)

Game 1 – Jonathan Toner (23-6, 2.21 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (14-9, 3.18 ERA)

Both pitchers had opposed another in their only start against the other team in 2018, a rain-shortened effort in September in which Toner had beaten Jones and the Aces.

LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – RF Piepoli – LF M. Hamilton – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – SS Burke – C D. Rice – P N. Jones
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Dahlke – P Toner

The Aces manufactured a chance on Toner right in the first inning, getting Armando Martinez on with a leadoff single just past Dahlke’s extended glove. Martinez would steal second base, Toner walked Saverio Piepoli, but Matt Hamilton, the best guy by numbers in 2018 in either lineup, grounded to Dahlke for a double play. Rich Walsh would reach on a bad throw by Matt Nunley in the second inning, also stole second base off a tardy Mike Denny, but was stranded when Toner struck out Brent Burke and Danny Rice to end the inning. The first four Coons to bat all produced groundouts until Alex Duarte’s 1-out walk in the bottom of the second. DeWeese whiffed, but Mike Denny hit a blooper for a single and then Izzy Alvarez mishandled Dahlke’s inning-ending grounder into a bases-loading error to bring up Toner with two outs, and Toner was the best-hitting pitcher around – in addition to being the best-pitching pitcher. He slapped a 1-1 pitch to right and through between Rich Walsh and Adam Flack for an RBI single before Cookie Carmona grounded out to Walsh to leave three stranded.

The third time around, Denny finally threw out a base stealer in the game, nipping Izzy Alvarez in the fourth inning. Alvarez’ grounder had forced out Piepoli on a fielder’s choice; Piepoli had drawn the second walk off Toner in the game, and Toner’s pitch count was exploding fast, reaching 69 pitches at the completion of four innings. Toner batted with two outs and two on in the bottom 4th, although both runners were actually bogus. DeWeese had reached on Brent Burke’s error, had advanced on a wild pitch, and the Aces had walked Dahlke intentionally to get to Toner, who popped out to Alvarez in a full count to end the inning.

Shane Walter’s 1-out single to right in the bottom 5th led to precisely nothing, and Toner issued a 1-out walk to Martinez in the top of the sixth. Flack grounded out to first, and Piepoli struck out, but Toner was just shy of 100 pitches now and the bullpen started to casually throw for the Coons.

Toner did retire the 4-5-6 batters in order in the seventh, but had two lengthy strikeouts against Alvarez and Walsh, extending him to 110 pitches, and that was going to be enough, especially with the score still 1-0 after his RBI single and his spot up in the bottom 7th, second after leadoff man Dahlke, who popped out. Joey Mathews hit for Toner, struck out, and Cookie bounced out to the pitcher, leaving the bullpen no cushion with six outs to collect.

Wade Davis retired Brent Burke with a grounder to short on the only pitch he threw in the game; Ron Thrasher replaced him right away for the nasty left-hander Rice, a real booby trap in the #8 hole. Both Rice and PH Bill Hebberd went down on strikes to end the eighth.

The bottom 8th was not reassuring for the home crowd, with Walter, Nunley, and Mendoza going down at insane speed against righty Alex Silva, which left wonky closer Alex Ramirez no cushion in the ninth inning as he faced the top of the order, and he would better get through that top of the order without incidents, lest the nasty Matt Hamilton would come up as the go-ahead run. Lefty Max Erickson pinch-hit for Armando Martinez right away, but popped up a 2-0 pitch. Adam Flack was a natural lefty and grounded out to short, and Piepoli was not hit for. He hit a 1-1 pitch to deep center. Deeeeeep center. Duarte after that, flinging the paws that had seen action only once in the entire game, and made the catch approaching the warning track.

Raccoons 1, Aces 0 – Raccoons lead series 1-0

Toner 7.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K, W (1-0) and 1-2, RBI;

What a ****ing wheezer of a game! It should really read Toner 1, Aces 0! Armando Martinez’ single was all that stood between the Coons and a combined postseason no-hitter.

Why did Wade Davis pitch rather than Chris Mathis with the 1-0 lead, when Chris Mathis has not allowed a home run all season long? Because Chris Mathis is ****ing due, and Davis had the worst BABIP on the staff, and is due to have good things happen to him.

And I wonder about the chronic shortcomings.

Game 2 – Hector Santos (13-10, 2.67 ERA) vs. Clark Johnson (10-11, 4.48 ERA)

In 14.1 innings against the Aces this year, Santos had not allowed a run and had won both his starts. Johnson was 1-1 in two starts with a 3.60 ERA, but had lost his outing in September when he had conceded three homers to the Coons.

LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – RF Piepoli – LF M. Hamilton – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – SS Burke – C D. Rice – P C. Johnson
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 2B Dahlke – P Santos

The Aces came out of the gate and hit screaming liners all over the place against Santos right away. Martinez singled in the first and stole second, being left stranded when Piepoli and Hamilton both popped out over the infield, but in the second Izzy Alvarez got on with a line drive single and scored on Brent Burke’s huge double to center, putting the Aces 1-0 ahead. The Aces also blew well through their game 1 hit total in the first two innings, while the Raccoons, who had only had three hits in the series opener themselves, did get Duarte on with a walk, and Dahlke got on with a single in the bottom 2nd, but soon brought up Santos, who was a terrible-hitting pitcher and flew out easily to Hamilton to end the inning.

Contact off Santos was softer for the top of the order in the third inning, but in the fourth Alvarez hit a solo homer to leftfield to put the Aces 2-0 ahead. The Raccoons were soul-searching and physically present at best. Hugo Mendoza sent a ball to deep center, where it was caught by Martinez, in the bottom 4th, that was about it; Martinez singled to left with two down in the fifth, then was caught stealing by Denny.

Denny would draw a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, but Dahlke grounded to short for an easy 6-4-3 double play to remove the ‘threat’. Santos made the third out, just before getting torn up in the sixth.

Flack, Piepoli, and Hamilton all hit singles to start the sixth inning. Not all were hard, actually none were really hard, and Piepoli’s was of the infield variety, but it served enough to put the Aces up 3-0 with two on and nobody out. Santos struck out the right-hander Alvarez, but then left for Jason Kaiser. The selective southpaw got a slow roller to the left side from Rich Walsh which Nunley had to bare-hand and throw on the run, beating Walsh by an eyelash at first while the runners moved up. Burke was walked intentionally to get the lefty-lefty matchup with Rice, who struck out, so the deficit was nominally manageable at 3-0.

Alas, the top of the order hardly got the ball out of the infield in the bottom 6th, and Cookie, the only one who did, floated out to Martinez in center to extend his futility to 0-for-7.

When R.J. DeWeese rolled a single into right off Johnson with two outs in the seventh, that was only the Coons’ second hit in the entire ****ing game. That actually sparked life. Denny singled, and then Dahlke singled just over Walsh’ glove in a full count, plating DeWeese from second base and sending the tying runs to the corners. Eddie Jackson batted for Seung-mo Chun, sent a drive to left – but not past Hamilton, who caught it to end the inning and keep the Critters down 3-1.

After Chris Mathis’ perfect top of the eighth, the Coons had the top of the order up in the bottom 8th. Their 1-2-3 guys were a combined 1-for-21, but Johnson was still in the game, too, so maybe the fourth time was the charm? Not bloody quite. Carmona grounded out to Walsh, and when Walter grounded to Flack, he only reached on Flack’s terrible error. Well, that still brought up the tying run! Nunley hit into a double play to the pitcher to take care of that.

A frustrated home crowd managed a few cheers for Nick Brown, who retired the bottom of the order in the ninth inning, facing four batters and retiring the three left-handers while Burke singled. The Coons were two short and faced Steve Rob in the bottom 9th. The right-hander hat posted a 3.71 ERA while saving 36 games in the regular season. On Mendoza’s ****tiest grounder, a deep fly to right by Duarte that ended up caught, and DeWeese’s grounder to Flack, the Raccoons failed to get on base.

Aces 3, Raccoons 1 – series tied 1-1

Dahlke 2-3, RBI;

Our top five went a combined 0-for-19.

We are completely, entirely, and utterly doomed.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

The f*** is up with the offense?

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

The f*** is up with the offense?

You ain't seen **** yet.

[Westheim]

2018 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) @ Las Vegas Aces (89-74)

Game 3 – Bobby Guerrero (15-13, 3.69 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (19-8, 2.80 ERA)

Valdevez had gone 1-1 in two starts against Portland, but had only allowed a single run in both of those starts, while pitching 16 innings total. He beat Tadasu Abe, 2-1, in April, but lost 2-0 to Hector Santos in May. He had not pitched in the September series. Guerrero had not faced the Aces as a Raccoon, but twice while still with the Condors, and had gotten romped for an 0-1 record and 5.69 ERA.

POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – 2B Dahlke – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – C Denny – P Guerrero
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – RF Piepoli – LF M. Hamilton – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – SS Burke – C D. Rice – P Valdevez

While Walter singled in the first, Cookie, Nunley, and Mendoza all made poor outs, and all dropped to 0-for-9 for the series. On the other side, the Aces put Guerrero’s first three pitches into play for three groundouts, so futility was going both ways.

Duarte hit a deep fly to right in the second that ended up caught by Piepoli, while Guerrero drilled not only Hamilton, but also Alvarez in the bottom 2nd. Luckily, Izzy Alvarez had hit into a double play in between, and Guerrero wiggled out of the inning without getting tagged – or having a bat broken over his thick nut.

Cookie tried to shake off the grip of death and hit a 2-out single to center in the third inning, but Walter soon grounded out to end the inning, and after that it all fell apart horribly. Danny Rice opened the bottom 3rd with a ringing double to right, which at the same time also sounded the Gong of Doom on the Raccoons. Valdevez bunted him over, and Martinez hit an RBI single to left. Martinez stole second, scored on Piepoli’s single, and then Piepoli stole second, which was academical with Matt Hamilton drawing a walk. Alvarez grounded out to end the inning, but the Coons were down 2-0 and ****ed.

Nunley opened the fourth with a single, only to be forced on Mendoza’s grounder to short that became a fielder’s choice. When Dahlke grounded to short, it became a double play. The Raccoons continued to engorge in horribleness, the Aces were biding their time, then jumped on Guerrero in the sixth. Three straight singles to start the inning plated a run, with Kaiser coming out to pitch to Rice with two men on and a 3-0 deficit on the board. Rice doubled on the first pitch, 4-0, Valdevez hit an RBI single, 5-0, and Martinez made it 6-0 with a run-scoring groundout, although to be fair, the coffin had been nailed shut even after the Piepoli single in the third.

The rest of the game was a blur. The Aces scored three runs on four hits on a hopeless Wade Davis in the seventh, but lost Saverio Piepoli to injury on the base paths. The Raccoons managed one more hit, an infield single by Cookie, and never touched scoring position again.

Aces 9, Raccoons 0 – Aces lead series 2-1

Carmona 2-4;

The Aces were 6-for-7 in stealing bases off Denny in the postseason, and since he wasn’t hitting either, Margolis was behind the dish in the fourth game, which was a bit like do-or-die. No pressure, Abe, no pressure.

Game 4 – Tadasu Abe (2-3, 2.55 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (6-4, 3.65 ERA)

Abe had lost his only start to the Aces in ’18, allowing two runs in 6 1/3 innings. Quirion had faced the Critters three times, ending up with a 1-2 record and a strong 1.69 ERA. He pitched opposite Jonny Toner in both of his losses, but beat Damani Knight in September.

POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – 2B Dahlke – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – C Margolis – P Abe
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – LF M. Hamilton – RF Erickson – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – SS Burke – C D. Rice – P Quirion

Walter and Nunley both hit singles to left in the first inning and Hugo Mendoza ended an aggravating AND MADDENING 0-for-12 at the start of his CLCS with an RBI double over Matt Hamilton’s head. Quirion was on the way to contain the damage when he struck out Dahlke, but then issued successive walks to DeWeese and Duarte, the latter pushing home a second run, before Margolis grounded out.

Unfortunately, the lead was in no good paws with Abe, who continued to struggle and had ever since coming off the DL in September. Adam Flack singled, Matt Hamilton walked, and Izzy Alvarez plated one run with a 2-out single to center in between strikeouts by Max Erickson and Rich Walsh, leaving the Coons only up by one run after the first inning.

While Abe allowed a suspicious amount of liners, with most of them caught by outfielders in the second and third, the offense continued to be somewhere between rinky-dink and i-gotta-kill-them-all. Shane Walter’s .214 clip led the team in these early innings, but the Raccoons generated a run in the fourth even with out their most offensive beast … or beastlike offender. Duarte hit a 1-out single, very soft, in the fourth. In desperation, we called a hit-and-run with Margolis, who missed, but Duarte beat Rice’s throw and was safe at second base. Margolis then worked a walk after being down 0-2, but Abe failed to bunt and struck out for the second out. Cookie grounded up the middle and past Walsh into center, and all runners were windmilled around. Duarte scored, Margolis was thrown out at third, but it was 3-1. And when the Aces got the tying runs into scoring position with an error by Dahlke, a walk, and a well-placed grounder, Duarte was only able to contain Quirion’s floater with a headlong catch to end the inning…

Hit on 0-2, a 2-out solo home run by the irritating Hugo Mendoza stretched the Raccoons’ lead to 4-1 in the fifth, and when Abe walked Flack and allowed a bomb to Erickson in the bottom of the inning, it was down to 4-3. Danny Rice’s 2-out homer in the sixth took care of that, too, and the teams were even at four.

Abe’s spot was up to start the seventh. Brock Hudman hit for him for no special reason. Out of the blue, he hit a ball into the blue – or more like black, since it was nighttime. Hudman’s homer to left went fair by less than ten feet, but it gave the Coons a new life, now up 5-4 and with the top of the order com- ah **** it, they went down in order.

Seung-mo Chun struck out Martinez to lead off the bottom 7th, after which Thrasher was sent into the game. He retired the next four into the bottom 8th, with Alvarez, the lone righty in the five guys we wanted to give Thrasher, hitting a fly to deep center that Duarte caught up with for the second out in the eighth. Rich Walsh, Thrasher’s last guy, grounded to first – and Mendoza blew it. The tying run reached on the error. Triple switch time! Cookie to left, Jackson to right and batting in Thrasher’s spot, and Ramirez out for a 4-out save – hey, we’re nuts already! – and in the #6 hole that had ended the top of the eighth, batting .083 now. Brent Burke grounded Ramirez’ second pitch back to him, Ramirez lobbed a half-hearted throw to first that Mendoza couldn’t come up with, and now the go-ahead run was on base with two outs – on the second error.

ARE YOU ****ING OUT OF YOUR ****ING MINDS??? YOU PEA BRAINS!! YOU ****ING –

Struck by a tranquilizer from Maud’s crossbow, I couldn’t move, nor yell, when Danny Rice’s fly split Duarte and Jackson, disappeared into the gap, and the Aces flipped the score on the 2-run double.

The Raccoons didn’t go entirely quietly. Duarte made the first out against Steve Rob in the ninth, but then Joey Mathews hit for Margolis and singled to center, with Rob then drilling Jackson. Hey, the go-ahead run was on base for Cookie. Never before would a triple have been more awesome. Cookie flew out to center, and Walter was down 1-2 and was hanging on to the final strike of the game when he hit a soft line over Rich Walsh into right. It was in! Rich Arrieta got to it quickly, but Mathews was waved around third from the get-go. Inside my head I was screaming: RUN JOEY, RUN, RUN YOUR ****ING LEGS OFF, YOU ****ER!! Arrieta’s throw came home, Rice with the tag – SAFE!! MATHEWS WAS SAFE!!!

Nunley struck out, though. Ramirez threw four balls to Martinez to start the bottom 9th, which was totally great, since Martinez had three stolen bases off Denny in the series, and Denny was behind the dish now, with Margolis having been hit for. In despair, Kaiser replaced Ramirez with three lefties coming up including Arrieta. Martinez went on the first pitch to Flack, Denny’s throw was over Walter’s head and the winning run was at third base with nobody out. ARE YOU GONNA ****ING TRY TO KILL ME???? YOU FU-

Struck by another tranquilizer, I collapsed behind the very nice dark red divan the Aces were providing for the visiting team’s brass and didn’t witness when Flack grounded the next pitch to short, Martinez went, Walter fired home and got him. Flack remained on first, the game extended to bring up Hamilton. No! Bobby Diersing was hitting for Hamilton or the sake of countering Kaiser, who stayed in the game. Diersing popped out and the game went to extras.

Nothing happened in the 10th with Chris Mathis holding the fort, with Davis and Brown in reserve. We were out of bench players, though. Who needs bench players anyway? The Raccoons needed major miracles to get anything done, and didn’t. Neither in the 10th, nor in the 11th, which was Mathis’ second inning. Paul McDonald was the last guy off the Aces’ bench and singled to center with one out. Martinez also singled. Then they took off, Denny threw to third – safe! Adam Flack singled to center, and the game ended after 20 hours.

Aces 7, Raccoons 6 (11) – Aces lead series 3-1

The Failpaws made FOUR errors. FOUR. And **** MENDOZA, and **** RAMIREZ. I will waive those ****ers right now!! – Maud, let- let me go! – NO, I’M GONNA WAIVE THE ****ERS RIGHT NOW!!

Game 5 – Jonathan Toner (23-6, 2.21 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (14-9, 3.18 ERA)

I did not get to waive anybody; Maud took away my phone and locked me in the hotel toilet where I dwelled until the next evening. Actually Jonny has a decent chance to send the series back to Coon City. And then he has to go on short rest twice.

This is fine.

POR: LF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – RF Jackson – CF Duarte – 2B Mathews – C Margolis – P Toner
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – LF M. Hamilton – RF Erickson – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – SS Burke – C D. Rice – P N. Jones

Cookie singles, Cookie stole, Cookie for a moment looked like he was gonna be left hanging in the breeze. But after Walter flew out to left, and Nunley walked, Mendoza narrowly stayed out of the double play and singled to right, Cookie only getting to third because Erickson was on the ball almost immediately. Not to worry, though: Eddie Jackson singled to left, plating the first run, and the second scored on Duarte’s grounder to Alvarez, with Duarte out at first. Joey Mathews hit a liner to right that eluded Erickson and plated the remaining two runners, and Mathews scored on Margolis’ single to center. Five runs in the first, and if Jonny was pitching with at least two fingers working, the series was back in Portland!

But, eh… the Aces got a run right in the bottom 1st. Flack hit a double to right, and then scored on Erickson’s single, but that still left the Coons ahead by a slam. They left the bases loaded in the second, and Margolis and Toner made the first two outs in the third before the top of the order all reached and loaded the bases for Dummy Mendoza, who lined to left and past Hamilton for a 2-run double that put the score at 7-1 and ended Jones’ day. Colin Wisecup replaced him and got Jackson to ground out to short to end the frame.

Bottom 3rd, Martinez led off with a single, which was annoying enough. Flack forced him, but Hamilton walked, putting two on. Erickson struck out, but Toner then fell to the right-hander Izzy Alvarez, who lined a ball into the left corner to score both runs. Toner allowed a single to Rich Walsh before striking out Burke to get out of the inning, now up 7-3.

Toner hit a single in the top 4th, with two outs off Wisecup, that sent Duarte to third after his leadoff walk. Cookie popped out to short to strand the runners. In the bottom 4th, things only got worse. WISECUP singled with one out, a grounder past Walter, and the ****ing moose hoof Martinez doubled to left. Flack popped out foul behind first, but that advanced Hamilton, who was due a big knock, but walking him would bring up Erickson as the tying run, and he already had a big knock. And maybe it was time to stop believing that Jonny can solve everything himself? He was on 75 pitches, too! He pitched to Hamilton. Hamilton struck out. I would never doubt Jonny Toner ever again.

After that, Nunley in the fifth and Margolis in the sixth hit into double plays to kill efforts. Actually, Mendoza hit a triple after Nunley’s 6-4-3, but Jackson popped out to leave him on third base. Jonny was on 98 pitches after five innings and was nearing the end of his useful life cycle, but managed to squeeze through the sixth inning without any more damage. He had struck out 11, but it sure had been ugly…

The Coons got the seventh between Kaiser, who was in his fourth straight game, and Chun, still holding on to the 7-3 lead from the third inning. Both teams had the odd runner on base, but the Coons couldn’t close the deal, and the Aces couldn’t creep closer. While Wisecup would pitch 5 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, the Aces got to Chun in the eighth. Well, first they got to Duarte, who put Rich Walsh on base with an error to lead off the inning. Burke got him forced with a grounder, but scored on Danny Rice’s double. Rice was now batting .421… Hebberd singled, but Martinez popped out, yet the tying run was up, and as were left-handers. Thrasher to the rescue!

Thrasher appeared in the reverse triple switch that put DeWeese in left, Cookie to right, and Jackson out of the game, struck out Flack, and this was all his save. **** Ramirez. Despite the triple switch, Thrasher’s spot came up in the top of the ninth; the Aces had started their meltdown with a Flack error that put Mathews on to start the inning. Margolis then singled. DeWeese fouled out, but Cookie singled, and Walter hit a sac fly. Nunley’s single to center scored Margolis, and Mendoza then walked to fill the bases, which brought up Thrasher with two outs, but no more fudging around. He was gonna bat, and then pitch. He flew out to center, then opened the bottom 9th by drilling Hamilton. He struck out Erickson and Alvarez in anger before Walsh drew a walk. Can we pleeeease end this charade!? Brent Burke ran a full count, then grounded to right. Nunley on it, throw to first, it’s over.

Raccoons 9, Aces 4 – Aces lead series 3-2

Carmona 3-6; Walter 3-5, RBI; H. Mendoza 3-4, 2 BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Mathews 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Margolis 2-5, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, SV (1);

We had 17 hits, they made four errors.

Back to Portland.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

My heart can't take much more of this.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

2018 CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Portland Raccoons (95-67) vs. Las Vegas Aces (89-74)

Game 6 – Hector Santos (13-10, 2.67 ERA) vs. Clark Johnson (10-11, 4.48 ERA)

Do-or-die game #2 for the Raccoons, and they also had to win with Guerrero afterwards, but one after the other… and the Critters had not gotten anywhere close to Clark Johnson in Game 2, either.

Maybe somebody can shut down Armando Martinez (.429, 5 SB) and Danny Rice (.421, 1 HR, 6 RBI) now? PLEASE??

LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – LF M. Hamilton – RF Erickson – 3B I. Alvarez – 2B R. Walsh – SS Burke – C D. Rice – P C. Johnson
POR: RF Carmona – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – CF Duarte – 2B Mathews – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – P Santos

With rain in the forecast, Martinez opened with a double, but never advanced due to Flack flying out to left, Hamilton getting whiffed, and Erickson flying out to Duarte.

Santos shed a walk in the second inning, but the real issue soon turned out to be Johnson – who allowed a walk to Duarte in the second, but no hits so far – hitting a double to left on Santos’ first pitch in the third inning. Martinez made a poor out, but Johnson then scored on Flack’s single. Matt Hamilton silenced the park with a hammer throw to centerfield and outta here, and the Coons trailed 3-0. After Erickson singled to right, Santos was yanked.

With fans wrapped in blankets to save them from the bitter October night in Orgeon, and some already crying, Ricky Mendoza stepped in and somehow got out of the inning, despite walking Walsh and allowing Burke to hit a rocket to left that singed DeWeese’s glove, but was the third out.

Bottom 3rd, Margolis opened with a walk drawn from Johnson. Mendoza bunted him over, after which Cookie walked, making the exercise moot. After their first three runners all reached on walks, Shane Walter changed things up and got drilled. That loaded the bases with the tying runs, one out, and still two lefties, who were really dangerous, and good, and … and um… and Nunley was batting .136 and I was close to dropping my blanket, and dropping myself out of the window.

Nunley hit the first pitch up the middle, it was not a bad grounder, but it was not good enough to beat Walsh. Walsh had no play on Walter at second, but he did manage to nip Nunley at first, while one run scored. Then came Mendoza with the tying runs in scoring position. He popped out to short.

I have to kill that ****.

And I would not be spared any stupidity. Ricky Mendoza WALKED Johnson in the fourth inning, AND it began to rain. EVERYTHING was being washed down the Willamette, EVERYTHING, oh god, dear heavens, please let me be washed along with all the things. Drown me, oh baseball gods, but safe me from their follies, please …!!!

Johnson’s promising no-hit bid was broken up when Duarte grounded deep behind short to start the Coons’ fourth. Burke kept it in the infield, but had no play, and Duarte had an infield single. Mathews then hit a proper single to center, placing the tying runs on the corners with nobody out for DeWeese, batting .071, and that one hit was more or less by accident. He got drilled by Johnson, the single best possible outcome, bringing up Margolis with the bags choked. Danny tended to be good for a surprise now and then! He hit the first pitch to right, up the line, Erickson over – HE’S NOT GETTING’ IT! Into the corner, two runs scored! Tied ballgame!!! The Coons had runners on second and third and nobody out, then crapped their pants when Ricky Mendoza batted for himself, popped out, Cookie grounded to third to keep the runners pinned, Walter walked, but Nunley grounded out to Burke to leave the bags stacked.

Then we had a rain delay for over half an hour, so leaving Mendoza in was really a good choice we would totally never regret. He was still pitching in the fifth, assuring everybody that he was fine. Hamilton singled to center to lead off. Erickson grounded to Mathews for two – except that Mathews lost the ball in the wet grass, and two were on now. Alvarez grounded to third, Nunley tried to turn two, but Mathews again was not up to the task. Runners remained on the corners for Rich Walsh, hitless in the series. He hit a sac fly to center, and the Aces were inching closer to the World Series again, up 4-3 in the middle of the fifth.

Napkin Mendoza drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, was bunted over by Duarte, went to third on Mathews’ grounder, but DeWeese struck out. Danny Rice, the Death of Coons, opened the sixth with a double over Cookie’s head, but on Johnson’s bunt was thrown out at third base by Ricky Mendoza, who then allowed a hard 3-1 shot to Nunley, who a) survived, and b) nipped Johnson at second, but that left c) Martinez on first base. With southpaws up, Mendoza’s day was over.

It was Thrasher Time. Flack grounded out to first, ending the sixth inning for the Aces. The seventh saw Thrasher retire Hamilton on a grounder before he walked Erickson, which was kinda bad. Alvarez grounded to third, Nunley again got the lead runner, then made an error on PH Bobby Diersing’s grounder, which put two on. Thrasher HAD to face and retire Brent Burke, or else - …! Burke struck out, but the Coons, held to three hits so far, needed to ****ing score now!

The 2-3-4 batters did squid in the bottom 7th, and Thrasher’s only pitch in the eighth and his 33rd overall drilled Rice, which at least precluded him from hitting for extra bases. Mathis replaced him and wiggled out of the inning with K to Brian Skinner, a pop and a grounder, both to Hudman, who had earlier entered in a double switch with Thrasher.

When Duarte cracked a leadoff single to left off Alex Silva in the bottom 8th, at least the tying run was on base. With Mathis appearing right behind him, we retained him to bunt, which hadn’t worked two innings earlier, but we’re Coons, and we never learn! With Duarte at second, left-hander Alex Morin replaced Silva, and Jackson batted thus for DeWeese. Jackson went to 2-2 before firing a fly to deep center. Rich Arrieta back, back, back – caught it. Duarte went to third, but we now had right-hander Enrique Guzman, the Aces’ fifth starter, in to face Margolis, who had expended his monthly extra-base magic already. A single would do, though. He grounded out to Flack.

Off Jason Kaiser, the Aces got their long-awaited insurance run in the ninth inning. The first two reached as Kaiser walked Hamilton, Erickson singled, and the run scored on Arrieta’s groundout. This was Kaiser’s 85th appearance. I was not blaming him. No, I was knotting a rope.

Bottom 9th. Two runs to tie, three runs to win. Hypothetically. Hudman led off and grounded out to short. Cookie fell to two strikes, then lined a single to right. Still alive! Shane Walter, batting .292, came up. He was due a helpful knock somewhere, and so was Nunley. Come on, Shane. Do … something! Anything! Please! He was also down two strikes before long against Steve Rob, then put the ball in play. Bouncer to Bill Hebberd at the keystone, to Burke, to Flack.

I gazed into the night sky
And I saw no stars
There was only the void

Aces 5, Raccoons 3 – Aces win series 4-2

Duarte 2-2, BB;

[Bub13]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I gazed into the night sky
And I saw no stars
There was only the void

[Westheim]

Here are the team's postseason stats. Cover the children's eyes, people, cover them good.

Also, here's the 1993 team photo. (places the framed picture on the desk) This is open mic time. Feel free to tell the 1993 guys every single bad decision I have made the last 25 years, while I am sitting over there, improving my knot.

[Questdog]

I hope we have seen the last of DickWeed in a brown shirt....and I hope you give Mendoza another shot.....

There are some guys here who deserve to be remembered as champions and some who deserve to be forgotten....

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I hope we have seen the last of DickWeed in a brown shirt....

I can sure use all the Good Luck wishes I can get trying to move *that* for four more years and $13.2M total.

Originally Posted by Questdog

and I hope you give Mendoza another shot.....

Yeah. To his ****ing head, or whatever he calls the ****ing dented can of beans bolted to the top of his ugly neck.

No?

Ugh.

Originally Posted by Questdog

There are some guys here who deserve to be remembered as champions and some who deserve to be forgotten....

Nick Brown will not be remembered as champion, but as a Hall of Famer that wasted his entire career with a chronically inept and utterly laughable franchise.

So he's gonna be forgotten, but I am afraid I will never be able to forget the eighth inning in Game 4. It's right up there with Keith Ayers, with Juan Diaz, and with Glenn Johnston and Ed Parrell.