[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-39) @ Indians (32-46)

The Indians‘ Miguel Sanchez, who was a great pitcher, entered the game with a losing (7-8) record, and an ERA a full run better than our Jerry Ackerman (8-5), who was an awful pitcher at times. Baseball’s a strange game, ain’t it?

Ackerman was every bit as awful as possible and took a 5-2 loss, in which Sanchez ended five innings of his seven with K’s. Raccoons were awful as a whole at the plate, with 7 H, 3 BB, 10 K on the whole team. Borjón was 2-3 with a walk, the rest was penciled in for a whipping the next morning. Hoyt Cook (our Hoyt Cook of old, now taking the field for Indianapolis) went 3-3 with a home run. Of course he did.

Jorge Romero got 2-0 behind after a Borjón error in the bottom 2nd of game 2. The Raccoons popped out twice with the bags full and one out in the top 3rd, then had the same situation in the top 6th. Sánz popped out for the second out and Romero was lifted for pinch hitter Cam Green. A run scored on a passed ball and Green walked, whereupon Gonzalez singled in the tying run, but Workman made another embarrassing out and Romero got a no-decision. Raccoons lost 4-2. Gonzalez 3-4, BB, RBI; Hoyt Cook scored the winning run for the Indians off Paul Cooper in the sixth. Of course he did.

Game 3 was the big league debut for Yoelbi Maurinha. I would have liked to offer him anything but a loss in his cards, but with the way the Raccoons were batting it was meaningless how somebody pitched anyway. Nixon and Gonzalez were cold, Hall was cold, Green, Dawson, Workman, Sánz, Johnston were not getting anything done, Borjón’s average had been poor before. It was almost pointless to take to the field.

The only perceived weakness was opposing pitcher Jim Ferguson, who entered with an ERA a sliver over five. Ferguson was trying to stick at the major league level for years now, but always dropped back off rosters. Borjón knocked a 2-run triple in the first and Dawson hit a solo homer in the second for an early 3-0 Raccoons lead. Despite a 2-run homer by Green in the sixth, Raccoons pitching was not up to the task and the game went tied 5-5 into the ninth after Wally Gaston had blown a lead with two walks and a freak hit against him. This was not Wally’s season, that was for sure… We sent “Demon” West in the bottom 9th and he sent the game to extra innings. Ralph Nixon was thrown out at the plate in the top 12th and the Raccoons never scored and Kelley took the loss in the bottom 12, 6-5 Indians, on a bases loaded single. Nixon 4-6; Workman 3-6; shockingly: Daniel Hall 0-6; Ramon Borjón left with an undiagnosed injury.

Everybody was excited for game 4. As far as Indians fans were concerned.

Christopher Powell was on top of his game for eight frames of 4-hit shutout ball, but then surrendered a leadoff homer to RF Francis Bell in the bottom 9th, followed by a single to Hoyt Cook. With none of our pair of closers available, I had to resort to Cunningham to hold on to the 3-1 lead with nobody out and a runner on first. Cunningham walked a batter, but completed the game to avoid a 4-game sweep. The Raccoons only had four hits in the game, all singles, and hadn’t scored anything without six walks to aid them. This was Powell’s 10th of the season.

Raccoons (38-42) vs. Canadiens (47-34)

To be honest, the Raccoons were in no constitution to stand a chance here.

Logan Evans faced Victor Underwood (5-6, 2.76 ERA) in game 1. Both pitchers walked in a run in the first inning. Evans was almost unhittable because he was so wild in this game. He walked five, but struck out eight through six innings, then he was done with almost 100 pitches thrown, but he held a 4-2 lead. Spencer Dicks, who caught on Sanchez’ off day, hit a solo homer in the eighth, 5-2. West was still done from his long outing against the Indians and Gaston saved the 5-2 win with 2 K and 1 BB. Workman 2-4, RBI; Nixon 3-4, RBI;

Borjón’s injury turned out to be torn ankle ligaments, and he was out until mid-August. Oh, great… with him down I had the wonderful choice of three sub-.200 hitters in the outfield in Ben Cox, Pedro Sánz, and Eduardo Guerrero. Why can’t I just die?

Game 2 was 2-2 after the first inning. Ackerman was pitching as wild as Evans, but without getting people out. The defense helped him big in this game. Still, Luis Romero homered to right for a 3-2 Canadiens lead in the sixth. Ackerman was removed in the seventh, in the bottom of which Cameron Green reached on an error, before Enrique Sanchez became the second catcher in two days to homer for the Raccoons to make it 4-3, but the Canadiens tied the game in the top 8th. The scoring runner had been nicked by Cunningham, who left without retiring a batter. Cam Green walked to lead off the bottom 9th, representing the winning run, and got to third, but didn’t score. After Sanchez had bunted him over, Guerrero and Sánz made pathetic groundouts. Entering extra innings, I broke out Carlos Moran, who held the Canadiens from scoring, while the Raccoons stranded Daniel Hall at second in the 10th, and Mark Dawson at first in the 11th. Guerrero singled to lead off the 12th. Moran bunted him over, and Bowling pinch hit for Gonzalez, but grounded out. Guerrero went to third. Matt Workman shoveled a ball into no man’s land with two down and scored Guerrero, walking off the Raccoons with a 5-4 win!

Romero started game 3. Like Evans and Ackerman before him, he got behind in the top 1st, but halved the damage with a 1-0 deficit. Workman bombed a 2-piece in the bottom 1st to turn the game early. The Raccoons upped to 4-1 against Juan Soto in that bottom 1st. Hall went deep in the bottom 2nd, 5-1. Romero pitched a good game and went eight frames in the 7-1 Raccoons win. Gonzalez 3-5, RBI; Nixon 3-4;

Game 4 was the only one where the Canadiens didn’t score in the first. But they trashed Yoelbi Maurinha in the second and chased him in the third, leading 6-0 by then. From there, there was no return for the Raccoons, who were held short by Robbie Campbell on the mound for Vancouver and who didn’t begin to hit successfully until the late innings. Home runs by Workman (solo, his third in the series), and Green (three runs) only made the result a little less unpleasant. Raccoons lost 8-4.

Still, how did they win three of four against the far-and-ahead division leaders!? Would this whatever-it-was carry over to the last series before the All Star game?

Raccoons (41-43) @ Loggers (37-49)

The Loggers struggled at the plate with only 299 runs scored (last in the CL) and had the 11th rotation in the CL, so there were reasons for them falling from contention in early May to last two months later. With the Raccoons bringing out their 1-2-3 starters, things certainly were interesting.

But game 1 took place without Gonzalez and Hall, who needed a break. Bowling and Cox were in the lineup, which didn’t look as meaty as other days… the lineup faced Fiorello Garafaio (1-3, 6.41 ERA). The sky was the limit? Wow, did that kid whip the Raccoons. He K’ed six and won the game over Christopher Powell, who went eight frames in the 2-0 loss to Milwaukee. What a shameful display of non-offense. I was thoroughly disgusted.

The following night none of the Raccoons found any sleep, neither did I. Some whipping was done.

The next day they ran away 6-0 in the first four innings. Evans worked on a shuout but left in the ninth with a painful forearm soreness. Cunningham got the last two outs in the 7-0 Raccoons win. Hall 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Dawson 2-5, HR (#11), 2 RBI; Dicks 2-4, BB, RBI; Evans 8.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K;

The rubber game: the Raccoons got up 1-0 in the first, but Ackerman surrendered two homers and six runs in the bottom 4th and was tossed. The Raccoons got three back in the top 5th to trail 6-4. Guerrero singled to lead off the top 6th. Fletcher Kelley bunted him over, and Edgardo Gonzalez followed with a RBI double. Workman grounded out to bring up Daniel Hall with one on, two down, and 6-5 behind. Hall ripped big time and the Raccoons led 7-6. Bottom 6th: with two down, Cipriano Crespo runs to steal second, and Sanchez throws the ball past Gonzalez. Crespo goes to third, but Kelley strikes out the batter to end the threat. The Raccoons raised it to 9-6 … and then collapsed spectacularly, as the Loggers scored four against Cunningham, Gaston, and West in the eighth. It was the ultimate disaster. 10-9 Loggers.

I went to the clubhouse for some good crying.

In other news:
July 3 – Knights slugger Engjell Vulaj (.332, 5 HR, 39 RBI) is out for five weeks with a broken thumb.
July 3 – Charlotte’s Michael Watson keeps pouncing, going 3-3 with a walk in the Falcons’ 2-1 win over Oklahoma City to bring his hitting streak to 30 games.
July 4 – Big day for Wolves RF Carlos León, who hits for the cycle in a 9-5 win of his team over the Sacramento Scorpions in a 5-5 performance: RBI triple in the 1st, solo home run off Claudio Guerra in the third, single in the fifth, RBI single in the 6th, and 2-run double in the 8th. It is the first cycle in ABL in over three years, since the Thunder’s Jonah Frank did it on May 12, 1979 against the Bayhawks. It is the sixth cycle overall and the fifth in the Federal League, where Corey Byrd was the last batter to hit for the cycle almost four years ago on July 30, 1978.
July 4 – Michael Watson is less lucky, he goes 0-4 against the Thunder and his streak ends at 30 games.
July 8 – Bad news keep piling up in Cincinnati: outfielder Juan Diaz (.286, 2 HR, 37 RBI) suffered a partially torn labrum and is out for the year. The Cyclones are the worst team in baseball with so many starters out of action.

The All Star roster for the CL is occupied by Canadiens this year. They send five players, including three starters. Christopher Powell was ignored by the selectors. Daniel Hall was the only Raccoons All Star. Our former perennial All Star Ben Simon (now with the Wolves) made the FL roster.

Not that anyone deserves to go to the game among this team.

After the break we’ll be in Vancouver, and then play at home against the Titans, Falcons, Bayhawks, and Aces.

We are playing losing ball for the third month in a row.