[Westheim]

Beware, incomplete post; I played the relay set with the Elks yesterday and thought I'd get to the following full week in the evening, but was consumed whole by Civ and Stellaris. Now the latter week has had a lot of stuff happen (though really not all to the Coons), and the post is going to be a monster. Thus, here, ahead of time the Elks set, without the usual appendices at the bottom. Another post should follow in the next hour with standings and stats.

All Star Game

Jonny Toner was designated as the Continental League’s starter for the All Star Game, opposing LAP Brad Smith (6-5, 2.45 ERA). Jonny threw only one inning, which took him 28 pitches, but didn’t concede a run. The second inning, the Federal League All Stars jumped on OCT Bob King, scored three runs, and were away to a 6-3 victory. Hector Santos and Angel Casas both had scoreless innings in the defeat. Santos threw only nine pitches.

PIT SS Tom McWhorter (.298, 5 HR, 25 RBI), who missed most of the first half of the season due to injury, was crowned MVP of the game, knocking two triples and drawing a walk, scoring two runs.

Raccoons (42-44) @ Canadiens (45-43) – July 16-19, 2015

Last Tuesday, the Elks routed the Raccoons, 8-0, in Portland. Since then, the Raccoons had won five straight, while the Elks had lost five straight, including the first two games of their respective streaks against another. The Canadiens were still seventh in runs scored, but had dropped to eighth in runs allowed, and their run differential had turned sour, too, from +3 ten days ago (and up to +18 by Tuesday night…) down into -8 (Coons: -22).

This was the back leg of the traditional All Star-break four-and-four. The season series now stood at 5-2 in favor of the Canadiens.

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (5-6, 4.00 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (7-5, 3.86 ERA)
Hector Santos (5-4, 2.78 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (11-6, 2.98 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.92 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (8-9, 4.09 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-4, 2.23 ERA) vs. David Peterson (7-8, 7.04 ERA)

Now, the bit with Hector Santos throwing only nine pitches in the All Star Game will be key, because I will take that as an excuse to put him out there on two days’ rest, taking the Friday assignment after Watanabe, who will start the series on regular rest. We are not quite sure yet about Nick Brown, but he looks like a good fit for Saturday, with Jonny going on Sunday. Conway will be skipped in this series (we have Monday off). He makes me sad.

Looks like the two left-handers will be in the middle of the series for the Elks. Now, they don’t have an off day on Monday, so they don’t get a free skip for Peterson.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – P Watanabe
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – CF Cameron – 3B Madison – LF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – 2B Paull – P R. Taylor

Cookie came out of the break with a double and scored on Nunley’s double, who came through as Taylor struck out McKnight, Reya, and Richards. Watanabe issued a 4-pitch walk to Kurt Evans, who stole second base, advanced on Raúl Hernandez’ groundout, but Watanabe then – surprisingly, I will admit – struck out both Ray Gilbert (15 HR) and Don Cameron to get out of the first unharmed. He would not get out of the second unharmed, however. Steve Madison’s leadoff single to left turned into the tying run when Jeremiah Irvin beat Richards’ limited range for a game-tying RBI double. After that, it turned silent. Rod Taylor feasted on the tears of the Critters and struck out nine over seven innings, while Watanabe also maintained the tie, but finally ran out of juice in the bottom of the seventh. Kurt Evans hit a 2-out single, and Watanabe lost Hernandez to a not-even-close walk. With Gilbert strolling up, Entwistle came out, and got Gilbert to foul out on the first pitch to end the inning. The Critters got Cookie to third base in the top of the eighth, then ignored him as Taylor ended the inning with a blazing strikeout of Matt Nunley.

The game remained tied into the ninth inning. Orlando Valdez walked Reya to start the top 9th, but Richards found his way into a double play. That brought up Murphy, who countered the left-hander and CREAMED a pitch to left center – well outta here! That was his 250th major league homer. The game would finally end with stupid base running. Angel Casas sat down the first two Elks in the bottom 9th before Kurt Evans singled to left … and kept going. Luis Reya didn’t think so and comfortably threw him out at second base. 2-1 Raccoons! Nunley 2-4, RBI; Sambrano 1-1; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

Streaks at six, I lusted for more…

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – C Margolis – LF Ochoa – SS Canning – P Santos
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – CF Cameron – LF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – 3B Paull – 2B Lawrence – P D. Butler

Butler got the Friday game as the Elks made a switch, walked three in the first inning, but not that it cost him a run… Santos struck out the first two, then put two on but wiggled out of that, and the game was scoreless early on. Ochoa stirred some in the #7 hole, knocking hits in both of his first two at-bats against Butler, including a 2-out double in the fourth inning that turned into nothing when Canning was intentionally walked and Santos struck out. Eric Paull clobbered into Walt Canning in the fifth inning to break up a double play, which worked real well, and also left Canning face down in the dirt. McKnight replaced him for obvious reasons.

Santos never got a run of support, and also never retired anybody in the sixth inning. Hernandez hit a leadoff single, Gilbert drove a mistake, and it was 2-0 Elks. With an elevated pitch count of 88, Santos was hauled in right away. It was already the eighth inning when the Coons mounted something like another cautious attempt to score a run (or hold your breath, more than one). Sandy and Nunley hit 1-out singles off Butler, bringing up the right-handed failed sluggers against the left-handed pitcher. The Elks didn’t see much reason to replace Butler, who struck out Bednarski and retired Murphy on a foul pop. While the Coons’ flame went out in the slightest wind, the Elks added another run against Mathis and Thrasher in the eighth inning to end their losing spell. 3-0 Canadiens. Sambrano 2-3, BB; Ochoa 2-4, 2B;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Nunley – RF Reya – LF Richards – 1B Murphy – 2B Sambrano – C Alexander – P N. Brown
VAN: CF K. Evans – SS Irvin – 1B Gilbert – 2B Madison – LF E. Garcia – C Little – RF St. George – 3B Mateo – P D. Peterson

Nick Brown had an inning from hell in the bottom 2nd. With runners on the corners, he had Jaime Mateo at the plate. Two down, Mateo hit a sharp RBI single to left in a 2-strike count, plating the first run of the game, before David Peterson ticketed a 2-2 pitch to center for another RBI single, giving the Elks a 2-0 lead. Amid a sea of futility, Ronnie McKnight ran into a solo homer in the top of the third, momentarily cutting into the deficit, but the lineup as a whole failed tremendously, and the Elks restored the 2-run gap by the bottom of the fifth inning when Evans and Irvin hit back-to-back 2-out doubles off Brownie.

Peterson allowed three singles to stack the sacks in the top of the sixth. Unfortunately, there were two bad news items to this. First, there were two out, and second, Dylan Alexander was up to bat. His .210 bat just wouldn’t cut it, and he flew out to Enrique Garcia rather easily. Brown lasted seven innings on 101 pitches, but struck out only three in an unconvincing start, and remained on the hook. The Raccoons offense was completely harmless, and the Elks added an insurance run in the bottom 8th when neither Entwistle nor Thrasher had anything, and more damage was only avoided when Danny Ochoa made a nifty grab at first base. Against right-hander Chris Spindler, the Raccoons had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning. D-Alex had singled, and Bergquist had been hit with a pitch, and it was Cookie up and LOADS of left-handers behind him. Cookie nursed an 0-for-4 day, which didn’t change when he drew a walk, but at least the go-ahead run came up in McKnight, and Spindler was now melting quickly, issuing a bases-loaded walk, bringing the score to 4-2. Spindler didn’t get it done, but Bill King didn’t either – another right-hander – as once Nunley had fouled out, Luis Reya bounced a 1-2 pitch through Mateo and into left for the tying runs to score. Ron Richards raked away at the first spherical thing that came his way, hit it square and drove a 370-footer to where rightfield was shortest. 3-run homer, and six runs in the inning!!

The game had yet to be won, however. Angel Casas had to be shooed away from his takeaway pizza to get his glove, cap … and pants. He retired Mateo to start the bottom 9th, but then walked Raúl Hernandez. Kurt Evans singled to center, and Jeremiah Irvin singled to right, which loaded the bases with the tying runs in a 7-4 game … and Ray Gilbert coming up! Gilbert drove a 1-1 pitch to right, Reya made the play, two outs, but Hernandez was going. Hernandez was SLOW. Reya fired home, and Hernandez didn’t even manage to slide well, and was tagged out by Alexander – ballgame! 7-4 Blighters! McKnight 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B; Reya 2-5, 2 RBI; Richards 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B;

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – SS McKnight – RF Bednarski – 1B Murphy – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – P Toner
VAN: RF K. Evans – C R. Hernandez – 1B Gilbert – 3B Madison – LF E. Garcia – SS Irvin – CF St. George – 2B Lawrence – P McMullen

Perhaps the best either team had in the fold were going to beat in this Sunday game. The duel was on! Through four innings, either team had only one hit, while Toner had struck out six to McMullen’s five. The Coons’ hit had been Cookie’s to lead off the fourth, a single to center. He moved to third base on groundouts, but Bednarski struck out to keep him there. Irvin hit a single in the bottom 5th, but was also stranded.

The next Critter to get on was Cookie again (the only Critter to get on, actually), with a 2-out double in the sixth inning. Sandy Sambrano drew a full count walk, the first free pass by either pitcher in this game, but another full count to McKnight only resulted in a groundout to Jaylin Lawrence. The Elks would also put two on in their half of the sixth, annoyingly starting with a leadoff single that McMullen hit on the first pitch he saw from Jonny Toner, who then lost Hernandez to a walk before Gilbert continued to crank up the hurt on the Coons that had built up the last few years and romped an impressive 3-run homer for the first scoring in the game. Toner struck out the next four batters after that as a clear sign of anger, but despite an RBI double by Margolis that scored Nunley in the top 7th remained on the hook when he was hit for to lead off the eighth inning. Reya popped out and the Coons went down in order in the eighth. Orlando Valdez was out to close things in the ninth inning, retired McKnight on a liner to Lawrence, but didn’t retire Bednarski, who hit a line drive home run that zipped past about ten feet inside the left foul pole. The Coons were back to within a run, but Valdez lost Murphy to a walk. The Elks were REALLY missing their closer Pedro Alvarado! They were missing him even more once Matt Nunley crushed a 2-run shot to right center, flipping the score in the Coons’ favor at 4-3. Spindler replaced Valdez after the second homer, walked a pair, but Cookie’s drive to left center ended up with the defense, denying Angel Casas an insurance run. Angel hadn’t allowed an earned run since May (28th, to be precise) and was approaching a flat 1 ERA, but he had to get through the heart of the order here. Gilbert led off with a single to left, which was not a good sign, and Steve Madison put a 1-2 pitch at least into play, grounding it to Bergquist, but they only got the lead runner Gilbert. It brought up Enrique Garcia, who had worn out Brownie on Saturday, but now grounded right to Nunley, zip to second, zip to first, ballgame! 4-3 Furballs! Carmona 2-5, 2B; Nunley 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 11 K;

We’re back to .500! The Elks are down to .500! The Loggers are also at .500! It is … very mediocre.

In other news

July 16 – NAS 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.347, 9 HR, 68 RBI) knocks his 2,000th career base hit with a spectacular 4-for-4 display against the Capitals. Unfortunately, his team is largely absent in the game, and the Blue Sox lose 8-2. Esquivel reaches the milestone with a first inning single off Colin Baldwin.
July 16 – The Indians deal RF/CF Marc Thompson (.270, 5 HR, 22 RBI) to the Pacifics for 3B Felipe Flores (.120, 0 HR, 2 RBI in 25 AB) and #7 prospect LF/RF César Martinez.
July 18 – Five different Wolves hit home runs in an 11-3 thrashing of the Pacifics. Three of the dingers come in the Wolves’ 8-run third inning.
July 19 – A true marathon in Pittsburgh: Miners and Rebels take 21 innings to decide a 10-7 Rebels win. The Rebels initially made up a 7-1 deficit with a 6-run seventh, which was the last offense for 13 innings. Only Pittsburgh’s SS Tom McWhorter (.317, 8 HR, 33 RBI) manages to get four hits in, but the hitting streak of RIC OF Danny Flores (.300, 3 HR, 26 RBI) runs to 25 games with a seventh-inning single.
July 19 – OCT INF Emilio Farias (.272, 2 HR, 26 RBI) will miss time until late August with a sprained ankle.