[Westheim]

Raccoons (78-70) vs. Falcons (66-82) – September 19-21, 2016

This was a 4-game set against the Falcons, who had not won any of the previous five games with the Raccoons this season. The series would start with a double header, for the first game of which the Falcons would be the home team as it had been rained out over in Charlotte earlier in the season. The Falcons were second-worst to the Loggers in terms of runs allowed, with the worst rotation overall. Their offense had them sixth in runs scored, and their run differential was just below negative triple digits at -94.

Projected matchups:
Francisquo Bocanegra (0-0) vs. Ron Carter (9-14, 4.75 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (11-8, 3.42 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (3-5, 5.48 ERA)
Hector Santos (14-6, 2.60 ERA) vs. Bobby Guerrero (13-12, 4.68 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (8-7, 2.90 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (12-10, 3.01 ERA)

All four pitchers are right-handers, unless they come up with somebody else to make a spot start.

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – CF Duarte – C McNeela – RF Sambrano – P Bocanegra
CHA: 3B Pellot – CF Benson – RF Feldmann – C Holliman – 1B Quebell – 2B O. Sandoval – LF Mazur – SS Bowers – P R. Carter

The Coons got Nunley and McKnight on with singles, DeWeese walked to fill the bags, and Young hit into a double play to end the first inning, the utter turd. After that, out of the blue, a pitching duel broke out. No runner reached third base anymore through the fifth inning, and there were only three more hits until then, two of those by the Falcons off an otherwise spotless Bocanegra, whose downfall would come in the sixth inning. Alfonso Pellot hit a 1-out single to center and moved up to second base on Travis Benson’s grounder. With two outs and a 1-2 count on Ryan Feldmann, Bocanegra threw not one, but two wild pitches to plate Pellot and give the Falcons a 1-0 lead. Feldmann ended up walking, stole a base, and Ryan Holliman almost would have turned an 0-2 count into another walk, but grounded out to short at 3-2 to end the inning. Bocanegra’s day ended after a 1-out double by Oscar Sandoval in the seventh. Chris Mathis replaced him and completely borked the game by allowing a 2-out pinch-hit single to Troy Mugan to plate Sandoval AND an RBI double to Ron Carter after that. While the Raccoons did nothing to perhaps entertain their own fans that were stupid enough to pay for this farce, they instead sent Gary Dupes to pitch in the bottom 8th, which resulted in a leadoff double by Benson, and then two walks to load the bases. All runs scored against Kevin Beaver, and the fans had enough of the double header after only the first leg. 6-0 Falcons. DeWeese 2-3, BB;

Game 2
CHA: 2B Bowers – CF Huibregtse – RF Feldmann – 1B Quebell – LF Benson – 3B Moran – C M. Roberts – SS P. Hall – P Durr
POR: 3B Nunley – 1B Jones – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – RF Ochoa – C Baca – 2B Bergquist – P Abe

While Tadasu Abe sat down the first ten Falcons before Steve Huibregtse’s single (which ended up negated by Feldmann’s grounder to short that McKnight turned into a double play) in the fourth inning, the Coons scored runs on Denzel Durr in all of the first four innings. DeWeese found runners on the corners in the first and hit a single to left that plated Matt Nunley outright while Howard Jones scored on Feldmann’s throwing error. The score was stretched to 4-0 by Nunley’s 2-out RBI double in the second and Baca’s 2-out RBI single in the third. Matt Nunley’s 1-out solo jack in the fourth broke the camel’s back – the Falcons yanked Durr, who had still struck out five in 3.1 innings. The Coons would continue scoring for another inning when DeWeese hit a solo homer off Johnny Watson in the fifth, but the middle innings saw Abe struggling mightily. The Falcons whacked him for three hits, including two doubles, and two runs in the top of the fifth, and he also had men on the corners in the sixth before getting strike three past Benson. Ronnie McKnight made a rare error in the seventh inning, bobbling the grounder of leadoff man Allan Moran, but Bergquist started a double play on Mathew Roberts to erase the runner, which helped Abe to finish seven innings.

And again the pen popped up and immediately the entire game turned into a complete mess. Now it was Gallegos, who started the eighth with a 6-2 lead, and in four batters issued two walks and Huibregtse triple. Ron Thrasher inherited a 6-3 game with one out and runners on the corners, facing Adrian Quebell (.281, 16 HR, 80 RBI) as the tying run. Pitch to contact, Ron! He’ll hit into a double play! – Yeah, like **** he will. Quebell singled hard to right, 6-4, runners still on the corners, with a Dave Carter single and Thrasher walking Jose Jimenez producing a 6-5 game and the bases being loaded. Roberts hitting hard into a double play was all that saved Thrasher’s puny tail. The ninth was even worse. Thrasher hit Paul Hall with the first pitch of the inning to put the tying run on base, and with one out Tom Bowers reached on Jones’ error. That put runners on the corners, and with Oscar Sandoval pinch-hitting – a right-hander – desperation reached a high point and Thrasher was yanked for John Korb. Sandoval bounced back to the pitcher, with Korb nipping Bowers on second base while Hall held at third. Feldmann struck out. 6-5 Blighters. Nunley 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; DeWeese 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (12-8); Korb 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (5);

What do you say, Ron? How about John Korb being our new closer going forward and you WASH HIS ****ING SOCKS???

This was the seventh error of the season for McKnight – a career-high! Granted, this is only his second full season, but he only made six in 2015. In 2,303.2 total innings at short (which includes his cups of coffee with Cincy) he has made 14 errors.

Game 3
CHA: 2B Bowers – 3B Moran – C Holliman – 1B Quebell – CF Pearcy – RF Mugan – LF J. Jimenez – SS P. Hall – P B. Guerrero
POR: 2B Sambrano – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B Young – RF Richards – C Baca – P Santos

There was the double play that everybody was waiting for Quebell to hit into! After Santos’ wild throw to second base (and beyond) had put Ryan Holliman on base in addition to Allan Moran in the first inning, Quebell reliably grounded into a two-for-one to Sandy Sambrano, who had seen his share of misery with the now-Falcon over the years. Quebell was also instrumental in loading the bases with Critters in the bottom 1st, botching a Nunley grounder for his ninth error of the season. The first three all reached base on a walk, error, and single, respectively. The Coons ended up scoring only two despite another Quebell error, who dropped a foul pop by Duarte after DeWeese’s run-scoring groundout (for his 90th RBI). While Duarte didn’t get on base, Adam Young hit an outrageous RBI single, posing as a useful ballplayer. Doing everything in pairs apparently, Quebell hit into another double play in the fourth, then also erasing Holliman and his leadoff single. DeWeese also made an error in the fifth inning, giving each team two for the game, but since nobody was hitting all that much, the score remained 2-0 Coons for the time being.

The Critters would get runners onto the corners with no outs, however, in the bottom of the sixth inning. Duarte and Young hit a pair of singles, setting up Ron Richards for bad things to happen. Before Richards got a chance to fudge up, Guerrero hit him with the first pitch, filling them up for Baca instead. Guerrero’s line would explode in this inning, the Coons settling him with five more runs, all earned, as Baca hit an RBI single and Santos hit a fly to deep-enough left for a sac fly. While Sandy lined out to center for the second out, Nunley and McKnight hit singles to plate three more, the latter doing so against reliever Art Cox, who then choked DeWeese to end the inning with a 7-0 deficit.

The top 7th started innocently enough with Erik Pearcy reaching on an infield single. Santos collapsed instantly, though, allowing a hard single to Mugan and then a 2-run double to Jimenez. Although the tying run was still at breakfast for the Falcons, with the pen of horrors the Coons had concocted even a 7-2 game was far from a safe affair. At least Seung-mo Chun stranded Jimenez on third base, so it remained 7-2 for the time being. Chun also struck out Moran at the start of the top 8th, but then left with an injury and the Raccoons immediately started to leak out of their newly-torn hole. Will West put two out of three men he faced on base – as usual – and it was up to Sugano to deal with the switch-hitter Mugan, who was batting a glorious .203 (but had come to Portland batting .198). Mugan hit a hard RBI single before Jimenez’ looper was spoiled by Duarte in shallow center with no regards for personal safety, ending the inning. Somehow, nobody knew how, Juan Gallegos would pitch a scoreless ninth, allowing only one hit to the Falcons. 7-3 Coons. Sambrano 2-4, BB; McKnight 2-5, 2 RBI; Duarte 2-4; Young 3-4, RBI; Walter 1-1; Santos 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (15-6);

We have never won eight games in a season from the Falcons, so this is the chance to do that at least once in 40 years. (this is eight games in the regular season or overall; we have never faced them in the CLCS)

Game 4
CHA: 3B Pellot – 2B Bowers – RF Feldmann – 1B Quebell – LF Benson – CF J. Jimenez – C M. Roberts – SS J. Estrada – P P. Sanchez
POR: 3B Nunley – RF Ochoa – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B Young – 2B Jones – C McNeela – P Toner

The first saw Toner issuing a leadoff walk before a rapidly decomposing McKnight first turned a double play, then put Feldmann on with a missed grab that netted him an error. Shenanigans here, calamity there, the Coons scored first with some fine 2-out terror in the bottom 1st as McKnight singled, DeWeese doubled, and Duarte singled, plating two in total. The recently struggling Toner was far from fine and had another loooong second inning, and overall needed 84 pitches to get through five innings, including three walks while missing generously and every which way at various times. But at least he allowed only two hits and whiffed seven at the same time, which kept the Falcons shut out, and also hit an RBI single in the second inning in which the Coons’ lead grew to 4-0.

All the work went up in a puff of smoke in the top of the sixth. Feldmann, Quebell, and Benson rapped three singles in quick succession to start the inning, putting a run on the board and the tying run at home plate. Toner remembered a pitching lesson from Oberst von Lindenthal; shoveling a trench with his cleats, he took up a defensive position on the military crest of the mound, then threw pitches like one would throw a hand grenade. Jimenez, Roberts, and Juan Estrada were completely befuddled – all struck out. At almost 110 pitches, Toner clearly stated that he had nothing left when he reached the dugout, and we got the pen of horrors stirring. Nick Lester in his major league debut and Will West both got out the two batters they were assigned, before we turned to Kevin Beaver in bold hopes for a 5-out save against the #4 through #8 hitters, which included three lefties and two switch bats. Quebell flew out to DEEP center, and Benson grounded out HARD to Nunley, so at least the results were encouraging, even though the process of getting there was not – but that got better in the ninth. The Falcons ceased threatening and Beaver ended the game on two soft grounders and a K. 4-1 Coons. Nunley 2-3, BB; DeWeese 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Duarte 2-4, 2B, RBI; Toner 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, W (9-7) and 1-1, BB, RBI;

This was only Jonny Toner’s second RBI of the season, and the first one not coming on a home run, which is quite amazing when you consider that he’s probably the best-hitting pitcher we’ve ever had.

Despite the W in this game, the Raccoons were eliminated from playoff contention mathematically on this day as the Crusaders beat the Thunder, 4-2. Their magic number on the Indians and Elks was both one at this point, and they had the chance to clinch the North while they alone stood in the spotlight, facing the Titans in a makeup game on Thursday with the rest of the division idle.

In the event, Fernando Cruz exploded, the Titans romped them 11-2, but this could merely delay things.

Raccoons (81-71) vs. Indians (82-70) – September 23-25, 2016

We’d play for first clown’s honors (with the Elks still in the mix) in the North. Entering the series, the Indians had the worst offense in baseball, with the Coons momentarily 10th in the CL, but the difference was not overwhelming. They were giving up the least runs as well, with a +27 run differential (which arguably isn’t enough to make October), a category in which the Raccoons’ recent violent bullpen flare-ups had dropped them to third in the CL, but the difference here was also marginal and in single digits.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (14-8, 2.27 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (10-10, 3.23 ERA)
Chris Munroe (6-10, 3.53 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (15-13, 3.52 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (12-8, 3.39 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (5-8, 3.40 ERA)

There was Tom Weise! He had been suspiciously absent from the Indians’ last two series with the Coons, but he would not match up with Brownie, which always seemed to happen on these occasions. Lamb would be a southpaw on Sunday, but the Indians have extra pitching everywhere, so maybe there will be a change along the way.

The Coons had a diagnosis on Seung-mo Chun, who had a mildly tweaked ankle and was best held out of the weekend’s slate of games, although he was only listed as DTD and could be used if things got tough in a 19th inning or so…

Please no 19 innings, please no 19 innings, please no 19 –

Game 1
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – SS Matias – C Denny – RF Gilmor – 3B Tolwith – P Lambert
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B A. Young – C Baca – RF Richards – P Brown

Dark clouds overhead, though no rain in the forecast.

McKnight made his third error of the week in the third inning on Friday, putting Brownie’s old buddy Aaron Tolwith on base. Nunley helped out by playing Lambert’s bunt for a force at second base, the Indians didn’t score, and they had had better chances earlier with Santiago Guerra’s leadoff double in the second inning which never saw him move on to third base. The Coons would score first, getting Richards on with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd. Brown bunted him over and Walter hit a looping double to the rightfield corner to score him for the first run of the game. Walter came home after a Nunley single and on McKnight’s sac fly, 2-0. Then Young fudged a perfectly good throw by McKnight in the fourth – that one putting Guerra on with one out. Raul Matias singled, putting the tying runs on the corners, and the ship went down, although DeWeese spoiled Mike Denny’s drive to left. While Guerra scored an unearned run, things looked like they were getting better, until Brown came back to walk a pair to load the bases, then actually balked in the tying run.

Adam Young sure had **** to make good. He started not too badly in the bottom 4th. Finding Duarte on first base after a leadoff single, Young hit a liner that split John Wilson and Nick Gilmor and made it to the wall for an RBI triple, giving the Coons a new lead. Baca singled to score him, 4-2, and after Richards rolled out to Jong-beom Kym, Brownie walked and Walter singled to load them up for Nunley, who hit right into a double play.

And sure it started to rain in the top of the fifth just after Wilson’s 1-out infield single. Kym popped out at 3-1, and Guerra also popped up on a 1-1 pitch to end the inning, qualifying Nick Brown for the W should inferno break lose – never an impossibility in Portland. The Coons loaded the bases again in a drizzle in the bottom 5th as McKnight, Duarte, and Young all hit singles off Lambert, who had allowed 11 hits and a walk by now and was still hanging on somehow. Baca and Richards both walked in full counts to break him for good, and while Brown’s pitch count was already up there, he batted for himself because even a confused Brownie was better than any piece of our pen by now. Just as Jason Clements struck him out, the game was sent to a delay by intensifying rain and remained there for 45 minutes, ending Brownie’s day on the mound. John Korb inherited the 6-2 lead when the biggest storm had passed and pitched a perfect sixth inning, but Nunley’s throwing error quickly derailed him in the seventh, putting Tolwith on base for the second time in the contest. Sugano eventually got three outs on a K to Josh Baker and a double play from Wilson. Kym hit a leadoff single off Mathis in the eighth, but was left on third base (where the Coons had left a man in the bottom 7th), and the ninth was to be started at least by Nick Lester. He also finished the game, retiring Nick Gilmor, Tolwith, and Danny Young in order. 6-2 Brownies. Walter 2-5, 2B, RBI; Duarte 2-3, RBI; Young 4-4, 3B, RBI; Brown 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (15-8);

Ronnie, you breaking in a glove or something? Did you sear your paw on the frying pan? Lost your contacts? WHAT THE **** IS IT???

This W and an Elks loss through all three teams involved into a tie for second place. The Crusaders won to clinch the division, but the last nine games could become fun after all…!

Game 2
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Denny – SS Matias – 3B Tolwith – P Weise
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – 1B A. Young – C Baca – RF Richards – P Munroe

Baker singled, Wilson homered, and the Indians were up 2-0 before I had even made myself comfy on my couch. While Munroe drove in a run in the bottom 2nd with a 2-out single to right, he continued to struggle on the mound and almost all the time had an Indian lying in ambush on a base, just waiting for a chance to fire an arrow into his cap. The Coons’ offense was sabotaged successfully by Young, who had had four hits on Friday, but by the fifth inning had stranded four with a pair of 2-out, 2-on strikeouts. While Munroe kept struggling, the Indians didn’t score anymore against him.

The bottom 6th saw Baca and Richards on the corners after opening the inning with singles. A worked-up Munroe was hit for by Howard Jones, whose floater to shallow right center fell in front of both Wilson and Gilmor and tied the game, but Walter’s double play and Nunley’s grounder to Kym ended the inning still in a tie. Young batted again with only one man on base, but two outs in the bottom 7th and grounded out to short. Tom Weise was still pitching in the bottom 8th and allowed a 1-out single to Richards. Ochoa pinch-hit, having gone 0-for-9 since his callup, but singled to center, and a wild pitch by Weise moved the runners out of conventional double play positions. But neither Walter nor Nunley got the ****ing ball out of the infield, both were retired on grounders, and the runners were stranded… Mike Denny’s home run off Gallegos broke the tie in the top of the ninth inning, with Jarrod Morrison allowing a leadoff double to McKnight in the bottom 9th. DeWeese grounded to the right side, but was narrowly out on first base, with McKnight moving the tying run to third base. Duarte struck out, and the honor of the final out in a complete cluster**** was on Young, who bounced to Steve Dykstra at second base to end the game. 3-2 Indians. Duarte 3-4, BB; Richards 2-4; Jones (PH) 1-1, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1;

Coons had a dozen hits, Indians had five. 0-for-5, 2 K, 7 LOB. Adam Young – of no use alive. Perhaps if I turned him into boots……. Nah, the loser wouldn’t even hold warm.

No Kyle Lamb on Sunday, but rather righty Josh Riley (14-12, 4.67 ERA) …:

Game 3
IND: LF Baker – CF J. Wilson – 2B Kym – 1B S. Guerra – RF Gilmor – C Denny – SS Mathews – 3B Tolwith – P Riley
POR: 3B Nunley – CF Duarte – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – RF Ochoa – 2B Walter – 1B Sambrano – C Margolis – P Abe

The Critters opened the first with three straight singles to set up DeWeese, who drove Riley’s third pitch to deep right center – forget it! GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

And that was already all there was to the game. The Indians, blitzed, didn’t know how to react and when they had collected themselves, Abe was five innings into a 2-hit shutout. The Coons would continue to pour out hits against Riley, but consistently and with great endurance stranded three sets of two between the second and sixth innings without ever scoring again. The game was by no means in the bag, but when another run came across home plate, it was half on both teams, but counted for the Critters. Ochoa had reached with a 1-out double in the bottom 7th and was still there after Walter had popped out. Sambrano also popped to shallow left, but Baker didn’t get it. Ochoa was dashing with two down, and Baker’s throw was rushed and outright pathetic – Ochoa scored handily. A Kym error brought up Abe, who had already a hit on his ledger in the game and rapped another one to left, plating Sandy from third base, 6-0. He now had two hits, or in other words as many as the Indians combined after seven innings. By the bottom 8th they were also on three errors, following Tolwith’s second in the game that put Howard Jones on base. Matt Stubbs hit for Ochoa against lefty ex-Coon Ed Bryan and hit a triple to right to score Jones. Abe faced the top of the order in the ninth, entering on 90 pitches. He allowed a leadoff single to Apasyu Britton, then walked John Wilson. Kym grounded hard to third, but Nunley was watching and started a 5-4-3 double play that left Britton on third with Guerra batting. The count ran full, Guerra struck out, and Abe had a shutout. 7-0 Coons. Nunley 2-5; DeWeese 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Ochoa 2-4, 2B; Stubbs (PH) 1-1, 3B, RBI; Abe 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (13-8) and 2-3, RBI;

Abe’s second complete game is his first career shutout.

In other news

September 21 – 38 years old, RIC MR Iemitsu Rin (5-2, 2.86 ERA, 2 SV) records his 400th career save in a 2-1 win over the Scorpions. The Japanese lefty, twice Reliever of the Year and four times a World Series champion (2007-10 with NYC (3) and CIN), is 67-56 with a 2.14 ERA for his career, which was spent mostly in the CL North with the Indians, Crusaders, and Titans.
September 22 – The Loggers not only blow their 5-4 lead over the Aces in the ninth inning, but actually allow seven runs to them to get drowned out at home, 11-5.
September 23 – SFW LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.323, 18 HR, 100 RBI) knocks four hits in the Warriors’ 7-6 loss to the Gold Sox and reaches the 2,000 hits mark. The 33-year old hits a single with two outs in the ninth against John Watson to reach the milestone, but can’t incite a comeback for his team. Morales is a career .329 batter with 268 HR and 1,083 RBI. He was an All Star ten times, Player of the Year three times, won two batting titles and led the league in slugging three times.
September 25 – Hector Garcia (.308, 13 HR, 83 RBI), long-tenured infielder for the just-eliminated Stars, breaks his hand sliding into a base and will miss the rest of the season.

Complaints and stuff

Tadasu Abe also was Player of the Week in the CL after two strong starts. He ended up 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA and 14 K in 16 IP this week. So, how about ROTY for him? That would give us three ROTY winners in a row! Who is the only other pitcher with a qualifying number of innings? Chris Munroe! Heard of that chap already… The only serious batting competition seems to be the Loggers’ Chris LeMoine (.267, 25 HR, 67 RBI). Hum, that could be close…

Brownie notched us a winning season on Friday, which is calming to know. No *streak* developing.

Overall I am not too worried about Toner putting up three starts between dismal and so-so in a row. After all, I have pronounced Nick Brown dead about 17 times in the last five years and he still has a shot at the ERA title and just spun a no-hitter at the ****ing Elks. I obviously know NOTHING about pitching. Which is still more than I know about hitting.

I said this week that the CLCS has never featured the Coons and Falcons. These two teams have produced winning seasons in the same year only SIX times: 1985-87, 1996, and 2007-08, the latter two years being the Coons finally emerging from the cellar, but not quite there, while the Falcons had their two most recent (and the last two of four consecutive) playoff appearances. They have not put up a winning record since then.

But we’re both not historically bad teams. The Coons are .509 all-time, and the Falcons .501 all-time. We just never were good at the same time.

Elsewhere, Yoshi Nomura (.345, 5 HR, 64 RBI) will miss the last week of the season with a herniated disc. He could still win the batting title in absentia if Dallas’ Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza collapses and drops five points of average. I miss Yoshi… he has 1,830 career hits and will be 33 on Opening Day so 3,000 are unlikely. He’s also never had 160 in a single season. Lots of 140’s and up 159 with the Capitals, but never 160.

The Coons can still pick up their 3,300th regular season win this season if they win three games in the last week, facing the Crusaders (in New York) and Titans. The last series will be at home, will be thoroughly meaningless, and we’ll have Ron Richards bobbleheads on Saturday that some smart soul ordered in April and I have tried to set fire to them repeatedly since then.

No Maud, it’s not personal. At least not with you. Stop crying now. Please. Please stop crying.