[Westheim]

The week started with an off day and some bad news, as the Druid finished studying Nick Brown’s soles on Monday and deduced that he had rotator cuff tendinitis and would require a month-long stint on the DL. Oh, who on earth to call up!?

Raccoons (27-18) @ Thunder (16-29) – May 23-25, 2017

The Thunder continued to be a whole lotta not very good. They were in the bottom three in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Continental League, gracing last place in the latter category with a whopping 227 runs allowed, or just over five per game. Their rotation was abysmal, weighed down by a 5.22 ERA. Even their defense was the worst in the league. Although they had been quite bad in 2016 already, the Raccoons had still lost that season series, 4-5.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (5-2, 1.66 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (3-4, 6.21 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-2, 3.49 ERA) vs. Bryan Robbins (1-5, 4.86 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (4-4, 3.43 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (0-7, 7.58 ERA)

Bryan Robbins was always a rebel. He’s also the left-hander in their rotation.

With Brownie to the DL, and the off day on Monday, Abe moves up to behind Santos, while we recalled Chris Munroe to take the spot in the rotation vacated by a certain crumbling pitcher. He wouldn’t get to show off his 11.57 ERA until the weekend, however.

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – RF Waggoner – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – P Toner
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – LF Alston – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF A. Chavez – SS Read – 3B Ruggeri – P Furst

Cohesive offensive attempts by the Critters were largely absent in this Tuesday opener, but at least they scored a few runs on solo actions. An accidental homer by Adam Young put them 1-0 ahead in the second inning, and the following inning Walter tripled and scored on a passed ball. Waggoner homered in the fifth, also a solo shot, staunchly defending his team RBI lead, now with 21… Toner had played a bunt by Furst into an out at second in the third, but Sean Young singled to send Furst to third anyway, from where he scored on Emilio Farias’ groundout, thus giving the Thunder their first run, but Jonny struck out the next five batters starting with Ron Alston and maintained a 3-1 lead through five. The Thunder loaded the bases in the bottom 6th on singles by Alston and Jalen Parks as well as a 2-out walk drawn by Armando Chavez, but Toner victimized rookie Howard Read in his first major league start for a golden strikeout.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Critters managed to get several runners on base. Back-to-back 1-out singles by Duarte and Toner put them on the corners, and while Walter’s grounder to Farias certainly looked playable at first, it escaped the infielder for an RBI single before Waggoner whiffed and Nunley flew out. Jonny whiffed 11 in seven innings but shot his pitch count well over 100 in the process, which led to a Thrasher appearance in the bottom of the eighth. Farias reached on an infield single to begin things and he walked Manfull. After Parks flew out to center, Jayden Reed replaced him, getting a grounder to short from the right-handed batter Chavez. Alex Ramirez however had something special ready for us: a 1-2-3 ninth in a save situation. 4-1 Coons. Walter 3-4, 3B, RBI; Young 2-3, HR, RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (6-2) and 1-3;

This was indeed Alex Ramirez’ first 1-2-3 ninth in a save situation since May 1…

Game 2
POR: RF Petracek – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – C Denny – LF DeWeese – 2B Bergquist – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – P Santos
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – LF Alston – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF A. Chavez – SS Janes – 3B Ruggeri – P Robbins

Santos hitting an unexpected double with two outs and two on in the second inning plated Bergquist with the first run of the game, and Petracek’s single brought home Duarte to make it 2-0. The Thunder would hit leadoff singles in the second and third innings without doing anything with them, but in the fourth Alston hit a 1-out single before Santos lost B.J. Manfull on a walk – Manfull was batting .281 with three homers and was looking to refreshen his stat line, but Santos didn’t give him much to dish. Parks however got a fat pitch and hit it for a double off the leftfield fence, plating Alston for a 2-1 score. They choked soon, however, with Chavez bouncing back to Santos and Erik Janes fouling out; the pressure remained up, though. Bryan Robbins rebelliously hit a 1-out double to left in the fifth inning and ended up scoring on Alston’s single, which tied the game. In the sixth it was Chavez with the 1-out double. After a poor out by Janes, the Raccoons forced Robbins from the game by intentionally walking D.J. Ruggeri, but pinch-hitter Jose Rivera struck out, leaving the score tied at two. Santos also vanished into the night after the inning. Danny Ochoa hit a double in his spot, leading off the top 7th, but after a Walter single the inning was killed brutally by Nunley rolling into a double play to reliever Ed Michaels.

While it looked like it would get better for the Coons in the eighth, it kind of didn’t. Denny led off with a walk against Michaels, who then surrendered a trickler to DeWeese that escaped between Janes and Farias into center. Denny turned second and went to third and made hard contact with Ruggeri at third base. Denny was safe, and yet out at the same time: safe on third, but out of the game after having taken a hard hit into the hip, which stiffened up immediately. Margolis replaced him and scored on Bergquist’s fly to right that ended up with Chavez but was deep enough to come home casually, ye the resulting 3-2 lead was callously butchered by Chris Mathis in the bottom of the inning. Allowing singles to Parks and Chavez and walking Janes loaded the bases. While Ruggeri popped out to shallow left and kept Parks pinned, Javy Cisneros pinch-hit for a sac fly to center, 3-3. Mathis’ spot opened the top 9th, with Jose Medina facing Ronnie McKnight. Two pitches into the at-bat, McKnight uncorked a mighty shot that went out of right center to give the Coons ANOTHER lead, but Ramirez would face the tough-as-nails 2-3-4 part of the order in the bottom 9th. Strikeout, groundout, popout, the Thunder were done with. 4-3 Critters. DeWeese 2-4; McKnight (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Santos 6.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K and 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Mike Denny was not seriously injured, but the hip hurt enough to render him questionable for the rest of the week. Can’t go with one catcher, so we purged Alex Duarte (.202, 1 HR, 5 RBI in 99 AB) and brought up Tom McNeela, who needs no introduction, and was batting merely .214 in AAA so far.

With his homer, McKnight now took sole possession of the team dinger list. Which I didn’t know how to react to, really…

Game 3
POR: 2B Walter – RF Waggoner – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 1B A. Young – CF Johnson – P Abe
OCT: CF S. Young – 2B Farias – LF Alston – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF A. Chavez – SS Janes – 3B Ruggeri – P Benjamin

With the living embodiment of skilllessness pitching for the Thunder, they would of course take an early lead. Sean Young’s single off Abe in the first was accompanied by Farias and Manfull doubles, plating two runs quickly. That wasn’t all: Sean Young’s 2-run homer in the bottom 2nd put them ahead 4-0, while Benjamin, who had a Brown-esque K/9 ratio whiffed three the first time through the order and allowed only Abe on base with a single. The middle innings were rank horror for the Raccoons’ handful of fans in attendance. Waggoner opened the fourth with a double, but was stranded; Margolis hit a leadoff single in the fifth and was doubled up by Adam Young, whom we’d silently try to exchange for Sean Young on the way to the bus; and Abe singled again in the sixth and was again all alone with his offensive ambitions. Somewhere in the seventh, the disgusting Young hit a sac fly for a token run against Benjamin, but John Korb, who had replaced a stuck Abe in the bottom 6th, gave it right back on an RBI single by Alston. Benjamin came within two outs of a complete game, but when McKnight’s 1-out double sent DeWeese to third base and brought the tying run to the on-deck circle the Thunder had second thoughts about special honors by the runt of the litter. Jose Medina replaced him, allowed a run on Ochoa’s groundout, but then put the final nail into the Raccoons when Young popped out. 5-2 Thunder. McKnight 2-4, 2B; Margolis 2-3;

Raccoons (29-19) @ Knights (27-19) – May 26-28, 2017

The Knights were trying to catch the Bayhawks, sitting only two games out in the South. Their offense was the best in the league with 243 runs scored (POR: 182), but their pitching couldn’t quite hold up. They were merely average with their rotation, and their pen was the second-worst with a grim 4.42 ERA. The Critters had so far won two of three games from them in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Chris Munroe (0-2, 11.57 ERA) vs. Stephen Quirion (4-3, 3.21 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (3-4, 3.77 ERA) vs. Shaun Yoder (6-3, 3.59 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-2, 1.63 ERA) vs. Drew King (3-4, 4.47 ERA)

Only righties in the Atlanta rotation;

Game 1
POR: 2B Walter – CF Petracek – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 1B Young – C McNeela – P Munroe
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – LF Rockwell – C Luna – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – 3B W. White – 1B Sauter – P Quirion

I was hoping for some kind of positive effect from having McNeela catch Munroe like they had done a number of times in AAA this week, but my best guess was that they were directly responsible for everything bad happening to the atrocious Alley Cats. By the third inning, Munroe had not only half the Raccoons hits, but had also allowed six runs, including five on a pair of homers by Jimmy Raupp. While the 3-piece Raupp hit with two outs in the first inning was unearned thanks to a McKnight error, Munroe shouldered all the blame for the three runs he conceded in the third. The Raccoons scored two runs in the top 4th with the help of a Josh Downing error and a DeWeese double, but it didn’t matter. Raupp came up again in the bottom 5th, with Luna just having reached on a single. Raupp crushed his third shot of the night, sending the Atlanta crowd into delirium. Nothing that the Raccoons would do mattered much after that. Munroe was purged and put right on the next bus due south. Chun pitched for eight outs in shutout relief, which was automatically the best performance by anybody in this soulless Atlanta night. They scored the odd run on the way to a crushing defeat. Nobody cared. 8-4 Knights. Chun 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Following the disinheritance of Chris Munroe (0-3, 11.20 ERA), the Raccoons did not bring up a new starting pitcher. Due to an off day coming up on Monday, they wouldn’t need one until the following Saturday. Instead, Jimmy Fucito came back. What better way to forfeit the season than to bring up a 29-year old constant loser that was batting .236 in AAA?

This was the fourth time that a Knight had whacked three home runs in a game after Michael Root, Gonzalo Munoz, and Gil Rockwell. What hurt a lot more was the fact that Raupp (.218, 5 HR, 25 RBI) had come into the game with two home runs and a .196 batting average…

Game 2
POR: 2B Walter – CF Petracek – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – C Margolis – 1B Ochoa – P Morrison
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – LF Rockwell – C Luna – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – 3B W. White – 1B Betancourt – P Yoder

Straight 2-out singles by Gil Rockwell, Ruben Luna, and Jimmy Raupp – the monster – plated one run in the bottom 1st off Morrison, but that was only the beginning. Wade White and David Betancourt singled in the bottom 2nd before Margolis threw Yoder’s bunt wildly past Ochoa and up the rightfield line for a 2-base error that instantly gave the Knights a 2-0 lead and runners in scoring position with nobody out. Marty Reyes’ grounder to left escaped McKnight like everything else had so far in this series and made it to leftfield for a 3-0 lead. Devin Hibbard popped out, and Rockwell flew to center, where Petracek dropped the ball. The ****ing Elkhead. A pop and a grounder would strand those two runners in scoring position after the Petracek error and the Knights stranded White and Betancourt in scoring position in the bottom 3rd as well. The Raccoons, who didn’t get a hit until the fourth, a 2-out single by Waggoner, at least showed a pulse in the fifth. Starting with DeWeese’s leadoff double they got a run on Ochoa’s sac fly to center. Morrison doubled, Walter was hit by a pitch, and Petracek plated a run with a double, but with the tying runs in scoring position Nunley failed to connect and the Knights remained 4-2 ahead. No other Raccoon would reach against either Yoder or reliever J.J. Wirth until Nunley was up again, legging out an infield single with two outs in the eighth. Nominally that brought up somebody who was playing a power position as the tying run, though Waggoner surely had only gotten lost in rightfield. Betancourt missed his grounder for a single, but so what, McKnight grounded out instead, stranding the precious tying runs. Another of these nominal power position players came up in another spot as the tying run; Adam Young batted for Jayden Reed with two outs in the ninth inning, facing the marginal Jim Cushing, a right-hander that was an odd choice for a closer. Young hit a fly to right that eluded Raupp for an RBI double, but the Raccoons were beaten anyway on Shane Walter’s casual fly to Rockwell in left. 4-3 Knights. Waggoner 2-4; Young (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Reed 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 3
POR: 3B Walter – CF Petracek – RF Waggoner – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 2B Bergquist – 1B Young – P Toner
ATL: CF M. Reyes – SS Hibbard – LF Rockwell – C Luna – RF Raupp – 2B Downing – 3B W. White – 1B Betancourt – P D. King

The miserable Coons grabbed their first lead since Wednesday when DeWeese hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, though Jonny Toner found it necessary to knead my troubled mind by walking Hibbard in the bottom 1st after Reyes had already reached on a blooper into shallow right. Rockwell’s sharp shot to third was turned into a double play by Walter and the Knights didn’t score, but this was an uneasy one for Toner as the Knights made hard contact regularly and he did strike out only one (Betancourt) the first time through the order, AND made a throwing error to put Reyes in scoring position in the bottom 3rd. Rockwell hit a leadoff single in the fourth and Toner remained wonky, but kept the run from scoring, and there was finally a cushion provided by the team in the fifth inning. Walter and DeWeese had hit singles and scored on McKnight’s 2-out double into the right center gap. Margolis grounded out to short, leaving things be at 4-0 for the moment. Toner ran two full counts in the bottom 5th and logged three groundouts (two of those sharp), and walked Hibbard in the sixth without incurring damage, but also without striking out anybody.

Betancourt’s error when he missed a slow roller by Shane Walter gave the Raccoons a leadoff base runner in the top of the seventh. Petracek hit a looper into the rightfield corner for a double, placing Critters in scoring position for the so-called middle of the order. Drew King almost got lucky on a bouncer by Waggoner to Downing when Walter went hard down the line without looking, but Downing forewent the dicey play for a sure out at first base. That pulled up DeWeese, who was on a slight uptrend recently – and killed Drew King for good with a booming 2-run homer to rightfield, running the tally to 7-0. Bottom 7th, Lune and Downing hit singles off Toner to go to the corners. Wade White came up after a 4-hit day on Saturday, but bounced a quick one right into Toner’s glove for a nicely wrapped double play present to end the inning. The problems wouldn’t cease, however, and Toner bumped against 100 pitches – most of them under duress and many of them not to his usual standard – with two outs in the eighth. Reyes was on first after having forced Betancourt, who had opened the inning with a single, and for Toner this was bedtime. John Korb got a groundout from Hibbard to McKnight to end the inning and keep Toner’s sheet clean. The Coons then saw Daniel Dickerson trying to make a living in the ninth inning of a mild rout. Could it become an intense rout? Walter and Petracek were retired before Ochoa reached with a pinch-hit single. DeWeese walked in a full count after fighting the itch to rake for that third homer. McKnight singled, loading the bases after which Denny hit for Margolis to see how he was doing in the box. Quite well. He hit one 386 feet up the leftfield line. GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!!

Korb walked Ruben Luna in the bottom 9th with one out, but came back with strikeouts to Raupp and Downing to salvage this Sunday afternoon rout that had spilled the odd tear with the tiniest Knights fans. 11-0 Raccoons. Petracek 2-5, 2B; Ochoa (PH) 1-1; DeWeese 3-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; McKnight 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Denny (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI; Toner 7.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (7-2); Korb 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

In other news

May 22 – LAP CL Arturo Lopez (1-2, 2.21 ERA, 16 SV) shuts down the Cyclones in a 3-1 Pacifics win to notch his 400th career save. Only 34, Lopez is on his fourth team after being taken 42nd overall by the Scorpions in the 2001 draft. He was Reliever of the Year in the FL the last two years, Pitcher of the Year in 2015, and an All Star seven times.
May 23 – The Bayhawks would be without 22-year old OF Dave Garcia (.320, 10 HR, 27 RBI) for a week, losing the youngster to a strained hip muscle. Despite his age, Garcia has already 411 hits and 51 homers in the ABL.
May 23 – No boredom in the Scorpions-Miners game in Pittsburgh. At least one team scored in every inning as the Scorpions wrestle out a 12-10 win.
May 24 – CIN 2B Ieyoshi Nomura (.381, 2 HR, 16 RBI) is going to miss a month with chronic back soreness.
May 24 – Vancouver’s SP Sam McMullen (6-3, 1.91 ERA) sparkles with a 3-hit shutout of the Aces.
May 25 – Another 3-hit shutout is pitched by IND SP Josh Riley (5-3, 4.03 ERA) in a 7-0 win over the Falcons.
May 26 – Not only do both the Condors and Titans score a run in the ninth inning, no they also both pour out multiple runs in the tenth inning. The Condors this time prevail thanks to three runs in the top 10th over the Titans’ pair in the bottom 10th, beating them 9-8.
May 26 – A 10-run second inning is key in the Gold Sox’ 13-3 pulverizing of the Capitals.
May 26 – The Falcons rout the Canadiens, 10-0, scoring nine runs in the first four innings.

Complaints and stuff

Thursday’s soul-bleaching 5-2 loss to Oklahoma was the 3,200th regular season loss for the Raccoons. And boy, was it a buzzer. Not quite Juan Diaz’ three wild pitches in an at-bat, but one to behold regardless.

The Indians didn’t lose a game all week right up until Sunday, when they were routed 10-3 by the Aces. Are they real or are they fake? They certainly had a strong run differential making a case for them earlier this month.

Adam Young losing a leg in a scooter accident wouldn’t particularly bother me, but Yoshi being hurt hurts me, too. Sniff.

Steve from Accounting tells me we have insurance on Adam Young for losing limbs, so I’ll buy him a scooter, I guess.

Down on the farm, 2013 luxury international free agent signing Danny Arguello was promoted to Ham Lake this week after pitching for a 2.39 ERA and 2.6 K/BB in Aumsville to start this season. He's going on 21, it's time. He was promptly mauled for seven runs in 4.2 innings by the Topeka-aligned Waterloo Bulldozers. In the event, the Old Guard surrendered rather than dying, but other than in 1815 this war is not over...

I no longer harbor illusions that this team will ever turn the corner with the offense. They suck, and it won’t ever change. Meanwhile, Adrian Quebell batted .450 and was named Player of the Week. ....... This was a VERY trying week, and I find no consolation in that it is almost June. The only bright spot could be the return of Cookie Carmona. He should be able to start a rehab assignment next weekend and could return early in the second week to come.

For 12 days, until he tears out an eye or a few feet of large intestine, or both.