[Westheim]

Raccoons (66-47) @ Crusaders (60-52) – August 7-9, 2017

The Crusaders trumped the Raccoons’ 5-game winning streak, having won their last nine contests. In the last three weeks, they had made up a mind-boggling 10 1/2 games on the foundering Indians, but only one team could keep their momentum through this crucial midweek set of three games. So far, the Crusaders’ approach of a strong offense and crummy pitching hadn’t worked against the Raccoons, to whom they had lost eight games out of a dozen already, and they were two games away thus from losing the season series for the third straight year, which would be their longest losing streak against Portland since the 1990s.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (7-11, 3.95 ERA) vs. Francisquo Bocanegra (1-0, 1.54 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (13-9, 3.11 ERA) vs. Bob King (12-9, 4.09 ERA)
Hector Santos (7-4, 2.77 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (7-9, 5.92 ERA)

Reliever-turned-starter Bocanegra (also an ex-Coon) was leading off the series and was their only left-handed pitcher. This included their bullpen! Only right-handers coming out of the nether regions of their ballpark, which didn’t bode too well for them. Also, the Coons were going to scrape past “Midnight” Martin (13-10, 3.10 ERA) by a day, which was always nice.

We’ll have an off day after this series, which could work wonderfully in shoving back Chris Munroe, who lost more trust in his first three starts of the season than he regained in that one decent one against the Indians. One of Munroe’s forgettable outings was against the Crusaders, and he conceded eight runs in three innings in May. That game, an 11-6 triumph for the Crusaders, is the only thing that keeps their run production against Portland at reasonable levels. While they have scored exactly 4.5 runs per game overall, it’s only 3.67 runs per game against the Critters, and it’s largely that much because of that rotten Munroe start.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – 3B Walter – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Waggoner – 2B Bergquist – P Morrison
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – C Roland – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – SS Paull – P Bocanegra

In short, Bocanegra did not make an impression remotely close to his Toner-esque ERA. The Coons had three hits off him in the first to plate a run, and Waggoner opened the second with a jack. Bergquist singled and advanced on a bunt, Cookie singled, Petracek singled to make it 3-0, and when Walter grounded to Carlos Martinez for probably two, Martinez threw it past Eric Paull for nuthin’. Unfortunately, Denny hacked out, and while McKnight sent a hard one to center, it was right into the narrow confines that Jose Paraz could efficiently patrol and ended the inning with three men stranded. Given his recent un-success, Morrison could use every run he could get, and the Coons added a fourth run in the fourth inning after Cookie’s leadoff double by grounding out in productive manner twice. Morrison started the bottom 5th still with a shutout and faced Bocanegra in the box, which is exactly the way meltdowns start. The nasty ex-reliever doubled to right to get going and at 0-2 to Martin Ortíz, Morrison threw a wild pitch, then lost Ortíz to a walk after all. Paraz singled to score the first Crusaders run, which also brought up ****ing Ray Gilbert as the tying run. He grounded to short at 1-2 which resulted in a double play, which still scored a run, 4-2 now, after which Morrison – with the bags finally empty again – had nothing better to do than to start filling them up again. He walked Winston Jones before facing Cory Roland, who had already ended two innings with two aboard each time, and now ended a third inning with one aboard this time by grounding out to Shane Walter. Neither starter retired anybody after the sixth inning. While Morrison wasn’t even brought back out after barely rumbling through six, Bocanegra started the seventh with a leadoff walk to Denny, but nothing ever came of that against reliever Robert Parsons, who ended up allowing a run in the eighth, however, conceding singles to Nunley and Walter with a walk to Cookie in between. The Raccoons stranded runners on the corners in the ninth, but enjoyed scoreless relief while sparing the recently frequently employed back end of their bullpen by getting innings each from Reed, Korb, and Mathis, with only Reed allowing a single. 5-2 Coons. Carmona 4-4, BB, 2B; Petracek 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-5; Nunley (PH) 1-1;

This ends their streak, minus the hitting streak of Carlos Martinez, which grew to 11 games, but that’s not something that is of chief concern here. More importantly, the Indians scored, but still lost handily to the Loggers, 7-3, bringing us to within one game.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Waggoner – P Abe
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – C Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – C Roland – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – SS Paull – P Bo. King

Like Bocanegra the day before, King allowed a flurry of base hits in the first few innings and was tacked for a few runs. Four singles plated two runs in the first inning, and Abe jumpstarted the second inning with a single of his own, eventually scoring with the help of 2-out singles by Walter and Nunley, making it 3-1 at that point. He had allowed a walk to Ortíz and a single to Paraz in the bottom 1st, with Ortíz coming home on a sac fly by Gilbert, but that was it. The Crusaders didn’t get another runner until the bottom 5th when Abe himself botched a pickup on Salinas to put him aboard with an error to lead off the inning, which was funny because Salinas had made a throwing error to concede a run to the Coons in the top of the inning. Martinez doubled to extend his streak to 12 games, put runners in scoring position with no outs, and moving the tying run into the box, but the Crusaders flunked out, scoring only one run on Bob King’s sac fly, 4-2.

Cookie hit a double to start the sixth, but was left stranded, while the top 7th opened with three singles by Denny, McKnight, and Mendoza. Bases loaded, no outs, the Crusaders were still confident in King, who had now allowed 14 hits and a walk. And why wouldn’t they? Waggoner popped out to Salinas at third, Abe would pop out to Gilbert, and then Cookie appeared and the Crusaders finally shat their pants. Robert Parsons came in again, and Cookie blastered his first pitch to deep right where he missed a slam by less than two feet, instead ramming a bases-clearing double high off the wall. Walter would single to plate Cookie and make it 8-2, but Abe ran into a wall of his own in the bottom 7th. Martinez hit a single right after a 1-out walk drawn by Salinas, who scored on Paull’s groundout. Stanton Martin pinch-hit, and the old wreck managed to hit a double to center and live to tell about it. Two in scoring position and the left-handed Ortíz coming up was enough for Abe, and Ron Thrasher appeared, hanging a K on the aged superstar, which kept the score at a calm 8-3 in that inning, but the Raccoons scratched out another run in the eighth. Richard Vincent allowed a triple to McKnight, then an RBI single to Mendoza, which got the creaky kitten up to 99 RBI. An error by Ortíz, who dropped DeWeese’s 2-out fly in the ninth, put two (including Nunley) in scoring position for the Critters, and Mike Denny’s liner over Paull into left center brought them up to double digits. Martinez’ homer off John Korb in the bottom 9th didn’t really matter anymore. 11-4 Coons! Carmona 3-6, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Walter 4-6, RBI; Nunley 2-5, BB, RBI; DeWeese 2-6; Denny 2-6, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-6, 3B, 2 RBI; Mendoza 3-5, RBI; Abe 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-9) and 1-4;

Every positional starter for the Coons had multiple base hits, minus Waggoner, who went dry-for-four, but at least drew a walk. The hit column looked even more like a mauling. The Coons out-hit the Crusaders a whopping 20-5.

I ended up mailing a fruit basket to Milwaukee on Wednesday morning. It was for Victor Scott, who pitched six scoreless against the Indians in a 3-0 Loggers win that put us even atop the division. This ran the Indians’ losing streak to TEN games, in seven of which they hadn’t scored.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – RF Mendoza – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Margolis – P Santos
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P Sabatino

The Coons again scored two in the first inning, though in wicked ways. After Sabatino retired the first two Critters, gross throwing errors by Paull and Martinez first put Nunley on second, then allowed him to score and put DeWeese on second, from where he scored on Mendoza’s double to center, which put the much-better-Star at 100 RBI for the year. Santos had a rotten first inning of his own, despite not allowing a run. He walked Ortíz on four pitches. He advanced Ortíz with a wild pitch before Paraz popped out. Gilbert also popped to short, where McKnight dropped the ball, putting them on the corners, but Santos escaped with K’s to Jones and Salinas. In the top 2nd of this odd game, Cookie batted with one out and runners on the corners, but hit into an extremely rare double play, before Drew Lowe hit an absolute bomb to center in the bottom 2nd to get the Crusaders back to 2-1.

Sabatino also had a problem with allowing a lot of contact, and the Coons had Walter on with a leadoff single in the third. Nunley and DeWeese both hit drives to right, both found the corner, and after Nunley doubled, DeWeese came up with a 2-run triple. The Coons ended up with a 4-spot in the inning. Mendoza doubled in DeWeese, advanced on a grounder, and then scored on a passed ball. While Santos also allowed some pretty hard contact in this one, the Crusaders also missed about as many. His pitch count went up quickly, though. Sabatino was hit for in the bottom 5th, Stanton Martin hitting a sad roller for an easy out in his spot, but Santos was at 85 pitches through five. He threw eight more pitches in the bottom 6th, retired nobody, and was blasted for three runs. ****ing Ray Gilbert opened with a double, Jones singled, Santos threw a wild pitch to score Gilbert, and then allowed a 2-run homer to Salinas. That was well enough.

Chun ended the sixth, and kept the Coons afloat 7-4 (Cookie had hit an RBI double in the top 6th). Richard Vincent was pitching in the top 7th and was strafed again. Nunley got on, Mendoza got on, and then McKnight rammed a bouncer through Gilbert and into the corner for an RBI double, 8-4. Young was put on with four wide ones, but Paull missed Margolis’ grounder to left and the Coons hit double digits on the 2-run single, and Crusaders pitching continued to just not cope at all. Toshiro Uenohara was scorched for two runs in the eighth, McKnight hitting another RBI double, but the Raccoons’ pen was not bulletproof either. For the second time in less than a week, Nick Lester loaded a set of bases without retiring anybody, doing so in the bottom of the eighth and causing Chris Mathis some extra sweats, with two runs scored, 12-6, and in the bottom 9th things started with a Petracek error before Alex Ramirez walked two, threw a wild pitch, and allowed a single to Salinas to allow another two runs before somehow – SOMEHOW – ending the game. 12-8 Raccoons. Walter 2-5; Nunley 2-6, 2B; Mendoza 4-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Young 3-4, BB, RBI;

Well, this was a mess. Thankfully we have OFFENSE. Hah, what an odd thing to claim.

The Indians won, scoring five runs for the first time since July, so we remained even, and both teams had Thursday off. They would play the Wolves over the weekend.

Raccoons (69-47) @ Gold Sox (59-55) – August 11-13, 2017

The Gold Sox were 17 games out in the West and probably beaten. They were a bit like the Crusaders, batting well and scoring the fourth-most runs in the Federal League, but their pitching was extremely crummy, and they only ranked eighth in runs allowed. Their run differential was actually negative at -19, so their record didn’t quite tell all about them. Their rotation was the primary culprit for the mess, running a flat-5 ERA, undoing all a decent bullpen could do.

Somehow, this was the sixth straight year of us playing the Gold Sox. None of the previous five series had resulted in a sweep, with the Coons winning three series, but losing the most recent one in 2016.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (15-4, 1.56 ERA) vs. Mo Robinson (10-7, 5.52 ERA)
Chris Munroe (1-3, 7.40 ERA) vs. Willis Sanguino (4-11, 4.83 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (8-11, 3.91 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (4-7, 4.83 ERA)

Three right-handers here, with their southpaw C.J. Fishel (6-9, 4.90 ERA) having pitched on Wednesday. Some time this week I realized that moving back Munroe would move up Morrison, and that was not something that was high on my list of things I wanted to see… So Munroe stays, especially since Nick Brown’s first outing in AAA was not as great as hoped for (see the complaints section for that), and he would get another one.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Toner
DEN: 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – RF Candela – SS Oosterom – CF Arrieta – 2B Fletcher – LF Kretz – P M. Robinson

The Coons continued to dash out of the gates and again had a 2-run first inning. Walter singled to center, Mendoza walked, and Nunley hit a 2-run double off the fence in centerfield for the effort. Toner’s 29-inning scoreless streak came pretty close to ending in the bottom 1st. Jens Carroll hit a leadoff single, Mun-wah Tsung walked, and Pat Walston grounded sharply to right, but Walter made a magnificent play and turned it for a double play before Julio Candela flew out to right. But, Toner struggled, and the same part of the lineup undid him in the third. Carroll hit a 2-out single, Tsung walked again, and then Walston and Candela went back-to-back to hit bombs in a 4-run rush that put the Critters in a 4-2 hole. When Piet Oosterom struck out to end the inning, that was the first whiff for Toner in the game.

All of this was troubling, especially with the Raccoons not doing anything at all offensively until the sixth. Still down 4-2, they went to the corners with a 1-out walk drawn by Mendoza and then a DeWeese single to right. Nunley hit a sac fly, but that was all, with McKnight grounding out to Dave Fletcher. Nope, no Raccoon had anything in this game. Their 8-game winning streak came to a crashing end in the bottom 7th, when a collection of relievers collapsed for another huge inning for the Sox. Reed started the inning, struck out Mo Robinson, but then put on Carroll. Lester replaced him, walked the only two batters he faced to load the bases, and then Mathis allowed back-to-back 2-run doubles to Jose Jimenez and Oosterom, then drilled Rich Arrieta. Korb replaced Mathis and ended the inning with one pitch to Fletcher, that resulted in a double play bouncer to McKnight at short, but the Gold Sox were now up by five, and the Raccoons did not come back from that. They didn’t get Robinson out of the game until they were down to their last out when Bergquist hit a pinch-hit single to plate Ronnie McKnight, but that was it, with Fernando Hernandez jr. appearing to strike out Cookie to end the game. 8-4 Gold Sox. Mendoza 1-1, 3 BB; Nunley 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1; Bergquist (PH) 1-1, RBI; Korb 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

I must say, that the winning streak ends on Toner’s turn … that’s a tough one to take.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Munroe
DEN: 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – RF Candela – SS Oosterom – CF Arrieta – 2B Fletcher – LF Corparan – P Sanguino

The Coons stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. While following singles by Cookie and Walter and a Mendoza groundout it was Walston to put them on the board first with a passed ball allowed, DeWeese quickly took charge and bombed Sanguino for a 2-piece. After that, the 6-7-8 batters loaded the bases for Munroe, who singled through Jens Carroll into left. McKnight scored, but Denny was sent and thrown out. The Sox pulled a run right back with base hits by Carroll and Walston in the bottom 1st, but the Coons pulled that back in the second. Cookie walked, Walter doubled, and Mendoza hit a sac fly, but Munroe was just as awful as Sanguino. He got raked for four hits and two more runs in the bottom 2nd, and this was probably not going to stay a 5-3 game for long – although the Sox had already hit for Sanguino in the inning and had declared this a bullpen day.

Munroe was probably not far behind. The Gold Sox hit four deep flies in the bottom 3rd. One (Candela’s) went out, three were somehow caught. The Coons had four hits on the ground and through between infielders in the fourth, which only amounted to one run and three sad faces after Arrieta took McKnight’s drive to center. Munroe barely made it through five. He put on two in that bottom 5th, with the Gold Sox hitting into a double play (Walston) and getting caught stealing (Candela) to ruin their excellent chances in a 6-4 game. He started the bottom 6th, but allowed a leadoff single to Oosterom. Reed came on, was no help in general, and allowed Oosterom to score on a 2-single by Francisco Corparan, narrowing the lead down to 6-5. There was a right-handed bat up to start the bottom 7th ahead of three left-handers, but Reed walked Carroll, so that went really well. Thrasher came on, Tsung bunted, and Denny threw the ball away, which put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out. Thrasher struck out Walston in a tough battle, before Joey Kretz pinch-hit for Candela. The right-hander lined softly up the middle, with McKnight making a flying grab to keep the Coons’ game in one piece. Oosterom bounced out to him to end the inning and SOMEHOW the Coons were still ahead.

When Waggoner led off the top 8th with a single off Dave Walk, Thrasher was retained to bunt, getting a potential insurance run into scoring position, with an unretired Cookie coming up. The Sox didn’t bite and walked him intentionally, but that brought up another .300 batter atop that suddenly revived order, and Shane Walter bounced to center, hard enough for Oosterom to not get a shot, and soft enough for Joey Kretz not having one on Waggoner at home either. Safe, 7-5, but Mendoza and DeWeese struck out to strand the pair. Thrasher and Mathis managed the bottom 8th, before Jose Sanchez appeared in the top 9th, allowed a 1-out single to the defensively blistering McKnight, and then Denny hit a rocket to center that hit off the base of the fence for an RBI double, 8-5. The bottom 9th however would be another one from hell. Tony Delgado struck out to begin things, but then Ramirez started ****ing with my nerves again. Carroll reached on a Walter error before Ramirez missed grossly to Tsung and walked him, pulling up the tying run in left-handed slugger Pat Walston. Before he could to actual damage, Ramirez threw a wild one, moving the runners to scoring position. Walston singled on a 2-2 pitch, plating both runners, and Kretz doubled on another 2-2 pitch, which put death 180 feet away. That was where Alex Ramirez fell from grace. We’d rather take our chances with Seung-mo Chun in a hopeless spot than continue to watch him **** up relentlessly. Chun struck out Oosterom for the second out that had violently eluded Ramirez, then put Rich Arrieta, a left-hander, on intentionally. That brought up Dave Fletcher with the bases loaded, and he grounded a 2-1 pitch up the middle. McKnight dashed, grabbed, and fell on second base before Arrieta could arrive. 8-7 Furballs. Carmona 3-4, 2 BB; Walter 4-5, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5; McKnight 2-5; Denny 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Chun 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

**** Alex Ramirez.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Morrison
DEN: 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – RF Candela – SS Oosterom – CF Arrieta – 2B Fletcher – LF Corparan – P McKenzie

In an odd twist, the Raccoons didn’t score in the first inning and had only one hit the first time through the lineup. While Morrison held the fort – which was a nice change, the Raccoons nibbled away at McKenzie in the fourth inning with Walter and DeWeese drawing walks. Nunley popped out for the second out, but then McKnight roped a line drive home run to right to give them a 3-0 lead. And wouldn’t you know it – Morrison fell apart instantly. Candela led off with a single in the fourth. While Oosterom got him forced, Arrieta then reached on an infield single. Oosterom stole third, and both scored on Fletcher’s double to deep left center. Corparan flew out, after which McKenzie tied the game with a single past Mendoza. Carroll singled and Tsung walked to load the bases, after which Walston singled through between Nunley and McKnight and plated two for a 5-3 Gold Sox lead. Oh look, it’s a bonkers game again.

McKenzie walking three somehow only resulted in one Raccoons run in the top 5th, and between that inning and the sixth, the Raccoons stranded six runners, with Nunley and Walter popping out to shallow left and Corporan in remarkable synchronicity. Neither starter lasted into the sixth inning, by the way, nor did my nerves – I had already shelled a fine porcelain plate with bits of lobster against the wall in the Gold Sox’ suite in the fourth inning. Singles by Mendoza and Nunley – who had dropped a pop in the bottom 6th which almost made me choke on a bite of steak, then shattered another plate – put runners on the corners against Melvin Andrade in the top 7th. McKnight batted with one out, twirled the first pitch back to the mound and got Nunley forced. Only a tardy play by Andrade kept him out of the double play, but Denny struck out anyway. Fletcher’s homer off Korb in the bottom of the inning counted for two and made me snap completely as I launched a full bottle of champagne through the suite’s expensive-looking ground glass door. The run that Ramirez allowed in the eighth… ah, who cares? 8-4 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-4, BB; Mendoza 3-5, RBI; Young (PH) 1-1;

Let’s get back home. There I can burn the little finger puppets with the Blighters’ likenesses I furnished before we embarked on the road trip.

In other news

August 7 – The Canadiens get crushed by the Titans in a 16-1 mauling, and even leave 11 runners on base.
August 8 – One day later, the Titans get routed by the Canadiens, taking a 17-3 loss. Vancouver has 18 hits, 16 of those being singles, and like the Titans the day before they leave 11 men on base.
August 8 – The Pacifics blow a 7-3 lead against the Wolves, conceding six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Now down 9-7, they return the favor and plate six runs themselves in the top of the ninth, claiming a 13-9 victory.
August 11 – Indians outfielder Lowell Genge (.305, 8 HR, 52 RBI) has five hits in a 10-1 rout of the Wolves.
Genge misses the cycle by the home run and drives in four, with each RBI coming on a different base hit.
August 11 – The Blue Sox take a 4-3 deficit in the seventh against the Falcons, slug out nine runs in the inning and add two more in the eighth to crush them, 14-4.
August 13 – The Aces’ and Rebels’ 12-inning contest ends with a walkoff slam by RIC 1B Alberto Rodriguez (.331, 13 HR, 83 RBI) off Armando “Grumbles” Pena, who grumbled afterwards. Rodriguez drives in six in the 8-4 Rebels win.

Complaints and stuff

Why is it that whenever the offense gets out of the hole, the pitching goes south? We scored a whopping 40 runs in six games this week. Too bad we also bled for 37 runs.

Roberto Cervantes’ walkoff single in the 13th inning of the Wolves’ effort against the Indians was all that kept this week from being a disaster after that rousing sweep over the Crusaders. It kept the Indians, who won the first two games, from going two games up again, so at least that’s that. So that’s the week’s second fruit basket for Cervantes, I guess.

Since I bought three fruit baskets to start with and prefer chocolate and booze anyway, I will give the last one to “Tiger” / “Creaky Kitten” Mendoza, who was Player of the Week, batting .560 with no homers, but 6 RBI. He had 14 hits this week in seven days. His previous 14 hits took him THIRTY DAYS to get in! Seriously, he has 27 hits since the All Star Game!

Nick Brown pitched 6.1 innings in AAA on Tuesday, walking five, whiffing four, and allowing three hits in a scoreless effort which netted him the W over the Los Reyes Crows. He got another W on Sunday, pitching eight innings against the Lubbock Flame. He allowed a run on four hits, three walks, and whiffed six. I think he should be back next week, slotting into Munroe’s spot. Thanks to the off day on Thursday between our series against the Capitals and Loggers, this would exactly work out.

With Brownie on the way to retirement, here is one to marvel about. Who is the career leader in K/BB? Hector Santos! He has 5.21 K for every walk for his career.