[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-10) vs. Warriors (20-11) – May 11-13, 2020

The leaders of the CL North and FL West would clash in Portland in this midweek series, and both teams were also leading their respective league in runs scored at this point. While the Coons were second in runs conceded in the Continental League, the Warriors were only seventh in the Federal League, with their rotation struggling to an ERA of exactly 4.00 five weeks into the season. We met the Warriors last year and swept them back then.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (4-1, 2.50 ERA) vs. Blaine Barnard (3-1, 2.75 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (3-1, 3.68 ERA) vs. Scott Vigil (2-2, 4.30 ERA)
Hector Santos (5-0, 2.21 ERA) vs. Jose Acosta (0-4, 6.68 ERA)

We are getting a bit lucky with the way their rotation shakes out here. We see their only two right-handers, Barnard to start the series and Acosta at the end of it, and only one of their three southpaws. Not in this series f.e. is Sam McMullen (3-0, 3.52 ERA).

Game 1
SFW: CF I. Flores – 3B St. George – LF Wadley – 1B Gross – C Luckert – SS Price – RF Leighton – 2B Pelles – P Barnard
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – LF DeWeese – CF DeWald – P Toner

Cookie extended his hitting streak to 24 games on the first attempt in the Monday affair, knocking a double to left to start the first inning. Nunley plated him with a double to right, the Coons loaded them up on Mendoza’s single to center and a walk drawn by McKnight, but Margolis hit into a double play to end the inning with only the one run in. Well, at least Toner was on the mound and … had four full counts in the second inning, one to every batter he faced. Granted this resulted in a grounder to second by Gil Gross, strikeouts to Jerrod Luckert and Randy Leighton, and only Zach Price drew a walk, but pitch economy worked differently. Toner was hit by a pitch from Blaine Barnard in the bottom of the second, inciting quite some anger in the home crowd. Barnard was admittedly struggling with basically everything, having walked DeWeese to start the inning and loading the bags with a walk to Cookie and one out, but again the next Critter hit into a double play, Nomura bouncing one sharply to Stephen St. George for a 5-4-3 inning-ender.

Toner took 59 pitches to clear three innings, which entailed walking a pair in the third, and things didn’t look too good overall for him, at least until he got to bat in the bottom 3rd. Margolis had already plated a run, knocking back-to-back 2-out doubles with McKnight to get the score to 2-0, and the bases had been loaded with another walk to DeWeese, a balk, an intentional walk to DeWald for reasons mysterious, and then Toner dipped a 2-1 pitch into left center to chase home a pair, 4-0. Toner got more efficient in the middle innings, while Barnard, who walked five and struck out one in a murky start, was removed after just four frames and hit for in the top of the fifth. Bottom 5th, Margolis led off with a leadoff jack off Ray Taylor, and the Raccoons also put DeWeese on with a double, who then scored on Jonny Toner’s double to left, meaning Ray Taylor had just surrendered three extra base hits to a pitcher, a career backup catcher on speed, and a luxurious has-been with a consistently and dramatically dropping batting average.

Technically, Toner carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but with a pitch count that was prohibitive even under go-for-broke circumstances. Doubles by Ivan Flores and Gil Gross rendered the point moot and the Warriors got a run home. Toner struck out Price to end the inning with Gross on second and Jeff Wadley, who had been plunked, on third base, leaving with a somehow decent line despite lasting only six innings in a 6-1 game. The pen had to cover three innings, and Seung-mo Chun didn’t make things easy from the start, walking two in the seventh inning. Mathis cleaned up behind him, striking out St. George. In the eighth, Gross walked against Boynton, and was on second with two outs as Zach Price singled to right. Gross tried to score but was thrown out by Cookie, also ending the inning. The Warriors threatened again in the ninth, putting Leighton and Ruben Pelles on to start the inning with consecutive infield singles against Boynton, who got a fly to center from pinch-hitter Brett O’Dell before yielding to Kaiser, who got switch-hitter Ivan Flores to pop out, but allowed a run on St. George’s single to left. Wadley flew out to center to end the game before things got get really hairy. 6-2 Coons. Mendoza 2-4, BB; McKnight 2-4, BB, 2B; Margolis 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, W (5-1) and 2-2, 2B, 3 RBI;

Game 2
SFW: CF I. Flores – RF Bednarski – LF Wadley – 1B Gross – C Luckert – SS Price – 3B St. George – 2B D. Case – P Vigil
POR: LF Carmona – C Margolis – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – 3B Petracek – 2B Prince – P Abe

Abe was out of wonk as well to start his game, offering two walks in the first inning, including one to start the game to Flores. Behind that was ex-Coon Mike Bednarski, batting .305 with four homers, but he had never hurt as much as a fly in this ballpark – pitch the ****er right down the middle! And he squarely hit into a double play. Abe walked the bases full in the second inning, which was extremely alarming given that he had walked only six batters in 36.2 innings while still sucking all the way since the start of the season. Now he had five walks in the game in 1.1 innings, and the opposing pitcher lifted a liner to left, but Cookie was in the way. Price went for home from third and Cookie nailed his second runner at home plate in the series, again ending the inning. Flores drew another leadoff walk in the third, Abe threw a wild pitch, Wadley singled, and somehow the Warriors still wouldn’t score as Gross hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Bednarski, the sucker, had struck out. The Coons were up 1-0 after doubles by McKnight and Bareford in the second – and Cookie had already extended his hitting streak to 25 games with a single in the first inning – but they also had to get the pen up because something was definitely out of sync with Abe. Margolis homered again in the bottom 3rd, 2-0, while the Warriors made another out on the base paths right to start the fourth inning. Luckert singled to right, thought he had two, but Eddie Jackson said no and threw him out. Bottom 4th, McKnight walked, Bareford homered to center (!), Petracek walked, and Prince’s double play grounder to short was thrown away by Price. Abe bunted the runners to scoring position, Cookie was walked intentionally, but the memo on Margolis hadn’t reached the Federal League. He singled to right with authority, chasing home the fifth run for the Coons. Jackson singled to center, 6-0, and then Mendoza narrowly missed a slam with a ball driven to the fence in left center and had to settle for a 2-run double. Vigil was knocked out (and these Coons fear southpaws no longer!), with his other runners scoring on McKnight’s single to center off Jim Fortman and another error by Price on Bareford’s grounder. That made it eight in the inning and ten in the game. Petracek popped out, Prince reached on an infield single with two outs, and Fortman lost Abe in a full count, the walk forcing home the ninth run of the inning. Cookie lined out to Dan Case to finally end the inning, with the Coons up 11-0.

11-0 became 13-0 in the fifth, Bareford driving in another two runs with a 2-out single up the middle. Abe continued to pitch better in the middle innings, and when the Warriors had the bases full in the sixth inning it was actually only a Luckert single that had to be charged to Abe, while the other runners reached on a pair of errors by Tim Prince. Leighton hit for the pitcher with two outs and lined out to Petracek to keep the Warriors off the board. Abe would make it through seven innings despite the completely horrendous first innings, and despite walking Wadley in the seventh for his seventh free pass, but Wadley managed to get himself caught stealing by Olivares, who had replaced Margolis in the blowout just before the seventh inning began, and Cookie was also gone, replaced by DeWeese, who would bring home the last run of the game, a run-scoring double play grounder in the bottom of the eighth inning. 14-0 Furballs!! Margolis 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Olivares 1-1, 2B; Jackson 3-6, 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Bareford 4-5, HR, 2B, 6 RBI; Prince 2-5, 2B; Nunley 1-1; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 7 BB, 6 K, W (4-1) and 1-2, BB, RBI; Cowen 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We are scoring six runs per game after 32 contests this year. I still don’t think that this rate is ultimately sustainable, but keep it comin’, boys, keep it comin’!

Cookie is the first Raccoon other than Neil Reece to reach the realm of a hitting streak of at least 25 games. Reece had hitting streaks of 25 games in ’92, 27 games in ’94, and 32 games in ’91. The latter is still tied for 10th all time in the ABL. Cookie is however merely halfway to Claudio Rojas’ record mark of 47 games of straight hitting, done in 1983 for the Bayhawks.

Game 3
SFW: CF I. Flores – RF Bednarski – LF Wadley – 1B Gross – C Luckert – SS Price – 3B St. George – 2B Pelles – P Acosta
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – P Santos

The Warriors had the bases loaded with nobody out in the first inning after a single to right by Flores, Bednarski reaching on an error by Yoshi (the only way for him to legally reach base in Raccoons Ballpark), and Wadley was hit by Santos, who was still undefeated, though this was probably going to change now. All runners scored despite Gross popping out to first base, thanks to singles by Luckert (plating one) and Price (plating two). Against the awful Acosta, the Coons were of course hitless the first time through the order. Cookie walked in the first, but was caught stealing. Bareford walked in the third, stole second base, and then came home on Cookie’s streak-extending triple to left center, which also got the Coons onto the board for the first time, now down 3-1. It wasn’t that Acosta was dominating. He struck out nobody in those three innings, and wouldn’t strike out a position player for a damn while. But the Coons lifted numerous fly balls right at Jeff Wadley, which was not conducive of offense in meaningful numbers. The Coons got their second run in the fifth inning, despite Santos bunting badly enough to get Bareford forced out after he had gotten hit by Acosta to start the inning. Santos was on second when Yoshi lifted a soft fly to right with two outs. Bednarski tried to catch it, couldn’t, overran the ball, and Santos came home on the single and error. Gil Gross pulled the run right back with a leadoff jack off Santos in the sixth.

But the Coons still couldn’t throw water at Acosta, who continued to wiggle through innings, and then opened the seventh with an extra-base hit to center. Bareford had to go back on the ball and the lumbering Acosta sniffed a triple, but was mistaken. Bareford’s throw from the track and a perfect relay by McKnight nailed him at third base, and the Warriors wouldn’t score in the inning. The tying runs were on in the bottom 7th. Bareford singled, advanced on an errant pickoff attempt, but would have gotten second base anyway when Acosta drilled pinch-hitter Eddie Jackson. Two on, one out for Cookie, who had not had a multi-hit game in a week, and had already landed his daily single. A-hah! Not today! Cookie singled to center, loading the bases, and now we just needed Yoshi to come through in some big way. Unfortunately, he bounced a ball right to Acosta, who used it to force out Bareford at home. The other runners were all safe, and Matt Nunley took it upon himself to tie the game with two outs in the inning, hitting a hard single to rightfield to chase home Jackson and Carmona. The Warriors – probably delusional, but judge yourself – thought that Acosta would surely handle Mendoza, who admittedly nursed an oh-fer in the game, but Mendoza singled to right center, Yoshi scored, and the Coons had a 5-4 lead. Right-hander Ken Gautney appeared and got McKnight to ground out, ending the inning. The lead was in grave danger right away in the eighth with a leadoff single putting Wadley on, the only batter that Jason Kaiser faced. Joel Davis got two outs from Gross and Luckert, but the tying run was in scoring position for Price now. Thrasher came in to face the left-handed batter, but the Warriors flicked him for O’Dell, a right-hander, but he grounded out to short on a 1-2 pitch. Now, Thrasher had entered the game in a double switch, batting fourth with Mendoza gone and replaced by Petracek, which soon became important. Gautney opened the bottom 8th with walks to Margolis and DeWeese. Keen on at least one insurance run, Bareford was told to bunt, doing so badly enough to get Margolis killed off at third base. That brought up Petracek, although we would much rather have a qualified bat in the spot now with runners on first and second and one out. Petracek chipped a ball to shallow center, it dinked in, and DeWeese scored on the RBI single. Oh, well, whatever works! Cookie and Yoshi didn’t, both making poor outs. Thrasher struggled in the ninth, putting Pelles on with a walk and Flores with a single. With the tying runs on base, he faced Bednarski. Oh well, game over. The Warriors fans on hand were chanting and chanting for Bednarski in a count that ran full, but they didn’t know the book on Bednarski, either. He never gets a clutch hit in Portland. NEVER. And he struck out. 6-4 Furballs! Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2 RBI; Petracek 1-1, RBI;

Raccoons (23-10) @ Titans (23-11) – May 15-17, 2020

The Titans had swept the Rebels during the week, keeping their half-game distance to the Raccoons. They were seventh in runs scored, which was normally not a sign of a team confidently playing .676 ball over any stretch of time, but they had the least runs allowed overall in the league, conceding a mere 108 counters, which was less than 3.2 per game. Their rotation was second in ERA, their pen was the best outright, and they had a 2-1 edge over the Raccoons already. Winner of the weekend series takes the division lead on Sunday!

Projected matchups:
Cole Pierson (4-2, 3.32 ERA) vs. Rick Ling (2-2, 4.08 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (2-2, 2.37 ERA) vs. Ozzie Pereira (5-1, 2.02 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-1, 2.36 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (3-0, 3.20 ERA)

Southpaw to start the series, but remember – we’re not scared of them anymore.

The Titans were down two outfielders, with Adrian Reichardt already on the DL, and Victor Hodgers being hurt but not yet diagnosed.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – C Margolis – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – 1B Petracek – SS Prince – P Pierson
BOS: CF Cesta – SS Ruggeri – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – 3B Downing – 1B J. Duran – LF J. Avila – 2B M. Rivera – P Ling

Pierson gave himself a lead in the second inning, lifting a sac fly to center with Bareford and Petracek in scoring position and both having singled to start the inning. Cookie hit an infield single to put runners on the corners, Yoshi was plunked, but with the bases full Margolis struck out to end the inning. Ling needed strikeouts; he had entered the game with only 14 K against 19 walks in 41.1 innings. The Titans struck back with three consecutive singles to all fields by Josh Downing, Jose Duran, and Jose Avila in the bottom 2nd, handily tying the score again before Mike Rivera flew out to Cookie in shallow left and Ling rolled out to Petracek to strand runners on the corners. The Coons would take the lead again in the third, Prince driving home Bareford with a 2-out single to center, with the run involving a fair share of inept pitching with a walk and a hit batter to Ling’s ledger. But the Coons failed to properly exploit him, and Pierson also failed at pitching most of the time. By the middle innings, he was almost exclusively behind in the count, and in the bottom of the fifth the Titans loaded the bases with one out. Rivera and Mike Cesta had hit singles, and D.J. Ruggeri walked in a full count. Pierson hadn’t been ahead of anybody for a while, and now faced the heart of the order. And then the first pitch to Chris Almanza went through Margolis’ legs for a passed ball, scoring the tying run automatically. Almanza singled, giving the Titans a 3-2 lead, before Tim Robinson hit into a double play we could have used five minutes earlier.

The tying run got on in the sixth, but only with two outs on a Cookie single, and Yoshi couldn’t hit anything that Ling threw him. Margolis however came up with a leadoff walk in the seventh. It was a bit too early to go bonkers and run for him with DeWald, especially since Jackson had a little pop and might do this in one swing. Or maybe he would hit into a double play, and that one neatly guarded Ling to the other side of the inning. Bareford drew a walk off Desi Bowles to start the eighth, but by then was not the tying run anymore; PH Jonathan Blake had taken Jason Kaiser deep in the bottom of the seventh and the score was now 4-2. Mendoza batted for Petracek and struck out, but Prince doubled to left center, putting the tying runs in scoring position with one out, but the best idea we had now was to pinch-hit with DeWeese for Joel Davis. The Titans sent a new pitcher, but it was another right-hander, the boringly named Brett Dill. DeWeese grounded out to Rivera, scoring only one run, and Cookie went also to Rivera, but that ended the inning and scored nobody, leaving the Coons a run short. Boynton had a scoreless eighth, sending the Coons up against left-hander Nestor Munoz in the ninth. Munoz was walking a batter every other inning, but when Yoshi reached a full count he struck out to open the ninth inning. Margolis jumped on the first pitch and drove a ball to deep center, Cesta was beat, and the tying run was on second with a double by the catcher nobody had seen batting higher than maybe seventh for the entire season. Jackson grounded out to Josh Downing, leaving things to Nunley, who had yet to reach base in the game, lined to first, but also right into Duran’s glove. 4-3 Titans. Carmona 2-5; Bareford 1-2, 2 BB;

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – LF DeWeese – CF Bareford – P Guerrero
BOS: CF Cesta – SS Ruggeri – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – 3B Downing – 1B J. Duran – LF Amador – 2B M. Rivera – P Pereira

The first two innings were mostly meek contact, but Bareford cracked a solo shot to leftfield in the third to open the scoring. Bobby Guerrero struggled with control and was soon overwhelmed in the bottom of the inning, allowing a single to Cesta, who stole second base. Almanza hit a 2-out single, sending runners to the corners, then also tried to steal. Margolis’ throw was wild, Cesta scored, and Almanza came home from third base on Tim Robinson’s single to shallow left, which put the Titans into the lead, 2-1, and a terrible Guerrero allowed doubles to start the fourth to Duran, and then one with two outs to the pitcher, Ozzie Pereira. While the latter was barely fair up the leftfield line, this could not serve as an excuse, and the Coons were now 3-1 down and in real danger to lose the division lead for good through the weekend. Guerrero was comprehensively knocked out in the fifth then, surrendering back-to-back bombs to left center to Robinson and Downing. Not unmentioned shall go that Downing would have been out and the inning over on a previous pitch that Nunley dropped in foul ground for the Critters’ third error of the game. Guerrero left on a 5-1 hook, three runs unearned.

Jackson opened the sixth with a double to center after which Cookie legged out a roller for a single – extending his streak to 28 games and giving Yoshi men on the corners with nobody out in a 4-run hole. His sac fly to center didn’t exactly help the team’s cause, and Nunley’s foul pop did neither, but Mendoza belching his 14th homer of the year to the back rows of the rightfield stands sure did! This one cut the gap to 5-4 and with some good relief - … oh wait, wasn’t the Titans’ pen the best in the league? And so far, Pereira wasn’t out of the game, either. While Chun collected four outs from four pitches for the Coons (which does never hint at great pitching no matter how much it sounds like it), Pereira continued in the seventh and retired both centerfielders before arriving at Jackson again, who had replaced DeWeese in the game and justified the earlier switch by powering a drive to left center and OUTTA HERE!! This one tied the game at five, and the Coons had new life.

Not for long. Mathis allowed a leadoff double to Cesta in the bottom 7th, then did nothing to keep the runner on base. Cesta scored on consecutive groundouts, and Mathis put Downing on to star the bottom 8th, too. With one out, Thrasher came in, but soon faced a right-handed pinch-hitter in Ryan Anderson rather than the anticipated left-hander Roberto Amador. He lost Anderson to a walk, and when Rivera grounded to Nomura, the Coons couldn’t turn the double play. Runners on the corners remained, before Jonathan Blake unpacked another terrorizing pinch-hitting appearance, drilling a single through the right side of the infield to give the Titans a spare run. The Coons carted up the bottom of the order in the ninth inning, trailing by two, Petracek grounded out, Bareford flew out to Almanza in shallow right, and Jackson’s fly to left did little to challenge Jose Avila. 7-5 Titans. Carmona 2-4; Jackson 2-3, HR, RBI;

Well, we sure as heck need a W from Jonny Toner now to stay even close, and what the **** is going on with the Titans in general??

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – C Olivares – P Toner
BOS: LF J. Avila – SS Ruggeri – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – 3B Downing – 1B J. Duran – CF Cesta – 2B M. Rivera – P J. Fuentes

Avila had been on the final out on Saturday and was on the first out on Sunday, catching Cookie’s scorched liner to left before tumbling end over end in the gap, taking away what should have been a 29-game hitting streak and a leadoff double or triple. The first runner actually on base in the game didn’t come until the third inning when Olivares singled through on the left side, but nothing would come of that. Cookie walked with two outs, but Yoshi struck out in a full count. Toner remained perfect the first time through, whiffing five, but Cookie had already made a catch on the warning track, too. The Titans were still looking for a runner through four, and although Fuentes by the top of the fifth matched Jonny in strikeouts (six apiece), he also had to contend with runners on the corners after issuing a 1-out walk to DeWeese, who reached third base on Olivares’ single to right. That brought up slugger Jonny Toner, batting .600 with 9 RBI and a better OPS than Tiger Mendoza. Jonny ran a 3-1 count before popping out foul, bringing up Cookie with two down, and he lined a pitch to right. That one was in the grass in front of Almanza, streak extended to next week and the first run of the game on the board on an RBI single! Toner’s perfect game bid was broken up with two outs in the bottom of the inning, walking Jose Duran, and then Yoshi, who had left two on when he flew out easily to left in the top of the inning, mishandled Cesta’s grounder for an error and the second Titans runner. Rivera grounded out to Toner, however, and the Titans remained shut out.

The Coons forced the issue offensively in the sixth. Mendoza and Bareford both singled and stole second base in the inning, with Mendoza scoring on the latter’s single while Bareford was left on when DeWeese grounded out, but the score blossomed further in the seventh, despite Fuentes retiring the first two batters, Olivares and Toner, on grounders. Cookie then knocked him out with a 2-out triple into the rightfield corner, Yoshi walked against reliever Alan Farrell which was perfectly fine given that he had hit a tough luck stretch, and then Nunley split the outfielders with a right centerfield gapper on Farrell’s 3-2 pitch. Both runners scored, 4-0 for Jonny, who struck out pairs in the sixth and seventh while allowing nobody on base. He was up 5-0 by the bottom of the eighth, Olivares singling home McKnight in the top of the inning, but the focus was very much on the Titans now, who started to bat in the eighth with Duran, so perfectly executed the heart of the order wouldn’t even come up anymore. Duran flew softly to left for DeWeese before Cesta hit a liner in the same direction, and DeWeese was on top of that as well. Rivera grounded out to short, three outs remaining. A Yoshi single in the top 9th served as mild distraction, before Jonny came back out in the bottom of the ninth. Even the home crowd was standing as he faced unknown Gil Cornejo, pinch-hitter in the #9 slot … and walked him. That still didn’t break up the no-hitter! … but Jose Avila’s homer sure did. A bomb outta rightfield on pitch #104, it ended Toner’s bid for his second no-no, and also his stay in the game. Joel Davis was ready to come in. At least he held on to the W, allowing only a 2-out single to Downing while handing Almanza a golden sombrero on the way through. 5-2 Critters. Carmona 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Olivares 3-4, RBI; Toner 8.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, W (6-1);

In other news

May 12 – Loggers lefty Chris Sinkhorn (4-3, 3.31 ERA) shuts out the Stars on just three hits in a 9-0 Milwaukee win.
May 12 – Only three hits are tallied by the Knights as they get routed, 10-0, by the Wolves in Atlanta. SAL OF/1B Abel Mora (.343, 2 HR, 14 RBI) has three hits, including two home runs, and drives in a handful.
May 13 – Payback: the Knights roll over the Wolves in a 15-3 massacre. LF Marty Reyes (.219, 3 HR, 14 RBI) leads his team with 4 RBI on two hits, including a double.
May 15 – The Thunder get trampled by the Bayhawks in a 16-5 blowout. SFB OF Willie Ramos (.294, 1 HR, 7 RBI) contributes a pinch-hit grand slam.
May 16 – ATL LF Marty Reyes (.219, 3 HR, 14 RBI) could miss up to three months with a torn rotator cuff.
May 17 – MIL SP Chris Sinkhorn (5-3, 2.79 ERA) goes onto the record with consecutive shutouts, holding the Crusaders to six hits in a 6-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Isn’t it typically Jonny Toner that he allows only three runners that are his fault and somehow two of them score? No matter how they score – they find a way to score. This one was extra bitter, given that he would only have been the third pitcher with multiple no-hitters, and the first to throw back-to-back no-hitters. His domination of the Thunder in April 2019 is still the most recent occurrence of a team remaining hitless.

As mentioned before, Cookie broke into Neil Reece’s trifecta of longest Raccoons hitting streaks, but is still behind Reece’s personal best of 32 games. Cookie reached 29 on Sunday, and it is rather big, because while there have been a total of 18 longer hitting streaks in league history, only five guys have had a longer hitting streak in the 21st century. The 21st century leader is Milwaukee’s Bartolo Hernandez with a 38-game hitting streak in 2003. Only one hitting streak has been longer than Cookie’s in the last decade, Javy Rodriguez doing the honors for 31 games for the 2015 Bayhawks.

And what is wrong in New York? They have … a million little injuries. This is not even exaggerated. They currently have seven players on the DL, although Hector Garcia should come off before we hit the ground there on Tuesday. Their lineup has been decimated the most, but they are still tied for third in runs scored. Their pitching has only lost Brett Lillis to injury, but they have just not been up to beef at all. Outside of “Ant” Mendez, their starters are all horrible, even “Midnight” Martin. The pen is a PG-13 *at best*. And with all the injuries, holding the lineup together is mostly on Max Erickson, who is batting .346 with five homers, but is totally alone. Batting third, Adam Young. You CAN’T win like that.

As an aside, Cookie reached 1,400 career hits with his triple in the Sunday game, and of course all of those have been for the Raccoons. Where does he rank in base knocks in franchise history?

PORTLAND RACCOONS CAREER HITS LEADERS (bold = currently on the team)

1st – Neil Reece – 1,983
2nd – Daniel Hall – 1,886
3rd – Tetsu Osanai – 1,548
t-4th – Adrian Quebell – 1,400
t-4th – Ricardo Carmona – 1,400
6th – Mark Dawson – 1,313
7th – Ieyoshi Nomura – 1,291
8th – Daniel Sharp – 1,267
9th – Conceicao Guerin – 1,185
10th – Ben O’Morrissey – 1,180

Matt Nunley is 14th with 975 base hits, and Ronnie McKnight is 22nd with 713. No other current Raccoon is anywhere near worth mentioning.