[Westheim]

As the season enters its final week, the FL East has five teams separated by half a game. Advantage Cincy and Richmond, who both have games with the Buffaloes left, who are almost at 100 losses and the lone team not in the mix. There is a third team with a game with the Buffaloes left: the Blue Sox will play a makeup game with them on the next Monday (so after the nominal end of the regular season) that could turn out to be very meaningful.

Raccoons (81-74) @ Crusaders (73-82) – September 27-30, 2021

This was a meaningless series for everybody involved, with the Raccoons having to take on the late-surging Crusaders, who were on a 5-game winning streak. The season series stood 9-5 in the Critters’ favor, and if they won another game, this would extend a string of the season series winner alternating between the two teams to five years. The Crusaders had scored the second-fewest runs in the Continental League, while they had allowed the sixth-fewest.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (16-10, 3.72 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (5-10, 3.66 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-1, 5.84 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (16-6, 2.89 ERA)
Dave Dyer (2-5, 4.28 ERA) vs. Cody Zimmerman (12-12, 3.65 ERA)
Travis Garrett (9-7, 4.55 ERA) vs. Tim Dunn (14-10, 2.97 ERA)

Two right, two left, and probably drop a few. Toner vs. Choe is a matchup that has routinely not worked out for us in the past, which is tremendously sad. But what isn’t with this team?

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – C Parks – RF Graves – SS Spencer – CF Stevenson – P Toner
NYC: 3B Schmit – SS D. Stephenson – 2B S. Valdez – C J. Vargas – 1B Perkins – RF Erickson – LF Peters – CF McCullough – P Choe

Jonny had a laborious first inning, with Devon Stephenson reaching on a Spencer error, but getting caught stealing, but then he walked both Sergio Valdez and Jose Vargas to create some nervousness in me. Josh Perkins grounded out to Nunley, though, and the game lacked scoring until the third inning, in which Toner drew a 1-out walk from Choe to join Spencer and his leadoff single on the bases. Cookie flew out to left in a 3-1 count, but Yoshi singled past Andy Schmit to score Spencer for the first run of the game. Choe ran a full count on Mendoza before getting bombed; Mendoza’s 32nd home run of the season upped the score to 4-0. The Crusaders didn’t reach base for a while after their three runners in the first inning. Vargas hit a deep drive in the fourth that Graves caught on the track, and they only got back on base when Chris Peters walked in the fifth, although that free pass also remained inconsequential. Jonny came up with a modest no-hit bid through six innings, but Vargas scorched a double into the right-center gap to begin the bottom 7th to break it up. Another error by Spencer put Josh Perkins on base and runners on the corners with nobody out. Of course there was no way to go but down from here. Max Erickson’s RBI single up the middle and Kevin McCullough’s sac fly scored runs, but the ultimate shame was Adam Young’s 2-out pinch-hit RBI single to left that cut the lead to 4-3 (of course the lazy Coons hadn’t done anything in the last four innings… why do you even ask!?) and knocked Toner from the game. Noah Bricker allowed a single to Schmit before getting pinch-hitter Ryan Vogel to ground out, finally. Vargas and Carlos Martinez hit doubles off Jason Kaiser in the eighth to tie the game, and Peters singled in the winning run against Seung-mo Chun. The twat Spencer singled in the ninth inning, but then was caught stealing. 5-4 Crusaders.

Six more games. Six more games. And then I don’t have to see their pathetic faces for six months. Come on. You can make it through six more games.

The Loggers wrapped up the division on Monday, beating the Titans 3-1 behind Victor Arevalo (11-12, 4.32 ERA). It’s Milwaukee’s fourth playoff season, and the second consecutive.

In the FL East, the Cyclones lost to the Buffaloes, 2-1, while the Blue Sox beat the Rebels, 7-1. With that, the 78-77 Blue Sox held a half game lead over four 78-78 teams.

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – C Olivares – SS Spencer – CF Metts – P Knight
NYC: LF R. Miranda – 3B Schmit – 2B S. Valdez – 1B Perkins – RF Erickson – SS Doering – C Travis – CF McCullough – P A. Mendez

“Ant” Mendez allowed two singles to Nomura and Nunley in the first, but Zach Graves struck out so helplessly that I had to reconsider most of my life choices and in particular why he was even playing every day.Things went less swimmingly for Mendez in the second inning. Spencer got on with a 1-out single and reached second on Erickson’s error handling the single. Metts grounded out, moving up the runner, and then Damani Knight found a hole on the left side for a 2-out RBI single. Cookie walked, Yoshi singled, and with the bases loaded Mendoza hit a 2-run double to give the Critters a 3-1 lead, because of course Knight had allowed a run already. Rico Miranda and Andy Schmit had opened their day with hard singles, and Sergio Valdez had hit into a hard run-scoring double play. The score went to 3-2 quickly as well, with Erickson doubling off the wall in rightfield to begin the bottom 2nd and scoring on long fly outs to deep center by both Blake Doering and Jason Travis.

The Crusaders’ efforts in the following innings were ruined by another double play in the third, and then Valdez getting caught stealing after a leadoff single in the fourth. Knight was living on borrowed time and could use some more support, which was not coming forth. Mendoza and Olivares reached base in the top of the fifth, but were stranded when Spencer popped out. The bottom 5th saw Jason Travis hit a 1-out single, but Knight arrived at Mendez with two outs. “Ant” singled in a 2-strike count, which was so not okay it was hard to find words, and when Rico Miranda hacked himself out in a full count against Knight, I tended to blame it on the .221 batter with no particularly impressive hitting record even in the minor leagues. The Coons would not turn Dwayne Metts’ leadoff walk in the sixth into anything countable either, and so Andy Schmit’s leadoff jack tied the score in the bottom 6th. Knight walked Erickson with two outs in the inning, then got charged with the 26-year-old Doering’s first career homer, which was of the go-ahead variety and out of rightfield. Travis singled, finally ending the abysmal pitching display at least in nomine, but Schmit would hit another RBI double off Will West in the seventh inning. The Raccoons weren’t hitting anything, except maybe mental walls in their head in general, and Yoshi Nomura hit into a game-ending double play with Cookie on first in the ninth inning in particular. 6-3 Crusaders. Nomura 2-5; Mendoza 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Well at least Dumbo is building some value late in the year…

The Blue Sox held on to their half game lead with a 10-1 rout of the Rebels, with Cincy (16-6 @ Topeka) and Pittsburgh (2-1 @ Washington) now their closest competitors. The Rebels and Capitals dropped to 1.5 games out.

Another win for the Blue Sox: ex-Coon SP Tadasu Abe (6-11, 4.74 ERA) strained a hamstring in the game and could hurt their chances no longer. He was done for the year, and his career was probably done as well.

In AAA news, the Alley Cats split their first two games in the championship series.

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – C Olivares – SS Spencer – CF Stevenson – 2B Petracek – P Dyer
NYC: 3B Schmit – SS D. Stephenson – 2B S. Valdez – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – LF Fitzgerald – 1B A. Young – CF McCullough – P Zimmerman

The Raccoons stranded another pair in the first inning, although to be fair after Nunley’s single Jackson should have hit into a double play. Schmit misfired the ball, though, putting two on to begin with. Mendoza’s pop and Olivares’ grounder to short were not helpful in exploiting the mistake. Schmit made up anyway, bombing Dyer in the Coons’ lobber’s first action of the game for a 1-0 Crusaders lead. It was 3-0 in a hurry on a single to left by Stephenson, then two doubles by Valdez and Vargas, the latter scoring both previous runners. In the second inning, Spencer and McCullough both hit leadoff doubles, and both would score on a sac fly, Petracek’s and Schmit’s respectively, to get the score to 4-1. Cookie singled, stole, and scored on two groundouts in the top 3rd, while Dyer struck Valdez to start the bottom half of the inning. Valdez was caught stealing while Vargas and Erickson struck out, and when Dyer came to bat with Spencer and Petracek on base and two outs in the fourth we should have hit for him, but didn’t. Dyer struck out, walked two in the bottom 4th and almost sunk for good on Schmit’s fly to right center, but Stevenson flew over into the gap just in time to nip the ball and end the inning.

The Crusaders stranded two more in the fifth when Mike Fitzgerald flew out to center with men on the corners, keeping the Crusaders’ lead at 4-2 through five although they should have led by half a dozen more or at least knocked Dyer from the game by now. The end for Dyer came in the sixth, and then it was his own fault, trying to throw out Kevin McCullough at second on Zimmerman’s 1-out bunt. He couldn’t, two were on, and Andy Schmit soon singled to center to plate New York’s fifth run. Dyer disappeared after walking Stephenson, leaving a bases-loaded mess to Jason Kaiser, who surrendered a 2-run single to Valdez on an 0-2 pitch, then a 2-run double to Vargas, and finally an RBI double to Erickson, which got the Crusaders into double digits. Kaiser would not retire anybody and yielded for Chun after the Erickson double, with Chun getting out of the inning, FINALLY. Through eight innings, the Raccoons had half the Crusaders’ runs in mere base hits, and basically did not take place at all anymore. Zach Graves hit a jack pinch-hitting for Stevenson with two outs in the ninth inning. Nobody cared. Zimmerman remained in the game, finishing it with a K to Danny Ochoa for a somewhat tainted 6-hitter. 10-3 Crusaders. Nunley 2-4; Spencer 2-4, 2B; Graves (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; West 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Nashville, Nashville in the East, with the Blue Sox squeezing through the Rebels, 7-6, on Wednesday to actually gain a 1.5 game lead since both of their closest challengers lost: Cincy dropped a 3-2 game to Topeka, and the Capitals put four early on the Miners’ Brian Cope and cruised to a 5-1 win. CIN, PIT, WAS are now all 1.5 games back; the Rebels are 2.5 out.

Game 4
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – C Parks – SS Spencer – CF Stevenson – 3B Petracek – P Garrett
NYC: LF R. Miranda – SS D. Stephenson – 2B S. Valdez – C J. Vargas – 1B Perkins – RF Erickson – 3B Schmit – CF McCullough – P T. Dunn

“Tragic” struck right in the first inning, allowing singles to Miranda and Stephenson, who pulled off a double steal before Garrett could finish his walk to Sergio Valdez. Three on, no outs, a livid pitching coach, and me mindlessly downing every alcoholic beverage I could get my paws on in the Raccoons’ suite with perfect view on the misery on the mound and around that mound. To my utmost surprise, the Crusaders didn’t score in the inning; Jose Vargas struck out flailing, and Perkins hit into a double play. Stuffed with a 2-0 lead after Josh Stevenson went yard with Spencer aboard in the second inning, Garrett continued to find trouble. In both the third and fourth innings, Yoshi Nomura turned double plays to end the inning with two men on base.

Top 5th, bases loaded for the Raccoons! Yoshi, Eddie, and Dumbo had hit 1-out singles in order, bringing up Parks with a full plate to indulge his masked face in. Maybe we had different concepts of indulging, though, because his grounder to third was barely enough to plate one run on the groundout, and Spencer’s grounder to short would not score anybody anymore in a 3-0 game. But with Garrett in the game, a 3-run lead was basically like being behind by two, and it usually wouldn’t take long for that state to be reached. Red alert sounded in the sixth, with Valdez’ leadoff single being followed by a clumsy walk to Vargas. The tying run came up in Perkins (16 HR), with more power behind him in Erickson (also 16 HR). Garrett struck out the former in a full count, but succumbed to the latter’s and Andy Schmit’s pair of RBI singles. Up a tender 3-2 and with runners on first and second, Joel Davis replaced him, struck out McCullough and when the Crusaders didn’t hit for Dunn, it was a mistake as he grounded out, then allowed 2-out singles to Jackson and Mendoza in the seventh, and the Crusaders still thought he had this, but Jalen Parks dished a 3-1 pitch up the leftfield line for a 2-run double to restore the Coons’ 3-run advantage. Dunn didn’t actually go away until after Spencer’s 2-out single and plating Parks with a wild pitch, 6-2, but no lead was safe for the Raccoons anymore. Joel Davis put the leadoff man Miranda on base with a single in the bottom 7th, and Sugano allowed an RBI double to Vargas to bring in the run, 6-3.

The game would not get into the books without some late panic. Bricker in the eighth did fine, but Lillis in the ninth ran into trouble once again. He walked Stephenson with one out after Miranda had opened the inning with a deep drive to left that Cookie SOMEHOW got paws on. Valdez grounded out, moving up the runner to where Vargas’ single to left center scored him. PH Carlos Martinez came up as the tying run, but like most innings in this game, Yoshi Nomura was on the end of this one, too, handling Martinez’ grounder perfectly for the final out of the game. 6-3 Coons. Nomura 2-4, BB; Jackson 2-5; Mendoza 3-4, BB; Parks 2-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Spencer 2-5;

The Blue Sox complete a 4-game sweep of the Rebels with a 5-1 win on Thursday, while the Cyclones and Capitals remain closest to them, 1.5 games out. Cincy drops to 2.5, Richmond to 3.5 games out.

The final weekend sees the Sox in Washington for the most important series. Cincy is in Pittsburgh. The Rebels-Buffaloes series is irrelevant. The Rebels could get to 81-81 at best, and the series between the 81-77 Sox and 80-79 Capitals will leave one team better than that at least.

In the CL South, the Knights and Condors are tied going into the final weekend. They will travel to Charlotte and Vegas, respectively, to end the season.

Raccoons (82-77) vs. Titans (90-69) – October 1-3, 2021

Three games that would be lost in the media as soon as they were completed, given the late-season mayhem in two other divisions. Well, you can always rely on the Agitator to make your life a living hell. The Coons were 8-7 against the Titans this year, and Boston was ninth in offense and second in preventing offense. Can we make this quick?

Projected matchups:
Ricky Martinez (2-4, 3.54 ERA) vs. John Schneider (16-4, 3.73 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (16-10, 3.64 ERA) vs. Alan Farrell (7-10, 3.94 ERA)
Damani Knight (0-2, 6.50 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (14-11, 2.91 ERA)

The Titans only had right-handers left in the rotation at this point.

Game 1
BOS: 2B W. Ramos – RF Braun – 3B Esquivel – C Salas – CF Reichardt – 1B Cisneros – LF Amador – SS Janes – P Schneider
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – C Parks – RF Graves – SS Spencer – CF Stevenson – P Martinez

Teams totaled one hit in the first three innings, and it was not the Coons’. Old warhorse Antonio Esquivel added a second single to the tally leading off the fourth inning, but got quickly swept off the bases on Pedro Salas’ double play grounder. The Raccoons finally also got a hit with a soft Yoshi single in the bottom 4th, and Parks would even add to the runners total by drawing a 2-out walk. Schneider threw a wild pitch to get both into scoring position, but Graves’ drive to deep right was intercepted on the fly by Adam Braun for four scoreless.

The Raccoons were in a world of trouble in the fifth inning. Javy Cisneros hit a leadoff single on an 0-2 pitch, but at least Martinez would face two left-handed batters and the pitcher now – how could it go wrong? By Roberto Amador bunting, Jalen Parks throwing that bunt away as far as he could, and Erik Janes hitting a sac fly to Cookie. Two groundouts by Schneider and Willie Ramos ended the inning, but the Titans were ahead 1-0 and the Raccoons were hibernating already since … July? Amador would rob not one, but two Raccoons of potential doubles in the bottom of the sixth, with Nunley and Parks being robbed of the chance to drive in Yoshi after his leadoff single. Nope, it was the Titans to score again in the seventh. Adrian Reichardt hit a leadoff single, Kevin Jaeger hit a pinch-hit 2-out single to plate him, and the Raccoons had obviously hit the hay a long time ago.

Martinez lasted eight before Danny Ochoa batted for him leading off the bottom 8th. The walk he drew off Schneider brought the tying run to the plate, and Cookie’s single put the tying run on base. Yoshi grounded out, advancing the runners, with right-hander Desi Bowles replacing Schneider. Mendoza unhelpfully grounded out; while that scored Cookie, they still were short and Nunley faced southpaw Brent Beene with two outs, and grounded out to Tristen Baptiste at short, and one could only assume that it would be Ron Thrasher’s pleasure to axe down the Coons 1-2-3 in the ninth, but he didn’t. Jackson walked in Graves’ spot with one out. Spencer singled. Metts had previously ended up in the #8 slot, bunted, Willie Ramos misplayed the bunt, and the bases were loaded! Ezequiel Olivares batted for Cory Dew in this crucial spot, popped out on the first pitch, but at least there was one more chance with Cookie coming up. When Cookie turned a 2-2 pitch into a liner to right center to walk off the team, the crowd – sparse as it was – almost went berzerk. 3-2 Critters. Carmona 2-5, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-4; Spencer 2-4; Metts 1-1; Martinez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K;

Cookiiiiieeee!!

There is a very real chance he gets traded this winter. (tears up)

Meanwhile in the East, the Blue Sox continued their stomp through the opposition with a 7-2 win over the Capitals. The Cyclones fell late to the Miners, 10-8, which is the most perfect outcome for the Blue Sox, who are now 2.5 games up on the other three teams. Even if they lose their last two, they can still win the division on Monday.

In the South, the Knights trumped the Falcons 10-4 and regained sole grip on the top spot with the Condors’ narrow 8-7 defeat in Vegas.

Game 2
BOS: LF W. Ramos – 2B Stephens – 3B Esquivel – CF Reichardt – 1B Cornejo – C McPherson – SS Baptiste – RF Braun – P Farrell
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – C Parks – RF Graves – SS Spencer – CF Stevenson – P Toner

Toner had a chance to finish the year with 200 more strikeouts than walks, but a leadoff walk to Willie Ramos was not helping the cause. While Ramos stole a base in the inning, two strikeouts and a pop kept the Titans from scoring, and both offenses were in fact flatlining it again through the first three innings and even beyond. Toner allowed three singles and no further walks in the first five innings, whiffing five, but that still had him only at +196 in terms of strikeouts over walks, and YES, this was all the Raccoons were playing for at this point. Maybe some blood revenge against Farrell, who almost struck Jarod Spencer in the neck in the fifth inning and ended up brushing him in the shoulder as Spencer took evasive action. Despite Stevenson singling afterwards, the Coons’ third hit in the game, the Raccoons failed to break through. After Toner moved the runners over with a groundout, Cookie’s bouncer to third was intercepted by Esquivel to end the inning. Ramos drew another walk in the sixth inning, again leading off, but again was stranded on second base. It was a stray Mendoza homer in solo fashion in the bottom 6th to finally put anything on the scoreboard, now with a 1-0 Raccoons lead.

Toner struck out the side in the seventh, getting him to +199 with 278 K against 79 bases on balls. Although he was on 103 pitches, he batted with Graves on first and two outs in the bottom 7th, flying out to center, and was back in the game in the eighth inning, facing Adam Braun, who was 1-for-2 with a K. He grounded out to third. The Titans did NOT bat for Farrell – come on, Jonny, this is yours! But he couldn’t remove that batter on strikes, Farrell instead popping one up for the second out. At 112 pitches, that was it for Jonny, with left-handers coming up at the top of the order. In fact, the Critters skipped it right to Lillis here. Ramos grounded out against the closer, ending the eighth. Farrell removed the top of the Critters’ order without issues in the bottom 8th, leaving the 2-3-4 batters for Lillis, although right-hander Pedro Salas batted for the left-handed Stephens to begin the ninth inning. Salas struck out. Esquivel grounded out to Yoshi. Reichardt flew out softly to Graves. 1-0 Raccoons! Mendoza 1-4, HR, RBI; Toner 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, W (17-10); Lillis 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (39);

Knights-Loggers will be the CLCS – Atlanta clinched with a 9-6 win over the Falcons combined with the Condors exploding late. The Aces score three each in the seventh and eighth to grab a 7-3 win over the Condors. The Knights will be in the playoffs for the sixth time and the first time in 12 years. Their 2009 playoff appearance was in turn their first in TWENTY years. They have no championships, and they have been to the World Series only once, losing to the Blue Sox in ’86.

Speaking of the Blue Sox – their winning streak ended and the FL East race was extended to at least Sunday with a 5-1 Capitals win. The Miners eliminated the Cyclones with a 3-0 shutout. This leaves only the Blue Sox in the division, plus the Miners and Capitals 1.5 games back, with the Miners only having a chance in a 3-way tie and a multi-level tie-breaker.

Eddie Jackson would not be back with the Raccoons and would get a cleanup assignment in his last game with the team after four years of faithful and productive bench services. His 283 AB (so far) this season are a high in his Raccoons tenure, but he always got at least 273 in remarkably regular usage, and he always appeared in at least 119 games, batting .267 with 21 HR and 141 RBI.

Game 3
BOS: LF W. Ramos – SS Kane – 3B Esquivel – CF Reichardt – C McPherson – 1B Amador – 2B Frees – RF Braun – P Klein
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Olivares – SS Spencer – CF Metts – P Knight

Whenever a catcher triples, you know you’re doomed. Eric McPherson tripled to lead off the second inning, and a swift sac fly by Roberto Amador later the Titans were up 1-0 against the punching bag Knight. Surprisingly, this was the only run in the first five innings of the game. When I say ‘surprisingly’ I mean that the Titans didn’t make more of their six hits and two walks against Knight. The Coons had only one meager base hit, while the Titans came undone on a bad bunt by Klein once, and by a double play another time. Damani Knight rumpled into the sixth inning, never to emerge from it. It was bad enough that a McPherson double and Amador single opened the inning, but Amador actually got caught stealing. Ben Frees’ groundout scored McPherson from third base, 2-0, but maybe we could – no, you never can with Knight. Whatever it is you try to achieve, he will fail you. Adam Braun singled, and then there was still a pitcher up to feast on, but Klein singled hard to left center, the tenth and final hit off Knight in the game. Kaiser replaced him in his 78th appearance of the season and got Ramos to bounce out to Yoshi.

The Titans had two more hits in the seventh, one each off Kaiser and Carrell, while the Raccoons had two hits total at that point. It started to rain. Then it stopped. Some of the crowd went for the exits even as Ezequiel Olivares hit a solo home run in the bottom 7th to get the team on the board, now down 2-1. The following inning Klein was krumbling. After Graves hit a sharp grounder for an out, Cookie found the right-center gap for a double. He was the tying run and his rear end would be watched by Yoshi Nomura, who walked in a full count, bringing up Mendoza with the tying and go-ahead runs aboard. The embodiment of a team merely doing the mere minimum for the better part of two months, Mendoza lobbed a ball to deep center and to the base of the wall. It was an RBI double, tied the game, and left Yoshi and Mendoza in scoring position with one out for Eddie, who would face Desi Bowles. Come on, Eddie – it may be your final at-bat as a Critter! Nah, he struck out. Nunley flew out to center, and the runners were left on base.

Just as Brett Lillis started to pitch in the ninth, the rain came back. It hung around. Since the game was tied, it could not be declared early, although nobody desired to stick out the rain. The rain delay lasted an hour. It left an empty park, give or take roughly 200 guys that made a living off baseball games. Players, coaches, broadcasters, umpires, grounds crew. One guy that fell asleep under his plastic cover in section 127. Bottom 9th, Desi Bowles had only thrown seven pitches earlier and returned to face the 6-7-8 batters. When the Coons went down in order, we got to play on. Extra innings. The raw joy.

There would be another at-bat for Eddie Jackson as a Raccoon, leading off the bottom 11th against Ron Thrasher in our former southpaw’s second inning of work. Jackson turned on a 1-2 pitch and hammered it to left for a double. Come on guys, the camera crews want to go home! A wild pitch moved Jackson to third with no outs. Matt Nunley dug a trench at home plate. He was gonna be the last man to bat this year, and if he’d die trying! Thrasher fell to 2-0, 3-0, then 4-0. Nunley had to take first base. There was another batter, Olivares. He lined up the middle. Tristen Baptiste lunged, didn’t get it, and the season was finally over. 3-2 Critters. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, RBI; Olivares 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Carrell 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The Blue Sox beat the Capitals, 3-2, to end the playoff race in the East. A pinch-hit home run by Ruben Cervantes (.271, 14 HR, 55 RBI) did the honors.

In other news

September 27 – Season over for CIN CF Nando Maiello (.290, 3 HR, 37 RBI) who has suffered a broken rib.
September 29 – Nashville’s C Armando Leal (.274, 10 HR, 81 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 25 games with two hits in the team’s 7-6 win over the Rebels.
October 1 – TOP 2B Marco Hernandes (.300, 1 HR, 27 RBI) will be out of action for seven to eight months with a fractured elbow.
October 2 – The Capitals not only beat the Blue Sox 5-1 in the Saturday game that threw a wrench into the Sox’ momentum, they also ended the hitting streak of NAS C Armando Leal (.272, 11 HR, 84 RBI) at 27 games. Leal went 0-for-3.

Complaints and stuff

This was the fifth straight year we beat the Titans in the season series. It was also the slowest-motion sweep I have seen in a while.

The Alley Cats went to Corpus Christi, were shut out in Game 3, 2-0, and lost Game 4, 7-3, as well. Jesus Chavez pitched eight shutout innings in Game 5 for a 3-0 win to send the series back to St. Petersburg, where it continued on Monday with a dicey 5-4 win for the Alley Cats.

This put Ryan Nielson in Game 7 against George McCarter, who had only been promoted from AA in August and had pitched to a 5.75 ERA since then. Nielson lasted only four outs before leaving the game with shoulder inflammation, and long relief from David Kipple and Charlie Cogger was spotty as they yielded four runs in addition to the one that was charged on Nielson. However, six different wannabe-Critters drove in runs in the game – enough to sink the Whitefish.

The Alley Cats are the 2021 AAA Champions!

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
54th – Jorge Gine – 2,131 – active
55th – Takeru Sato – 2,104
56th – Whit Reeves – 2,081 – HOF
57th – Paul Miller – 2,078
58th – Chris O’Keefe – 2,060
59th – Jonathan Toner – 2,048 – active
60th – Juichi Fujita – 2,046
61st – Parker Montgomery – 2,044 – HOF
62nd – Alfredo Rios – 2,015

Gine is still going; he has mostly been a Federal League pitcher, but spent a few years with the Thunder and Condors in the 2010s. He was an All Star four times, but it may be a bit late for him to build a Hall of Fame case. Right now he sits at 183-136 with a 3.42 ERA and he is already almost 38 years old.

Sato had a 19-year career that started with seven years in Washington before he started to bounce around wildly. After signing with the Bayhawks in 2002, he would bounce to another team another nine times in his last 12 years, including two stints in both San Francisco and Oklahoma City. He was an All Star only once, 1997, but holds the odd distinction of being named LCS MVP for a losing team, the 2010 Thunder, who went out against the – yeah – Raccoons.

And that table? Have we shown that for the last time?