[Westheim]

Raccoons (67-52) vs. Capitals (60-59) – August 18-20, 2025

The Raccoons had dropped two out of three to the Capitals two years ago in their most recent meeting. While we were certainly hoping for better results this time around, it didn't really matter for any of these teams. Both were almost ten games out in their division, and the Capitals were only in third place to boot. They were more of a run-producing team, ranking third in the FL in counters thrown on the board, with their pitching very much average. Their run differential of +36 still hinted at bad luck.

Projected matchups:
Lance Legleiter (1-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Killian Savoie (12-4, 4.12 ERA)
Mark Roberts (15-5, 2.52 ERA) vs. Tadasu Abe (8-8, 4.17 ERA)
Dan Delgadillo (0-0) vs. Tristan Broun (6-11, 4.54 ERA)

The Caps were stuffed to the brim with left-handed starters. Former Raccoon Tadasu Abe was in fact their only right-hander, surrounded by two former Indians southpaws. There was another ex-Coon in their rotation, although he had been traded as a minor leaguer. Danny Arguello (6-9, 4.15 ERA) had been dealt to the Capitals in 2018 in the ultimately unspectacular and unhelpful Cole Pierson trade.

Delgadillo was not yet on the roster, but would be exchanged with Legleiter on Tuesday, with Legleiter going to come back by September. Meanwhile, there was already a roster move on Monday, as the Coons put Omar Alfaro on the disabled list. The future non-Hall of Famer had suffered a broken thumb a week before his 25th birthday and was likely to miss the rest of the season, just when he had faintly warmed up to major league pitching again… We called up Justin Gerace, that bad apple, once more. This 26-year-old had a .924 OPS in St. Pete, with 14 homers and a .306 clip.

Not that it meant anything in the major leagues… it never had.

Game 1
WAS: SS Obando – 1B Barber – C Lessman – 2B Menth – RF Tachibana – LF Hamilton – CF Leija – 3B E. Adams – P Savoie
POR: 2B Spencer – SS Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – RF Borg – LF Carmona – C Delgado – 3B Bullock – P Legleiter

The Raccoons had Abel Mora thrown out at home to end the first inning, with Luis Leija's arm stronger than reported on Jon Gonzalez' double to center on which we sent Mora all the way from first base. By contrast, with two outs in the top of the third, and with Guillermo Obando on first base, Matt Barber sunk a ball in the depths of centerfield and had an RBI triple outright against Mora's arm for the first run in the game. Legleiter struck out David Lessman, the first of four consecutive dangerous left-handers in that lineup, giving him 5 K through three innings, but also, well, the short end of the stick for now. Or maybe forever. Probably forever. The Coons hit singles here and there, but nothing that would really provoke ecstasy, while the Capitals added to their lead in the fifth inning, which Killian Savoie, that old pest, opened with a blazing leadoff double to leftfield. Obando advanced him, Barber plated him with a sac fly, and for good measure Lessman extended the score to 3-0 with a homer to left-center, his ninth of the year. That was the last inning for Legleiter, who had a hit in the bottom 5th, but also hurt himself on the base paths and had to come out of the game, throwing our September plans into disarray. In deference to our short bench, reliever Justin Hess ran for him and scored on a Mora sac fly, cutting the gap to 3-1, before also having to pitch the sixth inning, which he did scorelessly. The Raccoons further lined up Jimmy Lee (who surrendered another run), Kevin Surginer, and Jonathan Snyder, but Snyder would not pitch in a save situation in the ninth inning – it was more a case of "got nobody else no more". Savoie held the Raccoons shorter than short through eight innings, and Marcus Owens retired Nunley, Bullock, and Tovias in order in the bottom 9th to hand the opener to the guys from DC. 4-1 Capitals. Spencer 2-4; Otis 2-4, 2B;

By Tuesday, Brett O'Dell was cleared to play again, which gave us a full bench as well as three catchers for the first time in a week, and of those three catchers, none was hitting anything much right now.

Game 2
WAS: SS Obando – LF Hamilton – RF Tachibana – C Lessman – 1B Barber – CF Menth – 2B G. Sauceda – 3B E. Adams – P Abe
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Gerace – RF Carmona – SS Stalker – P Roberts

While Mark Roberts vied for six straight and sixteen in total, I was hoping that Tadasu Abe would rekindle that fire of his last Coons days and struggle badly in this ballpark, which didn't exactly happen. Neither team did much through three innings. The Capitals hit a ball or two pretty good, but right at outfielders, and the Coons didn't even manage that, at least until Jon Gonzalez lifted a ball out of here in the fourth inning for a 1-0 lead. Tovias doubled afterwards, but was left on base by a confused bottom of the order. The game remained a pitchers' duel through six innings, with the Capitals getting two hits and eight strikeouts from Roberts, while Abe allowed four hits and whiffed only two, but definitely was in the thick of competition here, and there were some in the crowd that were still fond of the Toner-Abe-Santos days and applauded politely every time Abe rung someone up – not that it happened often. But the home crowd had more fun with their own starting pitcher; Roberts reached 100 pitches at the end of the seventh inning, but when Tim Stalker legged out a 1-out infield single in the bottom 7th, Roberts was retained to bunt, at least until Abe started to miss the zone badly. Stalker took off on the 1-2 and was well safe at second base, and Roberts knocked the 2-2 pitch up the middle and past Gabriel Sauceda into centerfield for an RBI single, doubling his lead to 2-0.

Roberts didn't get much further, though, yielding a leadoff double to Sauceda in the eighth. The runner advanced on Evan Adams' fly to center, and when Bill Adams was announced as pinch-hitter – a right-handed batter – Vince D was called in from the bullpen. Getting to 2-2 on that Adams, he still surrendered the run on a grounder to short, making this a 2-1 game, then conceded a single to Obando. The Coons went to Billy Brotman, who walked PH Luis Leija, but Tsuneyoshi Tachibana grounded out to Gonzalez to end the inning and for the moment kept Roberts' streak alive. Brotman remained in the game with two left-handers due in the ninth, but promptly surrendered a leadoff double to Lessman, a left-hander. Snyder was thus cast into this right mess, with the tying run in scoring position, but for once didn't brittle away. K to Matt Barber, K to Jake Williams, and almost a K to Sauceda, who grounded to Stalker and was thrown out by seven steps to end the game. 2-1 Coons. Roberts 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (16-5) and 2-3, RBI;

How much was this Roberts' and only Roberts' win? The top of the order went 0-for-11, and the rest came close to that… With 16 W, Roberts is now one off the lead in the Continental League and is in the top 3 in all triple crown categories.

Meanwhile we placed Lance Legleiter on the DL with a sore ankle. The minimum 15 days should suffice in this case, and he will still rejoin the rotation, possibly in 6-man form, in September. Dan Delgadillo took the spot in the rotation for now, returning from UCL woes and almost a year on the sidelines. In five starts in AAA, he had gone 3-0 with a 1.11 ERA, but his stuff had been worryingly absent…

Game 3
WAS: SS Obando – 1B Barber – C Lessman – 2B Menth – LF Hamilton – CF Leija – RF J. Stone – 3B G. Sauceda – P Broun
POR: 2B Spencer – SS Otis – CF Borg – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – LF Gerace – RF Carmona – P Delgadillo

Spencer singled, stole second, and scored on Gonzalez' single up the middle in the first inning. That was Spencer's 30th bag of the season, and probably an irrelevant one given how the Capitals abused Delgadillo as a launchpad, plating one run on a sharp 2-out RBI double by Dave Menth in the first inning, and then three more in the second inning. Jason Stone hit a 2-run homer, and another run was unearned on a 2-out Barber single that scored Sauceda, who had reached on an error by Greg Borg. Down 4-1, the Coons had the bases loaded with nobody out in the bottom 2nd after Gerace's soft single, Cookie's sharp single, and Delgadillo reaching base when his bunt was collectively fudged by the Capitals' infielders. Not all of these runners scored; Spencer popped out awfully, and Otis grounded to Sauceda at third base, who tapped the bag to force out Cookie, but couldn't get Otis at first base in time, with Gerace scoring, 4-2. The Raccoons still tied the game, but only on 2-out RBI singles by Borg and Gonzalez after this, with Tovias ultimately grounding out to short.

Four each through two was not quite the definition of a pitchers' duel, although it was always interesting to see who would twitch and cull their guy first. That would ultimately be the Raccoons, with Delgadillo getting pierced for another 2-run homer by Stone, and crawling through five innings with the 6-4 deficit, while Broun managed to shut down the Critters' surge. The Coons wouldn't get another run off him and only got him out of the game after 6.2 innings when Gonzalez singled sharply to center, but was stranded when Tovias grounded out to Menth against another left-hander in Jose Diaz. At that point it was 7-4, with one run scoring in the top 7th against Jimmy Lee, who faced two and retired none, and Billy Brotman couldn't keep everybody on base, but struck out two to end the inning at least. Diaz surrendered a pinch-hit double to Tim Stalker in Nunley's spot in the bottom 8th and the Coons brought him around to get within two runs, but ran out of luck against Marcus Owens in the ninth, when their 1-2-3 batters went down just like that. 7-5 Capitals. Gonzalez 4-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Stalker (PH) 1-1, 2B; O'Dell (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (68-54) @ Indians (56-64) – August 22-24, 2025

The Raccoons were one game away from sealing the season series with the Indians, holding a 9-3 edge as they entered Indy for this weekend 3-game set. The Arrowheads ranked last in offense with a paltry 3.7 runs per game, but had a respectable rotation that ranked third in ERA in the Continental League. Of course, much of the good things they did was undone by their crummy, 4+ ERA bullpen, but there were at least beginnings of a decent team recognizable.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (6-6, 3.22 ERA) vs. Mark Matthews (8-7, 4.21 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (6-7, 3.85 ERA) vs. John McInerney (0-2, 3.61 ERA)
Jack Sander (9-8, 3.88 ERA) vs. Ernesto Lozano (6-12, 3.69 ERA)

There were some injury woes for their staff, though, including SP's Jason Clements and Victor Arevalo, which had washed reliever McInerney into the rotation. He was the only southpaw we would get, again gently avoiding Tom Shumway (11-4, 2.40 ERA).

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Gerace – RF Carmona – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
IND: SS Pizano – RF Faulk – 2B Ri. Mendez – LF Folk – CF Linnell – C R. Vargas – 1B Staebell – 3B Claros – P Matthews

Rico had to bat in his own lead, so far nothing new, driving a 2-out single up the middle in the second inning to chase home Justin Gerace from second base. Gutierrez' control started out iffy, though, and he walked two Indians in the first inning already. But why complain? The Indians had no hits in the first three innings, and in the top of the fourth, with Elias Tovias on third base and two outs, they walked Tim Stalker intentionally (like in the second inning) and Gutierrez shrugged and chucked another one up the middle for another RBI and a 2-0 lead. The Indians broke into the H column in the bottom of that inning with a 1-out single by despicable ex-Elk Brody Folk, and Gutierrez walked Richard Linnell right after that, but Abel Mora remained master of Ricardo Vargas' soft fly to center and John Staebell grounded out right to Spencer to end the inning anyway.

All was well through five, and the sixth saw the bottom half of the order hard at work again. Tovias drew a leadoff walk, while Gerace singled softly to right. The runners advanced on a wild pitch by Matthews, then scored both on Cookie's single up the middle that probably wouldn't have scored anybody without the wild pitch. Cookie was caught stealing and Matthews retired Stalker and Gutierrez to get out of the inning, now down 4-0. Matthews' line would absorb another three runs in the seventh inning. He shuffled the bags full, then left the game after Tovias' sac fly. Tony Lino replaced him, walked Gerace, then allowed another 2-run single to Cookie. With the lead ample now and Rico not exactly getting pushed around, we let him deal with the late innings despite an elevated pitch count. Brody Folk hit a 2-out double in the eighth, but Gutierrez remained in and whiffed PH Jason Benedetto. He began the ninth on 110 pitches, but got Vargas on a bouncer on the first pitch, bringing up two left-handed batters. Staebell grounded out to Spencer on the first pitch, too, but Claros lived longer: three pitches, before grounding out to Jon Gonzalez. 7-0 Furballs! Gerace 2-3, BB; Carmona 2-4, 4 RBI; Gutierrez 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (7-6) and 2-4, 2 RBI;

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – SS Otis – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – C O'Dell – 3B Nunley – RF Borg – LF Gerace – P Chavez
IND: SS Pizano – 1B Ri. Mendez – RF T. Ruiz – C T. Perez – CF Linnell – 2B Folk – LF Faulk – 3B Claros – P McInerney

Offense was slow to develop in an unlikely pitchers' duel although Chavez had left his good stuff in the hotel and made **** up as he went, spilling two hits, two walks, and a run through five innings while whiffing a pair, which had him on the short end against the spot starter McInerney, who had a 4-hit shutout, whiffing four after a qualifying distance. He couldn't retire Matt Otis, though. The Coons' veteran backup infielder was 2-for-2 before drawing a leadoff walk in the sixth inning, maybe the start of the counterattack? Mora singled just past Raul Claros to put the go-ahead run on base. Gonzalez flew out to deep center, and then O'Dell smacked a ball hard to the left side, into Claros' ready fangs, and around the horn for a double play to kill the inning. By contrast, Chavez fell apart in style in the bottom of the inning, with a neat sequence that saw a leadoff walk to Rich Mendez, then a booming homer by Tony Ruiz. Tony Perez singled to left, but strong defense kept him from scoring as well, with Mora making a particularly good play on Linnell's drive in the inning. The Coons looked somewhat defeated after that, although they got rid of Chavez via pinch-hitting in the top of the seventh *after* Justin Gerace had rocked McInerney's little world with a 2-run homer into the upper reaches of the leftfield stands. Nunley had been on base, and the gap was back to a single run. The Arrowheads kept McInerney in the game until with two outs in the eighth, with Nunely and Borg aboard and Gerace trotting up again. Right-hander Jim Cushing was put into the game with an 0.92 ERA in 29.1 innings. That didn't help him against the scruffy Gerace, who cracked a single to center that allowed Nunley to score, and this game was tied. Tovias batted for Ricky Ohl here, but his drive to left was caught on the track by A.J. Faulk, ending the inning. The joy over not losing for the moment didn't live long. Vince D and Brotman couldn't stack up against the middle of the order in the bottom of the eighth. Vince put Ruiz on with a double, Perez with a single, and Billy had little to work with as he came in with the go-ahead run on third base and one out eventually. Brody Folk gave Indy a new lead with a single, Faulk walked, but Claros struck out to strand three and leave the Critters with a fighting chance in the ninth against Nick Salinas (56 IP, 64 K). Spencer got on with a leadoff walk, but didn't get far before Otis smacked a ball at Mario Pizano for a double play. Mora went down on strikes afterwards. 4-3 Indians. Otis 2-4, BB; Nunley 3-4; Gerace 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Well, if all your production comes from the #8 spot all the time… maybe I should put Gonzalez there…

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – 1B Gonzalez – C Tovias – LF Carmona – SS Bullock – RF Borg – P Sander
IND: SS Pizano – 1B Ri. Mendez – LF Cooper – RF T. Ruiz – C T. Perez – CF Linnell – 2B Folk – 3B Claros – P Lozano

Jack Sander remained a non-contributor, falling behind 3-0 on a Tony Ruiz homer right in the first inning. One of the runs was unearned after another of Mora's clumsiness attacks on Andrew Cooper's liner to shallow center, but it was still a 390-footer that a blind guy could hear going out right off the bat. The rest of the team wasn't any better. Lozano whiffed five and was perfect through five innings, while the Indians scored an additional run on another error by Mora, this time on a wild, wild throw in the bottom of the fifth.

The perfect game went out the window in the sixth with a walk drawn by Daniel Bullock and Greg Borg getting drilled real good, but the Coons failed to get anybody across despite two on and no outs. Sander bunted, Spencer popped out, and Mora's fly to right was caught by Ruiz. Sander did not make it through six, shuffeling the bases full with one out in that inning. Lozano grounded back to the mound, with Sander knocking out Perez at home plate before yielding for Kevin Surginer, who K'ed Pizano to strand three. None of this dispelled the no-hit threat the Coons were under; in the seventh, Nunley grounded out to second, Gonzalez grounded out to short, and Tovias knocked one up the middle that fell in no man's land – gone the no-hitter! Tovias was left on by Cookie, but Lozano was then knocked out by a rain shower that sent the game into a delay for almost an hour. That put Dave Priest into the eighth inning, the former starter, and he promptly surrendered a 2-run homer to pinch-hitter Justin Gerace in the inning, leading to Nick Salinas facing the "meat" of the Coons' order in the ninth. Nunley singled to center, bringing up the tying run. Gonzalez struck out. Tovias struck out. Cookie fouled out. 4-2 Indians. Bullock 1-2, BB; Gerace (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI;

In other news

August 19 – LVA SP Samuel McMullen (10-10, 4.27 ERA) joins the 200-wins club with a complete game effort, allowing six hits and whiffing as many in a 7-2 win over the Denver Gold Sox. The 36-year-old McMullen, who was Pitcher of the Year in 2016 and an All Star seven times, is 200-134 with a 3.41 ERA and 2,565 K for his career. He led either league in wins once, and led the CL in ERA in 2016.
August 21 – OCT SP Andy Palomares (15-8, 3.62 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout over the Stars, whiffing eight batters in a 2-0 victory.
August 22 – The Miners break a 7-7 tie with seven runs in the ninth inning for a 14-7 win over the Buffaloes. PIT SS/3B Brian Tyer (.303, 4 HR, 39 RBI) has three base hits and 5 RBI in the game.
August 24 – PIT SP Mario Alva (12-9, 3.88 ERA) spins a 3-hit gem in a 5-0 over the Stars.

Complaints and stuff

If not for Justin Friggin' Gerace, the Raccoons would have no runs in the last two games. Well, it's still an 0-2 tally from those two games either way, but they had five runs between Saturday and Sunday, and Gerace drove in all of them…

You wouldn't have thought about it in April or May or June, but Mark Roberts suddenly has a triple crown case with a 16-5 record, 2.46 ERA, and 170 K. None of this leads the league, but all of this is reasonably close to make a move in September.

Meanwhile Rico, who won 16 last year, has almost the same ERA as in '25 (up by .1 ER), but struggles to reach double digits. Although Friday's shutout was neat. Came out struggling, and gradually righted himself to go the distance AND drove in two runs himself, and the first two at that. Those are qualities of a demi-ace!

And with team achievements increasingly unlikely to attain (although the Titans could still drink the Kool-Aid, though … well… three-time defending champions don't just implode), we can focus on individual achievements instead, like Jarod Spencer chasing the stolen base title in the Continental League. He is only a couple o' bags behind NYC Lance Douglas now, and he was also relatively close to the batting title until a terrible Indians series (1-for-12).

Fun Fact: The most recent Raccoon to win a batting title was Cookie Carmona in 2017, clipping away at a .344 pace for the vaunted distinction.

The list is not too short when it comes to all-time batting champions in the brown shirt. David Brewer batted .359 to clinch the title in 1995. Tetsu Osanai won three batting titles in Portland, in 1986 (his triple crown season), 1988, and 1989. That is all, but that is five titles in total. Could be worse!