[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 4-6, 2028

For six years, the Raccoons had never won the season series against the Titans; the 9-9 tie from last season was their best effort in a long time against the Boston outlet that had somehow moved into the lead with the most rings ever in this decade… and had stomped the Raccoons while doing so.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (0-0) vs. Jeremy Waite (0-0)
Rin Nomura (0-0) vs. Dustin Wingo (0-0)
Dan Delgadillo (0-0) vs. Guillermo Regalado (0-0)

Right-left-right to start the season; unfortunately we get the sturdy part of the rotation and not the soft underbelly behind these three, Chris Munroe (a Raccoon more than a decade ago) and Lorenzo Viamontes.

Game 1
BOS: LF W. Vega – SS S. Williams – 1B Gasso – RF Kuramoto – 3B Corder – 2B R. West – CF Reichardt – C Leonard – P Waite
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Tovias – CF Mora – 3B Nunley – P Roberts

The season started… in some way? Roberts walked Willie Vega on four pitches, but Matt Nunley turned a strong double play on Stephen Williams, then also lunged and caught a Gus Gasso drive, but then was not seen again by the second inning, having been replaced for reasons of discomfort by Omar Millan playing left, with Hereford moving to the hot corner. And something surely wasn't right with Roberts, either. The first time through the order he struck out nobody and walked three in total, including Adrian Reichardt and Keith Leonard to begin the third inning. Waite bunted them over, but Willie Vega whiffed hacking and then Millan caught up with a Williams drive. Somehow though he also started the scoring for Portland, sinking a ball into the right-center gap for a leadoff double in the bottom 3rd, after which Hereford singled him in with one out after Ramos grounded out and Tim Stalker got hit by Waite. Mark Roberts was due to lead off the fifth inning as well and hit a single to center this time. Ramos also singled, and Stalker's groundout advanced them to scoring position. Hereford lined out to Adam Corder, and Harenberg failed as well (just like the previous go-around), flying out to Vega.

Roberts became stuck in the sixth inning for lots of pitches early (although he walked nobody past the third inning). Dan McLin replaced him with Corder at the plate, two outs, and Gus Gasso on first after singling earlier – that was the tying run in a 1-0 game. The tying run reached second base on a Corder single, but Rhett West then struck out, keeping Roberts' W alive, but the seventh inning offered an even worse jam. Reichardt remained unretired, slapping a leadoff single against McLin, and then Jeff Kearney allowed a single to Leonard. Waite bunted them into scoring position, but Vega grounded back to Kearney to keep them pinned while making the second out. Ricky Ohl now entered in a double switch that also put Magallanes in centerfield rather than Mora, and the Colombian made the play on PH Giovanni James' soft fly to shallow center, keeping the Titans on base. It was their last threat in the game – the Coons' Ohl and Josh Boles squeezed them out for the remainder of the game. 1-0 Critters! Harenberg 2-4; Roberts 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (1-0) and 2-2, 2B;

There are a lot of things I did not like about this game, but maybe I can blame a small sample size for now and we - … yes, Mena, what is it? – About Nunley? – He did what??

By Wednesday morning, the Raccoons placed Matt Nunley on the DL with a broken fibula. That is a leg bone, I am told. I am also told that he will not be back before July.

Well, umm-I-guess… I guess we have to make a roster move?

With Nunley shunted to the DL, the Raccoons brought up 29-year-old 3B/OF Jaden Booker, a longtime Bayhawk that had signed a minor league contract *the same day*. He batted right-handed though, which was not perfect, but what ever was the **** perfect around here?

Booker had batted .207 (…) with no homers (…) for the Cyclones in 2027.

Game 2
BOS: LF W. Vega – SS S. Williams – 1B Gasso – RF Kuramoto – 3B Corder – 2B R. West – CF Reichardt – C Leonard – P Wingo
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – 3B Hereford – C Tovias – CF Mora – LF Spencer – P Nomura

The Titans threatened quite early to sit on Rin Nomura's face all game long, with Corder (walk) and West (double) reaching scoring position with nobody out in the second inning. At that point, Reichardt lined out to Ramos, Leonard grounded out to Harenberg, and Wingo popped out to keep them stranded. Portland would take another lead in the third inning, this time with a leadoff single by Jarod Spencer, who was bunted over by Nomura, then scored on Ramos' single to right-center to put the Raccoons ahead, 1-0. Ramos moved up to second base on Yasuhiro Kuramoto's throw home, but was then stranded by Stalker and Gomez. In a sensational move, the Raccoons scored ANOTHER run right in the NEXT inning – Hereford doubled and moved around to score on Tovias' single and Mora's groundout.

That aside it was another slow game for both offensive arrays. The Raccoons' Nomura nursed the 2-0 lead through six, but glitched in the seventh. Corder walked, West singled, and then Tovias also chipped in something, a passed ball that put the runners in scoring position with one out for Reichardt, the old war axe. Ramos contained Reichardt's bouncer, allowing the lead run to score, but Leonard also grounded out to Stalker, and the Coons remained 2-1 ahead. Nomura completed eight, retiring James, Vega, and Williams in order in his last inning, and Josh Boles did the same to Gasso, Kuramoto, and Corder in the ninth. 2-1 Coons. Hereford 2-4, 2B; Tovias 2-3; Spencer 1-2, BB; Nomura 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

First place is first place. End of discussion.

Game 3
BOS: CF Reichardt – LF W. Vega – RF Good – 1B Gasso – 2B R. West – 3B Corder – C James – SS Spataro – P Regalado
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – 3B Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Tovias – CF Mora – LF Millan – P Delgadillo

Adrian Reichardt led off with a single, stole second base, then moved for home on Matt Good's 1-out single, but Mora made a dandy play on the ball there and fired it home in time to kill the nagging Titan before he could touch the plate, and Delgadillo had a scoreless first once Gasso grounded out to short. Instead, the Raccoons would score first again. Alberto Ramos opened their hitting game with a triple into the rightfield corner, then coasted home when Rich Hereford banged a fastball over the rightfield fence; in the third, they teamed up again: Ramos hit a 1-out double, this time to left, then scored on a Hereford single to make it 3-0. Despite their great success (makes unsure motion), at this point the Critters still had an outfield batting 0-for-21. Gomez hit a single in the fourth, and Tovias also reached base with a walk, but then Mora flew out and Millan smacked into a double play.

Meanwhile, the Titans were despairing. The fifth inning began with a pair of singles off Delgadillo, Giovanni James going to second and Keith Spataro to first base. Regalado then bunted badly, getting James forced out, and when Spataro tried to nip third base with Reichardt at the plate, Tovias threw him out for the second red dot at third base in this inning. Reichardt ended up flying out to Millan to end the inning. No add agony to their misery, Rich Hereford then continued to put the game away single-handedly, smacking a second long ball off Regalado in the fifth inning. This time, too, somebody was on base. Tim Stalker had reached via the walk, had stolen second base, and then crossed home plate ahead of Hereford, who was now responsible of all RBI's in the Coons' 5-0 lead.

The Titans did get on the board in the sixth, where Delgadillo lost command pretty much completely and put Vega on with a leadoff walk, then Good with a single that sent Vega to third base with nobody out. Gasso popped out, but Rhett West hit a sac fly to center. While that was all for Boston in the inning, it was also all for Delgadillo after six innings, and the pen would get involved. They were neither stellar nor efficient, but they yielded no base hits to the Titans in the last three innings, although Kearney, Brotman, and McLin all walked a guy. But that was really it for Boston – the Raccoons coasted to a Rich Hereford-fueled victory and opened the season with a sweep of the dreaded Titans! 5-1 Furballs!! Ramos 2-4, 3B, 2B; Hereford 3-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Delgadillo 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (3-0) vs. Falcons (2-2) – April 7-9, 2028

It was the other way round with the Falcons – the Raccoons had not *lost* a season series to them in five years, and had gone 15-3 in the last two seasons combined, 7-2 in 2027. The Falcons had split a set with the Thunder, and had put 20 runs into each basket, but it was too early to say whether they were going to be less dreadful this season.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (0-0) vs. Alex Lopez (0-0)
George James (0-0) vs. Jesus Chavez (0-1, 9.53 ERA)
Mark Roberts (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Mike Fernandez (1-0, 3.38 ERA)

Three right-handers on offer here; the Raccoons would do what they always did and try to give everybody a start in the first week of the season anyway. Besides the two leftover starting pitchers, Jonathan Fleischer and Danny Morales had not seen action at all so far.

Game 1
CHA: LF Banfi – C Cooper – 1B Fowlkes – CF Salto – 3B Rolland – SS Folk – RF Camps – 2B Muller – P A. Lopez
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Leal – 3B Booker – CF Magallanes – P Gutierrez

Rico Gutierrez' first start of the season was one for the bin, but it was not his fault. All he yielded was a first-inning double to Pat Fowlkes, then a fourth-inning double to Matt Cooper, and then torrential rain washed him away. At that point, the Raccoons led 1-0 thanks to a Jaden Booker triple and Juan Magallanes sac fly, while when play resumed after almost two hours Cooper was still at third base with two outs and Jaylen Rolland batting. Long man Fleischer was in the game now, gave up a game-tying single to Rolland, walked Brody Folk on four pitches, and then was 3-1 against Juan Camps before the impatient Falcon grounded out to Booker. Alex Lopez was also gone, replaced by Nate Ziemke, a right-hander, so neither starter got much out of the ordeal.

Jaden Booker had been a defensive replacement in the Titans series, and had tripled in his first Coons at-bat in the third inning. He one-upped that in the fifth, cracking a solo jack to left-center off Ziemke to break the 1-1 tie. And for a while it looked like this might actually turn out to be enough – the Raccoons squeezed Fleischer for 51 pitches and 3.1 innings, and after the rocky start to his outing he got the Critters clean through seven innings, and what more can you ask for from your scruffy long man then bringing up Ohl and Boles? Well, besides another run or two? But everybody was fighting the mud at this point and at one point John Muller was almost swallowed by a quagmire at second base, but was pulled out in time by Folk and Fowlkes. Ricky Ohl axed the top of the order without much trouble in the eighth, Omar Millan reached base in the bottom 8th, but Spencer spanked into a double play before Ramos doubled with two outs. Nothing came of that, either, and then it was on Boles – and he blew it. Graciano Salto's leadoff jack tied the game at two, and after a Camps single, Jason Carmichaal hit a 2-out blast to right to put the Falcons on top. Barend Kok slugged a double off Boles before he was hauled in, disgraced, with Surginer ending the inning. Righty George Barnett then faced the Coons in the bottom 9th, retired Hereford and Harenberg on grounders, then served up a homer to Rafael Gomez that cut the gap to 4-3. Well, too little, too – wow, mamma! Armando Leal with a pole scratcher in rightfield, and we were tied!!

Soon after that, we were also embroiled in extra innings. Surginer did the 10th, then was hit for by Morales (leaving only George James uninvolved this season), and Billy Brotman took over, but walked two against an entirely right-handed lineup at this point before Carlos Padilla pinch-hit and struck out to end the top 11th. The Raccoons filled them up against lefty Danny Burgess in the bottom 11th; Stalker grounded out, but Hereford hit a 1-out single to center, stole second, but Harenberg struck out whilst Rafael Gomez was walked intentionally. Leal was walked unintentionally, bringing up Jaden Booker with three on and two down. He hit a long drive to center, but couldn't beat Juan Camps – the inning ended, and another one broke soon. Brotman was none the sharper in the 12th and the Falcons broke through with a Cooper single, another walk to Salto, and finally Rolland's 2-out RBI single before a fly to Gomez ended the inning. Bottom 12th, Burgess struck out Millan, then got PH Elias Tovias to ground out. Ramos dropped a single into left, Stalker squeezed a single past Brody Folk. Here came Hereford, resultless in this game after driving in five in the previous one. The 0-2 pitch NICKED him, and the bags were now loaded for Kevin Harenberg. One to tie, two to win, and a grounder to Tony Casillas to lose. 5-4 Falcons. Ramos 4-6, 2B; Stalker 2-6; Booker 2-5, HR, 3B, RBI; Fleischer 3.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K;

This game helped nothing, in no way.

Game 2
CHA: 3B Rolland – C Cooper – RF Kok – 1B Fowlkes – CF Camps – SS Folk – LF N. Nelson – 2B Casillas – P J. Chavez
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Spencer – 3B Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Tovias – CF Mora – LF Millan – P James

George James threw ten pitches before the first mound visit to see whether he had pulse at all. In that time, Rolland and Cooper hit singles and both scored on a long Barend Kok double, with Kok then making it to third base on a wild pitch. Fowlkes' groundout brought in that runner, too, and James walked Camps and allowed a single to Folk before the inning would be over in some fashion, down 3-0. That's what we need after 9.1 pointless innings from the pen – a ****ty outing by a starter! Get your **** together!

While James was certainly bad enough to warrant an early exit, the Coons could not afford something like that. So he had to keep soldiering on while the Raccoons did precious little, a solo homer by Rafael Gomez in the second inning aside. The score was somehow still 3-1 despite plenty of traffic when the Raccoons had Mora on first base and the pitcher's slot up with one out in the bottom 5th. Nope, he's gotta bat – the only fresh guys were Kearney, and this was still a very much right-handed lineup, and McLin. To be precise, James bunted, and to be more precise, badly so. Mora was forced out before a 2-out single by Ramos and a walk drawn by Spencer loaded the bases for Rich Hereford, team leader with 6 RBI, who picked up a seventh ribbie when the ex-Coon Chavez spiked a 3-2 pitch in the dirt. Harenberg flipped the score with a 2-run single to right-center, and then Gomez was retired by a hustling Kok in shallow right, but somehow James was now in for a 4-3 win that he even defended in the sixth inning against the top of the order. Tim Stalker batted for him in the bottom 6th, grounding out to end that inning with Mora on first base.

With Boles unavailable after a long and gruesome outing, the Coons saw their best chances in sending McLin out for two innings and then putting Ohl in the ninth, with Kearney maybe coming in against a left-hander in between. It didn’t work out at all. McLin got through the seventh, then yielded a leadoff double to Fowlkes and a 2-run homer to ****ing ex-Elk Brody Folk to have the Falcons flip the game right back. But that was nothing about the good beating that the Falcons gave Ricky Ohl. Three hits, two walks, four runs in the ninth, crowned by Nate Nelson's bases-clearing double. 9-4 Falcons. Ramos 2-5; Gomez 2-4, HR, RBI; Mora 2-3, BB; Booker (PH) 1-1, 2B;

There was a change in the Falcons' pitching assignment for the Sunday game, with left-hander Chris Rountree (0-0, 11.25 ERA) taking the start instead of the right-handed Fernandez.

Game 3
CHA: LF Banfi – C Cooper – 1B Fowlkes – RF Kok – CF Salto – 3B Rolland – SS Folk – 2B Casillas – P Rountree
POR: SS Stalker – RF Booker – 3B Hereford – 1B Gomez – C Tovias – 2B Spencer – CF Mora – LF Morales – P Roberts

Rake'Em Rich hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, having found Tim Stalker on base as well as Chris Rountree's fastball to be wanting from the pitcher's perspective. While the Falcons made up a run right away in unearned fashion thanks to singles by Rolland and Folk as well as, mainly, a throwing error by Booker in the top 2nd, the Coons had runners on the corners with one out in the bottom 2nd, then had Roberts put the ball to short for a double play, then had two more runners aboard in the third, but Tovias grounded out to Rolland. So it was a 2-1 game in the middle innings, with no less than six vicious flies hit off Roberts in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings combined. One fell for a double, none reached the fence, and the outfielders were doing splendid work because the Falcons didn't make up the run, while the Coons didn't make up their mind about maybe poking Rountree some more until Rich Hereford came to the plate leading off the bottom 6th and hit a 420-foot blast to left-center for his fourth homer of the season, 3-1! The Critters followed that up with a Gomez single to right, then a Tovias fly to center that seemed to sink into Salto's glove until it beat the defender by mere inches and fell for a double. Gomez could not score because of the initially apparent catch and the Coons had two in scoring position with nobody out. Spencer rammed an RBI single through the left side, 4-1, before Mora struck out. Danny Morales got his first Coons RBI with a sac fly to Kok, 5-1, and then Roberts kept the inning going with a single to left. Rountree threw a wild 0-2 pitch to advance the runners, but Stalker still ended up grounding out to Folk to end the inning. Everything looked awesome, Roberts had a nice seventh, and then it didn't look awesome again when he had a cringy eighth. Three deep flies in a row, one of which went out (Cooper), and one of which fell for a double (Fowlkes). When Kok popped out, the Coons brought a fresh right-hander, Kevin Surginer entering in a double switch as we were fully intent to have him end the game with four outs. Salto grounded out to end the inning before things got weird again; Surginer's entry ended Hereford's day, with Booker moving to third and Millan entering in rightfield, batting ninth. In the bottom 8th, and against different relievers, the Coons got a Spencer single, a pinch-hit single from Harenberg, then two outs, before Ramos hit an RBI single off George Barnett in Stalker's spot. When Booker also hit an RBI single, Surginer came up, but the Raccoons were not going to fudge around with this one. Surginer went to bat, dutifully struck out, then put the Falcons away in order. 7-2 Coons. Ramos (PH) 1-1, RBI; Hereford 3-3, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Gomez 2-4; Spencer 2-4, RBI; Harenberg (PH) 1-1; Roberts 7.2 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-0) and 1-3;

In other news

April 3 – Opening Day ends soon for DAL SP Matt Diduch (0-0, 3.00 ERA), who leaves his assignment early and will miss three months with a herniated disc.
April 7 – Salem utility Raimondo Odescalchi (.250, 0 HR, 0 RBI) might miss most of the season with a broken kneecap.
April 8 – LAP SP Dave Christiansen (2-0, 1.59 ERA) spins a 2-hit shutout against the Rebels. The Pacifics win 9-0.
April 9 – CIN 3B/SS Ricardo Rangel (.464, 0 HR, 4 RBI) goes 4-for-6 with 3 RBI in the Cyclones' 11-4 drubbing of the Stars.

Complaints and stuff

I keep watching that replay of Nunley shagging Gasso's liner and how he lands awkwardly, but then walks off the field unaided. I keep watching that and I still can not quite grasp it, but as you can see, he's laid up there on the couch, casted from thigh to toe. There is nothing quite like a 37-year-old man with a pink long leg cast. He picked the color himself. (Matt Nunley waves while holding a cup of cocoa in the other paw)

Word on Mark Roberts is that his arm feels heavy and when he winds up and tosses the ball it feels like a few pounds worth of sand grinding his bones and muscles. Which is dandy, I say, because what better problems could we even have? (rummages through the closet with beverages) Where is … Maud! Maud!! – Where is the glycol??

Yoo-chul Kim went unclaimed, refused his assignment to the minor leagues, and in the end had to be released. That was not such a good trade until now. Maybe Billy Ramm will make us forget this ever happened at some point down the road.

Rich Hereford was outrageously snubbed for Player of the Week. .478 with 4 HR and 10 RBI was not good enough for the electorate. They picked the Bayhawks' Jon Correa instead, who batted .524 with 4 HR and 7 RBI. No, Maud, we will write an incensed letter anyway!

Fun Fact: On April 3, 1996, Indy's Dan George tossed the earliest no-hitter in a season when he held the Crusaders hitless in a 3-0 victory.

George, then 23, would have an 18-year career and 218 wins and 2,516 ERA, but didn't get much love on the Hall of Fame ballot when he appeared in 2016 and dropped off right away. Maybe that 3.71 ERA was detrimental. The Crusaders no-hitter was his first ever complete game back then, in 56 attempts.