[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Indians (0-0) – April 2-4, 2029

Opening Day brought the Furballs to Indy for an opening 3-game set against a team that they had beaten 13 times in 2028 and against whom they had taken the season series for six years in a row. It had also been six years since the Indians’ last winning season, and they had not made the playoffs since 2006, but they had come up second in offseason WAR gains according to BNN and were ready to turn this struggling camp of tents around.

Projected matchups:
Mark Roberts (0-0) vs. John McInerney (0-0)
Tom Shumway (0-0) vs. Andy Bressner (0-0)
Rico Gutierrez (0-0) vs. David Saccoccio (0-0)

But that rotation of theirs still didn’t impress me. We would see a southpaw for Opening Day, then two right-handers after that.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – RF Gomez – LF Hereford – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – CF Mora – C Tovias – P Roberts
IND: SS Pizano – 1B Jon Gonzalez – CF Suhay – RF Plunkett – C Kennett – 2B Ryder – 3B Roesler – LF Aleman – P McInerney

The Indians were ready to face Roberts, who allowed long fly balls to the first four batters he faced, including yielding back-to-back bombs to Ben Suhay and Mike Plunkett right in that first inning. The Indians went up 3-0 by the second inning, which Zachary Ryder led off with a single, stole second, and reached third base on Tovias’ throwing error. Alex Aleman plated that runner with a groundout. The Raccoons in the meantime had been on base with a leadoff walk to Ramos in the first inning, then didn’t reach again until Matt Jamieson reached on an error in the FIFTH. Jamieson was picked off, just before Abel Mora hit a triple to center, a 2-out knock in the fifth that was actually our first base hit in the game and season. Roberts got stuck in the bottom 5th, strafed for three more base hits by Suhay, Plunkett, and Elliott Kennett, and left with two outs, runners on the corners, and already down 4-0. Kevin Surginer came in, threw a wild pitch to score Plunkett, then gave up a 2-piece to Zachary Ryder that buried the Coons by seven. And the most depressing Opening Day game in memory was far from over; Nick Derks pitched two clean innings in the sixth and seventh, then was retained for the eighth and was completely blasted out of the contest by retiring none of the first four batters he faced in the inning. He plated Kennett with a wild pitch, then got pounded with a 3-run homer by Alex Aleman. The Coons were shut out by McInerney into the ninth inning, and he could have finished the job despite a leadoff single by Rafael Gomez and a walk issued to Rich Hereford if he hadn’t thrown away Daniel Rocha’s 1-out grounder in Harenberg’s spot. That one filled the bases for Mora, who hit a 2-run double to right-center while also hurting his knee and requiring replacement by Magallanes to pinch-run. Jose “Butch” Diaz replaced McInerney, allowed another run to score on Tovias’ groundout, a RBI double to Matt Nunley, a walk to Ramos, and finally got Tim Stalker to fly out to right. 11-4 Indians. Mora 2-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Well. That sucked. At least it can hardly get worse.

The Druid advises me that Mora has a mild case of knee tendinitis and should be held out of at least the next game. No harsh damage, though.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – 1B Harenberg – LF Hereford – RF Gomez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – CF Magallanes – P Shumway
IND: SS Pizano – 1B Jon Gonzalez – CF Suhay – RF Plunkett – C Kennett – 2B Ryder – 3B Roesler – LF Aleman – P Bressner

Tom Shumway’s appearance against his first major league team began with a triple yielded to Mario Pizano, but the Coons stranded that runner on first base, actually. Jon Gonzalez popped out to shallow center, Ben Suhay whiffed, and Mike Plunkett grounded out to Nunley. Bottom 2nd, Zachary Ryder walked, moved up on a Mike Roesler groundout, then with two outs reached third base on Aleman’s infield single. Oh well, at least the pitcher came up – Shumway had him at 1-2, then allowed a clean RBI single to right. Pizano grounded out to strand two, but this season started with CONSIDERABLE horror. Shumway led off the third with a single to right-center that Plunkett overcharged for an error that put the tying run at second base. Ramos singled to right, putting them on the corners, and then Stalker fouled out, Harenberg popped out, and Hereford bounced one to Jon Gonzalez to strand the runners.

The Raccoons stranded runners in scoring position in each of the next two innings, and there were also enough tears shed by the laughing baseball gods for a 30-minute rain delay somewhere in between. The bottom 5th saw Shumway unravel with a leadoff single by Aleman, who was bunted over by Bressner. Pizano reached on Nunley error before Jon Gonzalez doubled home the runners with a wallbanger in left, then scored on Suhay’s single to right. Shumway somehow made it through six but left in a 4-0 hole that grew to 5-0 against Jonathan Fleischer before the Raccoons accidentally scored a run in the eighth off the otherwise dominant, yet routinely unimpressive Bressner, putting Hereford and Gomez on the corners before Elias Tovias hit a sac fly. That was already all the Coons amounted to. They got Magallanes and Gerster on base against Antonio Quintana in the ninth, but the game ended when Harenberg grounded out to the pitcher. 5-1 Indians. Ramos 2-4; Gomez 3-4;

Guys? Winter is over! Stop hibernating!

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – CF Mora – LF Hereford – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – 3B Nunley – C Rocha – P Gutierrez
IND: SS Pizano – 1B Jon Gonzalez – CF Suhay – RF Plunkett – C Kennett – 2B Ryder – 3B Roesler – LF Aleman – P Saccoccio

Wrap your head around that – the Raccoons SCORED FIRST. Ramos led off the game with a single, stole second (#1 of hopefully a great many this year), moved up on Stalker’s fly, and scored on Abel Mora’s sac fly. We then waited for Rico Gutierrez to make the same harsh impact with the Indians’ predominantly right-handed lineup that had already devoured two sterling southpaws laden with accolades in this series, but that didn’t happen at all. Rico was not dominant, but struck out three and allowed only two base hits in covering the first five innings, while nursing the tender 1-0 lead and while the Raccoons were still laboring on a second base hit of their own in this game; they had none after the initial Ramos single until Abel Mora singled with two outs in the top of the sixth… Hereford flew out to Plunkett to end the inning, dropping to .100 for the season; still better than Harenberg and Tovias, though…

Harenberg knocked his first base hit in the seventh, 1-out single to right that came after Rafael Gomez hit a double… and was thrown out between second and third base. Great, now they added early-season stupidity to early-season breathlessness! At least Rico did nothing stupid all the way to the eighth inning, when he put the tying run aboard when he dropped Harenberg’s feed at first base. Aleman reached on the 1-out error that ended Rico’s day, as the Coons sent out Ricky Ohl against right-handed PH Edgar Paiz. Ricky K’ed his man, and when left-hander Trent Herlihy came out to bat for Pizano, Billy Brotman was assigned to him. Aleman however stole second to improve the Indians’ lot before Herlihy ended up flying out to Hereford anyway. The Raccoons failed to tack on an insurance run in the ninth despite a leadoff single by Mora, and thus it was Josh Boles all on his own in his debut, facing the 2-3-4 batters. The “nothing works” mantra refused to dissipate with a 1-out single by Suhay and a 2-out double by Kennett that put the tying and winning runs in scoring position for Zachary Ryder, who was at .400 in the early going; also a switch-hitter. Boles stayed in, Ryder flew to shallow center, Mora showed his knee was well and made the catch on the run. 1-0 Blighters. Mora 2-3, RBI; Harenberg 1-2, BB; Gutierrez 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

We had Thursday off on the way to San Francisco, which gave us a lot of time to analyze this terrifically horrendous first series before we’d go to a ballpark that was routinely hostile to the team… there was just an overall vibe to the place at the Bay that made me envision a 1-5 start to a title defense season as I glumly stared out of the window on the plane.

Raccoons (1-2) @ Bayhawks (1-2) – April 6-8, 2029

Despite putting up five runs per game in their first set against the Knights, the Bayhawks had the same pale 1-2 record than the Critters right now, which had to do with starting pitchers getting blown up. Huh! San Francisco had claimed the season series for two years in a row, with the Critters winning only three games against them in 2028.

Projected matchups:
Dan Delgadillo (0-0) vs. Alex Lopez (0-0)
Billy Ramm (0-0) vs. Gilberto Rendon (0-0)
Mark Roberts (0-1, 9.64 ERA) vs. Matt Huf (1-0, 2.57 ERA)

Three righties on offer.

…but for starters, the opener was rained out on Friday and we got a double-header scheduled for Saturday. Oh the suspense of how this would screw us down the road …!

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – CF Mora – LF Hereford – RF Gomez – 1B Harenberg – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – P Delgadillo
SFB: CF Hawthorne – 3B M. Martin – 1B Caraballo – RF C. Martinez – 2B D. Cobb – SS Pulido – LF E. Rendon – C Pizzo – P A. Lopez

The Coons plated a run in the top 1st again, and again it involved Ramos singling, stealing a sack, and coming home on something other than a base hit, this time Hereford grounding out to Dan Cobb for his first RBI of the year. And then came Delgadillo, got bombed by George Hawthorne on his third pitch of the season, and surrendered two more hits to Mike Martin and Tomas Caraballo before he got any out at all. The Bayhawks took a 2-1 lead on Cesar Martinez’ sac fly, but the Coons roared right back against the righty Lopez, who walked Tovias in the second inning before Delgadillo hit a crucial 2-out single into shallow left. Three more 2-out singles followed, all of them plating a runner, off the bats of Ramos, Stalker, and Mora, as the team reclaimed a 4-2 lead before Hereford struck out. That didn’t change the face that Yusneldan sucked, though. Mike Pizzo hit a bomb in the bottom 2nd to cut the score to 4-3, and the Bayhawks loaded the bases before Martinez hacked himself out bidding for a slam and ended up stranding three.

At this point everybody was expecting a double-blowout in the first game of a double header, ruining both teams well into next week, and at some point the Raccoons had Billy Ramm in the pen to toss so he could pitch long relief in here rather than start the second leg, which would then go to Roberts on regular rest, but all of a sudden both pitchers pulled themselves together and offense died down for three innings. Matt Nunley then opened the sixth with a double to right, and when Delgadillo singled off Lopez for the second time, runners were on the corners with nobody out for Ramos, who blew up Alex Lopez with the Raccoons’ first(!) home run of the season, a 3-run dinger to right-center that extended the lead to 7-3. The Coons got Delgadillo through another inning at the expense of a run on Edwin Rendon’s RBI double that cashed Dan Cobb’s leadoff walk, and the Raccoons had a good chance to answer in the seventh. Harenberg and Tovias hit 1-out singles off southpaw Justin Hess, after which he sent Jamieson to bat for Nunley for countering purposes. Jamieson singled up the middle to load them up, with Butch Gerster batting for Delgadillo, but popping out over the infield. Ramos lined out to Jose Pulido, ending the inning with three men stranded.

Bottom 7th, here came Surginer, and he set fire to the 7-4 game right away. Walk to Hawthorne, a double by Martin, and then a wild pitch. KEVIN!! Behave or it’s back to the cage for you! He struck out the next two before we went to Moesker for all the lefties coming up. Dan Cobb flew out to center, keeping it at 7-5, but Moesker put two guys aboard in the bottom 8th. Fleischer replaced him in time to strand the tying runs with a K to Hawthorne. When Magallanes hit a 2-out RBI single in the ninth for a 3-run lead, the Coons – with concern of the double header in progress – stuck to Fleischer for the ninth inning, which was a bit of a gamble for sure. However, Jonathan struck out Martin and Caraballo, then got Martinez to pop out and thus secured this wild opener. 8-5 Coons. Ramos 3-6, HR, 4 RBI; Stalker 2-5, RBI; Harenberg 3-4, BB; Nunley 1-2, BB, 2B; Jamieson (PH) 1-1, BB; Magallanes 1-1, RBI; Fleischer 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (1);

We would cycle most of the bench in for the second game of the day; it was team philosophy to try and get everybody a starting assignment in the first week, and what better opportunity could there be than this double header. The exception was Jamieson, who remained out of the lineup against the righty.

Game 2
POR: SS Gerster – 3B Nunley – RF Mora – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – CF Magallanes – C Rocha – 2B Baldwin – P Ramm
SFB: CF Hawthorne – 3B M. Martin – 1B Caraballo – RF C. Martinez – LF Orozco – C Leal – 2B Pulido – SS J. Cruz – P G. Rendon

Another starter, another bumpy first inning. Bumpy in Ramm’s case meaning two hits, two walks, and one run before Jose Pulido popped out above home plate to strand a full set. Billy caught himself after that and put a few zeroes on the board, while all the Raccoons got through five innings was Rich Hereford’s solo homer to begin the second inning, which tied the score, but so far did little to liven up his 1-for-16 start to the season. Neither team found a run until the seventh inning; there, Chris Baldwin landed his first major league hit, a 1-out double to center, advanced on Ramm’s groundout, and then came home when Butch Gerster dinked a ball in front of Ruben Orozco for a 2-out RBI single. Crucially, Ramm got through seven, which allowed the Raccoons to mix their pen if required in the last two innings; Boles, Ohl, and Brotman were all still available, plus Derks if the Bayhawks’ pen would collapse right now. It did in fact not; and in fact the Raccoons never got another runner on base. Neither did the Baybirds; responsible for that was the same thing that was responsible for the double header in the first place – rain. It started in between innings and rapidly pick up pace while Abel Mora opened the eighth with a lengthy at-bat against Mike Bass that ultimately saw him strike out. Hereford faced one pitch before the umpires called for the tarp to protect the mound, and proceedings halted there. It rained well into the night, and thanks to Butch’s clutch single the previous inning, the Raccoons eeked out a sweep in the double header. 2-1 Critters. Gerster 2-4, RBI; Ramm 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

That also meant that our pen was still in good shape for Sunday, where Mark Roberts would try to log a few outs without any long balls hit against him. This was thankfully not an easy place to hit it out of, but if Ramos could go deep…..

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – CF Mora – LF Hereford – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – P Roberts
SFB: CF Hawthorne – 2B D. Cobb – 1B Caraballo – RF C. Martinez – LF Orozco – C Leal – 3B Pulido – SS J. Cruz – P Huf

Armando Leal had watched Alberto Ramos for a full season and knew his every twitch; thus, when Ramos walked to open the game and could no control the urge to scoop second, Leal had been ready, launched from the crouch and fired a missile that dismissed Ramos shockingly easily! In more bad breaks for the Raccoons, Mark Roberts not only was bombed by Orozco in the bottom 2nd, but also put Leal and Jose Cruz on base with base hits, then fell to 3-1 with two outs against ex-Coon Matt Huf (who had in fact been in the package we had traded for Roberts years ago) before allowing a 2-run double into the corner in left. Hawthorne struck out to end the inning, but we had not yet seen the last extra-base hit by a pitcher in this game.

For example, Roberts doubled off Huf with two outs in the third, but there was nobody on base and while Ramos walked, the inning dissipated when Stalker grounded out to short. Abel Mora hit a solo homer in the fourth to cut the gap to 3-1, but Roberts faced Huf with two outs and Cruz on first again in the bottom of the inning, and this time Huf doubled up the rightfield line…! Cruz was sent again, but this time thrown out at the plate by Rafael Gomez to end the inning. In intermittent rain (some real Portland weather down here!), Roberts continued to allowed almost two base hits per inning, but was taken off the hook by Rich Hereford’s 2-out, 2-run homer in the sixth inning. Mora had drawn a walk against Huf to set up the opportunity for last year’s RBI champ who was now at four driven in and an OPS over .600 …! Also, too bad that Orozco hit a leadoff jack in the bottom 6th to put the Baybirds back in front, and that was even a left-handed hitter…

In a near tit-for-tat, Tovias fell just short of a leadoff jack in the seventh, doubling to the base of the wall behind Orozco instead. Here, the Coons sent Baldwin to pinch-run; the run was important! Nunley grounded out, moving Baldwin to third, and Huf then ran full counts to Gerster, who walked, and Ramos, who grounded to Dan Cobb at second base. Cobb tried to turn two rather than make an attempt on the fast Baldwin at the plate, but Gerster aimed for Jose Cruz’ face with his spikes to break up the attempt, allowing Baldwin to score with the tying run. Ramos then took second base in a hit-and-run in which almost everybody messed up. Stalker did not hit the ball, but Leal also juggled it and had no chance this time. Two pitches later, Tim found the gap in left-center for a go-ahead RBI double. Mora walked, Hereford struck out, and the team stranded two more in the eighth when Harenberg reached on an error, Baldwin was nailed, and Daniel Rocha grounded out to short with two outs and runners on the corners, but we were out of catchers at that point… Brotman crapped out in the bottom 8th, issuing leadoff walks to Orozco and Leal before Fleischer would have to contend with that mess. He did so badly; Pulido reached on a sac bunt that nobody on the infield knew how to handle, loading them up with no outs. The Coons failed to turn two on Cruz’ grounder to short, which tied the game, and that allowed PH Ivan Pena to give San Fran the lead with a sac fly to center before Hawthorne popped out. Top 9th, Alex Cordova faced the top of the order and issued a walk to Ramos right away. With Leal keeping one eye firmly on Ramos, the Coons resorted to bunting with Stalker, then sent Jamieson to bat for the pitcher in the #3 hole where we now could have used Mora… Jamieson grounded out, moving the tying run to third, but Hereford struck out for the third time in the game to end it. 6-5 Bayhawks. Mora 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI;

In other news

April 3 – The Cyclones’ SP Jim Shannon (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 1-hits the Buffaloes in a 4-0 Cincinnati win. The Buffaloes’ only hit is a Ken Hess (.286, 0 HR, 0 RBI) single in the eighth inning.
April 4 – TOP RF/LF Travis Benson (.200, 0 HR, 1 RBI) reportedly suffered a separated shoulder during a night out boozing and will miss up to three weeks.

Complaints and stuff

The rain-shortened middle game against the Bayhawks means that one week in we already only have three players anymore who have appeared in every game: Harenberg, Hereford, and Nunley. Mora dropped out early with the bum knee, and then there were Gomez, Stalker, and Ramos that all didn’t get a shake in that second leg of the double header that ended in the top of the eighth.

Rich Hereford had a ROUGH week to begin the year, but I am not overly concerned yet. He put the ball in play 18 times. Two of those were bombs, and on the others he registered a .063 BABIP. I blame the baseball gods right now! Oh, they had some fun this week, undoubtedly.

I’m sure there would be more nitpicking to do between “Fan” Tovias and “Launchpad” Roberts, but maybe another week will heal wounds. There was also some bullpen mismanagement, probably. But f.e. on Sunday we made the double switch that removed Mora to get Ohl in for two outs and Brotman for four. They barely logged three outs between them while blowing the game, with Billy especially unable to find the strike zone at all. Roberts has allowed four bombs in 10.2 innings, which over the length of his new contract should work out to – per Steve from Accounting – merely $34,666 for each of the 300 homers he is expected to release. A real bargain!

There were a few late signings this week, including long-ago Coon Wade Davis signing up with the Cyclones, as well as the Titans adding former Elk John Calfee, one player I would have liked to keep out of the division…

Coons come home now and will open shop against the Knights on Monday. The Titans will be in on the weekend.

Fun Fact: Ron Alston ranks in the top 5 in both franchise base hits and home runs for both the Indians and Bayhawks.

In between he of course played for the Critters, too, but that amounted to only 2 1/2 seasons and ranks 21st in homers (71, between Vern Kinnar and Liam Wedemeyer), and 49th in hits with 411, wedged between Jesus Palacios and Dylan Alexander.

But Alston’s 1,124 base hits rank him fifth amongst Bayhawks, and he is second in homers for the team with 162. For the Arrowheads, he has third places with 1,310 hits and 227 dingers.