[Westheim]

Raccoons (63-60) vs. Loggers (50-74) – August 20-22, 2029

Last in offense, in the bottom three in pitching – wasn’t it a typical Loggers season again? They even had a semi-capable rotation, but the bullpen was full of both holes and horrors. The Raccoons had won eight of a dozen games against Milwaukee on the season, meaning they were one win away from denying the Loggers a season series win for the 16th straight year.

Projected matchups:
Jamie O’Leary (1-6, 4.66 ERA) vs. Josh Long (4-3, 4.78 ERA)
Mark Roberts (12-8, 3.29 ERA) vs. Francisco Colmenarez (6-15, 3.68 ERA)
Allen Reed (4-3, 4.32 ERA) vs. Alfredo Casique (0-4, 2.16 ERA)

Left-hander in the middle of this set; Casique was making only his fourth start of the season. The rookie had started the year in AAA and had then moved through the pen into the rotation. He was walking 5.8 batters per nine innings, so maybe that was an opening for the Coons. His 2.16 ERA was based on silly luck and a .208 BABIP.

Game 1
MIL: SS Lockert – 3B V. Diaz – RF W. Trevino – 2B W. Morris – 1B Aquino – LF St. Germaine – C Canody – CF Creech – P Long
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Nunley – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – 2B Stalker – CF Mora – RF Rodriguez – C Tovias – P O’Leary

O’Leary, who attracted losses like a dead body attracted worms and beetles, struck out three in the first two innings before getting support with a Harenberg leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd, Kevin’s 16th of the season. Tim Stalker reached on a Wilson Aquino error after that, stole second, then was maneuvered around on a Mora grounder and Wilson Rodriguez’ sac fly to make it 2-0. That would still be the score in the fifth inning, with both teams on only three base hits, when it started to rain once more. Ah, the Portland weather – don’t ever change. In the light rain, O’Leary hit a 2-out double in the right-center gap in the bottom 5th, Ramos walked, but Nunley flew out to Gabe Creech in center to leave the runners stranded. O’Leary then surrendered a leadoff single to Long in the sixth, which provoked all sorts of dark thoughts in me, but Matt Lockert flew out easily to right, Long got forced out on a Vinny Diaz grounder, and then Willie Trevino popped out to short. All remained well for O’Leary through seven, and he was removed for a pinch-hitter with two outs in the bottom 7th and a critical insurance run on third base, where Wilson Rodriguez was parked up after singling, stealing second, and moving up on Tovias’ grounder to Aquino. Magallanes batted for the pitcher, and the runner scored indeed… on a passed ball charged to Taylor Canody. Magallanes flew out to center. And with the pen in the top 8th, everything threatened to fall apart once more. Garavito conceded a single to leadoff man Canody, then walked the .100 batter Creech. Firmino Cambra hit for Long, but flew out, and with the right-handed top of the order coming up, the Coons moved over to Kevin Surginer, who got a soft fly to right from Matt Lockert, then rung up Diaz on a nasty breaking ball that stripped the third baseman down to his undies. Josh Boles in the ninth survived both nailing Wayne Morris with one out as well as a brief rain delay, whiffing two and ending the game when Adam St. Germaine, the previous bad Coons experience, grounded out to Stalker. 3-0 Coons. Rodriguez 1-2, RBI; O’Leary 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (2-6) and 1-2, 2B;

Josh Long and Jonathan Hose failed to strike out a single Raccoons position player in this game; Long whiffed O’Leary once, and that was it. The Raccoons totaled eight strikeouts.

Game 2
MIL: SS Lockert – LF Cambra – RF W. Trevino – C J. Young – 2B W. Morris – 3B V. Diaz – 1B St. Germaine – CF Creech – P Colmenarez
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Gerster – P Roberts

The game was scoreless through the first three innings, with COlmenarez even facing the minimum. Only Butch Gerster reached for the Critters, drawing four balls, but then was doubled off when Roberts clumsily bunted. The Loggers had two base hits, but failed to threaten Roberts much at all. Bottom 4th, maybe the Coons had something cooking? Alberto Ramos led off with a double to left, then hobbled around second base in obvious discomfort. It was the sort of scene that made you go for the cheap liquor right away, because the cheap one was more effective in putting you into a booze-induced good night’s sleep, the only good night’s sleep I could hope to get anymore. Baldwin replaced Ramos as pinch-runner and then took over at third base, with Gerster moving to short, all that after the 2-3-4 batter conspired to strand the runner anyway.

Mark Roberts’ first walk in the game was a 5-pitch effort to put on Colmenarez with nobody out in the sixth, which was annoying, but surprisingly did not lead to a loss and mandatory contraction of the team when the top of the order popped out hard enough to strand the runner. The Raccoons did not get another base hit until Harenberg doubled in the seventh, but that came with two outs and Rafael Gomez was no help dead or alive, either (although we had not really tried dead yet!), and then the eighth rolled along. Roberts led off getting a slow roller from Creech to third that Baldwin stumbled over for an error. Colmenarez was retained to bunt to third, Baldwin on that one, too, and he threw it past Stalker for a 2-base error. That put runners in scoring position with nobody out and Mark Roberts was really not amused. The Coons’ sole remaining ace tried to dig in; he got Lockert to fly out to center, shallow enough for Creech to hold, Firmino Cambra popped out to Stalker, and now there were two outs against the right-handed batter Trevino – and the Coons removed Roberts (on 97 pitches) for Ricky Ohl in a double switch that also removed Gomez for Rodriguez. It took three pitches for Trevino to pop out to Harenberg, ending an inning that had been ready to get away fantastically; not that Chris Baldwin escaped without penalty. Between half-innings, the Critters duct-taped him to the front of the dugout railing, so that a foul ball might hit him right in the beans… His spot to bat came up, unfortunately, before someone could decapitate him, then with Mora and Rodriguez on the corners and two outs against Colmenarez, who was not removed so as to not have the Coons send Matt Nunley to pinch- … oh, you know what? **** it! Keep Baldwin taped to the railing! Matt, grab a stick! Nunley hissed for having to interrupt his candlelight dinner in one corner of the dugout, then grounded out to Morris.

Colmenarez remained in the game in the ninth and got two out before Harenberg singled. Magallanes batted for Ohl, singled, and Colmenarez lost Mora on four balls. Elias Tovias had three on, two outs, and was 0-for-3, but Colmenarez was still not removed on 110 pitches, and we only had Shane Ivey left on the bench, and that was probably really not a winning move. The count ran full, Tovias poked, grounded out to short, and the game went to extra innings. Stonecipher held the Loggers short in the top of the tenth, and a Brendan Day error at third base put Gerster on base to begin the bottom 10th with righty Zach Weaver on the mound. Rodriguez unhelpfully popped up a bunt, after which Nunley walked, which advanced the winning run anyway. Tim Stalker also popped out, running his day to 0-for-5, and that brought up Jamieson. He hit a soft looper to shallow left that fell between the converging Day and Willie Trevino, since having moved from rightfield. With two outs, Gerster had been in motion right away, was waved around, and scored handily, two strides ahead of Trevino’s throw. 1-0 Blighters. Ramos 1-2, 2B; Harenberg 2-4, 2B; Magallanes (PH) 1-1; Roberts 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K; Ohl 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

And Alberto Ramos? – Mena! Mena! … I don’t know where he is hiding again …! – (turns over every single bobblehead in the showcase next to the door) … Mena!! If you have bad news, I swear I’m gonna ****ing find you anyway!!

Game 3
MIL: SS Lockert – LF Cambra – RF W. Trevino – C J. Young – 2B W. Morris – 1B Aquino – 3B V. Diaz – CF St. Germaine – P Casique
POR: CF Magallanes – 3B Nunley – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – 2B Stalker – RF Rodriguez – C Ivey – SS Gerster – P Reed

Allen Reed lasted one inning before leaving the game with an injury, ever so slightly intensifying the despair. Sean Rigg would have to replace him and we’d try to patch the rest of the way from where he’d give up four runs in 1.2 innings or something like that. In actuality, Rigg retired five of the first six Loggers he faced before Firmino Cambra homered off him with two outs in the third, a solo shot for the Loggers’ first run in the series. It was not THAT bad a performance…

On the other end of the box score, the Critters got their first two batters on with a Magallanes single and Nunley walk before Jamieson hit into a double play and Harenberg flew out to St. Germaine in the first inning, but Jamieson and Harenberg hit singles to go to the corners with nobody out in the fourth, and Casique lost Tim Stalker on a borderline 3-2 pitch to load them up. Three on, no outs – there was undoubtedly disappointment in the making! In this case though, it would be on the Loggers’ Casique, whose BABIP luck ran out when Wilson Rodriguez planted a 2-2 pitch in the right-center gap for a bases-clearing double. Ivey flew out, Gerster walked, and with runners on the corners, Rigg grounded out to advance both runners for an RBI and a 4-1 lead. Magallanes made it 5-1 with a single up the middle. Nunley shot a single to left, but Jamieson struck out to end the inning.

Sean Rigg pitched four innings in the end before he was lifted for Billy Brotman to begin the sixth. Billy allowed a single to Trevino, nicked Jim Young, but pulled through the inning with strikeouts against Morris and Aquino and finally got his ERA out of the four range again. The Coons, while laying down on offense, stayed sharp on the mound. Stonecipher got four outs against no runners, Garavito got two outs after a Cambra single, and then we – albeit reluctantly – used Josh Boles for a non-save, 10-pitch ninth inning because everybody else was sort of toast at that point. The Loggers never even hinted at recovery after the 5-run blow. 5-1 Coons! Magallanes 3-4, RBI; Rodriguez 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Rigg 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

Raccoons (66-60) @ Stars (58-66) – August 23, 2029

This was the makeup for the series finale postponed two weeks earlier on what would have been a convenient off day for the Critters to hide their genuine lack of starters. As things were, they needed to come up with one, and since Sean Rigg had pitched in long relief for Allen Reed the previous day, he was not available as a spot starter from the “who gives a ****” pile. We had to reach a wee bit deeper, thus, and brought up Dave Martinez, who ironically the last time he had been brought up for a spot start had not actually started but had pitched in late-inning relief. He had been the idiot that had managed to blow a 17th inning lead with two walks and two hit batters, and somehow still wound up with the win over the Baybirds then. Martinez took the roster spot of Allen Reed, who was out for the season with a ruptured finger tendon, which was such a coonish development.

Suspiciously, no news about Ramos.

Martinez (1-0, 3.00 ERA) would face right-hander Chris Brooks (4-6, 3.36 ERA) in the game while trying to brave the Texan bandbox that nevertheless saw the second-worst offensive team in the Federal League play in its confines. The Stars ranked seventh in runs allowed. This was also the rubber game for the series, the first two games having been split two weeks earlier.

POR: CF Magallanes – 3B Nunley – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – SS Stalker – RF Rodriguez – C Tovias – 2B Baldwin – P Martinez
DAL: LF Hensley – 2B Hendricks – CF Botzet – 3B S. Green – RF Chaplin – C Wool – SS Clooken – 1B Cornejo – P Brooks

The Coons’ first hit in the game flipped a 1-0 deficit, but didn’t come until the fourth inning. Brooks had previously walked three, including Magallanes to begin the game (only for Juan to be caught stealing) and Matt Nunley twice. Nunley was left on in the first, but was up again in the fourth when Kevin Harenberg homered to left-center to put Portland ahead 2-1 and to erase Dallas’ run in the bottom 3rd when Gil Cornejo had singled to right, had been bunted over, and had scored on a clean Tony Hensley single up the middle. Martinez, who had seen double plays turned in his favor in the first two innings, got around a walk to Sam Green in the fourth and a Silvio Clooken single in the fifth to keep his claws on the 2-1 lead. Come the sixth, the Coons finally put a few more markers in the H column. Magallanes led off with a single to right, and while Nunley struck out, Jamieson and Harenberg both his singles to allow Magallanes to score, 3-1, but Stalker whiffed and Rodriguez grounded out to keep the two runners on. Bottom 6th, the Stars ran into rotten luck after a 1-out triple by Aaron Botzet. Sam Green hit 1-2 liner to the left side that Botzet thought was past Nunley for sure, but clearly hadn’t seen catlike Matt enough in his career to know better. Nunley made a sprawling catch, picked himself up in a swift scramble, and fell onto the bag before Botzet, who had to turn around from 25 feet away, could do the same, finding himself double off on a 5-U play.

Nunley went on to hit a leadoff single off Alex Hichez in the eighth, then scored on a long, long triple by Mat Jamieson to add to the tally, 4-1. The Stars called for Harenberg to be put on intentionally, but still conceded the run on Stalker’s sac fly. Rodriguez doubled up the line, offering Tovias the chance to put the game away with a pair in scoring position… except that the Stars called for another intentional walk. I kept wondering whether intentional walks were a smart move in a hitter’s haven, but it was not my business. Harenberg scored on Baldwin’s sac fly to right, 6-1, and with a 5-run lead and a low pitch count (65!), Martinez was not batted for here, with new reliever Evan Wilcher whiffing him to end the inning. Gil Cornejo hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, but the Stars produced three outs after that, and Martinez remained alive for the ninth. Besides, Harenberg hit another 2-run blast off Nate Ward in the ninth (plating Nunley again), so there was plenty of cushion available. Bottom 9th, Botzet grounded out to Baldwin. Green flew out to Magallanes. Mike Chaplin poked at the first pitch he got, easy fly to Rafael Gomez in right, and that was the ballgame. 8-1 Critters! Nunley 1-2, 3 BB; Jamieson 2-5, 3B, RBI; Harenberg 3-4, BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Martinez 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

Yes, this was obviously Dave Martinez’ first career complete game. And yes, we are desperate enough that he has won one of the vacant rotation spots for the time being…

Oh, about vacant spots… the shortstop gig turned into another vacancy be the weekend, when the Coons put Alberto Ramos on the DL with a quad strain. He was likely out for the rest of the season. Portland called up certified warm body German Sanchez to plug the hole for the time being…

Raccoons (67-60) @ Thunder (63-63) – August 24-26, 2029

The Thunder were defeated in the South, 14 games out of first place. They had the fifth-most runs scored in the Continental League, which was not enough to cope with the second-worst pitching in the league and a -63 run differential that frankly did not mesh well with their .500 record. They were not even that good in 1-run games (22-17), and they also had a losing record at home and a winning record on the road (both six games off .500). Wicked bunch, against whom the Critters were 4-2 this year.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Anderson (4-4, 2.67 ERA) vs. Jeff Dykstra (16-7, 4.00 ERA)
Jamie O’Leary (2-6, 4.05 ERA) vs. Enrique Guzman (4-4, 3.47 ERA)
Mark Roberts (12-8, 3.15 ERA) vs. Paul Metzler (2-1, 3.08 ERA)

Three right-handers on offer here, with southpaw “Graveyard” Gill still on the DL.

Game 1
POR: CF Magallanes – 3B Nunley – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – 2B Stalker – RF Mora – C Tovias – SS Gerster – P Anderson
OCT: CF Dalton – RF Sagredo – SS Serrato – 3B D. Garcia – 1B D. Cruz – C Burgess – 2B Kane – LF L. Otero – P Dykstra

Anderson allowed no base hits the first time through, although Dave Garcia almost hit a 2-piece to left in the opening inning; Jamieson caught that ball on the track after Luis Sagredo had drawn a walk earlier in the inning. The Raccoons scattered three hits pretty well in the early innings and were nowhere near scoring, and thus the Thunder put the first run on the board in the bottom 3rd with back-to-back 2-out doubles to right by Dan Dalton and Sagredo. Both teams would tally four hits through five, with Anderson once more being low-key, unspectacular, but ultimately quite efficient. In the sixth, he was rewarded with the lead; Dykstra walked Matt Nunley, and Matt Jamieson hit a blast to left that was clearly out of here, right off the bat, and flipped the score to 2-1 Critters, who also got Harenberg (single) and Stalker (walk) on base, but Mora flew out to Leo Otero and Tovias was absolutely fooled for just three pitches and a K to end the inning.

Efficiency ended for Anderson in the sixth, in which he retired nobody before Dave Garcia slugged a 3-piece to left-center. Sagredo had singled, and Alex Serrato had worked a free pass. Anderson was done after that inning, while Dykstra grinded the Coons for eight, allowing six hits and whiffing as many. Portland carted up the 6-7-8 bunch for the ninth inning against righty Cruz Sierra, who did have a control problem with 31 walks in 54 innings. That didn’t show up, but he still blew the save; after whiffing Mora, Gomez hit for Tovias and dropped soft single into left, and after that Butch Gerster turned on a 1-2 pitch and belted it over the fence in left, which was stunning not only to the Thunder. Butch Gerster can do that?? After Ivey and Magallanes made quick outs, Billy Brotman retired three in the bottom 9th to send the game into overtime, the second extra inning affair for the Raccoons this week. Top 10th, Nunley hit a leadoff single against Sierra, then was at second after Harenberg singled, with a Jamieson K in between. Baldwin ran for Nunley at that point, an arrangement rendered moot when Sierra hung a breaking ball to Tim Stalker that was hit well into Kansas, and again over the fence in left-center. Dusty Kulp replaced Sierra, who had fallen and couldn’t get up, at that point, but the bags were full immediately. Mora singled, stole second, Gomez singled, and Gerster walked. He put the first ball up the middle, JUST out of Serrato’s reach, and it escaped for a 2-run single, and then German Sanchez was the last Coon off the bench, batting for Brotman and hitting an RBI single to right. This was the end for Kulp, who had retired nobody, and also brought pinch-runner Chris Baldwin to the plate against righty Jose Vazquez, who ended the shenanigans with a double play grounder, but the Coons had thrown up six in the inning. Kevin Surginer, who had thrown only seven pitches on the week, pitched the bottom 10th and made it over with quickly. 10-4 Critters! Sanchez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Jamieson 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Harenberg 2-4; Stalker 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Gomez (PH) 2-2; Gerster 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Ivey (PH) 1-2, 2 RBI;

With no off day until Thursday, we thought it prudent to mix in some off days to the regulars during this road trip. Jamieson would get the day off on Saturday. Probably Stalker on Sunday, and we *should* face Abramo Archibugi on Monday, so that would be the cue for the left-handed batters.

Game 2
POR: CF Magallanes – 3B Nunley – LF Mora – 1B Harenberg – SS Stalker – RF Rodriguez – C Ivey – 2B Sanchez – P O’Leary
OCT: CF Dalton – C Burgess – 1B D. Cruz – SS Serrato – 3B D. Garcia – RF Sagredo – LF D. Brown – 2B Myers – P E. Guzman

The first run in the game was Serrato drawing a 2-out walk with the bases loaded in the bottom 3rd and was unearned. After a leadoff single by Dave Myers in the inning, Nunley had tried to turn two on a pathetic bunt by Guzman, but threw the ball into Stalker’s legs for an error, and O’Leary would not recover from that. O’Leary had batted with two outs and the bases loaded in the second inning, had flown out to Sagredo, and he came up AGAIN with two outs and the bases loaded in the fourth, then the result of a Rodriguez single and two walks, all with two already down. Again, O’Leary stranded all of them, taking strike three looking in a full count. Top 5th, Magallanes opened with a single, then was running when Nunley hit a drive to right that was caught by Sagredo on the track and barely made it back. He was aggro again when Mora singled to right and reached third base safely, giving Harenberg a really good chance to tie the game with runners on the corners and one out, but he didn’t, smacking into a double play instead. O’Leary came to bat again with Rodriguez on second and Sanchez on first (after an intentional walk), and Matt Jamieson was sent to bat for him. Six left on base were enough, even for a pitcher. Jamieson instead flew out to Dan Dalton.

Bottom 6th, the Thunder also let one get away. Sagredo singled after Matt Stonecipher got two outs, and then the right-hander threw two wild pitches before walking Dan Brown. Myers ran a 3-1 count and just had to hold still to make something happen, but popped out to German Sanchez to strand the runners. On to the eighth, where the Coons reached ten hits and still no runs when Rodriguez hit a 1-out single and Ivey doubled to center. That was runners in scoring position, Ying-hua Ou replacing Guzman, and Sanchez being hit for, despite being unretired on the day. Rafael Gomez batted for him and rushed the first pitch by Ou through Dave Garcia, and that went deep enough to become a score-flipping double before Dalton contained it. Chris Baldwin batted for reliever Ricky Ohl and singled to left, but Magallanes hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the fun. Surginer almost surrendered a game-tying homer to Sagredo in the bottom 8th, but Abel Mora made the catch at the centerfield fence; the ball sure had the right travelling distance, but too high an arc to get out. Top 9th, Ou continued to bleed hits, allowing three singles to the 2-3-4 batters to fill the bags with nobody down. Some insurance would be sweet indeed! They only got one run; Tim Stalker was 0-4 in the game, 3-1 against Ou, then flew out to center for a sac fly, and a foul pop by Rodriguez and an Ivey fly to left ended the inning and stranded two before Josh Boles came out. He retired Brown and Myers on grounders, leaked a single to Liam Riley, the backup catcher, but then rung up Dalton to extend the winning streak to six. 3-1 Furballs. Magallanes 2-5; Nunley 2-5; Mora 2-5; Rodriguez 4-5; Sanchez 1-1, 2 BB; Gomez (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Baldwin (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: CF Mora – 3B Nunley – LF Jamieson – 1B Harenberg – RF Gomez – SS Gerster – C Tovias – 2B Baldwin – P Roberts
OCT: CF Dalton – C Burgess – 1B D. Cruz – SS Serrato – 3B D. Garcia – RF Sagredo – LF D. Brown – 2B Myers – P Metzler

Offense was again slow in the early going, with the Coons getting Roberts and Mora into scoring position after a pair of singles in the third inning, but Jamieson’s deep drive was intercepted by Dan Brown to end that inning. Roberts inexplicably exploded in the fourth inning to end the Coons’ winning streak; Danny Cruz and Serrato hit a pair of singles to begin the inning, with Cruz scoring right away on Rafael Gomez’ gruesome throwing error, but the inning continued to simmer and finally blew up on a 2-out RBI single by Brown, then a pair of RBI doubles by Myers and, annoyingly, Metzler. Portland did not get another runner until Harenberg’s leadoff single in the seventh that eluded Serrato up the middle. Gomez hit into a fielder’s choice, but advanced on a passed ball, only to be stranded in scoring position when both Gerster and Tovias struck out. This was just not a lineup that could upend any sort of pitcher… Overnight, they had completely deflated again after a week of battle, and just couldn’t reach Metzler, who went into the ninth, where Jamieson hit a 1-out single. Harenberg grounded up the middle, Serrato to Myers to Cruz, and that was the ballgame, a 5-hit shutout for Paul Metzler in his sixth start of the season after 27 relief outings. 4-0 Thunder. Mora 2-4;

In other news

August 21 – The Blue Sox not only blow a 2-1, ninth-inning lead against the Cyclones, but go down to a 9-2 defeat in regulation when Cincy unfolds an 8-spot entirely blamed on pitching. At one point in the meltdown, six straight Cyclones reach base without the benefit of as much as a base hit. NAS CL Tim Colangelo (4-6, 3.43 ERA, 14 SV) and MR Jimmy Souders (3-9, 3.76 ERA, 18 SV) are principally responsible for the carnage.
August 24 – Dallas utility Raimondo Odescalchi (.253, 1 HR, 22 RBI) could miss up to nine months with a broken elbow.
August 24 – LVA 3B/SS Tom Hawkins (.217, 0 HR, 15 RBI) shines with three hits and 5 RBI, including a pair of 2-out, 2-run triples, in a 12-4 rush over the Indians. The Aces score nine runs in the eighth inning.
August 25 – Topeka’s SP Jose Lerma (12-7, 2.63 ERA) 3-hits the Warriors in a 7-0 shutout, whiffing eight.

Complaints and stuff

(Depeche Mode’s “Shake the Disease” blasts at full volume)

(is barely audible) Well, that was … that was … some week.

More injuries ripped through the roster, and of course Alberto Ramos was the first one culled. He is probably gone for the year with the quad strain, and why wouldn’t he be. It is the third consecutive year that he misses at least 56 games. Another year – another failure. At this point the Coons might wonder whether they should just see into what package of prospects they –

Oh, wait a moment… (waits for his cue in the song before chiming in, clearly off tune) You know how haaaard it’s for meee to shake the diseee-eeease …!

Where was I? Well, about injuries. Rich Hereford started a rehab assignment this week, while Rico Gutierrez has so far struggled in three outings in AAA. Rico will only rejoin the Coons in September; not that we would not need a starter… but he should recover his mojo and stuff first… The next vacancy is on Monday, and I wonder whether we should just have Cristiano Carmona pitch in Vegas. Granted, he does not get a lot of drive out of his legs and lower body, but maybe he can nag the Aces to death. No, Cristiano, we are not going to pick Daniel Bullock off waivers this time, either!!

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have already used their 13th different starting pitcher this season in game #127, which is a new franchise record for starting pitchers used in a campaign.

We most recently used as many as *ten* starting pitchers in 2023, which was a year that we were banking on “Tragic” Travis Garrett. We have seven guys with 10+ starts, which is not a record. We used nine starters for 10+ games in 2022, only one of which made it to 30 starts. That was Bobby Guerrero, who went 6-18 on the year with a 4.40 ERA, more losses than all but three pitchers managed to amass in starts for Portland that year (Rico Gutierrez and Ryan Nielson were the exceptions).

In 2013, the Raccoons used 12 different starters, including four guys who only started one or two games due to injury (Daniel Dickerson, Mauro Castro), sucking (Ian Cumins) or utmost desperation (Pat Slayton). The only other year the Critters carted up a full dozen starters was 2006.

But 2029 stands alone in seeing 13 different starting pitchers penciled into the lineup, and few of them were by choice… Overall we have used 25 pitchers, and 43 players overall. Is there room for more? Conventional wisdom says there’s always one more fly to swat…