[Westheim]

Raccoons (79-70) vs. Knights (68-80) – September 19-21, 2033

The Knights had finished with this season and had done so a long time ago. They were seventh in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, with a sizable -46 run differential. The season series was even at three.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (13-7, 3.73 ERA) vs. Justin Osterloh (8-15, 5.49 ERA)
Mario Rosas (15-10, 2.37 ERA) vs. Chris Inderrieden (10-10, 3.88 ERA)
Darren Brown (0-0) vs. Drew Johnson (3-6, 5.23 ERA)

Due to a few injuries and make-up games, the Knights would have guys going on short rest on Monday and Tuesday. Inderrieden and Johnson could be switched; both had pitched on Friday. No southpaw to be expected here.

Brown went 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA in two starts last season. He missed most of this year to injury and when he pitched was rather bad, posting a 1-3 record with 5.18 ERA in St. Petersburg.

Game 1
ATL: LF Inoa – C S. Garcia – 1B Avakian – 2B J. Johnson – 3B Maneke – SS Thomson – RF R. Parker – CF Seago – P Osterloh
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Marsingill – C F. Garcia – P Chavez

Bernie Chavez remained complete and utter dog ****. While the Knights hit a few deep flies in the first two innings without getting any to fall in, they took him apart by other means in the third inning. Justin Osterloh, the ****ing pitcher, hit a 1-out double on a 1-2 pitch, and more 2-strike offerings resulted in more base hits. Luis Inoa singled, Steve Garcia walked, and Adam Avakian hit a 2-run single. Another run scored on a wild pitch, and with two outs Keith Thomson would knock in two more runs with a single to right, another 5-spot in another goddamn meltdown. The Raccoons’ rotation in the second half was the gift that kept on giving… just like the Capt’n! (hits himself over the head with a bottle of Capt’n Coma)

Osterloh would not get a W, though. By the time my head stopped spinning, the Raccoons had made up four runs and had knocked him out in the bottom of the fifth. Jennings had singled home Zelts and Zitz in the third, and Ramos had plated Marsingill, had swiped second base, and had been scored on a Zeltser single in the fourth – all runs coming with two outs. Portland got three men on base in the bottom 5th, but when Adrian Reichardt batted for Chavez with one out, he rapped the ball right into a double play to throw the chance away. Something moved in the seventh – Steve Garcia singled home an insurance run off the useless Kyle Green, while the Coons had Zitzner being waved around third base on a Marsingill single… and thrown out by Luis Inoa to end the inning. Bottom 8th, Stalker hit a pinch-hit single with one out… and was doubled up by Ramos. One of those games… In the bottom 9th, the Coons faced left-handed Ronald Warner and his 2.76 ERA. Zeltser lined out to begin the inning, but Jimmy Wallace tripled to center, bringing up Zitzner as the tying run. Once Zitz singled to right to make it 6-5, he was run for Pinkerton while Juan Camps batted for Jennings. Both Camps and Fernandez grounded out sadly… 6-5 Knights. Ramos 2-5, 2B, RBI; Zeltser 2-5, RBI; Wallace 2-5, 3B; Zitzner 3-5, 2B, RBI; Marsingill 3-4; Stalker (PH) 1-1; Hennessy 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

We had FIFTEEN hits to their seven, and yet we still lost because Chavez just bent over and took it in the third inning… Good job, boys. Good job!

Game 2
ATL: LF Inoa – CF Jad. Smith – C S. Garcia – 1B Avakian – 2B J. Johnson – 3B Maneke – RF Eppler – SS Thomson – P Inderrieden
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF Jennings – 2B Stalker – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Rosas

I decided to drink in the morning so I wouldn’t be so saddened by the next pitching meltdown. I can smarten up, too! The Coons very much didn’t. The first “ARGH!!” moment of the game came in the bottom 2nd when Ramos grounded out to Adam Avakian after Stalker’s leadoff double and a 2-out infield single by Rosas(!) had presented him with Critters on the corners. Nothing came of that, while Ramos allowed 2-strike singles to Inderrieden (!!!!) and Inoa in the third, but somehow didn’t explode right away. Jaden Smith grounded out, Steve Garcia did the same, and the Knights had yet to put up a cruel crooked number.

As on Monday, Jennings drove in the first Critters run, and in the same inning. Zeltser singled, stole second, reached third on Zitzner’s single, and then Jennings rushed a grounder by John Johnson for an RBI single. Stalker grounded out to Chris Maneke, Reichardt flew out to Smith, and two Coons were stranded. And as on Monday, Zeltser then landed a 2-out RBI hit, a double, in the fourth. He cashed Thompson, who had reached on an uncaught third strike to begin the inning. Whatever works! Wallace singled home Zeltser, 3-0, Zitz also singled, but Jennings struck out to end the fourth. After hits by Reichardt and Thompson, Rosas’ grounder to second scored a fourth run from third base. On the mound, Rosas allowed only three hits and two walks against no runs and six strikeouts through five, but also threw 91 pitches, so was not likely to finish a shutout… He would get four more outs from the 3-through-6 batters, then was brought in after 109 pitches. Gurney replaced him, stupidly put Keith Thomson and PH Stephen Williams on base, and when Garavito replaced him he served up a 2-out, 3-run homer to Inoa, axing a 6-0 lead in half; the Coons had scored two in the bottom 6th with the bottom of the order. And it got worse. After Portland stranded a pair in the bottom 7th, the Coons saw Prieto put on Avaikan (double) and Johnson (walk) in the eighth before being relieved by David Fernandez, who walked Maneke with one out to stuff the bags. Brian Eppler popped out, and when Eric Martins pinch-hit for Thompson, the Coons went to Wise, whose first pitch was hit to deep center… and into Reichardt’s glove, barely. Wise allowed a double to Rich Parker in the ninth, but got around that and finished the game without conceding a run… 6-3 Coons. Zeltser 3-5, 2B, RBI; Wallace 2-5; Zitzner 2-4, RBI; Jennings 2-4, BB, RBI; Stalker 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Reichardt 2-5, RBI; Rosas 6.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (16-10) and 1-2, RBI;

Game 3
ATL: LF Inoa – RF R. Parker – 1B Avakian – 2B J. Johnson – 3B Maneke – SS Thomson – C Kuehn – CF Seago – P D. Johnson
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Brown

Four hits, two walks, two wild pitches, and three runs – that was the first inning against Darren Brown before Drew Johnson spanked a 1-2 pitch at Zitzner for the third out with three Knights stranded. No matter which guy you sent out now – it was going to be a ****show. This particular disaster lasted three and a third innings, when Brown was yanked after five hits, five walks, three wild pitches, and with Nate Seago and Luis Inoa on base after a pair of 4-pitch walks. Garavito replaced him, nailed Rich Parker and things cascaded from there… After Avakian struck out, Johnson hit a 2-run single, Maneke clipped an RBI single, and it was 6-0 by the time Thomson flew out to Manny Fernandez. Meanwhile the Critters had one of those games where their first two base hits were landed by the same player (Wallace). The second of Jimmy’s hits, a 1-out double in the fourth, at least sparked some semblance of a rally. The Coons landed three straight singles afterwards, Reichardt whiffed, but Thompson singled and Jennings walked in the #9 hole, putting the tying runs on base in a 6-3 game. And then Berto grounded out to John Johnson…

Nate Seago’s 2-run homer off Justin LeDuc put the game away in the seventh. The Coons had seen the tying run at the plate with two outs in the bottom 6th, but Camps popped out in the #9 hole to strand them. Come the eighth, Inoa hit a leadoff jack off LeDuc, who then hit Rich Parker, who objected, and went out to the mound to shove LeDuc’s face into his own arse. A pile formed, because once the division has slipped away you can just as well tear up a shoulder in a brawl. LeDuc got some scratches, Stalker had a sleeve of his uniform torn off, but at least they made one of the Knights’ bench players bleed from a knock above the eyebrow. Parker and LeDuc were ejected. Pinch-runner Preston Reed scored on two singles off Anaya, which put the Knights into double digits. 10-3 Knights. Wallace 3-5, 2 2B; Zitzner 2-4; M. Fernandez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Contreras 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

All pitching, all gone…

Dear goodness…

At this point we were five games behind, tied with Indy, while the Titans’ magic number had crumbled to six. They could tie up the division this week…

Raccoons (80-72) @ Crusaders (78-74) – September 23-25, 2033

Both teams probably engaged in creative number play to conjure up a scenario where they could still make the postseason, but both new that in reality they were toast. The Titans’ magic number relating to the Crusaders was four, and they hadn’t played well in September either… They combined a bottom three offense with average pitching and were somehow miraculously over .500 despite a -54 run differential. We had already taken the season series, 11-4.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (10-12, 3.58 ERA) vs. Eddie Cannon (11-15, 4.55 ERA)
Rico Gutierrez (7-11, 4.11 ERA) vs. Francisco Colmenarez (9-13, 3.44 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (13-8, 3.86 ERA) vs. Gilberto Rendon (14-11, 3.82 ERA)

Southpaw on Saturday, although due to the off day, changes were possible.

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P Sabre
NYC: CF Malo – 3B J. Zamora – 2B M. Hurtado – LF Balado – RF Reardon – SS Schuler – 1B Payne – C Leonard – P E. Cannon

The offense came out on Friday, putting ten hits on Cannon in four innings and scoring five times. Thompson’s single and Sabre’s double-play grounder scored two runs in the second inning, while in the fourth – and after allowing a solo homer to Keith Leonard – Sabre led off with a single, scored on Ramos’ triple that got wedged in the corner, Zeltser plated Berto with a groundout, and then Wallace and Zitz hit back-to-back doubles to make it 5-1. A Jennings double, Thompson triple, and Ramos single produced another two runs in the fifth against the New York pen.

Sabre pitched sort of a gem, even though the Crusaders got back to him in the sixth. Jorge Zamora’s single up the middle with two outs was only their third base hit, but he stole second and was singled home by Mario Hurtado. Both balls narrowly eluded infielders… Jose Balado grounded out to end the sixth, with Sabre on 80 pitches in a 7-2 game. The seventh went by on just seven pitches, and first-pitch outs by Leonard and Hirofumi Saito allowed Sabre to also clip the eighth on just seven pitches. The complete game was surely possible now, and he batted with two outs and nobody out in the ninth, grounding out to Hurtado against John Fees. Bottom 9th, Zamora bounced out to Zitzner, but Hurtado doubled to left in a full count, and the pen got stirring in earnest after they had just stretched and soft-tossed before. Balado grounded out to Hawkins at third base, with the runner remaining on second. Chris Reardon for the final blow – a 2-1 pitch lifted to left-center, Manny Fernandez over, coming, coming, coming – and he made the catch …! 7-2 Coons. Ramos 2-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Zeltser 2-5, RBI; Zitzner 2-5, 2B, RBI; Stalker 2-4, BB; Jennings 2-4, 2B; Thompson 2-3, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Sabre 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (11-12) and 1-5;

Boston *routed* the Loggers, 14-1, lowering their magic number to five against the Critters (so The Clinch was deferred to the last week of the season now), while Indy lost and dropped to a magic number of four. New York was down to two.

The Crusaders moved Gilberto Rendon into the Saturday slot.

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF M. Fernandez – CF Reichardt – 2B Stalker – C Thompson – P Gutierrez
NYC: CF Malo – 1B Cambra – 2B M. Hurtado – LF Balado – SS Schuler – 3B J. Zamora – RF Bobo – C Hurley – P G. Rendon

After defense, and defense alone, stalled leadoff singles for Caleb Malo and Firmino Cambra in the bottom 1st, Fernandez and Stalker went to the corners for Thompson to put the Critters up 1-0 with a sac fly. The following inning Zitz doubled home Zelts to make it 2-0. Gilberto Rendon had a leadoff single off Gutierrez (and it was too late for me to get much worked up about that anymore…) in the bottom 3rd, Cambra singled again, but Mario Hurtado wrapped himself into a 4-6-3 double play to end that inning. It was a chewy game, given Gutierrez’ brand of “pitching to defense” which assumed all outfielders could reach a ball hit 200 feet from their starting spot with medium effort, and how the Coons landed four hits, all singles, in the top 5th and scored only one run. Ramos scored, while Zeltser, Fernandez, and Reichardt were all stranded when Stalker flew out to Malo.

Bottom 5th, everything began to come apart again. Rob Bobo – awesome name, I’ll for now leave it at that – hit a leadoff single up the middle, advanced on Ryan Hurley’s groundout, then was scored by Rendon’s second single off Gutierrez, which ticked me off, really… Malo walked, putting the tying runs on base. Cambra popped out before Hurtado, probably the most dangerous bat in the lineup, and a right-hander to boot, popped out on a 2-2 pitch for a rather anti-climactic ending of what I assumed would blossom into a 6-spot. The following half-inning, the Coons loaded the bags with the top of the order and two outs. Rendon fell to 3-1 against Zitzner, who hit a fly to right… but couldn’t beat Bobo, who made the catch to strand all the precious runners. It was still 3-1 in the bottom 7th when Hurley’s 1-out double to left knocked out Gutierrez in favor of Ed Blair to face the switch-hitting Jose Pulido in the #9 hole. One pitch, one single, runners on the corners, and left-hander Hirofumi Saito hit for Malo. Portland scrambled for David Fernandez, who saw out a sizzling liner into a squeaking, blindly swiping, and catching Travis Zitzner, then got Cambra on a bouncer to second base to end the tense inning. With Blair burned, we turned to Anaya in the bottom 8th, resulting in quick outs against the 3-4-5 batters. The next inning was Wise’s since Manny Fernandez singled in the ninth, but also ended it by being caught stealing. Zamora lined out to Stalker. Bobo grounded out to Marsingill at third base. Hurley grounded out to Zeltser at short. Ramos 3-5; Zeltser 2-5; Wallace 2-3, BB, RBI; M. Fernandez 3-5, 2B; Reichardt 3-4; Gutierrez 6.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (8-11);

No, nothing undue happened to Berto; he was double-switched out after the top 8th because unless we’d have blown the lead he would not likely have come up again and the Marsingill shuffle to third base was tangentially better defensively, claimed all my advisors that would know about such things.

Foremost Honeypaws, that is.

The Titans lost, 9-3, keeping the magic number at five, with the gap down to four games. Indy lost, dropping to a magic number of three, and the Crusaders were down to one and faced elimination even if they won on Sunday.

Game 3
POR: 3B Hawkins – SS Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF Reichardt – RF Camps – 2B Marsingill – C Garcia – P Chavez
NYC: CF Malo – 3B J. Zamora – 2B M. Hurtado – LF Balado – SS Schuler – 1B Pulido – RF Ryder – C Leonard – P Colmenarez

Colmenarez was up on Sunday, the Coons shuffled in all the right-handers they could, and then loaded the bags in the top 1st with a Stalker single, Wallace walk, and Zitzner single. Reichardt whiffed, Camps grounded out, and nobody scored. The Crusaders instead put Malo and Zamora on, scored two with a Balado groundout and a Schuler single, and the Raccoons were still wondering what had happened to their 1-2-3 punch. Up 2-0, Colmenarez left the game with an injury in the second inning and was replaced by another lefty in Andy Wright, who had an ERA over ten. But maybe Bernie could still get there – he walked Leonard and Malo in the second and only bailed out on a strong Stalker swipe on Zamora’s sharp grounder.

It got better before it could get worse. Camps reached base via the walk in the fourth, stole second, then jogged home when Justin Marsingill hit a homer to right to tie the game. Fernando Garcia made it back-to-back off Wright on the very next pitch, making it a 3-2 Critters game. Unfortunately, Bernie remained the King of Crummy, and with two outs and two strikes in the bottom half of the inning allowed a tie-breaking blast to Keith Leonard… Portland couldn’t do anything with a Stalker double leading off the fifth and in fact didn’t get another man on base until Stalker singled with two outs in the seventh. Wallace then grounded out to let that runner slip away, too.

Neither pitcher got a decision, as Chavez didn’t get through seven innings. Hennessy got a grounder from Joe Payne to end that inning with the score still knotted at three. Ed Blair pitched a quick eighth to keep the game tied after the Coons couldn’t get past a pinch-hit single by Jennings in the top half of the frame, and in the ninth they’d face paper Critter Mike Hugh, who had once been a rule 5 selection that we handed back before the season started. Ramos hit for Garcia to begin the ninth and shot a ball into the gap for a leadoff double, which was a good start! Manny Fernandez was already batting in the #9 hole and was intentionally walked. Zeltser hit for Hawkins in the #1 slot, struck out, Stalker popped out, and Wallace whiffed in a full count…

Blair and Garavito moved the game to extra innings, where Prieto pitched two scoreless frames while the offense did precisely nothing. Zeltser then dropped in a single to begin the 12th against Gavin Lee. We had ended up with David Tinnin batting second. The Crusaders sensed a bunt and played for the double play, so the Coons called off the bunt and called a ballsy hit-and-run instead. Zeltser ran, Tinnin swung and missed, Zeltser was going to be dead at second, but Hurley’s throw was short, bounced off Randy Schuler’s knee, and the ball went into centerfield, while Zeltser dashed for third base. Tinnin ended up flying out to ex-Coon Matt Jamieson, but Jimmy Wallace rushed a spiked bouncer through the right side for an RBI single! Zitzner singled, Lee threw a wild pitch, and Reichardt popped out for a cringy 0-for-6. Elliott Thompson batted for Prieto, ran a 3-1 count, then cracked a 2-run single over Schuler to break the score wide open! Marsingill flew out, bringing Chris Wise into the 6-3 game. Hurley, Jamieson, and Cesar Martinez made straight outs. 6-3 Coons. Stalker 3-5, 2B; Zitzner 2-6; Thompson (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Ramos (PH) 1-2, 2B; Prieto 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-1);

In other news

September 19 – An oblique strain ends the season of Indy’s CF/LF John Baron (.233, 27 HR, 85 RBI).
September 23 – Season over for OCT SP Andy Jimenes (10-9, 3.35 ERA), who has come down with shoulder soreness.
September 23 – ATL 1B Adam Avakian (.313, 18 HR, 92 RBI), who would end up CL Player of the Week, lands four hits and plates as many runners in a 13-6 win over the Aces.
September 24 – As they try to hold off Oklahoma City and Tijuana, the Bayhawks get bad news that 2B/SS Jose Cruz (.287, 6 HR, 82 RBI) has suffered an oblique strain and is out for the season.
September 24 – The Loggers trade OF Gabe Creech (.190, 6 HR, 29 RBI) to the Canadiens for 2B Bill McWhirter (.282, 3 HR, 38 RBI) and a meager prospect.

Complaints and stuff

And after a big knell, it was all over. Pitching completely went away in September, and the offense… well, it had been like that all year. Good batting averages, terrible run conversion rates. Monday’s loss was a prime example of that, dropping a 1-run game where they out-hit Atlanta by more than 2-to-1.

… at least that was the situation before we swept the Crusaders. The Titans lost again on Sunday, so the Critters moved back into the crucial distance of three games, where via a sweep on the final weekend it was still THEORETICALLY entirely possible to get level with the Bostonians. The Crusaders were officially eliminated when Gavin Lee unraveled in the 12th on Sunday, and the Indians are six games back and have only academical chances.

But truth be told – we have to beat BOTH the Indians and Titans to make this work, and it will not be easy… or remotely likely. BNN agrees:

Team (Record) – Remaining Games – Strength of Schedule – Playoff Chance
BOS (86-69) – NYC (4), POR (3) – .517 – 94.8% (+0.4%)
POR (83-72) – IND (4), BOS (3) – .533 – 5.2% (+1.2%)

I really do not recall the last time we swept the Titans. Has it EVER happened? Cristiano, investigate! – Yes, in the archives!

Fun Fact: Our 14-4 season series against the Crusaders was our best effort against them since we took 15 games from them in 2012.

They were between three-peats at that point, and nobody quite knows how that could happen.

Also, the 14-4 is the second-best tally against a CL North team since then. In 2014 we took 16 of 18 from the Loggers.