[Westheim]

Raccoons (21-17) @ Loggers (19-19) – May 15-18, 2034

Something in Milwaukee was dangerous – the Loggers didn’t have much pitching, or a bullpen deserving the “relief” moniker at all, but they ranked second in runs scored in the Continental League, placing over 5.1 runs on opponents’ ledgers every game. There wasn’t really any one thing they did particularly well, except hitting for average, and the Raccoons were also hitting for average but scored nowhere near as many runs… We were under 4.6 runs per game coming in. This was the first Loggers encounter of 2034; we had taken the season series in 10-8 fashion last season.

Projected matchups:
Ignacio del Rio (4-0, 2.54 ERA) vs. Felipe Delgado (2-3, 3.61 ERA)
Pat Okrasinski (3-3, 3.98 ERA) vs. Josh Long (2-5, 4.04 ERA)
Gilberto Rendon (4-2, 3.64 ERA) vs. Mel Lira (1-1, 5.47 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (2-1, 1.77 ERA) vs. Alfredo Casique (6-1, 4.05 ERA)

Delgado would both be the only southpaw to come up and also pitch on short rest. The rest of the rotation would take their turn on regular rest.

I wonder whether Bernie wonders what he’s doing wrong…

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF Salgado – CF Reichardt – 3B Hawkins – C Scheffer – P del Rio
MIL: RF Valenzuela – SS W. Morris – 1B Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – 2B McWhirter – C J. Young – CF Wheeler – P F. Delgado

The Raccoons drew all of six pitches from Delgado in their half of the opening frame, which was just barely more pitches than the Loggers would score runs off the heretofore undefeated del Rio. Danny Valenzuela reached on a Tim Stalker error, and the game went into the toilet without much hesitation as Wayne Morris singled before del Rio threw NINE straight balls to Jeremy Leftwich, Josh Conner, and Steve Wilson, resulting in two walks and a run before Wilson hit a 2-run single on the 1-0 pitch. Bill McWhirter and Jim Young also hit singles, running the tally to 5-0 before Mike Wheeler hit into a double play and Felipe Delgado made the third out, and it’s never good when you have to name-check all the opposing players in the first three sentences of a game report. And because baseball was a cruel whore that knew no friends nor how to love anybody, del Rio would then string up five scoreless innings after being thoroughly drummed, but his own team had already given up on the game. The Raccoons ticked the odd single here or there, but did nothing of lasting value throughout del Rio’s time on the mound.

I marked an “L” in my pocket calendar during the seventh inning stretch. David Fernandez retired Milwaukee in order in the following half-inning before Delgado strutted back out for the eighth. After Stalker grounded out, Jimmy Wallace reached on an infield single, the Raccoons’ fifth hit in the game. Zitzner reached on Delgado’s own error, and Salgado hit a ball in the gap for an RBI double. Reichardt scored two with a double up the rightfield line, and suddenly it was a baseball game again. Delgado lost Hawkins on balls as the Loggers’ pen scrambled to get from casual after-game-dinner dress back into their uniforms. It was too late – Philip Scheffer hit a ball to the warning track that bounced high against the ball and over Valenzuela, who had to chase it back towards the infield for long enough to allow Scheffer to slide into third base with a game-tying 2-run triple …! Rich Vickers had pinch-hit the last time through and was still around, knocking an RBI single to give the Coons a lead!? Expecting a loss, Alberto Ramos had been removed for conservation purposes; Manny Fernandez hit in his spot and singled, but the inning fizzled out without further runs as Stalker and Wallace both grounded out. Josh Conner’s single off Garavito and McWhirter’s double off Blair would tie the game in the bottom 8th, and the Coons left the bags loaded against always-struggling former Critter Dan McLin in the ninth; three were on with one out, but Scheffer struck out and Vickers popped out to throw the chance away. The game would head to extras where the Raccoons would not amount to anything either, but Antonio Prieto leaked a single to Leftwich, who stole second base barely contested, and then came around on a walkoff single by Omar Huerta in the #5 hole. 7-6 Loggers. M. Fernandez (PH) 1-2; Zitzner 2-6; Salgado 3-5, 2B, RBI; Zeltser (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – C M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Thompson – P Okrasinski
MIL: RF Valenzuela – SS W. Morris – 1B Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – 2B McWhirter – C J. Young – CF Wheeler – P Long

Portland scored three in the opening frame with Ramos and Zeltser singles, Wallace’s sac fly, then base hits by Zitzner and Fernandez, who scored Zeltser, and finally a Stalker sac fly. Billy Jennings would reach on a fifth single, but Elliott Thompson made the final out. The 2-3-4 batters would load the bags with two outs the following inning, but Fernandez grounded out then, while Okrasinski retired the first eight Loggers with 2 K before Josh Long singled to center, which was something that kept happening to these Raccoons… opposing pitchers had to bat something like .387 against them, but I was afraid of doing the actual math. It was however something that could reasonably be entrusted to Cristiano Carmona back home in Portland, and do tell me the actual number only if it confirmed my paranoia. In this particular event, Danny Valenzuela followed up with another single, but Morris struck out to end the bottom 3rd.

The Raccoons seemed to be committed to reach base no sooner than with two outs going forwards. Zeltser and Wallace again reached base in the fourth, but Zitzner grounded out to strand them. In the bottom of that inning, a 1-out walk drawn by Conner, who broke up a double play on Wilson’s grounder, and then the 2-out RBI double by McWhirter got Milwaukee on the board before Jim Young popped out. Portland returned to the bases with two outs in the sixth, courtesy of a Ramos bloop single… and Wilson’s botched fielding attempt that got Berto to second base, and then around when Bob Zeltser singled, 4-1. Wallace reached base, and Zitzner whiffed, giving the stick back to the Loggers. Manny Fernandez hit a leadoff double in the seventh for a change, cutting Long’s day short, but was nevertheless stranded by the following poor outs. Wilson (single) and McWhirter (walk) reached base in the bottom 7th. With nobody out, the pen got stirring for Portland, but Okrasinski got a pop from Young, after which the runners pulled off a double steal. Wheeler flew out to Wallace, Wilson went for home plate – and was thrown out. Okrasinski was then batted for with seven complete and fine innings under his belt, after which Hennessy in the eight hand Wise in the ninth did completely decent jobs as well, keeping the Loggers to five base hits in total. 4-1 Coons. Ramos 2-5; Zeltser 4-5, 2B, RBI; Wallace 2-3, BB, RBI; Zitzner 2-4, BB; M. Fernandez 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Okrasinski 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (4-3);

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Vickers – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Rendon
MIL: RF Valenzuela – SS W. Morris – 1B Leftwich – 3B Conner – 2B McWhirter – C J. Young – LF D.J. Mendez – CF K. Farmer – P Lira

Lira was not quite in the zone to begin this game; he issued a walk to Ramos, nailed Zeltser, looked in awe as the runners pulled off a double steal, saw one run score on Wallace’s groundout, then walked Zitzner. Fernandez popped out in a case of lack of patience, but Rich Vickers got an RBI single through Conner to make it 2-0 before Reichardt grounded out to end the top 1st. Not that it didn’t get worse for Lira in the second, and all with two outs, even after a frustrating start to the frame with Thompson popping a 3-2 pitch foul and conveniently playable for Conner, who dropped the ball anyway. Thompson however struck out on the next pitch to maintain his season-long lack of momentum, now batting .172 and sinking. With two outs though, the Coons stirred. Ramos reached, Zeltser reached, Wallace hit an RBI single, and Zeltser hit a bomb for three, extending the score to 6-0. Lira would be stuck with eight runs in 3.1 innings eventually, conceding a Ramos single in the fourth after Rendon had reached on a Conner error. Berto stole second, taking off the double play that Zeltser then would have hit into. In the new situation with runners on second and third, his 6-3 out at least got him an RBI. It was the last one logged by Lira, who was replaced by right-hander Rafael Zacarias, whose first pitch was hit well into Canada by Jimmy Wallace to get the tally to 9-0. Zacarias was strafed for another two runs in the fifth, with Rendon hitting a 1-out RBI double. Ramos popped out, but Zeltser snuck in a 2-out RBI single, scoring Thompson.

Through five, the Loggers scored nothing off Rendon, who did perfectly well despite having a Logger in scoring position in every inning but the fourth, in which he struck out the 5-6-7 batters in order. Rendon seemed to come unglued in he bottom 6th, issuing 2-out walks to both McWhirter and Young, but then rung up D.J. Mendez to end the inning; the errant spell however took off any chance for a shutout as he got almost up to 90 pitches and did not have the best stamina to begin with. He hit for himself one more time as the 7-8-9 batters were retired in order in the top 7th, then came back out to pitch, but was clearly on his last fumes. Kymani Farmer hit a leadoff single, Rendon coughed up two more outs, then blood, and was replaced after 104 pitches in shutout fashion. Well… at least until both Morris and Leftwich got hold of Victor Anaya pitches and rocked two base hits and two RBI on the latter knock, a double into the corner. Reliever Rob Clack *nailed* Ramos to begin the eighth, and while Berto was not acutely injured he was removed from the game after Zeltser double-played him away. Wallace and Fernandez were also replaced in the 11-2 game. Soon enough it was 11-3 on McWhirter’s jack off Anaya to begin the bottom 8th. Hennessy and Prieto cleaned up after that, with Adrian Reichardt doubling in Zitzner off Mike Cockcroft in the ninth to restore the Coons to their 9-run lead. 12-3 Raccoons! Ramos 1-2, 2 BB; Zeltser 2-4, 2 RBI; Wallace 2-5, HR, 4 RBI; Zitzner 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Reichardt 2-5, 2B, RBI; Rendon 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (5-2) and 1-4, 2B, RBI;

With this rout we had a better run differential (+44) than the Titans (+35), but we were still three games behind.

Game 4
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – RF Jennings – C Scheffer – P Chavez
MIL: RF Valenzuela – SS W. Morris – 1B Leftwich – 3B Conner – LF S. Wilson – 2B McWhirter – C J. Young – CF Wheeler – P Casique

Bernie Chavez arrived with a sub-2 ERA and the Loggers spanked him to the other side of the two within seconds. Morris doubled, Leftwich singled him in, and Conner hit a shot to left, all in the first inning, to make it 3-0 Loggers. So that’s how Casique got six wins with a meh ERA…! The Raccoons didn’t even get a base hit until the fourth when Zeltser opened with a single to left. Wallace walked, bringing up the tying run in what was still a 3-0 game despite several deep flies hit off Chavez after the Conner knell. Travis Zitzner however went straight for the double play and Manny Fernandez hit a comebacker, blowing the chance. Tim Stalker hit a leadoff double in the fifth, and nothing came of that either with a Jennings grounder and two whiffs all to be found at the bottom of the lineup.

From the start I hadn’t liked the pitching matchup. Casique clearly had something going for himself, and probably it was black devil magic or worse. The Raccoons didn’t scratch a lick for Chavez, who only saw them cobble three hits together while he was in the game, which lasted until Hawkins batted for him ineffectively in the eighth. After that, Ramos and Zeltser knocked a pair of 2-out singles, bringing up Jimmy Wallace as the tying run. The count fell to 2-2, I closed my eyes, sighed, but the crowd groaned following a bat-on-ball sound. I opened my eyes, and just caught the last split second of the ball, mortally wounded, escaping over the fence in rightfield – we had a tied game!! Zitzner popped out, ending the inning, Bernie had no win, but at least no loss, either. No Raccoon would get a win – thanks to Mauricio Garavito serving up a pinch-hit homer to Omar Huerta right away in the bottom of the eighth. 4-3 Loggers. Zeltser 2-4; Wallace 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI;

Man, this team knows how to suck the air out of a successful rally…

Next up was the worst team not only in baseball; I wasn’t sure the Aces were adept at anything…

Raccoons (23-19) @ Aces (11-31) – May 19-21, 2034

Last in the South, last in any sort of pitching, and middling with their offense. But the key was indeed the pitching staff. The Aces’ starters were not only the worst in the league, they had a friggin’ 5.72 ERA as a group and the team’s run differential had already ballooned to -78. And yet somehow I saw the Critters come in here and lose two… This didn’t come out of the blue – the Aces had been goddamn awful for a while, but we still had dropped the season series the last two years, 4-5 each time.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (3-1, 3.40 ERA) vs. Peter Gill (1-3, 4.14 ERA)
Ignacio del Rio (4-0, 2.94 ERA) vs. Jesse Wright (2-5, 5.20 ERA)
Pat Okrasinski (4-3, 3.60 ERA) vs. Chris Pyles (1-4, 7.93 ERA)

“Graveyard” Gill was their only southpaw. Gill had looked like a candidate for “new thing” in ’28 when he posted a 13-11 mark with a 2.82 ERA in his first full season in the Thunder rotation despite some flashing red lights like that 4.5 BB/9 mark. Then came a torn triceps in ’29, a torn-up knee in ’30 and years in swingman hell in Oklahoma and Sacramento. Up until now, this was his only season in which he had not made a relief appearance, and right now he was also the unanointed ace of staff in Vegas. Never mind that he walked more than he whiffed and that it wasn’t close.

Coons needed three wins. No discussion. (Manny Fernandez opens his little snout to bicker) No discussions, or I’ll staple your jaws together! Three wins! (sternly points them in the direction of the field)

Game 1
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Stalker – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF Salgado – CF Reichardt – 3B Hawkins – C Scheffer – P Sabre
LVA: LF Salto – 2B Sibley – CF Stedham – 1B Gustafson – RF E. Martin – C Kennett – 3B Carman – SS Crow – P Gill

The first four Critters all reached base … three of them were left on. Berto Ramos led off with a single, stole second, his 16th base of the season just after the first quarter post of the season, came around on a Stalker single, and after Wallace and Zitzner joined him aboard, the next three batters insisted on collectively popping out. Bring on Sabre, the Aces snapped him for three base hits in their first three batters, Graciano Salto, Ross Sibley, Jesse Stedham, and also scored a run. Sabre rung up Sean Gustafson and Evan Martin, then got Elliott Kennett to pop out. Vince Carman and Andy Crow hit leadoff singles in the bottom 2nd and a Salto sac fly made it 2-1 Vegas in that inning… The Aces would keep molesting Sabre and ran him up to 71 pitches in four innings, which included stranding a whole set in the fourth when Stedham popped out, ironically on the first pitch. Sabre was bad to terrible, couldn’t get strike three a bazillion times, and allowed seven hits and a walk through four innings. And where was the offense?

It took them until the fifth to reach scoring position again with Zitzner and Salgado hitting singles with one out. Reichardt whiffed, Hawkins popped out, and nobody scored. …well, except for Evan Martin, who with Vince Carman batting scored on a throwing error by Tom ****ing Hawkins with two outs in the bottom 5th. Facing a ****ty team, the Raccoons insisted on doing the ****tiest things; three runs were scored against Victor Anaya in the seventh, two of them earned. Salgado dropped a simple fly by THE ****ING PITCHER with two outs to wave Andy Crow around after the Aces had already kicked two earned runs into the Raccoons’ goddamn right-hander’s kisser. “Graveyard” Gill pitched a complete game on 120 pitches, allowing only four more base runners after the four he allowed to begin the game. 6-1 Aces.

Sabre was the best Critter at the plate, collecting two base hits! And – fun fact – any random position player plucked from the bench would have been a better pitcher than him, too!!

I’m so angry, I could bite a ****ing cactus!!

Game 2
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – CF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – C Scheffer – RF Jennings – P del Rio
LVA: LF Salto – 2B Sibley – CF Stedham – 1B Gustafson – RF E. Martin – 3B Armfield – C Kennett – SS Crow – P J. Wright

Oh well, let’s try the undefeated guy that already got his black-and-white face recolored all-white when a team rubbed his numb skull into a chalkline this very week. It worked to the tune of a Chad Armfield RBI single plating Sean Gustafson in the second while all the Raccoons amounted to in the early innings was a Tim Stalker single. We didn’t reach scoring position until the fourth with leadoff singles by Zeltser and Wallace. That was the seed for a score-flipping inning, even if that required extensive cooperation by the .279 home team. Zitzner grounded out in 1-3 fashion, with Wright looking at second base, but then deciding against trying for two or even Wallace’s sluggish bum. That cost him after a Fernandez sac fly that moved Wallace to third, from which he scored when Ross Sibley took Stalker’s grounder and tried to breed it into a beautiful young baby bird. That didn’t work; Scheffer grounded out to end the inning with a 2-1 lead. Martin and Armfield hit 2-out singles in the bottom 4th, but Kennett flew out to Jennings to keep those aboard.

While del Rio couldn’t get a clean inning for the life of his – Ramos misfired a Salto grounder with two outs in the fifth f.e. to put an Ace on base anyway – the Raccoons seemed intent on causing the much-battered Jesse Wright as little discomfort as possible, popping out three times in the sixth without reaching base, a noble proposition in some walks of life, for example if you earned your livelihood in a nunnery. And while we’re on it, maybe draw a ****ing walk from time to time!! Fernandez poked at a 3-1 pitch to begin the seventh, Wright swiped and deflected the ball into the hole between Sibley and Gustafson, and Fernandez had a single when the ball otherwise would probably have gone right into Sibley’s mitten. Stalker grounded out, Scheffer popped out, Jennings flew out.

Del Rio threw 101 pitches through seven and did his side of the deal well enough, maintaining the 2-1 lead on a 4-hitter, which was as much knocking as the Raccoons had done against Wright, who was far from undefeated on the season. Adrian Reichardt batted for del Rio in another sad-sack 1-2-3 inning in the eighth after which the game tried to take a serious left turn with David Fernandez on the mound. Salto singled with one out, and he walked Sibley on four pitches. With Vince Carman hitting for Stedham, Ed Blair got involved, ran a full count, and I was having all the worst flashforwards imaginable, but didn’t saw what actually happened on the field, a grounder to second that Stalker and Ramos turned for two, ending the inning. Top 9th, Steve Bailey rung up Wallace and Zitzner before Manny hit a meek single. Tim Stalker swatted away at the first pitch – and it was over the fence for a 2-run homer! Bailey then failed the bases full against the bottom of the order before a hitless Ramos flew out to Salto in left. Chris Wise and his ERA over five insisted on putting runners on the corners with base hits for Gustafson and Armfield before Elliott Kennett nixed his evil plans and hit into a double play, 5-4-3, to make the Raccoons winners. 4-1 Blighters. M. Fernandez 2-3, RBI; Stalker 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; del Rio 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (5-0);

Alright, damage control. Can we PLEASE dismember that guy with the ERA near EIGHT?? Okrasinski – last time was dandy, but today we need better! I don’t trust the eight stooges, who will make Pyles look like the next Jonny Toner.

Game 3
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Zeltser – LF Wallace – 1B Zitzner – RF M. Fernandez – 2B Stalker – CF Reichardt – C Thompson – P Okrasinski
LVA: LF Salto – 2B Sibley – CF Stedham – 1B Gustafson – RF E. Martin – 3B Armfield – C Kennett – SS Crow – P Pyles

A Ramos Special in the first inning involved a shy dinker behind Sibley, his 17th stolen base, then two productive outs by Zeltser and Wallace to go up 1-0. The Raccoons however would not draw a walk against Pyles, who walked close to eight batters per nine innings on his quest to have an ERA near infinity AND qualify for the ERA title, until the fourth inning when Zitzner pyled up four balls… and then was double-played away by Manny Fernandez. At least Okrasinski kept the Aces short, but the Vegans were nevertheless out-hitting Portland, 3-2 after four innings. Stalker drew a leadoff walk in the fifth… and nothing could happened after that.

Bottom 5th, Kennett with a leadoff single, then four balls to Andy Crow. Pyles bunted them into scoring position, and Okrasinski lost Salto in a full count, loading the bases anyway. Sibley came, saw, and struck out, bringing up Stedham, batting no less than .344 with four homers. He hit it near the line in left, which had the potential to be worse than a homer given that Jimmy Wallace was camping out there in his lawn chair, but somehow the not-so-agile outfielder made it over there to register the third out of the inning, stranding a full set of Aces. Top 6th, Berto led off with a triple – the third hit for Portland against the routine pushover Pyles – and scored when Pyles and Gustafson fell all over each other in pursuit of Bob Zeltser’s roller that became an infield RBI single and extended the lead to a raging 2-0! Wallace even walked… and then Zitzner hit a double play grounder and Stedham robbed Fernandez in deep center to strand Zeltser at third base. It was the most infuriating of games once again, and this was with the Raccoons LEADING.

While Okrasinski slowly grinded his way through the Aces, getting around a pinch-hit double by Vince Carman in the seventh, the Raccoons’ offense suddenly saw daylight by the eighth… even if only because Carman had batted for Pyles, who had issued another leadoff walk to Stalker in the seventh, but had not been punished for that one either… Southpaw Casey McQueen was out for the top of the eighth, sporting a flat-6 ERA and more walks than strikeouts. Even then, the inning started with outs by Ramos and Hawkins before Salgado and Zitzner hit two singles. Manny Fernandez popped out and it was all really just the same as before. Or worse – Okrasinski fell to a leadoff walk issued to Sibley, an absolutely atrocious ****ty bloop single by Stedham that sent the runner to third base, and then Gustafson’s run-scoring double play grounder. Hennessy replaced him, allowed a double to Evan Martin, then made way for Blair, who could not put away Armfield in a 1-2 count, but at least stopped his sharp comebacker before it could strike him in the throat AND played it to Zitzner for the third out. Bra-vo! McQueen remained around for the ninth inning, walked Reichardt with one out and Scheffer in the #9 hole with two, and then Berto slapped a grounder past Chad Armfield for an RBI single and a dire needed insurance run given that Chris Wise had yet to **** up a save this week. Wise faced the bottom of the order, had Kennett at 2-2, then nailed him. So THAT’S how you got to five losses in under 20 games! Crow struck out, and was followed by PH Adam Horner, who grounded towards second base. Ramos raced over, reached while diving and wrist-flicked the ball with the edge of his glove over to Stalker, who somehow maintained control over the leather, avoided the barreling Kennett, and threw to first to complete the double play. 3-1 Blighters. Ramos 3-5, 3B, RBI; Salgado (PH) 1-1; Stalker 1-2, 2 BB; Okrasinski 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (5-3);

In other news

May 15 – ATL SP Chris Inderrieden (5-4, 3.02 ERA) throws a 1-hitter against the Condors, with the Knights winning 6-0. TIJ 3B Shane Sanks (.317, 13 HR, 34 RBI) hits a fifth-inning single for the only Condors base hit in the game.
May 15 – SAL INF/RF Jose Castro (.354, 3 HR, 16 RBI) hs hit safely in 20 games after a ninth-inning base knock in a 3-0 Wolves loss to the Gold Sox.
May 16 – The Scorpions trade SP Jesus Rodarte (2-3, 4.91 ERA) to the Bayhawks for two prospects including #29 LF Joreao Porfirio.
May 16 – The Miners lose to the Buffaloes, 2-1 in 11 innings, on a walkoff double hit by TOP C/1B Jeremiah Brooks (.427, 2 HR, 14 RBI), who despite coming off the bench collects more hits (two) than the Miners in total in those 11 innings. After a second-inning leadoff double by outfielder Yvon Bonaccorsi (.250, 5 HR, 18 RBI) the Miners fell silent.
May 20 – The Knights dismember the Crusaders to the tune of 17 runs in a 21-4 scorefest in New York that somehow fails to please the crowd. Every batter in the Knights’ lineup has at least one hit and they score in all but two innings. ATL LF/RF/1B Rich Parker (.267, 1 HR, 13 RBI) has a team-leading four hits and four RBI from the seven hole.
May 21 – The hitting streak of SAL INF/RF Jose Castro (.362, 5 HR, 19 RBI) ends at 24 games after a dry performance in a 3-1 Wolves win over the Cyclones.

Complaints and stuff

Berto ties for the stolen base lead in all of the ABL with 17 (out of 21 attempts), level with LAP Oscar Mendoza. In the Continental League, his lead over Lorenzo Celaya and others is four. How Berto’s on top can be reasonably explained; how Pat Okrasinski leads the Critters in wins is not something easily dissected… More on him at the bottom.

However, if Raffaello Sabre is your worst starter and has a 3.42 ERA and 1.40 WHIP … life isn’t inherently terrible. And I look at the Titans and think they’re not unavoidable. They are not a given. They can be toppled! They have a rock-hard rotation and a strong pen, but their lineup is parts old, parts weak, and parts on the DL. They have four guys on the DL right now, including both Opening Day catchers. They’re down to some Nicaraguan guy I’ve never heard of. Watch out for him, Tony Martinez of Ocotal, who will hit six homers and drive in 18 runs the next time we face Boston. And throw out Berto seven times.

At least in theory. We won’t see the Titans until late June, and by then they should have both their catchers back. In the here and now, we’re gonna transit to Oklahoma City after a day off in Vegas, then play three at home with the Baybirds, our second and final home series of the month. It will be a wicked Atlanta-Vancouver road trip the weak after that, so if nothing else *I*’m gonna get back to Portland late on the 31st…

This week we promoted 2032 July IFA period signing and #5 prospect in all of the ABL Jesus Maldonado to Ham Lake. He had batted .273/.392/.417 in Aumsville, a marked improvement over his 2033 campaign there that had seen a very rocky start before getting stronger towards the end.

In a second move, amazingly unranked catching prospect Tony Morales was moved from Ham Lake up to St. Petersburg. He had hit .301/.341/.496 with the Panthers where he had been assigned to last June. Both of these players have turned 20 years old in the last two months. Both were July IFA signings; Morales was inked in 2030 for $95k.

Not going to foreshadow anything, but the meteoric rise of Tony Morales might spell trouble for the previously anointed “catcher of the franchise”, Elliott Thompson… you may have noticed a certain surge in lineup assignments for Philip Scheffer, who was a *clear* numero dos to begin the season….. Granted, Thompson is still said to be an excellent defensive catcher (not that I am seeing it), so there is always that numero dos job for him to fall back upon…

Other guys to be aware of in AAA? Ed Hooge is batting .296 but it has never transitioned to the Bigs for him. Justin Marsingill hits .328, which makes him a candidate to switch back with Rich Vickers, who can’t even crack the lineup against left-handed pitchers. That Japanese guy we signed to a penny deal? Chiyosaku Maruyama is batting .221 with seven homers, which makes him at least worth keeping the lazy eye on.

Pitchers? Darren Brown’s ERA is 2.29, and Jonathan Dykstra is at 2.44. Los Dos Carlosos – Contreras and de la Cruz – have both started and relieved some, and both have ERA’s better than Brown… there has never been a worse time to be a promising stating pitching prospect on the Alley Cats.

Fun Fact: Pat Okrasinski has yet to allow exactly two earned runs in a start this season.

And he’s been charged with three only once, which is weird, if you think of it. Two or three runs is really an average-to-decent-or-good starter’s bread and butter.

Okra’s been out nine times and has two 5-spots, one 4, and that lone 3. He also allowed one run four times, and no runs once, which was in his second outing of the season, sandwiched between the 5’s.

He has also yet to post a game score vaguely near 50. The closest he’s come from either side is a 60 in his April 30 win over the damn Elks; that was three runs in seven innings. He’s weird; on one paw he is utterly consistent in f.e. strikeouts, having three games each with three or four strikeouts, and only one each of two, five, and six. On the other hand, when he loses, he LOSES, and when he wins, he’s usually quite the sight! There’s no middle ground for him in that regard.