[Westheim]

The trade deadline was closing in on the Raccoons, who definitely needed a right-handed reliever from somewhere. Well, what about that one over there?

Trade

The Raccoons traded with the Titans (!) on Monday, acquiring right-handed rental MR Derek Barker (4-1, 3.41 ERA, 1 SV) for nothing more than two AAA toss-offs, 2B Yukitsura Hirai and right-hander Seth Green.

Barker was a 10-year veteran with a 3.61 career ERA that was weighed down by some appalling BABIP years with the Buffaloes when he was in his 20s. Hirai and Green had 32 at-bats and 5.2 innings pitched in the majors, had fared very badly, and were at 26 and 28 years old, respectively, well out of prospect age. Unless Barker would break Berto’s nose by losing a baseball mid-windup, this trade ABSOLUTELY COULD NOT BACKFIRE.

Tyler Canfield was sent back to St. Petersburg to make room for Barker on the roster.

Raccoons (50-43) vs. Loggers (38-54) – July 21-23, 2037

With their new reliever in tow, the Raccoons would welcome the Loggers to hopefully exercise revenge for that extremely bitter 4-game sweep they had suffered in Milwaukee last time around, which had left the Loggers up 6-3 in the season series (!!), and which I could still taste on my tongue. It tasted bitter. I didn’t like it. The Loggers were of course well beaten overall, in last place in the North, and eighth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed. Last time’s chief torturer, rookie Joseph Ronan, was on the DL with a sore back, so what could go wrong now?

Projected matchups:
Josh Weeks (8-6, 4.11 ERA) vs. Sal Chavez (6-2, 3.56 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (7-7, 3.49 ERA) vs. Sergio Piedra (6-7, 3.24 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (5-4, 3.94 ERA) vs. William Stockwell (3-8, 5.26 ERA)

Stockwell was the only southpaw in the bunch. Of course, with the All Star break still fresh on everybody’s rest schedule AND an off day on Monday, they had some wiggle room, just like us, although we sent up our pitchers in order.

Game 1
MIL: CF T. Romero – SS Del Vecchio – 3B Conner – LF J. Nelson – RF Valenzuela – C M. Cooper – 1B S. Ayala – 2B V. Acosta – P S. Chavez
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – C Morales – P Weeks

The Raccoons’ offense started with Cosmo singling, stealing second and scoring on a single by Alberto Ramos, who promptly also stole second, reached third base on Matt Cooper’s throwing error, and then was stranded while Manny lined out, Greenway whiffed (squints!), and – after Fowler walked – Stedham popped out foul. Goody goodness! The Loggers immediately tied the score in the top 2nd with a Justin Nelson double, a Danny Valenzuela single, and a Cooper groundout, but the Raccoons came back swiftly. Berto walked in the bottom 3rd, Fernandez singled, and Greenway shot a single up the middle, plating Berto from second base for a 2-1 lead and for his first Raccoons RBI! (pats Slappy on shoulder) Isn’t life great?? (Slappy toasts, then rubs hurting shoulder) Jesse Stedham would bring in another run with a 2-out single, giving the Coons a 3-1 lead once Myers grounded out to Ted Del Vecchio. Things continued to go south for Sal Chavez, who allowed a leadoff homer to Tony Morales in the fourth, then loaded the bases with the 9-1-2 hitters and nobody out yet. He offered another walk to Manny to force in a run, but whiffed Greenway (squints!!). He also had Justin Fowler at 0-2 before hanging a breaking pitch that was never seen again. GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

Tony Morales hit a jack off Carlos Padilla to begin the following inning, which seemed strangely déjà vu AND got the Critters into double digits, 10-1. Cosmo and Berto would get to the corners with one out, with Manny bringing in Trevino with a fielder’s choice. Meanwhile Josh Weeks was rather dominant, whiffing nine in seven innings of 3-hit ball before running out of breath. The Loggers never caught footing in any aspect of the game and found themselves swatted around for another 5-spot in the bottom of the seventh inning, with Troy Greenway hitting a 2-out, 2-run double to escalate the inning. Fowler then scored on a throwing error by Victor Acosta, and was himself doubled in by Stedham. A bunch of our better batters were removed after the seventh inning, and Travis Sims gave up a run on two walks and a Del Vecchio single in the eighth inning, but it wasn’t like the Loggers would get back into the game any time soon, although the team sure made an effort in the ninth behind Mauricio Garavito, who pitched *fine* but was undone by Myers and Pinkerton errors that ended up costing two unearned runs. And we still won by a dozen! 16-4 Raccoons! Trevino 3-6, 2B; Ramos 2-2, 3 BB, RBI; Greenway 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Stedham 2-5, 2B, RBI; Morales 2-5, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Hooge (PH) 2-2, 2B; Weeks 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (9-6) and 1-3;

They won’t score another run in this series, will they, Honeypaws? – Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Game 2
MIL: CF T. Romero – SS Del Vecchio – 3B Conner – LF J. Nelson – RF Valenzuela – C M. Cooper – 1B S. Ayala – 2B Yoshioka – P Piedra
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – C Morales – P B. Chavez

Indeed, Wednesday game and the Raccoons didn’t get a base hit until the fourth inning, a Greenway single with two outs. Well, that was the no-hitter dealt with, but Fowler flew out easily to leave him on base. At least Bernie was also unscored upon, but was vulnerable with two hits and three walks against him in the first four innings. It didn’t get much better in the next few frames, with Cosmo hitting a single and stealing a base in the sixth, but apart from that he was also largely ignored. Berto was also done after seven, but at least had finished strong and without giving up a run, amounting to only one run and five strikeouts in the last three innings he pitched. He got a no-decision, since Greenway’s leadoff double in the gap in the bottom 7th was followed by a huge pile of nothing.

David Fernandez and Antonio Prieto, who entered in a double switch that removed Justin Fowler for Ed Hooge, kept the Loggers off the board in the eighth inning. Prieto exited in another double switch after allowing Cooper aboard with a 2-out single in the ninth, then bringing on Yeom Soung batting eighth in an entirely new battery. Milwaukee sent right-handed Tyler Prestwood to pinch-hit for Sal Ayala, I squealed, but Prestwood grounded out to third base. The game was still scoreless for the 2-3-4 batters against beleaguered (7.20 ERA) Alex Banderas in the bottom 9th. They did absolutely nothing. Soung had a perfect 10th, with Banderas’ walk to Stedham with one out in the bottom 10th a major development… Myers grounded out, moving the winning run to second base, with Soung being hit for by Rich Vickers, who slapped Banderas’ first pitch up the middle, and Stedham went at once and scored to win this squeaker of a game… 1-0 Blighters. Greenway 2-4, 2B; Vickers (PH) 1-1, RBI; Chavez 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K;

Four hits to yesterday’s seventeen, but as Aunt Ethel always used to say, a win is a win is a win.

But – oh boy!

Game 3
MIL: CF T. Romero – SS Del Vecchio – 3B Conner – LF J. Nelson – RF Valenzuela – C M. Cooper – 1B S. Ayala – 2B V. Acosta – P Stockwell
POR: SS Trevino – 3B Myers – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – C Garcia – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – LF Pinkerton – P Sabre

Justin Fowler made it 1-0 a little before the end of the game with his 26th home run of the season in the second inning, but that was largely it early on from the Coons, while Sabre held the Loggers at bay for three innings, then gave up singles to Valenzuela and Cooper, immediately followed by Salvador Ayala’s 3-run homer in the fourth inning.

The Raccoons didn’t threaten with an actual runner in scoring position until the fifth inning, when Rich Vickers, Wednesday’s hero, hit a 1-out double to left against Stockwell. Pinkerton reached on a Del Vecchio error, putting the tying runs on the corners, and Honeypaws, Slappy, and me all agreed that Sabre should be hit for after 93 largely unimpressive pitches. Luckily we had an MVP on the bench in Manny Fernandez, who took Stockwell’s first pitch and slapped it into a double play… Oh man. That one hurt. It also seemed to have been their last squeak, with no offense coming around except for a Myers single in the sixth, but that dissolved in Greenway’s 6-4-3 grounder. Valenzuela upped the score to 4-1 with a homer off Derek Barker in his Raccoons debut in the eighth inning, and the Coons got Rich Vickers on with another double in the bottom of the inning and then made three pathetic outs between Berto, Morales, and Trevino, and didn’t even score THAT runner… They didn’t even reach base in the ninth. 4-1 Loggers. Vickers 2-3, 2 2B; Citriniti 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

What now, Aunt Ethel? What now?

That was another 4-hit effort for the Critters. Not a good sign. And next? A division leader!

Raccoons (52-44) vs. Bayhawks (58-39) – July 24-26, 2037

The Bayhawks had won six games in a row and sat atop the leaderboard not only in the CL South (by 5 1/2 games), but also in runs scored AND runs allowed in the CL. They looked like a really good ballclub! The Raccoons had also six games left with them and of the first three had taken only one as winners.

Projected matchups:
Bryce Sparkes (10-2, 2.53 ERA) vs. Ben Lipsky (10-4, 2.90 ERA)
Jared Ottinger (6-7, 3.60 ERA) vs. Ryan Kinner (4-1, 2.10 ERA)
Josh Weeks (9-6, 3.94 ERA) vs. Lorenzo Viamontes (10-4, 2.90 ERA)

All right-handers, all under three in terms of ERA, and the Raccoons all looked pretty scared.

Game 1
SFB: CF M. Castillo – LF Balderrama – 2B M. Hurtado – 1B McGrath – SS Greer – 3B Deming – C Umanzor – RF Herlitz – P Lipsky
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 3B Myers – C Morales – P Sparkes

The Raccoons got the leadoff man on in the first, second, and third innings. Berto hit into a double play, Fowler hit into a double play, and Morales grounded to the right side, narrowly past Mario Hurtado’s glove, and sent Dave Myers to third base with nobody out on the single. Sparkes whiffed, but Cosmo dropped a ball behind Marshall Greer for a single and the game’s first run, and Berto hit a roller through between the middle infielders, slow enough for Tony Morales to score from second base, 2-0. Mel Castillo’s throw home was late, but allowed the runners into scoring position, and thus a third run to score on Fernandez’ groundout. Greenway whiffed, ending the third inning up 3-0. Greer countered with a solo home run to left in the fourth, but that marker was clawed back by the Critters in the bottom of the fifth. Morales hit a leadoff single on a 1-2 pitch, was bunted over, advanced on a groundout by Cosmo, Berto walked, and Manny hit a sharp single up the middle to get up 4-1. Greenway, up with two out and two on, grounded out to second base…

So how would Bryce Sparkes handle the pressure? The Bayhawks didn’t get a lot off him; the Greer home run aside, he sprinkled four hits through the first seven innings, walked nobody, and whiffed four, and up by three runs the Raccoons saw no issue to run him back out there for the eighth inning, which started with #8 hitter Matt Herlitz. Promptly the 23-year-old rookie singled to center. Alex Castillo struck out, but Mel Castillo, who we hadn’t known just three hours ago, ripped an RBI double to right, and the Raccoons now actually did go to the bullpen… Prieto struck out both Edgardo Balderrama and Mario Hurtado to end the inning while the Critters still held a 2-run lead. The Coons did nothing of note in the bottom 8th, and when Yeom Soung got the ball in the ninth he got a comebacker from Kevin McGrath, which he mishandled for an error. I whined and reached for the bottle, while Greer struck out. Danny Duenas – who had once been traded with plenty of other personnel for the giant failure that was Noel Ferrero – pinch-hit and popped out, leaving Eduardo Umanzor in the box with two outs. His fly to left had plenty of hangtime, and Manny Fernandez secured it for the W. 4-2 Raccoons. Trevino 3-4, RBI; Morales 2-3; Sparkes 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (11-2);

I sorta knew the week would be chewy after scoring 16 on Tuesday… but at least we’re already up 3-1 and past the damn Elks in the division this week.

Game 2
SFB: CF M. Castillo – LF Balderrama – 2B M. Hurtado – 1B McGrath – SS Greer – 3B Deming – C Umanzor – RF Roybal – P Kinner
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Hooge – 1B Stedham – C Morales – 3B Nickas – P Ottinger

Ottie struggled, walking two in the first inning, and relying on defense and Mel Castillo being caught stealing otherwise. Morales did him a favor after Castillo’s leadoff single in the third. At that point the Raccoons were 1-0 ahead on a Stedham homer from the bottom 2nd, but Castillo got his revenge the next time up and doubled home the tying run, Victor Roybal, with two outs; Roybal had reached base on Trevino’s throwing error. Balderrama popped out and that was only three runs for the Bayhawks, but the Raccoons only had one base hit outside of the Stedham homer, a Manny Fernandez single that had led nowhere. Ottie hit a 2-out single in the bottom 5th, which was of limited usefulness with nobody on and with Trevino quickly flying out to Balderrama.

Ottie ironically got better as the game progressed. The Bayhawks never got an earned run off him, and he held them to their three base hits until the middle of the eighth. He remained without a W, with Myers, Garcia, and Trevino going down in order against Kinner in the bottom 8th, too. Kinner was only in his fourth major league start, but had been a reliever since the previous summer – if that was what he was capable of on a regular basis, the Raccoons would be glad to have him in the other division… Come the ninth, the Critters sent Derek Barker against the middle of the order, resulting in a K to Hurtado, a McGrath single to center, and then a double play roller from Greer, and leaving the Raccoons needing just one run to walk off against right-hander Jose Moreno with Berto opening the bottom 9th. Ramos squeezed out a walk, and the winning run was on base! He only reached second after Manny popped out, when Greenway walked, too. And the Raccoons still had Justin Fowler on the bench, but they also had more and more left-handed batters lined up to do harm against Moreno, which was a terrible conundrum. Hooge was 0-for-3, but got to bat anyway. He flew out to center; Berto jogged to third base, with Stedham next. Since he had the only RBI for Portland in this game, it wasn’t that bad an idea to let him swing. Moreno fell to 2-0, Stedham hit a liner, and a lunging Hurtado missed it – walkoff single!! 2-1 Coons!! Stedham 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Ottinger 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K and 1-2;

For the third time in the last four games, the Raccoons landed only four base hits. Stedham had half of them, and produced pretty much a win on his own. Granted, Ottie pitched fairly well towards the end, too…

Task for the Sunday game: get more than four hits, maybe even more than four runs.

Winning would also be nice.

Game 3
SFB: CF M. Castillo – LF Balderrama – 1B McGrath – C Umanzor – 2B M. Hurtado – 3B Deming – SS A. Castillo – RF Barnes – P Viamontes
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – LF Hooge – 1B Stedham – C Garcia – 3B Myers – P Weeks

Greenway made it 1-0 on a sac fly in the first; Cosmo opened with a single, stole second, and a throwing error by Umanzor allowed him to third base. Berto was unlucky in lining out to McGrath before Greenway hit the fly to center that got the run across. The lead blossomed the following inning, with Garcia getting on with two outs. Myers ripped an RBI double to right, Weeks hit a soft single to left, and then Cosmo buried a ball in the gap in right-center for a 2-out, 2-run triple, doubling the tally to 4-0. Before Berto could take a hack, a wild pitch promoted Trevino to home plate, 5-0. The Bayhawks didn’t reach base until Viamontes, otherwise unlucky, dropped a blooper between Cosmo and Greenway in the top 3rd, and then was stranded by Mel Castillo. Viamontes never got better on the mound; Greenway drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 3rd, Fowler singled, and after Hooge’s groundout, Stedham ripped a 2-run double.

After Viamontes was chewed up, the Raccoons got to see 37-year-old Kevin Surginer making his season debut. The longtime Coon had signed a contract only the previous week. He retired seven Raccoons in a row before Myers and Weeks hit 2-out knocks in the bottom 6th, but were left on base when Trevino grounded out. At that point the score was 7-1; Sonny Deming had driven in a run off Weeks in the fourth, but the Baybirds had only three base hits at this point, which I, in all fairness, deemed enough. Weeks walked Deming with one out in the seventh, got a grounder from Alex Castillo, but gave up the run on a Jason Barnes single with two gone. It was the first career RBI for the rookie at 28 years old. David Fernandez replaced him to get a pop from PH Danny Duenas, ending the inning. Mel Castillo’s infield single off Fernandez in the eighth gave the Baybirds hope again; Sims replaced the southpaw with a batch of right-handers coming up, and Balderrama hit into a fielder’s choice to keep Fernandez’ ledger clean. McGrath singled, Umanzor hit a sac fly, and when Hurtado walked with two outs, the Raccoons had to reconsider their employment of Travis Sims. Soung entered in a double switch, with Fowler being replaced with Manny Fernandez. Deming was carved up on three pitches, ending the inning right away! It was good that he got rid of the runners right away, because the ninth saw him walk Barnes and give up a pinch-hit bomb to Greer. Fortunately, that still left a 2-run lead, and Soung wardened that off right until the end. 7-5 Raccoons. Trevino 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Myers 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Weeks 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (10-6) and 2-3;

In other news

July 21 – The Rebels are drummed for 20 runs by the Miners, scoring only one marker themselves. All Miners starters have at least one hit and one run, and all but one have an RBI. OF/2B Chris Russell (.318, 6 HR, 65 RBI) goes 4-for-5 with 4 RBI.
July 21 – SFW 2B/SS Mario Colon (.225, 7 HR, 36 RBI) will miss six weeks with shoulder tendinitis.
July 23 – Both ATL 3B Chris Maneke (.272, 7 HR, 56 RBI) and LVA 1B/RF John Marz (.331, 14 HR, 86 RBI) land five base hits each in an 11-10 Aces slugfest. Marz drives in four, Maneke only two.
July 24 – SFW INF/RF Justin Marsingill (.353, 0 HR, 13 RBI) has five hits in the Warriors’ 18-3 blasting of the Capitals.
July 26 – The Knights’ SP Danny Orozco (5-5, 3.64 ERA) 3-hits the Canadiens in a 5-0 shutout.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF/1B/RF Melvin Hernandez (.315, 15 HR, 59 RBI), who went .452 (14-31) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND 2B Dan Schneller (.352, 23 HR, 67 RBI), batting .455 (10-22) with 4 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

…and Dan Schneller didn’t even get to play against the Raccoons!

That was a fine enough week! We scored 31 runs, slightly imbalanced, creating a tense mood ever after Tuesday… But the Raccoons are grinding bits off the leaders, and the damn Elks collapsed this week, dropping far away and into fourth place with a 1-5 performance. Portland is 16-6 in July, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Troy Greenway is hitting .206 with 4 RBI, so, uh… we will… we will continue to monitor that one…

The Raccoons added a second and final July IFA signee this week, bringing in 16-year-old Venezuelan corner guy (I’ll try to be vague here with intent) Nelson Fernandez, a bit of a bat first, glove very much second, player. *Some* power potential, but $215k was definitely on the expensive side for this guy. But then I thought, well, it’s Valdes’ money, and before he buys another armored attack helicopter with it, I’ll get that Venezuelan teen boy instead!

The Raccoons thus spent a total of $242k on the Caribbean connection this year, well below the applicable soft cap.

Next up, a road trip through various CL South towns, beginning with Tijuana and Charlotte next week. Thursday will be off.

Fun Fact: This is the sixth straight year that Kevin Surginer had to wait until the summer to sign a 1-year contract with a major league team.

Stars, Knights, Rebels, Knights again, Warriors, Bayhawks, in that order. That’s after his 1-year deal with the Scorpions in ’31. For a former stalwart in the Raccoons pen, where he made his home from ’23 through ’30, that was a rather sad sight to see. He pitched up to 70 games a year with the Critters. Since leaving town, he’d only made 93 major league appearances across all those years and all those teams.

For his career he was 38-33 with a 3.42 ERA and 11 SV in 596 games. All but one game had been in relief; he had made a spot start for Portland in 2027.