[Westheim]

(tries to wipe off the ink where his paw prints were taken) Another week, another challenge, this time the Buffos and - … (stops and looks up with the wet wipe in the other paw) What is it, Maud? – No I was not on the cookie jar. – No, Maud, I was not on the cookie jar! – No, I was not! – (is shown the white-glazed cookie jar with black paw prints all over it) – You have nothing on me, Maud!!

Raccoons (68-50) vs. Buffaloes (60-58) – August 18-20, 2037

While over .500, the Buffos were dead for the season, sitting 20 games under .500 in a lopsided FL East, where the Blue Sox had run away and were playing out the string in the middle of August, leading the nearest team by a crisp 15 games. They had won four in a row, but sported the worst offense in the Federal League and only so-so pitching. Their run differential was actually pretty terrible (-76), which in turn saw them nine games over their expected record, which was the biggest margin in the league. The last meeting between these teams was two years ago, when the Critters won two of three games.

Projected matchups:
Bernie Chavez (9-8, 3.43 ERA) vs. Justin Osterloh (6-7, 4.17 ERA)
Raffaello Sabre (8-5, 4.21 ERA) vs. Josh D’Agostino (3-3, 2.95 ERA)
Bryce Sparkes (11-4, 2.79 ERA) vs. David Elliott (12-6, 2.76 ERA)

Right, right, left from the Buffos, who had a number of useful players on the DL, including outfielders Greg Dowden and Roger Strand (formerly of the Indians) and young closer candidate Brian Whitehead, who was out for the season.

Game 1
TOP: SS F. Marquez – 3B Miles – 2B Duenez – LF Esperanza – 1B Higashi – C Alvardo – CF N. Gordon – RF M. Reyna – P Osterloh
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – RF Greenway – C Morales – 3B Myers – 1B Stedham – P Chavez

…and you weren’t the only one looking at that lineup and wondering who the **** those guys were; besides Rai Higashi and Miguel Reyna, we had to browse our scout guy’s back catalogue. No wonder they weren’t scoring! The Raccoons were scoring, drawing five walks in the bottom 2nd in addition to a Tony Morales RBI double, taking a 3-0 lead on longtime Knights starter Justin Osterloh. Bernie hit a sac fly, Cosmo drew a bases-loaded walk. Osterloh walked seven batters in total in a desperate performance, but through five allowed no hits other than the Morales double, and no additional runs. At least Bernie had the Buffaloes under control, allowing almost nothing to them in the first five innings, whiffing four, before placing Ruben Esperanza on second base with a grim throwing error past Stedham of his own making. Higashi singled to right after that, Esperanza turned around for home plate, and was thrown out by Greenway, ending the top of the sixth. Bernie struck out PH Fidel Nunez to end the seventh inning, reaching 102 tosses in the process. Since the Raccoons were still searching for base hits and failed to add runs, he was lifted from the 3-0 game in the eighth, with Barker taking the ball and completing the inning after a 1-out walk to Mike Miles. Bottom 8th, lo and behold, Justin Fowler hit a leadoff single off Joe Hicks, then scored on Troy Greenway’s blast to right. Garavito got rid of the Buffaloes in the ninth for a cozy win. 5-0 Raccoons! Myers 0-1, 3 BB; Chavez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (10-8) and 0-1, RBI;

Game 2
TOP: SS F. Marquez – 3B Miles – 2B Duenez – LF Esperanza – 1B Higashi – C Alvardo – CF N. Gordon – RF M. Reyna – P D’Agostino
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – RF Greenway – C Morales – 3B Myers – 1B Stedham – P Sabre

Berto singled and stole a base in the first inning, but was thrown out at home plate by Miguel Reyna to end the inning; Fowler had walked with two outs, and Greenway had singled to right. Instead, Sabre would single home Dave Myers with two outs for the first run of the game, coming in the bottom of the second inning. The lead wouldn’t last, mainly because Sabre had one of his innings in the fourth, where Felix Marquez hit a leadoff single and it was off to the races from there. Mario Duenez tied the game with a double; Rai Higashi gave them the lead with a sharp single past Stedham. David Alvardo and Nigel Gordon also reached base before Miguel Reyna popped out to strand three runners. Sabre then at least competently bunted Myers (walk) and Stedham (single) into scoring position in the bottom of the inning, but we sure as heck couldn’t find anybody to score them; Trevino popped out, and Berto rolled out to Duenez.

Tony Morales tied us up at two with as many outs in the bottom 5th, which wasn’t a bad outcome given that his RBI double that scored Greenway from first base came after a Manny walk to begin the inning and Fowler’s 6-4-3 mood-suppresser. That was the second inning in a row that started with a walk for the Critters, and the sixth lined up right alongside with a free pass to Stedham. Sabre bunted, that bunt was thrown away for two bases by D’Agostino, and the Raccoons had an even fatter chance. Topeka walked Cosmo with intent, bringing up Berto with three on and no outs. He promptly hit a comebacker for a 1-2-3 double play, which drove tears into by black, googly eyes, but the Raccoons did get offense with two outs; after Manny walked, Fowler singled into left-center for two runs, and when Greenway flew to Reyna, the ball clonked off the Gold Glover’s mitten for another 2-base error, scoring another run. Tony Morales struck out, ending the inning at 5-2.

Sabre got through seven before being hit for by Ed Hooge and to no great effect in the bottom of the seventh. Nate Ward then got the ball for the eighth inning – he would make the spot start on Saturday, and this was the final day where we could send him out for a relief appearance of no more than 20 pitches before it might hamper him on the weekend. The leadoff jack Marquez socked off him had me briefly reconsider everything, but he got out of the inning on just six more pitches. At least Yeom Soung closed out the game without issues… 5-3 Critters. Greenway 2-4, BB; Myers 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Sabre 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (9-5) and 1-1, RBI;

Ward remained pencilled in for Saturday.

Game 3
TOP: SS F. Marquez – CF N. Gordon – 2B Duenez – LF Esperanza – 1B Higashi – C Alvardo – 3B Nunez – RF M. Reyna – P D. Elliott
POR: 2B Trevino – 3B Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – C Garcia – 1B Stedham – RF Pinkerton – SS Nickas – P Sparkes

While the Raccoons found absolutely no recipe against Elliott, amounting to two base hits and no runs through five innings, the Buffaloes had pretty decent success with the bloop-and-gap approach. It got them two runs in the second, when Esperanza singled softly and Higashi hit a gapper for an RBI triple, scoring on a sac fly by Nunez later on, and another one in the fifth, then with Nunez singling and Miguel Reyna hitting a gap RBI double for a 3-0 lead. Hits by Nigel Gordon and Higashi made it 4-0 by the sixth, with Sparkes not particularly bad, but certainly getting nothing in terms of good luck, either. The final dagger turned out to be a Fernando Garcia throwing error that turned an Elliott bunt into a wild carom in the foul grounds next to the rightfield line, putting Nunez and Elliott into scoring position with one out in the top of the seventh. Dennis Citriniti gave up a shot into the corner for a 2-run double to Marquez, and the game was over at that point. Hits by Berto and Manny scratched out a run in the eighth inning, and that was that for offense. The Raccoons amounted to only four hits against the lefty and were soundly beaten. 6-1 Buffaloes. Ramos (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (70-51) vs. Indians (70-51) – August 21-23, 2037

After that lackluster performance we were left to feud with the Arrowheads over second place on the weekend, both teams being 1 1/2 games behind the Crusaders. Indy was still powering the offensive chart in the Continental League, leading the league with 4.8 runs per game, although the Raccoons were a respectable fourth and only 28 markers behind. The Indians fought with a crummy rotation, but had the best pen in the league – you had to get them early to succeed. The Raccoons trailed in the season series, 7-4.

Projected matchups:
Jared Ottinger (8-7, 3.71 ERA) vs. Justin Kaiser (2-6, 3.98 ERA)
Nate Ward (1-2, 4.43 ERA) vs. Arnie Terwilliger (10-7, 3.70 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (10-8, 3.28 ERA) vs. Joe Dishon (9-5, 2.88 ERA)

That’s the strong end of the rotation, mind, and two southpaws to begin this set. The Raccoons were under .500 against left-handers for the season, so this was not good news in the slightest.

Game 1
IND: C E. Thompson – 2B Schneller – 3B Hutson – 1B Caraballo – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – RF O. Mendoza – SS DiGiacomo – P Kaiser
POR: SS Ramos – 3B D. Myers – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – RF Greenway – C Garcia – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – P Ottinger

The most productive players on either side – Dan Schneller (26 HR) and Justin Fowler (29 HR) – both hit into double plays in the first inning, so that was an interesting start. Stedham would actually put Portland 1-0 ahead in the second with a homer, while Oscar Mendoza hit a leadoff double off Ottie in the third, but was stranded by poor outs. The next time around, Stedham drew a walk with two outs in the fourth, filling the bases after Fowler and Garcia had hit singles, and brought up Rich Vickers, who grounded out so poorly I groaned so loud that Maud came in to check whether I was still okay or whether I had expired and she needed to get a big black bag to dispose of my remains…

Ottie, who pitched well and allowed only two hits in five innings, and Myers hit singles in the fifth, but it led nowhere; Manny hit into a fielder’s choice, and Schneller shagged Fowler’s liner in flight to end the inning. Schneller then ripped a 2-out double with a man on first in the sixth inning; unfortunately for Indy, that man was Kaiser and had to stop at third base while carrying the tying run. Mound conference with Ottie, who assured the pitching coach he still had it together and could get rid of Dan Hutson and his .279 bat with 15 homers – and then did so, grounding him out easily enough to Vickers to strand two in scoring position. The park was booming; I was kindly asking the baseball gods for an insurance run. No insurance run was granted, but at least Ottie got two more outs before hitting 101 pitches with Josh Garbinski (.297, 21 HR, 64 RBI) coming up in the seventh. The Raccoons sent for David Fernandez, who got a fly to left to end the inning. Kaiser was yanked after a leadoff walk to Vickers in the bottom 7th. Morales – inserted in the #9 hole in a double switch the previous half-inning – singled to right off Jorge Villegas jr. and the Raccoons made the appearance of having something cooking. Berto grounded out on 3-1, which was poor form, but advanced the runners, after which Cosmo hit for Myers to get a lefty batter in the box. He fell to 0-2, but then poked a ball past Joe DiGiacomo, and a run scored! Manny singled to bring home Morales, 3-0, and then Fowler hit a comebacker, 1-4-3. Back to the pen, Fernandez got another out to begin the eighth, and Barker got two more against two base hits, causing me to scream even though DiGiacomo was thrown out on the base paths by Fowler. Come the ninth, Soung was calm and shut the door again, and the Raccoons took a critically important series opener. 3-0 Critters! Myers 0-0, 3 BB; Trevino (PH) 1-1, RBI; Greenway 2-4; Morales 1-1;

WIN!!

Never mind that … (breathes into paper bag) … my heart stopped once or twice.

Game 2
IND: C E. Thompson – 2B Schneller – RF Leftwich – 3B Hutson – 1B Caraballo – CF Baron – LF O. Mendoza – SS DiGiacomo – P Terwilliger
POR: SS Trevino – 3B D. Myers – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – C Garcia – LF Hooge – 2B Vickers – 1B Pinkerton – P Ward

This game got out of shape early, and fast, with a Jeremy Leftwich double and then Dan Hutson’s line drive homer to put the Arrowheads up 2-0 in the first. Ward fooled nobody, while Terwilliger shoveled the bases full before striking out Ed Hooge to maintain his 2-0 lead in the bottom 1st. The Indians got another run on three singles in the third inning and piled eight hits on Nate Ward through four, which was also how long it took the Raccoons to reach the scoreboard, and even then they relied on a Preston Pinkerton homer, not exactly a frequent occurrence around these parts…

Ward was lifted after five absolutely mediocre-at-best innings, allowing another run in his last frame on an Oscar Mendoza single, a stolen base, and Joe DiGiacomo’s single to center, falling behind 4-1 before the curtain came down on him. Justin Fowler shortened the score to 4-2 with a sac fly, cashing Myers after a pair of hits by the 2-3 batters in the bottom 5th, but then Garcia lined out to Hutson, whose fine grab derailed the inning.

Rain ended Terwilliger’s day after six, but the game continued after a 40-minute delay. The Indians stalled potential knockout runs on third base against Garavito in the seventh and Prieto in the eighth, while the Raccoons had Cosmo on base to lead off the bottom 7th, but Myers, the tying run, hit into a 6-4-3 groaner. The Critters didn’t get on base at all in the bottom 8th, while Citriniti struck out three left-handed batters in the ninth while hitting Hutson and walking Jeremy Bainer, both right-handed batters. Tim Thweatt had the ball in the bottom 9th against the bottom of the Raccoons’ order. Berto batted for Vickers against the right-hander, but whiffed. Morales hit for Pinkerton and singled, and Stedham hit for Citriniti and reached when Hutson overran his grounder for an error. Cosmo was up with the winning run and one out, but grounded to short for a fielder’s choice. Myers was next, grounded to left, past DiGiacomo, and the RBI single narrowed the score to 4-3, and now Greenway was up. I held on to Slappy’s upper arm with one paw while biting the clenched fist of the other – to no avail, his fly was caught by Leftwich. 4-3 Indians. Trevino 2-5; Myers 2-4, BB, RBI; Fowler 0-1, BB, RBI; Pinkerton 2-3, HR, RBI;

At this point, the Crusaders had lost twice to the Loggers (!), so both the Arrowheads and us were only half a game out now, meaning each of the three teams could top the division on Sunday night.

Game 3
IND: C E. Thompson – 2B Schneller – RF Leftwich – 3B Hutson – 1B Caraballo – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – SS DiGiacomo – P Dishon
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Ramos – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Hooge – C Morales – 3B D. Myers – 1B Stedham – P Chavez

Bernie somehow tip-toed around a first-inning, four-pitch walk to Schneller and a howling Leftwich double without giving up a run in the first, but gave up a solo homer to Schneller in the third inning, just when I thought that he wouldn’t be Player of the Week for once upon leaving Portland. The Raccoons had already caused plenty of carnage in all the wrong ways, with Manny being caught stealing in the first, and Myers knocking into a double play with Greenway and Morales on the corners in the second.

The general situation improved with Manny Fernandez’ leadoff jack in the bottom of the fourth inning, tying the game at one at once, but after Greenway reached base the inning soon turned into nothing. Hooge forced him out, and Morales and Myers didn’t do any better. Cosmo and Berto reached with two outs in the fifth, but Manny grounded out to Schneller, our nemesis, keeping the game tied at one through five innings. Not that Bernie Chavez was great – he spent many pitches on no great results, whiffing only three in a 4-hitter so far. The fifth hit was a Leftwich bomb over the fence in right-center in the sixth and I slumped deeper into the cushions because of it. Bernie drilled Hutson with his very next pitch, Hutson took offense and stormed the mound, and after a brief altercation both were tossed from the game, which threatened to derail our plans as far as not calling up a ****ty starting pitcher was concerned. In the here and now of the rubber game, though, the Coons were 2-1 behind, and had to find 12 outs somewhere. Derek Barker was not the solution, allowing a single and Jeremy Bainer, the pinch-runner for Hutson, to score, 3-1. When Dishon walked Greenway and Hooge to begin the bottom 6th, thus putting the tying runs aboard, the 6-7-8 batters were reliably retired on absolutely ****ty pops and grounders.

Vickers’ pinch-hit single to begin the seventh knocked out Dishon for lefty Chris Myers, which was bad news for the Raccoons, who had left-handed bats lined up #2 through #6. Cosmo already fed the ball into a fielder’s choice, and so did Berto. Manny grounded out and was retired in his own right. The following inning, Myers allowed a leadoff single to Greenway, who was promptly forced out on Hooge’s grounder. Morales however singled to left, and the tying runs were on for Dave Myers. The other Myers was swiftly whisked for right-hander David Lindstrom, who walked our Myers in a full count. With three on, one out, and Stedham up, the Indians sent left-hander Cesar Castillo, who had as many walks as strikeouts. Portland called to freeze, and Justin Fowler batted for Stedham. Now or never! Turned out, neither option was correct, with Fowler flying out to Garbinski in shallow left, but when Garcia hit for the pitcher Sims he knocked a ball through the left side for an RBI single. Garbinski threw the ball wildly across the infield and Morales also scored on the play, tying the game at three! The Indians tried their luck with an intentional walk to Cosmo, then another reliever to face Ramos with three on and two outs. Alan Mays’ first pitch was wild, plating Myers with the go-ahead run!! Better – Berto flicked a single to right to plate two more!! PORTLAND!!! The inning dragged on with Fernandez (unintentionally) and Greenway (intentionally) reaching base against J.J. Ringland before Tomas Caraballo speared Hooge’s bouncer to end the inning with three Critters stranded, but with a 3-run lead we put Soung in and looked pretty smug for ourselves. DiGiacomo struck out. Brent Rempfer flew out to center. Elliott Thompson popped out to Berto. 6-3 Furballs!!! M. Fernandez 3-5, HR, RBI; Greenway 2-2, 3 BB, 2B; Morales 2-4; Vickers (PH) 1-1; Garcia (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

In other news

August 17 – The Indians walk off on the Cyclones in the truest sense of the word: four walks are offered by Cincy’s Michael Donovan (4-4, 3.09 ERA, 3 SV) and Andy Hyden (2-1, 1.94 ERA, 31 SV) in the bottom of the 10th inning, with the one drawn by PH Oscar Mendoza (.216, 2 HR, 20 RBI) ending the game.
August 18 – Crusaders C/1B Devin Phillips (.262, 5 HR, 38 RBI) demolishes Rebels pitching with a 5-hit day, including a homer and three doubles, and drives in three runs in New York’s 21-4 romp over Richmond.
August 18 – ATL OF/1B/SS Luis Inoa (.278, 10 HR, 29 RBI) hits the DL with elbow tendinitis and will miss about three weeks.
August 19 – DAL INF Jon Ramos (.308, 0 HR, 33 RBI) is out for the year with a concussion.
August 21 – The Wolves flog the Stars, 20-2, with both Alex Meza (.276, 4 HR, 45 RBI) and Oliver Witte (.220, 3 HR, 28 RBI) both chipping in five base hits. Both have a double and four singles as well as 2 RBI, each.
August 22 – SAC SP Josh Vercher (7-9, 3.53 ERA) 3-hits the Pacifics in a 6-0 shutout, whiffing five.

FL Player of the Week: WAS 1B Adam Avakian (.324, 21 HR, 86 RBI) batting .545 (12-22), 3 HR, 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA INF/LF/RF Jose Farfan (.334, 7 HR, 51 RBI), hitting .538 (14-26) with 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Now for the bad news – the league slammed Bernie Chavez for six games for gently drilling Dan Hutson, which meant he’d be under house arrest for all of next week (Thursday was off) and our plans to make it to the weekend with just four starters were moot. We’d have Sabre, Sparkes, and Ottie against the Loggers, starting on Monday, and then either had to send Nate Ward out once more on Friday (oh dear baseball gods, please, no!) or find some other schmuck in AAA.

Keeping in mind that pitching depth as far as a potential playoff roster was concerned would come from the DL – Colt Willes and Josh Weeks were both expected back in the second half of September, giving us options there … IF we made it to October baseball. So far the team showed a remarkable aversion to actually claim first place…

Remember ’35? Justin Fowler batted .309 with 26 homers. He’s down to .237 this year, but with 29 homers. Can’t say I like the newer version better, but at least he’s still worth positive WAR, erased defensive rating (glares at scout guy) notwithstanding.

Cosmo leads not only Berto by 10 sacks this season, but the entire CL as well. Tijuana’s Willie Ojeda also had 27 stolen bases to his 37. We’re first as a team with 94 SB, and second in homers with 110, which keeps surprising me even more.

Fun Fact: The single-season record for home runs for a Portland Raccoons team is 153, set all the way back in 1989.

There were four main swatters on that team, with Tetsu Osanai starting every game and hitting 35 homers. Mark Dawson had 26, Sam Dadswell hit 19, and Daniel Hall avoided major catastrophic injuries and bashed 18.

But the supporting cast was also out in force: nine homers each were chipped in by Bobby Quinn, Antonio Gonzalez, and Glenn Johnston (who would ruin the season in Game 6 when Ed Parrell’s fly came for him), and Matt Higgins and David Vinson each chopped eight. There were also four by Ben O’Morrissey, who’d be a mainstay of the budding dynasty, and three by Daniel Dumont, who would not be. Neil Reese (2 HR) needs no introduction. With the exception of Gonzalez, all of these “supporting” guys were under 25 years old, and most of them were rookies (with maybe a cup (or in case of Quinn several) of coffee prior to ’89) would be around for that eight-year run that yielded six division titles, five pennants, and two rings.

Honorable mentions: one homer each by Stephen Hall, Jeff Martin, and venerable pitcher Logan Evans.