[Westheim]

(sits on the brown couch, frozen and stiff, Honeypaws in his clutch, and doesn’t blink)

Raccoons (89-66) vs. Indians (85-68) – September 28-October 1, 2037

This was for the money – the Raccoons were behind in the season series, 8-6, which was unfortunate but not a great problem; they could in fact maintain an excellent position in the division by splitting this 4-game set with the #2 offense in the Continental League that was being weighed down my mediocre pitching. Their pen was very good, their rotation rather crummy, although we’d not see many stinkers…

Projected matchups:
Josh Weeks (10-6, 3.80 ERA) vs. Joe Dishon (10-7, 3.16 ERA)
Jared Ottinger (10-11, 3.86 ERA) vs. Donovan Mason (1-0, 1.93 ERA)
Bryce Sparkes (14-8, 3.03 ERA) vs. Justin Kaiser (2-9, 3.95 ERA)
Bernie Chavez (12-10, 3.31 ERA) vs. Mike Hurley (9-6, 3.63 ERA)

We’d also not see southpaw Arnie Terwilliger (13-11, 3.60 ERA), who had pitched on Sunday and who we had faced three times this year and had lost every game against. Of the folks on offer, Kaiser was the only left-hander.

A word on the potential madness ready to unfold: as of Monday morning, a 4-way tie for the crown in the North was still possible. First, the Crusaders had to win out and reach 90-72. The Indians had to sweep the Coons and win their makeup game with the Knights, thus also reaching 90-72. The Raccoons had to win exactly one game from the Titans on the weekend, also making it to 90-72, and the Titans would arrive at the same mark by sweeping the damn Elks while we were getting humped by Indy. While not likely, it was worth noting that we were historically bad against the Titans (and the usual 6-9 crapper this season) and they were far from finished at five games out, with three against the Critters. Boston had been 11 1/2 games back with four weeks to play. They had a valid chance at this junction.

Game 1
IND: 1B Rempfer – 2B Schneller – 3B Hutson – CF Baron – C Ebner – LF Bainer – RF Calderin – SS DiGiacomo – P Dishon
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Maldonado – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – LF M. Fernandez – C Morales – 1B Stedham – 2B Caskey – P Weeks

The Indians stuffed all the right-handed bats they could find into their lineup against Weeks, but only Jeremy Bainer reached on a single the first time through while Weeks struck out five Arrowheads. The Raccoons had a Berto walk to begin the bottom 1st, then nothing until they loaded the bases on nothing but walks in the bottom 2nd, and with two outs. Manny drew the leadoff walk, but only made it to second base on a wild pitch to Jon Caskey, who was then put on the open base intentionally before Dishon also walked Weeks in a sucky way. Berto lined out to Bainer in left, however, and all the runners were stranded. The second time through, Portland managed two base hits; Greenway hit a single in the third and was then forgotten about, and Morales was nailed and Caskey singled in the fourth before Weeks bunted into an inning-ending double play.

Bainer fired a leadoff double to center to begin the fifth inning, but was stranded when the bottom of the lineup made a string of poor outs, keeping the game scoreless long enough for Jon Caskey to slap a leadoff single to reach base for the third time in a scoreless game in the bottom 7th. Weeks was aceing this game, and the Raccoons called for another bunt, but only got another double play, causing me to show some sort of reaction, biting into my lower lip until it bled. Weeks at least maintained his 3-hitter through eight innings, and if the Raccoons scored for him to get in line for a W, it would be unearned. Fowler walked against Alan Mays with two outs in the bottom 8th, and Dan Schneller made an uncharacteristic error to put Manny Fernandez on base, too. Mays nailed Tony Morales with a 1-2 pitch, loading them up for Jesse Stedham, who grounded to Schneller, and this time the ball was handled correctly, and the Raccoons scored three LOB again. Portland sent Antonio Prieto into the ninth, seeing him give up a 1-out single to John Baron, then brought David Fernandez when Jeremy Leftwich pinch-hit for Sean Ebner. Fernandez was taken deep by the left-handed batter, and the Raccoons trailed 2-0 in a game they should be leading. Bottom 9th, Tim Thweatt struck out Caskey before giving up a right-corner triple to Ed Hooge. Berto dropped an RBI single, bringing up the winning run in PH Fernando Garcia, who popped out, promoting Troy Greenway to the plate with two gone. Greenway almost hit one gone – but the ball annoyingly glanced off the top of the wall and back into play, but ran away from rightfielder Dustin Acor so efficiently that Berto had all the time in the world to paw home from first base, and Greenway, the winning run, reached third base with the second triple of the inning…! Indy brought in right-hander J.J. Ringland, Fowler hit a deep fly – and it was caught by Mitchell Bizier to send the game to extras.

Yeom Soung struck out three in the to 10th – but not leadoff man Jairo Sigala, who hit a pinch-hit dinger to left. Thus, Ringland had a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the inning, but would face three lefty batters to begin things. Of those, only Morales reached with a 1-out single. Vickers pinch-hit for Caskey, lined out, and the Raccoons lost. 3-2 Indians. Greenway 2-5, 3B, RBI; Caskey 2-3, BB; Hooge (PH) 1-1, 3B; Weeks 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K;

(SIGH)

Boston beat the damn Elks, 3-1, while the Crusaders lost to the Loggers, 5-1. The Raccoons’ lead was down to two games, our magic number over the chasers was six, three, and one, respectively, and Tuesday was a must-win.

Oh, Nick Valdes is also here. – So happy to see you. – What did you miss? The usual bull****. – No, you can’t have Honeypaws, get your own stuffed toy raccoon!!

Game 2
IND: C E. Thompson – 2B Schneller – RF Leftwich – 3B Hutson – 1B Caraballo – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – SS DiGiacomo – P D. Mason
POR: SS Ramos – 3B Maldonado – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – LF M. Fernandez – C Morales – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – P Ottinger

Now alternating lefty and righty bats, the Indians looked forward to keep momentum and maybe take Ottie’s head off early. After Maldonado singled, stole second, and was stranded in the bottom 1st, the top 2nd saw Tomas Caraballo (single), Josh Garbinski (4-pitch walk), and Joe DiGiacomo (nailed) on base with one out. Mason popped out on a 1-2, and Elliott Thompson flew out to Greenway to stave off potentially terminal damage. For the moment at least. The Coons’ half of the second began with Fernandez and Morales singles, then continued with a wild pitch. Two in scoring position with no outs, great! Let’s take the lead, boys! Stedham took the very next pitch into the gap, the ball went all the way to the fence, two runs scored, and Stedham reached third base on another triple! Vickers cashed him with a grounder, 3-0 Coons after two!

Caraballo’s second-inning single remained the only base hit off Ottie through five innings, but he also had to labor hard and threw over 80 pitches for three walks and five strikeouts. He wouldn’t be around forever, and a tack-on run would be welcome. When Stedham had reached on an error in the bottom 4th, the Raccoons had failed to pounce, and the game remained close enough that the pen was up in the sixth. Ottie walked Caraballo with one out, but got a force play out of John Baron, who he then *almost* but not quite picked off. Garbinski was so far unretired, ran a 3-2 count, but then flew out easily to Manny Fernandez. That was already enough to fire Ottie over 100 pitches, and he’d not return for the seventh. Maruyama already pinch-hit for him in the bottom 6th and grounded out, stranding Stedham and Vickers.

Three relievers then conspired to give up a run in the seventh; Derek Barker got his man, but Gene Tennis gave up a triple to PH Oscar Mendoza in the #9 hole. He got Thompson, but Travis Sims conceded the run on the inevitable Dan Schneller’s 2-out single before Schneller was caught stealing. Sims retired ****ing nobody, putting Leftwich and Hutson on base to begin the eighth. Garavito came out, then saw Brent Rempfer pinch-hit as a counter-measure. A grounder to third base looked good for two, except that Maldonado fudged it (he had eaten fudge between innings) and the bases were loaded with nobody out. Both me and Valdes were quivering and rocking back and forth clutching a stuffed toy coon at that point. I had Honeypaws, and Maud had gotten one out of storage for Valdes, who had named the poor Critter Fairydust. None of it helped any – Garavito got a grounder from Baron that was again not turned for two, a run scored, and runner were on the corners. Sean Ebner pinch-hit for Garbinski, Portland sent Citriniti, who gave up singles to Ebner, tying the game, DiGiacomo – with Baron thrown out at home plate by Fowler on the play – and then just barely handled Acor’s comebacker for the third out, keeping the game tied.

Bottom 8th, Fowler and Fernandez opened with singles off Alan Mays, nothing we hadn’t seen before. Mays nailed Morales with the first pitch, a cruel ploy that loaded the sacks with nobody out and would virtually assure the Indians to not concede a run! Filthy buggers!! Stedham lined out. Vickers popped out. Valdes howled in agony, squeezing Fairydust so hard his eyes were about to pop out. Compared to that, I was rather calm. I’d seen way more **** than him on this cursed baseball field. Ed Hooge batted for Citriniti with two outs and hit the first pitch to right. Leftwich came in, then saw that he had misread the ball’s trajectory, and upon hustling back couldn’t reach the ball anymore. It hit off the warning track, the wall, and bounced back to Leftwich, but by then two runs had scored! Portland!! A third run would be balked in by lefty Cesar Castillo before the inning ended. And the Raccoons? Soung and Prieto were unavailable. Two of the first three batters in the ninth threatened to be left-handers, so we sent David Fernandez despite “mixed” results in recent outings. Elliott Thompson promptly rolled a single through between Stedham and Vickers… oh boy! Schneller was down to 1-2 before hitting a grounder to short, and THIS TIME the Raccoons got two! And then Leftwich doubled. Fernandez walked Hutson. For ****’s sake!!! The only semi-reasonable arm left was Nate Ward (Pena with the game on the line? Nah!), who gave up a full-count infield single to Brent Rempfer, loading the bases for all-or-nothing swatter John Baron (.261, 15 HR, 65 RBI). 2-2 count, fly to right. And deep. And – not quite long enough. Greenway on the track! A catch! Ballgame!! 6-3 Raccoons!! M. Fernandez 3-4; Hooge (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Ottinger 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K and 1-2;

Seven relievers for Portland, none of whom managed to get more than two outs. (shakes head) Nate Ward’s first and likely only Raccoons save.

Oh well. The Crusaders (who lost again) were eliminated, while the Indians were three behind again. The Titans’ game with the damn Elks had been rained out, and they’d play two on Wednesday. Our magic numbers were four and two, respectively – yes, winning the rest of the series would actually clinch the division!

Game 3
IND: C E. Thompson – 2B Schneller – 3B Hutson – 1B Caraballo – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – RF O. Mendoza – SS DiGiacomo – P Kaiser
POR: SS Ramos – C Garcia – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – 2B Vickers – 1B Maruyama – 3B Caskey – RF Pinkerton – P Sparkes

Sparkes continued to be ghastly, giving up a Thompson double on an 0-2 pitch and nailing a pair of batters before Garbinski hacked himself out on a 3-2 pitch to strand all of the runners in the first. Indy scored in the second inning when Rich Vickers insisted on putting Oscar Mendoza on second base with a throwing error, and Sparkes lacked any ingredients to stall that runner. Worse yet, the opposing pitcher singled him in. There went the toy Critters back into the clutches of grown men. Vickers went on to hit a leadoff single in the bottom 2nd and be stranded, then dropped Caraballo’s pop for another leadoff error in the third. – Alright, Steve from Accounting!? – STEVE FROM ACCOUNTING!! – Maud, ask Steve from Accounting to look into Vickers’ bank account and whether he’s gotten money from somebody in Indy. – Maud, I am not into discussing this. – Well, find a hacker kid on the internet that will look into it, then!

Somehow, despite a wild pitch by Sparkes (…!?), the runner didn’t score, Sparkes hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, then was doubled up by Berto. One of those 54 we’re predetermined to lose, huh? Despite the awful early innings, Sparkes seemed to get a little bit better in the last three of the six innings he lasted in the game – a Dan Hutson homer to right in the fifth notwithstanding. Not getting better was the Coons’ offense, still shut out by Kaiser, and the game was put away when Travis Sims got hit by a truck, and Jeremy Leftwich’s pinch-hit, 3-run homer in the seventh inning. Kaiser only left the game when injured in the bottom 7th, and the Raccoons were out of it well enough to send Colt Willes to pitch the ninth inning, promptly leading to three hits and another run on his ledger, but since he finished the inning, his ERA actually went down… 6-0 Indians. Maruyama 1-2, BB;

Upsides? Uh. Pena pitched a scoreless inning! And… uh…

Boston split their double-header with the Elks, thus being now four games out with a magic number of one. Indy was two out and the magic number was still four.

Now, has Bernie Chavez recovered from the recent shellackings he got?

Game 4
IND: C E. Thompson – 2B Schneller – RF Leftwich – 3B Hutson – 1B Caraballo – CF Baron – LF Garbinski – SS DiGiacomo – P Hurley
POR: SS Ramos – C Morales – LF M. Fernandez – RF Greenway – CF Hooge – 3B Maldonado – 1B Stedham – 2B Brito – P Chavez

A fastball to the knee took out Tony Morales in the first inning, with Jeff Kilmer suiting up to replace him; the vile assault also moved Berto to second base after his leadoff single, but Morales’ knee soon swelled up and he was unavailable for some length of time for sure. Fernandez singled to load the bases, three on and no outs, with Greenway’s sac fly and Hooge’s RBI single getting two runs home. Maldonado walked, restocking the bases, and Stedham at least cashed a run on a groundout. Brito was walked intentionally, allowing Berto to fly out to Garbinski. The Coons opened the second with another flurry of hits, Berto singling and stealing, and Kilmer and Manny also supplying singles to get him around, 4-0. Greenway singled to load the bases, and Hooge hit a single into no man’s land for two runs. Only now did the Indians’ pen get up, and Maldonado reached on an error to again put three on with nobody out. Hurley, sweating profusely, plated Greenway with a wild pitch, then walked Stedham anyway before being unceremoniously yanked. David Lindstrom got a 1-2-3 double play from Brito that axed the inning rather fast, but the Raccoons were now up 7-0 and had a solid-looking Bernie to head back to the mound!

Hutson doubled home Leftwich in the fourth, in which the Indians got three hits off Bernie, but only the one run. Valdes, panicked regardless, suggested that we should just end the game while we were up by six, which honestly wasn’t how anything worked. Maldonado drove in Greenway in the bottom 4th to make up the run, but a leadoff walk drawn by DiGiacomo and two base hits led to another Indians run in the fifth and also depleted Chavez’ pitch count. Bottom 5th, Lindstrom and Chris Myers as well as a Baron error loaded the bases with one out for Ed Hooge, who hit into a double play.

Bernie had just enough for 6.2 innings before giving up back-to-back bombs to Thompson and Schneller, reducing the lead to 8-4. Gene Tennis got out of the inning, then surrendered a run on a Hutson walk and a Baron double in the eighth. Boyyys …! Don’t …! Get the last few …! Aack!! Barker got a groundout to end the inning, with the lead reduced to 8-5. Soung got the ninth. Mitchell Bizier flew out to Hooge. Thompson struck out. And even the inevitable Dan Schneller couldn’t hit a 6-run homer now, and flew out to Manny, ending the game and securing a sweaty split …! 8-5 Raccoons. Ramos 3-5; Kilmer 2-4; M. Fernandez 2-5, RBI; Greenway 1-2, 2 BB; Hooge 2-5, 3 RBI;

The good news was that the Titans lost their last game to the dastardly, but at least inadvertently helpful Elks. They were thus eliminated from competition – only the Indians remained before the final weekend-and-change’s worth of games.

The Raccoons were at 91-68 at this point. The Indians, with two extra games to make up, sat at 87-70, three games out with a magic number of two.

Tony Morales’ injury was a problem – Dr. Chung thought him unavailable for at least the last weekend and the CLCS, and maybe altogether. I clenched a fist, sent curses at Mike Hurley, and then sent for Matt Hartley to come to Portland as spare catcher for the last three games. Unless the Raccoons clinched early or both Garcia and Kilmer broke at least one leg each, he was not going to see game time. Hartley had batted 3-for-9 in a 5-game cup of coffee last year, and had hit .261 with four homers in AAA this year.

Raccoons (91-68) vs. Titans (86-73) – October 2-4, 2037

How much murder was left in the Titans? We’d find out on the diamond, but they were up 9-6 in the season series and had the stingiest pitching and defense in terms of runs allowed. Their offense had been their downfall, being at best middling in runs scored. No significant injuries with them. Coons needed two to clinch on their own. With less than two, they had to hope for cooperation from the Crusaders and/or (oh baseball gods, have mercy on my soul!) the Knights on Monday.

Projected matchups:
Raffaello Sabre (11-7, 3.85 ERA) vs. Tony Chavez (16-10, 2.66 ERA)
Josh Weeks (10-6, 3.57 ERA) vs. Andy Bressner (6-2, 4.36 ERA)
Jared Ottinger (10-11, 3.73 ERA) vs. Mario Gonzalez (6-5, 2.73 ERA)

Left, right, left? Gonzalez and Matt Brost (5-10, 4.38 ERA) had both pitched in that double header on Wednesday and one of them would have to go on short rest. Probably Gonzalez, just to annoy us with another left-handed arm.

Game 1
BOS: SS Gil – 3B Corder – RF M. Avila – LF W. Vega – 1B Uliasz – C Dear – CF Hawthorne – 2B Sibley – P T. Chavez
POR: 1B Maruyama – C Garcia – LF M. Fernandez – CF Fowler – RF Greenway – SS Maldonado – 2B Vickers – 3B Caskey – P Sabre

Sabre, who had been so great the week before, was stuffed with four runs in the opening inning, because baseball. The toy raccoons were immediately back to being squished, and the Raccoons wondered how much pen they’d need in this one… Antonio Gil led off with an infield single, after which Sabre retired Adam Corder before the bases filled up. Justin Uliasz hit a sac fly, Matt Dear singled home two, and George Hawthorne hit an RBI double. Sabre didn’t make it out of the second inning, walking Gil, who was forced out by Corder, who stole second, scored on a single by Moises Avila, who also stole second, and then Sabre ****ed the bags full before being yanked. Barker got a groundout from Dear, but at 5-0 the damage was done…

While Fernando Garcia hit a solo home run in the third inning, the Raccoons’ Nate Ward was exploded for a 3-run homer by Justin Uliasz in the fourth, with Moises Avila and Willie Vega on base, at which point the score was 8-1 and you could unclench your butt cheeks, because this one wasn’t going to come back. The Raccoons readied Colt Willes for a final probe to see whether he was useful at least as a paper weight, to which the answer, following a Ross Sibley homer that disappeared behind the batter’s eye, was likely nope, while the Raccoons loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh inning against Chavez, and he retired the next three batters without conceding a run. – No, Nick, I have nothing planned for the rest of the evening. – Well, maybe looking at the Indians scores and then having a good, manly cry? 9-1 Titans. Garcia 3-5, HR, RBI; M. Fernandez 2-4; Vickers 1-2, 2 BB; Pinkerton (PH) 1-1;

Colt Willes, despite being a completely broken tosser at this point, still logged the most outs by any Raccoon in this game…

Let’s check the Indians scores, Nick. And hold on to our Honeypaws and Fairydust. – (is shown a pad with numbers by a grinning Cristiano) – They lost? – Twice? – So that means…?

PLAYOFFS, BABY!!!

That changed a thing or two. While the Raccoons had used both pitchers fitting for a garbage start on Friday (Tennis, Willes), they wanted to give Weeks more tune-up for the CLCS anyway. Ottie remained penciled in for Sunday – there were no sane alternatives.

We’d go light on the lineup, though… especially on Garcia, who with Morales out was required to catch an entire CLCS. So Matt Hartley *would* see action, splitting the last two games with Kilmer. We’d not lay down entirely, though – CLCS homefield advantage was still a thing. Right now we had 91 wins to the Bayhawks’ 90, and nothing good had ever happened at the Bay.

Game 2
BOS: SS Gil – CF Hawthorne – RF M. Avila – 1B Uliasz – LF W. Vega – C Dear – 3B Hansen – 2B Sibley – P Bressner
POR: SS Ramos – 2B Caskey – LF Hooge – RF Greenway – CF Fowler – 1B Stedham – 3B Maldonado – C Hartley – P Weeks

Beginning with a George Hawthorne double in the first inning, Weeks conceded an early run giving up too much fat contact, but the Raccoons began their day at the plate with a Berto double, then straight singles by the 3-4-5 batters to tie the game and have three aboard for Stedham, who struck out, and then Maldonado, whose 2-out grounder to John Hansen was airmailed over Uliasz for a 2-run error. Hartley walked, Weeks popped out, ending the inning. While Weeks walked a pair and somehow avoided damage in the top 2nd, Hooge doubled home Berto for his second RBI in the game and 50th all year, extending the lead to 4-1.

Top 4th, a walk to Uliasz, a fumble error of Willie Vega’s comebacker, a Matt Dear single – bases loaded, nobody out. Why, oh why, … why? Weeks failed to regain control; John Hansen slapped an RBI single, Sibley hit a sac fly, and thankfully Bressner struck out trying to bunt, but Weeks walked Gil anyway. Hawthorne flew out to Greenway in deep right, stranding three in a 4-3 game, which was the score until Jon Caskey clocked Bressner for his first major league home run, a solo job in the bottom 4th, 5-3!

There was no W for Weeks, though, only an eeks. After a 2-out walk to Vega, his fifth in the game, he was yanked in the fifth inning – the lengthy at-bat had ended with him on 120 pitches. Citriniti escaped with a strikeout and also did the sixth. Pena even pitched the seventh inning without having all his limbs removed by blasted baseballs, but at the stretch, still up 5-3, the Raccoons started to remove regulars. Berto, Fowler, and Greenway were all replaced by the time Pena went back out for the eighth. Matt Dear singled, but Steve Nickas started the double play on Hansen. Stedham then left in a double switch that brought on Garavito and Maruyama. The former gave up a home run to Juan Herrera to begin the ninth, and when Prieto replaced him to try and secure the W, he gave up four base hits, the third of those being a 3-run homer by Vega. With another lead professionally blown, the Raccoons got to bat in the bottom 9th against Wyatt Hamill, hours after having emotionally and cerebrally distanced themselves from the task, and with all the good batter having gone home already. Pinkerton grounded out. Jose Brito – homered to left!? TWO maiden longballers in one game!? Manny Fernandez pinch-hit in the pitcher’s spot at #6 and walked. Maldonado batted for himself, hooked a Hamill fastball to deep left – and OUTTA HERE!!! 8-7 Raccoons!! Ramos 3-4, 2B; Nickas 1-1; Hooge 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Greenway 2-4; Brito 1-1, HR, RBI; Stedham 2-4; Maldonado 1-5, HR, 2 RBI; Pena 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

More importantly – nobody broke a leg. Let’s keep doing that.

The Baybirds lost their game on Saturday, thus Maldonado’s walkoff blast clinched home field in the CLCS. Homefield in the world series could only be won by the Wolves beating the Blue Sox after losing on Sunday, while we won our Sunday game, and then the draw for homefield, as we’d be even at 93 wins.

Contrary to expectations, we’d get the right-handed Brost on Sunday, our regular season finale. There were only three regulars (outside of Ottie) in the Sunday lineup, and Maldonado and Maruyama were likely to replace two of them at some point. Nick Valdes shook my paw and excused himself of the finale; he had to hit the office to short-sell 26 tons of peanuts for reasons I didn’t care about. The Raccoons were in the playoffs again!

Game 3
BOS: SS Gil – 3B Corder – RF M. Avila – LF W. Vega – 1B Uliasz – CF Hawthorne – C J. Herrera – 2B Sibley – P Brost
POR: 3B Caskey – CF Hooge – LF M. Fernandez – 1B Stedham – 2B Vickers – RF Pinkerton – C Kilmer – SS Nickas – P Ottinger

Manny hit a solo homer in the first and Ottie ripped a 2-out, 2-run double in the second, scoring Vickers and Kilmer to give himself a 3-0 lead before Caskey struck out. On the mound, Ottie allowed five hits and three walks through the first five innings, and somehow kept the Titans shut out at the same time; a crucial double play lined into by Willie Vega in the third inning had surely helped him with his traffic troubles. He sure was used up where the pitch count was concerned though and wouldn’t last more than six innings, not allowing a run to score in that, either. Him, Manny (who got stuck at 99 RBI), and Stedham were all replaced after the bottom 6th, with the Raccoons still clinging to their 3-0 lead from the early innings. David Fernandez walked two in a disturbing development, but didn’t allow a run in the top 7th, while Adam Potter pitched in relief in the bottom of the seventh inning and loaded the bases with the assorted sub-.200 batters Pinkerton, Kilmer, and Nickas, and nobody out. Maruyama struck out, but Caskey grounded to Corder for at least another run to score. Ed Hooge, the last regular not sent to AAA halfway through the season that was still in the game, drew a walk to restock the bags, but Maldonado flew out to centerfielder Tony Luna. Another out by Fernandez, two by Travis Sims, and a scoreless ninth by Nate Ward – and that was the end of the regular season! 4-0 Raccoons! Stedham 1-2, BB; Ottinger 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (11-11) and 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

The blown save and subsequent win taken by Dennis Citriniti on Tuesday was the 5,100th regular season win for the franchise. Could have done with less drama and an Ottie win, though!

September 29 – The Miners amount to one base hit, a second-inning single by OF/2B Chris Russell (.306, 13 HR, 97 RBI), against WAS SP Alfredo Vargas (15-6, 3.38 ERA), who whiffs nine in the 5-0 shutout.
September 30 – SFW 2B/SS Mario Colon (.234, 13 HR, 57 RBI) hits a 2-run homer for their only base hit in a 3-2 loss to the Gold Sox.
October 1 – WAS C Nate Evans (.301, 10 HR, 82 RBI) strikes a walkoff homer for the only score in the Capitals’ 1-0 win over the Miners.
October 2 – Dallas SP Mark Holliday (12-12, 4.23 ERA) no-hits the Warriors in a 1-0 defeat, allowing one walk while whiffing two. The walk to Sioux Falls’ OF Juvenal Grilo (.215, 0 HR, 5 RBI), his own errant pickoff throw, Nick Rozenboom’s groundout, and Mario Colon’s (.233, 13 HR, 60 RBI) create the only run of the game in the bottom of the first inning, and the Stars manage only five hits and no runs themselves.

FL Player of the Week:
CL Player of the Week:

FL Hitter of the Month: WAS 1B Adam Avakian (.338, 24 HR, 118 RBI), batting .394, 3 HR, 28 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: BOS OF Willie Vega (.245, 15 HR, 78 RBI), batting .418, 4 HR, 28 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SAL SP Eric Peck (13-11, 3.50 ERA), hurling 5-0, 1.62 ERA, 30 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Tony Chavez (16-10, 2.66 ERA), hurling 5-1, 1.62 ERA, 40 K
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT OF Adrian Wade (.305, 13 HR, 64 RBI), batting .307, 3 HR, 16 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: CHA SP Lorenzo Campos (13-12, 4.89 ERA), hurling 5-0, 2.31 ERA, 23 K

Complaints and stuff

YAASS!!!

Playoffs, baby!!

And it didn’t even come down to the final game on Monday, the make-up date between the Arrowheads and Knights, which was meaningful in a way – before the game the 81-81 Buffos held the last protected pick in the ’38 draft, but a Knights loss would tie them for that #12 pick and require a draw. It came differently, with Atlanta winning on Monday over the depressed Indians, thus letting the Buffos keep their protected pick.

Losing Tony Morales so late sucked, but at least we had another catcher with a bat on hand in Garcia, and the off days allowed a guy to catch every game in the playoffs. There would be a few interesting choices where the playoff roster was concerned, especially relating to Josh Weeks and where to fit him in. There was no such concern for Colt Willes, who fit best and solely in one of the dumpsters behind the ballpark. The one with the perpetual lake at the bottom I’d suggest.

Taking two of three from the Titans broke a string of more than a decade’s worth of baseball during which the Raccoons had always finished with an even record. Their last season with odd win and loss totals had been a 73-89 campaign in *2023*. This year, an odd bunch at 93-69. Which is not the 102 wins I advertised before the season, but given the first half that went like glue, and a scuffling September, I’ll be content with what I got.

We led the league in stolen bases, though injuries played a part in us getting nowhere near a sack per game, and for a change also hit more homers than we gave up. We even finished third in runs scored *and* runs allowed at the end, and let me be honest, they didn’t feel like a #3 offensive team for much too long…

None of it matters. We’re in the playoffs. The other suckers aren’t. The Baybirds will be here in a few days.

Food for thought – our weird scout guy took away Berto’s shortstop rating, and he is now a player without a position in our own scouting book of wisdom. Not so awesome!

Fun Fact: The first no-hitter ever for the Stars’ franchise came of course on the road, and it is also the first no-hitter thrown by a losing pitcher.

Prior to this, the only pitcher to even give up a run in a no-hitter had been the Raccoons’ Manuel “Bam Bam” Movonda, in a 2-1 masterpiece over the Condors in 1998.

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I did a boo-boo and went to Tuesday before taking the screenshot of the roster, which replaces the expanded roster with the playoff roster. Please peruse the stats for the 40-man roster instead.

And don’t complain! You know I suck!