[Westheim]

Raccoons (55-63) vs. Capitals (44-74) – August 19-21, 2042

Last interleague series of the year for the Raccoons (unless they had a 44-game winning streak in them to surge past the damn Elks still), featuring the worst team in all the lands, the .373 Capitals, a team we had played both of the last two years and never won a game. The last W against Washington came in ’38, when we took two of three. Seventh in runs scored in the Federal League, the Capitals were bottoms in runs allowed, giving up almost exactly five runs per game. Their rotation was already pretty bad, but their pen was even worse, pushing an ERA of five, and they also ranked bottoms in defense.

Projected matchups:
Nelson Moreno (8-10, 5.00 ERA) vs. Chris Inderrieden (5-10, 4.35 ERA)
Cory Lambert (1-5, 4.34 ERA) vs. Jon Pereira (7-12, 4.32 ERA)
Jake Jackson (7-10, 3.96 ERA) vs. Corey Booth (7-10, 4.42 ERA)

We would only face right-handed starters in this set. Stephon Nettles was still day-to-day when this series began on Tuesday. Jesus Maldonado was totally fine, but ice cold (4-for-29, 5-for-37) and got a second day off in addition to the idle day on Monday to think about what the heck he was doing.

Game 1
WAS: SS Clevidence – 3B D. Myers – C N. Evans – 1B Levis – CF McGuigan – RF Weinstein – LF Carr – 2B St. Peter – P Inderrieden
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Gutierrez – LF Fernandez – RF Waltz – 1B Yamamoto – 3B de Wit – C Kilmer – CF Anderson – P Moreno

The Raccoons stormed out of the gate, getting Gutierrez and Fernandez on base before Justin Waltz and Jay de Wit both whacked double to score one and two runs, respectively, for a quick 3-0 lead. That was not nearly enough to make anybody feel comfortable, though, since Nelson Moreno had a muddled start – wasn’t he due for one? – and kept piling up Capitals. Through three innings he allowed four base hits and a walk, and struck out nobody as the defense did all the heavy lifting, including turning a double play on ex-Coon Dave Myers in the first inning after a leadoff single by Doug Clevidence. Thankfully, the offense kept doing the good work, and after Omar Gutierrez hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd and stole second, Shuta Yamamoto came through with a 2-run homer to left-center, the fifth of his career, and running the tally up to 5-0.

And yet there was the basic problem of Nelson Moreno being more or less awful once again. Jim McGuigan and Kyle Weinstein hit leadoff singles in the fourth, pulled off a double steal, and scored on Jim Carr’s groundout and Cody St. Peter’s single, respectively. The Raccoons scored in the bottom 4th on that aforementioned league-worst defense; Van Anderson and Cosmo Trevino were on base (against ex-Coon Raffaello Sabre) when Manny Fernandez grounded to short with two outs, but Clevidence threw the ball away for a 2-base error and a free run. Waltz socked a ball into right-center for a 2-run single, 8-2, and all those runs were unearned on Sabre, who had a 7+ ERA anyway as his career had fallen completely apart the second he left Portland. The 6-run lead allowed the Raccoons to stick to Moreno through seven innings and a pair of leadoff walks that got bogged down on the base paths, and Moreno was still up 8-2 when he ended the seventh just over 100 pitches and was done for the day. A Yamamoto jack off John Snider ran the tally to 9-2 to begin the bottom of the seventh inning, and while both Zack Kelly in the eighth and Alexis Cortes in the ninth put a pair of runners on base in their innings, the Caps never broke through and lost by a bunch. 9-2 Raccoons. Gutierrez 4-5, 2B; Waltz 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Yamamoto 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Anderson 2-4;

Game 2
WAS: SS Clevidence – 3B D. Myers – C N. Evans – 1B Levis – CF McGuigan – RF Weinstein – LF Carr – 2B St. Peter – P J. Pereira
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Gutierrez – RF Waltz – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – CF Maldonado – 3B de Wit – C Sieber – P Lambert

Lambert had a so-so start to the game, scattering three hits in three innings, as well as a leadoff walk to the opposing pitcher in the top of the third. When Sieber singled to begin the bottom 3rd, Lambert bunted into a force at second base, but a Cosmo double and a Gutierrez groundout actually moved Lambert around to score the first run of the game and the only one of the inning. We reached 2-0 in the fourth; Manny Fernandez hit a leadoff double, his second double of the day, and scored on a groundout and a balk by Pereira. Lambert kept lining up zeroes, despite putting Pereira on base again in the fifth, then with a single. Lambert would go six scoreless in total, but that was also all the Critters would get out of him – he had pitched messily after all and needed exactly 100 pitches for six innings of 5-hit, 3-walk ball.

Bottom 6th, Gutierrez, Waltz, and Manny all reached base to begin the inning, loading them up for Yamamoto, who tacked on with a single through the left side, getting Gutierrez home, 3-0. Maldo had two strikeouts at that point, but got somewhat back on the horse with a clean RBI single to right, 4-0, and while de Wit hit a bad roller in front of home plate, the Caps were unable to do anything with that grounder, which became another RBI single. New pitcher Francisco Trejo struck out Sieber and Casaus, but allowed another RBI single to Cosmo, and a 2-run single to Gutierrez before the inning ended with a K handed to Waltz. Six runs had been tacked on for an 8-0 lead. The Raccoons proceeded to get scoreless relief from Derek Barker and Brent Clark before Jon Craig got slapped for three straight hits by Ryan Carr, Cody St. Peter, and Jose Salinas in the ninth inning, giving up one run before ending the game. 8-1 Coons. Trevino 3-4, 2B, RBI; Harroun (PH) 1-1, 2B; Gutierrez 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Fernandez 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Anderson 1-1; Lambert 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K, W (2-5); Barker 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Yes, Maud, tell Nick Valdes on the phone that we’re totally gonna win another 42 straight.

Game 3
WAS: SS Clevidence – 3B D. Myers – C N. Evans – 1B Levis – CF McGuigan – RF Weinstein – LF Carr – 2B St. Peter – P Booth
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Gutierrez – RF Waltz – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – 3B Maldonado – CF Nettles – C Kilmer – P Jackson

The Coons were without a base hit on Thursday when the Caps took their first lead in the series, slamming Jake Jackson for four runs in the third inning. Doug Levis hit a 3-run homer to make sure we remembered him; he was hitting .259 with 19 homers and 56 RBI once that moonshot was completely outta here and into the Willamette, and base hits by McGuigan and Weinstein tacked on another run after THAT. – No, Maud, I am not taking that phone. – No, Maud. – No, Maud. – No, I have to take THIS call here. (holds Honeypaws to his ear like a phone)

Cosmo singled, stole a base, and came home on Manny Fernandez’ sac fly in the fourth to get Portland on the board at least. Jackson however was off the board after five innings, offering two walks, a wild pitch, and another run on Weinstein’s groundout to the Caps in the fifth inning to fall 5-1 behind. The Coons countered with an unearned run in the bottom 5th, Maldonado reaching on St. Peter’s 2-base throwing error and scoring on two well-enough groundouts, but the Raccoons would gift that unearned run back in the eighth, when Gutierrez threw a ball away to put Weinstein on base against Chuck Jones, and that runner also came around in unearned fashion, deepening the hole to slam distance. The tying run came to the plate in the bottom 8th, though; Kilmer led off with a single, and Gutierrez hit another single with two outs. Booth hung around, gave up a gapper to Justin Waltz with two outs that plated two, and Manny Fernandez grounded out to end the inning. Josh Rella, largely unemployed for a while, had a 1-2-3 ninth to keep the Caps near. They sent Ray Andrews, right-hander, into the bottom 9th. He retired Yamamoto, Maldonado, and Nettles in order to end the game. 6-4 Capitals. Gutierrez 2-3, BB, 2B; Cortes 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (57-64) vs. Titans (48-73) – August 22-24, 2042

Here was a rare chance to take a season series from the Titans; the Coons were up 6-5, with seven to play – all in Portland, and none in their den of broken dreams. Boston were eighth in runs scored and bottoms in the CL in runs allowed, and we had just done fairly well against the FL’s most porous team. The Titans were conceding 4.9 runs per game. They also had a host of injuries, being without Willie Vega, Antonio Gil, Justin Nelson, Oscar Aguirre, and a few rookies (on the hitting side), and Gabe McGill in the pen.

Projected matchups:
Corey Mathers (3-8, 4.33 ERA) vs. Jamal Barrow (8-8, 4.64 ERA)
Brent Clark (4-3, 2.11 ERA) vs. Matt Peterson (4-9, 4.26 ERA)
Nelson Moreno (9-10, 4.88 ERA) vs. Philip Wise (8-12, 5.39 ERA)

Looks like we’ll stalk around their pair of southpaws, although they had been off on Thursday and could make it a Southpaw Sunday by sending Mario Gonzalez (7-8, 4.51 ERA) on regular rest in the last game of the set.

Game 1
BOS: LF Liceaga – 1B A. Zacarias – RF Hooge – CF Vermillion – 3B I. Lugo – C Kuehn – 2B Kilgallen – SS Castaneda – P Barrow
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Gutierrez – RF Waltz – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – 3B Maldonado – CF Nettles – C Kilmer – P Mathers

Danny Liceaga and Alex Zacarias opened the game with singles; longtime Coons backup outfielder Ed Hooge found a grounder to short for a fielder’s choice at second, leaving runners on the corners for Mark Vermillion, who lined out to Yamamoto with Hoogey astray of first base tagged out, 3-unassisted, to end the inning. The Titans scratched out a run anyway in the second inning, Jose Castaneda (who?) singling home Ivan Lugo (who?). Former Critter Matt Kilgallen had also been plunked, so Mathers had his share of issues in this game… and so did the Coons, getting a leadoff triple from Yamamoto in the bottom 2nd and stranding him on third base on three ****** outs. When Zacarias hit a leadoff triple in the fifth, he scored on a Vermillion double. That only made it 2-0 through the middle of five, despite eight hits, a walk, a hit batter, and two wild pitches poured out by Mathers in an outing that was largely useless for our 2042 highlight video. Harroun hit for him in the bottom 5th, an inning in which the Coons went 1-2-3, but the tying runs reached the corners in the sixth against Barrow. Waltz walked with one gone, stole second, and scooted to third on a soft single lobbed by Manny. Yamamoto’s sac fly got the Critters on the board, Manny stole second, but was stranded when Maldonado, stuck in the muck, popped out on a 3-1 pitch. Barrow put Nettles, Cosmo, and Gutierrez on base to stack them up for Waltz with two outs in the seventh, but Vermillion caught his fly to center to strand a full set. Barker, Kelly, Hale, and Jones would combine for the last four innings of regulation, holding the Titans not only scoreless, but also hitless (with only Kelly walking a pair), but the Titans still held their 2-1 lead in the ninth inning with righty Ryan Kinner on the mound after losing his spot in the rotation early in the season. The Coons had the bottom of the order up, with de Wit already in the #9 hole after an earlier double switch. Nettles, Kilmer, and him were retired in order to finish the game. 2-1 Titans. Yamamoto 1-2, 3B, RBI;

Boys, this isn’t Boston. You ARE allowed to score in these games!

Game 2
BOS: LF Liceaga – 1B A. Zacarias – CF Vermillion – 3B I. Lugo – C Kuehn – 2B Kilgallen – SS Amos – RF Castaneda – P M. Peterson
POR: 2B Trevino – SS Gutierrez – RF Waltz – LF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – 3B Maldonado – CF Nettles – C Sieber – P Clark

Clark struck out six in the first three innings, which kept the Titans at bay, while the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 2nd, Sieber singling in Nettles, who had stolen second base on the previous pitch. Manny doubled in Gutierrez and Waltz in the third to extend the lead to 3-0, then was stranded when Yamamoto and Maldonado struck out. That remained the score through five innings, with the Titans still under Clark’s spell. He walked two and allowed two singles, but he also struck out nine guys flailing to send their blue helmets flying, which also ran up his pitch count rather quickly. A leadoff walk to Zacarias in the sixth didn’t help his pitch count, and he added Vermillion with a pitch to the elbow. Lugo grounded out to advance the runners, and Paul Kuehn hit a sac fly to get Boston on the board. Clark plunked Kilgallen next, which put the tying run aboard, and the Raccoons would have him face David Amos, but then pull the plug. Amos struck out, the 10th K victim for Clark in the game, and the Raccoons would try to fiddle the remainder of the game with the other relievers. Hale had a scoreless seventh, a performance matched by Craig in the eighth, even though both shed a runner. The Coons had them on the corners in the bottom 8th. Omar Gutierrez led off with a single off Peterson and advanced on a groundout by Waltz and when Kilgallen had Manny’s liner pop out of his glove for an error. Up came Yamamoto and ended Peterson’s day with a screaming 3-run homer to left, no doubt right off the bat, and doubling the Coons’ output in the game.

Then Josh Rella got the ninth inning anyway because he never got any work around here right now – and he exploded. Up 6-1, he issued three walks, two hits, and was shanked with the bases loaded with the tying runs and two runs across on Vermillion’s 2-out single. Kuehn was in the box, a .258 switch-hitter, and the Raccoons went to veteran Derek Barker. He gave up a howler to deep, deep left, Manny back to the fence, leaping – AND HE PICKS IT! Game over…! 6-3 Raccoons. Gutierrez 2-4; Yamamoto 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Clark 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, W (5-3);

Now the good news – Mario Gonzalez was switched into the rubber game, meaning Southpaw Sunday had arrived!

Game 3
BOS: LF Liceaga – 1B A. Zacarias – RF Hooge – CF Vermillion – 3B I. Lugo – C Kuehn – 2B Kilgallen – SS J. Rodriguez – P M. Gonzalez
POR: 2B Trevino – RF Waltz – 3B Maldonado – CF Fernandez – 1B Yamamoto – C Kilmer – SS Harroun – LF Casaus – P Moreno

Bottom 2nd, bases loaded on hits by Yamamoto and Kilmer, plus a walk drawn by the waiver claim Harroun, pulling up Sandy Casaus with three on and one out. Like David Harroun, Casaus was making his first start of the week, but had gone 0-for-4 pinch-hitting. When Gonzalez came inside on 2-2, he stuck his bum out and took it in there like a man, forcing Yamamoto across with the game’s first run. – Cristiano, why are you giggling again? … Like a kindergarten in here! … Then came Moreno, whacking a ball into the gap for extra bases, and emptying the bags of all previous runners with a 3-run double…! Cosmo singled, but Waltz and Maldonado made poor outs to keep the score at 4-0. That was still enough for us to expect Moreno to even his record at 10-10 eventually, so the pressure was on. He had a creaky fourth inning, giving up a leadoff single to Zacarias, who was doubled up by Hoogey. Then a Trevino error put Vermillion on base, Lugo walked, and somehow Kuehn grounded out after all, but the inning had escalated a previously neat pitch count for Moreno. However, the Titans remained shut out through five innings, which was certainly something we enjoyed to see.

Portland tacked on a fifth run in the fifth inning as Maldo singled with two outs, then raced around on a Manny triple into the rightfield corner. Moreno lost the shutout in the sixth, though, giving up a double to Vermillion – who extended a hitting streak to 24 games with this knock – and an RBI single to the pesky Lugo, all with two outs as well. Kuehn grounded out to first to end the top 6th. Juan Rodriguez walked and was caught stealing to aid Moreno through seven, and he retired another pair before Hoogey rammed a double off the fence on his 103rd pitch to end Moreno’s day. Chuck Jones got Vermillion out on a soft liner to first base, ending the Boston half of the eighth.

Manny and Yamamoto were on base in the bottom 8th. Kilmer struck out for the second retirement against righty Danny Tirado. That brought up Harroun, and it was tempting to send Gutierrez instead, but even a waiver claim needed the occasional attention. Harroun paid us back with a first-pitch single to left, getting Manny around to score, 6-1. That was Harroun’s first RBI as a Critter. Casaus *was* hit for with Van Anderson, who flew out to end the inning. Alexis Cortes got the ninth inning, putting Kuehn on with one out. Kilgallen was retired, but then Juan Rodriguez and Nigel Gordon hit back-to-back gappers for RBI triples…! Zack Kelly replaced Cortes, who was charged with his first major league runs, and got Liceaga to fly out to Manny in leftfield to end the game. 6-3 Raccoons. Fernandez 2-3, BB, 3B, RBI; Yamamoto 2-4; Moreno 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (10-10) and 1-3, 2B, 3 RBI;

In other news

August 19 – BOS CF Mark Vermillion (.313, 6 HR, 61 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak with two hits in an 8-7 loss to the Miners.
August 19 – Warriors and Thunder grind away at each other for 16 innings before the former get away with a 4-3 win. SFW 3B/SS Andy Pryor (.322, 1 HR, 37 RBI) has four hits – all singles – and two RBI in a game, or as many base hits as the Thunder can cobble together in all of 16 innings.
August 20 – SAC 1B/LF/RF Eddie Moreno (.305, 24 HR, 74 RBI) will miss a month with a sprained ankle.
August 21 – Knights RF/LF/1B Billy Hester (.263, 8 HR, 54 RBI) hits an RBI single in the second inning for the Knights’ only hit of the night – and also the game winner in a 1-0 squeaker over the Stars.
August 21 – Six leads are taken and blown in the Thunder’s 13-12 walkoff win over the Warriors, which – perhaps fittingly – ends on a wild pitch by Sioux Falls’ Paul Peters (0-1, 7.76 ERA).
August 22 – VAN OF/2B Justin Simmons (.343, 8 HR, 38 RBI) hits a come-from-behind, walkoff grand slam off Andy Hyden (4-6, 2.38 ERA, 27 SV) to beat the Crusaders, 9-6.
August 23 – Nobody finds an extra-base hit for 15 innings in the Scorpions-Gold Sox game on Saturday, and nobody scores until the Scorpions squeak one out in the top of the 15th, taking a 1-0 win on 1B Craig Hollenbeck’s (.319, 2 HR, 22 RBI) RBI single.

FL Player of the Week: SFW 3B/SS Adam Pryor (.338, 1 HR, 43 RBI), hitting .577 (15-26) with 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND RF/LF Mario Ochoa (.265, 13 HR, 51 RBI), swatting .409 (9-22) with 5 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Cosmo has a 14-game hitting streak, doing excellent work in the leadoff spot. Since he was a full-time player at age 19 in ’27, he will conclude his 16th full season along with his contract with the Raccoons, who will not resign him, and will turn 35 years old on Monday. We spent $22.8M on the 6-year deal, got two stolen base titles and a solid above-.300 bat. That the Raccoons ultimately went nowhere in his tenure was not Cosmo’s fault. We will likely still get his 700th career stolen base (he needs one more), but we will not get his 3,000th base hit, from which he is still 96 removed.

In turns of rotten BABIPs like Matt Waters’ (still in the .210s), we have two more candidates up here. One is Kilmer, .217 for a nearly full season, and the other is Yamamoto, who sits at .231 on balls put in play. That he’s still carrying a 113 OPS+ is due to all the homers he’s hit in just 34 games. He’d hit over 30 prorated to a full season!

Yes, Honeypaws, I also feel like he’ll strike out 165 times and hit .198 with three homers next season, as the first base job in 2043 pretty much defaults on him.

Not that we want to complain too hard about BABIP overall – Manny, Waltz, Anderson, Nettles, Gutierrez, and Cosmo are all well over .300, and some in the .340s.

Fun Fact: Cosmo Trevino once had a 27-game hitting streak, all the way back in 2029 with the Capitals.

He was 21 years old back then and that year hit .322 and led the FL in base hits (221) for the second straight year.