[Westheim]

Raccoons (36-32) @ Crusaders (24-43) – June 18-20, 2046

What had happened in New York? They were still pitching – fourth in runs allowed in the CL anyway – but they were not scoring … at all. They barely amounted to 3.2 runs per game, which was not a way to go through a season without getting clobbered. They were last in offense in virtually all mainstream categories, or bottom three at least. The highlight was a ninth rank in stolen bases. Anyway, the Raccoons were up 4-2 on the Crusaders this year, and could really use a few more W’s in their chase of the Loggers.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (4-6, 3.16 ERA) vs. Jim White (7-6, 3.30 ERA)
Victor Merino (6-4, 3.22 ERA) vs. Carlos Malla (3-7, 5.52 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (7-2, 3.41 ERA) vs. Jeff Johnson (3-4, 2.99 ERA)

Right, left, right, and hopefully three wins…

Game 1
POR: LF Mercado – RF Pellicano – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – 2B Martell – SS Floyd – CF Mills – P Jackson
NYC: SS Adame – 1B Schneller – 2B Briones – CF Rogers – 3B Mujica – LF Rico – RF Foss – C Alba – P J. White

The bottom of the order offered some production for Portland in the second inning, with straight 2-out singles by Martell, Floyd, and finally Ken Mills bringing in one run, before Jackson added two more by stuffing a ball into the leftfield corner for a double. The 3-0 lead was soon begun to be frittered away when Jackson allowed straight singles to begin the bottom 2nd, and groundouts by Aaron Foss an Fernando Alba each brought home a run. White grounded out to Maldonado to keep at least Danny Rico on base with the tying run…

After White left with a dead arm in the fourth inning, relief man Garrett Sutherland and the Raccoons soon found out that 38-year-old Dan Schneller not only hit like a pensioner, but also fielded like one. The Raccoons, starting with a Mills single in the top 5th, wore out the hole on the first base side in that inning, getting additional base hits from Mercado and Maldonado and two runs, while Bryce Toohey was walked with two outs. Tony Morales grounded out to Mario Briones, keeping the score at 5-2, but at least this time it seemed like Jackson would hold up. And he did – for a while… before stumbling over a pinch-hit bloop single by Randolph Nash and a homer by light-hitting Alex Adame in the bottom 8th, getting yanked five outs from completion of the game, with the score now 5-4. Thankfully, Nelson Moreno and Josh Rella would be up to the task to stop the Crusaders right there… 5-4 Raccoons. Mills 2-3, RBI;

Game 2
POR: RF Pellicano – LF Mercado – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – CF Baskins – SS Floyd – 2B Castner – P Merino
NYC: SS Adame – 1B Schneller – 2B Briones – RF Rogers – LF Willie Ojeda – CF Rico – 3B Nash – C Bergomi – P Malla

The Critters scored early again, this time getting Mercado on with a first-inning double, after which Maldo walked. Toohey’s double to right brought in the first run and gave him a 16-game hitting streak as well, while Ruben Gonzalez plated Maldonado with a groundout. The lead didn’t last, partly because the Raccoons stopped hitting at once, and mostly because Victor Merino immediately set out to get singled to death. He allowed eight hits in four innings, which was how long and how much it took for New York to get the game even at two; they scored one run on three singles in the bottom 1st, and then got level on a Jordan Bergomi homer in the fourth. Portland got John Castner on via error in the fifth, and only got another runner under their own power in the sixth with a 1-out single by Maldonado. When a wild pitch advanced the runner, Toohey was walked intentionally, only for Ruben Gonzalez to also grind out a walk, loading the bases. Derek Baskins, suffering through a dry spell with three regulars on the DL, at least amounted to a sac fly to Foss, allowing the Coons to take back the lead, 3-2. Josh Floyd hit a soft single to refill the bases with two outs, and when Malla hit Castner in that situation to force in another run, he was lifted by the Crusaders, even with the pitcher Merino batting. He flew out against righty Jeff Frank, then saw a Bergomi double and a Floyd error put runners on the corners before getting yoinked himself. Bob Ibold replaced him, allowed a run on an Adame single, but then struck out the next three batters to end the inning, with the team still up 4-3. Blowing the lead would be left to Kelly and Porter in the bottom 7th. Kelly faced only Willie Ojeda, and gave up a leadoff double on 3-1. Porter struck out nobody, surrendering the run on productive outs by PH Sean Calais and Nash before giving up a 2-out double to Bergomi anyway. Foss flew out to Mercado to keep the game tied through seven…

Attempt #3 at putting a lead that would hold onto the board began in the top 8th right away. Gonzalez led off with a single against lefty Julian Ponce, then scored on a Floyd double over the head of Foss, 5-4. Castner got hit again and Pat Gurney singled to left to load the bases once more, but the Raccoons had to settle for a Pellicano sac fly to left and a 6-4 lead, since neither Pellicano nor Mercado got the ball to fall in. The big noise didn’t break out until the ninth when with nobody on board Bryce Toohey and Ruben Gonzalez hit back-to-back home runs to tack on another pair. Steven Johnston then put the game away, somehow, without getting exploded. 8-4 Raccoons. Mercado 2-5, 2B; Toohey 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Floyd 2-5, 2B, RBI; Gurney (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: RF Pellicano – LF Baskins – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – 2B Gurney – SS Floyd – CF Anderson – P Wheatley
NYC: SS Adame – 1B Schneller – 2B Briones – CF Rogers – 3B Mujica – LF Foss – RF Rico – C Alba – P J. Johnson

Third game, third early Critters lead, this time with Maldonado singling home Pellicano, who had walked to open the game, then stolen second base. And then Wheats simply drowned. He walked Schneller and Briones, then went under with two soft singles and a fielding mishap by Gurney that somehow amounted to three total runs. Rogers and Frank Mujica got RBI’s. While Pat Gurney shortened the score with a solo homer in the second, Wheatley was completely off the rolls and gave up another four runs before leaving the game in the fourth inning with a thorough waffling received. Opening Day Starter Curse anyone? Dan Schneller hit two homers off him for three of the four latter runs, and Van Anderson left the game with an injury in the same frame, being replaced by Mills.

Down by five, Gurney singled home Toohey in the sixth for a non-rally, especially with the Porter/Kelly combo giving up two runs in the seventh instead. The Coons then dropped in a bushel of runs against the Crusaders pen in the eighth inning, with Toohey and Morales getting RBI knocks, but that still left us behind by a slam, and the Coons didn’t get beyond a walk drawn by Mills in the ninth inning against right-hander Matt May. 9-5 Crusaders. Maldonado 3-4, RBI; Toohey 2-4, RBI; Morales 2-4, 2 RBI; Hickey 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K and 1-1, 2B;

Can’t hit, can’t pitch, can’t stay healthy…

Raccoons (38-33) @ Condors (35-37) – June 22-24, 2046

Wickedly, the Condors were a game and a half out in the CL South, and also in last place. In a division of meh, they had the chance to gain five spots while the Coons were in town… in late June. Please no. Boys. No. Don’t. Just … just don’t. Tijuana was eighth in runs scored, sixth in runs allowed. They had a -5 run differential (POR: +45). We had swept them in the first 3-game meeting this year.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Person (5-5, 3.03 ERA) vs. Kellen Lanning (7-3, 3.10 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (3-7, 4.28 ERA) vs. Generos de Leon (4-7, 4.32 ERA)
Jake Jackson (5-6, 3.30 ERA) vs. Marc Hubbard (7-4, 3.21 ERA)

We’d find only right-handers in this set.

We also had to find ourselves a new player, with Van Anderson out with an unknown ailment. Playing with a 24-man roster was getting old, and, well, this was *Van Anderson*… Little harm could be done by putting him on the DL right away. Ben Coen, third-sacker, was hitting .296/.384/.433 in St. Pete and might be worth another look. He hit .250/.324/.413 for last year’s Critters, playing in 38 games.

Game 1
POR: RF Mercado – LF Baskins – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Morales – 2B Gurney – SS Floyd – CF Mills – P Person
TIJ: SS Lujan – 3B A. Lopez – 1B Gibbs – CF Reidinger – RF Ito – 2B Barcia – LF B. Mendoza – C A. Ortiz – P Lanning

A Baskins single, a Maldo homer, and the Raccoons had their fourth quick lead in a row, and the third in the first inning. And as usual, they stopped playing baseball right thereafter, trying to hang on to a 2-0 lead, like that had ever worked out for them… Person at first appeared to make a mess on the rug in the first inning, allowing a single to Alex Lopez and walking Marty Reidinger, but got out with a K and then stayed out of trouble until the fifth inning, when all he found was trouble. Benito Mendoza singled, but was forced out by Angelo Ortiz. But Person tried to get two on Kellen Lanning’s bunt, instead got nobody, and then walked T.J. Lujan to fill the bags with one gone. In a tense situation, Lopez popped out to Maldonado, and then Ron Gibbs poked a 1-2 pitch into play, a comebacker to Person that easily became the third out, stranding a full set of runners.

Person threw a mighty 112 pitches in seven shutout innings, allowing only two hits, but of course wouldn’t go for the shutout in that situation. The Raccoons were still trying to remember why they had come to Mexico in the first place. At least Maldo seemed to remember, whacking a 1-out triple to left-center in the eighth against Kevin Daley, thus putting down all the hard parts of the cycle while having none of the easy ones. Toohey, who had singled once earlier, was walked with intent, Morales whiffed, and Gurney grounded out – nobody scored.

The 2-0 lead survived a Zack Kelly cameo in the eighth, which he shared with Hickey to surrender the 1-2-3 hitters in order, with some kind assistance by Ken Mills in center. With two outs in the ninth, the Coons suddenly tacked on a run: Ben Coen singled for Kelly, and then scored on a Mercado double to right. With that, they were done, and handed the ball to Josh Rella, who walked Rikuto Ito, threw a wild pitch, and allowed the former lousy Critter to score on a Mendoza single, but at least avoided a game-tying homer by Angelo Ortiz; the catcher grounded out to Floyd to conclude the game after all… 3-1 Raccoons. Mercado 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Coen (PH) 1-1; Person 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K, W (6-5);

Game 2
POR: LF Mercado – CF Baskins – 1B Maldonado – RF Toohey – C Morales – 3B Coen – SS Martell – 2B Castner – P Okuda
TIJ: LF Banuelas – 3B A. Lopez – SS Lujan – RF Ito – 2B Barcia – 1B Gibbs – CF B. Oliver – C T. Black – P de Leon

The Coons scored first again, but it took them until the third inning until Mercado singled home John Castner, who had opened the inning with a double to left. Baskins’ single put runners on the corners, and Maldonado gave a baseball a ride to left, but couldn’t get it over the fence and had to settle for a sac fly. Toohey grounded out, falling to 0-2 on the day. The Condors had no hits the first time through, walking twice and whiffing thrice against Okuda. While Al Martell hit a jack to left-center to extend the lead to 3-0 in the fourth, all Condors batters put the ball in play the second time through their order, although Terry Black was the only one to reach under his own power (Lopez had reached on a Martell error), hitting a single in the bottom 5th. Jesus Banuelas’ single put runners on the corners, and a Lopez double to right put them both across home plate to narrow the score to 3-2… T.J. Lujan then struck out to conclude five.

By the sixth, the Condors took the lead. Ito singled, scored on a Sergio Barcia double, and Mercado’s throw home allowed Barcia to scoot into third base, from where Ron Gibbs got him home with a sac fly, also to Mercado. But if Okuda was doing one thing – it was fighting until the very end. He hit a 1-out double in the seventh inning, then scored on Baskins’ single with two outs, crossing home plate before Baskins was slapped out trying to stretch his hit into a double, thus also ending the inning. Okuda then added a scoreless bottom 7th for his final bit of work in the game, then got into the lead again when de Leon hit Maldo, walked Toohey, and gave up an RBI single to Morales. From there, three poor outs prevented more runs from scoring, the guilty parties being Coen, Martell, and Gurney.

The Critters paired Moreno with Johnston to navigate the bottom 8th, which was the bullpen equivalent of diluting a fine Bordeaux with downriver beaver piss, but somehow worked out with the exception of an Ito single, and Ito was in the category of “if the baseball gods wanna get you, they’ll get you with HIM”… The main problem was that Rella then loaded the bases with one out in the bottom 9th, walking Mendoza and Banuelas, with a soft Paul Laughren single in between. Angelo Ortiz hit for the pitcher in the #2 hole and struck out. Rella ran a full count against Lujan, then walked in the tying run, and … did you remember what I told you about the baseball gods? Ito hit a walkoff single. 6-5 Condors. Baskins 3-5, RBI; Maldonado 1-2, RBI; Morales 2-4, HR, RBI;

Toohey’s run also ended with an 0-for-3 with a walk. He’d get Sunday off after having been ridden pretty hard all month.

The really annoying thing was that the Raccoons suffered a last-swing loss, while the Loggers got a last-swing W on a come-from-behind walkoff homer by Brent Allen against the Knights…

Game 3
POR: SS Floyd – LF Mercado – 1B Maldonado – C Morales – RF Pellicano – 3B Coen – 2B Martell – CF Mills – P Jackson
TIJ: LF Banuelas – 3B A. Lopez – 1B Gibbs – CF Reidinger – RF Ito – SS Lujan – 2B Laughren – C A. Ortiz – P Hubbard

The string of scoring-first continued with a Jackson sac fly in the second inning after Pellicano (single, stolen base), Martell (walk), and Mills (walk) had filled the bases ahead of him. Floyd’s groundout sent the two walkers walking back to the dugout, while the Condors lost another guy to injury in the top 3rd when Paul Laughren fell down reaching for a Mercado groundball and couldn’t get back up again (he’d be replaced with Barcia), then saw Maldonado lodge one in the right-center gap for a triple. With one out, we needed a good effort from Tony Morales, but got a roller to Alex Lopez. Maldo stalked him as he came in, then dashed by him when Lopez flubbed the ball into foul ground clumsily, scoring on the error, 2-0.

Meanwhile Jackson had a 2-hitter going through four innings before all his paws were blown off in a fifth-inning explosion. Barcia drew a leadoff walk, and Ortiz singled to left. Hubbard bunted the runners over, but Banuelas walked to fill the bags anyway. From there, back-to-back doubles by Lopez and Gibbs drove in four runs, and the inning dragged on long enough that Jackson threw almost 40 pitches in it. He was pinch-hit for in the sixth, then with Martell and Mills on as the tying runs and one out. Toohey struck out, Floyd grounded out, and I got ready to mark another L in the pocket schedule…

The Coons did manage to fit in another injury, Tony Morales hurting his calf on a bases-empty, 2-out double in the seventh inning. Gonzalez ran for him, but not that far, being stranded on Pellicano’s groundout. Instead the Condors tacked on an unearned run in the bottom 7th, where Johnston loaded the bases without getting an out, but also with some error support from Floyd. Ito plated the run with a double play off Porter, who then struck out Lujan. The eighth was uneventful and the Coons kept losing, but Floyd opened the ninth with a single off Tim Abraham. Mercado flew out, but Maldo hit a single to bring the tying run to the plate in … well, Gonzalez. But another single up the middle filled the bases for Pellicano! He ran a full count before drawing a walk, which pushed home a run alright, but also brought up Ben Coen and the other slackers at the bottom of the lineup. But Abraham ran another full count to Coen, walked him as well, and now the tying run was at thir base…! John Castner batted for Al Martell against the left-hander, and poked away at the first pitch after two bases-loaded walks. Slapped through the right side for a single! Tied game! Pellicano to third, but Ito’s throw was wayward and got away from Lopez, Pellicano going for home, and he scored, 6-5 Coons …! Ben Arner replaced the run-over Abraham, a righty against Mills, who snapped an RBI single to center. Gurney hit for Ibold, the last bat off the bench, and hit a sac fly to center. The inning ended with a K to Floyd, but not until after the Coons had scored SIX runs to take an 8-5 lead…! Moreno got the ball for the ninth after Rella had been smothered the day before and had pitched multiple days in a row. He put the Condors away in three. 8-5 Critters! Maldonado 2-4, 3B; Morales 2-4, 2B, RBI; Gonzalez 1-1; Pellicano 2-4, BB, RBI; Castner (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Mills 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI;

In other news

June 18 – The #89 prospect and 18-year-old Warriors phenom, INF Julio Moriel (.556, 0 HR, 2 RBI) slaps five singles off the Wolves in his sixth major league game. The Warriors win 15-5.
June 18 – WAS SP Bruce Mark jr. (3-6, 3.45 ERA) should be out for at least a month with a strained hamstring.
June 19 – The more veteran SFW 2B Hugo Acosta (.343, 0 HR, 38 RBI) remains consistent, and reaches a 30-game hitting streak with a first-inning single in a 7-5 loss to the Wolves.
June 19 – DEN 1B Jason Robinson (.280, 2 HR, 37 RBI) comes a double short of the cycle while battering the Scorpions for five hits and six RBI in an 11-1 rout.
June 20 – The Warriors beat the Wolves, 5-3 in 16 innings, although SFW 2B Hugo Acosta (.342, 0 HR, 38 RBI) was done extending his hitting streak to 31 games by the third inning, and overall went 2-for-6 with a hit-by-pitch in the game.
June 21 – A first-inning single by 1B Shuta Yamamoto (.299, 5 HR, 34 RBI) is the only Buffaloes hit in a 4-0 loss to the Capitals’ Nick Young (4-3, 2.84 ERA) and Matsuichi Yazawa (2-5, 4.46 ERA, 3 SV).
June 22 – The Aces lose CL David Williams (3-6, 4.38 ERA, 15 SV) for the season. The 25-year-old needs to have bone chips removed from his elbow.
June 24 – The Warriors lose both ends of a double header to the Capitals, 10-6 and 5-3, but 2B Hugo Acosta (.341, 0 HR, 39 RBI) keeps on sailing, getting this in both games to run his hitting streak to 34 games.

FL Player of the Week: DEN INF Ivan Villa (.337, 13 HR, 39 RBI), hitting .522 (12-23) with 2 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC C Jordan Bergomi (.440, 1 HR, 4 RBI), poking .700 (7-10) with 1 HR, 3 RBI after making his debut this month

Complaints and stuff

Van Anderson was eventually diagnosed with shoulder inflammation, but by then he had already been parked on the DL for 48 hours. He’d remain there for another two weeks or so.

Tony Morales would not go on the DL with his calf strain, but he’d be day-to-day for much of next week and we’d probably have to bring up a third catcher somehow.

Are there any batters left??

At least we inched a bit closer this week. It’s back home now, with the Baybirds and damn Elks to play to finish the month.

Fun Fact: The CL South is no further spread out than it was in April.

Maud, can we move to the South? Just for competition purposes. – I see, your knitting circle and the Green Foods market around the corner are all up here, m-hm, m-hm. – *Fine*, we’ll stay up north…!