[Westheim]

Raccoons (78-58) vs. Loggers (61-75) – September 4-6, 2046

After barely making it out of Indy with a split and an off day on Monday, the Raccoons hoped to chop a few wins together in their relatively soft program for this week, which consisted of the Loggers at home and the Titans in Boston, although it had not really all been smooth sailing against Milwaukee this year. We only led the season series narrowly, 7-5, and somehow they knew how to tease us. They did come in having lost five in a row, which they had done a lot since July, however. They had failed their way to second from the bottom in runs scored, and fourth from the bottom in runs allowed in the CL, with a -107 run differential. (Critters: +95).

Projected matchups:
Bubba Wolinsky (4-4, 3.73 ERA) vs. Victor Padilla (5-4, 3.94 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (9-10, 4.04 ERA) vs. Ruben Guzman (9-13, 4.42 ERA)
Jake Jackson (10-12, 3.99 ERA) vs. Tony Ruiz (4-10, 4.24 ERA)

Left, right, left, we think. Monday was off for everybody here, enough chances to fool around with the rotation.

Game 1
MIL: LF Pate – 2B Davison – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – 1B Brayboy – RF Platero – CF Reeves – 3B Paul – P V. Padilla
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Pellicano – 2B Castner – P Wolinsky

Singles by Mercado, Toohey, and Waters put Wolinsky up 1-0 in the first, but the Loggers put people no base in each of the early innings against Wolinsky, who looked uncomfortable against a mostly right-handed lineup, yet managed to concede no runs from three singles, a walk, and a wild pitch in three innings. The Critters appeared on the corners with one out in the bottom 3rd when Mercado walked and Maldonado singled off Padilla. Toohey cracked a hard liner – right into Ricky Espinoza’s mitten for the second out. Matt Waters though beat Bill Reeves in deep center for a 2-out, 2-run double, extending the lead to 3-0, and all RBI’s were his so far, which changed a minute later with Ruben Gonzalez’ RBI single to right. Mercado doubled home John Castner the following inning to get the Critters to 5-0.

Wolinsky found consistency in the middle innings, and even a few strikeouts. A Scott Davison double aside, the Loggers had little to threaten him with in that part of the game, but regardless his pitch count got up there and he wasn’t going to last forever. He was in fact lifted just two batters into the top 7th, walking Jared Paul before whiffing pinch-hitter and former Critter Sal Ayala. Preston Porter got out of the inning before the eighth went to Sean Marucci, who allowed two hard singles to Espinoza and Aaron Brayboy, but also struck out everybody else that came across him, sorting out his own mess in the process. Still up 5-0, we then boldly grabbed Kevin Hitchcock for the ninth inning. After Paul hit a leadoff single off him, the young German righty retired the next three batters to finish out the game. 5-0 Raccoons. Mercado 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Waters 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Wolinsky 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-4);

Game 2
MIL: CF B. Allen – 2B Davison – C Payne – SS R. Espinoza – 1B Brayboy – LF Pate – RF Lovell – 3B B. Johnson – P Ru. Guzman
POR: RF Mercado – 2B Gurney – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C Morales – CF Mills – LF Fernandez – P Okuda

Okuda struggled; Brent Allen hit a leadoff single in the middle game, stole second and reached third on Tony Morales’ shoddy throw, then scored on a groundout to put the Loggers up early. The Raccoons got Mercado and Gurney aboard to start their day before the 3-4-5 hitters all failed rather spectacularly. Okuda then drowned in runners. Brayboy socked a leadoff double in the second, with a walk to Pat Lovell and a Brad Johnson single filling the bases. Worse, Ruben Guzman hit an RBI single past Gurney, 2-0. Allen somehow found Matt Waters for an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play that stopped the game from getting away entirely already. After an uneventful bottom 2nd, the Raccoons got Okuda on base with a leadoff single in the third. Mercado grounded out, Gurney popped out, but Jesus Maldonado hit a bomb to right with two outs, his 21st of the year, to tie the game.

Okuda found more of a groove in the middle innings as the game became trench warfare, neither team gaining the upper hand through six. The Loggers did get Okuda out of the game in the seventh with back-to-back 2-out singles by Guzman (…!) and Brent Allen. Nelson Moreno entered in a double switch, struck out Davison to restore order, added another two strikeouts to begin the eighth, and then was replaced with Aaron Curl against Brayboy. The Loggers brought Kyle Edsell, a right-handed batter, to pinch-hit. Curl nailed him; Edsell was run for with lightning-fast Gerardo Peixinho, but Bob Ibold struck out John Pate to get out of the inning. Manny Fernandez hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, but nobody else got anything of value, and the game remained tied as Manny was stranded at second base.

Then the Loggers broke through against Josh Rella and his sinking star. Rella issued a leadoff walk to PH Jose Platero in the ninth. Mario Contreras ran for Platero, stole a base, and scored on two productive groundouts. Why can’t we ever have two productive groundouts, Slappy? …. Right-hander Caleb Martin got the task of saving the 3-2 game in the bottom 9th, facing the 4-5-6 batters. After two weak groundouts, Tony Morales singled to left. Armando Herrera hit for Ken Mills, foregoing the platoon advantage (which had netted the Critters two double plays and a strikeout in this game), and singled to center. At this point, Gene Pellicano pinch-ran for Tony Morales on second base. Manny was next, but grounded out to second to end the game. 3-2 Loggers. Gurney 1-2, BB; Morales 2-3; Herrera (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
MIL: CF B. Allen – 2B Davison – 1B Brayboy – SS R. Espinoza – C Payne – LF Reeves – RF Bush – 3B Paul – P T. Ruiz
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Pellicano – 2B Castner – P Jackson

With that, it was closing the eyes and waiting for the hard impacts with Jake Jackson pitching. He had lost five of his last six outings, and every single one of those losses had been shoddy at best. He wasn’t the worst to start this game though, and held the Loggers to a Ricky Payne double the first time through, and no runs. Payne brought the pain soon enough, however – while the Critters were hitless after three innings, Payne found Scott Davison on base in the fourth inning and singled him home to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead. Then the bags filled up quickly with a Reeves single, a walk to Erik Bush, and then, somehow, Jared Paul struck out to strand all of them.

The Coons didn’t get a base hit until the sixth, when John Castner lobbed a leadoff single to shallow center. With Milwaukee not mounting much else in the meantime against Jackson, Castner was also the tying run. Jackson bunted him to second, and a soft Mercado single put runners on the corners against the lefty Ruiz. Herrera fell to 1-2, then socked a ball to center that dropped just in front of Allen, tying the game at one. Ruiz then kinda lost it. He walked Maldo in a full count to stock the bases, followed by a 4-pitch walk to Toohey, forcing in the go-ahead run with Mercado. All we needed now against Ruiz was a big knock! That never really came; he walked in another run facing Waters, struck out Gonzalez, then walked Pellicano to push another run across, and finally was yanked. Castner then hit a 2-run single off Walt Wright. Castner stole second before Jackson stuck a 2-run single into right-center. Mercado struck out, ending an 8-run inning.

Jackson pitched one out into the eighth with the 8-1 lead before Brayboy’s turn came up. The Raccoons had waited for a low-key chance to give Chuck Jones a shot and sent for him here. The Loggers were killjoys, however, and sent Kyle Edsell to pinch-hit, so now Jones, hardly able to retire a lefty anymore, faced a righty hitter. He walked him. Hickey then cleaned up behind him, and Sean Marucci pitched the ninth to claim the series. 8-1 Raccoons. Castner 2-3, 2 RBI; Jackson 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (11-12) and 1-2, 2 RBI;

No change at the top of the division after the midweek series, as the Indians had won two of three from the Crusaders in their series, which had started on Monday. They now had the Loggers on their plate, while we tingled to Boston.

Raccoons (80-59) @ Titans (57-83) – September 7-9, 2046

The Titans were freshly mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, not that the 23 1/2 game deficit hadn’t been a hint for them. 11th in runs scored and 7th in runs allowed, they had a -77 run differential. Both the rotation and bullpen were about equally lousy. They didn’t have a lot of power, although they were pretty good at base stealing. We had already scooped the season series, 11-4, and nothing good had ever happened in Boston, so there was all of that…

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (13-8, 2.73 ERA) vs. Ricky Contreras (5-15, 3.80 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (16-4, 3.34 ERA) vs. Tommy Kubik (6-12, 4.24 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (5-4, 3.39 ERA) vs. Victor Mondragon (7-13, 4.56 ERA)

We’d run into two southpaws in this set – and none of them on Sunday! Scandalous! Titans, get your crap in order!

Game 1
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Pellicano – SS Floyd – P Merino
BOS: LF Mangual – C Whitley – RF C. Jimenez – 1B V. Chavez – 3B D. Richardson – CF T. Lopez – 2B Galaz – SS Ju. Rodriguez – P R. Contreras

Contreras walked Mercado and gave up two singles to concede the run before getting an out. Toohey was robbed by Chris Jimenez near the line, and Waters and Gonzalez made poor outs to strand a pair in the 1-0 game. Maldo (single) and Waters (walk) were stranded in the third when Gonzalez grounded out, and the lead dissipated the same inning when Merino had Contreras at 0-2 with one out and nobody on, managed to give up a corner-kisser for a double, and then moved the run across with a groundout and a wild pitch… That sequence would probably not make his season highlights reel…

A Victor Chavez single and Doug Richardson’s homer to left gave the Titans a 3-1 lead in the fourth, while Contreras sat down eight Critters in a row before Matt Waters hit a triple into the gap with one out in the sixth. Ruben Gonzalez followed that up with an RBI double up the rightfield line, 3-2, but was himself stranded by the bottom of the order. Merino retired the 3-4-5 hitters in the bottom 6th, then got in line for the W on Bryce Toohey’s 27th homer of the season, a real moonshot with two outs in the top 7th! It collected Maldo to give Portland a 4-3 lead. Merino pitched another inning, then was hit for in the top 8th, with Josh Floyd on first base (after forcing out Pellicano) and two outs. Derek Baskins pinch-hit and singled, sending Floyd to third base. Pat Gurney then hit for an 0-for-3 Nelson Mercado, but flew out to Tony Lopez…

Nelson Moreno appeared to blaze through the Titans in the bottom 8th, whiffing Joe Ritchey and Ruben Mangual before they got two 2-strike scratch singles in a row, putting Dan Whitley and Chris Jimenez on the corners. The Coons sent for Mike Lynn against Chavez, getting a fly to Pellicano in right to end the inning. A tack-on run in the ninth wouldn’t be the worst… the Raccoons faced lefty Casey Pinter, who gave up a leadoff double to Armando Herrera, who at this point tied Jerry Outram in the batting race. Maldo fouled out, Toohey lined out, and Waters eventually walked, with Herrera still picking his pokey black nose on second base. Gonzalez singled, but Ruben Mangual was right on that ball and Herrera had to retreat to third base. Bases loaded for Pellicano, a strikeout stranded everybody… The Coons stuck with Lynn for the bottom 9th, with Richardson singling on his first pitch. Lopez filed into a fielder’s choice, then reached second on Gerardo Galaz’ groundout. A strikeout to dime-a-dozen outfielder Carlos Salazar ended the game. 4-3 Critters. Herrera 2-5, 2B; Maldonado 3-5, RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Baskins (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – LF Baskins – 2B Castner – C Dalton – P Wheatley
BOS: 1B V. Chavez – RF C. Jimenez – C Whitley – 3B D. Richardson – CF T. Lopez – 2B Batista – LF Mangual – SS Ju. Rodriguez – P Kubik

Pellicano’s double and Toohey’s 2-out single gave the Raccoons a 1-0 lead in the top 1st on Saturday, but that was the team’s last hit until Maldo singled in the fourth. Toohey then popped out, Waters walked, but Baskins hit into a double play. Wheats in the meantime had already scattered a bunch of singles, and scattered a few too many in the bottom 4th, Tony Lopez doubling home Chris Jimenez to tie the game at one.

In a tense game, Maldo (walk) and Waters (single) made a bit of a stir in the sixth. Maldo made a bid for third base on Waters’ 2-out knock, and reached their safely ahead of Lopez’ throw. Waters scooted into second base behind him, which came up gold a second later when Derek Baskins shoved a 2-0 pitch through the right side for a 2-out, 2-run single, and a 3-1 lead in the top 6th. Castner also singled, but Jimmy Dalton flew out to Lopez in center.

Wheats had gone a bit dull at the point, stuck at three strikeouts for the game, and had all three batters in the bottom 6th at two strikes without erasing any of them with strike three. All three grounded out. Tony Batista opened the bottom 7th with a triple to right, which was a bit of an issue. Wheats got a bouncer to Maldonado from Mangual, which kept the runner pinned, then finally hung a K on Juan Rodriguez. The Titans didn’t hit for “Kitten” Kubik, but “Kitten” Kubik had also already singled off Wheats in the game. Here, he grounded out to Maldonado, however, and the Titans managed to strand the leadoff triple. At 100 pitches, Wheatley was done for the day, with Curl and Moreno putting together the bottom 8th. The Raccoons got singles from Dalton and Manny in the ninth, but that wasn’t enough to get another run across. So it was Josh Rella to get the ball in the bottom 9th. For once, we were spared an existential crisis with Rella, who retired Lopez, Batista, and Mangual in order. 3-1 Raccoons. Toohey 2-4, RBI; Fernandez (PH) 1-1; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (17-4);

Wheats! 10 wins without a loss!

Game 3
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Gurney – SS Waters – C Morales – LF Mills – 2B Martell – P Wolinsky
BOS: LF Mangual – C Whitley – RF C. Jimenez – 1B V. Chavez – 2B Batista – CF T. Lopez – 3B F. Cortez – SS B. Carter – P Mondragon

Ken Mills picked a Tony Batista drive off the top of the fence to spare Wolinsky early damage with two outs and runners on the corners in the bottom 1st, then batted himself with Gurney (double) and Morales (single) on the corners and one out in the top 2nd, hitting a sac fly to Mangual for the game’s first run. Al Martell hit another single, but Wolinsky grounded out to end the inning. He came back to the plate in the fourth, finding the 6-7-8 batters all aboard after three straight singles off Mondragon, and also two outs. Wolinsky was not a good hitter at all and I sighed with regret before he jabbed the first pitch into play. The bouncer eluded Batista into rightfield for a single, Morales scored, Mills came around from second, Jimenez’ throw was miles off the plate, and Mills scored, while the trailing runners reached scoring position while Mondragon collected the ball in foul territory. He then threw a wild pitch to score Martell before issuing a walk to Mercado, who stole second to keep annoying the Boston righty. Herrera grounded out to end the inning, Portland now up 4-0.

Batista was on base, but was caught stealing in the bottom 4th, and otherwise Wolinsky did not experience much traffic at this point in the game. Mills stole the first base of his career in the sixth inning, then scored on *another* 2-out single by Wolinsky, this time to left! What a hitting menace! Up 5-0, Wolinsky continued to tick away hitters until PH Joe Ritchey hit a 1-out double off him in the bottom 8th. Suddenly, a runner in scoring position. Mangual popped out to short, but Whitley singled to left, scoring Ritchey and breaking up the shutout.

Wolinsky came back for the bottom 9th with a complete game still on the table in the 5-1 contest, but walked Chavez and was then immediately whisked off the mound. Bob Ibold appared, briefly, just enough to walk Batista, too, and now it was a save situation for Josh Rella, with right-handed batters galore drawing up. He struck out Lopez while Fernando Cortez flew out easily to Mills. Bobby Carter also flew to left, Mills having to come in, and he made the catch to complete the sweep. 5-1 Raccoons. Herrera 2-5, 2B; Morales 3-4; Mills 2-3, RBI; Martell 2-4; Wolinsky 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (6-4) and 2-4, 3 RBI;

In other news

September 3 – The hitting streak of DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.368, 21 HR, 99 RBI) ends at 28 games with a hitless appearance in a 3-2 win over the Gold Sox.
September 3 – A strained back muscle will cost the Federal League home run leader DAL RF/LF Joreao Porfirio (.280, 25 HR, 90 RBI) three weeks’ worth of games.
September 3 – The Falcons beat the Knights, 10-9 in 15 innings, on a walkoff single by CHA INF/LF/CF Shintaro Watanabe (.239, 0 HR, 19 RBI).
September 4 – Dallas’ SP Arthur Pickett (13-7, 3.16 ERA) 3-hits the Gold Sox while striking out nine in a 5-0 shutout.
September 4 – DEN SP John Kennedy (15-6, 2.33 ERA) has his season end with a strained hamstring.
September 4 – Falcons outfielder Joe Besaw (.336, 13 HR, 76 RBI) is out for the season with a broken ankle.
September 6 – Pittsburgh 3B/SS Jon Ramos (.253, 0 HR, 24 RBI) singles home Keith Liedtke (.246, 0 HR, 13 RBI) for a 17th-inning walkoff against the Capitals, nailing down a 4-3 Miners win.
September 7 – SFB SP Rafael Pedraza (15-8, 2.74 ERA) is lost for the season and will require the entire offseason to heal a broken elbow.
September 7 – Rebels LF/RF Pablo Gonzalez (.291, 24 HR, 86 RBI) is out with a broken foot that will probably end his season.
September 7 – The Wolves beat the Stars, 6-1 in 11 innings. All the runs score in that last inning, after the first ten had been scoreless.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF/1B Omar Gonzalez (.325, 3 HR, 54 RBI), batting .471 (16-34) with 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC C Fernando Alba (.334, 9 HR, 54 RBI), mashing .588 (10-17) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The best news? The Indians went under on the weekend, getting swept by the Loggers.

The Loggers!

That extends the Raccoons’ lead in the division to seven games, by far the most comfy it has been in a while, and just in time for the final meeting with the Arrowheads this year, that will begin on Tuesday.

Contenders with remaining games, strength of schedule, and playoff odds:
POR (83-59) – VAN (5), ATL (3), IND (3), LVA (3), MIL (3), NYC (3) – .480 – 98.9% (+13.4)
IND (77-67) – BOS (3), CHA (3), NYC (3), OCT (3), POR (3), VAN (3) – .494 – 1.1% (-13.0)

Apart from that I still hope we can somehow ignite the offense before October hits us like a truck loaded with bricks. Between the Thunder and the Condors I would have no favorites, we handled both fairly well in the respective season series (6-3 and 7-2, respectively). But a team that barely wargs out 12 runs against that Boston team might have troubles against anybody in the CLCS…

The final regular season homestand begins on Tuesday. We will have the Indians, Aces, and Knights in town in that order. The rest of the schedule will have to be complete on the road after that, although a return home for Game 1 of the CLCS looks increasingly likely.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons won the season series against the Titans *twice* from 2022 through 2041.

We won 10 games against them in 2028 (which you might remember as a Year of the Ring-Eyed Rats), and a whole 11 games in 2035 (playoffs, but not very far). Those two years, and four 9-9 ties sprinkled throughout aside, it was mountains and more mountains of failure against the Titans in that timeframe.

Since then we have owned their ****** place, with the last five years ending up with these totals in the season series between the two teams:

11-7
12-6
13-5
14-4
14-4

If this can continue for a few more years, we might actually reach .500 all time against them. They are one of three teams we are sub-.500 against all-time, two of them in the CL (the other one being the damn Elks), and the third one being the Warriors. The all-time tally against Boston stood at 616-645, which might look odd to you, but recall the 1995 tie-breaker we played for the division – that’s the extra game in there.