[Westheim]

Raccoons (83-59) vs. Indians (77-67) – September 11-13, 2046

After spending a month of stalking the Raccoons to about the tune of four games back, the Critters’ sweep in Boston and themselves getting swept by the Loggers on the prior weekend had widened the gap to seven games for the first time in a while. Of course, nothing had gone particularly well in this season series for the Critters, who were down 6-9 against the Arrowheads. Something about their ninth-ranked offense, fourth-ranked pitching, and +3 run differential just didn’t play against for the Raccoons… Dan Hutson was on the DL at this point, taking one tooth out of their lineup for this series.

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (9-10, 3.93 ERA) vs. Bill Drury (14-12, 3.50 ERA)
Jake Jackson (11-12, 3.88 ERA) vs. Justin Roberts (5-3, 3.94 ERA)
Victor Merino (14-8, 2.77 ERA) vs. Bill Nichol (15-8, 2.51 ERA)

Only right-handed pitchers to worry about in this series.

Game 1
IND: SS Russ – 1B de Castro – CF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – RF Hertenstein – 2B Tindle – C Ebner – 3B Walley – P Drury
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C Morales – LF Fernandez – 2B Martell – P Okuda

Maybe it was the inability to keep ******* Andrew Russ, firstly, off base, and secondly, on first base. Russ hit an infield single for the 100th time this year against the Critters, scored two bases before the Raccoons could yell “HO!” and scored on Alex de Castro’s groundout. A run in six pitches. Bill Drury then went on to walk the bags full in the bottom 2nd, putting Toohey, Morales, and Manny all aboard with free passes. Martell batted with one out, hit a sac fly to Danny Rivera to tie the game, and then Okuda brought out the pincer with two outs, running a full count before singling up the middle to score Morales for a 2-1 lead. Mercado popped out to Joe Tindle to end the inning. Hits then put Maldo and Toohey on the corners with one out in the bottom 3rd. Drury lost Waters to another walk, filling the bases again, but Tony Morales hit a perfect 6-4-3 grounder to short for the inning to end – except that Tindle fumbled Russ’ throw, nobody was out, and a run scored. Manny flew out to shallow left, too shallow to run on Danny Rivera, but Martell coaxed out another walk, pushing home Toohey to score anyway. Okuda struck out, the first K for Drury in a 4-1 game.

By the fifth, Russ batted with two outs and Chris Walley on second base. He annoyingly singled to right, but the inning ended when Mercado threw out short to second base as Russ was going there, expecting the Raccoons to go home. He was out – but not until after Walley slid across safe, 4-2. Manny then drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, the sixth free pass out of Drury, and also the last one as he was put in wrappers after another Tindle error allowed Manny to score with one out. The bags filled up with Okuda, Mercado, and Herrera after the latter’s single to right, but then Maldo found a double play to hit into to end the inning…

And then it fell apart for Okuda, too, with two outs in the seventh. Sean Ebner singled, Walley walked, and Nelson Galvan stuck a ball into the leftfield corner for a 2-run double, shortening the score to 5-4. And with Russ at the plate! Nelson Moreno was ordered into the game, got a pop from the top-of-the-order pest, and we narrowly dallied on. More trouble arrived in the eighth after the Critters stranded another pair of runners in their half of the seventh. Alex de Castro hit a leadoff single off Moreno, Rivera hit a single off Mike Lynn, and they were on the corners while Bill Quinteros and Daniel Hertenstein struck out. Lynn remained in for the right-hander Tindle, a mistake, as his RBI double proved. Bob Ibold came on, walked the bags full, then got PH Mario Ochoa on a grounder to short to at least keep the game tied at five. At least the Coons were on the corners right away in the bottom 8th with leadoff singles from Derek Baskins, hitting for Ibold, and Mercado against Jonathan Osmond. Herrera ran a full count and a long at-bat before singling to center, giving Portland a new 6-5 lead. Mercado was then caught stealing third base by Ebner, followed by an intentional walk to Maldo and a non-intentional walk to Toohey to fill the bases once again. Waters hit a sac fly to center, 7-5, while Morales lined out to Ross. The Raccoons descended on Josh Rella again, who had the tying runs in scoring position by the time there was one out in the ninth…! Russ singled (hits repeatedly on table with fists until cautioned by Maud), and PH Steven Elkin doubled to left. Quinteros struck out, and the Raccoons now gave Rivera (.277, 18 HR, 102 RBI) the four-fingered salute to go after Hertenstein (.229, 9 HR, 48 RBI). Hertenstein fell to 1-2, then dropped a ball into shallow right-center to tie the game. Tindle hit an RBI single, 8-7. That was the end, but it was pretty damning. I was preparing my boxing gloves with plaster for my later discussion with Josh Rella during the bottom 9th, in which Tommy Gardner struck out three to end the game. 8-7 Indians. Herrera 3-5, RBI; Fernandez 0-1, 3 BB; Baskins (PH) 2-2;

I was bleeding from the corner of my snout, but soon enough Rella would be as well…

Game 2
IND: SS Russ – 1B de Castro – RF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – CF N. Galvan – 2B Tindle – C Ebner – 3B Walley – P Nichol
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – C Morales – LF Fernandez – 2B Martell – P Jackson

Bryce Toohey tried to provide some healing with a first-inning, 2-run homer on Wednesday, taking Nichol deep to center with Maldonado (who had forced out Herrera). That was all the early offense in the game, but Jackson was pretty suffocating on the Indians, allowing just a first-inning single to Quinteros through five innings, and absolutely nothing to Andrew Russ, the demon child. While Martell and Mercado hit back-to-back doubles in the fifth to extend the lead to 3-0, the Raccoons were also exceptionally silent at the plate, amassing only four hits through six innings. No further Indians reached base until Rivera singled to right with two outs in the seventh! He was then caught stealing by Tony Morales. Jackson continued his 2-hit shutout through eight innings, but the game was too important for silly games (why is Kevin Hitchcock warming in the pen!?), and since he led off the bottom 8th and we would like to tack on runs after Tuesday’s nightmare, please, he was hit for with Baskins, who flew out to Quinteros in deep right. Mercado walked, with Nichol hanging on (having thrown 84 pitches). He got a double play grounder from Herrera to bail out. So the Raccoons now faced the 8-9-Pest batters, all nominally right-handed, Rella was unavailable, having to nurse a sore snout, so we went to Nelson Moreno. Seriously, can somebody sit down Hitchcock in the pen? He makes me nervous! Mario Ochoa hit a pinch-hit single from the left side with one out, but Moreno rung up Russ, who had not reached base once in the game. That left switch-hitter Steven Jennings, and otherwise Mike Lynn against Quinteros and Rivera. No switch was necessary, Jennings going down on strikes. 3-0 Raccoons. Jackson 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (12-12);

Mathematically, the Loggers were eliminated on this day, but we all know they eliminated themselves in July.

With the worst staved off, the rubber game would go to Merino. The Raccoons also stuck with Martell at second base rather than the more offensive Gurney, solely to help against the #1 pest…

The Raccoons drew Luis Anzaldo (9-10, 4.15 ERA) for this one, still a righty, as Justin Roberts was skipped to the end of the line. But in the end, nobody pitched. Persistent rain killed the rubber game, but thankfully the two teams had a safe landing spot for a makeup date, a common off day exactly one week from now. The Indians would thus come in again after the Aces and Knights series, appearing twice in Portland on the same homestand.

No more off days then! All business from here!

The Raccoons not playing on Thursday didn’t stop the Crusaders from eliminating themselves from mathematical contention.

Raccoons (84-60) vs. Aces (63-83) – September 14-16, 2046

The Aces were the team with the most runs allowed in the CL, which put them into last place in the South, since their eighth-ranked offense was not going to keep up. Their run differential was a mildly inconveniencing -146 (Coons: +115), and in addition to bottom three rotations and bullpens, they also had a defense adjudged as second-worst. The only thing they did reasonably well was hitting homers and stealing bases. We led the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (14-8, 2.77 ERA) vs. Natsume Adachi (0-4, 6.86 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (17-4, 3.26 ERA) vs. Josh Henneberry (9-13, 4.70 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (6-4, 3.16 ERA) vs. B.J. Brantley (5-4, 5.58 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday! The others were right-handers, and as usual I was wary of a 3-hit shutout coming from the nominal pushover in the opener…….

Game 1
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C F. Gomez – LF Montana – 2B Landstrom – 1B A. Quintana – CF Garbutt – 3B A. Rodriguez – RF F. Torres – P Adachi
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Waters – 2B Gurney – C Gonzalez – LF Mills – P Merino

Adachi was at least to Toohey’s taste; after Mercado walked and stole a base, and Maldo was brushed, Toohey fired a 3-run homer to left for the early lead. Merino walked a pair the first time through, then gave up a solo homer to Angel Montes de Oca in the third. Bob Montana added a 1-out triple to center, but Josh Landstrom popped out to offer Merino a way out, and a strikeout to Angel Quintana took care of the inning.

Montana was later caught stealing third base to short-circuit the Aces’ sixth, after Merino had struck them in order in the fifth. More annoyingly, though, the Raccoons seemed intent on letting Adachi live after all, doing next to nothing against him after the first inning until Maldonado finally hit a leadoff jack to left in the bottom 6th, 4-1. That put him and Toohey even at 93 RBI, slowly creeping towards a 100.

The seventh got unexpectedly tight. Angel Rodriguez led off with an infield single for Vegas, then stole his way around to third base and scored on Fernando Torres’ sac fly – which was the first career RBI for the September call-up Torres. After that PH Carlos Jimenes and Montes hit singles. Felipe Gomez grounded out, putting the tying runs in scoring position, and Merino lost Montana on balls. Josh Landstrom, with three on and two down, flew out cozily to Mercado. The Coons then used three relievers to sit down the right-left-right quagmire of 5-6-7 in the eighth, with Porter, Curl, and Hickey all getting their man out. The Coons got Maldo and Waters on in the bottom 8th against Pablo Paez, but ultimately Pat Gurney grounded out to waste yet more runners. And the ninth? Here was Mike Lynn for today, entering the ring with a 4-2 lead and striking out Torres, Ray DeFrank, and Montes in order to nail down the win! 4-2 Raccoons. Maldonado 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Mills 1-2, BB; Merino 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (15-8);

The Indians beat the Falcons, 4-1, staying seven behind.

Game 2
IND: SS Montes de Oca – C F. Gomez – CF M. Roberts – RF Montana – 3B E. Luna – 2B C. Jimenes – LF Stern – 1B Speth – P Henneberry
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Gurney – C Morales – LF Fernandez – SS Floyd – P Wheatley

Montes opened the game with a double to left-center, but Wheats retired the next three without giving even another 90 feet. He in fact retired the next 10 batters in order before Mike Roberts legged out a fourth-inning triple with one out, and tore some knee or other in the process of sliding into third base. Brent Cramer replaced him, but there was the go-ahead run with one out, at third base. Wheats struck out Montana and Eddy Luna to dismiss the Aces for the inning.

Unfortunately, the Raccoons were just as hopeless at the plate to begin the game. Henneberry retired the first eight batters before Wheats and Mercado hit back-to-back singles in the bottom 3rd, which led nowhere when Herrera flew out to Roberts. A 1-out walk to Toohey and a Gurney single put two on again with one out in the fourth, and while Tony Morales found the shortstop in the general disorder on the field, Montes flubbed the ball for an error instead of a potential 6-4-3. The bags were full for Manny, who hit a comebacker to get Toohey out at home, before ironically Josh Floyd came through with a 2-out, 2-run single to left for the first runs on the board. Wheats struck out, then conceded a run on a Jimenes double and a Tim Speth single in the fifth. Argh. Worse yet, Morales fired away Henneberry’s bunt for two bases, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with one out. Wheats, we need more strikeouts! He rung up Montes, while Gomez grounded out, stranding the runners.

Mercado drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, then was caught stealing before Herrera doubled and Maldo legged out an infield single to put runners on the corners. Toohey found a double play. Gurney and Fernandez got on in the sixth, just in time for Floyd to hit into another inning-ending double play. Instead, Vegas tied the game on a leadoff triple to center by Jimenes and Landstrom’s sac fly in the seventh… A no-decision threatened for Wheats, who completed the inning, but led off the bottom 7th and we needed runs. Mills, Mercado, and Herrera were retired in order, in fact ending Wheat’s hopes for a win (and especially for 20 wins). Ibold, Curl, and Moreno fumbled the eighth together (mostly Moreno…) to keep the game tied, while the Raccoons had two on again in the bottom 8th, Toohey and Gurney singling, and again couldn’t get anybody home. Lynn got around a Quintana single in the ninth, still allowing for a walkoff in the bottom of the ninth…! Andy Pedraza faced the 8-9-1 hitters, … or replacements… and only the 8-9 hitters, in fact. Baskins hit for Floyd and singled to center, and Pellicano hit for Lynn and also singled to center. Baskins bid for third base against Chris Whalen’s arm, Whalen made an attempt, the attempt was wild, and Baskins dashed home to end the game. 3-2 Critters! Gurney 2-4, 2B; Baskins (PH) 1-1; Pellicano (PH) 1-1; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K and 1-2;

The Arrowheads clubbed the Falcons early, then held on at the end, 8-6, keeping the gap at seven games.

Bad news on Sunday then: both Maldonado and Pellicano came down with flu-like symptoms. Both would technically be able to play, but weren’t pretty to look at with their dripping noses and half-closed eyes, and wouldn’t feature in the lineup on Sunday. The original plan had been an off day for Herrera, but I didn’t want to go entirely without offense…

Game 3
LVA: SS Montes de Oca – C F. Gomez – CF Cramer – LF Montana – 1B A. Quintana – 3B E. Luna – 2B B. Owen – RF Cannizzard – P Brantley
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – SS Waters – 1B Toohey – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – 2B Castner – 3B Martell – P Wolinsky

Wolinsky was firmly on the struggle bus to start this game, putting the first two batters on base in the first inning, and after narrowly escaping that threat when Herrera raced down a Quintana drive in center, he put the first three batters on in the second. Eddy Luna and Brandon Owen hit singles, and Tim Cannizzard got nicked. Brantley hit into a run-scoring double play before Montes whiffed to strand a runner on third base. The first two – Luna and Owen – got on again in the fourth, but again the Aces then found the defenders as the major obstacles to scoring runs. The Raccoons had only one base hit in the first three innings, and didn’t get another hit until Baskins singled to right to begin the bottom 5th. Hey, the tying run was on…! Brantley walked Gonzalez, but got a double play from Castner, and the inning fizzled out with Wolinsky after a free pass to Al Martell…

A Matt Waters home run finally tied the ******* game in the bottom 6th. The contest dragged out mercilessly while Wolinsky was no longer around, relieved after six mushy innings. Hickey, Curl, and Marucci juggled the next two innings, keeping the game tied, before the Raccoons actually had something like a threat in the bottom 8th, putting Mercado and Herrera on the corners with a pair of 1-out singles. Herrera took no prisoners on Brandon Owen when Waters grounded to short, taking out the second-sacker to break up the double play and allow Mercado home with the tie-breaking run.

When the inning fizzled out we went to Lynn for the third day in a row, specially with Speth and Luna leading off the ninth, two left-handed hitters. Luna drew a 1-out walk, prompting right-hander Carlos Jimenes to hit in the #7 hole. The Raccoons brought out Josh Rella after all. Luna stole second, but Jimenes walked anyway as I despaired. Landstrom pinch-hit, flew out, and the runners were on the corners for another lefty pinch-hitter, Cole Garbutt. He hit a grounder to left that Waters cut off – but had no play on. The tying run scored, and Rella had cocked up another save. Montes grounded out, ending the inning, and I was exceedingly unhappy – we had already hauled in Toohey for defense, so our lineup lacked any sort of bite now. Rella, apparently broken, issued two more walks in the top 10th, but escaped on a 6-4-3 double play. Willie Gonzales was in his second inning in the bottom 10th, allowing a leadoff single to Martell. Groundouts from Gurney and Mercado advanced the runner to third base, which meant we needed a knock from Herrera. A knock we got – a walkoff single over Eddy Luna’s head to complete the sweep! 3-2 Blighters. Herrera 2-5, RBI; Baskins 2-4; Martell 2-3, BB;

The Indians laid an egg with a 2-1 loss on Sunday, getting nearly annihilated by Evan Henshaw and Antonio Prieto. This added an eighth game to our lead.

In other news

September 10 – Dallas’ LF/RF/1B Govaart van Eijk (.302, 3 HR, 28 RBI) scores on a walkoff balk by the Warriors’ Jose Colon (4-8, 4.72 ERA, 17 SV), giving the Stars a 5-4 win in nine innings.
September 12 – DEN SP Gary Perrone (19-6, 2.49 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves in a 9-0 shutout, recording six strikeouts.
September 16 – DAL OF/1B Omar Gonzalez (.328, 3 HR, 58 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak following a first-inning single in a 6-4 win over the Blue Sox.

FL Player of the Week: LAP LF/CF/2B Alfonso Cedillo (.304, 16 HR, 47 RBI), batting .400 (10-25) with 3 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: TIJ RF/LF/1B Rikuto Ito (.258, 14 HR, 92 RBI), hitting .684 (13-19) with 1 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

On the surface it’s a 4-1 week, but the team played pretty badly. Rella’s off the rolls, and we probably have to go with Lynn to close in the playoffs when I hoped to use those two and Moreno as wickedly as possible. That also narrows down our mid-game lefty choices to only Aaron Curl. And nothing against Curl, but he might not be enough against either the Thunder or the Condors, all with multiple left-handed bats that promised danger.

On the other paw, we’d use at least two left-handed starters, so Curl would rarely be the first guy out of the pen.

We swept the Aces, barely scoring ten runs against their free-for-all pitching. I am a bit concerned…

At least the Indians didn’t cause a major upset.

Contenders with remaining games, strength of schedule, and playoff odds:
POR (87-60) – VAN (5), ATL (3), MIL (3), NYC (3), IND (1) – .483 – 99.9% (+1.0)
IND (80-69) – BOS (3), NYC (3), OCT (3), VAN (3), POR (1) – .486 – 0.1% (-1.0)

BNN also considers the two Federal League divisions over, with only the South providing late drama.

Armando Herrera’s bat has gone south this week especially, and he is now eight points behind Jerry Outram in the batting title race. Given that Outram gets another 20 shots at Raccoons pitching, that race is probably lost.

There wasn’t much playing time for the scratch-outs this week, but that might change once the division is won. – Slappy, we need somebody to remove the cobwebs from Van Anderson. It’s a bad look.

Maybe I should talk less cockily about “once” the division is won as long as we still have five games in Elk City on our plate…

Next week, Knights first, Crusaders last, and that make-up game against the Arrowheads in between on Thursday. Wheats is scheduled to pitch in that one.

The minor league seasons are over - the Alley Cats finished second, the Panthers and Beagles bottoms in their divisions. None of them turned a winning record.

Fun Fact: We are 11-2 in September.

Which answers the question for how many months in a year you actually have to try to get a whiff at the playoffs: two.