[Westheim]

Raccoons (10-2) vs. Crusaders (9-3) – April 16-18, 2047

After a common off day on Monday, the Raccoons would try to maintain their good start to the season against the only other team in the division that could claim a similar thing two weeks in. These were in fact the only winning teams in the North at this point. The Crusaders were tops in runs scored with 7.33 per game (well, that had to end at SOME point!), but were also giving up the fourth-most runs, with their rotation posting an ERA just over five at this early point in the season. Outfielder Phil Rogers was on the DL with a knee sprain, while the Raccoons’ Jesus Maldonado still had the balky calf and would not be in the lineup for the opener… Last year, the Coons had won the series against the New Yorkers, 12-6.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (0-1, 10.29 ERA) vs. Carlos Malla (1-0, 8.31 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (2-0, 2.84 ERA) vs. Paul Paris (0-0, 4.91 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (2-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Yataro Tanabe (0-0, 8.68 ERA)

Two left-handers with astronomical ERA’s, and a righty with a more decent one, for this series.

Game 1
NYC: SS Nash – 1B Willie Ojeda – 2B Briones – RF Garris – C Urfer – 3B Mujica – LF Rico – CF Foss – P Malla
POR: LF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Gurney – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – RF Pellicano – SS Adame – 2B Waters – P Jackson

Both teams had two hits and no runs in the early innings, with Jackson being faced with two Crusaders on and nobody out in both the second and fourth innings. Josh Garris and Rick Urfer had hit singles the first time, while the latter instance came with a leadoff walk to Mario Briones and another Garris single. Both innings, Jackson would strike out a pair and get a groundout to bail out of the jam and keep the Crusaders off the board. The Critters had two on with two outs in the bottom 4th after a Toohey single and a Frank Mujica error on Ruben Gonzalez’ grounder, but Pellicano flew out to Aaron Foss to end the inning. Foss then opened the demise of Jackson in the fifth with a double off the wall in right; Jackson walked Randolph Nash, then served up another wallbanger double to Willie Ojeda, which gave New York the lead. Briones quickly singled to center to drive in two more, 3-0.

That was all off Jackson in seven innings, as he struck out nine Crusaders, but it just wasn’t enough with the Raccoons not putting anything together and still being shut out by Malla in the seventh inning (those 6+ ERA pitchers, huh?). Toohey and Adame would hit a pair of doubles to left in the bottom 7th to produce at least one run, but Waters left on Adame. Nevertheless, another chance built up in the bottom 8th, with a leadoff single by PH Derek Baskins, then a 1-out walk to Armando Herrera. Malla remained in against Pat Gurney, who flew out to Rich de Luna in right. Malla also got Toohey to 1-2 with two outs… but no further. Toohey mashed the 1-2 offering over the fence in left for a dramatic, score-flipping 3-run homer! Mike Lynn put the Crusaders to rest in the ninth. 4-3 Raccoons. Toohey 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Baskins (PH) 1-1; Jackson 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 9 K;

Preston Porter got the win in relief with a scoreless eighth.

Game 2
NYC: CF Rico – 1B Willie Ojeda – 2B Briones – RF C. Cortes – C Urfer – 3B Mujica – LF Garris – SS Nash – P Paris
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Adame – C Morales – 2B Waters – LF Fernandez – P Okuda

New York scored first again when ex-Coon Carlos Cortes doubled home Danny Rico in the top of the first inning, but at least Bryce Toohey hit his score-flipping homer a little sooner than last time, cracking it with Herrera (single) and Maldo (walk) on base in the bottom 1st. This one went a mere 430 feet. Unfortunately, Cortes would soon match the feat in the third inning, hitting a 3-run homer to left that flipped the score right back to the purple poopers, 4-3. Ojeda and Briones had reached base ahead of him with a proper single and an infield single, respectively.

That remained the score through the middle innings, in which Okuda had to deal with the occasional runners, while the Raccoons went down mostly silently, amounting to only three base hits against Paris at the end of six innings. Alex Adame would hit a leadoff single in the seventh inning, even stole second base, and was still stranded by the 6-7-8 hitters, who were total blackouts in this game. Okuda pitched the eighth, but gave up a homer to Frank Mujica for an insurance run, 5-3. A Mercado walk in the bottom 8th led nowhere in particular, and when Julian Ponce, left-hander, appeared for the Crusaders in the bottom 9th, Toohey led off the inning and mathematically could not possibly rescue the game on his own. He popped out, as did Adame. Ruben Gonzalez hit for Tony Morales, but struck out. 5-3 Crusaders.

Change of pitchers for the rubber game: the Crusaders would go with right-hander Jim White (1-0, 3.63 ERA).

Game 3
NYC: LF de Luna – 1B Willie Ojeda – 2B Briones – RF C. Cortes – C Urfer – 3B Mujica – CF Rico – SS Nash – P J. White
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Adame – LF Baskins – 2B Waters – C Morales – P Wolinsky

Bubba Wolinsky entered with his 14-inning scoreless streak to begin the season and ran with it. Despite scattering a single an inning more or less, he seemed to have the Crusaders perfectly well under control, striking out six in the first five innings and walking nobody. The same could almost be said for Jim White, who struck out nobody in the early going, but got persistent bad contact from the Coons, who had one measly base knock through five frames.

Wolinsky held up in the sixth, then bunted Tony Morales to second after the catcher had opened the bottom 6th with a single to center. White would walk Mercado, but all that did was to set up a 4-6-3 double play for Herrera to hit into, and the game remained scoreless. Would it be Toohey again? He hit a 1-out double to right in the bottom 7th, after which White lost Adame on another walk, bringing up Baskins. This was however nothing that another 4-6-3 couldn’t solve. I groaned mightily, put Honeypaws to the side, and reached for the first bottle of Capt’n Coma of the season.

In the end it was eight scoreless for Wolinsky with no reward – the Raccoons just couldn’t pull one out from beneath their tails either. The scoreboard was still a virgin when Nelson Moreno took the ball in the top of the ninth. Mario Briones and Carlos Cortes opened with singles spontaneously… but Briones was thrown out by Mercado trying to reach third base on Cortes’ hit to right. Josh Garris hit into a fielder’s choice, Mujica hit *another* single, and this time the lead runner did reach third base. For no gains though – Danny Rico was punched out by Moreno, and the Coons needed only that one measly run to walk off now. White was still going on a 3-hitter, but then botched the play on Mercado’s grounder to begin the bottom 9th, putting the winning run aboard with the error. Herrera was called on to bunt the runner to second, which worked, and now we hoped for the big guns. Only one of them came up, as Maldo’s single into shallow right-center was good enough for Mercado to dash home from second base. 1-0 Blighters. Toohey 1-2, 2B; Morales 1-2, BB; Wolinsky 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K;

22 scoreless innings for Bubba Wolinsky!

Raccoons (12-3) vs. Knights (13-3) – April 19-21, 2047

The Knights had started the year 1-3 and had since reeled off nothing but 12 straight wins, so that was something to compete against. They were second in runs scored in the CL, third in runs allowed, and their rotation was down to a 2.52 ERA. The only black spot was their pen, which was the worst in the league with an ERA over five. You had to get to those guys first, though… Last year we had taken the season series, 5-4.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (2-0, 2.37 ERA) vs. Brad Santry (2-1, 4.43 ERA)
Victor Merino (2-1, 5.82 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (2-1, 3.22 ERA)
Jake Jackson (0-1, 7.07 ERA) vs. Elijah Powell (2-0, 1.25 ERA)

Nothing but right-handed pitching here. Some right-handed hitting we would not see in the series was Joe Crim, on the DL with an oblique strain.

…although nobody in particular appeared on Friday, where persistent rain led to an early postponement of the scheduled game into a Saturday double-header.

Game 1
ATL: SS A. Venegas – 3B Lorensen – RF Marz – 1B E. Hernandez – CF Alade – C Toki – LF van der Zanden – 2B Ramires – P Santry
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – SS Adame – 2B Gurney – C Gonzalez – LF Fernandez – P Wheatley

Wheats then picked this day to have a meltdown; after striking out the side in the first inning, he walked the bases full in the second, escaping only against Santry. The bags filled up again in the third with a leadoff walk to Anton Venegas, a Ryan Lorensen single, and another walk to Ernesto Hernandez. Jon Alade hit into a double play to keep Atlanta from scoring, but Wheats needed over 70 pitches through those three horrendous innings. The Coons had put Adame and Gurney in scoring position in the bottom 2nd with nobody out, then hadn’t scored on two strikeouts and a pop to short; they began the bottom 3rd by loading the bases with the 1-2-3 hitters. Toohey brought in the only run of the inning on a double play grounder to short (groans), with Adame also grounding out.

Wheats completed five innings, then was batted for when his spot led off the bottom 5th, technically in line for his 16th straight winning decision, but OH BOY… In the end, no W would be awarded to him. Despite Mercado’s solo homer in the bottom 5th that extended the lead to 2-0, Aaron Curl managed to blow the lead in the sixth, giving up a double to Alade and a homer to Manichiro Toki. Tied down at two, Bob Ibold and Josh Rella held the Knights where they were through the remainder of regulation, while we waited for another offensive blip from the Critters, who weren’t having many offensive blips this week that weren’t connected to Bryce Toohey, and Toohey would not come up in the bottom 9th against Jeff Turi either, which began with Adame instead, and Adame grounded out. It was then the catching corps that got on base – Tony Morales walked in place of Rella, while Ruben Gonzalez singled. Pellicano ran for Morales once at second base, representing the winning run, while we hoped for good things from Manny and/or Waters at the bottom of the pile. It started to rain again as Manny Fernandez fell to 1-2, then hit a long one – foul. He put the next 1-2 from Turi in play, and it dropped right in the same spot in which Maldo had dinked his walkoff single two days and much water from the skies earlier, with Pellicano easily scoring on the clean single. 3-2 Critters. Mercado 2-4, HR, RBI; Fernandez 2-4, RBI;

I have never seen a team that was playing .813 ball and was playing it like this gluey.

Game 2
ATL: SS A. Venegas – LF Hester – C Cass – CF Alade – 1B van der Zanden – 3B Lorensen – RF E. Hernandez – 2B Ramires – P Powell
POR: CF Mercado – 1B Gurney – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – LF Baskins – C Morales – SS Waters – 2B Martell – P Merino

With an RBI double to left-center, Bryce Toohey sent the Coons up 1-0 in the first again, driving in Mercado and his leadoff single. Baskins flew out, to strand him, but Merino at least faced the minimum the first time through; Ernesto Hernandez hit a leadoff single in the top 3rd, but was doubled off by Antonio Ramires. Things went south immediately afterwards, though, with Anton Venegas and Billy Hester landing hits to begin the fourth, and while Tyler Cass was out on a comebacker to Merino, Jon Alade brought in the tying run with a groundout before once-an-Elk Arnout van der Zanden fouled out to keep Hester on third. Alade then went on to throw out Maldonado trying to go second-to-third on a flyout by Baskins in the bottom 4th, sucking the air out of that inning…

Maldo made up for it the next time through, wrapping a solo homer around the left foul pole for his third longball of the year, and also a new 2-1 lead for the Critters. This, too, didn’t last, disappearing in unearned fashion in the top 7th when Al Martell threw away Alade’s grounder to put the leadoff man on second base. Merino allowed a single to PH John Marz, then struck out Ryan Lorensen. PH Chris Walker grounded to short, but the Coons could not turn two and the tying run scored, Walker remaining on first base, then second once Merino walked Ramires. The Knights didn’t hit for Powell, but Powell also singled through the left side… Walker went for home, but was thrown out by Derek Baskins to end the inning. PHEW.

Baskins and Morales opened the bottom 7th with singles, then reached scoring position when Matt Waters grounded out. Portland didn’t hit for Martell (but Merino looked like toast with Manny holding a twig on the dugout steps). Martell fell to two strikes before hitting a sorry duck snort that dinked in for an RBI single near the line in shallow left for the third Portland lead of the night. Manny drew a 4-pitch walk, loading the sacks for Mercado, who hit a sac fly to Alade, 4-2, before lefty Tony Rosas replaced Powell. The Raccoons responded with hitting Gene Pellicano for the 0-for-3 Gurney, but Pellicano popped out to second in a full count.

The tying runs then reached scoring position in the eighth of a tiresome game, with Moreno walking Venegas to begin the inning, while the next batter, Hester, reached when Pellicano flubbed his flyball in right. Moreno got a groundout from Cass to put the runners in scoring position, then struck out Alade. Then Marz tied the game with a double between Baskins and Mercado… Like I said, tiresome game. Tied again, the Coons’ 3-4 bombers both hit deep fly outs in the bottom 8th, but nobody reached base. Lynn held the Knights in the tie in the ninth, and now we hoped the bottom of the order, many under .200, could do something in the bottom 9th (again). Tony Morales sure knew when to get his few hits, hitting a leadoff single off Jeff Turi. Waters struck out, but Martell singled to center, sending the winning run to second base. Adame ran for Morales at that point, while Ruben Gonzalez would hit for Lynn, but popped out to short. Mercado with two outs? Single to center! Adame flying around the bases – and it’s a walkoff! 5-4 Raccoons! Mercado 2-4, 2 RBI; Maldonado 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Morales 2-4; Martell 2-4, RBI; Merino 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 3
ATL: SS Venegas – LF Hester – RF Marz – 1B E. Hernandez – CF Alade – C Toki – 3B Lorensen – 2B Ramires – P Freels
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Baskins – C Gonzalez – RF Pellicano – 2B Waters – P Jackson

The weather had held out for the most part on Saturday, but by Sunday the skies were gray again and rain was in the forecast.

Adame opened the bottom 1st with a single, stole a base, but was left stranded by his followers, while Jackson put up two zeroes before getting chopped up with three hits for two runs again in the top 3rd. Lorensen, Ramires, and Venegas all hit him for singles, Venegas driving in the two runners from scoring position. The Coons put the tying runs on the corners with one out in the bottom of the inning when Waters and Adame singled. Their first run scored when Manichiro Toki booted Herrera’s roller in front of home plate for an error, after which Maldo hit into a fielder’s choice to remove Herrera. Two down, Toohey singled to center to tie the game, though! Baskins whacked another RBI single to left, and the Coons took a 3-2 lead before Gonzalez popped out again.

Jackson then made it through the middle innings without blowing the lead, although the outfielders got their jogs in for sure, chasing after fly ball after fly ball. The Raccoons had Adame on with a leadoff single again in the fifth, and he stole second, but was thrown out trying to also scoop third base. The inning after, we loaded them up with one out, Waters and his .179 stick coming up next. Waters cashed the runners, though – all of them! – with a gapper in right-center that eluded Alade and Marz long enough to become a bases-clearing triple! Jackson swung for himself and singled to right, bringing home Waters, 7-2. In intensifying rain, Jackson returned for the top 7th once stranded by Adame and Herrera, and abused the latter with long flies to center by Alade and Toki, which Herrera caught. That was the final out of the game – the umpires called a rain delay during the at-bat with Ryan Lorensen, and with the rain only getting worse, the game was called about an hour later. 7-2 Raccoons. Adame 3-4; Toohey 2-3, RBI; Pellicano 1-2; Waters 2-3, 3B, 3 RBI; Jackson 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-1) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

April 16 – DEN SP Gary Perrone (3-0, 1.99 ERA) 1-hits the Wolves in a 4-0 shutout. Perrone strikes out five and only allows a single to rookie 2B/SS Wally Bowles (1-for-3, 0 HR, 0 RBI).
April 19 – A sprained ankle will put SFB 3B/1B Ramon Sifuentes (.267, 3 HR, 10 RBI) out of action for the next month.
April 19 – DAL SP Roberto Pruneda (3-0, 1.85 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout against the Miners, taking the 4-0 win.
April 19 – The Gold Sox shut out the Blue Sox, 9-0, on a single base hit, a double by 1B Alejandro Ramos (.309, 3 HR, 11 RBI). Persistent rain means the Gold Sox piece the shutout together with five pitchers, starter Josh Brown (1-0, 3.71 ERA) being knocked before the end of five innings.
April 19 – The Thunder keep making April deals, acquiring MR Andy Pedraza (0-0, 0.00 ERA) from the Aces in exchange for C Kevin Weese (.381, 0 HR, 0 RBI).
April 20 – Denver OF Sandy Castillo (.203, 1 HR, 6 RBI) will miss four months with a torn back muscle.
April 20 – SAL SS/3B Josh Jackson (.245, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is done for the season after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament.

FL Player of the Week: DEN OF John Fink (.277, 2 HR, 8 RBI), batting .478 (11-23) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR RF/LF/1B Bryce Toohey (.355, 4 HR, 20 RBI), swatting .450 (9-20) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Three straight 5-1 weeks…! Granted, this one hardly felt like one, even though three straight walkoff wins made for some excitement. I don’t like excitement. I like a 6-run first and cruising.

With 20 RBI in 18 games, I can’t help but fear that Bryce Toohey is due for a broken leg.

We’ll embark on a 2-week road trip from here, making guest appearances in San Fran and Indy next week. Nothing good has ever happened at the Bay, so maybe we’ll not get to that 5-1 mark next week after all…

Fun Fact: Every pitcher on staff has a win already this season, except for Jake Bonnie.

The trades I do!