[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-16) vs. Knights (31-19) – May 27-29, 2047

For a change, the Raccoons actually put pants on for a Monday game, opening a 6-game homestand with hosting the second-place Knights, who were 1 1/2 games out in the CL South. Their numbers hinted at a good team, second in runs scored and third in runs allowed, but they had nevertheless been swept by the Raccoons in the teams’ first meeting in April.

Projected matchups:
Sadaharu Okuda (4-4, 3.23 ERA) vs. Kurt Olson (6-2, 3.34 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (7-1, 2.77 ERA) vs. Kyle DuPlessis (2-1, 6.28 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (5-1, 3.36 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (6-3, 3.60 ERA)

All right-handers here; DuPlessis was subbing for Brad Santry, who was out for the season. Jon Alade, outfielder, was also on the DL, while the Raccoons brought home an ailing Alex Adame, with no diagnosis and no replacement as of Monday.

And if I had a say in it I would stop us shedding middle infielders for a change…

Game 1
ATL: SS Venegas – 2B Crim – 1B Marz – LF Hester – C Cass – RF van der Zanden – CF Kirkwood – 3B Lorensen – P Olson
POR: RF Mercado – CF Herrera – 2B Gurney – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – SS Waters – LF Medina – 3B Coen – P Okuda

While a struggling Maldo got the Monday off, Bryce Toohey was in the lineup and mashed a homer in the first inning, with Armando Herrera on first base making it count for two runs. Billy Hester countered almost immediately with a leadoff jack in the second, so it was 2-1 already, and John Marz tied the game with another homer in the third inning. That wasn’t all: Hester and Tyler Cass hit ANOTHER two homers off Okuda within minutes, and a 2-0 lead had become a 4-2 deficit, all on four bombs. The homering continued – Bryce Toohey hit another one his next time up, leading off the fourth inning. Unfortunately, that was all the Raccoons hits at this point: two Toohey bombs.

The 4-3 deficit held for a while with Okuda throttling down the number of long flies after the early innings to a more appreciable degree, but Toohey’s power also ran out. When he came back to the plate in the sixth with Herrera having walked and advanced on Gurney’s groundout, the Raccoons had to settle for an RBI single to tie the score at four. Okuda pitched another 1-2-3 inning, then was hit for in the bottom 7th with Ben Coen just having been awarded first base for a pitch that made contact with his uniform. Maldo batted for the pitcher and walked, which meant that three times through the lineup the Raccoons had three Toohey hits and absolutely nothing else. It didn’t get any better, with Nelson Mercado finding a 6-4-3 double play all too easily. Nelson Moreno handled the eighth, while Olson was also gone by the bottom of that inning, with Jeff Turi pitching for Atlanta. Pat Gurney hit a single to left with one out, and Toohey got nothing to hit anymore and had to settle for the walk. Which brought us to two on, one out, and the diseased and rotten bottom half of the order… Except that Ruben Gonzalez still had a BABIP of negative 11 and that silly thing HAD to adjust itself at some point…! It did here, with a single over Joe Crim’s head that brought home Gurney to break the tie. Waters walked, Medina hit a sac fly for his first career RBI and cushion run. Even Ben Coen chipped in with an RBI single…! Turi was yanked and Pellicano made the third out against Mario Benavidez, his replacement, while the Coons went over to Mike Lynn. He struck out two of the 6-7-8 that came up, with Chris Kirkwood singling. Antonio Ramires grounded out easily, though, ending the game. 7-4 Raccoons. Toohey 3-3, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI;

Game 2
ATL: SS Venegas – 2B Crim – 1B Marz – LF Hester – C Cass – RF van der Zanden – CF Melendez – 3B Lorensen – P DuPlessis
POR: LF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Gurney – RF Pellicano – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – P Wolinsky

The Raccoons found another pitcher with an ERA over six against whom they hit absolutely nothing the first time through… We did get Armando Herrera to tie the game at one with a 2-out RBI triple in the bottom 3rd, bringing home an unearned run in form of Nelson Mercado, but after that Maldonado flew out to Hester. The Knights had taken a 1-0 lead on Wolinsky in the first inning when Joe Crim doubled to left and scored on an infield single by Hester.

By the bottom 4th the Coons loaded the bases; Pellicano had hit a single in between walks issued to Toohey and Waters. Gonzalez was up with one out, and rammed a quick bouncer past Joe Crim for a 2-run single and a 3-1 lead before both Wolinsky and Mercado struck out. An inning later, Gurney singled home Maldo for a tack-on run, and while Wolinsky held up his end of the box score nicely in the middle innings, the Raccoons had the bags full again in the sixth inning, now with the 1-2-3 batters, two outs, and Toohey coming up with nowhere to walk him to without incurring damage. The count on him ran full, and then DuPlessis kept missing, walking in a run’s worth of damage before being yanked from the 5-1 game. Danny Guzman then got Gurney to sail out to Hester in left. Wolinsky got only one more out after that before walking Ryan Lorensen in the #8 hole and being relieved on 107 pitches. Scott Davison, pinch-hitter, found a 6-4-3 double play against Preston Porter to reach the stretch. Porter was used to bunt in an otherwise inefficient bottom 7th, then retired the top of the Knights’ lineup in order in the eighth. Come the ninth, we got cocky – with two lefty batters up, we encouraged Jake Bonnie to suck some more. Hester flew out, Cass walked (…), and Arnout van der Zanden hit into a fielder’s choice that sent Cass back to the dugout. Bonnie remained in to face Bill Melendez, who grounded out to end the game. 5-1 Raccoons. Herrera 2-5, 3B, RBI; Maldonado 2-4; Pellicano 3-4; Wolinsky 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (8-1);

And that is the season series, taken in May, 5-0.

And what about Adame? Dr. Padilla? – Nothing new? – What do you mean, “did we even take him home from Tijuana”??

Game 3
ATL: SS Venegas – LF Hester – 1B Marz – 2B Crim – RF van der Zanden – CF Melendez – C Toki – 3B Ramires – P Freels
POR: LF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Gurney – RF Pellicano – SS Waters – C Morales – P Wheatley

Wheats faced the minimum the first time through, feeding grounders to the middle infielders mostly, one of which – Joe Crim’s – was flubbed by Waters for a error before being cleaned up with a double play. The Raccoons were a lot less impressive when playing the stick-and-whack part of the game, amounting to memorable offense the first time through either. Just when I began to feel comfy with Wheats again, he allowed doubles to Venegas and Marz in the fourth inning, falling behind 1-0 as a consequence. Apart from that he pitched very well until he started to begin laying eggs in the seventh, the score still being the same. Melendez hit a 2-out double before Wheats leaked walks to both Manichiro Toki and Antonio Ramires, but then the Knights didn’t bat for Freels with three on and two outs, and the pitcher went down swinging to strand all the runners.

Eight innings of 1-run ball seemed enough to doom Wheatley, though, because through seven the Raccoons tallied two base hits and looked completely listless against Freels, who continued on the mound in the bottom 8th. Gurney opened with a single to right, which already had to count as raging success, but Pellicano hit into a double play, which was just the usual course of things here and yet all too depressing. Waters grounded out. Josh Rella pitched a clean ninth before the mound was retaken by Freels. Tony Morales grounded out. Brian Snyder grounded out. And then the Knights went to right-hander David Hardaway for some strange reason. Mercado promptly reached on a bloop single. That was it, though; Herrera grounded out to third base. 1-0 Knights. Wheatley 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, L (5-2);

Both teams tallied four base hits. They had all the doubles though…

By Thursday we FINALLY (?) moved Alex Adame to the DL after we found out his elbow had inflammation but no terminal damage. He would be out until early July, though…

We’d contend ourselves with Waters at short for now and recalled Carreno to fill the open spot…

Raccoons (34-17) vs. Indians (26-28) – May 31-June 2, 2047

…and then back came our usual problem team, the Indians, with the season series even at three right now. They were fifth in runs scored, ninth in runs allowed, and with a -2 run differential, but I was almost certain that they’d run riot and make themselves unwelcome around here in a hurry again…!

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (3-5, 3.77 ERA) vs. John Roeder (3-2, 3.18 ERA)
Jake Jackson (3-3, 3.92 ERA) vs. Jason Palladino (3-4, 3.79 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (4-4, 3.42 ERA) vs. Justin Roberts (3-3, 3.84 ERA)

Roeder was the only southpaw starter they had, and we’d get him right in the opener.

Nelson Galvan and Nick Nunez were on the DL for Indy, but our list was longer…

Game 1
IND: SS Russ – RF A. Mendez – CF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – 2B Tindle – 1B Kurtz – 3B B. Anderson – C J. Rose – P Roeder
POR: RF Pellicano – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – LF Mercado – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – 2B Carreno – P Merino

Now, I was assured three times by Cristiano Carmona that Andrew Russ only had a .376 OBP for this season, but he nevertheless stroked a leadoff single in the Friday game’s first inning and thus raised his OBP in games against the Critters to about 1.250, I was convinced. Somehow he was out on an Angel Mendez grounder, and Mendez got caught stealing, and the Raccoons actually got out of the damn inning even after a walk to Bill Quinteros with two outs… The Critters then quickly took the lead on a 2-run homer by Toohey, with Maldo on first base after having drawn a walk. Mercado reached on an infield single, and Matt Waters whacked a homer to left, 4-0. Problem was, Merino wasn’t retiring anybody in the top 2nd until four Indians had reached and one had scored. Single, double, walk, walk, and then a double play grounder from Roeder, which scored a second run, but allowed us to bail out when Pellicano risked life and limb to snatch a Russ liner and strand Bobby Anderson on third base. Pellicano then tacked on a run when he drove in Arturo Carreno in the bottom 2nd, Carreno having singled and been bunted to second base, Maldo also hit a single, but Toohey struck out this time to end the inning.

The thing was, could be score runs quicker than Merino kept coming apart? Angel Mendez hit a solo shot in the top 3rd, but this was countered in the bottom 3rd by Ruben Gonzalez, who homered to left with Mercado and Waters on base, running the score to 8-3 and sending Roeder home for the night. Now it was about dragging Merino through five, which was hard enough. Russ singled home Anderson in the fourth, 8-4, while the rookie Anderson then flew out to Herrera to strand runners on second and third the following inning. When the bottom 5th saw Gonzalez on with a leadoff walk and Carreno with a single, Merino was used to bunt them into scoring position, though. Pellicano singled home the runners against long man Larry Thompson, getting the Coons into double digits, but Merino retired nobody else, beginning the sixth with a Rose single and nailing PH Daniel Hertenstein. We then extricated ourselves with two outs from Josh Rella and one from Aaron Curl, matching up against the top of the order. The Indians got a run off Kevin Hitchcock in the seventh instead, finding either gap for extra bases with Joe Tindle and Ron Kurtz to shorten the score to 10-5, which lasted us into the ninth inning. Preston Porter was then out there. He put Joe Tindle and Bobby Anderson on the corners, but had two outs and one to go when Maldo misfired on Jason Rose’s grounder, pulling Pat Gurney off first base. The error conceded another run, made the whole thing a save situation, and the Indians promoted a lefty pinch-hitter to the plate in Philip Locke, so the Critters jumped to Mike Lynn, who gave up an RBI single up the middle before retiring Russ, of all people. 10-7 Raccoons. Pellicano 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Maldonado 2-4, BB; Mercado 2-2, 2 BB, 2B; Waters 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Carreno 2-4;

Thompson (0-0, 4.38 ERA) was sent to the Thunder after this game to net the Indians a prospect. Also, Bobby Anderson was named Rookie of the Month, then was demoted to AAA.

Not gonna get involved with that move…

Game 2
IND: SS Russ – 1B Kurtz – RF B. Quinteros – LF D. Rivera – 2B Tindle – 3B Massey – CF Locke – C J. Rose – P Palladino
POR: LF Mercado – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – RF Pellicano – SS Waters – C Morales – 2B Carreno – P Jackson

Against a lineup with only three righty batters, Jackson did rather well in the early innings, scattering three singles without allowing a run. The Raccoons scored early again, however, with Pellicano and Waters landing 2-out RBI knocks after Herrera and Toohey had put themselves on base ahead of them. The bags even filled up when Tony Morales walked, but Carreno popped out to keep it 2-0. Pellicano hit a solo homer in the third to add a run.

The annoying pest Andrew Russ (we should really print that on T-shirts) finally manufactured a run in the top 5th. He reached on an infield single, stole second, and came home on Kurtz’ double, shortening the score to 3-1. That was the only run Jackson allowed while on the mound, but he left with the tying runs (Rose, Russ) aboard and two outs in the seventh inning, having struck out eight Indians. Aaron Curl came on, had nothing better to do than to walk Quinteros to load the bases, then somehow struck out PH Daniel Hertenstein. While the Raccoons were content with what they had, the Raccoons used Curl for two more outs in the eighth before bringing on Moreno after Locke singled. Rose went out to end that inning, and we were not entirely against Moreno finishing the game, but by the ninth Russ (…!) doubled off him with one out, putting the tying run at the plate. Kurtz grounded out, moving Russ to third base, Moreno had nothing better to do than to walk Quinteros, but then somehow struck out Hertenstein to end the game anyway. 3-1 Critters. Mercado 2-4; Toohey 2-4; Pellicano 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Morales 1-2; Jackson 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (4-3);

And that was it – Sunday was persistent rain and rain and more rain, and no baseball was played, just when we wanted to rotate Brian Snyder in for a game.

In other news

May 28 – The Thunder rout the Canadiens in a double-header for a combined score of 22-1. OCT OF Juan Benavides (.307, 13 HR, 38 RBI) contributes six hits, two doubles, a homer, and five RBI between the two games.
May 28 – The Blue Sox tally only two hits against Gary Perrone (7-3, 2.77 ERA) in eight innings before they overturn their 1-0 deficit with back-to-back home runs off DEN CL Alexander Lewis (2-2, 6.10 ERA, 16 SV), hit by C Jorge Santa Cruz (.245, 3 HR, 33 RBI) and OF Nick Berryman (.266, 5 HR, 19 RBI) for a 2-1 walkoff win.
May 31 – The Bayhawks will be without 2B/SS Sergio Quiroz (.279, 8 HR, 24 RBI) for probably all of June. The 26-year-old is out with a separated shoulder.

FL Player of the Week: SAL RF/LF Jose Platero (.305, 7 HR, 29 RBI), hitting .526 (10-19) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA C/1B Kevin Weese (.280, 3 HR, 21 RBI), batting .462 (12-26) with 1 HR, 10 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF Tylor Cecil (.318, 10 HR, 41 RBI), hitting .354 with 5 HR, 23 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: OCT OF Juan Benavides (.300, 13 HR, 38 RBI), swatting .340 with 8 HR, 22 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: CIN CL Ross Mitchell (4-1, 2.93 ERA, 15 SV), shutting it down with a 4-0 record, 1.69 ERA, and 9 saves and 20 K in 15 games
CL Pitcher of the Month: SFB SP Kevin Nolte (7-0, 2.52 ERA), hurling for a 6-0 record with a 1.13 ERA and 30 K
FL Rookie of the Month: TOP C Brett Banks (.360, 9 HR, 37 RBI), raking .364 with 6 HR, 22 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: IND 3B Bobby Anderson (.320, 3 HR, 14 RBI), hitting .379 with 3 HR, 12 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Unlucky Brian Snyder will be gone on Monday with Manny coming off the DL then and taking that spot. Snyder is a weird player to have, a bit of a stick, and no glove to speak of…

Sunday’s game will be made up at a stupid point, July 5, in double header form – that is right ahead of the All Star Game, on the final Friday before the break. Looks like we’ll need a spot starter for that one.

You may wonder why no Toohey for Batter of the Month? His May was not actually that great, hitting .263 with 6 HR and 16 RBI; he was much better in April.

After failing to play six this week, we’ll try to play seven next week. Four in Elk City (brrrr), and then three at home against the Warriors before heading out East for three sets. The draft will also fall into that road trip, annoyingly a few days before we’re due to plunge into New York anyway…

Fun Fact: Rikuto Ito of the Condors is tied with Bryce Toohey and just one off the CL lead in home runs.

That is one of the castoffs the Raccoons tried in their most recent lean years in the early 2040s. He hit .277 with 4 homers in 86 games back then, which wasn’t a lot, and then wrapped up in a trade with Sacramento for Rich Willett and Carlos Cortes. Both had a good half-season for the Critters in 2042 before going down to injury and being traded to San Fran for Jose Casas, respectively, which is its own can of worms.

Ito hit 20 homers as a regular for the Scorpions in ’42, then was still relegated to the bench the yar after. He wound up in Tijuana by trade in July of ’44 and cranked it back up there, with a high of 19 homers in 2045. Since he can also add 30+ doubles every year, he’s a contributor despite usually languishing in the .250s …

For his career, Ito is .259/.345/.420 with 88 homers and 379 RBI.