[Westheim]

Raccoons (35-31) @ Titans (33-36) – June 22-24, 2048

The Titans were surprisingly close to the playoffs at this point, being four games out in fourth place. Thy ranked eighth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed, though, with a -11 run differential, which were not exactly indicators of playoffs coming to Boston in the near future. We held a 4-2 edge on them this season.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (3-4, 4.10 ERA) vs. Brian Jackson (4-6, 3.61 ERA)
Victor Merino (6-5, 3.94 ERA) vs. David Barel (6-5, 2.91 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (0-0, 13.50 ERA) vs. Emanuel Caceiro (3-3, 3.07 ERA)

Something wicked: we’d see only left-handed starters in this 3-game set.

With 13 pitchers on the roster and Manny Fernandez ailing, the Raccoons tumbled into this 3-game set with a 3-Coon bench, which had the potential for backfiring rather soon.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – CF Herrera – 1B Gurney – C Gonzalez – P Wheatley
BOS: 1B Haertling – RF L. Estrada – SS C. Jimenez – CF T. Lopez – C W. Gardner – 2B Galaz – LF C. Vega – 3B J. Rodriguez – P B. Jackson

The wicked thing of the day was Wheatley hitting Ed Haertling in the first AND second innings, each time giving up run(s), too. Hits by Leo Estrada and Wade Gardner led to two runs in the first inning, while the run he conceded in the second was unearned after a Maldonado error, but at least the second half of the season was going to begin soon, and then it would be alright, right, Wheats? It would be alright then? … The Coons made up a run in the top 2nd when Herrera drove in Toohey, who had smacked a leadoff double, but when Wheats hit a leadoff double in the third (!), the Coons couldn’t get beyond stranding him at second base. Matt Watt walked, Alex Adame popped out, and Maldo found a double play to give me an aneurysm over. Bottom 4th, Haertling hit, but wasn’t hit, singling home Carlos Vega with two outs, and the Titans were up 4-1. Did I mention that nothing good ever happens in Boston?

Maldo hit a jack in Boston in the sixth inning, finally reaching ten for the year and hopefully breaking out of his dreadful slump that had gone on for weeks now. It was only a solo shot, narrowing the score to 4-2, and then Wheatley just gave it back again in the bottom of the inning, allowing singles to Carlos Vega and Jose Rodriguez, with Vega having stolen second and scoring on the latter’s base knock and a throw home by Watt that was wild enough to merit him an error. Wheats was yanked after handling a bunt from Brian Jackson, who was four-hitting the Critters through seven innings, but gave up leadoff knocks to Watt and Adame when the eighth inning broke. Maldo appeared in the box as the tying run, and hit a zinger to center for a 2-run single, 5-4. The Coons slowly filled the bases against right-hander Tommy Griffith then, getting Waters on with a walk and Gurney with a Gerardo Galaz error. Whatever works. Ruben Gonzalez batted with three aboard and two down – and held out long enough to draw a walk and tie the score at five…! Al Martell batted for Kevin Hitchcock, but grounded out to short to end the inning, though.

The game went to extras from there, with Ibold and Kuo holding the frontline for the Critters. Toohey flew out to deep center to begin the 10th against righty Dave Serio, who then allowed a single to Matt Waters. The go-ahead run reached second base by theft, after which Herrera was walked intentionally to set up a double play, but Gurney grounded out instead. The Titans could pick which catcher to face now, with Gonzalez up here, or Prow up as last guy off the miniscule bench after hitting for Kuo; they went for Gonzalez as their poison, and it killed them, to the tune of a 3-run homer to left-center…!! Kevin Prow batted then anyway, singling and getting stranded by Watt. Nelson Moreno allowed a leadoff hit to Chris Jimenez in the 10th, then sawed off the next three while stranding the runner. 8-5 Raccoons. Watt 2-5, BB; Maldonado 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Gonzalez 1-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Prow (PH) 1-1;

No news on Manny by Tuesday, which was annoying and continuing the roster squeeze, while the Titans picked up Nate Massey (.238, 1 HR, 16 RBI) from the Indians between games, along with a prospect, while sending Monday’s starter Brian Jackson (4-6, 3.69 ERA) to Indy.

The prospect in question was #55 SP Jim Peterson.

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 1B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – CF Herrera – 3B Martell – C Prow – P Merino
BOS: 3B Massey – C W. Gardner – RF C. Jimenez – CF T. Lopez – 1B Haertling – 2B Galaz – LF C. Vega – SS T. Thompson – P Barel

Merino, like Wheats on Monday, nailed the first batter he faced in this game, but Massey was caught stealing to remove the runner from the basepaths. Both teams produced a load of nothing in the first few innings, although the pitchers were not exactly dominant; two strikeouts for Barel through four innings, half that for Merino. Boston eventually scored an unearned run in the bottom 4th, getting Tony Lopez on second base with nobody out thanks to a throwing error by Al Martell, then scoring him with two productive outs. Martell tried to make up for his mistake, hit a single in the fifth, then was swiftly doubled off by Prow… Singles by Jimenez, Lopez, and Vega pieced together a sixth-inning run for the Titans, which turned out to be more than enough. The Raccoons never stopped being entirely woeful against Barel, who eventually completed a 7-hit shutout, all hits being singles. 2-0 Titans. Toohey 2-4; Waters 2-4; Merino 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, L (6-6);

Wednesday broke, still without more knowledge about what bothered Manny Fernandez besides old age and probably a guilty conscience for stealing his salary with a .660 OPS…

At least Dr. Padilla had found all the puzzle pieces to Bubba Wolinsky and we’d give that starting thing a new shot on Wednesday in the old rubber game…!

Game 3
POR: CF Watt – SS Adame – 1B Maldonado – RF Toohey – 2B Waters – 3B Martell – C Gonzalez – LF Baskins – P Wolinsky
BOS: 3B Massey – C W. Gardner – RF C. Jimenez – CF T. Lopez – 1B Haertling – 2B Galaz – LF J. Rodriguez – SS T. Thompson – P Caceiro

Wolinsky struck out the first three batters he faced, and the Raccoons put their first three batters in the top 2nd on base as Waters and Martell chipped singles, and Caceiro chipped Ruben Gonzalez. Offense almost broke out, with Derek Baskins singling home two, but Wolinsky then bunted into a force at third base and things died quickly from there. Wolinsky went on to strike out the first five, but of course would not get the win. He didn’t even get through five innings, or through three – Jose Rodriguez and Tom Thompson were on the corners with nobody out in the bottom 3rd when the skies, which had darkened in the prior 20 minutes, were torn to bits by crass lightning, and pandemonium ensued within minutes in one of the nastier storms I had witnessed from a ballpark – and we DO go to Oklahoma regularly…!

The weather took two hours to calm the **** down again, the game was actually almost suspended, and of course Wolinsky was not going to be coming back after that long a sitdown… The Raccoons were going to employ that 8-man bullpen they were carrying for no really good reason and continued with Baker. He conceded both of Wolinsky’s runs, first on a Tom Steffensen groundout, then by a walk to Massey and a Wade Gardner single, before whiffing Jimenez and Lopez to exit the inning in a 2-2 tie.

Baker pitched the Coons through five, then got the lead in the top 6th, in which Martell singled, then scored on a Gonzalez double to break the tie. Baskins singled to put them on the corners, and Baker even singled to drive in his catcher, 4-2…! Matt Watt hit a sac fly to chase lefty reliever David Barnes, with Bryan McDuffie, right-hander, replacing him and giving up singles to Adame and Maldonado, the latter plating Baker. The two runners then succeeded with a double steal before scoring in tandem on a Toohey single to left, the last marker that got splotched on the board in the inning, a 6-run sixth to produce a bit of a cushion. Chris Jimenez answered with a solo homer in the bottom 6th, and Baker also put Tony Lopez on base, whom Galaz doubled home against Kevin Hitchcock when Baker reached the obvious end of his tether. Relief got more steady after that, with the last 2.2 innings pitched in scoreless fashion by Kuo and Porter to put the game and series away. The Raccoons had them on the corners in the eighth once more, but Toohey hit into a double play for the umpty-ninth time… 8-4 Raccoons. Maldonado 3-5, RBI; Martell 2-4; Baskins 2-4, 2 RBI;

Series win…!

By the time we arrived in Atlanta, we also resigned all hope and turned Manny Fernandez into dog food. Dr. Padilla finally found a chipped-off bit of elbow on the scans, and that would require major surgical intervention. He was going to be out for the season…

So off to the DL with oldest Raccoon on duty, and Matt Glodowski was recalled for a lack of better ideas.

Raccoons (37-32) @ Knights (32-38) – June 26-28, 2048

The Knights were pretty much out of it in June, 20 games behind the soaring Baybirds and in last place in the CL South. They were eighth in runs scored an fourth in runs allowed, though, which actually made for a +6 run differential, so random luck had not been kind to them. They were 1-2 against the Critters this year, and had slugger John Marz and an assortment of pitchers on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Jake Jackson (2-5, 4.30 ERA) vs. Jay Carroll (5-3, 3.86 ERA)
Sadaharu Okuda (5-1, 5.03 ERA) vs. Brian Buttress (7-6, 2.88 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (3-4, 4.27 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (4-7, 3.89 ERA)

Two more southpaws to begin this set – only the Sunday start was assigned to a right-hander. The frivolity…!

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – 2B Waters – CF Herrera – C Gonzalez – RF Glodowski – P Jackson
ATL: SS Venegas – CF Alade – 1B Hester – C Cass – RF van der Zanden – 3B Loyola – 2B Encinia – LF Kinder – P Carroll

Maldo tripled home Watt for a 1-0 lead in the first, then was stranded with a Toohey K and Waters’ pop to short. Jackson got around two walks to Jon Alade and Billy Hester in the bottom 1st, after which the Coons loaded the bases with Gonzalez, Glodowski, and Watt, bringing up Adame with two outs, but he lined out to Anton Venegas. Alex Adame came up in another thick spot in the fourth, then with Jackson and Watt on second and first, respectively, and two outs. This time he zinged a single to right, which Arnout van der Zanden neatly cut off, but then threw horribly to third base for an error, allowing Jackson to score. Maldo then slapped a single past Jon Loyola with a 1-0 pitch, extending the lead to 4-0 and reaching 50 RBI in the team’s 70th game of the season. Toohey singled, but Waters grounded out, giving the ball back to Jackson, who had yet to allow a hit, but had walked three in as many busy innings, having already thrown 48 pitches.

Tyler Cass hit a single in the fourth, but Jackson turned the Knights away in the inning, and reached the sixth before finding substantial trouble. Billy Hester hit a 1-out single, then advanced on a wild pitch. He tried to score from second on Cass’ next single, but was thrown out at the plate by Glodowski, with van der Zanden then out to Herrera in center. The three middle innings had taken Jackson only 25 pitches.

Portland got to 5-0 in the seventh with hits from Maldo and Herrera, who cashed in the fifth run. Then Jackson returned for the 6-7-8 batters with a shutout suddenly an option again. He waked Loyola in a full count, then gave up back-to-back RBI doubles to Juan Encinia and Matt Kinder down either line, ending his outing without logging another out instead… Ibold surrendered Kinder’s run on a Venegas single, and suddenly it was a 5-3 game… We got a scoreless eighth from Lynn then, but could not get the offense restarted; the 5-3 lead went to Moreno in the ninth. He struck out Kinder and Antonio Ramires before giving up a triple to Venegas in a full count. Then he walked Jon Alade. And then he fell behind against Hester… and then Hester hacked out in a full count to somehow give the W to the Raccoons after all… 5-3 Raccoons. Maldonado 3-5, 3B, 3 RBI;

The Indians, who had also won two of three during the week, lost in Tijuana (our next destination) on Friday, which gave the division lead to the Raccoons again.

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – SS Adame – 3B Maldonado – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – CF Herrera – 2B Martell – RF Glodowski – P Okuda
ATL: RF van der Zanden – SS Venegas – CF Alade – 3B Loyola – 1B Hester – C Cass – 2B Encinia – LF Melendez – P Buttress

Okuda’s intimate fight with the 5.00 ERA mark continued; after retiring the first four batters, he issued two walks and a single to the 5-6-7 batters before somehow bailing out on Bill Melendez’ 6-4-3 grounder. The game remained scoreless through the early innings, the Raccoons only getting on with a Martell single the first time through. Maldo singled with one out in the fourth and Toohey reached on an error to set up a chance, or at least a runner in scoring position. Gonzalez found Loyola for a 5-4-3 double play, though.

Scoring only came in the fifth inning with the first career homer of Matt Glodowski, who whacked a 2-piece to left with Herrera on base to give Okuda a 2-0 lead. It’s never too late for your first career homer, they say, although in Glodowski’s case… 28 years and 174 days old today!

Okuda labored through five shutout innings, then imploded all at once. He walked Venegas, Alade, and Loyola in order, then gave up a grand slam to Billy Hester for a 4-2 deficit. Hester’s slam was only Atlanta’s second base hit in the game… Hitchcock and Kuo went on to be bothered for relief duties before the Raccoons rallied in the eighth. Adame hit a leadoff jack to left, cutting the deficit in half, and then Toohey, Gonzalez, and Herrera all reached with one out, loading the bases for Martell. He grounded up the middle, Venegas intercepted the ball, lobbed it to Encinia… and Encinia had a slight bobble that cost them the double play, with Toohey now scoring and tying the score at four. Glodowski flew out to Alade to strand runners on the corners. Hester singled off Kuo in the bottom 8th before Porter and Baskins entered in a double switch, Glodowski being removed. Porter got shredded by Cass, Encinia (singles) and Chris Kirkwood (double), giving up three runs in total to lose the game… 7-4 Knights. Adame 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Herrera 2-4; Glodowski 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

Game 3
POR: RF Watt – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – 1B Gurney – 2B Waters – SS Adame – LF Baskins – C Prow – P Wheatley
ATL: SS Venegas – CF Alade – 1B Hester – C Cass – RF van der Zanden – 3B Loyola – 2B S. Davison – LF Kirkwood – P Koga

The Coons hit a smattering of singles off Koga in the early innings, but by the time they had seven hits on the board, it was only 1-0, from Baskins driving in Adame in the second inning. Waters had been caught stealing in the same inning, and right now there were the 2-3-4 batters on base with one out, and Waters was back at the plate, and grounded to Scott Davison. Fortunately, Davison was taken away from second base by momentum and the only play was on first, with Herrera scoring to go up 2-0. Adame then flew out. The Knights then tied it all up again with a Koga single, Venegas triple, and Cass double off Wheatley, all in the bottom 3rd……

Baskins singled and was doubled off by Prow in the fourth, and Herrera and Maldo went to the corners with 1-out singles in the fifth, at which point we were already into double-digit hits in a 2-2 game. Gurney barely legged out a return throw to break up a double play on another grounder to Davison to take a 3-2 lead before Waters grounded out. Then Koga hit another leadoff single off Wheatley, at which point I gave up on the season altogether. Wheatley tried to get the lead runner on a comebacker by Venegas, instead got nobody, and then the Knights somehow choked for a pop, a grounder, and a K to stay behind.

The bases remained busy; Adame whacked a double to left to begin the sixth, and Koga walked Baskins. Prow then hit into another ******* double play. Wheats hit for himself with two outs, flew out to van der Zanden – who dropped the ball for a run-scoring error. WHATEVER ******* WORKS.

Wheats worked for 6.2 innings of 2-run ball on 95 pitches, then was removed with nobody on base when the lefty-laced part of the Knights’ order came up again – with four lefty relievers sitting in the pen, there was no reason to be scroogey. Lynn and Martell entered in a double switch (Waters taking the rest of the day off), and Lynn ended the seventh with a K to Alade, while Martell killed the top 8th with a double play grounder, 3-6-3… It was destined to remain 4-2 from the Coons’ point of view, but at least Lynn retired three more before pawing it off to Moreno. Loyola struck out. Davison popped out. Kirkwood grounded out to Maldo. 4-2 Coons. Herrera 3-5, 2B; Maldonado 3-5; Adame 2-4, 2B; Baskins 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Wheatley 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (4-4);

Thanks to six double plays in total, the teams squeezed this game into 2:28 hours despite 20 base hits and five walks.

In other news

June 23 – The Buffaloes send utility player Eric Miller (.232, 4 HR, 31 RBI) to the Warriors for 2B Erik Stevens (.218, 2 HR, 8 RBI) and a prospect.
June 24 – MIL CL Caleb Martin (0-1, 2.28 ERA, 12 SV) is out for the season with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
June 25 – TOP INF/LF/RF Felix Marquez (.263, 7 HR, 24 RBI) would be out until after the All Star Game owing to an oblique strain.
June 27 – CHA SP Chris Jones (5-5, 3.56 ERA) 1-hits the Crusaders in a 4-0 shutout, with the only New York base hit being contributed by starting pitcher Jeff Johnson (5-11, 4.35 ERA).
June 27 – Milwaukee southpaw Tony Ruiz (4-6, 2.90 ERA) finishes a 3-hit shutout of the Bayhawks, the Loggers winning 4-0. Ruiz walks five, but somehow keeps the San Francisco team off the board.
June 28 – WAS OF/2B Danny Diaz (.278, 4 HR, 19 RBI) has five hits, including two triples, and a handful of RBI in a 13-inning, 8-4 win over the Pacifics.
June 28 – SAC 3B Mike Crenshaw (.312, 10 HR, 40 RBI) has hit in 20 straight games, thanks to two hits in a 4-1 loss to the Blue Sox.
June 28 - Stars outfielder Juan del Toro (.347, 12 HR, 48 RBI) will be out for a month after suffering an intercostal strain.

FL Player of the Week: PIT 2B/3B Alex Vasquez (.279, 3 HR, 18 RBI), hitting .524 (11-21) with 5 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR 1B/RF/3B/LF Jesus Maldonado (.309, 10 HR, 50 RBI), batting .448 (13-29) with 1 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

With Manny lost for the year, and Pellicano lost even against AAA pitching now, the Raccoons have an actual need for an outfielder. The Scorpions want to part with Chris Robinson, who would be a near perfect copy of Manny, being old and slow and brittle, yet also cheap, but they actually think they can get Rafael de la Cruz for him. Dimwits.

If we can’t work something out next week, we’ll have to demote Hitchcock or Baker after all. Neither of the two deserves it, but I just hate a 4-man bench…

It will be the three-country scoop next week, with a series in Tijuana, then one in Elk City to break into July. Thursday was also the final day off before the All Star break.

Fun Fact: Manny Fernandez might now finish his career with 198 homers, 189 stolen bases, and 981 RBI.

That is neat for randomly matching digits, but it makes me sad for Manny, a Raccoon of 2,120 games in the regular season an 52 more in the playoffs.

Sigh.