[Westheim]

The team returned back home after a medium-pleasant weekend trip to Elk City, but Monday was a day off for most of them. The city of Portland was launching a new PR campaign under its long-established “City of Roses” moniker at this time, and asked a variety of Portland-connected people for contributions. The Raccoons’ contribution would be to send a pair of its players, along with every other major league team in the city, for a photo shoot, where they had nothing more to do than to hold a rose and look not too disheveled. Sounded easy enough.

So there was two of our players – they were not picky about who, two batters, two pitchers, they didn’t care; we ended up sending Maldo and Bubba Wolinsky – along with two players from every other Portland team: the hoops Fail Chasers, the soccerball Lumbers, and the eggball Patriots.

Now hold a rose, boys, and don’t look like outright bandits!

In the end, though, the pictures came out less than ideal. There were six hoops, soccerball, and eggball players smiling over their rose in the picture, and on the left side there was Maldo salivating as he looked at his rose….. and Wolinsky with thick munching cheeks as he had already nommed off the rose bud and was lusting for more.

Raccoons (68-55) vs. Titans (60-64) – August 25-27, 2048

While the mayor called Nick Valdes to complain, and I pretended to be furniture when Maud wanted to put Nick Valdes’ call through to me, the Titans came to town, which was a welcome distraction after another PR disaster. The Titans meanwhile were tenth in runs scored, sixth in runs allowed, and had a -36 run differential, but if they turned their fortunes against the Raccoons around pronto – we were up 9-3 on them for the year – they still had a slight chance, somehow, to win the division. Their biggest issue was their bullpen, which somehow had an ERA a full TWO runs worse than the resilient rotation…

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (10-8, 3.67 ERA) vs. Kyle Turay (11-9, 3.10 ERA)
Jake Jackson (6-11, 3.97 ERA) vs. Victor Mondragon (11-7, 2.75 ERA)
Jeremy Baker (8-5, 3.76 ERA) vs. Tony Ruiz (8-7, 3.03 ERA)

Two right-handers and a lefty to try and score off.

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

Portland took an early lead with two outs in the bottom 1st; both Maldo and Preble singled through the right side, while Matt Waters then cranked a homer to right-center for a quick 3-0 lead. Better yet, Waters romped another one, a 2-out, 2-run homer to right in the bottom 3rd that brought in Alex Adame, 5-0! Almost as good, Victor Merino shed only two hits in five innings, although he had also only one strikeout; but he kept the Titans off the scoreboard, which at the end of the day would – fun fact – be the only determinant for the distribution of wins and losses. Waters’ third time at-bat was not as successful, hitting to second base to get Preble forced out, but he then stole second base instead, and eventually scored on a 2-out single by Bryce Toohey.

Merino lost his shutout in the seventh, giving up leadoff hits to Chris Jimenez and Tony Lopez, and eventually allowed a run on a groundout, but he wouldn’t have made it through nine on accounts of an elevated pitch count anyway. He was hit for to begin the bottom 7th, Armando Herrera doubling in his place. He advanced on Watt’s groundout, and scored on Adame’s sac fly to Carlos Vega. The inning continued, with the Titans’ Tommy Griffith giving up two more runs on a Maldo single and a Preble homer, the 20th for Mike Preble on the year, and the seventh since being acquired from the Aces. Both Maldo and Preble were replaced after the inning, with Coen and Glodowski taking over. Pitching in turn was taken over by Bob Ibold and Jake Bonnie; neither was perfect in their innings, but they also didn’t allow any runs to the Titans to close out the power romp. 9-1 Raccoons. Maldonado 2-4; Preble 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Waters 2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Herrera (PH) 1-1, 2B; Wilson (PH) 1-1; Merino 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (11-8);

Game 2
BOS: 3B Massey – SS C. Jimenez – 1B Haertling – CF T. Lopez – C W. Gardner – 2B Galaz – RF L. Estrada – LF Mangual – P Mondragon
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – C Wilson – LF Watt – P Jackson

Preble hit a leadoff jack in the second for the only run in the early innings. While Watt and Adame reached base in the third, Herrera grounded out and Maldonado popped out to strand those runners. Jackson meanwhile issued no hits the first time through, but by the time Gerardo Galaz broke into the H column with a double in the fourth, he already issued four walks – including two in the inning to Ed Haertling and Tony Lopez, both of whom scored to flip the score to 2-1 Titans. Galaz was stranded, while the Coons opened the bottom 4th with Preble and Waters singles, only for Gurney to hit into a double play and Wilson to strike out.

Through five, the Coons out-hit the Titans 6-1, but still trailed 2-1. Tony Lopez hit a leadoff double to right in the sixth, and Wade Gardner chased Jackson with a 2-run homer well up the rightfield stands. Preble hit a leadoff double in the bottom 6th, but was stranded with a Waters groundout, Gurney whiffing, and Wilson’s groundout. The Titans then hung two more on Joy-shan Kuo in the seventh; Kuo had followed Jackson after the Gardner home run, but then walked the first two batters in the seventh, Chris Jimenez and Ed Haertling. Preston Porter came on, allowed two singles, and both runs to score, and that game was pretty much in the bin by then. Bottom 8th, the Titans’ Willie Morales got two outs, then snapped and walked the bags full with the 5-6-7 batters. Right-hander Bryan McDuffie came on, and the Coons rolled the dice and sent Toohey to bat for the soft-hitting Watt, betting on one big whack to get the team back into the game. Toohey popped out with the count at 1-2, and that was that. 6-1 Titans. Adame 3-5, 2B; Preble 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Waters 2-4;

Well, we kept out-hitting them. 9-7.

They ain’t giving out no wins for that, though!

Game 3
BOS: LF C. Vega – C W. Gardner – RF C. Jimenez – CF T. Lopez – 1B Haertling – 2B Galaz – 3B J. Rodriguez – SS T. Thompson – P T. Ruiz
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – LF Preble – 2B Waters – RF Glodowski – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – P Baker

Tony Ruiz entered on 90 each in walks and strikeouts, walked Maldo and Preble in the first, but then struck out Waters to keep those on. Baker also put runners on base without discriminating much; he allowed three hits and two walks in the first three innings, but no runs. Twice the Titans had a runner on third with one out, but each time Baker got in a K to the next batter, Jose Rodriguez in the second and Tony Lopez in the third.

Nobody scored until the fifth, when the Raccoons scratched Ruiz for 2-out singles by Herrera and Maldonado. Preble didn’t wait around and ripped away at the first pitch he got, hitting it 383 feet to left for a 3-run homer. That seemed to be all that Baker needed (and all that he got) while pitching seven shutout innings, but with his stamina being on the low end anyway, he would go no further after 98 mostly pretty fine pitches. Ruiz, allowing five hits through six, was still going in the bottom 7th, but appeared to melt. Adame singled but was caught stealing, yet Herrera singled, Maldo walked, and Preble hit an RBI single to center. Waters was walked intentionally, and while Ruiz had yet to retire anybody through a contribution by himself, the bags were now loaded with one gone. Matt Glodowski hit a sac fly to right for a tack-on run, but the badly slumping Toohey was rung up. Toohey did contribute on defense, ironically, making a leaping grab on a Tony Lopez liner in the top 8th and stepped on first base to double off Jimenez to end the inning, just when Bob Ibold tried to make it interesting by putting two aboard with one out. The Coons would put Gonzalez, Coen, and Adame on base with nobody out in the bottom 8th. Herrera hit a 2-run single off McDuffie, which was the only countable event in the inning before McDuffie staggered out of the jam. 7-0 Raccoons. Adame 3-5; Herrera 3-5, 2 RBI; Preble 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Gonzalez 1-2, 2 BB; Coen (PH) 1-1; Baker 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (9-5);

We made up a game on the Indians during this series, as they lost two of three to the Crusaders. They had the Knights to contend with on the weekend, now 3 1/2 back, while the Raccoons got the Condors in.

Raccoons (70-56) vs. Condors (60-66) – August 28-30, 2048

The Condors were 28 1/2 games out in the CL South, which meant they had been playing out the string for at least a month now, had lost seven games in a row now, and also had lost all six games against the Portlanders this year. They were ninth in runs scored, second in runs allowed, and after seeing (not much of) the worst pen in the league with the Titans, the Condors presented the best pen in the league to us, with a 2.95 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (11-5, 3.59 ERA) vs. Kellen Lanning (14-7, 3.06 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (4-2, 3.51 ERA) vs. Matt Weber (6-10, 4.26 ERA)
Victor Merino (11-8, 3.56 ERA) vs. Jason Jacobs (6-10, 4.26 ERA)

Only right-handers in the Condors’ rotation; and yes, the rookie Weber and Jacobs were not even coming in with the same record and ERA, but also the same amount of innings pitched, 129 apiece.

Game 1
TIJ: 2B C. Navarro – CF Blackburn – SS Aparicio – C Mittleider – RF Tortora – LF M. Gray – 3B Ottinger – 1B Austin – P Lanning
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Preble – 2B Waters – 1B Gurney – C Wilson – LF Watt – P Wheatley

Wheats unfortunately had absolutely nothing, which was atypical for the second half of the year. Chris Navarro’s double and singles by Brian Blackburn and Jon Mittleider amounted to one run in the first, and the top of the order roasted him further in the third, which began when a Maldo error put Navarro on base again. Blackburn singled, Tony Aparicio walked, and there were three on with nobody out. Mittleider hit a comebacker for a force out at home plate, but Cullen Tortora’s bloop single scored a run after that. Mike Gray kindly hit into a 4-6-3 double play to help Wheats out of the mess. While Wheatley threw 55 pitches through three innings and looked soul-searching in the dugout between innings, Lanning faced the minimum the first time through.

The middle innings were less awful for Wheatley, who allowed no more hits and just one walk before bumping into triple digit pitches at the completion of six. The Raccoons finally broke up Lanning’s no-hitter with a 1-out double by Matt Watt in the bottom 6th, after which Robinson batted for Wheats, but struck out. Adame clipped an RBI single to right, 2-1, but Herrera grounded out. Top 7th, Preston Porter allowed a leadoff single to Navarro, the CL’s stole base leader, who was then caught stealing by Jeff Wilson. Porter walked PH Ethan Moore in the #2 hole, with Moore thrown out at home plate by Watt on Tony Aparicio’s double to left. Somehow, Porter got out of the inning without allowing a run on a Mittleider popout. Maldo drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 7th, but was doubled off by Preble. Waters whacked a double, but Gurney grounded out. (groans!) The Coons went 1-2-3, then used Nelson Moreno – who had been idle for the entire Boston series – in a 2-1 loss in the top 9th to keep the Condors close. Right-hander Javy Santana was on the mound for the bottom 9th, trying to put away the Critters, who were stuck on three base hits. The top of the order was up, with Adame hitting a single to left to put the tying run – and 35 stolen bags to Navarro’s 44 – on base. He didn’t get a steal off, but took second on a long Herrera fly to left, which apparently surprised Mike Gray. Maldo grounded out to move Adame to third, and Preble grounded out to lose the ballgame. 2-1 Condors. Adame 2-4, RBI;

Game 2
TIJ: 2B C. Navarro – RF Tortora – SS Aparicio – C Mittleider – CF Blackburn – LF M. Gray – 3B Ottinger – 1B Austin – P Weber
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 3B Maldonado – RF Preble – SS Waters – 2B Gurney – 1B Toohey – C Gonzalez – P Wolinsky

Preble whacked his third longball of the week, a 2-piece that picked up Matt Watt in the bottom of the first on Saturday. And maybe we could even get the kids on the struggle bus – Toohey and Gonzalez – unclogged. For a nice start, the two combined for a single and another 2-run homer in the bottom 2nd, putting Bubba ahead 4-0. An Aparicio double and a Blackburn single would get the Condors on the board with a run in the top 4th, but the Coons counterattacked with a Waters double and Toohey’s RBI single in the same inning, 5-1.

Weber was hit for in the fifth inning, in which Ethan Moore walked in his spot, Navarro singled and was forced out by a Tortora grounder, and with two outs and runners on the corners Aparicio bashed a high fly to left that sounded like a homer, but it died just short of reaching the great black void and then dropped into Watt’s mitten on the warning track, ending the inning. Runners – Blackburn and Gray – were on the corners again in the sixth, and now Reed Ottinger hit a drive to deep center. Herrera caught that one, but it was good enough for a sac fly, 5-2. Wolinsky walked Tom Austin, then rung up the tying run, PH Benito Mendoza.

Bubba went six and two thirds before being lifted for Ibold after 105 pitches, with Ibold and Ben Coen entering in a double switch; Coen went to *second*, with Gurney going to first, and Toohey going to dinner. While Ibold would get four outs, Armando Herrera hit a 2-piece in the bottom 7th to create some additional distance. The Coons then put three on with nobody out in the bottom 8th against Ramon Montes de Oca, a right-handed rookie,

and Chris Robinson batted for Ibold in that spot, hitting a deep drive to center that somehow ended up with Blackburn, holding Robinson to a sac fly. Leonardo Ramos replaced Montes, but gave up an RBI single to Gonzalez before getting out of the mess. Hitchcock pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to put the game to bed. 9-2 Critters. Toohey 2-3, RBI; Gonzalez 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Game 3
TIJ: 2B C. Navarro – RF Tortora – SS Aparicio – CF Blackburn – LF M. Gray – 3B Ottinger – C Robbinson – 1B Austin – P Jacobs
POR: SS Adame – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – LF Preble – RF Robinson – 1B Toohey – C Wilson – 3B Coen – P Merino

Ryan Robbinson dropped the baseball when Adame and Herrera, who had both singled, went off on a double steal in the bottom 1st, so both runners reached scoring position unmolested. Waters struck out, but a Preble single and Chris Robinson sac fly brought in both of the runners for a 2-0 lead. Reed Ottinger stole second after drawing a walk in the top 2nd and was singled home by Robbinson, so this was going both ways. – I know, Slappy, I know. That guy should be drawing walks, if anything…!

Waters hit a solo blast in the third, and Robinson singled home Herrera in the fifth, extending the lead to 4-1 through five innings, while Merino was nursing a 2-hitter, albeit with three walks against him and up to 84 pitches already, so he, too, would not last the distance. He issued another leadoff walk in the sixth to Tortora, but turned Aparicio’s comebacker for a double play afterwards. Blackburn struck out to complete six. Wilson opened the bottom 6th with a single to left, but was forced out by Ben Coen. Merino bunted Coen to second, and Adame singled him all the way home, 5-1. Herrera walked, but Waters popped out to short to end the inning. Merino would complete seven, and Porter allowed two singles in the eighth before getting dug out by Kuo. Bonnie got the ninth, walked the leadoff man Blackburn, then struck out the next three to take the series. 5-1 Raccoons. Adame 2-4, RBI; Herrera 2-3, BB; Preble 2-4, RBI; Wilson 2-4; Coen 1-2, BB; Merino 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, W (12-8);

In other news

August 24 – With a single against the Scorpions in a 6-4 Gold Sox loss, DEN INF Ronnie Thompson (.286, 0 HR, 32 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going.
August 24 – The Knights lose 3B/SS/LF/CF Anton Venegas (.349, 3 HR, 49 RBI) for the rest of the season due to a strained oblique. Ironically, this might win him the batting title race, which he is leading by 17 points at this stage, with a sufficient amount of plate appearances to his name already.
August 26 – The Capitals have only three hits against the Buffaloes, but one of them is a homer by 1B Sterling Henderson (.289, 9 HR, 70 RBI), and that is enough to win a 1-0 ballgame.
August 27 – DEN SP Josh Brown (12-9, 4.43 ERA) needs to have bone chips scratched out of his elbow, ending his season.
August 28 – Crusaders and Aces go to extra innings in a scoreless game before NYC LF/CF Kevin Burch (.295, 4 HR, 20 RBI) lifts a home run to decide the game, 1-0 in favor of the Crusaders.
August 28 – Could be season over for VAN C Julio Diaz (.266, 11 HR, 54 RBI) as well; the 26-year-old was out with a strained hamstring.
August 29 – The Bayhawks have one of the weirder meltdowns in a 2-1 walkoff loss to the Canadiens. SFB CL Jeremy Mayhall (4-5, 3.06 ERA, 9 SV) first has a runner put on base by an error by Sergio Quiroz, then with two outs walks the Elks’ Nick DeMarco (.281, 6 HR, 51 RBI) and ends the game by hitting consecutive batters, Ismael Jaramillo (.289, 2 HR, 26 RBI) and Jesus Burgos (.268, 7 HR, 33 RBI).
August 29 – Three teams score precisely 14 runs on Saturday, with the Falcons beating the Titans 14-8, the Blue Sox routing the Stars 14-1, and the Rebels downing the Warriors, also by the score of 14-8.
August 30 – SAC LF/RF/1B Nate Culp (.284, 20 HR, 55 RBI) will need two weeks of rest for a herniated disc in his back.

FL Player of the Week: RIC OF/1B Gil Cabrera (.327, 5 HR, 62 RBI), batting .478 (11-23) with 1 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR LF/RF Mike Preble (.323, 23 HR, 70 RBI), going off for .478 (11-23) with 4 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

With four homers this week, a Player of the Week title came Mike Preble’s way. Preble is now hitting .350 with 10 homers in 120 at-bats with the Critters. OPS of 1.043! He’s the only acquisition that has another year on his contract, too, so that is one motivation to try and keep the dynasty going one more year although there are visible cracks in Maldo and Toohey now and the pitching needs some revamps, never mind that the Baybirds look three sizes too big right now.

Indy had two wins and a rainout against the Knights, with no date available to make that game up until *after* the nominal final day of the season. Speaking of the Indians, the BNN postseason predictions weren’t out yet, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to look at the remaining program for those two teams:

POR (72-57) – IND (7), NYC (7), VAN (4), BOS (3), LVA (3), MIL (3), OCT (3), SFB (3)
IND (69-60) – MIL (7), POR (7), BOS (3), CHA (3), NYC (3), OCT (3), SFB (3), VAN (3), ATL (1)

Seven left with the Loggers might be a little advantage for the Arrowheads. Nobody else within ten games right now, so it might be a two-horse race after all.

Derek Baskins came off the DL on the weekend, but was sent on a rehab assignment to AAA first, a cheap cheat to have an additional eligible player come the time for playoff roster considerations. Baskins would be back on Tuesday, when rosters would expand.

We will visit the Aces and Crusaders next week.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have still never gone 9-0 against a CL South team for an entire season.

The complete and exhaustive list of CL South teams the Raccoons went 8-1 against:

1986 Bayhawks
1989 Thunder
1991 Thunder ^
1995 Knights
1996 Knights
2007 Aces
2007 Knights
2016 Falcons
2018 Bayhawks ^
2019 Knights ^
2024 Bayhawks *
2026 Aces ^
2026 Falcons
2027 Thunder
2037 Thunder
2039 Bayhawks *^
2040 Bayhawks
2048 Condors

*Raccoons posted a losing season
^CL South team posted a winning season