[Westheim]

Raccoons (8-17) @ Crusaders (14-10) – May 2-5, 2050

How about four in New York with Matt Waters having a bad oblique and everybody being obliquely bad? The Crusaders were three behind the damn Elks for the top spot in the North. They couldn’t bloody score, making precisely 3.5 runs per game for themselves, but still had a +5 run differential (Critters: -35) thanks to not giving up any runs either. The Raccoons had still won 11 games from New York in last year’s season series, but at this point I was not quite sure we’d win 11 games for the whole season…

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (1-3, 5.76 ERA) vs. Carlos Malla (2-1, 3.24 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (1-1, 4.35 ERA) vs. TBD
Victor Salcido (2-2, 5.20 ERA) vs. Jeff Johnson (4-0, 1.59 ERA)
Elijah Powell (2-3, 5.02 ERA) vs. Edwin Sopena (3-1, 2.58 ERA)

We’d face a southpaw in Malla, a smoldering crater where Adam Messer (1-0, 1.33 ERA) had been before being felled by a hamstring, and then two righties. By the way, Bubba is our only starting pitcher with a sub-5 ERA.

Game 1
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – RF Glodowski – LF Puckeridge – 2B Honig – P Wheatley
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – SS Russ – LF D. Rivera – C O. Ramirez – 3B Gates – 1B Haertling – RF Arens – 2B Bent – P Malla

Lonzo opened the week with a double to left, and before long, the Raccoons had three runs on the board, although the Crusaders’ Omar Sanchez and Andrew Russ (grrr!) assisted with a pair of throwing errors in that effort. Armando Herrera got an RBI, though, singling home Lonzo, and Luna singled in Maldo for the third and final run of the inning. Not that a 3-0 lead helped Wheatley much; he still managed to run into a string of four straight hits against the ******* 7-8-9-1 batters in the bottom 2nd, all damage with two outs. Ron Arens doubled, Art Bent, Carlos Malla, and Omar Sanchez all singled, and Malla had to be slapped out in a rundown to end the goddamn inning at all, but by then two runs were already across. By the third inning, a Danny Rivera single and an Omar Ramirez homer put the New Yorkers in front, 4-3, and Wheats had an ERA over ******* six.

The Raccoons continued the game in their usual dunderheaded ways. Lonzo and Herrera were on base in the fifth, but Gonzalez chopped into an inning-ending double play. Glodowski somehow happened to find first base in the sixth, then was picked off there by Malla. An infield single by Ed Haertling and a Bent double added a Crusaders run in the bottom 6th, and after that Wheatley spent the last innings of the game standing in the dugout, staring across the field into the great black darkness, obviously not knowing what the **** was wrong with him either. Omar Ramirez meanwhile sealed the deal with a 2-run homer off Lillis in the bottom 7th. Yes, the Raccoons did bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning, but when had that ever led to something nice? Pinch-hitters Matt Waters walked and Evan Van Hoy was nicked, Lonzo hit into a fielder’s choice, and with two outs and runners on the corners, Herrera singled home a run off Melvin Lucero, bringing up Maldo as the tying run. He popped out to Haertling. 7-4 Crusaders. Lavorano 3-5, 2B; Herrera 3-4, 2 RBI;

Maybe a .355 BABIP is part of it. In fact, all our starters have a BABIP of .320+ against them. Bubba would enter the Tuesday game at .343;

Game 2
POR: CF Watt – SS Lavorano – 3B Luna – 1B Maldonado – RF Puckeridge – C Jimenez – LF Van Hoy – 2B Honig – P Wolinsky
NYC: 2B Russ – SS O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – RF D. Rivera – LF Bent – CF Ceballos – 1B Haertling – C O. Ramirez – P J. Johnson

Johnson went on short rest, and fell behind 1-0 on a Maldonado homer, making Maldo the first Critter to three homers in 2050, and as early as May…! Wolinsky got rid of the lead pronto rapido, giving up leadoff singles in each of the first three innings. Art Bent hit one in the second, stole his way to second base, then scored on two productive groundouts. Johnson (…) opened the third with a single, Russ doubled to left, and it all came crashing down pretty quickly from there, with an Omar Sanchez gapper and another Bent single to boot, and 3-runs in total.

Watt got on, advanced on two outs, and scored on a wild pitch in the sixth, which already described how active the Coons offense was; through six innings, we had three hits, and were down 5-2 once the Crusaders turned a leadoff walk to Danny Rivera, the old Indian, and two singles into a run off Bubba in the bottom 6th. Russ singled, stole second, and came home on a Sanchez single against Bob Ibold in the seventh. Willie Cruz pitched in the eighth, since there would not be any ninth innings to pitch in during this road week, and got romped for three hits and two more runs. 8-2 Crusaders. Jimenez 2-4;

Matt Waters pinch-hit in both of these games to maintain his perfect attendance record, then demanded to go into the lineup, oblique be damned, on Wednesday.

Game 3
POR: LF Watt – SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – 1B Maldonado – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – RF Puckeridge – P Salcido
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – SS Russ – LF D. Rivera – C O. Ramirez – 3B Gates – 1B Haertling – RF Ceballos – 2B Haney – P Sopena

On the bright paw, Victor Salcido struck out three Crusaders in the first inning, but those three hitters were Haertling, Mark Haney, and the short-rested Sopena, after he had allowed two hits, FOUR walks, and three runs already. Matt Waters hit a first-pitch double to lead off the top 2nd and scored on productive outs by Maldo and Gonzalez to shorten the gap to 3-1, and the Coons got Puckeridge and Salcido on base to begin the third inning, but then Watt popped out and Lonzo hit into a double play. Salcido continued to pitch almost exclusively behind in the count to every batter he faced, until he started to shake out his shoulder in the fourth inning, and never found a state of comfort with that. Dr. Padilla collected him, and the Raccoons got to pitch the last 4.1 innings of Wednesday’s loss with the bullpen.

Ibold collected four outs, then was hit for with Lamotta to begin the top 6th. Lamotta singled, stole second, and came in after a Watt grounder and a Lonzo sac fly to shorten the score to 3-2. Danny Landeta dutifully collected five outs without accident while I was only waiting for a chance to release him, after which Julian Ponce entered the bottom 7th with the bags clear and two outs, and sucked the bags full before getting the third out on an Angel Lara grounder after allowing a single and two walks. And then the Coons DID tie the game…! Sopena was still pitching in the eighth, but allowed a leadoff single to Eddy Luna, who stole second, and then came around on a Puckeridge single to left-center. A Lamotta double moved the go-ahead run to third base, and Matt Watt gave the Coons the lead – with a 3-run homer to right-center! With new pitcher Taylor Stabile in, Lonzo singled, stole two bases, and scored on a Maldo sac fly for an extra run, which was given back by Ponce and Porter with three walks and a passed ball on Gonzalez in the bottom 8th… Sanchez eventually popped out to Puckeridge as the tying run, and Porter retired the Crusaders without drama in the bottom 9th, which was perhaps the most surprising bit here. 7-4 Raccoons. Puckeridge 2-4, RBI; Lamotta (PH) 2-3, 2B;

Salcido and his third-best-on-team 5.46 ERA hit the DL by Thursday, after being diagnosed with a mild shoulder strain that would cost him a couple of starts. The Coons’ AAA rotation posted numbers just as ghastly as the big league boys, but we’d probably pick up 25-year-old southpaw Danny Hall (no relation to Daniel Hall; they’re not even the same skin color, the pitcher Hall being black), a 2045 third-rounder that had posted a 5.16 ERA last year in AAA, but was at 3.07 this year in five starts. He had three nice pitches, terrible control, and little stamina, which was a gruesome combo. Hall had pitched on Monday, and we’d likely bring him up for a spot start on regular rest on the weekend, then return him to AAA right away since next Thursday was a day off for the Coons. Saturday sounded like the timing would be perfect for his debut that nobody whatsoever had been looking forward to.

I asked Maud on the phone whether Danny stood for Daniel, and she said no. Apparently it’s for Dantevious.

Kids’ names these days.

For the time being, Salcido went to the DL, and the Coons brought up an extra garbage reliever in offseason pickup Eloy Sencion. The lefty was whiffing 10.1/9 and walking next to nobody in AAA, across 10.2 innings. Sencion had been part of the Willie Cruz deal with the Gold Sox and would make his debut.

Game 4
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – SS Luna – C Gonzalez – RF Puckeridge – 3B Lamotta – P Powell
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – SS Russ – LF D. Rivera – C O. Ramirez – 3B Gates – RF Garris – 1B Haertling – 2B Haney – P Messer

Powell right away got stuffed four hits and three runs by the Omars, Gateses, and Garrises on the Crusaders, so that game was in the bin right in the first inning. Top 2nd, the Coons stirred with two outs, as Messer walked Ruben Gonzalez in a full count, then gave up an RBI double to Puckeridge. Ricky Lamotta singled home the rookie to shorten the score to 3-2 before the inning ended with Powell grounding out to short, but in the third inning Maldo doubled and Waters homered, both to center, making for a 4-3 lead. But apparently Waters had hurt himself on that power swing; he still played D in the bottom 3rd, but then left the game in favor of Shane Honig.

And while Powell held up at least for a little while, Maldo hit a soft single to begin the sixth and Honig then walked in the cleanup spot. Luna flew out shoddily, Gonzalez whiffed, but with two outs, Puckeridge peppered a ball into the gap between Sanchez and Garris for a 2-run double…! Up 6-3 then, Powell pitched through seven innings, allowing but a single base hit (but three walks) in the six frames after that dismal opening inning. He faced Russ, the awful rat, to begin the bottom 8th, but gave up a single. Lillis then entered, with four of the next five batters being left-handers. He walked Ramirez, was taken deep with two outs by Josh Garris, and we were tied. The Coons didn’t get past a Lamotta single in the top 9th, but Eloy Sencion made his debut in 1-2-3 style to bring about extras.

Herrera was on, and caught stealing, in the top 10th, but Preston Porter had a quick bottom 10th to extend the game. Porter’s spot then came up in the 11th after Jeff Frank had walked Luna and Puckeridge, and Lamotta had hit a shy single to right. Three on, one out, Juan Jimenez pinch-hit… straight into a double play. Hitchcock then held the Critters in the game, and Watt slapped a leadoff single against Frank in the 12th. He was moving on the 1-0 to Herrera, which old Armando bowled into the depths of centerfield for an RBI triple, thus breaking the 6-6 tie. Maldo was walked with intent, and we had no middle infielder left over to bat for the useless Shane Honig. He popped out foul, but with two outs Eddy Luna shoved another triple into the rightfield corner, and that broke up the score, 9-6, and brought in a new pitcher in Neal Hamann, who got out of the inning. Willie Cruz retired the Crusaders in order to earn a split in the series. 9-6 Raccoons. Herrera 2-6, 3B, RBI; Maldonado 2-5, BB, 2B; Waters 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Puckeridge 3-5, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Lamotta 3-5, BB, RBI;

Second series not lost this year…! Yay…!

Raccoons (10-19) @ Miners (13-15) – May 6-8, 2050

The Miners were getting pounded for the second-most runs in the FL (Coons: most in CL), which didn’t really make their fourth-most runs scored stand up in any way. They were first in stolen bases, second in OBP, but lacked power to make it really big, and actually sat in last place in a tight FL East as the Raccoons entered town. These teams had not played in FIVE years. The Raccoons had won two of three in the last meeting in 2044.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (0-5, 5.65 ERA) vs. Bobby Freels (2-3, 4.19 ERA)
Danny Hall (0-0) vs. Jerry Cruz (2-3, 3.55 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (1-4, 6.06 ERA) vs. Brian Jackson (3-2, 2.87 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday! Jackson was also their only southpaw on staff.

While the Miners had Joe Feltman, Tony Aparicio, Matt Cox, and Mario Briones all stowed away on the DL, the Coons now also had to deal with Matt Waters, now laboring on a back strain. He kept being labeled day-to-day, but I had a hunch his perfect attendance record would end sooner rather than later.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 3B Luna – RF Puckeridge – C Jimenez – 2B Honig – P Merino
PIT: 2B A. Vasquez – CF J. Ward – SS Soberanes – 3B Corrales – C Santa Cruz – LF Abecassis – RF Waltz – 1B Guillory – P Freels

Eddy Luna killed three singles in the top 1st with a 6-4-3 double play, and no Coons scored, and in the second inning Puckeridge singled and Jimenez doubled, but no Coons scored because Puckeridge was caught stealing before Jimenez took Bobby Freels to the grass in deep left. The Portlanders then had no hits in the next two innings, while Merino allowed one hit per inning from the start of the game, which worked out well enough until Alex Abecassis took him deep on the Miners’ sole knock in the bottom 4th, thus establishing a 1-0 Miners lead. The Miners had another single in the fifth, while the Coons had no hits, but two on in the top 6th after Lonzo walked and stole his 12th base, and Maldo was brushed by a pitch. Then Luna found another inning-slaying double play to hit into – except that Ed Soberanes missed second base and Maldo was never called out! Two in scoring position with two outs then, and Puckeridge… grounded out to Alex Vasquez anyway.

Soberanes had the Miners’ hit in the sixth, a leadoff double, before being caught stealing third base. Briefly-a-Coon Justin Waltz hit a leadoff single in the seventh, but was doubled off by Landon Guillory’s grounder to Lonzo. Jayden Ward doubled in the eighth and was stranded by Landeta eventually, so the Raccoons entered the ninth still down by only that skinny run. Southpaw Bernardino Risso would see to them. Lamotta and Jimenez struck out before Waters batted for the useless Honig, fell to 1-2, then got nailed to add to all his other pains, leaving him to drag himself to first base with a single tear running down the fuzzy cheek. Yup, there was ONE guy giving it all he had, and then another 10%. Ruben Gonzalez batted for Landeta, got ahead 2-1, then belted a bomb to left, and put the Coons ahead 2-1…!! He also had to carry Waters partway round the bases. There was no Miners hit in the bottom 9th – Willie Cruz struck out three instead. 2-1 Blighters. Maldonado 2-3; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Merino 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

First Merino start not lost this year, although the W went to Landeta, his first decision as a Critter.

THREE-GAME WINNING STREAK!! I want to cover myself in Honig and run around downtown Pittsburgh naked!!

The locals might object, though, and thus we will exchange infielder Shane Honig (.111, 0 HR, 1 RBI) with John Castner, who was hitting .293 in AAA. Also optioned was Brett Lillis jr. (0-0, 6.39 ERA) to get up spot starter Danny Hall.

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – RF Puckeridge – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – 1B Van Hoy – 2B Castner – P Hall
PIT: CF J. Ward – RF de Luna – SS Soberanes – 3B Corrales – C Santa Cruz – LF Abecassis – 2B Stalker – 1B Guillory – P J. Cruz

Jayden Ward singled to christen Danny Hall’s career, but Hall struck out two to get out of the inning, whiffing up both Soberanes and Victor Corrales. He then got a lead when Evan Van Hoy singled home Luna in the top 2nd. The thing was, though, that Luna had only reached second base on his single on the throw to home plate with which Rich de Luna threw out Ruben Gonzalez, who had doubled, at the plate. Scoring remained low in the first half of the game; Hall did far better than expected, scattering three hits and a walk against five strikeouts for no runs in the first four innings. The Coons got Van Hoy on in the fifth, and then John Castner unpacked a 2-run homer to left that cast silence over a stunned ballpark… and Castner’s GM as well, before I started to giggle like a maniac. It was the first career home run for a guy that had collected all of 213 at-bats since making his ABL debut *five* years ago!

The inning was not over yet. With two outs, the Raccoons would get Lonzo and Herrera on base, and Puckeridge buried a ball in the left-center gap for another two runs, 5-0. Gonzalez flew out to deep left, bringing back the debutee Dantevious Hall. Jayden Ward hit a 2-out single off him in the bottom 5th, but de Luna flew out to Herrera so he now would qualify for a potential W. Hall added a scoreless sixth and a single in the top 7th to his exploits, but was forced out by Matt Watt then. He was lifted after Abecassis opened the bottom 7th on a single, with only righty hitters waiting after that and Hall on 99 pitches. Bob Ibold replaced him, and together the battery took it upon themselves to ruin Hall’s line with a wild pitch and a throwing error, allowing Abecassis to score, although the run was unearned. Castner singled home Luna to grab the run back in the eighth inning, while Hitchcock, Sencion, and Porter split the last two innings between them to extend the winning streak to four. 6-1 Raccoons. Van Hoy 2-4, RBI; Castner 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Hall 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

Neither Waters nor Maldo appeared in this game, so Lonzo was the last Coon to participate in all games this year. And Hall, as well as he pitched, didn’t hang around. Five days from now, the Coons would be off, and he was returned to hone his craft in AAA, but had surely risen a bit on the depth chart.

Replacing Hall would be OF Mikio Suzuki, who had played in a few rehab games in AAA. Suzuki had batted 3-for-7 before getting hurt in the first week of the season. The Coons thus went with 11 pitchers for the time being.

Game 3
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – C Gonzalez – 3B Lamotta – LF Puckeridge – RF Glodowski – 2B Castner – P Wheatley
PIT: 2B A. Vasquez – C Petroni – 3B Corrales – 1B Abecassis – CF J. Ward – SS Guillory – RF Waltz – LF Abercrombie – P B. Jackson

Lamotta singled home Herrera and Maldo in the first to give Wheats the early lead, which had not worked well at all in New York on Monday, but he gave up only two hits the first time through in this game. Corrales ticked a single in the first, and Jackson hit a single in the third, and yes, that was the pitcher, but it was also one of those annoying duck snorts that dropped between three converging defenders… Alex Vasquez hit another single to right then, but Giampaolo Petroni found a double play, 1-6-3, to hit into to kill the inning.

The Coons then tripled their lead in the fourth, despite Puckeridge being caught stealing before the 2-out train got rolling. Glodowski walked in a full count, then was tripled home by Castner, or whichever All Star pretended to be John Castner. Wheats snuck a single through the left side for his first RBI of the year, Lonzo singled to center, and Herrera was up 3-0 when he raked a double into left-center, driving in both runners. Maldo grounded out to keep it 6-0, but Castner singled home Lamotta with two outs in the fifth to tack on another run and give everybody more shrugs. Wheats gave up a run on a Guillory double, Josh Abercrombie single, and a sac fly in the bottom 5th, but we had seen worse.

Lamotta scored again in the seventh, doubling and coming around on a Puckeridge single off righty Rodger Arrendell. Glodowski, RBI-less in ’50, then ended the inning with a double play grounder to short. Guillory opened the bottom of the frame with a soft single off Wheats, but Waltz followed with a 4-6-3 double play immediately. Wheats still batted for himself in the eighth inning, which was a good sign, and had a 1-2-3 bottom of that inning, and was still on a good pace for a complete game (but obviously not a shutout). A wild pitch by Jose Colon plated Herrera for an extra run in the ninth, while Wheats was up against the 3-4-5 batters, none of them righty-handers. He rung up Corrales. He rung up Abecassis. And Jayden Ward’s grounder was easily handled by Evan Van Hoy at first base. 9-1 Critters! Herrera 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Lamotta 4-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Puckeridge 2-5, RBI; Glodowski 1-2, 2 BB; Castner 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Wheatley 9.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-4) and 1-3, RBI;

Wheeeeeeats!!

In other news

May 2 – There is four runs in total between the Falcons and Thunder through 14 innings before the Falcons break out for four more in the 15th inning, eventually winning a 6-2 game.
May 6 – CHA SP Ray Thune (1-2, 3.59 ERA) gets his first W of the year in style with a 3-hit shutout over the Wolves. The Falcons win 5-0.
May 6 – IND OF/1B Bill Quinteros (.264, 4 HR, 18 RBI) is going to miss two weeks with an intercostal strain.
May 8 – Indians INF Alex de Castro (.306, 0 HR, 11 RBI) has five hits, four singles and a double, in a 3-2 loss to the Buffaloes.
May 8 – The Wolves have two hits and make four errors in a particularly dismal 5-1 loss to the Falcons.

FL Player of the Week: DAL RF/LF/1B Dario Martinez (.345, 3 HR, 21 RBI), batting .444 (12-27) with 2 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL OF/1B Jon Alade (.313, 4 HR, 22 RBI), swatting .500 (11-22) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

So, who expected this team to have a 5-game winning streak? Yeah.

During the streak we scored 6.6 runs per game and allowed 2.6 runs a game. In the 27 games before that, we scored 3.6 runs per game, and served up 5.2 markers per time they put on pants. I don’t see it lasting.

Alan Puckeridge let it be known he wants his nickname be “Pucker”. (looks at Puckeridge over the top edge of the note he’s handed in) Are you sure of that? Because I drink a lot, and then certain letters all sound the same…

Puckeridge – … sorry, “Pucker”… (doesn’t like it, visibly) … is one of the few bright spots on the team. Lonzo is doing alright, but I wish he’d walk a bit more. And as a whole, I wish they’d make a few more plays defensively… Holding the Miners to three runs on the weekend did quite a bit to improve our defensive ranking (it was *that* bad), but we still are worst in runs allowed in the CL, and third-worst overall.

Next, a quick trip home to see the Pacifics, then another 2-week road trip starting in Boston.

Fun Fact: The damn Elks have allowed only 92 runs in 30 games.

We shouldn’t have taken those precious wins from the Crusaders….