[Westheim]

Raccoons (16-22) @ Loggers (14-22) – May 16-19, 2050

First games with Milwaukee this year; they had lost four straight to find last place once more, but were outscoring the Raccoons with the sixth-most markers put on the board in the CL. Unfortunately, just about everybody outscored *them*, with a CL-high 5.1 runs per game against them. Their rotation had an ERA over five, and the pen wasn’t that far behind. The Coons had won the season series from the Loggers for six straight years – 13 wins last year – but things looked a lot tighter this year. And sadder, too.

Projected matchups:
Victor Merino (1-5, 3.95 ERA) vs. John Morrill (3-3, 6.33 ERA)
Danny Hall (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alex Flores (0-0, 2.57 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-4, 4.70 ERA) vs. Bubba Poss (2-3, 6.17 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (1-3, 4.14 ERA) vs. Victor Padilla (3-3, 3.95 ERA)

The Victors didn’t line up, the Bubbas didn’t line up, nothing lined up here! Except Danny Hall for another spot start, probably the last one for now before Victor Salcido would return. The Loggers would sent a pair of right-handers against us, then a pair of left-handers.

Lonzo got a day off on Monday, and Waters was scheduled for Tuesday. Everybody else rotated pretty much anyway, sometimes just to get them outta sight.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – C Gonzalez – SS Luna – 3B Lamotta – P Merino
MIL: LF J. Delgado – CF B. Allen – SS Z. Suggs – 2B R. Lopez – 1B Tinoco – RF McIntyre – 3B N. Jackson – C Nagel – P Morrill

Merino had lost his first five starts of the year, but the last two had been neat. He got spotted a lead in the second inning, which Matt Waters opened with a screaming triple. Puckeridge singled him in, and a walk to Eddy Luna and a Ricky Lamotta single against his old team loaded the bases. Merino grounded out, but brought in the second and final run of the inning, with Matt Watt whiffing after him. Ricky Lopez hit a leadoff double in the bottom 2nd, but was stranded with poor outs. The Coons then continued to crowd Morrill, who had Herrera on to begin the third, nicked Maldo, and then gave up an RBI double to Waters, who was busily clicking off parts of the cycle. Maldo and Waters were in scoring position, where they would be left with two strikeouts, a walk to Luna, and then Lamotta’s fly over to Will McIntyre…

Waters whiffed his next time up to begin the fifth, but Alan Puckeridge then powered a homer to right, the first of his career, to extend the lead to 4-0! The Loggers made up half of that on Merino in the bottom 5th, though. Nick Jackson singled, stole second, and was doubled home by Jose Delgado. Brent Allen’s 2-out single up the middle made it 4-2, and he also stole second, but was left on when Zach Suggs flew out to Watt in shallow left. Merino nicked Lopez when the sixth rolled around, but Adrian Tinoco found a double play to hit into. A walk to Nick Jackson and a David Nagel single, both in full counts, then put the tying runs on and knocked out Merino without an out logged in the bottom 7th. Bob Ibold replaced him, surrendered a run against two pinch-hitters, but retired three in a row to get the Coons to the eighth with a 4-3 lead. There, Luna and Suzuki went to the corners with singles. Lonzo batted for Watt and grounded to short, but legged out the return throw from Lopez to break up the double play and get Luna home, 5-3. Porter held the fort in the bottom of the inning, and Willie Cruz retired Jackson, Nagel, and John Wieczorek in order to put the game away for his 12th save. 5-3 Raccoons. Watt 2-3, BB; Waters 3-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Puckeridge 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Luna 1-2, 2 BB; Suzuki (PH) 1-1;

Pinch-hitting maintained Lonzo’s record of appearing in all games this year.

It was roster move time then; the Raccoons had to get Danny Hall on the roster, and did so by dumping Matt Glodowski (.205, 0 HR, 0 RBI).

Game 2
POR: LF Watt – SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – RF Puckeridge – C Jimenez – 3B Luna – 2B Castner – P Hall
MIL: 3B N. Jackson – LF C. Lowe – SS Z. Suggs – 2B R. Lopez – 1B Tinoco – RF McIntyre – CF Wieczorek – C Nagel – P A. Flores

There was an hourlong rain delay right after the first inning, so, y’know, *great*… and then the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the third when Nagel threw the ball away on a double steal attempt by Watt and Lonzo with two outs, allowing Watt to score. Alex Flores opened the bottom 3rd with a single after Herrera left Lonzo on third, was forced out by Nick Jackson, but a Chris Lowe double brought in the third-sacker and tied the score at one. Hall wasn’t as sharp as in his debut, struck out nobody the first time through, and only got Wieczorek with a K to end the fourth inning. But, well, he still had the rain to blame for messing him up, so there was that.

The rain returned in the sixth, which sugged, with Watt advancing bases on another throwing error, this time by Suggs, who sent a souvenir into the stands along the first base line to put Watt on second base with one out as the tie-breaking run. Lonzo singled to put runners on the corners, but Herrera grounded to Jackson – who bungled the ball and everybody was safe on the Loggers’ third error of the game, while Watt scored. In fact, the Loggers had made more errors than the Raccoons had found base hits at that point. Maldo whiffed, but Puckeridge had found that the feeling of whacking one deep was much to his liking and crashed a 3-run homer to right to really make those errors count, now in a 5-1 game – although all the runs were unearned as far as a soggy-looking Flores was concerned.

Minutes after the Puckeridge bomb a second hourlong rain delay broke out, ending the pitchers’ days. In a double switch (Lamotta in for Luna at third), Danny Landeta replaced him, got four outs, but put Nagel on in the bottom 7th before being lifted for Sencion, who had his first useless outing, facing two lefties in the 1-2 spots, and retiring neither, instead waving in two runs on a Jackson single and a Lowe double. Hitchcock was next, gave up an RBI double to Suggs, which sugged, but then retired Lopez and Tinoco to bugger out of the damn inning with a skinny 5-4 lead.

Top 8th, Lonzo was a terror on the Loggers, legging out a grounder off Nick Johns for an infield single, then stole his way to third base. Herrera walked, Maldo hit an RBI single, 6-4, and Puckeridge flew out to Wieczorek, but deep enough for Herrera to come home even without the ghastly throw to the backstop that Wieczorek unleased, which allowed Maldo into second base on the Loggers’ fourth error of the game. Jimenez walked, and Castner singled home a run with two outs. So, up 8-4, and two rain delays in, could we safely nurse that W across the line? (laughs)

Ibold got the ball for the eighth, but put two on, Nagel and Jack Barrington. Ponce was the next lefty to face that 1-2 pair and without retiring either one, although I tended to glare at Lonzo for dropping Jackson’s 2-out pop to fill the bags. Lowe then emptied them with a 2-2 triple over the head of Puckeridge, shaving that 8-4 lead all the way down to one ****** run again. Suggs grounded out to Lonzo, which sure sugged for the Loggers. Angelo Munoz gave up a run on a Herrera double and Maldo single in the ninth, and also walked Puckeridge, but the inning ended with a K by the pinch-hitting Mikio Suzuki. Willie Cruz was then back for the ninth, up by two. Lopez whiffed, Tinoco flew out to right, but McIntyre singled to left. Watt got to Wieczorek’s fly to left, though, ending the game. 9-7 Raccoons. Lavorano 3-5; Maldonado 2-5, 2 RBI; Puckeridge 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 4 RBI; Hall 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (2-0);

Salcido would be back in a few days and thus we no longer needed Hall and his 0.82 ERA for the moment (although he had surely been noted for good behavior). The next few days we added an extra reliever, though, adding Polibio O’Higgins for the first time this year. He had a 3.86 ERA in St. Pete.

Game 3
POR: 3B Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Puckeridge – RF Lamotta – 2B Castner – P Wheatley
MIL: LF J. Delgado – 3B N. Jackson – SS Z. Suggs – 2B R. Lopez – 1B Tinoco – CF B. Allen – RF C. Lowe – C Abrego – P Poss

Wheats walked Delgado to begin his day, with the runner advancing on a Jackson groundout, and being thrown out at home by Armando Herrera on a Suggs single. Top 2nd, Waters and Puckeridge singles, plus Lowe overrunning the latter for an error, put a pair of Critters into scoring position with one out, but Lamotta struck out, Castner walked, and Wheats flew out to Lowe to strand the full set. Herrera was stranded on third base in the third inning; he hit a double, but Waters fly to deep left was caught by Jose Delgado on the warning track to end the inning. Another leadoff walk (to Jackson) in the bottom 4th then began to dig a shallow grave for Wheats, who got dinked for three mostly soft singles and two runs by the Loggers in that inning, but then stranded Delgado after the leftfielder whacked a 1-out triple in the bottom 5th.

Lamotta hit a triple in the sixth, but his came with Gonzalez aboard and two outs, thus cutting the deficit in half. The tying run was stranded; the Loggers bypassed Castner and got a K from Wheats to kill that off. Wheatley did get off the hook though; throwing 100 pitches in six middling innings was enough for him, but Lonzo hit a leadoff single, and while he was forced out by Herrera, Waters would cash Herrera with a 2-out single to get us even at two. Gonzalez grounded out to reach the seventh-inning stretch.

Sencion had a clean seventh, but O’Higgins allowed a single to Suggs and a 2-out double to Tinoco, but Lamotta fired that ball back in rather quick and Castner relayed it to home plate in time to have Suggs and the go-ahead run slapped out by mere inches, thusly also ending the inning. The Raccoons lost anyway; Julian Ponce allowed a leadoff triple to Brent Allen in the bottom 9th, and Waters couldn’t fire it home quick enough on Lowe’s grounder, which ended the game. 3-2 Loggers. Lavorano 2-5; Herrera 2-5, 2B; Lamotta 2-4, 3B, RBI;

Well, you can’t expect to keep a great team like the Loggers down forever…

Game 4
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – RF Suzuki – 3B Lamotta – LF Van Hoy – P Wolinsky
MIL: LF J. Delgado – CF B. Allen – SS Z. Suggs – 2B R. Lopez – 1B Tinoco – RF McIntyre – 3B N. Jackson – C Nagel – P V. Padilla

While Bubba faced the minimum the first time through, conceding a single to Jackson, but getting a double play from Nagel, the Raccoons had three singles in the first three innings, all scattered as inefficiently as possible. Allen singled off Wolinsky in the fourth, but was doubled up on a Suggs grounder, which sugged for the Loggers for sure. Herrera walked and Maldo singled in the fifth, but Waters and Gonzalez made weak outs and nothing came of that for the Portlanders. Bubba meanwhile – still facing the minimum *twice* through the order!

So who was gonna score? MAYBE the Coons, with a leadoff triple in the left-center gap by Mikio Suzuki in the seventh! Well, Lamotta was walked intentionally to get to Van Hoy, but the Raccoons sent Puckeridge to pinch-hit, but his comebacker to the pitcher kept Suzuki pinned and Lamotta forced out at second base. Bubba then fouled out while Puckeridge failed to get a steal attempt off, but Lonzo came through, driving a 2-out single through the left side to finally ******* get Suzuki home. Herrera and Maldo both flopped soft RBI singles to shallow center, and Padilla lost Waters in a full count to load the bases, but then Gonzalez grounded out.

Wolinsky retired the Loggers in order in both the seventh and eighth, while also batting again with runners on the corners in the top 8th, but this time both him and Lonzo failed to get anybody across. Herrera walked and Maldo doubled to begin the ninth, putting two in scoring position again, but all the Coons got was a Waters sac fly before Gonzalez walked and Suzuki hit into a double play. Bubba was on all of 81 pitches through eight and obviously returned for the bottom 9th against the 7-8-9 batters. Jackson popped out on the first pitch. Nagel flew out to Herrera on the first pitch. Dismal Jack Barrington singled up the middle, ruining the whole minimum thing. Delgado made the final out though. 4-0 Raccoons. Herrera 3-4, BB, RBI; Maldonado 4-5, 2B, RBI; Suzuki 2-4, BB, 3B; Wolinsky 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-3);

A whiffless shutout…! The defense was sure up to snuff in this one.

O’Higgins was back to AAA after one scoreless appearance, and Victor Salcido was brought back from the DL to make a start on the weekend, and hopefully more beyond that.

Raccoons (19-23) @ Falcons (24-18) – May 20-22, 2050

All cute and stuff, but now try it against a winning team; the Raccoons were 11-4 for their last 15, but the Falcons had been pretty consistently good all year long. They were leading the CL in runs scored, but were also tenth in runs allowed, so they had to outwhack their own pitching staff to keep going. The pen was alright, but the rotation was in need of a do-over. The Coons also needed a do-over in their fortunes against the Falcons, having lost the season series four years running, each time with a 5-4 total in Charlotte’s favor.

Projected matchups:
Elijah Powell (3-4, 4.66 ERA) vs. Juan Arrocha (3-3, 4.25 ERA)
Victor Merino (2-5, 4.01 ERA) vs. Chris Jones (0-6, 6.27 ERA)
Victor Salcido (2-2, 5.46 ERA) vs. Ray Thune (3-2, 4.00 ERA)

Alrighty – all righties.

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – SS Lavorano – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – CF Suzuki – 3B Luna – C Jimenez – P Powell
CHA: LF Ceballos – 2B E. Stevens – 1B Sevilla – 3B Wilken – RF Allegood – SS Woodrome – CF Marroquin – C M. Castillo – P Arrocha

Powell drowned quickly after the Falcons loaded them up to begin the bottom 2nd. Mike Allegood legged out an infield single, Ian Woodrome and Omar Marroquin both walked, and while Manny Castillo struck out, Arrocha himself drove in two and another run scored on Danny Ceballos’ groundout for a 3-0 Falcons lead. The Coons almost made it back in the top of the third; Jimenez drew a walk and was bunted to second. A wild pitch gave him third base, and Watt singled him home. Lonzo then buried a 2-out RBI triple in left-center, shortening the score to 3-2, but when Maldo grounded up the middle, Woodrome made a lunging grab and whooped the ball to Erik Stevens for the force at second to keep the Critters from tying it up. The Falcons answered by socking Powell for four more singles and another two runs in the bottom of the inning, and while Luna brought in Puckeridge in the fourth with a groundout, 5-3, the Raccoons remained behind during Powell’s time in the game, which ended in the bottom 5th after a walk to Woodrome and a Marroquin single with two outs. Sencion got him out of the inning by retiring Castillo on an easy fly to Watt.

Bottom 6th, Sencion continued, getting Arrocha on a pop before Ceballos banged a triple to center. Sencion drilled Stevens, who was none too happy, then dashed ahead on a 3-2 pitch to Raul Sevilla, who fanned, and Jimenez zinged out Stevens for a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play to end the inning. Could the Raccoons have a comeback after that blackout? They didn’t get back on base until Lonzo hit a 2-out single in the eighth, and that led nowhere. They were still down a pair in the ninth, facing righty Armando Romero and his 4.30 ERA, as well as an equal number of walks and strikeouts. He kept that mojo with a walk to Waters, then a K on the Aussie sensation. Suzuki hit into a fielder’s choice, but Luna scratched out a 2-out single to put the tying run on base. Herrera batted for Jimenez and walked, filling the sacks for … Van Hoy? He had pinch-hit earlier for a sad groundout and had remained in a probable loss over old man Maldo. Lamotta batted for him with three on and two outs, and grounded out to short with little fanfare. 5-3 Falcons. Lavorano 3-4, 3B, RBI;

Game 2
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – RF Puckeridge – 2B Waters – LF Suzuki – 3B Luna – C Gonzalez – 1B Van Hoy – P Merino
CHA: RF Ceballos – 2B E. Stevens – 3B Wilken – LF Marroquin – CF Caballero – C Gowin – 1B Allegood – SS Woodrome – P C. Jones

Merino came in nibbling on a sub-4 ERA, but gave up four singles and two runs in the bottom 1st right away, with RBI singles to center for both Oscar Caballero and Chris Gowin. “Go Win” would be an entirely new concept for Jones, who came in with six losses in eight attempts, had a clean first, but then saw Waters reach on a Stevens error to begin the top 2nd. Waters stole second, scored on a Luna single, and Luna also stole second, but had to hold at third base when Gonzalez scratched out a single, which somehow again brought up Van Hoy and his dismal line (.222, 0 HR, 2 RBI) in a big spot, runners on the corners and one out. He popped out, Merino flew out to center, and the Coons remained behind.

Merino muddled along for five innings, giving up another run on a Caballero triple, chasing home Omar Marroquin, whom Merino had walked, and needed 101 pitches to make it even that far. The actual explosions though and what really handed the W to Chris Jones – not that the Coons were to touch him in a naughty way any time soon, or ever – was the bottom 6th, in which ****** pitching by Ponce and Hitchcock, plus an untimely error by Luna, contributed to a 5-run inning (three earned, all on Ponce), as the Falcons just kept whacking away at the hapless Critters. The game was of course over then, and the most infuriating thing was Ponce allowing singles to all three lefty hitters he faced. Jones pitched a complete-game 6-hitter, giving up a second run on a Suzuki sac fly in the ninth as if it still mattered. 8-2 Falcons. Gonzalez 2-4;

I think we’re sinking back into the stinking realm…

Game 3
POR: CF Watt – SS Lavorano – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – LF Suzuki – 3B Lamotta – C Jimenez – P Salcido
CHA: CF Marroquin – LF Caballero – 1B Sevilla – 3B Wilken – RF Allegood – SS Woodrome – 2B E. Sandoval – C M. Castillo – P Thune

Salcido faced the minimum the first time through in his return from the DL, whiffing two, but the Coons were not a whole lot more exciting either. The first Falcons runner would be Sevilla, who got nicked, but stranded when Randy Wilken grounded out. Ian Woodrome reached on a Lamotta error in the fifth, but removed himself by getting caught stealing. Salcido had a 1-2-3 sixth, while the Raccoons got their *second* base runner in the seventh inning – and Lonzo was both of them. Lonzo had singled in the first and had been stranded, and he was nicked by Thune to begin the seventh. In between, a whole lotta nothin’! A Maldo groundout advanced the runner, but took the bat away from a scuffling Waters with an intentional walk that was hard to explain or make sense of. Puckeridge then brutalized a fastball for a screamer into the gap in right-center and a 2-run triple. Suzuki plated him with a duck snort single, 3-0, stole second – his first bag in the ABL – but was stranded eventually.

Salcido retired Caballero and Sevilla easily to begin the bottom 7th, although Wilken then hit a drive to deep right – Puckeridge caught it on the warning track, though, and the Falcons remained held to a plunked batter and one that reached on an error. Salcido began the bottom 8th on 95 pitches, which made me feel queasy, then took seven more to ring up Mike Allegood for his sixth K on the day. Two more retired Woodrome on a grounder, and then Sandoval flew out to Puckeridge rather easily, except that it took another five pitches. His pitch count was at 109 when the ninth began, with the Coons up 3-0 and Willie Cruz all warmed up and ready in the pen. Five pitches into his at-bat, Manny Castillo grounded out to Salcido. Chris Gowin pinch-hit, fell to 0-2, then hit a sharp grounder at Waters, who remained on top of the play – two out. Here was Marroquin – one more to go! One ball outside. One ball inside. The 120th pitch of the game was more middling, but a bit low, and Marroquin chomped it into the ground, bouncing it back to Salcido, who pounced, fired to first, Maldo with the snag – it’s a no-hitter!!! 3-0 Furballs!!! Puckeridge 1-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Salcido 9.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (3-2);

In other news

May 21 – NAS LF/RF Pat Stipp (.267, 3 HR, 24 RBI) hits a grand slam and a 3-piece, and brings in eight runs in total in a 16-9 shootout win over the Wolves.

FL Player of the Week: DEN LF/RF Mike Preble (.356, 10 HR, 40 RBI), bombing .423 (11-26) with 4 HR, 16 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA CF Brent Cramer (.298, 3 HR, 14 RBI), clipping .417 (10-24) with 2 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Victor Salcido!! **** my ***, a no-hitter!!! (giggles)

Juan Berrios – 1977
Jason Turner – 1989
Manuel “Bam Bam” Movonda – 1998
Bob Joly – 2000
Jose Dominguez – 2007
Nick Brown – 2016
Jonathan Toner – 2019
Tom Shumway – 2030
Victor Merino – 2046
Victor Salcido – 2050

Our first no-hitter against the Falcons, who were last no-noed by Brian Frain of the Thunder in ’38, and haven’t had one themselves since Steve Kreider in 2015. Second no-hitter in the league this year, after Kodai Koga of Atlanta no-hit the Aces in early April.

Also curious how very few of our no-hitters have been pitched in good times. Turner’s, yes, right at the start of the our first actual dynasty, which made the first of six postseasons in eight years that season. But the Coons sucked in 1977 and 1998 and 2000, and while we posted a winning record in 2007, it was also the year we blew a 10 1/2 game lead on June 26 to the Crusaders. Brownie and Jonny pitched theirs for a strong team (but only the 2019 made the playoffs). 2030 was dim, 2050 might be dimmer. Only Merino’s no-hitter came in a season in which we actually took home a ring. We won the pennant in ’89, but then Glenn Johnston dropped Ed Parrell’s fly in Game 6 and that was that, and yes, even 50 years from now I will manage to weave that nightmare into more retrospectives.

Comparably, under the radar, but the highlight of the week prior to Sunday, Thursday marked the first-ever complete game for Bubba Wolinsky in the majors. Well, stamina isn’t his strong suit, so it sure helped that the Loggers cleaned up their own runners so thoroughly. The shutout came in his 92nd ABL start (93rd appearance). The previous time he had pitched a complete game had been in AA ball in 2042, when he spun three complete games, including his only prior pro shutout, a 5-hitter against the Arlington Rattlers.

Maldo chipped in an RBI on Thursday to become the first Critter this year to reach the all-too-lofty *20* mark. Man, good thing that game *only* marked the first quarterpost… And that’s still the mark after 45 games. The team homer lead is *three*. Ironically, that’s also the highest wins total for any pitcher on staff. Danny Hall has made two starts and is one win behind the lead…

Next week then? MAYBE another no-hitter, perhaps even somebody hitting a fourth home run, but definitely the Aces in Vegas and the Thunder in our little corner of the woods.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons now have two Victors in the rotation that both spun a no-hitter in a 3-0 road win.

Merino did so four years ago against the Titans in Boston, also in his second “real” season, outside of all the spot starts and cups of coffee.

The Raccoons are also the first team to pitch ten no-hitters. Somehow nobody else has even more than six. The Stars are the only team with ten cycles (Coons: seven), but there’s more competition in that category.