[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-31) @ Bayhawks (26-25) – May 30-June 1, 2050

After getting drowned like a really unwanted set of newborn farm cat kittens the week before, the Raccoons’ reward was a trip down to the Bay, where nothing good ever happened, and the season effort against the Bayhawks was already well off at 1-2. San Francisco was third in the South, eight games out, with the second-best offense, but second-worst pitching, with a -14 run differential (Furballs: -55). They were without some key contributors like starter Craig Czyzszczon and position players Ken Crum and Mike Roberts, all on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Bubba Wolinsky (2-4, 4.08 ERA) vs. Milt Cantrell (2-3, 5.03 ERA)
Elijah Powell (3-6, 5.43 ERA) vs. Chih Ke (3-3, 3.55 ERA)
Victor Merino (2-7, 4.07 ERA) vs. Kevin Nolte (5-4, 5.07 ERA)

Only righties in that rotation!

Game 1
POR: LF Watt – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – SS Waters – C Gonzalez – RF Puckeridge – 3B Luna – 2B Castner – P Wolinsky
SFB: 2B Quiroz – CF G. Pena – 3B R. Sifuentes – 1B Copeland – SS McCutcheon – C Harvey – RF P. Colon – LF Fink – P Cantrell

Wolinsky survived a lot of things early on, including a 2-base throwing error by Waters in the first, a 2-base throwing error by Luna in the second, and conceding a leadoff single to the ******* opposing pitcher and nailing Gustavo Pena in the third – none of those runs scored. But neither did the Critters. Maldo hit a double in the first, but was stranded, and after that it took until the fifth for Gonzalez and Puckeridge to club leadoff singles, only to get stranded by a Luna pop to short and a Castner double play grounder. Same inning, Cantrell went to 2-for-2 against Bubba, but was doubled up by Sergio Quiroz, and we remained scoreless. Weird game, this one.

Bottom 6th, things finally seemed to fall into place. Bubba threw eight balls in a row to Gustavo Pena and Ramon Sifuentes to start the inning, and then Sebastian Copeland singled. Lee McCutcheon hit a comebacker that Bubba turned into a 1-2-3 double play, though, and Aaron Harvey grounded out to third base, keeping everybody well off the board. Ruben Gonzalez opened the seventh with a single, but then was doubled off by Puckeridge, and Wolinsky finished seven shutout innings on 107 pitches, but for no greater reward than a sub-4 ERA. Kevin Hitchcock was then taken deep to left by Sifuentes in the bottom 8th, and I felt like that was gonna be the L, but the Bayhawks left Cantrell out there for a leadoff single by Herrera in the ninth, and only then brought on Josh Livingston to close it out, except that he didn’t. Maldo made an out, but Waters slapped an RBI triple to right, Gonzalez walked, and Puckeridge’s grounder to second was at least good enough to not turn two on it, and Waters scored with the go-ahead run. Willie Cruz then blitzed the Bayhawks away in the bottom 9th; Mark Cahill lined out softly to Waters on the first pitch, and Joe Ritchey and Chris Robinson both struck out. 2-1 Raccoons. Gonzalez 2-3, BB; Wolinsky 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K;

Ends an 0-6 string that was rather depressing!

Game 2
POR: CF Watt – SS Lavorano – 1B Maldonado – C Gonzalez – LF Puckeridge – 3B Lamotta – RF Van Hoy – 2B Castner – P Powell
SFB: 1B Copeland – SS Dau – C S. Suggs – RF Ritchey – 3B R. Sifuentes – LF G. Pena – 2B McCutcheon – CF Fink – P Ke

The Coons put up a pair in the second on doubles by Gonzalez, Van Hoy (!), and Castner (!!), one to each field, while Powell had nothing better to do than walk the bags full in the bottom 2nd before Chih Ke bounced into an inning-killing 6-4-3 double play. Lonzo and Lamotta hit into double plays for Portland in the next two innings, but the game was otherwise rather calm, also assisted by the Raccoons having no hits through five innings except for their three doubles in the second. Powell gave up a run, finally, when Joe Ritchey doubled home Todd Dau in the bottom 5th, but struck out Sifuentes to strand the tying run on second base.

When Lonzo opened the sixth with a single and stole second base, the Coons’ team RBI and SB leads were for a minute identical at 21, but then Maldo uncorked a blaster to right to extend the lead to 4-1, which also had the nice effect of lifting the Coons’ homer lead past ******* THREE before May ran out of juice altogether.

Powell pitched six busy, but ultimately not unsuccessful innings before yielding for Preston Porter, who got rid of the Bayhawks on ten pitches in the seventh, but Bob Ibold put runners on the corners by the time there were two gone in the eighth. With left-handed batter John Fink up, the Raccoons poignantly went to Eloy Sencion rather than Julian Ponce, and Sencion got a K … against the pinch-hitter Harvey after Fink knocked an RBI single. Better than a slam… Bottom 9th, Hitchcock got the ball, since Willie Cruz had been out three of the last four days, often pointlessly. Copeland flew out. Dau grounded out. Sean Suggs whiffed, which sure sugged for San Fran. 4-2 Critters. Gonzalez 3-4, 2 2B; Van Hoy 2-4, 2B, RBI; Powell 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (4-6);

Winning streak to end the month of May, wheee!

Game 3
POR: LF Watt – SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 2B Waters – 1B Maldonado – RF Puckeridge – C Gonzalez – 3B Luna – P Merino
SFB: 2B Quiroz – SS Dau – C S. Suggs – 3B R. Sifuentes – RF Ritchey – 1B Copeland – CF P. Colon – LF Fink – P Nolte

Maldo singled, Puckeridge doubled, and they came in on a Gonzalez groundout and a 2-out single chopped up the middle by Merino for a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Wednesday. Unfortunately, Joe Ritchey took half of it away again with a solo homer in the bottom 2nd, while the following inning was led off by John Fink with a double to right. Merino wild-pitched him to third base after getting a K from Nolte, then walked Sergio Quiroz – who was caught stealing – and then walked Dau as well. Suggs somehow popped out rather than making Merino meat a grisly end, and the Raccoons remained owners of a 2-1 lead. Sifuentes and Copeland went to the corners on a walk and single, respectively, but then Pedro Colon killed that bottom 4th with a double play bouncer to Waters.

Top 5th, Luna swatted a leadoff double to left. Merino’s grounder advanced him, but Watt’s did not. Lonzo came through with an RBI single, though, then stole second, and scored on another 2-out single by Herrera, 4-1. Merino pitched solidly into the eighth then without finding much trouble, until he found much trouble there. He walked Dau on four pitches with one gone, then gave up an RBI double to Suggs, which sugged, and also cut the lead to 4-2. Porter came on, gave up an RBI double to Sifuentes, but Ritchey popped out. Two gone, Mark Cahill pinch-hit for Copeland, and the Raccoons went to Sencion again, and got a K on three pitches to bugger out of the inning. Now, while Sencion came on in a double switch with Van Hoy to replace Maldo in the #5 hole, the Raccoons didn’t actually leave him in for the bottom of the ninth with a 4-3 lead and went back to Cruz, even though the first two batters were left-handers. None of them reached base, with Colon grounding out and Fink getting robbed by Watt in left-center. Lee McCutcheon though singled when the Baybirds were a strike away from getting swept. Willie Cruz hung the K on Quiroz instead. 4-3 Raccoons. Herrera 2-4, RBI; Maldonado 2-4;

Raccoons (23-31) @ Indians (24-26) – June 3-5, 2050

The Indians were weird; they were average in scoring runs, but in the top 3 in preventing runs to the opposition, with a +33 run differential, and yet they were just under .500 at the start of June. Was there potential there? If so, they had to get going quick. And they were 4-2 on the Raccoons in 2050.

Projected matchups:
Victor Salcido (3-2, 3.80 ERA) vs. Paul Medvec (2-2, 4.31 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (2-5, 5.29 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (6-1, 2.45 ERA)
Bubba Wolinsky (2-4, 3.68 ERA) vs. Dave Serio (3-6, 4.48 ERA)

Both teams had been off on Monday, but the Indians didn’t have a lefty starter anyway right now. Another righty, Enrique Ortiz, was on the DL, along with position players Angel Mendez, Aaron Brayboy (snort!), and Juan Arguello.

Game 1
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Puckeridge – RF Lamotta – 3B Luna – P Salcido
IND: CF Ragen – SS de Castro – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – 2B H. Acosta – LF R. White – C Poindexter – 1B Briscoe – P Medvec

Who were all these people in the lineup?? Anyway. Three Indians reached the first time through against Salcido, two singles to center and a walk there, but the Raccoons were up 2-0 on Puckeridge’s third homer of the year, which also chased home Gonzalez. The Coons added two more in the top 3rd, which saw Herrera single, Maldo tickle the wall in left with a double, and then the runs scoring on a Waters sac fly and a Gonzalez single, and Lonzo singled home Luna, both of whom also stole second base in the inning, to make it 5-0 in the fourth. Manny Poindexter drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th after Merino had put up two 1-2-3 innings, but then was doubled off, 3-U, on a Joe Briscoe liner to Maldonado. Medvec whiffed, and Salcido saw the minimum on that second run through the lineup.

To begin the bottom 6th, Allen Ragen singled, and Salcido walked Bill Quinteros with one out, but then got a double play grounder from Bobby Anderson, ending the inning 6-4-3 style. In turn, three singles off Medvec and Miguel Herrera snapped by Waters, Puckeridge, and Lamotta brought in the 6-0 run in the seventh, and another single by Luna loaded the bases, but Salcido batted for himself and struck out. He was on shutout pace at that point, throwing 72 pitches for a 3-hitter through six. He retired another six in a row on 19 more pitches, while the Coons tacked on a pair in the eighth, where briefly the team stolen base lead actually *eclipsed* the RBI lead when Lonzo stole his 24th base of the year, only to then being doubled home by Maldonado for the veteran’s 24th RBI. Waters then socked home Maldo with a sharp single. So the lead was ample for Salcido in the bottom 9th, but the 2-3-4 batters were up. De Castro grounded out on the first pitch. Quinteros worked out a walk, though, and so did Bobby Anderson, and worse, in a full count. Salcido had to get an out from Acosta or would be lifted – but threw another four balls, and that gave the baseball to Ponce, who tried to give up another grand slam to Rusty White, but Herrera tracked the ball down just shy of the 420’ mark in dead center to hold him to a sac fly, and Waters remained master of a sharp Poindexter grounder to end the game. 8-1 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Maldonado 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Waters 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-5, RBI; Puckeridge 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Luna 2-4, BB; Salcido 8.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 4 K, W (4-2);

All our position players had at least one hit, and we poured out 15 in total on the way to a 4-game winning streak.

Game 2
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – C Gonzalez – LF Puckeridge – RF Lamotta – 3B Luna – P Wheatley
IND: CF Ragen – SS de Castro – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – 2B H. Acosta – LF R. White – C Poindexter – 1B Briscoe – P Brink

On two singles and a walk, the 2-3-4 hitters for Portland filled the bases in the first inning, with one run each scoring on a Gonzalez single, a Puckeridge sac fly, and a wild pitch thrown by Brink before Lamotta whiffed to end it there with Gonzalez left on second. The 2-3-4 hitters were on base again in the top of the third, then on a hit batter, single, and error. This time only one run came in on Gonzalez’ 6-4-3 grounder, with Puckeridge flying out to Quinteros in deep right. And Wheats? No hits the first time through! …unfortunately… four hits in the bottom 4th. De Castro and Quinteros opened with singles, Anderson’s grounder scored one, Rusty White’s double scored another, and Poindexter somehow legged out an infield single before Briscoe popped out to Puckeridge in shallow left to strand the tying runs on the corners. Somehow, teams kept bunching them up against him. The Indians had nobody on in the fifth, but Acosta and White hit singles in the sixth before Poindexter stranded them with a grounder to short.

The Coons hadn’t done anything in the middle innings but Lamotta singled and Luna walked to begin the top 7th. Wheats bunted them into scoring position, but a poor grounder by Lonzo and a standard F8 from Herrera kept them stranded. Wheats made it through seven with some hard work, only for the riffraff in the bullpen to almost undoing it in the eighth. Landeta put on two, Sencion conceded one on a Poindexter single, but got out of the inning against Briscoe. But don’t you worry – Willie Cruz threw just six pitches in getting rid of the Arrowheads in the ninth to extend the winning streak to five…! 4-3 Critters. Herrera 2-3; Maldonado 2-4; Wheatley 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (3-5);

Game 3
POR: SS Lavorano – CF Herrera – 1B Maldonado – 2B Waters – LF Puckeridge – 3B Luna – C Jimenez – RF Glodowski – P Wolinsky
IND: CF Ragen – SS de Castro – RF B. Quinteros – 3B B. Anderson – C M. Gilmore – LF R. White – 2B A. Rios – 1B Briscoe – P E. Ortiz

Ortiz (2-5, 4.08 ERA) came off the DL for this start, and the last time a guy had come off the DL in a Coons game, he fired a no-hitter. Puckeridge singled before the Indians could get ideas, but they were also up 1-0 when Wolinsky failed to retire any of the first three batters he faced, and ended up surrendering an early first-inning run. Bubba remained busy with plenty of Arrowheads on the basepaths in the first five innings, as he conceded five hits, two walks, and there were two errors, including one by the pitcher on an errant pickoff attempt on Antonio Rios in the fourth. The Indians also found two double plays, though, and with the Raccoons being 2-hit through five by Ortiz, it remained a 1-0 game. The Indians only scratched out a second run in the seventh and Wolinsky’s final innings, with de Castro singling home his own pitcher, who had smacked a 1-out double. Another 1-2-3 inning for the Critters in the top 8th was followed by Ibold and Ponce combining for a quick bottom 8th, but all that did was to get John Steuer in with a 2-0 lead against the thick of the order (allegedly) in the top of the ninth. Maldo grounded out. Waters flew out. Puckeridge struck out. 2-0 Indians.

In other news

June 4 – DEN LF/CF Sandy Castillo (.313, 7 HR, 39 RBI) is a write-off for the season with a torn labrum.
June 5 – WAS SP Sean Fowler (3-4, 3.95 ERA) will be out for three months with a case of rotator cuff inflammation.

FL Player of the Week: DAL RF/1B/LF Dario Martinez (.361, 10 HR, 44 RBI), socking .409 (9-22) with 4 HR, 13 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL INF Zach Suggs (.288, 7 HR, 34 RBI), hitting .393 (11-28) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL RF/1B/LF Dario Martinez (.358, 8 HR, 36 RBI), raking .396 with 7 HR, 24 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: IND 2B Hugo Acosta (.367, 1 HR, 27 RBI), hitting .409 with 1 HR, 19 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: DAL SP Nick Whetsell (9-0, 1.88 ERA), hurling for a 5-0 record with 2.09 ERA, 29 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: NYC SP Jeff Johnson (8-0, 1.41 ERA), throwing up a 4-0 mark with 1.29 ERA, 26 K
FL Rookie of the Month: CIN CF/LF Jose Gutierrez (.318, 2 HR, 22 RBI), batting .313 with 2 HR, 15 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: ATL INF Matt Housey (.349, 2 HR, 18 RBI), poking .385 with 1 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

(shrugs) I don’t know what they’re doing! They are redefining what “streaky” means at the very least though. After last week’s 0-6, now a 5-1, and even a modicum of offense would have been enough to make it 6-0 on Sunday. Wasn’t meant to be, but the plus side of that is that now we can’t have a winning streak shattered by the big dumb Elks when they come in on Tuesday. Also next week: the Cyclones.

I got a complaint from Julian Ponce, who thinks he should be the closer. Well, and I think he should be confined to an insane asylum, but that’s just opinions, aren’t they?

We are preparing for Draft Day, which is only a week and a half away. Some pitchers were moved around at the start of June (but that anticipated promotion for Rafael de la Cruz to AAA has not come; it’s not *quite* the time yet), and a few position players canned from the lower levels, of which 2044 fifth-rounder Travis Futch and 2047 tenth-rounder Jarod Nardine were the most significant ones.

Fun Fact: We still have nobody with five homers.

…and the stolen base lead remained equal to the RBI lead through the weekend, which is just shambolic.

…which gets me here:

Fewest home runs to lead the Raccoons in any given season:

Clyde Brady (2006) – 12
Adrian Quebell (2006) – 12
Craig Bowen (2011) – 12
Adrian Quebell (2011) – 12
Ralph Nixon (1981) – 14
Tetsu Osanai (1991) – 14
Justin Perkins (2032) – 14
Clyde Brady (2000) – 15
Royce Green (1995) – 16
Neil Reece (1998) – 17
Terry Kopp (2026) – 17
Manny Fernandez (2040) – 17
Manny Fernandez (2042) – 17
Wyatt Johnston (1978) – 18
Travis Zitzner (2034) – 18
Cesar Gonzalez (1999) – 19
Gil Rockwell (2022) – 19
Elias Tovias (2023) – 19

Getting there!