[Westheim]

Raccoons (2-4) @ Thunder (4-2) – April 8-10, 2052

Over the last five seasons, the Raccoons had won 20 games from the Thunder – eight of those in two sets of CLCS games. It was that kind of complicated relationship. Last year we beat them five times, including once even in the regular season. They had put up 41 runs in six games to start the season, but a couple of bullpen blowouts had them in second place behind the Knights on Monday morning. Oh well, that’s what we’re here for then!

Projected matchups:
David Barel (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Mike Zeigler (1-0, 1.00 ERA)
Victor Salcido (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. J.J. Hendrix (0-0, 2.25 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (0-1, 0.00 ERA) vs. Victor Marquez (1-0, 2.00 ERA)

Left, right, left, and probably three beatings to go to 2-7.

The Thunder were also still in second place on Tuesday morning, since Monday was rained out and we got a double header scheduled for Tuesday then. Oh well. All paws on deck!

Game 1
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – 3B DeMarco – 1B Crum – CF Puckeridge – LF Glodowski – RF Maldonado – C Suggs – P Barel
OCT: LF R. Cox – 2B Ban – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – 3B R. Sifuentes – C Adames – RF de Luna – CF A. Herrera – P Zeigler

Three 2-out hits in the bottom 2nd by Jesus Adames, Rich de Luna, and Armando Herrera helped the Thunder score the game’s first run, but while the first seven Critters were all retired in this game, Sean Suggs found a double in his bat and then scored on a 2-out single by Waters in the third inning to tie us up again. We didn’t stay tied down, though. The bottom 3rd saw Barel offer a leadoff walk for the second consecutive inning, and while David Worthington had been doubled up by Ramon Sifuentes in the second inning, Ryan Cox was the only out on Jonathan Ban’s following grounder to short. Doubles by Soberanes and Worthington then scored two runs before Barel regained control and got out of the inning.

The Coons scratched, though. Crum doubled and Pucks singled to score a run in the fourth inning, 3-2, and in the fifth Barel started an unlikely 1-out rally with a single to right. Waters singled to center, and Lonzo was tickled by a breaking pitch by Zeigler, and that filled the bases for Nick DeMarco, batting a sturdy .174, which didn’t get better by jamming a grounder into Soberanes’ mitten for a 6-4-3 double play. It didn’t score any runs, either. Maldo added another double play to kill an inning with two aboard in the sixth, and that was after the Thunder had added another insurance run with a Ban triple and Soberanes’ RBI groundout in the bottom 5th.

Barel kept getting hammered with hits in the sixth, as Sifuentes, Rich de Luna, Herrera, and even the ******* opposing pitcher all lined base knocks off him. The latter, an RBI double to get to 6-2 with two in scoring position and one out, actually knocked out both pitchers, as Zeigler strained something running the bases. Lillis stranded the remaining runners, but the game was in the bin, just as expected.

…and yet somehow, the team got the tying run to the dish in the ninth inning against Dale Mrazek. Maldo singled, and Crispin and Philipps walked as pinch-hitters at the bottom of the order to bring up Waters as the tying run with one gone. Matt Waters was batting .370 and appeared to be getting hotter, socking a ball over the head of de Luna for a 2-run double, and now the tying runs were in scoring position. Unfortunately, Lonzo was far from hot and with a groundout only brought in Philipps’ run that didn’t matter. The run that mattered, Waters, was still on second base with two outs, and then DeMarco flew out anyway… 6-5 Thunder. Waters 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Snyder 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – LF del Toro – 1B Crum – RF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – CF Suzuki – C Philipps – P Salcido
OCT: LF R. Cox – 2B Ban – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – 3B R. Sifuentes – RF Angeletti – C Fiore – CF Tortora – P Hendrix

Matt Waters opened the game with a bang, 390 feet to right, but none of the next seven Coons reached, while the Thunder made up the deficit when Salcido leaked the first four batters on base in the fourth inning. Single, walk, walk, RBI single by Cullen Tortora went the Thunder, but with the bags full, Hendrix struck out, as did Cox, and Ban flew out to Pucks to strand a full set. The Raccoons remained invisible, while Ban drew a crucial 2-out walk in the bottom 5th off a meandering Salcido, who then was taken deep to left-center by Ed Soberanes, 3-1 Thunder.

Lonzo, doing his best to get above .100 at this early stage of the season (breathes into paper bag) then hit a leadoff double to center in the sixth, and quickly scored when del Toro did the same to Tortora, 3-2. Crum was nicked, Pucks singled firmly through the right side, and the bases were loaded with nobody out in that top of the sixth. Tee-hee, another loss! Ed Crispin was batting .111 in the early going, but laid off the junk from Hendrix, who was losing the zone entirely now and drew the game-tying walk. Jay Gunderson replaced Hendrix, while for Portland, Suzuki lined into a 3-U double play with kind assistance from a dozing Crispin. The Thunder walked Philipps intentionally for reasons beyond me, only for Gunderson to throw a wild pitch with two outs to *Salcido*. That scored the go-ahead run before Salcido whiffed.

Now, that lead didn’t stick, mostly because while we turned the switch-hitting Cox to his weak side with Sencion in the seventh, Sencion still hung one and it got taken deep for far enough to level the score at four, but Brian Grohoski returned the advantage to the Portlanders in the eighth, serving up a double to Pucks, a walk to Crispin, and an RBI single to Suzuki before Philipps hit into the unavoidable double play. Maldo grounded out to leave Crispin at third base. The Coons got a scoreless inning from Miles, but also stranded a leadoff double from Waters in the ninth inning before sending Hitchcock to save the 1-run game. Suzuki got a workout in center, chasing after de Luna and Cox drives, but at the end of it a 1-2-3 inning ended the game. 5-4 Coons. Waters 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Puckeridge 2-5, 2B;

…and just like that, we matched last year’s regular-season wins total against the Thunder. Shaka!

Game 3
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – CF del Toro – 1B Crum – 3B DeMarco – LF Glodowski – RF Maldonado – C Suggs – P Taki
OCT: LF R. Cox – 2B Ban – SS Soberanes – 1B Worthington – 3B R. Sifuentes – RF Angeletti – C Adames – CF A. Herrera – P V. Marquez

The weather looked bad and the sky looked like it was gonna leak at some point or other, while yet another Coons pitcher leaked hits left and right, with a Cox double and Soberanes single making it 1-0 Thunder in the first, and three more hits getting the Thunder up 2-0 in the second, then with Cox driving home J.P. Angeletti. When Soberanes got nicked to begin the third inning, David Worthington took exception, and also Taki deep to left, 4-0. The Coons had yet to reach base, but did so with a Lonzo single in the fourth. He stole second and scored on a del Toro single to left-center, but then Ken Crum found another one of those exciting double plays to end the inning.

Apart from that, the team remained merrily inept. Waters and Lonzo made the corners with two outs in the sixth, but then del Toro popped out to Worthington. Taki resumed pitching as the rain began to fall in the bottom 6th and gave up a leadoff single to center to Sifuentes, then right away a screaming RBI double to Angeletti. At that point the tarp came on the field – and stayed on. 5-1 Thunder. Lavorano 2-3;

…at which point I got them out of my tired eyes for a few days, since the team went to Elk City for the weekend, and I couldn’t have even if I wanted.

Raccoons (3-6) @ Canadiens (6-2) – April 11-14, 2052

Fifth in runs scored and best in runs allowed in the CL, the damn Elks were off to a really nice start. (spits blood) They were hard to score on, we had a hard time scoring, and this could be a long four days sobbing into the pillows on the couch at home. Last year we had taken the season series, 11-7.

Projected matchups:
Rafael de la Cruz (0-0, 2.84 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (1-0, 3.38 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Federico Purificao (0-0, 2.84 ERA)
David Barel (0-1, 5.84 ERA) vs. Terry Herman (1-1, 4.50 ERA)
Victor Salcido (1-0, 2.38 ERA) vs. Juan Ramos (1-0, 2.70 ERA)

An all-righty rotation for the Elks, so maybe we’d get Crispin and Suzuki involved a bit more now.

Game 1
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – LF del Toro – 1B Crum – RF Puckeridge – 3B Crispin – CF Suzuki – C Suggs – P de la Cruz
VAN: 3B A. Soto – C Julio Diaz – SS Mullen – CF D. Moreno – RF Burkhart – LF T. Turner – 1B Cahill – 2B Clevidence – P Jesus

Portland took a 3-1 lead in the second inning of the opener when Crum led off with a double and the bases filled up behind him, partially with clumsy defense, after which Suggs singled home two and Waters singled home another runner to erase the deficit Raffy had incurred in the first inning with singles to Alex Soto and Damian Moreno around a walk to Dan Mullen. In the third, del Toro singled and stole second before Pucks walked behind him. Del Toro then went for third base, Julio Diaz threw the ball away to allow him to score, and Pucks chucked it into third base behind him before also scoring on a wild pitch to Ed Crispin, 5-1. None of this made Rafael de la Cruz pitch better, though. The Elks had two runners in the third, and in the fourth, and in the fifth, but only scored in that last inning when Damian Moreno drummed home Mullen with a double over the head of Suzuki. He *did* also strike out nine batters, including the entire side in his sixth and final inning, so it was not all bad. He just got whacked around. “just”.

That gave, after the stretch, the pen a 5-2 lead to try and bobble away. Sencion was on a good path, giving up a walk to Alex Soto and a single to Mullen. He was disposed of with two outs, but Crisler threw a run-scoring wild pitch before finally whiffing Tim Burkhart, now in a 5-3 game. Paul Miles then retired Tim Turner and Mark Cahill to begin the bottom 8th, after which the ball went to Hitchcock for hopefully a 4-out save. Indeed – he got the Elks in order, including a pinch-hitting Jerry Outram. 5-3 Coons. Del Toro 2-5; Crum 3-5, 2 2B; Puckeridge 1-2, BB;

Game 2
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – LF del Toro – 1B Crum – CF Puckeridge – 3B DeMarco – C Suggs – RF Maldonado – P Brobeck
VAN: 3B A. Soto – 1B Wheeler – SS Mullen – CF D. Moreno – RF Burkhart – LF T. Turner – C Julio Diaz – 2B Clevidence – P Purificao

Waters singled, stole second, reached third on a del Toro single to left-center, and then scored on a wild pitch. Purificao went on to walk Crum, but when Pucks singled to right, del Toro went home against Burkhart’s arm and was thrown out by about 15 feet at the plate. The trailing runners both advanced, though, and scored when DeMarco socked a double to the base of the leftfield fence against his old team. Suggs drove him home to score before Maldo popped out to Jeff Wheeler, ending the top 1st with a 4-0 tally. The Elks then delivered a peak performance in getting on base and staying on base, putting eight of their batters on base in five innings, and scoring not a single one of them: five hits, one walk, and errors by Maldo and Waters, and somehow they couldn’t blow over Kyle Brobeck.

The Coons didn’t tack on either, so it was by no means an easy cruise; I had a hunch that the old walk-walk-homer game was just minutes away from breaking out, but when Tim Burkhart *did* homer to left in the sixth inning, he did so leading off the frame and thus the score only shriveled to 4-1. Brobeck then retired six more in a row, including Jeff Wheeler, who got a second lease on life when Suggs dropped his 1-1 foul pop for the Coons’ third error of the game. The Coons scratched out a run in the eighth against Bill McMichael with base knocks from DeMarco and Maldo, and Glodowski also added a 2-out single, pinch-hitting for Brobeck, but Waters grounded out to Mullen. Justin Johns and Brett Lillis jr. then put the rest together in scoreless fashion for two and four outs, respectively. 5-1 Raccoons. Waters 2-5; del Toro 2-3, 2 BB; Suggs 2-4, RBI; Maldonado 2-4, RBI; Glodowski (PH) 1-1; Brobeck 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-0);

Back-to-back wins! Will wonders ever cease!?

Game 3
POR: SS Waters – 3B Crispin – LF del Toro – 1B Crum – CF Puckeridge – 2B DeMarco – RF Maldonado – C Philipps – P Barel
VAN: 3B A. Soto – C L. Miranda – 1B Wheeler – CF D. Moreno – SS Mullen – RF Burkhart – LF Escobido – 2B Clevidence – P Herman

In the first three-and-a-half innings, Barel offered two leadoff walks and yet faced the minimum, while Pucks reached base twice, stole second each time, and both times scored on a sac fly, by Maldo in the second and Philipps in the fourth. Those were the only runs at that point, and with Barel holding the damn Elks to a Wheeler single and no other hits through five, I got a treacherous sense of security.

Top 6th, Pucks walked for the second time in the game, then stole second for the third time in the game, with the Elks manager hitting his cap against the railing once Herman and Luis Miranda had the audacity to appear surprised at the move. The Elks walked DeMarco intentionally, but gave up an RBI double to right to Maldo. Pucks scored again, although DeMarco was thrown out by Burkhart trying to do the same.

That was the final stolen base for Pucks in the game. He grounded out in the seventh inning, stranding Waters and del Toro in the process, then appeared to break his neck on a wild tumble trying to catch a Damian Moreno liner in the bottom of that inning. Well, he made the catch, but he also remained motionless and face down on the ground afterwards, but was really mostly dazed and confused, although one of his paws had been jammed under his body, and Dr. Padilla took him out of the game for concussion concerns anyway. Sivertson entered the game as replacement, but DeMarco moved out to centerfield. Mullen hit a single to left after the mid-sized injury interruption, but Burkhart popped out to complete seven innings.

But three soft hits loaded the bags with Elks in the bottom 8th and chased Barel. Crisler inherited Angel Escobido, Mark Cahill, and Alex Soto on the bags and Luis Miranda in the box. A sac fly to center got the Elks on the board, but Wheeler floated out to Maldo and stranded the tying runs. The tying run would be back in the batter’s box in the bottom 9th, though, after Burkhart snuck a 2-out single to left against Hitchcock. It was Jerry Outram, batting for Escobido. The Elks were as tight-lipped as ever about Outram’s state of well-being, but he wasn’t starting against the Coons, so it had to be terminal. And not for Barel’s first Coons win – Outram popped out to Waters, and that was the game. 3-1 Critters! Puckeridge 1-2, 2 BB; Philipps 1-2, BB, RBI; Barel 7.1, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-1);

The good news: Pucks’ neck wasn’t broken, and he hadn’t suffered a concussion either – but had sprained a claw on his dominant paw and had to go to the DL anyway. The minimum 15 days should suffice, I’m being told from the frozen wastelands by Dr. Padilla.

I don’t care, I’m sucking my thumb anyway!

The Coons brought up a new outfielder, and, by the way, anybody remember Roberto Medina? Yeah, none of the demi-prospects on the 40-man were hitting anything in AAA, so we brought up the 30-year-old Medina again. Nope, none of them. Adam Samples not, and Oscar Rivera not, and Prospero Tenazes not, and Dante Gutierrez not….

Ah, whatever. Go for the throat, boys!

Game 4
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – LF del Toro – 1B Crum – CF Suzuki – 3B Crispin – RF Glodowski – C Suggs – P Salcido
VAN: 3B A. Soto – 1B Wheeler – SS Mullen – CF D. Moreno – RF Burkhart – LF T. Turner – C Julio Diaz – 2B Chacon – P J. Ramos

Singles by Wheeler, Mullen, and Burkhart to all fields gave the Elks a 1-0 lead in the first, but Waters claimed back the tie with a homer to left in the third inning after the team all marveled at a leadoff double to center smacked by Ken Crum in the top 2nd, but left him on base regardless.

And then Salcido suffered a complete explosion in the bottom 3rd. Like in one inning on Tuesday, the first four batters reached base as Soto singled, Wheeler doubled him home, 2-1, and then the bags filled with walks. Burkhart popped out, but Turner and Diaz both drew bases-loaded walks to push home two more runs, and Carlos Chacon’s grounder was good to get to 5-1. Ramos struck out, but that didn’t change my level of unhappiness back at home. Wheeler doubled and Mullen singled for another run in the fourth, and Salcido wasn’t seen again after that.

It didn’t get much better after that. Soto and Wheeler hit homers off Miles in garbage relief, and what little offense the Coons had usually ended up choking in another Suggs-sponsored double play, which sugged. Snyder walked three and gave up another run in the bottom 8th. Ramos pitched a complete-game 5-hitter. 9-1 Canadiens. Sivertson (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 8 – TIJ SP Omar Lara (0-1, 4.09 ERA) was going to miss four months with a diagnosis of a torn labrum.
April 9 – Richmond CF/LF Jose Gutierrez (.357, 2 HR, 5 RBI) dishes out six base hits in a 14-1 rush of the Wolves, with two homers, a double, three singles, and five RBI in the game.
April 10 – A torn UCL means the end of the season and at least a year on the sideline for PIT SP Jose Arias (0-1, 3.86 ERA).
April 14 – CHA SP Andy Overy (1-1, 4.26 ERA) breaks out a 1-hit shutout in a 9-0 win over the Aces. The lone knock for Vegas is brought about by CF Dan Martin (.182, 0 HR, 1 RBI), who singles with nobody out in the ninth inning.

FL Player of the Week: SFW LF Mario Villa (.429, 1 HR, 6 RBI), hitting .538 (14-26) with 1 HR, 2 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR 2B/SS Matt Waters (.373, 2 HR, 8 RBI), batting .407 (11-27) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Well yeah, it has been easier to find the good news at times, but we’re only a game and a half behind … well, almost everybody, but then again there’s things to point out. First, Pucks’ not dead, so that’s a plus, and then we also have a so far flawless closer, who doesn’t get a lot of work to begin with, and, uh, oh yes, Matt Waters is batting with as much noise as a fire engine (and people even notice, for once).

It gets a bit thinner after that.

Last in runs scored (3.23 R/G) again, huh? Eh! We rode that **** all the way to the pennant last year!

Besides, Lonzo can’t hit .125 for the full season, can he?

Can he?

Next week: start of a 2-week homestand that will see us host the Arrowheads, Baybirds, Falcons, and Titans. I like it when they come in nicely alphabetically ordered like that.

Cristiano, you have no sense for when to better be silent, do you?

Fun Fact: Kyle Brobeck leads the CL with an 0.69 ERA.

I know how to build a ******* roster.