[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Crusaders (0-0) – April 7-9, 2053

The bottom two teams of the 2052 CL North opened the season against each other – although the Crusaders had technically finished tied with the Loggers. They were also on a 36-year playoff drought they were unlikely to break this year, but had won the season series from the Raccoons three years in a row, with a 10-8 final tally in 2052.

Projected matchups:
Jason Wheatley (0-0) vs. Edwin Sopena (0-0)
Seisaku Taki (0-0) vs. Jim White (0-0)
Rafael de la Cruz (0-0) vs. Jeff Johnson (0-0)

This looked like a full slate of right-handers.

Game 1
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Haney – RF D. Rivera – 3B Gates – C Kissler – CF M. Ceballos – LF Caballero – 1B Carreno – P Sopena
POR: CF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – LF Crum – RF Lopez – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – P Wheatley

I sure hoped that Wheats’ first inning wasn’t a glimpse at things to come. Omar Sanchez and Mark Haney put the Crusaders up 1-0 with a pair of doubles on just three pitches, Danny Rivera walked, and Prince Gates was nailed to load the bases. Aaron Kissler’s double-play grounder plated a second run, Mario Ceballos was also drilled, but Oscar Caballero flew out to Tony Lopez to end the inning, somehow. But he wasn’t the only mess – the entire team stumbled out of the gate. Just in the first four innings, we got a Crispin throwing error, Pucks and Lonzo reaching before Waters found a double play, Tony Lopez inaugurating his Coons stint with a walk and then the next three batters all gloriously striking out, and Wheats hitting a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, only to also be brutishly stranded. Lopez hit a leadoff single to open the fourth, then was doubled up by Ramsay’s grounder to Mark Haney. This was going splendidly.

Wheatley walked Sopena to begin the fifth, for which Haney’s homer to left was then a justified penalty, and had his day ended after five ****** innings when the baseball gods sent a dose of rain that led to a 90-minute rain delay in the bottom 5th, which cost Sopena the win in the 4-0 contest. He departed with Ed Crispin on first base, and was charged with the run when Mauricio Cuevas got rocked once play resumed. Lonzo hit a 2-out RBI single to get the Coons on the board, Waters doubled to put a pair in scoring position, and Ken Crum cashed both runs with a double down the rightfield line, narrowing the score to 4-3, but Lopez then flew out to Oscar Caballero. The Coons went to Jim Larson in the sixth, which immediately led to a New York resurgence. Aaron Kissler reached on an infield single, and Caballero doubled home a tack-on run, 5-3. Also stumbling: Ben Seiter; he walked Pucks and Waters in the bottom 7th, with a Lonzo single in between, all with one out. Ken Crum came up in that juicy spot, but was held to an RBI groundout with a roller up the middle that Omar Sanchez took to first. Travis Malkus batted for Antonio Alfaro in a #5 spot heavy for Coons debutees after Tony Lopez had been lifted for a double switch earlier; but he flew out to Mario Ceballos in center. Kevin Hitchcock pitched two scoreless after that, but the Coons still needed to make up a run to just get the game tied up. Chris Gowin had his first Critters single in the eighth inning, but was very much alone with offensive heroics of any kind; the ninth began from the top of the order against righty Ryan Sullivan. He got two outs before Waters slapped a ball past Arturo Carreno, and then Crum walked in a full count. Oh, to still have Tony Lopez batting fifth…! But it was down to Tyler Philipps as pinch-hitter, and he flew out to Danny Rivera. 5-4 Crusaders. Lavorano 3-4, 2B, RBI; Waters 2-4, BB, 2B; Lopez 1-2, BB; Hitchcock 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Haney – RF D. Rivera – 3B Gates – C Kissler – CF M. Ceballos – LF Caballero – 1B Carreno – P J. White
POR: CF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – LF Crum – RF Lopez – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Malkus – P Taki

The Coons went up in the first inning on Tuesday, with Pucks and Waters hitting singles and Danny Rivera overrunning Waters’ ball to give Pucks enough breathing room to score the first innings’ lone run on the play. That was also already it for offense for the Coons through five innings – they had no more base hits and struck out four times against Jim White, while Taki allowed a sky-high three base hits in five innings, but also whiffed eight and didn’t seem to be in trouble any time soon.

By the sixth the question was more “how soon is now?” – Taki started out by walking Omar Sanchez, nicked Rivera, and the whole ******* game dissolved into tears with a 2-run triple by Prince Gates, who would also score before the inning was over, coming home on a groundout by Ceballos after Kissler also reached by getting brushed with a pitch. One hit, three runs for New York.

Neither pitcher completed another inning; White left with an injury in the bottom 6th, and Taki got stuck in the seventh. Lillis came in with Carreno and Brandon Fellows in scoring position, two outs, and Rivera up to hit. Felix Vazquez was sent in as righty pinch-hitter, but was out easily to Ken Crum in leftfield. The Coons didn’t get another base hit until Dave Blackshire found a pinch-hit single to center with two outs in the bottom 8th and was left on by Puckeridge. Ryan Harmer walked the bags full in the ninth, but also whiffed a pair and didn’t concede a run. Sullivan did concede a run, but saved the game anyway. Waters doubled to right in the bottom 9th, scored on a wild pitch and a Crum groundout, and that was all the Coons scratched out. 3-2 Crusaders. Waters 2-4, 2B, RBI; Blackshire (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – LF Caballero – RF D. Rivera – 3B Gates – C Kissler – 2B Russ – CF Fellows – 1B Carreno – P J. Johnson
POR: 1B Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – LF Crum – RF Lopez – CF Perez – 3B Crispin – C Philipps – P de la Cruz

Pairs of leadoff singles to begin the first and fourth innings both led to a run for New York and thus obviously a 2-0 lead. Caballero singled home Sanchez in the first, while Andrew Russ, the ********** ********, singled in Rivera for the runs. Some things never changed, like the Coons not being in a great hurry to score, and like Raffy not getting very far with his pitching. He threw 97 pitches in five innings and wasn’t seen afterwards.

While Lopez singled home Lonzo in the bottom 6th to get back to just one run behind (and thus perhaps the final score…), the Coons wanted two innings from Rule 5er Antonio Alfaro. They got one inning and the bags full with nobody out in the seventh inning. Flores came in and got a force at home from Caballero. Vazquez batted for Rivera again, so the Coons went on to Ryan Harmer. Vazquez popped out and Gates found Lonzo, and the Crusaders stranded the bases loaded. Now, if only we could get another run…! But Johnson didn’t let the bottom of the order on base in the seventh. Pucks opened the eighth with a single to center, but that tying run remained glued to the bag. Lonzo popped out, Waters grounded to short to force out Puckeridge, and Crum made another meek out. Kevin Daley made his Coons debut in the top of the ninth mostly to show him off the (thin) home crowd, gave up a leadoff single to Arturo Carreno to immediately make himself popular, and then got three outs anyhow to get out of the inning. Cuevas then was assigned the bottom 9th after having been blown up in the opener, which was interesting. The 5-6-7 were up, and Tony Lopez hit a single. Perez and Crispin made abysmal outs, though. Harry Ramsay batted for Philipps, grounded out to short, and we had a sweep on nothing but 1-run games. 2-1 Crusaders. Puckeridge 2-4; Lopez 2-3, BB, RBI;

(sigh)

Raccoons (0-3) vs. Falcons (3-1) – April 11-13, 2053

The Falcons had won three of four from the defending CL South champs from Atlanta to begin the season, scoring a league-leading 23 runs while giving up only eight themselves. They stole *12* bases (Coons: zilch). I had bad vibes. The Coons had lost six of nine against the Falcons in ’52.

Projected matchups:
Phil Baker (0-0) vs. Tyler Weems (0-0)
Victor Salcido (0-0) vs. Art Schaeffer (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Jason Wheatley (0-1, 7.20 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (0-1, 1.29 ERA)

Left, right, left, and I had a hunch that we’d start 0-6.

Game 1
CHA: CF Sharp – 1B Tinoco – LF D. Ceballos – SS Woodrome – C Weese – RF Allegood – 2B E. Stevens – 3B Arreola – P Weems
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – LF Crum – RF Lopez – CF Puckeridge – C Gowin – 3B Malkus – 1B Ramsay – P Baker

The Coons went up 1-0 in the first this time again when Lonzo singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Ken Crum’s sac fly to Matt Sharp in center, and doubles by Chris Gowin and Harry Ramsay added another run in the second. The Falcons at that point already had three line drive singles off Baker, but had yet to break through. They did so in the fourth inning, and of course it was all quite shambolic. Ian Woodrome, Kevin Weese, and Erik Stevens reached base on a walk, single, and another walk, respectively, but crucially Juan Arreola lined out to Waters for the second out of the inning. That left it to Weems, who depressingly slapped a line drive single to left to bring home a pair of runs and tie the score at two. Baker threw a wild pitch, walked Sharp, but Adrian Tinoco grounded out to Waters to keep the game tied for the moment.

Baker held on, however, and it was still 2-2 when Lonzo hit another double to center in the bottom 6th. Crum popped out, Lopez walked, and Pucks’ 1-out single to center dropped into no man’s land and Lonzo went full ham for home, breaking the tie rather easily. Chris Gowin landed an even bigger hit, socking a double to deep left to chase home the pair on base, 5-2. The inning ended with a Ramsay double play after an intentional free pass to Malkus. Ramsay then departed in a double switch in the seventh. Baker logged two outs before departing with Danny Ceballos, Ian Woodrome, and Mike Allegood – all lefty hitters – in the next four coming up. Vic Flores got the ball, and Pucks moved to first base with Perez into center. Flores got all three lefty hitters, and Kevin Weese, too, to get through eight innings. In between, Lonzo hit a single in the seventh, and stole second base, the first bag for the entire team this year.

It had also started to rain by then, which quickly worsened to an awful dousing with driving rain in 49° weather, which led to a rain delay of over an hour. But the Coons weren’t gonna win a game this year that easily – the umps sat it out, and play resumed eventually in the bottom 8th, with Lopez having drawn a leadoff walk before the weather had gone icky. Pucks reached base as well and Ed Crispin landed a pinch-hit RBI single off Kevin Clendenen for a tack-on run. With the lead up to four, Daley remained in the shed. Jim Larson had a 1-2-3 ninth instead. 6-2 Coons. Lavorano 3-4, 2 2B; Gowin 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Crispin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Baker 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

Hey, hey, a win!

And now – Salcido. (frowns)

Game 2
CHA: CF Sharp – 1B Tinoco – LF D. Ceballos – SS Woodrome – C Weese – RF Allegood – 2B E. Stevens – 3B Arreola – P Schaeffer
POR: CF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – 2B Waters – LF Crum – RF Lopez – 1B Ramsay – C Gowin – 3B Crispin – P Salcido

Salcido walked two and struck out three in the first inning, making things interesting from the get-go; Sharp and Ceballos also pulled off a double steal, but were left on when both Woodrome and Weese whiffed. Pucks hit a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, went, and was caught stealing, and it ended up the first time all year nobody scored in the first inning of a Critters game. The second? Salcido walked one more and whiffed another three (…!), while the Coons got Crum, Ramsay, and Gowin on base with a single and two walks. Crispin batted with one out, coaxed another walk out of Art Schaeffer, and that pushed home Ken Crum for a 1-0 lead. That was all; Salcido whiffed and Pucks flew out to left.

Matt Sharp struck out to begin the top 3rd, which made for ten batters not to put the ball in play against Salcido to begin the game. Tinoco did, grounding out, and Ceballos did, singling to left-center, but was stranded when Woodrome grounded out. Bottom 4th, Pucks batted again with a pair (Gowin, Crispin) in scoring position and two outs, and this time came through with a single over the head of Woodrome and a ways into left-center for a 2-run single, 3-0. Lonzo grounded out, keeping it at 3-0, but so did Salcido, throwing 107 pitches in six shutout innings, *somehow*. Malkus batted for him and drew a 2-out walk with Crispin already on base in the bottom 6th, which brought up Pucks with two outs for the third time in a row, but this time he rolled over to Erik Stevens to strand another pair.

Relief after Salcido was smooth with scoreless and harmless innings from both Hitchcock and Lillis to get through eight. This time, nobody tacked on for Portland, so Daley came out for his first save attempt for the team in the ninth inning, facing the 4-5-6 batters. Weese singled to left, bringing up Stevens, too, but Pucks hustled in to snatch Stevens’ soft 2-2 looper to shallow right and ended the game with a catch on the move. 3-0 Critters. Puckeridge 2-4, 2 RBI; Crispin 2-2, BB, RBI; Salcido 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K, W (1-0);

Game 3
CHA: CF Sharp – 1B Tinoco – LF D. Ceballos – SS Woodrome – C Weese – RF Allegood – 2B E. Stevens – 3B Arreola – P Overy
POR: 2B Waters – SS Lavorano – LF Crum – RF Lopez – CF Puckeridge – C Gowin – 3B Malkus – 1B Philipps – P Wheatley

Icky weather was back on Sunday, and while Matt Waters finally got the Coons into the home run column with a leadoff jack in the first inning, the weather soon turned sour and sent everybody into a 50-minute rain delay in the middle of the third inning, with Wheats still up 1-0. Through three there were a hit, two walks, three strikeouts, and a throwing error on his ledger, and he returned to the mound after the Coons didn’t amount to much in the bottom 3rd, but walked Ian Woodrome to begin the inning. Woodrome kindly got himself caught stealing, but Weese also walked. Mike Allegood flew out to center, and after some crisis intervention on the mound, Wheats struck out Stevens, although it was doubtful, whether he’d A) get through five, and B) with the lead.

Overy retired the Coons in order in the bottom 4th, which didn’t help with B at least, but Wheatley also got through the 8-9-1 batters without issue in the fifth, striking out Sharp. That put him on 89 pitches though, and he would not return for the sixth. Mikio Suzuki batted for him, but grounded out. Flores (two outs) and Larson (four) kept the lid on the 1-0 squeezer through the next two innings, before we got ANOTHER 50-minute rain delay out of the seventh-inning stretch. We still didn’t get a cheap one called, and instead Lillis blew it in the eighth against Sharp and Ceballos, who roped liners for a single and RBI double, respectively. Ceballos stole third base, and scored on a Woodrome sac fly to give the Falcons the lead.

Blackshire, batting for Harmer, who got out of the miserable inning, and Lonzo then went to the corners with one out in the bottom 8th against righty Josh Clem. Crum struck out, and Lopez grounded out to strand the runners. Hitchcock kept the Falcons close with a 1-2-3 ninth inning, while the Coons were up against Paul Crisler in the bottom of the inning. The right-hander had been traded to Charlotte as the main piece for Chris Gowin, who was due to bat second in the inning. He grounded out, just like Pucks had done to start the inning. Harry Ramsay batted for a hitless Malkus and hit a single to center, with Perez batting for Philipps next, and dropping a single into shallow left. Ed Crispin batted for Hitchcock – the last bat off the bench. He flew out to Ethan Whitehead in centerfield…. 2-1 Falcons. Gowin 2-4, 2B; Ramsay (PH) 1-1; Perez (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 8 – TOP SP Kennedy Adkins (1-0, 1.04 ERA) takes a no-hitter into the ninth inning in his first start of the year, but gives up singles to CIN 1B/LF/RF Rich de Luna (1-for-1, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and INF Juan Ojeda (1-for-4, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and ultimately a run in what turns out to be an incomplete 2-1 win.
April 9 – The four-time champs from Denver will have to go five without SP Gary Perrone (1-0, 1.59 ERA), who leaves his Opening Day start with an injury and is diaganosed with a torn flexor tendon that will keep him out for the entire season.
April 9 – WAS C Mitch Korfhage (.714, 0 HR, 6 RBI) collects five hits, including three doubles, and drives in three runs in the Caps’ 16-inning, 12-8 win over the Miners.
April 9 – The Loggers have only two base hits, and only one in regulation, but beat the Canadiens, 1-0 in 10 innings. MIL 2B/SS Ricky Lopez (.143, 0 HR, 1 RBI) opens the bottom 10th with a triple and scores on a wild pitch by Vancouver’s Ruben Mendez (0-1, 3.86 ERA).
April 10 – NYC SP Jim White (1-0, 0.00 ERA) could miss the entire season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 10 – Indians INF Alex de Castro (.385, 0 HR, 7 RBI) drives in half his team’s runs in a 12-5 win over the Titans, and all from the #8 spot.
April 13 – WAS SP Bruce Mark jr. (1-0, 2.12 ERA) pitches nine innings of 2-hit ball, whiffing eight… but nobody scores until the 13th inning in the Capitals’ 2-1 win over the Warriors and he’s left with a no-decision.
April 13 – SFW SP Omar Lara (0-1, 3.72 ERA) will miss the entire season to have a stretched elbow ligament retightened.

FL Player of the Week: WAS C Mitch Korfhage (.556, 0 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: TIJ OF Dustin Ransford (.458, 1 HR, 6 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Not the start we hoped for. Well. Second-fewest runs allowed, that’s something. But we are hitting .212/.292/.289 as a team, which needs no further elaboration. One homer. One stolen base. Somehow, 17 runs scored isn’t even bottoms in the league.

0-4 in 1-run games. That’s almost funny.

Almost.

At least nobody has torn out a leg so far…!

Next week: road trip to the Thunder and damn Elks. Which doesn’t bode well.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have four times as many rain delays this season as they have hit home runs.

I don’t think there’s much to add to that.

Except more homers.