[Westheim]

Three series today, three more tomorrow. IF one of you get me a cake for energy!

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Raccoons (5-0) vs. Condors (3-4) – April 12-14, 2055

The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and the dumpster behind the ballpark smelled extra pleasant on Monday morning, as the Raccoons entered the second week of the season undefeated and with the Condors coming up next. The Condors had not won any of their nine games with the Raccoons last year, but they had started the season decently enough with the fifth-most runs scored and the fifth-most runs allowed. Only one homer for them, but the best defense in the league a week into the new campaign.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (1-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Victor Scott (0-0, 7.20 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Nick Young (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (1-0, 1.50 ERA) vs. Gabe Hill (0-1, 10.38 ERA)

Something wicked was brewing: an entire 3-game set against only left-handed starting pitchers. Hah!

Game 1
TIJ: 3B Chapa – 2B D. Mercado – LF T. Duncan – 1B Witherspoon – C Lehman – CF Hildebrand – RF M. Allen – SS Medlock – P V. Scott
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – 2B Waters – RF Puckeridge – CF Lamotta – 1B Philipps – P Shui

Shui walked a pair, but didn’t allow a hit the first time through the Condors’ lineup, while the Raccoons got an early lead with a second-inning home run hit by Matt Waters. They tacked on in the third inning, which Venegas opened with a double, only to be swiftly scored on Lonzo’s single. Brassfield doubled, and while Gowin popped out, Waters walked to fill the bases… which allowed Pucks to hit into a double play to end the inning. Tim Duncan opened the fourth inning with a single, but was left on base, and when Mike Allen singled leading off the fifth, he was doubled up by Stephen Medlock. The Condors couldn’t hit, the Raccoons stopped hitting, and I nodded off for a bit in the sixth and seventh until Medlock rudely awoke me with a homer to left-center that made plenty of noise in the eighth inning, cutting the Coons’ lead in half. Shui finished the inning, however, and then Chris Gowin drew a 1-out walk off Aaron Erwin in the bottom of the eighth. Ed Crispin ran for him, but this turned out to be pointless effort; Matt Waters whacked another home run and the Raccoons tacked on two runs that way, and Tommy Gardner resisted the urge to blow the 3-run lead in the ninth inning. 4-1 Raccoons. Waters 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Philipps 1-2, BB, 2B; Shui 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-0);

Game 2
TIJ: 2B D. Mercado – 3B Chapa – LF T. Duncan – C Lehman – 1B Witherspoon – SS Medlock – CF V. Velez – RF Groom – P N. Young
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Munn – 2B Waters – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – P Adkins

Adkins had been a mess in his first start, and gave up a run right away when Domingo Mercado opened the Tuesday game with a triple to right and scored on a sac fly, but the Coons had Lonzo, Lonzo reached base, stole another base, and scored on Gowin’s 2-out single to tie the game right there in the bottom 1st. It was certainly a different start for Adkins, who had walked six the week before, but in this start walked only one batter, Tim Lehman in the fourth inning, and otherwise struck out eight. I wasn’t entirely happy with the pitch count, which rose fast and reached 102 after just six innings, which meant the end for him. The Raccoons scattered seven hits – all singles – through five innings, leaving as many on base, but nobody reached base in the bottom 6th and Adkins had to settle for a no-decision. Tanizori Tikitaki pitched a clean seventh, and Lillis a scoreless eighth, even though he needed Danny Munn to make a catch while bouncing off the fence. Hitchcock killed the middle of the order with two strikeouts in the ninth inning … but the Raccoons had yet to find the winning run, and they’d bring up the 6-7-8 batters for the bottom 9th, facing Erwin again. And there was Matt Waters again. And there was Matt Waters, peppering another home run off Aaron Erwin again…! 2-1 Critters! Venegas 2-4; Waters 2-4, HR, RBI;

There would not be an off day this week, so eventually everybody would get a day off. We also didn’t expect a left-handed starter in the four games against New York that were coming up, so the right-handed batters could wait a day longer.

Game 3
TIJ: 3B Chapa – 2B D. Mercado – LF T. Duncan – 1B Witherspoon – C Lehman – CF Hildebrand – RF M. Allen – SS Medlock – P G. Hill
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – 3B Waters – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 2B Knight – C Philipps – P Taki

Taki and first innings… Luis Chapa and Domingo Mercado both hit singles off him, each stole second base in turn, and both would be doubled home by Sam Witherspoon for a quick 2-0 lead for the Condors. The Coons again made up one run right away (only that this time it wasn’t enough to tie the game) with singles by their 1-2 batters and Waters bringing home Venegas with a groundout, but Lonzo was left in scoring position.

While Taki settled in, the Raccoons couldn’t get untracked yet. Lonzo was on base with a 2-out infield single in the bottom 3rd, but was caught stealing. The bottom 4th began with Brassfield grounding out, before Hill lost a fastball that homed in on Matt Waters’ fuzzy ears. Waters shrieked, turned at the last moment, but couldn’t get out of the way and was beaned, collapsing in the box at once. I wailed, and while Waters sat up after a few seconds, he looked like his bell had been very much rung and was removed from the game. Ed Crispin would take over his spot and third base. Hill, somewhat shaken, walked Munn on four pitches, but then got out of the inning with a Lamotta grounder and by putting up a K before the Night.

Taki ran up eight strikeouts through five, then got taken off the hook when Philipps drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, he bunted him over, and Venegas socked an RBI double to left. Lonzo’s RBI single to left-center flipped the score to 3-2 Coons. That was still the score in the seventh when Jayden Durant nailed Venegas in the shoulder, and by now we would be glad if the Condors could get outta town. Taki would go eight innings and strike out ten batters, which was nothing to complain about as a whole, it was just those damn first innings… Gardner got three groundouts in the ninth inning to complete the sweep. 3-2 Raccoons. Venegas 2-3, 2B, RBI; Lavorano 3-4, RBI; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1; Taki 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (2-0);

When I went to see Matt Waters after the game, he looked at me with an innocent smile and wondered out loud why Mommy wasn’t answering the phone. Didn’t look like he’d be back to normal within a few days, so he was off to the DL.

Our new head trainer, Luis Silva, prescribed him daily baths in his own mixture of oils, which confused me slightly. Dr. Silva, isn’t the injury in his head? Do we have to press him under water? – No, I’m not a doctor. Are you?

The Coons brought back Naughty Joe, which was such a thrill. His old number #21 had been given to Lamotta, so he was assigned #49 now.

Raccoons (8-0) vs. Crusaders (8-1) – April 15-18, 2055

Unstoppable force against unmovable object? These two teams had gone 16-1 so far in the new season, and I was no expert, but with a 4-game set up for the weekend, SOMETHING had to give. New York had two 4-game winning streaks on the season, ranked first in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, but with a rotation with an ERA near five, which was a weird mix. The pen was sturdy, but they ranked in the bottom half in defense. Prince Gates was already on 12 RBI. The Coons had won the series last year, 10-8.

Projected matchups:
Rafael de la Cruz (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Alex Murillo (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-0, 5.00 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (1-0, 5.40 ERA)
He Shui (2-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. Kyle Turay (2-0, 1.69 ERA)
Kennedy Adkins (1-0, 1.64 ERA) vs. TBD

Three right-handers, and then another one in Edwin Sopena (2-0, 5.25 ERA), if he recovered of a mild calf strain in time for Sunday, or another one in Jim White (1-0, 8.00 ERA) if the Crusaders would send him on short rest, or whatever else they’d want to throw at us.

Yes, it was first vs. second, but it was also April. I had no qualms sitting all of the top-half-of-the-lineup guys in this series.

Game 1
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – LF D. Rivera – RF Culp – 1B Sevilla – C Kissler – 2B Russ – P A. Murillo
POR: LF Brassfield – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – 3B Crispin – 2B Knight – P de la Cruz

The series didn’t get going all too well for the Raccoons. Knight made an error in the second inning that put Danny Rivera on base, Raffy walked Nate Culp, and then got taken deep by Raul Sevilla for a 3-0 deficit. He retired the next three batters, but had two runners around him again in the third inning when both Prince Gates and Zach Suggs reached on errors by Crispin and Knight, which sugged. Raffy pulled through that one, though, but with all the errors and the extra stressful pitches his pitch count was escalating almost all by itself. At least he got even in the fourth inning, quite literally – after Danny Munn opened the inning with a homer to narrow the score to 3-1, Gowin and Pucks socked consecutive doubles to scrub off another run. Pucks then went for home on a Rojas single, but was thrown out by Nate Culp. Rojas went to second, but Crispin popped out. Knight was walked intentionally, bringing up Raffy with two on and two out, and tying the score with an RBI single to right-center. Brassfield legged out an infield roller that filled the bases, and Lonzo flipped the score all the way round with a dinker behind Suggs for an RBI single, 4-3. Danny Munn got a second RBI in the inning by drawing a full-count walk, and that was the end for Murillo. Ken Quisenberry took over, but gave up a 2-run single to left to Gowin before getting Pucks to strike out to end the 7-run onslaught.

Raffy would last six innings… but gave up an RBI triple to Sevilla in the sixth inning after a leadoff walk to Culp and surrendered two more runs that way, Sevilla scoring on Aaron Kissler’s groundout, getting New York back to 7-5. In the seventh and eighth, the Coons ran into Neil Hamann, who didn’t allow anything much across two innings, but Walters and Hitchcock also sawed off any Crusaders attempts to get on base. It would be Gardner and the bottom of the order in the ninth inning then. Kissler grounded out. Andrew Russ (snarls!) whiffed (grins). Mike Seidman extended the game with a pinch-hit single, but was left on base when Omar Sanchez grounded out to Knight to end the game. 7-5 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-5; Munn 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gowin 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Boese (PH) 1-1;

Lonzo got Friday off, and then it would probably be Brassfield and Gowin to the bench on Saturday – that would sit everybody down at least once.

Game 2
NYC: CF O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF Culp – 1B Sevilla – C Kissler – LF G. Cabrera – 2B Russ – P Seiter
POR: 3B Venegas – LF Brassfield – RF Munn – C Gowin – CF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – SS Knight – 2B Boese – P Brobeck

Brobeck threw two scoreless innings, giving up two hits, but when he returned for the third inning, he issued a leadoff walk to Russ, then left with some sort of physical complaint. I made an annoyed noise, while the Raccoons readied Hyun-soo Bak for a few innings. The Korean hadn’t pitched so far this week, surrendered Russ’ run for a 1-0 Crusaders lead, but would go on to throw three innings on 30 pitches without giving up a run of his own, and when that job was done and over with was also the only Raccoons batter with a base hit in the box score, having hit a single to right in the third inning. Lonzo would bat for him in the bottom 5th after a walk to Matt Knight and a single by Naughty Joe put runners on the corners with one out, but lined out to short. However, Venegas singled home the tying run, the trailing runners made it to scoring position when the ball was fumbled by the Crusaders, and then Trent Brassfield came through with a 2-run single to right to take a 3-1 lead. Danny Munn found another hit, but Gowin flew out to center to end the inning.

Matt Walters got an inning done, and then the rarely-praised replacement middle infield put another run together in the bottom 6th when Knight doubled and was singled across by Naughty Joe. The Coons pen continued to clamp down on any attempts to score; while Sencion in the seventh and Tazinaki in the eighth inning both put a runner on base, neither allowed that runner to third base and completed their assigned innings. Hitchcock got the ninth, got the first two out, then gave up a double to Sevilla. On the very next pitch, Kissler grounded out to Knight to end the game. 4-1 Critters! Knight 2-3, 2B; Boese 2-4, RBI; Bak 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0) and 1-1;

To my utter amazement, Luis Silva wrapped Kyle Brobeck’s bum ankle in a wet towel filled with an assortment spring blossoms over night, and he was as good as new on Saturday morning. No DL stint necessary, and he might even get a turn at third base before his next turn on the hill!

The Crusaders made a trade between games, acquiring longtime Falcons infielder Erik Stevens (.256, 0 HR, 4 RBI) from L.A. for C Aaron Kissler (.250, 0 HR, 2 RBI) and non-prospect Joe Jones, who they had signed just four days ago, a week after the former 10th-rounder had been released by the Raccoons.

Game 3
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – 3B Gates – SS Z. Suggs – RF D. Rivera – LF Culp – CF Monson – 1B E. Stevens – C Seidman – P Turay
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – LF Puckeridge – 1B Rojas – C Philipps – CF Cramer – 2B Knight – P Shui

While the game was scoreless early on, the two pitchers had very different days. Through four innings, He Shui gave up five hits, but also struck out five and didn’t allow a run. Especially impressive I found strikeouts to Rivera and Culp to end the fourth inning after Gates and Suggs had singled their way to the corners, ending the inning that way. Shui was also the only Raccoon to reach base the first time through against Turay, and he did so only on an error by Zach Suggs. Danny Munn got into the H column with a solo jack in the fourth, giving Shui a 1-0 lead. Rojas doubled the same inning, but was left on base.

New York was back on the corners in the fifth inning, and then with nobody out. Omar Sanchez drew a leadoff walk, then reached third base on Gates’ single. Suggs struck out, and Rivera lined out to Rojas, who stepped on first base to double up Gates astray, ending the inning. Instead, the Raccoons scratched out another run on singles by Knight and Venegas in the same inning, with Shui bunting Knight to second base on his turn. The Crusaders were still shut out through six, but Shui had been a busy bee and was on 98 pitches by that point. Seidman lined out and Turay whiffed, and that would be it for him; he was lifted for Sencion with Omar Sanchez up. Sencion got out of the inning, but then allowed singles to Suggs and Rivera in the eighth inning. The Raccoons could not bring Hitchcock – two on and one out with a right-hander up was HIS spot – since he had been out two days straight, and didn’t want to send Gardner, also busy this week, for a 5-out save. Norizaki it was, and the Japanese “rookie” got a double play grounder from Culp to kill the inning. Gardner was then in the game for the ninth inning. Jason Monson struck out, but Erik Stevens dropped a bloop single between Knight and Munn. No problem, though – like Culp the inning before, Raul Sevilla would find Lonzo for a double play to end the inning and the game. 2-0 Coons. Munn 2-4, HR, RBI; Shui 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (3-0);

Game 4
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – CF G. Cabrera – SS Z. Suggs – LF Culp – 3B Gates – 1B Sevilla – RF Monson – C Seidman – P Sopena
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Brassfield – 1B Rojas – CF Puckeridge – 2B Knight – P Adkins

Sopena pitched, the calf be damned. The Coons brought Lonzo in the first and Pucks in the second into scoring position, but stranded either of them. Adkins also seemed to have constant traffic, with a runner on base in each of the early innings, and he had quite a few full counts, too, taking 50 pitches for three shutout innings. Whether it would matter much, was a different question entirely, because the weather was iffy from the start on Sunday, and by the fourth inning the sky was dark and starting to leak a few drops. The game remained scoreless, though, neither team managing to overcome the other pitcher, but in the bottom 5th, with a rain-shortened game a real possibility after there had already been a 20-minute rain delay between the fourth and the fifth innings, the Raccoons put Pucks and Knight in scoring position with a leadoff walk and a double to right, respectively. Adkins gave himself the lead with a sac fly to center, while Venegas smacked a double to left to bring in Knight from second base. Lonzo grounded out and Munn flew out to deep left, keeping the score at 2-0.

Adkins had a quick sixth, while the Coons then walked the bags full in the bottom of the frame. Gowin and Pucks walked under their own volition, while Knight was put on intentionally after a wild pitch advanced the runners with two outs. The Raccoons were in a bit of a pinch here, with the pen not exactly bored recently, but Adkins was also near 90 pitches and there were two outs. But we already had the lead – Adkins was sent to bat, whiffed, but then pitched another inning with two strikeouts before sitting down after seven shutout innings and 110 pitches.

Lillis walked Sanchez and gave up a single to Suggs in the eighth, but then Culp popped out to short to end the inning. Bottom 8th, Trent Brassfield provided some cushion with a leadoff jack off Sopena, extending the lead to 3-0. Rojas walked and Knight reached on an error to keep the inning going. Brent Cramer popped out as pinch-hitter with one gone, but Ed Crispin hit for Venegas with two down and singled to right to get home another run. Lonzo flew out to center, giving a 4-0 lead to Hyun-soo Bak, who put the first two New Yorkers on base as Gates singled and Sevilla walked. That gave us a save opportunity, but we reeeeeally didn’t want to use another reliever. Monson hit into a double play, which took the save off, and Seidman struck out to complete a stunning four-game sweep. 4-0 Furballs! Venegas 2-4, 2B, RBI; Crispin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Puckeridge 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Adkins 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (2-0);

A dozen up, a dozen down!!

Raccoons (12-0) vs. Loggers (5-7) – April 19-21, 2055

The Loggers had been rained out on Sunday, so arrived with a day off for this three-game set, the last on the homestand. While the Raccoons had conceded the fewest runs in the league, the Loggers had scored the fewest runs, in both instances under 2.5 per game. They were fourth in runs allowed, but that made for a -15 run differential already (Critters: +35). We had to make good for last year, when the Loggers beat us 10 out of 18 games.

Projected matchups:
Seisaku Taki (2-0, 1.93 ERA) vs. Luke Moses (0-2, 5.65 ERA)
Rafael de la Cruz (1-0, 5.25 ERA) vs. Juan Mercado (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Kyle Brobeck (0-0, 4.91 ERA) vs. Jeff Fox (0-1, 12.15 ERA)

Mercado, Fox, and Tyler Riddle (1-1, 2.57 ERA) were left-handers, although with the unscheduled day off on Sunday they had some leverage for this series.

Game 1
MIL: 3B T. Edwards – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Callaia – C C. Thomas – LF E. Cobb – CF Starnes – 2B de Kok – P Moses
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – RF Munn – C Gowin – LF Brassfield – 1B Rojas – CF Puckeridge – 2B Knight – P Taki

The clouds were still suspect on Monday, as was Taki’s first inning. He walked Robby Gaxiola and Gaudencio Callaia, and Chris Thomas singled home a 2-out run to put the Loggers on top. Eric Cobb grounded out to Venegas to strand two, while Venegas opened the bottom 1st with a wallbanger double in right. He was thrown out at the plate on Lonzo’s single, but Lonzo advanced to second base on the throw home and scored when Munn hit another single. Gowin found a double play to end the inning, but the Coons went up 2-1 the inning after when Knight managed to break up the double play when he grounded to short with one out and Rojas and Pucks on the corners; the run was unearned thanks to Gaxiola’s bobble that had put Pucks on base.

Then the offense just died. Taki kept a 2-hitter through six, while the Raccoons hit a few more scattered singles, but never reached even third base anymore. Then Chris Thomas shocked the ballpark by hitting a jack off Taki in the seventh inning, which tied the score at two. A run off Taki AFTER the first inning?? What was this sorcery!!?? Taki finished the inning, but had to settle for a no-decision; with the 2-3-4-5 batters all left-handed and up for the eighth inning, the Raccoons sent Walters. He retired the first three of them in order, but had not come on in a double switch and was thus hit for to begin the bottom 8th. Crispin flew out to Perry Pigman in his spot, but Venegas reached base, stole second, and when Moses walked Lonzo, he was yanked for righty Kyle Conner. Munn whiffed, Gowin grounded out, and the game remained tied. Hitchcock had the ninth, gave up a single to Eric Cobb, but the pinch-runner Bobby Rivera was doubled up by Dennis Starnes’ grounder to short, and the Coons still had a shot to walk off with a single run. Brassfield grounded out against Conner, as did Rojas. Pucks with two outs flew to center. Stretch! Stretch! Is it…!? GONE!!! 3-2 Critters! Venegas 3-4, 2B; Taki 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

13-0! Will madness ever stop…!?

Game 2
MIL: 3B T. Edwards – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Callaia – C C. Thomas – CF M. Martinez – LF E. Cobb – 2B de Kok – P J. Mercado
POR: LF Venegas – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – RF Munn – CF Lamotta – 3B Crispin – C Philipps – 2B Boese – P de la Cruz

Once again, a deficit; Gaxiola singled to right, Pigman doubled to left, and just like that the Loggers had another 1-0 lead. However, the Coons also once more came right back. Venegas singled to center, stole second, and scored on a Lonzo single in the bottom 1st. That remained the score all the way to the rain delay in the bottom 4th. Raffy had bother enough with just the Loggers, without the weather getting involved. He threw 55 pitches in four innings, relying quite a bit on the defense to make plays. He returned to the mound after a 30-minute rain delay for the fifth inning, got two outs, then threw away Travis Edwards’ grounder for a 2-base error just when a quick 1-2-3 was within reach. At least Gaxiola sailed out to center where Lamotta made the catch and the go-ahead run was stranded at second base. Gaudencio Callaia came just as far in the sixth inning on a single and a stolen base, with Miguel Martinez grounding out to Crispin.

Both teams were on just three hits in the middle of the sixth, but Brassfield singled into shallow center to begin the bottom 6th, but then it took two outs for a Crispin single to even move that go-ahead run to second base. Mercado lost Philipps on balls, then lost the ball itself, getting replaced with righty Dan Bell. With three on and two outs, the Raccoons sent Pucks to hit for Naughty Joe, but he grounded out to Teo de Kok. Instead the Loggers scored in the seventh. Dennis Starnes singled, stole second, reached third on Philipps’ errant throw, and then scored on a suicide squeeze, which was quite the way to see a 13-game winning streak slide into the shredder. Raffy was stuck; he got two fielders’ choices, but was lifted when he looked like he was heaving rocks to the plate; Bak entered with Rojas in a double switch, since the #9 spot was up next, but on his first pitch Edwards was caught stealing to end the inning. He offered a leadoff walk to Bobby Rivera in the eighth, was lifted for Lillis, but Rivera stole second and scored on two productive outs, 3-1. And the Coons? Went down to Nelson Moreno, of all right-handers, in the bottom 8th. Tzatziki pitched a scoreless ninth, but the Raccoons had to make up two runs with the bottom half of the lineup just to get even against righty Dave Lister. Gowin, Philipps, and Knight went down in order. 3-1 Loggers.

Noooooo…!!! (sobs into Honeypaws’ fuzzy belly)

Just when I thought we might go 162-0!

Game 3
MIL: LF B. Rivera – SS Gaxiola – RF Pigman – 1B Callaia – C C. Thomas – 2B F. Vazquez – 3B T. Edwards – CF M. Martinez – P J. Fox
POR: 3B Venegas – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – C Gowin – RF Puckeridge – CF Lamotta – 1B Rojas – 2B Knight – P Brobeck

Brobeck was hit by a truck right away, giving up a walk to Rivera, a double to Gaxiola, and the runs on productive outs. Thomas hit another double, Felix Vazquez drew another walk, but Edwards grounded out to Lonzo to get it over with. Brobeck never got his crap together in this game, giving up singles to Callaia and Thomas in the third inning, then a 2-out, 3-run bomb to Edwards. He also had to drive in the team’s first run himself with a 1-out RBI single to score Pedro Rojas in the bottom 3rd, 5-1. A Gaxiola error put Venegas on, and Lonzo walked, loading the bases and bringing up Brassfield as the tying run. Fox got a crucial strikeout, then had Miguel Martinez chase down Gowin’s fly to end the inning.

Brobeck retired nobody in the fourth, allowing hits to Fox and Rivera, then a walk to Gaxiola, and was ax-iola-ed. Walters retired the three left-handers in the 3-4-5 spots, conceding one more run on Callaia’s groundout, 6-1, then added three more outs in the fifth inning. Sencion was next, had a scoreless sixth, but then put Pigman and Callaia on the corners, and had one of those runs surrendered by Hyun-soo Bak with a sac fly to right. The Coons had nothing.

Which made it all the more confusing that when the rain, that had hung around for almost a week now, made a reappearance in the seventh inning and extended the seventh-inning stretch to a whopping 127-minute rain delay, and despite the Loggers up by six the game was not called…! There was hardly a soul left in the stands after two hours, though, and who could blame them? The Raccoons had nothing in the bottom 7th, but Nelson Moreno walked Brassfield with one out and then gave up a double to Gowin in the bottom 8th. Pucks struck out, Munn grounded out… nobody scored. The ninth was no better; Ed Crispin hit a 2-out double, but was stranded when Naughty Joe, last guy off the bench, grounded out. 7-1 Loggers. Puckeridge 2-4; Walters 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

April 13 – The Crusaders trade 2B/SS Chris Navarro (.222, 0 HR, 4 RBI) to the Scorpions for OF Jason Monson (.348, 1 HR, 5 RBI).
April 13 – Elbow ligament damage costs RIC CL Adam Bates (0-0, 4.50 ERA) the entire 2055 season.
April 13 – The Scorpions scored a staggering 13 runs in the fourth inning against the Rebels, whipping them 17-4 at the end of the day. SAC SP Josh Barbieri (2-0, 1.76 ERA) goes 7.1 innings for the win, and drives in four runs with the stick, poking a double and a single.
April 14 – Another week, another walkoff balk. This time RIC MR Ryan Bolin (1-2, 7.71 ERA, 1 SV) twitches the Scorpions’ LF Josh Spath (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI) across for an 11-inning, 3-2 loss.
April 15 – The Knights get a double-whammy, losing OF/1B Jon Alade (.237, 1 HR, 6 RBI) with a sprained ankle for a month, and 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.290, 1 HR, 2 RBI) for at least two weeks with a knee contusion.
April 16 – MIL SP Josh Costello (1-1, 0.82 ERA) shuts out the Titans on three hits for a 7-0 win.
April 17 – In a game with only six total base hits, SFB INF/LF/RF Adam Peltier (.238, 1 HR, 5 RBI) lifts a home run for a 1-0 Bayhawks win over the Falcons.
April 18 – SAC C Kevin Weese (.388, 0 HR, 5 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak with a single in a 6-3 loss to the Gold Sox.
April 20 – The Thunder beat the Knights, 7-5 in 16 innings. Both teams were even at four after six innings, then scored a run each in the 14th before the Thunder broke through in the top 16th and kept the store closed in the bottom of the inning.
April 21 – For the second time in five days, the Bayhawks’ Adam Peltier (.254, 3 HR, 8 RBI) goes yard for the only run in a 1-0 win, this time against the Condors.
April 22 – The Crusaders destroy the Indians, 17-0, including a 7-run seventh. Amazingly, no Crusaders batters has more than two RBI, and they only have 13 in total, since the Indians also manage to mix in a cavalcade of errors and wild pitches.

FL Player of the Week: DEN OF Bill Ramires (.373, 3 HR, 11 RBI), batting .462 (12-26) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN C Tristan Waker (.463, 1 HR, 5 RBI), slapping .591 (13-22) with 1 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

2-game losing streak! The sky is falling! Aaaaack!!

Okay, perhaps 13-0 was not sustainable. I am surprised we got that far. We’re still first in runs allowed, but we don’t have scored that many runs overall. In fact we have only scored 15 runs in our last six games.

First multi-city road trip starts on Friday, with a difficult trip to the Thunder and Knights. We will host the Titans and Indians after that.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have won 13 straight games against the Condors.

That’s all three this year and all nine last year, and the final meeting in 2053, a 3-0 win for Taki on August 3. The day before that, the Condors had swamped the Raccoons, 15-2, but we were now paying them back bit by bit.