[Westheim]

Raccoons (63-61) @ Indians (50-74) – August 21-23, 2056

Another round against the horrendous Indians, whom the Raccoons were a no less horrendous 6-6 against this season. The run differential on Indy had piled up to -146 by now, and they were the worst pitching and second-worst offensive team. There was little to like about the roster, which even included Bill Quinteros (.248, 6 HR, 36 RBI) slugging over 130 points less than just the year prior. Bobby Anderson had absconded in the winter, and in addition to all that, they had traded Dan Sandoval, who (still) led the team in all triple crown categories with a .269, 8 HR, 56 RBI line, to the Stars. Add on seven players on the DL, some crucial to the continued operation of a baseball team, f.e. Enrique Ortiz, Juan Llampallas, Mike Gilmore, and a host of replacement fodder that you’d expect on a last-place team.

If the Coons bungled this series, they didn’t deserve no playoffs anyway.

Projected matchups:
He Shui (11-7, 3.82 ERA) vs. Jeremy Fetta (4-13, 5.02 ERA)
Craig Kniep (6-10, 3.98 ERA) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (2-0, 1.54 ERA)
Seisaku Taki (11-11, 3.41 ERA) vs. Salvatore Calderon (5-6, 3.43 ERA)

Fitzgibbon was the sole southpaw coming up here. He would make his 61st ABL appearance, and the fourth as a starting pitcher.

The Raccoons were still four paws short with Lonzo under the ban hammer for the first two games of the series.

Game 1
POR: CF Royer – RF Callaia – LF Kirkwood – 1B Puckeridge – 3B Venegas – 2B Allred – C Fiore – SS Espinoza – P Shui
IND: CF Abel – SS Bahena – 2B A. Rios – 1B B. Quinteros – RF McIntyre – LF Perry – 3B M. Coto – C Keels – P Fetta

Chris Kirkwood wasted no time; following a Callaia single, he hit a jack to left in the first inning, his 17th of the year, and put the Raccoons 2-0 in front. He Shui also wasted no time; he gave up singles to Kevin Abel (who?), Bernie Bahena, and Antonio Rios to begin his day, and the Indians got the tying runs across on Rios’ single and Bill Quinteros’ sac fly. It would only get worse. The Indians’ battery, Fetta and Bob Keels (seriously, who?) bopped base hits off Shui in the bottom 2nd, Abel singled home a run, and Bahena doubled in a pair. When Rios singled home the shortstop, Shui was yanked after four outs completed, down 6-2.

Fetta was not lasting much longer, although he left with an injury in the third inning after Pucks had just doubled home Kirkwood to shorten the score to 6-3. Bubba Poss took over from there and stranded Pucks in scoring position and got the Indians through five innings with spotless relief – although Ricky Herrera out-did him, getting 12 outs in perfect garbage relief of Shui, and thus probably also a bus ticket due south after the game. Pearls to the pigs and so on.

Chris Edwards invited the tying run to the plate in the seventh inning, putting Steve Royer on base with a single, and then walked Callaia. Kirkwood hit a sizzler, but right at Bahena, and Pucks grounded out easily to Rios, ending the inning. Instead, Abel homered off Tanizaki in the bottom of the inning, getting the Indians to slam distance. But: the tying run was at the plate again in the eighth against a parade of relievers for the Arrowheads. Caballero, Fiore, and Espinoza were all waiting for Adriano Chavez to work the magic against newly-arrived righty Bill Lawrence with one out, but his grounder to Quinteros was almost turned for two; Espinoza was out at second, and Chavez barely beat the return throw, while Caballero scored. Royer flew out to center to end the inning. But, down by three, the tying run was at the plate AGAIN in the ninth inning… Callaia singled off Randy Slocum, who walked Pucks on four pitches, all with one gone. Anton Venegas singled to left on a 3-2 pitch, but Jason Perry nearly got there and Callaia had to freeze momentarily, and so could not attempt to score. Bases loaded for Caballero, who could do no better than a sac fly. With the team down to the final out, and the double play no longer a topic, Rams batted for Fiore, walked, and thus moved the tying run (Venegas) into scoring position for… well, there was only Marcos Chavez left on the base, so we’d stick to Espinoza. He struck out, and that was the game. 7-5 Indians. Callaia 2-4, BB; Kirkwood 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Puckeridge 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Caballero (PH) 1-1, RBI; Herrera 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Jeremy Fetta (4-13, 5.14 ERA) was out for the year with a torn labrum, which came tantalizingly close to saying that he was put out of his misery by the injury.

The pen was still in shape, mostly; so even with Herrera having thrown 40 pitches and not advised to be used again in this series, he remained on the roster for the time being. We couldn’t afford another windy outing by Kniep, though…

Game 2
POR: CF Royer – 1B Callaia – LF Kirkwood – RF Caballero – 3B Venegas – SS Espinoza – 2B A. Chavez – C M. Chavez – P Kniep
IND: CF French – SS Bahena – 1B B. Quinteros – 2B A. Rios – LF J. Garza – RF McIntyre – 3B M. Coto – C Werman – P Fitzgibbon

Two walks and a Caballero single loaded the bases in the first inning, but with the sacks stacked, Daniel Espinoza lined out to Bahena to strand everybody. Two more were stranded when Venegas grounded out to Bernie Bahena in the third inning, while Kniep was rocketing up the pitch count, but at least with strikeouts and not with walks. Through three scoreless innings, he walked one and whiffed six Indians.

The Coons’ own scrubs, Espinoza and Adriano Chavez, opened the top 4th with singles and went to the corners, and when Danny Werman couldn’t contain a wayward 0-2 pitch to Marcos Chavez, the wild pitch gave the Coons a 1-0 lead as Espinoza sprinted home. Strikeouts to the battery and a Royer groundout then left Adriano Chavez in scoring position. Oscar Caballero went yard in the fifth inning, 2-0, but Kniep kept having busy innings; although the Indians disappeared for the minimum in the fourth and fifth innings, they did so with three long counts for flyball outs in the fourth, then had Will McIntyre draw a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th in a full count. Mario Coto struck out, as did Werman, while McIntyre went for second base on the 3-2 pitch and was somehow thrown out by Marcos Chavez in a strike-‘em-out-throw-‘em-out double play. Kniep’s pitch count was into the 80s now.

Marcos Chavez, with eyes closed, flailed a 1-1 pitch over the fence in left in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 3-0. Kniep and Royer hit 2-out singles past either flank of Rios, but Jose Garza hurried in to snare a Callaia fly to end the inning. PH Hugo Munoz managed another leadoff walk off Kniep in the bottom of the inning, but the Indians then disappeared 1-2-3 quite quickly and remained off the board. The Coons were committed – we squeezed the last drop of blood out of Kniep, which amounted to a final tally of seven shutout innings on 110 pitches, while the Indians never reached third base against him!

Lefty Tony Martinez then walked the bases full with the Chavezes, pinch-ramming Hits, and nobody out in the eighth inning. The 1-2-3 were mostly disappointing; Callaia hit an RBI single, but the other two popped out, and Caballero grounded out to short to end the inning with three runners still on base. In came the Coons pen, then, and out went all pretense of cohesion. Alex Rios got an out from Werman, but then allowed a single to PH Kevin Price. Smelling danger, we removed him for Lillis, but Lillis retired ******** nobody. Bobby French tripled, Bernie Bahena singled, and Bill Quinteros walked, and all of a sudden it was a 4-2 game with the tying runs on base. Matt Walters came in a double switch along with Pucks, got a grounder to short from Rios, but the double play couldn’t be turned because Adriano Chavez had his legs sliced out from under him by Quinteros and left with an injury, replaced by Allred. Jose Garza then grounded out. Walters in the ninth retired the first two batters, but then inexplicably lost Werman and Perry on balls with two down. He rejiggered himself just in time to strike out French and save the game after all. 4-2 Critters. Caballero 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Kniep 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K, W (7-10); Walters 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, SV (38);

Adriano Chavez remained on the roster for the rubber game, but was ruled out by Luis Silva. At least Lonzo’s suspension had FINALLY run out, so we merely remained four paws short…

Game 3
POR: RF Callaia – SS Lavorano – LF Kirkwood – CF Caballero – 3B Brobeck – 1B Puckeridge – 2B Allred – C Fiore – P Taki
IND: CF French – SS Bahena – 1B B. Quinteros – 2B A. Rios – LF J. Garza – RF McIntyre – 3B M. Coto – C Keels – P S. Calderon

The Raccoons loaded the bases with their 1-2-4 batters, and left them loaded with their 5-6 batters in the first inning, so everything was working within normal parameters. The Coons then had Ryan Allred caught stealing in the second inning, as well as Fiore on base and forced out on Taki’s bad bunt, and even worse was his pitch to Mario Coto in the bottom of the inning, which was deposited over the fence to give Indy a 1-0 lead. They made it 2-0 in the third, as French doubled and Bahena singled him in, both threw the left side. Offensive attempts from either side soon died down entirely and the game absolutely breezed through the middle innings and the seventh until the silence was rudely interrupted by a 1-out solo homer Kirkwood bashed to left in the eighth inning, reminding everybody that, oh yeah, there was a baseball game going on! And the score was now 2-1. Calderon retired the next two batters without fuss, though. Taki offered a leadoff walk to Bob Keels in the bottom 8th. He was forced out by Kevin Price, who advanced on French’s groundout, then tried to score from second base on Bahena’s single to center, but was thrown out by 20 feet by Caballero, ending the inning. With one out, Allred singled off Randy Slocum in the ninth, was forced out by Royer, and the game ended with Ramsay grounding out. 2-1 Indians. Allred 2-4; Taki 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (11-12);

Valiant, but pointless complete-game effort for Taki. The rest of the bunch was sent to bed without second dinner and without a goodnight kiss.

Thursday was off, and also the day we shuffled Adriano Chavez off to the DL with a sprained wrist that might or might not cost him the rest of the season. The Raccoons needed somebody to cover second base and turned to Arturo Bribiesca, who had been demoted at the start of July, had since dropped his batting average in AAA by 22 points to .293, and especially had missed six weeks with a hammy.

Raccoons (64-63) vs. Bayhawks (53-73) – August 25-27, 2056

Here was another last-place team to look bad against, although in this case we had actually already bagged the season series, 5-1. San Fran ranked bottoms in runs scored with 3.8 runs per game, and their average pitching couldn’t keep up. Their run differential was a relatively modest -55, though.

Projected matchups:
Kyle Brobeck (5-5, 4.37 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (6-8, 3.68 ERA)
Sean Sweeton (11-7, 2.87 ERA) vs. Charlie Hudson (4-6, 3.76 ERA)
He Shui (11-8, 4.13 ERA) vs. Bill Grau (2-1, 2.16 ERA)

The series started with a southpaw and would most likely end with one on Southpaw Sunday, although we didn’t yet know whether that would be swingman Bill Grau or more established starter Jeff Fox (4-6, 3.23 ERA). With Milt Cantrell and Bob Ruggiero (plus outfielder Armando Caban) on the DL, they’re rotation was in a bit of a fluid state.

Brobeck would get two turns in the rotation between consecutive Thursday off days, and who even knew whether we wanted to call anybody up for September anymore. The kits in AAA weren’t exactly filing the best applications…

Game 1
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – 1B P. Fowler – 2B A. Montoya – C Fuller – CF A. Walker – LF Anker – RF Tomko – P Overy
POR: RF Callaia – SS Lavorano – LF Kirkwood – CF Caballero – P Brobeck – 3B Venegas – 1B Ramsay – C M. Chavez – 2B Bribiesca

Tim Fuller singled off Brobeck, was forced out by former Elk Aaron Walker, and then Grant Anker (it was a week of “who?”, wasn’t it?) popped a homer over the fence in left-center to put the last-place team on top, 2-0. Caballero’s leadoff triple in the bottom 2nd led to a run eventually after Brobeck walked and Venegas hit into a double play, but the latter wouldn’t get an RBI for his bothers. No permanent rally magic ensued, and instead Brobeck kept getting slapped around. He was clipped for three singles and a run in the third inning, then two singles and no run(s) in both the fourth and fifth, and looked just terrible in general, but limped through six innings, with Chris Tomko’s single in the sixth the tenth and final hit off him in the rather dismal outing. At least he didn’t walk anybody…

But Brobeck wasn’t all done yet; he was up third to bat in the bottom 6th and came on after Caballero hit a 1-out single in a full count. Brobeck swiped at the first pitch he got from Overy and dinked it into the left-center gap for an RBI double, shortening the score to 4-2. Overy walked Venegas, but then struck out Rams and Marcos Chavez to strand the tying runs. Tanizaki and Rios offered scoreless innings to hold the Baybirds close, and the Baybirds invited a comeback when rightfielder Lupe Pina dropped Caballero’s easy fly to begin the bottom 8th for an error. Pucks pinch-hit for Rios against right-hander Ralph Needham, but Aaron Walker grabbed his deep drive on the run. Venegas and Ramsay made rather meek outs to just waste the free runner, and Dave Lister retired Royer, Allred, and Callaia in order in the ninth……. 4-2 Bayhawks. Caballero 2-4, 3B;

Getting close to the point where they’ll find bodies floating down the river in Longview.

Game 2
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – 1B P. Fowler – 2B A. Montoya – C Fuller – CF A. Walker – LF Anker – RF Tomko – P C. Hudson
POR: RF Callaia – SS Lavorano – LF Kirkwood – CF Caballero – 1B Puckeridge – 3B Venegas – 2B Allred – C Fiore – P Sweeton

The weather forecast for the game was Oregonian, so maybe grab a lead soon, boys? Pucks obliged and hit a solo homer to right in the second inning, but the Bayhawks had stranded runners on the corners in the top 2nd against Sweeton, and he began the third inning with a wayward breaking ball that smacked Charlie Hudson on the kneecap and led to the opposing pitcher to be taken out of the ballgame. Reliever Steve Winnett pinch-ran, moved to second on Xavier Reyes’ single, but then was caught running on Adam Peltier’s liner, not expecting Pucks to leap and catch that ball. Pucks leapt, Pucks caught, and Pucks zinged it to second base to double off the runner astray. Reyes then was caught stealing to complete a wicked inning. Pucks would start another double play I’d be less grinning for in the bottom 4th, and the score remained 1-0 until the sixth when Lonzo singled, stole his first base in almost two weeks, and then came home on Caballero’s 2-out single, 2-0. After a balk and a walk, Venegas struck out to end the inning.

…and then the whole lead went out into the Willamette in the seventh inning. Leadoff single for Tim Fuller, another single to center for Aaron Walker, and Gustavo Jacinto advanced the runners with a groundout. Chris Tomko’s grounder brought in one run, Eric Cobb’s pinch-hit single another, and just like that it was two-all. Sweeton would pitch another inning to stay in the tie through eight innings and 108 pitches, while the Raccoons put the leadoff man on base with Kirkwood against Cody Lovett in the bottom 8th… on an uncaught third strike. Whatever ******* works. Caballero singled, but Pucks whiffed and Venegas grounded out, and only now Kirkwood even reached third base. Ryan Allred was batting an inexplicable .346 and was a lefty, and the Bayhawks didn’t make a move, so why would the Coons? Lovett fell 3-1 behind against Allred, and once Allred dropped a 2-run single into left-center, 4-2 behind on the scoreboard. So, there was another lead for Sweeton, who now handed the ball straight to Walters, just as it began to rain after all. – and how it did!

Walters threw one pitch before it started to POUR, and the grounds crew brought the tarp out in a real hurry. It took an hour to wait for the storm cell to pass through, and then Walters resumed with an 0-1 count to Aaron Walker. An hour later, a strikeout removed the leadoff man, and Jamie Sherrick grounded out. Chris Tomko ran a 2-0 count, and just as Walters threw the third pitch, lightning flashed and Walters threw the ball ten feet over the folks at the dish for ball three. Within seconds, it started dousing again. Everybody got shooed off the field *again*, more grounds crew, more tarp, more waiting, and I plotted our move to the sunny South with Honeypaws. Matt Walters did not return for a *third* time when play resumed yet another hour later (nor did the crowd), with Mike Lane inheriting the 3-0 count on Tomko, who *did* return. Tomko saw three pitches, all strikes, and that finally ended the damn ballgame. 4-2 Raccoons. Kirkwood 2-4; Caballero 2-4, RBI; Allred 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Sweeton 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (12-7);

Game 3
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – 1B P. Fowler – 2B A. Montoya – CF A. Walker – LF Anker – C Mittleider – RF Tomko – P Grau
POR: RF Callaia – SS Lavorano – LF Kirkwood – CF Caballero – 3B Venegas – 1B Puckeridge – 2B Bribiesca – C M. Chavez – P Shui

Xavier Reyes began the Sunday rubber game with an infield single, his 39th stolen base, and then scored on Pat Fowler’s groundout to put Shui in an early hole again. Callaia then hit a leadoff single in the first, but was doubled off by Kirkwood. Caballero hit a leadoff single in the second, but was caught stealing. Venegas got on base and was actually scored on a Bribiesca double to tie the score. San Fran bypassed Chavez, but Grau gave up a single to Shui, yet Bribiesca stopped at third base. The bags remained loaded with Callaia’s comebacker to Bill Grau, that was lobbed to first base for the third out.

Portland took the lead, 2-1, in the bottom 3rd when Lonzo drew a leadoff walk (!), stole second, and then came home on a throwing error by Jon Mittleider and Kirkwood’s groundout. Shui tip-toed around a leadoff double by the inevitable Adam Peltier in the fourth inning, and Lonzo also hit one of those in the fifth inning. The Bayhawks walked Kirkwood intentionally, which was *a* move, and it even worked, as Caballero popped out and Venegas found Armando Montoya for a double play to kill the inning, but the Bayhawks also had Pat Fowler barrel into a 4-6-3 with Reyes and Peltier on base in the sixth inning, ending that frame, too. Lots of awful batting on both sides.

Pucks was stranded after a leadoff double in the sixth inning, and the Coons essentially got another leadoff “double” in the seventh, then with a Callaia single and an 0-2 in the dirt that went through Mittleider’s wickets for a passed ball and advanced the runner to second base. Lonzo rallied for a scratch single, and Callaia made it to third base. Corners, nobody out, middle up. Boys! But now! At least ONE! Kirkwood hit a fly to medium-depth right, Callaia went for home, and Tomko threw him out without much celebration for a 9-2 double play. Gah!! Grau then flubbed walks to the 4-5 batters to fill the bases before getting yanked for Needham. It was the third walk in a row, this one to Pucks, that FINALLY pushed a ******* run across…! Rams then batted for Bribiesca, but was retired on a miserable pop to third base, and in foul ground, too.

Shui added a 1-2-3 eighth inning before getting hit for with Fiore in the bottom 8th, but the inning went precisely nowhere. Walters then was back for the ninth inning, and this time there was not a cloud in the skies, until there was a clout in the skies, and Peltier dished a double to deep center to begin the ninth inning. Fuller and Montoya made poor outs on the infield, though, and then Aaron Walker lined out to Venegas to end the game after all. 3-1 Coons. Callaia 2-5; Lavorano 2-3, BB, 2B; Puckeridge 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Shui 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (12-8);

In other news

August 21 – A strained rib cage muscle could cost LVA OF Ken Hummel (.276, 14 HR, 61 RBI) a month, e.g. most of the remaining season.
August 23 – A flayed flexor tendon in his elbow ends the season of PIT SP Josh Swindell (7-7, 3.70 ERA) and could cost him most or all of 2057, too.
August 25 – VAN SP Anton Jesus (12-10, 3.86 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Thunder with only one strikeout to his name. Vancouver wins, 5-0.
August 26 – DAL CL Trent O’Sullivan (0-7, 2.73 ERA, 21 SV) reaches the 400 saves mark with a scoreless ninth inning to beat the Miners, 3-0. The 33-year-old O’Sullivan three times led the FL in saves with Topeka, and has a Reliever of the Year award to his name. He was 49-88 with 3.22 ERA and 852 K for his career.
August 27 – The game with the most runs this week is a 17-10 win by the Miners over the Stars in which Pittsburgh puts up six crooked numbers and INF Victor Corrales (.336, 13 HR, 101 RBI) churns out five hits and a walk with two RBI.

FL Player of the Week: RIC RF/LF Willie Sanchez (.301, 17 HR, 77 RBI), hitting .407 (11-27) with 2 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN C Tristan Waker (.293, 16 HR, 69 RBI), batting .524 (11-21) with 3 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

3-3, barely, against the two last-place teams in the Continental League, just in case you needed more reasons to convince your partner that it wasn’t worth waiting for Coons postseason tickets to go on sale. There’s nothing stopping you from an October trip to Acapulco, or any other place with tropical temperatures that time of the year, like Minneapolis these days.

It’s a series against the Falcons, a day off, and then the roster expansion. So far there are no applicants to get a few starts at the end of the season, although we might give 21-year-old righty Ramon Carreno (4.05 ERA in AAA) a looksie anyway once we’re out of the running for good.

September will start with a 7-game road trip to Milwaukee and New York.

Fun Fact: Eddie Moreno has 101 RBI on the year.

That leads the CL, and is tied for the ABL lead with Corrales of the Miners, who had the big game on Sunday.

The Raccoons’ RBI leader? That’s actually a toughie. Now, Kirkwood was running around with 64 RBI as of Sunday night, but he was actually not it, because we had gotten him from the Knights a month into the season and only 51 of those RBI’s had come with the Raccoons. He was second on the team though with just 51 markers planted in 97 games. He was not far off though, since the leader was Pucks with *55* RBI at the end of August. And he had missed only three games…!

Tell me you got offensive issues in just one stat – that’s the one. Pucks leading the team in RBI with 55 and 5 weeks to spare.