[Westheim]

So. I’m a wee bit ill and don’t have the energy for the usual 3- or 4-series opener here. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow. But for now, just these two series.

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Raccoons (0-0) vs. Indians (0-0) – April 7-9, 2059

New year, new everything? These two teams had finished 1-2 in the North in 2055, but had since then sagged. While the Raccoons were still sorta mediocre, the Indians had finished bottoms twice, including last season. That didn’t mean we were any good against them – the season series had been tied twice in these two years, including last year, and once the Arrowheads had even eeked out a 10-8 win.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (0-0) vs. Roberto Oyola (0-0)
Zach Stewart (0-0) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (0-0)
Cameron Argenziano (0-0) vs. Marcos Rivera (0-0)

The Raccoons had not seen a left-handed starter in their last 44 games of the 2058 season – but the spell would be broken after seeing a 45th (and wasn’t Oyola, who washed out within minutes a few years back in Portland, a weird Opening Day starter pick?), because after that we’d not get one, but TWO southpaws! Huzzah! In fact, both the Indians and Raccoons had three left-handed starters on their Opening Day rosters.

Game 1
IND: 2B Kilday – CF S. Thompson – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – RF Lovins – SS R. Vargas – 3B Niles – C J. Ortiz – P Oyola
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Monaghan – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P B. Herrera

Oyola lasted four batters, allowing a single to Lonzo and a double to Brass before leaving with an injury concern. Right-hander Randy Slocum inherited the pair in scoring position in the bottom 1st, and gave up a 3-run bomb to Joel Starr on his third pitch, which for ten minutes made me feel real good about myself because I could pretend to have made the right move for once. Herrera faced only one right-handed position player in the Indians lineup, which would be Nathan Niles, a rather unknown 30-year-old quad-A infielder that had washed out of the Pacifics organization this winter. He issued two walks in the top 3rd, but otherwise didn’t struggle much in the early going, which a bunch of easy grounders hit by the Indians, who only got into the H column through an infield single by Ricardo Vargas in the second.

Bottom 3rd, and the Raccoons loaded the bases with a leadoff single from Labonte and walks drawn by Cas and Brass against Juan Vasquez. Joel Starr ran a full count before drawing a bases-loaded walk, extending the score to 4-0 and keeping a monopoly on RBI’s for the team so far this year. Eric Monaghan popped out to short, but Jesus Martinez then pushed a single through the left side for a pair of 2-out runs, knocking out Vasquez for the fourth Indians pitcher of the day, Tim Jacoby, who would get out of the inning, but then gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to left himself in the fourth, allowing Trent Brassfield to drive in Herrera (single) and Lonzo (double). The Indians tumbled from blow to blow, losing another pitcher – Mike DeWitt – to injury in the fifth inning, while Herrera cranked up the stuff in the middle innings and tallied eight strikeouts before being lifted in the seventh inning after a 2-out walk to PH Mike Weber. Ricky Herrera logged four outs for only a Bill Quinteros single, then was hit for in the bottom 8th with one out and two on against Dave Corrao, who had given up a single to Martinez before Vargas’ throwing error allowed Juan Ojeda on base. A passed ball charged to Jorge Ortiz advanced the runners, and PH Kelly Konecny got his first Coons RBI with a groundout to second baseman Matt Kilday before Labonte flew out. Rule 5er Bryan Roper then made his ABL debut in the ninth inning of a 9-run game and kept it a 9-run game despite a leadoff walk to Vargas. Niles and Ortiz struck out, and Cory Oldfield grounded out to Labonte. 9-0 Furballs! Lavorano 2-4, 2B; Brassfield 2-2, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2 RBI; B. Herrera 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 8 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

Huzzah!

A word of caution though… maybe the Indians would pitch a lot better if it wasn’t for the frag grenade going off in their bullpen…

Game 2
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B Niles – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – SS R. Vargas – RF Lovins – C J. Ortiz – CF Oldfield – P Fitzgibbon
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P Stewart

Lonzo singled and stole his first base of the season in the first inning, but couldn’t find a kind soul to drive him in and the game was scoreless in the early goings until the bottom 3rd began with a clean single by Ojeda. Stewart got the bunt down, and Ojeda scored with two outs on a Lonzo double. Cas singled home Lonzo, and Brass went deep to right, as the team exploded into a 4-0 lead. Indy answered, though, in the fourth inning. Orlando Ramos hit a soft single, then was forced out by Bill Quinteros. The grizzled veteran didn’t have the legs to score on a Ricardo Vargas double, but then came home on Chris Lovins’ sac fly to right. Ortiz grounded out to second to leave Vargas in scoring position.

Fitzgibbon lasted just four innings, which would surely not help the Indians’ pen, which was already beleaguered. They also created another stir that started with Ramos in the sixth, when he hit a 1-out triple to left-center. Quinteros’ grounder was to the third base side though and Ramos had to retreat, because he would have run right into the out with Monaghan, who instead retired Quinteros at first, and Vargas whiffed to keep the runner stranded. Stewart would go seven and two thirds on 104 pitches before Bravo retired Niles for him to complete eight innings. Matt Walters looked like all was well again in his season debut in the ninth inning, striking out Ramos and Quinteros before Vargas grounded out to Lonzo. 4-1 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Martinez 1-2, 2 BB; Stewart 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

We didn’t get much offense put together at all after Fitzgibbon left the game, just a few odd walks and no big hits. And now the question was whether Argenziano’s baffling competence had survived the winter.

Game 3
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B Niles – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – SS R. Vargas – RF Lovins – C J. Ortiz – CF S. Thompson – P M. Rivera
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P Argenziano

That would be NO. Argenziano was battered for three hits and three walks in a 4-run first inning, and I reached for the Capt’n Coma for the first time. The Raccoons made up half of that in the bottom 1st, half of which again was unearned. Bribiesca singled, stole second, Lonzo walked, and between a throwing error by Vargas and two well-placed groundouts the Raccoons got two runs home before the inning fizzled out. The bottom 2nd started with a Martinez homer, 4-3, and Ojeda reached base with walk in a full count against Rivera. Argenizano’s bunt was thrown away for two bases by Ortiz, and a lob single to shallow right by Bribiesca then brought home Ojeda with the tying run. Lonzo was up with runners on the corners, hit a fly to right that Chris Lovins caught, and Argenziano got the old stompers going and went for home plate, arriving at the same time as the ball, but slid so awkwardly that he scythed a reaching Ortiz’ sole firm leg out from under him, the ball went flying, and Ortiz faceplanted the dirt and had to leave the ballgame as the Indians’ third injury of the series. He was replaced with Ben Bodkin. Brass hit another single in the inning, but Monaghan’s groundout ended it before more runs were scored. The Coons led 5-4, three of their runs unearned now.

Rivera was the next early departure; while Argenziano struck out the side in the third inning, Rivera allowed a leadoff single to Starr, walked Martinez, and eventually gave up another one of those 2-out, 2-run singles to Bribiesca, which extended Portland’s lead to 7-4. Slocum replaced him, allowed Lonzo and Caswell to load the bases, but then got Brass to ground out to Niles before another run could score in the inning. Eric Monaghan, who started his Coons career 0-for-10, hit a jack to left off Slocum in the fourth, though. Starr hit a double after that, but was stranded, while Argenziano ached through five innings, giving up a run in the top 5th when Ramos and Vargas went to the corners, then threw a wild pitch to plate the former… Lovins popped out foul to end the inning.

Ivan Ornelas’ season debut in the sixth went just as well as Argenziano’s. Ben Bodkin took him deep, cutting the score to 8-6, and a walk to Steve Thompson, a passed ball, and Niles’ 2-out single gave them another run. Orlando Ramos’ long homer to left-center flipped the score to 9-8 Arrowheads then. Ricky Herrera found a way out of the inning at least, while Juan Vasquez blew the lead in the bottom 6th serving up a leadoff jack wrapped around the left foul pole to Jesus Martinez. All even at nine! …at least until Chris Lovins reclaimed the lead with a solo home run off Herrera in the seventh. Lonzo’s leadoff single in the bottom 7th wasn’t followed up with anything nice, and Eloy Sencion got on the snout as well in the eighth inning, walking a pair clumsily before Quinteros loaded the bags with a single, and Vargas drove in two with another single.

The game had long descended into chaos, and another sign of that was the bottom 8th when Matt Otte gave up singles to Starr and Ojeda to put the tying run in the box. The #9 hole had long been vacated by Coons pitchers, and David Gonzales batted for Todd Oley against the left-handed Otte – and singled up the middle, grabbing an RBI in his first plate appearance as a Critter. Bribiesca flew out, but Lonzo slapped another RBI single to left-center against Otte, who was replaced with Rich Morrall, a 35-year-old FL West veteran, who had signed with Indy on a minor league deal and had not been on the Opening Day roster. He got Cas to fly out to leftfielder Ramos to end the inning. The Indians got a tack-on run in the ninth inning, 13-11, when Tanizaki walked the leadoff man Steve Thompson and surrendered his run on Kilday’s single to center. Deshawn Beard made his first appearance in the brown shirt hitting for Tanizaki in the #4 hole to begin the bottom 9th, emptying our bench. He struck out, and between him, Monaghan, and Starr, nobody reached base against Morrall. 13-11 Indians. Bribiesca 3-6, 3 RBI; Lavorano 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-4; Starr 2-5, BB, 2B; Martinez 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Gonzales (PH) 1-1;

We used five pitchers in this game, all of whom surrendered at least one run. Both teams scored in six different innings.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Bayhawks (0-4) – April 11-13, 2059

The Baybirds had gotten swept in a four-game series against the Aces (!) to begin the season, so that should sound the alarm in San Francisco. They had scored 13 runs and given up 23, none of which ranked them particularly favorably in the early going, while the Coons’ 24 runs scored led the CL. We had won the season series last year, going 6-3 against the Baybirds.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (0-0) vs. Bill Grau (0-0)
Chance Fox (0-0) vs. Eric Braley (0-1, 12.00 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Jesse Connors (0-0, 2.57 ERA)

You want left-handers? Have left-handers! Grau and Conners were throwing from the weird side, so after two months’ worth of games without seeing a lefty, the Raccoons got four in a week, because baseball is weird and never likes to make too much sense.

Game 1
SFB: SS X. Reyes – C Redfern – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 1B P. Fowler – CF A. Walker – 3B Hoogendorn – RF Tomko – P Grau
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Gonzales – P DeRose

Like Argenziano and everybody else on Wednesday, DeRose got on the snout on Friday. Xavier Reyes and Keith Redfern hit singles right out of the gate, the latter after Starr dropped a foul pop of his for an error, and after Grant Anker plated a run with a groundout, Armando Montoya went well deep to center to put the Baybirds up 3-0. While the Coons made up that margin eventually by scoring a run in each of the first three innings, that didn’t make for a tied game, since by then Grant Anker had popped another long home run off DeRose, but it was 4-3 through three innings thanks to Caswell doubling home Lonzo in the first, Martinez and Gonzales singles and a run-scoring groundout by Bribiesca in the second, and Monaghan doubling in Brass in the third inning. Finally, DeRose let the defense do some honest work in the middle innings, and the Raccoons actually got in front with Trent Brassfield’s 2-run bomb to leftfield in the bottom of the fifth, 5-4.

D dragged DeRose through six innings, but it was nothing short of awful with him, before the Coons successfully blew the lead in the seventh. Bravo offered a leadoff walk to Xavier Reyes before retiring Keith Redfern and Grant Anker, but then Armando Montoya singled. Sencion came in to face the left-handed Pat Fowler, but the Bayhawks sent Chris Jimenez to pinch-hit, and while Sencion got 1-2 ahead with two outs, he then gave up a gapper in right-center for a 2-run double and the score was flipped back the other way. Roper and Ornelas would each pitch a scoreless inning to keep the Bayhawks at a run’s distance, but the Coons still had to score to make up the deficit and went down in order in the seventh and eighth innings. Joe Gowin had the ball for the bottom 9th in his season debut (no big point in using the closer in a 4-game sweep), with Lonzo leading off the inning and flying out to Anker. Caswell whiffed, but Brass walked to put the tying run on base with two outs. Labonte pinch-hit for Monaghan and singled to center, but Brass only reached second base on the play. It didn’t matter – Joel Starr swung through a 3-2 pitch to end the game. 6-5 Bayhawks. Caswell 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Brassfield 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Labonte (PH) 1-1; Martinez 2-4, 2B;

Game 2
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – 2B A. Montoya – CF A. Walker – LF Anker – C Redfern – 1B Ogawa – RF Tomko – P Braley
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – C Beard – P C. Fox

The Coons went back to the righty lineup for the first time since Monday and immediately saw an uptick in the first inning. Fox didn’t explode on contact, and a Caswell homer to left that collected Labonte gave us a quick 2-0 lead. The Coons got Martinez and Ojeda on to begin the bottom 2nd, but the battery found a double play and a pop on the infield to make zero runs and a quick exit out of that.

After three solid innings, Fox then blew up in the fourth inning. Nicking Montoya was a bad start to any inning, but Aaron Walker and Anker hit singles to drive Montoya home right away, and the alternation of walks and run-scoring outs that followed gave the Baybirds a 3-2 lead before the inning ended with Reyes’ groundout. San Fran put more guys on base in the next two innings, but couldn’t score, while Starr hit into a double play after Brassfield singled in the fourth. Fox singled himself in the fifth, but Labonte struck out and the inning ended, but then Caswell’s second homer of the game and season tied the score at three runs, five hits, and no errors each in the bottom 6th.

The seventh was mostly uneventful; Ojeda hit a single for Portland, but Beard grounded out and Konecny flew out easily when he batted for Fox. Tanizaki had the ball in the eighth; he got two outs before PH Pat Fowler singled off him and then reached second on a wild pitch. Chris Tomko promptly singled to center, Fowler circled around third base and went for home – and was thrown out by Caswell! Yay!

The bottom 8th was begun by left-hander Travis Davis facing the #1 batter in the Coons’ order, and we sent Bribiesca for Labonte, which turned out to be the answer to the $64,000 question. Bribiesca hit a huge home run to left to break the tie, and Matt Walters started getting busy in the pen. Lonzo and Cas hit singles, and Monaghan drew a walk in Starr’s spot to fill the bases for the Coons, but Jesus Martinez’ hard grounder to Adam Peltier killed the inning, 5-4-3 style. Walters came on facing Wade Gardner, 39-year-old ex-Coon and backup catcher, and served up a wallbanger double on his second pitch, then threw a wild pitch to get Gardner to third base with nobody out. While a K to Reyes was nice and dandy, the Coons fell to a suicide squeeze with Peltier batting, getting neither the runner nor the batter at any base in a scene of absolute bewilderment. None was more unhappy than Walters, who threw the baseball he was holding onto the ground when the play was complete, except maybe me. Peltier was left on base, but the Coons went down in order in the ninth and the game went to extras, where it promptly started to rain for the first time this season. Reynaldo Bravo then fell in the 11th inning. Gardner drew a leadoff walk, and Peltier, the revolting ******** and former Raccoons farmpaw, socked a triple into the gap to break the tie, then scored on Montoya’s groundout. But the Coons didn’t have an answer to even one run, let alone two; while Martinez drew a 1-out walk from Joe Gowin in the bottom 11th, Ojeda ended the game with a double play grounder to short. 6-4 Bayhawks. Bribiesca (PH) 1-2, RBI; Caswell 3-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Ojeda 2-5;

(groan)

Game 3
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 1B P. Fowler – CF A. Walker – C Redfern – RF Tomko – P Connors
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – C Monaghan – LF Oley – 3B Ojeda – CF Konecny – P B. Herrera

A weird sort of pitchers’ duel broke out on Sunday, since the game was scoreless into the fifth inning, but mostly because both teams excelled at hitting a single and then croaking as soon as the runner was in scoring position, which happened repeatedly on either side, and both teams also found a double play to hit into. Portland eventually took the lead in the bottom 5th, which began with an Ojeda single to right-center. Konecny popped out, and Herrera reached on an error by Reyes. Bribiesca cashed in with a clean single to right-center, allowing the reasonably quick Ojeda to score from second. Lonzo and Brass left the other runners on base, though. It was also a weird duel, since Connors relied entirely on the defense, not getting a strikeout at all through five innings. Martinez singled and Monaghan doubled to begin the bottom 6th then, increasing the pressure right away. Oley’s sac fly got Martinez home, but that was good as it got. Ojeda popped out, Konecny was walked intentionally, and Herrera grounded out. That was all the offense we managed to scratch out in eight innings for Herrera, who was hit for with Joel Starr with two down in the bottom 8th and Caswell on second base, but flew out easily.

And then Matt Walters was again undone by 39-year-old fossil Wade Gardner. Montoya hit a 1-out single and then Gardner pinch-hit his way into my naughty list with a 2-run homer to center. Most annoying Aruban in the league! Herrera’s W was gone, and Walters barely got around Aaron Walker’s double to left-center without falling behind. This game, too, went to extras, when Bribiesca reached against Sam Gibson to begin the bottom 9th, but was forced out by Lonzo, who was caught stealing, and Labonte grounded out as he was now batting third following some shuffling “for defense” after the bottom 8th, because we were idiots thinking there was any defending Wade Gardner…!

Ornelas pitched a scoreless 10th, while Martinez reached against Zach Johnson in the home half of the inning, but was doubled up by Oley. Top 11th, San Francisco took the lead on a 2-out homer by Ikuo Ogawa, and Ornelas gave up another three singles straight for an insurance run… The Coons disappeared without as much of a squeal in the bottom 11th as Johnson sawed off Gonzales, Konecny, and Starr. 4-2 Bayhawks. Bribiesca 2-5, RBI; Monaghan 3-5, 2B; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

In other news

April 7 – The Opening Day crowd in Topeka gets twice their money’s worth as the Capitals beat the hometown Buffaloes, 4-3 in 19 innings. After the Buffos erase a 3-0 deficit in the sixth inning, no scoring takes place for a dozen innings until the Caps scratch a run together with a triple from 2B Joo-Chan Lee (.250, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and an RBI single by C Jose Luna (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI).
April 8 – Extras, part two, in Topeka: it takes ten innings for a run to be scored on the walkoff single by TOP LF/RF John Kaniewski (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI) that allows the Buffaloes to squeak out a 1-0 win.
April 10 – The cross-season hitting streak of OCT 3B/RF Ed Soberanes (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI) ends at 23 games after he is held dry in a 6-0 against the Condors.
April 11 – IND SP Roberto Oyola (0-1, 13.50 ERA) will miss the entire season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 13 – TOP SP Pablo Lara (1-0, 0.00 ERA) pitches a 2-hit shutout in a 4-0 win against the Wolves. It’s the second shutout of the 24-year-old sophomore’s career. Employed as a swingman last season, Lara threw a 5-hitter against the Blue Sox in May.
April 13 – It takes the Blue Sox until the first Sunday of the season to resign their twice-defending FL saves leader Kevin Hitchcock (47-46, 3.12 ERA, 228 SV) to a new 3-yr, $4.98M deal. The 36-year-old right-hander had held out as free agent all throughout the winter.

FL Player of the Week: TOP LF/RF Dan Martin (.348, 4 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: BOS 3B Randy Wilken (.579, 2 HR, 4 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons are first in runs scored! … and we were in a tie for first place on Friday morning and got swept into a tie for last place by Sunday night, which was a very imprecise description of the horrors that unfolded pitching-wise ever since we went up 2-0 to start the season.

No rest for the wicked either, as we go right on the road to play seven games in Oklahoma City and Boston next week. We’ll then have a 2-week homestand until the start of May, but only eight home games total in May to make up for that.

The Condors returned Daniel Amburn, taken in the Rule 5 draft, when the season started. No sight of Jose Estrada, though. The three players we put on waivers to start the season (Matt Stanton, Duarte Damasceno, Richard Anderson) all went unclaimed and were sent to St. Pete.

Fun Fact: Lonzo is within 150 stolen bases of the all-time record.

It goes:

1st – Pablo Sanchez – 721 – HOF
2nd – Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino – 708 – HOF
3rd – Guillermo Obando – 686 – HOF
4th – Alberto “Berto” Ramos – 677 – HOF
5th – Alex Vasquez – 596 – active
6th – Lorenzo “Lonzo” Lavorano – 573 – active
7th – Rich de Luna – 570
8th – Oscar Mendoza – 494
9th – Omar Gonzalez – 493 – active
19th – Moromao Hino – 485

Vasquez, who is 33, stole just 19 bases last year, but began the year with a pair in week one. Omar Gonzalez, age 36, stole 11 bases while missing 58 games. They’re over in the Federal League, so it’s not like our catchers can do much about them right now.

The trio behind de Luna probably won’t last long there. It’s possible they’re all kicked out by the end of the year, since there is a trio steaming up through the teens on the list as we speak, consisting of Chris Navarro (14th, 473), Danny Ceballos (15th, 472), and Omar Sanchez (16th, 461). The last two are in the CL. Technically we should also mention ex-Coon Alex Adame sitting 18th with 459 bags, but he’s 37, barely played as a backup on the Crusaders last year, and is currently unsigned altogether.