[Westheim]

The Raccoons began the week by putting Kelly Konecny on the DL for a fracture in his foot. He would probably return in September. 27-year-old Carlos Solorzano was brought up from AAA to sit on the bench for a while. Solorzano had not made it to Portland in ’58 after three straight years of some sort of bench service, batting .238 with 1 HR, 33 RBI, and 11 SB in 134 games from ’55 to ’57.

Raccoons (51-48) @ Falcons (51-46) – July 29-31, 2059

Despite the Knights’ series loss to the Raccoons on the weekend, they had made it past the Falcons into first place in the South by now because Charlotte had dropped four straight games, which was never a smart thing to do in a four-way battle for the division. They had the #9 offense and #7 pitching in the CL, a -6 run differential, and maybe one day we’d find a team with a positive run differential in the South. They had the very worst D in the league, and they had half a pitching staff on the DL, with Art Schaeffer, Mario de Anda, and a bunch of relievers all fallen by the wayside, although Schaeffer (8-4, 3.15 ERA) was working his way back. The Raccoons had lost two of three games to the Falcons so far this year.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (4-6, 3.46 ERA) vs. Esteban Duran (7-6, 3.74 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (9-8, 3.11 ERA) vs. Adam Middleton (7-6, 3.99 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (3-5, 3.44 ERA) vs. Neil Mongillo (3-5, 3.88 ERA)

Righty, righty, lefty, although with this many injuries you never know…

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – 2B Labonte – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Ojeda – C Perez – SS Bean – P DeRose
CHA: LF K. Fisher – 2B Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – CF Oldfield – C L. Miranda – 1B M. Cruz – 3B Carbajal – SS Hullander – P E. Duran

While the Raccoons took the early lead on hits by Brassfield and Perez in the second inning, the Falcons made noisy contact with DeRose’s offerings right from the start, and it was only a matter of when they would actually do damage. Turns out, offering four walks in an inning to them in addition to not being able to miss their bats was quite adverse to maintaining a 1-0 lead, and DeRose first failed the bases full in the bottom 3rd, and then started to give up actual RBI knocks. Luis Miranda singled in a pair, and Ricky Carbajal drew a bases-loaded walk before Joe Hullander hit into an inning-ending double play.

Somehow DeRose retired eight in a row from there, then was taken deep by Hullander for a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth, at which point the Raccoons had only collected a Joel Starr double in addition to their pair of knocks from the second inning, and were still held to a lonely run by Duran. Brad Loveless followed DeRose and pitched just as badly, giving up a run in the seventh on Kyle Fisher’s leadoff double, Danny Ceballos’ RBI single, and for good measure added two 2-out walks and required rescue by Alex Rios, who got Carbajal to end the bottom 7th, but also whacked around for two runs in the bottom 8th. 7-1 Falcons.

The best thing about this game was that it eventually ended.

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – 2B Labonte – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Ojeda – C Perez – SS Benitez – P B. Herrera
CHA: LF K. Fisher – 2B Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – CF Oldfield – C L. Miranda – 1B M. Cruz – 3B Carbajal – SS Hullander – P Middleton

Herrera remained out of sync with himself, which was a terrible thing to say about a $6M man, but the Falcons soon took the lead with Luis Miranda and Marco Cruz doubles to left in the second inning for one run, then a walk to Fisher, who stole second, and Ceballos’ RBI knock for another run in the bottom 3rd. The Raccoons had their hits as well, but frittered away a spectacular amount of runners before finally scoring. We had five hits and two walks through five innings for nothing on the part of the board that mattered, which was due to a variety of failings like Labonte being caught stealing here and Herrera bunting into a force out at third base there…

But the team eventually found the scoreboard in the sixth inning, beginning with straight hits – all singles – from Cas, Brass, Starr, and Ojeda to tie the game at two. Angel Perez then stuffed a stringer through Ricky Carbajal for a go-ahead RBI double to left. Middleton had to put Tony Benitez on intentionally, then was yanked for lefty Yoshinari Kuroiwa, who gave up an RBI single to Tipsy Bobby, but then retired the top of the order convincingly and without allowing any more runs. Well – until Brass got him for a leadoff jack to left in the seventh at least. The Raccoons tacked on more in the eighth; Herrera reached base leading off on an error by Hullander, got to third while Joe-Chris and Labonte made outs, and then scored on a Caswell single to center against Jim Larson. Bobby Herrera was much better in the last few innings than in the first few and got into the bottom 8th before a 1-out double by Fisher knocked him out. Ricky Herrera took over, walked Ian Woodrome, but then got flies to center to kill the inning from Ceballos and Cory Oldfield, while the Raccoons tacked on two more runs in the ninth inning against a parade of pitchers. Tony Benitez singled home a run, and Manny Cooke brought in another with a groundout.

The bottom 9th then brought about the major league debut of third-rounder Bobby Sneeze. We hoped for a quick inning as a tune-up to a start on Saturday. He retired Luis Miranda, Craig Sayre, and Ricky Carbajal on five pitches. 8-2 Critters. Caswell 3-5, RBI; Ojeda 2-4, RBI; Perez 3-5, 2B, RBI; Benitez 3-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; B. Herrera 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (10-8) and 1-4, RBI;

No lefty on the final day of the month, as the Falcons got Art Schaeffer back and plonked him straight into the spot.

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – 2B Labonte – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Ojeda – SS Bean – C Monaghan – P Damasceno
CHA: LF K. Fisher – 2B Woodrome – RF D. Ceballos – CF Oldfield – C L. Miranda – 1B M. Cruz – 3B Carbajal – SS Hullander – P Schaeffer

Schaeffer started with four balls to Joey Christopher, which soon morphed into an early run on Brass’ 2-out RBI single. Starr also walked, but Ojeda’s fly to deep right ended up with Ceballos and the inning ended. The Raccoons’ offensive ambitions mostly ended there while Damasceno as usual fooled nobody and slowly turned the lead into a deficit by getting taken deep by Luis Miranda in the second inning for one run, and then gave up three singles to Oldfield, Marco Cruz, and Carbajal in the bottom 4th to load the bases before Hullander’s sac fly gave the Falcons a 2-1 lead. That was still the score in a dull game in the bottom 7th when Hullander got on board with a leadoff walk. Sayre and Fisher made outs before Loveless was brought in struck out Woodrome to end the inning. Loveless and Bravo kept the Falcons close in the eighth inning, but the Coons just couldn’t get going. Jon Bean drew a walk off Brian Goldsmith in the ninth inning, but the tying run never got off first base. 2-1 Falcons. Christopher 1-2, 2 BB; Bean 2-3, BB; Damasceno 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, L (3-6) and 1-3;

Raccoons (52-50) vs. Condors (45-55) – August 1-3, 2059

The Condors were bottoms in the South, but closer to first place (9 1/2 GB) than the Raccoons (12 1/2) in the North. They were tenth in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed, had a -22 run differential, and were also not the team with the positive run differential in the South. The Coons had already won the season series for the sixth straight season, having taken five of the first six games with Tijuana this year.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (9-4, 3.97 ERA) vs. Marco Clemente (7-6, 3.22 ERA)
Bobby Sneeze (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (6-8, 4.58 ERA)
Justin DeRose (4-7, 3.59 ERA) vs. Miguel Batista (8-10, 4.27 ERA)

Only right-handed opposition this week! But the Coons would not have a day off again until the 14th, so we’d cycle in an off day or two even for the regulars that were already in the lineup cards when they came from the printers.

Game 1
TIJ: RF S. Moore – 1B Schaack – LF T. Duncan – C Samuel – 3B Frasher – SS C. Ramsey – CF Asencio – 2B N. Cross – P M. Clemente
POR: RF Christopher – 2B Labonte – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – SS Bean – 3B Benitez – P Fox

Coming off his first career shutout on Sunday, Foxie Brown was stringing up zeroes on the board again on Friday in the series opener – but it wasn’t nearly the same game as he had pitched against the Knights. In fact, he was pretty awful. He scattered five actual base hits in the first five innings, but the Condors reached scoring position in four of the innings, and he gave up numerous long drives, that just happened to not go out of the park and most of them were caught by the roaming outfielders. Only Casey Ramsey got a ball to drop in for a double; the other hits were singles. He also hit Mario Asencio with a 1-2 pitch and had only two strikeouts while wobbling along through five, *and* he bunted into a double play while the rest of the brown horde amounted to one base hit the first time through (and Joe-Chris got himself caught stealing on that…); in short, we were just waiting for everything to collapse into a 5-spot for the Condors and mark down the L in the schedule. I had the red pen ready.

The Condors just couldn’t get going, though. Nick Samuel had another deep fly out in the sixth. Ramsey hit a single, stole a base, but was stranded on second. Fox fooled forwards into the seventh, where Scott Moore finally knocked him out with a 2-out single. Jason Schaack hit another single off Alex Rios, but Tim Duncan struck out and the game arrived at the stretch without a score. Rios had a quick eighth, and Matt Walters struck out three while walking Nigel Cross in the ninth inning. Marco Clemente carried a 3-hitter through eight innings, but could go no further, and lefty Joe Cash replaced him for the bottom 9th, retiring Joe-Chris, Ortega, and Cas in order to send a zip-zip game to extras. The Raccoons dropped in Ivan Ornelas, who wasn’t very sharp, but at least got a double play grounder whenever needed in extra innings, of which there were three. The Condors could not break through against Ornelas, but the Raccoons finally managed to get a stray walkoff shot from Caswell off Dan Lawrence in the bottom of the 12th… 1-0 Blighters. Ornelas 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (4-2);

Game 2
TIJ: RF S. Moore – CF Asencio – SS C. Ramsey – LF T. Duncan – C Waker – 1B Schaack – 3B Frasher – 2B L. Chapa – P Mauricio
POR: RF Christopher – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 2B Ortega – SS Ban – C Monaghan – P Sneeze

Sneeze got three quick outs in the first, and two more in the second, and then **** hit the fan. The Condors loaded the bags with the 6-7-8 hitters with a walk drawn by Schaack and singles from Eric Frasher and Luis Chapa, then got an RBI single from their pitcher to take a 1-0 lead. Sneeze then walked in a run against Scott Moore and allowed another RBI single to Mario Asencio before Ramsey finally struck out… It didn’t get better from there. The Condors had the bases loaded with nobody out in both the third and fourth innings; they didn’t score in the third, with Frasher’s fly into a 9-2 double play and a pop by Mauricio after an intentional walk to Chapa, but the 1-2-3 were right on it again in the fourth, and Tim Duncan’s sac fly made it a 4-0 game… but then Tristan Waker whiffed and Schaack flew out to center. Asencio would later hit a solo homer off Sencion in the sixth inning. Asencio… Sencion… Asencion…? – Yes, Maud, I will be a good boy and take my pills now. (washes them down with some Capt’n Coma)

The Raccoons did NOTHING before the stretch and quietly trailed 5-0 before Brass and Starr hit 1-out singles and Bean reached on an error by Schaack with two outs in the bottom 7th, which technically loaded the bases, albeit only for Eric Monaghan, so I didn’t see a reason to get excited. Monaghan, batting .172 at this point and awaiting his papers to be handed to him at the end of the season, dutifully struck out. Solorzano walked and Ojeda singled in the bottom 8th to put runners on the corners with one out then. Caswell, who had been drilled quite violently by Mauricio earlier in the game, packed all his anger into a … sac fly. And that was it. 5-1 Condors. Starr 2-4;

Game 3
TIJ: RF S. Moore – CF Asencio – SS C. Ramsey – LF T. Duncan – C Waker – 3B Frasher – 1B Churricho – 2B L. Chapa – P M. Batista
POR: RF Christopher – 2B Labonte – 3B Ojeda – 1B Starr – LF Ortega – C Perez – CF Solorzano – SS Benitez – P DeRose

One pitch by DeRose was enough to trail 1-0 on Sunday as Scott Moore immediately punched a 430-footer to center. While the Raccoons made up the deficit quickly in the bottom 1st as Christopher singled, stole second, and was singled home by Labonte, DeRose remained woeful. The 6-7-8 batters all singled their way on base in the top 2nd before being stopped by a Batista K and Moore’s pop to short, but 22-year-old rookie Querubim Churricho (!) from Venezuela remained a problem, singled again in the fourth, stole second, and then came around to score on a Chapa single, and the inning after there was a Ramsey triple and a really quick wild pitch to extend the Condors’ lead to 3-1. The Raccoons remained offensively challenged; Angel Perez had three base hits through seven innings (and one baserunning blunder to turn a single into an out rather than a double, but who’s counting by now…), and the rest of the team had just as many combined. The game remained close even as DeRose pitched into the eighth inning, then followed by Loveless and Bravo. The Condors got eight full innings out of Batista before sending Dan Lawrence against the 3-4-5 batters in the bottom of the ninth. Ojeda led off with a single to left, bringing the tying run to the dish right away, but Starr whiffed. Cas batted for Ortega and hit a soft single to bring up the unretired Perez as the winning run, and this was perhaps stupid but the Coons were banking on the 3-run homer. Well. We sure got him to end the game. Grounder to Ramsey, to Chapa, to Churricho. 3-1 Condors. Caswell (PH) 1-1; Perez 3-4;

In other news

July 28 – The Crusaders get relief help with Cory Leonard (3-6, 4.87 ERA, 13 SV), who is imported from Tijuana for two prospects.
July 29 – Thunder OF Bernardin Martaranha (.323, 1 HR, 19 RBI) has put together a 20-game hitting streak with three base knocks in a 2-1 win against the Loggers. The “streak” consists of three separate stints in the majors interrupted by brief assignments to AAA for the 24-year-old left-handed hitter.
July 31 – Drab day on the league scoreboard: in six games played only 27 runs are scored, a paltry 2.25 markers per team. The most runs to be had by an individual team and in a game as a whole are a 4-3 win by the Titans over the Aces.
August 1 – BOS SP Jayden Craddock (12-5, 2.05 ERA) and CL Mike Lane (4-5, 4.77 ERA, 25 SV) pitch a combined 1-hitter against the Thunder, who only get a sixth-inning double from 3B/RF Ed Soberanes (.295, 9 HR, 61 RBI). The effort also kills the hitting streak of OCT OF Bernardin Martaranha (.313, 1 HR, 19 RBI) ends at 21 games as the youngster goes 0-for-4.
August 3 – 22-year-old rookie NAS RF Austin Gordon (.236, 2 HR, 9 RBI) has four base hits, all for extra bases in three doubles and a homer, and drives in four runs in the Blue Sox’ 16-4 rout of the hapless Stars.

FL Player of the Week: NAS OF Elmer Maldonado (.267, 7 HR, 29 RBI), batting .448 (13-29) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB INF/LF Xavier Reyes (.332, 4 HR, 40 RBI), poking .462 (12-26) with 1 HR, 4 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SAC RF/CF Will Buras (.373, 15 HR, 69 RBI), whacking .348 with 4 HR, 14 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.353, 9 HR, 46 RBI), hitting .404 with 5 HR, 21 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: WAS SP Troy Ratliff (11-7, 3.52 ERA), going 5-1 with a 2.04 ERA, 24 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Will Glaude (8-4, 3.34 ERA), being a perfect 5-0 with a 1.36 ERA, 21 K
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT RF/LF Elijah Johnson (.321, 6 HR, 45 RBI), batting .378 with 4 HR, 12 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: POR 2B/LF Bernie Ortega (.373, 1 HR, 5 RBI), hitting .408 with 1 HR, 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Five times this week the Raccoons scored exactly one run. Somehow they won two games. We’re down to eighth in runs scored in the CL, but we somehow still have a +33 run differential.

Let’s just say it was a slow month for rookies in the CL. Bernie Ortega collected just 49 at-bats in the month.

Jesus Martinez started slow for L.A., batting under .200 through the weekend, but on Saturday hit a 3-run walkoff homer to beat the Caps, 9-6 in 13 innings. He’ll probably be fine.

Zach Stewart suffered a setback in recovery from the torn rotator cuff. There had previously been a long chance that he might return for a few innings at the end of the season, but that’s out the window now. Speaking of potentially crippling injuries, the Raccoons made an offer to Lonzo this week, who had been in a contract year. Lonzo probably hoped for a long-term deal, but even if I love him with all my heart, I have to see that his body is still in one piece before shelling out that 6-yr, $45M deal on a 32-year-old shortstop with a career 90 OPS+.

Cristiano, when you write it down like this it sounds really, really dumb. Give it to Maud to have it reworded. She managed to still sell season tickets after ’32, she can spin this one into a W!

We’re off to San Fran for a 3-game set starting on Monday, and then it’s a 7-game homestand with the Crusaders and Elks.

Fun Fact: Lonzo has 29.5 career WAR while having earned $9.5M in salaries.

See, Cristiano. Boy needs that $45M deal!

What do you have, Maud? – I need to take another pill?