[Westheim]

First of all, the good news: Maud was beyond being ill and was back in the office on Monday. She brought muffins, and more importantly (!), restored order.

Raccoons (13-12) vs. Indians (15-8) – May 3-6, 2060

Four games with Indy now, whom the Raccoons had beaten 10-8 over the course of the previous season, but the Indians had gotten a good start and were second in the division, 2 1/2 games behind the Crusaders, who had the best record in baseball. Indy had a revived offense that sat third in runs scored, and eighth in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (1-4, 5.28 ERA) vs. Roberto Oyola (3-0, 3.45 ERA)
Justin DeRose (2-2, 4.18 ERA) vs. Jarod Morris (2-1, 5.68 ERA)
Zach Stewart (2-2, 5.06 ERA) vs. Melvin Guerra (2-2, 8.14 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (2-0, 2.00 ERA) vs. Ben Akman (2-1, 3.42 ERA)

The Coons would pick their way around the Indians’ only left-hander, Shane Fitzgibbon (2-2, 3.34 ERA) and only meet their right-handers.

And they didn’t meet anybody on Monday because persistent rain washed out the opener of the series and gave us a double header for Tuesday, and headaches for further down the road.

Game 1
IND: SS Kilday – CF S. Thompson – LF O. Ramos – RF Lovins – C A. Gomez – 3B R. Vargas – 1B Schaack – 2B Weber – P Oyola
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Maresh – 3B Benitez – P B. Herrera

It would take some time to get used to an Indians lineup without Bill Quinteros, but Jason Schaack tried to make us feel less heartbroken with a single the first time through to make up for the departed contsant on-base presence of Quinteros. He was however the only batter to reach against Bobby Herrera the first time through and was stranded on base. The first six Coons went down similarly before Chris Maresh hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd. Benitez drew another walk, and both were bunted into scoring position by Herrera, but Joe-Chris popped out and Lonzo flew out to Steve Thompson to center. The first two were on again in the bottom 4th, with Cas and Nye singles, then two poor outs. Maresh hit a scratch single with two outs to load the bases for all .140 of Tony Benitez, who easily sailed one over to Orlando Ramos to end that inning.

Bobby Herrera pitched seven shutout innings of 2-hit ball, which if there was anything to complain about it was the seven full counts he ran that led to his (relatively) early departure. He struck out seven, and he also got his pat on the bum in a scoreless game, because after the burst of on-base presence in the third and fourth innings, and a whole lotta not scoring, the Raccoons had remained silent in the fifth and sixth… and the seventh. The Coons then needed three relievers to get through the top 8th, because both Mendez and Ricky Herrera allowed a single and the Indians kept lobbing pinch-hitters at us. Ryan Sullivan got out of the inning, finally. The Raccoons then caught a break when the Indians put Raffy de la Cruz on the hill, who immediately walked Christopher to begin the bottom 8th, then served up an RBI triple into the leftfield corner to Lonzo. That was also the only run in the inning because the Raccoons completely cucked it up again with a runner on third and less than two outs. Cas whiffed, Nye popped out, Starr walked, and Brass struck out again.

Worse, Matt Walters blew the lead in the ninth inning when the first four Indians all reached base on him. Orlando Ramos legged out an infield single, Chris Lovins walked, and then Alex Gomez and Ricardo Vargas hit a pair of RBI singles to flip the score before Schaack struck out and Jeff Kelly hit into a double play. In turn, Maresh’s homer in the bottom 9th tied the game and sent it to extras, where the Raccoons got to throw in a fifth reliever. That turned out to be Brad Loveless, who was on the way outta town, but hadn’t been sent down on Monday or Tuesday so far yet. He did nothing that would have saved his bacon, offering a leadoff walk in the tenth inning to Ricky Lopez, misfielding Matt Kilday’s comebacker for an error, allowed Lovins to single home the go-ahead run, and then walked Gomez to fill the bases before Vargas grounded out to strand the bases loaded. This time the Raccoons went in order in the bottom of the inning. 3-2 Indians. Maresh 3-4, HR, RBI; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K;

Ack.

Brad Loveless (1-1, 9.95 ERA) was made rosterless between games and the Raccoons activated Adam Harris, who had been held over as reserve for the double header just for occasions like this.

Game 2
IND: SS Kilday – CF S. Thompson – LF O. Ramos – RF Lovins – 3B R. Vargas – 1B Schaack – C J. Kelly – 2B Weber – P Jar. Morris
POR: RF Christopher – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 2B Nye – CF Caballero – 1B Kozak – SS Fowler – 3B Gonzales – P DeRose

Portland went up 1-0 in the first in the nightcap as Christopher drew a leadoff walk from Jarod Morris, got a base on a wild pitch, another one on Brass’ single, and then scored on Angel Perez’ sac fly. The Indians then loaded the bags against DeRose in the second inning, but DeRose arrived at Jarod Morris just in time to get the third out on a lazy fly from the pitcher, and then Nick Fowler’s solo homer in the bottom 2nd extended the lead to 2-0. Third inning, third run, on a 2-out stir by Perez (single), Nye (walk), and Caballero, who singled to right, where the ball went under Lovins’ glove to allow Perez to score from second base, 3-0. The remaining runners gained an extra base, which didn’t matter once Jack Kozak barreled a 3-run homer over the fence in right, which was the first home run of his career, and one last desperate bid to save his roster spot. It also ended Morris’ day in the third inning of a 6-0 game, which the Raccoons were not unhappy to see, being down to three relievers in their own pen.

Kozak hit a 2-out RBI single his next time up, driving in Nick Nye to extend the score to 7-0 in the fifth inning. At that point, our chief complaint with DeRose was the same as with Herrera earlier in the day: a lack of efficiency. He needed 86 pitches through five shutout innings, although in all fairness, two errors by Perez and Nye behind him didn’t exactly speed up proceedings. We squeezed him for another five outs, then went to Adam Harris, secretly hoping for as many as seven outs and then another swift reliever exchange with St. Petersburg. The signs were favorable, since Portland had gained an unearned run on a throwing error by Ricardo Vargas in the bottom 6th and it was now an 8-0 game. Nick Nye hit a leadoff triple to right in the seventh inning, but was stranded by another combination of hacking – both Caballero and Kozak struck out – and lucklessness. After Fowler walked, Caswell batted for Gonzales, but flew out to deep center. Harris gave up a run in a long and tedious eighth in which Thompson singled and scored on a Ramos double to begin the inning, and then there were many long counts after that without any more runs being pushed across by Indy. Worse yet was Willie Sanchez’ pinch-hit 2-run homer off Reynaldo Bravo in the ninth inning, but at least we got the inning over *somehow*… 8-3 Raccoons. Perez 2-4, RBI; Nye 2-4, BB, 3B, 2B; Kozak 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Gonzales 1-2, BB, 2B; Starr 1-1; DeRose 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-2);

“Peppers” Harris was not immediately sent back to AAA after the game. Mostly because we had by now cycled through all the spare left-handers from down there and weren’t happy with any of them…

Game 3
IND: SS Kilday – CF Abel – LF O. Ramos – C A. Gomez – 1B Schaack – RF Lovins – 3B R. Vargas – 2B Weber – P M. Guerra
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Perez – 2B Fowler – 3B Benitez – P Stewart

Both teams got the #1 hitter on base in the #1 inning on Wednesday, and both were caught stealing to give the other team’s starter a 1-2-3 inning after all, sorta. In Stewart’s case he offered a four-pitch walk to Kilday, but then maintained minimum pace into the middle innings, striking out five Indians the first time through overall. He would nurse a no-hitter for five and two thirds before it was broken up by – (big sigh) – the opposing pitcher when Melvin Guerra hit a single to right with two outs in the sixth. Kilday then grounded out to short to end the inning, and the Raccoons were on three hits and no runs themselves through six innings.

And then of course Stewart was completely destroyed in the seventh inning. Out of the blue entirely, Kevin Abel opened with a double, Ramos walked, Gomez doubled to left for the game’s first run, and Schaack singled home a pair, eventually scoring on Mike Weber’s sac fly to make it four runs in the inning. Tony Benitez drew another walk in the bottom 8th and was singled home by Lonzo with two outs, but that was the extent to which the Raccoons rallied after the seventh-inning implosion and before Alex Rios had a ninth-inning implosion. Gomez singled, Schaack reached on an error by Fowler, and Lovins walked. Ricardo Vargas whacked a grand slam, and there was still nobody out. Weber hit a floater to center that Caswell dropped for another error, but a Guerra bunt and two pops then ended the silly inning. 8-1 Indians. Caballero (PH) 1-1;

Awful.

Ben Akman was a late scratch on Thursday and the Indians sent Shane Fitzgibbon (2-2, 3.34 ERA) on short rest for one reason or another.

Game 4
IND: SS Kilday – CF Abel – LF O. Ramos – C A. Gomez – 1B Schaack – RF Lovins – 3B R. Vargas – 2B Weber – P Fitzgibbon
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – C Perez – 2B Nye – CF Caballero – 1B Brassfield – LF Kozak – 3B Gonzales – P Riddle

While Tyler Riddle continued to riddle batters up and down the country, the Raccoons reached new levels in brain farts in the early innings on Thursday. Caballero hit into a double play after Nick Nye fortunately reached base on an uncaught third strike to begin the bottom 2nd, and in the third inning both Gonzales and Christopher were caught stealing to sabotage the attempts at offense. Kevin Abel singled off Riddle in the fourth to get the Indians into the H column, but otherwise they struck out *eight* times in four innings, then also rung up Lovins and Weber in the fifth to get to double digits for the game.

The game was still scoreless in the middle of the fifth, after which Brass socked a leadoff double to right. Kozak was walked intentionally to get to Gonzales, who popped out, and Riddle whiffed swinging. Two down, Joey Christopher finally put the batter’s shoes on and slapped an RBI single to left-center, and Lonzo followed that up with an RBI single to left. They then pulled off a double steal with Perez batting, and both scored when Perez singled to right-center, doubling the score to 4-0. Nye flew out to center to end the inning.

Lovins and Weber struck out again in the seventh to fill the dozen for Riddle, but in between the Indians put up a run on three singles, two of the bloop variety, in that top of the seventh inning. Ramos and Gomez went to the corners to begin the inning, and while Schaack popped out and Lovins fanned, Vargas dropped in a 2-out duck snort to get Indy on the board, 4-1. Weber stranded two when he K’ed as the tying run. Riddle then gave up two more singles to Kilday (forced out by Abel) and Ramos in the eighth without getting another strikeout. The Indians were on the corners with two outs and the tying run in the box in the .196 batter Alex Gomez, who fell to 1-2 against reliever Ryan Sullivan, who then gave up a game-tying homer to left, because he was just as much of a useless **** as the other ones.

Joel Starr batted for Kozak in the bottom 8th after Raffy de la Cruz walked the bags full by the time there were two outs, got a 2-0 pitch in the zone, and sloshed it into centerfield for a 2-run single to reclaim a lead for Portland (not that it helped Riddle all that much). Matt Walters then went on to blow his second save of the series, again without getting an out. Lovins doubled to center, Vargas singled to put the tying runs on the corners, and then Jeff Kelly pinch-hit and bopped a 3-run homer to left just like that. I was not amused, I think, because I wasn’t actually moving or emoting anymore. Just a dead-eyed stare. It persisted until the Indians had made three outs in order after that, and then the Raccoons made three outs in order after that. 7-6 Indians. Christopher 2-5, RBI; Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Brassfield 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Starr (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 12 K;

When’s the right time to accept that everybody on this team is bloody useless?

Raccoons (14-15) @ Wolves (10-16) – May 7-9, 2060

For the fifth straight year the Raccoons and Wolves faced off in the regular season, with Salem having taken the last two meetings. This year the Wolves were in trouble, ranking in the bottom four in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League, with the second-worst rotation, second-worst defense, second-worst OBP, and second-worst batting average. Then again, it was their lucky day because the Raccoons tumbleweeded into town.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (2-3, 7.33 ERA) vs. Blake Sparks (0-2, 9.13 ERA)
TBD vs. Josh Elling (0-3, 5.56 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-4, 4.30 ERA) vs. Dave Robinson (3-3, 3.96 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday, again. The other two were right-handers, and the only right-handers in the Wolves’ rotation.

We had no concept of who our Saturday starter would be. If I could have a wish, I’d ask for another rainout and double-header on Sunday.

Game 1
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Maresh – 3B Benitez – Fox
SAL: LF C. Jimenez – 3B Espinosa – SS Buss – 1B Fresco – C Fuller – RF J. Mendoza – CF R. Garcia – 2B Bonilla – P Sparks

The Raccoons scored only one run from Joe-Chris’ single and Lonzo’s double that put a pair in scoring position to begin the Friday opener, on Caswell’s grounder to second base. Nye grounded out to third, and Starr flew out easily to keep Lonzo stranded on third base. That lead didn’t stand, thanks to Fox allowing singles to Tim Fuller and Alberto Bonilla, and a walk to Ruben Garcia in between, in the bottom 2nd, which tied the game for the Wolves. A new lead was pieced together from no fewer than four singles in the fourth inning; Cas singled and was doubled up by Nye, and then Starr, Brass, and Maresh hit three straight singles to scratch out a run before Tony Benitez made another absolutely useless out. The Wolves answered with leadoff singles from Belchior Fresco and Fuller in the bottom 4th, but Jose Mendoza jammed into a 4-6-3 double play and Garcia struck out to let Fox escape with the 2-1 lead.

The Coons turned a double play behind Fox in the fifth, and Maresh threw out Jeff Buss trying to steal after getting nicked to begin the bottom 6th, but Fox then fudged the bags full with the 5-6-7 batters anyway. Bonilla, a switch-hitting 22-year-old rookie who was much weaker against left-handers, was up next and a mound conference tried to goad Fox into getting the third out of the inning here without blowing up. The count ran full before Bonilla flailed over ball four in the dirt, which counted as a tiny W with the way things were going otherwise, I guess…

The Portland battery was in scoring position in the seventh inning after Jonathon Scales offered a leadoff walk to Chris Maresh, while Fox had his bunt thrown away by Gold Glover Danny Espinosa. The Wolves elected to walk Joe-Chris intentionally, bringing up Lonzo with one out, after Lonzo had already hit into a double play two passes through the lineup earlier. Infuriatingly, he did so again, bowling the Raccoons out of the inning, 6-4-3 style. Fox got purged after a second leadoff hit-by-pitch against outfielder Danny Diaz in the bottom 7th, with Ruben Mendez stalking around that tying run on base to maintain the skinny lead. Ryan Sullivan allowed singles to PH Mike Seidman and Ruben Garcia in the bottom 8th, both with two outs, with the former Crusaders scourge Seidman being caught in a rundown on the Garcia single and tagged out to end the inning. Whatever ******* works… The top 9th had Nick Fowler single in place of Tony Benitez and then get doubled up by Kozak, before Matt Walters, beaten and battered, entered the bottom 9th. Angel Escobido drew a leadoff walk from the #8 spot before Diaz flew out to Cas in center. Another mound conference was called to re-twiddle Walters’ whiskers for better reception, because what I was seeing here was simply awful. He proceeded to strike out Chris Jimenez, but Espinosa singled to left on a 1-2 pitch, moving Escobido and the tying run to second base. Buss grounded out to Nye, though. 2-1 Blighters. Christopher 2-4, BB; Lavorano 2-4, 2B; Starr 2-3, BB; Brassfield 2-4; Fowler (PH) 1-1;

Jack Kozak (.217, 1 HR, 4 RBI) was then optioned to St. Petersburg to make room on the roster for a spot starter. Damasceno, Sensabaugh, Alba were all unavailable, Argenziano was on the DL, and I wasn’t gonna touch Craig Kniep, who was still on the AAA roster, with a 20-foot pole unless we were 20 games under .500.

Thusly, 24-year-old right-hander Jose Rosa won his ABL debut thanks to a 1.80 ERA in 15 innings of swingman duty in AAA this year. Rosa had been signed as international free agent outta the Dominican Republic for $81k eight years ago and since then had done his bloody best to be as invisible as possible. He had first reached St. Pete in late ’58 and was being used as stuffings there since, amounting to just 59 innings in 18 appearances (5 starts last year). He had control issues along with a slider/curve mix and a 95mph heater that had at least some movement to it so he wasn’t getting hit like a tee…

Game 2
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P Rosa
SAL: 3B Espinosa – RF J. Mendoza – SS Buss – 1B Fresco – C Fuller – LF C. Jimenez – CF R. Garcia – 2B Bonilla – P Elling

Rosa walked three batters in the first two innings, but the Wolves couldn’t get the hits required to topple him early, while the Raccoons let a Lonzo single in the first and a 2-out Perez triple in the second get away for no runs scored early, then began the fourth inning with Cas getting nicked before Nye and Starr filled up the bases with nobody out. Two strikeouts and a grounder to short kept the Critters at bay, and from scoring runs especially…

The rest of the middle innings was shockingly uneventful with Rosa keeping the walks in his pockets and the Wolves making poor contact consistently. Through six, the teams were matching each other with three hits aside, and no runs for either group, before Brass’ leadoff double in the top 7th posed a vague threat. Perez singled, moving him to third base, and Nick Fowler finally broke through with a double to center, driving home Brassfield for the game’s first run. The remaining runners were stranded where they were as Rosa whiffed, Christopher was walked intentionally, Lonzo whiffed again, and Cas flew out casually to Jose Mendoza… The word “infuriating” was starting to become a bit stale.

Bottom 7th, and Ruben Garcia and Danny Diaz drew walks to knock out Rosa with two outs. Bravo came in, threw a wild pitch to advance the runners, then walked Espinosa altogether, and then somehow struck out Mendoza as both offenses made compelling arguments for forced contraction from the league… Bottom 8th, Bravo allowed a leadoff single to Buss, then another single to Fresco. Another wild pitch advanced those, too, but with nobody out, and then Fowler fumbled Fuller’s funny grounder for an error as the tying run scored. Bravo was dumped, but Rios allowed the tying run to score on Garcia’s 1-out single. Bonilla hit into a double play to end the inning. But the Wolves now had the 2-1 lead, and the Raccoons began the ninth against Jason Posey with poor outs by Fowler and Caballero. Christopher singled with two down, but Lonzo fanned and that was the end of the game. 2-1 Wolves. Brassfield 2-4, 2B; Perez 2-4; Rosa 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 3 K;

Jose Rosa was returned to AAA after a fun day out at the tri-county fair, and took Tony Benitez (.115, 0 HR, 3 RBI) with him. Additionally, Arturo Bribiesca was waived and DFA’ed to make a spot on the 40-man roster available for 2055 fifth-rounder 3B/RF Armando Suriel, who had a thunderous arm and a singles bat, hitting .303 in St. Petersburg where he had been promoted to last summer. Suriel was already 25 and not exactly a hot commodity, and was a switch-hitter with nearly balanced splits. 1B Joe Agee was hitting really well in AAA and was also called up, although I wasn’t exactly sure where he was supposed to get any playing time from given that Joel Starr existed, was well and steady, and batted from the same side as him. Agee’s promotion was about a 40-man roster crunch as much as anything, because I would have preferred something like Todd Oley’s lukewarm body, actually, but he wasn’t on the 40-man and I saw no easy way to get him on it either.

Game 3
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 2B Nye – C Perez – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – CF Caballero – 3B Suriel – P B. Herrera
SAL: 3B Espinosa – CF R. Garcia – 1B Fresco – C Fuller – LF C. Jimenez – RF Bednarz – SS Crist – 2B D. Diaz – P D. Robinson

Doubles by Christopher and Perez gave Portland a 1-0 lead in the first inning, while Belchior Fresco nearly homered to left in the bottom 1st, but had the ball picked off the top of the wall by Brassfield. Herrera then had two calm innings before **** hit the fan in the bottom 4th and the Wolves knocked straight base hits with Fresco (double), Fuller, and Jimenez (singles) to tie the game on the latter single. Joey Christopher also tweaked something in his back on the throw in there and left the game with Luis Silva. Since Noah Caswell had a slow week and looked like two days off (Monday was off for the Coons) would be useful to clear his head, the Raccoons shifted Suriel to rightfield and brought in David Gonzales to play third base. Herrera struck out Mike Bednarz, but then surrendered the go-ahead run on a 2-out single by Tom Crist. Danny Diaz grounded out to first base to end the damn inning.

The 2-1 score remained on the board for as long as Bobby Herrera was in the game, which was through seven innings. The Critters looked highly hapless, putting together only two base hits in the six innings after the double-double in the first. Agee batted for Herrera leading off the top 8th, but whiffed. Gonzales singled to left, which knocked out Robinson, but was then forced out on Lonzo’s grounder to short against Dave Lister. Lonzo stole second, Nick was nyed, and Angel Perez popped out to Crist to strand the two runners for good. Reynaldo Bravo served up the insurance in the bottom 8th, allowing a single to Ruben Garcia and a 2-piece to right to Belchior Fresco. 4-1 Wolves. Christopher 1-2, 2B; Perez 2-4, 2B, RBI; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (1-5);

In other news

May 3 – Cincy INF Matt Wartella (.393, 2 HR, 9 RBI) caps a 5-run bottom of the ninth with a walkoff grand slam to beat the Blue Sox, 6-3.
May 4 – The Scorpions’ INF Rick Price (.212, 1 HR, 7 RBI) gets his 2,000th base hit in a 4-1 loss to the Wolves, doubling off SAL SP Dave Robinson (3-3, 3.96 ERA) in the seventh inning. The 36-year-old Price was on his fifth ABL team and had won three championships, two Gold Gloves, and two Platinum Sticks in his time. He was a career .286 batter with 133 HR, 914 RBI, and 88 SB.
May 4 – SAC OF/1B Israel Santiago (.327, 2 HR, 10 RBI) could miss a month with a shoulder strain.
May 6 – Thunder 3B/RF Ed Soberanes (.270, 0 HR, 8 RBI) picks up his 2,500th career hit in a 4-3 win against the Condors. The 36-year-old collects two singles, including the milestone in the first inning against TIJ SP Edgar Mauricio (2-2, 2.92 ERA). Soberanes was the 2051 CL Player of the Year and has a collection of seven Platinum Sticks and a Gold Glove. He won the 2053 championship with the Thunder. For his 17-year career he has been hitting .305 with 296 HR and 1,301 RBI, and has stolen 395 bases.
May 6 – The Crusaders acquire INF/LF John Webler (.271, 4 HR, 10 RBI) from the Capitals for LF/RF Tony Rodriquez (.211, 0 HR, 1 RBI).
May 7 – ATL SP Enrique Ortiz (3-2, 2.06 ERA) will miss four months to have bone spurs removed from his elbow.
May 9 – Bayhawks southpaw Mark Jacobs (3-1, 2.14 ERA) faces the minimum 27 batters as he throws a 1-hit shutout against the Warriors, claiming the 4-0 victory. SFW INF/RF Nate Green (.263, 0 HR, 2 RBI) hits a fifth-inning single for the Warriors, but is immediately doubled up to keep Sioux Falls to the minimum.
May 9 – The Buffaloes beat the Titans, 4-3 in 14 innings.

FL Player of the Week: NAS INF Robby Cox (.339, 7 HR, 31 RBI), socking .267 (8-30) with 5 HR, 14 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL OF Josh Abercrombie (.271, 3 HR, 10 RBI), batting .379 (11-29) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

If was had stayed home on the weekend, we would have scored about as many runs.

Joey Christopher should be fine by Tuesday after leaving Sunday’s game with a tweak in his back.

Monday is off, and I will have Cristiano explain to me in fine detail how a team that is fourth in batting average, fourth in OBP, and has half a dozen guys hitting around .300 can score well under four runs a game. Sure, they could have more power, as usual, but it’s not like we’re not on base. We’re on base all the ******* time!!

Two-week homestand coming up now. After the Monday off day we’ll have 13 straight games with the Cyclones, Titans, damn Elks, and Aces.

Fun Fact: Tyler Riddle leads all CL pitchers in WAR with 2.1;

Yes yes, Cristiano, but how does that give us *actual* wins…?