[Westheim]

Raccoons (35-31) vs. Crusaders (36-30) – June 17-19, 2061

The Crusaders had overtaken the Raccoons after our recent slip and faceplant. New York came in second in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed with a +53 run differential. They had no speed, but they had a top 3 rotation and defense. We had a 3-1 lead in the season series that was surely going to survive this series…

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (1-1, 5.40 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (11-2, 2.10 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (4-2, 2.36 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (4-6, 5.29 ERA)
Nick Robinson (4-4, 3.56 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (4-5, 3.76 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up against us in this series.

Even after the Friday off day the Raccoons were mum about whether Matt Walters was available or not to begin the series, as if we’d hold a lead going into the ninth…

Game 1
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – CF Konecny – 1B Austin – LF Branch – RF Zeiher – C P. Gonzales – 2B R. Price – 3B Webler – P Seiter
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P Riddle

Joel Starr wasn’t in the best of form, but hit an RBI double to plate Lonzo in the bottom 1st after Seiter had heinously plunked the best active base stealer in the league with a fastball. Starr also had the Raccoons’ second hit of the game, a third-inning single that led absolutely nowhere. The Crusaders opened with Omar Sanchez and Aubrey Austin singles against Riddle in the first inning, but Tommy Branch cracked a bouncer into a 5-4-3 double play to end that inning, and they did not get on base again until Austin drew a walk in the fourth, also to be left on first base, but in the fifth Rick Price drew a 1-out walk from Riddle, who got through John Webler, but then gave up a gapper and a 2-out RBI double to, yes, Seiter. (opens bottle of Capt’n Coma)

Joel Starr was on a mission, though; Morris whiffed and Lonzo grounded out in the bottom 5th, but Starr brashed a ball over the wall in right to grab the lead right back, and was now a triple shy of the cycle (career cycles: 6, none this year). Robinson held that through 6.1 innings before leaving after 107 pitches. Erickson got Webler and Seiter to complete the seventh inning. Nick Fowler’s leadoff double to left off Seiter in the bottom 7th gave the Raccoons a rousing chance for a tack-on run, but Forbes Tomlin grounded out to short in place of Erickson. Seiter lost Morris in a full count, then gave up a single to left-center to Lonzo. Fowler got a good read and raced around to score, but Branch’s throw home also allowed the trailing runners to both get into scoring position. Unfortunately, this took the stick away from Starr, who was walked intentionally to fill them up. Brass’ sac fly made it 4-1, but Cas grounded out to short to end the inning.

The eighth began with Omar Sanchez singling against LaBat, who then struck out Kelly Konecny. The Raccoons, sure short on right-handed talent in that pen, tried to squeeze through with Rich Read against Austin and Branch, which was bold, but he gave up another single before striking out Branch. Now, a double switch was called, with Ricky Herrera and Joey Christopher entering and Brass sitting down – and at that point it was pretty clear that the Raccoons still had NO Matt Walters available for the ninth inning and now banked on Ricky H. to get this one over the line. Cas going back to catch a Sean Zeiher drive at least ended the Crusaders’ threat in this eighth inning. The Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 8th against Seiter and Alex Flores, but Lonzo grounded out to leave them loaded; however, Ricky H. struck out two in a 1-2-3 ninth to nail the save down. 4-1 Raccoons. Starr 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Christopher 1-1; Riddle 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-1); R. Herrera 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (2);

By the next day, Alex Flores (3-0, 5.89 ERA), who got the last two outs in the eighth inning, was on the DL with a partially torn labrum and his season was probably over.

Game 2
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – C McLaren – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – LF Branch – CF Konecny – 2B R. Price – 3B Webler – P Musgrave
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B Fowler – P B. Herrera

Omar Sanchez hit another game-opening single, because he was just that annoying, but this time the Raccoons could not turn an inning-ending double play on Austin, and instead Sean Zeiher walloped a ball over the wall for a quick 2-0 lead for New York. It looked like this might be it, because through four innings, the Coons were held to a Caswell single that was immediately turned into thin air by Nye’s 6-4-3 double play grounder. Musgrave offered a 1-out walk to Nye in the bottom 5th, though, and then allowed soft singles to Perez and Fowler to load the bases, but with the caveat that it brought up Bobby Herrera with three on and one down. Musgrave fell to 2-0 against him, but Herrera then hit a fly to shallow right that Zeiher caught moving in, and there was no chance to score from there. Morris, though, sliced a single to center that got one run home, although Perez had to stop at third base. Lonzo then struck out swinging to end the inning.

Herrera pitched to the stretch, whiffing eight without allowing another run after the early assault, but was still trailing 2-1. Fowler walked with one out in the bottom 7th and Christopher singled to center in place of Bobby H., and Ben Morris hit another ball to center that wasn’t caught by Konecny, this time of the deeper variety for an RBI double and a tied ballgame. Christopher scored on a wild pitch after that, and Morris came home on Lonzo’s sac fly to Branch in the left-center gap, 4-2.

The Critters then tried to piece the eighth together with different paws again in the eighth, though with less success than they had enjoyed on Friday. Adam Harris allowed a hit to Matt McLaren, and Ruben Mendez conceded the run on a 2-out double to left by Zeiher, who had all the Crusaders’ RBI’s in the game. So this still did not look like Matt Walters was going to be available, but when the ninth inning dawned, there he was, trying to save the 4-3 game. He walked John Rosenstiel to begin the inning, the first of four pinch-hitters thrown at him by the Crusaders. Pedro Gonzales and Hector Weir both struck out after that, and Armando Caban popped out in foul ground. 4-3 Raccoons. Morris 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Fowler 1-2, BB; Christopher (PH) 1-1; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (5-2);

With Walters back in place, the Raccoons finally were as healthy again as they were gonna get this season (or at least until September), with Ryan Sullivan always going to miss most or all of the season.

Much the contrary for the Crusaders, who learned on Sunday that SP Milt Cantrell (3-5, 3.52 ERA), who had left his last start with an injury, would miss the rest of the season with a torn rotator cuff.

Game 3
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – CF Konecny – 1B Austin – LF Branch – RF Zeiher – C P. Gonzales – 2B R. Price – 3B Webler – P Luera
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – P Robinson

The weather forecast for Sunday was grim, but the game started on time. Unfortunately, no one on the brown team seemed up to the challenge; there was no meaningful offense for Portland in the early going, while the Crusaders took a 1-0 lead in the second on an unearned run, sponsored in huge part by Joel Starr’s 2-base throwing error, which they added to in the third inning with a solo jack by Tommy Branch, then in the fifth with three singles – including Luera’s – and another run against Robinson, who tried hard, but lacked stuff and wasn’t fooling anybody.

Bottom 5th, and the Raccoons got runners to second and third with one out; Nick Nye singled and Tim Fuller doubled to center to achieve this, but this brought up Nicks Fox and Robinson in the 8-9 spots. Fox lined out to John Webler, and the Raccoons then chose aggression and sent Ben Morris to bat for Robinson, but he grounded out to Sanchez. Nobody scored, and Rich Read then took the hill, so that was probably gonna be that. He struck out Gonzales but then walked Price and Webler in the top 6th. Luera though fell to 0-2 with bunt attempts, then was told to swing away, hitting straight into a double play. Starr doubled and was stranded in the bottom 6th, while Konecny homered off Adam Harris in the following half-inning to extend the New York lead to 4-0.

At this point it was raining and quite steadily, and the seventh-inning stretch extended into a half-hour rain delay, and I had no illusions that we’d play enough baseball from here to make up the deficit and tended to drinking (hick!) and roster management with my most trusted advisors – Slappy and Honeypaws while Cristiano was looking on annoyedly. When play did resume, Nye was hit by Luera and stole a base, then was singled home by Fuller, but the catcher was doubled up by Nick Fox to end the inning.

When the Raccoons brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom 8th, the inning should have been long over. Ayala grounded out in the pitcher’s spot before both Christopher and Lonzo reached on errors by infielders, knocking out Luera and bringing in ex-Coon Seisaku Taki, who struck out Starr before the bullpen door flung open again and Kody Mello came in to get an inning-ending grounder from Brassfield. Jason Rhodes axed the Coons in order in the bottom 9th. 4-1 Crusaders. Fuller 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Raccoons (37-32) @ Canadiens (31-37) – June 20-22, 2061

It was goodbye for me at the start of the next week then, because the Critters were off to Elk City for a 3-game series there. We had a 4-2 lead in the season series against the league’s #5 offense and #7 pitching. The Elks had started well, crashed violently, but now were 14-9 for their last 23 games and trying to piece their season back together. Adam Foley and Steve Scarpa were on the DL for them.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (7-6, 3.79 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (5-8, 3.80 ERA)
Chance Fox (5-4, 3.13 ERA) vs. Martyn Polaco (3-3, 5.20 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (2-1, 3.86 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (4-6, 4.17 ERA)

Polaco was a left-handed starter to contend against … if the Elks didn’t bypass him here.

Game 1
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – C A. Perez – 3B N. Fox – P DeRose
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 3B C. Sullivan – 1B J. Campos – CF D. Moreno – C A. Maldonado – 2B Wartella – RF Hambrick – SS Pierson – P Kozloski

DeRose’s DeRotten run threatened to continue with an unearned run on him right in the first inning as Danny Garcia singled, stole second, and scored on Nick Fox’ throwing error, but the Raccoons at least tied the game back up right away with Brass and Nye doubles to left in the second inning. Morris singled and stole second in the third inning, but was left on, and Nye and Perez hit 1-out singles to go to the corners in the fourth, but Fox popped out to Alex Maldonado behind the dish on a 3-1 pitch (sigh!) and DeRose struck out to end the inning. DeRose was pitching solidly all the while here, then actually did get a lead in the fifth inning. Morris and Lonzo led off with singles, then a double steal when Kozloski paid them no mind, but Starr’s fly out to Christian Hambrick in right was too shallow for Morris to try and make it home. There was no need to rush – Brass would dump a single into left-center six pitches later that allowed both of them to score easily, 3-1. Cas walked in a full count and Nye singled on the very next pitch to load them up then, but again one pitch later Angel Perez jammed into a 4-6-3 double play and that killed the inning.

Both Starr and Cas narrowly missed home runs and had their deep flies caught at the fence in right and left, respectively, in the seventh inning to keep the score at 3-1. DeRose had only allowed two hits through six, but was almost at 100 pitches because there had been a lot of long counts in there, too. He got two more outs from Matt Wartella and Hambrick in the bottom 7th before being lifted for Ricky H. in a double switch that put Tomlin at first base instead of Starr. Herrera struggled, though; Preston Pierson hit a fly out to the fence in right to end the seventh, but Chad Cardenas singled and he walked Danny Garcia to begin the eighth before getting a double play grounder from Chris Sullivan. Erickson came in and walked Jose Campos, and from there we went straight to Walters in another double switch, now with Fowler replacing Fox at third base. Damian Moreno flew out to Morris on the first pitch Walters threw to end the inning. Morris drew a walk from Carson Miller and stole his third base of the game in the top 9th, but couldn’t find anybody that would move him across. Thankfully, Walters struck out the side in the bottom of the inning. 3-1 Critters. Morris 2-2, 3 BB; Brassfield 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Nye 3-4, 2B, RBI; DeRose 6.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (8-6); Walters 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (17);

At this point the top 3 in the North were all just a game apart.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nye – SS Lavorano – RF Brassfield – C A. Perez – 1B Tomlin – CF Ayala – 3B N. Fox – LF Morris – P C. Fox
VAN: CF D. Garcia – LF Hambrick – 1B J. Campos – 3B Whittington – C A. Maldonado – SS Pierson – RF D. Moreno – 2B Roldan – P Polaco

Chance Fox didn’t have a great outing, with the Elks whizzing singles by both his fuzzy ears relentlessly. Five base knocks in the first three innings, including Rafael Roldan driving in Thomas Whittington from third base with a 2-out knock in the bottom 2nd with not one, but two bases open, but Roldan was a soft-poke lefty batter and there had been a reason to expect Fox to get him. That was the only run early on mostly because the Raccoons were hitless against the left-handed Polaco, not breaking into the H column until Tomlin singled with two outs in the fourth, of which nothing came at all. The middle innings were not much different to the early ones, though. No Coons offense, and Fox kept getting slapped around. He would pitch six messy innings, giving up nine hits for two runs, the second one occurring on a 2-out single by Campos that drove in… (deep sigh) …the opposing pitcher, who had also knocked a single to begin that inning. The game then was completely blown out of the water in the seventh, in which the Elks put up a 5-spot on the fourth-string relief muppets the Raccoons ran out there. Erickson faced three batters, departing after Jose Campos romped a 3-run homer off him, while Adam Harris died a slow death, giving up four singles and two runs while facing five batters, to the extent where Ruben Mendez was brought into a total wreck of a game just to get two strikeouts and end the hemorrhage. The Elks nevertheless ravaged Rich Read for two more runs in the bottom 8th. 9-0 Canadiens.

Forbes Tomlin’s fourth-inning single was the only hit the Raccoons got against seven innings’ worth of Polaco and two more by former starter Jim Peterson.

Unsurprisingly, the Raccoons culled the bullpen for the second time this month. Bryan Erickson (1-0, 7.71 ERA, 1 SV), Adam Harris (0-0, 9.82 ERA), and Rich Read (0-0, 10.38 ERA) were all axed at once. Things were bad enough that we put in a waiver claim for the Aces’ righty Mike Abrams, who had all of 105 ABL appearances at 33 years old, just to get a warm body in there, but his waiver period would last through the rubber game here, and we had to go back to the poisoned well in AAA instead. Up came nothing exciting: Paul Barton had been at least decent, but Brad Loveless and J.J. Sensabaugh were just more time wasters at this point…

Game 3
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – P Riddle
VAN: LF D. Garcia – LF Hambrick – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – 3B Whittington – C A. Maldonado – SS Wartella – 2B Roldan – P Brink

The Wednesday series finale got off to a bumpy start, besides the Coons going down 1-2-3 in the top 1st. Nye fumbled Garcia’s grounder for an error, Hambrick walked on four pitches, and I sunk deeper into my couch at home in Portland, but then Campos hit a comebacker for a 1-6-3 double play and Cardenas went down flailing to get Riddle through the bottom 1st. Riddle wiggled his way outta there, and then had the Coons’ first hit with a 2-out single in the third inning after Tan Brink had disappeared the first eight Critters that dared step into the box against him. That was as good as it got for Brink, who left the game in the fourth inning with a stiff neck.

Mike Perez replaced Riddle and pitched the Elks through the sixth inning without allowing anybody on base, while Riddle held a 2-hitter against the Elks through six, and the game remained scoreless. Noah Caswell’s 2-out solo jack in the seventh *did* wake me up though, coming off Jim Peterson, who had pitched two innings the previous night. Nye and Fuller followed up with singles, but Fox flew out to left to keep them on base. Riddle walked Whittington in the bottom 7th, but got an inning-ending double play grounder from the catcher Maldonado to bugger outta there, and with his spot leading off the eighth inning, that was also the end of his outing. Joe-Chris singled to center in his spot, then rushed to third base when Morris singled over a jumping Rafael Roldan, but he crashed quite badly into Whittington at third base and remained on the ground, rolled into a furry ball on top of the third base bag until whisked away by Luis Silva. Ayala pinch-ran for the pinch-hitter now, while Lonzo batted with runners on the corners and nobody out, but Ayala had to hold no his grounder, and only Morris moved to second base. Starr whiffed altogether against the left-handed Peterson. The Elks then brought a new left-hander, Jeremy Garvey, who promptly gave up a 2-run double to right to Brassfield, 3-0. Cas grounded out to end the top 8th, with Ayala then staying in centerfield in his place.

Ricky Herrera then had his worst outing as a Raccoon ever in the bottom 8th, giving up two triples to left-handed batters to completely blow the 3-0 lead among other damage done. Wartella led off with a triple, was singled home by Roldan, and Garcia walked with one out. Damian Moreno then pinch-hit for Hambrick and socked a game-tying triple. Barton then replaced Herrera and managed to keep the go-ahead run on base with two soft groundouts from Campos and Cardenas. Nick Fox got on and stole his first Critters base against Erik Swain in the ninth and was unceremoniously stranded, while the Coons threw Loveless into the bottom 9th just to get to their off day, but he retired three in a row and the game was sent to extras, where the Coons still didn’t do ******* anything, and Loveless allowed a leadoff single to Chris Sullivan in the #8 spot, then got two groundouts from Bobby Needham and Danny Garcia. Preston Pierson, pinch-hitting for the pitcher and emptying the bench, grounded to Nye, who fed the ball to Starr, who dropped the ball and lost the game. 4-3 Canadiens. Christopher (PH) 1-1; Riddle 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K;

(stares blankly)

“All the guys back together” – (hits himself on the snout) Me and my big – … (looks at Honeypaws) Can you hit at least .200, Honeypaws?

Interlude: waiver claim

The Raccoons were awarded the minimum contract of righty Mike Abrams (2-1, 5.21 ERA, 1 SV) on Thursday, and the rather unimpressive quad-A reliever remained awaiting designation because the Raccoons wanted a diagnosis on Joey Christopher before making any roster moves. There was only administrative dealings on Thursday, like giving Abrams the #40 most recently worn by C Cortez Chavez, who was still hanging out in St. Petersburg.

There was also no diagnosis on Friday though, at which point Abrams was activated after all as Brad Loveless (0-1, 3.48 ERA) was handed back to the Alley Cats.

Raccoons (38-34) @ Bayhawks (46-26) – June 24-26, 2061

The Bayhawks were half a game out in second place in the South and had swept the Raccoons already once this year, AND nothing good ever happened by the Bay, so I had justifiably no hopes for this series. Led by Grant Anker (.292, 19 HR, 78 RBI) they were scoring the most runs in the CL (just over SIX per game!!), which was enough to out-smash an average rotation and a rather brittle bullpen that was in the bottom three by ERA. They had a +99 run differential (Coons: +20). There were injuries to the Bayhawks, though, with starter Hector Montenegro and position players Jose Escalera, Aaron Walker on the DL, Xavier Reyes dealing with an intercostal strain, but not being on the DL, and Scott Laws had left their game on Wednesday with an injury, but was also still on the roster, so they only had a 3-man bench compared to the Coons’ 4-man bench to begin this series and quite a few holes in that murder lineup.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (5-2, 2.37 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (7-0, 3.54 ERA)
Nick Robinson (4-5, 3.56 ERA) vs. Bill Grau (5-0, 1.07 ERA)
Justin DeRose (8-6, 3.50 ERA) vs. Noah Hollis (2-4, 6.52 ERA)

Grau was a southpaw. Neither him nor Chalmers had been beaten yet this year, although Grau had also made seven starts in AAA Baton Rouge, so who knows how much of his bulletproofness was actually down to the offense…

Game 1
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – CF Caswell – 2B Nye – C Perez – 3B N. Fox – P B. Herrera
SFB: SS Huddleston – CF Redfern – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – RF Alade – C Cantu – 1B O. Gonzalez – P Chalmers

No, leaving all hopes at home had been the right move. The Bayhawks went up 1-0 in the first on a single by Grant Anker and a triple by Armando Montoya, then turned Tipsy Bobby inside-out in the second inning, which started with a single by Jon Alade and a Jose Cantu homer. Omar Gonzalez popped out, but Chalmers singled (…), Phil Huddleston singled, and after a Keith Redfern groundout, Anker doubled in a pair and scored on a Montoya single. Sandoval grounded out, but it was now 6-0. The Coons would drag Herrera through two more innings, but the Baybirds kept hitting the ball hard and the was ultimately dumped after the fourth, still down by a margin because the Raccoons were on three hits after four innings, although Cas had driven home Starr for a token run in the fourth.

The Coons got three outs from Elijah LaBat, and after Lonzo singled in the top 6th, could not get a steal off, and was then doubled up by Starr to end the inning, a leadoff walk to Cantu in the bottom 6th. Sensabaugh was brought in at that point as the Critters raised the white flag for good. He got a double play grounder from Gonzalez and found out of the inning, but allowed a run on a walk to Redfern and a Montoya hit in the seventh. Felix Ayala hit a jack to left in Sensabaugh’s spot in the eighth inning, not that it mattered. Abrams made his Coons debut in the eighth, allowing a hit to Jon Alade, but getting out of the inning. 7-2 Bayhawks. Lavorano 2-4; Nye 2-4; Fowler (PH) 1-1, 2B; Ayala (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

(sigh)

Joey Christopher was then shoveled to the DL with a strained medial collateral ligament on Saturday, which was … some thing or other in the leg, I assume. I’m not a doctor.

The Coons would have loved to call up a genuine outfielder, but were already down to just Jorge Moreno, Todd Oley, and (cough) Jack Kozak in St. Petersburg and had to settle for Jon Bean as poor man’s super utility player.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nye – SS Lavorano – RF Brassfield – C A. Perez – 1B Tomlin – CF Ayala – 3B N. Fox – LF Morris – P Robinson
SFB: SS Huddleston – 1B O. Gonzalez – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – RF Kissler – CF Alade – 3B Sostre – C Redfern – P Grau

Anker singled and scored on a Montoya triple against Bobby Her- … no, Robinson in the first inning, but boy, did it give me flashbacks. Bill Sostre’s homer doubled the Bayhawks lead in the bottom 2nd, but the Coons pulled a run back after Grau retired the first seven batters. Ben Morris then hit a triple into the gap and scored on Robinson’s grounder to second base to narrow the score to 2-1, and the game became tied in the next inning through little to no doing of the Raccoons. To start the fourth, Lonzo grounded out to continue a dim week, followed by Brass drawing a walk on a borderline 3-2 pitch. He advanced on a wild pitch, but Perez walked as well. Tomlin then grounded to Sostre, who looked to second, reconsidered, then lost his grip and had to hurry the throw to first, which was then late, off-line, and glanced off Tomlin’s back into foul ground, allowing Brass to score from second and the remaining runners to reach scoring position with one out. Ayala’s poor groundout was no help, but Nick Fox socked a liner to right for a 2-out, 2-run double that gave Portland a 4-2 lead. Morris was walked intentionally to get a K on Robinson to end the inning.

The Baybirds had a leadoff double from Alade in the bottom 4th but the 7-8-9 swamped that runner on third base, while both teams got a leadoff single in the fifth, soon followed by a double play (Lonzo…) on both sides. Ayala singled in the sixth and was caught stealing. Morris drew a walk from Grau in the seventh, was itching to steal, but didn’t go until Robinson bunted him to second base. Then, with two down, Nick Nye nudged one of the fence in left for his seventh homer of the year, extending the lead to 6-2, although Robinson would give up one of those runs in the bottom 7th on hits by Redfern and Huddleston…

Travis Davis, left-hander, offered a leadoff walk to Brass in the eighth. Perez and Tomlin made poor outs, and Ayala only reached on an error by Sostre, but Nick Fox’ single to right-center allowed Brass to score from second base, 7-3. Morris singled to right as well, Aaron Kissler overran the ball, and the Coons got another run on another error. Right-hander Jorge Solis came in at that weird point, met Joel Starr batting for Robinson, and gave up a ringing 2-run double before the inning ended on Nye’s groundout. Lonzo’s slump was deep enough for Jon Bean to bat for him in the ninth, draw a walk, and go to third base on Brass’ single to left, all still against Solis, and then scored on Cas’ pinch-hit sac fly, the only run in that top 9th. On the pitching side, the Raccoons got four outs from LaBat and two from Barton to get the game to its conclusion. 11-3 Raccoons. Nye 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; N. Fox 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Morris 2-2, 2 BB, 3B, RBI; Starr (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Nevertheless our season ended on this day with the Crusaders assuming the lead in the North and the Coons an unrecoverable 1 1/2 games back.

Game 3
POR: LF Morris – 2B Nye – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – CF Caswell – C Fuller – 3B Fowler – SS Bean – P DeRose
SFB: SS Huddleston – C Cantu – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – CF Alade – 1B H. Munoz – RF Grewe – P Hollis

The rubber game saw the struggle bus back in town, with the Raccoons getting a walk and reaching on an error, but failing to get a hit off 36-year-old Noah Hollis, who had last been good at 32. DeRose didn’t strike anybody out in the early going and until Alade went down in a full count in the fourth, but held the Baybirds to two hits and kept the board empty through five innings at least.

Alade would track down a Brassfield drive to center to end the top 6th, though, after Morris and Starr had drawn walks. Cantu drew a leadoff walk from DeRose in the bottom 6th, was replaced by Montoya on a fielder’s choice, and Cas tracked down deep flies by both Anker and Dan Sandoval in that inning as the score remained zip-zilch, but Cas broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single to center in the top 7th. Well, well, a whole base hit for the Portland Pathetics, who woulda thunk!? Fuller’s pop to Montoya and Fowler’s double play grounder to Montoya then made sure nothing actually upsetting happened to vulnerable Bayhawks fans, who after the stretch got to celebrate back-to-back homers by Alade (inside the park!) and Hugo Munoz (outside the park, lame), and DeRose getting roughed up for Huddleston and Cantu singles before being yanked with two outs. Ricky H. came on and got a fly to Brass from Anker, which was about as much as one could ask for against the CL leader in bombs and RBI’s. Morris hit a single in the eighth, but Herrera was taken deep by Alade (now outside the park).

The Baybirds continued with Hollis still on an unlikely 2-hitter in the ninth inning, which was defensible until he walked Starr and allowed a double to Brassfield. Cas was up as the tying run. The Bayhawks were fast asleep, and Hollis fell to 3-1 against Cas before giving up a 427-footer that tied up the whole ******* ballgame. He was yoinked after *that*. Ryan Dow allowed a single to Fuller, who was ran for with Lonzo while Angel Perez batted for Herrera in the #7 spot. Lonzo stole second, reached third base on Perez’ grounder to second base, and then was stranded as Bean fanned and Nick Fox flew out to center. ******* wonderful.

Mendez pitched the game to extras with a 1-2-3 ninth, in which Lonzo had remained in the game at short. Dow began the tenth with allowing a single to Morris on the first pitch, and Morris stole second on the next pitch to Nye, who grounded out to Sandoval, which kept Morris pinned. Starr was walked intentionally to get to Brass, but Brass slung a skipper through the left side on 2-1, putting the Coons up 4-3 with the RBI single. Cas flew out to right, Lonzo walked with two outs, and Perez grounded out to Monto- no! He threw it away! The ball pulled Huddleston off first base, and Starr scored, and all paws were safe…! Tomlin batted for Mendez against new righty Zach Johnson and crashed a ball into left-center gap for a bases-clearing double, Nick Fox barreled an RBI double to right, and Ayala batted for Morris to empty the bench and walked. Nye hit an RBI single, and Starr flew out to the warning track in left to end a 7-run slaughter! The deflated Baybirds then disappeared in order against Abrams in the bottom 10th. 10-3 Blighters! Morris 2-4, BB; Starr 0-2, 4 BB; Brassfield 2-5, RBI; Caswell 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Tomlin (PH) 1-1, 2B, 3 RBI;

Nye and Cas were the only people in the lineup that finished the game, AND in the position they started it in.

In other news

June 19 – 37-year-old OCT 3B Ed Soberanes (.239, 4 HR, 30 RBI) will miss at least a month with a strained hammy.
June 20 – The Condors put up a 10-run rally in the eighth inning to beat the Aces, 15-8. TIJ OF Marco Asencio (.297, 2 HR, 30 RBI) from the leadoff spot has four hits with a homer and a double and drives in five RBI to lead the team.
June 21 – MIL OF Scott Franks (.324, 1 HR, 21 RBI) misses a cycle by the homer in a 5-for-6 day with one RBI in the Loggers’ 11-10 loss in 11 innings against the Titans.
June 21 – The Stars beat the Pacifics, 6-2 in 10 innings, on a walkoff grand slam by 21-year-old OF Carlos Bautista (.600, 1 HR, 4 RBI). This was Bautista’s fifth career at-bat in the majors.
June 22 – OCT 3B/SS Stephen Medlock (.368, 2 HR, 14 RBI) goes 5-for-6 with a double and an RBI in a 13-inning, 6-5 loss to the Bayhawks. The game is tied in five after five innings, after which it takes eight innings for San Francisco to scratch out a walkoff.

FL Player of the Week (11): DAL OF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.325, 1 HR, 29 RBI), clipping .706 (12-17) with 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week (11): BOS LF/RF Bill Ramires (.258, 3 HR, 20 RBI), batting .545 (12-22) with 2 HR, 5 RBI

FL Player of the Week (12): DAL 2B/SS Trevor Niemiec (.208, 6 HR, 26 RBI), selectively slugging at .538 (7-13) with 3 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week (12): SFB OF/1B Jon Alade (.307, 7 HR, 17 RBI), whacking .476 (10-21) with 3 HR, 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The team’s generous use of the handbrake remains annoying, especially when they then go on and score ten runs inside five outs as they did on Sunday. Like, seriously, boys, is there no middle ground??

So it’s been stop-go for several weeks now and we are only close to first place because neither the Indians nor the Crusaders can make up their mind about whether they wanna win the bloody thing or nah.

And just like that we’re into the string of games with no off days before the All Star Game. We will be at home to play the Condors and Indians next week, and then on the road to visit the Titans and Loggers before the All Star break, after which the Titans will be in Portland to start the following homestand.

Fun Fact: Joel Starr became the first Raccoon to draw four walks in a game on Sunday since Jesus Martinez drew five walks in a game almost exactly three years ago.

Martinez’ five walks are the only instance of a Critter ever doing that. And, really, **** walks. (sad Cristiano noises)

I want dingers!!