[Westheim]

Raccoons (83-60) vs. Crusaders (72-72) – September 13-15, 2061

The Crusaders arrived in Portland for one last drubbing, probably, given the Coons’ 13-2 (!) edge in the season series. The league’s #3 offense and #4 pitching also arrived without Sean Zeiher (.273, 17 HR, 84 RBI), who had been placed on the DL on Monday and was out for the year with a back complaint, as well as Rick Price and pitchers Milt Cantrell, Ryan Musgrave, and Alex Flores, which together with Austin Wilcox being listed as day-to-day meant they were half a rotation down at this point.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (3-3, 6.03 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (8-9, 4.18 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (12-4, 2.34 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (8-11, 2.78 ERA)
Nick Robinson (13-7, 2.95 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (17-7, 3.21 ERA)

Only right-handers to see here.

Game 1
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – LF Weir – RF Austin – CF Branch – C McLaren – 2B Spehar – 1B P. Gonzales – 3B V. Velez – P Luera
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Fowler – 2B Bean – C Arellano – P Alba

Alba continued to try and paint over that ghastly ERA with three scoreless innings and five strikeouts to begin the Tuesday opener, with only Ryan Spehar getting on with a single up the middle. The Raccoons were pretty listless the first time through themselves, but Ben Morris struck a 2-out double in the bottom 3rd and then scored when Lonzo dropped in a 3-2 bloop single, giving Portland a 1-0 lead. Lonzo stole his 39th base then, but was left on when Caswell made the third out to Pedro Gonzales. Alba then walked left-handers Hector Weir and Matt McLaren in a gooey, chewy fourth inning, but the Crusaders didn’t get a base knock and the runners were stranded.

The Raccoons added single runs in the fourth on Brass and Fowler doubles, then the fifth when Morris got on base, stole his 46th bag of the year, and then came around on productive outs by Lonzo and Cas, who this time got a sac fly in. The 3-0 lead came in handy in the sixth inning; Alba’s control in the middle innings was nowhere near what it had been at the start, and he would end up walking five batters in total, including Weir and McLaren again in the sixth inning. He ran a full count on Spehar, who then dunked in a shoddy single between Lonzo and Morris, who then botched the pickup, allowing the Crusaders an extra base and an unearned run to score before Pedro Gonzales left the tying runs in scoring position with a groundout to Starr. That was the end for Alba, though, who with three long counts at the end needed 117 pitches to get through six. Bottom 6th, Fowler opened with a double to center off new Crusaders reliever Erik Mathews, who right away left with an injury concern after a visit by their team trainer. Lefty Michael McLaughlin came in and on his second pitch gave up a blooper to left to Jon Bean. Weir tried the sliding catch, missed, and the ball disappeared into the gap for an RBI triple. Bean was then also stranded as Arellano walked, but Kozak and Morris struck out and Lonzo grounded out to third base…

Nevertheless, the 4-1 lead proved to be enough. The Raccoons would get a scoreless inning each from Erickson, Barton, and Walters, with the Crusaders held to one last 2-out single off the closer in the ninth inning, pushed by Pedro Gonzales, with Victor Velez ending the game by striking out. 4-1 Raccoons. Morris 2-5, 2B; Brassfield 2-4, 2B; Fowler 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Alba 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 8 K, W (4-3);

14-2! The mind boggles.

Game 2
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – RF Austin – CF Branch – C McLaren – 3B V. Velez – 1B Konecny – LF J. Alvarez – P J. Ortega
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Brassfield – RF Christopher – C Perez – 3B Fowler – 2B Bean – P Riddle

In a major stunner, Tyler Riddle was beaten around so badly by the Crusaders that he didn’t finish two innings. Eight singles for five outs and five runs; that included one run on straight singles by the 3-4-5 batters in the first inning, and then in the second the roof caved in, which did include a throwing error by Nick Fowler that made all but three runs unearned. Abrams came in and struck out Velez to finally end the second inning and the Raccoons, who hadn’t scored five runs in a game in well over a week, looked like they’d finally take an L against the Crusaders. Trent Brassfield socked a leadoff homer in the bottom 2nd to reduce the gap to 5-1, but Adam Harris also allowed another run in the third inning in a bid to get yoinked off the 40-man roster to make room for another AAA southpaw, doing so by walking Kelly Konecny to begin the inning and then conceding the run on a 2-out RBI single by Sanchez.

While J.J. Sensabaugh was normally in the same glove compartment as Harris, he did put three scoreless innings together after Harris departed, even though the infielders helped out with two double plays. Through six, the Brass homer was still the only hit the Coons had off Ortega, who walked Starr and Morris back-to-back in the bottom 6th, but then Lonzo found a double play to blunder into, and that ended the inning. DeRose took the ball in the seventh and put the game away for good, being taken deep by McLaren and then walking Velez before giving up a 2-out RBI triple to Jose Alvarez to fall seven behind. Ortega never allowed another run, but was lifted after eight innings for Dave Lister, who issued a leadoff walk to Felix Ayala in the #9 hole. The runner stole second, then scored when Morris lobbed an RBI single into shallow right-center. Lonzo reached on catcher’s interference, but Cas grounded out. Brass then walked onto the open base. At this point the tying run was on the dugout steps, promoting to the on-deck circle when Lister walked in a run against Joe-Chris, then got yanked for Jason Rhodes. Nick Fox batted for Perez to try and avoid a double play, grounded to short, and avoided the double play by stomping up to first base in time, as another run scored. Fowler lined out to Konecny to end the game, though. 8-4 Crusaders. Sensabaugh 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

We were out-hit 15-2 in this game, and I was becoming a bit worried about the offense…

Ryan Sullivan rejoined the team on Thursday from his rehab assignment, having posted an 0.93 ERA with the Alley Cats. He had not pitched for the Coons all year long.

Game 3
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Spehar – RF Austin – CF Branch – C McLaren – 3B V. Velez – 1B Weir – LF Deeley – P Seiter
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Starr – C Perez – RF Christopher – 3B Fowler – 2B Bean – P Robinson

Robinson struck out five Crusaders the first time through, but also fell behind 1-0 on Tommy Branch’s 18th homer of the year to lead off the second inning. The top 3rd then was extended needlessly with a 3-2 bloop single with two outs by Omar Sanchez, then Christopher fumbling a fly by Spehar for an error. Aubrey Austin grounded out to Lonzo to leave two aboard. Morris reached on an error in the bottom 3rd, but was stranded, while Robinson ran two more full counts and allowed singles to McLaren and Weir in the fourth inning. Those two were also stranded, but Robinson’s pitch count was escalating at frightening pace and he was up to 81 pitches in just four innings.

For the moment, Joel Starr tied the game with a leadoff jack to left in the bottom 4th, and then Nick Fowler socked a 2-out homer in the same inning to give Robinson a 2-1 lead. Robinson had a quick fifth, but when he went out for the sixth he gave up singles to Austin and Branch and a 3-run homer to McLaren in quick succession and was yanked with a 4-2 deficit. Barton replaced him and gave up an infield single to Velez, then was immediately replaced with LaBat, who gave up ANOTHER infield single to Weir, and then another 3-run homer to Chris Deeley. Things went from wicked to ugly when he then nailed Seiter with a 1-2 pitch that clearly not intentional, but Seiter took exception and stormed the mound, where a brawl broke out when the two pitchers tried to feverishly slap each other while looking away and squinting from their own carnage. Both were ejected. The Coons went to Erickson, who FINALLY GOT AN OUT IN THE BLOODY INNING when Sanchez grounded out, but then allowed a homer to Spehar (his first of the year!) and put Austin and Branch on base before also getting yanked. The Coons had to go to Justin Rocco to get out of the ******* inning, in which the Crusaders put up an 8-spot and the Raccoons had no hope for a comeback.

Adam Harris gave up another run in the seventh, with a single hit by Chris Deeley, who then stole TWO bases like a ******* **** and scored on another single. Harris also did the eighth in the lost game, before Ryan Sullivan got the ball in the ninth to ease back into it. He struck out Weir, Deeley, the ****, grounded out, and then Mark Seeley, Omar Sanchez, and Ryan Spehar still managed to plonk Sullivan for a tack-on run before Armando Caban grounded out to end the inning. There were no results cosmetics either, this time. 11-2 Crusaders. Tomlin (PH) 1-1;

Rated A for Atrocious.

Both Ben Seiter and Elijah LaBat got 10-game suspensions – five for fighting, and five for silliness and how ridiculous it looked when they tried to puppy-paw each other. Fair assessment.

Both the Indians (against the Loggers) and the Titans (against the damn Elks) won three out of four in the meantime, which had the Indians eight games back now with a magic number of nine. The magic numbers for the Crusaders (six) and Titans (four) were in elimination range on the weekend.

Raccoons (84-62) vs. Knights (55-91) – September 16-18, 2061

The Knights were longing for October, but in a different way than the Critters. Despite their awful .377 winning percentage, they were not even in last place in the South, though, and they had a chance to take the season series, which was even at three so far. They were ranked tenth in both runs scored and runs allowed this year, with a -117 run differential. The Coons’ was +68, having suffered considerably in the last couple of days…

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (12-7, 3.23 ERA) vs. Vic Harman (10-15, 3.25 ERA)
Chance Fox (11-8, 2.90 ERA) vs. Troy Ratliff (7-11, 5.17 ERA)
Angel Alba (4-3, 5.36 ERA) vs. Blake Sparks (5-9, 5.49 ERA)

More right-handers coming!

I’d like a neat start from Tipsy Bobby now.

Game 1
ATL: CF J. Parker – LF Abercrombie – 2B W. Acosta – SS Sowell – RF Ellwood – 1B Moya – C Villafan – 3B A. Duncan – P Harman
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – RF Brassfield – C Fuller – 3B N. Fox – LF Kozak – 2B Bean – P B. Herrera

Bobby H. had five strikeouts the first time through, but we had seen that before this week and then saw it go all wrong. Johnny Parker then promptly hit a soft 1-out single, and ex-Coon Josh Abercrombie reached base when Tipsy Bobby dropped Starr’s feed at first base for an error. Uh-oh. Willie Acosta struck out and Ken Sowell flew out calmly to keep them on base, though. The Knights still took a lead in the fourth, which Bobby Ellwood opened with a triple to right-center and came home on Joaquin Moya’s groundout, and since the Raccoons’ offense was still comatose, that was a 1-0 lead. Brass and Fox hit singles in the bottom 4th, but Kozak flew out to center and that was that inning. Jon Bean hit a leadoff single to left-center in the fifth, and then Adam Duncan, normally a great defender at third base, threw Herrera’s bunt away for two bases, putting runners on second and third with nobody out. Harman lost Morris to ball four in a full count, which degraded our situation to three on and nobody out. Bother! (reaches for the Capt’n Coma) Lonzo didn’t wait around and sliced the first pitch he saw through the hole on the left side, tying the game with an RBI single. Starr didn’t get much to hit and ended up bringing in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded walk. It call came crashing down for Harman, who next gave up a bases-clearing triple in left-center to Trent Brassfield, and was yanked after walking Tim Fuller. Matt Pickel conceded Brass’ run on Nick Fox’ groundout, but walked Kozak and allowed a single to Bean to reload the bases for, well, Bobby H., who hit a 2-0 pitch through the left side for a 2-run single. Blimey! Pickel then finally ended the 8-run inning by flying out Morris and Lonzo.

Bobby Herrera retook the hill after an endless inning in which he ran the bases twice, so we were going to be cautious. He walked Ellwood, but got through the inning, however, the sharpness seemed off, and while he got through the seventh as well, that would be all for him then. Bottom 7th, Fox and Kozak went to the corners against Josh Barbieri with leadoff hits, and Jon Bean extended the lead to 9-1 with a sac fly. Christopher doubled before the ever-present 1-2 batters got the last innings off and were hit for with Ayala and Tomlin. The former flew out to Abercrombie in shallow left, but Tomlin cracked a 2-out, 2-run double to left to pile on. Arellano batted for Starr, but flew out. Brass was also removed from the game after the seventh inning, removing the entire top four. The Knights only made up one run in the late innings. Adam Duncan singled it in with two outs in the ninth against Abrams, although the runner was Ricky Herrera’s, who couldn’t get out of his second-half funk… 11-2 Raccoons. Tomlin (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-3, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Fowler 1-1; N. Fox 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bean 2-3, RBI; Christopher (PH) 1-1, 2B; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (13-7) and 1-2, 2 RBI;

Game 2
ATL: C M. Nieto – 2B W. Acosta – SS Sowell – CF K. Fisher – RF Ellwood – 3B A. Duncan – LF Nork – 1B Moya – P Ratliff
POR: RF Christopher – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – CF Caswell – C Perez – 3B N. Fox – 2B Bean – LF Ayala – P C. Fox

Chance Fox had to labor on Saturday, allowing two singles to Marco Nieto and Willie Acosta to begin the game and having to stalk around them, then glitched straight 2-out walks to Moya, Ratliff (…!), and Nieto in the second inning before Acosta was so kind to ground out to Lonzo. Nobody scored for Atlanta yet, but the Raccoons managed to get Perez and Bean to the corners and a go-ahead sac fly from Felix Ayala in the bottom 2nd for a 1-0 lead. Foxie Brown allowed a leadoff single to Ken Sowell in the third, at which point he had expended 55 pitches for six outs, but not only kept Sowell on first base throughout the inning, but also retired nine in a row to complete five before crashing into the 100 pitches mark. He came back for the sixth with a 1-0 lead after the Coons got a single from Joe-Chris and walks from Lonzo and Starr in the bottom 5th, but Cas grounded out to strand them all. Kyle Fisher hit a leadoff single over Lonzo’s head to begin the sixth. Fox struck out Ellwood, then was lifted for Barton, who got through Adam Duncan and Dan Nork to keep Fox’ ledger clean at least in the runs department.

Ratliff also didn’t finish six, and didn’t get anybody out in the inning while walking Perez and giving up a double to Nick Fox, departing with a pair in scoring position and nobody out, with Curt Carter taking over. The righty popped out Bean, whiffed Ayala, and grounded out Ben Morris to keep the runners on base… The 1-0 run made it through the seventh with Rocco, but Willie Acosta socked a leadoff jack off the southpaw to tied it up in the eighth before Ruben Mendez had to battle through an assortment of left-handed pinch-hitters.

The Raccoons slooowly loaded the bases against ex-Coon Alex Rios in the bottom 8th. Cas singled, Nick Fox walked, Bean hit a scratch single, and there were three on with one out. Brass batted for Ayala and laid off Rios’ usual garbage to draw a bases-loaded walk, which worked well enough to take a 2-1 lead, and Nick Fowler batted for Mendez and brought in insurance with a groundout before Joe-Chris drew a walk to fill the bases once more. Lonzo whiffed against Ryan Hogues to end the inning, then was replaced with Fowler as Walters would attempt the save from the #2 spot. Walters got the job done in seven pitches, retiring Willie Villafan, Dan Nork, and Joaquin Moya in order. 3-1 Coons. N. Fox 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Bean 2-4;

Game 3
ATL: RF Ellwood – C M. Nieto – 2B W. Acosta – SS Sowell – CF J. Parker – 1B Moya – LF K. Fisher – 3B A. Duncan – P Sparks
POR: LF Morris – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – RF Brassfield – 1B Tomlin – 3B Fowler – C Fuller – 2B Ortega – P Alba

Brass’ sac fly in the first brought home Morris with an unearned run; he had only reached because Johnny Parker dropped and kicked his fly to center into a 2-base error. Alba looked fine in the first two innings before offering two walks to Duncan and Ellwood and a balk, but managed to strike out Marco Nieto and got Willie Acosta to ground out to Lonzo to end the inning with the runners still in scoring position. The Coons tacked on instead in the same inning; Lonzo hit a 2-out single, stole second base, and was driven in by Caswell with a single to left-center. Brass also singled, but Forbes Tomlin grounded out to end the inning.

Alba kept laboring hard with two more runners on base in the fourth. Parker singled and stole second and Moya walked, but again he got a crucial K on Kyle Fisher for the second out and then also rung up Duncan. The pitch count, however… Sparks then hit an 0-2 pitch for a leadoff single in the fifth, but ended up stranded when the 1-2-3 batters couldn’t put anything together. Sowell grounded out on a 3-0 pitch to begin the sixth, and that was deemed enough for Alba, who threw 88 pitches in the game, all of them a mess. Ricky H. finished the inning, while the Coons tacked on in the bottom 6th. Cas drew a leadoff walk, Brass grounded out to move him to second, and Tomlin collected an RBI single to left, 3-0.

After Abrams kept it together in the seventh, Ryan Sullivan got the eighth and was … awful. He walked Nieto to lead off, threw a wild pitch, and then nicked Sowell before being ushered away with one out and the tying run coming up. Rocco came in, struck out Parker in a full count, but allowed an RBI single on a 1-2 pitch to Moya. Fisher then struck out to end the inning.

And then Walters blew the save… Duncan and Villafan struck him for a pair of doubles right away, reducing the score to 3-2 with nobody out. Ellwood struck out, Nieto popped out, but Acosta snuck a soft single up the middle for an RBI single to extend the game. Nork grounded out to keep it tied. The Knights were nice enough to offer us a good chance for four walks to walk it off when they brought in Steve Watson against the bottom of the order. Fuller grounded out, but Ortega singled and moved to second on Christopher’s groundout. Walters was in the #1 spot and hit for with Nick Fox, who ended the game with a liner to right-center for a walkoff single. 4-3 Raccoons. N. Fox (PH) 1-1, RBI; Caswell 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Brassfield 1-2, BB, RBI;

In other news

September 12 – The Rebels’ switch-hitting catcher Justin Aguilar (.268, 4 HR, 21 RBI) would miss the rest of the season with a ruptured medial collateral ligament.
September 15 – NAS SP Juan Sanchez (14-8, 3.00 ERA) throws a 1-hit shutout with six strikeouts against the Buffaloes. He loses the no-hitter in the stupidest way with two outs in the ninth inning. After hitting INF Jose Contreras (.258, 0 HR, 7 RBI) and seeing CF/LF Jose Ambriz (.269, 5 HR, 36 RBI) reach on an error by NAS 2B/SS Paul Labonte (.288, 5 HR, 44 RBI), rookie INF/LF Alex Rodriguez (.324, 1 HR, 10 RBI) singles on a 1-2 pitch, but the game also ends with the runner from second base being thrown out at home plate to complete the Blue Sox’ 4-0 win.
September 16 – The Crusaders’ Erik Lee (7-5, 3.00 ERA) and Jason Rhodes (5-8, 4.40 ERA, 28 SV) put a combined 1-hitter together in a 3-0 win against the Aces, who only get a single from 3B/1B/RF Alex Alfaro (.282, 18 HR, 79 RBI).
September 16 – The Rebs shackled the Pacifics, 15-2, with six runs driven in by RIC SS Jason Turner (.243, 14 HR, 71 RBI) and five more by OF/1B Vince Goll (.310, 1 HR, 22 RBI).
September 17 – Condors C/1B Mike Brann (.375, 2 HR, 5 RBI), age 23 and in his first September call-up, hits a walkoff home run for the only score in their 2-0 win against the Indians.

FL Player of the Week: SAC C Nate Danis (.298, 14 HR, 63 RBI), batting .500 (12-24) with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC C Matt McLaren (.268, 14 HR, 48 RBI), hitting .478 (11-23) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

So-so week with some pitching woes in addition to next-to-no offense. The Raccoons have played 16 games in September. Their four highest run tallies are in order: 13, 11, 6, 4; four…!! – On the plus side, we haven’t been shut out, scored one run only once (and won that game against Boston), and the pitching has been good enough to work with 4.5 runs per game (those 13- and 11-run games were doing some heavy lifting here) for a 13-3 record.

Ruben Mendez won the Coons’ 7,200th regular season W in relief of Chance Fox on Saturday after Rocco blew Foxie Brown’s 1-0 lead.

The Indians lost twice to the Condors on Saturday and Sunday, scoring one run between those two games, falling to a nice, round ten games out. The Titans were mathematically eliminated on the weekend, and the Crusaders’ magic number was down to one. It was four for the Indians.

POR (87-62) – IND (4), CHA (3), MIL (3), VAN (3) – .435 – 100.0%
IND (77-72) – POR (4), BOS (3), NYC (3), SFB (3) – .553 – 0.0%

Yup, I think it’s happening! The Coons will finish off with the Falcons at home starting on Monday, then have almost two weeks to clean all the stains and chocolate paw prints off the ballpark in time for the first postseason including the Critters since 2055, when the Raccoons were eliminated in the CLCS by the Knights. The last ten games are on the road, visiting the Elks, Indians, and Loggers in that order.

Fun Fact: Steve Watson took his 13th loss on Sunday.

That’s tied for seventh in the CL. He is a RELIEVER.

He’s saved 29 games and blown eight saves. He previously blew nine saves for the Falcons a few years ago. He’s a completely unhinged right-handed missile that was never able to find the zone in any form – the COONS were smart enough to give up on him after just 18 outings in which he walked 15 batters in 18 innings, and he hasn’t been able to reduce that 7.5 BB/9 by much since. And yet he always finds some dimwitted CL South team ready to put him into a position right next to the red buttons.

For his career he now was 43-57 with 209 saves and a 3.94 ERA, with 683 strikeouts in 560 innings… and also 424 walks.