[Westheim]

Raccoons (69-69) @ Loggers (63-72) – September 4-6, 2062

The two ugly stepchildren of the division had another six games to play out this year, with the first set of three taking place in Milwaukee starting on Monday. The Loggers were fifth in runs scored and tenth in runs allowed, with a -66 run differential (Coons: +16). Since heading the division in an 18-9 May and another good week into June, they had gone 25-46 and were still losing hard. Nevertheless, they led the season series, 8-4.

Projected matchups:
Freddy Castillo (2-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (2-7, 5.99 ERA)
John Bollinger (7-3, 3.09 ERA) vs. Larry Wilson (11-8, 3.16 ERA)
Angel Alba (10-11, 3.08 ERA) vs. Jesus Hinojosa (10-11, 5.64 ERA)

The week would start with a left-handed opponent.

Game 1
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 2B White – RF Moreno – 3B N. Fox – C Robertson – P Castillo
MIL: LF Franks – RF D. Wright – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – 3B D. Miller – CF Merrill – C Reed – 2B Wall – P T. Espinosa

Castillo struggled with control this Monday, offering a walk in each of the first two innings, but also getting a double play grounder both times. The Raccoons frittered away a Kozak double to start the game, then Castillo and Kozak singles in the third inning without scoring, and then rain began to fall in the fourth inning. Dave Robles and Fidel Carrera hit singles leading off the bottom 4th, Castillo nicked Danny Miller, and suddenly there were three Loggers on base with nobody out. Castillo got a pop from Jonathan Merrill, but then served a 2-run single to Mark Reed. Josh Wall flew out to Moreno and Espinosa whiffed to end the inning.

Even when poked with a stick like that, the Raccoons showed no immediately discernible reaction. Joel Starr hit a double to lead off the seventh, but was stranded just as badly as Kozak had been in the first. Castillo went into the bottom 7th until he walked Reed and was taken over the wall by Josh … well, Wall. Adam Harris replaced him, ****** around incompetently, and finally gave up a 2-out, 3-run blast to Fidel Carrera. Espinosa carried a 7-0 shutout into the ninth inning until walking a pinch-hitting Armando Suriel with two outs, nicking a pinch-hitting Jose Corral, and then Joe Robertson got him for an RBI single into left to kill the shutout. Tony Gonzalez hit another RBI single – first career RBI – but then Kozak struck out and the game was over, Espinosa finishing a complete-game 8-hitter. 7-2 Loggers. Kozak 2-4, BB, 2B; Gonzalez 2-2, RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B White – 3B Suriel – C Guinea – P Bollinger
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – SS F. Carrera – 1B D. Robles – C Waker – 2B Milian – RF Ce. Ramirez – 3B D. Miller – P L. Wilson

The first two Raccoons went down on Tuesday before Starr hit a triple into the gap against Wilson. Crumble picked him up with an RBI single and stole second base, Corral reached on an error, and Jim White found another RBI single. Suriel grounded out to David Milian to end the inning before Bollinger took it upon himself to immediately explode. Scott Franks hit a leadoff single in the bottom 1st and Carrera homered to dead center to tie the game at two. Bollinger beaned Robles out of the game – replaced with Chad Whetstine – before falling to a pair of RBI doubles whacked by Milian and Cesar Ramirez that put Milwaukee up 4-2. What’s up with those Loggers??

Bollinger – Rookie of the Month, remember? – then lined up a few zeroes, but the damage was already done. Starr went deep for a solo shot in the third, shortening the score to 4-3, and in the fifth it was Bollinger to lead off with a shy single to left before Morris doubled to right, which put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out. Lonzo tied it up with a sac fly to Franks in left, while Starr was walked with intent by the Loggers. Crumble made a useless out in the air, while Corral hit a pop behind second base that Carrera and Milian fought over until neither caught it. It clonked off Milian’s glove, so he got the error, and the Raccoons got Jim White up with the bags stacked and two outs, but he grounded out easily to Miller… Carrera nearly answered with a homer in the bottom 5th, but Crumble hustled back and scratched that ball off the top of the fence. Guinea and Morris went to the corners with singles, but were left there when Lonzo struck out to end the sixth inning.

Bollinger allowed a single to Milian and walked Miller with two outs in the bottom 6th. He would have been yanked here regardless, but with Phil Reder pinch-hitting, Rocco was brought in specifically to meet the situation (also: lots of left-handed bats atop the order). He wiped out Reder on three strikes to end the inning. In turn, Joel Starr, facing lefty Vincent Hernandez, socked his second triple of the game to center at the start of the seventh. This gave Starr ten total bases in the game. When the Loggers walked Crumble intentionally, the Raccoons sent Kozak to bat for an 0-for-3 Corral for that righty stick against Hernandez, who lost Kozak in a full count, but now the Loggers had the Coons where they wanted them, stuck in a three on, nobody out hole. Jim White went against the script, however, drilling a 1-0 pitch high to left, and very high, and very left! And outta here! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!!

The inning went on long enough for Rocco to bat and make an out, but he still had a left-handed top half of the order to kill in the home half of the seventh, which he did. Tristan Waker homered off Ricky Herrera (…) in the eighth inning, reducing the lead to three and potentially exposing Matt Walters to a save chance. He faced that left-handed top half, giving up leadoff singles to Merrill and Carrera, then ANOTHER single to PH Dave Wright that plated a run. Jesus Christ in an apple tree, save that ******* game!! Ralph Lange hit a sharp grounder at Lonzo for a double play, and Milian actually hacked himself out for three strikes to get the game into the books. 8-6 Raccoons. Morris 2-5, 2B; Starr 3-4, BB, HR, 2 3B, RBI; White 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; Guinea 2-4;

Whenever Matt Walters throws the baseball now, you must always remember: he has a valid $2.22M contract for 2063.

(is filled with much foreboding)

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B White – 3B N. Fox – C Guinea – P Alba
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – SS F. Carrera – 1B D. Robles – C Waker – RF D. Wright – 2B Milian – 3B D. Miller – P Hinojosa

Alba, who came off the weirdest start, began the rubber game with three strikeouts and five straight Loggers sat down before the 6-7-8 bunch all reached base on two hits and a four-pitch walk in the bottom 2nd, but then Hinojosa was easily carved up for another K. Alba continued to be irritating after that, walking Franks, who stole second, and Robles in the third inning before getting out on Tristan Waker’s grounder. Instead, the Coons inched out the game’s first run in the fourth inning with a 1-out walk to Crumble, a groundout by Corral, and then a 2-out RBI single for Jim White. Fox then whiffed. Alba then had his calmest inning yet before Hinojosa offered a leadoff walk to Guinea in the fifth. Alba bunted to third base, and it was not a particularly bad bunt, but Miller still went to second base with it – and late. Two on, nobody out. Morris had so far reached on a walk and a single, and now reached by getting plunked, loading them up for Lonzo. Hinojosa was off kilter and walked in a run on five pitches, 2-0, after which the Raccoons kept tacking on while making outs: Starr grounded out to bring in Alba, Morris scored on Crumble’s sac fly, and then Corral sent a drive to center that stretched beyond the reach of Merrill for a 2-out RBI double. White flew out to Franks, ending the 4-spot.

Alba had a quick fifth, gave up a double to Wright in the sixth, but the Loggers left him on base. Ricky Pippin then nicked Lonzo with a fastball in the seventh, which Lonzo turned into enough energy to steal second base, leaving him one shy of Pablo Sanchez’ all-time mark. Starr and Crumble left him on base with flies to left, though.

Through seven innings, Alba used 98 pitches, which was deemed enough. Harris replaced him, got whacked for a Merrill triple and Carrera single, then was yanked. Murdock replaced him, walked Robles, then served up a 3-run bomb to Waker. Out of the blue, it was a 5-4 game, and there was still nobody out in the eighth inning. Murdock was doubled out of the game by Wright, bringing in Pohlmann, who hung one to Milian for a homer. Six runs, nobody out. Getting ******* outs would be left to Ricky H. in the end, but it wasn’t 2059 anymore and he didn’t get a sneaky win at the tail end. The Coons only got a Morris single off Randy Birnbaum in the ninth inning and went down like losers. 6-5 Loggers. Morris 2-3, BB; White 3-4, RBI; Alba 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K;

This roster needs a torch held to it…

In fact, Adam Harris (0-1, 12.10 ERA) was torched before the plane back to Portland took off. He wasn’t just sent back to St. Pete in September, he went onto waivers! The Raccoons brought back Brad Loveless, who could not possible do any worse.

Am I egging them on, maybe? (looks at Honeypaws) Naaaah.

Raccoons (70-71) vs. Crusaders (78-61) – September 8-10, 2062

Last dips against the Crusaders, who were up 10-5 against the Raccoons and needed the wins, five behind the Indians for first place. They had the most productive offense in the Continental League, which boded well with our ramshackle pitching (well, the rotation was semi-efficient; the pen was a horror show). New York’s pitching was barely adequate, though, giving up the fifth-most runs in the CL. They had a +81 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (8-10, 3.53 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (9-9, 3.48 ERA)
Malik Padgitt (1-1, 1.69 ERA) vs. Josh Barcellona (9-11, 3.88 ERA)
Freddy Castillo (2-4, 4.27 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (14-8, 3.64 ERA)

Three right-handed pitchers coming up.

Game 1
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Cline – RF Austin – 1B McLaughlin – C McLaren – CF A. Romero – LF J. Alvarez – 3B V. Velez – P Musgrave
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – LF T. Gonzalez – RF Corral – 3B N. Fox – C Robertson – P C. Fox

Omar Sanchez, Jake Cline, and Matt McLaren all hit singles off Chance Fox for a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning for the Purple Poopers. Fox would never settle in; the bottom of the order disappeared quickly in the second, but the Crusaders loaded the bases with Sanchez, Aubrey Austin, and Jared McLaughlin in the third inning before Fox battled through a pair of full counts against McLaren, who flew out to Tony Gonzalez in shallow left, preventing any advance, and Alex Romero, who looked at strike three on the corner.

The Coons got Robertson on in the bottom 3rd, but Fox’ bad bunt got him erased at second base. Morris grounded out and Lonzo reached with a soft single to put two on with two down for Starr, who doubled to center. Fox scored from second, but Lonzo was thrown out at the plate on a good throw in by Romero, ending the inning before he could tie the game. After an uneventful fourth, the Raccoons got 1-out singles from Morris and Lonzo to mount another threat, but Starr’s spanker at Victor Velez was taken for a 5-4-3 double play and that was that…

New attempt in the bottom 6th: a leadoff walk to White, who dashed to third base on Gonzalez’ single, which by the way gave Gonzalez a .700 batting average, or 503 points higher than Jose Corral, who was up with runners on first and third and nobody out. Oh, Honeypaws! I have a bad feeling! – …but Corral singled to center, bringing home the tying run and reducing his deficit to Tony Gonzalez to 497 points. Nick Fox whiffed against Musgrave, but Robertson hit a shy single to load the bases. Chance Fox, over 90 pitches, was hit for with Malik C., who Crumbled into another 5-4-3 double play to kill that inning. (facepaws)

Read and Ricky H. pieced a scoreless seventh together, before Musgrave – who had already given up 12 hits and two walks, and somehow was still in the ******* ballgame! – offered a leadoff walk to Morris, who stole his 30th base of the year. Lonzo whiffed, Starr was walked intentionally and then forced out on White’s grounder, but the Crusaders made the mistake of pitching to Tony Gonzalez (and with Musgrave), who bolted a 2-2 pitch to deep center for a 2-out, 2-run double…!

Murdock and Rocco handled the eighth, which meant Murdock put the leadoff man on and Rocco got a double play grounder from McLaren eventually. The Raccoons did not tack on, and so Walters came out for the ninth against the 6-7-8 batters with a 2-run lead. I closed my eyes, but Romero, Jose Alvarez, and Ryan Edmondson went down in order and without any loud contact. 4-2 Coons. Morris 2-4, BB; Lavorano 3-5; Gonzalez 3-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Robertson 2-3, BB; C. Fox 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

*This* W went to Ricky H., the old thief! It was his fourth this year, which was somewhere in the middle between the one win from last year and the 11 wins from ’59.

Game 2
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Cline – RF Austin – 1B McLaughlin – C McLaren – CF A. Romero – LF Weir – 3B V. Velez – P Barcellona
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – RF Gonzalez – C Robertson – 2B Bean – 3B Suriel – P Padgitt

Malik Padgitt had a soul-bleaching start to the Saturday game. He walked four batters the first time through the order, three of them in the first inning, including Sanchez and Cline. Aubrey Austin singled in a run, and another scored on a McLaren sac fly, putting New York up 2-0. The fourth walk was then to Barcellona, and on four pitches. I reached for the bottle, then buries my head in a bag of chips. Unsurprisingly, Padgitt didn’t last; after a calm third inning, he allowed a leadoff single to Hector Weir in the fourth, then walked Velez. He made a strong play on Barcellona’s awful bunt and started a marvelous 1-5-3 double play, but then offered another walk to Sanchez and was yanked. Six walks in 3.2 innings, albeit Erickson getting a pop to short from Cline the Crusaders settled for their two first-inning markers.

Robertson singled home Starr in the bottom 4th to get the Critters on the board, while Erickson and Loveless held the Crusaders off in the fifth inning. New York got a run in two innings off Sensabaugh, though, getting back to a 2-run lead when Velez doubled home Romero in the sixth inning. The Raccoons then rather unconventionally used Matt Walters in the eighth inning of a losing game when the Crusaders lined up the all-lefty 5-6-7 hitters for that inning. McLaren and Weir hit singles, and Walters mostly escaped because Velez popped out and the Crusaders didn’t pinch-hit for Barcellona, who struck out to leave on the extra runners, but he was controlling the Coons well, so what could possibly go wrong? They got another 1-2-3 inning from him before sending Jason Rhodes into the ninth, who also retired the Critters 1-2-3. 3-1 Crusaders.

Game 3
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 2B Cline – RF Austin – LF Zeiher – 1B McLaughlin – C McLaren – CF A. Romero – 3B V. Velez – P Seiter
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Crumble – 2B White – 3B N. Fox – RF Corral – C Guinea – P Castillo

Omar Sanchez socked a rare homer to begin the rubber game and Castillo walked Cline, but then worked his way out of the inning without allowing another run. He had to work around a walk to McLaren in the second, then around a Crumble error that put Cline on base again in the third inning, while the Raccoons had little going until Guinea hit a 1-out single against Seiter in the bottom 3rd, Castillo’s bunt was taken to second base by Velez, but not in time to get the catcher there, and Seiter then lost Morris on straight balls to load the bases for Lonzo, who grounded up the middle where Sanchez contained the ball behind the bag. Sanchez expected Cline to step on second, but Cline thought Sanchez would step on it himself and fire through to first base – and while Sanchez eventually did that, the hesitation cost the Crusaders the double play and their 1-0 lead, because now Lonzo reached first uncontested. Starr then was rung up by a miffed Seiter to end the inning.

New York had leadoff singles from McLaughlin and McLaren in the McFourth, but the 7-8-9 went down ineffectively amid all the on-base terror, while in the Coons’ part of the fourth, White walked and Fox singled before Corral killed that inning with a double play grounder. Castillo hit a double in the fifth and was stranded, and I was getting a bit frustrated and tried to pick a fight with Maud about how her muffins contained too many blueberries, a plot she saw right through and just gave me a look rather than the opportunity to release some steam.

The Coons DID take the lead on Seiter in the sixth with a walk to Crumble, who stole second, and then Nick Fox’ 2-out RBI single. Corral flew out, and Castillo allowed a leadoff double to Velez when he went back to the hill. Seiter then popped out on a bunt and Sanchez flew out to left, none of which moved Velez and his tying run. With Cline up, the Raccoons elected to go to a right-hander. Pohlmann and Jorge Moreno replaced Castillo and Corral in a double switch. Cline ran a full count – and then struck out, bringing on the stretch. While Seiter gutted out eight innings on 113 pitches, Pohlmann and Rocco combined for the eighth inning, and when the Raccoons did nothing of value in the bottom 8th and didn’t reach Rocco’s spot, we hung with him for the ninth inning. McLaren struck out to begin the ninth, but Bobby Anderson pinch-hit and singled to center before being replaced with Alvarez to pinch-run, but that didn’t help the Crusaders when Velez fed a grounder right at Lonzo for a 6-4-3 double play. 2-1 Blighters. N. Fox 2-3, RBI; Rocco 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (14);

In other news

September 5 – The Stars take 14 innings to beat the Pacifics, 8-7. The Pacifics actually have an early 7-0 lead before frittering it away from the sixth inning onwards.
September 5 – It takes 11 innings for a solo homer by 31-year-old Rebels 2B/SS Devin Willoughby – in his first at-bat of the season – to clinch a 1-0 win against the Miners.
September 6 – The Crusaders beat the Titans by a football score, 17-7. NYC 2B/SS Marcos Onelas (.262, 5 HR, 37 RBI) drives in six runs with a grand slam and two doubles.
September 8 – TIJ SP Edgar Mauricio (10-12, 3.27 ERA) no-hits the Knights in a crucial 4-0 win! The 27-year-old strikes out five and allows just one walk to Atlanta’s J.P. Gallo (.249, 1 HR, 29 RBI), which is the difference to a perfect game. This is the first no-hitter of the season in the ABL, and the first since OCT Ernesto Rios no-hit those Condors in April of 2061.
September 8 – The season of Aces INF Miguel Veguilla (.270, 8 HR, 42 RBI) ends with a broken finger.
September 9 – Miners 3B/SS Stephen Medlock (.238, 7 HR, 41 RBI) goes yard for the only runs in Pittsburgh’s 10-inning, 2-0 win over the Blue Sox.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.346, 10 HR, 120 RBI), slapping .407 (11-27) with 2 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL SS/2B Fidel Carrera (.296, 17 HR, 62 RBI), raking .444 (8-18) with 3 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Remember the days when we had five quality left-handed relievers and couldn’t cram them all onto the roster? Ya, me neither.

It was an alright week outside of that one meltdown in Milwaukee, and we made the Crusaders stumble at home in Portland so they slipped to six games behind the Indians. As far as the CL North opposition goes, I feel somewhat benevolent towards the Indians and Loggers, who have rarely gone neck-and-neck with the Critters in the league’s history. So if either one of those teams can draw the other three a nose, I’m all for it.

Tyler Riddle made his third rehab start on Friday and will probably be back up with the big club for next week. Not sure we wanted a 6-man rotation to the end here with only 6-game weeks left. Padgitt looked a bit out of his depth on Saturday, so maybe he could give his starts to Riddle… I don’t know. None of it deeply matters with the team being potentially mathematically eliminated next week. We’d have an awkward Boston & San Francisco road trip and nothing good has ever happened in either location…

Fun Fact: The Condors have had six no-hitters in franchise history, all within the last 44 years.

This tally includes a combined no-hitter in 2031.

The first proper no-hitter was pitched by Andrew Gudeman in 2018 against the Aces. George Griffin also no-hit the Aces in 2027, and partook in the combined no-hitter four years later as the starter. Jorge Villalobos pitched his second career no-hitter against the Indians in 2030. Paul Paris no-hit the Raccoons in 2051. Yaay.