[Westheim]

Raccoons (75-74) vs. Falcons (59-90) – September 17-19, 2064

Garbage time saw the garbage Falcons roll in, who had already handed away the season series to the Critters, 5-1. They had lost seven straight, were bottoms in runs scored, and added the third-worst rotation despite having the finest defense in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Jeff Applegate (3-4, 2.93 ERA) vs. Mark Jacobs (11-12, 3.78 ERA)
Angel Alba (11-12, 3.86 ERA) vs. Ivan Rodriguez (8-10, 3.77 ERA)
Chance Fox (8-9, 3.53 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (7-11, 3.31 ERA)

Southpaw in the Monday opener, and then probably two right-handers. There were some demi-prospects on the expanded roster of the Falcons who might yet get a shot at starting.

Rich Monck began the week with 32 homers, which was already tied for tenth-most all time for a Critters slugger. He was six away from tying the mark set by Royce Green and tied by Hugo Mendoza of 38 homers now in second place, while Troy Greenway’s 42 homers in 2038 were probably outta reach with just 12 games left.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Schmidt – LF Padgett – CF Pinault – C O. Matos – RF Washington – 1B Yniguez – 3B J. Suarez – SS T. Taylor – P Ma. Jacobs
POR: RF Campos – LF Kozak – 2B Monck – C Arellano – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Lavorano – CF Ayala – P Applegate

In the early innings, the Falcons tended to hit deep flies to left that Kozak then had to rush down, which he somehow did consistently, including one catch made on Joe Washington in the second inning where Kozak even slammed into the padded wall to make the catch. Applegate then shifted his focus to long counts and walking the bags full, which he did in the fourth, before ringing up Trent Taylor to leave the bases loaded and the game still scoreless. Kozak then batted in the bottom 5th with the bases loaded and two outs; Mark Jacobs had done a solid job so far, but in that inning nicked Lonzo and walked Felix Ayala and Marco Campos to stack then up for Kozak, who hit a clean single over Juan Suarez to bring home the game’s first two runs. Monck struck out to leave two more runners on base. Applegate would go seven shutout innings on five hits and 99 pitches before he was hit for with Lonzo and Ayala on the corners and nobody out in the bottom 7th. Jacobs allowed a third straight single to PH Ben Morris, plating Lonzo to go up 3-0, and a fourth straight single to Campos to load the bases. Kozak hit into a force at home, but Monck singled cleanly to center to add two more 1-out runs. Mike Dean, run over as a Raccoons reliever last year and not much better in the red cap the Falcons donned, then somehow got out of the inning against Arellano and Jon Bean. The Critters got a scoreless inning from Rich Read before Hachiro Yokoyama put runners on the corners in the ninth inning and was yanked for Carrillo, who struck out Taylor and got a fly to Ayala from Jesus Valcarcel to end the game. 5-0 Raccoons. Campos 2-3, BB; Kozak 2-4, 2 RBI; Morris (PH) 1-1, RBI; Appelgate 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (4-4);

Game 2
CHA: C Ayon – LF Padgett – RF Washington – 3B Healey – SS Duhe – 2B Yniguez – CF Geiger – 1B J. Black – P I. Rodriguez
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 3B Morales – LF Oley – P Alba

Offense was rather slow the first time through either lineup; Monck and Starr hit 2-out singles after Arellano doubled up Ben Morris, but then it was silent enough in the ballpark for me to clearly hear Maud’s knitting needles clickering over the TV and (scant) crowd noise until Morris was back and hit a 1-out double in the bottom 3rd. He advanced on a wild pitch while Arellano drew a walk and scored the game’s first run on a deep Monck sac fly to center – wrong part of the ballpark to hit #33. Rodriguez then filled the bases with 2-out walks, but struck out Lonzo to escape the jam. Morris then hit *another* double in the fifth inning, this time leading off – and managed to get doubled up again when Arellano lined out to Jared Duhe, who beat Morris back to the bag for a sigh-inducing 6-U double play. And *then* Rich Monck hit his 33rd homer to right! 2-0 after five.

Alba had not allowed a hit through five, but Danny Ayon got him with a bloop single in the sixth inning. He was stranded though, and the Falcons only put one more single together with Joe Washington in eight innings against Alba, but for a lack of further run support Alba would not be able to go for the shutout. The Raccoons instead sent in Josh Carlisle for reasons that were hard to explain – although this time he saved the game and didn’t even give up a cheap run! … allowed a single to Cody Padgett and walked Rick Healey with two outs though… Duhe then hit a comebacker to end the game. 2-0 Critters. Morris 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Monck 3-3, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 2-3, BB; Alba 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (12-12);

The Falcons then brought a 30-year-old AAA starter in to start the Wednesday series finale. Southpaw Adrian Llanes would start an ABL game for the first time, but had 15 relief appearances for the Falcons in recent years.

Game 3
CHA: 2B Schmidt – LF Padgett – 1B Valcarcel – CF Pinault – C O. Matos – 3B Healey – RF J. Suarez – SS T. Taylor – P Llanes
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 2B Monck – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – RF Campos – 3B Morales – C Lawson – P Fox

Llanes retired the side in order in the first inning, but then filled the bags with Furballs in the second inning before logging an out, conceding two soft singles and a walk. Victor Morales’ groundout brought in the game’s first run, and Scott Lawson struck with a 2-out single after that for an early 3-0 lead, but was then left on by Foxie Brown and Morris. Fox struck out five the first time through the order while allowing hits to Valcarcel and Mike Pinault – both well under .200 – in the first inning. Morales then once more threw a ball away quite badly with John Schmidt batting in the third inning, and another single by Valcarcel with two outs brought in the unearned run for Charlotte.

Chance Fox pitched four very fine innings, then for no good reason turned turd in the fifth, walking no fewer than FIVE batters, including Valcarcel and Pinault with the bases loaded. This tied the game, and Pohlmann upon replacing couldn’t exactly keep it tied either, surrendering more runs on a sac fly by Oscar Matos and a Rick Healey single with two outs, allowing Charlotte to go up 5-3. The Raccoons failed to refire the offense against Llanes, and instead saw three different relievers get rounded up for four hits and two more runs in the top 7th, extending the Falcons lead to 7-3.

The Falcons wanted to end their 9-game slide and lifted Llanes after six innings. Travis Julien however allowed a leadoff single to Lawson in the bottom 7th, walked Jose Corral in the #9 hole, and eventually filled the bases on a 2-out single by Monck, with Kozak coming up as the tying run. And striking out. Starr would begin the eighth with a single, but things didn’t go anywhere pretty from there. Bottom 9th, and Yoshinari Kuroiwa allowed Raccoons to the corners when Lonzo and Monck hit a pair of 1-out singles off him. Sensabaugh was in the #4 spot after a double switch, and Marcos Arellano pinch-hit for him, but popped out to first base, which was still better than Starr, who popped out over home plate… 7-3 Falcons. Lavorano 2-5; Monck 2-5; Oley (PH) 1-1; Lawson 2-3, 2 RBI; Sensabaugh 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Raccoons (77-75) vs. Canadiens (69-83) – September 21-23, 2064

Three games with the Elks remained to decide that season series, in which the Raccoons held a skinny 8-7 lead. Elk City ranked tenth in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, their run differential (-12) easily beating Portland’s (-42). They had the second-most homers in the Continental League – and were still in last place. Outfielder Rick Atkins was their only DL occupant.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (11-5, 3.54 ERA) vs. Carson Miller (2-5, 4.65 ERA)
Josh Elling (10-12, 4.10 ERA) vs. Johnny Doolin (11-14, 4.06 ERA)
Jeff Applegate (4-4, 2.73 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (7-10, 3.87 ERA)

Looks like we’d only get the right-handed starters in the Elks rotation and neither of the two southpaws Roger Pritchard (14-11, 2.66 ERA) and Shane Fitzgibbon (12-7, 3.13 ERA). Both teams had shared a day off on Thursday, though, so there were options for the Elks.

Game 1
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – CF B. Campbell – 1B J. Campos – RF Tallent – 3B Spalding – LF Lozada – C Orphanos – P C. Miller
POR: CF Morris – C Arellano – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – LF Crumble – SS Lavorano – 3B Morales – P Riddle

Rich Monck hit #34 to give the Raccoons a 1-0 lead in the first, but Randy Tallent answered with a home run of his own in the second to get the score back even. The Raccoons would have an answer for that, too, putting Crumble and Lonzo on the corners with one out in the bottom 2nd before Lonzo took off and stole his 22nd base of the year – and the 750th of his career! Vic Morales then singled both of them home, stole his first base of the season, and then scored on a Riddle single, 4-1, before Ben Morris spanked a grounder to Alex Castillo for an inning-ending double play. However, one inning later it was Monck and Starr to go to the corners with a double and single with one out, respectively, and they scored on a groundout by Corral and Crumble’s 2-out single, in that order.

Runs kept coming; Miller was yanked by the Elks after allowing 1-out singles to Riddle and Morris in the bottom 4th, which made for ten base knocks, and while Aaron Hain replaced him and got a grounder on the infield from the catcher Arellano, the other catcher Mike Orphanos threw that one away for two bases and a run. Monck added another run with a groundout, 8-1. The Critters didn’t score in the fifth (!), but Roberto Lozada doubled home Tallent for the Elks’ second run in the top 6th, to which Morris replaced with a leadoff jack off Hain in the same inning. Riddle got stuck in the seventh inning after a leadoff double by PH Chad Cardenas, but was bailed out by Jesse Dover, who also pitched the eighth. Yokoyama handled the ninth inning, scorelessly, but not without giving Orphanos a welt when he dinked him with a fastball… 9-2 Critters. Morris 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Crumble 3-4, RBI; Morales 2-4, 2 RBI; Riddle 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (12-5) and 2-3, RBI;

Good! At least we won’t *lose* the season series with the Elk City Stinkers!

This same Friday would have been the opener for a 3-game set between the Crusaders and Titans in New York, but the game was rained out and they would have a double header on Saturday. New York led Boston by a game and a half going into the contest, with Indy four games back. The Raccoons were six games back after winning against the Elks, with a magic number of four. In fact, with the way the division was stacked, the Raccoons could not possibly finish the weekend with a magic number greater than three.

Game 2
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Richardson – LF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF Tallent – 3B Spalding – P Nielsen
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – SS Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – 2B White – 3B Fowler – C C. Chavez – P Elling

Elling continued to melt, walking three Elks in the first inning and giving up a sac fly to Chad Whetstine for a quick 1-0 deficit, although that would be made up when Monck singled home Morris in the home half of the first. Didn’t stop Elling being **** though! He allowed a leadoff single to Nielsen in the top 2nd, walked Castillo, and gave up a run-scoring grounder to Alex Corpus. Top 3rd, Whetstine singled on an 0-2 pitch to begin another 2-run inning. Alex Maldonado drew a walk, Tallent singled, and there were three on with nobody out. Nick Fowler tried a 5-4-3 on Steven Spalding’s grounder to him, but was late, and Whetstine would have scored anyway; only the out at second was recorded. Spalding in turn stole second base, Chavez threw the ball away, and Maldonado scored. Nielsen eventually whiffed and Castillo flew out – both in full counts – and the bullpen was stirring while Kozak singled and Starr and Corral walked, only to all be stranded when Jim White flew out to right in the bottom 3rd.

Elling would go five ****** innings, offering six hits, six walks, and four runs. Nielsen was also on four walks after a leadoff gift to Morris in the bottom 5th. Monck hit a 1-out single, but Starr grounded into a 5-U force play for the second out of the inning. Corral singled home a run, but Jim White grounded out again and the Raccoons remained 4-2 behind after five. We got scoreless relief, an inning at a time, from the Dingerman, Matt Walters, and Pohlmann, before finally mounting an offensive threat in the bottom 8th. Southpaw Gabe Hill walked Fowler with two outs, which was quite late to start a rally, but right-hander Brian Doster upon replacing him allowed singles to pinch-hitters Oley and Lonzo, the latter bringing home Fowler to narrow the score to 4-3. Doster threw a wild pitch to move the runners into scoring position – but Morris rolled over to first and the inning ended…

Both teams then sent their closers into the ninth inning. Carlisle had a 1-2-3 ninth inning to keep the score tight before Erik Swain entered to face the 2-3-4 batters in the bottom 9th. Kozak, Monck, and Starr all hit meek grounders on the infield; Starr’s was the meekest, and he legged it out for a 2-out infield single. Corral came up as the winning run – and ended the game with a high drive to riiiii- noooooo, it hit off the top of the wall…!! BUGGER!! Still tied the game, though, with Starr scoring from first while the ball bounced around in the gap, leveling the score at four while Corral settled for a double. Jon Bean batted for a hitless White and struck out, sending the game to extras where Juan Carrillo contended with a 1-out walk to PH Damian Moreno, but kept the Elks from scoring.

Swain put up a second inning to extend the contest, and Jesse Dover offered leadoff walks to Kenny Graves and Chad Cardenas in the 9-1 spots to begin the 11th inning, but then got a sharp 6-4-3 double play from the catcher Orphanos in the #2 hole (September baseball, huh?) and Jose Campos flew out to Kozak in left, keeping Graves wasted at third base. The game remained tied until the 13th inning, but it was then Steven Spalding who untied it with a 2-run homer off Freddy Castillo in his second inning of work. Jeremy Garvey, left-hander, was on his third inning of work when he returned for the bottom 13th against the bottom third of the Raccoons’ lineup. Fowler lined out, but Lawson hit a single and Brent Campbell then fudged a Vic Morales grounder for an error to put the tying run on base. Morris’ grounder to first was taken to second base by Jose Campos for a force out there, so the tying run remained on first base for Kozak with two outs. Garvey had Kozak at 1-2, then brushed him on base with a pitch and bringing up Rich Monck – but Monck popped out behind short to end the game…… 6-4 Canadiens. Monck 3-7, RBI; Corral 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Oley (PH) 1-1; Lavorano (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Titans swept the double header – with a pair of team shutouts! – from the Crusaders to take a half game lead in the North. The Coons’ magic number was down to three (and would go down to two if the Sunday game in New York was played to conclusion, as both contenders were on 84 wins now).

Game 3
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – LF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – CF R. Valencia – RF Lozada – C Orphanos – P Doolin
POR: CF Morris – LF Crumble – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Arellano – RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 2B Bean – P Applegate

Applegate stalked around a leadoff walk to Castillo in the first inning before Ben Morris socked a homer to begin the Coons’ day of poking and gave the team a 1-0 lead in the rubber game. No other Elk stained the bases with his moldy hoofs until Castillo hit a 2-out single in the top 3rd, stole second base again, and then Applegate walked Corpus on top of that, but prevailed with a strikeout against Campos to end the inning.

Lonzo started a double play in the fourth inning and then hit a single and stole another base for his career total to go up to 751, but the score remained 1-0 throughout those proceedings. Morris hit a long fly out to begin the bottom 5th before Crumble and Monck went to the corners with a pair of sharp 1-out singles. Starr and Arellano both punched out though, and nobody scored in that inning either…

Through seven innings the Raccoons scattered ten base hits with alarming inefficiency while Applegate went eight shutout innings allowing just three skinny hits to the damn Elks. The bottom 8th brought no improvement – the Raccoons even had a single and never had anybody bat with a guy on base, as Jose Corral thought he had a double on his liner to left until Whetstine corrected him that he very much only had a single, and, in fact, blundered. Carlisle then inherited a 1-0 lead and swiftly blew it by putting Whetstine and Cardenas on base before giving up a pinch-hit, 2-out, 2-run double to Chris Richardson. Oh, and a homer to Alex Maldonado. ********. 4-1 Canadiens. Morris 2-5, HR, RBI; Monck 4-4, 2B; Corral 2-4; Lavorano 2-4; Applegate 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K;

In other news

September 17 – LAP 1B/2B Alejandro Olivares (.303, 14 HR, 87 RBI) has five hits, a triple shy of the cycle, and drives in four runs in a 14-8 win over the Capitals.
September 18 – 24 hours later, Olivares’ Pacifics teammate 2B/1B Rich Cabrera (.274, 16 HR, 81 RBI) also puts out five hits and misses the cycle by one knock – the double! – while driving in four runs in a 13-11 loss to the Capitals.
September 18 – VAN SP Roger Pritchard (14-11, 2.66 ERA) spins a 2-hit shutout in a 7-0 win against the Bayhawks.
September 19 – Should the Thunder win the CL South – four games up at the time – they would have to contend the playoffs without 1B Ian Stone (.305, 20 HR, 82 RBI), whose season ended with an ankle sprain.
September 22 – WAS 1B/2B Felix Martinez (.253, 5 HR, 26 RBI) is out with a broken kneecap that will take the entire offseason to recuperate.
September 23 – The Blue Sox clinch the FL East with a 9-6 win against the Miners.

FL Player of the Week: PIT C Nick Dingman (.323, 43 HR, 114 RBI), smashing .483 (14-29) with 4 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR INF Rich Monck (.290, 34 HR, 107 RBI), spanking .556 (15-27) with 2 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Rich Monck hit two bombs this week, but it’s not gonna be enough to catch Eddie Marcotte, who was 41 homers for Boston, and in the FL, the Miners’ Nick Ding(er)man even had 43. Monck trailed Blue Sox outfielder Austin Gordon (35 HR) as well, but ranked (comfortably) fourth in roundtrippers this year. For comparison: he had hit 37 for Cincy last year.

We actually are not shuttering the ballpark now despite heading to the Loggers’ place for the last games with them, but we will actually have the Crusaders for three more home games to finish the season. Well, our season. Theirs, remains to be seen… (grumble grumble)

I wonder what it is with Chance Fox that he has the absolute urge to at least once in a quarter of a season toss up an absolute stinker like on Wednesday.

Also, speaking of mindboggling pitching, let’s just say the Raccoons are looking for a new closer. There is no excusing blowing the season series to the Elks like that. And it wasn’t just that…

Fun Fact: Josh Carlisle has a 9.18 ERA in his last 18 outings.

He somehow still managed to save 11 of those.

********.