[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-23) @ Titans (34-23) – June 9-12, 2064

Well, here was a kinda important series. The Raccoons had taken three of four games from the Titans so far this year and would take the lead in the division by winning another three of four in Boston now (although nothing good ever happens in Boston, keep that in mind!). The Titans ranked second in runs scored and first in runs allowed after about a third of the season, so they looked like they were for real. Their run differential was +72, well ahead of the Coons’ +41.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (4-4, 3.75 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (6-3, 1.57 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (6-4, 3.00 ERA) vs. Tony Castellanos (1-1, 3.74 ERA)
Josh Elling (8-1, 3.09 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (2-5, 4.67 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.58 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (9-1, 2.40 ERA)

No left-hander to see here; also none of starter Jayden Craddock and infielder Ryan Spehar, both on the DL. Steve Humphries was dealing with a sore hip.

The Coons in turn had played a double header on Sunday, so Thursday was a bit of a trouble spot for starters. Fox had thrown 95 pitches, still fewer than Jarod Morris. There was a real chance to actually see a spot starter there.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – 3B Morales – C Burkart – SS Novelo – CF Maldonado – P Alba
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – 2B Nye – C Arviso – 3B D. Mendoza – RF A. Lee – SS Blackshire – P Brenize

Brenize started like a fire engine with a few strikeouts, while Alba allowed singles to Humphries and Bill Joyner to begin the game, although Eddie Marcotte would hit into an inning-ending double play. In the second inning the Titans loaded the bases on Jorge Arviso’s single and free passes to Andy Lee and Dave Blackshire with two outs before Brenize popped out on a 3-1 pitch and Alba got a good yelling-at from the pitching coach before striking out Humphries. It didn’t get any better with him going forward; Eddie Marcotte got him for a solo homer in the third inning, and Joyner whacked a 3-piece off him in the fourth to establish a lead that really firm considering that the Raccoons at that point where hitless with 8 K against Brenize. Vic Morales singled in the fifth, but the team could not even score after Elmer Maldonado hit a leadoff double in the sixth. Walks to Monck and Novelo with another Morales single in between gave the Coons the bases loaded in the seventh against Brenize, but he struck out Maldonado, his 11th K in the game, to choke that threat. The Titans instead brutalized Kurihara for three runs on four hits (and inside ten pitches) to put the game away in the bottom 7th. Brenize would go seven and two thirds with a full dozen strikeouts, and Nick Leigh and Roberto Navarro finished the team shutout. 7-0 Titans. Monck 1-2, 2 BB; Morales 2-4; Aoki (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – 3B Morales – CF Maldonado – C Arellano – SS Aoki – P Riddle
BOS: LF S. Humphries – C Arviso – CF Marcotte – 2B Nye – 3B D. Mendoza – RF A. Lee – 1B Ellwood – SS Blackshire – P T. Castellanos

Boston wasted no time exploiting a four-pitch walk to Humphries and a Jorge Arviso single that sent him to third base to get an early 1-0 lead on a run-scoring groundout. Humphries drew another walk when he was up the next time, but then didn’t get off first base, while the Raccoons again had no base hits the first time through the order, and only two shy singles the second time through the order, not getting anywhere near a run. Riddle kept getting singles hit off him, but the Titans found double plays to hit into in the fourth and fifth innings to help him out. Marcotte then hit another solo homer in the bottom 6th, an inning in which the Titans eventually loaded the bases through little more than a whiff of luck and their silly charm, getting Diego Mendoza on with Aoki’s error, Andy Lee on an infield single, and Bobby Ellwood on another dumb ball four. Dave Blackshire struck out and Kozak caught a Castellanos fly to keep them from scoring, though. When the Coons got Morales on with a single and Maldonado on a Nye error, Arellano right away rumbled into a double play to end the top 7th, though… Aoki and Valencia then hit leadoff singles in the eighth, and Corral jammed into a double play. Kozak singled home Aoki, 2-1, and Starr hit another single, and we could have tied it by now, but … no, and Monck popped out to shallow center to leave the Coons with one run from four hits in the top 8th.

Bottom 8th, Jesse Dover came on and got a grounder from Nye to Morales, but Morales ****** that ball for an error, and Dover then waved for Luis Silva’s attention and left the game with “a dead arm”, whatever that was gonna mean going forwards… Mike Hall got a double play ball from Mendoza after that and struck out Lee, with lefty Tyler Gleason seeing the Titans in the ninth. Bruce Burkart came close to a game-tying pinch-hit homer, but the bloody thing died in the hip-addled Humphries’ glove on the warning track and the Raccoons went in order. 2-1 Titans. Morales 2-4; Aoki 1-2, BB; Valencia (PH) 1-1;

Messy game. Three runs, three errors, three double plays hit into by each team.

The word on Dover was that he might be good again by the weekend, so he remained on the roster, but of course this didn’t bode well for Thursday’s already existing pinch point. In fact, by Wednesday morning we decided to vacate Jeff Applegate from his scheduled start in AAA and instead bring him up for a spot start on Thursday, pushing Fox to the Wolves series. Just had to find a roster spot now.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Burkart – CF Maldonado – SS Novelo – LF Tallent – P Elling
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 1B Joyner – CF Marcotte – 2B Nye – C Arviso – 3B D. Mendoza – RF Ellwood – SS Blackshire – P Glaude

Things went kinda well at first until Will Glaude slapped a leadoff double through Morales in the bottom 3rd and was brought in to score on two groundouts by Humphries and Joyner. The Coons then got leadoff singles from Monck and Burkart in the fourth and a Maldonado grounder to place both in scoring position, and finally got a lead in the bloody series when Pablo Novelo found the gap with a drive to left-center that fell and rolled for a 2-run double…! Worthless outs by Tallent and Elling left Novelo on base, though, and in the fifth inning Elling offered leadoff free passes to Ellwood and Blackshire like an idiot. Glaude’s bunt advanced them, and the Titans tied the game on Humphries’ sac fly. Joyner grounded out to Starr, keeping the score tied at two at the completion of five innings.

Offensive incompetence continued unabated in the sixth inning, in which Burkart socked a leadoff double and was left rotting on second base by Maldonado (infield pop), Novelo (whiff), and Elling (whiff) after an intentional free pass to Tallent. Instead, Arviso took Elling deep to give Boston a 3-2 lead in the inning, which was also Elling’s last. Glaude was still going, putting on Morales with balls and Starr with a single and one out before a passed ball moved them to scoring position. The Titans chose not to walk Monck intentionally, and Monck chose to fall in line with the useless bunch and grounded out to Mendoza, preventing Morales from going home. Burkart was up to the challenge though and bashed a 2-out, 3-run homer to left, flipping the score back to 5-3 Coons!

Up by two, the Raccoons had McDaniel slog through the seventh inning putting Blakshire and Humphries on base, but retiring all the lefty sticks he actually met, before Carrillo struck out the 3-4-5 batters in order in the eighth, setting up McGinley. Jose Corral homered to right off Nick Leigh to begin the ninth, 6-3, but the insurance was not required as McGinley retired the Titans in order as well. Morales 2-4, BB, 2B; Starr 1-2, BB; Monck 2-5; Burkart 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Elling 6.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (9-1);

The Coons then sent Rafael Valencia (.169, 0 HR, 1 RBI) to AAA to make room for Jeff Applegate (1-2, 6.90 ERA) to take the spot start. Valencia had been a ninth-inning defensive replacement for Morales (Tallent moving posts) in Wednesday’s win.

Game 4
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – C Burkart – LF Kozak – CF Oley – SS Aoki – P Applegate
BOS: LF S. Humphries – C Arviso – CF Marcotte – 2B Nye – 1B Joyner – 3B D. Mendoza – RF A. Lee – SS Blackshire – P M. Bell

Arviso singled, Marcotte tripled, and Nye’s groundout already made it 2-0 in the bottom 1st on Thursday. I had not expected a lot from Applecore, but this was a bit too soon even for low expectations… He walked a pair in the third inning before being bailed out on a 5-4-3 double play started by Morales, and he walked two more Titans in the fifth inning before Marcotte left them on base with a groundout to Aoki. That was four walks against no strikeouts through five. For the Raccoons, it was the other way round, as they whiffed seven times against Bell through five innings, had no walks, and only three hits for no runs. Bell struck out two more in the sixth and then Kozak in the seventh to get to double digit whiffs for the day right at the stretch.

Applecore went into the seventh, but it didn’t end well. He offered another walk to Blackshire, then threw away Bell’s bunt for two bases. Humphries’ RBI groundout and Arviso’s RBI double doubled the score to 4-0, and ended Applecore’s tenure on the hill. Kurihara picked up the pieces for the last outs from there, while Bell went into the ninth inning, but ran out of steam after 25 outs, 11 of them K’s. Gleason finished off the Critters. 4-0 Titans.

Applegate (1-3, 6.14 ERA) was not retained for further service after this game and returned to AAA. The Raccoons returned an outfielder instead, but not Marco Campos, who had just gone on the DL with a strained hammy. The temptation was there to debut Malcolm Spicer, who was 20 years old and hitting .302/.350/.385 in St. Pete, and guilty of the terrible sin of being a powerless contact hitter in a power position, his limited range confined him to the outfield corners or first base – but he did have a strong throwing arm. We had nipped him from the Thunder in the Nick Nye trade some years back and he had been ranked as high as #17 in the prospect rankings.

Well, what other options were there besides other underdone prospects that were hitting a lot less for the awful Alley Cats? The only other option that was not completely foolish was Jorge Moreno, still lingering around down there as a warm body in the broadest sense. He was 27 and relegated to benchwarming, having gotten just 14 at-bats on the year so far. He had hit .225/.250/.239 in 38 games with the ’62 Coons.

And yet, he was called up anyway.

Raccoons (33-26) vs. Wolves (20-38) – June 13-15, 2064

The Wolves had the worst batting average and the fewest runs scored in the FL. They were last in homers, had even fewer stolen bases, and had the second-worst starter’s ERA despite having the best defense in the rankings. They had a bunch of guys on the DL, but the only notable one was probably outfielder Javier Acuna, who led them in homers with six. We had won two of three games from the Wolves last year.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (3-5, 5.58 ERA) vs. Ben Peterson (3-6, 4.50 ERA)
Jarod Morris (3-3, 2.96 ERA) vs. Aaron Sciuto (3-6, 5.69 ERA)
Angel Alba (4-5, 3.93 ERA) vs. Ian Lowry (3-8, 3.69 ERA)

Two southpaws were up to face the Raccoons to begin the series. No Southpaw Sunday, though. Aw.

Game 1
SAL: SS S. Ochoa – 2B Park – C Preston – LF Grulke – CF B. Davidson – RF Anaya – 1B C. Santiago – 3B R. Rivas – P B. Peterson
POR: 3B Morales – SS Novelo – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – C Burkart – RF Tallent – LF Maldonado – CF Moreno – P Fox

The Raccoons blitzkrieged Ben Peterson for five runs in the first inning, all coming on a pair of homers by Kozak (with Morales on base) and Maldonado (with Monck and Burkart waiting). A Novelo triple and Kozak’s RBI single made it 6-0 in the second inning, and now we just needed Chance Fox to have a basically decent start and write down that W. He didn’t allow any extra-base hits, just two singles, in the first three innings, then drew a walk off Danny Cano in the bottom 3rd to fill the bags behind Tallent and Moreno. Vic Morales then socked a 2-run double, and Novelo made it 9-0 with a groundout. Kozak struck out against new pitcher Josh Doyle.

The middle innings as a whole were uneventful with neither team scoring a run. The Wolves then got on the board in the seventh with Kyle Grulke’s leadoff double and a 2-out RBI single by Cesar Santiago, but overall Foxie Brown had done very well against an admittedly awful team. He finished eight innings in the game, but then was hauled in after 104 pitches. Ivan Anaya took Paul Barton deep in the ninth for a last-out run. 9-2 Coons! Morales 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Aoki (PH) 1-1; Kozak 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Moreno 2-3, BB; Fox 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (4-5);

Game 2
SAL: RF Derbyshire – 2B Park – C Preston – LF Grulke – CF B. Davidson – SS S. Ochoa – 1B Radcliffe – 3B R. Rivas – P Sciuto
POR: 3B Morales – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – C Arellano – RF Corral – SS Novelo – 2B Tallent – CF Moreno – P Morris

Myung-joo Park and Steve Preston singled, Grulke doubled, and with a sac fly by Bill Davidson, the Wolves took a 2-0 lead against a yet-again whackable Jarod Morris, who ****** up even worse in the second inning, which began with a Steve Radcliffe single before he walked Rico Rivas and fudged Sciuto’s bunt in an attempt to get the lead runner Radcliffe at third base. Instead he got nobody and the bases were loaded with nobody out. After a comebacker by Palmiro Derbyshire (sic!) was taken for an out at home, Morris drilled Park to force in a run, and it was 4-0 after Preston’s sac fly to left. Yikes.

The Critters made up a run on three singles in the bottom 2nd, but Morris failed that run right back on the board in the top 3rd, then lingered like a bad smell through five innings before being hit for in the bottom 5th. Moreno and Maldonado had back-to-back doubles to shorten the score to 5-2, and Kozak drove in Maldonado for another run, but after another Starr hit the inning fizzled out with the Raccoons still two runs short of getting even. That was before Tetsu Kurihara got paws on the ball and gave up a Park double and Preston homer in the sixth inning, 7-3. Kurihara gave up a leadoff single to Radcliffe in the seventh before departing and watching Mike Hall fail that run across home plate. Barton would pitch two scoreless garbage innings at the end while the Raccoons had a few chances in the seventh and eighth, but both times hit into a double play and didn’t score another run, let alone half a dozen to turn the game around. 8-3 Wolves. Arellano 3-4; Moreno 2-4, 2B, RBI; Maldonado (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Barton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

More roster shuffling!

Woeful Tetsu Kurihara (3-0, 5.08 ERA) was optioned to AAA to free up a roster spot perhaps better used on Rich Read. Maybe the fourth time is the charm?

Jarod Morris might have gotten the axe as well, but his next turn aligned with an off day next Thursday, which would keep him out of sight for long enough to by anger to simmer down again, maybe. Besides, replacement starters were really not growing on the trees in AAA…

In the end the shuffles were for the furry tush because bad weather moved in on Sunday and it rained all day.

In other news

June 10 – The Loggers acquire reliever Aiden Shaw (1-3, 4.85 ERA, 2 SV) from the Pacifics for two prospects, #68 1B Alberto Salas and #113 3B/SS Sergio Perada.
June 11 – PIT SP Coby Strutz (7-4, 2.67 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Buffaloes for a 7-0 win.
June 11 – Dallas 3B/SS/LF Xavier Reyes (.356, 1 HR, 37 RBI) finds a single in a 7-3 win against the Wolves to extend a hitting streak to 20 games.
June 12 – Aces OF Jaden Wilson (.300, 4 HR, 27 RBI) is expected to be out until late July with a strained hammy.
June 12 – The hitting streak of Dallas’ Xavier Reyes (.353, 1 HR, 37 RBI) lasts hardly 24 hours as the Wolves lose 6-0 to the Stars on Thursday, but at least hold Reyes dry for the duration of the contest.
June 13 – The Miners beat the Condors, 9-8 in 14 innings. Both teams previously scored three runs in the 11th inning before the Miners come through with a singleton run in the top of the 14th inning.
June 14 – The Buffaloes beat the Indians, 6-5 in 17 innings. TOP OF Tommy Branch (.221, 5 HR, 35 RBI) goes 0-for-8 with a golden sombrero.
June 14 – The Bayhawks run over the Capitals, 16-1, despite no San Francisco player getting more than three hits or RBI’s.

FL Player of the Week: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.415, 17 HR, 68 RBI), hitting .353 (12-34) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.341, 17 HR, 61 RBI), smashing .423 (11-26) with 4 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Well, this could have gone better. Lost the series in Boston (quite forcefully) and then split a rain-deduced pair at home with the Wolves. Foxie Brown held up against one of the worst teams in the league, but Jarod Morris decidedly didn’t. The Coons need a starter, and several relievers, badly. And that doesn’t even bring us to sticks…

Sunday’s rainout will be made up in July on the first Monday after the All Star Game, just when the Raccoons through travel would become less silly. This game now slides in between series in Milwaukee and Indy.

The Coons play the Cyclones and damn Elks next week.

Fun Fact: Dallas’ Tyler Wharton is not only hitting well above .400, but also driving in more than a run per game.

Wharton was at .415, 17 HR, 68 RBI through 63 games so far, which was in line for a triple crown, although he was only tied in homers with Zach Suggs on the Capitals. He was leading his teammate Tommy Pritchard by 34 points in the batting race. In fact, the first three were all Stars, third-place being Xavier Reyes.

For his career, the 26-year-old Wharton had already grabbed two Player of the Year awards, three Platinum Stick, and five Gold Gloves. Having made his debut as a September call-up at age 19, he was already in his eighth ABL season, although he didn’t break out until his second full go at it in 2059, then lost most of his age 22 season to injury. In 2061 and 2062 he already claimed two batting titles and both times also led the league in slugging. He led the FL in RBI in ’63, but so far has not won any home run titles.

Currently he’s hitting .324/.401/.510 for his career, with 1,071 base hits, 131 homers, 581 RBI, and 139 stolen bases for good measure.