[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-50) @ Canadiens (40-41) – July 6-9, 2065

Eight of the Critters’ next eleven games were against the stinking Elks, which could easily make for some accelerated depression on my end, but there was no point in crying over the scheduling, and the boys were off to Siberia for a four-game set to start the week. The Elks were competent at the .500 mark, and also around average in runs scored and runs allowed in the league, posting a -8 run differential. So far these two teams had split a four-game set in May.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (5-10, 4.83 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (6-2, 2.53 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-4, 2.80 ERA) vs. Ed Nadeau (4-7, 4.07 ERA)
Josh Elling (7-7, 4.14 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (8-4, 2.89 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-12, 3.76 ERA) vs. Adam Foley (2-3, 4.61 ERA)

After not seeing a southpaw for about 38 months, the Coons would get to see two in a row on Tuesday and Wednesday. What a weird development! The Raccoons accordingly stuffed the lineup with every lefty batter that could hold a stick.

The Elks had a few injuries, including pitcher Martyn Polaco and just-acquired Matt Kilday and outfielder Rick Atkins. The Raccoons were expecting Joel Starr, Corey Garmon, and Jesse Dover back soon-ish.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Bentley – SS Aoki – C Arellano – CF Matas – P Alba
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – LF Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – 1B N. Vaughn – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P Nielsen

Carlos Castro drew a walk from a discombobulated Angel Alba and was then caught stealing twice in the first three innings of the series opener, but Alba still put enough runners on base to allow a run in the first inning on singles by Hsi-chuen Yue (who did steal second successfully) and Chad Whetstine. Alba remained all over the place for most of his outing, which would be six innings of 3-run ball, the other two runs scoring in the bottom 6th on hits by Whetstine, Ben Newman, who hit an RBI double, and Steven Spalding. Meanwhile, the Raccoons took their turns in order against Ken Nielsen without much effect for six innings before Monck hit a leadoff single and Bentley walked to begin the seventh. Aoki promptly hit into a double play, but Arellano at least got a consolation run on the board with an RBI single to center. Carrillo pitched a scoreless seventh before Madrid and Garvey pooled together to load the bases in the eighth, but Rico Cordero struck out to end the inning. The Elks then sent in Jon McGinley, whose ERA was up to 7.18, for the ninth inning against the Coons’ 3-4-5 batters. Monck and Novelo hit singles, but Morales and Kozak struck out before Arellano’s grounder to short left the tying runs on base… 3-1 Canadiens. Monck 2-4; Novelo (PH) 1-1; Arellano 2-4, RBI;

Maybe cramming all the righty sticks into the lineup against a southpaw would work?

Game 2
POR: RF Tallent – 2B Serrano – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – LF Bentley – C Arellano – SS Novelo – CF Matas – P Walla
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF N. Vaughn – 3B K. Graves – CF Chenette – P Nadeau

Yes, but no, but yes. Carlos Matas struck his first major league home run with Novelo on base to give the Raccoons a 2-0 lead in the second inning, but of course he was a left-handed batter. Tallent and Serrano then hit a pair of singles in the third inning, which derailed on a Morales double play grounder, and the 1-2 pair hit another pair of singles off Nadeau in the fifth inning, but Morales grounded to short again, this time for the one out the Elks needed to get out of the inning. Walla retired the Elks in order the first time through, but with two scary long flies to the warning track, then walked Carlos Castro to start the bottom 4th, but the runner remained on base. However, Nick Vaughn finally jumped one over the fence off Walla in the fifth inning, a solo homer for the Elks’ first hit of the game, and the score was 2-1 through five.

Walla got through six and two thirds on 93 pitches, and still held the skinny 2-1 lead provided by Matas when he arrived at Vaughn again, the first of three straight lefty hitters in that lineup. Sansao Tyson got the ball, walked Vaughn, but then got a fly to Bentley from Kenny Graves to get out of the inning. Top 8th, Tallent hit another single off righty reliever Jose Salazar before – for a change – being doubled off by Serrano. Tyson returned for the bottom 8th, facing Tyler Chenette, PH Rico Cordero, and Castro, and gave up – in order – a single, a double, and a score-flipping triple, upon which, back home on the trusty brown couch in the office, my head slumped forwards and my chin hit my fuzzy chest, and I was silent for long enough for Maud to check for a pulse. Nesbitt replaced Tyson, got two outs while loading the bases, and then yielded for Garvey, who gave up a 2-run single to PH Steve Varner before striking out Graves to end the ******* inning. The Coons hit three singles off McGinley for a run in the ninth inning, but that was obviously not enough. Corral followed Monck’s pinch-hit RBI single with a game-concluding groundout to second base. 5-3 Canadiens. Tallent 3-4; Serrano 2-3, BB; Novelo 3-4; Monck (PH) 1-1, RBI; Walla 6.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

We out-hit the Elks, 11-6.

Nick Walla must be cursed. There is no other explanation for him being 2-4 with a 2.68 ERA in 12 starts.

Also cursed: Carlos Matas (.228, 1 HR, 6 RBI), who the day after his first career homer was sent back to AAA to get Corey Garmon back on the roster.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B Monck – SS Novelo – RF Tallent – CF Garmon – C Lawson – P Elling
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF N. Vaughn – 3B K. Graves – CF Chenette – P J. Villegas

Morales singled and was doubled off by Kozak in the first inning, and the Raccoons had Monck and Novelo on the corners with one out in the second inning when Garmon tried to justify his roster spot with another double play grounder, but that one was thrown away by Castro and the Raccoons got a run that was initially unearned, but since you can’t assume the double play even against these horrendous Critters, the run became earned when Lawson livened up his .077 batting average with an RBI single to left. Garmon made for third base and scored on Elling’s sac fly, while Spicer grounded to Kenny Graves with two outs, but Graves also committed a throwing error for two bases and another run. Spicer scored from second on a Vic Morales single to right, Kozak singled, too, and Monck doubled in the pair of them before the inning came to a conclusion. The Coons were now up 7-0 (five unearned), and everybody wondered in which fancy way they’d blow that one.

While Villegas was gone after three innings, Elling allowed a run on Yue and Whetstine hits in the fourth inning, but apart from some full counts early on looked like he had things under control, even more so once Elks right-hander Dallas Samson put Novelo and Garmon on base in the fifth inning and then stooped as low as giving up a 2-out, 3-run homer to Scott ******* Lawson. Graves answered with a solo homer in the bottom 5th, in which Elling’s counts suddenly went long and longer again and he was rapidly approaching 100 pitches. He gave up another homer to Roberto Lozada in the sixth, 10-3, and then was removed after walking Chenette on four pitches with one gone in the bottom 7th. Barton replaced him and got the inning to end against Chris Richardson in strike-em-out-throw-em-out fashion as Chenette tried to scoop second base for no good reason whatsoever. The eighth was calm, while the Coons tacked on a run with Morales and Novelo doubles in the ninth inning. 11-3 Critters. Morales 3-5, 2B, RBI; Monck 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Novelo 4-5, 2B, RBI; Garmon 2-3, RBI; Lawson 2-4, HR, 4 RBI;

Can we please play like this every day? At least against the filthy Elks?

John Bentley (.311, 3 HR, 8 RBI) returned to AAA at this point to make room for the restored body of Joel Starr. However, if you were a 25-year-old hitter with a batting average within 100 points of your big league team’s record in July there was every chance that you were going to move up the pecking order and depth chart in the next few weeks…

Now excuse me, the phone is ringing. (waggles over to the desk like he’s up to something)

Game 4
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Serrano – C Arellano – CF Garmon – P Nakayama
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Yue – 1B Whetstine – RF Lozada – C Newman – LF N. Vaughn – 3B Spalding – CF Chenette – P Foley

The Elks put Castro on base when Spicer trapped his fly to left for a single, then had Nakayama considerately walk the bags full for them. Lozada singled in one, Newman singled in two more, and the fiends were up 3-0 in no time. They had three more singles from their 1-2-3 batters in the second inning, but Castro removed himself on offense with a baserunning blunder and they failed to score more runs. The leadoff man was on for the Elks in the next two innings as well, once on a Garmon error, but they kindly hit into double plays to remove those runners, just like Jose Corral did when Nakayama hit a single in the fifth…

With the Raccoons no threat whatsoever after an 11-run outburst on Wednesday, Nakayama tried to go as far as he could, which turned out to be six and a third, before handing it over to the pen. Tyson got one out before allowing a hit and was replaced with Nesbitt, who got out of *that* inning, but then put the first three Elks on base in the bottom 8th and did not exactly find help from Juan Carrillo, as all three runs scored. The Coons never scored, amounting to five measly singles against Foley and Salazar. 6-0 Canadiens. Monck 2-4;

Raccoons (33-53) @ Indians (32-53) – July 10-12, 2065

Last place playoffs here in Indy just ahead of the All Star Game, in which neither team figured to play a prominent role. Currently the Raccoons were half a game ahead of the red lantern carriers from Indy, but I had a hunch that might change. Indy was bottoms in runs scored, while the Coons were bottoms in runs allowed in the CL. We had a -70 run differential, while they were down -84, which was honestly not that much after half a year of sucking this hard. Everybody had a bunch of injuries to players that were largely underperforming, so why waste words on that, and we were up 7-2 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (4-5, 4.73 ERA) vs. Josh Barcellona (5-6, 4.18 ERA)
Angel Alba (5-11, 4.81 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (3-12, 4.37 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-4, 2.68 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (5-4, 1.95 ERA)

A rainout on Thursday left the Indians with some wiggle room for how they would go about their starters here, but we were expecting their only southpaw DeWitt to pitch at some point in the series, unless he made the All Star team and they’d vacate him from his start, probably in favor of Kelly Whitney (4-7, 4.96 ERA).

Jack Kozak was suspiciously absent from the lineup for the second day in a row. And the Raccoons GM was also unusually absent from a series played outside of Canada.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Aoki – CF Garmon – C Arellano – P Fox
IND: 3B A. Mendez – SS G. Lujan – 1B Starwalt – LF Dowsey – 2B Sowell – RF B. Johnston – CF M. Martin – C A. Monroe – P Barcellona

Alex Mendez and Guillermo Lujan hit singles before Danny Starwalt smacked into a double play in the bottom 1st, however Fox gave up another single and a first-inning run to Justin Dowsey, who at (now) .249 with 13 homers was by far the biggest stick in that lineup. Things calmed down for Fox the following innings, while Barcellona walked Aoki in the second but otherwise threatened to pitch a no-hitter for 4.2 innings until he was taken deep out of the blue by Marcos Arellano to tie the game at one. Barcellona would restore his own lead, though, with an RBI single to plate Bryan Johnston in the bottom of the same inning. The run was unearned thanks to Johnston reaching on another baffling fielding error by Vic Morales.

Fox pitched accident-free through the remainder of eight innings from there, while the Raccoons had Monck on base in the seventh and lost him on a misplaced hit-and-run call. Garmon singled to begin the eighth and was also caught stealing. Desperation was not working in the Coons’ favor, and then they came up against lefty Cody Kleidon in the ninth inning. Spicer, Morales, and Monck went in order to put the game into the books. 2-1 Indians. Arellano 2-3, HR, RBI; Fox 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (4-6);

Interlude: Trade

The Raccoons officially gave up on what they had and swung a big trade with the Thunder on Friday night.

The Thunder would receive SP Josh Elling (8-7, 4.15 ERA), 1B/LF/CF Jack Kozak (.240, 10 HR, 40 RBI), and MR Tetsu Kurihara (0-1, 4.35 ERA) in a trade for three young players / prospects. This package included AAA CL Ricky Baca, who the Coons had taken in the Rule 5 draft before returning him unused to the Thunder a few years earlier, and single-A LF/RF George van Otterdijk, but the headline news was the acquisition of the league’s #2 (!) prospect, 20-year-old INF A.J. Taylor, who would be assigned to Ham Lake.

Taylor had been the #39 pick in the draft just one season ago and was hitting solidly if without power in single-A Temple for the Thunder. The forecast for him was as a slick-fielding middle infielder with great speed, a patient approach to the plate, and quite a bit of pop if things worked out. Our head scout Steve Hansen didn’t particularly like him, but OSA put him at 11/14/13 and he had a .372 OBP in single-A this year to back that up.

Elling had gone 35-27 as a Raccoon and by departing removed his $7M/year from the books (the Thunder received no cash as part of the deal), and Jack Kozak for all the dramatic homers was an erratic career .726 OPS batter in a season-long slump that we didn’t want to give a long-term deal to even when he was begging for it. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Kozak, but he was hard to fit into a team and the Raccoons had to make some dramatic cuts to get a #2 prospect on board.

Ricky Baca joined the Raccoons. He had pitched in ten games for the Thunder last year, posting a 3.18 ERA. With two games to go before the break, the roster was then filled with right-hander Juan Soriano, who had made two appearances for Portland after being claimed on waivers last year, and, well, John Bentley.

Raccoons (33-53) @ Indians (32-53) – July 10-12, 2065

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Serrano – CF Garmon – C Arellano – P Alba
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – RF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – LF B. Johnston – 2B Sowell – SS G. Lujan – P Whitney

Confusion rose with Whitney getting the ball on Saturday ahead of anybody else. The Coons wasted a single in each of the first three innings before the 6-7-8 batters somehow filled up the bases against Whitney in the fourth inning, but pops on the infield by Alba and Corral prevented the Portland Shambles from scoring a run. Indy was up 1-0 at that point on a Matt Martin homer from the bottom 3rd.

Joel Starr then got his first RBI’s of the year in team game #88 (of which he had missed 79) when he socked a 2-run homer to center to liven up his .160 batting average. Morales had singled to begin the inning, and now the Coons had a 2-1 lead.

After a fair bit of traffic in the early innings, Alba turned solid in the middle innings and went on to pitch seven innings for five base hits in an attempt to defend that skinny lead, but of course it wasn’t enough to cover the distance and the bullpen would get paws on this game in an attempt to get another six outs. Maybe an insurance would help; the Coons put Starr (walk) and Garmon (single) on the corners with two outs in the top 8th and then sent Bentley to bat for Arellano against Whitney, who gave up a drive to deep center, but Bentley couldn’t beat the range of Eddy Ramirez and the inning ended. Cruz Madrid then retired Martin to begin the bottom 8th before walking Dowsey and giving up a pinch-hit double to Matt Rogers. Garvey tried to save the unsaveable, allowed a score-flipping single to Vinny Atencio, but to anybody’s surprise the Raccoons came back against Kleidon in the ninth inning. Novelo struck a leadoff double pinch-hitting in the #9 spot. Corral grounded out, moving him to third base, and Spicer tied the game at three with a single up the middle. Morales hit another single, and Monck hit into a double play… Carrillo then nearly lost the game in the bottom 9th on long drives by Ken Sowell and Guillermo Lujan. Spicer rushed down the first one, while Lujan’s fell for a double in right. Ramirez struck out and Martin grounded out to short to send the game to extras.

Overtime began with Joel Starr reaching on an uncaught third strike against Kleidon, who went on to eviscerate the 6-7-8 batters to get out of that situation. Ricky Baca then gave his Coons debut, two years and three months removed from being returned to the Thunder as a Rule 5 pick. He gave up a double to Alex Mendez, but then got the next three Indians out, two by strikeouts. Barton was up next for the Coons and gave up a 2-out triple to Tony Torres (who?) in the bottom 11th, walked Ramirez, and then got Martin out on a fly to Corral. Vic Morales then struck out a leadoff double off Antonio Pichardo to start off the 12th. Monck flailed, Starr was walked intentionally, and then Serrano romped a 3-run homer to break the tie! Sansao Tyson got the ball in the bottom 12th, allowed a single to Rogers and an RBI double to Andre Monroe, but got the damn game over with. 6-4 Coons. Morales 3-6, 2B; Serrano 2-6, HR, 3 RBI; Garmon 4-5, BB; Arellano 1-2, BB; Novelo (PH) 1-1, 2B; Alba 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

DeWitt made the All Star team, so the Indians sent Carreno on Sunday, who did not.

Game 3
POR: LF Spicer – RF Bentley – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Serrano – CF Tallent – C Lawson – P Walla
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B M. Martin – RF Dowsey – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – LF B. Johnston – 2B Sowell – SS G. Lujan – P Carreno

Ramirez took Walla deep right out of the gate, and the Indians clipped three more singles around the first time through without putting anything else on the scoreboard. The Raccoons had little going in the first two innings before Scott Lawson drew a leadoff walk in the third inning. Walla’s bunt was bad and Lawson was out at second base, but Walla scored himself then after a Spicer single and a Bentley double to left. The former Raccoon Carreno walked Morales on four pitches to fill the bases for Monck, who flew to right-center, where Dowsey reached to make a catch, then dropped the ball anyway. This was ruled an error and a go-ahead RBI for Monck, as the bases remained loaded in a 2-1 game for Starr, who was down 0-2 before he hit a sac fly to left, before Serrano ended the inning with a fly to Ramirez in center.

After a Starwalt homer to left narrowed the score to 3-2 in the bottom 3rd, Walla proved unable to get a bunt down again with Tallent on first and one out in the fourth. Tallent, dismayed by the ineffective poking, stole a base at 0-2, then was surprised to see Walla hit a single to center and stopped at third base. He came home on Spicer’s sac fly to center, 4-2. Bentley flew out to deep right to end the inning. Walla and Spicer hit singles again with two outs in the sixth inning. Carreno walked Bentley, then was collected from the bases-loaded situation with involvement of the Indians trainer. Righty Victor Perez came in for Morales, who fell to 0-2 before popping one out to Starwalt and left the bases loaded.

Walla kept pitching to a considerable amount of loud contact, even though the Indians didn’t get the balls to go out or fall on the green grass in the middle innings. Perez then nicked Monck to begin the seventh, then was taken deep by Starr for a 2-piece as punishment. Walla then finally gave up another solo jack to Guillermo Lujan in the bottom 7th. He got through two outs in the bottom 8th before a Starwalt single knocked him out. Sansao Tyson struck out Atencio to complete the inning, and then got another three outs without issue in the ninth inning. 6-3 Furballs. Spicer 2-4, RBI; Walla 7.2 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-4) and 2-4; Tyson 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (3);

In other news

July 6 – The Crusaders send outfielder Coby Thore (.291, 2 HR, 23 RBI) to the Thunder for two prospects.
July 8 – New York acquires catcher Victor Reyna (.258, 1 HR, 12 RBI) and a prospect from the Indians for SP Josh Barcellona (5-6, 4.18 ERA).
July 8 – The Loggers trade for lefty Blue Sox CL Steve Keller (4-5, 4.24 ERA, 15 SV) in exchange for two prospects.
July 8 – The Condors score ten runs in the fifth inning on their way to beat the Knights. Five different Condors hit a home run in the 14-3 game.
July 8 – The Scorpions beat the Stars, 13-10 in 14 innings. SAC INF/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.278, 13 HR, 59 RBI) hits two home runs and drives in four, while Dallas’ 3B/SS/LF Xavier Reyes (.345, 0 HR, 47 RBI) plates as many runners while chipping five singles.
July 9 – 41-year-old ATL SP Kodai Koga (5-11, 5.32 ERA) wasn’t having the best season of his career, but it was enough to 4-hit the Condors in a 4-0 shutout on Thursday. It was the 36th shutout of his career, encompassing 576 starts for six different teams.
July 9 – A sprained ankle puts Aces OF Jaden Wilson (.269, 3 HR, 38 RBI) out of action for the next month.
July 10 – Thunder 1B/LF/RF Ben Laity (.278, 4 HR, 21 RBI) puts out four singles and a grand slam in a 13-2 rout of the Aces.
July 10 – Boston 1B Bill Joyner (.330, 13 HR, 71 RBI) decides the Titans’ game with the Canadiens with a top-of-the-11th grand slam off Vancouer’s Elijah LaBat (4-4, 4.71 ERA, 14 SV) for an 8-4 victory.
July 10 – Falcons OF Dan Geiger (.297, 1 HR, 11 RBI) was going to miss the rest of the season with a broken elbow.
July 12 – 35-year-old switch-hitting middle infielder Willie Acosta (.242, 2 HR, 22 RBI) is sent from the Condors to the Blue Sox, along with a prospect, for SP Preston Young (4-10, 6.13 ERA).
July 12 – The Aces rally for five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Thunder, 6-5.
July 12 – The Stars beat the Pacifics, 4-3, thanks to a walkoff balk by LAP CL Roberto Ramirez (5-2, 3.99 ERA, 19 SV).

FL Player of the Week: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.355, 17 HR, 58 RBI), bashing .452 (14-31) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL UT Carlos Fumero (.303, 5 HR, 37 RBI), hitting .400 (14-35) with 2 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

No All Stars on this team and I have no reasonable argument why we should have one, either. The Titans stacked the team with seven players (Bell, Brenize, Gleason, Arviso, Joyner, Marcotte, Humphries).

Tetsu Kurihara lost his first game for the Thunder on Sunday. No idea why they asked for him in the A.J. Taylor trade. NO idea. The Raccoons are in engaged in more trade talks. You can probably expect Monck and Starr to stay at this point since we’d be selling under value, and I am not open to trading any of the younger players (Morales, Corral…) at this stage either. However, the pen is free pickings, and the fringe pieces like our myriad of shortstops is also up for grabs. Probably no more top 10 prospects to be acquired with that stuff.

We can not reasonably trade a starting pitcher from here, because the situation in AAA is beyond dire. There’s nothing you can call up from there (Applecore, Bollinger, Sensabaugh as known quantities, and Sandy Pineda and Cody Childress as derailed prospects) that would have a halfway-decent chance to get through five innings in the majors right now. The best ERA’s in that group would be Pineda’s 4.47 ahead of 4.73 for Applecore. AAA ERA’s, that is.

The Raccoons snatched another teenage catcher from the July IFA pool this week, which cost them $80k (half of that being tax), and were still after another pitcher.

Jesse Dover started a rehab assignment this week and can be expected to return after the All Star Game when we will play another four with the damn Elks (shivers), followed by three with the Loggers, all at home.

Fun Fact: Thursday’s 4-hit shutout by Kodai Koga against Tijuana broke a tie at the top of the leaderboard for career shutouts.

Koga’s 36th shutout left David Burke, a veteran of the ABL’s inaugural season in 1977, in the dust. Burke, who was 22 when the league started play, pitched 14 seasons in the majors and amassed 35 shutouts along the way, including *eight* shutouts for the 1982 Pacifics alone. Burke split his career roughly halfway between the Pacifics and Miners, which a hangers-on appearance for the Knights in 1991, pitching to a 179-132 record and 3.27 ERA with 1,613 strikeouts, which wasn’t enough to get elected to the Hall of Fame by the Secret Ninja Committee.

The 41-year-old Koga should be more lucky as career shutouts leader. While he was only 235-231 with a 3.74 ERA, he also had 2,589 strikeouts to offer. While Koga had never led the league in anything that would give you headlines, and for awards only had two All Star nominations and a Gold Glove, it was the decades-long run of competence that might get him some votes. He also pitched two no-hitters, both pitched in April; one came in his first Knights stint against the Aces in 2050, and another one with the Miners against the Rebels in 2058.