[Westheim]

Raccoons (65-84) vs. Knights (76-73) – September 21-23, 2065

The Knights were pretending to still have a chance for the playoffs at 5 1/2 games out, but I had my doubts. Atlanta was fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, but with a -29 run differential. Totally playoff worthy! But they had beaten the Raccoons five outta six this year, so maybe we’d roll over for them once more. The Coons were assured a losing record by now, and what else was there to care for?

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (9-8, 3.78 ERA) vs. Josh Doyle (8-9, 4.49 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (9-17, 3.87 ERA) vs. Luis Briseno (3-0, 3.20 ERA)
Angel Alba (7-15, 4.30 ERA) vs. Ben Peterson (12-9, 4.06 ERA)

The Knights had Johnny Doolin and Andres Lopez on the DL (along with Carlos Fumero, Ken Hummel, and a few fringe players) and were piecing their rotation together with what they could find between the cushions, including Briseno, a 27-year-old Cuban who had made over 80% of his pro appearances in relief. Peterson was the only left-hander coming up.

Game 1
ATL: 3B F. Alvarado – 2B Nye – RF J. Evans – SS C. Ramsey – LF Alf. Mendez – CF J. Austin – C Ziegler – 1B Savalli – P Doyle
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Vic. Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – RF Corral – CF Garmon – P Fox

Both teams loaded the bases in the second inning before bringing up the pitcher with two outs, and neither scored a run. Fox struck out Doyle, while flying out to Alf Mendez himself to strand each and every runner between them. Both teams also only amounted to two base hits in the first four innings and didn’t score a run. Justin Savalli hit a leadoff double to left in the top 5th, but was stranded between three hardly productive outs by Doyle and the 1-2 batters Francisco Alvarado and Nick Nye. The Coons also got their third hit of the game in the fifth inning when Fox singled to center with one out. Pablo Novelo then socked a homer to left, and the Coons took a 2-0 lead. The Coons went on to put Monck and Starr on base in the bottom 6th, but Burkart fell into a double play and the inning derailed from there, while Fox put Chris Ziegler and Savalli on base in the seventh, but got Doyle and Alvarado out again to keep the Knights off the board. He was then hit for in the bottom 7th, then had his lead blown by Josh Carrington in the eighth inning. Jake Evans socked a solo homer with one out, and thn Alf Mendez and Matt McLaren also reached. Garvey replaced the September coffee-cupper, but allowed the game-tying single facing Ziegler, and on a 1-2 pitch. Savalli then struck out to end the inning.

Between Garvey and Nesbitt the game went to extra innings, and Ricky Baca held the Knights off the board in the top of the tenth, then was hit for with John Bentley in the bottom 10th. Bentley singled to center to put the winning run on base to begin the inning against Knights righty and former Raccoons specter of horror, Ryan Harmer. Novelo didn’t help with a grounder to short that saw Bentley forced out at second base, but Spicer then rushed a ball into the rightfield corner. The Knights defense was slow to make a play and Novelo flung the hindpaws and scored from first base on Spicer’s walkoff triple…! 3-2 Coons. Burkart 2-4; Bentley (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K and 1-2;

Game 2
ATL: CF V.D. Morales – 1B Savalli – 2B Nye – RF J. Evans – LF B. Snyder – SS C. Ramsey – C Ziegler – P Briseno – 3B Baxley
POR: SS Novelo – RF Spicer – 3B Vic. Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – LF Bentley – CF Matas – P Nakayama

Pablo Novelo again made it 2-0 on Tuesday, then on a 2-out, 2-run single in the bottom 2nd that chased home Burkart and Bentley from scoring position after they had put out a pair of singles to begin the inning. Spicer lined out to short to end that inning. The Knights had gone down seven-out-of-eight against Nakayama to begin the game before he walked John Baxley with one out in the top 3rd and gave up a double to Victor David Morales that scored the runner from first base and cut the lead in half. Morales was left on, though.

Burkart and Bentley were in scoring position with two outs again in the bottom 4th with Novelo batting. Again he grounded to the right side, but this time Nye was on the ball and made the play for the third out. Spicer then led off the bottom 5th with a leadoff single to right and then stole his 50th base of the season right away on the first pitch to Victor Morales, who ended up drawing a walk from Briseno. Monck filled the bases with a shy infield single, but Joel Starr, in a black hole if there was one, struck out. Burkart singled in a run, Bentley plated a run with a groundout, and Carlos Matas was walked intentionally for the Knights to get the third out from Nakayama, who duly obliged, but at least kept holding the Knights’ bats away.

Starr then did get an RBI double with Morales and Monck on base in the bottom 6th, and when Burkart drew a walk the bases were loaded with two outs for Bentley. The Knights brought reliever Luis Morales (so many Moraleses!), who gave up two runs on a double hit by Bentley to left before Matas was walked intentionally again and Nakayama made another easy out to leave a pair on base.

Nakayama went into the eighth inning with a 2-hitter, but then Monck threw away a V.D. Morales grounder and Nakayama gave up singles to Savalli and Nye, which brought in the unearned run. He was then lifted for Dover, who worked the team out of the inning despite a 2-out walk to Brendan Snyder. The final three outs were collected by Soriano and the Knights remained stuck on four hits. 7-2 Raccoons. Novelo 3-5, 2 RBI; Spicer 2-5; Monck 2-4, BB; Starr 2-5, 2B, RBI; Burkart 1-2, 3 BB, 2B, RBI; Nakayama 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (10-17);

Now that we’re eliminated, the boys start winning?

Game 3
ATL: SS C. Ramsey – 1B Savalli – 2B Nye – RF J. Evans – C Hart – CF Feldman – LF J.P. Sheridan – P B. Peterson – 3B Baxley
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Vic. Morales – C Burkart – 1B Vargas – RF Tallent – CF Garmon – 2B Bonner – P Alba

Angel Alba just could not get a good start together; he was on the backpaw after just three batters on Wednesday, giving up a 2-run homer to Nye, and continued to give up loud drives to the outfield. Justin Hart and Brad Feldman began the top 4th with singles, and Hart scored on two long fly outs by the 7-8 batters J.P. Sheridan and Peterson, while this time the Coons threatened to get 2-hit.

A Savalli homer in the fifth made it 4-0, and another Hart single and a Feldman RBI triple extended the score to 5-0 in the sixth against Alba, who was yanked after five-plus, having given up ten base hits, and six hits once washed Sansao Tyson got paws on the leather marble and gave up a gap double to Sheridan to run the tally to 6-0 on Alba. Rich Read then gave the Critters five outs across three innings, but then Ricky Baca came on, walked a guy, nicked a guy, and gave up two runs on a 2-out knock by Baxley. We were not done yet, though, as Kody Mello gave up another homer to Evans in the ninth inning. Peterson meanwhile finished a 4-hit shutout without the slightest bit of panic. Three of the Coons’ hits were chipped by Vic Morales. 9-0 Knights. Morales 3-4, 2B;

Quite the stinker to wrap up the home slate for the season, but the old ballpark had seen plenty of stinkers this year, and would withstand plenty of more stinkers down the road…

Raccoons (67-85) @ Loggers (84-68) – September 25-27, 2065

The Loggers had already nailed down the season series against the Critters, 10-5 with their #3 offense (on the CL-leading .278 batting average) and #5 pitching. They had a +72 run differential, but had a few defensive struggles, and an absolutely crippling amount of injuries, including having four fifths of a functional rotation on the DL along with a few regulars from the lineup like Victor Velez and Jonathan Merrill. They were not technically eliminated from playoff contention yet, but their magic number was 2 and they had even fewer surviving starting pitchers.

Projected matchups:
Juan Sanchez (11-13, 4.64 ERA) vs. Ignazio Flores (3-1, 2.63 ERA)
Nick Walla (7-9, 3.91 ERA) vs. Oliver Graham (9-5, 4.88 ERA)
Jeff Crowley (1-5, 6.58 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (13-8, 3.47 ERA)

The 27-year-old quad-A swingman (talk about being in between!) Ignazio Flores was the only southpaw on the menu here… reasonably… I mean, they were playing out the schedule with three pitchers and a toy catapult.

Game 1
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – C Arellano – 1B Vargas – RF Tallent – CF Garmon – P Sanchez
MIL: 3B Reber – RF C. Dominguez – LF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – 2B F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Goss – SS Gilliam – P I. Flores

Flores lasted the Loggers three innings before leaving with an injury, and – oh boy! – Another day at the delimbing factory! Flores left with a 1-0 lead that the Loggers grabbed in the second inning on a Tommy Guitreau single and Tim Goss’ triple to deep center. That was already most of the offense as the Raccoons’ lineup didn’t really take place for the second race in a row – until they came up against Arend Verhoeven, who already had a double-digit ERA and saw Spicer get on base, be driven in by Rich Monck with a double, and then walked Arellano and gave up a 3-piece to Alex Vargas to put Portland up 4-1.

Juan Sanchez was keeping the Loggers short, although he was not very efficient and ran a few long counts that saw him get close to 100 pitches after just six innings. The Coons would tack on a few runs in the seventh as Garmon got on base and with two outs was singled home by Malcolm Spicer, who then stole another base and was himself singled in by Morales. Sanchez would get through one more inning before sitting down after 107 pitches. Soriano did a scoreless eighth, while Guitreau and Goss hit 2-out singles against Mello in the ninth inning, but Tyler Gilliam then grounded out to Monck and that was the ballgame. 6-1 Coons. Spicer 2-4, BB, RBI; Morales 3-5, RBI; Monck 2-5, 2B, RBI; Garmon 2-4, 2B; Sanchez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (12-13);

Game 2
POR: SS Novelo – RF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – C Burkart – LF Bentley – CF Matas – P Walla
MIL: LF Franks – CF Goss – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – SS Reber – C Guitreau – 3B Ruskin – P O. Graham

Through five innings on Saturday, the Raccoons had three hits, all doubles. Monck had started the second inning with a double to right-center and had been stranded, but Morales and Burkart at least put a run together with their fourth-inning doubles. That was the lead for a time, even though Walla was having a really hard time with what was left of Loggerland (mostly left-handed hitting, too) and needed over 50 pitches for three shutout innings. Kyle Reber hit a leadoff double in the fourth and was stranded, but in the fifth inning Cesar Ramirez doubled home Oliver Graham, who had singled his way on base ahead of a walk to Scott Franks. Fidel Carrera then lined out to Monck to keep a pair of runners stranded in scoring position and the game tied at one; Walla was on 81 pitches.

Walla got one more inning together before his spot came up with Bentley and Matas on base in the seventh, and one out against righty Randy Birnbaum, who had just replaced Graham and had already given up a first-pitch bloop single to Matas. Vargas pinch-hit for Walla, but both him and Novelo flew out easily to Franks in leftfield, and the game remained tied. The Coons went to Baca for a quick bottom 7th even though as the Loggers emptied their bench of righty sticks, but gave up a homer to Dave Robles to begin the bottom 8th and put two more on base in Cesar Ramirez and Carlos Dominguez before being replaced with Josh Carrington, who allowed a pinch-hit single to J.P. Jack to fill the bags, then walked in a run against Guitreau. Matt Ruskin struck out and the inning ended with Dave Wright grounding out, leaving three aboard, but the Loggers were also up 3-1 and could deploy their most recent attempt at finding a closer, lefty Steve Keller, who was walking almost five batters per nine innings. He fell to 3-1 against both Starr and Burkart to begin the ninth inning. Both poked; while Starr singled, Burkart hit into a 5-4-3 double play. Garmon lined out to end the game. 3-1 Loggers.

Since the Titans were melting, the Loggers were still technically alive on a magic number of one on Sunday morning.

Game 3
POR: SS Novelo – LF Spicer – 3B Morales – 2B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Corral – CF Garmon – C Guinea – P Crowley
MIL: LF Franks – CF Goss – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – SS Reber – C Guitreau – 3B Ruskin – P Pizzichini

Crowley remained impossible to work with. He scattered three runners between the first two innings but the Loggers at least remained off the board, but in the bottom 3rd he allowed singles to four of the top 5 batters in the Loggers lineup, conceding two runs already before Kyle Reber raked a 3-run homer to left against him, and all of a sudden we were down 5-0 again. He gave up another single to Guitreau before Ruskin hit into a double play to end the inning. Crowley lumbered into the bottom of the fifth, but put Ramirez and Reber on base, and then was taken deep for another 3-spot by Guitreau, after which he was quietly disposed of on the way to the airport.

The Coons had four hits through five innings against “Pizza”, never more than one in any frame, but Morales began the sixth with a single and then Monck doubled to center to put a pair in scoring position and make at least a token effort. Joel Starr doubled them home, but the next three batters made quick outs and Starr was left on second base. In turn, Tyson gave up another run in the bottom 7th, facing two left-handed hitters, which was enough for him. Carrera tripled, then scored on Dominguez’ sac fly. Nesbitt collected the remaining garbage outs from the Loggers without allowing another run, and the Coons put an odd ninth-inning run together between Gardner and Guinea, who hit an RBI single and then was caught in a rundown and was tagged out. Nobody else reached base after that. 9-3 Loggers. Matas (PH) 1-2; Spicer 2-4; Gardner 1-1, 2B; Guinea 2-4, RBI;

In other news

September 23 – CIN SP John Steele (7-12, 3.69 ERA) spins a 1-hit shutout against the Stars, only DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.354, 32 HR, 115 RBI) getting a single.
September 24 – The season of PIT C/1B Nick Dingman (.262, 29 HR, 90 RBI) ends on a quad strain.
September 26 – The Condors beat the Falcons, 7-6 in 16 innings. Charlotte’s C/1B Oscar Matos (.278, 17 HR, 81 RBI) manages to have an 0-for-8 day with an RBI.
September 27 – The Knights’ 2B/3B Nick Nye (.304, 14 HR, 44 RBI) finds his 2,000th base hit in an 8-7 loss to the Aces. Nye singles off LVA SP Butch Money (1-4, 6.69 ERA) in the first inning to achieve the milestone.

FL Player of the Week: WAS 3B/SS Zach Suggs (.277, 16 HR, 45 RBI), batting .538 (14-26) with 3 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS SP Jason Brenize (18-6, 2.40 ERA), going 2-0 with 15 shutout innings and 15 K

Complaints and stuff

One more week knocked off, one more week to go. It’s probably gonna be an ugly series against the Titans (four to play, which is more than the number of times we’ve beaten them this year) and then the bottom-dwelling Indians. At least Chance Fox will face the Titans – but not Brenize, who pitched on Sunday and beat the Crusaders to keep Boston afloat by three games. The Titans even had *two* 4-game sets remaining, because they still had a makeup game and double-header with the damn Elks after spanking the Critters.

That Brenize W on Sunday also mathematically eliminated the Loggers, something the Coons just could not put together themselves on the weekend.

Fun Fact: Nick Nye would be having one of his finest offensive seasons … if he hadn’t missed half the season again and wasn’t qualifying.

He was posting an .870 OPS and 140 OPS+ on Sunday night, batting .304 with 14 homers in 79 games for Atlanta. Heading for his 35th birthday, Nye was in his 13th ABL season with six different teams, including the Coons, who had him for two seasons and mostly a DL stint in ’62, and while he “only” hit for a .793 OPS in his first season in Portland, he at least stayed on the field in that 2060 season… except for 18 games. Nye has played 150+ games only four times in his career, and only once in the 2060s.

When he’s healthy, he’s still an offensive threat (defense, not so much anymore). He won a batting title and led the FL in slugging twice, and took the Player of the Year honors with the Blue Sox in 2057, batting .337 with 32 homers and 110 RBI. He also stole 27 bases that year and led the Sox to the first of consecutive World Series championships before taking another one with the Titans in 2063. He also took a home run belt in 2059 with 35 homers in his final Blue Sox season. Since then it’s been frequent changes of socks for the former #45 pick, but if his body lets him he’s still golden. For his career he has batted .311/.348/.483 with 228 homers and 996 RBI, along with 183 stolen bases.