[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-17) vs. Scorpions (12-20) – May 10-12, 2066

The Raccoons returned home for a single 3-game set against the Stingers, who were bottoms in the FL West with a productive offense and a beleaguered pitching staff; both their rotation and bullpen ranked in the bottom three in ERA in the Federal League, and they were giving up the second-most runs overall. The Raccoons had won the last two meetings with the Scorpions, including two out of three games last season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (4-1, 1.56 ERA) vs. Freddy Castillo (1-1, 4.62 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (2-2, 4.25 ERA) vs. Curt Green (1-3, 5.91 ERA)
Duarte Damasceno (2-3, 4.67 ERA) vs. Kenny Donnelly (3-1, 5.18 ERA)

Castillo, the sole southpaw to come up here, had gotten his start in the majors as a Raccoon before having been traded to the Stingers at the deadline two years ago to inexplicably retrieve Ryan Harmer.

The Coons entered with a roster move, optioning Vinny Morales (0-1, 9.53 ERA) back to St. Petersburg for outfielder Marco Campos, who had last appeared in the majors in 2064 and was hitting .303 in AAA at age 27. He was also a righty batter and why not give him another shake as an supernumerary outfielder?

Game 1
SAC: CF Oldfield – RF Buras – C Danis – LF Anker – SS Gallo – 1B J. McLaughlin – 2B F. Martinez – 3B Barrientos – P F. Castillo
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Branch – 1B Tallent – RF Campos – 2B Caballero – P Walla

Walla was not overly convincing from the start, scattering three hits the first time through the order before getting tagged for a 3-spot in the fourth inning, which began with a leadoff double to right by Grant Anker. The former Baybird scored on a Jared McLaughlin single, and with two outs Jon Barrientos went yard to give Sacramento a 3-0 lead. Was it even worth relating that the Raccoons were not doing anything good in terms of hitting and/or scoring in yet another game? Walla never really improved; twice he walked the leadoff batter in an inning, and in the seventh he allowed a leadoff single to Castillo before conceding the run on a 2-out double by Nate Danis. He was yanked, and replacement Steven Hudson fooled the bags full against Anker and J.P. Gallo, but McLaughlin was retired by Tommy Branch hustling into the left-center gap to keep the bases loaded. Branch struck a triple off Castillo with one out in the bottom 7th and scored on Tallent’s grounder to second base, 4-1. Branch’s triple was the fourth and final Raccoons hit in a listless loss. 4-1 Scorpions. Branch 1-2, BB, 3B;

Game 2
SAC: 2B A. Castillo – CF Oldfield – C Danis – LF Anker – SS Gallo – RF E. Maldonado – 1B F. Martinez – 3B Barrientos – P C. Green
POR: CF Wilson – LF Spicer – RF Corral – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 2B C. Gutierrez – C Arellano – P Sanchez

Sanchez pitched again on eight days’ rest after illness wiped out his start on Friday; this time, weather threatened to get in the way, and while the game started on time, the dark clouds overhead spelled trouble from the get-go. J.P. Gallo took him deep to left for a 1-0 Scorpions lead in the second inning, but the Raccoons came back with Monck and Novelo hits and a Carlos Gutierrez sac fly to tie the game in the same frame. Nate Danis shrugged and homered again in the third inning, 2-1, while the Coons had both Wilson and Spicer on base in the bottom 3rd and they were caught stealing in succession.

After four innings it started to rain, and the Scorpions quickly tacked on a run with Alex Castillo and Cory Oldfield hits in the top 5th, extending their lead to 3-1 against Sanchez, who looked lacking in stuff and doubting his own tosses. The game then cleared the bottom 5th without the Raccoons amounting to anything but wasted oxygen, and from there the way was free to a rain-shortened loss if the baseball gods and umpires were to divine so. The game promptly went to a rain delay in the top 6th, which lasted 55 minutes and chased Sanchez after 5.2 innings mediocre innings. Soriano and then Garvey were pitching the Coons to the stretch in what felt like a lost game, even though the score was only 3-1 still.

Bottom 7th, and the Raccoons got the leadoff man Corral on base when right-hander Ben Dickson walked him in a full count. Monck then doubled to left, putting the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out. Novelo struck out, Starr struck out, and Branch pinch-hit for Garvey in the #7 spot and … flew out to Grant Anker. (hits head against wall in the office repeatedly)

Top 8th, Paul Barton got the ball, got an out from Danis, then walked Anker on four pitches. Gallo popped out, but Barton kept shaking his arm and drew unwanted attention from Luis Silva, who looked a bit worn out at this point. McMahan replaced the injured pitcher and got Elmer Maldonado to fly out to end the inning, then also did the ninth inning. With all that additional drama it was still just a 3-1 game, but the Raccoons did nothing in the bottom 8th, but righty Tony Torres walked Corral with one out to bring Monck to the plate as the tying run, which was by now our only hope. Monck hit a single on 2-0, then looked on with some dismay as Novelo flew out easily to shallow center, and Starr popped out over home plate to end the bloody ballgame. 3-1 Scorpions. Monck 3-4, 2B;

There were no news on Barton on Wednesday, ahead of the off day, and I kept checking the train schedule posted on the wall next to the door to Maud’s office, but it didn’t say a word about when the ******* offense would finally arrive.

Game 3
SAC: 2B A. Castillo – RF Buras – LF Anker – SS Gallo – CF Oldfield – C Solomon – 1B A. Gutierrez – 3B Barrientos – P Donnelly
POR: LF Spicer – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – CF Branch – 1B Starr – 2B C. Gutierrez – SS Gardner – P Damasceno

The Coons were threatening to slip under THREE runs per game for the season again, and immediately wasted Corral and Monck singles in the first inning. Starr struck a double to left to begin the bottom 2nd, and the rain began to fall again. Joe Gardner drew a 1-out walk with Starr on third after Gutierrez’ groundout before we had another hour of rain delay right there in the bottom 2nd. DD eventually got back in the box and grounded out, scoring Starr from second base, but Spicer grounded out to Alex Gutierrez to end the inning. DD had only thrown 26 pitches in the first two innings and returned to the hill, but immediately in the top 3rd gave up a 2-out game-tying homer to Alex Castillo. Will Buras singled to center, Anker doubled to center, Buras tried to score from first base, but was thrown out at the plate by Branch, ending the inning.

Bottom 4th, Starr and Gutierrez reached base to begin the inning and advanced on Gardner’s groundout. The Raccoons were not ready to part with DD, who was hitting .273 anyway and had almost as many RBI as Jose Corral, so why bother? He *tied* Corral with a run-scoring grounder to short, both sitting at four for the year, and also gave himself a 2-1 lead. Spicer then drove in Gutierrez with a single, 3-1, then was caught stealing to end the inning. Again then, the lead went bust immediately, although this time it was stupid to the n-th degree, as DD had two outs before allowing a single to Donnelly, after which Castillo flew one over to Corral, who flubbed, dropped, kicked, and chased it for two bases for the runners, both of whom scored to tie the game at three on a Buras single to right-center then.

Damasceno was chased in the sixth on a sequence of Oldfield single, Greg Solomon double, Alex Gutierrez triple, before Jon Barrientos could hit a homer. Barrientos had to settle for an RBI on a grounder hit off Cullum, 6-3, who in turn batted for himself after a Gardner single with two outs in the bottom 6th and reached on an error by Castillo. Spicer singled home Gardner with a 2-out single, but Corral fanned to leave the tying runs on base. Cullum then walked the 1-2 batters in the seventh, the Coons couldn’t turn two on an Anker groundout, and Gallo added a run back on with a sac fly to left. Hudson and Garvey pitched the late innings with the rain returning and soaking all the hanging whiskers further. Garvey loaded the bases in the ninth and gave up a run on a sac fly, which turned out to matter, preventing Rich Monck from tying the game with a 3-run homer off Josh Richardson in the home half of the ninth inning. Monck’s 2-out blast followed pinch-hitters Caballero and Tallent reaching base, but fell short of tying the ballgame. Instead the game ended with a fly to left off Branch’s bat. 8-7 Scorpions. Spicer 2-5, 2 RBI; Monck 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Starr 2-4, 2B; Gardner 2-4; Caballero (PH) 1-1;

Things kept falling apart on the off day, when Sandy Pineda frayed an elbow tendon in an Alley Cats start and was out for the season, but Luis Silva still didn’t know what pained Barton by the time the team departed for Elk City. Josh Carrington’s ERA ballooned over seven, and we needed to make a roster move for an extra reliever somehow. Carlos Gutierrez (.225, 0 HR, 7 RBI) ended up getting sent down to make room for an arm.

Hey, anybody remember J.J. Sensabaugh??

Raccoons (15-20) @ Canadiens (13-20) – May 14-16, 2066

The Elks were up 2-1 on the Coons this year, but these were the two worst offenses by runs scored in the league at this point. The Elks ranked ninth in runs allowed with a -42 run differential, while the Coons were sixth in runs allowed with a -35 run differential. Misery against Suffering, reloaded. Outfielder Chad Whetstine was on the DL for the damn Elks.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (2-4, 2.36 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (2-1, 3.00 ERA)
Nick Walla (4-2, 2.11 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (0-3, 2.82 ERA)
Juan Sanchez (2-3, 4.33 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (0-5, 6.88 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday! That was probably going to be my only joy this week. I was going to watch the games from home, hidden under a heavy woolen blanket that Aunt Ethel had knitted a long time ago, but it was patterned, so you could look through the holes in the pattern and watch the ballgame that way, and be much afraid.

Game 1
POR: LF Spicer – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – CF Branch – 1B Starr – 2B Novelo – 2B Tallent – P Nakayama
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – LF N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B R. Cordero – CF D. Moore – 3B Yue – P Nielsen

I saw the Coons sneak an early run with two outs in the first inning when Nielsen nicked Ramon Lopez and two singles by Monck and Branch brought the runner around before Joel Starr’s molding process continued live on national TV that day. Spicer was caught stealing again to end the second inning with him and Tallent on the corners, while in the fourth we had Branch and Starr lead off with singles. Tommy Branch *did* steal a base before scoring on Novelo’s groundout. The inning continued with Nakayama reaching on a 2-out error by Hsi-chuen Yue before Nielsen lost Spicer on four pitches to load the bases. Rico Cordero stretched and caught a liner Corral hit at 0-2 to end the inning with three left stranded.

Nakayama scattered three soft singles for no runs through five innings, and never looked in trouble. He then reached *again* on a 2-out error by Yue in the sixth (!), adding to Tallent on the bases, but Spicer grounded out to strand another pair in the 2-0 game. Nakayama then promptly blundered in the bottom 6th, losing both Carlos Castro and Roberto Lozada on balls in full counts, with a Matt Kilday single in between. That loaded the bases with one out, but Steve Varner’s grounder to Novelo ended the inning, 6-4-3 style. The Coons had Lopez and Monck on base, and Branch hitting into a double play to Yue kill that effort in the next half-inning, before Yue hit into a double play himself in the bottom 7th to continue his busy day.

The Raccoons did not hit for Nakayama in the eighth when Jesse Connors nicked Starr and loaded the bags with singles surrendered to Novelo and Tallent. ANYBODY on this roster could fart into a bag with three on and nobody out, why get somebody from the bench specifically to do so!? Nakayama hit a ball to Yue on the first pitch, and Yue fired home to retire Starr, but Conners then plated a run with a wild pitch and gave up two more runs on a Spicer single, whilst Spicer was caught stealing again in a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play with Corral to end the inning. The Coons tacked on another run when Novelo singled home Monck in the ninth inning, while Nakayama came back out for the bottom 9th. He struck out Nick Vaughn and Roberto Lozada before Steve Varner felt the childish need to ruin the shutout with a homer to right. Nakayama settled for a complete-game 6-hitter against Cordero, who wound up grounding out to short. 6-1 Raccoons. Spicer 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5; Novelo 2-4, 2 RBI; Tallent 3-5; Nakayama 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (3-4);

Barton was finally moved to the DL with a torn meniscus on Saturday, allowing for another roster move. Ryan Bonner was brought up after clipping .313 for mostly singles with the Alley Cats. He had hit .333 in 69 AB with the Coons last year. Shame he was such a clumsy second baseman.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – LF Spicer – C Lopez – 3B Monck – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 2B Bonner – SS Novelo – P Walla
VAN: SS C. Castro – 2B Kilday – CF R. Atkins – LF N. Vaughn – C Varner – 1B R. Cordero – RF D. Moore – 3B Yue – P Rath

The Elks scored right out of the gate with a four-pitch walk to Carlos Castro, who was brought in on singles by Rick Atkins and Nick Vaughn before Walla found something more resembling a groove and got out of the inning. The Raccoons answered with straight singles by Corral, Starr, and Bonner to tie the game in the top 2nd, and got the go-ahead run when Novelo chopped an 0-2 grounder into play for a productive out before Walla whiffed to end the inning.

Walla never really stopped struggling; there were lots of pitches, another leadoff walk to Castro, a Rath single, a hit batter – but all in different innings and he wiggled his way and the 2-1 lead’s way through five innings with that, although it took him almost 80 pitches to make it even that far, with a single strikeout to his name. The Raccoons meanwhile remained offensively illiterate; Spicer singled and was caught stealing again in the sixth before Monck, Corral, and Starr filled the bases and were left on base on a Bonner pop to Yue. In turn, Varner hit a leadoff jack to tie the game in the bottom 6th, and Walla walked Dan Moore before Yue and Tyler Chenette slapped singles to get the damn Elks in front, 3-2, leading to Walla’s dismissal. Deploying McMahan didn’t help jack **** as he allowed three more runs to score on a Carlos Castro groundout, a Kilday single, and finally an Atkins triple before being purged as well. The 5-run outburst in the inning gave the damn Elks a 5-2 lead and black smoke was billowing forth from under a wool blanket in Portland. Spicer singled home Novelo and his leadoff walk in the seventh to reduce the gap to three before Sensabaugh pitched a scoreless inning as the Raccoons signaled surrender by deploying him in the first place. Monck homered off Robbie Lingard to begin the eighth, 6-4, but that was the last run in the ballgame. Dover needed work and handled the bottom 8th, but the Raccoons’ three right-handed pinch-hitters Arellano, Branch, and Tallent were turned away by Jon McGinley in the ninth inning without leaving a mark on the scoreboard. 6-4 Canadiens. Spicer 2-4, RBI; Lopez 2-4; Monck 2-4, HR, RBI; Starr 2-3;

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – LF Branch – 3B Tallent – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – RF Campos – 2B Bonner – C Arellano – P Sanchez
VAN: 3B C. Castro – SS Kilday – CF R. Atkins – RF Lozada – C Varner – 1B R. Cordero – 2B Yue – LF D. Moore – P J. Villegas

The Coons’ Sunday lineup cried “surrender!” but the boys went out anyway and singles by Wilson and Starr scrabbled a run together in the top 1st. Novelo also singled, but Campos made the third out in the air. The Elks were turned away with their Castro and Atkins singles in the bottom 1st before Arellano, who entered with an OPS+ of *two* doubled in the top 2nd, but was left on base.

Sanchez wasn’t shy to scatter runners with four hits, a walk, and a hit batter in the first three innings, but didn’t allow the Elks to score until a Cordero homer beat him and knotted the score at one in the fourth inning. He then had a meltdown in the fifth, getting two outs before allowing two singles to Atkins and Lozada, plating the go-ahead run with a wild pitch, and filling the bags with walks to Varner and Cordero before Yue flew out to Campos to leave three stranded. Sanchez would creep through six busy innings on 101 pitches and left trailing 2-1 because – … did I mention the surrender lineup?

The Coons were mostly silent from the third through the seventh inning, amounting to only two hits after the Arellano double, but Spicer batted for Juan Soriano in the #9 spot to begin the eighth and singled off Villegas. When Jaden Wilson reached on a Kenny Graves error at short, the Elks replaced the starter with right-hander Josh Meighan. Rich Monck immediately batted for Branch, but struck out, and Corral batted for Tallent, drawing lefty Paul Wolk and hitting into a 4-6-3 double play……… (wails under his blanket, also sweating)

Hudson and Garvey combined for a scoreless bottom 8th (never mind the two singles off the Rule 5er) to keep the damn Elks within a run, but Starr, Novelo, and Lopez were retired on eight pitches by McGinley in the ninth inning… 2-1 Canadiens. Wilson 2-4; Spicer (PH) 1-1;

In other news

May 13 – The Indians flip LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.345, 1 HR, 8 RBI) to the Rebels for a prospect.
May 16 – Condors catcher Mike Brann (.285, 3 HR, 17 RBI) would miss a month with a torn hamstring.

FL Player of the Week: SAC RF Will Buras (.218, 4 HR, 21 RBI), spotting .471 (8-17) with 2 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR INF Rich Monck (.313, 6 HR, 21 RBI), hitting .478 (11-23) with 2 HR, 4 RBI

Complaints and stuff

(looks up from the waiver wire)

(deep sigh)

Rich Monck will one day be on a team that deserves him.

The Raccoons played two last-place teams this week and ended up going 1-5. That’s about what you really need to know at this point. Hapless against last-place teams, can’t score a lick, and Sensabaugh is back on the roster. All the ingredients for a 100-losses season are here.

We would need a fifth starter in Boston; since Sandy Pineda’s arm had conveniently come off in the five minutes since he had been returned to AAA after his major league debut last Friday, the Coons would have to get a bit more creative. A premature ABL debut for Tony Gaytan was not completely off the table right now.

Marcos Arellano might have been sent to AAA this week if not for his lack of options, which was a stark turnaround from “oh well, he’ll hold down the primary spot without problems”. But then again, who’s on this roster and is NOT sucking the cover off the baseball?

The road trip would continue to Boston, Tijuana, and San Francisco. That was two outta three cities were nothing good ever happened.

Fun Fact: Malcolm Spicer is third in the batting title race in the Continental League, hitting .331/.352/.373.

Don’t you think that would make him a contributor.

ZERO WAR, rounded up!

He was also caught stealing five times in a row this week, which only furthered my depression.