[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-20) vs. Condors (19-31) – May 30-June 1, 2067

The Raccoons were up against the Condors for the second time this year, and had yet to lose a game to them. The Condors ranked tenth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, with a -33 run differential. The rotation was especially troublesome, but they were also bottoms in batting average and stolen bases. Former Critter Nick Nye was expensively on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (3-3, 3.17 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (3-4, 7.20 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (4-3, 4.00 ERA) vs. Ryan Davis (2-7, 5.68 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (5-2, 2.53 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (3-5, 4.81 ERA)

The Condors had only right-handed starters, but they had also played a double header on Saturday, meaning either the ageless veteran Koga or Brett Bebout (4-2, 4.14 ERA) would have to start on short rest on Wednesday.

Game 1
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B A. Metz – C Brann – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B M. Moreno – SS Spehar – P Ledbetter
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan

A walk to the leadoff man Phil LeVan, just recently arrived in Tijuana, a stolen base, a passed ball, and a groundout scored a run for the Condors without the benefit of a base hit, but Rich Monck hammered a 451-footer in the first inning after Lopez got nicked to flip the score in the Raccoons’ favor rather quickly. The Raccoons then also got more base runners with a Dowsey double and Joel Starr drawing four balls, but Novelo struck out, and then Dan Sandoval homered the game tied again in the second inning. Gaytan then lingered, obviously getting hit around by the Condors, and then began the fourth inning by hitting Andy Metz. Mike Brann singled up the middle, Sandoval hit an RBI double to right, Mario Moreno singled home a pair, and even Ledbetter dropped in an RBI single before being tagged out in no man’s land between first and second. The Condors rushed Gaytan for four runs in the inning, took a 6-2 lead, and were done with Gaytan altogether after just five innings.

It took until the fifth inning as well for the Raccoons to score more, and again they did so with two outs on a combo of getting plonked and hitting a cannonball to right, this time with Wilson taking one for the team and Corral going yard, shortening the score to 6-4. The effort was wasted however on a pretty impressive bullpen explosion that began with Holzmeister retiring none of the 7-8-9 batters to begin the sixth inning, and then continued seamlessly with Bob West giving up an RBI single to LeVan, plonking Matt Ewig to force in a run, and giving up a bases-clearing triple to Mike Pinault, and an RBI double to Metz before being yanked. Yamauchi then had to pick up the pieces in a 12-4 game. Chance Fox would at least pitch efficient garbage relief after that, lining up three zeroes to meet requirements, while the offense was saving the remaining bullets for a later date, ostensibly. 12-4 Condors. Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 1-2, BB; Fox 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

Oh good, the Jittercoons are back…

Game 2
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B A. Metz – C Brann – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B M. Moreno – SS Spehar – P R. Davis
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama

A Pinault single and a convincing Metz homer to right gave the Condors a quick 2-0 lead on Tuesday, and like the Coons on Monday they then added two more base hits but no further runs in the same inning. Starr made a bid for a game-tying fly to left after Dowsey drew a walk in the bottom of the second inning, but that ball came down in LeVan’s mitten on the warning track. After the wobbly first inning, Nakayama found his stuff and struck out nine Condors through five innings, but it didn’t help him much since the offense was consisting of a Monck single and … well, not a whole lot else.

Pinault singled again in the sixth inning, but was left on base when Nakayama struck out Sandoval for his tenth strikeout in the game against no walks, but needless to say that his pitch count was up there anyway. Jose Corral then finally got the team on the board with a 1-out solo jack in the bottom 6th, 2-1, and Ramon Lopez drew a walk, but Monck’s fly to right didn’t beat or even impress Ewig much, and Dowsey lined out to Mario Moreno to end the inning. Nakayama got to a dozen strikeouts and also over 100 pitches through seven innings, but more importantly, the Raccoons finally seemed to be getting to Davis, who allowed a 1-out double to Novelo in the bottom 7th, then a gap triple to tie the game to otherwise luckless Mike Roberts. With the go-ahead run in scoring position and one down, the Raccoons sent Marquise Early to pinch-hit, but he grounded out poorly enough to keep the runner on third base. Wilson answered the call, though, and singled past the reach of Moreno to give Portland the 3-2 lead. He stole second, but then was left on by Corral.

Enter the bullpen, and soon the regrets; McMahan retired LeVan before walking Ewig and was replaced with Josh C, who got Pinault to 2-2 before giving up an absolute BOMB that flipped the score right back to 4-3 Condors. I facepawed noisily, and felt the urge to break into the Capt’n Coma stores. When Jesse Dover gave up another homer to the light-hitting Ryan Spehar in the ninth inning, with two outs and two strikes, I had to unscrew a bottle and take a big gulp, not that it made the Raccoons break into a rally. 5-3 Condors. Wilson 2-4, RBI; Monck 2-4; Novelo 2-4, 2B; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 12 K;

Right-hander Ryan Singletary (1-0, 3.92 ERA) from Edmond, Oklahoma, would then make a spot start on Wednesday instead of a starter on short rest. Singletary had been in 14 games, all in relief, for 20.2 innings so far this season. He had started 33 games for the Condors last year, going 10-17 with a 4.88 ERA.

The Raccoons were without Jason Holzmeister on Wednesday, who not only couldn’t pitch, but also set the timer on the clubhouse sauna wrong and then was locked in there for an hour, coming out more dripping than breathing. He was “day-to-day”, but I’m sure if we need someone to blow the game wide open in the middle innings, we’ll find volunteers besides him.

Game 3
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B A. Metz – C Brann – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B M. Moreno – SS Spehar – P Singletary
POR: CF Wilson – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Matas – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Musgrave’s shtick of looking like an inspired amateur and like he had a general lack of stuff continued, but he continued to have a solid defensive infield as well and the Condors stranded all their early runners, numbering three on hits and one on a walk in the first three innings. Metz and Sandoval then hit long fly balls in the fourth inning, but both of those were caught by Dowsey and Matas, respectively. The Raccoons had a Dowsey single and him getting doubled off for offense before it started to rain in the fourth inning and the game went to a 40-minute delay pretty soon. Musgrave emerged from it on the other side, but immediately gave up a double to right-center to Moreno, who was nevertheless left on base by the 8-9-1 hitters in the fifth inning. However, Tijuana then took a 1-0 lead on a Ewig homer to right, leading off the sixth.

Enter Rich Monck though, batting with two outs and Wilson and Lopez on the corners in the bottom 6th. Lopez had just tied the game with a single that scored Musgrave, who himself had killed off Mike Roberts’ leadoff walk with a bad bunt before rushing to third base on Wilson’s single. We felt that the Coons needed a big knock here, and thankfully Monck was up to snuff and socked a 3-run homer to dead centerfield, flipping the score entirely to 4-1 Critters (despite getting out-hit, 5-4). Singletary walked Starr before bidding his first start of the season adieu, and Javier Arocho allowed an infield single to Matas, then an RBI single to center to Novelo, 5-1! Roberts’ groundout ended the inning, while Musgrave got three more outs before being hit for with Early to begin the home half of the seventh. Early made a quick out, but Arocho put Wilson on base before – to anybody’s surprise – Kodai Koga entered in relief and quelled the threat. The Raccoons finished the game with Evan Alvey, who got around a leadoff hit by LeVan in the eighth, then conceded an unearned run in the ninth on a 2-base throwing error by Novelo that put Mike Brann on base, and he was scored with Sandoval’s groundout and a sac fly by Moreno. That was, however, as close as the Condors got anymore. 5-2 Raccoons. Wilson 2-4; Matas 1-2, 2 BB; Musgrave 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-2); Alvey 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (31-22) vs. Canadiens (22-29) – June 3-5, 2067

Both teams enjoyed a day off on Thursday, as much as you could enjoy a day off with the prospect of the vilest stenches in the league arriving in town before long. We should just routinely board up the place when they are scheduled to play here, and pretend we’re gone for the weekend. Anyway, they were fifth in the division and 13 games out, while scoring the seventh-most runs and allowing the third-most runs in the CL. They had a -29 run differential (Coons: +23). Their defense was rated worst amongst the CL teams, and their pen was pushing an ERA of five, but there was a chance that ours would still get there. Pitchers Jose Villegas and Robbie Lingard were on the 60-day DL. The Raccoons had the edge in the season series, 3-2.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (5-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. Dallas Samson (1-2, 6.43 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (5-3, 4.08 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (5-4, 3.33 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-4, 3.76 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (4-4, 2.69 ERA)

Samson had mostly pitched in relief this season. All three of these were right-handers, but there was the option to skip southpaw Martyn Polaco (2-1, 4.70 ERA) into the Sunday game.

Two Elks came in beaming, as Roberto Barraza had been named Rookie of the Month for May, and Matt Kilday had landed his 2,000th career hit on Wednesday.

Game 1
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P Samson
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Walla

Portland scored first and quickly, as Wilson singled and Corral mashed another homer right in the first inning, becoming the second Critter with ten homers this year (Monck had 13). Corral hit another long fly ball in his second time at the plate, but that one ended up being just a long F8. Meanwhile, Walla looked off kilter, issued a walk in both of the first two innings, and two hits in the first three, and had been sort of lucky to get two double plays to clean up behind himself, but there was no defending Rick Atkins’ solo homer in the fourth inning, and Chad Whetstine hit a double off the wall right after that, but was left stranded by the following Elks.

Offense was hard to come by, with Mike Roberts drawing a rousing leadoff walk and being stranded at second base in the fourth inning, while Carlos Castro hit a 1-out single through the right side for the Elks, and was double off by Kilday for the second time in the game come the fifth. Ramon Lopez’ solo homer in the bottom 5th appeared to create a bit of a breather, but Walla walking Roberto Lozada and getting taken deep AGAIN by Atkins tied the game in the sixth, and he was removed from the game after the inning. He had to settle for a no-decision when the Raccoons did get Novelo and Wilson on base in the bottom 6th, but Corral’s next deep fly was also caught by Atkins going back.

Bob West held the game tied in the seventh, but Josh C had another useless outing and put Atkins and Steve Varner on base in the eighth inning. When Nick Vaughn batted left-handedly for Dan Moore with two outs, the Raccoons went to McMahan, who plunked the pinch-hitter with his first ball thrown, loading the bases for the right-handed Barraza, who grounded out sharply to Novelo. With no offense forthcoming, Dover barely kept the game tied in the ninth inning around a leadoff single by backup catcher Mike Orphanos and a 2-out walk issued to Lozada. Atkins, Destroyer of Worlds, and batting .360 with ten homers at this point – all in this game!! – then grounded out to Starr to strand the runners. Left-hander Paul Wolk, a serious contender for the title of Ugliest Boy Ever Born, then remained on the hill against the top of the order after already pitching for three outs in the bottom 8th. Corral drew a 1-out walk after Wilson grounded out, and Lopez grounded to Castro, who was greedy for two bases and flung a ball barehandedly and in the very vaguest direction of second base, where Kilday couldn’t contain it. The error put runners on first and second with one out, and Monck grounded out to first, advancing them for the cost of the second out. The Elks did not walk Dowsey intentional to get to Starr with the leaner stats – they paid for it by suffering defeat as Dowsey coldly knocked a walkoff single through the left side. 4-3 Furballs! Wilson 2-4, BB;

A late win is still a win against the vile Elks!

Game 2
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P Nielsen
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Tallent – P Rios

Wilson singled, Corral homered, and it was 2-0 again in the first inning on Saturday, which marked Jose Corral’s fourth homer on the week, and he hadn’t even played on Wednesday or Thursday…! Unfortunately, this was far from the last home run on Saturday, and it was the damn Elks’ turn next. Rios had gotten through the first two innings rather well, but with two outs in the third inning Carlos Castro homered, Kilday singled and Lozada homered, and suddenly they had the 3-2 lead. Corral snorted, waited for Wilson hit another single in the bottom of the same inning, and then peppered another 2-run homer to right, number FIVE on the week!! The rest of the team amounted to a Monck single on two runs through the lineup, but at least we were still narrowly ahead, 4-3. However, when Wilson didn’t single with two outs in the bottom 5th, Corral also didn’t homer, and perhaps this spelled doom for the game? Both Atkins and Moore hit long fly balls for outs in the sixth inning, as Varner drew a walk in between. Monck reached on an error by Barraza with one out in the bottom 6th, and then Dowsey hit a jack off Juan Rosado to right-center, 6-3, and Pablo Novelo added a 2-out solo piece, 7-3!

Rios was knocked out in the seventh on singles by three left-handed batters, John Myers, Castro, and Kilday, the latter driving in a run. Yamauchi got the ball and a grounder to Tallent for a 4-6-3 double play. Josh Meighan then walked the bases full with Wilson, Corral, and Monck in the home half of the seventh. Dowsey stepped in with two outs, flicked the tail, flicked the bat, another doom drive to the deepest part of the den – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!!

Yamauchi and Holzmeister combined to give up a run before the Raccoons faced right-hander Brian Brillhart (who?) in the bottom 8th. Tallent singled and was forced out by Roberts. Wilson’s groundout moved Roberts to second base, and Jose Corral’s 398-clonker moved Roberts all around to score and then high-pawing with Corral, who hit his third homer in the game, and the sixth for the team…!! 13-5 Furballs! Wilson 2-4, BB; Corral 3-4, BB, 3 HR, 6 RBI; Dowsey 2-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI;

Huzzah! And Bombs Away!! – Three 2-run homers in a single game for Jose Corral! Absolute scenes, and even five outs assigned to Holzmeister couldn’t blow THAT lead anymore!

The last time a Raccoon had gone yard three times in a game? Gabriel Rios had barely escaped ******** his diapers back then!

Game 3
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF Chenette – SS Barraza – P Rath
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Dowsey – SS Novelo – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – 2B Roberts – LF Early – P Gaytan

Gaytan hit Whetstine and Varner back-to-back in the second inning on Sunday, perhaps in a bid to pick a fight with either the other team or his GM, but the Elks couldn’t get the base hit required to turn the free runners into actual runs… so far. Castro drew a 1-out walk in the third inning, stole second, and scored on Lozada’s 2-out single in the third inning, and Castro hit a sac fly to get Tyler Chenette home with his leadoff single in the fifth inning to scratch out a 2-0 lead for the Elks, while the Raccoons scattered five singles rather inefficiently through four innings. Aguilar hit into a double play to end the fourth for Portland, and Early hit into a double play to erase Roberts’ leadoff single in the fifth. Gaytan then swatted a double, but was left on base by Wilson…

I took the hint that we weren’t getting a sweep of the Elks done when Ray Rath hit a 2-run homer off Gaytan in the seventh, and Castro and Kilday reached base to chase him. Carrington got out of the inning against Lozada and Atkins, who both made outs on the first pitch, while the Raccoons managed to reach ten hits without a run scored in the bottom 7th when Aguilar singled to center, was forced out by Roberts, and then Early slapped another single. Starr and Wilson both grounded out very poorly to keep those runners stranded and wasted away as well.

Rath made it to the eighth inning with his 10-hitter bid before walking Dowsey and seeing the runner score in unearned fashion on a clumsy dropped Monck fly charged for an error to Atkins. Evan Alvey kept the score somewhat manageable in the last two innings, so Jon McGinley entered with a 3-run lead in the bottom 9th. Roberts struck out, but Marquise Early banged a homer to left, 4-2. Ramon Lopez pinch-hit for Alvey and singled, but Tallent batting for Wilson was a bad idea, and he hit into a game-ending double play. 4-2 Canadiens. Novelo 2-4; Monck 2-4; Early 2-4, HR, RBI; Lopez (PH) 1-1; Alvey 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

June 1 – Vancouver infielder Matt Kilday (.320, 0 HR, 17 RBI) gets his 2,000th base hit in a 3-for-5 game agains the Thunder, who win the game though, 7-5. Thunder SP Jeff Kozloski (4-3, 5.23 ERA) gives up all three of Kilday’s singles in the game.
June 1 – CHA OF Scott Brown (.236, 0 HR, 7 RBI) could be out for the season with a nasty concussion.
June 3 – The Knights beat the Condors, 7-5 in 14 innings. Despite some players coming to the plate seven times, nobody manages to get more than two base hits in the game, although ATL LF/RF/1B Steve Giles (.169, 4 HR, 16 RBI) draws four walks.

FL Player of the Week: PIT INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.299, 3 HR, 20 RBI), clipping .500 (13-26) with 1 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR RF Jose Corral (.232, 13 HR, 32 RBI), blitzing .350 (7-20) with 6 HR, 11 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.319, 16 HR, 52 RBI), swatting .333 with 8 HR, 20 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.389, 7 HR, 47 RBI), raking .367 with 5 HR, 25 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SFW SP Alex Dominguez (6-1, 2.09 ERA), throwing for a 5-0 record, 1.71 ERA, 27 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: MIL SP Nick Waldron (8-0, 3.33 ERA), going a strong 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA, 25 K
FL Rookie of the Month: SFW 3B/LF/CF/1B Beau Metz (.263, 3 HR, 20 RBI), batting .302 with 2 HR, 11 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN INF Roberto Barraza (.269, 1 HR, 15 RBI), clipping .296 with 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Jose Corral became the first Raccoon in 22 years to hit three homers in a single game. The last to do so had been Bryce Toohey in a 10-7 loss to the Crusaders in 2045. The last winner with a 3-homer game in the brown shirt was Troy Greenway against the Titans in 2038.

Corral also calmly surpassed his 2066 homer total in that game, and was now just four dingers – or a busy weekend – away from tying his career-high of 17 in a season!

Rich Monck and Jose Corral were also tied for the CL lead in homers at that stage with 13 bombs. While that wouldn’t be close to combat Tyler Wharton in Dallas, nobody else in the CL had more than ten on Saturday night!

The Raccoons were tops in homers in the CL overall at this stage, but also slipped to six games out in a division they were never expected to be competitive in. Oh, the damn pitching! Maybe a well measured trade or two could rectify a few things, and so could throwing Holzmeister into the nearest volcano, but we really needed to get rid of a left-handed pitcher from that pen, which was still super-large with Chance Fox hanging around doing garbage gigs.

No rest for the wicked for another ten games as the Raccoons would play the Loggers, Gold Sox, and Rebels all the way up to the draft. And it wouldn’t get any easier after that, either…

Fun Fact: Matt Kilday won only one stolen base title in his battles against Lonzo, but took the batting title twice.

2061 was about his best season, when he batted .365 with 63 stolen bases (both topping the CL) and still found time to whack a league-leading 42 doubles in a campaign that saw him lead the CL in batter WAR, but without making Player of the Year honors. He also led the league in triples three times, and all of those achievements came in his Indians career from 2057 through 2063. In the four seasons since with the Knights and damn Elks, he’s been a bit more subdued, so far struggling to hit much over .300 and he hadn’t stolen even 30 bases in the last two years, and wasn’t on pace this season either.

For his career, the 30-year-old had a .306/.346/.395 slash with 2,004 hits, 17 homers, 628 RBI, and 457 stolen bases.