[Westheim]

Raccoons (51-42) vs. Loggers (50-43) – July 17-19, 2068

Worst rotation vs. worst bullpen. Thing was that the Loggers still had the #1 offense, coming down to earth relatively speaking with “only” 5.4 runs scored per game this year. They had a +34 run differential because of all their pitching and defensive woes, but it was enough to handle the Raccoons for a 6-3 lead in the season series. Fidel Carrera, who was out for the year, was the only Loggers injury that concerned anybody.

Projected matchups:
Girolamo Pizzichini (2-5, 4.12 ERA) vs. Brett Bebout (8-2, 2.95 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (5-6, 4.86 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (8-8, 5.87 ERA)
Nick Walla (7-7, 2.27 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (5-9, 6.66 ERA)

Three right-handers from the Loggers, and probably a lot of bruises in the next three days.

Game 1
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Reber – LF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – CF Goss – C Guitreau – 3B Murcia – SS Y. Valdez – P Bebout
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Pizzichini

Dave Wright walked, Kyle Reber and Carlos Dominguez hit singles, and Cesar Ramirez’ groundout already made it 2-0, with RBI’s for both him and Dominguez, before Pizza at least vaguely appeared to get all his limbs in sync. The Raccoons answered in the bottom 1st by loading the bases, in unearned fashion, with nobody out, before Corral struck out. Dowsey flew out to Dominguez in left and Duhe made for home plate, crashing into Tommy Guitreau, who was sent flying along with the baseball and was helped off the field by Loggers staff after lying on the ground for seven minutes. The runner was safe, 2-1, and after Ian Lulich replaced Guitreau, Ramon Archuleta tied the game with a single to center. Bebout rung up Flowe to end the inning. Mendoza in the second and Starr in the third inning would reach base and then immediately be doubled off, and then the Raccoons went down in order in the fourth. Duhe reached on a Yoslan Valdez error in the fifth, but with two outs and without Jaden Wilson growing a clutch in time.

The good news was that Pizza was also keeping the Loggers off base after that shoddy first inning. They had only one more hit through five, and then Ramirez hit a single in the sixth, but with two outs and while being left on base when Tim Goss grounded out. Bottom 6th, the Raccoons had the bases loaded with a leadoff single by Starr, Dowsey walking, and an Archuleta single, and one out. Flowe popped out and Mendoza struck out, and nobody scored.

Pizza was hit for without major gains in the bottom 7th, and the pen took over in the 2-2 game. Kehoe got two outs in the eighth before Kyle Reber singled. McMahan replaced him against *that* part of the lineup, but Dominguez hit another single before Ramirez lined out softly to Archuleta to strand runners on the corners. McMahan got two more outs in the ninth and then Rafael Murcia was up and the Raccoons just needed one quick out from a right-handed pitcher and went to Yamauchi. Murcia promptly cranked a homer to left, and Nick Robinson nailed the door shut in the bottom of the ninth. 3-2 Loggers. Starr 2-3, BB; Archuleta 2-4, RBI; Pizzichini 7.0 P, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K;

That was the end of Manabu Yamauchi (0-3, 5.94 ERA) on the roster. His ERA in the last month-plus was nearly eight, and he was sent to AAA outright after the game.

We wanted to bring Holzmeister back, but he would not be rested after pitching on Monday and Tuesday, so we consoled ourselves with 26-year-old Dominican right-hander Juan Vega, who had lived a rather nondescript life for the last ten years in the farm system after being signed as a scouting discovery in 2058. He had four pitches, all hittable, and was just here to waste everybody’s time.

Game 2
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Reber – LF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – 3B Murcia – SS Y. Valdez – CF Merrill – C Lulich – P Crist
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Mendoza – P Gaytan

The Coons went down in order in the first against Crist and his rather satanic ERA, but Dowsey drew a leadoff walk in the second inning. Corral singled to right, and Flowe singled to center with one out to bring in the game’s maiden run. Mendoza reached base on balls, filling them up for Gaytan, who rolled the worst grounder through the hole on the left side for an RBI single. Crist walked in a run against Jared Duhe, Wilson hit a sac fly, and Starr grounded out sharply to Reber to settle a 4-run second. Gaytan then took the opportunity and stuck a knife into his own back with a 2-out walk to the opposing pitcher that just got battered, then saw Mendoza bungle Wright’s grounder for an error, and gave up an unearned RBI double to Reber. Dominguez sent Wilson back with a drive to center, but Wilson made the catch to end the inning.

Crist walked Dowsey and Archuleta singled in the bottom 3rd. Together with strikeouts on Corral and Flowe that briefly gave the Loggers starter four of all of hits, runs, walks, and strikeouts in the game. He was pinch-hit for in the top 4th when Gaytan melted and tried to blow the lead. Murcia and Valdez got on base before Jonathan Merrill hit into a double play. Lulich then hit an RBI single, Mario Alaniz walked, and Gaytan was yelled at on the hill before striking out Wright to leave the bases stuffed in the 4-2 game. He then answered with a leadoff double to center immediately afterwards, and Joel Starr brought him in with two outs by hitting his 21st dinger off Jimmy Ding(er)man. Cesar Ramirez took Gaytan deep for #16 in the fifth, 6-3, and another Merrill single and a walk drawn by PH Chris Thayer with two outs ended Gaytan’s awful start in the sixth inning. Wright struck out against Josh C this time around.

Both Carrington and Rios got two outs before a Corral solo shot extended the Coons lead to four in the bottom 7th. Rios pitched the eighth as well, bleeding three singles, but an intermediate double play grounder by Valdez killed off the first runner, and the Loggers didn’t score once PH Tim Goss flew out to Wilson. Pinch-hitters Marquise Early and Eddy Ramirez drew walks against Vincent Hernandez in the bottom 8th, and Starr doubled both of them home with two outs to pile on. Vega then got the 6-run lead for the ninth for his ABL debut. He struck out Wright, who struck out a lot in this series, but allowed a run on a Reber double and Dominguez’ RBI single. He did retire Ramirez and Murcia to end the game, though. 9-4 Raccoons. Starr 2-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Corral 2-4, HR, RBI;

Game 3
MIL: RF D. Wright – 2B Reber – LF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – CF Goss – 3B Murcia – SS Y. Valdez – C Lulich – P Carreno
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – RF Dowsey – LF Early – 2B Archuleta – C Flowe – 3B Gates – P Walla

Nick Walla struck out three the first time through the Loggers’ lineup, which did not include any of the left-handed 3-4-5 batters, who all reached base in the first inning. Dominguez singled, Ramirez homered to dead center, and Goss walked and was stranded.

The Coons got a double from Early in the second, Duhe walked in the third, and Dowsey and Archuleta got to the corners in the fourth – but none of them got around to score as offense always stopped as soon as somebody reached scoring position. Walla allowed another run on Murcia and Lulich hits in the fifth to fall 3-0 behind, then opened the bottom 5th with a single, only to be doubled off by Duhe. Cesar Ramirez raked another home run off him in the sixth to make it 4-0, and Joel Starr finally answered with a solo jack off Carreno before lightning flashed and thunder rumbled and the game went into an hourlong rain delay that knocked out both starters, ending Walla’s worst outing in months.

The Loggers then raked the bullpen for four runs in the seventh inning. George Kehoe faced four batters and retired but one, and when McMahan replaced him with the bags full, he gave up a 2-run double to Dominguez, a sac fly to Ramirez, and plated the fourth run with a wild pitch. Bottom 7th, Gates singled off Tony Espinosa, and Mendoza batted for McMahan and was drilled. Duhe hit an RBI double, Wilson walked the bags full, and Starr hit an RBI single. Eddy Ramirez batted for Dowsey and hit a sac fly, 8-4. Jose Lugo replaced Espinosa, walked Early, and now the tying run was in the box. However, Archuleta whiffed and Flowe popped out to short, ending the inning. Vega then pitched another garbage inning and was taken deep by Murcia, and Cesar Ramirez rammed his third homer of the game, another solo shot, off Jesse Dover in the ninth inning. 10-4 Loggers. Duhe 2-5, 2B, RBI; Starr 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Archuleta 2-4;

First L for Walla in nine starts. He had won five of the eight in between, including four in a row. The ERA also went up 16 points, the first time his ERA went up in a game since MAY.

Juan Vega (0-0, 9.00 ERA) was off the roster again. Jason Holzmeister joined the team for the Falcons series.

Raccoons (52-44) vs. Falcons (40-56) – July 20-22, 2068

The last-place Falcons were tenth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed. The run diifferenial was only -37, so things could be worse. The Coons were up 2-1 on them in ’68. The only notable injuries for them right now were Jonathon Barber and Orazio Cecere.

Projected matchups:
Alex Dominguez (12-2, 3.18 ERA) vs. Jason Morea (6-3, 2.61 ERA)
Vinny Morales (7-2, 2.39 ERA) vs. Kao-Kan Ngui (3-8, 4.93 ERA)
Girolamo Pizzichini (2-5, 4.02 ERA) vs. Ayahito Ochi (4-8, 2.81 ERA)

Ochi promised a Southpaw Sunday, although the Falcons had been off on Thursday and could make changes to the rotation.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Schmidt – 3B Fountain – C O. Matos – 1B Savalli – SS Tr. Taylor – LF T. Lopez – CF Cardwell – RF M. Padilla – P Morea
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – 3B Mendoza – C D’Alessandro – P Dominguez

The Raccoons loaded the bases in the first inning, but Corral hit into a double play and nothing came of it. Instead, singles by Trent Taylor and Mario Padilla scratched out a run for the Falcons in the top 2nd. The game then trundled along until the Coons got even in the bottom 4th in the only way they had available right now – a Joel Starr homer, setting a new season-high for homers with 23, at the tender age of 35 years and 309 days. The Coons battery then cobbled a 2-1 lead together in the fifth when D’Alessandro buried a ball in the right-center gap for a 1-out triple and scored on Dominguez’ sac fly to Padilla.

Next time up, D’Alessandro would end an inning with a double play grounder to John Schmidt, when he came up with Corral and Gary Gates on base. Gates was an injury replacement for Diego Mendoza, who had hurt himself stretching for a throw by Corral in the top of the inning. Dominguez’ day also ended after 96 pitches and seven innings, and Josh C removed the 1-2-3 batters in order in the eighth, so we prepared to remove the cobwebs from Pedro Valentin. Both the Coons in the bottom 8th and the Falcons in the top 9th went down in order to finish off a game that took just a whisker over two hours. 2-1 Critters. Starr 1-2, BB, HR, RBI; Dominguez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (13-2) and 0-1, RBI;

No injury news or diagnosis was available for Diego Mendoza by Saturday, so Gary Gates would fill in and the bench was a body short on Saturday.

Game 2
CHA: 2B Schmidt – CF Cardwell – C O. Matos – 1B Savalli – SS Tr. Taylor – LF T. Lopez – 3B Mari – RF C. Garner – P Ngui
POR: SS Duhe – CF Wilson – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Corral – 3B Gates – C Flowe – 2B Novelo – P Morales

Collin Garner took Morales deep from the #8 spot in the lineup to put the Falcons up 1-0, but the Raccoons got even with straight leadoff singles by their 4-5-6 batters in the bottom o the second inning, and the 7-8-9 batters made three miserable outs to leave two runners on base. Instead, the Falcons charred Morales for two runs on FOUR straight singles in the fourth inning, taking a 3-1 lead. The tying runs were right back on base in the bottom 4th with a Dowsey double and Corral single and nobody out. The Coons again managed to not score, as Gates hit into a 7-2 double play and Flowe struck out.

Morales, largely forsaken with this type of hitting, went to the stretch, but allowed a solo homer to Justin Savalli to fall 4-1 behind. The Coons did nothing in the seventh, and when Duhe hit a single in the eighth inning, Wilson immediately hit into a double play. This game was just not to be. Holzmeister and Rios picked up the last six outs, while Alvaro Garza grounded out Starr to begin the bottom 9th, but Dowsey singled and with two outs Archuleta drew a walk, bringing up Flowe as the tying run. His RBI single kept the line moving, and Novelo fell to two strikes before slapping another RBI single to left…! Eddy Ramirez came out to bat in the pitcher’s spot – and popped out. 4-3 Falcons. Duhe 1-1, 3 BB; Dowsey 3-4, 2B; Corral 2-4;

(snort)

Game 3
CHA: 2B Schmidt – 3B Fountain – C O. Matos – 1B Savalli – SS Tr. Taylor – LF T. Lopez – CF Cardwell – RF M. Padilla – P Ochi
POR: SS Duhe – CF Ramirez – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Corral – 2B Archuleta – 3B Gates – C D’Alessandro – P Pizzichini

The first sign of trouble of pineapple getting dropped on the Pizza was a walk to Ochi in the third inning, followed by an infield single for John Schmidt, all with one out. Elijah Fountain hit into a double play, though, and the inning ended. Starr also hit into an inning-ending double play with Duhe and Ramirez on base in the that inning, and so the Falcons scored first in the fourth inning when Savalli and Trent Taylor went to the corners and after Tony Lopez struck out, Chad Chardwell clipped a 2-out RBI single. Mario Padilla then grounded out to Gates. Fountain walked and stole second with two outs in the fifth, and then was singled in by Oscar Matos for a second Falcons run.

The Raccoons were shut out through five on one hit and three walks handed out by the Japanese southpaw Ochi, who gave out another leadoff walk to Duhe in the bottom 6th. Eddy Ramirez then bashed a ball into the deep end of the left-center gap and legged that one out for an RBI triple, at once putting the tying run just 90 feet away with nobody out. The Coons ******* failed to score him as Starr grounded out to third, Early grounded out to first, and Corral flew out to Padilla.

McMahan and Carrington then failed the bags full in the seventh, splitting a pair of walks to Padilla and Schmidt, before Carrington nailed Fountain with an 0-2 pitch or good measure, and then struck out Matos and Savalli to prevent the Falcons from scoring…! He added another K on Trent Taylor in the eighth, after which Rios came in, struck out Lopez, allowed a single to Cardwell, and then left with a tweaked ankle after an awkward landing. Cardwell stole second, but Kehoe – who entered in a double switch with Novelo – struck out Bill Mari to end the inning. Novelo led off the bottom 8th with an infield single, then raced to third when Duhe singled off Cory Leonard, who struck out Ramirez, who then was replaced with ex-Coon Evan Alvey, who threw a wild pitch to tie the game and then walked Starr. Early popped out, Corral walked, and that presented Archuleta with three on and two outs. He grounded out rather poorly.

Kehoe 1-2-3’ed the Falcons in the ninth to keep the game tied, then was hit for with Wilson to begin the bottom 9th against Alvey. He grounded out, and then D’Alessandro reached on an error by the Gold Glover Trent Taylor. Novelo walked. There weren’t any legs on the bench – Flowe and Dowsey were available, but neither was a runner worth bringing up – so the winning run on second remained the lead-footed catcher. Duhe ran a full count before lining out to Taylor, and Ramirez’ fly to center ended up with Cardwell, sending the game to extras. Valentin held the game tied in the tenth, walking Savalli before getting a double play grounder to leave with the minimum encountered. Starr was still hitless and led off the bottom 10th, but Alvey rung him up and retired the Coons in order. The Falcons then broke up Holzmeister in the top 11th. Mark Reed singled, Bill Mari drew a 1-out walk, Mario Asencio singled to fill the bases, and John Schmidt’s RBI single and Fountain’s run-scoring grounder plated two runs before Matos struck out. Garza got the ball and retired Archuleta, Wilson, and Flowe in order in the bottom 11th. 4-2 Falcons. Ramirez 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Novelo 1-1, BB;

And that’s why I hate walks. The Raccoons had seven walks, but only four hits and didn’t get anybody across the plate…

Swing the ******* bat!!

In other news

July 16 – The Falcons beat the Bayhawks, 6-1, on the only game played in the league on Monday. The only other scheduled game between the Indians and Titans is rained out.
July 17 – A pinched nerve in his neck puts RIC SP Adam McDonald (5-4, 5.27 ERA) on the DL for the rest of the month.
July 17 – The Thunder acquire right-hander Bronson Vanderven (3-2, 5.82 ERA, 1 SV) and a prospect from the Condors for INF Daniel Richardson (.246, 2 HR, 15 RBI).
July 18 – TIJ SP Colt Long (2-3, 3.92 ERA) 3-hits the Thunder in a 1-0 shutout.
July 18 – CIN SP Jose Aguilar (10-3, 2.41 ERA) and two relievers pitch a combined 1-hitter for a 3-1 win against the Buffaloes. The only Buffos hit is Ralph Lange’s (.254, 7 HR, 46 RBI) RBI double in the top of the first inning.
July 18 – The Wolves beat the Pacifics, 11-3, with all 11 of their runs being crammed into the seventh inning.
July 18 – Season over: SAL 2B/SS Carlos Cervantez (.271, 8 HR, 24 RBI) has suffered a torn ACL and will probably miss the start of the 2069 season as well.
July 19 – The Crusaders acquire INF/RF/CF Jeff Maudlin (.377, 1 HR, 26 RBI) from the Stars for their closer Jerry Washington (5-2, 2.01 ERA, 30 SV) and a prospect.
July 20 – Washington C Chris Willhite (.321, 7 HR, 27 RBI) might miss the rest of the season with a badly strained hammy.
July 22 – Denver OF Chris Tuck (.325, 5 HR, 32 RBI) gets a third-inning double in a 6-5 win against the Rebels, driving in three runs and getting his hitting streak to 20 games.
July 22 – The Cyclones send OF Rafael Valencia (.298, 2 HR, 15 RBI) to the Indians for infielder John Baxley (.256, 3 HR, 33 RBI) and a prospect.
July 22 – The Aces beat the Crusaders, 11-8 in 19 innings, when LVA INF/RF Vic Morales (.306, 15 HR, 54 RBI) ends a six-hour game with a 3-run walkoff homer.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.325, 32 HR, 89 RBI), socking .462 (12-26) with 4 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA INF/RF Victor Morales (.306, 15 HR, 54 RBI), batting .407 (11-27) with 2 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons are trying to find relief help as the deadline is rapidly approaching. The rotation still leads the league in ERA, despite Pizza and Gaytan doing less than great, but the pen continues to be a real bag full of bees. Nothing has really come together yet because we’re not exactly drowning in spare pieces, and Jimmy Wharton was not available for ANYBODY.

Improvements would have to come while shedding salary anyway, since our excesses on signing Latin boys this month cost us a total of $2.15M including tax, and we were now overbudget and living off the cash reserves.

That doesn’t stop the other 23 teams from constantly asking for him, even though he’s so far walking more than he strikes out in AAA.

Gabriel Rios should be fine in a day or two (assuming we wish to continue watching his tossing), and there are still no news on Diego Mendoza.

There won’t be any rest for the wicked, as we have to head right out to Atlanta to start a series on Monday. The Raccoons will only return home in August after additional stops in Vegas and Oklahoma. After that we will spend three weeks without leaving Oregon, playing five home series with only one weekend trip to the Wolves.

Fun Fact: This is the second consecutive year a Logger hits three homers in a game against the Raccoons.

Last May Dave Wright did the honors in Milwaukee, and now it was Cesar Ramirez in Portland. It happened once before that, in 2020 with Chris LeMoine.

Raccoons to hit three homers against the Loggers? Ben Simon in 1977 (the ABL’s first-ever three-homer game);

Raccoons to hit FOUR homers against the Loggers? Craig Bowen in 2007 of course. Tee-hee!