Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (62-68) vs. Thunder (68-61) – August 26-28, 2058

Next up against the stomping Raccoons and their 6-game winning streak were the Thunder, second in the South and just half a game out of the CLCS right now. Since a meeting of these two teams in October was unlikely (20 GB for the Critters, cough, cough), maybe the Raccoons could ruin the Thunder’s playoff aspirations right here and now. The opposition had lost four games in a row, too, and was fifth in runs scored and runs allowed in the CL, with a mere +9 run differential. Oklahoma City was nevertheless up 4-2 in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Ramon Carreno (6-12, 4.34 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (15-7, 2.92 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (6-1, 2.68 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (9-8, 3.81 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-6, 4.83 ERA) vs. Tan Brink (11-11, 4.94 ERA)

We were in one of those odd stretches where we didn’t meet a left-handed pitcher at all. Nor starters Jorge Quinones and Thomas Turpeau, tucked away on the DL, or outfielder Mike Harmon, dealing with an oblique thing, but not actually on the DL, so the Thunder were a guy short.

Game 1
OCT: SS Lira – 3B Soberanes – CF D. Guzman – RF J. Mendoza – 1B C. Santiago – C Burnham – LF Weant – 2B F. Martinez – P Aa. Harris
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C M. Chavez – RF Puckeridge – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Brobeck – P Carreno

Carreno wasted no time throwing the winning streak under the nearest bus, giving up four straight 2-out hits in the first inning; three were singles, but there was also the odd 3-run homer by Cesar Santiago in there… Jose Mendoza doubled home Danny Guzman on two more hits in the third inning, erasing the Raccoons’ “rally” in the bottom 2nd that consisted of loading the bases with Chavez (double), Pucks (infield single), and Starr (walk), and then having Brobeck single to center to score Chavez, but Pucks was thrown out at the plate, and Carreno was easy third-out fodder for Harris. Carreno didn’t get any better, but the defense got hold of more balls in the middle innings. Bottom 5th then, and the Coons got Brobeck and Labonte to the corners with not one, but two Thunder errors committed by Felix Martinez and Santiago, respectively. Lonzo was batting in the doubly-unearned situation as the tying run with one out, but grounded to Ed Soberanes for a fielder’s choice at second base. Brobeck scored, but Caswell popped out over home plate to end the inning as he descended ever deeper into a slump. The following inning the tying run reached base with Chavez and Brass singles, but Starr whiffed for the second out. Brobeck came up and slugged a ball to deep right, where Jose Mendoza took an awkward route and then didn’t catch up with the ball as it tailed into the gap for a 2-out, 2-run double, tying the score at four. Steve Royer batted for Carreno, but popped out, giving the struggling sophomore a no-decision.

A lead was not in the cards, at least not for the Raccoons. While Ricky Herrera had a scoreless seventh inning, Luke Burnham took Reynaldo Bravo deep for a solo shot in the eighth, which restored the Thunder to a 5-4 lead. That lead proved to be transient, however; Oklahoma’s Cody Lovett gave up a leadoff double to Pucks in the bottom 8th, and Brass then singled in the tying run against Eric Barnes. Starr walked, and Brobeck just kept on raking, doubling in the go-ahead run with a line-hugger to right. The Coons batted all the way ‘round in the inning. Jesus Martinez walked the bags full, Lonzo hit an RBI single, Caswell got a sac fly, and Chavez drew a bases-loaded walk for a total of four runs before Pucks flew out to Mendoza to end the inning. Matt Walters got rid of the Thunder in seven pitches in the ninth inning. 8-5 Raccoons. M. Chavez 2-4, BB, 2B; Puckeridge 2-4, 2B; Brassfield 2-4, RBI; Brobeck 3-4, 2 2B, 4 RBI;

Seven!

Game 2
OCT: RF J. Mendoza – 3B Soberanes – 1B F. Martinez – 2B C. Jimenez – LF Weant – SS Lira – C R. Zamora – CF D. Guzman – P J. Juarez
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C M. Chavez – RF Puckeridge – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Brobeck – P Argenziano

Argenziano also found his place on the struggle bus, offering a 1-out walk to Ed Soberanes in the first inning. The veteran stole second base, and three singles by Felix Martinez, Tim Weant, and Omar Lira gave the Thunder a brisk 2-0 lead again. Bottom 1st, Labonte drew a leadoff walk and stole second base, then reached third base on a Lonzo single, and Lonzo also stole second against former teammate Ruben Zamora. Noah Caswell dutifully doubled in the tying runs, then scored on a Pucks single to flip the score to 3-2 Coons before Brass hit into a double play.

But Argenziano finally found his quad-A form and pitched more like Arsenziano; many long counts, quite a few hard-hit balls, and how we made it through four with a 3-2 lead was quite miraculous, but we sure didn’t make it through five with it, thanks to leadoff walks to Soberanes and Martinez that the Thunder wouldn’t be shy about converting into the tying – Tim Weant doubled – and go-ahead – Omar Lira singled – runs. Argenziano was pinch-hit for in the bottom 5th, having thrown nearly 100 pitches in mostly futile manner, but the Raccoons went in order between Bribiesca, Labonte, and Lonzo, and he remained on the hook.

The hook only got sharper in the sixth when Siwik allowed 2-out singles to Mendoza, who stole second base, and Soberanes, who grabbed another clutch RBI. The Raccoons didn’t get another base hit until Caswell singled Juarez out of the game with two outs in the bottom 8th. Barnes allowed another single to Chavez, but John Taylor struck out Pucks to quell the threat. The 7-game winning streak looked in grave danger, but Hamann and Tanizaki didn’t allow any more runs to the Thunder in the eighth and ninth, and then Brass lobbed a leadoff single to left against Patrick Jones. The right-hander struck out Royer next, then ran a full count against Brobeck, but missed with his 95mph fastball… but he didn’t miss outside, he missed right down the middle, and Brobeck could whack that pitch 405 feet and tied the game at five…!!

The game went to extras from there, with Eloy Sencion getting bombarded with right-handed pinch-hitters. Burnham doubled and Josh McNeal walked, but Zamora then found a double play to hit into and the Thunder didn’t score in the inning, but the Coons also just grounded out against Garrett Giustino in the bottom 10th. Sencion was back for the 11th, struck out Guzman and Giustino, but then walked Mendoza and Soberanes and fell over Felix Martinez’ 2-out, 2-strike RBI single to center before Santiago whiffed, while Giustino remained immaculate and claimed the win with three scoreless innings. 6-5 Thunder. Lavorano 2-5; Caswell 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Tanizaki 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

(looks grumpy)

Game 3
OCT: SS Lira – 3B Soberanes – 1B F. Martinez – RF Whitlow – 2B C. Jimenez – C Burnham – LF Weant – CF D. Guzman – P Brink
POR: 1B Royer – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Puckeridge – RF J. Martinez – 3B Brobeck – C C. Chavez – 2B Bribiesca – P Fox

Rubber game fireworks were provided by the Raccoons with no fewer than three solo jacks in the first three innings, hit by Brobeck in the second and Cas and Pucks in the third inning, while Royer chipped in a pair of knocks and scored on a balk and Lonzo’s grounder the second time ‘round for a 4-0 lead. None of this was supposed to mean that Chance Fox pitched “well” or even “neatly”. Through three, two leadoff walks, a double, couple of assorted drives, and somehow no Thunder runs. SOMEHOW. That luck ran out in the fourth for sure, where the Thunder started with an Eric Whitlow double and spanked the rookie for four straight hits and two runs before the defense somehow got hold of balls again, Guzman grounded out to Royer with runners on the corners, Brink’s comebacker was taken to second by Fox for a fielder’s choice, and Lira grounded out to Lonzo, none of which allowed Luke Burnham to score a third run from third base.

The Raccoons then hung with Fox longer than advisable (but this was after an 11-inning game and before roster expansion, so pitching was not infinite…). He got around a walk to Whitlow in the fifth, then saw Burnham and Josh McNeal go to the corners with more hits in the sixth inning. Omar Lira with two outs was his last batter no matter what, and at least the shortstop grounded out to Bribiesca to complete six mostly woeful (7 H, 4 BB) innings for Fox, only superficially decent with the 4-2 lead still in one piece. Bravo wasn’t any better in the seventh; Martinez hit a 1-out single, Chris Jimenez walked with two outs, and Burnham’s sharp grounder that was knocked down by a diving Lonzo only became the third out because it was a senior-citizen catcher that was now ambling to first base.

Lonzo and Caswell went to the corners in the bottom 7th, but with two outs and preceding Pucks whiffing against left-hander Jeff Boyce. Less wistful Neal Hamann served up a homer to lefty batter Tim Weant in the eighth, narrowing the lead to a single skinny run, and was then rescued by Tanizaki. No answer was found against Boyce in the bottom 8th, and Walters entered the game with no cushion in the ninth. Soberanes grounded out, but Felix Martinez worked a walk before rendered out at second base by Whitlow’s grounder to Lonzo. The game ended without another official pitch; Whitlow as the tying run tried to gain a huge lead, and Walters as a left-hander played ignorant until snapping a sudden throw to Royer that saw Whitlow tagged out by the tiniest fraction of an inch between his hand and the base. 4-3 Coons! Royer 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Caswell 3-4, HR, RBI;

Raccoons (64-69) @ Crusaders (84-49) – August 30-September 1, 2058

Last chance to give those Crusaders a good stumble! Well, they were 14 1/2 games ahead of the Titans now, so all those regular season games left were just exercise for them, and hoping that nobody got hurt. We knew the deal… They had also recovered from that opening 4-game sweep we had handed them in their own ballpark, having won six of seven games against the Critters since. They ranked first run runs allowed and third in runs scored with an impressive +154 run differential (Coons: -12), and right now their only injury was infielder Juan Ojeda.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (11-8, 3.23 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (14-5, 3.40 ERA)
Zach Stewart (10-11, 3.03 ERA) vs. Seisaku Taki (10-6, 3.08 ERA)
Ramon Carreno (6-12, 4.41 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (18-5, 3.11 ERA)

Another series without lefty opposition!

Rosters would expand on Sunday, but at least from our side there was no reason to bypass Carreno right now. It wasn’t like we had any impressive hot-shot prospects in AAA just waiting for a turn.

Game 1
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – 1B Starr – 3B Anderson – P B. Herrera
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Rodriquez – SS Z. Suggs – RF Zeiher – 1B Sevilla – CF Epperson – C Seidman – 3B Ale. Silva – P Luera

Lonzo singled and stole a base, but was mostly alone with offensive heroics in the first inning and stranded at third base, while Bobby Herrera walked Omar Sanchez on four straight balls to begin the bottom 1st, and while Sanchez did not steal a base – Zach Suggs was thrown out at second in an attempted Crusaders double steal, Sean Zeiher’s RBI single nevertheless gave them a lead right out of the gates. Since Suggs had reached on a Caswell error, that run was unearned, as was the run Omar Sanchez doubled home in the second inning, since there Mike Seidman had reached on Anderson’s error, and what was Richard Anderson’s claim to third base again…? Caswell then had a hard impact with the ground on a headlong catch of Raul Sevilla’s drive to center in the third inning and left the game with Luis Silva. Steve Royer took the position.

It didn’t get any better for Portland, as Bobby Herrera was roughed up for five hits and three (earned) runs in the fourth inning, which pretty much put the game away for New York with a 5-0 lead. Herrera got another inning in, but then was hit for in the sixth, with Brobeck taking over the mound and putting up a zero in the bottom 6th. The Coons were putting up a lot of zeroes, and Joel Starr had a zero for home runs on his major league record despite hitting 15 bombs with the Alley Cats in the first half of the season, and while his drive to deep left with two outs in the seventh and Marcos Chavez on first *looked* good for a while, it still hit off the top of the fence and Starr had to settle for a double. Worse yet, Chavez had also started celebrating halfway to second base, and then couldn’t score when the ball didn’t ******* go out, stopping at third base. Both were stranded in scoring position when Anderson flew out easily to Gunner Epperson. Brobeck would pitch two scoreless innings, but Neal Hamann got plonked with Mike Seidman’s single and Alejandro Silva’s homer in the eighth, while the Raccoons remained feckless all the way to the end. 7-0 Crusaders. Lavorano 2-4; Brobeck 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

The Crusaders then rudely skipped Taki to go right for the throat with Ben Seiter. The Raccoons had no news on Noah Caswell so far and would be a set of paws short for the Saturday game.

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Royer – 1B Brassfield – LF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – RF Martinez – 3B Anderson – P Stewart
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Rodriquez – SS Z. Suggs – RF Zeiher – C Seidman – 1B Sevilla – CF O. Caballero – 3B Ale. Silva – P Seiter

The Raccoons pulled off the first-inning double steal after getting Labonte and Lonzo on with a walk and an error, respectively, but almost didn’t get them home with soggy outs from Royer (pop) and Brass (K), until Pucks narrowly hit a ball over the leaping Zach Suggs’ glove for a 2-out, 2-run single. Martinez and Anderson singles and a bunt by Stewart put another pair in scoring position with one out in the top 2nd, but Labonte’s poor grounder didn’t get anybody home as Seidman took control of the ball and Seiter hurried to cover home, but Martinez didn’t even try. Suggs then tried again valiantly, diving for a Lonzo grounder with two outs, but the ball went through and the Coons had another scratch 2-out, 2-run single and a 4-0 lead even before Lonzo had himself another stolen base against the usually alert Seiter. Seidman even threw the ball past Suggs’ reach and Lonzo reached third base on the play, but Royer grounded out and left him there.

The hometown lineup was remarkably calm against Stewart in the meantime; two scoreless innings brought his ERA back under three, and the Crusaders didn’t get much done after that, either. Through five innings, they had two hits and not even close to a run, although Stewart also only struck out two batters. Plenty of pop-ups, though. Royer also popped one, but all the way outta centerfield for a solo jack in the fifth inning, extending the lead to 5-0. Seiter was not seen again after that inning, with Kyle Turay instead giving up a sixth run in the sixth inning on Chavez and Martinez doubles.

Through 5.1 innings all was dandy with Zach Stewart. Then he walked the 1-2-3 batters in order. Sean Zeiher bashed a bases-clearing double into right-center, Stewart offered another walk to Seidman and a single to Raul Sevilla, and then left with the tying runs on the corners and me pulling the last bits of fur out of my skull. Tanizaki struck out ex-Coon Oscar Caballero and grounded Silva to short to escape the meltdown, but the lead had now been burned down to 6-4. Ricky Herrera got the seventh, an out from Dale Haracz, and then allowed singles to Sanchez (still third in the SB race in the CL with 40 to Lonzo’s 49) and Tony Rodriquez. Again the Crusaders tried the double steal, and again they had the trailing runner, the absolutely lead-footed Rodriquez, thrown out at second base. Suggs then grounded out to short, leaving Sanchez at third base.

And the ******* Raccoons STILL managed to blow the game in the eighth inning. Herrera allowed a leadoff single to Zeiher, a left-handed batter, and when Siwik replaced him, Seidman doubled to put the tying runs in scoring position. Sevilla popped out to Lonzo, while PH Aaron Kissler popped out to a nerdy-looking 12-year old kid in the seventh row up from the 382’ sign in rightfield, flipping the score to 7-6 New York before the Critters disappeared in seven pitches in their last shot at redemption. 7-6 Crusaders. Martinez 2-4, 2B, RBI;

I have a ringing in my fuzzy ears…

At least the roster expansion allowed for more quad-A talent with misguided choices for their occupation to be invited and new creative ways to lose ballgames. The Coons brought back SP Justin DeRose (2.81 ERA in AAA) and all the relievers from St. Pete that were already on the 40-man roster: Adam Harris, Alex Rios, and good ol’ Colby Bowen. The latter two had already helped out for a few days with the big league team this year, but the southpaw Harris had not. We had also hoped for the premiere of Elijah LaBat, but he had as many walks as strikeouts in AAA and that wasn’t gonna work out.

For a third catcher we added Matt Stanton and not Morgan Lathers, who was batting all of .200 in St. Pete. Tony Benitez and Todd Oley were the only other batters added at this point.

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – CF Oley – 3B Brobeck – C C. Chavez – P Carreno
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Rodriquez – 3B Z. Suggs – RF Zeiher – CF Epperson – C Seidman – 1B Makino – SS Lemke – P Taki

Carreno wasted no time getting casually decimated by the Crusaders, who got three runs in one swipe by Sean Zeiher in the first inning, and two more runs in the second on three hits, including the first career home run of 28-year-old infielder Bruce Lemke, who had just arrived from AAA. The next home run was Lonzo’s leadoff jack in the fourth inning that actually got the Critters on the board against their former hurler Taki. Speaking of Japanese players; the other recent arrival from AAA Lexington, corner guy Mamoru Makino, hit his *second* career home run off Carreno to begin the bottom 4th, who was disposed of after the inning, trailing 6-1.

After a neat inning from Adam Harris, the Coons got a run on singles by Benitez, Lonzo, and Pucks in the sixth inning, but of course that was not rally pace and Brass grounding out and Martinez whiffing to leave a pair in scoring position just wouldn’t stop the Crusaders from sweeping the series. Nor did continuing to send pitchers out there to get mauled. Ricky Herrera allowed a single to Seidman and drilled Lemke in the bottom 6th. When Danny Ramirez appeared as right-handed pinch-hitter for Taki with two outs, the move was made to Siwik, who turned out to still have exploding to do and gave up a howling 3-run homer to left. Siwik at least ended the inning against Sanchez, and Hamann and Bowen picked up the pieces in the seventh and eighth.

Top 9th, Brass opened with a single against Zachariah Alldred, who was being sent for a 3-inning save just out of spite, but loaded the bases with nobody out nicking PH Joel Starr and giving up another single to Oley. Brobeck popped out to second. Marcos Chavez batted for Cortez Chavez and barely hit a sac fly to left, and Bribiesca miserably popped out on the infield to end the game. 9-3 Crusaders. Lavorano 3-4, HR, RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, RBI; Benitez (PH) 1-1;

In other news

August 26 – In his 15th career start, 27-year-old DAL 2B/SS Ian Criddle (.500, 0 HR, 4 RBI) puts five singles and three RBI in the box score in a 10-4 win against the Capitals.
August 26 – The season of ATL OF/1B Jon Alade (.253, 7 HR, 39 RBI) ends with a hit to the head and a substantial concussion.
August 27 – A badly broken elbow ends the season of Warriors 3B/SS Julio Moriel (.356, 1 HR, 28 RBI) and calls into question whether the 30-year-old would be ready for next Opening Day.
August 29 – WAS 1B Alejandro Ramos (.239, 14 HR, 54 RBI) hits his 300th career home run at age 38 in a 4-3 win against the Cyclones. The 3-run blast comes against CIN SP Brian Fuqua (4-7, 4.46 ERA). Ramos, a career FL East veteran for the Blue Sox and Caps, was the 2052 FL Player of the Year, and has been a steady home run producer, but never actually wore the FL home run crown. His career slash line was .280/.413/.443 with 2,303 hits, 1,166 RBI, and his further precious medal-ware included three Gold Gloves.
August 31 – The Knights go 2-for-2 in losing players to concussions this week, with INF/RF Nick Fox (.297, 7 HR, 65 RBI) also out for the season with a concussion.
August 31 – BOS CL Alex Mancilla (3-1, 3.05 ERA, 18 SV) will miss the rest of the season to cure out some shoulder inflammation.
September 1 – The Thunder run circles around the Bayhawks in an 18-1 rout, which marks the ABL debut of LF/RF/2B/SS Brian Gillum, who goes 3-for-5 with a home run, a double, and 5 RBI. Third catcher Travis Anderson gets no RBI in his season debut, but goes 5-for-6 with two doubles and three singles for Oklahoma City.
September 1 – Blue Sox LF/CF Malik Crumble (.253, 13 HR, 62 RBI) socks a homer and two doubles and drives in five runs as the Sox beat the Rebels, 11-2.
September 1 – SFW SP Ed Nadeau (8-11, 4.08 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout against the Wolves in a 6-0 Warriors win.

FL Player of the Week: WAS RF/LF Willie Sanchez (.279, 15 HR, 72 RBI), hitting .433 (13-30) with 2 HR, 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB LF Grant Anker (.284, 24 HR, 71 RBI), bashing .409 (9-22) with 3 HR, 6 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.355, 28 HR, 87 RBI), raking .357 with 11 HR, 27 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: LVA 3B/1B/RF Alex Alfaro (.319, 19 HR, 79 RBI), bashing .337 with 11 HR, 26 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT SP Kodai Koga (12-10, 4.41 ERA), going 4-0 with a 1.07 ERA, 28 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: NYC CL Ben Lussier (5-6, 3.49 ERA, 26 SV), going 5-0 with 0.96 ERA, 4 SV in 16 outings in relief
FL “Rookie” of the Month: WAS 2B Joo-chan Lee (.324, 2 HR, 45 RBI), hitting .368 with 1 HR, 15 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN INF Manny Saunders (.356, 1 HR, 22 RBI), batting .443 with 15 RBI

Complaints and stuff

All hail the team RBI leader, renowned slugger Lorenzo “Lonzo” Lavorano with his awesome pile of 55 RBI, a staggering number only exceeded by his 77 OPS+. For those still counting, Lonzo was also the team *runs* leader with 66, which was enough multiples of 11 to get thoroughly dizzy.* Must be all those three homers he hit!

(despairs)

The Coons had three road series left this year; one in Atlanta and two in Elk City, the first of which was upon them to begin the next week. We’d then host the Crusaders and Titans at home in the next and simultaneously penultimate homestand of the year.

Fun Fact: The August Rookies of the Month were a combined 64 years and 20 days old as of September 1.

That’s what the Caps get for signing and importing a 34-year-old Korean second-sacker that even the Raccoons passed on despite obvious hitting qualifications.

+++

These monodigits are called Schnapszahlen (lit. liquor numbers) in German, and there’s a variety of drinking games around them. Which makes perfect sense, since the 2058 Raccoons can only be survived while intoxicated…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (64-72) @ Canadiens (61-74) – September 2-5, 2058

Seven to play and a skinny 6-5 Raccoons lead for the season series, and both teams could still easily finish last in the division, that was what was to play for with all seven games in Elk City, too. The damn Elks ranked ninth in both runs scored and runs allowed. Their run differential was -72 (Coons: -26). They lacked Bruce Mark jr. and Kyle Hawkins due to injury, and we were still not getting a report on Noah Caswell, which usually means nothing good.

Projected matchups:
Cameron Argenziano (6-1, 2.90 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (12-10, 3.44 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-6, 4.69 ERA) vs. Federico Purificao (0-1, 10.80 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (11-9, 3.29 ERA) vs. Luis Arroyo (8-11, 5.89 ERA)
Zach Stewart (10-11, 3.14 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (11-14, 4.93 ERA)

The run with no left-handed starters opposing the Coons, ever, continued, since the Elks’ only left-hander, John Morris (10-11, 4.56 ERA), had pitched on Sunday.

Game 1
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – LF Brassfield – C M. Chavez – CF Royer – 3B Brobeck – 1B Starr – P Argenziano
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Kuchta – RF Magnussen – CF D. Moreno – 3B Lundberg – 1B Rosenstiel – C A. Maldonado – 2B Saunders – P Kozloski

There were somehow four lefty batters atop the Elks’ batting order, but it worked out well enough for Rich Kuchta to reach on Chavez’ interference and then a 2-run homer to right by Damian Moreno in the first inning. But the Raccoons got back on the Elks immediately, and they did so with the first career home run of Joel Starr, 91 at-bats deep into his career, peppering a 2-out, 3-run homer to left after Chavez and Royer had reached base ahead of him in the inning. Starr cost an unearned run in the bottom 4th, though, allowing Adam Magnussen on base with an error to begin the inning. Damian Moreno walked, and while Tyler Lundberg and John Rosenstiel made poor outs, Alex Maldonado singled home a 2-out run before Argenziano got a K in on Manny Saunders to strand a pair. The lead survived though, because Marcos Chavez had gone deep to left-center in the top of the inning, and Lonzo tripled home Labonte in the fifth to extend the lead to two runs again, 5-3. The leadoff batters were on base again in the bottom 5th as Pedro de Leon singled and Danny Garcia walked, but the Elks then resumed with three poor outs and somehow Argenziano wiggled out of the jam.

Elks right-hander Aaron Hain then filled the bags with nobody out in the sixth as Chavez singled, Royer walked, and Brobeck singled. Starr struck out, but runs scored on Argenziano’s groundout and a wild pitch. Argenziano didn’t get any more outs, though. Lundberg took him deep leading off the bottom 6th, and Rosenstiel’s single and Maldonado drawing a walk ended his outing. Bravo replaced him and allowed a single to Saunders on the only pitch he threw before Eloy Sencion blew the lead with a bases-loaded walk to Garcia and a 2-run single by Magnussen… All even at seven into the seventh, then. Left-hander George Youngblood walked Lonzo to begin the inning. Lonzo stole second, Brassfield was walked intentionally, but that brought up Chavez and Chavez bombed his second home run of the game, a 3-piece to give the lead back to the Portlanders, 10-7. Royer’s ball over the wall did so on the bounce and his ground-rule double led nowhere, and Lonzo and Pucks singled in the eighth against Rafael Flores, but were also stranded. Brobeck and Starr reached base with two outs in the ninth against Flores, but Brobeck only scored on another wild pitch.

That didn’t mean the W was in the dry, though. The Coons went to Walters despite being up 11-7 in the ninth inning, because we had already used even the marginal talent that could be trusted with the ninth inning. However, Moreno and Rosenstiel hit soft singles, and while Lundberg and Maldonado both struck out, there was danger in the air. Manny Saunders singled to center then; Moreno went home from second base, Royer threw the ball in badly, the run scored, the two trailing runners were in scoring position, and Royer sunk to his knees with obvious paw pain. He left the game; since Caswell had already keeled over dead and Todd Oley had been used to pinch-hit earlier, the Raccoons ended up with Arturo Bribiesca in centerfield, but the game ended with a strikeout before this weakness could be exploited by the damn Elks. 11-8 Coons. Lavorano 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; M. Chavez 4-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Royer 3-5, 2B; Starr 2-5, HR, 3 RBI;

Lonzo stole his 50th base in the game, and New York’s Omar Sanchez (.305, 0 HR, 45 RBI) fractured a rib during the Crusaders’ game today and was out for at least a few weeks. This left Xavier Reyes (46 SB) as the last serious threat in the CL’s stolen base race.

By Tuesday then, the Raccoons had shed both of their established centerfielders onto the DL. Noah Caswell (oblique strain) would return for a week or so before the end of the season, but Steve Royer (ruptured finger tendon) would not, and since he was a free agent-to-be, this ended his Raccoons career. Since Pucks had lost some of his earlier range, that left only Todd Oley on the roster, and we went back to AAA for a reinforcement that had no business being in the majors, Ben Morris, batting .267 with four homers and a .768 OPS with the Alley Cats. He was 20 years old and had been taken in the 10th round of the 2055 draft. Something was off here for sure!

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – RF Martinez – 3B Brobeck – 1B Starr – CF Oley – P Fox
VAN: LF D. Garcia – C S. Contreras – RF Magnussen – CF D. Moreno – 3B Lundberg – 1B Rosenstiel – SS Kuchta – 2B Saunders – P Purificao

Purificao had made only one appearance so far this season, which hadn’t gone so well, and gave up a Brobeck solo homer in the second for an inauspicious start. In the third, Labonte and Lonzo individually hit a single and then tried to steal second base; only the former was successful, but Pucks’ 2-out single still brought in Labonte from third base. Purificao walked Chavez and allowed more RBI singles to Martinez and Brobeck before Starr popped out foul in a full count to end the inning. And then Chance Fox ****** up the entire 4-0 lead, and then some, in the bottom 3rd. Kuchta homered right away. Saunders singled. Fox misplayed Purificao’s bunt to second base, where there was no out to be had. Wild pitch, then an RBI single by Garcia. Santiago Contreras grounded out, and Magnussen whacked a score-flipping homer. The whole thing took just 15 pitches from homer to homer.

Todd Oley singled, stole second, and was driven in by Lonzo, tying the score at five in the top of the fourth, and restoring Lonzo to an undisputed team RBI lead (yay!). Pucks walked, and the Coons took the lead on an error by Kuchta on Chavez’ grounder before Martinez added a sac fly. It was now a 7-5 game, and Colby Bowen was warming up in the bullpen should Fox continue to get his orange tail stuck in a wire fence. The Elks made three loud outs in the fourth, then had right-hander Jim Woods electrocuted by the Coons in the top 5th. Starr doubled, Oley had an RBI single, Lonzo and Pucks both socked 2-out RBI doubles, and Moreno only barely caught Chavez’ drive to center off new punching bag Aaron Hain, which ended that inning, but Hain got whacked around in the sixth and the 6-7-8 batters all got on, with Oley singling in Brobeck for another run and it was now… (counts on the claws of three paws) … 11-5. Fox got dragged through six innings against the heavily left-handed lineup and even struck out Rosenstiel and Kuchta to end his day, which would surely make Cristiano Carmona get all waffley again about how he totally didn’t suck and such.

When Colby Bowen did get involved in the bottom 7th, Santiago Contreras hit a 3-run homer to right in no time, so that lead was axed in half again. Sencion was torched for another two runs, walking Rosenstiel and Kuchta to begin the bottom 8th and then allowed just enough hits for them to score, further narrowing the lead to a skinny run. At this point an offensive reaction would have been welcome, but no such luck; since Walters had thrown 37 pitches for no greater good on Monday, Tanizaki got the ninth inning and right away gave up a single to Moreno. Alex Maldonado pinch-hit for Lundberg, but found Bribiesca at second base and a 4-6-3 double play was turned. Rosenstiel drew another walk, but Kuchta grounded out to second as well to get this game over with… 11-10 Critters. Lavorano 4-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Puckeridge 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Brobeck 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Oley 3-4, BB, 2 RBI;

The damn Elks were eliminated mathematically on Tuesday, but the Crusaders W would have done this even without the Coons chipping in.

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – 3B Brobeck – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – CF Morris – C C. Chavez – P B. Herrera
VAN: LF D. Garcia – C S. Contreras – RF Magnussen – CF D. Moreno – SS Kuchta – 1B Rosenstiel – 3B Bowden – 2B Saunders – P Arroyo

Seven left-handed batters in the first seven spots of that Elks lineup! Bobby Herrera stumbled right out of the gate, with four 3-ball counts and three full counts in the bottom 1st, and a run scored on the walk Danny Garcia drew, the base he stole, and Magnussen’s RBI single. Dave Bowden singled and Manny Saunders walked in the bottom 2nd, but Arroyo struck out bunting foul and then the 1-2 batters also whiffed to end the inning. Labonte would tie the game with his second home run of the season in his second try in the game, and it remained 1-1 with three hits per side through five innings, but Herrera kept finding full counts and took *97* pitches to get through five innings at all.

Also having a wicked day was Ben Morris, who was making his actual debut in this game. He was drilled by Arroyo his first time up, then reached on an error by Rosenstiel the second time around. He reached base again in his third attempt, and finally without physical grief or somebody else’s blunder, drawing a walk from Arroyo that filled the bases in the top 6th, in which Pucks’ leadoff jack had given the Coons a 2-1 lead before Arroyo also led Brobeck and Starr on base. Cortez Chavez’ groundout and a wild pitch both gave Portland an additional run, but Marcos Chavez batted for Herrera already, so the Coons needed to cover four innings with the pen again now. The 4-1 lead was immediately in danger with Neal Hamann, although Magnussen reached on Starr’s error before Moreno singled to center in the bottom 6th. Kuchta struck out, and Rosenstiel grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to get Hamann through the inning, in which a lot happened for just nine pitches. The seventh was worse, though. Dave Bowden singled against Hamann, Bravo was no use either, allowing hits to Saunders and Garcia and Hamann’s run to score, and Ricky Herrera gave up a sac fly to PH Victor Cruz to whittle the lead down to 4-3, then ended the inning with Magnussen and got three deep fly ball outs to Brass and Pucks in the bottom 8th, which at this rate had to count as success. Ironically Matt Walters then faced only right-handers in the ninth inning, but also retired three in a row to take another game from the Elks. 4-3 Raccoons. Labonte 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Anderson (PH) 1-1;

Somehow, we beat them, which is all that counts – damn Elks!! (shakes fist)

Game 4
POR: RF Puckeridge – 3B Anderson – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – CF Oley – 2B Bribiesca – SS Benitez – P Stewart
VAN: LF D. Garcia – SS Kuchta – RF Magnussen – CF D. Moreno – 3B Lundberg – 1B Rosenstiel – C A. Maldonado – 2B Saunders – P A. Jesus

Hits by Pucks and Starr gave the Coons a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Chavez also drew a walk in between to keep the inning going. Starr kept a monopoly on RBI’s in the game with a 2-run homer to left in the third inning, while Zach Stewart retired eight in a row to begin the game, then gave up a single to Jesus. (rolls big black googly eyes!)

While the mostly-lefty lineup the home team offered for every game of the series caused Stewart much fewer problems, even the backup infield that was rolled out for today hurt Jesus in the fifth inning. He started the inning with walks to Chavez and Brass, but Starr now found a double play to hit into, and instead the RBI’s in the inning went to Oley with an RBI triple and Bribiesca, who bashed an RBI double. Benitez was walked intentionally to get a K from Stewart and an exit from the inning.

Stewart was not in danger until the seventh inning when Moreno hit a 1-out single to right-center and he lost Lundberg on balls. John Rosenstiel, though, who had hit a soft single in the fifth, found Bribiesca with a reasonably quick bouncer and the Raccoons turned a double play to get Stewart out of the inning. Maldonado drew a walk in the eighth and the inning ran long with a few tall counts; the Elks didn’t get a run off Stewart, but they extended his pitch count to 106, and he would not be able to come back and bid for the shutout. Alex Rios got the ball, walked Kuchta right away, but got a double play from Magnussen, and then survived Moreno’s 2-out double as well when Lundberg grounded out to Starr. 5-0 Furballs! Puckeridge 2-5; Starr 3-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Bribiesca 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Stewart 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (11-11);

Sweeeeeeep!!

And yes, I gave every single player a smooch on the cheek when they returned home from Elk City on Thursday night.

Even Chance Fox.

Raccoons (68-72) @ Canadiens (73-67) – September 6-8, 2058

The Titans had tried, but it had been in vain. The Crusaders had galloped away to a 15 1/2 game lead and everybody was just tying up the loose ends now, in our case an 8-7 season series lead for Boston, who ranked second in runs allowed, but had only a +29 run differential thanks to a cruddy offense that could hit homers and nearly nothing else. They ranked fourth in bombs, but in the bottom three in most other key offensive categories. Right now, they were also without Diego Mendoza and Ethan Torrence for batters, and a whole host of pitchers.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (2-5, 6.34 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (7-12, 4.12 ERA)
Ramon Carreno (6-13, 4.63 ERA) vs. Larry Broad (12-7, 4.08 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (6-1, 3.19 ERA) vs. Mike Pohlmann (10-10, 4.22 ERA)

Still no southpaw. I’m sad.

Game 1
BOS: RF I. Santiago – LF Ma. Gilmore – 1B M. Rubin – C Arviso – 2B Sowell – SS J. Watson – CF J. Harris – 3B W. de Leon – P Brenize
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – CF Morris – 3B Benitez – C Stanton – P DeRose

The first run of the game came on a home run by none other than Matt Stanton, which was a bit surprising, and it was the first of his career. And while DeRose wasn’t instantly punchable and rage-inducing, he gave up a 2-run homer in the fourth to Jorge Arviso anyway after Manny Rubin had already come pretty close to the fence with a double. It was a step in the right direction at least…

The Coons tied the game in unearned fashion – Jesus Martinez reached on Willie de Leon’s error – and on a wild pitch by Brenize in the bottom 4th, then saw Brenize fail the bags full with the same part of the lineup in the sixth inning of a 2-2 game. Brass, Martinez, and Starr were all aboard with two outs for Ben Morris, who was 0-for-4, but had been on base somehow just as often. Here he grounded out though to end the inning.

DeRose found the hook in rather stupid fashion in the seventh inning. Hector Weir hit a pinch-hit single off him, which was one thing, but when the Raccoons went to Ricky Herrera with de Leon batting, two outs, and Weir on second base, Herrera gave up a long double to left that restored Boston’s lead at 3-2, and then allowed a 2-out, 2-strike RBI single to Brenize as well, 4-2. Benitez walked and Stanton singled off Brenize to begin the bottom 7th, but between Pucks and their middle infielders the Raccoons failed to get a decisive punch landed and had to settle for two fielders’ choices and a run scoring on those, but remained 4-3 behind. Adam Harris struck out two batters in the top of the eighth before complaining about an apparent injury, and Sencion had to finish the inning.

Siwik had a scoreless ninth in an attempt to halt his late-season collapse, but the Raccoons had yet to score one to tie and two to win. The eighth was fruitless, and Josh Penington faced the bottom of the order in the ninth inning. Brobeck batted for Benitez and banged a double to left, which was treacherously promising. Stanton grounded out, advancing the tying run to third base. Todd Oley had already been inserted into the #9 slot in a double switch, and that proved to be right where he was needed most, flicking a ball over Alan Leitch at short for a game-tying RBI single! Oley went on and stole second base, but Labonte whiffed and Lonzo flew out to left, and this game went to extra innings, where Boston promptly slapped three singles off Tanizaki to take a 5-4 lead when Matt Gilmore drove home Israel Santiago. The Coons didn’t reach base until there were two outs in the bottom 10th when Joel Starr singled against Dan Lawrence. Cortez Chavez pinch-hit in the pitcher’s spot, which was the first cue to abandon all hope, and he grounded out measly to short to end the game. 5-4 Titans. Brassfield 2-5; Starr 3-5; Brobeck (PH) 1-1; Stanton 2-4, HR, RBI; Oley 1-1, RBI;

Adam Harris headed to the DL with shoulder inflammation and was done for the year. The Coons continued to raid the Alley Cats’ roster as they tried to make the playoffs and imported 22-year-old left-hander and trash heap signing Mike Goldfield, who was “electric” in the broadest definition of the word in AAA. He had once been a second-rounder by the Aces, but had been released for similarly “electric” performances in the low minors.

Game 2
BOS: RF I. Santiago – LF Ma. Gilmore – 1B M. Rubin – C Arviso – 2B Sowell – CF Weir – SS J. Watson – 3B W. de Leon – P Broad
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Brobeck – CF Morris – P Carreno

Carreno didn’t explode at first sight, which was a pleasant surprise, but who knows what getting nailed in the arm with a Broad fastball would do to his game. This happened in the second inning, after Marcos Chavez’ leadoff jack had given the Coons a 1-0 lead and after Broad had failed the bags full, already hitting Joel Starr in the process. Carreno’s plunk game with the bases loaded and pushed in the game’s second run before Labonte hit into a double play to end the effort.

The third inning was uneventful, but Carreno careened into another big inning in the fourth, offering three walks and two hits in a never-ending inning that yielded a 3-2 lead for Boston. Like a bad smell, Carreno the lingered until Hector Weir walked with two outs in the sixth inning. Bravo replaced him, allowed not one, but TWO infield singles to fill the bases, and then somehow got Labonte to make a play in ******* time on Broad’s grounder to second, so the Titans left three runners stranded.

Marcos Chavez’ second leadoff home run of the game then got us even at three runs each in the bottom 6th, and Trent Brassfield smashed another home run just three pitches later, 4-3 Coons. That’s where I like it, boys! – What’s the grin, Cristiano?

Two more runs scored in the seventh; Richard Anderson drew a walk in the #9 spot against Dan Lawrence, then scored on Labonte’s triple to right that came to a dead stop in the corner. Labonte scored on a wild pitch. Goldfield made his debut in the eighth inning, but allowed a single to Jorge Arviso and then mauled Ken Sowell with a fastball. Tanizaki replaced him, but conceded a run on a groundout, then threw a wild pitch that got Sowell all the way to third base before de Leon grounded out to Labonte on a 3-1 pitch… Which was good, since Matt Walters divined to allow a pair of 2-strike doubles to pinch-hitter Yoslan Valdez and Bruce Burkart in the ninth inning and just narrowly escaped with a tarnished save… 6-5 Coons. M. Chavez 2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI;

This team! … We were out-hit 11-6 in this one, so there’s nothing to complain about with the final result.

Game 3
BOS: CF I. Santiago – SS Leitch – 1B M. Rubin – LF Y. Valdez – C Burkart – 3B W. de Leon – 2B J. Watson – RF J. Harris – P Pohlmann
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Brobeck – CF Oley – P Argenziano

The Coons made the third out at third base on a Todd Oley single in the first inning, but at least Brass scored from second before Brobeck was slapped out by de Leon going first to third, and the run counted. The lead was only briefly on the board; the Titans were scattering singles off Argenziano, getting six in four innings, and when the Coons added allowing Pohlmann reach on an uncaught third strike in the fourth inning, those singles eventually amounted to a run. Jonathan Harris hit a single in the inning, but hurt himself running the bases and was replaced with Ted Lloyd. Alan Leitch bashed a leadoff double to center in the fifth and the noises off the bat remained loud throughout the inning, but three outs were made from the 3-4-5 batters, somehow, and Leitch never got off second base, somehow.

Bottom 5th, and a pair of leadoff singles put Starr and Brobeck on the corners against the right-handed Pohlmann. Oley was hitting .444 in 27 at-bats, but grounded out to Watson here, who elected to take the out at second base while Starr scored and the Coons reclaimed a 2-1 lead. Oley stole second base, and Argenziano whiffed for the second out, as did Labonte… but the inning didn’t end, because now the Boston Bozos fumbled the third strike and the Raccoons were back on the corners and could bring up Slugger McRBI Lavorano, who rushed a screamer into the right-center gap for a 2-out, 2-run triple that was very much unearned and made Lonzo the first Critter to 60 RBI this year. Pucks’ liner to short ended the inning, for reals this time. The following inning, Starr and Brobeck were back on the corners with two outs against Pohlmann, but this time he struck out Oley to bugger out of there. Argenziano had also buggered out of allowing leadoff singles to de Leon and Watson in the top of that inning when Lloyd hit into a double play and Pohlmann grounded out. He departed after a 1-out walk to Leitch in the seventh. Siwik struck out Manny Rubin, who had 22 homers, but was rather toothless in this series, but then gave up hard flies to left to Valdez and Burkart. Valdez’ fell for a double, but Burkart’s was caught by Brass and another pair of runners was stranded.

While Lonzo hit a second triple in the game in the bottom 7th, that came with nobody on base, two outs, and Pucks still not having any luck getting runners home. Instead, the Coons went through four relievers in the eighth inning. Ricky Herrera and Alex Rios gave up three leadoff doubles to the 6-7-8 batters between them, smashing the lead into a 4-3 score and bits otherwise, before Bravo and Sencion fought through a horde of pinch-hitters and narrowly managed to strand the tying run on base. At least Matt Walters recovered from recent wobbles with a 1-2-3 ninth inning to finish with a series win and a split season series. 4-3 Coons. Lavorano 3-4, 2 3B, 2 RBI; Starr 3-4; Brobeck 3-4; Argenziano 6.1 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (7-1);

In other news

September 3 – DAL SP Cory Ritter (12-13, 4.53 ERA) throws a 3-hitter against the Scorpions, who additionally get routed entirely, 13-0 Stars.
September 6 – The Condors need a 16th-inning home run by TIJ LF Tim Duncan (.258, 12 HR, 42 RBI) to beat the Knights, 2-1.
September 6 – CIN 1B Jason Sturgeon (.293, 5 HR, 44 RBI) drives in seven runs in a 15-6 win against the Miners despite “only” two doubles and a single, but both doubles came with the bases loaded.

FL Player of the Week: LAP OF/1B Jesus Espinoza (.310, 11 HR, 64 RBI), batting .483 (14-29) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR 1B Joel Starr (.316, 2 HR, 15 RBI), poking .464 (13-28) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Swept the damn Elks! Ha-HAH!! This also flipped the all-time tally of deathmatch cage battles against them in our favor, 738-735, so unless we get swept to end the season, we will wear the Northwest Crown for the entire winter, finally!

Marcos Chavez whacked four homers this week, and that was pretty much all he put together. He had only two singles and two walks apart from that. So he reached base without standing around afterwards just as often as he jogged all the way ‘round. I also thought Lonzo had a greater week than he had, batting .333 with 3 triples, but not ultimate greatness. Worse, he stole only one base (hard to steal from third), and Xavier Reyes tied him for tops on the stolen base board with 51 thieveries.

You know, who I didn’t think of as winning Player of the Week until he won it? Joel Starr. Praise be to the baseball gods for not forgetting about the rookie there.

Steve Royer, out for the rest of the season, batted .251 with 11 HR and 106 RBI in three seasons as a fourth outfielder / occasional first baseman for the Raccoons. Not terrible, but not necessarily worth the price of over $3M a year.

We host the Crusaders for four more games to begin next week, then travel to Atlanta for three isolated games.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons have gone a month without facing a left-handed starter.

August 9, A.C. Stebbins. – „Who?” – Exactly.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (70-73) vs. Crusaders (89-53) – September 9-12, 2058

The Crusaders led the season series 9-5 and could clinch the division while in Portland, which was never something I enjoyed witnessing, but the writing had been on the wall for months and it wasn’t like we had been anywhere close (again). Their #2 offense and #1 pitching was putting up quite the show and they were aiming for their third straight pennant.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (5-6, 4.89 ERA) vs. Milt Cantrell (10-9, 3.38 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (12-9, 3.25 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (15-6, 3.20 ERA)
Zach Stewart (11-11, 3.01 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (18-5, 3.09 ERA)
Justin DeRose (2-5, 6.10 ERA) vs. Seisaku Taki (11-7, 3.19 ERA)

Only right-handed pitchers – again – coming up in this series. The Coons hadn’t met a southpaw starter since early August.

Game 1
NYC: 2B Lemke – RF Rodriquez – SS Z. Suggs – CF Zeiher – 1B Standard – LF S. Moore – C Reese – 3B Ale. Silva – P Cantrell
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – 3B Brobeck – CF Oley – P Fox

A 2-out single by Brassfield drove in Lonzo with an unearned run in the first inning, giving the Raccoons a 1-0 lead mostly owing to Alejandro Silva’s error at third base, not that it lasted all too long. Chance Fox was out of control, offered a leadoff walk to Jeff Standard in the top 2nd, and Justin Reese’s single and another walk to Silva loaded the bases. A four-pitch walk to Milt ******* Cantrell tied the game, and Bruce Lemke singled home a pair more before Tony Rodriquez and Zach Suggs made meek outs to end the inning. Utterly useless, Fox didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, getting yanked after 1-out walks to Suggs and Sean Zeiher to let Ricky Herrera wiggle out against Standard and Scott Moore. The score at that point was down to 3-2 New York thanks to Lonzo hitting a single and stealing his 52nd base in the fourth inning, after which Marcos Chavez singled him home from second base. The offense stalled there while Colby Bowen put two scoreless innings together in the sixth and seventh, but then Mike Goldfield got the ball and looked more like Fox than was necessary, offering three walks himself in two third of an inning while allowing a run on a pinch-hit single by Mike Seidman. Mike Siwik struck out Eric Cobb with the bags teeming to get out of that awful mess. Cantrell, who chose not to become a Raccoon for good reasons, went eight innings, and Kennedy Adkins put the Raccoons away without much fuss in the ninth. 4-2 Crusaders. Lavorano 2-4; Bowen 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

As the famous saying goes: When Colby Bowen is the best guy on your team, you can just as well stay home on the couch.

This L also provided mathematical elimination for the Coons for this year, but we had been spiritually eliminated in May, so whatever.

Game 2
NYC: 2B Lemke – LF Rodriquez – SS Z. Suggs – RF Zeiher – 1B Sevilla – CF V. Velez– C Seidman – 3B Ale. Silva – P Luera
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – C C. Chavez – 3B Anderson – CF Morris – P B. Herrera

Tony Rodriquez went deep to right five pitches into the game, but it got way worse than that 1-0 deficit way soon. The third inning began with Herrera allowing a leadoff single to center to Luera, and Rodriquez reached with one out when Labonte threw away his potential double play grounder that would have ended the inning after the second inning had already come to a screeching halt for the Crusaders on a double play that Silva hit into. With two outs here, the Crusaders brought out the whip: Sean Zeiher doubled in two, Raul Sevilla singled home Zeiher, and Victor Velez also hit a sharp single before Seidman found Ben Morris’ glove in centerfield. 4-0 New York then in the middle of the third, although the three runs from that inning were unearned.

Herrera’s own single in the home half of the third inning led nowhere, and then we spent the middle innings watching him give up a leadoff hit in every frame, then painstakingly labor his way around it. Stuff wasn’t there, but at least he didn’t walk the bags full all the ******* time. I grumbled and suckled on my bottle of Capt’n Coma to somehow survive those last 18 games of the year.

Luera took a 5-hit shutout into the eighth inning before offering a walk to Labonte, a wild pitch, and a 2-out RBI single to Pucks led to his removal. Ben Lussier got Martinez on a grounder to short, though, so the Raccoons weren’t getting closer by a lot here. Instead, Rodriquez re-established slam range with a leadoff jack against Siwik in the ninth inning, his second home run on the day, and the 11th for the year. Lussier had a 1-2-3 ninth inning against Benitez, Brobeck, and Brassfield, boldly brought from the bench. 5-1 Crusaders. Puckeridge 3-4, RBI;

Pucks also stole a base. (is really reaching for good things to say)

Game 3
NYC: 2B Lemke – RF Rodriquez – SS Z. Suggs – CF Zeiher – LF S. Moore – C Reese – 1B Epperson – 3B Ale. Silva – P Seiter
POR: 2B Labonte – CF Oley – LF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – 3B Brobeck – SS Benitez – P Stewart

Rodriquez, Zeiher, and Moore all hit singles off Stewart for a quick 1-0 lead in the first, and Stewart – spoiler alert – would never amount to much in terms of stuff either in this game, getting slapped around a bit for eight hits and three walks in six innings. He did hold a lead for a while, thanks to Marcos Chavez opening the bottom 2nd with a single and then a double-blast by Brass and Martinez that put the Coons 3-1 ahead, but by the sixth inning Stewart frittered that away again. Justin Reese slapped a leadoff single, and Gunner Epperson was smacked by a pitch. Sad outs by Silva and Seiter, who so far was 2-for-2 against Stewart in the game, brought the runners into scoring position, from where Bruce Lemke’s coy single to left-center both scored them to flatten the score at three. Rodriquez’ fly to deep center was chased down by Todd Oley to end the inning, while the Raccoons then had their own single and hit-by-pitch in the bottom 6th to put Brobeck and Benitez on with one out. Joel Starr batted for Stewart, walked in a full count, and thus filled the bases. Labonte whiffed, but Oley crucially shoved a ball through between Lemke and Epperson for a 2-out, 2-run single of our own, and that got rid of Seiter and gave a potential W back to Zach Stewart before Jameson Monk got Pucks to fly out to right.

After Ricky Herrera got around a Zach Suggs single to hold the 5-3 line in the seventh, Monk put Chavez on base in the bottom 7th and Brassfield bashed his second 2-piece of the game to extend the lead to 7-3. A Labonte triple and Oley’s single in the eighth added another run against Zachariah Alldred, who went on to load the bases before getting strikeouts from Brass and Ben Morris to escape the jam short of total annihilation. Up by five, the Raccoons sent out Goldfield for the ninth until the lead down to three on Scott Moore’s 1-out, 2-run homer to right-center and *deep*. Walters then collected the last two outs. 8-5 Raccoons. Oley 2-5, 3 RBI; Puckeridge 2-5, 2B; M. Chavez 2-3, 2 BB; Brassfield 2-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Benitez 1-2, BB;

The Crusaders could still clinch the division whilst in Portland on Thursday if they smothered DeRose (likely) and if the Titans lost to the Arrowheads (push).

Game 4
NYC: 2B Lemke – LF Rodriquez – SS Z. Suggs – RF Zeiher – 1B Sevilla – CF Epperson – C Seidman – 3B Ale. Silva – P Taki
POR: 1B Starr – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – LF Brassfield – 3B Brobeck – 2B Bribiesca – CF Morris – P DeRose

Seisaku Taki got a bigger hand before the game than DeRose, who at least had the decency to disappear quickly, giving up a homer to Epperson in the second and then leaving two batters later with back soreness. Colby Bowen worked his way out of the inning, while the game was tied in the bottom 2nd when Brass tripled home Chavez and his leadoff walk. Brobeck struck out, but Arturo Bribiesca, of all people, whacked a 2-run homer over the fence in rightfield to give the Raccoons and Colby Bowen especially a 3-1 lead. Bowen had a quick third, then saw Epperson dink a leadoff double into the gap in left-center, while Seidman reached on an infield single, rolling a wheezer to a dead stop halfway between home and third. Alejandro Silva’s comebacker was pounced on by Bowen, though, and taken for a 1-6-3 double play, Epperson held, and now only the pitcher was in the way of a clean exit from a messy inning, and Pucks rushed in from rightfield on a looper Taki hit to the shallow outfield on the first pitch and made the snatch on the run.

For the fifth, Cameron Argenziano appeared in relief. I wasn’t keen on a full 6-man rotation for the rest of the season anyway, and using him for a few innings here and then skipping him to potentially pitch in this spot the next time through if DeRose wasn’t able to would tighten things up a bit. In the event, he made a mess, giving up leadoff hits to Lemke (single) and Rodriquez (double). Suggs hit a sac fly, Zeiher shoved another single, and somehow Rodriquez and the tying run were frozen on third base on Sevilla’s bouncer to Brobeck and then Epperson striking out, so the Raccoons remained up 3-2 in the middle of the fifth. Lonzo was on base and caught stealing in the bottom 5th, and Argenziano continued to escalate in the top of the sixth. Seidman hit a leadoff single, reached scoring position on a wild pitch, and then Argenziano gave up a single to right to Taki, and Pucks overran the ball for extra bases. Bravo got out of the inning, then departed with a leadoff single by Suggs in the seventh, which sugged. Neal Hamann was bombarded with pinch-hitters, of whom Jeff Standard reached base with another single, but he rung up Seidman for the third out of the – nah, Chavez fudged the ball, it rolled away far, and Seidman reached base on the uncaught third strike to load the ******* bases. I glugged half a bottle of Capt’n Coma, including the dead worm, while the Raccoons exited Hamann and brought on Tanizaki, who was met by another pinch-hitter, Scott Moore, got ahead in the count, 1-2, and then allowed a howler down the rightfield line for a 2-run double before Taki flew out to end the ******* inning.

The last two innings were delivered by Brobeck, who got five outs before he got whacked for a run on Velez’ double and Seidman’s RBI single. There was no counter strike by the Critters in the late innings, and the Titans lost to the Indians after all, so while the Raccoons disappeared into the night calmly and collectively, the Crusaders celebrated their division title on the field while I kept drinking away the pain. 6-3 Crusaders. Lavorano 2-4; Puckeridge 2-4; Brassfield 2-4, 3B, RBI; Bribiesca 2-3, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Bowen 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Raccoons (71-76) @ Knights (77-69) – September 13-15, 2058

The road to oblivion went through Atlanta, where the Knights were still in a 3-way battle for the South title, and currently led the division by half a game, so they would have appreciated any additional lying-down-and-taking-it the Raccoons had to offer. Atlanta ranked first in the CL in runs scored, but also allowed the third-most runs with a troubled rotation and patchy defense. The season series was even at three. There was a pile of injuries for them, too, with position players Willie Acosta, Marco Nieto, Nick Fox, and Jon Alade all on the DL along with reliever David Hardaway.

Projected matchups:
Ramon Carreno (6-13, 4.63 ERA) vs. Vic Harman (15-9, 4.28 ERA)
Chance Fox (5-7, 4.96 ERA) vs. Enrique Ortiz (12-13, 4.86 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (12-10, 3.20 ERA) vs. Jeremy Fetta (9-10, 3.50 ERA)

Where have all the southpaws gone? Not to Atlanta.

Game 1
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – CF Oley – C C. Chavez – 3B Anderson – P Carreno
ATL: CF Nork – 2B Wheeler – LF Abercrombie – C Almaguer – 1B Callaia – 3B Triplett – RF Mayes – SS Moya – P Harman

Harman retired the Raccoons in order the first time through on Friday, striking out three of them, while Carreno at least waited until the bottom 3rd until he blew up. Joaquin Moya’s leadoff single and Harman’s bunt began the inning, and then Carreno issued walks to Dan Nork, Jeff Wheeler, and finally Pedro Almaguer to force in a run. Gaudencio Callaia was nice enough to ground out to first base to strand a full set of runners. Harman’s perfect game ended at ten batters because he nailed Lonzo, and an error by Doug Triplett also put Brassfield on base, but Martinez and Starr made weak outs and the no-hitter remained intact.

Atlanta got Mike Mayes and Moya to the corners with fourth-inning base hits against Carreno, but the Knights didn’t score because Harman was used to bunt Moya to second base for the second out, and Nork popped out to Richard Anderson. Top 5th, and Todd Oley led off with a single to center, then was caught stealing. Cortez Chavez then singled to center, and was doubled up by Anderson’s 6-4-3.

Carreno couldn’t get through six innings even with 106 pitches on the odometer, allowing a 1-out single to Mayes in the bottom 6th before departing and having Hamann clean up behind him. The Coons at least attempted to take him off the hook in the seventh, even if only with two outs, as Starr and Oley went to the corners on a pair of singles. Pucks batted for Chavez – but struck out. Instead, the Raccoons drowned in the bottom 8th, when Tanizaki, Goldfield, and Rios pooled together to allow five hits and three runs as the Knights zoomed into the distance. 4-0 Knights. Oley 2-3;

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – CF Oley – 3B Brobeck – C Stanton – P Fox
ATL: CF Nork – 1B Wheeler – LF Abercrombie – C Almaguer – 3B Triplett – RF Callaia – 2B E. Miller – SS Moya – P En. Ortiz

Dan Nork and Jeff Wheeler went to the corners with singles and Josh Abercrombie’s sac fly gave the Knights a real quick lead against Fox in the first, but the Raccoons came back right away. Starr and Oley got on base with singles against Enrique Ortiz in the second inning, and while Matt Stanton was down 0-2 with one out, he then shot a ball up the rightfield line for a score-flipping, 2-run double…! He was of course left on base after his 1-out double, and Kyle Brobeck suffered the same fate two innings later. The middle innings were largely uneventful apart from that, which also meant that Chance Fox was either abducted or suddenly pretty good, and astonishingly, the latter was the case. The Knights were stuck on their two hits from the first inning, and he got a few strikeouts in here and there and ran his 2-hitter through six innings while nursing the 2-1 lead.

Top 7th, Stanton took Ortiz to left now for a 1-out single. Fox was called on to bunt and laid down a nice one to Ortiz’ off-side. Ortiz got into Almaguer’s way and played it anyway, then threw the ball short of first base to the point where it almost hit Fox in the back as he was dashing up the line. Wheeler had no chance to contain that missile, either, and the Raccoons had a pair in scoring position after the throwing error. All that was needed now was a well-placed single, and Labonte… struck out, and Lonzo… struck out……

At least Fox pitched seven and a third innings on 98 pitches, and after Nork singled off Siwik, Lonzo started a 6-3 double play on Jeff Wheeler’s grounder to complete the eighth inning. Maybe we could even still get an insurance run – the ninth inning actually started with Todd Oley zinging a triple to centerfield. Brobeck struck out, Stanton walked, Brass struck out, and Labonte … finally hit a ******* RBI single, 3-1. Lonzo flew out to strand a pair, but Walters turned the Knights away in three batters in the bottom 9th. 3-1 Coons. Oley 2-4, 3B; Stanton 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Fox 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (6-7);

Fox’ performance was enough for the bobbleheads on BNN to rave about this bright young prospect (cough!!) and named him Starter of the Day.

They’ve obviously never seen him pitch for real.

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – RF Puckeridge – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C M. Chavez – CF Oley – 3B Brobeck – P B. Herrera
ATL: CF Nork – 2B Wheeler – LF Abercrombie – C Almaguer – 1B Callaia – 3B Triplett – RF Mayes – SS M. Kempf – P Fetta

Lonzo singled and stole his 54th base in the first inning, but was left stranded [more on that below], but Starr walked and scored on Chavez’ double for a 1-0 lead in the second inning; the lead didn’t last, because Triplett and Mayes opened the bottom 2nd with singles against Herrera, and Triplett scored on two groundouts, including Fetta fending off the K at 0-2 and instead grounding out to Lonzo to get the tying run across and take himself off the hook. Dan Nork flew out to end the inning, but socked a double his next time up, driving home Matt Kempf to grab a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning.

The Raccoons remained sleepy, even with singles by Brass and Oley in the sixth inning. The pair was stranded on the corners when Brobeck flew out to Mayes. Labonte hit a 1-out single in the seventh, but was caught stealing. Herrera held out for seven innings without getting any help. Rios and Sencion had a scoreless eighth, but the Raccoons were still a run short when they entered the ninth against Ruben Mendez, and brought up the bottom of the order. Oley grounded out, Brobeck singled, but there was nothing else that could be gained here. Jesus Martinez pinch-hit and struck out, and Labonte grounded out to Wheeler to lose the game, the series, and the season series. 2-1 Knights. Lavorano 2-4; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, L (12-11);

In other news

September 9 – Miners LF/RF/1B Salvatore Rodrigues, who led the FL in hits as a Pacific in 2054, and who played just 22 games for the Miners before suffering a career-ending concussion, announces his retirement. Rodrigues, age 27, batted .314 with 79 HR and 544 RBI in a career started as a 19-year-old, and was an All Star four times. He won a Platinum Stick in 2054.
September 9 – The Rebels’ INF/LF/RF Alex Murillo (.275, 0 HR, 12 RBI) isn’t even in the lineup in their 4-0 loss to the Blue Sox, but ruins the looming no-hitter by NAS SP Coby Strutz (16-7, 3.20 ERA) with a 2-out single in the eighth inning after entering the game in a double switch. No shutout for Strutz either, as MR Jimmy Dingman (3-3, 2.63 ERA, 3 SV) is then brought on to finish the game.
September 10 – The Pacifics’ 1-0 win over the Stars is sponsored entirely by a solo home run by LAP OF/1B/2B Jake Cline (.273, 4 HR, 50 RBI).
September 13 – The Rebels beat the Warriors, 4-3 in 14 innings. The Warriors make four errors and all but one of the Richmond runs are unearned.
September 15 – San Francisco infielder Xavier Reyes (.298, 5 HR, 59 RBI) will miss the rest of the regular season at least after spraining his ankle. He was tied for first place in stolen bases at the time of the injury.
September 15 – The Bayhawks, undeterred, chew down the Loggers to win 11-8 in 14 innings. From the #8 spot in the San Francisco lineup, OF/3B/2B Chris Tomko (.297, 10 HR, 54 RBI) has four hits, a game-tying home run in the ninth inning off Milwaukee’s Brett Lillis jr. (3-2, 3.34 ERA, 2 SV), two doubles, and three RBI. The Loggers go 5-for-8 in stolen bases, while the Bayhawks make no attempt at one.

FL Player of the Week: LAP RF Matt Diskin (.329, 23 HR, 84 RBI), raking .375 (9-24) with 4 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA RF/LF Danny Ceballos (.393, 5 HR, 59 RBI), batting .552 (16-29) with 2 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Reyes news broke over night, so unless Perry Pigman or Matt Kilday then rallied from nine bags down in the last two weeks, Lonzo had a share of the stolen base title assured and could win it outright with just one more base taken. Yeah, the closest competition all suffered injuries to fall by the wayside this year, but he still stole those 53 bases all with his own hindpaws. Reyes was put in the bin right in the first inning on Sunday then, when Lonzo took #54 for the year, and #565 for his career. That puts him just five bases behind Rich de Luna for sixth all-time, so maybe it will still happen this year; a dozen games left to make it work!

And that is basically all the encouragement I can still cough up here. About the best news is that the season will soon be over.

Zach Stewart is still hanging around a top 3 finish in ERA this year. He’s currently just five points off Thunder pitcher Aaron Harris, sitting third with a flat-3 ERA.

Monday will be off. After that there’s a 9-game homestand with the Falcons, Loggers, and Indians, then a 3-game set in Elk City to finish the season.

Fun Fact: Lonzo did not get an RBI all week long and still ties for the team lead with 60.

(sad GM noises)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (72-78) vs. Falcons (73-76) – September 17-19, 2058

Despite their similar records, these teams were widely separated in terms of elimination. The Coons were 21 1/2 games back in the North and had never even been in the conversation. The Falcons were under .500, but just six games out and not mathematically eliminated; however, since there were three teams ahead of them in the standings, their playoff chances were next to zilch, even if they rapped off 13 straight wins from here. They had already won five games in a row and had a -25 run differential with the fourth-fewest runs and fifth-fewest runs allowed in the Continental League. The season series was up for grabs at 3-3.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (12-11, 3.05 ERA) vs. Esteban Duran (10-10, 3.31 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (7-1, 3.05 ERA) vs. Josh Doyle (6-9, 5.05 ERA)
Justin DeRose (2-5, 6.14 ERA) vs. Andres Lopez (3-4, 4.10 ERA)

(whispers) Careful, boys. Careful. Do you see Lopez there? That’s a left-handed pitcher. They have become critically endangered in the wild. Sh-Sh! Don’t spook him! Let’s just watch him graze over there near the leftfield line.

The Raccoons activated Noah Caswell and Ivan Ornelas from the DL for this last homestand, with Caswell especially returning earlier from the DL than expected.

Baseball returned to Portland later than expected, though, because the opener on Tuesday was rained out. Oregon, baby!

Game 1
CHA: CF J. Rodriguez – LF K. Fisher – RF D. Ceballos – C L. Miranda – 2B Woodrome – 1B A. Gomez – SS Hullander – 3B T. Edwards – P E. Duran
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – 1B Starr – 3B Anderson – P Stewart

Richard Anderson hit his second career home run following a Joel Starr single to flip around the result of 65 pitches of Zach Stewart futility in the third inning. Stewart had allowed three singles, three walks, and three stolen bases, and somehow the Falcons had only scored one run on Danny Ceballos’ sac fly in the top 3rd for all of that. Anderson also made a couple of nice picks at the hot corner, f.e. spearing a Travis Edwards liner in the fourth inning, but that only delayed the inevitable. Stewart had NOTHING, and nicked Joe Hullander to begin that inning before giving up the lead on Jose Rodriguez’ 2-out walk and Kyle Fisher’s RBI single. Ceballos then flew out to Caswell in deep center, and Caswell restored a 3-2 Coons lead with a leadoff home run in the bottom of the fourth. Stewart dragged his furry tush through the fifth inning to qualify for the W, but was then pinch-hit for in the bottom 5th, which Starr opened with another jack, 4-2, and Oley and Labonte reached with a pinch-hit single and a walk, respectively. Lonzo whiffed, but Caswell rushed an RBI single through the left side for an extra run, leading to Esteban Duran’s removal. Raffy de la Cruz came in, walked Brass, but rung up Pucks. Raffy had 60 walks and 74 strikeouts in 84 innings coming into this game. Raffy walked Chavez and Starr in the sixth inning, too, but the Raccoons had now run out of hits, apparently, and the runners were stranded on the corners. For Portland, scoreless innings were put together by Bravo, Ricky Herrera, and Siwik before Matt Walters emerged for a 3-run save in the ninth inning. Jorge Caballero and Jose Rodriguez went down without much fuss, but then Fisher, Ceballos, and Luis Miranda hit three straight singles to score a run, and Marco Cruz drew a walk in the #5 spot to load the bases. Jason Schaack, switch-hitter, flew out to Todd Oley before Tanizaki would have come on against the right-handed Hullander. 5-3 Coons. Caswell 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Oley (PH) 1-2;

Game 2
CHA: CF J. Rodriguez – LF K. Fisher – RF D. Ceballos – 2B Woodrome – 1B A. Gomez – SS Hullander – C McCarver – 3B T. Edwards – P Doyle
POR: CF Oley – SS Lavorano – LF Puckeridge – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – 3B Brobeck – 2B Bribiesca – C C. Chavez – P Argenziano

Argenziano was not dominant, striking out one batter in three innings, but at least stingy, giving up only one base hit as well, and no runs through 43 pitches, before getting a 2-0 lead in the bottom 3rd. He bunted Bribiesca (leadoff single) and Cortez Chavez (walk) into scoring position, and Oley didn’t have to be asked twice and chased them both with a single to right. That suddenly awakened the Falcons, who got Fisher on with a leadoff walk in the fourth, Ceballos doubled to left, and Ian Woodrome’s sac fly and Alex Gomez’ groundout brought home the tying runs right away. The Critters reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the inning on Chavez’ sac fly after Starr had singled, been forced out by Brobeck, but Brobeck had reached third base on a Bribiesca single.

The Falcons hit three singles, beginning with Doyle and continuing with Fisher and Ceballos with two outs in the fifth inning, but Doyle was waved around towards home plate from second base on the Ceballos hit, and Todd Oley threw him out at the plate to end the inning. While Argenziano completed six innings on 103 pitches, Starr hit a jack to left in the bottom 6th to extend the lead to 4-2, giving him bombs in both ends of the double-header.

Ivan Ornelas’ return to duty in the seventh didn’t go so smoothly, as he gave up a leadoff single to Travis Edwards, threw a wild pitch, but then got two quick outs before Fisher’s blooper fell in between Oley and Lonzo to plate the runner from third base anyway. The Coons double-switched in a new battery, and Eloy Sencion struck out PH Jason Schaack to get out of the inning, still up 4-3. Woodrome singled off Sencion in the eighth, but Tanizaki then finished the inning while freezing out pinch-runner Ricardo Naranjo at second base. No tack-on runs were ever made by the home team, and Tanizaki ended up staying in the game for the ninth inning, since Walters had obviously already been used and the pen consisted mostly only of the Colby Bowens of the world anymore. Edwards and Shane Larsen grounded out to Bribiesca quickly, but then Mike Burr and Kyle Fisher hit pair of singles to left and left-center. Jon Wodrich’s spanker to third base was contained by Richard Anderson, inserted for D, however, and spun around into an out at second base to end the game. 4-3 Coons. Oley 2-4, 2 RBI; Starr 2-4, HR, RBI; Bribiesca 2-2, BB; Stanton 1-1; Tanizaki 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (10);

Maud, the Falcons did WHAT???

But I don’t want the boys to face Art Schaeffer (12-14, 3.32 ERA)!! I want a left-hander…!!!

(cries aggressively)

Game 3
CHA: SS Hullander – LF K. Fisher – RF D. Ceballos – 1B A. Gomez – 2B Woodrome – C L. Miranda – CF Ward – 3B T. Edwards – P Schaeffer
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C M. Chavez – RF Martinez – 3B Anderson – P DeRose

Hullander’s leadoff double and Ceballos’ sharp single to right gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead over DeRose in the first inning, but the Raccoons made that up on singles by Labonte and Caswell, who brought in Labonte from second base with a hit pretty much into the same spot that Ceballos found earlier.

From there, DeRose continued to give up hard contact and kept Cas and Brass especially busy in tracking down fly balls before ironically falling out of the tie in the fifth inning. Of course it was hard to defend the leadoff walk issued to Jayden Ward, but then it was Anderson of all people to throw away Hullander’s 2-out grounder to allow Ward to score and give the Falcons a 2-1 lead. That was the last run DeRose allowed in seven innings, but the Coons were struggling to put anything together. In the five home innings between the first and the stretch, the Raccoons had ONE base hit, another Labonte single, and didn’t get close to sniffing a run against Schaeffer.

Alex Rios and Ricky Herrera held the Falcons away in the eighth, but Goldfield put a pair on base in the ninth inning as he continued to struggle. Siwik struck out Mike Burr to get out of there, but the problem remained that the offense had NOTHING against Schaeffer through eight, then faced ex-Coon Chris Gowin’s brother Joe in the ninth inning. Lonzo reached on an error to begin the inning when Kyle Fisher dropped his fly, then stole second base. Cas’ scratch single only got him to third base, but the winning run was on base now, too! Brass singled to left on a 1-2 pitch to tie the game, and Starr hit another 1-2 pitch for a single to right to load the bases … with nobody out, mind. Since Marcos Chavez was prone to whiffing, Oley batted for him and popped out to short instead. Martinez whiffed (…). Bribiesca batted for Anderson, but flew out to Burr in left, and that sent the game to overtime……..

Siwik struck out the side in the tenth, then was hit for by Brobeck, who singled to right. Labonte grounded out, and Lonzo singled to left, all against southpaw Juan Rivera, who now had the winning run on third base against Caswell, and couldn’t get another soggy out there. Cas singled to right, and the Raccoons swept the series after all. 3-2 Critters. Labonte 2-5; Caswell 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Brobeck (PH) 1-1; DeRose 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K; Siwik 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-2);

Raccoons (75-78) vs. Loggers (71-81) – September 20-22, 2058

While it looked like the Raccoons now had a paw up for third place in the division it should never be forgotten that these Loggers had something that was absolutely paralyzing to our team and we struggled to do anything against them. We would need a sweep in this series, too, just to split the season series against the team that both scored and surrendered the second-most runs in the CL with a -7 run differential (Coons: -20).

Projected matchups:
Ramon Carreno (6-14, 4.54 ERA) vs. Roberto Alvarado (4-6, 4.33 ERA)
Chance Fox (6-7, 4.67 ERA) vs. Ernesto Culver (0-2, 10.57 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (12-11, 3.17 ERA) vs. Adam Foley (12-14, 4.30 ERA)

No, no southpaws here, either, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying on the Loggers’ part, since they had three starting pitchers on the DL (Victor Marquez, Tyler Riddle, Sam Webb), and those were all southpaws.

Carreno would have been skipped if not for the double header on Wednesday.

Game 1
MIL: 3B Gaxiola – LF Garmon – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – CF Valenzano – C Dye – 2B Sostre – SS D. Miller – P R. Alvarado
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – 3B Anderson – P Carreno

Alvarado filled the bases with nothing but silliness in the first inning, walking Labonte and Brass while nicking Lonzo. Starr’s sac fly to right gave Portland a 1-0 lead without the benefit of a base hit, but then Pucks hit an RBI single before Chavez popped out foul to end the inning. Caswell hit a home run in the third inning to extend the lead to 3-0, but that didn’t mean that Carreno was pitching well. The Raccoons turned a double play behind him in each of the first three innings, which hinted at the amount of traffic going on, and when they couldn’t turn a double play in the fourth following Perry Pigman walking and Dave Robles singling, Steve Valenzano blasted a game-tying 3-run homer instead. Jonathan Dye and Bill Sostre hit more singles and Carreno came close to getting yoinked before Danny Miller grounded out and he got a K on Alvarado.

At least he helped in reclaiming the lead in the bottom 4th, bunting Anderson and his leadoff single to second base, from where Anderson scored on Labonte’s double to right-center. Lonzo grounded out, but Cas walked and Brassfield then noisily clanked a 2-out, 2-run double off the fence in the leftfield corner. The Loggers lifted Alvarado for left-hander Sansao Tyson (actual name, I’m assured), who got Starr to 1-2, but then gave up a 384-footer to right anyway, which made it 8-3 Coons.

While Carreno had a fourth double play turned behind him in the sixth, he at least kept getting outs SOMEHOW… The Raccoons also continued to add offense. Lonzo singled off Sansao Tyson – really?? – in the bottom 6th, stole second, and then was driven in by Cas with a single before lefty Bubba Poss restored order. Carreno got into the seventh, but disappeared with two outs after filling the bases with walks to Bill Sostre and Corey Garmon framing a Robby Gaxiola single. Eloy Sencion came on, threw one pitch to Pigman, and a groundout to Lonzo solved the issue. Bowen, Rios, and Goldfield then cobbled together the last six outs without major drama. 9-3 Critters. Labonte 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Caswell 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Brassfield 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, RBI;

Game 2
MIL: LF Garmon – CF Valenzano – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – 3B Sostre – C Mi. Gilmore – 2B Gaxiola – SS D. Miller – P Culver
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Brobeck – C C. Chavez – P Fox

First inning on Saturday, both Garmon and Labonte reached to begin the inning (Garmon on a single, Labonte walking), stole second base, and then scored on a hit by the #3 hitter. Before long, Fox tripped over his own tail again, allowing a leadoff single to Culver in the third inning, then swiftly an RBI triple to Garmon and a sac fly to Valenzano to fall 3-1 behind. When the Raccoons had Cas and Brass on base and one out in the bottom 3rd, Starr instead hit into a double play, so there was that.

Fox got bashed more in the fifth, walking pigman ahead of Robles, who promptly mashed his 21st home run of the season to extend the score to 5-1. This was also the 90th RBI for Robles, while the Raccoons still couldn’t get a guy past 60 for the entire season. The Loggers then got a run off Hamann in the sixth, while the Coons got another double play hit into by Brassfield after Caswell drew a leadoff walk from Culver. Robles would hit another home run off Brobeck in the ninth inning, that one of the solo variety, as the Raccoons got another chance to explore the pitfalls in the shallow end of the bullpen, although Ivan Ornelas at least logged five outs in between without getting manhandled. Culver remained untouchable through eight innings before Roberto Navarro stumbled in the ninth inning, allowing a 1-out walk to Starr, then 2-out singles to Brobeck and Pucks, the latter driving home Starr. Tony Benitez flew out to Valenzano before the rally could really kick into gear, though. 7-2 Loggers. Caswell 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Brobeck 3-4; Puckeridge (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Coons decided to give youth a chance on Sunday, since the season series was now lost anyway. Bobby Herrera’s whiskers wrinkled when he saw the lineup, but it’s not like he couldn’t hit three homers to support himself.

The story about the umpire asking whether we were sure when he was given the lineup card, as reported by the Agitator, is totally not true.

Game 3
MIL: 3B Gaxiola – LF Garmon – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – CF Valenzano – 2B N. Roseto – C Dye – SS Sostre – P Foley
POR: 3B Anderson – RF Oley – C M. Chavez – 1B Starr – LF Puckeridge – 2B Bribiesca – CF Morris – SS Benitez – P B. Herrera

The first homer of the game was Pigman’s solo shot in the top 1st, while the Raccoons loaded the bases with three 2-out singles in the bottom of the inning and then kept it there with Bribiesca’s groundout. Ben Morris finally got his first big-league hit with a leadoff single in the bottom 2nd after starting his career a frightful 0-for-16. Benitez walked, and Tipsy Bobby couldn’t get the bunt down. At 2-2, the run-and-hit was called. Herrera missed the sign, but the Loggers were taken by surprise when with the pitcher up and two runners on that had zero stolen bases between them they suddenly took off and Jonathan Dye just held on to ball three. Foley, befuddled, walked Herrera on the next pitch, but that also made it three on and nobody out and now our age-old curse of not scoring would surely strike. Anderson did bring in the tying run with a fielder’s choice grounder to Nick Roseto, but the true surprise was the 3-run homer that Todd Oley bashed. For all the firsts in the inning, this was Oley’s first career home run, too!

The Coons weren’t up 4-1 for long; Gaxiola and Pigman had hits for the Loggers to narrow the score to 4-2 in the third inning, and then Robles hit a comebacker on the bounce to Bobby Herrera, who made an awkward stretch for the ball, visibly strained something, and nobody had a play on the infield single anymore. Herrera left the game, his season over with a strained hamstring. The Loggers, with the tying runs on, pulled off a double steal of their own against Siwik, but the right-hander struck out Valenzano and got Roseto to pop out to Bribiesca to end the inning.

Foley also wouldn’t make it very far, getting knocked out in the fourth inning on a 2-run homer by Joel Starr, who was really raking this week. Sansao Tyson (giggles) replaced him, gave up a wallbanger double to Pucks and a walk to Bribiesca, but struck out Morris and got a fielder’s choice grounder from Benitez. The Raccoons, who had used plenty of bullpen all week long, and were up by a slam, did not bat for Siwik, who cheerfully grabbed a stick and punched a 2-out RBI single to right. Anderson lined out while Siwik allowed two more singles in the fifth inning, but got out of the inning with a strikeout and two pops.

Three hits off Bravo and Ricky Herrera and an error by Bribiesca created two unearned runs for the Loggers in the sixth inning, narrowing the score to 7-4, and Valenzano and Roseto hit sharp singles off Alex Rios in the seventh, but were stranded in scoring position when Sostre struck out to bring on the stretch, mercifully. Sencion’s eighth was flawless, but then Starr took off the save opportunity for Walters with an RBI double off Ryan Dow, driving in Marcos Chavez with one out in the bottom 8th. Ivan Ornelas to the rescue! The right-hander allowed a leadoff single to Pigman and nicked Robles in the ninth inning, which created a jammy save chance after all. Walters retired the next three without allowing a run to score. 8-4 Furballs. M. Chavez 2-3, 2 BB; Starr 4-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, BB, 2B; Siwik 2.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (4-2) and 1-1, RBI;

In other news

September 16 – SFW SP Ed Nadeau (9-11, 3.98 ERA), SFW MR Javier Cortes (1-1, 4.30 ERA), and three more relievers put together a combined 1-hitter in a 2-1 win against the Capitals. Washington only gets a SS/3B Dan Mullen (.288, 4 HR, 57 RBI) single off Cortes in the game. While Nadeau goes only five innings before exhausting himself on six walks and other inefficiencies, Mullen for additional weirdness is later on pinch-hit for.
September 18 – RIC 1B Mario Delgadillo (.346, 28 HR, 90 RBI) is out for the year after spraining his ankle.
September 18 – The Aces beat the Loggers in Milwaukee and in 15 innings, 6-4. Both teams combine to use 49 players in the game.
September 19 – The Wolves rush the Cyclones for a 10-run sixth inning in an eventual 11-3 win.
September 20 – The season of TOP SP Bill Hernandez (8-7, 3.75 ERA) ends with a torn triceps, but he is not expected to not be ready for Opening Day in 2059.

FL Player of the Week: SFW OF Elmer Maldonado (.304, 15 HR, 80 RBI), batting .500 (14-28) with 4 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL 1B Dave Robles (.307, 22 HR, 91 RBI), bashing .538 (14-26) with 4 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

None of our minor league teams made the playoffs; the Alley Cats couldn’t compensate getting raided for players and dropped to second in their division at the end. For the first time in a while, though, we’re seeing some prospects not suck the air out of the stadium here in Portland, with Joel Starr doing good things and maybe winning himself a job for Opening Day here.

He’s surely not too old for the job, having turned 26 earlier this month… He was only narrowly beaten to Player of the Week by Dave Robles roughing up Starr’s own teammates, having batted 11-for-23 with four homers, a double, and 8 RBI.

Will the Raccoons actually turn a winning record? We play the two bottom teams in the division to finish the year, but another 5-1 week would be required, and we know what the damn Elks are like. Never mind that we’re already out of posting a winning season against the Indians.

Bobby Herrera won’t make another start with the bad hammy, but we still have five guys around without having to fall back on Brobeck. Looks like Zach Stewart will get two more starts that final week, and everybody else will have one more go at glory.

Fun Fact: Last time the Raccoons went three years without a wining record, Joel Starr was barely even born.

2030 through 2032 the Raccoons won 74, 74, and 68 games, respectively, for a combined record of 216-270. The day a Starr was born – September 14, 2032 – the Raccoons lost 5-4 to Indy, with a no-decision for one of the many reasons we’ll never sign a Travis again (Travis Coffee), then went 9-9 the rest of the way.

The Coons’ Joel Starr lifetime record is thus 2,286-1,940 in the regular season, and 58-42 with four rings in the playoffs.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (77-79) vs. Indians (70-86) – September 23-25, 2058

The Raccoons needed to sweep their final home series of the year to obtain a split for the year with the fifth-place, threatening to be last-place, Indians, who ranked third-worst in runs scored (but we were still bottoms, so eh) and eighth in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (13-11, 3.07 ERA) vs. Chris Kaye (6-11, 4.63 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (8-1, 3.05 ERA) vs. Matt Green (4-6, 5.40 ERA)
Justin DeRose (2-5, 5.66 ERA) vs. Bill Lawrence (10-11, 4.39 ERA)

The Indians had Shane Fitzgibbon (13-14, 3.83 ERA), but the southpaw had pitched on Saturday and would not get a turn in this series. There was still hope for us to catch a glimpse of John Morris on the weekend…

Game 1
IND: SS Kilday – 2B Ewers – CF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – RF Lovins – C Lefebvre – LF Abel – 3B R. Rodriguez – P Kaye
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Puckeridge – 3B Benitez – C C. Chavez – P Stewart

Lonzo singled and stole a base in the first inning, but was stranded; it was however #58 for the season, and the next one would tie him Rich de Luna on the all-time list. While that was going on, Zach Stewart put up four perfect innings with six strikeouts, and then the Raccoons actually stirred up some offense in support against Kaye, who allowed two hits the first time through, but in the bottom 4th allowed a double to Caswell and a single to Starr, and then was taken over the fence by Alan Puckeridge, who reached the lofty mark of 62 RBI and became the new team leader in that category. What a progressive feat!

The perfect game lasted five innings before Joel Starr couldn’t contain Tony Benitez’ throw on Kevin Abel’s grounder to lead off the sixth inning for Indy. Pops by Ruben Rodriguez and Kaye as well as Matt Kilday’s grounder to second base ended the inning without an advance for the unearned runner, though, and Stewart still had a no-hitter to worry about, while Starr tried to escape a good flogging with a leadoff jack to left in the bottom 6th, extending the lead to 4-0. Stewart kept chugging and retired three more in the seventh inning, getting to 9 K along the way, although his pitch count was still very manageable.

No longer manageable were Paul Labonte’s paws after an awkward slide into third base with a leadoff triple in the bottom 7th. He had to leave the game, and his replacement Bribiesca scored on Lonzo’s groundout to lengthen the score to 5-0, giving Lonzo 61 RBI. The absolute menace!

Top 8th, and Chris Lovins and Kevin Abel struck out, surrounding a pop to Benitez off Michael Lefebvre’s bat, and Stewart would enter the ninth inning on 92 pitches. Up was Ruben Rodriguez, a 25-year-old on his third September cup of coffee, who hit a wheezer to the wrong side of the mound, and then legged the bloody thing out for an infield single, upsetting not only the sparse crowd, but also made me sob passionately. Steve Thompson’s comebacker was used by Stewart to erase Rodriguez at second base, Kilday popped out, Kevin Ewers singled cleanly to center (but wouldn’t have come up if…), and then the game ended on a K to Orlando Ramos. 5-0 Furballs! Labonte 2-4, 3B; Starr 2-4, HR, RBI; Puckeridge 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Stewart 9.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 12 K, W (14-11);

Yaaay, shutout, but also noooooo, the … the thing…!!

(glares upwards to the baseball gods)

Game 2
IND: SS Kilday – LF McConnell – CF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – C Lefebvre – 2B R. Vargas – RF S. Thompson – 3B R. Rodriguez – P M. Green
POR: RF Oley – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C M. Chavez – 3B Anderson – 2B Bribiesca – P Argenziano

Matt Kilday opened the game on Tuesday with a single to right, so there went Argenziano’s perfecto bid, but this time it was the Raccoons that threatened to get no-hit, reaching base only with a Rodriguez error that put Brass on base in the bottom 2nd, and he was then doubled off by Marcos Chavez. Todd Oley broke into the H column with a firm leadoff single to right in the bottom 4th, but it took until Brass’ 2-out single to get him off first base, and Starr’s fly to Orlando Ramos stranded both runners and kept the game scoreless.

Argenziano was solid, but not exactly efficient; he allowed only two hits through six innings, and no runs, and walked a pair, but also needed 103 pitches to make it that far and thus wouldn’t go any further. He still got in line for a W – Oley hit another leadoff single in the bottom 6th, stole his sixth base, and then was singled home by Lonzo, who thus got another sniff of a tie for the team RBI lead. 62, baby! 62! Cas forced out Lonzo, but stole second base then, and the bags filled up with a soft single by Brass and a walk issued to Starr. The situation was kindly defused by the local fire department as Chavez and Anderson both struck out in the most refusing way possible.

Tanizaki then had nothing better to do than to blow the lead instantly, yet slowly, in the seventh inning, loading the bases with the 6-7-8 batters and gross ineptitude, then gave up a game-tying sac fly to Matt Green. Ricky Herrera came in for Kilday, who was instead hit for with right-handed Kevin Abel. The bases then emptied on a passed ball, a balk, and a sac fly, while I was increasingly loudly gasping for air. The Raccoons, down 3-1, would get a pinch-hit single from Ben Morris in the seventh, then a single from Starr with two outs in the eighth before Chavez reached on an error by Miguel Morales to extend the inning and get the tying run on board. Jesus Martinez batted for Anderson, but flew out miserably to right. The tying runs were on again in the bottom 9th, with the score still at 3-1 Indy thanks to scoreless relief from Goldfield (!) and Rios. Bribiesca hit a leadoff single to left against Jameel Williams, who then walked Morris in the #9 hole. Brobeck was batting first after a series of double switches, singled to center, and the bags were full… with nobody out. But we had our RBI threat up! Lonzo to the dish! While he did get home a run, he did so with a grounder to Ricardo Vargas at second base, who got Brobeck out at first. The tying run got to third for Caswell, though, and a sac fly to left tied the game. Brass then singled Lonzo to third base with the winning run and two outs against new ham-and-egger Ben Akman, and the game ended on a sharp single through the hole on the right by Joel Starr. 4-3 Critters! Oley 2-4; Brobeck 1-1; Brassfield 3-5; Starr 2-4, BB, RBI; Morris (PH) 1-1, BB; Argenziano 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

First career win for reliever Alex Rios in 32 ABL games.

Paul Labonte was confirmed as out for the year on Wednesday, having suffered a sprained ankle that would keep him out for the last four games and then another few weeks to boot.

Game 3
IND: SS Kilday – RF Lovins – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – CF Oldfield – 3B McConnell – C Villafan – 2B Ewers – P B. Lawrence
POR: LF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Brassfield – C M. Chavez – RF Martinez – 3B Anderson – 2B Bribiesca – P DeRose

DeRose wasn’t slaughtered on sight by the five left-handed sticks atop the Indians order and instead the Coons went up 1-0 when Bribiesca singled in Marcos Chavez in the second inning. Previously, Lonzo had tried to tie Rich de Luna after drawing a walk (!) in the first inning, but was thrown out by Willie Villafan to the dismay of the crowd and his GM.

Top 4th, Orlando Ramos and Bill Quinteros reached base against DeRose to lead off. Two comebackers hit at DeRose then twice led to a force out at second base, but no double play was turned, and the tying run was instead balked in by DeRose with two outs. DeRose kept scratching, though, and held the Indians to four hits in six innings of 1-run ball. He just needed a little help from his friends now. Bottom 6th, Lonzo hit a leadoff single, and the entire ballpark expected him to go, but he didn’t get a jump while Cas was batting, and instead he was off to the races only once the 2-1 pitch was hit by Caswell over Kevin Ewers’ head. Lonzo was chugging for third base while Ewers and Chris Lovins got into each other’s comfort zone trying to field that ball, and instead Ewers kicked it further into the outfield. Lonzo turned third and scored for a 2-1 lead, and Cas reached second base. Brass and Martinez would fill the bases with walks before Joel Starr batted for Anderson and smashed the ball into a double play that kept any additional runs from being scored…

The Coons tacked on in the seventh after DeRose completed a strong 7-frame showing (at least by his standards); Oley walked batting for DeRose, and Pucks then drove another ball over the fence in right for his tenth homer and reclaiming the RBI lead for this scrappy team. Lonzo drew another walk (!), then was caught stealing again (!!) once Melvin Guerra replaced Lawrence. Sencion and Walters held on to the lead in the last two innings and completed the sweep. 4-1 Critters. Puckeridge 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Lavorano 1-2, 2 BB; DeRose 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (3-5);

Sweep! Winning record!

At least until Friday night.

Raccoons (80-79) @ Canadiens (71-88) – September 27-29, 2058

The Coons had already taken the season series, 10-5, and were now playing for a winning record this year, which would require another two wins in Elk City against the #8 offense and #10 pitching of the Continental League. At this point we had already come close to frittering away a protected first-round pick anyway…

Projected matchups:
Ramon Carreno (7-14, 4.52 ERA) vs. Luis Arroyo (8-14, 5.74 ERA)
Chance Fox (6-8, 4.88 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (14-11, 3.52 ERA)
Zach Stewart (14-11, 2.93 ERA) vs. Federico Purificao (1-5, 8.06 ERA)

Because they were *****, the Elks had used left-hander John Morris (11-11, 3.93 ERA) on short rest (!!) on Thursday, and thus we had only three more right-handers to face here. That meant that the Raccoons finished the season by facing 44 straight right-handed pitchers.

Game 1
POR: LF Puckeridge – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – C M. Chavez – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Brobeck – 2B Anderson – P Carreno
VAN: LF D. Garcia – C S. Contreras – RF Magnussen – CF D. Moreno – 2B K. Hawkins – 1B Rosenstiel – 3B Whittington – SS E. Solano – P L. Arroyo

Arroyo lasted only three innings on account of injury, but in that time gave up five hits and two runs, the latter all in the second inning which Chavez opened with a double to center. Starr and Brobeck also had base hits to get runs in. Of course Carreno was Carreno and nothing but sucking was expected from him; he delivered in the bottom of the third, giving up singles to nobodies Thomas Whittington and Edwin Solano, then a triple to PH Chad Walton, which already tied the game. Danny Garcia grounded out sharply to first for no greater gains, but Santiago Contreras’ RBI single, stolen base, and run scored on Damian Moreno’s 2-out hit flipped a 2-run lead into a 2-run deficit. Two more hits by the nobodies in the 7-8 holes and a 3-run homer by Victor Cruz ended Carreno’s season after four innings, trailing 7-2.

Pitching didn’t get much better, with 27 pitches from Mike Goldfield in the bottom 5th. He walked Adam Magnussen and Moreno, then struck out (in full counts) Kyle Hawkins and John Rosenstiel. Whittington finally grounded out. The Raccoons looked beaten, but a rush of singles in the seventh inning sure served to narrow the score again against a parade of Elks relievers. Brobeck singled, Anderson singled, Oley doubled, Pucks at least brought in a run with a groundout, and Lonzo hit an RBI single to get the tying run back to the dish in a 7-5 game, but Caswell popped out and Chavez struck out to pass on the opportunity. Bottom 7th, Contreras and Moreno instead hit singles off lefty Neal Hamann, who was at least soon going to be off the roster, and Tyler Lundberg’s sac fly tacked on a run for Elk City. Another run was beaten out of Brobeck in the eighth inning, but the Raccoons didn’t threaten in the last two innings. 9-5 Canadiens. Caswell 2-4, 2B; Starr 1-2, 2 BB; Brobeck 2-4, RBI; Oley (PH) 2-2, 2B, RBI;

Game 2
POR: CF Oley – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Brassfield – RF Puckeridge – C M. Chavez – 2B Bribiesca – 3B Anderson – P Fox
VAN: LF D. Garcia – C S. Contreras – RF Magnussen – LF D. Moreno – 3B Lundberg – 2B M. Saunders – 1B S. Murphy – SS Hetzel – P Kozloski

There wasn’t much to say about the early innings on Saturday, as there were mostly strikeouts and lazy pops from both sides against two rather punchable pitchers. Speaking of punch, Kozloski punched Fox with a breaking ball in the fifth inning, giving the Coons a free 2-out runner. Oley and Lonzo pounced with singles, driving home the pitcher for a 1-0 lead, then pulled off a double steal, which gave Lonzo #59 on the year and tied him with Rich de Luna on the all-time list, but Starr left them stranded in scoring position as he grounded out to Manny Saunders.

Danny Garcia and Damian Moreno singles off Fox in the bottom 6th meant that the 1-0 lead wasn’t good enough, but the Raccoons at least got seven sturdy innings from a mostly struggling youngster as a high note to the end of a trying half-season for Fox. The offense chose not to reward him with a W, and the game remained tied at one through eight innings, as Ricky Herrera got around a Contreras single for a scoreless eighth. Tanizaki however had another atrocious outing in the ninth, offering a leadoff walk to Moreno and a single to PH Alex Maldonado. Even Chad Walton’s 4-6-3 grounder couldn’t stop the meltdown. Victor Cruz singled up the middle to end the game, bringing in Moreno from third base. 2-1 Canadiens. Oley 2-3, BB; Puckeridge 2-4; Bribiesca 2-4; Caswell (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

With one game to play, the Raccoons still had the chance to wind up with anything between the #10 and the #14 pick in the 2059 draft. The two extremes required an L or a W, respectively, with a corresponding Caps W or Warriors L, plus the luck of the draw. And then we were tied with the equally 80-81 Scorpions and Wolves.

And don’t forget Lonzo and Pucks doling it out for the team RBI title. Both entered Sunday’s season finale with 65 rib-eyes.

Game 3
POR: RF Oley – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Puckeridge – 3B Brobeck – 2B Bribiesca – CF Morris – C Stanton – P Stewart
VAN: 2B M. Saunders – LF K. Hawkins – RF Magnussen – CF D. Moreno – 3B Lundberg – 1B Rosenstiel – C A. Maldonado – SS E. Solano – P Purificao

Magnussen took Stewart deep for a solo home run in the first inning and Stewart was struggling with control early on, while the Raccoons were retired in order the first time through before Todd Oley hit a double to open the fourth inning, providing the deathmatch contenders for the team RBI crown a runner in scoring position. Lonzo popped out and Pucks walked, neither of which was an activity that helped erase the 1-0 deficit and stave off the looming sweep, with Oley left on third base in the inning. In the fifth, Bribiesca and Stanton singles were met with both disbelief and a lack of clutch. Stewart grounded out and Oley popped out to strand the runners in scoring position. It took a walk offered to Starr and Damian Moreno severely misjudging a Brobeck fly with two outs to center to get the tying run home as Brobeck got an RBI double out of the rather catchable ball once Moreno had to reverse and chase it into the deeper outfield. Stewart struggled his way through six innings, then was hit for with Jesus Martinez and one out after Ben Morris had opened the inning with a single to left. Martinez, in a perfect miniature of his extremely lackluster season in Portland, grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Hamann and Siwik held the 1-1 lead in the bottom 7th before Oley and Starr hit singles off George Youngblood to get on base in the eighth inning, although Lonzo and Pucks remained remarkably dull. One popped out, the other grounded out, and Brobeck whiffed to strand the runners altogether. Eloy Sencion got the last two outs in the bottom 8th, following Siwik, then was hit for with Caswell with Matt Stanton on first base in the ninth, having drawn a 2-out walk off Rafael Flores. Caswell socked a ball to the base of the wall in centerfield, and Stanton scored thanks to the early start, breaking the 1-1 tie. Oley singled home Caswell, and the Elks changed pitchers to right-hander Jim Woods. Lonzo still hit another single, and then Starr drove a ball into the right-center gap for a 2-run double. This gave Pucks the chance to boot Lonzo from the tie for the RBI crown, but he grounded out to second-sacker Jason Ashley to end the inning.

The Coons then tried Goldfield for the ninth with a 4-run lead, which soon came to be a 3-run lead on a Moreno single and Lundberg triple. Out with that punk, and in with Matt Walters, who conceded the second run on a single by John Rosenstiel, but then brought the season to a quick close. 5-3 Raccoons. Oley 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Caswell (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

In other news

September 23 – The Blue Sox wrap up the FL East with a 2-1 win against the Cyclones.
September 24 – The Falcons beat the Bayhawks, 5-0, on just two base hits, including a 3-run homer by CHA C/1B Alex Gomez (.239, 11 HR, 53 RBI). Bayhawks pitchers offer ten walks to supply the Falcons with plenty of runners nevertheless.
September 25 – Warriors 1B Miguel Medina (.297, 21 HR, 112 RBI) goes yard three times and drives in five runs in a 9-3 win over the Scorpions.
September 25 – The entire 2059 season of ATL CL Ruben Mendez (6-4, 4.12 ERA, 37 SV) is in actual danger after news that he has shredded a flexor tendon in his elbow.
September 27 – Crusaders SP Joel Luera (18-6, 2.76 ERA) appears to be in playoff form as he no-hits the Indians on two walks and with six strikeouts in a 1-0 New York win. This is the second no-hitter for New York in 24 months after the one pitched by Kyle Turay in Game 2 of the 2056 CLCS against the Falcons. The offense in this game is supplied on a home run by OF Sean Zeiher (.256, 20 HR, 81 RBI).
September 28 – Dallas’ 8-6 loss the Scorpions wins the FL West for the Pacifics despite their own 2-0 loss to the Wolves.
September 28 – Thunder veteran 3B/RF Ed Soberanes (.336, 16 HR, 70 RBI) has put a 20-game hitting streak together with a pair of singles in a 6-5 loss to the Aces.

Complaints and stuff

Lonzo led the entire league in stolen bases, and Zach Stewart finished third in ERA in the CL, which was not necessarily expected. Nor was the team finishing an even 81-81 and in third place (and close to second), albeit 21 games behind the Crusaders.

We also finished tied with the Wolves for the #12 and #13 picks, and we know how that **** goes over at the league office. Maud, we should write an angry letter even now before they bring out the draft order. Get the red stationery, I’m in that mood!

Apart from that it’s now about frowning for the length of the playoffs and then making plans for how to fix this mess in the foreseeable future.

Somebody that can drive in more than 65 runs would be nice for a start. Can that be Joel Starr? He sure had a nice two months here…

Ah, what am I complaining about…? We didn’t even finish last in runs scored, overtaking the Indians by 10 runs at the very end there.

Fun Fact: Monday marked Zach Stewart’s first career shutout in 167 games started.

Also only his second complete game. He was used out of the pen a lot in his first few years with the Wolves (106 relief appearances), but his stamina wasn’t *that* bad…!

[Westheim]

(politely knocks on door)

Have you heard about our newest joy and timewaster, Palworld? It consumed me whole this week. You may have noticed. No, no, the Coons are alright. I think. (carefully opens the box, takes a peek, closes box) Could have used more holes for fresh air, I guess.

Anyway, playoffs, and then I have to go back and slaugh- I mean, catch pals.

(realizes he’s held his butcher knife in his hand all the while, and quickly hides it behind his back)

+++

2058 ABL PLAYOFFS

Only two teams won in excess of 88 games this year, and they were joined by two 86-win teams in the playoffs that had found the right time to be just that little bit about average to get into October baseball.

The 102-60 Crusaders had demolished the CL North again, putting up the most runs and giving up the fewest runs in the league. Their rotation was the best in the land, and they had strong defense, and the most prolific power hitters in the CL as well. It was hard to find actual issues with the roster, which had CL home run king Zach Suggs (.284, 29 HR, 103 RBI), rookie Sean Zeiher (.253, 21 HR, 84 RBI), and Raul Sevilla (.279, 22 HR, 89 RBI) in the middle and surrounded by both speed and even more power, like Gunner Epperson (.258, 19 HR, 70 RBI). The rotation was led by Ben Seiter (19-8, 3.37 ERA) and Joel Luera (18-6, 2.76 ERA) and they could afford the luxury to turn a strong starter like Kennedy Adkins (11-4, 2.83 ERA, 20 SV) into a closer mid-season. If you had to find a weak spot it was probably the bullpen, with the back end being a bit squishy at times, but it was hard to poke holes into the roster the Crusaders had going here.

The 86-76 Knights had made it out of the CL South by just two games, and not with all parts still attached, having lost Jon Alade (.253, 7 HR, 39 RBI) and various bit players and relievers along the way. They had produced the second-most runs in the CL, but had also allowed the fourth-most, and even the lineup that remained looked a bit middling, since big power was absent besides CL RBI champion Doug Triplett (.273, 19 HR, 113 RBI). Josh Abercrombie (.294, 7 HR, 96 RBI) and Willie Acosta (.312, 13 HR, 96 RBI) did good jobs, but the Knights shouldn’t get into a home run contest with the Crusaders… or anybody. In the rotation, Jeremy Fetta (10-11, 3.47 ERA) was the only starter with an ERA under four, and he hadn’t even posted a winning record. Vic Harman (17-9, 4.04 ERA) had the best Knights record. The bullpen was exciting in all the wrong way, and they were bottoms in stolen bases.

The Pacifics made the playoffs from the FL West with the same 86-76 record, beating the Stars by one game and almost all of the division by no more than six. This FLCS would not feature a FL leader in any major individual category, even though L.A.’s Matt Diskin (.329, 25 HR, 91 RBI) had sure tried to be competitive in all of them. Jesus Espinoza (.313, 14 HR, 77 RBI) was also productive, but after that the FL’s #3 offense quickly started to become “good but not great” all through the lineup. The team led the league in stolen bases, but also gave up the fourth-most runs in the FL with a pitching staff and defense best described as “average”. Only Andy Overy (16-8, 3.58 ERA) and Josh Clem (11-12, 4.48 ERA) even qualified for the ERA title as the Pacifics struggled with injuries, which limited Ivan Torres (6-4, 3.57 ERA) to 20 starts, but in turn they were healthy *now*, with nobody from the 40-man roster on the DL entering the FLCS.

The 97-65 Blue Sox rather comfortably won the FL East by nine games, ranking fifth in runs scored in the FL, but allowing the fewest runs with a strong rotation, the best pen, and best defense. They also led the Federal League in homers, but a middling OBP meant that there were a lot of solo shots in there. However, they could field no fewer than seven batters with 13+ homers, with three of them – David Johnson (.279, 26 HR, 93 RBI), Nick Nye (.312, 22, 87 RBI), and Andy Metz (.303, 23 HR, 90 RBI) putting up more than 20 each – and six of those seven power players also batted .265 or better. Nobody drew walks, but how many walks do you realistically need? The rotation featured a trio of 3.50-ish ERA players with nearly identical records also: Richard Castillo (16-6, 3.54 ERA) from the right side and Travis Baker (17-9, 3.45 ERA) and Coby Strutz (17-10, 3.43 ERA) from the left.

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In terms of playoff appearances, this was the 19th (t-3rd with the Titans) for the Pacifics, the 16th for the Blue Sox, the 15th for the Crusaders, and the 12th for the Knights. 20 previous championships were assembled in the playoffs, with the Crusaders having eight (t-2nd with the Raccoons), the Pacifics six, the Blue Sox five, and the Knights just one, but they were nevertheless very protective of that one.

The Knights returned to the playoffs after two years of finishing second following their 2055 championship run. The Crusaders won the CL North for the third year in a row, and had most recently taken the title in 2056. The Pacifics also made the playoffs for the third year in a row, but hadn’t lifted the trophy since 2032. The Blue Sox were the defending champs, having ended a 17-year playoffs drought in 2057. Even more remarkably, the Blue Sox’ three most recent playoff appearances (2057, 2039, 2037) all resulted in championships.

So the FLCS was a rematch from last season, when the Blue Sox had obviously gotten the longer end of the stick over the Pacifics, but this was the only previous instance of those teams having met in the FLCS. The Crusaders and Knights had met twice in the CLCS in 1979 and 2009, and both times the Crusaders had not only won the series but then also the championship. Either the Crusaders or Knights had been in the CLCS for the last six years in a row, but this was the first time they actually met there in that particular stretch.

Previous World Series meetings between the four teams involved included 1986, when the Blue Sox beat the Knights, 2011, when the Pacifics beat the Crusaders, and last season’s World Series combo in which the Blue Sox beat the Crusaders. The betting conglomerates also clearly favored a rematch of the 2057 World Series for this year, with the Knights being picked to get swept by many pundits and fans.

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2058 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

ATL @ NYC … 3-2 … (Knights lead 1-0) … ATL Josh Abercrombie 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; NYC Gunner Epperson 2-4, 2 RBI;

So much for pundits.

LAP @ NAS … 6-4 … (Pacifics lead 1-0) …
ATL @ NYC … 5-3 … (Knights lead 2-0) … ATL Willie Acosta 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI;

LAP @ NAS … 1-0 … (Pacifics lead 2-0) … LAP Todd Eaton 2-3, 3B, RBI; LAP William McColgin 2-3, BB; LAP Jim Reynolds 8.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0); NAS Travis Baker 8.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, L (0-1);

Todd Eaton triples home Steven Heiden for the game’s only run in the sixth inning, which puts both odds-favorites down a combined 0-4.

NYC @ ATL … 4-9 … (Knights lead 3-0) … NYC Raul Sevilla 2-4, 2B, RBI; ATL Marco Nieto 2-5, 3B; ATL Willie Acosta 2-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; ATL Juan Luna 2-3, BB, 2 RBI;

NAS @ LAP … 9-0 … (Pacifics lead 2-1) … NAS Malik Crumble 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; NAS Nick Nye 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; NAS Tony Roman 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; NAS Coby Strutz 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (1-0);
NYC @ ATL … 0-6 … (Knights win 4-0) … ATL Marco Nieto 3-5, 3B, RBI; ATL Dan Nork 3-5, 2B; ATL Vic Harman 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, W (2-0);

Well, sweep they said!

NAS @ LAP … 5-2 … (series tied 2-2) … NAS John Webler 2-4, 3 RBI; NAS Jay Gunderson 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

NAS @ LAP … 10-8 (13) … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … NAS Alvin Aguilera 3-4, BB; NAS Nick Nye 2-6, BB, HR, 4 RBI; NAS Josh Bratlien 3-6; LAP Jose Espinoza 3-7, RBI; LAP Matt McInnis 4-6, BB, 2 RBI; LAP Matt Diskin 4-7, 2B, 4 RBI;

High drama in pivotal Game 5 of the FLCS as the teams are tied at five through eight innings, then both score a run in an indecisive ninth before the Blue Sox hit a pair of bombs in the 13th inning with David Johnson (.238, 1 HR, 2 RBI) and Nick Nye (.250, 1 HR, 6 RBI). The Pacifics almost manage to make up the difference in their half of the 13th inning, but Matt Diskin (.417, 1 HR, 6 RBI) falls short of a game-tying grand slam, has to settle for a 2-out, 2-run double, and the game ends with Bobby Anderson (.263, 0 HR, 1 RBI) grounding out.

Meanwhile, the 38-year-old Aguilera has his first four at-bats since August 26, coming off the bench when Andy Metz (.235, 0 HR, 0 RBI) is ejected for arguing strike three in the very first inning. Metz is then suspended for two games, including a potential Game 7.

LAP @ NAS … 12-2 … (series tied 3-3) … LAP Jesus Espinoza 4-6, 3B, RBI; LAP Jesse Sweeney 4-5, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; LAP Josh Cline 3-5, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; LAP William McColgin 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

LAP @ NAS … 1-6 … (Blue Sox win 4-3) … LAP Jesse Sweeney 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; NAS Edwin Flores 3-5, 2B, RBI; NAS David Johnson 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; NAS Coby Strutz 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI;

Turns out the Sox do just fine without Andy Metz as another makeshift first baseman – Flores – opens the bottom 6th with a double and then scores on Nick Nye’s single to tie the game, while Johnson then goes yard for the game-winning RBI’s.

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2058 WORLD SERIES

Andy Metz returned from the penalty bench for the Blue Sox in the World Series, but the Sox had shed MR Ryan Hogues (6-2, 2.85 ERA, 1 SV) in the FLCS. This injury could probably be compensated for with the offense that remained strong and might yet feast on the Knights’ pitching staff, although that was what people said about the Crusaders’ offense before their series against Atlanta that turned into something like Napoleon’s 1812 Russian adventure.

The Knights stayed just as injured as they were before the CLCS, and were now a bit aloof after dispatching of the Crusaders so easily. They had been idle for six days by the time of Game 1, however, so this could well throw off their timing.

This was thus a rematch of the 1986 World Series, which the Sox had won in a sweep, also after going the full distance in the FLCS, then against the Stars.

+++

ATL @ NAS … 9-6 (10) … (Knights lead 1-0) … ATL Josh Abercrombie 3-6, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Malik Crumble 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; NAS Andy Metz 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; NAS Nick Nye 2-5, HR, RBI;

Three in the ninth and three in the tenth help the Knights to unpick the Blue Sox’ bullpen after they trailed for most of a game.

ATL @ NAS … 6-1 … (Knights lead 2-0) … ATL Dan Nork 2-3, 2 BB; ATL Josh Abercrombie 2-5, 3 RBI; ATL Doug Triplett 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; ATL Enrique Ortiz 7.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 10 K, W (2-0);

NAS @ ATL … 6-2 … (Knights lead 2-1) … NAS Tony Roman 3-5, HR, RBI; NAS Tony Ontiveroz 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; NAS Coby Strutz 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-0); ATL Willie Acosta 3-4, 2B, RBI;

NAS @ ATL … 3-0 … (series tied 2-2) … NAS Andy Metz 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; NAS Richard Castillo 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-1);

The Blue Sox go from 0-2 to 2-2. Where have we seen that before?

NAS @ ATL … 4-2 … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … NAS Nick Nye 2-5, 2 2B, RBI;

ATL @ NAS … 3-4 … (Blue Sox win 4-2) …

In a weird game, the two hits combine for nine base hits, but draw 13 walks off the starters ATL Morgan Aben (0-1, 3.52 ERA) and NAS Levi Harre (1-0, 5.56 ERA) alone, who somehow never suffer enough damage to get removed before the eighth inning. The Blue Sox put four early on Aben, and the Knights spend the rest of the game never quite catching up even as the Blue Sox go through four different pitchers in the eighth inning, in which ATL Gaudencio Callaia () doubles with runners on first and second and the Knights down by a pair. Josh Abercrombie scores, but Doug Triplett is thrown out at the plate with the tying run by Tony Roman.

The Blue Sox hold on with Kevin Hitchcock in the ninth inning and become the first team to successfully defend a title since the Gold Sox’ run of four straight championships from 2049 through 2052.

+++

2058 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Nashville Blue Sox
(6th title)

[Westheim]

After a trying season that somehow ended with an even 81-81 record, but three straight non-winning seasons, the first such instance since the 2030-32 seasons, the Raccoons continued to tread water by having their budget stay the same as it was in 2058 for the upcoming 2059 season. Nick Valdes sent no love from the top of his newly built ebony tower in upstate Oregon, from which he had a splendid look of the surrounding landscape, and where everybody else couldn’t escape seeing that bloody tower, and did not send no additional dollars either, just make do with $54M again. Thing was, though, that in 2058 that budget was still good enough to rank 12th among all teams in the league, and now we slipped down to 14th.

Top 5: Crusaders ($83M), Knights ($77M), Pacifics ($74M), Miners ($74M), Thunder ($69M)
Bottom 5: Rebels ($43.5M), Cyclones ($42M), Condors ($41.5M), Indians ($38M), Aces ($32.5M)

Top 5: Crusaders ($82M), Knights ($71M), Thunder ($70M), Scorpions ($68M), Pacifics and Miners ($66M each)
Bottom 5: Cyclones ($44.5M), Blue Sox ($43M), Condors ($41.5M), Indians ($37M), Aces ($30.5M)

The CL North was entirely dwarfed by the Crusaders’ strategy of buying rings. The Titans (11th, $56M) and Elks (t-12th, $55M) ranked right around the middle of the league with the Critters, while the Loggers (t-18th, $49M) were juuust staying out of the pauper zone.

The average budget for a team in the league rose to $56.17M, up almost $1.2M from last season, while the median team budget was $55M, up, as we noticed a hefty $2.5M from last year.

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There were ten personnel files to go through for salary arbitration and free agency this time around. Arbitration concerned singularly the bullpen, were Matt Walters, Takenori Tanizaki, Ivan Ornelas, and Reynaldo Bravo were all up for it, and I didn’t see a reason to pour out any one of them with the bathwater.

The free agency list included a few players that we’d been aware of them just sitting out their contracts for a while. Neal Hamann, who arrived to make the deal for Morgan Lathers work, and ironically kept on the roster while Lathers was banished in the summer, pitched below replacement level (-0.2 WAR) for the not exactly cheap going rate of $2.68M. Steve Royer was doing some good work in the field and had that hot start to the season, but in three seasons in Portland he had never managed to bat for league average, but had chased almost $10M, and the Raccoons needed offense in the worst way.

Then there was Kyle Brobeck, who had been some thing or other on the roster for the entire decade, but by now was a losing bet on the hill, and in the field, and in the box, pitching woefully, batting below-average, and fielding like he had hooks for paws. It was time to let go of this peculiar experiment, and third base was at the very top of our wishlist for the offseason. Besides, y’know, pitchers that can actually pitch. Brobeck would leave behind batting .292 with 31 HR and 206 RBI in nine seasons (though only two as a full-time hitter), and a 48-48 record with 4.52 ERA and a sole save when pitching across 873.2 innings.

The other two cases were interesting. Eloy Sencion was sturdy in the pen, though sometimes erratic. No major complaints, but one wondered whether we could save money by letting him go, since younger left-handers were in theory available. And then there was Pucks, who had batted for OPS+ values of 132, 130, and 146 in his age 23 through 25 seasons. He was now 30, and had dragged his bum to roundabout league average for three straight seasons.

His case was tricky, since there was to consider what else we had. Caswell and Starr from the left side, and Brass from the right; and, well, there was no way of getting rid of Martinez, or improving substantially on our middle infielders, who were likely to be at the top of the lineup again. Building an all-alternating right-left-right-left lineup was possible with or without Pucks, but we also had to figure out backstop and third base. Whether Pucks hung around was probably depending on how much he thought he was worth. So far he played league average ball for $2M annually…

The tenth personnel question on the table was Lonzo, who had arrived at the final, team option year of his 6-year, $7.64M contract signed before the 2054 season. To be honest, he was still doing the exact same thing as back then, maybe with a tad less extra-base power, and some 20 points less batting average. He had never been a slugger (more career homers than Brobeck, though), but he was well nestled in the #2 spot and creating disturbances around the basepaths. His defense was still alright – he had even cut down on the errors that had crept into his game in the last few seasons; 19 errors in ’57, just six this year in the big-picture-same number of innings. Why am I even waffling around? (slams [EXTENDED] stamp on the option form)

We’re probably not signing Lonzo to a 7-year deal, but wouldn’t it be nice to have him storm all the way to the top of the stolen base mountain as a Critter? It was a huge stretch to make it in two years, but to get there in *three* he’d only need to steal 50.33 bags on average, and the worst season tally of his career in a healthy season so far was 55.

Apart from these the team faces the same known issues; a rotation in disarray, where the situation was tumultuous enough that we seriously considered having Cameron Argenziano on the Opening Day roster, when in his last nine starts of the year he went just 5.7 innings on average, but still posted a 2-0 record with a 3.16 ERA. Didn’t allow an earned run in four of those nine … (scratches head with hindpaw) I don’t get it. With the Alley Cats he lost SEVEN games in a 9-start stretch just before he was called up in June out of desperation. I plainly don’t get that guy…

The pen was probably gonna be fine, but catching was a bloody mess, third base was completely open and there was some mystery around what would become of Pucks, Sencion, the Chavezes, and perhaps more.

[Westheim]

Yes, the Raccoons got lobbed the #13 pick for next year’s draft again, but thankfully I had already had Maud prepare an angry letter to the Random Office at League HQ, bitterly complaining about the surprisingly regular random short stick the Raccoons were getting in these regards!

With that out of the way, we could start looking at improving the roster, and obviously we needed offense. Joel Starr (.318/.388/.506 in 56 games) seemed to finally make for an honest attempt to fill first base with an actual first baseman rather than a surplus outfielder. He was not really fast though, despite having timing down and being able to steal the odd base mostly by reading the pitcher like an open book; he stole one base with the Coons in ’58 and three with the Alley Cats, and had as many as seven in a season since turning pro. He was not necessarily what I wanted ahead of Lonzo, though. How about a quick, high-OBP third-baseman, though? That would be something!

It looked like the Miners’ Victor Corrales would not resign with them and become a free agent. Now, Corrales was going to be 32 in December, but he was a career .312/.358/.476 hitter with 254 stolen bases and 184 home runs. It almost seemed like a bit of a waste to put him in the leadoff spot, though given his home run crown in 2054 and the four times he led the FL in RBI. I mean, we already had our most prolific RBI menace batting second in Lonzo (…), so the lineup all looked a bit inside-out with that. Zach Suggs was also an upcoming free agent that could play third, but didn’t have that good an arm and it wasn’t gonna get better going forwards either. And those two were really *it* in terms of high-profile upcoming free agents for the left side of the infield. They would obviously both cost that #13 pick.

But free agents would only arrive on the market in November. Still in October, however, the Raccoons signed the first two extensions with arbitration cases. Reynaldo Bravo stayed on for $520k in 2059, while Matt Walters had his remaining arbitration years and then another three years after that bought out with a high-rolling 5-year, $11.1M contract. It was actually flat at $2.22M per season since I figured we might still have more budget space left open *now* while gearing up for a run at the top of the division, which would not happen in 2059 either, but we were trying, really, honestly, we were plucking away at it…

Another new contract was signed with Eloy Sencion, who would hang around for another three years and $1.2M annually and $3.6M in total.

+++

October 21 – The Titans acquire MR Josh Carlisle (5-12, 3.57 ERA, 2 SV) from the Gold Sox for two prospects.
November 4 – The Capitals pick up 29-year-old Cincy right-hander Hector Estevez (28-21, 4.19 ERA) in a trade for #200 prospect SP Jason Carlson. Estevez was a regular starting pitcher for the Cyclones from 2054 through 2057, but missed most of ’58 with a torn rotator cuff.

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November also brought a new $1M deal with Ivan Ornelas for the 2059 season. That only left Tanizaki among the arbitration cases. To be honest, I was not impressed with his impression of being worth over $1.5M a year, and the Raccoons were actively looking to ship the right-hander outta town now.

Also… It was conspicuously silent on the Pucks front at this point. Surely we’d announce a new 7-year deal soon, right?

Right?

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2058 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: TOP LF/RF Dan Martin (.308, 31 HR, 145 RBI) and ATL 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.312, 13 HR, 96 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DEN SP Nick Robinson (13-10, 2.67 ERA) and NYC SP Joel Luera (18-6, 2.76 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SAL C Ben Newman (.281, 22 HR, 89 RBI) and NYC OF Sean Zeiher (.253, 21 HR, 84 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: SFW SP/MR Phil Baker (12-3, 1.98 ERA) and CHA CL Joe Gowin (4-4, 2.22 ERA, 35 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P WAS Troy Ratliff – C TOP Matt McLaren – 1B RIC Mario Delgadillo – 2B WAS Joo-chan Lee – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS NAS Nick Nye – LF TOP Dan Martin – CF NAS Tony Roman – RF LAP Matt Diskin
Platinum Sticks (CL): BOS P Ryan Musgrave – C ATL Marco Nieto – 1B MIL Dave Robles – 2B ATL Willie Acosta – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS NYC Zach Suggs – LF LVA Ken Hummel – CF POR Noah Caswell – RF LVA Aubrey Austin
Gold Gloves (FL): P SFW Ed Nadeau – C NAS David Johnson – 1B SAL Belchior Fresco – 2B DEN Je-ju Seul – 3B PIT Victor Corrales – SS TOP Jesus Nunez – LF SFW Elmer Maldonado – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF NAS Tony Ontiveroz
Gold Gloves (CL): P BOS Jason Brenize – C MIL Jonathan Dye – 1B TIJ Harry Ramsay – 2B NYC Omar Sanchez – 3B ATL Doug Triplett – SS LVA Miguel Veguilla – LF OCT Tim Weant – CF TIJ Bobby Fish – RF SFB Chris Tomko

[Westheim]

The Raccoons got the first W of the new season in mid-November when we won the arbitration hearing against Takenori Tanizaki. Cristiano Carmona’s presentation to the arbiter consisted of 30 seconds of video from a few of those 3- and 4-run meltdowns he was a key part in, and then the hammer came down. Tanizaki got $1.3M for the new season, and not a dime more, let alone another 300 grand.

None of the other free agents apart from Eloy Sencion signed a new contract. With terrible chest pain I let go of Pucks, who had been very average for a few years now, and the Raccoons needed better than average… (wipes a tear away) … For his career in brown, Pucks batted .284/.351/.419 with 1,214 hits, 111 homers, 610 RBI, and 157 stolen bases. This year he hit just .270 with 10 homers and 65 RBI (still co-leading the sullen team), and all these numbers had been more impressive a few years back; .312 with 26 HR, 107 RBI in ’53, anyone?

Brobeck, Royer, Hamann all became free agents as well. A few minor leaguers elected minor league free agency, but the only one of them that actually made it to the majors was Ryan Allred, who did not appear for the Raccoons in 2058. He batted .263 with 2 HR, 37 RBI in bits of three different seasons at second base.

Five minutes later, the next regular was out the door, as the Raccoons ended the experiment with the “power-hitting” defensively-deficient catcher and shipped out Marcos Chavez. No immediate replacement was at paw so the Raccoons now officially had a second position in the lineup to fill with no serious competition in sight despite lots of litter on the roster around it.

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November 14 – The Raccoons send 26-year-old C Marcos Chavez (.245, 25 HR, 135 RBI) to the Loggers for 25-year-old OF Kelly Konecny (.324, 3 HR, 69 RBI).
November 17 – The Crusaders acquire 2B/SS Nick Fowler (.281, 16 HR, 146 RBI) from the Condors for LF/RF Scott Moore (.188, 3 HR, 21 RBI).
November 17 – San Francisco receives SP Jesse Connors (13-21, 4.31 ERA) in a trade with the Rebels. The 26-year-old left-hander costs them the #42 prospect SP Eric Matthews.
November 22 – Former Crusaders INF Zach Suggs (.303, 227 HR, 939 RBI) picks up an offer from the Buffaloes, who will pay the 32-year-old $24.4M over four years.
November 22 – 34-year-old SP Alfredo Llamas (115-104, 3.66 ERA) returns to the Thunder on a 2-yr, $6.1M deal after two years with the Wolves.
November 23 – At age 36, C/1B Kevin Weese (.299, 134 HR, 857 RBI), who split 2058 between the Canadiens and Gold Sox, signs a 2-yr, $5.28M contract with the Stars.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft; 26 players are taken across two rounds. The Condors draft 27-yr old AAA 2B/OF Daniel Amburn (.185, 0 HR, 6 RBI) from the Raccoons. The Rebels draft 23-yr old AAA OF Jose Estrada from the Raccoons. The Raccoons draft 22-year-old AA CL Bryan Roper from the Blue Sox and 26-year-old AAA INF David Gonzales (.223, 2 HR, 10 RBI) from the Cyclones.

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Something we didn’t talk much about in hopes other teams wouldn’t realize: Marcos Chavez led the CL in strikeout percentage last season, and at the same time struggled to hold on to strike three. That’s the Loggers’ problem now. Meanwhile, Konecny is a defensive zoomer that can also steal lots of bases and who has put together quite an OBP in spotty service with the Loggers. His BABIP is astronomical (I’ve been warned by everybody in the office, even Chad), but like the natives of this vast continent used the whole of the buffalo, he uses the whole of the field to spray his hits. No power threat, but there is a thought in my head that he could still play rightfield if Martinez stinks up the joint, and he would be a great option to have ahead of Lonzo with that OBP and that speed.

Our Rule 5 haul gives us a clearly underdone right-hander with a mean old slider that will perhaps survive the season and perhaps not, and another value bin selection for the ongoing third base drama. What, did you find Arturo Bribiesca (.245, 9 HR, 51 RBI), Richard Anderson (.186, 2 HR, 10 RBI), and/or Tony Benitez (.178, 0 HR, 4 RBI) appealing at all?

I’m sure it will all go to hell from here somehow…

[Westheim]

As soon as the winter meetings started, the Raccoons got lots of ho-hum catchers offered by other shady teams that invariably wanted prospect Brett Cotton in return, which is how the universe lets you know that you might be holding a trump without knowing it. The right-handed Floridian had been our #9 pick in the 2057 draft and had reached Ham Lake last year at the tender age of 19. He made 23 starts between Aumsville and Ham Lake, going 10-8 with a 3.93 ERA combined. While walks were up around 4.8/9 combined, so were the strikeouts, and he had been betrayed by defense. His season had also been cut short by an elbow complaint in August, but there was no reason to believe he was damaged goods. He had been ranked the #169 prospect before last season, but I had a hunch that he’d make a leap in the new rankings come spring.

Cotton was thus off limits to teams, which at the same time also very much limited how much trade value we actually held.

Trying to move forwards rather than sideways required us to hold on to the two good starting pitchers we had (sad Cameron Argenziano noises from somewhere) as well as Brass and Cas. Nobody was asking much for any other batter on the roster, including Joel Starr and his strong half-season (generously rounding up here).

The Victor Corrales bidding war was also heating up during the winter meetings. When we approached him we offered five years at $5M each, which sounded like a reasonable offer to a to-be-32-year-old, who thought of a similar contract structure, only with the number 7 featuring prominently. Then the stupid Stars rolled in and offered $6M a year. The thing here was that we were no longer in a situation of being able to simply out-bid everybody – that was last year, when we threw all the money at Cas (yay!), Tipsy Bobby (yay!), and Jesus Martinez (yikes!). While we could fit a $6M deal into the budget – Royer and Pucks departing had freed up $5M in budget space alone – going much beyond that would require some creativity. And we didn’t have a catcher yet.

I snuck around the Gold Sox and Pacifics a bit for Andre Monroe and Manny Poindexter, respectively. They were not remotely the same type of player; Poindexter was 32 and more of a bat with average defense, and we knew him quite well from the seven years he spent with the Arrowheads to begin his career, while Monroe was 27 and more of a defensive option and on a minimum contract, while Poindexter made north of $2M (but only for one more season before becoming a free agent) and was a struggle to fit into the budget while we were also after Corrales. The thing was that the Gold Sox were rebuilding and didn’t really want to let go of Monroe without a younger option, and the Pacifics *did* have a very promising young catcher poking up in Angel Perez, but were not happy with what I was willing to dangle.

+++

December 4 – The Canadiens bring back left-handed SP Andy Overy (121-100, 3.77 ERA), who already pitched for them in 2054, but has spent the last four years in California with the Bayhawks and Pacifics, on a 4-yr, $18.88M contract.
December 4 – Former Stars 1B Jay Rogers (.269, 157 HR, 628 RBI) gets a 2-yr, $6.08M contract with the Capitals.
December 4 – The Capitals also bring in SP Adam Freedman (24-17, 4.24 ERA) in a trade with the Rebels that sees a prospect going to Richmond.
December 4 – In a separate trade, the Rebels bring in 2B/SS Nate Pietsch (.244, 7 HR, 54 RBI) from the Wolves for young 2B Miguel Falcon (.281, 0 HR, 12 RBI) and a prospect.
December 4 – The Wolves are also active with the Indians, importing 1B/2B/LF Bernie Bahena (.252, 7 HR, 58 RBI) and a prospect while C Fernando Carranza (.233, 13 HR, 184 RBI) and $900k in cash go to the Indians.
December 5 – The Falcons acquire SP Adam Middleton (113-88, 3.90 ERA) from the Gold Sox for three prospects, including #156 SP Alex Gomez.
December 5 – The Capitals spend $9.36M over three years for overhyped former Crusaders CL Ben Lussier (43-53, 3.78 ERA, 234 SV).
December 6 – The Condors and Pacifics exchange 25-year-old starting pitchers. L.A. sends Travis Odon (18-19, 3.57 ERA) to the Condors for SP Jose Salazar (16-19, 4.16 ERA). Three prospects are also involved in the trade, none of them ranked.
December 6 – The Titans deal OF/1B Israel Santiago (.263, 11 HR, 99 RBI) to the Scorpions for SP Jayden Craddock (7-10, 4.29 ERA), who was the #41 prospect going into the 2058 season.
December 9 – The Titans ink ex-SFB 3B Randy Wilken (.249, 244 HR, 966 RBI) for just $970k for the 2059 season.
December 12 – The Knights throw a 2-yr, $9.68M contract at 37-year-old ex-LAP RF Matt Diskin (.325, 325 HR, 1,392 RBI), who can barely run these days.
December 13 – The Raccoons re-acquire 27-year-old right-hander Duarte Damasceno (6-0, 3.46 ERA) from the Bayhawks in exchange for 28-year-old AAA 1B Aaron Wade (.155, 2 HR, 9 RBI).

+++

Overall the winter meetings came and went and the Raccoons didn’t have any new players to show off. Instead we cleaned the roster a bit. Ben Morris and Mike Goldfield were nowhere near a roster spot come April and were outrighted back to the Alley Cats. Same for Colby Bowen, who had to pass through waivers, but it’s not like that was a new experience for him. Bowen will be 30 in January.

One day, he’ll pan out, surely.

The most meager of deals was made with the Baybirds to bring back Damasceno, who had been included in the huge deal for Sean Suggs (recently retired) in 2051, and had since been a bit of a quad-A guy for the Bayhawks, making the occasional appearance in the majors before inevitably being sent back to AAA Baton Rouge. Damasceno had the stuff, but not the control, and he had stamina, but only one start in the majors. He was another headscratcher for a team that wasn’t short on headscratchers, but he gave us *something* for Wade, who was 28 and would have been released before the start of the season since we already had two young first baseman haggling for playing time with the Alley Cats for the new year, Forbes Tomlin and Joe Agee. The two had crashed 38 homers in total for Ham Lake last year before jointly moving up to St. Pete in September, where they Agee hit one in ten games, but Tomlin didn’t do much (but hey, small sample size). Agee was the more promising one, though.

Finally, hey, a new Hall of Fame ballot, with the most interesting new candidate being All-Oregon darling Armando Herrera, who in the 2040s won four rings, split evenly between the Wolves and Critters.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons’ offseason fell apart on December 15, when Victor Corrales, who had first been offered an eye-watering $31M, then $32.5M over five years by the Raccoons, came back claiming that the Scorpions were offering over $37M for five years with a contract paying $7.55M next year. That would make him the highest-paid player in the league, and it wasn’t like I was averse to having the highest-paid player on the roster in general, but we didn’t actually have that budget space without making room first. No new offer was made, and now the Raccoons were halfway through the offseason without a proper rotation (still), no catcher (self-inflicted wound), and no third baseman north of Richard ******* Anderson.

The worst part? Corrales was bluffing all the time. *******.

+++

December 17 – The Scorpions sign former Miners INF Victor Corrales (.312, 184 HR, 1,089 RBI) to a 5-year, $33M contract.
December 18 – Salem adds ex-LAP SP Jim Reynolds (100-72, 3.47 ERA) on a 2-yr, $13.8M deal.

+++

****.

For a while we used to shrug and say, oh well, somebody’s gotta bat eighth, right? Problem is, we don’t have anybody batting eighth, fourth, or first, and things are getting a bit frustrating right now. Losing out on Corrales left us picking through a pile of 31-year-olds that had a good year in like ’54 and then nothing after that. Lots of Marty Serna, Jon Elkins, Juan Ojeda and the like…

+++

December 22 – Los Angeles acquires former Aces SP Josh Wilson (98-92, 4.13 ERA) with a 6-year, $24M contract.
December 22 – The Knights add former Pacifics 1B Chris Rice (.303, 75 HR, 382 RBI) as free agent. The 32-year-old will make $26M over five years.
December 23 – At the Bay, they have a new closer; San Francisco signs former Falcons CL Joe Gowin (28-22, 3.00 ERA, 55 SV) to a 2-year, $10.4M deal.
December 30 – Pittsburgh snatches ex-SFB 1B/C Jon Mittleider (.299, 55 HR, 696 RBI) as the last remaining type-A free agent. The 35-year-old’s services will cost $14.4M over three years.
January 3 – The Crusaders acquire longtime Knights OF/1B Jon Alade (.285, 147 HR, 783 RBI) with a $1.68M contract offer for 2059.
January 4 – Former Thunder catcher Luke Burnham (.259, 50 HR, 291 RBI) winds up with the Canadiens thanks to a 4-year, $8.96M contract offer.
January 5 – The Miners sign 36-year-old former Warriors SP Bubba Wolinsky (124-99, 3.66 ERA) to a 2-year, $10.2M contract.
January 9 – Cincinnati secures more pitching with the addition of 30-year-old ex-SFB SP Bob Ruggiero (52-68, 4.22 ERA) on a 2-year, $4.32M contract.
January 12 – The Loggers acquire C Chris Maresh (.242, 39 HR, 214 RBI) from the Rebels. The 29-year-old catcher comes with $540k in cash and costs them 27-yr old RF/LF Ryan Bishton (.260, 18 HR, 170 RBI).
January 18 – The Raccoons sign 25-year-old INF Vernon Hudalla (.189, 1 HR, 6 RBI) to a $550k contract.

+++

Well, at least we get to keep our #13 pick. (sour face)

Jon Elkins signed with Richmond on Christmas Eve, removing another option before we even offered a contract. I was then trying to get a hold of Marty Serna, who signed with the Titans instead.

But rejoice, boys and girls – we got Vernon Hudalla! – *Hu-dal-la*. – Note that I wasn’t very specific on where he last played, because it’s complicated. He made 16 appearances with the Wolves as a 23-year-old in ’56 and then spent all of ’57 in the minors before he became a minor league free agent, signed a minor-league deal with a major-league option that wasn’t picked up by the Stars, signed with and was released by the Miners, and then signed with the Caps and became a minor league free agent again.

On the street, one Justin DeRose collectible card is worth seven Vernon Hudallas. He looked so starved on his BNN profile that it melted my heart. Where else would we put our money in January anyway?

No, Maud, I can’t take Nick Valdes on line 2 right now. – (waves paws) I have … I can’t tell him anything!! – Make up something about the weather, I’m begging you!!

Catcher remained a sore spot as well. In January I gnawed on the Gold Sox once more regarding Andre Monroe, but they weren’t exactly impressed with the assortment of relievers I was offering.

Another prospect, besides Brett Cotton, that seemed to be getting a lotta love from other teams now was July 2055 IFA signing Miguel Ulloa, who had cost all of $24k back then and was now hitting quite a few singles while burning up the base paths in Ham Lake as a 19-year-old (!) last year. Only mild problems here, like him being a bit illiterate to the concept of ball four and not having a real position to play at. He was best charitably described as a second baseman and outfielder, but wasn’t excelling at any of those positions. You might try and hide him in plain sight, e.g. leftfield.

Other former Furballs with new teams to mess with: Matt Knight got 2-yr, $944k from the Falcons; Oscar Caballero signed with the ******* Scorpions for $1.46M; Pucks inexplicably settled for a $900k contract offer by the Rebels; Richmond also picks up John Scott on a 3-year, $6.72M contract;

+++

2059 HALL OF FAME BALLOT

The Hall of Fame got one new member in 2059, as centerfielder Armando Herrera was elected to the holy shrine of the ABL in his first year on the ballot. Herrera, a #11 draft pick, racked up the awards in his 18-year career, starting with the FL Rookie of the Year award in 2036, batting .301 with 1 HR and 44 RBI for the Wolves. It was the first of nine consecutive .300 seasons for him in his career, and 14 such seasons in total (12 qualifying). He was a defensive wizard, who racked up nine Gold Gloves, eight with the Wolves and one with the Raccoons, a regular at the All Star Game, where he made seven appearances, and led his Oregon teams to four championships in the 2040s, split evenly between the Wolves and Raccoons, winning two World Series MVPs and a CLCS MVP in the process. Since power wasn’t his mojo, he won only one Platinum Stick, but he was a constant threat to single home that runner from third base. Herrera won the batting title with the 2042 Wolves, led the league in hits the same year, and in doubles in 2041. Twice he led batters in WAR in the FL, in 2038 and 2041 despite hitting a total of three home runs between those seasons. He never hit more than five home runs in a year, but stole double-digit bases for 13 straight seasons. After 14 1/2 seasons with the Wolves, whose hat he wears on his HOF plaque, and the Raccoons, he finished out his career with brief stints with the Knights, Thunder, and Buffaloes, in total batting .312/.366/.403 with 2,739 hits, 43 home runs, 883 RBI, and 239 stolen bases. He was a tough strikeout for his entire career, whiffing just 24 times in 649 at-bats in 2042.

Full results:
SAL CF Armando Herrera – 1st – 85.6 – INDUCTED
POR 3B Jesus Maldonado – 2nd – 74.0
CHA CL Josh Livingston – 1st – 19.2
SAL C Morgen Kuhlmann – 8th – 18.8
BOS SP Rich Willett – 7th – 18.8
DAL SP Eric Weitz – 8th – 8.2
SAC LF Mike Preble – 1st – 7.5
PIT SP Roberto Pruneda – 6th – 7.5
??? SP Brad Santry – 3rd – 7.2
MIL SS Ted Del Vecchio – 1st – 6.2
PIT C Giampaolo Petroni – 1st – 5.5
RIC SP Omar Lara – 1st – 4.8 – DROPPED
CHA LF Joe Besaw – 3rd – 4.1 – DROPPED
??? SP Kevin Clendenen – 1st – 3.8 – DROPPED
DEN SP Israel Mendoza – 1st – 3.4 – DROPPED
NYC MR Julian Ponce – 2nd – 2.4 – DROPPED
SAC SP Craig Czyszczon – 1st – 2.1 – DROPPED
MIL SS Ricky Espinoza – 1st – 2.1 – DROPPED
??? C Jorge Santa Cruz – 3rd – 1.7 – DROPPED
IND SP Bill Nichol – 1st – 0.7 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

While I spent most of January lying face-down on the trusty brown couch, moaning, the Raccoons were at least still trying to grab a third baseman whenever I had a clean moment. There were still options that could be considered nice tries, like Juan Ojeda, who spent last season with the Crusaders, but went down with a knee injury in June and didn’t return until the CLCS, when he was pried off the stretcher prematurely and him and the Crusaders went a combined 0-for-16 against the Knights. That was a reasonable player to sign to a 1-year contract to try again next winter.

Jose Cantu, f.e., was not. The 35-year-old was the longtime Blue Sox catcher (although he had departed them in time to miss out on their newest championship) and somewhat washed up behind the plate. He was still hitting, but we wanted to move away from the wild pitch machines and get a more defensively defendable guy behind the dish. Throwing $3M or more at Cantu for a gap year seemed excessive anyway. The Miners would come to the rescue, though.

+++

January 29 – The Knights sign former Condors RF Jamie Harmon (.259, 157 HR, 525 RBI) to a 2-yr, $4.96M contract.
February 4 – The Miners trade C Eric Monaghan (.244, 174 HR, 802 RBI), age 34, to the Raccoons for 32-yr old MR Mike Siwik (19-13, 3.83 ERA, 10 SV) and 27-year-old AAA LF/RF Elijah Johnson (.295, 3 HR, 15 RBI).

+++

Pittsburgh had one too many catchers, and the Raccoons effectively had none, but needed a spot in the pen to accommodate Rule 5 pick Bryan Roper. Monaghan was not *that* defensive upgrade, but at least he looked like a decent gap solution. While there were two years left on his contract, the second year was a rather cheap team option, so the Raccoons had a chance to dispose of him nine months from now.

Monaghan kept his #13, of which Tony Benitez was dispossessed and reassigned to #44, most recently disgraced by Ryan Wade.

Ex-Coons? Chris Kirkwood joined the Blue Sox for $510k; unkillable Shuta Yamamoto (age 38) got $750k from the Caps; the Elks took a liking to Neal Hamann and gave him $640k;

[Westheim]

Every time I was laying out our upcoming roster with collectible cards on my desk that late winter, I eventually ended up with Cameron Argenziano being third in the rotation and not the question of who was gonna go bat eighth, but who was going to bat FIFTH. Or leadoff. Then I usually sobbed and turned to Capt’n Coma for advice. Even Honeypaws frowned at the prospect of 162 games with this bunch.

At least there were still people that had it worse.

+++

February 20 – The career of 32-year-old left-handed SP Thomas Turpeau (74-61, 3.40 ERA) ends with a second re-tear of his surgically stapled UCL as soon as he started throwing. Turpeau was only ten games into a 4-year deal with the Thunder when he tore the ligament in May of 2058. Turpeau, the 2050 CL Rookie of the Year, was an All Star once and took home a Gold Glove in a 10-year career with four different teams.
February 21 – The Miners ink ex-OCT CL Patrick Jones (32-39, 3.51 ERA, 135 SV) to a $2.72M deal for 2059.
February 25 – Pittsburgh still has money left over and signs former Capitals catcher Jose Cantu (.279, 175 HR, 826 RBI) to a $2.97M contract for the new season.
February 25 – The Raccoons sign up ex-NYC 3B Juan Ojeda (.295, 21 HR, 540 RBI) to a $2.35M contract for 2059.
March 6 – The Knights ink 34-yr old ex-CIN LF/CF Juan del Toro (.328, 201 HR, 980 RBI) to a new 2-yr, $4.64M contract.
March 18 – The Cyclones acquire OF/1B Chris Anzo (.277, 7 HR, 129 RBI) from the Pacifics for 2B/SS Matt Wartella (.275, 11 HR, 216 RBI).
March 18 – The Raccoons sign 34-year-old C Deshawn Beard (.222, 1 HR, 8 RBI), who last played with the Cyclones in ’56, to a $440k contract.

+++

Hey, in an offseason as lame as this we have to turn it into a news release when Slappy sneezes and covers his mouth with something, anything. But so comfortable were we with our selection for backup catcher that we had to go out and haul in a 34-year-old with 99 big-league at-bats to his name. Which brings us back to these cursed collectible cards…

Ojeda gives the Raccoons a credible third baseman for the new season. We have sounded more enthusiastic in the past. But he’s batted below league average for the last four years, and lost some range as early as age 30, AND missed 98 games last year with injury. I am curbing my enthusiasm and so should you.

Assorted former Critter news: Wade Gardner at age 39 got another $560k from the Bayhawks; Ricky Jimenez (41!) signed with the Caps for $590k; Matt Cox joined Cincy for $550k; Matt Fiore went to the Wolves for $446k; L.A. got Harry Ramsay for $2.08M;

+++

We're not *quite* through the offseason, but I really have to go to work now...! (hops out of the room with only one of four legs in his pants)

[Westheim]

Nothing dramatic happened in the last few weeks of the pre-season.

E.g. no ace pitcher fell into our lap to rid us of all the failing tossers on the roster.

+++

2059 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2058 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Bobby Herrera, 28, B:R, T:R (12-11, 3.23 ERA | 12-11, 3.23 ERA) – there were not many complaints about Tipsy Bobby, even though he threw a couple of stinkers as well in his debut season after coming over from Cuba, although we would have expected a few more strikeouts than 6.4/9 with that devious changeup and slider in addition to throwing 96mph. Maybe we can even get the damn sun out to shine for his home starts once in a while.
SP Zach Stewart, 31, B:L, T:L (14-11, 2.89 ERA | 47-54, 4.04 ERA, 3 SV) – acquired as free agent coming off a horrible year with the Capitals before 2058, he had a pretty solid season and challenged for the ERA title in the first half before fading a bit in the second half. Also relies on his changeup, but at least throws it from the other side compared to Herrera, and he should be used to the Oregon weather after six years in Salem previously.
SP Cameron Argenziano, 30, B:R, T:L (8-1, 2.91 ERA | 18-13, 3.55 ERA) – the left-hander was taken as the #61 pick about 61 years ago, and somehow never stuck in the majors. The failure to bring something about with a flurry of prospects or with dosh allows him to be on the Opening Day roster. As the #3 starter. Woe is us.
SP Justin DeRose, 25, B:S, T:R (3-5, 5.26 ERA | 5-8, 4.76 ERA) – one of two Texan rookies acquired from the Crusaders for 2057 Opening Day man Kennedy Adkins and Oscar Caballero at the deadline in 2057, him and Sensabaugh were thrown right into the deep end and … it was horrible for both of them. Both were on the Opening Day roster, banished by June, and only DeRose resurfaced and somehow hung on to a roster spot through the winter. 96mph heater, split, and fork mix that might yet turn him into a serviceable starter. Look at Argenziano, suddenly blossoming at 30!
SP Chance Fox, 24, B:L, T:L (6-8, 4.65 ERA | 6-8, 4.65 ERA) – former #3 pick and groundballer with iffy control, Fox was promoted from St. Pete in the middle of the season and got roughed up regularly, but pitched a few nice games as well. Also throws 96 with a nice slider and changeup. Yes, we’re flinging stuff at the wall.

MR Bryan Roper *, 23, B:S, T:R (no stats) – Rule 5 pick with a strong fastball/slider combo, but whether he will hang around will depend on how quickly he can sort out those command issues. He walked 5.9 batters per nine innings in almost 100 innings of *AA* ball.
MR Reynaldo Bravo, 27, B:R, T:R (3-3, 2.34 ERA | 4-6, 3.22 ERA) – good fastball/curveball, not such a great rotator cuff. He was finally healthy in ’58 and did some solid work out of that bullpen, and despite the addition of Damasceno f.e. his roster spot was never in doubt.
SP/MR Ivan Ornelas, 29, B:R, T:R (5-0, 2.68 ERA, 1 SV | 21-11, 4.09 ERA, 21 SV) – the principal return for Harry Ramsay from the Condors, Ornelas was first horrendous, then injured for months (only 32 innings eventually), but did some solid work as a long reliever in ’58, at least until felled by shoulder soreness in August.
MR Ricky Herrera, 27, B:L, T:L (2-2, 3.76 ERA | 5-3, 2.67 ERA) – former second-rounder with a fastball/slider combo that pitched very nicely in limited action in 2056 but his first full season was more of a struggle, with his K/BB getting somewhat unhinged, although he had his strong moments, too. Ironically he had better numbers last season, but spent two cursed months in St. Petersburg due to a roster squeeze that wasn’t of his own making.
SU Takenori Tanizaki, 31, B:R, T:R (3-5, 3.44 ERA, 10 SV | 15-18, 2.74 ERA, 11 SV) – the Raccoons spent an entire winter trying to sneak Tanizaki into a trade to another team and still couldn’t get rid of him; although nine out of ten outings for him were normally perfectly fine, it was the size of the fireworks in the tenth outing that left us scratching our furry heads at times...
SU Eloy Sencion, 32, B:L, T:L (4-3, 2.04 ERA, 5 SV | 30-15, 2.93 ERA, 14 SV) – fastball, vicious slider, and usually very competent especially against left-handed batters, although he seems to have that itch to once a month walk the bases full, then watch some other bobblehead give up a grand slam. Nevertheless, one of the most reliable left-handers in that pen in recent memory.
CL Matt Walters, 28, B:L, T:L (2-3, 2.19 ERA, 27 SV | 10-11, 1.69 ERA, 117 SV) – the two-time CL Reliever of the Year and twice-defending CL saves champion cracked his kneecap last winter and missed about two months to begin the season, then had a few shaky outings upon his return. Fails rarely, though, even though his K/9 were way down after the issues, going from 13.2/9 to 9.2/9 in 2058.

C Eric Monaghan *, 34, B:R, T:R (.247, 13 HR, 88 RBI | .244, 174 HR, 802 RBI) – never been much of a batter, but he did win a Gold Glove a while back, so that’s that; plus, the Miners insisted we take him. Should be a defensive upgrade over the occasionally porous Chavez(es) if nothing else, and has a dirt-cheap team option on his 2060 contract.
C Deshawn Beard *, 34, B:R, T:R (minors | .222, 1 HR, 8 RBI) – signed as free agent in March, and didn’t play in the majors for two years in a row, and in case you need more red flags, he still outshone whatever was left in terms of backstops after the involuntary departure of Marcos Chavez.

1B Joel Starr, 26, B:L, T:L (.318, 7 HR, 27 RBI | .313, 7 HR, 27 RBI) – forced us to dismiss Toushi Imai in July with a hot campaign in St. Pete, then hit .318 for 56 games with 18 extra-base hits. Oh dear, I hope he can keep this up...
2B Paul Labonte, 24, B:L, T:R (.272, 2 HR, 48 RBI | .278, 7 HR, 80 RBI) – solid defender at the keystone, but he couldn’t keep up the strong impression from half a season in ’57, when he hit for a .786 OPS and dumped over 100 points in a full season (minus injury) last year. His .317 OBP also leaves us without a great solution for a leadoff man.
SS Lorenzo Lavorano, 31, B:R, T:R (.261, 3 HR, 65 RBI | .280, 34 HR, 498 RBI) – Everybody loves Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend…! Has won seven stolen base titles in eight full (as in: not-injured) seasons, a Gold Glove at least once… and he keeps being a delight in the field and on the career steals list, where he crept into a tie for sixth place last year with 570 career thefts – keep running, boy! Whether he is such a smart solution in the #2 hole remains a topic in the Agitator and elsewhere, though.
3B Juan Ojeda *, 31, B:R, T:R (.295, 0 HR, 30 RBI | .295, 21 HR, 540 RBI) – couldn’t get Victor Corrales, had to settle for a stop-gap solution that was half with the Crusaders and half with the DL last year.
2B/3B/SS/RF/CF Arturo Bribiesca, 27, B:R, T:R (.245, 2 HR, 10 RBI | .246, 9 HR, 51 RBI) – Cuban exile that is glove-first and did get his fair share of at-bats for the last two years despite not hitting much and despite the Raccoons basically not seeing southpaw starters for the last two months of ’58.
2B/3B/SS David Gonzales *, 26, B:S, T:R (minors | .223, 2 HR, 10 RBI) – Rule 5 pick from the Cyclones; mostly a defensive backup for the left side of the infield, Gonzales figures to be the primary replacement for Lonzo to have a day off, and so far I said the same thing about Tyrese Sheilds last year, and he didn’t make it through the season either.

LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield, 26, B:R, T:R (.249, 10 HR, 54 RBI | .277, 39 HR, 209 RBI) – sketchy defender that made a name with his stick as a 21-year-old before flaying a shoulder, and he’s chased that 151 OPS+ in 48 games ever since without getting remotely close. Last year he hit smack-dab for the league average when the Raccoons need more than the league average, but some dolt had already signed him to an 8-year deal by then.
CF/1B/LF/RF Noah Caswell, 29, B:L, T:L (.318, 15 HR, 60 RBI | .293, 53 HR, 356 RBI) – exceptional defender and well-above-average hitter that was signed on a huge $36M contract as a free agent from the Wolves. Four consecutive CF Gold Gloves in the Federal League leave no question about who will play that position on this roster! He didn’t win one of those with the Raccoons, probably because three separate DL stints kept him away for a while, and another while, and another while, although he somehow managed to poke a career-high in homers.
RF/LF/CF/1B Jesus Martinez, 29, B:R, T:L (.213, 14 HR, 48 RBI | .213, 14 HR, 48 RBI) – second-best expensive Cuban addition of last winter, Martinez basically couldn’t hit anything after a while but at least had a heinous BABIP (.230) to claim the luck of the draw as the culprit rather than his own inability to roll over to the nearest middle infielder at least twice a night. It’s not like anyone would take him *now*, so why not put him in rightfield and hope for a hot June to make him attractive to buyers?
CF/LF/RF Kelly Konecny *, 26, B:L, T:L (.339, 3 HR, 45 RBI | .324, 3 HR, 69 RBI) – acquired from the Loggers for Marcos Chavez, Konecny looks glove-first and bat-later, despite that lofty average in just under 300 at-bats for Milwaukee last year. Also, nobody quite knows how to pronounce that last name of his, but I have been strongly discouraged by Maud for just calling him KK, just in case he ever strikes out and I get lazy.
RF/CF/LF Todd Oley, 26, B:L, T:L (.432, 1 HR, 17 RBI | .330, 1 HR, 31 RBI) – perhaps Todd Oley’s claim to fame will always remain that he managed to hit .432 in a 26-game stretch in late 2058, but it was enough to win him a spot on the roster when a right-hander would have fit better and to see at least one other quad-A, post-prospect-age, left-handed hitting outfielder dismissed from the organization (Elijah Johnson) because there *really* wasn’t any room for more of them.

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Ramon Carreno, 23, B:S, T:R (7-15, 4.77 ERA | 12-23, 4.83 ERA) – optioned to AAA; sent back to St. Petersburg after a full season on the roster and 50 starts for the Raccoons in total. Walks more than he strikes out, and gets bombed on top of that. Not sure what more seasoning can do in this case…
SP/MR Duarte Damasceno *, 27, B:R, T:R (4-0, 3.40 ERA | 6-0, 3.46 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; acquired from the Bayhawks in a rather dead trade, Damasceno, who was a Coons farmpaw as a teenager, has always struggled with control and spent much of last season in the minors. He could be a starter with three workable pitches if all else fails. Somehow has made 80 big league appearances in a spotty career without losing a game.
MR Adam Harris, 24, B:R, T:L (0-0, 0.00 ERA | 0-0, 5.82 ERA) – optioned to AAA; beset with control issues, and then made only two appearances before hitting the DL in September.
MR Alex Rios, 25, B:R, T:R (1-0, 2.38 ERA | 1-0, 3.55 ERA) – optioned to AAA; threw only a few garbage innings again, and while he kept the walks down in the majors this time, the bulk of his work was in St. Pete where he walked 5.4/9, but there is still hope the fastball/slider combo could still play up for something. This is literally the same blurb as last year, indicating a certain amount of stagnation in development.
C Cortez Chavez, 25, B:R, T:R (.174, 0 HR, 13 RBI | .174, 0 HR, 13 RBI) – optioned to AAA; indifferent behind the dish, and couldn’t hit a lick, posting an OPS+ of a rousing 47, although he did at least hit for a .296 average in St. Pete before being promoted.
C Matt Stanton, 28, B:R, T:R (.500, 1 HR, 3 RBI | .238, 1 HR, 6 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; pedestrian hitter and defender, he at least snuck in his first career homer in just 12 at-bats with the Raccoons last year.
3B Richard Anderson, 26, B:R, T:R (.182, 1 HR, 6 RBI | .186, 2 HR, 10 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; strong defensive third baseman that hasn’t been able to hit anything in three cups of coffee.
3B/SS Tony Benitez, 26, B:S, T:R (.094, 0 HR, 0 RBI | .178, 0 HR, 4 RBI) – optioned to AAA; good defensive third baseman that couldn’t hit anything much after coming over from the Loggers at the deadline, or in AAA, across two seasons.
3B/2B/SS Vernon Hudalla *, 25, B:R, T:R (minors | .189, 1 HR, 6 RBI) – optioned to AAA; before the addition of Juan Ojeda and after being signed himself as a minor league free agent, Hudalla for a period had the hopes of making the Opening Day roster to add to his 16 career games with the Wolves.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or disappeared through a woodchipper during the offseason.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Monaghan – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P
Vs. LHP: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P

Unfortunately that leaves us with two left-handed outfielders on the bench. At least Gonzales is a switch-hitter – until disposed of at least.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

The Raccoons brought in eight players, three of which didn’t make it onto the Opening Day roster, because we’re weird. BNN ranked us ninth for our rather lame offseason efforts with a +1.2 WAR gain. The biggest loss was Marcos Chavez (1.8), while the Monaghan trade gave us our biggest gain (2.8).

Top 5: Thunder (+5.7), Titans (+5.0), Scorpions (+4.9), Falcons (+4.2), Canadiens (+3.8)
Bottom 5: Bayhawks (-3.8), Gold Sox (-4.0), Condors (-4.5), Crusaders (-5.1), Rebels (-8.1)

The Indians came 10th with +0.2 WAR, while the Loggers never make any strides here and lost -2.7 WAR, 16th in the league.

PREDICTION TIME:

The offense didn’t improve, but the Raccoons landed right on .500 to finish last season, which was actually my prediction. My predictions and the team’s mediocrity have been spot-on for a couple of years.

Speaking of a couple of years, we have not posted a winning season in three years, the longest such stretch since 2030-32. The last time we went longer than three years without a winning season, Clyde Brady still was a respected member of the team.

We didn’t get the impact bat we thought we deserved, and instead engorged on one-year rentals and wishing Jesus Martinez better luck with those pesky infielders. The rotation is three fifths make-believe, and that is assuming Zach Stewart’s resurgence lasts a little while longer.

I don’t know. A winning season sounds like a bit of a challenge, but maybe Joel Starr can hit 35 homers and it will all be fine. Getting somebody to drive in more than 65 runs would surely help. No, I don’t see it happening. 76-86.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

What’s worse than a middling team with no real path to the top? A middling team with no real path to the top and no prospects. The Raccoons crashed from 14th to 22nd in the annual farm rankings as they went from ten ranked prospects (six in the top 100) to just six, and none in the top 50.

Of course, the two top prospects from last year were no longer eligible, as both #35 Joel Starr and #52 Chance Fox had migrated to the majors and exceeded rookie limits, which never helps with maintaining your rank. In addition the Raccoons traded away #90 Jose Estrada.

Four others were just not ranked anymore: #80 Joey Christopher, #111 Daniel Benitez, #169 Brett Cotton (!), and #188 Carlos Gomez had all fallen by the wayside.

60th (new) – A OF Isaiah Birth, 21 – 2058 first-round pick by Raccoons
75th (-8) – A RF/LF Jose Corral, 18 – 2057 international free agent signed by Raccoons
84th (new) – AA 2B/OF Jose Ulloa, 20 – 2055 international free agent signed by Raccoons
115th (-38) – AAA CL Elijah LaBat, 25 – 2056 supplemental-round pick by Raccoons
137th (+36) – AAA CF/LF Ben Morris, 21 – 2055 tenth-round (!!) pick by Raccoons
164th (new) – AA SP John Bollinger, 22 – 2058 supplemental-round pick by Raccoons

The top 10 for the sinking franchise were completed by A SP Rich Read (2057, Supp. Round), AAA OF Felix Ayala (2054 July IFA), AA OF Scott Maynard (2056, 6th Rd.), and AA SP Brett Cotton (2057, 1st Rd.).

Wheee…

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (0) – BOS AA OF Eddie Marcotte, 21
2nd (new) – BOS A SP Bryce Wallace, 19
3rd (+11) – IND ML SP/MR Mike DeWitt, 22
4th (+5) – SAC ML C Nate Danis, 25
5th (new) – LVA A OF Jake Evans, 21

6th (-1) – TIJ AA SP Ben Caldwell, 21
7th (new) – IND A SP Kelly Whitney, 19
8th (0) – TIJ AA CF/LF Chad Cardwell, 22
9th (new) – TIJ A SP Ryan Davis, 19
10th (-3) – LAP AAA OF Tony Garcia, 20

Evans was the top selection in the most recent draft, where Whitney was taken with the #7 pick, and Wallace was taken with the #9 pick. Davis was all the way down in the supplemental round at #30.

Five of the previous year’s top 10 were thus no longer with us on the new prospect rankings. Former #2 prospect Jason Brenize pitched to an 8-13 record with 4.44 ERA for the Titans in a trying full season after a cup of coffee in ’57 that went even worse. One spot behind, Dallas’ Ray Walker also spent the full season with the big league team, but was used as swingman for 41 games, 15 starts, and a 9-9 record and 3.87 ERA, plus a save. Further down in #4 had been the Caps’ Jon Reyes, who started the year in AAA Modesto, but after four starts moved up to the Washington branch of the franchise and went 10-9 with a 4.69 ERA in 27 starts the rest of the way. Finally, a pair of Loggers: #6 prospect Danny Miller jumped from AA to the majors and appeared in 101 games there, batting .251 with 4 HR, 35 RBI, while #10 prospect Dave Wright batted .269 with 5 HR, 54 RBI in AA as a 19-year-old, but sunk to #17 on the new list.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

So. I’m a wee bit ill and don’t have the energy for the usual 3- or 4-series opener here. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow. But for now, just these two series.

+++

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Indians (0-0) – April 7-9, 2059

New year, new everything? These two teams had finished 1-2 in the North in 2055, but had since then sagged. While the Raccoons were still sorta mediocre, the Indians had finished bottoms twice, including last season. That didn’t mean we were any good against them – the season series had been tied twice in these two years, including last year, and once the Arrowheads had even eeked out a 10-8 win.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (0-0) vs. Roberto Oyola (0-0)
Zach Stewart (0-0) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (0-0)
Cameron Argenziano (0-0) vs. Marcos Rivera (0-0)

The Raccoons had not seen a left-handed starter in their last 44 games of the 2058 season – but the spell would be broken after seeing a 45th (and wasn’t Oyola, who washed out within minutes a few years back in Portland, a weird Opening Day starter pick?), because after that we’d not get one, but TWO southpaws! Huzzah! In fact, both the Indians and Raccoons had three left-handed starters on their Opening Day rosters.

Game 1
IND: 2B Kilday – CF S. Thompson – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – RF Lovins – SS R. Vargas – 3B Niles – C J. Ortiz – P Oyola
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – C Monaghan – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P B. Herrera

Oyola lasted four batters, allowing a single to Lonzo and a double to Brass before leaving with an injury concern. Right-hander Randy Slocum inherited the pair in scoring position in the bottom 1st, and gave up a 3-run bomb to Joel Starr on his third pitch, which for ten minutes made me feel real good about myself because I could pretend to have made the right move for once. Herrera faced only one right-handed position player in the Indians lineup, which would be Nathan Niles, a rather unknown 30-year-old quad-A infielder that had washed out of the Pacifics organization this winter. He issued two walks in the top 3rd, but otherwise didn’t struggle much in the early going, which a bunch of easy grounders hit by the Indians, who only got into the H column through an infield single by Ricardo Vargas in the second.

Bottom 3rd, and the Raccoons loaded the bases with a leadoff single from Labonte and walks drawn by Cas and Brass against Juan Vasquez. Joel Starr ran a full count before drawing a bases-loaded walk, extending the score to 4-0 and keeping a monopoly on RBI’s for the team so far this year. Eric Monaghan popped out to short, but Jesus Martinez then pushed a single through the left side for a pair of 2-out runs, knocking out Vasquez for the fourth Indians pitcher of the day, Tim Jacoby, who would get out of the inning, but then gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to left himself in the fourth, allowing Trent Brassfield to drive in Herrera (single) and Lonzo (double). The Indians tumbled from blow to blow, losing another pitcher – Mike DeWitt – to injury in the fifth inning, while Herrera cranked up the stuff in the middle innings and tallied eight strikeouts before being lifted in the seventh inning after a 2-out walk to PH Mike Weber. Ricky Herrera logged four outs for only a Bill Quinteros single, then was hit for in the bottom 8th with one out and two on against Dave Corrao, who had given up a single to Martinez before Vargas’ throwing error allowed Juan Ojeda on base. A passed ball charged to Jorge Ortiz advanced the runners, and PH Kelly Konecny got his first Coons RBI with a groundout to second baseman Matt Kilday before Labonte flew out. Rule 5er Bryan Roper then made his ABL debut in the ninth inning of a 9-run game and kept it a 9-run game despite a leadoff walk to Vargas. Niles and Ortiz struck out, and Cory Oldfield grounded out to Labonte. 9-0 Furballs! Lavorano 2-4, 2B; Brassfield 2-2, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Starr 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2 RBI; B. Herrera 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 8 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

Huzzah!

A word of caution though… maybe the Indians would pitch a lot better if it wasn’t for the frag grenade going off in their bullpen…

Game 2
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B Niles – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – SS R. Vargas – RF Lovins – C J. Ortiz – CF Oldfield – P Fitzgibbon
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P Stewart

Lonzo singled and stole his first base of the season in the first inning, but couldn’t find a kind soul to drive him in and the game was scoreless in the early goings until the bottom 3rd began with a clean single by Ojeda. Stewart got the bunt down, and Ojeda scored with two outs on a Lonzo double. Cas singled home Lonzo, and Brass went deep to right, as the team exploded into a 4-0 lead. Indy answered, though, in the fourth inning. Orlando Ramos hit a soft single, then was forced out by Bill Quinteros. The grizzled veteran didn’t have the legs to score on a Ricardo Vargas double, but then came home on Chris Lovins’ sac fly to right. Ortiz grounded out to second to leave Vargas in scoring position.

Fitzgibbon lasted just four innings, which would surely not help the Indians’ pen, which was already beleaguered. They also created another stir that started with Ramos in the sixth, when he hit a 1-out triple to left-center. Quinteros’ grounder was to the third base side though and Ramos had to retreat, because he would have run right into the out with Monaghan, who instead retired Quinteros at first, and Vargas whiffed to keep the runner stranded. Stewart would go seven and two thirds on 104 pitches before Bravo retired Niles for him to complete eight innings. Matt Walters looked like all was well again in his season debut in the ninth inning, striking out Ramos and Quinteros before Vargas grounded out to Lonzo. 4-1 Raccoons. Lavorano 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Martinez 1-2, 2 BB; Stewart 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

We didn’t get much offense put together at all after Fitzgibbon left the game, just a few odd walks and no big hits. And now the question was whether Argenziano’s baffling competence had survived the winter.

Game 3
IND: 2B Kilday – 3B Niles – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – SS R. Vargas – RF Lovins – C J. Ortiz – CF S. Thompson – P M. Rivera
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – P Argenziano

That would be NO. Argenziano was battered for three hits and three walks in a 4-run first inning, and I reached for the Capt’n Coma for the first time. The Raccoons made up half of that in the bottom 1st, half of which again was unearned. Bribiesca singled, stole second, Lonzo walked, and between a throwing error by Vargas and two well-placed groundouts the Raccoons got two runs home before the inning fizzled out. The bottom 2nd started with a Martinez homer, 4-3, and Ojeda reached base with walk in a full count against Rivera. Argenizano’s bunt was thrown away for two bases by Ortiz, and a lob single to shallow right by Bribiesca then brought home Ojeda with the tying run. Lonzo was up with runners on the corners, hit a fly to right that Chris Lovins caught, and Argenziano got the old stompers going and went for home plate, arriving at the same time as the ball, but slid so awkwardly that he scythed a reaching Ortiz’ sole firm leg out from under him, the ball went flying, and Ortiz faceplanted the dirt and had to leave the ballgame as the Indians’ third injury of the series. He was replaced with Ben Bodkin. Brass hit another single in the inning, but Monaghan’s groundout ended it before more runs were scored. The Coons led 5-4, three of their runs unearned now.

Rivera was the next early departure; while Argenziano struck out the side in the third inning, Rivera allowed a leadoff single to Starr, walked Martinez, and eventually gave up another one of those 2-out, 2-run singles to Bribiesca, which extended Portland’s lead to 7-4. Slocum replaced him, allowed Lonzo and Caswell to load the bases, but then got Brass to ground out to Niles before another run could score in the inning. Eric Monaghan, who started his Coons career 0-for-10, hit a jack to left off Slocum in the fourth, though. Starr hit a double after that, but was stranded, while Argenziano ached through five innings, giving up a run in the top 5th when Ramos and Vargas went to the corners, then threw a wild pitch to plate the former… Lovins popped out foul to end the inning.

Ivan Ornelas’ season debut in the sixth went just as well as Argenziano’s. Ben Bodkin took him deep, cutting the score to 8-6, and a walk to Steve Thompson, a passed ball, and Niles’ 2-out single gave them another run. Orlando Ramos’ long homer to left-center flipped the score to 9-8 Arrowheads then. Ricky Herrera found a way out of the inning at least, while Juan Vasquez blew the lead in the bottom 6th serving up a leadoff jack wrapped around the left foul pole to Jesus Martinez. All even at nine! …at least until Chris Lovins reclaimed the lead with a solo home run off Herrera in the seventh. Lonzo’s leadoff single in the bottom 7th wasn’t followed up with anything nice, and Eloy Sencion got on the snout as well in the eighth inning, walking a pair clumsily before Quinteros loaded the bags with a single, and Vargas drove in two with another single.

The game had long descended into chaos, and another sign of that was the bottom 8th when Matt Otte gave up singles to Starr and Ojeda to put the tying run in the box. The #9 hole had long been vacated by Coons pitchers, and David Gonzales batted for Todd Oley against the left-handed Otte – and singled up the middle, grabbing an RBI in his first plate appearance as a Critter. Bribiesca flew out, but Lonzo slapped another RBI single to left-center against Otte, who was replaced with Rich Morrall, a 35-year-old FL West veteran, who had signed with Indy on a minor league deal and had not been on the Opening Day roster. He got Cas to fly out to leftfielder Ramos to end the inning. The Indians got a tack-on run in the ninth inning, 13-11, when Tanizaki walked the leadoff man Steve Thompson and surrendered his run on Kilday’s single to center. Deshawn Beard made his first appearance in the brown shirt hitting for Tanizaki in the #4 hole to begin the bottom 9th, emptying our bench. He struck out, and between him, Monaghan, and Starr, nobody reached base against Morrall. 13-11 Indians. Bribiesca 3-6, 3 RBI; Lavorano 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; Brassfield 2-4; Starr 2-5, BB, 2B; Martinez 2-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Gonzales (PH) 1-1;

We used five pitchers in this game, all of whom surrendered at least one run. Both teams scored in six different innings.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Bayhawks (0-4) – April 11-13, 2059

The Baybirds had gotten swept in a four-game series against the Aces (!) to begin the season, so that should sound the alarm in San Francisco. They had scored 13 runs and given up 23, none of which ranked them particularly favorably in the early going, while the Coons’ 24 runs scored led the CL. We had won the season series last year, going 6-3 against the Baybirds.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (0-0) vs. Bill Grau (0-0)
Chance Fox (0-0) vs. Eric Braley (0-1, 12.00 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Jesse Connors (0-0, 2.57 ERA)

You want left-handers? Have left-handers! Grau and Conners were throwing from the weird side, so after two months’ worth of games without seeing a lefty, the Raccoons got four in a week, because baseball is weird and never likes to make too much sense.

Game 1
SFB: SS X. Reyes – C Redfern – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 1B P. Fowler – CF A. Walker – 3B Hoogendorn – RF Tomko – P Grau
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – C Monaghan – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Gonzales – P DeRose

Like Argenziano and everybody else on Wednesday, DeRose got on the snout on Friday. Xavier Reyes and Keith Redfern hit singles right out of the gate, the latter after Starr dropped a foul pop of his for an error, and after Grant Anker plated a run with a groundout, Armando Montoya went well deep to center to put the Baybirds up 3-0. While the Coons made up that margin eventually by scoring a run in each of the first three innings, that didn’t make for a tied game, since by then Grant Anker had popped another long home run off DeRose, but it was 4-3 through three innings thanks to Caswell doubling home Lonzo in the first, Martinez and Gonzales singles and a run-scoring groundout by Bribiesca in the second, and Monaghan doubling in Brass in the third inning. Finally, DeRose let the defense do some honest work in the middle innings, and the Raccoons actually got in front with Trent Brassfield’s 2-run bomb to leftfield in the bottom of the fifth, 5-4.

D dragged DeRose through six innings, but it was nothing short of awful with him, before the Coons successfully blew the lead in the seventh. Bravo offered a leadoff walk to Xavier Reyes before retiring Keith Redfern and Grant Anker, but then Armando Montoya singled. Sencion came in to face the left-handed Pat Fowler, but the Bayhawks sent Chris Jimenez to pinch-hit, and while Sencion got 1-2 ahead with two outs, he then gave up a gapper in right-center for a 2-run double and the score was flipped back the other way. Roper and Ornelas would each pitch a scoreless inning to keep the Bayhawks at a run’s distance, but the Coons still had to score to make up the deficit and went down in order in the seventh and eighth innings. Joe Gowin had the ball for the bottom 9th in his season debut (no big point in using the closer in a 4-game sweep), with Lonzo leading off the inning and flying out to Anker. Caswell whiffed, but Brass walked to put the tying run on base with two outs. Labonte pinch-hit for Monaghan and singled to center, but Brass only reached second base on the play. It didn’t matter – Joel Starr swung through a 3-2 pitch to end the game. 6-5 Bayhawks. Caswell 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Brassfield 3-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Labonte (PH) 1-1; Martinez 2-4, 2B;

Game 2
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – 2B A. Montoya – CF A. Walker – LF Anker – C Redfern – 1B Ogawa – RF Tomko – P Braley
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – C Beard – P C. Fox

The Coons went back to the righty lineup for the first time since Monday and immediately saw an uptick in the first inning. Fox didn’t explode on contact, and a Caswell homer to left that collected Labonte gave us a quick 2-0 lead. The Coons got Martinez and Ojeda on to begin the bottom 2nd, but the battery found a double play and a pop on the infield to make zero runs and a quick exit out of that.

After three solid innings, Fox then blew up in the fourth inning. Nicking Montoya was a bad start to any inning, but Aaron Walker and Anker hit singles to drive Montoya home right away, and the alternation of walks and run-scoring outs that followed gave the Baybirds a 3-2 lead before the inning ended with Reyes’ groundout. San Fran put more guys on base in the next two innings, but couldn’t score, while Starr hit into a double play after Brassfield singled in the fourth. Fox singled himself in the fifth, but Labonte struck out and the inning ended, but then Caswell’s second homer of the game and season tied the score at three runs, five hits, and no errors each in the bottom 6th.

The seventh was mostly uneventful; Ojeda hit a single for Portland, but Beard grounded out and Konecny flew out easily when he batted for Fox. Tanizaki had the ball in the eighth; he got two outs before PH Pat Fowler singled off him and then reached second on a wild pitch. Chris Tomko promptly singled to center, Fowler circled around third base and went for home – and was thrown out by Caswell! Yay!

The bottom 8th was begun by left-hander Travis Davis facing the #1 batter in the Coons’ order, and we sent Bribiesca for Labonte, which turned out to be the answer to the $64,000 question. Bribiesca hit a huge home run to left to break the tie, and Matt Walters started getting busy in the pen. Lonzo and Cas hit singles, and Monaghan drew a walk in Starr’s spot to fill the bases for the Coons, but Jesus Martinez’ hard grounder to Adam Peltier killed the inning, 5-4-3 style. Walters came on facing Wade Gardner, 39-year-old ex-Coon and backup catcher, and served up a wallbanger double on his second pitch, then threw a wild pitch to get Gardner to third base with nobody out. While a K to Reyes was nice and dandy, the Coons fell to a suicide squeeze with Peltier batting, getting neither the runner nor the batter at any base in a scene of absolute bewilderment. None was more unhappy than Walters, who threw the baseball he was holding onto the ground when the play was complete, except maybe me. Peltier was left on base, but the Coons went down in order in the ninth and the game went to extras, where it promptly started to rain for the first time this season. Reynaldo Bravo then fell in the 11th inning. Gardner drew a leadoff walk, and Peltier, the revolting ******** and former Raccoons farmpaw, socked a triple into the gap to break the tie, then scored on Montoya’s groundout. But the Coons didn’t have an answer to even one run, let alone two; while Martinez drew a 1-out walk from Joe Gowin in the bottom 11th, Ojeda ended the game with a double play grounder to short. 6-4 Bayhawks. Bribiesca (PH) 1-2, RBI; Caswell 3-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Ojeda 2-5;

(groan)

Game 3
SFB: SS X. Reyes – 3B Peltier – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 1B P. Fowler – CF A. Walker – C Redfern – RF Tomko – P Connors
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – C Monaghan – LF Oley – 3B Ojeda – CF Konecny – P B. Herrera

A weird sort of pitchers’ duel broke out on Sunday, since the game was scoreless into the fifth inning, but mostly because both teams excelled at hitting a single and then croaking as soon as the runner was in scoring position, which happened repeatedly on either side, and both teams also found a double play to hit into. Portland eventually took the lead in the bottom 5th, which began with an Ojeda single to right-center. Konecny popped out, and Herrera reached on an error by Reyes. Bribiesca cashed in with a clean single to right-center, allowing the reasonably quick Ojeda to score from second. Lonzo and Brass left the other runners on base, though. It was also a weird duel, since Connors relied entirely on the defense, not getting a strikeout at all through five innings. Martinez singled and Monaghan doubled to begin the bottom 6th then, increasing the pressure right away. Oley’s sac fly got Martinez home, but that was good as it got. Ojeda popped out, Konecny was walked intentionally, and Herrera grounded out. That was all the offense we managed to scratch out in eight innings for Herrera, who was hit for with Joel Starr with two down in the bottom 8th and Caswell on second base, but flew out easily.

And then Matt Walters was again undone by 39-year-old fossil Wade Gardner. Montoya hit a 1-out single and then Gardner pinch-hit his way into my naughty list with a 2-run homer to center. Most annoying Aruban in the league! Herrera’s W was gone, and Walters barely got around Aaron Walker’s double to left-center without falling behind. This game, too, went to extras, when Bribiesca reached against Sam Gibson to begin the bottom 9th, but was forced out by Lonzo, who was caught stealing, and Labonte grounded out as he was now batting third following some shuffling “for defense” after the bottom 8th, because we were idiots thinking there was any defending Wade Gardner…!

Ornelas pitched a scoreless 10th, while Martinez reached against Zach Johnson in the home half of the inning, but was doubled up by Oley. Top 11th, San Francisco took the lead on a 2-out homer by Ikuo Ogawa, and Ornelas gave up another three singles straight for an insurance run… The Coons disappeared without as much of a squeal in the bottom 11th as Johnson sawed off Gonzales, Konecny, and Starr. 4-2 Bayhawks. Bribiesca 2-5, RBI; Monaghan 3-5, 2B; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

In other news

April 7 – The Opening Day crowd in Topeka gets twice their money’s worth as the Capitals beat the hometown Buffaloes, 4-3 in 19 innings. After the Buffos erase a 3-0 deficit in the sixth inning, no scoring takes place for a dozen innings until the Caps scratch a run together with a triple from 2B Joo-Chan Lee (.250, 0 HR, 0 RBI) and an RBI single by C Jose Luna (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI).
April 8 – Extras, part two, in Topeka: it takes ten innings for a run to be scored on the walkoff single by TOP LF/RF John Kaniewski (.500, 0 HR, 1 RBI) that allows the Buffaloes to squeak out a 1-0 win.
April 10 – The cross-season hitting streak of OCT 3B/RF Ed Soberanes (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI) ends at 23 games after he is held dry in a 6-0 against the Condors.
April 11 – IND SP Roberto Oyola (0-1, 13.50 ERA) will miss the entire season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 13 – TOP SP Pablo Lara (1-0, 0.00 ERA) pitches a 2-hit shutout in a 4-0 win against the Wolves. It’s the second shutout of the 24-year-old sophomore’s career. Employed as a swingman last season, Lara threw a 5-hitter against the Blue Sox in May.
April 13 – It takes the Blue Sox until the first Sunday of the season to resign their twice-defending FL saves leader Kevin Hitchcock (47-46, 3.12 ERA, 228 SV) to a new 3-yr, $4.98M deal. The 36-year-old right-hander had held out as free agent all throughout the winter.

FL Player of the Week: TOP LF/RF Dan Martin (.348, 4 HR, 8 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: BOS 3B Randy Wilken (.579, 2 HR, 4 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons are first in runs scored! … and we were in a tie for first place on Friday morning and got swept into a tie for last place by Sunday night, which was a very imprecise description of the horrors that unfolded pitching-wise ever since we went up 2-0 to start the season.

No rest for the wicked either, as we go right on the road to play seven games in Oklahoma City and Boston next week. We’ll then have a 2-week homestand until the start of May, but only eight home games total in May to make up for that.

The Condors returned Daniel Amburn, taken in the Rule 5 draft, when the season started. No sight of Jose Estrada, though. The three players we put on waivers to start the season (Matt Stanton, Duarte Damasceno, Richard Anderson) all went unclaimed and were sent to St. Pete.

Fun Fact: Lonzo is within 150 stolen bases of the all-time record.

It goes:

1st – Pablo Sanchez – 721 – HOF
2nd – Enrique “Cosmo” Trevino – 708 – HOF
3rd – Guillermo Obando – 686 – HOF
4th – Alberto “Berto” Ramos – 677 – HOF
5th – Alex Vasquez – 596 – active
6th – Lorenzo “Lonzo” Lavorano – 573 – active
7th – Rich de Luna – 570
8th – Oscar Mendoza – 494
9th – Omar Gonzalez – 493 – active
19th – Moromao Hino – 485

Vasquez, who is 33, stole just 19 bases last year, but began the year with a pair in week one. Omar Gonzalez, age 36, stole 11 bases while missing 58 games. They’re over in the Federal League, so it’s not like our catchers can do much about them right now.

The trio behind de Luna probably won’t last long there. It’s possible they’re all kicked out by the end of the year, since there is a trio steaming up through the teens on the list as we speak, consisting of Chris Navarro (14th, 473), Danny Ceballos (15th, 472), and Omar Sanchez (16th, 461). The last two are in the CL. Technically we should also mention ex-Coon Alex Adame sitting 18th with 459 bags, but he’s 37, barely played as a backup on the Crusaders last year, and is currently unsigned altogether.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (2-4) @ Thunder (5-1) – April 14-16, 2059

While the Raccoons were first in the CL in runs scored (!!!!!!!), the Thunder had allowed the fewest runs so far in the league. Of course, this was all hokum after six games, but it was nice talking about the Raccoons being first in anything when they were (tied for) last in what ultimately mattered, the bloody standings. We had also lost this season series three years running, 5-4 in 2058.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (1-0, 1.17 ERA) vs. Alfredo Llamas (1-0, 1.29 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. Mike Chartrand (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Justin DeRose (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Juan Juarez (0-0, 2.57 ERA)

This was the first set of the year in which we were not expected to meet a left-handed starter.

Game 1
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF J. Martinez – C Monaghan – 3B Ojeda – P Stewart
OCT: LF J. Mendoza – 3B Soberanes – RF D. Guzman – 1B F. Martinez – C Dye – SS O. Lira – CF Weant – 2B Gaxiola – P Llamas

The first things lighting up on the scoreboard in the RHE columns were two Coons errors in the bottom 1st. Danny Guzman reached when Lonzo flubbed his grounder, then got to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Monaghan. Somehow, he didn’t score. The Coons disappeared in order until Stewart hit a single up the middle in the third inning – so much for the #1 offense – and the Thunder would score the first run of the game in the fourth inning. Stewart struck out four batters in the first three innings against only one base hit, but didn’t get a K when he needed it after Guzman socked a leadoff double in the bottom 4th and scored on Felix Martinez’ groundout and Jonathan Dye’s sac fly. When the Coons’ Juan Ojeda hit a double in the following half-inning, it came with two outs, nobody on base, and the pitcher batting next, so take your wildest guess as to how many runs we scored.

Top 6th, Labonte and Lonzo led off with a pair of singles, which sure was a promising beginning to erase that 1-0 deficit. Or not. Labonte was thrown out in an attempted double steal, Caswell grounded out, and Brass flew out to Guzman, leaving Lonzo at third base with the tying run.

Stewart struck out ten Thunder in seven innings, which had yet to yield him any fruits when Ojeda hit a leadoff single to center in the eighth. Konecny batted for Stewart, but hit into a fielder’s choice, and Labonte’s groundout and Lonzo’s liner to Robby Gaxiola didn’t exactly accelerate anything but the losing here. Portland picked three outs between previously-battered Eloy Sencion and Reynaldo Bravo in the bottom 8th, then still had “only” one run to make up against right-hander Jerry Washington in the ninth inning. Cas’ leadoff double to right was a nice start, and Brass grounded out to at least send him to third base. Starr walked, setting up a double play to end the day for Jesus Martinez, except that Washington still lacked the aim and walked Martinez, too. Todd Oley batted for Monaghan, but hit a comebacker that saw Caswell forced out at home, and Ojeda grounded out to Ed Soberanes to leave the bases loaded. 1-0 Thunder. Lavorano 2-4; Ojeda 2-4, 2B; Stewart 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, L (1-1);

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF J. Martinez – C Monaghan – 3B Ojeda – P Argenziano
OCT: LF J. Mendoza – 3B Soberanes – RF D. Guzman – 1B F. Martinez – C Dye – SS O. Lira – CF Weant – 2B Gaxiola – P Chartrand

Both teams rocked up with the same lineup on Tuesday, but this time the Raccoons drew first blood with Joel Starr’s solo home run in the second inning. That was the only scoring in the early innings, with Argenziano looking much less like an empty bucket this time around. Labonte looked unlucky, getting caught stealing *again* in the first inning before committing an error that allowed Chartrand on base in the third inning. He then made up for it my reaching and snatching Jose Mendoza’s 1-out liner and snapped the ball to first base in time to get the irritated Chartrand doubled off to end the inning.

Argenziano pitched five shutout innings to begin the game, but offered leadoff walks in the fifth, when Omar Lira didn’t score because the bottom of the order didn’t offer much even when he stole a base, and in the sixth to Mendoza. That one was the problem, because Mendoza not only stole second, he also gained another 90 feet on Monaghan’s throwing error, and was brought in without much fuss on Soberanes’ groundout to second base, tying the score at one. Two easy outs followed, but the game was tied.

Brass objected by hitting a leadoff jack to restore a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning. Nothing else happened in that frame, which Argenziano completed with a 1-hitter on the board, but he was then hit for with Todd Oley to begin the top 8th, which nobody thought much of at the time, since it was *Cameron Argenziano*. Oley grounded out, though, and Labonte’s 1-out double was not met with enthusiasm and/or hits by Lonzo and Cas, and the score remained 2-1. Pesky Robby Gaxiola hit an infield single against Ricky Herrera in the bottom 8th, but was stranded on third base, with Herrera getting the bunt from Chartrand and Tanizaki doing the rest to get out of the inning. Instead, Brass hit another leadoff jack off Chartrand in the ninth, and the Raccoons fiddled another run together on top of that with a Starr single and a pinch-hit, 2-out RBI single from David Gonzales. Matt Walters retired the Thunder in order for a change. 4-1 Raccoons. Labonte 2-5, 2B; Brassfield 3-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI; Starr 3-4, HR, RBI; Gonzales (PH) 1-1, RBI; Konecny (PH) 1-1; Argenziano 7.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Here was the fly in the ointment – Argenziano didn’t leave because we were so clever with pinch-hitting, but because of some throbbing pain or other and Luis Silva locked himself in his room with Argenziano all of Wednesday morning, which was totally not going to be a concern for anybody…

No news by the first pitch for the rubber game, though.

Some rest days were given out in the rubber game, with Lonzo, Ojeda, and Martinez all not in the lineup. It was reasonable to expect the remaining regulars to get a day off in Boston at some point or other, although the Titans didn’t have a left-handed starter at all, so there was no way to be particularly smart about it.

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Bribiesca – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Oley – 3B Gonzales – C Beard – P DeRose
OCT: CF Martaranha – 3B Soberanes – 1B C. Santiago – C Almaguer – 2B O. Lira – RF J. Mendoza – LF D. Guzman – SS Gaxiola – P J. Juarez

The Raccoons took a rather brisk 3-0 lead in the first inning when Bribiesca reached on an error by Cesar Santiago and Noah Caswell immediately went deep to left-center. Brass singled, then scored on Starr’s double into the rightfield corner. Two meek outs later DeRose took the mound, and meek outs were over at that point. DeRose was just plainly *****. In the first two innings he offered two walks and hit no fewer than THREE batters, including the ******* opposing pitcher. It was an outright maddening experience. The Thunder didn’t score in the first despite two free runners, but scored pair in the bottom 2nd when they also mixed in two singles and just narrowly left the bases stuffed when Pedro Almaguer flew out to Brass in deep left. There were few redeeming qualities that DeRose displayed in this game, except perhaps a nice pounce on a grounder to get the final out in the bottom 3rd from Gaxiola when the tying run was at third base again. The Coons scratched out another run in the fourth on Starr’s single and Gonzales’ double, followed by Deshawn Beard actually doing *anything* with a sac fly to center. The Thunder took five pitches to make up that extra run in the bottom 4th, though, as Juarez (the ******* opposing pitcher) blazed a double to left, then scored on two well-placed groundouts.

Neither pitcher made it out of the fifth inning. Juarez was yanked after surrendering another run on Labonte’s double, two productive outs that Labonte score on Cas’ sac fly, and then another Brassfield double, while DeRose allowed singles to Lira and Mendoza to put the tying runs on the corners with one out before getting yanked. Ricky Herrera got a comebacker from Guzman that kept Lira pinned, then a fly to center from Gaxiola that ended the inning with the Raccoons still leading 5-3. He also got three outs in the sixth without allowing a run despite an error by Beard to throw a spanner into the gearworks.

Top 7th, Lonzo pinch-hit, singled, stole a base, and then scored on a bloop single by Labonte to gain more ground, but Pedro Almaguer answered that run with a solo jack off Bryan Roper in the bottom of the same inning. This was the first run that Roper allowed in the majors. The eighth was calm, but the Raccoons got three more singles from Martinez, Ojeda, and Caswell in the ninth inning to push another run across, but the run proved to be ornamental, since Walters, after two hiccups in the first week, again retired the Thunder in order to claim a series win. 7-4 Raccoons. Labonte 2-5, 2B, RBI; Ojeda (PH) 1-1; Caswell 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Brassfield 2-5, 2B; Starr 2-4, 2B, RBI; Lavorano (PH) 1-1; Martinez (PH) 1-1; R. Herrera 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-1);

Raccoons (4-5) @ Titans (4-4) – April 17-20, 2059

The wins had been split evenly in this matchup in 2058, nine for each team. While the Raccoons had just shaken off some loose winter coat and a 5-game losing streak, the Titans had lost three in a row themselves as we entered town, having gotten swept by the pesky Baybirds (tell me about it). They ranked fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed with a -2 run differential, while the Coons were tied for third place with a +10 run differential in either category.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (0-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Mike Pohlmann (1-0, 6.00 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Jayden Craddock (1-0, 3.24 ERA)
Zach Stewart (1-1, 1.23 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (1-1, 3.97 ERA)
TBD vs. Ryan Musgrave (0-2, 9.90 ERA)

No news on Argenziano on Thursday either. Options would of course be Carreno, who had pitched on Monday and would be available to fill the void (8.71 ERA in his first two AAA starts, by the way) or, heavens beware, J.J. Sensabaugh. Duarte Damasceno on paper as well, but we couldn’t hold over EVERYBODY in St. Pete, and his turn was next to go for them, so he wasn’t gonna be it.

There’s always Colby Bowen, though!

Game 1
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – LF Konecny – C Monaghan – 3B Ojeda – P Fox
BOS: LF Weir – RF Y. Valdez – C Burkart – 3B Wilken – 2B D. Mendoza – SS Leitch – 1B S. Diaz – CF Torrence – P Pohlmann

While the Coons got another early home run from Jesus Martinez to lead off the second inning, by then Fox had already been pelted for two runs in the first inning, allowing a single to Hector Weir, a walk to Bruce Burkart, and looked just about going to be fine before giving up a pair of 2-out RBI singles to Diego Mendoza and Alan Leitch. This didn’t get much better with time either, as the Titans kept flocking on base. Doubles by Randy Wilken and Mendoza scored them another run in the third inning, which ended with the bags full and Ethan Torrence grounding out meekly to Fox. And yet it was Fox to erase the deficit in the fifth inning, which already saw Eric Monaghan punch a gapper in right-center for a 1-out triple, upon which Ojeda annoyingly popped out to not cash in the runner. But Fox did, smashing a complacent breaking ball by Pohlmann for *434* feet for a massive 2-run homer! Tied at three, then. Pohlmann got some more, though – Bribiesca hit a single, and then Lonzo socked another long 2-run homer, and the Titans had enough and disposed of Pohlmann. Gabe Hill replaced him, allowed a single to Cas, and then narrowly the third 2-run homer of the inning, but Martinez hit a drive to the deepest part of the park and had to settle for a double. Starr flew out to Torrence to end the inning.

None of this made Fox’ pitching any more watchable. The Titans loaded the bags in the bottom 5th on a Mendoza single sandwiched by walks fumbled to Burkart and Leitch, and the Raccoons shoveled out of there only narrowly when Steve Diaz in a full count hit a sharp grounder right at Lonzo for an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. Fox was retained for the sixth, with more left-handed Titans batters to face, but got smoked for sharp hits by Torrence and Hector Weir, and a fourth run before being yanked with two outs. Ornelas got Burkart to ground out to get outta there.

Titans left-handers Hill and Dave Parra exploded for a 4-spot in the top 7th, extending a skinny lead to 9-4 for Portland. Lonzo, Cas, and Martinez (RBI) hit straight singles, Starr socked an RBI double, there was a run-scoring wild pitch, and finally a sac fly for Konecny. That put the Titans to rest for the night. They went down mostly meekly against Ornelas for another two innings, and didn’t make much wind against Roper in the ninth inning, either. 9-4 Raccoons. Lavorano 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Caswell 3-5; Martinez 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Monaghan 2-4, BB, 3B; Ornelas 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – CF Konecny – C Monaghan – LF Oley – 3B Gonzales – P B. Herrera
BOS: LF Weir – 2B D. Mendoza – C Arviso – RF Y. Valdez – 3B Wilken – SS Leitch – 1B S. Diaz – CF Lloyd – P Craddock

Jorge Arviso was alert and had consumed his coffee on time before the game, because he entirely killed the Raccoons’ running game and every offensive ambition, throwing out Lonzo, Oley, and Konecny trying to steal a base by the fourth inning, after which we stopped bothering to run, and which left us with no runs for our six base hits up to that point. Herrera was more silently efficient, didn’t allow a hit the first time through, although Weir singled off him to begin the bottom 4th. He was stranded on base, though. Randy Wilken hit another leadoff single in the fifth inning before Leitch and Diaz made weak outs. Not Ted Lloyd, though – he socked one over the wall in left, and those were the first two runs that Bobby Herrera allowed in 2059. Tipsy Bobby went on to pitch eight innings, allowing just four hits, but the Raccoons were discombobulated and couldn’t piece *anything* together. From the fifth through the eighth, we had a pair of Lonzo singles, and since the running game had seen all the fun murdered out of it by the pesky Arviso, he both times just waited at first base until the inning was over. Craddock also went eight innings, then yielded for right-hander Josh Carlisle in the ninth inning, which was led off by Martinez. Him and Konecny struck out, and Caswell batted for Monaghan, but grounded out to second base. 2-0 Titans. Labonte 2-4; Lavorano 3-4; B. Herrera 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (1-1);

Neat complete-game loss.

Also a loss for a complete cycle through the rotation was Cameron Argenziano, who was diagnosed with back soreness for lack of an actual break or tear. Since the Raccoons had no wiggle room on the roster, especially with two Rule 5ers that had yet to wash out, we had to shrug and take the L and put him on the DL to miss two more starts rather than one, then called up Carreno.

Game 3
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – C Monaghan – 3B Ojeda – P Stewart
BOS: LF Weir – RF Y. Valdez – C Burkart – 3B Wilken – 2B D. Mendoza – SS Leitch – 1B S. Diaz – CF Torrence – P Glaude

After being shut out on Friday, the Raccoons scored a quick run on Saturday; Labonte doubled to right, and Lonzo’s groundout and Cas’ sac fly got the game’s first run home rather quickly. The lead didn’t last, however, since Stewart allowed a leadoff single to Wilken in the bottom 2nd, followed by an 8-pitch walk to Leitch and a game-tying single to Steve Diaz. Torrence grounded out to third and Glaude whiffed in another full count to strand a pair in scoring position. Stewart hadn’t walked anybody in his first two starts, but lacked sharpness in this game and ran both full counts galore and issued also more walks to Valdez in the third and Diaz in the fourth innings, although the Titans couldn’t gain enough traction to make an impact on the scoreboard. He was however on the forefront of a Raccoons assault in the sixth inning. After getting just two hits in the first five frames against Glaude, the Coons had Stewart slap a single through the right side to begin the top 6th, and Labonte and Lonzo quickly got two more singles to the other side to fill the bases. Annoyingly, Caswell popped out foul to Wilken, but Glaude then lost Brassfield to a four-pitch walk, which restored the Coons to a 2-1 lead. Glaude rallied though, struck out Starr and Martinez, and that was the inning for the Furballs… Worse, Stewart folded altogether in the bottom 6th. Wilken and Mendoza took the corners with 1-out singles, and Leitch’ groundout tied the game again. Diaz and Torrence then both drew full-count walks until the Raccoons threw the anker and Stewart out of the game. Tanizaki got a groundout from PH Jim Auld to end the inning with the bags just as stacked as the Coons left them.

Top 7th, and Monaghan hit another triple (!?), this time leading off against righty Grant MacKinnon. Juan Ojeda’s single to left gave us a 3-2 lead and him his first Critters RBI. Tanizaki was used to bunt, but knocked the ball hard into the infield. The missile somehow missed all the usual suspects to turn such a bad bunt into a double play, though, and instead wound up with Mendoza, who then flung the ball behind a desperately retreating Diaz for a 2-base error, giving the Coons a pair in scoring position with nobody out. Labonte was walked with intent to get forces on every base, but Lonzo’s sac fly to right-center sorta ignored that. Caswell singled to center, with Tanizaki scoring from second base, but Labonte first stopped at second, then went for third base after all, while Leitch, cutting off the ball, didn’t go home and instead got the sure out on Labonte. Right-hander Mike Bell then replaced MacKinnon and got Brass to pop out to end the 3-run inning. The last two innings saw the Raccoons steal three bases off Bruce Burkart, who was not Jorge Arviso, but not actually scoring a run; Starr scooped one in the eighth, and Lonzo nipped *two* in the ninth, but still was stranded on third base. This left another 3-run lead for Walters to save after scoreless innings by Tanizaki and Bravo.

And he didn’t. The Titans slapped four hits off him, beginning with a 1-out double by Yoslan Valdez, and then three straight 2-singles with the 4-5-6 batters, who were on base in now a 5-3 game with two outs and Steve Diaz batting. The Coons twitched and brought in Eloy Sencion, who secured the game with a strikeout. 5-3 Coons. Labonte 2-4, BB, 2B; Lavorano 2-4, RBI; Caswell 2-3, BB, 2 RBI;

Game 4
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – C Beard – P Carreno
BOS: LF Weir – 1B S. Diaz – C Arviso – RF Y. Valdez – 3B Wilken – SS Leitch – 2B Larsen – CF Lloyd – P Musgrave

Remarkable things from Sunday included Carreno not getting drowned in the nearest bay right away – in fact he didn’t allow a hit in the first two innings – and then Carreno even teamed up with another problem kit in Deshawn Beard to take the lead in the third inning. The battery socked a pair of leadoff doubles up either line, followed by Lonzo stuffing an RBI triple into the rightfield corner. That made it 2-0, and Caswell hit a jack to double that again to 4-0. Carreno had one more up his sleeve, answering a leadoff double by Ojeda in the fourth inning with an RBI single to left-center to further extend the score to 5-0 in the fourth.

The Titans didn’t get any sort of hit off Carreno until Wilken bopped a double in the bottom 5th, which of course led to a 2-out run on Shane Larsen’s RBI single. Carreno struck out Lloyd to end the inning, though. He puckered on, while Dave Parra walked the bases full in the seventh inning, giving free passes to the 4-5-6 batters with one out. Ojeda grounded to Larsen for an out at second base, but the Titans couldn’t turn two and the lead was extended to 6-1 before Beard also grounded out.

And Carreno? Still going well in the late innings. He walked Torrence, pinch-hitting in the pitcher’s spot, in the eighth, but Weir flew out easily to end the inning. Carreno was on 86 pitches at that point, which was a shocking display of competence. Diaz grounded out easily to begin the bottom 9th. Arviso hit a sharp grounder, but right at Bribiesca, who had replaced Lonzo at short in a ninth-inning shuffle. Yoslan Valdez shot a double to right, but Wilken ended the game with a cozy grounder on the very next pitch. 6-1 Furballs! Labonte 2-4, BB; Caswell 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Carreno 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

April 14 – Knights SP Enrique Ortiz (0-1, 4.66 ERA) will miss at least a month after suffering an oblique strain.
April 16 – Buffaloes CL Kyle Zanni (2-0, 1.29 ERA, 2 SV) is going to miss the entire season with a torn UCL that requires Tommy John surgery.
April 18 – The Knights suffer another brutal injury, as three-time and defending Player of the Year 2B/SS Willie Acosta (.231, 0 HR, 3 RBI) will miss the rest of the season with a torn UCL. The spiffy Nicaraguan switch-hitter requires Tommy John surgery as well.
April 18 – A bases-clearing double by Rebels SS Jason Turner (.293, 0 HR, 8 RBI) brings about the decision in the Rebels’ 15-inning, 7-4 win against the Blue Sox.
April 19 – Crusaders and Canadiens play 15 innings in Vancouver to get a single run to score. In the end, a walkoff home run by VAN OF Kyle Hawkins (.133, 1 HR, 3 RBI) gives the Canadiens a 1-0 win.
April 20 – LAP 1B Harry Ramsay (.250, 1 HR, 6 RBI) could miss four months or longer with a snapped achilles tendon.

FL Player of the Week: CIN C Tom Wheat (.395, 2 HR, 10 RBI), hitting .571 (12-21) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: LVA OF Ken Hummel (.423, 1 HR, 13 RBI), batting .560 (14-25) with 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Turnaround week – after a 5-game losing streak the Coons won five of their next six games and got back up to second place behind the Crusaders, who were already trying to escape.

The thing stunning me the most (besides Ramon Carreno pitching a complete-game win after being banished to St. Pete to begin with and getting lit up there) is the power game. This team hasn’t hit 100 homers in any of the last three seasons; they stopped at 99 last year, but they hit just 267 in total across three seasons. Now – 17 bombs in two weeks. And it’s not just one player being on a white-hot streak. We’ve had strong production from almost every spot in the lineup, and I wonder how long it will last.

Maybe six months…? Seven? Please…? (anxiously eyes skywards to try and gauge the baseball gods’ mood)

There’s still three wonky spots in the rotation, though.

But there were these little signs everywhere that the stars were just not aligned for the Critters this year. For example… recently-dis-Rule 5’ed Daniel Amburn lasted four days in St. Pete before breaking a wrist. I don’t think he’ll ever play for the Raccoons.

Next week we start a two-week homestand featuring the Loggers, Condors, Knights, and Indians.

Fun Fact: The Aces are off to an 11-2 start.

The Aces have been terrible for … SO LONG. Their last playoff appearance was 2027, when they won the CL South with all of an 81-81 record. In the 31 years in between they have had six winning records, and finished in the first division in the South seven times. They have been rotten *forever*. I feel like it’s time for Vegas to finally pick up their stuff and go somewhere.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-6) vs. Loggers (5-7) – April 22-24, 2059

Baffling as it was, the Raccoons had not won a season series from the Loggers for FIVE years. Two ties, mostly beaten, though, including 8-10 last year. Would fortunes change now? Hard to say, but at least we had had the better start to the season. They ranked seventh in runs scored and runs allowed and first in stolen bases.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (1-0, 4.97 ERA) vs. Julian Dunn (1-0, 2.45 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-0, 0.79 ERA) vs. Sam Webb (0-2, 6.10 ERA)
Zach Stewart (1-1, 1.77 ERA) vs. Adam Foley (0-1, 8.59 ERA)

The series started with a right-hander, but southpaw Webb lurked on Wednesday.

Game 1
MIL: SS D. Miller – CF Monson – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – C Maresh – LF Lindauer – 2B Pirandello – 3B Belman – P Dunn
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Martinez – C Monaghan – 3B Ojeda – P Stewart

Hits by Labonte and Brass put the Raccoons up 1-0 in the first inning, and Starr added an RBI single that didn’t leave the infield dirt, but Jesus Martinez grounded out to end the inning. Given Dave Robles’ leadoff jack in the top 2nd, this was most unfortunate. Things remained hit and miss with Chance Fox, mostly the Loggers hitting and him missing the zone, which helped them get a 2-1 lead in the third. Danny Miller drew a leadoff walk and a single by Perry Pigman and the odd well-placed out helped them to get that freebie around.

The middle innings were full of chances for the Raccoons, but they either had Jesus Martinez hit into a double play as in the fourth, or managed to strand the tying run at third base with a silly groundout, as Lonzo did in the fifth and as Martinez did in the sixth. This left lefty Foxie Brown dangling on a hook although he overall pitched a decent game with little going on for the Loggers after they took the 2-1 lead. Todd Oley batted for Fox in the bottom 7th with Ojeda already on first base and one out. Ojeda went on movement by Dunn, which was good, since Oley slapped the ball through the hole on the right side and Ojeda reached third base with the tying run. Dunn nailed Labonte to fill them up, then lost Lonzo on balls, which at least took the L away from Fox. Caswell, the team RBI leader, popped out to Miller at short, an activity for which no RBI was on offer. The Raccoons still took a lead – the very next pitch by Dunn was walloped to left and clonked off the wall for a bases-clearing double by Trent Brassfield to turn the score to 5-2 home team. This became 5-3 in the eighth with Jason Monson’s homer off Reynaldo Bravo, and there were a lot of things about that sentence that sounded wrong for various reasons. Walters had a 1-2-3 ninth, however, striking out a pair and not getting into much of a trouble for once. 5-3 Raccoons. Brassfield 2-4, 2B, 4 RBI; Starr 2-3; Oley (PH) 1-1; Fox 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (2-0) and 1-1;

Game 2
MIL: 2B N. Roseto – CF Valenzano – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – C Maresh – 3B Lindauer – LF Arcos – SS D. Miller – P S. Webb
POR: 2B Bribiesca – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – 1B Starr – C Monaghan – P B. Herrera

On Wednesday there was no way around acknowledging that Bobby Herrera was just bloody awful. The Loggers had him out of the game in five innings and with a 4-0 score on him, and it hadn’t been particularly “unlucky” for him to give up that many runs. The Loggers whacked the ball, especially to the left side. Perry Pigman, Dave Robles, Chris Maresh, and Jeremy Lindauer hit four straight whacks right in the first inning, a double, 2-run homer, double, and RBI single in that order. Trent Brassfield for sure got a workout, until Konecny got one, because Brassfield had to replace Starr at first base, the latter having pulled some thing or other legging out a grounder. Bryan Roper gave up another run in the sixth after offering two walks and little in mitigating circumstances, and only then did the Raccoons also get on the board, when Martinez opened the bottom 6th with a triple. Ojeda popped out, but Konecny’s single got the run home, 5-1. That’s where the rally also stopped; in turn a fifth run was charged to a Herrera in the ninth inning on hits by Pigman and Maresh off the Ricky version. 6-1 Loggers. Gonzales (PH) 1-1; Ornelas 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

There were no news about Joel Starr by Thursday, but I was understandably shaken. Although – his 150 OPS+ ranked sixth on the team. Did we even need him?

(is slapped back to consciousness by Maud)

Game 3
MIL: SS D. Miller – CF Monson – RF Pigman – 1B D. Robles – C Maresh – LF Lindauer – 2B N. Roseto – 3B Belman – P Foley
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – LF Konecny – 3B Ojeda – C Monaghan – P Stewart

Zach Stewart was *on*, hitting a double and striking out eight batters by the middle of the fifth inning, albeit on a sharply escalating pitch count and in a scoreless game in which both teams had three hits apiece. Stewart reached base again in the bottom 5th when Nick Roseto fumbled his grounder with two outs and Ojeda already on second base, but Labonte couldn’t do anything with runners on the corners and just grounded out to Dave Robles to end the inning.

After a 1-2-3 sixth by Stewart, Lonzo hit a leadoff single to left to start the bottom 6th, then was almost picked off. Being taught some respect by Foley, Lonzo had no appreciable lead on Caswell’s double to left and had to hold at third base, but that was still a pair in scoring position with nobody out. The Raccoons then took a 1-0 lead in the most tedious and annoying and loser way, as Brass hit a comebacker for no runs, Martinez was walked intentionally, and Konecny barely managed a sac fly to Pigman. Ojeda also grounded out poorly to strand the remaining pair. The Loggers immediately made up the run thanks to a walk to Jeremy Lindauer in the seventh inning. Lindauer stole second and scored on D.J. Belman’s 2-out single to center. Stewart struck out Foley, bringing on the stretch, but that was the 109th and last pitch of the outing…

The Raccoons did nothing major in the bottom 7th, but Tanizaki struck out Milwaukee’s 1-2-3 in the eighth to keep the game tied at least. When the Raccoons took a new lead, it was again the ex-Logger to bring in the go-ahead run in the bottom 8th. Lonzo and Caswell made outs to begin the bottom 8th against Foley, but Brass singled, Martinez walked, and then Konecny found some nice spot to drop a ball into in shallow left-center, and Brass scored from second base, 2-1! Oley then batted for Ojeda, but flew out disturbingly easily. Oh well – Matt Walters had another 1-2-3 to whittle down that ghastly ERA and win the series at least… 2-1 Raccoons. Caswell 3-4, 2B; Konecny 1-3, 2 RBI; Stewart 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K and 1-2;

Raccoons (9-7) vs. Condors (7-9) – April 25-27, 2059

The Condors had won five in a row since getting submerged with a 2-9 record, so the Raccoons were warned. They had a -15 run differential, though, with the second-worst offense and just middling pitching in the CL. Best pen, strong defense, though. The rotation was a whole lotta holes, though. In contrast to our fortunes against the Loggers, we had won the season series against Tijuana for five straight years. Last year the final tally was a narrow 5-4.

We would have to attack the Condors and some other teams without Joel Starr, however. The sophomore was off to the DL with a mild hamstring strain. There was hope that he’d only miss two weeks. Starr’s mishap opened the door for 24-year-old Joe Agee to make his major league debut after hitting .326 with five homers in just 26 AAA games since last September. We kinda had a need. Agee had been the #24 pick in 2056.

Projected matchups:
Justin DeRose (0-0, 5.23 ERA) vs. Miguel Batista (1-2, 4.00 ERA)
Ramon Carreno (1-0, 1.00 ERA) vs. Mario Clemente (1-2, 3.00 ERA)
Chance Fox (2-0, 4.12 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (2-0, 1.66 ERA)

Only right-handed opposition in this series.

Game 1
TIJ: C Waker – CF B. Fish – SS C. Ramsey – LF T. Duncan – 1B Schaack – 3B Frasher – RF A. Mendez – 2B Chapa – P M. Batista
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Agee – 3B Gonzales – C Beard – P DeRose

The CL’s best offense from the first 12 days of the season or so had slowed down a bit and by the bottom of the fifth inning on Friday the Raccoons trailed 2-0 and looked a bit lost. DeRose had allowed five hits to the Condors, but of course had crammed four of them into a single inning again, this time that being the third. Alfredo Mendez and Luis Chapa hit leadoff doubles to either side of the outfield to take a lead, and Tristan Waker and Casey Ramsey added more singles, Ramsey getting the second RBI. Bottom 5th, and Jesus Martinez’ leadoff single was only the second base knock for the home team. I twiddled my claws while Joe Agee reached base for the first time in his career, drawing a walk. The bases filled up after a passed ball charged to Waker when the Condors walked Deshawn Beard intentionally. That brought up DeRose, who had the *other* Coons base hit in this game. Two would have been a bit much, so he struck out, but Paul Labonte hurried to the rescue and dinked a 1-2 pitch into shallow right-center to tie the game by plating Martinez and Agee. Lonzo grounded out to keep it all tied, though.

The sixth saw rain to fall, and also Joe Agee bringing in a bid for hero of the day, singling home Brassfield, who had also singled and stolen second base, for Portland to grab a 3-2 lead. While there was a brief rain delay, play resumed within 20 minutes, so at best we didn’t get a cheap win and had to get the expensive one, and at worst DeRose was now shaken out of sorts for good. But the bottom 6th wasn’t over yet – and Batista was the first to implode, giving up straight singles to the 7-8-9 batters before getting yanked, by which time both ends of the Coons battery had driven in another run. Southpaw Aaron Sloan struck out Labonte to keep the score at 5-2, but then folded in the following inning. Lonzo singled, but was caught stealing, but Cas was nicked, Brass singled, and Martinez walked to fill the bases. Agee drew a bases-loaded walk and Gonzales added an RBI single before a new pitcher, Sam Turner, struck out Beard and got DeRose to fly out to center.

Then the Coons croaked. DeRose faced Nick Samuel and Waker in the top 8th, put them on the corners, and was yanked. Reynaldo Bravo replaced him, but Bobby Fish legged out an infield single, and with the bases loaded Bravo first struck out Ramsey, but then walked Tim Duncan and Jason Schaack to force in two runs. The tying runs were on base, and there was still just one out… but then Eric Frasher bounced one to Lonzo for a double play. The good news: Trent Brassfield socked a 3-run homer off Dan Lawrence in the bottom 8th after Lonzo and Cas both singled and did a dirty double steal, putting Portland in double digits. The slugging Deshawn Beard added two more runs with a single to the left side further down the inning, driving in Agee and Oley. 12-4 Raccoons! Lavorano 2-5; Brassfield 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Agee 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Gonzales 2-4, RBI; Beard 2-4, BB, 3 RBI;

We stole a total of five bases in this game, giving us 18 stolen bases and 18 homers on the year, first in both categories.

Game 2
TIJ: C Waker – CF B. Fish – SS C. Ramsey – LF T. Duncan – 1B Schaack – 3B Frasher – RF A. Mendez – 2B Chapa – P M. Clemente
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – 1B Brassfield – RF Martinez – LF Konecny – 3B Ojeda – C Monaghan – P Carreno

Carreno had looked bafflingly decent in his first fill-in start, but by the second one I looked baffled instead and wondered whether I had dreamed up the first one. Tristan Waker led off with a long double, and Carreno walked the bases full without getting an out. Lonzo then fudged Duncan’s grounder for an error and a run before the Condors ran face first into a couple of glass doors as Schaack hacked out, Frasher flailed out, and Alfredo Mendez flew out to Caswell in center, stranding all the runners. Errors were a bit the flavor of the day. The Coons couldn’t score Lonzo from a 1-out triple in the bottom 1st, but Labonte threw a groundball away in the second, and in the third inning Schaack flung away Carreno’s bunt with Monaghan on first base and nobody out. That gave the Raccoons two runners, who reached scoring position when Labonte grounded out to Luis Chapa. Lonzo struck out and Caswell grounded out then, which yielded no runs.

Brass continued to swing the pipe, though, and whacked a game-tying homer to begin the bottom 4th, tying us up at one. Otherwise the bats were silent in the middle innings, and people even managed to contain their excitement with the errors, the game remaining tied at one into the seventh inning, where the Raccoons replaced Carreno, on 95 pitches, with Eloy Sencion, who had a 1-2-3 inning, unlike Tanizaki in the next frame. Tanizaki had one of those “woe is us” innings, where he couldn’t get anybody out. Three hits, a walk, two runs, and then Ricky Herrera had to clean up behind him. That’s why I tried to ship him out for four months this winter, and nobody wanted him… The Raccoons only reached base again in the bottom 9th with Brass hitting a leadoff single off Cory Leonard into leftfield, bringing up Martinez is the tying run. Leonard walked him on four pitches, then Konecny on five; that put the winning run on first base. Juan Ojeda’s sharp single to left advanced the winning run to second base, and Eric Monaghan’s strikeout did not advance the winning run at all. Todd Oley was hitting .125 at this point in the season, but that still beat having Ricky Herrera poke his twig. It was the right move, as Leonard kept collapsing all the way to the end, giving up a 2-run walkoff single to the pinch-hitter. 4-3 Raccoons! Brassfield 2-4, HR, RBI; Oley (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Carreno 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K; R. Herrera 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-1);

A clutch hit with the bases loaded? By a Raccoon? What?? Maud, call security, we have an intruder in the building!!

Game 3
TIJ: 1B Schaack – RF A. Mendez – LF T. Duncan – C Samuel – 3B Frasher – SS C. Ramsey – CF B. Fish – 2B Chapa – P Mauricio
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 3B Ojeda – 1B Agee – RF Oley – C Monaghan – P Fox

Todd Oley never batted on Sunday, tweaking his knee on a sliding catch of Schaack’s drive that began the game and was replaced by Konecny who promptly dropped Duncan’s fly to right two batters later. Nothing bad happened to Fox at least. Right away, at least. Bottom 1st, Lonzo also reached because a rightfielder couldn’t hold on to his own middling fly, which added him to the basepaths next to Labonte, who had drawn a leadoff walk from Mauricio. Lonzo was forced out on Cas’ grounder, but Labonte went to third base, then scored on Brass’ single to center. Ojeda flew out, while Agee reached on Chapa bobbling a grounder, which was the third error in the game. We had the second injury a minute later on Konecny’s bases-clearing double to right-center, which extended the score to 4-0. Konecny then limped off, however, with a gnarly calf. Now Bribiesca filled the spot in right, since I really had this idea that Jesus Martinez might have a ******* day off. When Monaghan struck out, that ended ONE inning with three errors, four runs, and two injuries.

Fox had a tight spot in the third inning, first getting two outs before Schaack hit a single and Fox then walked the bases full with Mendez and Duncan. Nick Samuel was a cozy third out, though, grounding out to Labonte on second base. Instead Agee doubled home Ojeda in the bottom of the inning, stretching the lead to 5-0. Things looked fine. But my spider senses were tingling.

Bribiesca then was the third rightfielder to bungle a medium-difficulty fly ball, dropping a Mauricio serve to begin the fifth inning. At least a pop by Schaack, Mendez’ liner to Lonzo, and Duncan’s fly to Brass ended the inning, but Fox still came to harm in the next frame. He walked Frasher, then got whacked for singles by Ramsey and Chapa, and finally a pinch-hit triple by Nigel Cross that plated three runs for the Condors, but when Labonte tripled in the same inning, there were two outs, nobody on, and Lonzo decided to be not a lot of help either. Frasher then roped a homer off Roper in the seventh, and the lead was whittled down to 5-4. Sencion took it upon himself to deliver another 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, while I was making big black googly eyes for an insurance run, or at least for not another player to tear out a leg before this game would inevitably go down the drain for good. Jesus Martinez batted for Bribiesca, but for no gains, in the bottom 8th, and in fact the Coons disappeared without making more wind on the scoreboard, but they were on their FOURTH rightfielder of the game when Matt Walters came in for the top of the order. Walters blazed the Condors in order though, three strikeouts to three batters. 5-4 Coons. Konecny 1-1, 2B, 3 RBI; Bribiesca 1-2;

In other news

April 23 – Warriors SP Ed Nadeau (1-0, 1.69 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Gold Sox in Denver, claiming a 9-0 win.
April 24 – The Pacifics pick up SS Eric Cirelli (.298, 0 HR, 1 RBI) from the Cyclones for AAA 3B Matt Ruskin and a prospect.
April 26 – Stars OF Tyler Wharton (.333, 3 HR, 3 RBI) might miss two weeks with a sore ankle.
April 27 – A strained rib cage muscle will put TOP LF/RF Dan Martin (.288, 5 HR, 16 RBI) on the shelf for at least three weeks.

FL Player of the Week: PIT LF/RF Elijah Johnson (.424, 1 HR, 11 RBI), batting .563 (9-16) with 1 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT SS/2B Nick Kelly (.727, 1 HR, 2 RBI), which wasn’t a bad ABL debut week

Complaints and stuff

No comments about Elijah Johnson please, I already get those from the Agitator, often on page 1. Kelly meanwhile was a 24-year-old left-handed hitting shortstop that had been taken in the third round by the Aces in ’53, traded twice in deadline week in ’54, including once for Josh Rella, the closer of the Coons’ most golden dynasty in the 2040s, and had since then languished in AAA for the Thunder.

Another strong week for the Critterfolk, going 5-1 … with a few bleeding wounds, admittedly. We have a +28 run differential right now, and we’re still first in homers and stolen bases. Even our defense is first in the league. The pitching… could use some more consistency.

But for now the Raccoons were without Joel Starr for two weeks, and on Sunday the landmines in rightfield had taken out both Konecny and Oley. Konecny had a sore calf and was listed as day-to-day. The calf might bother him for much of next week, while Oley had a sprained knee, would miss at least a week, and would probably have to be shunted to the DL because we couldn’t go with three outfielders for four or five games. The real funny part was how all the Coons’ runs in that 5-4 game were driven in by replacement rightfielders that didn’t finish the game, either…

Yes, that’s things you can laugh about when you’re 5-1 for the week, not 1-5.

Who had Chance Fox as the first Raccoons pitcher to three wins? – Take your paw down, Cristiano. You and Fox can get a room! – What’s there to giggle about?

Funny story. This week the Crusaders proposed a deal, offering their young-ish outfielder Sean Zeiher in a trade. They just wanted Bobby Herrera, no biggies. (makes cuckoo paw movement)

The Coons would tackle the Knights and Indians next week, and presumably with at least one new outfielder on the roster… Argenziano should return for the weekend, though.

Fun Fact: Trent Brassfield was leading all the ABL in home runs with six!

When was the last time that happened?? Four guys in the FL had five dingers apiece, including the Buffos pair of Dan Martin and Zach Suggs, the Warriors’ Steve Dilly, and the Blue Sox’ Andy Metz. Nobody in the CL had five home runs exactly, while Noah Caswell was on of four players with four bombs. All in the CL: Milwaukee’s Jason Monson (!), and the Indians’ Chris Lovins and Cory Oldfield.

Brass also led the CL RBI table, tied with Vegas’ Gustavo Jacinto.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-7) vs. Knights (4-14) – April 28-30, 2059

Things were going a bit pear-shaped in Atlanta, where the Knights had scored just 52 runs from 18 games, bottoms in the league, and that was nothing that could be fixed with decidedly mediocre pitching. They had piled up a -34 run differential in just 18 times on the green grass, and they would probably correct that trend soon. Very soon. They had won five of nine games against the Raccoons last season.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (1-2, 1.95 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (0-1, 4.50 ERA)
Zach Stewart (1-1, 1.65 ERA) vs. Joe Napier (0-2, 2.01 ERA)
Justin DeRose (1-0, 5.19 ERA) vs. Vic Harman (0-2, 7.54 ERA)

The series started with a southpaw on Monday, then continued with two right-handers from the Knights’ side.

Both teams struggled with injuries early on, with the Knights having lost Willie Acosta for the year, and Enrique Ortiz, Oscar Juarez, David Hardaway, and Doug Triplett at least for some time. The Raccoons had suffered two injured outfielders on Sunday; we kept Kelly Konecny as day-to-day on the roster, but Todd Oley hit the DL. 23-year-old Joey Christopher was brought up from St. Pete, where he had a .414 OBP, to fill in a bit. Christopher had 37 ABL games under his belt between the Miners and Coons, hitting .297 with no home runs. He had a new number, #18, after Konecny had taken his previously issued #21.

Game 1
ATL: C M. Nieto – SS Moya – 1B C. Rice – RF J. Harmon – LF Abercrombie – 3B Munn – CF del Toro – 2B R. Romero – P Villegas
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – C Monaghan – 1B Agee – P B. Herrera

The landmines kept going off in Raccoons Ballpark, as Villegas would leave the game with an injury before five innings were complete and despite a sizable lead held by the allegedly feckless Knights against Bobby Herrera, who was merely terrible. Six Knights went down in order to begin the game, three on strikeouts, but then they built a 2-run inning out of nothing but horse *****, two infield singles, and one bloop single into center, that made me open the nearest bottle of Capt’n Coma. The entire ex-Coon array in the 5-6-7 spots then reached base with one out in the fourth inning as Josh Abercrombie singled, Danny Munn walked, Juan del Toro hit another single that plated Abercrombie, and Ricardo Romero plated a second run with a groundout. Jamie Harmon would hit a solo home run in the sixth for the Knights’ fifth run against Tipsy Bobby, who looked more tipsy than bobby this time ‘round. To add insult to injury, the only Raccoons run in the early going resulted from Herrera hitting a double to right and then being driven in with Bribiesca’s single to left-center. Bryan Roper would be even worse in the eighth inning, allowing four base runners without failing the zone or getting over any pitch at all, and was charged with two runs before Reynaldo Bravo escaped from a bases-loaded situation with two strikeouts.

Bottom 8th. The Knights were up 7-1 and sent Matt Weber for the inning. Lonzo struck out, and Caswell only reached on an error by Chris Rice. Brass singled. Jesus Martinez bashed a home run on the very next pitch, and six runs became three. Jake Hill replaced Weber, got a grounder from Ojeda, then gave up a single to Monaghan, then the ball to southpaw Amari Walker, whom Joe Agee doubled against. Exit Walker, enter Jess Miss, with the hobbled Konecny batting for Bravo, singling, bringing in both runners, and then departed before becoming obnoxious for pinch-runner David Gonzales. The Rule 5er scored on the very next pitch, on which Bribiesca smacked a double, erasing the last of the 6-run deficit. Lonzo flew out to Harmon to end the inning.

The ninth was uneventful I that no runs were scored; Matt Walters pitched two innings, whiffing four and giving up a hit in each, but the Knights didn’t get back in front in the tenth inning either. The Knights ran out of relievers after regulation (they used four in the eighth inning alone, which with the early departure of Villegas kinda sucked for them) and threw in Napier for the bottom 10th. He walked Monaghan, but Agee hit into a double play right away. In turn Tanizaki all allowed the 3-4-5 batters on base with two outs in the 11th inning, and Abs batted home Rice with the tie-breaking run. Danny Munn grounded out to short to leave two, while the Raccoons had to move now. Bribiesca and Lonzo made meek outs, however, and when Caswell walked and advanced to second after a wild pitch, Brassfield still popped out foul. 8-7 Knights. Bribiesca 3-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Konecny (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Walters 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

That one hurt…

Game 2
ATL: CF Nork – 1B C. Rice – C M. Nieto – LF Abercrombie – 3B Munn – SS Moya – RF Callaia – 2B R. Romero – P Harman
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Lavorano – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Agee – 3B Gonzales – C Beard – P Stewart

Harman went on short rest, but thankfully had been knocked out of his last start early, so maybe it would all shake out for the Knights. Tuesday’s game started off even more ******* than Monday’s. Dan Nork struck out, but reached on the uncaught third strike, and Rice hit a bloop single to put a pair on base. Marco Nieto flew out, while Abercrombie’s grounder was taken to second base, but Lonzo couldn’t turn two and hurt himself trying on top of that. He left the game and Ojeda took over the #2 spot playing at third base, with Gonzales to short, where he immediately missed Danny Munn’s 2-out grounder for an RBI single before finally ending the inning on Joaquin Moya’s groundball. Labonte singled and Ojeda tripled to make up the deficit before an out was made in the bottom 1st, and Caswell’s sac fly gave Portland a 2-1 lead, but I was inconsolably crying into a pillow anyway because everybody loves Lonzo, and if you don’t love Lonzo, we can’t be friends.

Offense died in the following innings, but things threatened to get worse in terms of roster space when rain began to fall in the fourth inning. There was an hourlong rain delay, after which Stewart continued and got three outs from the bottom of the order mostly in the top 5th. Harman also continued, but got socked some in the bottom 5th. Labonte singled, Ojeda reached on Ricardo Romero’s throwing error, and Caswell doubled home the pair of them. Brass singled, Martinez walked, and the Knights *really* didn’t want to use a reliever in the fifth inning, and were lucky with a pop and a grounder that Harman collected from Agee and Gonzales, respectively, leaving the bases full at the end of the inning. Stewart gave up a triple to Munn with two outs in the sixth inning, but then struck out Moya to get out of there; it was his last inning, also owed to the rain delay.

Ornelas then had a nice seventh inning and was brought back for the eighth with markedly less stellar results. Dan Nork launched a leadoff double into the leftfield corner, made it to third on a wild pitch, Rice walked, and Marco Nieto landed an RBI single in leftfield that Brassfield overran to allow the tying runs into scoring position with nobody out. As a sign that things were going to be alright, Ojeda then failed to play the sorry grounder hit by Abercrombie off Eloy Sencion in a timely manner, a run scored, and Abs was safe at first base. Munn and Moya both struck out, but Ojeda’s dive couldn’t contain a sharp whizzer whacked by Jose Torres in Callaia’s spot, and the tying and go-ahead runs scored from the corners with two outs. Romero whiffed to end the terrible, horrible, no-good inning. Bravo got on the snout even more in the ninth inning; del Toro led off with a pinch-hit single, and Bravo then walked the bags full like some idiot. Nieto struck out, but Abercrombie singled home two runs while Ryan Dow suffocated the Critters… 7-4 Knights. Labonte 2-5; Caswell 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

Tribulations. Wednesday marked Cameron Argenziano’s day of eligibility to come off the DL. The Coons were two short on the bench now, with Konecny still day-to-day and Lonzo not diagnosed as of game time. Argenziano remained unassigned for this game, DeRose took the start, and we’d shake out how to proceed over the following off day.

The Knights went back to Napier, who had pitched two relatively quick innings for the win in relief on Monday.

Game 3
ATL: CF Nork – SS Moya – 1B C. Rice – RF J. Harmon – LF Abercrombie – 3B Munn – C J. Torres – 2B R. Romero – P Napier
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Bribiesca – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 3B Ojeda – 1B Christopher – C Monaghan – P DeRose

Jesus Martinez’ 2-out RBI single plated Labonte in the bottom 1st for an early and tiny Raccoons lead, and DeRose feigned competence for a little while, but ultimately walked Chris Rice in the fourth inning, then threw two wild pitches to allow Harmon to bring him in with the tying run on a deep fly to left that Brass caught. Abs hit a single, stole second, reached third on a throwing error by Monaghan, and *somehow* was stranded when Danny Munn popped out on a 3-1 pitch.

The Raccoons’ offense was silent after that first-inning run until Monaghan drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th and Napier frittered DeRose’s hard comebacker of a bunt into no outs at all since his attempt at starting a 1-6-3 double play pulled Moya off the base at second and all paws were safe. Labonte hit into a fielder’s choice to get the pitcher off the bases, while Bribiesca’s RBI single gave the Raccoons a new 2-1 lead. Cas and Brass croaked, though, and two grounders weren’t gonna do the trick, both being to short for an out each. Rice’s double, a throwing error by Labonte, a passed ball, and a Munn single flipped the score around in the next half-inning as the Raccoons didn’t miss a beat in their bid to suck on all cylinders… Bribiesca joined into the choir of howlers in the eighth, making not one but TWO errors at short behind Ricky Herrera to absolutely insist the Knights score an insurance run. Furthermore, Chris Rice doubled home a run after Marco Nieto’s leadoff single in the ninth inning against the by-and-large useless Roper.

By the bottom 9th, the Raccoons had looked like roadkill for a solid two and a half hours (four errors, anyone?) and I just wanted the game to end. So of course Joe Agee and Paul Labonte opened the inning with doubles off right-hander Nick Hamlin. That narrowed the score to 5-3 and brought the tying run to the plate, although Bribiesca and Caswell immediately made wasteful outs. Brass singled home Labonte, advancing Martinez into the box. His pathetic grounder to short ended the ballgame. 5-4 Knights. Bribiesca 2-5, RBI; Agee (PH) 1-1, 2B;

To everybody’s horror, there were still no news about Lonzo by Friday. The entire off day came and went and the Raccoons made no roster move.

We ended up sending Argenziano on a rather shambolic “rehab assignment” to the Alley Cats to clear him off the DL, under strict instructions not to use him in a game. Konecny was available again by Friday, but we still carried a dead body on the bench as the new series began.

Raccoons (12-10) vs. Indians (11-10) – May 2-4, 2059

The tumultuous homestand would close with the second series of the year against the Indians, who we had beaten twice to start the season before starting a 5-game losing streak. Indy ranked sixth in runs scored and third in runs allowed, which sounded surprisingly competent after their last few years. Josh Barbieri, Roberto Oyola, Randy Slocum, Mike DeWitt, Jorge Ortiz – the list of injuries for Indy was just as long as ours.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (3-0, 4.21 ERA) vs. Melvin Guerra (2-1, 2.96 ERA)
Ramon Carreno (1-0, 0.60 ERA) vs. Matt Green (0-1, 7.30 ERA)
Bobby Herrera (1-2, 2.91 ERA) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (3-1, 3.72 ERA)

Southpaw Sunday!

Game 1
IND: SS Kilday – 2B Ewers – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – CF Oldfield – C Carranza – 3B Niles – RF Lovins – P Guerra
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Bribiesca – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Agee – 3B Ojeda – C Monaghan – P Fox

Without Lonzo, the entire team looked like they had been tied to a guardrail somewhere on rural I-90 in Montana and then had looked after their owner, speeding off, with big black googly eyes. Through five innings on Friday, the Raccoons had *one* measly base hit, an RBI single by Caswell to score Labonte, who had walked and stolen second base, in the first inning, but Chance Fox had long found his way onto the hook. He was all over the place; long counts, three walks, and while the tying run scored in the second inning on a wild pitch – after he walked the scoring runner, Fernando Carranza, to begin the whole shebang – the Indians’ go-ahead run came on a 2-out throwing error by Monaghan, who made no serious efforts to have his 2060 option ever picked up.

The stretch came – after a scoreless inning by Tanizaki, replacing Fox after six abortive innings – and went with the Raccoons still on one hit, until Brass poked a 1-out single in the bottom 7th. Martinez walked, but Guerra got a pop from Agee before bringing up Ojeda. The third-base rental did his best trick in the arsenal and zinged a sharp drive into right-center and into the gap, all the way to the wall for a score-flipping, 2-out, 2-run triple…! He scored on a wild pitch now, 4-2, but Kevin Ewers erased that extra run with a jack off Eloy Sencion in the eighth. Sencion kept seamlessly fitting in with the rest of the unhinged pitching staff, allowing a hit to Orlando Ramos, and another one with two outs to Ricardo Vargas, and another one to Carranza, and suddenly the bags were full and the Coons tossed Ornelas into the fray against Nathan Niles … who struck out, and the 4-3 lead stood for the time being. The bottom 8th was entirely fruitless, but at least Matt Walters went 1-2-3 with two strikeouts against Mitch Korfhage, Matt Kilday, and Ewers. 4-3 Blighters. Caswell 1-2, BB, RBI;

We had three base hits. The Indians had nine.

For once, the Raccoons finished their dinner and cleaned their plates – not a single brown-shirted runner was left on base in this game.

It’s not like there were many.

And then it was Saturday and …

…and where the actual **** WERE Luis Silva and Lonzo even???

Game 2
IND: SS Kilday – RF Lovins – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B R. Vargas – CF Oldfield – C Carranza – 2B Ewers – P M. Green
POR: 2B Labonte – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Agee – RF Christopher – SS Gonzales – C Monaghan – P Carreno

Carreno’s game began with a walk to Matt Kilday, who soon scored on Chris Lovins’ double. Bill Quinteros was nicked, Ricardo Vargas’ groundout got Kilday home, and the Raccoons were down 2-0 in a hurry. Cory Oldfield’s 2-out walk didn’t help them much more, since Carranza easily flew out to Christopher in right. Carreno never got any better, really, the Indians were just more forgiving about his mistakes. In the fourth Vargas hit a leadoff double and Oldfield was nicked, but after Carranza’s deep fly out to Brass, Kevin Ewers hit into a 5-4-3 double play to end that inning. The score blew up in the fifth after a bottom 4th in which Agee reached on an error, was forced out by Christopher, who stole second, but was then left there in scoring position. The top 5th was the last for Carreno; Green opened with a single to left, which was always nice, but was forced out on a bad bunt by Kilday. The fast Kilday however stole second base, then scored on Chris Lovins’ single, and Orlando Ramos brushed a 2-run homer to extend the Indians’ lead to 5-0.

Monaghan’s leadoff jack in the bottom 5th made up one run, but then it began to rain, both on the scoreboard and in the bigger picture. Roper walked Carranza in the top 6th, gave up a triple to Ewers, and Green got a sac fly to shove two more runs down the rookie’s throat, with a third run following in the top of the seventh, which Roper began by filling the bases without a whiff of an out in his favor. Not that a new pitcher made it better: Reynaldo Bravo was just taken deep by Kilday when he came into the game in the eighth… 9-1 Indians.

(scratches head with a hindpaw)

…

On Sunday, then, the Raccoons scratched Lonzo off the roster for the rest of the year. After a myriad of tests had shown a tear in his labrum, he was scheduled for surgery on Monday, and Luis Silva gave me no hopes that he was going to suit up for baseball again this season. – But Luis Silva, it’s only May! How are we gonna make it through the cold and loveless season without Lonzo…!?

Cristiano Carmona had Vernon Hudalla imported from St. Petersburg then, because I was in no state to do anything but bawl my eyeballs out. In a second move, he also exchanged Ramon Carreno with Cameron Argenziano.

Game 3
IND: SS Kilday – RF Lovins – LF O. Ramos – 1B B. Quinteros – 3B R. Vargas – C Carranza – CF S. Thompson – 2B Ewers – P Fitzgibbon
POR: 2B Bribiesca – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – SS Gonzales – 1B Agee – C Beard – P B. Herrera

I didn’t show any reactions as the Indians roughed up Bobby Herrera for three runs right in the first inning of the rubber game. All the runs scoring on doubles by Orlando Ramos and Ricardo Vargas. Those would be the only runs in seven innings off Herrera, but they proved to be plenty for the Raccoons, who were by now entirely directionless. Nothing much happened for them the first time through the order, but in the fourth inning they at least got Caswell on with a single, Brass doubled, and Martinez’ sac fly and Gonzales’ single got two runs home. The 3-2 deficit hung around like a bad stench or like Tanizaki all the way to the stretch then, after which Beard and Konecny began the bottom 7th with a pair of meager outs before Bribiesca hit a double to centerfield that could have been a single if Steve Thompson hadn’t been so greedy about getting the third out with an aggressive slide. He couldn’t get the ball, and instead gave up another base, although that ended up not mattering in the end. Ojeda singled to right to put them on the corners (and Bribiesca would have reached third base on this play anyway), and Ewers fumbled Cas’ grounder to allow the tying run to score. Brass smacked an RBI single to left-center to give Bobby Herrera a belated lead, but Martinez struck out. After Sencion held his **** together for three outs in the eighth, Monaghan drew a walk batting for Agee and Konecny reached on an error against left-hander Matt Otte in the bottom 8th, but an actual base hit and insurance run would have been too much asked. Kevin Ewers, who had snatched Bribiesca’s liner to end the bottom 8th, singled with two outs after Walters had struck out Carranza and Niles in the ninth, but that inning ended just like the previous half-inning, with Victor Cruz lining out to the second baseman. 4-3 Coons. Caswell 2-4; Brassfield 2-4, 2B, RBI; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (2-2);

In other news

April 29 – BOS SP Jayden Craddock (3-1, 1.57 ERA) throws a no-hitter against the Falcons in his fourth Titans start, allowing just two walks and no base knocks in a 2-0 win. This is the first no-hitter for Boston since Kyle Turay no-hit the Thunder in 2050.
April 29 – Big winter acquisition SAC INF Victor Corrales (.239, 1 HR, 9 RBI) will miss a month at least with a broken finger.
April 29 – The Warriors get LF/RF Josh Bursley (.254, 3 HR, 9 RBI) from the Stars in a trade for MR Zack Stahl (1-0, 11.42 ERA) and a prospect.
April 30 – A ruptured lumbar disc ends the season of Blue Sox outfielder Tony Ontiveroz (.333, 3 HR, 10 RBI).
May 1 – The Miners beat the Pacifics 16-7 on the strength of a 10-run sixth inning.
May 2 – The Stars beat the Gold Sox, 8-7 in 17 innings. DAL OF Cortez Miranda (.300, 0 HR, 3 RBI) drives in the tie-breaking run after eight innings of nothingness on the scoreboard.
May 3 – Warriors MR Kellen Lanning (1-1, 1.80 ERA, 2 SV) commits the sin of a walkoff balk in the bottom of the ninth inning in a 5-4 loss to the Scorpions, moving his leg while on the rubber to allow SAC OF Mario Ceballos (.136, 0 HR, 1 RBI) to score from third base.
May 4 – Aces 3B/1B/RF Alex Alfaro (.318, 3 HR, 11 RBI) was going to miss a month with a broken finger.
May 4 – The Aces, unimpressed by the loss, score in every inning but the first in their 12-4 win over the Bayhawks.

FL Player of the Week: NAS INF Nick Nye (.347, 6 HR, 15 RBI), bashing .524 (11-21) with 3 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL 3B/1B Doug Triplett (.253, 3 HR, 10 RBI), playing just the weekend for a .538 (7-13) clip with 1 HR, 5 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: SFW 3B Steve Dilly (.333, 5 HR, 27 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL RF/LF Perry Pigman (.430, 1 HR, 14 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT SP Sean Sweeton (4-0, 1.35 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: NYC CL Zachariah Alldred (3-0, 1.13 ERA, 5 SV)
FL Rookie of the Month: PIT LF/RF Elijah Johnson (.410, 1 HR, 11 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN INF/RF Mark Younce (.341, 0 HR, 9 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Hi, it’s Cristiano Carmona today. The GM is … (looks over to the gray figure in the black coat, black hat, and black sunglasses sitting motionless at the desk on the other side of the room) … not really with us today.

The Raccoons posted a losing week after two weeks of smashing nearly everything that crossed their path. The issue was mostly pitching-related, because we’re still scoring nearly five runs per game. The bullpen remains especially brittle and is in fact the worst in the CL right now by ERA, if you believe in obsolete metrics like that.

We are obviously in the hunt for a new shortstop … (looks over to the gray figure in the black coat, black hat, and black sunglasses sitting motionless at the desk on the other side of the room) … but I don’t think I can get the GM to sign off on any paperwork for at least a few days.

Brassfield hit no home runs this week and was mostly invisible, but still got a single in every game this week and has a 10-game hitting streak. He also still leads the CL in RBI with 20.

Younce is a 29-year-old Rule 5 pick that played with the Rebels as far back as 2054 and somehow still had rookie status. The league is weird sometimes. Of course, those guys are never the 34-year-old catchers that the Raccoons pick up by accident when they were actually shopping for *catheters* for their outlandishly incontinent pitching. Something always leaks over the plate.

Of course, if our GM… (looks over to the gray figure in the black coat, black hat, and black sunglasses sitting motionless at the desk on the other side of the room) … would ever listen to me, then we might find some hidden gems as well. But whenever I point out to him that we could do so much better at shortstop with a high-OBP player, he just supplants smart stats with flowery language about how many bases Lonzo steals, and that’s then usually the end of the discussion.

…unless he says something like, Cristiano, you’ve been in a wheelchair all your life, what do you ******* know about baserunning??

The Raccoons will be on the road next week, visiting Vancouver for four games and Richmond for three. I know that our GM… (looks over to the gray figure in the black coat, black hat, and black sunglasses sitting motionless at the desk on the other side of the room) … can’t travel to Canada, but I am not sure whether Maud can apple-pie him back into shape to go to Virginia.

Fun Fact: On this day in the ABL’s inaugural season, the Raccoons’ Ben Simon hit three home runs in a 9-4 win in Milwaukee.

It was the first 3-homer game in league history, and it cemented Simon’s claim to fame as an early power hitter. He hit 21 home runs for an offensively starved Raccoons team that year, then won the CL home run title with 28 bombs in 1979, when the Raccoons posted their worst-ever season overall by losing 107 games.

He also led the league in strikeouts four times, but still smacked 156 home runs in a 10-year career with the Raccoons, Wolves, and Cyclones, while batting .239 and driving in 759 runs. Five Gold Gloves at three different infield positions, including four up the middle with the Raccoons, also came in handy.

Simon was the Raccoons’ first Hawaiian-born All Star, predating Nick Brown by a quarter of a century, but never played in a playoff game since he departed as free agent after the 1981 season and had no luck with his FL teams, either. Born during the second term of the Truman administration, he is also no longer with us, having passed away the day before the inauguration of President Mathers.

[ayaghmour2]

Lonzo being hurt this early and missing the rest of the season is quite possibly the worst thing for us fans! And the first series with him officially out is a trip to face the Elks? I don't like where this is going...

His teammates need to pick up the slack!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (14-11) @ Canadiens (11-13) – May 5-8, 2059

The damn Elks were bleeding out the most runs in the CL, 5.6 per game, and were scoring just at an average rate, so it was sort of surprising to see them this close to .500 with their -25 run differential. Both their rotation and pen had an ERA over five. The Coons had won the season series for three years straight, most recently 11-7 in 2058.

Projected matchups:
Zach Stewart (1-1, 1.62 ERA) vs. Andy Overy (1-2, 4.02 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. Jeff Kozloski (1-3, 5.59 ERA)
Chance Fox (3-0, 3.69 ERA) vs. John Morris (2-1, 5.56 ERA)
Justin DeRose (1-1, 4.24 ERA) vs. Anton Jesus (1-2, 6.46 ERA)

Left, right, left, right. No Damian Moreno, the centerfielder being on the DL with a stitched-up elbow, from which various debris had been removed last month.

I was of course not in Elk City. I needed some emotional distance from everything and sat in my black coat, black broad-rimmed hat, and black sunglasses in section 23, row 38, of Raccoons Ballpark, out there on the leftfield line, in the driving rain, and soaked in all the pain and misery of the world.

Game 1
POR: SS Bribiesca – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Agee – C Monaghan – 2B Hudalla – P Stewart
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 3B Whittington – 2B Younce – RF Magnussen – C Burnham – CF K. Hawkins – SS Kuchta – 1B M. Saunders – P Overy

Not watching the Monday opener turned out perhaps a wise decision for one old GM battered by life and circumstances, because the Raccoons didn’t exactly steamroll Andy Overy, who went just five innings, and Erik Swain, striking out ten times in seven innings against those two combined, while Zach Stewart wasn’t *terrible*, but had a complete lapse of talent in the second inning, offering leadoff walks to Adam Magnussen and Luke Burnham, a single to Rich Kuchta, and the inevitable 2-run double to right to Manny Saunders. Another run scored on Overy’s groundout to give the damn Elks a quick 3-0 lead. The Raccoons saw Vernon Hudalla draw a leadoff walk and be brought home by Caswell with two outs in the top 3rd, but that was the extent of our offensive ambitions. Stewart went into the seventh inning, but ran out of juice with two outs and nobody on base. Roper and Ricky Herrera then walked the bags full between them and Thomas Whittington hit a 2-out, 2-run single off Herrera. Jim Woods retired the 3-4-5 batters in order in the eighth inning, but Joe Agee socked a leadoff double off the rightfield wall against him to begin the ninth. Labonte batted for Monaghan and legged out an infield single, putting runners on the corners and creating a save opportunity for Rafael Flores, who entered the game to face Konecny pinch-hitting for Vernon Hudalla, and walked him in a full count. Three on, no outs, then. Joey Christopher was the third pinch-hitter in a row and was held to a sac fly to Kyle Hawkins. Bribiesca grounded to second for a fielder’s choice, but Ojeda’s RBI single to left brought Caswell back to the plate with the tying runs aboard and turned a 1-2 pitch around for an RBI single to center. And then Brass struck out. 5-4 Canadiens. Caswell 3-5, 2 RBI; Labonte (PH) 1-1; Hudalla 1-2, BB;

(still sits in section 23, row 38, unmoved and unmoving)

Game 2
POR: 2B Labonte – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Agee – SS Bribiesca – RF Christopher – C Monaghan – P Argenziano
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 3B Whittington – 2B Younce – RF Magnussen – C Burnham – CF K. Hawkins – SS Kuchta – 1B M. Saunders – P Kozloski

Whittington and Mark Younce drew walks and Whittington stole two bases off Argenziano in the first inning, but they were stranded on the corners with a K to Magnussen and Burnham’s foul pop to Joe Agee, who saw his days on the roster numbered with Joel Starr due to return soon and himself not hitting a lick.

While the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on a solo homer by Monaghan in the third inning, Argenziano was a complete mess. He issued another walk in the second, and a leadoff walk to Danny Garcia in the bottom 3rd that was soon followed by three singles by Whittington, Magnussen, and Burnham, which saw the Elks to flip the score around to 2-1 in their favor. Agee tied the game again in the fourth with a sac fly after Caswell (forcing out Ojeda) and Brass went to the corners, but the go-ahead run was left in scoring position; same in the fifth when Joey Christopher singled, stole second, and was then left on by Argenziano and Labonte. Argenziano walked Younce and gave up hits to Magnussen and Burnham in the bottom of the fifth to fall behind again, 3-2, but the Elks also left runners on the corners with Hawkins’ comebacker to the useless pitcher and Rich Kuchta’s fly to Brassfield.

Joe Agee then finally made a statement with his first major league home run, and it flipped the score in the sixth inning, coming as it did with Juan Ojeda on second base and two outs. Argenziano didn’t blow the 4-3 lead in his dying moments in the game and would have gotten through six innings if not for a clumsy error by Caswell, who dropped Danny Garcia’s 2-out fly for a free runner for Elk City. Whittington singled Argenziano out of the game, but Tanizaki got a quick third out from Younce after entering in a double switch with Gonzales, who took over shortstop from Bribiesca and quickly hit into a double play to kill the top 7th. Tanizaki had a 1-2-3 seventh and Eloy Sencion got around a Saunders single to maintain the lead in the eighth inning. Walters brought the game into the dry in 1-2-3 fashion in the ninth inning then, getting a pop, a K, and a spiked grounder, but right at Agee, from the Elks’ 3-4-5 batters. 4-3 Coons. Christopher 1-2, BB; Monaghan 2-3, HR, RBI;

It stopped raining in Portland on Wednesday, so I eventually dried off in the stands. Maud brought out a piece of cake in the afternoon, which was very nice of her, but she had to actually pry my jaws open and shove it in my snout before I would actually start chewing.

Mmm. Strawberries.

No, Maud, that doesn’t mean I want to live again.

But… Is there another piece of this cake somewhere? – Inside, you say? – (long pause)

Game 3
POR: SS Bribiesca – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Agee – C Monaghan – 2B Labonte – P Fox
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 3B Whittington – 2B Younce – RF Magnussen – C Burnham – CF K. Hawkins – SS Kuchta – 1B M. Saunders – P J. Morris

Foxie Brown was smacked around from the start, giving up three singles in quick succession for a 1-0 deficit before the Elks ran themselves out of the first inning, which Jesus Martinez would make up with a solo shot in the second, but Kyle Hawkins’ leadoff double soon led to another Elks lead in the bottom 2nd. The 2-1 score stood for a while as Fox tried his very best to collapse entirely, but the defense wouldn’t let him. Offensively the Raccoons showed only their best behavior, refusing to capitalize on their opponent’s ineptitude, like when Morris walked the bases full with Agee, Monaghan, and Bribiesca in the fourth inning, but we couldn’t find anybody who would be so kind and get a ******* base hit. The Coons had just two of those in five innings, but Cas opened the sixth with a single and then scored right away on Brass’ gapper to left-center that became an RBI double. Morris walked Martinez, Agee flew out, but that moves Brass to third base, from where he scored on Monaghan’s sliced single to center. Morris walked Labonte in a full count to achieve full bases, but then struck out Fox and got a groundout from Bribiesca. The decision to have Fox hit for himself looked even worse when Magnussen opened the bottom 6th with a sharp single, but Burnham found Ojeda for a 5-4-3 double play and the 3-2 lead stood through the sixth inning.

Both wonky pitchers somehow survived seven innings. While Fox gave up eight hits with two walks, Morris allowed five hits and *eight* walks, but also struck out eight to Fox’ three. Neither of them would make the Hall of Fame with that performance, though. Eloy Sencion again put the tying run on base in the bottom 8th, offering a walk to Danny Garcia, but then retired the next three with two strikeouts included. Konecny had a pinch-hit single for the Raccoons in the late innings, but that didn’t come close to amounting to a run, and Matt Walters was back in a 1-run save situation in the bottom 9th, facing the 5-6-7 batters. There wasn’t much fuss made – Luke Burnham mashed a home run on his very first pitch and the lead was blown. The next three batters went in order, and the game found itself in extra innings as a result.

The Elks wound up on the corners in the bottom 10th when Bravo issued a coy leadoff walk to Garcia and a 1-out single to Younce, but handled a comebacker from Magnussen and got Cas to chase down a Burnham fly to deep center to keep the game going. Instead the Coons broke the tie in the following half-inning against Jim Woods in his second inning of duty. Woods nicked Ojeda with an 0-2 pitch, putting the go-ahead run on base with one out. Ojeda was moving on the first pitch to Caswell, who swatted the ball into the left-center gap and all the way to the wall for an RBI double. Cas stayed put when Brass grounded out sharply to Kuchta, but then jogged home on Jesus Martinez’ second jack of the night, a no-doubter to left for a pair of 2-out runs. The Elks changed pitchers for right-hander Carlos Torres, who did a Walters and gave up a homer on his first pitch, that one popped by Joe Agee. Bryan Roper then finished the game for the Coons. 7-3 Critters. Caswell 2-6, 2B, RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2 BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Konecny (PH) 1-1;

(follows crumbs of cake on the concours that conspicuously lead towards the offices)

(noms)

The home runs didn’t help Joe Agee (.231, 2 HR, 7 RBI) in the end; he was sent back to AAA when Joel Starr was activated from the DL on Thursday. We took note of him being an option, though.

Game 4
POR: 2B Labonte – SS Bribiesca – CF Caswell – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – LF Konecny – 3B Gonzales – C Beard – P DeRose
VAN: LF D. Garcia – 3B Whittington – CF K. Hawkins – RF Magnussen – 2B Younce – SS Kuchta – C A. Maldonado – 1B Aragon – P A. Jesus

Starr, also on two homers and seven RBI, returned with a leadoff single in the second inning, and another single by Konecny and a walk issued to David Gonzales gave the Raccoons three on with nobody out. Tricky, but runs would be imperative given that DeRose had already walked a pair in the first inning and the Elks had run themselves out of the inning with Whittington again. DeRose drove in the only run in the inning with a groundout after Beard popped out and before Labonte also grounded out meekly. The bags were full again in the third inning, then after Jesus offered walks to Cas and Martinez before Starr reached on an error by Hawkins. A hit in this situation would be too much asked, but Konecny at least stayed out of the double play with his grounder to Younce and another run scored while Starr was forced out at second base. Gonzales then grounded out to Juan Aragon and the inning ended.

The defense kept DeRose in one piece as long as he let them, but there was no defending Rich Kuchta’s long home run in the fourth inning that shortened the score to 2-1. The bottom 5th also saw a rather indefensible leadoff single on an 0-2 pitch from the opposing pitcher, but at least DeRose pounced on Garcia’s grounder and got the force out at second base on that play, which ultimately maintained the lead after another single by Whittington and Hawkins’ groundout, which would have plated the pitcher Jesus from third base. As it was, Magnussen drew a 2-out walk (…) and then Younce struck out to leave the bases loaded… Two teams that didn’t deserve to be in ANY playoff conversation, right here…!

The Elks kept running into stupid outs, like in the bottom 6th when Alex Maldonado singled to right and thought he deserved two bases outta that. Jesus Martinez emphatically threw him out at second base, and with 15 feet to spare. In turn Labonte was caught stealing in the top 7th, so it wasn’t like we were much holier than them…

Top 8th, Starr socked a double to left against the chewy Jesus, who walked Konecny right afterwards. This gave him six walks against no strikeouts, and yet he was still in the 2-1 game. David Gonzales’ single to right allowed Starr to score from second, though. Deshawn Beard hit another RBI single, and Brassfield plated Gonzales with a groundout when he batted for Ricky Herrera. Jesus still doggedly finished the inning, or maybe the Elks just didn’t care. The Coons tacked on further in the ninth inning when Bribiesca singled and Caswell went yard to left, which *finally* knocked out Anton Jesus. The Raccoons got scoreless innings from Herrera in the seventh and Ornelas in the eighth, then went to Roper for the ninth inning with a 6-run lead. Aragon whiffed and Chris Hopper popped out. Then Garcia, Whittington, and Bobby Needham hit three straight singles to load the bases. Magnussen grounded out to Hudalla at second base before the Raccoons had to actually scramble for somebody to get a save. 7-1 Raccoons. Starr 2-4, 2B; Gonzales 2-3, BB, RBI; Beard 2-3, BB, RBI; DeRose 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (2-1);

Raccoons (17-12) @ Rebels (19-9) – May 9-11, 2059

The Rebs were tied with the Buffos for the lead in the FL East. They had won four straight games and ranked second in runs scored in the FL, plating 5.6 runs per game, so that sounded like a challenge to our challenged pitching staff. They were mediocre in giving up runs, surrendering the fifth-most in the FL, but still had a +41 run differential (Coons: +27). These teams met for the first time since ’55, when the Rebs had taken two of three games from the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Herrera (2-2, 3.07 ERA) vs. Mike Gunter (0-2, 6.10 ERA)
Zach Stewart (1-2, 2.02 ERA) vs. Dan Garicia (2-0, 1.89 ERA)
Cameron Argenziano (2-0, 4.58 ERA) vs. Steve Hawkins (3-1, 3.89 ERA)

Gunter was the only southpaw in the Rebs’ rotation. On their DL they had ex-Coon Antonio Alfaro and some reserves that only nerds knew.

No, I didn’t travel to Richmond, which was unusual, but by Friday Maud had only gotten me to lose the sunglasses. I was still wearing my grieving hat. Nomming cake, though, so maybe I’d live.

Game 1
POR: 2B Labonte – 3B Ojeda – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – 1B Starr – C Monaghan – CF Konecny – SS Gonzales – P B. Herrera
RIC: SS J. Turner – 3B Espinosa – 1B M. Delgadillo – CF An. Cruz – RF Schrock – LF Puckeridge – C Mi. Gilmore – 2B Portillo – P Gunter

Not one, but two infield singles gave the Raccoons an iffy, but successful start to the game, because Martinez doubled home Labonte and Starr’s sac fly got Ojeda across for an early 2-0 lead. Slight problems cropped up before long, however; Bobby Herrera got whacked around in the first, giving up three loud drives, two of which by Danny Espinosa and Antonio Cruz fell for doubles and allowed the Rebs to close the gap to one run, and after Herrera hit a 1-out single to center in the top 2nd, Labonte was sledgehammered right in the delicate part of the knee by Gunter and collapsed in the box. He eventually limped off the field with Luis Silva, and the Raccoons had to replace him with Hudalla. The Coons also only got the pain, but no gain, as Ojeda and Brass made meek outs. Martinez and Starr went to the corners right away in the top 3rd, however, and Pucks could not quite catch up with an Eric Monaghan drive to left-center, which fell for an RBI double, 3-1. Konecny brought in another run with a groundout, but Gonzales’ grounder was too poor to get Monaghan in from third base. Tipsy Bobby made up for it with a clean 2-out RBI single through the right side, extending his lead to 5-1. Hudalla struck out.

Pitching-wise, the reincarnation of Kyle Brobeck was completely outta whack, however, and shoveled the bags full by hitting Espinosa, walking Mario Delgadillo, a Max Schrock single, and finally walked in a run against Mike Gilmore with two outs in the home half of the inning. Miguel Portillo grounded out in a full count to end the inning, but it didn’t look like Herrera would last long in the game. Jason Turner socked another double off him in the fourth, while the Rebs hit two singles in the fifth inning, then had terrible luck with Portillo hitting a 2-out liner right into Herrera’s glove for the third out. They were however starting to swing freer in these middle innings and struck out progressively more, which led to Bobby also piling up eight strikeouts by the time six innings were complete. Antonio Cruz finally hit another sharp single off him in the bottom 7th, then was doubled off with Schrock’s shot at Ojeda to end the inning and Herrera’s day in – still – a 5-2 game. Ricky Herrera had a 1-2-3 eighth following his starting namesake, and then Matt Walters turned all his anger about Wednesday’s blown save into three strikeouts to three batters in the bottom 9th. 5-2 Coons. Labonte 1-1; B. Herrera 7.0 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-2) and 2-3, RBI;

Yup, Bobby Herrera had the most base knocks on the team.

Can he play third base, Cristiano?

(Cristiano looks like he’s ready to roll off the nearest open drawbridge)

In any case, the Raccoons would not have Paul Labonte for at least the rest of the weekend. The knee was pretty thick on Saturday and he could hardly walk. Playing baseball was out of the question. His ETA for a return to action was early next week.

Game 2
POR: 1B Starr – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – RF Martinez – C Monaghan – SS Bribiesca – 2B Gonzales – P Stewart
RIC: C R. Lopez – LF Schrock – CF An. Cruz – 3B Espinosa – SS J. Turner – 1B Parada – RF Puckeridge – 2B Elkins – P Garicia

The Coons issued a rare second-inning intentional walk to Jon Elkins in this game, since he came up with Turner on second base and two outs and was batting .346 while sitting in the #8 hole. The Rebs in fact had .300 batters almost all through the lineup, including Pucks entering the game hitting .313 with a homer and 14 RBI. Portland was up 1-0 at the time thanks to Martinez having singled home Juan Ojeda in the first inning, and Garicia grounded out to conclude the bottom 2nd without that lead disappearing. A Cruz single and Danny Espinosa’s score-flipping homer took care of that in the third inning, though…

The disaster got worse in the fourth inning. Elkins drew a leadoff walk (not intentional), but was forced out on Garicia’s bad bunt. Somehow, the Raccoons fumbled that into a big inning with a Ramon Lopez single, another walk to Schrock, and then Gonzales flung away Cruz’ grounder for no outs and one run. Espinosa doubled home two with a howler down the leftfield line, and while Jason Turner and Pedro Parada made meek outs then, the Raccoons trailed by a slam all of a sudden.

Neither pitcher finished five innings. Garicia left with an injury, while Stewart was finally battered out of the game on Ramon Lopez’ 2-piece over the fence in left in the bottom 5th. The rout was on at that point, even though Ivan Ornelas took the opportunity and finally pitched some semi-decent long relief. The Rebs didn’t score again, while the Raccoons only scored a pitiful, doubly-unearned run in the ninth inning for a “rally”. 7-2 Rebels. Caswell 2-3, BB; Brassfield 2-4; Ornelas 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

One of those games where you don’t know whether you look forward to meeting the team again on Monday or whether they should better stay where the tobacco grows…

Game 3
POR: SS Bribiesca – 3B Ojeda – CF Caswell – LF Brassfield – 1B Starr – RF Christopher – C Beard – 2B Hudalla – P Argenziano
RIC: C R. Lopez – SS J. Turner – 1B M. Delgadillo – CF An. Cruz – 3B Espinosa – RF Bishton – LF Puckeridge – 2B Portillo – P S. Hawkins

The game began with an Espinosa error that allowed Bribiesca on base, but Ojeda forced him out with a grounder. Ojeda stole second, reached third on a throwing error by Lopez, and was still stranded in scoring position. The Raccoons were eager to return home and tried to run their way there; Joey Christopher was caught stealing in the second, while Caswell took a base by force in the third, but was stranded anyway. Instead, Turner took Argenziano deep in the bottom 3rd to give Richmond a 1-0 lead. The fourth was uneventful and didn’t even feature a stolen base attempt by the Portlanders, but Bribiesca forced out Argenziano, who drew a leadoff walk from “Beefsteak” Hawkins, then took off and slid in safely at second base. Ojeda was unhelpful, but Caswell found real estate in rightfield and doubled home the tying run.

The tie didn’t last long. After Brass flew out to end the inning, the Rebs started the bottom 5th with three straight singles to load the bases. Espinosa plated Turner with a sac fly, but the remaining two runners were left on with poor outs by Ryan Bishton and Pucks. To add facepalm to trailing, Argenziano then served up a home run to “Beefsteak” before being yoinked from the game in the sixth.

Top 7th, the Coons scratched to get the tying runs on base. Konecny drew a walk in Argenziano’s spot to begin the inning, and Bribiesca singled to center. Ojeda’s groundout advanced the pair into scoring position, but the Coons wouldn’t get the bloody base hit they needed. Caswell popped out, Brass walked to fill the bags, Starr walked as well to push home one run, but Christopher grounded out and the bases remained stuffed in a 3-2 deficit. And after all that waste of time, Sencion was taken well deep by Cruz to put that second run back on the board right out of the gates following the stretch… Tanizaki then did his usual exploding ******** in the bottom 8th, giving up a triple to Lopez, the run on a Turner groundout, and a homer to Delgadillo, before also putting Cruz on base and finally leaving with a ******* injury. Roper struck out Ryan Bishton to end the damn inning. 6-2 Rebels. Konecny (PH) 1-1, BB;

In other news

May 6 – Aces 1B/RF/LF Aubrey Austin (.271, 1 HR, 13 RBI) is expected to miss six weeks with a torn abdominal muscle.
May 7 – SAC SP C.J. Harney (2-4, 4.69 ERA) shines with a 3-hit shutout against the Scorpions, claiming the 7-0 Scorpions win.
May 7 – A strained oblique fells Warriors 3B Steve Dilly (.330, 5 HR, 29 RBI) for the next six weeks.
May 7 – The only runs in the Wolves’ 3-0 win against the Stars are scored on a ninth-inning, 2-out home run by SAL RF Mike Roberts (.390, 2 HR, 6 RBI).
May 8 – The Crusaders announce that left-hander Kennedy Adkins (0-1, 7.27 ERA) will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery to relieve radial nerve compression.
May 11 – A 10th-inning grand slam by VAN LF/RF Chris Hopper (.211, 1 HR, 7 RBI) is the only scoring event in the Canadiens’ 4-0 win over the Stars. This is also the first career home run of the 26-year-old Hopper, who entered the game as pinch-hitter and has yet to be penciled into the starting lineup.

FL Player of the Week: RIC 3B Danny Espinosa (.272, 5 HR, 21 RBI), batting .440 (11-25) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: IND INF Matt Kilday (.356, 2 HR, 15 RBI), slapping .417 (15-36) with 1 HR, 6 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Espinosa had “only” four hits against the Raccoons, but three were for extra bases with a homer and two doubles, and he drove in five runs, four on Saturday. So, no, not *all* his production was against the Critters. Just most of the damage.

No Raccoon leads the CL in RBI anymore. Brassfield had another “eh” week and was overtaken by Caswell for the team lead, and Casey Burgio has stormed into the lead overall in the CL with 28 RBI.

If the Raccoons are serious about competing in the division (makes unsure paw movement) then we definitely need a shortstop – or any infielder other than a first baseman – able to hit a lick. There’s five people in those middle infield and third base spots, and none of them are hitting for a .700 OPS.

In time, we should also discuss the dumpster fire of a bullpen or the shockingly pedestrian rotation. The top isn’t very good, and the soft underbelly of the rotation is just barely holding on with some worrying K/BB values.

Shoutout to Matt Walters though, who despite three blown saves already has so far struck out 26 batters and walked … none. He has in fact more innings pitched than anybody else in the pen, and more strikeouts than any starter except the top two of Tipsy Bobby (43) and Stewart (37).

The Raccoons will be home for a quick 3-game set against the Stars starting on Monday, then right away embark on another 2-week road trip that will start in Milwaukee.

Fun Fact: Pucks hit his first home run for a team other than the Raccoons on Tuesday.

He was one of five Rebs that went yard in a 16-7 shootout win against the Capitals. He didn’t do a whole lot against the Coons on the weekend, which I find very considerate. Batting .297 with 1 HR, 14 RBI at the end of the week.

On the other side of the box score, unkillable Shuta Yamamoto went deep for Washington.

Yamamoto, who hit the first 13 of his 114 career home runs for the Raccoons and then most of the others against them, was a Raccoon so long ago that when he last wore the brown shirt, Chance Fox was in fourth grade.