Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

As we are off-sync due to the draft being on Thursday, this is a Friday-through-Thursday update (with Thursday being off for the Furballs). I used to do four series an evening easily, but then I didn’t write as many novels as now, so I can’t restore the usual cycle until the weekend.

Raccoons (40-27) @ Indians (44-22) – June 16-18, 2017

The Indians were quite good, and that was an understatement. Although I was yet not certain how they had gotten to second place in runs scored and being tied for first in runs allowed (with the Critters), the resulting +99 run differential certainly made them appear legit in the middle of June. Their rotation was the best in the league, while their pen was second-best, and they also led the league in batting average. Despite this, so far the Raccoons had the leg up in the season series, having taken three of four games in the first meeting between the teams.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (6-6, 2.94 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (10-3, 1.81 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (5-6, 3.64 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (8-5, 2.79 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-2, 1.46 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (7-4, 3.76 ERA)

This is three right-handers, although they had an off day and could skip Riley in favor of the southpaw Tristan Broun (10-2, 3.16 ERA) on Sunday.

Since Nick Brown had yet to make his rehab start in St. Petersburg and wouldn’t be ready for a turnaround on Monday, we’d see another glimpse of Damani Knight then.

Ronnie McKnight enters with a 10-game hitting streak.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – RF Ochoa – 1B A. Young – P Abe
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – LF Genge – 2B Kym – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 1B S. Madison – P A. Mendez

Despite only an infield single allowed to Shane Walter in the first three batters, “Ant” Mendez caught some unexpected flak in the first inning, allowing three straight 2-out singles to the 4-5-6 batters, amounting to two runs for the Critters. A good start to the series for sure, but unfortunately Abe created a lot of nervousness around our dugout thanks to allowing a lot of base runners. The Indians appeared to have him in the bottom 3rd when Mendez lined sharply past Young and was followed by John Wilson, putting the tying runs on with one out, but Abe got out by retiring Raul Matias and Lowell Genge. In the bottom of the fourth, Jong-beom Kym and Nick Gilmor led off with singles, and Steve Madison loaded the bases with another single to right with two outs, but that brought up Mendez again, and this time he struck out. After the early pair of runs, the Raccoons had fallen a bit silent, landing only one base hit in the next three innings, but to start the fifth they suddenly hit liners all over the place. Cookie opened with a double to deep left and scored on line drive singles by Walter and Nunley, 3-0. DeWeese loaded them up with a grounder into centerfield, and no outs! The Indians only got the out at second base when McKnight grounded to Matias, allowing another run to score, but Mendez then escaped whiffing Margolis and getting some support from Genge in retiring Ochoa, who sent a fly to fairly, but not dangerously deep left. Leadoff singles for the Indians in the bottom 6th and 7th were both times erased with double plays, and Abe ended up arriving in the ninth inning unscathed and having thrown exactly 100 pitches through eight. Kym led off the inning, had two leadoff singles in the game, and landed his third one, a soft loop into right center for another single. While Gilmor got him forced with a grounder, Dave Padilla singled quite determinedly to left, and that was the end for Abe, with the tying run appearing in the on-deck circle. Alex Ramirez was called on, and casually filled the bases with another single hit by Joey Mathews. Bartolo Román hit for Madison, but struck out, and then unheralded Josh Malone hit in the pitcher’s spot. His first-pitch grounder went right to Young for the final out. 4-0 Raccoons. Walter 2-5; DeWeese 2-5, RBI; Abe 8.1 IP, 9 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (7-6) and 1-4;

McKnight has an 11-game hitting streak, the Coons have a 7-game winning streak, and we also should mention the 13-game hitting streak for Jong-beom Kym, although we were actively trying to end it.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Petracek – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – 1B A. Young – P B. Morrison
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – LF Genge – 2B Kym – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 1B S. Madison – P Lambert

Again the Critters scored early; Cookie opened the game with a bloop double to right, and after an infield single for Petracek they were on the corners. Nunley plated Cookie with a sac fly, although it would take three more batters to get McKnight home, who hit a 2-out RBI single to score Petracek for an early 2-0 edge, although that 2-0 edge soon enough didn’t look like it could save Morrison from his follies. The Indians had the bases loaded as early as the second inning, though a Petracek error was instrumental in one of the runners reaching. With the bags full and one out, Madison struck out in a full count before Lambert bounced out to his opposite, Morrison. The Arrowheads weren’t denied much longer, though. John Wilson hit a leadoff double to left in the bottom 3rd, and with Morrison’s general lack of stuff it was not possible to keep him on. Genge plated him with a groundout, 2-1.

The Raccoons would have the bases loaded with nobody out in the fourth after leadoff singles by Denny and McKnight, and Waggoner drawing a walk. Young, the sucker, struck out, and Morrison hit into a double play to score nobody. It was little consolation that Steve Madison also hit into an inning-ending double play (with two runners on base) in the bottom 4th, and that the home team left the bases loaded again in the bottom 5th. They had loaded the bases in the first place with zero hits, Morrison walking Wilson and Kym and plunking Matias in between. Gilmor flew out to DeWeese to end the inning. After a clean sixth we felt like we had tempted fate enough. Ochoa hit for Morrison in the top 7th, grounded out, and while Cookie hit a 2-out double afterwards, Lambert whiffed Petracek to make the point moot. But the 2-1 lead survived a seventh inning by Chun in which his second pitch resulted in a Wilson single, although he would start a double play on Matias, and Thrasher in the eighth. Unfortunately there was no tack-on offense as the Coons failed to reach the outfield in the last few innings, and Ramirez arrived in the bottom 9th pitching with a 2-1 lead on the third straight day. Padilla grounded out to McKnight, Mathews popped out to Waggoner, and Román grounded out – again – to McKnight. 2-1 Critters. Carmona 2-4, 2 2B; McKnight 2-4, RBI;

Kym’s streak ended, but McKnight’s lives on at 12 games.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – RF Petracek – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – 1B A. Young – P Toner
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Matias – LF Genge – 2B Kym – RF Gilmor – C Padilla – 3B Mathews – 1B S. Madison – P Broun

We indeed got to see the left-hander Tristan Broun, giving the Raccoons a decidedly tougher challenge, and the top of the order went down without much wailing in the first inning rather than scoring a 2-spot. But they would load the bases in the second inning. In between 1-out walks drawn by Denny and Bergquist, McKnight extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Unfortunately, Adam Young came up, which was a very limiting factor in any attempt to score runs. To anybody’s surprise he hit a liner to right center for an RBI single, and Jonny plated another run with a sac fly, so the Coons led 2-0 after all. Mind, they didn’t lead 2-0 for long. Gilmor singled, Jonny threw a wild pitch, and two carefully placed outs brought the run home for the Indians in the bottom 2nd. And Jonny was completely hittable here. His only K the first time through the order was to the opposing pitcher, and the bottom 3rd opened with a Wilson single, then a Matias double off the leftfield fence. Wilson was sent home, but thrown out by DeWeese. Matias remained at second, but was stranded when Kym struck out. Right there, it began to rain.

Toner had runners on the corners in the bottom 4th when the tarp covered the field, but the interruption lasted only about 15 minutes. When play resumed, Jonny struck out Mathews, but then walked Madison. Broun struck out for the second out, but that brought up Wilson, who had a hot hand against these Furballs and hit a 1-1 pitch HARD to left. Deep, deep, DeWeese dashing out there, reaching up – and he brought it in!! Woofff!! That almost would have been ugly. No, to be honest, Toner was pitching ugly, and not in the usual Toner ways, and the Indians finally tied the score on Mathias’ leadoff jack in the bottom 5th. While Jonny was totally done after six completely messy innings in which he allowed eight hits and walked three against seven strikeouts, the Coons still sat on two measly hits against Broun. While Toner was left with a no-decision, the bullpen almost gave out in the bottom 7th. The Arrowheads had two hits against Mathis, and when Reed replaced him with two outs he walked Padilla to fill the bases. Mathews grounded out to Bergquist, leaving the bases loaded for the twentieth time in the series. Jayden Reed made a desperate bid for the loss, allowing a leadoff single in pinch-hit fashion to Román in the bottom 8th. Kevin Beaver replaced him and failed even harder, allowing a 2-run homer to John Wilson. In a twist of irony, DeWeese would land the first base hit for the smelling team since Young’s single in the second inning off closer Jarrod Morrison in the top of the ninth when he hit a leadoff triple to right center. Yeah, sure, that was helpful now… Actually, Denny singled to score him, although McKnight’s flyout and Nunley’s groundout only moved him to second base. The usually useless Young appeared and singled to right, and Denny flung the paws as quick as he could to score from second base, re-knotting the score! The relief was temporary, though. John Korb found it exceedingly hard to retire anybody, and the Indians walked off after three singles in the bottom 9th. 5-4 Indians. Denny 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Young 2-4, 2 RBI;

We were out-hit 15-5. A win, though nice, would have been a bit too much to ask for.

Raccoons (42-28) vs. Titans (25-42) – June 19-21, 2017

The rotting Titans didn’t have much to be excited about. They were 19 games out in the middle of June, and were glaring at the worst pitching in the Continental League. Their crew was allowing almost 5.5 runs per game, and the offense was middle-of-the-pack and unable to untangle the mess. While the Raccoons didn’t have much of a reputation for offense and just had their 8-game winning streak snapped with lousy hitting, they might find an opening. They had so far beaten the Titans around, 5-1 in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (1-2, 6.19 ERA) vs. Ted Scott (3-6, 6.51 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-3, 3.61 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (3-5, 3.88 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (7-6, 2.69 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (4-6, 3.29 ERA)

Okay, so we get their two good guys, which is unfortunate. All starters are right-handed, and this time they don’t even have a southpaw starter to mix into their offerings.

The Titans had traded their second baseman Jose Gutierrez (.336, 2 HR, 31 RBI) already on Sunday, receiving two prospects from the Blue Sox, so they were already in the process of breaking up the crew.

Game 1
BOS: LF Mascorro – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 3B T. Thomas – SS J. Stephenson – RF Mata – CF Blake – P Scott
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Petracek – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Knight

While Shane Walter’s 2-run shot gave him an early lead and the Titans had no hits the first time through the order, Knight still didn’t look major-league caliber and the second time through the order quickly became a nightmare. Robert Mascorro drew a leadoff walk and Mike Rivera got hit. Tim Robinson hit an RBI single with one out and a walk to Tom Thomas loaded the bases. Joe Stephenson’s looper was too soft to be caught by Cookie and became a game-tying single, and Alex Mata’s sac fly gave the Titans a 3-2 lead. The Raccoons had no immediate answer against a similarly vulnerable pitcher, despite a Cookie triple somewhere in the middle innings…

The bottom 6th – the score still being 3-2 and Knight somehow still alive despite having zero strikeouts and no influential friends – began with a blooper by Walter that fell in and somehow eluded Mata long enough for a double, putting the tying run in scoring position. While a base hit would have been nice, the Raccoons at least got him home, although it took two deep fly outs to centerfielder Jonathan Blake for DeWeese and Nunley to achieve the feat. McKnight singled, then stole second base. When Denny singled, he had a bad first step and couldn’t make an attempt for home. Waggoner walking loaded the bases and ended Knight’s day, with Young hitting for him, although I had a feeling that his clutch hits for the year (and ’18) were depleted now. Indeed, he struck out on three pitches. Thrasher came out in the 3-3 game and completely ****ed up. Jasper Holt hit a pinch-hit triple, Rivera singled him home, and Petracek’s error allowed Steve Butler to reach base. The Titans managed to blow the chance to seal the deal with rank stupidity. That Tim Robinson popped out against Seung-mo Chun was unlucky, but that Rivera then got caught stealing third base by Denny was absolutely appalling from a baseball standpoint, though I found it quite the delight.

Petracek’s homer off Ted Scott tied the game again in the bottom 7th, and Chun somehow – we weren’t sure quite how – survived two walks in the eighth inning. The Critters coughed the go-ahead run across home plate in the bottom 8th when Nunley opened with a single and was bunted over by McKnight, then when Denny singled to center ran with total disregard for personal safety and slid right into Tim Robinson’s underpants, but was called safe, which didn’t get us anywhere since Alex Ramirez blew the save with a triple hit by Rivera, the ****er, and Steve Butler plating him with a grounder to short in the top 9th. Bottom 9th, somehow Ted Scott was still pitching, Ochoa failed to meet any ball, but Cookie then hit a 1-out single to center and took off and swiped second base. Petracek walked, and then they both took off and swiped two bases in one go. The winning run was 90 feet away for Shane Walter, and no reasonable double play was possible – except that he now got the finger and four free balls. Bases loaded for DeWeese and any decent fly would do; so he grounded to first, and Butler hammered out Cookie at home. Nunley grounded out to short. Extra innings. McKnight hit a leadoff single in the 10th, but was washed up in Waggoner’s second double play in the game, and the bottom 11th started with another K by Ochoa and Cookie grounding out. Petracek hit a bloop single to center. Walter then hit a fly to right that kept tailing away from Ezra Branch and fell in, and went into the corner. Petracek was always gonna score on this one unless he’d fall down and break both legs, and the Coons walked off. 6-5 Raccoons. Carmona 3-6, 3B; Petracek 2-5, BB, HR, RBI; Walter 3-5, BB, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI; McKnight 3-4; Denny 2-5, RBI; Chun 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K; Beaver 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (4-0);

Maybe Shane Walter is not that misplaced in the #3 hole.

Also, this time we had the 15 hits and took our mighty time with making any of them count.

Batting .217, Danny Ochoa was sent to St. Petersburg after the game. He was replaced by Matt Stubbs, who also was not much of a defender or batter, but at least was right-handed and would offer a few opportunities. Stubbs hadn’t been on the 40-man roster anymore after hitting .200 in 45 AB with the Coons in 2016.

Game 2
BOS: SS R. Vasquez – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – 3B T. Thomas – LF Mascorro – RF Mata – CF Blake – P J. Fuentes
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – RF Johnson – P Santos

Running 3-1 counts to the first two batters didn’t end well for Santos, who walked Robby Vasquez and allowed a single to Rivera, and then allowed the first run of the game to Butler on a sac fly. After that, the Coons missed a run in the bottom 1st when Nunley got picked off first before Walter and DeWeese added their singles to his and McKnight’s fly to deep right ended up being the final out rather than a sac fly. The Raccoons would see Young kill the second inning with a double play right after Denny singled, and in the third it was Denny to ground to short and leave the bases loaded. They had six hits before the Titans had their second, and still kept trailing 1-0. Vasquez, whom Santos failed to retire even once, had their second hit, a leadoff single in the top 6th, but was left in scoring position. In the bottom 6th the Raccoons had Denny on first base after a single and two outs when Alex Mata’s grievous misplay on Brandon Johnson’s liner donated them a double and Denny exploited the freshly dismembered Titans defense to score from first base – no small feat for a catcher. There, finally, was the tying run.

Santos threw exactly 100 pitches through seven innings, which was enough for him, and never saw a lead, but saw another two hits (10 total then) go to waste in the bottom 7th. Cookie and Walter had them, and then DeWeese and McKnight struck out. Thrasher was out for the eighth, but the Titans sent Jasper Holt to pinch-hit for Fuentes, and Holt hit ANOTHER extra base hit off Thrasher, this time a double. He moved up on a grounder, but Thrasher held up this time, striking out Rivera and Butler to remain in the 1-1 tie. Bottom 8th, reliever Bill Dean, a southpaw, walked Jason Bergquist in the pointless Young’s spot. Johnson singled to left center, putting two on as Petracek hit for Thrasher with one out. Dean struggled with control and Petracek ran a 3-1 count before rolling into a double play. ****ing Elk. It didn’t get better in the bottom 9th against another left-hander in Matt Branch. Cookie raced out an infield single to get going, then was stranded at third after two groundouts and DeWeese whiffin’, meaning more extra innings. Jayden Reed, who had tumbled through the ninth, sucked himself into the loss with a leadoff walk to Holt. While he struck out Stephenson, his pitching left things to be desired, as was Petracek’s fielding at first base. The ****ing Elk made another error when Butler hit a grounder there against Mathis, putting runners on the corners, one pitch before Tim Robinson unloaded a tremendous bomb to leftfield. Needless to say that the Raccoons had no answer to that. 4-1 Titans. Carmona 3-5; Nunley 2-5; Walter 2-5; Johnson 3-4, 2B, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K;

Out-hit the Titans 12-5. But leaving 13 on base occasionally comes back to bite you in the hairy ass, I heard. McKnight went 0-for-4 and ended his 14-game hitting streak, too.

Game 3
BOS: SS R. Vasquez – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – LF Mascorro – 3B J. Stephenson – CF Blake – P Boyer
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – 1B Young – LF Johnson – P Abe

Three singles loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd before Brandon Johnson’s grounder to Stephenson was right in the sweet zone for an inning-ending double play, except that Stephenson’s throw to second was wild and the best Rivera could do was to knock it down and prevent it from vanishing in the gap. All hands were safe and the first run of the game was home. Abe struck out, but Cookie coaxed a bases-loaded walk from Boyer to shove in the second run before Nunley grounded out. 2-0 was reduced to 2-1 with ghastly ineptness in the top 3rd. Blake drew a 1-out walk before Denny threw away Boyer’s bunt and put the tying runs in scoring position. Abe then threw a wild pitch to score Blake, but the Titans left him off the hook with a grounder right into his lowered glove by Vasquez and an easy fly to right by Rivera. The Titans didn’t land an actual hit in the first four innings, but then romped Abe for four hits and two runs in the fifth, starting with a leadoff double by Mascorro.

And what did the Raccoons do? More errors! Nunley threw away Stephenson’s 2-out grounder in the sixth inning, putting two in scoring position. Blake was walked intentionally to get Abe to strike out Boyer, but offensively they were completely gone. Vasquez hit a leadoff triple in the seventh, swiftly adding a run for the Titans, 4-2, on Rivera’s grounder to second. The miserable Critters hadn’t hit a ball out of the infield in approximately 18 years when Cookie opened the bottom 8th with a leadoff triple off Boyer. The tying run came up, which didn’t mean squid with this team, which had close to zero home runs in recent memory. Nunley’s grounder to Rivera scored Cookie, but otherwise didn’t advance the team one ****ing inch as they still trailed 4-3 and suffered another two groundouts in short order. The ****ing run didn’t get them anywhere, especially with Steve Butler taking it right back with a 2-out double in the top 9th that scored the disgusting Rivera, who had swiped his 19th base of the year against Denny and Korb largely unimpeded and scored leisurely on the double. Denny, Waggoner, and DeWeese were effortlessly wiped away by Matt Branch in the bottom 9th anyway. 5-3 Titans.

In other news

June 16 – BOS SP Zach Boyer (4-6, 3.29 ERA) 2-hits the Crusaders in a 4-0 Titans win.
June 17 – The Pacifics lose SP Ernest Green (7-4, 4.04 ERA) for the season. The 32-year old southpaw has been diagnosed with bone chips in his elbow and needs them removed instantly.
June 17 – WAS C Jose Flores (.263, 12 HR, 51 RBI) will miss about a month with a broken thumb.
June 18 – The Loggers part with 1B Mike Rucker (.323, 18 HR, 61 RBI), sending him to the Knights and receive 1B David Betancourt (.305, 6 HR, 26 RBI) and #67 prospect C Jack Stickley.
June 18 – The same afternoon, the Loggers walk off in the 11th inning against the Canadiens, 5-4, on Scott Hanson’s wild pitch. The same thing happens to the Gold Sox in their game against the Wolves, which they win 2-1 in 13 innings on Harley Molski’s wild pitch.
June 20 – A quad strain sends DEN SS/2B Piet Oosterom (.242, 0 HR, 26 RBI) to the DL for the next month.
June 22 – CIN SP Jimmy Boswell (5-8, 7.15 ERA), only recently acquired from the Stars, seems to enjoy the change of scenery. He shines with a 3-hit shutout of the Capitals, which the Cyclones win 5-0.

Complaints and stuff

Manobu Sugano had just a few weeks ago been dealt from the Elks to the Crusaders, and had thrown for a 1.95 ERA and no record in 22 games this year, but now he’s out for up to a year with a stretched elbow ligament. Which is a shame. I kinda liked him for a while.

We had one trade offer this week, the Miners offering Ron Funderburk for Jason Bergquist and John Waker. First, we have no use for a funky-named right-handed reliever. Second, Bergquist is fine, but while Waker has more walks than strikeouts in Aumsville, I’m not selling him for an apple and an egg just yet. People must be thinking I’m stupid. Well, okay, I made Dennis Fried wear an angry sock on his Hall of Fame plate for NOTHING, but … eh … what was I gonna …? Um. Uh, shiny foil with chocolate inside!

(noms)

(mumbling with the mouth full) Re the Rucker trade, the Loggers deserve their permanent misery. That is a pathetic trade. That is just … pathetic.

Also pathetic: the Raccoons. But you already know that. The puny offense is … pathetic. I don’t know. Running out of adjectives. Also souring on Petracek, on offense and defense, but you know the saying; an Elk may change his coat, but never his hooves! But in all honesty one can only hope that Cookie Carmona gets outta here before he permanently loses limbs to random injuries because his would be the next top level career entirely wasted to an undeserving franchise, which gets us swiftly to the Good News Department with this most stunning development:

Nick Brown threw 11 pitches in his rehab start with the Alley Cats, then left the game with a strained abdominal muscle. We might try to get him back on his paws by August, or we might not. It is a borked situation, really.

I need to open a fresh jar of tears now, because mine are empty.

[Westheim]

As we are off-sync due to the draft being on Thursday, this is a Friday-through-Wednesday update, which also starts the string of 17 straight games before the All Star Game.

Raccoons (43-30) @ Falcons (34-37) – June 23-25, 2017

The Falcons ranked eighth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed. Both their rotation and their pen were similarly mediocre, and overall their offense wasn’t very impressive, but they were first in the league in stolen bases with 59 sacks taken. They were 2-1 versus Portland in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (6-6, 3.49 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (4-7, 4.89 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (9-2, 1.55 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (4-5, 4.68 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-3, 3.44 ERA) vs. Alex Vallejo (3-5, 3.74 ERA)

No left-handed starters for the Falcons! Meanwhile for the Coons, Knight drops to the end of the line this time, being assigned the Tuesday start against Las Vegas.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – RF Waggoner – P Morrison
CHA: 2B Good – LF Huibregtse – C Holliman – CF Feldmann – RF Benson – SS P. Hall – 1B M. Salinas – 3B Pellot – P P. Sanchez

Morrison was no good and had staggering command issues with all his pitches. He walked Matt Good and Steve Huibregtse in the first inning and was lucky enough that Denny caught Good (21 SB) stealing because otherwise the Falcons might have done more damage than one run on Ryan Holliman’s single and Ryan Feldmann’s subsequent sac fly. The bottom 4th saw the Falcons load the bases with nobody out on a leadoff walk to Travis Benson, a Nunley error, and Miguel Salinas getting hit, but also scored no runs when Alfonso Pellot and Pablo Sanchez both fouled out and Good rolled one over to Shane Walter. Morrison failed to finish five innings anyway, walking two more in the fifth (six total) before getting yanked with two outs. Jayden Reed replaced him and allowed two hard drives to right on two pitches. Paul Hall’s fell in for an RBI double, but Waggoner at least got Salinas’ to keep the score at 2-0. In those five innings the Raccoons had enjoyed a mere three base runners, and had stranded all of them on second base. Nunley’s single in the top 6th only superficially improved their output, as he was left even on first base. Pablo Sanchez had everything under control for 6 1/3 innings, and then suddenly the game exploded in his hands. Mike Denny jacked a homer to center, cutting the gap in half, and that was the first of four consecutive extra-base hits for the Raccoons, completely out of the blue. Young doubled, Waggoner homered to flip the score, and then Petracek doubled for Reed, but was left on base. Mathis pitched four outs from here, and Thrasher got two, but we then had the prospect of facing three left-handers in the bottom 9th, including the two quite ugly guys atop the order. Thrasher remained in the game, with the Falcons emptying their bench. Ricardo Martinez, Dave Carter, and Huigbregtse were sawed off in quick succession by Thrasher to end the game. 3-2 Critters. Young 2-4; Petracek (PH) 1-1, 2B; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, SV (2);

Yup, that Ricardo Martinez is our Ricardo Martinez of old. He was a rookie in 2008, which seems like it was a long time ago. He batted .199 for the Gold Sox in limited action in ’15, didn’t appear in the Bigs in ’16, and now has a part time gig with the Falcons, batting .311 with 3 HR and 13 RBI in 45 at-bats, which is a damn bit better than anything he’s done in the last decade.

The Falcons switched pitchers for the next two games, pulling up Vallejo. It didn’t matter much; they had played a double header on Tuesday, and somebody had to go on short rest – either Vallejo or Durr.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – RF Waggoner – P Toner
CHA: 2B Good – LF Huibregtse – CF Feldmann – RF Benson – 1B M. Salinas – C M. Roberts – SS D. Carter – 3B Pellot – P Vallejo

While Denny threw out Matt Good again in this game – to end the third inning – the Raccoons had committed a base-running blunder even before that. Walter had hit a 2-out single to left, but tried to make it two, getting himself thrown out by Huibregtse in the process. DeWeese’s leadoff jack in the second inning gave Toner an early 1-0 lead, but he was just as wonky as in his last start. Huibregtse – who needs a nasty nickname badly – drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 4th, but what then happened had just as much to do with rotten luck of the Brownshirts than anything else. Feldmann sent a fly to left that DeWeese caught, then dropped as he bounced off the wall, resulting in a double. Then the Falcons sent three grounders through the seams on the infield to plate three runs, starting with a 2-run single up the middle by Salinas. While the Raccoons scored a balk-induced run in the fifth inning, for Toner it only got worse. He issued another leadoff walk in the bottom 6th, that one to Salinas, and Carter hit a single to send them to the corners with one out. Then Toner threw one plainly past Denny to bring Salinas across home plate, and Carter would score on Pellot’s single, 5-2. So while Toner went showering to look for nasty dents in his ego, the Raccoons continued to fail outright at hitting, except for Young, the stupid ****, who hit a 2-out single in the top 7th only to become the second Raccoon in the game to be thrown out at second base. Somehow, and completely undeserved they would get the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning after all. Brandon Johnson hit an actual, ****ing double in the eighth inning and was plated with Nunley’s 2-out single, and in the ninth Lawrence Rivers allowed a leadoff single to DeWeese to put the tying run in the box. A Denny single and a Waggoner walk loaded them up with two outs for Petracek, hitting for Seung-mo Chun, but the ****ing ex-Elk struck out, of course. 5-3 Falcons. DeWeese 2-4, HR, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Toner struck out eight and stole a base, but lost the game mainly for the same reasons that the Coons won the opener – a sudden explosion of hits, although theirs were almost all ****ty singles.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Petracek – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 1B Young – RF Stubbs – P Santos
CHA: 2B Good – LF Huibregtse – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – RF Benson – SS P. Hall – 1B M. Salinas – 3B Pellot – P Durr

Cookie had been left on second base twice on Friday, and suffered the same fate again in the first inning on Sunday after a leadoff double. Good dropped down a bunt to reach on a leadoff single for the Falcons, then swiped a base, giving him a 50% success rate against the Raccoons backstops. He was on third base with two outs for Feldmann, who exploited a hanging breaking ball from Santos for a massive 2-run homer to left.

There was no base hit in the game until the fifth when a medium-paced roller by Adam Young eluded Pellot for a single to left, but the Raccoons’ bottom of the order was in no shape to do anything with a runner on first. Walter drew a walk in the top 6th and DeWeese doubled past Huibregtse to put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs, but McKnight rolled out to the pitcher in the most miserable fashion. Margolis’ leadoff walk in the top 7th only led to double play hit into by Young, and in the bottom 7th the Falcons put the game away with a solo homer by Salinas. Three hits, three runs for them, three hits, no runs for the Inepticoons.

Nunley hit for Santos to start the eighth inning and singled to left, but then got forced on Carmona’s grounder. Petracek walked, and Walter hit a liner to center off new reliever Johnny Watson, a southpaw. Cookie scored, 3-1, and the tying runs were on first and second with one out for DeWeese, who flew out to deep right before McKnight struck out. 3-1 Falcons

I have a hunch that we are soon going to get a new hitting coach. But for now we made a little trade.

Interlude: trade

In a shocking move to the Dallas fanbase, the Stars and Raccoons struck a deal on Sunday night, sending 26-year old superstar OF/1B Hugo “Tiger” Mendoza (.355, 23 HR, 74 RBI) to the Raccoons for three prospects, including two in the top 100: #24 SP John Waker, #92 OF Ricky Cruz, and 3B Chris Schmitt.

Mendoza at his tender age was already a 3-time All Star and had been the 2016 FL Player of the Year, also taking the Platinum Stick for rightfielders (after winning the centerfield stick in ’14). He had led the league in slugging three times already, and had led the FL in home runs and RBI in 2016 when he had swatted 37 and plated 134. It was a ballsy win-now move from the Critters, while the Stars accepted their fate.

I tried to demote Adam Young, but he refused the assignment, intensifying the murderous rage I felt whenever I thought of him. So Matt Stubbs took the ban hammer and disappeared after five successless at-bats. Since the 40-man roster was full, Randy McMullen was waived and DFA’ed to get “Tiger” onto the 25-man roster.

I also shopped Young. No takers. Go figure!

Raccoons (44-32) @ Aces (36-39) – June 26-28, 2017

The Aces had a potent offense that ranked fourth in runs scored, but had no pitching whatsoever. Their rotation was the absolute worst with an ERA over five(!), and their pen was okay-ish, but couldn’t keep pace at all. They allowed the second-most runs in the league, which completely undid the good offensive work, and had them at a -27 run differential. Nevertheless, they were 2-1 against the Raccoons in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (7-7, 2.77 ERA) vs. Adam Euteneuer (3-9, 7.09 ERA)
Damani Knight (1-2, 5.73 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (4-6, 4.45 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (6-6, 3.51 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (2-9, 4.95 ERA)

Three more right-handers! The Aces had a few players on the DL, including Matt Pruitt, who had batted .269 with five homers so far, but was out until August with a badly strained hammy.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Abe
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – C D. Rice – 3B Burke – 1B Hamilton – CF McCullough – LF Flack – RF Erickson – SS Beard – P Euteneuer

Cookie opened a game with a double for the third time in four games and finally ****ing scored, Walter plating him with a single. “Tiger” Mendoza hit a ground-rule double in his first at-bat with the Coons, and DeWeese walked. With the bases loaded, the Coons choked and only managed one more run on Denny’s sac fly. Euteneuer got levelled for four more runs in the second inning. With runners on the corners and one out, Walter grounded to the second baseman, Rich Walsh. Cookie slid hard into second base to take out Rusty Beard, which broke up the double play and allowed Waggoner to score, with a man remaining. Tiger walked, and then DeWeese cranked a 3-piece to right center, 6-0. It didn’t stay 6-0 for long; Abe was ruffled for four hits and two runs in the bottom 2nd, but Cookie’s 2-out, 2-run triple in the top 3rd pulled the runs right back, 8-2.

It continued to pour after that, despite Euteneuer removed after allowing eight runs in 2 2/3 innings. Garrett Purifoy allowed a run in the fourth inning walking Nunley, throwing a wild pitch, and allowing a single to Mike Denny, and in the fifth continued to put Critters one with a walk to Abe, a Cookie single (his fourth hit in the game and already a homer away from the cycle), and then a 3-piece fired to right center by Shane Walter, and the Coons even continued to get on after that, with Denny hitting another 2-out RBI single to run the score to 13-2. Armando Pena pitched in the sixth and allowed 1-out singles to Abe and Cookie. Walter popped out, bringing up Mendoza, who further exhausted an emptying park with a 3-run rocket inside the right foul pole, 16-2! McKnight sat in a tremendous slump, but hit a solo jack in the seventh to get the score to 17-3 … somewhere, Abe had allowed another run, but nobody had really noticed, to be honest. A number of players were replaced after the top 7th, including new acquisition Mendoza, though not Cookie, who was 5-for-5 and was to lead off the eighth for Portland. He popped out, however, but since the Coons continued to maul Aces pitching and scored another run before leaving the bases loaded in the inning, his spot would come up in the ninth inning, giving him another chance at both six hits and a cycle. Waggoner and Margolis made outs ahead of him and he came up with two outs facing Steve Rob, and hit a soft line over Arturo Perez into shallow right. Geoff Struck in rightfield didn’t get it – and it was in for another single, a 6-hit game for Cookie Carmona!! Petracek ran for him right away, but Bergquist grounded out, making this the only inning in the game in which the Coons didn’t score. 18-4 Raccoons!! Carmona 6-7, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Walter 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; Mendoza 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Nunley 2-5, BB; Denny 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Waggoner 2-5, BB;

COOKIIIIEEEEE!!!

Now watch them get shut out for the next eleven games.

Cookie and dark thoughts aside, Mike Denny ran his hitting streak to 12 games, while Tiger extended a pre-existing hitting streak that had started in Dallas to 11 games.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Knight
LVA: LF Hubbard – C D. Rice – 3B Burke – 1B Hamilton – CF McCullough – 2B R. Walsh – RF Flack – SS Beard – P M. Ortíz

Ortíz hit Cookie with the first pitch in the game, which immediately got the Coons in the dugout into a rabid mood. Walter would go on to single, putting two on, and Mendoza made a calming gesture to the still barking dugout. He had this – and rapped a huge homer to left for an instant 3-0 lead. The Aces fans (merely 15,000 on a hot afternoon) gulped already, but they could see that Damani Knight would handily fit their own rotation, so not all hope was lost. Knight, though, got a few easy exits from the Aces on soft pops the first time through, then batted with two outs and two runners on base in the fourth and sent a grounder past Matt Hamilton for an RBI single, his first major-league hit. Nunley plated Tiger with a 2-out single in the fifth, then scored on Denny’s triple to run the score to 6-0, which was also the end of the line for Ortíz, as the Aces dove into their pen again. Rich Walsh had trouble with McKnight’s grounder close to the second base bag and couldn’t get a timely throw off, allowing the seventh run to score on the infield single, although the Aces would finally score on Knight in the bottom 5th, Burke and Hamilton bringing in runs with two outs that were unearned since Rusty Beard had originally reached on an error by Shane Walter. Damani Knight doubled and scored in the sixth inning, and pitched through seven without getting any strikeouts. Even crazier: John Korb completed the game with two dicey innings, and also struck out nobody. 8-2 Furballs. Walter 3-4, RBI; Mendoza 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; McKnight 2-4, RBI; Knight 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, W (2-2) and 2-3, 2B, RBI; Korb 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

So we won a game in which we struck out zero. That’s new, I guess. Also: one day after pouring out six hits, Cookie went 0-for-4.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Young – P Morrison
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – C D. Rice – 3B Burke – 1B Hamilton – RF Struck – CF McCullough – LF Erickson – SS Beard – P Valdevez

DeWeese’s double put the Raccoons 1-0 ahead in the first inning, but they added two more runs in the second inning as McKnight hit a leadoff jack and Young reached on an error, but moved around and scored on two productive outs and a wild pitch. Morrison had keenly watched Knight pitch on Tuesday and now also got a fair share of pops allowing him to get through the first innings quickly before getting more support in the fourth inning. Young singled to lead off and was bunted over by Morrison for the second time. After going 0-for-6 since shining 6-for-7, Cookie hit a ball over Kevin McCullough’s head for an RBI triple, but was left on when Walter lined out to Hamilton and Mendoza’s fly to left center ended up with McCullough, leaving the score at 4-0. The Aces would only have one hit compared to the Coons’ eight through five innings, then added injury to insult when McCullough slammed the ground hard while spoiling a double-bound drive by McKnight to lead off the sixth inning. Arturo Perez replaced him, and his first duty in office turned out to be the one to sadly watch an Adam Young drive go well and far above his head for a solo home run, 5-0.

The Aces finally got on the board in the seventh, also with a solo home run. Geoff Struck’s shot was only their second hit in the game. But maybe there was a swift comeback in the cards for the Coons. Garrett Purifoy, the pure sod from Monday that had allowed five runs in two innings, was at it again in the eighth inning and loaded the bases with nobody out: Denny doubled, McKnight singled, Young walked. Morrison was almost at 100 pitches and was thus hit for with Waggoner, who fell to two strikes, but then turned the table on Purifoy and hit a gapper to left center for a 2-run double. Another run scored on Walter’s groundout, 8-1, but Adam Flack homered off Beaver in the bottom 8th, which was unfortunate since Beaver had only been inserted for a long string of left-handers starting with Flack. Jayden Reed would inherit runners on the corners and one out when Beaver continued to melt, but got a double play grounder from Hamilton to exit the inning. The top 9th saw the bases loaded with no outs for the Coons yet again. Ken Chilcott had walked DeWeese and Nunley (and he was also a southpaw not getting it done) before Denny singled to center. Bergquist and Petracek came out to pinch-hit, both struck out, and Waggoner’s drive to deep right was heroically intercepted by Struck to strand all three runners. Alex Ramirez hadn’t pitched in a week and got his bells rustled in the bottom 9th as the Aces had three hard hits to score two runs off him, but it was not enough for a comeback. 8-4 Critters! Carmona 2-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Denny 3-5, 2B; McKnight 2-4, HR, RBI; Young 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Waggoner (PH) 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Morrison 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (7-6);

In other news

June 23 – The Warriors acquire OCT SP Ray Taylor (5-3, 3.17 ERA) for two prospects.
June 23 – Six home runs in the Aces-Crusaders game do not generate the expected outpour of runs. The Crusaders win 5-3. While one of the Aces’ pair of dingers is a 2-run shot, all the Crusaders’ four home runs are solo shots.
June 23 – The Stars rout the Capitals in a 15-4 game, although they only out-hit them 15-11.
June 24 – The Indians could be without 2B Jong-beom Kym (.322, 8 HR, 31 RBI) for a long while. The 33-year old Korean has torn ankle ligaments and could miss almost all of the remaining season.
June 25 – NAS RF/CF Chris Macias (.327, 6 HR, 51 RBI) is now the proud owner of a 20-game hitting streak after contributing two hits in the Blue Sox’ 9-5 win over the Pacifics.
June 27 – While his teammates rout the Titans to the tune of a dozen runs, ATL SP Stephen Quirion (8-6, 3.48 ERA) allows only three hits in a shutout, 12-0 Knights.

Complaints and stuff

I want to get into the ****ing playoffs!!

Thus the blockbuster trade that broke on Monday morning. The pitching is fine ‘round here, but the offense bitterly needs a boost. I expect to have found that.

I was prepared to include Danny Arguello in the deal to the Stars, but that wasn’t even necessary. The Stars were content with Waker, our 2016 top pick and #24 prospect, who was putting up disturbing walk numbers in Aumsville for the second straight (half-)season. Arguello had been roughed up in his first two starts in Ham Lake, but had since found a groove and had lowered his ERA into the 2’s, which ain’t shabby for a 20-year old. Chris Schmitt is a perfectly fine third base prospect, but he’s also blocked by Matt Nunley, who’s a perfectly fine third baseman right now and will be under team control until the end of the 2019 season. Then there was Ricky Cruz, who was the #92 prospect, but was in the process of burning out at AA. He was batting .175 there (even worse than the .241 clip from last year, which had been almost all singles), and had been demoted to Aumsville just a week ago. Including him in the Tiger package now was the best price we were ever going to get for him.

Tiger is in his sixth major league season, but has already signed a 7-year extension which is on one hand pretty ****ing expensive at $2.6M per season, but then again his production is mildly insane. Or at least it was in Dallas. (gloomy music score) Of course, between him and Cookie and DeWeese, our outfield will soon make $8M a year, which is a bit of madness. For now, however, he replaces the useless tool Young, since Waggoner occasionally has a useful hit. Young makes me riot inside.

Once in a decade, I like to shove in all the cards I have. It was Ron Alston in 2008. I can’t even remember the instance before that. This is our most recent Ron Alston trade. Alston clicked, but didn’t get the Coons to the playoffs until two years later.

Also: Freddy Lopez, Daniel Hall, Jorge Salazar, Cookie Carmona – the exhaustive list of players to collect half a dozen base knocks in a game for the Critters. All of them did it on the road, although it is arguably easier on the road due to the guaranteed ninth inning.

Loggers, Crusaders, Elks remain until the All Star Game. The Crusaders are our four-and-four buddies, and this will be a crucial moment. We can either kill them, and gain ground on Indy, too, or we can let them back into the race. They look **** now, but they are with everything that’s unholy and can stage any comeback they desire… But hey, we’re coming off the mother of all sweeps (34 runs, poor Aces), all will be well now.

What was that sound? Hm. Odd. Sounded like a rack of weights toppling over in the weight room and burying a weeping Cookie underneath? Nah, I’m imagining things. Surely.

[Questdog]

Awesome trade!

Surely the Crusaders are the real team to beat and not the Indians?

[Westheim]

I am entirely not sure how the Indians do it. Their lineup lacks any big names. They are consistently hitting for high average to overwhelm opponents over time, but now that they have lost Jong-beom Kym they have no way to replace him, unless Steve Madison suddenly grows another 100 points of batting average. Their league-best rotation entered this season a combined 26 games under .500, yet "Ant" Mendez suddenly leads the ABL in ERA. Dan Lambert has been the only other starter that was even decent in recent years. There's some wicked stuff going on with them, and I expect them that they will not keep playing over .600 for the second half of the year, just like I expect the Raccoons to at some point stop plating ten runs per game.

The Crusaders are suffering from a few things. One would be a rotation of horrors. "Midnight" Martin is his usual self, and Bob King is doing what he has always done (being average-to-decent), but their other three starters have all packed two runs or more onto their ERA compared to 2016. Their lineup is incredibly old. Martin Ortíz is 37 and plays like it. Stanton Martin is 38 and can hardly play. Jose Paraz is 40 and plays centerfield. Ray Gilbert is 35 and still a dick. They have only three regulars that are under 30 years of age, and those aren't hitting, either. Due to injuries, their bullpen has now fallen apart.

I do not see the Crusaders gain ground right now, but their wicked devil connections could make things work between here and the trade deadline. But while they have enough cash to make things work on the money side, they do not have the prospects to shake up a Tiger...

I'm pretty sure they're regretting waiving Shane Walter by now... They have to make do with Eric Paull and Carlos Martinez up the middle, who both bat for low average with a few home runs. Adam Young territory. Brrrrr.

[Westheim]

Still off-sync after the draft. I finally got the new PC to work so that sucked a lot of attention this weekend, driving cars in circles like a maniac, and now screw it; the All Star Game is just 1 1/2 weeks away, and things will regulate itself then automatically. This update runs Thursday through Thursday.

Raccoons (47-32) vs. Loggers (36-42) – June 29-July 2, 2017

The Raccoons were 5-3 against the Loggers this season. Milwaukee was sixth in both runs scored and runs allowed with a -1 run differential, but they were playing worse than that. One thing might be their bottomless bullpen, the second-worst in the league, that was actively harming them.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (9-3, 1.88 ERA) vs. Victor Scott (6-4, 2.89 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-4, 3.47 ERA) vs. Ricky Mendoza (8-2, 4.29 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (8-7, 2.94 ERA) vs. Michael Foreman (2-11, 3.88 ERA)
Damani Knight (2-2, 4.34 ERA) vs. Luis Guerrero (2-7, 4.58 ERA)

The Loggers will have left-handers at either end of this series. We are also in terrain where we might give the regulars a breather in this series, in order to have everybody ready for the important Crusaders tilt afterwards. McKnight would take a seat in the opener, which left our starting outfield and Shane Walter as guys to give rest to during the series.

Game 1
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Landeros – LF LeMoine – SS Konrath – 2B Best – CF Gore – C Porter – 1B Betancourt – P V. Scott
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Petracek – RF H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 3B Nunley – SS Walter – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Maybe it was the sudden challenge to his top dog status (at least where career credentials were concerned; he certainly wasn’t the top dog on the team even without Mendoza), but all of a sudden R.J. DeWeese was doing real damage to opposing teams. He drove in the first four runs for the Coons against Victor Scott, who only went five innings and allowed as many counters. DeWeese hit a 3-run homer in the first, plating Petracek, who had walked, and Mendoza, who had singled, then hit an RBI single in the third inning, plating Petracek again as the same three guys hit three singles to get going. Jonny Toner allowed no hits until Steve Best hit a bloop single in the fifth, but hit a triple himself in the bottom 4th, scoring on a wild pitch, 5-0. Jonny found no great challenge in the Loggers order and whiffed ten by the seventh inning, in the bottom of which the Raccoons turned reliever Jimmy Young inside out. Mike Denny hit a 3-run homer to extend his hitting streak to 15 games, and they scored four runs total in the inning. Although his pitch count ran high at the end after two full counts in the eighth inning that ended in strikeouts anyway, Jonny pitched a quick ninth to claim a shutout on 121 pitches. 9-0 Coons! Mendoza 3-4, 3B, RBI; DeWeese 2-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Nunley 2-4; Toner 9.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 12 K, W (10-3) and 1-4, 3B;

This was Jonny’s first shutout this year and the 10th of his career. Also, the recent scoring surge has catapulted the Critters to sixth place in the Continental League in terms of runs put on the board.

Cookie and Shane Walter were given days off in the Friday game. Bergquist started at second, and after an 0-for-4 on Thursday sat squarely behind the eight ball. Never mind the total lack of qualified batters in our minor league system.

Game 2
MIL: 3B Landeros – 2B Aponte – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – SS Konrath – C O. Castillo – RF Gore – 1B Betancourt – P R. Mendoza
POR: 3B Nunley – CF Petracek – 1B H. Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – 2B Bergquist – P Santos

Hugo chugged a 370-footer off Ricky in the bottom of the first to extend his own hitting streak to 15 games and put the Coons up 1-0, but Santos wouldn’t hold on to it at all. David Betancourt had the third single of the inning with one out in the top 2nd, tying the game, but Santos still would have gotten out of it relatively unscathed if he hadn’t spiked the throw to first on Mendoza’s grounder. Our own Mendoza couldn’t come up with it, and the Loggers took a 2-1 lead on the error, then extended it to 3-1 when Ruben Landeros hit a sac fly to right. Santos made another bad play in the fifth with a poor throw on Guillermo Aponte’s grounder, which then put runners on the corners following a Landeros double into the left corner, but a K to Chris LeMoine and a foul pop by Andrew Cooper bailed him out. With Santos almost at 100 pitches through five shoddy innings, the rest of the team were still soul-searching. When Bergquist singled with one out in the bottom 5th, Young hit for him, but popped out to short. Nunley fouled out, ending the inning, but things got definitely better in the next inning. Denny singled to extend his streak to 16 games, but before that even, DeWeese had drawn a 2-out walk and McKnight had smacked a jack to right to knot the score at three.

John Korb, in his second inning, got ruffled in the top 7th, though. Victor Hodgers opened the frame with a pinch-hit single in Betancourt’s spot, stole second base and finally scored on another Landeros double (wonder where that was coming from…). Ron Thrasher replaced him to keep the deficit to a run, which he succeeded in. McKnight grounding to short with runners on the corners and one out in the bottom 8th looked like sealing one of those sad losses, but he actually beat out Aponte’s relay throw to break up the double play, which allowed Petracek to score with the tying run, then getting us even at four. Unfortunately, Hodgers continued to wreak havoc and hit a leadoff jack off Jayden Reed in the top 9th, putting the Coons in the hole for the third time, and they clambered out a THIRD time, and again Petracek had a hand in the comeback. Troy Charters allowed a leadoff walk to William Waggoner in the bottom 9th, after which Cookie hit for Bergquist and popped out to shallow center. Margolis hit for Reed, singled, but Nunley whiffed to get to 0-for-5. Petracek was up, hit a 1-0 pitch hard to left, where it fell in. Hodgers hurled it in; Cameron Konrath had his back to the plate and wouldn’t get Waggoner, but Margolis hadn’t looked left and made for third, where he was totally dead on Konrath’s short throw, but not until after Waggoner slid across home plate belly first. Inning over, here’s another one.

The Loggers had by now removed their most dangerous batters in the 3-4 holes with defensive replacements (although Steve Best, batting third now, was far from shabby; but he did strike out against Beaver to start the 10th), which oughta give the Raccoons an edge if they could just stop getting hurt by Landeros (batting a glorious .200) and Hodgers. Beaver pitched a clean top 10th, while Charters was still in the game in the bottom of the inning. He lose Mendoza and DeWeese to walks to begin the frame, then lost the game when McKnight singled into the gap in left center. 6-5 Raccoons!! Petracek 2-5, RBI; DeWeese 2-3, 2 BB; McKnight 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; Margolis (PH) 1-1;

Kevin Beaver now has more wins than Hector Santos, five to four.

Since DeWeese was barely short of a dumpster fire against left-handed pitching, he was assigned Sunday off. Saturday off belonged to Mendoza, along with Denny, so there was no hitting streak race going on for now, although Mendoza was a key bat and would be hard to keep on the bench in a tight spot…

Game 3
MIL: RF Hodgers – 3B Landeros – LF LeMoine – SS Konrath – C O. Castillo – 2B Best – CF Gore – 1B Betancourt – P Foreman
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – C Margolis – 1B Young – P Abe

The Critters scored two in the first inning, but could have scored more since Cookie initially walked and was caught stealing by Orlando Castillo. Nunley and Walter reached, and DeWeese and McKnight plated them with a groundout and single, respectively. While they then had two on with nobody out for Cookie in the bottom 2nd, and Cookie hit into a double play, the top 3rd became a defensive nightmare. Abe started out by walking Betancourt, before Young threw Foreman’s bunt to second base where he had no chance to get the runner. Then Hodgers loaded the bases with a blooper to center, and there were no outs. Landeros hit an RBI single on an 0-2 pitch, and then LeMoine hit a 400-footer to right center for a slam that sucked all the air out of the home crowd that had been re-energized over the last few days. Abe went on to hit Konrath with a 1-2 pitch, and that run scored on Betancourt’s 2-out double.

The Loggers were up 6-2, and had only twice this year scored more runs in a game that poor Michael Foreman (2-11…) had started. More so, the Raccoons were blitzed and went down 1-2-3 in the next few innings until Cookie hit a leadoff double in the bottom 5th. He scored on Walter’s single, but that was all they managed, and they really wouldn’t get another base hit until they had the tying run at the plate with two on in the bottom 9th through other means. Troy Charters was at it again and had gotten a head start to another blown save. He had walked Young on four pitches, then nicked Petracek. Cookie was the tying run, nobody out. He popped out to right, Nunley popped out to short, and in a desperate bid, Mendoza pinch-hit in the #3 slot, which had been populated by pitchers after an earlier double switch, and that while he was only the tying run. He flew out to Brad Gore in center, ending the game and his hitting streak. 6-3 Loggers. Walter 2-4, 2B, RBI; Chun 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; Mathis 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 4
MIL: RF Hodgers – 2B Aponte – LF LeMoine – CF Cooper – SS Konrath – C O. Castillo – 3B Landeros – 1B Betancourt – P L. Guerrero
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – 3B Walter – RF H. Mendoza – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Young – 2B Bergquist – P Knight

Damani Knight very visibly continued to have no business being here and got strafed early and often. After Aponte’s single in the first he walked the bases full and allowed two runs to score on Konrath’s single to center, and by the fourth just kept getting hit and hit and hit. The Loggers piled on him for four runs in the inning, three earned because Denny found it necessary to chip in a throwing error. Worse yet, Knight was the only Critter with a base hit the first time through, and when he was finally yanked after a walk to Castillo in the fifth inning, the Loggers were cruisin’, up 6-0. Young singled and Bergquist walked in the bottom 5th. Since we required John Korb’s presence to log innings, he was sent to bunt, and got the runners into scoring position, too. Cookie and Petracek both hit RBI singles, and Walter’s single to right loaded the bases for Tiger Mendoza as the tying run. That hadn’t worked on Saturday, and it didn’t work today, as his mighty hacks missed the ball three times. Mike Denny came through with a 2-run single to center (hitting streak reaching 17), but thanks to the early meat grinder action, the Coons were still two short at 6-4.

Betancourt hit a leadoff double in the sixth inning, but was knocked out by Denny on Guerrero’s poor bunt attempt, thrown out at third by about 25 feet. Young made it two leadoff doubles for first basemen in the inning when he found the rightfield corner with a line drive, bringing up the tying run again in … Bergquist, who grounded out to short, which kept Young pinned and cost a run eventually. Waggoner moved up the runner with a groundout, but Cookie couldn’t get the ball past the most annoying Hodgers in the outfield, and Young remained on third base. LeMoine spoiled a Mendoza drive right at the wall in the seventh inning, before the Coons loaded the bases in the most fake way imaginable in the bottom 8th. Bergquist reached on a grounder that went under the diving Konrath’s glove for a 2-out single, DeWeese was grazed by a pitch, and Cookie reached only on Aponte’s error. While the Loggers were begging for it in even leaving Guerrero on the mound despite having thrown 115 pitches, the Raccoons hadn’t necessarily shown a knack for high-leverage situations in the last two games. Accordingly, Petracek grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning. Nunley’s pinch-hit 2-out single in the bottom 9th brought up the tying run again against Troy Charters, but McKnight grounded out to Landeros to end the game. 6-4 Loggers. Nunley (PH) 1-1; Young 2-4, 2B;

I see, raging success after the Mendoza trade lasted only five days.

Raccoons (49-34) vs. Crusaders (40-42) – July 3-6, 2017

The Crusaders had just been swept by the Elks, so our situation could be worse, but we were also 4 1/2 behind Indy again. They were falling apart at an advanced pace, with injuries and age both contributing factors that also pretty damn sure influenced another. They were fifth in runs scored, but ninth in runs allowed, and the latter was getting worse now. The Coons were 3-1 against them so far in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (7-6, 3.35 ERA) vs. Bob King (9-6, 4.21 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (10-3, 1.73 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (3-8, 7.27 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-4, 3.40 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (8-5, 5.24 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (8-8, 3.30 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (8-9, 3.23 ERA)

Cruz would be another southpaw to contend with. We really need a right-handed bat, but Jason Bergquist is not an answer… I would love to flip Young for a useful right-handed outfielder, but nobody wants a piece of that.

I just realized that Jonny Toner will damn sure make the All Star team, but would pitch the final game before the break. That’s a tough one. I guess now that we plundered the farm to acquire Tiger Mendoza, we also have to commit to him pitching in the regular season game rather than in the exhibition bling-bling.

Game 1
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – RF Richards – SS Paull – P B. King
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Morrison

The Raccoons scored two in the bottom 1st, but left them loaded. Cookie singled, Tiger doubled, and Nunley singled to score the runs, while a Denny single and an error by Bob King loaded the bases for Waggoner to ground out to Carlos Martinez. The Crusaders immediately pulled a run back on Eric Paull’s sac fly that followed a leadoff walk to Drew Lowe and a Ron Richards double into the rightfield corner. With the Coons offense fast asleep again after a wild week (not even quite a week…) and Morrison’s unnerving tendency to walk batters, a 2-1 lead was not a pleasant thing to hold. The Coons did nothing, and the Crusaders kept poking, finding success in the fifth. Martin Ortíz hit a 1-out single and stole second base, but Morrison walked Jose Paraz anyway. Ortíz stole third base(!), Paraz moved up, and Ray Gilbert’s single to center tied the game. Paraz scored on Miguel Salinas’s sac fly and the Crusaders were ahead, 3-2.

Morrison walked Lowe to start the sixth (…!), then made a poor throw on Richards’ grounder that left Lowe safe at second base. Paull flew out to left, King struck out, but Ortíz drew another walk to load them up. That was it for Morrison, with Thrasher coming in to face Paraz, who was a switch-hitter, but weak from the right side, and batting only .184 overall, but with five homers. He hit a 1-0 pitch hard to right, but Waggoner came in and took it, ending the inning. Mathis and Reed turned in scoreless innings after that, but it wasn’t until the bottom 8th that the Raccoons even got on base again. Walter hit a leadoff single to center, and the Crusaders stuck with King despite some serious thump scheduled to appear in the batter’s box. I was discovering a tendency in Tiger Mendoza to swing hard regardless of the situation, which was very DeWeese-ish, but sometimes success makes you right. Mendoza mauled King’s 0-2, and bombarded it over a sad Ortíz into the leftfield stands, flipping the score and erupting the crowd! DeWeese then singled. Nunley was the first out before Salinas and King made errors on consecutive ground balls that should have ended the inning, but instead chased home DeWeese and put two on for Young, batting for Waggoner, who singled to left, but McKnight was held at third, which turned out to be a mistake once Margolis grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Alex Ramirez was on it with a 5-3 lead in the ninth – his first save opportunity in 14 days! – and first got a glimpse at the charred remains of Stanton Martin, pinch-hitting to start the inning. The former scare was hitting .212 with one homer, getting hardly playing time due to a used-up body that didn’t want to play ball anymore. And Ramirez walked him. Then he drilled Ortíz, putting the tying runs on, with Paraz putting an 0-2 into play and into rightfield. Martin was sent around third base, Tiger – out in right with Young remaining in at first base – fired a mighty rocket home, and had the old former pitchers’ schreck out by 15 feet. Ray Gilbert raped the very next pitch that Ramirez threw, a mighty fly to deep right, with Medonza selling out completely on that drive, snagging it in mid-air before slamming into the ground in the gap in right center – but he held on, and Ortíz had already been almost at third base in a stunning case of lack of situational awareness for a 37-year old routine All Star. He had to come back, although Tiger had no chance to double him off. Salinas flew out to DeWeese to end the game. 5-3 Furballs. Walter 2-4; Mendoza 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Nunley 2-4, RBI; Young (PH) 1-1;

This W was Ron Thrasher’s first decision of the year, which is odd for someone pitching in high leverage situations. It was also Ramirez’ first save in 16 days, since he had actually blown his most recent chance, and even now I was tempted to assign Tiger at least 80% of the credit…

Game 2
NYC: C Lowe – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 2B C. Martinez – LF Richards – 3B Caraballo – SS Paull – P Choe
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Toner

I couldn’t quite grasp why, but the Crusaders put a 3-spot on Toner in the third inning, which went a bit like Morrison’s big inning the day before. Leadoff single by Francisco Caraballo, and then Toner hit Paull. Choe bunted them to scoring position, and Lowe grounded out to first, but then Paraz singled to center to plate two, Gilbert reached on Nunley’s 12th error of the year, and Winston Jones hit a run-scoring single for the final note in the inning. As always against a 7+ ERA pitcher, the Raccoons were hit- and listless the first time through the order…

Richards homered off Toner in the fourth, and Jonny walked a pair in the fifth while not exactly radiating excellence as he raised his pitch count and the Crusaders’ run tally. Toner was done after six, having completely failed on all accounts, while Choe was still handling the Raccoons with a 2-hitter. DeWeese had hit into a double play in the fourth, and two doubles with two outs hadn’t led anywhere pleasant. The Raccoons required the services of friggin’ Adam Young to get onto the ****ing scoreboard, calling him out with two on and two out in the bottom 7th, hitting for Beaver. He lined one to right, McKnight scored from second, and it was 4-1. Cookie hit another RBI single, but Walter fouled out to spoil the effort. It was their last honest effort. DeWeese reached base again when Choe hit him in the eighth, Nunley hit into a double play, and that was it for the Coons. 4-2 Crusaders. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Young (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Mike Denny’s 18-game hitting streak found an end in this cabinet of horrors. Worse on a personal level: for the actual first time since the Mendoza trade, I woke up the next morning in front of the open booze cabinet.

Game 3
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P F. Cruz
POR: CF Carmona – 1B Petracek – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS Walter – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – P Santos

The single that Ortíz hit on an 0-2 pitch to start the game already let the dark clouds appear over my head again, despite Paraz lining into a double play to Petracek, who then gave the Coons a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning, doubling home Cookie, who had singled and stolen second base. But the Raccoons can’t have nice things – Petracek had felt something in his calf and left the game right away, replaced by Young, who scored on two groundouts by the 3-4 batters. The Critters went on to have a string of singles by the 7-8-9 batters with one out in the bottom 2nd, loading them up for Cookie, who grounded to short, but Paull’s throw to second base was off to Martinez’ right and he couldn’t come up with it. All hands were safe, 3-0. Young fouled out (…), while the Tiger lined out incredibly hard to Martinez.

A Ray Gilbert homer aside, not much happened through the middle innings. The Critters didn’t reach scoring position again until the bottom of the seventh when Bergquist hit a leadoff double, which got him back to that elusive .200 mark. Santos bunted him to third, but the Crusaders had no interest in facing Carmona, who was walked intentionally. Young hit a soft line over Martinez that made it to shallow right for an RBI single, after which the Critters lost another run when Cookie was nipped stealing third base, just before Mendoza hit a gapper for a double that only scored Young. However, a 4-run lead should suffice to collect six outs. Santos insisted on allowing a hard drive to center to pinch-hitter Ron Richards, spoiling which cost Cookie another six weeks of his already much-shortened life. Santos made it through the inning, but Chun got lid up when he started the ninth. Gilbert singled, Winston Jones homered, and suddenly it was 5-3 and the extra-wonky Ramirez was washed out of the bullpen. The Crusaders had the tying runs in scoring position after a Salinas single and Martinez double, and Ramirez just wasn’t going to get out of that one alive. Lowe plated one run with a groundout, and Paull hit a sac fly – tied game. And after another absent performance by the Critters in the bottom 9th, Martin Ortíz’ leadoff jack off John Korb in the top 10th put the Crusaders ahead and over the hump. 6-5 Crusaders. Petracek 1-1, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-5, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-4; Bergquist 2-4, 2B; Santos 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K and 1-2;

Sometimes I wonder why I put on pants in the morning…

Game 4
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – C Lowe – 2B Berman – SS Paull – P J. Martin
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Johnson – C Margolis – P Abe

Cookie and Walter opened the first with doubles, and Tiger got Walter driven in with a single to left for an early 2-0 lead, though that was nothing that couldn’t effortlessly be blown. Drew Lowe homered in the second to cut the gap in half – and that was after Salinas’ double play that was perfectly placed for Walter to convert. Jones had drawn the leadoff walk, and Abe issued another walk to Paraz in the third inning. Gilbert hit a hard single to left, but Jones struck out – Abe’s 100th strikeout of the season. At least a few guys in the lineup were trying to build a lead. Cookie hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd, stole second base, and somehow made it around to score despite not much help coming from the guys behind him. After McKnight and Abe singles in the bottom 4th, Cookie came up with runners on the corners and hit another single to plate McKnight, and Abe scored on Walter’s single, 5-1.

Despite some holes in the lineup (DeWeese was in a gross rut), the Coons managed to get “Midnight” Martin out of the game after only four innings, and the Crusaders were sufficiently scared about Cookie by now that they walked him intentionally with Margolis on second and one out in the bottom 6th. Defense then cost the Crusaders, with ex-Coon Francisquo Bocanegra, a southpaw, pitching. Walter hit a poor grounder, but Lowe couldn’t play it and left Walter with a bases-loading infield single before Tiger Mendoza grounded to the short side of second base, and Paull blatantly missed it, leaving Mendoza with a 2-run single. DeWeese flew out harmlessly, but Nunley grounded past Gilbert for another RBI single, which ended Bocanegra’s suffering. Dave Shannon replaced him and struck out McKnight, keeping the score at 8-1. Abe became stuck right away in the top 7th. Three singles loaded the bases with two outs and Martin Ortíz approaching. Thrasher came out and conquered him in three pitches to sniff out the threat.

The Crusaders then became a victim of their old age and more terrible defense. Johnson and Young hit singles in the bottom 7th, pulling up Cookie, who hit a soft fly to shallow center, but Paraz didn’t get there. It was in for a single, Johnson scored, and Young was thrown out at third base for the second out. After that, Walter and Mendoza hit consecutive bloopers into shallow left where a good defender (or a young one) might have gotten them, but both fell in, with another run scoring before Toshiro Uenohara struck out DeWeese. Although I was kinda tempted to see a 9-run lead blown, the pen held tight this time around, with Chun and Beaver getting the last six outs. 10-1 Raccoons. Carmona 4-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Walter 4-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Mendoza 4-5, 3 RBI; Johnson 2-5; Waggoner (PH) 1-1; Young (PH) 1-2; Abe 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (9-8) and 1-2;

We had 20 hits, of which 17 were singles, and half a dozen were owed to terrible defense on the Crusaders’ part.

In other news

June 29 – The hitting streak of Nashville’s Chris Macias (.327, 6 HR, 52 RBI) reaches 25 games with a fifth-inning single in a 7-3 loss to Topeka.
June 29 – The Gold Sox walk off with a 3-2 win against the Pacifics in the 14th inning. Both teams scored a run in the 13th.
June 30 – After an 0-for-3 effort against the Buffaloes in a 6-5 loss, the 25-game hitting streak of NAS RF/CF Chris Macias (.323, 6 HR, 52 RBI) is over.
July 1 – After being tied at four after nine innings, Condors and Aces both score a run in the 14th, but end up clawing at another for 18 innings before LVA RF/LF Geoff Struck (.281, 9 HR, 41 RBI) swats a walkoff homer off Michael Colvard to give Las Vegas a 6-5 win.
July 2 – San Francisco scores 11 runs in the first three innings in a 15-4 rout of the Knights.
July 4 – The Aces not only blow their 5-3 lead over the Bayhawks in the ninth inning, they concede seven runs to take a bloody 10-5 defeat.
July 4 – The Scorpions rout the Stars, 13-2, on the strength of an 8-run second inning.
July 4 – A passed ball charged to Salem’s Mark Desan allows the Pacifics to walk off as Jimmy Roberts scores with the winning run, 3-2 Pacifics.

Complaints and stuff

Hitting .292 with 10 HR and 26 RBI netted “Tiger” the CL Batter of the Month award, despite only playing in the CL for five days. Someone in the league office was apparently drunk…

Meanwhile, Player of the Week in the Federal League was Mike Bednarski, batting 13-for-25 (.520) with 1 HR and 8 RBI, so maybe things were about to spiral out of control.

After a week of horrendous innings to unwind all efforts, my strong belief in the Raccoons’ destiny to always come second (at best), no matter what, due to divine intervention by the smallest, ugliest, and most evil in the pantheon baseball gods (his name is Igor), was firmly reinforced. Jonny’s start against the Crusaders is all you need to look at to learn something about divine No-you-won’ts, although Wednesday’s 4-runs choke was also a pretty could indicator of the continuous misery Raccoons fans were used to endure.

The International Signing Period started on July 1. Teams have a soft cap of $388k available, and the Raccoons had no penalties applied. The pool wasn’t as juicy as in some of the recent years, although we found a few very interesting players anyway, no pitchers, though. We initially offered contracts to seven players, totaling a bit over $350k. The main prize seemed to be 16-year old Dominican Omar Alfaro, a powerful corner outfielder, whom we offered $220k to, well knowing that that wouldn’t be enough, but Gabriel Martinez thought he had identified a sleeper in infielder Hector Gaitan from Venezuela, who was high on his list of players to ink. Gaitan was content with a first offer of $25k, but we can’t possibly be the only ones to discover a real talent, right? The only other player to receive an offer for more than peanuts was 16-year old Dominican centerfielder Juan Gonzalez, whom we offered $65k, although he was not very impressive with the bat. He was more a defensive toy.

RF Omar Alfaro - $220,000
CF Juan Gonzalez - $65,000
SS Hector Gaitan - $25,000
SP Francisco Rangel - $16,000
SP Marco Ramirez - $14,000
C Elias Tovias - $8,500
CF Guillermo Morales - $8,000

TOTAL - $356,500

Both pitchers are left-handers. Tovias is from the Bowen/Denny mold of catchers, with high power and little agility.

In the end, apparently Gaitan had no other suitors because he signed our $25k by Monday, and Ramirez and Morales signed later in the week after another offer. So far we have spent just over $50k on those three, but the Alfaro bidding might last a while. The price shot up to $249k by Thursday.

How long has it been since a Batter of the Month award for the Coons? Well, this is the first time in OOTP 16, at least 12 years. It triggered a friggin’ bronze achievement!!

[Here we go Juneau]

Westheim! I know you have gotten this before, but thanks so much for the awesome Raccoon epic you've been writing for a while now. I know you won't believe me, but over the last few months I've read/skimmed :P through this entire post, and I've definitely enjoyed your writing.

I'm a major fictional ootp guy myself, and in every league I always create a Portland Raccoons team in your honor. Keep it up!

P.S (my fictional version of Portland are also generally inepticoons, minus the time they knocked my Juneau Wolfpack out of the divisional round of the playoffs when we had been the best team in baseball that season. I still have terrible flashbacks)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Here we go Juneau

Westheim! I know you have gotten this before, but thanks so much for the awesome Raccoon epic you've been writing for a while now. I know you won't believe me, but over the last few months I've read/skimmed :P through this entire post, and I've definitely enjoyed your writing.

I'm a major fictional ootp guy myself, and in every league I always create a Portland Raccoons team in your honor. Keep it up!

P.S (my fictional version of Portland are also generally inepticoons, minus the time they knocked my Juneau Wolfpack out of the divisional round of the playoffs when we had been the best team in baseball that season. I still have terrible flashbacks)

You, sir, are showing some right determination! This effort necessitates reward. I therefore award you this precious medal made from shards of broken bones of Daniel Hall, Neil Reece, and Cookie Carmona, and salt of the many tears I shed...!

+++

Raccoons (51-36) vs. Canadiens (38-47) – July 7-9, 2017

This was the last series before the All Star break. The Coons were up against the Elks just in time to make me suffer through said break, which wasn’t the wildest of ideas given that they were quite miserable at 17 1/2 games out, with the second-worst offense in the league and barely adequate pitching, but so far had shown the Critters a long nose and had taken five of the nine games played so far this season.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (2-3, 4.54 ERA) vs. Steve Kreider (6-5, 4.50 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (7-6, 3.43 ERA) vs. Kevin Clayton (3-9, 5.70 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (10-4, 1.87 ERA) vs. Bill King (0-0, 4.35 ERA)

Jonny would start in the final regular season game before the All Star Game instead of participating in that, which had reasons rooted in realpolitik. Can’t let those Indians get even further away by starting the slacking Chris Munroe, who had the most awful turnaround from 2016…

The Elks would send three right-handed pitchers into the series, also partly due to their ace Sam McMullen (9-6, 2.14 ERA), there only remaining left-hander after Jose Flores’ early demise, laboring on back tightness and probably getting a bit more rest now.

Game 1
VAN: RF K. Evans – SS Lawrence – CF Rocha – 1B Quebell – C Little – 2B P. Green – LF Varone – 3B Grooms – P Kreider
POR: 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Waggoner – C Denny – SS McKnight – C Petracek – P Knight

Damani Knight got raked for three runs in the first inning, including a 2-run homer by Adrian Quebell, which did not amuse the home crowd. While technically knocked out during a rain delay, this was once more a start that looked badly like Knight’s last for the franchise. He basically didn’t get anybody out without major defensive heroics by all other Critters involved, and Waggoner, Walter, and McKnight all had at least one eye-opening play. Knight’s tenure expired during a 1-hour rain delay in the fifth inning, with the Raccoons down 4-2 and with a man on, although Chris Mathis would take care of that after play resumed. The Coons didn’t have an earned base runner the first time through the order, then had runners on the corners for Tiger with two outs in the bottom 3rd, but he grounded out to Pat Green. DeWeese opened the fourth with a jack before Waggoner doubled and worked his way around. Kreider also got no claim on the win, also knocked out by the rain. Right-hander Scott Hanson took over in the bottom 5th, walked Walter and Nunley, but then got three pathetic outs from the middle of the order with two whiffs (Mendoza, Waggoner) and a pop to short (DeWeese).

Mathis conceded another run in the sixth inning on a single and three walks before Waggoner spoiled a pop off Morgan Little’s bat before it could dink into shallow right, hit off Jayden Reed, the disgraced Mathis’ replacement, but Reed created his own mess that had to be cleaned up by Beaver in the following inning. The Raccoons actually got the tying run to the plate in the bottom 7th after Walter reached on a 1-out bloop single and Nunley added himself when southpaw Orlando Valdez dropped his pop. Bottom 8th, tying run at the plate again after a Waggoner single off Valdez, and then a Denny single off Juan Jimenez, another left-handed reliever. McKnight appeared and hit into his second double play of the game, and despite Cookie’s 2-out RBI single the Raccoons had just wasted the last opportunity they were going to get. Instead, Alex Ramirez, the closer-turned-dud, allowed another run on nothing but hard contact in the ninth. To be fair, Shane Walter did hit a leadoff single in the bottom 9th – he just was thrown out aimlessly dawdling to second base. 6-3 Canadiens. Walter 2-3, 2 BB; Waggoner 2-4, 2B; Denny 2-3, BB; Carmona (PH) 1-1, RBI;

0-5, K, 6 LOB. Mendoza is starting to blend in with the team…

Game 2
VAN: RF K. Evans – 2B Rinehart – CF Rocha – 1B Quebell – C Little – SS Lawrence – LF Varone – 3B Grooms – P Clayton
POR: CF Carmona – SS Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – 1B Young – 2B Petracek – P Morrison

Another day, another 3-spot in the first, and again for the team with bad breath. Morrison walked the first two and allowed a single to Mario Rocha, before RBI singles were hit by ****ing Adrian Quebell and Jaylin Lawrence. Manlio Varone’s sac fly was the cherry on top. Cookie opened the bottom 1st with a single but was instantly wiped when Walter grounded to Jeff Rinehart for a double play. I had enough already and went for a stroll into the storage in the cellar under the clubhouse. I opened a box labelled with just ‘1993’, took out the framed team photo after the Capitals had been beaten, which already had plenty of marks from dried tears on the glass and just let emotions burst out for a bit. We weren’t ever going to get back to taking another photo like that. Not this year, not in 10 years, and not as long as the world would keep turning absentmindedly.

About 90 minutes later I went back to my office, where I found Maud, who had been worried about no sounds coming from the room despite the kind of game that was taking place. As I stepped up to the window front, the scoreboard showed it to be the fifth inning, neither starting pitcher still alive, and the Coons down 5-4 with the bases loaded, two outs, and Hanson pitching to Petracek. The fiendish ex-Elk struck out, because what else would he do? My fault for bringing in traitors. Maud told me I had missed another five runners left on base, two more double plays, and that the potential sponsor she had tried to entertain had instead gotten into a conversation with the Elks’ press guy, a sleezy guy with think, fingerprint-littered glasses and a pronounced lisp. Also Kevin Clayton had left with an injury, but Bruce Morrison had been canned for sucking. I had guessed as much from the scoreboard.

Ron Thrasher walked two after Chris Grooms’ leadoff double in the top 6th. Mario Rocha batted with one out, hit a liner into the gap and sealed the game with a bases-clearing double. Kurt Evans would drive in two runs against John Korb in the seventh, while the Raccoons actually managed to bring up the somebody with the bases loaded and two outs twice. Once, Nunley hit a 2-run single before Denny grounded out. The other time Young hit a ****ty fly to shallow right that didn’t do anything. 10-6 Canadiens. Carmona 2-5; Nunley 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Denny 2-3, 2B;

The Indians won both their games on the weekend so far, so the season was heading for its merciless end. Now 7 1/2 games out and completely hopeless, the Raccoons were trundling towards another meaningless August and September.

Game 3
VAN: RF K. Evans – 2B Rinehart – CF Rocha – 1B Quebell – C Little – LF Cameron – SS Lawrence – 3B Grooms – P B. King
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Waggoner – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

While Jonny battled through the adverse conditions of the Elks’ beastly stench and an early rain delay, spot starter Bill King sat down the first ten Critters before Nunley rolled a single through Lawrence with one out in the fourth. Mendoza had a drive to deep right spoiled by Evans before King hit DeWeese. Waggoner and Margolis then hit consecutive drives to right that Evans didn’t get, both of them getting run-scoring doubles for three runs total and a 3-0 lead for Jonny. Evans also defused drives by Cookie and Nunley in the bottom 5th. This was after Bergquist and Toner had reached base on walks to start the inning, but at least they were deep outs and Bergquist scored on a sac fly eventually. The Raccoons would not get another actual base hit until another Waggoner double in the eighth inning, then off righty Armando Gonzales, but the crowd at least got to see some of the best pitching you could see these days from their own guy, who was carrying an effortless shutout into the ninth inning, where he pinpointed out pinch-hitter Mike Gershkovich with a precision fastball in a full count, then got the last two outs from Mendoza, who caught Evans’ foul pop and picked up Rinehart’s grounder to end the game. 4-0 Coons. Waggoner 2-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 12 K, W (11-4);

Unfortunately the Indians completed a sweep of the Crusaders, so our distance at the break remained a frustrating 7 1/2 games, with the Crusaders right back on the plate afterwards.

All Star Game

Jonny Toner was the only pitcher for the Raccoons at the All Star Game, while their only batting representative was going to be … Shane Walter. Cookie was infamously snubbed once again. One more reason not to bother about the glorified bull****ting going on in Vegas.

In the bull****ting event the CL piled eight runs on the FL in the seventh inning to claim victory in an 11-2 rout. Some bloody insane ****tard actually had Jonny Toner pitch an inning 48 hours removed from a 108-pitch complete game effort, so I guess I will have to throw rocks at the league office again. Shane Walter pinch-hit and struck out. Atlanta’s Devin Hibbard hit two home runs, including a 3-piece off Angel Casas and drove in four, earning MVP honors.

Raccoons (52-38) @ Crusaders (42-47) – July 13-16, 2017

The Crusaders were still an annoying, though ancient and fragile, bunch. Having lost four in a row (most of those to the Indians of course), they were seventh in runs scored and tenth in runs allowed. Last week’s 4-game split now had the season series at 5-3 in Portland’s favor, which was just not enough going forward.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (9-8, 3.19 ERA) vs. Bob King (9-8, 4.21 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-4, 3.24 ERA) vs. Hwa-pyung Choe (4-8, 6.99 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (11-4, 1.74 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (8-10, 3.48 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (7-7, 3.69 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (8-5, 5.23 ERA)

Cruz would be the only left-hander on Sunday, but in all honesty, due to the break they could still juggle things.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Waggoner – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – P Abe
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P Bo. King

The Coons hit the ball right where they had to in the first inning and exploited Jose Paraz, who was 40 years old and played like it, for a massive 5-run outburst right in the opening frame. DeWeese tripled past Paraz to score Cookie and Tiger initially, after which Waggoner hit a ball past Eric Paull to run the score to 3-0. Nunley reached on a Carlos Martinez error, and then Mike Denny doubled past Paraz once again to run the score to 5-0. Then Abe, the fool, stepped on the mound and loaded the bases without retiring anybody, allowing a single to Paraz, sandwiched between 4-pitch walks to both Martin Ortíz and ****ing Ray Gilbert. Two runs ended up scoring, and Abe cost the team a run in the third inning with a ****ty bunt attempt, too. Nunley had already scored after a leadoff walk and consecutive soft lines by Denny and McKnight that fell for singles in front of Martin Ortíz, when Abe got Denny forced on third base and nobody else scored in the inning, which ended at 6-2. At least his pitching picked up slightly in the middle innings, and the Coons tacked on a run in the sixth with a solo jack by DeWeese, 7-2. Abe logged seven innings eventually despite the miserable start, with Ortíz hitting into an inning-ending double play entangling Francisco Caraballo on Abe’s 101st pitch of the game. The Critters tacked on a pair of runs in the top 8th, starting with Brandon Johnson, who hit for Abe and singled. Cookie tripled to drive him in (also in the vague direction of Paraz’ lawn chair) and scored on Walter’s groundout. 9-2 Furballs. Carmona 3-5, 3B, RBI; DeWeese 2-3, 2 BB, 3B, 3 RBI; Waggoner 2-5, RBI; Denny 2-5; McKnight 4-5, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-2; Abe 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (10-8);

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – 3B Walter – RF Mendoza – C Denny – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – 1B Young – P Santos
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P F. Cruz

After a few games of being completely absent from the lineup, “Tiger” hit an RBI single to plate Petracek for the first run in the game, right in the first inning. The effect on Santos that this early run had was not entirely positive. He allowed a single to Ortíz and walked Paraz to start his day, and presumably only bailed out because Gilbert fouled out and Winston Jones hit into a double play that McKnight turned very nicely. Santos remained wonky early on, but the Coons would soon set a big mark, and it wasn’t exactly the guy you expected that from. Denny opened the fourth with a single, but was soon forced by McKnight. Bergquist singled past Martinez to put two on, after which Adam Young swatted a 3-piece to right to run the score to 4-0. Young? A homer? What?

Young actually got another base hit off the left-hander Cruz in the sixth inning. Following Bergquist’s 2-out walk with a single to right, Young brought up Santos, who hit a looper into the gap in left center, and that gap was pretty big between the limited ranges of the ancient Ortíz and Paraz. Santos had an RBI double, 5-0, before Cookie fouled out. The Coons would leave the bases loaded in the seventh, but Santos didn’t need any more runs, pitching efficiently after the mild early drama, and went on to collect all but four outs. Beaver and Ramirez (who needed work outside of gun-to-the-head situations) ended the game without any comeback threat from the New Yorkers. 5-0 Raccoons. DeWeese (PH) 1-1, 2B; Denny 1-2, 2 BB; Young 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Santos 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-4) and 1-3, 2B, RBI;

This was the first win for Hector Santos in a dozen starts. He had last beaten the Wolves on May 7, also in a 5-0 game. He had gone 0-2 with 10 no-decisions in the meantime, but had never allowed zero runs, so maybe it was all his fault after all.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Waggoner – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – P Toner
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P Choe

Choe had beaten Jonny in an absolute killer of a game on Independence Day so I was not exactly preferring him over “Midnight” Martin, and he started the game by striking out Cookie, which immediately made me put another scratch into the loss column. Choe sat down the first seven before McKnight singled in the third inning. Toner bunted him to second, after which Cookie walked and Walter singled to load the bases for an uncomfortably struggling Tiger, who ran a full count without finding something to poke the stick at. Choe missed grossly on the first 3-2 pitch, walking him and pushing in the first run of the game. DeWeese now batted and hit another one past Paraz, a 2-out, bases-clearing triple to run the score to 4-0. The parade ended when Waggoner walked and was caught stealing, and the Crusaders soon were on the upswing again. There was something about Jonny that they liked a lot, and they hammered a huge dent into him in the bottom 4th. Winston Jones hit a 1-out double, Miguel Salinas walked, and Carlos Martinez hit an RBI single. Lowe made a poor out, which almost put Toner out of the woods if he could get Eric Paull, but in fact he was lucky that Paull’s hard shot to left wasn’t five feet higher or the game would have been tied. As it was, it rammed off the wall and confused a startled R.J. DeWeese long enough to become a 2-out, 2-run triple. Choe struck out, but the Crusaders were only one run back, 4-3.

Cookie was left on third base when Mendoza struck out (…!) and DeWeese lifted out to Jones in the fifth. The top 6th started with singles by Waggoner and Nunley, both to right center, who went to the corners. Denny lined a pitch up the rightfield line for an RBI double, after which the Crusaders put McKnight on intentionally, then brought a new pitcher in Dave Shannon for Jonny Toner, which was a bit odd. Bases loaded, no outs in a 5-3 game, Jonny ran a full count before lifting a soft fly to left center – and once again bad defense betrayed the poor sod pitching for New York. The ball fell in for an RBI single, 6-3, and kept the line moving. Shannon faced for Raccoons in a row that would drive in a run each then, as Cookie walked, Walter hit a sac fly, Mendoza singled, and DeWeese doubled. Only then did Waggoner strike out and that was only the second out in a 6-run frame. Nunley grounded sharply up the middle where Paull made a splendid play to zing the ball to first base in time to get Shannon off the mound, now in a 10-3 contest. Jonny was removed from the game after a perfect, but fairly long (17 pitches) bottom 6th, to be preserved for future heroics.

A Cookie sac fly added a run in the top 7th before the Coons got to see a healed up Curtis Tobitt in long relief, his first appearance of the season after missing a good year after Tommy John Surgery. Despite putting Mendoza on with an error and allowing a single to DeWeese right afterwards, all with nobody out in the eighth inning, Tobitt had a scoreless inning, thanks to Nunley being doubled up. That was before the Crusaders came within two batters of placing the tying run in the batter’s box. Starting the bottom 8th down 11-3, they placed two runners on base thanks to walks issued by Jayden Reed, who was promptly roughed up on two hard hits including a double off the fence by Drew Lowe. Mathis replaced him with three runs across, drilled Paull, but then got a grounder to third from Caraballo to end the inning. The uprising was not successful. Instead, the Coons got a run off Salvadaro Soure in the ninth, ending the game with a swift dozen runs. 12-6 Critters. Carmona 1-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI; DeWeese 3-5, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Nunley 2-5; Denny 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Petracek (PH) 1-1; McKnight 2-4; Young (PH) 1-2;

Offense. We’ve now won four in a row for a change, and the Indians dropped two in the meantime, getting us back to 5 1/2, which is still not where we want to be, but better than a few days ago.

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – C Margolis – SS McKnight – P Morrison
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P J. Martin

Consecutive 2-out doubles by Gilbert, Jones, and Salinas put the Crusaders 2-0 ahead in the first, and once more Morrison didn’t look like anything you’d want in your rotation. The Crusaders had two more on base in the bottom 2nd and Morrison only escaped when he encountered Paraz at the right time. Paraz, old and blind, struck out routinely, and that was Morrison’s escape. The Raccoons offense was completely dead against “Midnight” Martin. They had two on in the second, but Margolis hit into a double play, and when they had two more on in the fifth with nobody out, Margolis was the first to strike out. McKnight was the second, and after Morrison hit an actual, ****ing RBI single, Cookie was the third. Bottom 5th, with the world upside down, as Paraz hit a leadoff single and Morrison didn’t hesitate to put Gilbert on as well. A run scored on Nunley’s error on Jones’ grounder, and Morrison just didn’t offer any resistance anymore. He was done after five innings, having allowed four runs.

The Coons only got the tying run up against Martin in unearned fashion in the seventh. Martin had thrown poorly on Nunley’s grounder that opened the inning, and Gilbert hadn’t been able to come up with it. McKnight blooped for a 2-out single, but Waggoner bounced the ball right into Martin’s pocket to end the inning. Top 8th, 1-out single by Walter, and a walk drawn by Mendoza (which was better than the 16th soft fly out in the series…) made DeWeese appear as the tying run, which was little hope given his tendencies and Martin’s combination of a 98mph fastball and knowledge of the corners. In mindboggling fashion, the count ran to 3-1 before DeWeese poked and flew out to left. The Coons again didn’t score, Martin allowed only five hits in eight innings, and while McKnight hit a double off Helio Maggessi in the ninth, that was with two outs and pointless. 4-1 Crusaders. McKnight 2-4, 2B;

In other news

July 7 – Atlanta’s Stephen Quirion (9-7, 3.80 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout over the helpless Falcons, who go down 6-0 to the Knights. Quirion now has two shutouts in his last three starts.
July 7 – With a torn flexor tendon in his elbow, OCT SP Jorge Gine (9-4, 3.09 ERA) will be out for the rest of this season and will also be questionable for the start of the 2018 campaign.
July 9 – The Miners out-hit the Cyclones, 8-4, but somehow never make it around the bases. Instead, the Cyclones take a 3-0 win.
July 11 – The Canadiens deal 1B Mike Gershkovich (.319, 3 HR, 10 RBI in 94 AB) to the Stars for SP A.J. Bartels (5-10, 5.37 ERA).
July 11 – SFW LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.349, 20 HR, 82 RBI) will be out until late August with a fractured wrist.
July 13 – Career hits leader PIT LF Victorino Sanchez (.335, 6 HR, 35 RBI) continues to make a case for 4,000 base hits. The 38-year old snips five singles in the Miners’ 9-2 win over the Rebels to reach 3,824.
July 13 – The Condors pick up 25-yr old RF/LF Robert Mascorro (.279, 1 HR, 15 RBI) from the Titans, parting with unranked prospect 1B Jon Gonzalez, who is said to have untapped power potential.
July 13 – Shoulder inflammation might mean that the season of NAS SP Jimmy Lee (3-8, 4.02 ERA) is over.
July 14 – Canadiens pitching gets bowled over in the ninth inning by the Titans. Not only do the Canadiens blow a 10-6 lead, they allow seven runs total to take a 13-10 defeat.
July 16 – Dallas claims victory in an 11-inning contest with the Scorpions, 7-3, thanks to LF/RF Justin Dally’s (.299, 17 HR, 67 RBI) walkoff grand slam.
July 16 – A shoulder injury sustained in a car accident is likely to put TIJ SP Troy McCaskill (6-8, 4.27 ERA) out of action for the remainder of the season.
July 16 – ATL 1B Mike Rucker (.276, 9 HR, 26 RBI) is dealing with knee tendinitis and could miss up to four weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Jonny Toner had 170 strikeouts at the All Star break, which I have never seen before. Next in line in the CL was SFB Joao Joo with 126. The FL mark was RIC Ian Van Meter’s, with a paltry 135. And yet Jonny will have October off. Forever. As long as he wears the brown hat.

R.J. DeWeese was CL Player of the Week in that rump week after the All Star Game. He batted .538 (7-for-13) with 1 HR and 7 RBI. Two clutch hits is apparently all it takes these days.

Related, this Saturday’s win over the Crusaders put the Coons at a flat +100 run differential. It’s the first time they’ve made it there since 2014.

We signed the catcher, Elias Tovias, for $18k of international pool money, and dropped out of all other races besides that for the slugger Omar Alfaro. The price on him is up to $316k, which leaves us just under the soft cap. How much am I willing to sacrifice for him? Don’t know yet. But he doesn’t cry out to be a blue chip, so I will probably not get us to the higher penalty brackets.

RF Omar Alfaro - $316,000
SS Hector Gaitan - $25,000 - SIGNED
C Elias Tovias - $18,000 - SIGNED
SP Marco Ramirez - $15,600 - SIGNED
CF Guillermo Morales - $9,800 - SIGNED

TOTAL - $384,400 ($68,400 SIGNED)

Tried to get rid of Adam Young over the break. No chance. Absolutely no chance. You can really only get rid of that by waiving it. Yes, neutral gender. Slashing .255/.305/.351 doesn’t make you a man.

But even Tiger Mendoza has shed 60 points of average since arriving here, and that gap is growing fast. He still has a .900 OPS as a Raccoon, but that was with a couple of 3-run homers in his first games. In the last seven games, he’s batted .107/.250/.107 with 4 BB and 3 K, which pretends to mask as bad luck, but the baseball gods and foremost their ugly leader, Igor, can’t fool me no longer! This was all a well set-up plan to make me look like an idiot once more. But not with me, not anymore! I will now board my heavenly rocket to reach their realm and tell Igor what I think of him! (puts on World War I era goggles and takes a seat in an empty cardboard box in the middle of the room that once held bananas from Guatemala) Engines, engage!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (55-39) @ Titans (35-56) – July 18-20, 2017

25 1/2 games out, the Titans were miserable. The worst product in the league when it came to keeping the opposing team off the scoreboard, they had conceded 503 runs, more than 5.5 per game. Their offense was eighth, and their run differential had plunged into negative triple digits at -106. Right now, they also had a few outfielders including Jonathan Blake on the DL to make their lineup even worse than it was. The Coons so far had taken a 6-3 lead in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (10-8, 3.16 ERA) vs. Chris Klein (5-11, 6.04 ERA)
Hector Santos (5-4, 3.04 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (3-8, 5.07 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (12-4, 1.86 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (0-2, 8.59 ERA)

We skipped Damani Knight, because the week started with an off day, and I can’t bear him. They are sending three right-handers, and let’s see how this affair of Johnny facing another pitcher with four times his ERA will go…

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Johnson – P Abe
BOS: CF Mata – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – LF X. Williams – SS Vasquez – P Klein

A small and disillusioned crowd got kicked in the groin early as Klein, who had significantly more walks than strikeouts, got Cookie to fly out to Xavier Williams to start the game, but was then burned for a 4-spot. After Walter and Tiger singled, DeWeese hit an RBI double and Nunley hit a 3-piece to right center to give Abe an early cushion. Klein’s nightmarish control was also on display early. He issued five walks by the third inning, which included three walks to load the bases in that third inning, which brought up Brandon Johnson with one out. Johnson popped out and Abe lined out softly to Mike Rivera to end the effort. While Abe retired the first 11 Titans before Steve Butler doubled (but was left on), Klein walked six in his start and despite the early shelling reached the sixth inning, where he was finally knocked out after a 2-out single by Tiger and a subsequent double by DeWeese, which added a run for a 5-0 score. Former Critter Kenichi Watanabe replaced Klein, and he did not have a better ERA… He would pitch into and out of trouble in the seventh and eighth, the Coons stranding pairs in both innings, but at least Abe was still running a 2-hitter … until he didn’t. Tom Thomas opened the bottom 8th with a double and suddenly Xavier Williams unloaded a homer to right center that brought the Titans back to 5-2. Abe got one more out before being replaced by Thrasher, who ended the inning. Given the flock of left-handed bats that the Titans had in their lineup and Alex Ramirez’ infinite struggles, Thrasher was left in for the ninth, but allowed two hits before he got two outs, then threw a wild pitch. Ezra Branch grounded out to short, which allowed Rivera to score, but Tom Thomas struck out to end the game without Ramirez having to come into a hot mess. 5-3 Coons. Walter 3-5, 2B; Mendoza 2-5; DeWeese 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Abe 7.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (11-8);

For the middle game, the Titans decided to give Eric Rasmussen another shot at starting, having last pitched before the All Star break. He was 1-6 with a 4.84 ERA, so no significant improvement over the other guys.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Santos
BOS: CF Mata – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – LF X. Williams – SS Vasquez – P Rasmussen

The Raccoons left Mike Denny on third base after a second-inning triple(!), then had Walter and Nunley kill the next two innings with double plays while the Titans took an early 1-0 lead on a Thomas double and Williams single. Santos inexplicably added two walks to a 1-out Alex Mata single in the bottom 3rd, but got out when he played Ezra Branch’s grounder himself for the third out. He also walked Williams in the fourth, but Denny picked him off. A decently sized rain delay got Santos out of the game after five innings, but maybe the Coons could at least spare him the loss; Cookie at least led off the top 6th with a double to right and moved to third on Walter’s groundout. Tiger hit a ball JUST past Rivera for a game-tying single, then was caught stealing (like Waggoner had been caught the previous inning). Chun put runners on the corners in the bottom 6th before Beaver had to come out with Williams being the first of the long string of left-handed batters that ran from the bottom to the top of the order. Williams hit a drive to deep center anyway, but Cookie threw himself in harm’s way to get that defused and keep the game tied.

It didn’t remain tied for long. Jasper Holt pinch-hit for Robbie Vasquez to start the bottom 7th. He was a right-hander, we weren’t falling for that, and Holt doubled. It could hardly get worse, except that Mathis appeared with one out and allowed three singles and a wild pitch before the inning ended on a grounder that happened to find Walter, but by then two runs were across. The Coons would load the bases in the top of the eighth against southpaw Matt Branch, who walked two and brushed the Tiger, which unfortunately meant that DeWeese batted with two outs. He hit a ball, but he hit it softly and right to Steve Butler to end the inning. Nobody reached against Harry Merwin (even their closer had almost as many walks as strikeouts!) in the ninth. 3-1 Titans.

But to be fair, Raccoons pitching in this game also walked more (5) than they struck out (4)…

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Margolis – P Toner
BOS: CF Mata – 2B M. Rivera – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – LF X. Williams – SS Vasquez – P J. Fuentes

Fuentes was the third Titans starter in the series to have more walks than strikeouts, but he struck out Mendoza and DeWeese to end the first after a Cookie leadoff walk, no problem. Neither team had a hit the first time through, but the Coons managed a double play by the third inning, Walter ruining a two-on, one-out situation. McKnight hit a 2-out single in the fourth after DeWeese had been plunked (which happened A LOT), but Young unleashed a patented ****ty grounder to short to end that inning. Toner also allowed a hit in the bottom 4th, but neither team put up any kind of threat through six innings.

While Fuentes struck out six against three walks and held the Raccoons shorter than was appreciated by me, he only lasted six innings. Right-hander Dave Priest was in the game by the seventh, and a walk to Young and a Margolis single put two on with no outs and Toner batting. A bunt was the usual call here, but Toner was unretired in the game and not your typical no-good-at-hitting pitcher. And we might play 21 innings only to lose 1-0 on an erroneous wild balk if we didn’t roll the dice here. Toner wrestled a walk from Priest in a full count, loading them up, which brought up Cookie, who didn’t have the tainted stench of failure everybody else dispensed from their orifices. Surely Cookie would do us good here! He fell behind 1-2 before lifting a ball to left. Williams took care, but a lousy throw allowed a slow Young to score. That … counted. A wild pitch later, Shane Walter drummed a 3-run bomb. Up 4-0, Toner made it to the eighth, but leadoff batter Armando Galan went nine pitches with him before grounding out, sending Jonny to 109 on the day, and with a non-trivial lead and left-handers up, Ron Thrasher was called on again. He ended the inning, and Mathis and Beaver managed to get through the ninth without a national emergency. 4-0 Raccoons. Toner 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (13-4) and 1-1, 2 BB;

I love Jonny. Period.

Raccoons (57-40) @ Condors (35-61) – July 21-23, 2017

The Condors were the worst team in the league, with a completely anemic offense that scored only 3.6 runs per game (last by a good margin), and mediocre pitching. Their team OBP was under .300, and they were last in six of 11 relevant offensive stats, and in the bottom three in all but homers and stolen bases, in both of which they were around the league average. The Coons had two two of three games in the first meeting of the teams this season.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (7-8, 3.77 ERA) vs. Luis Flores (2-8, 3.63 ERA)
Damani Knight (2-4, 4.97 ERA) vs. Kevin Woodworth (5-14, 4.21 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (11-8, 3.12 ERA) vs. Zach Hughes (6-7, 3.70 ERA)

Flores would be a southpaw at the start of the series. Their about-best pitcher Troy McCaskill was most likely out for the season, and they had a few batters on the DL as well, including Craig Dasher, which opened a gate for all kinds of sub-.200 batters.

In an odd move, the Condors had just acquired 1B Adrian Quebell (.328, 13 HR, 64 RBI) from the Elks, leaving them with a mediocre pitching prospect. Neither team had much use for Quebell, but it was a puzzling move for sure.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – SS Walter – RF Mendoza – C Denny – 3B Nunley – 1B Young – 2B Bergquist – P Morrison
TIJ: RF Abraham – 3B Dahlke – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 1B Quebell – 2B Eroh – C A. Gonzales – SS J. Irvin – P L. Flores

Despite facing a lineup mostly of right-handers, Quebell and the switch-hitter Mike Herrera aside, Morrison continued to be awful. He was tardy on Craig Abraham’s grounder that started the bottom 1st and allowed him to reach on an infield single, then walked Dahlke. Quebell would unpack a 2-run double with two outs to crank up the hurt … and the anger. Quebell also had the middle single in three straight with two outs in the bottom 3rd, which scored another run for the Condors, while the Raccoons through five innings managed a leadoff double by Bergquist that turned into a run thanks to a passed ball, and that aside hit into three double plays; Petracek once, and the ****ing dumbass Young twice. The best thing that could be said about the next few innings was that they didn’t hit into more double plays (though it’s kinda hard with no runners on base…), and that Morrison somehow was carried through seven innings by the continental drift alone.

After Petracek struck out to strand Waggoner and Cookie on base in the eighth, all done by Flores, and Jayden Reed allowed another run on a pair of doubles in the bottom of the inning, the game was pretty much over. Zack Entwistle struck out Walter to start the ninth, and Mendoza was retired on one more of those pathetic flies that tore shreds out of my guts. DeWeese hit for Denny for left-handed-bat-vs-right-handed-arm’s sake and singled to center. Nunley singled. McKnight hit for Reed, the loser, and walked. Bases loaded for … Bergquist. Oh shi– 4-1 Condors. DeWeese (PH) 1-1; Waggoner (PH) 1-1;

(deep sigh)

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Knight
TIJ: RF Abraham – C J. Vargas – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 1B Quebell – 2B Eroh – 3B Dahlke – SS J. Irvin – P Woodworth

Cookie opened with a double and scored on a Mendoza sac fly that looked like a double at least before Jimmy Oatmeal made a flying grab. The Condors would open with an infield single again, this time on an actual drag bunt by Abraham, before Damani Knight started to wear out his own defense, and performed general heroics like walking Woodworth on four pitches to start the bottom 3rd. The Condors generally seemed to have their leadoff man on, but someone Knight survived even a leadoff single by Herrera and hitting Quebell in the bottom 4th. Ron Eroh helpfully hit into a double play and Nunley had to do a simple miracle to contain Dahlke’s quick bounder from becoming a game-tying double. The Condors would hit into more double plays in the fifth and sixth innings while displaying a general indecisiveness when it came to the right means to kill off Knight. The Raccoons hardly featured on base at all, although Waggoner managed to hit into an inning-ending double play for a change in the seventh. Knight got Quebell on a 3-0 grounder to start the bottom 7th, then walked Eroh, who held still at 3-0. Dahlke popped out, before Jeremiah Irvin hit one into the corner for a double. Runners on second and third, the Condors didn’t hit for Kevin Woodworth. This was odd. Well, I guess then it will be fine to have Knight, who hadn’t retired Woodworth yet in the game, pitch to their pitcher. Woodworth’s first career homer in 159 AB was a 3-piece to left and quite definitely ended the Raccoons’ pretender status when it came to playoff participation unless a major miracle happened.

For the moment, John Korb ended the bottom 7th, then was hit for by Johnson to start the eighth, and Johnson singled to left center. Cookie hit a liner up the rightfield line that made it past Abraham and into the corner. Johnson had gotten an early start and scored handily, but Cookie also made big strides around the bases and slid in safe at third, representing the tying run. Walter flew to deep right, Abraham missed that, too, and the Coons were back even with the double. Mendoza was walked intentionally, while DeWeese flew out to left. Nunley was 1-2 behind Woodworth before floating a blooper to shallow left. Jimmy Oatmeal was nowhere near and it fell in, with Walter send around third base despite his snail pace. Oatmeal’s throw was poor, Walter scored, and the Coons had erased Woodworth’s 3-run homer, now up 4-3. The runners were in scoring position for Denny, who drew the next intentional walk before Lou Cannon (who shunned the Coons last year and gave John Korb, who was in line for the W, a job) appeared in place of Woodworth, struck out McKnight, then threw a wild pitch to score Mendoza. Waggoner then got the third intentional walk in the inning, but Johnson popped out to let them get away with it. Reed and Thrasher weaseled through the eighth inning before Alex Ramirez faced the bottom of the order in the ninth. Dahlke struck out before Irvin singled, but the Condors ended their efforts with two groundouts to middle infielders. 5-3 Blighters. Carmona 2-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 2-3, BB; Johnson (PH) 1-2;

Bad news for the Sunday game. Cookie didn’t feel well at all during the night, and woke up with a humming head and a sore throat. He also sneezed into Hector Santos’ cereal bowl. Santos ate it anyway (Coons will be Coons), but Cookie was held out of the Sunday game with his cold. We will have Monday off, and that might be just enough for him to get the worst behind him. He sat segregated to one side in the dugout in a parka (never mind the 95°F) and a pretty pink scarf during the game.

Game 3
POR: 1B Mendoza – CF Petracek – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Abe
TIJ: RF Abraham – C J. Vargas – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 1B Quebell – 2B Eroh – 3B Dahlke – SS J. Irvin – P Hughes

Abraham opened with a single yet again, though this one actually left the infield. While he did steal third base eventually, he was left there after a K to Herrera, but opening with a Quebell double, the Condors put a 3-spot on Abe in the second inning. Dahlke hit a 2-run homer, his 10th of the year, but his average remained at a sad .199, and Hughes hit a 2-out double and scored on another Abraham single. The Coons, who had hit into a double play in the second inning, would load them up with Waggoner (walk), Mendoza, and Petracek (singles) for Walter to bat with two outs in the third, but his drive to right was caught by the obnoxious and unlovable Craig Abraham.

****head Abraham homered in the fifth to get the Condors to 4-0, while the Raccoons were engaged in a game of who could suck the most, which could know no winners. Abe didn’t make it out of the inning, allowing with two outs a single to Herrera, a walk to Quebell, and an RBI single to Eroh. Korb replaced him and got four outs, but it didn’t matter. The Inepticoons had nothing and produced nothing. That wasn’t entirely true, because they stumbled over one run at some point in the late innings, but I could not remember who was responsible if someone tried to beat it out of me. I could vividly remember Seung-mo Chun getting blastered for three runs in the bottom of the eighth, though. 8-1 Condors.

****ing suckers. I should have sold. In May.

In other news

July 17 – Indy’s SP Dan Lambert (11-8, 2.63 ERA) holds the Canadiens to two hits in a 6-0 shutout.
July 18 – CHA OF Ryan Feldmann (.274, 16 HR, 61 RBI) enters the history books as the 33rd player to slam three home runs in one game, as well as the first Falcon to do so, in a 6-3 win over the Aces.
July 18 – Three Federal League games end with 1-0 scores. The Wolves and Rebels take road wins by the smallest of scores possible, with the Wolves scoring in the first inning against the Stars, and the Rebels scoring in the ninth against the Blue Sox. The Warriors take a different approach, walking off for a 1-0 win only in the 10th inning against the Pacifics, on Stanley Murphy’s walkoff single.
July 20 – Buffaloes right-hander Alberto Molina (10-8, 3.49 ERA) might miss eight weeks with a rotator cuff strain.
July 21 – DEN OF Julio Candela (.277, 10 HR, 62 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 12-inning game the Gold Sox win 10-6 over the Rebels. Candela doubles, singles, and triples in his first three at-bats, but doesn’t homer until the 12th, a solo shot off Barry MacDonald. This is the 60th cycle in ABL history, the first in almost two years, and the fourth for the Gold Sox after Chih-tui Jin (1996), Pat Parker (1997), and Eugene Carter (2011).
July 22 – Four innings of 4+ runs have the Knights completely destroy the Indians in a 21-2 bleaching. Gil Rockwell (.289, 21 HR, 62 RBI) and Jimmy Raupp (.232, 11 HR, 55 RBI) both have five hits for Atlanta, while Jimmy Walrath (.257, 4 HR, 28 RBI) hits two home runs, including a grand slam, and drives in eight.
July 23 – CIN C Jayden Jolley (.254, 11 HR, 57 RBI) has a 5-hit game in a 14-8 drubbing of the Cyclones over the Stars. Jolley has two doubles and a home run in his five hits and drives in four.
July 23 – The real hurt is hung onto the Capitals by the Scorpions, though, who completely dismantle their Washington hosts in a 15-1 massacre.

Complaints and stuff

The Gold Sox have four cycles, but they are one of nine teams without a no-hitter.

Mendoza hit .181/.240/.181 this week with 2 BB and 4 K. I think this would be a good time to hate the ****ing bastard.

Omar Alfaro will not become a Raccoon. The price went over $360k this week, and this would put the Raccoons in a penalty band that would preclude them from signing even one top-notch prospect next year. Since I am not completely sold on Alfaro, who has high power potential, but not much in terms of contact and an eye rating by Gabriel Martinez, I didn’t bite.

Now watch him go to the Hall of Fame, because Martinez sabotaged me. I can see that coming. I really do.

Instead I made another $125k offer to Juan Gonzalez, who was still available. No danger in going over the palatable penalty bracket right there now.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

My God....Toner has been beyond remarkable this year.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Is it possible to post Toners career stay screen just to see how much better he's been this year?

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

This is indeed the one guy on the team to look forward to. His stats have indeed grown a bit more outlandish every year. Also, missed the triple crown by one win in '15, and currently is again one win short (of Ant Mendez).

Also remember this: we got him from Cincy straight up for Shunyo Yano, who had a real mess of a season after being signed out of Japan.

As far as the ugly word in orange on the left side is concerned, I have covered that up with an adhesive label that - in blue - reads EVERYTHING'S FINE.

[Here we go Juneau]

Toner almost looks like a prime Pedro! Strikeout rates fall a little short but JT's whip is insane. (Runs out to immediately buy a fifth Toner jersey)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (58-42) vs. Thunder (44-53) – July 25-27, 2017

The Thunder were 10th in offense and 7th in runs allowed, but they had been quite miserable all year, and that hadn’t changed yet. They also had lost their last five games, and they had six players on the DL, including a complete outfield and a few pitchers that might be able to help them. The Coons had won two of three in the first meeting of the teams in May.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (5-4, 2.99 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (8-10, 4.50 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-4, 1.77 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (5-12, 6.46 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (7-9, 3.77 ERA) vs. Fernando Estrada (1-2, 4.58 ERA)

We had faced all Brians/Bryans the first time we saw the Thunder this year, and technically they would be in order again, except that Bryan Robbins (5-7, 4.37 ERA), their lone southpaw, had left his last start with an injury and was undiagnosed as the series started. The Thursday starter was a bit open for them right now.

Speaking of Thursday, we had Monday off, but would now begin a string of 16 straight games.

Cookie was still slimy on Tuesday and was not in the starting lineup for the opener. That was one nasty cold! He was available for pinch-hitting, however.

Game 1
OCT: CF Gosnell – 2B Farias – LF Alston – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF Cisneros – 3B Ruggeri – SS Janes – P Furst
POR: RF Mendoza – CF Petracek – 2B Walter – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Young – P Santos

After a leadoff single by the clawless Tiger, Petracek whiffed and Walter grounded to second base. Emilio Farias initially tried to turn two, couldn’t get the ball out of the glove, then tried to get Walter at first, but spiked it and fooled B.J. Manfull. The ball escaped for a 2-base throwing error, and when DeWeese lifted a ball to right, Mendoza went and was thrown out by Javy Cisneros, ending the inning. The next frame, Nunley and Denny both had singles to get going. McKnight grounded out to first, but Young and Santos both hit soft lines that dropped into no man’s land in the shallow outfield for a pair of RBI singles.

The Thunder didn’t score in the early innings, but hit a few balls hard off Santos. By the fourth, they were hitting softer balls and those actually fell in. Ron Alston would have a leadoff single, and B.J. Manfull reached on an infield single. After Jalen Parks popped out, Santos hit Cisneros and the bases were loaded. D.J. Ruggeri lifted a ball to center, Petracek had it comfortably, and Alston made for home – and now the Thunder had their guy thrown out at home plate, and this one ended the inning, too. Santos was certainly glad, but was in more trouble in the fifth, putting runners on the corners with one out. Farias actually managed a sac fly to cut the lead in half, but Alston struck out in a full count. Santos hit a leadoff double in the bottom 5th, never was moved off second base by the collective scum in the lineup, and that allowed the Thunder to take a 3-2 lead in the top 6th when Santos walked Parks and allowed a bomb to right center to Cisneros. Leaving runners in scoring position continued in the sixth when McKnight hit a 2-out triple into the rightfield corner, Young was put on intentionally, and Cookie hit for Santos, but grounded out to short. The Thunder loaded them up against Reed and Beaver in the top 7th, but Parks struck out to leave them on, and in the bottom 7th, the Raccoons had runners on the corners after Mendoza drew a leadoff walk and then went aggro to third on Walter’s 1-out single. The Coons barely managed the tying run with a sac fly by DeWeese, and left two more on base in the bottom 8th of a then 3-3 game. Alex Ramirez, who had been utter **** for many weeks now, managed to kill the game in the top 9th with a leadoff walk to PH Sergio Benito and a subsequent single by Chris Gosnell. Ron Alston would hit a 2-run double to give Oklahoma a win, although that didn’t happen without some late drama. After poor outs made by Brandon Johnson and Walter, DeWeese hit a bomb to get the Raccoons back to one run. Then Nunley singled, Denny singled, and McKnight flew out to left. 5-4 Thunder. Nunley 2-5; Denny 2-5; Young 2-3, BB, RBI; Margolis (PH) 1-1;

I could elaborate how much dead money we have in this non-closer of ours, but it’s not remotely as much dead money as is stuck in the pathetic lineup, so I won’t bother.

Actually, I will. Ramirez is due another $2,970,679. Well, done, champ, well done.

The Thunder announced that Bryan Robbins was headed for the butcher with bone chips in his elbow on Wednesday, so that ended the left-hander’s season. They moved Estrada, who came out of the pen and was not yet on a rhythm, into the middle game with the announcement.

Game 2
OCT: CF Gosnell – 2B Farias – LF Alston – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF Cisneros – 3B Ruggeri – SS Janes – P F. Estrada
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Young – P Toner

Walter’s sac fly turned Cookie’s triple into a run in the first, but Toner soon found himself mired in quicksand. Parks hit a 1-out triple in the second, a liner into the rightfield corner that decided to build a nest and breed young out there, leading to Mendoza to take forever to get a throw in. Toner then hit Cisneros and walked Ruggeri, before bailing out with strikeouts to Erik Janes and Estrada – a long nightmare of an inning that romped his pitch count close to 40 already. Toner wouldn’t allow another runner until Estrada hit a 2-out single in the fifth, then walked Gosnell right away, and also walked Manfull in the sixth, but that was about all he gave to the Thunder while whiffing ten. Unfortunately, that also took him to 100 pitches through six, and the team was absolutely no help in making it a safer W for him. Toner’s spot was up to lead off the bottom 6th, and the Coons had three meager hits. Johnson hit for him, failed, but Cookie singled to left. DeWeese would eventually get him singled in with two outs after a Mendoza walk, and Nunley was hit, but Denny grounded out to Ruggeri to leave the bases loaded in a 2-0 game.

Mathis had a quick seventh against the bottom of the order before McKnight hit a leadoff double to right, and Young walked against Estrada. Waggoner grabbed a bat, flew out to left in a full count, Cookie hit into a fielder’s choice that got Young removed, and Walter fouled out. There was certainly an uneasy atmosphere with the way the Raccoons were not getting any big hit in, and their bullpen had been anything but stellar, and this was Jonny Toner bidding for a triple crown again and just couldn’t get any love. But Thrasher dealt with the top of the order in 11 pitches, which was good enough to maybe just leave him where he was for the ninth given that right-handed bats were scarce in the Thunder lineup. But for the moment, there was more movement on the bases in the bottom 8th, DeWeese and Nunley hitting 1-out singles to go to the corners against left-hander Nick Lombardo, who then balked in DeWeese during Denny’s plate appearance. Denny struck out, McKnight rolled out to Farias, and the balk run was all the Critters got. Thrasher indeed remained in the game for the ninth, starting with Manfull, whom he struck out, and he did that to every Thunder that dared stepping up. 3-0 Raccoons. Carmona 2-4, 3B; DeWeese 2-4, RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2B; Toner 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 10 K, W (14-4); Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, SV (4);

Thrasher actually struck out five in a row. Gosnell was the only Thunder that even made contact.

Game 3
OCT: CF Gosnell – 2B Farias – LF Alston – 1B Manfull – C Parks – RF Cisneros – 3B Ruggeri – SS Read – P Benjamin
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Morrison

Morrison allowed a run in the first after Gosnell and Farias opened the game with singles and went to the corners, and while Alston hit into a double play, Gosnell came home, but the Coons had their first three on base. Cookie singled, stole his 15th base, and Benjamin filled them up with walks for DeWeese. Portland’s Most Expensive popped out, which was still better than Nunley, who hit into an inning-ending double play. While Morrison allowed more single runs in the second and third innings and generally did not seem to be much concerned about the piles of Thunder on base at any given point, the Raccoons had a Waggoner single in the bottom 2nd, but Waggoner was caught stealing, and then stayed clean off until the fifth, when McKnight hit a 1-out double. Margolis struck out, and nothing came about that. Morrison made it through six horrendous innings without getting completely blown out, but the mess continued with the bullpen. Beaver put two on with two outs in the seventh before Korb replaced him, walked Parks to load the bases, before bailing out when Cisneros was called out on a dubious strike three. Korb put another set of three on base in the eighth inning, with one run scoring, 4-0, while the Raccoons in the bottom of the inning had a leadoff single from Margolis, a double play from Petracek, and then got 2-out singles from Carmona and Walter, but Mendoza couldn’t even find his way out of the infield against Benjamin, who kept pitching a shutout right until the Raccoons were down to their last out. Waggoner was on first after a single, with Denny hitting for McKnight. He found the gap in right center for a double, and Waggoner just kept running since nothing mattered anyway. He scored, Margolis made the last out. 5-1 Thunder. Carmona 2-4; Waggoner 2-4; Denny (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Chun had also allowed a run in the ninth, but the real worries with the pitching then lay with Beaver again, who after the game was reported as unwell and headed for a night on a bed of nails on the order of Senor Mena.

The good news came rather quickly. On Friday morning the Raccoons announced that Beaver had a tear in his rotator cuff and was not only done for this season, but could be out for up to nine months, which would stretch into next season. While Beaver went to the DL, Nick Lester was called up from AAA. The 25-year old had pitched to a 3.00 ERA in only three innings over four games for the Coons in 2016.

Raccoons (59-44) vs. Bayhawks (61-42) – July 28-30, 2017

The Coons were probably in no condition to face the Bayhawks right now, having already lost four of six to them in 2017, and their offense had turned to slime once again and a top three pitching staff was a bit too tough for them (although in fact, every pitching staff was too tough for them, even that of the Portland Institute for the Limbless and the Blind). The Bayhawks were also first in offense, so there was a REAL playoff team.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (2-4, 4.84 ERA) vs. Alex Maldonado (6-3, 2.81 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (11-9, 3.33 ERA) vs. Joao Joo (8-8, 3.92 ERA)
Hector Santos (5-4, 3.06 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (8-6, 3.49 ERA)

Southpaw in the middle here.

Game 1
SFB: LF E. Jackson – SS Claros – CF D. Garcia – RF Almanza – C D. Alexander – 1B McIntyre – 3B J. Rodriguez – 2B Ingraham – P Maldonado
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – RF Waggoner – C Denny – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – P Knight

Eddie Jackson singled right through McKnight to start the game, after which Knight hit Raul Claros. Dave Garcia flew out, and the Bayhawks took a 2-0 lead on Chris Almanza’s double, although the rightfielder pulled something along the way and had to be replaced by Felipe Bautista right away. The Bayhawks got consolation when Knight walked the next three and Zach Ingraham hit a 2-run single, giving them a 5-spot in the opening inning. While it was more or less game over from there, Knight somehow made it through four innings with only more run across when Dave Garcia hit his 28th shot of the year, outright murdering a fastball to leftfield. Waggoner drove in a pair in the bottom 3rd with a double, but nobody was on base until the sixth when Denny hit a home run, which still had the Critters down 6-3.

The Bayhawks got Raul Claros to third base in the seventh after he had doubled off Chun, but Lester replaced him with two outs and struck out Bautista. Bottom 7th, a leadoff single by Shane Walter brought up Mendoza, and in the midst of an outrageous slump the declawed Tiger hit *his* 28th dinger, a tremendous shot to dead center, and suddenly it became a 6-5 game. Mathis and Ramirez held the Birds short in the eighth and ninth before the Raccoons had the top of the order up against the miracle closer Ray Kelley in the bottom 9th. Cookie popped out, Walter struck out, Mendoza walked, and when DeWeese hit a real rocket up the first base line, Mike Robinson made a blind swipe and had it in his glove. 6-5 Bayhawks. Carmona 2-5; Walter 2-4, BB, 2B; Reed 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Game 2
SFB: LF E. Jackson – 3B J. Rodriguez – CF D. Garcia – RF Almanza – C D. Alexander – 1B McIntyre – SS R. Miller – 2B Ingraham – P Joo
POR: CF Carmona – RF Petracek – SS Walter – LF DeWeese – C Denny – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – 1B Young – P Abe

Abe allowed HARD contact in the first inning, which didn’t result in a run, but the Birds got a run in the second on a walk drawn by Will McIntyre, who stole second, and then a soft single by Ingraham. Shane Walter would pull the run back in the third with a single that plated Adam Young, who had opened the inning with a single to right. But Joo lacked stuff and had only one strikeout in the first four innings. Joao Joo hit a hard single to center with one out in the fifth, and Eddie Jackson followed right in his tracks. Joo went to third, only to be thrown out by Cookie, and Javy Rodriguez fouled out behind home plate to end the inning.

The Coons left Petracek on second base in the fifth, but did break the tie in the sixth when DeWeese hit a huge leadoff jack off Joo, bringing the score to 2-1 in favor of Abe, who was already over 100 pitches due to lots of long counts and little success with two strikes. Nunley and Young hit singles after that, and Mendoza hit for Abe with two outs. Joo’s 2-2 was wild and advanced the runners to scoring position. Mendoza drew the walk on the next pitch, which brought up Cookie Carmona with the bases loaded. He didn’t disappoint, ramming a ball up the middle and into center for an RBI single, 3-1, before Petracek flew out to Jackson on the first pitch he got from Joo. Then, having John Korb pitch to the 6-7-8 batters resulted in a Ryan Miller single and a walk to Ingraham, but they eschewed hitting for Joo, who bunted them into scoring position instead for Eddie Jackson, who struck out and left them there, and then drew more ire from Bayhawks fans in the bottom of the inning. The Coons had Walter on second base with one out when the Birds elected to walk Denny intentionally despite him not having done anything of note so far against Joo. Nunley dumped a single into leftfield, and Jackson was hit in the groin by a high bounce, which understandably threw him into personal disarray, but he still got charged an error as the Critters took an extra base, which in this case meant that they went up 4-1, with runners on second and third for a pinch-hitter for Korb, who had replaced Bergquist in the lineup earlier. Waggoner appeared, hit a sac fly, and it was 5-1. Thrasher and Chun took the game to conclusion from there. 5-1 Critters. Walter 2-4, RBI; Nunley 3-4, RBI; Young 2-4; Abe 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (12-9);

The Bayhawks made a trade during the following night, acquiring RF Victor Sarabia (.315, 2 HR, 33 RBI) from the Capitals for four prospects. Included was #39 SP Eric Williams.

Game 3
SFB: LF E. Jackson – SS Claros – CF D. Garcia – RF Almanza – 1B McIntyre – C Eaton – 3B M. Robinson – 2B Ingraham – P Beauchamp
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – C Denny – SS McKnight – RF Waggoner – P Santos

Although it took only two innings for every Critters outfielder to make one of those hectic and unhealthy backwards dashes due to Santos allowing rocket upon rocket to the Bayhawks, none of those fell in, and in fact there was only minimal hitting in a not-quite-expected Sunday afternoon pitcher’s duel. Both teams had one hit apiece the first time through the order, and another hit the second time through. Neither team even reached third base until the bottom of the sixth, when Cookie arrived there after hitting a leadoff single, stealing second base (he had already singled his last time up, but then had been caught stealing), and moving up on Walter’s groundout. The Bayhawks elected to give four wide ones to a guy who hadn’t hit a ball in three weeks, pulling up DeWeese, who promptly punished them with a gapper in right center that eluded Almanza, who was still sore yet playing, and the Coons scored the first run with the RBI double. Nunley then walked to load them up – Beauchamp’s third walk against no strikeouts, but the Coons had so far reliably rolled balls to infielders – and Mike Denny lifted one to center. Garcia had that, Mendoza went for home, Garcia threw, poorly, and at the same time fell down in center and remained down. Mendoza scored, and Garcia, who paced the Bayhawks offense with Ron Alston getting old and Chris Almanza not replicating previous success, had to be helped off the field, favoring a leg. Victor Sarabia, who hadn’t made it for game time coming from Washington, replaced him in center. McKnight grounded out to end the inning, leaving the score at 2-0, which Santos nursed through the seventh, but reached 99 pitches in the process and was hit for in the bottom 7th, with Young making the second out in his stead. Only after that did the Raccoons chug a few base hits, three in a row, starting with Cookie’s double to right. He would score on consecutive singles by Walter (to center) and Mendoza (to left). Pretty much the same thing happened with Jeff Boynton pitching in the bottom 8th. Nobody on base with two outs (though after Denny had hit into a double play…), McKnight doubled past new-Bird Sarabia into center, while Waggoner walked. Johnson hit for Reed and singled to center, plating McKnight, and Cookie stranded two when his hard liner went right at Sarabia to end the inning. Nick Lester retired Claros, Sarabia, and Almanza in seven pitches and without panic to end the game and salvage the series. 4-0 Coons. Carmona 3-5, 2B; Mendoza 2-3, BB, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (6-4);

In other news

July 25 – The Warriors pick up SP Fernando Cruz (9-6, 5.23 ERA) from the selling Crusaders, leaving them with C Cory Roland (.283, 2 HR, 9 RBI) and a third-rate prospect outfielder.
July 26 – The Loggers send 28-yr old INF Steve Best (.305, 1 HR, 31 RBI) to the Condors for 39-year old 1B Juan Ortíz (.224, 7 HR, 15 RBI).
July 28 – In a performance to remember, TIJ LF Jimmy Eichelkraut (.255, 20 HR, 56 RBI) slams three home runs and drives in eight in the Condors’ 17-6 rout of the Crusaders. Included in the barrage are 2-run home runs off Francisquo Bocanegra and Curtis Tobitt, and a grand slam off Robert Parsons. He is the third Condor to hit three home runs in a game after Raúl Vázquez in 2002 and Juan Diaz in 2009, and it is the 35th performance of three or more home runs in ABL history. In the game at hand, the Crusaders lead as late as the sixth inning before imploding in a 7-run sixth and a 5-run seventh.
July 28 – The Pacifics pick up 26-yr old SP Cody Zimmerman (8-7, 3.86 ERA) from the Buffaloes, parting with two valuable prospects in #34 SP Nick Marks and #59 2B Jesus Moroyoqui.
July 28 – 2B/SS Rusty Beard (.231, 0 HR, 13 RBI) is sent from the Aces to the Indians in exchange for a prospect.
July 28 – The Cyclones erase an early deficit with an 8-run seventh inning against the Wolves and outlast them, 10-8.
July 29 – Struck by a pitch, OCT 1B B.J. Manfull (.275, 16 HR, 53 RBI) will miss the entire month of August with a broken thumb.
July 30 – TOP SS Tyler Gray (.290, 11 HR, 50 RBI) is out for the year with a severe concussion.
July 30 – The Rebels pick up 2B/SS Bobby Torres (.252, 5 HR, 35 RBI) from the Pacifics for MR Barry McDonald (3-4, 5.96 ERA, 1 SV) and #55 prospect CL Jason Jones.

Complaints and stuff

The Crusaders are selling, and the Loggers are making the deals perpetually hopeless teams make. They actually offered Best to us earlier, but he’s basically like Shane Walter, and also a left-handed batter, so he’s of no use to us.

The Coons have lost Beaver, but how is the other left-handed pitcher on the DL doing? We might try and give Nick Brown a bright red rattle by next week, and if he doesn’t instantly hurt himself handling that, MAYBE we’ll migrate to a baseball for the second week of August.

I tried to trade for a right-handed bat. The Aces wanted Danny Arguello for Brent Burke, who is not an impact bat, but would offer a top alternative at short for McKnight against left-handers, which was about all that Burke would give us, and that’s not something you trade your top remaining prospect for. There would have been Bill Adams on the Buffaloes, another raking corner outfielder, but right-handed, yet they weren’t even interested in Arguello.

And why trade? Why even bother. I look at Jimmy Oatmeal (who was Player of the Week, batting .400 (10-for-25) with 5 HR and 11 RBI), and … and why? My latest ******ed trade addition batted far below what would be acceptable for the third straight week, and unfortunately his .235/.458/.411 (including seven walks) has to be considered rather rousing progress. In the last 3 1/2 weeks, he has batted .164 with ONE extra base hit, that homer on Friday in the Great Sinking of the U.S.S. Damani. Total slash with Coons: .264/.369/.445 (which still includes a great first ten days, when he slashed .418/.479/.813); slash with Dallas: .355/.440/.659 …

And I thought he’d come here and break his leg. Nah, the baseball gods played that one well. This hurts more! Well, it hurts me more. The broken leg would probably hurt him more.

We did not sign the last international amateur we were after. Juan Gonzalez ended up with the Blue Sox because I didn’t consider him worth $150k.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (61-45) @ Falcons (51-52) – July 31-August 2, 2017

Hugging .500 as hard as possible, the Falcons had the second-lowest batting average, although they employed power and speed to at least score the eighth-most runs. Their pitching was pretty good, with the fourth-least runs allowed on their ledgers, and their rotation and pen individually also ranked fourth in ERA. They had also handled the Raccoons pretty well this year, holding a 4-2 edge in the season series, a swift turnaround from the 8-1 thrashing the Raccoons handed them in 2016.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (14-4, 1.70 ERA) vs. Denzel Durr (6-6, 3.58 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (7-10, 3.81 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (6-12, 4.31 ERA)
Jeff Magnotta (0-0) vs. Alex Vallejo (8-6, 3.68 ERA)

We would only face right-handed starters in this series. The Critters dispatched of Damani Knight (2-5, 5.55 ERA) before the series began. While his given name had a strange appeal on me, he was just getting stomped and technically we were still trying to cut into the Indians’ 7-game lead. Jeff Magnotta was a placeholder for either Nick Brown to return, or more likely for Chris Munroe to make a start first, but Munroe didn’t line up with the open slot vacated by Damani on Wednesday.

We would be heading for Indy for a 4-game weekend after this, so a good impression was paramount in order to solidify our ambitions at our medium-term goals.

That audiobook Maud gave me about motivational trash talk was a breeze to listen to.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – C Margolis – P Toner
CHA: SS Good – 2B D. Carter – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – LF Mugan – CF Huibregtse – 1B M. Salinas – 3B Pellot – P Durr

Toner allowed two hits in the first inning before Troy Mugan flew out to pretty deep right to end the Falcons’ attempts there, while the Raccoons didn’t have a hit until a McKnight single in the fifth. While Denzel Durr walked three in the first four innings, the Coons stranded them all, and McKnight was also left to die at second base – which he stole. The Falcons had Steve Huibregtse single past Mendoza to open the bottom 5th, and Toner walked Manny Salinas, but after a soft pop by Alfonso Pellot into Toner’s glove and Durr’s bunt, Matt Good struck out for the third time in three attempts. The following inning, Toner struck out Ryan Holliman, which gave him eight whiffs in the game, and 200 for the season – and it was still July!

Both starters ended up with seven scoreless innings before a summer storm broke and doused the park. Play was interrupted for over an hour in the top of the eighth, and we would also head into extra innings with no score on the board. The Falcons put two on with two outs in the bottom 9th, with Mugan and Ricardo Martinez (yeah, that one) hitting singles off Chris Mathis, but Ron Thrasher retired Ralph Myers (also a former Raccoon, though briefly) to send the game to overtime. When McKnight singled with one out in the top 10th off Jimmy Van Meter, he held all of the Raccoons measly three hits in the game. Young hit for Margolis and singled, but Denny struck out hitting for Thrasher, and Cookie flew out to center. In the bottom of the inning, Nick Lester walked Erik Pearcy with one out. Pearcy stole second base while Good struck out for a golden sombrero, and Lester soaked the loss when Dave Carter singled to rightfield. 1-0 Falcons. McKnight 3-3, BB; Young (PH) 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 11 K;

The top 6 in the lineup went 0-for-23 with two walks and one hit-by-pitch, which went into Mendoza’s ribs. Which is totally fine! He struck out his other three at-bats, and if he had struck out once more, we couldn’t point at Matt Good and laugh at that sucker now.

****ing bunch of ****ing bastards.

Should have traded all of them for prospects. Or better: booze.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Petracek – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Young – RF Johnson – P Morrison
CHA: SS Good – CF Huibregtse – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – 1B Myers – 2B B. Reyes – LF M. Salinas – 3B Pellot – P P. Sanchez

While Tuesday’s lineup had something of “get outta my ****ing eyes, you make them hurt!”, at least the Raccoons reached third base by the third inning. Granted, it took a leadoff single by Johnson and then Sanchez getting greedy on a sub-par bunt by Morrison, with Johnson legging out that throw to second base to leave all hands safe, and then a dubious ball four being called for Petracek in a full count, but bases loaded are bases loaded, damnit! Then Nunley snipped a ball back to Sanchez for an easy out at home, and DeWeese struck out. The Falcons had no hits the first time through against Morrison (who walked two), and when Matt Good hit a 1-out single to left in the bottom 3rd, his blackest of series continued when he ill-advisedly made for second base and was thrown out by DeWeese. Bottom 4th, Morrison allowed singles to Myers and Bob Reyes, who made his major league debut, who were on second and third with two outs and Pellot up. Denny’s arm extended automatically, but we hadn’t calculated for Morrison to fall to a 3-0 count on Sanchez. Fearing – for a reason – my wrath for walking the opposing pitcher to force in the go-ahead run, he threw one right down the middle, and even Sanchez couldn’t miss that. Liner to right, in, two runs scored. Morrison walked Good, and then Huibregtse brought in two more with a single to center.

Cookie hit a leadoff single in the fifth and then was immediately caught stealing, which was where I stopped bothering and went for the concourse to test that new triple-cheese, triple-bacon monster sandwich they were advertising. I had three of those and then bought the maximum amount of beer allowed per purchase to flush that junk down. When I returned to my suite, inebriated only ever so slightly, Morrison (who walked six in 4 1/3 innings) was no more, but the Coons were still shut out through seven. Sanchez allowed three singles to start the eighth inning then, with Petracek, Nunley, and DeWeese loading them up for Denny, who was the tying run and popped out to short. McKnight hit a sac fly, Young rolled out, and the Raccoons lost bitterly once more. 4-1 Falcons. Petracek 2-3, BB; Johnson 2-4; Korb 3.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
POR: SS Walter – CF Petracek – 3B Nunley – C Denny – RF Mendoza – LF Johnson – 1B Young – 2B Bergquist – P Magnotta
CHA: SS Good – CF Huibregtse – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – 1B Myers – 2B B. Reyes – LF Pearcy – 3B Pellot – P Vallejo

Could Jeff Magnotta hold on to a 5-run lead in a one-off appearance? What sounded like an odd question – where would the Masked Stinkers get five runs from after all – had its roots in Alex Vallejo having a first inning from hell. He walked four in addition to the leadoff single that Shane Walter hit and the 2-out, 2-run double by Bergquist, and plated the last run when he had Magnotta already at two strikes, throwing a wild pitch. Magnotta missed the strike zone almost as much in his first inning, which took him 25 pitches and he didn’t even allow a run between a Good single and a walk to Feldmann. But Magnotta got better and made it through five (shutout!) innings on 70 pitches eventually, while the Raccoons offense pretty much didn’t when it didn’t get luxurious donations. After their 2-hit, 5-run first, they had one more hit through five innings (a Young single, which just as well could have been an error on Bob Reyes), and they didn’t get Vallejo out of the game until Young hit a leadoff jack in the sixth inning, shoving the score to 6-0. Just when I actually started to warm up a tiny wee bit on Magnotta, he imploded in the bottom 6th, allowing three hits and a walk for two runs on a Reyes single, and didn’t even get out of his own mess. Thrasher came in, but allowed an RBI single to Pellot, and only with the lead cut in half struck out Jeremy Stephenson to end the inning. The miserable Critters left runners on the corners in the eighth and another man in scoring position in the ninth, but still held a 6-3 lead thanks to quality bullpen work, which left us to arrive at Alex Ramirez. Pellot flew out to left to open the bottom 9th, but Manny Salinas jacked a pinch-hit homer to get the Falcons a run closer. Ramirez allowed hard singles to Good and Huibregtse, which brought up the powerful right-handers in the middle of the order as the winning runs. Before Holliman could do much harm, Ramirez threw a wild pitch, moving the runners into scoring position, but when Holliman flew out to shallow center, Petracek’s strong arm kept the quick Good in place. Walking Feldmann intentionally to bring up a left-handed major-league-fringe ex-Coon was like asking for it, so Ramirez would pitch to Feldmann instead. Another fly to shallow center, Petracek dashing in again, and he got it – barely. 6-4 Blighters. Walter 2-5; Young 3-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Bergquist 1-2, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

By the way, Magnotta struck out nobody in his 5.2 innings and swiftly returned to AAA. In nine major league starts since 2015 he is now 3-5 with a 5.17 ERA and 32 BB and 11 K in 47 IP. Good boy!

There was a good news / bad news situation with the Indians here. They had gotten swept by the Condors, and had scored NO RUNS in the series! You CAN do worse than the Coons! This is uplifting!

Of course, with just a little bit of effort, the Blighters could have given Jonny a W on Monday and be only five back now, but that’s one that we will no cry over forever, I guess.

No, I am still not over Keith Ayers being out at home.

Raccoons (62-47) @ Indians (67-40) – August 3-6, 2017

Despite getting completely annulled by the Condors midweek, the Indians were still fourth in runs scored in the league, and second in runs allowed. They had the best rotation and defense, and despite the probably season-ending injury to Jong-beom Kym earlier were still in pretty good shape overall, despite having lost their last four games and eight of their last eleven. They had to be aware of their struggles against Coon City, however, as the Raccoons – how ever they had done it! – held a 5-2 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (12-9, 3.26 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (11-9, 3.45 ERA)
Hector Santos (6-4, 2.91 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (10-8, 3.47 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (14-4, 1.62 ERA) vs. Felipe Ramirez (6-7, 3.49 ERA)
Chris Munroe (0-3, 11.20 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (13-5, 3.28 ERA)

“Ant” Mendez, who led the league in wins with 15 and had their best ERA at 2.41 had taken a hefty loss on Wednesday and was unlikely to appear in this set. Things being what they are, Tristan Broun was the odd one out as a left-hander in a pool of pitchers with decent mid-3 ERA’s.

Jonny has not allowed a run in five of his last seven starts (including two shutouts) and enters the series with a 22-inning scoreless streak.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B A. Young – RF Mendoza – P Abe
IND: C Padilla – SS Matias – LF Genge – 1B R. Flores – RF Gilmor – 2B Mathews – CF Baker – 3B S. Madison – P Lambert

The Coons stranded two in scoring position in the first inning when DeWeese and Denny could not hit the ball out of the infield, but at least Abe held the Arrowheads hitless the first time through. Dave Padilla’s 2-out single in the third ended that achievement, and in quick succession another single by Raul Matias and a walk drawn by Lowell Genge loaded the bases for Roberto Flores, who had just recently been washed ashore in a minor deal the Indians had made. He was batting .194 with two homers, but was batting cleanup. He flew out to Cookie to strand a full set.

Although not everything Abe threw was gold in this game, he still threw seven scoreless, despite putting the leadoff batter on base in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. The Raccoons were still just as blank as the Indians, and weren’t hitting the ball out of the infield at all. Abe was done due after 111 pitches after seven, but Lambert had thrown only SEVENTY-FIVE at that point! Pitch #78 for him was a bad one though and Adam Young hit a leadoff double on it in the eighth. COME THE **** ON NOW!!! I had hoped to incite a reaction in the Clawless (Clueless?) Kitten by subjecting him to the shame of batting eighth, so perhaps this was – nah, he flew out to left. Waggoner batted for Abe and stroked a single to right, and that one got Young home for the first run of the game, and quite early in the eighth inning! Of course the top of the order did nothing of value, and Ron Thrasher couldn’t handle the 1-0 lead, allowing a 1-out single to Flores and walking Joey Mathews with two down. When right-hander Santiago Guerra pinch-hit for Josh Baker, the Raccoons accepted their fate and sent Alex Ramirez for an impossible 4-out save. Guerra sent a quick bounce to left, but fortunately we had Nunley there, who made a quick grab and retired him to end the inning. Despite a 2-out double in the ninth off Padilla’s bat, Ramirez held on (!!) and the Indians had their fourth scoreless game in a row! 1-0 Blighters! Nunley 2-4; Waggoner (PH) 1-1, RBI; Abe 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (13-9); Ramirez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (26);

Now watch Abe overtake Toner in wins…

By the way the Crusaders have started a winning streak and are now only 10 1/2 back, zooming closer fast.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – RF Petracek – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B A. Young – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
IND: C Padilla – SS Matias – LF Genge – CF J. Wilson – 1B R. Flores – RF Gilmor – 2B Mathews – 3B S. Madison – P Broun

The Indians stranded runners on the corners in the bottom 2nd, further extending their record of futility, while the Raccoons had McKnight on with a single in the top 2nd, but he was caught stealing – the third Critter in the series to be caught by Padilla, none of them being Cookie. In the top 3rd, Bergquist was drilled by Broun, who before the McKnight single had struck out four in a row, and moved to second on Santos’ bunt. Cookie singled to center, Bergquist scored, 1-0 Coons. Then Cookie took off and claimed his 17th base of the season before scoring on Petracek’s single. Broun started eroding, loaded the bases on a single and a walk, then allowed a 2-out, 2-run single to center to Denny, on an 0-2 pitch even. McKnight flew out, leaving the Coons with a 4-spot. An already ruffled Broun wouldn’t make it out of the fourth inning, which started with a Young homer, and after a Bergquist single progressed a bit like the third. Santos bunted, Cookie singled, but Bergquist had to hold at third, as this one was to left and Genge had a strong arm. In fact, the Indians had an entire outfield of rocket-throwing Gold Glovers assembled. Petracek’s fly to left was deep enough, however, to get Bergquist home for a sac fly, 6-0, and ending Broun’s gig. Walter singled, and he and Cookie pulled off a double steal before DeWeese singled off Jason Clements, 7-0. Denny fouled out to end the inning. Clements would pitch three scoreless innings after that as a largely futile endeavor, since the Indians couldn’t lift a piece of paper against Santos, who pitched a 2-hitter for seven and a third before bumping against 100 pitches. Chun replaced him, allowed a double to Josh Baker right away, but after a groundout by Padilla, Raul Matias struck out, stranding the desired run at third base, but the Indians would get plenty in the bottom 9th. Starting down by seven still, they faced Nick Lester, who retired exactly nobody. Genge singled, Wilson walked, Flores singled, and Nick Gilmor’s 2-run single FINALLY got them on the board after almost 50 innings of futility. It also broke Jayden Reed from the Coons’ pen, because we had discovered a leak below the waterline and needed a better pump. Reed allowed a run to score on a 2-out single by Danny Young, but that was it. Padilla struck out with two in scoring position to end the game and extend the Indians’ losing streak to six games. 7-3 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, RBI; Walter 2-5; Denny 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Bergquist 2-3; Santos 7.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, W (7-4);

New York won and is now in single digits. Just sayin’.

Mendoza pinch-hit in the ninth and grounded out, dropping his OPS under 1 …

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B A. Young – RF Mendoza – C Margolis – P Toner
IND: 2B Mathews – SS Matias – LF Genge – CF J. Wilson – 1B R. Flores – RF Gilmor – C Malone – 3B S. Madison – P F. Ramirez

Cookie’s single, walks to Nunley and DeWeese, and then a well placed single to right off McKnight’s bat helped the Coons to get two instant runs in the first inning. Just like on Monday, Toner allowed two singles in the first, but then recovered and whiffed John Wilson and Roberto Flores, so we were maybe going to be fine, or maybe not, because Toner wasn’t all in control in this game. The Indians had hard base hits in each of the next two innings, but fortunately only one apiece, and Toner’s scoreless streak required an unusually nifty grab by Young to intercept a Wilson bouncer to end the bottom 3rd to even reach 25 innings.

The Coons did precious little against Ramirez until the fifth when Cookie hit a 1-out single and got an extra base when Gilmor botched the pickup in rightfield. That base became an unearned run on Nunley’s 2-out double to left center, 3-0, and DeWeese walked, but Genge spoiled McKnight’s soft fly to left before it could dip in, ending that inning. Toner was already at 67 pitches through four, and allowed a leadoff single on a 2-0 pitch to Ramirez in the bottom 5th, but Matias would hit into a double play that Nunley started to end the frame. The Coons left the bases loaded in the top of the sixth when Walter popped out against Clements, who seemed to be able to pitch every day, and Toner walked Wilson in the bottom 6th. The thing with those sluggers in the middle of the order for the Indians was that they weren’t only extra-base powers (not primarily homers, with Wilson leading them with 11, but also doubles upon doubles), but they were stealing bases like crazy, with Wilson having 21 bags to Genge’s 24. Wilson stole second base here, moved to third on Flores’ groundout, but Gilmor struck out to extend Toner’s scoreless streak to 28 innings, and it reached 29 eventually, despite Toner allowing two hits in the bottom 7th and requiring some D from Cookie to catch a Matias drive to the deeper regions of centerfield to end the seventh. Waggoner batted for Toner in the eighth, had Margolis on first with two outs and socked a homer off Joel Davis to extend the lead to 5-0. If the Critters could get six outs before they allowed five runs, Jonny would move into a virtual tie for the triple crown again, matching “Ant” Mendez’ 15 W. Since we had overused Thrasher a bit this week, Nick Lester got the ball for the same area of the lineup he hadn’t coped with at all the previous night. This time, he retired Genge through Flores in order, never mind that Cookie almost faceplanted the fence on Genge’s drive. Lester got one more in the ninth, Chun got the other two, and the Indians didn’t know what was happening. 5-0 Furballs! Carmona 2-4, BB; Nunley 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Margolis 2-4; Waggoner (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K, W (15-4);

Game 4
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Waggoner – P Munroe
IND: C Padilla – SS Matias – CF J. Wilson – 1B R. Flores – 2B Mathews – LF Baker – RF D. Young – 3B S. Madison – P Riley

Walter’s solo homer in the first inning put the Raccoons ahead again, but a few runs here and there would not be enough if Chris Munroe wouldn’t do something to at least slightly depress his 11+ ERA. Padilla’s deep fly to right was caught by Waggoner, which was not a good very first impression, but Munroe rallied and made it through the first three innings facing the minimum. John Wilson singled, but was caught stealing, in the first, and nobody did much in the first four innings, Walter’s jack aside. Both teams through four had two hits, and the Coons were up 1-0. To start the fifth inning, Mendoza hit a double, which was newsworthy in itself. Waggoner grounded out, moving Mendoza to third, from which he scored when Munroe fit a grounder between Matias and Steve Madison for a 1-out RBI single, making it a 2-0 game. Cookie walked, but Walter hit into a double play, and when Nunley got on in the sixth, DeWeese hit into a double play. Munroe meanwhile was plugging away silently through the middle innings. The Indians didn’t make noise until the seventh inning. Flores and Mathews would hit deep drives off Munroe then, but both were caught by Waggoner and Cookie, respectively. Munroe was close to running out of luck here, and Johnson hit for him to start the top 8th. He singled, but Cookie and Walter couldn’t get the ball to fall in. Nunley couldn’t either, at least not on our side of the fence. He rammed a 2-run homer to center, boosting the score to 4-0.

Total humiliation of the Arrowheads would take six more outs. Thrasher got two from the left-handers Baker and Young, and Madison grounded out against Jayden Reed in the eighth. Josh Riley completed nine innings with seven hits and four runs allowed in what looked like a loss if Reed could get three more outs. He got Josh Malone on a grounder, but then walked Padilla and an infield single put Matias on. With the tying run appearing in the on-deck circle, Ramirez came out, despite Wilson, a left-handed bat, up first. But Thrasher had already been used, and Lester had been out two days in a row with mixed success, so why not go to the guy getting paid closer’s money? Wilson grounded to short at 1-0, but McKnight had been hit for in the top 9th (which we normally never did) and Walter couldn’t turn the double play. The Coons only got Matias on second and Flores batted with runners on the corners, .182 with two homers. He struck out. 4-0 Critters!! Mendoza 2-4, 2B; Johnson (PH) 1-1; Munroe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-3) and 1-2, RBI;

Wheee? Wheee!!

In other news

July 31 – The Buffaloes’ 4-0 shutout over the Wolves sees TOP SP Allen Harris (2-4, 4.83 ERA) toss a 2-hitter.
August 3 – The Miners lose SP Miguel Rodriguez (8-12, 4.24 ERA) for the season due to shoulder inflammation.
August 3 – The Aces score six in the sixth and seven in the seventh in a 13-2 thrashing of the Knights.
August 3 – In a wild one in Pittsburgh, the Blue Sox put up two 6-spots to thump the Miners, 16-9. NAS 2B Jose Gutierrez (.340, 2 HR, 42 RBI) has five singles and plates three, while his teammates Andrew Showalter (.286, 14 HR, 66 RBI) and Winston Jones (.216, 5 HR, 20 RBI) each drive in five.
August 4 – As the Rebels beat the Capitals, 8-7, recently acquired RIC 2B/SS Bobby Torres (.256, 7 HR, 39 RBI) has five hits including a home run and two doubles. He drives in two.
August 6 – The Blue Sox hold a 1-0 lead over the Miners in the seventh-inning stretch, only to implode for six runs in the seventh and five in the eighth, taking a crushing 11-1 loss.

Complaints and stuff

Jonny Toner won Pitcher of the Month honors in July, going 4-1 with a 1.31 ERA and 51 K in 41 1/3 innings. Which is only so much consolation when you pitched your ass off and your team still lost, 1-0.

I’m tired of listing what Mendoza did or didn’t do. I will just say he was once again ****.

If not for Nick Lester’s meltdown on Friday, the Indians would not have scored a single run the entire week. This is the way to blow huge leads, I guess, but I am not one to complain given that we are now only two games back, and could be one game back if … ugh. Also, mind the Crusaders, who are all of a sudden 7 1/2 out, after being EIGHTEEN games out on July 17!

There are your 2017 champions, I guess, but first they have to climb over the Coons with their 5-game winning streak. We will be in New York to start next week for three, then hit up the Gold Sox on the way back home. The series after that, at home against the good ol’ Capitals, will be the only home series for the Coons before the last week of the month.

[Questdog]

Stupendous!

I think we need to start sacrificing hitting coaches at home plate whenever there is a full moon. The best time, by tradition, is whenever the clock matches the team's batting average since the last sacrifice.....

[Westheim]

Raccoons (66-47) @ Crusaders (60-52) – August 7-9, 2017

The Crusaders trumped the Raccoons’ 5-game winning streak, having won their last nine contests. In the last three weeks, they had made up a mind-boggling 10 1/2 games on the foundering Indians, but only one team could keep their momentum through this crucial midweek set of three games. So far, the Crusaders’ approach of a strong offense and crummy pitching hadn’t worked against the Raccoons, to whom they had lost eight games out of a dozen already, and they were two games away thus from losing the season series for the third straight year, which would be their longest losing streak against Portland since the 1990s.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (7-11, 3.95 ERA) vs. Francisquo Bocanegra (1-0, 1.54 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (13-9, 3.11 ERA) vs. Bob King (12-9, 4.09 ERA)
Hector Santos (7-4, 2.77 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (7-9, 5.92 ERA)

Reliever-turned-starter Bocanegra (also an ex-Coon) was leading off the series and was their only left-handed pitcher. This included their bullpen! Only right-handers coming out of the nether regions of their ballpark, which didn’t bode too well for them. Also, the Coons were going to scrape past “Midnight” Martin (13-10, 3.10 ERA) by a day, which was always nice.

We’ll have an off day after this series, which could work wonderfully in shoving back Chris Munroe, who lost more trust in his first three starts of the season than he regained in that one decent one against the Indians. One of Munroe’s forgettable outings was against the Crusaders, and he conceded eight runs in three innings in May. That game, an 11-6 triumph for the Crusaders, is the only thing that keeps their run production against Portland at reasonable levels. While they have scored exactly 4.5 runs per game overall, it’s only 3.67 runs per game against the Critters, and it’s largely that much because of that rotten Munroe start.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – 3B Walter – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Waggoner – 2B Bergquist – P Morrison
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – C Roland – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – SS Paull – P Bocanegra

In short, Bocanegra did not make an impression remotely close to his Toner-esque ERA. The Coons had three hits off him in the first to plate a run, and Waggoner opened the second with a jack. Bergquist singled and advanced on a bunt, Cookie singled, Petracek singled to make it 3-0, and when Walter grounded to Carlos Martinez for probably two, Martinez threw it past Eric Paull for nuthin’. Unfortunately, Denny hacked out, and while McKnight sent a hard one to center, it was right into the narrow confines that Jose Paraz could efficiently patrol and ended the inning with three men stranded. Given his recent un-success, Morrison could use every run he could get, and the Coons added a fourth run in the fourth inning after Cookie’s leadoff double by grounding out in productive manner twice. Morrison started the bottom 5th still with a shutout and faced Bocanegra in the box, which is exactly the way meltdowns start. The nasty ex-reliever doubled to right to get going and at 0-2 to Martin Ortíz, Morrison threw a wild pitch, then lost Ortíz to a walk after all. Paraz singled to score the first Crusaders run, which also brought up ****ing Ray Gilbert as the tying run. He grounded to short at 1-2 which resulted in a double play, which still scored a run, 4-2 now, after which Morrison – with the bags finally empty again – had nothing better to do than to start filling them up again. He walked Winston Jones before facing Cory Roland, who had already ended two innings with two aboard each time, and now ended a third inning with one aboard this time by grounding out to Shane Walter. Neither starter retired anybody after the sixth inning. While Morrison wasn’t even brought back out after barely rumbling through six, Bocanegra started the seventh with a leadoff walk to Denny, but nothing ever came of that against reliever Robert Parsons, who ended up allowing a run in the eighth, however, conceding singles to Nunley and Walter with a walk to Cookie in between. The Raccoons stranded runners on the corners in the ninth, but enjoyed scoreless relief while sparing the recently frequently employed back end of their bullpen by getting innings each from Reed, Korb, and Mathis, with only Reed allowing a single. 5-2 Coons. Carmona 4-4, BB, 2B; Petracek 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-5; Nunley (PH) 1-1;

This ends their streak, minus the hitting streak of Carlos Martinez, which grew to 11 games, but that’s not something that is of chief concern here. More importantly, the Indians scored, but still lost handily to the Loggers, 7-3, bringing us to within one game.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Denny – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Waggoner – P Abe
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – C Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – C Roland – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – SS Paull – P Bo. King

Like Bocanegra the day before, King allowed a flurry of base hits in the first few innings and was tacked for a few runs. Four singles plated two runs in the first inning, and Abe jumpstarted the second inning with a single of his own, eventually scoring with the help of 2-out singles by Walter and Nunley, making it 3-1 at that point. He had allowed a walk to Ortíz and a single to Paraz in the bottom 1st, with Ortíz coming home on a sac fly by Gilbert, but that was it. The Crusaders didn’t get another runner until the bottom 5th when Abe himself botched a pickup on Salinas to put him aboard with an error to lead off the inning, which was funny because Salinas had made a throwing error to concede a run to the Coons in the top of the inning. Martinez doubled to extend his streak to 12 games, put runners in scoring position with no outs, and moving the tying run into the box, but the Crusaders flunked out, scoring only one run on Bob King’s sac fly, 4-2.

Cookie hit a double to start the sixth, but was left stranded, while the top 7th opened with three singles by Denny, McKnight, and Mendoza. Bases loaded, no outs, the Crusaders were still confident in King, who had now allowed 14 hits and a walk. And why wouldn’t they? Waggoner popped out to Salinas at third, Abe would pop out to Gilbert, and then Cookie appeared and the Crusaders finally shat their pants. Robert Parsons came in again, and Cookie blastered his first pitch to deep right where he missed a slam by less than two feet, instead ramming a bases-clearing double high off the wall. Walter would single to plate Cookie and make it 8-2, but Abe ran into a wall of his own in the bottom 7th. Martinez hit a single right after a 1-out walk drawn by Salinas, who scored on Paull’s groundout. Stanton Martin pinch-hit, and the old wreck managed to hit a double to center and live to tell about it. Two in scoring position and the left-handed Ortíz coming up was enough for Abe, and Ron Thrasher appeared, hanging a K on the aged superstar, which kept the score at a calm 8-3 in that inning, but the Raccoons scratched out another run in the eighth. Richard Vincent allowed a triple to McKnight, then an RBI single to Mendoza, which got the creaky kitten up to 99 RBI. An error by Ortíz, who dropped DeWeese’s 2-out fly in the ninth, put two (including Nunley) in scoring position for the Critters, and Mike Denny’s liner over Paull into left center brought them up to double digits. Martinez’ homer off John Korb in the bottom 9th didn’t really matter anymore. 11-4 Coons! Carmona 3-6, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Walter 4-6, RBI; Nunley 2-5, BB, RBI; DeWeese 2-6; Denny 2-6, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-6, 3B, 2 RBI; Mendoza 3-5, RBI; Abe 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-9) and 1-4;

Every positional starter for the Coons had multiple base hits, minus Waggoner, who went dry-for-four, but at least drew a walk. The hit column looked even more like a mauling. The Coons out-hit the Crusaders a whopping 20-5.

I ended up mailing a fruit basket to Milwaukee on Wednesday morning. It was for Victor Scott, who pitched six scoreless against the Indians in a 3-0 Loggers win that put us even atop the division. This ran the Indians’ losing streak to TEN games, in seven of which they hadn’t scored.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – RF Mendoza – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Margolis – P Santos
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF Paraz – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – C Lowe – SS Paull – P Sabatino

The Coons again scored two in the first inning, though in wicked ways. After Sabatino retired the first two Critters, gross throwing errors by Paull and Martinez first put Nunley on second, then allowed him to score and put DeWeese on second, from where he scored on Mendoza’s double to center, which put the much-better-Star at 100 RBI for the year. Santos had a rotten first inning of his own, despite not allowing a run. He walked Ortíz on four pitches. He advanced Ortíz with a wild pitch before Paraz popped out. Gilbert also popped to short, where McKnight dropped the ball, putting them on the corners, but Santos escaped with K’s to Jones and Salinas. In the top 2nd of this odd game, Cookie batted with one out and runners on the corners, but hit into an extremely rare double play, before Drew Lowe hit an absolute bomb to center in the bottom 2nd to get the Crusaders back to 2-1.

Sabatino also had a problem with allowing a lot of contact, and the Coons had Walter on with a leadoff single in the third. Nunley and DeWeese both hit drives to right, both found the corner, and after Nunley doubled, DeWeese came up with a 2-run triple. The Coons ended up with a 4-spot in the inning. Mendoza doubled in DeWeese, advanced on a grounder, and then scored on a passed ball. While Santos also allowed some pretty hard contact in this one, the Crusaders also missed about as many. His pitch count went up quickly, though. Sabatino was hit for in the bottom 5th, Stanton Martin hitting a sad roller for an easy out in his spot, but Santos was at 85 pitches through five. He threw eight more pitches in the bottom 6th, retired nobody, and was blasted for three runs. ****ing Ray Gilbert opened with a double, Jones singled, Santos threw a wild pitch to score Gilbert, and then allowed a 2-run homer to Salinas. That was well enough.

Chun ended the sixth, and kept the Coons afloat 7-4 (Cookie had hit an RBI double in the top 6th). Richard Vincent was pitching in the top 7th and was strafed again. Nunley got on, Mendoza got on, and then McKnight rammed a bouncer through Gilbert and into the corner for an RBI double, 8-4. Young was put on with four wide ones, but Paull missed Margolis’ grounder to left and the Coons hit double digits on the 2-run single, and Crusaders pitching continued to just not cope at all. Toshiro Uenohara was scorched for two runs in the eighth, McKnight hitting another RBI double, but the Raccoons’ pen was not bulletproof either. For the second time in less than a week, Nick Lester loaded a set of bases without retiring anybody, doing so in the bottom of the eighth and causing Chris Mathis some extra sweats, with two runs scored, 12-6, and in the bottom 9th things started with a Petracek error before Alex Ramirez walked two, threw a wild pitch, and allowed a single to Salinas to allow another two runs before somehow – SOMEHOW – ending the game. 12-8 Raccoons. Walter 2-5; Nunley 2-6, 2B; Mendoza 4-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI; McKnight 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Young 3-4, BB, RBI;

Well, this was a mess. Thankfully we have OFFENSE. Hah, what an odd thing to claim.

The Indians won, scoring five runs for the first time since July, so we remained even, and both teams had Thursday off. They would play the Wolves over the weekend.

Raccoons (69-47) @ Gold Sox (59-55) – August 11-13, 2017

The Gold Sox were 17 games out in the West and probably beaten. They were a bit like the Crusaders, batting well and scoring the fourth-most runs in the Federal League, but their pitching was extremely crummy, and they only ranked eighth in runs allowed. Their run differential was actually negative at -19, so their record didn’t quite tell all about them. Their rotation was the primary culprit for the mess, running a flat-5 ERA, undoing all a decent bullpen could do.

Somehow, this was the sixth straight year of us playing the Gold Sox. None of the previous five series had resulted in a sweep, with the Coons winning three series, but losing the most recent one in 2016.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (15-4, 1.56 ERA) vs. Mo Robinson (10-7, 5.52 ERA)
Chris Munroe (1-3, 7.40 ERA) vs. Willis Sanguino (4-11, 4.83 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (8-11, 3.91 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (4-7, 4.83 ERA)

Three right-handers here, with their southpaw C.J. Fishel (6-9, 4.90 ERA) having pitched on Wednesday. Some time this week I realized that moving back Munroe would move up Morrison, and that was not something that was high on my list of things I wanted to see… So Munroe stays, especially since Nick Brown’s first outing in AAA was not as great as hoped for (see the complaints section for that), and he would get another one.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Toner
DEN: 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – RF Candela – SS Oosterom – CF Arrieta – 2B Fletcher – LF Kretz – P M. Robinson

The Coons continued to dash out of the gates and again had a 2-run first inning. Walter singled to center, Mendoza walked, and Nunley hit a 2-run double off the fence in centerfield for the effort. Toner’s 29-inning scoreless streak came pretty close to ending in the bottom 1st. Jens Carroll hit a leadoff single, Mun-wah Tsung walked, and Pat Walston grounded sharply to right, but Walter made a magnificent play and turned it for a double play before Julio Candela flew out to right. But, Toner struggled, and the same part of the lineup undid him in the third. Carroll hit a 2-out single, Tsung walked again, and then Walston and Candela went back-to-back to hit bombs in a 4-run rush that put the Critters in a 4-2 hole. When Piet Oosterom struck out to end the inning, that was the first whiff for Toner in the game.

All of this was troubling, especially with the Raccoons not doing anything at all offensively until the sixth. Still down 4-2, they went to the corners with a 1-out walk drawn by Mendoza and then a DeWeese single to right. Nunley hit a sac fly, but that was all, with McKnight grounding out to Dave Fletcher. Nope, no Raccoon had anything in this game. Their 8-game winning streak came to a crashing end in the bottom 7th, when a collection of relievers collapsed for another huge inning for the Sox. Reed started the inning, struck out Mo Robinson, but then put on Carroll. Lester replaced him, walked the only two batters he faced to load the bases, and then Mathis allowed back-to-back 2-run doubles to Jose Jimenez and Oosterom, then drilled Rich Arrieta. Korb replaced Mathis and ended the inning with one pitch to Fletcher, that resulted in a double play bouncer to McKnight at short, but the Gold Sox were now up by five, and the Raccoons did not come back from that. They didn’t get Robinson out of the game until they were down to their last out when Bergquist hit a pinch-hit single to plate Ronnie McKnight, but that was it, with Fernando Hernandez jr. appearing to strike out Cookie to end the game. 8-4 Gold Sox. Mendoza 1-1, 3 BB; Nunley 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1; Bergquist (PH) 1-1, RBI; Korb 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

I must say, that the winning streak ends on Toner’s turn … that’s a tough one to take.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Munroe
DEN: 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – RF Candela – SS Oosterom – CF Arrieta – 2B Fletcher – LF Corparan – P Sanguino

The Coons stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. While following singles by Cookie and Walter and a Mendoza groundout it was Walston to put them on the board first with a passed ball allowed, DeWeese quickly took charge and bombed Sanguino for a 2-piece. After that, the 6-7-8 batters loaded the bases for Munroe, who singled through Jens Carroll into left. McKnight scored, but Denny was sent and thrown out. The Sox pulled a run right back with base hits by Carroll and Walston in the bottom 1st, but the Coons pulled that back in the second. Cookie walked, Walter doubled, and Mendoza hit a sac fly, but Munroe was just as awful as Sanguino. He got raked for four hits and two more runs in the bottom 2nd, and this was probably not going to stay a 5-3 game for long – although the Sox had already hit for Sanguino in the inning and had declared this a bullpen day.

Munroe was probably not far behind. The Gold Sox hit four deep flies in the bottom 3rd. One (Candela’s) went out, three were somehow caught. The Coons had four hits on the ground and through between infielders in the fourth, which only amounted to one run and three sad faces after Arrieta took McKnight’s drive to center. Munroe barely made it through five. He put on two in that bottom 5th, with the Gold Sox hitting into a double play (Walston) and getting caught stealing (Candela) to ruin their excellent chances in a 6-4 game. He started the bottom 6th, but allowed a leadoff single to Oosterom. Reed came on, was no help in general, and allowed Oosterom to score on a 2-single by Francisco Corparan, narrowing the lead down to 6-5. There was a right-handed bat up to start the bottom 7th ahead of three left-handers, but Reed walked Carroll, so that went really well. Thrasher came on, Tsung bunted, and Denny threw the ball away, which put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out. Thrasher struck out Walston in a tough battle, before Joey Kretz pinch-hit for Candela. The right-hander lined softly up the middle, with McKnight making a flying grab to keep the Coons’ game in one piece. Oosterom bounced out to him to end the inning and SOMEHOW the Coons were still ahead.

When Waggoner led off the top 8th with a single off Dave Walk, Thrasher was retained to bunt, getting a potential insurance run into scoring position, with an unretired Cookie coming up. The Sox didn’t bite and walked him intentionally, but that brought up another .300 batter atop that suddenly revived order, and Shane Walter bounced to center, hard enough for Oosterom to not get a shot, and soft enough for Joey Kretz not having one on Waggoner at home either. Safe, 7-5, but Mendoza and DeWeese struck out to strand the pair. Thrasher and Mathis managed the bottom 8th, before Jose Sanchez appeared in the top 9th, allowed a 1-out single to the defensively blistering McKnight, and then Denny hit a rocket to center that hit off the base of the fence for an RBI double, 8-5. The bottom 9th however would be another one from hell. Tony Delgado struck out to begin things, but then Ramirez started ****ing with my nerves again. Carroll reached on a Walter error before Ramirez missed grossly to Tsung and walked him, pulling up the tying run in left-handed slugger Pat Walston. Before he could to actual damage, Ramirez threw a wild one, moving the runners to scoring position. Walston singled on a 2-2 pitch, plating both runners, and Kretz doubled on another 2-2 pitch, which put death 180 feet away. That was where Alex Ramirez fell from grace. We’d rather take our chances with Seung-mo Chun in a hopeless spot than continue to watch him **** up relentlessly. Chun struck out Oosterom for the second out that had violently eluded Ramirez, then put Rich Arrieta, a left-hander, on intentionally. That brought up Dave Fletcher with the bases loaded, and he grounded a 2-1 pitch up the middle. McKnight dashed, grabbed, and fell on second base before Arrieta could arrive. 8-7 Furballs. Carmona 3-4, 2 BB; Walter 4-5, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5; McKnight 2-5; Denny 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Chun 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

**** Alex Ramirez.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Morrison
DEN: 3B Carroll – 1B Tsung – C Walston – RF Candela – SS Oosterom – CF Arrieta – 2B Fletcher – LF Corparan – P McKenzie

In an odd twist, the Raccoons didn’t score in the first inning and had only one hit the first time through the lineup. While Morrison held the fort – which was a nice change, the Raccoons nibbled away at McKenzie in the fourth inning with Walter and DeWeese drawing walks. Nunley popped out for the second out, but then McKnight roped a line drive home run to right to give them a 3-0 lead. And wouldn’t you know it – Morrison fell apart instantly. Candela led off with a single in the fourth. While Oosterom got him forced, Arrieta then reached on an infield single. Oosterom stole third, and both scored on Fletcher’s double to deep left center. Corparan flew out, after which McKenzie tied the game with a single past Mendoza. Carroll singled and Tsung walked to load the bases, after which Walston singled through between Nunley and McKnight and plated two for a 5-3 Gold Sox lead. Oh look, it’s a bonkers game again.

McKenzie walking three somehow only resulted in one Raccoons run in the top 5th, and between that inning and the sixth, the Raccoons stranded six runners, with Nunley and Walter popping out to shallow left and Corporan in remarkable synchronicity. Neither starter lasted into the sixth inning, by the way, nor did my nerves – I had already shelled a fine porcelain plate with bits of lobster against the wall in the Gold Sox’ suite in the fourth inning. Singles by Mendoza and Nunley – who had dropped a pop in the bottom 6th which almost made me choke on a bite of steak, then shattered another plate – put runners on the corners against Melvin Andrade in the top 7th. McKnight batted with one out, twirled the first pitch back to the mound and got Nunley forced. Only a tardy play by Andrade kept him out of the double play, but Denny struck out anyway. Fletcher’s homer off Korb in the bottom of the inning counted for two and made me snap completely as I launched a full bottle of champagne through the suite’s expensive-looking ground glass door. The run that Ramirez allowed in the eighth… ah, who cares? 8-4 Gold Sox. Carmona 2-4, BB; Mendoza 3-5, RBI; Young (PH) 1-1;

Let’s get back home. There I can burn the little finger puppets with the Blighters’ likenesses I furnished before we embarked on the road trip.

In other news

August 7 – The Canadiens get crushed by the Titans in a 16-1 mauling, and even leave 11 runners on base.
August 8 – One day later, the Titans get routed by the Canadiens, taking a 17-3 loss. Vancouver has 18 hits, 16 of those being singles, and like the Titans the day before they leave 11 men on base.
August 8 – The Pacifics blow a 7-3 lead against the Wolves, conceding six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Now down 9-7, they return the favor and plate six runs themselves in the top of the ninth, claiming a 13-9 victory.
August 11 – Indians outfielder Lowell Genge (.305, 8 HR, 52 RBI) has five hits in a 10-1 rout of the Wolves.
Genge misses the cycle by the home run and drives in four, with each RBI coming on a different base hit.
August 11 – The Blue Sox take a 4-3 deficit in the seventh against the Falcons, slug out nine runs in the inning and add two more in the eighth to crush them, 14-4.
August 13 – The Aces’ and Rebels’ 12-inning contest ends with a walkoff slam by RIC 1B Alberto Rodriguez (.331, 13 HR, 83 RBI) off Armando “Grumbles” Pena, who grumbled afterwards. Rodriguez drives in six in the 8-4 Rebels win.

Complaints and stuff

Why is it that whenever the offense gets out of the hole, the pitching goes south? We scored a whopping 40 runs in six games this week. Too bad we also bled for 37 runs.

Roberto Cervantes’ walkoff single in the 13th inning of the Wolves’ effort against the Indians was all that kept this week from being a disaster after that rousing sweep over the Crusaders. It kept the Indians, who won the first two games, from going two games up again, so at least that’s that. So that’s the week’s second fruit basket for Cervantes, I guess.

Since I bought three fruit baskets to start with and prefer chocolate and booze anyway, I will give the last one to “Tiger” / “Creaky Kitten” Mendoza, who was Player of the Week, batting .560 with no homers, but 6 RBI. He had 14 hits this week in seven days. His previous 14 hits took him THIRTY DAYS to get in! Seriously, he has 27 hits since the All Star Game!

Nick Brown pitched 6.1 innings in AAA on Tuesday, walking five, whiffing four, and allowing three hits in a scoreless effort which netted him the W over the Los Reyes Crows. He got another W on Sunday, pitching eight innings against the Lubbock Flame. He allowed a run on four hits, three walks, and whiffed six. I think he should be back next week, slotting into Munroe’s spot. Thanks to the off day on Thursday between our series against the Capitals and Loggers, this would exactly work out.

With Brownie on the way to retirement, here is one to marvel about. Who is the career leader in K/BB? Hector Santos! He has 5.21 K for every walk for his career.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (70-49) vs. Capitals (48-70) – August 14-16, 2017

There wasn’t all that much that was working for the Capitals, who ran a -122 run differential thanks to allowing the most runs and almost scoring the least. Their rotation was already bad with a 4.82 ERA, but their bullpen was even worse than that, clocking in at .4 runs more. They also had a few injuries to regulars which didn’t make them any better. The Raccoons had some work to do here. They had not won a series against Washington since *2006*, dropping two out of three four times since then.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (14-9, 3.09 ERA) vs. Danny Gonzalez (6-13, 5.50 ERA)
Hector Santos (8-4, 2.91 ERA) vs. Brendan Teasdale (4-13, 5.77 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-5, 1.71 ERA) vs. Cole Pierson (12-11, 3.90 ERA)

Everybody knows Brenda, though she wasn’t the only ex-Coon on the staff. They also had Shunyo Yano, a.k.a. the price that bought Jonny Toner. Also on the roster, Matt Pruitt’s cousin Jonathan. We would face one left-handed pitcher here, which was Pierson.

The Capitals’ injuries included regular second baseman Danny Zigay, batting a modest .259 with five homers. That one might ring a bell for some. Zigay was an 11th-round pick by the Raccoons, but traded to the Capitals ten years ago, along with Adam Riddle, to acquire the services of Juan Barrón. They never got much use out of Riddle, and Zigay is a career .245 batter, but at least here’s another late-rounder that made it, and sometimes I feel like more late-rounders than first-rounders make the cut in our draft classes.

Game 1
WAS: LF Newman – 3B Dawson – 1B McNeal – C J. Flores – SS Orellana – LF J. Pruitt – RF Stone – 2B J. Peterson – P D. Gonzalez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Margolis – P Abe

While Shane Walter managed to get thrown out on third base after a first-inning double, Abe allowed a leadoff double to Danny Gonzalez in the third, and the Capitals didn’t wait around, cashing in their pitcher with another double by Ryan Dawson. Abe would also have a base hit in the bottom 3rd, a 1-out single that followed on Young’s leadoff single to right. Cookie grounded out and Walter fouled out to let that one slide, but at least Abe struck out Gonzalez to end the top 4th with runners in scoring position. Mendoza’s leadoff double in the bottom of the inning represented a splendid chance to get even with the Capitals again, but Nunley’s walk was all that came about before McKnight hit into an inning-ending double play, the Coons’ second on the day – Nunley had hit into the other back in the second inning.

So far, the Raccoons had showed a lot of misery against the 26-year old Gonzalez, who had been the punching ball of the FL East all season long. He had allowed 14 homers so far, and the Raccoons hadn’t even come close to the warning track through five innings, nipping around for four hits (and only three that saw the batter stay safe at any base…). Cookie opened the bottom 6th – and let Cookie do as Cookie does – ripped a rare shot to right center that was definitely outta here. Tied ballgame! Gonzalez was just opening up, however. Mendoza reached with a double (almost getting thrown out himself), and then DeWeese romped a homer to right, just ahead of Nunley’s thump to right center. Four hits, three bombs, the Coons suddenly had upended Gonzalez and were now ahead 4-1. Abe’s pitch count was already advanced, but he completed an 8-pitch seventh inning when Dawson fouled on, despite Will Newman hitting a single to left. Chun pitched the eighth before the chance to add on to the lead in the bottom 8th sprung from a bad throwing error by Andy McNeal that put Walter on second base to start the inning. Pat Collins, a right-hander, was told to walk Mendoza intentionally, which worked to some degree, with DeWeese rolling into a boring 6-4-3 double play, but then Nunley’s bouncer escaped between Dawson and Salvador Orellana and plated Walter from third base. With the game out of save range and two left-handed bats up to start the ninth inning in Jonathan Pruitt and Jason Stone, Nick Lester got the assignment (Thrasher would have without the add-on run since he was rested and Mathis, our new shot at a closer, wasn’t) and retired the 6-7-8 batters in order. 5-1 Coons. Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Nunley 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (15-9) and 1-2;

Matt Nunley had a 10-game hitting streak now.

Game 2
WAS: LF Newman – 3B Dawson – 1B McNeal – RF Munn – SS Orellana – CF J. Pruitt – C Mancuso – 2B J. Peterson – P Teasdale
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Santos

Nunley’s streak ran to 11 with a second-inning homer that represented the first run of the game. The home crowd had never cherished Brenda a lot, and when she struck out Cookie to open the game there was a little hissing in some of the more rowdy corners, but when he drilled Hector Santos with an 0-2 pitch and two outs in the bottom 2nd, the crowd got livid and demanded punishment. Cookie delivered with a single to left that plated Ronnie McKnight from second base, but Walter grounded out. The 2-0 lead wasn’t entirely comfortable thanks to Santos struggling a bit with left-handers in this start, and the Capitals lineup had four of them, including Jonny Pruitt, who almost homered in the fourth inning. Waggoner picked that one off the fence.

Walter popped out to end the bottom 4th with Santos and Cookie on base, the exact same situation from the second inning, and he left Cookie on second base in the sixth inning. In between, Nunley had lengthened the score with an RBI single in the fifth, plating Mendoza, who had singled and advanced on a groundout by DeWeese. Santos found the good stuff in the middle innings and lined up a few strikeouts there, but that didn’t last into the seventh. Danny Munn homered on his first offering of the seventh, cutting the lead back to 3-1, and the Capitals hit two more fly balls to the deeper outfield regions in the inning, but those were caught by DeWeese and Cookie. Mendoza pulled back the run with his own leadoff jack off Brenda in the bottom of the inning, and Santos had a quick eighth to end his outing thanks to two pops hit by the Capitals. No insurance run came forward this time, and Chris Mathis was sent out to close the 4-1 game. He allowed a leadoff single to Dawson, walked McNeal, and that was all that we could tolerate to see. Ron Thrasher replaced him instantly, with the Capitals pinch-hitting right-hander Ryan Crissinger for the left-handed Munn. Crissinger hit Thrasher’s first pitch to short for a deuce, and Salvador Orellana struck out to end the contest. 4-1 Coons. Carmona 3-4, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Nunley 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Santos 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (9-4) and 1-2;

Game 3
WAS: LF Newman – 3B Dawson – 1B McNeal – C J. Flores – SS Orellana – CF J. Pruitt – RF Stone – 2B J. Peterson – P Pierson
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – RF Petracek – SS McKnight – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Jonny was in danger of not even holding the triple crown position on his own team anymore, so he needed a W badly right now, trailing Indy’s “Ant” Mendez by one victory at the start of play. He started the game as a right massacre, striking out seven in the first three innings, but it took him 57 pitches (including a walk to McNeal) and the Coons went down in order for three innings themselves. He reached 10 K by striking out Jason Stone in the fifth, but also rumbled over 80 pitches in the same frame, while Pierson was still facing the minimum (though it was not a perfect game; in the second, Denny had singled and had been doubled up when DeWeese lined out to Josh Peterson). Denny would reach again in the bottom 5th, this time on a Dawson error, and again was washed up in a double play, this time Petracek’s. The team refused cooperation and Jonny ran out of gas in the seventh inning. Jose Flores homered, the first score in the contest, and while he got through with a K to the pinch-hitting Munn, which gave him a dozen, he was also hung up for the loss rather than the win now. The top of the order went down without the slightest squeal in the bottom 7th, consigning Toner to his fate.

Mike Denny was the Raccoons’ third base runner when he reached for the third time leading off the bottom 8th, snipping a soft liner into shallow left for a single. DeWeese popped out to second, Petracek flew out to left, and McKnight flew out to center, with no panic resulting among Capitals outfielders. The coffin was nailed shut in the top 9th, when Reed (who had pitched the eighth) faced one batter and allowed a single, Lester faced one batter that he walked, and then Alex Ramirez’ first pitch was wild before he allowed a killing 3-run homer to Orellana. Pierson finished a 3-hit shutout despite allowing a single to Bergquist in the ninth. 4-0 Capitals. Denny 2-3; Toner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, L (15-6);

This was also Lester’s (14.21 ERA) ticket outta here. He would be replaced by Ryan Nielson from AAA. The 25-year old was a terrible starter for the Alley Cats, but maybe he could do semi-decently in relief for the Coons. The other option was Randy McMullen, who was raving horrible. Nielson had been our second-round pick in the 2014 draft.

However, since Nielson had started the same day that this sorry loss occurred, he would not be available for duty until around Sunday – it had been a brief and sad start – so Lester would hang around to annoy us a few more days.

Despite the loss on Wednesday, we pulled (virtually) even with the Indians by Thursday, which was our off day. They had had Monday off, then won their opener from the Rebels before losing the next two. They had the bottom-grazing Titans in for three games on the weekend.

Raccoons (72-50) @ Loggers (55-66) – August 18-20, 2017

The Loggers were fighting over fourth place with the Elks and I was wishing them the best of luck outside of our own games against them. They were a bit peculiar in some aspects. While they had the second-lowest batting average of all teams in the Continental League, they ranked fifth in runs scored, and they ranked t-6th in runs allowed, despite a worse ranking by ERA by both their starters (7th) and relievers (10th). They had hit for some power, but had traded Mike Rucker since, and Chris LeMoine was the only remaining serious threat in their lineup, coming in with 21 dingers. The Coons were 7-5 against them in 2017.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-2, 4.62 ERA) vs. Luis Guerrero (7-10, 4.16 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (8-12, 4.09 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (4-2, 5.91 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (15-9, 3.02 ERA) vs. Jason McDonald (9-11, 4.05 ERA)

The Loggers had a wealth of injuries, including SP Michael Foreman (3-12, 4.11 ERA) and centerfielder Andrew Cooper (.228, 8 HR, 32 RBI), and also 3B/1B Ruben Landeros (.222, 1 HR, 13 RBI), who was not on the DL, but unavailable with back spasms, and who had been Brownie’s 3,100th strikeout, and ostensibly the last ‘100’ he’d knock off in his career.

Handedness of starting pitchers would match for all games in the series.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – RF Waggoner – 2B Bergquist – P Brown
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – 1B J. Ortíz – C O. Castillo – 3B I. Reed – 2B Betancourt – CF Gore – SS Konrath – P L. Guerrero

Brownie worked the infield defense real hard, allowing two hits and a walk in the first three innings, but no runs thanks to two double plays turned for him. No ball ever left the infield for an out. Meanwhile, the Raccoons’ offense was flunking out for the second game in a row, again facing a most mediocre southpaw in Luis Guerrero, who allowed two singles and struck out five through the first three innings. He hit Mendoza with a pitch in the fourth, and McKnight would add a single. A wild pitch moved the runners into scoring position, but Margolis struck out, and Waggoner rolled poorly past the mound to second base, where David Betancourt was positioned, who was REALLY a first baseman and couldn’t make the play. Waggoner got an infield single and an RBI as Mendoza scored with the first run of the game. Bergquist grounded out to Isiah Reed, leaving us at 1-0, and Zach Knowling opened the bottom 4th with a hard single to right, the first sound contact made by any Logger against Brownie. Juan Ortíz rolled into a double play to Nunley, so the D game worked fantastically. Brown opened the top 5th with a single of his own, only for Cookie to strike out and for Petracek to hit into another double play…

While Nunley was a bit blue in the face for the constant workout he got in this game, the home crowd roared when Brownie struck out Brad Gore to end the fifth inning, his first K in the game, and there hadn’t been many 2-strike counts at all. By contrast, Guerrero struck out the middle of the order IN order in the top 6th, giving him ten for the day. The Coons kept falling, while the Loggers wondered how to hit those 88mph slowballs that Brown tossed them, but they eventually ran into one. While Brown struck out three consecutive batters between the sixth and seventh inning, he then walked Juan Ortíz with one out in the bottom 7th. Orlando Castillo banged a drive to right, Waggoner ran after it in vain – it was outta here, and the Raccoons trailed 2-1, completely inept to hit the left-hander on the mound, who had 12 strikeouts so far.

Cookie batted to open the eighth and sent a liner to left that fell into nobody’s particular work zone for a single. Guerrero threw a wild pitch before losing Petracek to a walk, his first on the day. Come on, boys, he’s breaking up! Nunley fell to 1-2, then knocked a ball to left center where it split Knowing and Gore for an RBI double, knotting the score! Mendoza was walked intentionally to load them up for McKnight, who hit a fly to right that was caught easily by Victor Hodgers, but was at least deep enough for Petracek to come home with the go-ahead run. Margolis struck out, Denny batted for Waggoner and walked, and Bergquist flew out to Gore in center rather than executing Guerrero, who finished the inning, for being such an annoyance. The Coons also lost an insurance run in the ninth. Cookie singled with one out, but was thrown out at second on a hit-and-run in which Petracek missed his part. He THEN singled, and Nunley doubled, but Mendoza left them on second and third with a flyout to Knowling. Ron Thrasher had already pitched the eighth, and with three left-handed bats coming up in the ninth, remained in the game. He struck out Hodgers before Knowling singled to center. Ortíz flew out easily, bringing up Castillo, who had homered off one southpaw already today. Nah, Ronny’s got the stuff! Castillo hit the 1-1 to left, high, deep aaaaaand … gone. 4-3 Loggers. Carmona 3-5; Nunley 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K and 1-3;

Sad.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Morrison
MIL: RF Hodgers – LF Knowling – CF LeMoine – 1B J. Ortíz – 3B I. Reed – C O. Castillo – SS Konrath – 2B Aponte – P Carter

We could deduce well that Morrison wouldn’t be able to handle the lineup at hand, which was fronted by five left-handed bats, and held only two right-handed batters, including the pitcher. While the Raccoons even had a lead early on after a 2-run homer by McKnight, Morrison imploded completely thanks to no clue how to pitch and ****ty control to boot. He was up 2-1 in the bottom 4th with the bases already loaded and one out, when the Loggers unleashed a horrible cascade of runs. Morrison lost Guillermo Aponte to a walk, which forced in a run and was Morrison’s fifth free pass in the game. Ron Carter, a right-handed batter, and a ****ing pitcher at that, hit a sharp RBI single to left, and Hodgers opened up the ground with a bases-clearing triple. Knowling’s single knocked out Morrison in a 7-2 game, and the Raccoons gave up right there. Nick Lester was brought into the game with the hope of pitching long relief, despite his spot due to lead off the fifth inning at the plate. LeMoine singled hard to center right away, sending Knowling to third, but then LeMoine was caught stealing by Denny before Ortíz hacked himself out. Lester’s outing was a complete disaster. Cameron Konrath hit a 2-shot off him in the bottom 5th, and he also was not above walking the opposing pitcher en route to allowing another run. With the Loggers in double digits, the Coons SOMEHOW loaded the bases in the top 6th, when the #9 spot came up with two out. **** Lester. Waggoner hit, singled, 10-3, and Cookie forced in a run with a walk, 10-4, all the ****ty cosmetics-bang-bang, and when the Critters tagged Felix Colón for two runs in the eighth inning, it still didn’t matter. 10-6 Loggers. Nunley 2-5, 2B; Denny 2-4; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Waggoner (PH) 1-1, RBI; Korb 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Despite soaking three runs, the ERA of Nick Lester didn’t get noticeably worse, growing mildly to 14.63 as he was sent to St. Petersburg again, having walked nine against three strikeouts in eight innings. As Ryan Nielson was called up, Kevin Beaver moved to the 60-day DL since the 40-man roster was full.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Abe
MIL: SS Konrath – LF Knowling – CF LeMoine – 3B I. Reed – C O. Castillo – 1B Landeros – RF Gore – 2B Betancourt – P McDonald

Cookie scored on Mendoza’s groundout after hitting a leadoff double, which was dandy and fine, if Tadasu Abe could be a bit less **** than what we had seen the previous day. Konrath hit a leadoff double off the rightfield fence in the bottom 1st, so tentatively this was a NO on Abe, but Konrath also pulled a Walter and got himself thrown out by Mendoza’s mighty arm at third base before the next guy could grab a stick. Betancourt however would actually land his leadoff triple in the bottom of the third, and Abe was not going to get out of that one without allowing the run to score, and the game was tied after three after McDonald scored Betancourt with a grounder to short, and with the Coons adding only a soft DeWeese single to their hit total through four innings, and Abe walking two that just barely ended up stranded in the bottom 4th, the Loggers were so close to a sweep of the Coons that they could chop their axes into it.

Abe bunted into a double play in the fifth, and the Coons only got on base with two outs in the sixth. Mendoza singled, DeWeese walked, and that pulled up the warmest bat in the stable right now, Matt Nunley. He found the path through between two mediocre middle infielders for an RBI single, putting the Coons up 2-1, but McKnight’s drive to left was spoiled by Knowling to end the inning. Top 7th, Denny led off with a walk and Young singled, and this time Abe got the bunt down, moving them into scoring position. We would love nothing more than a rousing extra-baser from Senor Carmona, but his fly to center was easy takings for Chris LeMoine. At least Mike Denny tagged and scored, 3-1. A struggling Walter struck out, which was unfortunate since the Cat of a Thousand Disguises, Hugo Mendoza, had saved his 30th homer of the year for his next at-bat, which now came leading off the eighth, 4-1. Abe was knocked out by Juan Ortíz’ pinch-hit leadoff single in the bottom 8th. Thrasher came in with the switch-hitter Konrath being followed by three left-handed swingers, walked Konrath to give me a mild stroke, but then struck out the next two before sending a Reed grounder Young’s way to end the inning. Mathis got another real shot at real closing in the bottom of the ninth with the maximum cushion allowance, facing Friday’s killjoy Castillo and another right-hander in Landeros before the left-hander Gore. Castillo doubled right away to gain more spots on the list of players I detested, but Landeros flew out to Cookie in shallow center. Gore was batting .195 and drew a walk, with certified threat Victor Hodgers, also a left-hander, pinch-hitting for Betancourt. Hodgers was mostly a base stealer, but also had eight homers this season, but I really had nobody to go to with Thrasher used and this not being the spot to unveil a debutee in Nielson. When Mathis walked Hodgers, raging desperation called for Jayden Reed, a.k.a. Somebody Else, to be washed out of the bullpen. He had saved 19 games for a terrible Titans team last year, he had as good a shot of making it out of this jam as anybody. Randy Porter was pinch-hitting, a right-handed backup catcher with a .211 clip and no homers. Porter grounded the first pitch sharply to the left side, where Nunley lunged and knocked it down. Springing up like a cat, he grabbed the ball and flung it blindly to second base, out there, Walter to first, Porter REALLY SLOW AND OUT AT FIRST!! 4-1 Blighters! Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Young 2-4; Margolis (PH) 1-1; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (16-9); Reed 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (2);

In other news

August 14 – The Indians lose SP Felipe Ramirez (6-8, 3.44 ERA) for the season. The 33-year old right-hander has a fracture in his elbow that needs surgery.
August 15 – RIC INF Ricky Avila (.219, 1 HR, 37 RBI) is out of action for a month with a shoulder strain.
August 16 – The Stars lose 4-0 to the Falcons, not scoring a run despite 13 base hits of their own.
August 17 – A strained hamstring ends the season of PIT CL Matt Collins (2-1, 1.76 ERA, 34 SV).
August 18 – Renowned veteran RIC RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.258, 13 HR, 58 RBI) gets his 3,000th career base hit with two knocks in a 10-5 win over the Cyclones, the first game of a double-header. The 40-year old Bailey singles off Gavin French in the second inning to reach the fabled milestone. Playing almost his entire career in the Federal League, and mostly on the team he opposed, the Cyclones, Bailey is a 5-time Player of the Year (2001, 2006-7, 2009-10) and 7-time All Star, and led the FL in OPS four times and in slugging thrice. He also hit double-digit home runs for 16 consecutive seasons, giving him 375 for his career along with 1,171 RBI and a .316 batting average. He won a World Series ring in 2010 with the Cyclones and is considered a sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer.
August 18 – Overall, the Federal League plays a whopping nine games on this Friday, with three double-headers being contested.
August 18 – The Crusaders beat the Canadiens, 1-0, on Miguel Salinas’ (.257, 9 HR, 43 RBI) home run.
August 19 – SFW 1B Stanley Murphy (.274, 13 HR, 64 RBI) is out of action until late September with a sprained elbow.
August 20 – RIC 1B Alberto Rodriguez (.335, 13 HR, 85 RBI) reaches a 20-game hitting streak in style, knocking five hits (three singles and two doubles) in a 10-8 Rebels win over the Cyclones.
August 20 – The Canadiens forcefully break a 7-7 tie in the 13th inning, unloading half a dozen runs on the Crusaders to take a 13-7 win.

Complaints and stuff

Jonny’s bitter loss on Wednesday was his third this year in which his own team didn’t score a single run. The other two came both against the Falcons, but against undecorated right-handers (Bobby Guerrero and Denzel Durr) rather than undecorated left-handers.

Nick Brown wants a contract extension. When I look at his most recent scouting report compiled during his rehab in St. Petersburg, I have to squeeze out a tear. The 39-year old Brownie can hardly throw a ball, what would the 40-year old Brownie do?

Talking about Brownie, if it hadn’t been for either of the Castillo homers on Friday, the Raccoons would have taken a distinct lead over the Indians then. And if Morrison wasn’t such a dud, they wouldn’t have dropped out of the virtual tie. Oh well.

Yoshi Nomura was the FL Player of the Week, batting .581 (18-for-31) with 1 HR and 5 RBI for the Cyclones. He is at .364 for the year, one point behind Sacramento’s Jason LaCombe in the batting title race in the FL. Third is Jose “Dingus” Morales. The top three in the CL also hold two ex-Coons, Adrian Quebell leading Ron Alston.

Quebell!!

We could now marvel over how Jonny Toner doesn’t even hold the triple crown on his own team anymore, but I am dangerously low on liquor and it’s late already. Let’s just combine all the events of the week into the undisputable statement that the team we saw at work for six games this week was not one of championship caliber. Monday will be off, then it will be 13 straight games with the Titans and Aces up next week. That string will end with a 4-game set at home against the Indians from late August to early September.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (73-52) @ Titans (45-78) – August 22-24, 2017

The Titans were certifiably awful, having allowed 650 runs already, which was good enough for 5.3 per game, and they had the worst rotation in the CL. The offense was mediocre, plating the ninth-most runs, and their run differential was -140. By record, they were the worst team outright in the ABL, and the Raccoons were 8-4 against them this season, and needed to start beating the bad teams before facing the good teams again…

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (9-4, 2.82 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (4-11, 4.82 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-6, 1.69 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (1-7, 6.44 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-2, 4.30 ERA) vs. Zach Boyer (11-8, 2.69 ERA)

We started this series (facing three right-handers) after an off day on Monday, kicking off a string of 13 straight games. And I can’t help but the middle game looked like one of those 1-0 losses again…

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Santos
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 2B Holt – LF Cesta – SS J. Stephenson – P J. Fuentes

Fuentes had 88 walks in 130.2 innings coming into this game, which was not something that made a manager happy, but the Coons didn’t draw one the first time through. That didn’t mean they didn’t score. Walter’s single, Tiger’s double, and DeWeese’s sac fly plated a run in the first, and by the third inning, Fuentes was about to drown in runners. Cookie and Walter led off with singles to get to the corners, after which Mendoza flew out to right. DeWeese and Nunley walked in full counts, which pushed in a run, Joe Stephenson narrowly missed McKnight’s grounder that made it to leftfield for a 2-run single, but Fuentes got the last two outs from the bottom of the order. Overall, he didn’t even last through the fifth inning, and the Titans were not very impressive offensively. Somehow they piled three singles for a run onto Santos in the fourth inning, and that was about all they did against him, but he did run a few full counts that depleted his pitch allotment considerably and he was over 90 pitches after six. The top 7th saw the Raccoons load the bases again, all with one out against Jeff Lyon, as Walter singled, Mendoza walked, and DeWeese singled. Nunley ran a full count and then drew a run-scoring walk for the second time in the game, but the score remained 5-1 when McKnight lined out to Jasper Holt and Mike Denny whiffed. Santos got two more outs in the seventh before bumping up against 100 pitches, and with left-handed batter Mike Cesta up – who made his major league debut in this game – we sent our own debutee, Ryan Nielson, who got a grounder on his second pitch, and the last one he threw in his debut game. Waggoner hit a pinch-hit homer, which was something of a specialty of his, while Chun and Ramirez put the game away largely panic-free. 6-1 Coons. Carmona 2-5; Walter 4-5, 2B; DeWeese 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Waggoner (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (10-4);

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 1B Young – P Toner
BOS: CF Mata – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – RF Branch – 2B Holt – LF Blake – SS J. Stephenson – P Collazo

Cookie took his 20th base of the year after a leadoff single in the first, came home on Mendoza’s single, with Mendoza moving up on a groundout and scoring on Nunley’s single. All singles went to rightfield, and at least Toner suffered another shutout loss at the hands of a pitcher with roughly four times his own ERA. Which didn’t mean that he didn’t inexplicably get shredded. After Tim Robinson hit a leadoff single in the bottom 2nd, he walked the bases full, then conceded runs on singles by Jonathan Blake and Alfredo Collazo (…!), with a Stephenson sac fly in between. Alex Mata singled, putting them on the corners again, but Tom Thomas finally struck out to end the inning from hell, with three runs across and the Titans 3-2 ahead. That lead didn’t live for long; Cookie and Walter opened the third with a double and a triple, respectively, and although it took a throwing error by Jasper Holt to get Walter home, the Coons were back in the saddle. But the baseball gods giveth, and they taketh away – Toner remained badly hittable and lacked stuff. That McKnight put Robinson on with a throwing error of his own in the bottom 3rd was certainly no help, but the howling double that Ezra Branch hit off Toner right afterwards tied the game again at four, and singles by Collazo (…!!!!), Mata, and Steve Butler gave them another lead in the bottom 4th, 5-4. Branch homered in the bottom 5th for the sixth and final run off Toner (five earned), after Margolis had grounded out to leave the bases loaded in the top of the inning. Holt made another error in the seventh inning that didn’t lead to anything for the Coons, and then ANOTHER error in the ninth, which put Adam Young on second base with nobody out, and brought up the tying run in pinch-hitter William Waggoner. He singled to right, Cookie singled to center, and Young came in, with runners on first and second and no outs. Walter whiffed, Tiger walked, putting the tying run 90 feet away, and then DeWeese popped out to first, and Nunley lifted out to right to end this one with an all too predictable loss. 6-5 Titans. Carmona 3-5, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-5, RBI; Waggoner (PH) 1-1; Reed 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

I knew it, right away.

I hate the universe. I hate this entire team. I hate everything.

Except one thing. Boooooozzzze.

*hcks*

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – C Denny – SS McKnight – P Brown
BOS: RF Branch – 3B T. Thomas – 1B S. Butler – C T. Robinson – CF Blake – 2B Holt – LF Mata – SS J. Stephenson – P Boyer

Cookie hit another leadoff single, stole another base, and scored only with two outs when DeWeese tripled to center. That 1-0 advantage didn’t hold, because Jonathan Blake was brought around to score after a HUGE double in the second inning, but Jasper Holt would soon make his fourth error of the series at a very unfortunate time for the Titans, blowing Mike Denny’s grounder that could have been an inning-ending double play in the fourth, but now loaded the bases with one out for McKnight, whose liner to left was out of Mata’s range and fell in for a 2-run double, but with two remaining in scoring position neither Brownie nor Cookie managed to make meaningful contact and the score remained 3-1 in the inning, but Boyer was rolled up for good in the fifth. Mendoza and DeWeese hit back-to-back doubles, both off the centerfield wall, and Nunley and Denny hit RBI singles to get to 6-1. While Blake hit a dinger off Brownie in the fifth, Nunley remained his best friend, making a strong play in both the fifth and sixth to keep the Titans far away, while also opening the scoring off reliever Brett Dill in the seventh with a single. Waggoner tripled, which was the real key knock in a 2-run inning that got the Coons to 8-2. Brownie opened the bottom 7th with a walk to Butler, who was nailed by Waggoner at third base when Robinson singled to right. Blake then hit sharply to third, where Nunley started his second double play of the day. Both defense and pitching eroded completely for the Titans in the eighth, as they made two more errors (for five in the game) and issued three walks, allowing three runs once Mike Denny hit a 2-run single to right, and three more runs were put on Kenichi Watanabe in the ninth, in the bottom of which Nick Brown continued to throw baseballs, having expended only 90 pitches so far. Branch grounded out to Mendoza, Thomas flew out to left, and when Butler reached on an infield single, we weren’t too concerned. Tim Robinson bounced back to Brownie on pitch #101, and Brownie threw to first to seal a complete game effort. 14-2 Brownies!! Mendoza 2-5, BB, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 3-5, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Nunley 3-6, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Denny 2-5, BB, 3 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (5-2);

The Indians matched our results every day, so the gap never changed from one game.

Raccoons (75-53) vs. Aces (62-65) – August 25-27, 2017

The Aces had won their last four games, but their run differential (-32) still hinted at a team that should be a few more games under .500 than it currently was. They were third in offense, but tenth in pitching, with the second-worst rotation in the Continental League, right next to the Titans’. The Coons led the season series, 4-2.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (16-9, 2.95 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (8-10, 4.49 ERA)
Bruce Morrison (8-13, 4.43 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (7-10, 5.09 ERA)
Hector Santos (10-4, 2.76 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (7-12, 4.37 ERA)

Three more right-handers, none too intimidating, but we already lost to Alfredo Collazo this week, so…

Game 1
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – LF Hubbard – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hamilton – SS Burke – C D. Rice – CF McCullough – 3B A. Perez – P M. Ortíz
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – C Denny – SS McKnight – P Abe

Abe threw one ball to the first six batters he faced, retiring them all, but Kevin McCullough opened the third with a double and scored on Arturo Perez’ sharp single. Waggoner’s throw home was late, and Perez moved to second, scoring on productive outs. The Coons also had two of those after McKnight’s leadoff double in the bottom 3rd, but remained down 2-1. The Coons struggled against Ortíz, while Abe also had McCullough on to lead off the fifth, and once he danced around that problem, Tony Ramos opened the sixth with a single. He was on second with two outs and tried to score on Danny Rice’s single, but was thrown out at home by DeWeese’s mighty arm. Greed helped the Critters in the bottom 6th, which was led off by Cookie. He lined to left center, and Jimmy Hubbard could have taken it on a bounce for a single, but tried to get it on the fly. He ended up missing the ball, and not by just a little, and Cookie had a leadoff triple, but nobody came to his aid to keep the inning rolling. Mendoza’s sac fly tied the game, but that was all.

McCullough had his third leadoff base hit of the game in the seventh, this time of the infield variety, but was left stranded on second base once Rich Walsh fouled out. Abe threw only 80 pitches, but was replaced for the eighth with three left-handed bats coming up. Thrasher had a 1-2-3 inning against the 2-3-4 batters, despite Bobby Diersing pinch-hitting for Hubbard. He fouled out, and Thrasher whiffed Ramos and Matt Hamilton. Ramirez also held the Aces dry in the ninth, but there was hardly anything drier than the Raccoons, who had only four hits and no walks in eight innings against Ortíz, who remained active for the bottom 9th, which opened with Shane Walter. Maybe the Aces should have gone to the pen; Ortíz walked Mendoza and Nunley, and Waggoner hit a soft 2-out single that didn’t allow Mendoza to come home. Denny jerked the first pitch he saw to deep right – this was game over, regardless of where it landed. It landed on the grass, as the Coons walked off. 3-2 Critters! Waggoner 3-4; Abe 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K;

Indy lost 8-1 to the Bayhawks, which levelled the race for the North – virtually.

Game 2
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – LF Hubbard – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hamilton – SS Burke – C D. Rice – CF McCullough – 3B A. Perez – P Hinkley
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Denny – 2B Petracek – P Morrison

The Raccoons got a quick start with singles by Cookie and Nunley. While the two big guys whiffed and grounded out, respectively, McKnight sent a floater to shallow center for a 2-run single in support of Morrison, who probably needed ten runs of support to make me feel mildly okay about the game. As was to be expected, he was torn to pieces as early as the second inning. Brent Burke singled, Rice walked, and McCullough remained unretired in the series and wonked a 3-piece to right center. That was not enough, with two outs Morrison allowed singles to everybody, starting with the opposing pitcher. The bases were loaded for Tony Ramos, who grounded out to Petracek on the first pitch. To increase his standing, he got Petracek forced out with a pathetic bunt attempt in the bottom 2nd, and continued to invite the Aces on invade home plate. Defense held him together, and when Petracek was on first again in the bottom 4th, he failed AGAIN to bunt. Petracek remained alive this time, advanced on a balk by Hinkley, and then scored on Cookie’s double to right, tying the score at three.

At least Bruce Morrison struck out McCullough in the fifth, which ended a 6-for-6 run for the centerfielder in this series. Somehow, Morrison lasted six innings to claim a no-decision, but had allowed nine hits and three walks as his annoyance factor grew and grew and grew. Ryan Nielson was sent into the top 7th, with the three left-handed bats up that Thrasher had been tasked with the night before. He retired nobody, allowing singles to Hubbard and Hamilton while walking Ramos. One run was already across, but Jayden Reed got a double play from Burke and got out of the inning. If only the Raccoons could find the tying run somewhere! Not against Hinkley, who lasted seven, and the Aces sent a decent southpaw into the eighth in Alex Morin, who allowed a single to McKnight, but otherwise handled the middle of the order. The Coons remained down 4-3 into the ninth and were to face righty Steve Rob. Petracek struck out before Walter hit for Thrasher and found the gap in right center for a double. To the shock of about 25,000 people, Cookie fouled out on a 2-2 pitch, and Nunley went down looking. 4-3 Aces. Carmona 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; McKnight 3-4, 2 RBI; Walter (PH) 1-1, 2B;

The Indians of course won. The auto-loss Morrison is totally costing us. The Coons have lost eight of Morrison’s last nine starts……

Game 3
LVA: 2B R. Walsh – LF Struck – 1B T. Ramos – RF M. Hamilton – SS Burke – C D. Rice – CF Flack – 3B DuFrane – P Valdevez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – RF Johnson – C Margolis – P Santos

The Aces hit the ball quite hard off Santos in the first innings, but the first run of the game would be the Coons’ after three 2-out singles by McKnight, Johnson, and Margolis in the bottom 2nd. Walter hit a dinger in the next inning to get to 2-0, while Santos remained erratic. He issued a leadoff walk to Tony Ramos in the top 4th – which was only the third Aces runner despite hard contact, due to strong D on the home lot’s part – and then the battery somewhat broke down, advancing Ramos to third base on a passed ball and wild pitch during Hamilton’s at-bat, which ended with a K after all. Burke fouled out and Rice bounced back to Santos to end the inning, as the Aces left their gifted runner on third base.

The 2-0 lead was not a comfy one, and Santos was the main reason for that. The Aces continued to make sound contact, like Rich Walsh did with two men on base in the fifth. Brandon Johnson made a fantastic play, and also caught Geoff Struck’s fly to fairly deep right to end the inning. Struck then looked bad again, creating a trench in the outfield when he missed Santos’ liner to left in a headlong dive. Santos ended up with a triple(!) in that bottom of the fifth, and Cookie’s 1-out single to center plated him for the third Portland run. Cookie was then caught stealing (like McKnight earlier in the game), which was double-bad once Walter walked and Mendoza homered to left center, by which time it officially cost the Coons a run. Matt Hamilton finally touched Santos with a solo jack in the sixth that had been in the air for the last 90 minutes, and there was no doubt over his tremendous shot to right that landed in the upper rows of the stands out there. Flack hit a leadoff single in the seventh but was caught stealing by Margolis, which held the Aces down in this inning, which was also Santos’ last. Nielson was at it again in the eighth, and one day after retiring nobody and taking the loss he retired the 1-2-3 batters in order, but walked Hamilton in the ninth before departing. Chun walked Danny Rice, and Chris Mathis entered the game. He hadn’t pitched at all this week, and this was not a save situation thanks to the Coons scoring a pair in the bottom 8th around a McKnight triple. Mathis went 2-0 on Flack before the centerfielder singled to centerfield. The Aces blundered by sending Hamilton around and he was thrown out at home by Cookie. The Coons nailed down the game and the series when Howie DuFrane grounded out to Mendoza on the first pitch he saw. 7-1 Furballs. McKnight 3-4, 3B, RBI; Johnson 2-3, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (11-4) and 1-3;

To everybody’s amazement, the Indians lost to the Bayhawks again, which flattened the two teams again. Oh the tension!

In other news

August 22 – While three games in the CL end with walkoffs (NYC over MIL; OCT over SFB; LVA over CHA), two FL games end with 10-run routs, the Rebels beating the Blue Sox 10-0, and the Scorpions upending the Gold Sox, 11-1.
August 24 – OCT LF Ron Alston (.321, 14 HR, 54 RBI) will miss a month with a knee injury. Information has leaked that he suffered the injury on the golf course.
August 24 – The hitting streak of Richmond’s Alberto Rodriguez (.334, 13 HR, 88 RBI) ends at 22 games with an 0-for-4 effort in a 2-1 win over the Blue Sox.
August 27 – Power play in the Rebels’ 9-6 win over the Pacifics, as the teams combine for seven home runs, including two apiece by Richmond’s Justin Cramer (.251, 8 HR, 49 RBI) and L.A.’s Errol Spears (.304, 15 HR, 58 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

Highlight of the week, probably Nick Brown’s 29th complete game. Matt Nunley had a share in that, but then again we could afford to leave him out there in a tremendous rout of the Titans.

The Raccoons offense has found its way into third place in the CL by now, having plated 594 runs. Only the Bayhawks (628) and Knights (658) have more. Significantly more.

We will play the Condors to start next week before facing the Indians on a 4-game weekend. We will have a tiny hidden advantage, since the Indians have to include a makeup game in their midweek series with the Knights and will arrive starved for pitching until rosters expand for the second game of our series. But, oh well, Morrison will start the opener, so it’s probably a moot point…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (77-54) vs. Condors (53-78) – August 28-30, 2017

While the Condors graced the bottom of the South, suffering from an epidemic of no runs and no help to get some, the season series between these two teams was even at three, and the Coons hadn’t won the season series since 2013. The Condors were 11th in runs scored, but at least fifth in runs allowed. They had some power – mainly sourced through Jimmy Oatmeal’s 25 home runs – but were quite weak in all other major offensive categories. The Condors had a few injuries, most notably SP Troy McCaskill ((6-8, 4.27 ERA) and the first, second, and third shortstop on their depth chart: Craig Dasher, Tom Dahlke, and Jeremiah Irvin (in no particular order).

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (15-7, 1.89 ERA) vs. Luis Flores (7-8, 3.04 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-2, 3.93 ERA) vs. Kevin Woodworth (7-17, 4.55 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (16-9, 2.93 ERA) vs. Zach Hughes (9-10, 3.50 ERA)

We would start the series facing a southpaw in Luis Flores, but this can no longer be a reason to lose games and then be pulled up as the apology. No more apologies! We want to get to the ****ing playoffs and can’t continue to play middling ball against the worst teams! What do you say, boys? Can we sweep these ****ers!? Do I hear passionate chants of victory!?

I SAID DO I HEAR PASSIONATE CHANTS OF VICTORY??

Game 1
TIJ: RF Abraham – SS Koka – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 1B Quebell – 3B J. Soto – C Gonzales – 2B Best – P L. Flores
POR: LF Carmona – CF Petracek – SS Walter – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – C Denny – RF Waggoner – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Six pitches in, Craig Abraham put the Condors up 1-0 with a monstrous homer to left, so something was definitely off with Jonny Toner now in the most critical part of the season. Joey Koka and Mike Herrera hit soft singles to center, but Adrian Quebell was thankfully still a douche to his own team and hit right to Bergquist for an inning-ending double play. The Coons would put their first three batters in the bottom 1st on base via single, error, and walk, then immediately spit on Jonny’s shoes when the best they could hit for was a sac fly by Mendoza. Nope, Jonny had to help out with the bat himself. He hit a 2-out double to right in the bottom 4th and scored on Cookie’s single, giving himself a 2-1 lead that he blew immediately. Steve Best rolled a slow grounder between the lunging Bergquist and Mendoza for a single, and when Abraham came up with two outs, he homered yet AGAIN.

After a 2-out single in the bottom 6th, Jonny stole second base, but even that didn’t help him to get a run. Cookie walked, but Petracek grounded out to end the inning. Toner made it through the seventh inning, ending with eight strikeouts and six hits, but still hung on the hook against Flores, who was removed in the bottom 7th after a leadoff single by Shane Walter. Zack Entwistle came in, allowed a single to Mendoza, but Nunley hit into a double play. Denny walked, Waggoner struck out, and this was just not working out… John Korb allowed a triple to the ****head Abraham in the eighth that ended up with another run for the Condors. After a sad an unsuccessful bottom 8th, the Coons were still 4-2 behind in the ninth, facing Manuel Reyes. Shane Walter opened with a double into the leftfield corner, but Mendoza and Nunley, while bringing Walter around with groundouts to the right side, were entirely not helpful to the greater cause. DeWeese batted for Denny and popped out to first to end the game. 4-3 Condors. Carmona 3-4, BB, RBI; Walter 3-4, BB, 2B;

The Indians split their double header with the Knights, placing us half a game behind now.

Game 2
TIJ: RF Abraham – SS Koka – 1B Jaeger – LF Eichelkraut – CF M. Herrera – 3B J. Soto – C Gonzales – 2B Best – P Woodworth
POR: CF Carmona – 3B Nunley – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – SS McKnight – 1B Young – C Denny – 2B Petracek – P Brown

Joey Koka’s triple cost Brownie a run in the first; while Nunley contained Kevin Jaeger’s bouncer to the hot corner, he couldn’t get Koka who was dashing for home. But the bottom 1st saw lots of Coons on the bases again. Cookie and Nunley led off with singles and went to the corners before Mendoza tied the game with a double to the leftfield corner. DeWeese walked to fill the bases, and McKnight took care of a 2-1 lead with a single to center. Woodworth had yet to retire anybody, ran full counts against Young and Denny, and lost both of them to run-scoring walks. Petracek hit an RBI single before Brownie grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, which still scored the sixth run. Koka’s sliding catch going outwards to leftfield on Cookie’s looper ended the inning. Woodworth allowed base hits to the first three Critters in the bottom 2nd, which amounted to another run, and didn’t live to see the third inning.

Brown made it through five innings without too many issues, allowing three hits and two walks despite allowing some harder contact, but in the sixth the Condors raided him for three runs on four hits, including a bitter 2-run double past the lunging Nunley hit by Herrera. Left-handers Steve Best and Josh Rawlings both hit singles off Brown to start the seventh inning, which pulled up the tying run in Abraham (…) after the Raccoons had hardly ever reached base in the middle innings. Alex Ramirez replaced Brown, which was potentially a bad decision, but he struck out Abraham, got Koka on a soft fly to center, but then still allowed a run on Jaeger’s 2-out single. Jimmy Oatmeal flew out to deep right. Thrasher had a nervous eighth as well, before the Coons got Bergquist on base with a 1-out walk in the bottom 8th, but Cookie hit into a super-rare double play. Everything was setting up for a colossal blown save for Chris Mathis, who got the 7-5 lead for the ninth inning, starting with pinch-hitter Simon Morbidelli, a righty, in the #9 slot. Morbidelli perplexingly reached on a McKnight error, bringing up Abraham with the tying run – and the Condors hit for him with Robert Mascorro, who grounded out. Mathis went on to drill Koka and allowed an RBI single to Jaeger. I was loading the blunderbuss while Jimmy Oatmeal grounded out, bringing the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position for the switch-hitting Herrera with two outs. Herrera romped a 1-0 pitch to deep center. I saw #31 making a dash to the deeper regions for the lawn, making a desperate reach – and he got it! 7-6 Brownies. Nunley 2-4, 2B; Mendoza 2-4, 2B, RBI; Young 0-1, 3 BB, RBI;

Nightmare game. Just another nightmare game.

Game 3
TIJ: RF Abraham – C J. Vargas – LF Eichelkraut – 1B Quebell – 3B J. Soto – SS Koka – CF Rawlings – 2B Best – P Hughes
POR: CF Carmona – SS McKnight – 3B Walter – LF DeWeese – RF Waggoner – C Denny – 1B Young – 2B Bergquist – P Abe

Through five innings of something like a pitching duel, both teams had three hits and a run apiece, and both runs were solo shots, one by Jimmy Oatmeal in the fourth, and then Mike Denny’s in the bottom 5th. Jesus Soto opened the sixth with a double to left, which was bad enough for Abe, who struggled with control and issued his fourth walk of the day to Koka afterwards. He didn’t get out of the mess, conceding Soto’s run on groundouts before whiffing Hughes to strand Koka on third. But the Condors were up 2-1, and the Raccoons were soul-searching, which was tremendous with the Indians on their way in. They didn’t hold it for long, though. Cookie split Eichelkraut and Rawlings with a 1-out gapper in the bottom 6th and had a double, then scored on McKnight’s single to center. McKnight stole second base, but was stranded.

Abe struck out two in the seventh, which was going to be his last inning, then got a chance at the W in the bottom of the inning when Denny and Young hit 1-out singles off Hughes. “Tiger” pinch-hit for Bergquist, but grounded back to Hughes, who nipped Young at second base, leaving them on the corners for Nunley, who hit for Abe with two down. Before Nunley got a chance at doing damage, Hughes unleashed a wild pitch that eluded Jose Vargas, and the Coons went up 3-2. He ended up walking, but Cookie grounded out to strand the runners. And then we rolled the dice. The Condors would have left-handed bats up, starting with Quebell, in the eighth, but Thrasher had been used the previous game and the Indians were coming in, and those games would count double, and so it was Nielson, the unheralded rookie in to protect a 3-2 game in the eighth, and how could it ever go anything but wrong? Quebell grounded out, but Nielson walked Soto. Koka grounded out, moving the tying run to second, with Alfonso Gonzales pinch-hitting for Rawlings. This knocked out Nielson, with Jayden Reed inheriting the runner, who ended up stranded when Gonzales grounded out to McKnight. The Coons made three outs at blistering pace in the bottom 8th, with Reed remaining in the game for the ninth inning. Best struck out, Morbidelli flew out to Waggoner, and then Reed walked Mascorro and Vargas, bringing up Jimmy Oatmeal, against whom he ran another 3-ball count. Oh for the love of striped tails, does it have to be?? No, it didn’t. Oatmeal struck out, and the Coons coughed up a series win. 3-2 Critters. Denny 2-3, HR, RBI; Young 2-3; Abe 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (17-9);

Now the big news. The Indians lost their game with the Knights on a Steve Madison error, 5-4 in ten innings, and that put the Raccoons into the lead in the North – all by themselves! And by a whopping half game.

Raccoons (79-55) vs. Indians (78-55) – August 31-September 3, 2017

Alright, suckers, here it comes! The Indians were seventh in runs scored and third in runs allowed, compared to fourth in runs scored and first in runs allowed for the Raccoons, who had a +141 run differential, vastly outpacing the Indians’ +82. While the Raccoons had one injury to left-hander Kevin Beaver, the Indians were down three starters from their lineup in John Wilson, Jong-beom Kym, and Dave Padilla. And when it came to the previous 11 games between the teams so far in 2017, the Raccoons had finely combed the Indians and had taken almost everything from them they had, all the horses, all the guns, and all the land for sure. The Coons had won nine of those 11 games, and were eager to continue their dominant run.

Projected matchups:
Bruce Morrison (8-13, 4.43 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (17-9, 2.48 ERA)
Hector Santos (11-4, 2.71 ERA) vs. Dan Lambert (11-14, 3.65 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-8, 1.96 ERA) vs. Kyle Lamb (5-2, 3.35 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-2, 4.28 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (14-7, 3.69 ERA)

It should be noted that the Indians had played that double header and were thus a bit out of rhythm. “Ant” Mendez would start on short rest, as would the guy to go on Friday against Santos. Both Lamb and Lambert started in the double header, and they could easily flick those two. Lamb should be the only left-handed pitcher we’d see, with Tristan Broun (13-9, 3.48 ERA) having pitched on Wednesday in Atlanta.

It should be noted that rosters will expand on Friday. The Raccoons will add a few players, but we have neither promising sterling prospects that could make an impact, nor even an option for a serviceable fifth starter to replace Morrison, who flatout had his fur on fire. That opening matchup certainly looked like trouble….

Game 1
IND: CF Baker – 1B R. Flores – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – 2B Mathews – 3B S. Madison – SS Beard – C Malone – P A. Mendez
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Morrison

Morrison hadn’t had a good outing since June (no hyperbole) and had won only one of his last ten starts. He was certainly not the favorite in this game, but this one was the crowning of all the sucking he had done. He allowed HARD singles to each of the first four batters in the game, and then Joey Mathews reached on an infield single. Two productive outs after that helped the Arrowheads chase home four runs in the first inning, which pretty much won them the game, looking at Mendez. While the Raccoons had three hits in the bottom of the first, that only netted them one run. They added single runs in the second inning (when Morrison hit a double and scored on Cookie’s single), and the third, creeping back to 4-3, but Morrison, who hardly ever avoided hard contact in this start, conceded three more hard hits in the fourth inning, which allowed the Indians to push another run across, and with two outs and runners on the corners, Morrison was yanked for John Korb. Roberto Flores flew out to center on the first pitch, staving off at least more runs for the moment, but the Coons were down 5-3. They got nothing in the fourth, but Cookie opened the bottom 5th with a single to right. Nick Gilmor held him honest rather than trying for second base. Walter sent a drive to left, but Lowell Genge made the catch against the wall. The Tiger stepped in, and here was another hard drive, this one to right center and this one was gonna go!! Home run, game tied at five in the fifth!

And that wasn’t all. Mendez allowed another hard drive right away, which gave DeWeese a double. Nunley moved him up when he grounded out, and he scored on McKnight’s single to center, which handed the Coons a 6-5 lead and Mendez his papers, with Jason Clements replacing him and retired Denny to get out of the inning. John Korb was still on it in the sixth, but struggled. After Josh Malone singled with one out, Clements bunted him over. Korb lost Baker to a walk, then allowed a hard liner to right to Roberto Flores on a 3-1 pitch. It fell in front of Waggoner, but he got a good bounce, and Malone was everything but a fast runner. The Indians were desperate and sent him, and Waggoner killed him by a country mile – end of the inning. Thrasher walked Genge to start the seventh, but Nunley wasn’t only turning double plays for Brownie, he turned one for Thrasher against pinch-hitter Raul Matias, and Thrasher whiffed Joey Mathews to end the seventh. After the Coons stranded two in the bottom 7th when Nunley and McKnight struck out back-to-back, Jayden Reed held the Indians away in the eighth, despite putting two on with two out. Josh Baker’s K ended the inning. Margolis hit into an inning-ending double play in the bottom 8th, end we had Mathis up for the top of the ninth inning with no cushion and two left-handers guaranteed in the first three batters. Flores, who was not included in the lefty count, led off with a single to right, Genge also singled to right, Flores went to third, and we wouldn’t salvage this one. Mathis sucked, the Indians tied the game on Bartolo Román’s groundout, and were tied at six. Jarrod Morrison held the Coons to a Shane Walter single in the bottom 9th, and the 10th saw a leadoff single once more by Rusty Beard. Josh Malone romped a Chun pitch to center for a home run, and after Nunley hit a leadoff jack off Morrison in the bottom 10th, the Coons went down without making any more trouble. 8-7 Indians. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Walter 3-5; Mendoza 2-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-5, HR, 2 RBI;

If we just had anybody able to close… ANYBODY.

Interlude: Roster expansion

Rosters expanded for the Friday game. The Raccoons were hard pressed to find any meaningful additions among their crummy minor league teams, with the Alley Cats dumpling around at 60-70 and lacking any impact players.

Nevertheless, we found a few warm bodies to add to the staff. Chris Munroe was called up once more and would replace Morrison, who had been horrible since the All Star game, in the rotation. We also added right-hander Will West, who was closing for the Alley Cats, and Nick Lester. That last one was only with a grumbling, since the 40-man roster was full and I was squeezed hard trying to find room for a different left-hander, David Mendoza. Tom McNeela was – as usual – added as third catcher, despite not having hit a lick in AAA all year long, and a few more bats in Alex Duarte, Danny Ochoa, and Ricky Moya, who was once listed under the prospect category, but was now 27 and would only now make his major league debut. A versatile defensive infielder, Moya had been uncovered by Vince Guerra way back then, but had merely hit for a .256/.296/.300 for the Alley Cats. He was a right-hander, he might find himself taking Bergquist’s starts in September.

Raccoons (79-55) vs. Indians (78-55) – August 31-September 3, 2017

Game 2
IND: CF Baker – 1B R. Flores – LF Genge – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – 2B Mathews – 3B Georges – C Malone – P Lambert
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – RF Waggoner – P Santos

A certain Ricardo Carmona out-ran Ryan Georges’ attempts at getting him at first base to start the bottom 1st, and the infield single gave Cookie a 12-game hitting streak. He went to third on Walter’s single, scored on Mendoza’s single, and then DeWeese struck out and Nunley rolled into a 6-4-3. Santos didn’t give the Indians a hit until the fourth, when Gilmor hit a 2-out single, but at the same time whiffed five and ran a couple of full counts and was at 70 pitches through four. Georges hit a single in the fifth, and in the sixth Santos came apart. Baker hit a leadoff single, and when Flores bunted, Santos tried to get the lead runner, but his throw was ****, and the Indians had two on with nobody out. Gilmor and Matias hit singles to tie the game, and Walter couldn’t turn the double play on Mathews’ grounder, with the go-ahead run scoring. Georges struck out, but the Coons now trailed, 2-1, and since the 3-hit first inning they had amassed the grand total of one hit that wasn’t hit by Cookie, who had two more to be perfect on the day and chasing .350. Lambert was solidly ticking them off through the middle innings, and also McKnight and Denny in the seventh until one got away, and Waggoner whacked it and wrapped it around the inside of the right foul pole – a game-tying homer, 2-2. Danny Ochoa batted for Alex Ramirez in the #9 hole, mainly because I didn’t want to use Adam Young (the best of the bunch? Scary thought.) until there was a runner on base. Lambert had him at 1-2, then surrendered another thump to center, long, hard, deep, GONE!! Cookie wrung a walk from Lambert, which ended the Arrowhead’s day, and Clements replaced him, but right away allowed an RBI triple, a corner-cuddler, to Shane Walter, 4-2.

Clements never retired anybody. Mendoza singled, DeWeese doubled, and Nunley singled, which ran the score to 7-2, before Clements was removed to be shot. Ex-Coon Ed Bryan arrived, getting McKnight to fly out, which ended a 6-run nightmare for the Indians, who had gotten the first two batters in the inning out. The Indians would get a run off Will West in the ninth inning, but didn’t get back to pose a serious threat, and hopefully they would remain shell-shocked until tomorrow. 7-3 Coons. Carmona 3-4, BB; Walter 2-4, 3B, RBI; Mendoza 2-4, 2 RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-2, HR, RBI; Santos 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K;

What a pleasant change, to be not on the receiving end of such a 2-out upset. Back to half a game in front now.

Game 3
IND: CF Baker – 1B R. Flores – RF Gilmor – SS Matias – 2B Mathews – 3B S. Madison – LF D. Morales – C Malone – P Lamb
POR: 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – LF DeWeese – CF Duarte – RF Petracek – 2B Moya – P Toner

Jonny had lost his last four games and hadn’t looked sharp in three of them, but in the first three innings of this game, while allowing two singles, he struck out seven, so perhaps he had resharpified himself? Toner ended up with ten strikeouts and five hits in five shutout innings, but there was a slight problem with the offense. They had only one hit and two walks against the left-hander Lamb, and this one looked pretty dire again. Petracek opened the bottom 5th with a single, but got forced by Moya, and while Nunley singled with two down, the Coons stranded two when McKnight flew out to right. Jonny struck out two more in the sixth, getting Gilmor to reach 250 K for the year, which put him four short of his own franchise record for a single season, and “Tiger” Mendoza opened the bottom 6th with a double to center. Come on, boys! Score him! Denny was walked intentionally despite not hitting for much right now, and then Lamb struck out DeWeese and Duarte. Petracek snipped a ball to the left side at 1-0, and it escaped between Madison and Matias. Mendoza got an early start with two outs and scored, the first run of the game. Moya then fouled out to strand two more.

Bottom 7th, Jonny led off. He was already over 100 pitches having whiffed 14, but what options did we even have other than squeezing a few more outs from him? He batted, and singled past Matias. Nunley hit into a double play before McKnight tripled, which was a terrible order of events, but Mendoza came through the left side for the team’s second 2-out RBI single of the game, plating McKnight at least. Up 2-0, Toner lost Jeremie Ventura to a leadoff single, then drilled Baker without getting an out in the eighth. And immediately, the fork in the back was back. With his pitch count now over 110 and the tying runs on base, we had to scramble for a change. Jayden Reed came in, got a groundout from Flores, but then allowed a drive to center to Gilmor. Duarte after that one, deep in center, and he had it! But, Ventura scored, and the Indians still had the tying run on second base, and that was when Reed allowed ANOTHER rocket, this time a 1-1 pitch Matias rocketed to deep right, and now Petracek was twisting and turning and dashing all at the same time, that ball was going pretty deep to the corner, and Petracek MADE IT THERE AND HAD IT CAUGHT!!! A phenomenal play!! Inning over!! Excitement!! Who the **** was gonna close? Heck I don’t know! The Critters got two on base with singles by Duarte and Waggoner in the bottom 8th, but Margolis struck out to end the inning without getting an insurance run across, and after that it was Thrasher time, because who else was there to tap? Danny Morales would walk with two out, but he came back to blast out Malone, and thus secured the division lead for the Raccoons through the end of this set. 2-1 Furballs. Mendoza 2-4, 2B, RBI; Petracek 2-3, BB, RBI; Waggoner (PH) 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 14 K, W (16-8) and 1-2, BB;

Wheeeeeze, another squeeeeeeze job. My nerves are wrecked.

Cookie did not appear in this game, but he was a little sore, and we wanted him to get off his legs for a day, although this was a terrible time for an off day.

So. Who’s next? Brownie? But my nerves are already wrecked!

Game 4
IND: CF Baker – 3B S. Madison – SS Matias – LF Genge – 1B R. Flores – 2B Mathews – RF Georges – C Malone – P Riley
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B A. Young – C Margolis – P Brown

2017 Brownie allowed three hits on 2-strike counts in the first inning alone, but thanks to Madison being not so bright on the bases and getting thrown out at third base by Tiger on Matias’ single, the Indians stayed off the hot part of the scoreboard. The Furballs had better success, with Cookie walking and Walter doubling to start their first inning. While Mendoza fouled out with two men in scoring position, they were scored on DeWeese’s sac fly and Nunley’s single to right for a 2-0 advantage. The Indians kept finding the seams on the infield, but when they had runners on the corners in the third, Flores popped out to Mendoza in shallow right to end the inning, and Nunley continued to make all the plays for Brownie. Nunley also opened the bottom 4th with a double to right. Georges initially had the ball, dashing back at full speed, but got into a tumble and fell down, with the ball rolling off the end of the glove. He came around to score on McKnight’s grounder to Mathews and then a passed ball charged to Josh Malone, but the Indians pulled that run back in the top of the fifth, getting to the corners when Baker and Madison both singled with one out and Matias flew out to deep enough in leftfield that Baker could tag and score, 3-1.

Brownie opened the bottom 5th with a single, but Cookie – hitless – lined out to Mathews and Walter rolled into a double play to the same guy, who then got hit by Brownie in the top of the sixth. Ryan Georges whacked his first big league home run after that, tying the score with the shot to left. Nick Brown was not back for the seventh, having allowed seven hits and a walk against one strikeout. Ramirez took his place and allowed some pretty hard contact to the top of the order, but all of it was on the ground and right at someone. Walter and McKnight merely had to protect their lives to not get struck in the neck by a one-bounce rocket. While that went well enough in the seventh, Lowell Genge opened the eighth with a double, and Ramirez walked Flores before being chased. Starved for reliable relievers, the Raccoons had to hope for a double play grounder from John Korb, but Mathews bunted to move the runners over instead. Left-hander Bartolo Román hit for Georges, and the Raccoons rolled the dice and walked him intentionally to get their double play chance back. Malone never met a pitch, however, and struck out, and pinch-hitter Rusty Beard was retired after a mild dash by Cookie into shallow center, ending this tense inning. Waggoner had a leadoff single in the bottom 8th against Joel Davis, who retired the top of the order in order after that, and Mathis retired the top of the order (disfigured into Ventura, Danny Young, and Matias) on three grounders in the ninth. Walkoff chance now in the bottom 9th, which would put the Coons 2 1/2 games up in the North. Come on, DeWeese! What do you get all those millions for! He grounded out against Jarrod Morrison at the start of the bottom 9th, and while McKnight singled with two outs, Adam Young’s drive to center ended with Danny Young, so that was that, and we had extras again, which had not gone well on Thursday.

And it damn sure didn’t go well on Sunday. Thrasher got Genge on a groundout before Flores singled, advanced on a wild pitch, and then Mathews walked. Santiago Guerra singled so hard to left that Flores had to hold at third base, but Josh Malone, batting with the bases loaded for the second time, this time made contact and flew to left. DeWeese had it, but couldn’t get Flores at home, as the Indians scored the go-ahead run. The Coons got Ochoa on with a 1-out walk against Morrison, but Cookie grounded to second to get him forced out, and when Walter lined to the right side, Mathews was in the way one final time to end the game. 4-3 Indians. Nunley 2-4, 2B, RBI; Young 2-4; Waggoner (PH) 1-1;

Cookie’s streak died along with my hopes for a bigger lead in the division.

In other news

August 28 – WAS C Jose Flores (.282, 16 HR, 78 RBI) could miss the rest of the season with a torn abdominal muscle. The Capitals also take a sad 2-0 loss to the Scorpions on Ray Meade’s (.268, 19 HR, 107 RBI) 11th-inning walkoff home run.
August 28 – The Stars can not find anything good about the 13-0 hammering they are handed by the Cyclones. CIN 2B/SS Pat Morrison (.269, 6 HR, 50 RBI) has four hits including a home run and drives in three runs.
August 30 – The Bayhawks will be without centerfield wonderkid Dave Garcia (.295, 34 HR, 91 RBI) for the month of September. The 22-year old is battling a herniated disc, but should be available for the playoffs.
September 3 – The Buffaloes crumple in a 15-4 defeat at the hands of the Cyclones. CIN Jason Seeley (.270, 14 HR, 65 RBI) drives in four.

Complaints and stuff

With Jonny Toner completely off the rolls in August, Tadasu Abe was Pitcher of the Month, going 5-0 in six starts, pitching to a 1.73 ERA with 35 K in 41 2/3 innings. Toner on the other hand is one whiff away from his own franchise record for a single season, and 17 away from reaching 1,000 for his career, which isn’t shabby for a 26-year old. Nick Brown struck out only 725 through his age 26 season, but remember that he came up a year later than intended after blowing out a UCL while with the Alley Cats in 2000.

And congrats to the surgeon from back then, who did A GOOD JOB. Can we agree on this one? That surgery – a JOB WELL DONE. Can we – Maud? Maud? – Can we send that surgeon that tucked up Brownie’s elbow in 2000 something? Some flowers, a bottle of wine? – Why not? – Oh. So can we send the flowers to the widow? – Well, can at least someone here name his dog after him? – Maud, what do you mean, ‘Schwartz’ is not a dog’s name?

Tensions are high in the clubhouse, I have heard, but the tensions are high anyway when you’re tooth to nail with another team for the playoffs. Much of this is down to DeWeese once more, who is simply a dick, but then again, the team is winning. And to be fair, I prefer a first place team where everybody’s murdering each other to a team where everybody goes to dinner together after the game, but they finish 27 games out.

As a side note, when Jayden Reed boogied out of his own mess against the Condors on Wednesday, the Condors were eliminated from playoff contention. Doing that to other teams feels oddly warm in the heart region.

How are the remaining games for the top two teams in the North lined up?
POR: VAN (6), ATL (3), BOS (3), IND (3), MIL (3), NYC (3), OCT (3)
IND: NYC (6), BOS (4), CHA (3), LVA (3), MIL (3), POR (3), VAN (3)
That last direct confrontation will take place in Indy and is just nine days away. We have more left with the Elks, which is a good thing by record, but they have been spoilers so often for us, it’s not even funny. The South teams are all more or less middling, but the Knights have the strongest offense, which could be a terrible test for our wobbling pitching. Overall, the strength of schedule is almost even. We face .474 opposition from here on out, and theirs will be .473 …

The other races are somewhat over according to mathematicians, who give the Rebels a 97% playoff chance due to the Cyclones’ crippling rest program, the Scorpions get 96% since the Pacifics have to play every good team there is in the FL, and the Bayhawks get a flat 100%. Our chance in numbers? 53%. Don’t take out a loan just to make a bet just yet.

Playing out this week took well over four hours and left me spiritually drained. Every game was a fight to the death. I will start a gofundme to get some therapy when this season is over.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (81-57) @ Canadiens (60-76) – September 4-6, 2017

The Elks had long dropped out of any race in the North, but they could still play spoilers to the Raccoons, as there were six games left between these two teams, and the Critters had so far lost seven of the dozen contests played. The Elks ranked last in offense in the Continental League, and their pitching was more or less average.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (17-9, 2.92 ERA) vs. Samuel McMullen (11-10, 2.64 ERA)
Chris Munroe (2-3, 7.71 ERA) vs. TBD
Hector Santos (11-4, 2.67 ERA) vs. Steve Kreider (8-10, 4.92 ERA)

Tuesday would be Kevin Clayton’s (3-11, 5.49 ERA) spot, but he was serving a suspension and was ineligible to pitch in this series. We assumed they could find a pitcher, somewhere. Starting the series facing Sam McMullen was not ideal for sure, and he was also a left-hander, against whom the Raccoons tended to choke.

Can someone please open a window? It smells in here!

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – RF Petracek – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Denny – SS McKnight – CF Duarte – 2B Moya – P Abe
VAN: SS Lawrence – 1B Fellows – LF Cameron – RF K. Evans – C Little – CF Cowan – 2B P. Green – 3B Grooms – P S. McMullen

Sam McMullen had 182 K in 201 innings this season and hung three more on the Raccoons in the first inning, but not without causing major havoc to his team. Petracek hit a single and advanced on a wild pitch before the Tiger homered to right center, and Denny and McKnight also found their way into scoring position via a single, walk, and a balk by McMullen before Duarte flailed out. Abe allowed a few hard-hit balls to centerfield in the early innings, but Alex Duarte was on the other end of all of them, and didn’t allow an actual base hit until Pat Green doubled up the leftfield line in the fifth inning. Past the first inning, the Raccoons mainly served to raise McMullen’s K count, which reached eight through six innings, and they hardly made it to scoring position despite the occasional odd runner. That changed in the seventh inning when Cookie hit a 1-out double up the rightfield line, his first time on base in the game, and Petracek was walked intentionally, which was an odd choice, even with platoon splits being considered. Nunley did ground out, moving the runners to scoring position, which was a good place for them to be when the Tiger found the gap between Don Cameron and Joe Cowan for a 2-run double, and the score reached 4-0. While Denny doubled Mendoza in for the fifth run, which also knocked out McMullen, Abe lasted until the bottom of the eighth, departing after a 2-out walk to Chris Grooms. Nielson took over and whiffed PH Enrique Garcia to end the inning and keep Abe’s ledger clean. The top ninth saw Frank Yeager use 20 pitches to load the bases with nobody out thanks to singles hit by Petracek and Walter, while Mendoza walked. Waggoner hit for Denny and got a sac fly done, before Green loaded the bases mishandling McKnight’s grounder. Duarte struck out, and DeWeese hit for Moya and legged out a roller for an RBI infield single. Young grounded out to end the inning, but the lead was sufficiently big to send Nick Lester into the bottom 9th and survive it. 7-0 Coons. Petracek 2-4, BB; Walter (PH) 1-1; Mendoza 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Denny 2-4, 2B, RBI; DeWeese (PH) 1-1, RBI; Abe 7.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (18-9);

The Elks never got another hit after the Green double, while Ricky Moya had his first major league hit, a single in his fourth attempt in the game and his seventh overall.

The Indians were idle this Monday, getting our lead to a full game, but we’d have Thursday off instead. No more 7-game weeks for the Raccoons in 2017, and all but one of the off days on Thursday.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Munroe
VAN: 2B Rinehart – 1B Fellows – LF Cameron – C Little – SS Lawrence – RF E. Garcia – CF Rocha – 3B Grooms – P Kreider

On the way to his own personal oblivion, Chris Munroe allowed three extra-base hits in the first inning, which amounted to three runs thanks to Jaylin Lawrence’s closing homer, and two more hits in the second, including a 2-run shot by Grooms. He would only make it to the fourth inning, and didn’t retire anybody there, walking Garcia and drilling Mario Rocha, which was well enough.

The Coons didn’t get a hit off Kreider until Shane Walter came up with a leadoff double in the fourth inning. Thanks to some 2-out terror by Nunley, McKnight, and Denny, who all reached in full counts, the Raccoons would score two runs, but remained far behind, and they only got further behind in that bottom of the fourth. Alex Ramirez replaced Munroe with two on and no outs, and sucked like no wannabe-closer had sucked before. The Elks licked him for two hard hits and he also made a throwing error on a grounder to plate three more runs for the Elks, which put the Coons down half a dozen and for all intents and purposes ended this game. Or did it? Kreider loaded the bases immediately in the fifth inning, with singles by Ochoa and Carmona, and Walter getting hit. Mendoza struck out, but DeWeese hit a ball to deep right, well hit, hard hit, outta here! GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!

That set the Critters behind by only two runs, and also ended Kreider’s day that had begun on short rest and ended with a short start. Bottom 5th, Nick Lester came in with left-handed bats coming up. He walked both of them, Lawrence and Garcia, and at that point it was “**** it”. The sucker was gonna get out of this on his own, or it wasn’t worth the worries anyway. Rocha struck out in a full count, Grooms grounded out (both switch-hitters), and then the left-hander Kurt Evans hit for the pitcher and popped out to end the inning. The Raccoons stranded runners on the corners in the sixth, didn’t reach in the seventh, and as the Elks emptied their pen in the eighth had two on with two out for Cookie Carmona, who faced the left-hander Orlando Valdez, who had just walked Brian Petracek to become the tying run on base. Cookie grounded up the middle, Jeff Rinehart intercepted it and made the play for the third out. A Rinehart error would put Mendoza on base to pull up DeWeese as the tying run with one out in the ninth. He ripped a single to center on a 1-2 pitch by closer Pedro Alvarado, who then couldn’t make a play on a roller by Matt Nunley, which was assessed as an infield single and loaded the bases. Come on, Ronnie!! McKnight only hit a sac fly to left, and on a 3-1 pitch, Denny grounded out to end the game. 8-7 Canadiens. DeWeese 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; McKnight 2-4, RBI; Ochoa (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – C Denny – P Santos
VAN: 2B Rinehart – 1B Fellows – LF Cameron – RF K. Evans – C Little – CF Cowan – SS Lawrence – 3B Grooms – P Bartels

A.J. Bartels was 11-13 with a 4.62 ERA (Morrison territory…) and walked Mendoza in the first before allowing a moonshot to DeWeese that went out of the park in a hurry. It was the big guy’s 20th shot of the season, and he seemed to be warming up for the stretch drive. He also made a tremendous grab on a Morgan Little liner that came not quite his way in the bottom 1st and if unchecked would have tied the game right away after Santos had walked Rinehart and allowed a single to Evans. Santos certainly allowed A LOT of HARD contact in the early innings, and conceded two quick singles in the bottom 2nd, allowing Bartels to hit a sac fly eventually. Santos remained wonky, and Little ALMOST hit a leadoff jack in the bottom of the fourth. DeWeese spoiled that one, too, right at the wall, and logged all three outs on fly balls of varying intensity in the fifth inning. The Critters could certainly use some more offense, but they were in a real lull until Matt Nunley hit a 2-out homer by surprise in the sixth inning, ever so slowly moving the score to 3-1. McKnight and Denny would then reach on a single (that turned into McKnight waiting on second base with no outs when Bartels balked) and a walk, respectively. Santos bunted them over, but Cookie fouled out behind home plate, and Walter grounded out to waste a perfect chance. Santos left after drilling Grooms with his 90th pitch in the bottom 7th, which brought up Enrique Garcia as the tying run and left-handed pinch-hitter with two outs. Thrasher got the call here, executed Garcia on three pitches, then issued three walks to three batters faced in the eighth. There was just no way for the Raccoons to get out of this one.

Jayden Reed entered the bases-loaded situation as we got ready for a meltdown of epic proportions. PH Russell Lewis hit a chopper on the infield that nobody managed to play and it became an RBI infield single. Little struck out before Reed ran a full count to the left-hander Joe Cowan, who drew the walk, tying the game. Lawrence struck out – except that he didn’t. His bat struck Denny’s glove, giving the ****ing Elks the lead on a bases-loaded catcher’s interference. Grooms struck out and Manlio Varone flew out to left center, but I successfully had all air sucked out of me back home in Portland and was tying a rope and looking for some place on the ceiling to affix it to. Alvarado allowed a 2-out single to Brandon Johnson in the ninth, but Cookie grounded out to Jeff Rinehart. 4-3 Canadiens. Mendoza 2-3, BB; Nunley 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Johnson (PH) 1-1; Santos 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

This one is right up there with Glenn Johnston dropping Ed Parrell’s fly, and Juan Diaz’ three wild pitches, and with Keith Ayers being out at home. This one will live in my memory forever.

For. Ever.

Thankfully the Indians were just as inept, lost two of three to the Crusaders, and thus remained half a game behind by Thursday night. Now bring on those Crusaders…

Raccoons (82-59) vs. Crusaders (69-70) – September 8-10, 2017

The Coons had already wrapped up the season series with the Crusaders before this last meeting between the two teams in 2017, taking 11 of the 15 contests so far. The Crusaders were sixth in runs scored and second-to-last in runs allowed, with a -110 run differential, but they had just let the Indians stumble, so we should watch out…

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (16-8, 1.94 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (14-12, 3.17 ERA)
Nick Brown (6-2, 4.30 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (7-13, 6.67 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (18-9, 2.81 ERA) vs. Bob King (14-10, 4.14 ERA)

Three right-handers in this set. Neither team had anybody on the DL except for left-handed relievers; Beaver for us, and Sugano and Albert Lorusso for them.

Game 1
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – CF J. Garcia – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – C Roland – 3B M. Salinas – 2B C. Martinez – SS Casillas – P J. Martin
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – C Denny – P Toner

While the Raccoons managed only one hit, a Denny single, the first time through the order, Jonny Toner ran a lot 2-strike counts in the first three innings, but hardly managed to retire anybody on strikes alone. His pitch count shot up like a rocket, and by the second time through the Crusaders were also getting on base. Cory Roland singled to center in the fourth inning, Miguel Salinas worked a walk, and then Carlos Martinez took a 2-2 pitch and hit a 2-run triple into the leftfield corner for the first runs in the game. The Coons took until the fifth to get on the board. Nunley and McKnight hit singles to get to the corners, and Denny hit a double to left to score Nunley. With one out, the tying and go-ahead runs were in scoring position, but “Midnight” called midnight for Toner with a K, and Cookie’s liner to left was scorched, but caught by Martin Ortíz. Toner allowed another run in the sixth after Winston Jones hit a leadoff double. The ****ing Martinez batted him in with a 2-out single to right. But there was a chance to still give him a W. Walter hit a leadoff single in the bottom 6th and Ortíz couldn’t catch up with Mendoza’s fly to deep left, which became a double and put the tying runs in scoring position. Yet all the Blighters could come up with was a DeWeese sac fly. “Midnight” whiffed Nunley, and Waggoner ****tily grounded out. For once, the bullpen held up – more or less. Korb, Mathis, and Chun pitched 2 2/3 without panic before Nielson came in against some left-handers, which immediately turned into two on the inning still continuing. Alex Ramirez got the third out from Stanton Martin, who hit for Jaime Garcia and grounded out. The Coons had one last chance to put this one into the correct column, with Helio Maggessi (1.96 ERA, 75 K in 59.2 IP) facing DeWeese to start the bottom 9th in the 3-2 game. DeWeese, predictably, struck out, and Nunley and Waggoner hit pathetic grounders to lose the team’s third straight game. 3-2 Crusaders. Denny 2-3, 2B, RBI;

The Indians beat the Loggers, 4-2, dropping the Raccoons into a well-deserved second place.

Game 2
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – 3B M. Salinas – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – 2B C. Martinez – C Roland – SS Paull – CF J. Garcia – P Sabatino
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – 1B Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – RF Waggoner – SS McKnight – C Denny – P Brown

Brownie wouldn’t see a left-handed batter other than Martin Ortíz in this lineup, and he already struggled mightily in the first two innings, although the Crusaders had yet to push a run from third base to home plate. Cookie had hit a leadoff single in the first but had been caught stealing by Cory Roland, who normally didn’t throw out anybody, and in the second, DeWeese reached on an error to start the inning. Nunley flew hard to right, but right to Jones, but Waggoner got the ball in for a single. McKnight’s drive to center was also caught, moving DeWeese to third. Denny sent a liner up the leftfield line. DeWeese scored as it fell in, and against Ortíz’ weak, old arm Waggoner was sent around third base and was called out in a tremendous collision with Roland that left Waggoner on the ground as the inning ended. Denny and Brownie had to help Waggoner off the field as the rightfielder favored the right ankle – a task that was beneath DeWeese. Duarte replaced Waggoner.

McKnight turned a nifty double play on Ray Gilbert to end the top 3rd and spare Brownie some nasty damage, and the Coons had Cookie and Walter on with singles with one out the bottom of the inning. Mendoza grounded to Martinez – double play. The Crusaders broke through in the fourth inning. Jones drew a leadoff walk, and Martinez – the ****er – went deep immediately, flipping the score. Brown would go on to allow two more extra-base hits off the fence in addition to an Ortíz single, and was charged another two runs in what was swiftly turning into the Raccoons’ fourth straight loss. Brown was knocked out without retiring another batter in the fifth as Jones singled, Martinez got drilled (good job! Honestly!) and Roland also singled past McKnight. Jayden Reed came in to strike out Eric Paull, Marcos Mercado, and Sabatino in order, but the Raccoons had yet to put a serious dent into Sabatino, who had an ERA in Munroeland. They did open the bottom 5th with three straight singles by McKnight, Denny, and Young, which scored a run and put the tying runs on base for the top of the order. Cookie hit another single to center, with Martinez ALMOST getting his filthy hands on it. The bases were loaded for Shane Walter (both pitchers had now allowed ten hits in four+ innings), and the Crusaders completely missed the right point to change pitchers. Walter singled to right, 4-3, and Mendoza singled to left, flipping the score back in favor of the home team. Nunley hit another RBI single off Sabatino, but that was it, 6-4 after five. The Crusaders had the tying run on base instantly in the top 6th when Nick Lester drilled Ortíz, and left in favor of Alex Ramirez, who ran a full count on Miguel Salinas before striking him out with Martin Ortíz declaring it to be go time. Denny threw him out, and the Coons made it out of the inning, and McKnight turned a conventional 6-4-3 double play for Ramirez in the seventh. Chun got through the eighth in 1-2-3 fashion before the Raccoons got a chance to put this one away safely against Robert Parsons. Denny, Young, and Cookie hit straight 1-out singles in the bottom 8th, the latter two of the infield variety. Was that all the good luck they could find, or could somebody actually put on a real swing here? Parsons threw one more pitch, Walter grounded to Martinez, and the inning was over, 4-6-3. With only one run of cushioning, Ron Thrasher took care of Martin Ortíz to start the ninth. When Stanton Martin came out to pinch-hit, Mathis got the ball. Martin flew out to right, but ****ing Ray Gilbert singled to left. Ron Richards hit for Winston Jones, but we knew well that he was no clutch – and struck out. 6-4 Blighters. Carmona 5-5; Walter 2-5, RBI; Waggoner 1-1; Denny 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Young (PH) 2-3, RBI; Ramirez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

The Raccoons had 16 hits, and only Denny’s double was for an extra base. The Crusaders had 11 hits, and four of those for extra bases. We hit into three double plays, they hit into four.

Also, the Furballs reclaimed first place (even if by accident) when the Indians lost a 7-6 game in Milwaukee in 13 innings, blowing leads in the eighth and eleventh innings, before succumbing to a walkoff single by Adam Redmond. Whoever the **** that was.

Gabriel Martinez tells me that Redmond is a 23-year old rookie who played in his second major league game. Then he went on to call somebody in Spanish, but giving his sucking and ass-licking voice, he was probably talking to the Mexican Prick and told him that I was a moron.

I would like nothing more than a stress-free Sunday game. Doesn’t have to be a win… just less nervetuckery.

Game 3
NYC: LF M. Ortíz – 2B C. Martinez – 1B Gilbert – RF W. Jones – C Roland – 3B M. Salinas – CF Brissett – SS Paull – P Bo. King
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Walter – RF Mendoza – LF DeWeese – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – C Denny – 1B Young – P Abe

Abe had no strikeouts the first time through, and instead walked two in the second inning, which led to a 2-out RBI single by King Bobo. That was not exactly what I had meant… the Coons got the run back in the bottom 2nd although they once again could have done much more. Nunley singled, McKnight doubled, and with one out all they did was a Denny sac fly and Young whiffed altogether. Bottom 4th, Martinez made an error, which led to cheers erupting from the stands, which put DeWeese on with one out. Nunley walked, and then McKnight singled over the head of Martinez for the go-ahead run to score as DeWeese came home from second base. With 2-0 on Denny, King threw a wild pitch that advanced the runners, and Denny completed the walk to load the bases for Young, who didn’t dare fail again and singled to right, with two runs scoring. Abe chopped a single to center on a 2-2 pitch, reloading the bases for Cookie, and Cookie’s grounder to the right side went under Martinez’ glove and into rightfield, scoring two, the crowd went absolutely bonkers. 6-1 after four, this looked good for Abe to not only win #19 of the year, but also to pitch a bunch more innings to calm everything and everybody (and foremost the nerve-wrecked GM) down.

R.J. DeWeese upped the score in the bottom 5th with a leadoff jack off Curtis Tobitt, who was merely a shadow of former times and had a 10+ ERA. Sparingly used, he allowed singles to Nunley and McKnight. Denny grounded out, Young was walked intentionally, and then he threw a wild pitch to Abe – and walked him. A slam chance for slugger Carmona dissipated on a balk being called on Tobitt at 2-2, and Cookie scored a run with a groundout, which was all the Crusaders could bear to watch. Bobby Regan replaced Tobitt, but allowed the fifth run of the inning to score when Walter singled to center. So, of course, in an 11-1 game, Tadasu Abe stopped pitching immediately. The Crusaders raked him for five hits and three runs in the sixth before he was removed with two in scoring position and Ortíz up to bat. Nielson walked Ortíz, turning the ball over to Reed, who faced the ****head Martinez, who took a full count pitch to left center for a 2-run single. Gilbert grounded out, but now the Crusaders had their own 5-spot and it was only an 11-6 game.

And the madness was far from over. Bergquist hit a pinch-hit dinger in the bottom 7th, 12-6, but Will West got shredded in the top of the eighth. Can’t anybody on this ****ing team pitch anymore??? Three singles and a walk pushed a run in and had the bases loaded with one out for Mathis to dissect – with nobody else than Gilbert coming up. The count ran full, I was not far removed from losing my last pair of marbles, and then Gilbert hacked out. Two out, Winston Jones coming up and hitting a 1-0 HARD to DEEP center. Alex Duarte had replaced Cookie in a lopsided game and dashed after it, making the catch just in front of the warning track. That was the last act in a completely mad series. Finally. 12-7 Raccoons. Nunley 2-3, BB; Johnson (PH) 1-1; McKnight 3-5, 2B, RBI; Young 1-2, BB, 2 RBI; Bergquist (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Mathis 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (4);

Ray Gilbert officially isn’t the biggest dickhead on the Crusaders anymore…

Nah, what am I talking about. He is. Of course he is.

In other news

September 4 – No-hitter! OCT SP Brian Furst (12-13, 3.78 ERA) allows only two walks and no hits in a 5-0 victory over the Aces, spinning the 36th no-hitter in ABL history. It is also the first no-hitter for a home team since Juan Garcia’s perfect game in 2008, and the second no-hitter in Thunder history after Alex Lindsey’s, which also happened in 2008.
September 4 – In the Loggers’ 10-7 win over the Titans, both teams combined for 13 runs in the sixth inning. The Loggers score seven to take an 8-0 lead, then concede six right away in the bottom of the inning.
September 4 – The Warriors pound on the Wolves, crushing them in an 18-7 victory. Jamie Wilson (.291, 16 HR, 62 RBI) has three hits and a walk, scores four times and also drives in four.
September 5 – CIN OF/1B/2B Chris Erskine (.435, 0 HR, 1 RBI in 10 AB) is 24 years old and has only appeared in five games for the Cyclones this season, but he now has a 20-game hitting streak after two hits in the Cyclones’ 6-2 win over the Miners. Erskine had base hits in the last 15 games of his stint with the Cyclones in 2016.
September 5 – Three CL games end with 8-2 scores; the Knights, Crusaders, and Bayhawks beat – in order – the Falcons, Indians, and Condors by the same tally.
September 6 – Cincy’s Chris Erskine (.370, 0 HR, 1 RBI) has his 15 minutes of fame end in a 4-3 defeat by the Miners, going hitless in the game, ending his 20-game hitting streak.
September 7 – MIL SP Luis Guerrero (8-13, 3.89 ERA) throws a 1-hitter in a 3-0 shutout against the Titans. Ezra Branch’s seventh-inning double is all that stands between him and a no-hitter.
September 7 – SAC SP Graham Wasserman (13-6, 3.90 ERA) is expected to be out nine months with a torn labrum.
September 8 – The Condors’ 24-year old phenom Luis Flores (10-8, 2.85 ERA) 2-hits the Falcons in a 12-0 rout.
September 8 – By the same 12-0 score the Bayhawks romp the Aces, with SFB SP Alex Maldonado (12-4, 3.16 ERA, 1 SV) throwing a 3-hit shutout against them.
September 8 – Not a shutout, but a rout nevertheless, as the Stars sweep the Scorpions aside, 14-1.
September 10 – The Aces walk off against the Bayhawks, 6-5, thanks to a passed ball charged to Dylan Alexander.

Complaints and stuff

Thrasher…

William Waggoner was diagnosed with a sprained ankle, which will put him out of action for the stretch drive. Should the unlikely happen and the Coons qualify for October ball, he could probably be available, but the Druid is not making any clear statements and also reminds me that it’s not a full moon yet, so the ceremony can’t be performed.

What ceremony?

Cookie had missed A LOT of time early in the season, but he is now back and qualifying for the batting title race – and he’s leading it. His .343 mark bests Adrian Quebell (…!!) by seven points. Only two guys are batting more in the FL, including Yoshi Nomura.

I miss Yoshi.

There was a trade this week that didn’t make many waves but was significant as the second-to-last piece of the Crusaders’ dynasty eternal left the team via Sacramento. 1B Francisco Caraballo had batted .284 with two homers in limited exposure this season. The Crusaders also sent cash to cover expenses and a lackluster prospect, and acquired OF Jaime Garcia, who was batting .262 with no home runs, also in limited exposure. The key here was that while neither of the big leaguers had much juice left in his body, Garcia’s contract was up after the season, while Caraballo was guaranteed another $1.7M in 2018, so those sneaky New Yorkers were already clearing the books to splash in free agency again.

We have Monday off ahead of a string of nine consecutive games, which means that we will get to skip the Morrison/Munroe/Your Grandma slot twice, while pitching one of the losers next Saturday. That is swell! Nothing much else is, but that one is swell…

Remaining games of the North contenders by opponent:
POR: ATL (3), BOS (3), IND (3), MIL (3), OCT (3), VAN (3)
IND: BOS (4), CHA (3), LVA (3), NYC (3), POR (3), VAN (3)