Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (54-42) vs. Bayhawks (48-52) – July 28-30, 2020

The hopefully rejuvenated Raccoons were riding a season-high 5-game winning streak as they were about to encounter the Bayhawks, who were slowly but surely sinking away from the top of their division and were already assured of their second consecutive losing month, breathing heavily at 8-14 for July after an already bottomless 11-16 June. The offense was clicking for them, scoring the most runs in the Continental League, but they were also allowing the most runs and had no run differential at all, with 462 runs on either side of their linescores. Their defense was the worst in the league, and there was really not a lot of hope for them to turn this one around. The Coons were 3-0 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (7-6, 3.38 ERA) vs. Graham Wasserman (6-9, 4.04 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (11-5, 2.57 ERA) vs. Joao Joo (7-6, 3.57 ERA)
Damani Knight (2-1, 4.22 ERA) vs. Mark Roberts (11-8, 3.08 ERA)

Right, left, left, except they use the off day on Monday to flip things around, though I can’t come up with any reason to see more of Zach Boyer (7-8, 5.17 ERA) than absolutely necessary.

Game 1
SFB: LF R. Allen – 1B A. Martinez – SS Claros – 3B D. Garcia – RF Sarabia – C Frasier – 2B G. Gonzalez – CF Bautista – P Wasserman
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – 2B Nomura – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – P Abe

Abe struck out five in the first three innings, generally executing all pitches well, and only spilled one base hit, a single by 28-yr old rookie Craig Frasier, who came in hitting a nifty 3-for-30 on the season. However, while Wasserman wasn’t as flashy, he still didn’t allow much to the Critters. Matt Nunley hit a double, and that was largely it the first time through the order. The Coons didn’t get another hit until Nunley’s next turn, and the third baseman rolled a ball right up the middle for a 2-out single in the bottom 4th. It was the first of three straight singles to center of left center for the team, with McKnight chipping a 1-2 pitch into left center to score Nunley. DeWeese legged out a roller for an infield single to load the bases, but Abe struck out to keep everybody stranded. He would be in trouble in the fifth after a bad throw by Margolis to first base on Felipe Bautista’s grounder eluded Mendoza and became a 2-base throwing error at the start of the inning. Bautista moved up on Wasserman’s groundout, but Roger Allen had a K hung on him, and Nunley took good care of Armando Martinez’ grounder to end the inning.

Just as five innings would be complete, rain began to fall. Raul Claros grounded out to Mendoza to start the sixth inning, after which the tarp came on and would remain on for about 90 minutes, thus cutting Abe’s start well short at 72 pitches in a 3-hit shutout. Play resumed with Seung-mo Chun on the mound, but he would retire nobody, allowing singles to Dave Garcia, Victor Sarabia, and Frasier (who was now 3-for-3 after entering 3-for-30) to concede the tying run and leave runners on first and second for Ron Thrasher. But the baseball gods had decided that the Coons’ winning streak was to end right here and now, and Gerardo Gonzalez murdered a Thrasher pitch for a 3-run homer to right, putting the Coons in a 4-1 hole. They would put on two men in the bottom 7th against Francisquo Bocanegra, a former Raccoon, but couldn’t even touch third base, while emptying almost their entire bullpen in a futile attempt to find any kind of relief against the consistently base-occupying Bayhawks. Chris Mathis would concede a run in the ninth, finally, drilling leadoff man Roger Allen, who had struck out three times already, with a 1-2 pitch, and Allen came around to score on singles by Raul Claros and Dave Garcia. The Bayhawks needed only two relievers, Bocanegra and Jim Cushing pitching two innings each to get the game over with. 5-1 Bayhawks. Nunley 3-4, 2B; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Abe 5.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K;

Gee, that was a cold shower. And now for the left-handers…

Game 2
SFB: LF R. Allen – 1B A. Martinez – SS Claros – 3B D. Garcia – RF Sarabia – C Frasier – 2B G. Gonzalez – CF Bautista – P Joo
POR: LF Carmona – CF Bareford – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 2B Prince – P Toner

Toner started on extra rest, yet in a pickle, walking Allen on four pitches and conceding a single to Martinez up the middle to get this game underway, but they were the only Baybirds to reach the first time through the order. Toner struck out Claros and got out of the inning with two groundouts before whiffing the side in the second, then 1-0 ahead after Bareford had singled and eventually scored on Eddie Jackson’s single in the bottom of the first inning. Allen would be trouble again, however, hitting a 1-out double in the third inning, and this started an inning right out of hell, because all of a sudden Toner lost the strike zone completely. Martinez singled to center again, and Toner would walk Claros to fill the bags. Garcia fired a rocket to center that Bareford spoiled, but Allen scored with the tying run on the sac fly. Toner then lost Sarabia on four pitches to refill the bases before the annoying nobody Frasier hit one to Mendoza for the third out, stranding three. The bottom of the order was Toner’s breakfast, but the top of the order was a big problem. Claros came close to a home run in the fifth, and the Raccoons got base hits from Prince and Toner in the bottom 5th and then with one out couldn’t as much as hit a ball out of the infield.

When the Raccoons did take the lead back in the sixth inning, it was a lottery of inches. After Mendoza opened the inning grounding out, Jackson and Nunley both hit sharp bouncers in the tiny space between Martinez and the first base bag. Martinez got neither, they were both barely fair, and both were doubles up the line. Jackson scored on Nunley’s double before the Birds walked Margolis intentionally to bring up a completely out-of-tune Ronnie McKnight, who burned the Birds by hitting a 1-2 pitch into the gap in right center. Nunley scored, 3-1, on the RBI double. Then the Birds walked Tim Prince onto the open base, which was a dangerous game with a pitcher batting .370 on the season and still a remarkable .283 (in 555 AB!) in his career. I’d have tried my luck with Prince, who was a happy poker, but Toner was nobody’s fool and laid off Joo’s junk to draw a bases-loaded walk, netting his 12th RBI of the season. Cookie was hitless in the series, but singled to left center to score two, and that was all for Joo. Micah McIntyre replaced him and got a double play from Bareford to keep the Coons to five runs in the inning and a 6-1 lead in total. The Birds would cut into that right away, however. Toner already entered the seventh on 90 pitches and got two outs, but after Willie Ramos’ pinch-hit double probably should have been removed on 101 pitches. He remained in there to face Allen again, threw a wild pitch and then conceded the run on a sharp single. Mathis replaced him and K’ed Martinez to get out of the inning, but was served in the eighth with a single by Claros and RBI double off the fence in left by Garcia. Thrasher took over, but the tying run appeared at the plate with nobody out as Sarabia reached on McKnight’s error. Runners on the corners in a 6-3 game, Thrasher ran a full count with Frasier before striking him out, and then completed the inning with two more K’s to Gonzalez and Bautista. The Raccoons responded slowly in the bottom 8th, but did respond eventually. McKnight hit a leadoff double off Barry MacDonald, who retired pinch-hitters Nomura on a grounder and DeWeese on a foul pop before Cookie dumped a 2-out single into left to score McKnight, 7-3. Bareford doubled into the gap, chasing home Carmona from first, 8-3, and then Mendoza romped a homer to right center to break MacDonald’s spirits. Charlie Cogger finished the game for the Raccoons, allowing a single to Allen, but ending the game with a K to Claros. 10-3 Furballs! Carmona 2-5, 3 RBI; Bareford 2-5, 2B, RBI; Jackson 2-4, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Prince 1-2, BB; Toner 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (12-5) and 1-2, RBI;

This was the Coons’ first time scoring 10 runs since July 5 over the Indians, which itself then came over a month after the previous instance on June 3. They had three games of 10+ runs in April, and four in May, so this makes it 10-times 10 for them in 2020.

The Bayhawks were involved in a trade before the rubber game, sending the aforementioned Zach Boyer (7-8, 5.17 ERA) to the Loggers for INF Emilio Farias (.342, 0 HR, 15 RBI) and unranked pitching prospect Rodolfo Cervantes.

Game 3
SFB: LF R. Allen – 2B Farias – 3B D. Garcia – SS Claros – RF Sarabia – 1B A. Martinez – C Frasier – CF W. Ramos – P M. Roberts
POR: LF Carmona – CF Bareford – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – 2B Nomura – SS Prince – C Olivares – 3B Petracek – P Knight

Damani Knight was taken apart in no time at all in the first inning. Walking the newly-minted Baybird Farias, who had spent most of his career with their division rivals in Oklahoma City, Knight then issued a wild pitch and a balk before Claros singled home the runner. Sarabia was hit by a pitch, Martinez hit an RBI single to center, and Frasier came close enough to a double that the bullpen guys had to put down the pizza and stretch even though Bareford made the catch, ending a terrible 2-run inning. But if you thought it would get better now, you were ****ing mistaken. Knight walked Willie Ramos on four pitches to begin the second, and Prince took a dump on a grounder by Mark Roberts, misfiring it for an error. Allen flew out deep to left where Cookie was on point to get the first out, but Farias singled sharply to load the bases, and then Petracek misfielded Garcia’s groundball for the second error of the inning. Claros scored the Birds’ fourth run with a groundout, and Sarabia knocked in two with a double before Martinez lined out to Nomura. The Birds were up by six, half of the runs unearned. The game was lost already; Knight lingered into the fifth inning before imploding with three base hits at the start of the inning, a single by Sarabia, a 2-run homer by Martinez, 8-0, and then Frasier singling yet again in his consistent hit parade in this series. Chun replaced the useless garbage thrower Knight, escaped the inning without conceding yet another run (but what’s another run?), then handed things over to Cogger, who was promptly skinned. Farias hit a leadoff single, Garcia flew out to deep right, but then Claros walked and Sarabia singled to load the bases. Martinez hit a 2-run double into the right center gap, 10-0, and Cogger plated another run with a wild pitch. Frasier grounded out while keeping Sarabia on third, but with two down Cogger walked Ramos and then surrendered an RBI single to Mark Roberts on an 0-2 pitch. That was WELL enough. Runners on the corners in a 12-0 game, Joel Davis – who at some point had been some sort of semi-closer, but now was used exclusively to manage escalating ****storms – replaced Cogger, who went straight onto the waiver wire, and plated Ramos with a wild pitch before Allen made the last out of the inning, presumably while falling over his own feet out of the box. I wasn’t watching anymore, having resorted to booze and drunken reveling about nine runs ago. In the seventh, Farias reached on an infield single and advanced on Davis’ balk and wild pitch alone before scoring on Claros’ sac fly, which at that time gave the Bayhawks something like a 14-0 lead. The Raccoons had yet to touch third base, which was still fairly worn out and in need of replacement. The final tally would be sixteen for the Bayhawks, with solo jobs by Allen (off Davis) and Garcia (off Kaiser) filling the runs board. Roberts struck out three in a 5-hit shutout. The Raccoons never reached third base. 16-0 Bayhawks. Bareford 2-4, 2B;

…annn then I saiddahim… say! … say! … uhm… whaddaya… whaddare all these colors … uhm… whaddissis allll ABOUT IN HERE?? (swipes half-empty booze bottle off the table, shattering it on the wall, then falls off the chair to the other side, dissolving in tears) NANA WASSO RIGH… I SHOULDA STUDDIDIED HAHDER…!!!

[howling sounds]

The Raccoons waived Charlie Cogger (9.95 ERA) and designated him for assignment. 27-year old Enrique Morales was called up for long relief duty. The Domincan right-hander had appeared in one game for the 2019 Raccoons, allowing five runs on nine hits in 1.2 innings for a crafty 6.60 WHIP. Morales had a 3.41 ERA in 31 innings in AAA.

Raccoons (55-44) vs. Aces (55-46) – July 31-August 2, 2020

Somehow, the Raccoons had already taken the season series, 5-1, from the CL South-leading Aces, who ranked fifth in runs scored and only eighth in runs allowed, lacking pitching quite badly, but oh well, even the lowly Bayhawks managed to hold the Raccoons almost dry in two of their three games…

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (4-6, 4.93 ERA) vs. Clark Johnson (7-6, 2.96 ERA)
Travis Garrett (2-5, 4.39 ERA) vs. John Key (6-4, 2.34 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (7-6, 3.24 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (6-9, 5.00 ERA)

The Aces‘ rotation is entirely right-handed. We need to watch out for their legs, with the team in the top 3 in stolen bases in the league.

Game 1
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – LF D. Brown – RF M. Hamilton – 3B I. Alvarez – SS Medina – C D. Rice – 2B March – P C. Johnson
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Guerrero

Margolis throwing out runners still worked – the only thing on the team that still worked – as he nailed Andres Medina trying to take third base in the second inning. By then, however, the Coons were already 1-0 behind, Guerrero having put on Izzy Alvarez with a walk in the inning and then advancing him on a balk. Medina grasped the opportunity and singled him in, taking second base on Metts’ throw home. Margolis evened the score with a leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd, and the Coons were soon in the lead. McKnight singled, Metts doubled into the leftfield corner, and with runners in scoring position and still nobody out, Johnson threw a wild pitch to DeWeese, a ready recipient of strikes. DeWeese would eventually hit a sac fly on a 2-2 pitch, the last of the Coons’ three runs in the inning. Up 3-1, the home crowd saw Guerrero continuing to decompose on the mound in the third inning. Starting with Clark Johnson, the Aces hit three sharp singles to load the bases with one out. Dan Brown hacked himself out, but Matt Hamilton scorched a liner to the left side – and McKnight took it with a swipe that was at least 50% self-defense as the ball was making a bee line for his right ear. Ronnie tumbled back and landed on his back, but the ball was firmly in his glove and the inning was over.

Guerrero’s sucking wasn’t however. The Aces got Dan March on base with a single in the fifth, and brought up the middle of the order with two outs. Adam Flack singled to right, Dan Brown slashed an 0-2 pitch into the right-center gap for an RBI double, and Matt Hamilton hit another ball sharply to right, this one for a 2-run single, giving the Aces the lead back, 4-3. Guerrero never got that third out. Nunley missed an Izzy Alvarez grounder for a hard error, and Medina hit another rock-hard RBI single to left. Kaiser replaced the smelling remains of Guerrero and somehow wobbled out of the inning, down 5-3. Not that the misery would end there. The sixth inning saw Jeff Boynton waffled for four more hits (14 total for Las Vegas, three for the ****ed up bunch that used to play here) and three more runs, now trailing 8-3. Seung-mo Chun would pitch the last three innings, conceding another run, while the Raccoons drew zero excitement from Danny Margolis’ second home run of the game, a 2-run shot off Johnson in the bottom of the eighth inning. Johnson allowed five hits, but also walked five and never struck out a position player, but that was still enough to go eight full innings for an easy win. 9-5 Aces. Margolis 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; McKnight 2-4;

If you would have put money on the fact that Danny Margolis would be the second Raccoon this season to reach double-digit home runs, you probably would have been certified insane, but you’d now be crazy rich as well.

The Aces moved Nem Jones into the middle game, which probably makes Saturday a shutout.

Game 2
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – LF D. Brown – RF M. Hamilton – 3B I. Alvarez – SS Medina – C D. Rice – 2B March – P N. Jones
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Garrett

Garrett allowed only two hits the first time through the order, but a scoreless game saw third-year centerfielder Armando Martinez and Adam Flack hit 1-out singles in the third inning to go to the corners. Dan Brown drove a ball to right center with might, and while Metts somehow got there, a run was gonna score all the time. Garrett hung a K on Hamilton to end the inning, his fifth in the game, but now had to wait for support that would probably never come. The Aces in any case added a run in the fourth on back-to-back screaming doubles by Medina into the corner in right and by Danny Rice to right center, and were much closer to knocking Garrett from the game than the Raccoons were to getting anything done at all. The Aces got two in scoring position in the fifth inning on Brown walking and Hamilton doubling to center before Alvarez flew out to left, while the Raccoons had landed two singles in the FIRST and nothing since then. DeWeese finally woke them up with a 1-out double to center in the bottom 5th. Garrett struck out, but Cookie – in a slump like no other – managed to bloop a single near the leftfield line and Brown had some way to go and no shot at DeWeese scampering home with the Coons’ first run of the game, which the Aces now led 2-1. Margolis and McKnight hit 2-out singles in the sixth, but Metts’ lousy grounder was not enough to beat Flack either at or to first base. Garrett pitched seven innings and struck out eight, but remained on the hook after being hit for in the bottom 7th, Prince striking out in his place in the middle of a 1-2-3 inning for Nem Jones, who had another one of those in the eighth. Mathis, Thrasher, and Boynton held the Aces to their 1-run lead, with the Raccoons eventually facing left-hander Edwin Balandran, whom the Aces had picked up from the Pacifics earlier in the week, in the bottom of the ninth inning. Margolis struck out, McKnight flew out to center, and Jackson grounded out to short. 2-1 Aces. Garrett 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, L (2-6);

Raw sadness. That is … no, that still does nothing to describe what I feel like.

Game 3
LVA: CF A. Martinez – 1B Flack – LF D. Brown – RF M. Hamilton – SS Medina – C D. Rice – 3B Navarro – 2B March – P A. Silva
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – RF Petracek – C Olivares – P Abe

The Aces weren’t using John Key after all, sending Alex Silva (7-4, 3.62 ERA) into the last game of the series to obtain a juicy series sweep over a team that lacked basic means to defend its private parts, as readily visible in the top of the first inning, in which the Aces loaded the bases without the benefit of a base hit, as Martinez reached on a throwing error by Nunley before Abe walked Brown and Hamilton. After having Andres Medina at 1-2, Abe threw not one, but TWO wild pitches to score not one, but TWO runs, and THEN struck out Medina. Danny Rice finally gave the poor team a hit, nailing a 2-0 pitch for a 2-run homer and putting the Raccoons away, 4-0 in the first. Granted, the team made up a run right away, Cookie singling and coming home on Mendoza’s 2-out double in the bottom 1st, but c’mon, whom are we kidding here?

Actually, the Coons led by the bottom of the third inning. Bareford homered in the second, 4-2, and in the third the Coons got Yoshi on with a 1-out single. Nunley was no help, but Mendoza hit a triple into the gap, 4-3, before McKnight turned a 1-2 pitch around for a soaring homer to right center, flipping the score to 5-4 in favor of the Coons. Abe wasn’t going to be of much help in maintain the new status quo, however, with Jose Navarro’s leadoff single in the fourth putting the tying run on right away, and Abe then walked Dan March on four pitches. Jimmy Hubbard pinch-hit for a disgraced Silva, ran a full count before striking out, and Martinez also whiffed. Cookie made a running grab on Adam Flack’s looper to left to keep the Aces in arrears, with the score growing to 5-3 against Stephen Quirion in the bottom 4th due to a 1-out single by Olivares, and after a bunt by Abe Cookie coming up with an RBI double to center, but the Aces picked a run out of Abe’s pelt in the fifth inning, which he barely survived. Five hits, five walks made for five runs in five innings.

A relentlessly coughing bullpen had to pick up the slack for another four innings, with Chun not even getting through one before having to be rescued. Thrasher found two outs, Flack on second and Brown on first, and blew the lead allowing a bouncer through Mendoza’s home court to Matt Hamilton for an RBI single. Medina struck out, but there we were, tied at six. Quirion was still in the game, and not really retiring batters in orderly fashion. Olivares hit a 1-out double in the bottom 6th, which was quickly followed by a single by Dwayne Metts (who had entered in a double switch with Thrasher). Runners on the corners, Cookie singled through on the right side, giving the Coons the lead back, 7-6. Cookie stole second, and with Yoshi’s single to center both runners scored, 9-6. Quirion was gone after being burned for four runs and on the hook for another, with left-hander Alex Morin in the game to restore order as well as a guy with a 5.58 ERA could. Oh well, it was enough to get Matt Nunley to hit into a double play… Things stayed interesting as the Coons tried to piece together the remaining innings with their flayed relief corps. Armando Martinez homered off Joel Davis in the eighth, getting the Aces back within a pair, but Yoshi Nomura appeared to put the game to bed in the bottom of the eighth inning, nailing a 96mph heater from southpaw Ken Chilcott for a 2-out, 3-run homer that was entirely unearned thanks to Chilcott’s own error that had put Olivares on base, and also extended the Coons’ lead to 12-7. In a mighty throw of the dice, Enrique Morales made his season debut in the ninth with a 5-run lead. Danny Rice doubled on his second pitch of the season, but Morales came back to strike out Navarro and March. Corey Curro pinch-hit and popped up a 2-0 pitch for McKnight to take, and the Coons salvaged a game in the series. 12-7 Blighters. Carmona 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 3-5, HR, 5 RBI; Mendoza 2-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Olivares 2-4, 2B;

In other news

July 27 – The Aces send RF/LF Saverio Piepoli (.320, 8 HR, 37 RBI) to the Pacifics. The 29-year old outfielder nets them the services of 27-yr old left-hander Edwin Balandran (0-2, 3.00 ERA) and prospect Matt Tutterrow, who is included in his second deal in as many days.
July 27 – Denver’s Colin Sabatino (3-3, 3.05 ERA, 5 SV) throws only two pitches upon entering a 1-1 tie with the Rebels in the bottom of the 11th inning before his wild pitch to Jeff Rinehart plates Stanley Murphy from third base, allowing the Rebels to walk off, 2-1.
July 29 – NAS SP Matt McCabe (4-9, 3.99 ERA) is sent to the Capitals in exchange for unranked infield prospect Drew Greene.
July 29 – The Gold Sox not only beat the Rebels 1-0 on RF Tom Reese’s (.255, 10 HR, 54 RBI) home run; no, that homer is also their only base hit against the Rebels’ Josh Knupp (5-5, 3.84 ERA) and Kevin DuCharme.
July 30 – The Titans trade SP Jose Diaz (8-5, 3.01 ERA) to the Capitals for two prospects, including #71 SS Jason Benedetto.
July 30 – The Blue Sox deal LF/RF Winston Jones (.290, 2 HR, 21 RBI) back to the Gold Sox, along with cash, for SP A.J. Bartels (8-8, 4.11 ERA) and a prospect. Jones spent the last few seasons with the Gold Sox before signing a 1-year deal with Nashville before the season.

Complaints and stuff

Jonny Toner was Pitcher of the Month in the Continental League, which is one of many reasons why I, while bringing you this report, am clinging to his leg as he tries to make his way to his car – somebody’s gotta watch over my boy!! Toner went 5-1 with a 1.44 ERA and struck out SIXTY-SIX in 43.2 innings!

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
93th – Ian Rutter – 1,706 – active
94th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699
95th – Paul Kirkland – 1,698
96th – Juan Garcia – 1,684
97th – Jesse Carver – 1,682
98th – Jonathan Toner – 1,670 – active
99th – Hector Santos – 1,664 – active, on DL
100th – Kevin Williams – 1,649

Until Friday, Raccoons led the CL in all pitching triple crown categories. Toner led in strikeouts (more or less by default; best pitcher in the game, hello-ho?) and at least tied for the lead in wins the entire week. Hector Santos led in ERA; however that ended on Saturday, when his 100 innings pitched this season removed him from the list after the Coons’ 101 games played. I don’t want to stir hope by saying that he might come back in late September. We have not ruled it out 100%, but we can probably put his chances at less than 5% of getting back to the mound this year.

In miscellaneous stuff that we don’t appreciate, I noticed the opposition’s general refusal to bunt with their pitchers. Everybody can blow over a Raccoons pitcher (minus Toner). This week, in clear bunt spots, opposing teams let pitchers swing away against Knight, Guerrero, and even Abe. ABE!!

I tried to trade for a pitcher before the deadline, going from attempting to sell just a week earlier to looking for help for the rotation, because let’s be honest, right now it’s Abe, Toner, and then three replacement level clowns that don’t know what they’re doing.

However, our general lack of any meaningful prospects (same tune as always…) was biting us, because we couldn’t ice any good starter from anybody. So, while trying to sell first, and trying to buy later, we ended up doing nothing and everything sucks. I think I need something to clear my mind. Maud has suggested yoga, Chad suggests glue, and Honeypaws’ permanently non-caring, yet content expression suggests that nothing beats being born as a stuffed toy.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (56-46) @ Thunder (54-48) – August 3-5, 2020

The Raccoons were entering the middle week of a 20-day streak of games without an off day (also a 2-week road trip taking them to all corners of the league), playing the rejuvenated Thunder for the deciding 3-game set of the season series, which was so far tied at three. The Thunder were only two games out of first place in the South, which continued to be tightly contested, despite being dead-last in runs scored in the Continental League. Their pitching was decent, but not spectacular. Their run differential was -27, so their record was quite actually fake, and they should rather dwell below the .500 mark. Oh, well, here come the Coons…

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (12-5, 2.57 ERA) vs. Evan Greenfield (8-9, 3.87 ERA)
Damani Knight (2-2, 5.33 ERA) vs. Erik McMahon (7-7, 5.92 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (4-7, 5.14 ERA) vs. Jose Vigil (3-10, 5.66 ERA)

That was a lot of miserable pitching for a 3-game set. The Coons would get a left-hander in the middle game, and hopefully any kind of pitching from their rotation from anybody not initialed J.T. …

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Toner
OCT: SS R. Avila – 3B Marshall – C Schoeppen – CF T. Brown – RF Fullerton – 1B Gershkovich – 2B Becker – LF Hollingsworth – P Greenfield

Cookie singled, stole, and didn’t score in the first inning, because nobody behind him managed to get anything but a whimper on the ball. The Thunder had a threat going in the bottom 2nd when Mike Gershkovich reached on a throwing error by Matt Nunley, and Toner afterwards hit Jeff Becker. That was nothing that a soft grounder by Steve Hollingsworth to third base couldn’t fix, ending the inning. The Coons stepped up 1-0 in the third on DeWeese’s leadoff jack. Jonny didn’t allow a hit through four innings, but that fourth inning already included rain that soon forced a rain delay of roughly three quarters of an hour, thus wiping out Toner’s attempt at a no-hitter outright. After the delay he was back at work, but had lost effectiveness, and while he pitched another two innings without allowing a base hit, he was missing the strike zone and the Thunder hit two hard balls to leftfield that just happened to end up with DeWeese. Toner wouldn’t be back for the seventh, but Greenfield was in what was still a 1-0 game, but soon enough wasn’t anymore. Mendoza hit a single, McKnight hit a home run, 3-0, Margolis hit a single, and DeWeese was at least hit by a pitch. Eddie Jackson batted with two on and one out and loaded the bases drawing a walk, and Greenfield wasn’t removed from the game before allowing an RBI single to Cookie Carmona. Yoshi Nomura however hit into a double play, ending the inning with a 4-0 score. Gershkovich would end the combined no-hitter quickly when he homered off Joel Davis with two outs in the bottom 7th, bringing the Thunder back to 4-1. Kaiser held on in the eighth, and it was on Mathis to save the game against the middle of the order after Cookie flew out to center to strand runners on the corners in the top of the ninth inning. Casimiro Schoeppen flew out to center to start the inning, and then Tom Brown grounded to short, where McKnight mis-pawed the ball that had rolled through the wet grass and dirt. Brown reached on the error, and before long Mathis was ripped for three straight singles by D.J. Fullerton, Gershkovich, and Becker. Steve Hollingsworth had the tying run on second, the winning run on first, and one out in a 4-3 game, and grounded sharply to short. McKnight was on it this time and turned an game-ending double play. 4-3 Critters. Carmona 3-5, RBI; Olivares (PH) 1-1; Toner 6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (13-5);

Too close for comfort, as usual.

Game 2
POR: CF Bareford – LF Metts – RF Jackson – C Margolis – 1B Nomura – 2B Prince – SS McKnight – 3B Petracek – P Knight
OCT: SS R. Avila – 3B Marshall – C Schoeppen – CF T. Brown – RF Fullerton – 1B Gershkovich – 2B Becker – LF Hollingsworth – P McMahon

The Raccoons were using this game to give the everyday players a day off, considering Damani Knight to not be capable of pitching them vaguely in the direction of a W anyway. So of course the game was scoreless after five innings, and either team had managed to feint a threat only once. The Thunder’s Bobby Marshall had hit a double in the first inning, but had been stranded on third base, and the Raccoons had put runners on the corners with one out in the third, but Danny Margolis hit right into a double play. Knight was pitching a 3-hitter, having whiffed as many against one walk. The Coons were not present at all in the top 6th, and in the bottom 6th Knight got two grounders to Yoshi (who played at first base for the first time since his first Coons stint(!) and made an error earlier in the game) and then got some good help from Dwayne Metts, shagging a deep drive by Tom Brown. Top 7th, the mentioned Nomura opened with a liner over Gershkovich that made it all the way into the corner, Fullerton had trouble playing it cleanly in that far nook, and Yoshi came up with a leadoff triple. Prince was walked intentionally, and then the Thunder brought left-hander Scott McLaughlin in relief of McMahon. The count on McKnight (Scottish Heritage Meeting??) ran full, McKnight struck out, and the Coons wouldn’t have scored if not for Prince taking out Jeff Becker to break up the double play that Brian Petracek was about to hit into. Yoshi scored, Petracek then got caught stealing, and the first run was on the board, somehow. Knight retired nobody while leading, conceding a single to Fullerton to start the bottom 7th, and the runner stole second base and scored on a hard double off the fence in leftfield by Gershkovich. Becker grounded out, which moved the go-ahead run to third base and Matt Pruitt pinch-hit for Hollingsworth. Thrasher came in to counter the left-handed bat, and K’ed both the former Critter and Mike McWherter to end the inning, still tied, now at one. The Coons had nothing going in the top of the eighth, but the Thunder cut Jeff Boynton in half in the bottom of the inning, with a single, a walk, and then a 3-run bomb by Tom Brown that decided the game. With two outs in the ninth inning, Mendoza and McKnight both singled on 0-2 pitches, after which Nunley batted for Petracek as the tying run, but he popped out to third base. 4-1 Thunder. Metts 2-4; Prince 1-2, BB; Mendoza (PH) 1-1; Knight 6.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – C Margolis – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – P Guerrero
OCT: SS R. Avila – 3B Marshall – CF T. Brown – RF Fullerton – 1B Gershkovich – 2B Becker – C Kizziar – LF Hollingsworth – P Vigil

Guerrero continued to fool absolutely nobody and quickly was on the hook in the rubber game. Gershkovich hit a 2-out, 2-run single in the first inning, and while Mendoza hit a solo home run in the second inning, Guerrero gave the run right back. Hollingsworth tripled in the bottom 2nd and scored on Vigil’s sac fly to center. Guerrero would never have a clean inning in the game, and the Raccoons struggled to find that button to press for a big inning. There was always somebody on base against Vigil, but the key hit never really came. Yes, Nunley singled and scored on a 2-out double by Margolis in the fourth inning, but Guerrero also sent that run right back to the Thunder. Ricky Avila hit their second 1-out triple of the game in the bottom 4th and scored on Marshall’s single to right. The Raccoons made three soft outs in the fifth, made another three soft outs in the sixth, and when McKnight and Margolis actually hit long drives in the seventh inning, those were spoiled by Hollingsworth and Fullerton, too, respectively. Bareford was hit by a pitch, but DeWeese only managed a ****ty grounder to first base to end the inning, and all you could say about Guerrero was that he made it through seven innings without ever being killed outright in a 4-run inning.

The top of the eighth, Coons down 4-2. Metts hit for Guerrero and drew a walk in the leadoff spot, after which Cookie rolled a ball up the middle for a single. Metts went to third on the roller, putting the tying runs on the corners with nobody out. And again, offense died before it ever really began. Nomura popped out harmlessly. Nunley flew out to Hollingsworth for a sac fly that was of no use whatsoever. Mendoza reached on a blooper that fell for a single, but McKnight was outpitched by the Damani-esque Vigil and struck out for the second time in the game. Kaiser and Chun held the Thunder short in the bottom 8th, but the Coons hadn’t gotten through John Watson (1.13 ERA, K/BB almost five) the previous night and had the bottom of the order up. Watson sat down the Coons in six pitches, netting two forgettable (I wish!) grounders from Margolis and Bareford, and then a flyout to right from DeWeese. 4-3 Thunder. Carmona 2-4; Mendoza 2-4, HR, RBI;

Raccoons (57-48) @ Crusaders (49-59) – August 6-9, 2020

All those millions had netted these two teams precisely nothing, and while the Coons were at least still above .500 and entertained vaguely plausible comeback chances in early August, the Crusaders had crashed and burned more or less completely by now and sat only half a game off the bottom of the division. But that was nothing a 4-game set with the Raccoons couldn’t cure! They were already ahead in the season series, 4-3, and certainly hungry for more… But they had issues. While they were fifth in runs scored despite the second-worst batting average in the league, their rotation was mediocre at best, and their bullpen was outright atrocious and ranked in the bottom three of the league. Their record was probably a bit worse than would it should have been given their -21 run differential had the Thunder beat despite the Thunder being 8 1/2 games ahead of them right now.

Projected matchups:
Travis Garrett (2-6, 4.18 ERA) vs. Mike Rutkowski (2-2, 2.12 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (7-6, 3.25 ERA) vs. Alejandro Mendez (11-5, 2.39 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (13-5, 2.46 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (9-6, 4.37 ERA)
Damani Knight (2-2, 4.55 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (12-7, 3.32 ERA)

Butler would be our second southpaw to contend with this week. In case you wonder about the whereabouts of “Midnight” Martin, he was on the DL with shoulder issues, but the Crusaders weren’t necessarily missing his 4.95 ERA, which was roughly twice the amount of runs allowed over nine compared to even the previous season.

In other stats and numbers, the Crusaders were second in home runs with 89, but last in stolen bases with merely 30.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – C Olivares – P Garrett
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – 3B Fitzgerald – P Rutkowski

Dumbo Mendoza struck out with the bases loaded and one out in the third inning in what should have been the spot to give the Raccoons a lead of whatever size. McKnight grounded out harmlessly to Sergio Valdez, and the Raccoons would not score despite singles by Cookie and Yoshi and a full count walk (though dubious) drawn by Matt Nunley. Garrett in turn walked ex-Coon Alex Duarte at the start of his third inning, and Duarte would come around on Tony Casillas’ 2-out double to instead put the Crusaders 1-0 ahead. Duarte was handed another leadoff walk by the dawdling Garrett in the fifth inning, and would sure as hell score again. While the Crusaders got an infield single from Mike Fitzgerald, they did suffer a setback when Rutkowski failed to bunt and Olivares caught the pop leisurely. Casillas struck out, but cursed ex-Coon Adam Young hit a single cleanly to center to chase home Duarte (who was batting a robust .183) from second base anyway. The only ex-Raccoon to go empty-handedly against Garrett was Jose “Dingus” Morales, who also grounded out to end the seventh inning against Jason Kaiser, but that was after the Crusaders had tickled Enrique Morales and Kaiser for three hits and two runs, the latter both on Morales. Rutkowski was more or less wonderful in his start, scattering four hits in seven innings, with Brian Doumas killing off the Raccoons in the last two innings, allowing only a ninth-inning single to Mendoza before suffocating the Critters. 4-0 Crusaders. Carmona 2-4;

I don’t know. I don’t know. I just don’t know how to collect insurance without bringing the FBI onto my trails.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – LF Metts – CF Bareford – P Abe
NYC: CF Duarte – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – SS Fitzgerald – 3B T. Thomas – P A. Mendez

A leadoff double by Margolis and walks drawn by McKnight and Metts loaded the bases with nobody out in the second inning of a scoreless Friday contest. Bareford’s soft line to center fell well in front of Duarte and scored two, Abe bunted over the runners and both scored on Cookie’s single to right center. Mendez, who was a valid candidate for Pitcher of the Year votes, had massive problems to retire anybody now. Nomura singled, Nunley singled, bases loaded again, now with one out in a 4-0 game. Mendoza, the twat, struck out AGAIN in this spot, but Margolis had his second hit of the inning, an RBI single, 5-0, before McKnight grounded out to Sergio Valdez to end the inning. Mendez managed to load the bases again in the third inning, then with two outs and after issuing walks to Abe(!) and Nomura, with Cookie’s 2-out single in between. Nunley flew out to Erickson, stranding the full set of runners, and soon enough Abe was in the thick of trouble. He walked Duarte (…) with one out in the bottom 3rd, allowed a 2-out RBI triple to Valdez, plated him with a wild pitch, and then was bombed by Morales. Those were three insanely quick runs, and they were quick enough to make me lose all confidence in this game as well.

Mendoza would show Mendez the door with a leadoff jack in the fourth inning, pinning Abe to a 6-3 lead, but while the Crusaders didn’t continue the scoring outright (though Jose Vargas would eventually hit a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth) they made an uncomfortable amount of hard contact against Abe. Bareford in particular made a number of nice plays to keep the tension manageable. And while the Coons knocked out Mendez early, they were then completely stumped by the fourth former Raccoon on the Crusaders’ roster, long reliever Chet Cummings, which was doubly irritating. He pitched three scoreless innings for them. The Crusaders made two outs to Nunley to start the bottom 7th before the extremely annoying Duarte reached by hitting a roller right between Abe’s feet and legging it out for an infield single. Thrasher replaced him in a double switch that put DeWeese into the #9 hole that would lead off the eighth, and struck out Young to end the seventh. DeWeese hit a leadoff single up the middle, and Cookie followed that with a single to left off Doumas in the eighth. Yoshi grounded out, advancing the runners, and the not-well-aged “Dingus” Morales couldn’t catch up with Nunley’s looper up the leftfield line, which fell for a 2-run single, extending the score to 8-4, but Vargas homered again, now off Thrasher, in the bottom 8th; at least it was another solo shot. Nothing came forward from the Critters after a leadoff single by Metts in the ninth inning (in fact Olivares pinch-hit for Thrasher and hit right into a double play), and the bottom 9th saw Mathis in his second save opportunity of the week. The first one had already been a mild nightmare, and this one started with a Fitzgerald single to left, a Tom Thomas double to right, and then a wild pitch, because that wasn’t enough sucking. Jalen Parks pinch-hit, but grounded out to Mathis, keeping Thomas at third. Mathis threw ANOTHER wild pitch, then walked ****ING Alex Duarte. That was the tying run, and that was Mathis getting a big fat shoe print on his big fat ass by the manager as Jason Kaiser came in from the pen to pitch in his third straight game and four in five days. Young popped out, Valdez grounded out. 8-7 Blighters. Carmona 3-5, 2 RBI; Nunley 3-5, 2 RBI; Margolis 2-5, 2B, RBI;

Is there something like a comfort win in this team right now? You know, one of those 7-1 affairs where you get three early and three more in like the fourth inning. Is there comfort at all?

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – CF Bareford – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – SS Prince – 2B Petracek – P Toner
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – C Parks – 3B T. Thomas – P D. Butler

Both teams had a threat going in the second inning in slightly different circumstances. The Coons had a leadoff single by Margolis and a double by Prince to arrive at runners in scoring position with one out and the #8 batter. Petracek was pitched to, struck out, and Toner grounded sharply to Casillas to end the inning. In the bottom 2nd, Erickson singled and Parks doubled, putting men in scoring position with *two* outs. Tom Thomas was hitting .255 with seven homers, and we actually called for the intentional walk to bring up the pitcher, whom Jonny whiffed. Nobody scored until the third, which Cookie opened with a triple into the gap in right center, scoring on Bareford’s sac fly. That was not the only triple in the inning; Mendoza hit one into the rightfield corner with two outs, and he also scored: Margolis ran a full count against Dave Butler, then just took the biggest swing he could and RAMMED a ball WELL outta leftfield for a 2-run homer.

However, this was not one of the great Jonny Toner starts. The Crusaders crowded him in the bottom 3rd after hitting two singles, and while they didn’t get anybody across, he was at 79 pitches after only four innings, suffering from poor pitch economy throughout. Young and Valdez were on base again in the fifth inning with one out. Young had his second single in a 2-strike count of the game, and Valdez had been plainly plunked. And these were only two of the four left-handers in the #2 through #5 slots that combined for 50 home runs, and Jonny wouldn’t retire any of them in this inning. Morales singled to load them up, and Erickson hit an RBI single to right, 3-1. Duarte came up, having worn out Coons pitching throughout the series, but grounded to Petracek for a double play just when we needed it most. Toner retired the bottom of the order 1-2-3 in the sixth, but that was all for him. Yoshi hit for him in the seventh, with one out and Tim Prince on third base, and he got the run home, hitting a hard double past a lunging Adam Young up the rightfield line, extending the lead to 4-1 again. Cookie struck out, Bareford grounded out, leaving Yoshi on base.

More problems arose, with the mean left-handed part of the order up again. Kaiser was off limits in this game, and Thrasher was to be saved for the ninth in a bold maneuver. So it was on Boynton to get through the seventh and it got ugly right away. He walked Casillas on four pitches, then was dumb-lucky enough to have Young hit into a double play (although Young does as Young does…). With two down, Valdez and Morales singled before Erickson hacked himself out. The Coons had their own chance against Butler in the eighth. Mendoza singled, then stole second base. The Crusaders elected to bypass Margolis to get to Nunley – a fatal mistake. Nunley nailed a Butler pitch for a 3-run homer, and that would be enough to put the game to bed. Never mind the odd Alex Duarte homer off Enrique Morales… 7-2 Raccoons. Mendoza 2-4, 3B; Margolis 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Prince 2-4, 2 2B; Nomura (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Metts (PH) 1-1, 2B; Toner 6.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (14-5);

This was Jonny Toner’s sixth straight win. That doesn’t mean six wins without a loss. That means six wins in six games. He has allowed five runs total in the stretch, four of those earned. He has not allowed a home run since June.

Game 4
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Knight
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – 3B T. Thomas – P Benjamin

The Coons took a 1-0 lead in the first inning in what was basically Cookie singling, stealing, scampering home in odd fashion. Nunley had the RBI groundout. Thankfully the first pitch Damani Knight threw was converted into a blazing liner to center by Tony Casillas – for an out, mind – so we knew where we stood right away. Young, Valdez, Morales, all hit screaming liners for base hits, and two runs scored in the inning, the last on Vargas’ groundout. You were actually thankful for every deep drive in Metts’ direction because there was a real chance for an out. The Coons’ infield was completely useless, since all Knight allowed were line drives over everybody’s heads, four straight in the bottom of the second inning for two more runs. Except there was that one ball that Max Erickson hit to begin the third inning that was also high and deep to center, but that one was gone. It went over the batter’s eye, actually.

I had a hunch that at any point know, Vikings could appear to pillage this place, but after the Crusaders initially bled Knight white for eight hits in the first three innings, then would only get two more of him until he was removed in the bottom 6th with two down and Tom Thomas on second base. There hadn’t been a good spot to hit for him, with the Coons essentially having quit hitting after the first, and the Crusaders hadn’t scored any add-on runs. But with the middle of the order drawing up again, Knight was replaced by Mathis who got a grounder from Young to end the inning, and Mathis got another three quick outs in a completely meaningless spot in the bottom 7th. GOOD TO KNOW. Not able to pitch in even a meaningless spot: Enrique Morales, who didn’t even get through the eighth without being churned for three hits and two runs. Casillas remained on third base with his 2-out triple as we actually had to bother another pitcher while Morales was on his way to the interstate, trying to find someone to drive down I-95. The Coons had absolutely nothing going and failed to grab a series win by miles and miles. 7-1 Crusaders.

In other news

August 3 – TOP LF/RF Bill Adams (.303, 17 HR, 71 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 20 games with a pair of singles in the Buffaloes’ 2-1 win over the Wolves.
August 3 – The Scorpions break up a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning with the Rebels by plating ten runs in the inning. They eventually win 13-5.
August 4 – The hitting streak of Topeka’s Bill Adams (.299, 17 HR, 71 RBI) doesn’t reach 21, as the Wolves hold the outfielder hitless in five attempts in their 7-6 win over the Buffaloes.
August 4 – The Crusaders beat the Aces, 1-0, on the strength of 1B Adam Young (.257, 15 HR, 54 RBI) going deep in the fifth inning.
August 5 – The Scorpions will sorely miss RF/LF Pablo Sanchez (.382, 5 HR, 56 RBI) for the next month; the 26-year old has sprained his wrist and will sport a brace rather than a bat for the next few weeks.
August 6 – The Cyclones score a run in the first before the Rebels roll over them with 13 unanswered runs for a 13-1 smash win. RF Tamio Kimura (.299, 20 HR, 68 RBI) has three hits with a home run and drives in four.
August 7 – SAL SS Mike Getchell (.268, 4 HR, 44 RBI) not only drives in all the runs in his team’s 6-2 win over the Stars, no, the Wolf also scores the last four of his six ribbies with a walkoff grand slam off Brent Beene (5-3, 3.45 ERA).
August 8 – An error by Topeka’s Jesus Moroyoqui on WAS INF Shane Walter’s (.334, 1 HR, 41 RBI) grounder with the bases loaded and two outs allows the Capitals to walk off in regulation, 2-1.

Complaints and stuff

We are reaching the point where I wish they hadn’t played that WONDERFULLY the first two months of the season. It makes watching whatever the **** this here is all the more hard and frankly unbearable. It’s like we ripped the May page off the calendar and everybody tore their basic baseball senses, all at the same time, and it’s been like that ever since.

Lots of hissing and scratching in the clubhouse. I’m not going in there…

Jonny Toner is currently .05 runs away from a triple crown, leading the CL by one win and 37 K. Milwaukee’s Chris Sinkhorn has his fat bum in the way.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
93th – Ian Rutter – 1,711 – active
94th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699
95th – Paul Kirkland – 1,698
96th – Juan Garcia – 1,684
t-97th – Jesse Carver – 1,682
t-97th – Jonathan Toner – 1,682 – active
99th – Hector Santos – 1,664 – active, on DL
100th – Kevin Williams – 1,649

The pace at which he is zooming in on Ian Rutter is amazing. And Rutter doesn’t even do badly! He is 7-4 with a 2.77 for the Scorpions and has 121 K in 133.1 IP, which is far from shabby.

Also this: who are the three pitchers with the lowest *career* WHIPs in ABL history?

Angel Casas – 0.95
Jonny Toner – 0.95
Hector Santos – 1.01

You may know those names.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Such a frustrating team to watch......what are your deadline plans?

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

The trade deadline plans are to invent a time machine, go back two weeks and then actually make trades at the deadline, which has since passed.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Oops!

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Bub13]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Is there something like a comfort win in this team right now? You know, one of those 7-1 affairs where you get three early and three more in like the fourth inning. Is there comfort at all?

Rhetorical Questions 101

[Westheim]

Raccoons (59-50) @ Canadiens (49-62) – August 10-13, 2020

The Elks were crummy, that was for sure, but they were also 6-5 over the crummy team on the Oregon side of the border in 2020. Ranking second from the bottom in both runs scored and runs allowed had left a bit of a mark on the team that sat in last place in the CL North. Their rotation was even the worst in the Continental League.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (4-8, 5.14 ERA) vs. Matt Rosenthal (5-8, 4.77 ERA)
Travis Garrett (2-7, 4.07 ERA) vs. Kevin Clayton (8-10, 4.24 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (8-6, 3.35 ERA) vs. Josh Riley (5-1, 2.08 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (14-5, 2.42 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (8-11, 4.49 ERA)

The Elks were left with only right-handed starters. While we could technically run out all of our left-handed batters all the time in this series, we might want to sprinkle in a few more off days. At 6 1/2 out and sinking, it hardly mattered.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Metts – C Olivares – LF DeWeese – P Guerrero
VAN: LF A. Torres – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – C Delgado – SS Calfee – 2B Folk – 3B Grooms – P Rosenthal

Guerrero struck out three in the first inning, which didn’t even include striking Jose Gutierrez in the ribs, and didn’t give up a hit until Matt Rosenthal doubled into the gap with one out in the third. Alex Torres singled to put runners on the corners, but Gutierrez struck out and Ezra Branch popped out to right. The Raccoons had stranded a pair in scoring position an inning earlier, with Mendoza reaching on an infield single and Metts with a walk. With first base open and two outs, the Elks pitched to DeWeese of course and Rosenthal rung him up on three pitches. The Coons would take a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning thanks to singles by Mendoza and McKnight. Dwayne Metts hit a sac fly to left, his first RBI that did not come on a home run. Things looked like they would run sour for Guerrero by the fifth. After four scoreless, he bunted into a double play in the top of the inning, and allowed a leadoff single to Brody Folk in the bottom 5th. He balked Folk to second base, but the Elks fell to their aggressive use of Rosenthal, who popped out rather than bunting Folk to third base.

The Elks were without their standard left side of the infield, especially SS Matt Otis, who was on the DL, and the replacements – while not shabby overall – failed them in the sixth inning. The Coons would shove three straight base hits either between Chris Grooms and John Calfee (singles by Nunley and Mendoza), or right by the bag and Grooms’ reaching glove for a double, as McKnight did. The ball made it all the way to the corner, and both runners scored to extend the lead to 3-0, and the Coons made it to 4-0 on Ezequiel Olivares’ flare single with two outs that floated over Calfee’s head. The Critters and especially Guerrero caught another break in the bottom 6th when Guerrero had just walked Ezra Branch, and Mario Rocha poked at a 3-1 pitch and fouled out to Olivares, who didn’t have to leave his allocated position. Tony Delgado rolled one over to Nunley to strand the runner. But it wasn’t like that pop let Guerrero flow through to a shutout. The Elks’ bottom of the order knocked him from the game in the seventh, three straight 1-out singles from Folk, Grooms, and PH Moises Berrones. Joel Davis replaced him, got an easy fly to left from Alex Torres, and then struck out Gutierrez to escape still with a 4-1 lead. The Raccoons pieced the eighth together between Kaiser and Chun, had runners on the corners with two outs in the ninth until Cookie got picked off first, and then handed the ball to Chris Mathis for the bottom of the order in the ninth. Mathis couldn’t close a book last week, and didn’t get any better until now. Grooms’ 1-out single, and Dave Padilla’s double after that knocked him out. The tying run was at the plate and Jeff Boynton took over, surrendering a liner to Alex Torres that McKnight tried to swipe for, but it dinked off the edge of his glove and dropped deadened into shallow left. Both runs scored, and Torres was on second base. Boynton walked Gutierrez, the winning run in case anybody wondered, and Ron Thrasher replaced that skill-free ****er. A passed ball on Olivares advanced the runners into scoring position, but Thrasher walked Branch anyway to fill the bags. Mario Rocha lined to center on 2-2, it dropped in for a single, Torres scored with the tying run, but Gutierrez was thrown out at home by Metts. Delgado popped out foul, sending the game to extras, where it didn’t remain for long. Yoshi Nomura’s leadoff single in the top 10th was washed away on Nunley’s double play grounder, and Mendoza’s 2-out double was window decoration. In the bottom 10th, Thrasher retired Calfee and Folk before PH Man-su Kim singled to right. Last off the Elks’ bench, Jeremy Houghtaling lined over Nunley to deep left and past DeWeese, Kim dashed around the bases, and scored easily on the walkoff double. 5-4 Canadiens. Nomura 2-5; Mendoza 4-5, 2B; McKnight 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Prince (PH) 1-1;

Sucker bunch…

That sounds exhausted. I am exhausted.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 2B Prince – LF DeWeese – P Garrett
VAN: 2B Folk – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – SS Calfee – LF Kim – C Padilla – 3B Jon. Morales – P Clayton

Garrett was torn apart in no time at all. The Elks got two on with singles in the first inning, but Calfee’s poor roller left the runners on. In the bottom 2nd, Kim opened with a double and scored the first run of the game on Padilla’s single. Jonathan Morales singled, Clayton bunted the runners over, and both scored on Brody Folk’s double into the left-center gap. Garrett then walked the next two to load the bases, Rocha hit an RBI single, and Calfee at least managed a sac fly this time before Kim grounded out to Nunley to end the inning. A juicy 5-spot had put the game away already, now we could suffer some more watching the useless scum in the lineup and more parts of the bottom of the bullpen falling out. Garrett got only one more out in the game, and that was when Clayton gave himself up again bunting over Padilla and Morales, who had opened the bottom 3rd with singles. Boynton replaced him and even retired the next two batters without allowing the runners to score, but it was still all for nought. While at some point, R.J. DeWeese hit the most meaningless solo home run in recent memory for the Raccoons, which was also a function of how few home runs they were hitting to begin with, the Raccoons’ pen continued to the shackled. Long man Enrique Morales managed to pitch one inning and allowed two runs while doing so, driven in by Man-su Kim, and Joel Davis also cocked up two runs in his two innings of work, which included drilling the regular offender Kim. Clayton cruised through seven before loading the bases with no outs in the eighth in a 9-1 game. Metts singled, Nunley got hit (which prevented him from attacking his third double play in the series), and after a wild pitch Mendoza walked. The results were scarce, except for shame. Margolis was down 0-2, then thumped a ball to Clayton’s feet. Metts was out at home, but Padilla had to grab twice before he could throw to first base, which allowed Margolis to arrive there safe. McKnight hit an RBI single, but Prince struck out and DeWeese lifted one out to center to strand a full set. The Coons would plate three runs in the ninth inning, which was still not a rally, but more a result of Clayton pitching too long. The Elks’ pen struggled as well, there was a misplay, but ultimately even scoring three for the Coons never had the appearance of a rally. 9-5 Canadiens. Metts 2-4; Bareford (PH) 1-1, RBI; McKnight 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Jackson (PH) 1-1; Petracek (PH) 1-1; Chun 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

After this game, Travis Garrett (2-8, 4.59 ERA) was sent back to AAA. Enrique Morales (15.75 ERA) ended up on waivers. New on the roster were 2014 top pick SP Roger Kincheloe, who was a 23-year old right-hander who had not ironed out his control so far and was scraping by more bad then well in AAA, where his 96mph heater, slider, and changeup had him pitch to a 5.47 ERA and 5.6 walks per nine innings, but we just didn’t have anybody else. Will West rejoined the pen for the hundredth time.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – RF Jackson – LF DeWeese – P Abe
VAN: LF A. Torres – 1B J. Gutierrez – CF Rocha – C Delgado – 2B Folk – RF Kim – SS Grooms – 3B Jon. Morales – P Riley

The Coons loaded the bases with walks to Nunley and Mendoza and a Margolis single in the first inning, but didn’t score when McKnight popped out to Jonathan Morales. Even a 2-base throwing error by Grooms to start the second inning on Jackson’s grounder couldn’t help the Critters, who saw a lousy pop by DeWeese, a K to Abe, and Yoshi rolling out to first. Instead, the Elks went up 1-0 in the bottom 2nd in which Abe walked the leadoff batters Delgado and Folk, and allowed a hard RBI single to Kim right away. Poor contact afterwards killed that inning as well, but they had at least scored a ****ing run.

Maybe the Coons could score a ****ing run in the fifth inning. Yoshi became the tying run with a leadoff double just past the reach of Torres in the gap. Bareford flew out to center, Nunley rolled out to first, and Mendoza also flew out to center. The flies to center were nicely hit, but right at Mario Rocha. Abe was more or less on his game after the sickening second, allowed a single in the fourth, a bunt single to Morales in the fifth, but also struck out seven through six innings, hoping in vain to get some sort of support, goddamnit. DeWeese drove a ball to deep right to start the top of the seventh, but Kim made the catch on the warning track, but at least DeWeese returned the favor and caught Kim’s drive to deep left to start the bottom 7th. Morales hit a 2-out double to left, and then Padilla bounced a ball over the fence as pinch-hitter in the #9 hole for a 2-out, ground-rule RBI double, doubling the gap to 2-0. Torres grounded out, and time was running out now. Mendoza homered in the top of the eighth, but of course that was a solo shot, and the bottom of the order was up in the ninth inning, down 2-1. Jackson led off against Zach Hughes, sent a fly to left, but not past Torres. Cookie hit for DeWeese, singled, and then was caught stealing. Metts grounded out to first. 2-1 Canadiens. Nomura 2-4, 2B; Mendoza 1-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Margolis 2-4; Carmona (PH) 1-1; Abe 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, L (8-7);

Game 4
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Toner
VAN: LF A. Torres – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – C Delgado – SS Calfee – 2B Folk – CF Kim – 3B Grooms – P Funderburk

I had a hunch that the team was one loss away from murdering each other and their sisters, so it was only good that we got the guy up who had claimed his last six starts no matter the circumstance. He would take the mound with a 1-0 lead, Cookie stealing the base this time after his single, advancing on a wild pitch and coming home when Nomura grounded out to Folk. Jonny, who led the league in all triple crown categories at the start of play, lost Alex Torres in a full count to start his day, and Torres went to third on Gutierrez’ single to center – except that Metts threw him out there. Toner got out of the inning and went on a spree of retiring Elks in order while the Raccoons tacked on a few runs. Nunley hit a solo jack in the third, and in the fifth Cookie hit another single, stole again, advanced on a wild pitch *again*, and came home on a sac fly by Yoshi, 3-0. Toner retired a dozen straight after the Gutierrez single until he walked Folk in the bottom 5th. Kim grounded back to him, with Toner getting the out on the lead runner, and Grooms flew to right center, but Cookie was over, keeping the Elks to one hit and no runs. This was not a strikeout game for Toner, however, who whiffed only three in those five innings and needed only *53* pitches, which was so out of the ordinary.

Cookie was at 27 steals now, but that still trailed Alex Torres by a handful, and that became one more in the sixth inning. Torres singled off Toner with one out, took second base, but the Elks didn’t get another man on base. It was 4-0 by then after a Margolis double and Metts’ 2-out RBI single in the sixth, and the Coons were in the pen in the seventh. Toner grounded out to start the frame, but straight singles by the 1-2-3 batters loaded the bases. Mendoza hit a liner off Zach Hughes, right at Calfee for the second out, and Yoshi almost got doubled off. He barely got the paw back onto the bag. Margolis ran a full count with Hughes and worked the walk, pushing home a run, and two more scored when McKnight flew out to Branch – and Branch dropped the ball for a 2-out, 2-base error. Metts’ 2-run triple blew the door from its angles for good, running the deficit to nine runs before DeWeese got strike out. Jonny Toner struck out the side in the seventh and looked poised for a shutout, only to remain irretrievably stuck in the eighth after leadoff walks to Kim and Grooms. Padilla hit an RBI double, and Toner got two outs anyway, but was removed with the left-hander Branch coming up. Kaiser faced him and walked him, bringing up Chun with men on the corners, and Chun couldn’t find the strike zone against Tony Delgado, who ended up flying out on a 3-0 count, much to the detriment of his manager’s mental health. The Elks got another two on base against Chun and West in the ninth, but couldn’t come any closer than seven runs away. 9-2 Critters. Carmona 3-5; Nunley 2-5, HR, RBI; Metts 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Toner 7.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (15-5);

Whee, 4-game losing streak broken. When does Toner pitch again?

Raccoons (60-53) @ Scorpions (70-46) – August 14-16, 2020

The Scorpions were in freefall, obviously, having three games in a row. Yeah. They were first in runs scored in the Federal League, outscoring the Raccoons by merely 99 runs, and they were fourth in runs allowed. Offensively, they were first in many categories, but were only seventh in home runs. They were rather suffocating the opposition like a boa constrictor with their .366 *team* OBP. Their rotation had an ERA just over four, but they were scoring enough to make all their starters winners, even Jaylen Symonds (12-6, 5.61 ERA). They had a few important players on the DL, including CL Noah Bricker, 3B Jason LaCombe (.289, 1 HR, 43 RBI), who had gone down to an oblique strain this week, and most importantly LF/RF Pablo Sanchez (.382, 5 HR, 56 RBI), who was out with a wrist sprain.

Projected matchups:
Damani Knight (2-3, 5.06 ERA) vs. Sam Kramer (11-9, 4.59 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (4-8, 4.94 ERA) vs. Alfredo Mendoza (8-3, 3.10 ERA)
Roger Kincheloe (0-0) vs. Ian Rutter (7-5, 3.00 ERA)

Can we just forfeit…? It’s three right-handers, but … eh. Can we at least not strike out 20 times against the Rutter guy? Jonny is chasing him as the nearest active pitcher in the strikeout table.

This was the tail end of 20 straight games for the Coons.

Anything other than three rousing defeats would surprise me greatly.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – RF E. Jackson – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – C Olivares – P Knight
SAC: SS Rock – LF Stross – CF Meade – C J. Jackson – 2B Luna – 1B A. Rodriguez – RF Staebell – 3B Melchor – P Kramer

Knight hadn’t gotten the memo that the Scorpions didn’t homer much. Doug Stross hit a meatball for miles and miles right in the first inning. Ivan Melchor hit an RBI single in the second, although admittedly John Staebell had reached on a throwing error by Yoshi Nomura. The Coons had the tying runs in scoring position in the third inning, but whenever it counted Dumbo Mendoza couldn’t ****ing make contact that counted and rolled a sucker over to Ricky Luna for the third out. Despite the early setbacks (and despite Yoshi making another throwing error that put Staebell on base again in the fourth), the Raccoons stuck in the game early on, and managed to plate a run in the fourth. Jackson and McKnight opened that inning with singles to left center, but the Coons could only come up with two groundouts after that, Olivares’ plating Jackson to close the gap to 2-1.

But ultimately, Portland had the wrong pitcher(s) to play in 2-1 games and come out on top. Knight was shaken for four singles in the bottom of the fifth, and Trey Rock, who hit a leadoff single, and Ray Meade, who drove him in, both also stole a base off Olivares. Staebell batted with two outs and two on, with two runs already home, grounded to second again, and this time Yoshi had no business playing the quick bouncer at all. It escaped to right for an RBI single, 5-1, and Knight was yanked. Boynton walked Melchor, but struck out Kramer to get out of the jam, and Will West replaced him by the sixth. McKnight had hit into a double play in the sixth after leadoff man Jackson had singled; in the seventh they got the leadoff man on base again, Olivares drawing a walk. Cookie hit a 1-out single, and while Yoshi flew out, Nunley hit a 2-out single. That loaded them up for ****ing Dumbo Mendoza, who had 3 RBI in the last 12 games, all on solo home runs. He wasn’t going to do anything to harm Kramer, that much was known to all, and flew out to Staebell, easily, on the first pitch of the at-bat. The ****er. Also a bleeding sore in this game was Yoshi Nomura, who made his third error of the game in the bottom 7th, which cost another unearned run, and was removed afterwards to search for holes in his glove, which was a ****ING ORDER. Mathis allowed a run in the eighth as his own personal freefall continued. When Nunley drove in a pair with one out in the ninth off Rich Hewitt, nobody cared anymore. 7-3 Scorpions. Nunley 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Mendoza 2-5; Jackson 3-5;

The Mendoza stats are true by the way. How do you even GET there?? The ***hole managed to hit a meaningless single in the ninth however, after Nunley’s 2-run single.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – 3B Nunley – 1B H. Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – LF DeWeese – 2B Petracek – P Guerrero
SAC: SS Rock – LF Stross – CF Meade – 2B Luna – 1B A. Rodriguez – RF Staebell – C C. Ramirez – 3B Melchor – P A. Mendoza

The Raccoons got a stab at unearned runs, plating two in the first inning on Margolis’ 2-out rocket up the leftfield line. Metts had walked, and Mendoza had reached on an error by Trey Rock to give him the opportunity, and Margolis kept cashing in from time to time. That 2-0 lead didn’t stop “Wrecking Ball” Guerrero from stinking up the joint, though. Guerrero bunted into a force at third base that killed off the top 2nd after it had started with walks to DeWeese and Petracek, and in the bottom 2nd retired nobody before the game was already tied. He walked Alberto Rodriguez to start the inning, then allowed singles to John Staebell and Chris Ramirez, the latter scoring the first run. Melchor hit an RBI double to knot the score at two. Alfredo Mendoza struck out before Guerrero brought in the go-ahead run with a wild pitch. Rock hit a sac fly, 4-2, Stross grounded out.

Top 3rd, Nunley chipped an 0-2 pitch into play for a single, after which Dumbo Mendoza hit something else than a hole into the air or a solo home run, hitting a bomb for two runs. That tied the game, and now Alfredo Mendoza tried to melt even faster than Guerrero. He allowed a single to McKnight, then walked the bases full against DeWeese and Petracek, who normally didn’t exactly ask to be walked. Now, with three on and one out, do you hit for Guerrero? Oh please, yes! But we didn’t have the pen for it. Guerrero had to drag himself through a few more innings (it was only the top of the third!), and we were terribly sorry for that and the irreparable further damage it would cause to the few Raccoons fans still alive. Guerrero hit a ****ing 2-run single to center, taking a 6-4 lead, before Mendoza K’ed Cookie and got a soft fly to left from Metts to escape the nightmare inning. After the early onslaught, both pitchers made it to the fifth. Nunley hit a leadoff single again in the fourth, but Mendoza found a double play from Mendoza to escape there. He was hit for to start the bottom 5th by left-hander Jorge Tovar, and Guerrero’s leash wasn’t long. Tovar struck out, but Rock singled, stole second, and scored on Stross’ double, and that was it for Guerrero, once more. Mathis replaced him, which was clearly a sign of resignation into another loss. Ray Meade promptly singled, putting runners on the corners. Luna struck out, but Meade stole second and both runners scored on Alberto Rodriguez’ grounder that went through Mendoza into rightfield for a 2-run single, flipping the score, 7-6 in favor of Sacramento.

Guerrero wouldn’t stick to the loss, because left-hander Danny Munos stumbled over the bottom of the Raccoons’ order in the seventh. McKnight reached with a single, and while DeWeese was a ready strikeout, Petracek doubled to left with two outs to tie the score. Munos walked Bareford, then allowed an RBI single to center, dropped in there by Cookie, flipping the score back to 8-7 for the road team, which had trouble putting the game away, still. Joel Davis allowed a leadoff double to Rodriguez in the eighth, and a Ben Markel groundout later, the tying run was at third. Thrasher replaced Davis with a K to Chris Ramirez the Coons’ only hope now. Thrasher got him to 2-2, but Ramirez put the ball in play anyway, a sharp grounder – but right to Nunley! Rodriguez had to cling onto the bag, Nunley nipped Ramirez for the second out, and Thrasher ravaged Ivan Melchor for an inning-ending strikeout. The Coons went down in order in the ninth against Joe Medina, leaving Thrasher in the game with a 1-run lead. He struck out Justin McAllester in a full count; Trey Rock grounded out to short, and DeWeese snagged Doug Stross’ fly to shallow left. 8-7 Coons. Carmona 2-5, RBI; Nunley 2-5; McKnight 2-5; Petracek 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (12);

What? The Coons won two of their last three!

Witchcraft must be at work!

Game 3
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – P Kincheloe
SAC: SS Rock – LF Stross – CF Meade – C J. Jackson – 2B Luna – 1B A. Rodriguez – RF Staebell – 3B Melchor – P Rutter

This was not a good team to make his major league debut against, but was posting an infinite ERA to start his career really necessary? Rock singled off Roger Kincheloe to begin the bottom 1st, stole second, and quickly came home on Stross’ single to left. Only when Meade sailed out to center, did Kincheloe get an actual ERA: 27.00; that one would get much worse before it could get any better. Jaiden Jackson hit a hard double, Ricky Luna hit a 3-run homer, and the Scorpions were up 4-0. Rodriguez walked, and Kincheloe probably only made it out of the inning because Staebell fired sharply at Nomura, who turned the double play. Kincheloe walked Melchor to begin the second, and got his first K when Rutter bunted foul thrice. Melchor would be caught stealing after Rock flew out to center. No, it was not pretty, not even a little bit. Another walk, another single, another 3-run homer by Jaiden Jackson in the bottom 3rd.

The run total on Kincheloe would reach 11 in the end, amassed in 3.1 innings. He issued another walk, two doubles, and a hit batter in the fourth inning. He was actually removed with nine runs across, which had been a desperate attempt of gaining any length from the rookie in context with our blasted pen. Boynton replaced him, balked in a run, and allowed two more to score on two sharp base hits. Mendoza had hit a useless 2-run homer somewhere, so the Raccoons actually only trailed by ten after the fourth inning, which was such a relief. Boynton followed up with two scoreless, Kaiser pitched a scoreless seventh, but Chun loaded the bases in the eighth and got blastered by Ricky Luna with a grand slam. Where we even still counting? There wasn’t much reason to. The Raccoons had the bases loaded in the ninth inning against Rich Hewitt. McKnight batted with one out. Grounder to short, to second, to first. Aaah, the relief to know it’s over! 16-2 Scorpions. Nomura 3-4; Mendoza 2-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Margolis 2-4;

Rutter struck out six, which could have been worse. He was never in danger of losing this game anyway…

In other news

August 10 – Tijuana’s SP Aaron Walsh (7-8, 3.87 ERA) could miss up to a year with a torn UCL and will have Tommy John surgery.
August 14 – The Titans’ and Stars’ 19-inning marathon ends at 2:17pm ET when 32-year old fringe player 2B Johnny Albert (.234, 1 HR, 8 RBI) lifts a 2-run homer to walk off the Stars, 4-2. BOS CF/RF/2B Tristen Baptiste (.289, 0 HR, 3 RBI) and DAL C William Jones (.292, 4 HR, 22 RBI) both have four base hits in the game.
August 14 – Over in Los Angeles, another walkoff home run decides the Pacifics’ game with the Loggers. The Pacifics win 7-5 on INF Nick Herman (.309, 12 HR, 64 RBI) crushing a walkoff grand slam off MIL CL Quinn MacCarthy (4-5, 2.97 ERA, 36 SV).

Complaints and stuff

The team’s outright terrible performance in Vancouver dropped us a game under .500 against the ****ing Elks all-time, which is UNACCEPTABLE. Get your **** IN ORDER!! Is there much to get in order when you're 22-35 since June 15? Or has the ship sailed anyway?

Mendoza can shove his home runs when down by ten runs up his stupid fat *** - should have traded the ****er. Should have traded all the ****ers.

That particular ****er has made it to the top 10 in single season home runs for the Raccoons however, and let’s look at that list for nostalgia and the better times, and how the memory of them betrays us consistently.

PORTLAND RACCOONS SINGLE SEASON HOME RUN LEADERS
1st – Royce Green (1994) – 38
t-2nd – Tetsu Osanai (1989) – 35
t-2nd – Ron Alston (2009) – 35
t-4th – Liam Wedemeyer (1996) – 33
t-4th – Luke Black (2008) – 33
6th – Albert Martin (2002) – 32
t-7th – Tetsu Osanai (1986) – 31
t-7th – Mark Dawson (1988) – 31
t-7th – Luke Black (2007) – 31
t-7th – R.J. DeWeese (2016) – 31
t-7th – Hugo Mendoza (2020) – 31

Also, this:

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
91st – Billy Robinson – 1,728 – HOF
92nd – Ian Rutter – 1,719 – active
93th – Larry Cutts – 1,714
94th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699
95th – Paul Kirkland – 1,698
96th – Jonathan Toner – 1,689 – active
97th – Juan Garcia – 1,684
98th – Jesse Carver – 1,682
99th – Hector Santos – 1,664 – active, on DL
100th – Kevin Williams – 1,649

[Westheim]

Raccoons (61-55) vs. Capitals (68-49) – August 18-20, 2020

The Capitals ranked second in runs scored and third in runs allowed. They were the second consecutive division leaders the Raccoons were up against, like they didn’t have enough on their paws already. Their rotation was the best in the offense-friendly Federal League with a 3.86 ERA between the starters. Their pen was sixth. They also had one of the best defensive arrays in the Federal League, and one that was good in turning double plays on the sluggish (not: slugging) Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (8-7, 3.29 ERA) vs. Eduardo Valdez (11-9, 4.22 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (15-5, 2.42 ERA) vs. Tom McGuire (4-0, 3.21 ERA)
Damani Knight (2-4, 5.36 ERA) vs. Ted McKenzie (8-3, 2.92 ERA)

Both teams had had Monday off, and the Capitals were presented with an opportunity to skip somebody, which would move a second left-hander to Tom McGuire into the series in Eric Williams (11-9, 3.06 ERA).

The teams had met the previous season, when the 3-game set resulted in a sweep by the Raccoons.

Game 1
WAS: LF Grubbs – CF Baker – C Wittner – RF Stone – SS McWhorter – 1B McNeal – 3B Gray – 2B Zigay – P E. Valdez
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Abe

Singles by Chris Grubbs (who stole second base) and Josh Baker put runners on the corners to start the contest, but Abe reeled the about-to-bolt horse back in by striking out Matt Wittner and getting a king double play grounder to second from Jason Stone. The Coons would post an early lead in the bottom 1st; Nomura and Nunley hit singles to the left side, and then Mendoza split Grubbs and Baker for an RBI double. Nunley came home on Margolis’ grounder to third base, putting up Abe 2-0. Abe himself hit a 2-out single in the bottom of the second inning, his second hit in three outings after going without one for almost three months. It didn’t lead to anything; Cookie popped out. The Capitals would soon be on Abe again, and it was again Grubbs and Baker to reach base in the top 3rd. Abe lost both onto the bases on balls, but was lucky that Metts made a fantastic play on Wittner’s liner to center before striking out Stone to exit the jam. In that inning Abe at least retired the leadoff man, the only instance in the first five innings that he managed to do that. The Capitals would again have runners on the corners in the fifth inning, but then Baker hit into an inning-ending double play. Danny Zigay, a former Raccoons last-round pick, had hit a leadoff single. Abe got only one more out before walking Tom McWhorter with one out in the sixth. Davis replaced him, almost allowed a game-tying homer to Andy McNeal – no, the offense had not done anything meaningful since the first – and only barely waggled out of the inning. There was some 2-out motion from the Coons in the bottom 6th, Margolis singling, McKnight doubling, but Metts grounded out to Zigay to leave them in scoring position. The Coons continued to poke Valdez without piercing him; in the seventh they got DeWeese on with a leadoff single to right center, but pinch-hitter Eddie Jackson hit into a double play. Cookie and Yoshi singled – but Nunley flew out to Grubbs in left and two more were left stranded. So we were just waiting for a bloop and a blast to tie the game despite a 10-4 advantage in base hits. The eighth saw Chun put Baker on, although Wittner grounded into a force for the second out. Thrasher came on with the left-hander Stone up and another left-hander lingering in the #6 slot in McNeal. Unfortunately Thrasher walked both Stone and Tom McWhorter before right-handed batter Josh Melhorn batted for McNeal. The die was cast, however, and I wasn’t trusting Boynton with the bases loaded any more than Thrasher after he had just walked a pair. Melhorn popped out to short on a 1-0 pitch, and the Coons continued to diddle along, clue- and aimlessly. Boynton came on for the ninth, and the nightmare continued. Tyler Gray hit a leadoff triple. Shane Walter, batting .337, pinch-hit and flew out to Cookie in shallow right, holding the runner at third, at least until Boynton threw a wild pitch to PH Jose Lara, whom he then plunked. Chris Mathis replaced him – pure desperation – and Grubbs’ sharp grounder was right at Yoshi, who turned the double play to escape that inning. 2-1 Coons. Nomura 2-4; Nunley 2-4; Margolis 2-4, RBI; Davis 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
WAS: LF Grubbs – CF Baker – C Wittner – RF Stone – SS McWhorter – 1B McNeal – 3B Gray – 2B Walter – P McGuire
POR: LF Carmona – CF Bareford – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 2B Prince – 3B Petracek – P Toner

Toner was aiming for his eighth consecutive victory in the middle game, facing the left-hander McGuire who also became Jonny’s 200th strikeout victim in 2020, and the fifth the first time through the order. Chris Grubbs responded to that with a 2-out solo jack in the third inning, putting Toner into trailing mode. The Coons had had the bases loaded in the bottom 1st, but Margolis had hit into a double play, and the catcher came up again with the bases loaded and then two outs in the third inning. Toner had opened with a walk, Cookie had singled, but Bareford’s pop and Jackson’s strikeout had not exactly advanced things. Mendoza walked, with McGuire wanting nothing to do with him. McGuire had Margolis at 1-2 before Danny laced a liner to left for a 2-run single, but McKnight’s drive to right center was spoiled by Baker. Lousy conversion rates continued to plague the Critters, however. In the fourth they had Petracek and Cookie in scoring position after a pair of singles, but Bareford fouled out behind home plate to end the inning. Jackson and Mendoza singled to start the fifth, after which Margolis grounded to short. Mendoza was out, but went aggro after Walter’s knee to break up the double play. With runners on the corners, McKnight lined hard to left, but right at Grubbs. Jackson made his way to home plate anway, and barely beat out the relay throw to give Toner the tiniest cushion at 3-1, which was the score after five once Prince walked, but Petracek struck out.

Josh Baker hit a leadoff single in the sixth, but Toner struck out the next three guys, bringing his total in the game to ten, but also his pitch count close to 90. We would have to bother the pen again, and soon. Before that could come over us, however, Toner drew his second leadoff walk off McGuire in the bottom 6th, moved up on a Cookie groundout and scored on Bareford’s double, 4-1. The seventh was Toner’s last inning. Shane Walter hit a 2-out single before Sandy Sambrano, another former Raccoon, who had only his eighth plate appearance of the season, normally lingering in AAA obscurity, grounded out to Prince. The eighth inning went to Seung-mo Chun, who had suffered less hiccups than Boynton and Mathis lately. He walked Grubbs on four pitches to start the inning. Baker grounded sharply to third base, where Nunley had replaced Petracek, batting ninth to lead off the bottom of the inning in progress. Nunley made a wonderful play and managed to nab the lead runner. Wittner popped a ball high near the foul line, with Cookie hustling over, getting a glove on it, and dropping the ball – thankfully in foul ground. Wittner popped up the next pitch again, again to left, this time fair, and this time Cookie didn’t drop it. That was the second out, and the third came on Jason Stone’s grounder to Prince. The bottom 8th was not exciting, and Chun remained in the game to face McWhorter at the start of the ninth inning, getting the strikeout and then yielding to Jason Kaiser, who got only McNeal before walking Gray and allowing a single to Walter. With two outs, the tying run was up in pinch-hitter Jose Lara. Joel Davis was to face him, allowed an RBI single in a full count, then walked Grubbs. THRASHER, QUICK!! Ron bleached Baker, and this game ended with the bases loaded. 4-2 Blighters. Carmona 2-5; Bareford 2-5, 2B, RBI; Jackson 2-5; Mendoza 2-3, BB; Toner 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, W (16-5) and 0-1, 2 BB;

That was way too close for comfort! WAY TOO CLOSE!! … ah what the heck, they have a 2-game winning streak, their longest in 12 days…….

Pitching in relief for the Capitals: Danny Arguello. The former Coons farmhand had been included in the deal for Cole Pierson (sad story…) and was pitching out of the bullpen for the Capitals at 23 years old. He had debuted in 2019, but was still a rookie, posting a 3-1 record with 3.52 ERA in 55 games this year.

Game 3
WAS: LF Grubbs – CF Baker – C Wittner – RF Stone – SS McWhorter – 1B McNeal – 3B Givens – 2B Walter – P McKenzie
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Knight

Wittner’s solo shot put the Capitals up 1-0 in the first, but the Coons got three straight base hits to start their half of the first inning, with Cookie already scampering home with the tying run on Nunley’s bloop into shallow left center. The Critters ended up with three runs in the inning, the others scoring after Dumbo Mendoza’s foul pop. Margolis hit a sharp RBI single to center, and McKnight plated Nunley with a sac fly. Of course there was hardly a lead big enough in the world to survive even brief contact with Damani Knight. McNeal hit a solo homer in the second, and Knight loaded the bases on a walk to Travis Givens and 2-out singles by McKenzie (…) and Grubbs before DeWeese got clamps on Baker’s drive to left. There was no saving Knight and no sweep as long as he was alive; the Capitals loaded the bases with nobody out in the third, hitting three straight singles to right. McNeal tied the game with a sac fly, Givens had the misfortune of popping out, but Shane Walter knew what scum he was facing and laced a double to deep right that scored both remaining runners to give the Capitals a 5-3 advantage. The Coons reared back, McKnight hitting a 1-out, 2-run triple in the bottom of the inning that plated Mendoza and Margolis to tie the score, and then scored on Metts’ double, with DeWeese hitting another RBI double right after that. In a 7-5 game in the third, the Capitals yanked their starter for left-hander Bill Dean, who found a way out of a 4-run inning without surrendering the run on second base.

Knight followed McKenzie to the showers in due time, not getting out of the fourth inning. Wittner singled, Stone walked with two outs, and that was well enough. Will West was in the game for long relief, and got McWhorter to pop out to Yoshi, though not until after Margolis’ second passed ball of the inning, and didn’t get the lead out of the fifth, blowing it on Shane Walter’s 2-run homer to center, which levelled the score at seven. West still lasted until the seventh inning, but then allowed a leadoff single to McNeal and couldn’t handle Givens’ bunt. The Capitals had two on with nobody out, a wonderful recipe for disaster, and when Jason Kaiser came in he stirred the bubbling pot vigorously, allowing a pinch-hit single to Melhorn that loaded the bases, then walked Grubbs with the bases loaded to give the Capitals the lead. Baker’s sac fly made it 9-7 and exited Kaiser for the battered Boynton. Matt Wittner hit a hard drive to center, but not past Metts, ending the inning. The Raccoons, now behind, failed to mount any significant threat over the next three innings and tumbled into a well-deserved loss. 9-7 Capitals. Carmona 2-4; Nunley 3-5, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 2-5; Margolis 3-5, RBI;

The Coons would now head to Indianapolis … without Damani Knight (5.91 ERA). The horrendous excuse for a starter was waived and designated for assignment, while the Raccoons continued their desperate rummaging in their AAA-stashed discards. Left-hander Ryan Nielson (10-6, 3.25 ERA in AAA) was called up to replace him on the roster. The 28-year old Nielsen had been up in the Bigs in the last three years, posting increasingly terrible numbers. In 28 games (11 starts) he had racked up a 3-5 record with a 5.15 ERA.

Nielson was ready to pitch by Friday, but wouldn’t get a turn until Saturday. Kincheloe’s start on the weekend was erased and pushed back to next week, Wednesday after Toner on Tuesday (Monday was again off), with Abe slotted in for Sunday.

Raccoons (63-56) @ Indians (54-67) – August 21-23, 2020

The Indians were lost in the woods like some other team that used to dwell there. They had the second-worst batting average in the Continental League and scored the fifth-fewest runs. Their pitching was competent with a borderline-capable rotation and actually the best bullpen in the Continental League, posting a 3.33 ERA. They were also fairly successful against the 2020 Critters, holding the 6-5 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (4-8, 5.21 ERA) vs. Zach Weaver (8-7, 4.40 ERA)
Ryan Nielson (0-0) vs. Dan Lambert (9-12, 4.25 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (9-7, 3.18 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (11-8, 3.61 ERA)

Left-hander spotted on Sunday.

The Indians had a few injuries, notable Lowell Genge, who was out for the season and was playing less and less games from season to season.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Metts – C Olivares – LF DeWeese – P Guerrero
IND: C Jolley – CF D. Morales – LF C. Martinez – 1B M. Rucker – SS Matias – 3B P. Cruz – 2B B. Reyes – RF Faulk – P Weaver

The Coons scored right out of the gate. Cookie singled, stole second base, and went to third on Yoshi’s soft single. Nunley popped out, but Mendoza extended a 10-game hitting streak with an RBI double, netting his 99th RBI. He could have reached 100 right there, but Yoshi pulled up quite early and didn’t make an attempt to score until McKnight grounded to short, when he came home, 2-0. Metts grounded out to end the inning. Guerrero showed no intention to hold on to that lead, and was blasted by the second inning. While Nunley’s throwing error on a grounder by Pedro Cruz was a contributing factor, Guerrero also allowed two singles to load the bases with one out before getting torn up by A.J. Faulk’s 3-run triple. Jayden Jolley singled him in, giving the Arrowheads a 4-2 lead. Nomura and Nunley had 1-out singles in the third, but Mendoza’s hard grounder to third base was intercepted by Cruz, who tapped his assigned bag to force Yoshi, but couldn’t get Mendoza on the throw to first. McKnight’s drive to center went over Danny Morales’ head for a 2-run double and we were at least tied again.

Guerrero allowed leadoff singles in both the bottom 3rd (to Cesar Martinez) and 4th (to Cruz); Mike Rucker hit into a double play the first time, but the second time Faulk’s single put runners on the corners with one out. Faulk stole second base off Olivares, sparing Weaver the bunt, although he did strike out when trying to swing away. The runners were stranded in scoring position when Nunley maintained control over a vicious bouncer by Jolley, managing a throw to first just in time to end the inning, still tied at four. Singles by Yoshi, Nunley, and McKnight (Mendoza had uselessly popped out) loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fifth, and those weren’t the last base hits of the inning! Weaver was torn up on Metts’ looper dropping into shallow center for one run, then Olivares hitting a sharp liner to left center for two. 7-4, two on for DeWeese, left-hander Allen Reed replaced Weaver, and Eddie Jackson hit for DeWeese, who batted a glorious .213, and .154 against southpaws. Jackson walked, but Guerrero struck out and Cookie popped out to shallow left to end the inning and strand a full set of runners. Guerrero was now ahead 7-4, but had to contend with a leadoff single by Morales in the bottom 5th. Thankfully Rucker was around to hit into his second double play of the game, nursing Guerrero along.

The Coons stranded two on a Metts strikeout in the sixth, but had the bases loaded in the seventh, which included Jolley trying to get Jackson on second base on Guerrero’s bunt, but threw poorly and all hands were safe. Cookie walked, loading them up with one out against the brave Reed, who was now over 50 pitches, had put on five in two innings of work, but had yet to allow a run of his own. That run came on Yoshi’s sac fly to left, also the last action in the game for Reed. Killian Savoie replaced him and got Nunley to ground out, stranding another pair. Guerrero made it through seven(!) despite a leadoff single by pinch-hitter Ryan Georges. Jolley hit into a double play, the Indians’ third, and Morales grounded out to keep them behind by a slam. That was Danny Morales; Miguel Morales appeared in relief in the eighth, but the game got out of control for good for the league-best bullpen. Two on, two out, Jackson rammed a ball through Cruz for an RBI double. Margolis walked in Guerrero’s spot, Cookie walked to push in a run, 10-4, a score that persisted through the bottom 8th as Boynton put two on, but Cruz continued the double play parade. Jackson drove in another pair in the ninth as the rout only got worse, and with Roger Kincheloe not getting a start until next week, he was available out of the pen, we decreed. He got the ninth inning. He pitched a scoreless inning (progress!) … although… two men reached base anyway before Morales popped out to end the inning. 12-4 Raccoons! Nomura 3-5, RBI; Nunley 3-6; Mendoza 3-5, BB, 2 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Olivares 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; Jackson (PH) 3-3, BB, 3 RBI; Guerrero 7.0 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (5-8) and 1-3;

Offense! Somewhat almost resembling pitching! Three wins in four games, and four in six games! Hooray!

Oh god, Nielson comes up…

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – P Nielson
IND: C Jolley – CF D. Morales – LF C. Martinez – 1B M. Rucker – SS Matias – 2B Kym – 3B P. Cruz – RF Faulk – P Lambert

The human catapult with the coonskin cap allowed four insanely hard drives in the first inning, of which two were caught and two – Martinez’ solo shot and Raul Matias’ 2-run bomb – left the yard for a quick 3-0 deficit. That lessened a bit in the following innings, but the Coons had some hill to climb. DeWeese reached base with a leadoff walk in the third and was brought in to score on Yoshi’s 2-out single, which was at least a start, and then DeWeese was up to bat with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth inning. Lambert had him at 1-2 before surrendering a bouncer up the middle that eluded Jong-beom Kym and scored two runs to tie the score. Lambert, angry, came back with strikeouts on Nielson and Carmona, stranding runners on the corners, but then was torn apart with two outs in the fifth inning. The Critters had nobody on when Mendoza, 0-for-2 so far, walked with two down, but then Margolis hit an RBI double to left center for the lead, 4-3, McKnight hit an RBI single to right, Bareford smashed a ringing double up the line for plate McKnight, 6-3; Lambert’s last act was an intentional walk to DeWeese before Reed came on to strike out Nielson, who in the bottom 5th was in trouble after 1-out walks to Morales and Martinez until Mike Rucker hit into his third double play of the series.

Nielson never got another out, being bombed by Jong-beom Kym in the bottom 6th after Matias’ leadoff single. That brought the Indians back to 6-5, with Joel Davis finishing the inning. Chun and Kaiser combined for the seventh; Chun put Martinez on with a single, and Kaiser got ANOTHER double play from Rucker, his fourth this weekend. DeWeese hit a long drive for nothing, but the Critters couldn’t get the offense going again, and their relievers would only get squishier from here. Mathis was in for the bottom 8th, and of course blew the lead on a solo homer by Kym, levelling the score at six. Silvestro Roncero walked, Faulk hit into a double play to end that inning. Yoshi opened the ninth with a double to left center off Jarrod Morrison, the Coons’ best chance in a good while. Yoshi never advanced, as the Coons had two pops over the infield (Nunley, Margolis) while Mendoza was intentionally walked. McKnight struck out. Mathis was the loser in the game, walking Jolley in the bottom 9th before Danny Morales fired a bombastic home run to left to walk off his team. 8-6 Indians. Nunley 3-5, RBI; Margolis 2-5, 2B, RBI; McKnight 2-5, RBI; Bareford 2-4, 2B, RBI; DeWeese 1-2, 2 BB, 2 RBI;

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – SS Prince – P Abe
IND: C Jolley – CF D. Morales – LF C. Martinez – 1B M. Rucker – SS Matias – 2B Kym – 3B P. Cruz – RF Faulk – P Broun

The Indians had Jayden Jolley on third base in the first inning with nobody out, courtesy of a double up the leftfield line and a wild pitch by Abe, who struck out Morales and got Martinez to pop out, but then still allowed an RBI single to right center to Rucker, who was in dire need of some success. Matias popped to short, where Prince dropped the ball, and Kym continued to tear the Raccoons apart with a 2-run double to right center. Prince made a throwing error on Pedro Cruz’ grounder, eagerly shoving his own grave. Faulk struck out in a full count, and the Raccoons were already 3-0 behind. Abe struggled even on his own and didn’t need Prince’s help, but at least Prince started a double play to relieve the pressure in the second inning after Broun’s leadoff single and a 4-pitch walk to Jolley. The no-good Abe wobbled through six innings with some help from the outfielders, never retired Jolley, and Kym hit another near-bomb off him that Jackson caught at the wall. The Raccoons’ lineup was completely irrelevant, Broun scattering four singles in the first six innings while holding on to the early 3-0 lead.

Broun struck out Margolis and Bareford to start the seventh inning, but then allowed a double to center to Matt Nunley and walked Prince. McKnight hit for Abe, hit a floater to shallow center, and it fell in for an RBI single. Broun ran a full count with Cookie, then lost him, and then got Yoshi to ground to the left side. Matias knocked down the ball, scurried up, kicked the ball, and had to chase it into leftfield. Prince scored, the Coons were back to 3-2 and still had the bases loaded. An off-the-rolls Broun walked Jackson on four pitches to tie the game before being replaced by Kyle Lamb, who threw a pretty fat hanger to Mendoza, who emptied the bases with a crying liner into the left-center gap, blowing the 3-3 tie and giving the Coons a 6-3 lead!

Curb your enthusiasm though, because Will West upon insertion into the game lost Danny Morales on a leadoff single in the bottom 7th, then served up a homer to Cesar Martinez, and the Indians were right back in business, down 6-5. Bareford was on base with a leadoff walk in the eighth inning, but was caught stealing by Jolley. It wasn’t that bad – Nunley’s grounder to second would have been for two anyway. Meanwhile Chris Mathis pitched for five outs without allowing between one and seventeen runs, maintaining a 6-5 advantage through eight. Cookie singled in the ninth and was caught stealing, which was slightly annoying now, costing any number of runs. With two outs Yoshi walked and Jackson doubled, but Mendoza popped out, leaving runners in scoring position. Ron Thrasher got the bottom of the ninth, facing the 2-3-4 batters, and only Rucker was a left-handed batter. Morales walked in a full count to get things underway and I accepted my fate. We wouldn’t get a winning week… Morales advanced on Martinez’ groundout, and was ready to race home when Rucker lined hard to center – but BAREFORD!! MAGNIFICIENT PLAY!! Okay, tying run on second with two outs, and Matias at the plate. Petracek had replaced Jackson in rightfield before the inning began for better defense, and Matias sent a ball high near the line his way. It wasn’t very deep, but right near the line and Petracek had to race hard to get there – and made the running catch! 6-5 Furballs. Mendoza 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Mathis 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

This was the first time that Bareford was caught stealing this year.

In other news

August 17 – The Cyclones barely escape a combined no-hitter in a 2-1 loss to the Titans, managing only an RBI single by CF Nando Maiello (.273, 1 HR, 24 RBI).
August 18 – The Loggers batter the Miners in a 14-6 game, with OF/1B Chris LeMoine (.284, 16 HR, 74 RBI) fueling the rout to the best of his abilities. LeMoine is not retired in the game, draws a walk and lands four hits, including two home runs, and drives in eight of the Loggers’ 14 runs.
August 18 – RIC SP Ian Van Meter (7-8, 3.67 ERA) 3-hits the Indians in a 6-0 shutout, whiffing seven.
August 18 – The Condors get only two hits in their game against the Scorpions, both by RF/CF/3B Craig Abraham (.269, 3 HR, 25 RBI), but that is enough to eek out a 2-1 win despite the Scorpions’ nine hits.
August 20 – SAC INF Trey Rock (.293, 0 HR, 30 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak after knocking a pair of singles in an 8-0 shutout of the Scorpions over the Condors.
August 20 – The Falcons’ SP Juan Ortega (7-13, 5.01 ERA) is lost for the season after being diagnosed with shoulder inflammation.
August 21 – Sacramento’s 21-year old phenom does not get his hitting streak to 21 games; Trey Rock (.290, 0 HR, 30 RBI) goes empty against the Wolves in an 8-4 loss for the Scorpions, ending his hitting streak at 20 games.
August 21 – The Crusaders maul the Canadiens in a 12-0 shutout, with INF Sergio Valdez (.316, 13 HR, 46 RBI) contributing four base hits and drives in six, also hitting a grand slam off Zach Hughes.
August 21 – Hit even harder are the Miners, going down 17-1 to the Cyclones. CIN SS Andrew Showalter (.329, 15 HR, 88 RBI) and C Errol Spears (.251, 9 HR, 55 RBI) both have four hits, score three times, and drive in two.
August 23 – A 10-run sixth inning helps the Knights past the Bayhawks in a 13-2 romp. 39-year old ATL 3B/1B Antonio Esquivel (.303, 5 HR, 36 RBI) has four base hits and drives in two runs.

Complaints and stuff

No major news; nobody wanted a piece of Damani Knight, which was so surprising. Jonny keeps running laps around the opposition, gained another two positions to 94th in the career strikeout table, and everybody else has their issues.

But the saddest thing after all might be that we can’t even fill the rotation with semi-competent pitchers…

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
89th – Daniel Dickerson – 1,730
90th – Henry Becker – 1,729
91st – Billy Robinson – 1,728 – HOF
92nd – Ian Rutter – 1,723 – active
93th – Larry Cutts – 1,714
94th – Jonathan Toner – 1,700 – active
95th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699
96th – Paul Kirkland – 1,698
97th – Juan Garcia – 1,684

Jonny also leads the triple crown categories by varying degrees. He is up by one win, 21 points of ERA, and 34 strikeouts. Hector Santos will not be back this year; we are certain about that by now. Because of that, I will drop him from the strikeout list because nothing will change for him anymore this year.

[Westheim]

Meanwhile east of Portland...

Well, you may have noticed, but I had a bad week... weeks... months... whatever. Because I usually post at least every other day unless I fry my power supply or enter an episode of explosive diarrhea, but......

I quit my job of the last ten years, the only one I ever had that actually paid money, however few it was at times, because of constant agony over stupid decisions by stupid people who had licked enough asses to get promoted far beyond their level of capacity, most of whom had no people skills whatsoever (and hey, my people skills ain't great either, but I haven't made at least three consecutive apprentices cry in terror...). My motivation, which had been quite high at times (at times I worked 50-hour weeks that nobody asked for and for which overtime was not reimbursed unless someone else literally or figuratively lay dying, because I *liked* doing my stuff), had constantly dropped over the last 18 months, and had dropped below freezing in June or so.

Oh well, today I cleaned out my office and carried three boxes of stuff to my car - a surprising amount of items featuring raccoons included. Stuff accumulates, I guess. I have to return once more to return the keycard, but the horrors are over, I guess. No problems with co-workers, no problems (well, very few) with clients, but nothing but agony because of higher-ups.

Well, long story, no point to it.

The Coons, who did absolutely zero to help me the last few weeks, are going to and will return sooner rather than later, as soon as the general horror subsides and I regain a measurable pulse.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Meanwhile east of Portland...

Well, you may have noticed, but I had a bad week... weeks... months... whatever. Because I usually post at least every other day unless I fry my power supply or enter an episode of explosive diarrhea, but......

I quit my job of the last ten years, the only one I ever had that actually paid money, however few it was at times, because of constant agony over stupid decisions by stupid people who had licked enough asses to get promoted far beyond their level of capacity, most of whom had no people skills whatsoever (and hey, my people skills ain't great either, but I haven't made at least three consecutive apprentices cry in terror...). My motivation, which had been quite high at times (at times I worked 50-hour weeks that nobody asked for and for which overtime was not reimbursed unless someone else literally or figuratively lay dying, because I *liked* doing my stuff), had constantly dropped over the last 18 months, and had dropped below freezing in June or so.

Oh well, today I cleaned out my office and carried three boxes of stuff to my car - a surprising amount of items featuring raccoons included. Stuff accumulates, I guess. I have to return once more to return the keycard, but the horrors are over, I guess. No problems with co-workers, no problems (well, very few) with clients, but nothing but agony because of higher-ups.

Well, long story, no point to it.

The Coons, who did absolutely zero to help me the last few weeks, are going to and will return sooner rather than later, as soon as the general horror subsides and I regain a measurable pulse.

I hope everything works out for you and we see you soon.

I'm seriously considering starting my own dynasty blog using your style of recapping you do a wonderful job.

[Westheim]

Look what's coming off the 15-day DL...

Raccoons (65-57) vs. Titans (67-57) – August 25-27, 2020

The Raccoons returned home to face the Titans, who had so far not been pleasant opponents in 2020, with the Raccoons losing seven of the 12 games played so far. The Titans continued to exhibit some really gruesome offensive numbers, with the third-fewest runs scored in the Continental League and the worst batting average and on-base percentage outright, but in turn they had the best rotation and had allowed the fewest runs overall with 463. The Raccoons had once dominated that last category, but pitching three cucumbers on every run through the rotation had dropped them to fifth in runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (16-5, 2.37 ERA) vs. Ozzie Pereira (13-7, 2.91 ERA)
Roger Kincheloe (0-1, 22.85 ERA) vs. Jose Fuentes (8-8, 3.04 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (5-8, 5.06 ERA) vs. TBD

After an off day on Monday, we would get right-handers on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is a bit of a question mark with southpaw Rick Ling (9-7, 2.99 ERA) having left his last start with an injury and no reports on that were out yet.

Game 1
BOS: LF Mata – 2B Downing – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – 1B J. Duran – CF Reichardt – SS Kane – 3B Baptiste – P Pereira
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Toner

Jonny Toner put his 8-game winning streak on the line and promptly got into a tight spot in the second inning after issuing leadoff walks to both Tim Robinson and Jose Duran. Strikeouts by Adrian Reichardt and Tristan Baptiste sandwiching a grounder by Mike Kane helped to strand runners in scoring position, though, and the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Margolis hit a 1-out single to left and advanced on a wild pitch to second, on McKnight’s single to third, and then scored when Dwayne Metts grounded out to Josh Downing. Toner, who struggled with location and got his pitch count over 50 in only three innings, hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd and would come around to score with the help of a balk, Cookie’s groundout to Downing, and then a wild pitch again. Toner allowed only one hit in five innings, but would issue another walk to Baptiste in the fifth. That runner came off the bases quickly, with Margolis throwing out the 24-year-old rookie when he tried to steal second base. Toner then struck out Ozzie Pereira to complete five innings, the requirement for a W.

But the lead was only a flimsy 2-0 score, and you wouldn’t want to trust the bullpen with just that. DeWeese’s solo home run in the bottom of the fifth was a good move in the right direction, except that the Titans pulled the run back in the sixth with a leadoff jack by Alex Mata off Toner, who was angry enough to strike out the next three batters. The seventh inning saw Toner in active need of rescuing after he lost both Duran and Kane to walks. The tying runs on with one out and the starter clearly not getting it done now, the Coons had to go to the pen after all. Joel Davis replaced Toner, got Baptiste to fly out to left, but with two outs the Titans didn’t hit for Pereira, who kicked Davis’ first pitch to right for an RBI single. Davis balked the runners into scoring position before running a full count with Mata, who had previously homered off Toner, but hacked out on a pitch on the outside corner to end the inning with a 3-2 lead for the Coons still on the board – somehow. The Critters would also leave them on second and third in the bottom of the inning; Pereira had drilled Metts with two outs before DeWeese doubled. Jackson batted for Joel Davis, but flew out to center. Boynton walked two in the eighth, in which Ronnie McKnight held Toner’s winning streak together with a leaping grab on Reichardt’s zip line to the left side, which ended the inning. Pereira was still in the game in the bottom 8th, in which the Coons also got two men on. Nomura singled with one out, Mendoza singled with two outs, and then it was on Margolis, who knocked Pereira’s first pitch to him (and 96th overall) to deep right, narrowly missing the fence, but hitting off it for a 2-out, 2-run double! Chris Almanza was slow to play Margolis’ ball, which helped to score Mendoza from first base. McKnight grounded out to end the inning and leave Margolis on second base, with the 3-run lead being moved into Ron Thrasher’s trusting hands, who would face the bottom of the order starting with the left-handed .208 batter Kane, who struck out to open the ninth. Baptiste and pinch-hitter Jose Avila fared only marginally batter, grounding out to short and flying out easily to center, respectively. 5-2 Raccoons! Margolis 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; DeWeese 2-3, HR, RBI; Toner 6.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 8 K, W (17-5) and 1-2;

That was an odd start for Toner, but a win is a win, and this one was his ninth win in nine starts, so who are we to bitch about this? It also levelled both teams for second place (virtually; the Coons had played two games fewer so far), 5 1/2 behind the Loggers.

The Loggers!?

Game 2
BOS: LF Mata – 2B Downing – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – 1B J. Duran – CF Reichardt – SS Kane – 3B Baptiste – P J. Fuentes
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – SS McKnight – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – P Kincheloe

Things couldn’t conceivably get much worse for Kincheloe and his ERA somewhere north of 22, where a run more or less per nine didn’t really matter. The Titans made the final out at third base in the first inning, Metts throwing out Downing going first-to-third on Robinson’s 2-out single, and the Raccoons took a 2-0 lead in the bottom 1st when Mendoza hit a 1-out triple into the rightfield corner to chase home Cookie and Yoshi, giving Kincheloe an early edge that even lengthened to 3-0 the following inning when DeWeese came home on Cookie’s 2-out single after having been hit by a Fuentes pitch, and was it just me or were the Titans hitting a lot of Raccoons? This was the third HBP in the series, and all into the brown guys. The Coons upped to 4-0 in the third, getting in three singles on Fuentes, while the Titans had gotten only one hit overall off Kinch in the first three innings, but he wouldn’t fool the Titans much longer. Chris Almanza whacked his 12th home run of the season in the fourth inning, a solo shot, and Tristen Baptiste hit a 2-run shot in the fifth, which arguably hurt more, from scrappy rookie to scrappy rookie, even when one of the runs was unearned thanks to a Margolis throwing error putting Reichardt on base to start the inning. So 4-0 became 4-3 before becoming 7-3 again, with slam range restored in the bottom 5th that started measly with Mendoza’s leadoff walk and getting caught stealing before Margolis singled, McKnight walked, and Metts hit the Coons’ second 1-out, 2-run triple of the game, this one to left center. DeWeese’s groundout scored Metts, and the Coons had put up three in the inning.

Kinch didn’t make it out of the sixth inning, loading the bases with two walks following an Almanza single. With Robinson and Reichardt also on base, Jason Kaiser was called on to face the left-hander Kane, who had no home runs in 234 at-bats, but YOU NEVER KNOW. Kane grounded out to McKnight on 0-2, keeping three Titans on base and the Coons ahead by four runs in the middle of the sixth inning. Kaiser would strike out the side in the seventh, and Seung-mo Chun retired the 2-3-4 batters in order in the eighth. Still up by four after not getting much done against the Titans’ pen in the interim, the Raccoons sent Will West to the mound in the ninth inning, a 7.24 ERA not to stand in the way right now. Drama developed inevitably, with Jose Duran hitting a leadoff double. West whiffed Reichardt, but then walked Kane, prompting a move to Joel Davis in what was now an undesired save opportunity. Davis ended the game facing only Baptiste, who sent a 1-1 grounder to Yoshi Nomura, right into the teeth of the double-play-eager defense. Four to six to three, the Coons took sole possession of second place for the night. 7-3 Critters. Nomura 3-5; Margolis 2-3, BB; Metts 2-4, 3B, 3 RBI; Kaiser 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

That was the first career victory for Kinch, though muddied it was, but at least the kid cut his ERA roughly in half, which is the right thing to handle that beast.

Thursday threw right-hander Chris Klein (9-7, 3.07 ERA) against the Raccoons, with Rick Ling by now having landed on the DL with a strained hamstring. He would return in September.

Game 3
BOS: SS Kane – 2B Downing – RF Almanza – C T. Robinson – 1B J. Duran – CF Reichardt – LF J. Avila – 3B Baptiste – P Klein
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – 3B Nunley – 1B Mendoza – SS McKnight – CF Bareford – LF DeWeese – C Olivares – P Guerrero

The Raccoons scored first again, and again in the first inning, despite Matt Nunley finding a way into a double play for the third time in this series. Cookie led off with a single to center that Reichardt clumsily misplayed into an extra base to put the runner on second, which didn’t matter greatly with the following walk drawn by Nomura. Cookie advanced to third on the double play, then scored on Mendoza’s 2-out drop into shallow left for a single. Bobby Guerrero had his own struggles in recent times, but retired the first five Titans in order, which included whiffing four in a row after Kane’s groundout at the start of the game. Reichardt would hit a 2-out single and steal second base in the second inning, but Guerrero hung another K on Avila, dropping that ERA below five in the process. Bottom 3rd, the Coons sent Cookie on base with a leadoff single, although he was caught stealing before Yoshi walked again … and then Nunley hit into another double play.

Guerrero had struck out five batters the first time through the Titans’ order. He followed that up with no strikeouts the second time through, and a 1-out single by Klein spelling trouble in the sixth. He was the tying run and moved to second base when Guerrero hit Kane. For once, the Titans were on pat with a double play to hit into, Josh Downing doing the honors, but beware the powers of Matt Nunley. Thankfully(?) he came to bat with nobody on base in the bottom 6th, grounding out for the second red dot on the scoreboard. Mendoza singled, but McKnight struck out, and the score remained a tense 1-0. Tim Robinson hit a 1-out single in the seventh, a quick bouncer up the middle and past Nomura, who had no chance. Guerrero suddenly found his stuff again and struck out Duran and Reichardt to end the inning with the lead still in one piece. Avila also whiffed to start the eighth, Baptiste flew out to left, and the Titans left Klein in because they weren’t harboring much hope with their absolutely ineffective bench. Except Klein singled to center, his second vain attempt to stage a comeback in this game, this one coming with two outs. He reached second base on a passed ball charged to Ezequiel Olivares, but Kane’s groundout to Yoshi Nomura stranded him again. Metts batted for Guerrero, who got a pat on the back for a job well done, to start the bottom 8th, but struck out against Klein, who only allowed Yoshi on base with a 2-out walk. Nunley was up, but with two outs there was no double play danger, so he harmlessly grounded out to Duran. Boynton got the ball in the ninth, facing a tough part of the order starting with Downing; those were all .260-ish hitters with 10-ish home runs, and a few were also speedy, and the Coons had neglected to score since the first inning. Downing struck out on three pitches, and Boynton was still immaculate until Almanza grounded out to Yoshi on 0-2. Robinson put a 1-2 pitch in play, grounder to short, no challenge for McKnight, and the Coons swept the Titans. 1-0 Furballs! Carmona 2-4; Nomura 0-1, 3 BB; Mendoza 2-3, RBI; Guerrero 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K, W (6-8);

Guerrero threw only 90 pitches, so we would have been happy to allow him a run at the shutout, but not in a 1-0 game against that part of the lineup…

Raccoons (68-57) vs. Knights (68-56) – August 28-30, 2020

The Coons had won four straight, the Knights had won five straight, and something had to give as the teams clashed on the weekend. The season series was not going to be an indicator, being even at three wins apiece, with this being the deciding series. The Knights were the raw opposite of the low-scoring Titans, sitting second in the league in runs scored, but they for once also enjoyed good pitching, also sitting second in runs allowed, which was sure a novelty for Atlanta fans, who had gotten to see merely *two* Knights pitching staffs with an ERA better than league average in the last *20* years, and none since 2011.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Nielson (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. Dave Priest (6-8, 4.79 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (10-7, 3.12 ERA) vs. Leon Hernandez (9-10, 3.40 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (17-5, 2.38 ERA) vs. Luis Flores (12-9, 3.86 ERA)

Southpaw on Sunday, with two more right-handers to prepare for that.

The Coons still had the guy leading the league in home runs in Dumbo Mendoza (31 dingers), but the Knights held down the next two spots on the leaderboards, with Gil Rockwell (30) and Ruben Luna (26) on his heels. There was not even a challenge coming forth from the Federal League at this point, with FL leader Tamio Kimura sitting at 23 home runs for the Rebels.

Game 1
ATL: 1B DeFabio – SS T. Jimenez – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B Esquivel – CF Walrath – 2B Jam. Wilson – RF Lyle – P Priest
POR: RF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – CF Metts – LF DeWeese – 3B Petracek – P Nielson

The Coons again scored first in this game after Nielson overcame the two walks he had issued in the top of the first inning. Cookie walked to start the bottom 1st and reached third on Yoshi’s single, and with McKnight in the #3 hole we had something other going than mere agony. He did ground out, but it was not a double play and he scored Cookie from third before both Mendoza and Margolis flew out to Jeffrey Walrath in centerfield. Nielson allowed a 1-out double to Jamie Wilson in the top 2nd and walked Jonathan Lyle. Priest bunted them over, and when Jeremy DeFabio went up the leftfield line for a 2-out, 2-run double, the Knights flipped the score and the Raccoons trailed for the first time the entire week. A sac fly by McKnight that collected Cookie from third base in the third inning would level the score again, but throughout Nielson was offering merely token resistance and let the defense do most of the grisly work, but at least he swiped the liner that Gil Rockwell hit right at his ugly face before it could kill him. I had gained some weight and my black suit wasn’t really fitting anymore – I had nothing to wear at a funeral.

Rockwell had more success his next time up with one out in the fifth and runners on the corners. While Dwayne Metts spoiled his fly to deep center, it was enough to plate the go-ahead run with the sac fly as Andrew Sauter scampered home from third base after just having replaced DeFabio who had hurt himself running the bases on the prior play, a Ruben Luna single. Sauter drew a walk in the sixth inning that loaded the bases and knocked out Nielson with two outs in the inning. Nielson had hit consecutive batters prior to the Sauter walk, his sixth in the game. Mathis replaced him and K’ed Tony Jimenez, at least keeping the mess that actually counted on the scoreboard to a minimum. Despite tons of free runners given to the Knights, the Coons still only trailed 3-2. Actually make that 4-2. The Knights would get three hits off a combo of Mathis and Kaiser in the seventh inning, with PH Devin Hibbard singling home Antonio Esquivel to get that insurance run up. Bottom 7th, Priest sat down Petracek and Bareford before he walked Cookie Carmona. Yoshi found a hole for a single, the Coons’ first base hit in a long while. The tying runs were on, and McKnight next dropped a blooper into shallow center between converging infielders, scoring Cookie from second, 4-3. And there was Mendoza and the Knights had no reliever ready to replace Priest, who soon put his fourth consecutive batter on base, now with a game-tying RBI single to left by Mendoza. Margolis struck out to end the inning, but we were even!

Sauter singled in the eighth and was on third base with two outs and Ruben Luna in the box. Luna was a left-hander, and the Raccoons switched their entire battery, with the pitcher currently lodged in the #6 hole for them after a previous double switch, and the #6 hole was due to lead off the bottom 8th after the Margolis strikeout. Thrasher went into the #5 hole and Olivares into the #6 to face Luna, who wrestled a walk from Thrasher in a full count before the right-handed slugger Rockwell grounded out to third base to end the inning anyway. Olivares would draw a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th, but we couldn’t find anybody contributing in the bottom part of the order, and Olivares was left on third base. Thrasher walked TWO more in the ninth inning, and somehow managed to not get eaten by the Knights, and now the Coons had the top of the order up against right-hander Eric Rasmussen, who had already pitched the bottom 8th for the Knights. Cookie flew out to left, Yoshi grounded out to Hibbard at second, and McKnight fouled out, and this game went to extra innings. At least it didn’t take forever; Will West was torn apart and issued two walks and two hits before being replaced with a run across and the bases loaded and two down. Boynton got a pop from Hibbard to end the inning, but the Coons couldn’t do better than a 2-out Olivares walk against left-hander Jayden Maness and ended their 4-game winning streak. 5-4 Knights. Carmona 2-4; Nomura 3-5, 2B; Metts 1-2, BB; Olivares 0-0, 2 BB;

Game 2
ATL: RF Lyle – SS T. Jimenez – LF Rockwell – 3B Esquivel – 1B Herlihy – 2B Hibbard – C Jad. Wilson – CF Walrath – P L. Hernandez
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – RF Jackson – CF Metts – P Abe

Saturday started with a Nunley error on the first play of the game, with Jonathan Lyle reaching first base, then stealing second and scoring on groundouts by the guys behind him. The Critters had Yoshi and McKnight on base with singles in the bottom 1st, but Rockwell spoiled a potential 2-run double by Mendoza in the left-center gap with a great running play, and when Lyle caught Margolis’ fly to right, the Coons left them on the corners. The Knights didn’t have an actual base hit off Abe the first time through the order, although Lyle’s 1-out double in the third soon corrected that, and then Rockwell hit a 2-out bomb to tie Dumbo Mendoza in the home run race at 31. It also put the Coons in a 3-0 hole… Mendoza would come to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom 3rd after Hernandez had allowed singles to Cookie and Yoshi and had lost McKnight on balls. Old #5 hit the first pitch high to shallow right, no challenge for Lyle, and no chance to come home even for Cookie on third base. Margolis struck out, Nunley grounded out, and if not for a wild pitch in between, the Raccoons wouldn’t have scored at all…

Abe was neither effective nor efficient, putting Knights on again and again. The Knights had the bases loaded after a 2-out single by their pitcher Hernandez in the fourth, then had two more runners aboard in the fifth, and always lacked that one big hit to knock Abe from the game. The pitch count would instead take care of Abe, who retired the bottom of the order 1-2-3 in the sixth, but reached 102 pitches in the process. He faced Lyle to start the seventh, but gave up a leadoff single and was yanked in favor of Davis, who was greedy on a Tony Jimenez bunt and tried to get the lead runner, but wound up getting nobody. Rockwell struck out before Esquivel hit one sharply to Nunley, who started a double play to keep the Coons down merely 3-1. DeWeese would pinch-hit for Davis as the tying run in the bottom 7th, but became the second strikeout victim for Hernandez after his leadoff walk to Eddie Jackson. Cookie grounded out to end ambitions for the seventh. At least the Knights were almost as inept, with Walrath hitting into another fat double play to end the eighth inning. The Coons arrived in the bottom 9th still behind 3-1, facing odd creature Harry Merwin and his 3.24 ERA, with Margolis leading off and the team not having landed a base knock since the third inning. Merwin sawed off the Coons in order, and only Nunley’s fly to center was a vague challenge for a hit, but Walrath had no problems with it. 3-1 Knights. Nomura 2-4;

Bad news for the Knights after this game as they learned that DeFabio (.277, 3 HR, 32 RBI) had torn up his knee and was out for a long time with a shredded posterior cruciate ligament. The provisional timetable said nine months, which would mean he’d miss the first two months of next season.

Will West walked two in the eighth inning and I was not willing to watch him and his 7.20 ERA any longer. He was sent packing to AAA again – that was as long as he would clear waivers.

You know who hasn’t gotten a look in a while? Nick Lester! The left-hander had been up most recently in 2018, and his career ERA in 37 major league games was 7.90, but who knows, maybe at 28 he’s learned to pitch!

Game 3
ATL: RF Lyle – SS T. Jimenez – C Luna – LF Rockwell – 3B Esquivel – 1B Herlihy – 2B Hibbard – CF Walrath – P L. Flores
POR: LF Carmona – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – P Toner

With the Coons facing a southpaw, Toner probably had to drive in a few runs himself to get #10 into his logbook, but first the Knights had to be dispatched to begin with. He got off to a quick start, dispatching the Knights in ten batters in the first three innings, walking Hibbard in the third, and allowing a single to Jimenez in the first, although back in the first inning he had taken Ruben Luna’s grounder to start a double play himself. The Coons were up 1-0 by the second, courtesy of a Margolis homer, although that lead wasn’t gonna last. Luna doubled his second time around, and Toner threw a wild pitch to Rockwell to move Luna to third with one out in the fourth. Bareford made a great play on Rockwell’s mighty drive to deep center, but couldn’t prevent Luna from tagging up and scoring to tie the game at one. The game wasn’t tied for long; Esquivel grounded out to end the inning, and as soon as Luis Flores was back on the mound in the bottom 4th, Ronnie McKnight hit a mighty leadoff jack to right center to put the Raccoons in the driver’s seat again, 2-1.

The teams totaled five hits through five innings, with Toner facing Flores to start the sixth, and Flores hit a ball damn hard to center. Bareford took care of that, but Toner wasn’t on top of the Knights by any stretch now. Lyle promptly singled to right, and stole not only second base, but reached third on Margolis’ throwing error. That was the tying run with one out, and now Jimenez put the ball in play. Toner lunged off the mound and intercepted the slow roller between his hill and first base, spun around to shoo back Lyle and still found time to get Jimenez out at first. He got to 1-2 on Luna before allowing a fly to right, but that was not going to get past Eddie Jackson, who ended the inning with a sure grab. Jackson hit a 1-out single to center in the bottom 6th before McKnight hit another extra-base hit to right center, this one a double that Lyle cut off before it got to the track, which kept Jackson from scoring. Mendoza now had runners in scoring position with one out and would better damn sure get at least one run in – except that the Knights weren’t trusting his homer resume. They gambled on Flores being able to beat Margolis and Bareford, two right-handers, with the bases loaded. Margolis took a rip at the first pitch he got, a liner to the right side. Trent Herlihy leapt in vain as the ball got away over his head, then bounced barely fair about 50 feet up the line. Lyle came over, but the ball made its way into foul ground and hit the forward-facing edge of the sidewall at an odd angle, caroming back into fair ground and past an unexpecting Lyle. Meanwhile two runs were already in and Mendoza was waved around frantically by the third base coach as Lyle struggled after the ball that ended up deadened about where the rightfielder usually stood in Raccoons Ballpark – a bases-clearing double for Danny Margolis, and it’s 5-1!!

Flores, broken, did not retire another batter. Bareford was walked intentionally to get to Nunley, who had a week from hell, but now hit a soft single to left to load the bases again. Flores lost Prince on a bases-loaded walk, 6-1, and was replaced by Jayden Maness, who allowed an RBI single to Toner in a full count, 7-1. Cookie’s groundout scored one more, and then Jackson was called out on strikes to end a 6-run sixth for the Critters! It was not all sugar though in Coon City, with Toner getting badly stuck in the seventh inning, hitting Esquivel and walking two more in the seventh inning. Kaiser replaced him to retire left-hander Kyle Mims on a grounder to McKnight, ending the inning with no runs across. The eighth was not nearly as dire for the Coons, who were then cocky enough to send career sucker Nick Lester into the ninth inning of an 8-1 game, and that inning started with Rockwell, who was on tap and doubled off the fence to get going. Okay, we have a LITTLE bit of leeway with Lester. Okay, Esquivel grounded out to Nunley, but Herlihy hit an RBI double, 8-2. Hibbard singled, Walrath walked, the pen got stirring again. Edwin Patino pinch-hit in the pitcher’s spot and sent a drive to center that Bareford caught in mortal danger of being decapitated either by the ball or the wall, holding Patino to a sac fly, 8-3 with one out to collect, and at least that would be Lyle, a left-handed batter. He struck out, and the Coons claimed at least one win in the series. 8-3 Critters. McKnight 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Margolis 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Nunley 2-4; Toner 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (18-5) and 1-3, RBI;

One of these days, we’ll find a capable reliever misfiled somewhere.

One of these days…

In other news

August 24 – The Thunder get drummed 21-8 by the Bayhawks, but the best single performance in the game comes from OCT 1B Mike Gershkovich (.260, 10 HR, 66 RBI), who goes 5-for-5 with a homer and a double, driving in three.
August 25 – ATL C Ruben Luna (.324, 26 HR, 81 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak after dropping in two singles against the Condors in the Knights’ 1-0 victory.
August 25 – Loggers and Crusaders spill 41 hits and 27 runs in an entertaining 14-13 win for Milwaukee. The Loggers take control of the game with a 6-run fifth, but have to stave off a late charge by the Crusaders, who almost rally from being down 14-8 in the ninth inning. Despite all the carnage done to pitchers in the game, no players reaches four RBI or four runs scored.
August 26 – It was a brief joyride for Atlanta’s Ruben Luna (.323, 26 HR, 81 RBI), who goes hitless in the Knights’ 4-2 Wednesday win over the Condors, ending his hitting streak at 20 games.
August 28 – The Titans have only three base hits in their 2-1 walkoff win over the Aces, who land nine base knocks, but never chain them together. Two of the Titans’ hits come in the ninth inning.
August 29 – The Capitals score eight runs in the seventh inning to escalate their game with the Stars, who eventually go down without much fuss in a 15-0 rout. Both 1B Andy McNeal (.294, 16 HR, 84 RBI) and SS Tom McWhorter (.273, 18 HR, 73 RB) hit a home run and drive in four for Washington.

Complaints and stuff

DeWeese’s homer on Tuesday in support of Jonny Toner was not only very timely, but it was also DeWeese’s 300th of his career. Granted, we are not in the mood to celebrate much of anything relating to him, given that this is the fourth straight year he is failing to outrun the .230 mark with gradually worsening OPS values. Overall, DeWeese’s home runs are distributed with the Miners ranking third with 68 bombs hit for them during his early years, the Cyclones still having gotten the most out of him for relatively little money with 125 home runs, and the Raccoons aching to catch up with the remaining 107 homers hit for them.

How little did the Cyclones pay for 125 home runs from DeWeese? Under $3.1M – which is not even what he makes annually in his current, satanic contract.

Fun bit about DeWeese; did you know that he was originally drafted by the Canadiens, sixth overall in the 2004 draft? He was also traded twice as a prospect in 2006, arriving in Pittsburgh via Topeka.

The 300 home runs rank DeWeese just outside the top 20 in career dingers; in fact, he is 21st.

ABL CAREER HOME RUNS LEADERS
1st – Ron Alston – 475 – active
2nd – Raúl Vázquez – 416 – HOF
3rd – Dan Morris – 408 – HOF
4th – Martin Ortíz – 377 – active
5th – Will Bailey – 375
6th – Juan Ortíz – 370
7th – Gil Rockwell – 357 – active
t-8th – Jose Morales – 347 – active
t-8th – Stanley Murphy – 347 – active
10th – Michael Root – 338 – HOF
11th – Jose Lopez – 336 – HOF
12th – Dennis Berman – 326
13th – Gerardo Rios – 325
14th – David Lopez – 321
t-15th – Gabriel Cruz – 318 – HOF
t-15th – Anibal Rodriguez – 318
17th – Bakile Hiwalani – 312
18th – Ray Gilbert – 308 – active
t-19th – Mark Dawson – 304
t-19th – César Gonzalez – 304
21st – R.J. DeWeese – 300 – active

Well, we won’t see this board very often, so here’s another one we’ve seen regularly recently:

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
88th – Lou Corbett – 1,733
89th – Daniel Dickerson – 1,730
90th – Henry Becker – 1,729
91st – Billy Robinson – 1,728 – HOF
92nd – Ian Rutter – 1,727 – active
93rd – Jonathan Toner – 1,715 – active
94th – Larry Cutts – 1,714
95th – Carlos Guillén – 1,699
96th – Paul Kirkland – 1,698

Corbett is the first guy appearing in Jonny’s crosshairs inside the top 100 that I initially couldn’t put anywhere. Turns out that this left-hander spent most of his career even in the Continental League, pitching for the Thunder from 1992 through 2000 before hanging on with the Warriors for a few more years, ending up with a 128-101 record and 4.26 ERA.

[darkcloud4579]

This is a masterclass in dynasty updates. I am totally cribbing your style as I write mine, I think. Excellent job and hope you can right the ship sooner than later, too.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (69-59) @ Falcons (60-67) – August 31-September 2, 2020

The Raccoons had drummed the Falcons at a 5-1 rate so far in 2020. Despite ranking second in batting average, the Falcons were barely average in scoring runs, and their pitching was a persistently bleeding sore. They were allowing the third-most runs in the Continental League, with the third-worst rotation and the second-worst bullpen by ERA. They had a few starting pitchers on the disabled list, but those injuries to f.e. Scott Spears and Felipe Ramirez could hardly described as causes of their misery, since those two were not only ex-Coons but also long past their due date and had posted ERA’s even worse than the team average.

Projected matchups:
Roger Kincheloe (1-1, 11.70 ERA) vs. J.J. Rodd (0-0)
Bobby Guerrero (6-8, 4.76 ERA) vs. Rusty Norton (0-0)
Ryan Nielson (0-0, 6.75 ERA) vs. Victor Arevalo (8-7, 4.31 ERA)

The Falcons’ revolving-door type of starting pitching might be well illustrated by the fact that they had two guys make their season debut in this series even before rosters would expand. Rodd was a left-hander that had been taken in the 10th round of the 2014 draft by the Raccoons before being traded to the Falcons with 1B Michael Wilkerson (who was also on the 25-man roster right now and was not a complete bust so far) in the Bobby Guerrero deal in 2018. Norton was a 33-year old right-hander that had spun a no-hitter last year at the AA level, but had only appeared in seven major league games in his career, including single relief appearances for the 2011 and 2012 Cyclones, two more relief outings in 2013, and then nothing for six years until he had made three starts for the 2019 Falcons as well. Well, he was a 33-year old pitcher who had never lost a major league game. Guy’s a star!

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – C Olivares – LF DeWeese – P Kincheloe
CHA: 2B Good – RF Benson – 1B Fowlkes – C Holliman – LF Feldmann – 3B Mathews – SS J. Estrada – CF Pearcy – P Rodd

The Falcons loaded the bases with little effort right in the first inning, and it took Ryan Feldmann even less effort to whack a meatball for a 1-out grand slam to put his team ahead 4-0 instantly. The Raccoons had no luck from the very start. Yoshi reached with an infield single in the first inning, but McKnight hit into a double play, and in the second inning they hit the ball hard three times and came up with nothing as Rodd caught Mendoza’s liner, Bareford’s liner ended up with Juan Estrada, and Matt Good made a running pickup on Nunley’s hard grounder and beat him with a throw to first by less than a whisker. Kincheloe allowed Travis Benson on base with a 2-out single in the bottom 2nd, then walked Pat Fowlkes. I sighed because the next-best solution to this particular problem (besides euthanasia) was to recall Damani Knight. Ryan Holliman grounded out to end the inning and Kincheloe had a clean third before the Raccoons staged a comeback in the fourth inning. Rodd had faced the minimum the first time through, but in the fourth inning allowed a single to center to Eddie Jackson, a double to right to McKnight, and then ex-Critter Joey Mathews could only touch, but not contain Mendoza’s sharp bouncer to left, letting it escape to leftfield for a 2-run single. Bareford grounded into a force play at second, but at least was speedy enough to score on Nunley’s double to the base of the fence in rightfield. Olivares’ fly was caught by Benson, ending a 3-run fourth inning. The entire effort was for naught, though, because Kincheloe walked Good and Benson in the bottom 4th, then surrendered a 3-run bomb to Fowlkes to restore a slam-sized gap in a 7-3 deficit.

That was the last thing anybody heard or saw of Kincheloe or anything he did. The Raccoons went to Joel Davis to get out of the inning, then spooled Jeff Boynton for two innings when they could have so much better uses for him. Mendoza hit his 32nd homer of the year in the sixth inning, a solo job off J.J. Rodd that didn’t noticeably advance the Raccoons, who one inning later suffered another blow nastier than either Fowlkes’ 3-piece or Feldmann’s slam when Yoshi Nomura tweaked his knee on a twisting play at second base in an attempt to turn a double play on Ryan Holliman. Nomura had to come out, replaced by Brian Petracek, Feldmann grounded into a double play on Chris Mathis’ 1-0 offering to end the inning. Petracek walked to start the eighth and when Jackson singled to center it was go time for Rodd. McKnight flew out to Erik Pearcy in center off Mitch Onley. The right-handed reliever was 1-2 on Mendoza before hanging a bad idea in the middle of the plate and Mendoza sure didn’t miss it, drilling the poor ball for about 400 feet to rightfield for a game-tying 3-run shot!

Bottom 8th, Jason Kaiser would face three ex-Raccoons to begin the inning. Mathews reached on a spiked throw for an error by Nunley, while Ralph Myers grounded out and Rob Howell popped out in foul ground. Left-hander Jeremy Stephenson hit for Onley with the go-ahead run on second base, put a 1-2 pitch in play but not nearly as successful as Mendoza a half-inning earlier. He grounded out to Mendoza, easily. Cookie pinch-hit for Kaiser to start the top of the ninth inning, facing left-handed ex-Coon Brett Lillis (is there a nest somewhere?), but was merely the first victim as Lillis struck out the side. Thrasher also retired the Falcons in order in his half of the ninth and thus August would end with an extra-inning game. The Coons had still nothing against Lillis in the 10th, while the Falcons put Feldmann on with a 1-out single and Thrasher then walked Mathews in the bottom 10th. He then faced Myers and Howell and ravaged them both, escaping the inning on consecutive strikeouts. Ian Ward replaced Lillis for the 11th, retired Nunley and Olivares without issue, but then allowed a double up the rightfield line with two outs to DeWeese. Cookie had stayed in the game, replacing Jackson in right, after his earlier appearance, and now hit a liner to left center that split the outfielders and plated DeWeese with the second of back-to-back 2-out doubles, and that gave the Coons a lead here. Petracek flew out to right, and then we were confident to run out Trasher for a third inning, facing PH Brandon Magee in the #9 hole, a right-hander, and then the two left-handers atop the lineup. Things went wrong right away, as Thrasher walked Magee in a full count, and then Mendoza mishandled Matt Good’s bunt into a generous single. Two on, no outs, Benson struck out, but now the meat of the order, and all right-handed came up. Thrasher was over 40 pitches and seemed gassed. Seung-mo Chun was the only sensible option (excluding Nick Lester) left in the bullpen and had to come in RIGHT NOW. Fowlkes hit a 2-1 pitch for a flair to shallow right, where Cookie came dashing in and just barely made a running catch. Holliman struck out to end the game. 8-7 Critters! Jackson 2-5; Mendoza 3-5, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Boynton 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Here it is! Seung-mo Chun’s annual save! Five seasons, six saves, very consistent.

In terrible news, Yoshi Nomura had suffered a knee sprain and would miss up to three weeks, which was outright devastating for a team that at the border of September was four games back in the division and already could not trust its pitching. And now with Prince and Petracek filling that hole? That’s gonna be some pity and pain!

Rosters conveniently expanded to help out a gassed pitching staff and to fill some gaping holes elsewhere.

We brought back Travis Garrett because his 4.59 ERA was not really all that horrendous anymore when you looked at some of the other personnel we had to offer. We also added Matt Schroeder and Adam Cowen again to reinforce or perhaps further water down a kicked and beaten bullpen. Also coming up was another right-hander, 26-year old Blake Kelly, a seventh-round pick in 2012. He had been in AAA for parts or all of the last five seasons, he had amazing stuff (54 K in 46 IP this year) but also staggering control issues. He was only here as reinforcement for the Blowout Brigade.

Position players called up included Edwin Prieto as third catcher, infielders Guillermo Aponte and Brock Hudman, and a lone actual prospect, 23-year old RF/LF Zach Graves, who was a left-handed wannabe slugger, batting .307 with nine homers in the current AAA campaign. He had been a supplemental round pick in the 2016 draft.

To make room for all on the 40-man roster, Dan Riley was moved to the 60-day DL. Who is Dan Riley? STOP BABBLING AND LET’S MOVE ON.

Game 2
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – LF DeWeese – P Guerrero
CHA: SS Tanaka – RF Benson – 1B Fowlkes – C Holliman – LF Feldmann – 3B Czachor – 2B J. Estrada – CF Haines – P E. Taylor

The Falcons replaced the 33-year old refuse-to-lose guy with 24-year old debutee Elijah Taylor as rosters expanded, a 2016 seventh-rounder. Both teams stranded pairs of runners in the first inning, with the Coons getting singles from Metts and Mendoza before Margolis grounded out to Ryozo Tanaka. McKnight made a throwing error in the bottom 1st that added Fowlkes onto the bases in addition to Travis Benson, who had walked, but a pop by Holliman and Feldmann’s easy fly to right left the runners stranded. Top 2nd, the Coons led off with a Nunley single, a Prince double past Benson, and then Taylor lost DeWeese on four pitches, which was usually quite hard to do. Guerrero batted with the bases loaded and no outs, but was overpowered by Taylor. When Cookie flew out to Benson, the Falcons thought the worst to be over, despite Nunley scoring on the sac fly, but they would be mistaken. Metts hit an RBI single to right center, 2-0, and then Ronnie McKnight powered up and belched a 3-run homer over the fence in rightfield to explode the score to 5-0.

And a big lead was a good lead, as Guerrero struggled. The Falcons had two on base in the bottom 3rd, and two more to start the fourth inning. Guerrero had walked Feldmann, and Ryan Czachor singled hard to left. Juan Estrada’s groundout moved the runners to scoring position before Ryan Haines popped out right over home plate. The Falcons did not hit for Taylor with runners on second and third and two down, but Taylor had already hit a hard liner the previous time at the plate – but Cookie had snared it in rightfield. This time he hit the first pitch to center, where it was no big challenge for Dwayne Metts, and the Falcons had already left six aboard. Top 5th, the Coons came up with runners in scoring position and one out after a single by McKnight and a Margolis double. Nunley laid off a 1-1 pitch that went through Holliman’s wickets and plated McKnight from third base, 6-0 on the passed ball. Margolis’ sac fly to center made it 7-0, and also signaled game over for Taylor, who was replaced by the guy whom he had replaced, 33-year old Rusty Norton making his eighth major league appearance. A game that was already out of hand was turned into a total dog’s dinner by the Falcons in the sixth when Holliman was charged with another passed ball and let DeWeese, leading off, reach on the uncaught third strike. Guerrero’s bunt to third was poor, but Czachor skipped the throw 15 feet upline from first base, moving the runners into scoring position with no outs. The Coons even let them largely get away, with Cookie flying out to shallow center, and only Metts’ outfield fly was deep enough to score DeWeese from third before McKnight grounded out. Completing a humiliating defeat was a 2-out RBI single by Guerrero in the seventh inning that ran the score to 9-0. Guerrero himself pitched six and two thirds, vacating the mound after an infield single by Fowlkes in the seventh. Adam Cowen replaced him and got Holliman to fly out to center, then put two on in the bottom 8th.

With two outs, left-handed Michael Wilkerson pinch-hit for the Falcons, promoting a move to a left-hander you didn’t necessarily trust in any game closer than 9-0. Nick Lester got Wilkerson to pop out, ending the eighth. Two Raccoons made their major league debut in the late innings; Zach Graves replaced Cookie after six innings, and hit into a double play in his first opportunity in the seventh inning. Blake Kelly pitched the ninth inning against the top of the order. Tanaka flew out, but Benson walked. Kelly struck out Fowlkes, but Holliman doubled on a 1-2 pitch to score Benson and break up the shutout. Feldmann then flew out to right, the catch being made by the other debutee, Graves. 9-1 Coons. Metts 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; McKnight 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; Nunley 3-3, BB, RBI; Guerrero 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 2 K, W (7-8) and 1-4, RBI;

The Raccoons vacated Ryan Nielson from the Wednesday start, which was taken over by Travis Garrett (2-8, 4.59 ERA). I could now rabble on about how he had much improved in the last month in AAA, but it would all be a lie, so here it comes.

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – 2B Aponte – P Garrett
CHA: 2B Good – RF Benson – 1B Fowlkes – C Holliman – RF Feldmann – 3B Czachor – SS Tanaka – CF J. Stephenson – P Arevalo

The Critters scored a run in the first on singles by Cookie, who advanced on the following two groundouts, and Mendoza. Margolis also singled, but Nunley grounded out to leave runners on the corners. In the bottom of the inning, 11 pitches loaded the bases for the Falcons. Eight of those were balls to Good and Benson, and Fowlkes reached on an errant throw to second by Nunley. Pitch #12 was grounded to short by Ryan Holliman, and McKnight started a surely double play, with the tying run scoring from third base. Feldmann grounded out to Nunley, and the game remained tied at least. The same three batters would be on base again in the third, however, and this time Garrett had walked them all with one out. Cookie in left spoiled a mighty drive by Holliman on the first pitch, Good again coming home on the sac fly that gave the Falcons a 2-1 lead, before Feldmann grounded out to McKnight. Travis Benson would also get a third walk off Garrett, a 2-out free pass in the fifth inning, and Garrett’s clock was running out. Technically, he was still pitching a no-hitter – the Falcons had reached base seven times, exclusively on the Raccoons’ incompentence with six walks given up by Garrett and that Nunley error. Garrett also walked Fowlkes, and that was it for him. Boynton came in and struck out Holliman to get out of the fifth.

The Raccoons’ attempts were few and far between. Cookie hit a double in the seventh inning with one down, Metts was no help, and while McKnight walked, Mendoza couldn’t get a fly to center past Stephenson. The Falcons were still hitless after seven innings. Jason Kaiser had done the seventh well, but walked Benson to start the bottom 8th. Adam Cowen replaced him to face the right-handers following up now. Pat Fowlkes hit a rocket to deep left that looked like it was gonna take care of the H column and the game for sure. Cookie raced back to the wall, leapt up and reached above the fence to bring back the bomb – a 2-run homer stolen by Cookie Carmona! Holliman flew out to center, and Feldmann grounded out to short, putting the Coons in the crosshairs of Brett Lillis in the ninth inning, down 2-1. Bareford grounded out to short, and Lillis devoured both Prince and Cookie to end the game. 2-1 Falcons. Carmona 2-3, 2 BB, 2B;

Welp.

Raccoons (71-60) @ Crusaders (60-73) – September 4-6, 2020

There are by my count about 18 particular things that went wrong for the Crusaders this season, but we have but little time here and can’t go into the details now. Just know that the Raccoons were only 5-6 against them in 2020 and didn’t exactly know why. The Crusaders ranked fifth in runs scored, but ninth in runs allowed. They were hitting home runs at a rapid pace, second in the CL, but their on-base percentage was in the bottom three, as was their bullpen ERA, and they were bottom in stolen bases, having taken just 40 sacks this season.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (10-8, 3.11 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (14-9, 3.48 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (18-5, 2.34 ERA) vs. Mike Rutkowski (5-3, 2.13 ERA)
Roger Kincheloe (1-1, 13.17 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (6-7, 4.74 ERA)

Three right-handers, unless they mix in Dave Butler (9-10, 4.66 ERA) somewhere, who also pitched in a double-header they played on Sunday. Rutkowski, 25, is one of the more promising young starting pitchers in the league right now, striking out only 7.6 per nine in his rookie season, but keeping runners off base with just 52 hits allowed in 88.2 innings. Yes, his BABIP is ridiculous: .215;

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – LF DeWeese – P Abe
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – 3B T. Thomas – P Benjamin

The Raccoons scratched out a run in the first again, getting Metts on with a single to center before McKnight beat Adam Young with a sharp bouncer up the rightfield line for a double. Mendoza grounded to Sergio Valdez for the second out, but Metts scored from third base. Margolis’ fly to center was no challenge for Alex Duarte, one of three ex-Raccoons in the Crusaders’ lineup. It wasn’t long before the Crusaders put Abe in line with Garrett, Kincheloe and all the other suckers, tearing him in half right in the first inning. Tony Casillas drew a leadoff walk, Young singled up the middle. Valdez and “Dingus” Morales both struck out, but a wild pitch advanced the runners and Jose Vargas’ single to left scored them both before Max Erickson whacked a homer to right to give New York a 4-1 advantage. And that middle of the order sure had teeth which relentlessly kept drilling into Abe’s flesh. The second inning was no better than the first, with Benjamin and Casillas going down before the Crusaders unleashed the 2-out terror on Abe, loading the bases with two singles and a walk before Vargas came through again with a 2-out single to right. Erickson struck out, but the gap was now already five runs. The Critters’ top of the order tried to apply some cosmetics to those cuts and bruises, with Cookie singling, stealing, and scoring on McKnight’s 2-out double in the top of the third, but Abe was rocked out of the game in the bottom of the same inning. Benjamin hit a sharp 2-out single to center, which was soon followed by an RBI double by Tony Casillas, running the score to 7-2, which was exactly the right point to give up on the game and see what Lester could do to the string of left-handers and switch-hitter in the #2 through #6 positions of the order.

Lester survived, barely, and the score remained 7-2 through four. The Raccoons were this close to making it a game again in the fifth, having Mendoza at the plate with Graves and McKnight on the corners, but he popped out to shallow left. Top 6th, Margolis singled, Nunley doubled off the wall in leftfield, runners on second and third with no outs. Only one run came onto the board on Prince’s groundout; DeWeese rolled over to Young and Nunley couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted to live forever or just ****ing go for it. Eddie Jackson batted for Matt Schroeder (yes, we were this done with this game) and dropped a grounder between pitcher and catcher who got into each other’s armor. Vargas was charged a hard error as Jackson reached first base and Nunley scored, 7-4. Cookie’s liner to first was taken by Young to end the inning. Two innings from Ryan Nielson held the Crusaders at bay, and the Raccoons brought up the tying run in the eighth inning, Bareford pinch-hitting for Nielson with two outs and Olivares (pinch-hit single) on second and DeWeese (bloop single) on first. Bareford pathetically grounded out to short on the first pitch, and that was it for the Coons as Hwa-pyung Choe retired the side in order in the ninth inning. 7-4 Crusaders. Metts 2-5; McKnight 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Olivares (PH) 1-1; Graves (PH) 1-1; Nielson 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Well, we are well prepared for junkyard games now with a wealth of junk relievers in the pen. I have to work on that for 2021.

But we sure hope for a better game than that in the Saturday edition of the show titled “It’s Not Whether Jonny Wins, It’s Just About By How Much”! 10-game winning streak is on the line! Maud, Maud-Maud-Maud, why are you handing me a note now that Jonny’s most recent no-decision was against the Crusaders? Maud, no, Maud, no! I don’t want to hear it! LA-LALA-LALA-LALA-LALA!!!

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – 2B Petracek – P Toner
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – 3B T. Thomas – P Rutkowski

Toner’s leadoff double in the third off the soon-to-be-challenger for the Throne of Pitching was the first hard-hit ball the Raccoons had managed in the game. Nunley had singled in the second, but Rutkowski had struck out four to Toner’s three in the first two innings, although Toner was still perfect, and he was also on third base after Cookie dinked a blooper into shallow right, putting men on the corners with nobody out. Metts’ sac fly to center gave the Critters the lead, 1-0, while Cookie never got off first with McKnight popping out and Mendoza’s soft looper being caught by Casillas going back to the edge of the infield. The Crusaders got their first man on in the bottom 3rd, with Tom Thomas singling to left. Rutkowski bunted him over, and Casillas added to the men on base with an infield single legged out against McKnight. Young walked, and Valdez’ grounder eluded McKnight into leftfield. Cookie’s throw home was late, and two runs scored before “Dingus” stranded two in scoring position with a flyout to Metts in center.

The Critters reclaimed the lead in the next inning. Thomas made an error on Nunley’s slow grounder before Zach Graves popped his maiden major league dinger, a 2-run shot that just barely fit over the fence in right center and made it 3-2 for Portland again. That score was true through five, with the fifth ending with Cookie spoiling a Casillas drive to left on the warning track. Toner not only held the lead on the scoreboard, but also was staving off the challenger in strikeouts, seven to six, after five innings.

The Furballs then loaded the bases against Rutkowski with one out in the sixth inning. After Mendoza grounded out, Margolis singled cleanly to center, Nunley singled softly to right, and Graves walked on four pitches. Jackson batted for Petracek, ran a 3-1 count and just held still, taking the bases-loaded walk that extended the lead to 4-2. Toner fell victim to stuff, and Cookie’s grounder to second was not enough to beat Valdez, so Jackson’s walk was the only run-scoring event in the inning. Things looked mildly okay until the bottom 7th, when the Crusaders jumped on Toner, who allowed a soft single to right to Vargas before he lost Erickson in a full count. Duarte grounded to right, Tim Prince missed the ball, the rookie Graves made an ill-advised throw home, and the Crusaders’ Vargas not only scored easily, but the runners moved into scoring position with nobody out in a 4-3 game. Tom Thomas hit the first pitch he saw between Nunley and McKnight for a 2-run single and things were crumbling to dust. Toner defeated, down 5-4, although he did finish the inning on a pop and a double play by rookie Ryan Vogel, hitting for Casillas. So the Coons had one more chance to come back, but they had to do it in the eighth inning. They were looking at left-hander Brian Doumas now, with Rutkowski having been hit for. Doumas retired only two before Graves hit a double off Joe Jones, but Ray Kelley retired Prince on a groundout and the winning streak was history for good.

Valdez and Vargas both hit doubles off Jason Kaiser in the bottom 8th for an insurance run before the Coons put the tying runs on base anyway with nobody out against Choe; Bareford and Cookie hit singles to start the ninth. Dwayne Metts reached for a 2-2 pitch and flicked it into the shallow outfield just barely, filling the bases with the third single of the inning. McKnight hit a sac fly to “Dingus” in left, which was not at all helpful, but still better than Mendoza’s pathetic groundout to Thomas. Margolis came up with two outs, tying and go-ahead run in scoring position. We flashed a steal home sign briefly to Cookie, who didn’t get a jump and retreated to the base at 1-0. Which was for the better, probably, because Margolis knocked the 2-0 pitch up the middle, past the reach of replacement shortstop Chris Muhammad and into center – Cookie scored! – Metts scored! – score flipped!! The attendance was in utter shock as Cookie and Metts jumped up and down in blind excitement on their way back to the dugout. The Crusaders brought left-hander Ben Jacobson to face Nunley, the first appearance for Jacobson this year and the sixth overall. His first pitch drilled Nunley, but Graves would pop out. Chris Mathis got the save opportunity with the right-handed bottom of the order up in the bottom of the ninth inning. Duarte and Thomas both grounded out to short before switch-hitter Jalen Parks came out pinch-hitting, but Mathis had him on three pitches, all strikes. 7-6 Critters. Carmona 2-5; Margolis 2-5, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4; Graves 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

I’M NOT CRYING, YOU’RE CRYING!!

Game 3
POR: LF Carmona – RF Jackson – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – CF Bareford – 3B Nunley – 2B Prince – P Kincheloe
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – 3B T. Thomas – P D. Butler

Here came the left-hander, so the Raccoons were denied a chance to rummage in the intestines of mummified “Midnight” Martin. But whatever the Furballs did to the opposing pitcher was probably only lipstick on a pig again, because they were sending a cardboard box with panicked eyes painted to one side to pitch. Kinch misfielded Tony Casillas’ grounder for a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, threw a wild pitch, then walked Adam Young anyway, there were a few frightened tears sprouting out of me, but Nunley took Valdez’ soft line, and “Dingus” grounded into a double play to end the inning. There was also a single and a walk in the second inning, and also another double play that Thomas hit into.

“Dingus” Morales, whose body was old and used up, hurt himself running the bases in the fourth inning trying to break up a double play that Vargas was about to hit into. Mike Fitzgerald replaced him, and the game was scoreless after four, somehow, with Erickson grounding out to Prince to end the frame. While Kincheloe was exceedingly lucky, the Raccoons had yet to reach base against Dave Butler, who walked Margolis in the fifth inning, but the H column remained clean. Duarte drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 5th, but the Crusaders again couldn’t break through a paper-thin wall on the mound, and Kincheloe somehow labored around a leadoff single by Young and a Valdez walk in the sixth inning, too.

Jackson walked to start the seventh inning against Butler who had needed *45* pitches to sit down the Coons through six. McKnight and Mendoza would hit balls hard in the inning, but made outs to Fitzgerald and Duarte, respectively, and Margolis grounded out to third. That no-hitter was damn sure taking shape now! And as an added bonus Butler also knocked out his opposition with a 2-out single in the bottom 7th. Mind that still no run had scored, but the Crusaders sent left-hander Drew Lowe to hit for Casillas, which linked up three left-handers and we sent for Nick Lester who got the K on Lowe to end the seventh and gave Kincheloe a well-fought-for even if insanely dumb-lucky no-decision. Butler, undeterred, struck out the 6-7-8 batters in the eighth inning, but still needed his team to score a ****ing run to secure a no-hitter. Of 42 ABL no-hitters by a single pitcher, four had come in matchups between these two teams, split evenly so far. A Valdez walk was all the Crusaders got off Chun in the eighth inning, but the Coons also failed to progress past a Cookie walk in the ninth and left him on second base. Boynton was in for the ninth, Erickson grounded out, but Duarte legged out an infield single. Too bad Tom Thomas hit into a double play to McKnight, sending the game to extras.

Well, Butler had some time left on the clock, having thrown 87 pitches through nine innings. But the baseball gods would say NO again, and before the top of the 10th inning was out, the home crowd was facepalming in agony again. Mendoza started the inning with a groundout to Thomas, but Butler then lost Margolis on balls. Bareford grounded out, moving Margolis to second and bringing up Nunley with two outs. Nunley became the killjoy, grounding a 1-0 pitch up the middle, past Valdez and into center for a single. Margolis flung the paws and scored, and Butler looked like he had just had a stroke. Prince popped out, and the ball went to Thrasher in the bottom of the ninth. Drama was far from over, as Thrasher lost Ryan Vogel to a leadoff walk. PH Andy Schmit struck out, and Skinner flew to shallow center, where Bareford dropped the ball, the error allowing the winning run on base. Valdez struck out before the Crusaders sent Jason Travis to the plate as pinch-hitter. It was the first career plate appearance for the 25-year old switch-hitting catcher. Thrasher had him with eggs and bacon. 1-0 Blighters. Nunley 1-4, RBI; Kincheloe 6.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 1 K;

You know, I actually feel bad for Butler. A bit.

A wee bit.

In other news

August 31 – The Indians will be without C Jayden Jolley (.228, 6 HR, 40 RBI) for the rest of the season. The 34-year old has suffered torn ankle ligaments and will spent months recovering.
September 1 – Two players open September by extending hitting streaks to 20 games. LVA 1B/RF/LF Adam Flack (.345, 0 HR, 44 RBI) connects for two singles in the Aces’ 5-4 loss to the Loggers to reach the mark, while SAC LF/RF Doug Stross (.333, 8 HR, 72 RBI) has one single in the 11-0 rout his club suffered at the bats of the Cyclones.
September 1 – After a leadoff single by Eric McPherson (.364, 0 HR, 0 RBI in 13 AB) in the bottom of the tenth inning, the Titans walk off on consecutive errors by the Condors’ Howard Read and Bob Hampton, winning a 4-3 decision.
September 1 – Miners and Wolves play 17 innings in Salem after the Wolves blow their 2-0 lead in the ninth inning. Both teams score one in the 12th before 1B Dave McCormick (.326, 1 HR, 3 RBI) hits a 2-run home run off Carlos Dorado (0-1, 18.00 ERA) to put the Miners over the hump. The Wolves score a run on two singles in the bottom 17th, but lose, 5-4.
September 2 – Sparkling sophomore SFB SP Mark Roberts (14-12, 3.41 ERA) strikes out 16 Crusaders in the Bayhawks’ 6-1 win over them.
September 2 – The hitting streak of SAC LF/RF Doug Stross ends at 20 games already, as Stross (.331, 8 HR, 73 RBI) goes hitless in the Scorpions’ 8-7 loss to the Cyclones.
September 4 – OCT C Casimiro Schoeppen (.236, 7 HR, 35 RBI) looks like he’s done for the season due to shoulder tendinitis.
September 5 – The Aces’ Adam Flack (.339, 0 HR, 45 RBI) has his hitting streak end at 22 games, going empty in the Aces’ 6-1 loss to the Knights in Atlanta.
September 5 – The Scorpions score in every one of their eight innings batting in a 14-4 drubbing of the Warriors. LF/RF Doug Stross has three base hits and drives in five for Sacramento.
September 6 – The Loggers thump the Canadiens, 10-1, on the strength of six home runs. 3B Alberto Velez (.260, 21 HR, 76 RBI) and OF/1B Chris LeMoine (.274, 19 HR, 83 RBI) both go yard twice. LeMoine’s second homer off Matt Rosenthal is the only home run that is not a solo shot, counting for two.

Complaints and stuff

No, Sunday was not a no-hitter, and Wednesday was also in fact not a no-hitter – the Raccoons did not pitch for nine innings. If it had been a no-hitter, it would have been the first no-hitter pitched by a losing team in ABL history, and also an exceedingly rare combined no-hitter. Which is all the positives you can draw from Travis Garrett walking seven in another terrible start by somebody not named Toner.

Jonny Toner won Pitcher of the Month honors for the Continental League in August, running up a 6-0 record in six games with a 1.59 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 39.2 innings. Quite a low strikeout rate for him! Jonny, are you slacking? This is Jonny’s second consecutive Pitcher of the Month award and his sixth overall.

Mike Rutkowski may or may not be the future. For this year, he is at least no spoiler to Jonny’s triple crown ambitions. While his ERA is right up with Jonny’s, he will not have sufficient innings to qualify. And while Jonny got strafed on Saturday, he still leads the CL by 16 points of ERA and by 37 strikeouts. Wins are a fickle thing, however, with Oklahoma’s Bryan Hanson tying him with 18 W’s.

Speaking of merits, Yoshi might be on the DL now, but he still leads the CL in batting with a .343 clip, which would win him the batting title if the season was over now. He also has 513 PA, so he is safe on that side (although we expect him to be back with about two weeks to play). Bobby Marshall is a 25-year old sophomore third baseman nobody talks about, but he is hitting .338 right now … but barely qualifies. He must not suffer an injury, because he only has some 450 PA right now.

And here a view on our playoff chances and who has how many games left with whom:

Loggers (78-58) – POR (7), VAN (4), BOS (3), IND (3), NYC (3), SFB (3), TIJ (3) – 76.0%
Raccoons (73-61) – MIL (7), IND (4), NYC (4), TIJ (4), BOS (3), SFB (3), VAN (3) – 14.0%
Titans (74-63) – VAN (6), ATL (4), IND (3), MIL (3), NYC (3), OCT (3), POR (3) – 10.0%

**** will get real right at the start of next week, when we have the Loggers in for four games. The last three will be at home as well, and at the end of the season.

Finally, Hugo Mendoza has a top 10 season in RBI’s for this franchise. While the top mark by Tetsu Osanai may be out of reach, he could quite easily make it all the way to second place.

PORTLAND RACCOONS SINGLE SEASON RBI LEADERS
1st – Tetsu Osanai (1989) – 140
t-2nd – Tetsu Osanai (1986) – 121
t-2nd – Tetsu Osanai (1990) – 121
4th – Luke Black (2008) – 120
5th – Mark Dawson (1983) – 119
6th – Albert Martin (2003) – 117
7th – Mark Dawson (1988) – 115
8th – Hugo Mendoza (2020) – 114
t-9th – Daniel Hall (1992) – 111
t-9th – Albert Martin (2002) – 111

[UltimateAverageGuy]

For all you've gone through this year you're only 4 out. Very compelling September to come.

Do you have anymore games against Milwaukee?



Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

Do you have anymore games against Milwaukee?

As pointed out in the last section, yes. Seven, in fact.

[Questdog]

Okay, I have been gone for awhile, but the Loggers? I'll need to backtrack and read what I have missed.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Okay, I have been gone for awhile, but the Loggers? I'll need to backtrack and read what I have missed.

How long you have been gone can be adequately measured depending on how many of those questions you have to field:

Where the heck is Brownie?

Who is that Toner guy?

Has the DeWeese contract paid off?

The Loggers???

We have one of those ticked so far.

[UltimateAverageGuy]

I'd love to hear your top 5 players in ABL history as well as Raccoons.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by UltimateAverageGuy

I'd love to hear your top 5 players in ABL history as well as Raccoons.

That requires substantial thought, more than I can cobble together right now. Where to start ...!?

+++

Raccoons (73-61) vs. Loggers (78-58) – September 7-10, 2020

The Critters held a tiny 6-5 edge in the season series over the Loggers, but had beaten them 12-6 the previous year, which was about the mark they needed to reach to make this a level race. This was the penultimate series with the Loggers, who were fifth in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, with a +57 run differential, so not really something special to be honest, but nor were the Raccoons anymore, who after three months of sub-.500 baseball had arrived at second in runs scored and third in runs allowed with merely a +77 run differential after being around the +100 mark in early June. Both teams had some starting pitching on the DL, although arguably our loss of Hector Santos was worse than them having Luis Guerrero on the DL and Zach Boyer undiagnosed with an injury. Neither was pitching significantly better than Bobby Guerrero in the Coons rotation.

Projected matchups:
Bobby Guerrero (7-8, 4.54 ERA) vs. Chris Sinkhorn (11-10, 3.19 ERA)
Travis Garrett (2-9, 4.42 ERA) vs. Troy McCaskill (11-11, 3.74 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (10-9, 3.43 ERA) vs. Ian Prevost (12-5, 2.98 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (18-5, 2.51 ERA) vs. TBD

We start with the left-hander, then only righties, with an asterisk as Zach Boyer’s (11-10, 5.03 ERA) slot would have been on Thursday opposite Jonny T. and he’s still being evaluated after leaving his Saturday start early.

The bad thing is that by the time we get some quality pitching up there, we might already be six games out and dead. It is absolutely vital that the Raccoons win this series. Securing a split might not be enough at the end. Losing the series would probably end the Coons’ season who would then have to make up at least six games with only 3 1/2 weeks to play. Nah, we really kinda have to take three out of four here…

Game 1
MIL: CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF Gore – LF LeMoine – 3B A. Velez – SS Burns – C Stickley – 2B Stewart – P Sinkhorn
POR: LF Carmona – CF Bareford – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – C Olivares – 2B Prince – 3B Petracek – P B. Guerrero

Nobody reached in the first two innings, although both Ian Coleman and Chris LeMoine sent hard drives to left that somehow Cookie got paws on both times. By the third, however, Guerrero was about to send the Raccoons to early holidays. Tyler Stewart singled with one out, after which Guerrero not only walked Sinkhorn, who was innocently trying to bunt, but couldn’t help himself but take ball four, and after Stewart stole third base (his 26th bag), Coleman also walked to load the bases. The pitching coach raced out to yell some sense into Guerrero, who came back to strike out Ron Tadlock before Brad Gore lined a 2-1 pitch hard to the right side – but into Mendoza’s glove, stranding three runners. Sinkhorn was perfect the first time through the order, but striped tails appeared on the corners to start the fourth inning after soft singles by Cookie (to right) and Bareford (to center). McKnight grounded to first base, where Tadlock touched the base with 60 feet to spare, but couldn’t get Bareford tagged out at second base, where his throw arrived a smidgen late. Cookie scored on the play, putting the first run on the board. Mendoza’s whiff and Jackson’s roller to short ended the inning.

Guerrero’s pitching was still nothing to calm the nerves, and Stewart hit a hard drive to left in the fifth inning that looked like it might tie the game right away, but then decided to drop harmlessly into Cookie’s glove at the edge of the track. Bottom 5th, the Raccoons put runners on the corners again, this time with soft 1-out singles by Prince and Petracek. So far they had to make any hard contact whatsoever against Sinkhorn. Now, here was a tough one: do you let Guerrero bat in this spot. Yes, he has five shutout innings, but the Loggers were close to going yard constantly and the only reason he hadn’t spent time in AAA again this year was the fact that there had been even bigger failures in the rotation at every point of the year. Guerrero would bat since the pen was not to be trusted with a 1-0 lead and four innings to play, Sinkhorn struck him out, and Cookie’s fly to center was no challenge for Coleman, ending the fifth. The Loggers’ comeback was swift, with Coleman hitting a leadoff single in the sixth, Tadlock bunted him over, and he scored on Brad Gore’s clean single to right. LeMoine hit into a double play, but we were even again. That was, until the bottom 6th, where Bareford drew a leadoff walk, and McKnight took a rip at a 3-2 pitch and whooped it over the fence in rightfield, fair by about four feet, for a renewed 3-1 lead. Mendoza walked after that but ended up being picked off by Sinkhorn.

Guerrero left after six and two thirds. Kyle Burns had reached with a 1-out infield single and had stolen second base - #18 for him, ranking merely third on the Loggers’ team board – but Jack Stickley had fouled out. Guerrero had arrived at 103 pitches and lacked bite since … well, his first pitch. Chris Mathis replaced him to face Stewart, with Prince being removed and Nunley appearing in the #9 hole which would lead off the bottom of the inning. Petracek moved to second base, and he was certainly a good all-around defender on the infield, but I cherished Nunley’s glove. And Nunley’s glove spoiled a quick bouncer by Stewart that could have been huge trouble, making a lunging grab and throwing a zipper mid-spin to Mendoza for the third out. NUNLEY!! Mathis would put on Coleman with a single in the eighth. Thrasher replaced him after Tadlock’s fly to center, facing the middle of the order with two outs, which starting with Gore read left-left-switch. Thrasher’s 1-1 was a perfect pitch on the corner, except that Olivares couldn’t come up with it. The passed ball advanced the runner, but Gore struck out two pitches later. Bottom 8th, Sinkhorn was still on it, but allowed a leadoff single to McKnight before hitting Mendoza. Time for the knockout! The runners advanced on a wild pitch, but Jackson couldn’t do better than a sac fly, 4-1, while Olivares grounded out harmlessly. That unfortunately put Thrasher in the box, but we needed him for the ninth, so he would bat. Thrasher had not had a base hit since 2015 and struck out feebly, but I preferred him on the mound in the ninth rather than Kaiser and then Joel Davis, or something like that. Thrasher K’ed LeMoine to start the ninth, walked Alberto Velez, but then got a Kyle Burns grounder to short, and McKnight was all over that and started the game-ending double play. 4-1 Coons! McKnight 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Prince 2-3; Guerrero 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (8-8); Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, SV (17);

You know who has a 4-game winning streak? Bobby Guerrero. Yes, actually.

Now to 2-9 Travis Garrett. Travis, boy, remember. Double-digit losses for rookies are socially unacceptable. If you lose this ****ing game, I will shave your head. And your back. And your tail. Ever seen a shaved Raccoon? Right! Now GET TO WORK!!

Game 2
MIL: CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF Gore – LF LeMoine – 3B A. Velez – SS Burns – C Wool – 2B Stewart – P McCaskill
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Hudman – P Garrett

Travis Garrett threw 20 pitches in this game, which was enough to cover the Loggers order once, but not enough to leave the first inning. It was however enough to cough up five runs. It should be added that Brock Hudman’s stupid error on Kyle Burns’ grounder made the last two runs unearned, but Garrett was yanked anyway after surrendering six hits to the Loggers, including home runs to Tadlock and Gore that started the scoring bonanza. McCaskill’s 2-out RBI single knocked him out before Ryan Nielson replaced Garrett, who was taken to the darkest cell in the catacombs of the ballpark where I kept my shaving equipment. But maybe he wouldn’t lose… the Raccoons clawed a run back in the bottom 1st with 2-out singles by McKnight, Mendoza, and Margolis, alas, Nielson was bombed by LeMoine in the top of the second, the solo bomb restoring a 5-run gap at 6-1. DeWeese countered with a leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd, 6-2, but singles by Nielson and Metts led to nothing when McKnight flew out to left, where LeMoine barely had to move. The bottom 3rd saw the Coons hit three straight singles off McCaskill to load the bases, which brought up DeWeese again with nobody out. McCaskill threw him the best he had, and DeWeese hit it some 360 feet halfway between the 383’ and 342’ signs in rightfield – GRAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!

(unlocks Garrett’s shackles) You are free to go, Travis. But – (grabs him by the right paw) But be aware that my razor is always fully charged. [Garrett tearfully scurries to safety] The kids these days.

Brand new ball game in the third inning, a classic pitching duel now tied at 6-6. Actually, the Coons took the lead in the same inning. Cookie hit a 2-out single to center, stole second base (31 on the year now), then scored on Dwayne Metts’ double up the rightfield line. Nothing was seen of McCaskill after that, with reliever Morgan Shepherd walking McKnight on four pitches before Mendoza hit an RBI single to right, the last of the Coons’ runs scoring in this 6-run third inning after which they held an unlikely 8-6 lead. The Loggers would get to work on that eventually, with LeMoine’s leadoff jack in the fifth cutting it in half, 8-7. Nielson wobbled on until he drilled Josh Wool with two outs. Joel Davis replaced him, but did not relieve him, walking Tyler Stewart, prompting another change to Jason Kaiser once the Loggers sent a left-handed pinch-hitter in Javier Gonzalez. Prince replaced Hudman in the double switch. Kaiser levelled Gonzalez on strikes, stranding two runners, but allowed a single to Tadlock in the sixth, which was mildly okay, given he was a right-hander in the way of a string of lefties. Gore struck out for the second out, but LeMoine turned a 1-2 pitch around and walloped his third long ball of the game, this one flipping the score the Loggers’ way again, 9-8. The Coons were close to an instant comeback in the bottom of the inning, with Margolis and DeWeese going to the corners with singles, but Eddie Jackson, pinch-hitting for Kaiser in the #8 hole, lined out to Coleman in shallow center to end the inning. The Raccoons would not reach base the next two innings, and the Loggers also didn’t do anything against Chun and Lester in the seventh and eighth. Lester stayed on for the ninth, facing LeMoine, who was hungry for a fourth homer (the Craig Bowen Gold Standard), but Lester was crappy and walked him. Velez popped out, after which Boynton replaced Lester to face Kyle Burns, but the Loggers sent left-hander Andrew Cooper to pinch-hit. Boynton K’ed him anyway, and Wool grounded out, leaving the Coons to have to make up one run in the bottom 9th, starting with Nunley against Quinn MacCarthy. Nunley lined out to Antonio Pagan on first base on a 2-0 pitch. That brought up DeWeese, who was unretired in the game and had plated five. He sure had one more in him – and this went counter to everything we had done with him the last few years! DeWeese worked a walk in a full count, which was totally fine, but it would not be enough. Bareford hit for Boynton and flew out to right, and Prince’s grounder didn’t beat Velez at third. 9-8 Loggers. Carmona 2-5; Metts 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mendoza 3-5, RBI; Margolis 3-5, RBI; DeWeese 3-3, 2 BB, 2 HR, 5 RBI;

That was five home runs by the Loggers, in case you got confused counting, with LeMoine accounting for three of those.

This was the 39th 3-homer game in ABL history, and the second in Loggers lore (Edgardo Garza, 1987). More on that later in the complaints section.

Game 3
MIL: CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF Gore – C Denny – 3B A. Velez – SS Burns – LF Cooper – 2B Stewart – P Prevost
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Prince – P Abe

Both pitchers allowed two hits in the first inning, but while Abe held the Loggers to singles by Tadlock and ex-Critter Mike Denny (who came in batting .195 with nine homers), Prevost allowed a run with two outs on a McKnight double and Mendoza RBI single, both to rightfield. After two idle innings except for a double by DeWeese in the second that led nowhere nice, both teams almost got a home run in the fourth inning. Neither ball went out, with DeWeese taking Andrew Cooper’s wannabe 2-out, 2-run homer right at the fence, while Tim Prince’s 2-out, 3-run bid was a few feet shorter and still caught by Cooper in left. The Raccoons had had Margolis on base after a Tadlock error, and DeWeese had walked, which kept him unretired in the series.

As the Critters maintained a 1-0 lead throughout the middle innings, Ian Coleman was the only player to actually land a base hit from the fourth through the sixth, hitting a 2-out single in the fifth. He stole second base, but Tadlock struck out anyway. Prevost held the Critters to three hits through six innings, and none after the second inning, but still trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh, which Nunley opened with a howling liner up the leftfield line for a double. DeWeese was put on intentionally at that point, pulling up Prince, except that there were plenty of lefty bats still available. Zach Graves pinch-hit for Tim Prince, but grounded to short. DeWeese’s super-aggro slide almost killed Tyler Stewart, but broke up the double play at least. Jackson batted for Abe since we needed a run really hard. Prevost lost him on four pitches, loading the bags for Cookie, who ran a full count before flying out to Brad Gore in right. Nunley was sent and scored, 2-0, after which Metts grounded to first base. That grounder ostensibly should have ended the inning, but Tadlock threw the ball through the legs of a hustling Ian Prevost; Denny had to retrieve a wild carom, which allowed Graves to score and Jackson and Metts to reach scoring position. Coleman then held the Loggers alive, taking McKnight’s drive to left center on the fly to end the inning, the score now 3-0. The eighth was calm, with Kaiser and Davis retiring the Loggers, but the ninth brought trouble. DeWeese’s error in left put Gore on base, and then Velez legged out a 1-out infield single. That put the tying run in the box, with Javier Gonzalez pinch-hitting for Burns again, and Thrasher replacing Davis, striking out both Gonzalez and the following pinch-hitter, Stickley. 3-0 Raccoons! DeWeese 1-1, 2 BB, 2B; Abe 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (11-9); Thrasher 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (18);

Abe only threw 85 pitches in this start, but he is such an abysmal batter… if it had been *Toner* in the exact same situation, Toner would have batted.

Game 4
MIL: CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF Gore – LF LeMoine – C Denny – 3B A. Velez – SS Burns – 2B Stewart – P Bartlatt
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Prince – P Toner

Ron Bartlatt (4-4, 4.57 ERA) replaced Zach Boyer in the rotation, facing Jonny Toner in this highly crucial Thursday matinee, in which the Critters took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Cookie rolled out, but the next four Coons reached base, with Bartlatt walking Metts before allowing straight singles to the 3M crew in the middle of the order. That plated one run and loaded the bases; Nunley hit a sac fly to Gore, but DeWeese struck out, his first retirement in the series. Toner had allowed a bunt base hit to Ian Coleman to start the game, but struck out Gore and LeMoine after Tadlock had grounded out. His next time round, Coleman socked a homer to right, cutting the 2-0 lead in half, before Tadlock singled with one out. Again, Toner overcame Gore and LeMoine with strikeouts to get out of the inning. McKnight hit a triple in the bottom 3rd, but Mendoza popped out and Margolis flew out to right to leave him on base.

The fourth inning became a bit of a nightmare. Denny reached base to lead off, albeit on a Nunley error. It was the third time the Loggers had the leadoff man on base. Velez struck out, and Burns flew to right, where Cookie dropped the ball for the second error of the inning. The mortal danger would dissolve on a single pitch, Tyler Stewart grounding to short for a textbook 6-4-3 double play. The Raccoons were not completely idle against Bartlatt, but lacked that key hit to fall in. They had DeWeese and Prince on with 1-out walks in the fourth. Toner was sent batting rather than bunting, but whiffed in a full count, and Cookie couldn’t get a ball past the infielders. In the bottom 6th, DeWeese and Prince were on AGAIN, and AGAIN with one out. And here came Toner. If at first you don’t succeed… Toner ran another full count, and this time Bartlatt threw one in the dirt to fill the bases for the top of the order. Cookie was having a rough series and having three on with one out did not make it easier on him. He popped out to Velez to extend his long face to 0-4. That brought up Metts, who had struck out the last two times up, and was nursing another 2-strike count before clocking the 2-2 pitch to right. Long, longer, GRAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!

All runs were unearned after an error by Velez that had originally put Prince on base, but Bartlatt was gone anyway. Toner completed seven and reached over 100 pitches in the process, so that was a job well done for him. The bottom 7th saw Salvadaro Soure pitching and walking Mendoza to start the inning. After that Margolis and Nunley both hit two of the softest rollers you could hit up the middle and have them escape the middle infielders to load the bases. DeWeese doubled to plate two, after which the inning would fizzle out. And the Raccoons had scored more than enough. The Loggers did not manage even the faintest comeback against the shallow end of the bullpen, Lester and Blake Kelly being unscored upon in the last two innings. 8-1 Furballs! Metts 1-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; McKnight 3-4, 3B; Margolis 2-4; DeWeese 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Toner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (19-5) and 0-2, BB;

YES. ****ING HELL YES.

Raccoons (76-62) vs. Canadiens (62-77) – September 11-13, 2020

Now, if there was a bigger threat to our playoff ambitions than the Loggers, it was the stinking Elks. The Raccoons were an unspeakable 6-9 against them in 2020 and the good news were mostly that after this 3-game weekend set it would all be over until next year. That smell! That stench! And they were really not a good team. They were second from the bottom in runs scored in the CL, and they were even allowing the most runs, with a -121 run differential, but they absolutely had the Raccoons’ number, and had shut out the Raccoons for three consecutive games the last time they had been guests in Portland. ‘Guests’ – isn’t that a revocable status?

Projected matchups:
Roger Kincheloe (1-1, 8.85 ERA) vs. Ron Funderburk (12-12, 4.05 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (8-8, 4.40 ERA) vs. Matt Rosenthal (6-10, 4.75 ERA)
Travis Garrett (2-9, 4.74 ERA) vs. Kevin Clayton (9-14, 4.97 ERA)

No, I have no better plan than to run out Garrett again. Bright sides include that we will miss the Elks’ best guy, Josh Riley (7-3, 2.57 ERA), who pitched on Wednesday. Anyway, their starters are all right-handed.

The Raccoons are embroiled in a 20-day stretch without an off day that started last Friday in New York, so we will have to find days of rest for the everyday players at some point. Also, 20 days without an off day is one thing, but we will actually play 21 games in that span, with a double header with the Condors included on the 21st. But that is far in the future. For now we need to prevent more humiliation by those guys that haven’t seen a bath in years and years!

Game 1
VAN: LF A. Torres – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – SS Calfee – 1B Fellows – C Delgado – 3B Roundtree – P Funderburk
POR: CF Metts – 3B Nunley – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Olivares – LF DeWeese – RF Graves – 2B Petracek – P Kincheloe

Kincheloe v Funderburk sounded like a pretty bad and now rightfully forgotten and lost 1930s horror flick, and for the Coons things didn’t get off well, or maybe it depended on how much weight you put on Kinch’s pitching skills to being with. He walked one and allowed two hits, but no runs in 1.2 innings before leaving the game with a mystery injury, leaving long man Adam Cowen to take over with a man on first. He struck out Funderburk to end the inning. The Elks put John Calfee (walk) and Mike Fellows (single) on the corners with one out in the fourth, but Cowen struck out Tony Delgado and got Steve Roundtree to pop out behind home plate to escape that jam. The Raccoons had yet to find a way in against Funderburk, who had allowed only one hit in the first three innings, and that had been to Cowen, of all people. The bottom 4th saw Mendoza on base with a 2-out triple, but Olivares grounded out to Jose Gutierrez to make that point moot.

Cowen pitched the Coons through five and kept the Elks shut out. His spot came up with two outs and Petracek on first base in the bottom 5th. The ex-Elk Petracek had forced out Graves with a grounder, but even Graves had only reached on an error… Eddie Jackson batted for Cowen in a throw of the dice, and emptied a harmless fastball over the leftfield wall for a 2-run homer, the first tally in the game! The Elks mounted a swift comeback for one run in the sixth, which saw Jeff Boynton walk leadoff man Ezra Branch and allow a single to Mario Rocha. He retired the next two on pops before Tony Delgado sent a quick bouncer up the middle. McKnight got the glove on it … and then dropped it, on the run, and half-stumbling. He was charged a hard error, making Branch’s run scoring on the play unearned. Roundtree was whiffed by Boynton to escape with a 2-1 lead. The Coons also got a chance donated by a 2-out error in the bottom 6th, adding Olivares onto the bases in addition to McKnight, who had walked, on Calfee’s throwing error, but while DeWeese had recently swung a hot stick, he struck out, the third left-handed bat after Nunley and Mendoza that Funderburk had struck out in the inning, his first K’s in the game. On to the eighth, where Branch was leading off again, now facing Nick Lester, which was a ballsy move by the Coons in a 2-1 game. The count ran full, and Branch tried to hold a swing, but was called out by the home plate umpire. Lester then walked Rocha before Chris Mathis could take over. John Calfee came pretty darn close to a score-flipper to right, with Zach Graves making a running catch right next to the fence on his 1-2 rocket out there. Mike Fellows singled up the middle, with Rocha racing for third base – a bad move, with Metts being on the ball quickly and firing to Nunley, who got between Rocha and the base. Rocha was caught in a rundown and tagged out to end the inning. The Critters put two on in the bottom 8th, but couldn’t get a base knock from either Margolis (hitting for Olivares and striking out against Cory Dew) or DeWeese, who grounded out to second.

Seung-mo Chun got the ball for the ninth, facing the bottom of the order. But Chun had already had his annual save – and he wouldn’t get this one. Delgado and Roundtree made hard outs even before pinch-hitter Dave Padilla doubled to left and then scored on Alex Torres’ single to left center. With left-handed pinch-hitter Moises Berrones popping up, Thrasher replaced him (being put in the #6 hole with Bareford coming into the game; Cookie had already pinch-hit earlier). Berrones grounded out, but the Coons only got a 2-out single from Bareford in the bottom 9th, and this horror would go on for longer than intended. Thrasher retired the Elks in order in the 10th, and the Elks stuck to right-hander Frank Yeager, who had already pitched the ninth in the bottom of the inning. Nunley hit a leadoff single to center, after which McKnight was asked to bunt, which was out of the ordinary. His bunt was awful, but so was Roundtree’s reaction to it. He tried to get Nunley at second base, which was a bad decision, and Nunley was well safe, as was McKnight at first. A blooper by Mendoza in front of Rocha loaded the bases with nobody out, but Edwin Prieto was coming up, and we had no spare catchers anymore, so he had to bat. In 14 attempts, Prieto had one hit in the major leagues, back in 2018. He had recently turned 28 – how about making yourself a present, Edwin? Nah, he struck out. Prince batted for Thrasher and popped out. And Graves’ fly to center was caught by Rocha. The horror continued. The Coons would have Petracek on third base with one out in the bottom 11th. Petracek had hit a leadoff single off Yeager, had stolen second base on Delgado’s whiffed throw, and then took third on a wild pitch to Metts, who was then walked intentionally (!?) to bring up Nunley, and left-hander Mike Tharp replaced Yeager. Ah, Nunley and the double plays, I see. Nunley dropped a poor roller in front of home plate, but the Elks got nobody on the play that Tharp had to play when Delgado got entangled in his own mask and was temporarily blinded. Nunley was safe, and the bases were loaded AGAIN. McKnight ended the farce with a clean single to right. 3-2 Blighters. Nunley 3-6; Mendoza 2-4, BB, 3B; Jackson (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Carmona (PH) 1-1; Bareford 1-2; Cowen 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

The Loggers dropped a 3-2 game to the Indians, moving the Coons to within one game in the division. Matt Schroeder picked up the W for us, the second of his career.

Game 2
VAN: LF A. Torres – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – SS Calfee – 1B Fellows – C Delgado – 3B Folk – P Rosenthal
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – C Margolis – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Prince – SS Aponte – P Guerrero

In support of streaking winner Guerrero (four W’s in a row), the Raccoons scored a run on singles by Metts (infield variety here), Margolis, and Nunley in the first inning. DeWeese grounded out to Gutierrez, who had previously just barely missed Nunley’s roller by inches. The following inning saw leadoff singles by Prince and Aponte, the latter ending an 0-for-12 drought that had started in April. Cookie would eventually score Prince from third with a sac fly, getting up to 2-0 before the Elks loaded the bases on basically nothing in the third inning. Guerrero hit Tony Delgado with an 0-2 pitch, then walked Brody Folk. Rosenthal swung the bat and lined out to Aponte before Nunley butchered Alex Torres’ grounder for an error. Gutierrez struck out, bringing up the left-hander Branch with two down. Branch knocked a 3-1 pitch into play, past a diving Prince, and two runs scored as the ball escaped to right center. Rocha struck out to strand two after that, but we were tied again. The Coons continued to put men on base, but failed to get the key base hit once again in the third and fourth innings.

The bottom 5th saw Prince batting with two outs and the bases loaded after singles by Mendoza and Nunley, with DeWeese drawing a bases-loaded walk before him. Rosenthal ran that count full as well, then lost Prince on a pitch that was basically on the very corner, down and in. The umpire didn’t twitch, and the Elks were up in arms that the perfect pitch was not called. Prince’s walk shoved home Mendoza, and the tie was broken, 3-2. Guillermo Aponte ran the next full count before lining a single to right center, plating two, and unidentified personnel lobbed two Elks caps and a hoof-ful of peanuts onto the field from out of their dugout. Guerrero struck out to end the inning, but the Critters were up 5-2 now, and Guerrero held on to that lead through seven innings, having conceded only three base hits at the end. Joel Davis took over in the eighth and had already had a rough week / month / year so far. He faced Dave Padilla pinch-hitting in the #9 hole to start the inning and allowed a single to right almost instantly. Alex Torres hit a deep fly to center that Metts got control over, thankfully. After Gutierrez’ groundout, Kaiser replaced Davis to face Branch, walked him, and immediately was removed for Mathis, who struck out Rocha in a full count to escape that mess. In a perfect world, Mathis would have ended the game in the ninth, but the Elks strafed him for three singles and a run while he only got one out, and that was a hard one to Metts in deep center. Boynton replaced him to face right-handed pinch-hitter Man-su Kim with the tying runs aboard. Kim hit the ****tiest flare on the first pitch that was threatening to fall into shallow right, but Zach Graves came racing in and made a sliding catch to spontaneously inspire the attendance to chant “ZACH! ZACH! ZACH!”. Nunley got less of a chant for his play on Torres’ grounder that ended the game, but he knew what he was appreciated for – I hoped. 5-3 Raccoons. Metts 2-5, 2B; Margolis 2-5; Nunley 3-4, RBI; Prince 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Aponte 2-4, 2 RBI; Guerrero 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (9-8);

Move over, Toner, there’s a new streaking winner on the block!

Just kidding, Jonny, just kidding. Don’t make that face. No, don’t - … don’t make that face. Here, have a fudge bar. [Toner excitedly waggles off with his fudge bar] There you go.

Meanwhile the Loggers – they lost another 3-2 game to the Indians, which put them in a virtual tie for the division lead with the Raccoons, and they also lost Chris Sinkhorn for at least one start after both Sinkhorn and ex-Logger 1B Mike Rucker were ejected for starting a brawl. That could be one costly “Come at me, bro” for the Loggers, who had probably even less pitching depth than the Critters.

Coming to think of it, if Brock Hudman doesn’t make the error in the first on Tuesday, the Coons win all games in the series and are now two ahead. Oh well, it’s not like anybody will miss Hudman if he should suddenly ‘disappear’.

And yes, Travis, the razor IS charged.

Game 3
VAN: LF A. Torres – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF Branch – CF Rocha – SS Calfee – 1B Fellows – C Padilla – 3B Roundtree – P Clayton
POR: LF Carmona – CF Bareford – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – 1B Jackson – RF Graves – 2B Hudman – P Garrett

The Elks scored a run in the first with Garrett walking Torres at the start of the game. Gutierrez’ single sent Torres right to third base, and he scored on a sac fly by Branch. Rocha singled, Calfee grounded out to Nunley, and Graves made a strong play on Mike Fellows’ liner to right to end the inning before the runners could score from second and third. Garrett struck out two in retiring the bottom of the Elks’ lineup in order in the second, but then issued another leadoff walk to Torres in the first. A 2-out double by Mario Rocha and the subsequent hard single by Calfee scored a run each, and the only thing that prevented me from killing Garrett outright was the injury to Kincheloe and the fact that I might need Damani Knight to go into THAT slot in the rotation. The Raccoons were no help in preventing a sour loss this Sunday and in the season series, only getting a soft Hudman single the first time through against Clayton, who would go on to walk McKnight and Margolis in the fourth inning, but neither Nunley nor Jackson could get the bat square on a ball. Zach Graves could, singling to center to score the Coons’ first run of the game, spawning more “ZACH! ZACH! ZACH!” chants and frankly more than a rookie with three career RBI deserved. Hudman grounded out to strand a pair.

Garrett lived through five, hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, but received no support from the top of the order. He staggered on in the sixth, surrendered a 2-out double to Fellows and then a glorious bomb into the top row of the leftfield stands by Dave Padilla to more or less put the game away at 5-1. Cowen replaced Garrett after the homer and retired Roundtree to end the top of the sixth, but gave up another run in the seventh, Branch hitting a 2-out RBI double to plate Torres, who had walked yet again. When the Coons had two on with one out in the bottom 7th, they already hadn’t deserved to arrive in that situation, a struggling Cookie Carmona only reaching on an error by Mike Fellows. Bareford hit squarely into a double play to end the nonsense. Pitching collapsed completely for the Coons in the eighth as the Elks turned the game into a full-blown rout. Matt Schroeder loaded the bases while retiring nobody, and Chun allowed a 2-run single to Roundtree, on an 0-2 pitch, when he replaced him. Torres scored a run with a sac fly to get to 9-1. The Elks saw no need to replace Clayton even when he loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth on an Olivares single, Petracek getting nicked, and Cookie hitting a blooper to shallow left. Metts hit for Bareford and struck out, and McKnight popped out behind home plate. 9-1 Canadiens. Hudman 2-3; Olivares (PH) 1-1;

In other news

September 8 – Bad news for PIT CL Angel Casas (2-5, 2.98 ERA, 37 SV), who has been diagnosed with a partially torn UCL and will spend the next year on the shelf. It is questionable whether the 38-year old Casas will come back at all. Casas is second in career saves with 627, followed by Pedro Alvarado (624), and with career leader Andres Ramirez (770) now out of sight.
September 8 – WAS SP Eduardo Valdez (12-10, 3.68 ERA) 2-hits the Miners in a 4-0 shutout, walking four but striking out only two batters.
September 8 – The Warriors break up a 2-2 tie in the 11th inning in style, putting six runs on the Wolves to claim an 8-2 victory.
September 9 – NAS OF Tom Schorsch (.259, 20 HR, 69 RBI) is out for the year with a strained posterior cruciate ligament.
September 9 – The Gold Sox are unsure whether they will get back RF/1B Tom Reese (.275, 18 HR, 85 RBI) this season. The 35-year old has suffered an elbow sprain.
September 13 – The Knights not only rally from a 6-2 deficit against the Thunder in the ninth, but walk off 7-6 on 1B Mike Rivera (.265, 2 HR, 10 RBI) hitting a grand slam off John Watson.

Complaints and stuff

Poor Angel. :-(

The Loggers struggled free from a 1-5 week with a 7-2 win on Sunday, which broke the virtual tie with the Critters who took a cold bath against Kevin Clayton. Did you know that his two wins against the Knights and Falcons aside, the Raccoons have lost every game that Travis Garrett has started, even his no-decisions? That’s a 2-13 team record in 15 starts for him…

Tuesday’s Chris LeMoine Bonanza was the fifth 3-homer game *against* the Raccoons ever since Craig Bowen had become the sole player to hit four in a game in 2007. The list reads NYC Gabriel Ortíz (2010), LAP Stan Murphy (2012), NYC Jesus Ramirez (2014), ATL Jimmy Raupp (2017), and now MIL Chris LeMoine (2020). There have been 22 3-homer games since then overall, so we better move the fences out, I guess. Actually, no. Only the Murphy game also took place in Portland.

In case you wonder, the Raccoons lost all those games. Heck, only three teams have had three or more homers hit against them by a player and still won the game, and only once did that happen in the last 25 years: May 8, 2014, when Gil Rockwell of the Knights bombed the Bayhawks three times, but Atlanta still lost, 6-5. That was also part of the only time in league history in which two players hit three dingers on the same day, the other being SFW Jamie Wilson in an 11-2 rout of the Scorpions.

I would like to continue to try Kincheloe – as soon as Mena can find out what ails him. His 8.18 ERA is unpleasant, but – bright sides! (cough) – it’s not the worst in Coons history for a pitcher with at least 20 innings pitched. He still ranks ahead of Miguel Bojorquez (8.25 ERA), Pedro Perez (8.57 ERA), Marco Gomez (9.13 ERA), and Gary Dupes (9.22 ERA). You may not remember any of them. It’s okay.

None of those guys reached *30* innings pitched (so far). Who is the worst Raccoons pitcher by ERA all-time with at least 30 innings pitched? Nick Lester (7.09 ERA), ahead of “Brenda” Teasdale (6.39 ERA).

And here a view on our playoff chances and who has how many games left with whom:

Loggers (80-63) – VAN (4), BOS (3), NYC (3), POR (3), SFB (3), TIJ (3) – 53.9% (-22.1%)
Raccoons (78-63) – IND (4), NYC (4), TIJ (4), BOS (3), MIL (3), SFB (3) – 36.7% (+22.7%)
Titans (77-66) – ATL (4), IND (3), MIL (3), OCT (3), POR (3), VAN (3) – 9.4% (-0.6%)

The Raccoons will click off the Crusaders and Bayhawks next week.

Also, this:

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
85th – John Collins – 1,758
86th – Ramón Jimenez – 1,743
87th – Pedro Alvarado – 1,738 – active
88th – Ian Rutter – 1,737 – active
89th – Lou Corbett – 1,733
90th – Jonathan Toner – 1,732 – active
91st – Daniel Dickerson – 1,730
92nd – Henry Becker – 1,729
93rd – Billy Robinson – 1,728 – HOF

We mentioned Alvarado already in this update; he is third in career saves, but at 41 is mostly washed up. He has only appeared in nine games for the Aces this year. Jimenez was a back-end of rotation type of pitcher that retired after the 2017 season and spent a number of years in the 2000s with the Indians and also one year with the Loggers in 2012 and with the Titans in 2014. John Collins pitched mostly with the Elks in the 1990s and was a consistent home run threat to his own team, leading the league in dingers conceded four years in a row from 1996 through 1999. Jonny should clear all five (well, Rutter is still going, so you never know) ahead of him this year, after which there will be still-active Manuel Ortíz in 84th, and a guy we know still well in 83rd. More on that when it is the time for it.

Hint: he led the CL in wins in 1988, which was before he pitched for the Raccoons.

R.J. DeWeese, who had been platooning with Eddie Jackson all year long and recently lost playing time even to rookie Zach Graves, wants to be traded. Oh I wish I could make that happen … Oh I wish.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (78-63) vs. Crusaders (64-78) – September 14-17, 2020

There was not only a wide open season series to be decided, standing at 7-7 now, but also the fact that the Raccoons had to stop incurring stupid losses and get level with the Loggers, who as of Monday morning were one game ahead of them (with Boston two behind the Coons). The Crusaders were fourth in the North, but not far off the bottom of the division at all. They had scored the sixth-most runs, but were tied for the eight-most runs conceded. Their run differential of -9 indicated that they probably were not a .450 team at the end of the day, but absolutely nothing had gone right for them for an entire season.

Projected matchups:
Tadasu Abe (11-9, 3.30 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (6-8, 4.74 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (19-5, 2.46 ERA) vs. Brian Benjamin (16-9, 3.39 ERA)
TBD vs. Mike Rutkowski (5-4, 2.48 ERA)
Bobby Guerrero (9-8, 4.20 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (9-12, 4.56 ERA)

The Raccoons had a hole in the Wednesday slot because Kinch had left his last start early and the Druid still hadn’t found his ancient papyruses on the 11 most poisonous snakes of Africa, which he – somehow – needed for this one. By the way, you wouldn’t believe number seven on that list.

The Crusaders would not get their best qualifying pitcher by ERA into the series, as “Ant” Mendez (15-8, 2.98 ERA) had pitched on Sunday. And the sorry state of “Midnight” Martin is too hard to look at. (covers eyes) Butler on Sunday will be the lone left-hander we are expecting to face in this series (but there would be more on the weekend, when the Raccoons would line up with Bayhawks strikeout phenom Mark Roberts).

Game 1
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – C J. Vargas – RF Erickson – CF Duarte – LF Skinner – 3B Schmit – P J. Martin
POR: RF Carmona – CF Metts – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – C Margolis – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – 2B Prince – P Abe

Danny Margolis found the bases loaded in the first inning after two hard singles by Cookie and McKnight, while Mendoza had walked in a full count. Margolis’ plate appearance also went to a full count before he sniped a one-bouncer right at Tony Casillas who had no problems turning that one for a double play. Instead, the Crusaders threatened in the third inning, with Abe losing “Midnight” Martin to a 2-out single to right – the first New Yorker to reach base – before throwing a wild pitch and putting Casillas on when he raced to first before McKnight could even get off a throw after corralling Casillas’ fast bouncer up the middle. Runner on the corners, former routine Raccoons choker of offense Adam Young put a 1-2 pitch into play, but flew out to Dwayne Metts in center, stranding both Crusaders. Our visitors would lose rightfielder Max Erickson on a daring play in the fourth inning when he took a tumble taking away an extra-base hit from Tim Prince to end the inning, but had to be replaced by Cody Willette after tweaking his back. By then, the Raccoons were already up 1-0, however, courtesy of a solo home run by Ronnie McKnight in the third inning. Oh, Ronnie, we’re gonna miss ya.

Abe allowed only the two base hits from the third inning through five, and struck out a handful. Casillas hit another single, this time one that actually left the infield, with one out in the sixth, but Young struck out and Sergio Valdez grounded over to Prince to leave Casillas on, but Abe hit a hard wall in the seventh inning with a leadoff single by Jose Vargas, after which Jalen Parks pinch-hit for a double. Suddenly the tying run was at third and the go-ahead run at second with nobody out. Jose “Dingus” Morales pinch-hit for Alex Duarte, which was a job for Jason Kaiser, who got Morales to pop up on a single pitch. Nunley had that one. Seung-mo Chun replaced Kaiser right away to face Skinner, a right-handed batter with some oomph, who grounded out to short in a full count, but that allowed Vargas to score and tie the game. Both teams were even now, with one run on five hits each. Chun remained in to face Andy Schmit and his .143 average in 28 AB, but Schmit’s roller got through between Prince and Mendoza, and the Crusaders took a 2-1 lead as Parks scampered home on the 2-out single. The Coons trailed only briefly; DeWeese went yard off ex-Critter Ray Kelley to tie the game again in the bottom 7th, but when they put Prince and Cookie on with singles after that, Zach Graves struck out in between, and Dwayne Metts rolled out afterwards, and the Coons stranded two more in the eighth. Mendoza’s walk and Margolis’ single to left amounted to nothing when Nunley and DeWeese both grounded out feebly. Joel Davis failed the team in the ninth, conceding the go-ahead run on an RBI double to Morales that chased home Vargas from second base, and the Raccoons had been puzzled by Hwa-pyung Choe’s appearance in the ninth inning for an entire season. Tim Prince led off and was drilled by the first pitch of the bottom 9th. Olivares batted for Davis and singled to right, but Prince was cut down at third base by Brian Skinner, who had by now switched outfield corners. Cookie’s fly to center and Metts whiffing didn’t help, either. 3-2 Crusaders. Carmona 2-5; McKnight 2-4, RBI; Mendoza 0-1, 3 BB; Prince 2-3; Olivares (PH) 1-1; Abe 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K;

We out-hit them 10-8; what did I say about incurring stupid losses?

The Loggers beat the Elks, 4-2, while the Titans were idle, so the Raccoons slid back to two games out.

In other news, the Druid finally decided to diagnose Roger Kincheloe with elbow soreness just to have an excuse to shut him down for the rest of the season. Even he couldn’t stand the sorry sight Kincheloe presented. Ryan Nielson would take over the Wednesday start, mainly to prevent a Damani Knight appearance.

Game 2
NYC: SS Casillas – RF Skinner – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – C Parks – 3B Schmit – P Benjamin
POR: RF Carmona – CF Bareford – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – C Olivares – 2B Petracek – P Toner

… and Toner had nothing. Damani Knight in disguise, probably, walked Skinner in the first, threw a wild pitch, and allowed the run to score on a double to right center by Sergio Valdez. Morales and Young both also hit hard drives, but neither got it past an outfielder, with Cookie and Bareford making catches. Alex Duarte led off the second with a triple, which netted Knight/Toner a concerned talk by the pitching coach, who also tried to rip off the mask that wasn’t there. Toner responded with K’s to Parks and Schmit before Benjamin rolled out to Petracek, stranding Duarte on third base. That was a brief relief, though. Toner was rotten in this start, and didn’t get anything done, and we haven’t even gone into the consistent full counts because he couldn’t remove batters. Adam Young hit a 2-out, 2-run double in the third inning that chased home Skinner and Morales, and the Raccoons trailed 3-0 without any concept of hitting Benjamin.

Toner couldn’t get a strike past anyone in the fifth inning. Casillas hit a leadoff double, after which DeWeese and Mendoza made strong defensive plays to keep the game somewhat in shape. The Coons had made up one run in the third on an odd double by Petracek who was cashed in from second base by Cookie with two outs, but when Toner left the game after six miserable innings, he still trailed 3-1. Cowen took over in the seventh, but walked Schmit to lead off before the cocky Crusaders gave Benjamin the hit sign in a bunt spot and he promptly singled to left. Casillas’ bunt moved up the runners before Skinner popped out. Kaiser came in to face Valdez, but the Crusaders sent right-hander Tom Thomas to bat. Four intentional ones later, we had the next left-hander at the plate in “Dingus” Morales, who hit a pop to shallow left that McKnight caught. The Coons were *technically* alive, but Nunley’s seventh-inning single only served to leave him on first base. The Crusaders almost got through Jeff Boynton in the eighth, who walked the first man he faced in Duarte, and Parks singled with one out after Kaiser had retired Young at the start of the inning. A strikeout and the fact that the Crusaders liked to see Benjamin hit ended the inning without any runs across, and in the bottom 8th the Coons actually got the tying runs on with singles by Zach Graves (who had entered in a double switch and batted ninth) and Cookie. With one out, Benjamin’s first pitch to Bareford was wild, moving up the runners. Bareford popped out over home plate two pitches later, and McKnight was caught looking at strike three right in the middle of the plate. Skinner bombed Boynton for an extra run in the ninth, not that it mattered. Mendoza led off with a single off Brian Doumas in the bottom 9th, but Nunley and Jackson just wasted away against the left-hander. Olivares flicked a single to right to score Mendoza from third, but when Margolis hit for Petracek, he just popped out to first. 4-2 Crusaders. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Mendoza 2-4; Graves 1-1;

The good thing – the sole good thing – was that the competition lost as well, the Loggers dropping an 8-6 game to the Elks, while the Titans drowned in a 10-0 flooding in Indy.

Game 3
NYC: SS Casillas – 1B A. Young – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – C J. Vargas – CF Duarte – RF Jo. Wilson – 3B T. Thomas – P Rutkowski
POR: LF Carmona – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – P Nielson

The second inning saw the bases loaded for the Crusaders, which didn’t require an actual base hit. Nobody wanted to see Ryan Nielson pitch in this game, and much less pitch like he did. He walked Vargas, John Wilson, then drilled Tom Thomas. Rutkowski struck out for the second out, and then it was Nunley with a great play hustling in on Casillas’ slow roller and a perfect throw to first that held the game scoreless for now. While the Raccoons continued to have absolutely nothing going offensively, the Crusaders continued to crowd Nielson in the fourth inning. After retiring the side in order in the third, the fourth saw Nielson issue walks to Vargas and Duarte to get going, after which Wilson whacked a single to center to load the bases. Thomas flew out to Bareford in shallow center, preventing Vargas from going, but Nielson had his ways, walking Rutkowski, who had only one base hit and no RBI’s on the season, to force home the first run of the game. Casillas hit into a double play, but I was already on the way out, looking for Slappy, who always knew where we kept the real rotten booze.

The bases were loaded again in the fifth, all runners reaching with two outs. Morales doubled off the fence in centerfield, Vargas walked for the third time – Nielson’s sixth – and Duarte hit an infield single behind second base. Wilson grounded to McKnight, who made a sure-handed grab and threw to first in time to end that inning. The Raccoons trailed 1-0, would deserve to trail 7-0, and still couldn’t find their tails in the dark while at the plate. Rutkowski scattered three singles in five innings and looked like a real winner out there. Nielson didn’t, allowed a leadoff single to Thomas in the sixth, and was removed after taking Rutkowski’s bunt for an out. Mathis came in, Casillas singled, and Mathis left. After Casillas stole second base off Nick Lester, the Crusaders had two in scoring position, but Lester struck out both Young and Valdez to end the inning and keep the Raccoons – nominally – in a 1-0 game.

Bottom 6th, DeWeese led off batting for Lester and stretched out his rib cage to get brushed by a Rutkowski pitch inside, which put the leadoff man on. Cookie flew out, but McKnight walked. Margolis grounded sharply to short, where Casillas was eaten up by the ball, and the error loaded the bases for Mendoza. His grounder went to second, and again the Crusaders couldn’t turn the sure double play. This time the tying run scored, as Mendoza barely legged out Casillas’ return throw after Margolis had been forced out at second. Nunley got nicked as well, loading the bags for the rookie, and Graves bounced one right into Rutkowski’s pocket to end the inning. To review: four base runners, no base hits, one run, three left on. Joel Davis allowed a leadoff single to Morales to start the seventh, but struck out the next three before Bareford drew a walk leading off the bottom 7th. He was in motion when Prince sailed a ball to left center, and past the (limited) reach of Morales into the gap. Bareford scored on the double, and the Coons had the lead, 2-1! Of course the team never got their man on second with nobody out in, thanks to strikeouts by DeWeese and Margolis and a poor grounder by McKnight; Cookie had been walked intentionally. Nunley’s homer in the bottom 8th lengthened the score to 3-1, and Rutkowski also put Metts (single) and Prince (walk) on base with two outs. Jackson batted for DeWeese when Brian Doumas appeared on the mound, but flew out to center, stranding a pair. Ron Thrasher was in for the ninth inning in the 3-1 game, facing the all left-handed, 45-homer strong 2-3-4 part of the New York lineup. Young and Valdez struck out; Morales hit a fly to center, but Dwayne Metts was on that. 3-1 Critters. Bareford 1-2, BB; Metts (PH) 1-1; Prince 2-3, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Davis 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-4);

The top four in our order went a combined 0-for-14. Somehow, we still won. And I think I’m going rapidly blind from – Slappy, what is this? – Who made this? – He’s a WHAT??

Again, no movement at the top of the division. All three contenders won as the Loggers squeezed through the Elks, 3-2, and the Titans beat Indy 6-4.

Game 4
NYC: SS Casillas – C Vargas – 2B S. Valdez – LF J. Morales – 1B A. Young – CF Duarte – RF Skinner – 3B Schmit – P D. Butler
POR: LF Carmona – C Margolis – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – RF Jackson – 3B Nunley – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – P Guerrero

After three tight, low-scoring games, Bobby Guerrero was blown out of the water right in the first inning. After a leadoff walk to Casillas, who stole second base, Guerrero first allowed an RBI triple to Valdez, then scored that runner with a wild pitch. Morales walked, and Alex Duarte(!) hit a home run to bury Guerrero a slam deep. Nothing would get better after that. Andy Schmit reached to lead off the second when Eddie Jackson bobbled and dropped his casual fly to right, and Casillas doubled him in, 5-0. Jackson was also the only Raccoon to not go down hopelessly the first time through their order, hitting a home run in the second inning that counted precious little.

Guerrero was yanked after a leadoff walk to Morales in the fifth, with Adam Cowen replacing him. He got a double play grounder from Young, then walked Duarte anyway. When Skinner grounded to the right side, Mendoza knocked the ball down and fed it to Cowen in time, only for Cowen to drop it. Two on, Schmit ran a full count before striking out. Yay, still only 5-1 down…! While Cowen pitched two scoreless and Chun retired the left-handed tough part of the Crusaders lineup in the seventh, the Raccoons had to wait all the way to the bottom 7th for their second base hit in a hopelessly lost game, and then it was Danny Margolis somehow outrunning a slow grounder that Schmit didn’t play cleanly. The official scorer couldn’t bear seeing the Coons with more errors than hits any longer, and gave Margolis a charity leadoff single. It didn’t matter, as Margolis never moved off first as three outs were made by McKnight (L4), Mendoza (F5), and Jackson (F7).

Bottom 8th. No left-handed batter had reached base in the game against Butler, and maybe it was time to shake things up. Olivares batted for Nunley(!) to start the inning, and promptly dropped a blooper to shallow right for a leadoff single. Bareford flew out, but Prince walked. Quick, another right-hander! We’re out. So Petracek batted for Blake Kelly, who had pitched a scoreless eighth, and worked another walk. Bases loaded! And here we broke the pattern because hitting our last not-left-handed bench player for Cookie would have been bat**** crazy. Who wants to see Guillermo Aponte bat for Cookie!? Cookie blooped the first pitch to shallow left center for a 2-run single, and the Coons were in business! AND … another right-hander at the plate in Margolis! But… Margolis’ drive to right was taken by Skinner, McKnight grounded out, and the Raccoons would lose this one after all. 5-3 Crusaders. Olivares (PH) 2-2; Cowen 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

An 8-4 win by the Loggers over the Elks dropped the Raccoons to three games out, and it was probably time to give up altogether.

Raccoons (79-66) @ Bayhawks (70-76) – September 18-20, 2020

The most potent offense in the Continental League had been let down by the second-worst concept at preventing runs. The Bayhawks’ pitching staff was hard to watch, with a bottom three rotation to start with, but that was nothing against the real life snuff movie that was their bullpen. Last by far in the league, that crew had racked up a hard to fathom ERA of 5.46. I think the Bayhawks know where to look for improvements in the offseason. The Coons held a 4-2 edge in the season series.

Projected matchups:
Travis Garrett (2-10, 4.97 ERA) vs. Edwin Silva (3-5, 5.97 ERA)
Tadasu Abe (11-9, 3.29 ERA) vs. Mark Roberts (15-12, 3.46 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (19-6, 2.52 ERA) vs. Graham Wasserman (10-14, 4.15 ERA)

As indicated before, Roberts is a southpaw. Technically still a rookie, he was expected to challenge Jonny Toner for the throne of pitching in the CL soon. The others are right-handers.

And boy, if “Autoloss” Garrett doesn’t overcome Silva…

And this just in: maybe we can activate Yoshi Nomura as early as Sunday from the DL! He lost the lead in the batting race to a surging Bobby Marshall recently, so he has his work cut out for him.

Game 1
POR: RF Carmona – SS McKnight – C Margolis – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – LF DeWeese – CF Metts – 2B Prince – P Garrett
SFB: 1B French – SS Goehring – RF Sarabia – CF D. Garcia – 2B Claros – LF R. Gomez – C Frasier – 3B Vasquez – P E. Silva

Both teams left a man in scoring position in the first inning, with Garrett striking out Dave Garcia with Brendan French lingering at third base after a leadoff double. The top 2nd saw the Raccoons wiggling at least slightly. DeWeese drew a leadoff walk from Silva, who was walking as many as he whiffed, and Metts found a gap for a double. Tim Prince plated both with a sharp single to right center, and the Raccoons restored the previous situation of having runners in scoring position with no outs when Garrett’s bunt was thrown away by Robby Vasquez. Cookie cashed in with a 2-run triple to right center, but was stranded in the 4-0 game when McKnight and Margolis popped out and Mendoza went down flailing. Pitching Garrett with a 4-run lead was no cherry either, because the Bayhawks threatened even in the most stupid situations, like in the bottom 2nd when they had runners on the corners and Silva laced a 2-out liner to left that caused DeWeese some sweat as he had to race in to contain that troublemaker. Bottom 4th, still 4-0, Garrett had again one of those innings. Phenom Dave Garcia (.329, 21 HR, 90 RBI) hit a leadoff single before Raul Claros popped out. Garcia stole second, but Garrett walked Rafael Gomez anyway, then appeared to break Craig Frasier’s arm or wrist with a fastball right into him. Frasier had to leave the game and was replaced by Zachary Gerwig. The bases were loaded with one out for left-hander Robby Vasquez, who grounded to second base. Prince cut the ball off, got Gerwig, but no return throw was feasible. One run scored, and almost more when Silva again hit a ball hard with men on the corners and two outs, but Prince cut off that grounder as well and played it to first to end the inning still 4-1 ahead. That was before Garrett walked French and Victor Sarabia in the fifth, however, and before he allowed three hard drives to the 4-5-6 batters. Metts caught two of those, but Claros found the gap for a 2-run double, getting the Bayhawks back to 4-3.

Garrett was hit for in the sixth to no great effect, but with the pen getting their paws on the 4-3 lead now, maybe we had an actual win chance… Boynton retired the bottom of the order in the sixth to get things started, and maybe they could find another run off Silva? That would depend on the bullpen of horrors; Silva allowed a 1-out double to Margolis in the seventh after keeping the Critters almost completely silent in the middle innings, and disappeared after an intentional walk to Mendoza. Former starter Bob King and his 6.07 ERA appeared to face Nunley, who grounded to Claros for a fielder’s choice. DeWeese also grounded out. Nobody scored, and instead the Coons’ pen collapsed in the bottom 7th, with Cowen, Kaiser, and Davis between them issuing a hit, two walks, and a hit batter and concedings two runs on Kaiser’s bases-laoded walk to pinch-hitter Jimmy Raupp and Willie Ramos’ sac fly against Joel Davis. The ninth inning saw the Raccoons with one last chance against left-hander Mike Stank (5.46 ERA) as Cookie hit a leadoff single. Advancing on McKnight’s groundout, Cookie was joined on base by Margolis when the latter walked. Mendoza hit a drive to center, but Garcia caught that one. Nunley, another drive to center – and Garcia again, to end the game. 5-4 Bayhawks. Carmona 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Metts 2-4, 2B;

Frasier’s injury turned out to be only a bruise and he was listed as day-to-day by the Baybirds. But when I am through with Garrett, there will barely be any ashes left to scatter. WHERE IS THE ****ER???

Game 2
POR: LF Carmona – C Margolis – RF Jackson – 1B Mendoza – CF Bareford – 2B Prince – 3B Petracek – SS Aponte – P Abe
SFB: 1B French – SS Goehring – RF Sarabia – CF D. Garcia – 2B Claros – C D. Alexander – LF R. Gomez – 3B Vasquez – P M. Roberts

Morale was already shattered before Dylan Alexander hit a solo shot in the bottom of the second for the first run of the game. Mark Roberts struck out four the first time through the order, with only Cookie getting on base with a single to start the game. Cookie hit another single in the third with two outs, and Margolis came up with a 2-run bomb to flip the score! Roberts walked Eddie Jackson, and Mendoza beat Garcia for a double to center, but Jackson was thrown out at home when he was sent around third base, ending the inning. The fourth saw Bareford strike out before Prince drew a walk from Roberts. Petracek’s pop was not helpful, but Aponte and Abe both hit singles to load the bases and bring up Cookie with two outs. Cookie did not disappoint, snipping the first pitch he got into right center for his third single in the game, and two more runs scored. Margolis struck out, stranding two, and the Bayhawks wasted no time to eat up Tadasu Abe in the bottom of the inning. Carter Goehring’s leadoff jack was one thing, but that Claros etched out a 2-out walk and D-Alex took Abe deep AGAIN was just soul-crushing. Tied game, moral shattered, again.

The Bayhawks had them on the corners with one out in the bottom 5th. Abe had walked French, thrown a wild pitch, and Goehring had singled. Sarabia and Garcia both struck out, giving Abe 8 K in five innings, but he was soon bettered by Roberts, who struck out Prince to start the top 6th, his ninth strikeout in the game. He didn’t get Petracek, though; the switch-hitter sent a liner into the left-center gap and raced to third base for a triple. Nothing good happened after that. Aponte grounded out to third base, and when Nunley hit for Abe, he poked at a 3-0 pitch and grounded out to Claros. The Birds also had the go-ahead run at third base in the bottom 6th. Nick Lester had drilled Claros at the start of the frame, and he had worked his way around on two outs. Robby Vasquez launched a shot to deep left, but somehow Cookie managed to throw his body there, making a marvelous catch near the foul line in pretty darn deep left. This kept at least the unsatisfying tie in place, 4-4 through six.

The Coons got a break in the eighth when Claros dropped Mendoza’s leadoff pop off Jim Cushing for an error. He advanced on Bareford’s grounder, and the Bayhawks walked Prince intentionally(!) to get to Petracek, who popped out. McKnight batted for Aponte as we decided it was ****ing go time and singled to center, loading the bases. DeWeese batted for Seung-mo Chun, and the Bayhawks refused to send a left-hander, a very simple counter tactic. Ah, why bother? DeWeese struck out against Cushing anyway. The Bayhawks stranded a pair against Boynton in the bottom 8th before Cookie worked a leadoff walk against Stank in the top of the ninth. He stole second base, which allowed him to move up to third on Margolis’ fly to center. Jackson walked, and when Mendoza flew out to left, Cookie went the hell for it and scored ahead of Willie Ramos’ throw. Thrasher retired the Baybirds in order in the bottom 9th to squeeze back into the series. 5-4 Critters. Carmona 3-4, BB, 2 RBI; McKnight (PH) 1-1;

Yoshi came off the DL for the Sunday game against former Raccoons farmhand Graham Wasserman.

We also gave Cookie a day off, as well as Margolis. There was a double header coming up on Monday, and I felt like they needed a day, especially Margolis, who would catch one of the Monday games anyway.

Game 3
POR: CF Metts – 2B Nomura – SS McKnight – 1B Mendoza – 3B Nunley – RF Graves – C Olivares – LF DeWeese – P Toner
SFB: 1B French – SS Goehring – RF Sarabia – CF D. Garcia – 2B Claros – C D. Alexander – LF R. Gomez – 3B Vasquez – P Wasserman

DeWeese batted with two on and one out in the second inning, but his lumpy fly to center was not going to challenge the Bayhawks. Toner grounded out to end the inning, then allowed a leadoff triple to Dave Garcia in the bottom of the second. Claros’ clean single scored him as the Baybirds took a 1-0 lead. Toner’s stuff was missing and he struck out only one batter the first time through the order, while the Raccoons continued to simply not get anything done. Nunley hit a leadoff single through Brendan French in the fourth inning, but Graves was quick to bounce into a double play. Olivares singled for nought, with DeWeese lining out to Sarabia in right. Yoshi hit a 2-out double in the top of the fifth, but McKnight flew out to center. D-Alex hit a 2-out homer in the bottom of the inning, and nothing made sense anymore.

Neither team was doing much, but the Raccoons were clearly doing less, trailing 2-0 after seven innings. Metts and Nomura made poor outs at the start of the eighth inning against an impermeable Wasserman*, before McKnight rolled a shy single to second base. It was the Coons’ fifth hit in the game, and it felt like they had had much fewer than that. Mendoza walked in a full count, Nunley struck out in a full count. Nobody scored, ever, and Jonny Toner, who struck out Willie Ramos to complete eight innings with only his fifth whiff, had an official losing streak. Wasserman pitched eight scoreless, and Jim Cushing completed the shutout, gaining grounders from Graves and Carmona in the ninth before Prince fouled out in place of DeWeese. 2-0 Bayhawks. McKnight 1-2, 2 BB; Olivares 1-2, BB; Toner 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (19-7);

I shall consign myself to the Bay now, I think. Farewell, cruel world. (is dragged back into the bus to the airport) No! Let … go!! It is my destiny!! (struggle) Let me go to my – (fights back against a reliever clutching to his leg) my watery grave!!

And then the bus driver took a sharp right away from the waterfront on advice of Cookie Carmona, who loves and adores me honestly ever since I brought running water – cold AND hot, and your choosing! – and 24/7 electricity to his godforsaken village.

In other news

September 14 – In one of the odder games in recent memory, Miners and Blue Sox trade 1-hitters against another, although neither starter finishes the game. The Blue Sox take advantage of five walks by Miners starter Pete Rugg (2-10, 5.10 ERA) and two errors by the visitors to win 3-0. Blue Sox sophomore Jorge Villalobos (8-11, 3.84 ERA) allows only one hit and takes the win. NAS RF/LF Myles Beckwith (.260, 4 HR, 49 RBI) and PIT 1B Carlos Martinez (.255, 5 HR, 41 RBI) keep their teams from being no-hit in the game. Both hit singles.
September 16 – Denver’s SP Frank Kelly (13-10, 3.79 ERA) pitches a 3-hit shutout as the Gold Sox beat the Pacifics, 3-0.
September 17 – WAS SP Matt McCabe (5-15, 4.49 ERA) spins a 1-hitter against the Buffaloes in a 4-0 win. It is McCabe’s first win for the Capitals in ten attempts after a midseason trade from the Blue Sox. Todd Sanborn breaks up the no-hitter with a seventh-inning single.
September 17 – Charlotte’s 1B Pat Fowlkes (.328, 10 HR, 74 RBI) scorches the Bayhawks for five hits in a 7-5 win for the Falcons. Included in Fowlkes’ line are three doubles.
September 17 – An oblique strain means it’s season over for DAL INF Raul Maldonado (.357, 3 HR, 89 RBI).
September 18 – 26-year old Puerto Rican right-hander CIN SP Mike Fernandez (2-1, 4.01 ERA), a September call-up by the Cyclones, no-hits the Warriors in a 4-0 game in Cincinnati. Fernandez walks four and whiffs five in the first Cyclones no-hitter since Juan Garcia’s perfect game in 2008. The third no-hitter in Cyclones history (Manuel Garza, 1997) is the 43rd by a single pitcher in the ABL, and the second this year after SAL Carlos Barron, who incidentally also no-hit the Warriors at home in a 4-0 win.
September 18 – The Aces break out for a 10-run first inning against the Canadiens and never look back in a 14-5 rout.
September 19 – The Gold Sox smash the Rebels, 15-2. Rookie 1B Justin Godown (.310, 6 HR, 31 RBI), signed out of independent ball just this year, does not go down often, and drives in four runs.
September 19 – LAP OF Mario Diaz (.298, 19 HR, 70 RBI) is lost for the season with a pinched nerve.

Complaints and stuff

It’s the fourth time a team has been no-hit twice in the same season, and funnily the Raccoons are not on that list, which includes the 1984 Capitals, 1990 Thunder, and 1996 Crusaders.

D-Alex hit three homers against the Coons on the weekend, and hit four on the week while batting .500 (11-for-22) on the week and driving in eight. He was Player of the Week in the Continental League. The FL POTW was Justin Godown, the aforementioned rookie who started the season in the Ticonderoga Tuesday League.

In things unseen before in human memory, none of our minor league teams finished with a losing record! Ham Lake was the worst of the bunch, going 70-70, but Aumsville ended up 77-63, albeit 19 games out in fourth place, because single-A ball is wicked this way. The St. Petersburg Alley Cats hung on to first place with two games to play, but lost their last two games to finish one game behind the Chula Vista New Order at 74-70.

Also, all is lost:

Loggers (85-65) – BOS (3), NYC (3), POR (3), SFB (3) – 81.3% (+27.4%)
Titans (81-68) – ATL (4), MIL (3), POR (3), VAN (3) – 13.9% (+4.5%)
Raccoons (80-68) – IND (4), TIJ (4), BOS (3), MIL (3) – 4.9% (-31.8%)

Last week’s mystery pitcher was of course Raimundo “Pooky” Beato, member of both of the Raccoons’ world championship teams in 1992 and 1993. He left after the 1994 season and pitched two more years after that for the Thunder and Aces, but retired at 35 after being lit up for a 6.28 ERA in ’96. “Pooky” ended up 151-142 with a 3.78 ERA for his career, as well as precisely 1,000 career walks. He won three rings in total, also partaking in the Elks’ 1984 title season, and was on two more teams that lost in the World Series, the ’85 Elks and ’95 Thunder.

ABL CAREER STRIKEOUT LEADERS
83rd – Raimundo Beato – 1,791
84th – Manuel Ortíz – 1,761 – active
85th – John Collins – 1,758
86th – Ian Rutter – 1,751 – active
t-87th – Ramón Jimenez – 1,743
t-87th – Jonathan Toner – 1,743 – active
89th – Pedro Alvarado – 1,738 – active
90th – Lou Corbett – 1,733
91st – Daniel Dickerson – 1,730

*That joke probably only works once you know that Wasser is water in German. I apologize once more.