Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (75-75) vs. Aces (80-69) – September 18-20, 2062

The Aces were five games out in the South and running out of time to make a run. It was not easy to make a run, though, with a team that was just barely to the good side of league average in both runs scored and runs allowed, with a +41 run differential (Portland: +15). They also had a rather explosive bullpen that kept ruining games. The season series was tied at three.

Projected matchups:
John Bollinger (7-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Ubaldo Piteira (8-7, 4.26 ERA)
Angel Alba (10-11, 2.91 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (12-8, 3.63 ERA)
Chance Fox (9-10, 3.44 ERA) vs. Steve Hunter (17-9, 2.83 ERA)

The Aces like the Critters had a majority left-handed rotation, bringing up two southpaws in Piteira and Hunter. The former was a 23-year-old Sophomore swingman with two and a half good pitches that had just 4.5 K/9.

Game 1
LVA: CF Jad. Wilson – SS Fusselman – LF K. Hummel – RF J. Evans – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B D. Williams – 2B M. Roberts – C Feldbusch – P Piteira
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – 3B N. Fox – LF Campos – RF Moreno – C Arellano – P Bollinger

Jaden Wilson whacked a homer to begin the week and that wasn’t all, as Jake Evans got on base and Alex Alfaro slapped another home run to give the Aces a rather rapid 3-0 lead. Kozak hit a leadoff single in the bottom 1st and was on base until he was picked off by Piteira, who then loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd with a walk to Jim White, a Nick Fox single, and nailing young Marco Campos. Actual damage was limited to Jorge Moreno’s sac fly as the bottom of the order fizzled out. The Aces loaded the bases in the top 3rd with 1-out singles by Jim Fusselman and Ken Hummel, a walk to Jake Evans, but then Alfaro struck out and Dustin Williams grounded out to keep everybody stranded.

Bottom 4th, Moreno and Arellano reached for Portland to begin the inning. A Bollinger bunt put them into scoring position before Piteira walked Kozak. This was the fifth walk against one strikeout for the Aces’ starter. Lonzo lined out to shallow left before Starr drew another walk, forcing in a run, 3-2. White tied the game with a single, but Jaden Wilson went back and caught a fly to center by Nick Fox and the bags remained full in a 3-3 game.

This changed in the fifth. After Bollinger ached through the top of the inning with his pitch count well up there, Piteira allowed a leadoff single to Campos, who then stole his first ever base and was doubled home with a streak to left by Moreno, who then came home on a pair of productive outs by the Coons’ battery, which gave Bollinger his first career RBI. Always a lot of career-firsts on a team of nobodies! Bollinger added one more inning, but was done after six and 94 pitches in a 5-3 game. That lead went bust immediately when Rich Read got his first serious career beating (…) and gave up three runs on homers by Matt Schrock and Ken Hummel in the top 7th, which gave the lead back to Vegas, 6-5. Kevin Feldbusch added to the pain with a homer off Corey Barrett in the eighth inning, and then allowed a single to Fusselman and a homer to Hummel in the ninth inning before being kicked off the mound. 9-5 Aces. Kozak 2-3, BB; Morris (PH) 1-1; N. Fox 2-5, 2B; Moreno 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

The Aces hit six homers in this game. The Coons hit two doubles. Which the Aces also did. In other words, this was a real battering. The score doesn’t do it justice.

Game 2
LVA: CF Jad. Wilson – SS Fusselman – LF K. Hummel – RF J. Evans – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B D. Williams – 2B M. Roberts – C Burgio – P Glaude
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – LF Gonzalez – RF Corral – 3B N. Fox – C Guinea – P Alba

Wilson doubling, Hummel getting nicked, and an error by Fox loaded the bases for Vegas in the first inning on Tuesday, but Alfaro whiffed and Williams flew out to right and they did not get a run across. Vegas then got Mike Roberts and Casey Burgio on to begin the second inning, but Will Glaude bunted into a double play and they would be denied again. The Raccoons also scattered a few stranded runners in the first two innings, but a leadoff triple by Ben Morris and Lonzo getting brushed on the sleeve by a pitch put a pair on the corners to begin the bottom 3rd. Starr rolled a single through the left side to get Morris home with the game’s first run. Lonzo scored on a pair of groundouts by White and Gonzalez that also moved Starr to third base, from where he scored on Corral’s double to right with two outs. Nick Fox added an RBI single for the fourth and last run of the inning; Guinea grounded out.

The Coons had worked Glaude hard enough in three innings that the Aces removed him in the fourth inning when Alba walked a pair. This was very much to our detriment, as Matt Sock schrocked a pinch-hit 3-run homer to very much axe the Raccoons’ lead to bits and pieces, now 4-3. Alba responded with a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning before lefty Alex Gomez hit Ben Morris in the knee with a pitch and Morris went down in the batter’s box. It took head trainer Luis Silva very helpfully holding a towel to his knee and lots of good words to finally get him up and limp off the field. Moreno replaced him, including getting doubled up to end the inning when Lonzo popped out and Starr grounded to short for a 6-4-3.

Alba then blew the rest of the lead and then some, hitting Fusselman to begin the fifth inning. Hummel singled, Jake Evans grounded out, and a balk and Alfaro’s sac fly flipped the score to 5-4 Aces. Williams then drew another walk, but Roberts flew out to center, ending the fifth and final awful inning for Alba in this game. Bottom 5th, White drew a leadoff walk from Gomez and Tony Gonzalez doubled to left to put the tying and go-ahead runs in the sugar spots for Portland. A walk to Corral made it three on, nobody out, though, and would derail EVERYTHING. (pets Honeypaws, angrily) Nick Fox hit into a game-tying double play, and pinch-hitters Jack Kozak and Marcos Arellano walked and struck out, respectively, and it was five-all after five.

Both teams now bobbled innings together with their pens, with Loveless, Pohlmann, and Rocco offering scoreless relief while scattering three hits against the Aces to get to the middle of the eighth inning. Lefty David Figueroa was brought in by Vegas then, and leadoff singles by Fox and Campos put runners on the corners in the tied game. Arellano struck out. Moreno popped out. Lonzo grounded out. – Maaaaauuuud! Make it eeeeeeend!!

Murdock held the Aces away in the ninth inning, but Figueroa retired the Coons in order as well to send the game to extras. Ricky H. pitched a scoreless inning, getting around a pinch-hit double Gustavo Lerrea (who?) in the tenth inning. When Corral hit a leadoff single off dismembered former starter Josh Clem and his 6.88 ERA in the bottom 10th, Nick Fox was used to bunt him and the winning run to second base. Campos fanned, Arellano grounded out to third, and the exercise proved pointless. On we went to the major league debut for John Nesbitt, who gave up a Fusselman single on the first pitch he threw in the majors, then walked the ever-buzzing Hummel before settling in and getting three high, but shallow flies and pops to keep them stranded. The Raccoons then gifted him a win for the occasion, clipping straight singles off Clem with Moreno, Lonzo, and Starr for a walkoff in the bottom 11th. 6-5 Critters. Morris 1-2; Starr 3-6, 2 RBI; Corral 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; N. Fox 2-3, RBI;

Ten more games, hopefully all of them a bit quicker than this drag of an overtime W.

Ben Morris had a thick knee on Wednesday, continuing his injury-addled season. He would probably miss the rest of the week.

Game 3
LVA: 2B M. Roberts – CF Lorenzo – LF K. Hummel – RF J. Evans – 3B A. Alfaro – 1B D. Williams – SS Freese – C Burgio – P S. Hunter
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – 3B N. Fox – LF Campos – RF Moreno – C Arellano – P C. Fox

The rubber game saw the Coons go up 2-0 on four singles in the bottom 2nd, with Campos, Moreno, Arellano, and Kozak partaking; the former two scored, the latter two got RBI’s. Lonzo drew a 2-out walk, but Starr grounded out and left the bags full. While Foxie Brown was quietly plodding along, the Raccoons got another 2-spot on the board in the fifth with White and Nick Fox singles with one out, then a throwing error as White tried to steal third base, which allowed him to score, and Nick Fox to third, from where he got in on Campos’ groundout. Moreno singled, there was a wild pitch and an intentional walk to Arellano with two outs, but Chance Fox then grounded out to keep two guys on base in the 4-0 game. The Aces continued to be a mess in the sixth; right-hander David Gaither allowed a leadoff single to Kozak, and Ryan Freese botched a grounder by Lonzo for an error. A wild pitch to Starr advanced the runners, and Starr dipped an RBI single into shallow right on the next pitch. White’s sac fly made it another 2-spot and saw Gaither replaced with lefty Jose Cintora, who got the last two outs from Nick Fox and Campos.

Foxie Brown went seven, giving up a late run in his final inning on an Alfaro double, but that was only the second base hit the Aces got off him in an outing where he mostly served up weak contact. And then the bullpen. Bryan Erickson came on for the eighth, faced four batters, retired nobody, and got the hook after a Bobby Colford single, a walk to Roberts, Victor Lorenzo’s 2-run triple, and another walk to Hummel. Murdock came, struck out Evans before giving up a run to Alfaro’s single, and then Rocco got out of the inning, but not without nailing PH Julio Plancarte to fill the bases. Burgio popped out to leave the bases loaded in a game that was suddenly 6-4. Lonzo and White found base hits in the bottom 8th, but that was all and they were left on base. Roberts hit a 1-out single in the ninth against Rocco, but a pop and a grounder to short ended the game before it could get *really* ugly. 6-4 Raccoons. Kozak 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Lavorano 2-4, BB, 2B; White 2-4, RBI; N. Fox 2-5; Moreno 2-4; Arellano 2-3, BB, RBI; C. Fox 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (10-10); Rocco 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (15);

Raccoons (77-76) vs. Canadiens (80-72) – September 22-24, 2062

Final home series of the year! Only a sweep could prevent the Raccoons losing the season series to the Elks for the first time since 2053, with Elk City up 9-6 with these three left to play. Elk City was ninth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed this year.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (4-4, 1.87 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (13-13, 3.06 ERA)
Freddy Castillo (3-5, 4.41 ERA) vs. Shane Fitzgibbon (9-12, 4.67 ERA)
John Bollinger (7-3, 3.44 ERA) vs. Carson Miller (3-2, 4.32 ERA)

One more left-hander winding up in Raccoons Ballpark here, which would be Fitzgibbon.

Game 1
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – LF Tallent – 1B J. Campos – CF B. Campbell – RF C. Cardenas – SS Spalding – C E. Salazar – 3B Corpus – P Nielsen
POR: LF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – RF Corral – 3B N. Fox – C Guinea – P Riddle

Lonzo reached and was caught stealing in the first, and White reached and was doubled up by Gonzalez in the second, which was the extent of early offense for the Coons, while Riddle was not *bad*, but struggled with high pitch counts and walked a pair in the second inning before pulling through. Enrique Salazar drew another leadoff walk in the fifth from Riddle, but was forced out and the Elks didn’t reach third base either. The Coons then took a lead rather suddenly; with both teams at one base hit through four-and-a-half, Tony Gonzalez plinked a shy single with one out in the bottom 5th before Jose Corral plonked a double to the base of the wall and Gonzalez raced around to score from first. Another scratch single by Fox put runners on the corners, where they remained while the battery made unhelpful outs. The lead was doubled in the sixth with singles by Kozak, who stole second, and, with two outs, White.

Riddle finished seven shutout innings; like Fox on Wednesday, he allowed just two hits but four walks. Pohlmann did not allow a run in the eighth, although Jose Campos hit a 2-out single. The real bugger was who to go after that for the ninth inning, once the Coons left Lonzo and White on base in the eighth – Lonzo stealing his 50th base of the year in that inning. Ultimately, we just hung with Pohlmann, at least until the Elks, who had a mostly righty lineup, would send pinch-hitters. Matt Walters, who had yet to pitch this week, was up for that occasion, and I had my paws ready to cover my eyes, also for that occasion. The occasion occurred after a 1-out double by Steven Spalding. Damian Moreno batted in the #7 hole, and Walters came in. Three straight sharp, loud hits by Moreno, Alex Corpus, and Rafael Valencia not only tied the game, they also gave the Elks a 3-2 lead they would not surrender. 3-2 Canadiens. White 2-3, BB, RBI;

(hangs head)

(sobs)

Game 2
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – LF Tallent – 1B J. Campos – CF B. Campbell – RF C. Cardenas – C A. Maldonado – SS Spalding – 3B Corpus – P Fitzgibbon
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – 3B N. Fox – LF M. Campos – RF J. Moreno – C Arellano – P F. Castillo

Castillo allowed one hit in three innings, and the Coons had a Campos single in the second before they loaded the bases in the third; Arellano singled, Castillo had his bunt misfielded by Fitzgibbon for an error, and Lonzo legged out a 1-out infield single. Starr hit an RBI single through the left side for the game’s first run, and Jim White hit an RBI single to right, but Fox lined out to second and Campos flew out to center to leave the bases loaded.

So far so good, but it then derailed at once. Lonzo committed a throwing error at the start of the fourth, which was bad enough, but nothing compared to Castillo, who allowed FIVE walks in the inning, up to and until he walked in the go-ahead run facing Alex Castillo, for which he was yanked. Rich Read got a groundout from Randy Tallent to end the inning, the Elks up 3-2.

Through five, we were tied at three thanks to three singles by Starr, Fox, and Campos in the bottom 5th to get it knotted up. At this point Malik Padgitt pitched a scoreless inning of relief against the bottom of the Elks’ lineup. The game remained tied against Sensabaugh in the seventh despite left-handed pinch-hitters galore, until Chris Sullivan singled and Jorge Moreno dropped a fly by Alex Maldonado for an error in the eighth. Ricky Herrera replaced Sensabaugh, allowed a single to PH Danny Garcia, then allowed a 2-run double off the wall to Corpus. Valencia struck out, but Damian Moreno, who had pinch-hit in the seventh against Sensabaugh, drove in two more runs as the Raccoons’ pen imploded once more. The Raccoons never made another move on offense. 7-3 Canadiens. Starr 2-4, RBI; Campos 3-4;

Well, that was awful…!

Game 3
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – LF D. Garcia – 1B J. Campos – CF B. Campbell – 3B C. Sullivan – C A. Maldonado – RF Tallent – SS Spalding – P Kozloski
POR: LF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – CF Gonzalez – RF Corral – 2B Bean – C Robertson – 3B Suriel – P Bollinger

Bollinger gave up a first-inning marker on singles by Garcia, Jose Campos, and Chris Sullivan, and after Maldonado grounded out to end that inning with two on base, Randy Tallent hit another single right away to begin the second, but was left on base, and the Elks got an error by Bean and two more singles to load the bases, but left them loaded with a groundout by Tallent in the third inning. In short, Bollinger was no help either. At least the Coons, who had only one hit through three innings, patched together the tying run in the fourth from an infield single for Starr and an RBI double for Tony Gonzalez, who was somehow batting cleanup now.

All for naught, given Brent Campbell’s leadoff jack off Bollinger in the fifth inning, which was Bollinger’s last, getting battered around for nine base hits and somehow just two runs. Barrett got the ball in the sixth, which as akin to askin’ for it, and the darkness answered. Alex Castillo drew a 1-out walk, Garcia flew out, and Jose Campos hit a comebacker to Barrett, who just had to throw it to first withou – … and he totally threw it away. Castillo scored on that play, and Campbell singled home Campos to tack another one on, 4-1, before Sullivan struck out. The Critters got a scoreless inning from Nesbitt after that, then even a 1-2-3 inning from the husk of what used to be Matt Walters. Loveless also chimed in with a scoreless ninth, but the offense was just sitting mute around the dugout. Kozloski went eight for the Elks, and Erik Swain had a 1-2-3 ninth to drive the nails into the coffin. 4-1 Canadiens.

In other news

September 18 – 21-year-old DAL INF Adam Yocum (.275, 0 HR, 60 RBI) goes 4-for-5 – all singles – from the leadoff spot and somehow drives in six runs in an 11-1 rout over the Buffaloes.
September 20 – IND INF Matt Kilday (.346, 1 HR, 78 RBI) will miss the rest of the season with a strained hammy. Kilday was tied for second with 48 stolen bases in the CL.
September 20 – Two home runs by LAP OF Matt McInnis (.279, 11 HR, 45 RBI) for five RBI, including a 3-run walkoff homer, give L.A. a 6-3, 10-inning win against the Cyclones.
September 21 – A single game is played in the ABL in which the Condors beat the Indians, 4-2. The other two scheduled games in Sioux Falls and Salem are both rained out.
September 23 – SAL INF Phil Huddleston (.233, 5 HR, 31 RBI) goes yard for the only run in a 1-0 win against the Pacifics.
September 24 – In a waiver trade, the Gold Sox send C Lorenzo Marquez (.300, 19 HR, 79 RBI) to the Bayhawks for two prospects.

FL Player of the Week: DAL OF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.347, 13 HR, 138 RBI), clipping .462 (12-26) with 2 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB OF Scott Laws (.333, 1 HR, 49 RBI), slapping .481 (13-27) with 3 RBI

Complaints and stuff

**** the ******* Elks.

Lonzo stole on base this year, Kilday is hurt and done, and Reyes got no steals, so Lonzo enters the final week with a 2-bag advantage over Reyes. That’s really all we have left to watch here, outside of the draft position. So far only five teams are assured of finishing ahead of the Critters in terms of record, but there’s an 83-win team in each division, and do you really think this crew will win six in a row from the Indians and Loggers…?

The Indians have a magic number of one and face the Raccoons on Monday to clinch the division.

Fun Fact: Jason Brenize looks like he has the triple crown in his bag.

At 21-5, with a 1.80 ERA, and 242 strikeouts, he is uncatchably ahead in wins and strikeouts, and he leads Jerry Washington of the Thunder by no fewer than .52 of a run in terms of ERA.

Assuming Brenize retired nobody in his final start, he would have to give up at least 13 runs to get up to the Oklahoman Washington’s ERA.

Sounds unlikely.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (77-79) @ Indians (92-64) – September 25-27, 2062

Indy would clinch the division with us in the house unless we managed to sweep them. Unfortunately it seemed like the team had emotionally checked out of the hotel for the year, so I wasn’t overly confident. Indy had scored the most runs in the CL, had allowed the fifth-fewest, and had so far run up a 9-6 tally in wins against the Critters in ’62. They had not been to the postseason since *2030*. The most notable DL dweller was Matt Kilday, who was thus denied having a go at Lonzo for the CL stolen base title.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (10-11, 3.07 ERA) vs. Adam Foley (2-4, 4.50 ERA)
Chance Fox (10-10, 3.36 ERA) vs. Justin DeRose (5-6, 4.54 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-4, 1.72 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (13-9, 2.96 ERA)

A southpaw was coming up in the finale here, and ex-Coon DeRose in the middle game, who was actually on a nice run at this junction after getting bombed when he initially went over to the Indians in the middle of the year.

Game 1
POR: LF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – RF Corral – 3B N. Fox – C Robertson – P Alba
IND: CF E. Ramirez – RF Brassfield – 1B Starwalt – LF Lovins – 2B M. Weber – C Atencio – 3B C. Jones – SS Zucal – P Foley

The Raccoons jumped on Foley for three runs in the first inning, beginning with an infield single for Kozak and a walk drawn by Lonzo before White, Gonzalez, and Fox all came up with RBI singles before Robertson grounded out to leave two Critters stranded. Kozak whacked a home run to left to extend this lead to 4-0 in the second, his seventh homer with just 14 RBI, and the bashing of Foley continued in the third inning, in which Jim White hit a single before a pair of RBI doubles by Tony Gonzalez and Jose Corral tacked on additional runs. Steve Thompson would bat for Foley in the bottom 3rd and singled, and Danny Starwalt’s 2-out homer got Indy on the board, 6-2. Alba was all over the place in those early innings and walked a man in each of the first two. Things got a little easier for him in the middle innings though… which also turned out to be the late innings. It started to rain in the fifth and it started to really throw it down in the sixth inning, to the point where the umps called a rain delay in the bottom of the sixth. The game never resumed after that, with Alba getting a really cheap 16-out complete game. 6-2 Raccoons. Kozak 2-4, HR, RBI; Lavorano 1-2, BB; White 2-3, RBI; Gonzalez 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; N. Fox 1-2, RBI;

The Titans and Crusaders both won their Monday games, keeping the division mathematically open.

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – 2B White – RF Corral – 3B N. Fox – C Guinea – P C. Fox
IND: CF E. Ramirez – 3B Blackshire – C A. Gomez – 1B Starwalt – RF Brassfield – LF Abel – 2B Ewers – SS C. Jones – P DeRose

Chance Fox faced an all-right-handed lineup and had an all-new hole torn into his furry tush right away. Dave Blackshire, long-forgotten former Raccoons quad-A infielder, Alex Gomez, and Danny Starwalt hit straight singles for a quick first-inning run, with Brassfield’s sac fly and another single for Kevin Abel adding another two runs. Indy went up 4-0 in the third a wallbanger double for Gomez and Starwalt hitting another RBI single. In between, Fox bunted into a double play for the complete package of disaster.

Through four, the most offense the Raccoons could muster was Lonzo drawing a walk and stealing his 51st base of the year, but DeRose then shuffled the bags full with the 5-6-7 batters to begin the fifth inning, putting the tying run in the box, and leaving me wondering where in the world I had seen that before, about 25 times. Miguel Guinea brought in a run in the worst way, hitting into a 4-6-3 double play, while Fox was yanked for Tony Gonzalez to pinch-hit and slap an RBI single to right. Morris, pried off the stretcher once more, struck out to end the inning, Portland down 4-2.

The Coons got a scoreless inning from John Nesbitt in the fifth before Erickson got whacked around for a 2-run homer by Brass in the sixth, 6-2. The Raccoons never contented again on offense, while Sensabaugh pitched two scoreless against the Indians at the tail end. 6-2 Indians. Campos (PH) 1-1; Corral 2-4; N. Fox 1-2, BB; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Sensabaugh 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Kinda depressing, when J.J. Sensabaugh is the best reliever in your pen…

Xavier Reyes stole his 49th base on this day, remaining two behind Lonzo.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – 3B N. Fox – LF Campos – RF Moreno – C Arellano – P Riddle
IND: CF E. Ramirez – LF B. Johnston – C A. Gomez – 1B Starwalt – RF Brassfield – 2B M. Weber – 3B J. Humphries – SS C. Jones – P DeWitt

11 Raccoons went down without a squeak before Joel Starr hit a single in the fourth inning against DeWitt, only to be left on when White grounded out to Mike Weber. The Indians had seen a pair on base in the bottom 1st, but Bryan Johnston and Alex Gomez had been left stranded, and Riddle didn’t yield much to the Indians after that through the end of five. Riddle then saw the bags fill up in the bottom 6th. Johnston hit a leadoff single, Starwalt worked a walk, and Brassfield hit another shy single to load them up for Weber with one out. Riddle’s season ended by taking four runs to the face as Weber hit an RBI single to center, he walked in a run against Joe Humphries, and Chris Jones knocked in another pair of runs before DeWitt and Ramirez were carved up for the last two outs.

DeWitt went into the eighth inning before shaken off the mound by … well, Humphries made an error that put Marco Campos on base, and then Jorge Moreno hit a bloop single, all with one out. Juan Carrillo, right-hander, came in, struck out Arellano and Corral, and that was that. 4-0 Indians.

Raccoons (78-81) @ Loggers (71-87) – September 29-October 1, 2062

The Loggers had seven straight, some in dramatic fashion [see below] and had punched their last-place ticket for another season. The Raccoons needed to sweep them to avoid a losing season, which didn’t seem likely given Milwaukee’s 10-5 season series dominance. They had allowed the very most runs in the CL, and had scored an average amount of runs for a -99 run differential (Coons: +2).

Projected matchups:
Freddy Castillo (3-5, 4.30 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (5-8, 5.68 ERA)
John Bollinger (7-4, 3.45 ERA) vs. Jesus Hinojosa (11-13, 5.69 ERA)
Angel Alba (11-11, 3.08 ERA) vs. Vincent Hernandez (4-7, 4.82 ERA)

Two right-handers, then a southpaw to close out the season here in Milwaukee.

Both Malik Crumble and Nick Fowler returned from the DL ahead of this final series of the year.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – 3B Fowler – RF Corral – 2B Bean – C Arellano – P Castillo
MIL: LF Franks – RF D. Wright – 1B D. Robles – SS D. Miller – 3B Lange – C Merrill – C M. Reed – 2B Wall – P Pizzichini

Lonzo was nicked and caught stealing in the first inning while Castillo offered a walk in each of the first two innings, but the Loggers couldn’t push those runners around. The third inning began with Morris hitting a single before being forced out by Lonzo. Starr walked and Kozak put something on the board with an RBI double to center. Pizza Zucchini or whatever his name was balked in a run and allowed another on Nick Fowler’s welcome-back RBI single, 3-0. Corral drew a walk before the inning fizzled out with the bottom of the order. The fourth saw another threat with one out after Castillo reached on Danny Miller’s throwing error, Lonzo singled and stole second (#52), and Starr drew a walk. Pizza balked in ANOTHER run, taking away the double play on Kozak’s otherwise room-service two-for-one grounder to Josh Wall, thus conceding another run. Fowler singled to center with two outs to get Starr in and Zucchini out, left-hander Tony Espinosa replacing him and whiffing Corral to end the Coons’ second straight 3-spot. To counter, Castillo offered a leadoff walk to Dave Robles in the bottom 4th, then was taken deep by Miller, who had to do penance for three unearned runs. The Coons replied with a run on Bean and Arellano hits, with a generous fielding error by Jonathan Merrill in centerfield to allow Bean to score on the Arellano single.

Castillo would put the leadoff man on base in the fifth and sixth, but eloped, and in the seventh, when Mark Reed singled, was forced out by Wall, and Willie Martinez added another 1-out single. Scott Franks popped out before the Coons went to Pohlmann for the right-handed batters. Dave Wright struck out, closing Castillo’s ledger. Pohlmann also retired the Loggers on just four pitches in the eighth inning. Top 9th, righty Alex Diaz put Corral on with a leadoff walk and then Bean smashed a double to right. Malik Crumble grabbed a stick in Arellano’s place and raked a 3-run homer over the fence in left! The Loggers replaced Diaz with southpaw Dave Burnett, who retired nobody between Campos, Morris, Lonzo, and Starr, until Starr pulled a groin on mashing an RBI double and was replaced with Suriel to pinch-run while Kozak would man first base in the bottom 9th, but before that he hit a fly to center that Merrill then dropped for another runner and Lonzo coming in to score. Jorge Moreno batted for Fowler, hit a fly to left-center that Merrill actually caught, but then threw the ball all across the infield to nobody in particular as Suriel scored on the sac fly; this error allowed Kozak to second base. Nevertheless, for the cost of seven runs, the Loggers had finally collected an out! New pitcher Ryan Rigby allowed a single to Corral, then an RBI single to Bean. The inning just didn’t want to stop…! Actually it did, on a pair of pops by Crumble and Campos, after Portland put up EIGHT runs. Bottom 9th, Brad Loveless entered, threw one pitch for a groundout by Merrill, then left with an injury concern. Erickson replaced him and warmed up on the mound while the stadium was emptying and got the final two outs without issue. 15-2 Critters!! Morris 2-6; Lavorano 3-5, RBI; Starr 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Fowler 2-5, 2 RBI; Bean 4-6, 2 2B, RBI; Crumble (PH) 1-2, HR, 3 RBI;

Joel Starr’s tweaked groin would leave him day-to-day for the last two games of the year, and he would not make another start, but was available to pinch-hit. Kozak would hold down first base for the last two contests. No word on Loveless on Saturday, but I was confident we could manage just fine without him.

No steal for Reyes on Friday, so Lonzo was now up three. He was also not in the lineup on Saturday. Nothing wrong with him, but Bean deserved another start after that 4-hit game. Besides, maybe we could be sneaky and insert Lonzo as pinch-runner!

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – 2B White – 1B Kozak – LF Crumble – RF Corral – C Arellano – SS Bean – 3B Suriel – P Bollinger
MIL: LF Franks – CF Merrill – 1B D. Robles – C Waker – 3B Lange – SS Reber – RF Whetstine – 2B Loftis – P Hinojosa

Bollinger retired the first two in the bottom 1st before Robles, Tristan Waker, and Ralph Lange loaded the bases with two singles and a walk, and Kyle Reber then singled in a pair before the inning ended with Lange caught in a rundown. The Raccoons tied it right back up, though, getting a pile of singles from Crumble, Corral, Bean, and Suriel to get even in the top 2nd. Bollinger swung and grounded out, advancing the runners to where Morris could plate both of them with a single to right, 4-2, then stole second and scored on another single to center by Jim White! Kozak flew out to end the 5-run battering for Hinojosa. The Loggers answered by getting Chad Whetstine and Jeremy Loftis on to begin the bottom 2nd, and then a bunt, a sac fly, and a Merrill single plated two runs for them, 5-4, before Merrill was caught stealing.

Hinojosa was hit for in the fourth inning but Bollinger settled down for a bit, getting into the sixth inning before Whetstine and Loftis were back on base with 1-out singles in what was still a 5-4 game. The Coons went to Murdock, who got a fly to center from PH Willie Martinez, then Ricky Herrera in a double switch that put Nick Fox at third base, with the #9 spot leading off the next half-inning for Portland. Ricky ended the inning with a K – but not to Franks, but rather Merrill after Franks tied the game at five with a single to right…

Pohlmann held the game tied in the seventh before Corral doubled off Ramon Montes de Oca with one out in the eighth. Arellano grounded out, and Bean’s scratch single put runners on the corners with two outs for the new pitcher’s spot. Joel Starr was well enough to pinch-hit here, but grounded out after running a full count against Montes de Oca. Matt Walters got the bottom 8th then and was peppered with right-handed pinch-hitters, of whom Danny Miller socked a game-deciding 2-run homer. 7-5 Loggers. White 3-5, RBI; Crumble 3-4; Corral 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Bean 2-4;

Once more, with passion and mostly balking joints.

…but not until Monday. The game on Sunday was actually rained out. It was alright. The same happened to the Titans-Crusaders game one time zone over, and even before that there were already two other makeup games scheduled on Monday.

What it did was hand the stolen base title to Lonzo when Xavier Reyes was held to one stolen base in the Bayhawks closer to the season. He topped out at 50, with Lonzo already on 52.

We did get a right-hander on Monday, though, as Bob Ruggiero (9-6, 3.61 ERA) would get the ball by Loggers management.

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – LF Crumble – 1B Kozak – 2B White – RF Corral – 3B Fowler – C Robertson – P Alba
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – C Waker – SS D. Miller – CF Merrill – 3B Benitez – 2B Reber – P Ruggiero

Hot dog vendors and ushers came close to outnumbering paying customers that Monday afternoon as the game was made up with little to no offense in the early going. Alba would plonk ex-Coon Tony Benitez in the fifth inning and surrender that run on a Franks RBI single with two outs to get something, anything on the board. Lonzo reached base with a single in the sixth and stole another base for ***** and giggles, but got stranded. Alba went seven innings before hitting triple digits on the pitch count, but continued to trail 1-0 through seven as the Raccoons could not gain any traction, nor ground on Ruggiero – until Ben Morris socked a leadoff jack to left in the eighth. Lonzo slapped a double to left right afterwards, but was stranded by the middle of the order. Walters pitched a scoreless (!) bottom 8th, keeping the game tied at one.

Fowler’s double to lead off the ninth against Diaz certainly made it interesting, but when Tony Gonzalez singled to center, Fowler was sent around from second and thrown out by Merrill, who had regained his aim by now, apparently. Starr pinch-hit for Walters, but was walked intentionally and then run for with Campos because we had no interest and him getting extended time on the base paths. Morris whiffed, but Lonzo slapped a ball through the left side for a single, and Tony Gonzalez scored from second base to break the tie! The runners then did a double steal before Malik Crumble unfolded a 3-run homer to left against Alex Diaz, who was replaced with lefty Michael McLaughlin. Kozak grounded out. Nesbitt and Arellano were the new battery for the bottom 9th, trying to hold a 4-run lead. Tony Benitez hit a 2-out single, but a K to Wall ended the season for those two miserable teams. 5-1 Raccoons. Morris 2-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Lavorano 3-5, 2B, RBI; Crumble 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Fowler 2-4; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1; Alba 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-3, 2B;

In other news

September 26 – Season ends early for Pacifics CL Roberto “Boo Boo” Ramirez (6-4, 2.74 ERA, 27 SV), who is out with a strained oblique.
September 26 – In a bad day for closers, the Falcons’ 22-year-old Manny Gutierrez (5-6, 4.47 EA, 21 SV) has flayed an elbow ligament and will miss the rest and all of next season while repairs are made.
September 26 – The Pacifics beat the Gold Sox, 2-0, the only runs scoring on a home run by LAP OF/1B Jesus Espinoza (.282, 10 HR, 62 RBI).
September 27 – The Blue Sox clinch the FL East with a 4-2 win over the Rebels.
September 27 – Another fallen closer: BOS CL Jason Posey (4-6, 4.11 ERA, 41 SV) is headed for Tommy John surgery for a partially torn UCL and could miss all of next year.
September 27 – The Crusaders score nine runs on nine hits to beat the Loggers, 9-8, all New York runs coming in a seventh-inning rally out of an 8-0 hole.
September 27 – A solo homer by VAN 1B Jose Campos (.237, 24 HR, 85 RBI) beats the Titans, 1-0.
September 30 – The Thunder smash the Condors, 11-5, to clinch the CL South with a game to spare.
September 30 – Devastating news for the Stars, who on the eve of the playoffs lose DAL OF Tyler Wharton (.373, 36 HR, 131 RBI) to shoulder tendinitis. He was ruled out for all of October.
October 1 – SAC RF Will Buras (.277, 9 HR, 88 RBI) would spend the offseason recovering from a broken fibula.

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL OF/1B Tommy Pritchard (.352, 13 HR, 149 RBI), dishing .370 with 5 HR, 40 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: LVA 1B/3B Alex Alfaro (.284, 27 HR, 102 RBI), hitting .340 with 6 HR, 23 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: PIT CL Justin Round (8-6, 2.25 ERA, 42 SV), going 4-0 with a 1.59 ERA, 8 SV, 25 K, in 15 games
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Jason Brenize (22-5, 1.79 ERA), going 5-1 with a 1.29 ERA, 48 K
FL Rookie of the Month: CIN 1B Steve Jordan (.284, 9 HR, 55 RBI), batting .318 with 4 HR, 16 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: TIJ C/1B Mike Brann (.268, 15 HR, 45 RBI), hitting .250 with 7 HR, 16 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Lonzo actually led all of the ABL in stolen bases, with nobody in the FL getting beyond Jose Ambriz’ 50 either. At age 35!

Jason Brenize beat the Crusaders and allowed only one run to wrap up that triple crown, 22-5 with a 1.79 ERA and 252 strikeouts in 236.2 innings.

The Raccoons have a lot to clean up over the winter. But I am already on getting us some experts for assistance. (points at two middle-aged guys wearing glasses, with silvery metal suitcases wearing protective plastics over their shoes and head hair) These guys have a lot of experience in picking through crime scenes, surely they will find out what’s fishy with this roster!

Fun Fact: The Indians were only lugging around the third-longest playoff drought in the league before clinching.

Longest active postseason droughts (with last year of playoff ticket):

Scorpions – 2025
Aces – 2027
Titans – 2036 (won title)
Loggers – 2041 (won title)
Wolves – 2042 (won title)
Cyclones – 2046
Rebels – 2049
Canadiens – 2052

Listed are only teams with a drought of at least ten seasons. The Stars would have been on this list with their previous playoff appearance coming in 2048.

[Westheim]

2062 ABL PLAYOFFS

The Indians were in the playoffs for the first time in over 30 years after a 95-67 season that saw them top the CL North by five games. They scored the second-most runs in the CL along the way, doing so mostly with smallball, getting on base a lot and stealing the third-most bags in the CL. They had hit 100 home runs, but that was lower half of the league. While the bullpen and defense were in the top 3 in the league, but the rotation had had its struggles and had posted only a 4.00 ERA for the year. Overall they ranked fifth in runs allowed. Matt Kilday had batted .346 with 45 extra-base hits and 48 stolen bases – but he was not available for the postseason due to a strained hamstring. Also out were SP Antonio Pichardo and reliever Roberto Ponce de Leon. What remained of the lineup struggled to bat above .260, with Danny Starwalt (.240, 23 HR, 99 RBI) leading the team in home runs and RBI ahead of Chris Lovins (.257, 17 HR, 78 RBI).

Facing them in the CLCS were the 93-69 Thunder, that had won the division by four games and had been the last team to clinch their division this season. The Thunder were hitting for average, but also lacked power and were bottoms in stolen bases, and overall plated only the seventh-most runs in the CL. On the other side of the roster, they had led the CL in both starters’ and relievers’ ERA, and had conceded only the second-fewest runs in the league. Nobody on the Thunder had driven in more than 65 runs – but they had six batters with between 59 and 65 RBI in their lineup, five of whom also hit for double-digit home runs (some barely). Nick Nye (.358, 13 HR, 59 RBI) drove in 49 runs in just 57 games after being acquired from the Raccoons mid-season. The rest of the lineup was all decent batting averages. The only injuries were SP Ernesto Rios and outfielder Bobby Fish. The Thunder were entering with an all right-handed rotation for the playoffs, led by Aaron Harris (17-9, 2.65 ERA) and Jerry Washington (16-7, 2.36 ERA), but had four left-handers in the bullpen.

The Blue Sox had won the FL East by six games with an 89-73 record. They had hit the most home runs in the Federal League and had scored the second-most runs, while allowing the third-fewest runs, but that came at the price of a highly volatile bullpen behind a sturdy rotation. Speed and defense were not necessarily qualities on this team. The lineup sported no fewer than four batters with 23+ home runs: Austin Gordon (.334, 37 HR, 110 RBI), Tony Roman (.246, 29 HR, 82 RBI), David Johnson (.278, 26 HR, 96 RBI), and Kris DiPrimio (.286, 23 HR, 67 RBI) who made for a most formidable middle of the order. The rest of the lineup was not putting up much power, but they were certainly getting on bases enough. The only weak spot offensively was perhaps the left side of the infield, which combined for just seven home runs on the year.

The Blue Sox’ biggest misfortune was that they had to square up against the stomping Stars, who had smashed the FL West with a 115-47 record, taking the crown by a mindboggling 28 games. They had led the FL in every major category, with the exception of home runs, where they were not that far behind. With Ray Walker (17-7, 1.95 ERA) and Alex Quevedo (19-3, 2.50 ERA), the Stars had some of the finest starters, and the bullpen was quite strong as well, with just one long man posting an ERA over 4.50; there were three players with 110+ RBI in the lineup, including Tommy Pritchard (.351, 13 HR, 149 RBI), Chad Pritchett (.290, 24 HR, 110 RBI), and Jason Bothe (.292, 14 HR, 112 RBI). But there were also four regulars that had gotten injured heading into the playoffs and were missing, including Ian Peters (12-7, 3.78 ERA), Roberto Almanza (.308, 1 HR, 59 RBI), Jose Cantu (.283, 2 HR, 17 RBI), and – first and foremost – Tyler Wharton (.373, 36 HR, 131 RBI), who had put together a season for the ages before a balking shoulder had culled him from the roster in late September.

+++

Among the playoff teams, the Thunder were in their 23rd postseason, while the Blue Sox took part for the 17th time, the Stars for the 14th time, and the Indians for the 7th time.

The Indians and Thunder had met in the CLCS twice, in 1980 and 1981. Both teams had won one of those series. Meanwhile the Blue Sox and Stars had faced each other five times in the FLCS – but none of those instances had come within even the last 50 years: 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 2005; the Stars won the 1983 and 1988 editions, while the Blue Sox won the other three.

The Indians had one World Series title, having won in 1981. The Thunder had three titles (1994, 2000, 2053). The Stars had hoisted the trophy four times (1983, 1988, 2006, 2048). The Blue Sox led all participants with six championships: 1986, 1987, 2037, 2039, 2057, and 2058;

Previous World Series matchups between these four teams occurred in 1987 (when the Blue Sox beat the Indians) and 2006 (the Stars beat the Indians).

+++

2062 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

OCT @ IND … 0-2 … (Indians lead 1-0) … IND Chris Lovins 2-4, 2 RBI; IND Mike DeWitt 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K, W (1-0);

NAS @ DAL … 0-10 … (Stars lead 1-0) … DAL Tommy Pritchard 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; DAL Chad Pritchett 2-2, 3 BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; DAL Jin Imamura 3-5, 2B, RBI; DAL Jason Bothe 2-5, RBI; DAL Andy Chairez 2-5, 2 RBI;
OCT @ IND … 2-9 … (Indians lead 2-0) … IND Danny Starwalt 2-4, 2B, 4 RBI; IND Eric Cirelli 2-4, 2 RBI;

The Indians put up a 9-spot in the sixth inning to erase an early Thunder lead and storm away.

NAS @ DAL … 11-4 … (series tied 1-1) … NAS Fernando Aracena 2-5, BB, RBI; NAS Kris DiPrimio 3-5, HR, 3 RBI; NAS Austin Gordon 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; NAS David Johnson 3-5, RBI; NAS Jon Alade (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; DAL Ricardo Vargas 2-5, 2B, RBI;

The Blue Sox fight through an injury to starter Jose Rivera in the fourth inning and a rain delay beat up on the Stars’ Ray “Crabman” Walker (0-1, 8.10 ERA) and the pen in the late innings.

IND @ OCT … 4-7 … (Indians lead 2-1) … OCT Omar Lira 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; OCT Ian Stone 3-4, BB, 2B; OCT Nick Nye 2-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI;

DAL @ NAS … 1-5 … (Blue Sox lead 2-1) … NAS Austin Gordon 2-4, HR, 4 RBI; NAS Ken McDonald 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0) and 2-3, RBI;
IND @ OCT … 9-0 … (Indians lead 3-1) … IND Mike Weber 3-4, BB, RBI; IND Trent Brassfield 2-3, BB; IND Danny Starwalt 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; IND Steve Thompson 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; IND Justin DeRose 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

The Stars score first in Game of the FLCS, but Gordon hits a grand slam off Keith Trail (0-1, 7.20 ERA) in the third inning to set the points for a series lead for the underdog.

DAL @ NAS … 2-3 … (Blue Sox lead 3-1) … DAL Jin Imamura 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; NAS Kris DiPrimio 3-4, 2 2B; NAS Tony Lira 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);
IND @ OCT … 1-2 … (Indians lead 3-2) … OCT Aaron Harris 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (1-1);

DAL @ NAS … 9-8 (10) … (Blue Sox lead 3-2) … DAL Andy Yocum 3-4, 2B; DAL Tommy Pritchard 4-6, 3B, 3 RBI; DAL Jason Bothe 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; NAS Kris DiPrimio 3-4, BB, RBI; NAS Austin Gordon 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; NAS Tony Roman 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI;

Nashville’s Jimmy Dingman (0-1, 3.00 ERA) balks in the winning run for Dallas in the tenth inning. 21-year-old Andy Yocum suffered a pretty bad concussion in the late stages of this game, and would be out for the season.

OCT @ IND … 2-3 … (Indians win 4-2) … IND Alex Gomez 1-3, BB, 2 RBI; IND Ramon Carreno 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, W (2-0) and 2-3;

Ramon Carreno (2-0, 2.40 ERA) wins his second game of the series while also hitting two singles as the Indians scratch out just enough of offense to win the pennant.

NAS @ DAL … 5-3 … (Blue Sox win 4-2) … NAS Austin Gordon 3-5, 2B; NAS Tony Roman 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; NAS David Johnson 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; DAL Roberto Almanza 2-3, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; DAL Andy Chairez 3-4, 2B;

Almanza (.292, 0 HR, 3 RBI), who missed most games of the series with an injury, comes off the bench too late to turn the series around as the 115-win Stars are eliminated in a stunner. David Johnson (.292, 0 HR, 3 RBI) doubles home the winning runs in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie.

+++

2062 WORLD SERIES

The Indians had clinched home field advantage for the World Series by virtue of the Blue Sox knocking off the Stars. Indy had not suffered any additional injuries in the CLCS, and the pitching had for the most part controlled the Thunder rather well. They were not concerned about the Blue Sox per se… except for the fact that the Blue Sox had just knocked off the Stars.

There were also no lasting injuries for the Blue Sox, even though third baseman Kevin Schwarz had left Game 6 of the FLCS early with a balking hamstring, but he remained available for the World Series. Both teams had very balanced lineups, only one lefty starter, and a lefty closer. The Indians had in the regular season scored a few runs more and conceded a few runs less than the Blue Sox, but overall they were pretty even on the raw runs numbers. The Sox hoped the ball would fly against the Indians’ rather average rotation, though…

This was a rematch of the 1987 World Series, in which the Blue Sox had been victorious.

+++

NAS @ IND … 1-2 … (Indians lead 1-0) … IND Mike Weber 4-4; IND Danny Starwalt 1-4, 2 RBI;

NAS @ IND … 4-6 … (Indians lead 2-0) … NAS Tony Roman 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; IND Mike Weber 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; IND Danny Starwalt 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; IND Alex Gomez 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; IND Eric Cirelli 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI;

IND @ NAS … 4-0 … (Indians lead 3-0) … IND Kevin Abel 2-5, 3B, RBI; IND Steve Thompson 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; IND Ramon Carreno 8.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (3-0) and 1-3;

IND @ NAS … 2-10 … (Indians lead 3-1) … NAS Paul Labonte 2-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; NAS Mark McCarty 2-2, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI;

The Sox put up five runs before the Indians even get a hit, then cruise to a series-extending win.

IND @ NAS … 5-4 … (Indians win 4-1) … IND Chris Lovins 4-4, 2 RBI; NAS Paul Labonte 2-4, 2 RBI;

This time, despite just seven hits in the game, of which Chris Lovins has more than half, the Indians score five early runs that aren’t answered until it is late in the game. Mike DeWitt (3-1, 0.70 ERA) does not allow a hit at all in six-plus innings, but allows four walks and a run before being removed. The Indians break up the no-hitter and a couple of relievers, but eventually run into Cody Kleidon (0-0, 1.80 ERA, 5 SV), who nails down the save for the Indians’ first championship in 81 years.

+++

2062 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Indianapolis Indians
(2nd title)

[Westheim]

While the Indians had won their first title in an old geezer’s lifetime, the Raccoons had posted their first losing record since 2057 and had quite a few pieces to pick up, even though the actual record (80-82) hadn’t been that terrible. Fifth place though.

New owner Adam Valdes at least pretended to be understanding when he was over for a coffee in the office the week after the World Series. Maud did her best to please the big boss with a delightful apple pie and cinnamon rolls, although the cinnamon rolls disappeared under mysterious circumstances before Valdes ever got here. (looks at Lonzo and the Foxes, passed out in a food coma in the far corner of the room)

While Valdes expressed regrets that we had gone for the rebuild during the begone season, he was understanding that the existing players just hadn’t fit together very well and the offense, despite several prodigiously paid participants, had not put anything together worth writing home about. If anything, the injection of younger players from AAA had made it *better* in the last two months…

Since there were obvious holes on the roster right now, and new players did not come cheap, Valdes agreed to a $4M increase to the team budget, up to $64M. I could have gotten another million if I had kneeled down and kissed his ruby-studded ring, but I pled bad knees and passed.

The budget increase moved the Raccoons from 13th to 9th in the ranking amongst all teams, although that upper midfield remained very close, with just $5M separating 7th from 13th at this point, and $10M between 5th and 14th.

After the Crusaders axed their budget by eight figures last year, the Knights did the same this winter, culling it back by a whopping $14M and surrendering the biggest purse in the game back to New York. The Pacifics, also a top 3 team last season, slashed their budget by $13M and fell behind the Raccoons.

Top 5: Crusaders ($79M), Thunder ($75M), Buffaloes ($73M), Knights ($70M), Capitals ($69M)
Bottom 5: Cyclones ($42.5M), Wolves ($40.5M), Aces ($40.5M), Falcons ($40M), Loggers ($39M)

The remaining CL North teams ranked t-7th (BOS, $66M), and t-16th (IND and VAN, $53M each).

Some of the big contractions meant that the average budget went *down* this year, by about $350k to $58.4M. The median budget was however $61.5M, up $1M from last season.

+++

Despite the significant exodus the team had already suffered during the season, there were another five players lined up for free agency (it would have been ten if not for midseason removals), and another five for salary arbitration. [full table below]

The arbitration cases were quickly chewed through. Chance Fox, Ben Morris, and Malik Crumble had all done good. Jon Bean was a pretty useless singles slapper that was probably going to be retained largely because we had ungodly amounts of budget room and could easily waste half a million on him to sit around in AAA. St. Pete was also where Mike Abrams had been all of last season, posting a 6.06 ERA, at which point I was also closing my argument as to why he was not going to be tendered an offer.

Which brought us to the rest of the pen, which was an unbelievable tire fire at this point. Both Matt Walters (who had another year on his contract) and Ricky Herrera had shifted into fifth gear just before breaking through the guardrails and going off the cliff this season. Ricky H. was a free agent, and as much as I liked his plucky nature in previous seasons, he had to go. Murdock and Rocco had been the two least-awful relievers on the team and both had a case to make that they might make for a serviceable closer for a team in a transition period. Since neither was compensation eligible, this was a route to pursue.

The other two upcoming free agents were the remaining Nicks, Fowler and Fox. The assessment whether one or more of them would still be a sensible expense on the roster in 2063 revolved a bit around what our assessment was as to the major league readiness of #75 prospect Victor Morales, a sweet hot corner glove that was still trying to figure out how to meet the glowing potential scouts ascribed to him with the stick. He had batted .250 with four homers, and just a .662 OPS in AAA last year, so it was safe to say that at age 21 he was NOT ready for primetime. Of the two Nicks, both had been truly uninspired with their bats for their entire Raccoons tenure (three years for Fowler, two for Fox), and while an argument could be made for both of them – Fox was a switch-hitter and third base expert, while Fowler was a lefty complement to a fading Lonzo at short – we didn’t *really* want to spend more than one roster spot on this pair. Both were also well north of 30 already, which was somehow true for all non-redundant, non-first-base infielders on the roster: come next season, Fowler would be 33, Jim White would be 34, Fox would turn 34 in April, and Lonzo would hit 36 in May.

Just in case if we wonder why every pitcher on the team has a .340 BABIP against him…

Jim White was also signed for another season, and given his 97 OPS+ and $2.48M contract, it looked like we’d be hard pressed to move him somewhere else. Thankfully we didn’t have any precious middle infield prospects blocked here…

Joel Starr was at first base for a while yet, and we had assembled (more by accident than with any plan in mind) a quite interesting outfield with Malik Crumble, Ben Morris, and Jose Corral (cough!!), with Jack Kozak also trying to get attention. That was probably four outfielders for Opening Day right there, and then Tony Gonzalez had batted .439 in 20 games as a late-season call-up.

Catcher was one of those bleak spots, although it seemed like we would at least not embarrass ourselves with Arellano running out there as the starter next year. At least he was good with the paws, if he wasn’t hitting.

And then, oh boy, the pitching staff. At this point the Raccoons held three established (more or less) starting pitchers in Tyler Riddle (who started only 15 games in ’62 due to injury), Chance Fox, and Angel Alba. The rest of the rotation was made up by randos from AAA, although John Bollinger hadn’t done so badly. We were probably well advised to go after a free agent to thicken the soup a bit here and then have Bollinger hang around as the fifth starter.

When it came to the actual bullpen then, the reviews were exceedingly rough. The Raccoons had gone through 26 pitchers in ’62, ten of them starting at least one game, and nine of those making at most one relief appearance (the exception being Adam Middleton, since departed). Of the 16 true relievers remaining, SIX (!) posted a positive WAR, and that list was *headed* by Ricky H. (!) and J.J. Sensabaugh (!!!) with +0.5 WAR each. Which is really the only sentence you need to describe WHY the pen was the absolute disgrace it had been. Other “contributors” were Pohlmann (0.4), Rocco (0.2), Barton (0.1), and Nesbitt (0.1), the latter appearing for only four innings without allowing a run.

If J.J. Sensabaugh is your best reliever, you can stay home.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons had a protected draft pick (barely, #12) for next year’s amateur draft, a giant hole at third base, and Xavier Reyes of the Baybirds had no contract for 2063 and beyond. Hmmmm.

There were reasons why this was a great fit. Reyes was a speed demon that played third base excellently and short very well. He could gradually inherit Lonzo’s job on the team, that of batting second, stealing bases, and eventually playing short, while sitting at third base for a year while we waited for Victor Morales to put it all together. Cristiano Carmona was raving over his profile, and Cristiano Carmona and me were rarely raving over the same thing.

The downsides were mainly that Reyes was by far the best infielder in the free agent class-to-be, would cost an arm and two legs, and he was an absolute **** that was not afraid to alienate absolutely everybody within 20 miles of wherever he happened to be a **** at any given time.

So this was a thought I had in my head during late October, even though every arbitration case and free agent-to-be on our own team casually indicated that they would not particularly enjoy to be on a team with Xavier Reyes going forwards, some in terms that were not all that kind. Chance Fox for example also called him a ****, and Malik Crumble had the term ********** to offer.

Ah, what do they know!? A .320/.381/.439 bat fixes everything!

Unusually, the Raccoons also cleaned some stains off the roster even ahead of the free agent date, with three pitchers – Corey Barrett, Bryan Erickson, and Brad Loveless – placed on waivers in late October to get them off the roster (all three cleared without issue, quelle surprise!). Those three had combined for 37 innings for the Raccoons in 2062, and -0.9 WAR. Oddly, the left-hander in that mix kept coming back again and again, although his pitching (6.35 FIP) never merited it. Aside from being one of those plucky 11th-round picks that actually made it to the majors, we could hardly love Loveless less.

Before the month was out, the Raccoons signed three contracts. The first was Jon Bean getting that $550k ahead of arbitration, which nobody really cared about. Then we avoided losing James Murdock by signing him to a 2-year, $2.4M contract, but Justin Rocco, who we mused about perhaps also extending, due to his odd lack of strikeout power would be allowed to hit free agency.

The big news item was however a flat 4-year, $10M extension with Chance Fox, which would cover his last two years of arbitration and two years of free agency. While we were paying him perhaps seven figures more than he would have gotten in arbitration even with a drunk socialist arbitrator all too eager to stick it to The Man, Foxie Brown being a solid mid/bottom rotation piece would probably pay off over the length of the contract, and we had enough dosh to go around in 2063.

We could not put a contract together with Ben Morris, who was arbitration-eligible for the first time, had missed quite some time to injury this season, and thought he could put a better deal together for himself next year. Morris would eventually sign for $1.2M for the 2063 season, and Malik Crumble got $800k.

Barton was never made an offer, nor tendered, and the Raccoons, thinking they’d sign Xavier Reyes soon, also did not make an offer to either Nick, Fowler or Fox.

+++

October 23 – The Loggers acquire 3B Chris Sullivan (.267, 15 HR, 150 RBI) from the Canadiens in exchange for OF/1B Chad Whetstine (.258, 4 HR, 25 RBI).
October 26 – The Raccoons trade for Sacramento’s SP/MR Tom Delaney (36-31, 3.51 ERA), parting with AAA 1B Forbes Tomlin (.299, 5 HR, 39 RBI).

+++

Tomlin was never going to make it into the majors now with an 8-year contract on Joel Starr, and in fact we had tried to move him for well over a year at this point. The 28-year-old right-hander Tom Delaney had already been signed to a $590k contract pre-arbitration by the Scorpions before the trade, and they had foolishly promised him a role as starter when there was no need for that. I didn’t feel particularly bound by that clause of his contract. Delaney, who had 92 major league starts under his belt, had good control, and was a flyball pitcher, but with the sort of geriatric infield the Raccoons were about to put together that was perhaps not the worst idea. However, given how the roster looked right *now*, Delaney would easily be in the rotation on Opening Day.

Some admin notes: Ben Morris changed numbers from #55 to #5, one of only three single-digit numbers we were giving out at this point (the others being #3 and #9). And people are somehow insisting on trading a catcher to us, as if Marcos Arellano existed only on paper.

+++

2062 ABL AWARDS

Players of the Year: DAL OF Tyler Wharton (.373, 36 HR, 131 RBI) and BOS C Jorge Arviso (.275, 29 HR, 81 RBI)
Pitchers of the Year: DAL SP Ray Walker (17-7, 1.95 ERA) and BOS SP Jason Brenize (22-5, 1.79 ERA)
Rookies of the Year: SFW OF Alex Barnes (.265, 22 HR, 84 RBI) and IND RF/LF/1B Bryan Johnston (.353, 9 HR, 44 RBI)
Relievers of the Year: DAL CL Ruben Mendez (8-4, 1.96 ERA, 39 SV) and VAN CL Erik Swain (6-2, 2.03 ERA, 45 SV)
Platinum Sticks (FL): P DAL Ray Walker – C PIT Nick Dingman – 1B DEN Bill Joyner – 2B CIN Rich Monck – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS SAC Zach Suggs – LF DAL Chad Pritchett – C DAL Tyler Wharton – RF NAS Austin Gordon
Platinum Sticks (CL): P IND Antonio Pichardo – C BOS Jorge Arviso – 1B IND Danny Starwalt – 2B IND Matt Kilday – 3B LVA Alex Alfaro – SS SFB Xavier Reyes – LF LVA Ken Hummel – CF BOS Eddie Marcotte – RF LVA Jake Evans
Gold Gloves (FL): P DEN Matt Asplund – C DAL Jason Bothe – 1B DEN Bill Joyner – 2B DAL Andy Chairez – 3B TOP Alex de los Santos – SS RIC Jason Turner – LF LAP Matt McInnis – CF DAL Tyler Wharton – RF SAL Jim Whitman
Gold Gloves (CL): P TIJ Kodai Koga – C LVA Casey Burgio – 1B VAN Jose Campos – 2B TIJ Franklin Serrano – 3B BOS Diego Mendoza – SS CHA Trent Taylor – LF LVA Ken Hummel – CF TIJ Mario Asencio – RF LVA Jake Evans

Big shrug for Ruben Mendez winning Reliever of the Year after the big brain group in the office here considered him to be in decline and instead hitched their horses to Ricky Herrera and Matt Walters. We’re such a tire fire.

Jason Brenize’ absurd season ended up with him posting the eighth-best single-season ERA in league history at 1.787; not that “Crabman” Walker in the other league was far behind, his 1.951 mark being good enough for the 16th-best season all time. There are – without rounding – only 23 sub-2 ERA seasons in league history, including one by Jonny Toner, the only one by a Critter. Rounded to the standard two digits behind the decimal point, only 21 of those seasons showed a sub-2.00 ERA.

[Westheim]

Forgot to attach the new hurler earlier, and now the forum is acting up again and won't let me edit the other post.

If he pitches half as well as he sports facial hair, we're gonna win 90!

[Westheim]

The Raccoons’ offseason plans hit a little speed bump in November when the free agency filing date passed and they actually went after Xavier Reyes’ agent to inquire into what a reasonable framework for a contract would be. At that point I was emotionally prepared and braced for something like a 6-year, $36M contract. I was not emotionally prepared or braced for what they actually sought to extort from a willing team, which was 8 years and $75M, including several years of $10M per season.

There had not been a player in league history making eight figures a year, and the two richest contracts on an annual basis currently were those of Armando Montoya with the Baybirds and Danny Ceballos’ deal with the Falcons, both for $8.5M as of 2063. (Never mind that Ceballos had fallen off a cliff with his production, had rode the bench at the end of the 2062 season, and was owed another $25.5M for a 77 OPS+, and yes, he was on the trading block, with which I wished the Falcons only the best of luck). Five more players made $7M and up: Omar Sanchez, Ben Seiter, Willie Acosta, Milt Cantrell, and Grant Anker; the richest contract on the Coons was currently the $4M Tyler Riddle got for spending half a year on the DL nowadays.

I had a talk with Adam Valdes, who shared my opinion that $75M was a tough ask for a clubhouse cancer, and we would respectfully decline to partake at those rates.

So, who was that next ho-hum, holdover third baseman gonna be? Just a kind reminder that 14 seasons had passed since Jesus Maldonado’s trip around the field on his way to defensive decrepitation saw him last lead the team in starts at third base in 2048. Since then, the Raccoons had run out NINE different players that ended up leading any season in starts at the hot corner, and you’d be hard pressed to name at least a couple of them:

Eddy Luna (who?) in 2049
Ed Crispin from 2050-2052 and in 2055 (which encompasses most of his major league career)
Travis Malkus (!) in 2053
Anton Venegas in 2054 and 2056
Daniel Espinoza in 2057 (he has appeared in 14 ABL games since)
Tyrese Sheilds in 2058 (he has appeared in zero ABL games since)
Juan Ojeda in 2059
Nick Fowler in 2060
Nick Fox in 2061-2062

Qualifying seasons with an OPS+ over 100 listed here? Zero. Ed Crispin has the best non-qualifying season with a 120, and there were a couple of 100s (like Fowler in ’60) or just a scratch above, but mostly it was variations of the expression “rats!”.

And now we needed another one because Victor Morales was not major league ready and we already had a 21-year-old on the roster that wasn’t major league ready (.223/.289/.322 in 211 AB) and that was enough.

+++

November 16 – The Wolves acquire 1B/2B/OF Jimmy Hartgrove (.274, 11 HR, 138 RBI) from the Rebels for 1B Dylan Cofield (.258, 14 HR, 89 RBI) and a prospect.
November 20 – Now the Wolves send SP Jose Ortega (10-13, 4.86 ERA) and cash to the Stars for four prospects. The package includes #50 prospect OF Raul Moreno.
November 23 – The Miners sign up ex-POR/OCT INF Nick Nye (.315, 175 HR, 780 RBI) to a 2-yr, $6.48M contract.
November 26 – Washington signs former division rival, ex-PIT CL Justin Round (50-33, 2.69 ERA, 217 SV) to a $3.44M contract for 2063.
November 27 – The Aces acquire SP Matthew May (14-15, 4.75 ERA) from the Cyclones for C Kevin Feldbusch (.286, 1 HR, 4 RBI) and #78 prospect 1B Rico Cordero.
December 1 – Rule 5 Draft: 19 players are taken in the proceedings. The Wolves draft AA 1B Alex Vargas from the Raccoons. The Raccoons draft left-handed AAA CL Ricky Baca from the Thunder, as well as AA/AAA C Scott Lawson from the Stars.
December 1 – The Raccoons sign a pair of right-handed veteran relievers, ex-IND MR Juan Carrillo (42-17, 3.60 ERA, 13 SV) and former Boston MR Josh Carlisle (23-25, 2.95 ERA, 68 SV). Each of the pair receives a 3-year, $6M contract.
December 1 – The Rebels sign ex-SFB SP Jeff Crowley (89-86, 4.05 ERA) for two years and $4.48M.

+++

The 29-year-old Carlisle was the CL’s Reliever of the Year in 2060, while Carrillo, age 31, won rings with the 2060 Crusaders and 2062 Indians. Look at that, some excellence on the roster!

Carlisle was high-strikeouts, high-walks, while Carrillo was a controlled groundballer, so the former was probably our pick for the closer’s job going forwards, which provisionally had been given to James Murdock in pencil, but we could now re-arrange that pen a bit. What we still needed direly was a left-hander, because the available options were now the busted remains of Matt Walters, various sub-par starters (Castillo, Padgitt), the giant failure that was Adam Harris, and remember Brad Loveless? Yeah, we needed a lefty reliever. Maybe that was Ricky Baca, maybe not. Probably not.

Ex-Coons with new teams: Mike Siwik got $560k from the Elks; Wade Gardner got $630k from the Crusaders; Juan Ojeda got the same amount from the damn Elks;

[Westheim]

The lamest Winter Meetings in a while took place in early December. One single free agent signed with a team for a seven-figure contract. One! Sweeton below signed the day *before* the Winter Meetings started. And it wasn’t like December livened up afterwards, either…!

The Raccoons got away with a new pitcher that would soon annoy us, and all it cost us was the husk of an ex-prospect that had just run up an ERA near eight in a pawful of awful starts in ’62.

+++

December 3 – The Buffaloes sign up former Miners SP Sean Sweeton (171-133, 3.61 ERA) to a 3-year, $8.72M contract.
December 6 – The Raccoons trade for the Knights’ left-handed MR Isaac McDaniel (2-2, 2.20 ERA, 1 SV), parting with AAA SP Jose Rosa (0-4, 6.57 ERA).
December 6 – The Thunder sign up ex-VAN OF Danny Garcia (.250, 31 HR, 251 RBI), a free agent at age 27 after debuting at 20, for four years and $7.4M.
December 6 – The Warriors acquire 2B/SS Juan Mena (.242, 2 HR, 13 RBI) from the Titans for MR Roberto Navarro (35-27, 4.21 ERA, 35 SV) and a prospect.
December 29 – Former Loggers SP Bob Ruggiero (85-112, 4.14 ERA) signs a 2-yr, $4.08M deal with the Buffaloes.

+++

The trade with the Knights is not exactly a major one. We exchanged two late-20s pitchers with less than two years of service time each. But at least McDaniel is a functioning left-handed reliever when we just ran out of those.

A few words on former Critters with new paychecks: Justin Rocco went to Denver for $1.14M; Carlos Mata joins the Miners for $640k; the Condors boldy spent $840k on Ricky H.; Zach Stewart got $630k from the Crusaders; the Miners got Kelly Konecny for $1.28M;

There is also a Hall of Fame ballot out, and it contains good old Wheats! Wheats was totally a Hall of Famer in his 20s … but he turned South hard in his 30s and made his last start at age 34. He finished his career as a 38-year-old closer in Chula Vista. I’m a hopeless homer, but I just can’t quite reasonably promote him to make it into the Hall. Which doesn’t mean I’m not gonna vote for him at least once.

Two surefire Hall of Famers on that ballot in Tony Aparicio and Felix Marquez, though.

[Westheim]

The new year began with the Raccoons still sitting on a huge pile of dosh – about $17M in budget space as Steve from Accounting pointed out – and not really knowing what to do with it. Xavier Reyes was still available, but his asking price wasn’t really coming down much, and he was still a ****.

For a while we also pondered to return free agent Nick Robinson to the flock after he had made nine starts for the Caps, going 3-3 with a 2.77 ERA before tearing a ligament, after we had traded him, Bobby H., and Angel Perez, for a package of prospects that had not arrived in Portland so far, including Jeff Applegate. Robinson would miss a few months to begin the new season, though, and then was looking for a 4-year deal worth $27M to secure his retirement in peace and tranquility, and we already had the odd dead contract with a left-handed pitcher on the books and that was not a risk worth blundering into.

The Coons then sniffed around free agent starter Mike Chartrand a bit, then tried to get 3B/SS Josh McNeal, a chronically underused 31-year-old infielder hitting very decently whenever someone let him, from the Thunder, but they were just entirely unreasonable about it.

The Cyclones then came up with a trade proposal involving six players, and while they were looking for – besides two unheralded prospects – Joel Starr and #38 prospect Roberto Soto, which just about made me cry out all my safewords, but then they offered Rich Monck, a 26-year-old slugger that we had casually looked at just weeks earlier, sighing, and wishing upon a star to have a player like that. Monck had just finished a season in which he had batted .306 while cranking 37 homers, which would have won him the home run title in the CL, but in the FL still left him six short of Nick Ding(er)man. Admittedly, I was salivating – but the deal as-is was no good (the second Cincy player on offer was a rather nondescript righty MR Mike “Fly By Night” Dean which they might just as well keep) and it wasn’t even for Soto, but for Starr, who was about the last anchor in that bloody lineup of ours.

Trying to trade with the Cyclones was not the easiest thing in the world given their shoestring budget, which they had already overspent by more than a million bucks, and as their GM Chris Abernathy admitted amounted to $15k of available money. Monck, a lefty hitter still in his arbitration years, was making $1.6M in 2063, and that was completely breaking their bank. Their only other seven-figure contract was $3.56M annually to outfielder John MacDonnell. So there wasn’t even a way to absorb a big contract of theirs to try and get them off the Joel Starr hype train – they didn’t *have* any dead contracts for the Raccoons to take on and then set on fire…!

+++

January 4 – The Loggers trade 3B/2B Ralph Lange (.246, 23 HR, 123 RBI), a prospect, and cash to the Blue Sox for #119 prospect C Tommy Guitreau.
January 4 – The Thunder sign up LF/RF Bill Ramires (.271, 134 HR, 658 RBI) to a 3-yr, $8.52M contract. Ramires, age 34, comes off two seasons with the Titans.
January 13 – The Stars ink star 3B/SS/LF Xavier Reyes (.307, 31 HR, 450 RBI) to a 6-year, $42.6M contract.
January 15 – The Raccoons bring back INF Nick Fowler (.276, 35 HR, 316 RBI) on a new $1.1M deal for 2063.
January 19 – The Gold Sox give a 3-yr, $11.88M contract to ex-OCT RF/LF Eric Whitlow (.251, 134 HR, 656 RBI).
January 23 – Former Knights SP Brian Fuqua (60-74, 4.13 ERA) joins the Warriors for a deal worth $5.92M over two years.

+++

We still ain’t got no starting third baseman. I hesitate to see Fowler as that guy. But he is an upgrade over Bean and Suriel, who before his signing were the bottom two in the pecking order among just four infielders west of first base that were actually on the roster.

Rich Monck by the way would play all three positions left of Joel Starr rather well. We’d put him at third base obviously, although he played mostly second base for Cincy so far. He was also fine to play short.

Meanwhile we got fooled by a high-$$$ free agent again, because I would have paid those $42M to Reyes rather readily. He just wanted more dosh from us, figuring that we had it, which we did. I just didn’t want to throw it all on him.

So it was now late January, the preseason was dawning, the Raccoons still had no functioning infield, and the new season was definitely a write-off already. With $16M still in the bank.

+++

2063 HALL OF FAME VOTING

The Hall of Fame welcomes two new members in 2063.

A capable defensive shortstop with power, Tony Aparicio had a 23-year career in the ABL, debuting with the Falcons at 21. Overall he spend half his career with the team before stops with five others. While hitting .289/.393/.437 with 3,010 hits, 295 homers, 1,571 RBI, and 157 stolen bases for his career, he took home four Platinum Sticks, a Gold Glove, and 14 All Star nominations, most of this before having an absolute career year at age 39 with the Canadiens, and winning the CL Player of the Year award and the home run and RBI crowns with a .317, 28 HR, 123 RBI season. He moved to second base and eventually the bench in the last quarter of his career, but posted positive WARs right up to his age 42 season with 92.3 WAR for his career.

While Aparicio spent most of his career in the CL, infielder Felix Marquez would only venture outside the FL for one of his 22 seasons in the ABL. He debuted at age 23 with the Buffaloes, with whom he had three different stints for 12 seasons in total. A versatile infielder, he never led the league in any major category, but twice topped the FL in WAR early in his career, piling up a total of 102.5 WAR while batting .269/.388/.394 with 2,791 hits, 221 homers, 1,188 RBI, and 371 stolen bases. He won four Platinum Sticks, five Gold Gloves, was an All Star eight times, but like Aparicio he never won a championship, and the Buffos made the playoffs only twice while he was an on-and-off member of the team.

Marquez’ WAR ties Jeffery Brown for the fourth-highest among position players in the Hall of Fame (behind Martin Ortíz, Pablo Sanchez, and Victorino Sanchez), while Aparicio narrowly misses the top 10. Among pitchers, only Tony Hamlyn, Martin Garcia, Juan Correa, and Aaron Anderson have higher career WAR’s.

Full voting results:

CHA SS Tony Aparicio – 1st – 94.8 – INDUCTED
TOP 3B Felix Marquez – 1st – 81.8 – INDUCTED
DEN 3B Ronnie Thompson – 2nd – 58.7
POR SP Jason Wheatley – 1st – 52.0
OCT SS Ryan Cox – 2nd – 15.8
??? 3B Jose Rivas – 1st – 14.3
DAL SP Dave Hils – 1st – 14.0
??? SP Matt Sealock – 3rd – 13.4
CIN 3B Jesus Burgos – 2nd – 9.1
TIJ CL Kevin Daley – 1st – 8.5
??? RF Juan Benavides – 4th – 8.5
BOS SP David Barel – 1st – 7.0
PIT SP Roberto Pruneda – 10th – 6.4 – DROPPED
??? C Julio Diaz – 2nd – 5.5
ATL SP Brian Buttress – 4th – 5.2
CHA CL Josh Livingston – 5th – 4.9 – DROPPED
NYC C Fernando Alba – 4th – 4.6 – DROPPED
ATL SS Anton Venegas – 1st – 4.3 – DROPPED
SFB 2B Sergio Quiroz – 1st – 4.0 – DROPPED
??? 2B Mario Briones – 4th – 3.6 – DROPPED
??? SP Mike LeMasters – 3rd – 3.0 – DROPPED
DAL SP Arthur Pickett – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
DAL SS Leo Villacorta – 1st – 2.7 – DROPPED
NYC SP Jeff Johnson – 2nd – 1.8 – DROPPED
DAL SP Orlando Leos – 2nd – 0.9 – DROPPED

[Westheim]

The Cyclones turned out to be not only run on a pittance of a budget, but appeared also too broke to accept a gift, which made the dealing for Rich Monck in late January a bit hard. Monck of course wasn’t making A LOT of money, and so there was no way to send much of a contract back to Cincy. Prospects, please! That was perhaps also part of the reason why they wanted to part with Mike Dean, a fairly nothing reliever that nevertheless only played for almost nothing, which was a lot of wasted money when you could find 23-year-olds that would pitch for actually nothing.

+++

January 25 – The Crusaders sign ex-VAN SP Jeff Kozloski (59-79, 4.22 ERA) for four years and $26.3M.
January 26 – After renting him out to Vegas for half a season, the Titans re-sign 33-year-old SP Will Glaude (76-64, 3.43 ERA) to a 4-year, $27.6M contract.
January 30 – The Thunder also pick up a former division rival in ex-CHA C Luis Miranda (.264, 111 HR, 697 RBI) to a 3-year, $19.2M.

+++

Besides this, the Thunder also signed up ex-Coon Mike Lane for $1.2M while I was back and forth on the phone with Cincy over this pitcher or that pitcher in a trade for … and I don’t think we’ll gonna get him in the end. This is only to get the fanbase all riled up and crazy.

[Westheim]

No, Slappy, I really don’t know why I keep trying to get Rich Monck from the Cyclones now when the thought did not occur to me previously. They started it! – But look, I have spent all night on this! – (leads Slappy into the other room, where the pinboard on the long wall is entirely covered with stat tables, player pictures, little brown and white flags, and about a quarter mile of red string connecting it all in a fantastic spider web) – And now I know what this deal needs! Look! (hurries over to the far end of the pinboard and excitedly tips a claw on a picture at one end of the string) We need to offer more strawberry marmalade…!!

(Cristiano calmly rolls into the room with the open laptop on his thighs, pointing out how Roberto Soto batted .237/.285/.358 in 116 games in Ham Lake in ’62)

Cristiano, please!! – I have already figured out what we need to close the deal for Rich Monck, so will you PLEASE NOT CONFUSE ME WITH FACTS!!

+++

February 6 – The Raccoons acquire 26-year-old INF Rich Monck (.291, 81 HR, 269 RBI) and MR Mike Dean (7-3, 5.79 ERA, 1 SV) from the Cyclones for SP/MR Tom Delaney (36-31, 3.51 ERA), #38 prospect AA RF/LF Roberto Soto, AAA C Jeremy Healy, and AA CL Trevor Seitz.
February 7 – The Buffaloes sign up former Rebels 1B Mario Delgadillo (.316, 158 HR, 630 RBI) on a 2-yr, $8.88M deal.
February 12 – The Raccoons make a splash with the signing of 28-year-old right-handed SP Josh Elling (55-65, 3.53 ERA) to a 5-year, $35M contract. Elling spent the last season and a half with the Scorpions, who receive the Raccoons’ second-round pick as compensation.

+++

Rich Monck! Homers! Exciting!

From Australia, Monck had been in the 2053 July IFA pool. The Raccoons passed and he signed for all of $76k with the Blue Sox.

Can’t wait to see how that’s gonna backfire, but until then I still have two months to pretend that I found us a new Rich Hereford (although Monck doesn’t play the outfield). I wasn’t thrilled to part with Delaney, who seemed like a strong fit in a #5.5 starter role and would have spared us spending any thoughts on J.J. Sensabaugh going forwards.

Speaking of Sensabaugh, while Monck had no say in getting traded, he insisted in keeping his #18, which had been given to Freddy Castillo. I had tried to solve this problem by trading Castillo rather than Delaney, but the Cyclones weren’t having it. Castillo wanted another number ending in 8, but he couldn’t have #8 (Neil Reece, and single digits are not for pitchers anyway), #28 (Angel Casas), or #38 (just given to Ricky Baca, who I was still pretending we wouldn’t send back to where he came from on Opening Day). Sensabaugh, often-battered owner of #48 around these parts volunteered his number in the hope of generating some goodwill with that action. He got #56 instead. A nothing number for a nothing pitcher. (Sensabaugh’s whiskers hang)

The 40-man roster was at capacity. To get “Fly By Night” Dean on the roster, we had to take someone off, and Armando Suriel ended up on waivers. He went unclaimed.

Why trade away the #38 prospect in this? Well, like Cristiano said. He hit nothing in a full season of AA baseball. And if we played our cards right, we could get ten years and 300 homers out of Monck!

So normally, the Raccoons would not have gone after Josh Elling. Instead we were trying to get Mike Chartrand with a 1-year deal to kinda stay put for now, but Chartrand was fighting over pennies and we were trying to get a ******* deal done. Chartrand ultimately went to the Bayhawks for $2.56M. When the Cyclones came around with the Monck trade and it became apparent that if we didn’t part with Starr or Ben Morris, then we’d have to part with a starting pitcher (which turned out to be Delaney), we went after the best free agent that was still out there. We had the dosh – and we had a protected first-round pick (#12). If we had signed away the first-round pick, I probably would have passed, but with the 80-82 finish last year, we got to keep our first-rounder despite signing the penultimate type A free agent on the market (the last one being ex-Coon Kevin Hitchcock).

Elling has electric stuff, but on his bad days he doesn’t find the zone at all, so his BB/9 are a bit up there (over three at least) for a right-hander. His career record is a lie – even going 18-5 with Sacramento last year couldn’t erase the hole he found himself in after pitching with the deadbeat Wolves for five years before that. In 2059, he posted a 3.33 ERA and went 6-17. In 2060 he shaved off over half a run and went with a 2.69 ERA. He still ended up 9-12 in wins and losses. The Coons can be cruel to their starters, but not THIS cruel… mostly. Todd Oley (not even on the extended roster) was waived to make room on the 40-man.

After those two big additions, the Condors came and offered Elmer Maldonado basically for free. Maldonado had a contract north of $3M for ’63, and the Condors were overbudget and had gotten the order from their cheapskate owner to get within the budget by Opening Day. The Raccoons were too crowded in the outfield to consider an ultimately average, 31-year-old corner outfielder regardless of his going rate, though.

We already had a rather bloated extended roster with 18 pitchers and 17 position players hanging around in late February.

New contracts for old Portlanders: Mike Lane got $1.2M from the Thunder; Juan Mercado hooked up with the Elks for $560k; the Buffos took on Juan del Toro for $720k;

[Westheim]

March 2 – The Crusaders sign 39-year-old former Gold Sox closer Kevin Hitchcock (69-62, 3.39 ERA, 284 SV) to a $2.24M deal over two years.
March 13 – Sacramento deals LF/CF Rick Miles (.266, 23 HR, 181 RBI) to the Warriors for SP Evan Alvey (48-40, 4.00 ERA, 3 SV) and #144 prospect C John Vaillancourt.
March 18 – The Thunder ink 34-yr old ex-CHA SP Phil Baker (74-80, 3.97 ERA, 1 SV), who led the league in losses last season, to a 2-yr, $8.16M contract.

+++

The Raccoons did not do any more major league deals in March – although we signed a 22-year-old catcher and former eighth-rounder to a minor league contract – but a few ex-Critters grabbed something better than just meal money for the new season: Ryan Sullivan got $560k from the Cyclones; the Blue Sox would give 2-yr, $1.4M to Takenori Tanizaki; the Crusaders picked up Gaudencio Callaia for $620k; the Miners signed Raffy de la Cruz for $540k;

[Westheim]

2063 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2062 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Josh Elling *, 28, B:R, T:R (18-5, 3.36 ERA | 55-65, 3.53 ERA) – not considered for a signing until other things came together in February, Elling suddenly elevates the Raccoons’ rotation back to something approaching credibility. Yes, we’re putting down a guy with a sub-.500 winning percentage for Opening Day – but he had three strong pitches, overall good numbers, and had suffered half a decade of abuse by his OWN offense on the Wolves to arrive in that unhappy zone.
SP Tyler Riddle, 31, B:L, T:L (4-5, 1.99 ERA | 83-56, 2.89 ERA, 2 SV) – for the second year running the Raccoons got only a partial season from Riddle due to injury. The then 28-year-old made 32 starts in the first year of a 5-year deal in ’60 after missing half of ’58 and all of ’59, and it looked bad enough for him at times that he could not get more than a 1-year contract, either. When he can actually clamber up to the hill, he’s not pitching that badly, though.
SP Angel Alba, 26, B:R, T:R (11-11, 3.02 ERA | 18-17, 3.51 ERA) – scouting discovery out of Venezuela that was hit around pretty good in cups of coffee in 2060 and early 2061, but even when the record in his first full season in 2062 didn’t show it, he had quite the breakout season in ’62, at one time being elevated to temporary #1 starter after the deadline roster explosion and with Riddle on the DL.
SP Chance Fox, 28, B:L, T:L (10-11, 3.47 ERA | 55-44, 3.74 ERA) – former #3 pick and groundballer with iffy control, Fox was promoted from St. Pete in the middle of the 2058 season and got roughed up regularly, but pitched a few nice games as well. And overall, nothing much has changed about that. Very inconsistent from start to start, but the overall numbers usually come out on the nicer side. He throws 96 with a nice slider and changeup.
SP John Bollinger, 26, B:R, T:R (7-4, 3.69 ERA | 7-4, 3.69 ERA) – the Raccoons ran through a whole host of rookies and ne’er-do-wells last year and Bollinger was the one that ended up hanging around. The right-hander knows four pitches, but is short on stamina and lacks a pitch that lends itself to punchouts.

MR Matt Walters, 32, B:L, T:L (3-7, 5.03 ERA, 15 SV | 18-24, 2.21 ERA, 267 SV) – three Reliever of the Year titles, three times leading the CL in saves, also setting a new franchise mark for saves in a single season in 2060, erasing Angel Casas’ ancient mark of 54. All was going well until a triceps strain took him out early in 2062 and when he came back he didn’t have velocity, didn’t have any curve on the curveball, without which it was just a ball, and got relentlessly hammered away at. His contract (and probably his career) ends after this season, and until then we’ll try to hide him in a specialist role.
MR Mike Dean *, 29, B:R, T:R (1-1, 4.46 ERA | 7-3, 5.79 ERA, 1 SV) – “Fly By Night” Dean arrived as a throw-in from the Cyclones in the Rich Monck trade. Never pitched more than 40 innings in the majors in any given season and would hit the big three-oh in August, maybe even while still on the roster. Unfortunately not much of a long man option.
MR Juan Carrillo *, 31, B:R, T:R (1-3, 3.07 ERA, 5 SV | 42-17, 3.60 ERA, 13 SV) – free agent with a curveball that has been around the CL North a bit already and figures to pitch around the seventh inning.
MR Isaac McDaniel *, 30, B:R, T:L (1-0, 2.24 ERA, 1 SV | 2-2, 2.20 ERA, 1 SV) – this left-hander arrived in a trade with the Knights and is supposed to replace the fallen Ricky Herrera with his twirling curveball.
MR Mike Pohlmann, 32, B:L, T:R (3-3, 2.35 ERA, 2 SV | 53-53, 4.15 ERA, 3 SV) – journeyman reliever arrived in a minor trade with the Titans in June and then pitched some of the finest ball of his career, which was all fine with me given his quite luxurious $1.7M/year contract that will end after this season.
SU James Murdock, 33, B:R, T:R (1-0, 3.26 ERA, 3 SV | 46-53, 3.68 ERA, 123 SV) – once-CL saves champion and otherwise a bit unremarkable, Murdock took his curveball and had a largely unremarkable, but decent first season in Portland, and casually witnessed the entire bullpen being turned inside-out around him in just 12 months in the office.
CL Josh Carlisle, 30, B:R, T:R (3-3, 3.88 ERA, 7 SV | 23-25, 2.95 ERA, 68 SV) – former Titan signed as free agent with the intent of putting him and his slider from upstate Bend, OR, into the closer role in Portland. The only time he was the fulltime closer in Boston, 2060, he saved 45 games for an 0.76 ERA and won Reliever of the Year honors.

C Marcos Arellano, 26, B:R, T:R (.255, 1 HR, 20 RBI | .267, 2 HR, 26 RBI) – Arellano inherited the primary catcher’s role when Angel Perez was traded away in July, but didn’t really hit anything before or after; mostly tries to curry favor with his defense.
C Scott Lawson *, 26, B:R, T:R (no stats) – defensively adept Rule 5 selection from the Stars that never hit a lot in the minors, but with the utter lack of catching talents around otherwise the Raccoons could afford to take a gamble on the backup catcher spot.

1B Joel Starr, 30, B:L, T:L (.292, 18 HR, 82 RBI | .284, 81 HR, 348 RBI) – recovered nicely from a star-crossed 2061 season to hit for a 137 OPS+ again. We’d still wish for more power from our first baseman with seven years left on his contract, but maybe protection from Rich Monck will work wonders for him. Solid defense for a first baseman and enough speed to take a few surprise steals every year.
2B/SS/RF Jim White, 34, B:R, T:R (.254, 5 HR, 46 RBI | .265, 82 HR, 639 RBI) – acquired from the Gold Sox to cover the temporary absence of Nick Nye that turned into a longer absence, another absence, and then a trade outta town, White played most of last year at second base and would do so again in his contract year, forming a nearly 70-year-old middle infield with Lonzo over there at short. What could possibly go wrong!?
SS Lorenzo Lavorano, 35, B:R, T:R (.255, 2 HR, 59 RBI | .277, 44 HR, 668 RBI) – Everybody loves Lonzo! If you don’t love Lonzo, you can’t be my friend…! Not only captured his eighth stolen base title at the ripe old age of 35 last season, but also dethroned Pablo Sanchez for most career stolen bases in September, reaching 728 bags taken at the end of that season! Now we had to find the most gentle way out of this longtime association, with Lonzo’s glove seriously degraded by now and his batting having been far from league average for almost a decade by now.
3B/2B/SS Rich Monck *, 26, B:L, T:R (.306, 37 HR, 94 RBI | .291, 81 HR, 269 RBI) – nobody *really* knew how Monck wound up with the Raccoons from Cincy in February, but the Raccoons could sure do with a 37-homer stick in the cleanup spot. Who knows, we might even resign him to a longer deal if possible! He would be under team control for two more years regardless, with his most likely position going forward being second base.
SS/3B/2B Nick Fowler, 32, B:L, T:R (.257, 3 HR, 30 RBI | .276, 35 HR, 316 RBI) – became a free agent briefly in the winter, but resigned for a fourth season in the brown shirt and will somehow be the most competent shortstop in town; hit for a 100 OPS+ in his first Coons season in ’60 and has worked tirelessly to get this deeper into double digits every year since.
2B/3B/LF/RF Jon Bean, 28, B:L, T:R (.256, 2 HR, 16 RBI | .250, 3 HR, 67 RBI) – somehow keeps showing up on the big league roster, sometimes even on Opening Day. Like Lonzo, this former #313 pick lost his SS rating this winter, and unlike Lonzo, he did so at the tender age of 28.

LF/CF Malik Crumble, 30, B:L, T:L (.282, 15 HR, 50 RBI | .268, 51 HR, 209 RBI) – a cheap signing last winter, Crumble ended up being waived last Opening Day before coming back midseason and challenging Joel Starr for the team lead in homers despite only getting 337 at-bats by season’s end. No plate discipline, but quite speedy around the basepaths.
CF/LF/RF Ben Morris, 25, B:L, T:L (.302, 8 HR, 39 RBI | .272, 23 HR, 119 RBI) – missed 46 games to injury last year and fell short of qualifying for rate statistic consideration, but put up his best slash line numbers in his young career and hit for a 126 OPS+. Starting centerfielder, although he didn’t have the best range out there. Stole 51 bases in ’61, when he didn’t miss that much time.
RF/LF Jose Corral, 22, B:L, T:L (.223, 2 HR, 24 RBI | .222, 2 HR, 28 RBI) – what are be doing with this guy? Once the #5 prospect before being seriously derated, he ended up spending half a season hitting next to nothing in the majors due to all the roster flaying we did in July. He challenged Lonzo for lowest OPS+ for a starter, which isn’t ideal for a 21-year-old playing a power position. He would remain the starting rightfielder to begin the season, due to a noticeable uptick in fortunes in September, but if h was still pushing an OPS+ of room temperature by May, his roster status would have to be reconsidered.
LF/1B/CF Jack Kozak, 28, B:R, T:R (.268, 7 HR, 17 RBI | .237, 20 HR, 72 RBI) – one day we’ll figure out what to do with this casually-fielding, oddly speedy, serial strikeout. Best used as a bench piece or to give Starr a day off against southpaws.
LF/RF/CF Mario Campos, 24, B:R, T:R (.303, 0 HR, 2 RBI | .303, 0 HR, 2 RBI) – quirky defensive outfielder with seed and the promise of hitting eventually, Campos was acquired for Trent Brassfield and a few failed pitchers in July and then featured as a September call-up, clipping singles at a .300 rate for 14 games. His right-handedness won him the final roster spot over Tony Gonzalez, but should a 24-year-old ranked prospect really push the bench for a .500 team?

On disabled list: Nobody.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP Freddy Castillo, 26, B:L, T:L (4-5, 4.15 ERA | 4-5, 4.15 ERA) – optioned to AAA; had a few good outings, but overall walked too many batters in 13 starts as a rotation replacement brought about by roundabout roster reconstruction.
SP Malik Padgitt, 26, B:L, T:L (1-2, 3.72 ERA | 1-2, 3.72 ERA) – optioned to AAA; September callup that managed to walk 16 batters in 19.1 innings across five outings, including four starts, most of them quite short.
MR John Nesbitt, 24, B:R, T:R (1-0, 0.00 ERA | 1-0, 0.00 ERA) – optioned to AAA; right-hander with a splitter and ill control that appeared in just four games for the 2062 Raccoons.
MR Rich Read, 25, B:R, T:R (2-2, 2.40 ERA, 1 SV| 2-2, 4.19 ERA, 1 SV) – optioned to AAA; right-hander throws a fine curveball, but there was no room for him on the roster anymore.
MR J.J. Sensabaugh, 30, B:R, T:R (0-1, 3.06 ERA | 11-10, 4.70 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; the failed starter that somehow comes back from his quad-A gig in St. Pete each and every year hoped to make the roster as a long man, but we know better than to *plan* on giving him the baseball.
C Miguel Guinea, 23, B:L, T:R (.196, 0 HR, 1 RBI | .196, 0 HR, 1 RBI) – optioned to AAA; appeared in 17 games late in the 2062 season without distinguishing himself in any way.
C Joe Robertson, 26, B:R, T:R (.233, 0 HR, 2 RBI | .233, 0 HR, 2 RBI) – optioned to AAA; unlike the rest of the horde of ho-hum catchers we had around, none of which were hitting a lick, Robertson also was weighed down by substandard defense.
LF/CF/RF/1B Tony Gonzalez, 25, B:L, T:L (.439, 2 HR, 11 RBI | .439, 2 HR, 11 RBI) – optioned to AAA; acquired from the Buffos in July, Gonzalez hit some otherworldly clip in a late-season callup to the Critters, someone putting together nearly a full WAR in just 20 games. Of course this wouldn’t be able to last – he lost out on a roster spot because we felt like we already had enough left-handed outfielder/first base types.
LF/RF/CF/3B/2B/SS Jorge Moreno, 26, B:R, T:R (.225, 0 HR, 7 RBI | .225, 0 HR, 7 RBI) – optioned to AAA; super utility that came up in the middle of the year and eventually ended up forgotten on the far end of the bench with his 38 OPS+.

Lefty Rule 5 pick Ricky Baca was returned to the Thunder.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or promoted away to run a branch office in Rancho Cucamonga during the winter.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: CF Morris – SS Lavorano (Fowler/Bean) – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 2B White (Fowler/Bean) – RF Corral – C Arellano – P
(Vs. LHP: CF Morris (Kozak) – SS Lavorano – LF Crumble – 3B Monck – 1B Starr (Kozak) – 2B White – RF Campos – C Arellano – P

We have options to bring as few as two right-handed batters up against righty pitchers. Options against lefties are more limited, but there, too, we can bring as few as two left-handed batters to the plate.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

BNN declared the Raccoons the offseason winners with +11.6 WAR gained from one year to the next. This is a bit of a phony number, given that we had just shed most of our talent in a year-to-year fashion in July. Just think of the list: Bobby Herrera, Nick Robinson (who remained on the market, but would also miss 2+ months to begin the year), Trent Brassfield, Nick Nye, Angel Perez…

We really didn’t have much more to lose in the winter, and we really didn’t, instead making a pair of 5+ WAR moves with the Monck trade (which netted 5.8 WAR, but cost the #38 prospect), and the Elling signing, which added another 5.4 WAR. Interestingly, trading Jose Rosa for Isaac McDaniel also gained a full WAR.

Top 5: Raccoons (+11.6), Buffaloes (+8.3), Crusaders (+6.0), Stars (+4.2), Warriors (+3.1)
Bottom 5: Bayhawks (-5.0), Scorpions (-5.8), Falcons (-6.3), Canadiens (-8.9), Cyclones (-9.4)

The remaining CL North teams came 6th (BOS, +2.5), 15th (IND, -0.9), and 18th (MIL, -2.5).

PREDICTION TIME:

Last year the Raccoons won 80 games against a prediction of 88 wins by me. For the new year, everybody seems to be in a good mood about the team, with glowing roster reviews by BNN, the fanbase rabidly buying season tickets, and the Agitator even considering that management would probably blow the team’s chances by stupid moves, but they at least considered us to have *chances*. I wasn’t so confident, because the bullpen was wholly rebuilt and unproven, the catcher pair was next to useless, the infield looked like it had bolted from a retirement home, and then there were also quite a few yellow, orange, and red flags about injury concerns in these medical reports by Luis Silva…

The Raccoons would probably be disappointed by Rich Monck again (18 homers at most!) and remain in the meh part of the table, winning 83 games in a slight improvement.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

Last year the Raccoons were ranked 20th in the prospect rankings, with just seven ranked prospects, two of them in the top 100. This was down 14 positions from two years ago, but we had traded for prospects (mostly!) in the meantime, so surely it would get better, right?

Indeed, the Critters regained the 14 positions in the rankings that they lost last time around and were ranked sixth again, although the actual number of ranked prospects only went up by two to eight, although we now had five of them in the top 100.

Even weirder, only one of the seven prospects from last year remained on the list this time around – at least for Portland. #38 Roberto Soto had been traded to get Rich Monck. #116 Jose Corral exceeded rookie limits as a 21-year-old. #120 Rich Read also exceeded rookie limits. #184 Alex Vargas had been taken by the Wolves in the Rule 5 draft and was added to their Opening Day roster – still ranked #184. Finally, the former #132 John Bentley and #142 Jake Flowe were still in the Raccoons system, but had slipped out of the top 200 and just outside the team top 10.

9th (new) – AAA CL Jesse Dover, 21 – 2062 first-round pick by Raccoons
17th (new) – AA LF/1B/RF Malcolm Spicer, 18 – 2061 scouting discovery by Thunder, acquired for Nick Nye, Adam Middleton
19th (new) – AAA MR John Nesbitt, 19 – 2061 first-round pick by Buffaloes, acquired with Tony Gonzalez for Joey Christopher, Ken Sowell
54th (+21) – AA INF/RF/LF Victor Morales, 21 – 2059 international free agent signed by Raccoons
95th (new) – AAA SP Jeff Applegate, 23 – 2060 first-round pick by Capitals, acquired with Kyle Pisciotti, Sandy Pineda for Nick Robinson, Bobby Herrera, Angel Perez
136th (new) – A MR Fred Sheets, 19 – 2062 13th-round (!) pick by Raccoons (and possibly a case of mistaken identity)
193rd (new) – AA 2B Ryan Bonner, 20 – 2061 supplemental-round pick by Raccoons
198th (new) – A OF Joel Tapia, 20 – 2059 scouting discovery by Raccoons

The top 10 for the franchise were completed by ML OF Marco Campos (2054 scouting discovery by IND) and AAA SP Sandy Pineda (2061 supplemental-round pick by WAS)

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

1st (+29) – MIL A RF/LF Carlos Dominguez, 19
2nd (new) – NYC AA CL Dave Hyman, 23
3rd (+3) – IND AA 1B Alex Mendez, 21
4th (-1) – CIN ML MR John Faughnan, 22
5th (new) – CIN AAA CL Kyle Houck, 22

6th (+5) – LVA AA OF/1B Jorge Caceres, 21
7th (+12) – RIC AAA CL Marc Timmons, 21
8th (new) – NAS A SP Jorge Sanchez, 18
9th (new) – POR AAA CL Jesse Dover, 21
10th (+10) – OCT AAA SP Matt Chumley, 24

Hyman was the #39 pick in the supplemental round in the 2062 draft and pitched at all three minor league levels in just three-and-a-half months. He was still picked ahead of Houck, who was taken #45 by the Cyclones, and Sanchez, the #48 pick by the Blue Sox, both in the second round proper.

After nine of the 2061 top 10 didn’t make it back to the top 10 in 2062, this time eight players in the top 10 were exchanged.

#1 prospect 1B/LF/RF Cesar Ramirez debuted with the Loggers and played in 54 games, batting .302 with two homers and losing rookie eligibility along the way. #2 prospect Mark Fitzthum pitched the entire season in the Miners’ rotation, going 11-9 with a 3.89 ERA. The only exception last year had been #4 SP Gabriel Rios of the Indians, who went from #1 to #4 and now to #41 after a rather mixed season in AA. Last year’s #5, the Wolves’ SP B.J. Butrico remained in single-A and dropped from #5 to #122.

Also still in the same league was Vancouver’s AA OF Rick Atkins, who slipped from #7 to #18. Thunder outfielder John Barrett had hit precious little in his second single-A season, plummeting precipitously from #8 to #189 in the rankings. Similar story for Dallas’ OF/1B Travis Dockweiler, who went from #9 to #102. Finally, the Titans’ SP Bryce Wallace made 31 starts between AA and AAA with a bit of struggle for AAA Toledo, sliding from #10 to #20 in the rankings for it.

Next: first pitch.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Crusaders (0-0) – April 3-5, 2063

The new season started on Tuesday in Portland with a 3-game set against the Crusaders. The season series between these two teams had swung back and forth wildly in the last five years, with teams going back and forth in winning it. The Coons had taken 14 games in ’61, but had won just seven times against New York in ’62.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (0-0) vs. Ben Seiter (0-0)
Tyler Riddle (0-0) vs. Erik Lee (0-0)
Angel Alba (0-0) vs. Jeff Kozloski (0-0)

The Crusaders brought only right-handed starting pitchers to this opening series.

Still-sorta-new owner Adam Valdes was in town for Opening Day and we marveled at the pre-game festivities from the big window in the office overlooking the field. The anthem played, some fat lady sang – which was probably a bad choice to *start* a season – and the capacity crowd waved to the players with their coonskin caps. Adam remarked how enthusiastic the atmosphere was, and I casually mentioned that he should have seen the crowd at the height of the team’s dynasties, for example in the 90s. Which gave him pause and led him to eventually inquire how old I *actually* was. After a second of silence, I quickly wrapped the black cape around my head, changed into my bat form, and fluttered into a dark corner of the office to plan my next moves from the shadows.

Game 1
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – RF A. Romero – 1B Austin – CF Zeiher – C McLaren – LF Cline – 2B Onelas – 3B V. Velez – P Seiter
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 2B White – RF Corral – C Arellano – P Elling

Elling started his Coons career with giving up a single to Omar Sanchez on an 0-2 pitch, then was taken deep to right by Alex Romero to give him an infinite ERA for a batter. The Crusaders put two more on base in the inning as Matt McLaren singled and Jake Cline walked, but Marcos Onelas’ groundout to second ended the inning. Elling then largely settled in and pitched another five innings, allowing one more run in the fifth on hits by Sanchez and Aubrey Austin. On the other side, the Raccoons through six innings put Morris, Starr, and White each on three times in their first three trips to the plate, but in between barreled into a pair of double plays and made pretty poor outs otherwise, and scored absolutely zero runs from six hits and a couple of walks off Seiter, who went into the eighth inning with a shutout and a 4-0 lead after the Raccoons were dumb enough to send Matt Walters out against the mostly left-handed top of the Crusaders’ order and saw him whacked around for a run in the eighth inning before Juan Carrillo dug him out. Rich Monck hit a single in the eighth inning, but was left on base, and Seiter eventually entered the ninth trying to complete the deed. He gave up a leadoff single to Jim White, who went unretired on Opening Day, and a pinch-hit single to Jack Kozak, but Mario Campos tumbled into a double play that ended the game and left Seiter with a 9-hit shutout to start the season. 4-0 Crusaders. Morris 2-3; Starr 2-3, BB; White 3-3, BB; Kozak (PH) 1-1;

Rich Monck’s late hit extended a hitting streak carried over from 2062, the FL, and the Cyclones in particular to 13 games.

Game 2
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – RF A. Romero – 1B Austin – CF Zeiher – LF Cline – C McLaren – 2B Onelas – 3B V. Velez – P E. Lee
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 2B White – RF Corral – C Arellano – P Riddle

The Coons put Lonzo and Starr on base in the first inning, but groundouts for Monck and Malik Crumble would strand them in scoring position. The good news was that the Raccoons finally scored in their 11th inning of the season when Morris singled home Arellano with two outs in the second inning. The bad news? Riddle had already gotten bombed for three runs in the top of the second. He retired the first four batters he faced before giving up a double to Jake Cline, walking Matt McLaren, and allowing an RBI double to Marcos Onelas – all of these in full counts. Victor Velez singled home another run, and after a K to the pitcher, Sanchez clipped another RBI single for a 3-0 Crusaders lead, 3-1 after two were complete as Lonzo flew out to Cline to end the bottom 2nd.

The score remained the same in the next couple of innings with the Raccoons piling up the singles again without getting a guy home until the fifth inning when they finally got Lee for straight 1-out singles with Lonzo, who stole second base – #729! – Starr, and Monck, who lobbed a ball over Onelas’ glove for an RBI single, his first RBI as a Critter. That narrowed the score to 3-2, with Starr and the tying run on second base, but Malik Crumbled into a 6-4-3 double play on the very next pitch to kill the inning. Instead, the Crusaders punched Riddle for a few more runs in the sixth inning. Zeiher hit a leadoff double, while Onelas and Velez both added RBI singles, with a passed ball charged to Arellano in between to move Onelas from first to second base.

Bottom 6th, and Lee continued to allow runners left and right. Corral singled, Arellano walked, and while Nick Fowler grounded out as pinch-hitter, that advanced the runners into scoring position for Ben Morris, who lined a single into left-center to bring home a pair of 2-out runs and narrow the score to 5-4 again. Lonzo lobbed another single, which was the 12th hit off Lee in this game. Morris dashed to third base, drawing a bad throw, and allowing Lonzo into scoring position. Lee was still in to face Starr, but tied the game with a wild 2-2 pitch that brought in Morris from third, but Starr struck out swinging on the next pitch to leave Lonzo and the go-ahead run on third base.

The pens were at it from the seventh inning, with Isaac McDaniel making his Raccoons debut with a 1-2-3 inning against the 1-2-3 batters, striking out a pair. Ex-Coon Kevin Hitchcock held the post for the Crusaders in the bottom 7th before James Murdock had a 1-2-3 eighth, all at-bats going to full counts. The game remained tied through eight innings before Josh Carlisle made his Coons debut in a tied game in the ninth. Tristan Waker hit a pinch-hit leadoff single against him. Velez popped out, while Gaudencio Callaia pinch-hit into a fielder’s choice. Carlisle lost Sanchez to a 2-out walk in another full count, but then struck out Alex Romero to get out of the inning. New York’s Jason Rhodes wasn’t to be defeated in the bottom 9th, however, and the Raccoons had their first extra-inning contest of the season. Pohlmann got the ball for Portland – so we used all our relievers by game 2 – and got another 1-2-3 inning in the 10th. New York stuck with Rhodes, who put up another zero, while Pohlmann did the same in the 11th. Righty Alex Flores then retired Arellano and Fowler to begin the bottom 11th before walking Morris with two outs. Jon Bean batted for Pohlmann in the #2 slot and singled up the middle. Morris dashed to third base again with the winning run, where he waited out four balls off the plate to Joel Starr that loaded the bases. Rich Monck stepped into the box, and it was gonna be all or nothing now. We got … nothing, as Monck struck out to leave the bases loaded. Matt Walters managed to pitch an inning without getting steamrolled then, and the Raccoons got anther poke at Flores in the bottom 12th. Campos batted for an 0-5 Crumble, but was no less useless, however, Jim White socked a walkoff homer to left-center to send everybody home after all! 6-5 Critters! Morris 2-5, BB, 3 RBI; Lavorano 2-3, BB; Bean (PH) 1-1; Starr 2-4, 2 BB; Monck 2-6, RBI; Corral 2-5; Pohlmann 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

At this point, Rule 5er Scott Lawson was the only guy on the roster – besides the three latter starting pitchers – that hadn’t gotten into a game, but he got the backstop assignment on Thursday for the rubber game. Campos also started over Crumble, who had started the season 0-for-9.

Game 3
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – RF A. Romero – 1B Austin – CF Zeiher – C McLaren – LF Cline – 2B Onelas – 3B V. Velez – P Kozloski
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – RF Corral – LF Campos – C Lawson – P Alba

Sanchez and Romero went to the corners with a leadoff walk and a single off Alba, respectively, in the top 1st, but remained there with three stingy outs from the meat of the order, as Alba popped them out, struck out them out, and grounded them out to first. The Coons had a 1-2-3 first themselves, then had a collective meltdown in the top 2nd. Cline grounded out, but Onelas drew a walk off Alba, then stole second and scored on a Velez single up the middle that a non-ancient shortstop would have played 99 times out of a hundred. Alba was not hesitant to shovel the hole deeper, though, giving up an RBI double to the opposing pitcher and then another RBI knock to Sanchez to fall into a 3-0 hole. Lawson then committed a throwing error when Sanchez stole second base, but Sanchez would be left on base eventually….

Alba never put a good inning together in this start. He lasted only five innings, and gave up a leadoff walk in the third and fifth innings after that 3-run second. The Crusaders didn’t score against him anymore, but the Raccoons also couldn’t get anything against Kozloski, who allowed just one hit in five innings. It didn’t get much better from here. Mike Dean pitched two innings, getting flogged for two more runs in the seventh, while the Raccoons didn’t get to Kozloski for something tangible until the bottom 8th when Campos hit a 1-out double to left and Jack Kozak drove a 2-out RBI triple into the right-center gap, then was stranded by Morris. Kozloski was unimpressed and finished a 99-pitch, complete-game 5-hitter. 5-1 Crusaders. Kozak 1-2, 3B, RBI;

Raccoons (1-2) vs. Knights (2-2) – April 6-8, 2063

The Knights had given up the most runs in the CL so far, but had also hit the most homers, bombing five longballs off the Thunder in a 4-game split. Maybe it was better not to put too much meaning into this. Last year the Raccoons had won all but one game from Atlanta.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (0-0) vs. Hironobu Hanzawa (0-0)
John Bollinger (0-0) vs. Jose Villegas (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Josh Elling (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Bryce Sparks (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

Villegas would be the first southpaw opponent for the Raccoons to face this season.

After three days of sunny, if cold, weather in Portland, the typical Oregon spring struck though and the opener of the series on Friday was rained out. We got a double header scheduled for Saturday. The original lineup for the opener against Hanzawa, who remained the starter for the first game of the double header, had Lonzo taking a day off and White batting second, but with the double header – despite the skies looking like more bitching was coming forward from the more eccentric of the baseball gods – we went all-in on tilting the lineup and Jon Bean started in place of White as well.

Game 1
ATL: LF Fumero – C M. Nieto – RF K. Fisher – 1B Jacinto – 3B Medlock – 2B Swick – CF J. Parker – SS Andon – P Hanzawa
POR: CF Morris – SS Fowler – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B Bean – C Arellano – P Fox

Indeed the weather remained a real issue on Saturday, and the first game of the double header already started several hours late, to the point where a second game became questionable if we wanted to send all the fans home on time so they could get a good night’s sleep before church on Sunday morning.

When play actually started, Marco Nieto homered off Chance Fox within minutes, giving the Knights a 1-0 lead in the first. The Raccoons then loaded the bases in the bottom 2nd with a walk drawn by Corral, a Bean double, and an intentional walk to Arellano, although there was only one out on the board. Fox popped out, so that part of the plan worked, but Hanzawa then glitched a four-pitch walk to Morris, which tied the game. He then issued TWO more bases-loaded walks, both in full counts, to Fowler and Starr to give Portland a 3-1 lead before Monck grounded out. Corral and Bean were on base again in the bottom 3rd, but that time the battery struck out as a group to let Hanzawa out of the inning.

While Monck was not yet close to the fences in Portland – quelle surprise! – Jose Corral extended the lead to 4-1 with a solo jack in the fifth inning, which was quite promising for how ****** his 2062 season had been. Boy was hitting .417 at that point! Fox meanwhile got really stingy after the first-inning homer and allowed only two more base hits to the Knights through to the stretch, and was on a very friendly pitch count until a longer eighth inning that began with two full counts to Johnny Parker, who singled, and Sal Andon, who forced him out with a comebacker to Foxie Brown, who then spent some time trying to pick Andon off; Andon had been on base and had stolen second off Fox the previous run through the lineup. He didn’t succeed doing so this time, and remained stranded on first base as Cory Oldfield and Carlos Fumero were retired. Still expecting to play another game, the Raccoons brought Fox back for the ninth, but he allowed a single to Nieto and a walk to Kyle Fisher and then was replaced with Carlisle, who made his first Coons save a bit of an “experience”. Gustavo Jacinto flew out to center, but then Alex Vasquez pinch-hit and singled to right-center. Nieto went for it and was thrown out at the plate by Corral, but Danny Guzman, another pinch-hitter, then battled Carlisle for nine pitches before hitting another single, this one actually scoring Fisher for a run, 4-2. Johnny Parker hit *another* single to right, with Vasquez coming around to score from second, but Guzman boldly tried to take the tying run to third base, and found himself thrown out there by Corral to end the ballgame. 4-3 Raccoons. Fowler 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Corral 2-2, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Bean 2-4, 2B; Fox 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

Two walks, two hits, two outfield assists to save the bloody ballgame – Corral was having a career day here! Not that the bar had been very high so far.

It was also all the baseball played that day. It started to rain again as soon as the postgame interview with Corral was completed, and the second game was then wiped off and rescheduled to Sunday. There, the plan remained to bring the most lopsided lineups available into each game, now with Villegas fronting the effort for Atlanta. The Raccoons made a change though and would send Elling out first on Sunday, with Bollinger only making his season debut in the second game of the double header.

Game 2
ATL: 2B Fumero – C M. Nieto – RF D. Guzman – CF Oldfield – SS Gallo – LF J. Parker – 1B A. Vasquez – 3B Medlock – P J. Villegas
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – LF Crumble – 3B Monck – 2B White – 1B Kozak – RF Campos – C Arellano – P Elling

Elling had dinner reservations and breezed through the Knights’ lineup the first time through, whiffing four while not allowing anybody on base. The only noise the Coons made, however, was Arellano getting nicked by Villegas in the bottom 3rd, then getting doubled up by Elling on a terrible bunt. Elling stumbled in the fifth with two leadoff walks to Oldfield and J.P. Gallo. Still no hits for the Knights, but they got a run on a fielder’s choice Parker hit into to short, and then Vasquez’ groundout that plated Oldfield from third base. Medlock flew out to center to end the inning, the Knights now up 1-0 while getting no-hit. We didn’t have to worry about this much longer, though, since Villegas hit Elling for a single to left to begin the sixth inning. The Raccoons struggled to put anything together once again, though. White reached on an error in the seventh. Fowler hit a 2-out single batting for Elling in the eighth inning. Neither event led anywhere. Matt Walters had a clean inning in the ninth against the 2-3-4 batters, while the Knights rolled out Ben Lussier and his 16.20 ERA against the Portland 2-3-4 in the bottom 9th. Lonzo flew out to left on the first pitch, while Crumble took his 0-16 to start the season and killed it with a dying wailer on the infield that Stephen Medlock couldn’t play in time and Crumble put his tush on base as the tying run with an infield single. Monck flying out to center didn’t help, though, nor did White’s groundout to Medlock. 1-0 Knights. Fowler (PH) 1-1; Elling 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, L (0-2);

At this point, Josh Elling (0-2, 2.57 ERA) was probably just fed up with Oregon teams.

Game 3
ATL: 2B Fumero – LF J. Parker – RF D. Guzman – CF Oldfield – SS Gallo – 1B Jacinto – C Ziegler – 3B Medlock – P Sparks
POR: CF Morris – SS Fowler – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – LF Campos – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Bollinger

The late game was scoreless through two innings before Bollinger got whacked around for four hits and three runs in the third inning to put the Critters into yet another hole. Medlock doubled, Fumero hit an RBI single, Parker lashed an RBI double, and Guzman brought him in with a groundout after Parker stole third base. Oldfield hit a 2-out single after that, but was left on base on a pop by J.P. Gallo. The Coons began the bottom 3rd with singles to right by Bean and Lawson, putting a rather unassuming pair on the corners. Bollinger hit a fly to left that Parker dropped for an error. A run scored, 3-1, and the tying runs were on first and second, from where they advanced when Morris drew walk from Sparks in a full count. Fowler crashed into a run-scoring double play, though, and Starr grounded out as well to keep the tying run stranded on third base…

Bollinger then got two outs in the fourth before allowing a double to Medlock and an RBI single to Sparks. The inning escalated further until the bases were loaded and Bollinger was yanked, but Mike Pohlmann gave up a grand slam to Danny Guzman, and the game was basically over at that point. The only reason Pohlmann didn’t get beaten with a brick after the game was that he added another four scoreless innings of garbage relief after the slam, getting the Coons through eight while still leaving something alive for the next series starting on Monday. The offense made no measurable effort to rally; at one point we had runners on the corners with one out and Monck brought in a run with a groundout before Corral ended the inning, as if anyone cared. Dean pitched a scoreless ninth, though not without smashing up Cory Oldfield’s wrist area with a fastball. 8-3 Knights. Bean 2-4; Lawson 2-3;

14 runs in six games to start the season. Rich who?

Raccoons (2-4) vs. Falcons (1-4) – April 9-11, 2063

The Falcons came off consecutive seasons of 100+ losses, with a whopping 108 defeats in 2062, including seven in nine tries against the Raccoons. They had started the season 0-4 before taking a game from the Crusaders and then having a rainout on Sunday, so they were rested for this series while the Raccoons had played and lost two games on Sunday. Combined, these two teams had scored only 29 runs in 11 games to begin the season.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (0-0, 7.50 ERA) vs. Ivan Rodriguez (0-1, 6.75 ERA)
Angel Alba (0-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. Mark Jacobs (0-1, 11.25 ERA)
Chance Fox (1-0, 2.25 ERA) vs. John Marshell (0-0, 3.00 ERA)

Technically, all their starters were available in some capacity. Jacobs and Marshell were left-handers. The latter had been a #38 pick by the Critters in 2055 that had ended up a swingman in St. Pete for three years before electing minor league free agency after the ’61 season, upon which the Falcons gave him a 3-year, $3M contract while he still had zero days of major league service. He had posted a 3.86 ERA in a partial season last year, so it hadn’t been the worst investment, although his K/BB wasn’t pretty. No regrets about having let him go – so far.

With two southpaws up ahead of an off day, we ran out all the left-handed bats on Monday again.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Pinault – LF Padgett – 1B Valcarcel – RF Washington – SS T. Taylor – C Ayon – 3B O’Donnell – CF Geiger – P I. Rodriguez
POR: CF Morris – SS Fowler – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B Bean – C Arellano – P Riddle

Rich Monck *arrived* in Portland on Monday, smashing a 3-run homer in the first inning with Ben Morris and Joel Starr on the corners for an early lead. He hit into another double play his next time up but at least we had something on the board for once. Those were also the only runs through five innings with Riddle appearing to have the game under control until Dan Geiger hit a leadoff double up the leftfield line in the sixth inning and scored on Rodriguez’ bunt and Mike Pinault’s sac fly. Next inning, Joe Washington shoved a leadoff single up the middle, but was doubled up by Trent Taylor in a 6-4-3 bouncer to Fowler.

Bottom 7th, Morris led off with a single off Steve White, but was caught stealing. Fowler then hit an infield single and was forced out on Starr’s grounder before Monck hit another single. Starr went to third no that play. The Raccoons then had Malik Crumble up with an unfathomably rotten 1-for-21 start and went to Lonzo, who was not much better at 2-for-16. Lonzo swiped a liner to left, but Taylor made a lunging grab to end the inning. Campos then took over leftfield and made a nice running grab near the line right away on Chad O’Donnell. Bottom 8th, still up 3-1, and the Raccoons unpacked whatever was left on that bench against the left-handed Steve White. Kozak singled to begin the inning, then advanced on a wild pitch with Jim White batting for Bean, which led to an intentional walk. Arellano struck out, but Lawson then batted for Riddle and snuck another grounder through the right side for a single. Kozak dashed home from second base to extend the lead to 4-1. Morris added another run with a sac fly before Fowler flew out to leave Lawson stranded. Carrillo got the ball for the ninth inning and ended the Falcons on eight pitches. 5-1 Critters! Fowler 2-5; Starr 2-3, BB; Monck 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Corral 2-3; Kozak (PH) 1-1; Lawson (PH) 1-1, RBI; Riddle 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

And now, mostly right-handed bats against the two southpaws. However, Morris was doing reasonably well so far, and Starr was batting .400, and Monck had just hewn through the knot, so we put all three of them into the lineup on Tuesday.

Game 2
CHA: 2B Pinault – LF Padgett – 1B Valcarcel – RF Washington – 3B Healey – C Opsahl – SS T. Taylor – CF Geiger – P Ma. Jacobs
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – LF Kozak – 3B Monck – 2B J. White – 1B Starr – RF Campos – C Lawson – P Alba

Alba drove in his own lead with a RBI single plating Campos in the third inning, 1-0, but whenever he was on the hill he was having a good old struggle. The Falcons put pairs on base in the second and third innings before hitting into double plays, then got a double from Washington with one out in the fourth before Alba walked Rick Healey to give them another pair on base. Finally a found conference was called and Alba was given a few pointers about not sucking so hard, please, then struck out Joey Opsahl and Trent Taylor to escape the inning. Same inning, the Raccoons ended up with the bases loaded with little doing of their own as Kozak reached on a Healey error to begin the inning before Jacobs leaked walks to Starr and Campos to fill them up by the time Lawson came ‘round to bat with two outs. A meek groundout ended the inning.

Through five innings, the two teams combined for just five base hits, with much of the traffic stemming from free passes and a total of three errors, one of them on Alba in the fifth. The bottom 6th saw Monck clip a 1-out single to right before Jim White drew a walk. Starr flew out, but Campos found the hole on the right side for another single. With two outs, Monck went on contact and scored to extend the lead to 2-0. With Washington throwing home late, the trailing runners advanced, which eventually served to clear the pitcher’s spot on an intentional walk to Lawson and then an easy out Jacobs picked up from Alba. The Coons’ starter went into the eighth inning, where Mike Pinault legged out an infield single to start, but was still on first base with two outs. The Raccoons went to McDaniel at that point to get a key out from the left-handed cleanup batter, which worked out well enough with a high fly out to Campos in right-center. Alba was outlasted by Jacobs, who went eight full innings despite walking SEVEN and striking out NONE. And yet, the Raccoons had only a skinny 2-0 lead to give to Carlisle in the ninth. Carlisle struck out a pair before Taylor singled to center and previously well-hidden Danny Ceballos pinch-hit and clonked a game-tying homer. (facepaws audibly)

The game ended up going to extras when the Raccoons only got Corral on base with a 1-out walk in the bottom 9th, and he was caught stealing in a botched hit-and-run attempt with Morris against right-hander Gary Ponds. Murdock held the game tied in the top 10th in a 1-2-3 appearance, which included giving Jesus Valcarcel a golden sombrero. Walters stumbled through the 11th with two hits allowed, but Healey hit into another double play to control traffic. The Raccoons also had singles by Starr and Campos in the 11th, but Arellano and Bean, the last guy off the bench, made poor outs and the game dragged on to the 12th where Mike Dean allowed a leadoff single to Ceballos and then a 2-out singles to Cody Padgett on which Ceballos tried to go first-to-third, but was caught in an 8-5-4-6 rundown to end the inning. Dean pitched two innings, as did Yoshinari Kuroiwa, in the 12th and 13th innings, with neither team seemingly able to land another punch this week. Carrillo pitched the 14th and 15th for Portland while also grounding out in between against Josh Penington, who returned for a second inning of duty against the 1-2-3 batters in the bottom 15th, including an 0-for-6 Ben Morris who was almost enthusiastic to finally see a right-handed pitcher, but still grounded out. Penington went 1-2-3, with Kozak also falling to 0-7 with a pop to second base. For what it was worth, the #2 hole was also 0-for-7, split between Lonzo, who had gone 0-for-4 before being lifted for D in the ninth inning, and Fowler.

The Coons arrived at Pohlmann, their final reliever, in the 16th inning, who was only 48 hours removed from throwing over 60 pitches in garbage relief and couldn’t possibly have much to offer anymore, but it was enough to get through the Falcons in the 16th inning. Penington returned for a third frame for the Falcons, giving up a leadoff double to Rich Monck, which was the most excitement we had seen for either team in about an hour. White flew out to Padgett, and Starr was walked intentionally, with a strong suspicion that the Falcons tried to arrive at the pitcher’s spot with three on and two outs. If so, they’d need a pathetic out from Arellano, since Campos drew a walk from Penington. Arellano had enough of this game, though, and snuck a single through the left side to finally end it. 3-2 Blighters. Campos 2-4, 3 BB, RBI; Alba 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K and 1-3, RBI; Dean 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Carrillo 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

0-for-21 at the ******* top and we wonder why we can’t ******* score!

After this escapade there was reasonable concern that the bullpen might collapse entirely if Chance Fox was knocked out early on Wednesday. However, Thursday was off, and “luckily” Bollinger (0-1, 17.18 ERA) had been sent to bed early on Sunday and was in theory available for a few innings of garbage relief if so required, which would then vacate his second start of the season to next week.

Game 3
CHA: 2B Pinault – LF Padgett – 1B Valcarcel – 3B Healey – RF Washington – SS T. Taylor – C Opsahl – CF Geiger – P Marshell
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 2B J. White – 1B Starr – CF Kozak – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Fox

The Raccoons tried to go for the sweep on Wednesday, although to be fair, both teams were looking like someone had pulled a plastic bag over their heads about 20 minutes ago in this series. In the event, Healey smashed a 3-run homer off Chance Fox in the first inning, so Bollinger went down to the bullpen quite early in the proceedings…

Portland made up a run in the first inning with Campos and Lonzo getting on base, although Monck hit into another double play, when Jim White’s fly to left was dropped by Padgett to allow Campos home from third base. Jack then hit a Kozak in the second inning to get to 3-2, followed by a game-tying homer by Arellano two batters later…!

It didn’t last, though, because Fox was out of control. He had already hit Joey Opsahl in the second inning, then plunked Geiger in the fourth after Opsahl had already singled. Marshell’s 1-out bunt was thrown away by Starr for a 2-base error that allowed the Falcons to take the lead again, 4-3, with a pair in scoring position. Fox threw one more pitch, giving up an RBI single to Mike Pinault, then left the game, although his entourage conspicuously included Luis Silva with some sort of concern for his throwing arm. And there it went – the screw-on cap of the season’s first bottle of Capt’n Coma!

The Coons went to Murdock first, who got five outs while surrendering another unearned run on Padgett’s groundout, closing Fox’ line at 3.1 innings, six runs (three earned), while Bollinger was getting ready for two innings of work in the pen, which was now needed since we were lugging a couple of no-touchie relievers around after the previous night’s marathon. Bollinger’s first inning was scoreless, and the Raccoons brought the tying run to the dish with nobody out in the bottom 6th when Monck reached on an error and White hit a single that ended Marshell’s day. Righty Alberto de Lon replaced him, got a double play grounder from Starr (…), but then balked home Monck with a run to reduce the gap to 6-4. In response the Falcons disemboweled Bollinger for four hits and three runs in the seventh…

At this point we just wanted to get the game over with and regroup. The struggle bus kids put a run together in the seventh, though, as Crumble led off with a double and after Campos reached base was driven in by Lonzo with a 2-out single. Monck then grounded out, but White opened the eighth with a homer off Gary Ponds, 9-6. Matt Walters pitched in the ninth inning, walked two, but also struck out his first batters of the season, Healey and Geiger, for what it was worth, and didn’t allow any tack-on runs. For Charlotte, it was Kuroiwa to start the bottom 9th against the #9 spot where Lawson was entrenched and not removable. He grounded out to second, but Campos singled over the shortstop Taylor. Lonzo lined out to short *again*. Monck singled to left, which actually brought up the team’s home run leader (…!?) with two outs, Jim White. And he gave a 1-1 pitch a ride to deep right – but not deep enough, and Washington caught the ball on the warning track. 9-6 Falcons. Lavorano 2-5, RBI; White 2-5, HR, RBI; Arellano 1-2, BB, HR, RBI;

In other news

April 2 – The Stars rally for a 9-run eighth inning to overturn a 2-1 deficit and beat the Gold Sox, 10-2, on Opening Day.
April 3 – DAL SP Ray “Crabman” Walker (1-0, 0.00 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout in an 8-0 win against the Gold Sox.
April 4 – Thunder and Knights play 14 innings, with Oklahoma City breaking through for six runs in the top of the 14th inning for an 11-5 win.
April 6 – The Buffaloes lose SP Pablo Lara (0-0, 0.00 ERA), who led the FL in wins four years ago, to non-Tommy John elbow ligament reconstruction surgery.
April 6 – NYC C Matt McLaren (.231, 0 HR, 1 RBI) would miss a month with an oblique strain.
April 8 – The Loggers put up ten runs in the first inning of a double header against the Bayhawks which Milwaukee ends up sweeping, 12-4 and 9-4.
April 9 – The Buffaloes beat the Scorpions in a back-and-forth affair, 13-12. Sacramento hits five home runs to the Buffos’ two, to no avail.
April 11 – DEN OF Jose Consuegra (.533, 1 HR, 6 RBI) could miss four months with a ruptured finger tendon.
April 11 – The Buffos rout the Scorpions, 15-2. TOP 1B Mario Delgadillo (.348, 5 HR, 12 RBI) drives in seven runs on two homers and a double.
April 11 – OCT OF Danny Garcia (.257, 0 HR, 3 RBI) leads off the Thunder’s game against the Titans with a triple and scores right away on a single by 1B Ian Stone (.175, 0 HR, 3 RBI). Three pitches into the game, the 1-0 final score is established.

FL Player of the Week: CIN INF Jordan Hernandez (.500, 1 HR, 5 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: TIJ SS Casey Ramsey (.500, 1 HR, 7 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Yeah, I still don’t know whether the enthusiasm for this team came from. They played terribly in this opening three-team homestand. Miserable pitching, creaky defense, not even any sort of speed – we were actually BOTTOMS in stolen bases – and then they barely scored over three runs per game to lumber to a 4-5 record. If you consider all the extra innings we played already, then we’re no longer talking about scoring 3.11 runs per game, but more like 2.77 runs per nine innings.

AWFUL.

Chance Fox will hit the DL with an elbow sprain. Now, the good news is that this should be a minor injury and that he should be back in the rotation in just a few weeks, possibly even before our shortstop turns 36.

Given the Fox injury and how Bollinger’s first two outings went, should I mention that Sensabaugh cleared waivers and was available for more garbage duties, or is it too soon to try and spin that into a positive? I mean, we’re so far only a game and a half behind the best team you can actually take seriously.

The Raccoons will hit the road for a week, travelling to Milwaukee and Elk City, before we’ll have another homestand with CL South opposition from the Condors and Aces.

Fun Fact: Jose Corral has the highest OPS on the team right now.

Ya ya, it’s early, but I kinda wanted to say something positive about the kid once in a while.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (4-5) @ Loggers (8-1) – April 13-15, 2063

The Loggers had started the season in sixth gear, but were you ever really concerned about a hot start by the Loggers? We probably had issues of our own to concern ourselves with… For now though they led the league in runs scored (6.86 per game) and were a bit average in runs allowed. I’d go out on three paws and pretend that they wouldn’t score almost seven runs for a full season! Last year they had also been at the top of the division early on and had easily finished sixth, though not without beating the Raccoons 11 out of 18 games.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (0-2, 2.57 ERA) vs. Larry Wilson (1-0, 3.86 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Jesus Hinojosa (1-0, 1.29 ERA)
Angel Alba (0-1, 1.42 ERA) vs. Oliver Graham (0-1, 5.06 ERA)

The three Loggers here were all right-handed, although they appeared to have skipped over southpaw Vincent Hernandez (1-0, 3.38 ERA) on the common off day on Thursday.

The Raccoons sent Chance Fox to the DL, hoping to get him back in early May. Since this series was wedged between two off days, we did not turn to a starter, but added a reliever from AAA instead, going with right-hander Rich Read. Since John Bollinger had made the garbage relief outing on Wednesday, he was not going to make a start in this series. He was next up for Tuesday in Elk City.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – RF Corral – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Elling
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 3B D. Miller – 2B Garmon – P L. Wilson

Offense was at a premium early on, with neither team getting more than one batter on base in the first three innings. Starr got stranded for Portland after a first-inning single, while the Loggers’ Jonathan Merrill drew a 2-out walk from Elling in the second inning. Neither made it past first base. Lonzo then did something against that sub-.200 batting average with a double off the fence in leftfield to begin the fourth inning, but even after that, hitting appeared to be hard for the Raccoons. Starr and White made poor outs, while Wilson lost Monck and Corral on balls, which ended up bringing the .074 crumbler Menace Crikey (or something like that) to the plate. He grounded out to Fidel Carrera, and that was the inning. While the Loggers remained on the search for a base hit against Elling, the Raccoons had two more of those early on in the top 5th, putting a pair in scoring position with an Arellano single and Morris’ double hugging the rightfield line. Since Elling popped out on his bunt, Arellano could go no further from first base than to third on Morris’ extra-base knock, and Lonzo batted with the pair of them in scoring position, striking out. Starr was carelessly walked onto the open base, and Monck popped out to Danny Miller in foul ground on a 1-0 pitch to leave the bases full once more.

The Loggers finally put a guy on base with a knock in the sixth inning as now Corey Garmon opened an inning with a double. Wilson’s bunt and Scott Franks’ groundout brought him in to score and the Loggers took a 1-0 lead while I was gnashing my teeth. When Wilson returned to the hill, he gave up another leadoff single to Arellano, and this time Elling finally got the bunt down. The messing up part was this time done by Dave Robles, who flung the ball through Wilson’s legs at first base, and the Coons battery reached scoring position with nobody out on the error before Cesar Ramirez retrieved the ball in foul territory down the line. Ramirez then clonked the very next ball in play, a fly by Morris to right that he dropped for a 2-base, 2-run error, flipping the score to an unearned 2-1 lead for the Portlanders. Next, Lonzo popped a ball to second, which Garmon put clams on and dropped it anyway. Three errors in a row for the Milwaukee Slapsticks! Starr singled in a run after that, but Monck fooled into a double play and the inning ended with a White groundout, but also a VERY VERY unearned 3-1 lead for the Critters.

Elling then squeezed himself out of the bottom 7th by issuing walks to Robles (who was eventually run for with Dave Wright) and Merrill. Chris Sullivan pinch-hit for Danny Miller with two outs, and the Raccoons chose to meet the lefty hitter with McDaniel, who walked the bags full on four pitches. Ace! Garmon then popped out to shallow center, and now the Loggers left three on base. The eighth saw the Raccoons bungle hits by Corral and Crumble with three pathetic outs after that, while the Loggers slapped three singles off Matt Walters (…) and Mike Pohlmann. Fidel Carrera drove in David Milian with a run to reduce the score to 3-2. Thankfully Josh Carlisle put together three quick outs from the 6-7-8 batters in the ninth inning…! 3-2 Raccoons. Starr 2-4, BB, RBI; Arellano 2-4; Elling 6.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (1-2);

The Loggers then decided to bring the left-handed Hernandez on Saturday.

Game 2
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 2B J. White – 1B Starr – CF Kozak – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Riddle
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 3B D. Miller – 2B C. Sullivan – P V. Hernandez

Milwaukee went up 1-0 in the second in the middle game with a walk issued to Tommy Guitreau by Riddle, shortly ahead of a wild pitch, and eventually Danny Miller singled that runner in with two outs. The Raccoons responded pronto rapido, however, and Marco Campos smacked a double to left to begin the third inning. Lonzo was ready and brought in the tying run with a single to left-center. Monck popped out, but Jim White singled to left. Trying to stay out of the double play, the Raccoons went running on the 1-0 pitch Joel Starr, who missed a sign and held still, while Guitreau didn’t get a good grip on the ball and threw it wildly by Danny Miller, allowing Lonzo to score and White to third base on the play. White scored on Starr’s sac fly one pitch later, 3-1.

The lead didn’t last; the Coons stranded Campos after another double in the fourth, while Riddle allowed a single to Robles and then a long homer to Carrera in the bottom of that same inning to get the Loggers even again. The Loggers would load the bases even after that in the same inning on two singles and a walk, but also left them full with K’s by Hernandez and Franks. Riddle would labor for five innings before being hit for with two outs in the sixth inning and Crumble on base, but Jose Corral flew out easily to end the inning. The Loggers then outsmarted the Coons in the bottom 6th, in which Carrillo walked Guitreau before arriving with the .417 hitting Chris Sullivan with two outs and the go-ahead run on second base. We chose a rare intentional walk, but the Loggers wasted no time, batted Wright for the pitcher Hernandez, and Wright socked in both runs with a wallbanger double.

Top 8th, and Joel Starr singled off Hector Estevez with one out. The Loggers went to Randy Birnbaum from there, but the new righty allowed more singles to Kozak and Crumble to load the bases. Ben Morris batted for Arellano, but drew a southpaw replacement in Tony Espinosa, who got a pop behind shortstop for the second out. The Loggers then brought right-hander Matt Pickel before the Raccoons sent a new pinch-hitter, Nick Fowler, who lined out to Robles at first base, and that ended the inning with the bases left loaded AGAIN. Lonzo would hit a 1-out single off Brad Walker in the ninth inning, bringing the tying run to the plate, but both Monck and White struck out to end the inning. 5-3 Loggers. Campos 2-5, 2 2B; Lavorano 2-5, RBI; Monck 2-5; Kozak 2-3; Crumble 2-4;

Game 3
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – RF Corral – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Alba
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 3B C. Sullivan – 2B Milian – P Hinojosa

Scratch singles by Morris, who stole second, and Starr, then a sac fly to center by Rich Monck, gave the Raccoons a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the rubber game before Starr was stranded on base. The Loggers would have their soft singles to put runners (Milian, Ramirez) on the corners in the bottom 3rd, followed also by a fly to center by Dave Robles, but Morris picked that for the *third* out and thus Alba stayed ahead 1-0 through three frames. Instead, Alba bottled the lead in the fourth with another walk to Guitreau, then a pair of 2-out singles by Sullivan and Milian to get the catcher around to score…

After a few innings of nothing from the Furballs’ side, Alba strung a leadoff double to begin the sixth inning, which looked like a cry for help. The Loggers opted to walk Ben Morris with intent, which was a bit of a weird choice, given how even at next to age 36, Lonzo was not easily doubled up. He grounded out to third base, advancing a pair of runners into scoring position for Starr, who fell to 0-2 against Hinojosa, then dished a bouncer over the second base bag and into centerfield for a 2-run single, 3-1! Monck grounded out and White flew out to end the inning. Alba and Morris would be on base again to start the eighth inning, then with a pair of singles. Lonzo grounded to an infielder again, this time Carrera, which forced out Morris, but the Loggers couldn’t turn two, as advertised. Hinojosa would lose Starr to a walk in a full count, filling up the bases, but both Monck and White flew out in the shallow outfield, and neither got another run home…

Alba finished eight innings on the hill, nicking Robles in the final frame he was out for, but got around that with a pop by Carrera and a K to the pesky Guitreau. The Raccoons didn’t tack on in the ninth inning before Carlisle went out with a 3-1 lead and got a grounder from Jonathan Merrill, then filled the bases with the bottom third of the lineup, allowing a single to Chris Sullivan, a walk to Milian, and straight up drilled Dave Wright. After a mound conference in which the pitching coach expressed his concerns for this performance, Carlisle allowed a soft liner from Franks to Fowler, Lonzo’s defensive replacement at short, then ran a full count on Cesar Ramirez, who ended up striking out swinging. 3-1 Raccoons. Morris 2-3, BB; Starr 3-3, BB, 2 RBI; Alba 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-1) and 2-3, 2B;

(raises eyebrow)

Raccoons (6-6) @ Canadiens (6-7) – April 17-19, 2063

We had only won six games against the damn Elks in all of 2062, which was clearly not enough to keep this old GM content. I demanded better results, while sitting some 300 miles away in the office in Portland and petting Honeypaws like that was gonna improve the fortunes of the offense. The Elks ranked ninth in runs scored, but third in runs allowed so far this year, so it wasn’t like scoring against them was the most trivial thing in the world.

Projected matchups:
John Bollinger (0-1, 15.88 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (0-0, 7.00 ERA)
Josh Elling (1-2, 2.18 ERA) vs. Juan Mercardo (0-1, 2.08 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (1-0, 4.26 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (1-0, 1.56 ERA)

Mercado in the middle game would be the next left-hander to contend with. The 36-year-old Mercado had been a Raccoon, 12 years and nine stops journeying through the league ago.

Game 1
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – RF Corral – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Bollinger
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF D. Moreno – LF Epperson – 3B Spalding – P C. Torres

Bollinger got yelled at by the pitching coach just 12 pitches into the game, which was enough for Alex Castillo and Alex Corpus to hit a pair of singles and appear both in scoring position after a wild pitch to Chad Whetstine. The yelling worked, as both Whetstine and Alex Maldonado popped out to strand the runners. The total number of Alexes on the Elks roster, by the way, was four, including reliever Alex Diaz. Top 2nd, Jim White and Jose Corral set up camp on the corners with a pair of leadoff singles against Torres, after which both Crumble and Arellano hit long flies that were both caught on the warning track. Crumble got his first RBI of the season for a sac fly, but after that the inning fizzled out fast. A walk to Damian Moreno and a Gunner Epperson blast to center flipped the score for the Elks very fast in the bottom 2nd, although the Coons got even again at the next opportunity; Morris drew a leadoff walk, stole second, and was singled home by Monck in the third. The Elks shrugged, got Corpus to hit a double in the bottom 3rd, and then immediately got him home with Jose Campos’ RBI single to take a new 3-2 lead.

That one remained on the board until Bollinger was finished after five awful innings. The Raccoons would usually hit a single in an inning, and then either double up the runner or leave him somewhere unhelpful until Rich Read – also unhelpfully – messed around and put a couple of runners on base before getting deep for a 3-run homer by Campos in the seventh inning. Campos added ANOTHER 3-run homer in the eighth inning after more completely ******ed tossing by Read and Dean, capping off a 4-spot overall. 10-2 Canadiens. Starr 2-4; Monck 2-4, 2B, RBI; Corral 2-4; Kozak (PH) 1-1;

(blows)

Read (0-0, 15.43 ERA) was disposed of after the game and the Raccoons brought up Freddy Castillo, needing a replacement for Chance Fox later in the week anyway.

No southpaw in the middle game, instead Ken Nielsen was moved up to pitch on regular rest.

Game 2
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – RF Corral – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Elling
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF D. Moreno – LF Lozada – 3B Spalding – P Nielsen

Ken Nielsen ended up allowing a leadoff single to Morris, who stole second and then was doubled home by Lonzo. Walks to Monck and White with one out filled the bases for Corral, who clipped an RBI single over Alex Castillo and got it to drop just in front of Whetstine. Crumble grounded to third base, where Steven Spalding went back to the base for a force on White, but then could not get a second out and Monck scored for the third run of the inning. Arellano hit a soft 2-out single, but Elling popped out to leave the bases loaded, then gave up a double to Corpus and a 2-run homer to Campos in the bottom 1st to piss most of a 3-0 lead away immediately. It also meant that Jose Campos had three straight homers with 8 RBI in his last three at-bats… He finally went down on strikes with the tying run – again Corpus – in scoring position in the bottom 3rd. Good! I hope he’s crying on the way back to his ******* dugout!! (angrily hollers while clutching both Honeypaws and a bottle of Capt’n Coma to his chest)

The game trundled along with a 3-2 score through five, although it never felt easy for Elling. The Coons then tacked on unexpectedly in the sixth inning with a 1-out solo homer slapped by Malik Crumble, hitting all of .140 even after the feat. Nielsen would go on to put Morris and Lonzo on the corners to begin the seventh. While Lonzo was caught stealing, Starr hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 5-2, which ended Nielsen’s day. Monck lined out, but lefty Gabe Hill filled the bags with White and Corral and two outs before *somebody* Crumbled and popped out to Spalding in foul ground, stranding a full set of fuzzy runners.

Elling came back for the seventh as well, had two long at-bats for outs against Spalding and Epperson, then was relieved after 108 pitches with the army of Alexes coming back to the plate. Murdock replaced him, got three outs, then handed the ball to McDaniel in the bottom 8th, and the lefty immediately gave up a homer to the left-handed batting Whetstine to narrow the lead to 5-3, but that was the last swipe the Elks were able to take at the Raccoons as McDaniel got out of the inning and then Carlisle shut them down in the ninth. 5-3 Raccoons. Morris 2-4; Lavorano 3-5, 2B, RBI; Bean (PH) 1-1; Corral 2-5, RBI; Campos 1-1;

No Juan Mercado rendezvous on Thursday either – but a different left-hander in Shane Fitzgibbon (1-1, 1.83 ERA).

Game 3
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – 3B Monck – CF Kozak – LF Crumble – C Lawson – P Riddle
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – LF C. Cardenas – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – RF D. Moreno – C Orphanos – P Fitzgibbon

Offense was scarce for Portland in the first innings, while Riddle plunged into the abyss in a bottom 3rd that began with a single by the opposing pitcher and went nowhere nice from there. Castillo’s grounder was bobbled by Monck and Corpus walked to fill the bases. Campos struck out, and Cardenas hit only a sac fly to Crumble, but Whetstine then bashed home another pair of (unearned) runs with a double to right before the inning could finally end; thought not until after another single by Spalding, as it was Damian Moreno that finally made the final out with a fly to center.

What was more astonishing? That the Raccoons erased the 3-0 deficit immediately in the top 4th, or that it was White and Monck to get on base and Crumble to tie it up with a 2-out 3-piece to left-center? On the other paw, the Raccoons wasted a leadoff double by Starr in the sixth and left him stranded on third base with three miserable outs in a row. Riddle meanwhile never got into a groove, then had Moreno on with a leadoff walk in the bottom 6th and threw away Fitzgibbon’s bunt to put extra traffic on base with one out. With the last bit of fizz in the tank, he struck out Castillo and popped out Corpus to Starr in foul ground to end the inning and his day, having pitched a – by his standards – very high 105 pitches.

At least he held the tie, which Pohlmann in the seventh didn’t, giving up a leadoff jack to the inevitable Campos… That gave the damn Elks a 4-3 lead before they made six outs with their next seven batters against Pohlmann, Walters, and Carrillo. The Raccoons had a Monck single in the eighth, but then brought up the bottom of the lineup against closer Erik Swain in the ninth. Crumble hit a grounder to the left side that took Corpus nearly to the edge of the dirt and from there he didn’t have a play, and so the tying run reached with an infield single. Lawson’s bunt went straight back to Swain, though, who started a 1-6-3 double play, and Bean grounded out easily to finish the game. 4-3 Canadiens. Monck 2-4; Crumble 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Raccoons (7-8) vs. Condors (9-6) – April 20-22, 2063

The Raccoons would try to extend their 9-year run of winning the season series against the Condors this year, although it looked like the Condors had a decent bunch assembled and it was gonna be hard. We won five games of nine last year. This season, early on, the Condors were third in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed, with a +15 run differential (Critters: -16). Their rotation had the lowest ERA in baseball right now at a 2.69 rate.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (1-1, 1.31 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (1-0, 1.20 ERA)
Freddy Castillo (0-0) vs. Edgar Mauricio (1-1, 3.15 ERA)
John Bollinger (0-2, 10.97 ERA) vs. Vince Ellison (2-0, 2.53 ERA)

Only right-handers coming up here. The Raccoons’ next day off was on Thursday next week, so we gave a day off to Lonzo right in the opener here. Jim White also got a day off to Jon Bean’s benefit.

Game 1
TIJ: RF Asencio – 2B Serrano – C Brann – 1B Metz – SS C. Ramsey – 3B Frasher – LF E. Maldonado – CF Cardwell – P Koga
POR: CF Morris – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – SS Fowler – 2B Bean – C Arellano – P Alba

The two backup infielders reached with a single and on an error, respectively, in the second inning, but were sranded when Arellano popped out. Alba, who allowed one hit the first time through the Condors’ order, then struck a double that bounced on the rightfield line throwing up chalk to start off the bottom 3rd. The 1-2 then made soggy outs before Joel Starr slapped a double over the head of Chad Cardwell to get Alba home with the game’s first run! Monck rushed an RBI single past a diving Franklin Serrano on the very next pitch, and another two pitches later Malik Crumble socked another homer to extend the lead to 4-0…! All of a sudden, Crumble appeared to be red hot!

Mike Brann drew a walk off Alba in the fourth inning, but was also picked off first base in the first such occurrence for a Critters hurler this year. That was the extent of the offense the Condors mustered in the middle innings. Brann would be their next batter to reach with a single in the seventh, but was then doubled up in a 4-6-3 inning-ender by Andy Metz as the Condors remained remarkably listless against Alba. In the sixth and seventh, Ricky Herrera was pitching for the Condors, allowed two hits, but no runs in his return to Raccoons Ballpark. Casey Ramsey hit a double off Alba in the eighth, but was left on base as the shutout remained intact. Not that the Coons lit the park on fire after that 4-run third; they didn’t score again, while Alba poked his head out of the dugout for the ninth inning to face the top of the order … at least until he walked Marco Asencio and allowed a single to Serrano. Carlisle got involved at that point, got a fielder’s choice grounder from Brann, rung up Metz, and then created utter chaos again. Ramsey singled home a run, and Eric Frasher loaded the bags with a walk. Elmer Maldonado strung a liner to right, driving in two runs with a single and reducing the Coons’ lead to a skinny run. Querubim Churricho, batting .422, appeared as pinch-hitter, hit a fly to left near the foul line, but Crumble hustled over and snatched it to end the bloody game. 4-3 Critters. Monck 2-4, RBI; Crumble 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Alba 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (2-1) and 2-2, 2B;

I don’t think we have exactly “solved” the bullpen…

Game 2
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Churricho – SS C. Ramsey – C Brann – 1B Metz – 3B Frasher – 2B Serrano – CF Cardwell – P E. Mauricio
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Campos – RF Corral – 2B White – C Arellano – P Castillo

The Condors left a pair on the corners against Freddy Castillo in his injury-aided season debut, and Lonzo reached on a Frasher error and stole a base, but was also stranded, to sum up a first inning of missed opportunities. The Condors didn’t miss in the second inning, with three hits and a walk, and two runs driven in by Chad Cardwell and Asencio against a visibly unarmed Castillo. Portland responded, though, and Arellano clubbed in the tying runs with a double to deep center in the bottom 2nd, plating Campos and Corral, who had reached against Edgar Mauricio to begin the inning. The Coons then took a 3-2 lead in the bottom 3rd with Rich Monck’s second Portland home run.

But Castillo continued to throw a lot of pitches and the Condors weren’t impressed. Some nice defensive plays held them short in the third and fourth innings, but the top 5th saw Asencio and Churricho reach base to begin proceedings and then Ramsey and Brann hit grounders to either middle infielder and neither time the Coons managed to turn two, allowing Asencio to come around and score the tying run. Metz popped out to Starr to end the inning, with 79 mostly awful pitches on Castillo at that point. The Coons came back quickly, though, and bashed leadoff doubles by Lonzo and Starr off Mauricio to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom 5th. Monck was walked intentionally, Campos popped out, and after Brann was charged with a passed ball, Corral got *another* intentional walk, filling the bases. Jim White was down to .180 after slumping for over a week, but made an honest effort to hit himself out of the hole with a howling fly to deep center. Cardwell didn’t get near it, and White emptied the bases with a triple…!! Mauricio was done for the day, but Matt Nelson stranded White with poor outs by the battery. Castillo then surprised with a 5-pitch sixth, only to issue a 4-pitch walk to PH Scott Moore to begin the seventh. Asencio hit into a fielder’s choice and Churricho popped out, but that was the last lefty hitter Castillo could expect here and he was taken out for a righty. We might as well have not bothered; Pohlmann was hit for a single by Ramsey, then gave up a 3-run homer to Brann.

The Coons held a 7-6 lead at the stretch, with rain starting to fall. The bottom 7th was uneventful, and Murdock allowed a single to Serrano and a walk to Jason Sturgeon in the eighth before McDaniel came on and struck out Asencio to escape the jam. The 1-run lead went to Carlisle in the ninth inning after a less than stellar outing the day before. Again, two outs were on the board fast, and then Brann singled. Metz sent a fly to deep left… but it came down in Campos’ glove on the warning track to end the game. 7-6 Critters. Starr 2-4, RBI; Corral 2-3, BB;

This was the first time all year that the Coons were over .500, and the only team not over .500 in the division were the … Crusaders?

Game 3
TIJ: RF Asencio – LF Churricho – SS C. Ramsey – C Brann – 1B Metz – 3B Frasher – 2B Serrano – CF Cardwell – P E. Mauricio
POR: CF Campos – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – RF Corral – 2B White – C Lawson – P Bollinger

The Coons had two hits in three innings, but didn’t get further than second base, while Bollinger tried his very best, allowed no hits and a leadoff walk to Brann in the second inning, but Metz found another double play and the much-beleaguered Bollinger managed to face the minimum the first time through. The Condors still drew blanks in the fourth, in which the Coons had Monck draw a 1-out walk and then dash to third base on a Crumble single, but then Corral spanked into a 4-6-3 double play to keep the scoreboard clean.

When the Condors finally found the H column, they slapped Bollinger for three singles by Metz, Serrano, and Cardwell, and a run, in the top 5th. Churricho reached base on an error by Bollinger in the sixth, but was stranded at third base. The starter continued into the seventh until Frasher and Serrano reached, and lefty Scott Moore pinch-hit for Cardwell. Matt Walters replaced Bollinger, got a pop from Moore, and then struck out Ellison to keep it a 1-0 game at the stretch. Corral reached for Portland to begin the bottom 7th, then, but was doubled up by Jim White…

Walters and Carrillo held the Condors to their 1-0 lead in the eighth before Morris batted for the latter and hit a leadoff single to right. Campos flew out, but Lonzo found another soft single, sending the tying run to second base. A double steal against the inattentive Ellison and Starr’s sac fly then tied up the game at one, but Monck grounded out to short and left the go-ahead run on third base. With Carlisle having had consecutive outings already, the Coons turned to Murdock for the top 9th in a 1-1 tie. Tijuana’s 5-6-7 went in 1-2-3 fashion on eight pitches, and then righty Jose Lugo got the ball for Tijuana, also facing the 5-6-7 batters, who went just as haplessly without reaching base.

Into extras, McDaniel came in with four lefty hitters lined up starting with the #8 spot, where PH Jason Sturgeon drew a walk. McDaniel struck out the next two, however, and Churricho made the third out to short with the go-ahead run never leaving first base. Portland got a walk from Kozak with two outs in the bottom 10th, batting for McDaniel in the #1 spot, but Lonzo flew out and the game continued. Here, the Coons arrived at Mike Dean, who allowed a leadoff single to Brann in the 11th, walked Metz, and when he came up on the pitcher Lugo with one out, allowed a 2-run single to center. Serrano also singled before Sturgeon and Ian Woodrome made meek outs, but the Condors were now up 3-1. Lefty David Concha got the ball for the Condors in the bottom of the inning, and the Coons carted up mostly lefty sticks and had little in terms of pinch-hitting options. They went down quickly. 3-1 Condors. Starr 2-4, RBI; Crumble 2-5, 2B; Lawson 2-4; Morris (PH) 1-2;

In other news

April 13 – DAL RF/LF Roberto Almanza (.340, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has put a 20-game hitting streak together with three singles in a 6-3 win over the Pacifics.
April 13 – As the Canadiens beat the Titans, 4-1, all the runs in the game score only in the 10th inning.
April 14 – The Thunder win a 2-1 game in walkoff fashion against the Bayhawks. All the runs in the game score in the 11th inning.
April 16 – NYC OF Alex Romero (.216, 1 HR, 7 RBI) will miss six weeks with a broken cheekbone after getting hit in the face with a fastball by IND SP/MR Antonio Pichardo (0-1, 6.35 ERA) on the previous Friday.
April 17 – The hitting streak of Dallas’ Roberto Almanza (.339, 0 HR, 7 RBI) ends at 21 games with a dry appearance in a 2-1 loss to the Wolves.
April 18 – The Warriors expect SP Ricardo Montoya (2-1, 1.71 ERA) to miss two months with a forearm strain.
April 19 – The Pacifics beat the Scorpions, 3-0, on a combined 1-hitter by LAP SP Joel Luera (2-2, 2.78 ERA) and CL Roberto Ramirez (0-0, 2.79 ERA, 6 SV). The only hit for Sacramento is a single by LF/CF J.P. Sheridan (.321, 4 HR, 8 RBI).
April 20 – The Blue Sox pick up INF/LF/RF Adam Peltier (.347, 2 HR, 10 RBI) from the Buffaloes, along with a prospect – #200 UT Humberto Blandon – for C Victor Reyna (.100, 0 HR, 3 RBI).
April 20 – Vegas sends outfielder Jake Evans (.382, 4 HR, 13 RBI) to the Knights for MR Curt Carter (0-2, 7.71 ERA) and a prospect.

FL Player of the Week (2): TOP INF Alex de los Santos (.327, 2 HR, 14 RBI), slapping .400 (12-30) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week (2): IND 1B Danny Starwalt (.279, 3 HR, 9 RBI), batting .423 (11-26) with 3 HR, 9 RBI

FL Player of the Week (3): TOP 1B Mario Delgadillo (.340, 8 HR, 17 RBI), ripping .421 (8-19) with 3 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week (3): VAN 1B Jose Campos (.240, 5 HR, 20 RBI), thrashing .391 (9-23) with 4 HR, 13 RBI

De los Santos also had a 5-yr, $41M extension announced the day after he was named Player of the Week, although we think that the Buffos were motivated by more than one .400 week to dole out that contract.

Complaints and stuff

Campos hit his four homers and drove in 10 of his 13 RBI against the Raccoons this week. **** that ******.

Barely scoring over three runs per game isn’t cutting it, especially with a bullpen in disarray and a rotation with the odd couple of holes in it (although a timely return for Chance Fox might cure some of that).

The thing with us scoring the fewest runs in the CL after three weeks is the more depressing given that we are sixth in batting average, still seventh in OBP, and then near the bottom in slugging. Oh if only we had imported a 37-homer puncher from the FL this winter…!

Oh wait, we did.

The Wolves returned Rule 5 pick 1B Alex Vargas to the Raccoons last weekend. Vargas was only used off the bench and batted .143 with one RBI in seven games. The Raccoons assigned him to St. Pete – a level up from where the Wolves had taken him in December.

We have the Aces at home starting on Monday, then a day off for travel. We’re then in New York and Boston after that, visiting L.A. on the way home ahead of a 13-game homestand in the middle of May.

Fun Fact: Juan Mercado went 10-7 with a 3.79 ERA in his rookie season with the Raccoons.

…after which he was traded – with Bubba Wolinsky and Willie Cruz – in one of the stupider transactions of the last 20 years for Juan del Toro, who didn’t last a season in Portland and was then exchanged for Trent Brassfield in his prospect form straight-up.

Okay, maybe *something* good came outta that transaction after all.

The 3.79 ERA was still the second-best for Mercado in a season in which he pitched triple-digit innings, behind a 3.06 ERA with a 6-14 record (!) with the Rebs in 2058. Overall he was 95-117 with a 4.31 ERA.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (9-9) vs. Aces (6-12) – April 23-25, 2063

When the Raccoons were scoring the fewest runs in the league, the Aces were conceding the most. Whatever the opposite of the unstoppable force meeting the unmovable object was, this was probably it. An endless tirade of “no, you go first”, maybe? The Aces were bottoms in the South, had a -24 run differential, and the Critters had won five of nine games against them last year.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (2-2, 2.30 ERA) vs. Dan Graham (1-3, 4.74 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (1-0, 3.24 ERA) vs. Jesus Aquino (0-2, 5.40 ERA)
Angel Alba (2-1, 1.26 ERA) vs. Steve Hunter (2-1, 4.33 ERA)

Graham and Hunter were southpaws, while Aquino was not. Hunter had the best ERA in that rotation…

Game 1
LVA: CF Lorenzo – 1B D. Williams – LF K. Hummel – 3B A. Alfaro – SS Veguilla – 2B Mi. Roberts – RF Schrock – C Burgio – P D. Graham
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 2B White – 3B Monck – CF Kozak – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Elling

Elling absolutely wasn’t up to his game in this Monday opener, but still managed to strike fear into the hearts of Aces batters, plonking three of them through five innings, or as many Aces got hit by a pitch as struck out against an oddly discombobulated Elling. They also got one run off him in the third inning with a double by Dustin Williams and Miguel Veguilla’s RBI single, but the Critters flipped that around an inning later, getting Lonzo and Starr on the corners before making two weak outs and then getting the runners across home plate after all on Jack Kozak’s 2-out, 2-run triple to deep center. Crumble struck out to forego an extra run in the inning, but the Coons got two again in the fifth inning when they again had runners (Arellano, Campos) on the corners and two outs. This time Joel Starr singled to left and Ken Hummel flung the ball behind himself when he tried to take it out of his glove and gain a play at third base. Instead, Campos gained easy access to home plate, and Starr advanced to second. Jim White hit a scratch single after that, but a Graham put the K in MoncK to get out of the inning.

Graham lasted until Arellano socked a 2-out homer off him in the bottom 6th, 5-1, while Elling completed seven. Jim Fusselman legged out a pinch-hit infield single in the seventh, then was caught stealing, and Vic Lorenzo singled up the middle after that, but Williams popped out to settle matters. The Raccoons scattered a few late singles without tacking on more runs, but scoreless relief by Carrillo and Dean made the game go over anyway. 5-1 Coons! Fowler (PH) 1-1; Starr 2-4, RBI; Kozak 2-4, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; Arellano 3-4, HR, RBI; Morris (PH) 1-1; Elling 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-2);

Game 2
LVA: CF Lorenzo – C Dickerson – LF K. Hummel – 1B D. Williams – 3B A. Alfaro – 2B Mi. Roberts – SS Karch – RF Schrock – P J. Aquino
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – LF Crumble – C Arellano – 2B Bean – P Riddle

Morris singled and stole second, then scored on a Monck single, while Corral also drove an RBI double to right with two outs, but Monck was thrown out at the plate by Max Schrock on that play and the inning ended. The Coons lineup was good for another three hits the first time through, all by the 7-8-9 batters with one gone in the bottom 2nd. Riddle drove in the game’s second run with guys on the corners, and Morris filled the bases with another single when the lineup flipped over. Lonzo’s grounder was intercepted by Sean Karch for a fielder’s choice at second base, but a run scored, just as another run scored on a Starr single, and then another one on a wild pitch by Aquino. Monck flew out, leaving the score at 5-0 through two.

The Raccoons’ assault stopped when Ubaldo Piteira replaced Aquino and pitched efficient long relief from the third inning onwards, while Riddle scattered just three singles through six innings before allowing a single to Hummel and a 2-run homer to Williams in the seventh to very suddenly get the Aces on the scoreboard, 5-2. He was gone after a walk to Alex Alfaro, whom Pohlmann picked off first base in cleaning up behind Riddle. Pohlmann would put up two innings on 23 pitches before handing the 5-2 lead to Carlisle in the ninth inning, and panic broke out on schedule. Hummel drew a 1-out walk, Williams flew out to deep right, and then an Alfaro single put Aces on the bases and the tying run in the box in the pinch-hitting Fusselman, but Morris got clamps on his drive to center to end the game. 5-2 Raccoons. Morris 2-4; Monck 2-4, RBI; Arellano 2-4, 2B; Riddle 6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-0) and 1-3, RBI; Pohlmann 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
LVA: CF Lorenzo – 1B D. Williams – LF K. Hummel – 3B A. Alfaro – SS Veguilla – 2B Mi. Roberts – RF O. Vega – C Burgio – P S. Hunter
POR: RF Campos – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 1B Kozak – CF Morris – 2B White – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Alba

The series finale again saw the Raccoons first. Hunter got Kozak on a grounder to begin the second inning, but then walked Ben Morris. Jim White strung a double up the rightfield line, and while Morris had to hold at third base, he then came home on Malik Crumble’s sac fly to right. Arellano got rung up to end the inning. White added a run with an RBI single his next time up, bringing home Kozak and his leadoff walk in the fourth inning for a 2-0 lead. On the hill, Alba generated tons of poor contact, and also struck out six Aces in as many innings. They scattered two singles and didn’t reach third base in those six innings. In turn, Kozak tacked on another run in the nearest odd inning, hitting a 2-out homer to left off Hunter in the bottom 6th. Morris then singled and stole second, but White’s fly to right was tracked down by Oscar Vega to leave him at second base.

Ken Hummel answered with a leadoff jack in the seventh, which came a bit out of the blue and narrowed the score to 3-1 again. Alfaro added a single right after that, but Alba got two more outs before coming up against left-handed batters at the bottom of the order in Vega and Burgio. My whiskers twitched, and we made a move here, even though Alba was only on 89 pitches. Matt Walters entered in a double switch that put Jon Bean at second base, then got an easy fly from Vega to center to end the inning and strand the runner, and then retired another three batters in order in the top of the eighth. In between the Coons put Bean and Campos on base with hits in the bottom 7th, but Lonzo flew out to strand them. Bottom 8th, Monck and Kozak hit singles and got on base right away against Hunter. Morris struck a double to center, driving in a run, but remained down after sliding into second base, holding his knee while sitting on his tush. Luis Silva hustled out, but Morris couldn’t put weight on the leg and had to be carted off the field. Fowler ran for him while Joel Starr batted for Walters, drawing a walk that finally ended Hunter’s stint in the game. Lefty David Figueroa came in with the bags packed and nobody out still. Malik Crumbled and popped out to Williams in fair ground, and Arellano popped out to Williams in foul terr- oops, no, he dropped it. Arellano got another chance, then hit a sac fly to Vega, 5-1. Bean flew out to Vic Lorenzo to end the inning. Murdock then mopped up and completed the sweep. 5-1 Critters. Kozak 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Morris 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; White 2-3, 2B, RBI; Alba 6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (3-1);

Sweep!

And then the bad news: Ben Morris was gonna miss at least a month with a strained posterior cruciate ligament. He had to go on the DL, and the Raccoons would have to rearrange the outfield a bit.

Thursday was off, and the Raccoons ended up plucking Tony Gonzalez from AAA, where he was hitting .291 with two homers. Todd Oley was batting .390, but Todd Oley had been a running joke for almost a decade by now and why bother…

Raccoons (12-9) @ Crusaders (9-12) – April 27-29, 2063

While five times in the division entered Friday under a blanket just one game apart, the Crusaders were three games behind everybody else and treading water early on. They were third in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed, though, with a +17 run differential, which gave everybody notice that this was not actual inability, but the dice having a really good chuckle with them. They had won two of three games from the Raccoons to start the year.

Projected matchups:
Freddy Castillo (1-0, 5.40 ERA) vs. Josh Barcellona (1-2, 4.58 ERA)
John Bollinger (0-2, 7.41 ERA) vs. Nate Mickler (0-0)
Josh Elling (3-2, 2.10 ERA) vs. Ryan Musgrave (3-1, 2.96 ERA)

These were all right-handers. Mickler was a replacement for Jeff Kozloski, who was off to the DL, as were Alex Romero and Matt McLaren.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – LF Campos – CF T. Gonzalez – C Arellano – P Castillo
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – 3B V. Velez – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – LF Cline – 2B Onelas – C P. Gonzales – CF J. Alvarez – P Barcellona

Surprise leadoff man Jose Corral drew a walk, then was forced out by Lonzo, who however stole second base and eventually scored after a Starr grounder and a Monck single to left-center. Victor Velez would take Castillo deep two batters into the bottom 1st to get the teams equal again… Long counts and fly balls remained part of Castillo’s appearance in this series opener, but the game remained tied into the fifth inning when the Crusaders got a 1-out double from their pitcher, which was always such a great thing to witness… Omar Sanchez walked and Velez singled to load them up for the really big guns. Aubrey Austin slapped in two runs with a single, and a walk to Sean Zeiher ended Castillo’s outing. Juan Carrillo appeared, but allowed more runs on soft RBI singles by Jake Cline and Marcos Onelas before Pedro Gonzales found his way into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play, now with New York up by four.

The Critters pen held up with McDaniel and Dean following, but Barcellona would not allow another run to the Raccoons, who reached the ninth inning trailing by a slam and with just four hits on the board. Rich Monck opened with a single against long-ago Coon Kevin Hitchcock, who then plunked Jim White before being removed by his own management. The ball went to Jason Rhodes, who allowed one run on Campos’ groundout and a Gonzalez sac fly, but then retired Nick Fowler to end the game. 5-2 Crusaders. Monck 2-4, RBI; Gonzalez 2-3, RBI; Dean 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

With Chance Fox on the horizon and multiple potential openings for him in the rotation, John Bollinger’s task now to pitch less awfully than Castillo (4.1 IP, 5 ER) on Saturday.

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Kozak – 2B White – CF T. Gonzalez – C Lawson – P Bollinger
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – LF Cline – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – C Waker – 2B Onelas – 3B V. Velez – CF J. Alvarez – P Mickler

Mickler’s season debut saw him face K-orral, then plunk Lonzo and walk Starr. Monck bashed an RBI double to left-center to put Portland up 1-0 again. The inning escalated quickly; Kozak plated Starr with a single past Onelas, and Jim White brawled a 3-run homer outta the park for a near-instant 5-0 lead. Lawson hit another single before the inning ended, with the bottom 1st beginning with a Bollinger walk to Omar Sanchez, who stole his way to third base and then scored on Aubrey Austin’s groundout. The Crusaders would not get an actual hit off Bollinger until Jake Cline led off the fourth with a loud double struck to left, but Austin grounded out, Zeiher crucially struck out, and Tristan Waker grounded out to White to keep him stranded at third base.

But Bollinger didn’t get through five innings, either. After Onelas flew out on the first pitch in the fifth inning, Velez singled, Jesus Alvarez doubled, and Gaudencio Callaia singled home two from the #9 spot. A 2-out walk to Cline ended Bollinger’s spell on the hill, Pohlmann and Crumble entered in a double switch at Kozak’s expense, and Austin drew a walk that filled the bags before Zeiher bounced out to White on the very next pitch to strand the bags full in a 5-3 game. The sixth, with Pohlmann still going for Portland, was uneventful, but in the seventh inning Eric Matthews retired two batters for New York before getting burned by a Starr double and Rich Monck’s third Raccoons homer to extend the lead to 7-3 again.

We then hoped for two innings from James Murdock, but he got bogged down in the bottom 7th with five long counts and a pair of 2-out walks to Sanchez and Cline before getting Austin to pop out and end the inning, then was no good for continuing much further. McDaniel was brought in for the eighth but immediately put Zeiher and Velez on base, then was lifted for Carlisle with runners on the corners and two outs. A strikeout to Alvarez ended the inning without the Crusaders scoring a run. When the ninth inning began, Lonzo was conspicuously absent from the 1-2-3 batters coming to the plate, with Fowler already in his spot – a common late-inning phenomenon this year. Right-hander Cory Leonard was torn to pieces in the inning, allowing Corral and Starr on base before straight 2-out hits by Jon Bean, who plated a pair, and Carlisle, who hit an RBI single, then proceeded to close out the game. 10-3 Critters. Corral 2-5; Monck 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Bean (PH) 2-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 2-5; Carlisle 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, SV (8) and 1-1, RBI;

Carlisle had his third career hit and second career RBI in this game.

Unfortunately, Lonzo would also not bat on Sunday. The 35-year-old man had a creaky shoulder and had to go to the disabled list, from which he would re-emerge in about a month as a 36-year-old man.

Down in St. Pete, Victor Morales – still 21 years old – was hitting .303 with a homer in 17 games.

(decrees with a grand paw movement) Bring on the Youth of America!!

Or in this case, Americas. Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico, to be precise.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – CF T. Gonzalez – 3B Morales – 2B White – C Arellano – P Elling
NYC: SS O. Sanchez – LF Cline – 1B Austin – RF Zeiher – C Waker – 2B Onelas – 3B V. Velez – CF J. Alvarez – P Musgrave

Morales drew a walk his first time in the big league box, but was left stranded, and the Raccoons did precious little even before Elling followed up three hits with five strikeouts the first time through the Crusaders order with a 5-run rectal exam in the bottom 3rd. It went wrong right off the bat, and fast: singles for Sanchez and Cline, an RBI double for Austin, then a 3-run homer by the resurrected Zeiher. Onelas doubled with one out and scored on Alvarez’ 2-out single to put the cherry on top.

The Coons answered by putting Starr and Monck on the corners with one out in the fourth. Gonzalez’ grounder got the team on the board, allowing Starr to score from third base. Musgrave drilled Morales, then threw a wild pitch to put a pair in scoring position for Jim White, who cashed the runners with a 2-run single, 5-3, before Arellano grounded out to short. But Elling’s return in the bottom 4th only made it worse. Sanchez singled again, and this time Cline walked. While Austin popped out, the runners advanced on a passed ball, and then Zeiher smashed another 3-run homer anyway. That was the end of Elling (3.1 IP, 11 H, 8 ER), the third short outing by a starter in the series – the worst actually – and with the sure collapse of the bullpen coming next. We hoped for something, anything from Mike Dean, but he walked three amidst errors by Starr and Morales to concede two unearned runs on 36 pitches in the fifth inning.

Carrillo was wrung out for two innings before the Raccoons loaded the bases with two outs and the debutant Morales batting in the eighth inning, but Hitchcock got a harmless bouncer to Velez from him for the third out. It was so bad with the pen now that Jon Bean pitched in the bottom 8th, issuing a walk and a single, but not allowing a run. (glares at all the other bums torn to shreds by the Crusaders in this series) Hitchcock was still pitching in a 10-3 game in the ninth inning, but allowed a pinch-hit single to Fowler and another one to Arellano before Bean reached on an error by Velez to make it three on, nobody out. Corral unhelpfully flew out to Zeiher in shallow right, for no gains on the bases, but Kozak struck a bases-clearing, Hitchcock-chasing double to make up for it. Lefty Alex Flores allowed a 2-out run on Monck’s single, prompting a late appearance by Jason Rhodes to close out the game. Tony Gonzalez flew out to Cline to get that done. 10-7 Crusaders. Starr 2-5, 2B; Monck 4-5, RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1; Carrillo 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Golden boy went 0-for-2 with a walk, a welt, and a costly error in the field. Seen better debuts.

In other news

April 25 – VAN INF Alex Corpus (.301, 1 HR, 9 RBI) hits a home run for the only base hit in the Canadiens’ 4-1 loss to the Condors.
April 29 – Buffos LF/CF Jose Ambriz (.244, 0 HR, 9 RBI) could be out four months with a shattered ankle.
April 29 – SAC LF/RF Josh Bursley (.270, 3 HR, 9 RBI) goes deep in the third inning for the only run in a 1-0 win against the Wolves.

FL Player of the Week: RIC LF/RF Nick Vaughn (.304, 6 HR, 20 RBI), mashing .440 (11-25) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS LF/CF Eddie Marcotte (.284, 4 HR, 18 RBI), slapping .407 (11-27) with 1 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Bringing up Morales was the best move I had in my repertoire while crying my eyes out over Lonzo’s demise onto the DL. We’ll let the kid play for a week now and then we’ll see where we’re at. With Morris also down, the top of the order has been entirely declawed now, and Jose Corral – a sturdy 0-for-5 on Sunday – will not be the solution. Not sure what *can* be the solution.

Is there *a* solution?

The pitching staff had a really bleak weekend. Safe to say that Chance Fox rejoins the rotation next week and than one of the two tumbleweeds at the backend has to go, and the bullpen is also an atrocity to watch.

Rough times. At least we got Sean Zeiher’s career righted…?

Six more road games in Boston and L.A. next week, at least with a day off in between.

Fun Fact: Angel Alba’s very controlled W on Wednesday was the 7,300th regular season W in franchise history.

He is not alphabetically the first pitcher (by surname) to throw a 100th win in team history. That honor will probably rest with Jerry Ackerman for a while longer.

Which is fair, since Ackerman never merited any other distinctions in his miserable career, which he ended 33-37 with a 4.38 ERA and two saves.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (13-11) @ Titans (16-8) – April 30-May 2, 2063

The Titans had grabbed the lead in the division on the weekend and were trying to get away with the most runs scored in the CL, although their pitching was only average so far. They led the league in OBP and home runs, but creaky defense kept the games entertaining. Closer Jason Posey was also on the DL until June.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (2-0, 3.19 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (1-0, 3.56 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-1, 1.27 ERA) vs. Jayden Craddock (2-1, 3.63 ERA)
Chance Fox (1-1, 3.97 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (2-1, 4.88 ERA)

Only right-handers lined up in that Boston rotation. No “Triple Crown” Brenize (4-0, 1.56 ERA), who had pitched on Sunday.

Chance Fox came off the DL and replaced Freddy Castillo (1-1, 7.36 ERA) on the roster.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – CF Gonzalez – 1B Starr – 2B White – SS Monck – 3B Morales – LF Campos – C Arellano – P Riddle
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 3B B. Anderson – 1B M. Rubin – 2B D. Mendoza – RF Lloyd – CF A. Lee – C S. Moreno – SS Abecassis – P M. Bell

The Coons left pairs on in the first and second innings, although Jose Corral at least drove in a pair after the 6-7-8 batters had loaded the sacks against Bell to begin the top 2nd. A leadoff double by Diego Mendoza and a Monck error put Titans on the corners to begin the bottom 2nd, though, and a sac fly by Andy Lee scored a run before Sandy Moreno hit into a double play, 4-6-3. Jim White started that double play, then also started the third with a single, but was stranded on base despite a leadoff single. The Raccoons would scatter seven hits in four innings for only the two runs driven in by Corral, while the Titans’ second hit was a Manny Rubin homer that tied the game in the bottom 4th… White hit another single the next time up, a leadoff hit in the fifth that also led absolutely nowhere, and then hit another single in the at-bat after *that*, and that finally had an effect, plating Joel Starr from second base after Starr had just doubled home Corral to break the 2-2 tie. White reached second base on Andy Lee’s throw to the plate, which was late, then scored once Rich Monck turned an 0-2 pitch by Tony Castellanos into a single to right-center, 5-2.

The problem with Riddle in the meantime was no grasp of the strike zone and long fourth and fifth innings even when the Titans didn’t amount to an actual on-base threat after the Rubin home run. Riddle then made a mess with walks to Rubin and Ted Lloyd in the bottom 6th, then ran a full count to Lee before giving up a double to center. Rubin scored, but Tony Gonzalez fired in a rocket that saw Lloyd struck down at the plate. Riddle was yoinked after 93 mostly messy pitches and replaced with Carrillo, who got a grounder from Moreno on the only pitch he threw, ending the inning. Lloyd got his revenge his next time up, though, facing James Murdock with Rubin on the bases in the bottom 8th and socking a game-tying homer to left, levelling the score at five.

The Coons stranded a pair in the ninth, after which Matt Walters pitched in the bottom 9th for a familiar sight, even though it was only to keep the game tied and send it to extras, which he did without allowing a runner. The first two innings of overtime were largely uneventful with Nick Leigh doing a second inning of work in the tenth, followed by Luis Lerma for Boston, while Pohlmann pitched the 10th and 11th for Portland, then bunted after Arellano dropped a leadoff single into left against Lerma in the 12th, which moved the go-ahead run to second base. However, Corral grounded out and Gonzalez popped out, and the runner was stranded at third base… Pohlmann retired the 2-3-4 in the Titans’ lineup in order in the bottom 12th, but he wouldn’t have much more. Lerma was also sent out for a third inning of work, walking Starr to begin the 13th inning. Starr was in motion with White batting and shoving another single into leftfield, reaching third base with nobody out and Monck batting. Monck ran a 3-1 count, poked, I squealed, but Monck’s ball hobbled through between Alex Abecassis and Bobby Anderson into left for an RBI single. Morales flew out to right, while Jon Bean batted for Campos, lobbing a ball over a reaching Diego Mendoza and in front of a rushing Ted Lloyd for a single; Lloyd overran the ball for an error, and that allowed White to score, with the other runners getting into scoring position. Arellano’s RBI single to right on the next pitch evicted Lerma from the game for former Raccoons pain-to-watch Ryan Harmer. He gave up a sac fly to Malik Crumble batting for Pohlmann, a Corral single, but then got out of the inning against Gonzalez. Carlisle got the ball against his old team despite the 4-spot, since the only other option left in the pen was Mike Dean. He faced three batters to end the game. 9-5 Raccoons. Corral 4-8, 2B, 2 RBI; White 5-7, RBI; Morales 3-7; Bean (PH) 1-1, RBI; Arellano 4-7, RBI; Pohlmann 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (3-1);

We out-hit the Titans, 21-7…! Should it REALLY have taken this long??

Victor Morales had his first career hit. And his second. And his third.

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – CF Gonzalez – 1B Starr – 2B White – SS Monck – 3B Morales – LF Campos – C Lawson – P Alba
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 3B B. Anderson – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B M. Rubin – RF A. Lee – 2B D. Mendoza – SS Lloyd – P Craddock

Straight singles by the 2-3-4 batters gave the Titans an early run in the Tuesday game, while the Raccoons, when putting together three singles with Alba, Corral, and Starr in the third inning saw the bases left full by Jim White grounding out, White having used up his weekly allotment of hits on Monday. Rich Monck pumped a leadoff jack to right to tie the game in the fourth, though, and the Coons took a lead when Marco Campos got on, stole second, and then was driven in with another 2-out single by Angel Alba himself, who was not batting .538 on the season. The lead, however, was short-lived, as Manny Rubin raked another homer to tie the score in the same inning.

Gonzalez and White went to the corners with one out in the fifth inning, bringing back Monck, who hit another long fly, but this one wasn’t long enough and caught by Eddie Marcotte – still good for a go-ahead sac fly, though. Jim White was caught stealing to end the inning. Meanwhile, the Titans made every hit matter again. They had nothing in the fifth against Alba, then put Bobby Anderson on with a leadoff single in the sixth before Arviso showed Alba around the concourse with a 430-footer. Six hits, four runs, and a new lead for Boston. Alba soldiered on, getting knocked out with a 2-out, 2-run triple by Marcotte in the seventh. Mike Dean was the only rested reliever, walked Arviso, gave up another run when Rubin singled, and then had to thank Corral for tracking down a Lee drive to finally end the ******* inning. The Coons just wanted the game to be over with and left Dean in for the eighth inning. The Titans broke out for a 5-spot, four earned with a Morales error. 12-3 Titans. Monck 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Campos 2-4;

Mike “Fly By Night” Dean (0-1, 6.28 ERA) was fired before he could undress in the clubhouse. So that’s why the Cyclones were so eager to get him included in the Monck deal… Formally he ended up on waivers, but with the understanding that we would not even try to assign him to AAA. John Nesbitt was brought back from AAA.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – CF Gonzalez – 1B Starr – 2B White – SS Monck – 3B Morales – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Fox
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 3B B. Anderson – 1B M. Rubin – C Arviso – 2B D. Mendoza – RF Lloyd – CF A. Lee – SS Abecassis – P Glaude

Jose Corral showed off a new trick, lashing a home run to lead off the rubber game, and after Gonzalez got on, Jim White socked another one off Glaude for a brisk 3-0 Raccoons lead on Wednesday. That was it for the Coons offense, which left the bases loaded in the third inning, and otherwise didn’t do a lot for the remainder of Glaude’s tenure on the hill, while Chance Fox came back straight off the DL with no rehab assignment, and it showed. He issued a walk in each of the first four innings in this game, and the Titans had a hit in the third and fourth inning to go along with it, but somehow didn’t get a run across despite Fox’ lack of stuff with only one strikeout through five innings for the southpaw, who spent 68 pitches on five innings and with preparations underway during the top 6th to have him removed quickly in the bottom 6th if trouble should arise. So of course the Titans cranked up the pain as high as they could without scoring, getting two scratch and bloop hits off Fox in the bottom 6th before bringing the left-handed Lee and Abecassis to the plate with one out. Fox got Lee on a pop, then struck out Abecassis, because going lefty-for-lefty was not the Raccoons way of playing baseball, for better or worse!!

That was all for Fox, and with the pen it got first better, then worse. Murdock and McDaniel put two more scoreless innings together before the ball went to Carlisle in the bottom 9th with the score still at 3-0, all the way since the first inning. Carlisle walked the first man, Alex Abecassis, then also the second guy, Craig Sayre. Humphries bashed an RBI double, and with nobody out the tying runs were in scoring position. Bobby Anderson drew another walk, filling them up for Homer Rubin (.267, 6 HR, 18 RBI). The Coons yanked Carlisle, then brought Juan Carrillo, who got a pop to shallow center for no advance from Rubin, then a pop to Monck from Arviso. Diego Mendoza was up with two outs, fell to 1-2, and then was *drilled* by Carrillo, forcing in Sayre and moving the tying run to third base. Yoslan Valdez batted for the pitcher in the #6 spot, and the Raccoons’ bullpen door flung open once more, and there was Matt Walters to face the left-handed batter. He fell to 3-1, I howled, and then Valdez poked and grounded out to White. 3-2 Blighters. Kozak (PH) 1-1; White 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Morales 2-4;

Raccoons (15-12) @ Pacifics (14-13) – May 4-6, 2063

This was another series with off days on either side and the Raccoons would use any excuse to skip Bollinger again and send the ball right back to Josh Elling in the Friday opener. The Raccoons had taken two of three from the Pacifics in a meeting last year, with the Pacifics currently even on runs and sixth in both runs scored and runs allowed, and three games behind in the FL West.

Projected matchups:
Josh Elling (3-3, 3.82 ERA) vs. Alfonso Calderon (1-0, 3.13 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (2-0, 3.19 ERA) vs. Joel Luera (3-2, 2.02 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-2, 2.57 ERA) vs. Milt Cantrell (1-2, 6.52 ERA)

Another set of right-handers awaiting the poking Critters.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Elling
LAP: 2B R. Cabrera – C Kelbaugh – 1B A. Olivares – 3B Dilly – LF McInnis – RF J. Martinez – CF J. Espinoza – SS Heiden – P A. Calderon

Two walks to Kozak and Starr and a soft Monck single loaded the bases in the first inning for Morales, who had yet to find a big league RBI, and didn’t get one here either by striking out. Nick Fowler, giving Jim White an extra day of rest, came through, however, and singled in two with a ball into center before Crumble continued to fester on the roster with another groundout.

Soon enough the score was upended by the Pacifics, who got a single from their pitcher before Elling walked Rich Cabrera on four pitches, then was taken well deep to right by Pete Kelbaugh to flip the score in the bottom 3rd, 3-2 L.A…. Hits by Jesus Martinez and Steven Heiden would tack on a run the inning after as Elling was very hittable for a $35M toy.

Joel Starr went yard for the first time in May and all year to shorten the score to 4-3 in the sixth before Monck hit another one to tie the score and knock out Calderon in the same go, and almost in the same spot, just two rows deeper than Starr…! Elling dragged his very hittable tush through six innings for a no-decision once Corral hit into a double play to erase Arellano’s leadoff single in the seventh inning. By contrast, the Coons’ pen exploded in the bottom 7th. After Murdock and Walters loaded the bases, Pohlmann came in with two outs, allowed three straight singles to Jesuses Martinez and Espinoza and to Heiden, and the Pacifics plated four runs for it before Jesse Sweeney struck out. 8-4 Pacifics. Starr 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, RBI; Campos (PH) 1-1; Gonzalez (PH) 1-1;

Not sure that entire pen is gonna arrive back in Portland without one or two getting strangled under the Hollywood sign…

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 2B White – LF Kozak – CF Gonzalez – C Arellano – P Riddle
LAP: CF T. Garcia – LF J. Espinoza – 1B A. Olivares – RF J. Martinez – 3B Dilly – 2B R. Cabrera – SS Sweeney – C Kelbaugh – P Luera

Riddle didn’t face a left-handed batter for the entirety of the Saturday game, relying on soft contact rather than strikeouts to get anywhere. The Pacifics took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on a 1-out double by Kelbaugh and Tony Garcia’s 2-out RBI singles, although the Raccoons used their first two base hits against Luera to flip the score around as Monck singled and Jack Kozak clonked a homer to right-center. They had only one more hit ahead of the stretch, a Kozak single his next time up, while Riddle squeaked through seven innings on 95 pitches. Corral singled off Roberto Ramirez in the eighth inning, but was doubled up as Morales ended the inning with a 6-4-3 grounder. Murdock saw off the 1-2-3 batters for no gains by L.A. in the eighth inning before the Raccoons, reluctant to waste any hits in their bats with another game to play on the road trip when they already had the lead, handed a skinny 2-1 lead to Carlisle, who had tried his very best to blow the finale in Boston three days earlier. Jesus Martinez led off with a single against him, but then was doubled up on Steve Dilly’s bouncer to Monck. Cabrera popped out to Tony Gonzalez to end the game. 2-1 Blighters. Kozak 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (3-0);

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Monck – LF Kozak – CF Campos – C Arellano – 2B Bean – P Alba
LAP: CF T. Garcia – C Kelbaugh – 1B A. Olivares – 3B S. Dilly – LF McInnis – RF J. Martinez – 2B R. Cabrera – SS Sweeney – P Cantrell

The Coons took a 1-0 lead in the first with a Morales double and Monck’s 2-out RBI single. Kozak also reached base, but Campos whiffed to end the inning. L.A. also got hits from their #2 and #4 hitters in the first, but Kelbaugh and Dilly settled for a pair of singles and getting stranded by Matt McInnis’ grounder to Starr. The Coons tacked on a run in the second with an infield single by Jon Bean, who was bunted to second by Alba, and Corral’s RBI single. Morales hit another single before Starr had another 2-LOB strikeout.

After a few calm innings, with only McInnis reaching with a fourth-inning single, the Pacifics had a scoring opportunity in the fifth once Alba issued a 1-out walk to Sweeney. Cantrell bunted the runner to second with as many outs, and Tony Garcia ticked a 3-1 pitch to center for a single. Sweeney was sent, but thrown out at the plate by Campos to end the fifth inning right then and there. The Coons then had the bases loaded in the sixth on mostly Campos’ 1-out single and stolen base. Arellano was walked with intent for some reason, and when Cantrell threw a wild pitch Jon Bean was intentionally walked as well, bringing up the .467 menace Alba with three on and one out. He rumbled into a double play and nobody scored…

Instead, Alba brittled again with two outs in the bottom 6th, allowing a Dilly single, a walk to McInnis, and then gave up a run on Martinez’ double. Rich Cabrera ran a full count before shooting a bouncer at Monck, who managed to spear the missile and get the third out with it, now in a 2-1 game. Alba ventured on into the eighth before getting irretrievably stuck after a Kelbaugh double and a 1-out walk to Dilly. McDaniel came on to face McInnis, but the Pacifics pinch-hit with the right-handed Espinoza, who hit a soft single to load the bases. Pohlmann replaced him, saw the game tied on Martinez’ sac fly, walked Cabrera to refill the bases, and then got PH Tyler Watson to ground out to Bean to leave the bases teeming with Pacifics…

After an abortive top 9th, John Nesbitt walked leadoff man Steven Heiden on four pitches in the bottom 9th. Garcia’s grounder moved the winning run to second base before Nesbitt also walked Kelbaugh on four pitches, then fell 2-0 behind Alejandro Olivares. The first baseman shoved a double play grounder to Monck, though, and the game went to extra innings. When Jack Kozak raked a homer to right off Roberto Ramirez in the tenth, the ball went back to Carlisle against the 4-5-P batters. Dilly slapped a single on the first pitch, advanced on a grounder by Espinoza, but had to hold at second on a first-pitch pop from PH Jay Evans to Bean. Rich Cabrera’s grounder to Monck ended the game. 3-2 Critters. Morales 2-5, 2B; Kozak 2-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Alba 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K;

In other news

April 30 – SFB OF/1B Jonathan Echols (.256, 2 HR, 5 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 16-13 free-for-all the Bayhawks drop to the Knights. Echols drives in two runs, getting one hit of every sort, while teammate 2B/LF Armando Montoya (.281, 6 HR, 27 RBI) goes 4-for-6 with a homer, a double and five RBI.
May 2 – SFB SP Mike Chartrand (3-3, 2.72 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout for a 4-0 win against Atlanta, striking out eight Knights.
May 3 – DAL SP Ray Walker (4-2, 2.58 ERA) puts up a 2-hit shutout to beat the Warriors, 4-0.
May 3 – Rebels LF/RF Nick Vaughn (.327, 7 HR, 24 RBI) would miss a month with an oblique strain.
May 3 – Hit in the knee with a pitch, NAS OF/1B Tony Roman (.240, 2 HR, 6 RBI) would be out for two weeks with a nasty contusion.
May 4 – The Bayhawks score ten runs in the fifth inning in the middle of a 19-5 smackdown of the Warriors. SFB 2B/LF Armando Montoya (.292, 6 HR, 31 RBI) goes out for five singles and three RBI in the game.
May 6 – Cyclones INF Jorge Munoz (.150, 0 HR, 8 RBI) would have to sit out the rest of the month with a case of shoulder inflammation.

FL Player of the Week: NAS RF Austin Gordon (.365, 5 HR, 20 RBI), hitting .458 (11-24) with 2 HR, 8 RBI
CL Player of the Week: SFB LF Grant Anker (.303, 5 HR, 19 RBI), whacking .522 (12-23) with 3 HR, 8 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: TOP 1B Mario Delgadillo (.347, 11 HR, 23 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: NYC RF/LF Sean Zeiher (.293, 5 HR, 27 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: SAC SP Danny Ortiz (4-2, 1.79 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Jason Brenize (4-0, 1.56 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: SAL LF/CF Paul Adams (.244, 2 HR, 3 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: ATL UT Carlos Fumero (.367, 0 HR, 7 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons are four games over .500 and ten runs *under* .500, sitting fourth in runs allowed, but tenth in runs scored. This is despite a good batting average, and at least average rankings in power and speed. The pitching is annoying as heck, and I don’t know how, but somehow the DEFENSE seems to hold the team together.

None of this makes any sense, but we’re all along for the ride, I guess.

Monday will be off, and then there’s a 2-week homestand coming up against the Caps, damn Elks, Indians, and Thunder, with 13 games total.

Fun Fact: The Crusaders bring up the red lantern in the North with a +24 run differential.

Is this still real life or did somebody tinker with the dice?

[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-13) vs. Capitals (18-12) – May 8-10, 2063

The Caps came into the Tuesday opener with a 3-game winning streak and the #5 offense and #9 pitching in the Federal League. Their main problems were the bullpen and defense, both in the bottom three in the FL. These teams had played a three-game set last season as well, which the Raccoons had swept from Washington.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (2-1, 2.60 ERA) vs. Bobby MacDonald (1-1, 6.48 ERA)
John Bollinger (0-2, 7.06 ERA) vs. Adam Lunn (1-3, 4.26 ERA)
Josh Elling (3-3, 4.12 ERA) vs. Trevor Justesen (2-3, 4.30 ERA)

There was another team with an all-right-handed rotation. It didn’t look like we’d get to face Tipsy Bobby (5-1, 3.73 ERA), who had the best numbers on their staff, unless they’d skip him into the series utilizing the common off day on Monday.

Game 1
WAS: CF Birth – 3B A. Flores – 1B F. Martinez – RF O. Rivera – C Burkart – 2B J.-C. Lee – LF Weir – SS Sherrick – P MacDonald
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – C Arellano – LF Campos – P Fox

Fox continued to be plagued with ill control. Isaiah Birth, former Coons prospect turned into Nick Nye some years back, flew out on a 3-1 pitch to begin the game, and in the second inning he put Oscar Rivera, Bruce Burkart, and Joo-Chan Lee on base, all from behind in the count, for a three on, nobody out situation. Hector Weir’s sac fly opened the scoring, but Jamie Sherrick grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Birth went on to rob Marco Campos in the left-center gap to end the bottom 2nd when Campos looked like he had double bases and flipped the score with Gonzalez and Arellano on base.

There was another stack of Caps on base for Weir, then with one out, in the fourth inning. Weir hit another sac fly, having two of them in a 2-0 game, but with two outs Sherrick added an RBI single. The depressing thing was that those two were the only lefty batters in the Caps lineup. Fox then got a groundout from MacDonald, who conceded a run in return on an Arellano sac fly after Monck and White went to the corners with singles to lead off the bottom 4th. Campos also found a hit, but Fox grounded out to Lee to keep the tying runs on base. The Coons continued to waste hits, with Starr and Monck putting up 2-out singles before getting stranded by White in the fifth, which made it an 8-3 advantage in base hits for the Raccoons in a game they were trailing 3-1 in.

Fox did not return after the sixth, still down 3-1. Tony Gonzalez opened the inning with a homer off right-hander Adam Freedman, who replaced MacDonald, 3-2. Arellano and Campos then got on base, but Bean and Corral made outs before Victor Morales dropped an RBI single with two outs that tied the game and gave him his first career RBI in 34 at-bats. Joe Hoke replaced Freedman, but Joel Starr made him the butt of the Joke with a 2-out screamer to left that fell for two runs and a 5-3 lead. Monck popped out foul, while McDaniel got bopped for three hits and a run in the seventh inning before Murdock had to dig him out. Carrillo got the eighth, at least until Burkart and David Flores appeared on the corners with a pair of singles and Walters was brought in against Sherrick with two outs, getting a grounder to Bean to end the inning. Carlisle, the useless plotter, then blew the rest of the lead in the ninth – finally! – with a leadoff walk to Willie Acosta, who was bunted to second by Birth, and scored on an Angelo Flores single to center. Caps reliever Vince Vandiver was in his second inning in the bottom 9th, retired Starr and Monck, then gave up a 2-out triple to Kozak in the #5 hole. That was the winning run now, and the Caps bypassed Tony Gonzalez with four wide ones to get to Arellano. The remaining bench options were Lawson and the foundering Crumble, so the Coons stuck to Arellano, who ended the game with a single up the middle. 6-5 Critters. Starr 2-5, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5; Kozak (PH) 1-1, BB, 3B; Gonzalez 3-4, BB, HR, RBI; Arellano 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Campos 2-4;

It was only revealed after the game that Chance Fox had left the game with back soreness. He was questionable for his next scheduled start on Sunday.

Game 2
WAS: CF Birth – 2B W. Acosta – 3B A. Flores – C J. Gutierrez – 1B P. Parada – RF Rodriquez – LF D. Flores – SS Sherrick – P Lunn
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – CF Kozak – SS Monck – 2B White – C Arellano – LF Crumble – P Bollinger

Bollinger hadn’t pitched in 11 days, which wasn’t long enough for me to have forgotten how miserable he had been in his five outings so far this year. The ERA was a hint. He walked Acosta, who was doubled up by Angelo Flores, in the first, issued another walk in the second, overall threw an inordinate amount of pitches in every inning, and in the fourth ended up with the bases loaded on Acosta and Jonathan Gutierrez singles and a Morales error that put Pedro Parada on base with one out. That was Morales’ fourth error in nine games in the majors, which wasn’t up to the scouting report at all, but right now I was more concerned about the disorder on the base paths and were to find non-sucky pitching. In the event, the situation dissolved rather conveniently when Tony Rodriquez brashed the first pitch he got from Bollinger at Jim White for a 4-6-3 double play to keep the game scoreless.

Bollinger wobbled through five on over 80 pitches, then was hit for with Campos in the bottom 5th and ended up with a no-decision. The Coons’ offense remained absent, and John Nesbitt pitched two scoreless innings before putting a pair in scoring position with a Lee single, a walk to Sherrick, and a bunt by Adam Lunn to begin the top 8th. Pohlmann appeared, but surrendered one run on Birth’s groundout, while the other run scored on a passed ball charged to Arellano. (facepaws noisily)

Astonishingly, that seemed to wake up the team. Crumble and Fowler went to the corners with leadoff hits in the bottom 8th before Corral socked an RBI double to right-center, which put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out. Victor Morales didn’t wait around – he struck out a double into the leftfield corner and flipped the score. Vandiver replaced Lunn, while Joel Starr walked, then was forced out on Gonzalez’ pinch-hit grounder to short. Rich Monck was up next and CRUSHED a hanging whoopsie-daisy for 420-some feet and a 3-run homer!! (tosses Honeypaws in the air and squeals!) With the score now out of save range, we could not hand another lead to Carlisle to get blown, and instead McDaniel retired the Caps in short order in the ninth inning. 6-2 Raccoons. Morales 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1;

All runs in the game scored in the eighth inning…!

Game 3
WAS: CF Birth – 2B W. Acosta – 3B A. Flores – C J. Gutierrez – 1B P. Parada – RF Rodriquez – LF D. Flores – SS Sherrick – P Justesen
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – SS Monck – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – C Lawson – P Elling

Offense was hard to come by again on Thursday. The Caps had one hit through three innings, while the Coons had two, but neither team had reached third base before it started to rain. Just into the fourth inning, the game headed for a rain delay with both starters on 37 pitches exactly, and remained there for an hour. Elling went back out afterwards and got through the fourth inning – the last thing the Raccoons needed was another short outing by a starter… Elling then offered a leadoff walk to David Flores in the fifth. The 8-9 batters made outs, but Birth hit an RBI single, stole second, and scored on an Acosta double to give the Caps a 2-0 lead.

Elling was done after six, while Justesen kept trucking. Carrillo gave the Coons six straight outs in the seventh and eighth innings, but that didn’t help them with the offense. Through seven, the Critters had four hits and not a sniff of a run. Justesen retired Lawson, Campos, and Corral in quick fashion in the eighth, showing no ill effects from the rain delay. The Caps also sent him into the ninth, but Morales led off with a single. Starr also singled. Was their somebody in that pen after all? Kozak barreled into a double play, which was not exactly helping our cause. Justesen lost Monck on balls, by now over 100 pitches, then still faced Jim White as the winning run – and got a groundout to short. 2-0 Capitals. Monck 2-3, BB;

Raccoons (19-14) vs. Canadiens (18-17) – May 11-13, 2063

The Elks were bottoms in a CL North in which every team was over .500 again after the Crusaders had rallied out of their April doldrums, and just three games apart from top to bottom. They had the fourth-lowest totals in runs scored and runs allowed, a +1 run differential (Coons: -7), and had won two of three from the Critters earlier this year.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (3-0, 2.89 ERA) vs. Eric Barnes (1-4, 4.26 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-2, 2.55 ERA) vs. Juan Mercado (1-3, 5.30 ERA)
Chance Fox (2-1, 3.09 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (2-1, 4.50 ERA)

Mercado was the first southpaw in two weeks for the Critters to face.

At this point we expected Foxie Brown to live and pitch on Sunday.

Game 1
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – LF C. Cardenas – RF Lozada – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P E. Barnes
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – 2B Monck – SS Fowler – CF Gonzalez – C Arellano – P Riddle

Barnes faced one batter before leaving with an injury, but at that point the Elks were up 1-0 thanks to Alex Corpus drawing a walk and scoring from second on a Chad Cardenas single to left. At least Jose Campos didn’t continue to hit five homers a game against the Coons …! – … yet. Righty Brian Doster replaced Barnes for long relief, allowing a straight singles to the 2-3-4 batters to tie the game before Monck popped out in foul territory and Fowler whiffed. Doster remained hittable despite a clean second inning against the bottom of the Coons’ lineup. Once the lineup flipped over, he allowed a leadoff double to right to Corral, then a go-ahead RBI single to left-center to Victor Morales. A Tony Gonzalez homer to right knocked him out in the fourth inning of a 3-1 game.

Gonzalez reached again in the bottom 6th when Cardenas dropped his 2-out fly to left with nobody on base. The score was still the same, with Riddle having settled down a bit, and reliever Mike Siwik, who had replaced Doster, losing Arellano on balls. Riddle batted for himself with two outs and poked an RBI single through the right side to extend the lead to 4-1. Siwik issued another walk to Corral, but Morales fanned to leave the bases loaded. Riddle would go seven and a third on 106 pitches, retiring Damian Moreno in the #9 hole to begin the eighth inning before departing. Pohlmann then got rid of Alexes Castillo and Corpus to complete the inning. Carlisle then came in for the ninth when the Raccoons regrettably didn’t tack on, but immediately the tying run was at the ******* plate after a Campos single and a walk issued to Cardenas. Pinch-hitters Gunner Epperson and Kenny Graves both went down hacking, however, and maybe things would go well this time! One pitch later Steven Spalding chucked a double to left-center. Campos was in to score, and Cardenas was inexplicably not stopped at third base when he his run didn’t matter, and was thrown out at the plate by Malik Crumble from leftfield. That ended the game. 4-2 Raccoons. Morales 2-4, RBI; Starr 2-4; Arellano 2-3, BB; Riddle 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (4-0) and 1-2, RBI;

Both Monck and Starr got the day off against the left-handed Mercado on Saturday. Fowler and Gonzalez were the designated left-handers in the lineup instead.

Game 2
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Whetstine – C A. Maldonado – CF D. Moreno – LF Lozada – 3B Spalding – P J. Mercado
POR: RF Campos – 3B Morales – 1B Kozak – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – C Arellano – SS Fowler – LF Crumble – P Alba

A Castillo single and Campos double spelled trouble in the first, but Chad Whetstine and Alex Maldonado both struck out against Alba to keep them in scoring position. Spalding hit another double in the second inning, but was then also left on base with a K to Mercado. More zeroes flew onto the board; the Raccoons didn’t really have much offense going until Arellano and Fowler clipped a pair of 1-out singles in the bottom 5th. That brought up the struggling Malik Crumble, batting all of .160, but here he came through for an RBI double to center, narrowly beating Damian Moreno, for the game’s first run. Alba continued to be a terror to his fellow pitchers and pushed an RBI single through between Alexes Corpus and Castillo. Campos looped another RBI single into left-center, 3-0, before Morales whiffed and Kozak flew out.

Alba cruised through six innings on 63 pitches before the seventh took my soul away again. He nailed Whetstine with a pitch, then walked Maldonado, which wasn’t great news. Moreno hit a soft single, and PH Gunner Epperson junked the whole ******* ballgame with a grand slam… Alba, beaten, didn’t make it out of the inning, but was taken off a harsh hook in the bottom 7th when Mercado gave up a game-tying homer to much-maligned Malik Crumble, leveling the score at four. The Coons continued with a single by Corral off the lefty Mercado – Corral having entered in a double switch with Nesbitt – and a walk drawn by Campos. Mercado was yanked for Gabe Hill, who gave up the maiden career homer of Victor Morales on his very first pitch…!! HUZZAH!!! A counter-4-spot!! (wipes tears away)

After Nesbitt held the lead in the eighth with the help of a 4-3 double play engineered by Jim White, the Raccoons didn’t tack on in the bottom 8th, but also didn’t go to the exhausting and exhausted Carlisle. Instead, with mostly left-handed bats looming, the Coons dared to plonk Walters on the hill. He had gotten a save in despair in April, now tried to get one on schedule with just three strikeouts to his name in 11.2 innings pitched this season. Moreno struck out. Epperson struck out! Spalding grounded out, and that was career save #269 for disintegrating Matt Walters…! 7-4 Critters. Arellano 2-4; Crumble 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 3
VAN: 2B A. Castillo – SS Corpus – 1B J. Campos – RF Lozada – CF Whetstine – 3B Spalding – C Orphanos – P C. Torres
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – LF Kozak – SS Monck – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – C Lawson – P Fox

The Critters aimed for a very satisfying sweep by beginning the bottom 1st with a Corral double to center before Torres offered 1-out walks to Starr and Kozak. Monck got the team on the board with an RBI single to left, and Jim White got them back into the dugout with a 6-4-3 double play. Straight 2-out hits by the 6-7-8 batters tied the game for the Elks in the top 2nd, but Tony Gonzalez hit a single to start the bottom 2nd. He stole second base, then scored on Lawson and Fox groundouts for a new 2-1 lead, which became 3-1 after a pair of 2-out doubles to right-center for Corral and Morales. Starr hit a scratch single to put them on the corners, but Kozak grounded out to end the inning.

Tears were then shed in the fourth inning when Fox retired the first two batters, then saw Whetstine reach base on another error by Victor Morales, who was making A LOT of errors. The Elks pounced without hesitation and stomped Fox into the mound with Spalding and Orphanos singles for one run, which was still something I could cope with, but I couldn’t cope with the unearned 3-run homer that Carlos Torres then mashed off Fox. The Elks put ANOTHER two guys on base with singles before Campos grounded out to end the ******* inning. All the four Elks runs in the inning were unearned on Morales’ error, which didn’t mean I wasn’t fuming about Fox giving up a huge score-flipping homer to the Elks’ ******* pitcher.

White hit into another double play in the fifth inning, while Gonzalez drew a walk from Torres to begin the bottom 6th. Lawson clipped a single by Corpus before Malik Crumble batted for Fox and smashed a score-flipping, 3-run homer of his own…! That put the Coons on top again, 6-5. They stayed ahead with Murdock pitching in the seventh before Monck reached on a throwing error by Castillo in the bottom 7th, getting to second base when the ball caromed into the dugout on the first base side. Jim White, finding it hard to hit into a double play, instead hit an RBI single to left-center, 7-5. That was the score into the ninth when we brought in Carlisle and closed our eyes … and also brought in Jon Bean at second with White and Monck shifting left to get the error sink out of the hot corner. In the event, no ball went there in Carlisle’s 1-2-3 to complete the sweep. 7-5 Critters. Corral 3-5, 2 2B; Monck 2-4, RB; Gonzalez 1-2, 2 BB; Crumble (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI;

In other news

May 7 – The Wolves would be without INF/RF/LF Alberto Bonilla (.231, 0 HR, 6 RBI) for at least a month after the 25-year-old was diagnosed with a strained hamstring.
May 9 – Buffaloes closer Bill Hernandez (2-0, 1.08 ERA, 11 SV) is described as day-to-day with a tender elbow that could take weeks to get better.
May 9 – Thunder C Luis Miranda (.186, 1 HR, 4 RBI) hits his first home run of the year for a 1-0 walkoff win against the Rebels.
May 12 – BOS SP Jayden Craddock (4-2, 3.05 ERA) walks two and strikes out three Crusaders, but most importantly allows no base hits in a 3-0 win for his second career no-hitter. Both have come with Boston and on the road, the first one having taken place against the Falcons in 2059.
May 12 – The Crusaders put 1B/RF/LF Aubrey Austin (.333, 5 HR, 24 RBI) on the DL; the 37-year-old would miss a month with a knee sprain.
May 12 – TOP SP Ben Karst (4-1, 2.09 ERA) was expected to miss three months with a forearm strain – unless it would turn into something worse.
May 13 – Falcons OF/1B Joe Washington (.244, 5 HR, 19 RBI) goes yard three times and drives in five runs in a 9-5 win against the Bayhawks.
May 13 – The Loggers acquire SS/1B Jim Fusselman (.185, 0 HR, 2 RBI) and a prospect from the Aces for catcher Mark Reed (.316, 0 HR, 4 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: DAL 3B/SS/LF Xavier Reyes (.363, 0 HR, 8 RBI), hitting .500 (13-26) with 3 RBI
CL Player of the Week: CHA OF/1B Joe Washington (.244, 5 HR, 19 RBI), striking .526 (10-19) with 4 HR, 9 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Swept the Elks! (rubs paws together, cackling with glee)

We have seven more games on this homestand against Indy and Oklahoma, and then we will probably have to start thinking about what to do with the fifth starter’s spot, who cut a hole into Victor Morales’ glove, and whether it’s all for real and merits investment.

Fun Fact: The last Falcon to hit three home runs in a game was Chris Robinson.

He did so in 2041 in a 14-13 loss to the Thunder. Maybe he should have done the Craig Bowen!

Robinson tingled through nine different cities in a 14-year career, including eventually a half-season with the Raccoons in 2048, where he batted .321 with three homers and put up a 153 OPS+ after being acquired from Sacramento in a pennant push, which was successful, although we lost to the Stars in seven games eventually.

Robinson batted .277/.351/.406 for his career with 994 hits, 87 homers, and 456 RBI.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-14) vs. Indians (21-16) – May 14-17, 2063

The Raccoons had just reached a flat zero run differential and now had to contend with the reigning champs for four games, who were hardly better at +4, scoring the third-most runs in the league and also surrendering the third-most runs in the league. Their pen was horrendous with an ERA over five, they had defensive issues, and they weren’t exactly hitting for power. The Arrowheads had won this series in 2062, 11-7.

Projected matchups:
John Bollinger (0-2, 5.74 ERA) vs. Kelly Whitney (1-4, 4.72 ERA)
Josh Elling (3-4, 3.99 ERA) vs. Jarod Morris (1-1, 6.07 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-0, 2.65 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (7-1, 2.02 ERA)
Angel Alba (3-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. Melvin Guerra (4-0, 4.37 ERA)

DeWitt was the only southpaw coming up here, while the only Indians starter we’d miss was ex-Coon Ramon Carreno (1-2, 3.49 ERA).

Victor Morales was hitting for a .770 OPS in his 13 games so far, but he was making errors at a dizzying rate and got the rest of the day off on Monday after extra-extra infield practice.

Game 1
IND: 2B Kilday – LF B. Johnston – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – CF E. Ramirez – 3B Blackshire – RF Lovins – SS Cirelli – P Whitney
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – SS Fowler – C Arellano – P Bollinger

Bollinger needed to show something, gave up a single to Bryan Johnston in the first inning before getting a double play grounder from Danny Starwalt, then struck out the side including ex-Coon Dave Blackshire in the second inning before finding Gonzalez and Arellano on the bases in the bottom 2nd and cranking a 3-run homer for the first markers on the scoreboard…! (coolly high-fives with Slappy)

That rush didn’t necessarily last. While Bollinger struck out five the first time through, he only rung up Whitney the second time through the Indians’ order, while giving up a fourth-inning run on a walk to Eddy Ramirez and singles to Blackshire and Chris Lovins, who got the RBI, before Eric Cirelli flew out to Kozak. Whitney disappeared from the game in the fifth, hitting Joel Starr with a pitch before getting taken well deep by Rich Monck, who hit his seventh homer of the season and seemed to be finding a groove now.

Bollinger got another strikeout on Starwalt to begin the sixth inning, then crapped out and walked the bags full. McDaniel came in and was just as bad, waving all the runners around on a groundout, a wild pitch, and a Cirelli single before finally getting out of the damn inning, with the lead now reduced to 5-4. Murdock blew the rest of it by issuing a walk to Johnston and allowing Vinny Atencio to hit a 2-out RBI double over the head of Jose Corral in the seventh inning… however, the Coons reclaimed the lead in much the same way, with former Critter Justin DeRose walking Nick Fowler and giving up his own 2-out RBI double to Marcos Arellano – nothing less I would have expected. Morales batted for Murdock, reached on an error by Blackshire, but Corral flew out to center to end the inning with runners left on the corners. Matt Walters held the 6-5 lead in the eighth inning before the Raccoons came up on Josh Clem in the bottom of the inning. Rich Monck drew a 2-out walk before Jim White socked a triple to center and Tony Gonzalez added another run with a single to right, creating some cushion. Gonzalez stole second, but was left on by Fowler, before the save opportunity went to Mike Pohlmann, since the wonky Carlisle had already been out three of the last four days. Matt Kilday hit a leadoff single to right against Pohlmann, but then never got off first base with a liner to first by Johnston, a K on Starwalt, and Atencio flying out to Gonzalez in center. 8-5 Raccoons. Kozak 2-5; White 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Arellano 3-4, 2B, RBI;

Since the Titans were idle this Monday, the Raccoons grabbed first place all on their own for the first time this season.

Game 2
IND: 2B Kilday – LF B. Johnston – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – 3B Blackshire – SS Cirelli – P Jar. Morris
POR: RF Corral – 3B Morales – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 2B White – CF Gonzalez – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Elling

Corral walked, Morales and Monck hit singles to drive him in, and a walk to Jim White loaded the bases in the bottom 1st for Tony Gonzalez, who grounded to short, with White out at second base, but beat out the return throw by Kilday and a second run scored. Crumble flew out to Trent Brassfield in rightfield to end the inning. Not a whole lot happened after that until the fifth inning. Starr hit a double in the third but was stranded, and Elling seemed to be cruising, allowing one single for 14 outs before crapping on the box score with a walk to Eric Cirelli in the fifth, followed by an RBI double whacked by Morris, who was then thrown out at the plate by Gonzalez on a Kilday single to center, ending the inning with the Coons still up a skinny 2-1, although the Indians got the game tied after all in the sixth with Bryan Johnston’s leadoff homer to left-center. After pinch-hitter Mike Weber struck a triple to center to lead off the seventh, Elling got a K on Blackshire (quelle surprise) before Cirelli singled in the go-ahead run.

And the Coons? Deafeningly silent, didn’t have a hit since the Starr double. Walters stumbled in the eighth, loading the bases with a single, walk, and a Starr error, and when Carrillo replaced him and got a grounder to short from Brassfield, the Raccoons couldn’t turn the inning-ending double play and instead allowed another (unearned) run. The Coons then loaded the bases in the bottom 8th with Corral, Starr, and Monck against DeRose, who shouldn’t be in such a spot to begin with, but then croaked when Jon Bean pinch-hit for White and struck out, and Gonzalez grounded out to Kilday. The Indians tacked on another run against Nesbitt, who put the 6-7-8 batters on base to begin the inning before Indy settled for a sac fly, but that still gave them a run in five consecutive innings, while the Raccoons appeared to have gone to bed early. Left-hander Cody Kleidon faced the bottom of the order in the home half of the ninth. Crumble singled. Arellano singled. The tying run was suddenly at the plate with nobody out, and Jack Kozak’s pinch-hit RBI double put the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out…! Kleidon’s explosion was complete when Corral slung a screaming liner into the rightfield corner for a game-tying 2-run double, and now put his winning run-carrying tush 180 feet away. The Indians axed Kleidon for right-hander Jeff Caldwell, then saw Atencio bungle his second pitch for a passed ball, advancing Corral to third base. Then it got chewy. Morales ended up being walked, and Starr’s grounder to the left side was not enough to get Corral home; Morales advanced to second base, which meant Monck was not even looked at and sent to first base by the Arrowheads immediately. That still didn’t help the Indians: Jon Bean slapped the first pitch he got from Caldwell through the hole on the right side, and the Raccoons escaped with a 4-run rally for a walkoff…!! 6-5 Raccoons! Corral 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-4, BB, RBI; White 1-2, BB; Bean 1-2, RBI; Kozak (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Oh boy! What a dazzler!

Game 3
IND: 3B Blackshire – 2B M. Weber – C A. Gomez – 1B Starwalt – RF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – LF Abel – SS Cirelli – P DeWitt
POR: CF Kozak – 3B Morales – SS Monck – 2B White – 1B Starr – RF Campos – C Arellano – LF Crumble – P Riddle

There was a bit of an expectation for a pitchers’ duel on Wednesday, but Portland awoke to grisly weather and it started to rain lightly in the second inning. By then the Coons had wasted a Kozak leadoff double, and Riddle had loaded the bases with Brass and Eddy Ramirez singles and a 2-out walk to Cirelli in the second inning before K’ing the other team’s southpaw to escape. Kevin Abel strained a hammy in the second inning and was headed to the DL, with Johnston replacing him in leftfield.

The notion of a duel was completely out the window when Riddle failed Blackshire and Mike Weber on base with leadoff walks in the third, then was taken deep by Brassfield for a 3-run homer which the home crowd begrudgingly clapped for at least in some sections. The Coons loaded them up in the bottom 3rd starting with a Riddle single, but Starr eventually grounded out to strand everybody. The team then did make the board with an Arellano homer in the fourth, followed by Crumble singling and getting doubled home by Kozak to reduce the score to 3-2. Morales whiffed to end the inning.

The rest of the deficit was made up in heavier rain in the bottom 5th with a leadoff single to left for Monck, then a 2-out RBI double to right by otherwise rather invisible Marco Campos, who was left on when Arellano grounded out to Cirelli.

We then finally got the hourlong rain delay that the weather had worked itself up to all day, which knocked out both starters in the 3-3 game without registering an out in the sixth inning. The Indians still put DeWitt in line for the W when they slapped three singles for the go-ahead run off Carrillo in the inning. Nesbitt pitched a scoreless seventh, then offered a leadoff walk to Eddy Ramirez in the eighth. When McDaniel replaced him, he was useless AGAIN and walked the bags full with Johnston and Atencio, flipping the lineup over with one out. Pohlmann entered in a double switch – Corral replaced Campos in right – and somehow got out of the inning with two pops hit by the Indians’ 1-2, keeping the score at 4-3.

An exhausting game got more exhaustingerer in the bottom 8th when Travis Glovinsky – Rule 5 robbery!! – gave up a 1-out double to Malik Crumble, who finally reached the .200 mark again, Corral grounded out to move him to third base, and then Glovinsky’s first pitch to Kozak was very wild and allowed Crumble to dash home with the tying run…! Morales grounded out, and Pohlmann then served up a 1-out jack to Starwalt in the ninth inning, then apparently strained his neck twisting it around to watch that moonshot, or something, because a minute later he left the game with Luis Silva. Murdock got the last two outs there, and then Kleidon was back at it in the bottom 9th. Monck opened with a single to left, but White struck out. Starr walked. Lawson was the only righty bat available anymore, but flew out to Brassfield, and Arellano grounded out to end the inning. 5-4 Indians. Kozak 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Monck 3-5; Arellano 2-5, RBI; Crumble 2-4, 2 2B;

Gone was first place, and gone was also John Nesbitt (3-0, 3.52 ERA), not necessarily because of this outing, but because Mike Pohlmann had a tweak in his shoulder and needed to be shut down for a few days, and we plainly needed a fresh arm to cope. The Raccoons needed a long man to fill in here, and chose Malik Padgitt, who had made a few abortive starts late last season. ERA under four then, but BB/9 over seven.

Game 4
IND: 3B Blackshire – 2B M. Weber – 1B Starwalt – C Atencio – RF Brassfield – CF E. Ramirez – LF Lovins – SS Cirelli – P M. Guerra
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 3B Morales – 2B White – LF Crumble – C Lawson – P Alba

Alba struck out the side in the first inning, give or take a Starwalt solo shot over the wall in leftfield, but Guerra’s leadoff walk to Corral and the 2-run homer that Jack Kozak bashed over the wall more than made up for that in the bottom 1st. For Alba early on it was almost all strikeouts or long flies, the others all being caught on or near the warning track before he started to get the Indians a bit more on the ground. Guerra went on to give up a solo homer to Monck in the bottom 4th, 3-1, then nicked Jim White with one out. White stole second, then scored on a Crumble single to left. Crumble was left on, but Guerra was gone after just four innings.

Angel continued to twist the Indians into knots, piling up nine strikeouts through five innings against three hits and unfortunately also 76 pitches, but in the process also managed to raise his K/9 for the year over nine. Alba struck out Blackshire as it began to rain in the sixth. The inning then went pear-shaped besides wet, with Morales throwing away Starwalt’s 2-out grounder, and Atencio pounced on a ball right down the middle and cranked an unearned 2-run homer. Alba finished the inning, then was knocked out in another rain delay, still holding a 4-3 lead.

McDaniel and DeRose were unscored upon in the seventh, and Murdock put up a scoreless eighth in his fourth outing in five days. The Raccoons refused to tack on against DeRose in the eighth, and Carlisle then got the skinny lead in the ninth, with Morales hushed into hiding with Bean in the game for defense and White and Monck shuffled ‘round again. He whiffed Atencio and Brass grounded out, but Johnston hit a pinch-hit single. A strikeout to Chris Lovins in a full count gave the Critters the series win, though. 4-3 Critters. Crumble 2-3, RBI; Alba 6.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K, W (4-2) and 1-2;

At the end of this series, Rich Monck was leading the CL batting race, a point up on Tijuana’s Querubim Churricho. He tied for second in homers with eight, two behind Danny Starwalt.

Raccoons (25-15) vs. Thunder (21-20) – May 18-20, 2063

It was still another week to a day off, and the Raccoons had to conclude the so-far 8-2 homestand with three games against the Thunder, no matter how blue in the face that bullpen was. The Thunder were 5 1/2 games out in the South and brought up the red lantern in runs scored in the CL, plating under 3.8 runs per game. However, they had a +35 run differential with some blinding pitching that was allowing just *2.9* runs per game! We had lost the last two season series, five games to four in ’62.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (3-1, 2.76 ERA) vs. Jake Frensley (1-4, 5.40 ERA)
John Bollinger (0-2, 5.63 ERA) vs. Rafael Mendoza (2-1, 1.40 ERA)
Josh Elling (3-4, 3.97 ERA) vs. Aaron Harris (5-4, 2.39 ERA)

Only right-handed pitching coming up here.

The Raccoons would give out a few more off days. Jim White got a day off on Friday. Pohlmann was not available yet, and Padgitt remained on the roster in case Foxie Brown got rolled up early on Friday. This was perhaps a game one just had to give up on if things went out of control, since both McDaniel and Murdock had been out four outta five days and were *categorically* unavailable, which left us with just four relievers. It was so tight that we almost optioned an outfielder for an extra arm, and that procedure was not ruled out for the rest of the weekend yet.

Game 1
OCT: LF Gillum – C L. Miranda – 3B McNeal – SS Spehar – 2B D. Richardson – 1B I. Stone – RF Meister – CF Martaranha – P Frensley
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 1B Starr – 2B Monck – 3B Morales – SS Fowler – LF Gonzalez – C Arellano – P Fox

For the second day in a row, Jack Kozak clonked a 2-run homer in the first inning, with Corral having reached on a hit this time. That was it for early offense; Chance Fox retired the side in order on 39 pitches the first time through, but Brian Gillum singled to begin the fourth. Corral hustled to catch a Luis Miranda liner before it could dink in after that, but Foxie then handled a comebacker by Josh McNeal for a force at second and struck out Ryan Spehar to end the inning. Zach Meister hit a single in the fifth, but the Thunder were largely harmless against Fox through five.

The Raccoons got 2-out singles from Corral and Kozak off Frensley in the bottom 5th before Starr hit a ball into the left-center gap for a double. Corral scored, but Kozak got a bad jump and had to hold at third base, being left on with Starr when Daniel Richardson lunged and knocked down a low shot by Monck, then scrambled and beat him for a bang-bang play at first base to end the inning. Fox made me queasy with a leadoff walk to Frensley (!!) in the sixth, but pitched around that, but Spehar’s leadoff double to right in the seventh? Not so much. Richardson’s grounder and Ian Stone’s sac fly got the Thunder on the board, 3-1.

When left-hander Ryan Hogues filled the bases with Corral (single), Monck (nailed), and Morales (walk) and two outs in the bottom 7th, the Raccoons sent Crumble to bat for Fowler, but he struck out. Fox struck out Bernaldin Martaranha to begin the eighth, then left after 103 pitches when right-hander Jorge Caballero pinch-hit for the pitcher. The Coons here saw few options other than burning Carlisle for a 5-out save in the best scenario, putting him into the game in a double switch, now with Campos in leftfield and batting ninth (third in the bottom 8th). Two grounders took care of Oklahoma City in the eighth before the Coons loaded the bases on walks Jason Bair issued to Bean and Kozak, with Arellano reaching in between on Spehar’s error, and two outs. But again, the knockout blow was not to be and Joel Starr struck out, sending it back to Carlisle. Spehar would hit a 2-out double in the ninth, but PH Steve Preston popped out to Monck to end the game. 3-1 Coons. Corral 3-5; Kozak 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 2-5, 2B, RBI; Fox 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (4-1); Carlisle 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (14);

Padgitt still hadn’t been used, but still remained on the roster with Bollinger up now in the Saturday game.

Game 2
OCT: 3B Lira – 1B I. Stone – RF Meister – C Preston – LF R. Hummel – SS Spehar – 2B Richardson – CF Martaranha – P R. Mendoza
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS White – CF Campos – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Bollinger

There were seven lefty sticks in that lineup so I had but little hope for Bollinger to get through five innings. The odd ones out were the middle infielders, but after Randy Hummel hit a single in the second, Bollinger walked Spehar, but then got Richardson and Martaranha out to escape the jam. Bollinger then pitched five shutout innings on a 3-hitter out of spite, whiffing seven, just to shove it to his faithless GM, but also came close to 80 pitches in the process. He seemed to come apart then in the sixth, walking Stone, allowing a single to Steve Preston, and offering another 1-out walk to Hummel to load the bases. Spehar cranked a grounder to Jim White at short for a 6-4-3 double play to bail him out on his 99th and final pitch, eloping with a messy 4-hitter and no runs conceded – somehow!

A win was not in the cards though, since Rafael Mendoza scattered five hits to the Raccoons without all the walks and thus kept the game scoreless through six in a rather unexpected pitchers’ duel. The Raccoons then went to Padgitt after all in the zilch-zip game, hoping to get a run through all the lefty hitters. He entered the just-cleared #6 spot in a double switch, along with Crumble, gave up a leadoff double to Richardson, and then somehow got around that without conceding the runner on two flies and a K. The Thunder went 1-2-3 against him in the eighth. Mendoza was still going in the bottom 8th, which began with a Corral fly for an out, but then Kozak, Starr, and Monck all clipped singles in order. Kozak scored from second on the Monck hit to left-center, and the Thunder removed Mendoza at once. Jason Bair entered, whiffed White, and Morales flew out to center when he batted for Padgitt. Walters was brought in to begin the ninth, allowed a single to Hummel, then was replaced with Carrillo, who whiffed Spehar, gave up a double to Richardson, then with runners on second and third struck out Martaranha. Jorge Caballero pinch-hit with Oklahoma down to their last out, grounded out to White, and the Raccoons got away with another squeaky win. 1-0 Blighters! Kozak 2-4; Bollinger 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 7 K; Padgitt 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

First Coons save for Carrillo; it also appeared as if you could pitch ANYBODY against the Thunder and get away with it. Padgitt got away with the W, then was sent straight to St. Pete again.

The Raccoons brought up a different left-hander that they had signed the last winter without much fanfare, 28-year-old Japanese southpaw Hachiro Yokoyama, who had posted a 1.57 ERA in swingman duty in AAA so far after inking a minor league deal. Yokoyama threw a mean slider, but overall his arsenal was probably insufficient to be a starter in the Bigs.

Game 3
OCT: 3B Lira – 1B I. Stone – RF Meister – C Preston – LF R. Hummel – SS Spehar – 2B D. Richardson – CF B. Fish – P Aa. Harris
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 2B White – 3B Morales – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Elling

Elling continued to disappoint in odd ways as he got ripped up in the Sunday game. While the Raccoons drew blanks against Harris, Elling allowed a leadoff double to the opposing pitcher in the third inning, then conceded the run on two fly outs to center to give the Thunder a 1-0 lead. They went to 3-0 when Elling nailed Bobby Fish in the fifth, followed by an Omar Lira homer to left. By the sixth he mostly made drowning noises, allowed two hits and two walks, and was yanked with the bases loaded and one run across, two outs, and Lira back at the dish. McDaniel got ahead 1-2 on Lira, but then allowed a fly to right that sent Corral back, but he made the catch to strand the bases loaded in a 4-0 game. McDaniel got three more outs in the seventh, and Pohlmann returned in the eighth for a scoreless inning. The Raccoons continued to lack any sort of offense; Harris struck out nine against three hits in eight innings, and then Yokoyama made his ABL debut. Fish and Miranda grounded out, then a K to Lira ended the top 9th.

Bottom 9th, Dave Lister replacing Harris. The righty gave up a leadoff double to Starr, while Monck reached on a Spehar error. Losing Jim White in a full count loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate with Morales, but also with nobody out, so it was rather hopeless. Morales ticked a 2-1 pitch to center for a single, and the Coons went station to station. Gonzalez batted for Crumble, but grounded out. Monck scored, and the tying runs went into scoring position. Lister was yanked for another right-hander, Ernesto Rios. Fowler batted for Arellano and whiffed. Bean batted for Yokoyama … and also whiffed. 4-2 Thunder. Starr 2-4, 2 2B; Morales 3-4, 2B, RBI;

In other news

May 17 – Pacifics SP Alfonso Calderon (3-0, 3.54 ERA) could be out for the season after suffering a tear in his labrum.
May 18 – Knights CL Ben Lussier (0-1, 4.35 ERA, 13 SV) gets just the final out in a 6-2 win against the Canadiens to notch his 400th career save.
May 19 – Loggers southpaw SP Tony Espinosa (5-0, 1.70 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Falcons, striking out eight in the 7-0 win.
May 19 – ATL SP Blake Sparks (5-1, 1.99 ERA) will miss an entire year as he undergoes Tommy John surgery to fix a flayed UCL.
May 19 – The CL sees three separate 1-0 games on Saturday, as the Raccoons beat the Thunder, the Knights squeeze through against the Canadiens, and the Crusaders see off the Bayhawks all by the same skinny score.
May 20 – SFW LF/CF Rick Miles (.248, 2 HR, 14 RBI) is headed to the DL with a pretty bad concussion and is not expected back this season.
May 20 – An oblique strain will put ATL OF Jake Evans (.254, 4 HR, 18 RBI) on the DL for the next month.

FL Player of the Week: RIC INF/RF Robby Cox (.323, 6 HR, 25 RBI), batting .583 (14-24) with 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: OCT SP Aaron Harris (6-4, 2.13 ERA), winning two starts with 16 shutout innings and 19 K

Complaints and stuff

Addendum on the three 1-0 games on Saturday: two of them had former Raccoons third-rate SP prospects as Player of the Game, one being Bollinger, and the other was Jose Rosa for the Knights!

Lonzo and Ben Morris might be heading for rehab assignments soon; Lonzo probably in the middle of next week, and Morris at the end of it or to start the one after that. Neither is expected to shed too much fur in AAA before coming back, just three games or so to get warm.

After the cushy two-week homestand, we now had a two-week road trip upon us to most corners of the league: San Fran, Charlotte, Tijuana, and New York, which in that order made little sense. Off day – much needed – on Thursday. Actually four of the next five Thursdays are off, and that’s all we’re gonna get from here to the All Star Game.

Fun Fact: How Ben Lussier saved 400 games is entirely beyond me.

I was pretty sure that Lussier, age 36, had *blown* at least 400 leads against the Raccoons in his career. I considered him *awful*. 66-76 with a 3.74 ERA for his career, with 963 strikeouts in 953 innings. A mighty 56 blown saves officially to his name, as many as nine in any season.

I’d rather try my luck with 2063 Matt Walters…!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-16) @ Bayhawks (19-23) – May 21-23, 2063

The Baybirds had a +3 run differential with the fifth-most runs scored and also fifth-most runs allowed on their stat sheets, which was remarkably close to phony first-place Raccoons, who had a run differential of all of +5 while being 11 games over .500; In San Francisco they were really good at hitting home runs (second in the CL), and had a strong bullpen that put up a sub-3 ERA, but they were smitten with a middling rotation, terrible defense, and two different shortstops you never heard of (Alex Murillo, Dustin Cox) on the DL. Last year’s season series had gone to the Raccoons, 6-3.

Projected matchups:
Tyler Riddle (4-0, 2.89 ERA) vs. Joe Chalmers (6-3, 3.21 ERA)
Angel Alba (4-2, 2.76 ERA) vs. Alex Cruzado (3-4, 4.96 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-1, 2.45 ERA) vs. Jon Mendosa (3-1, 3.60 ERA)

The Bayhawks had only righty starters, and had also only played two games in the last four days thanks to a day off on Thursday and a rainout on Sunday. They had another day off coming on Thursday – same for the Raccoons, who however had played 14 straight games coming in, losing only three of those.

Jose Corral was not in the lineup on Monday due to general soreness. Those young ‘uns!

Game 1
POR: CF Kozak – 2B White – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 3B Morales – LF Gonzalez – RF Campos – C Arellano – P Riddle
SFB: RF Paez – C Mathews – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – CF Laws – 3B D. Sandoval – 1B Escalera – SS Leitch – P Chalmers

Riddle made a convincing bid for his first L of the season in the first inning, walking Kyle Mathews, allowing a single to Grant Anker, and then getting thrashed for a 3-run homer to left by professional widowmaker Armando Montoya. The monster Montoya, who had a career OPS+ of 131 while playing a conservatively defensive position, would be up with runners on the corners again in the fifth inning, but then hit into an inning-ending double play to waste a chance with Juan Paez reaching on a Monck error and Grant Anker hitting a shy single to get him there in the first place.

In the meantime, the Raccoons had stacked up four hits in five innings, three of them by leadoff man du jour Jack Kozak, who hit a single in the first and was stranded, a solo homer in the third, and then an RBI single to plate Arellano from second base in the fifth inning and thus single-pawedly got the Raccoons back into a 3-2 game. Tying it up seemed like it was too much to ask, though. They had nothing in the sixth, and in the seventh got Arellano on base with two outs, then batted Corral for Riddle, but Corral struck out to end the inning. Kozak popped out to begin the eighth, which was already a bit of a bummer, and while Jim White hit a scratch single, the 3-4 batters were to be of no particular help. The 3-2 score was maintained by Carrillo and Walters in the seventh and eighth innings, and the Baybirds gave the Raccoons additional help by putting routinely sketchy Steve Watson into the game in the ninth – but the Raccoons went in order. 3-2 Bayhawks. Kozak 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Arellano 2-3;

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – LF Crumble – 3B Morales – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Alba
SFB: RF Paez – CF Laws – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – 3B D. Sandoval – C L. Marquez – 1B Echols – SS Leitch – P Cruzado

The Bayhawks took a first-inning lead again on Tuesday as Juan Paez doubled to center on an 0-2 pitch to begin Alba’s day and was brought in with a single by Scott Laws. Anker forced out the runner with a grounder, stole second, but was stranded when Montoya grounded out and Dan Sandoval flew out to Corral. The only Critter to reach the first time through was Alba with a 2-out single in the third inning. In exchange for having hit a single, he didn’t strike out anybody in the early innings, but at least was taken off the hook for the moment on Rich Monck’s solo homer to right-center in the fourth inning, tying the game at one.

Morales’ leadoff single in the fifth inning led nowhere, while Alba walked a pair in the bottom 5th but somehow buggered outta there when Monck made a leaping grab on a liner Laws launched at him. Corral walked and Starr singled in the sixth, but Monck and Crumble both flew out rather easily to Anker.

No, the 1-1 tie was broken in the most unlikely way, with Jon Bean hitting a 1-out single to center against Cruzado before Scott Lawson – who had already hit a long fly to Anker his last time up – this time hit a gapper to left-center that fell for a double. Bean swung the hindpaws and scored from first base to break the tie. Lefty Travis Davis replaced Cruzado, getting Alba on a pop before Jim White batted for Corral and drew a 2-out walk in a full count. Kozak then dinked the next pitch into center for a single. Lawson going on contact scored from second base, 3-1. The remaining runners reached scoring position on a passed ball charged to Lorenzo Marquez before Davis walked Starr anyway to fill the bases, but Rich Monck struck out to leave them like that.

Bottom 7th, and Marquez hit a jack on the first pitch to narrow the score to 3-2. Alba put Jonathan Echols on as well before getting Alan Leitch to fly out. When lefty Pat Fowler pinch-hit in the pitcher’s hole, the Raccoons brought in the left-handed Yokoyama, who issued a walk, and then was right away replaced with Pohlmann, who got rid of Paez, but then walked the bags full against Scott Laws. With Anker up, the Raccoons made the third pitching exchange of the inning and brought McDaniel, who grabbed a K on three pitches – so both teams left the bases loaded on a whiff by one of their prime sluggers in the seventh. McDaniel would go on to collect three groundouts in the eighth inning, while the Coons’ offense failed to tack on – Lawson singled but was doubled off by Campos in the top 9th – and the ball went to Carlisle against the bottom of the order in the ninth inning. PH Dave Roura singled, Leitch flew out, and another pinch-hitter, Kyle Hawkins of former Elks’ “fame”, hit into a fielder’s choice to keep the tying run at first base as the lineup flipped over to Paez, who ended the game with a fly to Campos in right. 3-2 Critters. Lawson 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Scott Lawson put up his third career multi-hit game just in time before being sent home to Dallas, getting the ol’ batting average back over .200.

Instead, the Raccoons deleted Tony Gonzalez (.194, 2 HR, 7 RBI), who was trapped in a 2-for-24 rut. We needed another left-handed outfiel- … oh, look, it’s Todd Oley.

Sigh!

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – CF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – 2B White – 3B Morales – LF Crumble – C Arellano – P Fox
SFB: RF Paez – C Mathews – LF Anker – 2B A. Montoya – CF Laws – 3B D. Sandoval – 1B Escalera – SS Leitch – P Mendosa

Starr and Monck had hits in the first, but were stranded on Jim White’s fly to right, and Monck flubbed a grounder by Paez to put a guy on base for San Francisco in the bottom 1st, but then turned a 6-4-3 double play against Mathews to clean up behind Chance Fox, who pitched behind in the count a lot, and in the bottom 2nd walked Laws on four pitches before being taken deep to right by Dan Sandoval, and thus the Raccoons trailed yet again, 2-0. After Jim White stranded Starr and Monck on the corners again in the third inning, this time popping out over home plate, while Fox stumbled over the same part of the lineup again in the fourth. Laws walked again and Sandoval was drilled by Fox before Jose Escalera hit an RBI single to right-center on which Sandoval was caught in a rundown between second and third to gain a crucial out. Alan Leitch’s pop to Corral then ended the inning.

No, Foxie Brown was no good in this game, but at least the lineup appeared to wake up in the fifth inning. Kozak drew a leadoff walk from Mendosa before Starr stuck an RBI double into the leftfield corner, 3-1. Monck grounded out sharply, and Jim White overcame his struggles with Starr in scoring position and looped an RBI single to right-center. Mendosa drilled Victor Morales to move White’s tying run to second base, but Crumble’s grounder to first ended the inning.

Fox went seven innings without whiffing a position player, which was sort of an achievement in itself, allowing three runs on three hits and three walks. White hit a double in the top 7th, but with nobody on and was stranded in turn, and similarly Grant Anker hit a 2-out triple off Murdock with nobody on and Montoya not getting him home in the eighth inning. Thusly, the Coons arrived in the ninth against Watson again, as the series threatened to have all its games ending with 3-2 scores. Corral grounded out, Kozak whiffed, and Starr hit a fly to deep left, but Anker got back and made the pick on the warning track. 3-2 Bayhawks. Starr 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Monck 2-4; White 2-4, 2B, RBI; Fowler (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (28-18) @ Falcons (12-34) – May 25-27, 2063

The Falcons were … quite simply rancid. Second from the bottom in runs scored and second from the bottom in runs allowed, they had racked up a -56 run differential in 46 games and didn’t look like a big threat to stop burning any time soon. Already 18 games out in the CL South, they nevertheless had won one of three games against the Coons earlier this year. Right now they were on a 5-16 May.

Projected matchups:
John Bollinger (0-2, 4.74 ERA) vs. Mark Jacobs (1-4, 5.25 ERA)
Josh Elling (3-5, 4.19 ERA) vs. John Marshell (2-3, 3.35 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-1, 3.05 ERA) vs. Ivan Rodriguez (1-5, 4.31 ERA)

Two southpaws coming up – and neither of them on the Sunday. Boo!

If Bollinger couldn’t grab a win here, he probably couldn’t grab one anywhere.

Game 1
POR: CF Kozak – 2B White – SS Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 3B Morales – C Arellano – RF Campos – P Bollinger
CHA: CF Pinault – LF Padgett – RF Washington – 3B Healey – SS T. Taylor – 1B Yniguez – C Ayon – 2B Duhe – P Ma. Jacobs

A non-aggression pact was signed between these two teams before the series, because that was the only explanation for the early innings on Friday. The Raccoons amassed a grand total of three singles against Mark Jacobs in five innings, and each time immediately hit into a double play to clean up. Rich Monck did so in the first inning, and Joel Starr did it *twice*. The Falcons had even less offense. Jared Duhe hit a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd and was stranded on third base, and they had two walks drawn off Bollinger, one to Joe Washington – who had put together a 3-homer game earlier this month and had all of six bombs for the season – leading off the bottom 4th, but also found two double plays to kill any enthusiasm.

When Arellano opened the sixth with a single to right-center, Campos tried to follow the path trampled by the lefty big bats and grounded to short, but Trent Taylor bungled the play for an error. Bollinger bunted the pair on base into scoring position, and the Raccoons went ahead on a clean single to center by Kozak, plating a run, as did White with a single to right. Monck’s scratch single filled the bases, and Crumble flew out to center for a sac fly, 3-0, before Starr’s pop to Taylor ended the inning, but unabashedly continued a rotten day for the first-sacker. Two of the runs were unearned, as was the run the Coons tacked on an inning later when Morales reached on a throwing error by Taylor and scored on a sac fly by Campos to Washington. Kozak opened the eighth with a single, but was doubled up on White’s grounder to third baseman Rick Healey.

Bollinger pitched into the eighth, where he got two more outs before being lifted for Yokoyama, who allowed a single to Washington before popping out Healey. Trent Taylor – a Gold Glove-winning rookie in 2062! – made his third error in a wretched game for himself (he made only one error all year before this cursed Friday) to put Crumble on base in the ninth inning. Nothing came of that as Jacobs finished a complete-game 8-hitter on the losing end, as Carrillo finished the game without issues. 4-0 Raccoons. Kozak 2-4, RBI; White 2-4, RBI; Crumble 2-3, RBI; Bollinger 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-2);

Quite a nice performance for Bollinger and finally grabbing a W.

Now try it against a real team!

Game 2
POR: 1B Kozak – 2B White – SS Monck – LF Crumble – 3B Morales – RF Corral – C Arellano – CF Campos – P Elling
CHA: CF Pinault – LF Padgett – RF Washington – 3B Healey – SS T. Taylor – C Ayon – 1B Valcarcel – 2B Duhe – P Marshell

The Coons hit liners in the first two innings and got nobody on base, then resorted to Arellano waiting out a leadoff walk in the third followed by a soft single to right-center by Campos on which Mike Pinault and Joe Washington got into each other’s comfort zone and allowed the runners to paw it into scoring position. Marshell lost Elling on balls to load the bags with nobody out, but got out for only one run on Kozak’s double-play grounder before White popped out to Jesus Valcarcel in foul territory to end the inning.

And Elling? His rotten run continued without interruption. While he put up three shutout innings to begin the game, that already cost him over 50 pitches before he spent another 35 pitches in a fourth inning in which Taylor and Danny Ayon tied the game with back-to-back doubles before slowly and painfully walking the bases full with Duhe and Marshell (!) with two outs, finally getting a grounder to short from Pinault to end the inning and stay in a 1-1 tie. He barely made it through five innings, getting a no-decision for his troubles.

Back-to-back 1-out singles by Morales and Corral in the seventh inning doubled the Coons’ hit output heretofore in this game. The Falcons couldn’t turn two on Arellano’s grounder to short, and a walk to Campos filled the bases with two outs for pinch-hitter Joel Starr, who struck out. Bottom 7th, Padgett struck a leadoff double against McDaniel, but Adan Yniguez and Rick Healey made poor outs before Pohlmann entered the game in McDaniel’s stead and got a pop to second from Taylor to strand the go-ahead run on second base. Marshell hung on into the eighth before offering a leadoff walk to Kozak and being removed. Gary Ponds then retired the next three Critters without fuzz. The Raccoons remained inept in the ninth, while Matt Walters allowed a leadoff single to Joey Opsahl in the #9 spot before Pinault flew out to left. Padgett spanked a ball past a diving Kozak for a double, but the lead runner was the only available catcher for Charlotte and couldn’t turn the bases fast enough to score ahead of Jose Corral’s arm – but the Falcons had runners on second and third with one out. Finally, Walters found something: he struck out Danny Ceballos, and he struck out Healey to send the game to extras.

Yokoyama in the bottom 10th hit PH Collin Garner and walked Valcarcel on four pitches before two nifty plays by Campos in center spoiled drives by Duhe and Opsahl and the game kept going. Right-hander Travis Julien got the ball in the top 11th for the Falcons and allowed sharp leadoff singles to Monck and Crumble. Morales hit into a fielder’s choice at second, but the go-ahead run made it to third base for Corral, who hit into the next ******* double play. In his second inning of work, the Coons FINALLY broke through… somehow. Arellano hit a single, Campos was useless, and Todd Oley (…) pinch-hit and grounded to Duhe for a force at second. He then stole second base one pitch ahead of Kozak’s single to right-center. Oley held nothing back, dashed around third base, and came around to score. White walked, but Monck grounded out, sending the game to Carlisle, who had seen enough to want outta this place and into his bed, and retired the Falcons on eight pitches, finishing with a K on Dan Geiger. 2-1 Blighters. Campos 2-4, BB; Bean (PH) 1-1; Yokoyama 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

I’ve had teeth pulled while feeling less agony.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS Fowler – CF Campos – 2B Bean – C Lawson – P Riddle
CHA: CF Pinault – LF Padgett – RF Washington – 3B Healey – SS T. Taylor – 1B Yniguez – 2B Duhe – C Ayon – P I. Rodriguez

Offensive diarrhea continued with full force for the Raccoons on Sunday. Corral walked and Kozak singled to begin the game against Rodriguez, but Starr whiffed and Monck found another double play to blunder into before the team didn’t do anything for a long while after that. The Falcons calmly took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Danny Ayon led off with a double to right-center against Riddle, and while Rodriguez popped out on a bunt attempt, Padgett would bring in the game’s first run with a 2-out single to right.

The Coons got a leadoff man to second base in the sixth inning when Lawson hit a single to center and Pinault misfielded it for an extra base. Riddle flew out to right, Corral struck out, and Kozak popped out to leave Lawson exactly there. Instead the Falcons tacked on a run with back-to-back singles for Padgett and Washington in the bottom 6th, and a sac fly to Kozak hit by Healey. Starr’s leadoff single in the seventh led to ANOTHER ******* DOUBLE PLAY by Monck, who instead ****** an Ayon grounder for an error in the bottom 7th that put runners on second (Duhe, single) and first with one gone. Lawson then fired Rodriguez’ bunt away for a 2-base, run-scoring error, and Pinault cashed another very unearned run with a groundout, by which time the Falcons had enough runs to beat the feckless Coons four times over.

While Riddle was done after seven meh innings, Rodriguez was pitching into the ninth inning, but gave up a leadoff single to Corral and another single to Starr. The Falcons went to another lefty, Yoshinari Kuroiwa, with “Double Play” Monck at the plate, but this time he hit a single to center, loading the bases and bringing the tying run to the dish. White batted for Fowler and kept the line moving by chipping a soft single to center on an 0-2 pitch, driving in Corral with the team’s first run in the game. Campos rather uselessly popped out before Morales batted for Bean, sticking a 2-run single through the left side of the infield, moving the tying run (White) to second base. Against all reason, Lawson got him home with a single to right, and suddenly the ******* game was tied! Kuroiwa was gone, replaced with Ponds, who gave up yet another RBI single against all reason to PH Todd ******* Oley. Corral walked, but Kozak struck out in a full count to end the inning and strand three on base after the team had poured out five runs. Carlisle got the ball against the 6-7-8 batters with five defensive positions changing faces behind and around him for the bottom 9th. Corral remained in place and caught a fly by Yniguez. Duhe walked, but Ayon struck out. Valcarcel pinch-hit for the pitcher, lifted a fly to left, and Campos was there to make the grab. 5-4 Blighters. Starr 2-4; White (PH) 1-1, RBI; Morales (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Lawson 2-4, RBI; Oley (PH) 1-1, RBI; Riddle 7.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K;

In other news

May 21 – The Aces would be without OF Jaden Wilson (.288, 2 HR, 12 RBI) for at least three weeks thanks to a case of shoulder tendinitis.
May 21 – SAL LF/RF Kyle Grulke (.263, 9 HR, 29 RBI) hits a jack to beat the Cyclones, 1-0. Only 13 runs total are scored across the four games played on that Monday.
May 23 – Scorpion 2B/SS Justin Finnegan (.255, 1 HR, 23 RBI) slaps a triple and five singles for six hits total and drives in one run in an 11-8 win against the Rebels, the team that drafted him with the #18 pick in 2057.
May 24 – The Gold Sox and Buffaloes have a 9-9 game through eight innings suspended by heavy rain. The game will not be concluded until September.
May 25 – Indians LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield (.268, 4 HR, 26 RBI) puts out five hits, including a double, and drives in two runs as the Indians down the Knights, 14-5. IND C Vinny Atencio (.242, 3 HR, 18 RBI) leads the team with six RBI on three hits including a home run.
May 27 – The Crusaders beat the Condors, 9-5 in 15 innings. NYC INF/LF/RF Jake Cline (.288, 2 HR, 19 RBI) drives in four runs on as many hits.

FL Player of the Week: RIC INF/RF Robby Cox (.330, 9 HR, 34 RBI), batting .370 (10-27) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: BOS INF Diego Mendoza (.298, 4 HR, 25 RBI), poking .542 (13-24) with 2 HR, 10 RBI

Complaints and stuff

I think we have a new frontrunner for most depressing sweep ever – and we were on the winning side!

Offensive changes are coming though. While Morales saved the game on Sunday, his form had been pointing steeply downhill and he’d be returned to AAA on Monday to get Lonzo back from a rehab assignment. (Ben Morris had yet to start his) Monck would go back to third base, and I wasn’t sure whether we could A) find an improvement for White, and B) would be willing to pay the price.

On the bright paw – the pitching has been a lot better these last few weeks! Our pen suddenly has an ERA in the top 3 in the CL, and our defense is ranked tops for some reason. – Let’s see how reuniting our 70-year-old middle infield messes with that. (Cristiano Carmona makes gargling noises in the corner)

More road games coming in Tijuana and New York before we’re getting back home for a week, but there will be not one, but two more East Coast road trips in June. Sometimes I wonder who makes these schedules.

Fun Fact: Tyler Riddle was one out away from claiming the 6,666th regular season loss in franchise history.

It would have been one of the worst!

Beating “Keith Ayers – out at home!” in terms of desolation if not magnitude.