Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

2067 PORTLAND RACCOONS – Opening Day Roster (first set in parenthesis shows 2066 stats, second set career stats; players with an * are off season acquisitions;

SP Shoma Nakayama, 29, B:R, T:R (11-12, 3.50 ERA | 21-30, 3.66 ERA) – one of the Raccoons’ annual attempt to find something big in Japan that would at least hold up reasonably well in the ABL, Nakayama has a well-rounded 4-pitch arsenal with a 94mph heater, good stamina, and fine control. While the stuff was not overwhelming, he at least resisted the urge to make another run at leading the league in losses in his second ABL season and remains the Opening Day guy.
SP Nick Walla, 26, B:R, T:R (12-11, 3.78 ERA | 20-21, 3.81 ERA) – young right-hander throwing 94mph with four complementary pitches, but without a great putaway pitch he struggles to put up strikeout numbers and relies a lot on the defense, in the infield and outfield. Nevertheless he looks like a if not great, then at least very reliable pitcher for years to come.
SP Ryan Musgrave *, 35, B:S, T:R (8-12, 6.29 ERA | 109-122, 3.98 ERA) – while this groundballer was without a doubt no longer what he was when he won an ERA title with the Titans in ’58, he was done a great injustice by the incompetent Bayhawks infield of the last two seasons and was beaten up to the tune of a .367 BABIP (!) over a full 204-innings season. He can’t possibly get worse here.
SP Tony Gaytan, 23, B:R, T:R (5-8, 4.35 ERA | 5-8, 4.35 ERA) – was perhaps brought up too early out of necessity, and was a real box of chocolates in his first two-thirds of a big league season; we believe he still has gains to make with his arsenal and control and that he should be a lot better this year.
SP Gabriel Rios *, 25, B:L, T:L (0-1, 2.57 ERA, 1 SV | 0-1, 2.57 ERA, 1 SV) – a surprise loot in a trade from the Indians, Rios has a blazing fastball and cutter, and was another groundballer on the roster. He has never started a major league game, but all his appearances in the minors were starts, and we expect competence and hope for greatness.

SP/MR Evan Alvey, 32, B:L, T:L (5-4, 4.60 ERA | 78-64, 4.01 ERA, 4 SV) – ho-hum acquisition from the Pacifics in July, Alvey made ten starts down the road and was usually whacked good, posting a 5.11 ERA with the Coons as opposed to 3.79 when relieving with the Pacifics. Four pitches, all of which could be bopped for distance, and were regularly.
MR Jason Holzmeister *, 22, B:S, T:R (no stats) – Rule 5 pick from the Falcons with a fastball/sinker combo and a changeup that’s best left on the scouting report.
MR Juan Soriano, 29, B:R, T:R (0-1, 4.76 ERA, 1 SV | 0-2, 4.47 ERA, 1 SV) – somehow made it into 40 games with the Raccoons despite being on no depth chart whatsoever, and now somehow made it onto the Opening Day roster, because Bob West didn’t sign the contract we offered in time. Groundballer with a fastball, curve, and (bad) changeup, and a tendency to miss in the dirt, and now waiting with his suitcase packed to hit the waiver wire.
MR Josh Carrington, 25, B:L, T:R (1-0, 6.41 ERA, 1 SV | 1-1, 5.87 ERA, 1 SV) – former #31 pick had a speedrun to the majors with 33 games in AAA and 13 more for the Coons in September of 2065, the year he was drafted, culminating in blowing a Closing Day lead with two homers in an Indians walkoff. Didn’t ripen particularly well in AAA with 24 big league appearances sprinkled in, and given he has the personality of a hand grenade, I’ll listen to your trade offers.
MR Manabu Yamauchi, 28, B:R, T:R (2-0, 2.88 ERA | 2-0, 2.88 ERA) – last year’s inspiring Japanese free agent signing wasn’t signed to begin with until July, then started in AAA before being called up and pitching generally without major blow-ups, so maybe he can be somebody you can give a 3-run lead to without seeking cover immediately. Fastball/splitter and a bit of stamina for extra inning assignments.
SU Ricky McMahan, 25, B:L, T:L (3-6, 4.29 ERA, 3 SV | 4-6, 4.66 ERA, 3 SV) – erratic cutter and curveball, walked more than he struck out for both of his major league seasons, and totally a reliable late-inning option with how he also posted a negative WAR in both of his major league seasons
SU Jesse Dover, 25, B:R, T:R (5-7, 3.12 ERA, 20 SV | 10-14, 2.99 ERA, 32 SV) – at this point I don’t know whether Dover is naturally a **** or whether us refusing to even name a closer has actually made it worse. Sometimes he can actually pitch, but he also walked 6.4 batters per nine innings in ’66 and do we look like we need that for a closer? Figures to share late-inning duties with McMahan, depending on the opposing lineup.

C Ramon Lopez, 31, B:R, T:R (.270, 15 HR, 77 RBI | .270, 71 HR, 374 RBI) – the Coons got back a surprisingly competent catcher from the Thunder for the ticking time bomb that was Jeff Crowley prior to 2066. His defense was best described as “serviceable”, but he hit well enough to eventually seize the #3 spot in the lineup, even though a late slump meant he only hit for a 114 OPS+.
C Justin Aguilar *, 29, B:S, T:R (.267, 2 HR, 8 RBI | .282, 41 HR, 210 RBI) – acquired from the Rebels, and nothing special with two years as a primary and four years as backup under his belt. Has a bit of pop though and might just hit for a bit of power, with a career-high of 16 homers in ’63.

1B Joel Starr, 34, B:L, T:L (.243, 18 HR, 63 RBI | .273, 135 HR, 579 RBI) – stuck on the roster right now and proven to be untradeable for the second straight winter, Starr had little going for him anymore besides solid defense at first and an unbroken track record of 100+ OPS+ seasons – even though he repeatedly cut it close…
3B/2B/SS/LF/1B Mike Roberts *, 30, B:R, T:R (.243, 0 HR, 38 RBI | .240, 17 HR, 279 RBI) – one-year rental that spent his entire career with the Aces so far. You know what you get: he ALWAYS hits .240-something, no power, and strong defense, with a Gold Glove on his mantelpiece. He also led the league in walks in ’62, but that number has been declining every year since.
2B/SS/3B Pablo Novelo, 28, B:R, T:R (.226, 7 HR, 43 RBI | .257, 16 HR, 131 RBI) – it took Novelo, a bit of a hotshot acquisition from the Warriors four winters ago, two years to dispatch of Yukio Aoki and Franklin Serrano for the shortstop gig on the crashing Raccoons, which he achieved with heroics like… almost hitting league average. Task achieved, he then crashed to a 63 OPS+ last season, and only had strong defense going for him right now.
3B/2B/SS Rich Monck, 30, B:L, T:R (.267, 21 HR, 86 RBI | .289, 185 HR, 658 RBI) – went from home run champ in 2064 to injured in ’65 and then below-average despite a team-leading 21 homers in ’66. Somehow nobody was scared, since he only drew 16 walks (only one of them intentional), and even his defense at third base was best described as “eventful”. His contract was ending after the season and right now we didn’t see him staying on.
2B/3B/SS/RF/LF Leon Arantes, 27, B:R, T:R (.260, 1 HR, 27 RBI | .260, 1 HR, 27 RBI) – highly versatile with speed, taken as minor league free agent last April and after an early call-up never went away again despite seamlessly fitting in by hitting a great deal of nothing. We basically have TWO Randy Tallents now when one Randy Tallent is all you need.

LF/RF/1B/CF Justin Dowsey *, 25, B:L, T:L (.264, 15 HR, 74 RBI | .265, 44 HR, 173 RBI) – the Indians traded him, who hit 28 homers in ’65, for two-time stolen base champ Malcolm Spicer and John Bentley, and threw in Rios for good measure, so we were fully expecting him to hit .160 and getting sent to St. Pete by June. On paper he had tremendous power, and his glove at least played serviceably, unlike Spicer’s.
RF/CF/LF Jaden Wilson, 30, B:L, T:L (.261, 4 HR, 47 RBI | .290, 52 HR, 344 RBI) – big disappointment in his first Raccoons season, crashing in terms of on-base percentage, stolen bases, power, and just general vibes. He will continue to lead off, and I will continue to complain until his contract runs out after 2069.
RF Jose Corral, 26, B:L, T:L (.277, 12 HR, 40 RBI | .270, 51 HR, 224 RBI) – suffered with injuries in both of the last two seasons and also couldn’t hit a thing in ’65, but was rewarded with a 5-year extension anyway, because the Raccoons don’t have much a future outside of him right now. His arm is one of the best in the league, but he doesn’t have a whole lot of range out there, and no speed.
1B/LF/RF/3B Jamie Colter, 25, B:L, T:R (.257, 5 HR, 22 RBI | .275, 6 HR, 35 RBI) – competent corner option with a very average stick. No speed, but at least he’s trying his best, I guess…
RF/LF/1B/2B/3B/SS/CF Randy Tallent, 30, B:R, T:R (.248, 6 HR, 29 RBI | .224, 23 HR, 116 RBI) – super utility that was never going to hit much of anything, but would still get another 200+ at-bats due to his right-handedness and his ability to play all non-battery positions without making a mockery of the game. Despite a lack of hitting tal(l)ent, he’s already going into his fourth season after being acquired off waivers by the damn Elks.
LF/CF/SS Marquise Early, 25, B:R, T:R (.235, 1 HR, 5 RBI | .194, 1 HR, 5 RBI) – I wanted another right-handed stick for the outfield, and that’s the right-handed stick I got…

On disabled list:
SP Chance Fox, 32, B:L, T:L (1-2, 3.18 ERA | 88-74, 3.75 ERA, 1 SV) – usually a very competent mid-rotation starter that just happens to insist to get it on the snout really hard at least once a month, although last year was different as he made only six starts before his arm came off at the elbow; resigned on the cheap after his contract expired, although it looks like his changeup is gone and he will no longer be effective. He is expected to start a rehab assignment in about two weeks and rejoin the Coons in May.

Otherwise unavailable: Nobody.

Other roster movement:
SP/MR Vinny Morales, 25, B:S, T:R (0-5, 5.01 ERA | 0-5, 5.01 ERA) – optioned to AAA; middling four-pitch arsenal with a 93mph fastball that tends to get whacked (9 HR in 46.2 IP), Morales was at least versatile, losing games as a fill-in / sixth starter and as a garbage reliever for the Raccoons in several brief stints of a messed up rookie season.
MR Paul Barton, 31, B:R, T:R (3-3, 4.79 ERA | 8-7, 4.79 ERA) – waived and DFA’ed; out of all the useless pitchers and position players that tossed the baseball competitively for the Raccoons in 2066, and there were a lot of those, Barton’s fastball/curve combo put up the worst WAR (-0.7)
C Jake Flowe, 24, B:L, T:R (.282, 2 HR, 11 RBI | .282, 2 HR, 11 RBI) – optioned to AAA; hit .392 in 27 AAA games and then was relegated to bench duty behind Ramon Lopez in the majors. With Lopez slated for free agency after ’67, Flowe was sent back to the minors to rack up playing time with a perspective to win the primary catcher’s job for 2068.
C Marcos Arellano, 30, B:R, T:R (.109, 1 HR, 2 RBI | .267, 16 HR, 136 RBI) – waived and DFA’ed; defensive catcher that stopped hitting anything at all after some competent seasons as a backup (and once as the primary).
3B/SS/2B/RF Ryan Bonner, 24, B:R, T:R (.322, 0 HR, 4 RBI | .328, 0 HR, 8 RBI) – optioned to AAA; shaky defense and a lack of faith in him hitting .300 for 300 at-bats mean he’s not going to be kept around.
2B Manny Arredondo, 25, B:L, T:R (.223, 0 HR, 2 RBI | .223, 0 HR, 2 RBI) – optioned to AAA; pokey singles bat, but at least with defensive options.

Everybody not mentioned by now has already been waived, reassigned, or swallowed up by merciful Mother Earth by now.

OPENING DAY LINEUP:

Vs. RHP: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey (Colter) – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts (Arantes) – P
(Vs. LHP: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck (Arantes) – RF Tallent – 1B Dowsey (Starr) – 2B Roberts (Arantes) – LF Early – P

It remains a very left-handed leaning lineup, but some small corrections have been made and we will not be *forced* to have three left-handed bats in against southpaws this time around.

OFF SEASON CHANGES:

For a long time the Raccoons led the BNN table of offseason WAR gains, until they were eventually overtaken and dropped to fourth. Even then, much of that was down to not having lost any meaningful amount of WAR to free agency outside of Juan Sanchez (-1.7). Only two trades were made, of which the Dowsey acquisition washed in about +3.3 WAR partly due to the advanced-stats black hole that Spicer had been (I still liked me a good 50 bags stealer…). We also only signed two free agents, Musgrave (+2.7) and Roberts (+2.2).

Top 5: Titans (+11.0), Condors (+8.0), Knights (+7.9), Raccoons (+6.7), Scorpions (+3.6)
Bottom 5: Warriors (-5.1), Cyclones (-5.3), Aces (-6.5), Falcons (-6.6), Wolves (-7.8)

The remaining CL North teams? The Crusaders were 8th with +1.4 WAR, right ahead of the Elks, who had +1.2 WAR. The Indians were in 14th thanks to their foolish trade with the Raccoons, shedding -2.1 WAR, and the Loggers ranked 18th, at -4.7 WAR.

PREDICTION TIME:

Last year I predicted that the Raccoons would not break 75 wins, and they didn’t come close, winning 69 games for real, and would have deserved 60 if going by run differential.

I will make the same prediction again because the ever-revolving bullpen door can’t be slammed shut, the rotation consists largely of wishful thinking, and the lineup is clogged with unmovable players (Monck, Starr, Lopez, Wilson) that are not producing enough to get the team anywhere. I think we’ll still lose 90 games.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT:

I hoped for an improvement or at least for the farm to remain steady, but the Raccoons slipped from 3rd to 8th compared to last season when we had eight ranked prospects, including three in the top 20, and seven in the top 100.

We gained one ranked prospect by head count, but overall lost some ranks, which was partially down to the matriculation of #8 Josh Carrington and #98 Tony Gaytan to the majors.

3rd (+1) – AA INF A.J. Taylor, 22 – 2064 supplemental round pick by Thunder, acquired with Ricky Baca, George van Otterdijk for Josh Elling, Jack Kozak, Tetsu Kurihara
42nd (-23) – A SS/3B Phil Townsend, 20 – 2065 first-round pick by Raccoons
52nd (new) – A SP Crispino D’Urso, 17 – 2065 July IFA signing by Raccoons
73rd (-3) – AA INF Josh Mireles, 21 – 2061 July IFA signed by Raccoons
76th (new) – ML SP Gabriel Rios, 25 – 2060 first-round pick by Indians, acquired with Justin Dowsey for Malcolm Spicer, John Bentley
85th (+2) – AAA INF Brian Hills, 21 – 2064 second-round pick by Raccoons
120th (-29) – AA C Andrew Farlow, 21 – 2064 first-round pick by Raccoons
152nd (new) – A LF/RF/3B/SS Alex Mercedes, 17 – 2066 July IFA signing by Raccoons
170th (new) – ML MR Jason Holzmeister, 22 – 2063 third-round pick by Bayhawks, taken in Rule 5 draft from the Falcons

Only one other previously ranked prospect dropped out of the top 200, #171 George van Otterdijk falling to 11th in the franchise rankings. The franchise top 10 were completed by AA SP Daniel Lopez, an international free agent signed all the way back in ’61.

Please also note that while Josh Mireles slipped only three spots in the rankings, he actually starts the season in Ham Lake again. Last year he was assigned to St. Petersburg.

Finally, the top 10 overall prospects this year are:

#1 (0) – PIT AAA SP Brian Jones, 20
#2 (+15) – SFW AAA SP Alex Diez, 21
#3 (+1) – POR AA SS/3B A.J. Taylor, 22
#4 (-2) – VAN ML INF Roberto Barraza, 20
#5 (-2) – TIJ ML MR Matt Guadagno, 25

#6 (new) – WAS A 3B Steve Dunn, 19
#7 (new) – SAL AAA SP Bill Logalbo, 22
#8 (+1) – WAS AA 1B Armando Curiel, 20
#9 (+5) – CHA AAA MR Orazio Cecere, 23
#10 (+3) – LVA AAA RF/LF Alfredo Rosado, 21

Logalbo had been the top pick in the 2066 draft and had made 18 starts between A and AA before being assigned to AAA South Valley to begin the new season. Dunn was the #3 pick in the most recent draft. Rosado had previously been ranked #3 in 2065.

Matt Guadagno had already been on the Opening Day roster last year, pitched to a 1.26 ERA over 11 games, and then was sent back to AAA Los Reyes without much of an explanation. He was back on the Opening Day roster for another try now.

That still left five players that were top 10 prospects last seasons that were no longer.

Former #5, Rebs outfielder Juan Licona made it into 61 games in the big leagues, but hit only .222 with two homers and lost eligibility. Last year’s #7, Scorpions SP Eric Stengel, also made his big league debut with 16 appearances (one start) and went 0-2 with a 4.85 ERA. He was no longer eligible on service time, same as the Raccoons’ ex-#8 prospect Josh Carrington, and the Caps’ catcher Manuel Rodriguez, who batted .226 with four homers over 99 games after his mid-season promotion to the majors.

Another Rebs prospect, SP Jayden Beck, moved from single- to double-A, but slipped from #6 to #15 in the rankings.

Next: first pitch.

[DD Martin]

No top 200 ranking for any of your 2066 draft picks? That’s doesn’t bode well

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

No top 200 ranking for any of your 2066 draft picks? That’s doesn’t bode well

When have I ever done no damage to the organization with a #5 pick?

19-year-old OF Jack Hamel batted .232/.298/.386 in 75 games for Aumsville, with 18 doubles, 4 homers, and 30 RBI. Also stole six bases. He does not show up in our franchise top 20 prospects.

Nor do any other picks made in that 2066 draft.

This year we have the #4 pick. Better pray for this little ballclub.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Canadiens (0-0) – April 5-6, 2067

The season kicked off on Tuesday with a 2-game set against the vile Elks, who the Raccoons had not taken a season series from in five years, and had only won six games against in each of the last two seasons.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (0-0) vs. Ken Nielsen (0-0)
Nick Walla (0-0) vs. Ray Rath (0-0)

These were all right-handers.

The Raccoons signed lefty reliever Bob West on the morning of the game, but he did not get put in a fitting uniform by game time and was not on the roster for the opener.

Game 1
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – SS D. Moore – LF Chenette – P Nielsen
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama

Carlos Castro opened the season by drawing a walk, but was caught stealing. However, the Elks still got a first-inning run since Matt Kilday and Chad Whetstine put out singles and Nakayama also walked Rick Atkins in a muddy maiden inning. The Raccoons got going with 2-out singles by Lopez and Monck and then immediately left them on base, so we were right back in the groove. Starr and Novelo then began the bottom 2nd with singles, Starr going to third base on Novelo’s hit to left-center. Mike Roberts then grounded out so that Starr could score, tying the game, and while Nakayama grounded out unhelpfully, Jaden Wilson added an RBI single to center for Portland to take the lead. Corral then struck out to leave him aboard. Early-inning singles galore continued with two more Elks singles in the third inning, but those runners remained on base as well. Nakayama then held the 2-1 lead through five, but then was taken deep to center by Rick Atkins to tie the game.

The Raccoons after a few silent innings were at the corners in the bottom 6th when new arrival Justin Dowsey drew a walk and was singled to third base by Starr with one out, but Novelo ripped an 0-2 pitch right at Matt Kilday for an inning-ending double play and I cursed for the first time in the new season. While I wasn’t expecting greatness, I was desperate to finally win the season series against the dastardly Elks!

Nakayama held up in the seventh, then was retained to bunt Mike Roberts to second base after Roberts had drawn a leadoff walk from Nielsen, who was replaced with Josh Meighan, to begin the bottom 7th. Jaden Wilson’s soft single moved the go-ahead run to third base, but Corral lined out to Kilday, and Lopez went down on strikes to waste that particular chance. The Raccoons then rapidly emptied the pen and filled the bases in the top 8th. McMahan nailed Roberto Lozada, Josh C failed Atkins and Whetstine on base, and when Nick Vaughn pinch-hit from the left side in place of Dan Moore, the Coons went to Evan Alvey with three on and two down. Corral ran down a fly in the gap to end the inning. Alvey put Andy Friend and Carlos Castro – left-handed batters – on base in the ninth inning, but they remained stranded. The game right away went to extras, where Juan Soriano pitched a scoreless inning before boarding a bus to the airport, and the Raccoons frittered away Corral and Lopez reaching base in the bottom 10th in the second inning of Jon McGinley pitching when Monck struck out and Randy Tallent batted for Dowsey, who was weak against left-handers, but grounded out.

Dover was next with a scoreless inning in the 11th. His spot came up after Robbie Lingard gave up soft singles to Starr and Arantes, the latter having pinch-hit for Roberts the previous time through the lineup. With the winning run at second base, Jamie Colter pinch-hit for Dover, but found a double play to extend the game. We went on to waste two innings from Yamauchi, which then left only the Rule 5er Holzmeister in the pen. He struck out the first ABL batter he faced, Tyler Chenette, and had a 1-2-3 14th inning before being pinch-hit for with Marquise Early, the last stick on the bench, while Gabriel Rios, the scheduled #5 starter, was warming up in the pen to go until the bitter end from here. Wilson hit a 2-out single in the bottom 14th against Dallas Samson, got second base on a wild pitch, but Corral grounded out and the game dragged on.

Rios then entered, taking the #2 spot, with Early to left and Tallent to right. Rios began his Coons career with a Kilday fly to center, but then allowed a single to Lozada and walked Atkins before striking out Whetstine and Steve Varner, who by this point was 1-for-7 with a *platinum* sombrero. The Coons did nothing in the bottom 15th, and Rios added another shutout inning, only to be ignored again. He retired the Elks in order in the 17th inning and between half-frames Tony Gaytan walked his way down to the bullpen, just in case, y’know… The bottom 17th began with the #9 spot, which still held Marquise Early, and Marquise Early had seen enough. He cranked a 400-footer to end the ballgame…! 3-2 Blighters! Wilson 4-7, RBI; Lopez 2-6, BB; Starr 3-7; Early 1-2, HR, RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; Yamauchi 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; Rios 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (1-0);

Juan Soriano (0-0, 0.00 ERA) ended up on waivers as the Raccoons activated Bob West for the second and final game of the series.

Justin Aguilar also got the start behind the dish in place of Lopez, who caught all 17 innings of the opener.

Game 2
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – SS Barraza – LF Chenette – P Rath
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Walla

Everybody but Yamauchi was readily available for this game, and of course if push came to shove there were yet more starters just sitting around on the bench… Nick Walla was cordially invited to go nine though. He blazed five Elks on strikes in the first three innings, allowing a single to Whetstine, who was doubled up by Varner to clean up. However, Rick Atkins got him for a 2-out solo homer in the fourth inning, which marked the first score in the game, as the Raccoons were on one base hit themselves after three innings. Rich Monck doubled to right leading off the bottom 4th, but was stranded by the 4-5-6 batters, while Varner led off the fifth with a single to left. Roberto Barraza got the runner forced out, but Chenette then drew a walk, Rath bunted the runners over, and Castro drove them in with a clean single through the left side, 3-0. Walla continued to get battered in the sixth, giving up two more runs on hits by Atkins, Whetstine, and Barraza, before being yanked down five, with two outs and a runner on first. Bob West came in right away and struck out Chenette to end the inning.

West got two more outs in the seventh before Kilday and Lozada reached with a 2-out single and walk, respectively. Carrington came in for Atkins, gave up a single to him to load the bases, and then an RBI single to Whetstine before Varner was kind enough to strike out to leave the bases loaded in a 6-0 game. The Coons pieced the last two innings together between Josh C and McMahan, who did not allow additional runs, but neither did the Elks, as Rath and Lingard pitched a combined 5-hitter between them to shut out the Critters. 6-0 Canadiens. Novelo 2-3;

Raccoons (1-1) vs. Knights (1-2) – April 8-10, 2067

The Knights had lost two of three to the Condors to begin the year, scoring just nine runs, which was still dandy compared to the Coons’ three runs in 26 innings… Atlanta had won the season series for the last two years, going 5-4 on Portland in ’66. The Raccoons would play ten straight games without another off day from here, all at home.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (0-0) vs. Keith Thompson (0-0)
Tony Gaytan (0-0) vs. Luis Briseno (0-0)
Gabriel Rios (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Adam Lunn (0-1, 10.38 ERA)

Those were also all right-handers lined up for the Knights. The Coons were unlikely to see a southpaw before next Wednesday.

Game 1
ATL: RF V.D. Morales – C Hart – LF J. Acuna – CF J. Evans – 1B Giles – SS J. Munoz – 2B Fumero – 3B R. Cox – P K. Thompson
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Musgrave in his Coons debut did not get a strikeout the first time through against the Knights, and until after Keith Thompson hit a third-inning double off him. He then walked Victor David Morales, then struck out Justin Hart and Javier Acuna to get going. The Raccoons took the lead in the bottom 3rd when Wilson walked and was singled in by Lopez with two outs, but Monck then flew out.

Both teams were on just two base hits in the bottom 5th but the Raccoons had the bases loaded with Roberts (who doubled for that second hit), Corral, and Lopez, who had been walked aboard with two outs for Rich Monck, who was 2-for-13 out of the gates, and struck out to not make it any better. Acuna and Steve Giles singled for Atlanta in the sixth but Wilson tracked down Jorge Munoz’ 2-out fly to end the inning. Dowsey opened the bottom 6th with a single to right, his first Raccoons hit after an 0-for-8 start. Starr popped out, Novelo singled to left, and Roberts popped out. With Musgrave on 89 pitches after six shutout innings, the Raccoons chose violence and batted Colter for him with two outs. He grounded out to Carlos Fumero, and that was that…

The Raccoons then wished for the 7-8-9 batters to be seen by Jason Holzmeister in the seventh inning, which immediately derailed the entire ballgame. Fumero led off with a single, advanced on a wild pitch and stole third base, and scored on a safety squeeze with Thompson poking and reaching first base to add insult to injury. He scored on Justin Hart’s 2-out double to give Atlanta a 2-1 lead. Bottom 7th, Thompson walked Wilson, who then scored on Corral’s double into the rightfield corner, tying the score right back up. Thompson issued a sixth walk to the outing to Lopez, then was yanked in favor of Kody Mello, who got BOMBED by Rich Monck for a 3-run homer to right!!

Up 5-2, the Raccoons went to Alvey for the eighth inning. Alvey put two guys on, then surrendered a run when Dowsey dropped a fly ball for a run-scoring error. At least PH Casey Ramsey, who could have been the Coons’ a thousand times over during the previous 12 months, pinch-hit and popped out in the #9 spot, ending the inning. Former Raccoon Elijah LaBat got the bottom 8th, and three straight singles by Roberts, Early, and Wilson loaded the bases with nobody out. He struck out Corral then and Lopez hit into a double play, ensuring that no runs were tacked on and Jesse Dover got to try his paw on a save for the first time in ’67. He gave up a ninth-inning run on singles by Morales and Jake Evans before finally slamming the damn door shut… 5-4 Raccoons. Roberts 2-4, 2B; Early (PH) 1-1; Musgrave 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

First career W for Jason Holzmeister. Who else on the team didn’t have a win for his career? No pitcher, unfortunately.

Game 2
ATL: RF V.D. Morales – C Hart – LF J. Acuna – CF J. Evans – 1B Giles – SS J. Munoz – 2B Fumero – 3B R. Cox – P K. Thompson
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Arantes – P Gaytan

Tony Gaytan was the #4 starter, but the last guy to touch the baseball in earnest due to Rios’ late-night outing on Opening Day. He faced Knights Opening Day starter Adam Lunn as they delayed Briseno for later use and preferably none at all.

Gaytan ran a few full counts to begin the game, allowing a single to Justin Hart, who was then doubled up on a bouncer to third base by Acuna, 5-4-3. Jake Evans began the second with a double to left, but Gaytan struck out both Steve Giles and Jorge Munoz in more full counts. Evans was left stranded by Fumero, just like Dowsey, who also had a second-inning double. The third was calm, while Justin Hart hit a homer to right off Gaytan in the fourth to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead that was immediately erased on back-to-back doubles by Starr and Novelo in the bottom of the inning, although that go-ahead run was again left in scoring position.

Gaytan ran up seven strikeouts through five innings before Morales’ leadoff double to left and Acuna’s RBI single to right gave the Knights a 2-1 lead in the sixth. Gaytan struck out two more for nine total in seven innings before his pitch count and the fact that his spot led off the bottom 7th ended his day. Colter batted for him and singled, then was forced out by Wilson, who stole second, and reached third base when the Knights’ middle infielders failed to contain Hart’s throw between them and the ball got into centerfield. That allowed Corral to tie the game with a sac fly to Acuna in left, 2-2. Lopez hit another single, but Monck popped out to second to leave him on. Colter remained in Monck’s spot then, with Yamauchi pitching a 1-2-3 eighth from the #4 hole. Dowsey hit a leadoff single in the bottom 8th, but was immediately doubled up on a 4-6-3 bouncer by Starr. Yamauchi and West held the line in the ninth, and Brad Fales retired Arantes to begin the home half of the ninth, but Colter singled. Tallent ran for him, stole second, and then was left on second base anyway as the top of the order amounted to an intentional walk to Corral and nothing else. Lopez struck out to send the game to extras.

West had a scoreless tenth, but the Raccoons’ Roberts, Dowsey, and Starr failed to reach base against Fales in his second inning in the bottom 10th, and at this point I *did* fear another long game. McMahan handled the 11th before Novelo struck a leadoff double to center to begin the bottom 11th against LaBat. Arantes flew out, but Tallent walked. The runners then embarked on a double steal, which only led to an intentional walk to Wilson to get the force play at home set up for Corral, who was .133 early on. Early batted for him against the southpaw, and got his second walkoff RBI of the season when he laid off the garbage LaBat tried to bait him with. The game ended on a walkoff walk…! 3-2 Blighters. Early (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Lopez 3-4, BB; Dowsey 2-5, 2B; Novelo 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Colter (PH) 2-2; Gaytan 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K;

Marquise Early, walkoff machine! At this point he had earned himself a start on Sunday. That would come against Vince Ellison (1-0, 2.25 ERA).

Game 3
ATL: CF Fumero – C Hart – 1B M. Medina – RF V.D. Morales – LF J. Acuna – 2B J. Munoz – SS C. Ramsey – 3B R. Cox – P Ellison
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – RF Dowsey – 1B Starr – LF Early – 2B Roberts – P Rios

Rios did not reconnect to his Tuesday success, walking Fumero and drilling Hart hard to begin the game. He allowed a run to score on Morales’ single, and then fumbled a Munoz grounder for an error before finally getting Ramsey out to leave the bases loaded in a dragging first inning. Rios got into more of a groove from the second inning and struck out five through that many innings, while nursing a 3-hitter at that point. However, he still trailed 1-0, which the Coons’ offense, on two singles through five, made seem like a whole bunch.

The sixth was then again tedious for Rios, who walked Miguel Medina – forced out by Morales on a grounder – and Acuna, and then had Dowsey run down a 2-out drive to right by Ramsey to keep the Knights from tacking on runs. Rios got two outs in the seventh before Fumero struck a triple against him and he lost the switch-hitting Hart on balls, after which Josh C replaced him against Medina, but Medina was hit for with the left-handed hitting Steve Giles, who however flew out easily to Early and left the insurance runs on the corners.

Instead, Monck hit a leadoff jack to get even at one in the bottom 7th, after which Carrington resolved to walk the bases full without retiring anybody in the eighth inning. Dover retired the 7-8-9 in order, but allowed the go-ahead run to score on a Ramsey sac fly. Roberts drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 8th and got doubled up, 4-3, when Jose Corral pinch-hit and lodged a screamer right into Munoz’ mitten, with Roberts far off first base and easily doubled up. Top 9th, Alvey got the ball, faced four batters, and retired none of them. Single, single, single, run-scoring wild pitch, and a four-pitch walk to Morales went the Knights against him before he was chased and replaced with Yamauchi, who fanned Acuna and got a 1-6-3 double play bouncer from Munoz to kill the rally, but the gap was now two runs. Novelo and Lopez made quick outs to begin the bottom 9th before Monck legged out an infield single to bring up Dowsey as the tying run against Fales. Dowsey singled narrowly over Munoz, and Monck stopped at second base. Starr was now the winning run, but grounded out to Ramsey to end the game. 3-1 Knights. Monck 3-4, HR, RBI;

The Raccoons had five hits, and Monck had a majority of them.

We had scored just 12 runs in six games’ worth of innings in this first week…

Raccoons (3-2) vs. Aces (5-2) – April 11-13, 2067

The Aces in turn had pounded out 32 runs, fourth in the CL, and allowed 39th, nearly bottoms, in their seven games in the first week. Whether that opened a gap for the limp Raccoons offense at all remained to be seen.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Chris Monahan (0-0, 3.00 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-1, 7.94 ERA) vs. Matthew May (0-0, 7.20 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Gabe Molina (1-0, 0.00 ERA)

May would be the first southpaw we would see all year in game #7, and Wednesday could be either the left-hander Molina or righty Tim Henderson (0-1, 3.38 ERA). Both had pitched in a double-header on Saturday and would have to go on short rest.

Game 1
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – CF Marazzo – LF Lorenzo – 3B A. Alfaro – 2B Vic. Morales – 1B M. Davis – RF Caceres – C A. Perez – P Monahan
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama

The Raccoons reached in one way or another seven out of nine times the first time through, but of the two that didn’t Rich Monck hit into an inning-ending double play with Wilson and Starr on the corners in the first inning. Aguilar, Dowsey, and Novelo then all reached base to begin the bottom 2nd. Mike Roberts dropped a soft RBI single behind Koji Hatakeyama for the game’s first run, and Nakayama’s grounder was then mishandled by Monahan himself for a run-scoring error. That allowed Wilson to hit a sac fly to make it 3-0, and while a soft Corral single loaded the bases again, Starr flew out to leave the bases loaded.

Nakayama faced the minimum the first time through, offering a walk and getting a double play grounder from Mike Davis in the second inning. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before ex-Coon Vic Morales took it away with a single to left. Jorge Caceres also singled in the inning, but Angel Perez, another ex-Coon, flew out to center to leave the runners on base. Hatakeyama hit a single in the sixth, but got doubled off on Nate Marazzo’s grounder to Monck, 5-4-3. While Nakayama kept clicking off innings, the Raccoons were silent for a long time until the bottom 7th, when Nakayama reached on an error by Hatakeyama, and the Coons proceeded to have a single from Wilson against Adam Johnson, who was then taken very deep by Jose Corral for a 3-run homer that doubled the score. The shutout then ran out in the eighth for Nakayama, as he issued a walk to Caceres and then got plonked for three singles, including 2-out RBI singles by Hatakeyama and Marazzo that got the Aces on the board. Dover then replaced him for a 4-out save, popping out Vic Lorenzo to second base to quell the most immediate threat, and then got the 4-5-6 batters in order in the ninth inning. 6-2 Raccoons. Wilson 2-4, RBI; Corral 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Starr 2-4; Colter 1-1; Nakayama 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Game 2
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – CF Marazzo – LF Lorenzo – 3B A. Alfaro – 2B Vic. Morales – 1B M. Davis – RF Caceres – C A. Perez – P May
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 1B Starr – LF Early – 3B Monck – 2B Roberts – RF Tallent – P Walla

The Aces scored first on a Marazzo double and Alex Alfaro’s RBI single, both to left in the first inning, but the Raccoons’ best player – Marquise Early, obviously – tied the game back up in the bottom 1st with an RBI single that scored Novelo. Starr was also on base, but Rich Monck grounded out to strand that pair. Walla didn’t look right though, and brought no stuff. In exchange he got hit around a bit. The defense held up for a while, but in the fourth inning the 4-thru’-7 batters for the Aces hit a pile of singles to get the go-ahead run across against Walla, and then left the bases loaded. The Coons took hm off the hook again in the fifth inning with hits from Randy Tallent and Pablo Novelo, but Walla was already on 91 pitches through five innings, having given up seven hits and a walk along the way. Angel Perez hit a single off him in the sixth, but was left on; however due to the advanced pitch count, Walla was then out of the game after six gnarly innings.

Carrington got three groundouts in the seventh inning, which was preferable to walking the sacks full, while the Coons faced Steven Hudson – one of their failed Rule 5 picks from the year before – in the sixth and seventh. Hudson was a Rule 5 pick *again*, and this early time came in with an ERA over ten. He had a quick sixth before allowing singles to Tallent and Dowsey to start off the bottom 7th. However, Wilson popped out and Novelo hit into a double play to fritter the chance away before new Coon Bob West and old Coon Jeremy Garvey shared a scoreless eighth. The Raccoons then boldly went on to use their own Rule 5er, Jason Holzmeister, in the ninth inning. Perez hit a leadoff single, but Phil LeVan popped out and Hatakeyama whiffed before Marazzo grounded out to short. The Raccoons failed to score either, however, and soon found themselves in their third extra-inning game in seven tries. We hung with Holzmeister, who now gave up a leadoff triple to Vic Lorenzo, and three more hits throughout the tenth inning to have the game explode all over his face. The Raccoons reserved a potential answer for tomorrow, failing to reach base against Jon Dominguez in the bottom 10th… 5-2 Aces. Novelo 2-4, BB, RBI; Tallent 2-4; Dowsey (PH) 1-1;

We *did* get another left-hander with Gabe Molina for the rubber game. Since the Loggers did not carry a righty starter for the weekend set of four games, every lefty stick that had yet to get a day off, got that day off on Wednesday: Wilson, Monck, and Starr were all on the bench to begin that game, while Dowsey was back in.

Somehow, Randy Tallent ended up batting cleanup?

Game 3
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – CF Marazzo – LF Lorenzo – 3B A. Alfaro – 2B Vic. Morales – 1B M. Davis – RF Caceres – C A. Perez – P G. Molina
POR: SS Novelo – RF Corral – C Lopez – CF Tallent – 1B Dowsey – LF Early – 3B Arantes – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Portland took a lead after three batters in the bottom 1st, as Corral found the right-center gap for a 1-out triple and then scored on Lopez’ basic single up the middle. Tallent then hit into a double play. The lead didn’t last; Musgrave had no stuff, and while he retired the first six Aces he faced, Jorge Caceres then singled, stole second, and reached third base on Lopez’ throwing error. Since Musgrave couldn’t fool anybody, not even the pitcher Molina, he surrendered the game-tying groundout to the #9 batter. The Aces then took a lead in the fourth with a sharp leadoff double from Lorenzo and Alfaro’s RBI single. However – the Coons had Early in the lineup, and Early didn’t disappoint and followed a Dowsey double to right with an RBI single of his own. This gave Marquise Early four RBI, all of which had come to tie or win a game.

Things continued to not work out well for Musgrave; when he singled in the bottom 5th he was doubled up by Novelo, and then he gave up another four singles for the go-ahead run in the sixth, but the Aces didn’t bat for Molina with three on and two outs, and Molina grounded out to Starr to end the inning. It was also the end of Musgrave’s trying outing, giving up nine hits for a singular strikeout. Yamauchi pitched a scoreless inning after Musgrave left, then was hit for with Monck with two outs and Arantes on first base in the bottom 7th. Molina had Monck at 1-2 before giving up a drive that was surely 400 feet… but it went to the 418’ part of the ballpark and Marazzo made it back in time to make a running catch.

Both teams then put a pair on without scoring in the eighth. Dowsey struck out after a 2-out double by Lopez and a walk drawn by Tallent against Molina, who was holding out pretty long for having come in on short rest… Evan Alvey, who was tasked with getting six outs at the tail end here, then unraveled and was beaten up for four hits and three 2-out runs in the ninth inning, driven in by Alfaro and Vic Morales. Thankfully the Raccoons did not have any offense in the bottom 9th anyway…. 6-2 Aces. Lopez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Arantes 1-2, BB;

In other news

April 4 – Opening Day ends with a broken finger and six weeks on the DL for NAS 3B Rick Healey (3-for-4, 0 HR, 0 RBI) after getting hit by PIT CL Ryan Croft (0-0, 0.00 ERA) in a game that the Blue Sox eventually win, 4-1 in 11 innings.
April 5 – OCT SP Ben Seiter (1-0, 0.00 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Bayhawks in his first start for the Thunder.
April 8 – Left-handed MR Ubaldo Piteira, who tore his UCL with the Raccoons in 2066 and signed a contract with the Stars in the offseason, re-tears his elbow during rehab and has to get surgery again, although his arm will no longer be able to be used for baseball purposes and he is forced to retire. The 27-year-old went 28-18 with a 3.78 ERA and got 16 saves in a 6-year career.
April 8 – The Condors beat the Loggers, 14-7 in 12 innings with a 7-run outburst in the top of the 12th. Rule 5 pick LF/RF/1B Trent Brassfield (.389, 0 HR, 6 RBI) has four hits and four RBI in the game.
April 8 – Denver beats Cincy, 12-5 in 15 innings, also breaking out for a 7-run inning in the 15th. DEN RF/SS Ted Lloyd (.667, 1 HR, 4 RBI) goes 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI despite not entering the game until the eighth inning.
April 8 – The Rebs stuff the Scorpions, 16-7. Six runs are driven in by RIC 1B Jerry Morejon (.267, 2 HR, 9 RBI) on two hits, including a grand slam.

April 9 – The Cyclones beat the Stars, 1-0 in ten innings. CIN OF/1B/3B Dallas Baker (.238, 0 HR, 1 RBI) draws a bases-loaded walk from DEN MR Bill Goda (0-1, 4.50 ERA) to force in the game’s only run for a walkoff.
April 9 – For curiosity, of the six CL games on Saturday, three end with a score of 3-2, and the other three end with a score of 4-1.
April 10 – Rebs SP Luis Olvera (1-0, 0.53 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout against the Stingers for a 6-0 win.
April 10 – New Bayhawks signing SP Juan Sanchez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) hits the DL with bone chips in his elbow and will miss four months at least.
April 10 – The Crusaders thrash the Aces, 16-2, putting up three separate 5+ spots. New Crusaders catcher David Johnson (.278, 0 HR, 5 RBI) drives in five runs on three hits, including a bases-clearing double.
April 12 – The Condors beat the Crusaders, 3-0 in *14* innings. Both teams only muster four hits apiece through a game-and-a-half, with the Condors having just a C/1B Mike Brann (.294, 2 HR, 7 RBI) single through 13 innings.

FL Player of the Week: SFW OF Danny Perez (.520, 2 HR, 5 RBI)
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Rick Atkins (.538, 2 HR, 3 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

Eight games down, and the Raccoons scored a whole 22 runs in the process. Never mind that we actually played more innings due to all the overtime shenanigans. We have a -8 run differential, which obviously extrapolates to -162 for a full season, although that’s perhaps a silly calculation in the second week of the season. But yeah, the offense is already showing all sorts of red flags again, all of which one could see coming, minus perhaps Dowsey hitting NOTHING through eight games.

I will claim ignorance as to why 2066 Raccoons pitchers that went elsewhere are dropping like flies.

Ricky McMahan got the 7,600th regular season W on Saturday against the Knights when Marquise Early ended the game by drawing the bases-loaded walk. He’s the first reliever in six years (Ruben Mendez) to grab a hundo win for the Raccoons, which is partially also down to the general lack of wins around here.

Chance Fox will start his rehab assignment to St. Pete these coming days.

The Loggers will come in for four games over the weekend and then it’s right away off for a 2-week, 3-country road trip.

Fun Fact: Today is the anniversary of both a Loggers no-hitter against the Crusaders, and a Crusaders cycle against the Loggers.

Michael Foreman wore the forest-green cap in a no-hitter against the Crusaders, 2-0, on April 13 in 2018. Exactly 40 years later, Gunner Epperson hit his second career cycle in a 14-8 game against the Loggers.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (4-4) vs. Loggers (5-4) – April 14-17, 2067

The Loggers were in for four games over the weekend to conclude the initial homestand, and brought the third-most runs scored and fifth-fewest runs allowed after the first few ballgames. Certainly they’d still manage to get rid of that +11 run differential at some point, but for now led the CL with a .370 OBP, outdoing the Raccoons by a crisp 67 points. Milwaukee had won the season series for the past two seasons, 11-7 in 2066.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (0-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (1-0, 1.13 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-0, 0.93 ERA) vs. Julio Robles (0-2, 4.05 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (1-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (2-0, 2.08 ERA)
Nick Walla (0-1, 5.40 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (0-1, 3.18 ERA)

Matt Crist was a 25-year-old rookie making his third big-league start. All four starters offered up by the Loggers were right-handers.

Game 1
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – 3B Reber – LF Alaniz – C Lulich – P Crist
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan

The first five batters in the Loggers’ lineup were all left-handed, and Tony Gaytan didn’t do too great with them. Tim Goss in the first inning and Carlos Dominguez in the second both had leadoff knocks, but were then stranded when the Loggers found defenders with hard contact. Crist, leading off the third inning, did not reach, but the Loggers then put a run together with hits by Goss and Cesar Ramirez anyway. Soon after, it began to rain. The Raccoons had no hits the first time through before Jose Corral and Ramon Lopez poked 2-out singles in the bottom 3rd, but then Monck grounded out to Goss. The bottom 4th began with a soft single by Justin Dowsey and Joel Starr doubling to left, putting a pair in scoring position. Novelo tied the game with a groundout, but Roberts popped out, and then the tarp came on the field for half an hour until the rain let up a bit. Gaytan batted for himself at that point, singled to right-center, and gave himself a 2-1 lead with two outs…!

Gaytan then made it through five innings at least, although the control was now off as well and he was behind everybody in the fifth inning, in which Crist got a revenge single, but was then doubled up on Goss’ grounder to Mike Roberts. Crist wasn’t doing much better in the bottom 5th, allowing hits to Corral and Lopez to send them to the corners before Rich Monck added on a run with a groundout. Dowsey hit into a fielder’s choice, Starr drew a walk, but Novelo flew out easily to right to leave a pair stranded. Gaytan came back for the sixth, but walked Fidel Carrera on straight balls, the runner stole second, and then scored on Dominguez’ hard double to left. The Raccoons pulled Gaytan, and Josh C managed to strand the tying run on base against the 6-7-8 batters, who all made meek outs.

Bottom 6th, Roberts got on base before the Loggers also yanked their wet starter for left-hander Tony Espinosa, who was however taken deep to right by Jaden Wilson, 5-2. Dowsey and Starr opened the next inning with hits and Roberts drew another walk, but there was also a pair of strikeouts by Espinosa on Colter and Wilson to end the inning with the bases loaded. Bob West had by then pitched a scoreless seventh for Portland added another out in the eighth inning. Holzmeister retired two batters to complete eight, and Ricky McMahan put away the Loggers in order in the ninth inning to claim his first save of the season. 5-2 Raccoons. Corral 2-3, BB, 2B; Lopez 3-5; Dowsey 2-3, BB; Starr 2-3, BB, 2B;

Game 2
MIL: 2B Goss – 3B Reber – 1B C. Ramirez – RF D. Wright – LF C. Dominguez – SS F. Carrera – CF Alaniz – C Guitreau – P Ju. Robles
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Arantes – P Rios

While the Coons on Friday hit into double plays with Monck in the first and Starr in the second inning, Rios had a fairly nice start to the game with not a lot of kibble allowed to the Loggers in the first three innings, but oh boy did it go wrong in the fourth… He lost Dave Wright on a leadoff walk, then right away conceded the game’s first run on a Dominguez double, and on the very next pitch Fidel Carrera clanked a 2-run homer off the right foul pole for a 3-0 Loggers lead. The inning then dragged on with a Novelo error – his second in the game – and a Goss single before Rios finally got Kyle Reber on strikes to go and sit down again, smoldering. Monck then hit a leadoff single and was doubled up by Dowsey in the bottom of the fourth, which made it one two-for-one for all three of the presumed punchers in the 4-5-6 spots, and with five innings to spare…!

The Loggers then took Rios apart for another three runs on a barrage of singles – and a bases-loaded walk to Tommy Guitreau – in the fifth inning, after which he wasn’t seen again. The Coons then needed two innings from Evan Alvey, who entered the sixth and allowed a single to Reber, an RBI double to Ramirez, a walk to Wright, and then a 3-piece over the centerfield fence to Dominguez, all without getting an out. A mound conference helped nothing as Carrera hit another single and then Lopez peppered away Mario Alaniz’ droppings in front of home plate for a 2-base error. Alvey was then replaced with Holzmeister, and I got mentally ready to have a position player pitch in the tenth game of the season by opening a bottle of Capt’n Coma. Holzmeister walked Guitreau to fill the bases, then popped up Robles to second base, which was the first ACTUAL out of the ******* inning. Goss’ sac fly made it 11-0, but Reber grounded out to end the inning. The Loggers shrugged and whacked Holzmeister for two runs on three hits in the seventh instead…

Rest assured that the Raccoons were taking their turns at-bat orderly during this furious 13-run shelling inside of four innings, there just wasn’t anything to write home about for them. Yamauchi finally ended the assault with a scoreless eighth before Jose Corral hit the most meaningless homer we had seen in a while to lead off the bottom 8th. Monck got on and was singled in by Starr with two outs for more lipstick on more pigs. Novelo was then out to pitch in the ninth inning, in which the Loggers fell over each other to run up the score by another five runs, and in which Cesar Ramirez appeared to tweak a hammy in all the outrage. 18-2 Loggers. Corral 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Monck 2-4; Novelo 3-4;

Dominguez had five hits and drove in five runs, while the Raccoons didn’t even look like they had five claws on every paw…

Game 3
MIL: LF Alaniz – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – 2B Ahumada – RF D. Wright – C Lulich – P Waldron
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – 2B Roberts – SS Tallent – P Nakayama

Nakayama appeared to stop the bleeding on Saturday and lined up zeroes, while the Raccoons took a lead in the bottom 2nd when Dowsey singled and Starr hit a double off the wall to get him around to score. Starr was stranded, but two innings later Ramon Lopez hit a single and Rich Monck cranked a homer to left to extend the lead to 3-0.

For a while Nakayama gave the Raccoons reasonable hope that all of this might be enough to get a good result and restore the bullpen. Through five innings the Loggers had precious little against him, but Jonathan Merrill then struck a leadoff double to left in the sixth that bounced fair by an inch, and the floodgates opened after a K on Ramirez. Carrera walked, Reber hit an RBI single, and after a Jose Ahumada pop to third base, Wright singled, Ian Lulich doubled, Waldron singled, and Alaniz singled, and in a real hurry the Loggers had put another 5-spot on Nakayama, who was then yanked and trudged off the hill, ears and whiskers hanging. Merrill grounded out to first against Bob West, stranding runners on the corners in the 5-3 game. Monck shortened the score to 5-4 in the bottom of the inning with another homer, but the Loggers answered with a Ramirez single and a pinch-hit Guitreau homer off West in the seventh…

Despite being down 7-4, the Raccoons still threatened against the Loggers pen in the eighth inning as both Corral and Monck drew walks. Dowsey popped out against Tony Espinosa, but Starr clipped a 2-out RBI single and brought the go-ahead run to the dish, although Roberts grounded out against fresh lefty Nick Walters, a 23-year-old rookie. Josh C and Dover put the last two innings in the books for Portland, while Tallent, Novelo, and Wilson went down in order against Vincent Hernandez in the bottom of the ninth… 7-5 Loggers. Monck 2-3, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Starr 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Game 4
MIL: LF Alaniz – CF Merrill – 1B C. Ramirez – RF C. Dominguez – 3B Reber – 2B Ahumada – SS Murcia – C Guitreau – P Pizzichini
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Colter – SS Novelo – 2B Arantes – P Walla

Ramon Lopez drove in three runs in the first two innings, first plating Wilson with a single in the first, and then Wilson *and* Corral, who had gone through with a double steal, in the second inning. Wilson had already driven in Leon Arantes, who had begun the inning with a single and had stolen second base, and Joel Starr would with two outs double home Lopez for a 4-run second inning, breaking a 1-1 tie; Walla had given up a run with a leadoff single to right by Dominguez, a walk to Ahumada, a groundout, and a wild pitch in the top 2nd. Wilson would plate Arantes again with a 2-out RBI single in the bottom 3rd, although this time Arantes had reached on an error. “Pizza” however was sliced at this point, and replaced with right-hander Jose Soto, who gave up a single to Corral, but Lopez then lined out to Rafael Murcia at short to end the inning.

Walla ran up a pitch count, throwing 84 offerings in five innings, although he only gave up that Dominguez single earlier in addition to two walks and seven strikeouts, most of which came in long counts of 2-2 or 3-2. He bunted Arantes and his 1-out single to second base in the bottom 5th, and Jaden Wilson drove the second-sacker in for the third time in the game, now hitting an RBI double to right-center off Soto before Corral grounded out to second. Walla however had only one more inning in him, allowing straight singles to the all-left-handed 2-3-4 batters in the top 6th to load the bases, but then Kyle Reber spanked a ball into a 5-4-3 double play on Walla’s 100th and final pitch of the game. Evan Alvey followed and had another meltdown, allowing two walks, three hits, and three runs to mostly left-handed batters in the seventh inning, ******* away half of the Coons’ 7-1 lead.

But the Critters responded in the bottom 7th against Aiden Shaw, filling the bags with Arantes, Wilson, and Corral, two walks and a single, before Ramon Lopez cracked a 2-run double to left, 9-4. Monck and Starr both struck out, leaving a pair in scoring position. Carrington then had a 1-2-3 eighth, while McMahan put two Loggers on base in the ninth inning, but sorted out his own mess and grounded out Cesar Ramirez to end the game. 9-4 Raccoons. Wilson 4-5, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Corral 2-4, BB; Lopez 3-5, 2B, 5 RBI; Starr 3-5, 2B, RBI; Arantes 3-4, BB; Walla 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-1);

That ended the long season-opening homestand, with the Raccoons leaving on Monday with a .500 record.

They left for Boston though, so…

Raccoons (6-6) @ Titans (8-4) – April 19-21, 2067

The Titans were atop the division after two weeks, although they had yet to really kick it into gear. While the pitchers had allowed the fewest runs so far, the bullpen had been beaten up a bit, and the offense ranked only fifth in runs scored. Boston had to make good against the Raccoons, who had somehow stolen a split of the season series last year, but had not actually beaten the Titans over the course of a full season since 2061. Boston reliever Jose Gomez was on the DL, finishing rehab on a torn rotator cuff suffered last season.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (0-1, 2.25 ERA) vs. Tyler Riddle (1-1, 2.25 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (1-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (2-0, 0.73 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-1, 4.30 ERA) vs. Matt Taylor (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

The Titans had played on only two of the last five days, having had Thursday and Monday off, and had been rained out on Saturday, with a double-header split with the Crusaders on Sunday. Jason Brenize (3-0, 1.64 ERA) and Mike Bell (2-1, 2.37 ERA) had pitched in those games and were not available for this series, but the other three could be sent up in any order. They were leading off with ex-Coon Tyler Riddle, the only lefty, though. Taylor had yet to make a start this year, having only pitched in relief so far.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – RF Corral – 3B Arantes – 1B Starr – LF Early – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave
BOS: LF S. Humphries – RF A. Lee – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – 2B Jer. White – SS Onelas – 3B C. Pena – P Riddle

The Tuesday opener saw a former Raccoon doing very well against the Raccoons, allowing only three soft hits in the first six innings, while the former Titan was constantly in trouble, gave up a run in the first on hits by Steve Humphries and Jorge Arviso, another run in the third on an RBI double by Bill Joyner that scored Andy Lee before he walked the bags full and was lucky that Cesar Pena popped out to Arantes, and another run in the sixth on a Marcos Onelas single, Pena’s double, and PH Tony Rodriquez’ run-scoring groundout. Corral then raced down a Humphries drive to deep right to end the inning, and both pitchers were done at this point since Riddle had been hit for. Getting through six took Musgrave 116 pitches, and he wasn’t gonna throw any more. Raccoons relief from Bob West and Holzmeister was scoreless, but Titans relief from Tyler Gleason and Cody Kleidon was hitless, and the Raccoons lost the opener without much of a squeal. 3-0 Titans.

And the Titans pitcher on Wednesday was……

Nobody. It rained all day.

Come and see us try play two on Thursday then!

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan
BOS: LF S. Humphries – RF A. Lee – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – 2B Jer. White – SS Onelas – 3B C. Pena – P B. Wallace

Jaden Wilson narrowly missed a home run to begin the game, hitting a ball off the top of the rightfield wall for a double, and the rest of the team narrowly missed scoring him by two bases with a pair of strikeouts and Starr’s fly out to Humphries… Gaytan had an interesting first run through the lineup. He got three easy and quick groundouts in the first inning, then allowed straight singles to the 4-5-6 batters to lead off the second inning and load the bases with Bostonians. Then he got three pops on the infield from the 7-8-9 crowd and all the runners remained stranded.

Boston got him in the third, though, with Humphries bashing a leadoff triple and scoring on Lee’s groundout, and then Eddie Marcotte lobbed a homer over the fence with apparent ease. The Raccoons did not have another base hit until Wilson hit another double with one out in the sixth (…), after which a shy Corral single and Starr walking loaded the bases for Rich Monck, who found a double play to bobble into, and nobody scored (again). Jeremy White then doubled home Joyner to extend the Titans’ lead to 3-0 in the bottom 6th.

The Raccoons had the bags full again in the seventh, then unearned and with no outs as the 5-6-7 had all gotten on, Dowsey doing so on an error by White. Roberts popped out, Gaytan whiffed, and Wilson rolled over to short. Gaytan perhaps only batted because he had oxygen left and because we were looking another game right after the conclusion of this one. On the bright paw, he finished eight innings on 99 pitches, albeit the metrics were outta whack. He would get credit for a complete-game 10-hitter, and a loss, because the Raccoons only scored in the ninth inning, and with two outs, on back-to-back doubles by Randy Tallent and Mike Roberts, and then Arantes grounded out in Gaytan’s spot. 3-1 Titans. Wilson 2-4, 2 2B; Tallent (PH) 1-1, 2B; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 10 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, L (1-1);

Valiant effort, though depressingly fruitless. I was taking note though that Gaytan had struck out 18 batters in 20 innings, against just one walk. He led the team in whiffs at this point, although Rios would only need five in the second game to pass him.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – 1B Starr – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – RF Colter – SS Arantes – 2B Tallent – P Rios
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Onelas – CF Marcotte – 1B Jer. White – RF Kaniewski – 2B R. Cabrera – C L. Marquez – 3B C. Pena – P Ma. Taylor

Rios didn’t get the five strikeouts, but he got all sorts of things beaten over his head in the second inning, which began with reserves John Kaniewski singling and Rich Cabrera whacking a homer for a 2-0 lead, and then Lorenzo Marquez and Cesar Pena hit more singles, Matt Taylor bunted badly and got Marquez forced out at third base, and Humphries flew out to right; but with two outs the Titans went into all-out stomping mode. Onelas singled, Marcotte singled, White doubled, Kaniewski singled, and Cabrera singled, and with the score at 7-0, Rios was yanked. Holzmeister came in and got a grounder from Marquez to second that Tallent flung away for a run-scoring error, another unearned run scored on another Pena single, and only Taylor ended the 9-run assault with a fly to center…

Holzmeister was his own mess and got only four outs before the Coons went to Alvey, who got beaten up savagely as well. He pitched just 2.2 innings for six hits and four runs, including a fourth-inning homer for Rich Cabrera. He left two runners on base that Yamauchi then waved across. Yamauchi allowed a run of his own in the seventh, getting beaten with three singles, including Taylor and Humphries with two outs… Only Jesse Dover would pitch a scoreless inning without conceding anybody else’s leftover runners, while Matt Taylor in his season debut as a starter pitched a 5-hit shutout. 16-0 Titans. Aguilar (PH) 1-1; Tallent 2-3;

(sad look)

We were a 5-0 loss to the Condors away from giving up twice as many runs as we were scoring.

Consolation though: we weren’t scoring a lot of runs to begin with!

(raises eyebrows and thinks about what he just said)

Raccoons (6-9) @ Condors (8-8) – April 22-24, 2067

The battered Critters went to Mexico to face the .500 Condors, who ranked fourth in runs scored and also in runs allowed. They had a +9 run differential, while the Raccoons were already at -39. The Condors’ pitchers were the opposite from the Titans’ staff, having a horrible rotation with a 5+ ERA between them and the best bullpen in the league. On offense they had stolen only two bases, and were also in the bottom three in homers. They were down two regulars in Andy Metz and Mike Pinault, who were both on the DL. The season series had ended 5-4 for five straight years, with winners strictly alternating. The Raccoons had kept the upper paw in the even years.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (1-1, 3.98 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (1-0, 7.84 ERA)
Nick Walla (1-1, 4.08 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (1-1, 4.43 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (0-2, 3.00 ERA) vs. Ryan Davis (1-1, 6.75 ERA)

We would get three right-handers, although did it even matter whom we didn’t score runs against…?

The Raccoons did not score any runs on Friday for example – when they were rained out for the second time in three days.

RAINED OUT IN TIJUANA.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama
TIJ: CF B. Snyder – LF Brassfield – C Brann – 2B Nye – RF Ewig – 3B Schomer – 1B L. Jimenez – SS Spehar – P Ledbetter

The long Saturday began with Wilson walking and getting doubled off by Ramon Lopez for no run in the first inning. The Condors also hit into a double play with Matt Ewig in the first, but not until after Brendan Snyder’s single, a walk to Trent Brassfield, and another ex-Coon, Nick Nye, adding an RBI single to center had given the Condors a 1-0 lead. That remained the tally for a while; the Raccoons were simply not doing anything, getting a Corral single in the fourth and no other base hits inside five innings, while Nakayama’s control was off, and he piled up four walks in five innings, including a walk to Mike Brann with two outs after a Brass double in the bottom 5th. Nye then hit another RBI single to make it 2-0, before Ewig flew out to Wilson in center to strand a pair.

Out of the blue, the Raccoons then woke from their coma in the sixth. A four-pitch walk to Nakayama with one out was followed by a Wilson single that sent the pitcher to third base. A wild pitch by Ledbetter scored Nakayama, Corral struck out, but Lopez walked, Ledbetter threw another wild pitch to move the runners into scoring position, and Rich Monck then singled them both home on the next pitch, flipping the score to 3-2 Coons…!

Next, the Coons shed leadoff man Wilson when he made a headlong dive to catch a Jon Schomer fly to center in the bottom 6th. Wilson left the game with a numb arm, and was replaced with Tallent. The seventh saw Portland tack on a run with a Dowsey double and Roberts’ RBI single to center, 4-2, while Nakayama fought his way through seven innings despite allowing singles to Snyder and Brass in the bottom 7th before Brann bounded a ball to Novelo for a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. He was followed by Josh C, who pitched a 1-2-3 eighth against the middle of the lineup, and Joel Starr tacked on another run with a solo homer in the ninth. The 5-2 lead went to Dover, who put Ryan Spehar on base with one out, but then got a room service bouncer for a 5-4-3 double play from Jesus Martinez to Monck. 5-2 Critters. Wilson 1-2, BB; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, W (2-1);

Jaden Wilson went to the DL with a bruised elbow between games, but the Raccoons had no reserves on standby to bring onto the roster, and would contest the night game four paws short.

However, we were facing Kodai Koga, and this had to be way past his bedtime as a senior citizen, so maybe things would even out here.

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – 2B Arantes – CF Tallent – P Walla
TIJ: CF B. Snyder – LF Brassfield – 2B Nye – RF Ewig – 3B Schomer – 1B L. Jimenez – C Lippert – SS Spehar – P Koga

Joel Starr had closed the scoring with a homer in the first game, and opened the scoring with a homer in the second game, bashing a 2-piece with Novelo on base in the third inning after both teams had only mustered one hit and the odd walk in the first two innings, but no runs. Rich Monck added a double to right and then Dowsey dealt a homer over the fence in right – his first two RBI’s with the Raccoons while hitting a solid .286. That made it 4-0 against Koga. The 43-year-old was not on top of his game here, but soldiered bravely onwards, but ran into a bases-loaded situation after three straight singles by the 3-4-5 batters with one out in the fifth inning, and Aguilar batting. Aguilar, too, got his first RBI of the year by virtue of getting nicked to push in a run, and Koga got the hook after 4.1 muddled innings. Ryan Singletary replaced him, got a fly from Arantes to Snyder in center, Monck went for home – and was thrown out, which ended the inning.

Walla made it through five innings with a 1-hitter, but had also walked three batters and had somehow ballooned his pitch count to 85 already. He then went on to have a 6-pitch sixth, and returned for the seventh, but didn’t retire another batter. Ewig singled, Schomer popped a home run to left, and then Walla hit Leo Jimenez with a fastball, which led to a fracas and the benches clearing. Both Jimenez and Walla were ejected, and when the dust settled, Manny Rubin was pinch-running and Bob West had the ball. He walked Spehar, who was forced out on a grounder by Ian Parker, and then Snyder flew out to Dowsey to leave runners on the corners. Top 8th, and the bags were full with Dowsey, Aguilar, and Tallent and one out. Marquise Early pinch-hit and struck out, but Jose Corral got hold of a middle-middle mistake and POUNDED it – GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

That put the lid on the game, as the Condors then ceased resisting. The ball went to Manabu Yamauchi, with McMahan getting ready if needed, but he wasn’t. Yamauchi collected the last six outs without much trouble. 9-2 Raccoons. Corral 1-5, HR, 4 RBI; Starr 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Monck 3-5, 2B; Dowsey 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Yamauchi 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Carlos Matas was called up on Sunday to replace the injured Jaden Wilson. Matas had only appeared in three games for the Alley Cats so far, but he had some things going for him, like being a centerfielder, healthy, and on the 40-man roster.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dosey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Musgrave
TIJ: CF B. Snyder – LF Brassfield – C Brann – 2B Nye – RF Ewig – 1B M. Rubin – 3B D. Sandoval – SS Spehar – P R. Davis

Lopez walked and was forced out by Starr in the top 1st, but the 4-5-6 batters then all chipped singles, with an RBI each for Dowsey and Novelo before Roberts whiffed to end the inning. The next three half-innings all ended with double plays hit into, as Musgrave faced the minimum on 19 pitches the first time through. The Raccoons then tacked on another two runs in the fourth; Matas doubled in his second at-bat of the year, scored on Corral’s single to right, and Lopez tripled a wildly caroming ball off the fence with two outs, bringing in Corral for a 4-0 lead. The Condors yanked Ryan Davis right then and there, and lefty Joe Cash rung up Starr to end the inning.

Musgrave continued to face the minimum through four, but then allowed two hits in the fifth and two walks in the sixth to create some drama on the bases. The Condors both times left the runners on the corners, Ryan Spehar and Nick Nye making the inning-ending flyouts, respectively. Musgrave then returned to 1-2-3’ing the Condors in the seventh, while the Coons tacked on another 2-spot with a homer by Matas (!) in the eighth, his third career homer in three cup-of-coffee seasons. Musgrave looked like a shutout was in the cards, but then ran long counts in the bottom 8th. Snyder hit a 2-out single in a full count, and Brass struck out also in a full count to at least end the eighth but with the veteran now over 100 pitches. Musgrave did make a bid for the shutout, but it wasn’t meant to be; Brann doubled and Ewig hit an RBI single to break up the bid, and he was then lifted for McMahan to get the last two outs. 6-1 Coons. Lopez 2-4, BB, 3B, RBI; Monck 2-4; Dowsey 3-4, RBI; Matas 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Musgrave 8.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (1-2) and 1-4;

In other news

April 14 – The Warriors beat the Pacifics, 3-2 in 17 innings, when OF/2B Jesus Alvarez (.359, 0 HR, 4 RBI) finally comes through with the walkoff single after a full game’s worth of innings without scoring.
April 15 – Condors OF/2B/SS Mike Pinault (.289, 0 HR, 5 RBI) would miss the rest of the month with a quad strain.
April 15 – The Stars get wiped by the Wolves, 15-3, and the Salem batters leave another dozen runners on base.
April 19 – IND SP Mike DeWitt (2-1, 3.65 ERA) is perfect for 8.1 innings against the Crusaders before NYC INF Paul Labonte (.250, 0 HR, 3 RBI) pokes a single and ruins everything. Reliever Danny Nava (0-1, 6.75 ERA) completes the combined 1-hitter in a 6-0 Indy win.
April 20 – The Loggers light an 11-run fireworks under the Canadiens in the seventh inning on their way to a 16-5 victory. MIL 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.327, 6 HR, 22 RBI) chucks two home runs, a grand slam and a 3-piece, and drives in eight runs in total.
April 21 – Sacramento demolishes Salem, 20-2, despite no Scorpions player getting more than three hits or three RBI.
April 22 – BOS SP Jason Brenize (4-0, 1.16 ERA) throws a 2-hit shutout with ten strikeouts against the Falcons, taking an 8-0 win.
April 24 – Pacifics SP Joel Luera (0-0, 4.60 ERA) was out for the season after suffering a torn UCL.

FL Player of the Week (2): SFW OF/2B Jesus Alvarez (.396, 2 HR, 9 RBI), hitting .519 (14-27) with 2 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week (2): LVA 1B/3B Alex Alfaro (.348, 4 HR, 15 RBI), batting .522 (12-23) with 1 HR, 10 RBI

FL Player of the Week (3): CIN 1B Steve Jordan (.290, 4 HR, 13 RBI), knocking .450 (9-20) with 3 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week (3): MIL OF Jonathan Merrill (.450, 0 HR, 12 BRI), clipping .556 (15-27) with 5 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Thursday and Saturday double headers would not have had a grim effect on pitching plans because we have another day off on Monday before playing two more road series in Oklahoma and Elk City. Gaytan will open the Thunder series on Tuesday on regular rest.

However, Walla’s suspension will. He’s banned through next Saturday, so can only wind up again on Sunday during the finale in Elk City. The Raccoons somehow had to fill the five starts before that, and who would you want to use as a spot starter. Alvey??

Speaking of starting pitchers, Chance Fox had an 8+ ERA after two rehab appearances in AAA…

Fun Fact: Loggers players lead all batting triple crown categories as they sit half a game behind the Titans.

Jonathan Merrill was batting .450 ahead of teammate Cesar Ramirez going .430 at this point, while Fidel Carrera had pounded out six homers and 24 RBI, both well ahead of the competition.

For comparison, the last-place offense in Portland had a couple of .300 hitters with Lopez on top batting .328, but Monck’s four homers and Corral’s 11 RBI’s were as it good as it got right now.

+++

Bit of a service announcement, as we have a heat wave with temps up to 35°C (95°F) and I might just drag myself home from the office and lie down in that weather. Cold doesn’t faze me, but heat is terrible. So there may or may not be updates until about Friday, but if there aren’t any, you know why.

[Westheim]

It went up to 98...

+++

Raccoons (9-9) @ Thunder (10-8) – April 26-28, 2067

The Thunder had beaten the Raccoons, 6-3, across their nine games in the 2066 season and were looking for more. They sat in first place despite the middling record, and were hoping their #9 offense would kick it into gear against the Critters. They had given up the third-fewest runs so far and had a +2 run differential.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (1-1, 3.15 ERA) vs. Jose Ortega (2-0, 2.57 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (1-2, 7.71 ERA) vs. Ben Seiter (3-1, 2.77 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-1, 3.62 ERA) vs. Danny Baca (2-2, 4.39 ERA)

We were expecting a southpaw in the Thursday series finale. Both teams were off on Monday.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Gaytan
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – LF Deisinger – RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – 3B R. Vargas – P J. Ortega

Tony Gaytan had only walked one batter in 20 innings to begin the season, but issued walks to the switch-hitting Coby Thore and catcher Martin Bohannon, and then a scratch single to Ian Stone that filled the bases with one down, but also struck out Jose Palominos, Jamie Deisinger, and Roberto Almanza to leave the bases loaded. Needless to say, that inning already took him over 30 pitches. Instead, the Critters ran up a score in the second inning, which began with Ortega plunking Monck on base. Dowsey doubled, and Novelo popped out, but the Coons made the board on a groundout by Mike Roberts that scored Monck from third base. Carlos Matas then popped his second homer of the season in two games, 3-0. Rich Monck hit another 2-run homer the next inning with Corral on base, and the fourth inning began with a solo homer to center from Pablo Novelo, and that marked the end point for Ortega in a 6-0 game. Roberts and Matas singled off Nick Leigh, but Gaytan’s bunt was bad and got Roberts forced out before Corral hit into a double play to end the inning.

So that put the focus on Gaytan, who now had to make for length. Almanza hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, but was forced out on a Daniel Richardson grounder, and Gaytan then picked Richardson off first base. Unfortunately he then seemed to completely lose it in the fifth inning, allowing a run on a single and three walks, Deisinger drawing a bases-loaded walk with two down to get the Thunder on the board and to further explode Gaytan’s pitch count to 90 at the end of five innings. In between in the top 5th, the Raccoons had scored an unearned run when Ramon Lopez singled, stole second, and scored on a 2-out error by Deisinger. The Coons got a quick sixth from Gaytan, but that would be all, wasting countless pitches on six walks in as many innings, while striking out four.

The Raccoons loaded them up in the seventh on Lopez and Starr singles and Dowsey grabbing a 1-out walk, but poor outs from their middle infielders meant that nobody scored in the inning. Colter and Corral reached base in the eighth inning when Lopez hit a 1-out double into the right-center gap. Colter scored from second, but Corral was held at third base. There he remained, thanks to a Starr pop and Monck grounding out. We then asked Holzmeister for two innings after Josh C had pitched a scoreless seventh. He got the Thunder in order on nine pitches in the eighth before the Portlanders loaded the bases again facing Erik Swain in the ninth. Dowsey walked, Novelo singled, Roberts walked, and there was nobody out. Matas hit into a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play before Colter socked a 2-run homer from the #9 spot. Swain put two more batters on base before getting yanked for another reliever, Raul Ontiveros, and the Raccoons then went back to Holzmeister, who gave up a leadoff double to Vince Goll, walked Thore, and then got a double play grounder from Bohannon. Palominos’ groundout ended the game. 11-1 Raccoons! Lopez 4-4, BB, RBI; Novelo 2-5, HR, RBI; Matas 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Colter (PH) 1-1, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Rios
OCT: RF Almanza – C Bohannon – 2B Archuleta – SS Palominos – LF Deisinger – CF Thore – 3B D. Richardson – 1B I. Stone – P Seiter

Offense on Wednesday was slow, as the Thunder got only one hit off Rios in the first five innings, although they also drew four walks, including Palominos and Deisinger to begin the fourth inning before they tumbled into a 6-4-3 double play hit by Coby Thore and Richardson popped out to leave the remaining runner at third base. The Raccoons were up 1-0 at that point since Ramon Lopez had singled home Matas in the third inning, but were on only four soft singles through five as well until Joel Starr went over the wall in right for a sixth-inning solo shot. The troublesome 4-5 hitters for the Thunder then got a pair of 2-out singles off Rios in the bottom 6th, going to the corners with the tying runs, but Thore faltered again and flew out to Corral to end the inning. Richardson hit a leadoff single in the seventh before being doubled off by Ian Stone, and Seiter hit a single with two outs and advanced on a wild pitch before the inning ended with Almanza’s grounder to short, and the Raccoons realizing that they were about to run out of luck with Rios and the bullpen should take over in the eighth inning. That didn’t necessarily make it better; Yamauchi put two Thunder on base in the bottom 8th, and was lifted for McMahan to face Thore with two outs, but McMahan gave up an RBI single to right. Richardson then grounded out to Monck, leaving the tying and go-ahead runs stranded. Dover came in for the ninth and nicked Vince Goll on base, but then wiggled his way out of the inning eventually… 2-1 Coons. Matas 2-3; Rios 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K, W (2-2);

Ben Seiter pitched a complete-game 5-hitter for the loss.

Game 3
POR: 2B Roberts – C Lopez – RF Corral – SS Novelo – 3B Arantes – 1B Starr – CF Tallent – LF Early – P Nakayama
OCT: CF Thore – C Bohannon – SS Palominos – 1B I. Stone – RF Almanza – 2B D. Richardson – LF Franks – 3B R. Vargas – P D. Baca

Roberts had an awkward .156/.333/.200 slash line with a .200 BABIP, so why not give him the chance to lead off with a lefty pitching for the Thunder? He reached on an error by Ricardo Vargas to begin the Thursday game, which didn’t help that batting average, and then was stranded at first base, which didn’t help with winning the game and sweeping the Thunder. In turn, Ian Stone doubled home Thore and Palominos in the bottom 1st, both of which reached on walks issued by Nakayama, who also came out and didn’t know which side was up… Starr reached on an error by Scott Franks, who dropped his fly to left, but was then doubled off by Tallent in the second inning.

The Coons’ next two base runners were Mike Roberts hitting singles in the third and sixth innings, and not getting advanced past second base either time, while Nakayama ran up a pitch count of 113 across seven innings. He gave up one more run on two hits in the sixth inning, getting buried 3-0 down, and it didn’t look like the Raccoons had a rally in them against the southpaw Baca. Monck batted for Nakayama in the eighth and singled, but was left on first base. Bob West had a 1-2-3 eighth in relief, but Swain did the same to Corral, Novelo, and Dowsey in the ninth, and the Raccoons had to leave town with two outta three. 3-0 Thunder. Roberts 2-4; Monck (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (11-10) @ Canadiens (11-10) – April 29-May 1, 2067

The Raccoons had to finish the road trip with a threat of frostbite in a weekend set in Elk City. These two teams had split a 2-game set to begin the season, and the Elks were third in offense, but tenth in pitching for a -8 run differential. Matt Kilday was out with a bum knee and unlikely to play and stir up dust in this series. The Elks had the worst pen and the worst defense, but were stealing the second-most bases, while the Raccoons – unlikely as it might sound – entered the series tying for the CL lead in homers – and STILL scoring the fewest runs!!??

Projected matchups:
Evan Alvey (0-0, 19.13 ERA) vs. Martyn Polaco (1-1, 3.48 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (1-2, 2.39 ERA) vs. Jose Villegas (1-2, 7.20 ERA)
Nick Walla (2-1, 3.80 ERA) vs. Nate Freeman (1-2, 8.05 ERA)

Alvey took the spot start in the spot of Walla, who was still banhammered for the first two games of the series. The Elks had two southpaws lined up for the first two games, but had been off on Thursday and might be tempted to skip one of their two trouble children between Villegas and the right-handed Freeman. The next guy in line would be righty Ken Nielsen (2-1, 2.20 ERA).

Game 1
POR: 2B Roberts – CF Tallent – 1B Dowsey – C Lopez – 3B Monck – SS Arantes – LF Early – RF Colter – P Alvey
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – C Varner – LF D. Moore – 1B Whetstine – SS Barraza – P Polaco

The Coons grabbed a quick 1-0 lead on singles by Roberts and Ramon Lopez, who got the RBI, but Alvey also allowed two singles to Nick Vaughn and Roberto Lozada to put runners on the corners, and then conceded the tying run on Rick Atkins’ sac fly to left – which still shaved more than a full run off his ERA… It hardly got better from there. Dan Moore was on base in the second inning, and Vaughn hit an infield single in the third before Atkins whacked another drive, that one over the fence for a 3-1 Elks lead.

While Alvey was awful and tried to break every bone in his defenders’ bodies as they had to lay out to make catches, the Raccoons had Lopez and Monck singles in the fourth before Leon Arantes fell to .139 by hitting into an inning-sullying double play. Polaco then lost cohesion all at once in the fifth inning; after not walking a batter in four innings, he filled the bags with Colter, Roberts, and Tallent on a dozen balls. He did not recover from that – Dowsey ran a full **** and then bent out of the way of ball four well inside, forcing in a run and shortening the score to 3-2. Polaco was then torn up for good with a pair of 2-run knocks to center by both Lopez and Monck, and was yanked from the 6-3 game. Arantes singled off Dallas Samson, but Marquise Early and Jamie Colter went down and left a pair on base. To nobody’s surprise, Alvey would not get away with a W, since he didn’t make it through five from there, allowing singles to Carlos Castro, Vaughn, and Lozada in the bottom 5th, a run-scoring fielder’s choice to Atkins, and then a double to Steve Varner that parked the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with two outs. Carrington and Corral entered in a double switch for Colter and Alvey, and Dan Moore grounded out to Monck on two pitches. The score through five was 6-5 Coons.

Josh C would give the Coons three more outs in the sixth before McMahan got the ball against the top of the order. He got rid of the 1-2 batters in the seventh, but Lozada hit a single and the Coons sent Yamauchi and Starr in another double switch (Dowsey leaving), and now Atkins grounded out to end the inning. The Coons then scratched out an insurance run in the eighth as Robbie Lingard walked Arantes, who stole second base, and Starr, and allowed an RBI single to Corral. The top of the order then left a pair stranded, and upon Yamauchi’s return a Varner double to right and a Moore homer to left tied the game at seven anyway…

Two outs into the bottom 8th and with Tyler Chenette pinch-hitting from the left side, the Coons then made their third double switch, Tallent and Yamauchi leaving for Matas and Bob West. West rung up Chenette, and Matas and Monck made it to the corners in the ninth against Jon McGinley before Arantes popped out and Early struck out to leave the runners on base. Castro hit a leadoff double to center against West in the bottom 9th, giving the Elks a great chance to walk off but they then made three poor outs and sent the game to extras instead, where the Raccoons did nothing useful in the top of the tenth inning against McGinley, and then went to Holzmeister, who briskly lost the game allowing a single to Moore and a walkoff homer to Chad Whetstine… 9-7 Canadiens. Roberts 2-5, BB; Lopez 3-5, 3 RBI; Monck 3-5, 2 RBI;

Blech.

Also, we had now used almost the entire pen with the exception of Dover, all for nothing.

Game 2
POR: 2B Roberts – CF Tallent – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – C Aguilar – RF Arantes – P Musgrave
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P J. Villegas

The Coons went up 2-0 in the first on … nothing? Tallent and Dowsey were nicked by Villegas, Novelo reached on an error, Villegas walked in a run against Starr, and plated another with a wild pitch before walking Aguilar and then finally getting the last out on Arantes’ fly to Lozada. No base hits, just two awkward runs. The Coons did not get a base hit until the fourth when Joel Starr hit a solo jack to make it 3-0 in support of Musgrave, who remained reliant on the defense behind him, but at least had yet to give up a run. All seemed well for the veteran until Moore opened the bottom 5th with a double to left and he lost Roberto Barraza on balls. The Elks bunted the runners into scoring position with the pitcher Villegas, and they were both driven in on a single by Carlos Castro to narrow the score to 3-2. At least Castro remained on base with groundouts by Vaughn and Lozada…

Musgrave reached exactly 100 pitches through six busy innings and then was hit for to no effect with Jose Corral in the seventh as the Raccoons were on just three hits by the stretch. The Coons tried to cover nine outs with Holzmeister facing the 7-8 batters, then McMahan for most of the lefty sticks in sight, and then Dover for more than three outs to close it out, but Holzmeister allowed 0-2 singles to both Moore and Barraza before being kicked off the hill again, and McMahan conceded the lead on Chenette’s sac fly to center. Castro whiffed and Barraza was caught stealing, before Vaughn led off the eighth with a single off McMahan, but was doubled up 4-6-3 style by Lozada. However, without the lead, the Coons now went to Josh C in a double switch that ended Dowsey’s day in favor of Matas, who went to centerfield, with Tallent to left. Atkins grounded out on one pitch to end the bottom 8th, while both McGinley and Carrington exchanged 1-2-3 ninths to send another game in extras. McGinley pitched a tenth inning and six outs for back-to-back days (!), getting around Matas reaching on an error by Barraza in the top 10th, while Carrington gave up a leadoff double to Barraza in the bottom 10th. Bob West was sent in for the third straight day, and got groundouts from Andy Friend, the winning run going to third base, and then Castro, the winning run going for home – but Novelo pounced and fired home and Barraza was out!! Vaughn grounded out to Starr, and the game continued, Portland still on three base hits after ten frames.

Lingard faced the Coons in the 11th. Colter led off batting for West in the #3 spot and clipped a soft single to right, followed by Monck cracking a double down the rightfield line, but Lozada cut the ball off and Colter was anchored at third base. Novelo came through with an RBI single right over the second base bag, though, and the Raccoons took the lead…! Starr lined out, but Justin Aguilar lobbed another RBI single over Vaughn. Ramon Lopez batted for Arantes against new righty Dallas Samson, and hit a sac fly to left. Matas and Roberts hit 2-out singles to drive home Aguilar, and Samson lost Tallent on balls to fill the bags with two outs for Colter, who got a second chance, but grounded out to short to end the inning. Dover took the ball with the 4-run lead, kept the commotion in the bottom 11th to a minimum on a Whetstine single with two outs, and otherwise evened the series. 7-3 Critters! Colter (PH) 1-2; Novelo 2-5, 2B, RBI;

That was fun, but how about a nice regulation win with a good, long outing by Nick Walla, fresh out of the slammer…?

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – CF Matas – P Walla
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B N. Vaughn – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P N. Freeman

The Coons went up 1-0 in the first in the rubber game, this time actually doing something for their run, which came together on singles by Lopez, Monck, and Dowsey before Novelo flew out to Lozada on the warning track to leave two on. That gave the ball to Walla, who got three long outs in the first, and didn’t allow a hit the first time through, except for nicking Whetstine in the second and walking Barraza in the third inning. In fact, the first hit that Walla was involved in was his RBI single that plated Matas from second base after his own single and stolen base in the fourth inning, and that made it a 2-0 game. The bags filled up with the 1-2 hitters and a Vaughn error and Lopez’ single to center, after which Starr’s grounder to third set up Castro for an easy out on Walla at home plate, but they didn’t get Starr at first base, and Monck grounded up the middle with one out. Vaughn intercepted the ball, had no shot, and fired it wildly past first base anyway for his second error, this one costing two runs, and then progressively more as Dowsey dropped an RBI single to center, and Novelo singled over the bag for another RBI single to center. Although Vaughn had his antlers in all of this, the Elks culled Freeman first, bringing in righty Juan Rosado, who allowed a sac fly to Roberts, walked Matas, allowed ANOTHER single to Walla, loading the bases, and then finally rung up Corral. All in all, six runs scored, three of them unearned, and Walla was up 7-0, though on 48 pitches after three innings.

Lozada took the no-hitter idea away right away with a single to lead off the bottom 4th, but remained on base as the next three batters made outs. Walla struck out the 7-8-9 batters in the fifth, had a quick sixth as well, but then saw Starr make an error that put Rick Atkins on base to begin the bottom 7th, and conceded that unearned run on singles by Varner and Barraza. Josh Meighan gave up a run on four singles to Monck, Dowsey, Novelo (who got the RBI), and Matas in the eighth before Walla and Corral left the bases loaded, while Walla got one more out before being sent packing on a Vaughn single in the bottom 8th. Yamauchi cleaned up behind him, and in fact got the last five outs for only two singles allowed, and no runs. 8-1 Raccoons! Corral 2-6; Monck 3-6; Dowsey 3-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; Matas 2-4, BB; Walla 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (3-1) and 2-5, RBI;

We had 15 hits in this series winner – all singles.

In other news

April 25 – Rebels SP Jay Perrin (3-1, 2.36 ERA) fires a 3-hit shutout against the Wolves for a 7-0 win.
April 26 – 16 innings are played before the Gold Sox beat the Capitals, 8-5.
April 27 – Condors RF/LF Matt Ewig (.250, 4 HR, 10 RBI) goes yard for the only score in a 1-0 win against the Canadiens, securing the 255th career win of TIJ SP Kodai Koga (2-2, 4.13 ERA).
April 29 – The Thunder and Bayhawks go the extra mile in a 15-inning game that ends with a 6-5 Oklahoma City walkoff.
April 30 – Wolves 1B Tyler Eaves (.369, 1 HR, 9 RBI) ends the month on a 20-game hitting streak after getting a ninth-inning double in a 6-3 loss to the Warriors.
April 30 – Rebels LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.398, 4 HR, 17 RBI) could be out for six weeks after a diagnosis of shoulder tendinitis.

FL Player of the Week: DAL SP Andy Canada (3-2, 3.26 ERA), going 2-0 with an 0.67 ERA and 10 K in two starts
CL Player of the Week: CHA INF John Schmidt (.286, 0 HR, 4 RBI), clipping .522 (12-23) with 1 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: RIC LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.398, 4 HR, 17 RBI)
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL OF Jonathan Merrill (.433, 1 HR, 16 RBI)
FL Pitcher of the Month: DEN SP Tom Delaney (4-0, 1.75 ERA)
CL Pitcher of the Month: BOS SP Bryce Wallace (4-0, 0.33 ERA)
FL Rookie of the Month: DEN OF Dusty Wilson (.317, 0 HR, 10 RBI)
CL Rookie of the Month: MIL C/1B Ian Lulich (.290, 0 HR, 5 RBI)

Complaints and stuff

The Loggers…!

Before you get excited, we’re just one run ahead of the Condors for bottoms in the CL. But I feel like the team overall made a step in the right direction this week, even though we have several people on the team that don’t hit their body weight in pounds, or that look like we should skip the Rule 5 draft altogether from here. But there’s vague competence on display this week, and hasn’t that been rare these last few years??

The Raccoons had four games at home with the Indians coming up, then three games in Pittsburgh next week.

Fun Fact: The Loggers are scoring 7.2 runs per game and it’s probably not going to last.

As impressive as it is, their middling pitching and terrible defense should get the better of them in the long run, even though they had three .400+ hitters at this point, with Jonathan Merrill (.435, 1 HR, 18 RBI), Cesar Ramirez (.419, 2 HR, 24 RBI), and Carlos Dominguez (.414, 2 HR, 18 RBI). They were relentless and never let up!

Like when they scored 31 runs on the Coons in a 4-game set earlier, but only got a split for it…

[Westheim]

Raccoons (13-11) vs. Indians (11-14) – May 2-5, 2067

The only CL North team the Raccoons had had a fairly competent showing against in the last two seasons came to town for the first time, with 23 wins (11 in ’66) for the Coons in the last two years’ 36 games. Indy was bottoms in the division right now, seventh in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. These two teams tied for the CL lead in home runs with 19, which probably wasn’t something you would have dared to put money on before the season. Despite this, Indy didn’t have any batter with more than three homers. Infielder Miguel Falcon and reliever Matt Stephens were injured and on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (2-1, 2.77 ERA) vs. Victor Perez (2-2, 2.79 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-2, 3.67 ERA) vs. Nick Robinson (0-0, 4.09 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (2-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Mike DeWitt (4-1, 2.56 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (1-2, 2.51 ERA) vs. Will Glaude (1-2, 5.47 ERA)

Ex-Critter Nick Robinson had only pitched in relief so far, but was rumored to replace Joe Napier (2-2, 5.68 ERA) in the rotation. Robinson and DeWitt would be left-handers.

The Raccoons would skip Rios behind Nakayama, who was able to go on regular rest on Tuesday.

Game 1
IND: CF M. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B M. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 2B W. Mejia – 3B P. Weber – SS Baxley – RF W. Martinez – P V. Perez
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – CF Matas – 2B Arantes – P Gaytan

Tony Gaytan had been all over the place last time out and walked Eddie Menchaca in the first inning, but retired the other three Indians he faced comfortably, including Matt Martin on strikes. Still a better start to the game than what Jose Corral had, striking out to begin the bottom 1st and being immediately vocal about it and getting ejected straightaway. Jamie Colter would replace him and I facepawed, because the week immediately started just *great*. Colter would later land a 2-out, go-ahead RBI single in the fifth inning after a lot of generally-not-hitting by both teams. Paul Weber hit a solo homer off Gaytan in the second inning, one of only two base hits the Indians had through five innings. The Coons had no hits the first time through. Starr hit a single in the fourth, getting nowhere, while Pablo Novelo doubled to right in the fifth, leading off, and was still on base with two outs when Gaytan dropped an RBI single behind John Baxley to tie the game. The Indians threw home, allowing Gaytan to scoot up to second, from where he scored on Colter’s single for a 2-1 lead. Lopez then grounded out.

Gaytan had a 1-2-3 sixth, then allowed an infield single to Wil Mejia the inning after that. He was stranded, but John Baxley strung a single to center to begin the eighth, and was immediately replaced with Malcolm Spicer, who was .250 with three RBI, but had yet to steal a base thanks to sparing use. Sam Dixon popped out, and before Spicer could actually get a jump, the guy he was traded to Indy with, John Bentley, batted for Martin, and crashed into a double play. The Raccoons then burst out in the bottom 8th against another former player of theirs, Takenori Tanizaki, who allowed a homer to Starr, a double to Monck, a walk to Dowsey, and was replaced after Carlos Matas hit an RBI single. Replacement Danny Nava gave up a pinch-hit, 2-run single to Marquise Early before regaining control. Gaytan batted for himself, then went back out to the hill after making the third out. He got rid of the Indians’ 2-3-4 in good order for a complete-game 4-hitter! 6-1 Furballs! Starr 3-4, HR, RBI; Early (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Gaytan 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (3-1) and 2-3, 2B, RBI;

Okay, maybe not everything about this game was bad! Gaytan threw 104 pitches for his second complete game of the season (and his career).

Mike DeWitt also didn’t have a bad day, as after the game the Indians announced that he had signed a 6-year extension worth nearly $40M.

Game 2
IND: CF M. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B M. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 2B W. Mejia – 3B P. Weber – SS Baxley – RF E. Maldonado – P N. Robinson
POR: 2B Roberts – RF Corral – C Lopez – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 3B Monck – LF Early – CF Tallent – P Nakayama

Jose Corral made another quick exit in the second game, this time with a 415-footer to center, which combined with the leadoff walk Roberts had drawn made for a 2-0 lead. Shoma Nakayama retired the first ten batters he faced in good order before being clubbed to death in the fourth. Starting with Eddie Menchaca, the Indians vomited forth five singles to take a lead, and then Elmer Maldonado – another ex-Coon! – cranked a 3-run homer to make it a 6-2 game.

Infuriatingly, Nakayama would then return for the fifth inning, and not only pitched that, but also did two more innings after that – and retired the Indians 1-2-3 in each of them. In seven innings pitched, he only allowed six base runners, and ALL in the fourth for massive damage…! In the meantime the Raccoons were stuck on four base hits, and had hit into two double plays. Robinson had been kind enough to plate an odd run with a wild pitch, but we were still down 6-3 when the pen took over in the eighth. McMahan got rid of the opposition in order in the eighth, but Baxley doubled home Wil Mejia off Holzmeister in the ninth. The Coons never mustered a late challenge. 7-3 Indians. Corral 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Monck 2-4;

Game 3
IND: CF M. Martin – LF Menchaca – C A. Gomez – 1B M. Rogers – 2B W. Mejia – SS S. Dixon – 3B Baxley – RF E. Maldonado – P DeWitt
POR: 2B Roberts – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – CF Tallent – 1B Dowsey – LF Early – SS Arantes – P Rios

The pitching matchup heavily favored the Indians, with DeWitt having rung up 44 batters in 38.2 innings, while Rios mostly excelled in getting his bell rung. While DeWitt walked Corral and struck out three others in the bottom 1st, in the second he fell victim to a Tallent double and a 2-base throwing error by Sam Dixon that scored the first run of the game for the Portlanders. DeWitt struck out nine in just four innings, including Arantes and Rios with the bases loaded in the fourth after Monck and Dowsey singled and Marquise Early drew another walk. Rios struck out five against no walks and two hits in four shutout innings and had a much more manageable pitch count. He had a 1-2-3 fifth with another two strikeouts, while DeWitt loaded the bases to begin the bottom 5th as Roberts walked, Corral doubled, and Ramon Lopez drew another walk. Monck got a run in with a grounder to the right side, Tallent hit a sac fly, and Dowsey’s infield single that put him on the corners with Lopez with two outs ended DeWitt’s day. Justin Esch replaced him, conceded another run on Early’s single, and allowed another single to Arantes, but on this play, Dowsey tried to score from second base, but was thrown out at the plate by Maldonado, ending the inning.

Stunningly, with the 4-0 lead, Rios kept merrily chugging along. He issued his first walk in the seventh, putting Rogers on base, but then rung up Mejia for his tenth strikeout in the contest, and somehow his pitch count was only 76 through seven innings…! He got around a Maldonado single in the eighth inning, which was only the third Indians hit in the game, and he was brought back for the ninth inning on 91 pitches. Eddie Menchaca demanded to see seven pitches before striking out to begin the ninth, and Alex Gomez singled over the head of Novelo at short. Rogers struck out, but Mejia doubled to center, and the Indians put a pair in scoring position. Rios would get one more batter, the switch-hitting Dixon. Unfortunately, Dixon slapped a single through the left side, both runs scored, and the Coons had to yank Rios and go to McMahan, who got Baxley to pop out to short. 4-2 Critters. Dowsey 2-4; Rios 8.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 12 K, W (3-2) and 1-4;

So close to the sun! Maybe a bit too close.

Game 4
IND: CF M. Martin – LF Menchaca – 1B M. Rogers – C A. Gomez – 2B W. Mejia – 3B P. Weber – SS Baxley – RF E. Maldonado – P Glaude
POR: RF Corral – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – C Aguilar – CF Matas – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Both teams poked away at each other futilely in the early innings, scattering singles and hitting into a double play on each side in the second inning, Weber and Roberts being the guilty parties. Musgrave retired the first two batters in the third before Rogers singled, Gomez walked, and Mejia singled, but Paul Weber then struck out to leave the bases loaded. Instead, Jose Corral struck a homer in the bottom 3rd to give the Raccoons a 1-0 lead. In the fourth, Maldonado singled and was caught stealing, while Monck drew a leadoff walk, Dowsey singled, and then the Raccoons hit into two fielder’s choices at second base in a row, which was enough to get Monck around to score, 2-0. Matas was still on first here, then second after Roberts drew another walk. Matas then stole third base with the pitcher batting, which seemed bold, but turned into a brilliant move once Glaude then threw a wild pitch to plate him for another run before Musgrave could ground out to end the inning.

All the lead then vanished when Musgrave allowed four straight singles to lead off the fifth inning, which made for two runs right away, RBI’s for Rogers and Gomez, before the tying run got home on productive outs by Mejia and then Weber. After allowing 11 hits in five innings, Musgrave was then not invited back for the sixth. The Critters went to Evan Alvey for long relief, which worked for two innings, but not in the eighth, where he filled the bases with Baxley, Dixon, and Martin singles before plating the go-ahead run for the Indians with a wild pitch with Rogers batting and two outs. He walked Rogers to fill the bases again, then was yanked for Jesse Dover, who struck out Gomez to leave the bases loaded. Dover would pitch the ninth inning, giving up a homer to Weber for an insurance run. John Nesbitt – were they ALL former Raccoons?? – then got the bottom 9th and allowed a leadoff single to Roberts into leftfield. Ramon Lopez batted for Dover, but rumbled right into a double play. Corral flew out to Dixon in rightfield to end the game. 5-3 Indians. Corral 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Dowsey 2-3, BB; Aguilar 2-4; Roberts 1-2, 2 BB;

Raccoons (15-13) @ Miners (11-18) – May 6-8, 2067

These teams had not played last year, but the Raccoons had won the last TEN series they had contested with the Miners, who looked like they were ready to take an 11th straight series loss against the Critters. They were bottoms in the FL East, had lost six games straight, and had the worst offense in the entire league. They had scored only *80* runs in 29 games, which made the Coons with their 115 runs scored look like an offensive powerhouse (just over four games per game, after all; *just* over!), and ranked fifth in runs allowed in the FL.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (3-1, 2.90 ERA) vs. Steven Fenstermacher (1-2, 4.87 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. Jesus Ordonez (3-3, 2.93 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-3, 4.35 ERA) vs. Kerry Sheats (1-4, 3.27 ERA)

No southpaws on offer in this series, but at least a Windowmaker in the opener. WIN-dow. Not WIDOW. He wasn’t *that* frightening.

There was an off day coming on Monday, and Jaden Wilson was expected to come off the DL by Sunday.

Game 1
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – CF Matas – 2B Roberts – P Walla
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 1B J. Campos – 2B Hood – CF McNamee – LF Andon – 3B R. Ortiz – C J. West – RF J. Mendoza – P Fenstermacher

There was one guy with double-digit RBI in the Miners lineup, Sal Andon (.239, 1 HR, 13 RBI), and a whole lot of misery otherwise. Edgar Gonzales hit a leadoff single to center for them in the bottom 1st, but was doubled up with Jose Campos’ grounder to short, and the Miners put the first two batters on base in the second inning as Kevin McNamee singled and Andon drew a walk, but then Walla struck out Robert Ortiz and Jesse West, and got Jose Mendoza to fly one over to Matas for the third out. But the Miners kept poking away at Walla and got Gonzales and Campos on base in the third inning. Roland Hood grounded back to the pitcher for the second out, but McNamee bashed a double through Starr and to the corner in rightfield for a 2-run double. Andon then grounded out.

The Raccoons were not yet awake, it seemed. Lopez hit a wallbanger double in the third, and Novelo doubled in the fourth, but both were left on base. The Coons only made the board with a leadoff jack mashed by Corral in the fifth inning, shortening the gap to 2-1. Walla worked himself up in six innings, and was hit for to begin the top 7th against the Windowmaker. Early, Corral, and Lopez were nicely framed away by the Miners pitcher in the inning. Dowsey and Starr singled to begin the eighth, though, and the Miners went to the pen with lefty Ryan Croft, who for a work day hit Monck to fill the bases, then was replaced with righty Edgar Cornejo. Novelo hit a comebacker for a force out at home plate, and I was getting typical three on, no outs vibes again. Aguilar batted for Matas and flicked the first pitch over the shortstop Gonzales, though, and the Raccoons would flip the score on the 2-run single! Southpaw Harry Petrillo then walked Roberts, Tallent batted for Josh C, who was now in line for the W, but hit into a double play to end the inning.

Yamauchi in his first outing of the week then blew the lead, giving up eighth-inning knocks to Andon (a double), and Ortiz (RBI single) to get the game tied again; although it was swiftly untied again in the ninth when Dowsey took Chad Brown deep to left-center. The 4-3 lead went to Dover, who got Greg McBay to begin the bottom 9th before allowing a double to Brian Robinson and an infield single to Gonzales. The tying and go-ahead runs were on the corners with one out, but Dover came back to strike out Campos, then ran a full count on Hood – and struck him out as well! 4-3 Coons. Dowsey 2-5, HR, RBI; Monck 2-2, BB; Aguilar (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

By the skin of their teeth…!

Could we make it 11 series in a row without the thrill of a rubber game?

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – C Lopez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – CF Matas – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – 2B Hood – C N. Dingman – CF McNamee – LF Andon – 1B J. Campos – RF C. Cardenas – P Ordonez

Nick Dingman (.252, 5 HR, 11 RBI) was the biggest weapon in the Miners’ bat rack, but made the first out for them in the Saturday game, as Gaytan immediately took a couple of bats to the snout with homers by Gonzalez and Hood, who also plated Brian Robinson and his sharp single for an immediate 3-0 score. The Miners had two more singles in the inning before being retired, and the Miners kept raking. Gonzales walked and Robinson singled in the bottom 2nd, sending the lead runner to third base, from where he scored on Hood’s sac fly. No, Gaytan *really* wasn’t fooling anybody.

Joel Starr struck a 3-run homer himself in the third, plating Lopez and Dowsey with the 2-out blast to get the Raccoons on the 4-3 board. Novelo hit a double in the fourth, but got nowhere with that, while Robinson bashed a double in the bottom of the inning with Chad Cardenas and Gonzales on base and driving both of them in to knock out Gaytan for good. Holzmeister replaced him, signalling surrender, made an error in the fifth, and then immediately gave up an RBI single to Campos to bring that unearned run in. Matas tweaked his shoulder unleashing a throw to home plate that didn’t arrive anywhere in particular and left the game with the injury, being replaced with Marquise Early. Offense was not forthcoming anyway, with the middle innings marked with double plays hit into by Starr and Novelo and no runs whatsoever.

The Miners added two unearned runs on Bob West in the bottom 7th with three singles and a gross throwing error by Lopez, and the Coons were down six going into the eighth inning, where they quickly made two outs with grounders. Starr was then walked by George Christensen, Monck singled, and Novelo hit an RBI single, 9-4. Early, however, crashed a 3-run homer, and suddenly it almost looked like a ballgame again! Josh C struck out the Miners 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning and then it would be Chad Brown facing the 9-1-2 batters in the ninth. Colter, Corral, and Lopez went down without leaving a lasting impression. 9-7 Miners. Starr 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Monck 2-4; Novelo 2-4, 2B, RBI; Early 1-2, HR, 3 RBI;

Carlos Matas had a mild shoulder strain – the good news was that he could just trade places with Jaden Wilson, who came off the DL on Sunday. Matas would have remained on the roster without the injury, probably at the expense of Leon Arantes (.146, 0 HR, 0 RBI), who just had all the last-place glitter (so things were relative!) from last year come off in April, and at this point he was 2-for-his-last-28.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Tallent – P Nakayama
PIT: SS E. Gonzales – 3B B. Robinson – 2B Hood – C N. Dingman – CF McNamee – LF Andon – 1B J. Campos – RF McBay – P Sheats

Corral and Lopez got on base with a single and walk in the first inning, but then Dowsey lined out to Campos and Lopez was caught off first base and doubled off. The Miners scored first instead, with Nick Dingerman going yard to left to begin the second inning. Nakayama seemed in control otherwise, but walked a pair and struck out nobody through three innings… He got a lead spotted in the fourth though, where Lopez drew another walk and then with two outs was doubled home by Monck, and Starr followed that up with an RBI single to flip the score to 2-1 Coons – but the lead lasted only briefly, was McNamee conquered the leftfield wall in the bottom of the fourth and we were tied at two.

After that bit of back-and-forth action, the game fell largely silent. There were only three base runners in the next three innings combined, one of which (Gonzales) was caught stealing, and the starters were still at it in the 2-2 game as it entered the eighth. Corral and Lopez hit long fly balls that were caught in a 1-2-3 inning for Sheats, while Nakayama walked Greg McBay and was immediately yanked. Yamauchi got the lead runner forced out on Robert Ortiz’ pinch-hit grounder and struck out Gonzales, then was replaced with McMahan, who got a groundout to Monck from the lefty-hitting Robinson, and the game was still even. The Coons went nowhere after a leadoff single by Monck in the ninth inning, and the Miners got two hits off McMahan – Hood and Andon singles – in the bottom 9th, but couldn’t get the winning run across, either.

Extras began with Mike Roberts drawing a walk from Chad Brown, who pitched in every game in this series, in the #9 spot. He advanced on a grounder, but Corral was walked intentionally and Lopez struck out before the Miners went to the southpaw Croft. The Raccoons answered with Early to bat for the 0-for-3 Dowsey, leading to a walk that filled up the bases and bringing up Rich Monck, who was eager to get this off day started and RAKED a no-doubter to right, so high, and so deep! Oh my! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

When the dust settled, Starr grounded out to short and the Coons then asked Evan Alvey for the last three outs in a 4-run game. McBay and Mendoza struck out, Gonzales grounded out to short, and that was the ballgame. 6-2 Furballs! Corral 2-4, BB; Monck 3-5, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K;

11!!

In other news

May 2 – Aces SP Tim Henderson (1-2, 4.98 ERA) takes a no-hitter into the ninth inning before giving up a leadoff double to the Thunder’s Coby Thore (.223, 0 HR, 4 RBI) and being replaced with relievers, that escalate everything into a 3-run inning. The Aces still win, 7-3.
May 2 – The Aces suffer the loss of SP Matthew May (0-2, 6.65 ERA) for the season; the 32-year-old had elbow ligament damage.
May 2 – SFB RF/LF Juan Paez (.315, 0 HR, 10 RBI) was going to miss six weeks with a broken finger.
May 2 – Boston reliever Josh Carlisle (0-0, 9.00 ERA) will miss four months with ruptured finger tendons.
May 3 – The Rebels beat the Capitals in deep extra innings, 6-5 in 19 innings, on a walkoff homer by 1B Brad McLaughlin (.227, 1 HR, 3 RBI), who only enters the game after regular hours are over. Previously both teams had scored a run in the 17th inning as a teaser.
May 4 – The Canadiens beat the Crusaders, 7-6 in 15 innings.
May 4 – SAL 3B/RF/CF Matt Roller (.211, 2 HR, 12 RBI) hits a walkoff home run in the 13th inning for the only score in a 2-0 win against the Pacifics.
May 5 – With a first-inning double, the Wolves’ 1B Tyler Eaves (.365, 1 HR, 11 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 25 games.
May 6 – For the second year in a row, Dallas SP Ray “Crabman” Walker (2-1, 3.41 ERA) suffers a major injury. This time a torn meniscus might cost him half the season.
May 7 – The Aces end the 26-game hitting streak of SAL 1B Tyler Eaves (.345, 1 HR, 11 RBI) and also shut out the Wolves altogether in a 4-0 ballgame.
May 8 – The Scorpions put away the Crusaders, 8-4 in ten innings, with a walkoff grand slam by INF Alex Gonzilez (.229, 4 HR, 15 RBI).

FL Player of the Week: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.297, 12 HR, 31 RBI), crushing .308 (8-26) with 4 HR, 10 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC LF/CF Jose Ambriz (.410, 4 HR, 20 RBI), clipping .533 (16-30) with 2 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Win one, lose one, win one, lose one… At least they weren’t losing every game, y’know, small comforts.

A few roster changes will happen soon. For one, Chance Fox’ time on rehab is running out, and let me just tell you that it’s not pretty, and we probably shouldn’t have resigned him in the first place. He will not make it back into the rotation, but perhaps take over garbage duties from Holzmeister, unless I can figure out a smarter solution. Yamauchi’s spot is not up for discussion, and the only question is whether we can somehow free up Alvey’s roster spot without paying out the roughly $1.3M left on that contract for no greater gains.

Greater than his 12.67 ERA, yes.

And no, even as we’re currently up to ninth in runs scored and reduced our run differential to -3, we are of course not contenders at this stage, despite holding down third place in a division without a losing team. There’s no way we can stink up to the Titans (and the Loggers??), but we’re slowly making steps in the right direction, maybe. Now, should Rich Monck get a new 5-year deal or am I being blinded by the light right now?

Speaking of the Titans, they will be in town on the weekend, after a 3-game set with the Wolves. Monday will be off, ahead of 17 straight games without an off day, but with three cross-country plane trips…

Fun Fact: More than a month into the season, Dallas’ Tyler Wharton (.297, 12 HR, 31 RBI) and Milwaukee’s Fidel Carrera (.282, 7 HR, 30 RBI) were still almost driving in a run per game.

Carrera will be a discussion at a later date, but Tyler Wharton was in his tenth year in terms of service time and there was a reasonable argument to be made that he was already getting into the Hall of Fame if he shattered his legs skateboarding tomorrow and couldn’t continue with baseball. As a 29-year-old, he already had five Player of the Year awards, four batting titles, a home run crown, two RBI championships, a triple crown, and had led the FL in batter WAR for the last six years straight.

He was hitting .327/.405/.531 for his career, with 1,565 hits, 214 homers, 885 RBI, and 195 stolen bases. Oh, did I mention the EIGHT Gold Gloves and the six Platinum Sticks, and the two World Series rings?

Man’s a beast!

He’s a free agent after next season, too. Maybe we’ll have money by then.

[DD Martin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Fun Fact: More than a month into the season, Dallas’ Tyler Wharton (.297, 12 HR, 31 RBI) and Milwaukee’s Fidel Carrera (.282, 7 HR, 30 RBI) were still almost driving in a run per game.

Carrera will be a discussion at a later date, but Tyler Wharton was in his tenth year in terms of service time and there was a reasonable argument to be made that he was already getting into the Hall of Fame if he shattered his legs skateboarding tomorrow and couldn’t continue with baseball. As a 29-year-old, he already had five Player of the Year awards, four batting titles, a home run crown, two RBI championships, a triple crown, and had led the FL in batter WAR for the last six years straight.

He was hitting .327/.405/.531 for his career, with 1,565 hits, 214 homers, 885 RBI, and 195 stolen bases. Oh, did I mention the EIGHT Gold Gloves and the six Platinum Sticks, and the two World Series rings?

Man’s a beast!

He’s a free agent after next season, too. Maybe we’ll have money by then.

Doesn’t he play in a sandbox in Dallas? Even if the club can paw enough cash together is he a risky signing going to the heavy rain air of the PNW. Wonder how his splits are for his career or is he a killer everywhere.

My fear for the Rac’s is he’d leave his bat in Dallas

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by DD Martin

Doesn’t he play in a sandbox in Dallas? Even if the club can paw enough cash together is he a risky signing going to the heavy rain air of the PNW. Wonder how his splits are for his career or is he a killer everywhere.

My fear for the Rac’s is he’d leave his bat in Dallas

There are no career home/road splits in OOTP 16, and this season isn't very old.

Also, you sound like Cristiano Carmona

[Westheim]

The new week would begin with … well, first an off day, and then the Raccoons optioned Leon Arantes (.146, 0 HR, 0 RBI) to AAA on Tuesday, and recalled Chance Fox from a frankly disastrous rehab assignment in which he posted an 8.33 ERA over five starts. The BABIP was bad, but not THAT bad. More walks than strikeouts and getting plonked to death didn’t mesh well at any level. He would be an extra garbage reliever in the pen for now, because we didn’t see a way to put that package into the rotation.

Raccoons (17-14) vs. Wolves (13-18) – May 10-12, 2067

The Wolves were fifth in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed, with a building -38 run differential. They were usually able to build a competent team every 25 years or so, but that point seemed far off at this moment in time. No injuries for them right now – just meh across the board, ranking in the bottom five in every major stat. This was the fifth straight year in which the two teams would meet and the Raccoons had taken every series in the string, including a sweep in ’65.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (3-2, 4.50 ERA) vs. Josh Jackson (0-3, 4.96 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (1-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. Pat Bidwell (2-3, 4.19 ERA)
Nick Walla (3-1, 2.92 ERA) vs. Jimmy Nelson (2-3, 4.05 ERA)

Only right-handers, and only pedestrian ERA’s on the Wolves.

Game 1
SAL: 2B Derbyshire – RF S. Valdez – 1B Eaves – CF B. Davidson – SS Katzman – C F. Contreras – LF Grulke – 3B Roller – P Jo. Jackson
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Rios

For the second time in a week, Jose Corral struck out his first time up, wasn’t happy, and neither was the umpire, and he got run. This time I was close enough to an actual stroke to drop my actual food bowl and send mini pretzels spilling all over the office, which meant a minute later all the spare starting pitchers sniffed their way up and were gobbling on the floor. Jamie Colter replaced Corral, who had a good old yelling-at coming. The Raccoons then recovered from there to put Lopez and Dowsey on base and have Rich Monck bomb a 3-piece for a quick first-inning lead. The exhilarating thing was that this wasn’t Rich Monck’s last 3-run homer in the game – he mashed another one in the bottom 3rd, with Wilson and Lopez on the corners…! At that point it was 6-0, and the RBI’s were all Monck’s, while Josh Jackson was soon enough getting the rest of the day off as well.

Dowsey would grab an RBI on a sac fly in the fourth inning after the Coons got Wilson and Colter to the corners against Jon Cuadrado, who would go on to pitch long relief and exchange singles off each other with Rios in the fifth inning; except that Rios held off the Wolves in that top 5th, while Wilson drove in Novelo with two outs in the bottom 5th after Rios sent him to third base with that knock up the middle. Rios had yet to run into serious trouble, allowing two hits and two walks in five innings, and needed just 56 pitches. He only had four strikeouts this time though. The Wolves would eventually make the scoreboard in the seventh with Rios offering a leadoff walk to John Katzman, whom Matt Roller drove home with a double down the leftfield line with two outs. Rios would only get two more outs, being lifted after allowing a leadoff single to Palmiro Derbyshire and walking Tyler Eaves, who recently lost a 26-game hitting streak, inside the first three batters in the eighth inning. Yamauchi came on and dug Rios out, although it was not pretty despite a K on Bill Davidson. He walked Katzman with two outs, filling the bags, and then barely got into Starr’s fur on a roller up the rightfield line on Fernando Contreras, where all three of them almost collided rather violently. Starr managed to pick and tag Contreras to end the inning despite having a reliever on his back, and the Wolves trudged back to the dugout. Bottom 8th, the bags filled up on a Katzman error and Wolves righty Gary Peoples loading the bases with walks to Dowsey and Monck and one out. Peoples would not get outta there alive, walking in runs against Starr and Roberts, and conceding a run on a Novelo single as well. Marquise Early hit a sac fly off Pedro Negron, Wilson added an RBI single, and then Negron finally K’ed Colter to end a 5-run meltdown. Alvey then got the last three outs without issue. 13-1 Furballs! Wilson 2-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Dowsey 2-4, RBI; Monck 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 6 RBI; Novelo 3-4, BB, RBI; Rios 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (4-2) and 2-4;

The Raccoons had A POSITIVE RUN DIFFERENTIAL after this rout!

Jose Corral was not in the lineup on Wednesday, his fuzzy ears still ringing from the yelling-at he well deserved!

Game 2
SAL: RF S. Valdez – C F. Contreras – 1B Eaves – CF B. Davidson – SS Katzman – LF Grulke – 2B Bauer – 3B Roller – P J. Nelson
POR: CF Wilson – 2B Roberts – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – C Aguilar – RF Colter – SS Novelo – P Musgrave

Katzman was all over the box score with a second-inning homer that gave the Wolves a 1-0 lead, and then an error to put Joel Starr on base in the same inning before Nelson nicked Aguilar and Colter singled to fill the bases with nobody out. From there, Pablo Novelo somehow managed to hit into a 3-2-3 double play – and then Musgrave flipped it around with a 2-run single to right, also flipping the score to 2-1 in his favor! Unfortunately the pendulum then swung right back in the top 3rd with a 1-out single by Eaves, Davidson walking, and Novelo then fudging Katzman’s grounder for an error. The Wolves plated all the runners with a walk to Kyle Grulke, an infield single (…) for Chris Bauer, and Roller’s sac fly before Musgrave retired Nelson to end the dismal inning.

The 4-2 deficit was erased in the bottom 3rd immediately as Roberts walked and stole second, Dowsey doubled him home, and then himself scored on productive outs by Monck and Starr, leveling the score at four. That tie would be broken by another Novelo error in the fifth inning, throwing away a 2-out grounder (!) by the pitcher Nelson (!!) with Katzman and Roller on base, and the former scored as the ball bounced merrily around foul ground. Santiago Valdez then flew out to Colter to strand a pair in scoring position.

Bottom 5th, and it was three on and nobody out again. Wilson singled and stole second before the bases filled up behind him with Roberts and Dowsey. Monck tied the game with a sac fly to Grulke, Starr singled to get the bags filled up again, and then Nelson walked in another run with Aguilar, and was yanked. Colter hit an RBI single off Cuadrado, as did Novelo, and Marquise Early pinch-hit for a bases-clearing double in the right-center gap and the Coons were in double digits again! Gary Peoples then got the last outs of that inning. Up six, the Raccoons sent in Holzmeister, and casually got Chance Fox ready for multiple innings at the tail end here. Holzmeister immediately walked a pair and gave up a run in the sixth, 11-6, and then it was Chance Fox and I closed my eyes, scared. He struck out the first batter he faced, Bauer, in a 1-2-3 seventh, but Valdez hit a bloop double that Wilson dove for and missed in the eighth, and Fox lost Eaves on balls, but then escaped when Davidson grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

Roberts led off the bottom 8th with a double to left, but also pulled a hammy and stalked awkwardly off the field, replaced with Tallent, the last non-catcher on the bench. Dowsey singled, putting them on the corners, and Monck brought in the lead runner, but for the cost of a double play. Bob West got the ball in the ninth, put Katzman and Bauer on base, and then was bashed for a 2-out, pinch-hit, 3-run homer to right by John Tyner (who?). Josh C replaced West and got the final out from Valdez with a single pitch. 12-9 Raccoons! Dowsey 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Colter 2-4, RBI; Early (PH) 1-2, 2B, 3 RBI; Fox 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Mike Roberts would miss at least one week with the tender hammy, and with the extra pitcher on the roster we couldn’t keep an incapacitated infielder on the roster. Roberts was off to the DL. Carlos Gutierrez was brought back from AAA (and mostly being hurt last year) and would probably split second base duties with Randy Tallent until we sorted out the oversized bullpen.

Game 3
SAL: 2B Derbyshire – C F. Contreras – CF B. Davidson – SS Katzman – RF S. Valdez – 1B Huffman – LF Bauer – 3B Roller – P Lowry
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Walla

Ian Lowry faced only four batters before being collected by the Wolves’ medical professional, which wasn’t gonna help their bullpen here. Monck singled on the last pitch by Lowry, and Jesse Connors – a left-hander – then gave up singles to Dowsey and Starr to load the bags. A walk to Novelo forced home a run, and another run scored on Gutierrez’ 6-4-3 grounder, before Walla popped out to Katzman, ending the inning. On the hill, Walla gave up two singles in the third, keeping the runners on base, and another two singles in the fifth inning, when reliever Pedro Negron managed to drive home Chris Bauer with the latter hit. Other than that, Walla struck out six in five innings, although efficiency was lacking again, and he was near 80 pitches at that point.

Negron walked the bags full with the 1-2-3 hitters and one out before being disposed of in the bottom 5th, leaving righty Guido Branco to face Monck with the sacks full. Monck hit a 1-2 drive to center, but Davidson tracked it down, holding Monck to a sac fly for a 3-1 lead. Dowsey flew out to Bauer on the warning track, wasting two runners. Walla answered with a 6-pitch sixth, then allowed singles to the lefty-hitting Kevin Huffman and Bauer. Roller rolled into a double play, but when Tyner pinch-hit from the left side as the tying run, the Raccoons sent McMahan, who got a K. Yamauchi had a scoreless eighth, walking only Fernando Contreras, who dropped a foul pop by Starr in the bottom 8th for an error, and Starr went on to hit the fourth straight single to begin the inning against Case Hayden after that; him and Dowsey each drove in a run, but the bottom of the order made two meek outs with the middle infielders before Aguilar batted for Yamauchi and walked the bags full. Hayden walked in a run against Wilson, Corral hit a soft RBI single, Hayden walked in ANOTHER run against Lopez, and then Monck grounded out sharply to Palmiro Derbyshire to end the inning. Jesse Dover’s save chance was gone, but he needed work and was sent into the ninth inning, then got battered for three runs with Valdez and Huffman homers back-to-back… 8-4 Raccoons. Lopez 1-2, 3 BB, RBI; Monck 3-4, RBI; Dowsey 2-4, RBI; Starr 2-4, RBI; Novelo 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Walla 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (4-1);

Raccoons (20-14) vs. Titans (22-11) – May 13-15, 2067

The Titans had swept the Raccoons in three games in April, and I was wary of another demonstration of why the Raccoons were not up to snuff with the division’s top dogs, despite sitting only 2 1/2 games out in May. They ranked seventh in runs scored, but were giving up next to nothing, having surrendered just 88 runs in 33 games so far. The Coons of course had just punked the Wolves for 33 runs in three days, so maybe there’d be some spillover into the next series. Please? John Kaniewski and Josh Carlisle were injuries on the Titans’ side.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (3-2, 3.49 ERA) vs. Bryce Wallace (5-1, 1.09 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (2-3, 4.10 ERA) vs. Matt Taylor (1-2, 3.60 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (4-2, 3.89 ERA) vs. Jason Brenze (6-1, 1.74 ERA)

The second-worst ERA in that rotation was that of Mike Bell (5-1, 2.30 ERA). Yikes. All three starters lined up here were right-handed.

Game 1
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. Acosta – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – SS Onelas – 3B C. Pena – P B. Wallace
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Gaytan

Nah, the offense was dead as soon as Bryce Wallace put his pants on. On the bright paw, Gaytan struck out five Titans in the first three innings for only a single against him, but the fourth then began with a walk to Willie Acosta, nicking Eddie Marcotte, and another walk to Jorge Arviso, and suddenly the bloody bags were full. Gaytan got some counseling services on the fly, then got a comebacker from Bill Joyner, which he took for an out at home, but two weren’t in the cards. And who needs two anyway? Joe Washington popped out to Wilson in shallow center and Marcotte didn’t dare to go, and then Marcos Onelas flew out to left, and the Titans didn’t get any runs.

Wallace then nicked Lopez to begin the bottom 4th. Monck grounded out, advancing the runner, and then Dowsey singled him home for the first run of the game. Wallace then walked the bags full, then hung one to Carlos ******* Gutierrez, who tattered it over the fence in right. GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMM!!!!????

Wallace issued two more walks to Gaytan and Corral, but the Coons didn’t push more than those five runs across in the fourth inning. It was all a bit too good to last, though. Both teams hit a single and into a double play in the fifth, and the sixth then began with Acosta singling, and the Titans would not make another out against Gaytan, who allowed another single, a walk, and an RBI single to Joyner before being lifted for Bob West, who brought little relief, giving up two hits for three runs to Onelas and Rich Cabrera. Carrington replaced him with two outs, walked Steve Humphries to load the bases, and walked in the tying run against Acosta before Marcotte flew out to Wilson to leave three Titans stranded again. The Coons got the middle infielders on base again, but then saw them stranded with three meek outs from Early, Wilson, and Corral. Alvey held the game tied in the seventh, but Yamauchi exploded in the eighth, getting taken deep by pinch-hitter Andy Lee before allowing a walk to Humphries and an RBI double to Acosta for an extra run. That put the Titans up by two, and Chance Fox held them there in the ninth, allowing a single to Arviso, who was caught stealing, before striking out Joyner and Washington. Cody Kleidon then evaporated Early, Tallent, and Corral in order to show the Raccoons their place. 7-5 Titans. Dowsey 3-3, RBI; Gutierrez 1-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI;

Game 2
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. Acosta – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Joyner – RF Joe Washington – SS Onelas – 3B C. Pena – P M. Taylor
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Tallent – P Nakayama

Nakayama came out and walked Humphries, but then retired the next nine Titans in order and kept the runner on base, too, but it wasn’t like the Raccoons were able to take any early tricks against Taylor and three innings breezed by. Acosta singled up the middle to begin the fourth, but was immediately doubled off by Marcotte grounding out to short. Monck hit a single the second time through, which was that, and Cesar Pena rolled a leadoff single through the right side in his second at-bat, which was already leading off the sixth inning. Taylor bunted him over, but Humphries grounded out and Acosta popped out to Monck. Nakayama walked Arviso and mishandled a Joyner groundball for an error in the seventh, but kept those stranded, too, ensuring a scoreless rush of a game at the stretch. He was at 101 pitches though and the pen would take over, while Taylor was on 67 through six innings and looked like he was gonna last much longer, but then he allowed a leadoff single to Monck in the bottom 7th. A wild pitch advanced Monck to second, and then Aguilar banged a drive off the wall for an RBI double! Taylor walked Starr, Novelo flicked a bloop single to fill the bases, and then Taylor threw another wild pitch to bring in another run. Tallent popped out for the first actual out, Colter batted for Nakayama but grounded out to Cesar Pena, which didn’t help the runners on second and third, and Wilson sent a drive to left, but Humphries ran it down and the runners remained stranded. McMahan retired the Titans in order in the eighth and Dover got ready for another ninth inning, but before he could get there, the save was taken off again when Dowsey hit an infield single and Monck popped a 2-piece to chase Taylor. Dover took the ball regardless, put Acosta and Marcotte on, and was yanked and replaced with Alvey. He gave up an RBI single to Arviso, but then rallied and retired Joyner, Cabrera, and Onelas on largely poor contact, and the Raccoons actually won a game from the Titans. 4-1 Raccoons. Dowsey 2-4, 2B; Monck 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Novelo 2-3, 2B; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, W (3-3);

Taking the rubber game would be a great moral victory, too! And look, it’s Brenize! He of the 2-game losing streak against the Critters!

Game 3
BOS: LF S. Humphries – SS Onelas – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Jer. White – RF Joe Washington – 2B R. Cabrera – 3B C. Pena – P Brenize
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Rios

Humphries and Arviso drew walks off Rios in the first inning, but the Titans couldn’t come up with a base hit to get them around to score. Monck and Dowsey bid for homers to left in the second inning, but were denied by about six feet and Humphries’ mitten, both of them. Starr reached on an uncaught third strike, but was stranded, and then Humphries raked a triple off Rios before Onelas jumped the fence for a 2-run homer. The Coons though got Gutierrez on base with a single to begin the bottom 3rd. He was bunted over before Brenize oddly lost control and walked the bases full with two outs – right in front of Rich Monck, who was white-hot at this point and – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

Brenize couldn’t believe it either, and he stared in even more disbelief when the fifth rolled around and Rios hit a double through Jeremy White and to the fence to begin that inning, and the Raccoons got him around on a groundout and Jose Corral’s sac fly to Washington. The trouble didn’t lessen for Brenize, who saw the Titans put a pair on and strand them in the sixth against Rios, before he himself loaded the bases with Monck, who crashed a double, Starr, and Novelo. Gutierrez batted with one out, plating a run with a groundout to Cabrera, 6-2, and that was the unceremonious end for Brenize, who was lifted for lefty Josh Atkins, who struck out Rios.

Rios got two more outs in the seventh before walking Humphries, his fifth free pass in the game, and his last, for Josh C replaced him, threw one pitch, and Humphries got himself caught stealing on that. He then retired the 2-3-4 in the eighth through his own honest work, as well as Jeremy White on a grounder to short to begin the ninth. West got the last two outs then to grab a series from the Titans! 6-2 Furballs! Corral 0-1, 2 BB, RBI; Monck 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI;

In other news

May 13 – The Falcons acquire INF Diego Mendoza (.237, 0 HR, 7 RBI) from the Cyclones, along with #88 prospect 2B/SS Rodger Houkes and $1.5M in cash. The Cyclones receive INF Jared Duhe (.292, 2 HR, 19 RBI).
May 13 – The Warriors beat the Gold Sox, 8-7 in ten innings, being awarded home plate for the winning run on walkoff balk by DEN CL Ricky Baca (0-2, 4.29 ERA, 11 SV).

FL Player of the Week: SAC 3B/SS/LF/RF J.P. Gallo (.282, 12 HR, 24 RBI), raking .381 (8-21) with 4 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR INF Rich Monck (.333, 10 HR, 34 RBI), thundering .458 (11-24) with 4 HR, 14 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Rich Monck is on fire to a degree that he can’t touch anything easily flammable because it will immediately start smoking. He is hitting .446/.468/.768 in May. Given that his contract is up this year… He is working hard for the money!

A game and a half behind the Titans and the Loggers!? (The Loggers…!)

Of course it’s not gonna hold up, the rotation, and the pen, and the batting … the batting was stunning these last two weeks. The Raccoons scored 91 runs in all of April across 23 games. They have rushed the opposition for 89 runs this month, and it’s only the 15th!!

Fun Fact: The Raccoons are now t-2nd in runs scored with 180 total. The Loggers are first.

The Loggers have scored *241* runs in 38 games. They might just about be able to appear relevant with that blinding offense (6.34 R/G) with a rotation that has ERA’s of 3.63 and up (and quite far up). Terrible defense is part of their problems.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-15) @ Crusaders (20-16) – May 16-19, 2067

The unreasonably high-riding Raccoons were off to New York for a 4-game set then, which should adjust expectations accordingly. The Crusaders had won 11 of 18 games from the Coons last year, and were off to a solid start with ranks of fourth in runs scored and third in runs allowed, but were emotionally still reeling from the departure of Ben Seiter, and were without the injured Bryant Box and Omar Sanchez, so the base paths might be a bit calmer than normal during this series.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (2-2, 3.19 ERA) vs. Ben Peterson (2-2, 2.57 ERA)
Nick Walla (4-1, 2.68 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (5-2, 3.72 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-2, 3.71 ERA) vs. Ramon Carreno (1-1, 3.29 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (3-3, 3.58 ERA) vs. Carlos Torres (3-1, 3.98 ERA)

Peterson was the only southpaw the Raccoons would face in this set.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Dowsey – LF Early – RF Tallent – 2B C. Gutierrez – P Musgrave
NYC: CF Reyna – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 2B Labonte – 3B Villarreal – SS O. Vera – P B. Peterson

Musgrave allowed singles to Victor Reyna and Jose Ambriz in the first, but would get a double play grounder out of David Johnson to get out of the inning; however, Musgrave then hit into a double play himself to end the second inning after Marquise Early led off with a double and Carlos Gutierrez reached on an error by Omar Verga, putting runners on the corners with one gone in the top 2nd. The first run of the game would score by means of red-hot Rich Monck, who hit a 2-out double off the leftfield wall in the third inning, driving home Novelo from second base. Monck was left on by Dowsey, but the Raccoons tacked on a run in the fourth on unlikely back-to-back doubles from Tallent and Gutierrez.

Starting from the end of the fourth inning, it began to drizzle on and off, and Musgrave squeezed through five complete innings before the clouds broke for a heavy but brief shower in the sixth inning, which was good for a 30-minute rain delay. Musgrave returned for the sixth and was met with another set of Reyna and Ambriz singles – which only made for five Crusaders hits in the game at that point – through the holes, but got outs from Danny Starwalt and Johnson before being replaced against the lefty-hitting Kazuhide Takeuchi. McMahan and Corral entered in a double switch (Early was gone), but Takeuchi legged out an infield single to get a run across before McMahan struck out Paul Labonte to keep the tying and go-ahead runs on base. The Raccoons got the run back though in the top 7th as Gutierrez doubled again and was then driven home by Jaden Wilson with a single, 3-1. Wilson was left on base, and then McMahan allowed soft leadoff singles to Tony Villarreal and Omar Vera in the bottom 7th, neither of which left the infield dirt. Peterson bunted them into scoring position before Josh C replaced the left-hander. Reyna’s sac fly to Corral in right narrowed the score to 3-2, but Ambriz grounded out to Gutierrez to keep the Raccoons narrowly on top. Yamauchi and West then ached around a Starwalt single to lead off the bottom 8th to maintain the lead in that inning, and after Dave Hyman retired the Coons’ 8-9-1 in order in the ninth inning, things didn’t promise to get much easier with a leadoff, four-pitch walk Jesse Dover offered to PH Natsu Nakamura in the bottom 9th. The tying run advanced on Vera’s groundout, and then Jared McLaughlin singled solidly through the right side. The Crusaders sent Nakamura, but Corral threw him out at the plate!! One pitch later, Reyna grounded out to Monck, and the Raccoons dazzled away with a close one! 3-2 Critters. Wilson 2-5, RBI; Gutierrez 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

The Titans did not play on Monday, while the Loggers knocked off the Indians to take sole possession of first place.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B C. Gutierrez – P Walla
NYC: CF Reyna – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – 2B Labonte – SS O. Vera – P Jer. Washington

Walla, not from Walla Walla, Washington, faced Washington in a game that confused me from the outset. Equally non-sensical was that Walla retired the first seven Crusaders in the game, none on strikes, before giving up an ice-breaking homer to light-hitting shortstop Omar Vera. He got the pitcher before unraveling for three 2-out walks to the 1-2-3 batters, got yelled at by the pitching coach, got Johnson to hit a roller to Monck that had to be bare-pawed, the throw to first was offline, but Starr came off the base and caught it right as he crashed into the catcher, sending equipment flying, but not the ball in Starr’s mitten, and the play was ruled the third out of the inning.

The Coons didn’t get a hit until a Dowsey double with two outs in the fourth, but Starr struck out to keep him on base. Eric Frasher extended the Crusaders’ lead to 2-0 with another homer in the inning, and Walla finally got a K on Vera, but he just didn’t look right in this start. Novelo drew a walk and was singled home by Wilson with two outs in the top 5th to narrow the score to 2-1, and the sixth inning saw no base runners before Joel Starr put one in the seats to tie the game and send Washington packing to lead off the seventh inning. The Raccoons also batted for an off-kilter Walla with two outs and nobody on in the seventh given that he would face three lefty sticks in the bottom 7th. Early struck out in his spot, leaving him with a no-decision.

The Raccoons still couldn’t find the sticks – only four hits in eight innings – while Alvey retired the bottom of the order in the seventh, walked Reyna to begin the eighth, but got Jared McLaughlin pinch-hitting and flying out to right in Ambriz’ place in the eighth. Dover then came in and got a double play grounder from Starwalt to keep the game tied. He looked like he’d also do the ninth, and Chance Fox was getting ready in the pen for eventual extra innings. That never came to pass though, as David Johnson put the winning run on second base with a double to center to begin the ninth inning and then scored on groundouts by Takeuchi and Frasher to end the game on time. 3-2 Crusaders. Dowsey 2-4, 2B;

Rich Monck went 0-for-4 as we feared he might stop setting every pitcher he faced on fire.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – C Aguilar – SS Novelo – 2B C. Gutierrez – P Gaytan
NYC: CF Reyna – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – 2B Labonte – SS O. Vera – P Carreno

While Gaytan allowed three hits and got two double plays for damage control the first time through the Crusaders order, long-ago Raccoon Ramon Carreno – last seen in the brown shirt in 2059 – retired the Raccoons in order with two strikeouts and zero hard hits in the first three innings, needing just 25 pitches for that feat. Wilson, Corral, and Monck then disappeared for five pitches in the fourth before an Ambriz single and Johnson’s RBI double to left gave New York a 1-0 lead. Carreno remained perfect for 14 batters before Justin Aguilar lobbed a single over the head of another ex-Coon, Paul Labonte, and was left on when Novelo struck out.

Carreno’s stellar outing ended rather unceremoniously after six-plus innings, when Corral led off the seventh with a sharp single to right, and Carreno also felt a sharp twinge in his shoulder and had to leave the game with the trainer. Lefty Ed Nadeau immediately got a double play from Rich Monck to dispel the notion that the Raccoons might suddenly rally. Gaytan went on to pitch eight innings for what would become a complete-game 6-hitter (and also a loss) once the Crusaders’ Manny Gutierrez retired Carlos Gutierrez, Ramon Lopez, and Jaden Wilson on nine pitches in the ninth inning. 1-0 Crusaders. Gaytan 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (3-3);

Four Crusaders pitchers combined to deal with the Raccoons on *83* pitches in this game, which took only 2:14 despite the injury break around Carreno.

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – LF Colter – 2B Tallent – P Nakayama
NYC: CF Box – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – 2B Labonte – C Reyna – SS O. Vera – P C. Torres

Randy Tallent scored go-ahead runs in both the second and fourth innings on getaway day, hitting a 2-run homer with Jamie Colter on base the first time to erase a 1-0 deficit resulting from Ambriz and Takeuchi hits in the bottom 1st, and after the Crusaders tied the game in the bottom 3rd on hits by fresh-off-the-DL-and-trouble Bryant Box and Ambriz, Tallent hit a 1-out single to put himself on base as the go-ahead run, stole second, reached third on a Nakayama single, and then came home on a Jaden Wilson double. Corral lined out to Labonte, but Monck drove in the pair of runners from second and third with a single through the left side, extending the lead to 5-2 and knocking out Carlos Torres already.

Nakayama went five with that 5-2 lead, throwing 72 pitches before an hourlong rain delay – ever a joy on getaway day – ended his outing a bit prematurely. Chance Fox followed with the goal of pitching multiple innings, retiring the Crusaders in the sixth before putting Paul Labonte on base with his own error in the seventh, although Labonte would make the third out by getting himself caught stealing in the inning. Tony Villarreal drew a leadoff walk off Fox in the eighth inning, but was doubled up by Ambriz after Box whiffed for three shutout innings and the minimum faced by Fox. The Raccoons, who couldn’t convert a 1-out triple by Ramon Lopez in the ninth inning, then gave the ball to Josh C in the bottom 9th, who retired Starwalt, Takeuchi, and Frasher in order to allow the Raccoons to leave town with a split. 5-2 Raccoons. Monck 2-5, 2 RBI; Starr 2-5; Tallent 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Nakayama 5.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (4-3) and 1-2; Fox 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Raccoons (24-17) vs. Bayhawks (16-26) – May 20-22, 2067

San Fran ranked ninth in runs scored and 11th in runs allowed with a -42 run differential, which was never a great start to these intros. They were bottoms in OBP, and their defense was soggy. In addition to everything else, they had starter Juan Sanchez and regulars Juan Paez and Adan Yniguez away on the DL. Besides elder statesman Armando Montoya (.261, 9 HR, 29 RBI) and Nate Navarre (.295, 6 HR, 25 RBI) their lineup looked spectacularly barren. The Raccoons had won the season series from the Baybirds for five years running, 5-4 in 2066.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (5-2, 3.72 ERA) vs. Paul Egley (1-4, 5.13 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (3-2, 3.00 ERA) vs. Justin Wittman (5-3, 2.87 ERA)
Nick Walla (4-1, 2.72 ERA) vs. Jon Mendosa (1-4, 5.17 ERA)

These were all right-handers. Wittman was by far the best starter in the rotation, and had more than half the current rotation’s wins. The only other starter with an ERA under five was southpaw Adam Gardner (2-3, 4.15 ERA), who had pitched on Wednesday and wasn’t gonna make it into the weekend.

Pablo Novelo was marked for a day off on Friday, but everybody got Friday off when it rained all day long. Pacific Northwest, huh? A double header was scheduled for Saturday, with the Raccoons switching pitching assignments, pulling Musgrave into the first game. Novelo then got the first game off in the make-up double header.

Game 1
SFB: RF J. Ward – 1B Navarre – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Haynes – CF Parrish – SS K. Ball – 3B Clapp – P Egley
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – 2B Gutierrez – SS Tallent – P Musgrave

Montoya immediately doubled home Navarre in the first inning as Musgrave put four straight Baybirds on base, starting with Navarre’s single, followed by a hit Ian Streng, Montoya, and a walk to Chris Haynes. John Parrish struck out and Keith Ball flew out to Corral to keep three on base. The Raccoons wasted no time in equalizing, though, getting a Wilson single and an RBI double from Ramon Lopez, and Rich Monck raked a homer to right for a 3-1 lead, four batters in. The second was scoreless, while Musgrave shuffled the bags full again in the third inning, with a Streng hit and walks offered to Haynes and Parrish. Again, Keith Ball choked with the bases loaded and grounded out to Gutierrez to extend his LOB tally to six. The Raccoons also wasted walks to Dowsey and Starr in the inning, while Ball got better the next time around, striking out for the second out with only Parrish on base…

The pitch count on Musgrave went up quickly, with four walks and seven strikeouts on his ledger through six innings, but with the double header and even with an extra paw in the pen, the Raccoons tried to get as much as possible out of him. The Raccoons after a few silent innings tacked on a run with a Dowsey triple and … well, it took until Tallent grounded out to plate him, with Starr being intentionally walked and Gutierrez popping out. Musgrave retired the 8-9-1 in the lineup in the seventh, then sat down after 105 pitches. The Raccoons went to Yamauchi, who put two on for two outs, but Bob West got a groundout from Parrish to end the eighth inning. Against Danny Zepeda in the bottom 8th, the Coons loaded the bags with Starr, Gutierrez, and Colter, who had come in with West in a double switch in place of Dowsey, before Roberto Mendez replaced Zepeda with three on and one out. Wilson grounded out, bringing in a run, but Corral popped out to short and left two on base. West finished the game against the bottom o the order, though, and thus earned himself a save in the process. 5-1 Raccoons! Starr 2-2, 2 BB; Colter 1-1; Musgrave 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (4-2);

Game 2
SFB: RF J. Ward – 1B Haynes – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Goodwin – CF Navarre – SS K. Ball – 3B Clapp – P Wittman
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – 1B Dowsey – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – LF Early – 2B Gutierrez – RF Tallent – P Rios

Again, the Bayhawks took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, this time on Haynes and Streng singles, aided by a balk committed by Rios that moved Haynes to second base, from where Streng cashed him. Greg Clapp’s first career homer extended their lead to 2-0 in the second, and it was 3-0 in the third after a double to left by Streng and Curt Goodwin’s RBI single. The Raccoons had no hits at that point, but got a run in the bottom 3rd on Gutierrez’ leadoff single and a 2-out RBI double by Jaden Wilson into the right-center gap.

After the early runs, the Bayhawks would get nothing, not even a base hit, off Rios in the middle innings, although he issued two walks and the counts were generally long, leading to him coming out of the game after six innings and the Raccoons still trailing 3-1, getting only a Dowsey double and nothing else in the middle innings. Holzmeister hadn’t pitched in over a week, but managed a scoreless seventh, and after the stretch the Raccoons’ 5-6-7 hitters loaded the bases with three straight soft singles against Wittman. Tallent blundered into a run-scoring, 6-4-3 double play, but Joel Starr pinch-hit for Holzmeister and pushed a game-tying single past Haynes at first to tie the game at three before Wilson’s groundout ended the inning.

McMahan and Dover pitched scoreless innings for the rest of relegation, while Roland Wiser, a right-hander with a 5.31 ERA and more walks than strikeouts in 20 innings pitched, got the ball for the bottom 9th, starting with Marquise Early, who singled up the middle at 1-0. Gutierrez popped out in foul ground, but Corral drew a walk batting for Tallent. Lopez batted for Dover, but crashed into a double play and sent the game to extra innings. Carrington retired the 3-4-5 batters without issue in the tenth, while Portland would start from the top of the lineup and still against Wiser. Wilson singled cleanly to left to begin the bottom 10th, then took off, stole his 10th base, and a fumble by shortstop Curt Enos allowed him to scamper to third base, and with nobody out! Novelo was thankfully hungry and had no desire to hang around the ballpark any longer. His fly to left-center was caught by Streng, but he had no business with a play at the plate and Wilson jogged home to end the ballgame. 4-3 Critters! Wilson 2-5, 2B, RBI; Dowsey 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Early 2-4; Gutierrez 2-4; Starr (PH) 1-1, RBI;

The Raccoons were now playing .600 ball!

Wait. We what?

Jamie Colter (.261, 1 HR, 4 RBI) was then optioned to St. Petersburg to make room for Carlos Matas, who came off the DL on Sunday. Matas then right away gave Jaden Wilson a day off on Sunday.

Game 3
SFB: RF J. Ward – 1B Navarre – LF Streng – 2B A. Montoya – C Haynes – CF Parrish – SS K. Ball – 3B Clapp – P J. Mendosa
POR: RF Corral – CF Matas – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Walla

Walla bent but didn’t break with two singles allowed to Streng and Montoya in the first inning, and instead the Coons scored first for the first time in the series when Dowsey hit a solo homer in the second. The next few innings were rather calm; Walla got a lot of groundballs, but somehow still threw a lot of pitches and was at 71 through five in the game. At that point he was up 2-0, having himself hit a sac fly to score Gutierrez, who had knocked a single, advanced on a stolen base and wild pitch, in the bottom 5th. He couldn’t contain Montoya in the sixth though, as the 36-year-old whacked a 1-out triple into the right-center gap, and then scored on Haynes’ groundout, narrowing the score to 2-1 again.

Monck and Dowsey went to the corners with 1-out singles in the bottom 6th before Mendosa ran a full count on Starr, who had to bend out of the way of a 3-2 pitch to not get plunked, being awarded first base on ball four then anyway. Novelo popped out to first, which was thoroughly not helpful, and Gutierrez hit a drive to deep left, but Streng stalked it down and made the catch on the warning track to strand a full set.

Walla completed seven innings on exactly 100 pitches before being hit for with Wilson leading off the seventh against Josh Doyle. Wilson singled and stole second base, while Corral walked behind him. Matas popped out to second, but Lopez dropped an RBI single into shallow right-center, 3-1. Monck’s sharp grounder was right at Montoya, though, and the Bayhawks exited the inning on a 4-6-3 double play.

Josh C got the ball in the eighth, but soon got stuck, allowing a single to Navarre with one out, and walks to Streng and Haynes after that, departing with the bases loaded for McMahan against the left-handed Parrish, who was predictably hit for with switch-hitting catcher Curt Goodwin – but he struck out anyway! Dowsey walked to lead off the bottom 8th, was run for with Tallent, but that move led nowhere in particular as Tallent was stranded on three straight middling outs. McMahan remained on the hill to begin the ninth inning against Ball, who whiffed, and then after that to see how things would develop from there. Clapp popped out to second, and then a lefty, David Blackham, batted for the pitcher, so why would we make a move there? When Blackham hit a 2-out single and the tying run came to the plate, that was when the Raccoons sent Dover in, who secured a sweep on three straight strikes. 3-1 Critters! Dowsey 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Wilson (PH) 1-1; Walla 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (5-1);

In other news

May 16 – Condors 2B/3B Nick Nye (.287, 4 HR, 24 RBI) drives in five runs on a home run and two singles in a 15-5 rout of the Aces.
May 16 – The Warriors score the tying runs in the bottom of the 9th and 11th innings before walking off for a 3-2 win in 12 innings against the Stars.
May 17 – A home run by DEN OF Matt Little (.275, 6 HR, 15 RBI) brings in the only run in a 1-0 win against the Wolves.
May 19 – In a 9-2 loss to the Aces, the Condors get only one base hit, an RBI single by 3B/1B Dan Sandoval (.210, 0 HR, 2 RBI) against three Vegas pitchers. LVA SP Dan Garicia (2-0, 2.00 ERA) is still no-hitting the Aces when he has to leave the game in the seventh inning after suffering an apparent injury. Sandoval’s single comes off Dan Gaither (0-0, 5.06 ERA).
May 19 – The Stars beat the Warriors, 11-6 after a breakout, 5-run 11th inning, in which 3B/2B/LF Jon Schomer (.295, 4 HR, 17 RBI) hits a grand slam.
May 20 – Slugging Loggers 2B/SS Fidel Carrera (.265, 7 HR, 36 RBI) has suffered a concussion and would be shut down for at least the rest of the month.
May 20 – In a bad day for the league’s stars, Dallas CF Tyler Wharton (.319, 16 HR, 46 RBI) is out of the lineup with a sore back and will miss at least one week.
May 21 – Boston 2B/1B Jeremy White (.245, 1 HR, 19 RBI) misses the cycle by the home run while driving in six runs on three hits in an 11-3 rout of the Condors.

FL Player of the Week: RIC OF Willie Ospina (.291, 6 HR, 24 RBI), hitting .483 (14-29) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL OF Jake Evans (.265, 8 HR, 26 RBI), striking .444 (8-18) with 3 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons lived on pitching in putting together a 5-2 week, and it didn’t hurt that the Bayhawks were not getting anywhere. The offense was slow, though, just 22 runs in seven games. The pitchers only allowed 13 runs though, which wasn’t even two per game. Surely not sustainable, especially with a bullpen of arsonists.

For now though we had to keep the eighth reliever on board as well, given that we had played a double header on Saturday and needed a spot starter on Tuesday. I had my eye on Chance Fox, who had made three appearances since coming out of rehab, pitching six innings of 2-hit ball. It was all a bit too good to be true given how he had been beaten around by AAA batters. But it would be hard to get anybody else on the roster for Wednesday against the Falcons, so Chance Fox it’d be. Probably.

We would also play the Aces next week, all games being on the road.

Fun Fact: 17 years ago today, Victor Salcido threw the first of his two no-hitters for the Raccoons in a 3-0 win against the Falcons.

The second would come a year later against the Crusaders, and at that point Salcido’s future looked pretty bright after the Raccoons had made a significant $485k investment to sign him in the 2042 July IFA period. He had back problems even as a minor leaguer and suffered repeated minor injuries in the majors, too, although in 2052 he was then abruptly sent to AAA when his walks exploded and he suddenly posted a 5.57 ERA. He made a return to Portland in ’53, but was then traded to the Miners in the trade that brought in Anton Venegas, who won his only ring with the Raccoons in 2054, the team’s most recent championship to date.

Salcido led the FL in wins with the Miners in ’54, being an All Star for the only time in his career while going 18-10 with a 3.11 ERA, but he would never get much under four again while pitching a few years at a time for the Miners, Warriors, and Blue Sox until his career ended with 15 appearances for Nashville in 2060 at age 34.

For his career he went 119-121 with a 3.94 ERA, striking out 1,483 batters in 2,017 innings.

+++

Don't wait for an update tomorrow. American Truck Simulator will get a new DLC out and that will consume me whole tomorrow

[Hrycaj]

The longevity here is just amazing. If you feel inclined, at some point would you mind posting your league all-time leaderboards? I would be interested to see if you had any outliers that really ran away with things or if everyone is really clumped together. With all of this done on one version of the game I think it would be interesting to see how the game engines compare over the years.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Hrycaj

The longevity here is just amazing. If you feel inclined, at some point would you mind posting your league all-time leaderboards? I would be interested to see if you had any outliers that really ran away with things or if everyone is really clumped together. With all of this done on one version of the game I think it would be interesting to see how the game engines compare over the years.

We have a relatively recent set of numbers in post #4,601. If you want to see anything else, just make a squeak.

Note though that it was not all in OOTP 16; the 1977-2003ish seasons were in OOTP 12, and so at the start of the league teams were still doing four-man rotations, so that wins table took some damage from there. Juan Correa and Salah Brunet especially were in the league at inception.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-17) @ Falcons (21-23) – May 23-25, 2067

The superficially competent Raccoons were up against the CL South this week, starting with three games in Charlotte on Monday. The Falcons were fourth in runs scored and fifth in runs conceded, with a +10 run differential, but under .500, and had lost three in a row. They were near the bottom in home runs, but second in stolen bases. Injuries were not a problem for the team – their DL was squeaky clean. Last year, they had won five of nine games from the Portlanders.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (3-3, 3.31 ERA) vs. Edgar Mauricio (2-2, 3.41 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (4-3, 3.58 ERA) vs. Goffredo Merlin (3-3, 4.85 ERA)
Chance Fox (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Tom Kies (2-2, 2.75 ERA)

The series finale would see a duel of left-handers. Chance Fox would make a spot start because otherwise Musgrave would have to go on short rest ahead of the off day. The other two Falcons starters were right-handed.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Gaytan
CHA: 2B Schmidt – 1B Padgett – C O. Matos – 3B D. Mendoza – SS Tr. Taylor – LF S. Brown – RF Asencio – CF Ricker – P E. Mauricio

The Raccoons got Jaden Wilson on base to begin the first by virtue of Mauricio nicking the batter, and Monck to begin the second with a single, and both were immediately wiped out on double plays by Corral and Dowsey, respectively. Instead, Gaytan plunked Scott Brown with an 0-2 pitch in the bottom 2nd, the runner angrily stole second base, and scored on Kyle Ricker’s 2-out RBI single to left for an early Falcons lead. Gaytan allowed four singles in three frames and got a double play grounder from Cody Padgett in the third inning himself, while the Raccoons brought up the minimum in three, but then got Wilson and Corral to the corners with a walk and single to start the top 4th against Mauricio. Ramon Lopez blundered into *another* double play, but at least Wilson came home to tie the game…

For a while in the middle innings, Gaytan got groundball to middle infielder after ground ball to middle infielder until he was quite suddenly taken deep for a 2-out homer in the sixth by Diego Mendoza; the Raccoons would immediately tie it up again in the seventh though with a leadoff jack from Ramon Lopez, which was somehow his first of the year. The game then remained firmly tied; after the four early singles, the Mendoza blast was the only hit allowed by Gaytan from the fourth through eighth innings, although the Raccoons were similarly strapped for hits against Mauricio and then the pen. Alvaro Garza offered a leadoff walk to Lopez in the ninth, but Monck now hit into a double play, and when Garza walked Dowsey there was at least only one more out to fritter away. Starr singled to right, but Novelo popped out to John Schmidt, and Gaytan was left with a no-decision. Yamauchi took the ball in the ninth, leadoff walk to Oscar Matos, and then Mendoza hit into a double play. Trent Taylor’s groundout sent the game to extras, where the Raccoons still did nothing, and Bob West was quickly overcome on a Marco Asencio double and Ricker’s walkoff single to center. 3-2 Falcons. Monck 2-3, BB; Gaytan 8.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K and 1-3;

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Gutierrez – P Nakayama
CHA: 2B Schmidt – 1B Padgett – C O. Matos – 3B D. Mendoza – SS Tr. Taylor – LF S. Brown – RF Fountain – CF Ricker – P Merlin

The Falcons broke out for a 3-run first inning (one earned) on Nakayama in the first inning as Matos socked a 2-run homer after John Schmidt reached on a bad throw by Novelo, and then Nakayama was hit around with singles by Mendoza, Brown, and Elijah Fountain to but another run together until Ricker flew out to Dowsey to end the inning. Nakayama never got his stuff together and was torn up as early as the third inning, allowing three straight singles to the 6-7-8 batters before walking the opposing pitcher and giving up two more singles for another three runs (all earned), which put him at ten hits and six runs allowed in 2.2 innings. Yamauchi came in and got a groundout to short from Matos, ending the bleed at 6-0, and after that it would be Holzmeister; the Raccoons again brought up the minimum the first time through and looked done for the day already, although Jaden Wilson hit a double past the sliding Ricker to begin the fourth inning – first Raccoons base runner in the game – and then was brought around to score with productive outs by Corral and Dowsey.

But for now Yamauchi remained in the game for some more outs, retiring the Falcons in the fourth. The Raccoons got Novelo on base with two outs in the fifth inning. He stole second, then was singled home by Gutierrez, who stole second, and then was singled home by Yamauchi! Merlin allowed another single to Wilson, a passed ball advanced the runners, and Corral drew a bases-filling walk with two outs. Merlin walked in a run against Dowsey, 6-4, then ran another full count against Rich Monck, who singled up the middle, driving in Wilson and Corral, and tying the score at six…! Merlin was yanked before Aguilar flew out to right against Orazio Cecere to end the inning.

Yamauchi pitched another inning, collecting seven outs while stranding the bases loaded and hitting the 2-out RBI single in the middle of a 5-run rally, all on his second straight day of pitching, so that was a solid day’s work. A win was not in the cards for him though, and the Raccoons then still turned the ball over to Holzmeister in the bottom 6th, so before long the bases were loaded as he nicked Mendoza, Taylor singled, and Brown drew a walk, all with two outs. Elijah Fountain hit a fly to deep right, sending Corral scurrying back, but he was able to make the catch on the edge of the warning track. Corral then homered off Cecere for a 7-6 lead in the top 7th, and Holzmeister somehow put up another scoreless inning after that, even though Ricker hit a leadoff single.

To 8th, and the lefty Jason Stine issued a leadoff walk to Starr. Novelo singled, but was forced out by the pinch-hitting Tallent’s grounder to short. Ramon Lopez batted for Holzmeister and hit an RBI double to left that Brown narrowly missed, 8-6, before a soft Wilson single loaded the bases with one out for Corral. The count ran to 3-1 before Corral grounded to right. John Schmidt intercepted the ball on the lunge, but had only the play at first base, and Tallent scored from third base. Dowsey struck out to end the inning, but Josh C retired the Falcons’ 3-4-5 in order in the eighth inning before the 3-run lead went to Alvey against the mixed bottom half of the order. He gave up a 1-out double to Fountain in the ninth, but the Falcons could neither get that runner home, nor bring the tying run to the plate before they ran out of outs. 9-6 Raccoons! Wilson 2-4, 2B; Gutierrez 2-3, RBI; Lopez (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Yamauchi 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K and 1-1, RBI; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, W (2-2);

Now, that was a rally!

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Tallent – 2B Gutierrez – P Fox
CHA: 2B Schmidt – LF Padgett – C O. Matos – 3B D. Mendoza – SS Tr. Taylor – CF Ricker – RF Fountain – 1B McNeal – P Kies

Fox would not face a left-handed batter in this game, and it didn’t go very well at all. From the start he lacked stuff and instead pitched behind in the count. He would walk four Falcons in the first three innings, evading damage in the first two innings, but leadoff walks to Kies and Schmidt were hard to recover from in the third inning, and the Falcons took a 2-0 lead on a wallbanger double by Matos with one out. Fox issued another walk in the fourth inning, and two singles in the fifth, but both times the Falcons would leave the tack-on run on third base. That was all for Fox, who expended 98 mostly unimpressive pitches to make it through five innings, although the Falcons got only those two runs Matos drove in. However, the Raccoons were on three singles and no runs at that point. They added nothing of value in the seventh, but Tallent began the eighth with a single off Kies. A wild pitch and Gutierrez’ grounder moved him to third base, and Dowsey’s pinch-hit single got the Coons on the board in a 2-1 game. Wilson whiffed and Novelo flew out to right, though, ending the inning.

Jesse Dover pitched around an error by Marquise Early to keep the Falcons from extending in the bottom 8th, and the Raccoons then brought the 3-4-5 up against Alvaro Garza in the ninth. Lopez flew out, but Monck singled and Starr worked a walk to put bodies on base. Corral batted for Early against the right-hander, and four straight balls loaded the bases. Matas batted for Tallent, grounded sharply to short, and the Falcons’ Gold Glove shortstop Trent Taylor made a bare-handed grab on the dash and flung it home, where Monck was tagged out at the plate by Matos, much to the excitement of Taylor, who had fallen after the fling and was now repeatedly slapping his bare hand on the grass. The bags were still loaded for Gutierrez with two outs, and he also hit a grounder to short, but very soft, and it died before Taylor could have a whiff at ANY play, and the Raccoons tied the game on a 2-out infield single in the ninth…! Aguilar was the last bat on the short bench and batted for Dover, slashed the first pitch he got through the right side, and drove in two runs to take the lead…! Garza was yanked in favor of Stine, who got Wilson to fly out to center, and then McMahan was sent in to save the game against the switch-hitting Matos and an array of righty sticks after that. Matos whiffed and Mendoza grounded out, but Trent Taylor walloped a 2-out homer over the fence to reduce the lead to one run. McMahan then brushed Ricker to put the tying run on base, and Asencio’s single got the winning run on base. The Raccoons didn’t have any REAL options in the pen, so McMahan faced Josh McNeal, even though he was also a right-handed batter (Asencio was a lefty swinger). McNeal took a strike, then popped it up to Monck, and that ended the game. 4-3 Critters! Monck 2-4; Tallent 2-3; Dowsey (PH) 1-1, RBI; Aguilar (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI;

Is this the return of the Rallycoons??

What an amazing feeling to have a team that can actually overcome deficits! What is going on??

Mike Roberts came off the DL on Thursday and the Raccoons returned Carlos Gutierrez (.233, 1 HR, 8 RBI) to St. Petersburg.

Raccoons (29-18) @ Aces (24-23) – May 27-29, 2067

Vegas games were not shy of runs, as the Aces ranked second in the league in runs scored, but also tenth in runs allowed, and carried a -19 run differential with them. Their rotation was struggling with an ERA of about four-and-a-half, but the pen was fireworks and put up a league-worst 5.13 ERA. They were however up 2-1 on the season series against the Coons. Starting pitchers Matthew May and Dan Garicia were on the DL, as was cornerstone bat Alex Alfaro.

The Aces had just made a trade with the Condors, parting with OF Phil LeVan (.183, 1 HR, 11 RBI) to pick up 1B Leonardo Jimenez, who had appeared in just five games for Tijuana this year, batting .250 with nothing.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (4-2, 2.78 ERA) vs. Gabe Molina (3-4, 3.45 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-1, 2.54 ERA) vs. Tim Henderson (3-3, 3.82 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (5-2, 3.81 ERA) vs. Preston Young (3-4, 4.34 ERA)

Molina was the only left-handed starter the Aces had to offer.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Early – RF Tallent – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave
LVA: SS Hatakeyama – 2B O. Aredondo – LF Lorenzo – 3B Vic. Morales – RF Rosado – 1B L. Jimenez – CF A. Warner – C A. Perez – P G. Molina

The first inning saw the Coons go up 1-0 on a Pablo Novelo homer and then Koji Hatakeyama sacrificed himself, appearing to suffer a leg injury sliding into third base on a leadoff triple in the bottom 1st. Danny Sanchez ran for him as he was helped off the field, but Musgrave struck out Oscar Aredondo and Vic Lorenzo before Vic Morales grounded out to Monck to strand the pinch-runner. The game from there progressed quite briskly; the next four innings were largely uneventful, as both teams mostly declined the chance to hit against the opposing pitcher, and there was a grand total of five hits scattered between the teams through five innings, and even fewer left on base as Novelo hit into a double play to erase Wilson, and Aredondo got himself caught stealing along the way.

Wilson flew out against Molina to begin the sixth inning, but after that the bases filled up with a Novelo single, Lopez drawing a walk, and Monck hitting a single to right. Dowsey was next and got a dismal hanger from Molina for a first pitch, and HAMMERED it high and deep to right, and never to be seen again! GRAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!

With a 5-0 lead now, we took note of Musgrave’s very manageable pitch count – 68 through six innings of 3-hit ball – and while he only used 12 more pitches in the seventh inning, the Aces got on the board with Vic Lorenzo’s leadoff single, stolen base, and productive outs by the ex-Coon Morales, who grounded out, and Alfredo Rosado’s sac fly to center, 5-1, so the shutout was off the table. Aaron Warner, Angel Perez, and Mike Davis went in order against him in the eighth inning, and he batted for himself in the ninth against right-hander Danny Ryba. He singled, but was ultimately left on base, then climbed the hill again to face the top of the Vegas lineup in the bottom 9th, Sanchez grounding out to begin the inning. Aredondo’s grounder hit off Monck’s wrist for an error, but Aredondo was forced out on a Lorenzo grounder to second-sacker Randy Tallent, who also got a grounder from Vic Morales, and played that for the final out of the game. 5-1 Coons! Novelo 3-5, HR, RBI; Dowsey 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; Musgrave 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (5-2) and 1-3, BB;

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Walla
LVA: SS D. Sanchez – 2B O. Aredondo – LF Lorenzo – 3B Vic. Morales – RF Rosado – 1B L. Jimenez – CF Caceres – C A. Perez – P T. Henderson

Walla struck out two in the first before being taken deep with a leadoff jack by Vic Morales in the bottom 2nd. However, Jaden Wilson went deep to center with Roberts on base in the third inning to flip the score to 2-1 Portland. That wasn’t the end of homer duels, though, as Walla would put Rosado on base with a single and get taken deep by new arrival Leonardo Jimenez to give the Aces the lead back in the fourth inning.

The Raccoons had only two hits in five innings before Dowsey and Monck hit back-to-back 1-out singles in the sixth, but Aguilar and Starr made poor outs and the runners were stranded. Walla had given up only three hits in five innings, but somehow those runners had all jiggered across home plate to score… In the sixth, Morales hit a 2-out single and Walla lost the left-handed Rosado on balls, but then struck out Jimenez to get out of the inning himself. A Perez single then knocked him out in the seventh inning, but Bob West allowed a single to Mike Davis, the only batter he faced, and Josh Carrington faced four batters and retired NONE of them, allowing singles to Aaron Warner and Aredondo to get a run home each, then was taken deep by Lorenzo and doubled off by Vic Morales. HOLZMEISTER now had to come in to restore order, which was the point where I calmly marked an L in my pocket schedule. There was no rally in the Raccoons, even though they got Wilson, Corral, and Monck singles off former Loggers righty Randy Birnbaum in the eighth inning, but only to have Aguilar and Starr croak and leave the bases loaded. Holzmeister pitched the eighth before the Raccoons faced Birnbaum for another four batters in the ninth, giving up straight singles to Matas, Roberts, Early (plating Matas), and Wilson, and reducing the score to 8-3, setting up a save opportunity for Jon Dominguez. Corral lined out to Mike Davis at first, and Wilson was caught off the bag and tagged out for a breathtakingly stupid 3-U double play. Two runs scored afterwards on a Dowsey double, but Monck’s fly out ended the game. 8-5 Aces. Wilson 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Dowsey 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck 2-5; Matas (PH) 1-1; Early (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Hatakeyama, batting .271 with 20 stolen bases, was off to the DL for Vegas on Sunday, with a diagnosis of a knee contusion and at least two weeks on the shelf.

Game 3
POR: RF Corral – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – CF Matas – 2B Roberts – P Rios
LVA: RF Caceres – 2B O. Aredondo – LF Lorenzo – 3B Vic. Morales – 1B L. Jimenez – CF Marazzo – C A. Perez – SS D. Sanchez – P P. Young

The only hitting anybody did the first time through for either team was Preston Young hitting Joel Starr with a fastball, and Starr was non too amused about taking one in the ribs and then being left on base, but maybe he wanted to channel being mad at either team into a homer later on? A fourth-inning single by Starr was surely the first base hit by either team, but he was left on base again, while Rios faltered in the bottom 3rd and gave up two runs on a Jimenez single with the bases loaded, with two of three Aces runners having reached on walks. Like Fox on Wednesday, Rios put up four walks without striking anybody out through four innings. Jorge Caceres drew another walk off him in the fifth, and in the sixth he was knocked out by Lorenzo and Jimenez singles, putting runners on the corners with one out. Yamauchi came in, walked Nate Marazzo to fill ‘em up, and then gave up a 2-run single to Perez, 4-0. Sanchez then hit into a double play.

The Raccoons were still getting 1-hit through six, and when Monck opened the top of the seventh inning with a ball off the wall for a double, he was stranded in cold blood with three meager outs. Mike Roberts’ leadoff single in the eighth gave the Raccoons as many runs (zilch) with straight poor outs by Wilson, Corral, and Dowsey against Young, who went seven and two thirds, and Birnbaum, who then plunked Ramon Lopez to start the ninth inning. Monck smashed into a 4-6-3 double play and Starr popped out to short to end a soggy game. 4-0 Aces. Roberts 1-2, BB;

In other news

May 25 – The Loggers’ OF/2B Tim Goss (.356, 2 HR, 28 RBI) hits for the cycle in a 4-for-6 outing with a lone RBI as Milwaukee takes the Bayhawks apart, 14-1.
May 26 – Blue Sox SP Tony Marquez (3-5, 4.18 ERA) spins a 2-hit shutout with six strikeouts in a 2-0 win against the Gold Sox.
May 26 – CIN OF/1B Dallas Baker (.288, 5 HR, 24 RBI) hits a walkoff grand slam to beat the Wolves, 7-3 in ten innings.
May 27 – Ulnar nerve irritation could spell season over for Boston SP Bryce Wallace (6-2, 2.17 ERA).
May 29 – MIL SP Nick Waldron (8-0, 3.33 ERA) fires a 3-hitter in a 1-0 shutout of the Knights.
May 29 – Scorpions infielder Alex Gonzilez (.258, 4 HR, 25 RBI) has four hits, a homer shy of the cycle, and drives in five runs from the #8 spot in the lineup on the long end of a 14-7 football score against the Buffaloes.

FL Player of the Week: PIT OF Sal Andon (.278, 3 HR, 21 RBI), batting .400 (10-25) with 1 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.401, 7 HR, 36 RBI), raking .611 (11-18) with 3 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons, despite the meh end to the week, ranked in the top 3 in runs scored and runs allowed in the CL, with a +30 run differential. We weren’t quite sure how that had happened, either.

But the team was on an 18-9 May despite the 3-3 week that coulda gone better, and the two defeats on the way out of Vegas marked only our second time in May of losing more than one game in a row. The Crusaders had also won a pair off us in the middle of that 4-game series in New York last week. We had yet to post anything worse than an L3 this season.

The team needed another quality right-handed reliever, though, and a plan on what to do with the supernumerary left-hander in the bullpen that limited the bench to four guys. Chance Fox’ start on Wednesday had been frankly terrible, and he was not going to take another turn next week. But what on Earth do you *do* with him then…?

Another off day coming on Thursday, now in a home week hosting the two foreign teams, the Condors and damn Elks.

Fun Fact: The Bayhawks have been involved in all of the three most recent cycles in the league.

San Francisco’s Armando Montoya of course hit for the cycle in Portland last September in a game that the Bayhawks won, but the other two took place in San Francisco, and both with the Baybirds on the receiving end by the Loggers! Tim Goss did the deed on Wednesday, and in 2065 it was Jonathan Merrill to hit for the cycle in San Fran, in a game that the Bayhawks actually won.

In fact, both the Merrill and Montoya cycles came in 9-8 San Fran wins.

There have been two more cycles this decade in which the Bayhawks were involved, both on the dishing-out end. Jonathan Echols cycled against the Knights in ’63, and Grant Anker hit for the cycle in 2061, ALSO against the Loggers. That game took place in Milwaukee, though.

[Westheim]

2067 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons had sucked their way rather painfully to a good position for the upcoming amateur draft, entering with the #4 overall pick behind the Warriors, Wolves, and Scorpions, who were somehow all from the FL West, and with three picks inside the top 50 overall thanks to a compensation pick for the loss of Juan Sanchez, which turned out to be the #26 selection. And boy, was there a range of interesting players to pick from with a #4 pick!

The Raccoons had again compiled both a 116-strong shortlist of players in the draft pool, and why not jump right in with the hotlist of the dozen-odd most desirable baseball boys in America (*high school players)?

SP/OF Jordan Lopez (15/14/11) – BNN #10
SP Jimmy Wharton (14/15/11)
SP Aaron O’Harra (14/10/12) – BNN #2
SP Chris Bailey (13/11/13) * – BNN #1
SP Stewart Doubleday (13/13/8) – BNN #6

SP/CL Gustavo Vega (15/14/14) – BNN #4
SP/CL Nate Breeden (12/12/15)
CL Bill Ericson (17/14/12)

C Adam Quebbeman (11/9/13)

1B Travis Metcalf (13/12/5) *
INF/MR Joe King (10/5/10)
INF/CF Brian McFarland (11/6/13) *

OF/SP Jordan Lopez (14/15/13) – BNN #10
OF/1B/2B Mike Raymond (13/14/12)
OF Travis Bickerton (12/10/18)

Yes, that’s the *same* Jordan Lopez. YOU try to make your mind up whether you want him in the outfield or on the hill! Also, if you’re on plotting around Jordan Lopez, we’re gladly listening to any suggestions that will make him invisible to the FL West.

There were more interesting cases to get into, like Gustavo Vega, who had a blazing fastball and cutter, but struggled to add a meaningful third pitch – which might still make him a killer closer, if you wanted to fling your #4 pick for that, although Ericson might be the better investment in that case.

Joe King was also a two-way player, although his pitching profile was not nearly as exciting as Lopez’ was. Could the Coons potentially draft Lopez as a new Kyle Brobeck, alternating on the mound and in the field, and would it this time even work out??

There were more stories, like the extended seventh-generation Bickerton family drama. Not only was there a Georgian outfielder Travis Bickerton on our hotlist that was not ranked by BNN, but there was also a Californian pitcher Scott Bickerton, who was #7 on the BNN ranking, but not on our hotlist. Safe to say that both were legitimate prospects regardless, but they were also descendants of 19th century Maryland planters that had ended up fighting on either side of the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) where the Georgia family claimed their ancestor killed his wayward brother, and the California family claimed that *their* ancestor had killed his traitorous sibling. Never mind that nobody could find actual records of either of the two volunteers in question having been killed in the battle.

What else? There was a South African student at Michigan college in the draft pool. 20-year-old SP Afework Elewa looked like a late-round pick at best. Should he make it to the majors against all odds, he would be the first representative of his country in the ABL.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-20) vs. Condors (19-31) – May 30-June 1, 2067

The Raccoons were up against the Condors for the second time this year, and had yet to lose a game to them. The Condors ranked tenth in runs scored and seventh in runs allowed, with a -33 run differential. The rotation was especially troublesome, but they were also bottoms in batting average and stolen bases. Former Critter Nick Nye was expensively on the DL.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (3-3, 3.17 ERA) vs. Aaron Ledbetter (3-4, 7.20 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (4-3, 4.00 ERA) vs. Ryan Davis (2-7, 5.68 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (5-2, 2.53 ERA) vs. Kodai Koga (3-5, 4.81 ERA)

The Condors had only right-handed starters, but they had also played a double header on Saturday, meaning either the ageless veteran Koga or Brett Bebout (4-2, 4.14 ERA) would have to start on short rest on Wednesday.

Game 1
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B A. Metz – C Brann – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B M. Moreno – SS Spehar – P Ledbetter
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan

A walk to the leadoff man Phil LeVan, just recently arrived in Tijuana, a stolen base, a passed ball, and a groundout scored a run for the Condors without the benefit of a base hit, but Rich Monck hammered a 451-footer in the first inning after Lopez got nicked to flip the score in the Raccoons’ favor rather quickly. The Raccoons then also got more base runners with a Dowsey double and Joel Starr drawing four balls, but Novelo struck out, and then Dan Sandoval homered the game tied again in the second inning. Gaytan then lingered, obviously getting hit around by the Condors, and then began the fourth inning by hitting Andy Metz. Mike Brann singled up the middle, Sandoval hit an RBI double to right, Mario Moreno singled home a pair, and even Ledbetter dropped in an RBI single before being tagged out in no man’s land between first and second. The Condors rushed Gaytan for four runs in the inning, took a 6-2 lead, and were done with Gaytan altogether after just five innings.

It took until the fifth inning as well for the Raccoons to score more, and again they did so with two outs on a combo of getting plonked and hitting a cannonball to right, this time with Wilson taking one for the team and Corral going yard, shortening the score to 6-4. The effort was wasted however on a pretty impressive bullpen explosion that began with Holzmeister retiring none of the 7-8-9 batters to begin the sixth inning, and then continued seamlessly with Bob West giving up an RBI single to LeVan, plonking Matt Ewig to force in a run, and giving up a bases-clearing triple to Mike Pinault, and an RBI double to Metz before being yanked. Yamauchi then had to pick up the pieces in a 12-4 game. Chance Fox would at least pitch efficient garbage relief after that, lining up three zeroes to meet requirements, while the offense was saving the remaining bullets for a later date, ostensibly. 12-4 Condors. Monck 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Starr 1-2, BB; Fox 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

Oh good, the Jittercoons are back…

Game 2
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B A. Metz – C Brann – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B M. Moreno – SS Spehar – P R. Davis
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama

A Pinault single and a convincing Metz homer to right gave the Condors a quick 2-0 lead on Tuesday, and like the Coons on Monday they then added two more base hits but no further runs in the same inning. Starr made a bid for a game-tying fly to left after Dowsey drew a walk in the bottom of the second inning, but that ball came down in LeVan’s mitten on the warning track. After the wobbly first inning, Nakayama found his stuff and struck out nine Condors through five innings, but it didn’t help him much since the offense was consisting of a Monck single and … well, not a whole lot else.

Pinault singled again in the sixth inning, but was left on base when Nakayama struck out Sandoval for his tenth strikeout in the game against no walks, but needless to say that his pitch count was up there anyway. Jose Corral then finally got the team on the board with a 1-out solo jack in the bottom 6th, 2-1, and Ramon Lopez drew a walk, but Monck’s fly to right didn’t beat or even impress Ewig much, and Dowsey lined out to Mario Moreno to end the inning. Nakayama got to a dozen strikeouts and also over 100 pitches through seven innings, but more importantly, the Raccoons finally seemed to be getting to Davis, who allowed a 1-out double to Novelo in the bottom 7th, then a gap triple to tie the game to otherwise luckless Mike Roberts. With the go-ahead run in scoring position and one down, the Raccoons sent Marquise Early to pinch-hit, but he grounded out poorly enough to keep the runner on third base. Wilson answered the call, though, and singled past the reach of Moreno to give Portland the 3-2 lead. He stole second, but then was left on by Corral.

Enter the bullpen, and soon the regrets; McMahan retired LeVan before walking Ewig and was replaced with Josh C, who got Pinault to 2-2 before giving up an absolute BOMB that flipped the score right back to 4-3 Condors. I facepawed noisily, and felt the urge to break into the Capt’n Coma stores. When Jesse Dover gave up another homer to the light-hitting Ryan Spehar in the ninth inning, with two outs and two strikes, I had to unscrew a bottle and take a big gulp, not that it made the Raccoons break into a rally. 5-3 Condors. Wilson 2-4, RBI; Monck 2-4; Novelo 2-4, 2B; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 12 K;

Right-hander Ryan Singletary (1-0, 3.92 ERA) from Edmond, Oklahoma, would then make a spot start on Wednesday instead of a starter on short rest. Singletary had been in 14 games, all in relief, for 20.2 innings so far this season. He had started 33 games for the Condors last year, going 10-17 with a 4.88 ERA.

The Raccoons were without Jason Holzmeister on Wednesday, who not only couldn’t pitch, but also set the timer on the clubhouse sauna wrong and then was locked in there for an hour, coming out more dripping than breathing. He was “day-to-day”, but I’m sure if we need someone to blow the game wide open in the middle innings, we’ll find volunteers besides him.

Game 3
TIJ: LF LeVan – RF Ewig – CF Pinault – 1B A. Metz – C Brann – 3B D. Sandoval – 2B M. Moreno – SS Spehar – P Singletary
POR: CF Wilson – LF Dowsey – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – RF Matas – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Musgrave’s shtick of looking like an inspired amateur and like he had a general lack of stuff continued, but he continued to have a solid defensive infield as well and the Condors stranded all their early runners, numbering three on hits and one on a walk in the first three innings. Metz and Sandoval then hit long fly balls in the fourth inning, but both of those were caught by Dowsey and Matas, respectively. The Raccoons had a Dowsey single and him getting doubled off for offense before it started to rain in the fourth inning and the game went to a 40-minute delay pretty soon. Musgrave emerged from it on the other side, but immediately gave up a double to right-center to Moreno, who was nevertheless left on base by the 8-9-1 hitters in the fifth inning. However, Tijuana then took a 1-0 lead on a Ewig homer to right, leading off the sixth.

Enter Rich Monck though, batting with two outs and Wilson and Lopez on the corners in the bottom 6th. Lopez had just tied the game with a single that scored Musgrave, who himself had killed off Mike Roberts’ leadoff walk with a bad bunt before rushing to third base on Wilson’s single. We felt that the Coons needed a big knock here, and thankfully Monck was up to snuff and socked a 3-run homer to dead centerfield, flipping the score entirely to 4-1 Critters (despite getting out-hit, 5-4). Singletary walked Starr before bidding his first start of the season adieu, and Javier Arocho allowed an infield single to Matas, then an RBI single to center to Novelo, 5-1! Roberts’ groundout ended the inning, while Musgrave got three more outs before being hit for with Early to begin the home half of the seventh. Early made a quick out, but Arocho put Wilson on base before – to anybody’s surprise – Kodai Koga entered in relief and quelled the threat. The Raccoons finished the game with Evan Alvey, who got around a leadoff hit by LeVan in the eighth, then conceded an unearned run in the ninth on a 2-base throwing error by Novelo that put Mike Brann on base, and he was scored with Sandoval’s groundout and a sac fly by Moreno. That was, however, as close as the Condors got anymore. 5-2 Raccoons. Wilson 2-4; Matas 1-2, 2 BB; Musgrave 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (6-2); Alvey 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (31-22) vs. Canadiens (22-29) – June 3-5, 2067

Both teams enjoyed a day off on Thursday, as much as you could enjoy a day off with the prospect of the vilest stenches in the league arriving in town before long. We should just routinely board up the place when they are scheduled to play here, and pretend we’re gone for the weekend. Anyway, they were fifth in the division and 13 games out, while scoring the seventh-most runs and allowing the third-most runs in the CL. They had a -29 run differential (Coons: +23). Their defense was rated worst amongst the CL teams, and their pen was pushing an ERA of five, but there was a chance that ours would still get there. Pitchers Jose Villegas and Robbie Lingard were on the 60-day DL. The Raccoons had the edge in the season series, 3-2.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (5-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. Dallas Samson (1-2, 6.43 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (5-3, 4.08 ERA) vs. Ken Nielsen (5-4, 3.33 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-4, 3.76 ERA) vs. Ray Rath (4-4, 2.69 ERA)

Samson had mostly pitched in relief this season. All three of these were right-handers, but there was the option to skip southpaw Martyn Polaco (2-1, 4.70 ERA) into the Sunday game.

Two Elks came in beaming, as Roberto Barraza had been named Rookie of the Month for May, and Matt Kilday had landed his 2,000th career hit on Wednesday.

Game 1
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P Samson
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Walla

Portland scored first and quickly, as Wilson singled and Corral mashed another homer right in the first inning, becoming the second Critter with ten homers this year (Monck had 13). Corral hit another long fly ball in his second time at the plate, but that one ended up being just a long F8. Meanwhile, Walla looked off kilter, issued a walk in both of the first two innings, and two hits in the first three, and had been sort of lucky to get two double plays to clean up behind himself, but there was no defending Rick Atkins’ solo homer in the fourth inning, and Chad Whetstine hit a double off the wall right after that, but was left stranded by the following Elks.

Offense was hard to come by, with Mike Roberts drawing a rousing leadoff walk and being stranded at second base in the fourth inning, while Carlos Castro hit a 1-out single through the right side for the Elks, and was double off by Kilday for the second time in the game come the fifth. Ramon Lopez’ solo homer in the bottom 5th appeared to create a bit of a breather, but Walla walking Roberto Lozada and getting taken deep AGAIN by Atkins tied the game in the sixth, and he was removed from the game after the inning. He had to settle for a no-decision when the Raccoons did get Novelo and Wilson on base in the bottom 6th, but Corral’s next deep fly was also caught by Atkins going back.

Bob West held the game tied in the seventh, but Josh C had another useless outing and put Atkins and Steve Varner on base in the eighth inning. When Nick Vaughn batted left-handedly for Dan Moore with two outs, the Raccoons went to McMahan, who plunked the pinch-hitter with his first ball thrown, loading the bases for the right-handed Barraza, who grounded out sharply to Novelo. With no offense forthcoming, Dover barely kept the game tied in the ninth inning around a leadoff single by backup catcher Mike Orphanos and a 2-out walk issued to Lozada. Atkins, Destroyer of Worlds, and batting .360 with ten homers at this point – all in this game!! – then grounded out to Starr to strand the runners. Left-hander Paul Wolk, a serious contender for the title of Ugliest Boy Ever Born, then remained on the hill against the top of the order after already pitching for three outs in the bottom 8th. Corral drew a 1-out walk after Wilson grounded out, and Lopez grounded to Castro, who was greedy for two bases and flung a ball barehandedly and in the very vaguest direction of second base, where Kilday couldn’t contain it. The error put runners on first and second with one out, and Monck grounded out to first, advancing them for the cost of the second out. The Elks did not walk Dowsey intentional to get to Starr with the leaner stats – they paid for it by suffering defeat as Dowsey coldly knocked a walkoff single through the left side. 4-3 Furballs! Wilson 2-4, BB;

A late win is still a win against the vile Elks!

Game 2
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF D. Moore – SS Barraza – P Nielsen
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Tallent – P Rios

Wilson singled, Corral homered, and it was 2-0 again in the first inning on Saturday, which marked Jose Corral’s fourth homer on the week, and he hadn’t even played on Wednesday or Thursday…! Unfortunately, this was far from the last home run on Saturday, and it was the damn Elks’ turn next. Rios had gotten through the first two innings rather well, but with two outs in the third inning Carlos Castro homered, Kilday singled and Lozada homered, and suddenly they had the 3-2 lead. Corral snorted, waited for Wilson hit another single in the bottom of the same inning, and then peppered another 2-run homer to right, number FIVE on the week!! The rest of the team amounted to a Monck single on two runs through the lineup, but at least we were still narrowly ahead, 4-3. However, when Wilson didn’t single with two outs in the bottom 5th, Corral also didn’t homer, and perhaps this spelled doom for the game? Both Atkins and Moore hit long fly balls for outs in the sixth inning, as Varner drew a walk in between. Monck reached on an error by Barraza with one out in the bottom 6th, and then Dowsey hit a jack off Juan Rosado to right-center, 6-3, and Pablo Novelo added a 2-out solo piece, 7-3!

Rios was knocked out in the seventh on singles by three left-handed batters, John Myers, Castro, and Kilday, the latter driving in a run. Yamauchi got the ball and a grounder to Tallent for a 4-6-3 double play. Josh Meighan then walked the bases full with Wilson, Corral, and Monck in the home half of the seventh. Dowsey stepped in with two outs, flicked the tail, flicked the bat, another doom drive to the deepest part of the den – GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMM!!!!!

Yamauchi and Holzmeister combined to give up a run before the Raccoons faced right-hander Brian Brillhart (who?) in the bottom 8th. Tallent singled and was forced out by Roberts. Wilson’s groundout moved Roberts to second base, and Jose Corral’s 398-clonker moved Roberts all around to score and then high-pawing with Corral, who hit his third homer in the game, and the sixth for the team…!! 13-5 Furballs! Wilson 2-4, BB; Corral 3-4, BB, 3 HR, 6 RBI; Dowsey 2-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI;

Huzzah! And Bombs Away!! – Three 2-run homers in a single game for Jose Corral! Absolute scenes, and even five outs assigned to Holzmeister couldn’t blow THAT lead anymore!

The last time a Raccoon had gone yard three times in a game? Gabriel Rios had barely escaped ******** his diapers back then!

Game 3
VAN: 3B C. Castro – 2B Kilday – RF Lozada – CF Atkins – 1B Whetstine – C Varner – LF Chenette – SS Barraza – P Rath
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – 1B Dowsey – SS Novelo – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – 2B Roberts – LF Early – P Gaytan

Gaytan hit Whetstine and Varner back-to-back in the second inning on Sunday, perhaps in a bid to pick a fight with either the other team or his GM, but the Elks couldn’t get the base hit required to turn the free runners into actual runs… so far. Castro drew a 1-out walk in the third inning, stole second, and scored on Lozada’s 2-out single in the third inning, and Castro hit a sac fly to get Tyler Chenette home with his leadoff single in the fifth inning to scratch out a 2-0 lead for the Elks, while the Raccoons scattered five singles rather inefficiently through four innings. Aguilar hit into a double play to end the fourth for Portland, and Early hit into a double play to erase Roberts’ leadoff single in the fifth. Gaytan then swatted a double, but was left on base by Wilson…

I took the hint that we weren’t getting a sweep of the Elks done when Ray Rath hit a 2-run homer off Gaytan in the seventh, and Castro and Kilday reached base to chase him. Carrington got out of the inning against Lozada and Atkins, who both made outs on the first pitch, while the Raccoons managed to reach ten hits without a run scored in the bottom 7th when Aguilar singled to center, was forced out by Roberts, and then Early slapped another single. Starr and Wilson both grounded out very poorly to keep those runners stranded and wasted away as well.

Rath made it to the eighth inning with his 10-hitter bid before walking Dowsey and seeing the runner score in unearned fashion on a clumsy dropped Monck fly charged for an error to Atkins. Evan Alvey kept the score somewhat manageable in the last two innings, so Jon McGinley entered with a 3-run lead in the bottom 9th. Roberts struck out, but Marquise Early banged a homer to left, 4-2. Ramon Lopez pinch-hit for Alvey and singled, but Tallent batting for Wilson was a bad idea, and he hit into a game-ending double play. 4-2 Canadiens. Novelo 2-4; Monck 2-4; Early 2-4, HR, RBI; Lopez (PH) 1-1; Alvey 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

June 1 – Vancouver infielder Matt Kilday (.320, 0 HR, 17 RBI) gets his 2,000th base hit in a 3-for-5 game agains the Thunder, who win the game though, 7-5. Thunder SP Jeff Kozloski (4-3, 5.23 ERA) gives up all three of Kilday’s singles in the game.
June 1 – CHA OF Scott Brown (.236, 0 HR, 7 RBI) could be out for the season with a nasty concussion.
June 3 – The Knights beat the Condors, 7-5 in 14 innings. Despite some players coming to the plate seven times, nobody manages to get more than two base hits in the game, although ATL LF/RF/1B Steve Giles (.169, 4 HR, 16 RBI) draws four walks.

FL Player of the Week: PIT INF/LF Edgar Gonzales (.299, 3 HR, 20 RBI), clipping .500 (13-26) with 1 HR, 11 RBI
CL Player of the Week: POR RF Jose Corral (.232, 13 HR, 32 RBI), blitzing .350 (7-20) with 6 HR, 11 RBI

FL Hitter of the Month: DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.319, 16 HR, 52 RBI), swatting .333 with 8 HR, 20 RBI
CL Hitter of the Month: MIL 1B/RF/LF Cesar Ramirez (.389, 7 HR, 47 RBI), raking .367 with 5 HR, 25 RBI
FL Pitcher of the Month: SFW SP Alex Dominguez (6-1, 2.09 ERA), throwing for a 5-0 record, 1.71 ERA, 27 K
CL Pitcher of the Month: MIL SP Nick Waldron (8-0, 3.33 ERA), going a strong 5-0 with a 2.22 ERA, 25 K
FL Rookie of the Month: SFW 3B/LF/CF/1B Beau Metz (.263, 3 HR, 20 RBI), batting .302 with 2 HR, 11 RBI
CL Rookie of the Month: VAN INF Roberto Barraza (.269, 1 HR, 15 RBI), clipping .296 with 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Jose Corral became the first Raccoon in 22 years to hit three homers in a single game. The last to do so had been Bryce Toohey in a 10-7 loss to the Crusaders in 2045. The last winner with a 3-homer game in the brown shirt was Troy Greenway against the Titans in 2038.

Corral also calmly surpassed his 2066 homer total in that game, and was now just four dingers – or a busy weekend – away from tying his career-high of 17 in a season!

Rich Monck and Jose Corral were also tied for the CL lead in homers at that stage with 13 bombs. While that wouldn’t be close to combat Tyler Wharton in Dallas, nobody else in the CL had more than ten on Saturday night!

The Raccoons were tops in homers in the CL overall at this stage, but also slipped to six games out in a division they were never expected to be competitive in. Oh, the damn pitching! Maybe a well measured trade or two could rectify a few things, and so could throwing Holzmeister into the nearest volcano, but we really needed to get rid of a left-handed pitcher from that pen, which was still super-large with Chance Fox hanging around doing garbage gigs.

No rest for the wicked for another ten games as the Raccoons would play the Loggers, Gold Sox, and Rebels all the way up to the draft. And it wouldn’t get any easier after that, either…

Fun Fact: Matt Kilday won only one stolen base title in his battles against Lonzo, but took the batting title twice.

2061 was about his best season, when he batted .365 with 63 stolen bases (both topping the CL) and still found time to whack a league-leading 42 doubles in a campaign that saw him lead the CL in batter WAR, but without making Player of the Year honors. He also led the league in triples three times, and all of those achievements came in his Indians career from 2057 through 2063. In the four seasons since with the Knights and damn Elks, he’s been a bit more subdued, so far struggling to hit much over .300 and he hadn’t stolen even 30 bases in the last two years, and wasn’t on pace this season either.

For his career, the 30-year-old had a .306/.346/.395 slash with 2,004 hits, 17 homers, 628 RBI, and 457 stolen bases.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-23) @ Loggers (37-20) – June 6-9, 2067

The Loggers were still in second place in the North, but were now two-and-a-half games out of first place. Very much first in runs scored, their fifth-place pitching allowed them to run along with a +81 run differential. They had scored 5.7 runs per game for the season, although their run rate in the last ten games was a paltry 2.7 runs/game. We also caught them without outfielders Jonathan Merrill and Phil Reder, and with Girolamo “Pizza” Pizzichini having left his last start with an undiagnosed injury. The season series was even at two.

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (4-3, 3.86 ERA) vs. Jose Lugo (3-2, 3.11 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (6-2, 2.41 ERA) vs. Julio Robles (3-4, 5.50 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-2, 3.00 ERA) vs. Matt Crist (5-5, 4.82 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (6-3, 4.24 ERA) vs. Nick Waldron (8-0, 3.16 ERA)

Our hosts had only right-handed starters to offer up.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Nakayama
MIL: CF Goss – SS Reber – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – LF Alaniz – C Guitreau – 3B R. Murcia – P J. Lugo

After a Tim Goss double off the wall to begin the Loggers’ half of the first inning and him getting stranded on three poor outs, the early innings turned into a whole lot of nothing before the Raccoons loaded the bases in the fourth inning, albeit with the 6-7-8 batters, one out, and the pitcher coming to the plate. Nakayama lived up to the .083 batting average by not even striking out, but by hitting into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning altogether. He then allowed leadoff singles to Fidel Carrera and Carlos Dominguez in full counts in the bottom 4th, they went to the corners, and while Mario Alaniz popped out, Tommy Guitreau hit a sac fly to center for the game’s first run. Without Jose Corral homers the Raccoons offense looked pretty dim and instead it was Alaniz to drive in the next run of the game, a 2-out double plating Carrera from second base in the sixth inning before Guitreau’s grounder left him in scoring position. In fact, when the Raccoons did tie the game in the seventh inning, they did so quite suddenly after a leadoff single by Roberts. He was bunted over and gained another base on Wilson’s groundout, before with two outs Corral cracked an RBI double through Cesar Ramirez and then scored on Ramon Lopez’ single into right-center, getting us even at two. Left-hander Nick Walters replaced Lugo and struck out Monck for stretch time, on the other end of which Matt Gilmore and Tim Goss went to the corners against Nakayama, who got a pop from Dave Wright in the #2 hole, but then left for McMahan, who struck out Ramirez to end that inning.

Nick Walters didn’t have a great top of the eighth inning. He walked Dowsey, and then gave up a single to Starr, threw a pitch in the dirt that got away from Guitreau for a passed ball, and then allowed another single through the left side to Novelo. Dowsey scored, and the Raccoons had their first lead of the game. It was also the only run they got in the inning, with poor outs from Roberts and Wilson following, while McMahan was retained to bunt with the prospect of much of the all-left-handed 3-4-5 barrage of the Loggers lineup still to come in the bottom 8th. The ploy didn’t work in more ways than one, as Carrera still singled off McMahan, stole a base, and scored on a pinch-hit sac fly by the pinch-hitting Ian Lulich in the #6 hole. We were tied again, and the Raccoons went in order against Vincent Hernandez in the ninth inning, even though Monck hit a fly to the warning track, but also Carlos Dominguez’ mitten. Bob West got the ball in the bottom 9th and got two outs before Lopez threw away a grounder in front of the plate poked by Ron Brantly for two bases. Cesar Ramirez then didn’t have any time to waste and singled to left, walking off the team when Brantly scored from second with his unearned run. 4-3 Loggers. Starr 2-4; Novelo 3-4, RBI; Roberts 2-3, BB;

Tuesday’s game was rained out then for a double header on Wednesday. It was one of three CL games rained out on Tuesday, along with scheduled games in Indianapolis and … Tijuana??

End times.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave
MIL: CF Goss – SS Reber – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – LF Alaniz – C Guitreau – 3B R. Murcia – P J. Robles

Carlos Dominguez hit a homer to center to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead in the second inning. While the Raccoons had just one hit in the early innings, the Loggers than whacked Musgrave around for another four hits and two runs in the third inning. Apparently the groundballing thing and just phasing through the opposing lineups didn’t work for him against the Loggers; and they got another run in the fourth inning with a Guitreau double and a 2-out RBI single from the pitcher Robles…

Five innings passed in full before the Raccoons found their sticks. Wilson lobbed a 1-out double over Tim Goss in the sixth, and then Jose Corral thumped another 2-run homer to right, heyyy…! Robles got two outs from Lopez and Monck, then put Dowsey and Starr on base to start the seventh. Novelo flew out to right, but Roberts hit into a double play. Wilson hit into another double play after Randy Tallent legged out an infield single to begin the eighth. While Musgrave was gone after six, Chance Fox put up two scoreless innings to hold the 4-2 line, but that wasn’t good enough when Vincent Hernandez turned the Raccoons away for nothing but a pinch-hit single by Marquise Early in the ninth inning. 4-2 Loggers. Corral 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Early (PH) 1-1; Starr 1-2, BB; Tallent 1-1; Fox 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The Loggers offense was not churning on full beans, but neither was ours…

Game 3
POR: SS Novelo – RF Corral – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – C Aguilar – CF Matas – LF Early – 2B Tallent – P Walla
MIL: CF Goss – SS Reber – 1B C. Ramirez – 2B F. Carrera – RF C. Dominguez – LF Alaniz – C Lulich – 3B R. Murcia – P Crist

Later that night, the Raccoons started without having a hit in the first three innings, but their starter was beaten around in the third inning again. Nick Walla allowed a leadoff double to the opposing pitcher, which was always a good way to eventually stick the snout into a bear trap, walked Kyle Reber with one out, and while Ramirez popped out on the infield, Carrera singled to fill the bases, and Dominguez singled in two runs with a zipper up the middle. Alaniz ran a 3-1 count before flying out to Corral.

Walla would also go six innings of 2-run ball, allowing seven hits like Nakayama, and hardly got any strikeouts against the tough Loggers lineup. Worse though was the no-hit bid that Crist was still running into the seventh inning, having walked two batters, Starr and Aguilar once each, and also striking out only two Critters, which meant that his pitch count was 64 and very well manageable. Starr flew out to left to begin the seventh, but then Monck broke up the no-hitter with a grounder that got through between Reber and Carrera and into centerfield for a single. Aguilar struck out, and Matas’ grounder to third was bumbled by Rafael Murcia for an error. Early’s groundout to short then stranded the unearned tying runs on base. Instead the Loggers tacked on two (one earned) with straight singles by their 3-4-5 boppers and a Corral throwing error on top against Bob West in the bottom 7th. Josh C got out of the inning and Holzmeister had a scoreless eighth, but the Raccoons never got on base again in the late innings against Crist, who pitched a 1-hit shutout on 94 pitches. 4-0 Loggers.

Yikes.

Game 4
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Tallent – 2B Roberts – P Rios
MIL: 2B Goss – CF Merrill – RF C. Dominguez – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – 3B Reber – C Guitreau – LF Ma. Gilmore – P Waldron

Jonathan Merrill’s .390 bat returned in time for the series finale, but Jaden Wilson hit a game-opening jack to right-center to give Portland the early lead. That wasn’t even his biggest hit in the first two innings of the Thursday contest, as the Raccoons found a way to load the bases with two outs and the bottom of the order in the second inning and brought up Wilson with three aboard. He found the gap in right-center, short of the wall, but also short of a defender, and emptied the bases with a double. 4-0, and all the RBI’s were Wilson’s. Him getting thrown out by Dominguez on Corral’s single to right ensured it stayed that way for the moment.

Then the Loggers got real, and Tommy Guitreau drew a leadoff walk off Rios in the bottom 3rd. Gilmore struck out, and Waldron’s bunt was thrown away by Lopez, putting a pair in scoring position. Rios added Goss with another walk, then gave up a sac fly to Merrill, an RBI single to Dominguez, and a 3-run bomb by Ramirez, and that made it 5-4 Loggers. All runs were unearned on Rios, which was such a comfort…

Waldron was hit for in the fourth inning, so he didn’t get the W, while Rios hung around for the bottom 5th, only to give up a walk and two singles, along with a run, and was yanked for Alvey. Carrera flew out to right for the second out of the inning, but Reber hit a soft single, and Guitreau raked a grand slam to *really* explode the score, 10-4 after two 5-spots inside three innings. The Loggers continued to roll over Yamauchi for two runs in the seventh, but the Raccoons never got the sticks up again and just meandered towards a completion of the sweep through the late innings. 12-4 Loggers. Wilson 3-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Aguilar (PH) 1-1;

Raccoons (33-27) vs. Gold Sox (33-26) – June 10-12, 2067

The Raccoons had to contend with another second-place team on the weekend, hosting the Gold Sox for three games when they were a game and a half out in the FL West. They ranked ninth in offense, and sixth in pitching, with a -15 run differential, so who knew what to expect at this point… They did not rank very highly in any major category, except defense. These teams had most recently played in 2063, when the Raccoons swept the series.

Projected matchups:
Tony Gaytan (3-5, 3.93 ERA) vs. Matt Asplund (6-2, 1.75 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (4-3, 3.76 ERA) vs. Tom Delaney (6-4, 2.83 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (6-3, 2.69 ERA) vs. Ernesto Culver (4-3, 5.55 ERA)

Another set of only right-handed opponents.

Game 1
DEN: LF D. Wilson – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Tuck – CF Little – C R. Rogers – 3B Stockton – 2B M. Weber – SS L. Palacios – P Asplund
POR: CF J. Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Gaytan

While Gaytan held the fort in the early innings, the Raccoons had Jaden Wilson on base and caught stealing in the first, but Dowsey and Starr getting on base with one out in the second inning also led nowhere thanks to Novelo hitting into a 6-4-3 double play. Wilson reached base again with two outs in the third inning, contained himself on the bases, and Corral joined with an infield single. Ramon Lopez then cranked a 3-run homer, and the Raccoons had another substantial early lead to blow now! In fact, Gaytan blew it very quickly and efficiently, giving up a leadoff bomb to Ryan Rogers in the fourth, put Mike Weber on base, and then was taken deep once more by Luis Palacios, which got rid of all the 3-0 lead.

Bottom 4th, and with two outs the Raccoons loaded the bases with the 7-8-9 batters as Novelo singled, Roberts walked, and Gaytan singled. Wilson flew out to Matt Little, though, and nobody scored. The fifth was calm, while the sixth inning saw Weber hit a single off Gaytan, who then struck out Asplund for the third ou- … no, Lopez bumbled the ball, Asplund reached base on the uncaught third strike, and then Dusty Wilson hit a single to left. Weber was sent from second base, Dowsey fired a rocket home – and the runner was out, and the inning ended that way!

Teams then poked away at each other without seeming to have a concept or even a vague plan on how to break a 3-3 tie, with the Coons mixing McMahan, Holzmeister, and Dover after Gaytan was done after six innings, having tossed 102 times. That combo of relievers somehow kept the game tied, but the offense was shambolic and couldn’t put the go-ahead or winning run in scoring position until there were two outs in the ninth inning when Jaden Wilson singled, stole second, and reached third thanks to Rogers dropping the ball, then throwing to second in great haste, and that was not becoming of his aim. Wilson was left on third base on Bill Goda’s K to Corral, and the game went to extra innings. Alvey had a 1-2-3 tenth before Lopez reached on an error by third baseman Chris Blasey. He was itching to steal, but didn’t get a jump, and when Monck singled on a 1-2 pitch, he only made it to second base. Goda popped up Dowsey, but Starr hit a single to right – but Lopez was now stopped at third base in deference to Ted Lloyd’s arm in right. Novelo batted with the bags full and one out, singled up the middle, and the Raccoons snapped a 5-game losing streak. 4-3 Coons. Wilson 2-4, BB; Lopez 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Dowsey 2-5; Starr 2-5; Novelo 2-5, RBI;

By now we were nine games out though, so maybe I shouldn’t bin all the prospects for veteran help towards the deadline…?

Rich Monck had a day off on Saturday.

Game 2
DEN: LF D. Wilson – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Tuck – CF Little – C R. Rogers – 3B Stockton – 2B M. Weber – SS L. Palacios – P Delaney
POR: CF J. Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – 3B Tallent – P Nakayama

Nakayama walked a pair in the first inning, but managed to strand Juan Gutierrez and Chris Tuck on base by not giving up any hits, and then the Coons went up 1-0 on a Novelo homer to left in the second inning. There were no Gold Sox hits in the first three innings, but Rogers followed a walk issued to Little with one out in the fourth inning by singling up the middle. Again, though, Denver failed to put a run together by making two meek outs after that.

Through six, a Corral single extended the Coons’ hit total to a whopping two, matching what the Gold Sox reached after Tuck’s infield single in the top 6th. Nakayama was yet holding on to the skinny 1-0 lead, putting up seven shutout innings, which included a heroic sliding catch each by Dowsey and Wilson at different points. Novelo singled with two outs in the home half of the seventh inning, not that anything came of that, and when Blasey batted for Delaney to begin the eighth inning, and there were now all sorts of lefty batters lined up, the Raccoons moved to McMahan, who got two outs, then nicked Gutierrez with an 0-2 pitch. Tuck singled the tying run to third base, and right-handed Ted Lloyd batted for Little, prompting the Raccoons to break out Carrington – and he struck out Lloyd to keep the Coons ahead!

Jaden Wilson singled and stole second base with two outs in the bottom 8th, but Corral popped out as his homer surge had obviously subsided at this point. Carrington remained in the game to begin the ninth, getting an easy fly from Rogers to Jaden Wilson, but then continued to face the lefty hitting Dallas Amarillo Fort Stockton, who worked a walk in a full count. Mike Weber struck out on three pitches, while Carrington’s first pitch to Luis Palacios was wild and advanced the tying run. Only to second base, though, and there he remained when Palacios grounded out to Roberts on the 2-1 pitch. 1-0 Blighters! Novelo 2-3, HR, RBI; Nakayama 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (5-3);

Game 3
DEN: 2B Cervantez – 1B J. Gutierrez – RF Tuck – CF M. Little – C R. Rogers – 3B Stockton – LF N. Chapman – SS Lloyd – P E. Culver
POR: CF J. Wilson – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – 1B Starr – C Aguilar – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

The Raccoons struggled to make Culver sweat on Sunday, while Musgrave struggled to keep them off base, which in fact he didn’t manage in any inning. The Gold Sox took a 1-0 lead in the second on a double by .114 hitter Norm Chapman and Ted Lloyd’s RBI single, then dropped another single-double combo between Gutierrez and Tuck with one out in the third inning, but the runners remained stranded thanks to a comebacker hit by Little and Rogers grounding out. Ryan Rogers later hit a solo homer in the sixth inning to extend Denver’s lead to 2-0. Despite the relatively low score the Raccoons looked accepting of defeat, but then Jose Corral cranked his 15th homer of the season to lead off the bottom 6th! Novelo hit a double in the same inning, but with two outs on the board and without getting any love from Joel Starr behind him.

The Sox also shrugged and hit three straight singles with their 1-2-3 batters in the seventh to put that run that Corral had taken off back on the board, and Musgrave disappeared somewhat dispirited after giving up ten hits in seven innings of a 3-1 game. Bob West got the ball in the eighth inning, gave up a leadoff single to Stockton, and then a 2-out RBI single to Culver, which somewhat infuriated me, but Culver also struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth, so why burst a blood vessel *now*…? Chance Fox made another oddball appearance in the ninth, retiring the 2-3-4 batters in good order and with two strikeouts, but Ricky Baca also turned away Monck, Novelo, and Starr in the bottom 9th. 4-1 Gold Sox. Corral 2-4, HR, RBI; Novelo 2-4, 2B;

In other news

June 6 – A 2-hit shutout is pitched by WAS SP Joe Chalmers (6-5, 4.56 ERA) against the Miners, the Capitals winning 7-0, and Chalmers whiffs nine Pittsburgh batters.
June 6 – BOS SP Jason Brenize (10-2, 1.99 ERA) fires a 3-hit shutout and strikes out nine Crusaders in a 7-0 win against New York.
June 6 – San Francisco sends C/1B Chris Haynes (.262, 1 HR, 23 RBI) to the Aces for two prospects, also catchers.
June 7 – Dallas 3B/LF Xavier Reyes (.354, 1 HR, 28 RBI) finds his 2,500th career hit in a 6-1 win against the Wolves, an RBI single off SAL SP Josh Jackson (1-8, 6.20 ERA). The 32-year-old Reyes had a solid shot at 3,000 career hits, batting .317 with 43 homers and 759 RBI for his career. He had also stolen 544 bases and had won the FL batting title in 2066.
June 11 – A single by Condors C Randy Lippert (.333, 0 HR,4 RBI) marks their only hit in a combined 1-hitter by CIN SP Jose Aguilar (7-1, 1.88 ERA) and two relievers, which the Cyclones win 8-0.
June 12 – The Knights put up a 10-spot in the sixth inning to answer a 6-run sixth by the Capitals on the way to a 16-9 win. Atlanta catcher Justin Hart (.262, 2 HR, 27 RBI) leads all players with four base hits, including a double, and drives in three runs.

FL Player of the Week: CIN OF Melvin Avila (.326, 3 HR, 26 RBI), batting .481 (13-27) with 1 HR, 7 RBI
CL Player of the Week: ATL RF/LF Javier Acuna (.347, 10 HR, 50 RBI), slapping .462 (12-26) with 3 HR, 11 RBI

Complaints and stuff

The Loggers belly flop this week was quite depressing to watch, and the offense failed to put up more than four runs in any game this week. I also liked Jose Corral better last week, although he still hit two more bombs this week, although the Coons also lost both of those games… and while Rich Monck basically didn’t take place this week, the pair was still 1-2 on the homer board in the CL. Jorge Arviso and Danny Starwalt each had 11, and there was a whole host of players with 10.

Realistically, the Raccoons were not contenders this year (but we did not expect anything of the sort before the season, so I am not particularly mellow about it), so the question is whether the odd stick can be turned into a better future yet. And it’s not gonna be Starr, because we’re stuck with that contract until the bitter end.

The Raccoons had the Rebels and Crusaders on their plates next week, and the annual draft would take place on Wednesday, too, where I had a chance to throw a #4 pick away in glorious fashion.

Fun Fact: Jose Corral is on pace for 38 1/2 home runs this year.

Only once has a player hit more than 38 home runs for the Raccoons, and that was Troy Greenway batting .289 with a wild 42 bombs and 132 RBI in 2038. He won both the home run and RBI crowns with that performance, and that was the only time he achieved either feat in a 16-year career.

A #3 pick by the Stingers in 2030, Greenway debuted for them in ’33 before arriving in Portland in a trade for former Coons closer Chris Wise and three prospects, none of which amounted to much glory later on, in the 2037 drive for the playoffs. Greenway plunged steeply to 23 homers in ’39 and then just eight before being traded on to Salem midway through the 2040 season for prospect Sandy Casaus, an outfielder that hit zero home runs for the Raccoons and just 18 for all other teams combined by the time he washed out of quad-A fame in ‘51.

Greenway then played for another five FL teams for the rest of his career, batting .276 with 266 home runs, 901 RBI, and 1,581 hits in total.

[Westheim]

Here is the draft from the upcoming Wednesday. I wanted to play the Crusaders series right now, but it'll fit better into my schedule tonight, so in the meantime marvel at the draft.

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2067 ABL DRAFT

By the time the draft rolled around and you had a #4 pick to blow, the pains of the previous season were usually largely forgotten. Now was the time to turn it into juicy prospects. The Raccoons would pick behind three FL West teams, and besides the #4 pick also had a compensation pick in the supplemental round, and three picks in the top 50 overall.

Just as a reminder, of course we still had our shortlist of 116 players marked with more or less interest in the draft pool, and nothing had changed about the hotlist below (*high school players):

SP/OF Jordan Lopez (15/14/11) – BNN #10
SP Jimmy Wharton (14/15/11)
SP Aaron O’Harra (14/10/12) – BNN #2
SP Chris Bailey (13/11/13) * – BNN #1
SP Stewart Doubleday (13/13/8) – BNN #6

SP/CL Gustavo Vega (15/14/14) – BNN #4
SP/CL Nate Breeden (12/12/15)
CL Bill Ericson (17/14/12)

C Adam Quebbeman (11/9/13)

1B Travis Metcalf (13/12/5) *
INF/MR Joe King (10/5/10)
INF/CF Brian McFarland (11/6/13) *

OF/SP Jordan Lopez (14/15/13) – BNN #10
OF/1B/2B Mike Raymond (13/14/12)
OF Travis Bickerton (12/10/18)

Yes, I absolutely wanted Jordan Lopez, but he was a hot bet to go #1. Failing that… eh, y’know, why always make up plans for when you fail? Just stop failing!

Also keep an eye on the Bickerton soap opera, with seventh-cousins “Southern” Travis Bickerton and “Northern” Scott Bickerton being speculated to both go in the top 10, and hopefully to division rivals for future fireworks!

But of course the Warriors took Jordan Lopez with the #1 pick. On one paw, who could blame them, but on the other paw, **** them!! The Wolves continued with outfielder Mike Raymond, and the Stingers then took Gustavo Vega. I didn’t even have time to properly grief about the loss of Lopez because our own pick was coming around so quickly, and we defaulted to the next guy on the pitchers’ side of the hotlist, drafting lefty Jimmy Wharton and his well-rounded assortment of four pitches. OSA liked him even better than our scouting department, rating him a potential 16/16/13.

Travis Bickerton went #5 to the Rebs (of course!!), and the Loggers then selected a non-hotlist player, infielder Sean Van Leeuwen, with the #6 pick. The next hotlist pick was O’Harra, taken by the Gold Sox at #8. In between the Aces drafted shortstop Luke McGrew, who wasn’t even on our shortlist…!?

Scott Bickerton didn’t *quite* make the top 10, he was taken #11 by the Falcons – and thus ended up in the same division as his archenemy seventh-cousin Travis! Good times! It took a while for another hotlist pick to be taken, as the Baybirds selected the closer Ericson with the #15 pick. This was immediately followed by Stewart Doubleday, the Aussie right-hander, going to the Miners at #16, and then Chris Bailey to the Blue Sox at #18.

Somewhat disturbingly, those were the last hotlisters to go before the Raccoons’ supplemental round pick at #26 rolled around. All three of the infielders were still there (Metcalf, McFarland, the not-quite-as-shiny two-way Joe King), as well as the catcher Quebbeman and the pitcher Nate Breeden. Head scout Steve Hansen wanted to take Breeden, but his two-pitch makeup without a blazing fastball screamed bust to me. I was also allergic against players named Travis to be taken with top 100 picks. No, the Raccoons went into a different direction, the Raccoons went with the catcher Quebbeman, a highly-intelligent and defensively agile catcher that even had some speed on the bases and had a patient bat with some power.

Joe King went #31 to the Knights then, followed by the Caps making Nate Breeden the #34 pick. But Metcalf and McFarland hung around until our second-round selection came up, and of course the “No Travis” rule was still in effect and the Raccoons thus selected McFarland by default. The Loggers gladly gave Metcalf a home two picks later at #49, and that took care of the hotlist.

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2067 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#4) – SP Jimmy Wharton, 20, from Atlanta, GA – left-handed groundballer with only about 93mph on the fastball, but with a very fine arrangement of a curveball, slider, and changeup, that should keep opposing hitters guessing for days on end. Control only grades as medium, but he had sufficient stamina to issue the odd walk here and there.
Supp. Round (#26) – C Adam Quebbeman, 20, from Columbus, OH – right-handed hitting catcher with a good presence behind the plate and a patient eye and good on-base speed that could make him an option as a #2 batter, or #3 if the power kicked in.
Round 2 (#47) – INF/CF Brian McFarland, 19, from Oakland Park, FL – agile defender with good speed and a good enough singles bat and eye to put that speed into action if required. Not much in the power category, although doubles should not be a problem, either.
Round 3 (#71) – SP Dave Tenorio, 19, from Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep. – left-hander with a slider to die for, although sometimes it comes straight, and he can hardly throw anything else so far. Screams lefty specialist in a few years, but we dare to dream.
Round 4 (#95) – CL Andrew Van Deventer, 20, from Vancouver, WA – another lottery ticket in a reasonably high draft round, this right-hander had a most befuddling changeup next to a bland 91mph fastball
Round 5 (#119) – OF Jaylen Etienne, 18, from Pecos, TX – another position player that basically fit the mold of “defensively competent, contact with good eye but little power, and good speed on the base paths”
Round 6 (#143) – OF/1B Mark House, 19, from Campbell, OH – has quite a bit or promise in the contact and power departments, but appears to be a quite dense and his defense should limit him to first and leftfield.
Round 7 (#167) – C/MR Chad Rayman, 21, from St. Charles, IL – in the draft as a catcher, but the Raccoons were more interested in his 94mph heater and slider combo and would convert him into a right-handed pitcher.
Round 8 (#191) – 3B Jake Spakes, 19, from Marshalltown, IA – very strong arm and good mobility at the hot corner, with a perhaps competent stick, but without much in terms of power.
Round 9 (#215) – 1B Tom Ferrari, 18, from Santa Fe, NM – good eye, good power, enormous holes in his swing; also a fraudster, because despite the name he has no speed to speak of
Round 10 (#239) – 3B/1B Scott Duck, 18, from Queens, NY – good paws, singles bat with no power, and also no speed, but he makes for a pretty good statue at either infield corner…
Round 11 (#263) – MR Nick Taggart, 22, from Manhattan, NY – left-hander (of course!) with a fastball/slider combo, but nothing to fawn about at all
Round 12 (#287) – INF Mike Hilker, 18, from Fairmont, MN – we think he has some hitting potential for singles, walks, and stolen bases, and we wonder why he has fallen to the 12th round…
Round 13 (#311) – MR Jerry Benefield, 20, from Queens, NY – right-hander with a fastball, splitter, and a permanent neck strain from twisting around to catch another glimpse of that rocket blast just about to leave the park

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The Raccoons assigned Jimmy Wharton straight to Ham Lake since he appeared to be quite advanced for a 20-year-old. All other draft picks went to Aumsville.

On the other side of the coin, the Raccoons also trimmed the system around the margins and released a whole wagonload of minor leaguers, some known and some not. The headliner of the released players was certainly catcher Marcos Arellano, who at age 30 had fallen *completely* off the table and was now hitting .143 in 21 games in St. Petersburg. Arellano still had a contract for $1M annually through next season and chose to have the remaining $1.59M owed to him paid on schedule. Arellano had been a .267 hitter with 16 homers and 136 RBI across four seasons as a regular (backup) and two cups of coffee from 2061 through 2066. Miguel Guinea, another AAA catcher, who appeared in 29 games from 2062 to 2065, and batted .236 with four RBI, was also let go from the Alley Cats’ roster to give Jake Flowe, who was tagged as our primary catcher starting next season, more breathing room in AAA, where he was batting .313 with five homers in 53 games.

Another former Raccoons major leaguer that was released, age 27 like Guinea, was INF/RF Joe Gardner, who had batted .225 with one homer and 22 RBI across various short-term assignments from 2063 through 2066, and was hitting nothing in St. Pete now. We wanted to move Josh Mireles up from Ham Lake, and space needed to be made somehow.

Beyond that, the dismissals included these pitchers: MR Jonathan Payan (2062, 11th Round), Josh Powell (2064, 9th Round), and Dave Drake (2066, 8th Round);

…as well as an even bigger number of position players: C Sergio Cerezo (2063, 9th Round), INF Scott Maxey (2062, 10th Round), INF/RF Dave Nollet (2065, 12th Round), OF Jonathan Young (2065, 10th Round), and OF/1B Bob Sabino (2062 IFA, $42k bonus).

Those were a lot more dismissals than in the last two years, when we had outlandish numbers of injuries in the majors and minors, but as of Draft Day, only three players were on the DL in the entire organization…! And all of them figured to return in July!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (35-28) @ Rebels (35-28) – June 13-15, 2067

The Raccoons had won two of three from the Rebs the last time these teams had met, which had been in 2063. Richmond was second in the FL East, and just a game and a half behind first. They scored the third-most runs in the Federal League and gave up the fifth-fewest. This was the #2 lineup in the FL for home runs, and they also had the second-best rotation by ERA, though they were frequently undone by bad defense and their bullpen.

Projected matchups:
Nick Walla (5-3, 3.00 ERA) vs. Pedro Acebedo (7-2, 2.71 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (6-4, 4.37 ERA) vs. Luis Olvera (5-4, 2.91 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-5, 3.97 ERA) vs. Adam Molloy (3-2, 4.01 ERA)

The Raccoons evaded southpaws still, facing another slate of only right-handed starters in this series.

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Walla
RIC: LF Ospina – LF J. Jenkins – CF Laybolt – C Vaillancourt – 1B M. Ford – SS J. Turner – 3B Rubio – 2B Bonilla – P Acebedo

Offense was largely absent in the Monday opener, in which the Raccoons had a Joel Starr single in the second inning and a single by Pablo Novelo in the fifth, and nothing in between. The Rebs did; they got a leadoff double from Jeremy Jenkins in the fourth inning, and productive outs Darby Laybolt and John Vaillancourt would bring him around to score. The Rebels had only the Jenkins double for base hits through six innings against Walla, whiffing five times, while Acebedo rung up seven through six frames. He got Starr for #8 to conclude the top 7th after Monck singled and was doubled up by Dowsey’s grounder to Alberto Bonilla. Laybolt hit a leadoff double to left against Walla in the bottom of the inning and reached third on another productive Vaillancourt groundout, but Walla reached back and struck out both Matt Ford and Jason Turner to keep the extra run on base.

The Raccoons then tied the game in the eighth on singles by Roberts, who was bunted to second by Walla, and Jaden Wilson, who got the 2-out RBI, but then was caught stealing. Walla got around a walk to Bonilla in the bottom 8th by striking out another two to end the inning, and that put him at 110 pitches, which we’d deem enough. He got a no-decision for his bothers, and the Rebels got two singles from Tristan Michaux and Laybolt to begin the bottom 9th against Josh C, setting up camp on the corners. Michaux went for home when Willie Romero flew out to Wilson in center – but was thrown out to keep the game going! However, Laybolt moved up to second base with the new winning run, and when Alvey replaced Carrington against the lefty PH Jerry Morejon, he gave up a walkoff single through the left side regardless… 2-1 Rebels. Walla 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K;

Great, the comatose offense was back. We were already back down to seventh in runs scored among CL teams (though still first in bombs away).

Game 2
POR: RF Corral – 1B Starr – C Lopez – 3B Monck – SS Novelo – CF Matas – LF Early – 2B Roberts – P Rios
RIC: RF Ospina – SS J. Turner – CF Laybolt – 1B M. Ford – LF J. Jenkins – 3B Rubio – C W. Romero – 2B Bonilla – P Olvera

The first inning was calm, but Monck started the second with a double off the centerfield wall that would have been out of most parts of most ballparks in the league. He at least came around to score on a Matas single, but Matas and Roberts, who drew a 2-out walk, were stranded on base when Rios hacked himself out on pitches that weren’t even strikes, then went back out and got lit up. With Jenkins on base, Sergio Rubio clubbed a 2-run homer to put the Rebs on top, and Rios also put Romero and Olvera on, the latter with a 2-out walk… Willie Ospina grounded out to Roberts to keep a pair on base in the 2-1 game.

More Coons runners were caught stealing in this game, as both Matas and Roberts were thrown out trying to take second base against the arm of Willie Romero, which helped to further suffocate an already anemic offense. Which was a real shame, since Rios had by now recovered from his shaky start and held the Rebels relatively short from the third through the sixth inning, as the 2-1 score remained on the board. He was then knocked out by getting beaten by Olvera again, this time with a 1-out single in the bottom 7th. Holzmeister came in and struck out righty PH Brad McLaughlin and Turner (!) to get out of the inning. Ford and Vaillancourt got on base, each hitting a single off McMahan and Yamauchi, respectively, in the eighth, but were ultimately stranded, but the Raccoons had been 3-hit through eight innings by Luis Olvera, who was replaced with righty Allen Tinsley for the ninth inning, with Starr leading off. He grounded out to second base, Lopez whiffed, and Monck drew a walk to at least put the tying run on base. With Dowsey having already been used (for no gains) an inning earlier, Jaden Wilson batted for Novelo and struck out to end the game. 2-1 Rebels.

Oh dear.

Thankfully, Draft Day falling on the series finale prevented me from watching more oxygen-deprived flailing at baseballs, and I was off to New York.

However, the Raccoons made a roster move on Wednesday and put Bob West (1-2, 6.45 ERA, 1 SV) on waivers after he refused a demotion to St. Petersburg. We brought up Ryan Bonner, hitting .372 for the Alley Cats. Any spark would do.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Dowsey – 2B Bonner – SS Novelo – LF Early – P Gaytan
RIC: LF Ospina – LF J. Jenkins – CF Laybolt – C Vaillancourt – 1B M. Ford – SS J. Turner – 3B Rubio – 2B Bonilla – P Molloy

Richmond took the lead inside the first three batters, of whom Jenkins singled and stole second, and Laybolt hit an RBI single to left-center. However, the Raccoons’ despair move for Bonner worked for a 1-out single in the top 2nd, and he scored on a 2-out base knock by Marquise Early to tie the game at one. The Raccoons then even took the lead in the third – albeit in unearned fashion. Wilson reached base and stole second to begin the inning, and then came home on a 1-out single by Ramon Lopez. Wilson’s bid for the plate drew a late throw, allowing Lopez to second base, but he made no attempt to score on Ospina’s arm on Monck’s single to right, and then Dowsey hit into another double play to end the inning. Gaytan pitched responsibly with the lead, while the Raccoons then put a pair in scoring position on a Novelo single and Early double to left-center, but Early left the game with the trainer Luis Silva with some discomfort in his core. Matas ran for him and was stranded along with Novelo as Gaytan K’ed and Wilson popped out to Rubio…

Laybolt laced a triple to left-center to begin the bottom 4th then and the Raccoons saw the lead slip away. Gaytan even struck out the next two batters, and then gave up straight singles to Turner, Rubio, and Bonilla with two outs to not only blow the lead, but also fall 3-2 behind, before ringing up Molloy… The following inning, Willie Ospina stuck a leadoff double into the leftfield corner, had the audacity to steal third base, and scored on Jenkins’ sac fly, 4-2.

Gaytan was not seen after the fifth inning, having thrown just 76 pitches, but few of them had been inspiring. Holzmeister and Fox added scoreless innings, but the Raccoons lacked offensive spark until Lopez and Monck went to the corners leading off the eighth inning against Brad Walker and Jorge Quinones, who struck out Dowsey, but Raul Salas then allowed an RBI single to Bonner, 4-3. However, both Novelo and Matas whiffed against the right-hander after that, and the tying and go-ahead runs remained on base… Chance Fox put a pair on base, but got out of the mess himself in the bottom 8th, then was hit for with Starr, who drew a leadoff walk into the ninth inning against Tinsley. Wilson popped out in a full count then, and Corral grounded out, moving the tying run to second base. Tinsley ran another full count against Ramon Lopez, but then remained on top with a high fastball that Lopez chased to strike out… 4-3 Rebels. Monck 2-4; Bonner 3-4, RBI; Early 2-2, 2B, RBI; Fox 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Raccoons (35-31) vs. Crusaders (34-31) – June 17-19, 2067

Here were two teams just over .500 that both hadn’t expected to be there, but for different reasons. The season series was tied at two, and the Crusaders hoped to use their #5 offense and #4 pitching to get going against the Critters, but both teams were on 4-game losing streaks entering the weekend series. The Crusaders did not rank in the top 3 in any major stat, and they had shed SP Ben Peterson and outfielders Bryant Box, the CL stolen base leader, and Oscar Rivera onto the DL. And if you brought up the loss of Ben Seiter to the Thunder around New York fans or their GM, they’d either break into tears or punch you right out. (holds blood-soaked napkin against his pointy black nose)

Or maybe it was that I smuggled myself onto their charter flight to Portland by posing as an old muff to maybe gain some intel on their plans going forwards, and was quickly found out when the old muff started to plunder the cart with desserts…

Projected matchups:
Shoma Nakayama (5-3, 3.44 ERA) vs. Jarod Nesbit (1-3, 3.60 ERA)
Ryan Musgrave (6-4, 2.79 ERA) vs. Ed Nadeau (3-3, 4.97 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-3, 2.82 ERA) vs. Jerry Washington (6-3, 3.21 ERA)

Nadeau would be the first southpaw to face the Coons in quite a while.

Marquise Early was day-to-day for the entire weekend with a mild abdominal strain, and perhaps into the next week, and we were tempted to replace him with another player, but the options in AAA were not exactly blowing me over with excitement at this point. Only Jamie Colter was on the 40-man, and he was batting from the wrong side.

Game 1
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – SS Labonte – CF Z. Cooper – P Nesbit
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Nakayama

Friday’s game began by instantly careening off the rails and into the nearest orphanage, as Omar Sanchez drew a walk, Jose Ambriz got nicked by Nakayama, and then Danny Starwalt and David Johnson socked back-to-back homers to put the Crusaders up 4-0 right away. Nakayama wasn’t long for this game; he walked another two batters in the third inning, and Omar Sanchez in the fourth as well, although the Crusaders left the pair on base and Sanchez was caught stealing, but Nakayama threw nearly 100 pitches in four ****** innings. He was knocked out after four-and-a-third, after giving up a double to right to Starwalt. Yamauchi would replace him and get out of the inning without conceding another run.

The Raccoons were very good at playing dead, getting a Lopez double in the first, and nada thereafter, until after Evan Alvey threw two similarly inefficient innings, allowing a fifth run to the Crusaders, before Novelo hit a 1-out double to left in the bottom 7th and then scored on a Ryan Bonner single to center. Matas then hit into a double play to stop those rally shenanigans. Alvey got two more outs while putting two on base in the eighth, then was replaced with Dover, who walked Ambriz to fill the bases before he got Starwalt to ground out to Monck, as the Crusaders left another three runners on base. Nesbit ran a 3-hitter into the ninth inning, but here was the funny thing: he never got a strikeout against any Critter for the entire game… or the 8.1 innings he lasted. He got Monck to begin the ninth, then walked Dowsey, who gained a base on a wild pitch, and then was singled in to score by Joel Starr. Dave Hyman replaced Nesbit at that point, secured the second out on a fielder’s choice grounder from Novelo, and then got a groundout from Aguilar to end the game. 5-2 Crusaders. Starr 1-2, 2 BB, RBI;

Jerry Washington was moved up to Saturday, which hopefully gave us a Southpaw Sunday at least.

Game 2
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – C D. Johnson – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – SS Labonte – CF Z. Cooper – P Jer. Washington
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave

Another day, another rusty piece of rebar to the Raccoons starter’s face in the first inning. The Crusaders went up 4-0 in five batters, which meant they were letting up compared to Friday, but Musgrave allowed a single to Sanchez, an RBI double to Ambriz, another RBI double to Johnson, and a 2-run homer to Kazuhide Takeuchi. Paul Labonte hit another single in the inning, but was left on base. The Coons got a run on a Monck single and Starr’s RBI double in the bottom 2nd, but the Crusaders battered Musgrave further for another three hits and two runs in the third inning, and had him knocked out after that; Marquise Early batted for him leading off the bottom 3rd, grounded out gingerly in a 1-2-3 disappearance, and then the 6-1 garbage score went to Chance Fox. He oversaw two scoreless innings, in which the Raccoons reduced the gap down to two runs; Starr homered to left in the fourth inning with Lopez on base to make it 6-3, and then Roberts got on base to begin the fifth, stole second, and scored on a Wilson single to center, but Wilson was then caught stealing and the inning fizzled out. The Crusaders then turned on Fox and thrashed him for his own 4-run meltdown with back-to-back bombs by Starwalt and Johnson, and he was yanked when Eric Frasher singled on his 66th pitch, which was barely good enough for eight outs.

Holzmeister collected four outs before being hit for with Randy Tallent in the bottom 7th, who walked with two outs against right-hander Christopher Tinari, who had given up a double to Starr – three extra-base hits in the game! – to begin the inning and was still on base. Wilson hit a shy single that loaded the bases, and Corral then stopped the suck briefly for a 2-out, 2-run single to right, 10-6. Mike Hall replaced Tinari and struck out Lopez to end the nonsense. Starr added a 2-out single to his ledger, but would remain wanting for a triple to complete the cycle, and while Novelo hit another single after him, both were left on base. Tallent reached base in the ninth, but no substantial rally materialized from there. 10-6 Crusaders. Wilson 2-5, RBI; Starr 4-4, HR, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Tallent (PH) 1-1, BB;

Southpaw Sunday duly arrived, and maybe that could break the Raccoons out of their recent funk! Although a scoreless first by Nick Walla would be a nice start regardless of the opposite pitcher’s handedness…

Game 3
NYC: 2B O. Sanchez – LF Ambriz – 1B Starwalt – RF Takeuchi – 3B Frasher – SS Labonte – C Reyna – CF Z. Cooper – P Nadeau
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – C Lopez – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – RF Tallent – 2B Bonner – 3B Roberts – P Walla

That would be a no, by the way, as Walla leaked a four-pitch walk to Sanchez, who went on to score on Starwalt and Takeuchi singles, but at least nobody hit a bunch of homers in the damn inning and Walla retired Frasher and Labonte on strikes to get outta there. Walla continued to find 3-ball counts that then ran full and escalated his pitch count, while the Raccoons at least managed to tie the game when Novelo singled home Roberts in the third inning. Roberts had reached with a walk, and through five the Raccoons had only the Novelo hit and another single from Tallent for base knocks against Nadeau, while the Crusaders had five hits off Walla, who needed 78 pitches to get through five – but that already made him the furthest-in starter the Raccoons had managed to put up on the bloody weekend…!

Of course merely thinking about something as not being completely horrible, was absolutely going to ruin the thing and make it completely horrible, and Walla allowed a leadoff single to Ambriz and a 2-run homer to Starwalt in the sixth inning. Labonte and Victor Reyna reached with two outs before Zack Cooper popped out, and that was all Walla could do in this soggy start.

Into the eighth, the Coons looked completely beaten and swept. Down 3-1, Monck batted for Alvey to lead off and singled to left, where Ambriz overran the ball. Nadeau was lifted and replaced with Mike Hall, who got a fly out from Wilson, but then was replaced with righty Jason Fick, whom Novelo took to center for an RBI double, and now the tying run was in scoring position. There it remained as Lopez and Starr both flew out to Cooper without seriously challenging him. Monck remained in the game to play third base in place of Roberts while Dover held the Crusaders to what they already had with a 1-2-3 ninth. Dave Hyman was up against the 5-6-7 batters, then the pitcher’s spot in #8, which meant Jose Corral for sure, and then Monck yearning to break out of a funk. Except that the 5-6-7 batters all grounded out, and all did so while being ahead in the ******* count. 3-2 Crusaders. Novelo 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Monck (PH) 1-1;

In other news

June 14 – Blue Sox RF Austin Gordon (.309, 13 HR, 46 RBI) fires three home runs in an 11-0 rout of the Falcons and drives in seven runs in the effort, which marks the second 3-homer game in the league this month (after Portland’s Jose Corral on the 4th), and the third time in 25 months that the Falcons had given up three home runs to the same player (SFW Miguel Medina, ATL Nick Nye).
June 14 – LAP SP Melvin Lebron (7-3, 4.50 ERA) has a 3-hit shutout against the Condors, striking out nine for a 3-0 win.
June 14 – MIL RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.409, 8 HR, 46 RBI) gets a single in the eighth inning of a 4-2 win against Washington, marking a 20-game hitting streak.
June 15 – One day later, the streak is over, as Dominguez (.402, 8 HR, 46 RBI) goes 0-for-4 in a 9-8 loss to the Caps.
June 15 – The Aces beat the Gold Sox, 4-0 in 11 innings. LVA C/1B Chris Haynes (.269, 2 HR, 28 RBI) has the biggest knock in the top of the 11th inning with a 3-run homer.
June 16 – The Warriors take a nasty blow with the news that SP Alex Dominguez (7-2, 2.30 ERA) is done for the year and questionable for Opening Day in ’68 with a shredded flexor tendon in his elbow.
June 16 – Milwaukee RF/LF Carlos Dominguez (.414, 8 HR, 48 RBI) remains prominent with a 5-hit day, incluing a double and two RBI, in a 12-7 slog win against the Capitals.
June 17 – Condors OF/2B/SS Mike Pinault (.263, 8 HR, 30 RBI) was going to be out for a month after suffering a separating shoulder.
June 18 – DAL CF Tyler Wharton (.305, 19 HR, 67 RBI) would be out for at least a week with a case of wrist tendinitis.
June 18 – The Wolves wheeze out a 1-0 win against the Gold Sox in *16* innings. SAL LF/RF Kyle Grulke (.225, 2 HR, 16 RBI) does not enter the game until the ninth inning and goes 1-for-4, but the “1” is the much desired walkoff single in the game’s 105th and final at-bat. SAL MR Jesse Connors (0-1, 4.13 ERA, 1 SV) pitches 5.1 innings of 1-hit relief in the game.

FL Player of the Week: CIN RF/LF Roberto Soto (.258, 10 HR, 37 RBI), batting .500 (10-20) with 2 HR, 6 RBI
CL Player of the Week: VAN OF Tyler Chenette (.238, 4 HR, 14 RBI), clipping .500 (10-20) with 3 HR, 7 RBI

Complaints and stuff

This year’s June is shaping up to be last year’s May when the Raccoons couldn’t get anybody out, couldn’t score a ******* run, and went 5-24 for the month. Right now, June is a 5-12 mess, coming from a 5-5 start to the month. And the Titans are next, so you can’t expect things to improve on Monday.

Bob West cleared waivers, still refused an assignment to St. Petersburg, and was released on Saturday.

#4 draft pick Jimmy Wharton struck out nine and walked five in his first start for Ham Lake. So far, this could go either way.

Like I said earlier, the Titans are in for three games starting on Monday. We then have a day off, and then go on a 10-game road trip to Atlanta, San Francisco, and Milwaukee.

Fun Fact: The Coons are still first in home runs in the CL … but tied … with those Titans.

That’s not gonna be a good series.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (35-34) vs. Titans (48-20) – June 20-22, 2067

The Raccoons had been stomped for seven straight games, and now the Titans showed up, so things were not likely to improve in the very near future. Boston was already on a +127 run differential thanks to the third-best offense and never allowing any runs at all, and they were up 4-2 on the Coons this year. Pitchers Bryce Wallace and Josh Carlisle and outfielder Joe Washington were on the DL, though.

Projected matchups:
Gabriel Rios (6-5, 4.24 ERA) vs. Ricardo Montoya (2-3, 4.66 ERA)
Tony Gaytan (3-6, 4.17 ERA) vs. Jason Brenize (12-2, 2.11 ERA)
Shoma Nakayama (5-4, 3.68 ERA) vs. Mike Bell (9-1, 1.94 ERA)

Looked like Monday was the day, or never. All those Titans were right-handed; southpaw and ex-Coon Tyler Riddle (7-5, 2.96 ERA) had pitched on Sunday.

Game 1
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. Acosta – CF Marcotte – 1B Jer. White – RF Kaniewski – SS Onelas – C L. Marquez – 3B C. Pena – P R. Montoya
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – LF Dowsey – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – C Aguilar – 2B Roberts – P Rios

Somehow the Titans didn’t strip down Rios right away for two four-pitch walks to Steve Humphries and Eddie Marcotte in the first inning, also thanks to Willie Acosta hitting into a double play right away. The Raccoons instead pooled hits from Wilson, Corral, and Starr together to get a run in the bottom 1st, the RBI going to Starr. Lorenzo Marquez found another double play in the second inning, while Cesar Pena struck a double to right to begin the Boston third. Somehow Rios found the strike zone at that point and got a few K’s to keep that runner on base, and even better, he came to the plate with two outs and Novelo and Roberts on the corners in the bottom 4th and cracked a single past Willie Acosta, a Gold Glover in a previous life, to extend his lead to 2-0! This was Rios’ first career RBI. And even better yet: Jaden Wilson found a hanger in the zone from Montoya, and belted it for a 3-run homer, and maybe that could snap the 7-game losing streak!

…or maybe Rios would immediately walk the bags full with Pena, Humphries, and Acosta in the fifth inning. Eddie Marcotte rather uncharacteristically hit a comebacker for a force out at the plate for the second out, and Jeremy White popped out to Novelo on the very next pitch, stranding a full set of Titans on the bases. At this point I couldn’t decide whether I should have a case of the migraines or not, so instead started to booze with a bottle of Capt’n Coma, because it was a lot to watch… Rios wasn’t much longer for the game, offering a leadoff walk to John Kaniewski in the sixth – his seventh free pass in the game – and was unceremoniously yoinked. Holzmeister got a double play grounder from Marcos Onelas and found a way out of the inning with that. Josh C had a scoreless seventh, but Josh Atkins of Boston gave up an unearned run on a Corral double, Dowsey reaching on an error by Onelas, and Monck’s RBI groundout in the bottom of the seventh. Alvey then got the last six outs, putting a pair on base in the eighth, but the ninth went 1-2-3, and the Titans never scored in the game. 6-0 Raccoons. Wilson 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Corral 3-4, 2 2B; Novelo 2-4; Alvey 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

A win!!

Game 2
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. Acosta – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – RF A. Lee – SS Onelas – 1B Joyner – 3B C. Pena – P Brenize
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – LF Dowsey – 1B Starr – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Gaytan

Brenize had shown cracks against even terrible Raccoons teams in recent years, especially in Portland. We didn’t really know, but perhaps it was an allergy against all the loose fur all over the ballpark that would get into every nook and cranny, and food, too. Wilson singled to begin the first and stole second base and was singled home by Corral right away for a 1-0 Critters lead, but Ramon Lopez hit into a double play. Monck singled and was stranded by Dowsey, but Joel Starr socked a leadoff jack in the bottom 2nd, while the returns on recently foundering Tony Gaytan were so-and-so through three innings. He allowed a hit in every inning, including two doubles, but no runs, and struck out five Titans. On the negative side, he threw a staggering 61 pitches to get there.

The Coons did not let up and got another run in the bottom 3rd on a leadoff single by Wilson, two groundouts, and another RBI single for Monck. Starr and Bonner hit singles to get to the corners in the fourth inning, but Gaytan hit into a 6-4-3 double play to wrap up that inning. At least he had just thrown seven pitches in a 1-2-3 fourth, even while getting a K on Onelas, so maybe things could still shake out for him…?

Yeah maybe, but Bill Joyner and Cesar Pena hit long fly balls in the fifth. Now, Wilson and Dowsey caught those, respectively, but it looked like the Titans were zoning in on him. Not in the zone was Brenize, who couldn’t get Wilson out, who hit another leadoff single in the bottom 5th and stole his 20th base. He scored on a Lopez groundout, 4-0, but when Gaytan allowed a leadoff single to Humphries and nicked Acosta in the sixth inning, we had him face Marcotte, who flew out to Dowsey while I had my eyes closed and firmly covered, but when the left-handed pair of Jorge Arviso and Andy Lee drew up, the plug was pulled on Gaytan. McMahan came in, rung up Arviso, and had Lee pop out on the first pitch as the Titans kept despairing of the happy-go-lucky Coons pitching on display here. McMahan gave up singles to Onelas and Pena in the seventh, the runners being bunted into scoring position by Brenize for the second out before Yamauchi and Early entered in a double switch, with Dowsey’s day done. The bat of Humphries’ was too, because he broke it over his femur when he struck out swinging against Yamauchi to end the inning. But Yamauchi then put Acosta and Marcotte on to begin the eighth inning, and Alvey was not available, so now Chance Fox had to look after the 4-5 batters, who popped out and grounded to short for a fielder’s choice at second base. Another double switch then entered Dover and Matas, who replaced Wilson in centerfield – and Dover struck out Onelas! Another pair stranded! Brenize was also gone by now and the Raccoons saw Sansao Tyson put Lopez and Matas on base in the bottom 8th. With two outs, Tallent batted for Starr against the former Coons southpaw, and he clipped an RBI single to left-center. Novelo then flew out to Lee, and Dover finished his 4-out save in good order. 5-0 Furballs! Wilson 3-4; Corral 2-4, RBI; Monck 2-4, RBI; Starr 2-3, HR, RBI; Tallent (PH) 1-1, RBI; Gaytan 5.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, W (4-6);

The Raccoons demoted Justin Aguilar (.203, 0 HR, 8 RBI) to AAA at this point, and yes, we had made a whole fuzz about how Jake Flowe was not gonna rot away behind Ramon Lopez, but he was hitting .298 with five homers in AAA, and maybe he could be of some use here for a few weeks. The goal was to get him into maybe six, seven games relatively quickly, and then revert the change. The main drawback was that an already heavily left-handed lineup got even leftier with him.

Game 3
BOS: LF S. Humphries – 2B W. Acosta – CF Marcotte – C Arviso – 1B Jer. White – RF A. Lee – SS Onelas – 3B C. Pena – P M. Bell
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Early – C Flowe – 2B Bonner – P Nakayama

For the second time in a row, Nakayama got rocked for four runs in the first inning, and it wasn’t even the Titans doing it, because he was underwater from three walks inside the first four batters faced already. Arviso drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in the game’s first run, and White’s groundout and a Pena single added the other three runs. White hit a solo homer to begin the third inning, and then Nakayama just kept ******** the bed, allowing a double to Lee, a n RBI single to Bell, a walk to Humphries, and another single to Acosta, before getting yanked from a 6-0 game after just eight outs. Yamauchi replaced him, walked in a run against Marcotte, and then struck out Arviso to get the Titans to sit the **** down. The Coons made up a few runs in the bottom 3rd with Bonner singling to center, Wilson tripling to right, and Novelo’s RBI single, but that still left the score at 7-2.

Yamauchi was strung out for seven outs, completing five innings for the team, and Holzmeister managed to put up two shutout innings after that, unfortunately all constituting wasted effort since the Raccoons were just not continuing their rally. They had just one hit in the middle innings, then wickedly got back within slam range on a pinch-hit homer to left that Mike Roberts hit in place of Holzmeister in the bottom 7th, 7-3. But the Raccoons were running out of pitching; Carrington pitched the eighth, walking two and then striking out as many, but it looked like Novelo would bite the bullet in the ninth, and how can a team pitch two shutouts in a row and still not have pitching on the third day?? Jose Gomez walked Corral in the bottom 8th, but Starr hit into a double play and that was that, and indeed Novelo then took the hill in the ninth. Things began with an Onelas groundout, but then quickly devolved into debauchery. Pena walked, Joyner singled, Humphries walked, and Acosta even struck out! …but the third out proved hard to come by. Marcotte drew a walk to force in a run, Arviso singled, plating two, one on an Early throwing error, and Novelo issued two more walks to Tony Rodriquez and Andy Lee before Onelas made ANOTHER out against the position player lobbing nuggets up there, flying out to Early and leaving the bases loaded. 11-3 Titans. Roberts (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Holzmeister 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K;

The reward for this stinker was a day off on Thursday before a 10-game road trip beckoned.

Raccoons (37-35) @ Knights (38-34) – June 24-26, 2067

Similar records, but the Knights were just one game out in the South compared to the Coons trailing in the North by 12 1/2. The Raccoons were up 2-1 this year against the Knights, who had the #2 offense, but were also allowing the fourth-most runs for a +5 run differential. Their rotation nearly had an ERA of five between them. Creaky defense was playing a role for sure. Infielder Jorge Munoz, who had led the CL in walks drawn last year, had left the Knights’ 4-1 win against the Falcons on Thursday with an apparent injury and was not processed yet.

Projected matchups:
Ryan Musgrave (6-5, 3.31 ERA) vs. Keith Thompson (4-5, 5.04 ERA)
Nick Walla (5-4, 2.93 ERA) vs. Luis Briseno (5-6, 4.32 ERA)
Gabriel Rios (7-5, 3.97 ERA) vs. Jonathan Vale (7-6, 5.91 ERA)

Three right-handers once more, although it was quite impressive that Vale with an ERA of nearly six tied for the team lead in wins with Adam Lunn (7-4, 4.34 ERA). I was sure the Raccoons would run into a 3-hitter against him…

Game 1
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Roberts – P Musgrave
ATL: RF V.D. Morales – C Hart – LF J. Acuna – CF J. Evans – 1B Giles – SS C. Ramsey – 2B Fumero – 3B Feldman – P K. Thompson

Monck singled home Corral for a first-inning run, but the Coons could have had more considering that Wilson drew a leadoff walk and was caught stealing before Corral hit a double to right. Musgrave got around Justin Hart’s triple to center in the first inning because the catcher had to hold on Javier Acuna’s groundout to first base before Jake Evans grounded out to Monck. However, Casey Ramsey singled, stole second, and was doubled home by Brad Feldman with two outs to get the teams even in the second inning…

Victor David Morales walked and was caught stealing in the third inning, allowing Rich Monck to break the tie with a leadoff jack to right, his 14th homer of the season, in the fourth inning. Recently slumping Dowsey singled and Roberts walked with two outs, but Musgrave flew out easily to Evans, who then whacked a leadoff jack of his own two minutes and ten seconds later. Runners were then hard to come by until Dowsey walked and Novelo singled with two outs in the top 6th, but Roberts continued to disappoint and grounded out to short to end the inning.

Musgrave got around a Monck error in the sixth inning to keep the Knights in the 2-2 tie through seven innings, throwing 96 pitches to get there. He then got a lead spotted in the eighth; Monck legged out a 1-out infield single against Thompson, who struck out Starr, but Dowsey then drove a ball over the glove of Evans in center for a double, and Monck scored narrowly from first base to put Portland up 3-2. Novelo flew out to Acuna to leave the extra runner in scoring position. Musgrave returned, getting a full count and groundout from Morales before Hart drove a ball to the warning track and into Dowsey’s mitten on Musgrave’s 106th pitch. The Coons got the message and brought Dover and Early in a double switch, Dowsey getting removed. Dover struck out Acuna to finish the eighth, then got some support in the ninth when Marquise Early legged out a single on a roller that died halfway between home and third, stole second, and then scored on Jaden Wilson’s ground-rule double off the warning track and over the fence in right, 4-2. Thompson was made to walk Corral intentionally, but the Coons batted Flowe for Lopez, and the youngster dished an RBI double to right that knocked out Thompson for good. Elijah LaBat, another former Coons southpaw (there were like a million of these in the league), replaced him, gave up a shy RBI single to Monck, then struck out Bonner in Starr’s spot. That meant that Dover batted with two outs and hit an easy fly out to Morales, keeping runners on the corners, but at this point we wanted him to finish out the game – which he did with two strikeouts and a pop on the infield! 6-2 Coons! Flowe (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Monck 4-5, HR, 3 RBI; Dowsey 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Novelo 2-4; Early 1-1; Musgrave 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (7-5);

Maybe some odd pinch-hitting assignments in the ninth, but both Starr and Lopez were 0-for-4 and what did we have to lose?

Rich Monck got to 51 RBI in this game, which was easily the team lead, but nowhere near the CL leader Cesar Ramirez, who had 65 as of Friday night.

Game 2
POR: CF Wilson – RF Corral – C Lopez – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Dowsey – SS Novelo – 2B Bonner – P Walla
ATL: RF V.D. Morales – C Hart – LF J. Acuna – CF J. Evans – 1B Giles – SS J. Munoz – 2B Fumero – 3B R. Cox – P Briseno

Jorge Munoz was back in the lineup and was immediately and painfully plonked with a 1-2 pitch in the second inning, and was then left on base by Carlos Fumero. Robby Cox hit a single to lead off the third for Atlanta, but a bunt and two strikeouts stranded him as well. The Coons also had just two base runners in three innings, half of which (Wilson) were caught stealing. The game remained similarly starved for offense in the middle innings. The Raccoons didn’t have any hits in there, while the Knights got Cox on base in the fifth and Hart in the sixth, but had yet to reach third base with anybody in the game – much like the Critters. However, Briseno was getting through six with relative ease, whiffing three on 63 pitches, while Walla’s pitch count was up to 86, and he also only had three strikeouts. Both teams disappeared 1-2-3 in the seventh inning, but Walla was then gone as well, because he still needed another 17 pitches for three batters.

Starr’s infield single to begin the eighth was already a real adrenaline rush after the previous seven innings. Dowsey grounded out, and Briseno nailed Novelo to put a second runner on base. The Raccoons tried to force it and sent the left-handed bench warmers, but Matas flew out to left and Flowe grounded out to first, handing Walla a sour no-decision. Miguel Medina and Justin Hart then went to the corners against Carrington with singles in the bottom 8th, and Acuna hit a sac fly for the game’s only run before Brad Fales nailed the lid on the coffin, 1-2-3 in the ninth. 1-0 Knights. Walla 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Woof.

Game 3
POR: CF Wilson – SS Novelo – RF Corral – 3B Monck – 1B Starr – LF Matas – C Flowe – 2B Tallent – P Rios
ATL: CF Fumero – C Hart – 1B M. Medina – RF J. Evans – LF J. Acuna – 2B J. Munoz – SS C. Ramsey – 3B R. Cox – P Vale

I didn’t have high hopes against a pitcher with an ERA near six, and had pegged Vale for a 3-hitter, two of which the Coons expended early for Monck and Flowe singles without scoring. But the real problem was Rios, who ran into a 6-spot (five earned) to easily lose the game early in the bottom 3rd. After retiring the first six Knights, he walked Ramsey and Robby Cox to begin the bottom 3rd before Monck’s throw on Vale’s bunt skipped past Starr for a run-scoring error. Fumero walked the bags full, Hart singled in two, and Medina crunched a 3-run homer to make a statement.

Randy Tallent homered to lead off the fifth inning, which marked the third and presumably final base hit for the Raccoons in the game, and they were still down 6-1! Alas, I was mistaken – and Rich Monck hit another solo homer in the sixth to get the team back in slam range.

They didn’t remain there for long; Rios lasted five innings of 6-run ball, after which Chance Fox got bopped around for two runs in the sixth, having absolutely nothing against right-handed batters. It didn’t get any better from there, as Miguel Medina took Holzmeister deep in the seventh for a tack-on run, and then Holzmeister, who made an error, and McMahan melted down for another three runs (one earned) in the eighth. 12-2 Knights. Monck 2-4, HR, RBI;

In other news

June 20 – The Aces demolish the Bayhawks by a score of 15-2, churning out 22 hits in a team effort in just eight batting innings.
June 21 – Both the Capitals and the Cyclones score four runs in the ninth inning of a 7-6 Cincinnati home win in which CIN RF/LF Roberto Soto (.266, 11 HR, 39 RBI) concludes the counter-rally with a 2-run walkoff home run.
June 25 – Crusaders catcher David Johnson (.285, 10 HR, 46 RBI) has a career day with six base hits, including two homers and five RBI, in a 13-inning, 10-9 loss to the Aces. He also draws a walk and is not retired even once by the Aces. This is the first 6-hit game for any batter in over two years, and only the second in Crusaders history.
June 25 – The Canadiens acquire SP Justin Wittman (7-6, 3.78 ERA) from San Francisco, with two prospects going to the Bay.
June 26 – The Aces lose INF Koji Hatakeyama (.298, 2 HR, 15 RBI) for the rest of the season, as the 21-year-old has suffered a badly broken elbow that will require major surgery.

FL Player of the Week: RIC LF/CF/2B Darby Laybolt (.421, 7 HR, 26 RBI), slapping .480 (12-25) with 2 HR, 4 RBI
CL Player of the Week: NYC C David Johnson (.291, 10 HR, 46 RBI), churning .696 (16-23) with 4 HR, 13 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Well, with Jose Corral stopping to homer again, the Raccoons eventually lost control of the CL lead in homers. Danny Starwalt struck five homers in a 6-game span (including one in every game in Portland last weekend) to zip into the lead. However, we still held the team lead in homers in the CL, with 66 bombs in 75 games. Corral and Monck had nearly half of them, 15 each.

Did I mention the lack of injuries in the minors recently? Ham Lake outfielder (recently promoted) Ben Heard broke his paw on Monday. We found bone spurs in the elbow of Beagles pitcher Edwin Altamirano on Thursday that would keep him out for the rest of the year. Another Aumsville pitcher, Mitchell Dougherty was now laboring on a sore shoulder, and maybe I should learn how to shut my stupid snout.

Although I jinxed Jonathan Vale into NOT throwing a 3-hitter on Sunday. He went eight on FIVE hits! I claim a moral victory, because what else can be draw from that rancid game??

Speaking of pitchers having trouble (cough!) with the Coons, Jason Brenize took another L against Gaytan on Tuesday, but on Sunday went to 13-3 with a 2.09 ERA by winning a 1-0 squeezer against the Thunder’s Ben Seiter (3-12, 3.86 ERA), who probably wondered what he had gotten himself into. Seiter had not won a game since April 21, and had in fact – starting with his next appearance against the Critters – opened losses for his team in 11 of his last 12 outings. The only game the team hadn’t lost, he had gotten a no-decision, leaving after one inning with back soreness. That 7-4 win against the Bayhawks was the ONLY time in those 12 Seiter starts that the Thunder put up more than three runs. He threw a pair of 7-run clunkers, but he also pitched four complete games. Maybe he shoulda stayed in New York.

The road trip would continue with visits to San Francisco and Milwaukee. There was then just a week at home left before the All Star Game. The Indians were our four-and-four dance partners this season.

Fun Fact: Stephen Walton had the first and until this week only Crusaders 6-hit game, all the way back in 1987.

David Johnson missed Walton’s heroic’s anniversary by a single day, as Walton’s 6-hitter in a 9-0 win against the Loggers occurred on June 24, 1987, exactly 80 years and one day ago.

The outfielder Walton had a relatively brief career in the majors, playing from 1983 through 1989 for the Crusaders, Canadiens, and Rebels, and never made an appearance after his 30th birthday, hanging on in the minors until 1995. He was a regular with the Crusaders, but with the overall limited exposure amounted to only batting .251 with 27 homers and 249 RBI for his career. He also stole 71 bases, but never amounted to any awards or honors.