[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-17) @ Loggers (16-20)

One more game without Daniel Hall. Bob Davis got a start at third to open the series. Yoelbi Maurinha pitched and was unable to throw strikes. Workman, Dawson, and Borjón had gotten the Raccoons up 2-0 with three doubles chained together, Maurinha tied it in the fifth on a wild pitch, then lost it in the sixth with a home run to light hitting SS Tracy Winters. 4-2 Loggers. Workman 2-4, 2B;

Daniel Hall came off the DL for game 2. Bob Davis was waived since he was out of options. Hall entered the lineup in #3 and LF, White was back to RF, Dawson went to 3B, which eliminated the pinch of bad hitting in the infield. Thompson remained in at second, although he was slumping now as well. Walker remained at short. I celebrated the return of a .241 hitter before his injury as if he could save us and lead us to the holy land.

Daniel Hall homered in his second at-bat off the DL. But the Raccoons already trailed 2-0 by then. Powell remained awful. For unknown reasons, opponents were hitting line drives in unheard of numbers against him. The first run was a homer by Alex Garcia, another one of those light hitting guys. Jason White surrendered another three runs in relief, and the Raccoons lost 5-1, on only three hits.

I don’t get it. Powell’s striking out more than before, he’s not walking any more, he only gets burned each outing. This was his sixth loss – as many as he had in all of 1982, and this was May 17.

Game 3 had Logan Evans (4-1, 2.01 ERA) vs. John Douglas (2-2, 7.38 ERA) – guess who’d score first. The Loggers went up 2-0 in the first on a Marvin Mills home run. Douglas walked two in the second, Evans came up with two outs – and homered to right center. That’s the spirit! If your lame ass offense can’t pull three runs a game outta their arses, you have to go DIY. By the third inning, the Loggers led 5-3. Four of their runs were unearned after three errors by Borjón, Gonzalez, and Dawson. Douglas walked TEN batters in the game, and the Raccoons STILL could not get ahead!! The game was tied 6-6 in the top 6th, bases loaded, when Bowling pinch hit for Evans. He struck out. The Raccoons lost 8-7 despite the winning run on base in the top 9th.

That was the low point, right? 13 walks, ten hits, and they lost on three errors. They left 16 on base. 35 individually. It can not possibly get any worse, right?

The sweep was up for grabs for the Loggers in game 4. Dawson and White needed rest after playing every game since the start of the season. Why not now? Green and Short played. Shayne Nealon: 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K; reads like a winner’s line, right? That run was a homer to Marvin Mills, and he was on the hook for the loss when he was pinch hit for. Hall singled in a runner in the eighth to at least tie the game, but Walker grounded out with Short (who had been nailed, which was what it took for him to reach base) on third. The same scenario came up again in the 10th: Short on third, Hall on first, Walker at the plate, but this time he managed to pull a single out of his – you know. Thompson pinch hit for Bowling to score Hall and West saved the 3-1. Sweep narrowly avoided. Hall 3-5, 2B, RBI;

Now that was fun. Not. The series dropped the team to 55-57 overall against the Loggers, which leaves no CL team they are .500 (or let alone better) against.

Now please enter the team with the best record in baseball.

Raccoons (21-20) vs. Thunder (29-13)

The Thunder offense was humming, 207 runs in 42 games. That’s almost five in a game, the Raccoons had long dipped below four.

Maybe Kinji Kan had a chance. He lined up zeros on the scoreboard in game 1. Hall got the Raccoons up with a groundout RBI in the fourth, and Bowling added a sac fly in the fifth. Workman and Hall had hits in the sixth and Dawson ripped away at a pitch by ace Ralph Hoyles into deep, deep, gone left, 5-0 Raccoons. They loaded the bags in the eighth with nobody out – and hadn’t reliever Hervé Ben walked in a run, they wouldn’t have scored. Kan entered the ninth, but gave up two hits and was removed. Now: the bullpen explosion. Four runs scored against the pen, before Grant West could end it. That left the Raccoons with a tainted 6-4 win. White 2-4; Workman 3-4, 2B; Hall 2-4, RBI; Kan 8.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K; Dawson had his 11th home run here already, 127 total, only five away from the Condors’ Michinaga Yamada, who leads the all time leaderboard.

Next up was Maurinha. I had left the tissues in the clubhouse, since I was mentally fine with losing this game. Maurinha struck out the first three Thunder, then pitched seven more shutout innings, and drove in the go-ahead run for the Raccoons in the fifth, then scored on a Workman double. That was all the offense. Cunningham saved the game against strong righty opposition and because West had worked himself up unnecessarily the day before. 2-0 Raccoons, six hits, no player had more than one. Maurinha 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K and 1-3, RBI;

Powell allowed a first inning run in game 3. Are we going there again? The first five Raccoons all reached base in this game for a 2-1 lead, that became 4-1 in the fourth. Powell was scooting until the seventh, when two Thunder got on. Jason White was tasked with getting out righty Jonah Frank – both runs scored on a zipper up the middle. Ackerman ended the inning, but allowed a runner on second in the eighth. Gaston struck out Sam Dadswell to end the inning, still 4-3 ahead. C’mon boys, save old Chris that W! Wally Gaston lost it in the ninth. 5-4 Thunder. No W for old Chris.

Raccoons (23-21) @ Condors (20-24)

The Condors had the worst rotation in the league, but come on, who doesn’t have issues with his rotation? (sour look)

The Raccoons scored first in the opener, 1-0 in the top 3rd. Hall got on with a 1-out double and advanced on Dawson’s groundout. Walker had already struck out with runners in scoring position in the first, and did so again. But the catcher had the ball spin away from him, Walker dashed to first and Hall scored on the uncaught third strike. Logan Evans walked five in an effort to lose the game, which he accomplished. 6-3 Condors, two on Kelley in the eighth, another one of those morons.

Daniel Hall was injured on a play in that game. It turned out to be a mild calf strain and he was only handicapped for a few days, but nevertheless didn’t take the field in this series again.

As was good old custom for the Raccoons this season, Shayne Nealon had to be his own run support. He doubled in two in the fourth inning to get the Raccoons ahead. That was all the offense already. Nealon pitched well enough to wiggle through 6.2 and the pen somehow mangled the rest together for a 2-1 win. Sanchez 2-3, BB; Thompson 2-4; Nealon 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K and 1-2, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Kinji Kan was up in the rubber game, entering 2nd in ERA in the CL. Well, he got that stat over with. The Raccoons gave him a 3-0 lead and he blew it. They gave him a 5-3 lead and he was removed before he could blow that as well, with a run across. Cunningham held on to the lead in the seventh, before the ‘coons overcame the Condors pen for four runs in the eighth. Then Cunningham loaded the bags with one out in the eighth, and he ended up with three runs charged against him. At least Grant West knew how to pitch and saved the 9-7 win. White 2-4, BB, RBI; Workman 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Borjón 2-4, 2B; Short 2-4, BB;

Raccoons (25-22) @ Aces (26-22)

The Aces of 1983 were not the Aces that had finished rock bottom in 1982 (and never above fifth) anymore. They had Chris “Missing” Lynch, who had tied Mark Dawson for the home run title last year, and they had more sluggers in Brad Brown, Jordan Archer and Teo Colón. Most of them were speedy and good defenders, too. If they lacked anything, it clearly was pitching, both in the rotation and the pen, but they were able to outscore most trouble.

Daniel Hall was held out of the lineup for one more day to ensure full recovery and game 1 – Dawson played left and Green third. Damn Cameron Green was batting sub .150, it was a nightmare. Amazingly, he hit safely three times in the game, but it didn’t matter. The Aces chewed through our pitching staff, the game was hardly ever in doubt after the fifth. 9-5 Aces, Maurinha had been shelled thoroughly. Sanchez 2-5, 2B; Green 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Hall was back to start in game 2, and we faced the weaker part of the Aces rotation now. Chances to score! Of course, the Raccoons sent out poor Christopher Powell, so this game could easily end 16-13 one way or the other…

The Raccoons opened with a 4-spot on Hubert Gaines, including a 3-run blast by Mark Dawson (#12, we’re already counting here; the HR record for the ABL is 31). They had another 4-spot added to that in the eighth, where Dawson missed a grand slam by about ten feet, instead hitting into Chris Lynch’s glove for a sac fly. Powell needed every bit of support, giving up four through five frames after no-hitting the Aces through three innings. He left after six, 9-5 ahead. The pen actively tried to cough up a comeback for the Aces. One across in the seventh, one across in the eighth. But “Demon” West got two groundouts to Dawson and struck out Colón to end it, 9-7 Raccoons. Borjón 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; no other Raccoon had more than one hit. Once they had killed Gaines, they had not mounted much more.

Game 3, another 4-spot to start with, crowned by a 440ft grenade by Dawson for two runs. They added a few runs, as they saw fit in an 8-0 win over the Aces. Logan Evans went the distance, allowing five hits, three walks, and fanned seven, taking 122 pitches! Hall 3-5, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Dawson 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Sanchez 2-5, 2B, RBI; every player (including Evans) had one hit or more, and the starting nine finished the game;

Logan Evans had his fourth career shutout in this game, and the first since 1981, which is the year he pitched the previous three. It was his “worst” shutout in terms of baserunners with eight, but he has never had less than five in his shutouts. For comparison: six pitchers have tossed a total of 15 shutouts for the Raccoons; Christopher Powell has seven of them (none of the other four guys with single shutouts are with the team anymore), and has twice come within two runners of a perfect game, and has a 1-hitter to his credit. Of course, this does not count for much this year.

What the heck! “Crazylegs” Evans tossed a shutout against the #1 offense in the Continental League! IT’S A PAR-TAY!!

In other news

May 16 – SAC SP Jeff Thompson (3-3, 3.57 ERA) 2-hits the Wolves in a 4-0 win.
May 17 – Vancouver’s star shortstop Eddy Bailey is out for a few weeks with a knee contusion. His .292 performance this season is his worst ever.
May 19 – A torn UCL puts Titans starter Kevin Williams on ice until next summer. Williams had gone 2-2 with a 2.50 ERA to start the season.
May 22 – Season over for DEN SP Laurentij Mlotkovsky (5-2, 2.51 ERA). The 27-yr old is sidelined by shoulder inflammation. “Haystack” Mlotkovsky was once part of the trade that made Christopher Powell a Raccoon, back in ’77. He is 30-44 with a decent 3.94 ERA for the Gold Sox in the major leagues.
May 22 – Rebels LF Matt Mason cracks three home runs in a 9-8 win over the Gold Sox, batting in four. These are his first home runs of the season.
May 29 – Rebels outfielder Albert Smith goes 5-5 in a 9-7 loss to the Scorpions, missing the cycle by the triple.

Complaints and stuff

I am man enough to admit that I cried a little during that Loggers series, which was as pathetic as this team has been during the last six season. I thought this was a winning team, and in fact they were still 21-20 after that series, but the offense had zero going. ZERO.

In German, a common expression to describe groups of people that may be highly paid but contribute zero (like baseball players, or in Germany commonly soccer players) is a disgusted “Flaschen!”, which translates to “bottles”. Empty ones, of course. I said that about 20 times during the Loggers series, which I, personally, conceived as lowest lows they could reach.

As all my dignity is already out of the window with my statement two paragraphs above, I also admit that I winced pretty badly and begged my laptop not to make Daniel Hall’s injury too harsh in that Condors series.

On the shutout stats given after the last Aces game… the pitchers besides Chris Powell (7) and Logan Evans (4) to shut out the opponent over nine frames are:
- Jack Pennington (1981) tossed a 6-hitter against the Falcons in his second game for the team; he’s now with the Miners
- Jerry Morris (1979) is credited with a shutout on the history page, but his profile does not come up with it and I don’t remember him tossing one (although I prefer not to remember 1979 at all) – since being released by the Raccoons, he’s pitched for the Rebels in their minor league system
- Jorge Romero (1978-1982) also shut out the Falcons, on five hits, in 1978; after going unsigned in the offseason, he has now retired. Goodbye, Jorge. :-(
- Juan Berrios (1977-1980) is of course the most (in)famous one of the group. He no-hit the Loggers on May 3, 1977 for the first no-no in ABL history, but wound up going 26-59 for his career with Portland. Since being released in 1980, he was in the Vancouver system, was released, was signed by the Gold Sox for their minor league teams, and was released; he is currently unemployed

I’m starting to think that Morris thing might be a bug or something? He pitched a shutout *against* the Raccoons, when he was with the Titans. But that was the year before.

Huh.

Next games: one week at home with the Falcons and Canadiens, then a trip to Boston for four, and then we’ll have interleague again against the Warriors and Buffaloes. The latter series ends June 15, and we’ll also have the draft then.