[Westheim]

Raccoons (31-26) vs. Canadiens (34-20)

We just can not afford to lose this series. So, our offense needs to keep pace with the mediocre pitching, but the Canadiens have by far the best staff in the league.

But the first game was another start for Chris Powell. It rained again. And the Coons could not solve the enigma that was Robbie Campbell. Matt Workman got a solo homer off him in the bottom 7th, but they had only two more hits all game. Powell had given up a 2-piece to Seitaro Ogawa in the fifth and took the 2-1 loss.

Game 2 was almost a perfect copy of the first. Like Powell the day before, Charles Young went eight frames, giving up two runs on homers, this time two solo home runs by Osanai and Bailey. Hall drove in one run and the Raccoons lost again, 2-1. The two homers off Young were the only hits for the Canadiens, and the Raccoons had only three.

This already placed us 6.5 games behind Vancouver, putting our playoff ambitions in serious doubt. Now once the pitchers performed well, the offense couldn’t get through the opposing starters.

But the Raccoons could not get through the Canadiens, not at all. Kisho Saito and the pen allowed only three hits, again, in the last game. The Raccoons briefly led after a 2-run home run by Hall, but it was not enough. They lost 5-2. Hall 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

That made the gap 7.5 games. At our current performance and how the Canadiens were pitching, this was the point where I became more and more convinced that we would not finish anywhere close to first place this year. This had been not necessarily the do-or-die series already, but to be swept here and now, at home, was pretty much a death blow to our ambitions. And it really was no wonder we were that far behind and almost down to .500 – we were scoring a record 4.62 R/G, but gave up 4.53 … only in 1979 had the Furballs staff posted a worse ERA, and they lost 107 games that year; this was not going to work out. The pitching was too awful to be a contending team.

Raccoons (31-29) vs. Cyclones (26-35)

Cincinnati’s offense was very slow, but they had strong pitching assembled with Jason Gurston carrying an amazing 1.71 ERA.

Out of despair, Carlos Moran started the first game of the series. The Cyclones did not put up a single right-handed batter. Five lefties, three switch. They took a few innings, but then they cooked him. The Raccoons had nothing at all. They upped their production to four hits, one a massive crusher by Mark Dawson. That was it. 6-1 Cyclones. Dawson 2-4, HR, RBI;

The middle game put Jason Gurston on the mound for the Cyclones, who threw a 2-hit shutout. Kinji Kan was blown up for six runs in 5.1 innings. There really is not more to say about these games. The Raccoons sucked a hell of a time here. They had NO offense, they had NO pitching.

Game 3. No change. Five hits for the ragged bunch of losers. The Cyclones scored only two off Powell, but those were enough. Daniel Hall struck out with the tying runs in scoring position to end the game. He went 0-11 in the series. Walker 3-4;

There really is not much more to say but this: the team has lost 10 of their last 11 games. They scored 16 runs in the first four games in that streak and went 1-3. They have scored six runs in the last seven games of that streak in one of the most horrendous home stands in history. In the power rankings, they dropped 13 spots, from 9th to 22nd, crashing by 23 points.

This felt like 1979. But worse.

Raccoons (31-32) @ Stars (32-30)

Steve Walker actually gave the Raccoons a lead with a home run to center in the top 4th, driving in Workman, too, who had doubled. Those were the first two hits of the team on that day. Immediately afterwards in the bottom 4th, Charles Young looked very bad on a grounder by Joe Adams, who was safe at first. Gabriel Cruz launched his own massive burst to center to tie the game. It was still tied in the bottom 9th. Jason White walked the leadoff man, Mario Gonzalez, who was quick. Sanchez tried to pick a dozy Gonzalez at first, and threw the ball past Workman. Gonzalez advanced to second with nobody out. White got a K, but we brought up Wally Gaston, who had more K power and had room for a walk. He struck out the next two Stars to get the game to extra innings. Cisco Banda homered off Juan Miranda (!?!) in the top 10th and we actually had a chance to break out Grant West for the first time in - … a long time. He surrendered a leadoff double to pinch hitter Stan Potvin, but pitched around it. 3-2 Raccoons. Workman 2-4, 2B; Wally Gaston had his seventh win in relief this season!

In what I hoped to be the signal for his 4-31 (and 0-16) slump to end, Daniel Hall socked a 2-piece in the first inning the next day. Like the day before, the Raccoons pitcher, Ruíz in this case, made a horrible play for an infield single to Cruz, who was then driven in on a home run by Jerome Ramsay. In the same inning. Game tied, 2-2. The Stars lost their starter Sergio Esparraguera to injury in the second, and the Raccoons scored two again off Hidekazu Oyama, including a long RBI double by pitcher Vicente Ruíz. They added two more in the third, 6-2, but with the Stars as opponents, and on Starturf, and with Vicente Ruíz on the mound, no lead was safe. Ruíz believed in the words “And thou shalt not taketh more than thou giveth” and everybody knew it. But great catches from Dawson in the fourth and Hall in the fifth prevented damage and Ruíz had another good 2.1 innings after that. The Raccoons took advantage of an overwhelmed bullpen that had to cover 7.2 innings and couldn’t, at least not efficiently. It became a major bashing, 12-2 Raccoons, with a 3-run homer by Cam Green with two down in the ninth. Green 2-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Dawson 3-6, 3 2B (ties a Raccoons record); Workman 3-6, 2B; Sanchez 2-5, 2B, RBI; Walker 2-5, 2 RBI; Thompson 3-5; Ruíz 7.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K and 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI;

Carlos Moran made another start as place holder in the last game. He gave up a run in the third, while the Raccoons so far had been harmless against K-King Kiyohira Sasaki. Green singled in the fourth with one out. Hall drew a walk, which brought up Dawson with two up and one down. He grounded to third, where 3B Jose Delgado made a Cam Green error that exploded the whole inning: he threw the ball way past first base, the tying run scored, and Hall and Dawson were in scoring position. The Coons drove in three more in the inning, three unearned runs in total, for a 4-1 lead. But this was Moran pitching. Pancho Pacheco homered in the fourth, and the Moran-Sanchez combo plated a run in the fifth with a wild pitch and a thrown away attempt to nail a stealer. Moran ended the sixth with a strikeout to Sasaki, who would have gotten the boot for a pinch hitter had the Stars still had a pen remaining after the last game. So, the 4-3 lead remained after six. But we couldn’t get Sasaki out either, who went deep into the game and didn’t give the Raccoons a chance at another run. Sasaki went eight, and the Stars threw in the remains of their pen to get through the ninth, three pitchers for three batters. Grant West again let Stan Potvin on base to start the bottom 9th, this time with a bad throw to Workman, but pitched around it again. 4-3 Raccoons, swept those evil Dallasians who denied us the World Series last year! Banda 2-4; we had six hits in total – without that error by Delgado we would have lost…

In other news

June 12 – OCT SP Shayne Nealon (7-2, 2.52 ERA) is out for the season with bone chips in his elbow. I will restrain myself from further comments about his ERA.
June 12 – The Capitals send veteran reliever Jamel Teissier to Salem for 3B Jose Perez. Teissier has an 0.89 ERA in limited play time. Perez bats .319 in limited play time.
June 13 – DEN SP Wilson Martinez (10-1, 2.09 ERA) tosses a 3-hitter against the Canadiens, as the Gold Sox win 8-0.
June 13 – LVA CF Claudio Garcia (.300, 1 HR, 30 RBI) goes down to a shoulder injury for three weeks.
June 13 – SAL 1B Jorge Padilla (.337, 1 HR, 22 RBI) will be out for a month with a broken foot.

Complaints and stuff

Most awful week ever. I have no words for that kind of slump. Going 1-10 with zero offense. That’s how to finish not-first.

They ended it in style though, against the Stars, although the question has to be asked: would a playoff team go 1-10 with zero offense? I don’t think so.

Something will have to be done about Jayson Bowling and Spencer Dicks, too. Daniel Hall batted almost zero throughout the last two weeks, too, unfortunately. He still ties the home run race with Chris Lynch, but his average is now 38 points off from the leader Jeremiah Carrell.

A few problems contribute to the mediocre (although it’s been mostly quite good for the last two weeks or so) pitching. It’s defense. Neither Sanchez nor Dicks get stealers out, and their defensive efficiency is down from ’83. The same is true for our regular shortstop Steve Walker. He had a +2.3 ZR in ’83, but +1.3 ZR this year. He had eight errors in all of ’83 at short, but already five this year. Cam Green has a better ZR and EFF this year, but has already 50% more errors than in all of last year! Matt Workman is also one of the error sinks for us, and it has not gotten better. He has never even been close to a neutral ZR or EFF, but his worst seasons were ’82 and ’83 actually. All guys available for 2B show values below their ’83 performances. Rigsby is worst with a -0.7 ZR, .990 EFF at 2B. That creates a huge hole on the right side, but Thompson ain’t much better and we can’t play Bowling, who’s batting .110 …

The outfielders perform very well so far, with Mark Dawson posting better defensive stats in rightfield than last year, and Daniel Hall’s are through the ceiling, he has a +8.6 ZR (was +3.2) and 1.109 EFF!! This looks like a career season all around for him.

So, my observations from managing the games were correct, yet not described in detail yet. The infield is killing us defensively this season. (these paragraphs were written after the Canadiens swept us, numbers changed slightly since then, but not significantly)

Carlos Gonzalez went 7.1 scoreless with a W the day we lost the second time to Vancouver, then added 8.1 innings of 2-run ball in his next start, both times K’ing 11. He’s now 5-7 with a 1.99 ERA. I’m tempted to do it, but I also have to account for the next step: Logan Evans’ return, which will not leave a spot in the rotation for Gonzalez. Evans’ recovery from torn thumb ligaments has gone a tad quicker than anticipated and he will be able to start his rehab assignment in the next three days.

Next: draft, plus home series against Boston, then road week: Indy, Tijuana. We will end the month with a tough home stand against Las Vegas and Vancouver.