Raccoons (25-18) @ Bayhawks (20-23)
Tetsu Osanai’s RBI double started the scoring in a 3-run first for the Raccoons, before we sent out Scott Wade (27.00 ERA, 4.00 WHIP). A terrible throwing error by Dadswell on a steal plated a run from third in the second inning, and the Bayhawks added one on Wade in the third. Still 3-2, the game was interrupted for rain for 20 minutes in the sixth, when the Coons had two on and the #8 hitter, Paul Blake, at the plate. Blake eventually continued from the 2-2 count to work a walk, loading the bags with nobody out and Wade up, for whom the rain ended the day now, especially in this big RBI situation. Mark Dawson pinch hit for him on his off day, and although the flyer was caught by CF Dave Burton, he added a run. The inning then fizzled out. 2B Tom Taylor homered off Chris Powell in the seventh to make it a 1-run game again. Cunningham and West finished the game, but West had a close encounter in the bottom 9th with two down and a runner on second, when Alberto Villanueva went into the gap and Ricardo Gonzalez made a heck of a catch to save his save, making him the player of the game. 4-3 Raccoons. R. Gonzalez 3-3, RBI; Scott Wade lowered his ERA to a flat 9, hurray!
The Canadiens were lazy that Monday, creating a tie for first, but the Canadiens had two games in hand, 25-17 to the Coons’ 26-18.
The Bayhawks brought their own double-digit ERA starter for game 2, Jorge Vazques, 0-3 with a 10.26 mark. In five starts, he had covered all of 16.2 innings. He combined it all, bad command, bad stuff, and bad fielding, which allowed the Coons to saddle him with five in the second inning. Vazques was gone after three. Which leaves us to discuss Logan Evans, whose own command was pretty bad as well. On the other hand he stepped into the box three times and hit safely three times, an RBI single, a double, and a sac bunt that was so good, he beat out the throw. The latter came in the top 5th and loaded the bases in time for hits by Sanchez and Thompson and the Coons upped to 9-1 in the inning. Evans gave away two of those four runs in a 3-XBH bottom 5th and almost got himself yanked despite a huge lead. He then managed to pitch a quick sixth, before exiting. The Coons added single runs each inning to get to 12-3 after the top 8th – a 9-run lead, the danger zone for this team. But Bentley made a great relief effort in covering the last few games and the Coons added some more in a 15-3 rout of the Bayhawks! Sanchez 4-4, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Thompson 2-4, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Flores 4-6, 4 RBI; Osanai 2-6, 2B, 2 RBI; Dawson 4-6, 2B; Walker 3-5, 2 RBI; Weber 2-5, 2 RBI; Bentley 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, SV (1);
Ruíz allowed a run in the first inning in what started out very wobbly. Osanai’s 2-bomb in the third turned the game and extended the bulky Japanese’s hitting streak to 16 games. That homer came with two down and was his 11th of the season. He added another 2-out RBI with a single in the fifth inning. Osanai drove in ANOTHER run in the seventh, but that came with one out, how lame. Ruíz was dominant through seven, but then put two on in the eighth, which scored against Shaw. Gaston and West came in to complete the sweep with a 5-3 win. Barrios 2-5, 2B; Walker 3-5; Osanai 3-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; R. Gonzalez 2-4;
The Canadiens had dropped one against Las Vegas to leave us in sole position of first place, but they made up half a game on our following off day to get the gap to half a game again.
Raccoons (28-18) @ Falcons (21-26)
The Falcons had problems scoring runs, but had a semi-capable rotation around veterans Joe Ellis and Billy Robinson, the latter of which had gotten a few beating already.
The Furballs faced Robinson and his 5.47 ERA first. But as things unfolded so often with this team, they found no way to hurt him. They took a 1-0 lead in the top 4th, but the Falcons scored five on two homers off Saito by the fifth. Three singles loaded the bags with Furballs in the top 6th, bringing up Ricardo Gonzalez. He hit an infield single to not only score a run, but bring his average over .200. The Coons got two more in and chased Robinson, now trailing 5-4. Powell entered in the bottom 6th, surrendered a 1-out home run to David Hicks (his second of the day) and then hit Gary Helton with a pitch. Helton stormed the mound and swung at Powell and the benches emptied. Both were ejected. The pens did great jobs on both sides – but that meant the Raccoons lost, 6-4. Sanchez 2-5, RBI; Blake (PH) 1-1; Osanai 2-4; Weber 3-4, 2B, RBI;
Christopher Powell was handed a 4-game suspension. Osanai’s 2-hit day meant he was now at .359 with 11 HR and 42 RBI – which was good enough by .005, 1 HR, and 6 RBI for the triple crown. Four more months to go.
Chad Ray (1-4, 6.06 ERA) took the ball for the Falcons in the middle game and no-hit the Raccoons through three. It took Tetsu Osanai (as so often in the last weeks) to produce some offense, in the form of a solo home run in the top 4th. A bloop single off the bat of Jonah Frank tied the game right back up, though, scoring Teo Colón from second. Carlos Gonzalez helped himself with a sac fly in the top 5th, 2-1 Coons. In the sixth, Walker sacrificed in a run, which chased Ray for the Falcons. The Coons chewed up the Falcons pen in the seventh, starting with a 2-out, 2-run double by Mark Dawson. They scored three there, and then three more in the ninth, while Gonzalez went the distance. In fact, all nine starters went the distance for the Coons in a 9-1 win. Dawson 2-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell 3-5, 2 RBI; C. Gonzalez 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (7-2);
It was the end of May. The Raccoons took the same place in both runs scored and runs against among the CL teams. That alone was not new. They had been last or close to it plenty of times in both categories. But they were actually THIRD in both categories with 235-190 runs scored/against. They were scoring almost 4.9 R/G! Who paced it? Tet-SUUUUU! More below.
We sent Paul Blake, batting .200 in 55 AB, to AAA and recalled Bill Stevens, who had been hitting .311 in AAA. Maybe he was better dialed in now. In addition to that, Mike Shaw went back to the minors, but to AAA. He had pitched 2.1 scoreless innings for the Raccoons. Orlando Lantán came up as sixth infielder again to restore the 13:12 players
itchers ratio I liked much better than the 12:13 we had rode the last week.
Scott Wade faced the guy with the impossible name, Bastyao Caixinha, who was 5-1 with a 3.32 ERA, in the rubber game. I will just call that guy Cash from now on. Both teams scored one run in the first inning, where Wade was so wobbly I already saw a blowout coming our way. Sanchez and Dawson both homered off Cash in the fifth to give Wade a lead. Wade was more solid after his early struggles and held the 3-1 lead through seven. Cash went back out to face Osanai to lead off the top 8th and while he got to him, Flores then doubled. The Falcons still left him in, maybe a consequence of their extended bullpen usage the day before. Walker was walked, and Stevens pinch walked for bases loaded. Thompson pinch hit for a force out at home, but Lantán then had a pinch hit RBI single in Wade’s spot with two out. We already had Grant West warming up with a 4-1 lead in the top 9th, two on, but two out. Steve Walker grounded to left, but the throw dipped off the end of Antonio Esquivel’s glove at first and out of play for an unearned run. West came in regardless in a 6-1 game, and continued a strange trend of giving up runs in non-save situations, falling to a leadoff triple by Colón. The Raccoons still won, 6-2. Barrios 2-5; Flores 2-5, 2B, RBI; Stevens (PH) 1-1, BB, RBI; Lantán (PH) 1-1, RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, W (2-0);
The Canadiens had been swept by the Condors – the Coons took a 2.5 game lead.
Raccoons (30-19) @ Knights (25-24)
The Knights had some pitching problems, properly illustrated by their 5-star ace Carlos Asquabal and his 5.69 ERA. Asquabal gave up a run in the first, but then struck out five of the next six Coons that dared to step in to the box. The Knights tied it off Logan Evans in the third. In the top 4th, Osanai stroked a single to left and with that completed a 20-game hitting streak! Down 2-1, the Coons then left the bags loaded in the seventh. Evans just couldn’t win games this season, a common plague for #1 seeds in the team’s rotation the last few years. Steve Wall’s 2-run triple in the bottom 7th blew the game open. Barrios had a hit to lead off the top 8th, but from there, the Furballs were sat down in order. 4-1 Knights. Barrios 3-4; Weber (PH) 1-1;
Game 2. The first was almost over for the Coons, when Dawson drew a 2-out walk. Osanai and Flores then added hits and the Coons ended up scoring three early on. Armando Sanchez made a good catch in the bottom 1st, then nailed a runner from third to end the inning before any damage could end up on the scoreboard. Sanchez then blew the game in the bottom 3rd, dropping a harmless flyer from pitcher Xavier Mayes. Next, Vicente Ruíz couldn’t come up with Jeremiah Carrell’s grounder and then the balls started flying and the Knights scored four in the inning. Ruíz was wrecked further and surrendered seven runs on the day, while Sanchez left in the fifth with a mysterious injury. Moran was also hit around late and the Raccoons lost another one, 9-5. Dawson 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-5; Stevens 2-4, 2 RBI;
Game 3, time to salvage one. Osanai took keep of many issues with a first inning 2-bomb, scoring Thompson, who had doubled. The next time Osanai faced Pedro Romero on the mound – home run to center, 3-0 in the third. Tom McDonald homered off Kisho Saito for the Knights’ first hit in the bottom 4th. When Osanai came up again, the Atlanta fans were not feeling well, but this time he accepted a walk. Top 6th, leadoff double by Lucero, who was hitting .156 at this point. Saito failed to bunt twice, then was told to hit and grounded to finally move Lucero over. Barrios’ grounder was right to third and Lucero was forced to stay put. Thompson then grounded right to first, but behind the bag. 1B Fred Rodgers shuffled the ball to Romero, and runner, pitcher, and ball arrived all at the same time. Everybody looks to the umpire, and he calls him SAFE! Thompson drives in the run. Saito left after seven, still 4-1 ahead. Cunningham struck out the side around two singles to sluggers Michael Root and McDonald. West saved it, 4-1 Coons. Thompson 2-5, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Walker 2-3, BB, 2B; Stevens 2-3, BB; Saito 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, W (5-4) and 1-3;
Now, the Canadiens had played – and swept – the Bayhawks and the gap was oh so close again.
Armando Sanchez sprained his ankle and went to the DL. He could well miss the rest of the month here.
In other news
May 28 – Veteran Miguel Sanchez (5-1, 3.04) 4-hits the Blue Sox as the Warriors romp to a 9-0 victory. Along the way, Sanchez chills Antonio Rodriguez’ 26-game hitting streak.
June 1 – Pittsburgh’s Ricardo Torres (5-3, 2.47 ERA) shuts out the Pacifics with a 3-hitter, taking the 8-0 win.
June 4 – Three days later, another strong shutout by a Miners hurler: Leland Lewis 2-hits the Gold Sox in a 5-0 victory, improving his season stats to 7-1 with a 2.55 ERA.
Complaints and stuff
MR David Jones signed a $120k contract for next year. I wanted more years to buy out his arbitration eligibility, but he didn’t bite. This contract saves me about $3.50 compared to his arbitration estimate for this fall.
Tetsu Osanai won CL Hitter of the Month honors for May 1986, going an astonishing .404 with 8 HR and 29 RBI. He also was Player of the Week ending May 31 (making it back-to-back weeks of dominance) going 13-28 with two dingers and 10 RBI’s. His .367 average for the season is only five points below what he batted for the Canadiens in the first half last year. I will now shut my pie hole about him being merely a .315 hitter for the Raccoons.
Remember the Osanai trade? We sent Matt Workman and two prospects. Workman is shredding AAA pitching, but doesn’t get called up. The prospects are still that, prospects, performing abysmally in the lower ranks. I bet people are chewing themselves up some 300 miles to the north from here.
With Sanchez out for the month, our outfield looks a bit scarce there. Dawson could find himself playing left or right frequently again, which would also get the other four more or less impressing infielders into play. Particularly strange is Winston Thompson’s H/BB/K ratio. He’s not hitting anything, and still is on base a lot. Compare for example to Mark Dawson. Dimian Barrios should be leadoff batter with Sanchez out, no matter what was going on otherwise.
Next: one more road series in Boston. Until the draft, we will then have a home week against New York and Sacramento.