[Westheim]

We have another string of right-handed starters opposing us for this homestand. This puts Dani Perez in a dangerous spot. A one-position righty struggling with the bat, and with options …

Raccoons (35-37) vs. Bayhawks (31-41)

We skipped back to Carlos Gonzalez to start the series thanks to an off day. Venegas had not done much in his last few starts. The Bayhawks sent out Chris O’Keefe (1-0, 8.56 ERA), who was handed a 2-0 lead fabricated by the Bayhawks offense, Gonzalez, and Sam Dadswell in about equal parts in the top 1st. With the bases loaded in the bottom 1st (three walks by O’Keefe), Mark Dawson hobbled a 3-1 pitch to short for an inning-ending double play. Gonzalez’ day lasted only into the third inning, when the heavens came down for a delay of more than one hour. The Bayhawks added six runs in the fifth, five on Gaston, the latter three of which were given up by Ed King with a Jack Jackson grand slam. I cried the rest of the way in the 11-3 nightmare, in which the Raccoons didn’t score until the ninth, a 3-run homer by Dadswell. Dawson 2-4; Martinez (PH) 1-1; Dumont (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Ed King left the game with a girly-girl injury again, this time a finger blister. Venegas pitched the last two innings in the game (still better than rotting on the bench), but surrendered three runs. Both him and Gonzalez will be culled at the deadline.

In fact, we made the following move right now: Carlos Gonzalez was demoted to AAA for Jason Turner to come up. He was 9-2 with a 3.38 ERA in AAA ball, and deemed ready. Turner would either start the last game in this series or the first against the Falcons.

We also demoted Wally Gaston (6.43 ERA), who waived his 10/5 rights, to bring back Juan Martinez.

Game 2, Logan Evans starting. The walk machine was on, and Evans spent his whole outing behind in the count, surrendering four runs (three earned) over 5.2 innings. The Raccoons left one or two runners in scoring position or grounded into killing double plays in four of the first five innings, and in six overall in the game. They accordingly went down, 6-2, again. Johnston 2-5, 2B, RBI; J. Sanchez 3-4; Dadswell 2-4;

Throwing a stop on the Bayhawks with Kisho Saito failed early on, too. Four hits in the first two innings, yet scoreless, were followed by a 3-run third with a homer to Cesar Cruz and a 2-out error by Jose Sanchez that went on to cost two runs. Striking out eight didn’t help him a bit, he was crushed again in the seventh inning. Armando Sanchez threw out a runner at the plate to keep the score at 4-0 in that inning. Fans left when the Bayhawks added three on Jason Bentley, who ended the seventh, but had all four batters he faced in the eighth reach base, including three walks, as they had given up on these 1988 Raccoons. They lost 7-2, the only runs stemming from a Mark Dawson homer in the eighth. Osanai 2-3, BB; J. Sanchez 2-4;

That’s 24 runs against a last-place team. 13 were against starting pitching in 16.1 innings. 11 came against the bullpen in 10.2 innings.

They scored seven. In 27 innings.

Raccoons (35-40) vs. Falcons (39-35)

Now for a team that actually has a winning record.

Jason Turner made his major league debut for a team that was in full disintegration mode in the opener of this series. It was an uncelebratory debut, the ballpark was half empty, and I wasn’t blaming Monday night for it. Osanai’s homer in the bottom 2nd pulled him even with Dawson for the team lead with 13, and gave Turner a 1-0 lead, but the Falcons jumped on him in the third with three runs, and was broken for good in the sixth. His line read a sad 5.2 IP, 10 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, and he took the loss despite batting for an RBI double in his first big league AB. The Falcons won, 5-3, and the Raccoons were 5-hit. Dumont (PH) 1-1;

The Raccoons are 1-9 again for their last ten games.

A leadoff jack by Armando Sanchez had the Raccoons sniff the smell of leading for half an inning, before Scott Wade was rolled up for two in the second. Charlotte starter Joe Ellis was out of control for a while and the Raccoons scored three in the bottom 2nd, but left the bases loaded. After the early trouble, Scott Wade settled in and went eight innings with little problems, but also without great stuff, and the defense had to make a few nice plays behind him. The Coons missed a chance to break it up in the bottom 7th, leaving runners on the corners, and did the same in the eighth. Grant West came in with the 4-2 lead, having pitched in the losing effort the day before. He punched out two in a perfect inning. 4-2 Raccoons. A. Sanchez 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Thompson 0-1, 4 BB; Dawson 2-5; Osanai 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Dumont (PH) 1-1; Wade 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (8-3) and 1-3;

One more at home before hitting the road, which at least improves things a bit: if the home team is actually *winning* people don’t throw their half-eaten hot dogs at your rightfielder.

Venegas went out for the last goodbye, was shelled for three early, and had his ticket to St. Petersburg already booked by phone. The Coons had the bags loaded against young phenom Ricardo Medina (4-5, 2.20 ERA; how record and ERA could fit together was also part of the phenom) in the bottom 2nd with no outs. All runners scored on a wild pitch and two groundouts to second base. An error by Osanai got the Falcons started in the third, but Venegas contributed most heavily to the nightmare. Bases loaded with one out, he walked a run in, and after a foul popout to Osanai, he walked Medina for another run. That was it for him, his suitcase was already packed. Dirk Campbell got the final out to keep the score 5-3 Falcons. Then there was the Daniel Hall story. Since his 20-game hitting streak he was performing as well as a 220 pound bag of molded apples. He left two on in the third. Winston Thompson’s RBI single made it a 5-4 game in the fifth and Hall came up with two on and two out. He grounded out very poorly. Bottom 8th. The team trailed 7-4, Osanai drew a leadoff walk, and Hall was up. Armando Davala drilled him to safe Hall from another embarrassment. Sam Dadswell reached on an infield single. Nobody out, go-ahead run coming to the plate, but Glenn Johnston had gone 0-3 in the game and was matched by the lefty Davala. But I had a hinch that he would to great things. It became an RBI groundout. I have to analyze my hinches more thoroughly. Perez made another out before Jose Sanchez pinch hit for Juan Martinez. Sanchez singled into short left aided by poor defense. 7-6, two on, two out for Armando Sanchez. He grounded to Emmanuele Bedeschi at third for the final out. Cunningham pitched a scoreless ninth and Thompson reached on an error to start the bottom 9th. Tying run at the plate, Dawson, Osanai, Hall up. But wait, Hall never came up. Dawson grounded into a double play, and Osanai flew out harmlessly. 7-6 Falcons. Osanai 3-4, BB; Dadswell 2-3, BB; J. Sanchez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Campbell 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; J. Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

In other news

June 23 – LAP SS Mike McCain (.283, 2 HR, 30 RBI) suffered a broken hand and will be out until August.
June 24 – MIL 1B Isto Grönholm (.316, 10 HR, 40 RBI) gets his hitting streak to 20 games with a 4th inning single against the Knights in a 7-6 loss.
June 27 – Grönholm’s hitting streak ends at 22 games in a 4-3 loss to Oklahoma.

Complaints and stuff

Just as the fans have given up on this team, everybody should. They suck. THEY SUCK. It HAS to be spelt in capital letters, because they SUCK.

We will now be looking for trades for all players in the mid-to-end phase of their career. I’m still debating with myself whether there should be a few exceptions.

Oh, yeah. Wally Gaston has 2.1 scoreless innings in AAA. Carlos Gonzalez’ first start: 5.2 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 4 BB, 4 K;