Quote:
Originally Posted by blazertaz13
Well, since I live near Portland, I can back this up. It was a true until about 7 years ago, then things went south. I believe they have had only two trips in the past seven seasons.  |
Well, I questioned Wikipedia about stuff inside and outside of Portland. I don't know a single thing about professional basketball anyplace (although actually the district I live in actually has *two* teams in the top level German league, and that district only ranks top in emptiness, loneliness, and patheticness...)
I heard, in basketball the scores tend to be a bit higher than in baseball. Is that actually true?
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On the field, we had three more series before the All Star Game, including consecutive 4-sets on the East Coast, and then three at home against the #1 in our division. Yay, looking forward…
Raccoons (36-42) @ Crusaders (31-46)
Game 1. Logan Evans and Francisco Vidrio were two lefties just over 3.50 in ERA, but they performed on opposite ends of the scale. Evans settled in after a shaky (and almost catastrophic) first inning, while Vidrio was bombed for six runs through four. Evans held the 6-1 lead through seven innings, going out with a K to Raúl Castillo. Cunningham and Jones both were shaky in their innings late in the game, but the Crusaders came up short both times. 6-1 Raccoons. Hall 3-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-4, 2B, RBI; Evans 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-7);
Kisho Saito went in game 2. While the Raccoons blew all their chances to score early, Saito was perfect into the fourth, until Mark Dawson’s error put the first Crusader on. Saito then walked two straight and finally surrendered a long 2-run single to left. Mark Dawson momentarily tied it with a huge home run in the fifth, but Saito fell behind again the same inning after a wild pitch moved a runner to third and he scored on a the next single. In the top 6th, Sergio Martinez hit a leadoff double and with one out, Kisho Saito hit an infield single. Thompson tied the game with a 2-out single, but they left two more on, and Saito fell behind yet again in the bottom 6th. The Crusaders dropped good chances to score against the bullpen, while the Raccoons didn’t get anybody up in the late innings. 4-3 Crusaders. Thompson 2-5, RBI; Dawson 3-4, 2 RBI; S. Martinez 2-4, 2 2B;
David Vinson had played the last two games, had not even remotely made contact, and was demoted to AAA, batting .190 now. Andy Reed was called up for a last hurrah.
Jason Turner made his second start in the third game, pitching behind in the count almost all the time. For that, he evaded heavy damage a long time. The Raccoons first put a 4-spot (three earned) on Travis Newton in the third, and led 5-0 after four. The Crusaders scored one run in the sixth on equal parts uncontrolled tossing and Dadswell being unable to stop merely decent base stealer Pedro Villa from going from second to third (which he did for the second time in the series). That was all the Crusaders put on Turner, despite being walked five times. The bullpen held up and the Coons added two in the ninth for a 7-1 win. Thompson 2-5; Osanai 2-3, RBI; Perez 1-2, RBI;
Game 4 was Andy Reed’s first in the Bigs since 1985, and he started off by working hard to break a 1-0 lead to Scott Wade in the bottom 2nd, throwing wildly for an error on a steal attempt. Wade was able to wiggle through the mess still ahead. Through seven innings, the Raccoons had merely two hits against Yasuhiko Eida, and Wade did what he could. Great help on defense came from Glenn Johnston, Daniel Hall, and Mark Dawson, who if not hitting, at least all made great inning-ending plays with men in scoring position. Eida finally came apart in the eighth. Kelly Weber singled to start the inning, but with two out was still only on second. Daniel Hall drove him in with a single, and the Coons soon loaded the bags drawing walks. They scored two, leaving the bags full. Wade also ran out of steam, unable to get the final out in the eighth. One run scored and the tying run came to the plate. Ed King came in to face the lefty Edward Snyder. A passed ball on Reed didn’t make things easier. The next pitch was wild, the runner scored, and then Snyder doubled. I had enough, King and Reed were both removed from the game. Too late. Cunningham gave up the game-tying double to Diego Rodriguez. One out in the top 9th, two walks and a single filled the bags with Brownshirts. Winston Thompson, the greatest walker of them all, came up. He walked, and Osanai added a 2-out 3-run double. 7-3 Raccoons, a win tainted by inability. Thompson 0-2, 3 BB, RBI; Weber 3-4, RBI; Wade 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K;
The last at-bat heroic by Osanai just in time extended a blossoming hitting streak to 13 games.
Raccoons (39-43) @ Titans (39-44)
Alejandro Venegas and Bob MacGruder went up in the opener, two pitchers with 5+ ERA’s, who to everybody’s surprise traded zeroes for a while. The Raccoons squeezed in one run on a sac fly by Dawson in the top 4th, then had two on with Venegas batting and nobody out in the fifth. Venegas bunted up the left foul line, and 3B Kelly Carpenter blew the play, everybody was safe. Thompson came through with a 2-run double and Jose Sanchez scored another run with a groundout, 4-0. Of course, Venegas collapsed the instant he came out for the bottom 5th, tumbled into the sixth, but was removed there. Hall made a monster play to collect the final out there, holding on to a 4-3 lead. Dawson upped it with a solo shot in the seventh, and the bullpen almost blew the 5-3 lead in the bottom 8th. Cunningham held on to it with two runners in scoring position already. West pitched a perfect ninth. 5-3 Raccoons. Thompson 2-4, 2B, BB, 2 RBI; Hall 2-5; Johnston 2-4; Dadswell 2-4, 2B;
Osanai’s hitting streak ended here, being blanked out, 0-4.
In Jorge Valdes (12-1, 2.11 ERA) the Raccoons would have a tough nut to crack in the second game. Logan Evans held the game at 1-1 through four, and Valdes was removed in the fifth due to viciously ill control elevating his pitch count quickly. Four walks and two nicked batsmen were included in the package. Evans contributed equally well at the plate, going 3-3, including driving in two runs in the fifth. In the bottom 5th, he left with an injury. Shock. Juan Martinez and Bentley went long ways in relief and held on to a 6-2 win, but an injury to Logan Evans would foil our plans in plenty of ways. Osanai 4-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Perez 2-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Evans 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K and 3-3, 2B, 2 RBI; J. Martinez 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0); Bentley 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;
Dawson had gotten rest in the last game, Hall got in the next. Armando Sanchez was being benched infrequently right now for a hitting slump. But we had those promising youngsters in the outfield, and they needed space to play.
Opposing the Coons in game 3 was Charles Young, who was about as erratic as back in 1985, when we chased him away. He walked Thompson and Johnston to start the game. Dawson singled to left. Then they popped up until the inning was over. Agony. They failed to hit Young for like forever and with Kisho Saito as good as one can be, the game remained scoreless until the sixth, when the Titans chewed up Saito with three straight 2-out singles. Saito was pinch-hit for to start the eighth. Weber singled to right, and Thompson drew a walk to put pressure on Young. Then they ****ed up – AGAIN. They left two on in the eighth and two on in the ninth and ended up shut out by no other crapshoot pitcher than Charles Young. Unbelievable. 1-0 Titans. Saito 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, L (6-9);
I may or may not have thrown a little tantrum there.
Game 4. Get it over with and back to the nice coast. Boston sported another ex-Coon, Kinji Kan, now 36 and with a shocking 6.67 ERA. Glenn Johnston used the opportunity to smash his first big league home run in the first inning, giving Jason Turner an early 2-0 lead. The bottom 1st became an instant nightmare. The Titans got their runs back and hit Turner every which way they pleased, socking him for six runs (two homers) in three innings. Still, he did not lose the game, since the Coons came back against Kan and a game-tying 2-out 2-run single by Dadswell knocked out Kan and tied the game at six in the fifth. David Jones covered FOUR innings in relief against a predominantly lefty lineup, needing only 42 pitches, and not allowing any damage. Tim Moss was brought in by the Titans in the eighth, and of course pitched in and out of trouble unharmed. Cunningham came in the bottom 8th and was socked off the mound right away. Closer Vicente Rubio walked the bases loaded in the top 9th. Of course they fell one run short and left the bases loaded. 9-8 Titans. Johnston 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-3, 2 BB; Dadswell 2-4, 3 RBI; Dumont (PH) 1-1, RBI; Jones 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;
Ugly.
More ugly below.
In other news
July 1 – The Indians will have to make do without middle infielder Angelo Duarte (.348, 3 HR, 32 RBI) for a while. The 26-year old is out with a strained oblique.
July 1 – SAL Vicente Torres (6-6, 3.81 ERA) 2-hits the Warriors in a 7-0 Wolves win.
Complaints and stuff
Tetsu Osanai was Player of the Week of the week ending July 2, going 12-26 with 1 HR and 6 RBI.
The latest news from the breakup front? Mark Dawson is vetoing trades. Gah. I was after Dallas infielder Matt Higgins, but can’t get the deal done without Dawson. Other talks are stalling, too. Nobody actually WANTS these suckers.
We also received an injury diagnosis for Logan Evans. Radial nerve compression. Season over.
Shoot me. $12.