[Westheim]

Rebels, Crusaders, and Loggers coming to town.

Raccoons (58-60) vs. Rebels (60-58)

The Rebels were a good defensive team with a well-rounded rotation, without a true ace, but with many #2 or #3 starters. All series between the two teams had resulted in sweeps so far, with the Rebels emerging triumphant in 1978 and 1981, and the Raccoons taking victory in 1986.

The Raccoons had never seen Richmond’s Roger Weaver before, normally not blessed with a great out pitch or so, but he was coming in 13-4 with a 3.20 ERA and thus was on par with Scott Wade, who was 10-4 with a 3.12 ERA. Up the middle, the Rebels boasted Scott Spivey and Teo Colón, former CL South players with a knack to skin Coons, and in center Troy Scott, a former Coon. The defense was good on the ground, but Mark Dawson circumvented it in the bottom 2nd with a solo homer to left. That was not enough offense, though. Fellow 3B Tokimasa Nakai tied the game with a solo shot off Wade in the fourth. A rare Mark Dawson triple was wasted in the bottom of the same inning when the Raccoons around him flailed in vain thrice. Wade then came apart in a 2-run sixth, and the Coons trailed 3-1. Despite pitchers getting credit for saves, one belonged to Colón in the bottom 9th. Osanai sent a quick grounder up the middle leading off the inning, which Colón JUST got and turned into an out at first. Behind him, Dawson homered again, but it was not enough. 3-2 Rebels. Dawson 3-4, 2 HR, 3B, 2 RBI; MacDonald 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Interestingly, Nakai could be a Coon now, having been offered in trades in July. But he was basically 3B-only, and inferior in ability to Dawson, so we could keep Dawson and soldier on just as well.

Ackerman in, game lost before it begins. Down 1-0, the Coons loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom 2nd. They failed to score, as Walker popped out and Ramirez precisely hit into a 6-4-3 killer. The Rebels left runners on in every inning and failed to knock out Ackerman, who scored the tying run in the third, and drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom 5th! As soon as he was leading, he was lit up, and Gabriel Torres hit a 2-run shot in the sixth to get the Rebels back to the top. That was already enough, that and the four double plays the Raccoons hit into. The Rebels won, 4-2.

Game 3 was about Big ‘Uns. Venegas surrendered a 2-piece to Manuel Doval in the first inning, which the Raccoons chewed on for a while. Dawson hit a solo shot (his third home run of the series) in the fourth to make it 2-1. In the sixth, Hall and Osanai homered back-to-back to turn the game. The Rebels switched to small ball against Venegas, who had struck out seven in the meantime, in the eighth inning, successfully. They put runners on the corners with one out, and Venegas was replaced with Juan Martinez to face the right-handed 2B Alberto Reyes, who sacrificed in the tying run. Gabriel Torres tatered another off Martinez in the ninth, it was over. 4-3 Rebels. Swept. Hall 2-4, HR, RBI;

The undescribable agony.

Raccoons (58-63) vs. Crusaders (46-75)

Carlos Gonzalez’ rehab start in AAA had been abysmal (3.1 IP, 7 R), but this was the way things went these days. He was still summoned to pitch to the last-place Crusaders. The Crusaders loaded the bags instantly in the first, but whiffed their way out of it, remaining scoreless. Gonzalez remained erratic, raced up his pitch count, and finally fell behind in the sixth, which he didn’t get out of. But the Raccoons weren’t going anywhere, anyway. Then the pen had it broken up. Mike Shaw faced four batters in the seventh, retired nobody, and was instantly sent to St. Petersburg. The one in Russia. Against Wally Gaston, the inning became a farce, and the Crusaders, inept as they were, scored six. The Raccoons lost, 7-0.

Wally Gaston was handed his papers and released the same night. This time forever.

All our lefty relievers were seeming to suffer from one or the other ailment. So it came that the Raccoons went with no left-handers in the pen besides Grant West for the moment. We called up Jason Bentley and Yasushi Suto, who had been acquired in a deal for catcher Mark Mitchell in 1985. Anybody remember Mitchell? I don’t. Suto is 24 and has no outstanding features whatsoever.

In addition to that, Daniel Dumont was demoted to AAA to make room for Yoshinobu Ishizaki, a comeback nobody was dying to see.

In the middle game, Kisho Saito went five scoreless before being removed in an attempt to generate offense. The Coons had been no-hit by Travis Newton into the fifth, until Osanai and Dawson had come up with singles. They ended up with the bases loaded and two out, and Saito next. Armando Sanchez struck out for Saito. The bullpen imploded with high precision in the seventh again and the Raccoons lost, 4-1. Saito 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Scott Wade didn’t fool anybody in game 3, starting the game with three straight singles and a run. The Coons were donated two runs in the bottom 2nd with an error by Lorenzo Gomez at short, but otherwise came up … short, unless for more misplays by New York. A grounder by Dadswell hobbled away from Seitaro Ine in the fourth, but was scored an infield hit, and the Coons squeezed out another run. If there was small ball, this was tiny- or dumb-luck-ball, and everything this bunch of suckers was capable of. The defense was still mostly okay and kept Wade in a 3-2 game for seven frames. Yasushi Suto made his big league debut in the top 8th, struck out two, and held on to give the game to Grant West. The closer was shaking a little bit, but struck out Ine to salvage at least the one game he could. 3-2 Hemiplegic Badgers. Osanai 2-4; Suto 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K (debut);

In other news

August 15 – VAN SP Carlos Lozano (7-10, 3.53 ERA) is discovered to have bone chips in his elbow and is out for the season.
August 16 – NAS SP Carlos Lopez (11-7, 2.70 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders to take a 9-0 shutout.
August 16 – Charlotte’s Manuel Movonda (8-10, 3.88 ERA) 3-hits the Stars in a 7-0 win.
August 17 – The Condors will be without CF Preston O’Day (.279, 7 HR, 44 RBI) down the stretch. The 24-yr old has a sprained ankle.
August 21 – The Condors also lose SP John Douglas (13-6, 3.22 ERA) to elbow inflammation for the rest of the season.

Complaints and stuff

One more series at home left, but screw it. We’re having like 80°F at 11pm here, and I don’t have any energy for this kind of crap.

Tetsu Osanai was named Player of the Week for the week in the previous update, going 12-20 with 1 HR and 9 RBI.

Later. Maybe.