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Westheim · 07-24-2013, 11:15 PM

Raccoons (9-9) @ Aces (11-8)

Ira Houston was blazing hot coming into this series, having collected about as many hits last week as the Coons had in total. Overall, the Aces were second in team AVG in the CL, but ranked mid-pack in runs. Death by a thousand needles apparently. This was also the first stint on a 13-game road trip leading to the east coast and back again.

The opener’s bottom 1st started with a leadoff home run by 3B Melvin Greene off Robert Sawyer. Way to go. The Aces took a 2-0 lead in the inning. The Furballs actually showed some sign of life in the third inning, which started with Higgins and Johnston drawing walks. A towering almost-homer, RBI double by Daniel Hall into deep right was the opening shot to a 4-run inning and a 4-2 lead, which nevertheless was not to live through the fourth, where it was blown up by more highly inefficient pitching by Sawyer. To that came inefficient offense, with the Raccoons having Osanai ground into a badly timed double play in the top 5th and left the tying run in Bobby Quinn on third base in the sixth. Top 7th, Johnston and Hall got on with no out. Osanai popped out to short. Xavier Mayes threw a wild pitch, and the tying runs were in scoring position, taking the double play away from Dawson, who then singled to left, but it was not long enough for Hall to score, and the tying run remained at third base. Willis Sims relieved Mayes, and his first pitch to Bobby Quinn was low and past catcher Didier Bourges. Hall scored and the game was tied, but the Raccoons left the go-ahead run on at third now. But, one run here or one run there, ultimately didn’t matter, as the Aces broke up the Raccoons bullpen, which had been supposed to be good, but sucked like everybody else, for good in the seventh. Five runs off a collection of relievers in the seventh, two home runs off Carrillo in the eighth. 14-6 Aces. Hall 3-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5, RBI; Quinn 2-4, 2B;

Game 2 was Kisho Saito’s start and he threw a beautiful stop on the romping Aces. Although his control was a tick off and he went to many full counts, he had a 1-hitter going through six. Unfortunately, the Coons didn’t get a hit until the fourth, when Daniel Hall singled, and were also 1-hit by Jou Hara through six innings. Hall also had the Coons’ second hit in the game, a 1-out single in the seventh. Osanai – double play. Bourges started the bottom 8th with a single off Saito, the second hit of the Aces that night. They moved him over with two outs. Saito was 2-2 on Melvin Greene, until the Ace shoved the ball through into left. 1-0 Aces. Hara remained in for the eighth. Salazar and Johnston had 2-out singles. Daniel Hall came up. Another bit of magic would help a ton here. Hara was 1-2 on Hall, when Dan The Man made contact and plonked a lazy flyer into shallow right field. Salazar flew home and the game was tied. Osanai grounded out, of course. The game went to extra innings, where Rick Evans struck out six Furballs in a row. Juan Martinez walked the first two Aces in the 12th, which cost the team eventually. 2-1 Aces. Salazar 2-4, BB; Hall 3-5, RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K; Lagarde 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

What a beautifully horrible grind this was.

And it continued in game 3, where the Raccoons loaded the bases with Osanai (single), Dawson (double), and Dumont (walk) to start the second innings, then didn’t score with Smith (lined to short), Reader (K), and Wade (grounded to short). Wade was good for 2.2 innings, then walked three in a row and gave up a grand slam to Mauro Granados. What a wonderful joy it was to deal with this pack. Wade had no problems going through six innings after that, but of course had to walk three before surrendering that god-damned home run. Mark Dawson hit a stray home run in the top 4th when it didn’t matter anymore. When Dawson was the tying run with one out in the top 8th in a 5-2 game, he struck out, then berated the umpire for an ejection. When Quinn pinch hit in the ninth with one out, and was the tying run in a 5-3 game (no ill-advised joy here, that run scored on a wild pitch), he grounded into a killing double play. 5-3 Aces. Dawson 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI;

It is hard to actually find civilized words for it.

Raccoons (9-12) @ Indians (15-7)

The Raccoons were a team that wasn’t hitting, wasn’t pitching, wasn’t fielding, and now met a team again, that was hitting, that was pitching, that was fielding, and that had already drawn them a nose this season. Some radical changed were coming with the team on the way to the East.

There was hope for game 1 on Friday. The Raccoons were 3-0 in Friday games this season. Jason Turner started the game with three very strong innings of 1-hit ball before the Coons got their first scoring chance. Johnston had walked to start the top 4th, before Hall bounced a ball into right that somehow went through 2B Dave Dixon. RF Juan Robles tried to get Johnston at third base, but was way late and Hall moved up to second. Nobody out, Osanai stepped in and had another very poor out, a grounder to first that forced Johnston to hold. Johnston scored on a Dawson sac fly to left center that was not a sure thing to not getting thrown out either, and Hall was left on entirely. Turner loaded the bases in the bottom 4th, but struck out Jorge Ramirez to keep that flimsy 1-0 lead in one piece, and also stranded a runner on third in the fifth inning. He went seven shutout innings eventually. The Indians helped out the Raccoons with a run-scoring wild pitch in the sixth. Top 9th: runners on the corners with nobody out, Gonzalez K’ed, Quinn K’ed, Salazar grounded out. West came in to save the 2-0 game, surrendering a hit, but striking out two, bolstering a poor K rate so far this season. Hall 2-3, BB; Martin 2-3, BB; Turner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-2);

Apart from that stray homer by Dawson in the last game in Vegas, this has become a singles team. Which doesn’t help if you’re having seven hits a game (like here) and most time even less.

Neil Reece would have been on the list to get a call to the majors, batting .317 in AAA, but now has come down with an oblique strain (actually a few days ago already) and won’t be available until the end of the road trip. That saved us for another week on a decision on Bobby Quinn or Jeff Martin, but another Raccoon got the Go sign after game 1 here after going 0-3 in the game, 2-30 on the season and with below average defense at shortstop: Antonio Gonzalez. Elmer Hawley was promoted to the majors to make his debut, hitting .290 at AAA.

Hawley made his debut playing short that night in game 2. He had been a round 3 pick by the Buffaloes in 1985 and had come over in the trade that shipped Juan Ramirez to the Miners after the 1988 season.

In the sorry collection of Furballs that started game 2, Johnston batted leadoff with a .266 average, second highest in the lineup behind Hall’s .341 mark. In addition to no offense, Dixon homered off Steven Berry in the first inning, and Juan Carcamo added a 3-run home run in the second, and the Indians just KEPT dealing, knocking Berry out after 1.1 innings, seven runs in, and two men on. The defense was of no particular help, either. Now, the Raccoons got some fantastic relief from Ken Burnett, who retired all 14 Indians he faced, and that performance was entirely wasted. The Coons got three runs off Carlos Guillén in the middle innings, each time sparked by Daniel Hall doubles, but they had no way in their patheticness to come back from Berry’s blowup. 7-3 Indians. Hall 3-4, 2 2B; Osanai 3-4, 2B, RBI; Salazar (PH) 1-1; Burnett 4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Hawley went 0-4 in the game, made the final out, and had a grounder glance off his glove in that dreadful second inning. What a debut! A STAR IS BORN!

Game 3, as things were rapidly dissolving on the Willamette. Terry Reynolds walked four men in the first inning, which even for the Raccoons was enough to score exactly one run. Reynolds redeemed himself with a 2-out, 2-run single in the bottom 2nd against Sawyer, and the Indians made it 5-1 by the third, where Reynolds got hurt and left the game. Top 6th: Dawson and Dumont walked as the first two Raccoons up in the inning. Higgins grounded to the mound, but Tim Hess could not make any play. Bases loaded, nobody out, tying run in Leo Smith at the plate. Hess was gone and Jorge Mora in. Smith flew out to left, Dawson tagged and scored. Quinn pinch hit for Sawyer, grounded out, and Martin grounded out as well. Cameras caught the Raccoons manager banging his head frantically against the wall in the dugout. 5-3 Indians. The Raccoons had nine walks, but only four hits. Dumont 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Martinez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

In other news

April 23 – Dallas’ Andres Serna (.341, 1 HR, 11 RBI) gets his hitting streak to 25 games with a first inning single in a 2-1 win over Cincy.
April 24 – BOS Kinji Kan (3-1, 3.24 ERA) 2-hits the Condors in an 8-0 win of the Titans.
April 24 – CIN CF Robert Harris (.304, 4 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three to four weeks with a strained hamstring.
April 25 – WAS OF Clement Clark (.376, 1 HR, 10 RBI) gets two singles in a 9-2 loss of the Capitals to the Wolves, extending his hitting streak to 20 games.
April 28 – Clark’s hitting streak is chilled by the Blue Sox, who hold him 0-3 and end his streak at 21 games.
April 29 – The Gold Sox clean up amongst the Stars, beating them 9-3, and ending Andres Serna’s hitting parade at 29 games.

Complaints and stuff

I could use a hug or two.

The Raccoons have hit rock bottom in AVG, OBP, H in the Continental League and are 10th or 11th in SLG, OPS, R, XBH, and SB. They are 6th in HR, BB, and 3rd in K at the plate. The pitching staff continues to rank around mid pack.

Bobby Quinn has about six days before Neil Reece will come off the DL and will make a run for his roster spot. The following roster moves will be made on the way to Boston:

SP Robert Sawyer will be demoted to AAA, and in case of recalcitrant refusal, waived and designated for assignment; SP Dennis Fried will be called up, after going 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA and three shutouts in AAA.
INF/OF Justin Reader will be waived and designated for assignment, and 1B/3B Ben O’Morrissey called up, though only hitting .221 in AAA.

Next on the list will be Matt Higgins and well, Bobby Quinn. Relievers are also closely watched.

Yes, I’m having fun, stop asking.

No, please, talk to me, say something, I'm ... I'm ...

07-24-2013, 11:15 PM	#490
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,789	Raccoons (9-9) @ Aces (11-8) Ira Houston was blazing hot coming into this series, having collected about as many hits last week as the Coons had in total. Overall, the Aces were second in team AVG in the CL, but ranked mid-pack in runs. Death by a thousand needles apparently. This was also the first stint on a 13-game road trip leading to the east coast and back again. The opener’s bottom 1st started with a leadoff home run by 3B Melvin Greene off Robert Sawyer. Way to go. The Aces took a 2-0 lead in the inning. The Furballs actually showed some sign of life in the third inning, which started with Higgins and Johnston drawing walks. A towering almost-homer, RBI double by Daniel Hall into deep right was the opening shot to a 4-run inning and a 4-2 lead, which nevertheless was not to live through the fourth, where it was blown up by more highly inefficient pitching by Sawyer. To that came inefficient offense, with the Raccoons having Osanai ground into a badly timed double play in the top 5th and left the tying run in Bobby Quinn on third base in the sixth. Top 7th, Johnston and Hall got on with no out. Osanai popped out to short. Xavier Mayes threw a wild pitch, and the tying runs were in scoring position, taking the double play away from Dawson, who then singled to left, but it was not long enough for Hall to score, and the tying run remained at third base. Willis Sims relieved Mayes, and his first pitch to Bobby Quinn was low and past catcher Didier Bourges. Hall scored and the game was tied, but the Raccoons left the go-ahead run on at third now. But, one run here or one run there, ultimately didn’t matter, as the Aces broke up the Raccoons bullpen, which had been supposed to be good, but sucked like everybody else, for good in the seventh. Five runs off a collection of relievers in the seventh, two home runs off Carrillo in the eighth. 14-6 Aces. Hall 3-5, 2B, RBI; Dawson 2-5, RBI; Quinn 2-4, 2B; Game 2 was Kisho Saito’s start and he threw a beautiful stop on the romping Aces. Although his control was a tick off and he went to many full counts, he had a 1-hitter going through six. Unfortunately, the Coons didn’t get a hit until the fourth, when Daniel Hall singled, and were also 1-hit by Jou Hara through six innings. Hall also had the Coons’ second hit in the game, a 1-out single in the seventh. Osanai – double play. Bourges started the bottom 8th with a single off Saito, the second hit of the Aces that night. They moved him over with two outs. Saito was 2-2 on Melvin Greene, until the Ace shoved the ball through into left. 1-0 Aces. Hara remained in for the eighth. Salazar and Johnston had 2-out singles. Daniel Hall came up. Another bit of magic would help a ton here. Hara was 1-2 on Hall, when Dan The Man made contact and plonked a lazy flyer into shallow right field. Salazar flew home and the game was tied. Osanai grounded out, of course. The game went to extra innings, where Rick Evans struck out six Furballs in a row. Juan Martinez walked the first two Aces in the 12th, which cost the team eventually. 2-1 Aces. Salazar 2-4, BB; Hall 3-5, RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K; Lagarde 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; What a beautifully horrible grind this was. And it continued in game 3, where the Raccoons loaded the bases with Osanai (single), Dawson (double), and Dumont (walk) to start the second innings, then didn’t score with Smith (lined to short), Reader (K), and Wade (grounded to short). Wade was good for 2.2 innings, then walked three in a row and gave up a grand slam to Mauro Granados. What a wonderful joy it was to deal with this pack. Wade had no problems going through six innings after that, but of course had to walk three before surrendering that god-damned home run. Mark Dawson hit a stray home run in the top 4th when it didn’t matter anymore. When Dawson was the tying run with one out in the top 8th in a 5-2 game, he struck out, then berated the umpire for an ejection. When Quinn pinch hit in the ninth with one out, and was the tying run in a 5-3 game (no ill-advised joy here, that run scored on a wild pitch), he grounded into a killing double play. 5-3 Aces. Dawson 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; It is hard to actually find civilized words for it. Raccoons (9-12) @ Indians (15-7) The Raccoons were a team that wasn’t hitting, wasn’t pitching, wasn’t fielding, and now met a team again, that was hitting, that was pitching, that was fielding, and that had already drawn them a nose this season. Some radical changed were coming with the team on the way to the East. There was hope for game 1 on Friday. The Raccoons were 3-0 in Friday games this season. Jason Turner started the game with three very strong innings of 1-hit ball before the Coons got their first scoring chance. Johnston had walked to start the top 4th, before Hall bounced a ball into right that somehow went through 2B Dave Dixon. RF Juan Robles tried to get Johnston at third base, but was way late and Hall moved up to second. Nobody out, Osanai stepped in and had another very poor out, a grounder to first that forced Johnston to hold. Johnston scored on a Dawson sac fly to left center that was not a sure thing to not getting thrown out either, and Hall was left on entirely. Turner loaded the bases in the bottom 4th, but struck out Jorge Ramirez to keep that flimsy 1-0 lead in one piece, and also stranded a runner on third in the fifth inning. He went seven shutout innings eventually. The Indians helped out the Raccoons with a run-scoring wild pitch in the sixth. Top 9th: runners on the corners with nobody out, Gonzalez K’ed, Quinn K’ed, Salazar grounded out. West came in to save the 2-0 game, surrendering a hit, but striking out two, bolstering a poor K rate so far this season. Hall 2-3, BB; Martin 2-3, BB; Turner 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (2-2); Apart from that stray homer by Dawson in the last game in Vegas, this has become a singles team. Which doesn’t help if you’re having seven hits a game (like here) and most time even less. Neil Reece would have been on the list to get a call to the majors, batting .317 in AAA, but now has come down with an oblique strain (actually a few days ago already) and won’t be available until the end of the road trip. That saved us for another week on a decision on Bobby Quinn or Jeff Martin, but another Raccoon got the Go sign after game 1 here after going 0-3 in the game, 2-30 on the season and with below average defense at shortstop: Antonio Gonzalez. Elmer Hawley was promoted to the majors to make his debut, hitting .290 at AAA. Hawley made his debut playing short that night in game 2. He had been a round 3 pick by the Buffaloes in 1985 and had come over in the trade that shipped Juan Ramirez to the Miners after the 1988 season. In the sorry collection of Furballs that started game 2, Johnston batted leadoff with a .266 average, second highest in the lineup behind Hall’s .341 mark. In addition to no offense, Dixon homered off Steven Berry in the first inning, and Juan Carcamo added a 3-run home run in the second, and the Indians just KEPT dealing, knocking Berry out after 1.1 innings, seven runs in, and two men on. The defense was of no particular help, either. Now, the Raccoons got some fantastic relief from Ken Burnett, who retired all 14 Indians he faced, and that performance was entirely wasted. The Coons got three runs off Carlos Guillén in the middle innings, each time sparked by Daniel Hall doubles, but they had no way in their patheticness to come back from Berry’s blowup. 7-3 Indians. Hall 3-4, 2 2B; Osanai 3-4, 2B, RBI; Salazar (PH) 1-1; Burnett 4.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Hawley went 0-4 in the game, made the final out, and had a grounder glance off his glove in that dreadful second inning. What a debut! A STAR IS BORN! Game 3, as things were rapidly dissolving on the Willamette. Terry Reynolds walked four men in the first inning, which even for the Raccoons was enough to score exactly one run. Reynolds redeemed himself with a 2-out, 2-run single in the bottom 2nd against Sawyer, and the Indians made it 5-1 by the third, where Reynolds got hurt and left the game. Top 6th: Dawson and Dumont walked as the first two Raccoons up in the inning. Higgins grounded to the mound, but Tim Hess could not make any play. Bases loaded, nobody out, tying run in Leo Smith at the plate. Hess was gone and Jorge Mora in. Smith flew out to left, Dawson tagged and scored. Quinn pinch hit for Sawyer, grounded out, and Martin grounded out as well. Cameras caught the Raccoons manager banging his head frantically against the wall in the dugout. 5-3 Indians. The Raccoons had nine walks, but only four hits. Dumont 1-2, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Martinez 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; In other news April 23 – Dallas’ Andres Serna (.341, 1 HR, 11 RBI) gets his hitting streak to 25 games with a first inning single in a 2-1 win over Cincy. April 24 – BOS Kinji Kan (3-1, 3.24 ERA) 2-hits the Condors in an 8-0 win of the Titans. April 24 – CIN CF Robert Harris (.304, 4 HR, 10 RBI) will miss three to four weeks with a strained hamstring. April 25 – WAS OF Clement Clark (.376, 1 HR, 10 RBI) gets two singles in a 9-2 loss of the Capitals to the Wolves, extending his hitting streak to 20 games. April 28 – Clark’s hitting streak is chilled by the Blue Sox, who hold him 0-3 and end his streak at 21 games. April 29 – The Gold Sox clean up amongst the Stars, beating them 9-3, and ending Andres Serna’s hitting parade at 29 games. Complaints and stuff I could use a hug or two. The Raccoons have hit rock bottom in AVG, OBP, H in the Continental League and are 10th or 11th in SLG, OPS, R, XBH, and SB. They are 6th in HR, BB, and 3rd in K at the plate. The pitching staff continues to rank around mid pack. Bobby Quinn has about six days before Neil Reece will come off the DL and will make a run for his roster spot. The following roster moves will be made on the way to Boston: SP Robert Sawyer will be demoted to AAA, and in case of recalcitrant refusal, waived and designated for assignment; SP Dennis Fried will be called up, after going 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA and three shutouts in AAA. INF/OF Justin Reader will be waived and designated for assignment, and 1B/3B Ben O’Morrissey called up, though only hitting .221 in AAA. Next on the list will be Matt Higgins and well, Bobby Quinn. Relievers are also closely watched. Yes, I’m having fun, stop asking. No, please, talk to me, say something, I'm ... I'm ... Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here. Last edited by Westheim; 07-24-2013 at 11:19 PM.