[Westheim]

Raccoons (11-17) @ Blue Sox (20-7)

There was no way for this series going well for the Raccoons. The Blue Sox were ranking among the top 3 in all important categories in the Federal League. The Raccoons starters could only hope for the mercy rule being hurriedly put in place, which did not happen. We tried Johnston as leadoff man (why not? He had two arms, two legs, and sometimes both eyes open) and again O’Morrissey at third, at least for the opener. This had Vinson bat fifth, though…

The Raccoons took a surprise lead in that game 1 on an RBI double by Tetsu Osanai in the top 1st. C Travis Lange tied the game again quickly, with a solo shot off Steven Berry in the bottom 2nd. Osanai seemed to wake up from his April slumber, though: he added a 2-run double in the third for a 3-1 lead. The Raccoons also got a run from the bottom of the order with O’Morrissey and Hawley. Berry chopped up the Blue Sox through five, allowing that one hit and K’ing seven, then was annihilated with five hits and five runs in the sixth. The Raccoons left the bases loaded, scoring only an unearned run in the seventh, trailing 6-5 out of that inning, and never had another base runner. 6-5 Blue Sox. Raccoons out-hit them 11-6, but didn’t get their men in. Salazar 2-4, BB, 2B; Osanai 2-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-4; Hawley 3-4, 2B, RBI;

Neil Reece came off the DL and returned to AAA. That sets the clock ticking for Mr. Bobby “.185” Quinn.

Bad catching also continued in game 2 for Leo Smith, who committed a throwing error on Izumo Sasaki’s stealing attempt in the bottom 2nd, which cost Dennis Fried the shutout on pitcher Gabe Cranwell’s sac fly. Cranwell then tied the game in the third with a wild pitch. Fried had collected his first big league hit just before, moving Quinn from first to third. It was the first of two WP’s for Cranwell on the day, and the next one also led to a run, moving O’Morrissey from first to second, from where Bobby Quinn singled him in then in the seventh, breaking that 1-1 tie. Daniel Hall added to it with a 2-run homer in the eighth, his first dinger since his phenomenal week 2 during which he hit five. That boost was necessary, since a so far stellar Fried also let a 2-shot get away in the bottom 8th. Hall came up once more with two out in the ninth, and had two men on. He connected and narrowly missed the fence in deep right by at most ten feet for a 2-run triple. 6-3 Raccoons! Salazar 2-5; Hall 2-5, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Quinn 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Fried 8.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-3;

This ended a 3-game slide that had felt much longer (actually, they had been 3-13 in their last 16 games, so it was in fact a 16-game spill). Also nice to see that Party Bobby got the message.

Quinn and Dawson walked in the top 2nd of the rubber game, as Nashville’s Salvador Fierro had some control woes. Hawley squeezed a single into right, loading the bags with nobody out. Vinson struck out, Saito struck out, before thankfully Glenn Johnston singled into right for two runs to score, before Higgins ended the inning with a grounder to short. Lange hit another homer in the bottom 2nd, cutting the lead in half. Lange was actually not a prolific power hitter, but had the Coons’ number in this series, not even appearing in the middle game of the series. Meanwhile, Fierro ironed out his bad control and now nailed Furball after Furball, striking out eight through four innings. The Coons led 3-1 in the bottom 7th when Saito issued a walk to Lange and a double to Flores to put the tying runs in scoring position. Sasaki was up to bat, a right-hander, and Saito just didn’t have it 100% that day. We went to the pen and Albert Matthews. The Blue Sox countered with left-hander Stan Williams to pinch-hit, and he was only .333 on the season. He was put on intentionally to go after whomever the Blue Sox would send out to pinch hit for reliever Sixto Pacheco. It was Alejandro Lopez, a lefty, former first round pick by the Coons. Now WE went to lefty Cordero and he struck him out! Grant West in the ninth almost came apart with two out, hitting Lange, then allowing a single and then requiring Quinn to make a strong play to end the game. 3-1 Coons. Johnston 4-5, 2 RBI; Higgins 2-4, BB; Hawley 1-2, 2 BB; Saito 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-2);

The offense found at least some life here in this series, with several players having strong single games, but nobody is on a true streak here. The pitching was very good safe for the Berry blowup that still nobody understands.

This was our ninth interleague series against the Blue Sox. No team has ever been swept in the matchups, the Raccoons taking five 2-1 series, and the Blue Sox four.

By the way, Kisho Saito has a 36/3 K/BB ratio so far this season, plunging from 16:1 before this game to 12:1 now. He better get his stuff together! :-P

Raccoons (13-18) vs. Stars (19-12)

Much like the Blue Sox, the Stars ranked top in many categories in the Federal League. They had refound their offense in the post-Gabriel Cruz era now, but did it with a high-OBP roster now. The most home runs by any guy on their roster? 2 (Ryan Dickerson). Home runs were the only category (batting or pitching) they were worse than 8th.

The Raccoons loaded the bases with one out in the bottom 1st of the opener, before Dawson grounded into a double play. Yeah, always start off with something familiar. The score went to 1-1 into the bottom 4th, where Bill Smith on the mound for Dallas showed some lapses. Dawson and Dumont started the inning with singles. Leo Smith was told to bunt them over and bunted to the left of the mound. Bill Smith was slow to get there and Leo Smith hustled it out for everybody being safe, and nobody out. Matt Higgins tweaked out a walk for the go-ahead run being forced in. Scott Wade, Glenn Johnston, and Jorge Salazar all singled for three more runs, and Hall walked with the bases loaded to end Bill Smith’s day. The March of Singles continued with Osanai, before Dawson struck out. Juan Gomez tried to end the inning here, but his 0-2 pitch to Daniel Dumont was right down Broadway, and Dumont tattooed it for a MASSIVE GRAND SLAM out of right field!! This capped a 10-run inning for the Raccoons. Wade came apart a bit in the seventh, but for back-to-back games Cordero ended the seventh with the bases loaded and a K, this time to ex-Coon Marcos Costello. The Coons had left on two in the fifth, two in the sixth, and Dawson ended the seventh like the first, so many more runs would have been entirely possible. 11-2 Raccoons. All Coons had at least one hit. Johnston 4-5, 2 RBI; Salazar 2-5; Dumont 3-5, HR, 4 RBI; Smith 2-5; Higgins 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 2. Jorge Rosa had been lights out so far in this season, while Jason Turner had been blown up twice already. And it showed in this game. Turner’s stuff was essentially absent, Jorge Salazar’s defense at short was, too, and the Stars scored in every inning through three, leading 3-0. The Coons excelled only at double plays. Vinson came up with a 2-out, 2-run double in the bottom 4th, but was hurt tumbling into the base and had to leave the game, and Leo Smith came in as replacement, and would take care of tying the game in the bottom 6th with a sac fly. With Hawley still on first and two out, Turner came to bat. Hawley was sent running, Turner connected and launched a double into the left field corner, scoring Hawley from first base and for the go-ahead run. Turner walked the leadoff man in the seventh and exited, and the pen held on to that flimsy lead. The bottom of the order then produced another pair of runs for the Coons in the eighth and they won, 6-3. O’Morrissey 2-4, 2B; Hawley 1-1, BB, 2B, RBI; Vinson 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; Smith 1-1, 2 RBI;

We had – out of the blue – a 4-game winning streak now, but got bad news after this game: David Vinson had suffered a torn abdominal muscle, and was given an ETA of about mid-June, so five weeks on the DL for him. That left us with Leo Smith and we called up Alarico Violante as replacement, who was batting a mere .207 in AAA. Oh, that’s gonna be great. Violante was a discovery by the Scorpions in 1982, but his big league experience (4-28, 0 HR, 3 RBI) had come in 1988 and 1989 with the Stars. He was only 24, but also had no potential whatsoever. I liked his name a lot, though.

We were left with nine healthy catchers in our system now and reached out to free agents. We were also evaluating one or two certain pitchers, well-known, on the free agent market. They were veterans of the game and had gone unsigned this winter.

Game 3. Bobby Quinn gave Daniel Hall a day off. Dawson was back in the lineup, scraping just above .200, and of course Smith was catching. Steven Berry and Mark Warburton had about equal shares in a combined 12.25 ERA coming in. Yet, Berry was still striking out batters at a rate of 9+ K/9, but was prone to spills like the one that happened in the top 5th of this game. With one runner on second and one out, a passed ball by Smith advanced the runner and threw off Berry, who walked the current batter, then allowed an RBI single past Higgins, and finally fell to a 3-run shot by Costello. Jake Martin’s 2-run homer in the sixth buried Berry for good. And it didn’t stop: Carrillo was lit up for three runs, including another home run by Costello, in the seventh. The rout was on, the Furballs had nothing, and they lost big, not scoring until their last out, 9-1. Johnston 2-4, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Salazar 2-4; Quinn 2-4;

Raccoons (15-19) @ Loggers (14-20)

The Loggers possessed porous pitching that ranked 11th in runs allowed in the CL. The offense was not half as bad, excelling in some categories like XBH, SLG, OPS, while rapidly (and rabidly) striking out.

In the opener, Mark Dawson hit a 2-out RBI double in the second for a 1-0 lead, but the Loggers tied the game right away in the bottom 2nd off Dennis Fried. The Loggers then took a 2-1 lead on an error by Salazar in the third. Enter Mark Dawson again, who really didn’t want to lose this game, and hit a 3-run homer in the fourth for a new 4-2 lead. Fried surrendered a lot of line drives to the Loggers, which obviously was how they scored their runs, with lots of doubles. Home runs also helped a bit, of course, such as German Roldán’s leadoff jack in the fifth. The Loggers put two on with liners, before Fried struck out rookie Gates Golunski to end the inning, but our rookie pitcher didn’t last much past that, putting two more on in the sixth. Martinez and Burnett got outta there. The top 7th saw the Coons load the bags with Hall (double), Osanai (int. walk), and Quinn (single) with one out. Higgins hit an RBI single, and then Dawson narrowly missed a grand slam, instead collecting a 3-run double when his flyer fell in to the base of the wall in right center. Hot streak beginning here? The Coons added two in the eighth, Alarico Violante collected his first hit for the Coons in the ninth, and they won 10-4. Hall 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Quinn 4-4, BB, RBI; Higgins 2-5, RBI; Dawson 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 7 RBI; Violante (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Gates Golunski. I think I’ll need a drink to get over that name. Also, Bobby Quinn is making a case for him. Instead, Daniel Dumont is getting into the demotion focus, sinking into the .220 swamp more and more.

The Raccoons announced a new player the next day: 1B/3B/C Ed Parrell; you may remember him, he was a member of the Wolves’ title-winning team last year, then went unsigned in the winter as a free agent. He signed a minor league deal, reporting to our AAA team in St. Petersburg. Parrell, 30, will act as an emergency catcher, should the need arise. We have one more player offer out there.

The Loggers ate up Kisho Saito early on in the middle game, scoring three runs in the first inning, and two more in the second. Saito obviously had nothing against them. He made a nice play in the third, nailing a runner at third base on pitcher Ray Burnett’s bunt, then almost surrendered a 2-run homer to Roldán; Quinn got to the ball at the edge of the fence in deep right. Saito dragged himself through six, the last three innings markedly better than the first three, without any more danger or damage. The Coons rallied as hard as they could: Mark Dawson hit a 3-run homer in the fourth and they added a run in the fifth (Saito on a sac fly), but still trailed a run. Jeff Martin’s leadoff double in the seventh then got Saito off the hook. Violante, who made his first start for the Coons, moved Martin to third with a fly out, and Johnston pinch hit for Saito and hit a sac fly to tie the game. The Coons had now smelled blood. Quinn led off the eighth with a single, and Hall singled, too. Quinn aggressively went to third and was safe. Osanai stepped in, but before he could do damage, Ray Burnett threw a wild pitch and Quinn scored the go-ahead run, and some 2-out terror added three more runs. 9-5 Raccoons, YES!! Quinn 2-4, BB; Martin 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Violante 2-4, RBI;

Game 3 for a sweep? Scott Wade again had trouble with left-handers, but got a 3-0 lead through two innings, before a bobble by Hall in left field cost an unearned run in the third. While the Loggers out-hit the Coons 7-4 through five, Wade still held on to a 3-1 lead. Hall got that run back with a solo jack in the sixth, and Wade went eight innings, allowing only one more hit to the Loggers, a 2-out double to Jesus Jimenez in the eighth, but Jimenez was thrown out trying to make it a triple, as Hall got the ball in very quickly. In the end, the Coons needed every run, as West was tattooed for a 2-run homer by Santiago Rodriguez in the ninth. West struck out the side, but that one got away massively. Still, the Raccoons won, 4-3, for a series sweep, their first sweep in a month! Hall 2-4, HR, RBI; Quinn 2-4, 2B; Wade 8.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (3-3) and 1-3;

In other news

May 4 – The Indians lose a key piece of their bullpen, setup man Tim Hess (3-0, 2.50 ERA, 1 SV), who will be out for a month with shoulder inflammation. Hess, 26, has a 2.07 career ERA in 294 appearances.
May 9 – LAP Greg Cain (5-2, 1.97 ERA) pitches a gem in a 7-0 win over the Indians, allowing only two hits.

Complaints and stuff

Oh, thank the furry gods, the offense is back! (exhales exhaustingly)

Well, we’re still last in AVG, but t-9th in runs scored thanks to some good scoring in the last week and a half. Must be due to the team scoring 6.1 R/G in the last nine games. The pitching is decent, but Steven Berry is a concern. His K/9 of 9.16 leads the majors! At the same time, he’s getting furiously whacked. We have an offer out there for a veteran SP that everybody reading here knows very well, and Berry is under great pressure here.

Meanwhile, Dennis Fried is putting on quite a show since his callup. To be honest, I think he pitches far above his true level early in this season. But as long as he produces results like the one he has, he will remain here.

By the way, how is our old Logan Evans doing in Dallas? We missed him in our interleague series. Last year he made seven starts for them, going 2-2, this year he’s 3-3 in eight starts, both times with a 3.35 ERA. This year he leads the majors in walks with 34 in 51 IP. So he’s very much like a very old house only held together by the fresh paint on the walls. I hate to having been forced to send him away, but I think it was for the better. For the Coons at least.

Below is Mr. Fried. Nice to see that Richard Cunningham’s Men With Hideous Moustaches Club is still accepting new members. Is there a Women With Hid- no? Why not?