[Westheim]

The trading block showed a flurry of former Raccoons outfielders, all of which still much beloved in Portland: Cisco Banda, Raúl Herrera, and Alex White; no useful players were on there (but ex-Coons Jack Pennington and Hoyt Cook), and if we wanted a good player down the stretch, we had to do some convincing. A new outfielder had to be able to play right field, since left field was Hallville, and center field was crowded with Johnston, Reece, and everybody else. Johnston played right at the moment, since he played all outfield positions very well. A starting pitcher would in the best of all worlds be left-handed. In both cases, players in their final contract year were highly preferred.

One pitcher on our shortlist was Milwaukee’s Neil Stewart (who was arbitration eligible, but possibly a super-2 case this fall), who was expected to go in the middle game of the following Loggers series. I also took a long look at Nashville’s Salvador Fierro, whose contract was up this season. RIC Jake Wallace would fit, but had $2.4M left on a long contract, and then there was SFW Antonio Lopez, who was perhaps having too good a year so far to be easily acquired mid-season.

Raccoons (45-48) vs. Loggers (42-51)

The Loggers had just swept the Indians in a 4-game set, toppling them from the CL North leader’s spot. So, this was probably not a walkover. But what was a walkover with this team after all…

Game 1’s matchup perhaps was just not fair. Dennis Fried (3-2, 6.89 ERA) against Judd Montgomery (10-5, 2.51 ERA); Emilio Roman’s home run got the Loggers up in the second inning, and they led 3-0 after the top 4th, but in the bottom of the inning Daniel Hall and David Vinson both tied Mark Dawson’s mark of 11 dingers for the team lead, but both were solo shots and the Raccoons kept trailing 3-2. Higgins singled his way on with one out in the bottom 7th, then stole second, his 18th bag of the year. Reece went to 3-1 against Montgomery, then singled to left, and Higgins raced home to tie the game. A tie was nice, but Ken Burnett fell behind in the eighth instantly, and when the Coons never got another runner, their 5-game winning streak ended, and the Loggers’ went to six and counting. 4-3 Loggers. Martinez 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Our object of desire, Neil Stewart, pitched against Kisho Saito in the middle game. Saito reached 100 K’s for the season with a K to Roman in the fifth, but then trailed 1-0 already. Coming into the sixth, the Coons had been extremely pathetic against Stewart, logging only two hits and a walk, the latter by Hall, who made it two walks with two outs in the inning. Then unbeknownst to the attendance, this set off a chain reaction, as Osanai walked, and then Dawson doubled into left to tie the game. Johnston walked to fill the bags, and Vinson came up, not having hit his daily homer so far. He did so now: GRAAAAND SLAAAAAM DAVID VINSON!! Drake Evans cut that 5-1 lead in half in the seventh, taking Saito deep for two runs in the latter’s final inning. Unfortunately, three relievers (Lagarde, Matthews, and Cordero) were barely able to navigate the eighth, which the Coons only escaped leading when Vinson was man enough to survive a violent home plate collision for the final out, after Glenn Johnston had fired a beam from right. Johnston left the game hurt, though. West claimed the save, 5-4 Coons. Osanai 2-3, BB, 2B; Vinson 1-3, HR, 4 RBI;

Glenn Johnston hurt again is NOT good, removing the final .300 bat from the outfield with Quinn already on the shelf. He is not diagnosed so far. Mark Dawson in right was the best defensive option for now, bringing O’Morrissey in at third base again.

O’Morrissey was up in the rubber game in the bottom 3rd, bases loaded, nobody out, 2-1 lead for the Furballs. Double play, Hall scoring from third. Still, O’Morrissey went to 1-35 in RISP situations. 1-35! It was the first of three consecutive DP innings for the Furballs. That had to invoke some punishment, and it came in the top 6th, where the first two batters, lefties, reached against Scott Wade and both scored to tie the game. Great job, guys. In the bottom of the inning, Mark Dawson hit into ANOTHER double play. Arf. The DP streak broke in the seventh, where they went ahead again for Wade, 5-3, although with runners on the corners and one out, and 4-3 the score, Hall’s grounder to second would have been one if not for a sub-par play between 2B German Roldan and SS Jim Stein. Instead, Antonio Gonzalez scored from third and Hall was safe at first, but was left there. Between Cordero and Lagarde, the bases became loaded in the top 8th, but the Loggers left them all on. West was tagged for a run in the ninth, but held on. 5-4 Raccoons. Salazar 2-4, 2B, RBI; Martin 3-3, 2 2B, RBI; Osanai 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Gonzalez 2-3, BB, 2B;

Good news: Glenn Johnston has merely strained his hamstring on the laser beam he hurled in, and will not miss more than a week. He will not be disabled.

Bad news: of the pitchers mentioned at the start of this post, Fierro executed his 10/5 rights, and the Loggers’ demands for Stewart were rather outlandish. The Warriors were at least willing to talk reasonably about Lopez.

Raccoons (47-49) vs. Aces (51-46)

Juan Correa’s streak of nice outings ended in the opener against Las Vegas. He only went five innings with 90 pitches due to extensive traffic, but trailed only 1-0 when he was pinch hit for in the bottom 5th, with the bags full and two out. Neil Reece popped out for him, wasting the first scoring chance the Raccoons had gotten in the game. The other chance came in the seventh, down 2-0, with Higgins and Dawson in scoring position and one down. O’Morrissey sent a flyer to deep left, but Jim Wood caught it. Only Higgins scored on the sac fly and the Raccoons exited the inning trailing. Hall grounded into a killing double play in the eighth, and the Aces still led 2-1, bringing in closer Rick Evans to pitch the bottom 9th, led off by Osanai. So far the Raccoons had barely gotten the ball out of the infield, but Osanai crushed the 0-1 pitch to tie the game with a titanic home run. Vinson struck out, then Higgins came up and doubled past Jim Wood. Dawson to the plate, Higgins got the go signal. Better end this quickly. Higgins went, Dawson grounded to left, and PAST Melvin Greene! There was no way they had a play on the racing Higgins, who made it home safely in a walk-off win! 3-2 Raccoons, and they really stole that one. Martin 2-3, BB; Vinson 2-4; Higgins 2-4, 2B; Dawson 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Correa 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Martinez 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K; Carrillo 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-0);

While Vinson got the Raccoons ahead early with a 2-run triple in the first inning of game 2, Jose Fernandez was extremely wild. He loaded the bags with one out in the top 2nd through a walk, a hit batter, and another walk. He went to 3-2 on pitcher Jose Murillo before striking him out. Melvin Greene, Michael McFarland, and Claudio Garcia then scored five runs with three 2-out hits. Murillo hit Matt Higgins with a pitch in the bottom 2nd, loading the bags, and injuring Higgins. Salazar struck out and Hall flew out to end the inning without scoring a run. Fernandez was out by the fourth, trailing 7-2. The Raccoons now had to rally from deep down. Martin scored a run on two outs with an infield single in the fourth, but Hall’s deep flyer to right was just intercepted afterwards and the deficit remained four runs. Three singles to start the sixth by O’Morrissey, Burnett (!), and Gonzalez (replacing Higgins) scored a run and brought Salazar as the tying run to the plate. He hit an RBI single to left, and Hall came up, but he struck out again. Osanai drove in a run, but they could not press the tying run across. Burnett not only scored a run, he also exhausted himself in long relief, barely getting through the seventh. The bottom 8th saw Salazar and Hall draw 1-out walks. Osanai lobbed a single over the middle infield and Salazar raced home – the game was tied again late. Jose Ruiz struck out Vinson and Dawson to end the bottom 8th, though, leaving two on. The Aces then jumped on Lagarde in the ninth. Lagarde had pitched the eighth on four pitches, but now Angelo Cardenas singled to start the ninth and Osanai misfielded Didier Bourges’ bunt. Jordan Archer singled to load the bags, and there was nobody out. The Aces went on to score three unearned runs, and won the game, 10-7. Higgins 1-1; Gonzalez 2-3, RBI; Salazar 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Osanai 4-5, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B; Burnett 3.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K and 1-2;

Interlude: Trade

Early on July 22, the Raccoons announced a trade with the Sioux Falls Warriors. The Raccoons acquired SP Antonio “Woody” Lopez, sending over a package of three players from their AAA team, consisting of SP Kiyomitsu Sano, MR Alonso Villegas, and 1B Ed Parrell.

Sano is a good AAA pitcher, but his stuff is run of the mill and we already have that in our current 3-4-5 spots in the rotation. Parrell had been with the Wolves last October and had been a leftover and late free agent signing this spring, however, his production did not warrant a call-up. Villegas was the gem in the bundle, a righty reliever with very good stuff and setup or closer potential. He was 22 and had been claimed off waivers by the Blue Sox in February 1989.

Lopez is a 30-year old left-handed exiled Cuban, who pitched with the Aces from 1980-1989 (missing 1987 to a torn rotator cuff completely) and signed with the Warriors this March. His contract will be up this fall. He is 8-8 with a 3.97 ERA this year, and 93-116 with a 4.41 ERA for his career, which includes a few abysmal seasons in his early 20s. He also lost 21 games in 1985 and 20 games last year. His stuff is well above average, and his slider can remove batters quickly.

Lopez is slotted to start the first game in Atlanta.

A roster move was made, sending Jose Fernandez to AAA. We called up an extra arm in Qi-zhen Geng, since the bullpen had suffered the last two days. Randy Powers was demoted.

Raccoons (47-49) vs. Aces (51-46)

Back to game 3. With Johnston hurt, Higgins hurt and undiagnosed, and Powers demoted, the bench consisted of David Vinson (who had a necessary off day) and Neil Reece. Dennis Fried was the pitcher, and things looked pretty much cut out for our first series loss since the All Star game. The first three Aces … Greene dropped a single just in front of Dawson in right, Michael McFarland singled just past Salazar, and Garcia just barely doubled over Dawson’s glove. One run scored in the inning thanks to Fried getting into a groove, and the Coons tied it in the bottom 1st. That 1-1 stood for a while. Fried went 7.1 frames in a no-decision, before Cordero came in to retire lefty Garcia and switch-hitting slugger Ira Houston. Two out in the top 9th, Matthews plunked Bourges. Pancho Pacheco then reached on an error by Antonio Gonzalez. Edward Carter, a left-hander was broken out to pinch hit and we went to our only remaining left-hander: Grant West struck him out. Osanai led off the bottom 9th, which had already worked once in the series, but didn’t here, as Raffaele Antuofermo grounded him to second. Mark Dawson hurled a single into shallow right, but there was no pinch runner available. O’Morrissey had to get things done, but struck out. Leo Smith flew to center, where Claudio Garcia dropped the ball. Dawson moved to third, and Gonzalez came up. Here we threw in David Vinson, emptying our bench. He grounded out, and the game went to extra innings, and now Vinson had to play second base. The right side of the infield was wide open now. Geng gave the Coons two strong innings, and led off the bottom 11th by striking out. Osanai grounded out. Dawson came up. A huge knock, a huge flyer, OUTTA HERE!!! 2-1 Raccoons! Martin 2-5; Hall 2-4, RBI; Dawson 2-5, HR, RBI; Fried 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K; Geng 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (1-0);

In other news

July 19 – The Wolves beat the Gold Sox 3-0. The save is claimed by Andres Ramirez, making the 30-year old the first member of the 400-save club. Ramirez was a 1977 first round pick, 14th overall, by the Warriors, and has claimed 35 or more saves every year since 1981. He has 24 already this year. Given his relatively young age, Ramirez could go well beyond 600 saves in his career.
July 19 – In the middle of a dreadful season, Tijuana’s veteran Cipriano Ortega (.226, 2 HR, 26 RBI) goes down with an oblique strain and will be out for a month.

Complaints and stuff

Two walk-off hits by Mark Dawson in one series – sometimes even a sub-200 batter has his moments. Well, that’s not some token sub-200 batter, that’s the career home run leader, and his lead over Gabriel Cruz was still sizeable, 291 to 238. Next in the list: 3rd Tetsu Osanai 187; 4th ATL Michael Root 186; 5th Daniel Hall 181;

Offense comes and goes, however in the 10 games since the break, the margin of victory or loss was only one greater than three runs, in the 6-0 in game 3 against Boston. Games are close at the moment, and that’s where our very good bullpen (2nd in CL) kicks in.

Injury wire: SP Jason Turner and SP Steven Berry are three and five weeks away from coming off the DL, respectively. Add a few rehab starts and Turner could return in early-to-mid-September and Berry in late September. Bobby Quinn is two weeks away. He should get a few rehab AB’s in AAA, too, I think. Glenn Johnston’s sore hamstring will keep him out of the Atlanta series, but he should be available for the next series in Tijuana, easing the pain a little. Matt Higgins is still not diagnosed, and our bench is precariously short. I have not made up my mind yet, but Geng could be sent back to AAA right away for Elmer Hawley or so.

Also: still looking for outfield help.

Road trip to Atlanta, Tijuana, San Francisco next. Trade deadline is on July 31, the day of the middle game at the Bay.