[Westheim]

Raccoons (17-10) @ Buffaloes (8-20) – May 3-5, 1996

Here was another team that so far had been nothing but shelled. Their main problem was the offense, which was scoring less than four runs a game, while their rotation was above average despite a 4.12 ERA. The offense in the Federal League seemed to be a bit out of whack a month into the season. The bullpen however was horrendous with a 4.90 ERA. Those were three right-handers we were scheduled to face.

Projected matchups:
Scott Wade (3-1, 2.08 ERA) vs. Ricardo Contreras (1-3, 3.27 ERA)
Antonio Donis (3-0, 3.70 ERA) vs. Dave Bond (0-4, 4.31 ERA)
Kisho Saito (3-2, 3.79 ERA) vs. Rob Griffin (3-2, 3.82 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – C Vinson – SS Salazar – CF Espinoza – P Wade
TOP: LF F. Sanchez – C C. Ramos – 1B Patel – CF Reid – RF West – 2B Spinu – SS Solís – 3B B. Edwards – P Contreras

The Raccoons started this game with a bang, putting their first four men on base, which included home runs by Kinnear and Wedemeyer. Kinnear’s shot went all the way over the bleachers and into the lot behind them. Contreras’ revenge was striking out the side in the second and the Raccoons didn’t get much going after that, either. Bottom 4th, Scott Wade had surrendered only one hit so far, but the Buffaloes came out putting their first five batters on base. Wade got two, but a 2-out double by Edwards tied the game in the inning. Back to square one, the Coons continued to be befuddled by Contreras until the seventh inning started just like the first, with a Brewer double. But Contreras surrendered the next three batters to quell the thread. Wade surrendered nine of the next ten men he faced after the fourth inning disaster. Neither pitcher got a decision, and we went to overtime, and overtime started with Ben O’Morrissey slapping a home run off reliever Miguel Lopez (not related to our Miguel Lopez, for all I know). We faced a dilemma then in the bottom 10th after we left two men on in the top. Three of the first four batters to come up were lefties, but Ken Burnett had already been used, and Daniel Miller … well, I didn’t trust Cesar Salcido one lick, so Miller had to pitch this. Interestingly, the only guy Miller put on in the inning was righty Dave Reid, while he surrendered lefties Carlos Ramos, Corey Patel, and Gary West. 5-4 Furballs. Brewer 2-5, 2 2B; Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4; Crowe 1-2; Ingall (PH) 1-1; De La Rosa 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (1-0);

Mike Crowe made his debut in this game as a pinch-hitter for Jorge Salazar to counter southpaw Rafael Negrón, then stayed in to play third as O-Mo shifted to first for defense. Crowe got his first major league hit in the tenth, a single.

But boy, these big innings keep happening, and the Queen is all but amused. We scored all our runs with the big ball, which is thrilling, but you know what happens when you stop hitting them? Look at our last September. Another odd stat about this game: Daniel Miller punching out Carlos Ramos to lead off the tenth was our only K all day long.

Intermission: free agent signings

I had reached out to veteran free agent outfielders for minor league contracts. One of those is a former Raccoon. They both signed on the morning of the second game in Topeka.

OF Joe Macombe, 27, was the supplemental round pick of the Stars in the 1989 draft. He had appeared for them in 28 games in 1993, hitting .259, but never had gotten another chance after that and had become a minor league free agent. He will probably never amount to more than a fringe player, but at the moment we have an epidemic of injuries and we need bats.

The other guy that signed was a supplemental round pick for the Pacifics in 1984, with whom he debuted in 1988, before being traded to the Raccoons, for whom he played intermittently for the next four years before moving on to Oklahoma, where he won a ring in 1994, when he appeared in a career-high 135 games. He is now 30 years old and a career .250 batter. And his name is … Jeff Martin. He was also assigned to AAA, but I was planning to call him up and sent Mike Crowe back down shortly. He has no options remaining, so when Neil Reece comes off the DL in a little over a week and we have to sent Martin back down, it could even pose a problem, since he can refuse a minor league assignment.

Both signed minor league contracts for the moment, though.

Raccoons (17-10) @ Buffaloes (8-20) – May 3-5, 1996

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – RF Green – 1B Wedemeyer – C Vinson – 3B Crowe – SS Salazar – CF Newton – P Donis
TOP: RF Fukushima – SS Hitchcock – CF Reid – 1B Patel – C C. Ramos – 2B Spinu – LF West – 3B Solís – P Bond

Antonio Donis had his hand into about every instance of a run being scored in this game. While much of that is always true for runs giving up by a pitcher, of which there were two in the first three innings for Donis, here he fueled the offense. In the top 3rd, down 1-0, he hit an RBI single scoring Luke Newton to tie the game. Royce Green would hit a 2-out, 2-run homer in the inning to get us up 3-1. In the fourth, up 3-2, we had two on with two out and Donis coming to bat. He hit an infield single to load the bags, and Brewer then emptied the bags with a double. In a perfect world, Donis would have nursed that 6-2 lead through at least six, but he ran himself stuck in an 8-3 game, putting two on with one out. In an at least decent world, Juan Martinez would have gotten out of the mess without allowing three runs to score, but the Buffaloes moved back to 8-6. The Raccoons struck back with Mike Crowe’s first career homer, a solo shot, in the seventh. Salcido pitched the seventh, and Otero expended only seven pitches in the eighth, and with Miller a bit sore after working almost every other day recently, he was left in at least at the start of the ninth, still up 9-6. He sat down Reid, Patel, and Ramos to put the game away. 9-6 Furballs. Brewer 3-5, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Green 2-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Crowe 2-5, HR, RBI; Otero 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

So, Donis gets rocked for five runs in 5.1 innings, and still winds up 4-0 with the most wins on the team. I don’t get this game.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – SS Ingall – CF Newton – C Kondo – P Saito
TOP: RF Fukushima – SS Hitchcock – 1B Patel – 2B Spinu – LF Solís – CF West – C J. Ortega – 3B R. Hernandez – P Griffin

Saito surrendered single runs in the first two innings, while each time striking out a batter to end the inning with another runner in scoring position. The Raccoons slept until the fourth inning, when O-Mo led off with a single, which was followed up by shy singles by Wedemeyer and Green, the latter scoring O-Mo. With runners on the corners, Ingall and Newton made poor outs, bringing up .105 batter Nori Kondo. And here, our two Japanese guys stunned the Buffaloes with a pair of extra base hits over the head of Gary West in center, Kondo with a triple, and Saito with a double! And then it all went wrong immediately, once again. Saito allowed a single to the just over-hit West, then walked Jose Ortega to start the bottom 4th. Hernandez doubled to score a run, and Fernando Sanchez, hitting for Griffin, flew out to right. Ortega tagged, but was hammered out by Royce Green at the plate. Two out, runner on second, rain beginning to fall once more, Arinori Fukushima got the better of Saito with a single to right, and we were tied again. There was a short rain delay in the fifth inning, in which the Coons left a pair in scoring position. Saito completed the bottom 5th, then was removed for a pinch-hitter, Salazar, with a runner on and one out in the top 6th. Salazar made the second out, bringing up Brewer, who faced ex-Coon Tony Vela and sent a bomb out of the park, 2-run homer. So, Saito was in line for the W after all, but we put Juan Martinez in for the bottom 6th, and he surrendered a homer and a double. Exit Martinez, enter De La Rosa, out of the inning. We got the run back in the top 7th, 7-5 now, and then Salcido came in to pitch the seventh. He walked the first two, and then blew the game with a triple to Raúl Solís. That piece of dirt!! Would he get the L he deserved so thoroughly? The Raccoons were down 8-7 into the ninth, facing not our Miguel Lopez again. With one out, the bases were loaded with Tzu-jao Ban having to be hit for. I went with Higgins (Espinoza being the only other remaining option), who hit at a 3-1 pitch and grounded into a force at home. Bases loaded, two out for Brewer, who quickly had two strikes on him, but made contact into the gap in right center, and deep so. Would it go out, would Fukushima get it? OFF THE WALL!!! Ingall comes home! Vinson comes home! Higgins comes home! THREE-RUN DOUBLE DAVID BREWER!!! Enter Miller, one Buffalo down, two Buffalo down, th- oops, Gary West hit a home run. No worries, we were still up 10-9. Miller punched out Ortega. 10-9 Furballs, and I am sweating! Brewer 3-6, HR, 2 2B, 5 RBI; Wedemeyer 3-5; Green 2-5, RBI; Newton 2-4, BB, RBI;

1996 Juan Martinez is much like the 1995 Jackie Lagarde by now. He can’t get anybody out. Ken Burnett is also struggling, issuing walks all the time. The bullpen remains a mess. You can’t even trust your for years most reliable pieces now. Ah, the job I have…

Meanwhile, this game was also Salcido’s last boner. I am sick of his face. He was demoted to AAA. No replacement has been named so far.

In other news

May 3 – PIT INF Roberto Rodriguez (.231, 0 HR, 10 RBI) may miss most of May with a torn thumb ligament.

Complaints and stuff

That’s all for today. Despite us pulling off a sweep, this has exhausted me mentally. It seems like every game ends 7-6 or 10-8 now. Which is great, when you judge your offense. But the pitching. Oh my god, the pitching. The pitching makes me cry.

To be exact, going back to April 21, the last game in Las Vegas, we have scored 95 runs in 13 games, which amounts to a rousing 7.3 runs per game! But you have to flinch when looking at the fact that we also gave up 72 runs, a much less cool 5.5 per game. That is an issue.

We can’t do much about the rotation for the moment, with no depth in AAA to speak of. Besides. Mostly it has been the bullpen cocking up and I will look into our options there. Starting pitching has been a problem mostly at the top of the rotation. Jason Turner had a bad April last year, and came back to win 20 games, so I am not worried yet. Somehow, Kisho Saito gives up tons of singles. His BABIP is .356, so I blame rotten luck more than him. Of course, “Saito” means “he who is crushed by a piano falling from a window in the fourth floor” in Japanese, so you can hardly be surprised. Lopez had back-to-back bad starts now, but he may be our future number one. Wade is without blemish in my eyes, and Donis, well, the sample size ain’t very big.

But the bullpen. Same old story.

By the way, Juan Martinez (10.2 IP, 19 H, 6 BB, 10 K) and Ken Burnett (7.0 IP, 9 H, 7 BB, 3 K), the two guys struggling the most after the just-banished Salcido, will be free agents after the year. Looking bad as far as a new contract is concerned.

AAA LF Stephen Buell was the Player of the Week with a 11-24, 2 HR, 10 RBI attack on pitching. Too bad he clashes so badly with Vern Kinnear when it comes to usability.