[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-20) @ Knights (20-23) – May 26-28, 1998

The Knights were ranking below average in most of the prime offensive and pitching categories, but they were not exceptionally bad in any one of these. No Canadiens pitching, which you could readily score a kazillion runs against. ‘cept you’re the Coons, then … The Knights had won their last four games.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (2-1, 2.92 ERA) vs. John Miller (1-3, 3.05 ERA)
Kisho Saito (1-6, 3.00 ERA) vs. Craig Hansen (2-4, 6.46 ERA)
Manuel Movonda (3-3, 2.28 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (3-3, 3.22 ERA)

Kisho Saito is up against time- and ageless Craig Hansen, who’s had it hard so far this year. Yeah, I have a flash of what’s coming already…

Stephen Buell might come back on the weekend, but I am not yet sure whether he should spend a week in AAA to get his shoulder going again. It’s not like we need offense. (rolls eyes)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – LF Parker – C Turner – 2B Caddock – P Rivera
ATL: CF Árias – 3B Morales – 2B Palacios – LF Kinnear – RF Sakaguchi – C J. Johnson – 1B V. Martinez – SS Tanaka – P J. Miller

The Coons battered John Miller for five hits and three runs in the first inning. Then Rivera came out – and had the favor returned. Five hits, three runs. It was a horrible start for Rivera. While Miller struck out six through five innings, Rivera walked six and was hit for in the top 6th with Turner on second and one out. Newton grounded out, but Guerin’s RBI triple with two out gave the Coons a 4-3 lead. The Knights had left tons of scoring chances unused, stranding nine against a horrible Rivera. A Reece homer in the seventh and McLaughlin driving in a run as a pinch hitter with two down in the eighth enlarged that lead to 6-3, and the bullpen was holding up, as Beck entered in the bottom 8th, struck out the first two batters, then put three men on, a run scoring. Scott Wade appeared with two down and the tying runs on, and didn’t surrender anybody as the Knights escalated the affair into a 6-run inning. 9-6 Knights. Guerin 2-5, 3B, RBI; McLaughlin (PH) 1-1, RBI; Crowe 2-4, 2B, RBI; Parker 2-5, RBI; Turner 2-4, 2 2B, RBI;

I am already having a snoot full of them.

With Saito pitching next, I know exactly what’s coming, especially with a 6+ ERA pitcher appearing for the opposition. 8-0 Knights seems like a good guess. I am by now fully expecting the Rabicoons to lose every Saito start until the poor sod finally retires.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – LF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – C Turner – RF Villegas – 2B McLaughlin – P Saito
ATL: 2B Palacios – 3B Morales – LF Sakaguchi – RF Hatch – 1B J. Jackson – CF Árias – C J. Johnson – SS Tanaka – P Hansen

Humiliating Saito started early, as the Knights were up 1-0 when Hansen stepped in to bat leadoff in the third inning. Saito ran the count full, then – despising to walk such a lowly batter like Hansen, who was a career .161 batter – surrendered Hansen’s second career homer. The park was adance. Saito surrendered another home run to Hollis Hatch in the fourth, 3-0, but went seven innings while fanning eight. His team was … yeah, somewhere in the building, but not actively participating. Then, the top 8th. Reece and Crowe led off with singles, bringing the tying run up in Samy Michel. He grounded out, forcing Crowe. Turner then grounded hard to third, and Morales didn’t get it. The Coons were finally on the board, and had the tying runs on base for Jorge Villegas, who walked, three men on, and Caddock hit for McLaughlin to counter Hansen, who was still on the mound. Caddock struck out. Saito was begging to bat, but nope, we have qualified personnel for that! While I was dodging Saito’s swings, Chris Parker roped a single into shallow center that scored the second run. Nesto Martinez replaced Hansen to pitch to Guerin, who grounded out. 4-2 Knights. Reece 3-5, 2B; McLaughlin 2-2, BB; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, L (1-7);

The ******icoons left four runners on third base in the game. No wonder Saito has recently often been seen carving his team mates’ likenesses from little blocks of wood, then removing their heads with a chainsaw.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Caddock – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – C Turner – LF Newton – RF Villegas – P Movonda
ATL: CF Árias – 3B Morales – 2B Palacios – LF Kinnear – RF Sakaguchi – C J. Johnson – 1B J. Rojas – SS Tanaka – P Howard

The Colombian Beauty was overrun by a stomping crusade of Knights early in the final game of the series. The Knights sliced him for five runs in 3.1 innings, and Tamburrino just barely got out of there before the damage could become any bigger. Nominally, the Coons were still in the game after scoring a pair of runs in the third (another Guerin triple the deciding factor), and Reece homered in the sixth to shorten the distance to just two runs, but c’mon, you know whom we’re talkin’ about! Fairchild’s attempt at long relief was sabotaged by a Guerin error, and Miller pitched in the seventh to a tune of three walks, a wild pitch, and more dumb luck than he deserved as the Knights scored only once. 7-5 Knights. Reece 2-4, HR, RBI; Villegas 3-4, 2 2B;

Raccoons (23-23) @ Thunder (27-21) – May 29-31, 1998

There was about no scoring in the Coons’ games this season, as they continued to rank 12th in runs scored and first in runs allowed, but the Thunder weren’t all that different. They ranked 10th in runs scored, and 4th in runs allowed. Of course, there you had a 4.2 R/G team (OCT) and a team that had to tear off several limbs to get even close to 3.7 R/G. They weren’t. We had swept the Thunder in our April series.

But April was long gone.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (4-5, 3.56 ERA) vs. Lou Corbett (4-4, 3.26 ERA)
Randy Farley (6-1, 2.43 ERA) vs. Larry Davis (1-3, 2.52 ERA)
Jose Rivera (2-1, 3.20 ERA) vs. Fabien Armand (3-3, 2.59 ERA)

The Thunder are on a 5-game roll. Yay, lucky us.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 1B Michel – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – C Turner – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – LF Utting – P M. Lopez
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – LF Camacho – 2B Browne – 3B Grant – 1B Carroll – C Briggs – RF L. Hernandez – CF C. Clark – P Corbett

The Raccoons took an actual lead in a game with Samy Michel’s third-inning, 2-run home run off Lou Corbett, but of course it didn’t live long. Lopez was torn up in the fourth, as the Thunder tied the game, and he faced Corbett with two down and a man on. In pitcher’s paradise, Corbett homered to set the Thunder ahead 4-2. The Thunder made it 6-2 in the fifth and that was as good a time to flick off the radio or leave the park and do something useful like mowing the lawn. Corbett crumbled, and a pinch-hit homer by Luke Newton brought the score back to 6-5 Oklahoma in the seventh inning, and the Coons got two on for Crowe – and Corbett made him his tenth strikeout victim of the day, and it ended the inning. If you had gone to mow your lawn, you thankfully missed Dave Beck being shredded for four runs in the seventh inning. 11-5 Thunder. Michel 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Reece 3-4; Newton (PH) 1-2, HR, 2 RBI;

We may safely erase “pitching” from the “things we’re good at” list, which is now empty and can be discarded.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Crowe – 1B Michel – LF Parker – 2B Caddock – C McDonald – P Farley
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – CF C. Clark – 2B Browne – 3B Grant – LF Camacho – RF L. Hernandez – 1B J. Valentín – C Briggs – P L. Davis

The Thunder were close to scoring a few times early on, and finally got to Randy Farley when Caddock and Guerin failed to turn a double play on Juan Valentín with the bags full and one out in the bottom 4th. Briggs made the third out, but 1-0 Thunder it was. Runners on the corners with no outs in the top 5th, Larry Davis turned that into a nice massacre as he faced McDonald, Farley, and Guerin, and sat them down all. You couldn’t pitch much more magnificent than Farley two months into your rookie season but you could also hardly have less offense behind you. The Coons failed utterly badly for five innings. Reece sent one deep in the sixth that just ended up in Lucio Hernandez’ glove, but Hernandez was helpless when Samy Michel unleashed an actual bomb that tied the game in the seventh. Farley soldiered on in the tie, went nine innings, including a 3-pitch ninth, but the Coons were still failing. The band played on, and Caddock led off the 10th with a double of Hipólito Sendím. Villegas struck out in McDonald’s place, but then Newton had another PH appearance and hit a single (so Farley was out of the game). Jimmy Morey came in to pitch in the highest danger, but Guerin hit a looper to shallow right – and Hernandez did NOT get it. Caddock scored, we were in business. Morey walked Brady and Reece, and the bags were still full until Crowe and Michel made poor outs. Scott Wade did not blow up this time. 3-1 Raccoons. Michel 2-5, HR, RBI; Caddock 2-4, 2B; Newton (PH) 1-1; Farley 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, W (7-1);

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – LF Newton – CF Reece – 1B Michel – C Turner – RF Brady – 2B McLaughlin – 3B Utting – P Rivera
OCT: SS J. Sanchez – CF C. Clark – 2B Browne – 3B Grant – LF Camacho – RF L. Hernandez – 1B J. Valentín – C Guidry – P Armand

The Raccoons got Armand out of the game quickly in the rubber match. A couple hard hits by McLaughlin and Utting were key pieces in a 3-run second inning, and Neil Reece and Clyde Brady had solo home runs in the third to make it 5-0. Brady also threw out Lucio Hernandez as the Condor tried to stretch a double in the second inning. The Condors didn’t get a lot off Rivera, who was totally turned around from his last start and carried a shutout into the eighth, before with two down, PH Ted Winters doubled home a run. We entered the ninth up 6-1. The Thunder had a lot of left-handers around, so Dave Beck entered the game. He faced four men and left after Ivan Camacho’s 3-run homer had come down somewhere behind the batter’s eye. Donis appeared, walked Hernandez and plunked Carroll. De La Rosa appeared. Guidry singled. Bases loaded, one out. Jason Briggs hit a grounder to De La Rosa, who failed to get any out. 6-5, bases loaded, one out. Jose Sanchez was next, and hurled a low flyer to shallow right. Clyde Brady zoomed on as Carroll went back to tag third base. Brady made the play, Carroll went, Brady unleashed a thunderbolt and Carroll waaaaaas ………… PUNCHED OUT AT THE PLATE!! 6-5 Raccoons!! Brady 3-4, HR, RBI, 2 OF Assists, SB; Rivera 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (3-1);

BRA-dy! BRA-dy! BRA-dy!

Gotta root for SOMEONE.

In other news

May 26 – CYCLE!! The Loggers are butchered by the Condors, 9-2. Especially unstoppable in the game was LF/RF Martin “Funky” Horn (.257, 5 HR, 34 RBI), who has four base knocks, one of each variety, and drives in five. It is the 24th cycle in ABL history and the Condors are the first team to have players achieve the feat three times, as Horn joins Thomas Martin (1988) and Bruce Boyle (1992) as cyclers for the club.
May 26 – RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.341, 10 HR, 35 RBI) is heading for the disabled list with a mild hamstring strain. A 15-day stay should do for him.
May 28 – Outfield’s getting’ thin for the Rebels: RF/CF Jesus Gonzalez (.294, 3 HR, 16 RBI) has a broken hand and will miss six weeks.
May 29 – CHA SP Angel Romero (6-3, 2.16 ERA) 3-hits the Crusaders in a 4-0 Falcons win.
May 31 – The Loggers lose OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.330, 1 HR, 16 RBI) to a broken hand. The 27-year old righty could be out for up to three months.

Complaints and stuff

When has there ever been a team horrible enough to allow home runs to opposing pitchers TWICE in a week? We don’t have to go into any other detail. THAT stat tells enough you have to know about this sucker bunch.

There were a few guys sucking a little less this week, and one of them was Neil Reece. He was actually pretty good, and good enough to be named Player of the Week, yay!!! Reece went 12-27 with 3 HR and 5 RBI and has been Player of the Week for the eighth time in his career.

But that’s not all, folks. The CL Pitcher of the Month and Rookie of the Month awards both went to the same guy. Who could that be? How about Randy Farley! He made six starts and pitched to a 5-1 record and 2.08 ERA in May!

Huzzah!

But back to being grumpy. As they are slowly but surely descending to a losing record, the offensive shortcomings are getting more and more obvious, especially with Ingall, Buell, and Wedemeyer out. Not that the team would have scored any WITH them, but the replacements were even worse. Just look at that outfield. Good grief!