[Westheim]

Raccoons (3-9) vs. Titans (5-8) – April 17-19, 2000

The Titans had not gotten a good start, scoring only 41 runs from their first 13 games. Their rotation had held up with a 3.73 ERA, while their bullpen had barely been scratched so far, ranking 2nd in the league with a 1.46 ERA.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (0-1, 6.30 ERA) vs. John Miller (2-0, 1.06 ERA)
Ralph Ford (0-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. Esteban Román (0-2, 9.00 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-1, 6.30 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (1-1, 1.64 ERA)

Román was a fairly unknown right-hander despite being already 33 years old. He had made most of his 73 career starts in the early 90s with the Gold Sox, and was 22-35 with a 5.32 ERA for his career.

Game 1
BOS: CF Elizondo – 2B Brewer – RF Thomas – 1B G. Munóz – C L. Lopez – SS D. Silva – LF Alonso – 3B Torres – P J. Miller
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – C Mata – CF Newton – 3B Caddock – P Rivera

Rivera walked Brewer, Brewer came around to score, the Titans led 1-0 in the first. While Ingall re-tied the score with a solo shot in the bottom 2nd, Rivera was beyond terrible. His control was goddamn awful, he pitched behind in the count by default, drilled two batters, and when Guerin made an error in the fourth, that was enough to collapse the whole godforsaken house of cards. Even though the Titans’ two runs in the inning were unearned, Rivera was soon sent for the showers. The Raccoons did what they did best: they went down silently, their only other run scored waved in by John Miller with a wild pitch in the eighth. 4-2 Titans. Richardson 2-4; Gonzalez 2-4, 2B; Meeks 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Game 2
BOS: CF Alonso – SS D. Silva – LF Reid – 1B G. Douglas – 2B Torres – RF Elizondo – 3B Delgado – C Williamson – P E. Román
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – C Fifield – CF Newton – P Ford

Another game, another headache. While Ford pitched semi-decently, Lorenzo Delgado still took him deep for two runs in the fourth after three frames of scoreless standing around on the field. The Raccoons then immediately rebounded when Brady, Richardson, and Gonzalez all got on base leading off the bottom 4th. An Ingall RBI groundout and a terrible bloop by Martin that somehow eluded Dave Reid for a single plated two runs, but Fifield then double played the team out of the inning, having merely tied the game, 2-2. The inevitable Daniel Silva would hit a double off Ford in the fifth, stole third about unopposed, and was brought home by Douglas to give the Titans the lead back. Ford settled for seven each in innings, hits, and strikeouts, with three runs allowed, and had to hope for offense now. He was hit for in the bottom 7th with Fifield on second after a single, and Newton on first having walked, and no outs. From our very richly composed bench, .056 batter Chris Parker came out to bat for Ford, and hit a double past Elizondo to tie the game. Román tried to wiggle out of the mess he was in, but surrendered sac flies to Guerin and Richardson. That still left Brady on base with an intermediate single, and Gonzalez shut the doors on the night for the Titans, releasing a thundering 2-run homer out of rightfield. The Coons left the bags full the next inning, and Meeks was then unable to finish the ninth. Donis came in with two on and two out, facing Silva. One pitch, Silva sent a hopper up the middle, and Ingall just barely managed to intercept it and lob the ball to Guerin to end the game. 7-3 Raccoons. Brady 2-5; Gonzalez 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Newton 1-2, 2 BB, 2B; Parker (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Taramillo (PH) 1-1; Ford 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (1-1);

Now, how about actually winning a series?

Game 3
BOS: CF Elizondo – 2B Brewer – RF Thomas – 1B G. Munóz – LF Reid – SS D. Silva – C L. Lopez – 3B Torres – P O’Halloran
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – 1B Martin – CF Taramillo – RF Newton – P Wade

Wade continued to show horrible control, walking two in the first, in which the Titans left the bags full without scoring, and another walk in the second that led to the first run of the game, driven in by Elizondo. Wade was taken deep by Josh Thomas in the third, but Cesar Gonzalez pulled the score back even with his second 2-run homer in as many days. Wade however merely lingered in there. It was once more the inevitable Daniel Silva, who did him in: hitting a 1-out triple in the sixth, Silva was easily scored by Luis Lopez, putting Wade back onto the hook. While Ingall singled to lead off the bottom 6th, Guerin bunted to get him forced out at second, and the Critters were quickly washed away in that inning, too. While the Raccoons put either their first or second batter on base in each of the last four innings, they never got even close to scoring. Instead, Schaefer and Collins issued a few more walks in a lost game. 4-2 Titans. Brady (PH) 1-1;

So, let the culling begin! Batting a strong .114 was not exactly what I had imagined or expected with Albert Martin. His head was the first to roll as he was demoted to St. Petersburg in exchange for Samy Michel. Yeah, back to that guy. He had slugged .600 in AAA through nine games.

Raccoons (4-11) @ Aces (3-12) – April 21-23, 2000

Misery meets suffering in the desert. The Aces weren’t scoring a lot, either, but didn’t trail the Raccoons by much (48 runs for the Critters, 41 for the Sand Gnats), though, but the main reason they were playing .200 ball in April was their rotation, which was being lit up constantly, with a bullpen that was simply overworked and collapsing just as rapidly. The Aces had given up 88 runs in 15 games, which is an average of almost six. Tell you, they were REALLY GLAD the Raccoons came to town.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (2-1, 1.37 ERA) vs. Dan Moriarty (0-3, 12.00 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (0-3, 6.48 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (1-0, 0.00 ERA)
Jose Rivera (0-2, 4.60 ERA) vs. Rafael Barbosa (2-1, 3.04 ERA)

We opened the series on Friday, April 21. Eleven years to the day had passed since Daniel Hall scorched the Falcons for six hits in a 12-4 romp. Would the Suckoons outpace him, collectively?

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – SS Guerin – LF D. Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – C Mata – RF Brady – 1B Michel – CF Newton – P Farley
LVA: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Wills – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – LF L. Jenkins – 3B Combes – C L. Paredes – SS J. Martinez – P Moriarty

The Raccoons had just painstakingly carved out the first run of the game in the fourth inning, when Farley stepped back onto the mound. He had struck out four and allowed one hit through three innings. This looked good. Gary Wills singled, stole second, and moved to third on Javier Vargas’ single. Wes McCormick singled home Wills. Lou Jenkins went deep. This didn’t look good. Another single, a walk, and an error by himself later, Farley was out. Gary Wills’ 3-run homer off Schaefer made it an 8-1 game. There was certainly nothing to salvage here. I resorted to make the best of the Dollar Dog special and devoured six, not quite matching the Aces’ offensive output. 8-1 Aces. Michel 2-4; Fairchild 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K and 1-1, 2B;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – LF D. Richardson – 1B Gonzalez – 2B Ingall – CF Newton – C Mata – 3B Andresen – P Lopez
LVA: RF Ghiberti – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – 3B J. Ramirez – SS Bradley – LF Moreno – 2B J. Martinez – P G. Richardson

The Aces decided to remove Alfredo Rios from the start of the middle game and give a spot start to George Richardson. Neither starter managed to see the third inning. Richardson was outright horrible, allowed five runs in two innings, including a run scoring on a balk, and one on a throwing error, while Lopez was uncomfortable from the start, allowed four hits, and while the Aces didn’t score off him by the bottom 2nd, the trainer had a look and signaled to take him out. With our long man having been expended the day before, we now had to piece the game together with the bullpen, but so had the Aces. The Coons would extend their lead to 6-0 in the top 3rd, when Elliot Meeks (!) homered off Tzu-jao Ban (well, that explains it). Before long, Meeks would give up a 2-run double to Ricco Ghiberti, though, so no reason to put him in the lineup frequently. Both teams left the bases loaded without scoring in the fifth, and while the Raccoons managed to hit into double plays with great accuracy from there, the Raccoons hobbled along, inning by inning. Daniel Miller was taken very, very deep by McCormick in the bottom 9th, which cut the score to 6-4, and perhaps was shaken after just two minutes earlier, Antonio De La Para’s splintered bat end had whizzed right past his head. Donis got the last two outs. 6-4 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Richardson 3-5, 3B, RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB, RBI; Michel (PH) 1-1, 2B; Schaefer 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Blanco 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

More relievers starting for the Aces, please?

Meanwhile Lopez got checked out and the injury was not that severe. He had a very mild case of shoulder inflammation and would miss only one start (which still puts you into predicaments, but at least we have Fairchild to suck up some damage).

Game 3
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – LF Richardson – 3B Gonzalez – 1B Michel – C Mata – CF Newton – SS Andresen – P Rivera
LVA: 2B J. Ramirez – C De La Parra – 1B J. Vargas – CF McCormick – 3B Combes – RF Moreno – LF Wills – SS J. Martinez – P Barbosa

Barbosa only faced Ingall (resulting in three times swung on and missed), before he left the game with an apparent injury. Ban came out, took the usual damage in form of a 3-run home run by Clyde Brady in the top 3rd, and vanished again. A 3-run lead was nothing to make a horrible Rivera comfortable, though. The Aces crumbled him for those three runs in the fourth inning. He had no stuff, no composure, nothing. Just like Lopez, merely throwing with that other crippled wing. Brady just barely missed a second round-tripper in the fifth, nobody else stepped up either, but the Aces plated a run on a groundout by Ghiberti. Although the Aces had to pitch back-to-back games with their bullpen, it didn’t break apart – other than the Coons’, who coughed up another two runs in the bottom 8th. The ninth saw Charlie Deacon trying to save a game, but the Raccoons ended up loading the bases with the tying runs, two down, and Richardson batting. Miracle comeback, anyone? Ah, Richardson flew out gingerly. 6-3 Aces. Ingall 2-4, BB, 2 2B; Caddock (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 18 – SFW SP Pat Cherry (4-0, 2.51 ERA) is in sterling form early in the season, and delivers a 3-hit shutout of the Pacifics that the Warriors win 4-0.
April 20 – DAL LF/RF Darrel Tracy (.360, 3 HR, 12 RBI) makes the history books during a grueling 18-inning marathon the Stars play against the Scorpions, and lose 10-9. Tracy makes outs his first three AB’s, but then connects for six straight hits against the Scorpions, plating two runs with a pair of doubles and four singles. For the 33rd time in ABL history a player collects six hits in a game, and it is the first time in the new millennium. Once before did a Star achieve six hits, when Gabriel Cruz connected six times in 1983 – also against the Scorpions.
April 20 – The Pacifics suffer a terrible blow, as their 1B Marty Battle (.256, 1 HR, 6 RBI) is out for the season with a torn posterior cruciate ligament.
April 21 – The Condors find themselves shut out and 2-hit by NYC SP Ramiro Gonzalez (3-0, 0.00 ERA).
April 22 – A week after Richmond’s Raúl Vázquez made it to 2,000 hits, he is joined in the club by WAS RF/LF Vonne Calzado, who goes 3-5 in an 8-7 win over the Wolves. The 32-year old Calzado (.314, 0 HR, 3 RBI) is the 40th member of the 2,000 hits club, hitting a ninth inning 1-out single off Tim Mallandain to get the Capital’s rally to the walkoff win started. Calzado, the eighth overall pick by the Thunder in the 1985 draft, made his debut in 1989 before ending up in Washington in 1996. Owning a career .850 OPS he has a claim to being one of the most productive players in the league.
April 23 – Oh glory, where have you gone: RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.306, 3 HR, 10 RBI) has suffered torn ankle ligaments in a slide and his out for at least a month.

Complaints and stuff

I wanted to play two weeks, but … but teams like this are the reason people take two packs of sleeping pills with half a bottle of Jack Daniels.