[Westheim]

Raccoons (13-19) vs. Pacifics (14-18) – May 7-9, 2001

While the Pacifics ranked fourth in runs scored in the FL with 173, they were at the absolute bottom in runs allowed, with 189. That’s actually more runs allowed than the Raccoons, who have been scored upon 179 times. Wow, must those Pacifics be pathetic! They too suffered from a truly abhorrent bullpen that was last in their league, so we’d better wear their starters out quickly.

Projected matchups:
Cipriano Miranda (1-4, 4.54 ERA) vs. Jonathan Dumont (1-3, 5.68 ERA)
Miguel Lopez (1-2, 8.00 ERA) vs. Brad Osborne (1-2, 5.26 ERA)
Randy Farley (1-4, 6.69 ERA9 vs. Wyatt Coleman (3-3, 4.81 ERA)

Part of that abysmal bullpen was our old friend Jason Turner (2-0, 5.26 ERA), who had been demoted last year, but was now back up in the Bigs for the Pacifics, yet still on the trading block.

Game 1
LAP: CF Talamante – 2B Cardenas – 1B Battle – RF A. Rodriguez – C P. Ledesma – SS J. Vega – LF F. Vasquez – 3B E. Wallace – P Dumont
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Cavazos – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – P Miranda

Between two hits, a hit batter, and a balk, Cipriano Miranda somehow allowed only a single run in the first inning. Miranda couldn’t control his stuff, and even more so couldn’t control Carlos Talamante, who reached base every time he faced him, and stole second base twice. The Pacifics didn’t score again until the sixth, and then only one run, and with the refreshing amount of offense we had enjoyed last week, we would have expected for this game, and against this pitching staff, to be turned around rather easily – but it wasn’t. Dumont didn’t give up any runs himself, but was removed for Jason Turner with two on and two out in the bottom 6th. Turner walked Sharp to load them up, then walked Thomas to force home the Coons’ first run of the day. Gilberto Flores hit for Miranda (because Chris Parker couldn’t be expected to reach base even against an ailing 36-year old right-hander) and successfully slapped a single past Hector Cardenas to plate two runs and turn the score around. Bruno and Nordahl pitched perfect innings while the Coons stranded three in the meantime, getting Daniel Miller out with no cushion, and he gave up pinch-hit double to Jorge Lopez with one out. Talamante grounded out, moving Lopez to third base, and bringing up an 0-4 Cardenas. The Pacific grounded to third, Sharp bungled it, and Miller didn’t retire anybody else en route to the hook. The Critters trailed 4-3 into the bottom 9th and closer Peter Sanders retired Palacios to get going, but then Neil Reece reached on an infield single. Brady walked, Cavazos singled. One out, bags full – BUT … Albert Martin had been hit for earlier against a left-hander, and now Max Heart stared down the rifled gun that was Sanders’ arm. No, Chris Parker is not going to in that spot. Heart fell to 0-2, then hit one deep to right. Rodriguez caught it, but Reece tagged and scored. Sharp grounded out for more baseball for everybody, the Coons loaded the bags against Qi-zhen Geng with two outs in the bottom 10th, but Brady grounded out. We got our next chance – while Scott Wade handled the Pacifics respectably – in the bottom 12th with a leadoff single by Mark Thomas. Parker, who had entered the game with Wade in a double switch earlier, bunted him over, and then Qi-zhen Geng in his third inning threw a wild pitch that almost took Concie’s nose off. Thomas at third with one out, come on, Concie! They walked him intentionally to get a double play chance, but when Palacios grounded to second, Cardenas went home to nip Thomas instead, and the Coons failed to score again. Same scenario in the 13th, Brady led off with a double this time, and Wade bunted him to third (only Mata was left on the bench). Heart was walked intentionally (same old hat, huh?), and then the Pacifics brought a new arm in Ricardo Huerta for Sharp, who hit a soft fly to right, and Thomas rolled out to Huerta. Oh my goodness. Well, a favorable resolve would come finally in the next inning, and it came from the unlikeliest source. After Parker had made an out, Guerin was up again, facing Huerta – and hit a hard shot to deep center and OUTTA HERE!!! 5-4 Raccoons!! Guerin 2-7, BB, HR, RBI; Reece 2-6, RBI; Cavazos 3-4, BB; Flores (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Morris (PH) 1-1; Parker 1-2; Miranda 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; Wade 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

If you have to play fourteen, at least win. Then those fourteen weren’t for nought.

Afterwards, everybody thanked Daniel Sharp for having to play 5 1/2 extra innings. I heard that Miranda, Miller, Brady, Palacios, and Thomas taped him to his locker, while the senior section of the roster, Reece and Wade primarily, nodded approvingly.

That will teach the kid!

Game 2
LAP: SS J. Vega – 1B V. Martinez – LF A. Rodriguez – CF Talamante – RF Keshishian – C J. Lopez – 2B H. Cardenas – 3B H. Castro – P B. Osborne
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Cavazos – 1B Martin – 3B Morris – C Mata – P M. Lopez

Lopez faced an all-right-handed lineup, and this just could not go well. He would certainly not have an excuse for losing other than being wrecked by injuries, since the Raccoons stormed Osborne for five runs, crowned by a 3-shot by Albert Martin, in the first inning. In return, Lopez loaded the bags in the top 2nd, also with the help of a Morris error (third base, my, my…), and the Pacifics did not hit for Osborne with two out. Osborne flew deep to right, where Brady made a hero’s play to keep the zero on the scoreboard. Lopez was clearly coming apart in the fourth with the Pacifics back to 5-2, two on, two out, when Morris made his second error on a Martinez grounder and loaded the bases. Lopez faced Anibal Rodriguez, who was in the top 5 in career home runs for a reason, but we had burned our long man in the previous game… Lopez was left in, and Rodriguez struck out anyway. Reece and Brady brought home Guerin and Palacios in the bottom 5th to restore the old gap of five runs, but somehow the game got more and more wicked. Lopez struck out Hector Castro to start the top 6th – if only Mata had come up with the ball. Castro reached on the uncaught third strike, and it would be another awesome Brady play that kept him from scoring. Lopez lasted into the seventh, before a Talamante home run got him removed. Meeks pitched for five outs, before the Raccoons put up another four runs on the as-bad-as-advertised Pacifics bullpen in the eighth, three with a Palacios homer. That same bullpen had already issued three 2-out walks in the seventh, but Martin had flown out and they didn’t score then. Gutierrez came in to pitch the ninth, which was led off by Anibal Rodriguez, who had earlier had a key K against Lopez – and three more on the day. Five was the major league record, and Gutierrez whiffed him again for the full 100% of shame possible. Never mind that the useless Gutierrez gave up two runs before getting another two outs, but the real laughing sack was Rodriguez. 11-5 Coons! Guerin 3-5, RBI; Reece 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Brady 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Mata 2-4; Meeks 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

When I casually strolled through the clubhouse and through the locker room in the late innings, I found Daniel Sharp still taped rock steady to the locker, with wet pants, and mumbling – through the ten layers of tape keeping his mouth shut – for mercy. So that’s why we had to play Morris at third.

I casually strolled on.

Game 3
LAP: CF Talamante – LF F. Vasquez – 1B Battle – RF A. Rodriguez – C P. Ledesma – SS J. Vega – 2B H. Castro – 3B E. Wallace – P Coleman
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Cavazos – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Mata – P Farley

Well, *somebody* took Sharp down overnight, and I was suspecting Slappy. This game started with a bang, Talamante homering off Farley, which got the AAA guys stirring for sure. Martin tied the score with a solo shot of his own in the bottom 2nd, and Farley pitched himself into more trouble immediately, loading the bags with two out in the third. But like the day before with Lopez, he faced Rodriguez with two out and three on, and like Lopez he whiffed him. Both teams would load the bags with no outs in the fourth. While Farley ultimately conceded only one run (which tied the score after the Coons had gone up 2-1 in the bottom 3rd), the Coons didn’t do any better, with Talamante snagging a Sharp liner off the grass, Mata singling, but that was it, 3-2. Farley put the first two men on in the top 5th, and was removed, and everybody had a hunch that it would be more than five days before his next big league start. Nordahl came in, struck out Rodriguez (a recurring occurrence), and finally got out on a double play started by Guerin. He also pitched the sixth, and the seventh was a big stumble, but we still got out ahead 3-2 between Wade and Diaz. Guerin then shocked the Pacifics and Raccoons alike with another home run leading off the bottom 7th. With an earlier triple, he had actually both hard parts of the cycle knocked off, but lacked the single and double. As a group however, the Coons were badly struggling against Coleman, who struck out Cavazos to end the seventh, his 10th K on the day. Struggling too was Marcos Bruno in the top 8th, putting Castro on with a 1-out single, and then allowing a deep double to Wallace. Reece warped that wall back home, relayed by Palacios, and Mata tagged out Castro by more than whisker, but less than a beard. Miller got into a 4-2 game in the ninth, and this time nobody reached. 4-2 Coons! Guerin 2-4, HR, 3B, RBI; Martin 3-4, HR, RBI; Mata 2-4, RBI; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (3-0);

The Coons have now won eight of nine! Nobody quite knows what’s going on with this team after they lost 13 of 14 before that.

Meanwhile, Chris Parker is 0-20 as a pinch-hitter.

Also, the fate of Randy Farley was decided between me, Vince, and Slappy (whose presence irritated Vince) in the strategic war room on Thursday, which we had off. He would not make the trip to Indy, but rather to Florida. Let’s have him pitch without pressure for five, six starts, and see what we have. Meanwhile, Scott Wade might be our best bet to fill the void, but Vince was in favor of giving 23-yr old Felipe Garcia a try. He was 1-2 with a 5.95 ERA in AAA, but appeared to be really been betrayed by horrible defense. Garcia, a third round pick in 1995, had come over from the Capitals for AAA 1B Harry Jackson in December 1999.

Raccoons (16-19) @ Indians (18-14) – May 11-13, 2001

The Indians had swept us in April, but who hadn’t? They were scoring poorly (unless playing the Raccoons), ranking 11th in runs produced, but were in turn second-best in runs allowed with a very strong pitching staff. 1987 all over with these Indians? Well, then they beat us by a single game to the division, but that was before there were any Loggers or Titans around, and the Raccoons hadn’t had a self-inflaming pitching staff either.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (3-2, 3.83 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (1-1, 2.03 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (0-0) vs. Ben Carlson (1-2, 6.35 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-2, 2.89 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (3-3, 3.33 ERA)

Let it be noted that at this point we are roughly on the 72-90 course that I described as the best possible outcome for this team before the season started.

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – LF Cavazos – RF Brady – CF Reece – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Mata – P Bean
IND: 2B Montray – SS M. Jones – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – LF Alston – 1B J. Garcia – RF Lugo – CF J. Valdez – P J. Diaz

Clyde Brady recently made all the big plays, it seemed. After the Coons had gone up 1-0 in the top 1st, Bean loaded the bags in the bottom of the inning. With two out, Jesus Garcia hit a deep fly to right, and Brady pocketed it just off the wall. It would soon turn out to be another strange game. Diaz was walking countless batters, but the Raccoons couldn’t buy a timely hit. In turn, Bean walked just one, but also failed to strike batters out, and instead gave up countless singles, which led him to lose a 2-0 lead by the fifth, when a David Lopez singled plated Mike Jones to tie the contest. With the Indians having ten hits to the Raccoons’ three, Bean was removed in the bottom 7th with two men on to have Juan Diaz face the left-handed Ron Alston, resulting in an inning-ending K. Junior Diaz was still going in the eighth, issuing a leadoff walk to Clyde Brady – and that was Clyde’s fourth on the day. Cynically, removing the right-hander Diaz for the southpaw Kevin Jones to face Palacios and Martin did the Indians in, since both singled through on the right side, with Martin plating Brady to break the tie. Predictably, Sharp and Mata failed to hit Jones, who remained in the game, and left two men on. Although Guerin got on and stole his 10th base of the year, the Coons couldn’t manufacture another run in the ninth, when Brady the only time he wasn’t walked on the day grounded out instead. That game back to hurt the Coons now, when Miller came into the ninth, retired the first two, then put on Mike Jones with a single, and Jose Paraz homered to walk off the Indians. 4-3 Indians. Brady 0-1, 4 BB;

Ultimately, in a game that was as much pleasure as a wet T-shirt stuck to your back, justice was served. (And we knew beforehand that Daniel Miller was not a closer) Despite having half the Indians’ hits, the Coons left more men on base through the six walks that Diaz offered.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – LF Cavazos – RF Brady – CF Reece – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – C Mata – P F. Garcia
IND: 2B Montray – RF Lugo – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – LF Alston – 1B J. Garcia – SS Matthews – CF J. Valdez – P Carlson

The Indians rolled over Garcia with a truck, backed up, rolled over him again, and then finally made up their mind, kicked a forward gear in again, and rolled over him again before driving off. That’s a short version of his major league debut, in which he was battered for three runs in the first inning, another in the third, and was spared of more destruction only through a slick play by Brady (as usual). The Coons trailed 4-2 after four, with Palacios accounting for their only two runs, but both Garcia and Guerin reached on errors to begin the fifth inning. Such impunity must surely be punished, but Cavazos grounded into a force at second, and when Brady grounded to the mound, it had double play written all over it, except that Carlson bungled it for the Indians’ THIRD error of the inning. An unnerved Carlson then brushed a diving Neil Reece in the back, loading them up with one out, and walked Palacios to tie the score. It was the following pop by Martin that killed the inning and we left three men stranded once Sharp flew out to right. Garcia put two men on again in the bottom 5th and was hooked from the game, but Diaz failed to clean up against the lefty Alston and switch-hitter Jesus Garcia, allowing both runners to score. Neil Reece throwing out Alston at home on Adrian Matthews’ single ended the inning with only a 6-4 score and somehow by now the whole team was to blame. But we got a spark again, and Ramiro Cavazos tied the score with a 2-shot in the top 6th. Boy, oh, boy, it was waging back and forth! The two CL leaders in home runs were both in this game in David Lopez and Jesus Palacios, and who would get to ten homers first? Palacios! His leadoff jack in the seventh gave the Coons their first lead in the game! At some point, however, the bullpen had to withstand another outing by Pancho Gutierrez, even if that meant putting him into the seventh with a 7-6 lead. The Indians quickly had two on with one out, when Jesus Garcia lifted a ball to shallow center. Jose Paraz, the lead runner, went, as did Neil Reece, and what Paraz couldn’t have seen coming was that Reece at 34 was still a cheetah in coonish disguise – he caught, he threw, he double-played Gutierrez out of the bucket full of **** he was standing in. The Raccoons scratched out an extra run in the eighth, and Nordahl held on to that, bringing Miller out with a 2-run advantage this time around. Phil Montray led off and lined hard into the glove that a hastily dropping Miller reflexively raised to protect his noggin. Miller needed a minute to shake that one off, then resumed pitching – and walked Lugo. And walked Paraz. Oh noes! He was clearly off now, and we hurriedly threw in Scott Wade to face David Lopez, who wanted that home run lead back. However, Wade struck him out on three straight strikes, and Alston worked a full count, but eventually whiffed as well. 8-6 Raccoons. Cavazos 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Brady 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Reece 2-4; Palacios 2-4, BB, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Morris 1-2, 3B;

I wouldn’t quite have dreamed about Jesus Palacios leading the home run race in mid-May. He has ten, Lopez has nine. Milwaukee’s Mark Hall has nine as well. The only guy topping Palacios is Dallas’ Mac Woods in the FL with 11 dingers.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Cavazos – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – 1B Heart – P Ford
IND: 2B Matthews – LF Quintela – 3B D. Lopez – RF J. Valdez – C Abrams – CF Maguey – 1B Montray – SS Gallegos – P Mosher

Ex-Coon Anthony Mosher was perfect the first time through the Raccoons lineup, while Ralph Ford sucked all along. Juan Valdez lifted the Indians in the third with a 2-run homer, and Ford got the bases loaded with inability, then walked David Lopez to force home the third run of the game in the fourth. Ford couldn’t get anybody out in the fifth either, and once Phil Montray – the only left-handed batter they fielded! – singled home another run, Ford was yanked. Things got easily worse with Elliott Meeks replacing Ford, and the Indians were atop 6-0 while the Raccoons had managed one hit through five innings. While Meeks saved his pelt by pitching clean through the seventh, the Raccoons were just plain failing. They amounted to three hits ultimately, and never progressed past second base. 6-0 Indians. Cavazos 2-4;

For accounting purposes, I will mention that Neil Reece had the only other hit, and somehow we still managed to hit into two double plays.

Well, not only did good pitching beat good (“good”) hitting in this series, but bad hitting also beat up abominable pitching.

In other news

May 9 – SFW SP Pat Cherry (5-1, 1.77 ERA) is still dominant at age 35, and 2-hits the Falcons in an 11-0 romp.
May 11 – Blue Sox infielder Pedro Edralín (.336, 1 HR, 24 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after contributing two hits and the game-winning RBI in a 10-9 win over the Buffaloes.
May 11 – LVA 1B/3B Javier Vargas (.278, 1 HR, 5 RBI) will miss up to a month with a strained hamstring.
May 12 – OCT INF Bob Grant (.308, 5 HR, 28 RBI) has strained an abdominal muscle and will have to sit out the rest of the month.
May 12 – While the Buffaloes chill Pedro Edralín’s hitting streak at 25 games, Denver’s Zak Davidson (.413, 0 HR, 14 RBI) keeps going at a rapid pace, connecting three times in a 6-5 Gold Sox win over the Wolves to reach 25 games.

Complaints and stuff

Chris Parker as pinch-hitter: 0-22. Is that even possible?

Apart from that, it was the second good week in a row, even if it ended with a real stinker, against a pitcher I grow to hate. Despite two hits by Ramiro Cavazos, he lost the lead in the batting race in the CL on Sunday to Joey Humphrey, who lobbed three knocks against the Aces. The Thunder won all their games this week, btw.

The Coons are in the top half in every offensive category in the CL except stolen bases (7th). They lead in hits and home runs (and still are only fourth in runs). Pitching-wise. Ouch. They are in the bottom four in every category except strikeouts (3rd), and LAST in home runs.

Sunday also saw Randy Farley in his first AAA start, where he claimed a win in 8.2 innings with 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K. So, *technically*, he is still able to deliver. We will however have him pitch at least three or four more games. Vince will notify me once he has suffered enough indignity. Felipe Garcia ain’t a permanent solution anyway.