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Westheim · 03-23-2015, 03:08 PM

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 2-4, 2002

New year, new luck? Facing the reigning world champions right away might not be the best opportunity to get out of the gate. The Titans had shed some talent, mostly pitching, but had acquired new players this winter and were certainly not going to drop to 105 losses all of a sudden. That’s something only Coons can do.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (0-0) vs. Jason O’Halloran (0-0)
Ralph Ford (0-0) vs. Steven Snyder (0-0)
Randy Farley (0-0) vs. Jorge Chapa (0-0)

Two left-handers to get the year underway in this opening series, with Snyder being the odd one out.

Game 1
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Matsumoto – LF Jin – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 3B Austin – CF Garrison – 1B H. Ramirez – P O’Halloran
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – C Thomas – P Bean

Through nine outs in the season opener, there were six K’s and no hits in the box score, but a Roberson single in the bottom 2nd got the offense rising. Martin singled, and Palacios walked, and all of a sudden the bags were full. O’Halloran walked in a run against Mark Thomas, and the Raccoons would plate three in total in the frame. The Titans didn’t get a hit until the fourth, didn’t score, and although the fifth started with an error by Concie and the Titans put two in scoring position in the inning, they still didn’t score. Carl Bean retired Silva to start the sixth – and then pulled something and left the game. Here we go – to the bullpen. Miller completed the sixth without accidents, before we waved in our first new guy to showcase himself, Kevin Jones, in the seventh. He walked the first man he faced, Gonzalo Munoz. Luis Lopez hitting into a double play fixed that. Then Jones walked Mark Austin. And Rudy Garrison. For SOME reason or other, the game did not instantly explode in the Raccoons’ fuzzy faces and the Titans failed to score when Hector Ramirez hacked himself out against Jones. It was the only episode of shoddy pitching for the Coons on this day, however. Manuel Martinez struck out the side in the eighth, and Marcos Bruno didn’t whiff anybody in the ninth, but also didn’t allow anybody on base. 4-0 Coons! Roberson 3-4; Palacios 1-2, 2B, RBI; Bean 5.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

That hit that Bean allowed, and that walk, and the three walks off Jones, were all the Titans got. We were one double away from a combined no-hitter in our opener, and who had that offending double? Why, of course, the ex-Raccoon, Chih-tui Jin!

Bean had tweaked his hammy, but it was not TOO bad and he might not even miss his next start on Sunday.

And for what it was worth, we held a share of first place in the CL North.

Game 2
BOS: SS D. Silva – CF Garrison – 1B Matsumoto – RF G. Munoz – LF Jin – 3B V. Flores – 2B D. Mendez – C Bader – P Snyder
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – P Ford

Neil Reece went 0-5 to start the season, but his first hit counted big, plating the first three runs of the game in the bottom 3rd of the middle contest. Steven Snyder was quicker out of this game than one could say bibbe-di-bubbe-di-boo, with the Coons mashing RBI doubles off the bats of Ford(!) and Palacios in the bottom 4th, and then Reece singled home those two for a 7-0 score. The Titans’ response was to pitch Orlando Blanco – they knew they had lost. Blanco promptly surrendered another two runs the next inning, and the Raccoons were able to add power with solo home runs by Palacios in the seventh and Martin in the eighth, running the score into double digits. The Titans had nothing going at all. Ford was pulled after eight, though, as he was way past his bed time approaching 120 pitches. Ricardo Huerta was brought out with the lead pretty much unblowable. Munoz drew a walk, but that was it for the Titans. 11-0 Raccoons!! Palacios 4-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Reece 3-5, HR, 5 RBI; Martin 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Ford 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-0) and 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Okay, who are you lot, and where is my team?

Game 3
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Matsumoto – LF Jin – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 3B Austin – CF Garrison – 1B H. Ramirez – P Chapa
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – P Farley

The Titans, scoreless in their first two games this season, came pretty close in the third inning of the third game they played. Hector Ramirez reached on a 1-out infield single, the first hit in the game, before Farley through away Chapa’s bunt and all of a sudden there were two in scoring position with one out. Farley struck out Daniel Silva to quell the threat, while Matsumoto gently lifted a ball to Reece for the third out. Their drought ended the next inning however, and it did so in force. Farley gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases, and then faced Ramirez with two down. Ramirez rammed a double off the wall in center, and all three runners circled around to score. Farley surrendered another run over six innings, and the Titans got another one of those runs off Daniel Miller in the seventh. The Raccoons took the Titans’ spot from the last two days and were entirely silenced by Chapa over seven innings, and things really did not improve for them against the bullpen this time. Orlando Blanco didn’t pitch. 5-0 Titans.

Ah, *there*’s my team! Good to see you’re alive and weren’t collected by the body snatchers…

Yay.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Aces (1-3) – April 5-7, 2002

The Aces had been pelted by the Condors to start the season, with neither their hitting nor their pitching particularly shining brightly.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Rafael De Jesus (0-0)
Felipe Garcia (0-0) vs. Dan Moriarty (0-1, 23.63 ERA)
Carl Bean (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (0-1, 4.70 ERA)

De Jesus was a 22-year old righty with 30 innings on his major league clock, all in 22 relief appearances over the last two seasons, amassing a not so strong 7.20 ERA. This was his first career start in the Bigs.

Game 1
LVA: CF Talamante – C De La Parra – 2B O. Torres – LF L. Jenkins – 1B J. Vargas – RF Ghiberti – SS Cerdeira – SS Hitchcock – P R. De Jesus
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Parker – C Thomas – P Brown

For the first time all season, Guerin led off an inning and actually got on base, here in the bottom 1st. He instantly swiped his first base of the year (and he’s gotta catch up to Daniel Silva’s grand total of one). Reece would double him home, and we and Nicky were up 1-0. Nicky looked good through two frames, but in the third some dam broke. Between the first six Aces up to bat in the inning, five hit singles, and the sixth reached base on an error – by Nicky. The Aces plated four runs, all unearned, and Brown sat in a terrible, terrible hole. Bottom 4th, the Raccoons started to accumulate on base. They got back to 4-2, and Parker and Thomas were on second and first with one out and Brown batting. De Jesus threw a wild pitch, moving up the runners, and then Brown hit a liner to center that Talamante managed to misplay and another run scored. Concie’s single tied the game, and De Jesus was handed the short side of the line score in the next inning when Martin doubled off the wall in right, and scored on Sharp’s sharp single to center. Brown meanwhile – apart from the massive, MASSIVE hiccups he had in the third inning, mastered the Aces more or less alright. When he struck out Javier Vargas at the start of the sixth inning, that was already his TENTH of the game. Cerdeira was added to the list before the inning ended. The Raccoons loaded the bases with one out in the bottom 6th, but Reece grounded into a double play, keeping the score at Raccoons 5, Aces 4. Brown looked unbeatable – and all of a sudden wasn’t. Two out in the seventh, he walked PH Dick Bell and Talamante in succession. Manuel Martinez came in to face the right-handed catcher De La Parra, but couldn’t cut it, and De La Parra sent a double over Neil Reece’s head and off the wall. Reece got a good carom however. While Bell was going to score, Talamante was rocketed down by Reece at the plate, at least conserving a tie. That tie was short-lived, with Albert Martin mashing a home run in the bottom of the inning off Don Davis, before the Raccoons left a pair in scoring position. Top 8th, up by one, Jones was tasked with Oliver Torres, the only lefty in the Aces lineup – and walked him on four straight. Bruno replaced him and for the second straight time, our reliever gave up a game-tying RBI double right away. Nordahl pitched a clean ninth, which was a nice change for once, in his first appearance of the year, and the Aces sent their alleged closer, Charlie Deacon, for the bottom 9th in the 6-6 tie and I thought we had a chance, but he was not tagged and we went to extras. Deacon was still at it in the bottom 10th, retired two, before Roberson hit a pinch-hit double, Guerin walked, and Palacios was hit by a pitch. Neil Reece, three on, two out, the count slowly but surely ran full and Reece casually looked at the sixth pitch, which was way low. Walkoff walk! 7-6 (10) Raccoons! Guerin 3-5, BB, RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Martin 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Thomas 2-3, BB, 2B; Roberson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Brown 6.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0);

Well, that was a nail biter! Brown gave up five runs, but somehow … well… the Aces reached base against him in only two innings, and both times it escalated pretty badly, but if those hits are spaced out, nobody scored for them possibly. So, we chalk this one up to bad luck, and besides, he casually set another top 15 single game strikeout performance for the franchise. He now has two of those. And he has yet to start a double digit number of major league games.

Game 2
LVA: SS Hitchcock – 1B J. Vargas – 2B O. Torres – RF L. Jenkins – LF McCormick – CF Ghiberti – C L. Paredes – 3B Combes – P Moriarty
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – LF Roberson – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Ingall – C Thomas – P F. Garcia

Garcia pitched remarkably well in his first outing of the season, allowing no runs and getting a 3-0 lead handed to him in the bottom 3rd, in which Moriarty issued three walks and Roberson hit a 2-run double in between. Well, Garcia allowed on runs through five. In the sixth inning, the Aces blew him up, with a leadoff jack by Oliver Torres, and a 2-run shot by Ricco Ghiberti. It all went down the drain very, very quickly. Garcia got no decision, surrendering one batter in the seventh before putting a man on and yielding to Kevin Jones. Two out, Jones was 3-0 on Lou Jenkins, when Jenkins poked and made the third out, leaving the go-ahead run on base. In the bottom 8th of this tied game, Ian Johnson came in relief to face Clyde Brady, but issued a 2-out walk. Ingall was next, and Johnson continued to throw balls. At 3-1, Ingall guessed that one could come pretty fat in the zone, and didn’t guess wrong. He was still a solid hitter: the shot vanished in the left field stands for a 2-run homer! Despite throwing 30 pitches the day before, Dan Nordahl came out for the ninth. He faced three right-handers, and got three grounders to Palacios – ballgame! 5-3 Raccoons! Guerin 1-2, 2 BB; Brady 2-3, BB, 2B; Ingall 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

In Vancouver, the Elks got clobbered 14-1 by the Thunder, and with this the Raccoons moved into sole position of first place! Davin Vinson hit two home runs in that game.

Game 3
LVA: CF Talamante – 1B J. Vargas – 2B O. Torres – RF L. Jenkins – LF McCormick – C De La Parra – SS Hitchcock – 3B Combes – P A. Rios
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Parker – C Fifield – P Bean

The first run of the game was driven in by none other than Carl Bean. He did it in style, as Rios still was facing the minimum and had two strikes on Bean in the bottom 3rd. That’s when Bean hit it out, as simple as that. 1-0 Coons. However, no more offense seemed to be forthcoming. The team had only one other hit through five innings, and in the sixth Talamante hit an infield single to lead off the frame, and Torres tripled him in to tie the score at one. The Aces left the go-ahead run on third base the next inning, and the Raccoons couldn’t get anything going, merely reaching second base in the seventh, their furthest advance since Bean touched them all. Bean accordingly did not get a decision, leaving when the left-handed core came up in the eighth. The Aces left two on base in each of the next two innings, giving the Coons another chance to walk off in the bottom 9th, facing Deacon again. After a leadoff single by Palacios, we used a .143 batting Clyde Brady to bunt him into scoring position for Roberson and Martin. Actually, just Roberson. His liner under Hitchcock’s extended glove went into center and Palacios ran like a mad man and scored. 2-1 Furballs!! Palacios 2-4; Bean 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K and 1-2, HR, RBI;

The Coons! Squee!

In other news

April 1 – No joke: Tijuana’s Jose Maldonado (1-0, 0.00 ERA) opens the year in style with an Opening Day 4-hit shutout, while the offense crushes the Aces, 10-0.
April 2 – TIJ RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.625, 3 HR, 6 RBI) shows who’s boss: the all time home run leader casually ups his total to 367 dingers by blasting three of them in an 8-4 Condors win over the poor Aces. It is only the 12th time an ABL batter blasts three shots in one game, and the first time in five years (SFB Pedro Perez, 1997). It is also the first time a Condor has done it, but the Aces are three-bombed for the second time in frachise history. Luis Arroyo, when with the Canadiens in ’94, did the favors to them before, and that game was also an 8-4 loss for them.
April 4 – SFB OF Tom Walls (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI) hit in his last 16 games in last season, and he continued his streak to start the new year, knocking four hits in four days to extend the streak to 20 games.
April 5 – The first significant injury of the year strikes, with the Loggers’ OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.300, 0 HR, 0 RBI) suffering an oblique strain and looking at two months on the DL.
April 6 – DEN 3B/SS Zak Davidson (.278, 0 HR, 0 RBI) signs a 5-yr, $11M contract extension with the team.

Complaints and stuff

Squee!!

Well, we will have to see how much of our admittedly electric pitching (if you subtract a certain left-handed reliever who has faced nine batters and walked 44% of them), and we have not gotten much production outside from our infielders and Neil Reece, but first place is first place is first place. And well, the one loss we ran into a strong pitcher. Jorge Chapa annihilated us on Thursday. That happens. No need to not be all Squee today!

First place! No matter how long it lasts, it is refreshing not to start a season 3-10 once in a while!

I went back and counted again, and if I’m not mistaken, our pitching corps started the season with only 206 wins between all of them. I can’t recall whether we ever had an Opening Day roster that green… Then again, we didn’t have an Opening Day roster without a Kisho Saito or Scott Wade and their experience for about 15 years…

On another note, Vern Kinnear, Certifield World Series Hero, is with the Titans again. They didn't use him in our series, not even to swing a few bats in the dugout to get them warmed up...

Who are those guys that ever struck out more than 10 batters for the team and how soon is Nick Brown going to roll over them?

4: Kisho Saito (12 once, 11 thrice)
2: Nick Brown (13 once, 11 once)
2: Manuel Movonda (11 twice)
2: Jason Turner (11 twice)
1: Ralph Ford (12 once)
1: Steven Berry (12 once)
1: Antonio Donis (11 once)
1: Logan Evans (11 once)

Tell me. Do you think Kisho is sitting over there in Japan and watching us?

03-23-2015, 03:08 PM	#1204
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,779	Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 2-4, 2002 New year, new luck? Facing the reigning world champions right away might not be the best opportunity to get out of the gate. The Titans had shed some talent, mostly pitching, but had acquired new players this winter and were certainly not going to drop to 105 losses all of a sudden. That’s something only Coons can do. Projected matchups: Carl Bean (0-0) vs. Jason O’Halloran (0-0) Ralph Ford (0-0) vs. Steven Snyder (0-0) Randy Farley (0-0) vs. Jorge Chapa (0-0) Two left-handers to get the year underway in this opening series, with Snyder being the odd one out. Game 1 BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Matsumoto – LF Jin – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 3B Austin – CF Garrison – 1B H. Ramirez – P O’Halloran POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – C Thomas – P Bean Through nine outs in the season opener, there were six K’s and no hits in the box score, but a Roberson single in the bottom 2nd got the offense rising. Martin singled, and Palacios walked, and all of a sudden the bags were full. O’Halloran walked in a run against Mark Thomas, and the Raccoons would plate three in total in the frame. The Titans didn’t get a hit until the fourth, didn’t score, and although the fifth started with an error by Concie and the Titans put two in scoring position in the inning, they still didn’t score. Carl Bean retired Silva to start the sixth – and then pulled something and left the game. Here we go – to the bullpen. Miller completed the sixth without accidents, before we waved in our first new guy to showcase himself, Kevin Jones, in the seventh. He walked the first man he faced, Gonzalo Munoz. Luis Lopez hitting into a double play fixed that. Then Jones walked Mark Austin. And Rudy Garrison. For SOME reason or other, the game did not instantly explode in the Raccoons’ fuzzy faces and the Titans failed to score when Hector Ramirez hacked himself out against Jones. It was the only episode of shoddy pitching for the Coons on this day, however. Manuel Martinez struck out the side in the eighth, and Marcos Bruno didn’t whiff anybody in the ninth, but also didn’t allow anybody on base. 4-0 Coons! Roberson 3-4; Palacios 1-2, 2B, RBI; Bean 5.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0); That hit that Bean allowed, and that walk, and the three walks off Jones, were all the Titans got. We were one double away from a combined no-hitter in our opener, and who had that offending double? Why, of course, the ex-Raccoon, Chih-tui Jin! Bean had tweaked his hammy, but it was not TOO bad and he might not even miss his next start on Sunday. And for what it was worth, we held a share of first place in the CL North. Game 2 BOS: SS D. Silva – CF Garrison – 1B Matsumoto – RF G. Munoz – LF Jin – 3B V. Flores – 2B D. Mendez – C Bader – P Snyder POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – P Ford Neil Reece went 0-5 to start the season, but his first hit counted big, plating the first three runs of the game in the bottom 3rd of the middle contest. Steven Snyder was quicker out of this game than one could say bibbe-di-bubbe-di-boo, with the Coons mashing RBI doubles off the bats of Ford(!) and Palacios in the bottom 4th, and then Reece singled home those two for a 7-0 score. The Titans’ response was to pitch Orlando Blanco – they knew they had lost. Blanco promptly surrendered another two runs the next inning, and the Raccoons were able to add power with solo home runs by Palacios in the seventh and Martin in the eighth, running the score into double digits. The Titans had nothing going at all. Ford was pulled after eight, though, as he was way past his bed time approaching 120 pitches. Ricardo Huerta was brought out with the lead pretty much unblowable. Munoz drew a walk, but that was it for the Titans. 11-0 Raccoons!! Palacios 4-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Reece 3-5, HR, 5 RBI; Martin 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Ford 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K, W (1-0) and 2-4, 2B, RBI; Okay, who are you lot, and where is my team? Game 3 BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Matsumoto – LF Jin – RF G. Munoz – C L. Lopez – 3B Austin – CF Garrison – 1B H. Ramirez – P Chapa POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – RF Brady – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – C Fifield – P Farley The Titans, scoreless in their first two games this season, came pretty close in the third inning of the third game they played. Hector Ramirez reached on a 1-out infield single, the first hit in the game, before Farley through away Chapa’s bunt and all of a sudden there were two in scoring position with one out. Farley struck out Daniel Silva to quell the threat, while Matsumoto gently lifted a ball to Reece for the third out. Their drought ended the next inning however, and it did so in force. Farley gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases, and then faced Ramirez with two down. Ramirez rammed a double off the wall in center, and all three runners circled around to score. Farley surrendered another run over six innings, and the Titans got another one of those runs off Daniel Miller in the seventh. The Raccoons took the Titans’ spot from the last two days and were entirely silenced by Chapa over seven innings, and things really did not improve for them against the bullpen this time. Orlando Blanco didn’t pitch. 5-0 Titans. Ah, there’s my team! Good to see you’re alive and weren’t collected by the body snatchers… Yay. Raccoons (2-1) vs. Aces (1-3) – April 5-7, 2002 The Aces had been pelted by the Condors to start the season, with neither their hitting nor their pitching particularly shining brightly. Projected matchups: Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Rafael De Jesus (0-0) Felipe Garcia (0-0) vs. Dan Moriarty (0-1, 23.63 ERA) Carl Bean (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (0-1, 4.70 ERA) De Jesus was a 22-year old righty with 30 innings on his major league clock, all in 22 relief appearances over the last two seasons, amassing a not so strong 7.20 ERA. This was his first career start in the Bigs. Game 1 LVA: CF Talamante – C De La Parra – 2B O. Torres – LF L. Jenkins – 1B J. Vargas – RF Ghiberti – SS Cerdeira – SS Hitchcock – P R. De Jesus POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Parker – C Thomas – P Brown For the first time all season, Guerin led off an inning and actually got on base, here in the bottom 1st. He instantly swiped his first base of the year (and he’s gotta catch up to Daniel Silva’s grand total of one). Reece would double him home, and we and Nicky were up 1-0. Nicky looked good through two frames, but in the third some dam broke. Between the first six Aces up to bat in the inning, five hit singles, and the sixth reached base on an error – by Nicky. The Aces plated four runs, all unearned, and Brown sat in a terrible, terrible hole. Bottom 4th, the Raccoons started to accumulate on base. They got back to 4-2, and Parker and Thomas were on second and first with one out and Brown batting. De Jesus threw a wild pitch, moving up the runners, and then Brown hit a liner to center that Talamante managed to misplay and another run scored. Concie’s single tied the game, and De Jesus was handed the short side of the line score in the next inning when Martin doubled off the wall in right, and scored on Sharp’s sharp single to center. Brown meanwhile – apart from the massive, MASSIVE hiccups he had in the third inning, mastered the Aces more or less alright. When he struck out Javier Vargas at the start of the sixth inning, that was already his TENTH of the game. Cerdeira was added to the list before the inning ended. The Raccoons loaded the bases with one out in the bottom 6th, but Reece grounded into a double play, keeping the score at Raccoons 5, Aces 4. Brown looked unbeatable – and all of a sudden wasn’t. Two out in the seventh, he walked PH Dick Bell and Talamante in succession. Manuel Martinez came in to face the right-handed catcher De La Parra, but couldn’t cut it, and De La Parra sent a double over Neil Reece’s head and off the wall. Reece got a good carom however. While Bell was going to score, Talamante was rocketed down by Reece at the plate, at least conserving a tie. That tie was short-lived, with Albert Martin mashing a home run in the bottom of the inning off Don Davis, before the Raccoons left a pair in scoring position. Top 8th, up by one, Jones was tasked with Oliver Torres, the only lefty in the Aces lineup – and walked him on four straight. Bruno replaced him and for the second straight time, our reliever gave up a game-tying RBI double right away. Nordahl pitched a clean ninth, which was a nice change for once, in his first appearance of the year, and the Aces sent their alleged closer, Charlie Deacon, for the bottom 9th in the 6-6 tie and I thought we had a chance, but he was not tagged and we went to extras. Deacon was still at it in the bottom 10th, retired two, before Roberson hit a pinch-hit double, Guerin walked, and Palacios was hit by a pitch. Neil Reece, three on, two out, the count slowly but surely ran full and Reece casually looked at the sixth pitch, which was way low. Walkoff walk! 7-6 (10) Raccoons! Guerin 3-5, BB, RBI; Reece 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Martin 3-5, HR, 2B, RBI; Thomas 2-3, BB, 2B; Roberson (PH) 1-1, 2B; Brown 6.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, W (1-0); Well, that was a nail biter! Brown gave up five runs, but somehow … well… the Aces reached base against him in only two innings, and both times it escalated pretty badly, but if those hits are spaced out, nobody scored for them possibly. So, we chalk this one up to bad luck, and besides, he casually set another top 15 single game strikeout performance for the franchise. He now has two of those. And he has yet to start a double digit number of major league games. Game 2 LVA: SS Hitchcock – 1B J. Vargas – 2B O. Torres – RF L. Jenkins – LF McCormick – CF Ghiberti – C L. Paredes – 3B Combes – P Moriarty POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – LF Roberson – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Ingall – C Thomas – P F. Garcia Garcia pitched remarkably well in his first outing of the season, allowing no runs and getting a 3-0 lead handed to him in the bottom 3rd, in which Moriarty issued three walks and Roberson hit a 2-run double in between. Well, Garcia allowed on runs through five. In the sixth inning, the Aces blew him up, with a leadoff jack by Oliver Torres, and a 2-run shot by Ricco Ghiberti. It all went down the drain very, very quickly. Garcia got no decision, surrendering one batter in the seventh before putting a man on and yielding to Kevin Jones. Two out, Jones was 3-0 on Lou Jenkins, when Jenkins poked and made the third out, leaving the go-ahead run on base. In the bottom 8th of this tied game, Ian Johnson came in relief to face Clyde Brady, but issued a 2-out walk. Ingall was next, and Johnson continued to throw balls. At 3-1, Ingall guessed that one could come pretty fat in the zone, and didn’t guess wrong. He was still a solid hitter: the shot vanished in the left field stands for a 2-run homer! Despite throwing 30 pitches the day before, Dan Nordahl came out for the ninth. He faced three right-handers, and got three grounders to Palacios – ballgame! 5-3 Raccoons! Guerin 1-2, 2 BB; Brady 2-3, BB, 2B; Ingall 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; In Vancouver, the Elks got clobbered 14-1 by the Thunder, and with this the Raccoons moved into sole position of first place! Davin Vinson hit two home runs in that game. Game 3 LVA: CF Talamante – 1B J. Vargas – 2B O. Torres – RF L. Jenkins – LF McCormick – C De La Parra – SS Hitchcock – 3B Combes – P A. Rios POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – LF Parker – C Fifield – P Bean The first run of the game was driven in by none other than Carl Bean. He did it in style, as Rios still was facing the minimum and had two strikes on Bean in the bottom 3rd. That’s when Bean hit it out, as simple as that. 1-0 Coons. However, no more offense seemed to be forthcoming. The team had only one other hit through five innings, and in the sixth Talamante hit an infield single to lead off the frame, and Torres tripled him in to tie the score at one. The Aces left the go-ahead run on third base the next inning, and the Raccoons couldn’t get anything going, merely reaching second base in the seventh, their furthest advance since Bean touched them all. Bean accordingly did not get a decision, leaving when the left-handed core came up in the eighth. The Aces left two on base in each of the next two innings, giving the Coons another chance to walk off in the bottom 9th, facing Deacon again. After a leadoff single by Palacios, we used a .143 batting Clyde Brady to bunt him into scoring position for Roberson and Martin. Actually, just Roberson. His liner under Hitchcock’s extended glove went into center and Palacios ran like a mad man and scored. 2-1 Furballs!! Palacios 2-4; Bean 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K and 1-2, HR, RBI; The Coons! Squee! In other news April 1 – No joke: Tijuana’s Jose Maldonado (1-0, 0.00 ERA) opens the year in style with an Opening Day 4-hit shutout, while the offense crushes the Aces, 10-0. April 2 – TIJ RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.625, 3 HR, 6 RBI) shows who’s boss: the all time home run leader casually ups his total to 367 dingers by blasting three of them in an 8-4 Condors win over the poor Aces. It is only the 12th time an ABL batter blasts three shots in one game, and the first time in five years (SFB Pedro Perez, 1997). It is also the first time a Condor has done it, but the Aces are three-bombed for the second time in frachise history. Luis Arroyo, when with the Canadiens in ’94, did the favors to them before, and that game was also an 8-4 loss for them. April 4 – SFB OF Tom Walls (.333, 0 HR, 0 RBI) hit in his last 16 games in last season, and he continued his streak to start the new year, knocking four hits in four days to extend the streak to 20 games. April 5 – The first significant injury of the year strikes, with the Loggers’ OF/1B Jerry Fletcher (.300, 0 HR, 0 RBI) suffering an oblique strain and looking at two months on the DL. April 6 – DEN 3B/SS Zak Davidson (.278, 0 HR, 0 RBI) signs a 5-yr, $11M contract extension with the team. Complaints and stuff Squee!! Well, we will have to see how much of our admittedly electric pitching (if you subtract a certain left-handed reliever who has faced nine batters and walked 44% of them), and we have not gotten much production outside from our infielders and Neil Reece, but first place is first place is first place. And well, the one loss we ran into a strong pitcher. Jorge Chapa annihilated us on Thursday. That happens. No need to not be all Squee today! First place! No matter how long it lasts, it is refreshing not to start a season 3-10 once in a while! I went back and counted again, and if I’m not mistaken, our pitching corps started the season with only 206 wins between all of them. I can’t recall whether we ever had an Opening Day roster that green… Then again, we didn’t have an Opening Day roster without a Kisho Saito or Scott Wade and their experience for about 15 years… On another note, Vern Kinnear, Certifield World Series Hero, is with the Titans again. They didn't use him in our series, not even to swing a few bats in the dugout to get them warmed up... Who are those guys that ever struck out more than 10 batters for the team and how soon is Nick Brown going to roll over them? 4: Kisho Saito (12 once, 11 thrice) 2: Nick Brown (13 once, 11 once) 2: Manuel Movonda (11 twice) 2: Jason Turner (11 twice) 1: Ralph Ford (12 once) 1: Steven Berry (12 once) 1: Antonio Donis (11 once) 1: Logan Evans (11 once) Tell me. Do you think Kisho is sitting over there in Japan and watching us? Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.