[Westheim]

Raccoons (14-15) @ Wolves (14-14) – May 9-11, 2003

The Raccoons were to play down the road in Salem over the weekend, and I didn’t go. I couldn’t. I had seen a little bit too much recently. I’d leave the team to Lance Cox, who should be man and manager enough to give the suckers The Look if necessary.

We faced a thoroughly average team with no particularly glaring strengths of weaknesses. The Wolves had a -4 run differential, compared to -11 for the Raccoons.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-5, 7.79 ERA) vs. Dan Moriarty (4-1, 2.82 ERA)
Carl Bean (4-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Wilson Hernandez (4-2, 4.98 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-3, 4.13 ERA) vs. Manny Guzmán (1-4, 4.63 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 2B Ingall – RF Brady – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – C Fifield – CF Lyon – SS McLaughlin – P Ford
SAL: CF Summers – SS Hutchinson – RF J. Flores – C J. Lopez – 2B Metting – LF Nixon – 1B Fleming – 3B McGreary – P Moriarty

Ingall single, walks to Brady and Reece, and – SCREECH. Moriarty held the Coons to a sac fly in the first. Hard pressed for any kind of pitching, the Raccoons started Ralph Ford the day after he appeared in relief against the Crusaders, but Ford held up remarkably well and pitched four scoreless frames. He missed wildly in the fifth and was removed, with Marcos Bruno taking over and preserving the 1-0 lead. The Coons had the bases loaded with no outs in the sixth again, but again couldn’t get another hit, but at least scored two runs on a bases-loaded walk to Ramirez and a groundout by Fifield. Bruno almost made it through three innings, but when the Wolves had two on with two out in the bottom 7th and lefty Orlando Rios hit for Moriarty, Benton Wilson was called on and got Rios to ground out to Ingall. The Coons added two runs in the eighth, including the sixth homer of the year for Al Martin, but when Wilson put a man on in the bottom 8th we brought Nordahl in, the only rested pitcher we had left. Nordahl surrendered a homer to Jorge Lopez, the first man he faced, and it was 5-2. The offensive players, knowing Nordahl well enough, tacked on two runs, and Nordahl continued to get whacked in the bottom 9th, but a launching catch by Miguel Ramirez ended the game before the Wolves could raise his ERA beyond ridiculous. 7-2 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, BB, 2B; Reece 3-4, BB, 2 2B; Ramirez 2-2, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Ford 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K; Bruno 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, W (1-1) and 1-1;

Felipe Garcia has been diagnosed with a small tear in his labrum. He will be out for two months as we try to avoid surgery. So, as Garcia heads to the DL, we call up Ricky Beach, a 29-year old right-hander, who was a 10th round pick by the Canadiens in 1995. He made 20 starts for the 2001 Thunder, going 10-6 with a 4.16 ERA. We added him from the scrap heap in late April. Normally, we’d go with either Ramón Meza or winter addition Fernando Piquero, but both are posting ERA’s north of seven in St. Petersburg, and are a big factor in that team playing 6-24 baseball.

Like we don’t have enough problems.

We will pitch Bean and Brown on short rest while Beach will be available in relief. We have an off day on Monday, and with Farley going in the first game against Richmond at home, we won’t need Beach to start until Wednesday. That should be plenty of regeneration time for Beach to appear in at least one game.

Meanwhile, Dan Nordahl’s K/9 and ERA are the same right now, which is never a good thing: 8.03;

Game 2
POR: RF Brady – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – SS McLaughlin – P Bean
SAL: LF Bass – 2B Metting – RF J. Flores – C J. Lopez – SS Hutchinson – 1B Fleming – CF Guerra – 3B O. Rios – P W. Hernandez

Wilson Hernandez had already walked a pair when he faced Carl Bean with the bases loaded and two down in the top 2nd. Bean was perhaps the best-batting pitcher we had, and it really showed, as he battled out a walk that forced in the first run of the game. Brady singled, and Hernandez would throw a wild pitch to make it 3-0 in short time. Bean was perhaps the best-batting pitcher on the team, but he might not be the best-pitching pitcher, and gave back a run right away, before in the third inning there was a collision of second basemen at second base as Metting clobbered into Palacios to break up a double play. Breaking it up he did, but he also strained something on the play and left the game. The Wolves didn’t score in the inning, keeping the score at 3-1. Bean struggled with control all game long, but in turn didn’t give up any sound contact, either. He needed 102 pitches through eight, and was then up 5-1 with a 2-hitter. We saw a chance to regenerate our bullpen without using Beach, left him in, but he couldn’t get through the game and put two men on. Nordahl came in to face Tom Fleming, and Domingo Moreno warmed up in case Nordahl would not collect the third out. Fleming walked, predictably, and when Moreno came in, righty Max Nixon hit for Fernando Guerra. Nixon hit the Wolves, who were in slam range, in home runs, but didn’t get all of Moreno’s second pitch and instead flew out softly to Torrez. 5-1 Coons. Brady 2-5, RBI; Martin 1-2, 2 BB; McLaughlin 2-3, BB; Bean 8.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (5-1) and 0-3, BB, RBI;

Kurt Metting will miss a month with an oblique strain. Our own injury report has both Guerin and Sharp return in a week or less.

Back to a winning record. Now let’s fudge up the third game. The Raccoons have not had a series sweep – for good or bad – this season.

Game 3
POR: RF Brady – LF Moore – 2B Palacios – 1B Martin – SS Ingall – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Brown
SAL: CF Summers – 1B Fleming – C J. Lopez – SS Hutchinson – LF Nixon – 2B McGreary – RF Romine – 3B J. Carroll – P M. Guzmán

The Wolves scored in the first off Brown, but the Coons had the bags full with one out in the top 3rd – and again didn’t get a hit, but still turned the game on a wild pitch and a groundout, 2-1. Brown had sucked balls in his last two starts, he sucked balls in this start, being excessively wild and not getting past the fifth inning, in which he hit two batters and allowed two runs to fall behind again. For the third time in four innings, the Coons left two men on in the top 6th, leaving Brown on a 3-2 hook as Ricky Beach made his Raccoons debut in the bottom of the inning. In an Oregon-sized disaster, Beach faced six batters, walked three and allowed two hits, and was yanked before Martinez came in to hold the damage to three runs. It was sufficient damage nevertheless. In a 6-2 game, the Coons loaded them up with singles by Ledesma, Torrez, and Love in the top 8th, bringing up Brady with two out. Lefty Aurelio Gomez had already allowed two hits, and Brady was about the best bat we had going and the bench held only Fifield and McLaughlin anyway. “Bonnie” Brady struck out. 6-2 Wolves. Moore 2-5; Ledesma 2-4; Torrez 2-3, BB, 2B; Love (PH) 1-1;

We out-hit them 10-9. We even left LESS men on base (13-12). We still lost soundly. How? Maybe it was the nine walks we gave out for free?

Sweepless in Portland. Some also sleepless.

Raccoons (16-16) vs. Rebels (11-21) – May 13-15, 2003

The Rebels had a horrible pitching staff all around, which netted them last place even with a fairly decent offense that ranked fifth in the Federal League.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (2-1, 3.03 ERA) vs. John Webb (1-2, 5.11 ERA)
Ricky Beach (0-0, 81.00 ERA) vs. Sylvester Clark (2-1, 4.26 ERA)
Ralph Ford (2-5, 6.94 ERA) vs. Esteban Flores (1-5, 8.18 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, including our former struggling Raccoon Esteban Flores. Could the offense pick it up against them and give us a winning record?

Game 1
RIC: RF Mashiba – 1B F. Rivera – 3B A. Gonzalez – LF G. Rios – C James – CF Villalobos – 2B Nielsen – SS Nakayama – P Webb
POR: RF Brady – 2B Palacios – LF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Ingall – C Ledesma – 3B M. Ramirez – CF Lyon – P Farley

The Coons scrambled and plated single runs in both of the first two innings against Webb, before Brady was hit by a pitch to start the third. Palacios singled, and then Reece doubled up the left foul line to make it 3-0. Martin was next and doubled over Gerardo Rios to ramp the score to 5-0. Farley had only allowed one base runner in the first five innings, but predictably the baseball gods were annoyed by that quick and easy lead and threw rocks and lightning at him once he had two men out in the fourth. He walked Rios. James singled, and Villalobos walked. Singles by Nielsen and Nakayama plated three runs before somehow pinch-hitter Bob Hall lined out to Ingall. That quickly, 5-0 became 5-3, and another half inning later it was 9-3, as the Coons sent ten men to the plate in the bottom 4th against ex-Titans closer Bill Corkum, who took the brunt of all four runs, and Juan Gomez. 9-3 was insufficient to win this game, however. Farley faced six batters in the fifth inning, and all six reached base. Four hits, one walk, one Ingall error became four runs, three of them unearned, somehow. The offense however seemed to consider nine runs enough to win any game and entered siesta for the time being. The Coons’ bullpen could only hold onto a 2-run lead for so long (most of the time two batters long), and Martinez gave birth to a Theodore Nielsen home run in the eighth inning, bringing the score to 9-8. That meant that Nordahl time was around the corner with no cushion in a game of batting through the orders at frantic paces. The Coons did not score in the bottom 8th when Martin narrowly missed a home run, handing the 9-8 score to Nordahl. The first man up, Alfredo Gonzalez, promptly hit a home run off Suckerface Nordahl, and the game was tied. Qi-zhen Geng, another former Raccoon, walked Ledesma to start the bottom 9th. Inept through and through, the Coons ****ed up even a sac bunt as Ramirez got Ledesma forced out at second, then was caught stealing. Extra innings, and Nordahl made a mockery out of anybody’s patience and sanity of mind when he struck out five over two innings after blowing the game in the first place. Once the Coons went down 1-2-3 in the bottom 11th, Bob Joly appeared as the last man from the bullpen. The thing I liked most about Joly – and there were so many things to like, but the ONE thing … - was that he went about his job so systematically. And so he systematically issued a leadoff walk because that is what general fudgecakes like him used to do. Walkee Rob James scored on Nakayama’s single, and the Coons put up another spectacular 1-2-3 no-show in the bottom of the 12th. 10-9 Rebels. Brady 2-4, BB; Palacios 4-5, BB, RBI; Martin 2-4, 2B, 4 RBI; Huerta 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

What a fantastic pitching display. I am sure these staffs will fill their leagues’ All Star rosters about completely when July rolls around.

FIRST game after the off day, ALL relievers used. Great! Great!! And with Beach up NEXT … !!

(torrid scream)

Game 2
RIC: RF Mashiba – CF J. Garcia – 3B A. Gonzalez – LF G. Rios – C James – 2B B. Hall – 1B Mendoza – SS Nielsen – P Clark
POR: RF Brady – 2B Palacios – SS Ingall – 1B Martin – LF Moore – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – CF Torrez – P Beach

Beach was in a hurry to get back into the better weather of Florida. After a clean first inning, he walked four men, intermingled with two hits for four runs in the second inning. After the Coons loaded them up in the bottom 2nd and left them loaded, Jose Mendoza took Beach deep to make it 6-0 in the third. He ended up giving up another pair of runs in the fourth inning before getting yanked, never to be seen again around Coon City. The Coons scored four including a 3-run piece by Palacios in the bottom 4th, but it didn’t exactly matter. Joly pitched three innings here, surrendering a run on a wild pitch, and it would have been more if not for two double plays turned behind him to erase a surplus of runners. Another 2-run homer was whacked out of Benton Wilson by Gerardo Rios, making it double digits for the Rebels in the eighth. The Coons scored three runs when Albert Martin tripled to drive in a pair and then scored in the ninth, but … but well. 11-7 Rebels. Palacios 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Martin 2-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Moore 3-5, 2 2B, RBI; Ledesma 1-2, 3 BB;

Ricky Beach was handed back to AAA. If we weren’t hampered by injuries throughout the system, I’d release the turd outright. We need a starter. We also need six additional relievers, but we will need a starter as we will have no off day for two weeks. We could use Joly. (cackles) Well, maybe we will. We can add a capable reliever much easier.

Say hi to Kaz.

And Joly? Back in the rotation. His baseball career is worse than a cat. Even a cat would have run out of lives by now.

Game 3
RIC: 3B A. Gonzalez – SS Nakayama – C James – RF G. Rios – 2B B. Hall – CF J. Garcia – 1B Nielsen – LF Villalobos – P E. Flores
POR: RF Brady – 2B Palacios – SS Ingall – 1B Martin – CF Moore – LF Reece – 3B M. Ramirez – C Ledesma – P Ford

Ford faced the minimum through three innings, despite him surrendering a pair of singles, thanks to Ledesma throwing out a runner and a double play. The Coons did absolutely nothing, but forke up everything for Ford in the fourth. Alfredo Gonzalez hit a single, and then Ramirez capitally butchered Nakayama’s grounder for an error. The dams broke right open, accelerated when Neil Reece – after starting a double play to rack up a runner at home – made another stupid error in leftfield. Four runs scored. All were unearned. Nobody got an earned run off Ford on the day, but Ford would not get anything nice out of it. He was hit for in the bottom 6th. The Coons had scratched out a run in the fifth when Palacios singled in Ledesma, and we had the bags full with one out when Torrez hit for Ford, ineffectively. Brady launched a rocket deep into the gap in left center, but that one was caught by Villalobos, and there was just no justice. The supposedly easily flammable Rebels pen refused to be incinerated by the scrappy Raccoons, and they faced Geng in the bottom 9th. WE knew he was not a closer, the Rebels still used him, and he had an 0.52 ERA. It was an error by Gonzalez on Cal Lyon’s 2-out grounder that brought up the tying run in the first place, and that tying run was Martin in a 4-2 game. He grounded out anyway. 4-2 Rebels. Palacios 2-5, RBI; Ford 6.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (2-6) and 1-1, 2B;

Hey, THERE’S our sweep! Nice! Ford had our only extra base hit. And we routinely left double digits on again (11). Cool!

(smashes computer screen with bat)

Also, we have been swept by the Rebels in back-to-back years, and are now 8-22 against them all-time.

Does not include postseason stats. (grimaces)

Raccoons (16-19) vs. Titans (19-14) – May 16-18, 2003

In short, the Coons will be in last place by Sunday night, a half game above in a tie for third place right now. They have no chance against the suddenly strong Titans. While they are right now only sixth in runs scored, they are rallying from almost the bottom of the league. Their pitching is simply fantastic, allowing 106 runs in 33 games, for just a shade over 3.2 per game. Coons have no chance at anything other than getting swept for the week and ending up at seven losses in a row.

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (5-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (4-1, 3.27 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-4, 4.30 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-3, 2.36 ERA)
Randy Farley (2-1, 3.68 ERA) vs. Joe Mann (2-2, 3.06 ERA)

We activated both Sharpie and Concie in time for this series, with Love optioned back to St. Pete, and McLaughlin getting designated for assignment. I hope this will shore up lots of things that need shoring up.

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

Bean, whose junk didn’t bite anybody anyway, faced a lineup composed mostly of left-handed and switch-hitters and struggled badly. The Titans easily got on base, flicking singles all over the place, and scored single runs in three of the first six innings. The only right-handed batter in the Titans’ lineup was Matsumoto, and he hit an RBI double, the only extra base hit the Titans shook out of Bean, who ultimately went seven frames in semi-decent, but wildly unsuccessful fashion. Well, the output was decent, the input wasn’t. The Raccoons meanwhile ran into O’Halloran and were properly chainsawed, putting out poor outs in great amounts. And while Depeche Mode once proclaimed that everything counts in large amounts, pops and whiffs didn’t. Kichida in the ninth loaded them up including two walks without retiring anybody, and Huerta almost had the mess cleaned up when Reece dropped a fly in left for his second jaw-dropping error of the week. 6-0 Titans. Brady 2-3, BB; Moore (PH) 1-1;

Yeah, well. No spark coming forth from Concie and Sharpie, who went a combined 1-7, either. We had six hits total.

Game 2
BOS: SS D. Silva – 1B Matsumoto – RF Garrison – 3B V. Flores – 2B D. Mendez – CF Bryant – LF G. Munoz – C F. Diéguez – P Hildred
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Moore – SS Guerin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – P Brown

Good news: Nick Brown struck out the side in the first. Bad news: he did so after Howard Bryant had already slapped a grand slam on him and five runs were on the board. Silva had started it with a single, Matsumoto had reached on an error by Martin, and a walk, and that was just how things were going around here. Ten minutes into the game, it was already hopelessly lost, angering everybody who had forked over eleven bucks to see it. Brown pitched five more innings in futility, allowing a run on a Bryant triple and a subsequent wild pitch in the sixth before also hitting a man, and by now nobody was even cheering for him anymore when he happened to strike out somebody by accident. When Brown was done pitching and hit for, the Raccoons had one hit. They would only account for two more until the end of the game, and their only run scored on an error. Nordahl appeared in the ninth to get the dust off, put on Silva, who promptly stole his third bag of the weekend, and scored before Nordahl could walk the bags full. 7-1 Titans.

Game 3
BOS: LF Elizondo – 1B Matsumoto – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 3B Austin – 2B H. Ramirez – C L. Lopez – SS D. Silva – P Mann
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – RF Brady – 1B Martin – CF Moore – SS Guerin – LF Reece – C Ledesma – P Brown

Mark Austin’s leadoff triple in the second inning quickly became the game’s first run, and again in the wrong line. Farley didn’t exactly fool anybody, but got lots of grounders that stifled the Titans’ offense for the most part as Guerin and Palacios turned a few double plays. Offensively, the Raccoons were about invisible safe for one cheap hit, until Joe Mann gave up a double to Ledesma to start the bottom 6th. Farley bunted, bunted badly, and Ledesma was out at third, and that was that. Bottom 7th, Mann walked Martin with one out. Moore sent a fly to deep center that was caught, and then Guerin sent a fly to deep center that was not. With two out, Martin was in full flight, or whatever his highest gear was, and scored on a double, tying the score. Farley continued in the eighth, with Elizondo being out on a bunt attempt, but then Matsumoto, the only-right-hander in the lineup, drew his second walk off Farley. Wilson replaced Farley and got a double play from Rudy Garrison. Moreno held the Titans away in the ninth, giving the Raccoons a chance to walk off with Palacios getting it started against John Bennett, a right-hander who saw four left-handers lined up for the inning. Palacios whiffed. Brady sailed out to shallow left. Martin drew a walk, but Moore popped out. Martinez pitched a scoreless tenth, leading up to Reece hitting a single off Bennett before being erased on an inning-ending double play hit into by Ledesma in the bottom of the inning. The game wouldn’t be concluded until Nordahl entered to give up a homer. It was hit by Luis Lopez in the 12th, collecting Bryant, who had walked ahead of him in Ramirez’ spot in the order. The Raccoons managed six hits in total. 3-1 Titans. Guerin 2-5, 2B, RBI; Farley 7.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K; Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The Buffaloes claimed Brent McLaughlin off waivers, so there’s $100k less on our books.

In other news

May 8 – CIN LF/RF Dan Morris (.305, 6 HR, 18 RBI) will miss two weeks with a mild oblique strain.
May 10 – VAN SP Joe Hollow (1-4, 4.11 ERA) wins his first game of the year in style with a 3-hit shutout over the Scorpions, as the Canadiens win 7-0.
May 13 – DAL 3B Ramiro Gonzalez (.336, 0 HR, 12 RBI) has hit in 20 straight games.
May 16 – A torn ankle ligament forces CIN 1B/2B David Brewer (.245, 0 HR, 4 RBI) to the disabled list. One month should be enough to heal for him.
May 16 – The Wolves not only beat the Stars, 7-5, they also kill off Ramiro Gonzalez’ hot streak at 22 games, holding him hitless in five at-bats.

Complaints and stuff

Brown is utter ****. Nordahl is utter ****. Ford is utter ****. Joly is utter ****. The entire lineup is utter ****.

And I love Neil Reece with all my heart, but he has that old people smell about him…

Ah. Why bother. We knew it would end up like this all along.