[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-21) @ Crusaders (19-17) – May 16-18, 2006

Here were two teams that weren’t scoring and ranked in the bottom 3 in run production in the Continental League. The Crusaders had something the Raccoons didn’t, though, and that was a phenomenal rotation, almost top to bottom, which was the best in the league, and thus they were allowing the least runs total, despite a soft, eighth-place bullpen.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-2, 3.18 ERA) vs. Ángel Javier (5-0, 1.34 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (0-0) vs. Visar Logoreci (0-1, 6.14 ERA)
Ralph Ford (3-3, 3.38 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (4-3, 2.94 ERA)

How would Nick Brown go about with our 18-inning run of being unscored upon? I mean, a shutout will be pretty much what it takes to get him his fifth win of the year.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – SS Rice – C J. Lopez – 1B Winters – 2B Caraballo – P A. Javier

The Furballs struck in the first - … or maybe, were handed a gift by Gary Rice, whose throwing error allowed Yoshi Nomura on second base to start the game, from where Vic Flores singled him in before Brady double played us into another headache. Double plays and general ineptness became a theme on this day. The Raccoons would hit into two more of those through five. In the third, Nick Brown led off with a single, stole second base, and was left there. Another Crusaders error criminally was left unused in the fourth (and then, a double play…). The main story could have been Brown himself, who sat down the first 15 Crusaders he faced, whiffing six, before Evan Winters led off the bottom 6th with a home run to tie the score. From there on, the Crusaders managed to scatter a few singles, but couldn’t score on Brown again through eight. The Raccoons – don’t ask. They just did not take place at all through eight. In the top 9th, they faced Charlie Deacon, who was still a joke, but recently had been cruel to the Coons regularly. He faced Adrian Quebell, who had not hit a home run this season – and then jacked one to lead off the inning! The next three guys went down in a hurry, and Brown was on 101 pitches – but was ON, give or take a few singles. Plus, there were left-handers up at the start of the bottom 9th. Britton grounded out, and Brown whiffed Ortíz to get up a righty in Jerry Henry. Oh, what’s the worst that can happen? A hard grounder to left was not the worst thing for sure, and Flores intercepted it, played it to first, and game over! 2-1 Brownies!! Quebell 1-3, BB, HR, RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (5-2) and 1-3;

Brownie grabbed his eighth career complete game, expending 110 pitches, stole his first base of the year (and fifth total), and got his ERA soundly under three again. Stupid Evan Winters and his stupid homer. (In case you’re counting career wins, he’s got 61 now. Yeah, he could use playing on a winning team…)

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – CF Crespo – C Wood – 3B Searcy – P F. Garcia
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – SS Rice – 1B Winters – C J. Lopez – 3B J. Henry – RF P. Javier – P Logoreci

Logoreci, of mixed Scottish and Albanian descent, made his second career start against the Raccoons and Felipe Garcia, whom nobody had longed to see again. Garcia walked the leadoff batter, Roberto Pena, who stole second and took third base just like that when Bob Wood’s throw ended up in centerfield. He conveniently scored on a groundout to give the Crusaders a 1-0 lead. But if not for stupid errors, the Crusaders, who were lacking a potent bat in Stanton Martin, found it hard to hit even Garcia. Instead, Vic Flores flipped the score with his first home run in a brown uniform, hitting a 2-piece in the top 3rd, and Logoreci was under some more pressure in the fifth, when Searcy led off with a single, was bunted over, and the Crusaders elected to put Nomura on intentionally. It might have ended well if Francisco Caraballo hadn’t blown a Vic Flores grounder for an error that loaded them up. Logoreci had struck out Clyde Brady twice in the game, but this time Brady singled to make it 3-1, and Quebell walked to make it 4-1 before Mays hacked himself out and Caraballo made a play on Crespo’s grounder to end the inning. Shoddy defense to Logoreci’s detriment continued in the sixth, with a passed ball moving Bob Wood into scoring position early, but the kid also stopped getting people out then and was sent to bed by Flores with a 2-run double. The Coons moved out to 7-1 in the top 7th, but then began to chop away on the branch they were sitting on. Garcia began to serve beans, and the defense was no help either, with a shoddy non-play by Searcy. When Ed Bryan relieved Garcia in a 7-3 game, he threw a wild pitch that helped the Crusaders to plate another run. Moreno held on to the 7-4 lead in the eighth, and while Angel Casas warmed up again, it wasn’t meant to be today, either. Brady led off the ninth with a single off Nick Lee, went to third with a flying start on Quebell’s single, and scored on Crespo’s fly to center. Instead, Law Rockburn took care of the ninth. 8-4 Coons. Flores 3-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Brady 2-5, RBI; Searcy 2-5;

Vic Flores takes over the team lead in RBI with 19. Yoshi Nomura held it previously. Do we have any alive slugger at all?

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 1B Quebell – LF Brady – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – RF Mays – CF Trevino – P Ford
NYC: CF R. Pena – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – C J. Lopez – 1B Winters – SS Guerin – 2B Caraballo – P Reeves

Initially I wanted to kick myself for being a short changer with intentional walks: runner on second with two out in the bottom 2nd, Ford was told to pitch to Caraballo, and the second baseman tripled to put the Crusaders 1-0 ahead. However, the good news(?), it wouldn’t have helped Ford one bit to pitch to Whit Reeves, whom he drilled, and Roberto Pena singled to make it 2-0 either way. In the top 3rd the bases were loaded with one out for Clyde Brady, who fell ten feet shy of a slam, or a hit, as he rammed a rocket to center that ended up in Pena’s glove. The run on the sac fly was all the Coons got in the inning, and for the foreseeable future. No, the Raccoons could not get a single lucky break in this game. Add to that Ford, who ran lots of deep counts early, never stopped doing that, and eventually walked a handful while barely getting through six innings. While the Crusaders didn’t add anything against him, the Coons trailed 2-1 and it felt like so much more. It actually became more in the seventh. Kaz Kichida faced only Caraballo, who reached, and Rémy Lucas so very not managed to keep him on. There was no action from the road team’s lineup until the ninth, when Yoshi doubled off Deacon with one out. Flores grounded out, but Quebell lifted a liner over Jerry Henry and into the corner in leftfield, plating Yoshi and bringing up Clyde Brady as the go-ahead run with two down, and Brady walked, but Daniel Sharp ran his line to 0-5 with a soft lineout to first base. 3-2 Crusaders. Quebell 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bowen 3-4;

So many guys to demote on this team, and there is really NOBODY on the AAA staff that could even be remotely helpful. Our AAA team is 11-25 at this point… The pitching is already suspect, but the bats are barely scoring three runs a game. It’s so very pointless…

Raccoons (17-22) vs. Knights (22-18) – May 19-21, 2006

From the best rotation in the league to the worst: the Knights’ starters (and their bullpen, too!) were posting a 4.95 ERA at the first quarter post, getting drummed and drummed and drummed. How were they still four games above .500? Well, glad you ask. It’s all about run differential, and theirs was +23. They were scoring the second-most runs in the CL.

Projected matchups:
Kelly Fairchild (2-2, 3.92 ERA) vs. Jong-suk Lee (4-3, 4.20 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (3-4, 3.98 ERA) vs. Vicente Perez (2-3, 7.36 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-2, 2.77 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (0-1, 5.57 ERA)

Game 1
ATL: SS Luján – CF Ware – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 1B A. Munoz – 2B J. Gutierrez – C J. Clark – 3B T. Pena – P J.S. Lee
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 1B Quebell – LF Brady – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – RF Greenman – CF Trevino – P Fairchild

Apart from Ware, this was a lineup that was batting .280 or more, and five guys were batting over .300. The world is just unfair.

Contrary to expectation, Kelly Fairchild didn’t explode on first contact, although Juan Gutierrez homered off him in the second inning. The Knights didn’t get more early despite having a man on in every inning, and Daniel Sharp even tied the score at one in the bottom 4th with a home run of his own. When Trevino led off the fifth with a double, he tried to get to third, but remained a try, and Jorge Garcia threw him out. At least he made a strong catch on Tony Pena to strand two runners in the top of the sixth and keep the game tied. Fairchild was done after six, running up over 100 pitches, and we started to mix and match with our relievers, using Rockburn and Bryan in the seventh, and Lucas and Bruno in the eighth to keep the Knights down. Could we please by a hit for $300? No, you can only buy vowels. Stupid rules set aside, Nomura led off the bottom 8th with an infield single very deep behind short that Antonio Luján had no hope on making a play on. Jong-suk Lee remained in to retire Flores, but then Quebell doubled to center. Brady unleashed a really ****ty grounder to first that wasn’t going to score anybody, and when J.C. Crespo hit for Craig Bowen, he went down looking. Moreno got only one out in the ninth before allowing a pair of singles, but the much-neglected Angel Casas came out to strike out Manuel Valdés before Stephen Ware popped out foul to end the inning. The bottom 9th saw their closer in the game, Manuel Reyes retiring Danny Sharp to get going. That brought up Greenman, who batted .098 and whose guts I was hating, and he doubled to left. Trevino grounded out, moving Greenman to third, and with two out we were forced to have Bob Wood bat, who had appeared with Angel in a double switch. He walked, and left making the third out to Yoshi, sending the game to extras.

By the 11th, we were on our last reliever, Kaz, which could not last long. When Nomura made an error on Tony Pena’s grounder to put on a man with two out, and Kaz drilled Desi Boyer, it had all the ingredients of a meltdown, but Valdés flew out softly to right then. Searcy’s leadoff single in the bottom 11th was dissolved in a Greenman double play. Kaz amazingly held on into the 14th, when Searcy hit another leadoff single, then got forced by Sharp. Greenman, the ****head, was not going to ruin the game. We had one more bat on the bench in rampantly unused Tom Ingram, and we’ll figure out who will play outfield while we will tumble onto defeat later. Ingram struck out, and then came Trevino. Yeah. Ingram played short then, with Flores moving to left, and an 0-6 Brady to right while we were getting the guillotine ready. We squelched out Kaz for five innings, the last of which he finished with a strikeout to Alejandro Rodriguez before the ambulance carted him off, and we got Kenichi Watanabe ready to pitch. But before that, the ambulance had to come back. Kaz had to bat in the bottom 15th with Nomura on second and two outs. He half stumbled, half fell into the first pitch that came his way from Clyde Henderson, poking it with the bat high to the right side. Gutierrez didn’t get it! It’s in shallow right! Nomura is flying, Nomura coming in, the throw – LATE! BALLGAME!!! 2-1 Coonlights!! Flores 3-7, 2B; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Searcy 2-2; Fairchild 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K; Casas 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K; Kichida 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-2) and 1-2, RBI;

Wicked game this is.

Pffff.

By the way, there were TWENTY-EIGHT hits in this game. The Coons left on merely eight, but the Knights stranded 15. I would like to go into more detail, but I gotta help put up the oxygen tent for Kaz.

Game 2
ATL: SS Luján – CF Ware – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 1B A. Munoz – 2B J. Gutierrez – C J. Clark – 3B T. Pena – P V. Perez
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Crespo – RF Mays – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Watanabe

The Raccoons scored first with doubles by Nomura and Sharp in the bottom 1st, leaving Sharp at third base to leave it at 1-0, which was not going to be sufficient with Watanabe handing out free bases with ill control. He made it through three before the Knights got to him for a run driven in by Gutierrez in the fourth. The scoring runner, Morales, had of course walked. Tony Pena’s double to start the fifth spelled more trouble and with a pitcher wildly adrift there’s little to do about that. Pena scored, the Knights were up 2-1, and where were the Critters? They were virtually gone until the sixth, when Sharpie hit a leadoff single. Quebell walked, moving the tying run to second base. Crespo whiffed. Mays popped out to short. Great, what’s the paper bag Trevino gonna do! Why, he hit a single up the middle and Sharp scored, tying the score at two. Watanabe didn’t get out of the seventh when Perez hit with two out and nobody on and singled. Ed Bryan retired PH Alejandro Rodriguez, the Coons had their first two men on in the bottom 7th, but Sharp hit into an inning-ending double play. Ugh, the pains!! Bottom 8th, Crespo hit a 1-out double. Mays sucked and was best replaced with a donkey in a suit, carrying two baskets full of fruit, and in the #7 hole was Rockburn, who had gotten the final out in the top of the inning. Steve Searcy hit for him and chipped a grounder to left and it got through!! Crespo scored, Critters up, who’s gonna close?

Angel had thrown 28 pitches the previous day, and Bruno had been out two days in a row. Kichida was still on oxygen support, which only left Lucas and Moreno. Nah, we’d take Angel. He allowed a 1-out double to Avery Johnson to make us sweat, but then got a strikeout in, and survived when Manuel Valdés grounded out on a 3-1 pitch. 3-2 Critters!! Nomura 2-4, 2B; Sharp 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Trevino 2-3, RBI; Searcy (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brady 1-1; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K;

Casas noticeably didn’t have much at all. So, as we’re marking off his comfort zone, five outs on 28 pitches the previous day might lead to trouble the next day.

Nothing against nailbiters, however, we needed a great outing from Brownie on Sunday, with close to no bullpen in a well-rested state.

But on Sunday, it rained – and no Raccoon would throw any pitch. The game was rescheduled for August 25, as part of a double header in the middle of a 9-game stretch before our next-to-last off day on August 31.

In other news

May 15 – The Loggers will be without their ace, Martin Garcia (5-1, 1.52 ERA) for six to seven weeks after the southpaw has suffered a broken thumb.
May 19 – OCT SP Aaron Anderson (5-0, 2.43 ERA) blanks the Loggers on two hits in a 5-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Adrian Quebell’s game-winner on Tuesday was his first career home run of course. He merely needed 184 AB and is on pace for four this year. A) The trades I do. B) We might want to look for a slugger somewhere.

We will have another off day on Monday, which will pretty much reset our bullpen and we will then resume from the top of our rotation with Brownie.

There was another point I wanted to make about Christian Greenman's guts, but I seem to have lost my notes.