[Westheim]

Marcos Bruno started a rehab assignment in AAA during the All Star break. I’d like to give him a week or so and two to three outings to get warm again.

All Star Game

In Sacramento, the Federal League beats the Continental League, 3-2 in ten innings. Kelvin Yates takes the loss, but the winning run, driven in by Oliver Torres of the Warriors, is unearned after TOP Ramón Echevarria initially reaches on an error by LVA Inaki-Luki Warrain.

Angel Casas had pitched a scoreless inning in the game. Vic Flores has a pinch-hitting appearances without a hit, while Tomas Castro starts in center, but goes 0-2 with two strikeouts before being hit for.

NYC Stanton Martin is 4-4 with a walk, but MVP honors go to Torres.

Raccoons (58-29) vs. Canadiens (53-34) – July 12-15, 2007

Beaten and battered, and here they come again. We really can’t afford another series loss, morally and as such…

Our offense has dropped to t-10th, while they still rank fifth in offense and fourth in pitching. Oh yeah, and they are 7-0 against the Fuzzies this year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (9-5, 2.79 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (9-4, 2.93 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (11-1, 2.26 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (2-2, 3.11 ERA)
Cássio Boda (2-1, 3.64 ERA) vs. David Peterson (4-8, 4.52 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (7-5, 4.57 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (10-4, 2.59 ERA)

Game 1
VAN: 2B Dobson – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – C G. Ortíz – RF Denunez – SS M. Ramirez – P Fujita
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Brown

Nick Brown … sucked … badly. He walked two in the first following an Ortíz single and only got out of the bases-loaded jam when he could snack up Fujita, then in the third had a man on, then walked Ramos, drilled Gonzalez, and against Ortíz finally walked a run in. It was something a suddenly struggling team didn’t need out of the All Star break. They had nothing going through four innings, while the Elks let Brown get away with five walks in five innings to score only one run. Brown bunted when Nomura hit a leadoff single in the bottom 5th, and there was a break: Mitsuhide Suzuki threw the ball away, and the Raccoons had runners in scoring position with no outs. Vic Flores beat out a sorry grounder to be safe at first, and Yoshi scored the tying run on the play, before Matt Pruitt came up with one out and peppered a rocket to center, and that was OUTTA HERE!!

Brownie started the sixth inning, issued a sixth walk, and was removed once he accepted Fujita’s bunt for the second out. And although Craig Bowen tried really hard to have the runner, ex-Furball Ramirez, score and had Adam Riddle’s first pitch bounce through his legs, Riddle got Jerry Dobson with a grounder to end the inning still up 4-1. The bottom of the inning saw Crespo reach batting for Riddle with a single, and Flores and Pruitt contributed singles to score another run. Suzuki made another error, but Quebell left the bases loaded. The team kept grinding, chasing Fujita with six runs against him in the bottom 7th, and reliever Simon Pegler was also in for a rough surprise. After scoring no runs and hardly any hits through the first four, the Raccoons forcefully broke through for nine runs in the latter four for a convincing win. 9-2 Brownies! Flores 3-5, 2 RBI; Castro 2-5; Pruitt 2-4, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Bowen 3-5; Nomura 2-4, 2B, RBI; Crespo (PH) 2-3, 2 RBI;

Game 2
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C G. Ortíz – LF Richardson – SS Rodgers – P Spears
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Yates

Hopefully Yates had more than five and two thirds innings of free-for-all… Well, no. Tony Ramos homered in the first inning, and while the run was pulled right back on a Flores double, Castro groundout and Pruitt sac fly, Yates was struggling. The Elks loaded the bases in the third before Suzuki grounded out to short, where Ryan Miller made the short throw to Yoshi to register the third out. Balls were jumping off the Elks’ bats in the middle innings, but stellar outfield defense, especially by Pruitt and Black, kept the game in one piece and tied. They had nothing to show for their deep drives, but the Raccoons got two solo homers by Castro and Black in the bottom 6th to take a 3-1 lead. The Elks did get two men on in the top of the seventh then. Yates struck out Rodgers for the second out, only his fourth K on the night, then allowed a deep drive to Scott Spears, on which Pruitt made an A-MA-ZING catch, soaring through the air like an eagle, to end the inning. The eighth inning was puzzled together by Bennett, Bryan, and Rockburn, each getting one out, while Bryan put Ramos on with a single. Bob Wood, while batting less than zero, made a strong defensive play on Jerry Dobson’s drag bunt attempt. The ninth was much less mix-and-match. Angel struck out two and nobody reached base. 3-1 Raccoons! Black 2-4, HR, RBI; Quebell 2-3; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Yates 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (12-1) and 1-2;

The Crusaders were scuffling, too, and so our lead was back up to seven games at this point. Good, boys, good, well done! Now that you have them pinned to the ground, with your spikes against their necks, don’t let go!

Game 3
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C G. Ortíz – SS Rodgers – P D. Peterson
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS R. Miller – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Boda

The Elks got a running start against Cássio Boda, four hits and two runs in the first inning, and he didn’t even get close to a pitcher’s count. Boda wouldn’t get any better after that first inning, but the defense would make a few more plays, and the offense scored one run on Quebell’s 2-out RBI single in the bottom 1st, then flipped the score when Craig Bowen hit a huge homer in the fourth to collect Miller and take a 3-2 lead. Boda somehow made it through six, an inning that ended with a controversial out call on a bang-bang play at first base, where Quebell’s throw just barely beat David Peterson to first base. Daniel Sharp’s pinch-hit RBI double in the bottom of the inning scored a highly welcomed insurance run that became the entire margin of lead all too soon. Riddle and Beltran faced single batters to start the top 7th, Dobson and Garcia, issued walks, and Rockburn eventually plated Dobson with a wild pitch before whiffing Suzuki to get out of the inning at 4-3. Jerry Fletcher made it all the way to third base in the eighth inning, but was stranded, yet when J.C. Crespo reached on an error in the bottom of the inning he wasn’t scored either. Angel faced the top of the order in the ninth, allowed nothing, and ended the game with his 50th strikeout of the year (in 35 innings) to Jose Gonzalez. 4-3 Furballs!! Pruitt 2-3, BB; Bowen 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sharp (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Yeah, yeah, yeah! Come on, boys, one more! One more!

Game 4
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – SS Rodgers – P J. Marquez
POR: 3B Flores – LF Castro – CF Crespo – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Sharp – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes

We faced Jose Marquez (7-7, 3.86 ERA) again, who made the cardinal error of not removing the opposing pitcher with two down in the bottom 2nd. Fuentes’ single loaded the bases, and when Vic Flores hit a looper over Tony Ramos, it fell in for a 2-run double. Unfortunately, Fuentes’ struggles weren’t over. The Elks reached scoring position in four of the first five innings. In the fifth that was a leadoff walk to Suzuki and then Rodgers reached on an infield single. Marquez bunted them into scoring position, from where Dobson plated Suzuki with a sac fly to cut our lead to 2-1. The Raccoons found it tough to get on base after the third inning, and Fuentes was dodging bullet after bullet and somehow kept wobbling on, finishing seven innings of 1-run ball. His spot was due up first in the bottom 7th and our bench was entirely populated with left-handed batters. Quebell was picked to pinch-hit, and fired a shot to deep right and outta here! The eighth saw another leadoff jack, dished by Duke Smack, and Marquez stayed in the game long enough to surrender a few more singles and another run. Beltran and Kichida shared ninth inning duties with Angel’s services not required this time. 5-1 Coons! Flores 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4; Sato 2-4, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Fuentes 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (8-5) and 1-1, BB;

300 at-bats and already a home run for our first baseman! Whoah! That power!

In other news

July 10 – A triceps strain will keep MIL CL Gabriel Garcia (0-7, 2.95 ERA, 21 SV) out of action for the rest of the month.
July 13 – LAP LF Ken Potter (.258, 12 HR, 47 RBI) has suffered an abdominal strain and will miss about three weeks.
July 14 – TOP 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.273, 1 HR, 27 RBI) logs his 2,000th career base hit, an eighth inning single off the Miners’ Miguel Rodriguez in a 4-1 Buffaloes loss. Spinu, the 34-year old on-base wonder, led the league in walks three times, and has a career .407 OBP, with 1,290 walks on top of those 2,000 hits. He has played his whole career, since 1994, with the Buffaloes and has 83 HR and 761 RBI.
July 15 – Big day for Cincinnati’s own RF/LF Dan Morris (.368, 17 HR, 60 RBI), who collects three hits in his team’s 10-7 loss to the Blue Sox. The final knock, an eighth inning RBI single off Stanton Taylor, marks Morris’ 2,500th career hit. Not a shabby batter, he has gone .319/.430/.511 with 351 HR and 1,317 RBI in his career, played entirely with the Cyclones, who drafted him seventh overall in the 1991 draft. Since then he won a batting title in 1994, the Hitter of the Year award twice (1995, 1997), and went to ten All Star games. His 41-HR campaign in ’95 ranks t-2nd only to Raúl Vázquez 42 dingers in 1992.
July 15 – DEN 1B/SS Jesus Amador (.214, 5 HR, 46 RBI) causes a trouble in a Denver bar and receives a nasty cut on his hand that will take a few weeks to completely heal.

Complaints and stuff

That was yummy. That tasted good.

When I heard Amador and trouble in a bar, I thought of the Fat Cat and a contest of who could eat the most Polish sausages.

We received a number of trade proposals this week, foremost from the Pacifics, who try to get rid of their highly paid relief pitchers and plunder our farm. Nah, I’ll pass. But nice to see that 19-yr old SP Hector Santos (4-1, 2.15 ERA @ A; 0-7, 4.11 ERA @ AA) has the interest of other teams. Not that I want to trade him. But looks like not only our scouting department is hot (pot. 15/13/12) on him. Stamina might be an issue, though (7).

Jimmy Eichelkraut had been promoted to Ham Lake in late June, but after batting .136 for over two weeks was sent back to Aumsville. We’ll try again later.

I also think I’ll demote Ryan Miller again until September. We don’t really have space on the infield right now, and I don’t want him to dwell on the bench. Gutierrez wasn’t claimed off waivers, so we could bring him back somehow. I’m sure we can find some dead meat on the 40-man roster to dispose of.

And who’s the leader in home runs for the franchise amongst our current player? Daniel Sharp, with 43. If he gets another one at some point in his life, he’d tie with Jesus Palacios for 20th on the all time list. Next: Craig Bowen with 21 and then already Duke Smack with 16.