[Westheim]

Raccoons (22-14) @ Crusaders (24-13) – May 19-21, 2008

Okay, the time has come – our first matchup with the Crusaders in 2008, and the first since that rather depressing outcome of the final 4-set in the last week of the 2007 season, which didn’t quite go the Furballs’ way. The Crusaders had allowed the least runs in the league at 126 counters, about 3.4 per game, but their offense wasn’t very good. Outside of the Martin Brothers and leadoff man Roberto Pena there was not a whole lot to their offense so far, and they ranked 8th in runs scored with the second-worst batting average.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 3.45 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (2-3, 3.72 ERA)
Javier Cruz (2-2, 6.34 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (4-1, 4.09 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-1, 1.25 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (7-1, 2.44 ERA)

Reeves led the league in wins, so we’d be pleased to see him stopped to let our three 5-game winners (Kel, Crystal Lake, and Brownie) catch up.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Yates
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B A. Munoz – SS Butler – C D. Anderson – P A. Javier

The Duke narrowly missed his 10th home run in the first inning, instead ramming an RBI double off the wall to score Quebell and have the Coons go up 1-0 in the first. Then came Kel, walked two and threw a wild pitch to tie the score in the bottom 1st. Our co-aces, huh?

Kel led off the third with a double on his own, therefore keeping his batting average over .500, and was left right there. Nobody reached until he hit another single, and was also stranded. The Crusaders were thrown another bone by him when he followed up Butler’s leadoff single in the bottom 5th with a wild pitch, then walked Daryl Anderson. Javier bunted them into scoring position, but Pena grounded out to Quebell and Ramón Garza struck out to end the inning. Kel went seven innings, spending over 100 pitches, with nobody scoring. Donald Sims struck out the Martin Brothers and got Sonny Reece to pop out to Pruitt in the bottom 8th, but Rockburn walked Munoz and allowed a 1-out single to Ming Kui in the bottom 9th. With runners on the corners and righty Marc Williams (1-for-14) hitting, Marcos Bruno came out, struck out Williams and got Roberto Pena to fly out to Black to move the game into overtime. It took Ricardo Martinez that extra chance to extend his 16-game hitting streak with a leadoff single against Scott Hood in the 11th inning. No Coon had reached scoring position for a few hours, but that changed with Pruitt’s 1-out double that put two Critters on second and third. Next was Bruno, who had entered in a double switch with Juan Rios, was hit for with Trevino, who got plunked. Barrón’s sac fly gave us the lead, but was all we got. Angel would have to make do with just the one run. Reece, Munoz, and Butler went down in order. 2-1 Coons! Rios 1-1; Yates 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K and 2-3, 2B; Bruno 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (1-0);

Kelvin Yates was our best batter in this game, so you know it was one tough chew. At least we came out victorious. I want to give Chavez and Rios starts in the middle game with Martinez not being used to protect his hitting streak, which he didn’t get to 17 games until the 11th and final inning. No Raccoon reached third base between the first and the last innings.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Chavez – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – C Rios – P Cruz
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B A. Munoz – SS Caraballo – C D. Anderson – P Grams

Grams’ home ERA and Cruz’ road ERA added up to a sweet 16, so we expected some offense, somehow, despite our lackluster lineup. And… nobody scored. At least the Coons didn’t. We had runners on the corners in the third and Castro couldn’t get the bat to the ball, and then Pruitt and Black led off the fourth with singles, Chavez hit into a double play, and Barrón was no help either. In the fifth, Nomura drew a leadoff walk and Rios hit a single. Again, two on, no outs. Cruz bunted them over, Quebell grounded out to Grams, and Castro grounded out to short, and nobody scored. Hnnngghh!!

Not that the Crusaders were any better at batting. Cruz held them to two singles over five innings. Then Pena hit a 1-out single in the bottom 6th and stole second base unopposed when Rios dropped the ball before he could throw, and that happened for the second time in this game. Garza reached on Quebell’s error, putting men on the corners, but the Duke made awesome plays on the Martin Brothers, coming in nimbly on Martin Ortíz’ short line to shallow center, and making a play on the rightfield line against Stanton Martin to keep the runners in place and end the inning. Cruz made it into the eighth, where he hit Anderson, and Pena singled to knock him from the game. With lefty Ming Kui hitting again, for Garza, Ed Bryan came out, also going to face Ortíz. Kui struck out, and Ortíz rolled a 1-2 pitch to short for Barrón to make the inning-ending play. Still no runs! And both starters out of the game. And the Coons still couldn’t score! They went down in order to Iemtisu Rin in the ninth, which prompted us to have Bruno come out for the bottom 9th, which was led off by Stanton Martin, he struck him out, and sent the game to extras again. Jose Gutierrez hit for him with two outs and Barrón on second in the top 10th, and hit a grounder up the middle that eluded the middle infielders! Barrón came around and scored! Quebell singled, Gutierrez went aggro to third and was safe, but Castro grounded out to end the inning. Another 1-run lead for Angel, and he faced Rin to start the bottom 10th since the Crusaders were out of players. And… Rin singled. And stole second base. Ape Britton struck out, and Pena grounded out, moving Rin to third base. Listen, when their reliever scores, I’ll be pretty mad. It was Angel against Bob Butler, who hit a ball to deep left, but Crespo caught it just shy of the warning track. 1-0 Critters!! Quebell 2-5; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, RBI; Cruz 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K;

Bruno with another win, and it’s a WIN and we lead the division, but come on, guys! It’s like watching somebody giving birth …! 16 hours of labor for one little result!

Now the problem might be that we go in against their best guy (sending our – on aggregate – best guy), and the back end of our pen is unavailable.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – LF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – CF Trevino – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Umberger
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B A. Munoz – SS Butler – C D. Anderson – P Reeves

Maybe we wouldn’t need that back end after all. Martin homered, Reece singled, Munoz doubled, and then Umberger threw a wild pitch with no outs in the second inning. The Crusaders scored three runs, and the Raccoons were not looking like they had read the scouting report on Reeves. Extra base hits galore continued for the home team with a Garza double and Ortíz triple in the bottom 3rd, and Ortíz scored on a strikeout / passed ball to Stanton Martin, who reached first base. Umberger was finally beaten to death in the fourth after a 2-out double and Pena’s subsequent home run that ran the score to 7-0. So much for leading the division.

Well, the game was lost, but the Raccoons made sure to lose in style. While not getting anything countable off Reeves in the first place, when Luke Black actually drew a walk in the seventh and made it to second base, he got doubled up on Barrón’s lineout to Garza. Martinez made an error, Bryan made an error, while the Crusaders hit seven of their ten hits for extra bases and destroyed the Raccoons outright. Reeves carried the 2-hit shutout into the ninth before Quebell walked and Castro singled. Robbie Wills replaced him and struck out Martinez, Black, and Bowen in order. 8-0 Crusaders. Castro 2-4; Kichida 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Martinez’ streak ended with an exclamation mark. That was some ****ty hitting in this series… They are lucky as all hell to come out with a series win, but it was never pretty. Oh no!

Raccoons (24-15) vs. Knights (20-20) – May 22-24, 2008

The Knights were second in the South and moving, carrying a 5-game winning streak. They did it in mysterious ways, since they were average run scorers, and had an average rotation, and their bullpen was actually awful. We stripped them 8-1 last year.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (1-1, 4.38 ERA) vs. Jim Turner (0-0, 8.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-2, 3.08 ERA) vs. Sadakuno Imamura (1-2, 7.32 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 3.16 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (5-1, 2.69 ERA)

Look who’s up on Sunday! He’s one of two lefties in the series, sandwiching the righty. We get their two worst and their best guy, which sounds fair. Their pen was stacked with former starters who should best retire.

Game 1
ATL: SS Kester – 1B Younger – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Keller – 2B Olvero – P Turner
POR: CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Barrón – P Baldwin

Jose Morales pumped a 2-run homer to get the scoring underway in the third inning, of course at the expense of Colin Baldwin, who didn’t look like the emphasis in his last name were on the final syllable. The Raccoons were retired in order by Jim Turner the first time through the lineup, while Jaime Kester struck out with the bases loaded to end the top 4th after hitting a single his first two times at the plate. They did show some life with Pruitt’s 2-out single in the bottom 4th, but he was promptly stranded when Black grounded out to third, and the Raccoons didn’t reach scoring position until the sixth, when Barrón singled and was bunted over by Baldwin. Barrón was then squarely left right there by Castro and Martinez. Baldwin was yanked after putting two men on in the seventh, with Morales almost jacking a 3-piece off Sims, but not only was he kept on the warning track, J.C. Crespo also made the catch.

Unbelievably, Jim Turner, not much of a pitcher, spun eight innings of 2-run ball before the Knights sent Clyde Henderson to close it out. He had a walk issue, but the Raccoons seemed to have a multitude of issues right now. Quebell led off the inning, pinch-hitting for Law Rockburn. He struck out. But then Castro singled, pulling up the tying run in Martinez! C’mon, rookie power! He struck out. Pruitt walked, though, giving the bat to Duke Smack. C’mon, Luke. This is the time to be a hero, be a savior, to - … walk? Henderson never gave him a pitch worth swinging at, and now faced somewhat less of a threat in Craig Bowen, who rolled a 1-0 pitch to Carlos Martinez for the nail in the coffin. 2-0 Knights. Rockburn 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

This is dangerous. You can hear the sirens burning, red lights turning. I can’t turn back now – I smashed the big fat bright red button on my desk to sound the level 3 alarm throughout the clubhouse, and sent for Grandma Umberger (actually, Grandma Kim) to be flown in from rural Korea. Jong-hoo says she has some secret sauce for some spicy-as-all-hell samgyeopsal. I hope that’s Korean for something I can actually swallow. I heard Koreans don’t just have a chicken for dinner. They have the entire chicken. With feet and beak.

But maybe a spoonful of secret sauce shoved between the batters’ butt cheeks will end their comatose state.

Game 2
ATL: SS Kester – 1B Younger – LF J. Morales – RF J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – C De La Parra – CF Keller – 2B Olvero – P Ford
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – CF Castro – RF Black – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Brown

In bad news, Imamura was skipped and Ralph Ford moved up to Saturday. In more bad news, it was clear early that Brownie wasn’t going to be resharpened yet and fell 1-0 behind after a Kenneth Younger double and a Jorge Garcia single in the first inning. In great news, Quebell and Martinez started our half of the first with singles, and Castro’s 2-run triple into the gap in right center was the single biggest clank we had hear all week! He scored on a groundout and the Coons loaded the bases for Brownie, who popped out for the third out. While Brown struck out the sides in both the third and fourth innings, he also had two men reach in the fourth, which unfortunately included a game-tying homer by Carlos Martinez. The Raccoons reclaimed the lead in the bottom 5th on Bowen’s leadoff jack, after which Barrón walked (Ford’s sixth walk in the game after 17 walks in 67 innings on the year) and went to third on Brown’s single to right with one out. In a horrendous break, Quebell lined a pitch right back into Ford’s glove and the Raccoons failed to tack on, and Jorge Garcia tied the score with a home run in the sixth. Brown somehow struck out ten without walking anybody into the seventh, when he issued consecutive 2-out walks to Gonzalo Munoz and Jaime Kester. Bruno came in to face Younger, ran a full count, but struck him out. Come the eighth, Donald Sims allowed a leadoff single to Morales before moving him into scoring position with a wild pitch. After a De La Parra single off Rockburn, Lou Urban would fly out to Castro (“to” being not meant in the way of “geographically close”) to end that inning. Angel Casas loaded the bases in the top 9th before striking out Garcia to escape another mess, but that actually presented a chance to walk off against righty Dave Jackson (6.06 ERA) with Bowen, Barrón, and Gutierrez. While that didn’t sound like much of a good opportunity in the first place, Bowen flew out pathetically on a 3-1 pitch and that one strike had been a pointless hack. Barrón came up, and hacked some more. At 2-2, he finally hit the ball, sent it soaring to deep right. Was it fair? Would it stay fair? The first base umpire waited a dramatic second or two, then signaled … fair ball! The Coons walked off! 5-4 Critters. Quebell 2-5; Castro 4-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Barrón 2-4, BB, HR, RBI;

More bad news. Our area scout in Korea told us that Grandma Kim’s neighbors saw her venturing into the woods on Wednesday to collect special herbs in the wilderness. Normally, the old lady is gone for a week when she sets out with her little herb basket, backpack, and copper pots clanging on the sides.

Also notice how none of our 5-game winners won a game this week so far, with all three wins collected by our two bullpen studs. But here came, strangely, Imamura in game 3 after all.

Game 3
ATL: SS Kester – C De La Parra – LF J. Morales – CF G. Munoz – RF J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Urban – 2B Olvero – P Imamura
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – 3B Chavez – P Yates

Antonio De La Parra hit home runs in both of the first two innings as Kelvin Yates was a complete disaster in the rubber game. After a solo shot in the first he had the defining moment in the third, crowing a 5-run frame with a 3-run home run. Not that easily visible in the box score were the two wild pitches Yates offered in the second even before all hell broke loose. The Raccoons had stranded runners on the corners in the bottom 1st against Imamura, who not only had a walk issue, but was more of a walking issue with a K/BB just barely over .5 … and while the Coons plated two runs in the bottom 2nd, they also stranded two runners when Pruitt lobbed out to left. They loaded the bases in the fourth, starting with a leadoff walk by Ricardo Martinez, who replaced Nomura (with Chavez shifting over) after Yoshi had left the game with an injured heel. Both Chavez and Quebell got on for Castro to bat with one out as the tying run. Castro grounded to Olvero for a force at second, but beat out the relay throw, 6-3, before Pruitt dumped a double into right, 6-5. Black and Bowen walked to reload the dishes for Barrón, yesterday’s hero, who grounded out to Urban.

Oh so close, Kichida was tagged with a run by Antonio Olvero singling home Jorge Garcia, who had drawn a leadoff walk, in the fifth. Kichida had to bat in the bottom 5th with nobody on and two outs, readily accepting strike three, since we were already short on players. He went into the seventh on the mound before putting two on. Sims ended that inning, but we were trailing by two. Those two runs had been on base with no outs in the sixth before ineptness had overcome the rest of the lineup once again. Trevino’s infield single to start the bottom 8th in a steady drizzle put the tying run at the plate at least, but we had three lefties up against left-hander Enrique Meneces. Castro singled, and then Pruitt hit one into the gap. Jorge Garcia brought the ball back in and Castro was thrown out at home, with Pruitt remaining at third base as the tying run for Black, who snipped the first pitch he saw to the left side, and past a diving Kester! Single, tied ballgame! Oh my god, what a nuts game!

One wild pitch and a Bowen groundout as well as a 60-minute rain delay once Bruno had thrown four pitches for one out, then got two more outs with four more pitches later, the Coons had another chance to walk off. Hey, Barrón’s leading off. He won’t do it twice, will he? Nah. But he singled to represent the winning run for Ricardo Martinez, facing righty Francisco Garza. Uh, double play. Kester then misplayed Chavez’ grounder for an error, but Trevino flew out. Another extra inning game!! Bruno dealt with the 10th competently and quickly. He was up third after Quebell and Castro in the bottom 10th, still facing Garza with more walks than strikeouts to his credit. With Quebell on first and one out, Gutierrez walked in Bruno’s place, bringing up the Duke again, and he walked again to bring up Bowen. Well, another walk will do just as well. While the count ran full, Bowen struck out to go to 0-5 with 26 men left on base, but look, there’s Barrón again! He took the first pitch he saw, grounded it up the middle, Olvero stretched in vain, and the Raccoons walked off again!! 8-7 Critters!! Quebell 2-4, 2 BB, RBI; Castro 3-5, BB, RBI; Pruitt 3-5, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Barrón 2-6, RBI; Nomura 1-1, 2B; Chavez 2-5; Trevino (PH) 1-2; Sims 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-0);

Yoshi’s sore a bit. But we have Monday off and he should be good on Tuesday against the Bayhawks. We might see a right-hander then.

In other news

May 20 – OCT CL Sancho Rivera (1-4, 4.35 ERA, 7 SV) has had a rough season so far, but chalks up his 300th career save in a 5-3 win over the Condors.
May 24 – SAC SP Carlos Castro (5-1, 2.31 ERA) will be shut down for three months with rotator cuff inflammation.
May 24 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.277, 1 HR, 19 RBI) will be sidelined for three weeks with a hamstring strain.
May 24 – LAP 1B Stanley Murphy (.306, 3 HR, 23 RBI) strained his achilles tendon and will miss two weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Juan Garcia pitched the first perfect game in ABL history, and it took only 31+ years! It is also the 28th no-hitter in the league, and the second for the Cyclones. Manuel Garza spun one in 1997. The Cyclones have no cycles to their credit (strangely!). Only four teams have less than two combined no-hitters and cycles. The Buffaloes, Garcia’s victims on Monday, have one cycle and no no-nos, while the Canadiens, Scorpions, and Capitals have none of any. Amazingly, the Raccoons lead overall with five no-hitters and two cycles.

Marcos Bruno won three extra inning games in a week. That HAS to be a new record SOMEWHERE.

Apart from that, this week was entirely exhausting. I mean, the Raccoons played like crap for most of the week. They got away with a 4-2 affair, winning by single runs all four times, all wins in relief, and three in extra innings, with two walkoffs. They were shut out on six hits total the other two games. For what it’s worth, we scored only 16 runs this week, and conceded 22. That’s a bad pace. And look at it! Look at it! They lead the division!! It’s totally crazy!!

It’s … nuts!! XD

Now where’s Grandma Umberger/Kim?