[Westheim]

Raccoons (70-47) vs. Cyclones (68-48) – August 19-21, 2008

The Cyclones were leading their division with a complete package, scoring the second-most runs and conceding the second-fewest runs in the Federal League. Their +135 run differential was pretty to look at. We swept the Cyclones last year, but actually got swept in three of the five previous series. But well, those were the Uttercoons. Now we had a 5-game winning streak and considered ourselves invincible.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (7-7, 3.18 ERA) vs. Jack Berry (10-10, 4.00 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (14-4, 1.76 ERA) vs. Nathan O’Herlihy (10-6, 4.20 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-7, 3.20 ERA) vs. Juan Garcia (14-6, 3.35 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, starting with the guy we sold for scraps because he wouldn’t survive big league pitching. Now I’d be glad if Berry were still ours.

Game 1
CIN: CF E. Clark – LF R. Lopez – RF Bailey – 1B J. Silva – SS Hall – 3B Bond – 2B H. Cardenas – C F. Hernandez – P Berry
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Barrón – P Baldwin

The Raccoons’ winning streak was out of the window in a matter of minutes, as Baldwin was completely shredded in a 4-run first inning. The Cyclones just kept raking away at him for three hits (including two doubles) and two walks, and a Castro throwing error didn’t help either. In the second it was a leadoff double by Jack Berry eating up Black in right center followed by two walks that stocked the bases pretty good with one out. The idiots have all the luck, they say, and it was true as Jose Silva had a poor floater pop off his bat to be caught by Alston in shallow center for the second out. Bob Hall grounded out to short. After a quick third inning against the 6-7-8 guys, Baldwin issued a leadoff walk on four pitches to Berry in the fourth. In our pen, John Richardson didn’t wait for the phone to ring. He started stretching himself. But it wasn’t Richardson’s time yet. Baldwin might have been pitching indefensibly, but had some defense behind him, which only sounds like it doesn’t make sense. Barrón SOMEHOW turned a hard grounder from Earl Clark up the middle into a 6-4-3, and Baldwin got through the inning.

Now, the fear with Jack Berry when he had been a prospect on our farm in the early 2000s had always been that he would break our budget by allowing so many homers in cozy Raccoons Ballpark that we’d have to order an extra truck load full for every homestand. He had never pitched here in his major league career, but we got a glimpse and idea that those fears hadn’t been completely unjustified. While Baldwin somehow didn’t allow a dozen runs after the four early clunkers, the Duke and Alston both fired home runs off Berry in the first five innings, cutting the gap back to 4-3. Martinez led off the bottom 6th with a triple, representing the tying run then. Baldwin’s turn came up with the bases loaded and one out after a walk to Bowen and a free pass to Barrón. Pruitt hit for Baldwin to counter Berry, struck out, and Quebell popped out over third base. Nobody scored.

Ah, ah, agony. After the Cyclones left runners on the corners against Richardson, who finally got into the contest, in the seventh inning, Tomas Castro hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. Normally not shy about sending him, this was Berry pitching and we had the Sisters of Pain coming up next. Alston already hit a fly to deep center that Earl Clark somehow managed to keep from tearing down the fence. Alright, bring the Duke! The count ran full, but we had a hunch that he was seeing Berry well. The first 3-2 pitch was cut into fiercely by the Duke. To center, high and deep, high and deep, HIGH AND DEEP AND GONE!!!

Too bad the lead didn’t stand up. Marcos Bruno had Bob Hall at 0-2 to start the eighth before Hall hit one into the gap in right center that appeared like it would bounce away forever from Black. Hall had a triple, Bruno struck out Kevin Bond, but pinch-hitter B.J. Manfull beat him with a groundout to second base that scored the runner. The Coons’ ship was sinking in the ninth then. With Sims pitching, Martinez made his 850th error of the season on leadoff man Clark’s grounder. Rodrigo Lopez singled and while Will Bailey lined out to Quebell, that was enough from Sims. Angel Casas appeared to somehow avoid defeat, and in spectacular fashion walked Silva and Hall to push in the winning run. Bailey threw out Alston on the bases after a leadoff single in the bottom 9th on which nobody could quite figure out what Alston was doing, and this loss went into the books. 6-5 Cyclones. Alston 3-5, HR, RBI; Black 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI;

This one goes into our Betamax set, the “Raccoons Shameful Classics”. – What? – What is it, Maud? – They don’t make Betamax anymore?

Ah well, VHS was always going to be the future. – What? – Maud? – They don’t make VHS anymore, either?

Game 2
CIN: CF E. Clark – 3B Bond – 1B J. Silva – RF Bailey – LF R. Lopez – SS Hall – 2B H. Cardenas – C F. Hernandez – P O’Herlihy
POR: 3B R. Martinez – CF Fletcher – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Barrón – P Umberger

The horrendous run for our rotation continued uninterrupted even with our Pitcher of the Year AND Rookie of the Year candidate on the hill. Kevin Bond homered in the first, and the Cyclones left two on in both of the first two innings, including three walks! Jong-hoo pitched in almost as many full counts as Ricardo Martinez had incredibly stupid errors on the season, but cut down on the walks after the first two innings of horror. Meanwhile the Critters didn’t get a runner on base until Alston’s double in the fourth, but he was left on. Pruitt’s leadoff single in the bottom 5th was perhaps a good point to get going. Yoshi singled with one out and Barrón’s liner narrowly defeated Earl Clark’s glove to become a double, tying the game and leaving two men in scoring position for … Jong-hoops. The most embarrassingly batting pitcher in recent memory in a key situation, this was a tough decision. Castro (who was sitting along with Quebell after horrendous set openers), came out to bat for Umberger, then wasn’t even pitched to. Instead they pulled up Martinez with the bases loaded, but somebody should have told O'Herlihy he needed to throw the ball over the plate again now. He didn’t, Martinez walked, and the Raccoons were ahead. Fletcher also walked before Alston pushed a ball past Bond at third base for the end point in a 5-run uprising. We removed the Duke and left Castro in the game after that, assuming that we’d get along with a 5-1 lead and the old bones could use a bit of rest.

After Bryan pitched a clean sixth inning, Richardson created a mess with singles to Cardenas and Hernandez in the seventh. Nobody out, Sims came on, Al Graves grounded out, Clark whiffed, and Bond popped out to Pruitt at first base. That didn’t mean the Coons were out of the woods, though. After a scoring opportunity went away in the bottom 7th when Quebell hit in the spot where normally the Duke would have hit and failed again, Yates appeared for the final two innings, at least that was the plan. He actually faced only two batters, Silva and Bailey, enough for the Cyclones to close from 5-1 to 5-3 on a ringing line drive home run by the latter. Bruno did get the eighth dealt with before Casas quickly retired a pair in the ninth before Bond hit a looper into right that bounced off Fletcher’s glove for an extra base. Silva singled him in from second base, bringing up Bailey again. Ahead 2-0, he shoved the ball into the ground, a bouncer to Yoshi that was turned to Pruitt for the final out. 5-4 Coons. Alston 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

That was no parade, either, but at least they somehow made five runs out of their six hits. Two games, and the pen was almost burnt out completely. Let’s just say that nothing would make me happier than a Brownie shutout in the rubber game.

Game 3
CIN: CF E. Clark – LF R. Lopez – RF Bailey – 1B J. Silva – SS Hall – 3B Bond – 2B H. Cardenas – C F. Hernandez – P R. Williams
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B Pollack – C Esquivel – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Brown

We got Richard Williams (9-8, 4.17 ERA) instead of the Juan Garcia, which could not be all bad for us, and in fact got some instant results when Tomas Castro walloped his 10th homer of the year well over the rightfield wall to open the first inning for the home team. Then there was the problem with Brown’s control however. It was not there, at all. He faced seven batters in the first two innings, and needed 46 pitches. Four full counts did the trick, while striking out three. A complete game was out of the question, and the shutout went bust in the fourth inning, in which the Cyclones loaded the bases with one out, then had to be content with Bond’s run-scoring groundout. The Critters reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the same inning. Two on, two out, Yoshi singled up the middle to plate Esquivel, and then Brown hit a single to right that scored Barrón! In a perfect world this would have created a snowball effect, but Castro grounded out rather gingerly to keep it at 3-1.

There was not much more Brown to watch in this game. He walked two en route to loading the bases after getting two quick outs in the fifth inning. Jose Silva grounded out to Barrón to starve all three runners, but the pitch count crept over 100 in this at-bat. Now, he was probably good for another out or two (or three), but there were interesting developments in the bottom 5th. First, the Duke jacked his third Big One of the series, collecting Alston to run the score to 5-1. Second, the thick clouds leaked water all of a sudden. No rain had been in the forecast, but maybe this would save our pen?

But first, what was with Brownie? He walked Hall to start the sixth, his fifth walk in the game, then allowed a ringing double to Bond. Rockburn replaced him and allowed the runners to score on Felix Hernandez’ single. Al Graves hit for Williams, popped out, and then Clark grounded out to finally end the inning. The rain got worse, too, and the umpires called a delay. Indeed, the rain saved our pen (aside from giving Rockburn a dubious save): with the Cyclones having to travel cross country rather urgently, the game was called after an hour of steady rain, and Brownie got away with a win he didn’t deserve. 5-3 Brownies.

A win he doesn’t deserve probably compensates a little bit, though, for the 30 wins the piss-poor mid-decade Raccoons cheated him out of. Every batter in the lineup had a hit in this game, and we had nine in total.

35-year old Bob Hall (.256, 6 HR, 66 RBI) hit a single the only time Brown didn’t walk him, which was good enough for his 2,000th career hit. The 13th overall pick in 1991 by the Miners and a 16-year veteran in the majors, Hall’s career was steady, but unremarkable. Just twice was he on a playoff team, and he made one All Star appearance in 2003.

Raccoons (72-48) @ Indians (62-59) – August 22-24, 2008

We were 5-6 against the Indians this year, but since falling behind we had acquired their most dangerous weapon, Ron Alston. They were over .500, yet they were hopelessly out, trailing the Crusaders by 18 games, probably the reason they parted with Alston in the first place. Even with him, their offense had been spotty at best, and now it was quite bad. The fourth best pitching in the league didn’t get it done on its own.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (7-7, 3.92 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (5-11, 4.81 ERA)
Cássio Boda (1-1, 4.70 ERA) vs. Bob King (11-7, 3.64 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (7-7, 3.33 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (12-7, 3.58 ERA)

This could potentially end very badly for the Raccoons. Currently, neither pitcher in the rotation is locked in. All are scuffling. I’m close to promoting Brandon Teasdale just for the heck of it. Meanwhile, left-handers are bracketing our opposition for this series, and we will have another day off the following Monday.

Daniel Sharp had batted .225 in Pittsburgh, .300 in Portland, and was now at .290 in Indy and .278 overall. But Ryan Miller… .191 in Portland, THREE-SIXTY-SEVEN in Indy!! .367!!!! Tsung was a Coons draft pick. And watch that Roberto Pacheco kid, who’s out of our system, too.

Game 1
POR: 3B R. Martinez – SS Barrón – LF Alston – RF Black – 1B Pollack – CF Fletcher – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Cruz
IND: LF A. Solís – 3B Sharp – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – 2B Kilters – CF Martines – P Escobedo

Cruz’ last four starts totaled less than 20 innings, but 14 earned runs, and let’s just say he was aware of his reputation and defended it at all costs. After the Coons spotted him an early 2-run lead in the top 1st, Cruz coughed up a Solís double and was taken well outta here by Paraz to tie it up again. To his credit, Cruz had a few less stressful innings after that and overall sucked much less than Escobedo, whose life line was supported by a few strong plays by Felix Martines and Roberto Pacheco, but who still allowed two more runs in the third, key piece being a Pollack RBI triple, and only survived five innings because the Raccoons were horrendous in RISP situations, with ten hits and three walks for only four runs in five innings. The Indians threatened to break through Cruz again in the bottom 5th with two on and two out, when Sharp hit a sharp grounder to the left side. Barrón launched, intercepted it, scrambled up and lasered out Sharp at first base to end the inning.

Cruz’ turn to bat came up in the top 7th with the bases loaded and one out. That was another tough call. The Indians had lefty Juan Jimenez pitching, though, and our bench was steaming with left-handed batters. Sometimes a wing and a prayer and a pitcher that already had two hits in the game had to be enough! Cruz struck out, Martinez flew out, but at least we gained more length from Cruz, who was suddenly retiring Indians in order. In the top 8th, the Coons amounted to three walks and three strikeouts, but Cruz got two more outs in the bottom of the inning before Paraz came up and we really wanted a left-hander for that now. Bryan got him to ground out to end the inning. We threw three left-handed pinch-hitters (Pruitt, Nomura, Quebell) at right-hander Helio Maggessi in the ninth inning without success before Angel dealt with the save situation in sufficient manner. 4-2 Critters. Martinez 2-5; Barrón 2-4, BB, RBI; Fletcher 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB, 2B; Cruz 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (8-7) and 2-4;

We left 16 men on base. Ungh!! A miracle this game didn’t blow up somehow…

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Black – SS Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Boda
IND: LF A. Solís – 3B Sharp – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – 2B Kilters – CF Martines – P King

The Raccoons stranded seven runners in three innings on Saturday, two in the first, three in the second, and two more in the third. They actually scored a run in that stretch, a 2-out RBI single by Bowen looped over Kilters’ head to plate Alston in the third inning. The Indians were sat down in order by Cássio Boda until Jose Paraz hit a home run in the fourth inning. 7-1 hits, 1-1 runs. Sounds fair. The Blighters had no hits through the middle innings (sounds fair, too) until Boda hit a single to start the top 7th. Castro singled before Quebell hit into a double play. An unretired Alston batted with two outs and Boda at third, but flew out to Pacheco. Like that wasn’t bad enough, **** came crashing down in the bottom of the inning. Boda walked Cristo Ramirez and Felix Martines before trying to be sneaky with King’s bunt with one out and tried to nip Ramirez at third. He didn’t nip anybody, then got yanked with the bases loaded. Sims struck out Solís, Bruno struck out Sharp to get out of this sticky situation. But for crying out loud, the Raccoons couldn’t get going. They popped out three times in the ninth, Bowen, Nomura, and Pruitt in order. A tiring contest was in its tenth inning when Ron Alston hit a 1-out double to move Quebell to third. The Duke was 0-4 on the day, with one strikeout, and didn’t match up well to Leonardo Sosa, but the bench options weren’t either. So the Duke remained in the game, jabbed at a 1-0 pitch, a low, soft line to right that fell in just fair and carried Pacheco into foul ground when he cut it off, allowing Black to make it to second base for a 2-run double. While Barrón would single, Esquivel hit for Martinez and right into a double play. No extra runs for Angel, who looked wobbly and allowed a leadoff single to Sharp in the bottom 10th. Paraz struck out hacking before Tsung fired a high drive to right. It lacked the length, though, and Black caught it on the edge of the track. Pacheco popped out on the first pitch. 3-1 Raccoons. Castro 2-5; Alston 3-4, BB, 2B; Barrón 2-5; Boda 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K and 2-3; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Yoshi Nomura made two errors in this game, which was very Martinez-esque.

Game 3
POR: 3B R. Martinez – SS Barrón – LF Alston – RF Black – CF Fletcher – 1B Quebell – C Esquivel – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Baldwin
IND: LF A. Solís – 2B Brantley – C Paraz – 1B Tsung – RF Pacheco – 3B Sharp – SS R. Miller – CF Martines – P R. Gonzalez

Alston singled home Martinez in the first inning, which not only gave the Coons the lead, but also gave Alston a 12-game hitting streak. Baldwin would blow the tiny lead in the second, when he walked Sharp and had Miller double off him to score Sharp all the way from first base. Walks continued to be a thing for Baldwin, and he had four of those in the first three innings. The Raccoons had a hard time with Gonzalez, and Baldwin was struggling enough on his own so that when Barrón made a bobbling error in the fifth inning, Baldwin allowed a double to Solís that drove in the go-ahead run for the Indians. It didn’t get better in the sixth. Miller drove in another run with a bouncer through the middle of knot that Martinez formed with his limbs in mid-tumble, but before that we had already thrown out Pacheco at the plate. Yet, Jerry Fletcher hurt himself on that throw and had to leave the game. Baldwin went into the seventh and left in a 3-1 deficit. The offense just wasn’t picking up Gonzalez at all, he went eight innings of 3-hit ball. We still trailed 3-1 when Tommy Wooldridge entered in the ninth, with Alston up first. He was down 0-2 when he singled to center to bring up Black, who had spent the entire game as a quick out, and struck out. Wooldridge threw a wild pitch before Castro grounded out to short. That wild pitch was still keeping the Coons in the game, but they were down to their final out with Quebell up, also successless on the day, and another quick strikeout. 3-1 Indians. Alston 3-4, RBI;

Ron Alston was three quarters of our offense.

In other news

August 19 – Close, but no cigar: SAL Raúl Chavez (11-10, 3.39 ERA) 1-hits the Aces in a 3-0 win. Don Cameron has the lone hit for the Aces.
August 20 – LAP CL Johnny Smith (7-5, 2.26 ERA, 24 SV) reaches the 300 SV mark with a successful outing against the Bayhawks, protecting a 3-1 win for the Pacifics.
August 23 – New York’s star outfielder Roberto Pena (.367, 14 HR, 49 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going after a 2-4 day with a home run in the Crusaders’ 11-3 creaming of the Canadiens.
August 24 – Season over: ATL LF/RF Jose “Dingus” Morales (.343, 19 HR, 72 RBI) has ruptured tendons in a finger and won’t be back in 2008. This probably buries the Knights (8 1/2 GB) for good.

Complaints and stuff

As far as our outfield is concerned, Ron Alston hit .565 (13-23) with 1 HR and 4 RBI to nab Player of the Week honors, there is no word on Fletcher, but he’s in pain, and the Duke’s $1M vesting option for 2009 triggered when he tied his shoes on Saturday.

Who holds the lead in franchise hits among our current players? Adrian Quebell (443), just ahead of Yoshi (438) and Castro (403). That doesn’t sound like a lot, and it isn’t. Quebell ranks 29th on the all time franchise hits list, after obscurities like Matt Workman, Ed Sullivan, and Armando Sanchez. Looking at homers, the Duke ranks highest, 16th, with 53 shots, having passed Cam Green and Marvin Ingall this week. Nah, I don’t remember Marv as a power hitter, either. He was here for 11 seasons, and the term Ingall Single didn’t come from nothing.

Poor Marv. He will always be part of the Gang of Losers. You know, genuinely good (but far from great) players that didn’t mingle well and contributed towards a 10-year run of losing seasons. The Coons went into the bin as soon as Ingall grabbed a starting spot in ’97. Al Martin, Clyde Brady, Concie Guerin, Randy Farley, Ralph Ford, Dan Nordahl, Antonio Donis, Daniel Sharp and more are in the same group.

But well, it was a mixed week. We had a **** ton of hits against the Indians twice, and hardly got away with wins, then were almost choked on Sunday. The pitching is very mixed, the batting is very mixed.

And very mixed teams go golfing or fishing in October.