[Westheim]

Ready to visit both CL division leaders this week?

September Additions

With rosters expanding on Monday, the Raccoons called up six players to complement their personnel, three pitchers and three batters. The batters weren’t very exciting, and frankly, most of the pitchers weren’t either. We added Santiago Trevino again for outfield defense. It hadn’t been his fault that he had been demoted (other than not having Ron Alston’s swing), and we would try to sneak him into a few more situations. We also added Manuel Gutierrez, the versatile Salvadoran infielder. Looking for another batter, we wanted a right-hander, and had to reach down to AA to pick Jose Cruz, who was just coming out of a slump. We might add a third catcher soon-ish.

In hurlers, we added Dan Parker, the 21.60 ERA lefty, who will be assigned the most menial tasks only (so he won’t be on GM’s Sandwich Duty), also added Kaz Kichida for long relief (trying to give Yates a few more starts, too), and former first round pick Brendan Teasdale. His ERA was in the high 4’s in AAA, but I already explained that at some point it’s time to throw them into the water and see whether they sink or not.

I also remember the way his name is written now. It’s like Brenda, and not like Marlon Brando. A girl after all, it seems.

Raccoons (78-51) @ Falcons (71-57) – September 1-3, 2008

Strengths were roughly opposite between these teams. While the Raccoons enjoyed a top 2 pitching staff and had (still…) a middling offense, the Falcons were scoring the second-most runs and had a middling pitching staff, ranking only seventh in runs allowed. The pathetic nature of the CL South however had them virtually assured of the playoffs already with five weeks to play, with everybody else at least double digits behind and with a soundly losing record, the 62-69 Condors leading the pack.

With the season series at 3-3 so far, no team can win more than six from their opponents this year. In this particular matchup, neither team has won more than six from their opponents since 1998, when the Raccoons took seven games. The year before, horrid 1997, we were bloodied 1-8 by the Falcons. Since ’99, the series is almost even, 43-44 from our view.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (13-8, 3.36 ERA) vs. Pedro Vargas (8-6, 4.23 ERA)
Javier Cruz (8-8, 3.84 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (6-10, 4.83 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (9-7, 4.69 ERA) vs. Tommy Wilson (8-11, 5.87 ERA)

Could be three right-handers, but they could still make a move, too. Now the sticky news. It’s unlikely that Teasdale will even debut this week. He has pitched on Saturday, but only threw 82 pitches. He could possibly go on short rest in the season finale. I quite surely won’t have him toss to the Crusaders on the weekend. We have lined up Baldwin (so, meh), Jong-hoo, and Brownie for that, and we just can’t do much better that that. So, game 3 is a maybe right now. Could be Yates, could be Boda, could be Teasdale, could be some walk-on we pick up from now until Wednesday.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – SS Barrón – C Bowen – P Brown
CHA: SS J. Rodriguez – RF Theobald – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – LF J. Flores – CF P. Estrada – 1B Reya – 2B H. Green – P P. Vargas

In a strange game for Brownie even by this year’s standards, he neither walked nor struck out any of the first 15 batters in the game. At that point he trailed 2-1, including a chain of three 2-out base hits in the second and home run leader Jose Lopez’ 28th shot in the damage column. With a runner on third, he struck out Reya for the second out, walked Hubert Green, then got a favorable grounder from Vargas for the second time in four innings to strand two. Brown was knocked out in the sixth, when Vargas was up with two on and two out for the third time in the game, but this time lined a single to left. Another run scored when Javier Rodriguez singled against Donald Sims. The Raccoons had scored a lightning quick run after a Quebell triple in the first and since then had been almost entirely absent, a condition that never changed. Dan Parker was assigned a most menial 6-7-8 portion of the Falcons’ order in the bottom 8th and coughed up another run and then even needed rescue, and yet that still lowered his ERA by a few full points. 5-1 Falcons. Quebell 1-2, 2 BB, 3B; Alston 2-4;

We managed four hits, Brown managed four walks, and Luke Black managed four strikeouts (more than Brown). So this was quite the dumpster fire and it can hardly get worse from here.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS M. Gutierrez – P Cruz
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – LF J. Flores – 1B J. Lopez – RF Reya – CF P. Estrada – SS S. Moore – C Ishikawa – 2B H. Green – P Collazo

Martinez was the only right-hander in this lineup and Collazo was mediocre at best. We better make some sparks now!

Quebell’s leadoff jack (#16 on the year) was certainly a spark. Two walks and an infield single by Martinez loaded the bases with one out before Collazo started emptying them with a wild pitch, which cost the Falcons another run when Nomura bounced to Steve Moore, but the double play had been taken away. Actually it cost them three more runs: Bowen homered (also #16!) to extreme right, almost foul, and the Coons held a 5-0 lead. Then came little Javier, seven years old, and lit some matches. Cruz walked the first two batters, then also allowed some hard contact. An Estrada fly beat Pruitt’s limited range for a double and the Falcons took two runs right back. The fire spread rapidly. Tomas Castro hurt himself racing after a drive in the second inning, and the next batter, Falcons original Hubert Green, jacked a solo home run to cut the gap to two runs. For a while it was doubtful whether Cruz would pitch longer than Collazo in this game, but when the first four Coons all landed base hits in the fourth inning, Alston’s 2-run single ran the score to 7-3 and got Collazo removed.

Cruz didn’t last that much longer. He allowed three hits, three walks, and drilled a man (aside from some really hard contact) in four innings, then walked two more to start the fifth inning and was yanked. We brought in Rockburn, who disintegrated in a hurry, allowing a single to Lopez, walked Reya, and Estrada, too, and when Steve Moore hit a sac fly to Pruitt, we finally made an out, the score being 7-6. Here came Kelvin Yates, for desperate reasons. His first pitch to Ishikawa was a bouncer to Nomura, who turned it into a two-for-one quickly to end that horrendous inning. Yates pitched two more innings, striking out four. Bruno replaced him for the eighth (the Coons offense being asnooze) and his first pitch was flicked into leftfield by Pedro Estrada. When Moore bunted, Bruno wanted the leadoff man, but bounced the throw and Gutierrez couldn’t come up with it. Two on, no outs, Ishikawa bunted the runners over before Green popped out and Paul Theobald grounded out to Yoshi.

The bats finally awoke in curios circumstances in the top of the ninth against closer Javier “Baby Bull” Navarro. Barrón hit for Martinez and rolled a single to right, then scored on Bowen’s double that was misplayed into one by Jesus Flores. Black hit for Gutierrez in the #8 hole and hurled a horrendous freak double that bounced on the right field line before bouncing to the bag with the tarp, where the ball decided to stay put. Luis Reya had expected some sort of carom, generating the extra base and run, but the inning would end with the next batter, Trevino. Panic wasn’t over yet. Angel insisted on allowing singles to the first two batters in the bottom 9th, then struck out Jose Lopez on 1-2, struck out Reya on 1-2, and on 1-2 to Estrada he tried to throw the ball right through Estrada’s butt. Sure enough Steve Moore hit one just like the Duke had done minutes before, just to the other side, and that emptied the bases, tied the game, and sent it to extra innings ultimately. Neither team reached further than first base for three innings after that. Antonio Ramirez would hit a leadoff single off Kichida in the bottom 13th, was bunted over and moved further on Flores’ groundout. With plenty of space, Lopez was walked intentionally even if Kichida had to face the left-hander Reya then. Picking poisons here. But Reya popped out, and so we played another inning, the deciding 14th. The Raccoons struck out three times, Jose Gutierrez, Trevino, and Pollack, while Kichida allowed a single to PH Dave Hamilton, then a triple to Ishikawa. 10-9 Falcons. Quebell 3-7, BB, HR, RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2B; Black (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Esquivel (PH) 1-1; Yates 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; Bryan 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Without a doubt, the Crusaders will kill us on the weekend. Also, happy birthday Brenda, you’re making the start on Wednesday. And you’ll have our worst possible outfield combo behind you, so be careful, nobody’s gonna save you. You’re piggy-backed with Boda, by the way, because the pen drowned last night. Like I said, nobody’s gonna save you.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – RF Alston – CF Black – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Barrón – C Esquivel – P Teasdale
CHA: 3B J. Rodriguez – LF J. Flores – C F. Chavez – 1B J. Lopez – RF Reya – CF P. Estrada – SS S. Moore – 2B H. Green – P T. Wilson

Teasdale’s first inning was rather quiet, and he nabbed his first victim, striking out Jesus Flores as #1 of how-many-who-knows. The Raccoons scored an unearned run after a Rodriguez error in the second inning, but the Falcons soon enough started poking Brenda to see whether he would bleed. Lopez led off with a single, and Estrada would hit a hard double off the wall. Lopez was on his way home, Pruitt threw to the wrong base, the runner advanced to third, and subsequently scored. Alston tied the score at two with an RBI double in the third, but the same part of the order that had harmed Teasdale the first time, did it again the second time. Lopez walked, and two pitchers later Estrada hit a towering homer to left center, putting the Falcons ahead 4-2. Alston then homered in the top 5th, but had nobody on, but Black, Pruitt, and Nomura all reached to load the bases with one out. The Blighters wouldn’t manage to break through, though. Barrón lined out to second, and Esquivel hit a liner to shallow right that scored only the tying run before Teasdale flew out.

Teasdale’s debut ended with Jose Lopez’s RBI double after five and a third, that put him down yet again. We looked for one out from Sims, who allowed a deep fly to right to Luis Reya that Alston almost didn’t get. Then we brought Richardson, with two out and Lopez at third, to do something about the scorching Estrada, who grounded hard to Martinez for the third out. The Critters tied it again the following inning when Esquivel blooped a ball into shallow center for a single that allowed even Pruitt to score from second base, knotting the score at five (while the Furballs had twice as many hits as their opponents…). After that we sent Cássio Boda, because we didn’t have much else available anymore in terms of gaining length. After two good innings and striking out Lopez, Boda walked Steve Moore with one out in the ninth. Moore went with Green batting, but was thrown out by Esquivel, and although Hubert Green eventually singled, the Falcons didn’t score and this game went to extras as well (a.k.a. second-worst-case-scenario).

Esquivel bunted over Barrón after his leadoff single in the 10th inning before Jerry Fletcher hit for Boda against the left-hander Ryan O’Quinn. The Falcons didn’t bite and walked Fletcher intentionally to get to Quebell, whose line looked like had gotten into a wood chipper: 0-5, 3 K. For a moment we twitched to bat a right-hander (Jose Cruz, really??) or Bowen, but then led Quebell go, he always has a single in him. Or maybe O’Quinn would throw a meatball that Quebell romped to deep right and well outta here! That put the Coons 8-5 on top. A few quick outs later, Angel came out, trying to shake off the ravaging of the previous night. Yet, here, the Falcons had Rodriguez lead off with a single, and then he walked Chavez, and here came that home run leader. In a hard battle, Angel prevailed and struck out the slugging Lopez, then also got Reya to fly out to center. 8-5 Raccoons. Alston 3-6, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-5; Barrón 3-5; Esquivel 3-4, 3 RBI; Boda 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K, W (2-1);

Five runs in 5 1/3 look pretty bad, but that’s not the whole story. Teasdale only allowed six base runners. It’s just that almost all of them scored… Meanwhile the Coons left them left, right, and center…

Sour news: we found out on Thursday that Tomas Castro (.303, 10 HR, 65 RBI) had a fracture in his elbow after leaving Tuesday’s game hurt, and that he needed surgery and was out for the year. He will be ready for Opening Day, though, at least he should.

We lost another game to the Crusaders in the standings and now are 8 1/2 back. Yet, with seven to play, the way the last series went, and how we’re playing right now, we might as well round up to 15 1/2.

Raccoons (79-53) @ Crusaders (88-45) – September 5-7, 2008

The Crusaders’ greatness has been elaborated in tedious detail already. Most runs scored, least runs allowed, and the Raccoons come in scuffling. We are 4-7 against them on the season after that rough ploughing in August when we were swept in four games.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (8-8, 3.37 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (14-4, 2.84 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (17-4, 1.72 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (10-11, 3.42 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-9, 3.46 ERA) vs. David Estrada (12-8, 3.77 ERA)

Estrada figures to be our only left-hander this week, but maybe the Crusaders will go and squeeze Greg Connor into this series, which would give us three right-handers. Both teams had one regular on the DL. It was Castro for the Raccoons, and Francisco Caraballo for the Crusaders.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – RF Alston – CF Black – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Barrón – P Baldwin
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – SS Butler – 1B A. Munoz – C D. Anderson – P Reeves

Quebell narrowly missed a homer on Whit Reeves’ fifth pitch, hitting one foot beneath the top end of the wall in right center, was held to a double, and starved. We started giving out intentional walks in the very first inning with Roberto Pena on third, two outs, and Stanton Martin (.303, 22 HR, 120 RBI) looking hungry. Nah, let’s try Sonny Reece, a left-hander, instead. Reece hit one good up the middle, but Yoshi made a scrambling play to end the inning. After the Coons left Quebell in scoring position again in the third inning, the Martin Brothers got hard hits off Baldwin in the bottom half to score the game’s first run, and with two outs in the fifth they were at it again. Ortíz hit a single, but this time Baldwin struck out Martin. Two singles and an aggressively moving Sonny Reece were enough for the Crusaders to produce a second run in the bottom 6th, and the Raccoons? What were the Raccoons doing? They got four measly hits off Reeves in seven innings, didn’t get anybody in, and when it started to rain in the top 8th and the umpires called the game due to bad weather after less than an hour of rain delay, we didn’t make much of a fuss even. We knew we had lost. 2-0 Crusaders. Baldwin 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, L (8-9);

The Crusaders did make a change after that and moved David Estrada into the middle game. Whatever works for them is fine for us…

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – LF Alston – RF Black – CF Fletcher – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Umberger
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – 1B Butler – SS J. Hernandez – C D. Anderson – P D. Estrada

The Crusaders put Umberger down on his knees and begging for mercy way too easily and way too quickly. The first two men reached, and after Umberger squeezed through the Martin Brothers, Reece hit a single to right to score the first run. Another leadoff walk then in the bottom 2nd, but Hernandez was thrown out stealing. David Estrada however hit a home run to get to 2-0. And he kept walking people, after excelling with control all summer long, and while Estrada was no-hitting the Raccoons, Umberger stood there in the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded, nobody out, and a power-packing catcher tucked away in the #8 slot at the plate. Anderson worked a full count before flying out to Black in a sac fly situation, 3-0 Crusaders, and they didn’t add on after a bunt and a groundout by Pena. The Crusaders got another run eventually as they chewed up our best man in six innings, while a Quebell single in the top 6th had at least staved off total humiliation. For the longest time this game was decided before a Ramón Garza error created the tiniest of openings in the top of the eighth. It put Quebell on with one out. Martinez flew out to the warning track in left before Alston singled. Black was doing hardly anything besides striking out this week, but finally connected with something and hit an RBI double to left, which put two runs in scoring position and they tying run in the 4-1 game at the plate in Jerry Fletcher. Estrada seemed like he was losing it, but had Fletcher at 1-2 before allowing an RBI single to right. Black was not sent against Martin’s murder arm. Strangely, the Crusaders still didn’t bring a reliever, even when Bowen was brushed by a pitch on the chest. When Barrón singled to center, Black scored, and Fletcher scored, the game was tied, and almost a panic broke out in the park. Pruitt grounded out batting for Jose Gutierrez, but it got worse for the home crowd. Closer Iemitsu Rin was finally in the game in the top 9th, 90 strikeouts in 63 innings, and Quebell shoved an apple in his mouth with a crushing homer to right. When needed most, Angel had a 1-2-3 inning to shut down the Crusaders. 5-4 Critters. Quebell 2-5, RBI; Fletcher 2-3, BB, RBI;

All our runs on Fletcher were unearned, but that didn’t excuse the dazzling managing in the home dugout. What were they doing …?

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Fletcher – LF Alston – RF Black – 3B Pollack – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Barrón – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B R. Garza – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 3B Reece – SS Butler – 1B M. Williams – C D. Anderson – P A. Javier

I had a really bad feeling for Brownie in this game… Before the Crusaders could knock his teeth out, the Raccoons spotted him a run in the second inning when Barrón doubled home Yoshi. Brown then also had a 2-out single, but Quebell flew out to Martin. Brown was behind in the count to about everybody from the start, and it didn’t work for very long. After the gravest of sins, walking the opposing pitcher, he would allow a couple of sharp 2-out hits that allowed the Crusaders to score three runs in the third inning. Daryl Anderson hit a solo shot the next inning. They were up 4-1 when being done with him after six after logging eight hits and four walks.

The Crusaders had even learned something on Saturday. When Angel Javier issued walks to Fletcher and Alston to start the eighth inning, Scott Hood raced out of their bullpen. The Duke was the tying run at the plate, no outs, and Hood’s first pitch of the game got the fireworks started when the Duke slammed it well into the leftfield stands for a game-tying 3-run homer. The next three batters were chopped into really fine slices by Hood before Rockburn took over, but opened the bottom 8th by drilling Apasyu Britton. He got two outs after that, with Britton on second, when Ed Bryan came on in a double switch to face PH Ming Kui, one of those nasty jokers always with a tie-breaking single up the sleeve. He grounded rather hard up the middle, Manuel Gutierrez, also entering in the switch, got to it, and managed to nip Kui at first base to end the inning. Barrón then hit a leadoff single off Rin in the top 9th. Gutierrez bunted him over, but Quebell struck out and the Raccoons ran out of steam in that inning. Anastasio Munoz also hit a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. Bryan was still in and remained in (Sims had been used in the seventh and we needed Bryan for Ortíz, who was coming up one way or another). Ramón Garza’s grounder got Munoz forced out at second, and Bryan struck out Ortíz before yielding for Bruno, whose first pitch was wild and who had Stanton Martin eventually grind out a walk. Left-hander Sonny Reece up, no qualified left-handed relief remaining, this was Bruno’s for better or worse now. It was for worse. Reece, just a really strong hitter after all, looped a single to left near the foul line, and there was no play on Garza to be made. 5-4 Crusaders. Fletcher 2-4, BB, 2B; Black 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Barrón 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Uch. Mellow.

In other news

September 5 – CHA 3B Javier Rodriguez (.269, 2 HR, 34 RBI) is out for the season with an oblique strain.

Complaints and stuff

Officially no longer looking forward to Nick Brown starts. And when your best start in any week comes from Colin Baldwin and was average at best (7 IP, 2 R, 6 K), and was also worth a loss to the guy, that says a lot about the current strength of the team.

Also applying for the title of “Burning Wreck of the Week” was Luke Black, who even with Sunday’s heroics (that were ultimately futile anyway) went .200/.273/.450 with 7 K (felt like 13 K) this week in an attempt to display what some evil doubters had expected from him all season long.

;-)

We also plunged from second to sixth in the power rankings.

I was meaning to include the franchise leaders for the Crusaders really hard in this one, but I’ve run out of time for today. It’s not like I didn’t have plenty of chances before during the season (y’know, always include it for each CL North team when you play them, it’s not magic, y’know?) Elks are still missing, too. Well, you’ve been following for some time, you know how badly I suck at stuff.