[Westheim]

Raccoons (77-47) vs. Loggers (48-76) – August 23-25, 2010

Well, they were horrendous. -113 run differential with the worst offense in the Continental League, and the fourth-worst pitching certainly didn’t help their cause. The Raccoons were playing .667 against the Loggers this year, having won 8 of 12 games from them.

Projected matchups:
Gil McDonald (5-1, 2.53 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (7-7, 4.52 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (6-5, 3.88 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (12-9, 3.62 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (13-7, 3.40 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (9-13, 3.14 ERA)

And the right-handed parade continues – no exceptions in this series. Too bad Ron Alston is down for this week.

Game 1
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – 2B Luján – C Baca – 3B Townsley – SS Mateo – LF Davenport – 1B T. Austin – RF Dally – P Bartels
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – RF Ayers – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P McDonald

Gil McDonald struck out five on his first time through the Loggers’ lineup, with the Loggers not logging a hit until the fifth inning, a Tim Austin double to left. Too bad that there was a runner on first, Jaime Mateo, who reached third base on the knock, and there was only one out. But McDonald struck out Justin Dally and looked like he’d get out of the inning, at least until A.J. Bartels knocked a single past Merritt and plated both runners. Also, in more bad news, the Raccoons had stranded pairs in the first and second innings and since then had been silent and trailed 2-0. Things didn’t get better, with McDonald reaching on an error and Castro drawing a walk in the bottom 5th, only to be left on as well. McDonald then fell apart in the sixth, walked two and was knocked out by a Willie Davenport double that put the Loggers on top 4-0. Overall, he struck out eight and walked five. The bullpen turned an already highly dismal game into a Monday night rout in the seventh, with Josh Gibson putting on two runners. Beltran replaced him and only faced Baca, who singled, and when Ray Kelley came in with the bases loaded he served up a 3-run triple to Bob Townsley to put the Raccoons in the box. Not that the – remember: miserable – Loggers were done. Ted Reese appeared in the eighth, allowed a single to Tim Austin, a double to Justin Dally, and then walked Leborio Catalo to load the bases with no outs. Ron Thrasher gave up a 2-run double to J.R. Richardson to keep the scoreboard alit. Bartels allowed two hits and whiffed four in seven shutout innings. 9-0 Loggers.

Yikes. Okay, this was a complete stinker of a game and perfect to ruin the good mood and semi-confidence we had after winning the weekend set with the New Yorkians. Three hits, lots of misery. Nobody did anything remotely useful. It can hardly get worse in the rest of the set.

Game 2
MIL: LF Davenport – 2B Luján – 1B Catalo – CF T. Austin – 3B Townsley – C Rosa – SS Mateo – RF J.R. Richardson – P R. Thomas
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – RF Ayers – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Baldwin

The ball was certainly flying well off the bat when Colin Baldwin was batting, and the Loggers made hard contact five times in the first inning, landing three hits and scored two runs, both on sac flies. While Quebell made up that early deficit with a 2-run home run in the bottom of the first – which gave the Coons the total of one hitter that had double-digit dingers and wasn’t aching – Baldwin just kept bleeding and ended up allowing nine hits, mostly hard, and four runs in six despicable innings of work.

Craig Bowen singled home Quebell in the fifth to at least keep the team only one run out, and Roy Thomas was still pitching in the seventh to allow a leadoff double to the otherwise dead Tomas Castro. Merritt flew out to deep center, moving Castro to third, from where he scored when Quebell’s soft fly to shallow center was juggled and dropped by Tim Austin, which tied the contest at four. Pruitt’s single knocked out Thomas and brought ex-Coon Scott Boone into the game against an unretired Craig Bowen with two on and one out, resulting in an obvious double play grounder. Reese gave up a leadoff single to Townsley in the eighth before starting a double play on Freddy Rosa’s grounder, and Luis Beltran actually managed to retire a left-hander when he retired the pinch-hitting primary catcher Alonso Baca. Two out in the eighth, Howell walked and Pat White singled, but Castro flew out to Richardson, who then started the top 9th with a single off Thrasher. Angel Casas came into the game with the go-ahead run already on base. The Loggers wasted an out with a bunt, and ultimately struck out with Richardson at third, then put Dave Walk into the bottom of the ninth, a right-hander with no special abilities at all, who would face the 2-3-4 guys. 2 and 3 singled, 4 struck out, and 5 drew a walk to load them full with one out. Keith Ayers popped out and was technically out at home, and Nomura flew out to left on a 3-1 pitch, sending the game to extras with three runners stranded.

Two scoreless innings from Angel weren’t enough to win anything here, and Ray Kelley started the 11th. He retired the first two batters before the left-handers Richardson and Dally both singled. A full count walk to Willie Davenport loaded the sacks for Antonio Luján, who also ran a full count before striking out. Kelley struck out the side in the 12th before falling to a Suketsune Ito and an RBI triple with nobody out in the 13th. Ito scored easily in the inning, and Wes Gardner, who had already pitched two innings, would start the bottom of the inning with Manuel Gutierrez, the first of three quick groundouts in the inning. 6-4 Loggers. Merritt 2-6, BB; Quebell 2-4, 2 BB, HR, 3 RBI; Bowen 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; White (PH) 1-1; Casas 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Yeah, well. Well. Well, that’s … oh my.

Game 3
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – SS Luján – 1B Catalo – C Baca – 3B Townsley – 2B G. Torres – LF T. Austin – RF Dally – P Caro
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – CF White – C Owens – RF Ayers – SS M. Gutierrez – P Umberger

The road to sweep began in the third inning, where the Loggers had runners on the corners after a walk and a single off Umberger, with one out, except that Luján tried to steal second base and was knocked out by Travis Owens. One would assume that Umberger would find his way out of the inning in the scoreless game, but Catalo singled to left to give them a lead and Alonso Baca completely tattered an Umberger pitch for a homer and a 3-0 deficit for the clueless Coons, who got a major break in the bottom of the inning. Gutierrez singled to get started, the first hit of the day for the team, before Umberger’s bunt was airmailed for a 2-base error by Townsley. The Raccoons refused to keep the line moving, barely scoring the runners with two groundouts by Quebell and Nomura. Pruitt led off the fourth with a single and Gabriel Caro then walked Pat White on four pitches, technically putting the go-ahead run on base, which then moved on when Owens drew a walk in a full count. Three on, nobody down, Ayers grounded to third base for what looked like a lot of pain, except that Townsley missed the grab and the ball came out behind him. Everybody was safe, the bases were still loaded, and both teams were even at three. Gutierrez scored the go-ahead run with a groundout before the inning quickly died. The Coons now led 4-3 on the “strength” of two hits.

They’d move to five runs on three hits in the bottom 5th, with White driving in Pruitt, who had walked before him. Owens’ throwing error in the top 6th turned out inconsequential when Rockburn got two pop ups after that, and Rockburn lived through seven and a third before yielding to Beltran with Baca at the plate. Beltran had another day where he pitched, but didn’t log innings, getting purged after a clean single by Baca. The tying run appeared on the plate while Raw Lockburn appeared on the mound, getting a 1-2 pitch bounced into play by Townsley, quick to Merritt, who started a 5-4-3 relief effort. Angel Casas sat down the Loggers in order, salvaging one win out of a train wreck of a midweek series. 5-3 Raccoons. Gutierrez 2-3, RBI; Umberger 7.1 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (14-7);

Raccoons (78-49) @ Falcons (60-65) – August 27-29, 2010

The Falcons were a balanced bunch, ranking sixth in both runs scored and runs allowed, and also sixth in defense. Well, it wasn’t all just one greyish smear for them. They didn’t hit homers (72, 10th), but stole bases well (59, 4th), but they were even with the Raccoons on the year, 3-3. The Coons have won the season series only once in the last four years.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (11-7, 3.35 ERA) vs. Manuel Ortíz (11-12, 4.74 ERA)
Nick Brown (17-5, 2.67 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (11-10, 4.17 ERA)
Gil McDonald (5-2, 2.98 ERA) vs. Roberto Ramirez (1-1, 3.10 ERA)

Three right-handers in this weekend set as well. They had recently put Jesus Hernandez on the DL and Larry Cutts was ailing as well, although they were expected to activate him from the DL any day now. Nevertheless, right now they had two swingmen in their rotation, one of which was Ramirez.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – CF Castro – RF White – SS Howell – P Cruz
CHA: CF DeBoer – SS J. Amador – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 2B Reeve – 1B H. Green – P M. Ortíz

While the Coons scored two runs in the first three innings, both RBI’s going to Castro with a 2-out single in the first and a sac fly in the third, they also left the sacks full twice against Ortíz, who was pretty wild, smacked Bowen and White in those three frames, and walked the bases full in the third inning in the first place. Without a doubt this had to come back to hurt, and damn sure it did. Cruz didn’t allow a hit until Jesus Amador’s RBI double in the bottom 3rd, then had two outs and nobody on in the fourth before drilling Luis Reya and then failed a strike to Tom Reeve and Hubert Green at tall. Manuel Ortíz obviously had to hit a liner into center for a 2-out, 2-run single here as the Falcons took the lead.

They wouldn’t hold it for long. Castro tripled in the fifth and was scored by White, before the Raccoons were donated a chance in the sixth. Nomura hit a 2-out single before Merritt got drilled (the third Raccoon on the day to take one to the ribs or other vital body parts by Ortíz…), and a wild pitch advanced the runners into scoring position. Yet, Pruitt, cold as ice, grounded out, and nobody scored. Top 7th: Bowen flew out to deep center before Castro reached on a chipper over the second base bag that eluded the middle infielders. Castro stole second base, then scored the go-ahead run on another Pat White single. White would score on a 2-out single by Cruz, who had a low pitch count, and the middle of our pen was not in high regard right now. Cruz retired two in the bottom 7th before Jimmy DeBoer tripled, but Amador popped out to allow Cruz to complete seven, and even started the eighth where he was knocked out by Jose Lopez’ 1-out double. With two left-handers next, Ron Thrasher came out to pitch with the tying run at the plate, and Jesus Flores and Luis Reya had 18 homers between them. Flores didn’t fall a whole lot short of making it 19 when he drove Thrasher’s first pitch to deep left, but somewhere where Pruitt could catch up with it and contain it. Reya struck out. The Raccoons weren’t all that productive in the last innings, assuming Angel Casas would take care of things eventually. Hubert Green hit a 1-out single off Casas in the bottom of the ninth before Melvin Pollack hit into a double play, so they were right after all. 5-3 Critters. Nomura 3-4, BB; Castro 3-4, 3B, 2 RBI; White 2-4, 2 RBI; Cruz 7.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (12-7) and 1-4, RBI;

Matt Pruitt is 3-for-29 right now, with no extra base hits, two walks, and one RBI. Matty, this is a VERY BAD TIME to go ****!

Can we get a decent game played this week? Two more chances. Back home in Portland, I heard, Slappy put his August paycheck on “no”.

Meanwhile, the Falcons activated Larry Cutts (9-11, 4.51 ERA) from the DL and threw him straight into the middle game. Cutts is a southpaw, so we will see one after all.

Game 2
POR: 3B Merritt – CF White – RF Ayers – 1B Quebell – C Owens – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P Brown
CHA: CF DeBoer – RF J. Flores – 3B J. Lopez – C F. Chavez – SS J. Amador – 2B Reeve – LF Reya – 1B Heart – P Cutts

The second he was moved out of the cleanup spot, Matt Pruitt managed to meet a ball, hitting a leadoff single in the second inning. Nothing happened until Brownie batted with two outs, with a hit-and-run on as Brown floated a ball to right, where it was dropped by Flores, putting the runners in scoring position. Merritt walked, leaving the sacks full for White, who ran a full count before walking and forcing in the first run of the contest. Ayers then lined out to Amador at short. While that was more or less sad, the bottom 2nd made it all that much worse. Not only that Reeve took Brown deep (and well deep) to left, no, he also allowed a single to Reya, then had Cutts at 0-2 with two outs, and conceded a 2-run homer to the pitcher, making somebody’s shamelist in the process.

The Raccoons tied the score at three in the top 4th. Pruitt had hit a 2-out triple in the third but had been left on by Yoshi, and when Merritt hit a 2-out triple in the fourth, the mood wasn’t high. But White doubled, then moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on Ayers’ single to get even. Yet, Brown had one of those games where he had everybody at two strikes, and then bad things would happen. He had some strikeouts on the way, even three in that ****ed up second inning, and reached 200 for the season when he eliminated Fernando Chavez to end the fifth inning, but at that point already had arrived at 100 pitches – and that with our pen that was largely burned out despite the off day on Thursday.

Top 6th, Concie hit a leadoff single. Brown was retained to bunt, albeit badly, and Concie was nailed out at second base. The hit-and-run was on again with Merritt batting, who lined out to Max Heart, and Brown was easily doubled off to end the inning. Brownie started the sixth inning on the mound, too, but scratched and clawed on Jesus Amador’s metal trash can for ten pitches, which was awful even with the final result, a delicious fly out to Ayers. He was removed after that, with Reese finishing the inning, but he then allowed a single to Hubert Green in the seventh. Beltran replaced him, issued a 4-pitch walk to PH Domingo Nieves, and Flores grounded out, bringing up Jose Lopez with two on and two out, with Rockburn to face him, only to throw a run-scoring wild pitch that gave the Falcons a 4-3 lead.

The Falcons’ own pen also stumbled in the eighth. Pruitt hit a 1-out single. With left-hander Pat Kling appearing, Howell hit for Nomura and was plunked. The Falcons brought their third reliever of the inning for Concie, righty Bruno Mack, who was finally successful in getting a double play from Guerin to end the inning with dismay. The Falcons didn’t score in the bottom of the inning, leaving the Raccoons to figure out Luis Hernandez (87 K in 61 IP) in the ninth and try to score a run. Tomas Castro pinch-hit to get it underway, and struck out in a hurry. Merritt then singled, but White flew out to left. Bowen hit for Ayers against the right-hander Hernandez, but grounded out to second base. 4-3 Falcons. Merritt 2-4, BB, 3B; Pruitt 3-4, 3B;

That was Larry Cutts’ first career homer in ten years in the major leagues.

This week blows, and everything that stands between Slappy and a big payout now is Gil McDonald.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – RF White – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P McDonald
CHA: CF DeBoer – SS J. Amador – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – LF J. Flores – RF Reya – 2B Reeve – 1B Heart – P Collazo

Portland went up in the first when Pruitt doubled home Quebell, who had himself singled before that. Like any lead this week, it looked terminally ill as soon as it was on the board, and McDonald drilled Flores and allowed a double to Reya in the bottom 2nd to quickly put a runner on third base, from where he soon scored. With the teams tied at one, both offensive lineups detached themselves from the action for a while. When Castro led off the sixth with a clean single to right, it was only the third hit for the Coons, and the fifth in the game. Castro stole second base, his 12th of the year, to which the Falcons responded with an intentional walk to Quebell, before Merritt worked an unintentional walk. Bases loaded, no outs for Pruitt, but by now Collazo was messed up. Pruitt walked on four very wide pitches, before Bowen drove a pitch to center, where it was caught by DeBoer, to score another run. Pat White also hit a sac fly, and the Coons went up 4-1 on three hits. The Coons left runners on second and third in the next inning, and the bottom of that seventh frame also saw the Falcons log a third hit, a leadoff double by Flores, who nevertheless was starved on base.

Top 8th, Pruitt narrowly missed a homer to start the inning, instead clanking a double off the base of the wall in rightfield. Here, the Falcons elected to walk Craig Bowen and his .224 average intentionally to get to Pat White, for whatever reason. Jerry Scott, a right-hander, replaced Alfredo Collazo and before he ever threw a pitch he picked Pruitt off second base. White and Yoshi singled to load the bases, but Howell popped out and Ayers whiffed when he hit for McDonald to strand a full compliment. They would definitely lose this game… Ron Thrasher drilled a man and walked another, somewhere got a double play, but was chased by Fernando Chavez’ 2-out single that moved Jose Lopez (.250, 19 HR, 81 RBI) to the plate a the tying run. Law Rockburn was ordered in, and Lopez fouled out behind home plate on a 2-2 pitch. Angel Casas had already turned in some mileage this week and was merely soft-tossing in the pen as Rockburn also started the ninth in the 4-1 game and issued a leadoff walk to Jesus Flores. Hnnnghh!! Shall we bring Angel? Shall we not? While I was still tearing myself in half over this, PH Domingo Nieves hit into a double play and the Coons boogied out of the inning to at least chalk up a .500 week. 4-1 Coons. Castro 2-5; Pruitt 2-3, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; McDonald 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (6-2); Rockburn 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, SV (3);

In other news

August 23 – SAC INF Michael Palmer (.307, 6 HR, 46 RBI) has come up with a separated shoulder and will miss the next month.
August 25 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.289, 15 HR, 87 RBI) might miss most of the remaining regular season with a hamstring strain.
August 27 – DEN LF Victorino Sanchez (.379, 8 HR, 77 RBI) spent the Gold Sox’ off day on horseback, fell off said horse, and sprained his ankle. He’s out for at least two weeks.
August 27 – It could be season over for SFW LF/1B Gil Gross (.270, 15 HR, 57 RBI), who suffered a separated shoulder.

Complaints and stuff

Let’s just say I’m royally … “unhappy” with how this week turned out. Although, any week that starts with a 9-run rout at the hands of a last place team can be chalked up as futile endeavor right away.

Even unhappier: Slappy, who lost his paycheck and now will have to actually clean my house in exchange for food, and doing work is not his strongest side.

But hey, at least the Crusaders also didn’t get past a .500 week. AND they will have Stanton Martin on the DL for perhaps all of the rest of the regular season. This includes, as I said before, four more games in Portland in the final week of the season. From our side, Ron Alston should be good to go on Monday. Not that he was any hot before twisting his lower body.

Prospect watch! Rich Hood was moved up to AAA some time ago and has 56 walks in 100 innings. The ERA isn’t even bad, but – wow! He has struck out 72 for a 3.31 ERA. Ralph Myers has 17 homers and a .840 OPS in St. Pete, but he really isn’t going to have a roster spot and I think we will try to flip him for something else this winter. Walt Canning’s OPS in AAA is up to .924, making a case for a September callup, although we already have three shortstops, technically. Outfielder Jason Seeley was sent back to Ham Lake two months ago and has since batted not overly well, .753 OPS with four homers, but he should get moved back to St. Pete when the big league roster expands in a few days and there will be openings (Trevino f.e. will move up damn sure).

Overall, while the St. Petersburg Alley Cats lead their division by one game, Ham Lake and Aumsville are rock bottom, 47 and 24 games out, respectively.