[Westheim]

Raccoons (39-31) vs. Loggers (32-35) – June 20-22, 2011

The Loggers had just dropped under .500 after holding out for much longer than anybody would have trusted them to. Their peskiness and persistence with an outrageously cheap roster and little obvious talent had also affected the Raccoons, with whom they had evenly split six games so far this year. The writing was on the wall, however, with them running a -59 run differential and ranking in the bottom 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed. They were hitting well above their weight so far and things sooner or later had to turn south hard for them. The Raccoons came off a weekend in which they routed the Titans for 33 runs (although 10 were unearned), so maybe that raging offense could spill over into this midweek set.

Projected matchups:
Gil McDonald (4-6, 3.50 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (4-5, 4.60 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (6-5, 2.96 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (4-7, 4.52 ERA)
Bill Conway (6-4, 3.02 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (5-5, 4.29 ERA)

Cruz will be a left-hander, right before our off day on Thursday. We get the Aces on the other side of that, and they currently don’t have a left-handed starter anyway, so Ayers and Howell in particular can be sure of a start on Wednesday.

Daniel Sharp was currently on a rehab assignment and we weren’t sure whether we’d see him.

Game 1
MIL: RF Locke – 2B K. Scott – 1B Catalo – CF Davenport – 3B Cuevas – LF J.R. Richardson – C Lemberger – SS Ito – P Caro
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Morales – CF Seeley – 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P McDonald

That raging offense the Raccoons had displayed on the weekend clearly had been a Titans thing. They were back to their pre-Titans shoddy self by the time the Loggers showed up, and for three innings, nothing remarkable at all happened, before things got worse than just merely dull in the fourth, when Gabriel Caro struck Jose Morales in the hand, and the slugger had to leave the game, replaced by Keith Ayers. The Coons didn’t score in the inning, of course, and the score remained non-existent.

The Loggers weren’t any better. When McDonald pitched too far in to Philip Locke in the top 6th and thus put the leadoff man on base, they couldn’t get him past second base, either, and that was with a Keith Scott bunt involved. While McDonald was still pitching a 2-hitter, he started to lose his command by the seventh inning. As his pitch count crossed 80, he ran two 3-ball counts to Fernando Cuevas and J.R. Richardson, who both popped out, but then allowed clean singles to Tommy Lemberger and Suketsune Ito before getting pulled. Pat Slayton retired Caro with a grounder to short. Nothing would come of Yoshi Nomura’s 2-out double in the bottom 7th – the Critters’ first hit since the first inning – either. Top 8th, Slayton allowed a leadoff triple to Locke, then struck out Scott, got a poor grounder from Leborio Catalo that kept the runner pinned down, but then walked Willie Davenport, and with lefties coming up, Ron Thrasher was asked to resolve a 2 on, 2 out situation in our favor, but allowed a single to Cuevas on the first pitch he threw, and that was that. 1-0 Loggers. Morales 1-1; McDonald 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Four hits. They had four hits. They only struck out five times. They mad SIXTEEN groundball outs. Caro’s best this season so far were TEN groundball outs.

There is just no point, but with the contracts involved, a rebuild might involve some generous use of rodenticide.

Jose Morales had incurred no actual structural damage but his thumb was still swollen to twice the normal size. He couldn’t open a battle of water or tie his shoes on Monday night or Tuesday morning, and gripping a bat was about impossible. Here was to hoping that he was only DTD for the rest of this series, and not still incapacitated on the weekend.

Game 2
MIL: 2B K. Scott – 1B Catalo – LF Davenport – RF Locke – SS Ito – C R. Hernandez – CF Covington – 3B Cuevas – P R. Thomas
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – CF Seeley – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – RF Taylor – SS Palmer – C McNeela – P Baldwin

To say that Roy Thomas was wild would have been a wild understatement. He issued six free passes in the first three innings (while Baldwin struck out five and walked only one), and was booked for three runs, with Jason Seeley manufacturing offense in this game. He reached base in both of his at-bats in the first and third innings, stole second both times, and scored on a Pruitt double and Merritt triple, respectively. Merritt came in on a sac fly after that. Yoshi was already on first with one out when Seeley came to bat in the bottom 4th, and now doubled up the leftfield line. Both runners would score in the inning, Pruitt bringing in Yoshi with a groundout, and Merritt hit his second triple of the night to run the score to 5-0. While Thomas’ outing didn’t extend past the inning, Baldwin had struck out eight before he started to run long counts, including a number of full counts, and his pitch count shot up, reaching 95 through six. And Seeley got cocky by the bottom of the sixth. Yoshi had originally singled, but was forced on Seeley’s grounder to second. Seeley remained on first, then took off again and Raúl Hernandez’ throw went into center, tailing away from the shortstop Suketsune Ito. Seeley made it to third base with three sacks taken in the game, scored on a Pruitt single, and Pruitt would also come in when Logan Taylor decided to swing after drawing three walks so far, and hit an RBI single, 7-0. Baldwin managed to pitch seven shutout innings, but after that his pitch count was at 111, and he was hit for in the bottom 7th. Gibson and Beltran ended the game without allowing something meaningful to the Loggers. 7-0 Raccoons. Nomura 3-5; Seeley 2-4, BB, 2B; Pruitt 2-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Merritt 2-4, BB, 2 3B, RBI; Taylor 1-2, 3 BB, RBI; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W (7-5); Gibson 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

I do like Jason Seeley more and more, a bit more every day. His day with three sacks taken ties the franchise mark that was last achieved by Tomas Castro in 2007.

Game 3
MIL: CF J.R. Richardson – C R. Hernandez – 1B Catalo – LF Davenport – 2B K. Scott – SS Ito – RF Alires – 3B T. Rodgers – P F. Cruz
POR: 3B Merritt – 2B Palmer – LF Pruitt – RF Ayers – CF Seeley – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Conway

A grand slam off the bat of soft-hitting Keith Scott in the first inning put Bill Conway in a man-deep hole right away, and not enough that the Raccoons weren’t hitting anything, no, Conway also had to actively ruin their efforts with a pathetic bunt that killed the third inning in getting Howell forced out at second base, with Merritt hitting into a double play afterwards. With a good bunt, Palmer would have come to bat with Howell on second and two outs at least. But through four, the Raccoons amounted to two meager hits, and Conway was knocked out by – fittingly – Scott in the fifth with a 2-out double. The Raccoons were never even remotely close to a comeback from the early whammy, and once Luis Beltran got his paws on a ball, things went REALLY downhill. While the two runs he coughed up in the seventh were technically unearned after a Keith Ayers error, he was also guilty of two singles, a walk, a hit batter, and a wild pitch all in the same inning. Cruz went eight and a third before his pitch count shot over 120 and the Loggers moved on to Bob Evans, who allowed a single to Quebell and a homer to Bowen, but it was well too late for a comeback now. 6-2 Loggers. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Bowen 2-4, HR, 2 RBI;

… and so it came the Raccoons nursed a losing record against a horrendously broken team. Good job, Coons.

Seeley was 0-4 in this one. That kid ain’t got nothin’!

Raccoons (40-33) @ Aces (42-29) – June 24-26, 2011

The Aces had gone from constant shambles (11 seasons with 90+ losses in 12 years from 1998 to 2009) to being contenders for the first time since ’96, when they met a sour end to their only postseason appearance at the hands of the Raccoons in the CLCS. They were currently 3 1/2 games behind the Thunder. But were they true or were they impostors? Their offense was the best in the league, but their pitching was hollow and had an icky smell to it, with the second-most runs allowed in the league. The rotation was the worst in the CL with a 4.87 ERA, but most of the damage had been done early in the season, especially in May, but they had allowed more than five runs only twice in their last 13 games, and never more than seven. Those were the same numbers as for the Raccoons, but when the Coons weren’t happening to play the Titans, their offense scored more than a run less per game in the same time frame.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (7-3, 3.30 ERA) vs. Jaquan Wagoner (3-7, 4.86 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-3, 2.41 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (4-6, 5.33 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (7-5, 2.75 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (1-4, 5.83 ERA)

It’s hard to make out a “best guy” in their rotation, but I think we’ll miss Juan Valdevez (4.19 ERA) and that will be good enough. As I said, their entire rotation is right-handed.

The news on Morales on Friday morning were that he was swinging in the cage, but didn’t feel 100% and would not be in the lineup on Friday at least.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – CF Seeley – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – RF Taylor – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Brown
LVA: LF Sambrano – 2B H. Jones – 3B F. Soto – RF Bednarski – C Durango – 1B McDermott – CF Melendez – SS Avila – P Wagoner

The Raccoons had a Nomura single and walks to Seeley and Merritt in the first and wouldn’t score once Logan Taylor struck out. That gave the ball to Brown, who hadn’t been good, and sometimes not even decent, in over a month, walked Sandy Sambrano to start his day, Francisco Soto singled, but Mike Bednarski, who led the Aces in homers with 11, hit hard into a double play. Ricky Avila was hit in the third, Logan Taylor was drilled in the fourth, but there was most likely no intention involved, only ineptness. Neither “incident” led to a run, and so it was on Soto to open scoring with a solo homer in the bottom 4th. Brown was no good at all, ran full counts galore, and the pitch count was almost at 80 after five innings. Would he get an out in the seventh for the first time in over a month? Didn’t seem so…

Before we could get an answer to that, Brown left Logan Taylor on third base with a groundout to Soto in the top 6th. There was the idea of hitting for him there, with his apparent refusal to go further than six anyway, but a) our bench was not confidence-boosting either, and b) we were starting a string of 17 straight games without an off day here, and this one could well run long (although confidence said no) and you weren’t inclined to get four or more from your pen if not absolutely necessary. But in turn, the Raccoons continued to not score real hard and worked on their second 1-0 loss of the week. Top 7th then, Quebell with a line to right and a leadoff double. GODDAMNIT, SCORE HIM!!! Nomura struck out, Seeley grounded out to first (moving Quebell to third), and Pruitt’s line to right was hanging up for a long time, but Bednarski still didn’t get it, and the single tied the game at one. No shutout today. Good. Every little **** is progress. When Merritt walked, the Aces pulled Wagoner, brought lefty Jorge Cortez, and the Coons responded by sending Keith Ayers to bat for Logan Taylor, but Ayers grounded to short and was out at first.

Then came Brown, starting the bottom 7th on 90 pitches and faced Octavo Melendez, a left-hander, who lined hard to left on the first pitch of the frame, and Pruitt came along sliding and - … well, did he catch it!? The umps ruled it a catch! Brownie had an out in the seventh, hooray!! He ran three more full counts in the inning, allowing a single to Josh Downing before striking out Sandy Sambrano to leave on his own terms. Then he was even handed a posthumous lead: Craig Bowen hit a 1-out double to left in the top 8th, and Howell singled when he batted for Brownie. Quebell grounded up the middle, potentially a double play, but it was JUST a bit too fast for the infielders and escaped into center for an RBI single, giving the Coons a 2-1 upside. That was all the team got, though, including the ninth. Thrasher got one out in the eighth, Huerta got two, and when Angel Casas came out in the bottom 9th he faced the 5-6-7 guys, all lefties, and he blew the lead in a real hurry and in the most stupid fashion. First he walked Durango to start the inning. When Sean McDermott laid down a bunt, Casas insisted on getting the lead runner, and got nobody. Melendez laid down another bunt, moving the runners to scoring position, and Ricky Avila tied the game with a sac fly. Downing struck out. Like I said, this game was likely to run long. It didn’t run too long, however. While the Raccoons couldn’t do anything in two innings with Greg Sampson, a right-handed reliever that walked more than he struck out, Sean McDermott walked off the Aces in the 11th, beating Pat Slayton. 3-2 Aces. Quebell 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Howell (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

Throw Angel Casas onto the pile of broken toys. He has not saved any of his last three opportunities, blew two of those, and was dug out by Thrasher once.

That’s a huge pile of hugely expensive broken toys we have…

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Morales – 3B Merritt – CF Seeley – SS Palmer – C Bowen – P Umberger
LVA: 1B McDermott – CF Melendez – 3B F. Soto – RF Bednarski – C Durango – 2B H. Jones – LF Hill – SS Avila – P N. Jones

The Blighters outdid their stale Friday output in the first inning on Saturday when the 2-3-4 hitters all reached base and then they kept wiggling just enough for the Aces to not get three outs. Merritt plated Yoshi with a fly to deep right that Bednarski caught, but even Yoshi was able to score at a ball that deep. Seeley then singled in a 3-2 count, plating Pruitt and advancing Morales to third, from where he came home on Michael Palmer’s single. That this was not a secure 3-0 lead was bluntly apparent quite early, with Nomura and Merritt both committing errors in the bottom of the first, although the Aces didn’t rightfully exploit that opening. They would in the second, though. While Umberger hit a leadoff double in the top 2nd that was completely ignored by the rest of the team, the Aces romped Umberger for four hits and two runs (including an RBI single with two out by Nehemiah Jones…) in the bottom of the frame, and continued to whack him in the third, in which they tied the game when Ricky Avila hit a grounder to Merritt with the bases loaded and one out, but the only play was at first base. Jones then popped out instead of homering…

Three-all through three became 4-3 Coons again in the top 4th. Palmer homered, but Umberger was in yet more trouble in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Soto and Bednarski both singled, and Eduardo Durango hit a shot to deep center where Jason Seeley had to drop his third breakfast to make a dash for it – and even got it. Seeley was still mad. By the time he came back, Pruitt had run off with his lunch box. Seeley batted with two out and two on in the top 5th, was still angry, and gave a ball a ride to right … but didn’t get it out of there, with Bednarski picking it off the wall. Howard Jones’ leadoff triple in the bottom of the inning led to a tied game all too soon against Umberger, who allowed nine hits through five, and struck out NONE.

In the sixth, Palmer hit a leadoff double, didn’t score. The Aces also got a leadoff hit by McDermott, and the Coons just barely kept him stalled at third base when Merritt made a strong play on Bednarski with two outs. Somehow Umberger would hold out through seven despite allowing ten hits in a 4-4 game, but wasn’t rewarded with a win. The Coons drew two walks in the eighth, but couldn’t buy a RISP hit in any situation. Ward worked a clean bottom 8th before Yoshi led off the top 9th with a walk on four pitches against Dave Hughes, a right-hander. No time for bunts here! So Pruitt lined out to left on the first pitch, but Morales singled and once Merritt’s horrible 2-2 bloop ditched into shallow left, the bases were loaded for the rookie that was alternating rapidly between great days and dead days, and now came to the plate with a 1-for-4 tally on the day. Hughes thought he lacked a strikeout on his card, so gave it to him, but then lost a 7-pitch battle with Palmer, who shoved in the go-ahead run with a walk. Bowen struck out, which was just what he was always doing. Angel Casas thus got another 1-run lead to fudge with, and allowed a leadoff single to Melendez, but the Aces wouldn’t sink him this time. Soto struck out, and Bednarski’s hard grounder was turned for two by Yoshi. 5-4 Coons. Morales 3-5; Palmer 3-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI;

Like gum. That one was like gum. It took like six hours. It felt like twelve.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – CF Seeley – LF Morales – SS Palmer – RF Taylor – C Bowen – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Baldwin
LVA: 2B Downing – CF H. Jones – 3B F. Soto – RF Bednarski – SS Dahlke – C Durango – LF Richards – 1B Melendez – P Rutter

With nobody on base, Craig Bowen could miraculously homer, hitting a jack in the second inning that gave Baldwin, who didn’t allow a hit the first time through the order, a 1-0 lead. The Coons had Palmer and Taylor on the corners with one out and Bowen batting in the fourth. Bowen didn’t even get to striking out, being smacked by Ian Rutter before that, loading them up. From here, Gutierrez and Baldwin would both hit lines to the right side, and Josh Downing would spoil both of them, forcing the Raccoons to strand a full complement of runners. The Aces didn’t wait around much longer, Jones and Soto opened the fourth inning with hits, and they also had the bases loaded with one out. At that point, Eduardo Durango worked a walk in a full count, tying the game, and Ron Richards brought in the go-ahead run on a groundout. Because not all teams go perpetually 0-for-infinity in RISP situations.

The top of the fifth started with Rutter walking Quebell. Nomura bounced back to the mound, Rutter tried to get the lead runner, but threw wildly past Downing, and the Coons had two on with nobody out, extending that to bases loaded with nobody out when Seeley singled to right. The excitement was certainly building up to dizzying heights. How would they bow out of this one!? Morales’ bouncer to first on which Melendez came in and unloaded to the catcher, who easily forced out Quebell, was certainly a good start, but the bases remained loaded, and when Palmer hit a bloop to shallow center, nobody was able to make any play on that, and the score flipped to 3-2 when Seeley dashed home from second. That was not all, as Taylor and Bowen also brought in single runs with a single (Taylor) and a groundout (Bowen), giving Baldwin a 5-2 lead, and Baldwin responded with a shutdown inning.

Morales opened the seventh with a double over new pitcher Spindler, with Rutter gone after six innings in which he whiffed seven but walked five. Spindler immediately punched a ball through Palmer, and then Logan Taylor doubled to left. Morales scored, Palmer held, first base was open and the Aces … you won’t believe it, but the Aces walked Craig Bowen (.195!) INTENTIONALLY to load the bags with nobody out in a 6-2 game. It didn’t work out too well for them. Gutierrez singled to left, plating the seventh run for the Coons, and Baldwin even hit a sac fly to Bednarski, 8-2. Jorge Cortez came in to contain some damage, but the Coons got another sac fly from Yoshi (after Quebell had walked to reload the dishes) to get their second 4-spot in the inning.

At 9-2, the game wasn’t quite over yet. Baldwin was removed after a 2-out walk to McDermott in the bottom 7th. The useless Slayton appeared, allowed three hard line drives for three hard hits, and was replaced with Huerta, who struck out Bednarski, before it could get REALLY bad, but the Aces pulled two runs back, and got another run off the equally useless Beltran in the eighth, who inherited only two outs to get and three left-handed batters to come up from Huerta, but walked Durango and gave up an RBI double to Ron Richards in a hurry. And the bleeding had yet to stop. Gibson started the bottom 9th. Downing fouled out, but Jones doubled to right. Out with Gibson, in which Thrasher, against whom Soto singled, putting runners on the corners, before Bednarski popped out to Yoshi. Tom Dahlke was next, batting squid after being locked away in AAA the entire year until making his season debut here. He went down swinging. 9-5 Furballs. Palmer 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Taylor 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

In other news

June 21 – Vancouver’s SP Rod Taylor (11-3, 2.16 ERA) aces his way past the Indians, holding them to a single hit in a complete game shutout. Jose Paraz’ single in the fourth inning is everything between Taylor and the no-hitter logs.
June 24 – TOP LF/RF Apasyu Britton (.354, 3 HR, 28 RBI) has nursed a 20-game hitting streak.
June 25 – Atlanta’s SP Domingo Cruz (4-1, 2.57 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Indians, beating them 6-0.

Complaints and stuff

Thursday was our last off day before the All Star break. We’ll play 14 more games ‘til then. Our four-and-four partners will be the Elks once again. Our dear friends, the Elks. I hate those chumps. By the way, McDonald won’t be skipped, as the schedule does not allow for it. But I switched his position with Baldwin’s, which I found appropriate.

The Sandy Sambrano strikeout was Brown’s 100th for the season.

The last two paragraphs might seem contradictory with our position in the calendar and such, but, yes, it is so, and I am sulking over Brown’s demise.

For ONE day, Jose Morales qualified for and led the batting title race. Then Gabriel Caro struck him in the paw, and now it will take a few days again for him to gobble up enough plate appearances.

It also took FIVE days for our first draft pick to end his season. Ninth-rounder Nick Lester had two outings for a 9.00 ERA, and now is out for the year with a herniated disc.