[Westheim]

The Raccoons will open the 2014 season with a 9-game homestand starting on Tuesday.

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Titans (0-0) – April 8-10, 2014

The Titans finished second in 2013, but they have bled their two best starting pitchers, and also a few odd bits and pieces here and there. No Tony Hamlyn, no Curtis Tobitt anymore. The Titans are predicted to drop back to the second division, although then again, outside of the Crusaders everybody in the North is predicted to drop back or stick to the second division.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (0-0) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (0-0)
Daniel Dickerson (0-0) vs. Ian Rutter (0-0)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Ramón Jimenez (0-0)

That’s three right-handers to start the season, and to be precise, the Raccoons won’t play a team with a left-handed starter until the second weekend of the season, when they could potentially face Sam McMullen.

And now, please turn your attention to the mound and the first pitch of the 2014 season, and the first pitch thrown by Mister Nick Brown in exactly 323 days.

Game 1
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – 1B Hayashi – RF R. Lopez – CF J. Alexander – 3B M. Williams – P Uenohara
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Brown

To the home crowd’s delight, Nick Brown struck out Mike Rivera and Earl Clark in a perfect first inning. He held the Titans to a Rodrigo Lopez double the first time through, but Uenohara was perfect through three, which was not quite to the home crowd’s delight. That situation didn’t get better, and the Titans would get doubles by Toki Hayashi to lead off the fifth, and Marc Williams later in the inning, but by then Hayashi had already scored on a passed ball and John Alexander’s sac fly. Uenohara had retired a dozen straight, but then was unexpectedly singled to death in the bottom of the inning. The Raccoons unpacked five singles, starting with D-Alex and Bednarski, with Canning tying the game with his, and Bergquist producing the lead with his single. Brownie singled to load them up, then took out Jose Gutierrez on Carmona’s grounder to short to allow another run to score, 3-1, before Carmona was caught stealing with runners on the corners to end the inning.

Brownie, playing hard, put in an almost vintage performance and went seven innings of 1-run ball, with the last two innings ending in double plays. Sakellaris made his Coons debut in the eighth inning, with Williams reaching with a leadoff single. The tying run came to the plate, but the Titans didn’t get any more, with Williams being stranded on third base eventually. Even more dicey, the ninth. Angel Casas hadn’t pitched since last April, and the Titans got a double from Earl Clark right away. “Quasimodo” Suda grounded out to Angel, but then Hayashi singled to center, where Joe Cowan had replaced Carmona. Cowan fired home – and Clark was out at the plate. What a throw! Angel then struck out Rodrigo Lopez, and the Raccoons put their opener away as a W. 3-1 Brownies! Alexander 2-3; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (1-0) and 1-2;

Just to get everybody back on track, this was Brownie’s 169th career win, his ERA dropped to 2.85, and he now has 2,611 strikeouts.

Game 2
BOS: SS M. Rivera – 2B J. Gutierrez – LF E. Clark – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – 1B Hayashi – RF R. Lopez – 3B M. Williams – P Rutter
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson

Dickerson was ravaged from the very start. Rivera tripled and scored on Jose Gutierrez’ single, and the Titans quickly added a Suda single and a 2-run double by J-Alex to lead 3-0. All hits were hard ones, and even Earl Clark’s out was quite hard to center. J-Alex stole third base (!) and scored on Hayashi’s groundout, and the inning ended with a 4-0 score against the Coons. Rutter had a 1-2-3 first, but Dickerson was a mess of royal proportions. He loaded the bases in the second inning, with the third runner appearing when he smacked an evading Earl Clark in the hand, but initially that pitch had been heading right for Clark’s nose. Clark went down and winced, and was eventually replaced by Zachary Thurman. Suda came to the plate angry and hacked madly, producing a foul pop that was easily caught by D-Alex to end the inning. The Titans had Dickerson on the ropes again in the fourth inning, leaving runners on second and third when Thurman flew out to Sandy.

The Raccoons then got their first extra base hit of the season (‘bout time) in the bottom 4th, when Adrian Quebell slugged a leadoff jack, unfortunately only slightly cutting into the Titans’ 4-0 edge. Dickerson soon restored the old 4-run gap anyway. The Titans hit three singles off him in the fifth for Marc Williams to drive in their fifth run of the game, and Dickerson was not heard from again after the inning ended, conceding five runs on 12 hits. The game was not quite over, however, and the Raccoons would have the tying run at the plate in the sixth inning after Rutter had walked Sandy (who got forced by Quebell), D-Alex, and Bednarski. That meant, however, that Nunley was up, 0-for-5 to start the season, but that dire run ended with a hard RBI single to center on an 0-2 pitch. 5-2 Titans now, and Canning got them to 5-3 with a sac fly. Constantino was in the #8 hole after pitching the top 6th, and was now hit for with Joe Cowan, who was also behind 0-2 before coming through against Rutter, smashing a huge bomb to right that was OUTTA HERE and flipped the score to 6-5 for the Critters! The fun didn’t stop here, as the Coons continued to chew up Aurelio Hernandez. Palmer Taylor singled, Carmona ended an 0-for-7 to start the season and doubled into the right corner, and Sandy scored them both with a 2-run single to center, 8-5, a 7-run outburst!

We then made the grave mistake of handing Pat Slayton a ball that was not a squeaky dog toy, and instantly paid for it with a 2-run homer by Lopez in the top 7th. Slayton had issued a leadoff walk to Suda, who was forced by J-Alex, who was then caught stealing, and it STILL was not enough to nurse Slayton through an inning. Hayashi singled, Lopez bombed, 8-7. Gibson would concede the tying run with a pinch-hit leadoff hack by Pancho Ybarra in the eighth, and infinite sadness was about to break out. Gibson somehow wiggled out of the eighth after allowing another hit, and also conceded a leadoff single to Thurman in the ninth. Sugano came in and got a double play from the left-hander Suda, and the Titans remained in the tie, bringing up the top of the order in a tied game in the bottom 9th, but also their closer Tommy Wooldridge. K-armona, K-ambrano, K-Alex, extra innings. Bottom 10th, Wooldridge walked Bednarski to start the inning. There was nobody left to run for him (only backup catcher Raúl Hernandez, the only Critter yet to see action this season), and K-erritt, K-anning, K-owan, the inning was over. – Hey, Titans! Your closer is filthy!! – Now I told them!

Hernandez got into the game in the bottom 11th. Carmona had doubled off Valentim Innocentes and was on third base with two outs and Ron Thrasher up in the #3 slot. K-ernandez, on to the 12th! Here, the Raccoons abstained from Angel Casas (worried about breaking him right away), Sakellaris (not desperate enough), and instead gave the ball to Bill Conway, who was not due to start until Saturday, and could probably spin two innings. He actually pitched three, retiring the first eight batters he faced quite quickly before Suda hit a full count double to left center, and J-Alex battled him extensively before grounding out to Taylor at second to end the inning. Sandy was on in the bottom 14th, and was caught stealing (Coons in 2014: 0-for-2). Then it was Sakellaris’ turn to get burned on the pyre of no-offense-for-anybody, at least until the 17th inning, when the Titans ended a few hours of futility when Suda reached on catcher’s interference while striking out to open the inning and Hayashi then hit a 2-run bomb. Sakellaris, exhausted, even had to bat in the bottom 17th, popping a soft line to center that J-Alex dropped for a 1-out baserunner and the tying run appearing. Watch them now tie the game and play until sunrise; or maybe Dylan Alexander will go to 0-7 with a double play. 10-8 Titans. Sambrano 3-7, BB, 2 RBI; Taylor 2-6; Thrasher 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K; Conway 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

We’re two days in, and I’m already frustrated. The Titans out-hit us 19-11, and we struck out 16 times.

Earl Clark was out for a few days with a hand contusion. Not that the Titans would need him to beat us. They also had played Al Martin in extra innings, when everybody had long gone home except for the poor players, and Al went 0-3 with 3 K.

Raúl Hernandez would already get his first start of the season on Thursday, after D-Alex caught every inning of the 17-frame nightmare and was a bit toast the next morning.

Game 3
BOS: SS M. Rivera – RF R. Lopez – LF Garrison – C Suda – CF J. Alexander – 1B Hayashi – 3B M. Williams – 2B K. Rodgers – P R. Jimenez
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – CF Cowan – C Hernandez – SS Canning – P Santos

The doctor prescribed a good, long outing from Hector Santos for this game, but things were laborious for him and the Titans managed to run a lot of long counts after going down quickly in the first. They already took a 1-0 lead in the second, Hayashi plating Alexander, and Santos’ control was questionable with a lot of 3-ball counts. Sandy Sambrano was the first Coon on base in the game – a single in the first – and also the second Coon on base in the game – a walk in the fourth – and then stole second base despite the Titans knowing he’d go and calling a pitchout. Sandy was still safe and scored on Bednarski’s double to left, tying the score at one, and they quickly took the lead on Joe Cowan’s RBI single to center.

Bottom 6th. Quebell, one of plenty of Brownshirts batting well under .200 early on, hit a double to center to get going. The Titans put Bednarski on intentionally to get to Nunley, who was also sitting at .125 and made it worse with a soft line right to Mike Rivera. Cowan struck out and Hernandez flew out easily to right, wasting a perfectly good chance to build on a 2-1 lead. Santos knocked against 100 pitches in the seventh, got two outs on deep flies and was replaced when lefty Ken Rodgers came up, whom Sugano whiffed to end the inning. Light rain started a bit later and intensified in the top 8th, where there were two outs, nobody on, and Josh Gibson was 3-2 on Rodrigo Lopez before the tarp came on, albeit just for a quarter of an hour. Gibson walked Lopez, Rudy Garrison – back with the Titans after five years in the Federal League – singled, and Angel Casas was brought out for a 4-out save, starting with Suda. Who popped out to Walt Canning. Bottom 8th, Quebell produced an insurance run with a homer off Innocentes, who then conceded a double to Bednarski. Nunley was walked intentionally (!?!), Palmer Taylor, having entered in a double switch with Angel, walked unintentionally, and the bags were full with nobody out in a 3-1 game. The Coons scored two more on Hernandez’ sac fly and a 2-out RBI single by Jason Seeley, which opened up the opportunity to bring another guy in to get Angel off his legs, but now he was already in there and – no, Angel, go ahead. J-Alex singled on an 0-2 pitch to start the inning before Hayashi hit a 1-2 bomb, and instantly the Titans were back in the game, 5-3. Williams and Rodgers struck out before Simon Stevens walked. Rivera was Angel’s last batter in any case, chipped a 1-0 pitch to short, and Canning just barely was able to contain it and make the play. 5-3 Critters. Quebell 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Bednarski 2-3, BB, 2 2B, RBI; Seeley 2-2, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Falcons (1-3) – April 11-13, 2014

While the Raccoons held last place in batting average early in the season, they at least held a share of first in the North, while the Falcons brought up the rear in the South. They had the second-worst batting average and were also 11th in runs scored early on. (With the Coons, it was a factor of that long game on Wednesday, because they were actually tied for third in runs scored) The Falcons’ pen had been completely ablaze in their first set with the Thunder, ravaged for an ERA of almost seven.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (0-0) vs. Scott Spears (0-0)
Bill Conway (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Steve Kreider (0-1, 1.13 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-0, 1.29 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (0-0, 8.44 ERA)

Three right-handers for them, as expected. We’ll have to see what Conway can give us on Saturday after throwing over 40 pitches on Wednesday. It might be prudent to hold Pat Slayton out of the opener to have a long reliever to piggy-back with Conway, who might not be able to give us more than five innings, if that much.

Game 1
CHA: 2B Best – CF E. Anderson – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – LF J. Jimenez – SS R. Miller – RF DeBoer – C M. Roberts – P Spears
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Toner was wobbling from the start, and the Falcons left pairs of runners on base in the second, third, and fourth innings, with Toner’s stick costing the Raccoons an inning-ending double play in the bottom 2nd. Nobody scored early, but perhaps the Coons could do something with Bednarski’s leadoff double in the bottom of the fourth. He was on third with two outs when Bergquist got four wide ones, but Toner then wrestled a really unintentional walk from Spears, bringing up Carmona, who was not hot at all out of the gates and hit a liner to left that was probably a single, but Jose Jimenez – normally a strong defender – tried to catch it, but couldn’t reach it. It bounced through between his glove and his private parts and rolled another 25 feet behind him, allowing Carmona to coast into second base with a bases-clearing double! On the mound, Toner’s issues didn’t subside. Steve Best had a leadoff single in the fifth, and he walked both Eric Anderson and Jose Jimenez before Ryan Miller grounded out to Canning to strand three more Falcons in this 3-0 game. Canning added a run in the bottom of the inning with a 2-out RBI single that cashed in Quebell, who had hit a leadoff double. Toner had a double play turned for him by Canning in the sixth, but then put on Spears with a 2-out single, and that was enough. His incompetence at a basic level ironically also removed Canning from the game in a double switch, since the #9 spot was to lead off the bottom 6th. Palmer Taylor came in, singled, as did Carmona, but Sandy and Quebell popped out. D-Alex came up against a new pitcher, right-hander Pedro Vargas, and crushed a 2-1 pitch for a huge 3-run homer, 7-0. The Coons added another run in the seventh, while the Falcons remained shut out, although Sugano walked the first two batters in the ninth in a desperate attempt to hand them *something*. 8-0 Raccoons. Carmona 4-5, 2B, 4 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Bergquist 1-2, 2 BB; Taylor 1-1;

Game 2
CHA: RF Puckett – CF E. Anderson – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – SS R. Miller – 2B Best – LF Nieves – C M. Roberts – P Kreider
POR: LF Carmona – CF Cowan – 1B Quebell – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – 3B Merritt – SS Canning – 2B Bergquist – P Conway

The Coons got all from Conway they could ask for, with six scoreless innings spun by the bulky right-hander. Alexander threw out a base stealer in the fourth, Bednarski gunned down a runner at third base in the sixth, but he also struck out a bunch. Unfortunately, the Raccoons failed to generate any meaningful amount of offense to help him out. Instead, Jon Merritt generated a throwing error in the seventh that put Thrasher in a hole, and Pat Slayton was definitely the wrong guy to try and dig him out. He allowed a 2-out, 2-run double to KREIDER. Slayton only escaped being beheaded because the Coons rallied for three in the bottom 7th, with Jon Merritt doubling home D-Alex, the tying run scoring on a wild pitch by Kreider, and Carmona gave the Coons the lead with a 2-out RBI single to left, 3-2. Palmer Taylor had again replaced Canning in a double switch again and cracked a 3-run homer off Bobby Guerrero in the bottom of the eighth to open the score considerably. The pen was still reeling from the second game of the season and so Angel Casas was brought in despite a 6-2 lead, and promptly allowed a run on a walk and two singles before extinguishing Carlos Martinez as the tying run with a strikeout to end the game. 6-3 Coons. Merritt 4-4, 2B, RBI; Taylor 1-2, HR, 3 RBI; Seeley (PH) 1-1; Conway 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K;

Game 3
CHA: CF DeBoer – C R. Lewis – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – LF J. Jimenez – SS R. Miller – RF E. Anderson – 2B Dahlke – P R. Carter
POR: LF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Cowan – C Hernandez – SS Taylor – 3B Nunley – P Brown

For once, the Critters scored early. Sandy hit a single in the first, made it to second when Jimmy DeBoer fumbled the ball, and wound up scoring on Bednarski’s triple into the gap in right center. Cowan singled, 2-0, but then went to 0-2 in stealing bases. Another out on the base paths was made in the bottom 2nd, also ending that inning, when Raúl Hernandez was thrown out trying to score from second base on Brownie’s single. The Falcons had no runners the first two innings, but Eric Anderson yanked a leadoff shot in the third inning, and Brown ended up walking Tom Dahlke, who was brought around by the crew, scoring on Russell Lewis’ single, which tied the score at two. The Raccoons would continue to sparkle with offensive ineptness in the middle innings, too. Quebell hit into a double play, then his next time up was involved in a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Sambrano. Brownie did not allow base runners, but couldn’t get support. The Falcons were still held to two hits in the seventh inning, when Jose Jimenez struck out on some filth that was borderline in a 3-2 count, barked, and was tossed. Chris Puckett came on.

The Coons had runners on the corners after a Hernandez double and Taylor single in the bottom 7th. Nobody out, Nunley (.133) up. The Falcons weren’t going to move the right-hander Carter, but Nunley was drifting and not hitting anything, and Jon Merritt hit for him. He grounded to second, Taylor moved up, Hernandez held, and Merritt was out. Brown then worked a walk to fill the bags for Carmona, who flew out to DeBoer, but that was deep enough for Hernandez to dash home with the go-ahead run. Sandy walked, but Quebell flew out to right, not being a big help. The Coons had two on in the eighth, but Taylor hit into a double play, and now yesterday’s move to Angel Casas backfired, since he unavailable to protect a 3-2 lead. Sakellaris got the ball, facing the 2-3-4 batters. Jorge Garcia and Puckett were left-handers, so Thrasher was already told to drop the chips and stretch. Sakellaris allowed two hard liners, Lewis’ falling in for a double and Martinez’ being caught by Cowan. Thrasher came on, with the Falcons hitting for Garcia with Domingo Nieves, an odd move. Thrasher struck out Nieves, walked PH Alexis Legendre, but then got Miller to ground out to short. 3-2 Brownies! Sambrano 2-2, 2 BB; Bednarski 4-4, 3B, RBI; Hernandez 2-3, BB, 2 2B; Brown 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (2-0) and 1-2, BB;

Raccoons (5-1) vs. Aces (3-3) – April 14-16, 2014

The Aces were third in runs scored and fourth in runs allowed after a tiny week of the season, and the Raccoons were the best team by record in the Continental League. We got the first call to reserve World Series tickets this Monday. Might be a bit early. Let’s play the Crusaders first.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (0-0, 9.00 ERA) vs. Jimmy Young (0-0)
Hector Santos (1-0, 1.35 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (1-0, 2.57 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. William Hinkley (0-1, 3.38 ERA)

No southpaw to find in this rotation.

Game 1
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – 1B Bovane – SS Burke – CF Kelsey – LF Zachery – RF Struck – C D. Rice – P Young
POR: CF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – RF Bednarski – SS Canning – LF Seeley – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson

Sandy hit a single to get the Coons into the H column at their first opportunity, stole second base, but was left on third base. No other player reached base until Merritt drew a 4-pitch walk to start the fourth. Quebell then chipped a ball to second base that was not fast enough to be a double play – or any play. Howard Jones had to hold on, and the Coons had two on, nobody out, and .167 cleanup man Dylan Alexander coming up. D-Alex hit another ball to Jones, THAT one sure looked like a double play, but Brent Burke dropped Jones’ throw and again the Aces got nobody. Jimmy Young forced in the first run of the game when he hit Bednarski. Canning hit into a run-scoring double play, but Seeley hit an RBI single to build a 3-0 lead. John Kelsey ended Dickerson’s no-hit bid with a double right away in the fifth inning, and would come around to score before long. Brent Burke homered the next inning to tie the game. More trouble developed in the seventh, with Rusty Zachery singling, Geoff Struck doubling, and the Aces had two in scoring position with nobody out. Dickerson remained in for Danny Rice, who struck out, and the Aces didn’t move their pitcher, who also struck out. Left-handed batter Ron Richards hit for Ricky Avila then, prompting an appearance by Manobu Sugano, and another strikeout. The Coons also stranded two in their half of the seventh, coming from a Sandy single and an error by new third baseman Wade White, the Aces’ third E in the game. The game went to the ninth tied, nobody scored, and Sakellaris pitched a perfect 10th as well. Sandy got on with a leadoff single in the bottom 10th and reached second when Merritt grounded out. Cowan hit for Sakellaris against lefty Kevin Johnston, walked, but neither D-Alex (F9) nor Bednarski (K) could come through. Thus we had arrived at the Pat Slayton part of the bullpen, who got the 11th and however long it would take him to lose this one. Slayton threw only five pitches to four batters in the top 11th, which was perhaps saying something about his deceptiveness. Bottom of the inning, Canning hit a leadoff single. Seeley bunted him over, Taylor flew out to left. Carmona had been in the #9 hole for a while. He floated a ball to shallow right, where it dinked in well ahead of Geoff Struck. Canning was being sent all away and Struck had to be quick – but he dropped the ball on the transfer, and the Raccoons walked off on the Aces’ fourth error of the game. 4-3 Furballs. Sambrano 2-4, BB; Sakellaris 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – 1B Bovane – RF Richards – SS Burke – CF Kelsey – LF Zackery – C D. Rice – P N. Jones
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – SS Canning – C Hernandez – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – P Santos

The Coons threw up a quick 3-spot despite Carmona getting caught stealing and remaining SB-less in 2014, with Nehemiah Jones being all over the place and issuing three walks in the inning. Canning singled in a run, and Hernandez singled home a pair. Santos struck out the first four Aces batters in the game, then walked Burke and allowed a run on Kelsey’s double, 3-1 in the second. Jones continued to struggle real bad with control. He reached six walks (and no strikeouts) when he lost Carmona in a full count in the bottom 4th; that loaded the bases. Sandy’s slow grounder escaped Jones for an RBI single, 4-1, before Quebell hit into an inning-ending double play. Right, Adrian? Everybody does what he does best!

Santos, who had started like a race car, ran out of fuel in the middle innings and barely made it through six innings. Kelsey was the tying run with runners on the corners in the sixth, but grounded out to Quebell to end the inning. Michael Sieben issued three walks in the bottom 7th, but Carmona was caught stealing AGAIN and the Coons didn’t score. In turn, the Coons’ pen came close to imploding in the eighth inning. Gibson allowed two doubles to left to Ricky Avila and Howard Jones, got yanked, and Constantino waved home the second run with a single to Raúl Bovane. He also walked Struck, with Thrasher coming out to face Kelsey, who was hit for with right-hander Bobby Diersing, who chipped an 0-1 pitch to short for a double play to let the Coons escape in a 4-3 score. The meltdown wasn’t over, however, since Angel professionally blew the save with a leadoff walk to Zackery, and then singles by PH Adam Flack, that tied the game, and Ricky Avila, that would have given the Aces the lead if Carmona hadn’t thrown out Flack at home. Carmona got on, had his pants full and didn’t attempt a steal anymore, and the Raccoons didn’t score in the bottom 9th.

Now our wisdom was limited to going back to Slayton. Another quick, scoreless inning in the top 10th, and then Bednarski singled off Mike Daniels to start the bottom half of the frame. Cowan ran for him and was bunted to second by Canning. D-Alex hit for Hernandez, grounded out to third to extend his season-opening struggles, but Nunley hit a liner into the gap in right and past Richards to walk off the Critters. 5-4 Raccoons. Sambrano 2-4, BB, RBI; Nunley 2-5, 2B, RBI; Bergquist 2-4;

Aye, aye, Angel. What is going on?

Game 3
LVA: 3B R. Avila – 2B H. Jones – 1B Bovane – RF Richards – SS Burke – CF Kelsey – LF Zackery – C D. Rice – P Hinkley
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – SS Taylor – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – P Toner

Toner struggled with control again, walking a few early. The Aces would have two men on in the third, but Howard Jones hit into a double play that Palmer Taylor started with utmost precision. The Coons were slow with the sticks, and when Raúl Bovane hit a leadoff double in the top of the fourth, that was the chance for the Aces to take the lead. A groundout and a flyout did the job for them, Brent Burke plating the first run of the game. The Raccoons wouldn’t get a good scoring chance until the bottom of the sixth. Quebell hit a 1-out single, Bednarski doubled, and they were both in scoring position. D-Alex fouled out, dropping to .115, and Taylor grounded out uselessly, and nobody scored. At least Taylor made a difficult play to end the top 7th. Toner had drilled Burke and walked Kelsey, and Sugano had replaced him to face Danny Rice, who grounded out to Taylor to end the inning. But the Raccoons were still down 1-0 despite out-hitting the Aces 5-2.

The Aces would catch up in hits against Josh Gibson, putting runners on the corners with one out. Hinkley, the pitcher, had led off the inning with a single… Gibson would have drowned in all probability if not for Bednarski not only catching Bovane’s fly to right, but also killing off the sent Hinkley at the plate, ending that inning. Can we please get some offense now? Nah. Hinkley arrived in the ninth inning with a 6-hit shutout, one run to make up, and Alexander, Taylor, and Nunley up, three left-handers, but three left-handers with not even a .200 clip between them. D-Alex lined out softly to short, Taylor flew out to center. Merritt batted for Nunley, walked, Seeley batted for Bergquist, singled between Zackery and Wade White, and now Hernandez hit for Thrasher, and another walk was issued! Bases loaded, Kevin Johnston, the southpaw, replaced Hinkley maybe a tad too late. Carmona was only batting .237, but he was the last man standing here. You wanna be major leaguer, Ricardo? You wanna be a hero? Here it is. Be a hero. He grounded out to the pitcher. 1-0 Aces. Quebell 2-3, BB; Seeley (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 7 – Opening Day Shutout! Oklahoma’s newest addition, SP Curtis Tobitt (1-0, 0.00 ERA) 4-hits the Falcons in a 1-0 pitching display.
April 7 – Opening Day also brings 40-year old WAS SP Randy Farley (1-0, 3.52 ERA) to everybody’s attention. The veteran that has seen everything except a winning team holds the Miners to three runs in 7.2 innings to claim a 7-3 victory for his 200th career win. Overall, he is 200-166 with a 3.99 ERA and 2,124 strikeouts.
April 8 – In a crazy see-saw game, the Condors and Bayhawks beat each others’ skulls in for 32 hits and 25 runs, with the Bayhawks walking off in the ninth on Mohammed Blanc’s single, 13-12.
April 10 – LAP LF/RF Jimmy Roberts (.333, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for a month with a strained hammy.
April 11 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.167, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has torn ankle ligaments and will be out for about a month.
April 13 – The Cyclones and Stars play 14 innings. Tied at three after 13, the Cyclones break out for six runs in the 14th, with the Stars rallying for two before losing, 9-5.
April 14 – The Warriors’ SP Fernando Cruz (1-1, 4.50 ERA) 2-hits the Blue Sox in a shutout.

Complaints and stuff

What all does not work? Angel Casas was scored on in three straight games, which hasn’t EVER happened before – I guess. Carmona is struggling and 0-for-3 in stealing. Overall, we are 2-for-7. This should be a stealing team. Despite that, on Tuesday, we ranked second in runs scored, but 11th (!) in batting average. The Raccoons have scored them in bunches, with many 3-run innings and that 7-run outburst against the Titans. Dickerson has been awful, and Slayton leads the team in wins.

We're first in starters' ERA, though. Adding up the ERA's of Brownie, Conway, Toner, and Santos gives you basically a league-average pitcher.

Speaking about Brownie, he is still 17th in career strikeouts, but under normal condition will reel in Kiyohira Sasaki this month (three starts should be enough for 20 K, right?). He has, however, by missing most of 2013, gotten pressure from behind. Pancho Trevino is now only 42 K behind Brownie. He could get to 14th place by the latter half of May, and - given the diminished stuff - if we aim for a slightly less outrageous 200 K this year (he averaged 235 K in 2010-2012), he would end up right in the vicinity of Kisho Saito, who is still 11th, but should be overtaken by Kel Yates right around June or the All Star game. But Kel hasn't stayed healthy since 2010, so that's that.

All players that were put on waivers at the start of the year arrived safely in St. Petersburg.

Odd 1 1/2 week opening, but many games ran long and I also got a late start. I will try to make this up this week, somehow, although I normally take three plus hours for a week on its own, and time during the week is, sadly, limited. Still haven't broken the lottery.