[Westheim]

Raccoons (16-14) vs. Rebels (15-13) – May 13-15, 2014

The Rebels were leading the Federal League with the best pitching staff and the least number of runs allowed, but their offense was a bit like gum, ranking in the bottom third in runs scored. Both teams were almost even in stolen bases, with the Rebels having 15 to the Coons’ 13, however for the Rebels this was good enough to rank inside the top 3 in the FL, while the Raccoons were in the bottom 3 in the CL.

After suffering three consecutive sweeps at the Rebels’ sabres in the early 2000s (no surprise there) the Raccoons had taken the last four series between the teams, with 2-1 series wins the last two years. Overall, the Rebels are still the Federal League team hurting the Raccoons the most in league history, with the Critters only managing a .378 winning percentage against them.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-0, 3.15 ERA) vs. Tim Winston (1-0, 4.15 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 2.17 ERA) vs. Shaun Babineau (1-1, 3.30 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (2-3, 3.74 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (2-3, 4.23 ERA)

The Rebels only had right-handed starters. They also had imported two long-time Continental League shortstops, one of which (Micah Brazeal) was on the DL, and the other (Gary Rice) was looking forward to inflict more hurt on the Furballs.

Game 1
RIC: CF D. Flores – 1B D. Graham – LF W. Jones – C J. White – 2B P. Brown – RF Locke – SS G. Rice – 3B Delikat – P Winston
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – P N. Brown

Things didn’t get off well for Nick Brown, who had struggled in his last two starts and ran four 3-ball counts the first time through the Rebels’ order. While they hit a few hard grounders, Nunley and Canning made some nice plays and they didn’t get any hits, but only one of them, namesake Powell Brown, struck out. At bat, Brown singled with two outs and Nunley and Canning on base after having drawn 2-out walks, but Nunley was thrown out at home by Pbilip Locke. Quebell had already ruined the first inning with a double play hit into with Sandy and Seeley on base. Winston Jones would single in the fourth, but nothing came off that, just as with Brownie walking Gary Rice in the fifth before drilling Eli Delikat. Tim Winston bunted them over, but Danny Flores grounded out to Bergquist to end the inning. Brownie hit another single to lead off the bottom 5th, but was forced out by a Carmona grounder. Nevertheless, Carmona was safe, moved up on Sandy’s groundout, and then finally Jason Seeley found the gap with a 2-out, 1-2 pitch and the Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on the RBI double. A pair of doubles by Bergquist and Nunley plated a second run in the sixth. Carmona led off the seventh with a double, but was stranded. Brownie had trouble brewing as late as the sixth inning, but eventually made it into the eighth with the Rebels never hurting him. He retired two left-handers to start the eighth, sitting down Flores and PH Garrett D’Alesandro on pops, then left for Sakellaris to pitch a 4-out save. Jones grounded out to end the eighth, but a Jamal White leadoff single brought up the tying run in the ninth. But David Gonzalez and Philip Locke were no help in getting the Rebels back, and Sakellaris ended the game with a K to Rice. 2-0 Brownies! Seeley 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (5-0) and 2-3; Sakellaris 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

Brownie!! Time to talk contract? Take the millions, Brownie! Take all the millions!

Game 2
RIC: CF D. Flores – 2B P. Brown – LF W. Jones – C J. White – RF Locke – 1B D. Graham – SS G. Rice – 3B D. Silva – P Furst
POR: CF Carmona – LF Seeley – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 2B Bergquist – SS Taylor – P Santos

Babineau didn’t take the ball, and the Raccoons got to see not only really old villain Daniel Silva in the #8 hole, but also Brian Furst, who had been scheduled for Thursday.

Rain was in the forecast and Santos struggled to throw strikes to left-handed batters, of which there were five (including switch-hitters) in the lineup. Still, Jamal White was thrown out at third base on a leadoff double in the second inning, while Bednarski hit a looper that escaped Locke for a real triple in the bottom 2nd, with D-Alex plating him with a sac fly, 1-0 Coons. Bottom 3rd, the Critters had Taylor on third, one out, and Cookie Carmona batting when the clouds opened up and emptied onto Portland. The game was in delay for about an hour, and when Furst was able to resume pitching he smacked Carmona to put runners onto the corners. Seeley came up, singled to right, Taylor scored, Carmona went to third, Locke threw there, or tried to, but the throw went up the leftfield line and escaped all defenders, enabling Carmona to score and Seeley to make it to second base, 3-0.

With the rain and all, the Coons barely managed to squeeze five innings from Santos, who allowed a home run to Dave Graham in the fifth, but managed to hang on to a 3-1 lead. Furst would also go five, but was shackled for four 2-out singles hit by the #2 through #5 batters in the bottom 5th, with Bednarski’s single to right plating two and extending the lead to 5-1 before D-Alex struck out. The Raccoons had four innings to cover with their pen. Gallegos got the ball first, put two on, and had to be rescued by Sugano, but that was the last breath from the Rebels, who managed only one more runner as solo innings were turned in by Slayton, Constantino (tune-up for making a few starts until Dickerson’s return), and Thrasher. 5-1 Raccoons. Bednarski 3-3, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; Nunley (PH) 1-1;

Cookie went 0-for-3 and ended his hitting streak at 13 games.

Game 3
RIC: CF D. Flores – 2B P. Brown – LF W. Jones – C J. White – RF Locke – 1B D. Graham – SS G. Rice – 3B Delikat – P Knupp
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Seeley – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – C Hernandez – SS Canning – P Toner

The Coons faced Josh Knupp (3-2, 2.22 ERA) in this series finale, and he almost would have taken the ball with a lead, but Danny Flores was ruled out at home on a bang-bang play. Winston Jones had singled to left and Seeley had hurled the ball back in. Things went further south for Knupp in quick succession. Carmona opened the bottom 1st with a bloop triple, scored on Sandy’s single, and Bednarski would drive a fat pitch for a homer to left, 3-0 in the first inning! It sure didn’t stay that way; Knupp hated to trail and hit a 2-out RBI single in the top 2nd (after the Critters had intentionally walked Eli Delikat with Rice on second base), and Locke further closed the gap with a solo home run in the fourth inning, 3-2. Locke came up again with two out and two on in the fifth, but struck out, and followed that up with a fielding error on Sandy’s leadoff single in the bottom of the inning. The extra base became an extra run once Sambrano scored on Quebell’s single to right, with Bednarski and Nunley making unproductive outs to run out of that inning. Another run was scratched out the next inning when Raúl Hernandez walked(!) and stole(!) a base, then came home on Carmona’s 2-out single, 5-2.

Toner went seven, but Sugano then ran into trouble in the eighth. He retired the first two batters, but then allowed consecutive singles to switch-hitters Gary Rice and Eli Delikat, as well as an RBI single to lefty Garett D’Alesandro. The tying runs aboard, Pedro Hurtado batted for Flores, and that was the call for Angel Casas to come out and face the right-hander. Hurtado hit a hard fly to left, but it was quite manageable for the defensively able Seeley, inning over at 5-3, but Angel ran into more trouble in the ninth (which was not unusual in his “rebuild value” campaign…). Brown and Jones led off with singles, and here we had a real mess. Jamal White flew out to Seeley, Brown moved up, but Jones held at first. Locke cracked the first pitch he got up the middle, but Canning made a flying grab before burying his face in the dirt, but that potential RBI single had been properly killed and the Coons were one out from sweeping the series. It didn’t come from Graham, however, who was nicked by a 2-1 pitch, loading the bases. Nope! Nope. We didn’t like this at all. Ron Thrasher came in to face Rice, ran a full count and lost him to a walk, shoving home the only run the Coons could allow to concede, but then got rid of Delikat on three pitches. 5-4 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, 3B, RBI; Sambrano 2-5, RBI; Bednarski 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Merritt 1-1; Toner 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 7 K, W (3-3) and 1-2;

Angel Casas sure isn’t rebuilding much, and bringing in Ron Thrasher with the bases loaded is madness, so we’ll silently put this in the books, grin for a bit, but we might want to do better against the next team coming in…

Raccoons (19-14) vs. Crusaders (19-16) – May 16-18, 2014

Both teams were within 1 1/2 games of the division-leading Indians(!) as they got together for this weekend set. The Crusaders were raking it, producing the second-most runs despite the second-worst batting average thanks to a CL-leading 32 homers. The Coons had a batting average better by 17 points, but slugged for 17 points less, and had a bushel less runs to show for it. The Crusaders were fourth in runs allowed, and had taken two of three during the teams’ first meeting in April.

Projected matchups:
Bill Conway (2-2, 2.63 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (3-2, 2.89 ERA)
Tom Constantino (0-0, 3.97 ERA) vs. Kevin Wanless (2-3, 3.75 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-0, 2.64 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (4-2, 3.07 ERA)

The Coons brought a 6-game winning streak, sweeping the recent interleague bonanza, to this battle. We also might want to not strike out so much against Trevino, who’s breathing down Brownie’s neck on the strikeout leaderboard.

Game 1
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – CF Brissett – 3B Salinas – P Trevino
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Sambrano – LF Seeley – 1B Quebell – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Conway

Conway’s cage was rattled in the second inning when Stanton Martin socked a homer for the first run of the game. Amazingly, on this May 16, this was also “Clockwork”’s first homer of the season, though admittedly he had missed most of the play so far, and the shot came in his 45th at-bat. Nunley and Canning both hit doubles in the bottom of the inning to tie the score again, and the Coons appeared in business in the bottom of the fourth after soft singles by Bednarski and Nunley to open the inning. Then Alexander hit into a double play, his third of the week in his third start of the week, Canning wasn’t pitched to, and Conway was obliterated by Trevino, his fifth strikeout. Neither team mounted much until the Crusaders returned the double-double favors in the seventh, Conway’s last inning. B.J. Manfull was the first to double to right with one out, and while Eduardo Durango grounded out, Manfull scored on Amari Brissett’s double, also to rightfield, and the Crusaders were up 2-1. Trevino was also retired after seven inning, having whiffed eight, and the Raccoons got to the pen. Quebell hit a 1-out triple off Ken McKenzie to generate a splendid chance for a comeback, and while the Crusaders sent right-handed Sergio Alvarez to replace the southpaw McKenzie, Bednarski raked a double into the leftfield corner to tie the game. Nunley singled, runner to third, and then Alexander – double play, inning over. Sakellaris sat down the 3-4-5 guys in order in the top 9th, and when Canning opened the bottom of the inning with a single off Alvarez, Sakellaris was retained to bunt, moving Canning to second, and then Carmona hit a chipper that caused Alvarez and Manfull to get in each other’s paths – and Cookie was safe at first, with the tying run at third. Sandy with one out – popped out to Francisco Caraballo, which left things to Alvarez and Jason Seeley, who turned on the first pitch and drove it to right. Martin chased after it, but he wasn’t going to get to it, as it was … OUTTA HERE!! 5-2 Raccoons!! Carmona 2-5; Seeley 1-5, HR, 3 RBI; Bednarski 3-4, 2B, RBI; Nunley 3-4, 2B; Canning 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Conway 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K;

Seeley’s shot not just won the game … it also won the division lead! The Elks outlasted the Indians in 11 innings, putting the Raccoons on a 7-game run and a half game lead over both Indy and Elktown. The Crusaders are two back.

Game 2
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – CF Brissett – 3B Bond – P Wanless
POR: CF Carmona – LF Seeley – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – 3B Nunley – SS Canning – C Hernandez – P Constantino

Constantino’s first foray into starting in three years went everything but smoothly. Jesus Ramirez hit a leadoff shot, and he conceded another run in the first inning. He never really dominated anybody in the Crusaders’ lineup, and Jesus Ramirez would drive another 2-run homer off him in the fifth inning. That put up the Crusaders 4-0, with the Raccoons mustering only one hit and three walks off Wanless in four innings. Constantino was hit for to start the bottom 5th, Joe Cowan singled past Caraballo and Carmona reached on an infield single, but it took until Quebell’s turn to get a ball past B.J. Manfull. Quebell hit a 2-run double into the corner in right, plating both runners and getting the Raccoons back into contention, down 4-2.

Gallegos pitched two innings, allowing another home run to Eduardo Durango on the way, before Cowan opened the bottom 7th with another single (and he had to hit lots of singles to get to a worthwhile batting average by now), Carmona grounded out, and Cowan scored from second base on Seeley’s single to right center, 5-3. Bednarski had been removed to facilitate a long outing by Gallegos, and Merritt hit for Gallegos in the #3 hole now, but grounded out. Quebell was drilled by McKenzie, who had replaced Wanless, and then Bergquist fired a shot into the gap in right center, but Stanton Martin turned up unexpectedly and snagged the shot, and it looked increasingly like the Coons’ run was going to end. McKenzie was still around for the bottom 8th, but Nunley was leading off. Sandy hit for him to start the inning but lined out to Brissett in center. Canning K’ed before McKenzie melted and walked both Raúl Hernandez and Joe Cowan, whose batting averages added up to less than Bednarski’s. Carmona was the go-ahead run, yet grounded out against new pitcher Alex Ramirez. Raúl Hernandez threw out TWO base runners in the top 9th, but it just wasn’t enough as Micah Steele nailed down the save. 5-3 Crusaders. Cowan (PH) 2-2, BB;

Obviously, since two teams half a game behind the Coons played another, we lost the top spot after only one night in the sun. The Elks beat the Indians, 4-3, and took over command in the North. Four teams in 1 1/2 games again, and the Titans are only another 1 1/2 out. No comment on the Loggers.

Game 3
NYC: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C Durango – SS Salinas – CF Brissett – P J. Martin
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Seeley – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Canning – P Brown

Here come the aces for the rubber game! It can’t really be touted Old vs. Young, since “Midnight” Martin has reached the big three-oh already as well. Brownie had no winning streak to nurse except his own against the best lineup in the league.

Brownie had a clean first, but Martin got tagged. Cookie Carmona led off with a single before swiping second from Durango, one of the best defensive catchers around. Sandy walked, and when Seeley doubled to deep right, the first run was in, and two runners were in scoring position with nobody out for Quebell, who failed as usual, and the only other run that would come onto the board in the inning did so on a wild pitch. Martin struggled with control, but Brownie didn’t have all his best stuff once more, so neither was on top of things. The Raccoons squeezed out a third run in the fourth inning, Carmona driving in D-Alex with a 2-out single. Alexander had reached after being hit by Martin, really livening up his recent production, with a sac fly and 16 rotten eggs in his prior 17 plate appearances.

Brownie was certainly not dominating, but untouched through five innings, but sure came close to a sticky end in the sixth. Jaylen Martin led off with a single on a 3-1 pitch, and Ramirez walked. The tying run came up, but Caraballo hit into a double play nicely turned by Bergquist, but still one run came home when Martin Ortíz hit a 1-2 grounder through between Nunley and Canning. Stanton Martin struck out. Brown labored through another inning, despite a 2-out walk drawn by Miguel Salinas. That brought up Brissett, who had never had a hit against Nick Brown and was 1-for-9 in this series, and grounded out poorly to end the inning with a 3-1 lead, which was not a lot, and when Thrasher hit Drew Lowe, the backup catcher who had entered in a double switch, to start the eighth inning, **** got real. Lowe moved up on consecutive groundouts, then scored on another Ortíz single, 3-2. Bottom 8th, lefty Aurelio Garcia in. Bednarski hit for Seeley and singled, and Quebell hit for himself and into a double play. GODDAMN IT, YOU ****ING ***HOLE!! Merritt hit for Nunley, hit one hard to right, but not hard enough to beat Stanton Martin.

Angel Casas, chronically struggling since the season had started, had to protect a tiny 3-2 lead against Manfull, a mystery pinch-hitter, and Salinas, no right-handers included at first sight. Manfull popped out before Bond hit for Aurelio Garcia, hit a fly to deep center, but Joe Cowan managed to get there and snag the evil ball. Salinas hit the first pitch hard to right, Bergquist with a lunging grab, scrambled up and threw to first – OUT! 3-2 Brownies!! Carmona 2-4, RBI; Sambrano 2-3, BB; Bednarski (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (6-0);

In other news

May 15 – MIL RF Justin Dally (.238, 3 HR, 14 RBI) has been laboring on an intercostal strain for a while and will miss at least another week.
May 16 – No-hitter! Pittsburgh’s Fred Dugo (2-3, 4.75 ERA) dazes the Cyclones all night long and holds them hitless in a 2-0 win. Dugo actually has a perfect game until he drills Gerardo Rios with nobody out in the ninth inning. The 32nd no-hitter in ABL history is the third for the Miners (Wilson Cordova, 1989; Leland Lewis, 1993) and only the third no-hitter since the start of the 2009 season.
May 16 – BOS SP Toshiro Uenohara (3-3, 4.19 ERA) is going to miss about a month with shoulder tendinitis.

Complaints and stuff

Despite only marginal usage, Mike Bednarski was CL Player of the Week, batting .667 (10-for-15) with 1 HR and 5 RBI.

Brownie is the second pitcher in the CL to six wins after SFB Milt Beauchamp. The ABL lead is seven, with SFW Jimmy Boswell winning his seventh on Sunday. I’ll point out however that he’s not among the leaders in strikeouts. The K is hard to come by for him in May. He’s t-5th in the CL (with “Midnight” Martin, interestingly), but overall not even in the top 10. He’s lost velocity, hurting his fastball (obviously) and sinker, and he lost the slider to a good amount. The screwball is still working well for him, though. I’m trying to put a price tag onto this package in my head. Is this still worth $2M? Maybe I should wait with an offer until he inevitably loses one.

Hector Santos leads the CL in ERA, but in the FL there are two guys better with SAL Zach Hughes (1.47) and NAS Matt McCabe (2.09).

Rich Hood was the losing pitcher in the Fred Dugo no-hitter. Hood is 2-3, with a 5.93 ERA for the Cyclones, and the other half of the price for Ron Sakellaris, Justin Denham, is getting lit up in Raleigh in AA.

Hard week coming up with four against Indy and three against the Thunder before it’s off to the road for two weeks, one in the west and one in the east.

Also, the draft pool is out, and the Raccoons will have an interesting enough set of picks (despite not getting a first round pick for Yoshi Nomura) to make paramount a thorough study of the available warm bodies.