[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-25) @ Buffaloes (32-28) – June 16-18, 2014

The Buffaloes had not posted a winning season since 2006, including five straight last-place finishes in the East from 2008 through 2012, losing 96 games on average in those years. They had led the division for a while, but had been in free fall recently, dropping nine straight games. When they weren’t trying to put up record consecutive losses, they were seventh in runs scored and third in runs allowed. Both rotation and pen were above average. We haven’t played them in five years, but won consecutive series from them in 2008 and 2009.

Projected matchups:
Daniel Dickerson (1-1, 5.57 ERA) vs. Juan Ortega (4-7, 4.47 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (5-5, 3.31 ERA) vs. Ian Norman (5-4, 3.23 ERA)
Bill Conway (5-2, 2.36 ERA) vs. Cody Zimmermann (5-3, 3.99 ERA)

Zimmermann is a southpaw. They have only one other left-hander on the team at all, setup man Felix Colon.

The Raccoons demoted Gary Dupes after his spot start and called up 27-year old righty Chris Mathis, who had closed a bit in AAA, although there was not much to close there after all. He had a 1.90 ERA in 23 appearances, but had struck out only 12 in 23.2 innings.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – SS Howell – 2B Taylor – C Hernandez – P Dickerson
TOP: 3B Piepoli – 2B Sykes – LF B. Adams – 1B J. Roberts – C Salas – RF E. Jackson – SS D. Mendez – CF S. Young – P J. Ortega

The Coons exploited an error by Pedro Salas in the first inning to put Sandy Sambrano on base, and Bednarski homered right after that for an early 2-0 lead. Ortega would walk the next two, Howell doubled, and another run scored, 3-0. The Coons left the bases loaded in this inning and the next, first on a fly out by Dickerson, then on a Taylor grounder, but did get a run home when Quebell singled in Carmona, who had walked and taken second base, his 20th bag of the year. Ortega was a mess, walking five in the first two innings, while Dickerson was the one allowing hard balls every which way. Bednarski was the one hitting hard shots off Ortega every time. He had homered to center in the first, he narrowly missed a shot to left in the second, but he got one out in the fourth, a solo homer to right, upping the score to 5-0. He wasn’t the only one getting them out – Cookie Carmona hit his first home run of the year in the fifth, then bringing the score to 6-1, and that knocked out Ortega. Bednarski hit another drive to center off replacement Jorge Vargas, but not nearly deep enough and into an out, but the Critters still managed three hits and a run off Vargas in the same inning, which was a good thing, since Dickerson was anything but good. Jimmy Roberts homered off him in the bottom of the inning, cutting the gap to 7-2 again, but the Raccoons continued to pile on against the Buffaloes bullpen in the seventh. Hernandez and Dickerson had 1-out hits, followed by an RBI single by Carmona and a 2-run triple by Sandy, and the inning went on long enough for Hernandez to make the last out with a pop to first, the 11th Critter to bat in a 6-run inning. Jason Seeley poured oil into the fire in the eighth, hitting for Dickerson to lead off and homering off Jimmy Miller, who then loaded the bases with three singles and conceded another run on a Quebell sac fly. Bednarski, Quebell, and Carmona were all replaced after that inning, with the team leading by more than a dozen – which didn’t mean they’d stop. Sandy hit a 2-out, 2-run double off Risto Mäkelä in the ninth, putting the cap on a fantastic mauling. 17-2 Raccoons! Carmona 3-5, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Sambrano 4-7, 3B, 2B, 4 RBI; Bednarski 4-6, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Quebell 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Nunley 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Hernandez 2-5, BB, 2B; Seeley (PH) 2-2, HR, RBI; Dickerson 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (2-1) and 1-4; Mathis 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Oh noes! He spilled all our runs until Friday in one game! We’re doomed.

Also, of our 22 hits, half went for extra bases, with six doubles, a triple, and four homers. That’s a crisp 42 total bases.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Taylor – P Toner
TOP: 3B Piepoli – SS Gray – LF B. Adams – 1B J. Roberts – RF E. Jackson – 2B Sykes – C R. Speed – CF Dempsey – P Norman

Cookie singled to get the game underway, then was caught stealing, and D-Alex killed the second with a double play. Toner allowed three consecutive singles to Eddie Jackson, Harrison Sykes, and Richard Speed in the bottom 2nd, then escaped when Jarrod Dempsey popped out and Ian Norman rolled one over to Bergquist. The Raccoons went ahead in the third inning then. Palmer Taylor led off with a double, and Toner walked in a full count. Carmona was at 3-1 when he lined out hard to Dempsey in center, but Sandy hit a liner over Saverio Piepoli and into deep left for an RBI double. Bednarski added a run with a sac fly, but Quebell was unproductive, grounding out to Sykes, which left the score at 2-0. After three quick grounders to Nunley in the bottom 3rd, the Coons had Bergquist walk, D-Alex double, and then the Buffaloes issued a 1-out intentional walk to Taylor in the top 4th. Unfortunately, it worked. Toner popped out, and Carmona grounded out to ex-Raccoon Michael Palmer (at second base after replacing an injured Sykes). Toner would make up for it two innings later, hitting a looper into the left-center gap for a 2-out RBI single. D-Alex remained on base with him and scored on Carmona’s single, 4-0. Some cocky coach gave the double steal signal, and while Toner was a fast runner, Speed nailed him at third base.

It was an odd start on the mound for Jonathan Toner, too. Through five, he had only one strikeout, but at least only one walk, too. He whiffed Bill Adams to start the sixth, but this remained a game where he generated lots of poor contact rather than hammering it past hitters. But his pitch count remained in fairly good shape, 85 through seven innings, and maybe this could become a shutout? Justin Foster grounded hard up the middle to start the bottom 8th, but Bergquist made a wonderful play to not only intercept the ball but to lob it to first in time, too, retiring the pinch-hitter! While Toner then struck out Piepoli and Tyler Gray, that used a lot of pitches, and he reached 100 when he started the bottom 9th. Gives kids a chance! Adams K’ed on three pitches, before Roberts ran the first 3-ball count in forever, grounding out to Toner. Eddie Jackson with the pitch count at 107, still manageable for a young pitcher said to have endurance. He struck out, and Toner had a 4-hit shutout! 4-0 Raccoons. Carmona 2-5, RBI; Sambrano 2-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Alexander 2-4, 2B; Taylor 2-3, BB, 2B; Toner 9.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (6-5) and 1-3, BB, RBI;

That’s Toner’s second career shutout. Mind that he spun his first one just two starts ago against the Titans, and in between pitched 6.2 scoreless against the Elks, whiffing nine. Before that? Six runs in two innings vs. the Aces, but … uh … let’s not go there, okay?

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 2B Bergquist – SS Howell – C Hernandez – P Conway
TOP: 3B Piepoli – SS Gray – LF B. Adams – 1B J. Roberts – C Salas – RF E. Jackson – 2B D. Mendez – CF S. Young – P Zimmerman

Nobody in our lineup had ever faced Zimmerman, while the reverse wasn’t exactly true. Zimmerman walked Carmona in the first, who was forced by Sandy quickly. But Bednarski and Quebell filled the bases with two outs, and then Bergquist took an 0-2 pitch and slapped it into center for a 2-run single. Rob Howell achieved the same outcome in a 2-1 count, and when Hernandez doubled, the Coons batted through the order in an inning for the third straight day in Topeka. Must be something in the water. Conway struck out, but now had a 4-0 lead to play with and retired the first six Buffaloes in the game.

Zimmerman gave out walks like candy, six in the first three innings, and that was also the amount of runs he was booked for when Sandy hit an RBI single with the bags loaded in the top 3rd and two down, and Merritt drew one of those walks. Bednarski flew to the warning track, but was caught by Adams, ending the inning. Bottom 3rd, David Mendez, the veteran, hit a leadoff double. He would score, but it took errors by Quebell and Hernandez to achieve that. The Buffaloes didn’t get another hit until Bill Adams doubled with one out in the sixth and set a disturbing rally in motion. Conway walked Roberts, then threw a wild pitch, but struck out Salas – if only Hernandez would have come up with the ball. He was charged with a passed ball as Salas reached first base and Adams scored, 6-2. But as soon as the fire was lit, someone put it out. Merritt brought the extinguisher, nipping Eddie Jackson’s hard bouncer and turning it into a quick 5-4-3 double play. Conway got only one more batter in the seventh before walking Sean Young. Another mess grew as Sugano walked PH Jarrod Dempsey, and then the Buffaloes pulled off a double steal against an unnerved Josh Gibson, who plated Young with a wild pitch, 6-3. Saverio Piepoli’s pop to short and Gray’s grounder to first ended the inning with the Coons still up 6-3, but maybe the offense could awake from a long slumber to get an insurance run home? Jackson picked a potential homer for Bednarski off the top of the fence in the ninth, which was as close as the Critters got to a run. Angel Casas started the bottom 9th by walking Jackson on four pitches, and also walked Young after Mendez popped out. A pinch-hit double by Fernando Ibarra brought home a run and put the tying runs in scoring position with one out. Piepoli flew out to Bednarski in right and the Buffaloes didn’t dare, instead hoping for .309 batter Tyler Gray to do the magic. He had eight homers, too. He lashed the first pitch to center, no chance for any play, and the game was tied with two outs in the ninth.

Casas was yanked immediately. Ron Thrasher took over, ran one full count after another, but somewhere found seven outs while the Coons’ run machine just would not restart. Every inning the same ugly sputtering noise. When Bednarski led off the 12th with a single, Thrasher was asked to bunt, but bunted foul long enough to strike out. The Coons didn’t come close to scoring, again. By now, Constantino was in, and the only other reliever left would be Mathis, so this game could be over any second.

Top 13th, D-Alex, batting ninth, led off with a single that escaped between Piepoli and Gray. Nunley, batting first, lined a ball into deep left where it found the wall for a double. Runners in scoring position, no outs! Felix Colon struck out Sambrano, and I was already biting my fist again when Jon Merritt’s hapless bouncer eluded Gray for an RBI single, breaking the tie. When Bednarski was hit by a pitch, that loaded the bases and Jimmy Fucito hit for Constantino, hitting to Piepoli for a force at home. Bergquist flew out to center, no insurance run was to be had (again), and then it was on Clint Mathis to save the game. Pedro Salas singled hard on the first pitch, but was forced by Jackson (nice play by Nunley!). Mendez walked before Young flew out to Sambrano in left. That brought up … the reliever Colon! There was nobody left on the Buffaloes bench! One harmless groundout later, the sweep was in the books. 7-6 Raccoons. Sambrano 3-6, BB, RBI; Hernandez 2-3, 2B; Conway 6.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K; Thrasher 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Angel is in the trash so hard, it’s not even funny. Thrasher for closer? Yes? No?

Luckily we had an off day on Thursday before having to appear in Indy.

Raccoons (40-25) @ Indians (37-29) – June 20-22, 2014

The Indians were a bit of the surprise team in the North this year, even more so than the Raccoons. The Crusaders were probably wondering what was going on, sitting between these two in late June. They were – as usual whenever they’re good – doing it on pitching, with a top 3 rotation and the best pen in the CL, while the offense was average at best. They were also 3-1 against the Raccoons in 2014.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (8-1, 2.53 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (4-5, 4.13 ERA)
Hector Santos (7-2, 2.27 ERA) vs. Tristan Broun (5-3, 3.28 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (2-1, 5.03 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (6-3, 3.62 ERA)

We’ll get the full blast of left-handed pitching this week, with Broun and Graham both falling into that category, but in turn will play two teams without lefty starters next week.

Game 1
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Brown
IND: CF J. Wilson – SS Mathews – RF J. Ortíz – 2B Kym – C Padilla – LF Tanner – 1B Shank – 3B Dawson – P Weise

Nick Brown had nothing to begin with, and not one, but TWO rain delays in the bottom of the third inning surely didn’t help him. He was still facing the minimum thanks to some D behind him when the first interruption came with Jimmy Shank down 0-2. When play resumed 38 minutes later, Shank doubled on the next pitch, and the cart was beginning to roll downhill for Brown. He walked Ryan Dawson, Weise bunted them over, and the Indians would score both of them on another two hits, sandwiching the second brief rain delay. They left the bases loaded after Brown had drilled Jong-beom Kym. Tom Weise had the Raccoons in a death grip all the time, squeezing them intermittently to make their little black eyes pop out and back in, while an error by Sandy in the bottom 5th put an unearned run on the board. Brown was replaced after drilling Jimmy Shank in the bottom 6th, while Weise at that point had allowed two singles, both resolved in double plays, and was facing the minimum on less than 60 pitches through six. The Coons didn’t get over the minimum until the eighth inning when Palmer Taylor hit a 2-out, pinch-hit single. D-Alex also singled, bringing up the tying run in Rob Howe- … in Jon Merritt. He flew to deep center, but into an out after a nice dash by John Wilson. Nope, Brownie wasn’t gonna get out of this one. Weise spun a 5-hitter on 95 pitches. No Raccoon ever touched third base, and only one Raccoon touched second base the entire game. 3-0 Indians. Alexander 2-3;

Well, that’s what a 10th-ranked offense gets you. One run in 18 innings.

Then, surprise: the Indians flicked over their rotation and brought Dan Lambert (5-4, 5.25 ERA) into the middle game after initially skipping him. His turn would have been on Thursday, when they had off along with us.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – 2B Bergquist – C Alexander – SS Howell – P Santos
IND: CF J. Wilson – 1B Pruitt – 2B Kym – RF J. Ortíz – C Padilla – LF A. Chavez – SS Mathews – 3B Dawson – P Lambert

Both teams got singles from their #1 batter in the first inning, before failing embarrassingly in making anything with that no-out runner, and before you knew it a pitching duel had broken out. It was the fifth inning when the Raccoons got Rob Howell on with a leadoff single. He was supposed to run, but missed the sign twice while Santos didn’t bunt on purpose, and all that did was put Santos down 0-2. Lambert threw a low one when Santos was supposed to bunt then, but let it pass, and at 1-2 we shrugged and asked him to swing since apparently Howell had fallen asleep completely. Santos whacked the 1-2 pitch to deep left and all the way to the base of the wall, but the daydreaming Howell had to stop at third base. Still, runners in scoring position with no outs, any other team would take the lead. Okay, this one did, too, and it only took one pitch. Cookie rammed that past a diving Matt Pruitt (batting precious little, .242 with three homers) and it made it to the warning track before Juan Ortíz reeled that shot in: 2-run double! As good as Dan Lambert had been for four innings, now he was broken. Sandy and Bednarski singled, and four runs scored in the inning. The Coons didn’t raise another stick and Hector ran out of jazz after eight innings, with Ortíz coming close to a 2-run homer in that last frame, and at almost 100 pitches was not brought out again for the ninth inning (he just didn’t have Toner’s endurance and stamina). Sakellaris got the ninth, starting with Dave Padilla. Both him and Armando Chavez made outs on the first pitch before Joey Mathews popped out to short on an 0-2 pitch. 4-0 Raccoons. Carmona 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Santos 8.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (8-2);

Carmona had two infield singles in his first two at-bats, which was about as far as the Raccoons got the ball in eight out of nine innings.

The Crusaders were yet undefeated this week, and Dickerson had to pick up the slack a bit lest we risked losing the lead in the North.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – 2B Bergquist – 1B Merritt – RF Bednarski – 3B Nunley – SS Howell – C Hernandez – LF Fucito – P Dickerson
IND: CF J. Wilson – 1B Pruitt – 2B Kym – RF J. Ortíz – C Padilla – LF A. Chavez – SS Mathews – 3B Dawson – P Broun

Pruitt and Kym were left in scoring position when Padilla flew out to end the bottom of the first and Dickerson was immediately walking that fine line between being just plain bad and expensive and getting shot in sight of hundreds of summer camp children again… The Indians would take the lead in the bottom 3rd after starting the inning with three straight singles and the only thing that kept them from sinking Dickerson early was a niftily turned double play, third-and-first, by Matt Nunley, who was rapidly rising on the likability ladder. Dickerson very much wasn’t, and the Indians had three singles to start the bottom 4th AGAIN. They got one run, then brought up the pitcher, who struck out, John Wilson, who popped out, and Matt Pruitt, who grounded out to first base.

The Coons had left runners on first and second in the second and fourth innings, and not even an error by Mathews to start the sixth inning could turn them into a threat. Merritt reached base on the error, but Bednarski hit into a double play immediately. Top 7th, Hernandez and Fucito hit back-to-back 1-out singles. What a great excuse to hit for Dickerson! Sandy grabbed a stick … and hit into a double play. After eight dominant innings by Tristan Broun, Ed Bryan got the ball for the save in the ninth. Bednarski and Nunley were sawed off quickly before Rob Howell singled to keep the Coons alive, bringing up the tying run in … Raúl Hernandez. Only left-handers on the bench, however. Nope, not for Hernandez, who was running almost an .800 OPS in limited exposure, and struck out. 2-0 Indians. Howell 2-4;

In other news

June 18 – As the Crusaders finish off a sweep of the Wolves, SP Pancho Trevino (7-2, 2.42 ERA) notches his 200th career win. The 34-year old has a career 3.45 ERA with a 200-128 record and 2,650 strikeouts, good enough for 17th place all time.
June 18 – Oklahoma’s RF/CF/1B Tom Reese (.207, 4 HR, 28 RBI) hasn’t been well all year – normally he’s someone hitting .300 with pop – and will be shut down for a month with some recurring shoulder soreness.
June 21 – More pitching news in New York, where NYC SP Paul Miller (7-4, 3.41 ERA) 1-hits the Titans in a 4-0 shutout. Mike Rivera breaks up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the ninth inning.
June 22 – LVA INF Brent Burke (.314, 5 HR, 44 RBI) is out for a month with a strained hammy.

Complaints and stuff

Walt Canning cleared waivers and was assigned to the Alley Cats in AAA. Maybe he can find some stick there.

The team has scored five runs in their last 36 innings, which is bad enough, but they scored in only two of those innings, and that’s how you blow leads. I KNEW they had used up their weekly run allotment on Monday!

Rob Howell is batting 70 points less since the trade. Of course he does.

This week, we released Jack Berry, who had posted a 6.12 ERA in St. Petersburg. It was not the defense’s fault. There might actually be a worthwhile player or two needing a roster spot in AAA, so we ate the remaining $500k or so on his contract. It’s not like we could splurge on international free agents, either, after shelling out on Danny Arguello last year.

A first batch of minor leaguers was released this week, including 2011 third-rounder OF Scott Hornung (awful, batting under .200 in AA with a passion), 2010 third-rounder 1B Isaac Berry (toiling away in Aumsville STILL), and a few more players in Aumsville, mostly dragged home as international discoveries by Whitebread back then.

Update on minor league starting pitchers. Jeff Magnotta and David Tingley have been in AA since early this season and are doing okay, but also promoted now is Damani Knight, who was drafted in '12 in the fourth round and suffered through horrendous control that year and last year. He walked 110 batters in 2013! This year, much better in Aumsville, and after a 3.27 ERA and 30 walks in over 80 innings he got promoted to Ham Lake, too. Our AAA and AA teams have horrendous losing records, by the way, so nothing big is coming up for a while...