[Westheim]

Raccoons (41-27) vs. Crusaders (42-27) – June 23-25, 2014

Look, look, it’s a fight for the top, the cream of the crop! The Crusaders came in for three games, and whoever took this series – the Crusaders came in having won seven straight, while the Raccoons came in with five runs in their last 36 innings – would go to sleep division leaders on Wednesday night. As usual they were in the top 3 in runs scored, second to be precise, and also in the top 3 in runs allowed. The two best rotations in the Continental League were squaring off here. The season series was locked up evenly, 3-3.

Projected matchups:
Jonathan Toner (6-5, 2.95 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (7-2, 2.42 ERA)
Bill Conway (5-2, 2.29 ERA) vs. Colin Sabatino (5-6, 5.54 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-2, 2.58 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (7-4, 3.00 ERA)

Like I said, only right-handers this week. They had their closer, Micah Steele (meh…) on the DL, as well as centerfielder Amari Brissett. Stanton Martin was healthy and looking forward to deal pain. The Crusaders score two additional runs every three games compared to the Coons. I don’t feel well.

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

“Clockwork” Martin got damage in early, hurting Toner, who had enjoyed two shutouts in his last three games, with a 2-out, 2-run single to center in the top of the third, ending a 26-inning scoreless streak for Toner. By then the Raccoons still led the game, 3-2, after a 3-run outburst with a 2-run homer by D-Alex in the bottom 2nd, but the top 4th saw Jorge Ortega hit a 2-out double and score on Pancho Trevino’s second single of the day, tying the game at three. Toner went on to ruin the bottom of the inning with a terrible bunt that got Alexander thrown out at third base after him and Rob Howell had started the inning by getting on base. Sambrano would reach on an error with two outs, but Bednarski grounded out and the Coons left three stranded. The Crusaders weren’t slowing down, putting two more on Toner in the fifth, with Stanton Martin’s RBI triple key in getting them the lead. The Coons had a leadoff double from Quebell and a single by Nunley in the bottom 5th, then left them there when Bergquist popped out to short on a 3-1 pitch from Trevino, who was chasing Brownie in the all time strikeouts leaderboard, but had only 2 K so far in this game, and Alexander grounded into a picture-perfect 6-4-3.

Toner was replaced with two outs in the top 6th, having thrown 100 pitches. Sugano replaced him and retired Jesus Ramirez to end the inning. Bottom 6th, Howell singled, and then Palmer Taylor – entering with Sugano in a double switch – also singled. Howell made for third, Stanton Martin fired the ball there, but markedly late, and Taylor moved up to second. Those were the tying runs in scoring position, with nobody out, and the top of the order coming up. Drama was created when Carmona singled up the middle, just inches past Francisco Caraballo’s glove, which scored one run. The other run scored on Trevino’s wild pitch, and we were tied. Sandy walked before the middle of the order ****ed up as usual. Both Bednarski and Quebell popped out, and Nunley whiffed. The Crusaders stranded a pair that Thrasher put on (a walk and a hit batter) in the top 8th when Sakellaris struck out PH Aaron Tolwith, and the bottom 8th was opened with Carmona singling off Ken McKenzie, a left-hander. Sandy bunted with us fearing the arm of Eduardo Durango quite badly, getting Carmona to second with one out. Bednarski wasn’t pitched to, being walked onto the open base, before Quebell hit a 3-2 bloop to left that just barely escaped Martin Ortíz! It was in for a double, Carmona scored, and next Jon Merritt hit for Nunley, but the Crusaders wanted NO part of a right-handed batter. Okay. Jimmy Fucito would now hit with the bases loaded for Jason Seeley, but he grounded back to the pitcher for a force at home, and D-Alex, who had hit into another double play in the seventh, flew out to center to strand three. Angel Casas retired the top of the order in the ninth in 1-2-3 fashion, striking out Ramirez and Ortíz. 6-5 Raccoons! Carmona 3-5, 2 RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2 2B, RBI; Nunley 2-4; Seeley (PH) 1-1; Howell 2-2, 2 BB; Sugano 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

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

Like Nick Brown the previous week, Conway had a great start to the game, allowing only one runner in the first seven batters, before an early rain delay completely broke him in the third inning. Martin Ortíz hit a 2-out, 3-run homer after Ortega and Ramirez reached, and then Stanton Martin, B.J. Manfull, and Eduardo Durango reached on two singles and a walk before Miguel Salinas left them on with a deep fly out to left. Conway didn’t even last five innings, choking on the Martin Brothers reaching with one out in the fifth before Sugano replaced him and retired Manfull and Durango to keep the damage low and manageable. All the while, the Raccoons did little to less than even little against Sabatino, who was not nominally part of the second-best rotation in the league. They had three shy hits in the first four innings, then had runners on the corners after D-Alex doubled and Howell singled to start the bottom 5th. Palmer Taylor hit into a double play, the run scored, but uck.

Bottom 6th, runners on the corners again with nobody out! Sandy and Bednarski both singled to set up Quebell – oh we’re doomed. OF COURSE the annoying first baseman hit into a double play, the run scored, but UCK!! Martin Ortíz would rather effortlessly shake off the Raccoons’ most puny comeback attempt with a huge 2-run homer off Josh Gibson in the seventh, restoring the old 3-run gap. Bottom 8th: Sabatino was still going and retired Carmona on a grounder to start the inning. Sandy singled to center and gained an extra base when Jorge Ortega missed the pickup trying to play it extra quick to keep Sandy FROM taking the extra base. This one promptly came back to bite the Crusaders, with Bednarski singling to right center to easily scored Sandy, 5-3. Up came the tying run … Quebell. Ugh, the ****, we’re so toast. 2-1 pitch, grounded to short … YOU GOTTA BE KIDD- … and Caraballo bumbled it! Totally a double play, but the Crusaders got nobody when the shortstop committed the error. When both Nunley and D-Alex grounded out harmlessly, nothing came of this wonderful donation, and the Coons lost. 5-3 Crusaders. Sambrano 2-5; Bednarski 2-4, RBI; Howell 2-3, BB; Fucito (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Brownie will encounter Midnight at noon, if that makes sense.

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

Jesus Ramirez opened the game with a bloop triple that fooled about half the Coons’ defenders, and quickly scored on a groundout by Caraballo to put Brown into an early hole. And that was way not all. Brown showed his age, had no stuff, and as the first-inning incident already hinted at, would have absolutely no luck on his side, either. The Crusaders ripped him right open for three runs in the second inning, 4-0 total, with the bases loaded after a 2-out walk to Ramirez, after which Caraballo lined a ball just a coon tail’s width over the leaping Quebell and into the corner to plate two, and Martin Ortíz scored a run with an infield single.

Bottom 3rd, Brown hit a leadoff single to right center. Carmona beat Manfull with a hard shot and had a double to right, putting two in scoring position with nobody out. Sandy singled hard to center, and Carmona had to hold back because Ortega was close to making a catch and thus couldn’t score. Brown scored, however, 4-1. Runners on the corners, Bednarski was the ass to hit into a double play, the third run-scoring double play in the series for the Critters, and now, with nobody on base, the tool Quebell managed to hit a single. Nunley singled, go-ahead run at the plate, but D-Alex whiffed most feebly and the chance was wasted thoroughly. Besides, Brown’s pitching hardly got better. If anything got better, it was the outfielders selling their dear bodies when they threw them at howling line drives. Somehow Brown existed into the seventh, got Ramirez and Caraballo out on somewhat less hazardous plays than earlier, but then put on Ortíz with a single. With the right-handed bomber coming up, Brown’s day was over. Clint Mathis came in, threw one pitch that bored in on Martin, then left for Thrasher. “Midnight” Martin struck out eight over seven innings, and McKenzie held the fort in the eighth. Alex Ramirez got the save opportunity, got Alexander and Howell, but then lost Jon Merritt to a pinch-walk. Taylor hit for Fucito to counter the right-hander, but struck out like a real victim. 4-2 Crusaders. Constantino 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Yuck. What a crap game. The offense is truly horrendous.

Raccoons (42-29) @ Falcons (31-42) – June 27-29, 2014

The Falcons had recovered somewhat from their zombie start to the season, and had even made it past the Knights into fifth place in the South. However, they were still scoring the least runs in the CL (though the gap to the Raccoons and Knights was closing steadily), and were sixth in runs allowed. We had swept them in the first series this season.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (8-2, 2.06 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (6-6, 3.65 ERA)
Daniel Dickerson (2-2, 4.76 ERA) vs. John Key (3-4, 3.78 ERA)
Jonathan Toner (6-5, 3.27 ERA) vs. Pablo Sanchez (3-8, 4.64 ERA)

Three right-handers again. This series starts the long 17-game string of games without an off day before the All Star Game.

Game 1
POR: LF Carmona – CF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – 3B Nunley – C Alexander – SS Howell – 2B Bergquist – P Santos
CHA: RF Puckett – CF J. Jimenez – LF Nieves – 1B J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – 2B Best – SS Dahlke – C M. Roberts – P Carter

Cookie Carmona came up with his 100th hit of the season to plate the first run of the game, a 2-out RBI single that chased home Jason Bergquist in the third. Santos had started the game iffy, running three full counts in the first two innings, and had walked Chris Puckett, the first batter he faced. He also walked a guy in the second, and threw a wild pitch. When Santos wasn’t messing around, the Falcons had a hard time getting into scoring position, however, the Raccoons’ offense mainly consisted of Cookie Carmona, who had all of the Coons’ hits through six innings. Sooner or later, the iffy Santos had to run into trouble, and he did so in form of a leadoff jack by Puckett in the bottom 6th. The Falcons put another two men on and shoved one home to take a 2-1 lead. Whether the Raccoons tried to mount a comeback can not be decided for sure; but they definitely didn’t put anybody on base in the last three innings. 2-1 Falcons. Carmona 2-4, RBI; Santos 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, L (8-3);

Carmona also stole two bases. The only other Raccoon to be on base AT ALL was Bergquist, who walked.

Game 2
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – RF Bednarski – 1B Quebell – C Alexander – 3B Merritt – SS Taylor – 2B Bergquist – P Dickerson
CHA: RF Puckett – CF J. Jimenez – 1B J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – 2B Best – SS R. Miller – LF DeBoer – C M. Roberts – P Kreider

There was a pitching change in that the Falcons moved Steve Kreider (3-7, 4.35 ERA) into the game on Saturday. He allowed a run in the first when Sandy walked and scored on singles by Bednarski and Quebell. Alexander and Merritt lined out to the shortstop, a certain Ryan Miller, to end the inning. The Falcons didn’t get a hit until Steve Best tripled in the fourth, but that was with two down and Miller grounded out to Bergquist to keep him on. The score was still 1-0 in the fifth, with the Raccoons hesitant to produce more. Sandy hit a 1-out double, then was at third after a wild pitch. Kreider missed wildly and walked Bednarski on four straight, setting Quebell up for … a foul pop. D-Alex flew out to shallow right, and nobody scored. In what was totally not a pitching duel, because while neither lineup was doing amazing things, neither pitcher sparkled either, Bergquist’s throwing error that put Jose Jimenez on second base to start the bottom 6th opened the door for the Falcons. Consecutive singles by Jorge Garcia and Carlos Martinez tied the game, Best walked to fill the bases, and while Miller hit into a double play, the go-ahead run scored. It took until the ninth until the experience of trailing set in with the lineup that had only four hits on the day. Jon Merritt opened the inning against Cris Pena, and hit a 3-1 pitch high to deep right center, a bounce on the warning track, and over the wall it went for a ground-rule double – not that the 38-year old Merritt would have gotten any further than that. Taylor struck out. Seeley hit for Bergquist, the blighter, and hit a 1-1 pitch up the middle and past Miller. Into center it went, Merritt had started running early and scored with the tying run. Hernandez would single for Gibson, but the 1-2 guys failed to land another single and the game remained tied. Extra innings saw three pathetic groundouts in the top 10th before Sakellaris put on Puckett in the bottom of the inning and despite an intentional walk to Jorge Garcia fell to Carlos Martinez’ walkoff single. 3-2 Falcons. Merritt 2-4, 2 2B;

Ah, a 4-game losing streak. Here it is – freefall. Turns out, 2.25 R/G ain’t enough to sustain playoff ambitions. That’s what the Raccoons have scored over their last eight games.

Game 3
POR: CF Carmona – LF Sambrano – 3B Nunley – RF Bednarski – C Alexander – 1B Merritt – SS Howell – 2B Taylor – P Toner
CHA: RF Puckett – CF J. Jimenez – LF Nieves – 1B J. Garcia – 3B C. Martinez – 2B Best – SS R. Miller – C M. Roberts – P Key

It dawned on me that the team had conspired to throw games intentionally so they could to fishing and hunting in October rather that play stupid ball when Carmona opened the game with a soft lineout to Steve Best … on a 3-0 pitch.

Neither team had a hit the first time through. Key walked Sambrano in the first, while Toner was perfect. Carmona made another out in a 3-ball count to end the top 3rd, flying out to Domingo Nieves. Toner first drilled Jose Jimenez in the bottom 4th, then allowed a single to Nieves, and the Falcons would strand runners in scoring position after Garcia’s groundout and a soft fly to shallow center that Martinez and that Carmona had to make a dash for. The Coons didn’t get a hit until Palmer Taylor singled to lead off the sixth, but Toner couldn’t get a bunt down, and when Carmona grounded to short, Taylor clobbered into Steve Best. The Falcon got the worst of it and had to be replaced by Tom Dahlke. But at least the path was clear for Carmona, who swiped second base, then scored when Sandy singled to right. Meanwhile Toner was clicking off batters, coming close enough to a shutout for us to casually look into the record books whether three shutouts in a month were a thing in the ABL.

It wasn’t, and it wouldn’t. Toner had Mathew Roberts hit a leadoff double in the bottom 8th, on which Bednarski looked bad, and Puckett singled him in quickly. Puckett would steal second base when Dylan Alexander in all his uselessness dropped the ball on his throw attempt, and scored on a 2-out single by Nieves. The Falcons sent Jerry Scott and his 7.52 ERA to save the 2-1 score, which probably qualified as showing up the opposition. He faced the middle of the order, and Nunley doubled on his first pitch, representing the tying run. A balk advanced him to third base during Bednarski’s plate appearance, which ended with him fouling out. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!! Alexander hit a sorry bloop to shallow left, but it was sorry enough to elude the converging fielders and fell in for a single, Nunley scored, tied ballgame. Quebell hit for Merritt, fouled out (bloody ****!), and Howell rolled out to Martinez. The lineup was pathetic enough, but the least thing this team needed was pathetic defense. Sugano had already put Roberts on with a leadoff single in the bottom 10th when Nunley misfiled Cristian Gonzales’ grounder into an error. Puckett bunted over the runners, and Sugano was overwhelmed as the Falcons had themselves another walkoff. 3-2 Falcons. Toner 7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K;

(buries face in the hands and slowly rocks back and forth)

(weeping sounds)

In other news

June 24 – SAL SP Zach Hughes (5-2, 2.85 ERA) will be shut down for a month with some woes of elbow soreness.
June 24 – The Knights and Thunder combine for 24 hits, but only two runs in a 9-inning game on Tuesday, and one of those runs is a César Gonzalez home run, helping the Knights to a 2-0 win.
June 26 – ATL 1B Gil Rockwell (.314, 22 HR, 46 RBI) is not only hitting the ball with authority, but also with consistency, and now he has authored a 20-game hitting streak after a hit in the Knights’ 7-6 defeat to the Thunder. The hit is of course a 3-run homer off Ralph Ford.
June 27 – The Capitals are out-hit 10-6 by the Gold Sox, but get a grand slam from Jose Gonzalez and a pinch-hit 3-run homer from Casimiro Schoeppen – hitting FOR Gonzalez – to beat the Gold Sox, 9-5.
June 29 – For the second time this week a player reaches a 20-game hitting streak in a loss to the Thunder, as NYC LF Martin Ortíz (.358, 10 HR, 46 RBI) has three singles in the Crusaders’ 9-2 defeat.
June 29 – SFW SP Fernando Cruz (9-6, 3.53 ERA) pitches a 1-hitter in a 1-0 loss to the Miners, the only hit being Alex Rivas’ RBI single in the second inning.

Complaints and stuff

The Raccoons dropped ten spots in the power rankings this week, 3rd to 13th, which is no wonder.

They suck. No matter what you do, when you lose five in a row, you suck. And it’s all the offense. The pitching is mildly amazing, but the offense, except for the #1 slot, is a ridiculous dumpster fire. I can hardly put my colossal hate for Quebell and Bednarski and Alexander into words. That is one ****ed up middle of the order. None of them can come up with a clutch hit. D-Alex is batting .174 with runners in scoring position, and Quebell and Bednarski are less bad, but also completely useless. Look at the RBIs. How many more Cookies do they need ahead of them??

The Knights have already passed us in runs scored. The Falcons are still in last place, but only six runs back. And this rotten team couldn’t swing a stick if their striped tails were on fire.

I have looked at offensive upgrades, but it’s hard to find a slugging second baseman, for example. We would need to shift Sandy to second base permanently and find a leftfielder, I guess. No shortstops that are affordable AND good, either.

Carmona stole three bases this week, reaching 24 to tie BOS Mike Rivera and also for the ABL lead, with RIC Danny Flores also stuck at 24. We also have the top 3 pitchers in the CL in ERA, Santos ahead of Conway and Brown, and we STILL can’t get **** moving!

Yes, Cookie and Sandy played the wrong way round on Friday, because I goofed…