Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[Westheim]

Raccoons (62-29) @ Indians (50-43) – July 16-18, 2007

The Indians were dropping like rocks from their awesome start that lasted into early May (21-9 on May 5), but so far had demonstrated ownage of some certain hairy creatures, beating them six out of nine, including a sweep in three games in April. However their team, which was by now permanently Ron Alston-less more and more turned out to be disturbingly average, sixth in runs scored in the league, and fourth in runs allowed. Outside of Curtis Tobitt, their rotation was quite dull, but we would not be fortunate enough to miss him this time.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (3-6, 5.05 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (12-3, 2.82 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-5, 2.73 ERA) vs. Bob King (6-6, 4.11 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (12-1, 2.21 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (7-9, 3.19 ERA)

Right-right-left; meanwhile they had four other batters (apart from Alston) on the DL, three of those outfielders, including recent acquisition Robbie Luxton and recent pain-under-the-tail Bill Miller.

Game 1
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Dominguez
IND: RF J. Lugo – SS J. Lopez – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – LF A. Solís – 2B J. Miller – CF Martines – P Tobitt

Three Joses among the first four batters had got to be a record, and they soon enough all put their brand into the hapless Dominguez, whose only achievement it was to beat Tobitt defending for an infield single in the top 3rd when the decidedly better pitcher in the contest had already retired eight in a row. The Indians broke through for two runs in the third inning, and then another in the fourth, which ended on Castro throwing out Jose Lopez going first-to-third on a Stevens single, but Lopez took out Vic Flores, who had to leave the game. The Raccoons threatened only once in the game when they got their first two men on with Sharp drawing a walk (in place of Flores) and Castro hitting a single before the well fell dry. Dominguez went six and allowed three runs, and the Indians got another one off Riddle in the seventh. Simon Stevens had a 4-hit day, totaling the amount of offense generated by all Hairballs. 4-0 Indians. Castro 2-3, BB, 2B;

We probably never had a chance looking at the pitching matchup (but remember we beat Tobitt in May in a 3.1 IP, 6 ER rush, and that game was started by Dominguez as well…). Now we have to hope that Vic Flores ain’t hurt too badly. Normally I would have demoted Ryan Miller after this one, but with Flores out and waiting on a sure diagnosis, he stays around a few more days.

Instead, the perennially pathetic Bobo Wood was sent to AAA, and we called up Sergio Esquivel (.286, 2 HR, 45 RBI in AAA; .241, 0 HR, 6 RBI with POR last year).

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – SS R. Miller – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – P Brown
IND: RF Rey – SS J. Lopez – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – LF A. Solís – 2B J. Miller – CF Martines – P B. King

Nick Brown had been a mess in his last start, and it got a whole lot worse. He walked Claudio Rey on Jose Lopez without registering a strike, walked Stevens in a full count, got Paraz to hack himself out at balls, and finally walked a run in against Fugosi. Five batters, four walks, and the Indians took a 2-0 lead on Solís’ sacrifice fly to right. The Indians didn’t actually get a hit until Paraz singled with two out in the third, but the damage had been done already.

Meanwhile the Raccoons indulged themselves in running up that LOB count. Castro had been left on third base in the opening frame, and they had left pairs on in the next two innings, not scoring against Bob King. The third saw them load the bases on two walks and a Yoshi single, with Brown batting with no outs. Had it been an inning later, we might have hit for our messed up ace, but - … nah. Brown hit a sac fly, Bowen scoring against Solís’ poor throw, before Castro almost ended the inning with a grounder to second. They only got Yoshi, though, but Ryan Miller also grounded right to a defender, but this time to King, who couldn’t make a good play on it, taking an extra step to recover from offering the pitch, and Miller legged out a game-tying 2-out infield single. Pruitt then flew out to left to strand two more.

The game tied, Brownie was unusually silent. Normally he’d always be seen babbling with the team mates in the dugout between innings, but now resolved to retreating to the most remote corner of the dugout, torturing an innocent baseball in his fists. It worked, a bit at least. He did not walk anybody else after that horrendous first inning, but hit Fugosi in the sixth, except for a 2-out walk in the seventh to PH Jim Stein, and then struck out another pinch-hitter in Jose Lugo. That he did make it through seven after all after expending 34 pitches in the first inning was achievement enough, and a lot of it was done with generating very poor contact rather than strikeouts, of which he had six eventually. Yet his team let him down more than he let himself down, getting their first two runners, Pruitt and Black, on in the seventh, and still not scoring.

With over 100 pitches on the odometer and his spot up in the eighth, Crespo was clearly hitting for Brown in the eighth, and Brown vanished in the clubhouse immediately (we would later find a smashed vending machine surrounded by bat splinters). Crespo batted with one out and nobody on, and lined to right, where Lugo made a spectacular flying catch that was for certain going to make the weekly ABL highlights. While we got robbed there, Castro would then hit a double, but couldn’t score on Miller’s soft single to center, putting runners on the corners with two out for Pruitt. Please, not again, not another pair stranded. Facing Javier Navarro, Pruitt ripped at the first pitch and rammed a liner into the gap in right center, and that was never going to be caught: Castro scored, Miller scored, and the Raccoons (and Brownie) held a 4-2 lead. Only Paraz’ early single still stood between the Indians and a combined no-hitter against them, and Rockburn and Casas were not going to open the door for them again. Their only late runner was Fugosi, who drew a walk off Angel, before the closer retired the next three batters. 4-2 Brownies. Castro 2-5, 2B; Miller 2-5, 2B, RBI; Pruitt 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-4, BB; Brown 7.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, W (11-5) and 1-2, RBI;

I debated with myself for a while whether to include Brownie in the post-game honorary mentions. 7 IP, 2 R is normally good enough, and one hit allowed for damn sure is, but oh my god that first inning …

We’re now 4-7 against the Indians, the same mark we hold against the Elks, and those are our only losing records so far this year. We have already claimed seven season series, including all four interleague matchups, and three against CL South teams.

Game 3
POR: LF Castro – SS R. Miller – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – CF Crespo – 2B Sato – P Yates
IND: RF J. Lugo – SS J. Lopez – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – 3B Fugosi – LF A. Solís – 2B C. Aguilar – CF Martines – P R. Gonzalez

Castro started the game with a single and went to third on a hit-and-run in which Paraz’ throw to second was well high and well into center. Miller struck out, but Pruitt singled to right for an early 1-0 lead before we had to see the Indians snip three straight 1-out singles off Yates in the bottom 1st. That loaded the bases, but nobody scored once Fugosi, who had not been retired at all on Tuesday, grounded into a double play. But after being denied there, the Indians had Solís draw a walk to start the bottom 2nd before Aguilar hit a no-doubter to right to flip the score in the Indians’ favor, 2-1. Like Brown, Yates was scuffling, and couldn’t get into good counts consistently, which had made him unbeatable in the first half of the season. Kel struck out only four in six innings before being hit for by Quebell following Kuni Sato’s 1-out triple in the top 7th. Quebell squeezed a grounder past Aguilar for a single, and that tied the score at two, so Yates was off the hook, but would not get a win either.

Defensively, Crespo kept being defeated in this game, and Stevens hit a 2-out double off Bennett in his direction in the bottom 7th. When Paraz then hit another rocket to deep center, I closed my eyes and sighed, but then the attendance in the park sighed even louder, and that was for Crespo making a strong catch on Paraz to end the inning. Both teams left runners on the corners in their halves of the eighth inning, and the Raccoons would even leave them loaded in the ninth, with Miller being robbed on Lugo’s strong play on his line drive, and Black with two out simply sending a hopper right back to pitcher Leonardo Sosa. Following that, Luis Beltran retired two left-handers in the bottom 9th before Kaz Kichida faced only one batter with two outs. Jose Lopez took him so deep, it legally qualified as a colonoscopy. 3-2 Indians. Pruitt 2-4, BB, RBI; Sharp 2-3, BB; Quebell (PH) 1-1, RBI; Trevino (PH) 1-1;

Performing in the clutch is an issue at this point…

It won’t likely get better soon, either. Vic Flores was placed on the DL with a spained thumb and might miss another four weeks. So, that’s our batting title going away right here…

While Luis Beltran was replaced by Marcos Bruno on the roster, we also needed a replacement for Vic Flores – again. Anybody remember that other Yoshi guy? Nah, just kidding. We decided to give a look to 2B Jose Gutierrez, 22. A right-handed contact batter without any power, Gutierrez batted .274/.360/.346 with two homers and 31 RBI in 81 games for St. Petersburg this season. He is more glove than anything else, most likely. We acquired him in 2006 from the Pacifics for C Curt Cooks.

Raccoons (63-31) @ Thunder (46-48) – July 20-22, 2007

Two games under .500, the Thunder were still second in their division, somehow competing with below-average runs scored and runs allowed. They had an ace up their sleeve with SP Daniel Dickerson returning from a stretched elbow ligament and posting a 2-0, 1.80 ERA mark so far, but we would not face him in this series. We had taken two of three from them the first time we encountered them this year.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (3-1, 3.53 ERA) vs. Manny Guzmán (5-7, 4.88 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (8-5, 4.37 ERA) vs. Aaron Anderson (7-5, 4.23 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-7, 5.01 ERA) vs. Luis Martinez (7-8, 3.63 ERA)

The only guy in the park so old to actually have played for a Raccoons team that definitely logged a winning record, and talented enough to be on his eighth major league team, was Iván Costa. He appeared in three games for the 1996 Raccoons, posting a 6.35 ERA. Samy Michel was also on the team, but he had only debuted in 1997.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – SS R. Miller – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – P Boda
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Takizawa – CF W. McCormick – 2B Michel – 3B Reese – SS Heathershaw – C L. Paredes – P M. Guzmán

Defense remained strong as both pitchers were rescued by good defensive plays made in their support early. The Critters still scored first, scratching out a run on Nomura’s groundout in the second inning which followed a Quebell single and Sharp doubled. Esquivel’s first AB of the year saw him looking at strike three to end the inning. Duke Smack hit his 17th homer in the fourth, 2-0, and as the inning progressed, Quebell walked, Sharp singled, and Nomura’s line to left was caught, then dropped by Sanchez. The bases were loaded with one out for Esquivel, who made sure not to look at too many pitches this time and slapped Guzmán’s first pitch into play, a soaring drive, and then out of play – GRAAAAND SLAAAAAMMM!!!!

That knocked Guzmán from the game, and the Raccoons would add a run against Jimmy Morey, the old nemesis, in the fifth on doubles by Pruitt and Duke Smack. In turn the Thunder got on the board when Bradley Heathershaw, he with the winner’s name, hit a home run off Boda in the bottom 5th, 7-1, and another run scored on 2-out heroics by Victorino Sanchez (single) and Tomas Cardenas (RBI double). Boda got stuck for good in the bottom 6th where Ed Bryan replaced him with two on and two out to face left-handed pinch-hitter Ignacio Arreola, who hit a hard ball to right that was nevertheless right into Black’s glove. Bryan proceeded to allow a home run to Victorino Sanchez in the next inning to get the Thunder back within four, but finished the inning. The bottom 8th saw Rockburn allow singles to the first two batters he faced. Marcos Bruno made his return from the DL in a really tight nook, but excelled fantastically, striking out Heathershaw, Luis Paredes, and Alonso Baca in order. But the scuffle continued, and no 4-run lead was safe. Bennett allowed a single to Sanchez and walked Cardenas to start the ninth inning, which prompted a move to Angel Casas, facing two more left-handers. He got a grounder from Takizawa to Quebell, who went to second for the only out on the play. McCormick struck out before Samy Michel lobbed an uncatchable bloop into shallow left for an RBI single. That was all the Thunder got, though: Tom Reese struck out. 7-4 Raccoons. Castro 2-5; Black 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-4, 2B; Esquivel 2-4, HR, 4 RBI;

Somewhere in the swamps of Florida, when Bobo Wood received news of Esquivel’s slam, he probably knew it was time to update his resume.

Game 2
POR: SS R. Miller – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Fuentes
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 2B Metting – 1B T. Cardenas – SS Heathershaw – CF Reese – C L. Paredes – RF Rangel – 3B Arreola – P A. Anderson

Raúl Fuentes continued to get whacked furiously as Tom Reese beat him with a 2-out, 2-run triple in the first inning. A Black error cost an unearned run in the second, immediately negating Craig Bowen’s solo shot from the top of the inning. Apart from Bowen, all Raccoons that hit a ball to left, no matter how hard, found themselves robbed by Victorino Sanchez, who had been charged an error in the second inning for dropping a pop by Black in foul ground, but on fair balls was unbeaten until Bowen hit a 1-out double in the seventh. Trevino reached with a single as the tying run, and now it was bedtime for 0-for-2 debutee Jose Gutierrez as Tomas Castro hit for him and hit right into a double play. The Thunder proved a little less inept in their ambitions in this game, and Adam Riddle was torn up with an Arreola triple and Anderson double(!) in the bottom of the inning. Bennett failed to clean up, and the Coons lost this one handily. 7-1 Thunder. Bowen 2-2, HR, 2B, RBI;

Kaz allowed another home run to the first man he faced in this game, a 2-run shot to Reese in the bottom 8th.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – SS Sato – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Dominguez
OCT: LF V. Sanchez – 1B T. Cardenas – RF Takizawa – CF W. McCormick – 2B Michel – 3B Reese – SS Metting – C Baca – P L. Martinez

Same old, same old, early for the Coons, as Quebell hit into a double play, and Castro hit a triple in the third, but was unscored once Sharp popped out to short. No, you had to hit one out here, and who better for the job than the Duke? He made it 1-0 in the fourth with his 18th piece of the year before Bowen singled up the middle and a balk by the lefty Luis Martinez in a 2-2 count outrageously took the double play away from Quebell, who then worked a walk. But Sato and Gutierrez filled in competently for Miller and Nomura and both grounded out without any danger to Martinez’ line. There was danger to Dominguez’ line in the bottom of the fourth. So far that line had not included any hits, but after Takizawa drew a walk, Wes McCormick hit a soft blooper into left for a single. A walk to Reese loaded the bases with two outs, but Kurt Metting grounded out to Sato.

Still 1-0 in the top 6th, which opened with Black striking out. Bowen singled, Quebell walked to resemble the fourth, only this time Sato hit a single to right to load them up. Yet, Gutierrez’ soft line was snagged by a leaping Reese at third, and Dominguez went down flailing. Top 7th, Castro drew a leadoff walk against Martinez, and was in motion when Sharp grounded to short, which was all that kept us out of a double play. More so, Metting’s throw was exceptionally poor, bounced right in front of Cardenas and almost struck him in the private place. The Coons had two men on AGAIN. Boys, we need runs! Dorkminguez is still pitching! Matt Pruitt heard, Matt Pruitt listened, Matt Pruitt homered forcefully off reliever Bartolo Gomez to run the score to 4-0 while a light rain set in. Luke Black was not done striking out yet when gusting wind turned the drizzle into a driving rain storm, and the grounds crew struggled to get the tarp on, with two members almost getting swallowed by the covering. With the Raccoons in need of getting out of town, the game was called two hours later. 4-0 Raccoons! Bowen 3-3; Dominguez 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (4-7) and 1-3;

That’s twice this week that the opposition only tallied one hit, but plenty of walks. The ABL is going to credit a complete game shutout to Dominguez, but we know it was really not going to be one as he was on 93 pitches through six innings. It’s his third career shutout, and the second this year. In his previous lockout this season, of course, he allowed less than one hit AND went the distance of nine, barely.

In other news

July 16 – For once more, the Pacifics are unloading. They send SP Francisco Garza (10-7, 3.89 ERA) to the Knights for two prospects, including #63 pitcher Lance Tinker.
July 16 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.353, 1 HR, 30 RBI) is out for a month with plantar fasciitis.
July 16 – The Titans place INF Daniel Silva (.267, 3 HR, 22 RBI) on the DL with a groin strain. He might not be available again until September.
July 22 – DAL CF/LF Cesar Morán (.323, 10 HR, 57 RBI) is out for six weeks with an elbow sprain.

Complaints and stuff

May Daniel Silva’s groin forever burn in the eternal fires of hell. There, I said it. Now, how are our injured guys doing? Any karma repercussions, yet? Umm, no.

The team is just not any good at the moment. Our co-aces are outdoing another in pulling stupid **** on the mound, and the bottom of the rotation has not been a delight for months. In addition to that, the offense has stopped producing. We scored 4.7 R/G in June. In July we’re back down to a rotten 61 runs in 18 games, or 3.4 R/G…

And those Crusaders are drawing closer and closer…

[OmahaBaseball]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Oy. People are still reading through this? Through all of it?

I may have skimmed a few posts here and there

[Westheim]

Raccoons (65-32) vs. Bayhawks (44-54) – July 23-25, 2007

With the worst batting average in the Continental League, the Bayhawks had scored 399 runs (11th; Coons: 10th), while allowing 458 (9th; Coons: 1st). They had a good bullpen, but their rotation was moldy and had a foul stench to it. We swept them the first time we met this year.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (11-5, 2.72 ERA) vs. George Allen (1-13, 6.26 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (12-1, 2.24 ERA) vs. Tyler Sullivan (5-10, 4.72 ERA)
Cássio Boda (4-1, 3.48 ERA) vs. Esteban Flores (6-9, 5.26 ERA)

Right-left-right from the Waterbirds, and with the way the matchups appear for this series we have a pretty good chance at gaining some ground on the Crusaders. Well, maybe not. They play the Knights (we will get them on the weekend). And the whole South is just embarrassingly bad this season.

Game 1
SFB: CF Hudson – C Cicalina – 3B D. Lopez – RF Keshishian – 1B Batlle – SS J. Perez – LF C. Lopez – 2B Da Silva – P Allen
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Brown

John Hudson drew a leadoff walk against a badly scuffling Nick Brown, the ageless Urbano Cicalina dumped a single into shallow center, and I dug into by chocolate box immediately. Brownie struck out David Lopez before Tirgen Keshishian hit into a 6-4-3 to put up a zero. He struck out the side in the second, before the hole in Daniel Sharp’s glove almost victimized him in the third, but the Hawks left Maxime Da Silva on third base. Meanwhile the Raccoons stranded four runners combined over the first two innings, and failed to score on Allen, while the Hawks didn’t get a hit off Brown after Cicalina’s bloop. The mid-seventh sing-along took place in a 0-0 contest, with the Raccoons having three hits and four walks, and no runs. Brownie had whiffed nine. Da Silva struck out to end the eighth, giving Brownie ten whiffs on the day and he was still just over 90 pitches. In the ninth, Concie Guerin grounded out, Hudson struck out, and then Cicalina pummeled Brown with a 2-2 no-doubter to left. It was the only tally in an extremely sour game. 1-0 Bayhawks. Sharp 2-4; Miller 2-4; Brown 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, L (11-6);

This was certainly the ****tiest game they played all season long (of course victimizing Brownie, because aces can’t get support around here, huh??) and I have to resume shooting incompetent players. I need to tell Slappy to clean Big Bertha, a 17th century musket that runs in the family.

Game 2
SFB: CF Hudson – LF O. Thompson – 3B D. Lopez – 1B Batlle – RF Keshishian – 2B J. Perez – C Mosley – SS Guerin – P Sullivan
POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – SS Sato – C Esquivel – CF Trevino – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Yates

This time the Raccoons went down hitlessly the first time through the order, and while Kel held the Hawks at bay, the big bats broke through in the bottom 4th. Tomas Castro led off with a homer, Sharp walked, and Black also homered for a 3-run frame and as big a lead for Kel. The next time Duke Smack came up, he found Sharp on base again, and hit another rocket. The first was to right center, this one to left center, all in all he had 20 on the year. Despite a roomy 5-0 lead, Yates was hit for in the seventh inning. He was already at 98 pitches and with Thursday off I was eager to spare him two innings and not burn out him and rather get those two innings from the pen. Immediately, said pen, and not the shallow end of it, made a mess. Bennett retired two before David Lopez doubled his way on. Bryan came in to face left-hander Paco Batlle, but walked him. Marcos Bruno allowed an RBI single to Keshishian before Perez grounded out mercifully. Bruno finished the game, bunting into a force in the bottom 8th. 5-1 Coons. Black 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (13-1);

Triple Crown watch: Kel leads in ERA (.29 over VAN Rod Taylor), ties for the lead in wins, but trails Curtis Tobitt by six strikeouts.

Game 3
SFB: CF Hudson – C Cicalina – 3B D. Lopez – 1B Batlle – RF Keshishian – 2B J. Perez – LF O. Thompson – SS Irvin – P E. Flores
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Boda

Against Dominguez-esque ex-Raccoon Esteban Flores (13 more walks than strikeouts this year), the Raccoons loaded the bases on two singles and a walk with no outs in the first. Luke Black made the first out with a soft line to center, and Sharp lined out to short for two hard luck outs, before Bowen broke through with a 2-run single to right. Miller struck out. The bottom 2nd was started with a single by Yoshi, was bunted over and eventually scored on a 2-out double by Adrian Quebell. Pruitt reached on an error by Batlle, putting two on, and then Duke Smack let it fly again, a huge rocket to left that JUST fit over the fence for a 3-run homer and a 6-0 lead! The Waterbirds had the guts to keep Flores in the game, but the backlash was tremendous, when Adrian Quebell(!!) hit a 3-run home run in the next inning to move the game to 9-0. Not that the bullpen was going to help the Hawks much. Phil Cotton was taken deep by Craig Bowen in the fourth, 11-0. In between the thunder claps and all the splatter and gore, Cássio Boda very silently pitched a very good game, allowing only one run over seven innings, owing to back-to-back doubles by Keshishian and Jose Perez in that seventh. Then came the top 8th, the Raccoons hadn’t scored since the fourth, and Adam Riddle immediately created a mess, issuing two walks and a single without retiring anybody. Marcos Bruno came into that mess, but all runners scored on a balk and a single. The **** continued to smell. Kaz Kichida was tasked with the ninth and a 7-run lead, and soon enough it became close. Mark Smith doubled. John Hudson tripled. David Lopez walked. Brian Mosley singled. Tirgen Keshishian walked. And we really, actually had to get Angel Casas out of his car, back into uniform, and into a game that once was 11-0. After Jose Perez popped out, Angel struck out Omarion Thompson to end the game, then yelled at Kaz “Dis is how you do it!!” on his way to the dugout. 11-6 Critters. Castro 2-5, 2B; Quebell 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Sharp 2-4; Bowen 3-3, BB, HR, 4 RBI; Nomura 2-4; Boda 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (5-1);

Ack. How can you turn an 11-0 game into a save opportunity for your closer??? That was the league-leading 31st save for Angel, by the way.

Also, while Adrian Quebell had hit for three legs of the cycle by the fourth inning, he also managed to walk and instantly get picked off first the rest of the way.

The Crusaders matched us day for day this middle of the week, and we are still up by five.

Raccoons (67-33) vs. Knights (40-61) – July 27-29, 2007

We were 6-0 against the Knights on the season, abusing their last-place pitching (602 runs allowed!!), while dodging their first-place offense (501 runs scored). So while they were scoring five runs on average, they were bleeding a full run per game! The entire pitching staff was nothing short of a horror show, with ex-Furball Ralph Ford almost standing out with a just above league average 4.10 ERA.

The Knights had just acquired Boston’s LF/RF Gonzalo Munoz (.230, 10 HR, 32 RBI) entering this series. Shouldn’t they seek pitching help …?

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (8-6, 4.30 ERA) vs. Eric Stevens (4-7, 6.30 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (4-7, 4.71 ERA) vs. David Estrada (1-0, 2.25 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-6, 2.61 ERA) vs. Ralph Ford (10-10, 4.10 ERA)

Three left-handers in one series! We will not see their worst offender, Jong-suk Lee (3-7, 6.98 ERA), but there are also a few juicy 7’s in their bullpen. Hopefully we get Wednesday’s offense with Monday’s pitching for our own efforts, and there is still the possibility for a perfect 9-0 season against a CL South team, something the Critters have never done so far.

Game 1
ATL: SS Kester – 2B J. Gutierrez – RF J. Garcia – LF G. Munoz – 3B C. Martinez – C J. Clark – 1B T. Pena – CF J. Gonzalez – P E. Stevens
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – SS R. Miller – 2B Sato – P Fuentes

Fuentes started out missing a lot, going to 3-1 on Jaime Kester, who grounded out, before walking Juan Gutierrez. Jorge Garcia then hit a bomb, but the Raccoons actually pulled the game back into a tie by the second with home runs hit by Castro and Crespo, and Fuentes gave himself the lead with a sac fly that plated Ryan Miller, 3-2. In a back-and-forth game, Fuentes couldn’t hold on, got 2-pieces by Carlos Martinez in the fourth, but the Raccoons recovered quickly again. Bottom 5th, Sato led off with a single and was bunted over, reaching third on Castro’s single. Sharp hit a sac fly to tie the game, Pruitt singled, moving Castro to third, and then the Duke hit a high fly that dumped into right, barely fair, and was masterfully played by Jorge Garcia to hold Black to a single – one that gave the Raccoons the lead, though, at 5-4. Despite early struggles, Fuentes went seven innings, allowing only four runners, but all those runners scored!

And then Ed Bryan was tasked with that hard-fought 5-4 lead, and surrendered another home run to the first batter he faced, weak Jorge Gonzalez all the way down in the #8 hole. Bryan didn’t retire anybody, leaving in mounting disgrace, and Rockburn did the inning. The Coons had the bases loaded with one out and their #8 batter up in the bottom 8th, but “Double Play” Quebell hit for Kuni Sato against the righty Clyde Henderson. Quebell put the ball in play, hit well to right, high, up – GRAAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!!!

John Bennett got stuck the 4-run lead in the top 9th, but had to face Garcia and Gonzalo Munoz, two powerful left-handers up first, and combined with Carlos Martinez, he faced 44 home runs this season in the inning. He actually retired the left-handers before both Martinez and Jason Clark reached base with a walk and a single, respectively. Angel Casas was called on, had Tony Pena for breakfast, and the Coons moved to 7-0 on the Knights. 9-5 Raccoons. Castro 2-5, HR, RBI; Black 2-4, 2B, RBI; Sato 1-1, 2 BB, 2B; Quebell (PH) 1-1, HR, 4 RBI;

The two runners the Knights stranded in the ninth inning where their only unused runners of the game, their final LOB was 2.

Ed Bryan does not amuse me.

The Crusaders, facing the Condors, keep matching us, and the Elks are actually undefeated so far this week.

Game 2
ATL: SS Kester – 1B Urban – RF J. Garcia – LF G. Munoz – 2B J. Gutierrez – C De La Parra – 3B C. Martinez – CF Keller – P Ford
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – SS R. Miller – 2B Sato – P Dominguez

After Carlos Martinez had opened the scoring with a solo home run in the second inning, Dominguez beat Garcia with a 2-out RBI double in the bottom of the same inning to re-tie the score. He made it to the fifth and through a short early rain delay without getting stripped naked, but there had already two on with one out when Ryan Miller’s error on Lou Urban not only took a double play away, but loaded the bases with one out for the dangerous part of the order. Dominguez let out a squeal and just died. The Knights got the lead on a 4-pitch walk to Garcia, then plated three more on Dominguez before he was yanked. Law Rockburn struck out a pair to end the inning, but got taken deep by Jaime Kester in the sixth, running the deficit to five runs while Ralph Ford was not giving the Raccoons much except pain, hitting two batters early in the game. That was without malicious intent. He was here long enough for us to know that.

From the time the Knights worked Dominguez into the pavement through the seventh, the Raccoons got no base hits off Ford, but Castro led off the bottom 8th with a homer, getting back into slam range. We got two more singles, but no more runs, then faced Francisco Rodriguez, a left-hander down 6-2 in the ninth. Miller singled, Sato walked, no outs. Quebell hit for John Bennett and walked to bring the tying run to the plate! Tomas Castro soared a floater to left, near the foul line and Munoz just couldn’t get there, it was an RBI single, 6-3, tying runs all on with no outs for Sharp, who flew out to shallow center, nobody moving, and then Pruitt struck out. Final out of the game, all required runs involved, and the batter was Duke Smack, second in the ABL in home runs, but oh-fer on the day. Could he do the trick and hit one out, or at least a bases-clearing double into some nook? Black hit a 2-2 pitch and drilled it to left, it was high, but not deep, and Gonzalo Munoz caught it on the warning track. 6-3 Knights. Castro 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sharp 3-5; Miller 2-4, 2B; Kichida 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

So much for a perfect season. Always that Dominguez sucker ruining everything. Hate that chump.

I hate his guts!

I also hate the weather in Portland. It was icky on Saturday already, but on Sunday it poured all day long. No game could be played.

The game was rescheduled for August 20, creating a travel nightmare for the poor Raccoons, who played the weekend before that Monday in New York, then had to fly home for one game, and then fly east again to Indy. They will have a split-home-team double-header in Tijuana later in the same week in what will be an atrocious 14 games in 13 days.

In other news

July 23 – The Cincinnati offense gets its teeth knocked out as 1B Ray Gilbert (.290, 8 HR, 53 RBI) hits the DL with a broken hand. Gilbert batted .350 last year and was just on the verge of breaking out of a mid-season rut.
July 23 – The Cyclones make a move on a different front, acquiring SP Jack Berry (7-7, 3.63 ERA) from the Buffaloes for two prospects.
July 25 – PIT SP Henry Becker (6-8, 3.58 ERA) hurts his oblique swinging a bat and will miss six weeks.
July 25 – CIN SP Jack Berry (8-7, 3.41 ERA) spins a 4-hit shutout in his first Cyclones start, a 9-0 win over the Pacifics.
July 26 – The Loggers get C Alonso Baca (.191, 0 HR, 12 RBI) from the Thunder for two minor leaguers.
July 26 – A 17-year marriage between the Thunder and MR Jimmy Morey (0-1, 8.14 ERA) ends as the 38-year old veteran gets packaged in a wicked (perhaps nuts) trade with #65 prospect SP Dave Butler to be dealt for the Cyclones’ INF Marcos Garza (.215, 0 HR, 6 RBI in 79 AB).
July 26 – OCT SP Manny Guzmán (6-8, 3.75 ERA) 2-hits the Titans in a 6-0 shutout.
July 28 – The season of NYC SP Jesus Bautista (9-7, 3.93 ERA) is over after he has ruptured a finger tendon.
July 28 – Southpaw reliever Ryan O’Quinn (6-2, 2.98 ERA, 2 SV) is traded from the Bayhawks to the Falcons for two prospects, including #68 prospect SP Jimmy Boswell.
July 28 – LAP SP Brian Page (4-5, 3.59 ERA) 3-hits the Capitals in a 7-0 whitewash.
July 29 – The Indians pick up 37-yr old RF/LF Avery Johnson (.291, 5 HR, 20 RBI) for fellow 37-yr old MR Iván Lopez (2-1, 3.42 ERA) and a minor league catcher.
July 29 – The Wolves send SP Carlos Sackett (3-8, 5.40 ERA) to the Capitals for two prospects.

Complaints and stuff

That sound you hear very faintly is a team subtly crumbling. The offense is sputtering (Brownie’s 1-0 loss was a kick in the nuts, with a running start), and the relief pitching is not what it was earlier in the year. Next week we will face both last place teams in the CL, and we really need a big week. 5-2 is the bare minimum that will be acceptable. Anything less will lead to Slappy being actually assigned Big Bertha for cleaning.

Duke Smack became the first Raccoon to reach 20 homers in July since Al Martin, who hit a pair to reach 20 on July 30, 2002. In the starting lineup that day: Chris Roberson (more on him below), Gary Fifield, Cal Lyon. We’ve come some way, but not enough to save Brownie’s butt on Monday.

The July 23 trade between the Cyclones flipped ex-Coons prospects for another. Jack Berry was traded to the Buffaloes in a forgettable 2002 Winter Meetings trade in addition to Chris Roberson and three-wild-pitches-in-one-at-bat Juan Diaz for Pablo Ledesma and Dale Moore because I feared he would not be able to live in Portland with his extreme home run proneness. He allowed 20 homers in a full season last year for the Buffaloes, but their park is no shoe box. He had 15 this year at the time of the trade. One of the two guys the Buffaloes received in the deal is catching “prospect” Pedro Salas, whom we traded in for … Matt Pruitt!

By the way, Roberson is still keeping the bench warm for the Buffaloes. He’s 30 now. He had more than 400 AB in his career ONCE. That was actually in ‘02.

And here I was going to say how that was the year he won the Gold Glove and still bled WAR, but that was not actually him. That happened to a Raccoon around that time, but that was actually Stephen Buell in 1999. Buell is also still playing, aged 31. Last year he played for the Miami Shores Cyber Rays and the Norfolk Expos. That is single A ball.

Leftfield was a revolving door for sure after Daniel Hall and Vern Kinnear covered 18 years at the position on their own. I mean, it still is. Our primary leftfielder by Innings Fielded (min. 100 IF) since Old Vern left as a free agent (and I have not un-seen the guy with the blue shirt and yellow #16 punching his right fist into the air with a World Series-winning infield single):
1998 – Stephen Buell 606.2; Chris Parker 402.2; Luke Newton 229.1
1999 – Stephen Buell 929.2; Chris Parker 424
2000 – Daniel Richardson 702.1; Chris Parker 644.1
2001 – Ramiro Cavazos 917.1; Chris Parker 312.2; Chris Roberson 134.2
2002 – Chris Roberson 914.2; Chris Parker 425.1
2003 – Neil Reece 1,041.2; Dale Moore 230.1; Chris Beairsto 150
2004 – Neil Reece 653; Chris Beairsto 394.2; Darwin Tyler 195; Jorge Rodriguez 152.2
2005 – Clyde Brady 1,068.2; Dave Wheaton 185.1; Edgardo Fernandez 111.1
2006 – Clyde Brady 816.2; Tomas Castro 350.2; Jose Carlos Crespo 170.2; Matt Pruitt 104.2

I didn’t see the need to make moves at the deadline. I would have loved another left-handed reliever seeing how Ed Bryan gives up long balls with men on and our other options are no options at all, but I’m looking forward to fixing the problem with more offense. Vic Flores will be back mid-August, and that should take care.

The Titans offered often-hurt surprise slugger Jim Brulhart for a minor league catcher and Jimmy Eichelkraut. You know, I MIGHT have done that deal and parted with Oakweeds, IF Brulhart would be a younger-years Neil Reece, a slugging centerfielder. But he’s not very good in the field, and has no experience in center. Between our strong defensive centerfielder Trevino, who can’t bat a bit, makeshift Crespo, and apprentice Castro we already have a convoluted mess at number eight, but Brulhart doesn’t help that at all. If anything, he’d squeeze out Quebell with Pruitt shifting to first, but I don’t like that at all – the gain for dropping young Jimmy would be WAY too small.

[TheMaus2]

Originally Posted by Westheim

November 25 – The first big free agent signing of the season sees the Portland Raccoons acquire former Crusaders SS Ralph Nixon. A career .333 hitter, Nixon, 33, signs a 4-year contract worth over $3.4M (last year is a team option).

Noooo! you need youth to rebuild this team, not a 33 y/o guy on a 4 yr contract!

[Westheim]

Great, now all my sins from the last 30 years will be uncovered.

Raccoons (68-34) @ Aces (37-69) – July 30-August 1, 2007

The Aces were on a 10-game losing streak, and how embarrassing would it be to let them back in, out of the rain? We’re playing for more, too, with this being our second 6-0 team so far this season. We blew up against the Knights, maybe we can keep this one going and go 9-0 against a CL South team for the first time ever. We had to overcome an average offense soiled by the second-worst pitching in the league, with rotation and pen both ranking second-worst in ERA.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (11-6, 2.61 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (5-7, 3.53 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (13-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (4-7, 4.86 ERA)
Cássio Boda (5-1, 3.17 ERA) vs. Roberto Muniz (3-10, 7.27 ERA)

With Sunday’s rainout, we simply push everybody back a day. If it’s Dominguez, you skip ‘em. If it’s Brownie, you shift ‘em. They have a rotation entirely composed of right-handers.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Brown
LVA: SS F. Soto – 3B Warrain – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – CF Cameron – LF L. Taylor – 2B Dahlke – 1B McDermott – P Pennington

The series started with an error by Inaki-Luki Warrain on Tomas Castro’s grounder, with Castro eventually scoring on a 2-out single by Craig Bowen. He would also score the second run of the game with a leadoff jack in the third. While Brownie started out well initially, soon enough his recent wildness caught up with him in a horrendous bottom 3rd. While the Aces got only one run out of that inning, they got that on a single, a walk, and all that bookended by two hit batsmen. In a 2-1 game, Castro reached for the third time with a single to start the fifth inning. Quebell hit his third single on the day, and while Pruitt hacked out, Duke Smack roped a double into the corner in right field, plating Castro for the third time and putting two more in scoring position for Bowen, but the catcher whiffed and Sharp flew out to Garcia in right. Brown drilled Warrain for the second time (and his third man overall) in the bottom 5th, but Ricardo Garcia’s hard grounder was taken for two outs by Sharp to bail out Brown in the inning. Warrain and further down young Tom Dahlke were the biggest boons for Brown. The latter walked twice in the game in lengthy AB’s and ran up Brown’s pitch count even further, while the Raccoons kept leaving runners on base rather indifferently, stranding two men on four different occasions through seven. The bottom 7th saw Brownie retire the Aces in order and without drilling Warrain to hand a 3-1 lead to the pen. Ed Bryan managed to retire the 3-4-5 batters (including left-handers at either end) in the bottom 8th without overly loud sounds or crowd ecstasy, before the Aces’ Alfonso Munoz walked Castro, Quebell, and Pruitt in succession to start the top 9th. C’mon boys, get a hit here. Black struck out before Bowen drew the fourth walk of the inning. Sure enough, Sharp hit into a 4-6-3 inning-ender. Thankfully, Angel Casas was reliable. 4-1 Brownies! Castro 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Quebell 3-3, 2 BB; Pruitt 2-4, RBI; Nomura 1-2, BB, 2B; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, W (12-6);

Notes include Tomas Castro scoring all runs in this game, and the first career hit for Jose Gutierrez, who pinch-hit for Yoshi against a left-hander late. Also, we left on eleven as a team, and 30 individually, which are some nasty numbers.

Game 2
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Yates
LVA: SS F. Soto – CF Cameron – RF R. Garcia – LF L. Taylor – 3B Warrain – 1B McDermott – C C. Parker – 2B Dahlke – P Valdevez

Longing for that 9-0 season against the Aces, we sent our best guy out, and he got mauled. Yates allowed two singles in the second inning before Dahlke came up with two outs. Despite first base open, we had Yates pitch to him, resulting in a crack and a 3-run homer. While the Furballs pulled back two on a 2-out single by Bowen in the top 3rd, Logan Taylor hit another 2-out homer, this time counting for two to give his team a 5-2 lead. Top 5th with Castro on, Pruitt hit a 3-0 pitch sharply to Dahlke at second, who mishandled it and threw it into Soto’s feet for an error, only for Luke Black to hit into the double play to end the inning, Sharp got doubled up in the next inning, and in the seventh Quebell and Pruitt left two men standing in a forever futile attempt to mount a comeback. Ryan Miller managed a 2-out, 2-run single through a diving Sean McDermott in the eighth inning to get back to 5-4 while Riddle and Bruno held the fort in relief of Yates, who had the worst game with no walks and ten strikeouts in human memory. The top 9th saw Castro leading off again facing Munoz, the same gut that had walked four batters the previous day. The count on Castro ran full, he struck out, and then Quebell came up and ripped the first pitch for a line drive home run to right center – tied game! Bruno managed a second shutout inning to send the game to extras, where Bowen drew a leadoff walk off Munoz. In a perfect world, Trevino would have run for him – but Sergio Esquivel had pinch-hit earlier and we had no catcher left. Instead, Sharp bunted him to second, and then Jose Gutierrez singled. Ryan Miller lined a pitch to shallow right, where Garcia just couldn’t get it, and Bowen scored on the single as the Raccoons took the lead! Manny Silva replaced the sparkless Munoz to retire Trevino and Castro, but with the impenetrable Angel Casas, one run was going to be enough. Everybody knew it, and once Barry Stafford struck out on three pitches to end the game, it was official. 6-5 Coons! Castro 3-6; Quebell 2-4, HR, RBI; Miller 3-5, 3 RBI; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, W (5-0);

Wow! This game was SO lost! And they pulled it out of the trash can and scavenged it for a half-eaten tuna sandwich and a few grapes! Amazing! Wow!

Adrian Quebell, who did not hit a home run clean through the All Star break, now has hit four, and three in his last five games, including a pinch-hit grand slam. Since the first homer, a PH job in the final game of the 4-game sweep over the Elks, he has slugged .742;

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – SS R. Miller – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Boda
LVA: SS F. Soto – CF Cameron – C Durango – RF R. Garcia – LF L. Taylor – 3B Warrain – 1B McDermott – 2B Dahlke – P Muniz

In a recurring theme, the Raccoons were unable to get to a pitcher with an ERA north of seven. The game was scoreless through two outs in the bottom 4th when Logan Taylor hit an innocent single off Cássio Boda with nobody on, yet that single opened the gates to hell. The Aces reeled off four more singles, including one by the pitcher Muniz to crumble Boda and put up a 3-spot. In Boda’s six innings, the Aces reached base only four more times, never threatening, while through six the Raccoons had four hits overall against the usually irrelevant Muniz, who had been charged with seven earned runs in each of his last three starts. Here, he was unscored upon through seven. Castro doubled in the eighth, and when the red-hot and unretired Quebell singled after that it brought the tying run to the plate with one out. Pruitt took the first pitch to the warning track for an RBI double, and the Aces, after not removing Muniz against any of the three left-handers that had just reached, didn’t remove him against the right-hander, either. Duke Smack unleashed a howling drive to right – and it was CAUGHT by Ricardo Garcia! Garcia especially (but all three outfielders) had so far sucked up almost everything even remotely in their zip code. That brought up Daniel Sharp, who sat in a rather deep hole at this junction, fell to 1-2, then poked and sent a hobbler up the middle, past the mound and over the second base bag between the launching Soto and lunging Dahlke and into centerfield to score the tying runs. Because baseball is weird that way. And after all that hard work, John Bennett was taken deep by Logan Taylor in the bottom 8th. Because baseball IS weird that way. 4-3 Aces. Quebell 3-3, BB;

Foiled again.

(sobs)

Raccoons (70-35) vs. Loggers (53-55) – August 2-5, 2007

Heads down, and only 2 1/2 up in the division, we trudged back home to face the Loggers who had won their last nine straight and were hungry for some raccoon between halves of bread. They were seventh in offense, eighth in pitching, and probably not worthy of last place (or a tie for fifth that they had forced as the series began), but that was baseball being weird again. We were 4-3 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (8-6, 4.35 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (6-9, 4.90 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (4-8, 4.86 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (7-5, 4.30 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-6, 2.54 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (10-8, 3.67 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (13-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (6-9, 4.80 ERA)

The two middle guys are southpaws, and we will miss their best guy, another southpaw. What’s his name? Oh, well, that Martin Garcia guy (13-4, 3.03 ERA). This is the first of back-to-back home 4-game series, with the Elks coming in next, all in the middle of originally a 20-game spell that had been changed to a 17-game spell with the rainout against Atlanta.

Game 1
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C J. Reyes – 1B T. Powell – LF C. Parker – SS M. Clark – P J. Diaz
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Fuentes

While the Raccoons couldn’t do anything with Diaz – Fuentes was the only guy to reach base the first time through – Fuentes had traffic early twice, but twice with two men on managed to get a strikeout to end the inning. Mark Clark reached in the fifth with a leadoff infield single, got bunted over, and then doubled in by Bartolo Hernandez to give the Loggers a 1-0 lead. Fuentes also had the second hit for the Raccoons (…), another single to start the bottom 6th, before Castro singled on a 3-1 pitch, just over the second baseman Hernandez. Quebell drew four straight to load them up with nobody out, and Matt Pruitt singled to right to tie the score. Castro was sent around third, but chopped down by Bakile Hiwalani at the plate. Hiwalani was batting .219, far and away from former glory, but the arm still worked. But we still had two on with one out for Duke Smack, and when the Duke made contact with a Diaz pitch, the poor ball was fired outta here like being shot from a howitzer. 3-run homer, and the Raccoons were up 4-1! By the bottom 7th we faced lefty Leonardo Gonzalez, who put Sato and Gutierrez on, walked Quebell, and then fell victim to the Duke, a liner into left center that plated two more. From there, Rockburn had a quick eighth, and Bennett a ninth that stretched like gum, but the Loggers did not get back onto the board. 6-1 Critters. Black 2-4, HR, 5 RBI; Sharp 2-4, 2B; Gutierrez (PH) 1-2; Fuentes 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (9-6) and 2-2;

We got a breather as the Crusaders lost to the Elks, 5-4, and our lead grew back to 3 1/2. If those two teams would split their 4-game set, I would not be upset.

The Duke continues to be right up there in the home run race, trailing Charlotte’s Jose Lopez by one bomb. In the FL, LAP Stanley Murphy also has 22, with CIN Will Bailey at 21.

In a long stretch, we want to give everybody among the regulars a day off somewhere. The three outfielders and the two corner infielders are more or less starting every day now while we’re cycling through our middle infielders anyway right now. There is not good backup to Sharp on the roster right now, with Ryan Miller the best of a number of bad solutions. For the next two games, we will rest the left-handers, Pruitt, Quebell, and Castro.

Game 2
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – LF C. Parker – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – 3B Tolwith – 1B T. Powell – C Baca – SS M. Clark – P F. Cruz
POR: 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Crespo – RF Black – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS R. Miller – CF Trevino – P Dominguez

After only a soft hit per side through two and a half innings, Miller and Trevino hit singles to start the bottom 3rd. Dominguez hit a ball sufficiently deep to center for Miller to tag and score as Tim Austin caught it for the first run of the game. One became three in a hurry when Daniel Sharp took Cruz deep, and poor Fernando Cruz was romped in the inning. Quebell and Black reached, and Bowen singled home the fourth run. Of course, a 4-run lead was nowhere near safe with Dominguez on the mound, and he IMMEDIATELY got shellacked in the fourth inning. Tolwith brought home a run, and then Tyrone Powell hit a 2-bomb that cut the lead to 4-3, and the inning still continued. With a pair on and two outs, he couldn’t retire Cruz, who singled, before Bartolo Hernandez grounded out to short. What a dork.

Dorkminguez was yanked in the fifth with two on and two outs. While the lead runner, Hiwalani, had reached on an error by Ryan Miller, he then walked Tolwith, which brought up Tyrone Powell again. Out with the chump, in with Marcos Bruno, who got a comfortable grounder from Powell to Sharp on the first pitch, ending the inning. A Bowen sac fly added an insurance run in the bottom 5th, and came up with another RBI chance in the bottom 7th, two on and two out. His soft line to center was snatched off the grass by Tim Austin to retire the Coons and keep the lead at 5-3. But we had used our best relievers already, Bruno and Rockburn carrying the game through seven. In the eighth, it was Kaz, who allowed a double to Powell with one out and was removed for Bryan to face Alonso Baca, the only left-hander in the lineup. Baca singled, scoring Powell, and after Clark popped up and out, Chris Delaney hit in the #9 hole, not much of a hitter at all, but enough to take Bryan deep and to give his team the lead.

In a game repeatedly botched by their hurlers, the Raccoons got another life in the bottom 8th. Leadoff single for Gutierrez, Trevino batted with one out and pressed a fly past Hiwalani for an RBI double, knotting the score at six. Pruitt hit for the chump Bryan, was walked intentionally, and that worked splendidly when Sharp hit into a two-for-one. Angel held the Loggers’ 2-3-4 down in the top 9th, giving the middle of the order a shot against righty Micah Steele. The blazing hot Quebell led off with a double to right that was just fair. Crespo grounded out to second, advancing the winning run to third base. The Duke with one out? What could go wrong! Perhaps an intentional walk. Bowen whiffed, and with the right-hander on the mound Nomura hit for Gutierrez. The Loggers didn’t twitch, had Steele pitch, and went into the ditch on a 1-1 pitch taken into left for a walkoff single. 7-6 Furballs!!! Sharp 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Quebell 3-3, 2 BB, 2B; Black 2-4, RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1, RBI; Trevino 2-4, 2B, RBI; Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

The Crusaders shot down Rod Taylor early this Friday, plating six in the first two innings and winning comfortably, 8-3. So, the Elks drop back to 6 1/2, while our actual lead remains 3 1/2.

For both Powell and Delaney these were their first career home runs...

Okay, change of plan. Quebell just won’t sit down right now! We need him in the game. Games are close right now. He can have a day off after an oh-fer. We broke up our usual 1-2-3 against right-handers though and dropped Matt Pruitt to #6.

Game 3
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – 3B Tolwith – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C J. Reyes – 1B T. Powell – LF J.R. Richardson – SS M. Clark – P Lloyd
POR: CF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – SS R. Miller – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Brown

Duke Smack was denied a slam in the first inning solely by Castro getting thrown out stealing, but still hit a 3-run homer, and Bowen made it back-to-back, 4-0. After Bartolo Hernandez had grounded out to short to start the game, Brownie whiffed half a dozen in a row before Mark Clark singled in the third, but didn’t score. In quite the start, Brown then got a string of easy grounders to the middle infielders before bringing out more heat. He didn’t pitch in a 3-ball count until facing Tolwith (with whom he had some bodychecking history) with two outs in the sixth, but struck him out anyway, his ninth on the day. The Coons led 6-0 then after Pruitt and Gutierrez had driven in runs in the fifth. Jesus Reyes and Tyrone Powell hit first-pitch singles off Brownie with two outs in the seventh. Brown bore down on J.R. Richardson and struck him out. In the eighth, Mark Clark grounded out to short, Delaney whiffed, and Bartolo Hernandez hit a bouncer to Sharp to end the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Brownie singled off Leonardo Gonzalez and scored on Castro’s homer, then came up to bat AGAIN after the team put up a 6-spot on a rapidly exploding Loggers bullpen, and made the final out to Hiwalani. Up by a dozen, and nowhere near 100 pitches, he was back out for the ninth. Tolwith led off the inning with a double, by far the hardest hit the Loggers had had in the game. Hiwalani’s shadow struck out to fill that dozen as well, Austin flew out to left, and Reyes –

SCREEEEECH!!!

Jesus Reyes homered on the first pitch to ruin the shutout, and got booed relentlessly by the home crowd. Tyrone Powell struck out, which was no consolation. 12-2 Brownies. Castro 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Sharp 2-5; Quebell 2-3, 2 BB; Bowen 4-4, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt 4-5, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 3-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Brown 9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 13 K, W (13-6) and 1-4;

This was NOT Nick Brown’s sixth career shutout, but his 11th complete game. For the fifth time in his career, he struck out 13 or more (that more being 14 once).

The Elks lost a lead late in New York and went down 6-5 to drop to 7 1/2 games out.

Game 4
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – LF C. Parker – RF Hiwalani – CF T. Austin – C J. Reyes – 3B Tolwith – 1B T. Powell – SS M. Clark – P Thomas
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – SS Sato – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – 3B R. Miller – P Yates

After Castro lined out, Quebell walked and the corner outfielders both singled to load the bases for Kuni Sato, who wasn’t much of a hitter, but chopped a single into shallow right for the first run of the game to score. Nomura stayed out of the double play, allowing Esquivel to plate two with a double that just beat Hiwalani’s shadow in right center, and the Coons were up 3-0 after the first again. The rout appeared to be on as early as the second inning. Yates and Castro hit grounders just past infielders for singles. Pruitt grounded hard to first, where Powell tried to turn two and threw to second before either Hernandez or Clark were in a position to field the ball, which went into left center and the bases were loaded. They were emptied soon enough when Duke Smack hit a liner into the gap in left center that scored all runners, 6-0, and the next time he came up he got goddamn all of Roy Thomas’ final pitch of the game, which sounded and sped like a stock car on the way outta here, casually completing the third leg of the cycle and pushing the score to 7-0 in the fourth!

Kel in general pitched very well and with very few results for the Loggers, but they got his pitch count up quickly with a number of full counts. While he only walked one (with two hits) through six innings, he needed 90 pitches to get there. After Tim Austin battled out a leadoff walk in the seventh, Kel angrily struck out the side, but that was the end of his game. Adam Riddle took over in the eighth and immediately the Loggers were on the upswing. Clark got on, Hernandez got on, but Riddle faced the toothless Hiwalani with two outs and undressed him with heaters inside that the old man tied himself into a knot on. Riddle finished the game, handing Tolwith a golden sombrero in the process. 7-0 Critters! Castro 2-5, 2B; Black 3-3, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Sato 2-4, RBI; Esquivel 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Yates 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 11 K, W (14-1) and 1-2; Riddle 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

11 runs scored in game 4 in New York – in the first inning! The Elks took a 6-5 lead, but lost 9-8 eventually, and thus dropped far behind. The Crusaders remain close however…

In other news

July 30 – The Bayhawks get shot down 9-0 by the Crusaders, managing only two hits against Angel Javier (15-3, 2.68 ERA).
July 31 – A first inning single in an eventual 6-3 loss to the Stars gives Pittsburgh’s Mohammed Blanc (.347, 5 HR, 56 RBI) a 20-game hitting streak.
August 4 – VAN SS/3B Gary Rice (.341, 10 HR, 47 RBI) will miss at least six weeks with a strained hamstring.
August 5 – A groin strain will cost CIN OF/1B Will Bailey (.362, 21 HR, 97 RBI) the rest of the month.
August 5 – The hitting streak of Mohammed Blanc (.348, 5 HR, 57 RBI) ends at 23 games with an 0-for-3 day against the Blue Sox.
August 5 – SAC 1B/2B/LF Dave McCormick (.285, 15 HR, 57 RBI) tore his meniscus in an on-base entanglement and might miss more than a month.

Complaints and stuff

Totally unsurprising, Adrian Quebell’s .619 (13-21), 1 HR, 1 RBI week netted him Player of the Week honors in the CL. That doesn’t even account for his 320 walks.

We could match last year’s win total next week by August 8.

The Pacifics offer Ken Potter in a waiver deal for Kuni Sato and pitching prospect Hector Santos. Now, Santos has a high upside, Potter, a rabid slugger, would knock Pruitt or Quebell out of the lineup, and he would never pass waivers, but this just reinforces my thoughts that we might have a gem in Santos, low stamina or not.

Hey, Christian Greenman’s on the waiver wire! Could I, should I …?

[Griever20]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Great, now all my sins from the last 30 years will be uncovered.

Don't worry, we will make a list and sent it to the Agitator

[Questdog]

I have a feeling that maybe they can go better than 7-46 the rest of the way.......

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I have a feeling that maybe they can go better than 7-46 the rest of the way.......

What is this childish need to jinx it at all cost?

[Questdog]

Originally Posted by Westheim

What is this childish need to jinx it at all cost?

If, in fact, they DO go 7-46 the rest of the way, I will believe in jinxes with all my heart...........though, I half-way do already, but I thought that one was pretty safe from any jinx.....

[Texasborn]

Awww I'll have to do more anti-jinx activities.... Back to dancing

[Westheim]

If we could take three of four from the smelling Elks in this series, that would knock them back to 10 1/2 games out and probably finish them off. Granted, they were 10+ out before already this season before slapping the Coons around in Vancouver and coming back close enough for the stench to become untenable and our whiskers almost to fall off, but … now is August. Now the good teams increase their leads.

Raccoons (74-35) vs. Canadiens (66-44) – August 6-9, 2007

Through 11 games in the series this year, the respective home game had claimed victory in all of them. Unfortunately seven of those eleven games had taken place in Vancouver. The Elks ranked fourth in both runs scored and runs allowed.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (5-1, 3.31 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (12-6, 2.84 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (9-6, 4.18 ERA) vs. Jose Marquez (8-8, 3.93 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (4-8, 4.90 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (13-5, 2.64 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-6, 2.51 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (4-4, 3.39 ERA)

We get a left-hander with Marquez on Tuesday, and the pitching matchup on Wednesday is certainly not in our favor, either. Could be a tough series.

Game 1
VAN: 2B Dobson – C G. Ortíz – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – CF Fletcher – RF D. Richardson – 3B M. Ramirez – SS Rodgers – P Fujita
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Boda

Yoshi Nomura’s first home run of the year counted for two in the bottom of the second inning, the first runs of the game on a hard shot to left. Unfortunately, Cássio Boda had some control issues, walked a batter in every inning, and a leadoff walk to Jerry Dobson in the third soon cost a run, and another run was cut down by Luke Black with a strong throw to third base. By the fifth inning bad control turned into fastballs right down the middle, which resulted in hard contact more than once, and the Canadiens tied the game at two in a hurry, and had two in scoring position with two outs when we bothered Law Rockburn to retire Daniel Richardson, who did something he never did as a Raccoon and came up with a clutch hit, a 3-run homer just inside the foul pole in right. That was not quite going according to plan. The Raccoons’ rally in the bottom 6th was limited to Duke Smack’s 25th home run, a solo job, before our bullpen bled profusely in the next few innings. Kaz Kichida walked the bases full without allowing a run in the seventh, before John Bennett got torn up for two runs in the eighth. But the Raccoons weren’t quite sniffed out yet, despite trailing 7-3 in the bottom 9th and facing Pedro Alvarado. Trevino and Esquivel came up with pinch-hit singles with one out, bringing up three left-handers against the righty Alvarado. Unfortunately, Castro struck out, and Quebell came up 0-for-4 and clearly had finished his hot run and flew out to center. 7-3 Canadiens. Castro 2-5; Nomura 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Trevino (PH) 1-1; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Esquivel (PH) 1-1;

Game 2
VAN: 2B Dobson – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – C G. Ortíz – RF Denunez – SS M. Ramirez – P J. Marquez
POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – CF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Fuentes

The first two times Matt Pruitt came up in this game he found Tomas Castro on base and in scoring position, slapped a pair of singles, and drove him in both times. The latter time, in the third inning, he was then doubled in by Bowen, who then left the game with a groin injury and Esquivel took over. That was three runs in three innings. Too bad that Fuentes picked up where the rest of the pitching staff had left off in Monday’s game. While he escaped countable damage in the first three innings, the 3-0 lead was almost blown up in the fourth inning. Always pitching behind in the count and walking a batter each inning, he allowed two hard hits in the inning as well, and the Elks scored a pair before Dobson somehow struck out to end the inning with the go-ahead runs in scoring position. It didn’t get any better in the fifth inning. Suzuki led off with a double, Fletcher singled through Sharp, and Fletcher grounded out to Gutierrez, who only got the out at first, and the game got tied. Esquivel’s RBI double scored Sharp in the bottom of the inning to get up 4-3, but that lead didn’t live long, either. Crespo dropped Ramirez’ pop to center to start the sixth inning, and Fuentes was simply getting pummeled on the mound. He left in a 4-4 tie with one out and two on. Marcos Bruno surrendered an RBI single to Fletcher on a 1-2 pitch, but Jerry Dobson was hurt sliding into and through Esquivel.

It didn’t get better with Bennett giving away another free run in the seventh inning, and Riddle was carved up for two in the ninth, singled in by Daniel Richardson. That left the Raccoons trailing again, by four runs in the ninth. With two out and nobody on, Quebell hit for Riddle and singled off Tommy Briggs. Castro added another single, bringing in Alvarado, who gave up a double to Sharp that just got away from Richardson and plated both runners, bringing up Matt Pruitt as the tying run, only for him to bounce out to the pitcher. 8-6 Canadiens. Castro 3-5, 2B; Sharp 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2 RBI; Bowen 1-1, 2B, RBI; Esquivel 1-2, 2B, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1;

**** the Canadiens. I hate the Canadiens! The Crusaders have crept to only 2 1/2 games back…

At least Bowen was not seriously injured and was only DTD and would not start Wednesday’s game as a precaution.

Game 3
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C G. Ortíz – SS Rodgers – P R. Taylor
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Dominguez

Bottom 1st, Castro on, Pruitt up, big thump, and an RBI double off the wall. However, there was a pattern in this series. The Raccoons struck first, and then the Elks just ran over their starter. Dominguez was **** from the second inning forward, allowed a huge homer to Jose Gonzalez in the third, and almost another one that Pruitt picked off the top of the fence. Tomas Castro put another Raccoons lead up, firing a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. That lead went bust on a 2-out RBI triple by Rod Taylor himself right in the next inning.

Dominguez did not retire anybody in the fifth inning, allowing a walk and three hard hits for three runs and Suzuki standing on first. Something was going violently wrong here… Riddle finished the fifth, but the Elks clobbered Kichida brutally for six hits and four runs in two innings, breaking out to a 9-3 lead. There was dead silence in the park. We even had to use Angel Casas to mop up after running out of pitchers. Taylor even hit Casas for a double, stole third base, his fifth of the year, and Casas loaded the bases before conceding a run on a Jose Gonzalez sacrifice fly. 10-3 Canadiens. Castro 2-3, HR, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI;

Ehm. Guys? What’s …?

Ryan Miller had dropped his average to .228 by now and was sent to St. Petersburg. We called up Cody Bryant to bolster a ravaged bullpen that had pitched 15 innings in the last three games while not achieving anything.

Crusaders one and a half games back now. We kinda need a stopper game from Nick Brown right now. RIGHT. NOW.

Game 4
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – CF Fletcher – 1B T. Ramos – LF J. Gonzalez – 3B Suzuki – C F. Diéguez – SS Rodgers – P Spears
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Brown

We needed Brownie, badly, and he had nothing. While the Elks’ Spears faced the minimum through five innings, Brown issued walks and singles, and no strikeouts. He gave up two runs in the third inning, while Spears was tough as nails. There was no opening for the Raccoons until the sixth inning when Ken Rodgers threw away Kuni Sato’s grounder to put him on second base with one out. Brown then singled, putting the tying runs on the corners. Castro walked to load them up, and Quebell hit right into a double play. Brown had to scratch and claw to survive seven innings without any of his stuff readily available, but kept trailing 2-0. In the ninth, Cody Bryant was one strike away from getting out of the inning before he drilled Suzuki. Three straight singles later, the Elks had an insurance run they didn’t need, and Alvarado suffocated the top of the order to complete a 4-game sweep. 3-0 Canadiens. Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R 2, ER 2 BB, 4 K, L (13-7) and 1-2;

Raccoons (74-39) @ Gold Sox (65-48) – August 10-12, 2007

As we stood in flames, we had to go into the mountains to see the Gold Sox, who had a good run right now, and were scoring the second-most runs in their league. They surrendered the fifth-least runs in the Federal League despite a rotation with a few big holes in it, especially with two starters, Jerry Lane and Fabien Armand, on the DL. We will be reunited with Clyde Brady (.300, 10 HR, 53 RBI) in this series.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (14-1, 2.25 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Gomez (9-10, 5.19 ERA)
Cássio Boda (5-2, 3.66 ERA) vs. Mario Pagán (4-9, 6.60 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (9-7, 4.28 ERA) vs. Eric Misner (1-0, 6.35 ERA)

The latter two are left-handers. Misner could be skipped entirely, and then we’d get Antonio Donis (11-4, 2.56 ERA) which could never result in anything else but a no-hitter…

Things were jumbled further by the opener being postponed due to a mild rainstorm, with a double header scheduled for Saturday, which the Raccoons opened with only a half game lead over the Crusaders…

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Yates
DEN: CF Gentil – 1B Heffer – RF Pujols – 3B Hashimoto – 2B J. Correa – LF Brady – SS J. Amador – C Valadez – P R. Gomez

The Raccoons scratched out early runs on a Quebell homer in the first, and then Pruitt singling home Castro once more in the third, 2-0 for Kel. The fourth inning saw Sato reach with two outs, from where a most terrific rally battered Rodrigo Gomez, as Yates singled, Castro walked to load them up, and then Quebell and Pruitt both hit RBI singles, the latter plating two (and so Castro once more). Quebell was sent from second on the Duke’s hard grounder into center and evaded just barely the tag of Ricardo Valadez at home to run the score to 6-0. Yates didn’t have it sizzling, either on this Saturday, but managed to get through seven and two thirds (with only 5 K), allowing nothing outside a solo home run to Bryan Gentil. Dave Heffer doubled with two out in the eighth to get him out of the game. For once, Ed Bryan did not surrender a homer right away to Freddie Jones, injury replacement for Pedro Pujols, and got him to ground out, and then got three quick outs in the ninth inning for the Coons’ first win of the week. 6-1 Raccoons. Quebell 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-4, BB, 3 RBI; Black 2-5, RBI; Yates 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (15-1) and 1-4; Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The Crusaders lost their game in Sacramento, 4-2, which kept our grip on the division safe for another day, at least. We still had to play the second leg of the double header, though, but had seven relievers available to cover Boda.

Game 2
POR: LF Castro – 3B Sharp – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – CF Crespo – C Esquivel – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Sato – P Boda
DEN: CF Gentil – 1B Heffer – RF F. Jones – 3B Hashimoto – 2B J. Correa – LF Brady – SS J. Amador – C Porter – P Pagán

Pruitt scored Castro with a single for the fifth time this week in the first inning, and since Sharp had reached on an error and Black followed with another single, loading the bases with no outs and a 1-0 lead. Crespo whiffed, Esquivel popped out to second, and Gutierrez flew out to right. Still 1-0. Unfortunately (and that word came up a lot recently), Boda was not a bit sharper than in his last outing, and soon surrendered a ringing triple to Gentil, who was immediately singled home by Dave Heffer, tying the score in the bottom of the third inning. In the bottom 5th, Luke Black’s defense was tested by hard hit drives to deep right, first by Heffer, which Black missed for a double, then by Jones, which he caught on the track. Yuji Hashimoto grounded out to second to preserve a tie. In a rather rotten outing, Boda walked five and struck out one over six innings, but at least didn’t lose the game outright.

Meanwhile the Raccoons had been idle with the bats since the first inning ended rather breathlessly. Quebell hit for Boda to start the seventh and lobbed a single over Correa. Castro grounded to first, where Heffer mishandled the ball for an error, two on, no outs. However, the next two Critters made outs, Black walked, and Crespo struck out, stranding a full complement of runners. While he didn’t drive anybody in, Black at least preserved the tie on the other side as well, catching a nasty Hashimoto drive in the bottom 7th to keep Law Rockburn from falling behind.

The game went to extras with scoreless innings by Bennett and Riddle. Bruno struck out five in two scoreless innings in relief, and we also saw Ricardo Huerta, our old buddy, keep us nailed to the ground in the 11th, something that didn’t change with Ray Hoskins in the 12th, either. Cody Bryant was in for us in the bottom 12th, walked Gentil, who made it to third on two outs. Hashimoto had been walked intentionally before he stole second on the 2-2 pitch to Jose Correa, which was low. Correa got the fourth ball to bring up Hoskins, with the Denver bench depleted. At 1-2, Hoskins sent a howling liner to right, where Luke Black sold out to make a catch – successfully. The wholly inept Raccoons just couldn’t buy a hit. Sooner or later a reliever would cough it up, and it was Kaz Kichida, who allowed a leadoff double to Heffer in the bottom of the 14th inning, who was promptly singled home by Jones to walk off the Gold Sox. 2-1 Gold Sox. Esquivel 2-5; Nomura (PH) 1-1; Quebell (PH) 2-4, 2B; Bruno 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K;

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – LF Crespo – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Sato – CF Trevino – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Fuentes
DEN: 2B J. Correa – 1B Heffer – RF F. Jones – 3B Hashimoto – CF Gentil – LF Brady – SS J. Amador – C Valadez – P Donis

And here came Donis… While Fuentes was quickly picked apart with four straight singles to plate two runs in the bottom 3rd, the Raccoons had nothing against Donis, who had stunk up the joint as a young cub in the 90s, and now ran around with an 8 K/BB mark. Somehow the Critters loaded them up in the top 4th, but Trevino came to bat with two outs and there was no way he would ever be something other than victimized, looking at strike three in a full count. The Gold Sox moved to 3-0 against a completely hapless Fuentes in the bottom 4th, who didn’t get through the sixth and was charged a fourth run when the runner he willed to Riddle was tripled in by Zhen-Bang Le. There was a brief rain delay in the seventh that chased Donis from the contest, but Joaquin Rivera and Ray Hoskins did not show any mercy, either. 5-0 Gold Sox. Black 2-4; Esquivel (PH) 1-1; Pruitt (PH) 1-1;

That dropped us into a tie with the Crusaders.

And I dropped into a pile of empty chocolate boxes to cry bitter tears of frustration.

In other news

The Agitator resumed baseball coverage on the weekend. It was not pretty.

Complaints and stuff

Thanks for jinxing it…

(sobs)

[Orcin]

Forgive me if I have missed this, but where do we stand in terms of attendance? I hope that the fan interest is up, and increased revenues will lead to a bigger budget for next year.

[Westheim]

Average attendance is up 27% this year from around 14,500 to 18,400. However, the Mexican Prick wants (and has been wanting for years) average attendance to reach 21,000, and that can't be reached anymore, since we hardly ever outdraw 22,000 right now.

That attendance goal runs out this season, so presumably our budget will be cut in half next year.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Tight race!!!


Good luck

[Questdog]

Thanks for jinxing it…

Well, I am very sorry....won't happen again......

But look on the bright side: You are doing a great service for mankind and science by proving jinxes exist!

[Westheim]

Raccoons (75-41) vs. Blue Sox (66-52) – August 13-15, 2007

Trying to cling on to their little miracle that was getting cracks and of which a corner had been broken off recently, the Raccoons returned home to face the FL East-leading Blue Sox. Things were not going to get easier beyond that, with the first leg of a hideous travel nightmare and 14 games in 13 days due to begin in New York on the weekend.

But first the Blue Sox were on their platter, and they had had a rough time as well, losing seven straight in their division before sweeping the Falcons on the weekend. They were making the very most out of what they had, ranking only fourth in offense and sixth in defense while at the same time leading the division quite comfortably. The Raccoons had not won a series against them since 1998, and had since been swept three times.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (4-9, 5.13 ERA) vs. Varsik Deyrmenjian (10-7, 4.22 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-7, 2.52 ERA) vs. Javier Cruz (8-3, 3.38 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (15-1, 2.20 ERA) vs. Stanton Taylor (11-5, 3.66 ERA)

Three right-handers coming in, all of them more or less solid pitchers. Meanwhile Vic Flores was starting a rehab assignment in St. Pete and hopefully would meet the team in New York by Friday.

Game 1
NAS: LF C. Ramirez – 1B R. Vargas – 3B A. Esquivel – RF MacDonald – SS Townsley – C J. Esquivel – 2B G. Torres – CF A. Hernandez – P Deyrmenjian
POR: RF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – SS Sato – P Dominguez

The key at-bat to the game came early once more, in the third inning, and it involved Varsik Deyrmenjian – who was called VD by everybody involved with or interested in the Blue Sox franchise for convenience’s sake – wielding a stick. Anastasio Hernandez had already reached with a leadoff single, and the Blue Sox were confident enough to have VD bat against Dominguez. He lifted a soft single into center, and from there Dominguez bled more contact for two runs to score in the inning. Dominguez walked the bases full to start the fourth inning, conceding another run on a sac fly. The Coons pulled a run back on Sharp’s RBI double cashing in Pruitt, who had a flying start from first on the left center gapper, before they lost Trevino on a defensive play with back pains. Doubtlessly, Trevino had cranked his back twisting his head back and forth on the run after all the screaming fly balls that jumped off the Blue Sox’ bats. Dominguez would end an entirely underwhelming start in the seventh inning by drilling the leadoff man – none less than VD, who had the Raccoons in his pocket when not ducking under errant fastballs that tried to take his head off, and allowed only four hits through six innings.

Pockets are a funny thing however, and sometimes develop holes. Yoshi led off the bottom 7th with a single, bringing up injury replacement J.C. Crespo, who had scarcely had a hit in the last month, but jacked a game-tying homer off VD here. The Raccoons failed to tag on more runs however due to another player of theirs having been claimed on their field of bleached bones when Law Rockburn had left the top 7th with pain after striking out a pair. Kaz had been inserted to log as many outs as possible, as our manpower reserves dwindled, had to bat in the bottom 7th, grounded out, then conceded a run in the top 8th on a Bob Townsley single and Jose Esquivel double. When Yoshi hit another leadoff single off closer Robert Parsons in the ninth, Jose Gutierrez was tabbed to run for him. We called a hit-and-run with Crespo at the plate, resulting in a single to right and the winning run reaching base, with the tying run at third. Sato walked, and that got the fans to their feet, because Duke Smack’s off day ended with a PH appearance for Ed Bryan, in a perfect world the final at-bat of the day. The crowd was only slightly tampered in its enthusiasm when the Duke fell to two strikes. He put the ball in play eventually, a grounder over the mound that Parsons had no chance to play, to Townsley on the short side of second base, and Townsley twitched and had no play at all! The Duke’s infield single tied the game, before Parsons went to a full count on Castro, who struck out. Quebell saw a full count, too, grounded to first, and just BARELY stayed out of the double play, but Crespo was dead at home. Pruitt became the third batter in a row to see a full count, but other than Castro didn’t hack at the sixth pitch of the at-bat and accepted a low fastball for a walkoff walk. 5-4 Coons. Nomura 2-4; Crespo 2-2, HR, 2 RBI; Black (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Cheez, what a meat grinder game. The ninth inning was close to a disaster, but they managed to stay out of extra innings, thank heavens. But we lost Trevino and Rockburn to injuries. Trevino had tweaked his back and was in significant pain. He could probably play, but it was not a good idea. Since our bench was short already, we could not carry around his dead weight for a week before he could play efficiently again, so he had to hit the disabled list immediately. The chronically disappointing Bob Mays was called up from AAA.

No word on Rockburn yet. The Crusaders, by the way, were idle today and we regained a half game lead. Yay.

Game 2
NAS: 2B Higashi – 1B R. Vargas – 3B A. Esquivel – RF MacDonald – SS Townsley – C Hogarth – LF J. Cruz – CF A. Hernandez – P J. Cruz
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Brown

Vargas and Esquivel reached base with hits in the first inning. After Pat MacDonald’s out Brownie looked good to get out of the inning until Bob Townsley ripped a 3-2 pitch into left to plate both runners. Hence the Raccoons resumed trailing, something they had done an awful lot the last week plus. Their best chance to score early was ruined by “Double Play” Quebell in the third inning. Brownie did not allow anything else in seven innings, but continued to trail, without the offense putting up anything in his support until Craig Bowen’s leadoff home run in the seventh inning cut the score to 2-1. The Blue Sox almost broke through in the ninth inning against Bennett when Quebell dropped a throw from Sharp for an error that put runners on the corners for one out, but Bennett got a pop and a grounder to short to end the inning. Thus a rematch of Monday’s bottom 9th was arranged for with Parsons appearing in a 1-run game, and again faced the bottom of the order. Bowen worked a walk to get going and Gutierrez got himself some shoes again to run for him. He stopped at second on Yoshi’s single, and remained on third after Kuni Sato’s single, but the Raccoons AGAIN had the bases loaded with no outs against the opposing closer, but no Duke to hit this time. When Bennett’s spot came up, the best remaining option was Sergio Esquivel (J.C. Crespo was under .100 as a pinch-hitter!). Another long AB ensued in which Esquivel came out on top and worked a game-tying walk! After Castro failed to send the team off with the winning run at third base and no outs for the second consecutive day, the third base coach held up a sign with a bat, an arrow on either side of it, and a guillotine beneath for Quebell. The first-sacker got the clue, was patient, and for the second time in two days, the Raccoons walked off on a walk! 3-2 Critters. Nomura 2-3, BB; Esquivel (PH) 0-0, BB, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K;

Those are some scratchy wins!

Good news from the field hospital: Law Rockburn was diagnosed with a mild oblique strain and was day-to-day. It was probably not a great idea to use him the rest of the week, though. Rockburn was NOT put on the DL. We were still carrying an extra reliever, and maybe something would develop by Friday.

Game 3
NAS: LF C. Ramirez – 1B R. Vargas – 3B A. Esquivel – RF MacDonald – SS Townsley – 2B Higashi – C J. Esquivel – CF A. Hernandez – P S. Taylor
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – C S. Esquivel – SS Sato – P Yates

The field of bleached bones claimed another victim as Daniel Sharp left the contest early with a strained calf. Unfortunately that meant he came up lame halfway between third and home on what should have been a Sato sac fly to plate the first run of the game in the bottom 2nd, and instead was a rather embarrassing double play, also leading to some serious out-of-position play on our infield, with Yoshi shifting over to third base.

Kel ran up a high pitch count very quickly, as he was missing generously in this start. After Roberto Vargas hit a single first up in the fourth inning, the Blue Sox’ first hit of the day, Kel walked the bases full with two outs before erasing Jose Esquivel swinging to escape the jam. A new jam developed quickly with Hernandez striking a leadoff single to left in the fifth that ate up Matt Pruitt wholly and completely and gave Hernandez an extra base (and he could have been at third if he had hustled out of the box on Pruitt’s sloppy defense). After a bunt the veteran Cristo Ramirez (the ex-Logger that was merely leading all active players in hits) tried to have a productive at-bat, but his 37-year old hands just weren’t quick enough for some blazers inside and he struck out. Vargas lined out to short and there were still on runs in the game. The Blue Sox stranded two men in scoring position in the sixth, which was Kel’s last inning. Starting in short rest, he had never had it, and was relieved in line for his 16th win when Matt Pruitt hit a leadoff single, stole second, and scored on a Gutierrez single in the bottom 6th.

Riddle had a clean seventh before Crespo hit for him in the bottom 7th. A .094 pinch-hitter this year, J.C. crushed a Stanton Taylor pitch for a solo home run and a 2-0 lead for those Critters, with Bruno and Angel ready to have a go. Both had invisible ERA’s, Bruno had a lightning fast eighth inning, but Angel issued a 1-out walk to Jose Esquivel. Their catcher got erased on Hernandez’ grounder to Yoshi (the first ball hit to him at the hot corner), but Hernandez was safe at first, bringing up .206 switch-hitter Gabriel Torres to have an appearance in the #9 hole. No, there’s no use in building suspense. Torres was lucky enough to jab a pitch into play, but Gutierrez handled the hopper competently to get the last out. 2-0 Critters. Castro 2-4; Pruitt 2-3, BB; Gutierrez 2-3, RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Yates 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (16-1);

I’m hesitating to call this a sweep. “Sweep” expresses something that happens with energy and determination. I’d call it a steal. Because they totally stole the first two games and were able to choke the Blue Sox in the third.

In bad news, Daniel Sharp would be quite hobbled with a calf strain for at least the weekend. *Luckily*, three games by Vic Flores in AAA had shown that he was competently swinging the bat, and that we could add him to the roster again. He joined us at the expense of Cody Bryant.

Now we have 13 position players on the roster again, but have two DTD players in Sharp and Rockburn. We will use Sharp only as pinch-hitter, if possible, in the Crusaders series, with Flores playing third base. We will try to stay away from Law completely.

Raccoons (78-41) @ Crusaders (78-43) – August 17-19, 2007

As a team the Crusaders scored the most runs in the CL, and allowed the second-fewest. Their run differential was a gasping +198 (Coons: +111).

Calling this series crucial might be an understatement. The Raccoons were so far 8-3 against New York this season, but it was almost like everything before didn’t count and we were starting at square zero. With the Crusaders losing the final game of their set against the Rebels on Thursday, we were at least assured a virtual share of first place on Sunday night as long as we did not get swept, but we would show them the ability-starved part of our rotation for this weekend showdown.

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (5-2, 3.46 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (15-4, 2.90 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (9-8, 4.31 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (11-3, 2.93 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (4-9, 5.10 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (11-6, 3.38 ERA)

I don’t like those pitching matchups, and not just because we won’t see a left-hander this week…

Game 1
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 2B J. Gutierrez – SS Sato – P Boda
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P A. Javier

The Coons struck first, Vic Flores lining a single into center in his first AB off the DL, then scoring on Pruitt’s double that beat Stanton Martin in right. Martin, who already had 102 RBI on the season, was not drawn a nose that easily, though. Up first in the second inning, he absolutely smoked a thundering home run off Boda to tie the score at one.

Then came the bottom 3rd and a twist. Julio Hernandez had reached base on a 1-out single. Martin Ortíz hit a ball hard to right, but more or less right to Luke Black for the second out before Stanton Martin was up again. Boda tried to pitch him in tight to avoid another roundhouse swing, but instead got Martin’s fingers*. In quite the pain, the young slugger had to leave the game, while the home crowd was unappreciative of the pitch, to describe the situation in a gentle manner. Ape Britton replaced Martin in the game, and the inning ended on a soft pop by Francisco Caraballo. Bottom 5th, Roberto Pena singled to start the inning, then stole second. Julio Hernandez grounded out to short, preventing Pena from going to third, and when he tried to force his way there during Ortíz’ at-bat, Bowen threw him out, and the Crusaders didn’t score in the inning. The Coons scored on a Pruitt homer in the top 6th, took a 2-1 lead, and the crowd got even noisier. They wanted Boda on a stick, at the very least.

Their wish was granted in the bottom 6th. Mullins and Rios reached base and went to the corners. When Daryl Anderson grounded to third, Vic Flores’ throw to first was in the dirt and bounced off Quebell’s chest for the tying run to score. Boda did not finish the inning, leaving two men in scoring position for Ed Bryan to face Pena with two outs. Pena singled on the first pitch, both runners scored, and the Crusaders were up 4-2. Bryan faced Ortíz and Britton in the bottom 7th, both reached on a Quebell error and a single, respectively, and the Raccoons, who had exhausted their comeback allotment against Nashville, went down in flames in this one. 5-2 Crusaders. Pruitt 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Bowen 2-3;

The uselessness of Ed Bryan is staggering…

*Stanton Martin will be undiagnosed as of Monday. Trying to create a comprehensive picture of an injury scenario is sometimes made real hard by OOTP…

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – SS Sato – P Fuentes
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – RF Britton – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P Connor

The Coons went up in the first inning with the kind help of Roberto Pena and his throwing error on Castro’s single to center. Flores, who had also singled, was making for third, and when Pena’s throw was well up the leftfield line scampered home with the first run of the game. Castro reached second, moved along on Pruitt’s groundout, and scored on Black’s fly to center, 2-0. Longing for a quick comeback, Pena struck a double in the bottom 1st and after a wild pitch scored on a grounder to short to get the Crusaders right back within one.

Shoddy everything almost cost the Coons in the fifth inning. Orlando Rios reached on a single that went right through Sato at short, and after another wild pitch Rios was already at third base with one out, but Pena and Hernandez couldn’t get him in. The Raccoons stranded an (unearned) pair in scoring position in the sixth when Black popped out to Hernandez, and while the Crusaders had Britton walk and Ortíz single in the bottom of the inning, Caraballo hit one to Sato for two outs and Pruitt sold an arm and a leg to catch Mullins’ drive to deep left. Still 2-1. The seventh saw Quebell reach and get picked off first, while in the bottom of the inning Fuentes struck out Rios, got Anderson on a grounder, and then yielded a single to Connor. Ed Bryan appeared for Pena and for once didn’t brain fart his way into an opposing 4-spot, striking out the Crusaders’ leadoff batter. Bryan continued in the eighth until Ortíz singled with two outs. We went right to Angel, and the unthinkable happened, as Francisco Caraballo hit an RBI double on a 2-2 pitch that also brought the score to 2-2. While Mullins grounded out, that would be the only out Angel Casas logged in this game. In the ninth, Rios doubled, and then scruffy pinch-hitter Ming Kui blasted the Raccoons off the field. 4-2 Crusaders. Flores 2-4; Gutierrez 1-1, 2B; Fuentes 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K;

Angel’s second blown save on the year, both against the Crusaders.

Always when it really counts.

Baseball sucks.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 1B Pruitt – LF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – P Dominguez
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF Britton – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B Burns – C D. Anderson – P Baker

Daniel Sharp felt good enough to go in the Sunday game, had the Coons’ first hit, a 2-out single in the second, and scored on Bobo Mays’ double. That soft and tender 1-0 lead was butchered by the dumbass with the brown cap on the mound soon enough. Dominguez had only gotten out of the first inning when Martin Ortíz’ hard liner was snagged by Flores and turned into a double play, and the Crusaders had stranded two more in the second inning. In the third, they weren’t denied. Dorkminguez walked the first two batters, and then allowed enough hard contact for three runs to score on swings by Britton and Caraballo. Pruitt pulled a run back in the fourth inning with a rocket outta right, and Dominguez remained on the verge of imploding for another crooked number through five. The Crusaders stranded three more before Pruitt reached base again with a sixth inning single, almost got doubled off on an ill-fated hit-and-run in which Black lined softly to Caraballo, then scored on Craig Bowen’s moonshot to right center that gave the Raccoons a 4-3 lead. Dominguez wasn’t even able to do away with the 7-8-9 spots in the bottom of the inning, conceding a double to Anderson, which brought up the hot Pena with two outs. Bennett was tabbed in the pen, gave up a drive to center, but Castro threw himself into harm’s way to record the third out.

DESPERATE for an insurance run, the Raccoons had Mays and Flores on base in the seventh inning. With two out and 0-2 to Tomas Castro, the runners were set in motion. Castro hit a blooper that Britton couldn’t get to, and the early start allowed Mays to score, 5-3. Flores reached third. Pruitt was up, chopped another blooper to right that Britton sold out on, but still couldn’t get. It bounced from the grass to his chest, but he at least kept it in front of him for an RBI single. The Crusaders had seen enough of Jim Baker now (not of Britton, though), and replaced him with Bob Evans, who fell behind on Duke Smack and surrendered a 2-run double to the Duke that kinda broke the score open a bit at 8-3 – and that really was the decisive blow in the game. Bennett, Kichida, and Bruno each turned in three outs from here, all scoreless. The Raccoons added a run in the ninth when Flores scored on a Castro triple. With their worst starter on the mound, the Raccoons grinded out a big, BIG win on Sunday. 9-3 Furballs! Castro 2-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Mays 3-4, 2B, RBI; Bennett 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Fittingly, not only are we in a virtual tie after this series, we are also tied all time against the Crusaders now, 277-277.

In other news

August 13 – Season over for DEN RF/LF Pedro Pujols (.319, 6 HR, 47 RBI), who tore his labrum on a throw.
August 13 – A broken elbow sends TIJ 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.293, 12 HR, 59 RBI) into early holidays; he will not play again this year, either.
August 17 – The Stars lose CL Alfredo Becerra (1-4, 1.78 ERA, 27 SV) to a torn flexor tendon, which of course means that his campaign is over.
August 17 – 22-year old rookie SAL RF/LF Javier Gonzalez (.341, 2 HR, 9 RBI in 44 AB) goes 5-for-5 with a homer, two doubles, and 4 RBI in a 9-4 win over the Warriors.

Complaints and stuff

The weekend set in New York would have presented an opportunity to spare ourselves half a Dominguez start if we assigned him to the #3 spot, skipped that, and started with Boda in the series anyway, closing it with Fuentes and Brownie. I decided against that because of next week, where we will play a double-header against the Condors on Friday. If we make the flip, Dorkminguez starts the opener in Indy on Tuesday, which in itself would not be an issue, but then we start Brownie and Kel both in the double header. While Dominguez might well use up more bullpen ressources than those two combined, our co-aces are likely to require the use of Bruno and Casas. By *assuming* that Dominguez loses his starts anyway, and not juggling the rotation, we put Dominguez and Brownie (the latter on short rest!) into the double-header. Basically you assign Kaz Kichida and maybe another right-hander to Dominguez and a loss, and try to win Brownie’s game at all costs.

The double header will also be a split affair in that the Raccoons will assume the role of the home team in one of the games. I think that I will give Brownie the home game, because in the home game you can have potentially an extra inning from him pitching before a dire PH situation might arise.

So yeah, give Brownie all the good ends in the situation, because I trust him to do something with them even on short rest, while with Dominguez …….

Only downside (and it’s a big one) is that everybody will be on short rest for an entire parade through the rotation after that. And I don’t like that, either. We might do something different, demote Gutierrez after the double-header, and bring up somebody from AAA to start on Saturday. Or for the heck of it on Friday.

You see, I always have a very clear picture in my head of what would be the right move to make in a certain situation.

Maybe that’s why the Coons blew the 10 1/2 game lead they held on June 26.

Originally Posted by Questdog

Well, I am very sorry....won't happen again......

But look on the bright side: You are doing a great service for mankind and science by proving jinxes exist!

I draw infinte consolation from this.

[Questdog]

The Boston Braves in the late 40's had a rotation of Spahn and Sain and 2 days of rain.....in 2007, the Raccoons have a rotation of Brown and Yates and a few open dates......

[Westheim]

Raccoons (79-43) vs. Knights (47-75) – August 20, 2007

In this highly inconveniently scheduled makeup game, Brownie (13-7, 2.52 ERA) would face fellow southpaw Eric Stevens (4-10, 6.13 ERA). They had the third-most productive offense, but outright the worst pitching in the Continental League. This would be the only game the Raccoons would play at home before hustling out east again to play seven more road games this week.

ATL: SS Kester – 1B Younger – RF J. Garcia – LF G. Munoz – 3B C. Martinez – C De La Parra – 2B T. Pena – CF Keller – P E. Stevens
POR: CF Castro – SS Flores – 1B Quebell – RF Black – 3B Sharp – LF Crespo – C Esquivel – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Brown

We were looking forward to Brownie dealing with the Knights quickly so we could get back out to Indy. Unfortunately we started out behind when Jorge Garcia hit his 23rd home run off him to get the Knights 1-0 ahead in the first.

Now, this game had to get into the books somehow, and preferably quickly. The umpires knew that, too. Both pitchers ran up the strikeout tally pretty quickly, and hitting was at a premium. Too bad that the Knights had already done a good job in the first inning. Through eight innings, Brownie allowed only one more hit, an infield single, whiffed eleven, and still trailed 1-0. Quebell had the Coons’ only hit, a single, until Daniel Sharp hit a bloop double to start the bottom 8th. Crespo singled, Sharp had to hold, and Esquivel’s grounder didn’t help. Gutierrez flew out to right, Sharp tagged, was out by a mile by Garcia’s throw – except that the throw went over De La Parra’s head and Sharp was safe. Pruitt came out to bat for Brown with Crespo on third base, and hit a chopper that hopped twice before Kenneth Younger … bobbled it!! The ball bounced away, Pruitt was SAFE, and the Raccoons held the lead!! A visibly shaken Eric Stevens was completely off balance now, allowed singles to Castro and Flores, and the resulting 4-1 lead was tended to competently by Angel Casas. 4-1 Brownies! Quebell 2-4, RBI; Crespo 1-2, BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K, W (14-7);

Sometimes you’re good, sometimes you’re stupid lucky, and sometimes the opponents make two errors to gift you one. Overall, we have gone 8-1 against the Knights this season, and we’re one win away from burying the lingering pressure of a horrendous decade.

Raccoons (80-43) @ Indians (64-60) – August 21-23, 2007

The Indians were 7th in runs scored, 4th in runs allowed, with the second-best bullpen in the Continental League, and although their team was not quite a killer, they had strangled the Raccoons for eight out of a dozen games this season. The Raccoons had already dropped to 4-11 to an opponent this month …

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (16-1, 2.12 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (6-7, 4.75 ERA)
Cássio Boda (5-3, 3.44 ERA) vs. Ramiro Gonzalez (9-11, 3.64 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (9-8, 4.18 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (8-9, 4.58 ERA)

The Indians’ starters were named in a profusely confusing manner, but we’d take that over facing Curtis Tobitt (14-7, 2.64 ERA) every time we’d face them. This series could see us face Ron Alston for the first time this season. The outfielder is still on the DL, but might come off soon, although the Indians might still send him on a rehab assignment.

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – LF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Yates
IND: RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – CF Luxton – 3B Fugosi – LF A. Johnson – 2B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – P Escobedo

Kelvin Yates wasn’t walking many, but when he walked Bill Miller in the third inning, the Indians immediately broke through his defenses. Stevens singled, Paraz doubled with Crespo cutting down Stevens at home, but Robbie Luxton still hit a homer to get the Indians 3-0 ahead. Castro in center had looked very bad on Stevens’ single, and he looked even worse when Avery Johnson hit a bloop single to center in the fourth inning. Cesar Aguilar’s homer ran the lead to a commanding 5-0. No, this was not going to be Kel’s 17th win. He was yanked for good after Filippo Fugosi’s leadoff single in the bottom 6th, with the Raccoons only able to scratch out one run after a Crespo triple and an error in the fifth. John Bennett couldn’t keep the run on. In the bigger picture, it didn’t matter one bit. The Raccoons weren’t hitting Escobedo at all and amounted to only four hits over the entire game. 6-1 Indians. Castro 2-4;

Hmz.

In other news I have made up my mind for the double header. Rhett Carpenter will make the start. It will be a trash can game. It will most likely be a trash can double header. If we don’t lose the division lead (or our share of it) by then (and we’re tied right now), we will lose it on Friday. But it might be worse to have everybody on short rest for one run through the rotation. Kaz Kichida is struggling right now and will not get a spot start. We will have to expose Carpenter to waivers after that game, so maybe someone will claim the bum.

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – CF Crespo – 1B Pruitt – LF Black – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Boda
IND: RF B. Miller – 1B S. Stevens – C Paraz – CF Luxton – 3B Fugosi – 2B J. Miller – LF P. Javier – SS J. Lopez – P R. Gonzalez

In a scoreless game, Luke Black came to the plate with the bags full and one out made in the third inning. The Duke was 1-for-28, easily qualifying for a horrendous rut. Here, he worked a walk, but not until after Gonzalez had already balked a run home. Bowen popped out before Gonzalez threw a wild pitch, 2-0. Sharp singled to right to actually notch an RBI for the team that was now up 3-0 before Bobo Mays struck out. The Indians pulled a run right back when Stevens drew a walk and scored on Robbie Luxton’s double to right. The Raccoons added a run in the top 4th, but by the bottom 4th had the game about to break to pieces. A James Miller single, Javier walking, and a blooper by Lopez loaded the bases, with Jose Lugo hitting for Gonzalez in the 4-1 game and without anybody out. The Raccoons caught a wonderful break when Lugo lined out to Pruitt, who tagged a reversing Jose Lopez for a double play, and then Boda blew it up anyway. Bill Miller doubled and scored on Simon Stevens’ single, and the game was tied. Boda was yanked (and beaten with blocks of soap inside his own sweaty socks) after walking the first two batters in the fifth inning (giving him six free passes on the day). This time Bennett held the runners pinned, so Boda didn’t even get the loss he had worked so hard for.

Law Rockburn pitched two innings from there, issuing a leadoff walk to Luxton, who was a giant pike in the Coons’ side in this series, before a strike-em-out-throw-em-out on Fugosi cleared the air and the 4-4 tie was kept in place. The bottom 8th had Avery Johnson hit a leadoff double off Riddle. After Jose Lopez flew out, lefty Jim Stein hit for the pitcher and we called on Ed Bryan, who got a grounder from Stein before Bill Miller almost beat the Raccoons with a drive to right, but Mays had his glove in place. The Coons’ offense wasn’t doing anything while Marcos Bruno pitched a scoreless ninth to send the game to extras. By then, the Loggers behind Martin Garcia had beat the Crusaders, but the Raccoons had to pull their heads out beneath their tails and get some runs onto the board.

Carefully looking for a spot to use Tomas Castro off the bench, we were waiting for a RISP situation – and didn’t get one. He finally hit for Mays (0-4) in the 11th with one out and nobody on. Facing Tommy Wooldridge, Castro demonstrated that he didn’t need no runner in scoring position – he could slug one outta here! Nomura and Flores reached with two outs before Crespo grounded out to end the inning, getting us to Angel time. He walked Bill Miller with one out, but struck out Stevens and Jose Paraz finally grounded out to Pruitt at first. 5-4 Furballs. Flores 2-5, BB; Crespo 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; Sharp 2-5, RBI; Castro (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K; Bruno 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, W (6-0);

LOSING TEAM NO MORE! LOSING TEAM NO MORE! LOSING TEAM NO MORE!!!

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Crespo – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes
IND: RF B. Miller – SS J. Lopez – C Paraz – CF Luxton – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – LF A. Johnson – 2B J. Miller – P Jimenez

Both leadoff batters doubled in the first and were scored with singles (Pruitt and Lopez responsible) to make the whole exercise kinda moot early. The Raccoons certainly had a chance to liven up the day when Castro and Pruitt pulled off a double steal in the top 3rd to appear in scoring position with one out, but Bowen struck out and Quebell unleashed a ****ty grounder. By contrast, a pair of doubles easily plated the go-ahead run in the bottom 4th for the Indians. And what did the Raccoons do to respond? When finally one of the critters reached, Quebell hit into a double play to resolve that outrageous situation. The Indians broke up the score with a 2-run homer by Avery Johnson in the sixth, while the Raccoons were unable to score without somebody doing something stupid. Castro singled in the eighth, stole a base, and eventually scored on a wild pitch by Dane Sanders, but that was all. In fact, it was the Raccoons’ only hit past the third inning. 4-2 Indians. Castro 2-4; Kichida 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Tomas Castro stole three bases in the game, and it still was wildly not enough to beat the Indians. The Crusaders were idle, leaving us half a game ahead. We will make up the half game difference on Friday.

Bob Mays was demoted to get the extra starter, Rhett Carpenter, onto the roster. Felipe Garcia was waived and designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.

Raccoons (81-45) @ Condors (55-72) – August 24-26, 2007

The Condors were winless against the Raccoons this year, giving us an outside shot at a 9-0 run, but to be frank, the Raccoons had terrible issues in the middle of their order and in their rotation right now and just weren’t to be expected to sweep anybody. The Condors were 8th in offense and 10th in pitching, with a negative run differential almost in triple digits. The Raccoons will officially be the home team for the opener of the series, which is a makeup game.

Projected matchups:
Jose Dominguez (5-9, 5.08 ERA) vs. Jaylen Martin (3-5, 3.62 ERA)
Rhett Carpenter (0-0) vs. Art Cox (8-8, 5.16 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-7, 2.45 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (9-13, 4.71 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (16-2, 2.36 ERA) vs. Ron Cater (5-15, 5.74 ERA)

After getting three left-handers so far this week, this will be an all-right-handed array of opposing arms.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 2B Brantley – 3B B. Román – CF R. Perez – LF Crum – RF Barnes – 1B Ward – C A. Ramirez – P J. Martin
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – 2B Nomura – P Dominguez

The dork in brown came apart early. Jaylen Martin led off the third inning with a hard struck single to center. Ron Brantley would reach on an infield single before Dominguez wasn’t even close to not walking either Bartolo Román or Ramón Perez. Johnny Crum’s sac fly gave the Condors a 2-0 lead. Maybe the top of the order could offer a quick answer? Nomura scratched out a cheap single to start the Raccoons’ half of the third inning, Dominguez managed to bunt without getting anybody killed, and then Flores singled to get Nomura to third, from where he scored on a fielder’s choice hit into by Tomas Castro. Quebell walked, bringing up not the Duke, but his replacement in the cleanup spot, Matt Pruitt. The younger unloaded for a massive 3-run homer that flipped the score to 4-2 Coons.

That lead was in acute danger of getting blown as soon as the dork with the brown hat resumed pitching. The Condors hit him hard, and repeatedly so, scored a run and had two men on when Bartolo Román’s drive to deep center was barely intercepted by Castro to end the inning. Top 5th, Perez singled, stole second, Crum singled, tied game. Both singles were hard line drives. For Dominguez, that was more than enough. Double header or not, GET YOUR ****ING FACE OUTTA HERE!!

Kaz Kichida took over. With the pitcher’s spot up first in the Coons’ half of the fifth, he was supposed to somehow get us out of the inning, then yield for some other poor victim. Kichida faced four men, and didn’t retire any. Artie Barnes walked before Tommy Ward was safe on a drag bunt. Ramirez walked, and then Martin broke open the score with a double into right center. Law Rockburn was brought into the game knowing that he was not going to get out unless he was either bleeding or the mercy rule would be enforced. What better to do in a 9-4 game than ruining your third-best reliever for the rest of the weekend? Whatever the answer to that depressing question, Law Rockburn’s five scoreless innings were easily the best any of the trash can bandits did in this game. 9-4 Condors. Rockburn 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – RF Crespo – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Carpenter
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 2B Brantley – 3B B. Román – CF R. Perez – LF Crum – RF Barnes – 1B Tanner – C P. Estrada – P Cox

Carpenter poked with the stick before he hurled, with Art Cox scuffling badly and issuing three walks, including one with the bases loaded to Bowen to force home the first run of the game, and allowed five runs total after big hits by Sharp and Crespo. But we knew that Carpenter was no Brown, and not even close to a Boda, and the Condors slapped him for two runs in the bottom 1st in a clear indication that this thing would not be over so soon. Bowen added a run with a single in the second, the Coons loaded them up, but Crespo was denied a breakthrough when Johnny Crum made an amazing catch right on top of the left field line to end the inning. Balls were jumping off the bat with Carpenter pitching, and six runs would probably not do…

Pruitt understood the gravity of the situation and after Quebell reached with a single to start the fourth, Pruitt rammed a liner into the gap in right center for an RBI triple. A Bowen sac fly made it an 8-2 game after the top 4th. And Carpenter didn’t make it out of the bottom 4th. The first four Condors all reached, and the score was 8-6 with the sacks full and two out when Ed Bryan was sent to get Johnny Crum, who flew out softly to Crespo on the first pitch. Bryan pitched a scoreless fifth, then was hit for in the top 6th. Crespo had just hit a 2-out, 2-run triple to run the score to 10-6, and it was 11-6 after Kuni Sato’s pinch-hit RBI double. We still had to get four innings somehow.

Bruno and Angel were available, but we’d see to get at least one inning from Bennett and Riddle, preferably one from both of them. Instantly, everything failed again. Bennett was brought out, got reliever Enrico Gonzalez, and then the gates came crashing down. Ybarra got on, Román singled him in, and then Perez walked in a full count. Crum up and the tying run in the on-deck circle, Marcos Bruno was called into the game, and not for just one batter… Crum was erased with terrible efficiency, and then came the seventh and another breakdown. Bruno walked Rowan Tanner and Paco Estrada, and then ex-Coon Edgardo Fernandez hit an RBI double into left, 11-8. Another run scored on a grounder, as Bruno’s ERA tripled to 0.74 with that outing. The Coons got spotted two walks by Kevin Jones in the eighth, didn’t score, and Angel Casas came out in the bottom of the inning. If you’re gonna blow up, blow up with your best guy, trying to log six outs before getting devoured, with A LOT of left-handed batters in the way. He whiffed Román and got grounders from Perez and Crum to pitch a scoreless eighth. The Raccoons, out of breath, didn’t score in the ninth, either. Bottom 9th, Artie Barnes struck out. The unretired Rowan Tanner was retired to Castro in center, leaving .176 batting catcher Paco Estrada. And HE lined a single to left, and that brought up the tying run, another left-hander in Tommy Ward, who was merely batting .371 over 140 AB. The count went to 2-2 before Ward chopped the ball in play, a high bouncer to Nomura, who had to hustle, to first, out, ballgame. 11-9 Raccoons. Flores 3-6, 2B; Quebell 2-4, 2 BB; Pruitt 2-5, BB, 3B, RBI; Bowen 1-2, 2 BB, 3 RBI; Sharp 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Sato (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Bryan 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (6-1); Casas 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (38);

Next time, we will give the ball to the ace on short rest. Can’t get any more ****ed up than this. For ****’s sake, we might give the ball to Slappy, and he wouldn’t - … HE HAD A SIX-RUN LEAD, GODDAMNIT!!!

And we had enough. While Rhett Carpenter was waived and DFA’ed as we had planned anyway, Jose Dominguez was not admitted back onto the team bus after this game. He got twenty bucks for a taxi and was told to **** the heck off. The Agitator was raving about the release in the Saturday morning issue.

We thankfully have an off day on Thursday, which would be the next time we’d need a living body in the #5 spot, and then it’s already time for roster expansion by the time the spot comes up again. Right now, we called up a reliever, Sergio Vega as a long man to help an abused pen, and a fifth outfielder in Jose Cruz, a 25-year old non-prospect. A right-handed batter with sub-par fielding abilities on the corners, and you wouldn’t try him in center, he was batting .300/.376/.398 with eight homers in AAA. He had been our sixth round pick in 2001 and had quickly vanished from any depth charts.

Meanwhile, the Crusaders had lost to the Falcons, 8-5, and we had a full game lead despite being raped for 18 runs. Elks leeching back in, too.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – RF Black – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – P Brown
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 2B Brantley – CF R. Perez – C A. Ramirez – RF Tanner – LF E. Fernandez – 1B R. Morris – 3B Quintero – P Carter

The Coons needed their co-ace number one to protect the bullpen and pitch well in this game, but unfortunately Brownie was excessively wild, and constantly missed away. He walked one in the first, the leadoff man in the second and third, but the Condors couldn’t get him early. They didn’t get a hit in the first three innings, then they got three straight singles to start the fourth inning from Ramirez, Tanner, and Fernandez (including two ex-Coons) to take a 1-0 lead. The Raccoons’ ledger so far: two hits, two double plays, Quebell involved. Black drawing a leadoff walk in the top of the next inning pulled that run right back once Nomura doubled to center and Black scored handily.

But Brownie sucked balls, threw balls, and fell back behind right away again. Full counts to three consecutive batters resulted in a Perez walk and a Ramirez single, and Tanner plated Perez with a single in the bottom 5th. Somehow he made it through the sixth (did the dorks yesterday even combine for six?), but he remained on the hook with the offense being frigidly cold.

After a scoreless inning by Riddle, Jose Gutierrez hit for him and ripped a leadoff double off Ron Carter to represent the tying run in scoring position. Flores squeezed a grounder past Roberto Quintero to advance Gutierrez to third, and although everybody knew that Quebell would hit into at least a double play, he was sent to bat. In a variation, he grounded out to the second baseman, but the only out was on himself, yet Gutierrez didn’t go either, but at least our two best batters were coming up and, oh, here comes Kevin Jones, a left-hander. Castro struck out, and Pruitt had two strikes on him in a hurry before lunging for a sinker low and chipping it over the mound and into center and both runs scored!! Now we had a lead, but our back end was unavailable, Rockburn, Bruno, Casas, all off limits. Ed Bryan came out for the eighth, and we might see Sergio Vega in the ninth. Bryan walked Eddie Fernandez but survived along with our 3-2 lead, Black got on in the top 9th, but Sharp hit into a double play, and blech … Bottom 9th, Sergio Vega vying for a save...! In his 54th appearance since 2001(!), no saves, oh wonder, Vega had the 8-9-1 batters to deal with. Quintero was 0-2 down before chipping a blooper into shallow center for a single. Tommy Ward grounded out, moving up Quintero, and then Vega walked Ybarra. And if I had any live arm left over, I’d send him, but there were none, and once Ron Brantley grounded out, moving up the runners, Ramón Perez was walked intentionally to bring up ex-Coon Ramirez, a right-hander, who on 2-2 grounded to short, Kunimatsu Sato had it get by him, and the Condors walked off. 4-3 Condors. Pruitt 2-4, 2 RBI; Black 2-3, BB; Cruz (PH) 1-1; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1;

… and thus the North was tied up again. Except in my pocket calendar, where I marked down 33 additional L’s all the way to closing day. Yeah, we finished 82-80. Let’s knock ourselves out.

Game 4
POR: SS Flores – 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – 2B Nomura – P Yates
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 1B Tanner – 3B B. Román – CF R. Perez – RF Barnes – 2B Quintero – LF Ward – C A. Ramirez – P J. Silva

Not quite as struggling, but still struggling was co-ace number two. He got to two strikes regularly, but lacked that little something that made him special and couldn’t whiff people for the second time this week. The Condors created constant traffic on the bases, but at least the Critters’ offense was productive early. Esquivel doubled home the first run of the game in the second, they added a run in the third, and then Kel helped himself greatly with a 2-out RBI single in the fourth. Right there, Jorge Silva faded into obscurity, allowing hits or walking the next four Coons to run the score to 5-0 before Quebell was thrown out at home on Pruitt’s single to right. A rapidly expanding pitch count meant that Yates would be held to six innings as well in this start. While he struck out Ramón Perez to notch his 200th slain batter on the year, the Condors got nine hits off him, but were held to one run despite Daniel Sharp’s critical error in the in the bottom 6th that put runners on the corners with one out. Brantley’s pop for the second out was followed by Kel channeling the last spark of energy to get Ybarra for #201, then retreated for the day.

Bryan was almost overwhelmed by left-handers (again) in the bottom 7th. Rowan Tanner’s single opened the inning, but Luke Black cut him down at the plate to end it eventually. Meanwhile the Condors assumed this game to be lost and put some rookie right-hander named Micah Kirchberg in charge of the final three innings. He was perfect for two, but not quite in the third. Flores singled, Castro doubled. Pruitt was walked intentionally to bring up Black – a better matchup in any case – with one out. We would appreciate at least a sac fly. He struck out. Sharp, however, singled to center to plate a pair, definitely putting the game away. Well, you can’t say something like that. Riddle allowed a leadoff single to Rob Morris in the bottom 9th, and then drew advantage of strong defensive plays by Nomura and Castro. The Coons came through, though. 7-1 Critters. Flores 3-5; Castro 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Esquivel 2-5, 2B, RBI; Yates 6.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (17-2) and 1-3, RBI;

In other news

August 20 – CHA SP Steve Rogers (13-3, 2.79 ERA) faces a month in rehab with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow.
August 20 – Even worse off might be TOP SP Roy Floyd (10-7, 4.13 ERA), who has damaged an elbow ligament and needs elbow reconstruction surgery, which should keep him out until 2009.
August 21 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.316, 24 HR, 103 RBI) could well miss all of the remaining regular season, having had his wrist broken by an errant pitch.
August 22 – CHA 3B Javier Rodriguez (.289, 6 HR, 49 RBI) is suffering from back spasms and will miss four weeks.

Complaints and stuff

How would I describe the job of general manager for an ABL team? Exhausting. We’re leading the power rankings after trailing the Stars and Crusaders for a few weeks, but it’s a soft lead. We’re also leading the division very softly indeed.

Right now we can very easily enter a fatal death spiral. We need to pluck a hole in the rotation (might be the return of Dumpster Boy unless I want to throw Brandon Teasdale into a pennant race after a not-so-stellar year in AAA (9-9, 5.00 ERA). He’s walking people left and right, basically. My hot enthusiasm for him from even last year is gone.

As we are on falling prospects… Jimmy Eichelkraut has been demoted from Ham Lake to Aumsville for the second time this year, batting (across 121 AB) .132/.192/.248 with 1 homer and 36 strikeouts.

Dominguez for the Raccoons: 9-15, 5.27 ERA; definitely not worth $1.68M a year. Hardly worth $168k.

And no, no team was even vaguely interested in a trade of Dominguez for a box of donuts. The Elks picked him up on a minor league deal and stuck him with the Nanaimo Aztecs in single A ball. Might be too high a mountain to climb for that suckerface.

The list of players to score three stolen bases in a single game for the Critters is mighty short. Daniel Hall did it once, early in his career. Matt Higgins did it once every year from 1989 through 1993, mostly in September. After that it was almost ten years again before Conceicao Guerin achieved the feat, once, then Yoshi Yamada, and now Tomas Castro.

[Trebro]

Congrats on getting win 82--if nothing else, that has to feel good.

[Lafayette53]

How much is a Tomas Castro jersey?