[Westheim]

Zuniga had a groin injury and was out for the month, which made me work with either Dolder or Pickett in CF. That was a choice between weak offense or below average defense. Pickett was better on the sides of the outfield. Zuniga went to the DL and Robby Davis was recalled from AAA.

Jorge Romero and Miguel Sanchez engaged in a pitchers’ duel in the first game of the Indians series. Romero got a no decision, leaving after six after allowing only an unearned run. He is 0-1 now with a 0.90 ERA. Tells volumes about the Raccoons offense. Sullivan homered in the eighth for a 2-1 lead, but Gaston blew the lead, yet the Raccoons walked off against the Indians pen when four straight batters reached base in the bottom 9th. Hoyt Cook singled to score Ben Simon from third.

Berrios was slapped for six runs over 5.1 innings in game 2. The Raccoons lost 7-2, and never were even remotely close to a threat. The runs were solo shots by Sullivan and Simon, so at least the home run drought seemed to be over. This was proven again in game 3, where Simon grand slammed the Raccoons to a 5-1 win. Evans pitched eight plus frames and the Indians didn’t score until the ninth, when our young lefty ran out of steam. Brett Justice got the final outs. Game 4 was another beating, as Jerry Morris was thrown around by the Indians in a 6-2 defeat. Bill Baker was also uncharacteristically bad in his outing in game 4.

There were two issues with batting early on. One was Dolder at .167 – nothing I hadn’t seen coming. We’d try Pickett or Flores in CF in the next few games. The other was my only ray of hope from last season: Daniel Hall. He was batting a terrible .118! He had been slotted down to #6 in the batting order already. He was drawing a normal number of walks, but he couldn’t get a hit down. I would look at this for another week or so and if he couldn’t get around in the next two or three series, then I would have to send him down to AAA, with a seriously zig-zagged crack in my heart.

Against the Titans, Romero faced Bruce Wright, but rain chased them early and the duel never materialized. The Raccoons lost 5-2, failing to land hits against the troubled Boston pitching. But they had seen all they had needed to see and stomped over the Titans 11-2 the next day. Sánz was 4-5, Pickett 3-5, and Costa 3-6. Johnston plated four, and he, Sánz and Sullivan homered. Hall was only 1-5.

There was the rubber game left. Logan Evans pitched well and held a 1-0 lead in the fifth when he left with a not yet diagnosed injury. The pen bobbled the lead and the game went to extra innings at 2-2. There the Raccoons dropped several chances to walk off. The Titans scored a run off Powell in the top 14th. The Raccoons pen was emptied with Baker thrown in there, but he had to be removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the inning with runners on the corners and two down. Freddy Lopez squeezed a single to center that tied the game, but Johnston flew out and the martyr continued. The pen was empty now. Jenkins and Lopez were the only relievers left and they had already pitched in this series and weren’t rested. I turned to Lopez, who allowed a run across in the top 16th, but this was preceeded by a dropped ball from Flores in centerfield. In the bottom, Raccoons were again on the corners with two outs and the pitcher up. He was lifted for Darryl Maloney, who flew out to centerfield. I [garbled]ING HATE you guys …!!!

Off day. Mood low. Aggression high.

Next up were the Aces, who had pulled off a 4-11 start. They were batting .201 and scored a meager 47 runs. Jerry Morris was first tasked with getting through them, but he left 3-1 behind after six. Rain came in the seventh and in the eighth Daniel Hall hit a 2-run double to tie the game. The Raccoons scored the winning run in the same inning, as Bill Baker closed the game over two innings – Baker had been the pitcher used the least in the 16-inning loss to the Titans.

Bad news followed immediately. A back injury would sideline Logan Evans for four months. That was just about all of the season. That guy had opened the season with a 0.82 ERA! God, bloody hell, why can’t I get a break here??

Roman Ocasio was brought up from AAA to replace Evans, mainly because I was tired of Ned Ray. Ocasio was 24, Venezolan, and had command issues. We had to fear the worst here. Meanwhile the Raccoons lost 9-6 in game 2 and 11-3 in game 3. Pitching was unbelievably horrible, it was painful to watch. Baker, Romero, Berrios, Lopez, Justice were all awful, walking raw numbers of Aces.

We went against the Falcons and Roman Ocasio made his very first major league start. It was rather ugly as he allowed seven hits and walked six over six innings and allowed all runs in the 5-1 loss. The Falcons won 5-3 the next day against Morris, but mostly Baker, who was tasked with getting out two lefties in the bottom 8th and failed miserably. His ERA rocketed to 8.22 in this game with two runs in a third of an inning allowed. Another sad point was Daniel Hall. He walked three times in the game, but his average was mired at .121. With April almost over, decisions would soon be made on some guys.

Game 3 remained. More frustration, as Jorge Romero went up against Santiago Salazar in a pitchers duel, but got a no decision and was led off the field with an injury in the seventh. The Raccoons trailed 2-1 in the top 9th, but with the bases loaded and down to the last strike, Pedro Sánz was nicked by the pitch and the game continued. We lost Brett Justice to a stiff neck in the tenth after he had struck out the side in the bottom 9th. Powell lost it in the 12th as the Falcons completed the sweep with a 3-2 walkoff win.

Off day following, we were to face the easier part of our division at home the next week, the Loggers and Canadiens. Two starting pitchers were injured, and Romero was not yet diagnosed. Offense struggling as usual and if Romero’s injury was to be serious, we were toast.

In other news:
April 10 – The Indians’ Garry Evans goes 5-5 in a 9-3 win over the Aces, lacking only a home run for the cycle.
April 14 – Jeremiah Carrell of the Cyclones has a hit streak built to 20 games.
April 17 – Sergio Salazar shuts out the the Aces on three hits as the Falcons win 5-0.
April 17 – Carrell’s streak ends at 21 against the Capitals, and the Cyclones are shut out 3-0.
April 18 – The Warriors beat the Pacifics 4-3 in eleven frames and Chris Lynch goes 6-6 in the game.
April 19 – Dave Peterson copies Lynch’s feat in a 16-5 win of the Scorpions over the Stars, going 6-6, lacking a homer for a cycle.
April 20 – Former Raccoon Ben Green (now with the Pacifics) is out for the season with a torn rotator cuff.
April 22 – Blue Sox’ Guillermo Heredia is out for the season with a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Heredia, 37, was 25-18 for his career.

After the Loggers and Canadiens there will be interleague play at the Buffaloes and against the Warriors. If we were to lose Romero for long, Powell would be back in the rotation. That can only mean ugly things. He's got a 1.26 ERA now, but that came from pitching mopup or extra innings, and how well he was pitching the latter we had just seen.

Trouble ahead.