[Westheim]

Next up, the final interdivision week of the season. We’ll start Guerrero in left for Hall.

Raccoons (69-77) @ Bayhawks (74-72)

Maurinha was socked for three in the first inning of game 1. From there, he almost cruised and completed eight innings, but took the loss. The Raccoons were almost completely silenced by Jose “Rock” Gonzalez and didn’t scramble back into the game until the ninth, where Steve Walker doubled in a runner and represented the tying run at second, but Seung-ook Yi struck out Mark Dawson to end the game, 3-2 Bayhawks. I don’t blame Dawson. He has 486 AB’s and 23 K’s this season. His HR/K ratio is 1.00 for god’s sake.

We needed to rest Borjón in game 2, as he was slightly tired and didn’t feel well that morning. Cox played center, severely limiting our possible production, while everybody was hoping for a pitcher’s duel. Claudio Sanchez (11-11, 2.74 ERA) against our Christopher Powell (16-5, 2.42 ERA). From early on, Powell was not really his best. The Bayhawks got two runners in scoring position with nobody out, before he got control of the situation in the second inning. Bottom 3rd, two down, runner on first: a roller on the infield was taken in by Workman and then zinged over Powell’s head at first for a two-base error. Powell K’ed Antonio Torres (his first K that day) to end that threat. Still a scoreless game, but the Bayhawks were already hacking at Powell. Sanchez then scored Dawson with an RBI triple in the top 4th to get the Raccoons ahead, but Powell was taken deep by Sergio Figueroa in the bottom 6th to tie the game again. Powell completed seven innings, then was pinch hit for to lead off the top 8th. Bowling batted for Powell and zipped one to short center. Cameron Green drilled a pitch from Sanchez into the stands, 3-1 Raccoons. The bottom 8th was intense in it’s own right, as Walker now committed a two-base throwing error that got Cunningham into a tight spot, but he ended the inning with a K, while the Bayhawks had runners on the corners. Tom Simmons homered off Grant West in the bottom 9th and Vincent Sauvage doubled. Two down, runner on second, Figueroa up again, a .320 righty. I talked to West, he wanted to take him on. He walked him. That brought up Chris Scott, a lefty. West went to a full count, before Scott dashed one to dead center, but short of the fence. Ben Cox, 0-4 at the plate, made a game-winning catch. 3-2 Raccoons. In one of the more intense games you can experience! Walker 2-4;

That win was #17 for Powell, further pushing the Raccoons record up. With only 14 games left, he normally won’t have a shot at 20, unless we skip two guys. It also was the 70th win for the team in 1982 – also a Raccoons record. That’s both great and sad.

We finally got the injury diagnosis for Daniel Hall: he had a strained hip flexor (whatever that was) and was day-to-day for another week or so. We left him out of the lineup for the moment.

Ignacio Cordova crushed a massive 450ft homer off Logan Evans in the bottom 2nd to get the Raccoons 3-0 behind, but the team chipped away and tied it in the seventh, 3-3, yet Evans gave a single to lead off the bottom 7th and was removed for Cunningham, and the run scored. The Bayhawks lost their closer Yi to injury in the top 9th, but there were already two down and Mike Hooper got Steve Walker to ground out. 4-3 Bayhawks. Workman 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Very tight series overall. Hall’s bat has been lacking, Guerrero is not producing anything but sliced air.

The last 20 games we went 10-10. We’re fifth in the CL North, 5.0 over New York, 0.5 behind Milwaukee, 1.5 behind Boston, 5.0 behind Indy. 13 games left.

Raccoons (70-79) @ Condors (75-74)

I moved Mark Dawson to left for this series to play Sánz in right. Guerrero was back to the bench.

Game 1. Jerry Ackerman 0.0 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 5 ER. The game was pretty much out of the window there. The Raccoons lost 7-3 after that early assault on Ackerman. Moran went into the fifth, Higuchi got a chance out of the pen, but was awful. Walker 2-4, RBI; Gonzalez 2-3, BB, 2 2B;

Jorge Romero (8-14, 3.24 ERA) was up against Pedro Romero (4-7, 4.66 ERA) in game 2, with our Romero not even having the possibility to make it any worse than Ackerman the day before. Well, one of them Romeros struck out eight in the game, the other walked four. The sour look on my face should give away which one did what. The Raccoons were 1-hit by the Condors in this game and shut out, 3-0.

The last game of the set was much the same. The Raccoons didn’t get a hit until Spencer Dicks’ leadoff double in the sixth, when they trailed 1-0. Dicks didn’t score there, either, and the pen took over for Portland, since I had lifted Maurinha for Hall to pinch hit, but he only got a hard lineout. That shot … ten feet further to the right, and the game would have been tied. Woulda, coulda, shoulda… Cunningham struck out the side in the sixth, but Gaston was taken deep for three in the seventh, while the Raccoons had absolutely *nothing* going and were well on track for a 70-92 finish. The Condors’ Carlos Castro finished a 2-hitter with 7 K’s. Raccoons lost 4-0.

Back to sucking mode, it seems.

LVA Chris Lynch had tied up the home run race with Mark Dawson, slapping two home runs in both of the first two games the Aces played against the Indians. Both had 24 homers now.

Raccoons (70-82) @ Titans (74-79)

These games mattered to decided third, fourth, fifth, and sixth in the division, although we clearly needed a sweep of the Titans to have our hand in the third place decision. The Indians were already too far ahead in second place, 6.0 games over the Raccoons with only ten to play.

We sent out Christopher Powell to get things moving. He faced Ruben Lopez (13-12, 3.09 ERA). The Raccoons loaded the bags with nobody out in the top 3rd, only for the heart of the lineup, Workman-Dawson-Borjón, to make pathetic outs. The Titans promptly took a 1-0 lead in the bottom 3rd. That was enough to saddle poor Powell with the loss. The Raccoons were yet again held to two hits. Daniel Hall pinch hit for Borjón in the top 9th and drew a 1-out walk. He was lifted for Guerrero to pinch-run. Then Sanchez lined into a double play and it was over. 1-0 Titans. Raccoons have logged five hits and no runs in the last three games combined.

The Raccoons drought lasted 35 innings and ended in the top 6th of game 2. Logan Evans had dug himself a hole with two walks and a run in the bottom 1st, and the Raccoons probably would have lost 1-0 yet again, hadn’t it been for a game-tying wild pitch in that sixth inning. Walker then brought in Sanchez for a 2-1 lead. They added one in the eighth, and Evans pitched with that 3-1 lead in the bottom 8th. Xavier Landry singled with two down, with brought up feared slugger Juan Valentin. Evans did not find the strike zone, and then Valentin jabbed at a 3-0 pitch and lined it right at Workman. Out, inning over. The Raccoons won 4-1 on ten hits (nine singles and a Walker double). It was their luck. I had brought my good rifle to the ballpark with me… Workman 2-4, BB, RBI; Sanchez 4-5; Evans 2-3 and 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K;

I skipped Jerry Ackerman and sent out Jorge Romero for game 3, which was easy to do due to an off day before this series. Ackerman’s no-out, 5-run performance against the Condors was still sharply remembered by me. Daniel Hall was back in the lineup, benching the embarrassing replacements Guerrero, Cox, and Sánz. We also benched a slumping Gonzalez for Jayson Bowling, while Walker played short.

All for crap. Romero pitched a great six innings and took the 1-0 loss. The lone run scored on a Cameron Green error. Just when you leave the rifle in the hotel room …

Now that they have intentionally forfeited any chance on finishing mid pack in the CL North, we’ll try to stay ahead of the Crusaders.

In other news

September 17 – Scott Spivey, starting shortstop for Oklahoma, is out for the season with a shoulder blade fracture. He went .272 with 1 HR and 51 RBI.
September 18 – The Canadiens win 5-0 in Las Vegas. Coupled with the Indians’ 2-1 loss to Charlotte, the Canadiens clinch the CL North. It’s their first post season appearance. With the Cyclones and Warriors already eliminated this also means that only the Scorpions could potentially become the first team to win a second World Series.
September 18 – Edgardo Garza’s bat is silenced by the Condors and his hitting streak ends at 22 games.
September 21 – CIN SP Stan Campbell (4-2, 2.05) tosses a 3-hitter in a 12-0 rout of the Scorpions.

Complaints and stuff

On September 18, we inked Wally Gaston to a 5-yr extension (1984 to 1988), the last year a vesting option, for a total of $965,000. I still consider this not too costly. He will still be only 32 once that contract is completed. I think he could have gotten much more money out of me with aggressive behavior during extension talks. But Wally’s not that guy. Wally’s nice. (Am I in love?)

For the second week in a row, a Raccoon was the CL’s Player of the Week (ending with the Bayhawks series). With Hall down, Cameron Green slugged his way into the spotlight. He went .435 (10-23) with 3 BB, 2 HR, and 3 RBI. The RBI’s don’t seem impressive, but remember he’s batting leadoff most of the time now due to his .370+ OBP and so he scored eight runs, which happens with Workman, Hall, and Dawson all contributing nicely behind him. Of course, this was before they came from 90% to a screeching zero.

The team page lists one player (Carlos Moran) as hot, eight as cold (including six hitters). Bright spots? Very few. Take Chris Powell for example. Since taking the 4-3 loss in Indy on August 22 he has made six starts. He’s allowed one run in every one of them for a 1.26 ERA. Yet he lost two games and went 4-2. Of course that is not his fault. There is hardly any pitcher out there that performs consistently like him, but the rest of the team is to blame here. A LOT!

After this awful three series (2-7 with 1.66 R/G and 2.89 R/A, shut out four times), the little hope I had for next year, adding one or two pieces here and there, is shattered. This team will never change. No matter which pieces you add, they always hit 25 to 50 points less and get hurt and if they are not hurt, they don’t score runners from third with one out. It hurts!

IT HURTS!

Last week of the season has four against Indianapolis and three against Milwaukee, then vacation for the fur balls, since September’s over.