[Westheim]

I should know better…

Raccoons (56-54) @ Canadiens (76-35)

What on earth is gonna stop these Canadiens? Probably there could be something, but it won’t be these terrible Coons.

With a depleted pen, Christopher Powell had to start the series largely on his own. This was a scenario that would have worked wonders in 1982. But this was 1985, and Old Chris had become truly old. He was torn apart by the Canadiens with five runs in the second inning, and there was nobody to be able to relief him. He surrendered six in total, and the pen was battered for six more in the seventh. 12-3 Canadiens.

Home runs by Ricardo Gonzalez (solo) and Sam Dadswell (2-run) put the Coons up 3-0 in the second game, before Carlos Gonzalez ever touched a ball. By the fourth inning, the Raccoons led 4-0, but had lost Mark Dawson and Carlos Gonzalez to injuries. The Raccoons held on to a 4-1 win behind a long relief outing by Jason White (which may have been his first good outing of the year), but without their long balls didn’t even get close to scoring. R. Gonzalez 2-4, HR, RBI; Dadswell 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Green 2-4, HR, RBI; White 4.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (5-1);

Losing Dawson tore another hole that team could not fill, at least at the plate. While Ricardo Gonzalez and Rodrigo Lucero were more than capable to form a 4+ star defensive outfield with Daniel Hall, offensively we could bury all hope, should Dawson be out for the year. Then the team would lose 30+ of their last 50.

Talking about Hall. He was down to 6th/7th in the lineup, and in the lineup put up for the third game of the series, he ranked 9th in batting average. That’s right. Kisho Saito was batting for more than Hall this season (.265 to Hall’s .230).

Tetsu Osanai drilled #20 in the first inning to make it 2-0 early. Hall actually managed to drive in a run with a single in the fourth, 3-0. Meanwhile, Saito and his opponent Tia Fa engaged in a duel of who could throw the most fireballs. Both fanned five by the third inning, before batters at least managed to make occasional contact with the ball. Saito was then knocked for two in the seventh, but both runs were unearned after a Cam Green error (note a common theme that’s been running for years), but wasn’t removed until the top 9th with the Raccoons having two in scoring position. Lucero had already struck out and Sanchez pinch hit for Saito, grounding out to end the inning. West made short work of the Canadiens for the second day in a row, 3-2 Raccoons. Osanai 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Hall 2-4, RBI; Lucero 2-4; Saito 8.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, W (7-13);

Game 4 pitted Ruíz against a resurging Robbie Campbell, but the duel was abandoned early in a fifth inning rain delay in a 1-1 game. The Raccoons ended up striking out 12 times, had only five hits, and lost the game 2-1 in the ninth, when the Canadiens walked off against Cunningham. The blame rested more with Andy Reed, who botched a throw to third on a steal attempt by Vicente Ramirez. R. Gonzalez 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Osanai 2-4;

You win some, you lose some, then you win some again, but in turn you lose thrice that amount. Apparently. Maybe it’s just me. Carlos Gonzalez was out for the season with elbow tendinitis, finishing 6-7 with a 3.58 ERA. That was not the bad part, because he had been awful for the most part of the season. The bad part was being forced to replace a bad pitcher with a worse pitcher. For the moment, I didn’t even have a starter available to call up. Carlos Moran was scheduled to take over one or two starts for things to sort out, and meanwhile we called up Jason Bentley for the first time.

Bentley, 23, was our 1982 round 2 draft pick. He had been used as closer for a while on the AA and AAA teams, but this year had been more in a 7th/8th inning role. For the Raccoons, he would have to pick up slack for now. He was not the prototypical mop up guy due to insufficient stamina, but should be good to go three innings without falling over.

Raccoons (58-56) @ Scorpions (44-72)

A genuinely bad team, the 1985 Scorpions had been waiting for those Raccoons to come to town all season. Those Raccoons, as a genuinely bad team, liked to lose against genuinely bad teams. In Francisco Lopez, Larry Marshall, Hector Atilano and others they had a few prime sluggers on board in Sacramento. Why it didn’t work out at all this year was mysterious.

A solo home run by Dadswell in the fourth gave Logan Evans a lead he had to scratch and claw against the Scorpions to hold on. Top 6th, the Coons loaded the bags with nobody out and Hall up. He barely managed to make contact with the ball, which rolled to the pitcher. Ricardo Gonzalez was fast from third and Juan Torres had no chance for the out at home, so turned to go to first – where Hall was safe already! The Coons scored only one more in the inning, on a grounder by Sanchez. Evans was in danger in the bottom 7th with two leadoff hits by the Scorpions, but bowled through it. Evans then went for the big SHO on the horizon, and got through 8.2 innings, before Marshall took him deep. West finished the game for his 30th SV of the year, 3-1 Raccoons. Osanai 2-4; Dadswell 3-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Hall 2-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Evans 8.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (14-3);

News from the player heap: the Raccoons claimed catcher Gustavo Flores off waivers from the Cyclones. Flores, 26, was a 1977 round 2 pick by the Gold Sox and was twice traded by 1979. He spent five years in the Aces organization, appearing in the majors for considerable time before the Cyclones claimed him off waivers at the start of this season. His career batting average is .270 in 371 AB, and his defense is rated as excellent (which puts him far above Andy Reed, who was demoted to AAA). Flores was slotted in as backup for Dadswell.

Parker Montgomery dominated the Coons in the middle game, while Powell remained ineffective. The Raccoons shortly threatened in the fourth, but scored only one run, and trailed 4-1 in the eighth. Hall had a 2-out double, which was followed by walks by Jesus Cortez to Osanai and Dadswell, both on full counts. Walker replaced the 0-3 Sanchez and drew a 4-pitch walk to force in Hall. Castillo drew another 4-pitch walk, 4-3 down now. Cortez still remained in, but we brought up Lucero to pinch hit for Miranda. Lucero walked! Five walks in a row were some kind of magic. Next up was Powell, and he was pinch hit for with the new Coon on the block, Gustavo Flores, while the Scorpions finally chased Cortez. Carlos Reyna struck out Flores and the game remained tied. Now we gonna turn that around! No, we’re not. David Jones blew up the game right away in the eighth, and the Coons lost 7-4. Hall 2-5; Walker 0-0, BB, RBI; Lucero 0-0, BB, RBI;

Mark Dawson was not diagnosed until now, five days after being hurt in the game in Vancouver! His knee had gone bust in that game, but he was lucky, it was *only* a sprain. He would be back in a week or so. But the Coons were playing a man short and I hated it. We did some math. Dawson had been hurt on August 6, and was projected to return on August 18 or 19. If we moved him to the DL, he’d miss only two more days in the home series against Boston, and the Coons were unable to hurt those anyway. So, Dawson was transferred to the 15-day DL. Kelly Weber was called up.

Carlos Moran started the rubber game. In his only start this season, against Milwaukee, he had no-hit the Loggers through five innings and still had been charged with three runs. That no-hitter was gone after two outs this time, and Moran surrendered five runs in the second inning. He then went on to hit a 2-run home run in the top 3rd. He was yanked after an RBI double to pitcher Jeff Thompson. The game was blown out already, and it didn’t get better with Jones on the mound. A 2-run piece by Winston Thompson, his first long ball of the year, didn’t help anymore, either.

Or did it? The Raccoons scrambled for two more runs in the seventh, getting the gap to 8-7 down. Wally Gaston nailed down the Scorpions in relief, but they didn’t score in the eighth, missing a big chance after a leadoff hit by Hall. Sanchez led off the ninth with a single and advanced to third on Castillo’s third hit of the day. A long single by Carlos Miranda tied the game at eight, and still nobody out, but Wally Gaston up. Steve Walker pinch hit for him, but flew out, and Thompson and Gonzalez didn’t do any better. Cunningham pitched three scoreless, going through the 11th without support, but with two out in the 12th, Daniel Hall suddenly homered to right. Osanai singled and Dadswell had a walk, bringing up Sanchez, who doubled and advanced to third when the Scorpions tried to make the play at home. Castillo struck out. Bentley made his first career appearance in the bottom 12th. He converted masterfully. 11-8 Raccoons. Hall 2-6, BB, HR, RBI; Dadswell 2-6, BB, RBI; Sanchez 4-7, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Castillo 3-7, RBI; Miranda 4-6, 2B, RBI; Green (PH) 1-1, RBI; Cunningham 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (6-6); Bentley (first career app.) 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1);

This marked the first time the Raccoons had won a series against the Scorpions for an all-time record of 4-11.

Daniel Hall’s game winning home run was his first long one since July 2, six weeks ago.

The Condors claimed Yoelbi Maurinha, who had been placed on waivers by us to make some room on the 40-man roster. He had pitched in AA and AAA this season, racking up 6+ ERA’s in both levels.

Raccoons (60-57) vs. Capitals (48-69)

The Raccoons never figured out Washington’s Brady Boyd in the first game, while Saito was unsharp as all season and gave up doubles at a steady pace. The Raccoons lost, 4-0, and never even had a real chance to score. Osanai 2-4;

Vicente Ruíz pitched seven innings of 4-hit ball, but unfortunately half those hits were triples and the Raccoons were again more than harmless – their only hit through six had come from Ruíz! Flores tripled with two down in the seventh for the Coons and Lucero drove him in. That was it for offense. They lost 2-1 on four hits in total. Green (PH) 1-1, 2B;

Steve Walker was one of those struggling at the time, as were Osanai, Thompson and a few others. Once again we had zero production from center, too. For the moment, Castillo started short over Walker for a game or two.

Logan Evans gave away a run early in the last game, but the Raccoons FINALLY got their bats up and incinerated Jose Murillo for six runs in the second inning. Evans was far from the top of his game, which he had shown often this season, but managed to hold the damage to one more run through six. With two out in the bottom 7th, the Coons put up another rally to put the game away at 12-3, but wait, wasn’t this the team that had blown an 11-run lead not even two weeks ago? Nothing along those lines happened this time, with Bentley pitching two clean innings to hold the 12-3 lead. R. Gonzalez 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Osanai 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Dadswell 2-5; Castillo 2-4, 2B, 3 RBI; Weber (PH) 1-2, 2B, RBI; Bentley 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

In other news

July 29 – Young Titans outfielder-turned-third-baseman Bob Arnold (.333 in 114 AB) is out for a month with a broken finger.
July 30 – Raccoon-turned-Logger Davis Rigsby (.263, 3 HR, 15 RBI) has a 5-hit game, including a 3-run homer in a 9-4 win over the Knights. The string of ex-Furballs shining elsewhere continues unbroken.
August 1 – The Aces lose their closer Domingo Alonso for the rest of the season with ulnar nerve irritation. Despite 24 saves, Alonso had an off year with a 4.46 ERA.
August 1 – The Loggers are 1-hit by Vancouver’s Raimundo Beato (13-4, 2.91 ERA) in a 6-0 loss.
August 2 – The Canadiens lose star shortstop Eddy Bailey (.296, 8 HR, 41 RBI) for the season due to a ruptured achilles tendon. He could even miss the start of next season.
August 2 – Tijuana closer Scott Clements holds down the Thunder in an 8-6 win to notch his 300th career save.
August 12 – One for the record books: Juan “Mauler” Correa notches his 200th major league win in a complete game 9-hitter over the Gold Sox! Correa’s Falcons barely prevailed in the 5-4 win. Without a question, Correa is the most stud pitcher in the ABL, as proven by his 200-72 record, 2.25 career ERA, 1.00 career WHIP, and 1,811 K’s, all of which lead starting pitchers (there are a few qualifying closers with better ERA’s, but Ed King’s 2.10 mark isn’t that much better). The next-closest pitcher is Jack Pennington with 145 wins. To be fair, Correa has always been with contending teams, though.
August 12 – SAC 1B Alfonso Aranda will be out for a long time with a ruptured medial collateral ligament. The 32-year old hit .302 this season between Oklahoma and Sacramento, with 11 HR and 67 RBI.

Complaints and stuff

The second win in Oklahoma brought the Raccoons into second place in the division. But of course things deteriorated rapidly again from there. Although they are still second, they have not shown that they belong there, necessarily.

Tetsu Osanai rode the big ball en route to becoming Player of the Week in the CL of the week ending August 3, with .300, 5 HR, 9 RBI to his credit. In contrast to that, we have scheduled slow pitch stickball training for Daniel Hall.

One decision is already final: we will call up Scott Wade to take over the #5 spot in the rotation. He is the lone promising SP prospect we have. He’s 13-7 with a 3.55 ERA in AAA this year, striking out 4.5 for every walk he surrendered. He was a bit home run prone, though. Gilberto Soto will have to yield to make room on the roster. That’s an easy decision.

Dawson will come back in less than a week. We will play in Indy, then return home for the Titans and Knights. August will end on the road, in Charlotte and New York, the latter series ending on September 1.