[Westheim]

Raccoons (0-0) @ Indians (0-0)

Let’s get right back at those Indians, who came out of nowhere to take the division rightfully belonging to Coon City last season. Robert Vazquez was sent out against our Logan Evans. Daniel Hall had the first hit of the season for the Raccoons, and also logged their first home run and RBI with a solo shot in the top 4th in a tightly knotted pitchers’ duel between Evans and Vazquez. The Coons added another run, while Evans blasted through the Indians until the sixth, where a long, just fair double by Jorge Salazar put Indians in scoring position for the first time in the game, and they scored one run on a groundout. Top 7th, Sergio Martinez was hit by a pitch, and Hall walked. Osanai’s grounder created a force play at second, and ultimately a collision. Daniel Hall, 3 for 3 today, remained on the ground and was carried off with an ankle injury. And here the agony set in. The Coons added an unearned run to lead 3-1, then imploded in the bottom 8th. Error by Dawson, two walks by Tim Moss, bases loaded, nobody out. Cunningham in, he struck out R.J. Stinton, grounded Forest Hartley back to the mound for a force play of Horace Simpson at home, then struck out Raúl Vazquez, the left-handed cleanup man. Thank all the Gods that Cunningham is on our side!! We faced ex-Coon Justin Neubauer in the top 9th, who put Quintanilla and Osanai on, but Jim Durden hexed Mark Dawson to ground into an inning-ending double play. Grant West was taken deep by Gilberto Alaniz, but saved the game, 3-2 Raccoons. Hall 3-3, BB, HR, RBI; Osanai 2-5; Evans 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, W (1-0); Cunningham 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Daniel Hall will go to the DL with a bad case of ankle soreness, putting him away for one to two weeks. I could just cry. I could cry rivers of despair and frustration. 3-3, BB, HR, RBI. Bloked ankle.

GAAAAHH!!

Carlos Gonzalez against Terry Reynolds, the Indians’ key acquisition this winter, was the topic for game 2. Without Daniel Hall, with Kelly Weber, the Raccoons took a 2-0 lead in the top 3rd. Reynolds led off the bottom 3rd with a double and Gonzalez was shattered in the inning, as the Indians sent up ten men and put five runs on Gonzalez. Jorge Salazar homered Gonzalez out of the game in the fourth. And game – that was it. The Raccoons grounded into three double plays along the way to a numbing 6-2 defeat. S. Martinez 2-4, 3B, RBI; Osanai 2-4; Dawson 2-4, 2B; J. Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3. Kisho Saito against Jesse Carver. Tetsu Osanai’s first extra-base hit of the season, a 2-out double, drove in Sergio Martinez for an unearned (errant throw by C Horace Simpson when Martinez set out to steal second) run in the top 1st. After that both starters focused on annihilating batters and were pretty successful at it. The Indians had a runner in scoring position in the sixth, but Saito prevailed. A nobody-out double by Dale Hunter in the bottom 8th did nothing to scratch Saito, either. The Coons put runners on the corners with nobody out in the top 9th. Dawson up with the best chance since the first inning to maybe double production here. Nope, his grounder to third merely advanced Dadswell to second. Thompson and Quintanilla hobbled out similarly awful. Saito was still far from done and went back out, sitting down the 2-3-4 batters in order. 1-0 Raccoons. S. Martinez 2-4; Dadswell 3-4; Saito 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

This 3-hitter was Kisho’s sixth career shutout, the third with the Coons, and came on the heels of a 5-hitter against the Titans in August of ‘86.

How is Itchy doing in the brown shirt so far? An .077 OBP is not what we have traded for.

Raccoons (2-1) @ Bayhawks (2-1)

After being publicly humiliated, Itchy’s first two AB’s in the opener resulted in doubles – before he got injured and left the game, diagnosis pending. Sergio Martinez drove in the runner both times, but Scott Wade was impaled in the bottom 3rd for four runs and the Coons trailed 4-2. Dawson homered to half the gap in the fourth, but when Winston Thompson was nailed by Matt Rankin with a pitch, he stormed the mound and was barely held from ripping Rankin’s head right off. This was so un-Thompson like, who normally was a very mild-mannered man. Thompson was ejected along with Rankin, who tried to punch back. Wade was hit in the foot by a comebacker in the bottom 4th, but insisted he was fine and remained in the game. Top 5th: with two out and two in scoring position, Sam Dadswell hurled a pitch into short right between Jose Diaz and Antonio Torres, neither of which managed to field the ball and both runs scored, the Raccoons led again. Once Wade left, Juan Martinez and David Jones were blasted for five runs in the bottom 6th, the Raccoons didn’t lead anymore. Down 9-5, it was as good as over, right? Not quite. Quintanilla led off the top 7th with a double and scored on Martinez’ third RBI hit of the day. Sanchez made an out, but Osanai walked, Dadswell hit an RBI single and Dawson hit his annual triple a bit earlier than usual to tie up the game, and still only one out. Jose Sanchez grounded out unfavorably, but Costello singled up the middle to score Dawson. 10-9 in favor of the Brownshirts now. Once one of those Brownshirts took the mound, Bentley in this case, things started to implode in the other direction again. Dave Burton’s leadoff double put Bentley in danger, but he removed the next two batters. Tim Moss came in with lefties up. He walked Larry Marshall, then surrendered a 2-run double to Torres. And an RBI triple to Jack Jackson. It was the final boom in a major pitching explosion, as the Bayhawks slammed the Raccoons into the Starturf at the bay. 12-10 SF. Ishizaki 2-2, 2 2B; Quintanilla 3-3, 2B; S. Martinez 3-5, 3 RBI; A. Sanchez 2-4, 2B, RBI; Dadswell 2-5, 3 RBI; Dawson 2-5, HR, 3B, 3 RBI;

Winston Thompson was handed a 4-game suspension.

Game 2. The Furballs put three runs on Jorge Vasquez in the second inning. While Alejandro Venegas no-hit the Bayhawks into the fourth, he folded in the same inning, and two runs scored, with Dawson holding on to the lead with a bear of a catch on a line drive, but was helpless on a groundball right over the bag in the sixth, which turned into a 2-run double. Venegas shuffled the bags full and was removed with two down in the sixth. Of course the Coons hadn’t done anything since the second and trailed 4-3. Bentley flied Hector Martinez out to Quintanilla in right to end that mess. Dawson now tied this game as well with a big hit, a solo home run in the top 7th. Cunningham pitched two innings to send the game two extra innings, while the Coons left two on in the top 9th. Tomas Calderon walked both Kelly Weber and Dani Perez in the top 10th. Cunningham bunted them over for the bereft-of-bench-players Coons. Martinez struck out, oh no… Armando Sanchez grounded weakly to the right side – THROUGH Diaz and Alfonso Torres! Weber scored easily, but there was a play on Perez, but the throw went past catcher Didier Bourges and Perez scored! West sealed the deal. 6-4 Raccoons. A. Sanchez 2-4, 2 BB, 4 RBI; Osanai 2-4, 2B; Perez 2-3, 2 BB, 2B; Cunningham 2.0 IP 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-0);

Game 3. Glenn Johnston made his major league debut playing center, more on that below. Sergio Martinez’ triple to start the game was converted by Quintanilla, who batted second (so much for despair), but the run got away from Logan Evans in the bottom 1st again. Johnston’s first major league at-bat resulted in a run-scoring double play. Logan Evans was nowhere near his season opener constitution, the command was not there, the stuff was not there, the luck was not there, but that 2-1 lead held through six, through which the Coons were out-hit 8-3. Johnston tripled home Armando Sanchez in the seventh to add some cushion, which was a good thing, since Dirk Campbell gave back a run in the bottom of the inning. West put a runner on in the bottom 9th, and Quintanilla made a saving catch Alfonso Torres’ soaring flyer and potential bomb to deep right. The Coons crawled to the finish line, won 3-2, but were out-hit 11-4. S. Martinez 2-4, 3B; Johnston 1-3, 3B, RBI;

In other news

April 7 – IND MR Miguel Bojorquez, 32, who was hurt on his morning run on Opening Day, has been placed on the DL after he was diagnosed with a strained hamstring.
April 8 – Three days into the season, the Thunder acquire 33-yr old SP Billy Robinson (140-99, 3.11 ERA) from the Falcons for 35-yr old INF Alfonso Aranda (1,977 H).
April 9 – TIJ SS Cipriano Ortega (.238, 0 HR, 1 RBI) is out for the month with a sprained ankle.
April 10 – RIC LF Luis Ramos (.167, 0 HR, 1 RBI) will miss a few weeks with a hip injury. He’s usually batting more .300-ish.
April 10 – Tijuana’s John Douglas (2-0, 3.45 ERA) 2-hits the Indians as the Condors win 1-0.

Complaints and stuff

Oh, and you should always save the best for the end: we have an injury diagnosis on Itchy. Do you have something hold on to? Grab it tightly. His ankle has been shattered into finely grained bone dust, and he will be out for at least four months.

My Raccoons shirt has Daniel Hall’s name and number on the back, just in case you had forgotten. It WAS begging for trouble. I think I laughed madly for five minutes after that game and after we got the report on Ishizaki. I’m apparently past crying here. Now I know what my supervisor in the office where I spend my days means when he says “Insanity is a concerning topic in here”.

Next: homestand against Thunder, Crusaders, Loggers, Condors. But only if the Coons can muster enough survivors to face ‘em.