[Westheim]

With Mike Shaw going down to shoulder bursitis, we turned to AAA and called up left-hander Travis Brown. The 26-yr old was the third-to-last overall pick (#257) in the 1980 amateur draft, taken by Atlanta. After bouncing around without ever getting a shot at the majors for nine years, he signed a minor league contract with the Raccoons earlier this year. Now he will make his major league debut after pitching 4.2 scoreless innings in AAA.

Raccoons (71-75) vs. Knights (86-60)

The Raccoons now had a chance to mess with the CL South’s title race, but in the form they had presented themselves on the last part of that road trip, they could just as well end up being obliterated by the roaming Knights.

Game 1. Kisho Saito went out – and was obliterated. He walked in two runs with bases loaded and surrendered two more runs, including an RBI single to pitcher Bernard Lepore. Second inning. He nailed Eddy Bailey (the second hit batsmen on the day), then walked three straight, then walked himself, to the showers. It was the latest chapter in Raccoons abysmality. Bentley was in early for a long day, and in a lost cause, 6-0 down by the time the second inning was over. Bentley was even the first Coon to reach base with a 2-out walk in the bottom 3rd. In a catastrophic display of overall inabilities, the Raccoons were sunk 8-2, with some decent long relief the least sickening part of their game.

If not quite as useless as Saito the day before, Scott Wade was still awful in the middle game. All the time he was behind in the count, was behind 2-0 early, which Kelly Weber tied with his second homer of the season in the third, and unable to get runners out on his own. Surprisingly, Kiyohira Sasaki came unglued for good even earlier than Wade, getting slapped in a 4-run fourth inning, which ended his day. Wade wobbled on into the seventh, before Travis Brown was to make his big league debut with two out and one on, facing a monster right away, in RF Michael Root. Brown had him pop out to short. Starting with Brown, everything went to hell in the eighth, once again. A succession of relievers came in, all unable to get outs. With a 7-2 lead crushed to 7-6, two on and two outs, the Knights order circled back to Root and Grant West was broken out to try a 4-out save. West walked Root before fanning Sakutaro Ine. To start the ninth, two grounders sneaked through the infield and West ended up blowing the save. Another grounder hopped through Dawson to score the go-ahead run for the Knights, and the Raccoons lost ag- no, wait. Johnston led off hitting for West and singled to right. Thompson bunted him over, and Weber came up with an RBI single to tie the game. Osanai came up with two out and Weber on and zinged a sharp liner to deep left, where it bounced to the wall and gave Weber enough time to score from first. 9-8 Raccoons. Weber 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Osanai 2-5, HR, RBI; Sanchez 2-4, 2 RBI; Johnston (PH) 1-1;

Pitching has reached new depths. Hall is ice cold. Sanchez is ice cold. Dadswell and Vinson are ice cold. Half the infield is colder than ice cold. Two more weeks of pain comin’ our way.

Michael Root and Joreao Paulos tagged Jerry Ackerman with a pair of 2-run homers in the fourth to break up a scoreless rubber game. Juan Correa befuddled the Raccoons for the most part, except for a 2-run boom that Mark Dawson hit into the parking lot in the fifth. Correa had no more lapses in another victory of his over the Raccoons, 6-2 Knights. Dadswell 2-4; Vinson (PH) 1-1, 2B;

With our 1-2 starters obviously collapsing down the stretch and the 3-4-5 guys being awful anyway we will try and stretch for a 6-man rotation for the last two weeks of the season, giving Yasushi Suto at least one start, and we’ll see from there.

Also, the next week our St. Petersburg team will play the Toledo Discoverers (affiliate of the Titans) in the semi finals of the AAA championships. In case of an exit in this round, we will add a few more players for the final week of play for the Raccoons.

Raccoons (72-77) vs. Thunder (78-71)

There was a new team in town, but the abuse didn’t stop just because of that. With an 1-6 record in the last week, the Raccoons were in collapse again, deflating rapidly, and as much was true for Jerry Ackerman, who surrendered a steady stream of runs in the opener. Five frames, five runs against Ackerman, all the while Thunder starter Billy Robinson struggled with control, but the Coons couldn’t even draw enough walks to get things moving someplace other that Grindstone Dungeon. The Raccoons were down 5-2 in the bottom 7th, left the bags full while striking out thrice in the inning, upon which Emerson MacDonald entered the top 8th. Hit batter, 2-base throwing error by Dadswell, 2-run double, home run. Things were just going that way. Add to that Campbell surrendering two in the ninth, including one on a wild pitch. The Raccoons were sunk once more, 11-2. Dawson 2-5; Osanai 4-5, 2 2B;

At some point, heads gotta roll. The Raccoons fired their pitching coach, Andy Silver, who had been with the team for almost a decade. Bench coach Silas Barnett was made pitching coach for the last two weeks.

Carlos Gonzalez in game 2, first inning: walked in a run, balked in a run. Here we go again… Bottom 3rd, Daniel Hall managed his first productive at-bat in over a week, a 2-out bases-loaded RBI single. Kelly Weber hit a 2-run single behind him and the Coons were up 3-2. Winston Thompson drove in a run in the fourth, but then had to leave the game while obviously being in pain. Gonzalez got rid of the lead in the fifth, surrendering four more runs, including walking in the tying run and surrendering a 2-run single with two down to pitcher Ramon Vargas. Two left on by Gonzalez scored against Vazquez. The nightmare just was not ending. The Raccoons were so miserable, that when Daniel Hall hit a grand slam in the bottom 6th, they didn’t even tie the game (9-8 Thunder), neither did the park sound very ecstatic. Well, there wasn’t anybody there in the first place. The Raccoons left the tying runs a-base in the ninth and lost, 10-8. Dadswell 2-5, 2B; Dawson 2-5; Hall 3-5, HR, 5 RBI; Weber 3-4, 2 RBI; Ishizaki (PH) 1-1;

Winston Thompson is done for this year with an oblique strain.

Yasushi Suto was thrown out in game 3 to hold the (burning and partially collapsed) fort. Mark Dawson was scratched just before the game for being ol- sore. Suto got a 1-0 lead in the first, nothing more. A leadoff double to pitcher Kevin Williams in the top 6th sealed his fate rather quickly, since the Thunder brought Williams in to score and tie the game. But Williams was a bit shaky and continued so in the bottom 6th. After Hall doubled, Osanai was put on intentionally, but Weber singled to right to load the bases. Joe Jackson was next – he worked a walk to break the tie and force in Hall. That was it however, for Steve Walker hit into a double play. However, the Thunder tied the game again off Suto in the seventh. The young Japanese left with a no-decision, while Kelly Weber drove in the go-ahead run for the second time in the game in the bottom 8th. West was in to pitch the ninth and was already walking off the mound, when Juan Ramirez botched the would-be third-out grounder for an error. That put two Thunder on and righty slugger Joseph Day as a pinch hitter at the plate. He lined a full count pitch into right and the tying run scored. Armando Sanchez walked off the Coons with a solo home run in the bottom 9th, 4-3, but that’s not the point. Sanchez 2-5, HR, RBI; Hall 2-2, 2 BB, 2B; Osanai 1-2, 2 BB; Weber 2-3, 2 RBI; Suto 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

I’m really, REALLY ANGRY. This GOD DAMN AWFUL team full of SUCKERS!! GAHH!!!

Grant West has not gotten a save in 18 days, a) for this godforsaken dump of trash of a team not getting ANYTHING done in order, and because of such ****ING MISPLAYS!!

In other news

September 17 – Nashville’s Luis Guzman (17-6, 3.36 ERA) seems to be in shape for the playoffs, tossing a 3-hitter in a 5-0 win over the Warriors.
September 18 – The Scorpions fall to the Capitals, 5-3, giving them their 100th loss of the year. At 49-100 they have to win at least five of their last 13 to avoid tying or breaking the 1977 Loggers’ negative record of 109 losses in a season.

Complaints and stuff

Needless to say that extra whippings were scheduled for Juan Ramirez. And the rest of the team. In front of city hall. They make me cry, I make them cry.

St. Petersburg trails 2-1 in the Best of 5 series against Toledo.

One series in Milwaukee, then final home stand against New York and Indy. Then it will be finally over, until it will start all over again.