[Westheim]

We have a rather weak outfield at the moment. With the deadline encroaching on us fast, I was trying to get a trade done. The trading block held outfielder Raúl Castillo, 29, who was batting .341 in just 82 AB for the Blue Sox. Castillo had been a cornerstone of the Crusaders since 1985 – which in itself doesn’t say a lot, since the Crusaders have not been close to contention since even before that. He was a career .272 batter though, with considerable doubles among his 817 career hits.

Problem was, the Blue Sox knew that he *had* value, they just had much better outfielders readily available and didn’t play him.

Raccoons (67-35) vs. Thunder (54-46)

In game 1, both starters, Scott Wade and Bob MacGruder, where roughed up pretty good early on, with the game 4-4 after three innings. Wade struggled mightily with the six lefties thrown at him, but couldn’t control right-handed SS Jose Sanchez either in a bad outing. An RBI double by Osanai in the fourth got Wade a 5-4 lead and he managed to wobble through the fifth with two runners on to get in line for the W, and Reece improved his chances with a solo shot in the sixth. Burnett came in with plenty o’ lefties around in the top 7th. He faced two of them, resulting in one run in and the tying run to go to second base. Cordero and Lagarde struck out the side between them to escape the mess. These two, plus West, delivered an awesome bullpen showing, as they collected nine outs with seven strikeouts, and only Lagarde allowed a base runner in the eighth. That was good enough to hold on to the tight lead, and the Raccoons won, 6-5. Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Salazar 2-4, BB; Osanai 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Higgins 2-4, RBI; Johnston 2-4; Cordero 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Lagarde 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; West 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (34);

Neil Reece now, on July 26, leads the Raccoons in home runs with nine. Go figure a thing or two about our offense.

If Wade had had a not-so-good outing in the opener, Berry in game 2 was ready to be taken to the butcher, allowing three runs in the first and another in the second. Good defensive plays had him go four, but he was pinch hit for in the bottom 4th. Down 4-1, the Coons had two on and two out, but Alberto Reyes made the final out. The Thunder built their lead to 5-1 and the Raccoons looked more or less beaten in the bottom 8th, but O-Mo and Osanai led off with hits and were in scoring position. A wild pitch scored O-Mo, and Johnston reached on an infield single. Osanai held, but was driven in by Vinson with one out. The tying runs were on base now for Bob Arnold, who singled over Sanchez to load the bases. Martin came up in the #9 hole. He grounded to first base, but it got past a launching Pepe Padilla and rolled all the way to the wall – and slowly. Martin emptied the bags with a triple and the Coons were ahead! Salazar ended the 6-run rush with an RBI single, scoring Martin. Now we sent Grant West, who had been ridden hard the last few days. Pepe Padilla’s leadoff triple on the first pitch spelled trouble. Vonne Calzado got a single through on the right side and the tying run was on base with nobody out. West recollected and punched out slugger Will Jackson and Dave Browne, then got Hector Roman to ground out. 7-6 Coons! O’Morrissey 3-5, 3B; Osanai 2-3, BB, 2B; Arnold 3-4, RBI; Martin 1-2, 3B, 3 RBI;

Kisho Saito tried to nail down the sweep in game 3, but at times struggled with his control, especially in the third inning, where he even walked Kevin Williams, the opposing pitcher. Still, Saito was dominant over the Thunder, and lined up zeros. Unfortunately, Williams did just the same, as the Raccoons were unable to get to him. When they got the chance in the fifth with two men in scoring position and one out, both Reyes and O’Morrissey grounded out poorly. Saito’s control issues meant that although he was pitching a 2-hitter through seven innings, his pitch count was already at 107, and he was pinch hit for in the bottom 7th. Higgins grounded out for him, moving Sabre, who had walked, to second. Reece was the last chance for Saito to grab a W. He drilled the ball to left – and OUTTA HERE!! That 2-0 lead stood through eight, and now West was really unavailable after pitching four of the last five days. Lagarde had pitched the eighth, and at least two left-handers were up, and we turned to Cordero. Padilla led off with a bunt base hit, and Haruki Nakayama singled to left. Oh, yeah, things are rolling. Browne fouled out to Vinson, but now Will Jackson and his 18 dingers came up. Cordero removed him with a K – but didn’t. Vinson was ruled interfering with Jackson (which replay showed he in fact did) and the bases were loaded for Vonne Calzado. Cordero struck him out, bringing up right-hander Hector Roman. And we made a change, and went to Juan Martinez, who hadn’t pitched in the series so far. 0-2, Roman singled under O’Morrissey’s glove and one run scored. Milo Carpenter came up, a left-hander, but Burnett was not an option here. He had been awful recently. Martinez had to get him. Or could we use West? The pitching coach said no. So it was Martinez against Carpenter, and Martinez again got to two strikes, and then Carpenter made contact. High, higher, but behind the plate. Vinson caught it, game over. 2-1 Raccoons! Phew!! Reece 1-3, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-4, 2B; Saito 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, W (14-4);

That’s a whole series worth of 1-run wins. That’s not a streak that will hold forever.

Interlude: trade

The Raccoons and Blue Sox struck a trade late that Sunday night. Portland received OF Raúl Castillo, a 29-year old career .272 hitter, while Nashville got LF/RF Ennio Sabre and AAA SP Dennis Fried.

Sabre batted .169 for us and was a terrible disappointment. Hadn’t I been able to sneak him into a trade, he would have been designated for assignment in the very near future. Fried is 22, and had a promising 13-start stint with the Raccoons last year, but slumped badly this season, even being demoted to the AA level earlier in the season. He’s one of a small group of pitchers all scouted with 2/4 stars we have, all around his age. Shedding one of them may be necessary at times.

Castillo makes $420k both this and next year, so it may be necessary to get rid of him this winter with our payroll exploding due to arbitration eligibility reached by a number of our young hotshots.

Castillo flew straight to Tijuana from Dallas, where the Blue Sox had been playing, that night to be available for our opener against the Condors.

Raccoons (70-35) @ Condors (62-43)

This was a battle of division leaders, and maybe forecasting an eventual league championship series. The Condors had wiped the floor with the Raccoons so far this season, drumming us to a 5-1 record. The Condors were in fact the only CL team to have a winning record against the Raccoons this year, and only the Cyclones had beaten us (2-1) in interleague play.

Castillo started in the opener, batting sixth and playing in right, with Johnston over to left. Jason Turner dueled with Woody Roberts, and both were pitching most magnificiently, and the zeros lined up quickly on the scoreboard. Turner struck out starting the top 8th, but Reece reached on an error by SS Cipriano Ortega, and then Salazar doubled to right. Now we had two runners in scoring position and the two O’s coming up. O’Morrissey grounded to the mound, pinning down the runners, and Osanai flew out. Bruce Boyle then led off the bottom 8th with a double, and HE was brought in to score against Turner. Career saves leader Andres Ramirez began to warm up in the pen to enter in the ninth, and all hopes could be abandoned right there. 1-0 Condors. Salazar 2-4, 2B; Turner 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, L (11-6)

Jason Turner (1.98 ERA) and me (2.25 APG*) have a lot in common. We’ve been dealing with a bucket full of crap in RISP situations all year long.

*APG: aneurysms per game

Game 2, now 1-6 against the Condors. Those Condors continued to behave like vultures and picked the best pieces out of Robert Vázquez right in the first (3-run) inning. The Raccoons temporarily made it a close game in the top 4th, cutting a 4-0 deficit in half, but Vázquez gave a run right back. The Coons got the tying run to the plate in the seventh, down 5-2 with one out, after Vinson had drawn a leadoff walk and Johnston had delivered a pinch-hit double. Reece and Salazar made outs, and nobody scored. They got the tying run to the plate in the eighth with two outs and in the ninth with one out, but let’s not get lost in details. 6-4 Condors. Osanai 2-4; Castillo 2-4, RBI; Vinson 1-2, BB, 3 RBI; Johnston (PH) 1-2, 2B;

Bucket full of crap is too generous a description for their clutch hitting.

We made roster moves after the game: Daniel Miller and Jeff Martin were sent back to AAA, and we called up Matt Brown and Miguel Lopez.

Lopez, a starting pitcher, was 23, Cuban, and 11-6 with a 4.33 ERA. He had come over from the Warriors in 1988 along with David Vinson, when we sent over Manuel Paredes (now a strong starter in his own right) and catching bust Odwin Garza. Lopez was penciled in to make his debut in Berry’s place in the rotation, and Berry would be moved to the pen for long relief duties.

And now, game 3, and the attempt to march out of Tijuana with the head up high, having reached a respectable 2-7 record. Scott Wade was responsible for that, facing Carlos Lopez, who had just been acquired by the Condors from the Blue Sox. Bruce Boyle gifted the Coons an early 1-0 lead when he dropped Osanai’s pop-up following a 2-out triple by O’Morrissey in the first. Castillo made a great catch banging into the wall in right field to end the bottom 2nd, and the bang was too hard – he left the game injured. Preston O’Day hit his 26th dinger of the year off Wade to tie the game in the fourth, but the Coons got back to a 2-1 lead in the fifth, and Bob Arnold, entering as replacement for Castillo, hit a 2-run homer in the sixth. Wade settled in nicely and went eight with no further damage to him. Up by four, West was kept in the stables and Burnett sent out for the bottom 9th. He pitched around a Salazar error to bring the game home. 5-1 Raccoons. Reece 2-5, 2B, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-4, 3B, RBI; Wade 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (12-6);

Even with Castillo hurting himself in his third game with the team, we made no further moves on this July 31. If more things go wrong in the outfield, we’ll turn to prospect Vern Kinnear (.306, 18 HR, 64 RBI in AAA in just 92 games).

Raccoons (71-37) vs. Titans (55-54)

The Titans were scratching and biting (not yet stomping and crushing, but trying to get there) to post a winning record for the first time ever. Sorry, the Raccoons will try to spoil this. We’d play four to start a short 7-game home stand with the Loggers coming to town later.

Miguel Lopez made his major league debut facing average-y Doug Morrow. Before any excitement about the youngster could creep up, Raccoons fans had to see another cornerstone of the team hobbling off the field: Jorge Salazar twisted his ankle in the first inning and was out of business. Reece hit another leadoff jack in the bottom 1st, but an error by Brown (giving O-Mo a day off) and ill control by Lopez brought in the tying run in the third. But the Raccoons came back in the bottom 4th, with Osanai homering to start the frame, and the Coons loading them up with nobody out. Brown singled in two runs (with an added throwing error), and Lopez got his first RBI grounding out. Equipped with a 5-1 lead, he was in a good spot, but ill control was eating – more feasting – on him. The Titans actually did not get a HIT off him until the fifth, but by then he had walked a full handful. He ended up going 5.1 innings, walking seven. Cordero came in, and the next three Titans reached base, bringing in three runs. Great job of relief, really. Martinez got the pitching staff out there alive with a K to Gary Lang, then surrendered a game-tying home run to Salvador Vargas leading off the seventh. Carrillo fell to a Chad Fisher home run, and then an unearned run on the infield’s third error of the day. The Coons hit three straight 2-out singles in the bottom 9th, getting Osanai to the plate with the winning run on first base. He singled up the middle, but only one run scored, and they still trailed by one. Vinson came up and barely made contact with a 3-2 pitch from Jesus Cortez, and as barely the ball got over 2B Juan Valentin’s glove and dipped into shallow right. O’Morrissey scored, and Johnston dashed around third and got home – WALKOFF!! Five straight 2-out singles for the win! 8-7 Raccoons. Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; O’Morrissey (PH) 1-1; Johnston 2-5; Osanai 2-4, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Higgins 2-4, 2B; Brown 2-4, 2 RBI;

Salazar was diagnosed with a sprained ankle and will be on the shelf for two to three weeks. Running out of players here. So, while Salazar hit the DL, the roster became ever thinner. Castillo was out as well and not even diagnosed yet. Jeff Martin was summoned back to the majors.

Kisho Saito had another good 7-frame outing in game 2, scattering seven hits and one run. The Raccoons left a runner in scoring position in the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, but NOT in the sixth, because they double played themselves out of that inning before ever getting into scoring position. They remained shut out into the seventh, where Reyes and Arnold were on the corners with no outs. Saito was pinch hit for here, but Martin’s poor grounder kept Reyes at third, and the best Reece could manage was a sac fly getting Saito off the hook. Another good outing – WASTED. Cordero was saddled with the loss after a walk in the eighth that Lagarde could not contain. The offense continued to pick their noses. 3-1 Titans. Osanai 3-4, 2B; Arnold 2-4; Saito 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K and 1-1;

Berry pitched an awful ninth here, loading the bags and only escaping on a pop up. And if that inept hitting is not going to kill us through September, it will for sure in October.

Game 3. Could the offense give Jason Turner some love? Well, the Titans’ did, squeezing a run across against Turner in the second. The Raccoons got their first chance in the fourth, two men in scoring position with one out, and Reyes and Martin balked at the opportunity. Nobody scored. Bottom 5th, Turner tried to start the offense with a 1-out single. With two out, Turner was joined on the bags by Johnston and then O’Morrissey singled, but not deep enough for Turner to score. Bases loaded for Osanai, and he did the best he could do: wait until Cesar Sanchez throws it wide four times. The walk forced in Turner with the tying run. Vinson went to a full count – and walked as well. No clutch hits? Take clutch walks! Reyes walked next, before Martin grounded out to end the frame. Bottom 7th: bases loaded, nobody out, Vinson grounded to third, where a horrible misplay by Jack Burbidge scored two runs. What could have (and should have) been a double play, instead was the start signal for a 6-run inning getting Turner to the safe side, and our young star sped through the last innings for a complete game 4-hitter. 9-1 Furballs. Johnston 3-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-4, BB; Osanai 2-4, BB, RBI; Vinson 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 3 RBI; Reyes 2-4, BB, RBI; Higgins (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Turner 9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, W (12-6) and 1-4;

In time for the series finale, we got Bobby Quinn back from the DL, giving the middle of our lineup much more credibility. Jeff Martin was demoted to AAA, while we were still waiting on a diagnosis on Raúl Castillo.

We’d need another win to take the series from Boston, and that job would fall to Vázquez. We knew his opponent very well: ex-Coon Carlos Gonzalez, who was putting up a credible year: 10-8, 3.79 ERA, after all the injuries that had ravaged him in Portland. Both pitched quite well, with the Coons drawing a 3-0 lead over the course of six innings, including Osanai’s 10th homer of the year. Yes, it’s August. Vázquez was ultimately knocked out by none other than Gonzalez – with a solo home run in the eighth. It was Gonzalez’ fifth home run in the big leagues, more than some of the Raccoons’ infielders could muster. Lagarde and West held the game together for Vázquez. 3-1 Raccoons, as both teams were limited to five hits apiece. Osanai 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Vázquez 7.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (15-4);

In other news

July 28 – CIN 1B/3B Jesus Galindo (.237, 4 HR, 34 RBI) is out with a concussion. Recovery is expected to take at least nine months.
July 29 – The Wolves’ aspirations are dealt a terrible blow with the news that 2B/3B Mark “Icon” Allen (.288, 26 HR, 85 RBI) is out for the season with a broken elbow.
August 1 – SAL Terry Murphy (9-9, 4.24 ERA) 2-hits the Stars in a 2-0 win as both teams are battling over second place in the FL West.

Complaints and stuff

Raúl Castillo went 2-9 with an RBI for the Raccoons after the trade with the Blue Sox. We got news that he’s out for the season with – a concussion. Seems to be the newest fad. Well, we received lots of help here. Thank you. I hate this game.

Everybody please get their prayers for the Bayhawks aligned. If we make the playoffs, the Condors will sweep us outta the CLCS in zero time. Still, most of our starters are racing through the innings rapidly and both Saito and Turner may hit 200 in early September, which I don’t find too thrilling.

Who would have thought that Robert Vázquez would tie for the CL lead in wins in early August (with TIJ Woody Roberts)? I knew he was underscouted, but 15-4 is quite the revelation.

Here is to hoping that Tetsuuuuu will get his act together. This update, he was 18-39 with 2 HR and 7 RBI, also including five doubles. He has taken a harsh downgrade in his scouting report, though. He was rated 17/14/9 two years ago by Richard Steward. Anderson has him 14/10/9 now. OSA has him 14/12/7.

LF/RF Alfonso Rojas was named the A level batter of the month for July, going .333 with 8 HR and 28 RBI. So far, Rojas, 21, had not really lit up the prospect billboards, but the Blue Sox asked for him in the Castillo trade, so we may be on to something with him. We dug him out in Venezuela in 1989.

Daniel Hall’s ETA is three weeks. (blinks) Here’s to hoping.