[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-37) vs. Loggers (37-30) – June 20-22, 1994

We would just drop by at home for this set of three games, then hit the road for warmer climates again with series in Las Vegas in Tijuana up next. The Loggers were stunningly in first place in JUNE. They had never been this strong this long ever. And you know what they say about a baseball season in June. Before you know it, it will turn third base and head for October!

Run avoidance was the key for these Loggers, since themselves they barely scored above league average – but that was more than the Raccoons could brag about.

“Pooky” Beato faced 5-3 Jorge Casas in the opener. Both had 3.30-ish ERA’s, although Beato had quite better WHIP and K/BB values. Three 2-out singles by Salazar, Hall, and Rodriguez led to a 1-0 Coons lead in the bottom 2nd, but it didn’t hold up long. CF Augusto Garza was batting merely .170, but that was enough to burn Beato with a 2-run homer in the fourth. Although the Coons tied that one again (merely scoring one run from bases loaded and one out in the fifth), Beato came up tails in the top 7th with a homer by 3B Jose Perez. It was not all lost yet, though. Royce Green would tie the score once more with a homer in the bottom 8th. A good team could still pull this one out! Let’s see. The Raccoons left two men in scoring position after grounding into their third double play of the night in the rest of the bottom 8th. Higgins carried the winning run in the bottom 9th and was caught stealing. Then that Green kiddo came up again to lead off the bottom 10th. He walked off the Coons with another homer. 5-4 Coons. Green 2-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Kinnear 2-3, BB; Hall 2-4, 2B; Rodriguez 3-4, RBI;

We’re not a good team, but we have the occasional oomph. Royce Green has now tied Vern Kinnear for the team lead in dingers with ten. I can’t dare to imagine how many Neil Reece would have now.

Scott Wade pitched a very fine game the next day, but got no support. In the top 6th of a scoreless game he was defeated with a bloop single, and then a clear grounder for a 2-out RBI single by Drake Evans, right in the middle between the converging Salazar and O-Mo, even after walking slugger Cristo Ramirez intentionally. That was the only blemish on Wade’s day, and he was lifted for Lopez to pinch-hit in the bottom 7th. Lopez left two on, and the Raccoons were 3-hit in another shocking display of ineptitude. 2-0 Loggers. Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, L (3-5);

Next day’s starter Gabriel De La Rosa gave us six strong innings of 2-hit ball, before being lifted with the lefty heart of the Loggers lineup up in the seventh. Did he get support? Stop making such sick jokes! West and Vela did not surrender another hit, while the Loggers survived the Coons loading the bags in the seventh, and starved another Furball in scoring position in the ninth. Lagarde came in for the tenth, but was jacked into submission by Ramirez. 2-0 Loggers. Higgins 2-5; De La Rosa 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K; Vela 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (34-39) @ Aces (34-37) - June 24-26, 1994

The Aces were posting numbers very similar to us. More 2-0 losses to come?

The Coons scored for the first time in 21 innings in the top 2nd of the opener when Mark Allen drove in a pair with a double into the gap in left center. Aces starter Rafael Espinoza came apart fast, as Kisho Saito drove in Allen with a single, and Salazar and Baldivía came up with RBI doubles to make it 5-0 very early. Alberto Durán hit a solo shot off Saito with two out in the bottom 3rd. It didn’t seem to significant with a 5-run lead, but Saito then showed more signs of collapse in the (scoreless) fourth, also plunking veteran Claudio Garcia, and it seemed like adding a run or two wouldn’t be so wrong. Saito ended a streak of three consecutive 8-inning, 1-run outings by failing in both categories, but after all, his seven innings and two runs weren’t really bad – he caught himself after the fifth. The bottom came out of the Aces pen in the ninth, as we added a few more runs. 9-2 Coons. Salazar 2-6, 2B, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-4, BB, RBI; A. Lopez 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Quinn 2-5, 2 2B; Allen 2-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (6-4) and 1-3, RBI;

In the middle game we faced rookie Ben Carlson (0-2, 2.77 ERA) in his third big league start. Against Jason Turner, Carlson had great chances to get that maiden win checked off. While the Raccoons scored two runs in the early innings, they also left a flock of runners on. Turner then came apart hard in the bottom 4th, where Carlson not only logged his first big league hit, but also saw his team score four runs to flip the score around. The Coons had the bags full with no outs, but out machine Allen coming up, who had stranded a bucket full already in the game. Allen couldn’t get it done again against reliever Luis Molina, flying out for Royce Green to tag and score, and that was the most they did in the inning. They never threatened again, while Matthews and West surrendered more runs. 6-3 Aces. Higgins 2-5; Vinson 2-2, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; A. Lopez 2-4, RBI;

Game 3 looked difficult from the onset with the Raccoons facing Carlos Guillén, who had no-hit the Coons (a totally different team, admittedly) just over nine years prior. He came in 7-2 with a 2.76 ERA, so trouble was to be expected. Because I had accepted my fate, I sat Kinnear for the game – he was playing wire to wire every day and he was one of the few warm bodies we had. He’d better stay warm.

When Matt Higgins was the first Coon on base with a leadoff double in the fourth, and scored only through an error by 3B Robinson Gutierrez, it was “Pooky”’s achievement that this was the go-ahead run. But he had pitched in bad counts from the first man on, and the Aces finally got to him in the bottom 4th with a bases-loading walk, after which, with one out, Salazar and Higgins couldn’t turn the double play that would have saved the 1-0 lead. The Aces tied the score, and a passed ball by Vinson got them ahead the next inning. Burnett failed to relieve Beato adequately in the seventh, where the Aces added two runs to lead 4-1. The Coons actually got the tying runs on base with one out in the eighth. O-Mo was up and hit an RBI single on Jose Sotelo’s first pitch. Sotelo then walked Salazar on four straight. One more run to tie it. The Coons barely got that run in with a Vinson sac fly. They didn’t score again here, didn’t threaten at all in the ninth, and then lost the game in a hurry. Vela walked the leadoff man in the bottom 9th, Vinson showed his inabilities again in a terrible attempt at preventing a steal, and Juan Zamora walked the Aces off with a double over Lopez in center. 5-4 Aces. Baldivìa 2-5; Quinn 2-4;


In other news

June 21 – SFB INF Roberto Rodriguez (.293, 1 HR, 25 RBI) has a big day in a 5-1 loss to the Falcons, going 2-3. Rodriguez notches his 2,000th career base hit, a first inning single off the Falcons’ Ernest Fleming.
June 25 – OCT RF/LF Vonne Calzado (.373, 3 HR, 40 RBI) has cobbled a 20-game hitting streak together with two hits contributed in the 12-5 thrashing the Thunder handed to the Titans.
June 26 – RIC SP Harry Griggs (12-4, 3.23 ERA) 1-hits the Pacifics in a 3-0 Rebels win. Douglas Donaldson breaks up the no-hitter with two out in the ninth inning!

Complaints and stuff

Jason Turner is getting so washed up … in a way he reminds me of Carlos Gonzalez from about five or six years ago. A flashy high-stuff pitcher losing it before even turning 30.

It is depressing.