[Westheim]

Raccoons (52-57) @ Titans (50-58) – August 4-7, 1994

The Raccoons came out swinging in the opener of the 4-game set. O’Morrissey homered to lead off the top 2nd, and Royce Green mashed yet another one, a 2-shot in the third for an early 3-0 lead for Gerardo Ramirez in his second start in the Bigs. Green then also was responsible for another run when he misplayed a flyer off RF Jose Martinez’ bat for a leadoff double in the fourth, and the Titans brought Martinez in. Martinez again doubled and scored in the sixth, bringing the score to 3-2. The Coons had stopped swinging, apparently. The Titans meanwhile left two in scoring position in the sixth, and again in the eighth, but they had already tied the game against Ken Burnett in that inning. The Raccoons didn’t do anything past the third inning and lost the game in overtime when Jack Burbidge walked off the Titans with a 2-out RBI double off Tony Vela in the bottom 10th. 4-3 Titans. Green 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, HR, RBI; Quinn 2-5;

This Jose Martinez basically killed the Coons single-handedly, being involved in three of their four runs. He has a 19-game hitting streak going now. Can Kisho Saito stop him?

Nope. Saito did well enough, punched out Martinez in their first encounter, but Martinez singled the second time up in the third inning, then was thrown out stealing by David Vinson (the humiliation!). Saito had before already bailed out of a runners-on-the-corners-no-outs situation in the second inning with a grounder to his feet and two K’s. The Coons led 1-0 in the fourth, when they put their 3-4-5 guys on with no outs. They scored three runs with an RBI single by Higgins, a bases-loaded walk by Quinn, and an RBI groundout by Saito. 4-0, looking good. As it turned out, that two on, no out situation in the second was the best chance the Titans would get for a long time in this game. They didn’t get to Saito at all in the middle innings, a shy single here or there set aside. Into the ninth, Saito was still up by four, then surrendered a leadoff double to Gary Lang. Uh-oh. Would we lose a shutout in the ninth again? Nope! Saito sat down the next three to seal the deal! 4-0 Coons! Reece 3-5, 3B, 2B; Higgins 2-3, RBI; Vinson 2-4, 2B; Saito 9.0 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K, W (9-5);

So, Martinez went to a 20-game hitting streak, but was probably still pissed that his team did nothing around him. Meanwhile, Kisho Saito pitched his 16th career shutout (17 including playoffs) here with this 8-hitter. It’s his first this year, and extends his streak of seasons with at least one shutout to seven.

After that masterful outing by Master Kisho came a pookiful start by Raimundo Beato in turn 3. He walked the first two men he faced and although the team turned a double play to bail out of that mess, Beato never found his mojo in the game. Salazar and Higgins executed a double steal in the top 3rd against an unsuspected Boston battery and where then singled in by Royce Green, and the Coons scored four runs in the inning, including Neil Reece doubling and eventually scoring on a wild pitch. So, we were up by four again. Beato wasn’t great, but the defense helped him, except for a dropped ball by Neil Reece, and he was able to go seven innings. The Coons added some more offense down the road for a convincing win. 7-2 Coons. Higgins 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Green 3-5, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4, 3B, 2 RBI; Beato 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (5-9);

Struggling veterans met in Jason Turner and 7-16 Francisco Vidrio in the final game of the set. Both pitchers would be pummeled with hits and gave up walks – but only Turner gave up runs, five of those in five innings. The Coons left four men in scoring position in the same five innings. Vidrio shut the Coons out over eight innings before running out of steam, and they didn’t score until their last out, when Higgins doubled down the line to score Ingall. 5-1 Titans. Rodriguez 2-4; De La Rosa 2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

That was a strange game. Every batter in the starting lineup got at least one hit, and we lost dismally. Huh. I will take a few 3-hit games by players again in Vancouver!

Raccoons (54-59) @ Canadiens (50-62) – August 8-10, 1994

Long a nail biter for the division title, these matchups against the Canadiens have become meaningless all of a sudden this year. The Raccoons aren’t very good, and the Canadiens are battling the Crusaders for last place. Go figure! They score a lot, and concede a lot of runs (3rd, 11th in CL respectively), but they have won four in a row, and their 2B David Brewer was the CL’s Player of the Week just the previous week.

The Canadiens lost their starter Kevin Williams to injury early in the opener after registering only four outs. The Raccoons put two runs on long man Holden Gorman in the fourth, but Scott Wade gave those runs right back with ex-Coon Alejandro Lopez getting a key hit in that inning. Starting to punish us already. In the top 5th, the bottom fell out of the Canadiens, though. They made two throwing errors in the inning, helping the Coons to score four runs. After his hiccups in the fourth, Scott Wade settled in again and turned in three more scoreless innings en route to a decent outing. He was in line for a nice W, but as soon as he left, the bottom began to fall out of the Coons! Martinez took over and put the first man on in the bottom 8th. A double play got him ahead, and then he put two more on. Lagarde, who had not appeared in the Titans series at all, took over, walked Salvador Mendez to load the bags, and then was lucky for a lineout right to Pat Parker at second. Lagarde went to full counts twice in the bottom 9th, but eventually struck out the last two batters in the game. 7-2 Coons. Baldivía 2-5; Reece 2-5, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B; Vinson 4-5, 2B, RBI; Quinn 3-5, 2 2B, 4 RBI; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (6-7); Lagarde 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, SV (18);

The last few days we had some decent wins and our run differential for the year is now down to -4 (480-484), the same as our record. Can we turn this around into the comfort zone?

Neil Reece got a day off in the middle game. Instantly, scoring turned into even more of a pain. The Raccoons left pairs of runners on every other inning, while the Canadiens were just as bad. Their first big chance didn’t come into the sixth, when they put them on the corners with no outs against Gerardo Ramirez, who went on to punch out the next two batters (left-handers David Brewer and Alejandro Lopez, no less!) and got out of the inning with a grounder to Salazar. In a game that was still scoreless in the eighth, the Coons had two on with one out, and Mark Allen up. Baldivía was sent to bat for him and singled to load the bags. Johnston was next, and had to bat unless we wanted to ruin Reece’s day off. At least he countered reliever Julian Gonzales. If Johnston made the second out, Reece could still bat for Ramirez. Johnston flew out, nobody was able to advance, Reece batted for Ramirez, struck out, West came out to pitch, put a man on, and put another man on, and another man, and another man. 1-0 Canadiens. Vinson 3-3, BB; O’Morrissey 2-4; Baldivía (PH) 1-1; Ramirez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K;

What a STINKER of a game! 12 men left on base! AAHH!!

‘nother game in Canada. Can’t wait to get outta here. Elks everywhere! Kisho better make it double digits for the year.

Fortunately, the Coons came out with their bats facing the right way. Had they been screamed at after the last game? I’m not tellin’. They singled Manny Ramos to death in the first inning with five hits and an error accounting for five runs (four unearned), and Saito batted (and fouled out) before he ever threw a ball. Saito was good on the mound, although not as good as five days earlier. The Canadiens got one run against him in the third, and were close to more in the fifth, but Higgins made a hero play at second base to end that inning in time. The Coons made up the lost run in the sixth – mainly because the Canadiens made two errors in the inning once again. Bottom 6th: Brewer led off with a double off the wall against Saito and advanced on Salvador Mendez’s groundout. With Ronald Moore at the plate, Brewer made for home on Saito’s 1-1 pitch. A perfect strike, Vinson hurled himself at Brewer and narrowly tagged him out. Moore grounded out on the next pitch. The roller to Higgins here would have scored Brewer if not for the failed bid at stealing home. Fast forward to the eighth, where Saito was pinch-hit for to lead off, with Johnston singling. Meanwhile, the Canadiens pen was pitching six innings or more for the second time in three days – and came apart again. Aided by another error by SS Michael McFarland, the Coons ballooned the score to 11-1 in the inning. The Canadiens got a run off Burnett and Vela in the ninth, but the game was in the bag. 11-2 Raccoons! Salazar 3-6; Green 2-5, RBI; Vinson 2-4, 2B; Higgins 2-5, 3 RBI; Johnston (PH) 1-2; Saito 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, W (10-5);

In other news

August 4 – TIJ INF Bruce Boyle (.304, 7 HR, 53 RBI) will miss six weeks with a fractured finger.
August 7 – SFB INF Roberto Rodriguez (.292, 1 HR, 38 RBI) hits the record books in a 9-7 win over the Thunder. With the game going into extra innings, Rodriguez came to the plate eight times, walked once, and clicked five singles and a double in addition to that. This is the 23rd 6-hit performance in ABL history, and the third time a Bayhawk has done it (Mike White, 1979; Hector Román, 1983). The last 6-hit guy was Sioux Falls’ Claude Martin in 1993.
August 7 – The Thunder lose their young closer Jimmy Morey, 25, for the season due to a partially torn labrum. Morey was 2-4 with 31 saves and a 1.93 ERA for the year.
August 10 – Three days later, Roberto Rodriguez is out of the game with a strained back muscle. You win some, you lose some.

Complaints and stuff

Kisho Saito pitched a shutout, but upon analyzing his profile, you see that at age 34 he is slowly entering a decline. It’s not necessarily the ratings. He’s been scouted 14/12/15 for a long time by about every scout we had during the last decade. He’s now 14/10/15. It’s not dramatic. But his WHIP was up last year (1.21) already, and is there again. Compare that to six straight seasons of 1.10 WHIP or less before that during his age 27-32 seasons. This is due to hits, not walks, but our defense can’t be worse minus Tetsu Osanai, so it may be him. Regardless, he’s still dealing. He’s at 183 career wins, so about a good season’s worth of wins away from two-oh-oh.

Vern Kinnear suffered a setback in his recovery from a concussion. This is NOT good and is scaring the HECK out of me! (blinks uncontrollably)

Gerardo Ramirez took 14.2 innings to walk a batter – despite a control rating of 5 (on a 20 scale)! We might want to check his scouting profile. Right, Vince? Vince? What’s this!? Another 17-year old run away from Santo Domingo?? Our A level team is full of those! Check out Ramirez! Quick!

Jose Martinez’ hitting streak was killed in the third game of the Titans – but how it ended, bugs me. The Titans didn’t start him, and when they were down 7-2 in the bottom 9th with two out and one on, THEN they sent Martinez to hit – and he popped out. I would NEVER manage a streaking player like that, and nobody EVER should!

Also service announcement: I have shelled out roughly $1,750 for a new gaming laptop and since I intend to abandon this old device here that I LITERALLY bought in the grocery store (you have a free laugh here), I will have to migrate OOTP12 and the Coons there. Problem is: I can’t locate my product key. :-( I guess that the game won’t run without one. -.-

Regardless, once I get into migrating all my stuff over to the new laptop, there will be no updates for a while until everything is humming nicely.