[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-9) @ Canadiens (8-16) – May 1-3, 1995

The Canadiens so far had come to enjoy(?) the worst pitching in the league, as their starters ranked 11th, and their pen 12th in the league. The offense had failed to compensate. But you know, the Coons come in…

Projected pitching matchups:
Scott Wade (1-3, 4.00 ERA) vs. Manny Ramos (3-1, 4.21 ERA)
Kisho Saito (4-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Orlando Blanco (2-1, 3.20 ERA)
Jason Turner (2-1, 3.48 ERA) vs. Ruben Prado (0-5, 6.61 ERA)

Baldivía was the only right-handed batter in the lineup against Ramos in the opener. Higgins played third base and committed a throwing error in the first inning that contributed to two unearned runs on Scott Wade. Just when the Coons had that tied back, Wade put the two leadoff men on with walks in the bottom 3rd, and then an infield single loaded the bases, but the Canadiens would only score on a sac fly before a double play started by Brewer got Wade out of the inning. Ramos didn’t hold onto that past the fourth, either, as Salazar scored Vern Kinnear, who had hit a leadoff double, with a sac fly. The Coons would take a lead in the fifth when Chih-tui Jin, with Vinson on first, hit a line drive home run out of right field, 5-3. In the top 6th, the bags were full for Vinson with two out. In a full count, he looked at Ramos’ pitch – which was good, and Vinson was punched out, nobody scored. Wade got through six, which was fair enough, and was in line for the win until we brought in Jackie Lagarde in the eighth. He walked one, allowed a single, walked another one, threw a run-scoring wild pitch, walked another batter, and finally gave up a 2-run single to C Alberto Durán. That set the Canadiens ahead, 6-5, and Wade looked like he had murder on his mind. I did, too. Vela got out of the inning, and then we had the bottom part of the lineup due in the top 9th against Joe Roberts, who was not necessarily a blueprint for a closer with a WHIP of almost 2. Accordingly, Luke Newton led off with a double off the wall. Kinnear grounded out, moving Newton to third base. Quinn then pinch-hit for Vela, but grounded out to third, and Brewer grounded out to first. 6-5 Canadiens. Brewer 2-5, BB, 2B; Salazar 2-4, 2B, RBI; Baldivía 2-5, RBI; Vinson 2-4; Newton 2-5, 2B; Kinnear 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI;

Out-hit them 13-7, and the LOB showed 14 left on base, 31 individually. You just want to scream. Mainly at Lagarde.

Leaving runners on left and right continued in the middle game, but Saito got an early push with a 3-run first including a 2-run homer by Baldivía. Saito gave up one run in the second, but was mostly strong, while the Coons frequently left men on. Salazar seemed to come up with two on every time, and at least didn’t kill any effort in these situations, which was not true for some other guys in the lineup. Saito just got one more ounce of support, a 2-run double my Marvin Ingall with two out in the fifth. Saito soldiered through the game with not his best stuff, but sufficient, and was still in there for the ninth with De La Rosa warming up. The Coons led 5-1, and Saito surrendered singles to Salvador Mendez and Forest Hartley, and then plunked the left-hander Luis Arroyo. No outs. Why. Just why. De La Rosa faced only two batters. He walked both. NOOOO!!!! Grant West was thrown in there. 5-3, bases loaded, no outs. West got Marihito Ohayashi to lob out to Reece in shallow center. The runners held. West went to a full count on PH Edgardo Ramos. I couldn’t bare watch, but West struck him out. Uuuaah!! One more! We need one more. Raúl Solís was batting north of .320, and grounded West’s 1-0 to short. Salazar stepped on second – game over. 5-3 Coons. Baldivía 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Jin 3-4, BB; Salazar 3-4, RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (5-0); West 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (1), IR 3-0;

Whoah! Still shaking. Why do things always escalate with sledgehammer intensity …!!?? That West re-signing has already paid off (just ask Saito). By the way, that was Saito’s 190th big league win. Start that countdown.

Can we please have a comfy day without meltdowns in the rubber game?

Jason Turner no-hit the Canadiens into the fourth in the rubber game, while both offenses were slow early on. The Coons scratched out the first run of the game in the top 4th when with two down Kinnear singled in Chih-tui Jin, who raced home from second base and was barely safe. Top 5th, Brewer walked to lead off, and Higgins got on with a single, sending Brewer to third base. Baldy came up and we called a squeeze play. Baldy grounded to the right of Ruben Prado, who first wanted to go to first with it, and noticed Brewer barreling down the third base line a tad too late, and Brewer was safe. In fact, everybody was safe, but we didn’t score any more for Neil Reece kindly removing two runners at once with a grounder to second. Jason Turner then had a rare 3-pitch inning in the fifth as Ruben Prado, Raúl Solís, and Salvador Mendez all made first-pitch outs. Turner continued to not fool people in the sixth, when seven pitches were enough to load the bags with no outs with a walk and two singles. SS Michael McFarland grounded into a double play, third and short, holding Luis Arroyo on third, and so Turner still had a chance to get out unscathed, if he could get Roland Moore. He struck him out. We lost a run in the top 8th, when Reece drew a leadoff walk, but was then quickly picked off at first base. In turn, Vinson got on, and then Jin hit an RBI triple, that would have been a 2-run triple. While Turner surrendered only four hits, his wildness he had shown from the start of the season, got the better of him and he was done by the eighth. Miller collected the final out in that inning, then started the ninth up 4-0. And he walked the first two batters. Just … just … just why … BRING WEST!!!! Grant West came in, got a double play from Edgardo Ramos, then struck out Tony Balderas to end the game. 4-0 Coons. Higgins 2-5; Vinson 2-4; Kinnear 3-3, 2 RBI; Turner 7.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K, W (3-1); West 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (2), IR 2-0;

These kids. (pats West on the shoulder) SHOW’EM, GRANDPA!!

Raccoons (17-10) @ Wolves (13-15) – May 5-7, 1995

We will get O-Mo back for the middle game of this series, so Ben Nash will not need to unpack his suitcase in Salem.

The Wolves were below average in every important category, and 10th in both runs scored and runs allowed in the FL. Yet, their 121 runs might have ranked only 10th in the FL, but the Raccoons’ 128 runs were not that much more, and also ranked only 6th in the CL. In their lineup hid an outfielder, Benny Carver, with six homers and a 1.140 OPS so far this year. We were scheduled all right-handers.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (2-1, 2.63 ERA) vs. Alfonso Velasco (2-2, 5.45 ERA)
Robert Vázquez (1-1, 2.51 ERA) vs. Rafael Serrano (1-0, 2.79 ERA)
Scott Wade (1-3, 3.55 ERA) vs. Ramón Sotelo (3-3, 3.98 ERA)

Amazingly, it was a pitchers’ duel in the series opener. Lopez had a bad first inning, allowing four runners and a run, but then settled in and went seven frames of occasional wildness, but did not allow any more runs. But the Raccoons were OBLITERATED by Velasco during seven innings. They had a single hit and eight strikeouts and hadn’t even been close to scoring. A shy single by Brewer was all we managed in the top 8th, and a Salazar error put a runner on third in the bottom 8th, but Martinez got out of the inning in his first outing back from injury. Top 9th, the Wolves replaced Velasco, who had thrown more than 110 pitches, with Ricardo Medina. Baldy, Reece, and Vinson were up. Medina’s third pitch to Baldy was into the seats and tied the game, flushing Velasco’s stunning outing down the toilet. The next three batters went down, though, and a Higgins error put the leadoff man on against Tony Vela in the bottom 9th. Ken Burnett came in with the Wolves sending lefty Jeff MacGruder to pinch-hit, and managed to get the game to extra innings. We then had Lagarde pitch the 10th against a string of right-handers, and by now he was completely useless, walking another pair. The defense got that inning over with. Ironically, Lagarde would strike out two lefties in the 11th! There was no scoring until the top 13th, when Brewer got on to start the frame and was collected on a 2-run homer by Neil Reece. De La Rosa came in for the bottom 13th (and only West was left in the pen). Gabby collected two outs, then walked veteran Eddy Bailey. Les Harper doubled him in, and now Carver was up, but was walked intentionally. I preferred to go after the right-hander Fred Rodgers at this point. And HE struck out. PHEW!!! 3-2 Furballs! Brewer 2-5, BB; Reece 1-5, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-6; Quinn 2-4; Lopez 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;

Middle game. The Coons were again still hitless when Salem’s Paul Connolly struck Vázquez with a 3-run homer in the bottom 3rd. We scratched out a run in the top 4th against Serrano, but overall, the Coons looked lost at the plate yet again. Vázquez was done after six with some ill control and many 3-ball counts, and the Coons got Serrano out of the game in the top 7th when, 3-1 behind, they put the tying runs on in Rodriguez and Baldivía – the latter of which walked. Munemori Suzuki replaced Serrano and walked Chih-tui Jin. Bases loaded with two out for Neil Reece. Single to right, scored one run! Now Kinnear came up, and the Wolves did not bring a left-hander. And Suzuki walked him, and that tied the game. And against O-Mo stepping in, Suzuki’s 1-0 pitch was in the dirt, and off the catcher, and the Coons took the lead. O-Mo then doubled on a 3-1 pitch, and the Raccoons struck back with fantastic 2-out terror, scoring six runs on the Wolves, and taking a 7-3 lead. Now wait for that bullpen implosion, which HAD to be coming, and WAS coming. Vela got two outs in the seventh (Burnett getting the first), but then issued two leadoff walks in the eighth. West came in, got a double play, and then a flyer to Jin to end the inning. Miller pitched a 1-2-3 ninth, so: 7-3 Raccoons! Reece 2-5, 2B, RBI; Kinnear 2-2, 2 BB, RBI; Salazar 1-2, 2 BB, RBI;

The Indians had lost the first two games of their series in Pittsburgh – and that put the Raccoons on top of the CL North with a 19-10 record over their 20-11 effort.

Baldy and Salazar both were not in the lineup in game 3. Not because of them struggling, but just so we could get Higgins and Ingall into the lineup again.

Scott Wade got one run of support in the first, but exerted ill control from the start. In a genuinely bad start, he allowed ten runners and three runs in five innings, being bailed out by the defense, which left two Wolves on in three of Wade’s five innings. An O’Morrissey homer cut the gap to 3-2 in the top 6th, and then Ingall led off the seventh with a triple. Quinn grounded out poorly, forcing Ingall to hold. Baldivía batted in the #9 hole and struck out. Brewer fell to 2-2, and then blooped a single just behind 2B Eddy Bailey, and only then was Ingall able to score the tying run. Then the bottom fell out of our bullpen yet again. Lagarde came in for the bottom 7th, gave up a walk, a homer (MacGruder’s second on the day), and another walk, and when Vela came in, he didn’t improve our chances, and neither did a throwing error by O’Morrissey. That ship was sinking hard. 7-3 Wolves. Brewer 2-5, 2B, RBI; Higgins 3-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-5, HR, RBI; Reece 2-4, RBI;

Gotta start looking after that bullpen. The ineptitude is getting worse again.

In other news

May 3 – WAS INF/RF Yoshihito Ito (.408, 5 HR, 16 RBI) extends his hitting streak to 20 games despite going 1-5 as the Capitals beat the Rebels, 7-5.
May 5 – Ito’s streak ends at 21 games, as the Loggers hold him 0-3 while also defeating the Capitals, 5-2.

Complaints and stuff

That bullpen. I don’t even know what is going on in there. What’s wrong with Lagarde??

Hadn’t they blown up that first game in Vancouver so spectacularly, we would have had an amazing week. This way, it was merely nice to win two series. We lost the lead again.

Batting in RISP situations has been a pain lately. I am watching Brewer. He doesn’t have 6 RBI for no reason. He is batting .227 in these situations, but that even pales to Jin’s and Quinn’s .067 and Kinnear’s .150. According to RISP analysis, we would have to put Higgins and O-Mo in the #4 and #5 slots, excelling close to .400 in RISP AB’s.