[Westheim]

Raccoons (88-41) @ Falcons (66-63) – August 26-28, 1996

Now we faced the least-scoring team in the Continental League, with only 490 runs on the Falcons’ ledger, 129 games into the season, something that could be rightfully called anemic (or in Portland Retro Style: very 70s-ish). They were however also conceding only 498 runs, with a very strong rotation, which ranked 2nd in the league.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.62 ERA) vs. John Douglas (3-3, 3.44 ERA)
Jose Rivera (12-1, 2.31 ERA) vs. Alejandro Venegas (11-10, 3.41 ERA)
Kisho Saito (15-6, 3.89 ERA) vs. Terry Wilson (11-13, 3.62 ERA)

The difference in offensive culture is best illustrated by comparing the records of Donis and “Loudmouth” Wilson. Nuff said.

Do I sound arrogant?

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF R. Green – 3B Ingall – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Donis
CHA: SS R. Garza – LF P. Flores – 1B H. Green – CF Dunphy – 2B Barrón – 3B Jackson – C Lozano – RF Young – P Douglas

Brewer led off the game with a single off Douglas, who only recently had gotten back to health and off the DL. Brewer found himself picked off first by Douglas soon enough. It would be the last hit for the Raccoons for some time. Donis struggled in the bottom 1st, putting the first two Falcons on, but wiggled through that, and became dominant from there. Both pitchers had shutouts on a total of three hits going through six innings. Neil Reece then bashed a leadoff double in the seventh. We tried to have Wedemeyer *bunt*, and he popped it up for an easy out. Green was walked intentionally. We brought Strong in to bat for Ingall, who hit a bases-loading single. And then Vinson grounded to Barrón, 4-6-3. We pressed a seventh inning out of Donis, who had to be walked off the field by Salazar and Higgins after that, and would not finish the SHO, again. Salazar singled to lead off the eighth. O-Mo struck out in Donis’ spot, but Brewer hit a double to center. Salazar had to hold at third base. Kinnear walked, and Reece hit into a double play. Uhhh. Wedemeyer led off the ninth with a bloop to left that Pedro Flores horribly misplayed for it to become a double. Green got the finger again, which brought up Higgins. Higgins bunted them over, and then Vinson was walked intentionally. Now, the last two innings, we had double-played us out of bags-full-one-out. Salazar came up. Douglas’ first pitch to him was wild and eluded Lozano for Wedemeyer to score. Salazar popped out foul, and Kondo grounded out to end the inning. Ban was put in with the slimmest of leads, walked two, threw a pitch even Kondo couldn’t come up with, and Grady Young singled in the tying run with two outs. Extra innings! The odds were severely against the Falcons now, though, since they had managed to use up both their catchers and now infielder Mark Hall had to catch. Brewer got on with a walk, then didn’t go on the first pitch to Kinnear. The Falcons smelled what was going on, called a pitchout and Brewer was thrown out by Hall at second base. Rain was setting in, not only on the field, but also on our offensive prowess. De La Rosa pitched three innings to get us to the 13th. There, we met ex-Coon Richard Cunningham. With two out, Higgins reached on a single, and we expended our last bench warmer, Luke Newton, for De La Rosa. Newton singled to left. Higgins then stole third base before Salazar shoved a single into right for a run! Newton scored on a passed ball on Mark Hall, and we gave a 3-1 lead to Otero. Flores tripled to get the bottom 13th going. Hubert Green’s grounder was botched by Higgins, Flores scored, and Green was safe at first. Dunphy lined out to Kinnear, but Barrón singled up the middle. Ex-Coon Joe Jackson found himself 2-2 when he made contact and sent it up the middle – but Salazar was there. Salazar to Brewer to Weeds, ballgame! 3-2 Raccoons. Brewer 2-5, BB, 2B; Strong (PH) 1-1; Higgins 2-2, 2B; Salazar 2-4, 2 BB, RBI; Donis 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K; De La Rosa 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (3-1);

Nine, but with a black eye, or two. (Although black eyes don’t necessarily are very visible on coons…)

I originally had wanted Royce Green to play through the 9-game set (minus the game he missed to injury against Boston), but with this long grinder here, I sat him aside for the middle game. Gotta keep the boys healthy!

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – 1B Ingall – CF Reece – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Kinnear – C Vinson – SS Salazar – RF Newton – P J. Rivera
CHA: RF R. Garza – 2B Barrón – SS H. Green – LF A. Lopez – C Escobedo – CF Young – 3B M. Hall – 1B Jackson – P Venegas

Our offense continued to struggle early on, and we also had David Brewer thrown out at the plate in the third inning. After that we didn’t even get back into scoring position until a throwing error by Hubert Green put Salazar on second base with one out in the seventh, the score still reading nothing. Newton grounded out, and ex-Coon Venegas even balked Salazar to third base, but Rivera also grounded out and we didn’t score. Bottom 8th, the Falcons replaced Venegas with Dunphy to lead off the inning, and he hit a single on a hobbler that kept spinning away from Brewer and into the outfield. Dunphy tried to take second, but was gunned down by Vinson. Still no score, O-Mo drew a walk off reliever Ray Hoskins to start the ninth. Nope, we never moved O-Mo off first. Jose Rivera went nine without a lick of support from the offense, and the Falcons walked off against Miller in the tenth. 1-0 Falcons. Green (PH) 1-1; Rivera 9.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K;

Okay, now is the time to start bitching about the offense again. I don’t know what is going on. They whiffed 11 times against Venegas and Hoskins, which aren’t necessarily the kings of pitching. What a miserable display of hitting. They have not scored a lot last week, but by now it is becoming a problem.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF R. Green – SS Ingall – LF Kinnear – C Kondo – P Saito
CHA: SS R. Garza – C Escobedo – 1B H. Green – CF Dunphy – 2B Barrón – 3B Jackson – LF P. Flores – RF Velez – P Wilson

More zeroes. And not only those in brown uniforms wielding bats. On the board, too. But we finally got a key hit in the fourth, when Kinnear came to bat with two in scoring position and two out and squeezed a low liner into left field for a 2-run single. Saito had yet to yield runs, but put two on with hard line drives in the bottom 4th. He came back, though, punching out both Felix Velez and Terry Wilson to end the inning. Back-to-back leadoff doubles by Green and Ingall produced another run in the sixth, 3-0. Saito’s game became to unwind in the eighth. Up until then he had surrendered the occasional hard contact, but the outfielders had done a good job and he had gotten a K whenever he needed one. In the eighth, he drilled Christian Dunphy with one out. Barrón shot a double to left, which Kinnear hurled back in. Dunphy was trying to score, but Kinnear drummed him out at the plate. But that was it for Saito, as Otero came out to strike out Joe Jackson, keeping Saito’s ledger clean. And then came the ninth, Ban came, too, with a 3-0 lead, and set out to blow it. He got the first batter, and the next three reached on a walk, a single, and a double. The tying runs in scoring position, one out, Martinez came in to face PH Bernard Combes. At 2-2, Combes hurled a high fly ball to fairly deep right field. Green caught it easily, but Pedro Lozano tagged from third and made for home. Green’s throw, which was accompanied by thunder, arrived at the plate two seconds before Lozano. Kondo got it, dug in and braced for impact, and Lozano bowled him over. Where was the ball!? Kondo had it! And the umpire punched Lozano OUT!!! 3-1 Raccoons!! Ingall 3-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Saito 7.2 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (16-6) and 1-3;

Royce! Green! Royce! Green! Royce! Green!

Raccoons (90-42) @ Crusaders (55-78) – August 30-September 1, 1996

Another team that wasn’t scoring, but also had bad pitching on top of that. I was really hoping for the offense to come back to life in this series.

Projected matchups:
Jason Turner (10-8, 3.05 ERA) vs. Anibal Sandoval (16-11, 3.76 ERA)
Scott Wade (13-6, 3.34 ERA) vs. David Ramirez (9-12, 4.58 ERA)
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.44 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (5-9, 4.76 ERA)

We were starting another string of 20 games against the Crusaders, but this time we would get help from callups by game 3, or until back home against the Loggers on September 2 at the latest.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Turner
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF C. Clark – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 1B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – 3B Delgado – P Sandoval

A terrible Jason Turner was pulverized for five runs in the first two innings by the Crusaders, and also bunted into a double play in the third inning. Weeds had put up a home run in the second, and we got two more runs in the fourth, but the hole dug by Turner was deeper than that. Royce Green led off the sixth with a home run, but we still trailed 5-4 then. Martinez then failed to keep the Crusaders off the board in the sixth, as Raúl Rodriguez drove Ruben Melendez in with a double. But the game was not over yet. Royce Green gave his left butt cheek to reach first base with one out in the eighth. While O-Mo got him forced out at second, we were still alive in the inning. Vinson singled, and then Scott Strong hit for Burnett, who was in Salazar’s spot after a double switch. Strong hit a liner off Dane Sanders that whizzed right through Ed Rigg at first base and danced merrily into the corner in deep right. O-Mo scored easily, and Vinson was sent, and barely arrived in time, but the game was tied! But the fat lady still prepared to sing as Daniel Miller came in to pitch the eighth. He walked Melendez, Rigg singled, and Rodriguez was hit. Delgado lined out to Ingall, and De La Rosa replaced Miller to face PH Armando Díeguez. We soon found out that De La Rosa would not get anybody out, either. The Crusaders spotted four on those two goons and we went down in flames in this one. 10-7 Crusaders. Wedemeyer 3-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; Green 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-4, RBI; Strong (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Burnett 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Well, the Crusaders got every hit they needed in this game. We were just thrown under the bus by bad pitching here.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – SS Ingall – C Vinson – LF Newton – P Wade
NYC: 2B Wilson – CF C. Clark – RF A. Johnson – LF P. Jenkins – C Melendez – 1B Rigg – SS R. Rodriguez – 3B Delgado – P D. Ramirez

Pat Jenkins’ 2-out double in the first inning scored the first run of the game for the wrong side again. Not that Scott Wade was pitching badly. But he gave up something here and there and the offense was astonishingly incapable with runners on base. Wade led off the fifth with a single himself. Brewer made an out before O-Mo hurled a low flyer to right. Avery Johnson, no hero with the glove, tried to catch it before it hit the ground, failed, and that became a game-tying RBI triple for O-Mo. Reece was walked intentionally, but Weeds singled to left to score O-Mo. Wade surrendered occasional hard contact throughout the middle innings, but the 2-1 lead stood as the end of regulation drew closer. Clement Clark, with one out in the bottom 8th, hit a hard one, too, but Newton snagged it out of the air. After the bullpen had forked up so colossally the day before, Wade batted in the ninth, in which nobody got on base, and trotted back out for the ninth. That was risky, as he faced Jenkins, Melendez, and Rigg. Jenkins singled up the middle. We brou- NO! Stick to the plan!! Wade struck out Melendez. Rigg lined out to Reece, who hardly moved for this one. That brought up Raúl Rodriguez, who was hitting .242 with no power. The 1-2, fouled away. Oh, Weeds was hustling after it, to the stands – HE GOT IT!!! 2-1 Raccoons!! Green 2-4, 2B; Wade 9.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (14-6) and 2-4;

SCOTTYYY!!!! His 14th win of the year ties his high water mark for the 1990s. He won 21 games in 1989, but time will not be sufficient to challenge that mark in September. (But including three or four wins in the playoffs ……)

As the calendar flipped to September, we added Ron McDonald and Pancho Padilla to the roster, with more possibly following soon.

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – 3B O’Morrissey – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Donis
NYC: CF Diéguez – RF Heseltine – LF A. Johnson – C Melendez – SS R. Rodriguez – 2B M. Williams – 3B J. Vega – 1B Lammond – P F. Garza

You know the baseball gods are against you whenever the opposing catcher hits an inside the park home run on you, and Ruben Melendez did just that in the bottom 3rd to put Donis and the Furballs 4-1 down. Salazar would produce a 2-out, 2-run double in the top 4th, but Donis was not going to get far in this game. A homer by Diéguez made it 5-3 in the fifth, and that was all for Donis, although he struck out NINE. The Crusaders that didn’t whiff just hit him all the harder. Royce Green restored the 1-run gap with a leadoff homer in the sixth, 5-4. O-Mo singled. Vinson bunted him to second, but Salazar also made an out. Higgins hit for Donis, singled, but O-Mo had to stop at third. Brewer came up and got a grounder just past Jorge Vega into shallow left for a game-tying single, but Kinnear struck out before we could take the lead. Neither team managed to get a bat up here, but the Raccoons lost Royce Green to injury in the eighth inning on a defensive play. And the game was going away, too. Daniel Miller hit Jorge Vega with a pitch in the bottom 9th, and with two out, Larry Wilson rolled a pitch between Brewer and Wedemeyer into right to walk off his team. 6-5 Crusaders. Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, RBI; Green 2-4, HR, RBI; O’Morrissey 1-2, 2 BB; Higgins (PH) 1-1; Martinez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

(wipes tears from the eyes) Not Royce Green …! (lips are shaking)

In other news

August 27 – VAN OF Luis Arroyo (.299, 11 HR, 50 RBI) hits a first inning single in the Canadiens’ 6-1 win over Oklahoma City to bring his hitting streak to 20 games.
August 29 – Big day for LAP OF Antonio Rodriguez (.300, 3 HR, 45 RBI). The 30-yr old Puerto Rican had three hits in an 11-5 win of the Pacifics over the Stars, which was enough to join the 2,000 hits club. Originally signed by the Blue Sox in 1983, he reached the majors quickly, and has since also played for the Canadiens and Aces. The milestone hit was an RBI single in the eighth inning against reliver Juan Padilla.
August 29 – The season is over for PIT SP Jorge Rosa (8-10, 4.66 ERA), who has suffered a torn triceps tendon.
August 29 – The playoffs are in danger for SAC RF/1B Sam Green (.358, 14 HR, 78 RBI), who is expected to miss six weeks with a hamstring strain.
August 29 – SAC OF Aaron Jenkins (.352, 12 HR, 107 RBI) knocks two hits in a 6-0 win over the Warriors, extending a hitting streak to 20 games.
August 30 – The Miners lose another important player, as their LF Carlos Torres (.303, 18 HR, 91 RBI) will miss a month with an oblique strain.
August 31 – Warriors CF John Hensley (.291, 20 HR, 94 RBI) seems to be out for the year with a broken finger.
August 31 – The Warriors beat the Scorpions, 3-2, and also kill off Aaron Jenkins’ hot streak at 21 games.

Complaints and stuff

Royce Green was named Hitter of the Month in the CL. In August, despite missing a week with a hand contusion, he punished pitchers to a .468, 8 HR, 23 RBI tune.

If he goes down for the year, we will get routed in the playoffs … again. -.-

--- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS ---

The Portland Raccoons have just announced that their outfielder Royce Green, who was injured on a play in yesterday's 6-5 loss to the Crusaders, has been diagnosed with a torn labrum.

The recovery time is difficult to estimate, but should be at least ten months at the very least.

--- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS --- BREAKING NEWS ---

What's that? Ah. My depressions comin' round the corner.

(sits in the corner and slowly rocks back and forth, weeping)