[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I hope the turn around of the pitching staff is not an illusion. I have been missing a furry pennant chase for a while now.....

You must not believe your eyes, for they don't see the truth. [a bell tolls]

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Raccoons (8-4) @ Indians (6-7) – April 16-18, 2002

The Indians have been sub-average in both offense and pitching early in the season, but despite a -20 run differential they were only one game under .500; would their luck run out or rather continue?

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (1-0, 1.93 ERA) vs. Alonso Alonso (1-1, 4.24 ERA)
Felipe Garcia (0-0, 4.26 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (1-1, 6.75 ERA)
Carl Bean (1-1, 1.37 ERA) vs. Anthony Mosher (1-1, 3.24 ERA)

Senor Alonso, may we call you Alonso?

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – RF Brady – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – P Brown
IND: 2B A. Stevens – SS M. Jones – LF Alston – 3B D. Lopez – RF Greenman – CF J. Valdez – 1B Montray – C T. Turner – P Alonso

Again, the Raccoons did not reach base the first time through the lineup. Nick Brown was not even half as flashy as in his first two starts – he had no control at all. He walked a pair in the first two innings, before plunking Alonso to start the bottom 3rd, which quickly escalated into a major shame frame. Art Stevens’ error was bungled by Brown, who issued a walk and a single to Ron Alston in the inning, and also threw a run-scoring wild pitch to bring a total of three runs home for the Indians, who had just Alston’s hit in the H column. Down 3-0 and so far really not showing any signs of life, Neil Reece hit a 2-out single in the fourth to at least banish any no-no scare there might have been going around. In the fifth the Raccoons loaded the bags with one out, but Brown easily made the second out. Concie drew a walk to push home one run, but that was it, however the same situation developed again in the next inning, now with Sharp up. Since Thomas wasn’t batting anything, Sharp better resolved the chance favorably. Resolving it he did, but not favorably – Thomas never came to bat after a 6-4-3 bonanza. The bonanza was not over yet. While Brown went six, and struck out eight Indians eventually, the bullpen exploded in the bottom 7th. After Jones surrendered the left-hander Montray, Huerta put two men on, and then Moreno exploded completely, with three left-handers all reaching base against him. The oh so nice Raccoons bullpen ended up sending four men into a 5-run massacre, and the Indians stowed that game away firmly, never mind two runs in the ninth and loading them up to provoke an appearance from closer Iemitsu Rin. 8-3 Indians. Reece 2-5; Sharp 2-4, 2B; Parker (PH) 1-1; Brown 6.0 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, L (1-1);

That was a nasty one, and the second time this season that a team basically only got on base in two innings and they still sunk the Raccoons with a sledgehammer. Also, the number of runs on our bullpen for the season went up by a crisp 166% this black Tuesday.

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – CF Roberson – RF Brady – 1B Martin – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – C Thomas – P F. Garcia
IND: 2B Montray – SS M. Jones – LF Alston – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – 1B J. Garcia – CF Cavazos – RF J. Lugo – P Alba

A Phil Montray error helped the Raccoons to an unearned run in the top 1st, before they had Ingall hit into an inning-ending double play with the bases full. Garcia didn’t hold up for long, getting whiplashed by the Indians with back-to-back doubles to get the bottom of the second inning started, Lopez and Jesus Garcia being responsible. Still tied at one, the Indians had two in scoring position when Jose Lugo popped up for the second out. A good pitcher would have retired Manuel Alba, but against Garcia, Alba singled and the Indians went up 3-1. Four innings was all that Garcia was able to cover, when Ramiro Cavazos drilled a 2-run shot to end his day. Jose Paraz showed Ricardo Huerta around the place in the next inning, hitting a 3-run home run – the only hit the Indians had in THIS inning. The game was already well blown out, with the Raccoons still stuck at one, and that one had been unearned entirely. The team did absolutely nothing, but held still while getting stomped, for the second day in a row. 8-2 Indians. Brady 2-4, 2B, RBI;

So now we’re begging for Carl Bean to stop the bleeding, but it would also help tremendously if somebody could step up and bat some… We will face a left-hander and I will sit the wildly hacking Al Martin. Hitting home runs is nice, Al, but you gotta HIT in general, too.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – 3B Sharp – CF Reece – LF Roberson – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – 1B Matthews – C Fifield – P Bean
IND: 2B Montray – SS M. Jones – LF Alston – C Paraz – 3B D. Lopez – 1B J. Garcia – CF Cavazos – RF J. Lugo – P Mosher

Bean did NOT stop the bleeding with David Lopez hitting a 2-run shot right in the first inning, and another run scored on Daniel Sharp’s first error of the season – and many more were undoubtedly to come. Up 3-0 again, the Indians were looking forward to an easy sweep, but there was some life still left in the visiting team’s lineup. Brady started with a double in the top 4th and Ingall tripled, being scored by Fifield before the inning fizzled out with the tying run left in scoring position. Neither pitcher went past the sixth: Bean was handed the lead by Roberson and a 2-run homer in the fifth, but Jose Paraz jacked the game-tying shot in the next inning and the game was 4-4. The Coons didn’t anything that could have given Bean the win in the top 7th, and the bottom 7th started with Moreno coming out to face the left-handers at the top of the lineup, but Juan Valdez, a right-hander pinch-hit and singled. With Christian Greenman hitting for Mike Jones, Daniel Miller was called upon, but Greenman homered to left. Ron Alston homered to center, and then Jose Paraz homered to left center. Three home runs in succession of Miller, quicker than quick, and Miller tried to throw the next pitch right through David Lopez, who was drilled, not amused, and hurled the bat at Miller. Like five seconds later, 40-some players were piled up on the infield, trying to kill each other.

Once the National Guard restored order, it was 8-4, Miller was ejected along with Lopez, and there was still no out in the inning. Miller’s run scored against Martinez, as the bullpen was ravaged once again. The game was not quite over, however. Questionable pitching was also something the Indians excelled in, and the Raccoons loaded them up against Vicente Galván with one out in the eighth. Jared Chaney replaced him to face Reece, but neither him nor Roberson managed to plate a run. And THEN the game was over. 9-5 Indians. Brady 3-3, 2 BB, 2B; Fifield 2-5, RBI;

Daniel Miller is my hero. At least he didn’t wait until someone came out to give him one last carrot and then shot him behind the shed. No, he exited in STYLE.

Apart from that we are now in the hopeless wretched land of misery I expected us to end up in from the start of the year, so it kind of feels cozy.

Raccoons (8-7) vs. Knights (7-8) – April 19-21, 2002

The Knights had taken off 6th in runs scored and 8th in runs allowed, a marked improvement from the dreadful team they had been the last few years. Was it that the roster was now purged of former Raccoons? Well, it wasn’t actually, they had two guys at the back of their pen that hadn’t left Portland on all too stellar terms in Tzu-jao Ban and Manuel Reyes. And their personnel can’t be that shabby: they have won four straight.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (2-1, 1.33 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (1-1, 2.84 ERA)
Randy Farley (0-2, 3.60 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (1-2, 6.27 ERA)
Nick Brown (1-1, 1.80 ERA) vs. Eric Wallace (1-1, 2.38 ERA)

We have a short bullpen now with Daniel Miller suspended for five games. With the way things have been going, that could pose more issues. The Raccoons do not have an off day on Monday, so we can’t just pluck Garcia without having everybody starting on short rest next week against Oklahoma City.

Game 1
ATL: CF A. Solís – C A. Alvarez – LF Ware – 1B G. Douglas – 2B J. Miller – RF G. Rios – SS Verdon – 3B A. Hernandez – P Howard
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Roberson – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – P Ford

Not a lot of offense was to be seen in the first three innings, but once Ralph Ford developed his renowned ill control, the Knights got going, drew two walks around a single in the fourth and managed a Gerardo Rios sac fly before Nick Verdon struck out to end the frame. The Raccoons had to wait to the bottom of the inning to even get a hit, but Martin was left on after his 2-out double to right. Sharp and Roberson made strong plays to end the fifth and sixth, respectively, both times on hissing liners and with men on base. Roberson also in between tied the score with a solo home run in the bottom 5th. In the bottom 6th, Neil Reece was thrown out at third after he tried to stretch a 2-out double, but the same happened to Tynan Howard in the top 7th. The game was still tied when Danny Sharp hit a leadoff double in the bottom 8th. This got Dan Nordahl stirring in the pen, as well as Chris Parker to hit for an oh-fer Thomas. Parker walked, but that was as far as the Raccoons went. Ingall hit for Bruno, whiffed, Guerin lined out, and Palacios popped it up. Nordahl still came out to pitch the top 9th and went 1-2-3 on the Knights. Manuel Reyes appeared in the bottom 9th, and Reece whacked a leadoff single. You don’t bunt with Martin! Martin probably would bunt it straight into his nose… So he batted, lined out to short, and no Raccoon touched second base in the inning. Nordahl went another inning to no avail. Moreno did the 11th without accidents. And remember how Martin was not ordered to bunt? He can do other things much better than bunting. In the bottom of the inning, Palacios hit a 1-out double off Bartolo Gomez. Reece couldn’t advance him, his liner snagged by Ware in left, but Martin hit a shy bloop to shallow center and Palacios never stopped running as he turned third base. 2-1 Raccoons. Reece 2-5, 2B; Martin 2-5, 2B, RBI; Flores (PH) 1-1; Ford 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K; Nordahl 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
ATL: 2B J. Miller – RF A. Rodriguez – LF Ware – CF G. Rios – 1B G. Douglas – SS Lujan – 3B Verdon – C Fabián – P Cutts
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – CF Reece – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Palacios – SS Matthews – C Fifield – P Farley

A good outing from Randy was imperative to get. After eight pitches, the Knights had four singles, two runs, and nobody out. Palacios dug out Farley before things could get REALLY ugly, turning a nifty double play. The Raccoons came back to tie the score on one hit, a 2-run homer by Neil Reece, in the bottom of the same inning, but Antonio Lujan’s solo jack put the Knights back on top, 3-2, in the fourth. It would have been nice to have anybody contribute other than Neil, who after a leadoff single in the bottom 6th held 75% of the Coons’ hits on the day. Martin would follow up with a single, but Palacios made an out, which brought up a 1-13 Matthews with the runners in scoring position. At 2-2, Cutts threw a wild one to tie the score, then struck Matthews out on the next pitch. This hard scrambled tie for the Raccoons was neither earned, nor long-lived, for the Knights crushed the pitching staff in the seventh, whacking five extra-base hits, including another home run by soft poker Lujan off Kevin Jones, amongst other stuff to plate six runs. You couldn’t get a more definitive “NO. WE win.” from them. Two runs scored in the bottom 9th, and as expected, a Manuel Reyes wild pitch was figuring in that one. 9-5 Knights. Reece 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Parker (PH) 1-1, RBI;

Game 3
ATL: C A. Alvarez – RF A. Rodriguez – LF Ware – 1B G. Douglas – 2B J. Miller – SS Lujan – CF S. Torres – 3B A. Hernandez – P E. Wallace
POR: SS Guerin – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Roberson – 3B Sharp – C Thomas – P Brown

We REALLY needed a good outing from Nick Brown, but we didn’t get it by a mile. The Knights were wholly unable to hit him, but they didn’t need to. Once Daniel Sharp made an error that put Wallace on base to lead off the third inning, Brown walked three batters to give the Knights the lead. The Raccoons had four hits through three inning and never reached third base. After four innings, Brown had already walked seven batters, and although the Knights still didn’t add on runs, we would have to scramble to get this game patched together somehow. It would be another loss anyway. The Raccoons were however donated a run in the bottom 4th by the home plate umpire. With two out, Thomas walked and Brown singled, bringing up Guerin. He singled up the middle, where Sancho Torres got to the ball rather quickly and brought it back in. Thomas had been sent regardless, and was tagged out at home – yet called safe. The Knights were up in arms to no avail, the game was tied. Palacios was hit (intentionally?), but Reece couldn’t get it done. Brown, who owned the franchise record for K’s in a start, now challenged for the franchise record for walks as well. He already had seven, and tied the record with his eighth, a leadoff free pass to Stephen Ware in the next inning. Glenn Douglas rolled into a 6-4-3 two-job, and Miller flew out to Brady to end Brown’s last inning of the day. Amazingly, Al Martin put Brown on the good side of the line score with a leadoff jack in the bottom 5th, and another run came home after an error by Anastasio Hernandez. Well, up 3-1, four innings to cover. We went with Huerta first, the only guy not involved in this series yet, but we might have to tap into Felipe Garcia after all. Huerta didn’t even manage to pitch one inning before blowing the lead, and the Knights took a 4-3 lead off Moreno in the eighth as we tried to patch things together unsuccessfully. Palacios hit a fly off Tzu-jao Ban in the bottom 8th that glanced off Ware’s glove and was scored a double, but Ban struck out Reece for the second out. Martin came up and hit another bloop just beyond the infield that was enough to score the fast Palacios. Brady singled and Ban was still in against Roberson, who ripped a ball to deep left that curved towards the foul line, but then dinked in fair by just two inches for a 2-run double! Nordahl was called on for the ninth despite two left-handers leading off, him having thrown 26 pitches on Friday, and Jones still on the bench. His first pitch was taken to deep left center by Alejandro Rodriguez, but Roberson blinked there in time to make the catch, and the next two batters were retired on soft grounders. 6-4 Coons. Palacios 3-4, 2 2B; Martin 3-5, HR, 2 RBI;

In other news

April 16 – The Pacifics lose C/1B Curt Cooks (.405, 0 HR, 2 RBI) for the season. The 27-year old has suffered a ruptured medial collateral ligament.
April 17 – The hitting streak for San Francisco’s Tom Walls (.415, 0 HR, 5 RBI) reaches 30 games, as he has another three hits in a 7-5 loss of the Bayhawks to the Falcons. Only nine players have ever had a longer hitting streak in ABL history, and none since Roberto Quintero hit in 36 consecutive games in 1998. The all-time record is 47 games, set by Claudio Rojas in 1983, who was then also a Bayhawk.
April 18 – Luck is on Tom Walls’ side, as he goes 0-4 in regulation against the Falcons, but hits an RBI double – the game-winner, no less – in the 12th for a 6-4 Bayhawks win. His streak reaches 31 games.
April 21 – A torn meniscus might cost CHA RF/LF/1B Jose Lugo one half of the season. Lugo was batting .328 with no homers and 8 RBI.
April 21 – The Bayhawks drop the Sunday game to the Canadiens, 7-5, but Tom Walls keeps going after not playing on Saturday and reaches 33 games with two base knocks. Only five players had longer hitting streaks in ABL history: Claudio Rojas (47 games in 1983 AND 40 games in 1980!), Roland Moore (39 in ’93), Roberto Quintero (36 in ’98), and Clement Clark (35 in ’92).

Complaints and stuff

In the FL, the Player of the Week batted 12-21 with 1 HR and 5 RBI. Why are we going into this? He can't possibly have hurt the Raccoons. Well. It's Max Heart.

(facepalm)

The Issuecoons are back. The hideously ugly and annoying Raccoons, that not even their mother could love. Yes, I cried. So it WAS all a dream. We knew it all along.

The Raccoons allowed 27 runs in the first two weeks of the season. The Indians *almost* matched that, falling two short. Amazingly, that left the Critters still tied for second in runs allowed. Well, and then another helpless team came to town, and the rest is already history. Sub .500 next week, and there’s no doubt, neither hope.

We’re still third in runs allowed, but without checking I’d readily put money on us having allowed the most runs (39 after all) this week.

Time to break out the cookies. I generally try to stay off the booze until May… being not always successful……

One note on Nordahl, who has two measly saves: that’s all the opportunities there were. Of the eight wins we have he didn’t save, four were with leads bigger than three runs, and four were walkoffs. He’s unscored upon in nine innings, allowing five hits and three walks against six strikeouts. So, you could do better, especially as a closer, but you can certainly do a lot worse.

And despite this HORRIBLE outing by Brown, his WHIP is merely a flat one now. He has allowed only 12 hits in addition to 13 walks in 25 innings and struck out 31. In the latter category he’s ranking second behind SFB Tony Hamlyn in the ABL. Hamlyn has 34.

In his most recent outing however, Brown tied a mark that had not been touched since 1981, when both Logan Evans and Román Ocásio were offenders, and before that in 1980, when Juan Berrios was booked. And yes, the Berrios game was THAT Cyclones game. THAT game.