[Westheim]

Raccoons (12-18) vs. Warriors (16-16) – May 8-10, 2006

Average offense, average pitching for the Sioux Falls team, resulting in an average record, however, there was a twist to their pitching. The rotation tanked second in ERA over in the Federal League, but their bullpen was being crumpled to a 5.11 ERA, 10th in the FL. They had the best defense in their league, and Whitebread ranked Dan Nordahl as their best player. We haven’t seen the Warriors since 2000!

Projected matchups:
Kenichi Watanabe (1-4, 4.50 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (6-1, 3.08 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-1, 2.67 ERA) vs. Ramón Huertas (2-3, 6.23 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-4, 5.35 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (3-4, 2.93 ERA)

Tuesday is the earliest Nick Brown can go after serving his suspension, and in case Watanabe lasts at least four innings in his start on Monday, Brownie will have the least innings pitched amongst all our starters until he takes the ball on Tuesday, the result of some odd quirks that have happened already this season, including pinch-hitting for him (to no avail) in the sixth (twice I think), and of course that 20-inning bonanza against the Thunder that derailed our rotation completely in the first week of the season. Interestingly, where he goes now, it will pretty much restore our rotation to the original alignment.

Our opposition consists entirely of right-handers.

Game 1
SFW: SS Mateo – C Cicalina – CF E. Clark – 1B Bovane – RF C. Ramirez – LF Durán – 3B J. Martinez – 2B Stein – P Alba
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF Greenman – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Watanabe

The Coons got a bushel of singles in the bottom 1st, Quebell driving in the first run of the game, his 13th RBI on the season, before Greenman had the bases loaded and hit into a double play – a common theme these days. And weeks. And sadly, years. Old foe Cristo Ramirez would get to Watanabe in the third inning with a 2-out, 2-run single, with the runners having advanced on a wild pitch just prior. Bottom 3rd, Sharp and Nomura reached base for Brady to hit into a two-for-one, but Quebell came up with another single to knot the score at two and to tie for the team lead in RBI with a paltry 14. The knot was solved pretty soon by Jamie Mateo with an RBI single in the top 4th, 3-2 Warriors then, and the Coons had Sharp and Nomura on base AGAIN in the bottom 5th and Brady hit into a double play AGAIN, this time ending the inning. Watanabe looked like he might get through six with only three runs allowed, but stone-old Jim Stein doubled off the wall in right with two out, bringing up Alba, an easy out, who singled up the middle to make it 4-2. Bottom 6th, and finally the line got moving. Quebell led off with a double, and Flores singled. Greenman had a prime chance for a double play, but accidentally hit an RBI single up the middle. When Craig Bowen walked, the bases were loaded and the bullpen got stirring for the Warriors. Too late: Trevino and Mays hit RBI singles and another run scored on Nomura’s groundout, as the Critters took a 6-4 lead with Watanabe in line for the W. Rockburn got two outs before getting a man on in the seventh, upon which Rémy Lucas came out and got the next four outs, handing the ball right to Angel Casas, who cut down the 1-2-3 batters 1-2-3 in the ninth. 6-4 Critters. Sharp 2-4, BB, 2B; Nomura 0-1, 3 BB, RBI; Quebell 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Flores 2-4; Mays (PH) 1-2, RBI; Lucas 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Since the Loggers were idle on Monday, we took sole possession of fifth place – YAY!!

Game 2
SFW: CF E. Clark – 2B R. Garza – 1B Bovane – LF Graham – C Cicalina – SS Mateo – RF Durán – 3B J. Martinez – P Huertas
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF Mays – SS Flores – LF Crespo – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Brown

Brownie hadn’t pitched in 10 days, so how would he fare? He struck out Earl Clark to start the game. Then the wheels came off. Ramón Garza singled. Raúl Bovane singled, and Dave Graham walked after a wild pitch. Before the nightmare ended, three runs would go onto the board. Bottom 1st, Sharp and Nomura got on before the music stopped to play there, too, and I went for the cupboard with the secret compartment that contained the liquor. Brown walked Huertas in the second inning, and the pitcher scored on two cheap singles between infielders. The Coons had a 3-run second, in which their ace contributed an RBI double, but it ultimately didn’t help, because that same ace was getting soaked. Urbano Cicalina led off the third with a double and was only nabbed for his eagerness for a triple, being met by Bob Mays’ throw at third base. The Critters trailed 4-3 into the sixth when Mays led off with a single, but was thrown out stealing. That was the last straw for Brown who did not reappear for the seventh, and neither did any brown-clad player potentially capable of wielding a stick. The Raccoons went down silently in this one. 4-3 Warriors. Nomura 3-4, 2 RBI;

For two innings, everything that was poked, fell in for the Warriors. Of course, the actual loss is Brownie’s own fault. You never walk the pitcher. You NEVER walk the ****ING pitcher!

Apart from that, he struck out seven, and it’s only 493 to go to the next milestone: 1,500 K. Hopefully without suspensions, but with some run support.

Game 3
SFW: SS Mateo – C Cicalina – CF E. Clark – LF Graham – 1B Bovane – RF C. Ramirez – 3B R. Garza – 2B Stein – P Crawford
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – SS Flores – RF Mays – C Bowen – CF Crespo – P Amador

Turns out, this was Edgar Amador’s last major league start in a brown uniform. He sucked colossally, fitting his appearance, and the Warriors sent ten men to the plate in the first inning, plating five runs on five hits and two walks. The second was led off by Urbano Cicalina, who had hit a 2-run homer in the first, put a 3-0 pitch in play and back to the mound, and Amador couldn’t dig it out. He also couldn’t make anything with Earl Clark’s grounder that came right back to him. The Warriors put up two more, and we made arrangements for our long relievers to get ready. Bottom 2nd, we had the bags full with one out, only for Daniel Sharp to hit into a double play. Amador allowed hits to Stein and Mateo in the third, which was enough, and Domingo Moreno appeared. Although he walked Cicalina, he got out of the inning without any more scoring, but 7-0 in the third is enough, I think. In a bitter twist, the Coons’ pen would put up six and two third innings of scoreless ball against the Warriors, which their puny offense of course could still not convert into a comeback, despite Bob Mays’ first home run of the season, which had been waited for by the followers longer than the second coming of Jesus Christ. 7-3 Warriors. Brady 2-5; Mays 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Moreno 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

Edgar Amador (0-5, 6.64 ERA) was shown the door, he barely fit through it, took some squeezing. We added Felipe Garcia (1-3, 3.20 ERA in 7 GS in AAA) to the major league roster again. Well, that can only hurt again, but it would have been Garcia or Webster… Garcia will slot into Amador’s spot in the rotation, so he won’t go until next week.

Raccoons (13-20) @ Titans (18-17) – May 12-14, 2006

The Titans had picked up some momentum after being last two weeks into the season. The Raccoons on the other hand……

They were not the team of years past anymore, however. Their ace pitching was no longer ace, O’Halloran and Chapa getting romped regularly, and the rest of the rotation was spotty as well. The lineup failed to produce, and they ranked below average in both runs scored and runs allowed. Their bullpen was good, posting a 2.77 ERA, good enough for fourth in the league. And they’re 2-1 against the Raccoons this year.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (3-2, 2.96 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (3-2, 3.64 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (1-2, 4.76 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (3-1, 2.72 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-4, 4.75 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (2-3, 5.01 ERA)

O’Halloran will be our only southpaw this week, which Steve Searcy has been waiting for …

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – 1B Sharp – LF Brady – SS Flores – 3B Searcy – CF Crespo – RF Greenman – C Wood – P Ford
BOS: CF Garrison – 1B Heffer – LF A. Jenkins – C Rosa – 2B Metting – 3B M. Austin – RF Walls – SS Nichols – P O’Halloran

Nomura reaching for a triple in the top 1st got him thrown out at third base, which cost a run. Sharp and Brady both got on, Brady with a double, and they scored only once on Vic Flores’ sac fly then. And then Ralph Ford walked the first batter in his start, Rudy Garrison, who got collected in Dave Heffer’s double play, then walked Aaron Jenkins instead. That guy Freddy Rosa (.308, 5 HR, 22 RBI) hit a single up the middle, Ford plated Jenkins with a wild pitch, walked Metting, walked Austin, and somehow Tom Walls rolled out to Nomura to keep it at 1-1. Ford got thumped in time, though. Walls’ next at-bat was with two on and two out in the bottom 3rd and he singled in the go-ahead run. We walked Brian Nichols intentionally to bring up O’Halloran, who of course singled into right center, and two more scored. 4-1 Titans, to which they failed to add while Ford was still botching around on the mound, which only lasted through five innings. He allowed eight hits, walked six, and whiffed one. Offensively, no prizes could be won, but the bullpen and defense managed to reach new lows in the seventh inning, in which Rockburn started with facing Jenkins, who grounded to third, and Searcy pulled a Sharp and threw that grounder away. From there, Rockburn and Lucas would not register an out until Jenkins was back at the plate. Nine Titans up, nine Titans on, six Titans in, three Titans on in waiting. We had to bother Marcos Bruno in a 10-2 blowout, and he managed to get out of the ridiculous, steaming mess with one more run allowed on Jenkins’ sac fly before Rosa hit into a double play. Luis Lopez would add a homer off Kaz Kichida in the eighth in a thorough clobbering. 12-2 Titans. Flores 2-3, 2B, RBI; Crespo 2-4; Trevino (PH) 1-1, 2B;

There are no words.

Steve Searcy should be looking for a room in St. Pete. I have a hunch he might drop off a bus there sooner rather than later. In his bag will be the chopped up remains of Rémy Lucas, who faced six, and retired nobody, three hits, three walks.

Game 2
POR: SS Flores – LF Brady – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – RF Mays – 1B Ingram – CF Trevino – C Wood – P Fairchild
BOS: 3B M. Austin – SS Nichols – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – C Rosa – 2B Heffer – 1B L. Lopez – LF Arroyo – P M. Castro

A radically revamped lineup (NOT laid out with dice, as the Agitator would claim on Sunday) saw the Coons score four runs on Mauro Castro in the first four innings, breaking through in a 3-run second frame. Vic Flores, moved to the leadoff spot, drove in three of the runs, while surprisingly Adrian Quebell would appear in the cleanup spot before long as unlikely cleanup hitter Yoshi Nomura tweaked a hammy early in the game and left. Quebell replaced him, moving Ingram to second. The Titans had a few runners in scoring position early in the game, but never scored them, and Fairchild became the first Furball in some time to start and actually make an out in the eighth inning. There, however, Hector Ramirez and Brian Nichols hit singles, and with the left-handers coming up this was the time to ask Ed Bryan for a contribution. He got to 2-2 on both Rudy Garrison and Gonzalo Munoz. While Garrison struck out, Munoz fired a rocket to deep left, but Brady hauled it in just in front of the warning track. Against Bruno in the ninth, Heffer reached base with a single to right, but that was all there was to the Titans in this one. 4-0 Coons. Flores 3-4, 3 RBI; Wood 1-2, BB; Fairchild 7.1 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-2) and 1-2;

Yoshi Nomura was not badly hurt and was entirely fine the next morning.

And it had been a week for a Raccoons starter to get somebody out in the seventh inning, when Ralph Ford went the abbreviated distance in a loss to the Buffaloes.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – LF Brady – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Watanabe
BOS: 3B M. Austin – 2B Metting – CF Garrison – RF G. Munoz – 1B A. Jenkins – C Rosa – SS Nichols – LF Walls – P Hildred

And suddenly, a pitching duel broke out. Neither team amounted to much early on, with the Coons having four and the Titans getting two hits through seven innings. The furthest advance by anybody was Clyde Brady being left on third base in the top 4th. Also the Coons had two men on base when Danny Sharp lined out to third base to end the first inning. Watanabe led off the eighth, but if anything, we wanted to have more of his pitching rather than a pinch-hitter. Watanabe at this point out-hit our entire bench with the sole exception of J.C. Crespo. Maybe Watanabe could – no. Flores made the second out before Brady hit an infield single to Kurt Metting, who only intercepted the ball at the edge between infield and outfield. Nomura with another single. Maybe now was the time. Adrian Quebell came up and chucked a soft liner over the jumping Nichols and into left center for an RBI double! Hey! Scoring! Danny Sharp lined a single to right, with Yoshi scoring easily, and Quebell being sent. Gonzalo Munoz’ throw was well off line and the Coons moved to 3-0. When Aaron Jenkins led off the bottom 8th with a single, we panicked and threw Marcos Bruno into the game. Freddy Rosa drove a ball to deep left, but Brady made a strong catch. Bruno would then erase Nichols and Walls on six pitches. Angel allowed a leadoff hit to Luis Lopez in the ninth, but that was again the last breath the Titans squeezed out before being forcefully expired. 3-0 Coons. Brady 3-4; Sharp 2-4, 2 RBI; Crespo (PH) 1-1; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-4);

In other news

May 10 – The Canadiens take a blow, losing their closer Pedro Alvarado (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7 SV) to elbow inflammation. He might be out for three months.
May 11 – The season could be over for DEN SP Fabien Armand (1-3, 4.73 ERA), who has been diagnosed with shoulder inflammation.
May 13 – NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.321, 4 HR, 17 RBI), who had just returned from a mild oblique strain, is out again with wrist tendinitis, and should miss another two weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Since getting put on a fork and roasted on Friday, the team has now put up 18 scoreless innings (on the plus side, that is) despite starting the guys on the shallow end of the gene pool. That’s nice, and now we hope for a recovery from Nick Brown on Tuesday.

Monday is another off day. We have a back-loaded schedule this year, with only one off day in September. But to be honest, having no days off in September is better than having no days off in May…

Then again, with this team, any off day can only be a good day.

Ryan Miller, potentially our actually best prospect (because who gives an ooze for BNN?), had started the year in AAA, struggled badly, and had gone back to AA for two weeks, where he shredded pitching .396/.434/.729 with 4 HR and 11 RBI. He is now back in St. Pete to work on that .175 average. If he manages to get the bat up (or walk a lot) there, then we might call him up in the second half of the season. Miller is really a shortstop and hasn’t played anywhere else for extended periods of time in his life, which makes him clash with Vic Flores, who will be arbitration eligible once more after this season. However, Flores can fill in all over the diamond, for struggling starters, for example. Both are batting right-handed, unfortunately, so the platoon opportunities are rather limited.

Oh, and I’m not sure whether I have mentioned it already, but I hate Christian Greenman’s guts.