[Westheim]

We sent Eddie Fernandez to rehab in St. Pete for at least one series, and would see where things would fall – most likely by the wayside – later.

Raccoons (22-25) vs. Aces (24-25) – May 29-31, 2006

The Aces were already 9 1/2 games behind the romping Falcons, with their run production and prevention efforts both having them at the top of the second division in the Continental League. Their bullpen was relatively weak, although both halves of their pitching staff were posting roughly 4.00 ERA’s. They also didn’t field very well, but for all their shortcomings they were 2-1 against the Critters this year.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (1-1, 6.10 ERA) vs. Rafael De Jesus (4-3, 4.61 ERA)
Ralph Ford (4-4, 3.20 ERA) vs. Bob Bowden (3-2, 3.00 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (2-3, 3.50 ERA) vs. Jim Pennington (5-4, 3.44 ERA)

Their entire staff was right-handed, so still no southpaw for us.

Game 1
LVA: LF Covington – 3B Warrain – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – CF Messinger – RF R. Garcia – 1B Breach – SS F. Soto – P De Jesus
POR: SS Flores – 3B Sharp – LF Crespo – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 2B Ingram – P F. Garcia

Vic Flores made awesome plays left and right, and Felipe Garcia a) couldn’t be bothered to field his own position, and b) gave up a 2-run homer to Rafael De Jesus after tardily allowing Alan Breach on base to start the third inning. It was De Jesus’ first career homer, and precisely the point where we started to look how Edgar Amador was doing in AAA (hint: not good). Garcia was allowed to showcase his crummy interpretation of the art of pitching for six and a third innings, eventually being charged with six runs, including a 2-run shot by Tom Turner in the sixth, and a bullpen meltdown in the seventh, where he left with two men on for Ed Bryan to face Martin Covington. The visiting leftfielder plated a run with a groundout, before Bryan and Rockburn went on to issue three straight walks, and only the first one to Inaki-Luki Warrain was intentional. When Kaz Kichida was romped for three more runs in the eighth inning, the rout was officially on. The Raccoons out-hit the Aces 10-9 in this one, but whenever they had a chance, they hit into a two-for-one. 9-2 Aces. Brady 3-4, HR, RBI; Bowen 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; Ingram 2-3, 2B; Moreno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Ack.

Game 2
LVA: LF Covington – 3B Warrain – 2B O. Torres – RF R. Garcia – SS Vieitas – C Abrams – CF F. Rivera – 1B Breach – P Bowden
POR: SS Flores – CF Crespo – LF Brady – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Searcy – RF Mays – 2B Ingram – P Ford

Ralph Ford expended 120 pitches for seven shutout innings while whiffing nine in a game that became more defined by horrendous running and fielding. Before rain halted the game for an hour in the bottom 7th, there had been four attempts to steal bases, three of which had ended in defeat. The lone success was Vic Flores’ first bag of the year (just before June, too!) in the third inning, leading to Crespo’s RBI double before Crespo was one of three runners (alongside Mays and Covington) to get caught. The Coons added two runs in the bottom 5th on an RBI single by Brady and another runner coming home on Fernando Rivera’s awful attempt that was 45 feet wide of home plate. Batting under .100, Rivera was very aware to not help his team in any way. The game also featured resented ex-Raccoon Cesar Salcido, who appeared in relief in the bottom 7th to retire Clyde Brady and end the inning. Bowen drew a walk off him in the eighth before Quebell sent one far, far away, much to the enjoyment of the home crowd, and when Christian Greenman hit for Bob Mays to counter the left-handed Salcido and went deep himself, the crowd went berzerk, jeering both pitcher AND batter! Nomura hit for Rockburn with two out and was drilled by Salcido, which almost sparked the next fisticuffs, with Brady, Quebell, Brown, and a few others actually leaving the dugout, with a few of the Aces reserves doing the same, but nobody that was not on business defending a randomly marked-off parcel of planet Earth inside the foul lines crossed over them and the umpires maintained control. When Vic Flores’ bat spoke for a 2-run home run off Salcido to complete a 5-run inning, the home crowd was ecstatic. 8-0 Raccoons!! Flores 1-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Crespo 2-5, 2B, RBI; Mays 2-3; Greenman (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Ford 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (5-4);

Despite being outrageously **** and a joy to stomp on, Salcido has still made himself a career since sucking really hard for the 1994-97 Raccoons. He is eight short of 500 career appearances.

The Titans took over first place on this 30th of May. They are still not dead, those suckers. Somehow the Raccoons continue to be only 4 1/2 out, too.

Game 3
LVA: LF Covington – 3B Warrain – 2B O. Torres – C T. Turner – CF Messinger – RF R. Garcia – 1B Breach – SS Vieitas – P Pennington
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Crespo – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – C Wood – P Fairchild

Fairchild was nothing short of adrift in the first inning with two hits and two walks plating a run and loading the bases before Ricardo Garcia hit into a double play to let him off the butcher’s hook. A grievously horrendous Fairchild didn’t make it through even four innings despite the Aces stinking it up and stranding six in the first three innings. In the fourth, he melted away completely, issuing a walk, a balk, a wild pitch, a few singles, and left trailing 3-0 with two on and two out. Moreno walked Forest Messinger to load them up, but Ricardo Garcia fouled out to run the Aces’ LOB to a woofing nine. The bottom 4th saw the so far tame Critters step into action when Brady led off with a double. Quebell singled and Sharp unluckily lined out to Herberto Vieitas at short. Then however, Mays singled, 3-1, and Wood lined a double into the leftfield corner to tie the score. Moreno was sent to bat with another five innings to pitch, grounded to Pennington, and Pennington failed to beat Moreno’s snail pace to first. Yoshi Nomura sent the Raccoons ahead with a hard RBI double that almost ate up Alan Breach on its way to the corner in right, and Flores hit a bloop single to get to 5-3 before Pennington, shelled and shocked, got a pop from Crespo and a lineout to center from Brady. Although Moreno walked Vieitas and threw a wild pitch, the Aces didn’t score in the top 5th, and the Aces would also leave runners on third base against Lucas in the seventh and Bruno in the eighth. The score didn’t change all those innings with the Raccoons doing hardly anything and never touching second base again, while the Aces always fell short. In the ninth against Angel Casas, they didn’t fall short – they didn’t even get moving! Messinger and Garcia grounded out poorly, and Alan Breach went down ripping. 5-3 Coons! Nomura 2-4, 2B, RBI; Flores 2-4, RBI; Quebell 2-4; Wood 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Moreno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (1-1) and 1-1;

We went on to play a bit with the following off day, which would have been Watanabe’s turn. Instead, we skipped him on Thursday and put him in to pitch Saturday, after Brownie’s turn on regular rest on Friday. Garcia got dropped to the end of the line.

Before the Loggers series, we recalled Eddie Fernandez from AAA, switching him with Santiago Trevino, who had certainly made everybody aware of his presence, but with Fernandez around we don’t need another defensive centerfielder batting .240 … Trevino, who was plucked straight from AA Ham Lake, reported to St. Pete now.

Raccoons (24-26) @ Loggers (20-32) – June 2-4, 2006

There were a number of reasons for the Loggers’ being in last place. Take their last place offense, for example. Or their last place pitching staff, which included the last place rotation ever since the grim reaper had collected Martin Garcia (5-1, 1.52 ERA), who would be out for most or all of June. Even the long-great Bakile Hiwalani was batting .225! Yet, they had flogged the Raccoons to a 4-1 tune this season.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (6-3, 2.54 ERA) vs. William Lloyd (3-5, 3.39 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (4-4, 3.95 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (5-4, 4.54 ERA)
Ralph Ford (5-4, 2.89 ERA) vs. Dani Alvarado (1-9, 6.72 ERA)

Lloyd is the first southpaw we see in roughly two weeks.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – LF Crespo – CF Fernandez – RF Greenman – 3B Searcy – P Brown
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – 3B Tolwith – SS K. Scott – C T. Phillips – P Lloyd

Tim Austin’s RBI triple scored Bartolo Hernandez from second base to give the Loggers an early 1-0 lead, but the game was already tied when Nick Brown came to bat in the second inning. He had the bases loaded with one out and singled to right, scoring Crespo, but Greenman was thrown out by Hiwalani, and when Nomura lined out to Jimmy Bayle the score remained 2-1. Brown also expended too many pitches for balls early on. The Loggers also made contact rather easily, and in the bottom 4th had Paco Batlle stroke a leadoff single to left. Tolwith, Brown’s old enemy, struck out, but Keith Scott singled to right, with Greenman’s arm being tested by Batlle, who went to third, but was thrown out. And still, everything came down. Tom Phillips was behind 1-2 quickly, fouled off three pitches, before Brown’s seventh offering was wild. Phillips then grounded to Nomura, who missed it completely for an error. Runners on the corners with two outs, William Lloyd singled up the middle to tie the score. Brown was visibly upset on the mound, walked Bayle, before Hernandez popped out to shallow right to strand a full complement of runners. Brownie got a new lease on a win when Craig Bowen singled in Yoshi with two outs in the top 5th, but soon found himself taken deep by Austin in the bottom of the same inning, and couldn’t get out of the sixth inning at all, with another Lloyd single being the jump starter for two more singles, a run, and then a bases-loading driller to Austin. Rockburn was thrown into the emergency and got Hiwalani on a fly to center to end the inning, but Brown was now trailing, 4-3.

He didn’t lose the game, however. Lloyd was removed after Nomura and Sharp reached in the top 7th, with right-hander Dave Walk (a South Korean!) appearing to face an 0-3 Crespo. That cried out for Clyde Brady to pinch-hit, and the veteran sent a hopper to the right side that eluded Hernandez’ golden glove and vanished in rightfield, with Nomura scoring from second base in the flight of his life. That wasn’t all yet: Fernandez and Greenman also hit RBI singles before the inning ran out and the Coons took a 6-3 lead.

Bottom 7th: Paco Batlle led off with a single past Searcy, and then Tolwith hit an infield single. Uh-oh. Dave Wheaton hit for Scott, but grounded to Nomura, who retired Tolwith on a fielder’s choice. Runners on the corners against Rockburn, Wheaton took off from first and was nailed by Bowen before Phillips flew out to right, leaving the Loggers with nothing at all. But we had gotten the lead through seven, so now it was time to form an orderly row between Marcos Bruno and Angel Casas and prepare for tomorrow’s game.

Unless Daniel Sharp made a stupid error. The play was difficult, a poor grounder by Tolwith, but he still made a big mess, and put a man on with two outs in the ninth. Casas, who was already off the mound, suddenly had to get back on. And you could SEE how much his mental door had been slammed shut when he issued a 4-pitch walk to Dave Wheaton. The pitching coach got out in a hurry to give him a little talk before Tom Phillips stepped in. Casas only got to 1-1 before Phillips drilled a ball to left. The hard line bounced in, but Brady had taken a good route; Tolwith was gonna score, but they sent Dave Wheaton, too, and Brady unloaded a lethal rocket back towards home plate – A PERFECT THROW, right into Bowen’s mitt, Bowen slammed into Wheaton as both tumbled over home plate!! Where’s the ball!!?? BOWEN HAS IT – and Wheaton was OUT!!!! 6-5 Furballs!! Sharp 2-4, BB; Bowen 3-5, 2B, RBI; Brady (PH) 1-2, RBI; Fernandez 3-5, RBI; Greenman 2-5, 2 RBI; Rockburn 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (2-0);

Well, Brownie, I love you to bits, but … that was pretty **** a game. It was also the occasion for the first run against Angel Casas all season long – and it was unearned for Sharp reasons.

But after this Brownie start was a bit of a bummer for fanboy reasons, the Raccoons had a chance to get back to .500 in their next game. Poor Kenichi. He will allow 11 runs in two thirds of an inning.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – CF Fernandez – P Watanabe
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – 3B Tolwith – SS K. Scott – C J. Reyes – P J. Diaz

… which was pretty much what happened. Paco Batlle’s 3-run shot in the first put the Loggers ahead, and they simply wouldn’t trail again. The Loggers had no other hits in the first four innings, while the Raccoons had eight, with offense always stopping at Craig Bowen, who hit into inning-ending double plays twice and struck out once, leaving them 3-2 short before the Loggers had consecutive 1-out RBI doubles from Batlle and Tolwith in the bottom 6th to knock the wildly unexciting Watanabe from the game. The Raccoons would not get a single hit past the fourth inning, going down without much fuss this time, with Junior Diaz pitching into the ninth inning before finally running out of beat. The Loggers had another run in the bottom 8th, Batlle hurting Rémy Lucas, who did not retire anybody and had to be rescued and reanimated by Domingo Moreno. 6-2 Loggers. Flores 2-4; Mays 2-3, 2B; Kichida 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

There were only four strikeouts in total in this game, two by Diaz, and one each by our Japanese faction.

Also, we made a move. Rémy Lucas had been decent early in the season, but recently he was only creating trouble. He was demoted to AAA, and we recalled Cody Bryant, a right-hander, who had already retired five batters earlier this season while Angel was on the DL.

Rubber game time. The Coons’ have won their last three rubber games.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – CF Fernandez – P Ford
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – 3B Tolwith – SS K. Scott – C T. Phillips – P Alvarado

Another day, another chance to score, another inning-ending double play from Bowen, who ended the first despite Nomura and Brady reaching. The bottom 1st quickly showed the next left-hander that didn’t have nothing, with Ford having the bases loaded in a hurry, with the Loggers leaving it at two runs for starters on a Batlle sac fly and an RBI single by Aaron Tolwith. It never stopped being a wild ride for Ford in this game, who through three innings struck out six, but also allowed five hits, four walks, and three runs. He drilled Hiwalani to start the bottom 5th, then converted a Batlle grounder into a double play himself, but the Raccoons couldn’t do anything with Alvarado, and trailed 3-1, their only run scoring after Mays singled, stole second, and came home on Fernandez’ single. Quebell then led off the top of the sixth with a line drive homer to right that wrapped around the inside of the foul pole. Ford went six, Rockburn just so survived the seventh, and in the eighth we had Brady lead off with a single to represent the tying run. Uh-oh, Bowen’s next. Bowen was satisfied with making one out to left this time, and instead Quebell hit into the double play, and the Loggers had waited all week to bring out Robbie Wills in the ninth… 3-2 Loggers. Brady 3-4;

In other news

May 30 – The Stars will be without OF Cesar Morán (.347, 4 HR, 36 RBI) for a month after the 26-year old has come down with a sore shoulder.
May 31 – At age 39, SFW 3B/2B Jim Stein (.423, 3 HR, 22 RBI in 97 AB) joins a new club, reaching 2,500 career hits with a 3-3 day in the Warriors’ 11-9 win over the Rebels. Stein reaches the milestone with a fourth inning single off Richmond’s Esteban Flores. The 26th overall pick by the Capitals in the 1984 draft, Stein was traded to the Loggers while still a prospect and debuted for them in 1989, leaving as free agent in 1994. Since then he has been constantly on the move and is now on his third stint with the Warriors after 1998 and 2002. For his career he has batted .304 with 77 HR and 991 RBI and was an All Star three times. He also led baseball in hits with 222 in 1995.
June 1 – Darkness falls over Topeka: SP Tony Hamlyn (6-2, 2.45 ERA) is lost for the year with a partially torn labrum.
June 2 – Topeka’s Jack Berry (6-4, 2.77 ERA) tries to compensate for the loss of their ace, 3-hitting the Rebelsin a 2-0 shutout.
June 2 – The Indians acquire 2B Cesar Aguilar (.266, 4 HR, 15 RBI) from the Miners, sending over an unranked prospect.
June 3 – Los Angeles’ Stanley Murphy (.293, 6 HR, 36 RBI) has five hits including three doubles and plates four runners in a 16-9 thumping of the Pacifics over the Scorpions.

Complaints and stuff

How good is Tony Hamlyn? He is not even three full years older than Nick Brown, but beats him by 106 wins, 0.50 ER/9 and 1,170 strikeouts. He is the first legit shot the ABL has on a 4,000 strikeout guy. Well, that injury sure sucks not only for the Buffaloes.

We went out of our way by scoring 25 runs this week, which isn’t all that much (4.16 R/G), a mark attained only ONE other time this season in a week with less than seven games. We plated 21 runs twice, 17 runs thrice, and 16 once. Our only 7-game week ended with 31 runs. That was in early April, when we were 7-1.

But April's long gone.