[Westheim]

Raccoons (27-32) @ Gold Sox (30-31) – June 12-14, 2006

The Gold Sox, who had not finished with a losing record since going 74-88 in 1998, and had won a title in 2003, where coming in just a hair under .500; well, dear socks, never mind with your eighth place offense that hardly outscores (+14 RD) your strong pitching, because no matter how hard you smell, the Raccoons are coming in to deliver some free wins. Since 2000 we played them four times, lost three of those series, and won only four games total against them.

Projected matchups:
Felipe Garcia (2-2, 5.70 ERA) vs. Antonio Donis (6-3, 2.45 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-3, 2.68 ERA) vs. Jerry Lane (3-3, 3.96 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (4-6, 4.64 ERA) vs. Victor Bernal (5-7, 3.07 ERA)

Donis is of course the guy that couldn’t even go five innings with ease when he was a Raccoon in the late 90s. The Gold Sox had made Donis a full time starter again last year, and he went 16-7 with a 2.75 ERA, going 199.2 innings. He’s 34 now, and his control issues are long forgotten. He has walked 12 batters in 77 innings. Our lineup for the opener had only nine AB against him, with only two hits, those being held by Greenman and Sharp.

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – RF Greenman – C Bowen – 3B Sharp – 2B Ingram – P F. Garcia
DEN: 2B Correa – LF F. Jones – RF Pujols – SS J. Lopez – CF Gentil – C A. Ortíz – 1B May – 3B D. Mendez – P Donis

While the Raccoons couldn’t do anything after both Flores and Brady hit infield singles in the first inning, Garcia couldn’t get a pitch for a strike past any of the first four batters, three of which reached, and the Gold Sox went up 1-0 in the bottom 1st. Bottom 2nd, two outs, nobody on, Quebell butchered Donis’ grounder for an error, and the next three Gold Sox landed base hits to extend their lead to 3-0. Garcia was just Garcia, completely inept, doing the barest minimum to strike out Donis to end the third with two Sox in scoring position waiting to be driven in. But the bottom 4th was Garcia’s last inning. He walked Jose Correa before allowing doubles to Freddie Jones and Pedro Pujols, 5-0, and Jose Lopez drew another walk. Pujols and Lopez would be stranded through no contribution by Garcia at all, but by Fernandez stretching those legs to intercept a looping Nick May drive to deepest center to end the inning. As might be guessed from the score, the Coons had nothing at all against Donis. Garcia continued to mess in the fifth, hitting Donis with a pitch, and then was hooked and butchered to feed the pigs. Trying to get some mop up innings from Matt Cash was highly unsuccessful as well, and Cash allowed a run in the sixth, then was cut open and disemboweled in the seventh. With two runs already in, Riddle replaced him, and allowed the two runners still on base to score as well. Donis scorched the hopeless Raccoons on three singles and struck out a dozen while walking none in just 92 pitches – and in his first career complete game ever. 10-0 Gold Sox.

Worst game since the George Kirk no-hitter. Maybe even worse. Hard to tell. There’s an emotional component involved, and the knowledge to have made another ****ing ******ed trade. Basically, around a corner or two, we converted Donis and two others into Edgar Amador. So yay, lucky us.

I should be fired…

Oh ya, we have not scored in 24 innings.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Fernandez – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – C Wood – P Brown
DEN: 2B Correa – 1B May – RF Pujols – SS J. Lopez – CF Gentil – C A. Ortíz – 3B D. Mendez – LF M. Trevino – P Águila

Brown was pretty dominant, hardly giving up sound contact early on, while the Gold Sox got a spot start from Jaime Águila (0-2, 7.71 ERA), who allowed a few hits early, but the Raccoons couldn’t get anything put together once they had a runner in scoring position, which they had in the second, third, and fourth innings. Somewhere in between they suffered another decimation event with Eddie Fernandez, just back from the DL, hurting himself on a defensive play and being replaced by J.C. Crespo. By not scoring through six, the Raccoons lengthened their drought to 30 innings, the longest in recent memory. Brownie however stuttered and allowed doubles to both Correa and May in the bottom 6th to fall 1-0 behind – a fatal mistake of course. Who should pick him up after all? Maybe a leadoff jack by Danny Sharp in the seventh would do, but that was all Brownie would get, being criminally unsupported once more. He went eight, but was left with empty hands. Law Rockburn and Scott Hood zeroed in on the opposition in the ninth and tenth innings, and Adam Riddle took care of the 11th. He was sent to the plate in the top 12th when Crespo reached base with a leadoff single, and was to bunt J.C. to second. The bunt was horrible, but thrown away by reliever Andres Gamez, and all hands were safe. Daniel Sharp doubled to left, plating Crespo, then waited in scoring position with riddle and watched in disbelief as Searcy grounded out poorly and Greenman struck out, and Yoshi Nomura continued to not get anything done and popped out to shallow center. That put Angel Casas into a 2-1 game and his recent struggles made you long for additional cushion. After retiring Lopez and Gentil on groundouts, Alfredo Ortíz and Zak Davidson both hit singles, with another left-hander in Freddie Jones up, but Jones popped out to Vic Flores and this game was over. 2-1 Raccoons. Brady 2-4, BB; Crespo 2-4; Sharp 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Jaime Águila lowered his ERA by almost two and a half runs. And the non-support for Brownie is just infuriating. I just want to beat them senseless…

Eddie Fernandez will go back to the DL with a back strain. He might be back at the very end of the month, but it could become early July, too. For now, no batter was called up, but we added Edgar Amador to slide him into the rotation in place of the completely incompetent Garcia, who was to join the bullpen, but in fact he might soon end up being AFM’ed – annihilated from membership. We have quite a bit of junk in that pen now. Time for Marcos Bruno to heal up! While Rockburn can handle the eighth inning competently, the next best thing to him is now Kaz Kichida, and that is not a great statement to make.

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – CF Crespo – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – P Watanabe
DEN: 2B Correa – LF F. Jones – RF Pujols – SS J. Lopez – CF Gentil – C A. Ortíz – 1B May – 3B Davidson – P Lane

Lane had almost as many (33/39) walks as strikeouts, and was not very enduring, but we had seen on Monday what not very enduring pitchers can do against these Horrorcoons. The Raccoons loaded the bases on two hits and a walk in the first inning before with one out Crespo lifted a ball to Bryan Gentil in center, Flores was sent, and thrown out at home. Another scoreless duel developed, in which Watanabe survived Craig Bowen’s clumsiness that allowed Zak Davidson to reach on a passed ball to start the third inning, only to crash violently in the fifth, where Jerry Lane hit a 2-out RBI single past a no less clumsy Sharp to give himself a lead, only to lose it almost instantly in the top 6th by walking Nomura and then surrendering two singles that went through between May and Correa, first to Brady and then the game-tying single to Quebell, and Brady scored on a groundout by Crespo to now put Watanabe ahead, 2-1. Pedro Pujols doubled with one out in the bottom 6th and was on third base after Lopez singled, but Watanabe converted Gentil’s grounder for an out at second base and escaped when Ortíz grounded out to first. Bowen upped to 3-1 in the seventh and Lane was gone after singles by Nomura and Flores, but left-hander Kevin Jones, sporting flashing red sideburns, retired Clyde Brady to keep the runners stranded. All of this was just a warmup to a colossally awful bottom of the eighth, where we tried not to use Law Rockburn after two innings the previous day, used Kichida, and it promptly blew up in our fuzzy faces. The Gold Sox plated three runs against a sorry parade by Kichida, Rockburn, and finally Moreno, and then we looked at Scott Hood in the ninth, trailing 4-3. Hood had struck out four in two innings on Monday, but allowed a leadoff single to Sharp before Bowen and Searcy whiffed. Nomura didn’t poke at every piece of junk and drew a walk, bringing up Flores, who ripped the first pitch into the outfield where it split Gentil and Pujols and got to the wall! Sharp was in, and Nomura was waved around and scored!! Hood balked Flores to third before Brady struck out, and here came Angel, walked Davidson on four straight, and that one was only ever going to go away. Shawn Roberts singled, Jorge Lopez singled, and Casas went down in flames. 6-5 Gold Sox. Flores 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Crespo 2-3, RBI; Watanabe 6.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K;

Great. Bruno on the DL, and Angel has turned into one of the sponges. **** my life.

Kevin Jones was a Raccoon for nine games a few years back, posting an ERA over 11. Why is it that everybody ****s up once he wears a brown uniform?

Raccoons (28-34) vs. Crusaders (33-31) – June 15-18, 2006

The Crusaders come in for four. We are 2-1 against them, but they crumpled us to a 6-12 tune last season and with this team, it only ever can get worse. They were giving up the least runs in the league, so how about a nice challenge for our numb lineup? Their own offense was average, sixth in the league, but they again weren’t really playing to a lopsided positive run differential, coming in at +39, while the Raccoons had dropped to -30 after the most recent smotherings.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (5-6, 3.20 ERA) vs. Russell Benson (5-4, 2.06 ERA)
Edgar Amador (0-5, 6.64 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (7-2, 2.14 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (2-5, 4.80 ERA) vs. George Kirk (4-3, 3.43 ERA)
Nick Brown (7-3, 2.53 ERA) vs. Greg Connor (4-6, 3.03 ERA)

You see that pitching alignment, and you know it’s gonna be a long, sad weekend, with four right-handers on deck for the Crusaders that can all be nasty, and one of them has a particular knack for the Raccoons…

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – C J. Lopez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – 2B Burns – SS Guerin – 1B Nava – P Benson
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Crespo – LF Brady – RF Mays – 1B Sharp – 3B Searcy – C Wood – P Ford

Neither pitcher had much in the way of stuff and with frequent traffic on the bases it would come down to hitting in the clutch and to a bit of luck. Both teams plated one run in the first inning, and the Crusaders were up 2-1 in the bottom 3rd with Nomura and Flores on, as Crespo batted with one out. Crespo sent a hard grounder to second, where Ian Burns nabbed the ball, flipped it behind his back to Concie at the base, and Concie fired to first for the double play. Well, if you got circus plays like that turned against you…

Despite the acrobatics on display, Clyde Brady’s leadoff double in the fourth put the Crusaders in a bad spot, and a passed ball on Jorge Lopez didn’t help either. Brady scored on Mays’ groundout and the game was tied. Ford was just surviving without any stuff, but in the bottom 6th Vic Flores hit a leadoff single to right, then had a running start on Crespo’s single, made it to third while drawing the throw from Stanton Martin and was safe, with Crespo moving up. Runners on second and third, no outs, Brady represented the only vague impression of danger around and was walked intentionally, which worked out splendidly for the Crusaders, who held the damage to one run on Bob Mays’ sac fly before Sharp and Searcy sucked their team out of the inning. Ford held on through eight, on remarkably few pitches, because the Crusaders hit an unusual amount of soft pops all over the place. In the bottom 8th the Coons loaded the bases once more on a string of singles off Anthony Duhamel. Bob Wood with two out grounded to the mound, but against the direction Duhamel was falling to, and nobody could make a play for a bases-loaded RBI single to shove the score to 4-2. Bowen hit for Ford and singled to right, plating Mays and Quebell, and the lead was 6-2. Kaz Kichida got assigned the ninth, and issued two walks without retiring anybody. No-no-no, you won’t get a chance to blow this one. Ed Bryan was thrown in against Jose Nava, a switch-hitter who was weaker against lefties, and Nava hit straight into a double play before Daryl Anderson made the third out to Bob Mays. 6-2 Raccoons. Nomura 3-5; Flores 2-3, BB, 2B; Crespo 2-4; Brady 1-2, BB, 2B, RBI; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Bowen (PH) 1-1, 2 RBI; Ford 8.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-6); Bryan 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (1);

Steve Searcy (.167 in 72 AB) was demoted after this game. He was just not contributing anything. Yoshi Yamada, who had been fairly warm the last few weeks in AAA, rejoined the team to play a more versatile version of an offensively helpless backup.

This was also the day of the draft, the report on which will come in a separate post.

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Grant – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – 3B J. Henry – C D. Anderson – 1B Nava – P A. Javier
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Crespo – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Wood – RF Greenman – P Amador

Whatever Amador appeared to have found again in AAA, he had left it there. Once Daryl Anderson’s rocket sunk into the bleachers in left center, it was 6-0 Crusaders. In the first inning. After Roberto Pena had made an out, the Crusaders had knocked five straight singles, leading up to Anderson’s big stroke. It was a game that was best witnessed drunk and/or asleep. The Coons scored two runs in the bottom of the first before Amador drilled Ortíz and allowed a single to Martin in the top 2nd. We pulled the parachute right there and threw in Felipe Garcia to make himself useful. He couldn’t make this blowout any more awful than it was. The Crusaders attempted a double steal, but Bob Wood threw out Ortíz at third base, which greatly helped in escaping that inning. Astonishingly, the Raccoons made a vague comeback attempt. It didn’t LOOK pretty, with all the flapping paws and waving tails, and Garcia continuing to give up runs, but Clyde Brady hit a 2-run homer and 2-run triple to get the Raccoons back into the game, only to fail miserably and pop out to end the seventh when he actually came up as the tying run there. That was also their last gasp in the game. 9-7 Crusaders. Flores 2-4; Crespo 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Brady 2-4, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; Yamada (PH) 1-2;

They score seven runs for the first time since May – and they lose. Goddamnit.

Edgar Amador was cleansed off the roster and banished to St. Petersburg with his 7.75 ERA, while Felipe Garcia, who allowed eight hits for three runs in five innings in long relief here, was designated for assignment. Again.

We added Tim Webster and Santiago Trevino from AAA.

Game 3
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Grant – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Rice – C J. Lopez – 3B Burns – 1B Nava – P Kirk
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Crespo – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – CF Trevino – P Fairchild

Kirk surrendered a hit in time, a single to Sharp in the second that was following walks to Brady and Quebell. Bowen hit into a double play but Brady scored to make it 1-0. Another chance was wasted in the next inning. Fairchild was pitching a very good game with lots of groundballs, but with Fairchild, as pathetic a starter as they come, you were never safe, and even less so with a 1-0 lead. Fairchild made it into the sixth with that lead, but not out of it. Pena was on second base with two outs, and in succession Ortíz and Martin had RBI hits to flip the score to 2-1 for the road team. Fairchild got out of trouble with Lopez on third base in the next inning, but where was that offense when you really needed it? Hard asnooze, it turned out. Quebell singled and Sharp walked in the bottom 7th before Bowen hit into another two-for-one. The Raccoons only got Quebell in to tie the game because Trevino legged out an infield single after grounding to the second base bag. Trevino stole his way to second base, but Bob Mays, hitting for Fairchild, failed, and the score remained tied. We used Moreno, Rockburn, and Bryan for two outs each to finish regulation, with the Crusaders riding Kirk for nine innings, and Bryan continued in the 10th, but allowing a leadoff single to lefty Ming Kui. Pena bunted Kui to second, upon which Adam Riddle came in and got Bob Grant on a groundout. That put left-hander Martin Ortíz at the plate, with the right-hander Stanton Martin after that. Well, either one can kill you here, as both were batting .320 with power, but I’d fancy Riddle’s chances better against the latter, so Ortíz was put on intentionally. Stanton Martin sent Riddle’s first pitch to the Pacific, while Charlie Deacon struck out Bowen, Trevino, and Wood in the bottom of the inning. 5-2 Crusaders. Sharp 2-3, BB; Fairchild 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

…!

On Sunday, the Raccoons were awarded the contract of LF/RF Jose Lugo after claiming him off waivers from the Pacifics. Lugo, 30, batting right-handed, is batting a gruesome .185/.267/.272 in 81 AB this season, but we’re banking on him returning to his 2001-02 form when he OPS’ed over .800.

That was before he tore up both of his knees, by the way.

Tom Ingram was demoted to get Lugo onto the roster.

Game 4
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B Grant – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – 3B J. Henry – SS Rice – C J. Lopez – 1B Nava – P Connor
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Mays – C Wood – CF Trevino – P Brown

Another odd start in Brownieland. While he struck out five in the first two innings, laboring over 41 pitches, the Raccoons scored single runs in both innings, once after a Nomura triple that barely amounted to a run on a Quebell sac fly, and then on a leadoff shot by Bob Mays. Brownie threw many balls, and then in the fourth suddenly was befallen by rotten luck again. Stanton Martin led off with a single to center. Ortíz hit a single to center. Jerry Henry hit a single to center! Martin was sent for home on that single, but was cut down in a very close play by Trevino. Lopez walked after Rice flew out to center, but Nava struck out to end the inning with the Crusaders still not on the board – somehow. Brownie struck out the side in the fifth, which gave him nine strikeouts on the day – and none of those with less than two balls! He got through the meat of the order once more in the sixth, but was done after that, having thrown 108 pitches. After the Raccoons refused a generous donation in form of a throwing error by Lopez on Mays’ stolen base attempt in the bottom 6th that put Mays at third with one out. Wood failed, Trevino didn’t get a chance, and Greenman hit a fly to left center, but Ortíz caught that. So it remained 2-0 for the Furballs, and a gasping bullpen had a to somehow collect nine outs without cocking up – and that had to start with Kaz Kichida. While Kaz walked a man, he got through the inning. In the eighth, Bryan retired Pena before Rockburn killed off the next two guys to complete the bridge to Angel. And for Angel, the struggles just continued. He struck out Ortíz, got Henry on a grounder to Sharp, and then – walked Rice, walked Lopez. Ape Britton hit in the #8 hole, a left-hander. Was there any juice in Moreno? Nah, the whole bullpen was aching and creaking, and other than capital pushover Matt Cash there was nobody available. Angel had to solve this one. One strike to Britton, two strikes to Britton, and then a drive to deep right, and everything fell to dust. One Crusader over the plate, two Crusaders over the plate, and the boos made it one gloomy place to be at that point. The boos hardly yielded to cheers when Craig Bowen hit a walkoff homer in the bottom of the ninth. 3-2 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4, 3B; Flores 2-4; Mays 2-4, HR, RBI; Bowen 1-1, HR, RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K;

Nick Brown can’t wait to get out of this ****hole. Three and half more years. He has to get out. He won’t get to 100 career wins on this capital **** team.

In other news

June 14 – IND OF Paco Javier (.211, 2 HR, 15 RBI), whom the Indians had acquired from the Crusaders just a few weeks ago, has to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a torn UCL, and is out for the season.
June 15 – Sophomore sensation CHA 3B Javier Rodriguez (.345, 2 HR, 23 RBI) not only ranks top 3 in batting in the Continental League, and leads all of baseball with 30 stolen bases, he now also has crafted the CL’s first 20-game hitting streak of the season with a first inning single in a 3-2 Falcons win over the Warriors.
June 16 – And there’s two: DAL 2B/3B Hector Garcia (.357, 5 HR, 49 RBI) completes his own 20-game hitting streak with a last-chance double in the Stars’ 7-2 win over the Wolves.

Complaints and stuff

Depressing fact: We are 2-10 in interleague play this year.

Depressing fact: We can’t score runs, we can’t hold leads, and we can’t ever come back from anything, and if we do come back from anything, and take a lead, we can’t hold it.

Depressing fact: IT. HAS. BEEN. TEN. YEARS.