[Westheim]

Ugly 8-game week as we are processing 21-in-20. Still looking for a spot starter. Might pick Sergio Vega. But shouldn’t we at least pretend that we try to win?

Raccoons (64-70) vs. Loggers (57-79) – September 4-7, 2006

Four games in four days with the Loggers, the easy part of the whole thing (not because of the Loggers, but because of the intricacies of the space-time-continuum. They were soundly in last place (though a sweep could to a lot with that soundly part), not hitting, nor pitching. They had the least runs scored, and the third-most runs allowed with a hefty -149 run differential. There was just nothing on this team that even a mother could love. Yet they had taken eight of eleven from the Coons…

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (8-4, 2.89 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (5-8, 6.32 ERA)
Ralph Ford (12-10, 3.52 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (10-5, 2.69 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (13-11, 4.36 ERA) vs. Junior Diaz (10-11, 3.82 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (7-14, 4.15 ERA) vs. George Norris (6-13, 5.72 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: LF Bayle – SS Tolwith – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 2B B. Hernandez – 1B Wheaton – C T. Phillips – 3B O. Rios – P R. Thomas
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Crespo – RF Brady – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – P Brown

The Loggers had a rather dark hour at the start of the game, making three errors in the first two innings, which in addition to unsound pitching by Thomas (five hits, one walk) led to five runs, the amount of which that were actually earned was not easy to decipher. Two errors were made by normally sure-handed Bakile Hiwalani in rightfield. Hiwalani would single in the Loggers’ first run in the fourth inning, plating Aaron Tolwith, who had been plunked by Nick Brown. And we had seen that before… The run just surrendered was put back onto the board on Flores’ groundout in the bottom of the same inning, and the Raccoons exploded for four more runs on four extra base hits in the bottom 5th. Brady homered, Quebell and Pruitt doubled, and then Bowen homered to make it a 10-1 game. Vic Flores cost Brownie an unearned run in the seventh inning with an eror on Bartolo Hernandez’ grounder to start the frame. We tried to push Brown for eight, which backfired. With Tim Austin on second base and two outs, Hiwalani hit a double to get onto Brown’s line, who then walked a pair as he was clearly out of bullets. Law Rockburn appeared to surrender Tom Phillips and to keep the line fairly clean. In the bottom line of the score, another crooked number appeared in the bottom 8th against poor Francisco Gonzalez. He allowed a 2-out run when Fernandez singled home Pruitt, who drew the throw from Jimmy Bayle, but was well safe, with Bowen and Fernandez moving to third and second base, respectively. Yoshi Nomura, slumping, grounded to Tolwith, who made the fourth painful error for the Loggers on the day, throwing that grounder away. That plated two runs, 14-3, and then Vic Flores came not only through, but outta here. The Raccoons failed to score only in the third and sixth innings in a terrible thumping: 16-3 Brownies!! Flores 3-6, HR, 3 RBI; Crespo 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Brady 3-5, HR, RBI; Quebell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Pruitt 3-4, BB, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Bowen 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Fernandez (PH) 1-1; Brown 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (9-4) and 2-4;

Note to all preschool Loggers fan kiddos: 16 is a number that comes well, WELL after 3. (grins)

I will pay for that, but we casually jumped to ninth in runs scored.

Adam Riddle was placed on the disabled list before the Tuesday game. He had suffered a forearm strain. It was extremely unlikely that he would return this year. We added Matt Cash to the roster despite him being thoroughly underwhelming. We were running out of decent 7th inning relief options…

Game 2
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – 3B O. Rios – SS M. Clark – C T. Phillips – P M. Garcia
POR: SS Flores – CF Fernandez – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – RF Mays – LF Lugo – 2B Ingram – P Ford

Ralph Ford almost cried when he got wind of this lineup, but I was trying to balance facing a left-hander with giving a few guys a day off and at the same time prevent the lineup being overtaken by stragglers. You may note that Quebell has recently sat regularly against left-handers, but imagine him being replaced with Searcy. (shudders) Yet, if Ford pitches like last time out, a lineup with vintage 1985 Daniel Hall, Mark Dawson, and Tetsu Osanai couldn’t save him…

Ford would score the first run of the game, hustling home from first base on Eddie Fernandez’ third inning double that went all the way to the wall in left center and then bounced some. For a while it appeared that this one run might actually be enough. Ford was in the zone, and whenever the Loggers were thinking he would remain there, he threw them a hook. Through five, he allowed one hit against seven strikeouts, and when Tim Austin singled in the sixth he was promptly caught stealing. Meanwhile the replacement level lineup – as was to be expected – failed to keep a 16 runs pace, and through six innings they had only four hits and a walk to their credit. Hiwalani hit a leadoff single in the top 7th and moved up on groundouts by Batlle and Tolwith. Mark Clark was a soft-hitting, but right-handed shortstop, Ford was on 100 pitches, yet there was nothing indicating that anything particularly bad would – knock! Line drive to left! Flores – HAS IT!! Uh, that was too close for comfort. Ford would retire Phillips in the eighth before Chris Parker reached on an infield single on the oddly slow reacting Tom Ingram. Marcos Bruno replaced Ford with the tying run on base again and got through the inning. Clyde Brady pinch-hit for Bruno to start the bottom 8th, singled, then was caught stealing when Vic Flores swung through a breaking ball from Gabriel Garcia, THEN doubled on the next pitch. Clark’s error allowed Fernandez to reach base and Flores to go to third, when Matt Pruitt hit for Danny Sharp and peppered a pitch into right center for an RBI double, but he and Fernandez were starved by Quebell and Bowen. In the ninth, Angel Casas needed nine pitches to dispatch of the Loggers, striking out Batlle and Tolwith. 2-0 Coons. Flores 2-4, 2B; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI; Brady (PH) 1-1; Ford 7.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K, W (13-10) and 1-2;

Unless Ralph Ford has both of his arms fall off, he can win a 14th game for the first time in his career. He might also post only his second winning season after going 13-9 in 2002 now that he is in his final year in Portland.

Game 3
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – SS Tolwith – 3B O. Rios – C J. Reyes – P J. Diaz
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – RF Brady – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Dominguez

A pretty inept battery spotted the Loggers a pretty sizeable lead pretty early in the game, which wasn’t all that pretty after all. Orlando Rios took Dominguez deep in the second inning, and in the third the Loggers hit two sharp singles off Dominguez, executed a double steal, then scored on Sergio Esquivel’s throwing error when Hiwalani dinked a ball into the ground in front of home plate. The Raccoons did nothing in the first three innings, and the next three innings ended every single one on double plays without ever scoring a run. By then, a Hiwalani leadoff double, subsequent wild pitch, and so on had plated another run for the Loggers in the sixth. Eddie Fernandez threw out Bartolo Hernandez at home plate after a Tim Austin double in the next inning. Bottom 7th, Pruitt walked, and Quebell hit into another double play, the fourth inning in a row. Rémy Lucas’ general uselessness granted the Loggers an add-on run in the eighth, and in the bottom of that inning Esquivel led off with a single trying to not get shot after the game. Crespo hit for Rockburn and – double play. Ridiculous! 5-1 Loggers.

We added Antonio Ramirez off the DL. No point in sending him to AAA now for a rehab. He will split duties with Craig Bowen. That might actually be a permanent arrangement for the rest of the season.

Also: Yoshi Nomura is 3-for-22 in the last week or so. Not a good thing for a leadoff batter.

Game 4
MIL: LF Bayle – 2B B. Hernandez – CF T. Austin – RF Hiwalani – 1B Batlle – SS Tolwith – 3B O. Rios – C J. Reyes – P Norris
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Flores – CF Fernandez – LF Brady – 1B Quebell – C A. Ramirez – RF Mays – 3B Searcy – P Watanabe

Eddie Fernandez was sent from first base on Brady’s double in the first inning, but was thrown out by Jimmy Bayle. In the top 2nd, with a runner on second and two outs, we did not walk Reyes intentionally, but rather had him retired. Norris then led off the third with a double. With Hiwalani batting and two outs, Watanabe and Ramirez were rather helpless against Tim Austin’s steal that opened first base. We rather walked Hiwalani, a right-hander, intentionally, to get to the left-hander Paco Batlle than having him hit more doubles. It worked, Batlle grounded out to Nomura and the board remained empty. When the Coons finally got two men on base to start the fifth against the oughta-be-pushover Norris, Searcy hit into a double play and Watanabe’s line drive to right was caught by Hiwalani. How I hate that guy.

The inept offense still wouldn’t wake up. When Nomura hit a leadoff double in the sixth, Flores lined out to Orlando Rios and Nomura was almost picked off second base. Then Fernandez grounded to third, and only Rios’ throwing error kept me from shredding Fernandez’ contract. Before Clyde Brady could ground into a double play, George Norris threw a wild pitch to plate Nomura for the first run of the game. Brady and Quebell made ****ty outs. In the top 7th, Norris hit ANOTHER double off Watanabe, which chased the starter with two outs. We brought Bruno, who surrendered a rocket to Jimmy Bayle that nevertheless lacked length and Bob Mays made the catch at the edge of the warning track to end the inning. Pruitt hit for Ramirez and singled to start the bottom 7th, then got forced by Mays’ grounder. Searcy walked, Sharp singled, bases loaded with one out and now the Loggers yanked their starter and went to righty Micah Steele against Nomura. In a 3-1 count, Nomura grounded out, Mays scored, but Flores whiffed, and we lost a big chance to put up a big number. Bruno struck out two, including Hiwalani, in a perfect eighth, which chased Angel and Salazar from their chairs. Salazar, if we scored a pair, Angel if not. It was Angel, and he got showered with left-handers, the first of which, Paco Batlle, singled to right. Chris Parker struck out, and Orlando Rios’ fly to right – was dropped by Bobo Babooni. Angel looked skywards, having the tying runs in scoring position with one out, and more left-handers lining up. The first was Dave Wheaton. He struck out. The second was Francisco Garza. He struck out! 2-0 Furballs! Brady 2-3, BB, 2B; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; Sharp 1-1; Watanabe 6.2 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (8-14); Bruno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons (67-71) vs. Canadiens (72-65) – September 8-10, 2006

They were five and a half games out, but they were sniffing their first playoffs since 1990. We HAD to spoil it for them! It was a tough task. They were in the top 3 in both runs scored and runs allowed, and it was the best chance they had had in over a decade, despite their ace Daniel Dickerson on the shelf until next summer.

We would also play four, starting with a Friday double header to make up a rainout from July 6. We are 8-6 against them on the season.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (4-4, 3.99 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (16-8, 3.48 ERA)
Sergio Vega (0-1, 7.36 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (8-11, 4.30 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-4, 2.85 ERA) vs. Carlos Camacho (5-13, 5.41 ERA)
Ralph Ford (13-10, 3.38 ERA) vs. Manny Rios (3-3, 4.98 ERA)

We will get one left-hander on Saturday, it seems, and we miss their best surviving arm in Juichi Fujita. There isn’t really motivation for them to use him on short rest. There are more games to win for them.

Game 1
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF P. Flores – C G. Ortíz – 1B Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF E. Garcia – LF Trinidad – SS Rodgers – P R. Taylor
POR: 2B Nomura – SS V. Flores – 1B Pruitt – LF Brady – CF Crespo – RF Mays – 3B Sharp – C Esquivel – P Webster

We had a double header on the plate – and the skies were dark and threatening. Add to that Tim Webster being handed a ball, which was little short of an arsonist being handed the keys to the match factory. Top 1st, Dobson singled, Flores got hit, and Ortíz singled. Three on, no outs, and then Tony Ramos lifted out to shallow left where Brady with a good hustle kept all runners honest, and Suzuki and Garcia popped out, and nobody scored. Rod Taylor fanned five while being perfect through three innings, but Yoshi Nomura led off the bottom 4th with a double, which led up to Vic Flores’ second 2-run homer ambush of the week, the first tallies in the game. We also got Pruitt and Brady on, Crespo removed a pair with another depressing grounder, but then Bobo Babooni doubled, 3-0, BUT managed to tweak his ankle and left the game, being replaced with Jose Lugo. Webster responded by collapsing, a Dobson double and two walks, all with one out in the fifth. The Elks held themselves to one run on Tony Ramos’ sac fly by just not waiting for Webster to throw ball four. Rain started in the top 7th with Webster putting Flores on with two outs. Time to remove him. Domingo Moreno hadn’t pitched at all in the Loggers series, and now was brought in to face the righty Gabriel Ortíz first. Flores stole second base on Moreno’s first pitch, and then the rain intensified and the tarp came on. After two hours, the umpires called the game. 3-1 Coons. Nomura 1-2, BB, 2B; Flores 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; Mays 1-2, 2B, RBI;

The Ortíz AB in the seventh would normally have been Rockburn’s job, but he’s been used basically two out of every three days since the month started. I wanted to save Bruno for a more critical situation. In the end, it worked perfectly because of the rain, and Moreno got his first save of the year despite not retiring anybody.

The weather report was grim initially, and everybody expected the latter half of the double header to get postponed again, but it suddenly stopped raining when it was already dark. But, the paying fans were here (some, not many, because who gives a **** about the Coons?), the umpires were here, and the teams were here. So, surprisingly enough, game 2 took place, although more ugly weather was on the way.

Game 2
VAN: 2B Dobson – LF Theobald – CF E. Garcia – 1B Ramos – 3B Suzuki – LF Richardson – C F. Diéguez – SS Rodgers – P Spears
POR: 2B V. Flores – CF Fernandez – LF Pruitt – 1B Quebell – RF Crespo – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – SS Yamada – P Vega

Nobody expected much from Vega, but … it was ugly. All the Elks had to do was to hold still and accept the walk. Or being drilled. They worked that for two runs in the first, then started swinging and made outs in a hurry. The Raccoons were silenced by Spears for three innings before they connected a few bloops and a walk to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom 4th. Quebell was the go-ahead run at first, and Crespo was batting. While Crespo singled to plate a run, Sharp poked for an out on a 3-1 pitch and Bowen and Yamada both struck out. Abysmal showing here in the late-night cap. Vega, despite being crap, lasted five innings, allowing no more runs, before being hit for in the bottom of the fifth. Sharp was up again with Quebell and Crespo on base and no outs in the sixth, still down 2-1. He popped out. Bowen struck out. Yamada lobbed out to center. The Raccoons’ pen continued to survive (just barely), but the offense kept killing itself. Crespo on first with two out in the bottom 8th, Brady hit for Sharp and grounded out. No, these were the Inepticoons, who dropped an entirely winnable trash can game started by non other than Sergio Vega. 2-1 Canadiens. Fernandez 2-4, 2B; Crespo 2-3, BB, RBI; Bruno 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Bob Mays had not done any grave damage to his ankle. He was available on Saturday. Not that we were keen on him.

Game 3
VAN: 2B Dobson – LF Theobald – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – CF E. Garcia – RF P. Flores – 1B J. Phillips – SS Rodgers – P Camacho
POR: SS V. Flores – CF Fernandez – LF Pruitt – RF Brady – C A. Ramirez – 1B Sharp – 2B Ingram – 3B Searcy – P Brown

Starting with Pruitt and ending with Sharp, the Raccoons zinged four consecutive 2-out singles in the first inning to score two early runs. Brown struck out only one the first time through the lineup and ran into trouble by the fourth inning when the Elks had three consecutive hits from their 4-5-6 guys to tie the score at two. Brown was pitching to too much contact and couldn’t get a grip on that really nasty screw he normally had. He had two on and started an inning-ending double play in the sixth, and had Dobson on base in the seventh with two out. Dobson turned second on Theobald’s single to right, but found himself thrown out at third base. Bottom 7th, Searcy walked to start the inning. Brown’s bunt was **** and Searcy was forced out, but Brown then gained a base on a wild pitch before Camacho drilled Vic Flores anyway. That made it two on with one out. Crespo hit for Fernandez – oops, double play. Brown was chased by a 1-out single by Mitsuhide Suzuki in the eighth, and the first thing Law Rockburn did was to balk. He managed to strike out PH Ramón Trinidad, before Ed Bryan got another pinch-hitter in Tony Ramos out, at least averting a loss for the ace on the staff. Pruitt led off the bottom 8th with a single and was run for by Yamada, who swiped second base instantly, although everybody on the Elks’ staff, and their mothers, knew it was going to happen. Brady grounded to second for what would have been a double play (…!), but now moved Yamada to third base. Camacho remained in the game against Antonio Ramirez, who had not homered since arriving from Los Angeles – but got a goodie and drove it. GONE!! Angel Casas put the tying runs on after a leadoff double by Jim Phillips and a walk to Jerry Dobson with two out, but struck out Theobald to end the game. 4-2 Coons. Pruitt 3-4; Ramirez 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Brown 7.1 IP, 10 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;

Back to 11th in runs scored, by the way, but still 54 ahead of the Loggers. Even if we just lay down at the plate and let everything happen, they probably would choke trying to catch us.

Game 4
VAN: 2B Dobson – LF Theobald – C G. Ortíz – 3B Suzuki – CF E. Garcia – RF P. Flores – 1B Trinidad – SS Palmer – P M. Rios
POR: SS V. Flores – CF Fernandez – 1B Pruitt – LF Brady – RF Mays – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – C Bowen – P Ford

The Raccoons fell into disarray rather quickly in the last contest between the two teams this season. Jerry Dobson reached first base on a drag bunt, then was running when Paul Theobald singled to right. Nobody was gonna get Dobson at third, Bobo Babooni tried anyway, and Dobson scored on his throwing error as the ball sailed far past third base. Suzuki doubled to make it 2-0, and after Garcia popped out, Ford inexplicably walked the next three batters to run the score to 3-0, and we were already pretty much out of the game. Ford never stopped being ****, allowed two more runs on three hits in the third inning and was finally yanked when Jerry Dobson, the dirtbag, hit a leadoff jack in the fourth. The Raccoons were runless, hitless, clueless. We quickly reached blowout territory by giving the ball to Salazar, who went to three balls on five batters, and to four balls on three, before Trinidad zinged a 2-run single. 8-0. Yes, this was still the fourth. We quickly found out that all those September callups weren’t even good enough to pitch mop-up. The Elks’ total in the R column kept growing against Cash and Lucas. This was double unfortunate given that by the fourth Manny Rios got whacked and quickly bled five runs, including 2-run homers by Brady and Fernandez. But the ****ty performance of the designated garbage men meant that we actually had to put our better relievers like Moreno and Rockburn into a blowout. A depressing blowout. 11-5 Canadiens. Bowen 2-4;

At least, the season series remains ours at 10-8…

In other news

September 5 – ATL RF/1B/LF Jorge Garcia (.208, 27 HR, 108 RBI) is shut down for the season with a sore shoulder.
September 5 – The hitting streak of DAL 2B/3B Hector Garcia (.325, 10 HR, 84 RBI) reaches 20 games after he singles twice in a 7-4 Stars win over the Gold Sox.
September 10 – DAL Hector Garcia (.330, 10 HR, 89 RBI) reaches 25 games for his hitting streak with a ninth inning RBI double in a 6-3 win over the Warriors.

Complaints and stuff

Nick Brown reached 100 more strikeouts than walks on Saturday, September 9. He missed two months with the shoulder issue, so he could have gotten there around the All Star Game. How awesome would that have been?

On bad prospect news, 3B Ricardo Martinez, just promoted to St. Petersburg at the beginning of the month, is out for the season with a broken ankle. It’s a pretty bad fracture and he will be in a cast for two months and then one of those strange plastic boots. (sigh)

In my time – I played some designated spectator in tee-ball – there was not so much fuss about complicated fractures. You amputate, give the guy a peg leg, and life goes on.

Also, with the A level season almost over, Jimmy Eichelkraut batted .236/.269/.325 with four homers in 71 games. That’s poor. Another first rounder for the dump.