[Westheim]

Raccoons (53-21) vs. Condors (33-42) – June 25-27, 2007

The Condors came in with the 8th-ranked offense, third-worst pitching, and a 5-game winning streak. Being nine and a half games back was good enough for third place in the South, which was getting a bit overrun by the North despite this not being a reenactment of the Battle of Chattanooga. We’d stay out west, thanks.

Projected matchups:
Kelvin Yates (9-0, 2.03 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (4-8, 5.75 ERA)
Cássio Boda (1-1, 4.63 ERA) vs. Art Cox (4-4, 4.02 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (7-2, 3.35 ERA) vs. Jorge Silva (6-7, 4.70 ERA)

Kel was again hyperventilating at the thought of pitching against his old team despite a strong seven innings of 1-run, 11-K ball the last time this happened and in fact we were 3-0 against them. Meanwhile we are looking exclusively at right-handed batters in this series.

Game 1
TIJ: CF R. Perez – LF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – 3B B. Román – 1B Maldrum – RF Ward – C P. Estrada – SS Ybarra – P Carter
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 2B Nomura – C Wood – SS M. Gutierrez – P Yates

After Ramón Perez leadoff single, Kel struck out the next three batters to reach 100 more strikeouts than walks on the season (121/21). To celebrate the occasion, the Raccoons romped Carter for four runs in the bottom of the first, with singles by Castro, who stole second and reached third on an errant throw by Paco Estrada, and Quebell, walks drawn by Sharp and Black, and finally two more singles by Wood and Gutierrez. Both pitchers than allowed a myriad of hits and a balk in the bottom 3rd and top 4th, respectively, but only conceded a run each. Yates hit into an inning-ending double play in the Coons’ half, but struck out Pancho Ybarra in a full count before the top 4th could get really ugly with two men in scoring position.

All was well until the seventh inning. The Raccoons were up 6-1 with Ybarra getting moved to second on a groundout by PH Roberto Quintero. That made for two outs but Yates didn’t quite have it anymore and the dangerous left-handed Ramón Perez was up next. Ward Jackson was tasked with that, and failed abysmally, surrendering successive RBI hits to Perez and Rowan Tanner. Rockburn replaced him, Juan Diaz singled, and then Bartolo Román sent a rocket to left that required an artistic performance by just-healed Matt Pruitt to not turn into something ugly, ending the inning with a rather less comfy 6-3 lead. The Critters didn’t add to that although Castro tripled in the eighth, and instead relied on an Angel to save them. With two outs, Tanner hit an infield single to third, where Gutierrez had been shifted at the expense of Sharp to aid defense, which clearly didn’t work out well, but Casas got Diaz to ground out to bring up the Game Over screen for the Condors. 6-3 Critters. Castro 3-3, 2 BB, 3B; Wood 2-3, BB, 3 RBI; Yates 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, W (10-0);

Have we ever had a 10-0 pitcher? I seriously doubt that. Ralph Ford did win ten games by the end of June a few years ago, but … oooh, wait! Scott Wade was undefeated for like forever one year! That was around … uh, what the heck do I know? I’m just cleaning the glasses here…!

Game 2
TIJ: CF R. Perez – LF Tanner – 2B J. Diaz – 3B B. Román – RF Barnes – C A. Ramirez – 1B Ward – SS Ybarra – P Cox
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Boda

Daniel Sharp’s defense was becoming a topic ever so slowly but surely, as he opened a door for the Condors in the middle game when he threw away Art Cox’ bunt in the third inning. Cássio Boda tried his very best to not let the resulting situation (runners on second and third, no outs) get away, and managed to allow only one runner to score, but now trailed 1-0. Not for long, though. He led off the bottom 3rd, chipped a single to right, and then scored on Tomas Castro’s huge home run to dead center that flipped the score in the Furballs’ favor. Boda then went on to concede three walks in the fourth and the tying run to score on an Ybarra grounder. He went only five innings with a lot of long pitch counts, four walks and seven strikeouts. Kaz Kichida couldn’t quite make good for his last ****ty outing and allowed a run in the latter of his two innings, but a Nomura sac fly pulled the score back even in the same inning, the seventh. Then Rockburn got out. Tommy Ward, who along with Ramón Perez was wearing out Raccoons pitching in this series, singled, and then Rockburn made a gut-twisting error and dropped Quebell’s throw to first on Paco Estrada’s grounder that should have ended the top 8th. Ed Bryan came out for Perez, who was hit for with … Christian Greenman, whose guts I hated, but who struck out to lay that threat to rest. Castro led off the bottom 8th with a double, Quebell’s grounder was thrown into the dugout by Juan Diaz. While Quebell was never moved past second base, one run was plenty much for Angel Casas, who put away his 24th of the year. 4-3 Raccoons. Castro 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Miller 2-3;

Steve Rogers and the Falcons beat the Crusaders, 5-2, which pushed our division lead to double digits!

And with that, this series ended already: all of Wednesday in Portland was rain, rain, rain. The game was rescheduled for our last series in late August as part of a double header. That series will take place in Tijuana, but for the makeup game the Raccoons will officially be the home team.

Raccoons (55-21) vs. Crusaders (46-32) – June 28-July 1, 2007

The Crusaders ranked second in runs scored in the CL (with the Raccoons just now breaking into the upper half), and they also were conceding the second-least runs after the Raccoons. We held an advantage of 39 runs less conceded, though. Their rotation ranked second, their bullpen first. Over the course of the season, we have beaten them in six of seven games.

Projected matchups:
Raúl Fuentes (7-2, 3.35 ERA) vs. Angel Javier (8-3, 3.10 ERA)
Jose Dominguez (3-4, 4.87 ERA) vs. Whit Reeves (7-8, 4.99 ERA)
Nick Brown (8-4, 2.71 ERA) vs. Jesus Bautista (8-4, 3.37 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (10-0, 2.07 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (7-5, 3.42 ERA)

That’s more right-handers. Not a single southpaw even close.

Game 1
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – C J. Lopez – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – P A. Javier
POR: LF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Crespo – SS R. Miller – 2B Nomura – P Fuentes

Tomas Castro came in with a 10-game hitting streak and made it 11 on the fly, hitting a leadoff jack in the bottom of the first to give Fuentes a 1-0 lead. The lead was 2-0 by the top 4th, in which Fuentes, who had already loaded the bases with a single and two walks in the second inning and had only gotten out thanks to hitting up with the opposing pitcher, found new trouble. Caraballo singled, Lopez walked, and then Luke Black tried to catch Ted Mullins’ blooper to right, completely missed it, and the result was a 2-run triple and three runs in the inning, giving the pursuing Crusaders a 3-2 lead. Two problems: Fuentes was not any good, and the Raccoons couldn’t get the ball onto the ground anymore and hit plenty of pop ups that scared absolutely nobody. A fourth run would score in the fifth inning after singles by the Martin Brothers, as Fuentes went six shoddy frames. The Raccoons took until the bottom 7th to mount something remotely resembling a threat. Crespo singled, Nomura singled, one out. Pruitt hit for Riddle, and right into a double play, a liner to Hernandez, who doubled Yoshi off first. Raccoons pitchers threw three pitches in the top 9th, Kaz Kichida getting three outs on two throws after Ward Jackson got no outs on one offering, which Roberto Pena turned into a single. Hernandez’ double play grounder was followed by a Stanton Martin roller to third. In the bottom 9th Robbie Wills struck out Black and Bowen with authority before Kunimatsu Sato hit a pinch-hit home run that went entirely to waste. 4-3 Crusaders. Castro 2-4, HR, RBI; Black 2-4, 2 2B; Sato (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI;

Game 2
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – C D. Anderson – P Reeves
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – SS M. Gutierrez – 2B Nomura – C Wood – P Dominguez

Dominguez got knocked over and trampled on in the first inning, issuing three walks, a few singles, hit a batter with the bases loaded, and allowed four runs in total. Six walks worked the Raccoons and Dominguez in particular into a tremendously deep hole, and Dominguez was yanked in the fourth with two outs, the bases full with Crusaders, in a 4-0 game, and Caraballo at the plate. John Bennett came in, got Caraballo out with a grounder to short, then retired batters quickly for the next two innings and into the seventh inning until Caraballo came up again and hit a triple, and it was another one of those misplayed botch jobs, this time by Castro in center. Caraballo scored on a single by Ted Mullins, moving the score to 5-0. The Raccoons had two hits at that point, being completely choked by Whit Reeves. When they actually did get two men on in the bottom 8th, Reeves was removed for Scott Hood while Bowen batted for Adam Riddle – and struck out. No, this was really not our game. The Raccoons were shut out on three pitches. 5-0 Crusaders. Bennett 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Bryan 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Among the hitless casualties was Castro and his 11-game hitting streak.

I don’t like how this series is developing, but thank god our A team comes up now.

Game 3
NYC: 1B T. Mullins – 2B J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – LF M. Ortíz – SS Caraballo – C J. Lopez – CF Britton – 3B O. Rios – P Bautista
POR: LF Castro – SS R. Miller – 3B Sharp – 1B Quebell – RF Black – C Bowen – CF Trevino – 2B Nomura – P Brown

Castro led off the Coons’ half of the first with a drive to deep center. What looked like it would give Brownie a 1-0 lead was actually caught by Apasyu Britton on the warning track, but Britton was in no condition to stop before slamming into the fence, and when he did, he dropped the ball. Castro had a double, and Miller singled him in. That lead was soon blown. Martin Ortíz led off the top 2nd with a triple, and while Caraballo’s fly out to Trevino was too shallow to dare to make it home, Jorge Lopez singled for a 1-1 tie. Brown then walked Britton and Rios, two left-handers, and was a lucky bastard to have Jesus Bautista’s liner to be caught by Sharp. He then struck out Mullins. Bottom 2nd, Trevino struck a home run to get going, and then Nomura, Brown, and Castro all reached base without an out being made. Bautista got a bloody nose here. Miller struck out, but Sharp singled to make it 3-1, and while Pruitt’s hard liner was caught by Mullins, he couldn’t double off Sharp, who had gotten an early start. Duke Smack sent a liner into the gap in left center that was played well by Ortíz to remain a single, but scored two runs nevertheless. The Coons added another run in the next inning off Bautista. Brownie had a few good innings after the nightmare in the second, then started to lose command of every pitch he knew. He walked four in total in seven innings, but only surrendered one more run, a homer to Ape Britton, and maintained a 4-run lead. The eighth inning saw Stanton Martin double against Rockburn, but Ed Bryan came in to retire Ortíz and get out of the inning. The ninth had left-handers up once Lopez could be removed. Ward Jackson was tasked after Bryan had been hit for in the bottom 8th (Crespo struck out). Britton singled with one out against Jackson before he got Rios. Pinch-hitter Ming Kui hit a high drive to center, but Trevino caught it to end the game. 6-2 Brownies! Castro 3-5, 2B, RBI; Sharp 2-4, RBI; Black 2-4, 2 RBI; Trevino 2-4, HR, 2B, RBI; Nomura 2-4; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (9-4);

That was another weak command and control game from Brownie, who just can’t reach his 2-ish BB/9 numbers from the last two seasons. But he has the same K/9 he’s had for five years now, always between 9.5 and 9.8, and 9.7 right now at the half way point in 2007.

Well, at least we will not be getting swept. That would have stung, dropping a 10 1/2 game lead down to six. That will not happen, and next is Mr. Undefeated.

Game 4
NYC: CF R. Pena – 2B J. Hernandez – RF S. Martin – SS Caraballo – 1B T. Mullins – 3B O. Rios – LF Britton – C D. Anderson – P Baker
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS R. Miller – 2B Sato – P Yates

Britton was hurt on a play in the first inning, bringing Ming Kui as replacement into the game. The Raccoons scored three runs anyway after Castro singled, stole second, then circled around on Matt Pruitt’s first home run of the season. Black, Bowen, and Miller would chain up 2-out hits to plate another run. Kel was dealing, whiffing five against one single the first time through the order, but the Crusaders then managed to chain three singles together in the fourth inning. Francisco Caraballo hit a single right past Miller to score Hernandez, 3-1. In the fifth, Sharp botched another grounder, throwing it away to put Daryl Anderson on second base with nobody out, but Kel then turned into a cat on Jim Baker’s bunt and got Anderson tagged out by Sharp at third base. That was not a very good break though, because slowly but surely the game eroded away. Roberto Pena reached on a dump single into no man’s land, and then Yates plunked Hernandez to load them up. Miller missed Martin’s grounder to short, which turned into a 2-run single, tying the game.

And just then, the Raccoons were handed bases loaded and no outs in the bottom 5th. Castro singled and moved to second on Martin’s error in right. Quebell was put on intentionally and then Sharp’s double play grounder was murdered into an error by Caraballo. Pruitt struck out in a full count before Black singled up the middle. Quebell was held, but we were up 4-3 again. Bowen also found himself in a full count, but managed to make contact, slapping a grounder to the right side. Hernandez launched – missed it! It was into right, and again the runner from second, Sharp, was held, because Stanton Martin’s arm was not from this world. Sharp scored on Miller’s sac fly before Sato struck out, but we had that 3-run lead back. Yates pitched three shutout innings after his midgame stumbles, while the Raccoons left a runner in scoring position in every inning through the eighth. That in turn meant that the ninth inning was Angel time, facing Rios, Kui, and Anderson. No ball was put in play – Angel struck out the side to save us a split in this 4-game set! 6-3 Critters! Castro 2-5; Pruitt 3-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Black 3-4, RBI; Bowen 2-4, RBI; Nomura (PH) 1-1; Yates 8.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, W (11-0);

In other news

June 26 – A 2-hit shutout is pitched by NAS SP Toshiro Uenohara (5-5, 4.82 ERA) in an 8-0 win over the Wolves.
June 29 – SAL INF Bob Grant (.297, 2 HR, 23 RBI) celebrates his 2,500th career hit, a single off the Warriors’ Rickie Mendoza in a 6-2 Wolves win. Grant, 37, who was a first round pick by the Loggers in 1987, has batted .296 with 167 HR and 1,142 RBI in his career that began in 1990. He won a Gold Glove as the Thunder’s second baseman in 1997, and was an All Star two times.
June 30 – Sioux Falls’ Manuel Alba (8-7, 4.18 ERA) 3-hits the Wolves in an 8-0 stomper.

Complaints and stuff

Batting .480 (12-25) with 2 HR and 4 RBI won Tomas Castro the Player of the Week honors in the Continental League!

Kel Yates: 11-0, 2.16 ERA, 136 K – this leads all triple crown categories! We have never had a pitching triple crown winner (but Tetsu won a hitting triple crown in his first full year in Portland, 1986), and right now he leads Curtis Tobitt by a win and five strikeouts. His ERA lead is over half a run, with Tobitt at 2.80. Also, Brownie: 9-4, 2.70 ERA, 114 K – that is good enough for third place in all triple crown categories!

That 1-2 punch atop the rotation is BIG for us. While Fuentes, Watanabe, Boda, and Dominguez have all had their light and dark moments to varying degrees, those two at the top can cut down any opponent at any time. The acquisition of Yates was perhaps the move that turned the franchise around, although maybe Amador for Castro wasn’t such a bad trade, either. Matt Pruitt was acquired from Cincy two years ago in exchange for a catcher that still hasn’t been up to AAA.

Couple that with otherworldly defense (although Sharp is not sharp), and an uncanny ability to scratch out runs even in desperate situations that last year's team completely lacked. Did we really switch out 25 players? Gotta check on that.

Also, we surpassed 1979's win total in June.

The Comprehensive and Complete (I hope) Portland Raccoons All Stars Compendium

1977 (3) – Jose Flores, Pedro Sánz, Ben Simon
1978 (1) – Ben Simon (2)
1979 (1) – Ben Simon (3)
1980 (2) – Stephano Bocci, Ben Simon (4)
1981 (1) – Ralph Nixon
1982 (1) – Daniel Hall
1983 (4) – Mark Dawson, Kinji Kan, Enrique Sanchez, Grant West
1984 (3) – Daniel Hall (2), Kisho Saito*, Grant West (2)
1985 (3) – Tetsu Osanai*, Vicente Ruiz, Grant West (3)
1986 (4) – Dimian Barrios, Carlos Gonzalez, Tetsu Osanai (2), Grant West (4)
1987 (2) – Tetsu Osanai (3), Armando Sanchez
1988 (3) – Mark Dawson (2), Tetsu Osanai (4), Armando Sanchez (2)
1989 (4) – Sam Dadswell, Tetsu Osanai (5), Kisho Saito (2), Scott Wade
1990 (none)
1991 (3) – Neil Reece, Kisho Saito (3), Jason Turner
1992 (4) – Daniel Hall (3), Ben O’Morrissey, Kisho Saito (4), Scott Wade (2)
1993 (3) – Miguel Lopez, Ben O’Morrissey (2), Neil Reece (2)
1994 (none)
1995 (6) – David Brewer, Ben O’Morrissey (3), Neil Reece (3), Kisho Saito (5), Jorge Salazar, Jason Turner (2)
1996 (4) – Tzu-jao Ban, David Brewer (2), Antonio Donis, Royce Green
1997 (1) – David Brewer (3)
1998 (1) – Manuel Movonda
1999 (1) – Conceicao Guerin
2000 (none)
2001 (3) – Conceicao Guerin (2), Albert Martin, Jesus Palacios
2002 (3) – Ralph Ford, Albert Martin (2), Jesus Palacios (2)
2003 (1) – Albert Martin (3)
2004 (1) – Nick Brown
2005 (1) – Nick Brown (2)
2006 (none)

*acquired mid-season before the All Star Game