[Westheim]

Raccoons (88-48) vs. Titans (69-69) – September 3-5, 2007

There wasn’t much scoring going on in Titans games as they ranked near the bottom in fewest runs scored and fewest runs allowed. Their pitching staff was a solid top 3, a blend of veterans and youngsters that was somehow working. They had dropped seven of twelve to the Raccoons this season.

Projected matchups:
Tim Webster (0-0) vs. Jeremy Peterson (7-12, 4.13 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-7, 2.45 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (14-9, 3.54 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (18-2, 2.32 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (6-15, 3.81 ERA)

With O’Halloran, almost 36, going only on Tuesday, we would not face five straight southpaws after all.

Game 1
BOS: CF Ja. Gusmán – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – RF Brulhart – LF Garrison – 2B B. Boyle – 3B Ju. Gusmán – P J. Peterson
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – P Webster

Dumpster Boy made his presence felt immediately. After a 4-pitch walk to Javier Gusmán to start the game, he also surrendered a pair of ringing doubles in the first inning to fall behind 2-0. In the third, he drilled Gusmán, then walked Hutchinson and Munoz. Singles by “Quasimodo” Suda and Jim Brulhart plated single runs, and Webster was yanked without logging an out in the third inning. Rudy Garrison flew out to Black, who nailed Munoz at home, but Ward Jackson then surrendered a 2-run single to left-handed Bruce Boyle anyway. The Raccoons were behind by six runs and had not even gotten a hit off Peterson just yet. It looked like a lost game, it smelled like a lost game, and it was a lost game. ******ed starting pitching aside, the Raccoons didn’t make themselves look any better by engaging themselves in a comedy of errors, while hitting for precious little. Matt Cash logged two scoreless innings, but Kaz Kichida was pummeled for four runs (three earned) in 2 2/3 frames. The crowning event of the game was an at-bat with two outs in the top 9th, when it was already a full-blown blowout. Freddy Rosa batted against Adam Riddle with two men on, fired a rocket to center, that Tomas Castro caught on the warning track before adding his face to the wall at full speed – and dropped the ball. While it initially looked like Castro might have beheaded himself on the play, it was just a bloody nose, but two more runs scored. 12-2 Titans. Sato (PH) 1-1; Cash 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Well, that was … that was … wow. The idle Crusaders certainly had a good chuckle watching this one on TV. The only positive from this slaughter was Matt Pruitt extending his hitting streak to 13 games with a solo home run.

Game 2
BOS: CF Ja. Gusmán – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – RF Brulhart – LF Garrison – 2B B. Boyle – 3B M. Austin – P O’Halloran
POR: 3B Flores – CF Castro – 1B Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – LF Crespo – SS R. Miller – 2B J. Gutierrez – P Brown

The game was tied at one after three innings. The Raccoons had needed half a dozen hits to score a run, the Titans had been content with a Hutchinson double and Suda RBI single right in the first inning. Suda was involved again in the fourth, singling and scored on Jim Brulhart’s triple to put Brownie down once again. In the fifth a soft single by Mark Austin got the leadoff man on. O’Halloran struck out not knowing how to handle the fireballs coming at him, but Javier Gusmán reached on an infield single between Gutierrez and Pruitt. Dave Hutchinson had already brushed Brown in this one and had homered in Monday’s nightmare, and now lined a rocket to right that probably would have blazed his way right through Matt Pruitt’s chest if he hadn’t gotten the glove up in an unconscious blitz move. Instead of a 2-run double, Hutchinson lined into a double play to end the inning. Brownie pitched into the eighth, was chased by a 1-out single by Hutchinson (who seemingly replaced Daniel Silva as the Titan’s main pest), and John Bennett had nothing better to do than serving up a cookie for Anastasio Munoz to sent into the left center gap, and the run scored, 3-1. Pruitt was on starting the bottom 8th but was double played away by Black. In the ninth against Manuel Martinez we had the leadoff man on base again when Crespo walked. Ryan Miller whacked a single, putting the tying runs on base. Quebell and Nomura came up to pinch-hit, with Quebell’s drive to center caught by Gusmán, but Yoshi singled to bring home a run and represented the winning run on first base for Vic Flores, and then … double play. 3-2 Titans. Flores 3-5, 3B; Pruitt 2-4; Miller 2-4; Nomura (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 7.1 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, L (14-8);

Thankfully, the Crusaders pen blew a 4-2 lead against the Indians, who rode two homers from Simon Stevens to a 5-4 win and kept our lead at one and a half games.

In a roster move we demoted Dumpster Boy back to AAA to never see him again. 24-year old César Lopez was promoted to make his major league debut despite going 8-15 with a 5.02 ERA in AAA… September is not the time to make experiments with starters that got blown up in the minors, but everything’s gotta be better than Dumpster Boy.

César Lopez was originally signed by the Knights out of Puerto Rico in 1999. We acquired him in January of 2001 in a trade that sent over Marvin Ingall and Manuel Reyes in exchange for Lopez, Jesus Palacios, Manny Gabriel and the impossible Butch Kaustrop.

Game 3
BOS: CF Ja. Gusmán – SS Hutchinson – 1B A. Munoz – C Suda – LF Garrison – RF Brulhart – 2B B. Boyle – 3B M. Austin – P Hildred
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – P Yates

Kel had no problems getting to two strikes on batters, but that third strike remained largely elusive in this contest. Mostly poor contact still didn’t give the Titans any glorious scoring chances, and the Raccoons actually took their first lead of the series in the bottom 3rd when Flores singled home Nomura before Castro’s double play grounder quickly ended the inning. The Titans put two on in the fifth when Yates drilled Bruce Boyle and Mark Austin’s grounder eluded Yoshi up the middle for a single, but in this critical spot Yates managed to escape with a pair of strikeouts. He had to hold onto that run – the Raccoons were historically challenged against Bryce Hildred. Aggressive base running cost the Raccoons a run when Castro was eliminated on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out with Pruitt, and after that Black has brushed by a pitch, Bowen walked, and Quebell hit a single to score Black from second base, but a third run scored in the seventh when Yoshi-N walked and was maneuvered around to score. Yoshi-Y also got an appearance as pinch-runner in the eighth for Luke Black after he had hit a leadoff single to chase Hildred. Yamada stole second and eventually came in to score on Yoshi-N’s 2-out single. That brought up Kel’s spot after eight shutout innings. It was tempting to have him bat and pitch the ninth, but he was already a bit over 100 pitches, and we had Marcos Bruno picking his nose in the pen. Ryan Miller took a bat and struck out. Bruno faced only one batter in the ninth and was taken deep by “Quasimodo”. Angel took over immediately and quickly brought the contest to a satisfying conclusion. 4-1 Coons. Flores 2-4, RBI; Quebell 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Nomura 1-1, 3 BB, RBI; Yates 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K, W (19-2);

Matt Pruitt had his hitting streak killed off.

Whit Reeves got his 15th win in the Crusaders’ 3-2 victory over the Indians on Wednesday, followed up by Angel Javier’s 17th W on Thursday, our off day, as they beat the Indians 4-1. That means that they made up a game midweek, and now we had to face the Elks and trouble was right around the corner…

Raccoons (89-50) @ Canadiens (83-56) – September 7-9, 2007

We were an outrageous 4-11 against the stinkin’ Elks this season, having already been swept twice in Vancouver and once at home. They had a 5-game winning streak active and ranked fourth in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed. And well, if they’d hand a fourth sweep to us, I would not be able to continue living…

Projected matchups:
Cássio Boda (6-3, 3.59 ERA) vs. David Peterson (7-10, 4.86 ERA)
Raúl Fuentes (9-10, 4.56 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (15-8, 3.19 ERA)
César Lopez (0-0) vs. Rod Taylor (17-5, 2.77 ERA)

Three right-handers, and well, the most important game was the first one. If Boda couldn’t hold out against the Elks in the opener, dark times were ahead…

Game 1
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 3B Sharp – 2B Nomura – P Boda
VAN: 2B Dobson – C G. Ortíz – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – RF D. Richardson – CF Holland – SS Rodgers – P D. Peterson

The Raccoons left a runner on second base in both of the first two innings. The Elks got a leadoff double from the living pile of poo Daniel Richardson in the second. And although Boda threw a wild one to move the runner to third, he struck out Ken Rodgers to bring up the pitcher with two outs. Yet the Elks still scored three runs in the inning on hard hits by Peterson, Dobson, Ortíz, and Gonzalez. The Raccoons had the bases loaded with one out in the third, but Black struck out and Bowen’s ****ty fly to right was easily caught by Richardson, and right at that point it dawned on me. They weren’t going to win any game this weekend. They’d get swept, washed out of first place, and go down the drain like the dirt on the streets.

Boda balked in a run in the third and was removed with the bases loaded and no outs in the fourth. With four of the next five batters left-handers, Ed Bryan was brought in, but managed to allow four runs to score on a Tony Ramos single, a 4-pitch walk to Suzuki, a wild pitch, and finally a single by Russ Holland. Four innings, eight runs, all in the bottom half of the line score. After seven, they were 9-1 behind, their only run unearned. And although they chained hits together like crazy in an eighth inning in which they burned through four red-clad pitchers, and plated five runs, it never made a difference. That’s what blowing up early gives you: a sure loss, and depressions. 9-6 Canadiens. Flores 4-5, 2B, RBI; Castro 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 2-5; Sharp 3-5, 2 2B; Trevino (PH) 1-1;

Even for a rookie that was a ****ty performance. If we had any more junk to call up from AAA… well, technically we still have Brandon Teasdale, who has triple-digit walks, and I just don’t want to even think about it.

The inevitable was delayed for one day when the Titans walked off on a Freddy Rosa single scoring Jimmy Bayle to beat the Crusaders, 8-7.

Game 2
POR: 3B Flores – LF Crespo – CF Castro – RF Black – 1B Quebell – C Esquivel – 2B Nomura – SS R. Miller – P Fuentes
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C F. Diéguez – SS Palmer – P Fujita

And for the fourth time this week, the Raccoons had their starter jumped on and kicked and headbutted right in the first inning. With line drive galore all over the place, the Elks hit safely four times to score three runs off a ****ed up Fuentes. Fujita was merely perfect the first time through the order and struck out six. When Vic Flores converted Fujita’s poor bunt to get the lead runner Michael Palmer at second base for the second out in the fourth, Fuentes’ simple reply was to walk the next three batters and give the opposition a 4-run lead. The Raccoons still hadn’t had a base runner, and wouldn’t get a hit until Kuni Sato hit a single in Fuentes’ place in the sixth. Crespo also singled, but Castro grounded out and Black whiffed to strand the runners in scoring position. A run scored off Riddle in the bottom of the inning. There were two men on in the top 7th with two out when he was hit for with Pruitt, whose grounder was just far enough up the middle for an infield single and to score Esquivel from third base. That was it again, however, as Vic Flores struck out to strand two more precious runners. The bottom of that inning started with a bobble by Vic Flores at third base, like, seriously, then we could play Sharp right away… Another run scored after a few singles eluded the infielders. Top 8th, singles by Crespo and Castro opened the inning. All dukeness had escaped Luke Black, however, he hit into a double play, and it was all **** in Canada. 6-2 Canadiens. Crespo 2-4; Sato (PH) 1-1; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, RBI;

George Kirk (that guy…) got three runs early and held on to beat the Titans, 3-2. The Raccoons’ lead – gone. And with the pitching matchup in Sunday’s game… There was no way on earth, in heaven, or hell, for the Raccoons to win this game.

Game 3
POR: SS Flores – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Sharp – P C. Lopez
VAN: 2B Dobson – RF E. Garcia – LF J. Gonzalez – 1B T. Ramos – 3B Suzuki – CF Fletcher – C G. Ortíz – SS Rodgers – P R. Taylor

In good news, by the time our game in the Northwest started, the Crusaders were far behind in Boston, and it looked like we might have a chance to retake sole possession of the division – assuming César Lopez would be able to outlast Rod Taylor, a 17-game winner, in his major league debut.

Of course he couldn’t. The Elks had three straight 2-out singles in the bottom of the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, before Jerry Dobson walloped a 3-run homer over the wall in the second. Just like that, it was 4-0. The Raccoons trailed 5-0 in the fifth. Taylor had sat down the first 13 Raccoons before Bowen walked, Quebell doubled, and Nomura and Sharp just failed. In the eighth inning, the Raccoons would get the wackiest of opportunities. Sharp was about to strike out when Ortíz was called out for catcher’s interference and Sharp sent to first. Crespo hit for Cash and drew a walk. Okay, down by six, just four more to go. The bases were loaded when Dobson intercepted Flores’ grounder to right, but couldn’t get up quick enough to make a play. Bases loaded, no outs, Castro struck out, Pruitt popped out to shallow left, and all the Inepticoons got was a bases-loaded walk to Black before Bowen struck out. 6-1 Canadiens. Quebell 2-3, 2B;

The Crusaders lost 8-5 in Boston. But does it really matter how many more they lose? They really only need to win one more game…

In other news

The Agitator was raging this week.

Complaints and stuff

The ****nadiens single-handedly ruined our season.

**** the ****nadiens.