[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-22) @ Indians (25-32) – June 10-12, 2008

And another team far off the pace, as we moved from Milwaukee to Indy for a midweek 3-game set. So far we are 3-1 on the season against the Indians, whose record was probably a bit worse than it should be. They were just below league average in both runs scored and runs allowed, but with a strong bullpen that was weighed down by a crummy rotation.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (2-3, 4.45 ERA) vs. Román Escobedo (2-7, 4.78 ERA)
Nick Brown (5-3, 2.92 ERA) vs. Kevin Edwards (2-6, 5.15 ERA)
Kelvin Yates (5-0, 4.14 ERA) vs. Bob King (6-3, 3.36 ERA)

We promoted Sergio Vega (yeah, I know, it’s tragic…) to take the place of Matt Cash, who was placed on the disabled list. It is possible that the Indians will skip Edwards, in which case they would move Ramiro Gonzalez (4-6, 4.46 ERA) into this series. In any case we start with the lefty Escobedo opposing us, which sees the Raccoons debut of recent addition Jerry Fletcher.

Game 1
POR: LF Castro – SS Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – CF Fletcher – 1B Sharp – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Cruz
IND: RF B. Miller – 2B C. Aguilar – LF Alston – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – SS J. Lopez – CF Martines – P Escobedo

The Coons managed to hit into double plays in the first two innings, while Cruz walked two in the first, but wiggled out, then allowed a leadoff double to Filippo Fugosi in the bottom 2nd, and wiggled out with three strikeouts. The Indians still took the lead in the third inning, having singles land safe and fair and square by Bill Miller and Cesar Aguilar, and Ron Alston hit a sac fly to Black in right. The Raccoons faced a pitcher of meager ability, and so nobody was surprised at all that they didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning, when Sharp singled to left, also moving Fletcher, who had walked for the second time in the game, to second base with no outs. Escobedo threw a wild pitch, then walked Bowen anyway to load them up, his fifth walk in the game. He had about lost it now. Yoshi Nomura drew another walk to tie the game before Cruz had the terrible luck to hit a hard grounder to Simon Stevens, who turned a double play, home-and-first. Castro came through with a 2-out, 2-run double, however, as the Brownshirts took a 3-1 lead. The next inning, Jerry Fletcher hit his first home run as a Furball, a solo shot to get to 4-1 on the board. Cruz got stuck in the bottom 7th, not retiring anybody with Felix Martines and Ron Brantley hitting singles right by Ricardo Martinez. Donald Sims relieved Cruz and ended the inning in three batters. The Coons added a pair of runs in the eighth, with Dan Parker giving one back on a Jose Paraz homer in the bottom of the same inning, temporarily running his ERA to a juicy 108.00 before the defense won him three outs he didn’t deserve. Trying to preserve the good parts of the bullpen didn’t do us any good, however, since Sergio Vega was also overmatched in the ninth. Angel Casas had to come out of the pen with two men on and two out, and Ron Alston batting. Angel saved the game, but didn’t close it. What? His first pitch missed outside, but Bowen saw Aguilar off first base and rocketed the ball to Daniel Sharp, who nipped the second baseman for the final out. 6-2 Critters! Barrón 2-4, BB; Chavez 1-1; Fletcher 2-3, 2 BB, HR, RBI; Sharp 3-5, 2B; Nomura 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, RBI; Cruz 6.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (3-3);

Sharpiiieee!!! That boy just needs steady at-bats to be good! Too bad he won’t get them. Game 2 will see Quebell at first, and Chavez at third, and Martinez nowhere near the field. By now I think Brownie is right. Martinez is a bad jinx for him.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Black – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – 3B Chavez – P Brown
IND: CF B. Miller – 2B Brantley – LF Alston – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 3B Fugosi – RF A. Solís – SS C. Aguilar – P King

This time around, the no-hitter ended in the first at-bat, with Bill Miller singling to center before he was caught up in a double play when Chavez dug out Brantley’s bouncer to turn two. The next four batters reached base then, with Alston and Paraz singling before Stevens walked and Fugosi got it. Ah, it was going to be one of THOSE games.

While Bowen tied the score with his eighth homer on the year in the top 2nd, Ron Alston got hit by Brown in the bottom 3rd, but was left on base. Brown was not talking to anybody, not even the pitching coach when he came out after that contact pitch, just glanced and nodded. It was obvious he had nothing. He struck out the side in the fourth (tucking a walk to Aguilar in between K’s), but he still had nothing. The defense held him in one piece, like in the fifth, when he had just given a 2-out walk to Alston (although, probably better than giving him something to hit) before Paraz drilled a ball to the depths of leftfield, where Matt Pruitt sold out and ate some dirt on a sprawling catch. The offense was anemic, however, and the game was still tied 1-1 in the seventh when Martinez hit for Brown with Nomura on second, Chavez on first, and two outs, and struck out on three pitches. In the ninth we got the very same situation again. After Tommy Wooldridge had shaved Bowen and Barrón, Nomura and Chavez both singled to center. Jerry Fletcher hit for Law Rockburn and walked, leaving Quebell to strike out. The bottom of the order, Solís and Aguilar hit two deep flies off Bruno in the bottom 9th, but both were caught near the warning track, sending the game to extras, with ten Coons hits against four Indians hits, and in the bottom 10th the results were similar with Roberto Pacheco and Bill Miller driving balls off Donald Sims. Top 11th, the Coons got their first two men on, Barrón and Nomura reaching against Leonardo Sosa. Danny Sharp hit for Sims with the runners in scoring position and struck out, but – finally! – Quebell came through with a full-count single to right, plating at least one run before Castro also whiffed. Angel retired the middle of the order to end the game. 2-1 Coons. Quebell 2-6, RBI; Pruitt 2-5; Nomura 2-5; Chavez 3-5; Bryan 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

It had been a few days, but Adrian Quebell’s hitting streak reached 14 games. And with seven strikeouts, Brownie took over the CL lead (at least for a day). With Umberger leading the ERA table, only the wins column doesn’t feature a Raccoon. Wonder why. But hey, maybe we can set up Raw Lockburn in a few more tied games…

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – CF Fletcher – 2B Nomura – C Esquivel – P Yates
IND: CF A. Solís – RF B. Miller – LF Alston – C Paraz – 1B S. Stevens – 2B C. Aguilar – SS J. Lopez – 3B Kilters – P R. Gonzalez

Some things never change. Kel Yates continued to be a hot mess, the Coons lineup still resembled a tragic traffic accident, and the Raccoons just couldn’t sweep a series from any team. Yates was so far off, he appeared to be targeting a strike zone the next county over, and was spanked for four runs in the first three innings. The middle of the order did horrendous things to him, and as if Ron Alston was not enough of a killjoy as was, he also robbed a home run from the Duke in the fourth inning. That was before he pilfered one, the 221st of his career, off Yates in the fifth inning, ending a pitiful pitching performance with a 5-1 score. While Pruitt and Fletcher gained runs with 2-out base hits in the sixth, in both the fifth and sixth innings the Coons were denied by Angel Solís catching a deep drive with two men on to end the frame. Dan Parker faced four left-handers in the bottom 6th, with Chris Kilters singling, Parker throwing away Gonzalez’ bunt, before Quebell dug out Solís’ bunt himself. Parker then drilled Bill Miller really hard. The Indians would eventually only score one run when Barrón bobbled Alston’s grounder, but turned the double play on Paraz’, both of the sluggers facing Donald Sims. The Raccoons left another two men stranded in the seventh, the final base runners of the game. 6-3 Indians. Pruitt 3-4, 2 2B, RBI;

Quebell went squid-for-four and thus had his streak snapped. Another interesting development was the shuttle bus that carried the team to the airport after the game being ordered to stop at the side of the freeway. Dan Parker (21.60 ERA) was chained to the guard rail real tight. Then the bus drove off.

Raccoons (34-23) vs. Blue Sox (31-27) – June 13-15, 2008

Great, now we actually have to face a winning team. Just great! The Sox were seventh in runs scored and ninth in runs allowed in the Federal League, which were numbers quite similar to what the Indians were putting up. But in their case they had a half-decent rotation, but were plagued with a completely burnt out bullpen that was almost the worst in the league. All time this interleague series stands at 30-30, with the teams facing another the last two years. The Blue Sox swept the set in ’06, but we swept them last year.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-2, 2.14 ERA) vs. Stanton Taylor (5-3, 4.91 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (2-4, 4.29 ERA) vs. Jim Baker (2-5, 6.09 ERA)
Javier Cruz (3-3, 4.18 ERA) vs. Toshiro Uenohara (4-3, 4.37 ERA)

We will face three right-handers in this set.

The next reliever up here is 25-year old righty Claudio Salazar, who pitched to a 4.50 ERA in 15 games for us in ’06, but was not tapped in ’07. We will keep the carrousel going until we find someone who isn’t worse than Uncle Dick, and Uncle Dick has been dead for nine years.

It was still a beautiful summer in Portland, which meant more driving rain, hail, sleet, and just a little bit of frog blood. The opener of the set was postponed from Friday to Saturday for a double header, where it was just merely dark gray all around.

Game 1
NAS: 3B A. Esquivel – SS Higashi – 2B Spinu – RF J. Ortíz – CF Cavazos – C M. Thomas – LF MacDonald – 1B Kaustrop – P S. Taylor
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – RF Black – LF Pruitt – SS Barrón – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – P Umberger

The series started with a 6-spot the Raccoons put up in the first inning, smashing Stanton Taylor into tiny little pieces. Ricardo Martinez hit a 2-run homer, Pruitt and Nomura drove in single runs, and Quebell and Castro drew bases-loaded walks before Martinez popped up with the bases loaded. For the Sox, it got only worse from there. Carlos Castro, fallen starter, pitched in long relief, but between the first seven men he faced in the third inning, he walked three, and two reached on infield singles, before Pruitt hit a single that actually reached the outfield. 10-0 Coons, next guy in please. Vicente Martinez started with a 2-run single to Barrón. That brought up Bowen, who catapulted a 3-run homer just fair in right. Fifteen-oh!! And this was only the third inning.

The Raccoons continued to score a run in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth. Fans were nothing short of delirious, and nobody particularly noticed that Umberger allowed four runs in seven and a third innings. Sergio Vega grabbed the last five outs in a rabid blowout. 19-4 Raccoons!! Quebell 2-3, 2 BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Sharp (PH) 1-1; Castro 3-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Martinez 3-4, 2 BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Black 2-6, 3 RBI; Barrón 4-6, 2B, 4 RBI; Nomura 3-5, 2 RBI; Vega 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K;

Whoooo!!! Offense!! And the good thing is, they burnt most of their pen in a futile attempt to cover this game here, and another game starts … NOW!

Game 2
NAS: C Hogarth – SS Higashi – 2B Spinu – RF J. Ortíz – 3B A. Esquivel – CF A. Hernandez – 1B Kaustrop – LF J. Alvarez – P Baker
POR: 1B Quebell – SS Barrón – LF Pruitt – RF Black – 3B Sharp – CF Trevino – C S. Esquivel – 2B Chavez – P Baldwin

Just a few hours after a 19-run fun parade, the Raccoons looked like a dead hedgehog that had strangled himself in a loose clothes line against Jim Baker. While Baldwin was putting runners on base constantly, he always got to lefty Juan Ortíz with two outs and a runner on third base (and sometimes more), and struck him out twice, with Trevino shagging a fly the third time around, in the fifth inning. At that point, the Coons had amassed two measly hits. The bottom 5th saw Trevino and Esquivel lead off with singles, before Nelson Chavez came to the plate and grounded a pitch to the second baseman. Georg Spinu took a step in the wrong direction and then missed the grounder for an RBI single. That was all the glory, however. Baldwin struck out bunting, Quebell fouled out, and Barrón grounded out poorly to Butch Kaustrop. And doesn’t Butch Kaustrop just always pop up when you really don’t need him?

The bottom 7th had another leadoff single from Trevino, who then swiped second base, moving to third on Esquivel’s groundout. A hard grounder to first off Pruitt’s bat had been played masterfully by Kaustrop in the sixth, but in the seventh he missed Chavez’ rocket to right for another RBI single, 2-0 Coons. This time Baldwin got the bunt down, moving Chavez to second, from where he scored on Quebell’s single to center, 3-0. In the top 8th, with nobody on this time, Ortíz hit a 2-out double. Baldwin was replaced with Rockburn, who surrendered the run on a single hit by Antonio Esquivel, but struck out Anastasio Hernandez to end the inning. There, successfully bridged to Angel! Maybe we wouldn’t need him, however. Baker was also still in the game and allowed three straight singles to Pruitt, Black, and Castro in the bottom of the inning, with nobody out. Trevino struck out, Esquivel grounded one squarely to Spinu. Yeah. We’d need Angel. The Sox never saw a ball, and went down in a hurry. 3-1 Furballs! Castro (PH) 1-1; Trevino 2-4; Chavez 2-3, 2 RBI; Baldwin 7.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (3-4);

Woo-hoo, double header sweep! There’s another game on Sunday, though. We haven’t swept a 3-game set since the May 2-4 series against the Loggers.

Game 3
NAS: 3B A. Esquivel – SS Higashi – 2B Spinu – RF J. Ortíz – CF A. Hernandez – C M. Thomas – LF J. Alvarez – 1B Kaustrop – P Uenohara
POR: 1B Quebell – CF Castro – 3B R. Martinez – LF Pruitt – RF Fletcher – C Bowen – SS Barrón – 2B Nomura – P Cruz

Antonio Esquivel led off the game with a homer and Cruz walked Higashi before getting out of the first with a black eye. Cruz got better after that, almost got his legs kicked out under him by another gruesome Martinez error in the fourth inning, but Craig Bowen threw out Juan Ortíz stealing to regain the extra out and the Blue Sox didn’t score. The Raccoons had not gotten past first base in the first three innings, then loaded the bases with a Castro double, Martinez walk, and Pruitt single, with no outs in the bottom 4th. Jerry Fletcher ran a full count before drawing a walk that tied the game. Bowen grounded right back to Uenohara, getting Martinez forced out at home, but the Raccoons would get a sac fly from Barrón to take the lead before Uenohara also allowed an RBI single to Nomura and then an RBI double to Javier Cruz! Joy soon flipped into agony with Mark Thomas, the ex-Coon, hitting a leadoff bloop single to shallow left in the top 5th. Jesus Alvarez immediately emptied the bases with a cracking homer to left, 4-3. Cruz got stuck in the sixth and yielded to Ed Bryan with the tying run on first in Georg Spinu, and lefty Juan Ortíz holding a bat. Bryan kept and kept failing, Ortíz doubled, and the Blue Sox had runners on second and third. And now you want Bruno. But Bruno didn’t get it done. The tying run scored on Anastasio Hernandez’ groundout before Thomas fouled out to third, and we were tied at four. Black hit for Bruno with Bowen on third base in the bottom 6th, and two outs, but grounded out.

COME ON!! We want a sweep – finally!!

The Coons loaded the bases in the bottom 7th, but Bowen flew out to deep left and to Alvarez to leave another three men stranded. After Claudio Salazar had pitched a scoreless seventh, Law Rockburn held the Blue Sox away in the eighth and ninth, giving the team a chance to walk off in the ninth, with the top of the order up, facing closer Luis Hernandez, for whom the Sox hadn’t quite had a use so far in the series. Three quick outs later, we played extras. Sergio Vega struck out two in a scoreless 10th, but there was still Hernandez, and the Raccoons were still not getting things done.

We were about out of pitching when Castro drew a leadoff walk from Robert Parsons in the bottom 12th. Next up was Donald Sims after a double switch. We still had Chavez on the bench, but I didn’t feel like it was a good spot. When Sims came to the plate, everybody and their mother knew that Castro was going to take off as soon as possible. He went on the first pitch, Jason Hogarth was up like a shot and fired a rocket to second base – SAFE!!! Sims couldn’t get a bunt down, unfortunately, and Castro had to hold on Pruitt’s single, with Ortíz ready to use his Gold Glove arm to kill him at home. Parsons put two strikes on Fletcher before Jerry hit a grounder to short, AND PAST HIGASHI!! INTO LEFT!! CASTRO SCORES!! 5-4 Coons!!! Castro 2-5, 2B; Nomura 2-5, RBI; Sharp 1-2; Rockburn 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K; Vega 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K; Sims 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (3-1);

In other news

June 11 – The Titans deal SP Bryce Hildred (2-5, 4.90 ERA) to the Gold Sox for 1B/3B Jesus Amador, 30, who only had 16 AB for the Sox this year, batting .375, and a minor league catcher.
June 12 – Suffering the entire 2008 season, TIJ SP Jorge Silva (3-6, 7.44 ERA) will undergo radial nerve compression surgery, which ends his campaign.
June 13 – DEN RF/LF Pedro Pujols (.358, 7 HR, 33 RBI) has forged a 20-game hitting streak with a 2-hit day in the Gold Sox’ 10-6 win over the Aces.

Complaints and stuff

Finally a 5-1 week, and a series sweep! You can’t ever move away from the pack if you keep playing 3-3 every week. Of course, the Crusaders went undefeated this week, and that’s not the only problem. Everything is so spotty. Nothing really works.

Nick Brown is winless in four games, Kel Yates in five. To be fair, Yates has been **** for the last four games, blooming his ERA by almost one and a half runs.

The week is not really over. The Amateur Draft will be this Sunday night, and we don’t really have a plan in place. You can’t really have a plan picking 21st. Picking second or fourth is better in terms of the juicy young talent you can get, but … It’s great to pick 21st!! XD

Tomas Castro stole three bases on Sunday, only the tenth time a Raccoon has stolen as many, and the first time in an extra inning game. Castro holds two of the 3 SB games, with five of those ten games by Matt Higgins between 1989 and 1993. Daniel Hall, Concie Guerin, and Yoshi Yamada are the remaining triple-swipers.

J.C. Crespo cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA.

Oakweeds is back in Ham Lake, going 0-for-8 in his first three games, but had a pair of 2-hit games on Saturday and Sunday. He turned 20 in late May. Time to man up, son!

Stats time – Indianapolis Indians career stats leaders!

WINS
1st – Jesse Carver – 135
2nd – Billy Robinson – 98
3rd – Miguel Sanchez – 76
4th – Manuel Alba – 71
t-5th – Curtis Tobitt – 70
t-5th – Robert Vázquez – 70

STRIKEOUTS
1st – Jesse Carver – 1,189
2nd – Dan George – 866
3rd – Curtis Tobitt – 799
4th – Chang-se Park – 781
5th – Billy Robinson – 779

HITS
1st – Angelo Duarte – 1,478
2nd – Ron Alston – 1,266
3rd – David Lopez – 1,210
4th – Gabe Taylor – 1,200
5th – Matt Brown – 1,102

HOME RUNS
1st – Ron Alston – 221
2nd – David Lopez – 217
3rd – Jose Paraz – 170
4th – Raúl Vázquez – 157
5th – Matt Brown – 145

STOLEN BASES
1st – Bill Taggart – 120
2nd – Angelo Duarte – 109
3rd – Esteban Hernandez – 96
4th – Raúl Vázquez – 95
5th – Tomas Maguey - 88

Odd fact about the Indians: Jesse Carver (1982-1991) is the only starting pitcher to spend more than seven years with them. Only two relievers outlasted him, Tim Hess (1985-1996) and Jim Durden (1987-1997). By contrast, they had nine position players to spend 10+ years with them, including current roster occupants Ron Alston and Jose Paraz.

Very odd fact about the Indians: only twice did the Indians score more than 717 runs (4.4 R/G) in a season, 1992 and 2003, with 755 and 760 runs, respectively. For comparison, even the usually offense-starved Raccoons have logged six seasons with more than 4.4 R/G (and four more *with* 4.4 R/G), in 1989, 1991-1992, and 1995-1997. Those years should ring bells, mostly.

By the way, did you know that the 1981 Raccoons scored only 519 runs, 3.2 R/G, and that there has been only one team more inept at plating people than that? The 1988 Scorpions were held to 505 runs. That team lost 112 games, the absolute low point in league history. No team has ever gone worse than 50-112. The ’81 Coons merely lost 97 games, which was more routine than anything back then.