[Westheim]

Raccoons (15-10) vs. Crusaders (15-9) – April 30-May 3, 2012

The Crusaders were tied for the lead in the North, and the Raccoons were half a game behind. It was only the end of April, but these games already had a certain life-or-death flair to them. Fittingly, we’d play four to raise the stakes. So far, the Crusaders’ offense was second to none with 145 runs scored, which came out to almost six per game. Their pitching rankd fifth, with both the rotation and the bullpen for some reason putting up ERA’s worse than four.

Just once in the last six years had one of these two teams won more than 10 games in direct head-to-head competition, when the Crusaders beat the Raccoons 11-7 in 2008. The Coons had taken the last two years with 10-8 clips.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (2-0, 3.64 ERA) vs. Paul Miller (1-2, 4.25 ERA)
Shunyo Yano (1-3, 3.34 ERA) vs. Ken Maddox (1-1, 2.67 ERA)
Bill Conway (1-2, 6.75 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (4-0, 3.19 ERA)
Hector Santos (2-1, 4.39 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (3-2, 4.59 ERA)

No left-handed starters in their rotation, and they also only had one left-handed reliever in Dan Hutchings who was nothing if not unheralded. They did have one significant injury in that they were missing centerfielder Roberto Pena who had broken his wrist in the fourth game of the year.

Game 1
NYC: 2B Caraballo – CF J. Gonzalez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Bond – C D. Anderson – SS Kester – P P. Miller
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – CF Seeley – C D. Alexander – P Baldwin

When Martin Ortíz casually doubled in Jose Gonzalez, who had reached on a grievous throwing error by Palmer in the first inning, the Raccoons faced a 1-0 deficit and initially struggled to even get on base. The first time through the order they had only a walk to their credit, and Yoshi reached on an error in the third, but nothing came of that. John Alexander’s single at least got them into the H column in the fourth. Meanwhile Baldwin, who had been charged with an unearned run in the first, was presenting about his best effort of the season, with the Crusaders not getting much good contact off him, well, except for Ortíz, who also had their second hit when he came up the second time through. When Paul Miller walked Jason Seeley to start the bottom 5th, Seeley represented the tying run, and Dylan Alexander’s high drive exiting in center meant that not only Seeley scored, but the Raccoons flipped the score in their favor, 2-1.

Trouble soon was brewing though for Baldwin. After six innings of 2-hit ball, the Crusaders started to chip away in the seventh inning. B.J. Manfull made an out, but after that Kevin Bond and Daryl Anderson singled. Jaime Kester was his last batter and when he had the switch-hitter at 2-2, he switched into dumb mode and hit him. That loaded the bases, exit Baldwin, entry Rockburn, with the Crusaders not having announced a pinch-hitter for Paul Miller yet. None ever came, as the Crusaders thought that Miller was well capable of getting the score righted himself for which his career .193 batting average was little justification, but Miller did make contact, floating a soft fly to shallow left, where Pruitt had no troubles to log the second out. Bond was not a fast runner and stayed put, and when Francisco Caraballo flew out to John Alexander, they stranded three runners. Quebell homered in the bottom of the inning to make it a 3-1 game, but Ortíz hit a double off Rockburn in the top 8th. He was on third base after Stanton Martin grounded out, with Thrasher behind assigned the left-hander B.J. Manfull, whom he smacked quite loudly with the first pitch. Oh well, another lefty coming. Kevin Bond struck out, and Angel Casas took care of the rest. 3-1 Critters! Quebell 2-4, HR, RBI; D. Alexander 1-2, BB, HR, 2 RBI; Baldwin 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (3-0); Rockburn 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

That was a close one. My feeling of certain doom after the unearned run in the first inning proved unjustified, and maybe that go-ahead homer by Dylan Alexander will be the start of a hot streak for him. He could sure use one.

Game 2
NYC: SS Kester – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – CF J. Gonzalez – P Maddox
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – CF Seeley – LF Sambrano – C D. Alexander – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Yano

New York made really hard contact off Yano from the very start. Martin Ortíz hit a 2-run homer in the first inning, and was denied by John Alexander, who picked another homer off the top of the fence in the third inning. But the Coons had an early rally in them, and it was even started by Yano with a leadoff single in the bottom 3rd. The Coons would hit three more singles, two of the infield variety, to claw themselves into a 2-1 deficit with the bases loaded and one out, a situation in which Seeley then struck out. Sambrano was less fishing for crap and Maddox kept missing, walking him on four pitches to push home the tying run before D-Alex struck out. The issue with Yano being unfit for his main job remained, however, and Caraballo’s 2-run homer in the fifth gave the Crusaders a new lead. Michael Palmer hit one out to start the bottom of the same inning, yet the Raccoons trailed 4-3 after that. They did have another trick up their sleeve, however, or should I say stupid luck? With Gutierrez on first base and two outs in the sixth, Pruitt hit for Yano and singled to left. That brought up a hitless Yoshi, who jabbed a 3-2 pitch quite high over the leftfield line. Ortíz came hustling and tried to snare it in mid-flight, couldn’t get to it by about ten feet, and then it took a fast bounce over his outstretched glove and went past him. By the time the full-throttle Ortíz reversed and collected the ball in foul territory, both runners had scored and Nomura had come up with a score-flipping 2-out, 2-run double!

Unfortunately, this joy wasn’t permanent. Palmer left Nomura where he was, and the top 7th began with Steele walking Daryl Anderson, which he never really recovered from. Anderson got forced by Kester, who moved to second on a very deep F8 out by Caraballo, a cocky move that saved the Crusaders this contest. We wanted no part of Martin Ortíz, who was walked intentionally so Steele – a certified closer! – could pitch to the right-handed Stanton Martin, April’s Batter of the Month. That didn’t work, Martin singled, Kester scored, and the game was tied. Sugano then had to replace Steele to get the third out from B.J. Manfull. The Coons scratched out another run in the bottom 7th when Dan Hutchings walked two and allowed a sac fly to D-Alex that scored J-Alex, giving the Critters a 6-5 lead that was soon endangered by Sugano, but Rockburn held the store closed in the top 8th.

Bottom 8th, Ramiro Román issued leadoff walks to Bowen and Yoshi before Palmer hit an infield single in Kester’s general direction, loading them up with nobody out. Quebell hit into a force at home, but John Alexander would single in two to get the Coons to 8-5. Their representative in the ninth remained Rockburn, with Kester hitting a leadoff single before Caraballo lined out on a 3-1 pitch that Merritt caught at third base. Okay, this looks bad. How bad shall it get before we throw in Angel? Let’s see what Ortíz does to Law first. One walk later, we longed for Angel Casas real hard. He came in, struck out Stanton Martin, and Manfull was retired on a gentle fly to center. 8-5 Furballs!! Palmer 3-5, HR, RBI; J. Alexander 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; D. Alexander 2-3, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1;

Yep, that was the third consecutive game for Angel. But hey, it’s May, what could possibly happen?

In all seriousness though, Bill Conway facing Kel Yates was not something I was looking forward to in 2012.

Game 3
NYC: SS Kester – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – CF J. Gonzalez – P Yates
POR: CF Castro – SS Palmer – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – LF Pruitt – 2B Sambrano – 3B Merritt – C Bowen – P Conway

Nope, Conway still wasn’t fixed. He retired the first seven Crusaders, but then gave up a real moonshot to Jose Gonzalez, while Yates faced the minimum over four innings, only allowing a single to Castro in the fourth, but Castro was caught stealing. The Crusaders had already added another run in the top 4th, moving out to a 2-0 lead, but the Raccoons would have runners on the corners in the bottom of the fifth inning with Merritt batting. Worst case he hits into a double play, and that was exactly what happened. Conway never got an out in the sixth inning. Caraballo singled, Palmer made an error on Ortíz’ grounder, and then Stanton Martin shot a liner into right for an RBI single. That was it for “Flipper” Conway, with Slayton appearing for some long relief. Yates was on and there was about no hope to come back from even a 3-0 deficit, plus the back end of the pen was unavailable. Slayton initially got a double play from Manfull, leaving Martin Ortíz on third, but Gabriel Ortíz scored his namesake from there with a double and for good measure Kevin Bond would add an RBI single. Already down 5-0, the Raccoons’ crummy shallow end of the pen instead collapsed for another five runs in the ninth inning, mostly the fault of Kyle Mullins and Manobu Sugano, who took over a bases loaded situation with two outs and scored runs with a hit batter and a walk, but Sambrano also made a clumsy error… Yates shut out the Coons on a 3-hitter over eight innings, but Manuel Reyes finished the game. 10-0 Crusaders.

Well, that one hurts. Conway is another ****ty outing removed from doing long relief for the rest of his life. Rich Hood might not be spectacular in AAA (ERA just over three, peripherals nice but not overwhelming), but he can’t possibly be any worse.

Game 4
NYC: SS Kester – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – C G. Ortíz – 3B Bond – CF J. Gonzalez – P P. Trevino
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – RF J. Alexander – 1B Sambrano – CF Castro – C D. Alexander – 3B M. Gutierrez – P Santos

Santos didn’t allow a hit until Caraballo’s leadoff single in the fourth inning, and that runner would be removed on a strike-em-out-throw-em-out play, but many long counts meant that Santos, who was not the most enduring guy around, was sitting at 71 pitches after just four innings, and had yet to receive any support.

Instead of getting better by addition of offense, the Raccoons got less through substraction via injury, and who else but Tomas Castro could be the first casualty of the season? He made a tumbling grab on Trevino’s line drive to end the top of the fifth, saving an unearned run – the error being on Santos himself – but somewhere in that tumble seemed to have broken his body in two to seven places. He was carried off and Seeley replaced him in center – for one inning. Seeley batted second in the bottom 5th after Sambrano had walked, but forced Sandy with a grounder to second base. Dylan Alexander walked, moving Seeley to second, and when Gutierrez singled to right center, Seeley was sent even against Stanton Martin’s Arm of Murder. Seeley, Gabriel Ortíz and the ball all arrived at home plate at the same time, resulting in a safe call and Seeley holding his left thigh after getting stuck under Ortíz’ knee with his leg. Okay, damage control: Sambrano to center, and Merritt entered the game.

Santos was totally done after six shutout innings, leaving the 1-0 lead to Thrasher, who pitched a scoreless seventh. Gutierrez added another RBI single in the bottom of the inning, this time scoring Sambrano, and Steele sat down the Crusaders 1-2-3 in the eighth before the Coons added two runs on some shoddy pitching by Manuel Reyes, who allowed three hits and a walk, and an error by the usually sure-handed Martin Ortíz. Top 9th, up 4-0 Mullins was in, drilled Caraballo, and allowed a single to Martin Ortíz. With nobody out, Angel Casas was called on, got a chopper back from Stanton Martin and turned a double play that left Caraballo on third base. Alright, this one’s as good as – no, B.J. Manfull hit a HUGE homer to right center, and the Crusaders were back within two. Worse, Gabe Ortíz and Bond both hit hard singles off Angel, bringing up Gonzalez, who had already gone deep in the set, and that count ran full before Angel removed him and ended the game with a nasty tailing breaking pitch that Gonzalez never had a chance of reaching. 4-2 Raccoons. Palmer 2-4; Sambrano 4-4, RBI; Gutierrez 2-4, 2 RBI; Santos 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (3-1);

Say, Angel, you wanted to up the stakes a bit, right? Get the adrenaline flowing? Some kick after all these boring saves so far this year? Please say it’s so.

Angel?

Raccoons (18-11) @ Wolves (7-21) – May 4-6, 2012

The downright miserable Wolves were tied for last in offense in the Federal League with 94 runs, which was under 3.5 per game, and also ranked 10th in runs allowed, conceding 137 markers to the opposition. While their rotation was borderline-decent, the bullpen had been horrendous with an ERA approaching five. We had won the last three series against them, including sweeps in 2010 and 2011.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (4-1, 2.70 ERA) vs. Cesar Ochoa (0-4, 3.83 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. Zach Hughes (2-3, 6.39 ERA)
Shunyo Yano (1-3, 3.76 ERA) vs. David Peterson (2-3, 3.40 ERA)

Three more right-handers, red-faced southpaw Tim Dunn (1-4, 5.35 ERA) having pitched for them on Thursday.

Our injury report was not entirely clear. Jason Seeley had an adductor strain and was somewhere between “highly unlikely” and “definitely out” for the series, although he was officially listed as DTD. Tomas Castro was not yet pieced back together for a clear and final diagnosis.

Game 1
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – LF M. Pruitt – CF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – P Brown
SAL: 3B Dawson – 2B J. Perez – RF J. Gonzalez – 1B J. Gutierrez – SS D. Ortega – C Harris – LF Marino – CF A. Ruiz – P Ochoa

While Pruitt had the Coons’ first hit with a second-inning single, stole a base and eventually scored on Jon Merritt’s sac fly to Jaime Marino in deep left, Nick Brown sat down the first ten Wolves in the game before Jose Perez singled up the middle with one out in the fourth inning. Brownie came back with strikeouts to Javier Gonzalez and Jose Gutierrez, however, and maintained a 1-hitter with 5 K through four innings, and on a low pitch count, too. Merritt singled in the fifth inning, and the Raccoons upped the score to 3-0 with two outs when Yoshi hit an RBI double, followed by an RBI single by Michael Palmer. Top 7th, Merritt hit another leadoff single, followed by D-Alex drawing a walk. Brown bunted them over, with the Wolves electing to walk renowned serial slugger Yoshi Nomura to get to Palmer. Well, okay, the move was defensible as Palmer was a right-hander and liked to hit the ball onto the ground. Here he grounded back to the pitcher, who nipped Merritt at home, before Quebell fouled out. Leaving three on of course commanded the Wolves to stage a rally in the bottom 7th, beginning with Perez drawing a leadoff walk before Gonzalez singled through Palmer into left. Gutierrez bounced a ball to Brown, who only got the out at second base, leaving them on first and third, and the Wolves picked Brown apart with an RBI double that Domingo Ortega hit on a 1-2 pitch, Blair Harris’ single, and Jaime Marino’s groundout, which tied the score…

The lead was restored to Brown in the top 8th in doubly-undeserved manner, with John Alexander getting plunked, moving up a base on a groundout, and scoring on a throwing error by Marino. The 4-3 lead arrived safely in the bottom 9th, but after pitching almost every day for a week, Angel Casas was completely off limits. The inning started with a left-hander, Gonzalez, so Thrasher got the ball and surrendered the game-tying homer on an 0-2 pitch right away. After an uneventful 10th inning, D-Alex would sock a 2-out homer off Cris Pena to give the Raccoons a 5-4 lead in the 11th inning. This time Micah Steele would try to close one out, being opposed by the top of the order. Ryan Dawson singled to center right away before Perez popped out foul. Javier Gonzalez came mighty close to a walkoff homer with a long drive to center that Sambrano caught on the warning track, before Gutierrez grounded out. 5-4 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Merritt 3-4, 2 RBI; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 6 K;

Talk about really bad luck. The Wolves had seven base runners the entire game, five of those against Brown, and did close to max damage with them. In retrospective, we might have been better off with Brown not being hit for with Craig Bowen to start the top 9th, Bowen struck out of course, and instead him going into the bottom of the ninth. He had only thrown 89 pitches through eight…

Oregon weather struck on Saturday and washed out the middle game of the series. A double header was scheduled for Sunday, while we also received the news that Tomas Castro ultimately had only suffered a foot contusion. He was put on the DL, but might be fine after the minimum 15 days. We added an extra right-handed bat in the meantime, bringing up Brett Gentry, who had so far gone .278 with 2 HR and 12 RBI in St. Pete.

Game 2
POR: 2B Nomura – SS Palmer – 1B Quebell – LF M. Pruitt – CF Sambrano – 3B Merritt – RF Ayers – C Bowen – P Baldwin
SAL: 3B Dawson – 2B J. Perez – RF J. Gonzalez – C T. Delgado – 1B J. Gutierrez – LF Grady – SS D. Ortega – CF A. Ruiz – P D. Peterson

The Wolves already scored a stupid run in the first inning when Perez walked, Baldwin struck Gonzalez, and Tony Delgado singled softly over Nomura, but they put Baldwin into a box in the bottom of the second, swinging away for four hits, including a Perez triple, to run the score to 4-0. In between, the Raccoons had enjoyed singles by Pruitt and Sambrano to start the top 2nd, but Merritt had hit into yet another double play, and Ayers was useless anyway. The Coons took a while to wake up, and initially had to rely on Craig Bowen to pace the offense, which in 2012 was a pretty bad statement to make. But Bowen doubled in both of his first two plate appearances, and was scored both times – once on a balk admittedly – to cut the gap in half to 4-2, before Peterson loaded the bases in the top 6th. Pruitt had singled and been forced by Sandy, Merritt singled, and Ayers drew a walk to set up Bowen again with one out. This time Bowen flew out to left, Sambrano scoring to get back to 4-3, before John Alexander hit for Baldwin, but grounded out. And while it didn’t seem like it then, this was ultimately the last squeak from either team. Kyle Mullins pitched three innings in relief without giving the Wolves a chance, but the Coons drew nothing but blanks against the Wolves’ shoddy bullpen. 4-3 Wolves. Palmer 3-4; Pruitt 2-3, BB; Bowen 2-3, 2 2B, RBI; Mullins 3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Sad thing is, we even out-hit them 10-6. It was just one of these abominable games where nothing ever works out for your own team, and EVERYTHING works out for the other team. And to be fair, Dylan Alexander’s homer aside, game 1 had been the exact same mess.

Second leg of double header comin’ –

Game 3
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Sambrano – 1B M. Pruitt – RF J. Alexander – LF Gentry – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – SS M. Gutierrez – P Yano
SAL: 3B Dawson – 2B J. Perez – RF J. Gonzalez – 1B J. Gutierrez – SS D. Ortega – C Harris – LF MacDonald – CF A. Ruiz – P Hughes

John Alexander’s double scored Sambrano for a 1-0 lead in the top 1st, just in time for the Wolves to hit grounders through either middle infielder and get Gonzalez to draw a walk and load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the inning. Shunyo Yano never saw the second inning; the Wolves knocked him out in the first. The only batter he ever retired was Blair Harris, and after a walk to Hughes, it was bedtime, down 5-1 with the bases loaded and one out. Pat Slayton got the ball, allowed one run on a sac fly hit by Ryan Dawson, and the Coons sat in a 6-1 hole after one measly inning.

Shunyo Yano had even had the balls to protest his removal, but his feelings wouldn’t remain the only ones hurt in this game that soon devolved into circus. A Merritt single and a D-Alex double put runners in scoring position with nobody out in the top 2nd, yet the only batter to bring someone home was Slayton with a sac fly. Despite this openly visible ineptitude, the Raccoons had the tying run at the plate with nobody out in the third inning, and this had to do with Blair Harris, whose arm was so weak he was comparable roughly to Jose Paraz’ on the Indians. Sandy Sambrano literally ran circles around Harris in this game, stealing a base his first time around in the first inning, then stealing TWO in the third, the latter with Pruitt in tandem. J-Alex’ single scored Sambrano and left Pruitt at third, and Brett Gentry walked for Merritt to work some magic with the sacks full. Merritt somehow stayed out of a triple play and instead hit an RBI single to left, getting the Coons to 6-4, but they would stop at 6-5 after a sac fly by Dylan Alexander. The incessant drumming of Zach Hughes seemed to go on in the fourth. Well, first Hughes drummed Yoshi with a pitch… Sambrano then singled but couldn’t steal for the roadblock in front of him. Merritt would bat with two down and the sacks full and dished a fast bouncer unplayable past a diving Ortega into left, two runs scored, and the score was flipped in the Coons’ favor, 7-6!

Hughes was now hauled in to be culled. Raúl Chavez, a longtime starter on his last leg, appeared to attempt long relief himself, but Dylan Alexander mashed his first pitch for a truly bombastic 3-run homer to slightly-off-to-the-right centerfield. 10-6!

Too bad Slayton was already at 50 pitches and running out. Ryan Dawson homered in the bottom 4th to get back to 10-7, and Slayton was done after that inning. Things settled down quite a bit after that inning, as both teams got over two almost perfect innings from one of their relievers, with Manobu Sugano logging seven outs before handing off to Rockburn, who was charged a run in the bottom 8th, in which Abe Ruiz doubled and scored on a 2-out single by Dawson. After this, Thrasher came on, but set out to blow the game by walking Perez before Gonzalez doubled. Dawson scored, 10-9, and there were runners on second and third with two outs. If that was not the time for Angel Casas, it would never come, and probably it should have come earlier. Angel slidered Gutierrez into submission to get the Critters out of the eighth. Palmer had entered at short in a double switch along with Casas and led off the top 9th with a single, only for Yoshi to hit a pitch right back to Pat Treglown, the umpteenth reliever in the game, who started a double play. Sandy singled, stole ANOTHER base, then scored on a hard single to right by Matt Pruitt! Bottom 9th, Angel got a grounder to Palmer out of Domingo Ortega before Matt Pruitt’s cousin Jonathan got his third PH appearance in the series, grounding out to Yoshi. Pat MacDonald was the last straw for the Wolves, and three futile waving motions later, this complete bananas game was in the books as a Coons win…! 11-9 Brownshirts. Sambrano 2-4, BB, 4 SB; Pruitt 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, RBI; J. Alexander 3-6, 2 RBI; Merritt 3-4, BB, 3 RBI; D. Alexander 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Palmer 1-1; Slayton 3.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, W (1-1) and 1-2, RBI; Sugano 2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (13);

All Oregon is bonkers now, I guess.

In other news

May 5 – At 39, CIN SP Javier Cruz (1-2, 5.77 ERA) records his 250th career win in a 5-1 triumph of the Cyclones over the Falcons. Cruz pitches eight innings of 6-hit, 1-run ball for the win. The right-hander was a fifth-round pick by the Crusaders in the 1990 draft, but spent most of his 18-year major league career with the Blue Sox, arriving in Cincy in ’11 after a 3-year stint with Portland. Overall, he is 250-164 with a 3.71 ERA and 3,068 strikeouts. He led the FL in wins twice and in ERA once, ranks sixth in strikeouts and seventh in wins all time in the ABL, and was also decorated with back-to-back Pitcher of the Year awards in 1997 and 1998.
May 5 – NYC INF Francisco Caraballo (.295, 2 HR, 9 RBI) falls a homer shy of the cycle as he goes 5-5 with a double, a triple, and one RBI in the Crusaders’ 6-2 defeat to the Blue Sox.
May 6 – PIT LF/RF Mohammed Blanc (.356, 2 HR, 6 RBI) connects for a seventh-inning single off the Indians’ Sam McMullen to join the 2,000 hits club. The 36-year old Ontarian has spent his entire career with the Miners, putting up a .321/.398/.472 slash with 118 HR and 885 RBI. He led the FL in doubles in 2006 (53) and in triples in 2009 (16). Also in ’09 he won a Platinum Stick.

Complaints and stuff

Nick Brown was chosen as the CL Pitcher of the Month for April! He went 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA, striking out 43 in 43 1/3 innings. This is his third Pitcher of the Month award, and they have all come in April, once every two years (2008, 2010, 2012).

Sunday’s mind-boggling nightcap got the Raccoons back into a virtual tie of first place, and not even with the Crusaders. This week had pretty much everything. The whole spectrum of baseball was showcased. Maybe except for good pitching by the Coons, but they still won five of seven somehow.

The offense seems to work most of the time right now. The offense is working so well, the Raccoons are SECOND in stolen bases. Credit where credit’s due: Sandy Sambrano became the first Critter to steal FOUR bases in a single game! All part of Sunday’s believe-it-or-not comeback over Salem.

After an off day on Monday, we’ll see the Rebels and Titans to open a string of 13 games, all at home. We won’t actually have a string of games longer than that until before the All Star Game, when we will have 17 straight games.

In terms of prospects nobody ever talks about, LF/RF Keith Chisholm has been promoted to St. Pete after going .317/.436/.540 with 3 HR and 10 RBI in the first 20 games in Ham Lake. Chisholm was a fifth-rounder in 2010 and put up a .838 OPS in Aumsville in ’11 before migrating to Ham Lake, where he struggled. The .976 OPS for this year in Ham Lake might not be true after all, but the recent injuries created an opening at AAA that somebody had to fill anyway, and he might stay there until at least the 18th, which will be the earliest day "Crumbling to Dust" Castro can come off the DL.