[Westheim]

Raccoons (20-12) vs. Rebels (20-12) – May 8-10, 2012

Both of these teams were virtually tied for the lead in their division, so this was quite the spicy affair; the Rebels came in ranking third in the FL in runs scored with a remarkable 172 counters to their credit, working out roughly to 5.4 runs per game, but they were also giving up more than 4.5 runs per game, the fourth-worst mark in the FL. Both rotation and bullpen had ERA’s soundly over four, while they led their league in stolen bases. Overall the Raccoons had their absolute worst winning percentage against the Rebels, a shoddy .333 mark, but we had actually won the last two engagements, including a sweep over them in 2010.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (3-1, 3.58 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (3-1, 2.09 ERA)
Nick Brown (4-1, 2.81 ERA) vs. Shaun Babineau (1-2, 6.50 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (3-1, 3.51 ERA) vs. Tim Winston (0-2, 5.26 ERA)

Bill Conway was skipped as the opportunity presented itself with the off day on Monday, which would have been his turn. They will hurl three right-handed pitchers at us.

Game 1
RIC: C Little – 2B Tolwith – LF E. Clark – RF W. Jones – 1B Shank – CF Enriquez – 3B Robinson – SS Cash – P Furst
POR: 2B Nomura – 3B Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – CF Seeley – C D. Alexander – P Santos

After a first-inning run that was aided by a wild pitch thrown by Brian Furst the Raccoons didn’t necessarily seem inclined to tack on anything else, while the Rebels got a leadoff triple into the rightfield corner from Dave Cash in the third. Hector Santos had yet to whiff anybody, and instantly whiffed Furst and Morgan Little before Aaron Tolwith, the former Logger, flew out deep to right. Those deep drives by the Rebels had already been a thing before, and in the fourth inning Earl Clark would smash a leadoff jack to left center to get this game tied. To the bottom of the inning, where Quebell reached on a soft single, Palmer on an infield single, and Jason Seeley drove a liner to center that escaped Victor Enriquez’ fangs and made it to the fall for a 2-run double. The only blip on that go-ahead extra-base hit was that Seeley pulled something in his back, then was pulled from the game. Sambrano moved to center while Merritt took over at third base. While Santos got better in the middle innings and racked up a few strikeouts while entertaining seven innings of 3-hit ball, the same couldn’t be said for Furst, who was charged for another two runs in the bottom 5th, John Alexander and Matt Pruitt plating Yoshi Nomura and Sandy Sambrano respectively, and was finally knocked out by Quebell’s solo shot in the bottom 7th. Lefty Iván Cordero came in, struck out Alexander, but then faced Keith Ayers instead of Pruitt, and promptly got bombed by Ayers, a home run to left, and well deep and without a doubt. Keith certainly could use that one to pull up the hanging corners of his muzzle. John Korb would give up another run to D-Alex and Yoshi in the eighth as the first of three rebellions was firmly squashed. 8-1 Raccoons. Nomura 2-5, RBI; Sambrano 2-4, BB, 2B; Quebell 3-5, HR, 2 RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1, HR, RBI; Seeley 1-2, 2B, 2 RBI; D. Alexander 2-3, BB; Santos 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (4-1);

Jason Seeley was now – after not appearing in the last weekend set in Salem due to thigh issues – laboring on a back problem that looked like it would hamper him for the rest of the week. The early nominee for the annual Daniel Hall Health Award was listed as DTD.

Game 2
RIC: 3B Delikat – SS Tolwith – LF E. Clark – RF W. Jones – RF Enriquez – C Little – 1B S. Johnson – 2B Cash – P Alonso
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – P Brown

After initially looking to skip him, the Rebels sent Alonso Alonso (3-2, 5.97 ERA) into the middle game after all. Before he could grab the ball, the Rebels were already up 1-0 after a first inning in which Nick Brown not only allowed two hits, but also hit two batters, the first of which was Aaron Tolwith; a number of years ago, Brown nicking Tolwith had sparked an evil brawl with the Loggers. Oh well, it was May, time for him to slowly degrade into mid-season un-form. While Quebell tied the score in the bottom 1st with his fifth homer, taking over the team lead, Brown was socked for two more runs, including a Winston Jones homer, in the top 3rd, an inning in which he expended almost 40 pitches. Jones would drive in another run in the next inning, plating Eli Delikat with a single. Delikat had opened the inning with a double, and by the time five innings were over, the Rebels had struck out nine times, but had also bludgeoned Brownie for 11 hits and six runs. Down 6-2, Bill Conway was tasked with delivering a few innings in relief, but actually pitched only one, in which he didn’t allow a run, but never got a strike past any of the four batters he faced. His turn to bat came up with the bases loaded in the bottom 6th, representing the tying run. Ayers walked to push in a run, after which Sambrano flew out to center, but the Furballs tied the game in the next inning: Yoshi and Quebell got on to get the frame started, chasing Alonso. Ben Lehman got J-Alex and Palmer, but then conceded back-to-back doubles to Pruitt and Merritt to blow a 6-3 lead completely.

Rockburn had already pitched the seventh, and faced only Mike Desan in the eighth. The pinch-hitter doubled, chasing Law and bringing in Sugano for a key strikeout to another pinch-hitter in Jimmy Shank, before Micah Steele appeared to whiff Tolwith, issue a careful walk to Clark, then dispatched of 4-for-4 Winston Jones with another K - … EXCEPT … except that Dylan Alexander couldn’t come up with the ball, which bounced away, and the Rebels loaded the bases on the uncaught third strike. Victor Enriquez, in an 0-2 count, unleashed a furious drive to deep center that nevertheless ended up with Sandy Sambrano, but the Raccoons would strand the go-ahead run at third base just as well in the bottom 8th. Top 9th, Angel Casas allowed a leadoff single to Willie Davenport, then right after that a double to Shawn Johnson, putting two in scoring position with no outs – and the Rebels didn’t score there EITHER. Dean Cash popped up, Desan whiffed, and Earl Robinson grounded out to short. Anybody wanting to win this one?? Certainly not the Coons. Angel Casas found himself in another mess with runners in scoring position and then one out in the top 10th, and this time Enriquez killed him with a hard single to left that scored both runs. The Raccoons went down without a whimper in the bottom of the inning. 8-6 Rebels. Nomura 3-5, BB, RBI; Quebell 2-5, HR, RBI; J. Alexander 2-5; Merritt 2-5, 2B, RBI;

Hmz! Completely ****ty pitching all along in this one. And that was Brownie’s start. What might be in store on Friday when the pushover Yano is out again?

Game 3
RIC: 3B Delikat – SS Tolwith – LF E. Clark – RF W. Jones – CF Enriquez – 1B Shank – C Little – 2B Cash – P Winston
POR: CF Sambrano – 2B Nomura – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – SS Palmer – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – P Baldwin

Adrian Quebell initially made it look like he’d hit homers in every game in the series, but his first-inning drive was caught right at the wall by Winston Jones. While the Rebels’ middle of the order continued to make hard contact against Raccoons pitching, the first run was issued by a wild Tim Winston in the bottom 3rd, who faced John Alexander with the bases loaded and two outs and walked him. Palmer and Pruitt would come up with singles to throw a 4-spot onto the board. After the top 4th, in which Clark and Jones hit total rockets for outs before Enriquez and Shank hit almost equally hard singles and Morgan Little went down swinging to end the inning, Adrian Quebell DID get hold of another Winston pitch in the bottom 4th. With Baldwin and Sambrano on base and two outs, Quebell crushed a 2-2 pitch to deep right, and that was very high and Winston Jones was waiting at the wall in vain – this one was not coming back. Home run Quebell, 7-0 Critters!

That didn’t help Baldwin to get any better. The Rebels kept raking him, but didn’t get onto the board until the sixth inning, which opened with a walk to Earl Clark, and the Rebels swiftly hit two more hard hits, a single and a double, to knock Baldwin out of this game after 5 1/3 messy innings, ultimately allowing two runs. The bullpen held up for the Coons, despite some close calls with Mullins still in the sixth inning and Thrasher in the ninth. The Raccoons’ offense had done it’s day’s work after bursting out for seven early and rested through the remaining innings. 7-2 Critters. Palmer 2-4, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, 2 RBI; Slayton 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB; 1 K;

Raccoons (22-13) vs. Titans (21-12) – May 11-13, 2012

The Raccoons and Titans were still in a virtual tie in the North after the midweek interleague affairs, three games ahead of the Crusaders. They were sixth in runs scored and second in runs allowed in the Continental League, with a +20 run differential. By comparison, the Raccoons ranked third in either category, and had a +48 run differential. The Titans however so far had taken two of three games from the Critters.

Projected matchups:
Shunyo Yano (1-3, 5.12 ERA) vs. Alex Lindsey (3-2, 5.84 ERA)
Bill Conway (1-3, 6.26 ERA) vs. Melvin Andrade (3-3, 2.45 ERA)
Hector Santos (4-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. TBD

The Titans had played a double-header on Wednesday and had a choice between southpaw Tony Hamlyn (5-1, 3.67 ERA) and right-hander Tommy Wilson (2-4, 5.01 ERA) for the Sunday engagement. If I’m the Titans, against THESE Raccoons, I know whom I’d send. The other two starters for the set were right-handers.

Game 1
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Flores – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – SS K. Sato – 3B N. Chavez – P Lindsey
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – RF J. Alexander – LF Pruitt – 3B Merritt – C Bowen – SS M. Gutierrez – P Yano

A Craig Bowen throwing error on Jesus Ramirez’ steal attempt cost the first run in the first inning, and it was earned since Yano allowed a sufficient number of hits around it. The Raccoons had Yoshi and Sandy on in the bottom 1st before Quebell popped out and Alexander hit into a double play. Double plays would be one defining feature of the game, with both teams hitting into a pair of those by the fifth inning, erasing many scoring opportunities. Jesus Flores scored without fielder’s intervention in the top 3rd, hitting a solo home run off Yano, who had little to nothing in terms of stuff. The Raccoons slowly, slowly started to hit. Sambrano got on again with another single in the third inning, stole second – with this time “Quasimodo” Suda throwing the ball to the outfield – and came in on Alexander’s single. The score was tied in the sixth on Quebell’s fourth homer of the week, one a day, with both teams then at two runs.

The useless Yano continued his enraging futility with a leadoff double surrendered to Tokimune Hayashi in the top 7th, after which Steele replaced him and retired Kunimatsu Sato, Nelson Chavez, and Alex Lindsey in order. Steele’s spot came up after a pair of singles had put Merritt and Gutierrez onto the corners with one out in the bottom of the inning. With Lindsey still in, we sent Jason Seeley, who had already pinch-hit the previous day. He sent a 2-0 pitch softly to rightfielder Ricardo Garcia for the second out, but Yoshi singled through Chavez to plate the go-ahead run. Sambrano’s full count walk still didn’t remove Lindsey from the game, despite Quebell appearing with the bases loaded. Despite falling behind 1-2, Quebell then drilled a ball into the gap in right center that Garcia could barely cut off before it got to the wall. Two runs were in for sure, Sandy was sent as well, but was thrown out. Despite that, the Coons were now up by three with six outs to collect. Thrasher retired the two lefties at the top of the order before Garcia singled. Angel Casas was brought in right away rather than messing around with Mullins or Slayton and got Suda to ground out to Gutierrez, then struck out Gusmán and Hayashi in the ninth before Sato lifted out easily to John Alexander to end the game. 5-2 Raccoons. Nomura 2-4, RBI; Sambrano 2-3, BB; Quebell 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; J. Alexander 2-4, RBI; Gutierrez 2-3, 2B; Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (14);

Who’s in first!? Who’s in first!?

Maybe I should cut down on the cockiness as long as they can still stick us into second place while they’re in town…

Jason Seeley also doesn’t get much better. Maybe it’s that he doesn’t get rest. I’ll try and stay away from him completely for the rest of the weekend.

Game 2
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Flores – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – CF J. Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – SS K. Sato – 3B N. Chavez – P Andrade
POR: 2B Nomura – CF Sambrano – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – SS Palmer – 3B Merritt – C D. Alexander – RF Ayers – P Conway

Jesus Ramirez opened the game with a home run as Bill Conway actively tried to pitch himself into a free ride to Florida, where we’d feed him to the alligators. The damage wasn’t fatal yet, although a completely crummy Conway required double plays being turned in both the first and second inning in order to not drown in hostile runs early. Quebell tied the score with a run-scoring groundout in the bottom 1st, but also handed the Titans a good chance later in the game with an error that put leadoff man Ramirez on base, but the Titans wouldn’t score then.

After the first-inning run on each side, neither team managed to stitch something together well into the deeper innings. Conway still wasn’t fooling many batters, but got a few timely pops to help himself out. Bottom 6th then, and Sandy drew a leadoff walk against Andrade, the fourth free pass by the Boston hurler. Sambrano stole second base, which prompted the Titans to bypass the red-hot Quebell and would rather pitch to Pruitt with two on and nobody out. Pruitt hit a 2-0 pitch hard to right, but into an out (his BABIP was going down again…), Sandy moved to third, but then Palmer walked anyway. The Titans’ pitching coach had a few choice words for Andrade that had no effect: Merritt and D-Alex hit back-to-back singles to plate three runs as the Raccoons broke out into a 4-1 lead. Conway started the seventh, only to allow a leadoff single to Gusmán. Mullins came in against Toki Hayashi, who took ball one, then bunted foul twice, and eventually hit a double into the gap in left center. Thrasher replaced Mullins as I was grinding my teeth, which didn’t get better after a Kuni Sato single, then a sac fly, and soon the Titans had also the go-ahead run on base. Micah Steele faced Alexis Legendre with two outs and two on in a 4-3 game and struck him out to escape a real mess.

The Critters also had their first two guys on in the bottom 7th. Brett Gentry had entered with Steele in a double switch and led off with a double over the head of Gusmán in center before the Titans had “Dodo” Iwase walk Yoshi Nomura intentionally. That worked well: Sambrano hit into a 4-6-3 double play, and then they could also walk Quebell intentionally. That one didn’t work well, though. Pruitt walked unintentionally in a full count, and then Palmer dinked a pitch into center for an RBI single, 5-3. Iwase was also in for the bottom of the eighth, allowing a 1-out pinch-hit single to John Alexander. Gentry hit another double, this one to right center and scoring the runner, and ANOTHER intentional walk to Yoshi followed. Iemitsu Rin was then brought in to contain the righty-killing portion of the lineup that was to come up, retired Sambrano on a first-pitch fly to left, easy, easy, before Quebell ripped the first pitch he saw to deep right, but this one lacked the height and “only” rammed off the wall for an RBI double. 7-3 Coons! Quebell 1-2, 3 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Palmer 2-3, BB, RBI; Merritt 2-4, RBI; J. Alexander (PH) 1-1; Gentry 2-2, 2 2B, RBI;

Who’s in first!? Who’s in first!?

Well, we CAN’T drop out this week! They will get a tough customer in Tony Hamlyn in game three, however…

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – LF J. Flores – RF R. Garcia – C Suda – CF Gusmán – 1B Hayashi – SS K. Sato – 3B N. Chavez – P Hamlyn
POR: 2B Sambrano – SS Palmer – CF J. Alexander – 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Gentry – C D. Alexander – RF Ayers – P Santos

Another day, another leadoff homer by Jesus Ramirez… and the Raccoons began THIS one down 1-0. Santos struck out the next three, including Ricardo Garcia, who left the game with an injury after throwing himself into a burning rocket with spikes protruding in all directions off the bat of Quebell. That catch ended the bottom 1st, and Jesus Rivera replaced Garcia in the field, giving the Bostonians a triple-Jesus at the top of the order.

Dylan Alexander killed the bottom 2nd with a double play, but when Keith Ayers drew a leadoff walk in the bottom 3rd, Santos bunted him over before Sambrano flipped the score mostly on his own with a double well past Jesus Flores in left, then in a gutsy move stole third base and scored on Palmer’s groundout to get the Coons into a 2-1 lead that would not last for long. Santos put Sato on to start the fifth, got two outs from Chavez and Hamlyn, but then Ramirez singled and Flores doubled in two runs. Triple-Jesus became triple-damage once Keith Ayers dropped Rivera’s fly ball for a run-scoring error, putting Santos in a 4-2 hole. The Raccoons then got D-Alex on with a walk and Ayers with a single to start the bottom of the inning. Santos bunted the tying runs into scoring position, and then Sambrano hit a ball hard to left that - … would NOT get the runners in, as Kuni Sato made a marvelous play to not only intercept the ball, but throw out Sambrano at first, which might have been deemed impossible on paper. Impossible ball continued: Hamlyn balked in the first run, and then Palmer’s chopper was thrown wildly by Nelson Chavez and pulled Hayashi off the base, allowing the tying run to score, 4-4. And after all that hard work, Santos went out and drilled the leadoff man Gusmán in the top 6th, who stole a bases and sure as heck scored on a Sato single to give the Titans a new 5-4 lead.

Oh, COME ON SANTOS!! Show some ****ing guts!!

The same was true for the rest of the team. The tying run was on base in the sixth and seventh innings, and they never had another good at-bat, and then Law Rockburn got into the top 8th and was just blasted off the mound. Gusmán led off with a double, Hayashi homered, and Sato had his 28th hit in the series after that. Rockburn was burned for four runs as the Titans took that game forcefully away from the Critters, despite two home runs flying out of the park in the home team’s innings before this game was over. John Alexander homered off Hamlyn in the bottom of the eighth, a solo job, and it was another solo home run for Dylan Alexander in the ninth, that one off Tommy Wooldridge. 9-6 Titans. J. Alexander 2-4, HR, RBI; Gentry 2-4; D. Alexander 2-3, BB, HR, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, 2B;

In other news

May 9 – SAC CL Johnny Smith (2-2, 3.14 ERA, 5 SV) finishes off the Falcons in a 1-0 Scorpions for his 400th career save.
May 12 – Old man still has it! 39-year old PIT SP Takeru Sato (4-4, 4.61 ERA) 1-hits the Buffaloes in a 4-0 shutout. Jim Brulhart’s leadoff single in the fifth is the only base hit for Topeka.
May 12 – The Wolves get some pretty crippling news, losing two pitchers for the rest of the year: SP Brian Benjamin (1-1, 1.76 ERA) needs to have bone chips removed from his elbow, while CL Cris Pena (0-3, 6.75 ERA, 3 SV) has fractured the coracoid bone in his shoulder.

Complaints and stuff

Obviously, Adrian Quebell was on a terrific tear this week, batting .391 (9-for-23) with 4 HR and 11 RBI, which easily won him Player of the Week honors.

Okay, our rotation has some grave issues. They are barely average, and nobody has an ERA better than 3.50 … The unfortunate news is that Rich Hood in AAA also got creamed his last time out and now has a 3.69 ERA, but at some point it might be wise to be just roll the dice. The main question would be whom to dump from the rotation, since nobody is really getting anything done right now.

Also with issues: Tony Hamlyn, who is second only to Martin Garcia in all-time strikeouts with 3,347. That’s still some 400 off Garcia’s mark of 3,783, but increasingly it looks like the 37-year old Hamlyn might run out of juice well shy of 3,783. He struck out 270 as recently as 2010. But the routine 9.5 K/9 ace dropped to 6.3 K/9 in ’11, and is barely above that in ’12. On Sunday, he went eight innings and struck out only ONE Raccoon. Well, he got the W, he should not be complaining too badly.

Sandy Sambrano meanwhile is up to second place in stolen bases in all of the ABL, with only Vancouver’s Ross Holland leading him with 12 sacks taken. Sambrano took 34 in 56 attempts in ’11 (61%), and is 65-for-98 (66%) for his career, but this year so far he’s 10-for-12 (83%). He’s also well better with the stick than any year before, but that brings up two points. A) Ride him while it lasts and we have injuries, and B) He’s only turned 24, maybe he’s still getting better!

Sambrano will be arbitration eligible twice more, so the possibilities are certainly interesting with his universatility in the field. Well, to be looking ahead (which is dangerous, but c’mon let’s play!), Ricardo Carmona, unless his arm falls off, might be the centerfielder of the future for the Coons, but Sambrano could well inherit leftfield from Matt Pruitt when he becomes a free agent, which won’t be until after the 2013 season, being five days of service time short of qualifying for free agency in ’12.

ABL CAREER STOLEN BASES LEADERBOARD

1st – Moromao Hino – 485
2nd – Diego Rodriguez – 460 (HOF)
3rd – Cristo Ramirez – 424 (technically still active)
4th – Daniel Silva – 409 (active)
5th – Paul Connolly – 366 (HOF)
6th – Xiao-wei Li – 357
t-7th – Dave Heffer – 341 (active)
t-7th – Bartolo Hernandez – 341 (active)
9th – Clement Clark – 331
10th – Martin Ortíz – 330 (active)
…
27th – Matt Higgins – 223
t-36th – Conceicao Guerin – 209 (active)
61st – Juan Barrón – 174 (active)
62nd – Tomas Castro – 173 (active)
70th – David Brewer – 162 (HOF)