Portland Raccoons (ABL)

[MarkCuban]

The CL North is slowing returning to "the mean" --- however, I think the defending world champs (New York) are going to "return to form" down the stretch, and it'll be another tight race at the top. They seem to be "creeping up" the standings slowly.

I feel Nick Brown may just be your Oral Hershiser, and carry his average teammates to a title on his arm alone -- it may be all you need to take home the gold this year. Winning the POTY award seems to have rejuvenated him somewhat...

[Westheim]

Raccoons (29-20) vs. Condors (21-29) – May 31-June 2, 2010

Last place team from the South in, but we had lost two of three the first time we had seen them this season. Scoring was rather frequent in their games as they were putting up among the three most in runs scored and runs allowed. Their rotation was getting whacked to a 5.32 ERA tune.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (2-4, 4.94 ERA) vs. Micah Kirchberg (1-2, 6.16 ERA)
Javier Cruz (3-4, 3.84 ERA) vs. Brian Furst (0-2, 3.77 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-2, 4.47 ERA) vs. Harry Wentz (5-5, 4.43 ERA)

Their entire rotation is right-handed, so we know what to expect. Unfortunately we will be Matt Pruitt-less for most or all of this week.

Game 1
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – RF Ward – 2B Dougal – P Kirchberg
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – CF White – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Umberger

Kirchberg was wild in the most horrible sense in this one. He walked three men in his first go through the Coons’ order, but they couldn’t land a hit. Yet, the second time through, he got torn to shreds. It was only a single run in the third inning, after two walks and a White single, but he walked four in the fourth, with a Castro homer in between and a Bowen double to knock him from the contest in a 7-0 score. That’s nine walks total, and it tied a Condors franchise record you weren’t keen on tying. The Raccoons scored an eighth run on a Nomura sac fly before his line was finally ready for burial. Times wouldn’t get happier for the Condors this Monday, with Jose Sanchez allowing a 2-run shot to Craig Bowen as the Coons reached double digits in the bottom 6th despite not many hits at all. Umberger had sprinkled a number of singles from the start, but the Condors had taken a page from the Coons’ book and found a way to hit into a double play whenever they had a man placed on first. They would hit into four double plays in total, the last of which came with Pat Slayton having replaced Umberger in the ninth with runners on the corners and one out. Slayton first walked Dan Jones, but Foster Leach then grounded into the game-ending fourth double play. 10-0 Coons. Castro 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Quebell 3-3, 2 BB; Bowen 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Umberger 8.1 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, W (3-4);

Game 2
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – RF M. Cruz – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – 2B R. Harris – P Furst
POR: LF Castro – CF White – 1B Merritt – RF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Canning – P J. Cruz

The Coons got their patented slow start again, while the Condors stayed out of the double play in a sneaky manner. When Brian Furst hit a leadoff single in the third, he was sent stealing, and not only was safe at second, but also advanced to third on a throwing error by Travis Owens, then easily scored the first run of the game on a groundout by Pancho Ybarra. By contrast, when Pat White hit a leadoff single in the bottom 4th, he was caught stealing. The Raccoons were really, really silent for a team that had scored double digits the previous day, while Cruz dawdled along through the innings until he got stuck in the top 7th. Leach hit a clean single to start the inning before Will Wall reached on a bunt single. Furst bunted them over, after which Rockburn replaced Cruz as we hoped for a K that never came, and the Condors scored their second run on an Ybarra groundout before Beltran got Rowan Tanner. The Coons had the shadiest of chances in the bottom 7th, getting a beneficial ball four called in favor of Alston before Nomura reached on a 2-out error by Stanley Dougal. Then, Owens fouled out on the first pitch, while Johnny Crum homered off Beltran starting the eighth. No, this one was not going to work out. Donald Sims got the top 9th and struck out two right-handers before allowing singles to left-handers Tanner and Crum, but the Condors wouldn’t score. Bottom of the ninth, Jayden Reed issued walks to Merritt and Alston to get the tying run to the plate right away. Bowen batted for Martinez – and another walk, bases loaded in the 3-0 game. Reed’s 2-2 pitch to Yoshi was wild and escaped Foster Leach, plating Merritt, and the next pitch got hit almost to the wall for a game-tying 2-run double! Winning run on second base, no outs, Colin Sabatino, a former first-rounder who hadn’t panned out exactly, replaced the wickedly wild Reed (a common theme here?), and got an easy out with an Owens grounder. Canning singled, but there was no chance for Yoshi to score. Keith Ayers hit for Sims (Quebell had been used already), and chopped an 0-1 grounder to third base. Dan Jones could easily see that he had no chance for two, so he fired home, but … still too late, Yoshi was safe! 4-3 Raccoons! Castro 2-4; Quebell (PH) 1-1; Cruz 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K;

I don’t quite know how they pulled this one out of their arse, but the Condors must feel like in one of those slow-motion train wrecks now. “Closer” Jayden Reed threw 24 pitches, 15 for balls, and one past his catcher.

Game 3
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – LF Crum – 1B R. Morris – RF M. Cruz – C Leach – 3B R. Harris – 2B Dougal – P Wentz
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – CF White – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Watanabe

Ron Alston got the Coons ahead quickly with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first inning, but Watanabe gave up a solo job to Manny Cruz about five minutes later. The Condors made good contact off Watanabe in the first innings, but couldn’t get the ball in. That changed in the fifth, when Stanley Dougal, Harry Wentz (…), and Pancho Ybarra hit consecutive 1-out singles to tie the score, and even then Watanabe didn’t get back into control. With two outs, he was in 2-strike counts to Morris and Cruz, and both times allowed another hit, five total in the inning for four runs. The Raccoons’ comeback attempts were shy anyway and then were also met with Castro and Quebell hitting into inning-ending double plays in the fifth and sixth, respectively. The Condors were less shy, plated two off Ray Kelley in the eighth with a 2-out triple by Dougal, and another one in the ninth when Donald Sims failed in basic lefty removal skills AGAIN. Harry Wentz pitched a complete game 5-hitter, with Ron Alston the only Raccoons that was even remotely effective against him. 8-2 Condors. Alston 3-4, HR, 2 RBI; Reese 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Raccoons (31-21) vs. Indians (26-28) – June 4-6, 2010

We hadn’t had much luck with the Indians so far on the year, with four losses in six games. There wasn’t really anything special about their team. The pitching was sound, the offense very wasn’t, and they ranked second-to-last in runs scored. Their run differential was only -7, however, so we might choke on them the whole weekend.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (4-2, 3.67 ERA) vs. Paul Kirkland (3-3, 3.46 ERA)
Nick Brown (9-1, 1.53 ERA) vs. Bob King (6-4, 2.71 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (3-4, 4.29 ERA) vs. Curtis Tobitt (6-2, 2.70 ERA)

And three more right-handers come our way. By the way, our two lone wins against them were both the Nick Brown starts.

Game 1
IND: 1B Tsung – 2B Barrón – LF Graham – CF Cavazos – RF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – C Speed – 3B J. Lopez – P Kirkland
POR: CF Castro – 2B Nomura – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – 3B R. Martinez – C Bowen – RF Ayers – SS Canning – P Baldwin

The Indians loaded the bases with basically nothing in their hand in the top 1st when walks to Graham and Pacheco sandwiched an error by Canning on a Cavazos grounder. Ryan Miller grounded out and no bad things happened, if you were willing to ignore Baldwin’s lack of stuff, a 50-minute rain delay in the third inning, and the fact that the Raccoons struggled to get even one hit against Paul Kirkland until Baldwin hit a 2-out double in the bottom 3rd and ran on to third, where he was thrown out by Ramiro Cavazos. He walked the first two batters in the top 4th on eight pitches, with the Indians not pouncing on him then, either. And so it went. Both teams hit into double plays twice through six innings, further preventing damage, and we were in the seventh when Mun-wah Tsung reached on a Nomura error and finally scored on a Cavazos triple with two outs that also knocked Baldwin from the game after allowing that single run, which was enough to sent the Coons spinning towards another inevitable loss. They weren’t confident with losing 1-0 this time, though. Jose Lopez homered off the hapless Rockburn in the eighth, and in the ninth Donald Sims set a new record for suckage with five consecutive 2-out hits slapped of him for three more runs. The Coons scored a window dressing run in the bottom 9th they could as well have left in their arses. 5-1 Indians. Nomura 2-2, 2 BB; Quebell 2-4; White (PH) 1-1;

I keep failing to guess why exactly which things are going wrong. Like, why do they play as ****ty as they do against the Indians now?

Game 2
IND: 1B Tsung – 2B Barrón – C Paraz – LF Graham – RF Pacheco – SS R. Miller – CF A. Solís – 3B J. Lopez – P King
POR: LF Castro – CF White – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Brown

Off an awful start last Sunday, Brownie threw a surfeit of balls for sure in the middle game in this series. He walked Barrón twice the first times through the Indians’ order, but while he pitched in deep counts often, he also struck out a lot: seven in four innings, with no hits allowed. The Coons had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom 2nd with Nomura driving in Quebell. Canning had then doubled to right, but Yoshi was thrown out at home, and Castro was thrown out stealing, ruining a chance in the third, by Jose Paraz and his withered stump of an arm. Bottom 4th, Bowen and Nomura were on second and first with two outs, when Canning hit another double to right. Bowen scored, and Yoshi was held up this time against Roberto Pacheco’s arm. Fine, Yoshi can’t run, but Brownie is still hitting .424 and will – strike out.

Needless to say, throwing lots of balls AND lots of strikes was a sure way to raise that pitch count quickly. Brown walked Angel Solís and Jose Lopez in the fifth before ending the inning with a K to Tsung, already over 80 pitches. Quebell added a point to the score in the bottom 5th, 3-0. Thankfully, the no-hit bid blew with Juan Barrón’s single to start the top 6th. It made me abstain from the temptation to run Brown to 160 pitches to the end of the game. He then walked Paraz in a full count, his fifth free pass in the start. Not missing by much, yet missing, he talked the pitching coach back to the dugout, then struck out Dave Graham, Roberto Pacheco, and Ryan Miller in order to end a quirky outing on 11 K. With Canning on first after a Tsung error, Martinez batted for Brown with one out in the bottom 6th, grounded to Lopez, and his throw was clean past Tsung for another error, but despite an intentional walk to Castro and almost a third error on a bouncing throw to first by Barrón on White’s grounder, the Coons only added one more run to lead by four. The bullpen set out to blow the lead immediately. Kelley faced only two batters in the top 7th, walking Solís and allowing a single to Lopez before Beltran took over and continued to make a mess. The Indians scored their two runners and left a third one at third base. Beltran also faced Graham and Pacheco to start the eighth, two more singles on the board. Those were the tying runs, Rockburn replaced him, madness was sure to ensue, then didn’t. Ryan Miller lobbed a bunt right back to Rockburn, who nipped the lead runner, then struck out Solís and Lopez. No help was coming forth from the lineup, and Angel Casas was out to ruin Brown’s day in the ninth. He walked Bruce Boyle to start the inning, then allowed a 3-2 pitch to be driven to deep left by Tsung. Castro scratched it out of the air with the edge of his glove before it could bounce onto the track. Casas recollected himself to get Barrón on a grounder and struck out Paraz. 4-2 Brownies. Castro 2-4, BB; Quebell 2-3, BB, 2B, RBI; Bowen 2-4; Nomura 2-4, RBI; Canning 2-4, 2 2B, RBI; Brown 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 11 K, W (10-1);

Game 3
IND: 1B Tsung – 3B J. Lopez – C Paraz – LF Graham – CF Cavazos – RF Pacheco – 2B Boyle – SS R. Miller – P Tobitt
POR: LF Castro – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Canning – P Umberger

Brown had no-hit the Indians through five on Saturday, and Umberger at least made it once through the order before Tsung hit a 2-out single in the third. Ace Curtis Tobitt had been doubled to death by the Coons on Opening Day, but had since then been reanimated, only to give up a leadoff jack to Tomas Castro in the bottom of the first inning. After that, Tobitt choked the Coons pretty good and tore of stripes of fur from pretty much everybody in the order except Ron Alston, who singled twice in his first two plate appearances. Umberger in turn got easier to hit in the middle innings. In the fifth, Pacheco hit a leadoff single and with one out Ryan Miller doubled to left to put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Tobitt rammed a ball into the ground in front of home plate and was easily thrown out at first by Bowen, while the runners held, and Tsung’s grounder to right was wonderfully intercepted by Quebell to end the inning. But the tying run was back on third base with one out in the next inning. Lopez had doubled and then moved up on Paraz’ groundout, when Dave Graham hit another nerve-pinching grounder to first base, on which Quebell came in and tagged the runner while glaring menacingly at the itching Lopez at third. Cavazos flew out to White and the Indians let Umberger off the hook again. Bottom 6th, Merritt’s leadoff double was the first faint movement from the Critters in a while. Tobitt wanted no piece of Alston and walked him intentionally, but Pat White would hit that RBI single instead. Bases loaded, two outs, Martinez batted for Canning and hit one deep to center, but into the third out. And when the Indians had Boyle on first after a White error and Tobitt batting with two outs in the top 7th, of course Curtis Tobitt would hit a triple to knock Umberger from the game. Sims came in to face Tsung and allowed a hard drive to center where Pat White’s head was taken almost clean off by the ball, but he made the play after all. Pat Slayton pitched a clean eighth despite a throwing error of his own design (…), and in the ninth it was Angel again, trying to hold on to the 2-1 lead and perhaps even pitch a clean inning, which he actually did – in the box score. What that didn’t show was that leadoff man Pacheco cracked an F7 that looked very much like a HR off the bat. It wasn’t, though, and Castro caught it a few feet in front of the track after it had more height than length. 2-1 Critters. Castro 2-4, HR, RBI; Alston 2-3, BB; Umberger 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, W (4-4);

Why Slayton in the eighth? He has ****ed up less than Sims and Rockburn.

In other news

June 1 – BOS OF/1B Gerardo Rios (.306, 13 HR, 49 RBI) has been placed on the DL with an intercostal strain and might miss three weeks.
June 1 – LVA INF/LF/RF Tom Dahlke (.242, 5 HR, 26 RBI) won’t be back until July after suffering a quad strain.
June 3 – Season over for Daniel Dickerson (5-2, 1.57 ERA)! The 32-year old Thunder ace has to get his elbow cut open to remove bone chips and won’t be throwing again until the next year.
June 3 – The Crusaders pick up MR Jose Ramos (0-3, 4.71 ERA) from the Wolves, sending over three minor leaguers, who have all outworn their prospect status, although there’s still hope for AA MR Adam Reece.
June 4 – ATL SP Dave Butler (3-5, 4.11 ERA) 2-hits the Falcons in an 8-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

No wonder that this team can’t play the Indians. The amount of banished ex-Raccoons on that roster is staggering: Marcos Bruno, Salvadaro Soure, Mun-wah Tsung, Juan Barrón, Ryan Miller, Ramiro Cavazos, Roberto Pacheco, and not all of them left Coon City on good terms.

Nick Brown’s scratch-and-claw win on Saturday was his 10th of the season and it is almost certainly the earliest the Raccoons have ever had a 10-game winner in a season in a long time. Ralph Ford reached 10 wins on June 24-ish a few years back, but of course there was Scott Wade in ’89, who won his first 15 starts.

Why is Brownie so magnificientastic? Well, if you put strikeouts to salary, every whiff of his is significantly cheaper than one by Umberger or Cruz, who both make a million, but don’t have half Brown’s strikeouts.

You know who doesn’t have his number retired yet? Scott Wade.

It’s a bit of good news / bad news for next week. Bad news, we’ll play a critical 4-set in New York, and I don’t know how excited I shall be. Good news: Matt Pruitt will be back in the lineup on Monday.

Monthly stats below; the Coons show up fourth in runs scored with 259, which is better than … for a long time, but what the numbers don’t show is that they were actually FIRST after the Monday game against Tijuana. That was before they scored 13 runs the rest of the week, though.

Jimmy Eichelkraut a while ago hit for the cycle against the Au Sable Brash. That’s single-A for you. He also hit a slam against the Temple Bandits. That’s single-A as well. His career double-A slash line (roughly 600 AB) remains a sad .169/.232/.231, though. He’s been hit by a pitch in AA more often than he has *really* hit a pitch.

Having had a hard week already, my laptop decided to eat OOTP a couple of games into this week. The touchpad has always been a piece of ****, and when I innocently hovered over the OOTP logo in the bar at the bottom, it just like that triggered five or six times in rapid succession, minimizing and opening OOTP repeatedly and killed it, wiping all progress until Wednesday. Well, this had never happened before… Though I do have to say I’m baffled at how the games had almost identical outcomes the second time through, with only two teams in the North putting up a different outcome in their games, and for the Coons with game one a rout (even with Bowen hitting the score-opening homer both times!) and game two a nail biter.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (33-22) @ Crusaders (28-27) – June 7-10, 2010

I will admit that I was very worried going into this series. The Crusaders might only be slumbering and they could well awaken the second the Coons stepped through the door to their park. We had swept them in the first series of the year, 3-0, but we had been 5-0 last year and finished 8-10. So far for them nothing had worked out. They were fifth in runs allowed and even eighth in runs scored for some wicked reason.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (3-4, 3.74 ERA) vs. Elwood Spurrell (3-3, 6.00 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-3, 4.89 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (3-4, 5.12 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-3, 3.26 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (5-3, 2.50 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-1, 1.42 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (4-4, 4.91 ERA)

Hernandez is the only left-hander in this series. Those ERA’s are all pretty high and for most of these guys highly atypical. They could break out into a winning streak any second now.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Cruz
NYC: C G. Ortíz – SS J. Hernandez – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – CF Kui – 3B Burns – P Spurrell

The Crusaders scored first, a run in the bottom of the first inning. Cruz drilled Hernandez with a 1-2 pitch, then ran full counts on the Martins and lost them both as Ortíz walked and Stanton hit a double to plate Hernandez. B.J. Manfull popped out, but Francisco Caraballo almost got a ball past Castro in center, but the play was made and Cruz avoided early implosion. Spurrell didn’t however. Alston and Quebell had singles to start the top 2nd, and while Spurrell struck out Bowen and Nomura, he then ran into Walt Canning, who mashed his first career home run to left center field, 3-1 Coons. Both teams would plate a run in the fifth, with Cruz having nobody on with two outs in the bottom of the inning and almost tumbling into demolition after walking Gabriel Ortíz, allowing a single to Hernandez, and then Martin Ortíz hit a huge fly to left and far away from Matt Pruitt that narrowly missed the wall and bounced off for an RBI double before Stanton Martin popped Cruz’ first pitch up to Merritt for an easy third out, finally. Quebell and Bowen were on to start the sixth and the Raccoons got a fifth run on a groundout by Yoshi Nomura. In the bottom of the sixth the Crusaders also had their first two men on with another walk by Cruz, who just wouldn’t find his command on this day, walking three and drilling two, but he got out of the frame against the weak bottom of the order.

The Crusaders weren’t out of this one, though. Slayton pitched in the seventh, put two on, and when Beltran came on with two out against the lefty Manfull, he promptly allowed a double that scored both runners and got the Crusaders back to within a run. Despite a leadoff double by Nomura in the ninth, in which the Crusaders even made an error, the Raccoons failed to tack on an insurance run. Casas was sent without a cushion, struck out Gabriel Ortíz and Hernandez, then had Martin Ortíz single up the middle. Stanton Martin lined a pitch hard to left – but Merritt was there and caught it just before it could hurt. 5-4 Critters. Pruitt 2-4; Canning 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Matt Pruitt seemslessly adjoined a pair of singles to his existing 14-game hitting streak that was interrupted by the collision with Herberto Vieitas a bit more than a week ago. The Raccoons have not seen a guy hit for 20 straight games since DAVID BREWER!!

Game 2
POR: CF White – 1B Pruitt – LF Alston – 3B R. Martinez – RF Ayers – 2B Merritt – C Owens – SS Canning – P Watanabe
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – SS J. Hernandez – 3B Burns – P M. Hernandez

This looked a bit like a forfeit by the Coons, but we had to rest as many left-handers as possible at this rare opportunity, in turn worsening defense even more with a groundballer (on a good day) on the mound. Alston, Merritt, and Canning still need to get rest somewhere.

Maybe the defense didn’t matter so much after all in this game, because the pitching was a right mess to start with. Watanabe allowed homers to Gabriel Ortíz in the first and third for three runs total, and he only survived the first two innings because the middle infielders turned him double plays with a traffic jam on the bases in both frames. Home run power was required to score in this game. Keith Ayers hit a shot off Hernandez for one run in the second, but somehow the Raccoons just plainly weren’t hitting home runs, which was shocking of course. Watanabe was more than done after five horrible innings, in which nevertheless the Crusaders failed to topple him and only got the three runs on Gabriel Ortíz’ shots. B.J. Manfull then conquered Ray Kelley with a solo job in the bottom 6th, and that was luckily before Kelley walked the bases loaded – another situation on which the Crusaders didn’t cash in. After Travis Owens hit a solo home run in the top 7th, Tom Reese was out for the bottom of the inning, which started with Gabriel Ortíz – who hit his third bomb of the day. Top 9th, down by three and Scott Hood on the mound, Ricardo Martinez hit a leadoff double, but that was it for the Coons. 5-2 Crusaders. Pruitt 3-4; Nomura (PH) 1-1;

30 years after Michinaga Yamada’s exploits against the Indians, the Crusaders had their second franchise 3 HR game. This was also the first time somebody had triple-bombed off the Raccoons, and it has happened only 20 times in history.

While Matt Pruitt’s hitting streak lives to 16 games, the remaining days of Kenichi Watanabe on this roster might tick down to zero in the near future, too… And about Ricardo Martinez. He is now batting under .250, and that’s just too poor given his overall skill set. We might need to take a look at other options, perhaps somebody who’s actually qualified to play shortstop. Rob Howell in AAA: .362/.462/.455 in 12 games.

Game 3
POR: CF Castro – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – 3B Heathershaw – SS Canning – P Baldwin
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – SS J. Hernandez – 3B Burns – P Yates

Castro got on, was caught stealing for the second time in this series, and the Raccoons went down in an uninspired manner in the top 1st before the Crusaders drew walks off Baldwin with their first two batters and took a 1-0 lead on a single to right by Stanton Martin. The Raccoons got Canning on to start the top 3rd, and he stole his first career base. Pruitt and Alston drew 2-out walks before Quebell lined hard to center, but the defensively amazing Roberto Pena managed to warp there and catch the rocket in his glove of wonders (in the sense of: we wondered how that one couldn’t fall in).

Then came the top 4th, the bases would be loaded again, but this time with no outs after singles by Bowen and Nomura and a full count walk drawn by Bradley Heathershaw. With the greatest of pains, the Raccoons would score ONE run here, with Canning whiffing, and B.J. Manfull electing the sure out at first on Baldwin’s bouncer. Castro flew out to left. A wild Kel Yates walked six in five innings without getting destroyed, while Baldwin just couldn’t catch a break in the bottom 5th. Both Ortízes reached on singles that escaped the Coons’ infield by inches and confused Ron Alston badly enough to both reach scoring position on Martin Ortíz’ single. With two outs, Stanton Martin up, and Manfull a left-handed batter, Martin was put on and Baldwin was sent to get Manfull. So, the intentional walk was called and – Baldwin was called out for a balk! A balk! On an intentional walk! The inning quickly cascaded into something ugly. Now trailing anyway, Baldwin pitched to Martin after all. At 1-2, Martin bounced one to Heathershaw, whose throw to first was impossible to come up with for Quebell, and the Crusaders scored on the error. With B.J. Manfull batting after all, he hit an 0-2 offering for a looper to right, it fell in, bounced off and past Alston, and *somewhere* in the suites a platter with fine sandwiches splintered against the room’s wall.

Top 6th, Bob Evans had replaced Yates, who left him with Canning on base. Castro added a single with two outs, but Pruitt popped to second base, and Caraballo dropped it. Bases loaded for Alston, Evans missed generously and walked him, pushing in a run, before Quebell grounded out. Bases loaded, three times, the loot less than underwhelming. This was no way to beat the Crusaders, especially with pitching and defense completely crapping out on basics like not balking on an intentional walk. Rockburn coughed up another run on two doubles in the seventh. The Coons got nothing. 5-2 Crusaders. Castro 2-5; Canning 2-4;

Matt Pruitt came to the plate five times, walked the first two times, grounded out, reached on an error, and popped out to end his 16-game hitting streak.

Game 4
POR: CF Castro – 1B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – SS J. Hernandez – 3B Burns – P Trevino

We kinda really, really needed this win, but … no. Pena hit a single to right, Gabriel Ortíz hit one right through Martinez, and then Brown walked Martin Ortíz. At 1-2 on Stanton Martin, he threw a wild pitch. Martin would strike out, but Manfull reached on an error by Nomura, and Brown continued to not get it done with a walk to Caraballo. Hernandez was drilled, 3-0, Burns walked, 4-0, and then Trevino hit a double to left. 51 pitches, seven runs for the Crusaders, of which five were earned, but all were deserved.

There was really nothing to even play for after that. Brown remained in the game plainly to eat innings after the starters had only pitched 16 innings in this series before that. Brown, who had already been blown out by the Crusaders once in 2009, was completely derailed for seven hits, six walks, and three strikeouts amounting to nine runs in five innings. When he was done getting ravaged, the Crusaders had no hits and only a Merritt walk in the fourth against Trevino… The horrible Raccoons would only ever amount to two hits while Trevino spun a complete game 2-hitter, with the Raccoons even making the scoreboard with a laughably negligible seventh-inning home run by Ron Alston. 9-1 Crusaders. Reese 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Well, and with that, we abandon all hope. The team is ****, was always meant to be ****, and when I said they’d win 101 games I must have hit my head beforehand. Maybe it’s Alzheimer’s and I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore.

Raccoons (34-25) vs. Wolves (25-35) – June 11-13, 2010

Like any good book, the Raccoons kept you always turning another page to see how they would **** up next. The Wolves were the second-worst team in the ABL, though just a bit below league average in both runs scored and runs allowed, and their run differential was even only -7, so they were doubtlessly due a winning streak. We hadn’t played them since 2007, then taking two of three, but had gotten swept the two meetings before that.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (4-4, 3.88 ERA) vs. Max Shepherd (4-4, 2.95 ERA)
Javier Cruz (4-4, 3.68 ERA) vs. Art Cox (3-3, 4.70 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-4, 4.94 ERA) vs. Raúl Chavez (5-4, 4.03 ERA)

Chavez is a left-hander, which shall be designated as Ron Alston Won’t Hit a Meaningful Homer Anyway Day.

Game 1
SAL: CF A. Ruíz – C M. Torres – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF Hiwalani – RF J. Gonzalez – 1B Roche – SS Efird – 3B N. Chavez – P Shepherd
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – 3B Heathershaw – P Umberger

The Raccoons scored a sorry run in the bottom 3rd, Pruitt singling in Quebell, but continued to manufacture tight spots where they really shouldn’t and one of those things was before that in the top 3rd, when there were two outs and nobody on until Miguel Torres reached on a Heathershaw error before Jong-hoo drilled Alberto Rodriguez. Hiwalani would foul out to end the inning, but … gnnngh!! Neither lineup did much to hurt the opposing pitcher through conventional means, but in the bottom 6th the Wolves’ Max Shepherd was in nominal trouble after a walk to Pruitt and an Alston single, only the Coons’ fourth hit in the game. But it took only one more pitch to dissolve the situation in Shepherd’s favor, with Craig Bowen hitting into a double play. Umberger maintained a 2-hitter through seven innings, but was beyond 100 pitches already and would need some qualified backup. Umberger was hit for in the bottom of the seventh with Merritt on first (after hitting in place of Heathershaw) and two outs. Keith Ayers sent a ball to deep center, where it was caught by Abe Ruíz. The centerfielder would strike a leadoff single to right against Law Rockburn in the eighth inning, but the Wolves never got their man off first base. Bottom 8th, still with Shepherd pitching, Castro drew a leadoff walk and was in motion when Quebell defeated Frederic Roche with a hard liner that bounced up the rightfield line and enabled the speedy Castro to score easily from first base. Despite Quebell on second base on the double and no outs, that was all. Pruitt flew out, Alston was walked intentionally, and Bowen and Nomura made two ready outs. Angel Casas drilled Roche with one out in the ninth, but got a double play grounder fed to Walt Canning by Carlos Ramos after that. 2-0 Coons. Quebell 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Merritt (PH) 1-1; Umberger 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, W (5-4);

Game 2
SAL: CF A. Ruíz – C M. Torres – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF Hiwalani – 1B Roche – SS D. Mendez – RF Olson – 3B N. Chavez – P Cox
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – SS Canning – P Cruz

This time around, the Raccoons got a few runs on the board early. Castro walked to start their effort in the first, with Quebell hitting another double. Pruitt and Alston didn’t come through, but their outs were productive and the team was up 2-0 after the first, and added a run in the second inning after Jon Merritt’s 12th triple of the year. In the fourth, Alston reached leading off on a throwing error, but was left on third base. Meanwhile, Cruz had brought some heat and had seven strikeouts through four innings. Nelson Chavez hit a leadoff single in the top 5th when the Wolves elected to have Art Cox swing away, grounding the first pitch into Walt Canning’s eager glove for a double play. Forward to the bottom 6th, where Pruitt reached on an infield single to start the frame, then stole his first bag of the year on Torres. Alston was walked intentionally, but Bowen hit a double past Hiwalani, going hard on 38, to score Pruitt and put runners on second and third with no outs, and this was also the Coons’ first RISP hit in the game. Alston scored on a sac fly and Cruz would then add to his day with a 2-out RBI knock to get the lead to 6-0. Pitching-wise he added only one K to the seven from the first four innings, whiffing Abe Ruíz in the eighth, the only out he logged there in between a Carlos Ramos walk and Torres single. Kelley came in, struck out Rodriguez, and Hiwalani bounced out to Merritt. Ted Reese’s ninth started with a walk and a balk, but the Wolves wouldn’t score in the 18th inning in the series, either. 6-0 Coons. Cruz 7.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 8 K, W (5-4) and 1-3, 2B, RBI;

We had only six hits and three walks, and nobody had more than one knock. But the Elks, who had come to within one knock to tie the division on Thursday, had since lost three games (including Thursday), and were instead tied with the Crusaders, who hadn’t lost since mopping up Kenichi Watanabe on Tuesday. As we’re on the topic of Watanabe…

Game 3
SAL: CF A. Ruíz – C M. Torres – 2B A. Rodriguez – LF Hiwalani – RF J. Gonzalez – 1B Roche – SS D. Mendez – 3B N. Chavez – P R. Chavez
POR: CF White – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Ayers – 1B Merritt – 3B R. Martinez – C Owens – SS Canning – P Watanabe

The Critters didn’t see Chavez all too well, but the Wolves certainly saw Watanabe sufficiently good. They just didn’t score, still, but they had six hits in the first four innings and left a runner in scoring position in three of the innings. The home team didn’t reach base until their #8 batter. Walt Canning legged out an infield single, but stumbled over the first base bag and hurt himself. Heathershaw had to replace him in the field. Watanabe pitched in the sixth inning, walked a man, then allowed back-to-back 2-out RBI doubles to Roche and Mendez. That gave the Coons a 2-0 deficit and with Bowen and White going down to start the bottom 6th, they still had only their one hit. Then Nomura hit a ball over Hiwalani for a 2-out double, which Pruitt followed up with a hard single to left. Nomura scored, 2-1, Ayers singled, and Merritt hit another single to left to tie the game. Leftfield remained their preferred target, with Martinez launching a liner to there as well, and Hiwalani didn’t get to that one, either. Martinez came up with a triple, handing Portland a 4-2 lead. Ray Kelley was to bat next, having replaced Watanabe with the intention to also pitch the seventh no matter what. Another runner on third base was all too tempting however, and Ron Alston hit for Kelley. He lined a pitch hard, but right at Alberto Rodriguez. Slayton pitched a clean seventh, yielding for Rockburn in the eighth, who allowed a single with one out to Hiwalani. With the left-handed Javier Gonzalez next we moved on to Sims, who almost allowed a homer or at least an RBI double, but Pruitt managed to make the catch at the wall without smashing in his own face. Angel Casas had a bit less trouble in the ninth inning, despite a 2-out walk to Carlos Ramos. After that, Pat Buckholtz hit for Abe Ruíz and grounded hard to first, but Quebell had been inserted for defense there and ended the game. 4-2 Furballs. Martinez 1-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Canning 1-1;

Nobody with multiple hits again, but sometimes five hits in a row are success enough. Ask Nick Brown about that.

In other news

June 7 – 300 home runs for SAL LF/RF Bakile Hiwalani (.261, 7 HR, 32 RBI)! In a twist of irony, he hits the milestone homer off the Warriors’ Martin Garcia, his teammate on the Loggers for more than a decade. Hiwalani, who hit 293 of his dingers as a Logger, has hit .273 in his career, driving in 1,505 runs, and has also stolen 154 bases. He was an All Star four times and won a Gold Glove in 2000.
June 7 – Season over for PIT LF/RF Mohammed Blanc (.341, 7 HR, 27 RBI), who has suffered a ruptured medial collateral ligament.
June 8 – RIC LF/CF Earl Clark (.303, 6 HR, 32 RBI) is going to miss a month with an ankle injury.
June 11 – Pittsburgh’s 23-year old wonder SP Fred Dugo (7-4, 3.05 ERA) 3-hits the Knights in a 10-0 rout.
June 13 – DEN 3B Javier Rodriguez (.313, 1 HR, 26 RBI) will miss most of the time remaining before the All Star Game, going down with a back strain.
June 13 – DAL SP Paul Miller (4-7, 3.73 ERA) spins a 3-hit shutout against the Falcons. The Stars win 6-0.

Complaints and stuff

Hiwalani homering off Martin Garcia for #300 is something you can hardly make up. He is the ninth player to reach 300 big jobs after Raúl Vázquez (416), Dan Morris (406 and counting), Michael Root (338, HOF), Jose Lopez (329 and active), Gabriel Cruz (318, HOF), Anibal Rodriguez (318), Mark Dawson (304), and David Lopez (303 and hungry for more). I never liked Hiwalani, but he has really been quite the hitter, which needs to be acknowledged at some point. He might have fallen off a cliff around his age 35 season, but before that he was a giant pain in the rear in the North.

No diagnosis on Walt Canning yet, but after the way the team got romped by the Crusaders (as usual), we can stop worrying about the playoffs and start picking apart the top 100 prospect lists to see who we can turn Alston, Quebell, Cruz, Umberger, Bowen, and all the other expensive, useless bling into.

Next week: four against the Elks on the weekend, but before that, on Tuesday, the Amateur Draft. By the way, I misplaced the draft report by our new scout Juan Calderón, but I am confident that I can find it again before the draft takes place. And in case it doesn’t, we won’t pick in the top 40 anyway…

[Westheim]

2010 AMATEUR DRAFT POOL

Hah, I finally found that scouting report again! I must have actually misplaced it in the drawer with the resumes of Mexican hitmen that I kept around for no particular reason at all.

And nobody seemed to be named Bob anymore; it justined a lot in the 2010 draft pool, with the most promising catcher and outfielder – at least according to our new scout Juan Calderón, who was doing what I wanted and presented his report in a nice and tidy form and was really hard to come up with a derogatory nickname for, and I had a lot of experience in that actually – being named like that. There were more than those two, including a starting pitcher that wasn’t quite breaking our top 10, but perhaps the top 25?

Anyway the Raccoons weren’t picking until #43*, so the top 25 picks were probably nothing to salivate too hard over, because chances were about zero to get one. The Raccoons did have a couple of decent picks, though, with two supplemental round and two second round selections, but we had forfeited our first round pick (which would have been #21) when we signed Jon Merritt in the offseason.

Without much further ado, here are the top selections in the draft according to Senor Calderón:

SP Jason Clements (15/12/8)
SP Dan Moon (13/14/10)
SP Melvin Alvarado (15/14/15)
SP Bryan Robbins (14/14/12)
SP Cameron McSweeney (10/12/13)

CL Michael Sieben (18/13/10)

C Justin Clark (13/15/12)
C Tim Robinson (9/14/12)

INF/CF Emilio Farias (15/1/7)
INF Eric Paull (12/8/8)
3B Matt Nunley (10/9/11)
2B Sean Wilson (11/4/15)

OF Justin Nickel (11/11/14)
LF/RF Trevor Herbert (13/13/13)
OF Lowell Genge (9/11/11)
RF/CF Nick Gilmor (12/11/10)
RF Joseph Doan (12/14/16)

This draft is short on infielders, but there are a couple more very interesting starting pitchers (like Justin Denham, who doesn’t quite make that list, but maybe he’ll be around at #43 still?) and outfielders. The infielders thing was a non-issue for us, as we still carried a surplus of them in the lower two levels of the minors and weren’t quite sure whom to let go anyway.

*All this assuming that I manage to get the draft order straight; if not, we’ll pick #10.

[Westheim]

2010 AMATEUR DRAFT

Picking first at #43, the Raccoons didn’t spend too much time worrying about the most juicy talent in the draft. We’ll see what we get, when we get it.

The top picks in the draft turned out to be SP Melvin Alvarado (MIL), OF Justin Nickel (TOP), and SP Bryan Robbins (NAS), with C Justin Clark (LVA) and LF/RF Trevor Herbert (SFW) completing the top 5. The first pick not even on our extensive longer list of interesting young talent came at #11 when the Scorpions picked up outfielder Gerardo Callahan. The Wolves picked SP Zach Hughes with the first round pick that would have been ours, but this was with our most favorite pitcher, Jason Clements still on the board. He would fall to the Canadiens at #24.

By the time our first pick finally rolled around, there was only one player left from our hotlist, and that was SP Dan Moon. He was a right-hander with an astounding cutter/curveball combo and very mean stuff especially for a high schooler, but Juan Calderón also pointed out that his third pitch, a changeup, was seriously lagging behind in development and there was no guarantee that it would come around. That was not the issue with Justin Denham, who was also on the hotlist, except that he wasn’t, but Denham, also a high schooler, threw 5mph slower compared to Moon. Teams had already gobbled up outfielders like there was no tomorrow, so we really were between these two. Bank on a changeup that is not more than a guarantee for trouble right now, or go with the guy who throws a meager 89mph on average?

We broke our heads about that for as long as we were allowed to, then snapped to Moon. In the end, we could have gotten away with less drama: Denham remained around until our next pick. We picked two outfielders after that, and then suffered some minor frustration in round 3 when we had already focused on C Corey Call, whom the Cyclones then grabbed one spot ahead of us. Grrr!

It was a few minutes later when we realized that somehow a page was missing from our notes. “Say”, I asked Calderón, “where’s the page on third basemen?” He fingered through his notes. “I can’t find it”, he ultimately replied. “Say”, I went again. “Is that Matt Nunley still on the board?”

2010 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Supp. Round (#43) – SP Dan Moon, 18, from Radcliff, KY – right-hander with a nasty curve and cutter, getting groundballs; also has very good stamina; main issue is his wonky third pitch, a changeup, that needs some serious work
Supp. Round (#55) – SP Justin Denham, 18, from Branson, MO – right-hander with a good 3-pitch mix; needs to get a bit more movement on the fastball, which shouldn’t be too hard with a 89mph “heater”. HIS changeup looks wonderful, though.
Round 2 (#72) – RF/LF/1B Jimmy Fucito, 22, from Norton, MA – good contact bat with soundly above-average power potential, although his walks and strikeouts could suffer, since he swings at really everything; no speed, but a killer arm, making him a rightfielder by default
Round 2 (#84) – LF Matt Stubbs, 18, from Elgin, IL – contact, power, and a good eye, also quite fleet on the feet, but he has some unnerving clumsiness on defense
Round 3 (#108) – 1B Isaac Berry, 17, from Plymouth, NC – mostly the prototypical first baseman, except that he can run quite a bit and has more range than the average Sir Swings A Lot…
Round 4 (#132) – 3B Matt Nunley, 19, from Hollywood, FL – a somewhat rare breed of a left-handed hitting third baseman, Nunley has the arm of a murderer, but isn’t too agile in the field, costing him in the double play department and disqualifying him from a shortstop assignment. We think that a slight adjustment to his swing could really bring out the power in him.
Round 5 (#156) – RF/LF Keith Chisholm, 20, from Kamloops, BC, Canada – nothing out of the ordinary here, except that he is really slow on the feet and has hit more than twice as many home runs than doubles in college ball
Round 6 (#180) – LF/2B Matt Saunders, 20, from Pine Hills, CA – this strange creature has exceptional mobility in the field, yet no timing to steal bases, also the occasional base running blunder, and also no arm to capitalize on the range in centerfield f.e., and no power to put him in a corner outfield spot in a productive way; no clue what we’re gonna do with him…
Round 7 (#204) – SP Chris Nickolaus, 18, from Philadelphia, PA – this right-hander throws a 87mph slowball, but has a mean slider; also working on a rudimentary changeup
Round 8 (#228) – SP Ford Pilger, 21, from Philadelphia, PA – and another right-hander with a changeup in progress, and not much of a fastball
Round 9 (#252) – C/1B Brian Moore, 17, from Westchester, IL – might well turn out to be a defensive nightmare, and to be a one trick pony that hits a ball really hard at a cost of 15 strikeouts apiece…
Round 10 (#276) – MR Ken Penwell, 21, from San Jose, CA – right-hander with a cutter/curveball repertoire and no intentions to add a changeup
Round 11 (#300) – SP Ethan Reynolds, 21, from Reed Creek, GA – I admit I was looking hard for a left-hander with not much about him in round 11, which has worked well in the past…
Round 12 (#324) – 2B Danny Plascencia, 18, from Caguas, Puerto Rico – I wasn’t into more infielders, but the scouting reports hints at a potentially nice contact bat surprise in this switch-hitter

All picks reported to Aumsville, including Fucito, and all 28 selections named Matt. If Fucito does well, he might get a promotion to Ham Lake quickly, though.

I'd give ourselves a D- on organization on this one, but at least we didn't yell out when it wasn't our turn.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (37-25) @ Cyclones (34-26) – June 14-16, 2010

The Cyclones were leading the FL East without any offense at all, ranking 11th in runs scored, but on the other hand, they were also the best team in preventing runs in that league, with just a bit over 3.5 runs per game against them. This was still a wee bit more than the Raccoons allowed, as we were just under 3.5 R/A, but 2nd in the CL.

We had beaten the Cyclones for five out of six the last two times we met, in 2007 and 2008. The first half of the decade had seen frequent beatings handed to the Raccoons, though. We were .476 overall against them, the fourth-worst mark against any Federal League team.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 3.29 ERA) vs. Juan Garcia (5-4, 4.11 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-2, 2.05 ERA) vs. Tony Hamlyn (7-2, 2.34 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-4, 3.52 ERA) vs. Nathan O’Herlihy (5-4, 2.67 ERA)

The middle game is the only one in which we’ll see a left-hander, and of course Tony Hamlyn is not a stranger’s name in the ABL. He leads Nick Brown 5-1 in terms of Pitcher of the Year awards. Damn sure Hall of Famer, I’d say.

The series started without Walt Canning, who was placed on the DL on Monday morning after being diagnosed with a strained medial collateral ligament. He figures to miss at least a month. Rob Howell was recalled from AAA, where his strong slash line from the first few games had since steadily decreased. But what are you gonna do – we need a shortstop!

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Baldwin
CIN: LF C. Gonzalez – CF P. Estrada – 2B Spinu – RF J. Silva – 1B M. Williams – SS B. Hall – 3B Reece – C F. Hernandez – P J. Garcia

After the Raccoons made three harmless outs in the top of the first, Baldwin walked the still-reviled César Gonzalez, then allowed four hits in the inning for four runs scored. Yeah, well, that’s one way to blow a game early. While Baldwin didn’t cease to behave ineptly in this game, the Raccoons also lost Tomas Castro to injury in the second inning, and looked certainly beaten (and at least beaten up) until Craig Bowen craiged (uaah…!) a 3-run homer in the fourth inning that got the team back to then a 5-4 deficit. There were no outs in the inning and Juan Garcia continued to put on runners, walking Merritt. Yoshi reached on an infield single, and Howell singled clean to center. That gave us the sacks full with no outs for … Baldwin. Ah, this was one really bad spot, but I had the pitcher bat, because the chances of a double play were infinitely high anyway. Baldwin struck out, and the Raccoons would just ever so barely get the tying run across the board on Pat White’s groundout, tying the score at five.

The tie would be broken in the fifth, which started with Matt Pruitt homering off Garcia. Baldwin continued to have a go at pitching, making it into the bottom 6th, where Felix Hernandez led off with a grounder to short that Rob Howell capitally threw away to put the tying run on second base. Reliever Luis Guerrero was used to bunt, but his bunt was rather bad and ended up comfortably with Baldwin, who managed to have Hernandez cut down at third base. Then he walked Gonzalez. (pause for a good old facepalm) … Law Rockburn took over, struck out Pedro Estrada, and had Georg Spinu retired on a groundout, and added a perfect seventh after that. Then came Donald Sims and found a way to mess with success. Sonny Reece singled, and when Hernandez bunted, Sims thought he could get the lead runner out as well … but couldn’t. Two on with no outs were a sticky situation with a 6-5 lead. Roberto Hernandez pinch-hit and popped out to Pruitt, pinning the runners, and César Gonzalez popped out foul, after which Sims yielded to Ray Kelley to face Pedro Estrada, who singled past Nomura into right and the game was tied at six after eight innings. The Coons faced the nightmarish back end of the Cyclones’ pen, with two innings from Ian Johnson before Iemitsu Rin took over. He issued a 1-out walk to Pat White in the top 11th on a pitch right on the corner in a 3-2 count, so the Coons were probably lucky. Quebell then walked on four straight, but we kept running out left-handers against the southpaw Rin. Pruitt lined out to Spinu, before Alston drew another full count walk. With two out, Pat Slayton had to be hit for in the #5 hole vacated by Bowen earlier. Keith Ayers grabbed a stick and beat Jose Silva with a fly to right that fell in for a 2-run double. The so far preserved Angel Casas had his first clean inning in a good while and struck out two as he sat the Cyclones down 1-2-3. 8-6 Coons. Pruitt 3-5, BB, HR, RBI; Alston 2-5, BB; Bowen 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Ayers (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-5; Howell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Martinez (PH) 1-1; Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Slayton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, W (1-0);

So was that their weak offense or our wonky rotation that produced six runs?

In any case, the Raccoons placed Tomas Castro on the DL with a herniated disc in his back. He figures to be out until the latter half of July. For the moment it looks like Pat White will start in center until then, but maybe we can do better. Looking at AAA… nope, Santiago Trevino was as good as it would get.

Game 2
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Ayers – C Bowen – CF White – 2B Heathershaw – SS Howell – P Brown
CIN: LF C. Gonzalez – CF P. Estrada – 2B Spinu – RF J. Silva – 1B M. Williams – SS B. Hall – 3B Reece – C F. Hernandez – P Hamlyn

What Tony Hamlyn did to the poor Raccoons was little short of the fur farm getting an order from the coat factory. He struck them out all to easily and was maintaining a firm grip on a no-hitter from the very beginning, while Nick Brown’s no-hit bid burst on his first pitch of the day, on which César Gonzalez singled to center. That was the only hit in the game in the first five innings, although while Hamlyn whiffed seven and walked merely one, Brown walked three and got all of them erased on double plays, while striking out only two. While Hamlyn’s pace didn’t slow down a tad in the sixth, Brown was almost eaten in the bottom of the inning. Well, Felix Hernandez hit a leadoff jack, and then Brown allowed hits to Gonzalez and Estrada before also walking Spinu. Jose Silva kindly rolled into the fourth double play of the night after that.

But then, the outrageous happened: Adrian Quebell led off the seventh and singled to center! Gone the no-hitter! Alston up, full count, single to right. Oh baby, we’re in business no-……t. Ayers K’ed, Bowen K’ed, White popped out foul before he could K, too. While Nick Brown was for once not struggling with a high pitch count (the Cyclones got things to hit early in the at-bat), he still was removed after seven innings with a golden opportunity. Normally you would go get another beer when Hamlyn was to face our 7-8-9 guys in the eighth, but he walked Heathershaw, then allowed a single to left to Howell that went through Gonzalez’ legs and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs. It was imperative to hit for Nick Brown now, especially with Matt Pruitt on the bench. Pruitt got it done and singled, tying the game, but when Merritt flew out to right, Silva threw out Howell at home, and Quebell struck out to completely waste the actual chance to beat Hamlyn. Turns out, neither former Pitcher of the Year would earn a decision. Despite Luis Beltran’s best efforts to lose in the bottom 8th, including a hit by Roberto Hernandez and a wild pitch, Law Rockburn kept the store closed for the Cyclones. Ian Johnson was at it again in the ninth and was taken very well deep by Keith Ayers with one out, giving the Coons a slim 2-1 lead and Angel Casas closed the book on Cincy again. 2-1 Critters. Ayers 1-4, HR, RBI; Pruitt (PH) 1-1, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 K;

I wonder where Nick Brown’s stuff went. At least Howell didn’t make sixteen errors…

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Umberger
CIN: 1B C. Gonzalez – LF P. Estrada – 2B Spinu – RF J. Silva – SS B. Hall – CF Blackburn – 3B M. Williams – C F. Hernandez – P O’Herlihy

Offense was slow to start the game. The Coons had Rob Howell on with a leadoff single in the top 3rd, but he got forced on a sad attempt at a bunt by Umberger, which cost a run since Howell might have scored on Quebell’s double that followed this escapade, but Umberger definitely wasn’t, and neither Merritt nor Pruitt could get the ball somewhere nice. The Coons took a 1-0 lead the next inning when Ron Alston homered to center, but overall they weren’t going to run O’Herlihy from the game anytime soon. Top 6th, Pruitt hit a double with one out. Alston got four wide ones, and Bowen hit right into the double play. In the bottom of the inning, and with Umberger working on a 3-hitter and a low pitch count, a brief shower moved through, but still got the game delayed for 22 minutes. Once play resumed it became clear that our battery had used the brief time off to turn into toast. Umberger allowed two singles, Bowen was charged a passed ball, and the Cyclones knotted the score at one at once. While the Coons scratched out a run in the top 7th, Umberger’s appearance in the bottom of the inning only served to put two men on and leave with no outs recorded. Ted Reese was no help, allowing the tying run to score, and handed the ball over to Donald Sims with the go-ahead run on third and two outs. Not only did Sims allow that run to score on a Gonzalez single on an 0-2 pitch, he was also taken well deep by Estrada to definitely snap a 5-game winning streak. Another run scored off Slayton when he walked two in the bottom 8th, and Pat White’s homer in the top 9th was dressing for a broken window at best. 6-3 Cyclones. Quebell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Alston 3-3, BB, HR, RBI; White 2-4, HR, RBI; Howell 2-4;

I just decided that I really badly need to get rid of Donald Sims. He’s turned into a big headache, and we have Ron Thrasher in AAA possibly ready to contribute something else than blown leads and losses hung to somebody else.

Raccoons (39-26) @ Canadiens (34-28) – June 17-20, 2010

As we shipped up to Vancouver, the Elks were second in the division, 3 1/2 games back, with the Crusaders lurking only another half game behind them. They are second in runs scored, and fifth in runs allowed. We have a history of getting swept up here, and it would be a very bad spot to suffer a sweep. Not that there are ever good spots to get swept by those hooved skunks. We have already lost two of three to them this season.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (5-4, 3.35 ERA) vs. Simon Pegler (4-5, 4.80 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (2-4, 4.78 ERA) vs. David Peterson (5-3, 4.50 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (4-4, 3.68 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (5-6, 3.76 ERA)
Nick Brown (10-2, 2.00 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (4-4, 3.43 ERA)

All righties, all the time. These Elks are doing everything well that we don’t as well, like hitting home runs and stealing bases, leading the CL in the latter category. I have a hunch that lots of pain and crying are on my way.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 2B Nomura – C Owens – CF Trevino – SS Howell – P Cruz
VAN: CF Holland – 1B H. Ramirez – 3B Suzuki – RF J. Thomas – SS T. Johnson – LF Theobald – 2B A. Gomez – C Mata – P Pegler

The Coons had the bags full with one out in the first inning when Nomura bounced into a 4-6-3 double play. In the bottom of the inning, Cruz was going to post a clean inning until Howell threw away Mitsuhide Suzuki’s grounder, and Suzuki scored on Josh Thomas’ single to center. Three singles pulled back that run in the top 2nd, Quebell driving home Owens, and Howell made another error in the bottom 2nd! This time, nothing got onto the board for the Elks, but what the heck was wrong with the kid!? In the third the Coons took a lead on Ron Alston’s line drive home run to right center, 2-1, and Howell got a chance and actually didn’t blow it. Pegler continued to be very hittable and the Raccoons had three on with one out once more in the top of the fourth, with Matt Pruitt coming up. Matt was 0-2 on the day, and his .390 average indicated that he was due to give birth to a hit very soon. A liner into the canyon in right center plated two runs, Pegler couldn’t throw (or didn’t dare) to throw a strike to Ron Alston, but when Nomura looped a soft line into shallow right, Josh Thomas misplayed it into an extra base and run. When the dust settled, the Elks’ manager had hauled Pegler off the mound, and the Furballs were up 6-1 with a pair of runners in scoring position. Former starter Scott Spears allowed one more run to score on a Travis Owens single, 7-1. Cruz lasted only five and two thirds after his control went away in the middle innings, but no runs were scored off him. Luis Beltran cleaned up the runner Cruz stranded on third base and also covered the seventh. After a scoreless top 8th we pulled in Pruitt and Alston for the backups – we had already had Castro go down with injury this week, and we were up by six. That spread would open further: two outs in the top 9th and Keith Ayers on first, Craig Bowen hit for Ted Reese and clobbered a Bill King pitch for a home run. Pat Slayton put the first two men on base in the bottom of the inning, then struck out Holland, Ramirez, and Suzuki. 9-1 Furballs! Merritt 3-5, BB; Ayers (PH) 1-1; Alston 2-4, BB, HR, RBI; Bowen (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-5, BB, 2 RBI; Owens 4-6, 2B, RBI; Beltran 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Not only did we secure our top dog spot in the North with this nice little rout, we also passed the Elks in runs scored, taking over second place there. Meanwhile, Rob Howell is making an error every 31 innings...

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Watanabe
VAN: CF Holland – 1B H. Ramirez – 3B Suzuki – RF J. Thomas – 2B Dobson – SS T. Johnson – LF Theobald – C Mata – P D. Peterson

The Critters left a man in scoring position without plating somebody in the first two innings, which was not prudent with “Wobbly” Watanabe on the mound and a ticking time bomb at short. Accordingly, ex-Greycoat Julio Mata drove in the first run of the game with a 2-out double in the bottom 2nd (and we consciously elected to not walk him intentionally, because he is Julio Mata…). Top 3rd, Quebell singled, and a Pruitt triple and Alston single flipped the score in the Coons’ favor. Pruitt and Alston also reached base in the fifth, but weren’t scored, and the Raccoons had White and Howell on in the next frame, but White was caught stealing by Mata. Did Julio Mata ever catch a stealer when he was a Critter? While Watanabe was generating poor contact successfully and clicked off batters, maintaining a 3-hitter through six, the top 7th started with an infield single for Quebell, and Pruitt hit a clean one to give us runners on the corners for Alston, but he converted a 3-2 pitch into a double play and the score remained 2-1. Bottom 7th, Watanabe walked Tom Johnson with two outs. Enrique Garcia hit for Paul Theobald, grounded to short, and Howell blew it – again. While Mata grounded out to Yoshi to end the inning, and nobody scored, I called the manager in St. Petersburg to inquire about the shortstop situation there. In the bottom 8th the Elks sent switch-hitter Gary Rice to bat ninth, and with Holland Ramirez being left-handed at the top of the order, we went to … Donald Sims. He got two groundouts before he walked Hector Ramirez, with Rockburn taking over to face Suzuki, allowing a single, then walking Josh Thomas. Dobson struck out to leave the bags stacked. In the final frame, Tom Johnson came mighty close to a leadoff double that Alston scratched out of the sky with the tip of his claws, but after that Angel Casas retired the last two batters (including Mata, who whiffed) with ease. 2-1 Critters. Quebell 4-5, 2 2B; Pruitt 3-4, 3B, RBI; Howell 2-4; Watanabe 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (3-4);

Watanabe barely broke a sweat, throwing only 75 pitches. Also, the Elks had only four hits in total to our 11, and we still almost lost it.

Currently, Ricardo Martinez was no big help to us. I made up my mind, sent him back to AAA, and recalled the well known Manuel Gutierrez, who would get regular play time at short with Howell’s glove needing stitching.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – P Baldwin
VAN: CF Holland – LF Theobald – 3B Suzuki – RF J. Thomas – 2B Dobson – SS A. Gomez – C J. Silva – 1B H. Ramirez – P Fujita

This season, Fujita’s walks were up, the strikeouts were down, but he was perfect the first time through and struck out five Critters. While Baldwin also faced the minimum, Jerry Dobson had singled in the second before getting swept up in a double play. Fujita’s bid ended before it really was a bid, with Adrian Quebell ramming a ball off the fence just three feet inside the right foul pole, and slid in safely at third base. Fujita walked Merritt before Pruitt flew out to center, Quebell twitched, but then trotted back to third base. Too close, too strong an arm, and too clubby those feet. The Coons took the lead anyway when Alston and Bowen hit back-to-back singles, 1-0 and the bags full for Yoshi, who got a 2-2 pitch at the bottom of the zone and hauled it big time to right center, and that’s gonna be – is it … is it? It is! It is gone! GRAAAAAAAND SLAAAAAAAAMMMMM!!!!

In a strange pitching matchup, Fujita went five innings and struck out eight, while Baldwin struck out none through five, but was only in mild trouble once in the bottom 4th after a pair of 2-out singles by Suzuki and Thomas, and had not allowed any runs, while throwing less than 50 pitches. The Raccoons added an unearned run off Jesus Quinones in the top 8th, with Aurelio Gomez making a throwing error to put Jon Merritt on second base to start the inning. Pruitt singled and Alston hit into a run-scoring double play. Oh really? A shortstop making an error? Never heard of that. Baldwin’s shutout bid was threatened again in the eighth. His 1-out walk to Julio Silva was the first of the day for him, and Gary Rice hit a single with two outs. Pruitt caught a rocket hit to left by Ross Holland to keep the Elks off the board. Baldwin was left in to bat in the top 9th with Gutierrez on first and two outs and struck out against Spears, but with a 6-run lead I was comfy with him seeing the middle of the order again. Paul Theobald popped up, Suzuki grounded out to short, Josh Thomas singled, and then he walked Dobson. Sigh, okay, one more batter. Gomez bounced an 0-2 pitch to Jon Merritt, who zinged it to Quebell perfectly – shutout! 6-0 Raccoons! Nomura 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Baldwin 9.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, W (5-4) and 1-4;

Wicked. Yesterday we barely scratched out two runs on 11 hits, this time nobody had multiple hits and we had only seven on the day, scoring six runs. Baseball is the strangest game for sure.

Not that Colin Baldwin, having tossed his first career shutout at age 28, was minding too much. Now, with the sweep on the table, watch Brownie get lit up again.

Game 4
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 2B Nomura – CF White – C Owens – SS Howell – P Brown
VAN: CF Holland – LF Theobald – 3B Suzuki – C Mata – RF J. Thomas – SS A. Gomez – 2B T. Johnson – 1B H. Ramirez – P R. Taylor

Two of the top 3 strikeout pitchers in the Continental League were squaring off, even if one of them (ours) hadn’t thrown too many strikes his last few times out. No matter how he pitched, in any case Nick Brown drove in the first run of the game with a 2-out single in the top 2nd. Nomura scored from second base, probably because Owens behind him went first-to-third and the Elks elected to get the damn sure out instead of the 50/50 one. The joy was short-lived, as Julio Mata went deep off Brown in the bottom 2nd, he issued a walk, and Tom Johnson also romped a homer to put him in a 3-1 hole. Top 3rd, walk to Merritt, Pruitt single, walk to Alston, the bases were loaded again for Yoshi, who was limited to a sac fly this time, and Pat White struck out to leave two on in a 3-2 deficit. Next inning, Travis Owens singled, and after Howell went down looking Nick Brown drew a walk to represent the go-ahead run. Taylor went to full counts on the next two batters, resulting in a Quebell single and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Jon Merritt, the latter tying the game at three, and Pruitt and Alston were coming along, but only one additional run came along on Pruitt’s groundout, with Alston being out on a bang-bang play at first. Brown was not great, but at least outlasted Taylor, who watched helplessly as Rob Howell shoved an 0-2 pitch into the dirt in front of home plate, then out-legged Julio Mata’s throw for an infield single to start the top of the sixth. Howell stole second base, moved along on Brown’s groundout, and scored on Merritt’s groundout, and then Howell got three grounders fed in the bottom of the inning and didn’t throw any of them all the way to Alaska! What an inning! A future star!

Brownie managed to last seven innings, with two walks issued in the seventh, and a double play in between. He made a nice play on Hector Ramirez’ bouncer for the final out, and was in line for his 11th win. The game was still tight, though, with a 5-3 lead. Owens and Howell hit leadoff singles in the top of the eighth. Bill King remained in the game, struck out Trevino batting for Brown, but then fell to Quebell. A huge shot to right, no doubt, gone, three runs on the board! Spears replaced King, but allowed another run on a Merritt double and Pruitt single, 9-3. The Elks weren’t completely dead yet, and Josh Thomas would hit a home run off Reese in the ninth, but they couldn’t come back from that deficit, and the Raccoons had a 4-game sweep!! 9-4 Brownies!! Quebell 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Merritt 1-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Pruitt 2-5, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-4, RBI; Owens 3-5; Howell 2-4; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, W (11-2) and 1-2, BB, RBI;

(grins awkwardly)

In other news

June 14 – The Indians swap 40-year old 1B/2B Bruce Boyle (.264, 1 HR, 8 RBI) to the Gold Sox, along with a minor leaguer, for 1B/3B Daniel Sharp (.297, 4 HR, 15 RBI).
June 15 – Topeka’s SP Dan George (0-0, 0.00 ERA) retires from baseball effective immediately. The 37-year old lefty had labored with forearm issues the entire season and only made one appearance. In his 18-year career, George appeared for the Indians for seven, and the Buffaloes for 11 years, with career numbers of 218-186, 3.71 ERA, and 2,516 K. He was an All Star three times, in 2002 and 2004-5.
June 15 – The Indians acquire LF/RF Al Graves (.293, 2 HR, 29 RBI) from the Warriors in exchange for a second-rate prospect.
June 15 – The Loggers start to give up once more and trade 1B Jose Valenzuela (.309, 3 HR, 15 RBI) to the Rebels for LF Willie Davenport (.224, 0 HR, 6 RBI) and a rather dubious prospect.
June 15 – LVA INF Howard Jones (.277, 2 HR, 20 RBI) hits the DL with a sprained ankle, but should not be out for more than four weeks.
June 16 – The Crusaders deal 2B/SS Julio Hernandez (.253, 1 HR, 13 RBI) to the Knights to acquire 1B/RF/3B Kevin Bond (.268, 5 HR, 13 RBI).

Complaints and stuff

We top the power rankings. Life is good! Life is good! Life is good! Life is good! There. One “Life is good!” for every victory collected in Vancouver this week. I can’t even remember our last 4-game sweep up there. Probably was some time ago!

While on paper Colin Baldwin had the best game in Elkland, Kenichi Watanabe had the most important victory, with his silent dominance over seven innings saving his furry butt for another week. And I do not like Hector Santos’ walk rate in AAA (4.4/9), but … hnnggh! Santos turned 22 at the beginning of the month. I keep telling myself, there’s no need to rush him.

Somebody else who came completely out of the dark and worked his way up the depth chart in AAA? Gil McDonald. Who? Gil McDonald. We picked him in the ninth round in 2004, 225th overall, and he was in Aumsville as recently as 2008, but he’s really taken off since. A late bloomer who turned 27 two weeks ago, this right-hander is 6-1 with a 3.42 ERA, above average BABIP (.320) and a 3.7 K/BB in AAA this season. He’s already had major shoulder and elbow woes, though.

Weeks until Daniel Sharp SOMEHOW winds up on the Raccoons’ roster again? Can’t be more than three or so. Not that I am actively plotting yet, but he hasn’t stayed anywhere for more than five minutes since his contract ran out in 2007.

Donald Sims has to be moved someplace else, but I already picked up the phone and … nobody’s excited.

Then there’s Rob Howell. I don’t know how to go about him, to be honest. I am tempted to dump him to some other team, but lacking patience is one of the biggest problems for me. Once Daniel Dickerson stops qualifying for the CL ERA title, that will go to Antonio Donis, whom I also shoved to the pen for a lack of patience, and then traded. He’s pitched more than 207 innings only once in his career, but man, do his career numbers look good. 657 G (241 GS), 138-82, 2.96 ERA, 47 SV, 1,858 K in 1,841 IP.

Back to Howell, his stolen base on Sunday was the team’s 20th. Not only do the Elks lead the league in that department, no, Ross Holland on his own has more sacks taken than the entire Raccoons roster! He swept his 29th off Bowen on Friday, but was nailed by Owens on Sunday. And of our 20, half are on the DL now…

[Papi]

Four weeks and 89 pages later. I am caught up! Now I can finally start commenting on current events. It would have been odd to comment about Tetsui or Mr. Coon himself a decade after they retired!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Papi

Four weeks and 89 pages later. I am caught up! Now I can finally start commenting on current events. It would have been odd to comment about Tetsui or Mr. Coon himself a decade after they retired!

Management congratulates you, you have won the Ironman/coon of the Year award.

Now that your knowledge is fresher than mine, when was the last 4-game sweep we handed to the Elks in Vancouver? I've sure done some searching last night, and so far I haven't found one.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (43-26) @ Loggers (29-40) – June 21-23, 2010

The Loggers were in last place again, but it was a bit of a mystery. By themselves, their numbers were not that bad at all, as they ranked eighth in both runs scored and runs allowed. Their run differential was a semi-decent -33 only. However, somehow the entire team managed to amount to less than the sum of all its parts and they clearly had the worst record in the North. We had beaten them four out of six games on the year, but this includes the last 3-game set which turned into a medium-to-severe train wreck for the Raccoons. But we just romped the Elks, what’s the worst that can happen?

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (5-5, 3.59 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (9-4, 2.96 ERA)
Javier Cruz (6-4, 3.13 ERA) vs. Alfredo Rios (3-9, 5.85 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (3-4, 4.44 ERA) vs. Gabriel Caro (5-7, 3.44 ERA)

That’s three more right-handers. We miss their only southpaw, Fernando Cruz, by a day. The Loggers also had a new toy, 22-year old rookie outfielder Justin Dally, who was hailed as a successor to Bakile Hiwalani sooner rather than later, but so far had batted an uninspired .244 and was laboring back issues right now and was day-to-day. Another starting outfielder, J.R. Richardson, was on the DL.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – CF White – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – 3B Heathershaw – P Umberger
MIL: SS Mateo – 2B Moultrie – 1B Catalo – 3B Townsley – C Baca – CF Brissett – LF K. Scott – RF Dally – P R. Thomas

Just mentioned, Justin Dally already hurt the Coons with a leadoff double in the bottom 3rd, which led to him scoring the first run of the game on Jaime Mateo’s clean single to center. The Raccoons hadn’t managed to put up anything the first time through the order, but stocked the sacks in the top 4th after singles by Quebell and Pruitt (the latter extending a hitting streak to 12 games) and Alston drawing a walk. They were held to the tying run on Nomura’s sac fly to left, with Bowen striking out. While Umberger was a bit of a mess in this start and amassed four walks through four innings (and none particularly disputable), the Raccoons had found the taste of hitting singles. Howell led off the fifth with one, then stole second when Alonso Baca’s throw was good, but Todd Moultrie bobbled it. A wild pitch later, Heathershaw struck out (lowering his average to .116) before Jong-hoo, arguably the worst-hitting pitcher we’ve had in a long, long time, struck a single clean to left to plate the go-ahead run. Quebell and White added singles to bring up the big guns with three on and one out, and while Pruitt struck out, Ron Alston hit a single to center that plated two runs for a 4-1 lead.

The next inning, Roy Thomas’ pitching license was auto-revoked: first he allowed a 2-out double to Heathershaw, then another double to Umberger! The Loggers were obliged by rule to remove him, but Quebell also hit a double off Wes Gardner to get the lead to 6-1. Umberger, while not showing anything stuff-wise and walking those four, lasted seven innings as in turn the Loggers got only two hits off him, and they wouldn’t get any off Ray Kelley and Donald Sims after that. 6-1 Coons. Quebell 4-5, 2B, RBI; Umberger 7.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 1 K, W (6-5) and 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Kelley 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – CF Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – P J. Cruz
MIL: SS Mateo – 2B Moultrie – 1B Catalo – CF T. Austin – 3B Townsley – C Baca – LF Campbell – RF Dally – P A. Rios

Ron Alston and Bob Townsley exchanged solo home runs in the second inning, and the Loggers were clearly closer to building on that early first run than the Raccoons, who had only one more hit and no threats through four innings. The bottom 4th was a close call for Cruz, who had a double allowed to Baca, then walked not only Dally with two outs, but also Alfredo Rios, before Mateo popped up a 3-2 pitch that Yoshi shagged. The Raccoons kept snoozing until the seventh. Trevino then singled and stole second base, upon which Cruz drove him in with a single. Quebell then doubled and Merritt walked, all with two outs, bringing up an 0-3 Pruitt. Time to break through, and breaking through he did, lining an 0-1 pitch to right center, and Dally was close to it, but it just went screaming past him and all the way to the wall, and the wall was far, far away in Milwaukee. Pruitt slid in with a 3-run triple, breaking up the score to 5-1. Cruz logged two more outs before Moultrie drove in Keith Scott in the bottom 7th. Top 8th, Jason Long was pitching, a left-hander, and in a hurry the bases were loaded on a hit and two walks, with no outs for Gutierrez. The shortstop struck out before Keith Ayers came out to hit for Ted Reese, who had gotten Leborio Catalo for the final out in the seventh, and drew another walk. When Quebell singled, another run was in, yet Long was gone, and the Loggers didn’t come back, either. They did get two men on against Pat Slayton in the eighth, but couldn’t get anybody across. 7-2 Critters. Quebell 2-5, 2B, RBI; Cruz 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (7-4) and 1-2, RBI;

Winning run driven in by the starting pitcher for consecutive days. I hope the batters are ashamed!

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – CF Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – P Watanabe
MIL: SS Mateo – 2B Moultrie – CF T. Austin – 3B Townsley – C Baca – LF Campbell – 1B Luján – RF Dally – P Caro

Both teams stranded one runner in the second and two in the third, but the trouble-o-meter for Watanabe rose steadily each inning. The fourth started with a Tim Austin single before he walked Townsley on four pitches. Alonso Baca then grounded back to the mound, where Watanabe started a 1-6-3 double play, but Earl Campbell put an 0-2 pitch into play and grounded it into centerfield to plate Austin for the first run of the game. The Coons lineup did an incredibly bad job at scoring runners, stranding two more pairs in the fifth and sixth before Alonso Baca hit a 2-piece in the bottom 6th to open the score to 3-0. The Raccoons didn’t come up with anything. Gabriel Caro allowed four hits over eight innings, plus a few walks, but the Raccoons were completely unable to get anything off him, or Micah Steele in the ninth, who even added offense to insult by drilling Ron Alston to start the inning. Nope, this one was firmly put into the loss column. 4-0 Loggers. Gutierrez 2-3, 2B;

Besides our 6-game winning streak, Matt Pruitt’s 13-game hitting streak also went bust with an 0-4 day. As for Dally, he hit two doubles in the series, but wasn’t too effective overall. I am not scared. Yet.

Raccoons (45-27) vs. Bayhawks (34-38) – June 25-27, 2010

The Birds were sixth in runs allowed with a really decent pitching staff, but their offense was quite horrible, scoring barely 3.5 runs per game, last place in the Cotinental League. This included Luke Black, batting .226 with four homers. We would not get to see him this time around, though, as he was on the DL (and had been since the latter half of May) with an oblique strain. We had taken two of three from them earlier in the season.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (5-4, 3.26 ERA) vs. Reynaldo Rendon (4-6, 3.47 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-2, 2.12 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (7-6, 3.17 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (6-5, 3.41 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Moreno (2-2, 5.30 ERA)

And another three right-handers, and we miss the lefty, our old farmhand G.G. Williams, by a day.

Game 1
SFB: SS R. Garza – LF F. Jones – 1B D. Lopez – CF D. Cameron – 2B B. Hernandez – RF Morton – 3B J. Martinez – C Hicks – P Rendon
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Baldwin

Two Birds and three Coons reached in the first inning, but nobody scored. The Raccoons with their high-OBP top of the order were about to stack the sacks again in the bottom of the third, with Quebell and Merritt reaching on singles. The recently scuffling Pruitt fouled out, but Ron Alston knocked a tremendous shot that was never going to do anything else than fly, fly away, and Baldwin had a 3-0 lead. Quebell added a solo shot, only his fourth of the year, in the fifth inning to get a 4-0 lead, and Rendon was gone soon after that. While the Birds didn’t get much at all off Baldwin after initially starting the game with two singles, the Raccoons ate up Nathan Harrison in the bottom 7th. The Bayhawks were almost out of the inning when with Merritt on first and one out, Pruitt grounded to second base, but Bartolo Hernandez couldn’t turn the double play. Alston and Bowen hit back-to-back RBI doubles, and Nomura plated Bowen with a long single after that. Carter Hicks hit a leadoff double in the eighth, but Orlando Rios and Ramón Garza both hit bouncers back to Baldwin, who easily made it out of the frame. Baldwin, despite 104 pitches on the clock, batted for himself in the bottom 8th, making the first out. Tommy Costello would then walk Quebell and Merritt, throw a wild pitch, and concede a 2-run single to Pruitt, before David Lopez quite determinedly sad NO to Baldwin’s second career shutout and drummed a leadoff jack in the ninth. That was the end of the line for Baldwin, and when Donald Sims came in he allowed three singles and a run just like that. 9-2 Raccoons. Merritt 2-3, BB; Alston 3-5, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Bowen 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Baldwin 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, W (6-4);

Reynaldo Rendon is one of those short-stamina starters, like Antonio Donis. Granted, Donis had – and at 38 still has – more stuff that this kid. He has an awesome name though, on the line of Raimundo Beato.

I miss Pooky.

Game 2
SFB: SS R. Garza – LF F. Jones – 1B D. Lopez – CF D. Cameron – 2B B. Hernandez – RF D. Richardson – 3B J. Martinez – C Hicks – P R. Jimenez
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Brown

The Bayhawks took the bats to Brown immediately, with a Ramón Garza singled followed by a 4-pitch walk to Freddie Jones and a Lopez double. They scored two runs in the first, and I was wondering just why, oh why? He had been more than just otherworldly in April and May, but ever since the calendar had flipped to June, he was getting romped and romped, and romped. The Coons went down in order the first time through, but Quebell hit a leadoff double in the bottom 4th. While he was moved around and scored to cut the gap back to 2-1, it also started to rain and once Brown had struck out Jimenez to start the fifth, a rain delay was called and the tarp stayed on the infield for more than an hour. Of course, Brown didn’t return after that, and Pat Slayton took over the 2-1 deficit, but only was in for two outs, when his spot came up in the bottom 5th with two on and two outs. Keith Ayers hit for him against Javier Montes-Ortíz, but grounded out. After Beltran struck out the 4-5-6 batters in the top 6th, Quebell led off another inning with a double. Pruitt singled, Alston walked, Bowen hit into a double play, and nobody scored. Orlando Rios homered off Beltran in the seventh, 3-1, and the Coons went dry for two innings, before Ron Alston led off the bottom 9th with a walk against Valentim Innocentes. Bowen was in the game no more, and Ray Kelley needed to be hit for, with Trevino taking over as the tying run. His ****ty bouncer to first beat David Lopez anyway and the tying runs were actually on base for Yoshi with no outs. Nomura struck out however, and poor grounders by White and Howell weren’t going to prevent this loss. 3-1 Bayhawks. Quebell 2-4, 2 2B; Trevino (PH) 1-1; Kelley 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K;

Ugh. Just when I thought we might pull away, such a stinking crap game. We need this rubber game real bad. The Crusaders are already rallying again…

Game 3
SFB: SS R. Garza – 2B B. Hernandez – LF D. Cameron – 1B D. Lopez – C A. Ortíz – RF D. Richardson – CF F. Jones – 3B J. Martinez – P R. Moreno
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 2B Nomura – C Owens – CF Trevino – SS M. Gutierrez – P Umberger

And once again the Raccoons were sent trailing early. They had Quebell on again in the bottom 1st, had him moved to second with a wild pitch, and stranded him consequently, before Alfredo Ortíz hit a leadoff double in the top 2nd and of course scored easily for the Bayhawks. The Raccoons kept scuffling, and whenever they hit a ball to the deep outfield regions, somehow an outfielder warped there and took the double away. Singles by Pruitt and Owens were barely enough to scratch out the tying run in the bottom 4th, but they didn’t get that good knock. Top 5th, Moreno hit a leadoff single to center, but was stranded on third base, and the following inning, the Coons actually got a double to fall in, but then it was with two outs and nobody on base. It was hit by Yoshi, who was soon joined on the bases by Owens and Trevino, who drew walks off Moreno. Manuel Gutierrez poked at the first pitch and hurled a pathetic looper into shallow left, out of everybody’s reach, scoring the go-ahead run. We rolled the dice, hauled in Umberger and sent Keith Ayers with a bat, but Ayers grounded out…

Rockburn got through the seventh without blowing the 2-1 lead, and then Quebell led off another inning with a single off reliever Manuel Chavez. Jon Merritt drew a walk in a full count, and then Pruitt singles to right, loading the bases with no outs. The left-hander Chavez remained in for now, was victimized by Juan Martinez’ defense when Alston bounced a ball that way and it became an RBI single. Once Yoshi plated a pair with a single up the middle, Chavez was collected and replaced by Tommy Costello, a righty, who managed to retire Owens and Trevino, but Gutierrez would single in another run to give the Coons a 4-spot and a 6-1 lead. The Bayhawks would get a hit off Sims in the eighth, but couldn’t get any closer, and in the ninth we sent Angel Casas, who was picking his nose in the pen with three clear wins and two losses so far this week. He whiffed two in a clean inning. 6-1 Greycoats. Quebell 2-4, BB; Pruitt 2-5; Nomura 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 2-4, 2 RBI; Umberger 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (7-5);

In other news

June 21 – The Boston Titans lose not only one, but TWO outfielders on the same day, as Javier Gusmán (.259, 8 HR, 34 RBI) will miss six weeks with a broken hand, and Gerardo Rios (.294, 13 HR, 49 RBI) has torn ligaments in his thumb and will have to sit out for at least a month.
June 22 – As the Capitals beat the Cyclones 6-5, WAS INF Bob Butler (.248, 9 HR, 36 RBI) cracks three home runs against the Cyclones, driving in four runs. Butler is the 21st player in ABL history to smack three in a game, achieving the feat only 14 days after New York’s Gabriel Ortíz sunk the Raccoons three times.
June 23 – A fractured finger will put CIN 1B/LF César Gonzalez (.287, 10 HR, 40 RBI) on the DL for about five weeks.
June 24 – 2,000 career hits are achieved by 33-yr old CIN RF/LF/1B Will Bailey (.323, 5 HR, 17 RBI), who has spent his entire career with the Cincy organization, hitting .324 with 255 HR and 1,127 RBI for his career. The milestone hit is a home run off Washington’s Randy Farley, but the Cyclones still lose 6-4.

Complaints and stuff

One of our recent second-rounders, outfielder Matt Stubbs, is already on the DL after contracting plantar fascitis. Jason Seeley, struggling in AA and AAA, also hit the DL with an fractured rib. Oh, I have a bad feeling. As far as our major league disabled list occupants are concerned, Walt Canning was at least two, Tomas Castro at least three weeks away, maybe a bit more.

Nick Brown since May 30 @ Oklahoma, and it ain’t pretty: 2-2, 34.2 IP, 27 H, 19 ER (4.93 ERA), 23 BB, 32 K;

The Capitals still have no no-hitters, no cycles, no 6-hit games. Now at least they have a 3-homer game. They were the only team without entries in any of the four categories, with the Scorpions and Canadiens the only other teams that also have never had either a no-hitter or a cycle.

Next week we'll have another big series, a 4-game set in New York. That will blend over into a 4-set in Boston after that, and the Titans are our four-and-four partners around the All Star Break this season.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (47-28) vs. Falcons (36-38) – June 28-30, 2010

Outside of a brilliant bullpen that was far and away the best in the league, the Falcons didn’t have a lot to offer. They were 6th in runs scored despite a poor batting average of .247, despite not hitting for a lot of extra bases or stealing bases, or even walking a lot. How they had made it to the upper half of the runs table was a mystery. The rotation was rather middling, and you had to pounce on them because if you entered the seventh trailing, chances were slim. We had gone 1-2 against them so far.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (7-4, 3.10 ERA) vs. Alfredo Collazo (7-5, 4.05 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (3-5, 4.44 ERA) vs. David Estrada (5-2, 4.54 ERA)
Colin Baldwin (6-4, 3.07 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (6-7, 4.69 ERA)

The stars aligned to give us two left-handers in one series, with Estrada and Cutts throwing from the southern side, assuming that Estrada could overcome a mild abdominal strain that was bothering him.

Game 1
CHA: CF DeBoer – 2B Reeve – 3B J. Lopez – RF J. Flores – SS J. Amador – 1B J. Mendoza – C F. Gonzalez – LF J. Jimenez – P Collazo
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS M. Gutierrez – P Cruz

The first pitch of the game already inflicted pain … to Jimmy DeBoer, who was smacked pretty good by Cruz. This was only the first tune in a strangely disharmonic ballad played on the mound by the veteran, who constantly allowed hard contact, with quite a bit of that directed right at our middle infielders for lucky outs. The Coons’ Adrian Quebell entered with a 12-game hitting streak that he ran to 13 games on the first chance with a leadoff single in the bottom 1st, but got thrown out at home on a Pruitt double. Nobody scored until the bottom 3rd when the top 3 guys in the Coons’ order all got on base for Ron Alston, who sent a pitch to deep left, but just like Bowen after him had that ball caught by Jose Jimenez. Alston at least netted an RBI, and the Coons would get a second run on a Nomura single to right. Jimenez would later cut into the 2-0 lead with a 2-out solo home run in the top 5th, only the second base hit for the Falcons, but by far not the second hard-hit ball. The Coons got the run back in the bottom of the inning when Nomura plated Pruitt on another single after Pruitt and Alston had led off the inning by drawing walks, but with two out in the top 6th, Cruz was again scored upon with a howling RBI double hit by Jesus Flores. Bottom 6th, Cruz struck out before Quebell singled to right, staying unretired on the day. Collazo then walked Jon Merritt on four pitches to have two on for the middle of the order, and with the first pitch to Pruitt quite wild, the runners moved into scoring position. Pruitt eventually walked, and with Alex Ramirez replacing Collazo Alston struck out and Bowen flew out easily to left.

While Cruz held onto the 3-2 lead through seven despite showing precious little outside of old age, once Donald Sims took over in the eighth to face left-handed pinch-hitter Luis Reya, the lead was toast. Reya homered to right center, the game was tied, and it was all so horrible. Bottom 8th, Robert Parsons, a right-hander, faced Quebell, and Adrian was still not to be retired; he walked, setting up Merritt to bunt, but the middle of the order still stranded Quebell at third base. Reese and Beltran almost conspired to give up a run in the top 9th, but Merritt started a double play to keep the Falcons down. Bottom 10th, closer Luis Hernandez drilled Rob Howell to get started, and THEN faced Quebell, who wasn’t denied and singled to right. C’mon, keep Howell moving! Merritt popped out to Melvin Pollack at second base, who also was fed a nice grounder by Pruitt, but messed it up quite badly, loading the bases with the error for Alston. Aaaand … Alston and Bowen both struck out to leave them loaded. Bottom 12th, Ron Sakellaris pitching, Howell grounded out on a 3-1 pitch, before Quebell grounded to the pitcher, who threw the ball well past Max Heart at first, and Quebell, while technically not reaching base safely, still got to second base with one out. Can we please …? No! Merritt singled, moving Quebell to third, before Pruitt grounded to Pollack, who threw home to erase Quebell comfortably. Once Alston walked, Bowen went from 0-6 to 0-7 with another strikeout, and the game went from the 12th to the 13th inning. Law Rockburn had already pitched two clean innings when he was sent to bat in the bottom of the 13th, and hit a single to left, only go get forced by Gutierrez, who had by now moved to second base, leaving us longing for Yoshi to be still playing quite hard. Howell ran a full count with two outs, singling eventually and allowing Gutierrez to get to third base for the still always-on Quebell, who chose this opportunity to hit one right to Pollack that wasn’t thrown away. Rockburn was scorched for two runs in the 14th, including a homer by Jesus Flores. The Raccoons didn’t answer that call one bit. 5-3 Falcons. Quebell 4-6, 2 BB; Merritt 2-6, BB; Pruitt 2-6, 2 BB, 2B; Nomura 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; White 2-6, 2B; Cruz 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K; Slayton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K;

The ****ing scums left 20 runners on base, with the same stat being eight for the Falcons. We out-hit them 15-9, outwalked them 8-4, and they made a bushel of errors, and these ****ing scums still lost it hard.

Gonna be one long week of suckage again, huh?

Craig Bowen was a glorious 0-for-8 in this game. The sparkle is off.

Game 2
CHA: CF DeBoer – 2B Reeve – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – RF J. Flores – SS J. Amador – 1B J. Mendoza – LF Reya – P D. Estrada
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Ayers – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Howell – P Watanabe

Kenichi Watanabe kept getting clobbered. The Falcons scored two runs in the first inning, hitting four singles, three of which came on line drives that just went over the infielder’s heads. They added a run in the third, and overall had ten hits off Watanabe, who was just ready to get blown over. Two double plays in key spots prevented him from being completely exploded, but it was a thoroughly pathetic performance, although not quite as bad as the one put up by the lineup, which was completely unwilling to do anything against Estrada. Rob Howell hit a stray homer in the bottom 5th and that was just about it. There was so little going on, we can skip right to the eighth, in which Merritt hit a 1-out double, only the fourth hit off Estrada, a veteran with an injury history resembling a book on human anatomy. He kept himself in one piece for quite a while in this game, but allowed a 2-out RBI single to Pruitt. It was tempting to hit for Ayers in this spot, with Alston available, but the Falcons were probably anticipating that and thus left their left-hander IN so they would NOT face Alston, and rather have Estrada face Ayers, who eventually walked. Pat White snuck a grounder past Pollack, in for defense, and Pruitt went aggro around third and was just barely safe (mind that only Keith Ayers is always out at home).

That tied the score, with the other runners into scoring position. Now Alston hit for Nomura, Estrada STILL remained in and they did NOT walk him. So of course Alston flew out to left on the first pitch. In the tied affair, Angel Casas went two innings and struck out six (which also indicates that the game spilled into overtime again). Bottom 11th, White led off against Luis Hernandez and got drilled. That was quite like the bottom 10th had started on Monday, only with Howell getting romped and plenty of runners stranded. Alston next, and you weren’t going to bunt with Alston. The effect was the same as he grounded out to Pollack. That brought up Travis Owens, who had been left on second to end the bottom 9th, grounded out to short, and Howell stuck out. Another man stranded in scoring position. Bottom 12th, Merritt doubled with one out. Quebell hadn’t been on base all day and grounded out here, moving Merritt to third. The pitcher was batting in Pruitt’s spot for a while already, and we had to bat Trevino in place of Beltran, and with Hernandez pitching that was never going to work out. One strikeout later we went to about our last available reliever in Ray Kelley, who was denied the win when the Coons had two on in the bottom 13th and Owens hit into a two-for-one, then managed to survive a leadoff double by Luis Reya in the 14th when he struck out two to get out of the frame. Bottom 14th: Howell reached on a looping single off Jerry Scott, after which Heathershaw flew to right and right to Jimmy DeBoer, who dropped the ball. Two on, no outs. GET THE **** SOME RUN IN, YOU ****HEADS!!

Yelling did the job, obviously. Merritt ran a full count against the right-hander Scott, then hit a ball to center that fell in. It wasn’t overly deep, but Howell had the boosters on and scored from second base, ending the second of back-to-back cascades of misery with a walkoff – finally! 4-3 Blighters. Merritt 3-5, 2 BB, 2 2B, RBI; Pruitt 2-4, RBI; Howell 2-5, HR, RBI; Casas 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K; Beltran 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Kelley 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (3-1);

Quebell’s streak inexplicably ended. My patience did, too.

Trade and Stuff

Unrelated to the back-to-back 14-inning games the Raccoons made their move and changed several roster spots. First off, a trade was concluded with the Scorpions, as we traded off the completely off-balance Donald Sims (2-0, 2.73 ERA, 1 SV), who ran a WHIP of 1.58, which was unacceptable for us. Beltran was doing well, so Sims, who was due $500k both this and next season, had to make room. At the same time, we hoped to fill the gaping hole at shortstop with somebody still familiar to Critters fans, as we acquired 36-year old SS Conceicao Guerin (.273, 1 HR, 6 RBI)!

Concie wasn’t getting at-bats in Sacramento, stuck behind Dave McCormick, but he still had that shiny glove and was a more or less consistent .260 singles hitter, although he hadn’t been a starter for a full season since leaving the Falcons after 2005. And let’s be honest, a .260 singles bat and upper echelon glove is more than we can sew together between all our other shortstops right now. Guerin made $264k this year and was a free agent after the season.

We also made several other moves after this. First, we promoted Ron Thrasher, who had whiffed 51 men in 36 innings in AAA, and whom we had picked up last year from the Elks, to fill the second lefty spot in the pen. Then we had to get rid of an infielder, and it was Bradley Heathershaw, a disappointment of galactic proportions. He was waived and designated for assignment.

And then we put another player on waivers and designated him for assignment. Kenichi Watanabe (3-5, 4.45 ERA) was getting hit and hit and hit, and there had to be an end to that at some point. The time has come: Hector Santos (43 BB, 87 K in 88 IP) was promoted to the major league roster! Santos slotted into the rotation behind Nick Brown, and would make his debut on Friday … in New York.

Raccoons (47-28) vs. Falcons (36-38) – June 28-30, 2010

Game 3
CHA: 2B Reeve – SS J. Amador – C F. Chavez – 3B J. Lopez – CF J. Jimenez – RF J. Flores – LF Nieves – 1B Heart – P Cutts
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Pruitt – RF Ayers – LF Alston – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – C Owens – CF White – P Baldwin

Baldwin went to full counts on the first three batters, resuling in a single, a stolen base and throwing error by Owens, another single, and another single … and two runs in total. It would be a very long day, especially for Baldwin. There was no bullpen available for him to leave early. He would throw 110 pitches at least, and if the Falcons stuffed him 20 runs, it would be so. And they were certainly getting there early as he walked two and threw a wild pitch in the second inning to allow another two runs. Third inning: Lopez reached on a Merritt error, Jimenez doubled, and Flores walked. Domingo Nieves hit a slam, the Falcons were up 8-2, and Baldwin was not going to get out of this one, still. Nobody out in the third. Max Heart singled, and when Cutts bunted, Baldwin’s throw to first was ****. Ayers made an error in the fourth that wonderously would be inconsequential, but that made it four errors on the day for the team that wanted to win the division. And eight runs against. The Coons scored an odd run here or there, but this was just a mess. It was such big a mess that Colin Baldwin went six innings on 124 pitches, trailing 8-3, then complained about pains in the pitching arm. Oh, great, things are getting better by the minute! Pat Slayton was thrown in there hopefully going to go three innings, which so badly didn’t work once the Falcons turned him inside out for three runs in the seventh, in which he threw almost 30 pitches. The Coons had the bags full with two outs in an 11-5 game in the bottom 7th when his turn came up, Quebell hit for him, but of course that wasn’t going to be a zinger. And yet, despite the savage way in which the Raccoons’ pitchers got raped in this game, they got the tying run into the on-deck circle in the bottom of the ninth, and with no outs. Ted Reese pitched two scoreless in substituting for the mop-up / long reliever, and Matt Pruitt launched a 2-piece in the bottom 8th to get back to 11-7. Trevino hit a pinch-hit triple in Owens’ place in the bottom 9th to get started, and White drew a walk. Bowen hit for Reese, and smacked a huge drive off Alex Ramirez that was SO gone – new score: 11-10. Next, Domingo Nieves, who had hit safely five times in the game, misplayed a Merritt fly into a double. Pruitt had two taters on the day, and now hit a bouncer to right and past Max Heart, scoring Merritt, and we were TIED.

Staggering.

Ayers flew out to center, and Pruitt was strolling far already when Alston chopped a bloop to center, where it fell in for a single, bringing Pruitt, the winning run, all the way to third with one out for Yoshi, who put an 0-1 pitch from Ramirez into play and grounded to the shortstop, but close to second base. Alston had been moving already and it was doubtful they’d get a double play, so Amador threw home to nail down Pruitt, but NO! HE’S SAFE! HE’S SAFE!! THE COONS WIN IT!! THE COONS WIN IT!!!

Total madness!! 12-11 Raccoons!!! Pruitt 5-6, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Alston 2-6, HR, RBI; Nomura 2-5, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Trevino (PH) 1-1, 3B; White 3-4, BB; Bowen (PH) 1-1, HR, 3 RBI; Reese 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, W (2-1);

I have said this before. But … NOW I have seen everything.

Raccoons (49-29) @ Crusaders (43-34) – July 1-4, 2010

We were only 4-3 against the Crusaders, who were coming around after a scrummy start in which they played .500 ball for two months. Since then they had cranked it up, the offense was producing now, and the pitching was good as well, they were fourth in both runs scored and runs allowed, and also they were getting better. We need our top game for this one, and we’re gonna pitch the ace with an ERA of almost 5 in June, the debutee, and the two guys that could do everything from a shutout to a blowout in any given start.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (11-3, 2.21 ERA) vs. Manuel Hernandez (6-4, 4.24 ERA)
Hector Santos (0-0) vs. Pancho Trevino (6-5, 3.88 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (7-5, 3.29 ERA) vs. Ken Maddox (6-4, 4.45 ERA)
Javier Cruz (7-4, 3.06 ERA) vs. Mike Collins (3-3, 3.79 ERA)

Boys, a split would already be a good achievement. A split keeps them almost a week’s worth of games behind. A split would be fantastic!

The left-hander Hernandez will give us three straight to face, and while we hope for a resurgence of Brown now that it counts (and we pretend to have forgotten him getting blown out the last time against New York), we were most nervously eyeing Saturday and Hector Santos’ major league debut. When was the last time we longed for Brownie’s start to be done with and in the books to see the next guy in line?

Game 1
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – LF Alston – C Bowen – SS Guerin – CF White – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Brown
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – 3B Bond – SS Brantley – P M. Hernandez

Brownie started the game with a walk, and that had always been a bad sign, and probably still was. While his walk rate would not remain 100%, he worked in full counts regularly, and that was not the way to preserve a completely mangled bullpen. He needed 54 pitches through three innings, after which we were tied at one with runs driven in by Manuel Gutierrez and B.J. Manfull, respectively. The Coons didn’t do anything with Jon Merritt’s 1-out double in the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, Francisco Caraballo hit a leadoff single and was moved around to be at third with two outs. Brown didn’t get Hernandez struck out, and Hernandez hit a liner off Brown’s 1-1 pitch that came screaming right back to Brown, who swiped it off his whiskers with his glove – for the third out. Help was on the way in terms of offense. Keith Ayers led off the sixth with a double and scored on consecutive groundouts to put the Coons up 2-1. Luckily Ron Brantley hadn’t read the scouting report and didn’t know that Ayers was easy to get out at home, and instead threw out Bowen when he was fed the catcher’s grounder. After that, Guerin and White reached with two outs and Gutierrez managed to sneak a grounder past Caraballo and into center. Guerin was still quick (but the quick first step or two were gone completely at 36) and scored handily from second base. Brown sent a ball almost to the warning track in rightfield, but Stanton Martin had that erased, keeping the score at 3-1. Brown struck out the first two batters in the sixth, Pena and Gabriel Ortíz, before Martin Ortíz walked and Stanton Martin singled. B.J. Manfull beat Ayers for a double, the game was tied, and then scored on Caraballo’s single, and just like that, the Coons trailed 4-3. The Raccoons weren’t dead, scratched out the tying run in the top 7th on a Merritt double and eventually an Ayers sac fly, and Brown labored his way through another inning before retiring for a shower. He got a no-decision, striking out eight. Next thing we saw was the major league debut of Ron Thrasher, and he would first see the Martin Brothers right away. Ortíz flew out to center, but Stanton doubled. Thrasher struck out Manfull, then left with the right-hander up next. Rockburn got a grounder to Merritt, who made a bad throw that bounced off the first first, then off Quebell next, and the Crusaders had them on the corners, but Kevin Bond fouled out to end the inning. Alston fouled out to strand two in the top 9th just as well, and the Raccoons couldn’t pull something out, instead heading to extras for the third time on the week, and it was only Thursday. Ray Kelley drilled Gabriel Ortíz to start the bottom 10th, and when Martin Ortíz singled, it was about over. Kelley labored on, but fell to a pinch-hit single by Paco Batlle. 5-4 Crusaders. Merritt 2-4, BB, 2 2B; Quebell 2-5, 2B; Pruitt (PH) 1-1; White 3-5; Gutierrez 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI;

Law Rockburn was also sore after logging three outs between the eighth and ninth inning and was sent for evaluation. Let’s see whether we can turn over the entire roster by Sunday!

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – CF S. Trevino – P Santos
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – 3B Bond – SS Brantley – P P. Trevino

Hector Santos on this July 2, 2010 cherished his first major league at-bat, spending nine pitches with Roberto Pena, before the centerfielder grounded out to first, and had a perfect first inning. Congrats, son, now you’ve got an official big league ERA! Stanton Martin was the first guy to reach against Santos, on an infield single in the bottom of the second, but was collected in Manfull’s double play grounder and the youngster remained unscored upon, then hit a ball past Manfull his first time at the plate, bouncing it into the corner for a double, but ECSTASY ECSTASY ECSTASY he kept running and was out at third base. While the Coons failed to do anything with the bats against Pancho Trevino, Santos didn’t strike out anybody until he faced Martin Ortíz to start the bottom 4th. Ortíz went down, but he then walked Stanton Martin, and Manfull went well deep on a well fat pitch. Precisely here, a nice day for the rookie turned into a nightmare. He walked two more in the inning, and barely got out alive and with all limbs attached. Santos went six, allowed three runs and struck out four. It was not completely bad, but it was not good, either. And the lineup was twice worse, managing only two hits by position players off Trevino through eight innings. Strangely it was Scott Hood who struggled in the ninth inning, allowing singles to Alston and Nomura, but the tying run that came up was Concie Guerin, and there were two outs. Hoping for some wicked PH magic, we sent Travis Owens, but he was just completely overpowered by Hood and whiffed. 3-0 Crusaders.

Yeah, we’re gonna lose four, pretty obvious.

Meanwhile, injury news. Law Rockburn was merely sore and would need another day or two to get back to strength, but Colin Baldwin had torn a meniscus and was headed to the DL. He would most likely miss the rest of July. With the open roster spot, we added a reliever first, with Derrek Fredlund coming up to help out for two or three days before yielding for a starter. Fredlund had 2.5 K/BB and a 1.93 ERA in AAA.

Trade and Stuff

Also, both our players on waivers cleared them. Watanabe was assigned to St. Petersburg (which was swell since we were going to pull another pitcher from there by next week), but Heathershaw refused the assignment.

We picked up the phone and got a deal worked out with the Capitals. So, Bradley Heathershaw, with the winner’s name and a .120 average, 1 HR and 2 RBI, was sent to Washington in exchange for 27-year old SP Greg Dodson, who had gone undrafted in 2000 and had schmoozed his way onto a professional roster by carrying water bottles and clean bats. Right-hander, three pitches, short stamina, 0-2 with a 7.98 ERA in the majors. Well, you ain’t gonna get Juichi Fujita for Heathershaw.

I would have so loved for him to click for the Coons :-(

Raccoons (49-29) @ Crusaders (43-34) – July 1-4, 2010

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Umberger
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – 3B Bond – SS Brantley – P Maddox

Jong-hoo walked right on the edge of destruction early on, as the Crusaders had four hits in the first two innings, but both times found their way into the double play that saved Umberger’s bacon (Umbacon?). Don’t get cocky, though: the Coons hit into a two-for-one before the Crusaders ever did in this game.

Scoreless through three, and unable to hit a double when it would be useful, the Critters chained together a Merritt walk and singles by Alston and White to get the first run across in the fourth. Bowen would single to right with two out to get another run in for a 2-0 lead, which instantly got compromised in the bottom 4th when Umberger put on Stanton Martin and Manfull, then allowed a liner to left to Caraballo. Martin scored easily, Manfull was struck down by Pruitt at home plate, and Pruitt then also had the haul a Kevin Bond out of the sky to not surrender the tying run after all and rather end the inning.

But while you may be exhaling, with this team, relief would never last forever. Two innings of offensive nothingness were to get punished when Gabriel Ortíz doubled to right to start the bottom 6th. Martin Ortíz grounded to Yoshi, Gabriel moved up, Stanton Martin struck out. The left-hander Manfull was very hurtfull to the Raccoons and was walked intentionally to get to Caraballo, who then in a full count drew a VERY UNINTENTIONAL WALK, but Kevin Bond was the boo man again for the Crusaders, bouncing out to Quebell to end the inning. GODDAMNIT, SCORE SOME RUNS!! Nope, not gonna happen. Brantley singled in the bottom 7th, knocking out Umberger. Beltran replaced him to face Paco Batlle and drilled the pinch-hitter, and once Pena bounced out the tying and go-ahead runs were in scoring position. Beltran struck out the catcher Ortíz, but the outfielder Ortíz sent a mighty drive to left AND THERE WAS PRUITT!! Another fantastic catch! BUT GODDAMNIT, WE GOTTA WIN THIS ONE, FOR FUR’S SAKE!!

Top 8th, Manuel Reyes pitching. Ex-Coon – good chance! Merritt bounced a single to right before Pruitt walked. No outs. Boys, this is serious. We NEED an insurance run. Better two. Better nine! We need Ron Alston to do something great! But Ron Alston flew out to center and merely got Merritt to third, and when Pat White grounded sharply to the short side of second base, Ron Brantley nipped the ball to Caraballo, whose pirouette and zinger to first were – LATE!! White was safe, the run scored, 3-1 Fuzzbutts! White then promptly made the third out going first-to-third on Yoshi’s single. (rubbing temples with eyes closed) Yet SOMEHOW the 3-1 lead arrived in healthy manner at Angel’s qualified paws in the ninth inning. He struck out Kevin Bond. Brantley grounded softly to third, Merritt had to bare-hand that one and whip it over to Quebell and got him! Now, a pinch-hitter, Robinson Perez, batting less than .200. One strike! Two strikes! Home run! WAT?? ACK!! Roberto Pena grounded out to Quebell while I was unconscious. 3-2 Furballs!! Nomura 2-4; Umberger 6.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (8-5) and 1-3;

Before the Saturday games the Indians had been in a position to tie the division by Sunday night if they had kept winning and the Coons would have continued to look like pre-school kits. But, the Elks outdueled the Indians on Saturday, beat them 7-6, and our lead was safe through the weekend, although it had melted considerably since the week had started.

Game 4
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Howell – P Cruz
NYC: CF R. Pena – C G. Ortíz – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 2B Caraballo – 3B Bond – SS Brantley – P Collins

The Raccoons had leadoff doubles from Quebell and Owens, respectively, in the first two innings and managed to score a grand total of one run, while the Crusaders got Pena on to start the bottom of the first on a Pruitt error. Pena stole second, and his next goal was third base, but this time Owens erased him. New York didn’t get a hit off Cruz until Stanton Martin grounded through Howell in the fourth, and then he was left on first base, too. We got two men on then in the fifth with two outs and Pruitt batting. Pruitt was a bit sore we found out, and maybe it was best to get him replaced after this at-bat, and it would be even better than best if it would be a productive one! He popped out to Pena in center. Next inning, there was a sense of urgency when Owens was batting with Pat White on first base and two outs. Howell was that dreaded automatic out, so Owens had to go and got the green light at 3-0. Collins came down the middle, Owens was never going to hold back and CRASHED the pitch to far, far away, slightly right of dead center and GONE!!

Cruz started to crumble by the sixth, too. Pena got on with a leadoff single, then was nipped stealing, but with two outs Martin Ortíz walked, and he was safe when he ran on our battery and made it to second base. Pat White, moved to left with Pruitt hauled in, had already caught a rocket from Gabriel Ortíz on the track, then got shot another cannonball in his direction by Stanton Martin and somehow grabbed that and held it without breaking his neck, too! Ron Alston plated Quebell with a 2-out single in the seventh, enlarging the lead to 4-0, but the Crusaders got two men on with singles in the bottom 7th, and then sent Robinson Perez (he who homered off Angel the previous day) to bat against Cruz, who was swiftly hauled in and replaced by Luis Beltran, who whiffed the evil scrub. But those crumbling noises got louder and louder. In the bottom 8th, Beltran and Fredlund allowed singles to the first three batters that turned up before Stanton Martin’s grounder was taken for a force out at third base by Merritt. By then, one run was already in. Thrasher came out to face Manfull and walked him on four pitches. Law Rockburn was next in line, but the failing wouldn’t stop, as Caraballo converted two strikes into two runs with a liner into shallow left. Rockburn walked Bond before the nightmare ended with a double play started by Owens, but that pretty 4-0 lead had become a soiled 4-3 mess.

The Coons were almost down against Hood in the ninth when Merritt and Trevino suddenly hit singles and went to the corners with two outs. Ron Alston came up and grounded out to first. Hnnnghh!! Oh well, here comes Angel, and Robinson Perez was no longer in the game, too! Jesus Palacios – K! Roberto Pena – 4-3! Gabriel Ortíz – K! 4-3 Coons! Merritt 3-4, BB; Owens 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Cruz 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K, W (8-4);

I’m all sweaty …

In other news

June 28 – SFB INF/RF Ramón Garza (.245, 1 HR, 14 RBI) has two hits in the Bayhawks’ 9-7 win over the Titans to reach 2,500 for his career. The 37-year old Garza drives in the winning run off Matt Collins in the seventh inning to reach the milestone mark. Garza is hitting .278 with 59 HR and 963 RBI for his career and was the 2008 World Series MVP.
July 4 – WAS SP Randy Farley (6-7, 4.74 ERA) strained an oblique while running up the stairs and will miss two weeks on the DL.
July 4 – The Canadiens push the issue by acquiring 1B Ray Gilbert (.333, 5 HR, 11 RBI) from the Cyclones, sending over 40-year old MR Ray Hoskins (3-0, 3.06 ERA, 1 SV) and #8 prospect CF Dave Carter, who’s in AAA. Gilbert missed time with injuries and also played a bunch in AAA after getting squeezed out of his first base slot in Cincy.
July 4 – LAP SP J.J. Wirth (6-9, 4.99 ERA) 2-hits the Gold Sox in a 6-0 shutout.
July 4 – Slightly less stellar, but still impressive: SFW SP Ken Harris (9-3, 2.50 ERA), who spills three hits in shutting out the Wolves, 5-0.

Complaints and stuff

Not a pleasant week, I’ll say that, but it sure had entertainment value. We’ve reached the halfway point of the season now (actually plus one game, but well…), and we’re ahead. No need to fell comfy though. We were ahead by 10 1/2 games in late June three years ago and everybody knows that the Crusaders have won three straight World Series…

The shutout on Friday was our 2,700th franchise loss. Congrats, Hector, barely here and already in the record books. Sorta.

Watch the Elks, too. They sold their farm to acquire Ray Gilbert, who’s not quite Ron Alston, but not far short of it. That’s going to be a serious upgrade for them.

In bad news, I had Brenda pulled form her start in St. Pete on Sunday so she could pitch for us on Monday in Boston. So pre-chalk that one into the loss column, please.

In no shocking news: Jimmy Oatmeal is back in single-A, four years after being the #3 pick in the draft. But back to the 2001 draft, when I was a bit between Barney Manning and some other guy. Manning was a #1 prospect at one point and eventually debuted with the Miners. He’s since become a bit of a #4 starter for them. Not great, but not bad. Oh, that other guy that we selected at #2 in that draft? Chris Beairsto.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (51-31) @ Titans (40-42) – July 5-8, 2010

The Titans had a decent offense, ranking fifth in runs scored, but their rotation was outright horrible, posting a 5.27 ERA that was soundly the worst in the league. The bullpen was decent, sixth in ERA, but the best bullpen on Earth wouldn’t be able to solve that rotation. We were 3-1 against them this year, and we would see them again at the other side of the All Star Game, then in Portland.

Projected matchups:
Brendan Teasdale (0-0) vs. Ron Carter (6-7, 4.51 ERA)
Nick Brown (11-3, 2.39 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (7-4, 4.63 ERA)
Hector Santos (0-1, 4.50 ERA) vs. Ramón Martinez (3-2, 8.41 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (8-5, 3.19 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (3-10, 4.84 ERA)

Martinez is the only left-handed pitcher in the series, but we were resting Matt Pruitt in the opener, as he had been sore on Sunday already. The Titans had their best hitter, Gerardo Rios, on the shelf anyway.

Teasdale had turned 26 at the end of June. He’s no longer a prospect. He’s probably never going to be a major league regular. But maybe he can finally win a major league game? He’s 0-7 with a 7.59 ERA for his major league career…

Nick Brown’s next start would be Sunday, but since he will damn sure go to the All Star game (and if not, there will be a serious ballot stuffing investigation), he will not make that start.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Ayers – LF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – CF Trevino – P Teasdale
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – CF Baez – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – LF Hayashi – 3B E. Salazar – SS M. Austin – RF Quintanilla – P Carter

Bowen drove in a run in the first, but ultimately the bases remained loaded and Teasdale had nothing better to do than to walk the leadoff man Jesus Ramirez, but recovered to strike out two and get out of the inning. Top 2nd, same song for the Coons, Trevino reaching, stealing, advancing on a throwing error, scoring on Quebell’s single, and once the sacks were full, Bowen lined out to Tony Ramos to end the inning. The Coons switched to double plays in the middle innings to prevent the bases from even getting full, and successfully avoided scoring more than one additional run through six, while Teasdale held up quite well for a while, allowing a run in the bottom 2nd, but nothing else. That was until Marcos Baez singled in the sixth, Brenda through a wild one, and then Tony Ramos proposed she get outta here with a game-tying homer to right. Tokimune Hayashi got on and responsibility shifted to Ron Thrasher shortly, who got Mark Austin to ground out on the first pitch to end the inning and starve the go-ahead run on second base. Top 7th, Alston singled, Bowen walked, Nomura hit into another two-for-one. The Critters then did take the lead in the eighth when Quebell singled and Merritt doubled with two outs, scoring Quebell before Keith Ayers got a chance to extend a black day at the plate to 0-5, 4 K. Angel Casas had been out with great frequency last week, and when Ray Kelley put the Titans away on eight pitches in the bottom 8th, including the 2-3-4 guys, he was left in the game for the bottom of the ninth, still with a 1-run lead. Nobody got on until there were two outs, when Mark Austin walked in a full count. Samy Michel hit for Francisco Quintanilla, but grounded out to first. 4-3 Raccoons. Merritt 5-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 2-4, BB; Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Kelley 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, SV (2);

Good sides, bad sides: Ayers stranded eight, yet was never thrown out at home, and Brenda didn’t win, but didn’t lose her eighth game, either.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Brown
BOS: RF Thurman – 2B J. Ramirez – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – 3B E. Salazar – SS Rodgers – LF M. Austin – CF Baez – P Cabrera

Since June, Brownie’s stuff just plainly hadn’t been there at all, and this continued. He went to seven 2-strike counts against the Titans the first time through the order, and managed only two strikeouts. Ironically, the only batter to actually reach base was Jesus Cabrera, who hit a 2-out double on a 1-2 pitch, but Zachary Thurman struck out after that. Brown had already crossed home plate for the first run of the game in the top 3rd. He had batted with Rob Howell on first when he whiffed on the hit-and-run, and Howell was thrown out. Brown then rebounded to walk, Quebell doubled, Merritt was humbled by a close one and Pruitt drew a bases-loaded walk before Ron Alston grounded out on a 3-1 pitch, and that was why he didn’t have any RBI…

In terms of control, Cabrera was a right mess. He had four walks in the first three innings, and when he already had Quebell on base with two outs in the fifth, he walked Alston and Bowen in full counts to reach seven freebies. Yoshi sent an 0-1 pitch to left where it fell in for a 2-run single, the score ran to 3-0, and while White grounded out, Brownie didn’t allow another runner until Cabrera turned up again. Fiercely determined to become Brown’s and my nightmare for the next week or two, Cabrera singled for his second hit (the grand total of the blue team), and Brown was slightly annoyed and/or unnerved and balked him to second base, but Thurman grounded out to Jon Merritt and Ramirez went down on strikes to keep the Titans off the big ol’ scoreboard. Despite walking seven, Cabrera went eight innings without more than three runs of damage, owing to the Coons not amounting to more than four hits off him, but with Ken Rodgers on second and two outs in the bottom 8th, the Titans thankfully hit for him with switch-hitter Samy Michel, who was not that good against lefties. Brown was sure he could get him, and got him good. But at almost 110 pitches, and “only” a 3-run lead, there was an itch to bring him in, especially with him due to bat in the top 9th. But he wouldn’t pitch again until seven days from now (in the All Star game), so maybe he could complete the game on a slightly higher pitch count? Brown batted, whiffed against Manuel Martinez, the Coons went down in order, and he faced the top of the order in the bottom 9th with Angel ready and waiting. Pitch #111 bored in on Thurman, and that was already enough: Angel Casas replaced Brownie, struck out Ramirez, and on 1-2 got a grounder to Yoshi from “Quasimodo” Suda, which was turned for two. 3-0 Brownies! Bowen 1-2, 2 BB; Brown 8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 9 K, W (12-3);

Pesky Cabrera!

Game 3
POR: 3B Merritt – CF White – 1B Pruitt – LF Alston – RF Ayers – C Owens – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P Santos
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Rodgers – 1B T. Ramos – LF Hayashi – 3B E. Salazar – C Lemberger – CF Walters – RF Thurman – P R. Martinez

While Martinez had an ERA of almost nine, the Raccoons were kind to him, and the Titans didn’t need to be mean to Hector Santos, who shoveled his own grave without a formal invitation having to be issued. After a Ramirez double to start the bottom 1st he threw a wild pitch and walked a guy, and also conceded the run. He walked THREE in the second, allowing another run, and in the third inning, he came apart completely and was crushed for six runs total, although the four runs in the third inning, which he didn’t survive, were all unearned after a Nomura error, despite one error hardly causing four runs… Dumpster pitching wasn’t over with Santos gone, as Pat Slayton walked four in two innings of work, and when Beltran replaced him with two on and two outs in the bottom 5th he went on to drill Ken Rodgers and allowed a 2-run single to Tony Ramos. The Raccoons, down 8-1, were long defeated by then. The Raccoons continued to pretty much have one hit in every inning, and never mounted something countable until there were two outs in the eighth with two on, and Travis Owens at least soiled Martinez’ line with a 3-run homer that just barely vanished behind the leftfield fence. 8-4 Titans. Merritt 2-4; Ayers 3-4, HR, RBI; Owens 3-4, HR, 3 RBI;

We had 11 hits, they had six, and I had a sore throat. So between Santos and Teasdale, our young starters are 0-9 now.

On the final day of the series, the Titans offered us Manuel Martinez and an AAA outfielder for Manuel Gutierrez. That’s a great deal for us until you consider the price tag on Martinez, which would eat all our budget space, and I might not necessarily spend our last penny on the bullpen. So: no!

Game 4
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – C Bowen – LF Pruitt – RF White – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – SS Howell – P Umberger
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Rodgers – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – LF Hayashi – CF Baez – 3B M. Austin – RF Thurman – P M. Castro

Ron Alston wasn’t doing anything and got a day off, and after an orgy of 12 walks issued by the Raccoons’ staff on Wednesday, Jong-hoo walked a pair in the first and narrowly escaped with the sacks full when Marcos Baez bounced out to Quebell. Umberger issued another leadoff walk in the second, and a leadoff double in the third. The Titans got one run in those three innings, and always left a man on third base. Umberger himself was drilled in the top of the third and came around to score after singles by Bowen and Pruitt.

Umberger lasted only five, allowing a 3-run homer to Tokimune Hayashi in the fifth. Down 4-2, his spot came up with two on and two out in the top 6th. Bring Alston with a stick! Alston got a stick, then unleashed the ****tiest grounder in baseball history to first base, ending the inning. Top 7th, 1-out singles by Merritt and Bowen set up Pruitt to be a hero, and he lifted a 1-2 pitch over the jumping Ramirez and into shallow right center for the team’s third run. White flew out, but Yoshi singled to left, bringing in Bowen to knot the score at four runs apiece. With Trevino batting, Mauro Castro remained in, which turned out to be a mistake: Trevino hit one into the gap, Pruitt and Nomura both scored, and the Coons were atop 6-4. Castro’s line wasn’t closed, however, and Rob Howell’s single to right was good enough to score Trevino from second for the final nail into Castro’s coffin. The game appeared pretty well in the Coons’ paws for a while, but they crumbled in the bottom of the ninth. Rockburn was tasked with the save since Angel Casas had been used quite a bit recently, but got only one out and then put a man on. Angel came on, but with two outs started to not retire people anymore and Suda, Ramos, and Hayashi struck three consecutive hits off him, which got the Titans to 7-6, and the tying run was at third base. Marcos Baez was the batter, .190 for the year, sounded a bit like Robinson Perez. Baez grounded a 0-1 pitch really hard up the first base line, Quebell lunged, knocked it down and kept it in front of him, then scrambled to the bag and pretty much fell right on top of the base to beat Baez. 7-6 Raccoons. Bowen 4-5; Pruitt 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Howell 2-5, 2 RBI; Thrasher 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Upset at being sneezed at, Manuel Martinez logged the final seven outs for the Titans and struck out five.

Raccoons (54-32) vs. Indians (49-37) – July 9-11, 2010

The Indians ranked last in runs scored, and while they maintained a +29 run differential, WE KNEW that you needed to plate more than 3.7 runs per game to get to places. However, they had us beaten so far on the season series, 5-4 in their favor.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (8-4, 2.87 ERA) vs. Jimmy Sjogren (3-9, 5.23 ERA)
Brendan Teasdale (0-0, 4.76 ERA) vs. Tom Weise (9-8, 3.42 ERA)
Greg Dodson (0-0) vs. Bob King (11-5, 2.31 ERA)

Yeah, we’re not quite showing them our mean face, huh? Dodson is the scrub we got back for Bradley Heathershaw, and he’s on the 40-man roster already and lines up well with the Sunday start, while Gil McDonald, the other 27-year old in AAA, fails on both counts. Teasdale will be demoted right after his start and replaced by Dodson, but Dodson might be replaced by McDonald after the All Star Game, possibly.

Game 1
IND: 1B Tsung – 3B Sharp – C Paraz – RF Graham – SS Speed – CF Luxton – LF Graves – 2B J. Lopez – P Sjogren
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Alston – RF Ayers – CF White – C Owens – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Cruz

The Coons spilled over Jimmy Sjogren in a hurry, despite making two quick outs in the first inning. Then, Alston doubled, Ayers tripled, White hit a hard line single, and Owens doubled past Robbie Luxton’s reach in center for three early runs. While Quebell drove in a fourth run in the bottom 2nd, the Indians were hitting Cruz just as hard and it was not going to take long until they would wobble him. In fact, they plated three runs in the third, including a Dave Graham home run. The next 3-spot was put in the Coons’ line in the bottom 4th, a 2-out, 3-run home run by Keith Ayers, but the Indians – worst offense in the league, remember – came right back with two more runs against Javier Cruz in the fifth, and a sixth run scored for them in the sixth inning, which Cruz kindly helped with a timely balk to move the runner to third to score on a fly to Alston. What a nice guy.

Not that the bullpen would fare any better. Ray Kelley pitched in the seventh, and Mun-wah Tsung singled right away. Daniel Sharp, coming in with a .287 clip and four dingers, singled, and it wasn’t going to get better for Kelley. He would face Richard Speed with the runners in scoring position and two outs, and allowed a 2-run single on a 1-2 pitch that flipped the score. That came AFTER the Coons had had two on, no outs, and Ayers hitting into the double play in the bottom of the preceding inning. Bottom 7th, two more singles to start the inning, by Owens and Yoshi. Leonardo Sosa then got Pruitt, hitting for Howell, to pop up, before he walked Bowen. The top slot was occupied by Manuel Gutierrez after Jon Merritt had left with an injury. Bases loaded, one out, Gutierrez at the plate was crying out for a beating, one strike, two strikes, sorry grounder to the second baseman, and Lopez blew the (double) play and dropped the ball often enough for all hands to be safe and the game tied at eight. Quebell up, full count, another grounder to second base, Lopez lobbed it to Speed, who was not a shortstop by trade and dropped the ball just like that. Outrageous!! Three on, one out, two double play chances, and they made TWO errors! And the Coons were ahead, 9-8. Ron Alston would plate two more against new pitcher Helio Maggessi, 11-8. Now, can we find some qualified bullpen help? Pah! Don’t be ****ting around like that. Of course not! Beltran allowed a single and forced Alston to make a leaping grab in the top 8th, narrowly avoiding actual drama, and the Coons stranded a pair in the bottom of the inning. Angel Casas took over, facing PH Jerry Fletcher, the long-time Logger, in the #2 hole. He tried to bunt his way on base, but was thrown out by Angel himself, who then whiffed Jose Paraz. Dave Graham grounded out to find a merciful end to this mind-boggler. 11-8 Raccoons. Quebell 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 3-3, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Ayers 2-5, HR, 3B, 4 RBI; White 2-5, RBI; Nomura 3-5;

But mess here, mess there, the Raccoons’ 11-spot put them in first place in runs scored in the Continental League, and don’t forget that the Indians are directly behind us and we increased our lead to six games, with the Crusaders just half an effort behind the Indians at this point.

In really, really unfortunate news, Jon Merritt had strained a groin muscle and would be out of commission for two weeks, more or less, which made him the third regular we would place concurrently on the DL, and you could say four regulars, since Walt Canning also was the regular shortstop when he vanished onto the DL over a month ago.

While I briefly contemplated trading whatever it would take for Daniel Sharp (you want Alston back? Okay!), we ultimately resorted to an in-house solution and would accept the indignity of Ricardo Martinez blowing several games with outlandish defense. Ask the Indians how that works, they know. Martinez had batted a shabby .222 in AAA, though, and no homers.

Meanwhile the Indians acquired 1B/2B Juan Gutierrez (.262, 1 HR, 18 RBI) from the Stars, parting with two minor-leaguers, but one of those was 26-year old outfielder Roberto Pacheco (.286, 1 HR, 16 RBI), who had been sent back to the minors after doing some not-too-shabby stuff the last 12 months. Pacheco of course was the price for Craig Bowen in a 2006 trade before Bowen was even a primary catcher. In the end, I think, we got the much better end of this.

Game 2
IND: 1B Tsung – 3B Sharp – C Paraz – RF Graham – LF Graves – CF Luxton – 2B C. Aguilár – SS M. Clark – P Weise
POR: 1B Quebell – CF White – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – SS Howell – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Teasdale

While Tom Weise was perfect through four innings, Teasdale offered a number of walks early, and also allowed plenty of hard contact, but early on everything ended up with White and Alston. Ron Alston also opened the scoring with a leadoff jack in the fifth, but eventually someone had to get a hold of Teasdale, and it was Dave Graham with a solo home run in the top of the sixth. After that homer, Teasdale suddenly pitched a lot better, in a twisted way, and managed to complete eight innings on just one more single, a strikeout, and lots of grounders for easy outs. Teasdale’s spot was up at the start of the bottom of the eighth inning and he was obviously hit for. Yoshi grabbed a bat on his off day, rammed a ball to deep right where it clanked off the fence in a very odd manner, and Graham took very long to play it back in, helping Yoshi to a leadoff triple! The Indians elected to walk Quebell intentionally before Weise struck out White and Pruitt, with Alston flying out to left. The agony. The agony! Ron Thrasher pitched a scoreless ninth to maintain the walkoff chance, while the Indians stuck to Tom Weise, their starter! The Coons started the ninth quite similar to the eighth, with Bowen smacking a leadoff double to left, but to shorten a sad story considerably, Law Rockburn came out to pitch the 10th inning … and the 11th. There, Alston drew a leadoff walk from Salvarado Soure, and Bowen managed to lay down a bunt without getting anybody killed. Not that that helped to end the game.

Law Rockburn pitched three perfect innings to no avail, before Pat Slayton took over in the 13th and Mark Clark singled right away. The Indians’ bench was deserted, so Marcos Bruno, in since the 12th, laid down a bunt that was decidedly poor and Slayton was able to get Clark out at second. Slayton then struck out Tsung and Sharp. Bottom 13th, desperate measures. Pruitt hit a 1-out single off Bruno, then stole second on the weak-armed Paraz. The main effect of that was Alston getting walked intentionally, but Bowen then battled out another walk in a full count (and Bruno’s K/BB this year was indeed only slightly better than 2). Travis Owens hit for an 0-5 Ricardo Martinez, grounded one to Sharp, and Sharpie turned the double play. FOR ****’S SAKE!!!

By the 14th inning, both benches were empty, relievers were batting with men on base and two outs, we had Rob Howell manning third base, and Paraz was still catching for the Indians, so if Quebell gets on, he’s gonna run the ****ing hell now! But he didn’t, running his day to 0-6 as the 15th inning began with Bruno still tossing. White went to 0-7. Pruitt went deep, ending the game with a bang. Finally. Goddamnit, finally. 2-1 Blighters. Pruitt 3-7, HR, RBI; Howell 2-5, BB; Nomura (PH) 1-1, 3B; Teasdale 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K; Rockburn 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Slayton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Luis Beltran picked up his fifth win. As we had planned, Teasdale (0-0, 2.63 ERA) was demoted after the game and we brought on Greg Dodson, another winless pitcher.

Game 3
IND: 1B Tsung – 3B Sharp – RF Graham – LF Graves – CF Luxton – 2B J. Gutierrez – C Speed – SS M. Clark – P King
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – P Dodson

Greg Dodson, who came out of nowhere to start this game on the All Star break’s eve, pretty much was limited to throwing right down the middle time and again in this one, which for a while even looked like it might be enough for a win. Pruitt had driven in Quebell in the first, but the Indians got that run pulled back in the top of the third. But the bottom of that inning saw Yoshi and Alston on base for Martinez with two out, and while he was not making any great impressions, he managed to hit a single up the middle for the go-ahead RBI single. Trevino followed that with another RBI single afterwards, and the Coons held a 3-1 lead that was soon chipped back to 3-2 when Luxton tripled in the fourth and scored on a wild pitch, so even “throwing right down the middle” was not something Dodson was able to do consistently.

Quebell restored the 2-run lead with an increasingly rare home run in the bottom 4th, and in the next inning we got a chance to bow out of Dodson’s ragdoll pitching, which had netted him three walks and no strikeouts in this game. Concie hit a 2-out double to right, and this was a serious RBI chance, we declared! Pat White of recent 0-7 glory hit for Dodson, lined a pitch past Sharpie into left and all the way to the wall, plating Concie easily, 5-2, and Quebell and Nomura would hit 2-out RBI knocks as well to get the score up to 7-2. Five runs, four innings, and a ravaged pen – sounds like a challenge. Ron Thrasher instantly got … thrashed in the sixth with an Al Graves double, another Luxton triple, and a sac fly by Gutierrez. 7-4, still almost four runs, and … ugh. And it didn’t get better any time soon. Alston got on to start the bottom 6th, then was picked off. Mun-wah Tsung homered off Ted Reese in the top 7th, 7-5, and then Beltran completely blew the game by facing three left-handers and not retiring any of them. Luxton’s RBI single tied the game at seven, and I prepared to send Nick Brown for the inevitable 13th inning. Ray Kelley meanwhile had a clear task when he entered for the eighth: to mind that there would be a ninth inning, too. And probably a tenth if the didn’t **** up for some reason. Part one of the job went well, and Quebell reached to start the bottom 8th when Graves made an error. That put Quebell on first base and right in the crosshairs when Nomura hit a grounder to short for two outs in one stroke (and even one pitch). Coons can’t score, but Indians can, with Graham, Luxton, and Gutierrez all hitting singles off Kelley in the ninth to plate the go-ahead run. 8-7 Indians. Quebell 3-5, HR, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Nomura 3-4, BB, RBI; Alston 2-4, BB; Guerin 2-4, 2B; White (PH) 1-1, 2B, RBI;

Yeah, those Indians. Definitely **** at hitting. And scoring. Yeah, they suck.

Why don’t I just fire a mustard gas grenade into the locker room?

In other news

July 5 – Constantly hurt NYC RF/LF Stanton Martin (.309, 12 HR, 62 RBI) is headed for the DL again, suffering from inflammation in the knee. He might not miss more than two weeks.
July 6 – The Indians shift OF Angel Solís (.241, 1 HR, 9 RBI) to the Falcons in exchange for MR Ryan O’Quinn (2-3, 1.75 ERA) and #53 prospect C Dave Padilla.
July 8 – CHA MR Robert Parsons (1-3, 3.77 ERA, 1 SV) disappears onto the disabled list with radial nerve compression. The estimate on his return is roughly April 2011.
July 9 – The Knights acquire CL Jerry Paul (1-1, 2.14 ERA, 16 SV) from the Buffaloes for a package of three prospects, with #116 SS Jonathon Harris included.

Complaints and stuff

Note for the winter meetings: lobby for the DH rule to be brought on in the CL, so Nick Brown can finally pitch that no-hitter he deserves.

For all that’s going right right now, we only got three All Stars, and Matt Pruitt might have been snuffed for the injuries? If he would qualify, he’d lead the batting race! Anyway, Brownie, Quebell, and Alston go to the game, their 5th, 2nd, and 8th nomination, respectively. Brownie got the most fan votes in the CL among ALL players. Yeah, and what do those selectors have against Angel Casas??

Update on the field hospital. Merritt should be good after 15 days. Castro and Baldwin are further off, perhaps a week longer, and you might wonder whether they would need a start or two / a dozen AB’s in AAA to get warm again. Walt Canning should be ready by next weekend, but we already have two shortstops now, and Canning was not a revelation exactly when he was up, batting a powerless .250 in 96 AB. He might go straight back to AAA.

We missed out on all the international free agents we targeted so far, even a really scrummy one, some Venezuelan centerfielder Frank Santos, who signed with the Wolves for $10,800. We had offered $10,100. Now watch him become a star and hit the walkoff grand slam in game 7 of the 2024 World Series against some Raccoons reliever. All for seven bills.

I had some contract talks with Angel Casas, who’s a free agent at the end of the year. So far, we’re quite a bit (bid?) apart…

Meanwhile Ron Alston let me know he’d gladly stay here. For $32 million. I am ****ting you not. $32 million.

[Papi]

How many years is Alston looking for? Is there any way you can suck up that paycheck for a year or two?

[Sizeman21]

Originally Posted by Papi

How many years is Alston looking for? Is there any way you can suck up that paycheck for a year or two?

I was wondering this too. Hopefully you can get him on a good deal! Vital part of your team this season

[Westheim]

That's for a 9-year deal that is starting at more than $4M and drops off at the end. Nobody in the league is earning that much money, and there are very few teams that can shell out $4M or more to one player - annually. The Raccoons are not one of those teams.

There is a scenario, where the Raccoons make the playoffs, preferrably don't crash out in the CLCS and get an extra million or so wired by Uncle Scrooge, where we could PERHAPS squeeze a $3.5M deal into the budget... but that leaves no room to extend Angel Casas this year, and Quebell next year. I have a hunch that we can get those two combined for less than what we'd have to pay Alston. But a 6-yr, $21M contract can turn sour in a flash and would cripple the Coons for as long as Alston wants to bat .265 with nine dingers per year once his age (31) starts to show. And if I'm really honest, his 2010 season is not spectacular.

Part of the problem might be his lousy protection in the order. I might look into batting him third again, with Pruitt behind him. Nobody's all too scared of Craig Bowen right now, and with Castro (our sole source of speed) out, Quebell is batting leadoff for his pretty insane OBP.

Btw, on Pruitt, it is NOT true that he would lead the batting race if he would qualify, but it was true for most of June. But since then, Jose Morales of the Knights has passed him no matter how you comb it.

[Westheim]

All Star Game

Blasphemy: Curtis Tobitt started the All Star Game over Nick Brown and struck out three in two scoreless innings. Brownie pitched one inning and whiffed a pair, LAP Errol Spears and (pitcher) CIN Tony Hamlyn. The Continental League led 2-0 for a long time before collapsing and allowing nine runs in the final two innings for a 9-2 loss, which was taken by VAN Pedro Alvarado, who allowed six runs (three earned). Adrian Quebell and Ron Alston both started the game, batting first and third respectively, and both hit a single. Quebell was eventually replaced, but Alston was one of three starting position players to play the entire game for the CL (with VAN Gary Rice and LVA Ricardo Garcia).

Ah, who cares? Swiftly ahead!

Raccoons (56-33) vs. Titans (41-48) – July 15-18, 2010

The Raccoons had a golden opportunity to tie up the division early with a winning streak. For the next five weeks, they would play only ONE team that was more than a half game above .500, a 4-set with the Elks, leading up to a 3-game set with the Crusaders at home from the 20th to 22nd of August. If there ever was an opportunity to win away a division, this was it.

First stepping stone on that 5-week program (and also the 8th stepping stone in a number of weeks) would be the Titans, whom we had quite handled so far this season with a 6-2 record. They had a 4-game losing streak in adition to the 7th-best offense in the CL and the third-worst concept of preventing runs from scoring. Their rotation ERA was still the worst like hell at 5.28, too.

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (0-2, 5.19 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (6-8, 4.84 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-3, 2.23 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (7-6, 4.35 ERA)
Gil McDonald (0-0) vs. Brian Patrick (4-9, 4.93 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (8-5, 3.12 ERA) vs. Mauro Castro (3-11, 5.13 ERA)

We decided to treat Nick Brown’s All Star excursion as a better bullpen (he threw only 13 in-game pitches) and slotted him in for Friday, pitching on two days’ rest, and nine days’ rest since his last regular start. 2004 ninth-rounder Gil McDonald, a righty, was called up to make his debut at 27 and slid in behind Brownie to pitch on regular rest (everybody else was messed up anyway). His last start in AAA on Monday had been rough, but he struck out more than an inning and maintained a 1.18 WHIP, and we hoped for at least some of that to translate into the majors for at least as long as Colin Baldwin was away. If not, we’re back to Brenda. Nobody wants to go back to Brenda.

Game 1
BOS: RF Thurman – 3B E. Salazar – 1B T. Ramos – C Suda – 2B J. Ramirez – LF Hayashi – SS M. Austin – CF Baez – P Carter
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – C Bowen – CF White – 3B R. Martinez – SS Howell – P Santos

The Coons had three singles in the bottom 1st yet didn’t score when Matt Pruitt was struck by Ron Alston’s bouncer and called out for interference. The Raccoons would score the next inning, though, when Pat White hit a leadoff double and eventually came in on Howell’s groundout, and Ron Alston mashed a 3-run homer that was almost out of the park entirely in the bottom 3rd, handing Santos a 4-0 lead. Santos had allowed two hits in the first but was not touched again until the fifth inning, when he was touched pretty good. After a leadoff walk to Tokimune Hayashi (his first on the day), he allowed straight singles to Mark Austin and Marcos Baez, loading the sacks with nobody out. Ken Rodgers came out to hit for Ron Carter after only four innings, and hit a double up the leftfield line that neither Pruitt nor anybody else would ever get to. The Titans would score three, but leave on the tying run Rodgers when Edgar Salazar struck out for the second out and Tony Ramos’ grounder was handled by Adrian Quebell. But the Titans would chain up more singles in the sixth inning and ran Santos off the mound. Ray Kelley took over with the Titans already ahead 5-4 and two more runners on base and only one out. Kelley allowed a single to PH Francisco Quintanilla and then walked Bill Walters (injury replacement for Zachary Thurman) to make damn sure Santos would be loaded with seven earned runs over 5.1 innings. The Raccoons would react with only one earned runner in the next three innings (a leadoff single by Martinez in the seventh), before the Titans’ Charlie Deacon crumbled in the bottom of the ninth and brought up the tying run with two outs. Quebell had Martinez and Concie on the corners, but grounded out to second on the first pitch. 7-4 Titans. Nomura 2-4; Alston 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Guerin (PH) 1-1;

… and so it came we started to sour on Hector Santos, whom we had eagerly waited for to ripen for about three years, after only three major league starts.

Game 2
BOS: RF Quintanilla – 2B J. Ramirez – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – LF Hayashi – 3B E. Salazar – SS Rodgers – CF Baez – P Cabrera
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – CF White – 3B R. Martinez – C Owens – SS Guerin – P Brown

“Borderline” Brown appeared to scuffle as early as the second inning after back-to-back walks to Tony Ramos and Tokimune Hayashi, but then struck out Salazar, Rodgers, and Baez in order, plus Cabrera to start the third before Quintanilla singled on an 0-2 pitch. He walked Ramos again at the start of the fourth, and went to a full count on Hayashi, who grounded to Concie for a double play. Salazar whiffed to fill half a dozen in four innings in a scoreless game. While the Raccoons amounted to less than little offensively if you were likened to discount double plays as achievements, Nick Brown held his ground rather well, except for that one that got away and got Jesus Ramirez a first-pitch leadoff triple in the sixth inning. That run scored, and none did for the Critters, who had four hits, three walks, and three double plays in the eight innings that Brownie pitched remarkably well. Bottom 9th, still down my a single measly run, Deacon was to face Yoshi, Alston, and Pruitt. Yoshi flew out, Alston reached on an infield single, and Pruitt hit into the fourth double play. 1-0 Titans. Trevino (PH) 1-1; Brown 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, L (12-4);

Like I said, we have a golden opportunity to - … get drunk and forget all our pains, right? That’s what I said?

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Rodgers – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hayashi – LF M. Austin – 3B E. Salazar – CF Baez – P M. Castro
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – CF White – C Bowen – SS Howell – 3B M. Gutierrez – P McDonald

While Gil McDonald in his major league debut (at 27…) didn’t exactly stay unhit against, the Titans didn’t get on board early, but that was nothing against how the “infrequent performer” Mauro Castro faced the minimum the first time through the order, allowing only a walk to Rob Howell, who invariably was caught stealing instantly. Bottom 4th, success was born with a Yoshi Nomura single to left center, and Alston also came up with a single before Pruitt walked to fill the bags and made Castro break a sweat. Pat White drove in the first run with a single over Tony Ramos’ head on a 1-2 pitch and Castro plated another run with a wild pitch, but otherwise struck out Bowen and Howell. The 2-0 lead didn’t hold up, not because the Coons did something and enlarged it, but because McDonald, who made his major league debut at 27 for reasons eventually had to lose hold of something, and that something was a game-tying 2-run shot by Mark Austin in the top of the seventh.

Bottom 7th, Gutierrez singled. Ricardo Martinez hit for McDonald, but popped out to shallow left, but Quebell got one past Ramos and then Yoshi walked. Two outs for Alston who wanted lots of millions, but wasn’t driving in lots of runs exactly. Ultimately he did the best thing he could with a key part of the league-worst rotation and didn’t interfere with Castro as he lost cohesion and drew a 5-pitch walk instead, forcing in the go-ahead run, and left it to Pruitt to ground out against righty Manuel Martinez and end the inning with three men on base. Thrasher and Kelley combined for a clean top 8th, before Martinez put White and Bowen on base to start the bottom of the inning. Here, Ayers hit for Howell and drew the second walk of the inning. Gutierrez and Owens were entirely unproductive, the former striking out and the latter bouncing a pitch back to Martinez, who nipped White at home, but at last Quebell and Yoshi would open the score with consecutive singles up the middle, bringing across three runs and opening the score considerably to 6-2, which didn’t mean that a case for Angel Casas first post-All Star Game appearance couldn’t be constructed. Luis Beltran insisted, walked Ramos to start the ninth, then had Hayashi hit a liner hard to righ- BUT OH!! Nomura!! Leapt and caught it! And the runner was going and was not going to get back, either! Double play, and not even Beltran could fudge up a 4-run lead with two gone in the ninth. 6-2 Critters. Quebell 2-5, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-4, BB, RBI; White 2-3, BB, RBI; McDonald 7.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);

Did you notice that when you mingle our two catchers and shortstop #1 together, you might wind up with a guy named Bowels that would be utterly ****?

No? See. That’s why I drink near-fatal amounts of homemade booze. You see things, and it enlightens the mind.

Game 4
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – SS Rodgers – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hayashi – LF M. Austin – 3B E. Salazar – CF Baez – P Patrick
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – P Umberger

While Umberger issued a game-opening walk to Ramirez and then a sorry bean to Rodgers to fall behind 2-0 in a matter of moments, the Raccoons drew two walks and still couldn’t score in the bottom 1st, and hit into a double play in the second, before avoiding stranding a million men in the third, in which Bowen and Trevino both had RBI singles to tie up the score again. Nobody seemed to be able to scratch out an extra base hit at all – their ten hits off Brian Patrick were all singles. Patrick also added four walks in six innings, and of those 14 runners, only three scored. It was a completely shabby haul for the amount of effort involved until finally Concie got in the go-ahead run with a 2-out RBI single in the bottom 5th. Obviously, blowing a 3-2 lead was easy as well, and the Titans were right on top of the pen in the eighth inning when Rockburn allowed a leadoff single to Samy Michel, who had replaced an injured Jesus Ramirez. Ron Thrasher came out, whiffed Rodgers, then allowed a double to Suda, but Michel was a slow runner and had to hold at third when Pruitt brought the ball back in. Thrasher then rebounded and thrashed Ramos and Hayashi with two more strikeouts. Angel Casas closed out the Titans to eke out at least a split in this otherwise depressing series. 3-2 Furballs. Alston 2-4, BB; Pruitt 2-4; Guerin 2-4, RBI; Umberger 6.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K, W (9-5);

To be precise: the last extra base hit by the Raccoons came on Thursday in the series opener, Ron Alston’s 3-piece. That’s 31 innings without since.

Raccoons (58-35) vs. Loggers (36-57) – July 20-22, 2010

There was really not a lot the Loggers did well, and not much at all to be excited about for their fans. They had lost four straight (but so had the Titans and their horrendous rotation), with the third-least number of runs scored in the CL, and the fourth-most runs allowed. There were silver linings on the horizon for this team, with four starting pitching prospects ranked in the top 100, but they were all still in the minors, and almost no hitters to complement them at all. So, relief was a few more years off and the Loggers would probably grace the bottom of the division for a bit longer. Right now, they came in having lost six of nine to the Coons.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (8-4, 3.20 ERA) vs. A.J. Bartels (4-5, 4.86 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-4, 2.16 ERA) vs. Fernando Cruz (4-9, 3.15 ERA)
Gil McDonald (1-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Roy Thomas (11-6, 3.38 ERA)

Handedness matches for every game in this series. We used the off day on Monday to skip Hector Santos, a sorry story in itself.

Before the series, the Loggers had dealt infielder Todd Moultrie (.287, 1 HR, 24 RBI) back to the Rebels, with whom we had been until a 2009 trade to Las Vegas, accepting 3B/SS Suketsune Ito (.267, 4 HR, 26 RBI) and #49 prospect SS Ronnie McKnight in return.

Game 1
MIL: 2B Luján – 3B Townsley – 1B Catalo – CF T. Austin – C Baca – SS Mateo – LF Campbell – RF Dally – P Bartels
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – P J. Cruz

The Raccoons had singles by Alston and Pruitt in the first before Bowen played automatic out again. The third saw Javier Cruz in trouble for the first time, allowing two walks, but he wiggled out successfully. Bottom of the same inning he was about to strike out when the umpire called out Alonso Baca for catcher’s interference and sent Cruz, first up in the inning, to first base. After Quebell fouled out, Bartels walked Nomura and Alston in tandem before Pruitt and Bowen grounded out and merely one run scored. Bottom 4th, Martinez started the inning at the plate, and hit a ball to left that ran away from Earl Campbell. Lo and behold – after 34 innings of drought another extra base hit, a double! To celebrate, Santiago Trevino homered, and the Coons were up by three. Cruz was in danger in a long and convoluted sixth inning, which turned out to be his last. He walked Leborio Catalo, then allowed a pair of singles, which gave the Loggers a run and the tying runs in scoring position with two outs until Cruz managed to overcome Earl Campbell and end the inning. Beltran struck out Justin Dally and Bartels in the top 7th before Kelley and Howell entered in a double switch with the #9 slot due to lead off in the bottom of the inning. Antonio Luján was retired on a pop just outside the left-handed hitters’ box to end the frame. Bottom 7th, Howell hit a leadoff single before Quebell also ticketed a single to center. Two on for Alston, Bartels was still in until he balked in a 2-1 count. With first base now open, Alston was given the last two balls instantly, and the Loggers went to left-hander Scott Boone, a part of the horrendous 2003 Raccoons. Pruitt hit a ball to center that was caught by Tim Austin, but was long enough for Howell to score on, 4-1. Owens then hit for Bowen, but lined out to Bob Townsley at third base. Martinez reached on an infield single to start the bottom 8th, was caught stealing, but Trevino and Ayers reached base and scored on a 2-out double by Adrian Quebell to open the score far enough for Angel Casas to go watch a movie and Ted Reese to pitch a scoreless ninth. 6-1 Coons. Quebell 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Alston 1-2, 2 BB; Pruitt 2-3, 2 RBI; Martinez 2-4, 2B; Ayers (PH) 1-1; Howell 1-2; Cruz 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (9-4); Kelley 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Game 2
MIL: 2B Luján – C Rosa – 1B Catalo – CF T. Austin – SS Mateo – 3B Townsley – LF Roberson – RF Dally – P F. Cruz
POR: CF White – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – LF Alston – C Owens – 3B R. Martinez – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Brown

Justin Dally saved Fernando Cruz from going down early with an awesome catch of Ron Alston’s liner to end the first inning with Pat White on third base. This set off another day of “nobody hits for Brownie”, who soon shoveled his own grave in spectacular fashion. Having maintained a 3-hitter with six strikeouts through four (universally scoreless) innings, Brown allowed a leadoff single to Chris Roberson to start the fifth. After striking out Dally, he balked Roberson to second, then walked Cruz on four pitches. By then we should have brought a relief pitcher because the writing was on the wall. Luján walked, Rosa singled in a pair. Brown would reload the bases, suffer another 2-run single, walked the bases full again, and Roberson made it a complete mess with another 2-run single. Six runs on four hits and four walks, perfect. Meanwhile the Raccoons had four hits and three double plays through five innings, and were certainly not going to pick him up. Or would they? Keith Ayers had a 2-out, 2-run single in the bottom 6th before Ron Alston fouled out on the first pitch. The next inning, Martinez got on, Yoshi got on, Howell hit an RBI single, bringing up the #9 hole in which Matt Pruitt hit for Pat Slayton, representing the tying run. Of course he didn’t do anything productive, hit into a fielder’s choice, White walked, and Quebell flew out to Roberson. With pairs of runners on and one out each time in the bottoms of the eighth and ninth innings, the Raccoons would end the innings on two strikeouts. 7-3 Loggers. Ayers 2-4, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-4; Howell 2-4, RBI; Guerin (PH) 1-1;

What in the **** is wrong with Nick “Borderline” Brown?? Oh yeah, and no extra base hits, either.

Game 3
MIL: 2B Luján – 3B Townsley – 1B Catalo – C Baca – SS Mateo – LF Campbell – CF Brissett – RF Dally – P R. Thomas
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – P McDonald

Santiago Trevino continued to raise the odd eye brow or other with a second inning home run that put the Coons up 2-0 early. McDonald managed to blow that lead in due time in the fourth. He walked Jaime Mateo to start the frame, then got a bouncer from Campbell that he threw away for an error. Amari Brissett walked, and then Justin Dally hit a liner into the corner in deep right for a 2-run double, tying the score. There was still nobody out and two men in scoring position when McDonald struck out Roy Thomas, Antonio Luján, and Bob Townsley in order to avoid annihilation. The Raccoons took another lead in the bottom 4th which they entered without a hit that was not for four bases, but Pruitt singled to get going, and then Craig Bowen for once met a pitch he cut at madly in an 0-2 count and romped it well out of the park to give the Brownshirts a 4-2 lead. While defense had been a boon for McDonald before, the Loggers would easily top him after the fourth inning, which was the first of four consecutive innings in which the Coons scored, and in the fifth and seventh, a total of three runs would be unearned. In between, Ron Alston hit an earned 2-out, 2-run double in the sixth as the Raccoons slowly turned the game into a rout. After six innings by McDonald, the Loggers had three more runners against Kelley and Beltran in the last three innings, but didn’t get anybody in. 9-2 Raccoons. Pruitt 3-5, RBI; Bowen 1-2, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gutierrez 1-1, RBI; Kelley 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

So, we can score, but only when Nick Brown ain’t pitching. Is that it? I don’t know. I only know we’ve played one of our five weeks against almost exclusively .500-and-beneath clubs and have not gained squid on the Indians and Crusaders.

Raccoons (60-36) vs. Aces (48-48) – July 23-25, 2010

Although they were .500, the Aces were in second place in the South, but two weeks’ worth of games out of the playoffs regardless. They had the highest batting average in the Continental League and the second-most runs scored (439; POR: 448!), but their pitching was outright the worst, and their run differential – for a .500 team! – was a whopping -68! The Coons had beaten them two out of three in the first series of the year.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (9-5, 3.11 ERA) vs. Nehemiah Jones (5-4, 6.48 ERA)
Hector Santos (0-3, 7.71 ERA) vs. Ian Rutter (0-1, 2.38 ERA)
Javier Cruz (9-4, 3.11 ERA) vs. Juan Valdevez (11-7, 2.36 ERA)

That’s three righties, including the 22-year old Rutter, who was a sixth round pick for the Aces in 2006, and will make his second career start (and fourth appearance). This kid has a pedestrian 91mph fastball that doesn’t do much, but the breaking stuff is utterly fascinating, including a curve, slider, and changeup all rated at “very good” or better. He could be seen as a future star if it weren’t for the fact that his command is sometimes there, and sometimes isn’t. Walks are by far his biggest boon.

Game 1
LVA: SS F. Soto – 1B McDermott – RF R. Garcia – 2B Dahlke – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – CF Richards – 3B O’Slattery – P N. Jones
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 3B R. Martinez – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – P Umberger

While Francisco Soto opened the game with a home run off Umberger, Ron Alston would get Nehemiah Jones, who carried a 1.95 WHIP, with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first to flip the score in the Coons’ favor, only to make a throwing error in the top 2nd that allowed the tying run to score, although admittedly Umberger had created a mess in the first place with a leadoff walk to Logan Taylor and then allowing an 0-2 pitch to be struck hard to right by Ron Richards. While that gave the Critters two errors (adding to Martinez’ inconsequential bobble of a Garcia grounder in the first inning), the Aces weren’t blameless in this regard anymore soon afterwards. Trevino was on first with one out in the bottom 2nd when Umberger bunted and Joe O’Slattery catapulted the ball into the stands. Trevino would score on Quebell’s grounder, 3-2 Greycoats, and the Coons would squeeze out another run in the bottom 5th. While Umberger, after some frantic drama in the first innings, had finally a clean inning in the fifth, Jones never had one, but avoided complete destruction with four runs allowed in 5.2 innings. Umberger allowed a leadoff jack to Mike Bednarski in the seventh, but finished the inning. He also started the top 8th, but allowed a single to Tom Dahlke that went right through Martinez into leftfield. Ron Thrasher came out to face the left-handers in the 5-7 slots, although this included relief pitcher Jorge Cortez at this point. Eduardo Durango singled on Thrash’s first offering, sending pinch-runner Ricky Avila to third base, where he remained when Thrasher struck out the next three batters. Angel would then extinguish the Aces with a K to Bednarski and two grounders. 4-3 Raccoons. Bowen 2-4; Umberger 7.0 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (10-5) and 1-2;

Jong-hoo singled off Jones, who struck out only two, including Umberger once, and Quebell later when two men were on base and waited for someone to bat them home, which never happened.

We made a roster move after this game. Jon Merritt had overcome his groin strain and was activated from the DL. Ricardo Martinez, who had been called up batting an uninspired and powerless .250 and since then had batted an uninspired and powerless .194, was sent back to St. Petersburg.

Game 2
LVA: CF Sambrano – 1B McDermott – RF R. Garcia – 2B Dahlke – C Durango – SS F. Soto – LF Bednarski – 3B O’Slattery – P Rutter
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Santos

Very little experience between these two starting pitchers, and only one of them had so far been ravaged by hitters. The wind was blowing out rather stiffly, so those pens might want to get ready. The Raccoons scored a run in the first on a Pruitt groundout, and had Rutter under pressure again in the third inning. Quebell hit a leadoff double, Merritt singled, and then Alston snuck one through between Dahlke and McDermott for an RBI single and a 2-0 score. One more run came in on a sac fly by Pruitt to left center, on which he missed the wall by not much at all, but Sandy Sambrano still made the catch.

Hector Santos had been silently effective in the first three innings, shutting out the Aces on two hits and only one strikeout, but by the fourth inning the Aces definitely began to see the ball rather well and started to drive it. Pat White made two great grabs in the inning, and Soto still rammed an RBI double off the rightfield wall to get the Aces on the board. Interestingly he didn’t walk anybody through six innings, while Ian Rutter was yanked when he issued a leadoff walk to Quebell in the bottom of the sixth, his fifth freebie on the day. The Coons, by now up 4-1, loaded the sacks on a Bednarski error and a Pruitt single, having three on with one out only for Bowen and Nomura to make terrible outs on two pitches total against lefty Jorge Cortez. Santos still held his ground until Rob Howell made his 13th error of the season in the top 7th, and the Aces scored their second run on Pat O’Slattery’s single to right. Ricky Avila ran for him, while left-handed batter Ron Richards was out to hit for Cortez. We moved to Luis Beltran, who got out of the inning with a grounder to Yoshi. The Raccoons got the run back in the bottom of the inning on Pat White singling, running the bases aggressively, and scoring on a Keith Ayers single, but they still insisted of making a mess. Top 8th, Rockburn was in and allowed Sean McDermott to reach on a 1-out single. He got Ricardo Garcia, then tried to pick off McDermott, which didn’t work. On the next pitch to Tom Dahlke, Bowen tried to pick off McDermott, and threw it well past Quebell. The extra base allowed McDermott to score on Dahlke’s single (on a 3-0 pitch), and Angel Casas ended the game to end silliness RIGHT NOW. Again the inning ended with a grounder to Yoshi, this time by Eduardo Durango, and sniffed out the Aces in the ninth without creating more drama. 5-3 Raccoons. Quebell 3-4, BB, 2B; Alston 2-4, BB, RBI; White 2-4; Ayers (PH) 1-1, RBI; Santos 6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (1-3); Casas 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, SV (34);

Game 3
LVA: CF Sambrano – 1B McDermott – RF R. Garcia – 2B Dahlke – C Durango – LF L. Taylor – SS F. Soto – 3B O’Slattery – P Valdevez
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – C Owens – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – P Cruz

Javier Cruz got hit hard right from the beginning in this nationally televised Sunday Night showcase. Sean McDermott set the Aces on winning course with a solo shot in the first inning, and Trevino had to scramble after a number of drives in the early innings. While Yoshi Nomura momentarily got the Coons tied with a home run of his own, the bottom beneath Cruz’ paws opened in the fourth. Like all meltdowns (like the one on Wednesday…), this one began innocently enough when Concie Guerin donkeyed out of a pop by Tom Dahlke and dropped it for an error. Durango and Taylor hit singles to gain a 2-1 lead, but after that Francisco Soto came up with a big swipe, a 3-run homer, and a definite 5-1 lead for the Aces. Cruz didn’t get better and was yanked in the fifth with two out and runners on the corners, and Trevino having scraped another drive off the night sky. Thrasher inherited the runners and batter Eduardo Durango, and got the strikeout.

While that kept the Raccoons in slam range and nominally within reach (since they were ordinarily loading the bases in about 16 innings per game), there was a slight issue: through four innings, no Raccoon had batted with a man on base. Yoshi’s homer was their only successful at-bat. While Trevino hit a 2-out single in the bottom 5th, Guerin’s groundout didn’t help in any major way. Nope, Valdevez’ grip on this one was pretty firm, and the Raccoons were unable to hurt him throughout his seven innings of work. Our own bullpen melted in the eighth, when Reese and Kelley walked the bases full and Kelley allowed two RBI singles, and the rout was put on for good in the ninth when Slayton walked a pair, allowed two hits, Merritt threw a grounder behind himself, and the Aces added three more. The announcers by then were in a discussion of their golf swings, and how pitchers were better in the 80s. 10-1 Aces. Thrasher 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;


In other news

July 15 – The Condors deal SP Brian Furst (0-5, 4.35 ERA) to the Rebels for two prospects, including #26 SP Michael Colvard.
July 17 – The Condors might regret that deal now with SP Harry Wentz (7-7, 3.85 ERA) ending his season with shoulder inflammation.
July 17 – Whatever, the Condors pick up LF/RF Rusty Zackery (.330, 4 HR, 39 RBI) from Sioux Falls in a deal for minor leaguer Paco Estrada.
July 17 – The Blue Sox send 2B/SS Kunimatsu Sato (.252, 3 HR, 35 RBI) to the Buffaloes in exchange for 1B/2B Juan Diaz (.231, 3 HR, 31 RBI).
July 20 – WAS SP Tyler Sullivan (7-5, 4.44 ERA) is also out for the season with shoulder inflammation.
July 24 – The Canadiens send SP David Peterson (7-8, 5.10 ERA) to the Wolves for a third-rate prospect.
July 25 – A 3-hit shutout is pitched by NAS SP Toshiro Uenohara (7-4, 3.70 ERA) in a 6-0 win against the Scorpions.
July 25 – PIT SS Tom McWhorter (.271, 11 HR, 51 RBI) needs to get a partial tear in his labrum fixed and will be out for at least six weeks.

Complaints and stuff

Gil McDonald is the 444th Furball in franchise history. And here are all the Raccoons that occupy slots on the alphabetical listing that when by divided by 111 leave an integer: Manuel Diaz, Antonio “Woody” Lopez, Ned Ray, Gustavo Zuniga.

I find “Borderline” a pretty good nick for Nick Brown. He’s borderline genius. But you know how it is with geniuses. Mentally, they’re often borderline. He’s in a 6-week phase of that, and not finding out. So, normally I’d say that under “normal circumstances” he will start two games next week and should thus make the jump from 1,990 career strikeouts to 2,000 and beyond rather easily, but “normal circumstances” is a bit of an issue right now for him. What exactly is going normal for him since the calendar spilled to June?

We will not make a move at the deadline. There’s no way to make the roster better than it is now, given that we were right at the edge of our budget anyway. I’d say that the DL emptying will be help enough for us. That emptying process has already begun. Walt Canning was assigned back to St. Petersburg during the Titans series already, Tomas Castro will start a rehab assignment early next week, and of course Jon Merritt returned to the club on Saturday.

There’s less thrilling news about Brendan Teasdale, who was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff on Sunday and needs to get some reconstruction work done of that paw of his. He’s out for the season of course, and is doubtful for next April. I could drop a line or two how our top picks in the 2010 draft did in their first six weeks in professional ball, but … no, I don’t want to ruin anybody’s Sunday night any further after that rout at the hand of the Aces.

We signed 17-year old Venezuelan SP Juan Mendoza, a right-hander with a cutter/splitter arsenal but overall less than thrilling skills and promises, as international free agent. That fun came us $62,100. Together with the minimum salary added for Gil McDonald, the coffers are as good as empty now. There’s some cash in a box somewhere, but it’s not more than a 6-game losing streak’s worth of liquor.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (62-37) @ Knights (41-57) – July 26-28, 2010

The last week of July would have us visit both of the bottom two teams in the CL South, starting with the Knights. A middling offense wasn’t helping them to offset the second-most runs allowed in the league, and they had run up a grisly -84 run differential. We were 2-1 against them in 2010.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (12-5, 2.49 ERA) vs. Dave Butler (4-10, 4.57 ERA)
Gil McDonald (2-0, 2.08 ERA) vs. Steve Rogers (4-10, 5.60 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (10-5, 3.15 ERA) vs. Domingo Cruz (7-11, 5.09 ERA)

We get to face two left-handers to start this set. Speaking of left-handers… Nick Brown will get starts at either end of the week and needs 10 K to reach 2,000 for his career, a mark that only one pitcher has achieved while on the Raccoons, which was of course Kisho Saito, who had 2,322 of his 2,800 whiffs as a Furball.

Game 1
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Pruitt – RF Ayers – LF Pruitt – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Brown
ATL: LF M. Reyes – 2B J. Hernandez – CF J. Morales – 3B C. Martinez – 1B Younger – SS Hibbard – RF Kelsey – C Fowler – P Butler

Marty Reyes drew a walk off Brown to start his day and when Jose Morales singled to right, Ayers was swallowed by the ball, with the error allowing the Knights to score a run in the inning. There was nothing special about Brown in this start, who couldn’t remove any of the first three batters he had at two strikes, and was taken well deep by Morales for a 2-run homer in the bottom 3rd. The Raccoons had made up the first run in the second inning, but had left two men stranded and hit into double plays in the first and third innings. The game for sure began as a usual Brown start in June and July: nobody’s scoring, except for the other team. And that other team scored A LOT. Morales homered again in his next trip, and Brown was finally removed with five runs across, two on, and two out in the bottom 6th. Law Rockburn threw exactly one pitch to Carlos Martinez to close Brown’s line with seven earned runs, as the Knights hit their third home run of the day. Despite their assumed ace getting his weekly drumming, the Raccoons had the tying runs in scoring position in the ninth inning. To make up eight runs, Alston had hit a 2-run home run in the top 6th already, and they had scored another run on a double play that Owens hit into in the seventh. Nomura doubled in a pair with two outs in the eighth, getting the Raccoons to 8-6. Howell drew a walk off Patrick Mercier to get the ninth started, but got forced on a pathetic bouncer by Quebell, who hit for Pat Slayton. Jon Merritt’s double gave the team the best chance it could possibly have to spare Brown a well-deserved loss. Granted, Mercier was a southpaw and our biggest threat weren’t matching up well to that, but who cares about matchups? Matt Pruitt took the first pitch and rammed it to right, high, deep, outta here, and a score-flipper it was! Angel Casas issued a worrying leadoff walk to Carlos Martinez in the bottom of the ninth, but it would finally be the Knights’ time to hit into a double play now. Devin Hibbard did the honors to end the game. 9-8 Raccoons. Merritt 2-5, 2B; Pruitt 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Howell 2-3, RBI; Slayton 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, W (2-0);

I didn’t *expect* Brown to get clobbered in this game, but I certainly wasn’t stunned. What I did *not* expect was the Raccoons rallying after that Carlos Martinez homer, and that indeed *did* stun me.

Regardless, Brown, who struck out eight somehow despite sucking tremendously, is at 1,998 career strikeouts, but he better gets his **** together just in case we do indeed make the playoffs for the first since he was sitting in the bullpen in Aumsville and wondering if it would ever be his turn.

Game 2
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – LF Pruitt – C Owens – CF Trevino – SS Guerin – 2B Howell – P McDonald
ATL: LF M. Reyes – 2B J. Hernandez – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – SS Hibbard – C Tizzard – P Rogers

Marty Reyes homered and the Knights hit McDonald hard right from the start, knocking four hits and plating three runs in a depressing first inning. After that hard smacking continued in the second, the pitching coach went out there to yell at McDonald, after which the rookie struck out five in a row and led off the top 3rd with a single. The Raccoons loaded the bases before Keith Ayers soured the effort with another double play. The Knights would also have the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning, and also with no outs, with Rob Howell blowing a double play grounder for an error. They turned to be far less picky than the Raccoons when it came to scoring. McDonald walked in a run, Howell would make another error, then McDonald walked in another run, and the Knights led 7-1 after three innings. Four of the seven runs were earned, and McDonald also pitched the fourth before being removed during a rain delay. Hoping for long relief from Ted Reese was also foolish, and he allowed a walk and three hits in the bottom 6th. Beltran rescued him with a strikeout to Garcia and getting Hibbard to ground out to Concie, and only one run scored as the Knights left the bases full. We waited for the late comeback all game long, but this one never even hinted at possibly happening. 8-1 Knights. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Kelley 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

I thought Rob Howell might be able to spell Yoshi Nomura for one game at second base. Silly me.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Guerin – P Umberger
ATL: LF M. Reyes – 2B J. Hernandez – CF J. Morales – RF G. Munoz – 3B C. Martinez – 1B J. Garcia – SS Hibbard – C Tizzard – P D. Cruz

In ****ty weather the Raccoons, really not good at all at scoring the first time through the order, started the game against Domingo Cruz with a Quebell single to right, Merritt walking on four pitches, and Alston lining a pitch to center for another single. Three on, no outs, and yet, nobody scored once Pruitt struck out, Bowen popped out to shallow left, and Nomura bounced on to Martinez. Top 2nd, Pat White singled just barely past Garcia and Concie doubled to left. With runners on second and third and no outs, Umberger had his expected strikeout, but Quebell got a pitch hit into right and some bit up the line to bring in both runners. Merritt then promptly hit into a double play. The team’s way to just simply waste scoring opportunities was the biggest shame, and the second issue was that Umberger, just like the other starters in the series, didn’t have his **** together at all. He was extremely wild (and thus bore no resemblance to 2008 ROTY Umberger anymore) and issued leadoff walks a few times. The Knights scored a run in the bottom 2nd on a leadoff walk to Munoz and Carlos Martinez’ double, the Coons pulled a run back in the third, and Umberger gave that back in the fourth before being blown up in the fifth. Leadoff walk to Marty Reyes, then a Hernandez double, a single, another single, and the Knights were up 5-3. The rain was on and off, but generally got worse after the sixth. The Raccoons were mounting precious little for a long time before Bowen hit a double in the eighth, but finally the tarp came onto the field as the game went into a rain delay. It was eventually called, and the Raccoons lost with the tying run at the plate. Not like they could have come back. They had already had a wonderous comeback on Monday… 5-3 Knights. Quebell 2-4, 2 RBI; Alston 2-4; White 2-3, RBI;

Just to clarify: when I said we have a big chance in the five weeks past the All Star break, I didn’t mean a chance to **** up. They’re ****ing up right now, going 6-5 since the break. They really, really, really should start to pounce on the bad teams. We’ll see such a team on the weekend.

Raccoons (63-39) @ Condors (42-59) – July 30-August 1, 2010

We had gone to 3-3 on the Knights, now we get the Condors, whom we’re already a frustrating 3-3 against. They were eighth in both runs scored and runs allowed with a much better run differential than the Knights (-28) and I was preparing for the worst. How do you say “Where is the liquor store?” in Mexican?

Projected matchups:
Hector Santos (1-3, 5.66 ERA) vs. Ian Ward (3-11, 5.34 ERA)
Javier Cruz (9-5, 3.28 ERA) vs. Manuel Rojas (2-4, 4.00 ERA)
Nick Brown (12-5, 2.84 ERA) vs. Dave Hogan (0-4, 6.58 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, none of them remotely good.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Santos
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – RF Crum – 1B R. Morris – LF Zackery – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – 2B Dougal – P Ward

… and the next instant 3-spot belonged to Rob Morris. Santos had put Pancho Ybarra on with an infield single, threw a wild pitch, then walked Rowan Tanner anyway, and then served a tater to Morris. Santos walked four and was generally clobbered hard for 2 2/3 innings, after which he left with discomfort. Pat Slayton took over, choked the inherited runner, logged four more outs, then left with an injury as well and the ball went to Ted Reese. Still down 3-0, the Raccoons hadn’t hit the ball out of the infield for three innings. It wasn’t until the seventh inning that a Raccoon materialized on base again after two hits against Ward (who had a 1.60-ish WHIP…) in the first inning. Pruitt hit the first single, Nomura walked, and White reached on an error by Rob Morris, putting the tying runs on base with two outs and Keith Ayers pinch-hitting. Ayers struck out, the Raccoons sucked every which way, and expressed that in a bottom 8th in which they all but made sure they would lose the third straight game against horrendous teams. Kelley allowed a hit and walked three and eventually sucked up four earned runs when Beltran just kept waving them around, giving a bases-loaded walk to Rowan Tanner, a left-hander, then allowed a 2-run single to Johnny Crum, another left-hander. 7-0 Condors. Pruitt 2-4; Guerin (PH) 1-1, 2B; Reese 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Can there be a more horrible game than this one? Can there? By now it’s a given they hand out seven runs per game (at least) and don’t to a lick themselves. They will doubtlessly get swept, and lose the lead as early as possible, which would be… Wednesday.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – CF White – C Owens – SS Guerin – P J. Cruz
TIJ: SS Ybarra – CF Tanner – RF Crum – 1B R. Morris – LF Zackery – 3B D. Jones – C Leach – 2B Dougal – P Rojas

There was only one instance in the first five innings in which a team had two men on base in the same inning, and that was the Condors’ chance in the bottom 2nd with a leadoff single and a walk and nobody out. They didn’t score when Nomura started a double play, but what the Raccoons showed was well close to disgusting. Through five, they managed to hit a ball hard exactly twice. Pruitt hit a line drive single, and Yoshi flew out to left. That was all (not only in terms of hits). Not that Manuel Rojas struck out many (two in five frames), but rather pathetic grounder after pathetic grounder, with a few pops to the second baseman in between. When Rojas issued back-to-back walks to Quebell and Merritt in the sixth inning, that was almost like the chance of the day, bringing up Alston and Pruitt with one out. Alston scorched a 3-2 pitch to Ybarra, who was eaten up by an evil short hop and bumbled the ball, negating not only the double play, but also any play. Ybarra got an error, Pruitt got to hit with the bags full, and the Coons got the lead on his groundout to first base. Yay, an RBI groundout! Success! We are the kings of the world! Yoshi added another run with the Coons’ second hit of the day, an RBI single, before Rusty Zackery snagged Pat White’s liner to left to end the inning. Javier Cruz hadn’t been in trouble much in the game, but of course found some immediately with a 2-0 lead, allowed two singles and a run to score in the bottom 6th, and it just never couldn’t go well anyway.

Top 7th, another run scored. Guerin walked with one out, was bunted over by Cruz, and Quebell hit a liner into right on a 3-2 pitch on which Concie was already swinging the paws and barely got home ahead of Crum’s throw, 3-1. Cruz pitched eight innings in what was the best start for a Raccoon not only this week, but since the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, and in a landslide, too! Angel Casas did the hard part of the ninth innings’ work well and quick, retiring the left-handers Tanner and Crum quickly, then walked Morris and threw a wild pitch before whiffing Zackery. 3-1 Raccoons. Cruz 8.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, W (10-5);

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – SS Howell – P Brown
TIJ: SS Ybarra – 2B Dougal – LF Zackery – 1B R. Morris – CF Tanner – 3B D. Jones – RF M. Cruz – C J. Garcia – P Hogan

This Sunday, Nick Brown batted before he ever pitched. Dave Hogan, a 24-year old rookie, fooled absolutely nobody. The first four Raccoons in the game all hit singles, before Bowen worked a full count walk to shove in the second run of the game. When Nomura bounced a ball back to him, Hogan couldn’t make a play and another run scored, and Trevino finally grounded into a fielder’s choice, that nevertheless scored the fourth run. Howell doubled to left, 5-0, and then Brown snuck one past Stanley Dougal for a 2-run single to run the score to 7-0 after the top 1st. Alright, Brownie. If you lose this one, you’re going to the butcher.

Brown started his day job with strikeout #1,999 to Pancho Ybarra before Dougal doubled his way on. Zackery grounded out, and we hit the big two-triple-oh when Rob Morris was called out looking to end the inning. A star is born, hooray! While the lead grew to 9-0 on long man Peter Edwards in the third inning, Brown was far away from dominant, with both a double and a walk going onto his ledger in both of the third and fourth innings, but the Condors never scored, also due to a few key strikeouts that Brown still mixed in. The hittability was pretty obvious right now, though. Bottom 5th, a walk, a single, a strikeout, no runs. Bottom 6th, two singles (for a change, don’t wanna be boring!), three strikeouts, no runs. The result was certainly much better than the way at which Brownie arrived at it, but at least he finished with a clean inning in the seventh, which brought him over 100 pitches and he was thus removed afterwards. No need to press a shutout in this situation. One run scored off Luis Beltran in the eighth, and the Condors stranded four total over the last two innings. 10-1 Brownies. Quebell 2-5, BB; Merritt 2-6, RBI; Alston 3-5, RBI; Nomura 2-4, RBI; Howell 3-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 7 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 9 K, W (13-5) and 1-4, 2 RBI;

Nick Brown was 8-0 on May 13. He’s 5-5 since.

In other news

July 26 – LAP SP J.J. Wirth (8-9, 4.62 ERA) is suffering from radial nerve compression and might miss up to nine months.
July 27 – The Titans deal MR Manuel Martinez (2-0, 2.41 ERA, 3 SV) to the Pacifics along with a minor leaguer to pick up 3B Pedro Cruz, who has only nine at-bats this season.
July 28 – The Pacifics deal 40-yr old RF/LF Dan Morris (.254, 2 HR, 22 RBI) back to Cincy, receiving SP Jack Berry (7-10, 4.90 ERA) in the deal. The Cyclones also receive a prospect.
July 30 – SFB LF/RF Freddie Jones (.244, 1 HR, 23 RBI) knocks his 2,000th career hit, an eighth inning single off Simon Pegler in the Bayhawks’ 2-0 loss to the Canadiens.
July 30 – ATL OF Jose Morales (.375, 17 HR, 64 RBI), who leads the CL batting title race, goes to the DL for the next month with shoulder tendinitis.
August 1 – Jack Berry (8-10, 4.59 ERA) spins a 5-hit shutout in his first start for the Pacifics. He claims victory in a 3-0 win over the Capitals.

Complaints and stuff

And the Bang of the Week is the news that Hector Santos (1-4, 6.17 ERA) is heading for Tommy John surgery with a torn UCL. Isn’t life wonderful!? He was moved to the 60-day DL because we might need the roster spot on the 40-man roster, with Kenichi Watanabe getting added again. He pitched to a low-2 ERA in AAA, but confusingly his walks were well up down there…

Ah, what would I do without those kicks into the balls? Well, in terms of bright sides: I know of a left-hander that had a piece of his thigh, or whatever, stitched into his arm in 2000 and that’s how many career strikeouts he reached this Sunday.

No word yet on Slayton, by the way.

We will go to San Fran on the way back from La Mexica, then have the Elks in over the next weekend. The way the Raccoons have been playing the crap teams recently...

[Westheim]

Raccoons (65-40) @ Bayhawks (49-56) – August 2-4, 2010

The Bayhawks were 7th in runs scored in the CL, but 11th in runs allowed, with a solid rotation just a bit better than the league average, but the second-worst bullpen. This was the last series between these two teams in 2010, and we held a 4-2 advantage so far, and the Raccoons had won at least six from the Birds every year since 2007.

Projected matchups:
Gil McDonald (2-1, 3.71 ERA) vs. Milt Beauchamp (6-6, 3.99 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (10-6, 3.36 ERA) vs. Ramón Jimenez (10-8, 3.72 ERA)
Kenichi Watanabe (3-5, 4.45 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Moreno (5-4, 4.10 ERA)

That’s three right-handers, as we miss both their left-hander and ex-Coons farmhand G.G. Williams and the amazingly named Reynaldo Rendon.

Game 1
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Brown – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P McDonald
SFB: 3B R. Garza – 2B B. Hernandez – LF Cameron – 1B D. Lopez – CF Black – RF F. Jones – C Diéguez – SS Heffer – P Beauchamp

The furry battery found a rather outrageous way to produce a 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the second inning. With a man on first base and two outs, McDonald had Dave Heffer at 1-2 and got strike three past him, but also past Bowen once the pitch bounced off the edge of his glove and bounced away merrily. Heffer beat out Bowen’s throw from far, far away, the Birds had two on, and McDonald gave up an RBI single to Milt Beauchamp then. The Raccoons threatened in the third for the first time but left runners on the corners, yet scored the tying run in the fourth with 2-out singles chained together by Yoshi, White, and Howell before McDonald popped out on an 0-2 pitch to end the inning. Beauchamp then issued walks to start the fifth inning, putting on Quebell and Merritt for the danger faction in the middle of the order. The output was dangerously minimalistic with Alston hitting into a fielder’s choice to erase Merritt before Pruitt singled in Quebell to take a 2-1 lead.

Quebell’s 2-out double in the sixth plated Pat White to get to 3-1 then. Jon Merritt drew another walk, but Alston, who had entered a terrible rut, it seemed, grounded out on a 3-1 pitch. Not much danger here. There was DANGER DANGER DANGER however in the bottom of the inning. Don Cameron led off with a single, David Lopez doubled, and instantly the Bayhawks looked more like a threat than all previous innings combined. Luke Black popped up before Luis Beltran was brought in to face the left-handed Freddie Jones, and successfully blew the game when he allowed a hard single struck to right to plate both runners and tie the score. The game was then lost in the seventh inning when Ted Reese refused to retire anybody, and with two on and no outs, Quebell threw away a grounder by Bartolo Hernandez and the Bayhawks took a 4-3 lead with runners in scoring position and no outs. Ron Thrasher ended the inning while at least allowing only one run to score, anod nominally the Raccoons had a comeback chance in the top 9th. Alston struck out against Valentim Innocentes, but Pruitt drew a walk. Trevino hit for the living strikeout Bowen and struck out himself, but Yoshi singled up the middle to put the tying runs on base for Pat White, who popped one up to end it all. 5-3 Bayhawks. Pruitt 3-4, BB, RBI; Nomura 2-5;

Ron Alston really was the heart of the lineup in this one, leading the team with a stellar 0-5, 3K effort.

Meanwhile Pat Slayton vanished onto the DL for the balance of the season. He was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation and required shutdown. Derrek Fredlund was called up to work on his 2010 ERA, which sat at 54.00, certainly making his mommy proud.

Game 2
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Brown – 2B Nomura – CF White – SS Howell – P Umberger
SFB: 3B R. Garza – 2B B. Hernandez – LF Cameron – 1B D. Lopez – CF Black – RF F. Jones – C Diéguez – SS McGreary – P Jimenez

The Raccoons were denied an early scoring opportunity when Yoshi Nomura was thrown out after a baserunning blunder in the second inning, but in return we got to see the rarest thing: Adrian Quebell hit a home run in the third inning to give the team a 1-0 advantage. Umberger was facing the minimum through three innings, allowing a walk and getting a double play (but striking out none…), while the Raccoons forced the Bayhawks to take desperate measures as early as the fourth inning. When Yoshi drew a leadoff walk and Pat White doubled, they walked Rob Howell intentionally to have Umberger bat with the sacks full and no outs. One easy strikeout later, Quebell turned up, and for once didn’t hit a first-pitch double play, but rather a first-pitch 2-run double past Jones in right. Jimenez, who had already walked four, continued to melt, walked Merritt and also Alston, which forced in the fourth run of the game, and they’d get another one on Pruitt’s sac fly to center, 5-0. Don Cameron ended Umberger’s no-hit bid before it ever really was one and instead extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a 2-out single in the fourth, but the Birds left him on, yet Luke Black got the Bayhawks onto their board in the fifth, hitting a leadoff jack off Jong-hoo to get back to 5-1. The Bayhawks didn’t get another man on against Umberger until it was Black’s turn again, singling in the seventh but he was stranded. Nothing happened in the tops of innings at this point, and while Umberger started the eighth inning, the Bayhawks squeezed a run off him with two singles and a bunt in between, knocking him out four outs short of a complete game effort. Now, Angel Casas had already entered as Umberger’s replacement in the bottom 8th, getting out Bartolo Hernandez to end the inning, then retired Cameron and David Lopez quickly in the ninth before that suddenly pesky again Luke Black singled, and Casas then drilled Jones. Alfredo Ortíz hit after that and drove a ball into the gap in right center. Alston made a nice efficient play while Black scored and Jones was inexplicably sent – he was not the tying run even! – and was gunned down by Nomura with a wonderful relay throw to end the game. 5-3 Raccoons. Quebell 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; White 2-4, 2B; Umberger 7.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, W (11-6);

That was some stupid baserunning by everybody, and luckily it cost the other team more.

Ron Alston was getting the rubber game off. He was terrible right now; aside the 3-hit game he had in Sunday’s rout in Tijuana, he had been negligible for more than a week.

Game 3
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – 3B Merritt – LF Pruitt – RF Ayers – CF White – C Owens – SS M. Gutierrez – P Watanabe
SFB: 3B R. Garza – 2B B. Hernandez – LF Cameron – 1B D. Lopez – CF Black – RF Jones – C Diéguez – SS Heffer – P R. Moreno

In the top 1st, Pruitt doubled in a run before Ayers and White stranded him and Merritt in scoring position. Not long after that, Watanabe was taken apart into lots of tiny pieces, starting with two runs in the bottom 2nd, with David Lopez homering for the 16th time, and Freddie Jones hit a triple and scored on a sac fly. Bottom 3rd, it got worse, way worse, with Watanabe walking the pitcher to get started, plus Garza, then allowed two singles, and issued another walk before someone, somehow hit into a double play to end the mockery of the game. Watanabe was charged with seven earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, issuing five hits and six walks, while striking out none. The last three runs scored against Ray Kelley who came in with three on and two outs, all runners reaching on walks, with Black doubling to clear the bases. That was the definite death blow as far as this game was concerned. The Raccoons, who had scored a run in the top of the inning, laid down and died, while Derrek Fredlund allowed another run later by pitching just as pathetically as Watanabe had. 8-2 Bayhawks. Merritt 2-4, 2B, RBI;

Raccoons pitchers walked eight and struck out two batters. That’s how fun a game this was. Can only be another five minutes or so before the Crusaders go screaming past us.

Kenichi Watanabe was stricken off the roster right away, as we had no patience for **** like this right now. Colin Baldwin had made two very good rehab starts in AAA, and was ready to rejoin the team.

The Raccoons have not faced a meaningful team since the All Star Game, and they went a miserable 10-9. They capitally blew their chance to build a lead. Now the Elks will be in town. It’s in all likelihood going to be the beginning of the very end.

Raccoons (66-42) vs. Canadiens (54-52) – August 5-8, 2010

The Canadiens were maintaining a +37 run differential, fielding a top 3 offense and middling pitching. They led the league in stolen bases (Ross Holland still bested the entire Raccoons franchise), and were second in home runs. The difference in offensive output wasn’t big. While the Raccoons neither stole bases, nor hit home runs, or even doubles, they somehow still had the most runs scored in the CL, but out-scored the Elks by only eight runs, and had played two more games. For the year, the Raccoons had led the Elks 5-2, but things were going down.

Projected matchups:
Javier Cruz (10-5, 3.15 ERA) vs. Juichi Fujita (13-7, 3.49 ERA)
Nick Brown (13-5, 2.70 ERA) vs. Rod Taylor (7-8, 3.26 ERA)
Gil McDonald (2-1, 3.63 ERA) vs. Dave Crawford (7-9, 5.02 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (11-6, 3.30 ERA) vs. Scott Spears (1-2, 3.62 ERA)

Their rotation continues to be entirely right-handed, so there’s not that much wiggle room here.

Game 1
VAN: LF Southcott – C Mata – 1B Gilbert – RF J. Thomas – 3B Suzuki – SS T. Johnson – 2B Rice – CF Jardine – P Fujita
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Cruz

Javier Cruz got his 100th strikeout of the season in the first inning, whiffing Julio Mata, but that was with the disgusting Clint Southcott already on first after a single, and he would soon score after a Ray Gilbert double and a grounder by Josh Thomas. Fujita struck out four the first time through the Coons’ order, with Cruz being the only guy to even get the ball out of the infield, and nobody reached base until Quebell walked to start the bottom 4th. He was the tying run, so he was stranded.

Cruz allowed another run in the top 5th as the Elks moved to 2-0 on hits by Fujita, Southcott, and Mata, and how could it possibly get worse? Well, there was a very real chance for the Raccoons to get no-hit on home turf by the ****ing Elks. Fujita issued another walk in the fifth, and one in the sixth, but nobody took a bat to him through six innings. Or through seven. Cruz was knocked out in the top 8th after two more hits (****ing Southcott again!) and a third run scoring. Not that it mattered, the game (and the other three in the set) were lost anyway already. But that no-hit thing was clawing into my sole. The Elks have never had a no-hitter! They’re not gonna get it here!! GET A ****ING HIT!! Bowen, Howell, and White struck out in order in the eighth. The ****ing Clint Southcott drove in another run in the top 9th off Reese. I don’t care. GET A ****ING HIT!! One first baseman, Quebell, grounded a 2-0 pitch to another first baseman, Gilbert, to start the bottom of the ninth, one out. Merritt grounded out to Gary Rice. That left things to the horrible Ron Alston. Fujita had his ninth strikeout, and it was the end of the world as we knew it. 4-0 Canadiens.

Nothing matters anymore. Win a game this weekend, or don’t. Doesn’t matter. Win the division, or don’t. Doesn’t matter. Win the World Series, or don’t. Doesn’t matter.

This is a stain that will never go away, that will never be forgotten.

I dragged myself into the office at 2pm the next day, with a head the size of a watermelon and no will to live at all. I felt sick like a dog struck by a truck, and when Maud came in and wanted to talk about some promotion with kids, I hissed at her and chased her out, then locked the door, closed the window blinds, and had a little manly cry.

Game 2
VAN: LF Southcott – SS T. Johnson – 1B Gilbert – 3B Suzuki – RF J. Thomas – 2B Dobson – C J. Silva – CF Medina – P R. Taylor
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – 2B Nomura – CF Trevino – C Bowen – SS Guerin – P Brown

Ray Gilbert somehow managed to triple in the first inning, with the ball coming to a rest dead in the leftfield corner, but Pruitt would snack Suzuki’s floater with a headlong catch to prevent actual damage in the inning, before Quebell led off the bottom of the inning with an actual, countable hit, a home run to right. Merritt singled, Alston struck out, and Pruitt hit into a double play. There would be a sign of life, faintly as it was, from Alston his next time up when he rocked a 3-0 pitch (…?) out of the park, a bit right of center, for his 19th homer. The Raccoons loaded the bases after this, in the process of which Rod Taylor got hurt, and Nick Brown batted with three on and two outs against D.J. Fulgieri, grounded a 2-2 up the middle, but it was intercepted by Jerry Dobson and the score remained 2-0, at least until Gilbert romped a 3-2 pitch by Nick Brown into the second-to-last row of the leftfield stands in the top 6th.

Nick Brown had struck out four in the first four innings, and through six never had more than one man on base, but he fell into a hole in the seventh, where Jerry Dobson drew a leadoff walk, but was caught stealing on the 0-1 to Julio Silva. The next pitch drilled Silva, and Brown would add a walk before Rice grounded out and Clint Southcott and his ugly cow face hit a soft line right to Yoshi for the third out. So somehow this remained a 2-1 game, and the Raccoons had a scoring chance in the bottom 7th with Jesus Quinones pitching. Concie was drilled to start the frame, and then Pat White singled while hitting for Brown, after which Silva was charged with a passed ball on the 0-1 to Quebell. SCORE!!! The Elks elected to walk Quebell intentionally to get to Jon Merritt, whom Quinones struck out for the first red light on the wall to come up. Alston got a pretty good 2-0 pitch and hit it to deep left, and it was well out of Southcott’s reach! The ball fell in and went all the way to the wall as Ron Alston had a bases-clearing double! Cal Holbrook came in as new pitcher as the Elks seemingly resigned the game, and Pruitt hit an RBI single to get Alston home and the score to 6-1. Three singles off Holbrook scored another run in the eighth, with Fredlund coming into the 7-1 game in the ninth, and he smacked Josh Thomas right away. He got Dobson struck out, then walked the sacks full, and was replaced by Thrasher to face left-handed batter Jimmy Roberts, struck him out, but then allowed a 2-run single to §%§$&/ Southcott. Enough with this! Remove the fools!! Angel Casas came in, struck out Tom Johnson, no fuss, game over. 7-3 Brownies. Alston 2-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Pruitt 2-4, RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1; Guerin 2-3; White (PH) 2-2, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, W (14-5);

Nope. No. I don’t feel anything. I’m officially dead inside.

The Elks sent Rod Taylor to the DL with a tweaked oblique, but he should not be out for more than two weeks, normally.

Game 3
VAN: LF Southcott – 2B Dobson – 1B Gilbert – 3B Suzuki – C Mata – RF Medina – SS Rice – CF Jardine – P Crawford
POR: 1B Quebell – 2B Nomura – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – CF White – SS Guerin – 3B M. Gutierrez – C Owens – P McDonald

Two repeats in this week’s events in this game; no, not another no-hitter, no-ho. The Raccoons took a 1-0 lead on a homer again, this time Pat White’s in the bottom 2nd, and McDonald and the catchers kept messing around. In the top 2nd, McDonald had the inning over with after striking out Juan Medina, but the ball went not only past Medina’s swing, but also threw Travis Owens’ old legs, and to the backstop, with Medina reaching on the uncaught third strike, but this time nothing horrible happened. Through five, McDonald mostly had everything under control, allowing two hits and striking out four, while the Raccoons also had only their one hit, White’s homer, through four, but upped the score to 4-0 in the bottom 5th. First, Owens hit a 2-run homer, and then McDonald got on with a single, was moved around and scored on Alston’s sac fly. The thrills of running the bases didn’t faze McDonald yet, and there wasn’t any dangerous contact until the seventh when Medina hit a ball to deep center, but White caught it for the third out. Crawford went into the bottom 7th, but was gobbled up. Adrian Quebell walked, Yoshi doubled, and Ron Alston was intentionally put onto the open base (so, Matt Pruitt ain’t protection enough?), after which Pruitt hit into a fielder’s choice (apparently, no), scoring the fifth run, and getting Crawford a bus ticket home. Bill King took over and conceded another run on Pat White’s grounder. McDonald was tiring in the eighth and was removed after a pair of 2-out singles, which also got him over 100 pitches. Law Rockburn got into the game with the intent of finishing it. Well, at least until he allowed a rocket to Dobson for an RBI double, and then a 3-shot to Gilbert, after which he was yanked. Kelley then struck out Suzuki to get out of this inning, and handing it off to Angel Casas, who saved the game without any loud surprises. 6-4 Critters. Nomura 2-4, 2B; McDonald 7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (3-1) and 1-3;

Game 4
VAN: C Mata – 2B Dobson – 1B Gilbert – RF J. Thomas – SS T. Johnson – LF Medina – 3B Rice – CF Jardine – P Lewis
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Umberger

With the Elks making a roster move after the injury to Rod Taylor, they brought callup Sean Lewis (0-0, 1.69 ERA) into the Sunday game. Lewis made his first career start, after making four relief appearances earlier. He was also a right-hander.

For the third consecutive day the Raccoons scored first with a solo home run, with Bowen hitting it out this time. Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last. Jim Jardine reached on an infield single in the top 3rd, was bunted over and scored on a Julio Mata double. There was really not all that much going on offensively in the game, and the innings breezed by in a 1-1 game until Tom Johnson whacked a leadoff jack off Umberger in the top 7th. That was certainly a bad sign, but the ball was flying well, and hey, our guys occasionally will turn on one, too! Like Rob Howell. Bowen reached with a single in the bottom of the same inning and Howell cracked a shot to left center that was just barely over the fence, but flipped the score in the Coons’ favor to 3-2. Sean Lewis stayed in the game at that point, retired Trevino and Quebell before he walked Merritt. The Elks didn’t make a pitching change, and Ron Alston conquered the 28-year old rookie with another 2-run homer.

That 5-2 lead was instantly in mortal danger. Ron Thrasher got Jimmy Roberts to start the top 8th, but then Mata singled, there was a wild pitch, and he walked Dobson. Rockburn came out with Gilbert at the plate as the tying run, which had gone well wrong just about 18 hours prior, but this time Ray Gilbert chipped a pitch back to the pitcher, and Law started an inning-ending double play. Jose Escobar bled two runs in the bottom of the eighth, driven in by Bowen and Howell, who both had great days, and that enabled us to leave Angel Casas outside for the moment, and continue pitching with Law, who blitzed through the ninth, requiring only eight pitches total to log five outs. 7-2 Coons. Merritt 2-3, BB; Ayers (PH) 1-1; Bowen 3-4, HR, RBI; Howell 2-3, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Umberger 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (12-6); Rockburn 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, SV (2);

With that, we’ve at least produced a winning week in numbers, although we have lost all self-respect on the way. The Crusaders, by the way, matched our result EVERY day and the 4 1/2 game gap never changed. The Indians were to within 5 for a few days, but fell back to 6 games out on Sunday.

In other news

August 3 – Atlanta’s Domingo Cruz (9-11, 4.69 ERA) comes up with a 2-hit shutout of the Loggers in a 4-0 Knights win.
August 6 – 2,500 career hits achieved by 1B/2B Georg Spinu (.293, 3 HR, 46 RBI)! The 37-year old Cyclone tags the Rebels’ Bill Conway at the start of the first inning in an 8-0 Cyclones win for the milestone. He would also draw two walks in the game before taking a pitch to the hand and suffering a mild hand contusion. The 1991 first-rounder, taken by the Buffaloes, has spent his entire career in the FL East, and almost all of it for the Buffaloes as well, although his biggest success came in 2009 with Cincy, when he was named the World Series MVP despite being on the losing team. He has been .295/.410/.407 for his career, with 108 HR and 940 RBI, and has also stolen 155 bases.
August 8 – OCT CF Jose Gonzalez (.225, 5 HR, 32 RBI) is lost for the season with a broken elbow.

Complaints and stuff

The George Kirk no-hitter was pretty bad. But okay, it’s ’04, the Coons stink, their over/under on the number of no-hitters against them was 1.5 in some years, it was a teeth gnasher, but it had comical value at least. This one is worse. This one is personal.

This one, there aren’t enough tears to cry over.

Bad news ain’t stopping: AA SP Chad Royston, our 2008 fifth-rounder, had sat out a start in July with a dead arm, then started another game on Tuesday, and couldn’t move his arm on Wednesday. Turns out he has a shredded rotator cuff, the outlook is grim, and he is out for at least a full year. While not particularly high on our prospect rankings, that’s three young pitchers tearing out arms in six days’ time! And never forget Teasdale just over a week before that…

And while Colin Baldwin is up and will start on Monday, Tomas Castro isn’t yet. He started his rehab assignment on July 28 and was completely out of whack at first, posting four oh-fers in his first five AAA games. He’s starting to get the swing back now, and I think that he will not be away for much longer, maybe another day or two.

Nothing of that matters, of course. If I had died of alcohol poisoning on Thursday night (which wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities), the last thing I would have witnessed in my life would have been… - See, I can’t even SAY it. Can’t wait to enter the phase of denial, in which I will then remain forever.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (69-43) vs. Titans (55-58) – August 9-11, 2010

The Titans’ rotation was still the worst with a 5.08 ERA and this alone foiled most of their ambitions. They were fourth from the bottom in runs allowed, and their fifth-best offense could barely keep up. Their run differential of -28 indicated a team that wasn’t quite “almost .500”. They still have a few significant players on the DL, including Gerardo Rios, who might be activated any day now. Infielder Mark Austin was DTD for them. The Coons had taken eight and lost four games so far against the Titans.

Projected matchups:
Colin Baldwin (6-4, 3.54 ERA) vs. Ramón Martinez (5-4, 6.49 ERA)
Javier Cruz (10-6, 3.18 ERA) vs. Ron Carter (6-10, 4.59 ERA)
Nick Brown (14-5, 2.64 ERA) vs. Jesus Cabrera (10-7, 4.00 ERA)

Martinez is a left-hander to start this series, before we’ll get two right-handers. We will have off days this Thursday and the following Monday, and the first one aligns neatly with Gil McDonald, who hasn’t done anything wrong in particular, but I’m always rather doubting guys who only come up at 27 because of injuries or other people’s incompetence. And Baldwin will of course make the first start off the DL.

Game 1
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B P. Cruz – LF Baez – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – RF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – SS E. Salazar – P R. Martinez
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Ayers – LF Alston – CF White – C Bowen – SS Guerin – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Baldwin

Baldwin had nothing; no stuff, no command, no luck. He walked people all the time, the Titans had the bases loaded after an intentional walk to Edgar Salazar with two out in the second, and Baldwin gave an RBI single to Ramón Martinez to fall behind 2-0. It was getting even worse in the third, with another leadoff walk, two hits, a bases-loaded single, a 2-run single by Salazar, and just like that it was 5-0 and I stopped bothering much. Pedro Cruz homered and Marcos Baez got drilled in the fourth before Baldwin got yanked after allowing six runs, all earned. The game was a stinker, and that was before the lineup was ever mentioned. The first time through the order they managed one hit against the certified pushover Martinez, who plated them a run in the fourth after a Quebell double with a wild pitch they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten. Ineptness was shown impressively in the bottom of the sixth, when the Raccoons had Merritt and Ayers in scoring position with one out and didn’t score after Alston hacked himself out and White just rolled one back to Ramón Martinez. The Titans weren’t hesitating at all when it came to scoring, made Ted Reese walk the bases full in the seventh and scored two runs, one of those driven in by Martinez, who had entered the game with no RBI’s on the year. The Raccoons didn’t do anything. 9-1 Titans. Quebell 2-4, 2B; Fredlund 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Raccoons pitchers issued nine walks in this game, and that has been a pattern recently. The walks are way out of whack for the entire staff right now. After that disaster of an outing, Baldwin, who would have been up again on the weekend, was instead designated for skipping. McDonald would start Friday, then Umberger and Javier Cruz on the weekend, with Cruz going on regular rest.

Game 2
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – RF Hayashi – 1B T. Ramos – LF Thurman – C Suda – CF J. Gusmán – 3B M. Austin – SS E. Salazar – P Carter
POR: 1B Quebell – 3B Merritt – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – CF White – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P J. Cruz

And wouldn’t you know it, Javier Cruz started the game with walks to Jesus Ramirez and Tokimune Hayashi. Somehow the Titans balked out of the scoring opportunity, but Cruz issued another leadoff walk in the second and more troubles were on the horizon. The Titans took a 1-0 lead in the third on a Hayashi home run, but the Raccoons actually had a response to that. Javier Cruz shoved a bouncer past Ramirez in the bottom of the inning and was then collected by a huge homer hit by Adrian Quebell to flip the score, and after that Merritt and Pruitt both got on, and Pat White scored Jon Merritt with a single to get to 3-1. And for Cruz, much was hit and miss in this game. He missed the strike zone generously in the fourth inning again, and hit Javier Gusmán in the forearm instead. Gusmán had to leave in pain (but would turn out to “only” have been bruised; and the Titans would also lose Edgar Salazar to an injury while running the bases later), then flummoxed the Titans with a home run of his own in the bottom of the inning, getting the Coons to 4-1.

Home run aside, Cruz was a mess in this game (just like the entire rotation…) and only lasted 5 2/3 innings, walking four and whiffing eight. The Titans tried to hit him, rarely could. They had two hits for two runs and the Coons were up 5-2 once Ron Thrasher collected the final out in the sixth. While the Titans remained kept to two hits by the bullpen, they nevertheless put up threats – where bad control comes in again. Beltran struck Zachary Thurman good with a pitch in the top 8th, putting on another wholly unnecessary runner, and while Law Rockburn replaced him this was only to allow a drive to deep left to “Quasimodo” Suda, one that fortunately Matt Pruitt was able to catch before it could make it all the way to the wall. Angel Casas attempted to join the walk parade and went to full counts on both Mark Austin and Mark Thomas to start the ninth, but both grounded out before he could throw another wide one. He struck out Pedro Cruz to end the game. 5-2 Coons. Merritt 2-4; Pruitt 3-4; White 2-4, 2 RBI;

Angel Casas saved his 40th game for 2010 this Tuesday. Grant West has the franchise mark with 49 saves in ’92, and the ABL record is 53 by one-year wonder Derek Wolfe for the 1986 Stars. There’s 48 games left to the regular season.

The Crusaders had made up a game on Monday, but got squeezed out by the unlikely Simon Pegler on Tuesday, taking a 2-1 loss against Vancouver, and the 4 1/2 game lead was restored.

After this game, Tomas Castro was put back on the roster after his rehab assignment, with Santiago Trevino handed to St. Petersburg after dropping his average to .225 the last two days.

Game 3
BOS: 2B J. Ramirez – 3B P. Cruz – C Suda – 1B T. Ramos – LF Hayashi – CF J. Gusmán – RF Thurman – SS M. Austin – P Cabrera
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Owens – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P Brown

Nick Brown was spotted a sizeable lead right in the first inning. Matt Pruitt batted with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom 1st, grounded one to Jesus Ramirez, who took a bit too long to get a throw to his double play partner off, and it cost the Titans. Pruitt beat out the relay throw, which scored the first run and left two on for Travis Owens, who flatout crashed a Cabrera pitch and went deep to right center, jumping the score to 4-0 for Brown, who had scuffled a bit in two full counts in the first three batters, but had yet to walk anybody. But don’t you worry. Not a pitcher in this rotation who ain’t a nervous wreck.

Top 3rd, Mark Austin singled to get the inning going and was bunted over by Cabrera, then scored on a Ramirez single on a 3-2 pitch. Cruz grounded out, the second out in the inning, before Brown struck both Suda and Ramos in succession to load the bases, and Suda even had to leave the game. Hayashi drove in two before that horrendous inning would find an end with a much reduced 4-3 lead. While it didn’t look like a great Nick Brown day (and wouldn’t ever turn into one), we certainly got a great Travis Owens day: the backup backstop cracked another 2-run homer in the bottom 4th to restore some breathing space. Nick Brown and that 6-3 lead dragged themselves through seven innings, with Brown having struck out six, and not walking anybody, but he had struck and crippled his far share and thoroughly scared the rest. Law Rockburn and Angel Casas would finish the inning without any base runners allowed. 6-3 Brownies. Owens 4-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (15-5);

Hideaki Suda (.249, 4 HR, 21 RBI) had taken a pitch on the wrist, and was placed on the DL after the game with a bad bruise. He would miss the rest of the month.

Juichi Fujita, in his first post-no-hitter start, pitched decently while the Crusaders got routed, 12-3, and the Raccoons increased their lead to 5 1/2 games, and they were again routed on Thursday, which we had off, in a 12-0 creaming to fall to a full six games out.

Raccoons (71-44) @ Scorpions (57-56) – August 13-15, 2010

The Scorpions had the highest batting average in the FL (.289) and were scoring the third-most runs, but their pitchers were essentially giving up as many. Both their rotation and bullpen were posting about 4.70 ERA marks, and that was not a way to make progress towards the top of the division, even in the FL, where offense was traditionally higher than in the pitching-heavier CL. The Scorpions have not won a game from the Raccoons since 2002, having gotten swept the last three times the teams met. We are 33-30 overall against them.

Projected matchups:
Gil McDonald (3-1, 3.30 ERA) vs. Jorge Gine (7-6, 4.30 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (12-6, 3.26 ERA) vs. Dan Moriarty (10-7, 4.06 ERA)
Javier Cruz (11-6, 3.18 ERA) vs. Chester Graham (9-7, 5.25 ERA)

That’s two southpaws at the back end of the series, and of course we know Moriarty a bit, who has spent quite some time in the North.

Game 1
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – RF Alston – LF Pruitt – C Owens – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P McDonald
SAC: SS Palmer – RF R. Lopez – C Gibson – 2B D. McCormick – 3B Whitley – LF Cutler – CF K. Williams – 1B Cain – P Gine

Jorge Gine had a K/BB better than four, and immediately started to add to that, but the Raccoons would chip a few soft singles, and just many enough to load the bases in the second inning. Here, Guerin struck out for the second out before McDonald looped an 0-2 pitch into shallow right to score one run before Castro went down. The Raccoons squeezed out another run in the fifth, driven in by Alston with a 2-out single, and Jorge Gine was not seen again after a 1-out single to Yoshi in the sixth. McDonald was still unscored against, but when the Scorpions removed Gine to get to Nobu Matsui, the dam broke pretty quickly. He loaded the bags with two outs in the inning, then smacked Merritt with a 3-2 pitch, forcing home the third run for the Coons, and the Critters would run Matsui with three consecutive 2-out singles, plating four more runs.

McDonald didn’t make it through the seventh then. Although he still maintained a shutout, a Dave McCormick single and then a lengthy at-bat that ended in a walk to Stan Whitley got him to almost 100 pitches and with the Scorpions sending left-hander Pat Dunn to hit for Xavier Cutler, we went to Luis Beltran, who struck out Dunn, but then allowed an RBI single to Ken Williams. But that was all the Scorpions managed in this series, held to four hits by the Raccoons, who had 14 base knocks themselves. 7-1 Raccoons. Castro 2-5; Quebell 2-5, 2 RBI; Alston 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Pruitt 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Nomura 2-5; McDonald 6.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, W (4-1) and 2-4, RBI;

Game 2
POR: 3B Merritt – 1B Pruitt – RF Ayers – LF Alston – CF White – C Bowen – 2B Nomura – SS Howell – P Umberger
SAC: SS Palmer – RF R. Lopez – C Gibson – 2B D. McCormick – 3B Whitley – LF Cutler – CF K. Williams – 1B Cain – P Moriarty

Dan Moriarty had always been a bit on the wild side, and he gave the Coons their first run with a wild pitch in the first inning, plating Merritt, who had singled and made it to third base on another single by Matt Pruitt. The Raccoons would later get another run with a 2-out RBI single by Bowen on a 3-2 pitch that sneaked past Whitley into left. Umberger blew the 2-0 lead right away, allowing a single to ex-Elk Michael Palmer and then a triple to Rodrigo Lopez, with the Scorpions bringing him home rather easily, too. The Raccoons would hit into a killing double play in the top 2nd, then lay down and hide for a while. Umberger allowed a leadoff single to Moriarty – on a 1-2 pitch even – at the start of the bottom 3rd, but the Scorpions would hit into a double play this time, yet in the bottom 4th, Rodney Gibson, Dave McCormick, and Stan Whitley all hit singles off Umberger to get at least a run across for a 3-2 lead.

Top 5th, the Raccoons reached a new level of idiocy on the base paths. Moriarty, who had already walked five, walked Pruitt to start the inning, then picked him off first and instead walked Keith Ayers, who was running when Alston lined to right and right to McCormick, who made an easy unassisted double play. In the sixth, Bowen reached on an error and Yoshi singled. One out, Howell struck out in his usual, useful ways, bringing up Umberger with the tying run at second base and two outs. Problem was, Moriarty was so erratic and I was hesitant to use the backup catcher in the sixth inning. Umberger had walked his last time up (yes, actually!), grabbed a bat, and struck out. Moriarty faced one more batter in the seventh, with Palmer’s throwing error putting leadoff man Merritt on second base. The horrendous Raccoons never moved Merritt on from second base, and tumbled towards their first loss against Sacramento in eight years. Umberger allowed another run in the seventh, Donald Sims came in and massacred the Raccoons’ bottom of the order in the top 8th, and the bottom 8th was handed to Fredlund, which was the next big mistake. Fredlund allowed a hit and walked two before being removed for Thrasher, who walked two and allowed two hits. The score was quickly escalating, and with two outs even Thrasher was yanked and Law Rockburn took over, but would not get out of the inning either until the Scorpions would have run the score to 12-2 after a Merritt error and three singles off Rockburn. Cynically, the Raccoons would score two runs off Dane Sanders in the ninth. Not that anybody gave a ****. 12-4 Scorpions. Nomura 2-4; Castro (PH) 1-1;

This team is completely prone to blowouts right now, which is horrendous in itself. You can’t give anybody the ball right now, except Angel Casas.

And I had enough of Fredlund by now. He and his 12.71 ERA were returned to St. Petersburg to rot down there. We called up 2005 eighth-rounder Jose Gibson, who had been drafted as a position player but converted to a pitcher right away. He’s a 24-year old righty who has worked his way up the ladder rather silently. He is walking quite a few in AAA, and bad command over his breaking stuff is a major issue here.

Major issues all over. We should be named the Portland Major Issues.

Game 3
POR: 3B Merritt – CF Castro – RF Ayers – LF Alston – 1B Quebell – C Owens – 2B Nomura – SS Guerin – P Cruz
SAC: SS Palmer – RF R. Lopez – C Gibson – 3B Whitley – 2B McCormick – LF Cutler – CF K. Williams – 1B Cain – P Graham

No offense for anybody in the rubber game. Through five innings, both teams had three hits, all soft, and had had two men on at the same time only once without scoring. Of course, for the Scorpions that was with two outs in the fourth, and for the Raccoons with nobody out in the third… The Coons still played dead in the sixth, but Rodrigo Lopez hit a leadoff triple for the Scorpions that was surely going to doom the Critters, except that Rodney Gibson popped out, Stan Whitley whiffed, and Dave McCormick quibble one to Quebell. Chester Graham was hit for in the bottom 7th, but Cruz continued to bat in the eighth, in which Donald Sims sat down the Raccoons in a hurry. The Scorpions had Michael Palmer on in the bottom 8th and moved him to third with two outs and Whitley batting. Cruz was still in there. This was the perfect spot for Marcos Bruno, but Marcos Bruno was not a Furball anymore, and Law Rockburn had allowed his share of home runs this year. Whitley hit a 3-2 to deep center, but Castro was posted there and the game remained scoreless through eight, with the Scorpions sending their closer Johnny Smith into the top of the ninth, who retired Pruitt (hitting for Ayers), Alston, and Quebell in order, and he was not even a left-hander. Luis Beltran replaced Cruz for the bottom 9th with the switch-hitter McCormick up first and then two left-handers. Beltran walked McCormick (…!), who then got caught up in Xavier Cutler’s double play grounder. Palmer Taylor singled in the #7 slot, but Merritt got Pat Eaton’s grounder intercepted and sent the game to extras, where the Raccoons continued to not do anything before Ray Kelley was deconstructed on three 1-out singles in the bottom 10th. 1-0 Scorpions. Nomura 2-4; Cruz 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K;

(hums) It’s a wonderful, wonderful life …..

In other news

August 9 – An oblique strain will put NYC CF Roberto Pena (.254, 3 HR, 31 RBI) on the DL for the next month or so.
August 9 – Due to a torn labrum, it’s season over for DEN SS Dave Hutchison (.271, 5 HR, 63 RBI).
August 13 – SFW SP Jair Mauceri (10-6, 4.77 ERA) spins a marvelous 1-hit shutout in a 4-0 win over the Indians. Robbie Luxton hits a single in the fifth inning to spoil the big party, though.
August 14 – DAL CF/LF César Morán (.279, 3 HR, 22 RBI) has his injury-riddled season continue, hitting the DL with a hip strain. He should be out for a month.
August 14 – Atlanta’s Carlos Martinez (.263, 9 HR, 54 RBI) ends his season with a broken ankle. The 27-year old third baseman is placed on the 60-day DL.
August 15 – NAS INF Jose Correa (.288, 0 HR, 41 RBI) is also put on the DL with a knee sprain. He might miss a month as well.

Complaints and stuff

Considering another 1-year deal for old man Javier Cruz. I mean, he’s not blistering it, but he’s a thoroughly good pitcher and holding his ground rather well. He’s 37 and making that round million he was awarded in salary arbitration last fall. Maybe we can get him for less this time, but that’s what I said the last time and then we ended up paying 300 grand more.

And we’re almost through that 5-week stretch of facing nothing but mediocre teams, during which we have gone 16-13, which should about qualify as mediocre as well. Big disappointment and doubtlessly a setup to get romped by the Crusaders next weekend to really close that gap in the division real hard.

Even worse: the Coons have scored 120 runs since the All Star break, but have given up 125! They have been burned for seven or more runs in nine of 29 games. That’s simply unacceptable. And thoroughly mediocre!

And all that with the guy that nobody even accounted for – Gil McDonald – posting the best ERA since the break with the exception of Javier Cruz (2.49). McDonald had that one bad start but apart from that he’s been quite a relief.

Daniel Sharp hit a grand slam for the Indians on Wednesday. I will admit, I DO miss him.

[Westheim]

Raccoons (72-46) vs. Rebels (57-61) – August 17-19, 2010

The Rebels are still the team that has handled the Raccoons by far the best over the history of the ABL. We have fared miserably in the regular season against them with a .278 clip since 1977, despite winning two of three in ’07 in our last meeting, but before that f.e. we had been swept three times in a row. And don’t forget that 1996 World Series…

That all said, they were a pretty miserable team. They were in the worst three in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League and their run differential was almost -100 (Coons: +99).

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (15-5, 2.69 ERA) vs. Tim Winston (8-9, 4.56 ERA)
Gil McDonald (4-1, 2.97 ERA) vs. Johnny Collins (7-8, 4.92 ERA)
Jong-hoo Umberger (12-7, 3.35 ERA) vs. Bill Conway (5-12, 5.00 ERA)

And here we get another series entirely with right-handed pitchers. Not that I am complaining too hard.

Game 1
RIC: CF Enriquez – C B. Campbell – LF E. Clark – RF W. Jones – 1B Valenzuela – SS Nichols – 2B J. Miller – 3B Yu – P Winston
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P Brown

Nick Brown had his first pitch of the game clubbed all the way to Costa Rica by Victor Enriquez, giving the Rebels an instant 1-0 lead. The Raccoons didn’t do much at all the first time through, held to a Nomura infield single, while Brown struck out four in three innings, then allowed a leadoff triple to Earl Clark in the fourth. The Rebels looked like they would build on their lead, but Winston Jones fouled out, Jose Valenzuela whiffed, and Brian Nichols lifted one out to Castro in center, and Clark was left on third base. The Raccoons then also got a good start to their half of the fourth, with Quebell and Pruitt going to the corners with a double and a single, respectively. Ron Alston mostly killed the effort with a 4-6-3 double play, but at least the run scored and the score was tied. Offense was very slow overall, with the score still 1-1 in the bottom 7th. Both teams had only had three hits with Yoshi on first base and Bowen batting with two outs against reliever Matt Ruffin. Bowen was about to get the fourth hit for the Coons, and a mighty big one, cracking a homer to slightly right of center, putting the Raccoons ahead 3-1. Brownie struck out Min-tae Yu at the start of the top 8th, but then gave up a double to Lou Jenkins and was removed for Rockburn, who got Enriquez on a fly to center before Brian Campbell grounded out to third base. Pat White batted for Rockburn to start the bottom 8th, walked, stole second and made it to third on Campbell’s throwing error, then was stranded when Castro bounced out to Ruffin, Quebell was walked intentionally, and Pruitt hit into a double play. Angel Casas had to face the 3-4-5 guys, with Winston Jones (who entered with 90 RBI) hitting a blooper to shallow right for a 1-out single, but was nevertheless stranded at first base by his teammates. 3-1 Brownies! Bowen 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; Brown 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (16-5);

At this point, Nick Brown tied for the CL lead in wins again, and took over the strikeout lead by one over Rod Taylor. The ERA lead is still old man Antonio Donis’, who’s 38 and the best he’s ever been.

Game 2
RIC: CF Enriquez – C B. Campbell – LF E. Clark – RF W. Jones – 1B Valenzuela – SS Nichols – 3B Yu – 2B J. Miller – P J. Collins
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Howell – P McDonald

The Rebels had three hits off McDonald in the top 1st, yet scored nobody and left runners on second and third, with Enriquez being thrown out on the bases by Ron Alston, who would drive in the first run of the game in the bottom 1st, plating Castro with a single. The Coons hit seven singles in the first two innings, plating a total of three runs against Johnny Collins. Both teams then scored unearned runs in the third inning. Howell made an error with two out and nobody on in the top half, after which McDonald surrendered two hard hits to Clark and Jones and an unearned run before Valenzuela grounded out to short. Bottom half, we had two in scoring position with two outs and McDonald batting. He floated the ball to right, where Winston Jones came on and snagged it, then stumbled and dropped it, and both runners scored for a 5-1 lead. McDonald was giving up quite a few hits and hard balls that were taken by our corner outfielders with above-average effort required, but when he was to bat again in the fifth, we again had two outs and runners on the corners, and he managed to ground a ball over the second base bag into center for an RBI single as Yoshi scored and Howell went first-to-third, Castro walked after that, but Quebell grounded out.

And the offense kept producing runs! Collins was gone after five, allowing six runs on 11 hits and a couple o’ walks, and his replacement Jean-Christophe Fernandes allowed a home run to the first guy he faced, Matt Pruitt, in the sixth. Alston got on with a single, Merritt was plunked, Bowen singled to load the bases, and then Rob Howell singled to left center. McDonald came up with the bases full and one out, but hit into a double play to end the inning at 8-1. McDonald didn’t get through the top 7th, allowing a 1-out double to Enriquez and reaching 100 pitches in the progress. McDonald’s stamina wasn’t good in the first place and now we went to Ray Kelley, who struck out Campbell and Clark to get out of the seventh. The score was still 8-1 after eight, and Josh Gibson made his major league debut in the ninth inning, facing PH Mike Desan as his first career batter. Desan was a 24-year old rookie batting .171, struck out, and Gibson had a clean 1-2-3 inning. 8-1 Coons. Castro 3-4, BB, RBI; Quebell 2-5; Pruitt 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Alston 3-5, RBI; Bowen 2-5, 2B; Howell 2-4, RBI; McDonald 6.1 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (5-1) and 1-4, RBI; Kelley 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

We made a last minute flick on Thursday morning. Baldwin was flipped with Umberger for game 3, moving the potentially sucking Baldwin into the Rebels series, where a defeat will hurt much less than in our weekend series against the Crusaders.

It’s not personal, it’s maths. If Baldwin blows the Rebels game, the Crusaders gain one. If Baldwin blows the Crusaders game, the Crusaders gain two (compared to the Coons winning the game).

Game 3
RIC: CF Enriquez – C B. Campbell – LF E. Clark – RF W. Jones – 1B Valenzuela – 3B Nichols – 2B J. Miller – SS Yu – P Conway
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Owens – SS Guerin – P Baldwin

The Rebels had a good chance in the third inning, which started with a Jon Merritt error and Baldwin walking Yu to have two on and nobody out. Conway bunted to first, where Quebell made a daring play and hurled the ball to third base, where Concie tagged out Miller to erase the lead runner, and Baldwin struck out Enriquez en route to wiggling out of the jam. Bill Conway retired the first ten Critters in order before Quebell drew a walk, which was followed by soft singles from Pruitt and Alston to load the bases with one out in the fourth. Conway sort of got out of there with a scratch, allowing only a sac fly to Jon Merritt before Yoshi hit another soft single, but there was no way for Pruitt to score. Owens flew out to centerfield then. That one measly run was not worth a lot once Pruitt overran Nichols’ leadoff single in the fifth, giving the Rebels’ runner that extra base that he used to sneak home to tie the score in the top 5th. The bases were then loaded again with one out in the bottom 5th after singles by Baldwin and Castro, and Quebell drawing another walk. Pruitt grounded to James Miller and hardly legged out the relay throw from Yu to stay out of the double play, as the Coons took a new 2-1 lead, but Alston flew out to center to end the inning, and that lead wouldn’t be enough either. Yu’s 2-out double in the top 7th plated the tying run for the Rebels. Baldwin was hit for with Ayers in the bottom of the inning, and Ayers walked before being left on base.

Top 8th, Rockburn struck out the first two batters, Enriquez and Campbell, before putting the next three on, with Valenzuela’s single driving home Earl Clark with the go-ahead run. The Rebels now turned to their pen and struggled to get results. Ron Sakellaris started the bottom 8th and walked Alston, being swiftly removed for Matt Ruffin, who walked Nomura. Keeping the pattern of matching hands, lefty Aurelio Hernandez now came out to face Yoshi, and here we sent Bowen to pinch-hit, but he fouled out. The Rebels brought the fourth pitcher of the inning, Fernandes, who nevertheless walked Travis Owens on four pitches. Concie was next, singled to right to tie the game, but Merritt was held at third base against Winston Jones’ Arm of a Thousand Deaths. Fernandes was still in there as Pat White batted for Rockburn and singled to center to give the Coons a 4-3 lead, after which Tomas Castro blew the score open with a first-pitch, bases-clearing double, which was finally the end of the road for Fernandes. Our old friend Ed Bryan, the third lefty out of their pen, would finally get the inning over with, but Ted Reese was flawless in the ninth, and the Raccoons sealed their second ever sweep of the Rebels! 7-3 Raccoons! Castro 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Quebell 0-1, 4 BB; White (PH) 1-1, RBI; Baldwin 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K and 1-2;

The first sweep? In 1986.

Raccoons (75-46) vs. Crusaders (69-52) – August 20-22, 2010

First in runs scored, fourth in runs allowed. The Crusaders had found their swings again, but the rotation was not getting locked in and continued to bleed runs, posting a 4+ ERA. The bullpen was rock solid, though, despite the closer exodus they had suffered last winter. The Crusaders had just swept the Blue Sox, so they stayed six games out. We are 6-5 against them this season.

Projected matchups:
Jong-hoo Umberger (12-7, 3.35 ERA) vs. Mike Collins (7-5, 3.51 ERA)
Javier Cruz (11-6, 3.01 ERA) vs. Kelvin Yates (11-10, 3.28 ERA)
Nick Brown (16-5, 2.63 ERA) vs. Pancho Trevino (11-8, 4.01 ERA)

Three more right-handers for us to nibble on.

Alright boys! It was all fun and games until now, but now it counts!

Game 1
NYC: C G. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Bond – CF Talamante – SS Brantley – P M. Collins
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Guerin – P Umberger

The Crusaders had three base runners in the first two innings combined, but left them on, before the Raccoons got three base runners all to start their half of the second inning. Alston walked before Merritt and Yoshi singled, bases loaded with nobody out, with Craig Bowen hammering a pitch for a liner to right. It was just a few feet inside the rightfield line and Stanton Martin didn’t get to hit! The ball bounced in and all the way to the wall as the bases emptied on Craig Bowen’s 3-run double! Bowen would also score in the inning on a sac fly by Tomas Castro to give Umberger an early 4-0 lead. Mike Collins appeared to have already lost all his stuff, then also lost his command in the third inning as he walked Pruitt, threw a wild pitch in the process of walking Alston, too, and then also walked Merritt. Three on again with nobody out, but this time the Coons were held to one run as Yoshi tried to hit something big and struck out, Bowen patiently drew the bases-loaded walk, Guerin popped out and Umberger whiffed.

But it might be a 5-0 game and they are in their pen already, but don’t discount the offense. Umberger walked a pair and allowed two hits for two runs in the fourth inning and they were right back in striking distance at 5-2. Old friend Ricardo Huerta was doing long relief for the Crusaders, and was in a spot of bother in the bottom of the fifth. Alston had drawn another walk to start the inning, and yet had to log an actual at-bat, and Merritt and Yoshi reached on singles, putting Bowen up there again with the sacks full and no outs. This time Bowen struck out, and Guerin rolled into a double play, and we didn’t score… and I got haunting thoughts of impending doom. Bottom 6th, Umberger led off with a single off Huerta before Castro popped out on a 3-0 pitch and Quebell hit into an inning-ending double play. Oh, this is gonna hurt…

When Ron Brantley hit a leadoff jack in the seventh, Umberger was instantly removed. Ray Kelley came in, walked Baden Speed, then got a double play from Gabriel Ortíz. Caraballo singled, but Martin Ortíz’ hard grounder to first was played real good by Adrian Quebell and the inning ended. Alston drew his fourth walk in the bottom 7th before Merritt hit into another double play. Kelley remained in to face Stanton Martin leading off the top of the eighth and struck him out before Ron Thrasher was assigned to the left-handers Manfull and Bond. Strikeout, groundout, done. Meanwhile the Coons hit into ANOTHER double play in the bottom of the inning, denying any insurance run. At least we had a rested Angel Casas coming in, facing the bottom of the order, how bad could it get? Well, for starters Angel struck the leadoff man, Carlos Talamante, with a pitch, and while he struck out Brantley after that, had to face veteran slugger Paco Batlle, a lefty as well, as the tying run then. But this one wasn’t going away. After the early miscue, Angel would strikeout the side, and give the Raccoons a 7-game lead in the North! 5-3 Raccoons!! Alston 0-0, 4 BB; Merritt 2-3, BB; Nomura 2-3, BB; Bowen 1-3, BB, 2B, 4 RBI; Kelley 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Yes! Come on boys! Don’t let up!

Game 2
NYC: C G. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – 3B Bond – CF Talamante – SS Brantley – P Yates
POR: CF Castro – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF Alston – 3B Merritt – 2B Nomura – C Bowen – SS Guerin – P Cruz

When Pruitt hit into a 4-6-3 to end the bottom 1st, the Raccoons had managed to flick into double plays for five consecutive innings. Kel Yates drove in the first run of the game with a 2-out single in the top 2nd. Bond and Talamante had reached on entirely measly singles that barely made it past the right side of the infield alive, and Kevin Bond scored on Yates’ rather brisk and clean single off Cruz. Bottom 2nd, Alston drew his fifth consecutive walk before Merritt doubled, putting two in scoring position with no outs. Outrageously, the Raccoons didn’t score. Nomura fouled out, Bowen popped out to Bond, and Guerin’s line to left was easily caught by Martin Ortíz.

Javier Cruz then let up pretty hard in the third inning. After a walk to Caraballo he plunked Martin Ortíz and also walked Stanton Martin. Three on, no outs, the Crusaders made it pretty clear that they didn’t approve of Friday’s result and desired an adjustment of the division table. B.J. Manfull’s 2-run double and Kevin Bond’s 2-run single put them 5-0 ahead and pretty much put the game away. Cruz was yanked when he put two more runners on base in the fourth, Gabriel Ortíz with a walk, and Caraballo with a single, and when Luis Beltran replaced Cruz, he absolutely didn’t provide relief. The Martin Brothers amounted to an RBI single and a sac fly, and as Ron Alston rocketed Stanton’s fly back in to try – entirely in vain – to get Caraballo at home, he – on top of all the other misery in this 6-2, soon 7-2 game – hurt himself and left the game with a core injury to be replaced by Keith Ayers. Despite a 2-run homer in the third and a sac fly in the fifth by Adrian Quebell, the game was deemed lost and Greenhorn Gibson was put in to hopefully pitch three or four innings and preserve the best relievers for Sunday and the rubber game, but Gibson was turned inside out in a horrendous 3-run seventh as the rout was on. Jose Ramos was pitching in the bottom 9th with a 10-3 lead when the Coons loaded the bases on a Bowen walk and singles by White and Castro, with one out and Quebell batting. He increased his output with a 2-run double to right, but that was the end of the line here as Pruitt and Alston’s replacement Ayers struck out to end this icky game. 10-5 Crusaders. Castro 2-4; Quebell 3-4, HR, 2B, 5 RBI; Gutierrez (PH) 1-1, 2B; Owens (PH) 1-1; White (PH) 1-1; Reese 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

That leaves us to discuss Ron Alston’s injury, which is a terrible knock before you even figure out what’s wrong with him. In this case, we got off easy: Alston had strained an abdominal muscle and was out for a week, but it could have been much worse.

Maybe he can look at some video of his home runs (69 as a Coon) and figure out how that’s done. He’s had only five dingers since the All Star Game, and only two in August. Walks are nice, but you’re batting fourth, Ronnie.

Game 3
NYC: C G. Ortíz – 2B Caraballo – LF M. Ortíz – RF S. Martin – 1B Manfull – CF Talamante – 3B Bond – SS Brantley – P Trevino
POR: CF Castro – 3B Merritt – 1B Quebell – LF Pruitt – RF White – C Bowen – SS Howell – 2B M. Gutierrez – P Brown

Brownie started the game with a walk to Gabriel Ortíz, and whenever Brownie starts a game with a walk, you better get the tissues ready. The Crusaders didn’t score in the first, leaving Ortíz on second base when Stanton Martin went down swinging, but it was too late, panic was already building up.

Yet it was the Coons to score first, getting to Trevino in the second inning (the first ended on a Quebell double play…). Pat White singled with one out, stole second, and went to third on Ortíz’ errant throw. Bowen also walked before Howell beat out a very slow bouncer that went just past Trevino and about died before either middle infielder could play it, infield single, White scored, 1-0. Brownie batted with the sacks full after Gutierrez drew the third walk off Trevino, and hadn’t hit safely in a while, and wouldn’t here. He struck out, and Castro stranded the runners for good with a fly to center. While Brown was taken deep by Caraballo in the top 3rd to almost instantly negate the run the Coons had just scratched out, Trevino continued to scuffle and walked Merritt and Quebell to start the bottom 3rd. While Pruitt hit into a force at second, and White struck out, Craig Bowen would hit a liner into the gap in right center to plate the surviving runners and give Brown a 3-1 lead. That lead was immediately in trouble again when Stanton Martin lined a pitch to deep left for a leadoff double in the fourth, but Martin pulled into second base lame and had to leave the game. Ming Kui replaced him as pinch-runner and came home on Carlos Talamante’s home run to left, tying the score at three.

And the pendulum swung right back. Bottom 4th, Brownie hit a leadoff single and Merritt shot a bouncer through Kevin Bond for a double with one out. Quebell singled between Caraballo and Manfull, plating Brown, 4-3 Coons, and we went to 5-3 on Matt Pruitt’s sac fly to left. That was it for Trevino, who was hit for to start the top 5th, with Paco Batlle striking out, Brownie’s seventh victim on the day, and Brown managed to not instantly blow a lead the inning after he received it on his third attempt, getting through the fifth despite a walk to Caraballo. Two quiet innings followed, and then, a dilemma. Brown was at 100 pitches in this 5-3 game as we had to send somebody to pitch the eighth. The Crusaders had the top of the lineup coming, so two righties first, then three left-hander (with the righty Stanton Martin replaced by the lefty Kui). If we had been closer to the left-handers here, I would have left Brown in. But we weren’t. Rockburn would get the first two, with Thrasher appointed to the left-handers. Law struck out Gabriel Ortíz before he nicked Caraballo, forcing the rookie Thrasher to pitch to Martin Ortíz, who weighed 22 HR and 76 RBI as the tying run. In a nerve-wrecking inning, Thrasher struck out Ortíz, then allowed a blooping single to wicked Ming Kui, before striking out B.J. Manfull to escape the jam. But now we had them right where we wanted them and Angel got into the 5-3 game once the Raccoons had gotten a runner in the bottom 8th on a Caraballo error and also a balk by Huerta, and yet didn’t score. Angel Casas struck out the side, and this series went into the Coons’ account! 5-3 Brownies!! Bowen 2-3, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Howell 3-4, RBI; Brown 7.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (17-5) and 1-3;

Brow-nie! Brow-nie! Brow-nie!

In other news

August 17 – SFW INF Oliver Torres (.301, 3 HR, 36 RBI) chucks five hits and drives in three, missing the cycle by the home run, as the Warriors beat the Bayhawks 7-6 in 10 innings.
August 17 – SAC LF/RF Rodrigo Lopez (.299, 5 HR, 53 RBI) might miss the rest of the season with a broken foot.
August 18 – Charlotte’s SP Jesus Hernandez (2-8, 4.30 ERA) has to undergo Tommy John surgery for a torn UCL and will be out for 12 months.
August 20 – CIN 1B César Gonzalez (.288, 12 HR, 58 RBI) logs his 2,000th career hit in a 4-1 Cyclones loss to the Buffaloes. A career .271/.398/.454 batter with 270 HR and 1,164 RBI, Gonzalez goes 2-4 in the game, homering off Jim Baker in the second inning for hit #1,999 before knocking a single off Baker in the eighth for the milestone.

Complaints and stuff

Brownie fell to third in ERA behind Curtis Tobitt on Sunday, but has the lead or a share of it in the other two triple crown categories. But this isn’t much about Tobitt. In the first place, Antonio Donis would need to blow up real bad a couple of times. His ERA is 1.98, almost three quarters of a run better than Brownie’s.

But the triple crown aside, Brownie has matched last year’s win output with 17, which was his best since winning 20 back in 2004 (for a rotten team, then). Right now, he’s maintaining a 10.0 K/9 pace, which he never has in a full season, but instead has pitched just a sliver below that for his entire career. He had a 10.8 K/9 in 2001 in his debut, when he only pitched 41.2 innings, but while he has never topped 9.8 K/9 in a full season, his career mark is 9.7 K/9! He has been outside the 9.5-9.8 band only once, in his first full season in 2002.

Not a good week for rightfielders in the CL North. Ron Alston might miss the entire next week, and there is no diagnosis on Stanton Martin so far. If Stanton, a Jeremiah Carrell type glass ballerina, goes down for the season, this could well do in the Crusaders, who already have Roberto Pena on the DL.

Anybody remembering still that César Gonzalez was a Raccoon before? He still played some corner outfield then, 1999-2000. That was that phase where we signed so many technically good players that just came in and failed hard before going elsewhere and racking up silverware again. Daniel Richardson was also with the Coons then. In terms of first basemen, when Gonzalez was purged in 2000, the job became permanently open for Al Martin, who held onto it before being traded to the Titans after the 2005 season. He hasn’t been a regular on a major league team since…

Of course, Martin was chased to get Adrian Quebell into the starter’s role, even though the haul we got for Martin turned out largely negligible, with J.C. Crespo and Ricardo Martinez having a good half season before turning to mush, and Cássio Boda’s good half season must have been in winter at some point. There was a minor league dealt to the Titans along with Martin, 12th-rounder Glen Barnes, who made only four appearances in AAA ball and is currently unemployed. By the way, Crespo is an unproductive extra with the Warriors right now.

César Gonzalez was the guy we acquired from the Stars for Gabby De La Rosa, then turned him into Manuel Reyes when we were sick of him. That’s a pretty steep downgrade as far as right-handed relievers are concerned. Although Reyes is still pitching and his career output (so: outside Portland) is pretty solid. Which roster is he on? Crusaders. He didn’t pitch in any meaningful spot in the weekend series.

The Raccoons will face the Loggers, Falcons, and Aces to finish the month. Our September program will be much more meaty. We have four more with the Crusaders in the final week of the season (at home), but before that we also get the Thunder, the Knights, three games apiece in Indy and Boston, and seven games total against the Elks. And the Elks have always had a knack to sink us.

[Orcin]

Looking good, my friend. Good luck down the stretch!