[Westheim]

Raccoons (46-32) @ Titans (37-42)

The offense was just not there, it was just not there at the moment. The Raccoons had to scramble for every run and needed the aid of walks and whatever to get them. They clawed their way to a 3-2 lead through seven in the first game of the series, with Logan Evans pitching six good innings, only for Jason White and Fletcher Kelley to give up home runs and get them 5-3 behind. With two on, Sanchez hit into a double play in the ninth. Matt Workman came up and homered to tie the game. What could have been… the Raccoons then loaded the bags in the 11th, aided by a throwing error by star infielder Dimian Barrios, with nobody out – AND DID NOT SCORE. I was in shock. Meanwhile we wasted Grant West doing long relief. In the 13th we got a runner on second, and then a slow roller to second – AND BARRIOS THREW IT AWAY. Two terrible errors for a player of his caliber – just wow! West could not complete the 13th and we sent out an unrested Cunningham to get the save. 6-5 Raccoons.

Kinji Kan was tagged for three runs early on in the second game. With ace Ruben Lopez on the mound for the Titans, the Raccoons in their current slump at the plate had no right to hope for a comeback, but a Sanchez homer in the fifth at least got them to only 4-3 behind. They didn’t get their runners in from there, but with two flyouts at least scored a runner from second in the ninth to tie the game and get Kan off the hook. The Titans put two on against Yoelbi Maurinha, but Wally Gaston struck out Matthew Beck to force extra innings. Gaston loaded them up in the tenth, then struck out the next two to advance. Workman homered in the 12th, the lone spark of offense we had going in overtime. With the pen mostly used already, we suddenly looked at Grant West again, who had gone 3.1 innings the days before. He agreed to go out, if things went wrong, there was also Richard Cunningham (but also unrested) available. We didn’t need him. West got 1-2-3 through the Titans and the fur balls nipped that one as well, 5-4 in the 12th! Sanchez 2-6, HR, 2 RBI; Workman 2-6, HR, RBI; Hall 2-6, 2B; Bowling 3-6, 2B; Green 2-4, RBI; Kan 2-2;

What we needed now was a REALLY good outing from Charles Young, because all of the pen was aching badly. Cunningham and Moran were the only ones that could be more or less used.

Young was amazing and went the distance in game 3! Now the bad news: the distance was eight innings, and he took the loss, 3-2, all runs unearned, and all owed to Cameron Green’s throwing error in the very first inning, while afterwards the Raccoons batters couldn’t pull any runs out of their – furry rear ends. They scored one in the eighth, the runner was Young(!), and one in the ninth by pinch hitter Borjón. Young 8.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K – LOSS; Young is now 0-1 with an 0.64 ERA, so go figure about our offense. This is serious!

Cameron Green was benched after that boner, he was still batting .180, so we didn’t lose anything here. So, Green was on the bench, and the bench stood in Siberia.

We basically forfeited game 4 anyway, since Dawson and Sanchez were rested and we played Gary Carter, whose batting resume included K’s and nothing else, in right in that game. They sucked, had four hits, and lost 3-0. There is really little else to report about it. And that against Robert Sanchez, with an ERA far above five.

So, they tied this series, but in fact they lost it. The Titans had little going, and they couldn’t even score four runs a game. This was really a terrible performance by the batters here!

Raccoons (48-34) vs. Indians (41-41)

This is something like a do-or-die series. With the Canadiens on our heels, we have to hurt those Indians, but Hall is ice cold, Dawson is ice cold, and Workman can not pace the offense alone. Also, there was little in the form of support from the 5-6-7-8 slots in the lineup. This could do a lot of damage to the team in the next 11 games.

Hall was rested in game 1, but he didn’t bat for anything countable in the last two weeks anyway. Christopher Powell went up against Billy Robinson and hurled 7.2 innings of shutout ball. Maurinha came in in the top 9th in a scoreless game and instantly surrendered the game-winning home run to Jose Encarnacion. 1-0 Indians. The Raccoons managed four hits. They never even came close to scoring. Powell 7.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 1 K;

And there it is. Falling to pieces. Everything. Broken.

Logan Evans walked seven in game 2 and left in a 1-1 game after only five innings. The run scored with the kind help from Alex Miranda and a wild pitch – of course, since Miranda was a former Raccoon. They somehow scored a run in the seventh with a pinch hit double by Cameron Green to start it, but Sanchez threw away a pickoff attempt in the eighth to score the tying run. By then I was slowly banging my head repeatedly against the concrete wall in the dugout. From the box score I later read about the heroics of my relievers as the game went into extra innings, while I was putting some ice on the giant swelling on my forehead. They lost it in the 14th, 3-2, they were not SCORING ANYTHING. Cunningham 3.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K; Moran 3.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K; two errors in the top 14th won the game for the Indians.

That was the first time they lost more than three in a row. They allowed 10 runs in those four games. They scored a whopping four.

And it continued in that manner. They lost game 3 by a score of 2-0. They even loaded up the bags once and had runners on the corners twice after walks and what not all. Nothing. They scored nothing. The whole team refused to bat. Daniel Hall has gone 11-77 in the last four weeks. And he’s not the only one.

Game 4 was even more of the same. The offense was Bowling, with a home run to right on the final out of the game. 6-2 Indians. Swept by the Indians. Everything is destroyed.

Destroyed.

Raccoons (48-38) vs. Canadiens (46-38)

This was all developing perfectly for the Canadiens to take sole position of first place before the All Star break. All they needed to do was a small sweep of those lousy bunch of suckers.

Extra whippings had been scheduled for the position players the night before the start of the Canadiens series. But the first innings were more of the same. Even more of the very same. Ackerman was behind after a 3-run shot by star Eddy Bailey in the third inning and the Canadiens made it 4-0 in the top 5th. Borjón homered to lead off the bottom 5th. Ackerman singled, Thompson (now in leadoff) walked. Matt Workman came up and went out to right, 4-4, and the ballgame started anew. Workman went on and batted in two more in the sixth, 6-4 Raccoons. Is there life in fur ball land? Canadiens reliever Manny Lopez balked in a run in the seventh, 7-4. The Canadiens got one run off West in the ninth after a long triple into the corner, but the Raccoons prevailed and snapped their winless streak at six, taking the opener 7-5. Workman 2-5, HR, 5 RBI; Sanchez 2-4;

This was golden chance to score. The Canadiens sent up Kevin Beimer (0-2, 7.40 ERA) in game 2. They missed that one, big time. They only got three runs off a terrible pitcher, who went 6.1 innings. Christopher Powell was shaky through six, but left with a 3-2 lead, which was blown by Steve Walker with a throwing error in the eighth, the game was tied. Borjón singled to start the bottom 9th, before Thompson and Hall drew 1-out walks. Workman struck out. Mark Dawson zinged a looper into short left, Borjón scored, and the Raccoons walked off, 4-3. It sure was not pretty, but the result was all that counted today, since it assured us to lead the division at the break – untied. Dawson 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Sanchez 2-4, 2B; Borjón 2-3, BB;

Daniel Hall’s average was down to terrible .240 (from a high .313) … he had options. This was tempting, to say the least. But Hall answered my thoughts with a big home run in the bottom 7th of game 3. The Raccoons had gotten three off Robbie Campbell in the first, of which Logan Evans gave back two. It was one of those games where neither he hit the strike zone nor the batters hit his pitches. He walked three and struck out eight over seven. The home run by Hall made it 4-2, an important insurance run against such a stud lineup, but Gaston and West needed no insurance, they surrendered the Canadiens quickly in the last two innings. 4-2 Raccoons, and a sweep! Hall 2-3, HR, RBI; Bowling 2-3, BB;

All Star Game

The Raccoons were showered with All Star nominations to SP Kinji Kan, CL Grant West, C Enrique Sanchez, and 3B Mark Dawson. Aces, Thunder, Canadiens, and Indians also all sent between three and five players. The Stars had four players on the more diverse Federal League team.

The Continental League prevailed, 10-9, in an intense 12-inning struggle. All four Raccoons only came on as replacements, none hit, only Sanchez drew a walk. Grant West got a blown save (uh-oh). Kan pitched a scoreless inning.

In other news

June 30 – Tijuana’s Randy Zimmerman (5-5, 4.85 ERA) hurls a 3-hitter in a 9-0 win over the Bayhawks.
July 5 – Big trade across the leagues: the Titans send star infielder Dimian Barrios (.295, 1 HR, 37 RBI) to Pittsburgh in exchange for outfield slugger Ronaldo Cabrera (.305, 9 HR, 23 RBI) and a minor leaguer.
July 5 – OCT SP Wilson Cordova (6-3, 3.41 ERA) 3-hits the Knights in a 3-0 win.
July 8 – Longtime Cyclones SS/3B Claudio Rojas and his 1,308 career hits (.319) are sent to San Francisco with a minor leaguer for SS Bob Potter and pitching prospect Manny Cintrón.
July 9 – Another trade with the Cyclones. They send pitcher Ray Lynch (5-4, 3.84 ERA) to Sacramento for outfielder Chad White (.331 in only 139 AB) and a prospect.
July 9 – Condors closer Domingo Rivera (4-1, 1.16 ERA, 31 SV), who leads the CL in saves, is out with a strained biceps until August.
July 10 – The Thunder ship off Jonah Frank to Nashville to get reliever Francisco Serrano and his 2.17 ERA. Frank was a consistent .280 batter with little power (but had homered against the Raccoons last month, of course).

Complaints and stuff

Something rare happened to Grant “Demon” West: he was chosen as the Continental League Pitcher of the Month of June 1983! That does not happen often to relievers. West went 13.1 IP of 2-0, 0.68 ERA ball, with 14 K’s, and was 9/9 SV/OPP!

I still pat myself on the shoulder for that first round pick in ’79.

Of course, that was on July 1. When the Raccoon world was still turning steadily, and everything was okay. Then they stopped hitting all together. And I mean it. Nobody has done any batting since July 2. This is how they lost all those games. They were 16 over .500, and then started this giant nosedive to throw everything into the trash.

It turned out, the Raccoons were a fluke after all.

Of course, that was before the Canadiens series, where the mood was so low, it was below surface. They didn’t play great in that series, but they used their good pitching to great effect, at least. But the bats have to pick up again if they want to be … FOR REAL!

Next: road trip to Indy, New York, and San Francisco. Then home games, Condors, Falcons.

-----

Oh, one thing about me: I am an idiot. I managed to set Ramón Borjón to pitcher making a double switch during one game in this set, and now he appears in the pitching register (although he never actually pitched). I made it through six and a half seasons before pulling that boner again. Anybody now how to remove him from the register, if possible at all? This is not a game breaking issue, but obviously he will lead the team forever with his 0.00 ERA (in 0.0 IP).