[Westheim]

Raccoons (45-18) @ Stars (33-29)

We seem to be playing the Stars every year now. Which is true: it’s the fifth straight year of us facing each other somewhere along the way to a division title. Well, they have more division titles than we have, but let’s not get into that. Things are looking semi-hopeful for us this year.

While our 298 runs scored ranked 3rd in the CL, their 306 runs ranked only fifth in the FL, testament to that league’s increased offense. Overall, their success had been so-so this year, and they ranked average or just above in most important categories. They had, however, Sakutaro Ine batting .404. Ine still didn’t qualify for the batting title race for minor nagging injuries setting him aside earlier this season.

In a scoreless game 1, both starters, Scott Wade and Mark Warburton, came to the plate with the bags full and two outs in their respective second innings. Neither had an at-bat to relish for years to come. The Coons left O-Mo on third base in the third, and the Stars the bags full for consecutive innings – so, the pitching was not great, but somehow, the offense wasn’t, either. Until the top 5th: with two out, O-Mo singled, and Warburton walked the next two, facing Osanai with the bases loaded. The big Japanese singled into right to score two, and when Reece singled up the middle, Quinn made for home from second base, and Xiao-wei Li’s terrible throw helped him to not be out. Wade held the fort until the Stars resorted to nastiness in the bottom 7th. Leadoff man Marcos Costello, by now *in*famously shunted by the Raccoons a few years ago, came up with a perfect bunt base hit and things started to roll for them. Up 3-1, runner on first, two out, Wade was to face the lefty Ine, who was 3-3 on the day. Select staff went out for a mound conference, which didn’t work too well. Ine took an 0-1 pitch into the left center gap. But a brown blitz was going after it, it was Reece, and he had it! Grant West was also shaken in the bottom 9th. Li drove in a run with a double off the centerfield wall (nothing the brown blitz could have reached) and was on second with one out. West retired Andres Serna, but that brought up Ine. Do you put the winning run on if he is a .400+ lefty and go after .300 righty Claudio Ayala, if your closer is left-handed? Nope, West had to get Ine. Which didn’t work, Ine singled to left on a 2-2 pitch, but Li held at third. Ayala came up. The 0-2 pitch, knocked up the right foul line, bouncing high and showing it’s teeth as it approached first base. Osanai had been removed for Quinn to move over there – and Quinn made the play to retire Ayala. 3-2 Raccoons. O’Morrissey 2-5; Reece 2-4, RBI; Wade 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (7-5);

Pitcher Bill Smith once chose the Stars over the Raccoons when receiving identical offers from both teams as a free agent. That was about five years ago. I was still made. And he faced Steven Berry in game 2, which meant he had good odds to win. The Coons had the bags-full-no-outs dilemma in the top 2nd, and scored only one run with the 8-9-1 hitters only managing a Gonzalez RBI groundout. Ine tied the game right away with a leadoff homer off Berry in the bottom 2nd. Through the middle innings, the Coons twice left Bobby Quinn waiting at third base with less than two outs and the game remained 1-1 until the bottom 6th. Li led off with a single to left, then stole second uncontested, as the only thing caught doing something were middle infielders Salazar and Gonzalez picking their noses. A wild pitch advanced Li to third with nobody out, and Berry walked Andres Serna after this unnerving at-bat. Serna then stole second on a slow Vinson. And who was at the plate? Ine. He was waved right over to first. Bases loaded, nobody out – for the Stars. Two RBI singles later, Berry was yanked, possibly forever. Carrillo came in to go the distance with the game about broken up, and allowed only one more run on an infield single by Raúl Herrera (another ex-Coon denied entry at the gates of Portland). Little distance was gained by Carrillo, who loaded the bags with nobody out in the bottom 7th. And Ine was there yet again in the batter’s box. No place to walk him to. Burnett replaced Carrillo, and two runs scored, one through Ine. Non-hated ex-Coon Richard Cunningham replaced Smith in the eighth to shunt a short and unspirited Raccoons rally. The game ended with a 2-out, 2-run single by Reece in the top 9th, as the Stars tagged out Osanai going first-to-third. 6-3 Stars. Salazar 2-5; Quinn 3-5, 3B, 2B; Reece 2-4, BB, 2 RBI;

Last year’s furball “Woody” Lopez faced us in the rubber game. Kisho Saito did not face Sakutaro Ine as the Stars chose to load their lineup with right-handers, and got a 2-0 lead by the hands of Bobby Quinn and his 2-out, 2-run single in the third. In the fourth, trouble was brewing for Saito for the first time with two on, two out, and Shimpei Iwamoto grounding into the seam between our fielders on the left side of the dia- no, it hits Claudio Ayala’s foot! The runner is OUT!! Phew. Top 5th, bases loaded with one out, and Osanai flew out high to short right. Dawson up, playing after O’Morrissey had collected five K’s in two games in Dallas – struck out. Dawson’s defense was also toast by now. After the Stars had scored a run in the sixth, Dawson’s next three chances consisted off a bobbled pickup and thus an infield single (generous scoring, hometown team fanboys in the press box), and two semi-wild throws in the general direction of Osanai that the big and largely immobile guy both times JUST corralled – both times with the tying runs in scoring position. Osanai’s latter pick ended the seventh and Saito’s day. Lagarde took over in the eighth, just having won back the setup role from a struggling Matthews. Li – singled. Ayala – singled. Li tried to go for third base – nailed out by Quinn, Ayala to second. Lagarde wobbled out of the inning with the 2-1 lead alive. O-Mo pinch hit (K) in the top 9th, then stayed in the game at third base with Dawson to first for the bottom 9th. West with no margin of error put two men on. With two out, a fast racing grounder by Francisco Rodriguez went right to first – Dawson intercepted it to end the game. 2-1 Raccoons. Higgins 2-5; Quinn 1-3, BB, 2 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (11-2);

In our two wins here, we were out-hit a combined 23-13 by the Stars. Uh-oh. We won’t even deal with the middle game here. Kisho Saito’s 11 wins put him two ahead of everybody in the CL, but he still trails Archie Dye of the Capitals, who won his 12th the same day, surrendering no earned runs (two unearned) in a 7-3 win over the Crusaders. The lone run the Stars managed to press in against Saito was the 200th run conceded by Raccoons pitching this year, and we’re WAY past the one-third-mark of the season.

In something that was beaten to death joke-wise that night by Portland’s own late night talkshow host Will Emmett, the Canadiens were swept by the Gold Sox, who had entered the series playing a half hair over .300, and the Coons now enjoyed an 11 1/2 game lead in the CL North.

Raccoons (47-19) vs. Titans (33-33)

The Titans were flirting with being meaningful in the bigger context of the CL North (if you ignored the Coons playing .712 ball) despite pitiful pitching, especially out of the bullpen. Maybe having the #2 offense in the CL helped?

The draft would take place the night of game 2, separating the series in a rather ugly way. Brrr.

Dawson made another start in game 1 as O-Mo was in a terrible and hopefully short K-parade. Reece was tried in leadoff. He had a 14-game hitting streak going for him, too, and he singled to start the bottom 1st, so the decision had not been all bad. The Raccoons left him on third. Jason Turner was pitching, so you expected the zero in the visitor’s line on the scoreboard to stand, but two walks, two rollers eluding the infield, and a huge 3-run double by Shotaro Ono put the Titans up 4-0 and shot Turner’s ERA over two! The Titans were not done and raped Turner for three more in the fourth inning. There goes the league lead in the ERA category. Turner also went – for the showers. Carrillo was further lit up for three runs over the next four innings. Heck, Matthews was hit for two more runs in the ninth. The Raccoons double-played themselves out of two innings, and were awful throughout. 12-1 Titans. Reece 3-4; Osanai 2-4;

Interlude: roster moves

On June 15, the Portland Raccoons shocked baseball by announcing that 3B Mark Dawson, career leader in home runs (304) and RBI’s (1,268), had been released effective immediately. Fans in Portland were speechless.

Dawson had batted .196 between the last two seasons, which we had paid him $1.8M for. Wasted money. We should have called it quits after 1989, but that had been an awesome season for him. The Dawson chapter was over. Acquired in 1981 from Topeka for SP Jack Pennington, he has been a pillar of those 80s Raccoons along with Hall, Osanai, Dadswell, Evans, Saito, and West.

Dadswell’s gone. Evans’ gone. Hall may be gone. Dawson is gone now. Fan interest has gone down rapidly, mostly due to heart attacks and suicides.

Also, we demoted MR Albert Matthews to St. Petersburg, after he had come completely apart the last two weeks.

Two players were called up to make their major league debuts: 1B/3B Matt Brown and MR Daniel Miller. The latter was called up exactly one year after being drafted.

Raccoons (47-19) vs. Titans (33-33)

On with life. Game 2 had still undefeated Robert Vázquez. To stay that way, and he knew that, he probably had to be his own offense. So Vázquez set out to become 10-0 by combining the best of both worlds. Electric stuff, strong hitting and some dumb luck – and got all of it. He drove in the first run in the bottom 2nd with two on and two out (Reece adding another run after that) and then led off the fifth with a double and scored on a Quinn sac fly. Through six, he scattered only five hits, and the run he surrendered in the seventh was unearned after a passed ball on David Vinson. Vázquez then added a 1-2-3 eighth. Ennio Sabre for once made himself useful by socking a leadoff jack in the bottom 8th, his first home run as a Furball. West was up 4-1 for the ninth – and almost blew it. Five Titans reached base, two scored, and they were loaded with two out, when Salvador Vargas grounded to halfway between third and second. Salazar made a sparkling play to keep the game in one piece. 4-3 Raccoons. Reece 2-4, BB, RBI; Higgins 2-4; Sabre 2-4, HR, RBI; Vázquez 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (10-0) and 2-3, 2B, RBI;

Game 3. Scott Wade went up against a 39-year old Kinji Kan. Neil Reece continued to audition for the leadoff spot by starting the Raccoons’ plate apperances in the game with a leadoff single. Osanai scored him for an early 1-0 lead, and Wade and Reece both were scored by Quinn in the third. Wade, Reece, and Salazar loaded the bags with two singles and a walk in the bottom 5th. Nobody out. Only Reece managed to score after Quinn got Wade forced at home, and nobody managed something like a hit. 4-0 lead for Wade through five, things looked comfy, but they weren’t. A 1-out infield single by Hjalmar Flygt was followed by a pair of 2-out full count walks to load the bases. Chad Fisher was at the plate and uncorked a 1-1 pitch into deep center. Things looked dire and the ball – here comes the brown blitz, and Reece caught it!! AMAZING DEFENSE!! Reece saved Wade’s furry butt, but Wade still became stuck in the seventh, putting two on with two already out and the left-handed Flygt coming up. Burnett came in, but a run scored on a passed ball by Vinson (his second on the day and third in the series) before Flygt grounded out to Higgins. We used Lagarde in the eighth, and West had labored quite hard and semi-successful the day before and we went to Juan Martinez to close against two right-handers and the #9 slot. Fisher singled to start the ninth, but Martinez retired the next three. 4-1 Raccoons. Reece 4-4; Wade 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, W (8-5) and 2-3;

This – somewhat close – series win puts us to 130-129 all time against the Titans. That’s the fourth Continental League team we have turned our overall record against to the good side, joining the Bayhawks, Loggers, and Thunder.

Miller and Brown have yet to appear for us in a game.

Raccoons (49-20) @ Indians (31-37)

Scoring runs was not only a torture for the Raccoons lately, but it had been for the Indians all season long. This team was reminiscent of the Indians teams of the early-to-mid 80s combining little offense with awesome pitching. The ’91 Indians lacked the pitching part of it.

Flores caught game 1 for Berry, with Vinson out to get his legs unknotted. Neil Reece hit a leadoff double to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. He was left on base in the inning, along with two other Coons, and they left six men on in total in the first three innings. Berry fell 1-0 behind in the fourth on a home run by R.J. Stinton. Through seven, the Raccoons out-hit the Indians 8-3, but could not pull a run outta their … pockets. Quinn singled his way on to start the eighth. Osanai struck out, and with right-hander Jorge Mora coming in, left-hander Matt Brown pinch hit for Ben O’Morrissey making his major league debut. And got plunked. The inning slowly died when Higgins lined out hard to 2B Bob Goyer, and Johnston grounded to the pitcher to kill it for good. Top 9th, still down by that measly Stinton homer. Gonzalez pinch hit for Flores, but struck out. Vinson pinch hit for Cordero in the #9 hole, and hit a triple off the wall in left. Reece to the plate, any long ball will do. 0-1 pitch, liner off the bat – PAST GOYER, GAME TIED!! That was all they managed. Lagarde was tasked with prolongation of the joyless contest, which he accomplished. He then was tasked with the tenth, too. Which he didn’t. The joyless contest ended with a walkoff homer by Forest Hartley, two down in the bottom 10th. 11-4 hits didn’t translate into anything worth recollecting much further. 2-1 Indians. Reece 3-5, 2B, RBI; Salazar 2-4, BB; Osanai 2-4, 2B; Vinson (PH) 1-1, 3B; Berry 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 2 K;

Reece was batting over .360 now and had he sufficient AB’s, he would lead the CL batting race.

Matt Brown was starting at third base in the middle game. O-Mo had been befallen by the plague all of a sudden, hitting squid and striking out constantly. Brown in turn made an error in the second that cost an unearned run and put Kisho Saito 1-0 behind. Top 3rd, Reece singled (19 in a row), Salazar singled, Quinn singled, bases loaded, no outs. And maybe Mark Dawson was no more, but Osanai could hit into a double play just as well. The tying run scored, but not any more. It was excruciating. Top 4th! Higgins was hit by the pitch. Brown had his first big league hit, a single to right. Higgins dashed for third, was thrown at, but safe, and Brown moved up. Flores was walked intentionally. Same situation as an inning ago. What Tetsu Osanai couldn’t pull out, his fellow Japanese (but not fellow PITCHER) Kisho Saito did (much ashamed about Osanai’s honorless failure), and singled in the go-ahead run. Two K’s later, Quinn singled in another run, before Osanai left the bags full. Some offense would have been nice, since Kisho Saito surrendered a home run to Victor Cornett in the bottom 4th and the game was a close 3-2 Coons affair after that. Could a leadoff triple by Bobby Quinn lead to a run? That happened in the seventh. And Quinn, Arnold, Higgins, and Brown failed to score him. We got the first two men on in the top 9th. Arnold hit into a double play, third and first. The agony. Higgins provided a clutch hit, an RBI triple, AT LAST!! Kisho Saito went out for the ninth with a very low pitch count. The Indians had swung at everything, invariably making weak contact all the time, apart from that home run. Saito ended up with a complete game, but the Raccoons needed 15 hits to score four measly runs. Reece 2-5; Quinn 5-5, 3B, 2B, RBI; Higgins 2-4, 3B, RBI; Saito 9.0 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, W (12-2) and 2-4, RBI;

Again, Kisho Saito remained a W short of WAS Archie Dye’s mark of now 13. Dye handily won his start against the Cyclones with nine runs of support. HOW DARE THOSE CAPITALS SCORE THAT MUCH!? THAT’S THREE GAMES’ WORTH OF RUNS!!

(foams)

Rubber game, Turner pitching, and he had to rebound from a not-so-great start of 7 ER against him. He didn’t, to make it short. A Gonzalez error got the Indians rolling with two down in the bottom 2nd, but then Turner surrendered three straight hits to score four unearned runs, including a 2-run double to pitcher Jesus Lopez. Making that mess up was again left to the pitcher by the offense. Aided by a wild pitch, Turner’s RBI groundout in the fifth was the first run the Coons got on the board, and Reece’s liner into center scored another run and gave him a 20-game hitting streak. If just the rest of the team would do anything meaningful at the plate. Turner pitched six before being pinch hit for, Arnold striking out in his place leading off the top 7th. The Raccoons still trailed 4-2 and no clue how to score two ****ty runs. Daniel Miller made his debut in the bottom 7th, with pitcher Lopez being his first opponent. Lopez singled. Bad sign for things to come. Miller still completed the seventh and eighth without damage done. O’Morrissey’s scratch single off closer Jim Durden brought the tying run to the plate in the top 9th. That was also the high water mark of the team. 4-2 Indians. Reece 2-5, RBI; Gonzalez 2-4; O’Morrissey 3-4; Miller 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

That’s the third game some unqualified bloke in the field has blown for Jason Turner this year. COME ON!! You have no ****ING OFFENSE and then you have no ****ING DEFENSE ATOP OF THAT??

Raging mad.

Raccoons (50-22) @ Condors (41-31)

Riding a remarkable cold streak at the plate, the Raccoons had to face the Condors, whose offense was humming. The Coons had not scored a meaningful number of runs in two weeks.

The Condors were socking so-far-undefeated Vázquez around in the series opener, taking a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Nobody was more surprised than Tetsu Osanai and Matt Higgins, when Tetsu Osanai and Matt Higgins tied the game in the top 3rd with 2-out base hits. That tie didn’t hold together for long. Vázquez made his most awful start since joining the Raccoons (maybe even his first awful start), walked five in 3.2 innings and was yanked down 6-3 with two men on, still in the fourth, and those two runs scored when Paul Theobald doubled off Carrillo. Down 8-3, it was about hopeless, until they scored three in the seventh, but left the tying runs in scoring position, when Gonzalez struck out. Out-hitting the Condors 14-9, they out-scored us 9-6. Reece 3-4; Quinn 2-5; Osanai 2-5, 2 RBI; Vinson 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Higgins 4-5, 2 2B, RBI;

Reece was nursing his streak with a 2-out, 2-run single in the top 2nd of game 2, which was Scott Wade’s start, who was decent through the first three innings, but was defeated with triples from the Condors in both the fourth and the fifth, emerging the latter trailing 3-2. The Raccoons could only tie that with an unearned run donated to them in the sixth. Wade went 6.1 innings of so-so ball, before Cordero took over and promptly blew the tie again. The Condors sent oldie Jon Butler with their 4-3 lead in the eighth and he struck out the side, apart from Neil Reece, who homered to left to tie the game again. Ultimately, it only prolonged the suffering. Jackie Lagarde was walked off upon for the second time in a week, and again with a home run, a pinch hit offering by Gilberto Alaniz leading off the bottom 9th. 5-4 Condors. Reece 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Salazar 2-4, BB, RBI; Osanai 2-5, 2B;

The Raccoons so far have not been swept all season.

Game 3. Berry and a potent offense. Ehm, NOT playing on the same team. First the good news: Neil Reece brought his hitting streak to 23 games with a third inning single. For bad news, Berry went seven plus innings, surrendering three home runs for four runs total, two of those runs coming in the eighth, where he was only whacked around. One inning earlier, in the top 7th, the Raccoons had the tying run at third base after a 2-out RBI triple by Jorge Salazar – who OF COURSE was left there on third base by Quinn. Entirely overwhelmed by the Condors roster in it’s entirety, the Raccoons gave in willingly and lost 4-1. Reece 2-4;

In other news

June 10 – San Francisco’s Diego Rodriguez has his hitting streak end at 26 games, as the Cyclones not only beat the Bayhawks, 5-3, but also hold Rodriguez dry to an 0-4 tune.
June 11 – The Condors win 8-6 over the Blue Sox, but Preston O’Day loses his 21-game hitting streak with an 0-3 day against merciless Nashville pitching.
June 17 – Dallas’ LF/RF Sakutaro Ine will miss four weeks with a fractured thumb after being hit by a pitch. All he did so far was hitting .424 with 8 HR and 47 RBI for the Stars.
June 19 – CIN OF Michael Watson, 38, announces his retirement at season’s end. Watson, who has 1,740 career hits, is only batting .223 with this year’s Cyclones.
June 19 – The same day Neil Reece’s hitting streak reached 20 games, SFB OF Dave Burton (.348, 1 HR, 43 RBI) also made it to 20 games of hitting, contributing two hits in a 5-1 win over the Falcons.
June 20 – Only two weeks after the Titans have lost their owner, the Indians’ patriarch Jesus Alvarez passed away after struggling with his health for several years. His son Jesus Alvarez jr., a charitable and understanding character, has taken over operations.
June 20 – The Indians later in the day also announce that they addressed their offensive struggles in a trade with the Knights, bringing in 2B/SS Paul Connolly (.253, 4 HR, 34 RBI) in exchange for SP Jesse Carver (7-5, 3.43 ERA).
June 20 – Dave Burton goes 0-4 against the Falcons, ending his hitting streak already at 20 games.
June 21 – The Falcons end up being 2-hit by Boston’s Kinji Kan (7-5, 3.34 ERA), as the Titans win 8-0.

Complaints and stuff

Neil Reece was obviously hot and won the Player of the Week honors in the Continental League for the Indians/Condors stretch of games, having gone 16-28, 1 HR, 5 RBI.

Occasionally, this team feels like the 1981 Raccoons (or worse). From June 5-19 they had 14 consecutive games of scoring four runs or less, going 7-7 in the process thanks to stud pitching.

Those were two incredibly disgusting weeks.
Since June 1: 3.4 R/G
Since June 5: 2.8 R/G
This update: 2.9 R/G

There is NO offense going on on this team. There is NO offense. The offense is DEAD. Tetsu, Bobby, Glenn, David, and the other suckers could go out and erect burning crosses all over Mississippi and not even THEN would they be offensive!

Add to that spotty defense and that the pitching is coming down to earth. The tumble back to the Canadiens’ record has already begun. It will be very short, but extremely painful. We were a flaming 23-5 in May. We’re 10-10 in June, and the Canadiens won’t play .500 forever.