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Westheim · 10-20-2013, 07:09 PM

Raccoons (33-24) vs. Blue Sox (30-29)

The Blue Sox might have been only a hair over .500 coming in, but they were 3rd in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League, and had the best rotation over there, so caution was the call of the day. To make things more difficult, Grant West came down with the flu and was sneezing all over the bullpen.

Chris Lacy was the black sheep in the rotation and was up for game 1 with his 5.23 ERA, facing Scott Wade and his 2.68 mark. The two faced each other in the bottom 2nd. With the bases loaded, Vinson had just whiffed for the second out, bringing up Wade, who was patient with the junk Lacy fed him and took four balls, forcing in the first run of the game. Wade was not very sharp in going 6.1 innings on 109 pitches, and the offense was not very productive, only adding an unearned run for a 2-0 lead in the third. Daniel Miller came in to face Orlando Mendoza in the top 7th and surrendered a home run. Well, Wade could have done that, too. Nelson was hit with an RBI triple by Mauro Granados in the eighth and the lead was gone, Wade would not get a W. As Nelson was yanked, Lagarde faced the task to keep Granados at third with no outs, but couldn’t do it. The Blue Sox took a 3-2 lead on a sac fly. Salazar led off the bottom 9th with a double against Lorenzo Flores. O’Morrissey came up and singled into right, and the speedy Salazar came home to tie the game. An infield single by Kinnear put Hall into position to end it with any hit, and nobody out. He lined hard into right, but into an out. Osanai flailed three times on three pitches. Higgins then took a 1-0 pitch up the middle and between the infielders. O’Morrissey around third, coming home, HE’S SAFE!! 4-3 Raccoons in walkoff fashion! Kinnear 3-5, 2B; Higgins 3-5, 2 RBI; Wade 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K and 0-1, 2 BB, RBI; Lagarde 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (3-2);

The Indians fell to Cincy, 6-1, and the Raccoons were back in first place. Wade moved closer to the CL lead in ERA behind Woody Roberts and Jou Hara, but what always happens to a Coon with a stellar ERA? He gets no run support. Wade remains 4-3. But if that was the Blue Sox’ worst guy, I didn’t want to see their best.

First we got to see a known face in ex-Coon Dennis Fried, who had started the year in AAA, but had now made two starts for two wins and a 1.69 ERA. We offered “Pooky”, who was socked for three runs in the first inning, and it got little better beyond that. Nashville’s makeshift shortstop Manny Valdez made two errors in the bottom 4th that closed a 5-1 deficit to 5-3, but the Raccoons still looked rather hopeless, especially since Raimundo Beato was just awful, allowing two more runs in the sixth. Valdez would make four errors in the game, and cost his team another run, but the Coons still were unable to produce. They had the tying run at the plate in the bottom 8th, but Higgins double-played them out of there, and that was followed by a 5-run top 9th, in which Carrillo and Nelson were torn up badly. 12-4 Blue Sox. O’Morrissey 2-5, RBI; Martin 2-4, 2B;

The bullpen, which was considered the strongest part of this team, is becoming more and more of a burden … We also fell back out of the lead in the CL North.

The rubber game. Kisho Saito was perfect through three, but surrendered a leadoff single to Jin-yong Kim in the top 4th. Kim tried to score with two out on a Horace Henry single, going from second, but Vern Kinnear threw him out by a mile at home. After Higgins and Osanai both left Kinnear and Hall in scoring position in the bottom 4th, Saito fell to an RBI triple and subsequent sac fly by Russ Cote and Manny Valdez, respectively. Osanai left two more on in the sixth. His time was running out at a rapid pace. Saito was further betrayed by Vinson, who allowed a run to score on a passed ball, and later failed to catch a third strike. Bottom 9th, down 3-1. A 1-out bloop single by Higgins brought Osanai to the dish with the chance to tie it. The Indians had lost, so a win would get the Coons back into first. Osanai could go a long way and tie it, but he didn’t and made an out. Martin pinch-hit for Vinson and reached only on an error. Glenn Johnston came to the plate, batting a buck ninety-five, and had the chance to end it. One way or the other, maybe the other. Xiao-shuang Sa fed him junk, a wide one, then two borderline pitches fouled off, then one in the dirt. The fifth pitch of the at-bat was low, but knocked by Johnston. What a shot!! Out to center!! Up! Up! UP AND AWAY SHE GOES!!!! GLENN JOHNSTON 3-RUN WALKOFF HOME RUN – I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!

Ahem. 4-3 Raccoons. Higgins 2-3, BB, RBI; Johnston 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K;

Raccoons (35-25) @ Gold Sox (28-34)

28-34 was bad enough for last place in a middling FL West, with the Gold Sox only eight out of the lead in mid-June. However, they had both trouble scoring runs and their rotation was frighteningly bad. The Raccoons had not scored more than seven runs in a game the whole month (last winning 8-7 against the Condors on May 30), so maybe this was the time to up the oomph?

We got Neil Reece back from the DL and he did not go on rehab, but returned straight to center field in Denver. Jeff Martin bit the dust. Johnston’s walkoff heroics were rewarded with a start in right, getting Daniel Hall, who was to turn 37 later this month, a day off. The draft was on the night of the first game as well (see separate post).

In a scoreless game, the Coons lost Jorge Salazar in the third inning when the shortstop tweaked something in his shoulder. Jason Turner was perfect through three innings, but the game was scoreless that far. The Coons then loaded the bags in the top 4th with nobody out. Osanai to the plate. A Joe Lane jr. pitch down the middle, a swing, a bang, a shot – A GRAND SLAM!!! That was only his second homer of the year, but he certainly made it count here, breaking a scoreless tie. Turner’s bid ended in the fourth, as the Gold Sox got a run off him with a bloop RBI single. Our long-time former catcher Sam Dadswell added with an RBI triple in the fifth, but the Coons pulled away again to 6-2 in the sixth. Turner allowed only three hits while pitching into the eighth, but when he left for Burnett with a man on first and one out, Burnett balked and wild pitched the run in. Nevertheless, the Coons held on, and won 7-3. Salazar 1-2; Reece 3-4; Higgins 2-3, BB; Osanai 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1, 3B; Turner 7.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-4);

Salazar had merely a tender shoulder and was DTD for a few days. He would be left out of the lineup for the rest of the series, Mauro Morales taking over.

Game 2. Daniel Hall opened the scoring with a leadoff jack in the top 2nd, his 10th of the year. Up 2-0, Robert Vazquez almost lost it in the fourth, putting four men on and barely leaving the bags loaded with a 2-1 lead. Osanai made it back-to-back home run days with a solo shot in the sixth, 3-1. Despite a few chances, like runners on the corners with one out in the eighth, the offense failed to score more, and it came down to the pen after Vazquez was done after six innings. Carrillo and Lagarde held the Gold Sox at bay, handing it over to West, who struck out two in a 1-2-3 inning on his return from the Pits of the Coughing Death. 3-1 Raccoons. Reece 2-5; Vázquez 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (8-3) and 1-2;

Our postseason nightmare Kiyohira Sasaki started game 3 for the Gold Sox. Wade fell behind 2-1 in the first, and Osanai, who had driven in the run in the first, whiffed to end the third with Reece on third base. Daniel Hall had tied the game with a sac fly before that. Sasaki was given a double whammy by Reece and Hall in the top 5th, when the Furballs outfielders went deep back-to-back to give Wade a 4-2 lead. In the bottom 6th, an O’Morrissey error unfortunately jump-started the Gold Sox. They added two 2-out singles, scoring a run, and had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with Sam Dadswell coming up. First base was open and he was put on. Wade had to beat SS Arthur Baker, and grounded him out to short. Wade went seven, clinging on to that 4-3 lead. Bottom 8th, Lagarde got an out and put the tying run on. Hall had a fly ball spill out of his glove for an error, putting the winning run on, too. That, Tim Eichler, had been Nelson’s only batter. Carrillo came in to face pinch-hitter Alex Gonzalez and walked him on four pitches. Dadswell up. Grant West was brought into a game he possibly wouldn’t be able to save. In a 7-pitch at-bat and a full count, he punched out Dadswell and now also had to retire Baker to get out of the jam. That count also ran full, but Baker drew a walk and Wade lost another W. West punched out Tom Oliver, but the damage was done (and had been done before). The game went to extra innings, the first two of which were pitched by Miller. The Raccoons were invisible at the plate until Higgins led off the 12th with a double. Miguel Quintero balked him to third with nobody out. Reece sacrificed him in, and we pinch-hit for Miller, so we brought our last well-rested reliever, Ken Burnett, for the bottom 12th. Leadoff man Dale Wales got on, but Burnett starved him at second base. 5-4 Coons. Higgins 4-6, 2 2B; Reece 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Morales 2-5; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; Miller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-1);

In other news

June 12 – 20-yr old CHA SS/2B Juan Barrón (.313, 0 HR, 26 RBI) is out for at least this season after suffering a fractured eye socket after getting into a fight at a Little League game.
June 14 – IND OF Tomas Maguey (.329, 1 HR, 23 RBI) is out for three weeks with shoulder tendinitis.
June 15 – The Wolves’ 22-year old SP Ramón Sotelo (3-5, 3.56 ERA) 3-hits the Bayhawks in a 4-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

Curse that bullpen!! Can’t you give Scotty the wins he deserves!!?? God!!!

AA 1B/3B/RF Egbert van den Bosch (.306, 8 HR, 32 RBI) was Player of the Week down there with a torrid 11-20, 4 HR, 16 RBI performance.

I don't know whether that's a problem here, but ever since I read "The Book", I barely bunt with my pitchers, especially those hitting decently like Saito and Wade. The Raccoons are bottom-of-the-paws last in sac hits with *8*. That can't be the sole reason for our inability to score, right?

Daniel Hall continues to lead the CL in RBI's and also in Isolated Power. Whatever that is.

10-20-2013, 07:09 PM	#632
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,829	Raccoons (33-24) vs. Blue Sox (30-29) The Blue Sox might have been only a hair over .500 coming in, but they were 3rd in both runs scored and runs allowed in the Federal League, and had the best rotation over there, so caution was the call of the day. To make things more difficult, Grant West came down with the flu and was sneezing all over the bullpen. Chris Lacy was the black sheep in the rotation and was up for game 1 with his 5.23 ERA, facing Scott Wade and his 2.68 mark. The two faced each other in the bottom 2nd. With the bases loaded, Vinson had just whiffed for the second out, bringing up Wade, who was patient with the junk Lacy fed him and took four balls, forcing in the first run of the game. Wade was not very sharp in going 6.1 innings on 109 pitches, and the offense was not very productive, only adding an unearned run for a 2-0 lead in the third. Daniel Miller came in to face Orlando Mendoza in the top 7th and surrendered a home run. Well, Wade could have done that, too. Nelson was hit with an RBI triple by Mauro Granados in the eighth and the lead was gone, Wade would not get a W. As Nelson was yanked, Lagarde faced the task to keep Granados at third with no outs, but couldn’t do it. The Blue Sox took a 3-2 lead on a sac fly. Salazar led off the bottom 9th with a double against Lorenzo Flores. O’Morrissey came up and singled into right, and the speedy Salazar came home to tie the game. An infield single by Kinnear put Hall into position to end it with any hit, and nobody out. He lined hard into right, but into an out. Osanai flailed three times on three pitches. Higgins then took a 1-0 pitch up the middle and between the infielders. O’Morrissey around third, coming home, HE’S SAFE!! 4-3 Raccoons in walkoff fashion! Kinnear 3-5, 2B; Higgins 3-5, 2 RBI; Wade 6.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K and 0-1, 2 BB, RBI; Lagarde 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, W (3-2); The Indians fell to Cincy, 6-1, and the Raccoons were back in first place. Wade moved closer to the CL lead in ERA behind Woody Roberts and Jou Hara, but what always happens to a Coon with a stellar ERA? He gets no run support. Wade remains 4-3. But if that was the Blue Sox’ worst guy, I didn’t want to see their best. First we got to see a known face in ex-Coon Dennis Fried, who had started the year in AAA, but had now made two starts for two wins and a 1.69 ERA. We offered “Pooky”, who was socked for three runs in the first inning, and it got little better beyond that. Nashville’s makeshift shortstop Manny Valdez made two errors in the bottom 4th that closed a 5-1 deficit to 5-3, but the Raccoons still looked rather hopeless, especially since Raimundo Beato was just awful, allowing two more runs in the sixth. Valdez would make four errors in the game, and cost his team another run, but the Coons still were unable to produce. They had the tying run at the plate in the bottom 8th, but Higgins double-played them out of there, and that was followed by a 5-run top 9th, in which Carrillo and Nelson were torn up badly. 12-4 Blue Sox. O’Morrissey 2-5, RBI; Martin 2-4, 2B; The bullpen, which was considered the strongest part of this team, is becoming more and more of a burden … We also fell back out of the lead in the CL North. The rubber game. Kisho Saito was perfect through three, but surrendered a leadoff single to Jin-yong Kim in the top 4th. Kim tried to score with two out on a Horace Henry single, going from second, but Vern Kinnear threw him out by a mile at home. After Higgins and Osanai both left Kinnear and Hall in scoring position in the bottom 4th, Saito fell to an RBI triple and subsequent sac fly by Russ Cote and Manny Valdez, respectively. Osanai left two more on in the sixth. His time was running out at a rapid pace. Saito was further betrayed by Vinson, who allowed a run to score on a passed ball, and later failed to catch a third strike. Bottom 9th, down 3-1. A 1-out bloop single by Higgins brought Osanai to the dish with the chance to tie it. The Indians had lost, so a win would get the Coons back into first. Osanai could go a long way and tie it, but he didn’t and made an out. Martin pinch-hit for Vinson and reached only on an error. Glenn Johnston came to the plate, batting a buck ninety-five, and had the chance to end it. One way or the other, maybe the other. Xiao-shuang Sa fed him junk, a wide one, then two borderline pitches fouled off, then one in the dirt. The fifth pitch of the at-bat was low, but knocked by Johnston. What a shot!! Out to center!! Up! Up! UP AND AWAY SHE GOES!!!! GLENN JOHNSTON 3-RUN WALKOFF HOME RUN – I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!! Ahem. 4-3 Raccoons. Higgins 2-3, BB, RBI; Johnston 1-4, HR, 3 RBI; Saito 8.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 K; Raccoons (35-25) @ Gold Sox (28-34) 28-34 was bad enough for last place in a middling FL West, with the Gold Sox only eight out of the lead in mid-June. However, they had both trouble scoring runs and their rotation was frighteningly bad. The Raccoons had not scored more than seven runs in a game the whole month (last winning 8-7 against the Condors on May 30), so maybe this was the time to up the oomph? We got Neil Reece back from the DL and he did not go on rehab, but returned straight to center field in Denver. Jeff Martin bit the dust. Johnston’s walkoff heroics were rewarded with a start in right, getting Daniel Hall, who was to turn 37 later this month, a day off. The draft was on the night of the first game as well (see separate post). In a scoreless game, the Coons lost Jorge Salazar in the third inning when the shortstop tweaked something in his shoulder. Jason Turner was perfect through three innings, but the game was scoreless that far. The Coons then loaded the bags in the top 4th with nobody out. Osanai to the plate. A Joe Lane jr. pitch down the middle, a swing, a bang, a shot – A GRAND SLAM!!! That was only his second homer of the year, but he certainly made it count here, breaking a scoreless tie. Turner’s bid ended in the fourth, as the Gold Sox got a run off him with a bloop RBI single. Our long-time former catcher Sam Dadswell added with an RBI triple in the fifth, but the Coons pulled away again to 6-2 in the sixth. Turner allowed only three hits while pitching into the eighth, but when he left for Burnett with a man on first and one out, Burnett balked and wild pitched the run in. Nevertheless, the Coons held on, and won 7-3. Salazar 1-2; Reece 3-4; Higgins 2-3, BB; Osanai 1-4, HR, 4 RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1, 3B; Turner 7.2 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W (6-4); Salazar had merely a tender shoulder and was DTD for a few days. He would be left out of the lineup for the rest of the series, Mauro Morales taking over. Game 2. Daniel Hall opened the scoring with a leadoff jack in the top 2nd, his 10th of the year. Up 2-0, Robert Vazquez almost lost it in the fourth, putting four men on and barely leaving the bags loaded with a 2-1 lead. Osanai made it back-to-back home run days with a solo shot in the sixth, 3-1. Despite a few chances, like runners on the corners with one out in the eighth, the offense failed to score more, and it came down to the pen after Vazquez was done after six innings. Carrillo and Lagarde held the Gold Sox at bay, handing it over to West, who struck out two in a 1-2-3 inning on his return from the Pits of the Coughing Death. 3-1 Raccoons. Reece 2-5; Vázquez 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (8-3) and 1-2; Our postseason nightmare Kiyohira Sasaki started game 3 for the Gold Sox. Wade fell behind 2-1 in the first, and Osanai, who had driven in the run in the first, whiffed to end the third with Reece on third base. Daniel Hall had tied the game with a sac fly before that. Sasaki was given a double whammy by Reece and Hall in the top 5th, when the Furballs outfielders went deep back-to-back to give Wade a 4-2 lead. In the bottom 6th, an O’Morrissey error unfortunately jump-started the Gold Sox. They added two 2-out singles, scoring a run, and had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with Sam Dadswell coming up. First base was open and he was put on. Wade had to beat SS Arthur Baker, and grounded him out to short. Wade went seven, clinging on to that 4-3 lead. Bottom 8th, Lagarde got an out and put the tying run on. Hall had a fly ball spill out of his glove for an error, putting the winning run on, too. That, Tim Eichler, had been Nelson’s only batter. Carrillo came in to face pinch-hitter Alex Gonzalez and walked him on four pitches. Dadswell up. Grant West was brought into a game he possibly wouldn’t be able to save. In a 7-pitch at-bat and a full count, he punched out Dadswell and now also had to retire Baker to get out of the jam. That count also ran full, but Baker drew a walk and Wade lost another W. West punched out Tom Oliver, but the damage was done (and had been done before). The game went to extra innings, the first two of which were pitched by Miller. The Raccoons were invisible at the plate until Higgins led off the 12th with a double. Miguel Quintero balked him to third with nobody out. Reece sacrificed him in, and we pinch-hit for Miller, so we brought our last well-rested reliever, Ken Burnett, for the bottom 12th. Leadoff man Dale Wales got on, but Burnett starved him at second base. 5-4 Coons. Higgins 4-6, 2 2B; Reece 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Morales 2-5; Wade 7.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K; Miller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-1); In other news June 12 – 20-yr old CHA SS/2B Juan Barrón (.313, 0 HR, 26 RBI) is out for at least this season after suffering a fractured eye socket after getting into a fight at a Little League game. June 14 – IND OF Tomas Maguey (.329, 1 HR, 23 RBI) is out for three weeks with shoulder tendinitis. June 15 – The Wolves’ 22-year old SP Ramón Sotelo (3-5, 3.56 ERA) 3-hits the Bayhawks in a 4-0 shutout. Complaints and stuff Curse that bullpen!! Can’t you give Scotty the wins he deserves!!?? God!!! AA 1B/3B/RF Egbert van den Bosch (.306, 8 HR, 32 RBI) was Player of the Week down there with a torrid 11-20, 4 HR, 16 RBI performance. I don't know whether that's a problem here, but ever since I read "The Book", I barely bunt with my pitchers, especially those hitting decently like Saito and Wade. The Raccoons are bottom-of-the-paws last in sac hits with 8. That can't be the sole reason for our inability to score, right? Daniel Hall continues to lead the CL in RBI's and also in Isolated Power. Whatever that is. Attached Images __________________ Portland Raccoons, 92 years of excell-.... of baseball: Furballs here! 1983 * 1989 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1995 * 1996 * 2010 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2026 * 2028 * 2035 * 2037 * 2044 * 2045 * 2046 * 2047 * 2048 * 2051 * 2054 * 2055 * 2061 1 OSANAI : 2 POWELL : 7 NOMURA \| RAMOS : 8 REECE : 10 BROWN : 15 HALL : 27 FERNANDEZ : 28 CASAS : 31 CARMONA : 32 WEST : 39 TONER : 46 SAITO Resident Mets Cynic - The Mets from 1962 onwards, here.