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Westheim · 12-22-2013, 02:18 PM

We are entering the weekend home series against the Loggers sitting 5.5 games ahead of the Canadiens, be it through crumbling slightly less than them more than anything else – god forbid we achieve something on our own! – but with a magic number at a count-down suitable 25 games, our goal got into sight a bit clearer now.

That didn’t change that Mark Allen was at least out for the regular season and possibly an eventual CLCS, and that we had just lost Jorge Salazar for the bulk of September. He was DL’ed after the 12-inning win in Oklahoma on Wednesday as we flew home on our off day.

That left us with two middle infielders, one of which was the recently-DFA’ed Sixto Moreno, whom nobody wanted to touch with a pole. With our AAA team in St. Pete being bad this year and 13 games below .500, we could take all we wanted from there. I wanted 2B Pat Parker. He was our second-round pick from 1991, and had batted for an .803 OPS in AAA this season. His defense was okay. He was a new Dani Perez, if you remember him. He also had seven entries in his injury log since being drafted, so we better play him while he’s healthy.

He was not on the 40-man roster for obvious reasons, so we had to DFA somebody to make room, which turned out to be MR Yasushi Suto, 29. He had some stints with us a few years back, but had been superseded by about anybody on the AAA staff.

Raccoons (76-57) vs. Loggers (65-68) – September 3-5, 1993

With only right-handers scheduled for the Loggers on the weekend, Parker was thrown right into things as starter at second base in the opener, where Kisho Saito pitched against Davis Sims (12-9, 3.86 ERA), and Higgins played short and batted leadoff. Higgins singled to start the game, stole second, and got home on two outs, and that was right where things stopped working. Saito was eaten up in the sixth inning with three runs, while the Raccoons had managed all of three hits at that point. The score jumped to 4-2 in the eighth with an unearned run on Baldivía’s inability to pick up a roller, and a solo home run by Alejandro Lopez. In the bottom 9th, the Loggers sent Raúl Perez to close the game, and he hit the first two batters, Baldivía and Vinson. Parker and Hall made outs before Perez walked both Higgins and O’Morrissey. One more gaffe away from tying it, Lopez grounded out. 4-3 Loggers.

Pat Parker hit a double in his first big league AB, then struck out three times. He never scored after that double, leading off in the third, either.

In game 2, the Raccoons took an uncharacteristic 4-0 lead after the first inning, key piece of which was a 3-run homer by Glenn Adams. Jason Turner was filthy in the first three innings, whiffing six, before he came apart in the fourth, with the Loggers scoring twice and leaving the bases loaded when pitcher Rafael Garcia grounded out. Turner was fine outside of that miserable 2-hit, 3-walk inning, though, and struck out ten Loggers in seven innings. The Coons managed a few add-on runs in this game, two in the sixth, and two more in the eighth, the latter scored through a titanic home run by O’Morrissey. Jackie Lagarde cleaned up a mess left behind by Vela and Proctor in the top 8th and finished the game, netting him a save despite the 6-run difference at the end. 8-2 Raccoons. Higgins 2-5, RBI; O’Morrissey 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; A. Lopez 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Adams 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Hall 1-2, 2 BB; Turner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 10 K, W (7-11); Lagarde 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (4);

Neil Reece got a day off in game 3, with Johnston in center. Adams batted cleanup. All of this was asking for trouble with Scott Wade on the mound, who face the King of Walks, Scott Murphy. Wade was hit in the first inning with a 2-run homer by Cristo Ramirez, which looked like a supersized line drive, while the Raccoons had one of their double play games – when they were batting. By contrast, they completely failed to walk against Murphy, who had 144 walks on the year, in the first five innings. Bottom 6th, still down 2-0: Wade reached on an error leading off, and only with one out did we draw a walk with O’Morrissey being patient. Lopez came up and got one in the wheelhouse that he didn’t miss, and it became a 3-run homer to turn the game around. Wade went seven, then almost saw the 3-2 lead go up in smoke in the eighth, where Martinez walked the leadoff man, callup Jessie McGuire. Burnett replaced him and barely got out of the inning. The Coons added some offense against Murphy in the bottom 8th, before West closed the game. 5-2 Raccoons. A. Lopez 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Adams 3-4, 2B, RBI; Quinn (PH) 1-1, BB; Wade 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (10-7);

The Canadiens won their first two in New York, but were helpless against Danny Ramirez in game 3 and took a 2-0 loss there, so the gap remains unchanged.
Games ahead of VAN: 5 1/2 (was 5 1/2)
Magic number: 22 (was 25)

Raccoons (78-58) vs. Titans (60-78) – September 6-8, 1993

We continued a string of not seeing left-handed starters, with the three guys up for competition in this series also all throwing right-handed. Bob Arnold – who had been injured for most of his time in AAA – was added to the 25-man roster before this series started.

Game 1 was all pitching, not a lick of offense by either team. Like Turner two days earlier, Miguel Lopez struck out ten, but he did it in a losing effort, trailing 1-0 after the top 8th. Hall batted for him in the bottom 8th, leading off, and singled, only our fourth hit on the day. Higgins got Hall forced at second, but went to third on a throwing error by catcher Luis Lopez when Higgins set out to steal second base. One out, tying run at third base, O-Mo at the plate. That was the best recipe one could have these days, yet O-Mo lined out and Higgins was left on by Alejandro Lopez. Daniel Miller was blown up in the ninth, and Kinnear made the final out trying to stretch a single with nobody on base anyway. 3-0 Titans. Hall (PH) 1-1; M. Lopez 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, L (14-7);

I gave a start to De La Rosa in game 2. He has two pitches, like Wade, but the filth of his splitter needs to be tested over several innings. Beato will be either skipped or start game 3, depending on how insane I will get after this game.

De La Rosa walked the edge of annihilation early in the middle game, but pulled himself out of trouble in the first two innings. Well, defense helped some, too. The game was scoreless until the bottom 4th, where Dan The Man hit a 2-run double that set off a 4-run inning. De La Rosa went into the sixth, where he ran aground amidst two walks and had to be removed. Proctor got the final out, keeping DLR’s ledger clean. The Raccoons scored two more runs in the seventh with a jack by O’Morrissey that tied Reece for the team lead, and another run-scoring double by Dan The Man. The Titans failed to mount anything past the sixth inning and were handily defeated this time. 6-0 Raccoons. Higgins 2-5, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, HR, RBI; Reece 2-2, 2 BB; Hall 3-4, 3 2B, 3 RBI; De La Rosa 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (2-0) and 1-2, RBI;

Dan The Man having another 3-XBH day made me smile :-)

Rubber game. Beato went, and was utterly brilliant. A Dave Dixon leadoff double in the third was the only hit he surrendered until rain forced a 29-minute delay in the seventh, getting in the way of a gem. Meanwhile, he wasn’t even in line for the win, since the Raccoons just didn’t score once more. Beato finished the seventh, then had to hope for offense. Adams singled to start the bottom 7th, then stole second base. The Titans walked Hall to get to Moreno, which was a mistake, since Moreno managed to get a flyer past RF Matt Smith for a 2-run double, and Moreno was also brought in to score. 3-0 ahead, and having thrown only 71 pitches, Beato went out for the eighth and got through on 11 pitches, but Dixon had another hit. Beato still did not get a shutout. A leadoff double by Smith ended his day in the ninth. Grant West came in, and tried to keep the shutout together, but the first grounder he got was thrown away by Higgins. 3-1, tying run coming to the plate, no outs. West surrendered a double to Luis Lopez with two out, putting the tying run in scoring position, and Jack Burbidge singled up the middle, but Reece got to it quickly, and Lopez held at third base. Dixon, the only guy to hurt Beato all day, was replaced by righty Gary Lang, and West got him to ground out, just barely ending the game for his 40th save of the year. 3-2 Furballs. Higgins 2-4; Moreno 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Beato 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (10-7) and 0-2, RBI;

The Canadiens matched us day by day in this series, leaving our lead unchanged.
Games ahead of VAN: 5 1/2 (was 5 1/2)
Magic number: 19 (was 22)

In other news

September 2 – Talented 23-year old LVA OF Royce Green (.284, 19 HR, 66 RBI) is out for the season with a fractured thumb.
September 4 – RIC SP Craig Hansen (18-10, 3.52 ERA) goes eight innings in a 3-2 win over the Cyclones, earning his 200th career win. The 35-year old was the first overall pick in the 1981 draft by the Miners, with whom he won his first 119 games, before signing up with the Rebels. For his career, he is 200-136 with a 3.15 ERA. He is in a contract year.
September 8 – VAN LF/RF Ronald Moore (.303, 12 HR, 63 RBI) completes a 20-game hitting streak with a third-inning RBI single in a 3-2 win over the Loggers.

Complaints and stuff

Miguel Lopez is 0-3 in his last six starts, with a 4.81 ERA in 33.2 IP. Talk about different halves of a season.

Fans in Portland are running a fundraiser so we can sign a proper batter in the offseason.

Below is also Scott Wade's pitching resume, since I posted it in the other thread in the general discussions. The BABIP is way off this season. Other pitchers that were full time starters last year as well:

Kisho Saito .264 -> .281
Jason Turner .292 -> .270
Raimundo Beato .280 -> .297

Shouldn't our defense be better with Osanai gone?

First stage on our upcoming tri-city road trip: Vancouver!

12-22-2013, 02:18 PM	#709
Westheim Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 13,789	We are entering the weekend home series against the Loggers sitting 5.5 games ahead of the Canadiens, be it through crumbling slightly less than them more than anything else – god forbid we achieve something on our own! – but with a magic number at a count-down suitable 25 games, our goal got into sight a bit clearer now. That didn’t change that Mark Allen was at least out for the regular season and possibly an eventual CLCS, and that we had just lost Jorge Salazar for the bulk of September. He was DL’ed after the 12-inning win in Oklahoma on Wednesday as we flew home on our off day. That left us with two middle infielders, one of which was the recently-DFA’ed Sixto Moreno, whom nobody wanted to touch with a pole. With our AAA team in St. Pete being bad this year and 13 games below .500, we could take all we wanted from there. I wanted 2B Pat Parker. He was our second-round pick from 1991, and had batted for an .803 OPS in AAA this season. His defense was okay. He was a new Dani Perez, if you remember him. He also had seven entries in his injury log since being drafted, so we better play him while he’s healthy. He was not on the 40-man roster for obvious reasons, so we had to DFA somebody to make room, which turned out to be MR Yasushi Suto, 29. He had some stints with us a few years back, but had been superseded by about anybody on the AAA staff. Raccoons (76-57) vs. Loggers (65-68) – September 3-5, 1993 With only right-handers scheduled for the Loggers on the weekend, Parker was thrown right into things as starter at second base in the opener, where Kisho Saito pitched against Davis Sims (12-9, 3.86 ERA), and Higgins played short and batted leadoff. Higgins singled to start the game, stole second, and got home on two outs, and that was right where things stopped working. Saito was eaten up in the sixth inning with three runs, while the Raccoons had managed all of three hits at that point. The score jumped to 4-2 in the eighth with an unearned run on Baldivía’s inability to pick up a roller, and a solo home run by Alejandro Lopez. In the bottom 9th, the Loggers sent Raúl Perez to close the game, and he hit the first two batters, Baldivía and Vinson. Parker and Hall made outs before Perez walked both Higgins and O’Morrissey. One more gaffe away from tying it, Lopez grounded out. 4-3 Loggers. Pat Parker hit a double in his first big league AB, then struck out three times. He never scored after that double, leading off in the third, either. In game 2, the Raccoons took an uncharacteristic 4-0 lead after the first inning, key piece of which was a 3-run homer by Glenn Adams. Jason Turner was filthy in the first three innings, whiffing six, before he came apart in the fourth, with the Loggers scoring twice and leaving the bases loaded when pitcher Rafael Garcia grounded out. Turner was fine outside of that miserable 2-hit, 3-walk inning, though, and struck out ten Loggers in seven innings. The Coons managed a few add-on runs in this game, two in the sixth, and two more in the eighth, the latter scored through a titanic home run by O’Morrissey. Jackie Lagarde cleaned up a mess left behind by Vela and Proctor in the top 8th and finished the game, netting him a save despite the 6-run difference at the end. 8-2 Raccoons. Higgins 2-5, RBI; O’Morrissey 3-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; A. Lopez 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Adams 2-3, BB, HR, 3 RBI; Hall 1-2, 2 BB; Turner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 10 K, W (7-11); Lagarde 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (4); Neil Reece got a day off in game 3, with Johnston in center. Adams batted cleanup. All of this was asking for trouble with Scott Wade on the mound, who face the King of Walks, Scott Murphy. Wade was hit in the first inning with a 2-run homer by Cristo Ramirez, which looked like a supersized line drive, while the Raccoons had one of their double play games – when they were batting. By contrast, they completely failed to walk against Murphy, who had 144 walks on the year, in the first five innings. Bottom 6th, still down 2-0: Wade reached on an error leading off, and only with one out did we draw a walk with O’Morrissey being patient. Lopez came up and got one in the wheelhouse that he didn’t miss, and it became a 3-run homer to turn the game around. Wade went seven, then almost saw the 3-2 lead go up in smoke in the eighth, where Martinez walked the leadoff man, callup Jessie McGuire. Burnett replaced him and barely got out of the inning. The Coons added some offense against Murphy in the bottom 8th, before West closed the game. 5-2 Raccoons. A. Lopez 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Adams 3-4, 2B, RBI; Quinn (PH) 1-1, BB; Wade 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (10-7); The Canadiens won their first two in New York, but were helpless against Danny Ramirez in game 3 and took a 2-0 loss there, so the gap remains unchanged. Games ahead of VAN: 5 1/2 (was 5 1/2) Magic number: 22 (was 25) Raccoons (78-58) vs. Titans (60-78) – September 6-8, 1993 We continued a string of not seeing left-handed starters, with the three guys up for competition in this series also all throwing right-handed. Bob Arnold – who had been injured for most of his time in AAA – was added to the 25-man roster before this series started. Game 1 was all pitching, not a lick of offense by either team. Like Turner two days earlier, Miguel Lopez struck out ten, but he did it in a losing effort, trailing 1-0 after the top 8th. Hall batted for him in the bottom 8th, leading off, and singled, only our fourth hit on the day. Higgins got Hall forced at second, but went to third on a throwing error by catcher Luis Lopez when Higgins set out to steal second base. One out, tying run at third base, O-Mo at the plate. That was the best recipe one could have these days, yet O-Mo lined out and Higgins was left on by Alejandro Lopez. Daniel Miller was blown up in the ninth, and Kinnear made the final out trying to stretch a single with nobody on base anyway. 3-0 Titans. Hall (PH) 1-1; M. Lopez 8.0 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K, L (14-7); I gave a start to De La Rosa in game 2. He has two pitches, like Wade, but the filth of his splitter needs to be tested over several innings. Beato will be either skipped or start game 3, depending on how insane I will get after this game. De La Rosa walked the edge of annihilation early in the middle game, but pulled himself out of trouble in the first two innings. Well, defense helped some, too. The game was scoreless until the bottom 4th, where Dan The Man hit a 2-run double that set off a 4-run inning. De La Rosa went into the sixth, where he ran aground amidst two walks and had to be removed. Proctor got the final out, keeping DLR’s ledger clean. The Raccoons scored two more runs in the seventh with a jack by O’Morrissey that tied Reece for the team lead, and another run-scoring double by Dan The Man. The Titans failed to mount anything past the sixth inning and were handily defeated this time. 6-0 Raccoons. Higgins 2-5, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-5, HR, RBI; Reece 2-2, 2 BB; Hall 3-4, 3 2B, 3 RBI; De La Rosa 5.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 4 K, W (2-0) and 1-2, RBI; Dan The Man having another 3-XBH day made me smile :-) Rubber game. Beato went, and was utterly brilliant. A Dave Dixon leadoff double in the third was the only hit he surrendered until rain forced a 29-minute delay in the seventh, getting in the way of a gem. Meanwhile, he wasn’t even in line for the win, since the Raccoons just didn’t score once more. Beato finished the seventh, then had to hope for offense. Adams singled to start the bottom 7th, then stole second base. The Titans walked Hall to get to Moreno, which was a mistake, since Moreno managed to get a flyer past RF Matt Smith for a 2-run double, and Moreno was also brought in to score. 3-0 ahead, and having thrown only 71 pitches, Beato went out for the eighth and got through on 11 pitches, but Dixon had another hit. Beato still did not get a shutout. A leadoff double by Smith ended his day in the ninth. Grant West came in, and tried to keep the shutout together, but the first grounder he got was thrown away by Higgins. 3-1, tying run coming to the plate, no outs. West surrendered a double to Luis Lopez with two out, putting the tying run in scoring position, and Jack Burbidge singled up the middle, but Reece got to it quickly, and Lopez held at third base. Dixon, the only guy to hurt Beato all day, was replaced by righty Gary Lang, and West got him to ground out, just barely ending the game for his 40th save of the year. 3-2 Furballs. Higgins 2-4; Moreno 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Beato 8.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (10-7) and 0-2, RBI; The Canadiens matched us day by day in this series, leaving our lead unchanged. Games ahead of VAN: 5 1/2 (was 5 1/2) Magic number: 19 (was 22) In other news September 2 – Talented 23-year old LVA OF Royce Green (.284, 19 HR, 66 RBI) is out for the season with a fractured thumb. September 4 – RIC SP Craig Hansen (18-10, 3.52 ERA) goes eight innings in a 3-2 win over the Cyclones, earning his 200th career win. The 35-year old was the first overall pick in the 1981 draft by the Miners, with whom he won his first 119 games, before signing up with the Rebels. For his career, he is 200-136 with a 3.15 ERA. He is in a contract year. September 8 – VAN LF/RF Ronald Moore (.303, 12 HR, 63 RBI) completes a 20-game hitting streak with a third-inning RBI single in a 3-2 win over the Loggers. Complaints and stuff Miguel Lopez is 0-3 in his last six starts, with a 4.81 ERA in 33.2 IP. Talk about different halves of a season. Fans in Portland are running a fundraiser so we can sign a proper batter in the offseason. Below is also Scott Wade's pitching resume, since I posted it in the other thread in the general discussions. The BABIP is way off this season. Other pitchers that were full time starters last year as well: Kisho Saito .264 -> .281 Jason Turner .292 -> .270 Raimundo Beato .280 -> .297 Shouldn't our defense be better with Osanai gone? First stage on our upcoming tri-city road trip: Vancouver! 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.