[Westheim]

Finally baseball!!

Raccoons (0-0) @ Crusaders (0-0) – April 5-7, 1994

As Kisho Saito faced John Woodard on Opening Day, it was the day of truth. How would our but barely changed roster cope with the Crusaders, who were a hot bet to finish at the bottom of the CL North again?

First game, first inning, Baldivía left the bases loaded as Woodard punched him out. Kisho Saito’s first pitch was into CF Alfonso Rojas’ side. It took Saito until the fifth batter, Benjamin Butler, to get a strike past somebody, and the Crusaders took an early 1-0 lead. Woodard made it 2-0 in the second with a 2-out, 2-strike RBI double off Saito. The Furballs’ assumed ace struggled and just so hung on to a 2-0 deficit through six, twice starving runners on third base. The Raccoons in turn did little to justify their ambitions to return to the World Series. Alejandro Lopez hit a solo home run in the top 7th, but that left the team one run short. The Crusaders almost broke up the game in the bottom 8th, but Burnett got the final out with a K to pinch-hitter Martin Limón. Closer Ivan Lopez walked Vinson to start the top 9th, and he was replaced with Higgins, and Hall hit for Burnett, but whiffed. Salazar blooped his way on with a single, but Ivan Lopez then struck out Alejandro Lopez. O-Mo came up, found himself down two strikes quickly, before he made contact on the 2-2 pitch and doubled into right for both runners to come home. PHEW!!! Grant West pitched a 1-2-3 bottom 9th, holding on to a flimsy 3-2 Raccoons win. O’Morrissey 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Baldivía 2-4;

Narrowly avoided Opening Day embarrassment. 161 games to go.

Neil Reece had a double to extend a 12-game hitting streak from the end of last season.

Royce Green made his first start for his new team in the middle game, replacing Kinnear in left field against southpaw David Ramirez. He came through his first time up with a 2-run single in the second inning. There was no scoring for some time after that. While Jason Turner was not 100% spot on with a few pitches far from the zone, he held the Crusaders at bay. The Coons didn’t reappear on the board until the sixth, where Neil Reece jacked a solo home run to dead center. That the Coons left pairs on in the sixth and seventh innings, even coupled with quick bottoms to those innings for Turner, put Turner on a short leash with a 3-0 lead, and when Butler homered off him in the bottom 8th, his days were counted. Miller and West held the game in one piece for the final five outs. 3-1 Raccoons. Reece 4-4, HR, RBI; Green 2-3, BB, 2 RBI; Hall (PH) 1-1; Turner 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, W (1-0);

We also suffered our first injury of the year in this game, as Mark Allen left the game early due to a stiff neck. Higgins replaced him and miraculously whiffed in this first two appearances at the plate. Remember that Higgins went just over 100 AB without a K to start a season a few years ago. It can’t be the shoulder, can it? Messed up his swing? Well, the sample size is not really enormous, so we will cautiously watch. Allen was held out of game 3 as a precaution, giving Higgins his first start of the year.

The Bayhawks claimed Sixto Moreno off waivers in the meantime, and he is no longer part of the Raccoons organization.

Neil Reece extended his hitting streak to 15 games with an impressive shot for a 3-run home run in game 3, which in the top 3rd also broke up the scoreless tie. The Crusaders got a run off Miguel Lopez with an RBI double by Pete Thompson in the bottom of the inning, but Vern Kinnear restored the 3-run gap with a solo shot in the top 4th. The floodgates slowly opened, but the torrent washed away New York’s starter Hector Lara by the fifth, when Higgins drove in two runs, and the Coons had two on and no outs in the sixth when reliever Jose Hernandez threw away Miguel Lopez’ bunt en route to three unearned runs. The Crusaders got two more RBI doubles off Lopez in the later innings, but the game was never in doubt past the sixth. 9-3 Raccoons. Salazar 3-5, 2B, RBI; Reece 2-5, HR, 3 RBI; Baldivía 3-4; M. Lopez 7.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (1-0);

A sweep! With the Canadiens washing away the Titans, we tied for the division lead at 3-0. I have a hunch where this could be heading.

Raccoons (3-0) vs. Aces (2-1) – April 8-10, 1994

The Aces had received (among others) MR Qi-zhen Geng in the trade for Royce Green. Vicente Guerra ranked him as one of their top 5 players in his short report leading up to this series. For a short time after the trade, I felt like I had robbed them of Green. Not anymore. The Aces will be fine.

I made the first change to the posted lineups already (apart from sitting Allen for his neck, he was still not back in the lineup for game 1), and took out Alejandro Lopez, who had hit a home run and had made nothing but embarrassing outs and a misplay so far. Hall started in right against the Aces in the opener (which was our home opener after all)

The Furballs took the battle to starter Rafael Espinoza quickly, with the first four men all hitting safely in the bottom 1st. 3-0 Coons. Poor Espinoza was torn up in a hurry, as the Coons built another big inning in the bottom 3rd, aided by an error by SS Manuel Gomez in a situation with no outs and runners on the corners on Baldivía’s hot double play grounder. Nobody out, already two runs in, and two on, Vern Kinnear relieved Espinoza from his pains with a gigantomatic 3-run blast into the top row of the seats in right field. It was 8-0. Like Lopez the day before in New York, Beato dominated the opposing lineup. Until O’Morrissey put the leadoff man Carlos Quintela on in the eighth inning, Beato had allowed just two base runners. The unearned run scored, but a few deep counts had Beato way over 100 pitches after eight innings anyway. Tim Mallandain had not appeared in New York, but appeared here in the ninth, facing switch hitter C Mario Guerrero and lefty Edward Carter, and put both of them on. Martinez walked the bases full, and allowed both runners to score, but the lead was big enough. 8-3 Raccoons. Salazar 2-5, 2B; Higgins 2-4, 3B; O’Morrissey 2-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Reece 3-4, RBI; Beato 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, W (1-0);

Ex-Ace Royce Green batted third in the middle game against the Aces’ ace Carlos Guillén (0-1, 11.81 ERA). Scott Wade was the last Raccoon to make an appearance this season, but was whacked around early on. He found himself down 3-0 quickly, but two things happened in the fourth inning. Esteban Baldivía hit a game-tying 3-run homer with two outs off Guillén, and it began to rain. The light drizzle intensified, but then suddenly stopped again in the fifth, just as Wade had set down the Aces. Wade thus remained in the game. Green robbed the Aces’ Roman Reyes of a home run to lead off the top 6th in the tied contest. Wade put Carlos Quintela on in the top 7th, and the rain began again. When the Aces sent lefty Michael Sanders to hit for the pitcher, Mallandain came in, and looked helpless as Quintela stole his way around to third base (Vinson didn’t look swell, either). Sanders lined up the middle, where Allen made a wonderful grab for the second out. Daniel Miller then allowed the runner to score and untie the game. Problem was, the Coons had only four hits so far against Guillén, who left the game in the seventh. In the bottom 8th, Jose Sotelo threw eight straight balls to Salazar and Green with one out. Reece up, hitting a lofty .524 so far. He also worked a walk, leaving it to Baldivía to come through again, but Baldivía whiffed, and Allen did so, too, and it was the game. Glenn Adams upped the score a bit in the ninth with a 2-shot off Tony Vela. 6-3 Aces. Burnett 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K;

Like in his first start of the season, Kisho Saito drilled the first batter he faced in his second start in game 3. His opponent Jou Hara had surrendered six run in 3.2 innings in his season debut. Neil Reece led off the second inning with a home run off Hara. Hara then loaded them up with two walks and a Baldivía single, with no outs, as Jose Rodriguez came to bat in his first start of the year. Hara punched him out, but couldn’t get Saito, who hit a sac fly, enabling Salazar to drive in another run for a 3-0 lead. Backup 3B Nathan Hines, who had replaced an injured Quintela, jacked a 2-shot off Saito right away in the top 3rd, though, so nothing was safe here. This was especially true with Saito surrendering some more hard contact. Javier Vargas doubled leading off the top 6th, representing the tying run, but suddenly Saito struck out the next three. It didn’t help him a bit. Glenn Adams’ leadoff double in the seventh was brought home by the Aces, and the game was tied. Saito was again left with a no-decision. The Raccoons offense remained invisible until the ninth. Still in a tied game, Reece popped out, before Alejandro Lopez doubled. Lopez moved to third as Baldivía grounded out, bringing up Kinnear against right-handed closer Vicente Rúbio. Kinnear lined into loud out in left field and we had extra innings. As we thoroughly ruined our bullpen for days to come, nobody could be bothered to land a blow. In the 14th inning, Adams launched a solo home run off Tony Vela with two down. The Raccoons went down in silence. 4-3 Aces. Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K; Burnett 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

That’s back-to-back games where we registered only five hits each. In 23 total innings. NOT. GOOD.

Raccoons (4-2) vs. Knights (3-3) – April 11-13, 1994

For the third day in a row, we faced a 10+ ERA pitcher in game 1, with Pat Cherry having been roughed up badly in his first start (4.2 IP, 6 ER, L). The Aces got going first, kindly helped by a Ben O’Morrissey error for a 1-0 lead in the top 2nd. Jason Turner wasn’t behind for long. Reece walked to start the bottom 2nd, stole second (the Coons’ first bag of the year) and scored on Kinnear’s double. In the fourth, Neil Reece extended his hitting streak to 19 games when his grounder took a bad hop on 2B Manuel Guzman and actually hit Guzman in the shoulder, which was generously scored a hit. This time he was scored by Baldivía and the Raccoons took a 2-1 lead. In the bottom 6th, we had our leadoff men on. Green grounded out, advancing them, and Vinson was put on intentionally with Turner coming up. Had we NOT played a 14-inning game the other night, Alejandro Lopez comes out to hit for Turner, but we still have to cover three innings with a depleted bullpen here, and Turner is sent batting. Hope for a sac fly, move from there. He popped out, but then Cherry walked Salazar to force in a run. That was a fatal error for Cherry, who then surrendered a bases-clearing double to Higgins, breaking up the tight game. Royce Green upped the score with his first long ball for the Raccoons, a 2-shot in the bottom 7th, and they added three more runs in the eighth, including two unearned runs after an error by Michael Root. 11-1 Raccoons! Higgins 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Reece 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Kinnear 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Baldivía 3-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Turner 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W (2-0);

CF Jesus Gonzalez opened game 2 with a bang, a massive shot off Miguel Lopez for an early 1-0 Knights score, but the Coons turned it around in the bottom 1st, Reece and Allen driving in runs, and they made it a 5-1 game through three innings. Fans were enjoying their day at the park, with Miguel Lopez shutting down the Knights, and the Raccoons continuing to rake. At one point, Kinnear, O-Mo, and Reece hit back-to-back-to-back doubles, all just shy of the walls, to the crowd’s excitement. The Knights had to get Lopez out of the game to get the offense going, but then Root hit an enormous home run off Juan Martinez in the eighth. Unfortunately, the shot was of the 3-run variety. Too little, too late: 9-4 Furballs! Salazar 2-5, RBI; Kinnear 2-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-5, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Reece 3-4, BB, 2 2B, 2 RBI; M. Lopez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, W (2-0);

Neil Reece extended his hitting streak to 20 games in this contest. Jorge Salazar is close behind him with an active 14-game hitting streak, too!

I made an experiment for the next game (and it will continue beyond that, I am sure) and put Baldivía to second in the batting order. He was hitting tons of singles and few home runs, maybe that was more his slot. Unfortunately he was close to zero speed, so we can not steal bases with him out of that spot, but Higgins is not getting on base a lot at this point either.

The Knights scored first again in the final game of the series, two runs off “Pooky” in the first inning. Both runners had walked to get on base. Meanwhile we faced a strong starter in Glenn Ryan (0-0, 1.69 ERA). The Raccoons took some time to get into a groove against him, then loaded the bases with two down in the fourth, and Daniel Hall to bat. Hall took Ryan’s first pitch into shallow left for an RBI single, but Rodriguez made the final out. The bottom 5th saw us have another chance after a Salazar single and a Baldivía double. One out, O-Mo up. The third baseman walked on a full count, leaving it to Reece (who had already extended his streak in the fourth), to turn the game around, but Reece was collected by Ryan on his excellent changeup and Kinner lined out hard to waste the chance. Beato was done after six, but Ryan wasn’t and continued to keep the Coons in check despite two crowded innings – until Neil Reece led off the bottom 8th with a game-tying home run. Ryan was removed for Mike Dye to face Mark Allen, who was 1-15 on the year. Dye’s first pitch was right down Broadway and Allen certainly didn’t miss it, crushing it OVER the stands in right field – go-ahead home run! Unfortunately, it didn’t hold up. A messy outing by Grant West, a throwing error by Mark Allen, and another narrowly missed play by Allen, and then a bases-loaded walk by West created a 3-run onslaught in the top 9th, that put us 5-3 down. Bottom 9th. Vinson pinch-hit for a single, but was forced out on Salazar’s grounder. Higgins grounded out to move Salazar up. O-Mo came up and lined into center for a 2-out single. Salazar turned the corner and went for home, the throw home was errant, Salazar scored, and O-Mo as the tying run went to second base. Neil Reece could make it alright after all, but he grounded out. 5-4 Knights. O’Morrissey 2-3, 2 BB, RBI; Reece 2-5, HR, RBI; Vinson (PH) 1-1;

After punching out ten and walking one in his first start of the year, “Pooky” made it an even 5/5 in this game. What a mess, and Grant West was horrible in this outing. Jackie Lagarde is already polishing brand new shoes which he will only wear once he is designated the closer.

In other news

April 4 – WAS OF Dale Cleveland (1-3) will miss a month after suffering a separated shoulder on Opening Day, in a 2-1 win of the Capitals over the Miners.
April 8 – BOS LF/RF/1B Hjalmar Flygt (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI) had carried over a 21-game hitting streak from the 1993 season. While he managed to retain it while the Titans were swept by the Canadiens, and built it to 24 games, he ran out of luck against the Thunder today, behing held hitless as the Titans lost 3-1.

Complaints and stuff

Neil Reece was Player of the Week to start the season, hitting 11-21 with 2 HR and 5 RBI. His season start was certainly nothing but inspiring. So far, most of his team mates have not been *really* inspired, though. Look at how you can add up any two other outfielders’ production below, and except for one combo they won’t stink up to Reece. He has already batted for 1.2 WAR at this point (and defended for 0.1 WAR, but it’s early)! Now, chances are that Reece won’t hit .475 for the year, but I am allowed to bask in the light of this radiating sun for a second, right?

Neil Reece – you gotta love that boy!!! Why does he look like he’s pissed?

Thank god the 1988 Coons were so horrible. I have no idea where we’d be if not for The Culling.

We enter the season with less than $150k of budget room. We can not add any significant players who were leftover free agents unless they sign a minor league (and thus a minimum) contract.