[Westheim]

The Monday morning after the 6-5 loss in New York sucked. It was not about the loss. We were 12 1/2 games ahead in the division at this point. One win or more would hardly matter at season’s end, because safe for getting swept in our last seven games against the Loggers, there was but an outside chance for us to lose this.

Royce Green was out for the foreseeable future with a badly forked up shoulder. The estimate put him out for September, the playoffs, all of winter, and the first half of next season. That could really put a headshot not only on plans for October, but for the franchise as a whole. Regardless of whether he would ever come back and we that kill machine he was, we were going to commit a sizeable chunk of money on him in arbitration this year, and at best he would play 50, maybe 60 games for it, and then we would have to evaluate him on that when time would come for talks about the big money after next season, although (and here comes my unknowledgableness of roster rules into play) if he is out long enough, he may stick on the 60-day DL for long enough to not become free agency eligible until after 1998.

Again, I know nothing. But the Portland Agitator knew that and even in the Royce Green injury calamity found a way to bash me, because somehow, somewhere, I had to be at fault: “Royce – horrible injury! Management at fault for overuse!”

See?

We put Royce Green on the 60-day DL then. We issued two callups as well, adding Stephen Buell and Joe Lacombe, two outfielders. Lacombe had been one of the two outfield scrap heap signings earlier this year, the other being Scott Strong. Lacombe’s major league experience was limited to 81 AB’s with the Stars in 1993, then going .259/.354/.407 with 1 HR and 8 RBI.

Raccoons (91-44) vs. Loggers (79-57) – September 2-5, 1996

The Loggers’ offense was second to ours in terms of runs scored in the Continental League, with 646 runs to our 704. Their pitching was not keeping pace, though, although starter Martin Garcia was perhaps one of the best hurlers in the game right now. The Loggers however were also befallen by a swath of injuries, including pitchers Davis Sims, Rafael Garcia, Jorge Casas (all starters, perhaps facilitating their recent topple), catcher Leon Ramirez, and outfielder (and leadoff batter) Jerry Fletcher. Fletcher was playing through elbow soreness, so he was available.

Projected matchups:
Jose Rivera (12-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Cole Johnston (4-6, 5.48 ERA)
Kisho Saito (16-6, 3.73 ERA) vs. Simon Walton (2-3, 5.69 ERA)
Jason Turner (10-8, 3.22 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (16-7, 2.01 ERA)
Scott Wade (14-6, 3.22 ERA) vs. Tim Butler (14-9, 4.35 ERA)

Game 1
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 3B Rush – 2B B. Hernandez – C M. Vela – P Johnston
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – SS Salazar – RF Lacombe – C Vinson – P J. Rivera

Lacombe hit a 2-out double in the bottom 2nd in his first AB as a Coon, and scored when Vinson singled through Drake Evans to get us 1-0 ahead. Call-up Bartolo Hernandez’ first hit of the year would be a 2-out RBI single in the fourth, which would tie the game. Rivera had not had much trouble with the Loggers until that point. The Raccoons had a chance for a big inning in the bottom 5th, where Brewer drew a leadoff walk and Kinnear doubled to right to put both of them into scoring position. Neil Reece lined the ball into left, just fair, for a 2-run double, but was not scored himself in the inning, 3-1. Reece was also on second base in the seventh, and this time O-Mo brought him home with a 2-out double. Up 4-1, Rivera went out for the eighth, where pinch-hitter Jessie McGuire reached on a throwing error by Salazar. While Rivera struck out Fletcher, the two big left-handers were next, and that brought in Burnett, who got the two outs. Well, Reece got the final out on a fly into the gap by Ramirez. The Loggers in the ninth appeared to get going with an infield single by Hiwalani leading off against Tzu-jao Ban, but that was all they got, as Ban retired the next three. 4-1 Raccoons. Lacombe 2-3, BB, 2B; Rivera 7.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K, W (13-1) and 1-3, 2B;

Game 2
MIL: C M. Vela – 2B J. Perez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 1B Rush – CF Golunski – 3B I. Sasaki – P Walton
POR: 2B Ingall – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – LF Buell – RF Strong – C Vinson – SS Salazar – P Saito

This game started off against us very violently, and very quickly. Before Saito registered an out, Jose Perez hit a huge home run to put the Loggers up 2-0. In the second inning, Vinson threw away Walton’s sac bunt to put a pair in scoring position with one out, but Saito managed to whiff both Vela and Perez. Hiwalani reached base on another infield single in the third, and when he stole second, nobody bothered to cover the base. Saito soldiered on, striking out Bob Grant and getting out of that inning, too. While we were looking for a RISP hit in vain early on, Buell and Vinson would figure in not one, but two sac flies by the catcher to tie the game, in the second and fourth innings. We also had two on with one out in the bottom 5th, but Reece grounded out, leaving it to Wedemeyer, who yet had to make contact with a Walton pitch in this game. He did now, and hit a go-ahead 2-run double. But this was a Saito start, so somewhere somebody had to butcher it. Up 5-2, Golunski doubled to start the top 7th. Izumo Sasaki bounced one to O-Mo, who throw it over the head of Weeds, and now we were in trouble. 5-3, no outs and a runner on second, McGuire hit for Walton, grounded to Saito and was out at first, but moved up Sasaki. Miguel Vela brought the run home, and now the lead was down to a hair. Saito finished the seventh and was to be replaced by Otero. In the bottom 7th, Reece and Weeds picked up Saito with back-to-back home runs, restoring a 3-run lead for him. While Otero had little problems in the eighth, Ban managed to load the bags with two out in the ninth, including two walks. Hiwalani was the money batter here, and popped out on the first pitch he saw. Ingall made the catch for Saito’s 17th. 7-4 Raccoons! Ingall 2-5, RBI; Wedemeyer 2-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Strong 2-4; Vinson 0-1, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Salazar 2-3, BB, 2B; Saito 7.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, W (17-6);

I am planning to go to a 6-man rotation in the last few weeks to save energy for my starters, but regardless Saito should have another four starts. Could work out. Could!

With the latest home run, Weeds tied Royce Green for the team lead with 26. He is one off NYC Avery Johnson’s mark of 27, which paces the Continental League, and is matched by DAL 1B Mac Woods in the FL. However, there, Richmond’s Raúl Vázquez leads with 28.

I had held Brewer out of this game for his weekly rest so he could be available for tough-as-nuts southpaw Martin Garcia in the next game.

Game 3
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 2B J. Perez – 3B Rush – C R. Rivera – P M. Garcia
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B O’Morrissey – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – SS Ingall – LF Kinnear – RF Newton – C Kondo – P Turner

Martin Garcia killed the Furballs. He was an awesome pitcher, true, and reached 200 K’s on the year by eliminating Luke Newton in the second inning. He struck out five in the first two frames, although the score was 1-1 after Nori Kondo hit an RBI triple in the second. Turner had surrendered the Loggers’ run in a bases-loaded jam in the top 2nd. Occasionally, however, one would get away from Garcia. Wedemeyer singled, a liner into center, to start the bottom 4th, and when Bob Grant made an error on Ingall’s grounder, we had two on and nobody out. Kinnear grounded out, but Newton singled up the middle and we took the lead, and Kondo also singled up the middle. 3-1 Coons after four. Turner got into trouble in the sixth again. Fletcher led off with a bunt base hit, and Evans doubled to put two in scoring position and slugger Cristo Ramirez came to the plate. Ramirez lined to the left side, where O-Mo made a fantastic catch AND converted the line drive to nip Evans off second before he could scramble back. Turner struck out Hiwalani to get out of this one. Turner would pitch into the eighth, but when Fletcher singled with one out, he was removed for Burnett to face those left-handers again. He got them, but again, the outfielders did most of the work for him. Still 3-1 through eight, and with Ban having pitched a few days in a row, De La Rosa got the job in the ninth. He surrendered a pair of 2-out singles to Perez and Rush, but then struck out PH Dane Thompson to end the game. 3-1 Coons! Wedemeyer 2-4; Ingall 2-4; Kondo 2-3, 3B, 2 RBI; Turner 7.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (11-8);

Game 4
MIL: CF Fletcher – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – SS Grant – 2B J. Perez – 3B Rush – C M. Vela – P Butler
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – 3B O’Morrissey – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Lacombe – SS Salazar – C Vinson – CF Newton – P Wade

Like Saito in the second game, Wade would fall behind 2-0 on a home run, but this time it was Hiwalani in the fourth inning. Both sides had had three singles through the first three innings. The Coons then came straight back at Butler, who walked Weeds in the bottom 4th. Lacombe blooped a single to left, and Salazar singled into right, scoring Weeds. 2-1, no outs, runners on first and second. Vinson hit a single in a full count that loaded the bags, and then Butler tied the game himself as he uncorked a wild pitch. Newton was then put on intentionally to load the bases again for Wade, who was weak batter even for a pitcher (.170/.225/.218 career). But even Scott Wade occasionally would make contact, and here he singled into left, 3-2, and ironically this was the last run we scored in the inning, as Brewer, Kinnear, and O-Mo all flew into shallow outs. That one came back to hurt sooner rather than later, with a game-tying home run by Miguel Vela in the fifth. Bob Grant sent Wade to bed with a 2-run shot in the sixth. It had not been Scotty’s game at all. He would not lose the game, though. He was removed in a double switch that brought in Padilla and McDonald. Newton doubled to lead off the bottom 6th, and then McDonald hit his first major league home run to tie the contest! Brewer got on, and O-Mo got on, too. The Loggers removed Butler and put in Andrew Schaefer, who had killing stuff, but he faced Weeds, who had a killer bat. Liam Wedemeyer made that inning one to forget for the Loggers as he drilled a go-ahead, 3-run home run just inside the foul pole on the right side, 8-5! The Loggers were defeated. Santana pitched a perfect seventh, and Daniel Miller faced no opposition worth mentioning in the final two innings, pitching a 2-inning save, perfectly. 8-5 Raccoons! Brewer 2-5, 2B; O’Morrissey 2-5, 2B; Wedemeyer 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Salazar 3-4, 2B, RBI; McDonald 1-2, HR, 2 RBI; Miller 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, SV (12);

Sweep!! Season over, we can play out the string now. While being first, that is. With three and a half weeks to play, the Loggers now trail by 16 1/2 and our magic number is seven.

COONS! COONS! COONS!

Raccoons (95-44) vs. Canadiens (53-86) – September 6-8, 1996

The ineptness of the Canadiens’ pitching staff had become legendary by now. They were going hard on 100 losses, mainly due to allowing almost 5.5 runs per game. The offense failed to compensate for that, as they ranked 6th in runs scored in the league.

Projected matchups:
Antonio Donis (12-4, 3.51 ERA) vs. John Collins (11-6, 4.01 ERA)
Jose Rivera (13-1, 2.09 ERA) vs. Lucio Munoz (7-12, 4.29 ERA)
Kisho Saito (17-6, 3.69 ERA) vs. Glenn Ryan (8-14, 5.51 ERA)

Game 1
VAN: SS Shaw – 2B McFarland – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B S. Mendez – CF Porter – RF Ledesma – C J. Lopez – P Collins
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – RF Strong – SS Higgins – C Vinson – P Donis

Wedemeyer got the Coons into the lead early with a 2-run homer in the bottom 1st, also collecting Neil Reece. That was unfortunately not enough for Donis, who was shredded before completing five. Jorge Lopez tied the game with a homer in the fourth, and in the fifth nothing worked out anymore for Donis, who put people on, committed a throwing error himself, and was replaced with Padilla in the hope for a K, but he escalated the inning even further, allowing the pair left on by Donis to score, 6-2 Canadiens, and loaded the bags again. Martinez collected the final out from Shaw to escape this train wreck, but was then tagged for two runs himself in the sixth. For the Raccoons, the balls didn’t fall in and the offense wouldn’t restart, and when we did load the bags in the bottom 6th, Brewer left them full with a strikeout. Collins had Lady Luck on his side in this game, which I gave up on after that sixth and brought in the reserves to spare Reece and Weeds the remaining innings (we were in a 20-game stretch, remember). 9-3 Canadiens. Reece 2-3; O’Morrissey 2-4; De La Rosa 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K;

At least we managed to kill the hitting streak of Luis Arroyo, who was inserted as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, but made an out, and De La Rosa didn’t yield anything to him, either. His streak reached 27 games.

Game 2
VAN: CF Ledesma – 3B S. Mendez – LF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 2B McFarland – SS Shaw – RF Moore – C J. Lopez – P Munoz
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Salazar – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – RF Strong – C McDonald – P J. Rivera

Neither pitcher was making a case for awards in this game. Rivera failed to throw strikes and conceded two runs in the first, after which Munoz loaded them up with no outs in the bottom 1st and allowed three runs. We added a run in the third. In the top 5th, up 4-2, Rivera surrendered singles to the 1-2-3 batters to start the inning. Mosley hit into a run-scoring double play, and with McFarland batting, Rivera still had a chance to come out on top, but allowed a single in a full count and the game was tied. Rivera was yanked as Santana ended the inning. Munoz however got better as the game progressed, and went through seven without any more hiccups. To start the bottom 8th of the tied game, Jackie Lagarde came in and faced O-Mo. O-Mo doubled and that was about the furthest a Raccoon had gotten since the third inning. But we left O-Mo on third base in the inning, and Neil Reece barely held on to the game with a most awesome catch on a fly ball to deep left by McFarland in the top 9th. That was the final out in the inning, coming with two on against Martinez. Holden Gorman entered for the bottom 9th. Brewer led off by working a full count and eventually drew a walk. We needed only one run, so Salazar was told to bunt. He laid down a nice one, which Jorge Lopez then threw into the stands, which put Brewer at third with no outs. Reece was not pitched to, loading the bags for Wedemeyer, who struck out, but O-Mo would come through with a single to left. Walkoff!! 5-4 Raccoons!! O’Morrissey 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI; Strong 0-1, 2 BB, 2 RBI; Miller 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
VAN: CF Arroyo – 2B McFarland – LF Hartley – 1B Mosley – 3B S. Mendez – RF Saldana – SS Weston – C J. Lopez – P Ryan
POR: 2B Brewer – SS Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B O’Morrissey – LF Buell – RF Lacombe – C Kondo – P Saito

Kisho Saito’s quest for 20 would have to lead over the corpse of Glenn Ryan. An error by Stephen Buell in the third set the train in motion, but into the wrong direction. Saito gave up 2-out hits to Arroyo and McFarland and fell 2-0 behind on unearned runs in that inning. Saito blew it out for good when he lost control in the fifth, hitting Arroyo and walking McFarland to load the bags. Forest Hartley unpacked a grand slam that put the game all but away, since Ryan was striking out the Raccoons in droves and was still pitching a shutout at this point. He had 10 K’s after five, but wouldn’t add any more until the he left after seven. The Coons also failed to get to Lagarde and we were shut out for the third time this season. 6-0 Canadiens.

Meh. That about kills Saito’s bid for 20. He has only three more starts left (presumably) and would have to go 3-0 in those. Seems unlikely.

In other news

September 2 – The Canadiens beat the Titans, 6-5, with VAN OF Luis Arroyo (.306, 11 HR, 54 RBI) providing three singles and an RBI to extend his hitting streak to 25 games.
September 4 – NYC SP Anibal Sandoval (17-11, 3.67 ERA) sparkles in a 1-hit shutout as the Crusaders beat the Indians, 1-0. Alejandro Roldán has the lone hit for the Indians, a single in the second inning.
September 4 – A shutout is also turned in by RIC Chris O’Keefe (10-10, 4.36 ERA) as the Rebels trump the Buffaloes, 5-0. O’Keefe pitches a 3-hitter.
September 5 – ATL SP Carlos Asquabal (12-14, 2.85 ERA) remains terrific at age 36, and tosses a 3-hit shutout against the Thunder. The Knights win, 6-0.

Complaints and stuff

With the exception of SFW CF John Hensley, Royce Green led all batters in WAR this year, with 6.9. Hensley had 9.0 WAR. What do they both have in common? They won’t add to it due to injuries. Hensley is a competent batter with magnetic gloves in center field, where he makes Neil Reece (no shabby defender for sure) look like he’s going after balls from a wheelchair. With squeaking wheels, too. Hensley’s got 4.2 WAR from defense alone (Reece: 1.2, plus 2.2 from batting).

The fourth game against the Loggers saw the Raccoons welcome their 30,000,000th visitor to the park, although nobody knew exactly who it was. But, we had the game live on local TV and between innings the camera caught a boy with an arm cast in the sellout crowd, who was wearing a Vern Kinnear jersey. After the conclusion of the game, ushers herded that 12-year old boy, whose name was Daniel (wonder whom he was named after?) and who had broken his arm in a Little League game, his dad and brother together with Kinnear, and I proclaimed him our 30,000,000th visitor, and with much celebration Kinnear signed his cast, and we also got the kids a few game-used baseballs and a bat used by Kinnear in the game (to make one of four outs), and I personally made sure there was a TV camera and the Agitator reporter there to witness it for some good news.

The Agitator made no mention of this event in Friday’s issue.

Back to the drawing board?

Anybody remember Dennis Fried, that fringe starter we had a couple years back and ultimately traded to Nashville? He’s still there and is going insanely this season, 17-8 with a 2.96 ERA. He won Pitcher of the Month honors in the Federal League in August. We traded him (and Ennio Sabre) for Raúl Castillo at the deadline in 1991. Raúl who?

The trades I do.