[Westheim]

Raccoons (54-82) @ Canadiens (58-77) – September 8-11, 1997

715 runs allowed (99 more than the Coons) were the main reason why the Canadiens were that far below the .500 mark. The Coons were worst in baseball because their manager was a dork and was unable to win in close games (9-33…).

Projected matchups:
Jose Ramos (5-5, 4.24 ERA) vs. Lucio Munoz (7-9, 4.94 ERA)
Kisho Saito (10-12, 2.98 ERA) vs. Joe Hollow (0-0)
Scott Wade (5-8, 4.84 ERA) vs. Jose Dominguez (8-7, 3.88 ERA)
Kelly Fairchild (0-0) vs. John Collins (10-13, 4.67 ERA)

Split it and let’s get outta here. Kelly Fairchild was called up to make Miguel Lopez’ start, with Lopez having shoulder woes to battle. Fairchild was 7-14 with a 5.12 ERA in AAA this season, so cut out your enthusiasm right away. Fairchild was the Cyclones’ 12th round pick (310th of 325) in the 1992 amateur draft. We got him for third string catcher Bob Armstrong last October.

Game 1
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Green – SS Ingall – 3B Crowe – C Aycock – P Ramos
VAN: RF D. Edwards – SS S. Mendez – LF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – CF Ledesma – 3B Galindo – 2B B. Butler – C J. Lopez – P Munoz

The Raccoons got a run in the first, before leaving for men on across the first two innings. Ramos was surrendering plenty of hard contact, which had to be dug out by the outfielders, and Royce Green hurt himself on a nifty grab in the third inning and had to be removed from the game. Roberto Miranda replaced him and led off the fourth with a single, his first major league hit. Bags full with one out in the inning, Ramos lined into a double play to Bob Butler. Butler drew the Coons another nose in the bottom of the inning with a 2-run homer, flipping the score. Munoz however had a WHIP close to 1.8 for a reason. Brewer and Kinnear led off the fifth with singles, and Reece walked, but again we didn’t fully cash in. Wedemeyer singled a run in, but Miranda whiffed, and Ingall’s sac fly (on which Ledesma pulled something and had to leave the game as well), was all we got. The Canadiens had three singles off Ramos to start the bottom 5th. De La Rosa came in. After a game-tying groundout and a K to Forest Hartley in the #5 hole, it looked like we could get out tied. Until Gabby threw a wild pitch. 4-3 Elks after five, the Coons left a pair in scoring position in the sixth. After Miranda singled to start the seventh, Munoz was removed from the game. Paul Kirkland faced Marvin Ingall, and a homer flipped the score once more. After that, the Coons loaded the bases, and left them loaded. We finally got something done in the ninth, with a 3-run homer by Sidney Aycock. Oh, and we left the bases loaded. 8-4 Raccoons. Brewer 4-5, BB, 2B; Kinnear 2-5, BB; Miranda 2-5; Ingall 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Aycock 3-4, BB, HR, 3 RBI;

We merely left 16 men on base in this game. Oh, and Royce Green is not diagnosed yet, but it’s never wrong to expect the worst.

Game 2
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Newton – LF Kinnear – SS Guerin – C McDonald – P Saito
VAN: C J. Lopez – 2B S. Mendez – LF Hartley – SS Carpenter – 3B Galindo – 1B B. Butler – CF Hudson – RF Porter – P Hollow

We started out by leaving Reece and Weeds in scoring position in the first. The Raccoons refused to score for Saito, who was wild for the first three innings, before being talked to intensely in the dugout between innings. Whatever the pitching coach told him, it worked, because starting in the fourth, the Canadiens couldn’t touch him. That didn’t change the scoring issue, though. Then, the sixth: Reece got on with a single, and Weeds got one to his liking at showed the rookie where it was dark with a towering 2-run home run to right that broke the scoreless tie. Hollow came apart for good in the seventh as the Coons pummeled him out of the game with a 2-run double by Newton, and suddenly we put up a 6-spot as reliever Manuel Hernandez wasn’t exactly relieving. Up 8-0, Saito reverted to the first inning and was knocked out by Jorge Lopez with a 2-run triple in the seventh. In a weird start, he somehow struck out seven in six innings. But for a nice change, the bullpen held up (assisted by two double plays), and this included Miller holding Lopez on third base. 9-2 Raccoons. Reece 4-5; Wedemeyer 3-4, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI; Newton 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; McDonald 2-4, 2B; Saito 6.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, W (11-12) and 3-4;

Game 3
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – SS Ingall – C Vinson – RF Miranda – P Wade
VAN: RF D. Edwards – SS S. Mendez – CF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – 2B B. Butler – LF Hudson – C J. Lopez – P Dominguez

Every game started the same with this team, as they loaded the bags in the first, and left them loaded. While Brewer drove in a pair in the top 2nd, Wade was soon steamrolled by the Canadiens, who had the luck of consecutive lazy bloop singles into shallow right center in manufacturing a 4-run second, including a 2-run homer by Bill Mosley, and Mosley tattooed Wade for two more in the third. Weeds struck out to leave the bags full in the fourth, and Wade was knocked out in the bottom of the inning. The game was going downhill really, really fast. For the second time in the series, Bob Butler converted a line drive into a double play, then on Miranda to end the fifth. The Raccoons weren’t going anyway in the game, and pretty much every reliever that was put into the game, was touched for a run. Tamburrino was put into the eighth because we were out of arms. Tamburrino was completely imploded by the Canadiens, getting one out, while seven Canadiens reached on hits or walks, and one on an error by Miranda. Santana came in, and walked all runs left over by Tamburrino in. All of them. The Canadiens plated eight, all on Tamburrino, in a massive rout. 17-4 Canadiens. Brewer 2-4, 2 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Kinnear 2-6; Reece 1-2, 3 BB, RBI; Miranda 2-5; McLaughlin (PH) 1-1;

Tamburrino surrendered 12 earned runs all season. Now, six in .1 innings. Unrelated, Alonso Santana is the most useless piece of **** on the planet.

Team LOB: 18. **** this ****.

What else? Royce Green will miss another two to three weeks with a sprained ankle. He was put on the DL, and we would have called up another scrub to complement Roberto Miranda, because scrubs is all we got, but there was no other outfielder on the 40-man roster, and that roster was full. Releasing Santana outright was tempting, but we can probably haul in a nice pot plant and two ham sandwiches in a trade for him. Instead, Utting would be enlisted to play right field at times, but Newton would start most games now.

We still called up a scrub. With scrub Kelly Fairchild making his big league debut in game 4, we had NO bullpen left. It had all been smoked up. So, although I had banished him for life, I was forced to return the scrub Day Grandridge to the roster. I hated it, and when he arrived, I spat at him.

Twice.

Game 4
POR: 2B Brewer – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – 3B Crowe – RF Newton – SS Ingall – C McDonald – P Fairchild
VAN: RF D. Edwards – SS S. Mendez – CF Arroyo – 1B Mosley – 3B Galindo – 2B B. Butler – LF J. Moreno – C Castillo – P Collins

Fairchild dazzled the Canadiens the first time through the lineup, allowing one hit, and struck out SIX. Three of the next four Canadiens reached, and they took a 1-0 lead. We re-tied the game in the top 4th when Ingall singled home Crowe from second base, but as Crowe plunged into home plate and catcher Julio Castillo, he hurt his chest and left the game. Weeds crushed his 20th homer of the year leading off the sixth off Collins, and the Coons were 2-1 ahead. But Bob Butler, who had owned the Coons the whole week, crushed one, too, and his counted for three off Fairchild in the bottom of the inning, and Fairchild got Moreno to pop out, and that was it for his debut. Grandridge was inserted into the 4-2 Elks game, to go as long as possible, regardless of result. The first thing he did was to plunk Castillo. He surrendered one run, which was unearned after a Caddock error. The Elks’ Collins struck out ten, and they sent Jackie Lagarde in the ninth to protect a 5-2 lead. With one out, Brewer had runners on the corners, but grounded out, scoring Ingall. Kinnear doubled, putting the tying runs in scoring position. Reece, who should know what Lagarde had to offer, struck out. 5-3 Canadiens. Kinnear 2-5, 2 2B; Newton 2-4; Ingall 3-4, RBI;

Mike Crowe, future third base starter(?), strained a rib cage muscle, and he joins the list of Raccoons we won’t see again this year. To the DL with him. Meanwhile, the revolving door kept revolving as we sent Kelly Fairchild back to AAA, and added infielder Gabriel Rodriguez.

Raccoons (56-84) vs. Indians (58-82) – September 12-14, 1997

Another team playing out the string that would undoubtedly find ways to rape our starters despite scoring just a tad over four runs per game (last in the CL).

Projected matchups:
Hector Lara (6-7, 3.66 ERA) vs. Rafael Serrano (14-8, 4.33 ERA)
Jose Ramos (5-5, 4.43 ERA) vs. Manuel Alba (4-2, 2.66 ERA)
Kisho Saito (11-12, 2.98 ERA) vs. Dan George (9-13, 3.96 ERA)

In the middle of a 17-game stretch, Neil Reece and David Brewer would get days off in this series. Brewer would be skipped in the first game, and Reece in the middle contest. Wedemeyer could sit in game 3. Everybody else was rotating a lot anyway. Just got to watch Kinnear, as with Buell and Green both out on the DL, he is now not platooning with anybody.

Game 1
IND: LF Sakaguchi – C Cicalina – 1B M. Brown – RF A. Roldán – CF Paredes – 2B M. Carter – 3B D. Lopez – SS Chevalier – P Serrano
POR: 2B Ingall – LF Kinnear – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Newton – 3B Utting – SS Guerin – C McDonald – P Lara

What do you need most of all when all your outfielders have gone down to injury? Luke Newton getting drilled and charging the mound to sock Serrano with the bat, perhaps? That happened in the third inning, the Raccoons up 3-0. Both were ejected. As a nice change from the way things were going usually, we loaded the bags in the inning, and left them full. Ha, fooled you, didn’t I? As far as Hector Lara was concerned, he had two busy innings to start the game, but then settled in for a while. The impossible Matt Brown walked and Roldán doubled to start the sixth. Lara did NOT come apart, but popped up Paredes, struck out Carter, and Lopez grounded out to short, and nobody scored. After such miracles everybody in attendance was sure that Lara would go the distance, when in fact he went only four more batters, three of which reached in the seventh, bringing the score to 3-1 Hairy Disasters, two on, one out, and Matt Brown at the plate. Zuniga came in, and the Indians shockingly removed their slugger for right-hander Gilberto Flores! Flores flew out to Reece in center, and Zuniga struck out another pinch-hitter, 33-yr old journeyman Jimmy Erickson. Weeds put the run just given up back on the board with his second swoosh of the day, but the Indians came right back with a leadoff double by Carlos Paredes off Zuniga, and Miller couldn’t keep him on base. Tamburrino had been anal-probed just two days ago and was not available, so we sent De La Rosa to protect the 4-2 lead in the ninth. He put on Cicalina with two out, but got through. 4-2 Raccoons. Wedemeyer 2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Utting 2-4; Lara 6.1 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, W (7-7);

Newton was suspended for nine games. Great job. GREAT JOB! YOU MORON!! HOW CAN YOU …!!???

RAAAAAHHH!!!

While I was foaming, we NEEDED another outfielder now. We can’t scrape past with just Reece, Kinnear, Miranda, and Utting, especially since Miranda is the only prudent option in right field.

In a twisted move, Steve Caddock was designated for assignment, and we called up Jason Kent from AA(!!) to fill up the ranks. Kent was our eighth round pick from 1995, and was putting up good numbers in AA, and … I don’t know, we’ve actually run out of scrubs …

In more positive news, Weeds’ double-smack rushed him past Atlanta’s Jesus Arias to lead the CL home run race with 22 sonic booms. The CL is behind the FL, where DAL Mac Woods’ this week tied TOP Corey Patel with 25 dingers. Patel is on the DL, but Woods has more competitors to worry about, with CIN Dan Morris closest with 24.

Sssht. I basically forfeited the middle game in order to rest the two big guys for next week. Don’t tell.

Game 2
IND: SS J. Martinez – C Cicalina – 1B M. Brown – RF A. Roldán – CF Paredes – 3B Whaley – LF L. Maldonado – 2B Chevalier – P Alba
POR: 2B Brewer – 1B Ingall – CF Utting – LF Kinnear – 3B G. Rodriguez – SS Guerin – C Vinson – RF Miranda – P Ramos

A Gabriel Rodriguez error in the second led to two unearned runs for the Indians, but to be fair, Ramos was awful before that just as well. The Coons re-tied the Indians in the third, with Marvin Ingall coming up with a key RBI single, which also enabled Utting to get the second run home with a sac fly. A 3-2 lead put together by Utting with an RBI single in the fifth went up in smoke the next inning with a 2-run single by Jamal Chevalier. With two out and two on, our big boys came out to pinch-hit in this game. Reece struck out for Ramos in the bottom 6th, while Weeds singled to right in the bottom 7th, Ingall turned around third, and was thrown out. Bottom 8th, still down 4-3. The bags were full with two down as Roberto Herrera pitched to Ingall. Once Herrera erred the count to 3-1, I gleamed angrily at Ingall. Don’t you dare to swing! Ingall didn’t swing, the pitch was low, and the tying run was forced in. Then Utting jabbed at the first pitch and flew out to Sakaguchi… Grandridge put Francisco Alarcon on second base in the ninth and with two out, Brown loomed, so Zuniga came out. Gilberto Flores was sent to pinch-hit again. Flores grounded out, and the Coons failed to reach base, and we went to extra innings, with the Coons actually out of pinch-hitters after some manic switching by a ******ed manager. After Otero pitched a scoreless 10th around a 1-out triple by Carlos Paredes, our first three men in the bottom 10th showed how far we were in shutting down shop: Kent, Aycock, McLaughlin; Aycock actually singled, bringing up Brewer with two down. Ah, a major league caliber player! The count ran full and then Brewer wanted to go home, jocked on an offering by Javier Navarro and hit a double over Flores in center. Aycock was not a good runner and chugged around second, third, and came home a second ahead of the ball. Walkoff!! 5-4 Raccoons! Brewer 3-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Ingall 2-4, BB, 2 RBI; Wedemeyer (PH) 1-1; Vinson 2-4; Aycock (PH) 2-2; Grandridge 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K;

Game 3
IND: 3B Whaley – 2B M. Carter – RF Sakaguchi – CF L. Maldonado – 1B Erickson – LF D. Lopez – C T. Thompson – SS J. Martinez – P George
POR: 2B Brewer – 3B Ingall – CF Reece – 1B Wedemeyer – RF Utting – LF Kinnear – SS Guerin – C Vinson – P Saito

While Saito was pitching a 1-hit shutout through four (allowing a double to Dan George, of all people) it took until the fourth for the Coons to get any hit, when Ingall hit a leadoff single. But it was a Saito game, so… Weeds reached on an infield single, but both runners were left in scoring position when Kinnear struck out. Bottom 5th, Rodriguez led off with a single from the #7 spot (more on that below), and Vinson walked. Saito had bunted into a force at second place his first time up, so was told to swing this time, and swung into the air three times. Then came Brewer and grounded to Whaley, who made his second error of the series with a throw past Erickson. Rodriguez scored and we had two more in scoring position after the ball ended up in the stands. The runners were left on by Ingall and Reece. Rodriguez brought in Weeds with a double in the sixth, 2-0, and Saito was clicking off batters, carrying a 2-hitter through seven. All was smooth, until it wasn’t. A pinch-hit homer by Alarcon halved the lead, and when Whaley singled after that, Saito was brought in and Miller came out to face Martin Carter. In a predictable move, the Indians countered with left-hander Matt Brown. Miller got him to ground out to Ingall, though. That was Miller’s only batter on the day, since his spot came up with three aboard and one out in the eighth. We got one run on Miranda’s groundout, and that was it: Brewer struck out. That put Tamburrino into a 3-1 game, so surrendering eight again was out of the question. He walked Tadanobu Sakaguchi to start the inning. Oh, here we go. Two groundouts later, Sakaguchi was on third, and .143 batter (3-21) David Lopez was up. Tamburrino got him to 1-2, before Lopez hit one. Long, deep, fair. Tied game. Paredes homered, and then Tamburrino was removed and took a bat or two into the nuts from me. Bottom 9th. Reece walked with one out. Wedemeyer singled to left. Aycock hit for Pancho Padilla and grounded to Brown, whose throw to second went into left. All hands safe, winning run at second base, Kinnear up against the right-hander Navarro. Kinnear grounded to Whaley, who zinged home to nab Reece. Bases loaded, TWO OUTS. Rodriguez was up, the bench looked rather dire, and why bother. I turned around and walked into my office to find a piece of good rope and a wonky chair, before Rodriguez ever completed his strikeout. 4-3 Indians. Wedemeyer 2-4, BB; Rodriguez 2-4, BB, 2B, RBI; Saito 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K;

Get that ugly, ******ed, infectious, disgusting, vomit-inducing Australian warthog outta my sight.

NOW.

In other news

September 8 – ATL SP Carlos Asquabal (9-7, 3.46 ERA) is out for up to a year with a torn labrum. The grizzled veteran is due $1.1M per season through 1999.
September 11 – DAL INF Rodrigo Morales (.308, 10 HR, 64 RBI) has a hitting streak go to 20 games with a single in a 5-1 win over the Scorpions.
September 12 – It’s season over for TIJ LF Dale Wales (.325, 7 HR, 71 RBI), who has suffered torn ankle ligaments.
September 14 – SAC RF/1B Sam Green (.353, 17 HR, 101 RBI) is out for the regular season with an elbow sprain.

Complaints and stuff

Got enough gangbanged already? Nope! In AA, infielder Carlos Gomes, our supplemental round pick from last season, was more or less hurt all year. He has now been forced to retire with a torn labrum.

Three weeks until I can head to the woods and drop myself off South Sister.