[Westheim]

Raccoons (4-9) @ Loggers (4-8) – April 19-21, 1999

The Loggers’ rotation was currently worst in the league, having been pummeled more badly than even the Raccoons’, and that was saying something. On the other hand, their bullpen was pretty sweet early on, and we had surrendered the same amount of runs (61), while they had outscored us by six runs (49-43). I was trying to gain some advantage by skipping Bob Joly with an off day after this series.

Projected matchups:
Randy Farley (1-1, 0.55 ERA) vs. Davis Sims (0-1, 12.86 ERA)
Kisho Saito (0-3, 7.13 ERA) vs. Simon Walton (0-2, 9.35 ERA)
Jose Rivera (1-1, 4.91 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (2-1, 1.14 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – C Branch – 3B Crowe – LF Buell – 2B Caddock – P Farley
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – CF Fletcher – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – C L. Ramirez – 1B D. Evans – 2B J. Perez – P Sims

Farley threw 38 pitches in the first inning, which usually signals impending annihilation, and this one was no different. The Loggers loaded him with two runs in the first, another run in the second, and even the opposing pitcher would get a 2-out RBI double against him in the third inning. Sims would get another 2-out hit in the fifth, that one knocking Farley from the contest. Sims was not allowing them a lot of base time early on, but two things happened after five innings. A Clyde Brady home run brought the Coons back within a run, and Sims left in the sixth with an injury. Marvin Ingall would come up with a pinch-hit slap single in the eighth that plated Cesar Gonzalez from second base and tied the game. John Hatt on the mound would proceed to walk Caddock and Parker, and Guerin brought the Raccoons in front with a single to left before Brady grounded out. Not that this 5-4 advantage lived long. Miller was brought in for the eighth since Tamburrino had been used to end the fifth with the bags packed, and allowed two singles up the middle. With one out, Donis was brought in to face left-hander Cristo Ramirez, which predictably opened the dams. Ramirez walked, and Hiwalani and Cruz made Donis look ****ty as usual. Top 9th. Reece led off with a single, and Gonzalez drew a walk against closer Ricardo Medina. Now, next was Castillo, since Lance Branch had been ejected for a disagreement over a strike three call earlier in the game. Castillo was told to bunt, failed, then came back to walk. Bags full, nobody out with a 6-5 deficit. Samy Michel hit for the dirtbag Donis, but grounded to Perez, who forced Reece at home. Ingall recovered that pitiful appearance by drawing another walk, which tied the game, but the despicable Coons failed to get the go-ahead run across when Caddock grounded out and Parker whiffed. Predictably, the Loggers would then easily walk off against Christian Proctor. 7-6 Loggers. Guerin 2-5, RBI; Brady 2-5, HR, 2 RBI; Reece 2-5, 2B, RBI; Buell 2-3; Ingall (PH) 1-1, BB, 2 RBI; Martinez 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Well, if your bullpen has to pitch five innings every ****ing day, at some point you will run out! We only had Proctor, Fairchild, and Wade left by the ninth. Wade was a bit spent after being out two days in a row, and I wasn’t willing to use my actual long man in the ninth, either.

Of course, using Wade would have been the more prudent choice, since the next start was assigned to Kisho, and THERE WON’T BE ANYTHING TO SAVE THERE.

Game 2
POR: 2B ingall – LF Buell – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Crowe – C Castillo – RF Newton – SS Caddock – P Saito
MIL: CF Fletcher – 2B J. Perez – RF C. Ramirez – 3B J. Cruz – SS Sullivan – LF Hatch – C J. Vela – 1B D. Evans – P Walton

We’d rather need our long man in the middle game. For once, Kisho Saito was battered by Terry Sullivan for a 3-run home run in the first inning, and was out of the game in the third after making a leaping grab and throw on a Jorge Cruz grounder, where he pulled something in his leg. Cruz legged it out, too, which gave the Loggers runners on the corners with one out, but Fairchild got a fly from Sullivan to Buell, and Buell zinged home to nab Ramirez at home to end the inning and keep the score 3-1. Could the Raccoons at least get Saito off the hook? Cut out those sick jokes. Of course not. They would occasionally leave a pair of runners on, but failed to score against Walton, and once Daniel Miller was impaled for three runs in the sixth, it was all over again. And that was before the Loggers got Tamburrino for four runs in the eighth. 10-3 Loggers. Reece 3-4, BB; Castillo 2-5, HR, RBI; Brady (PH) 1-1; Fairchild 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K;

Saito, or the empty shell that formerly was Saito, is the second pitcher this year that pulls a hamstring. He is currently expected to miss his next start, which would be quite outrageous for a pitcher that has never been on the DL. No replacement was arranged for.

By the way, it’s not even late April, and I’m already fed up.

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – LF Buell – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – C Branch – 3B Crowe – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – P Rivera
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B D. Evans – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 3B J. Cruz – C L. Ramirez – CF Sanders – 2B Sullivan – P M. Garcia

It wasn’t like the sweep for the Loggers wasn’t already in the book. A Cristo Ramirez RBI triple got them ahead in the first, and one run should be plenty for Garcia, the reigning POTY. After two, it was 3-0, and over. Rivera was wild, walked four and hit one batter, and couldn’t go six innings either. Garcia went eight innings, allowed five hits, and only one run on a groundout. 3-1 Loggers. Martinez 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Bloody ****, are we in the ****.

Raccoons (4-12) @ Falcons (10-6) – April 23-25, 1999

The fact that the Falcons were scoring the most runs in the Continental League, and that the Raccoons were conceding the most runs in the Continental League, was probably an indicator into how this series might develop.

Projected matchups:
Miguel Lopez (1-1, 3.38 ERA) vs. Terry Murphy (2-1, 2.52 ERA)
Randy Farley (1-1, 2.14 ERA) vs. Joe Jennings (2-0, 1.93 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-2, 15.26 ERA) vs. John Woodard (0-3, 11.48 ERA)

Game 1
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – C Branch – LF Buell – 1B Michel – 2B Ingall – P M. Lopez
CHA: CF Morton – 2B Brantley – 1B H. Green – SS M. Hall – LF Cleveland – RF Mashiba – 3B J. Jackson – C M. Castillo – P Murphy

Murphy failed to retire any of the first five Raccoons that came up, yet they still scored only two runs in the first. You can probably do that math yourself. In turn, Joe Morton reached on a Michel error, and Hubert Green’s triple and Mark Hall’s sac fly tied the game in a hurry. Lopez was blown out of the water by the fifth. While half of his runs were unearned, trailing 6-3 did not constitute a performance one would to enjoy for longer. The Raccoons struck out 12 times at the plate, more than enough to forfeit even the slimmest chance at a comeback. 7-4 Falcons. Branch 1-2, 2 BB, RBI; Martinez 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K;

Game 2
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 3B Gonzalez – C Branch – 1B R. Castillo – 2B Ingall – LF Parker – P Farley
CHA: C M. Castillo – RF Mashiba – 2B H. Green – 3B M. Hall – CF Encarnación – 1B J. Jackson – LF Cleveland – SS Boyle – P Jennings

Once Gonzalez doubled home Brady to put the Raccoons up 1-0 in the first, putting Reece on third, and Branch walked, we had the bags full with one out. Castillo hit into a double play. Farley sat down the first 10 Falcons in the game, before Mashiba doubled to right with one out in the fourth. Then Green singled. Then Hall doubled. The Falcons were up 2-1 in the blink of an eye. Of course. Top 5th, the Coons had two on and two out for Reece, who drew a walk from Jennings. Gonzalez also worked a long walk, forcing home Farley with the tying run. Could anybody register an actual hit? Yes, Lance Branch shoved one past Jackson, and two runs scored on the double! Castillo came up, looped a soft ball into center, which Cleveland couldn’t get, and he couldn’t get the bounce either, for another two runs, five in the inning, and a 6-2 lead. Could we please nurse that home? Most of that was on Farley with our unreliable bullpen. The youngster hit Mashiba and allowed a single to Green to get the sixth inning started, and once Green stole second base, they were both in scoring position with no outs. And neither scored, since Farley reached back and struck out Hall, struck out Encarnación, and struck out Jackson. Now Farley had found something, as the fire boiled over into the seventh where he struck out the first two Falcons up to make it five straight, and while the Falcons put two men on in the eighth, Farley struck out two more to quell the threat. By then, the Coons had gotten some extra oomph with a 2-run Reece’s Piece in the top of the eighth and looked the lead was up to 9-2. Farley was done after eight, and Wade came out to throw some pitches. He got two Falcons, then almost was blown up… 10-3 Raccoons. Guerin 2-6, RBI; Brady 2-5; Reece 2-2, 3 BB, HR, 2 RBI; Gonzalez 1-2, 3 BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Branch 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI; Farley 8.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, W (2-1) and 1-3;

Game 3
POR: SS Guerin – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Gonzalez – C Branch – LF Buell – 2B Caddock – 3B Crowe – P Joly
CHA: CF Morton – RF Mashiba – 2B H. Green – 3B M. Hall – LF Encarnación – 1B J. Jackson – C J. Rivera – SS F. Adams – P Woodard

Joly sat down the first 11 men to start the game. Hubert Green grounded to Crowe with two out in the fourth, and Crowe’s throw to first was wide and pulled Gonzalez off the bag for an error. Joly struck out Mark Hall to end the inning, and the game remained scoreless, for while the Coons had already had a hit, they hadn’t even been close to scoring. Jesus Rivera would blow up the no-hit bid with two down in the fifth, doubling to left. Fred Adams made the third out there, and still no score in the game. A Guerin bloop triple with one out in the sixth that first fell in just in front of Encarnación and then bounced away from him and all the way to the wall, did not lead to a run either as Brady popped out and Reece whiffed. Joe Morton also hit a 1-out triple in the bottom of the inning, and OF COURSE the Falcons followed that up with two doubles, and that was enough to sink Joly. Woodard pitched a 5-hit shutout. 4-0 Falcons. Brady 2-4, 2B; Ingall (PH) 1-1;

In other news

April 19 – SFB CL Raúl Vargas (0-0, 5 SV, 4.50 ERA) could miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum.
April 20 – OCT 3B Sonny Reece (.375, 0 HR, 2 RBI) has suffered an elbow sprain and will be on the shelf for three weeks.
April 21 – RIC RF/LF Raúl Vázquez (.309, 2 HR, 18 RBI) hits one for the record books in a 10-6 Rebels win over the Capitals. His solo home run off Lorenzo Flores in the eighth inning is his 300th career dinger. Vázquez, who was an international discovery by the Indians signed in 1984, is only the fourth ABL player to reach the mark after Michael Root (338), Gabriel Cruz (318), and Mark Dawson (304).
April 25 – Another closer down: DEN CL Javier Rivera (0-0, 4 SV, 0.00 ERA) also goes down to a torn labrum and could just like Vargas miss all of the remaining season.

Complaints and stuff

Kisho Saito has been hurt for only the third time in a 21-year professional career, and all of the injuries have been mild DTD cases. We have Monday off and that should give him enough time to be ready to pitch on Tuesday. Otherwise we would have Fairchild start the game and push everybody back a day. We have Esteban Flores at AAA, but he has no options, so if we bring him up, it will not be for a spot start.

For the team as a whole, they suck abysmally. Guerin, Reece, Branch. Apart from that, we have no offense. Gonzalez is drawing walks like a madman, yet he is not driving anybody in. At least, the batters aren’t DEAD LAST in every category like last season, but that still doesn’t help, since the pitching is utterly cringeworthy.

Through 19 games, we have given up exactly 5.0 R/G. That’s horrible. Combined with a steaming 3.5 R/G offense … it’s the worst team in baseball by a sound margin.

This will be hard to fix. Ingall isn’t hitting anything. Crowe isn’t hitting anything. Buell isn’t hitting anything. Brady isn’t hitting anything. Saito pitches like a rotten egg. Rivera pitches like a rotten egg. Joly pitches like a rotten egg. Tamburrino pitches like a rotten egg. Proctor pitches like a rotten egg. Donis pitches like a rotten egg. Saito and Rivera have .350ish BABIP’s, which is terrible news if you don’t happen to strike out a lot of batters. Tamburrino’s is .500, AND he’s walking them like a maniac. I don’t include Miller here, who had a terrible week, but half his runs were waved ‘round home by some left-handed sucker or other. Ah what the heck. Miller pitches like a rotten egg.

Can’t cure that.

In other news, I have the rest of the month off from work (first time since early April) once I get a few last things sorted out in the office tomorrow afternoon. Gotta get some reports filed, and then I have tons of time until November 2. Was looking forward to a power week with the Raccoons.

Not anymore, though.