[Westheim]

Raccoons (23-26) @ Knights (21-28) – May 27-29, 2002

The Knights were aching under a truly abysmal rotation, which had run up a stunning 5.55 ERA two months into the season. Their 9th-ranked bullpen and their 8th-ranked offense were not necessarily any big help in trying to keep their mouths above the waterline. The Knights were also without one of their more credible batters, Stephen Ware, who was out with an oblique strain and would still be for most of June.

Projected matchups:
Nick Brown (3-2, 2.45 ERA) vs. Larry Cutts (3-5, 5.04 ERA)
Bob Joly (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. Greg Grams (3-5, 6.22 ERA)
Carl Bean (4-5, 3.78 ERA) vs. Tynan Howard (5-4, 3.56 ERA)

Unfortunately, we will miss the truly horrendous part of their rotation, with Ed Wallace (6.75 ERA) and Hector Martinez (7.59 ERA). Well, maybe was a good thing. We were always losing against suckers.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – LF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – CF Flores – C Fifield – P Brown
ATL: C Fabián – SS Luján – 1B G. Douglas – 2B J. Miller – RF Bishop – CF S. Torres – LF G. Rios – 3B Pena – P Cutts

Brown did not allow a hit through three innings (but made an error), and took a 1-0 lead on a Martin sac fly in the top 3rd, but had one of his now already famous lapses in the fourth, with a leadoff single by Antonio Luján, and then two walks to load the bases. The damage was ultimately held to the tying run only, but it was still frustrating. The Coons were a strain on anybody’s nerves again, putting Sharp and Guerin on base with one out in the fifth, and then stopped trying. Roberson whiffed, and Martin fouled out. Six hits through five, one run. Tony Pena’s leadoff double in the bottom 5th led to the Knights go-ahead run. Two hits, two runs. Well, there WERE positives: a sign of life from Clyde Brady, who hit his first extra-base hit since May 9, a game-tying home run, and the Coons scratched out another run in the seventh when an Ingall single plated – just barely – Danny Sharp from second with two out. Brown lived through seven, walking and whiffing four each in a mixed outing. Well, he WAS in line for the win, but not for long. The bullpen immediately cocked it up in the eighth, Martinez issuing a leadoff walk, a single, a double, and it was already over by then. Domingo Moreno entered the game in time to serve up a 3-run homer to Gerardo Rios. 6-3 Knights. Sharp 4-5, 2 2B; Guerin 2-5; Fifield 2-4;

Raccoons 13 hits. Knights 7 hits. It’s Monday and the week has already been going on for way too long.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Parker – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – RF Brady – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – C Fifield – P Joly
ATL: CF A. Solís – SS Luján – LF A. Rodriguez – RF G. Rios – 1B G. Douglas – 2B J. Miller – 3B Verdon – C Mullen – P Grams

After the Knights got a run in the bottom 1st – and who was surprised … maybe that it was only one? – the Raccoons came back with a Martin single and walks by Brady and Guerin to load them up with no outs, only for Ingall to send one right back to Greg Grams for a home-and-first double play. The headache picked up speed furiously, but amazingly we got three more hits off Grams in the inning, Fifield plating the remaining runners with a blooper over Miller, and Joly singling to shallow right as well, before Sharp hit his third line drive double up the left field line in the series to make it 3-1. The Knights were constantly crowding a horribly inefficient Joly in this game. They had two men on in every inning, but somehow always played themselves out of it with a double play, or with a heroic defensive play by a Coon, like Parker nabbing a warning track bound line drive with an all-out leaping grab in the third. The Knights then didn’t reach at all in the fifth and sixth, but Robert Bishop singled in the seventh. The Raccoons hadn’t done a lick since the second inning, and Joly was removed with left-handers due up in three of the next four spots. With Moreno having gotten swatted the day before, Rodriguez came out, faced three batters, all three of which hit hard drives to deep center. Roberson grabbed two of those, but one fell in for a run, cutting the Coons’ lead to one, and the Coons didn’t get anybody on in the seventh through ninth. That left Nordahl cushionless in the ninth after Bruno had somehow wobbled through the bottom 8th. He walked Nick Verdon right away. Jorge Garcia hit into a force at second base, before Tony Pena struck out, then was ejected for barking. Angel Solís put a 1-2 pitch in play, but right to Guerin, and that was the game. 3-2 Coons. Martin 2-4;

We continue to be mired in 11th in runs scored. I was kind of waiting to see where our 217 runs at this point stood in relation to the last-place team, the Crusaders, and whether they’d pass us soon. Well, no. They have – really – 162 runs in 51 games. They are worse than the Raccoons – BY A FULL RUN.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Parker – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – RF Brady – SS Guerin – C Fifield – 2B Gabriel – P Bean
ATL: CF A. Solís – SS Luján – LF A. Rodriguez – RF G. Rios – 1B G. Douglas – 2B J. Miller – 3B Verdon – C Fabián – P Howard

For consecutive days, Gary Fifield gave the Raccoons the lead, with a 1-out RBI single in the second inning. Manny Gabriel was plunked to load them up and then Carl Bean singled through on the left side for a second run, and we got a Sharp sac fly for a 3-0 lead, and we put up another 3-spot in the next inning with a Martin home run and a 2-run single by Manny Gabriel. Bean soon became wonky however. The Knights got a run in the third, and Bean kept putting men on. In the bottom 6th, the Knights were trailing by six, but put their first three men on with hits. A daring grab by Clyde Brady was the turnaround in the inning and the Knights plated only one run, and the runners that reached second and third with no outs were stranded there. But it didn’t get better. In the seventh, Luján made the first out, but again the Knights reeled off three straight hits off Bean and this time he was yanked. Bruno was not pitching well right now, but got manageable grounders to Sharp and Guerin to escape the jam with a 7-3 score. Bottom 8th, more mess going on. Miller got two outs, but put two on. More traffic. Despite the lefties Rodriguez and Rios next, we went for Nordahl. Stop it, Danny! Nope. No, he found it necessary to surrender a 2-run triple to Rodriguez before Rios grounded out, getting the Knights back to 7-5. The Coons had been hibernating offensively for the last three innings. Martin then hit a leadoff single in the ninth, was run for by Gil Flores, who immediately got himself thrown out stealing, and the Raccoons ended up leaving runners on the corners when Manuel Reyes came in and retired Gabriel for the third out. An insurance run would have been nice, but Nordahl didn’t need one in the end, setting the Knights down 1-2-3. 7-5 Raccoons. Martin 2-5, HR, RBI; Brady 2-3, 2 BB; Guerin 2-4, BB; Fifield 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI;

Neil Reece was assigned for a short rehab assignment in St. Petersburg on Thursday, which we had off.

Raccoons (25-27) @ Titans (34-20) – May 31-June 2, 2002

Yuck, the Titans. Fourth in runs scored, second in runs allowed, yep, it’s still a good team, maybe not as dominant as they were last year, winning over 100 games. Their .630 winning percentage might even be mostly on the terrible opposition… the Raccoons did come into the series in third place after all.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (6-3, 3.07 ERA) vs. Jorge Chapa (5-4, 2.82 ERA)
Randy Farley (2-7, 4.71 ERA) vs. Bryce Hildred (5-1, 2.67 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-2, 2.47 ERA) vs. Jason O’Halloran (6-2, 2.85 ERA)

Might be some short games here. The Raccoons might rack up less than 18 hits in the entire series…

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – CF Roberson – 1B Martin – 2B Ingall – RF Brady – C Fifield – LF Parker – P Ford
BOS: 2B D. Mendez – SS Austin – 1B Matsumoto – RF G. Munoz – LF Jin – 3B V. Flores – CF Bryant – C Bader – P Chapa

Ingall single magic in the first, when Marv plated Roberson with two out, and Brady followed him up with another single to got Martin home for an early 2-0 lead. However, Ford was not up to the task and got crowded by the second inning, where an RBI triple by Howard Bryant got the Titans on board. They left two on in that inning, and the bags were left full in the third. David Mendez singled home the tying run, as the Titans left two on again. After four, 2-2, and 14 hits combining both teams with lots of missed chances, and it continued that way. Both of the next two innings, both teams had one hit, with the Coons twice hitting into an inning-ending double play, and the Titans leaving their man at second base. And the Raccoons just couldn’t do ****. Well, they did manage to hit into another double play in the eighth. The Coons’ pen had a clean eighth, the first inning since the first that the Titans didn’t get runners! Mixing and matching, we ran out of arms, and Miller, who had struck out Corey Bader to end the eighth, was still lingering in the bottom 9th of the tied game when the Titans sent the devil Daniel Silva to pinch-hit. He lined to the right side but Ingall nabbed it! Next was Kinnear, flew to deep right, but out to Brady. Mark Austin flew to deep center, deep, deep – Roberson! And extra innings. Top 10th, facing John Bennett, Guerin grounded out, but Roberson reached on an error by Hector Ramirez, who was in the game now, being put on second base after a throw into the seats. Martin was walked intentionally, and Ingall whiffed. Brady went to a full count before ticketing a hopper up the middle and it eluded Mark Austin – and Roberson scored from second. No more offense came forth, and so it was on Danny Nordahl again, who popped up Matsumoto on the first pitch and whiffed Munoz. Then came Jin, ex-Coon, and tripled, just like that. Next was Victor Flores, batting .395 in 82 AB. Behind him was Bryant, who had excelled already today. Flores was a righty, Bryant batted switch. No, it was wonky. No, it was too wonky. Nordahl was tasked with Flores, who worked a full count walk, and then Bryant singled up the middle to blow the Coons’ lead. Lopez flew out to right to extend the game. The Raccoons had only one more base runner through the next three innings. They sucked, that was all there was to it. The Titans eventually worked out a way to walk off against Huerta in the 13th, his third inning, with a 2-out single by Hector Ramirez, who advanced a base on a passed ball on Mark Thomas. That error was fatal, as Mark Austin then singled him home. 4-3 Titans. Sharp 3-5, BB; Ingall 4-5, BB, 2B, RBI; Brady 3-6, 2 RBI; Moreno 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Miller 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K; Huerta 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, L (0-2);

Miserable **** team…

Well, it was one error too much for Mark Thomas, who got booted. Batting .133 is one thing, but being **** behind the plate on top of that is another. Pablo Fernandez was batting a markedly unstellar .209 in AAA, but it was a new face to get mad at. Fernandez was a former first round pick by the Indians in 1995 that was on the top 100 prospect list for a few years, but it had not turned into more than 17 AB for him so far.

And because we don’t have any other crap to cry about, Chris Roberson is now batting .170 over two weeks.

And next is the auto-loss guy. Well, one of them.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – LF Parker – RF Brady – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – CF Lyon – C Fifield – P Farley
BOS: SS D. Silva – 2B Matsumoto – RF G. Munoz – LF Jin – C L. Lopez – 3B Austin – CF Garrison – 1B H. Ramirez – P Hildred

Farley, that auto-loss guy, well, one of them, fell behind on a Lopez triple and Austin sac fly in the bottom 2nd, but the Raccoons, who had no hits, one walk, and one double play to their credit through three innings, broke through in the fourth when Parker got on, Brady doubled to score him, and Martin hit one out, flipping the score to 3-1 in a hurry, and Danny Sharp had waited all the way to June, but hit his first long shot of the year in the fifth, a solo job, to make it 4-1. Farley had been quite solid after the second, but the sixth started with Hildred reaching on a Guerin error, and the inevitable Daniel Silva singled past Ingall to put runners on the corners, have the tying run at the plate, and no outs. Silva even stole second – and the Titans still didn’t score, with a poor grounder to Farley by Matsumoto, and two soft flies to shallow outfield regions reachable by the brown-clad guys. Going to the top 7th, back-to-back 2-out doubles by Farley(!) and Sharp pushed the score to 5-1, and nothing really got to Farley the next two innings, Titans-wise. He reappeared in the bottom 9th, up by four and Nordahl unavailable after pitching three out of the last four days. No Titan reached, and the game ended with a K to Jin. 5-1 Titans. Sharp 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Farley 9.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, W (3-7) and 1-4, 2B;

Not only Sharp homering took all the way to June. This was also the first complete game by a starter for the Raccoons this season! And by the auto-loss guy!

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 2B Ingall – 1B Martin – CF Roberson – RF Brady – LF G. Flores – C Fernandez – P Brown
BOS: 2B D. Mendez – SS H. Ramirez – 1B Matsumoto – RF G. Munoz – LF Jin – 3B V. Flores – CF Austin – C Bader – P O’Halloran

The rubber game was over in the blink of an eye. The Titans got a triple again, by Ramirez in the first, scoring him easily, and in the second, Flores singled, Austin doubled, two runners in scoring position with no outs, and while Brown struck out Bader and O’Halloran, Guerin misfielded Mendez’ grounder and the Titans went up 3-0 before Brown struck out Ramirez. That was the ballgame, with O’Halloran dealing. Pablo Fernandez in his first time starting for the Furballs did not make a good impression, either, allowing a passed ball in the third that moved another pair of runners into scoring position, but Brown struck out Austin to end the inning, and then Fernandez struck out to end the top 4th with two Critters stranded. Offensively, the Raccoons were never anything else than helpless, getting a chance RBI from Gil Flores in the fourth (another first for the year), but never mattered. Brown went into the eighth but gave up singles to Munoz and Jin without retiring anybody, and thanks to the abysmal bullpen got stuffed for five runs total. Martinez allowed three singles, and Rodriguez managed to complete a run through the lineup without retiring anybody, but walked in THREE runs. Ricardo Huerta eventually surrendered a grand slam to Mark Austin that made this a laugher, with an 11-run eighth inning. 14-1 Titans. Sharp 2-4; Martin 2-4;

Manuel Martinez this week: 3 G, 0.2 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 0 K, 6 R, 6 ER, 81.00 ERA. Nice line for a wannabe setup man.

Abysmal **** team from hell, **** as ***.

In other news

May 28 – Pittsburgh’s SP Jerry Lane (2-5, 4.81 ERA) requires surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow and might be out for the season.
May 28 – The Falcons present us the next player with a 20-game hitting streak, as C Fernando Chavez (.368, 1 HR, 15 RBI) logs three base knocks in a 9-6 loss to the Loggers.
May 29 – OCT 1B Tomas Cardenas (.412, 8 HR, 46 RBI) will be forced to take a break from killing pitchers, being sidelined with a mild hamstring strain. He might not miss much more than one week, though.
May 29 – SAL LF Dale Wales (.322, 2 HR, 16 RBI) might miss a month with a sore shoulder.
May 31 – NYC LF/RF Martin Ortíz (.297, 2 HR, 12 RBI) has a 20-game hitting streak going as well, logging three hits in a 10-9 win of the Crusaders over the Indians.
June 1 – Sidelined for four weeks with a herniated disc will be IND CL Iemitsu Rin (3-1, 0.31 ERA, 9 SV).

Complaints and stuff

The Portland Raccoons and Clyde Brady on Saturday agreed to a 4-yr, $4.8M contract extension. Brady was bound for free agency after the 2003 season with an estimate in the range of $1.1M. He makes $1M flat this year. It is a bit of a risk, since his stellar 2001 season was in fact crippled by injury that left him out of more than half the games, and it has been a terrible struggle this season, at least in May. He is warming up a bit again now. Well, he’s on base a lot, but he can’t get balls neither in, nor out. It’s two months, there’s four months left.

That leaves Bean and Palacios heading for arbitration for the final time this fall. Also, Matthews, Ingall, and Flores will be free agents. Well, nobody needs Flores. Really. Nobody. And Ingall would be 34 next year, and we will have to see how he holds up this year. Matthews can do most things Ingall can do and is five years younger. You have to be aware of the following however: we have NO infield prospects in our system. NONE. There is NOBODY. All the guys we drafted, the Matt Loves and Miguel Ramirezes, they have all not panned out at all. We have a few outfielders and a couple of pitching hopes (none really in AAA, however). But we have NO infielders. So if we can get Matthews and Ingall both for cheap, that might be a solid option for another year.

Especially since we’re spending our time mired in the doldrums.