[Westheim]

Raccoons (30-32) @ Rebels (28-34) – June 10-12, 2002

Tying for most runs given up in the Federal League at 327, the Rebels were struggling with their pitching. They had the distinction to have a more abysmal bullpen than even the Raccoons, besting even our horrendific 4.63 bullpen ERA by four tenths of a run. The rotation was ninth in the FL, which was not an honorary decoration either. Their offense ranked fourth, but couldn’t cover the many, many runs surrendered by the pitching staff.

Projected matchups:
Ralph Ford (7-3, 2.80 ERA) vs. Francisco Garza (4-4, 4.47 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-7, 4.13 ERA) vs. Esteban Flores (9-1, 3.18 ERA)
Nick Brown (3-3, 2.60 ERA) vs. Doug Morrow (4-10, 5.01 ERA)

Oh look, Esteban Flores, who was 2-14 for the Raccoons between 1997 and 1999, CAN actually win games if he wants to!

We have not won a series against the Rebels since 1993.

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – RF Brady – CF Reece – 1B Martin – SS Guerin – LF Parker – 2B Gabriel – C Fifield – P Ford
RIC: RF J. Garcia – C Valadez – 3B A. Gonzalez – LF Hartley – 1B J. Morales – CF Kaberman – 2B Stein – SS Williamson – P F. Garza

The Raccoons’ usage of RISP chances in the series opener was shockingly bad. They got one run with a 2-out double by Fifield in the second inning, left two on, and left two pairs and one trio of runners on from there through the sixth, many reaching on walks by a wonky Garza. Ford had one scary inning, the bottom 5th, where the Rebels had runners on the corners with one out, but were retired on a K to Morales and a fast bouncer to Guerin that Concie managed to zing back to first to nip Kaberman and keep the Rebels from scoring. The bottom 6th, Ford allowed a leadoff single to Garcia, then walked Valadez. Dumb luck gave him consecutive pop outs before he also walked Morales, only to have Kaberman fly out to Brady, who had to stretch a bit to get it. The Coons’ sloppy play couldn’t work out forever, and it didn’t. Doubles by Jim Stein and Emery Parkinson in the seventh blew that shady 1-0 lead, and a Parker error put runners on the corners with one out. Ford’s ship was sinking, and Manuel Martinez hacked another hole into it beneath the waterline, with Ricardo Valadez’ single to left giving the Rebels the lead. Diaz gave up another run in the eighth. In the ninth we faced Leon Walker, who was not necessarily a picture perfect closer, walking five per nine innings. He walked Sharp, Brady singled, and Reece also walked – and there were no outs. And all of a sudden Walker DID look like a closer. Martin grounded out. Guerin popped out. Parker - … well. 3-2 Rebels. Brady 2-4, BB; Ford 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, L (7-4);

13 men left on base. You just want to kill the suckers. You just want to kill the ****ing suckers.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – RF Brady – 2B Ingall – C Fernandez – P Farley
RIC: CF F. Vasquez – C C. Ramos – 2B F. Rivera – RF J. Garcia – SS Stein – LF Kaberman – 3B J. Morales – 1B O. Rios – P E. Flores

The auto-loss guy had won his last three games, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t the auto-loss guy anymore. This middle game was about as sure an auto-loss as it can get as soon as it began. Vasquez singled square through Martin, and Farley walked the next three batters, and didn’t retire anybody among the first six batters. The Rebels put up an effortless 5-spot. The amazing thing was that while Farley kept pitching to suck up his own stew, the Raccoons made a run for it to creep back into the game. They got a run in the third, two in the fourth, and one in the fifth, clawing themselves back to a 1-run deficit, and THEN Farley put the first two batters in the fifth on base. Those headaches, never going to go away again! Rodriguez replaced him to face Jim Stein, who lined out to Ingall, and then Miller appeared against Kaberman, threw one pitch, and Kaberman turned that into two outs, also to Ingall. Ingall singled then to lead off the top 6th. Fernandez for a nice change got on base with a walk, Miller bunted, and again nobody could muster another base hit, the Raccoons being held to a run-scoring groundout by Sharp when it counted. That still took Farley off the hook. Miller pitched another two innings without a base runner appearing for the Rebels, but was not rewarded with something outrageous like the go-ahead run scoring for him to get a W, perhaps. No, no. Instead, Huerta took the loss in the bottom 8th when Julio Garcia reached on an infield single and Kaberman doubled him in. The Raccoons stranded a pair in the top 9th. 6-5 Rebels. Guerin 2-4, RBI; Brady 2-4, BB; Ingall 2-5, RBI; Miller 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

The undescribable agony.

With this **** loss of a game, the Raccoons abandoned all hope of ever having a winning record again. Also, Neil Reece abandoned his hitting streak at 13 games, reaching base on getting plunked and a walk, but never had a resounding at-bat in the game.

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – RF Brady – CF Reece – 2B Ingall – C Fifield – P Brown
RIC: RF J. Garcia – C Valadez – 2B F. Rivera – 3B A. Gonzalez – LF Hartley – 1B J. Morales – CF Kaberman – SS Williamson – P Morrow

Farley had walked three in the first inning on Tuesday, Brown walked three in the first on Wednesday. The difference was that Brown only allowed one hit, but the Rebels still took a 2-0 lead. And things were as they were. The Raccoons put men on, ****ed up every possible chance they got, however, and when Martin drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth inning, two down, Roberson sure enough casually grounded to short to leave another three men on. Reece had killed a chance the previous inning hitting into a double play, and it had been the same tune for the whole series. Nick Brown didn’t issue another walk, but struck out five, yet also hit two batters, including a smack into Julio Garcia’s wrist that forced the rightfielder out of the game, and it didn’t look pretty. Brown left on the short end of a 2-1 score, that grew ever shorter through the innings as the Raccoons flunked out of every sliver of a chance they got, like another mind- and soul-killing double play hit into by Guerin in the seventh. They didn’t get the ball out of the infield at all the last FOUR innings. 2-1 Rebels. Martin 2-3, BB, RBI; Joly 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K;

Mind-killing, soul-killing … pseudo-bear killjoys…

Raccoons (30-35) @ Loggers (38-28) – June 14-16, 2002

After going to 30-30, the Raccoons had lost five in a row, all more or less stupendously gut-wrenching, and now they faced a team that had rallied from the bottoms of their own division in late April to get up to within 2.5 games of the division lead, and still shortening that gap on the Titans. Hel-lo, 8-game drought! They had the next-worst bullpen in the CL (to the Raccoons, in case you had been absent for two and a half months), but made up for it with the rest of their roster being quite solid.

The draft will be on Saturday, rudely cutting into this series. [Which is also the reason for no update yesterday]

Projected matchups:
Carl Bean (5-7, 4.36 ERA) vs. Martin Garcia (5-5, 2.96 ERA)
Ralph Ford (7-4, 2.70 ERA) vs. John Miller (9-4, 3.02 ERA)
Randy Farley (4-7, 4.46 ERA) vs. Marc Padgett (4-4, 4.37 ERA)

Game 1
POR: 3B Sharp – SS Guerin – CF Reece – 1B Martin – LF Roberson – 2B Ingall – C Fifield – RF Flores – P Bean
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – C L. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 2B J. Cruz – RF C. Ramirez – CF Fletcher – 1B Costello – 3B Cavalleri – P M. Garcia

The defense tried, the offense not so much. Daniel Sharp turned an amazing inning-ending double play in the bottom 2nd to keep the game tied at nothing, but when the Raccoons got their scoring chance served on a silver platter by Bartolo Hernandez in the fourth, a bad throw on a grounder by Ingall that gave the Coons runners on the corners with two out, Fifield was whiffed on three pitches by the two-time Triple Crown winner Garcia. The Loggers broke through in the bottom of the same inning with RBI hits by Cristo Ramirez and Jerry Fletcher, and while the Raccoons got a run back in the fifth, that 2-1 deficit was towering tall. Top 8th, Garcia still in the 2-1 game, he walked Sharp up front in the inning. Guerin singled between Cavalleri and Hernandez, and suddenly the Raccoons were in business. Reece’s single loaded them up with no outs. Oh, here it comes! Or maybe not. Martin popped out, and Roberson lined into a double play, Guerin caught astray. Bean was still pitching, allowing a leadoff double to Jose Nava in the bottom 8th. One out, Nava was at third, and Leon Ramirez’ pop to left was dropped by Roberson, and you bet your fur that the Raccoons imploded instantly. Bean was bludgeoned for a 2-run homer by Jorge Cruz, walked Cristo Ramirez, and Miller came in to allow a pair of doubles. Fifield hit a ****ing 2-run homer in the ninth, as the miserable miscarriages even put the tying runs on base in an inning that became enough of a nuisance for the Loggers to have their closer Robbie Wills molested, with the Raccoons scoring 2-out runs on a Martin walk and a Roberson infield single, but that ended as soon as Chris Parker grabbed a bat. 8-5 Loggers. Guerin 2-4, BB; Roberson 2-5, 2B, RBI; Brady (PH) 1-1;

The miserable miscarriages ran their losing streak to six, and had a chance to hit the bottom of the division on Saturday, which was the first game with Jesus Palacios back in the lineup. Manny Gabriel was disposed of.

Game 2
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Roberson – SS Guerin – C Fifield – P Ford
MIL: 2B B. Hernandez – RF C. Ramirez – LF Hiwalani – 1B J. Cruz – C L. Ramirez – CF Fletcher – 3B Cavalleri – SS Costello – P J. Miller

Before the game, Ralph Ford noticed that he had left his wallet in the hotel room and now couldn’t buy a crusty snack from the vending machines in the Loggers’ visitors’ clubhouse. Unfortunately the same was true for his command: he didn’t have it with him. Fortunately for him, John Miller had his own struggles. The first two Coons in the second inning reached, leading to a run eventually, and the next inning, Ford led off with a double, Sharp walked, and Palacios’ second AB back from injury was a 3-run homer. Ford needed 96 pitches for five scoreless innings, walking and whiffing five each, and allowing two hits to Hernandez. Leon Ramirez’ leadoff single in the bottom 6th got him removed, and somehow Vega and Daniel Miller stumbled through the next two innings. In the bottom 8th Bob Joly did a princely job of blowing the shutout, hitting Hiwalani, allowing an RBI double to Cruz, balking him over, and falling to an RBI groundout by Fletcher that cut our lead in half. Pedro Costello’s capital throwing error put Concie on second base in the top 9th with no outs, before a parade consisting of Ingall, Flores, and Sharp produced two pop outs separated by a pathetic hopper. Costello led off the bottom 9th batting against Bruno, popped out, but Taisuke Mashiba drew a walk. That was all the Loggers got, however, as Hernandez and Ramirez both made outs. 4-2 Raccoons. Palacios 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Martin 2-4, 2B; Brady 2-4, 2B;

That gave us a bounce back into third spot in the CL North, 1 1/2 games above the Indians-occupied cellar. Not that there was much to gain or lose between third and sixth anyway. Our dignity is mostly gone. The only way the Raccoons can make it worse would be by adding pink feather boas to their uniforms.

Don’t let Maud hear that. She’d to it, if only to attract female fans to the park.

Wait. We have fans?

Game 3
POR: 3B Sharp – 2B Palacios – CF Reece – 1B Martin – RF Brady – LF Roberson – SS Guerin – C Fifield – P Farley
MIL: SS B. Hernandez – 1B Nava – LF Hiwalani – RF C. Ramirez – CF Fletcher – C L. Ramirez – 2B Costello – 3B Cavalleri – P Padgett

Neither starter was any good. The Raccoons took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, Martin doubling in Reece, and the Coons left four runners on base from there through the third inning. Farley was only saved by two double plays, including one with the bags full, one out, and Hiwalani batting. Farley couldn’t get ahead of batters at all after striking out a pair in the second. In the fourth, Cristo Ramirez was 3-0 leading off, then swung and grounded out. Fletcher and Leon Ramirez were both 2-1 ahead when they lined out. Offensively the Coons continued to get on and stay on. When Brady and Roberson led off the sixth with singles and went to the corners, they had nine hits to their lone run. Even Padgett felt sorry and wild pitched Brady across, 2-0. Roberson scored on a sacrifice by Fifield eventually, and the next inning the bags were full with Brownshirts when Brady batted with one out, and grounded to Costello. Four to six to three, and the tie went to the runner, giving the Raccoons an extra run as Sharp came across and scored. Now with a 4-run lead, Farley wobbled along, but two tricklers between fielders created a jam in the eighth. Nava popped out, but that still brought up Hiwalani with two out. Walking him intentionally was not an option with the lefty Ramirez behind, and our left-handed relief… Hiwalani had struck out in his last AB against Farley, and sought revenge – and that cost him as he struck out on five pitches. Farley remained in for the ninth, which was ultimately a mistake, since he didn’t retire anybody, and when Marcos Bruno appeared, the Loggers had Cristo Ramirez and Jerry Fletcher already in scoring position. But Bruno held on, holding the damage to a Leon Ramirez sac fly. 4-1 Raccoons! Palacios 3-5; Reece 2-5; Martin 2-4, 2B, RBI; Guerin 2-4, 2B; Farley 8.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-7);

A nice and unexpected turnaround here. I was fully expecting the streak spilling over into next week. Or September.

In other news

June 14 – Career home run king TIJ LF/RF Raúl Vázquez (275, 9 HR, 21 RBI) is out for the season with a torn labrum. Vázquez’ 373 career home runs lead second place Michael Root by 35, and the closest active player, Anibal Rodriguez, by 55.
June 14 – New York’s SP Edgar Rey (4-6, 4.04 ERA) 2-hits the Canadiens in a 3-0 shutout.

Complaints and stuff

A day after the Coons beat him, the Loggers suddenly received John Miller’s signed contract offer. He knew he had to act quickly after that shameful disgrace of losing to the Trash Can Bandits. He will make $6.56M over the next four years.

Albert Martin is third in average and home runs right now, but the gap in dingers is especially sizeable. Both IND Ron Alston and VAN Ivan Gutierrez have 21 shots already! We are not even at half time for this season, so Raúl Vázquez’ single season record of 42 may be in danger.

Edgardo Torrez came off the DL on Monday and rejoined the AAA team. Still trying to figure out my outfield…

Yeah, outfielders. It was getting choked in the outfield in AAA. We have a 23-year old Jesus Valle making a cause for himself now, and it was time to lighten the congestion. We made two moves on the weekend, with a trade being orchestrated that sent failed 1998 supplemental round pick Herb Rose, now 26, to the Aces for a 20-year old non-prospect SP Gilberto Pereira. The Aces had him at AAA, but we put him back at AA. His AAA ERA was … not pretty (10+).

We also released 1995 eighth-rounder Jason Kent, 28. He was .243/.312/.332 in 325 AB for the Raccoons across five seasons. He was still sucking up money, but he’s now somewhere around 10th on our outfield depth chart.

Right now, we are $500k overbudget (precisely almost). Like I know our accountant, he will manage to find a few bucks he lost over the course of the seasons by the time we hit September. We might come out at zero after all.

Would much rather like to come out at .500, however.